The coming dawn

Aaron POV/location:???/6:45PM

As I recovered consciousness I could feel soggy soil beneath the palms of my hand remembering the events that occurred prior to losing consciousness I bolted upright and gasped for air as I made contact with something metal I opened my eyes all I saw was an older man wearing a leather vest with multiple tattoo's pointing a shotgun at me he suddenly broke the silence with a deep breath eying me curiously he said "are you infected" I was dumbfounded.

"Infected with what the flu?" I muttered sarcastically rolling my eyes he only aimed the shotgun closer to my head.

"I'm not fucking around buddy, are you or are you not infected with the green flu!" he said holding the shotgun gun point blank from my face I thought back to when me and my friends collapsed to the floor but thought it would be best not to mention that for my safety.

"No I'm feeling fine besides having a shotgun aimed point blank at my head" he cautiously lowered his shotgun and took a few steps back giving me space to get up, I stretched my back looking at my surroundings I noticed we were in an apple orchid I rubbed my head and thought how the fuck did I end up here and where the hell did my friends go...were they dead these were only some of the thoughts running through my head I turned around and saw the strange man watching me "where the hell are we? I questioned he simply shrugged.

"Fuck if I know, one minute I was about to die the next I woke up here next to you" he picked an apple off a tree and began biting away at the fruit he stopped and looked back up at me "these apples are fucking delicious you should try one" I sighed.

"Shouldn't we do something more important like search for help" I said looking at the ruby red apples hearing the sound of something hitting the floor I turned to see him discard the apple core.

"Well we could investigate that house over there" he motioned to the left I turned my head to see a barn and old country house I turned to him and nodded.

"That's a good place to start I suppose" I paused realised I haven't introduced myself "by the way I'm Aaron" I said putting my hands in the pockets of my navy blue hoodie.

"I'm Francis" he said lowering his shotgun to his side "we should probably get going it's starting to get dark and I hate being outside at night" I motioned him to follow me to the house I kneeled down and grabbed my rucksack that was discarded on the floor before beginning to walk towards the farm like structures in the distance.

As me and Francis began getting closer to the house I noticed that there were lights on which meant somebody was still home, I stopped and turned to him and said "we should probably check the windows to see if anyone is still awake" Francis nodded. we slowly and methodically moved between the trees hoping to get a good view of the interior before I cursed under my breath I tapped Francis on the arm getting his attention "we'll need to get closer to the house I can't see shit from here" I whispered he turned back to the house and pointed the porch roof.

"What if I boost you up there so you can peek through those windows" Francis said enthusiastically I shrugged.

"Sure I've got nothing else to lose" we quickly but quietly dashed out of the tree line to the side of the house next to the porch I nodded my head at Francis which in turn caused him to put his hands out as he crouched to give me a boost I clutched the side of the roof as he launched me upwards I struggled to pull myself up immediately regretting wearing my rucksack for this.

After catching my breath feeling the rough wooden porch I shuffled on my hands and knees towards the nearest window and peered in being cautious to not give myself away however when I peeked in I saw nobody I weird I thought shuffling over to the next window looking in I was shocked at what I saw a small yellow pony looking thing with a red mane with a bow placed at the top it was talking to another orange one once they finished talking the orange one shut the door the smaller one walked over to a desk and started to write something..with its mouth I froze for a second "am I hallucinating right now?" I muttered to myself pulling my phone out I checked the battery seventy nine percent, perfect I thought I turned on the camera and slowly adjusted the camera to focus on the small pony and took a picture when suddenly a loud noise erupted from my phone well crap I forgot to put it on silent I thought, I looked up at the pony to find it staring at me in horror.

We made eye contact for a few seconds before it started screaming in fear "oh shit not good" I got up and began to speed walk back to where I climbed up as I was about to slide off the roof I heard the window behind me open I quickly jumped down and crouched down Francis looked at me stunned at my sudden appearance I motioned him to crouch with me and stay quiet he gladly listened to me as I could hear movement by the window I then heard them speak.

"Whatcha ya mean you saw a monster there's nothing out there maybe you're just imagining things" I heard one say swallowing the lump in my throat I continued to listen.

"Sis I swear ah saw a pale monster outside mah window holding this flashy thing..you've got to trust me I'm not making this up!" I heard the younger one squeal in protest.

"Enough Applebloom you've got school in the morning and you need rest" the older one said I heard the younger one go to protest but was cut off "I've already checked the porch you're probably just seeing things now go to sleep" I heard a door slam and the window immediately afterwards I exhaled Francis tapped my shoulder and pointed at the barn which looked desolate I motioned him to lead the way as we approached the barn Francis carefully opened the barn door checking behind us I swear I could see a pair of eyes staring down at us from the same window I was spotted through I turned and swiftly made my way into the barn closing the door behind me.

As I turned around I noticed how dirty the floor was covered in dirt and hay Francis stood there staring at me "what the fuck happened up there man!" He said perturbed by the event that had just occurred. Feeling drained of energy I muttered.

"Once we find a place to rest I'll tell you all about it" he huffed in disappointment I chuckled as looked around for a good place to rest as I strained my eyes in the dark, I noticed a ramp leading to what I believe is a hayloft "hey Francis if I'm correct that ramp over there will lead to the hayloft where there will hopefully be hay or something comfortable to lie on so we don't have to lay on this disgusting looking floor."

"Sure lets get up there I feel like I'll pass out soon" he said tiredly shuffling towards the ramp, as we reached the top of the barn we discovered there was a wall of hay blocking us from seeing the barn door but would also stop anyone from seeing us, I took seat on some hay and yawned.

"So what do ya wanna know" I asked calmly trying to keep my eyes open he took a seat opposite me.

"Who was in the house then?" he asked seriously he contemplated telling the truth but remembered I snapped a photo as evidence I sighed.

"Well call me insane because there are weird pony looking things living in that house i only saw two of them although I'd guess there's more" I paused as he gave me a grin and a chuckle.

"Well no shit you sound crazy I seriously doubt there are talking ponies living here" I grumbled and pulled out my phone and passed him the phone showing him the picture of the pony he immediately went quiet and mumbled out "maybe you're not crazy" I took my phone back and placed it in the side pocket of my black cargo trousers.

I shifted nervously as I put my bag down next to me "this is insane, how did we end up in this situation, hiding in a barn" I facepalmed before Francis spoke.

"Well I'm not sure about you but I was about to die so maybe this is some fucked up afterlife or some shit like that" he said leaning back on a bale of hay. I immediately responded.

"No this can't be the afterlife! I was in a closet with my friends" he let a quick laugh after stopping I continued "and we thought some zombies had found us and we heard something from the door we then felt an electric shock before passing out, then I woke up to you holding a shotgun to my face so I couldn't of died, I think" I said opening my bag and grabbing my canteen which was still half full talking a quick sip I offered some to Francis but he refused I shrugged and put it back in my bag I looked back at him "so I've told you about how I woke up here, what about you..how did you end up here?" I crossed my arms he looked me in the eyes.

"Well me and my group were holding out against these vampires on the rooftop of this hospital called Mercy it was thirty floors high " I stopped him and stared at him quizzically.

"You were seriously fighting vampires?" I chuckled he rolled his eyes.

"Well no technically they were just infected with the green flu but I call them vampires any-how we were waiting to get evacuated by this helicopter it arrived but since the helipad was sort of half destroyed and we were getting swarmed by infected it had to hover next to the roof" he took a deep breath "as we were about to make it to the helicopter, a guy in our group called Bill got pinned down by a hunter instead of leaving him..I saved him even though we never got along, we always argued...but I still saved him" he paused momentarily and just spaced out I clicked my fingers in front of his face quickly getting his attention he shrugged it off and continued where he left off "after I saved him I covered him to make sure he reached the helicopter" he paused "I stupidly ran for the chopper without watching my angles so just as I reached the helicopter I got blindsided by a tank" I interrupted him.

"What the hell is a tank because the one you're talking about is probably different to the one I'm thinking about" I asked confused rubbing my head.

"They're just pure muscle on muscle, like me but on steroids the infection changed them into massive muscular infected looking things that walk sort of like gorillas, if you got hit by one you were fucked, anyway the hit caused me to land by the ledge of the building far away from any help or any safety and the pilot had to take off and basically left me for dead and I knew then and there I was going to die" he said solemnly "the tank then decided to finish me off and punched me off the building but as I was falling everything started to go black...everything else you know" he said sighing I looked at him trying to feel some form of empathy but I couldn't so I forced out.

"Sorry man that sounds rough" he looked at me with a small smile.

"Thanks" he said rubbing his neck I yawned.

"We should get some sleep I think we're going to need it" I sighed making a makeshift bed out of the piles of hay I turned to Francis who was doing the same "I guess we'll figure out our next step tomorrow." I heard him mutter something before beginning to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be an annoying day I thought getting into a comfortable position finally closing my eyes falling asleep.

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Alex POV / location:??? / 6:45PM

I yawned opening my eyes I noticed I was in a bed of some kind it felt more comfortable then the one I had, I wiggled around and discovered I was tucked in, as in somebody took the time to make sure I was comfy I rotated my head to the right and saw Monu also laying in a bed in a similar way inspecting the room I was in I noticed it was incredibly small with there being three beds placed very closely together being only a few feet apart I untucked my arm and reached out to Monu and shook him awake upon awakening he had a confused look on his face "Alex where are!.." I covered his mouth quickly as I could hear footsteps from underneath us I held a finger over my lips signalling him to be quiet.

"Um I don't know I just woke up a few minutes ago" I whispered shifting in the bed.

"Well we should just get out of here" Monu said plainly, disregarding my caution he just jumped out of his bed and began walking towards the oddly small door I was quick to stop him though rushing into him with my lanky form I held him against the wall.

"What if these people are dangerous and.. Wants to hurt us" Monu stared at me before shoving me away.

"Are you fucking stupid if they wanted to hurt us by now they probably would have, and if they do want to why did they leave us unsupervised with no restraints?" He said asked folding his arms failing to come up with an argument I just sighed "that's what I thought!" Monu said I glared at him.

Suddenly we heard footsteps approaching I turned to Monu "what should we do" I asked nervously he looked at me and shrugged.

"I guess we just rush them" Monu said cluelessly before opening the door I decided to follow him as we ran through the door Monu collided with something not expecting Monu to suddenly stop I ran into him causing us and whatever he ran into to fall down the small set of stairs, groaning I stood up Monu shot up like a bullet looking at what was under him I understood why, laying down on the floor nervously curled up in a ball was a butter yellow pony with pink hair.

Me and Monu both stared at it dumbfounded at what we were seeing Monu turned to me "this can't be the thing that kidnapped us right? one it's a pony and two it looks as nervous as you when me and Adrian talk about Emily" feeling anxious I punched him in his chest.

"Don't talk about Emily!" I raised my voice Monu just laughed at me, looking around I noticed we were in a small cottage looking thing, barely big enough to live in I sniffed the air and it stunk of animals I turned my attention to the small window and noticed that we were just on the boundaries of a forest I turned to Monu "hey Monu do you think we should look for the owners of this place" before he could answer however I heard a small squeak come from below my on the floor where the pony was.

"T...t..that would be me" it squeezed out me and Monu both turned our attention to it Monu got down on one knee and said loudly almost screaming.

"Where are we!? more importantly what have you done with our friends!?" he said now physically shaking it violently causing it to cry feeling bad for Monu's behaviour I looked at Monu.

"Monu calm down you're making it anxious give it some room, bloody hell" I said shooing him back he wore a frustrated expression on his face before backing off, I returned to the pony and kneeled down "sorry about my friend he can be insensitive sometimes" she began wiping the Tears from her eyes she looked at me shaking slightly I struggled to come up with more to say "I'm Alex..this is Monu" I said pointing at Monu who gave a quick wave.

"I'm f..Fluttershy" she said quietly giving her some room to get up I took a few steps back she looked nervous..more nervous then how I am normally I thought scratching my head Monu finally spoke.

"So..Fluttershy how did we get here?" Monu said more calmly this time.

"I was just taking care of my chickens making sure they were fed for the night and then I heard a zapping sound behind me, I turned around and saw you both laying on the floor" she paused taking a deep breath "instead of leaving you outside I thought it would be kinder to take you inside where it's warm so I got my friends to bring you inside" she finished looking at the floor.

I began processing what she said when I suddenly thought about Aaron and Adrian "wait you said you only found me and Monu?" I asked she jumped from my sudden question.

"Y..yes it was only you two why?" Fluttershy asked I rubbed my head.

"Well there were four of us and I think we all blacked at out at the same time, right Monu?" Monu sat down on a nearby stool and rubbed his chin.

"Yea I noticed that we all fell to the ground and I experienced the worst headache ever" he groaned I thought hard eventually putting two and two together.

"Wouldn't that mean that they might be here somewhere too?" I asked folding my arms

"Maybe we got split up in two different places" Monu said rubbing his eyes and yawning "if that's true we should probably look for them" he said getting up walking to the front door.

"Monu we probably shouldn't, we're in a foreign land with no idea of what to do or look for" he sighed and withdrew his hand from the door.

"Well what should we do then?!" He said anxiously pacing back and forth by Fluttershy's front door "we obviously can't just live in here for the rest of our lives!" he was about to continue his rant when suddenly Fluttershy spoke.

"My friend might be able to help you, she's really talented with magic maybe she can help you" she said softly Monu responded immediately taking a few steps towards her.

"Great! should we go now?" he asked shifting nervously Fluttershy looked at the floor.

"Well it's getting kind of late so wouldn't it be nice to get some rest, I bet you both feel tired after today?" Monu was about to respond when I interrupted him.

"That sounds good, it sounds like tomorrow is going to be busy anyway " I paused for a moment "should we just sleep in the beds we were in or what? I asked

"Oh it's fine if you want to sleep in those beds they're for visitors anyway" she paused for a moment "unless you don't want to then that's fine" she said timidly.

"Sounds good I'm feeling exhausted anyway" I said slouching slightly.

"Well you two go get comfortable in bed and I'll wake you up tomorrow morning" She said gently smiling at us.

"Ok see you then" Monu said skulking out of sight back up the stairs as soon as I heard a loud thud as he presumably fell on his bed I turned to Fluttershy.

"Don't mind him he's just like that don't question it" I said rubbing my neck turning to follow Monu I heard Fluttershy say

"It's fine" she whispered I nodded and walked back into my temporary accommodation and dove under the covers looking over at Monu who had already started sleeping I thought about what tomorrow had in store for us, as I adjusted myself into a more comfortable position I attempted to sleep.

After a short ten minutes I opened my eyes and sat up feeling slightly irritated that my insomnia mixed with the growing feeling of fear was keeping me from sleeping I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked the battery it read eighty six percent I opened my phone and began looking through my gallery hoping to distract myself with nostalgia until I felt tired enough to fall asleep what a day I thought.

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Adrian's POV| 12 hours later

Sitting at my desk I grasped my mouse firmly with my right hand while holding the other one over my keyboard focusing on my PC with great intensity all my teammates were dead and I only had a quarter of my life left I decided it was now or never as I landed the final hit on their rift as the end game cutscene played out I erupted out into fit of laughter and joy as a bounced off of my chair screaming "I finally reached the rank of challenger!!" I said before downing a can of monster.

"I've got to send a screenshot of my rank to the others they're going to be so jealous" I said uploading a picture to our discord before I could celebrate more I looked up at my skylight and noticed an odd amount of water was forming worriedly I rushed outside my room and noticed that our house was now submerged under water as seconds passed I noticed that the Windows began to crack unsure what to do I stood there mesmerised by the scene as the glass finally gave in water came pouring in as I began swimming towards the broken window I cut my wrist on a bit of broken glass I gasped slightly quickly closing my mouth again now struggling just to breath I began swimming towards the surface which slowly but surely was becoming further away slowly losing the strength to continue swimming I struggled for a slight second before blacking out.

my eyes shot open as I felt ice cold water make contact with my skin I gasped and started taking deep breathes, I surveyed the room I was in, it looked like a room made out of crystal with countless bookshelves scattered around the room in the centre of the room was a table with 6 chairs surrounding it.

I went to stand up before noticing I had what looked like chains attached to my feet and wrists restricting my movement I looked to my right and saw a man in chain mail with some form of facial injury however it was hard to describe what injury he had from where I was sitting however he was chained up like me but he looked unconscious I began pulling rapidly Pulling at my restraints but stopped when I heard feminine voice say "you're finally awake" my eyes snapped in the direction the voice was coming from but the room was too dark it must be late or early I thought straining my eyes I could see what appeared to be a purple unicorn...with wings.

I felt shocked as I crawled backwards until I hit what I assumed was a bookshelf I grabbed the nearest book and launched it at her however before it had time to hit her it was surrounded by a purple aura and was placed on a table nearby the voice spoke out again this time more serious "can you please stop that I'm trying to speak with you" I shifted my shirt feeling uncomfortable from being drenched in water I looked back at it.

"Who and what are you!!" I shouted trying my best not to sound nervous it looked at me and asked.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle and I'm the princess of friendship and you are?" She motioned towards me I frowned.

"I'm Adrian and I don't like being chained up like this or being questioned by some freak of nature so why don't you free me" I said rattling the chains she shook her head she looked like she was contemplating saying something.

"I..can't do that until I can make sure everyone in Ponyville is safe" I frowned at her and furiously rattled my chains.

"Listen it wasn't my choice to come here, if it were my choice I'd be back home watching anime and playing league of legends not dealing with Ponyville! and its abominations of nature" she seemed to look at me oddly she sighed and sat down.

"Yesterday evening I was researching the rise in magical activity in equestria and, as I was measuring the amount of magic active magic here in Ponyville I noticed a sudden surge in magical activity there were seven surges one after the other" she said ecstatic with energy I groaned.

"Get on with it" I said rubbing my eyes she frowned at me.

"I was going to before you interrupted me, anyway when I returned to my castle me and my assistant found you and this other creature passed out on my table."

I shook my head quickly "how does this In anyway relate to me being chained up?" I asked she then facehoofed.

"If I found both you and this other creature" I cut her off.

"Also our species are called Humans so stop saying creature it's annoying" I ran my hand through my hair.

"Anyway if I found you two after the magical surge then that must mean that there are other 'humans' out there and I would like to locate them before deciding what to to with you all." she said I immediately thought about my friends they must be out there..somewhere she turned away from me "besides they could be dangerous you're already acting hostile."

"So..what comes next then?" I questioned.

"After I've performed my morning duties I'll start tracking them down and will subdue them if necessary, I will then bring them back here." she paused for a second "until then I'll have my number one assistant keeping an eye on you" as she said this I heard the sound of feet unenthusiastically making their way into the room as I rotated my head slightly and saw a reptilian lizard thing appear from behind the door.

"Jeez Twilight is this really that important that you had me wake up this early to do?" he questioned yawning and stretching Twilight turned to what I assumed was a he.

"Of course it is Spike I would've never asked you to do this if it wasn't important enough just read a book until I get back" she said in a somewhat motherly tone I swear I could feel vile erupting from my throat.

Spike groaned "fine but you owe me a tub of ice cream for this" he said sitting down on a small wooden chair five meters away from me.

"Ok Spike send me a scroll in case of an emergency I should be back in two hours".

"Ugh just go already" Spike said as he lazily sat back on the chair as Twilight turned and exited the room he turned his attention to me and gave me a curious look, as I did to him after ten minutes of just staring at each other I felt a sudden pain in my head after I rubbed my head, he just looked at me and said "tough day huh?" I let a out a small chuckle.

"You don't even know the half of it"