Problems of a Dead World

Part One

Chapter 1: Welcome

Dealing With an Infection

A thought. A single thought was all it took to get Earl's mind racing. How was home? Were there any survivors? Have the zombies died out yet?

Day after day, the questions plagued Earl's mind, grasping tightly around his every thought or idea. He had to get back, he had to know for sure that he had done everything possible to help his home planet.

"E-Earl?" Twilight said, her voice tired and slightly choked.

The grey unicorn quickly spun away, the small flame from a nearby candle lighting his face and some of the main room of Twilight's library. He looked at her for a moment. She was the one, the one who had saved him from the fire's of the apocalypse. He had grown to appreciate her beauty, seeing as he was one of their species now. The former human swallowed nervously and sighed.

"Yeah... It's me." He said, slightly disgraced at his insomnia.

"It's late... w-what are you doing up?" She said, her voice softened by her tiredness.

Earl turned back to the candle and watched as the flame danced playfully atop the wick.

"Just... thinking, again." He said, his voice growing more shameful by the second.

He didn't know why these thoughts were controlling him, for the first four years in this land, he had been completely free of the thoughts of his home world. But over time, the questions came, along with insomnia, and slight depression. Twilight bowed her head as a ray of sadness came over her. She slowly made her way over to Earl and sat down on the floor next to him.

"Is it...?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Earl nodded sharply and bowed his head. Twilight aimed her head to the floor. Although the routine of constantly consoling him was becoming more frequent, it still wore on her every time to see him in this state. See his sustained suffering of an infection that haunted them so long ago. But now it was back. The purple unicorn softly leaned into his shoulder, causing him to recoil slightly and glance towards her. A small, but genuine smile broke from Earl's lips, and he swung his foreleg over her shoulder, accepting her consolation as the two stared at the dancing flame.

"I know I shouldn't let it bother me..." Earl said, his eyes held shut tightly.

Twilight simply dug more into his chest, causing his heart to flutter as it always did when close to her.

"I just need to know," He said, unknowingly increasing his grip around the mare he loved. "Know what happened, if I could... help."

"I know... that's just who you are." Twilight said softly.

Her words caused Earl to show another smile and stifle a chuckle.

"I just... I feel like I failed." Earl replied, his tone as shameful as it could possibly be.

Twilight moved around in his grasp until her eyes met his.

"How so?" She asked, slightly confused by his statement.

Earl shook his head again.

"I left. I ran, like a coward."

"But when it followed, you fought-"

"At the loss of everyone's security."

Twilight bowed her head, knowing he was right. None of the townsfolk had ever fully recovered from the gruesome events that happened during the invasion. How one of the denizens of their town had been savagely killed by the beasts of another world.

"Would you ever go back with me?" Earl asked.

Twilight pulled away from his chest and her expression quickly turned to dumbfounded. Earl sighed at her reaction.

"I guess that means a no..." He said, bowing his head yet again.

Twilight frowned for a few moments, then rested her head against his shoulder.

"I'd go anywhere if you asked me." She replied, slightly weary of his response.

The grey unicorn smiled weakly and ran his hoof through Twilight's mane. After another few moments, he glanced down at Twilight, instantly lost in her deep purple eyes. Time and time again, just the sheer sight of her eyes filled Earl with comfort. Without another word, he leaned down and kissed her gently, the candlelight flickering across their faces as they met. After what seemed like an hour to both of them, they pulled away, staring into each others eyes deeply, yet again.

"Thanks..." He said, his voice cleared of shame.

Twilight simply nodded and dug into his chest yet again, nuzzling him deeply. Weariness finally began to wash over the former-human, eliminating the insomnia and leaving him light-headed. His hold on Twilight was the only thing keeping the room from spinning at this point. With a contented sigh, he rested his head a top Twilight's. The mare replied with a barely audible yawn, and wrapped her hooves the rest of the way around him.

"I love you, Twi." He said, his voice slightly choked by the appearance of drowsiness.

"I love you too, Earl." She said, her voice choked as well.

The two slowly drifted off to sleep, the candlelight dancing around the room gracefully.

Problems of a Dead World

Earl opened his eyes as his memory ended, and sighed as he snapped back to reality. He flexed his hands, balling them into fists and then fully extending them for a moment, before repeating the motion. His levitation worked by using said hands, so he had never forgot the feeling of having them. A slight bump in the road brought Earl's thoughts to a stop. After shifting unsteadily, he glanced around the back of the truck. First to Twilight, who was sitting next to him, her facial expression displaying sheer terror. It just then dawned on him how much they resembled their equine forms. The spell had worked better than expected. Her hair almost exactly resembled that of her mane, and shared the same colors as well. Her build was slightly skinny as well, which he had expected. Next to her, was Applejack. She had a similar build, but slightly taller than Twilight, the classic stetson still resting atop her head like always. He then glanced to Big Macintosh and Shining Armor, his brothers in battle, his best friends. Their resemblance was incredibly close as well, their hair closely matched to their manes, and their physique matching also. Mac was tall and burly, yet again causing Earl to be intimidated, like when they had first met. Shining's was average, and his height was slightly shorter than Earl. The soldier guarding them in the back of military truck snarled as he glanced to the driver's window.

"Fucker can't even drive..." The man said under his breath.

Earl frowned and shook his head as thoughts began to swirl through his mine. Quickly shooing them away, he glanced to Twilight once more and noticed her expression had not changed in the slightest. He slowly raised his arm up and rested it on her shoulder, causing her to gasp slightly, and causing the soldier on the other side of the truck to tighten the grip on his rifle. After looking the situation over, the soldier snarled yet again and mumbled another obscenity under his breath. As the guard calmed, Earl scooted closer to Twilight and pulled her in, her head resting on her shoulder.

"Do you know where they're taking us?" She asked, her voice slightly drowned in fear.

"I-I don't know." He replied softly. "But we're all together."

He felt Twilight's head brush against his chest, signalling that she had nodded. The human bowed his head and planted a small peck on her forehead, calming her slightly. Tears nearly welled in his eyes as he felt Twilight's body trembling against his. He shook his head and used everything he could to keep the tears from falling. Morale needed to be kept, and crying was the thing that would break it the easiest.

After a few moments of successfully consoling himself, he glanced over to Shining and Mac, giving them a simple nod as the back of the truck remained quiet. Earl looked around at his surroundings for a moment, taking careful note of the roads that they had been traveling on since leaving his home. He then cringed in fear at the truck following behind them, packed to the brim with soldiers. Armed troops brandishing automatic weapons and camouflaged clothing. He knew there was something off about them, that they had all lost it. It was exactly what he feared when he first thought of the plan to help his home world, a group of savages who had lost all sense of reason and wanted nothing more than to take advantage of other survivors. This wasn't the army anymore, it was a group of lunatics.

* * *

Earl's heart instantly dropped as the complex came into view. A large fenced-off brick building, with sandbags covering most of the grounds, most likely for defense. A sign hanging above the entrance to the complex had drooped slightly, and the words were illegible at this point, giving Earl no information about what this place was. He knew it was official though. The site itself looked like it could defend against an army, and the dried blood and gore splattered across the fields showed that it already had. The truck came to a halt just in front of the gate, and the driver hopped out to open the fence. As the rattling of the fence rang in her ears, Twilight whimpered slightly and tightened her hold around Earl. The human glanced around at his formerly-equine friends, taking in their worried expressions as well. After the gate had been opened, the driver crawled back into his seat and the truck took off once more, slowly approaching the entrance of the complex.

"Alright, c'mon." The soldier said, getting up from his seat in the truck.

The survivors stared at him with blank expressions.

"Well don't all move at once!" He continued, his tone growing angrier.

Earl's expression quickly reflected the growing anger inside of him.

"Oh what's the matter? Don't like when I yell at you?! Get the fuck up, you're makin' me sick!"

Earl scowled and patted Twilight on the shoulder and helped her off of the bench, signalling for his friends to do the same. Shining and Mac replied with a nod and rose from their seats, but Applejack crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance.

"I don't appreciate you speakin' tah me like that." Applejack said, an annoyed tone shining brightly in her voice.

The soldier's eyebrows immediately went down and he raised his rifle into his shoulder, aiming it at her. Twilight's jaw fell slightly as the words exited the soldier's mouth, and Applejack quickly stumbled backwards in her seat.

"Well maybe I don't care what you think, bitch!" He shouted angrily.

The air escaped Earl's lungs as Mac reached his hand to the shoulder of the man and spun him around quickly, balling his fist and showing it to the man.

"Dontchu' ever talk to my sister like that, You hear me?!" Macintosh shouted angrily.

The soldier replied by briskly shoving the end of his gun into Mac's stomach, causing him to stumble and fall out of the truck, and on to the hard pavement below.

"Woah hey, what is this?!" The colonel said, exiting the truck he had been riding in.

The soldier lowered his weapon and jumped out of the truck as Big Mac rolled over, moaning in pain at the growing bruise in his midsection.

"Sorry sir, the prisoners were getting rowdy, I had to calm them down." The soldier said, giving a quick salute.

Colonel Jackson scowled.

"Prisoners? These people are our guests! How dare you cause them any harm whatsoever!" Jackson replied harshly, pulling a pistol from the holster on his leg and keeping it low and at his side.

"But sir, you told us-"

The soldier was swiftly cut off by the gun in Jackson's hand, which fired and sent a bullet right into the oblivious soldier's skull.

Earl, Twilight, AJ, and Shining all jumped back at once, immediately taken back as the soldier fell to the ground, dead. Twilight dug her head into Earl's shoulder and instantly began sobbing hysterically as the rest of the groups held their mouths open in disbelief.

"Oh come now, you can't tell me you honestly enjoyed his company..." The colonel said with a chuckle, pulling out a white rag and wiping his pistol before re-sheathing it.

"Did you really just kill him?!" Shining asked, his voice shrouded in fear.

The colonel looked down at the corpse as a small pool of blood formed around it's head.

"Well I sure didn't commend his actions, did I?" The colonel said, kicking at the midsection of the dead soldier.

"You're fucked up..." Earl said, his voice trembling.

"Ouch... I can honestly say I'm offended Earl, I was trying to help you." Jackson replied, a frown washing over his face. "Lucky for you, I'm forgiving."

The colonel motioned for them to exit the truck with his hand.

"Come now, wouldn't want to wind up like our friend here." He said with a laugh.

Earl shook his head and gently pushed Twilight forward, inching her to the back of the truck. The colonel extended his hand with a warm smile, but Twilight instantly recoiled and cowered against Earl.

"Oh come now, I'm not going to kill such a beautiful lady." He said, a frown coming over his face yet again.

Twilight glanced up to Earl, who sighed quietly and gave a simple nod. Without another word, Twilight worriedly took Jackson's hand, and he guided her off of the truck.

"See, I don't bite..." The colonel said with a sinister smile.

Twilight ignored him and rushed over to Mac as Earl stepped down from the truck. With a quick heave, she helped him off of the ground and back onto his newly acquired feet.

"Thanks Twah'." He said, groaning in pain and wrapping an arm around his stomach.

Shining jumped down next and walked over to his friends. He tapped Twilight on the shoulder gently.

"You OK Twilly?" He asked, trying to make his tone as cheerful as possible.

"I'll be fine..." She said, forcing a smile to him.

"What the hell are we even doin' here?" Mac asked as he glanced to Earl, his voice hushed.

Earl leaned in close to his friends and glanced around them wildly.

"I don't know, but these guys are dangerous, alright? Let's just go with thing's right now, and I'll try to get us out, alright?" He said quietly.

Shining and Twilight nodded, but Mac rolled his eyes.

"You don't think we can take em'?" Macintosh asked.

"You saw what The Colonel did to that guy, just think of what he'll do to us if we try anything." Earl replied.

Shining glanced to Twilight, who was still cowering.

"Let's not think about that." Shining said, motioning in her direction.

Earl glanced to Twilight and nodded, a slight frown coming over his face. Mac glanced to the truck as Applejack neared the end of the platform, the colonel's hand extended to help her. Macintosh shuddered angrily.

"Fine... But if anyone tries something with her, I won't be held responsible for what I'm going to do." Mac said.

After Applejack had nervously taken Jackson's hand and joined the group, Colonel Jackson neared the main entrance of the complex. The man turned around and gracefully threw his hands in the air.

"Welcome, to your new home!" The colonel said with a smile.