Chapters Twilight was reading in her library when she first heard it
"ZOMBIES!" she heard the screaming down from the town and sighed
"What a stupid thing to cry wolf about, oh no zombies, evacuate the town, call the Princesses*Snort* yeah right, Zombies don't exist. fools" and with that, she went back to her book and continued her reading. Meanwhile downstairs, Spike hears the same scream and shivered
"well...I suppose I could grab my emergency pack, couldn't hurt....just in case, it's for real...Spike grabbed the large backpack Twilight had agreed to let him store in the kitchen, it was a bag meant for camping trips that had been stuffed with Spike's mandated survival gear, inside were several boxes of gram crackers, a couple can's of food, enough water to last 4 ponies about a week, a utility knife equipped with a can opener, an emergency medkit and a few other things in it. He had just strapped the emergency bag on when he heard a loud bang come from the front door, he managed to make it to the door just in time For Big Mac caring a bloody Sugar belle to break through the door with Trixie trailing a little behind him and slamming the door shut behind them.
"Whoa! What the hell! Are you ok!!" Spike asked the Bloody Sugar belle
"one...one of them bit me...why did you bring me....you know as well I do what happened after this"
"I...I couldn't just leave you"
"Talk later, Wheres Sparkle, we need to get the fuck out of Ponyville!" Trixie yelled grabbing Spike "Where is she, Trixie doesn't want to die this way" Spike looked at them then slowly moved to the nearest window and looked out to see what could only be described as a Hellscape, some of ponyville was on fire, and a large mass of hobbling forms with unnatural body movements where making headway towards the Castle. This was all Spike was able to take in before a Fist hit the window and broke threw attempting to get at him, Spike has pulled away from it thanks to a quick Spell from Trixie.
"Oh shit!" Spike yelled as he saw who the hand belonged to, Zecora was missing a chunk of her face and was attempting to break in, she reached in and made a spine chilling noise as she continued to breakthrough.
"Yeah, none of that thanks!" Spike said and with a huge breath Covered the entire window in fire and turned to Big Mac.
"It was nice to save her, but is she was bitten....you might want to put her down,"
"Don't...don't talk like that...I already had to put down Granny ....I...I can't do it again" before Trixie or Spike could say any more Sugar belle suddenly jerked up and Chomped down on Big Mac's neck and with a painful howl Big Mac's fell to the floor
"Now what," Trixie asked as she and Spike slowly backed away from Sugar belle as she began to eat Big Mac.
"WHERE GONNA RUN!!!" Spike said and with a quick turn, they both turned and ran through the nearest door, just as the front door burst open and more undead entered the room. some stopped and joined Sugar belle in her feast, but the rest began to chase after the duo.
"you're covered in scales, won't you be fine?" Trixie asked as the two ran down a hallway
"I don't feel like finding out!" Spike replied as they turned and ran up a flight of stairs, shoving a bookcase down the stairs once they got to the top. They got to the Library and ran in...only to find an empty room.
"Where's Sparkle!!!"
"I don't know!!! This is where she usually is at this time, she must have been called by Celestia or something!" Spike said as he picked up the book Twilight had been reading.
"Shit...and with Starlight visiting Sunburst in the Crystal Empire...."
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!" They both screamed hugging each other
"I don't want to die this way" Spike Screamed
"Me neither!!" Trixie cried. They could hear moans and groans echoing through the hallway, Trixie and Spike ran to the window and was met with the sight of Pegasuses zombies flying through the air. Spike turned to Trixie
"Can't you teleport!" Spike asked as the Pegasuses noticed them and began to try and break through the now cracking window.
"I've never been good at that, we could end up anywhere" she replied as she turned to go back through the door, but stopped when something started thumping on it and groaning.
"Anywhere is better than here!" Spike pointed out as the fleshes eaters started to break down the door and the Window broke
"yeah...Let's try it!" Trixie grabbed Spike and just as the door was broken down and the Pegasuses started coming in through the broken window Trixie and Spike were teleported away. in a flash and with a loud Splash, Spike and Trixie where knee-deep in a lake.
"I...I DID IT!!! WE'RE NOT DEAD!!!"
"Shush!" Spike hushed her "We don't know if we're safe, who knows what else is infected." as the two extracted themselves from the lake they took a look around. "Where the hell are we?"
"Look's like a forest"
"That doesn't help at all"
"Maybe we'll be safe here?" Trixie looked around, "at least we're not in immediate danger"
"Zecora lives in this forest, and I saw what was left of her...the markings on her face didn't look like something a pony could do..."
"So what your thinking is....ponies aren't the only things infected.." Trixie looked at Spike and noticed he was holding something "Is that a book?" Spike looked at it
"It's one of Twilight's Spellbooks.....It was open on the floor when we ran into the Library so I picked it up...Guess I forgot I was carrying it." Spike looked at the cover."Oh, thank Celestia! She was reviewing the basics" Spike threw his hands up "Thank you for being yourself Twilight"
"How does that help us?"
"because you suck at magic, and I know most everything about these spells. with this Spell book, we can learn how to do some proper magic, and that might help us not die." Trixie looked at him for a second
"I..I don't suck.." Spike looked at her,
"Whatever, the point is this book will help you, which will help us to survive. Now.....We need a place to properly hide, and as much as I like this lake....this water source will attract tons of other things, with will, in turn, attract Zombies. So...I say we take a big Drink.."
"And find a safe place to spend the night" Trixie finished as she leaned down and began to drink the water, Spike followed suit, and after drinking their fill, they looked around.
"I'd be willing to bet zombies lack basic survival skills....so we should find a place ponies can't survive in without a lot of work," Trixie said as she looked around. "Like a frozen wasteland"
"Or a place protected by a frozen wasteland..." The two turned to each other and said in unison
"THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE!!!"
after a quick meal of half an apple each and a final drink from the lake Trixie and Spike left it behind and began their trek into the woods. They didn't know where they were, they didn't even know if there where any undead nearby, all they knew was which way was north, thanks to a compass spell Trixie knew. They walked for almost an hour before Spike brought up their primary issue.
"where are we gonna sleep tonight?" Trixie looked back at him and looked around, there was nothing but tree's and a few small animals
"I guess we'll have to build a temporary shelter, not on the ground tho, just because we haven't met with anything deadly...doesn't mean there isn't anything out there" She said all the while scanning the tree's, they ranged from barely coming to her hips to being almost as big as the castle. "There," she said pointing to one that was 45 feet tall and as wide as a house, there was a hole in it, about the size of a small room "We can make camp up there"
"Alright," Spike said as walked up to the tree "Get on my back and we can...can.....What the hell?" A large thunderous stomping sound could be heard coming closer."ON MY BACK NOW!!!" Spike yelped as he got on all four "Trixie wrapped her legs around Spike and her arms around his neck
"GO, GO, GO" She yelped and in less than 30 seconds Spike had clawed his way up the tree, They didn't know what was making the noise but they'd rather find out from a nice hiding hole. Spike got to the hole and heaved them both in, and turned just in time to see what had made to noise
"Is that a fucking dragon" Trixie whispered to scared to move
"Yeah...yeah that's a Dragon" Spike said as he looked at it, it was larger than most of the tree's but most importantly, it wasn't alive anymore, The Zombie was just walking through the forest, bulldozing a path, Spike stuck his head out a little more and after a quick glance, wrapped his tail around Trixie's muzzle and pulled her as for back into the hole as he could she made a small noise of protest but Spike ignored it and whispered "Don't move and hold your breath, don't make a noise" And with that He held his breath. And his reason for panicking became clear, within a few seconds, and the sound of thousands of bug wings, A large heard of zombified Parasprites flew past their hiding hole. it took 7 seconds for them to all fly past, and as soon as another 10 had past Spike let go of Trixie and they both took a breath
"Holly fuck...If they had found us...."
"We'd have died in a snap" Spike breathed "I hope to god it was just a coincidence....but did you happen to notice which way they were heading" Trixie closed her eyes and cast her location spell, after a few second her eye's shot open
"If my location spell is correct....they were all heading straight for the Crystal Empire" The two of them looked at each other, "I think we may need a new plan" Spike slowly stuck his head out, there had been hundreds of them in that group, and who knew how many might come later. after checking to make sure they where all gone Spike Turned his head to face Trixie
"Stay here I'll be back in a few minutes" and with That Spike climbed higher into the tree and began to tear off some branched, leaves, and bits of Bark, he continued to do for a while, making continues return trips to the whole to drop off what he had gathered "OK...where gonna make a make-shift wall for the hole"
"What"
"Frankly I'd rather live in a hole for a few day's or weeks over taking the chance of running into a horde like that, and now that we know it infects everything...I think It's best if were hidden during the night." It took most of the remaining Daylight but they made a wall to cover there hole, from the outside it looked like the hole didn't exist. the inside was lined with leaves and a small handle so they could open it, along with a pep-hole so they could check the outside before leaving. they had also made a blanket and two pillows and with a little help from both Spikes claws and Trixie's magic, Made a little extra hole where they could sleep and keep warm. Trixie looked through the peep-hole before closing it
"The sun's setting"
"Which means at least one of the Princesses are still alright." Spike picked up a nearby leaf and carefully carved his and Trixie's name into it
"What are you doing?"
"Magic Breath linked straight to Princess Celestia, this was, at least some-pony else knows where alive." Spike took a small breath and teleported the leaf. Spike and Trixie then got under their blanket and fell asleep next to each other. Neither wanting to be alone after the day they had just had.
Twilight's side of the Story
Author's Note
This chapter happened during the first chapter, and some of the lines have already been said, but whatever
Twilight's side of the Story
Twilight was reading in her library when she first heard it
"ZOMBIES!" she heard the screaming down from the town and sighed
"What a stupid thing to cry wolf about, oh no zombies, evacuate the town, call the Princesses*Snort* yeah right, Zombies don't exist. fools" and with that she went back to her book and continued her reading, but not for long, before much more could be read, Rainbow Dash came crashing threw the Window "Dammit" Twilight muttered and turned to the window, repairing it, she turned to tell Rainbow off, but stopped once she got a good look at Rainbow, her hooves soaked in blood, and her face was splattered with it. "OH MY CELESTIA!" Twilight screeched as ran to her friend, "What the hell happened, Are you OK?"
"NO I'M NOT OK, HALF THE TOWN IS DEAD!!!!" She screeched in panic, "And we'll join them if we don't get the hell out of here now!" Rainbow went back the window and motioned for Twilight to come look, She briefly was the sight of many figures moving, before the view was covered by a more immediate threat,
"Are thoese...."
"most of the population of Cloud's Dale" Rainbow Dash responded as they watched the flying monsters, randomly dive followed by screams. "We need to get to the Train station right now!" Twilight looked at her friend and nodded and with a quick flash, Twilight and Rainbow where teleported to the Train Station, before Twilight could Move Rainbow Grabbed Twilight and Jumped on the first train Car closing the door behind them. Before them where the Rest of their Friends, Derpy and Time Turner, The Mayor, 2 of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, one of the Spa Twins, and both the Cake twins with their crying mother. most of them turned and started asking why, how did this happens, what now and other such, but they where silenced by the sound's of thuds on the roof.
"Questions later" The Mayor said "Princess, we need you to teleport this train and the two cars behind us to the Crystal Empire"
"Yes...the Crystal Heart should protect us all from these....things" Time Turner agreed. Twilight closed her eyes and then using as much power as she could, teleported the Train and all it's passengers to the middle of the Crystal Empire, It wasn't a pretty teleportation, and the Train ended up on it's side, but at least they where all alive. Twilight extracted herself and was meet with the Crystal ponies and several other races who had at first been shocked at the sight of a train appearing out of nowhere, but as soon as they saw a Princess they all began moving forward and helping the survivors out of the train and several others out of 2 other cars. Twilight was tackled out of nowhere by Starlight
"Oh thank god your alive" she cried, I was afraid you where all Zombie food
"you already know?"
"It all started only an hour ago, a flock of Zombie Griffins and several Dragons, came out of nowhere and destroyed the Capital, Celestia and Luna teleported a total of 50 ponies out before the whole place was over run. almost all where Guards, but I'm Told that a total of 3 Famous ponies and 2 Wonderbolts were saved and several innocents where saved as well, but most of those saved where Guards. But who cares, is Trixie with you?"
"I..I don't know, I didn't have time for a head count. Rainbow told me what was happening and I teleported us to the train and then the Train here."
"OK...I guess I can still hope, maybe Spike can help us look for her, he's good at find ponies in a crow....whats wrong?" Starlight turned to Twilight who had frozen
"I...I...I forgot him..."
"What."
"I forgot him....Dear Celestia...I forgot Spike." Twilight turned to Starlight, horror in her eyes "I left Spike behind"
"Calm down" Starlight said a slight quiver in her voice "Your a princess and I'm not to shabby myself, If we teleport into the castle and really quickly grab him, and after that I can quickly see if Trixie is OK just grab my hand and lets go grab them" Twilight turned to her friends
"Guy's I'll be back as soon as possible" before they could reply, Twilight and Starlight grab each others hands and teleported to the castle. "OK we just need to find him and we ca..." Twilight was cut off by the sound of hundreds of groans and just managed to hear
"Now what" They heard Trixie asked, but before they could make their presence know threw the wall Spike yelled
"How are they so fast?"
"Spike does do all your menial chores and Trixie did use to travel the world" Starlight pointed out "There in better shape than us" They had just made it up the second set of doors when they heard the sound of crashing and heard the sound of hundreds of zombies flooding up the stairs.
"Magic time!" Twilight said as she and Starlight levitated themselves and moved as fast as they could up the stairs and through the halls. the had just got to the top of the staircase when they heard Trixie yell right above them.
"Where's Sparkle!!!"
"I don't know!!! This is where she usually is at this time, she must have been called by Celestia or something!"
"There is the Library! We just need to grab them an..HIT THE DECK!" Starlight yelped covering herself and Twilight in a shield just as a few Pegasuses Zombies broke through a nearby window and began dive bombing them.
"Dammit where so close" Twilight said as she looked at the Library door "maybe if we yell for them..."
"They'll open the door and the Pegasuses will eat them" Starlight replied, "We just need to....oh Celestia no." The rest of the horde had caught up at first they looked at Twilight and Starlight and began beating on the bubble, but then they Spike and Trixie's voices echoed down the hall
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!" their voices ran out, the continued to talk but the voices were drowned out by the groans and moan of the Zombies
"We have to help them!" Starlight yelped, her voice shaking "quickly" with that Starlight Turned the Bubble into a mace and began to roll through the undead crushing them, after a second Twilight reinforced the bubble and helped her, they where 10 feet from the door
"Anywhere is better than here!" they heard Spike said over the sound of moans and Breaking Glass.
"yeah...Let's try it!" Trixie replied as the glass shattered and the Zombies broke down the door
"NO!" The Duo yelped but stopped when a Bright Flash blasted out the nearby wall and most of the undead were blasted out of the Castle. Twilight and Starlight anchored themselves with their magic and after a second was greeted with the sight of most of the Library missing, along with a large section of the castle, but as fast as it had happened the Castle wall began to fix itself, within a span of 10 second the room was back to normal, the walls began to glow and the castle began to repair itself entirely, reinforcing its windows and doors
"This is a beast of a building" Starlight said as they entered the Library, the windows where thicker, smaller and had spikes jutting out of the outside of the wind frame facing outward "I think it's making itself zombie proof" Twilight and Starlight came to the center of the room and saw a small marking on the floor, just a little scuff mark
"Where did they go?" Twilight asked looking at Starlight who sighed
"Judging from past experience with Trixie's teleportation spell....probably the shore of a lake or an Ocean" the two looked at each other
"We've got a lot of work to do"
Twilight and Starlight tried a tracking spell but nothing happened
"How was she able to do such a strong Teleportation spell?"
"she may have accidentally taped into Spike's energy and overdone it"
"Spike's Energy?"
"Dragon's have an internal fire that doesn't stop burning till a few minutes before there natural end, I'm guessing Trixie and Spike were holding each other in case the spell failed and they didn't make it, and she accidentally called upon the power of his fire, would explain why they blew up the room with the spell at the same time"
"And you never thought to bring this up why?"
"I'm just guessing, maybe Trixie had huge magical talent, or I traveled back in time and did this to fuck with you," she said with a shrug "The possibility of what just happened are endless"
"we'll figure out how they did that later, First we need to find them," Twilight said as she looked around the reformed room "I didn't know this Castle could just fix itself"
"Oh that's because it can't" Discord said, scaring the shit out of Twilight and Starlight
"What the fuck! how long have you been here!!" Twilight demanded as she helped Starlight back onto her hooves.
"Well I was just minding my own business, when I got a letter from Fluttershy saying that the zombie Apocalypse was happening and I came here to take her to my Dimension, but then she was all like "Can you help Twilight" And I was like "OK, but then you're coming with me to safety, then I came here, just in time to see Trixie and Spike Teleport with an explosion, and I was like, well dam, I should probably patch that up so I Can talk to Twilight in peace, So then I fixed the wall and cast an enchantment to prevent the undead from coming in here, then I scared you, then I gave you this long explanation instead of just saying Fluttershy sent me" Discord finished with a node
"OK Well if you want to help me you could just poof Trixie and Spike here," Twilight said simply
"Yes, I would, If I could. But I can't, so I won't"
"Why not!?" Starlight asked "You're the God of Chaos, You can do whatever the fuck you want"
"Because In case you hadn't noticed, thanks to the fusion of Dragon and Unicorn Magic, there currently untraceable. It'll take at least a month before you could hope to find them, and that's only if they don't combine their magical essence again"
"How does that even work" Starlight demanded "You're a fucking GOD! but because they did some magical fusion you can't do jack-shit?"
"Listen I'm here to help you not explain how cross-species Magic work, I'm just gonna help you get around safely"
"And how do you plan on doing that," Twilight asked, "you gonna zombie proof us?"
"Well no, First that would probably kill Starlight, and second you already are zombie-proof"
"What?"
"Perks of being an Alicorn" Discord said with a wave of his hand "I'm here to do this" as soon as he finished his statement the entire Castle began to violently shake and with a snap of his Fingers the three of them were floating in the air at the exact center of Ponyville
"Wait what about the Zombie Pegasuses?"
"oh I killed them all"
"WHAT" The two yelped "YOU CAN JUST KILL THEM LIKE THAT? WHY DON'T YOU JUST DO THAT TO ALL OF THEM!?!?"
"Oh well, since the Zombie virus is sorta....impossible to track in any way, If I did that I'd end up killing almost everything in Equestria," He said simply
"OK.....so let's not do that" Twilight said as she looked to her castle only to find it was directly in front of her before she could even comment on this, a laser shot into the sky, and a Large Dome materialized, covering about half a mile out of the borders of Ponyville.
"And now Ponyville is Zombie Proof, And Mobile to"
"Wait, Mobile!?! So we can just move the entire town...."
"Whenever and wherever I want," Discord said as he tapped Twilight's horn "and now you can to, and now that you are properly safe, I will now be taking Fluttershy with me to my home, until this world is safe again"
"Wait if ponyville is safe now why not ju..."
"DAHAHAHA!!!" Discord interrupted Twilight with his laughter "This place is Safe from Zombies, There will 100% be Ponies and other's who will invade and try to take this place over for themselves, Welcome to the Apocalypse, Your lives are about to get 1000% harder, good luck with that" and with that, he was gone and Starlight and Twilight were back in the Library.
"Motherfucker" Starlight muttered, "at least we don't have to worry about being eaten....for a Month, then we have to go Find our Friends...until then.."
"Were gonna have to do some Hardcore shit, but once were done, The Crystal Empire and Ponyville will be the most well-protected places in Equestria" Twilight closed her eyes, and in a blinding Purple Light, Ponyville was gone, leaving behind a Giant Crater where it had once been.
Author's Note
Hey its Discord, Hope you enjoyed this little bit, cause he ain't coming back for a LONG time.
Spike and Trixie were eating some of the last of the Backpack's food, They had been hiding out in the Tree for almost 2 weeks, but they would be out of food by the end of the day.
"Shame none of the trees here grow fruit," Trixie said as she finished her small helping of Pudding "We should check the area before we leave" Spike opened the peephole and saw nothing dangerous, just Rain and shrugged
"I don't see any immediate danger" Spike said as he opened their door, and let the wet air wash over them "we're gonna get wet, no way around that, but if we stay any longer we'll be out of Food" Trixie wrapped her legs around Spike and Held onto his neck, and laid her head against his neck
"at least we're still alive," Trixie said as she hugged Spike's Back, they had made it halfway down when it happened, An Arrow flew out of the Tree and Impaled itself into the Spade of Spikes Tail
"GEAH!!!!" Spike screeched, Sliding down the Tree at an alarming rate and landing on his stomach with a painful belly slam
"Oh god!!! Spike are you OK!?"
"Get it out, get it out, GET IT OUT!!! Spike cried out as his tail started freaking out and flicking blood on both himself and Trixie, Trixie got up to remove the Arrow, only for another one to Impale itself into Spike right hand, that was just too much for him and his Head engulfed into green flames as he screamed in pain "MOTHER FUCKERS!! I'LL FUCKING END YOU!!!!" He screamed, Another one came flying, But by this Time Trixie had prepared and had brought up a Shield to cover her and Spike, and with a Quick spell both arrows vanished, leaving two wide wounds on Spike
"Alright If you're trying to steal our stuff, we have shit all! So come out of the trees or he's gonna set the Forest ablaze!!" Trixie yelled out. at first there was no response, then the sound of movement and a Pegasus and an Earth-pony exited the Tree's both armed with a Crossbow, behind them came a Unicorn, he was wearing a fur cape with a Green wolf metal pinning to it, he had a Sword for his right hand. his coat was a dark shade of Gray, his Mane was black, he had a set of four claw-shaped scared over his right eye. He bowed as said
"Hello miss, It is a pleasure to meet another survivor of our race, Though I hate to bother you, I must ask that you lower the shield so we may finish off the.....thing your sitting on"
"I'm sorry did you just call him a thing? He's a Dragon" Trixie said as she looked at her friend holding his bloody hand with his tail wrap close to his body, Trixie got off him and he took the fetal position, his breathing began to slow
"There...there was some...something on those arrows." He managed to say before he drifted off to sleep
"Yes, It's a particularly strong Sleeping potion, He'll be asleep for....well he won't live long enough to wake up, Now hand over our Dragon, His Scales, Blood, and Internal Organs will Be of great use to A great Unicorn such as myself" Trixie got on her knee's and Check his pulse, after confirming that he was still breathing, She got back to her Hooves
"I don't care what you want, This is my friend, and you're not going anywhere near him"
"Yes....friend...listen I know you don't want us to take your slave, I'm sure it took a long time to tame and train it, but I need it more than you and I'm afraid he's ours weather you like it or not."
"and why's Tha..." Trixie froze when she felt a small pinch on her arm she looked to see a dart on her hand, and a hole in her shield
"Because there are 4 of us. not 3" The Unicorn said with a smile as he watch Trixie fall to the ground and her shield dissipate. "Grab her, and it." The Unicorn told his men as a second Pegasus emerged from the trees
"Why the girl Sir?"
"We just stole her servant, we can at least give her a home" The Unicorn said as he turned to go back the way he came
"You truly are benevolent Oh Great Spike, Slayer of Dragons"
"Yes" Spike replied "I'm well aware of that my loyal follower, now let us return, this storm is starting to pick up"
Author's Note
That escalated quickly
Trixie awoke in a cold sweat, She quickly looked around, she was in a dingy room, the wall's where cracked and it smelled like rotting fruit, she was sitting on a bed, and her cape and hat where gone, he clothes where still dirty, which comforted her a little, she hadn't been striped in her sleep, she looked around
"where am I? what...what happened?" Trixie looked at her arm and looked around the room, and by the door on a hat stand, there was a Backpack covered in mud and blood, in a flash it all came rushing back to her "SPIKE!" She leapt out of the bed, ran over to the bad and picked it up, she closed her eye's and preformed a summoning spell, but nothing happened."Come on, come on, COME ON!!" She tried as hard as she could, but nothing was happening, she couldn't locate him, "WHERE ARE YOU!!" She screamed, and in a fit of rage, she literally blasted the door down, taking deep breaths, she put the Backpack on and walked outside.
Wherever she was, it was wet, she sank a little into the mud that surrounded the place, she was in a shitty town, all the house where made of broken and cracked wood, several of them had holes in their roofs. And there were a few ponies walking about, she could tell just by looking at them that most of them had been rich, or stolen from the rich, they all wore warm fur's and most of them had Jewels on their fingers, those who where obviously not rich all wore torn and dirty rags, and looked hungry, since it had only been 2 week's since the end of the world, they all looked to be in mostly good health, but those of the richer kind all looked to be doing too well.
As she walked through the town she saw several rich people look at her in disgust and turned away from her, usually this would piss her off a little, but today it pissed her off a lot, her friend was gone, and she was in a strange town, and It was really starting to come down. As she walked through the streets, trying to figure out where she was a Stallion approached her
"Why hello there little blue"
"Hi, I don't suppose you could tell me where we are?"
"Where in the Town Square
"No I mean whe..."
"Oh, but it doesn't matter where we are. now" The Stallion pulled out a small pole that expanded into a 6 foot staff with a foot long blade on the end "Why don't you come with me...I'm sure we can find a nice dry place to get....comfortable" The look in his eye gave her the impression that he was planning on doing something that was both Dirty and would leave her mentally scared, Luckily he wasn't the first to try this, and she had never fallen prey to a predator before, he pointed the staff at her, and she lit her horn
"That's a nice Staff you have there," Trixie said with a smile
"Oh, you think your little magic tricks will work on me, this Staff is enchanted it can't be touch by any magical spell! now, why don't you just...GEAH!!!" Trixie hadn't been working her magic on the Staff, she had instead chosen a nice rock and proceeded to launch it into the Stallions Groin as hard as she could, with a Painful *CRUNCH* he hit the ground, Holding himself in pain, Trixie caught his Staff and looked at it,
"I'll take it thanks," she said with a smile, she turned to leave, then stopped and looked at the Stallion "actually before I leave I'd like you to answer a few questions for me"
"what make's you think I'll answer any of your questions, you Bitch"
"Cause if you don't I'm neutering you with both magic and this here Staff," She said with a Smile and she lit her horn "Now lets chat"
"What should we do my lord?" A Pegasus asked The Dragon-slayer, who was looking at the still unconscious Spike
"yes," he said to himself "This is him, this is the Real Spike, not much of a hunt where you?"
"What was that my lord?"
"Nothing, Hook him up, We'll start with the standard Draining of the blood"
"By the Neck or by the Tail my Lord?"
"By the Tail, I want to talk to this one before we kill it...Give him the reverse sedative once you've strapped him in, I want to look into his eye's once we start the draining process." He said with a Smile as the Pegasus called over two Earth ponies and a Unicorn holding what looked like a Large Pair of Hedge Trimmers and a Marker, The Earth Ponies grabbed Spike by the underarms and began dragging him to a side room, while the Pegasus searched through a cabinet full of small potion jars, after finding the reverse sedative he put it into a needle and came into the room, The Earth Ponies with a little help from the Unicorn had Strapped Spike into the middle of the air, his Arms and legs Pinned down by chains and there was a Metal color connecting around his neck and underarms holding him in the air, His Tail had been extended to it's fullest length. The unicorn was felling it and after finding what it was he was looking for, Drew a horizontal dotted line on his tail and backed away from him holding the giant Trimmers, The Slayer long piece of metal in his hand, his sword hand was gone, leaving a Metal lining where his stump should be. The Pegasus reentered the room with the reverse sedative.
"Alright you two," The Slayer said to the Earth ponies "Go back to your post's, a lot of good this will do if the Zombies get in cause your dumbasses where slacking off"
"But my lord you called us he..." one of the Earth ponies tried to object but was meet with a slash across the face by the Slayers Weapon
'DON'T YOU TALK BACK TO ME YOU LESSER BEING!" He snarled 'OR YOU'LL BE UP THERE WITH THE DRAGON" The second Earth Pony Help his friend and they made their way out the Slayer turned to the Pegasus "Wake him up, then leave"
"yes my lord," he said as he walked to Spike and stuck the needle in his mouth pouring the contents of it down his through. as soon as the needle was empty the Pegasus hurried left the room.
"you to" He motioned to the Unicorn, "Leave the trimmers and go"
"Yes my lord" The unicorn replied, and after setting them down he left, closing the door behind him. The Slayer looked at Spike.
"Wake up Spike, Hero of the Crystal Empire, Peacemaker with the Changling race" Spike's response was a groggy
'Where am I? Smell's awful" It took him a minute to fully wake up and realize the chains around him "Oh, this bodes poorly for my imminent future," He said as he tried to get out
"Yes, yes, trust me you won't make it very far into the future" The Slayer said to Spike "I am Spike, The Dragonslayer, and you are Spike the Dragon, as it would happen thanks to the simulates of our names, I have been able to bring about the belief that I am you, and with a few changes to the story of how you saved the Crystal Empire, this little town of mine has complete and utter fate in me, and now that the world is ending, I don't have to worry too much about outsiders messing this up, in fact there was nothing I had to worry about." suddenly, without warning the Slayer swatted Spike across the face with his Weapon, leaving a vertical cut along the left side of Spike's face forcing his eye shut
"GEA!!! MOTHER FUCKER!!!" Spike roared in pain trying to get down, but to no avail "NOT EVEN A HALF SECOND OF WARNING THERE!"
"And then I found you" he continued as if nothing had happened "Imagine my surprise when I found I had captured the only threat to my kingdom, oh I have longed for this day."
"Take a Picture it last's longer" Spike Said, The Slayer slashed him across the Face, in the same place as before "GEA!! SON OF A BITCH, I WILL END YOU!!" Spike screeched, the Slayer turned to the trimmers and picked them up,
"Did you know there are two way's to let a dragon bleed out?" The Slayer asked "The first, and obvious way, it to slit its throat. oh but the Second way, It's a lot more fun, It's long and I find it a lot more enjoyable"
"Yea, how's that" Spike said, realizing what was about happen"
"If the Dragon is to Big it's impossible to do, but thanks to your size, it will be remarkably easy," The slayer said, Placing the metal bar down and picking up the Trimmer, sticking one of its handles into his empty Weapon hole on his metal arm piece. "Around the base of a Dragon's tale, there's a special spot, where the blood-vessels all meet in the tail, that when cut exactly there, only some powerful magic can stop the bleeding." The Slayer brought the Trimmer's to the Dotted line drawn on Spikes Tale
"No...." Spike said
"YES!" The Slayer said looking into Spike's one open eye and Closing the Trimmers.
The howl of pain could be heard for miles.
Author's Note
There in what use to be a Griffin city, since Griffins eat meat(simply by the biology), Slaughter house. so don't go commenting on how the Slaughter house make's no sense.
The train teleported to the outskirts of Manhattan and started its treck through the city. It took only a few seconds for the undead to find them, Twilight put up a large shield around the train, almost at once they were surrounded by them. there were hundreds of them, Twilight looked out the window at the decrepit faces trying to get in
"I hope neither of them are one of them" she murmured to herself as Starlight closed her eye's and performed her location spell
"There together, Underground"
"Underground? That's bad, we can't bring the Train with us"
"We'll be fine"
"We can't teleport in and out, there's a chance The Undead might be brought back with us, not to mention underground areas tend to throw off the aim of where we need to go, we need to get them back up here, and then we can teleport back to Ponyville."
"That sound tedious as fuck, why did we even bring the Train?"
"It's the best way to move around, as long as we stay in it, we should be safe from them, I placed quite a few barrier spells on it," Twilight replied as she pulled a lever and the train started forward, with a sickening crushing sound they began to move.
"Oh, dear Celestia.....that's disgusting" Starlight said as she tried to look away, but to no avail, the undead where all trying to get in and where getting stuck in the wheels, causing them to be torn apart right out the window, soon they could barely see out the window through the blood and body parts. "This is getting us nowhere, We can't even see where were going anymore!" before Twilight could respond the train suddenly shook,
"What the hell!?" She managed to ask before the train suddenly started rising, "Teleport now!" The two teleported to the top of a nearby building and saw a horrific sight, A huge Dragon had lifted up the Train and was in the middle of putting it in its mouth
"Holly hell!" Starlight said as she looked in horror at the Dragon as it bit into the Train, just as it bit down the entire thing exploded and half of its face blew off,
"Move!" The duo teleported down the street, Twilight looked around them, there was a massive mob of undead around them, they where approaching at an alarming rate, then the Dragon spotted them and with a screech that shattered almost every window in Manehattan, the Dragon turned towards them and charged, it's destroyed the pavement and the buildings around it.
"SHIT WHERE NOW SPARKLE!?" Twilight looked around in a panic, then lit her horn
"DOWN!!" and with a mighty blast, she blew a hole into the sewage system and shoved Starlight into it, Twilight jumped down and fell into the murky water. Before Twilight could get a sense of where they were Starlight suddenly tackled her.
"MOVE!" She yelled as the Dragon's muzzle broke through the Ground, pieces of Flesh, Cement, and Train bit's fell threw, any undead where crushed by the dragon, Twilight and Starlight rolled out of it's was and ran, there only destination now was to get away from the 100-foot zombie.
Author's Note
Lets be real, Twilight never teleport like this in the show,
The Rain was pouring down even harder than before, Trixie was just leaving the house of the Stallion who she had beaten outside. He was tied up to a chair and Gagged. several gashes covered his face, he was out cold. Trixie had Gotten enough to understand the situation out of him. She and Spike were no longer in Equestria. they where way outside it's borders, in this place all races that weren't unicorns where seen as inferior, and treated like dirt, and judging by the inside of the stallion's house, anything that wasn't a pony wasn't kept alive, so at least she now knew her true goal, she needed to save Spike, and Fast.
Spike was pale, he was losing a lot of blood. not only from his now shorted tail but from his slashed eye, he couldn't see through the blood but he could feel blood leaking from the wound. His tale was a different story, it had hurt like hell at first, but now he could barely feel it, the only reason he was still conscious was because the slayer was making a hell of a racket, he had taken the end of Spike's tale and was doing something behind Spike, after what felt like an hour, the Slayer returned to Spike's view, his Sword hand back, but with a notable difference.
"Do you like?" The Slayer asked, "An enchanted Dragon Scale blade, one of the strongest blades in the world" he looked at Spike. "You're probably wondering why you're still alive, well let's just say that torture is one of my favorite past times." The slayer looked at the watch he was wearing on his wrist. "I have a scientist coming soon, he's gonna make me better, he's gonna build, for me, the finest Robot arm this world had ever seen" Spike Laughed
"Trixie's gonna kick your ass" The Slayer ignored him
"You're probably wondering why I'd make your tale into a sword if I was getting a robot arm...well Spike...I have some bad new's for you." The slayer walked closer and smiled "I'm replacing my left arm...so I'm quite happy to say" he raised his new sword "That I'll need you to donate to the cause." The Slayer struck down, a little above Spike's elbow, and began to hack at Spike's arm, Spike was out of it, but not enough to not react, He started screaming in pain. His screams were music to the Slayer's ears. but also a signal for Trixie.
Trixie was just about to ask around again when she heard the scream, she turned on the spot
"SPIKE!?" she ran as fast as she could in the direction of the scream, but it stopped too soon, she knew which direction he was in...but not how far, she panicked. what if he was dying, what if he was already dead...he eye's gleamed
"If anything happens to him....I'll fucking kill all of them," she whispered in rage and ran, trying to find the only friend she knew she still had.
2 hours later
She was tired, she needed to eat, to drink, to rest. but she refused to, not until she found him, at this point the town was mostly empty, not from the time, no they were hiding from her, she had asked, but in less than 10 minutes she had switched to beating information out of others. he spear was bloody, and some of the ponies had called the guard on her, she had beaten them too, she wasn't trained, but she was a pissed of unicorn looking for the only one she had left. She had definitely killed at least one of them, but she didn't care, she knew it for sure now, all the unicorns in this town were racist fucks. All of them, she was on her way to the closest thing she had to a lead, she was on her way to a slaughterhouse near the edge of town.
The slayer was exhausted, covered in sweat, and in pain, but it was done, his left arm had been built and attached. He was better, he now had the magic and the power to back it up, he would kill his prey...but first, he needed rest. He Teleported to his personal airship, and got comfortable.
"Who's laughing now Dragon? who's laughing now?"
Author's Note
I feel so bad for what I've done to Spike.
Trixie walked to the door, and knocked it's off it's hinges. The smell of Blood hit her immediately, as she walked in a colt covered in both blood and grease turned to her
"Who the hell are you! This area is restricted...." She hit him over the head with her Spear and walked past him as he crumpled to the floor.
"Spike" She yelled pleadingly, she waited for a second then.
"Tri...tr...ixie..." His voice responded in a barely audible tone, she turned and face the door to her immediate right and flung the door open, what she saw was too horrifying. Spike was strung up over a bucket overfilling with his own blood, his tale was lopped off, his face a bloody mess, and his left arm hacked off. She ran to him.
"Spike! OH Celestia, Please. No, Don't leave me, I...I...I can fix this...I can fix you...Don't go....don't leave me" She tried to levitate him down, but to no avail, she tried to break the chains, but this to fail. Spike looked at her for a second and smiled.
"Th...thank you"
"What!? Don't thank me yet I still need to get you down, I can...."
"Tell Twilight....sorry..." Spike closed his eye and passed out. This was too much for Trixie,
"No...no...NO!!!..NO!!! YOU'R GONNA SEE HER AND IT'S GONNA BE A HAPPY REUNION...YOU ARE NOT FUCKING DYING ON ME...ON HER...ON THEM...ON ANY OF US!!!" She screamed as she grabbed Spike and focused her magic on the bolt's holding the chains to the wall and roof instead of the chains themselves. Spike Fell immediately, But with Trixie's help his dissent was slow, she lay him on the floor, then ran out of the room and grabbed the colt she had knocked out and Dragged him into the room, she then Bitch slapped him awake.
"Wha..?" The Colt looked up and nearly wet himself.
"Hi....we need to talk," Trixie said, her eye's gleaming with murderous rage.
30 minutes later
"Th...there....it...
"HE!"
"H...he shouldn't die from blood loss" The scientist corrected feebly. Trixie looked at the scientist.
"So the guy who did this is in an airship hovering over the city?"
"Y...yes ma'am"
"And he has both a Robotic arm and a Sword arm made of Spike's Scales?"
"Yes ma'am"
"Alright....well I better go get Spike's stuff back, and you'll be coming with me"
"Bu...wha....how?" Trixie turned to him "Imeanyesma'am!" he hurriedly corrected as he supported Spike. Trixie went to Spike's now bandaged stump and Teleported the Three of them to The Airship. they were in the control room, Trixie looked at the scientist
"Keep him safe, or I'm throwing you off this thing"
"yes ma'am!" he replied Trixie turned and walked to the only room the small ship had, opened the door, and immediately jumped back as Spike slashed down with the sword hand"
"The hell you think you're doing on my ship"
"Hi I'm Trixie...I'm here to brutally murder you" she replied. Spike looked at her, then laughed.
"You made about your slave still? well I see you got him back there, well sorry little blue, but if you want I could alway's get you a solid pack, Griffin?" Trixie looked at him murderously and threw the Bloody backpack on the floor behind her
"He was my friend..not a Slave!" Spike shruged
"Whatever help's you sleep at night Little blue, but I guess if your gonna be like then, I do need a new fur coat," He smiled "And I think I'll look good in blue." he teleported behind her and she turned just as he grabbed her by the neck with the robot arm and started chocking her out, Trixike grabbed at it, but to no avail. "Any last words?" Trixie gasped and lit her horn. "Sorry little blue, but all my stuff is mag...GEAH!!!" he screamed, as several rocks flew out of the Backpack and slammed into the groin of his PJ pants.
"I know" Trixie said, and with a quick spell, the rock's flew into his face, knocking him out cold "That's why I put the pack there." she levetated the rock's over his face and slammed them into it one more time, Before she pulled out her new Spear staff and severed the Robotic arm and Sword, it took a while, but soon they where free, and Spike the slayer lay there, passed out and bleeding. Trixie looked at him then looked at the scientist. "Come here" The Scientist scrambled over
"y...yes ma'am?"
"Help me throw this fuck off the ship" The scientist reached down, and the two carried him out of the cabin to the guard railing, Trixie leaned in over the side, then for good measure kicked him good and square in the groin, and tossed him off. the two reentered the Airship, Trixie looked at the controls.
"can you drive this?" She asked
"yes, but it's still raining ma'am"
"Then get us the fuck out of here," The scientist bowed and agreed and got the ship moving, Trixie levitated Spike off the floor and lay him down in the bed, she turned and looked at a coat rack, it had the wolf skin cape, Trixie picked it up and sighed at the loss of her hat and Cape before clipping the new one on, she pulled up a seat and sat next to Spike and lay her hand on his head "I won't let you die...no matter what happens, you'll survive." Trixie tucked Spike in an watched over the Scientist. "Once we're a good distance away, I want you to show me how to drive this thing, then I want you to go attach that Robot arm to my friend. and the Sword Connector piece to his tail, but take the sword out until after he's awake, got it?"
"Yes ma'am" The scientist said. Trixie looked outside, the rain had stopped, and the clouds were parting, the sun had just set.
"Steer us in the direction of the Crystal Empire"
"But...you....we....we just killed their greatest hero!" Trixie sighed
"Buddy, I got some new's for you"
Author's Note
The scientist is an Earth-Pony.
Starlight and Twilight didn't know where they were going, their only plan was to get far away from the Dragon and to do it as fast as they could, They didn't know how long they had been running, but Twilight was the first one to stop.
"I...I...I can't go on, Stitch in my side" She said as she slowed to a trot, Starlight skidded to a halt and walked back to her. the two where silent for a second as they listened for noises, they could no longer hear the sound of the Dragon ripping into the ground. Starlight looked around as Twilight caught her breath
"Where the hell are we?"
"No Idea, Magical navigation, doesn't work, underground," Twilight said, pausing every few words to take a deep breath, Starlight looked around at their surroundings, Everything was made of Brick, foul-smelling water ran in a dirty river next to them, Starlight had no Idea how deep it was, and just hoped there wasn't anything unpleasant hiding under its dirty surface. As Starlight pondered whether or not they were in constant danger Twilight took in their surroundings. Besides a few beams of sunlight that shown threw Sewage grates it was extremely dark. Twilight took a deep breath "Ok, first we need to cast a spell so we can see out surroundings, then we need to figure out where the hell we're going. The Two Unicorns Lit their horns and cast the spell that would allow them to see their surroundings and blinked, everything looked expeditionary worse.
Starlight looked over at the water and clapped her hands to her mouths before she could shriek, she pointed to it and took a step back. Twilight looked in it, thanks to the spell they could see the bottom and the coloration of the water, it was not in fact tinted brown as Starlight had first thought, but it was tinted a disgusting red color, floating beneath the waves the lower part of a body had sunk to the bottom of the water channel, The two looked at it and at other items in the water, at first there seemed to be nothing of interest, until Twilight spotted a familiar hat, she levitated it out of the water and with a quick spell confirmed that it was Braeburns.
"It's been burned at the end's" Starlight noted
"And our dead friend down there was a mare, so my guess is Braeburn was being attacked and set a fire to cover his and Babs escape, he lost his hat in the chaos that ensued, but with the right spell, we can see how long ago this hat was burned." Twilight closed her eye's for a moment, then there was a loud boom and her eye's shot open, the Tunnel quaked and she stood up immediately, at the same Time Starlight lit her horn and both she and Twilight were invisible to the eye, ear, and nose. they stood in silence waiting for something to happen, suddenly a Huge Fist broke through the ground as the Zombified Dragon dug into the ground, they both ran as fast as they could as the Dragon dug into the ground looking for them
"Find anything?" Starlight asked Telepathically
"These burns were made less than an hour ago, and more importantly, there's nothing more than a few stray bits of burnt mane on it indicating he wasn't wearing it when it was burned. we just need to follow this channel and find what they burned, from there we just need to find them, get above ground, and get the Fuck back to the Empire."
"Sounds Like a plan to me!" Starlight responded as the Dragons roar echoed around them.
Author's Note
Jinkies what a convenient place they stopped at, right where his hat was! it's almost like it's supper plot convenient.
Twilight and Starlight had been running next to the Sewage channel for almost half an hour, doing everything in their powers to run as silently as they could. The rounded and bend and had half a second to realize a wooded wall was in front of them. With a thud, the two hit the wall and slid to the ground.
"That smarts" Starlight muttered as she got up and wiped the blood of her snout "oh, that's tender." Twilight got up and looked at the wooden wall, it looked fine, and there was even a wooden bridge across the channel to the other side, where a pile of smoking wood lay. Twilight held up the burnt hat and smiled
"Alright, now we know where they were, we just need to figure out where they..." Twilight stopped when she heard a nice Knocking sounded behind her, she turned and found there had been a nicely hidden door in the wall, it was now open and Braeburn was slowing knocking on it to get their attention
"Long shot, but you won't happen to be looking for..."
"Braeburn!" Twilight cheered before slapping her hands to her mouth, "We found you!" She whispered happily, this earned a shocked look from him
"Wait...you were looking for me? of the 5 creatures here...I was the one being searched for?"
"Well, you and Bab....wait 5?" Twilight asked, Braeburn moved and Twilight looked into the small wooden room, sitting around a small campfire sat a dirty Bab seed, an Exhausted looking Sapphire Shores, Fleetfoot missing her left leg, and, to Twilight's complete surprise, Maud Pie was sitting with her back to them sharing a Twinkie with Fleetfoot.
"Maud?" Twilight asked in stunded silence, Maud looked over her shoulder and waved
"Oh thank Celestia, We were just about to run out of food," she said as Twilight and Starlight entered the room and sat with the 5 around the campfire.
"What are you doing here?" Twilight asked, before turning to the other two "What are you two doing here?" She added as an afterthought.
"I was buying some rock polish for Boulder" Maud gave a monotoned sighed "I lost him to the hoards."
"I was preparing for my next show when the hoards attacked if it wasn't for Fleetfoot..." Fleetfoot shrugged
"I've always been a huge fan, and besides, if Braeburn hadn't amputated my leg I wouldn't be here now either, and when Maud set his hat on fire to save Babs from Sugar Bow..."
"Who?" Starlight asked
"A Mare who was with us for a while got bitten on out last food run and tried to hide it, lost all out water when she turned." Maud said pointing "Using Braeburns hat and a well-timed rock throw I sent her and our emergency supplies down the river." Maud shrugged "but Bab's isn't dead so I call it a win."
"Please tell me you here to save us," Braeburn begged.
"Well du" Twilight said holding up the burned hat "We tracked you with this"
"I've saved us all," Maud said, "By the way is Pinkie..."
"She's at the Crystal Empire, which is now also Ponyville...Long story there."\
"I'll listen to it when Pinkie tells me it," Maud said as she got up. "So we go now right?"
"No, we got to get above ground." then we can teleport out."
"Just one problem," Starlight said "There's a 100-foot Zombie Dragon up there, and it's already shown it can dig into the ground to find us."
"What" Bab's asked "There are zombie Dragons! That's not even a little fair! Can everything turn into a zombie?" as soon as Twilight heard that an Idea popped into her head "No..." Twilight said with a smile "Alicorns are Immune! So if a blast a hole to the surface and distract the Dragon..."
"I Can lean everypony above ground and teleport them to the Empire." Starlight said now smiling "Oh Twilight you evil Genius you." Alright everypony, Line up and grab hands! We don't want to leave somepony behind." Starlight Grabbed Maud and Braeburns hands, Braeburn took Saphire shores, and Maud took Babs, and above the group floated Fleetfoot
"Um, I feel...out of place" Fleetfoot muttered awkwardly.
"Don't worry," Twilight said, "I've been being stupid this entire time, all I have to do is End The Dragon and any other Zombies in the area." Twilight Flew threw the open Door and took a deep Breath "Starlight...bubble." Immediately Starlight put a protective bubble around herself and the 5 survivors. Twilight light her horn and blasted the ceiling above them and flew to the surface, the dragon stuck it's face into the hole and Twilight put up a barrier and smashed it into the dragon's face as she flew behind its head and blasted its neck, The Dragon turned to her, the snout now smashed, it raised its tail and whacked at her, Twilight flew out of the way and the Dragon struck out with its head, mouth wide open, Twilight surrounded herself in a barrier and the Dragon bit down, with a disgusting pop the right side of the Dragon's mouth dislocated. Meanwhile Starlight was having trouble with her side of the plan, she had been forced to focus her forcefield upwards to save the others, but a fair number of undead made their presence known as they made their way out of the hole, the group moved back from them when moans and groans behind them informed them that some were coming out of the sewers.
"Where the fuck did those guy's come from!" Fleetfoot demanded as the hoard approached.
"Just give me a second." Starlight said as she charged the spell "The Crystal empire's a bit of a jump." Just as she was about to cast it the first one got to them and grabbed at Babs.
"Fuck of my Cousin!" Braeburn yelled instantly grabbing the Zombies ear's and pulling up, immediately the Zombie switched to him and grabbed his shoulders, Braeburn turned as Starlight cast her spell and kick Babs into its range,
"NO!" Babs managed to scream out before, In a flash, Braeburn was left alone in the crater, As the Zombie forced him to the ground.
"You did good," He told himself "You saved your kin, that's all that matters." The Zombie and Braeburn shut his eye's to prepare for the pain, instead, he felt blood drip onto his face and opened his eyes to see the zombie sinking its teeth into a Lavander arm, Immediately Braeburn pulled back on its ears and Twilight blasted the center of the Zombie's head to ash as she picked up Braeburn.
"I promised Applejack" Twilight said as he bloody arm hung by her side "That I was bringing both of you back" With a loud thunk the Dragon hit the ground, the half of its head above the lower Jaw had been torn off with a spell and squashed into bloody bits of Skull and scale "And I am not breaking it, Pinkie Promise or not!" Twilight light her horn and in a flash, she teleported the two of them to Starlight, at the entrance of the Crystal Empire.
"Cous!" Babs screamed as she hug tackled him "Oh Thank Celestia!" She cried as she hugged him "Don't ever do that again!" Starlight and Saphire rushed to Twilight, Fleetfoot tearing out the grass and crying tears of joy and Maud laying flat on her side.
"I'm so happy I might explode," She said before noticing that a slight bloody rock laying next to her, she picked it up carefully "What's your name little one?"
"Oh my Princess! your arm!" Saphire said when she saw it "Are you ok!"
"Luna fuck Twilight, Immune or not we gotta go get that cleaned up." Starlight said as she held up her friend's hand, Twilight pulled back and gave her a smile.
"It'll be fine, I'll go get it cleaned and bandaged once I see that Applejack has her Kin Back.
Author's Note
I bet you thought someone was gonna die.
"Pretty lucky," Spike said as he sat in bed, Trixie raised a brow as she rebandaged the left side of his head.
"What? That you have a badass like me to save you?"
"Not was I was thinking but yeah, I'd be dead without you, I'd have either been eaten or been drained of Blood." Spike smiled at her and got one back.
"Don't move, I don't want to fuck up the bandages," Trixie added as she continued the wrap the bandages around his head.
"But what I was referring to was that old Spikey boy was a half inch from my eye, and since it cut right through my scales I'm guessing he'd have taken my eye if he'd hit it." Trixie was about to reply when Spike scratched his face with his new Mechanical Arm. Spike blinked and put it back down. "Sorry," he said quickly "Bandages are itchy." Trixie sighed
"It's not that, I fell under pressure, I was in such a Panic to find you I couldn't even cast a proper tracking spell and you got torched within an inch of your life, Spike sat in silence as Trixie finished wrapping his head and helped him get to his feet. A Pair o Goggles had been cut up and made into an Eyepatch of Sorts so Spike could still see, unfortunately, the only pair aboard belonged to the Slayer and had been tinted red so half of Spike's vision was all red. Spike gave an awkward cough.
"So...I don't really remember when you saved me...was I conscious or was I just out?"
"You were conscious," Trixie confirmed as she had him do basic motor tests with his new Mechanical Arm.
"I Didn't say anything stupid did I?"
"You Thanked me then Told me to tell Twilight sorry," Trixie responded as Spike made a fist and raised one Finger at a time. "Gave me a fucking panic attack and I slapped the shit out of Clayton Over there."
"My face still hurts like hell!" The Scientist called from the Cockpit, around his hooves lay piled of ripped up papers and the Blade that was soon to be attached to Spike's tail.
"Sorry, your life was a Lie, Clayton," Spike said with a wave, Clayton looked back at him and grumbled angrily.
"Watch if fuck-boy! your one wrong move from getting your teeth kicked in your piece of Shit!" Trixie called back.
"Trixie it's fine, It's not his fault he..." Spike started only for Trixie to turn.
"He what?" Trixie said sharply "Neglected to tell me that the entire fucking town had a spell so anyone plummeting to the ground would land softly on the ground instead of splattering!?"
"I mean...he is Technically speaking a hostage," Spike responded with a shrug. "I'd have done the same in his position," Trixie grumbled angrily then turned to Clayton
"You are so lucky Spike needs you for your Robotic's skills or I'd throw you off this Airship and let whatever undead are in the country eat your splattered remains!" Spike sat back down on the bed and after a few minutes that consisted mainly of Insults Clayton entered the room with the Blade and a Wrench.
"Just give me the tail and try not to move," He said irritably "This may take a hot minute."
"No Problem with that" Spike said as he picked up his tail "I can't move it at the moment, all nub."
"Good." Clayton said as he sat down and took it "Make's my life easier." Spike sat in awkward Silence as Clayton Clamped down on the Blade with the Wrench and Stuck it into the slot, with several loud pops and Cracking noised Clayton stuck the Blade in and Began Screwing the Blade into Place.
"Old Spikey boy made that look easier" Spike noted as Clayton stopped for a breather.
"Yeah? Well, he has Magic for this, I have Strenght." Spike gave Clayton an odd look
"You kind of look Stringy for a Strong guy."
"I'm not Strong dumbass..."
"Watch it!" Trixie called out "or so help me I will come back there."
"I'm not Strong, I just have to use my less than extraordinary Strength to do this since I'm an Earth Pony." Spike frowned at this and looked at his Mecha Arm.
"Didn't you build this?" Spike asked.
"Yes," Clayton responded.
"Didn't seem to take all that long if you..."
"I had a Unicorn Assist me with the task," Clayton responded as he continued turning the Blade into place. After another minute or two and with a Loud Pop The Blade was locked into place. "Oh thank the Sun I'm done." Clayton sighed as he got up, dropped Spike's tail, and left the room. "There! It's been locked into place." Clayton said as he made his way to the steering chair. Spike Picked up his Tail and looked at it in silence.
"I miss my Spade" he complained, "I'm gonna have to take this thing out every time I want to go to bed once I can move my tail without the use of my hands again." He got up and made his way out of the room. Trixie was Flying the Airship, she was wearing the Wolf Pelt Cape, she had considered burning it, but found out it absorbed fire like water and had decided to keep it for any other Magical properties it might have, she had her staff on the Dashboard in its collapsed mode. Clayton was doing something, though for the Life of him Spike had no idea what he was doing, he seemed to be staring at a single set of dials in silence. every now and again Clayton would tap one of them.
"So?" Spike asked making both of them jump "What are we doing?"
"Spike! You need to stay in bed!" Trixie said as she leveled out the craft and halted it in the air "You lost a shit ton of blood, You need to rest."
"Well." Spike said awkwardly "I'm really hungry, don't suppose we have anything to...?" the look on Trixie's face answered his question. "No food then?"
"None." Trixie confirmed "And judging from what Clayton said we're a good 2 weeks from Equestria, much less the Crystal Empire.
"2 weeks! Hot dam Trixie talk about a Teleport!" Trixie smiled and made to tip her hat before remembering she no longer had it, Trixie sighed then turned back to the window in front of her.
"According to Clayton there is, or at least was, a town near here. We'll be arriving in about 20 minutes." Spike walked over to her and sat on the floor next to her. "What are you doing?" She asked as she began moving the ship again.
"Co-Pilot Spike is watching you fly with the hope of knowing how to do it if you get knocked out." Trixie smiled.
"Well, your not gonna learn anything down there, come on up and let your Great Friend Trixie show you how it is done." Spike got up and leaned on her seat.
"Alright, so the first thing to know about piloting this baby..."
The Airship landed on a hill overlooking the town, Trixie pressed the button the owners manual had instructed her to press and a series of Solar panels made themselves known on the side of the ship.
"Alright so 20 minutes here should give us like a full week of flying, now we just need to find at least a week's worth of Provisions." Trixie made to get up when Spike placed his hand on her shoulder. Trixie looked over at him and frowned at the look on his face.
"So now we have to have this talk." Spike looked down on her, "There's no way in hell you're going to be letting Clayton leave, and you're not about to leave him alone are you?" Trixie looked up at Spike in silence. "And I think we both know that if I was left alone with him I'd let him walk all over me, something you'd probably beat the shit out of him for."
"Don't you dare say it!" Trixie said as Spike pointed at himself.
"So either I'm going alone, or we're all going." Spike motioned around the Airship "And leaving the ship unattended is kind of retarded too." Spike pointed to himself. "So I'm going to go out there, alone, and do a quick look around ok?" Trixie stared him down.
"Don't go more than 7 building into the town." Trixie said as she got up, "And if something is happening, no matter what, put yourself first! You see some pony surrounded by Zombies, leave them! this town could be full of racists-" Spike waved at her.
"Relax Trixie, I'm just looking for supplies, I'll be back before you know it." Spike smiled as he walked over to Clayton, who was standing silently next to the room door holding out Spike's survival bag.
"Thanks, buddy." Spike practically sang as he took the bag and threw it over his shoulders.
"Fuck off," Clayton replied before covering his mouth and looking over a Trixie, who gave no visible reaction to him, Spike strapped the bag on to his back then strapped his still numb tail to the bag so it didn't drag behind him, once he was ready he gave a wave to Trixie, who smiled back at him calmly as he left, she waited as she watched him hop off the airship and head out before standing up and staring Daggers at Clayton.
"Alright shit head." She said calmly while cracking her knuckled "I think you and I need to have a nice long talk about Manners." Clayton gave an audible gulp as he backed up from her in fear.
Spike hop off the ship and looked around it, there was nothing of interest at the top save a small number of tree's and some sticks, one of which Spike decided to take as a wacker should something unexpected swoop in while he walked down the hill, as he did this he noted that the town was eerily quiet, and since he felt Zombies had no reason to stay silent he deduced that there where no more than a handful in this town, not daring to bet on it being empty since he didn't want to give himself any excuses to let his guard down. Spike made it to the bottom of the hill and froze, in front of him was a perfectly normal patch of tall grass, a patch of tall grass that ran in a straight line across the border of the town, in Silence Spike pressed his stick to the ground and dragged it across the dirt, it entered the grass and almost immediately he heard the clang of metal.
"Well that's kind of smart." he said as he carefully walked over the line of traps "Guess somepony is or at was living here within the last 2 weeks or so." Walking casually with the stick over his shoulder Spike walked past the first two building and found himself in front of a Resturant, judging from the look of the glass some creatures had been gutted inside the building.
"Seems like a good place to start." Spike decided as he pushed against the broken door with his stick and let it swing open. Spike put his head in through the door and identified the casue of gore across the front window, the skeletal remains of a two Horned creatures lay in scattered across the floor, Spike walked in and closed the door, checking behind it for anything as the door shut and lazily fluttered back and forth on its broken hinges.
"Either some Yaks, some Buffalos, or maybe one of each died in here." he decided as he walked in, Unbeknownst to Spike as the door swung shut behind him another door opened across the street a Pony walked out and noted the swinging door, a Smile spread across his face as he unclipped a small cylinder from his belt and with a press of a button it expanded and grew into a Large Battle Ax.
"So Little Bite's finally making her move." he said as he threw his ax over his shoulder "About time."
Spike decided to avoid the corpses and past the pile of upturned tables, Spike jumped the counter and opened the top of his bag before picking up a medium-sized box full of tortilla chips bags and dropping it and it's content into the bag before getting on his knees and taking a few other munchies, drinks and a few nick-nacks that looked good for passing time, among these where a few water bottles that had been placed for the work staff, a box full of bits, and a book that's cover was too coated in blood to figure out the name off, Spike was about to go into the backroom when he noticed that one of the skeletal remains had a crumpled piece of paper near it. Spike moved forward, doing his best not to disturb the dead, and took the note, backing up behind the counter before reading it. Spike stared bluntly at the rushed note in silence as he read it's message before rubbing his head.
"Oh shit." He said as he got up, and looked around "I've got to send this to Trixie asap!" Spike looked around in vain for the item that had been used to write the note and rubbed his head when he heard a quiet coughing sound, Spike looked around for a moment and noticed a small figure hiding in the dimly light staircase. Spike clamped down on his mouth so as to not make any noise of shock before the figure called out.
"You need to come up this way now!" the figure, witch Spike now Identified as a young girl, called motion for him to hurry after her, the message in the note gave Spike more than enough confidence to run after her at full speed, he ran up the stairs and found her waiting for him at a door near the end of the hall Spike turn into it and found it was a small closet before the tiny thing said shakily. "we need to be quiet, if they find us they'll eat us." Spike took a small breath and set the tip of one of his organic fingers on fire, Spike looked down at what he now identified as a very young Buffalo as he sat criss-cross on the floor and motioned her to him in silence, the young Buffalo closed the door with a click and sat on his lap and dug her face into his Scaly chest before sniffing, It took all of Spike's will power not to automatically jump back at her touch, the tiny thing was ice cold, just letting her lay on him was making him shiver slightly, Spike sucked it up before asking politely.
"Little one I know this is a strange request, but do you have anything to write with?" The young Buffalo nodded and reached into a satchel laying in the musty closet and pulled out a bottle of almost empty ink and handed it to him, Spike move the fire to his head spines before pulling the note out and adding on the blank side using his Finger as a pen.
"To Trixie, So this shit is happening! Spike." Spike took a deep breath and blew flames on the note, it blew to ash and out of the room from under the door, The Young Buffalo offered Spike a slightly crushed lantern and Spike moved the fire to it before repositioning himself so he was blocking the inward swinging door with his bag, keeping it from being opened, and keep the small light that the two had from showing through the bottom, the light was too small and not bright enough to properly shine through the side of the door, but just to make sure Spike used his tail to keep most of it from shining anywhere but directly at the duo.
"So Little one?" Spike asked. "I'm Spike, and who might you be?"
"I'm Wandering Winds, but my Mommy liked to call me Winnie" She replied quietly as Spike pulled out one of the water bottles and offered her a drink. "Thank you."
"No problem," Spike said sweetly as he used every part of his body to try and keep her warm. going as far to direct his hot breath in her direction, something she seemed to enjoy beyond measure.
Trixie was flipping through the ships Owner Manuel,after a very angry scolding Clayton informed Trixie that The airship was currently condensed into single-occupant living mode, now she was trying to figure out how to make it bigger so she could just Lock Clayton in a room and go join Spike, unbeknownst to her the town in front of her was slowly, and quiet un-naturally, being cast into extream darkness by clouds full of thorns. she was looking at the first of a 30 page set on how to achieve this imparticular action when she felt a strange tingling in her horn, she dropped the book as she looked up in absolute confusion as her horn cast a spell without her say so and a crumpled letter flopped on the Cosel, She looked at it in silence as she read what it said silently to herself for a moment "To Trixie, So this shit is happening! Spike." Trixie picked up the note and began uncrumpling it as Clayton walked out of the room to ask how progress was going on making the ship bigger and almost fell on his face when he looked out the front window
"What the fuck!?" he asked, Trixie looked at him, then out the window, she almost dropped the note as she got up and ran out of the airship to look at the small town, above it in a perfect circle encompassing the entire town was a huge cloud, but what had really gotten their attention was that the Entire town had become pitch black, Snow was pelting over the town so hard that there was already almost 12 inches, and all around the town hundreds upon hundreds of Zombies where walking about, a large shimmering barrier was keeping them all in the town. Trixie almost fell to her knees as she looked out over the chaos before returning the letter and reading it for Clayton to hear
"To any-non-Pony reading this, I'm sorry I couldn't put this in a place outside this death trap before you walked in, but your fucked, Gumshoes has rigged this entire town, if you've walked in, you're not walking back out alive, You can run, and you can hide, but your going to die here, anything can walk in, but only Living Ponies can walk back out through the Barrier, there's only one way out of this place alive, you ha-" Trixie stared in silence at the horribly written mess in front of her, staring hard at the part where it cut off, Trixie fell to her knee's crushing the paper in her hand as she took heavy breaths,
"No...no,no,no." Trixie pulled herself back up as she looked around the infested town. "He's mine! I just got him back, This was just supposed to be a simple run out and come back!" Trixie wiped at her eye's as she cried. "Why the fuck didn't I go? Why the Fuck?" Trixie's panic was turning to Rage at herself for letting Spike talk her so easily into letting him go, Rage for stopping at this town, Rage for the Undead for starting this. "Spike!" She screamed out, several of the undead noticed her and began walking into the barrier, they began piling up before giving up on getting a snack and looking for something else. while Trixie was Screaming, she was being watched through a Telescope in a bell tower, the walls of the tower had the same spell on them as to town as Gumshoes laughed at Trixie.
"Well now." he said "Looks like I got's me a New Bites! Oh, I wonder if he's a living through this first night?" The Unicorn got up and laughed "Well than, now that I's got another contestant, let the games difficulty be going up!" the Unicorn laughed as he lifted up his ax and hit a Gong next to him, as the sound rang out the snow was joined by heavy winds, Gumshoes laughed as he leaned back and spun the ax in the opposite direction, his little home warming up a little as he did this. "Wonder who this new Bites is, Hope they's a fun one to watch!"
Author's Note
Special thanks to Viper Pit for the name Wandering Winds
Twilight sat in silence as she looked across Ponyville, as she did this Starlight was busy at work, a Map of Equestria lay in front of her and she was marking different areas with red and Green marks.
"Canterlot had fallen, Manehattan's a fucking mess, Applelossa needs to be checked, Ponyville has been cleared and moved. Crystal Empire's Barrier keeps the Undread from entering and that need's to be looked into, and we need to look into moving the Tree of Harmony to the Empire as well." as she said this she used the Red Marker, when suddenly she dropped it and Crossed out Los Pegasus with the Green one.
"Trixie hates Los Pegasus so I can cross it off as having a chance of them being there, and Discord told me that he's placed a barrier around the Ponyville crater so if they show up there we'll know." Twilight looked down at the Crusaders, a Memorial for the many ponyville Residents who had been lost had been set up and her two friends where showing Babs its location. She noticed Mrs.Cake talking to Mr.Cakes shrine again. and she saw Rarity talking to Fleur de Lis, Photo Finish, and Songbird Serenade, who had only just been saved from death thanks to Luna. Ponyville was morning but Peacefully, it was silent, it was mocking her.
"I need to go." Twilight said, "I'll be back in a minute." She teleported outside, none of the Castle window's opened anymore after Discords Upgrade so it was the only fast way out. She flew up to the top of her castle and sat in silence on the roof, looking out at the joined nations as she took a deep breath "Spike I'm so sorry If I'd just taken a moment You and Trixie would probably both be here." She sighed as she leaned back, letting sleep overtake her. Twilight felt comfortable, then cold, very very cold.
Suddenly she shot up, she was in a wooden hall, a buzzing sound echoed thew the building, she looked around, the entire building was out of focus like she was looking at it through a pair of smudged and cracked glasses, and the noises around her sounded broken and full of static, she rubbed her eye's and looked around, a small figure came into focus, she could just see that it had horns as it opened a door and waited, the figure waited and She looked down at it, when a second figure came into view, a very familiar figure, even though he was basically a fuzzy silhouette and his voice was distorted, she recognized Spike at once, she ran forward trying to grab him, and instead fell through him, she blinked and turned back to him as a Green hue appeared on him before walking into the room, the smaller once closing the door behind her. as soon as it did so Twilight could no longer see if it was there, She shook her head and looked around as Darkness began overtaking everything
"What's happening?" she asked, Suddenly the coldness increased sharply and she shot awake in a cold sweat, she breathed heavily as she looked around, looking at her hands before teleporting back to Starlight, who jumped back.
"Oh dear Celestia Twilight, don't scare me like..."
"I saw him!" Twilight said grabbing her friend, "Spike, I saw Spike, he's...he's not safe, he's with a child, There in a Wooden house I think, it's so cold, Starlight It's so cold. I didn't see Trixie, everything was wrong, nothing felt right." Starlight stood her ground and held Twilight as she deteriorated into nonsense.
"Twilight." Starlight said calmly "You hatched Spike as an Egg, you have a Special bond with him, even tho his link with Trixie is blocking you out, your worry over his well being helped you see him, even if what you saw was broken, that is where Spike is right now, Now I need to to take a deep breath and tell me exactly what you saw."
"Just...just a wooden house, he was with a child, a Yak I think, and they were hiding in a room from something, Then it got Dark, and cold, so Dark and cold." Starlight muttered as she looked at her map, she ran her hand along it before turning to Twilight with a less than happy look.
"That's not very helpful." She said bluntly "But it's a start, Twilight, I need you to calm down, fill your stomach with Food, lay down, and use all your Magic to try and Dream Clearly, if you do it just right you might be able to find out where he is, and when we find him we can Find Trixie. So Twilight," Starlight offered Twilight her hand "Come get a Burrito with me if you want Spike to live."
Twilight felt awkward as she walked through the mass ceremonial graveyard that was now her front yard, tho she wasn't sure what was weirder, the fact that this was now her front yard or the fact that she could see the Crystal empire from her bedroom window. As she and Starlight made their way threw it a few ponies waved at them or simply looked at them, Twilight saw that Pinkie and the twins had joined Mrs.Cake at Mr.Cakes shrine, and she overheard The crusaders planning on planting an Apple tree at Appleblooms shrine.
"That's nice," Starlight said as they walked, her voice sounded cheerful but her eyes gave her away, she was panicking slightly and Twilight knew why, She had Seen Spike, only Spike, and they both knew that under the circumstances that he and Trixie would probably stay close together, knowing Spike was alive was a relief, but the horrible cold she had felt made her worry as she thought of it she gave Starlight her theory.
"Spike seemed like he was trying to hide with the Yak," She said thoughtfully "So it could be that he and Trixie got split up, and the horrible cold feeling along with being with a yak, they might be in Yakyakistan,"
"Prince Rutherford has done a hell of a job keeping his country safe," Starlight replied "I'll ask Celestia to send him a note about it," Twilight went over the scene in her head again
"They seemed scared," she said looking to Starlight "And locked themselves in a room, and the cold I felt, it wasn't natural. One second it was chilly, but with each passing second, it seemed to get colder and colder at an impossible rate," Starlight looked at her friend for a moment.
"Twi worrying over what may be happening won't help, Let's fill your belly so you can focus and find out for sure where they-" Starlight cut off and frowned as she amended herself "-where he is," Twilight turned back to Starlight, trying to think of words of reassurance that both Spike and Trixie were still alive when a Ringing sounded loudly next to them and startled them both, they turned and met eye to eye with the last creature they expected to find.
"Ember?" Starlight asked in shock as she watched the Dragoness wrap up a Burrito and hand it to a Griffin, Ember looked up at their voices and her face lit up when she saw Twilight, She put a be back soon sign up and rushed to her.
"Twilight," She Greeted as she hugged the Princess, much to her shock, Twilight looked at Ember with worry and confusion as she was set back down.
"So Good to a friendly face," her smile faded as she at her "I don't have many of those left,"
"Surely the other dragons-" Ember gave a forced laugh as motioned around.
"What other Dragons, a hoard, and I Mean a fucking Hoard, of Parasprites and some tiny butterfly horses, flew into the Dragon land and ripped us apart from the inside out, Princess Luna got my message just in the nick of time, I and two other's where saved but the rest of the Dragons lands and it's natives are-" Ember frowned as she looked back to her small stand, the staff of the Dragonlord lay next to her duel Grills.
"Thankfully Smolder and her friends were all already here thanks to that Sunburst fellow,"
"He was holding a seminar," Starlight said bluntly "I made Smolder and the others attend it as detention, but that one little thing may have ended up saving our lives," Twilight was lost in thought over what Ember had said.
"Butterfly horses," She pondered for a second before realizing what she meant "Breezies?" She frowned "Add Parasprites and one tiny misstep-" Ember noticed Twilight and patted her on the back.
"Don't worry Sparkle, a Hoard of Parasprites attacked the Barrier around the Kingdome this morning, the suckers fried so fast there ashes didn't even make it threw the barrier. Ember smiled but noticed that what she had said hadn't soothed Twilight in the slightest. "Unless it not us your worrying over?" She asked looking the Princess over. "You seem a little out of it,"
"Oh we've just been busy-" Twilight froze as she stared at Embers smiling face, it broke her and she changed the end of her sentence "With the end of the world and whatnot, gotta set up farms, try and increase the Crystal Heart's reach to extend the Empire. So much to do,"
"Well then let the last Dragonlord make you her famous Burrito," The was a moment of silence when she pointed to one of her two Grills "Don't worry I have a different set up for Ponies so no meat gets into your food,"
"Sure, Starlight said as she did a combination of leading and dragging Twilight to Ember's stand "We could use some food right now," The two stood and watched as Ember set up the eggs, added some hay bits and a few seasonings and extra toppings, after a few minutes she had them wrapped up and ready to eat.
"It's a little hot so take the first few bites slow," Ember smiled as the two slowly began enjoying their first bites of real food in over a week.
"Hmm," Twilight exclaimed, "When was the last time I ate?"
"Yesterday," Starlight replied "You ate a piece of Toast," Ember gave them an odd smile.
"Well thanks to Fluttershy's Animal farm in that...chaos place, Eggs aren't going away any time soon, I am running a little low on Torrtia's but I'll figure something out, Your welcome to eat here at any time, just make sure to eat a little more, eh?" Ember offered Twilight her hand and she smiled.
"I think I can manage that," the two shook hands and Ember added.
"Oh and Send Spike down here next-" Ember and Twilight both jumped as the world went frigid, Ember Turned on the Spot and Twilight looked around, confused for a moment before realizing what had happened.
"Ember!" Twilight practically shouted to the Confused Dragon "You're The Dragonlord!"
"What?" Ember asked in confusion "Of course I am, where? What?" Twilight Shook Ember in joy.
"I lost Spike Day one of the Infection," Ember froze and looked at Twilight with a dark look in her eye "I haven't been able to track him, I almost locked onto him thanks to being the one who hatched him but with your Connection to the Dragon Staff you're connected to him too, Saying his name is allowing us to see-" Twilight's excitement was cut off by Screaming as a Young Buffalo broke down the door to a nearby building and started rushing towards them, Immediately behind her was Spike, the Two froze when they saw him, His Robot arm, his bandaged face, and the Odd Knife he held in his robot arm. Twilight Imedatly tried locking her magic onto him but instead, the world started fading out around them and they were back in the Empire, Ember was slumped on the Grill, while Twilight was face-first on the ground, her Burrito lay ruined on the ground. Starlight was helping her up when the two gasped out and jumped back to life.
"Oh, my sweet Celestia!" Twilight Cheered as she shook Starlight "It was a buffalo, not a Yak!"
"That doesn't help us track them Twi!" The two flinched when Ember ran her claws down her grilled and Stared at Twilight, Rage burning in her eyes.
"Oh no, Twilight said as the Dragon Lord extended her wings and screamed out in an echoing roar accompanied by a torrent of Flames.
"You Lost Spike!?"
One Big, One Little, One Mini
Spike and Winnie were sitting in silence, a few undead could be heard outside their room, but judging by the occasional scream they judged they weren't the only ones in the town.
"The other day I saw a Griffin," Winnie whispered and held up her hands "New 'contestants' are shipped here every few days from the main city but Gumshoes only sets off winter at night or if a new one walks through the barrier on their own."
"OK, so this Gumshoes sounds like a...jerk, why wasn't this place an apocalypse when I arrived?"
"Undead are easy to Shepard, Gumshoes used speaker system to coral undead, they usually used to guard the outer perimeter of the city,"
"And this city?" Spike asked.
"Use to be Comand center for Stormking, but after he fell it was taken over by the Dragon Slayer Spike," the look on Spike's face told Winnie she had hit a nerve. "You know of him?"
"Yeah, we've met," Winnie looked at him and he turned away so all she could see where the bandages covering the left side of Spike's face, the red lens sticking out gave little away, she could just see his pupil shining behind it but it was reflected red and it gave nothing about his expression away. "So now what?" Spike asked, Winnie was about to answer when suddenly a loud blaring noise sounded in the hall and they had to both cover their ears as a static voice cried out.
"Come on now Bites! the games no fun ta watch, you got's a run and fights to keep them Biters from gettin's you!" As soon as the speaker sounded off the sound of breaking glass was heard and Spike jumped to his feet, he grabbed the satchel of Winnies stuff and tossed it into his larger bag.
"We gotta move," Spike said as he opened the door, the groans of the dead could be heard both above and below them.
"But the dead..." Winnie started when Spike looked back at her with a serious look in his eye.
"Are all gonna be swarming us, we move now or we get stuck in here with a tiny slab of wood protecting us from an entire hoard!" Hearing that was all the motivation Winnie needed and she followed Spike to the stairs as a Zombie Griffin smashed its way in through a window down the hall, Spike made it to the first floor first and was instantly met with a Zombie Earth pony jumping him, mostly out of shock Spike swung his metal fist at it and smashed through its skull.
"Oh yes," Spike said before turning and finding a total of 9 more making there way to him "Oh fuck no," He amended as Winnie made it to the floor, a 10th Zombie was making it's way through the window when Spike grabbed a chair and used it as a battering ram and mowed a line through the hoard, Winnie was on his tale when one of the ones he missed grabbed at her only to greeted with a chair to the face. A second one approached and Spike grabbed his Knife tail with his robot hand and rushed it, taking it down with a simple slash. "There we..." he started when another one managed to touch Winnie, her reaction was instant, she let out a blood-curdling scream and ran to the door, breaking through it with ease in her fright.
"Winnie wait!" Spike cried out as she slid out after her, the snow was freezing and was slowing but both Winnie and Spike were on too much adrenaline to notice, Winnie out of fear for her life, and Spike out of fear of losing track of her. Winnie barreled past Zombies and ended up running into an alley, she slid to a stop and blink.
"Oh no, I forgot about Mr..." She was cut off from her worry when Spike swooped her off her hooves, a few dozen undead following after him.
"Alright," Spike said, his voice barely audible through the wind "Never do that again please," Winnie gave no reply as she pushed herself as far into Spike's grasp as she could, Spike repositioned her so his robot arm was free and continued to run, Spike's tail limply waving behind him with a fair number of the dead grabbing at it. In front of them was a fair number of the dead piled up on each other swatting at the air.
"Mr.Spike," Winnie said when she saw them.
"If I slow down there gonna get my tail," Spike put his metal arm over Winnie and rushed at the pile, who turned their attention towards him but not at him, Spike blinked when he saw there target, who had intern seen him and was making a B-line at him, after a moment Spike felt something smoosh against his face and he plowed through the hoard, he felt something clinging on to his forehead but ignored their new companion as he focused on hiding, the horde chasing them having collided with the hoard trying to catch their new friend, Spike slid and ducked into an empty restaurant. he shut the door and rushed to the kitchen, he slid to a stop breathing hard for a second before taking a quick look around and spying his prize, the metal door of a kitchen Fridge, he opened it and was met with the cold air that wasn't nearly as cold as the air outside, Spike walked in, shut the door, and quickly locked it he set Winnie down and sat down breathing hear, Winnie looked at Spike, then her eyes darted to his forehead and she jumped back, Spike held up his hand and their new friend moved to it, he moved his hand and looked down and the shivering Breeze, it was decked out in winter survival gear and even had a cap to hid her antenna from the cold so Spike pinned she had been stuck here for at least a while, she was a tan color with an orange mane.
"Oh mate," She said much to Spike's surprise "When I saw you rushing at me it was like a dream come true," after taking a deep breath she stood up and took off the top of her snowsuit and shirt, giving Spike a more than generous view of her body as she gingerly tucked her cold wings into the tiny snowsuit she looked back to him and found him staring at him blankly. "What?" She demanded as she zipped herself back up, "my wings are freezing, and it's the dam apocalypse out there," She patted her chest and said proudly "My Name is...well," the Breezie faltered for a moment before giving Spike a determined look "...my old name died with my team and my way of life, new friends, new world, new name, You can call me Adira," Spike recognized the meaning and smiled.
"Ah, strong, noble, and powerful, an excellent choice Adira, my names Spike, oh and by the way, your Equestrian's flawless" She smiled at him and pointed at his other arm.
"Nice arm," She noted "Is that armor or..."
"This is a robot arm forged using the scale and bone of my old arm, same goes for my tale blade,"
"Smart," Adira said with a head shake "Not only that but I see you've chosen to forgo being a giant and went with a more compact body type, didn't know Dragons could change that but I must say it makes you one hell less of a target," Adira turned to Winnie who had watched all this happen in silence and frowned before asking in a much softer tone.
"Hey, there kid, what's your name?"
"I'm Wandering Winds, but my Mommy liked to call me Winnie," she said, repeating the same introduction she had given Spike, Adira turned back to him and he nodded at the obvious question she wanted to ask.
"Oh honey," Adira said and motioned for Winnin to get close, she did and Adira did the closest thing to a hug she could manage with their size difference. Spike looked around the fridge and began looking around at its contents.
"Well," He said after a moment, "Most of this stuff is still good for another week, and ain't no Zombie's getting us in here so..." Spike took off his bag and got to work writing a very short note "...hopefully Trixie can at least try and solve this before then," Spike went to the door, opened it slowly and then sent the letter before locking it again. "Alright, so I guess we should start with finding a safe way for all three of us to get around," as Spike got to work planing with his two new friends they were all unaware of a small lens in the upper corner of the fridge.
"Ah," Gumshoes said as he looked at the footage "Gots to say I'ms impressed, none to many bites makes it to the fridges, and what a team, Big Bites, Little Bites, and Mini Bites along with the outside helps, oh I hope theys making it to me, they be making good pet's, but maybe better trophies,"
Twilight and Starlight were loading the train as fast as the could, Applejack was Pacing behind them.
"I've lost my brother, my Granny, my Sister, my dog, and my land" Applejack was saying "and from what I can hear, I might be the only Apple left, But here's a Chance some of my family are still alive, but we might be too late" She kept saying this over and over. Granny Smith had died to save Applejack, and Applebloom had died with several other children who had been playing on the playground when the Infected had arrived. and Big Mac's body had been found in the Castle. Applejack had been isolated and in sorrow for the last 2 week's, but then Fluttershy had appeared in her mirror. As she couldn't handle knowing her friend was so deeply depressed, she had asked Discord to help. After some searching Discord confirmed that at least two of her family members were still alive, Braeburn, who had been visiting aunt and uncle orange, had managed to survive and saved Babs in the process. However this had been 3 hours ago, and the Train was only just now ready to head out.
"WE NEED TO HURRY" Applejack pleaded "Is it ready"
"Almost, once it's all ready to go, I'll teleport us to Manehattan" Twilight said, as she threw her bag over her shoulder. "I have to make absolutely sure that the Train is ready"
"Ready for what?"
"Well" Starlight answered "There are bound to be many infected in Manehattan, so we're gonna use the train to drive through them, we just need to finish making it run off the tracks." she finished by putting her hand on her friend's shoulder." I can't say I know what your going threw, But I want you to know that where worried about you, we will save them, don't worry"
"Alright, we're ready, Load up," Twilight said as Starlight got in but stopped Applejack"
"I'm sorry Applejack, but you're not coming"
"WHAT!? WHY NOT?"
"Your an Earth Pony, All your special skill's are exactly what will help them get closer to you, I'm sorry, but if you come and you die, I could never forgive myself" Twilight sighed "I've already let one of my Friends down and I might never find him again, but I won't let it happen again" She hugged Applejack who hugged her back as cried to her
"Save them, Save them, Please, I don't want to be alone forever, my Family has always meant so much to me, and there the last of it, please save them."
"I will, I promise" Twilight said as she waved goodbye to her friend and bored the Train and waved goodbye to Applejack before teleporting the Train away
"Save them, Please" She whispered in tears.
