Survival is Magic

Twlight Sparkle awoke with a massive headache. She groaned before lazily getting her hooves out of bed. Yawning, she made it downstairs before lodging herself at the breakfast table. Noticing how dark it was inside, Twilight glanced at her pristine window.

"Hey Spike. Are you up yet?" Twilight yelled. Twilight heard the sound of groaning and the shuffling of blankets, followed by a yawn afterwards.

"I am now. What is it?" The purple dragon asked, coming downstairs.

"Did the weather team predict clouds? I'm pretty sure that Rainbow Dash had said that it was supposed to be sunny all month." Twilight waited for an answer while she picked out a bag of coffee beans from a pantry drawer.

"I don't know...I mean, the last time we got weather like this was when Cloudsdale needed the water supply. Has it become early this year?" Spike questioned.

Twilight sighed as Spike was unable to have a direct answer. She lifted the bag of coffee beans with her magic and placed it on the breakfast table. "Well, I'm sure Rainbow is going to fly in here any moment to get our help. Let me just lift this headache I got with a cup of coffee. What do you want to eat?" Twilight opened the bag and placed a fair amount of beans inside.

"Did we wake up late?" Spike asked Twilight.

"Huh?"

Spike looked out of the window, and gazed at the street of Ponyville. "It seems empty. It's always busy in the mornings, right?"

Twilight looked at the kitchen clock. She gazed at it for a while before coming to a conclusion. The power's out? thought Twilight. She tried to operate the microwave. It didn't respond.

"Hey Spike. What time did I get back last night?"

"Late. I came in before you and slept. I wasn't sure what time you came home."

"That's weird. I don't remember a thing about what happened yesterday. Did you see me at all?" Twilight asked nervously.

"That's not like you, Twilight. You just don't go off and forget things. Come to think of it, I only saw you in the morning. You said that Princess Celestia needed you for something."

Twilight tried to remember. Visiting the Princess? What did she need? Is she okay?" Is this another one of your tricks again, Spike?" Twilight asked with a eyebrow raised.

"I'm being honest, Twilight. I'm as confused as you are."

"Take a letter, Spike. Explain to her about the power outage. Let her know we're coming to see her." Spike grabbed a nearby quill as well as a scroll and began to scribble out Twilight's request. When he was done, he rolled up the scroll and tried to blow a burst of flame on it so he could send it. Spike did not blow out any flames.

Questioning himself, Spike shrugged. "I'm sorry, Twilight. This doesn't usually happen..."

"FIne.Let's see if we can get a chariot to Canterlot. The Princess might know what's going on."

Twilight opened the front door and walked outside to the street of Ponyville, with Spike following her. "You're right. This place is completely empty. Seems like it isn't time to supply Cloudsdale. Where is everpony?"

The sky was filled with streaks of gray and white. Twilight and Spike had now been walking in the street for minutes and did not see any signs of answers. This truly had puzzled Twilight. "If everypony was leaving, shouldn't they at least have told me?" Twilight thought to herself.

The two soon heard sounds of hooves making a way towards them. A speck in the distance of the street was spotted. It looked like a pony. The pony made her way towards the two, while Twilight understood who it was with a sigh of relief.

"Fluttershy, what is goin-" Twilight was interrupted with a tight hug from Fluttershy.

"Oh...thank goodness you're safe." Fluttershy said with a relief.

"Fluttershy, where is everypony? What's going on? We've got a power outage in our house." Twilight asked her, desperate for an answer.

"You mean you don't know? Where have you guys been? We've got to get out of here, please!" Fluttershy begged Twilight.

Twilight had never seen Fluttershy act this distressed.

"Calm down. Please Fluttershy, tell me. What's going on?"

"There are these...monsters around Ponyville! I..tried as best as I could to lead everyone else out of town and fine a safe place, but..."

Twilight retorted. "Fluttershy, I don't see anything. Princess Celestia would have warned me if something was going to happen. What kind of..." Twilight's sentence was stopped as a low-pitch groan came out of the side a house nearby. The figure showed itself. It was a pony, looking as if she was rotten and mutilated. There were dark holes for her eyes. Her walking was distorted, almost as if she was in a trance. And she had kept her mouth open, heading straight for the three of them.

Fluttershy let out a small squeal and tried to hide herself behind Twilight and Spike. "That's one of the monsters I was talking about... I think we were too loud. It must have heard us. Let's get out of here! I know a..."

Twilight had not listened to Fluttershy. She started to walk calmly up to the pony. "Hi, excuse me. You look as if you're sick. Come with us. I think we can..." The pony seemed to take no effect on Twilight's words. She was started to drool and let out a moan. Twilight asked cautiously, "Don't you understand me? Do you..." Twilight's sentence was again interrupted with the sound of a gunshot. The bullet went through the pony head, killing it, and letting out a stream of blood that covered Twilight's mane. As the pony's body hit the ground, Twilight was still processing what just happened.

Applejack let out a sigh of relief from the side of the nearby house, putting her rifle in a satchel that was lodged on her back. "Thank goodness, Twilight. Ah'm glad you and Spike are alright. Let's hurry up and get out of here. I shouldn't have shot that gun. They heard the noise." Applejack walked up to Twilight. "How...how could you, Applejack? You just murdered...I...who was..." Twilight had seemed to be at a loss of words.