I woke up the same as I always did: to the sound of my alarm and alone. It wasn’t something that I minded. It was simply a fact of life. I shrugged out of bed and slipped on the black sweater that was sitting on the floor by the bed as well as my glasses. Then I walked my way from the bedroom to the kitchen and started breakfast, reaching my magic into one of the cabinets and pulling out a box of Sugar Apple Bombs. Placing the box on the counter, I moved focus to the fridge to get the milk, and put together a bowl of sweetened cereal in cold milk. After eating that, I went to the bathroom and showered, stopping afterward to put my mane up as per usual and brush my teeth. Once done with that, I trotted to the door, got my bag off the hook, and headed outside.
The spires and buildings of Canterlot looked the same as they always had. When I was younger, the spires and castle would bring out a feeling of awe and wonder, but after living here for decades, the sparkle of them have all but worn off. Now, they were just plain. As I made my way to the library, I overheard talk from some of the ponies I passed. Glimpses of their lives. None of which I really cared about. Talk of Stable 1. Yeah, like I’d ever be able to afford a ticket. Besides, I’d rather die than be stuck in a prison for the rest of my life with a bunch of snobs. Some mare talking about her son attending Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns next semester. None of my concern. More than once I overheard worried talk about the war. While I disagreed with the war, there was literally nothing I could do to stop it. I had no ties to royalty or the elite. The one tie to the Ministry Mares I had, I wish I didn’t. Sure, I thought we were friends, but then she didn’t show up to my party. And to top it off, she left Canterlot without as much as a goodbye. It was thanks to her that I learned how pointless friendship really is. I didn’t need anyone, and no one needed me, and I was fine with that. It was on that thought that I arrived at the Canterlot Library of Magic. I climbed the steps and entered the building, glancing momentarily at the young blue unicorn mare that had taken over after the old librarian had retired. I proceeded to grab several books off the shelf and find a cozy place to read.
About a fifth of the way through my first book for the day, the librarian walked up to me. I grumbled under my breath and looked up at her. She just looked at me for a moment before speaking.
“I noticed you come in here every day. I wanted to properly introduce myself since we’ve never really talked. I’m Bloo,” the young mare said. I looked back down at my book. Of course she’d choose after I started my studying to start bothering me. I begrudgingly gave her a nod of acknowledgement. “If you ever need anything, just let me know, okay?” she added. I didn’t even look at her. The old librarian was courteous enough to leave me to my studying. Why couldn’t this new girl do the same? She stood there for a bit, then spoke a third time. “I’ll be at the desk up front.” I grumbled and finally spoke.
“That’s great, now could you leave me alone? I’m trying to study,” I snapped. The mare winced a bit, but I didn’t care. It’s what she gets for interrupting the pursuit of knowledge. She eventually nodded and trotted back to the front desk. I returned to Hayhoof’s Intonements. I was just getting to some really interesting information when there was a series of loud explosions somewhere nearby. Startled, I jumped up and rushed outside to see what had happened just in time to see a large bubble shield encircle the castle. In the sky, I spotted many objects that looked suspiciously like missiles. And then a pink cloudy substance started to fill the inside of the shield. I quickly ran inside and put up a shield of my own as the librarian ran from the building. It was the only thing I could think to do in a situation I’d never thought would actually come to pass. Moments later there was a loud explosion just outside, the roof collapsed on top of me and everything went black.
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Canterlot stood silent in the darkness, many buildings ruined by the missiles that had bombarded it. Pink Cloud flowed through the streets, carried by the wind. Pony bodies shuffled quietly around the streets as well, though most seemed completely unaware of their surroundings. However, near the Canterlot Library of Magic, a yellow and red unicorn mare seemed to move with a purpose. She did not acknowledge the Pink Cloud, nor the ruins of the buildings she passed unless there was rubble in her path. In fact, she almost trotted as if everything were normal...
I blinked awake and looked around. I was in the ruins of a house with an unfamiliar pink mist lingering in the air. I rubbed my eyes with my hooves, and upon further inspection, determined that my glasses appeared to have been cracked and I seemed to be in what used to be a bedroom, but something about it seemed familiar. Where am I? I thought to myself. I looked around a bit, and then looked down in front of me. There was a bedside table, and on it was an old, dusty picture frame. I picked it up in my magic and looked at the photo, figuring it'd give me an idea of who used to live here. The photo appeared to be very old, but I was just able to make out two ponies standing next to each other. The color was faded, but I recognized who they were
“This is... this is me and my sister!” I exclaimed to no one, and then my eyes went wide in realization. That would mean this was my house. I stood there for a moment, my mind racing, and then I remembered what had happened. The missiles. The cloudy pink substance in the shield around the castle. That means the zebras actually attacked Canterlot, I thought in terror. Then my gaze returned to the picture. My sister! I dashed out of my house and towards my sister’s home.
I ran through the streets of Canterlot in a rush, getting more and more worried about my sister as I witnessed the dilapidated ruins of what was once a busy city. Distant pony shapes shuffled through the streets occasionally, but I didn’t have time to stop and ask what was going on or even get a good look at them. I needed to focus on finding my sister. Luckily she didn’t live too far away, and I arrived at her place without trouble. The whole house had crumbled, leaving only part of the walls and the door standing. Without even stopping, I ran through the doorway and looked around the abandoned house, calling out for my sister Morning Roast. It was after I looked down at what remained of the roof that I froze in place, staring. Lying under the rubble of the roof was a single adult unicorn skeleton.
I stared at the skeleton for what felt like an eternity, then something in my mind ticked, and I turned and ran. I felt like crying, but for some reason there were no tears. I just ran through the streets until I tumbled over something and landed on my chest. I laid there wanting to cry for the loss of my sister, when the object I stumbled over started growling and moving. I got up and looked at what it could have been, my eyes growing wide as I spotted what looked like a rotting pony corpse standing up and growling at me. It was just like those horror films you hear ponies talking about around Nightmare Night. I was looking at what I could only describe as a zombie pony. I let out a scream and started running again, this time out of fear. I ran straight for my house, the safest place I knew of. The walls had at least been intact for the most part.
Once I got inside and locked the door to keep that monster from getting in, I started thinking about what I’d seen so far. All the buildings showed signs of years of degradation, and the clean skeleton at my sister’s house certainly supported that theory, so I concluded that I must have been unconscious for several years. However, that didn’t explain how I’d gotten from the library to my house without knowing. I shook my head and decided to worry about that later. First, I needed to check myself for injuries. If I'd been out for several years, the blow from the roof must have done some sort of damage. I walked into the bathroom, looked into the mirror, and proceeded once more to scream.
My mane was thinned out a bit, but still looked ok. My face, however, was a different story. There were patches of my coat missing in some places, and part of my cheek was completely missing! I looked down at myself for the first time since waking up and felt sick. One of the sleeves of my sweater was completely torn off, and there was a large hole through that leg that showed muscle and even bone. There was also a large patch of skin missing from that hoof. I went to pull up the remaining sleeve of my sweater only to learn that it had somehow fused to me.
I, myself, was a zombie pony.
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After panicking for a good hour and trying to figure out how it was even possible to be in my condition without being in constant pain, I settled on some sort of necromancy. While that didn’t really help me explain exactly how I was a walking, ‘living’ corpse, it at least gave me something to look into. I took a bit of time to regain my composure, taking into consideration that I couldn’t really be a zombie, due solely to the fact that zombies were mindless. Then I went to the kitchen. It was probably a good idea to eat something. I checked the fridge and gagged at the rancid smell that burst out as I opened the door. Most of the food had gone bad, aside from some cakes that must have been pumped full of preservatives. I decided not to try one of them, and opted instead on some Sugar Apple Bombs from the cabinet. Surprisingly, they weren’t even that stale, and were still sweet. I only ate a little bit, as I wasn’t even really hungry, and then I levitated my bags over to me and stuffed the box in them. Then I grabbed the other cereals I had in my cabinets and put them in my bag as well. Then I set off to find another pony that might be able to tell me what happened while I was out. Obviously, the place I checked was the library.
At first, I thought it was empty of anypony, but after a bit I heard movement near the back. Following the sound past the many old and collapsed bookshelves covered in old and deteriorated books led me to a back room, where the door was ajar. I slowly opened the door and looked inside, and was surprised to find what looked like a zombie version of the librarian hunched over, surrounded by papers on the floor. “Hello?” I called out, and the corpse librarian moved. She turned and looked directly at me, and a chill ran up my spine. Her eyes were cold and empty, devoid of any sign of life. The librarian dashed at me and I swiftly retreated and closed the door, running away as fast as I could. With that, I decided it was time to leave Canterlot. It just seemed too dangerous here, especially since I didn’t know any proper offensive spells.
I ran through the streets, heading for the edge of the city as fast as I could and avoiding any moving shapes I came across. I had to get out of this nightmarish ruin and to somewhere there are other ponies that aren’t zombies. I rushed past ruin after ruin, the buildings starting to thin out as I neared the exit to Canterlot. The further I got from the center of the city, the fewer zombies I saw as well. The strange pink mist that was in the air was also thinning out substantially. Upon reaching the very edge of Canterlot, I stopped and looked out at the countryside visible from so high up the mountain and gasped.
For as far as I could see, there was just a dead wasteland, with almost no greenery anywhere. Just mountains, dead trees, and brown plains up to the horizon. The only exception was the area I knew was called the Everfree Forest, an expansive forest just beyond Ponyville from here. If I looked towards the horizon, I could just make out the southern edge of the forest.
In the distance I could make out a pair of towns, one of which was Ponyville itself and the other was an unknown village really close by. Perhaps the ponies there can tell me what’s going on, I thought to myself. I started following the train tracks down the mountain, avoiding the rough terrain surrounding it. As I trotted along the tracks, I heard a rumble in the sky, which I only just noticed was covered by heavy clouds.
“Great. Just what I needed…” I grumbled to myself, and lit my horn. I summoned a layer of magic using my knowledge of a shield spell and positioned it above me. I kept it there for a little while as I walked, and sure enough, minutes later it was pouring rain. Thank Celestia I was a unicorn. I continued down the tracks, walking slower in order to watch my step and not slip on the now slippery surfaces. Finally I reached the bottom of the mountain and started towards the little village. It had a wall of scrap that surrounded a large ruined building and many dilapidated shacks that didn’t look like it’d protect from much, but there also seemed to be robots roaming the area, as well as several zebra children. I walked up to what appeared to be the gate, where I was stopped by a buck with a shotgun. My eyes went wide as he pointed it at me.
“W-whoa wait don’t shoot!” I exclaimed immediately, backing up. The colt looked me over carefully for a moment, as if trying to decide on something, before pointing the gun away from me.
“You’re clearly not a feral, so what do you want?” He looked at my saddle bags. “Are you here to trade?” he asked hopefully. I looked at him with a confused expression.
“A feral?” He seemed surprised at my question and raised an eyebrow.
“A feral ghoul. How do you not know about feral ghouls when you’re a ghoul yourself?” He thought for a moment before nodding for me to follow him into the settlement, so I did, looking around at the children. They all looked like they had been starving until just recently, going by the crates of food they had sitting near the entrance. I turned to my guide.
“What is this place? Where are all the adults?”
“This is Glyphmark. All of the adults were taken as slaves so we made this village. We used to kick out anyone that got their glyph mark, but Miss Xenith and her friends helped us set up trade a few days ago,” the colt explained dully. I blinked in shock. Slaves? Since when did ponies take zebras as slaves? I asked the buck this and he looked surprised once again.
“You’re very strange… Slavers have been around for decades. They’re not as scary as the Nightmare Moons, though.” The more I talked to this zebra kid, the more questions that I ended up needing answers for, and it was starting to get on my nerves. What in Celestia’s name are Nightmare Moons? I decide to get down to the bottom of what’s really been bugging me, though.
“How long ago was the war?” I asked flatly. The rain was still coming down, but the barrier of magic above me was keeping me relatively dry. The zebra tilts his head in confusion and looks at me.
“What war?” he asked. I grumbled in annoyance.
“The war between the ponies and the zebras!” I said a bit louder. Was this kid not paying attention or something? The buck frowned and tilted his head.
“That war? It was 200 years ago… at least, that’s what my mom always said,” the colt said simply. That made me blink. ‘200 years? How was I out for that long?’ I thought to myself. I thought about what to do before speaking again.
“I don’t really have anything to trade, but I have money. Where’s your store?” I asked, remembering that I had a decent amount of bits in my bag. The zebra colt smiled and led me into a larger shack, where a bunch of objects were displayed on shelves. Guns and other weapons, food, scrap metal and electronics, but what was most abundant were these little inhalers. I wondered where they got so many asthma inhalers and why they seemed to be the main item for sale. I walked up to the makeshift counter that consisted of a sheet of metal balanced between four cinder blocks on their ends, where a zebra filly greeted me.
“Hi! See anything you like?” the filly asked eagerly. I glanced around at the many items. Then I turned to her.
“What kind of supplies would I need to get from here to the next town? All I really have is food and money right now,” I stated. The filly thought for a moment, a hoof resting on her chin.
“Well, the nearest settlements are Stable City inside Canterlot and Ponyville to the southwest, but Canterlot is really dangerous, so your best bet might be to head for Ponyville. For that trip, I’d say you’d need a weapon in case you get attacked by raiders and ammo, at least. Since you’re a ghoul, food isn’t really important…” That made me blink.
“Wait, ghouls don’t need to eat?”
“No, you don’t. Didn’t you know?” The filly looked surprised. I frowned in response. Wasn’t the answer obvious?
“No, I didn’t. I just woke up in Canterlot, so I get an idea of how dangerous it is,” I commented offhand. The filly blinks and thinks for a bit.
“So you’re a Canterlot Ghoul… then you might find it worth scavenging in Canterlot for supplies. I don’t know much about them, but you should be immune to most of the dangers. You should still buy a weapon of some kind to deal with the ferals there if you upset them. You won’t be able to kill them, but you could slow them down enough to run away,” the filly zebra said as a matter of factly.
This got me curious about these Canterlot Ghouls. I decided I’d need to do some proper research on what I am later. The filly looked at me again. “Have you ever shot a gun before?” I shook my head and the young zebra walked over to a shelf, pulling off a box and a pistol before returning to the counter and putting them both in front of me. “This shouldn’t be too hard for you to learn to use. That’ll be 112 caps.” I frowned and tilted my head in confusion.
“Wait, caps? As in, bottlecaps?” The filly nodded in response. “That’s an unusual choice of currency. All I have is bits,” I informed her, adjusting my glasses. The filly thinks for a moment.
“I think that’d come out to 448 bits, then…”
I looked in my bag and counted my bits. I was only carrying 306 bits on me. I frowned and explained this to the filly, who took the gun and box and put them back, returning with a large wooden club instead. She placed it on the makeshift counter in front of me and smiled.
“Alright, this is only 60 bits. If you’re gonna scavenge in Canterlot, bring gear and stuff here and I’ll trade for it,” the filly suggested. I took out 60 bits and gave them to the filly. Then I took the club and put it in my bags for the moment. The filly smiled and took the bits. “Thanks, miss!” I shrugged and headed out the door.
Sure, I just bought a stick for 60 bits, but it looked much sturdier than anything I could find laying around. It looked like it might have once been a piñata stick. Either way, it was better than nothing. As I left the shack, I created a magical umbrella above me to stay dry and headed out the gate. The filly had said Canterlot would be good to scavenge in, so I guessed I could go there for supplies. Plus if I returned to the library, I might be able to find a few spell books I could study. I’d just have to deal with those zombies. I began the trot back up the mountain, once again following the train tracks up the slope.
A few minutes later I walked back into the ruins of Canterlot. The rain was still pouring, and that seemed to be dissipating the pink mist quite a bit. The streams of rainwater had rivulets of pink in them, and the ground had been thoroughly soaked at this point. I trotted up the street, my stick floating in my magic in preparation of anything attacking me.
I could see what I assumed to be feral ghouls moving in the alleys, but I kept to the main pathway, moving under the arch and up the bridge that led from the market district to the lower residential. Following the main roads, I passed by many ruined and collapsed houses. I knew exactly where I was going from years of walking these streets before the war. A few minutes later I was walking up the ramp that led to the northwest upper residential district, which was where I had once called home. I entered my house and started going through drawers, looking through the rubble for things I could take with me to trade.
As I searched through the rooms, I thought about the life that I’d never get back. The constant studying and the quiet solitude of my old home, the floor strewn with books and papers I’d yet to put away or return to the library. Checking through the several drawers around the ruined house and my old desk, I managed to find a metal cooking pot, two pencils, a clothes iron, a clipboard and my old microscope. Everything else had either been crushed by rubble or worn down by time. I put the items I’d found in my bag and headed back out the door with my magic ‘umbrella’. I knew exactly where my second stop would be as I headed back down the ramp from my district, and up the bridge nearby to the business district.
Several times on the way to my destination, I saw ferals walking in the distance, more visible thanks to the rain dissipating the pink mist. I kept myself distant and my club at the ready in case they attacked. Passing several ruined businesses, I arrived at the clearing that was home to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and the Library of Magic.
The rain was still pouring as I took a better look at the two buildings that had taken up much of my childhood. The spires of the school were crumbling, water pouring off the jagged areas where stone had broken off from age and damage, and a few old skeletons were lain across benches and tables in the courtyard. I couldn’t help but wonder how many students had died within the school’s walls. The library had fared worse than the school. All of the windows were shattered, and a few of the columns had fallen over the centuries. On top of that, I knew from experience that the roof had caved in when the city had been hit by missiles.
I walked up the stairs to the library and entered, preparing myself in case that feral was still there. There was banging on the door to the back room, so I assumed ferals couldn’t operate doors and was thankful. With that comfort, I glanced around the library itself. Several of the bookshelves were toppled over on top of each other, and there was a huge hole in the ceiling, no doubt what had collapsed on top of me when the missiles hit. Everywhere near the shelves, old books littered the ground. I walked around and started searching the shelves for books I could take with me to study. Perhaps I could find something that would teach me a more useful spell.
I spent several hours within the library, searching through hundreds or perhaps thousands of ruined and unreadable books, pulling out what few intact books I could find. With the number of ruined books, I was personally surprised that there were any usable books left in the first place. By the time I had decided I’d searched enough, I only had three magazines and six books. I looked them over with curiosity to learn what treasures I had discovered.
Let’s see… two Royal Wordsmith magazines, one Royal Army Specialist magazine… I already know Magia Deprehendere, but maybe I could sell this book to someone that could use it… Percutiens Industria Plasma and Demuto Physiologiam definitely sound like useful spells… I don’t know if I’d ever use Mens Explorandum, Mentis Antemurale or Nubes Tempestas, but it’s never a bad idea to learn them anyway,I thought to myself, rummaging through the few books I had found. I shrugged and put all six spellbooks and all three magazines in my bag and started out the door.
