Apocalypse

"It's been like this for a while, now..."

Twilight and her friends stood in front of a familiar mirror as the Royal Sisters were on both sides of it, observing from their own angles what the rift was showing them. Twilight, having known this mirror and its properties for a long while, still didn't really understand the factors that went into its power. It was a bridge between two different realities of her home. The natural Equestria she grew up in, where magic and Ponies thrive, and another, where it seems all of that is condensed into a single school for these... 'humans'.

Her adventures in the proclaimed Human World had her discover a whole basket full of new things, especially about an entirely new species to her and to Equestria. Nevertheless, she prevailed the last time she went through this portal, and now, something about it seemed... wrong.

"What happened to it, Cadence?"

The Princess of Love stood off to the side, shaking her head as she pointed to the mirror.

"I'm not quite sure. I know that the last time we mentioned, or even got a look at this thing, it was related to the matter of your crown being stolen, but... it didn't look like THIS."

Cadence's hoof turned to point directly at the glass this time, visions and mere blinks of the world of humans coming and going seconds at a time. Some, if you were able to catch them, were panicked humans roaming near-destroyed streets and neighborhoods. Some depicted an entire city smoking and burning before their aerial vision. The last few, though, showed the most horrifying of the series. Monsters that resembled humans, all with rotting, decaying greyed-out flesh and glowing purple eyes. They chased down humans, attacking them at the end of one image, and turning them to their ranks in the beginning of the next. These images cycled and looped endlessly, and if that wasn't enough to disturb Twilight, it was the fact that the Cutie Map, several days after her little excursion through time chasing Starlight down, sent her here. From the looks of it, it did the same with the other three rulers of the land. All four of their Cutie Marks were glowing, flashing as if they've reached the jackpot with a metal detector.

There was no denying it. The Cutie Map wanted Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence to come here; to spread the magic of friendship, acceptance, experience, and love into another reality of their Kingdom altogether.

But what was WRONG with this place? People are attacking other people. Is there a riot or something happening? A skirmish caused by two nations being at odds?

That didn't matter right now. Everypony is at a loss, and from the look on Celestia's face, even the highest power in the room couldn't make heads or tails of this. Twilight, stepping up beside her, continued to stare into the mirror as she questioned her mentor.

"Celestia, have you seen anything like this before?"

"With the exception of your endeavor into the Human World, as you called it, and Sunset Shimmer's disappearance before you, I'm afraid this level of magic and mystery is out of my hooves."

"Really?"

Celestia looked down at Twilight with a soft look, one that reminisced any memories of the past, to find the good times studying with Starswirl the Bearded as her own mentor and the details about this mirror.

"My old mentor from a thousand years ago had logged this mirror and its behavior."

Rainbow, hovering by the mirror, tapped it on the rim.

"Wait, so... He didn't make this thing? I thought all those egghead books Twilight reads said something about this."

Celestia nodded.

"It does, indeed, proclaim Starswirl as the one to discover this unknown paradox of magic, but it is simply that. He discovered it, not created it."

Cadence walked towards the mirror herself, tilting her head as she eyed the various details of the images.

"But still, this mirror is in the Crystal Empire. Did he send it here before Sombra took over?"

Celestia shook her head.

"Unfortunately, that knowledge is beyond me. I have observed Starswirl attempt to make another mirror. However, the one he made based off this design was able to jump to an alternate version of Equestria itself, rather than a separate reality where different beings thrive."

Luna nodded, tapping her hoof against her chin.

"Indeed. I, too, remember this. It was not a fond memory, seeing yet another evil counterpart of myself before Nightmare Moon. But, thankfully, the tides between those realities and ours were broken when Starswirl destroyed the mirror."

She came around to the front of the mirror after being near its back, eyeing the projected images herself in a lace of discomfort.

"Yet that only begs the question of what we see here, and why this 'Cutie Map' wishes for us to venture to this plain."

Celestia frowned as her mind raced with the possibilities. A monster? An evil dominion like the shadows of King Sombra or the Changelings? Could Tirek have escaped into this separate human dimension of Equestria and warped these ape-like creatures to fight one another? She had hoped it wasn't ANY of these possibilities, and that it was merely a civil war over something trivial and silly such as land, or authority. Shaking her head once more, she turned away from the mirror.

"We will not be able to effectively assess the situation if we are not prepared. Come. Let us move away from this chamber for a moment. Collect our bearings and come back with-"

*SWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOO--!!!*

The solar monarch was cut off as her Cutie Mark, as well as the other three Princesses', started exerting a droning magical presence. In mere milliseconds, faster than even Rainbow Dash could catch, four funnels of wind, each colored to the respective Princess, engulfed their targets. That same wind blew by Celestia, Twilight, Cadence, and Luna, then began to pull them as harshly as it pushed, forcing them to inch ever so closer to the mirror. They grunted and groaned as they fought against the current, but as they were being suddenly dragged along, Twilight opened her eyes, widening them when she found the mirror was acting as a vacuum, no longer showing the images, but instead, a zone of magic that was relatively similar to how she entered the Human World previously. It was obvious what was going on. The Cutie Map's mission, and by extension, the Tree of Harmony, wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. If they weren't going through it, it would pull them in. It was either that, or some force on the other side was dragging them into this world for the unspeakable.

What perplexed everypony was that, while the Princesses were being dragged and skidded towards the mirror, everypony else was completely unaffected, as if there were no gust in the room at all. They saw the wind, however, the blades of each torrent pulling their beloved rulers closer and closer to the glass portal. Shining Armor, who was with Cadence at the time of the discovery of the mission, sprung into action. He wrapped his hooves under Cadence and tried to pull her back, keeping her distanced from the mirror as they both were now being dragged, but at a much slower rate. Twilight's friends aided the other three, pulling them away as best they could in vain. As the group was converging towards the mirror, the group pulling the Princesses back slammed against the glass as the monarchs were sucked in, forced through the worm hole as they desperately attempted to use their wings, magic, and hooves to get themselves back to Equestria.

For them, it felt completely different to Twilight's travels to the Human World. Whereas the worm hole between Equestria and Canterlot High was mildly uncomfortable because of the species change between Pony and Human, this rift was tearing away at them magically, leaving them with their Pony bodies, but stripping them of any and all power they had as soon as they crossed the barrier between the two dimensions. Such pain and forced exertion electrocuted their coats, and frazzled them enough for their bodies to go limp. Celestia and Cadence went out like a light, while Luna was still conscious, flailing and trying to to get to her sister as they approached the light ahead of them. Twilight herself was on the brink of dropping, dipping in and out of consciousness herself as they sunk through the light.

And just as they touched it, everything went black.

Earth. A planet amongst the Milky Way galaxy, one that harbors life of all kind. From the smallest insect to the largest animal to the greenest of grass. Wherever you look, you see many creatures interact, eat, drink, sleep, and roam the beautiful land of this planet's many continents. Among those animals and insects are the most intelligent of the creatures, ones advanced and evolved from a species upon them, now able to speak in various languages, and convert the natural energies of this planet into power for their every whim and need.

These creatures, known as Humans, were the greatest minds and, arguably, the most beautiful of the animals that were birthed upon planet Earth. But beauty does not always come in the consequence of peace. In fact, you don't need beauty to call upon disaster, and with Mankind's hands, they've undone their populations, and rendered the whole planet nearly lifeless.

A world on the verge of breaking apart, the cycle of life perverted and shattered as the dead shamble and attack the living. If you had a pulse, you were free game. All across the world, in the settlements and communities built by Humans, it all came crashing down, and as the rotten cannibals run rampant, somewhere within the western continent, four humans run through the halls of a hotel, standing on the top floor, and sprinting towards the maintenance access to the roof.

"Now, people! Now! Floor everything you have!"

Each one of these humans were dressed differently, and had distinctive features to them that defined them, made it easier to see who was who. The one who barked the order to keep going, a man in a black blazer bloodied by the fluids of both the damned and doomed, turned himself to aim a weapon of mankind's making at the dead humans that chased them through the halls. In his hands was a cannon of sorts, one made to be set off by a trigger. Most common authority in the human populace stored these kinds of weapons in the trunks of their automobile inventions, firing shells of gunpowder instead of large cannonballs. The chassis of the weapon was of a black-tinted steel or metal, and along the side, engraved on the underbarrel, was the signature of the weapon: Mossberg 590, or just known as a Riot Shotgun, used by what the Humans call the Police.

A loud crack of gunpowder echoed through the halls as the shell exploded out the barrel, tearing apart the rotten body of walking dead man. Giving chase to the other three humans, who all held mere hand-cannons in their right hands called Glock 22s, they made their way to the emergency exit up onto the roof, the human furthest to the front firing the hand-cannon at the corpse in front of him before knocking it to the floor with a whip of the hammer-like grip of the weapon. Racing past another, the aforementioned human wit the shotgun blew a hole into the last undead human in their path before climbing up after the others.

As they exited the dark and dampened hallways of the hotel, the meek sunlight was able to give light to their appearances. The first to climb out onto the roof was a young human male, no older than about 19-20 years old. He bore a sophisticated style, a white blazer buttoned over a light-blue dress shirt with white dress pants that have a gradient to blue down the pant legs. Two black dress shoes clipped against the roof as he walked further out the door, his naturally-greyed hair flowing to the side with the calm wind while his amber eyes stared out at the city beyond the hotel, the fruits of his labor in science wasted into ruin by this... calamity of society.

Coming after him was another young male, this one bearing attire that conflicted with the first human's own. He had a dark blue hoodie on, zipped up over a black long-sleeved shirt with black cargo pants on his legs. His boots matched the pants in color and style, fitting it all together in conjunction with his occupation as an Engineer, and his hands were gloved with protective leather that was black lined with blue at the fingers. His raven-black hair stretched to the back of his nape, almost touching his shoulders, but never getting in the way of his eyes too much. He bore a bit of scruff on his face, but was not unkempt. His brown eyes followed the gaze of his fellow survivor, watching as the city burned.

After him came a near-identical man to the Engineer. An elder brother, in fact. He wore a red duster coat over a red-black vest and a black t-shirt on his body, a more simple black jeans on his legs. His feet, unlike his brother, were sneakers, and given their state, were clearly used for running and climbing. This made sense, considering he was a Bounty Hunter. Brushing the dirt and grime off his medium-length fully-fledged beard, the elder sibling stepped up beside his sibling, his brown hair brushed back by gloved hands underneath a black bulldogger hat. His own eyes were emerald green, and didn't seem disturbed by the collapsing city. If anything, he expected to find it all in shambles upon reaching the hotel's roof.

The last human to come out, the one who bore the shotgun, was the second-oldest of the bunch. He wore the aforementioned blazer over a white dress shirt with blue jeans clipped onto his legs via a clamped belt. His black boots were dirtied by the adventure he took to climb up the various floors, and his glasses had a few spots of red on them from the splatter of the dead. His hands were worn and slightly bruised, showing that he had been using the weapon he held long enough for it to cause him harm in the recoil of the blasts. Like the Engineer, his hair was also black, but was kept shorter, and his sharp eyes that looked out at the city before him bore a hazel-blue mix of colors, making them unique in the contrast of the four-man group. With his appearance, and his expertise in all kinds of weapons, it was plain as day to anyone that he was one to make his own gadgets instead of acquiring them. Namely, he was an Inventor.

All four boys, who hadn't breached the age of 21, stared out at the smoke, brimstone, and screams of the once-blooming society they were once apart of.

"Dear god..."

The Scientist looked around, seeing buildings explode and people being pinned by the monsters that roam the streets, eaten bit by bit by their relentless hunger. The Engineer shook his head as he placed his hand on the edge of the hotel's roof.

"Fucking hell, this is sweeping through the city like wildfire. How did it get this bad so quickly?"

No one had an answer, for who can explain how the dead came back to life with a ceaseless hunger for Human flesh? At this point, did it even matter? The science behind it isn't what counted. It was the fact that everything fell within hours of the initial outbreak in the city of San Francisco.

"How could everything go so wrong...?"

The Engineer's second question was cut short of an answer as a gunshot shook him, the Inventor, and the Scientist. The Bounty Hunter had fired his weapon at one of the dead sneaking up on them, popping his brains out the back of his head and dropping his body to the ground.

"There'll be time to answer those kinds of questions later."

He peeked over the edge of the roof as the other men trained their weapons on the dead that were either climbing up onto the roof via scaling the building, or roaming out of maintenance storage rooms set up on the roof. As they began killing more of the already-dead humans that charged with a stagger towards them, the Inventor grimaced at their increasingly peril situation.

"I don't like this...!"

The Bounty Hunter scoffed as he reeled back his fist, punching off another undead beast wearing a human face from climbing over the side of the hotel behind them.

"Hey, we got the high ground. We've got an advantage against them."

The Inventor rose an eyebrow as he loaded a shell into the shotgun.

"Really? Cause the rise of numbers flinging themselves over the side of the hotel tells me otherwise."

The four of them backed towards the center of the roof as more and more of the monsters were running towards them, their jaws gnashing and their arms swinging wildly. The Inventor, after reloading a few more shells, began to struggle with taking them out.

"Dammit... This is gonna fucking su-"

*KKKRRRRRZZZTTTT-!!!*

The four boys immediately flinched downwards as a bolt of electricity came down on top of them, barely missing them and zapping a whole row of the undead. As they went back to fighting, more electrical strikes fried the mutant flesh of the monsters, making them drop where they stand whilst a dome of that electrical energy began to bubble in the air. The four of them looked up, eyes narrowed or widened.

"Whaaaaat the hell is that?!"

"Dunno, but it's gonna blow! Take cover!!"

The four ran away, diving for anything to shield them from oncoming blast. Just as the Inventor managed to get behind a metal container attached to the building, a violent pulse of electrical energy shook the roof, and eradicated all other traces of the undead nearby. Keeping himself down for a few moments longer, he perked up upon hearing a... a woman's voice, one laced with concern and fear.

"Sister! Sister, wake up!!"

The Inventor situated the glasses on his face, readjusting it before picking up his shotgun. Loading the rest of the shells into it, he cocked the chamber before standing up, swiftly aiming the weapon forward at the source of the new voice, only to stop and lower the close-quarters rifle the second he witnessed the four alien figures.

The other three boys were now out of their own cover spots, their confusion as blatant and apparent as the Bounty Hunter's as they shared glances. Not one of the four Humans spoke a word, but their shock only flared when the blue alien horse continued to speak in their native tongue.

"Sister, please! Open your eyes! Move your hoof! Do something!!"

She pressed her hoof against the tallest, white-colored horse's barrel, a sigh of relief escaping her fearful tone as her eyes did a double-take when realizing she, her sister, and the other two horses weren't alone. When she locked her gaze with the Inventor, he could only blink in response and open his mouth to slowly utter out.

"What... the fuck...?"