Equestria's Doom

“There’s just something suspicious about what’s going on.” expressed Rainbow Dash to Fluttershy.

There was a light ache across Rainbow Dash's body from the strain of pulling Fluttershy from the depths of the lake and onto its shore. On the opposite shore, several hundred meters away, the wooden mass of the Majesty’s hull was still visible. Dash noted that there was no sign of the Slayer, Twilight or any other pony besides her and Fluttershy on the lake's shore. There was only an eerie silence that threatened to give way to cacophony and violence at any moment, the moment’s tension looming over the two like a butcher’s knife over fresh meat.

Both of their bodies dripped with water from the lake that fell to wet the sand around them. Great trees casting long shadows in the light of the setting sun enshrouded the pair in darkness. The sky overhead was a dark shade of crimson painted with streaks of pink clouds. A half-moon was already visible in the sky above, soon to overtake the sun’s dying light. Pieces of driftwood lay scattered upon the beach and a long trough in the sand marked where the two had exited the water.

Fluttershy snuggled against Dash and shut her eyes. “What do you mean, Dash? I’m happy to spend this time with you, but I’m sure the others are worried about us.”

“Well, to begin with, Twilight specifically said that ALL the elements would be present when we took care of this thing.” explained Dash. “Also, the fact that the Slayer just ran in and did it ahead of us seems a little bit weird.”

“Well, no matter what, I trust Twilight and the rest to take care of things.” said Fluttershy in a small voice.

Fluttershy reassuringly ran her hoof along Dash’s neck and Dash looked into her eyes which sparkled in the evening’s light. She realized there was something especially beautiful about the shape of her face in the gentle shadows of the evening.

Dash held back from kissing her and took a moment to let out a long sigh. “I guess what we have to be worried about at this point is what we don’t know. Is Twilight a changeling or some evil monster in disguise?”

Fluttershy nodded. “We should definitely tell the rest of our friends about this.”

Dash paused for a moment.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Dash, you do know what-”

“The ship.” said Dash with a start.

“Yes, I remember you telling me all about what happened on the way here.” responded Fluttershy.

“No, they’re still on the ship. Well, according to Twilight, but who even knows if we can trust her.” said Dash in an avalanche of panicked words.

Fluttershy turned her head towards the Majesty, who’s colors were beginning to fade as the sky grew darker. “Should we?...”

Dash put her head in her hooves and took a long moment to think.

She sat up with a start and turned towards Fluttershy. “Okay, I get what we need to do now.”

“Well, I’ve got an idea.” said Fluttershy with a tiny frown playing across her face.

“Let me hear yours first.” sputtered Dash.

“We sneak onto the ship, being careful not to make too much noise. Then if we find the others, we just explain to them about Twilight and see what everypony wants to do about it.” explained Fluttershy.

“I was thinking that I should fly towards Twilight with a sonic rainboom, tackle her on the ground and-” said Dash, waving her hooves in the air to demonstrate her plan.

She stopped once she realized that Fluttershy was glaring at her with a look of contempt.

“What’s the matter?” said Dash.

“Even if she’s possessed, we can’t just attack her. She’s still our friend, you know.” stated Fluttershy plainly.

“Yeah yeah, you’re the element of kindness, I get it-” retorted Dash.

Her retort was cut in half by a sudden kiss from Fluttershy, causing her eyes to shoot open and then slink shut.

Fluttershy was the first to break off the kiss. “We should start before it gets too dark.”

“Let’s go, then.” said Dash in a quiet voice.

The trees erupted from the ground like skeletal fingers that seemed to grasp at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash as they scampered along the treeline to the Majesty’s husk. Every shadow, every hoot of an owl, or flap of a bat’s wings was cause for the two of them to stop in their tracks. The icy sensation of fear seemed to follow them no matter how low they lay, no matter how quickly they proceeded along their path.

Yet they each had a light in the darkness in the form of one another.

When a branch would snap in the woods and they feared their deaths, one would turn towards the other. The argument from earlier had already melted into the inky substrate of their past and a different form of love arose between the two in the darkness of the early evening. It was a love forged from mutual fear, an affection derived from shared anxieties. Dash took pride in how Fluttershy’s fear would melt when she threw a glance backwards to Dash and she let herself smile when she saw how diligently Fluttershy forged ahead along the lake’s shore.

The moonlight was no guide for the two and its light barely reached them. They were forced to squint their eyes and hide among the trunks of trees that straddled the shoreline, fearing the eyes of their former friend and now possible traitor. It felt as if it took many nights instead of a mere hour for them to finally arrive at the silent hulk of the once glorious and inspiring Majesty, but finally they were before it.

Dash looked towards Fluttershy and spoke in a low voice. “Okay, so there’s no lights on the inside from what I’m seeing, meaning they might be unconscious.”

Fluttershy’s lip trembled. “Or worse.”

Dash shook her head. “Don’t even let yourself think that.”

Fluttershy nodded her head. “How are we going to get on board?”

Dash shrugged. “Well, we can’t risk walking around like idiots looking for an entrance, so I’m thinking we fly on the deck.”

They quietly murmured among themselves and forged a plan. After their brief conversation, Fluttershy spread her wings and ascended to the deck, Dash following closely right behind her.

The first thing Dash noticed was that a foreboding silence had enshrouded the deck of the ship. There was no sign of the soldiers from before, or any lights shining from below the deck. Instead, there was only wood stained with the blood of earlier fights and machine guns that hung from the sides of the ship like dead gargoyles on a castle’s ramparts. Shell casings and other debris from the battle still lay scattered across the deck and a foul smell of rotting meat permeated the ship.

Dash and Fluttershy both held their curiosity inside of them and remained silent. Fluttershy fell behind Dash as she explored the deck, trying her best to keep low and not make noise. After a few moments of searching, Dash saw that a door to the interior of the ship was ajar. She motioned to Fluttershy with a hoof and the mare positioned herself behind Dash. With a few cautious steps, they both proceeded into the bowels of the Majesty.

“Hello?” called out Dash.

The room they found themselves in was pitch-black. Fluttershy kept herself close to Dash and she could feel the trembling mare hugging her side like a scared filly.

Dash called out once more, only for her voice to bounce off the walls in an eerie, ignored echo.

She sighed. There was still no sign of the soldiers or of the Elements, meaning that she and Fluttershy were very likely wasting their time on a dead-end. She took note that the smell from above the deck was far worse below and seemed to be almost suffocating in its strength and repulsiveness. Besides that, something wet crunched beneath her hooves as she walked further into the room.

Fluttershy began to loudly cough and Dash tensed up.

“Try not to make too much noise.” she hissed through clenched teeth.

“Sorry.” muttered Fluttershy. “I just can’t help it. It smells horrible in here, love.”

“Rarity? Applejack? Anypony?” called out Dash in a voice loud enough to ring through the room.

With a start, the lights flickered on with a dull hum of magic.

Fluttershy let out a small scream and ran for the door while Dash tried to suppress her gag reflex at the sight that greeted the two.

It was the scene of a massacre.

Dead soldiers lay in heaps across the room and a mixture of blood and bones ripped from bodies caked the floor. Rifles lay torn into pieces and the walls were missing large chunks, as if something was thrown through them with great strength. Their jaws had been torn from their skulls and their intestines hung out of their bellies, the bones of their limbs shattered into pieces by some great, evil force.

Still, despite the horrors of their injuries, the soldiers still showed signs of life.

The soldiers began to clamber from the floor and let out pained moans and shrieks as purple light filled up the room.

Fluttershy turned away from the door and scampered ahead of Dash to the nearest soldier.

“Are you okay? What in the world happened here-” started Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy, get BACK!” screamed Dash.

Dash felt a terrifying pain rip through her shoulder and fell to the ground.

One of the soldiers had pushed Fluttershy into the wall and was battering her with its hooves. She tried to push him off of her, but her strength wasn’t enough to counter the soldier’s aggression.

Dash looked up from her haze of pain and fruitlessly shrieked. “What the hell is wrong with you, let her go!”

Dash tried to clamber to her hooves, only to be knocked back down on her flanks. She gasped in pain and then summoned the strength for more words. “Fluttershy, remember I feel your-”

Fluttershy was shoved against the wall with her eyes shut as more decaying soldiers shuffled towards her. She let out a scream and began to shove them off of her. Three of them fell on their backs and tripped up the approaching soldiers, giving her time to rush over to Dash.

“They’re zombies.” she said breathlessly.

“Yeah, I figured that much.” sputtered Dash. “We just need to get the hell off this ship-”

“Oh no.” whispered Fluttershy.

Dash looked cautiously to the door, which served as their only means of escape from the hellish chamber. More zombies drawn from other areas of the ship had filled the doorway and advanced towards the pair.

Dash clambered on her hooves with Fluttershy’s help.

She turned towards her. “No matter what happens from here, we’re in this together.”

Fluttershy nodded and sucked in a quick breath of air. “I love you.”

Dash took a moment to kiss her lover and then rocketed towards the first zombie. Her hooves smashed through rotten flesh and cracked the bone beneath, but it failed to stop the advance of the undead soldier. She finally bucked its head with all of her strength and it ceased to move in an instant. Her breaths came quicker as she tried to fight the mass of zombies pouring into the room, but she quickly realized the vanity of her efforts.

She felt occasional flares of pain through various parts of her body and heard Fluttershy’s shrieks and sobs as the zombies battered Dash.

After what felt like an eternity of fighting against a tornado, both of the ponies were on the floor. The zombies swarmed over them and began to batter them with their hooves. Both of the ponies writhed in pain, yet still tried to resist their attackers with what little strength they still had left.

Dash felt her vision fading into blackness and then the pain stopped.

The room briefly filled with undead roars of rage and then all was quiet.

She opened her eyes to face a ceiling spattered with blood.

“Fluttershy, are you okay?” said Dash, addressing her most immediate concern.

“Yes.” said a breathless, terrified Fluttershy in response.

Dash let herself observe the room after checking herself for any life-threatening injuries.

The zombies had been shredded into pieces. Their bodies had been cut in half by some mysterious force and most of them were headless. The few zombies that still kept their heads writhed uselessly with no limbs on the floor of the room. Dash noted with a note of relief that the doorway was clear, except for a figure that stood shrouded in the shadows of the night outside.

“Who are you? Another zombie?” called out Dash.

The figure advanced closer and Dash could see the faint outline of a horn and a pair of extended wings.

“The alicorn who saved your useless ass. And don’t you forget it.” called out the figure.

“Hey, we’re not useless! We totally had that!” retorted a pissed-off Dash.

“Yeah, whatever, miss element-of-harmony. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to war like a real goddamn soldier, you fairy-princess little shit.” snided the alicorn, who had stepped back into the darkness.

Despite her anger, Dash took a genuine second of contemplation to consider the figure speaking to her. It was far too gruff to be one of the Princesses, for sure. However, the tone of the voice had an undeniably feminine element, ruling out the possibility it was a male alicorn. Dash concluded that this was a pony she had never met before and her curiosity was piqued.

Still, her honor had been insulted and she responded as she felt fit.

“I’m gonna kick your ass!” roared a now-furious Dash.

“Oh no, I think I just pissed myself.” retorted the mysterious pony.

Then, before Dash could make good on her promise, the mysterious alicorn shot into the sky.