Twilight was walking to the front door of her castle. The halls were still dark and clouded by that same fog that covered all of Equus. As far as she knew, she was the only creature that needed to constantly wear a gas-mask. The clothes are more for protection from small scratches, as the spores need to contact blood directly or be breathed in to infect someone. Shaking her head to clear it, she walks into the armory and grabs a Packer-Class Boltgun. It looks like a long pistol with a tall barrel. She grabbed a few bolts and opened the top of the barrel and dropping the bolts in. After closing, locking, and racking the slide, she places the foot-long pistol into a holster, and strapping said holster to her hip. Leaving the armory, the figure is waiting outside. "Good morning, Miss Twilight. I suppose that's for self-defense?"

"Yes it is, Spike." The figure chuckles, which sounds more like gurgling.

"I might as well grab a weapon as well. I've always wanted to be a strong knight who protects his maiden from harm." He made a bit of a pose at the end of the sentence.

"You're going to come with me?" Twilight asks, surprised. He hates leaving the castle!

"I thought I might as well go with you. Sure, my beautiful complexion has been suffering for the past few years, but I'm sure others look worse." Twilight snorts.

"You got that right. Big Mac....well....you should really see for yourself." Spike raised an eyebrow, but shrugged...well, 'shrug' is a strong word. Eh, it'll do. Spike shrugged it off and entered the armory. Twilight decided to wait for him, and after a few minutes, he comes out of the armory with two Magnum-Class Boltguns slung across his back in opposite directions. A battle ax hung at his hip. "You're armed." Twilight stated simply.

"I like to be ready to kill, and pardon my language, big shit." Twilight nodded once. "Shall we leave, Miss Twilight?"

"Yeah. C'mon Spike, let's go." They walked side by side down the halls, Spike whispering under his breath words of self-encouragement. They made it to the door and stopped. Twilight put a hoof on it. "Are you ready?" A few moments of silence passed.

"I am, Miss Twilight." She smiled slightly and opened the door to reveal black, fleshy grass edging a dirt path that went all the way to Ponyville. The sky was darkened, and one could only make out the haze of the sun amidst the dark fog. Their vision was limited to roughly 150 meters. Spike raised an eyebrow. "Pardon my language, Miss Twilight, but this place looks like shit." Twilight looked at him and threw out a hoof.

"Well, here you go. Ponyville looks about the same." Spike shook his head and walked once again, following Twilight, and only 10 seconds later, Ponyville started coming into view. Ponies lumbered around, some on four legs, some on three, some on more legs, and others walking on two legs, most of the bipedal ones scraping the usual black fleshy growth off the walls of houses. One of them noticed Twilight and smiled.

"Hey Twilight!" It said with a wave of a third arm ending in a mouth, with 6 teeth working like fingers. Its voice echoed with every word. "Who's that?"

"I'm Spike....Miss?" It chuckled and hopped down.

"Yeah, I'm a mare." It reached a hand out for Spike to shake, which he did. "Lyra Heartstrings, it's been a while." Spike did his best to smile.

"Yes, I remember you! you were fascinated with hands, correct?" Lyra smiled widely.

"Yeah! And now I have...two? Two and a half? Well, I have hands now! They're so cool! I can do stuff with them, including....scraping....this black crap off of the houses." She ended the sentence in a slightly pissy tone a a gesture towards the wall she was busy with. "Sadly, I must continue my job, so...bye!" Spike chuckled.

"Goodbye, Miss Lyra." They continued on, and said hi to a few more ponies. Spike say a massive figure in the distance, about twice the size himself, Spike being about five feet tall, and with eight eyes on individual stalks. "Miss Twilight? Is that Big Mac?" She looked at the figure for a second then nodded.

"Yeah, that's Big Mac."

"He is certainly living up to his name." Twilight chuckled.

"He certainly is. Now, we have to go to Canterlot so I can talk to Princess Celestia." Spike made a gesture that said 'lead the way' and Twilight went to the train station, Spike trailing behind, now more confident in his looks. He caught up to Twilight, who had just bought tickets. The ticket guy still had four legs, but he had grown into a Centaur-like body shape, with really long arms with a lot of joints. Waving goodbye, Spike climbed onto the train. The Conducter had grown around and into his seat, unable to leave it. He had two short arms and ten freakishly long ones, that looked to be composed of almost only joints. They cracked with every movement, and there was a lot of movement. Twilight gave him the tickets, and he said to grab a seat. Once they did so, the black, fleshy substance covering the roof's hundreds of mouths opened and said the following:

"We'll be leaving in a few minutes for Canterlot, then Manehattan, Fillydalphia, Appleoosa, and finally Dog Junction before returning. Please remain seated."

After Spike got over his shock, he settled back and elected to stare out the window for the duration of the trip. "Miss Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"I...may have forgotten to give you your breakfast." Twilight groaned.

"We'll eat once we get there."

Author's Note

How was that? Please, tell me so I can improve it. This will be my last fic, so I want it to be good.