The first night was calm. My wounds ached with pain, but that was to be expected. Trixie had gotten the new bed, and the others forced me to have the second best. There were only three in quality shape, four more in manageable shape, and twenty burnt to bits.

Trixie was able to fix enough beds to satisfy everybody, but they weren’t in great shape. It was just moments past dawn when I woke up. My shoulder was stiff. I laid back for a few minutes before getting up. It strained, but I’d been through worse. After stretching my unhurt left shoulder, I walked to Twi’s room. I was stopped in the hall by Dash.

“Hey Devan.”

“Hey.”

“Twi went over the plan with me last night.”

“What? Just you two?”

“We couldn’t sleep. I went into her room and we talked it over.”

“Is she gonna tell us later?”

“I think.”

“Alright. I’m off to see her now.”

“For the plan?”

“I was just gonna check up on her.”

“She’s fast asleep now. I already tried waking her up.”

“Oh … alright.”

“You want to come down with me to the cafeteria? Nurse Snow and Trixie are making breakfast.”

“Alright.”

I followed her downstairs and walked into the cafeteria. It was much better than I’d expected. The linoleum floor was clean; The windows were boarded up yet still letting in the sun’s rays; The tables and chairs were neatly arranged.

“Trixie did pretty good, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Her and I met with Snow and Trix.

“Whatcha making?” I asked.

“Eggs and toast. Two plates?”

“Yeah,” Dash responded.

“We’ll bring it to you.”

We sat at a table for two near the window and looked around for a minute.

“Want to hear the plan?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“She went over about the next few … well … months.”

“Wow.”

“I know.” She cleared her throat. “Basically, we hide out here for the next week and rebuild. The next day, she’ll split us into two groups. One will stay here; the other will scavenge for supplies and the cure. We repeat this for the month. There’s quite a lot to go over for the next month, so I’ll let her tell you that.”

“So she’s intent with settling down here?”

“Looks like it.”

“Interesting.”

We sat quietly for another minute until Trix walked up with our food. “Enjoy.”

We both thanked her and dug in. We had more conversation until we finished eating and walked to the lobby. Twi walked through the staircase doorway while we were in the hall.

“Hey you two.”

“Hey Twi,” Dash said, “Good morning.”

“Morning.” She stretched vaguely. “Who’s awake?”

Dash replied, “Trix and Snow are in the cafeteria. Nurse Redheart is looking after Blaze. I don’t know about the others.

Twi sighed. “Okay. We’ll discuss the plan when everybody is up. Have you two eaten yet?”

“Yeah.”

“What are they making?”

“Eggs and toast.”

She licked her lips. “Sounds good. I’ll see you two in a bit.”

“Before you eat-” I said, “I’m gonna go outside if that’s alright.”

“Okay.” She headed for the kitchen.

“You want to come?” I asked Dash.

She debated slightly. “No thanks. I might be out later though.”

“Alright. See ya’.”

“Later.”

I walked through the front doors quietly and went around to the left side to see the sunrise. I leaned against the brick wall as the sun peaked over the nearby trees. It’s bright rays shone over the cooling ground. Fall was here, and it was slowly getting colder. I wondered if winter would be worse this year, seeing as the clouds were left to move themselves. It was pretty chilly, considering this was only the start of fall. I relaxed, enjoying this peaceful moment. The breeze blew lightly against me. All was quiet. I took a slow breath and closed my eyes, sinking in the feeling of calmness.

Nearby screams threw my eyes open. My time of peace was over. Instinct led me to pulling out my Beretta and looking around. I heard shrubs moving and leaves crunching ahead of me. I heard a gunshot that made me flinch. The rustling intensified. I scooted towards the corner of the hospital in case I needed to escape. Another gunshot from the distance sounded. A bullet whizzed overhead, causing me to duck. I saw the shrubs move in front of me before someone broke through.

It was the fillies! They were shocked yet grateful upon seeing me, and I felt just the same about them.

“Devan!” Scootaloo yelled.

“Fillies!”

They ran up to me while more shrubs rustled. I pulled up Beretta when they ran by my side.

“Don’t!” Applebloom exclaimed, “Cloudchaser is in there!”

Cloudchaser? What was she doing chasing the fillies? I put down my Beretta.

“Girls!” I heard her yell. I saw her appear briefly through the shrubs before being pulled back unexpectedly. She hollered out.

“Cloudchaser!”

I ran up, but was stopped halfway as she reappeared. A hand covered her mouth and another had a gun to her head. The boy smiled when he saw me.

“Pete?"

“Hello, Devan. Surprised to see me?”

I was shocked to see him alive and well. It confused me intently.

“Hopefully I didn’t hit your precious eye.”

“Go to hell,” I sneered.

“I suggest you shut up.” He pushed Cloudchaser a bit closer and gestured to the gun. I hesitantly kept Beretta down.

“Get your hands off her.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll kill you,” I threatened.

“You’ll kill her,” he said.

“Fillies, go inside.”

“Hey! Don’t you move!” he exclaimed, aiming his pistol at them.

“Hey!” I stood in front of the fillies, shielding them.

“It’s over, Devan.”

“You don’t have to shoot fillies! Let them go!”

“I’ll shoot whoever I want.”

“What do you want from us?”

“I want you dead.”

“Why?”

“None of your business.”

Silence. The breeze from before pushed fallen leaves around.

“Devan! Are you al-” I looked over to see Jen run around the corner. She instantly saw what was going on and came to a screeching halt.

The two stared at each other in dismay.
“P-Pete?”
I looked back to see Pete wide-eyed with his mouth open, perplexed.
“Jen?”
I surveyed their expressions. Both of them were too surprised to speak. Pete even lowered his pistol.
“I thought you were dead,” Jen commented.
“I’m not that weak.”

More silence. Pete stared from Jen to me and back. “What the hell are you doing?”

Jen glanced at me before sighing. “Listen, Pete. Dustin was lying to me, and there’s a good chance he was lying to you too.”

“Lying? He’s my brother. I knew his plan all along. I thought you’d figured that out by now.”

“So you were just here to kill my friends?!” Jen snapped.

“Whoa! Friends? Just a few days ago, you were out to kill them.”

“I thought they had killed my father.”

“How do you know they didn’t?”

“Because … because,” she started, “because I trust them.”

Pete took a moment to sink this all in. It was obvious him and her used to be close.

“You used to trust me.”

Jen took even longer to sink this in. It was very quiet. Pete kept his eyes locked on Jen while I guarded the fillies. The silence added to the awkward encounter of them.

“I don’t now.”

A mix of anger, longing, and resentment appeared on his face. He was truly heart-broken. This look held for a few seconds before he pulled the gun on her.

As quickly as I could move, I reacted by turning and leaping on Jen, shoving her to the ground and shielding her. But Pete never fired. I turned to see him frowning at me. “You’re that close? For friends, that’s a ways.”

Jen was baffled herself.

“I don’t watch my friends in threat.”

“Get up, will you?” he asked, irritated.

I lifted Jen and pulled her with the fillies, attempting to shield all of them.

“Well aren’t you a hero?”

“If you want to call me that.”

“I’d rather call you a dead hero.” Again, he pulled his gun, but on me this time.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I do.”

Jen stepped in. “Please don’t do this, Pete.”

“Why should I let my nemesis live?”

“He doesn’t have to be your nemesis.”

“He is.”

“Why?”

Pete paused for a while, incorporating the feeling of truth as he answered, “My shallow soul. Goodnight, Devan.”

“No!” Jen screamed.

I saw the flash of his gun for a split second before a searing pain exploded in my brain. My sight immediately shut down, and I forgot most of what just occurred. Everything faded black and my hearing was terminated before I could even hear the gunshot.

Author's Note

"Hold on, wait!"

**booing intensifies**

"Wait!"

**aggressively dodges flying tomatoes**

Yeah... pretty amazing ending, right? Smh.

So... we've finally come to the conclusion of the Original version, which was this chapter, abandoned back in 2017. There was a rough chapter start right after this point, but honestly, I don't know where the hell younger me was going with all of this. Like, really? Main character gets shot in the face? Then what? Lmao, okay.

Anybody who has followed just the Original version, I applaud your efforts. However, there are no more Original chapters for me to publish. I also never really planned on trying to somehow continue this. Therefore, this version of the story is over.

As for the C̸̞̙̭̽̌̀̈́̽̕̕ȗ̵̧̨̢̻̩̞̘͙̉̋̊͂͘ŕ̷͖̦̍͝s̵̫̪̋̍͂̆̆͆̄é̶̡̧̺͖d̸͎͒̒̿̈̀ version, it's not ending yet. I'll be releasing a sequel in the next week or so, continuing on from where it left off last chapter. I'd originally planned on just continuing to publish the chapters here, but this book has spanned quite a few chapters. It makes more sense to me to start fresh with a C̸̞̙̭̽̌̀̈́̽̕̕ȗ̵̧̨̢̻̩̞̘͙̉̋̊͂͘ŕ̷͖̦̍͝s̵̫̪̋̍͂̆̆͆̄é̶̡̧̺͖d̸͎͒̒̿̈̀ sequel, where new readers can dig right in.

Interested? Here's the link:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/556872/the-cursed-apocalypse

Not interested? YEAH WELL FUCK Y- Lol just kidding. Thank you for taking the time to read my teenage self's mediocre attempts at writing an apocalyptic fan-fiction! Have a good rest of your days (non-menacingly).