A day had passed since Apple Bloom came knocking on our doors, and since then, Kyle, Blazing, and I were out on a scavenging run, but it was mostly just knowing our surroundings a bit, since everything around us has been picked clean.

“Alright-- there’s a bit of a wreck with the bridge up ahead, so just be careful... the last thing we want is someone falling into the river.” Kyle told us, stopping our car and leaving it, taking the keys and disconnecting the battery to avoid it getting taken.

I smiled, knowing that I could no doubt fly over the wreck, and Blazing smiled as well, starting to stretch a little...

“Gimme a minute.” He said as he backed up...

He then ran full-force, jumping onto the support beams and then jumping off of them, rolling onto the other side of the bridge.

“Hold on, I’ll find something to help you guys across--”

I quickly set my hands on my cousin’s shoulders and began to float into the air, my wings bursting through my shirt as I flew us across the bridge, Kyle letting out a panicked scream. Once we landed, my demon-like wings dissolved, and I set my backpack back on, covering the two slits in my back.

“Oh, shit... Well... that’s one way to cross a bridge.” Kyle nervously chuckled, adjusting his jacket.

With that obstacle out of our way, we continued on, passing a sunken horde, trapped in a frozen lake, with their heads starting to freeze over...

“Icy was through here recently...” I said.

Kyle simply zipped up his jacket while Blazing started to put his guard up, his hand resting on his holster.

We passed a demolished convenience store, me noting the New World Order symbol frosted into the ground.

“Oh, yeah, she was here...” Blazing said, moving over to me as Kyle continued on.

I sighed and took a second look at the sight.

“So... those wings, where’d you get them?” Blazing asked me, possibly trying to change the topic.

I let out a chuckle and shook my head.

“They’re genetic... Where’d you learn the free-running?” I asked him.

Blazing hesitated, seemingly nervous about the story.

“Okay... promise me you won’t laugh.” He told me.

I nodded and Blazing cleared his throat.

“... Dying Light.”

I almost laughed, but I was a man of my word, sucking it in and letting out a silent “huh”.

“Really?” I asked, wanting to know more.

He tilted his head and nodded.

“Yep. Back when the dead were all still running, I went to the old rooftops in Canterlot, surviving by staying off of the streets. It was kinda easy, until other people got involved... then things became a fight. There weren’t many guns left in the city, but I was able to get by on bows and arrows... especially when I learned how to modify--”

Kyle held out his hand to stop us, looking up ahead at an abandoned shopping plaza, composed of two stories full of various shops and the various crumbled, walking zombie.

“Who knows? Maybe we’ll find supplies here.” Kyle shrugged, overlooking the plaza.

We split into two groups, with Jason going alone and Blazing and I working together. We searched the larger upper-floor while Jason went for the lower floor, entering the store which name was washed away, with dirt and moss covering the board—as was the case for the majority of the plaza.

“Oh, yeah... this place has been abandoned for a while.” I mumbled, eyeballing the more... adult section of the store.

Blazing must’ve noticed me as he chuckled and shook his head.

“So... you and Twilight, huh?” He asked me.

I turned to him, confused, as we entered an abandoned store.

“You know her?” I asked him as he stepped in a wet, crumbled side of the floor and groaned a bit, shaking his boot off.

“You kidding? I don’t think I know anyone back at the Cave who doesn’t know Twilight Sparkle...” He said to me.

I was definitely starting to get confused, and wanted answers—more than before.

“Okay... and how exactly does everyone there know her?” I asked him.

Blazing stayed silent as he picked up a miraculously-intact can of food from a high shelf.

“I think that’s something you should ask her yourself... You brave enough to eat this? ‘Cause I know I’m not.” He chuckled, tossing the moss-covered can across the store.

One store down, several more to go. As we pushed on, I decided to ask Blazing a question that had been bugging me for a while.

“So, how do you know Rainbow Dash?” I asked him.

Blazing hummed and turned to me, letting out a chuckle.

“I was her tutor for a few weeks, back in the old days. It all feels like a lifetime ago, now...” He smiled.

I hummed as well and we continued searching, finding nothing but overgrown weeds a few insects crawling inside.

“God, I hate bugs... always have.” Blazing commented, swatting a fly away from him.

“Back when you were talking with Jason, you said something about modifying... what did you mean by that?” I asked him as we exited the second empty store.

Blazing turned to me, seemingly excited.

“Ah, I know how to modify melee weapons—make them stronger, give them other abilities... my sword back in the Caverns was modified to use electricity. What I wouldn’t give to hold that sword one more time...” Blazing started daydreaming as we entered the third shop, skipping a few rows due to them being too overgrown to see through...

The next store we looked through was different, it was cleaned and not much was growing inside of it.

“Looks like someone holed up in here, recently... could be Icy, could be someone else...” Blazing said as he pulled out his knife.

We searched through the remains, seeing a small firepit... I put my right hand over it, feeling no heat, and gently rested my index finger into the ashes, feeling no heat.

“Whoever was here... they’ve been gone for a while, we should be safe.” I told him.

He nodded to me, feeling safe enough to re-holster his blade and start looking around.

“Who knows? Maybe who left this place left something else behind...” I said, looking around for any signs of supplies.

As we continued, the unanswered question kept nagging the back of my head until I finally gave.

“So... you like Rainbow?” I asked him, just wanting an answer.

Blazing turned to me, initially trying to stammer his way out of it, but gave in just like I did.

“Y-yeah... I do. But I also know that the three of you are together, thanks to the double agent Apple Bloom planted... and look, those favors I did... I did it with the four of them, so I’m in no position to judge... but she’s hot, okay? And I’m going to let her know that.” He said, stepping closer to me.

Before I could say anything else, we both heard Jason cry out downstairs, prompting us to run down, with Blazing vaulting over the railing and landing on all-fours, both of us following Jason’s shout to see him in front of a smoking, partially charred...

Creature.

It seemed like some form of sea-creature, composed of pale flesh with two outstretched arms, with its forearms webbed to its torso, and three tongue-like pincers extruding from its mouth...

“What... the hell is that?” I asked whoever was able to answer, but no-one had an appropriate answer.

“Some kind of... insect, or something.” Jason guessed, gently kicking it...

We would’ve kept walking, but a loud, animal-like roar stopped us in our tracks. I turned to Jason, whose hands started emitting fire, and Blazing pulled out the short, sawed-off shotgun from his holster.

“Get ready...” I said as the noises grew closer.

From the floor above, a loud stomping rang out as dust fell onto us... whatever was up there was tearing the upper floor apart, letting out a satanic roar as it scurried across, slowly searching the other shops...

“That doesn’t sound like a bear...” Blazing whispered.

“No... doesn’t sound like any kind of animal...” Jason said as he readied his flame-ridden hands...

The monster then began tearing into the floor right above us, large, curved blades stabbing through the hardwood as we all ran out of the shop and the creature tore through it, falling ot where we were only seconds ago.

We turned back to the creature from outside the shop, seeing...

“What... the fuck... is that?!” Blazing screamed out.

The zombie was different, its two arms were extruding from its stomach, it’s head had a massive cave-in on the top, and most noticibly, two extruding arms with the same blades that cut into the ceiling of the shop, caked in blood...

I didn’t hesitate as I pulled out my Judge and opened fire into the creature’s head, doing nothing but angering it and taking out its left eye.

In response to my bullet-fire, the creature began walking towards us, prompting us to back away in horror, until it began to charge at us, with its arms bending inwards as it charged...

Jason then used his fire to conjure and slash out a sharp-enough blade to amputate one of the creature’s arm-blades, seemingly weakening it.

“Shit, get the other one!” Jason screamed out.

“Blazing, take my machete and get behind it!” I started opening fire onto the other arm, slowing the creature down while handing Blazing my machete.

The creature got knocked back, allowing Blazing to drive the machete down into the creature’s other arm-blade, it falling to the ground...

The creature only responded by letting out a loud, primal roar, causing the creature’s jaw to break apart, its bones seemingly morphing into viciously sharp fangs as it charged, armless, and leaning forward.

Jason then let out a blast of fire, Blazing already out of the way, and pushed the creature back as I shot its legs, trying my damnedest to amputate them. I managed to get its right leg as the monster stumbled to the ground, now crawling towards us, and Blazing responded by pulling out his sawed-off, getting into its face, and shooting it point-blank.

Sure enough, the creature stopped moving once it’s face had been emptied onto the pavement.

None of us said a word—mainly because of the shock of whatever that monster was... and we all just looked at each other.

“Was this the beginning of an alien invasion?” Blazing asked us, unclear whether he was serious or just joking.

Neither of us answered, I went up to the creature, noticing that it was still moving around, but it was harmless due to no means of weaponry or defense.

“Let’s just burn this place to the ground and get the hell out of here.” I said, not wanting to stay around any longer as I grabbed the creature’s leg with my prosthetic hand just in case it wasn’t completely dead.

I dragged the creature inside and looked around for anything flammable, and came across a bottle of vodka... I considered taking a sip, but then decided to just pour it over the ground and the walls and grabbed a used rag, dosing it in what was left, and using the lighter I had on me to ignite it and toss it to the ground. As I walked out of the building, I decided to talk to the only other person I was able to...

‘Aria, you there?’ I asked in my mind, hoping to reach out.

Nothing came back for a moment as I signaled the others that we had to move, and as we walked away, I got a response.

‘Yeah? What’s up?’

‘Have any of your scavengers come across any weird zombies, with blades coming out of their arms?’

Silence again, but for a justified reason. We were just about to approach the run-down bridge from earlier and I wasn’t in the mood to be swooped up by my cousin again...

‘I can’t say we have, but we’ve been getting reports on corpses surrounded by toxic spores from the southern colonies, and rumors of bright lights and strange zombies, so I won’t doubt that happened...’

I was caught by surprise—there're more zombies out there, now?

‘Well, thanks for the heads-up. Hey, think Twilight and I could come down sometime? I have some questions I’ve been meaning to ask.’ I mentally said.

No response for a moment, but soon I felt the sensation of someone else’s voice in my head again...

‘Shit... Don’t bother, we’re at your gates and there’s someone just laying here.’

I didn’t need any more temptation to run towards the run-down bridge and jump over it, nailing the landing, and run into the car, fuel the battery back in place, and wait for Jason and Blazing to get in, and drove, speeding down the road...

Outside the gates, Aria and Autumn Flier were standing outside, trying to talk to someone who was surrounded by scorched ground and wearing some form of armor, the back of his spine flashing red and his helmet showing three bars of blue light.

“...come on, man, just talk to us.” Autumn said, slowly getting closer.

I followed him, now hearing that the guy was whispering to himself.

“It’s all gone... we were too late...”

“We? What do you mean you were too late?” I asked him, wanting answers.

He stopped and looked at me, his helmet retracting and revealing a man with green eyes and brown hair, a tad of stubble covering his lower face.

“You’re human... is this Earth?” He asked me.

Is he from Equestria? That’d make sense... that or he was crazy.

“Hey, hey—what's your name?” I asked him.

He turned to me, glancing at me and almost screaming to me that he had been through serious shit...

“Issac... my name’s Issac Clarke.”

Author's Note

With this chapter, I am going to put this story on hold for a very short bit, just so I can properly explain the presence of other-dimensional entities in my other story-- Spider-Pip: Sinister Six. Rest assured, I'll be back to this story. Until now, have a glance at what Kyle and his people will need to deal with in the near future.