Twilight’s chest burned. Another pang of pain shot up in her heart and she hissed through clenched teeth. Every walking step became one of pure agony as she stumbled down the long abandoned highway, sun roaring down on her, cars littering the road, dash boards and parts strewn all over. Some were missing doors, others seemingly abandoned a day ago. Others were bashed in with shattered windows and exposed engines. Together they formed a whole maiz. One of steel, plastic, glass, and decaying flesh.

Twilight heaved and took in large breaths of air as she stumbled, catching herself in a fall. Her head radiated pain, blurring her vision and thoughts. Breathing shakily, twilight steadied herself on a hood of a car, leaning onto it. It’s windshield was shattered and twilight could only lean onto it so much until the heat of it started to burn her skin. Moaning slightly, twilight stood up and balanced herself onto her hooves, vision rocking back and forth under the strain. Her saddlebags jostled, the sweaty straps digging into her skin. The m 16 strapped along her back swung downward around twilight’s moist and clammy neck, weighing her down.

Adjusting herself for what had seemed to be the hundredth time, twilight tossed the riffle onto the ground in frustration, instead opting to drag it along the ground by its strap.

She continued walking and walking. She swayed as the fever took hold of her again, fuzzing her vision. Her hearing degraded until all she could hear is was the soft thump of her hooves hitting the ground and the dull fuzzing of her blood. Her eyes battled to stay open as if heavy weights had been strapped to them, eyes blurring with dull, aching pain. She thought of her home here friends, the wonderful smell of pancakes it the morning and the lure of pinkie's cupcakes. The joy was quickly followed by anger. Anger of all she lost and all she could have. Anger at the world around her. Anger at her torn saddlebags and the tormenting disease. But most of all, she felt angry at them. “It was them who took it all, itwas them who grinded her life into a paste,” she rabbled in her mind. “It was because of them that killed all those ponies. It was them who torched houses aflame and scouring the streets, looking the sweet feeling of blood rolling down their cheeks. It was because of them that the newborn flurry heart was dead!” Twilight seethed and clenched the strap of her rifle tighter, teeth locked together into a snarl. It was because of them- twilight was cut from her thoughts as a fresh jolt of pain shot through her skull. Twilight gimmiced in agony as the fever once again stormed her body.

She soon fell into an almost trance like state as the fever once again took hold of her mind. Her vision muddled and her ears throbbed and pumped loudly, the roar of blood deafening her as if she had submerged her head in water. The world had dissolved into one of murky water. Opening her eyes stung her and her ears pounded louder and louder. So trance like in fact that she almost didn’t hear the gun go off.

There was a muffled pop from up ahead. A brief flash of disoriented light in her murky, liquid world. The dull thump of metal meeting pavement.

The murkiness started to give way. She was rising toward the top of the water now. Breath. She needing to breath. She punctured the surface.

Twilight’s eyes shot up, taking in all in exquisite detail. The scratches and dents on the various cars, the rough pavement under her hooves, the dull glint of silver embedded in the road. Even in her jumbled mind, she could only make out a single thought against the overwhelming background noise and turbulence within her brain. “Its them.”

Twilight shot like a cannon toward the car nearest to her, a busted ponywagon with its hood dislocated, exposing the engine block. She crashed into the rough pavement stomach first, her gun wacking her upside the head as she skidded to a stop. The fur on her hooves was torn off and a number of painful gashes from the pavement started to ooze out blood. She hissed through clenched teeth and propped herself behind the engine, grasping the m 16 as she did so. Another bang. This one much closer to home. There was a horrific screeching sound of metal tearing through metal as the drivers door wrinkled and blew outwards, showering twilight with metal fragments. Another bang. A loud pang. The engine twitched, but stayed firm nonetheless.

Twilight tried to breath, but all that came out were short and sudden gasps. Clenching the rifle, Twilight tried jump up and return fire, but her heart clenched with fear, paralyzing her body and the riffle kept slipping in her jittery and clammy hooves. There was another bang. Time seemed to pause for a moment and for a moment, there seemed to be an everlasting quiet. Then there was the gruesome sound of ripping metal as the top of the engine just inches away from her head was ripped away, scattering jagged metal splinters across the road.

Twilight’s breath froze in her throat, suffocating her. The world vanished under a thick blanket of murky water and the thunderous sound of blood roared in her ears like a waterfall crashing against the rocks. She tried to take in air, but her mouth opened and shut like a fish. Her heart bashing against its organic prison. The sweat slickened gun slipped from her grasp and tumbled onto the ground.

There was an earsplitting crack. It was not murky like the rest, it was as sharp and definite as a blade. It found it’s way through her ears, though her mouth, through her eyes and into her brain, searing everything as it went with a red hot iron.

Twilight’s mind couldn’t take it anymore. She felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into the murky sea, water rushing out from underneath her and piling onto her, pushing her down into the dark and muddled depths below.

The last thing she heard before being enveloped by the darkness was a series of smothered pops and mute shouts. A pair of rough hooves tugging on her and- the darkness would let her have no more. The murky water flowed in through her mouth and poured into her lungs, the weight of the water above her crushing all the air out of her. It was then that the water no longer became murky, but pitch black.

Author's Note

It’s based off the book The 5th Wave if you couldn’t tell by the cover image. If you read the book cool, if you didn’t, you should read it or at least understand the basic plot and concept :P