GL1tcH3D: The Cartoon Apocalypse

Chapters

Prologue: FNF x MLP: Funkin is Magic
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
Chapter 1 Alternate path (The BLAZINGMUSIC Remix)
Chapter 2: Catching up
Chapter 3: Reunion
Teaser Chapter: @ F@m1Ly Guy
Chapter 3.30: Through the Portal
Chapter 2.5: The Ex-Boyfriend

Prologue: FNF x MLP: Funkin is Magic

Author's Note

This is another instance where I thank god that pre-readers are a thing. My most recent pre-reader, a user by the name of Max Bet, pointed out a fatal flaw in as far as I know an otherwise perfect execution. This user in particular didn't find many issues with it as a whole, few grammatical errors, captivating, etc. But one of their future comments made me realize a fatal flaw in it. People didn't know what FNF was. I know that seems like a stupid mistake to make. But in my defense, FNF is an internet-wide phenomenon. There are youtubers who make dedicated content for it that have 28 million subscribers. But I guess I underestimated the vastness of the internet. So I decided to make this, a Prologue chapter that'll hopefully make the rest of the story make sense for those of you who have no idea what FNF is.

This chapter explains how bf and gf know and are friends with the Mane Six, and this chapter is heavily influenced by the official MLP mod for the game. This'll hopefully help clear some air since otherwise their friendship won't make sense to some.

This chapter is for all intents and purposes, just the official MLP mod for the game put into story form, except for a few major changes so it would fit the context of my story. I'll link it HERE if you want to look at it. Something I wanna point out is that the pony designs for bf and gf in this one are NOT what I'm using for the story, gf's is fine but bf's is cursed. The pony designs for them come from another mod based on the pinkamena creepypasta, which I'm sure everyone here will know about. I have the images of their designs already in the story so you don't have to go off site, but in case you want to see the mod these designs come from, it'll be linked HERE. Bf and Gf's designs in this one are great, much more natural and are loyal to the MLP artstyle, so they're the ones I'm using for the story.

Mild warning for language/suggestive content BTW, FNF is not a kids franchise in any sense of the word despite the impressions it may give most people. I went out of my way to make that very clear in this chapter so there's no confusion.

Without further ado, enjoy.

Prologue: FNF x MLP: Funkin is Magic

Equestria... approx. 1-2 years before the apocalypse...

"OOF!" They cried out, hitting the ground with a hard thud. Bf turned around, facing the portal that they had just been thrown out of.

"WAIT STOP! I SWEAR I WAS ONLY TOUCHING THE HIPS!" Bf yelled at the portal that closed with a pop sound behind them.

"Fuck you, you purple prick." He said, throwing the bird to the now empty space.

"Watch your mouth, that's my dad you're talking about," Gf replied, shooting him a death glare.

"Why can't he just punish me like a normal dad or something, I don't, like kick me out of the house or something." he stated, kicking at the ground.

"Well, he isn't a normal dad by any means."

"Where are we anyway?" Bf asked, looking around where they found themselves.

"Looks like some whacky forest." She replied, looking around. They were in a dark forest, where everything seemed to be either black or green. Looking behind them, they saw a path. One way led towards a colorful town from the look of it, and the other continued to lead into unending blackness.

"Hmm, left or right?" Bf asked.

"Huh, I don't know, Boyfriend. Should we pick the path leading to unending darkness, or the one leading to the end of the damn thing?" She replied, very obviously sarcastic.

"Hmm, this is a tricky one..."

"Just- let's go." She said, going left, Bf followed. They made their way down the path to the end, walking at a brisk pace. Upon exiting the forest, they spotted 2 things. The first was a city, the tallest buildings just visible beyond the horizon. Much closer, however, sat a mare with a blue coat and light-blue mane, eyes transfixed on a book sat in front of her. They continued their walk towards the town on the horizon, simply ignoring the mare until they walked past her.

"GAHH!!" She screamed upon seeing them, before curling into a ball, using her book as an impromptu shield.

"Wha-What are you?!" She yelled at the two, who had been equally startled and frightened by the mare's outburst.

"What do you mean? We're just walking!" GF shouted back, she and BF having retreated a few feet. They stared at each other for a few seconds, both parties afraid to move, fearing what the other would do. Eventually, the tension in the air lifted, and the fear was replaced by the curiosity of the other. The mare slowly picked herself up, before moving closer to the two once she knew there was no threat.

"What are you?" she asked again rhetorically. She circled the two, scanning them up and down while they did the same to her. After a few seconds, she walked away, picking up the book she had been reading in an aura of magic, now quickly flipping through the pages as if searching for something.

"Um... Hi." GF started, breaking the silence that had been looming up until then. "I'm GF, and this is BF." She stated. It seemed to fall on deaf ears, the mare continuing to furiously flip through the pages of her book.

"Aha!" She shouted, startling the two of them "A transformation spell!" She shouted. She laid the book down in front of her, taking another glance at the page she was on. "Trixie needs a favor from the two of you."

"Huh, so that's her name" the two thought to themselves. "Why is she talking in the third person?"

"And that would be?" GF asked Trixie.

"Hold still" she stated, before her horn began to glow, her eyes still transfixed on the book.

"Woah Woah Woah," GF said, moving herself and BF farther away. "What do you want to do to us?"

"Ugh" Trixie huffed "Trixie wants to try a new spell on the two of you. I may not know what you are but that doesn't mean anything."

"Um... No." GF replied, moving herself and BF even farther away.

"Please?!" Trixie replied, galloping up to the two before getting on her knees and putting her forehooves up in a begging motion.

"Why?!"

"Because" Trixie started, getting back up, "Trixie needs the practice to defeat her arch nemesis, Twilight Sparkle!" She shouted, standing up on her hind hooves for dramatic effect.

The two paused for a moment, having no idea what this "Trixie" was talking about. Seeing their conflict, Trixie walked back up to them.

"Please, Trixie promises you'll be fine." She said, giving the two a look similar to puppy-dog eyes. GF looked over her shoulder at BF, searching for his approval. He shrugged his shoulders, in a motion that said "I guess?"

"sigh, fine." GF replied.

"Yay!" Trixie shouted, running over and grabbing her book. Her horn began to glow, her eyes on the pages of the book. "Now, hold still, this won't hurt a bit, I think."

"Wait, WHAT!" GF shouted, but it was too late, the two were consumed by an aura of magic, before losing consciousness.

When they woke up it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. The two were laying on their backs, the sun beaming down on them.

"Huzzah! It worked!" They heard Trixie shout, followed by her doing a happy dance in front of them. "Sparkle won't stand a chance when I return!" They still had no idea what she was going on about but went with it. GF tried to stand up but quickly fell flat on her face. A similar thump from behind her indicated that BF was having the same problem.

"Huh?" She asked out loud. Looking down, she found that her hands, or anything else human for that matter, were no longer there. The realization hit her like a truck. She did a double and then a triple take, realizing how similar she and BF's bodies were to Trixie's now.

^^^ (GF's pony design) (Her cutie mark is a speaker)

"Wha-what did you do to us?!" She asked.

"What, you consented to it," Trixie replied, stopping her happy dance. GF was miffed, but at the same time they did consent to it. She attempted to get up again, falling flat again.

"Oop, here, I'll help," Trixie said, reaching a forehoof toward her. She helped GF find her bearings on all fours, before helping BF do the same.

^^^ (BF's pony design)

"This feels weird," GF stated. She tried to take a step forward, only to fall again. BF was in a similar predicament, each of his legs shaking like they'd give out from under him.

Trixie tapped a hoof to her chin. "Perhaps this will be more difficult than Trixie thought..."

Over the next few hours, Trixie attempted to teach the two how to do the basics, mainly walking as that seemed to be their weakest point, the two have used two feet their entire lives until now.

"No, you're doing it wrong"

"No, that's not it either"

sighs "No, that's not- just watch me."

There was a lot of back and forth between them as Trixie attempted to teach them how to use their new bodies, and it was much more difficult than Trixie first thought. Eventually, though, they got there, and the two were ready to continue their journey toward the city they had seen over the horizon before meeting Trixie. The two started ~~walking~~ trotting off, but before they got too far GF turned around to say something to Trixie.

"Hey, Trixie! Why don't you come with us?" Trixie paused for a moment to find the right words to explain her current predicament.

"Sorry, but Trixie can't" she started, starting to sweat "Trixie has to finish her book! Yeah..."

BF and GF exchanged confused looks before GF replied. "Okay, Trixie! Thank you! You're a good friend!"

Her last sentence made Trixie freeze, unable to reply to a statement like that. "How could they want to be friends with Trixie after what she did?" She thought to herself. She turned to reply but found that the two had already started towards Ponyville. She sat, both confused and happy at the thought of the two wanting to be her friends. She shook her head, she had a nemesis to beat, after all, and she couldn't let friendship get in her way of taking vengeance on Sparkle...

"There seems to be an abundance of colorful quadrupeds," Bf stated. They had now reached the city that they had seen in the distance when they got here. And indeed there was, in fact, an abundance of quadrupeds similar to the one they'd met earlier.

They looked around for a few seconds, taking in the colorful cityscape that surrounded them.

"Hey! You must be new here! I'm Twilight Sparkle!" They were pulled from their look around by a voice behind them. Turning around they saw another mare with a similar build to the one they earlier, except this one was completely purple, a few different shades, sure, but all purple. She also had a cutie mark of a purple star, smaller white stars surrounding it.

"Hmm, so this is the Twilight that Trixie talked about" GF thought, "Wonder what the beef there is about." GF was about to open her mouth to introduce themselves to, apparently, Trixies arch nemesis, when they were interrupted by yet another voice.

"OH, MY-

BRAND!

NEW !!

FACES!!! You know what that means!"

Said voice was loud enough that it felt like their eardrums would burst, Twilight, on the other hand barely flinched. The one this voice belonged to was all pink, with a cutie mark of 3 balloons.

"Uh... No?" GF replied.

"A welcome to Ponyville song!" With this sentence BF perked up, the thought of being able to show off to some new faces a very enticing offer.

OST: Smile! (BF vs. Pinkie Pie)

Being able to perform in front of a new crowd gave BF a euphoric feeling, despite how strange this place seemed compared to everywhere else they'd been. To his surprise, Pinkie had no troubles keeping up with him, a small crowd starting to gather as they were doing this in the middle of the road. Part of him wanted to stop going easy and just mop the floor with her, but he decided against it as this was just a friendly battle, he didn't get many of those. 90% of the time there was always something big at stake, so it was nice to just unwind and have fun.

2 minutes later...

"Golly! Who knew your boop beeps could sound so BANGIN!" Pinkie exclaimed. "But that was just the beginning. Everypony here has had a welcome to Ponyville party! And now it's your turn!"

OST: Fun! (BF vs. Pinkie Pie)

Another 2 minutes later

"Ooh boy! That was a doozy!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Wanna have that 'welcome to ponyville' party now?"

BF looked behind himself to see if GF wanted to, or if she just wanted to go home. One quick look told him she wanted to stay, a huge smile on her face as if she couldn't wait. BF turned back towards Pinkie, giving her a head nod to say "yes."

"Oooooo yay!" She exclaimed. "Stay here, I have to get it ready!" She ran off, where? Neither of the two knew, and after a few seconds it became a bit awkward. The two just stood there, not really knowing what to do. They were about to walk off, presumably to find Pinkie. But before they could, a massive gust of wind him them, accompanied by what could only be described as a rainbow blur. Said gust of wind blew BFs hat away, as well as nearly making the two fall over. Many of the others standing around also felt the shockwave, but BF got it the worst.

His head swam for a few seconds as he tried to get his balance back, before looking for what had caused such a shockwave. In front of him stood another mare, this one blue, with a rainbow-colored mane and tail, a cutie mark of a rainbow lightning bolt emblazoned on her side.

"Rainbow, what are you doing?" Twilight asked from a few meters away. Now he had a name, this one was called "Rainbow."

"What? Did you really think I'd let Pinkie have all the fun?" Twilight responded with an eye-roll.

"So" BF was brought back to reality as Rainbow talked to him, "You ready for a real challenge?" Immediately he knew what was about to happen, and gave his new opponent a smug grin to say "You're on." His opponent returned his look with one of her own, bracing herself as if she was about to race.

OST: (name doesn’t make sense) by Tridashie

“UGH!” Rainbow shouted after they were done. This took BF back a bit, and he showed that, taking a few steps back. Rainbow noticed this and quickly shook her head. This was the first time he’d seen someone get mad here.

“Sorry.” She stated, sort of shrinking a bit, before her look of determination returned. “One more time, and this time, no going easy!”

OST: Rainbow Tylenol by Tridashie (BF vs. Rainbow Dash)

To her credit, his opponent wasn't joking about being more of a challenge. He wasn't expecting a skill level like this from beings he'd only just met. He wasn't complaining though, he loved a challenge as much as his opponent apparently did.

"Ha! That was pretty good!" Rainbow exclaimed, him answering with a flip of his mic in the aura it floated in. Despite the fact he'd beaten her, she seemed to take it in stride. There seemed to be a trend of the locals here being overly friendly. This was a very nice break for him, friendly faces back home were kinda hard to come by. He was too used to the idea of anyone he battled becoming overly angry. If he had to guess, probably about 40% or more of his battles resulted in opponents being angry to the point they would just straight up try to kill him. Perhaps this world wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought.

"So, what's your name?" Rainbow asked, once again shaking BF from his thoughts. He wasn't quite sure how to answer that. Of course he could just tell her his name, but he'd never been much of a talker. Luckily, GF answered for him.

"Oh! I'm Girlfriend, and this is my Boyfriend, Boyfriend!"

"Huh? Those are some odd names." Rainbow replied. "How about I just call you BF and GF?"

BF shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay then" Twilight interrupted, "I'm sure you two have had fun doing this, but I'm sure you want to have a look around here. You've already met me, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. How about I introduce you to the rest of my friends?"

"Okay!" GF said, "I can't wait to see more of this place!" BF couldn't help but notice how gung-ho GF was about this place. Yeah, he liked it too, but he'd rarely ever seen her this happy before coming here. He was never one to stop her from being happy, so he was more than fine tailing GF as she followed Twilight, picking up his hat on the way out.

They trotted through the town, Twilight and GF carrying a conversation, presumably Twilight telling her all about the place. He didn't pay them much attention, preferring to look around himself. This place was wild, but not too far off from what his was like, in his everything from regular guys like him to demons like GF existed, so there wasn't much that surprised him, though he did note just how upbeat everything was. He had yet to find anyone in a bad mood.

"And this is where my friend Fluttershy lives!" Twilight said, again pulling BF from his thoughts. Looking around, he realized that in his daze he hadn't kept track of how far they'd gone. Now they stood in front of a large tree-looking house in a more wooded area. To his surprise Twilight didn't bother knocking or anything like that, she just waltzed in, apparently security wasn't an issue here either.

The first thing he noticed was the sheer amount of animals living inside. It was like a zoo, his eyes went wide the more he watched all of them scuttling around, a bunny going under he and GF.

"Fluttershy? It's me Twilight!" Twilight called into the seemingly empty home, save for all the animals. After a few seconds, a butter colored mare with a pink mane and tail stepped out, a cutie mark of 3 butterflies adorned on her flank.

"Hello." Fluttershy replied in a weak tone. "Guess that's why she has "shy" in her name" BF thought.

"Are they new?" She asked Twilight.

"Yes they are, in fact they haven't even been here a few hours." She said, looking over at the two. "BF over here doesn't talk much, his Girlfriend on the other hand..." She said, looking at GF with a playful smile.

"Hey!" GF said, waving a hoof in the air.

"What kind of cutie mark is that?" Fluttershy asked. Honestly BF hadn't given that much thought before she asked, but looking behind himself he saw a mic emblazoned on him. How fitting.

"BF here sings! It's very unconventional I must admit but I like it." Twilight said. Just then a thought flashed through his mind, and without much thought his levitated his mic out of the satchel on his side before walking closer to Fluttershy, making a gesture to indicate he was challenging her.

"Oh no, I don't sing very good..." Fluttershy responded, backing away from him a little.

"Don't be scared Fluttershy, he means no harm, besides, Pinkie and Rainbow have already done it."

Fluttershy eyed BF for a few seconds before gulping. "O-Okay."

"Yay!" GF cheering, lifting a hoof in the air.

OST: Dr Fluttershy by Tridashie (BF vs. Fluttershy)

At first Fluttershy was very cautious about it, BF had never seen someone be this nervous with him, even though he genuinely meant no harm and just wanted to have fun. After a little bit though, the beat seemed to get to her, and she started to unravel from the bind she'd put herself in. The two went at it, briefly forgetting that Twilight and GF were watching, just living in the moment.

"Yay! See, that wasn't so bad was it?" Twilight asked after it was over.

"No. I suppose it wasn't." Fluttershy replied, before turning to BF. "Thank you, that was fun." She smiled, BF returning the gesture.

"Now that that's done, do you wanna come with us to the party Pinkie is throwing for these two?" Twilight asked.

"Yes." She replied.

The now group of 4 made their way back through town, stopping at a place BF had been told was called Sugar Cube Corner. Inside there was a medium large gathering of ponies, all of whom turned to look at the 4 as they entered. BF did not like the sudden attention, and began to back away, only to be pulled back in by a familiar pink hoof.

"Where are you going, silly?" Pinkie asked, "The parties this way!" She dragged him back in, his face becoming one of annoyance.

Once inside he was very rapidly introduced to everyone there, the sheer speed at which Pinkie introduced them he wondered if was actually faster than he could sing. “This is Applejack!” She stated.

“Howdy.” The mare said, this one was orange with a yellow mane and tail, a mark of three apples present on her side, a cowboy-style hat on her head. “Hmm, a country type.” he thought to himself.

“This is Rarity!”

“Hello darling.” This one was white, probably the whitest one he’d yet seen. She seemed to really take care of herself, her mane and tail were done up very well, and he couldn’t spot a single imperfection oh her despite her white coat. On her flank sat three diamonds, all shimmering. Well, now he knew who to ask for fashion advice.

Those were the only ones he could keep up with before Pinkie started going too fast. He attempted to gesture that to her but to no avail. At one point he wondered if she could talk faster than he could rap!

Before he knew it he’d been rapidly introduced to at least a few dozen more ponies, and was quickly grabbed by a hoof and dragged over to a bar.

"So, what do you wanna order? It's on me!" Pinkie said, in response, BF once again levitated his mic between the two, gesturing with it to Pinkie.

"Again? You can't get enough can you?" Pinkie said followed by a laugh. "Okay, one last one, an encore!" She shouted, grabbing the attention of everyone there.

OST: Eye Candy by Tridashie (Pinkie Pie vs BF)

The two went for one last round, the one who he had been told was named Apple Bloom sitting on the barstool between them. The crowd watched and vibed with the two as they went. BF had to admit, he was having a lot of fun here, new faces, aka opponents, a friendly vibe and welcoming atmosphere. As nice as this place had turned out to be, he was still looking forward to going home. This place almost seemed too perfect.

Eventually he had lost track of time, and before he knew it it was almost night. He didn’t really do much, now GF on the other hand... he’d never seen her have so much fun. He hated to ruin it but he was really looking forward to going home. He went inside, whispering that into her ear. She deflated a bit but understood, telling everyone there that they had to leave.

“Aww, you’re leaving already!” Pinkie lamented.

“Sorry, but we do need to leave, I don’t want my parents getting worried.”

“Okayyy...” Pinkie again lamented. “We’d love to see you again soon!”

After some goodbyes, where some, especially Pinkie, were sadder than others, they quickly departed, heading towards the outskirts of town to leave.

Once they were there, GF made a small portal for them to go through, and one after the other they walked in, greeted by a familiar cityscape upon exiting.

“I don’t know about you, but I need a nap.” BF said.

GF chuckled, “let’s go home.”

“Yeah, yeah I’d like that.” The two held hands, before heading off towards home.

a few days later...

“SPARKLE!” Trixie bellowed, attracting the attention of said mare. Across her neck laid a strange amulet...

The end...

Right?

R16HT?!

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

Author's Note

(DISCLAIMER: This chapter has no MLP characters.) Quick Rundown: This chapter takes place in the FNF universe, which is a popular rhythm game originating from Newgrounds, and it is where the characters and OCs come from. That's the very cut-down version for anyone whos familiar with the fandom already.

Also, even if you don't know FNF at all, these songs are bangers and nobody can convince me otherwise

Something I found the day of writing this was that some of the tracks I'm using here have remixes, so I'll be including them here as well, as sort of a "choose your own path" thing, allowing you to freely choose which one you want to experience while reading. On another note, I suggest you have a separate window open for the tracks because listening to them and then coming back to the story defeats the purpose. What I want is for you to have a separate window and read-along, that way you get the full experience. The goal, essentially, is for this to be an interactive story, like those choose your own adventure books and movies.

Boyfriend, or Bf as I'll call him, has the ability to solve his problems using singing, much like the Mane Six use the elements, being from the Friday Night Funkin Universe. Think of it the same way as you see how the Mane Seven defeated the Sirens in rainbow rocks, it's largely the same concept. Though because BF is from another dimension his and others from his dimensions style is very different. This is BF's power, just like how each of the Mane six has something special about them. He is able to wield this power at any time, against any opponent, including corrupted, and can use it both as a friendly gesture or as a way of combat, utilizing other influences such as firearms. This remains his preferred way of combat throughout the story.

All of these songs are easily available on Youtube, I even took the liberty of linking it in the story once I found out that was a thing to make it easier. this music is here for two reasons. 1: To add depth and tension to action scenes. 2: To showcase bf's powers, being from FNF. In essence, it is to immerse the reader in scenes even further.

In the time since I first thought of this, I've come up with full lore that I believe makes sense despite being a combination of lores from multiple franchises. I took the liberty of writing some admittedly very long blog posts that explain absolutely everything for anyone who knows absolutely nothing of the OCs and characters used here. Said blog post for this chapter is HERE. But if you want any quick answers if said blogs are TLDR then I'm easy to reach.

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

Part 1: Gun5l1Nger

“How many episodes are left in this?” Boyfriend asks, exasperated.

“Only a few more, hold on,” his girlfriend replies.

“That’s easy for you to say, you aren’t as tired as I am,” he replies slowly, his voice dragged out from exhaustion. Looking down, he saw his shirt stained from falling asleep with a bowl of extra-buttery popcorn. Across the room, he saw his infamous red-and-blue hat resting on the countertop. His cyan hair also hung in front of his face, not his best look…

For now, it was just a normal weekend for the two. They had recently come up with the idea of watching each other’s favorite shows for nostalgia and to kill time. They had fun at first, though after 3 continuous hours BF started to get bored from sitting in one spot for so long. It was nearly 1 A.M.

And he just wanted to sleep.

GF, however, was insistent to continue binge watching, he’d always wondered how she was able to go so long without sleep, maybe it was because she was a demon, he didn’t know, and frankly he was too tired to care.

They were an odd couple in every sense of the word, her being a demon and he just an everyday guy, besides his almost supernatural singing abilities. Despite their differences, they still loved each other all the same, and to the untrained eye that’s exactly what they’d look like, an everyday teenage couple. If only people knew the kinds of adventures they went on almost 24/7, this night in particular being one of their first free nights in a long while.

Eventually, he drifted off and didn’t wake up until damn near lunchtime the next day. He had never been a morning person, and their late hour the night before only intensified his morning suffering.

Getting up, he found himself alone in bed, in a sleeping position that looked like an X. “Shit, I missed breakfast”, he thinks to himself. “Hopefully GF has already made breakfast. I’ve always loved the waffles she makes, even if they’re Eggos she buys at the store.” He chuckled to himself before rolling out of bed, hitting the floor with a small thud.

He melancholically dragged his feet across the pink rugs of the dining room. He felt the cold stabbing polyester scrub against his left foot whilst feeling numbness in his right. Looking down, he confirmed he only had one slipper on. Mornings after nights with no sleep reminded him of the nights he’d wake up with hangovers, though not quite as bad.

He tucked half of his shirt in and scrubbed his eyes of gunk and popcorn, before using his hands to do a lackluster job of fixing his messy hair.

When his eyesight rose, he saw his GF daintily standing over the kitchen sink, washing plates as a square piece of charcoal popped out of the toaster behind her. She stared with an unblinking sight through the window and failed to notice BF entering the kitchen.

He shrugged, unsure of what had caught her eye so strongly. She had assured him he was tall enough to see through her peripheral vision

“Are you okay?” he asks

“AAH! Oh, I wasn’t expecting you. I thought you were still asleep.” She replies, visibly startled, her back now against the wall.

“How long have you been up?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

She looked back at him, giving a wide eyed stare as if he had just grown 3 heads. She paused for a moment before replying.

“Come look at this.” She said, waving him over.

With a sigh, he made his way over, his feet dragging as if they were made of stone. What could possibly be so important out there that she stopped making breakfast?

Reaching the window he looked outside, though due to his short frame he couldn’t see much. Blowing some of his cyan hair out of the way, he looked out.

Outside of the window, and everywhere else for that matter, was a strange black substance with a staticy overtone, akin to a bad over the air TV signal, as if it was tearing voids into the landscape.

He watched as parts of it seemed to move aimlessly, no particular goal in mind.

“What is that?” He asks, confused.

“I... don’t know. I know as much as you do.”

“We should go see what it is.”

The two mulled over their options.

First, they could stay inside and do nothing. (For some reason…)

Second, they could try and call their friends, as another thing BF noticed was that there was no one around. This was especially strange because it was a Friday, and the streets should have been alive with foot traffic and car engines. It was something they had gotten used to since it was almost 24/7, and they couldn’t imagine anyone not from there to not be kept awake by the constant roar of car engines.

Third, they could head out and search for themselves. With how desolate everything was he doubted if there was any cell service.

Eventually he settled on the third option, as after he checked there was, in fact, no cell service. This again worried him, they lived in one of very few cities with total 5G coverage, which had allowed for the ungodly amount of streaming they’d done the night before. Staying in one place wasn’t going to help them either, only intensify their worry for their loved ones.

“Okay, let’s go.” GF decides

Upon stepping outside of the doorway of their apartment complex, they were greeted with much more of the black substance from earlier, and the substance below their feet moved in a way similar to starfish, some of the liquid forming tendrils feeling around the environment, creating voids of bad signals.

“What the hell is that?!” BF cried out in surprise, stepping out of the way as one of the tendrils attempted to grab him.

“I’m not sure,” She pauses, “let’s go see where that noise is coming from, I don’t see anyone around.” She said, putting her hand above her eyes to shield from the noon sun. “So maybe something happened overnight.”

BF was about to respond, but before he could more of the black tendrils appeared, this time much more intent on grabbing him. He simply stepped out of the way of the first few, but they just kept coming! Before he could really register it at least a dozen tendrils were on him.

"RUN!" He shouted. He grabbed GF's hand, taking them off into a sprint.

Everywhere they went it seemed to be the same, barren, everything from cars to entire buildings abandoned, as if everyone had just spontaneously disappeared. They couldn’t even find anything as small as a mouse, let alone a person.

Eventually, they lost the black tendrils that had tried so hard to grab them, the mazes of winding streets and alleyways between buildings working in their favor.

Nothing about their situation made sense, and they both hoped that somebody knew what had happened. Turning a corner, they finally spotted a familiar face, or back in this case.

Standing about 5 meters away from their position was BF’s best friend and former boyfriend Pico. He had been an old fling of BF’s from way before he met GF, but even after all that time they had still remained fast friends. Pico had even gotten them out of situations that could have gone horribly wrong on more than one occasion. Of all people who they would’ve wanted to find, he was the best one.

“Hey look! It’s Pico! Maybe he knows what’s happened!” BF said in a harshly hushed tone.

“No, get back!” She grabs his shoulder before he can step out.

“Why??” he replies, annoyance and confusion ever-present in his voice.

“It just doesn’t seem right, him being the only one we’ve seen since we left. I’m gonna throw a rock, get him to turn around so we can see him without him seeing us.”

BF stared at her, confused for a second, he had no idea why that would be necessary but went along with it anyway.

GF then proceeds to throw a small rock to the left of Pico, before dragging them both back into the alleyway to observe. Upon seeing the rock, Pico turned around.

And the sight stunned the two with momentary terror. Pico, or at least what they had thought was Pico, had that black slime they saw earlier covering his face, body, everywhere. They could only see small bits of his iconic ginger hair and green shirt to assure them it was in fact him.

His eyes were nowhere to be found, instead replaced with hyper-realistic ones that searched erratically for the source of the rock. He had his guns held in his hands, his head and appendages moving in unnatural ways, with elastic-like consistency, as if he had no bones. Some of the motions were blink-and-you-miss-it. One time BF could've sworn he'd seen his head straight up turn 90 degrees for a split second, only to instantly return to its original position. Pico continued to search, slowly pulling the hammer back on either of his guns.

“Holy shit, what’s happened to him!?” BF cries out, a mixture of terror and shock in his words. He'd hidden himself behind the corner again, pressing himself against the brick as he looked at her in wide-eyed terror, his chest rapidly rising and falling as he panicked.

“I don’t know, but we have to stay away,” she replies, somehow keeping her cool, or if she was as afraid as he was, she was good at hiding it.

The two of them continued to hide, listening intently as their former friend searched the area. They heard his soft footsteps as he inched closer to them. BF reached over and covered GF's mouth to quiet her breathing, and she did the same to him.

clomp clomp clomp

They listened intently as Picos footsteps grew louder. BF attempting to use the sound to guage how close he was to their position.

clomp clomp clomp

It got louder. He wasn't sure how he could've been tracking them. Was it their breathing? Despite their efforts that was still the loudest sound they made. Or was it just dumb luck?

clomp clomp clomp

By now it was nearly on top of them, and BF desperately gestured to GF to run when he gave the signal.

He held up three fingers, waiting for a few seconds before starting the countdown.

"One"

He spoke simply mouthing the words to her-

"Two"

"One"

Without warning the two of them broke into another sprint just as Pico rounded the corner. He immediately noticed them, quickly raising his guns and firing, the sound of bullets echoing throughout the alleyway they were in. BF reacted quickly, grabbing a dumpster handle and thrusting it in front of him, creating an impromptu shield/barrier. He didn't wait to see if it'd work, instead breaking back into a sprint to catch up with GF.

The two of them burst out of the alleyway, now running down the street as fast as their adrenaline-filled bodies would carry them. To BF's complete surprise, Pico had somehow gotten past the makeshift barrier he'd made, running at an almost inhuman speed towards them, a huge malicious grin appearing as he chased. He closed the distance fast, once again aiming the barrel of his guns at them. BF wordlessly grabbed GF's hand again, banking a sharp right into another alleyway, Pico following swiftly behind. He again grabbed another dumpster and threw it behind him, but could do nothing but watch as Pico fucking ran right through it. He means it in the most literal way possible when he watched Pico barrel through it as if it were nothing, the force tossing the thing hard up against the wall, it's contents flying everywhere.

This continued for a few minutes before the two of them could run no longer. BF lead them behind a parked car in a desperate bid to hide once again. They listened as Picos footsteps again made themselves known. They waited for what seemed like an eternity for him to find and shoot them, but it never came. BF cautiously looked over the hood of the car they were hiding behind only to see him staring right back at him.

That was when it hit him.

Up until then every opponent BF had faced could not kill him unless and until they beat him in one of the battles he'd become so infamous for. In the rush they'd been in he'd completely forgotten about his power, not expecting it to work in such a situation. He peeked over the car again, this time with one of his guns pointed at him. He waited for him to pull the trigger but it never came. Sure others could attack him like Pico had when he chased them, but once caught in a situation like this it flipped the script.

OST: Gunshot (BF vs. P1C0)

3...

2...

1...

G0!

BF sat tensely as he waited for Pico to begin. He could very clearly tell it was his friend's voice, manipulated by darkness, his notes seeming to meld together into a distorted mockery of what he actually sounded like. BF sat behind the car on the pavement, not wanting to look at the monster his friend had become, simply listening and firing back each time it was his turn.

***

When it was over he peeked back over the hood of the car, only to be forced back down again when a loud BANG emanated from Picos direction, the bullet bouncing off the hood and striking the wall of a nearby building.

OST: Bullets (BF vs. P1C0)

3...

2...

1...

G0!

This time there was no warning before Pico began again. BF firing back figuratively when it was his turn and Pico literally with hails of bullets that forced the two to hug the pavement to avoid getting hit.

BF’s fear of his friends' bullets quickly faded, replaced by grim determination as he realized what losing now would mean. If he died now, it wouldn’t just be the end for him, but also for his one and only. He wouldn’t let that happen as long as he drew breath.

***

When it was over he waited in anticipation to hear anything from his former friend. His heart sank when he again heard his footsteps coming their way.

It hadn't worked.

And now they were done for.

Pico emerged from around the side of the cars hood, his guns trained on BF and GF individually. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

Except nothing happened.

“N0 P1C0, N0.”

Opening his eyes, he saw Pico seized up and seeming to try and fight back against whatever was controlling him, causing him to drop one of his guns and throw it to the side, before proceeding to completely break down, the smile leaving his face, what was left of it turning to a look of fear and anguish. The slime covering his face briefly retreated, revealing a face that was wounded and torn, as if he had died fighting. The one eye that was visible on his face looked at him, and BF knew what he was gonna say before he said it.

"RUN!" Pico shouted. He was fighting himself, one half of his face and body fighting the other, as if two people were trying to control the same body. His free arm threw one of the guns aside, before grabbing his other arm as it tried to again train the barrel on BF.

BF, taking advantage of what was happening, grabbed the gun he had dropped and shook it off. He wished there was something he could do to help him but he didn’t know how, so as much as he wanted to help his friend, he took GF’s hand and ran.

He started to to hear gunshots again behind them, one of the bullets hitting a nearby wall and leaving a black stain, from which more of the darkness emerged, tendrils extending from it, chasing the two until they lost it through the maze of empty streets and alleyways that just the day before had been filled with life, only to overnight become a desolate wasteland. Taking care to stay out of sight, they eventually stopped at an abandoned store to look for food and rest.

“What... Was... That?!” GF asked, out of breath.

“I don’t know, I’m just glad we got away.” He replied, before nearly collapsing, forcing GF to hold him.

“I... I don’t get it. This morning we wake up and everything is covered in some slime that can apparently “infect” people. We heard screams in the distance this morning, and the only one we’ve come across today is some kind of monster that used to be our friend!’ She babbles, her words barely comprehensible.

As much as BF wanted to cry himself at the loss of his closest friend, they had bigger problems at the moment. “We need to find somewhere away from here to stay for now, and then find some way to get food and water.” He replied head turned away from her to make sure they weren’t followed.

Part 2: Sp00K3D

The two moved through town, being as quiet as possible, avoiding any “infected” they came across and stopping at stores for food and supplies to carry with them. Everyone they came across seemed to look the same, or at least have the same things wrong with them.

What they all had in common was that they were covered in the slime somewhere and all shuffled about like mindless zombies.

They had no pupils, their eyes just white voids.

BF at one point saw GF’s parents but didn’t tell her, knowing what kind of reaction she’d have. As much as he hated to admit it, he would have settled for even THEM being alive. Eventually, it started hurting the two mentally, seeing everyone they once knew become whatever this “darkness” was. Survivor’s guilt was strong between the two.

By the end of the day, they were completely kitted out. As a result of all the looting they’d done, BF had exchanged his regular bright clothing for a pair of hunting boots and jeans, though he kept his trademark hat and shirt. He wore a backpack on his back, filled to the brim with supplies and ammo for the gun that once tried to kill him. His hair was a mess, but unlike the night before he didn’t bother to fix it.

His gun and mic sat in separate holsters on either side of his waist. GF had done similar, exchanging her heels for a similar pair of boots, though that was the only major difference. She had kept her red dress and everything else the same, though she also carried a similar backpack to BF, filled with the same supplies, as well as her own firearm.

In a rare moment of genius, she started using a mirror she had found to check corners to make sure there was no one there before they proceeded. They never did find anyone else, every street instead crawling with the strange slime.

They made their way across the land for hours until they came across a familiar, old, spooky-looking house. They both recognized it as being where the spooky twins hung out, standing out because it wasn’t nearly as covered as most other buildings they’d been in previously. Since there wasn’t anywhere else they could go, they decided to try staying there for the time being.

Upon walking inside, they saw that the place was as abandoned as every other building they had been in, except this place had already had an eerie vibe to it, only strengthened by the strands of corruption they spotted dripping from the ceiling above them, like pipes dripping water onto the floor below. They had to move carefully through these rooms, as they had no clue what actually happened to someone if it got them.

And they had no intention of finding out.

Turning another corner, they found out that they weren’t alone, a few meters away from them stood another of BF’s past opponents, hunched over with ooze dripping off of their shoulders, their heads moving in the same manner as Pico’s.

“Um… Skid? Pump?” GF asked, calling them by their nicknames. But just like with Pico, they didn’t speak.
... --- / - .... . -.-- / -- . . - / .- --. .- .. -.

OST: Last Spooktober (BF vs. SK1D and PUmP)

3...

2...

1...

G0!

^^^original

^^^remix 1

^^^remix 2

Just like with Pico, BF noticed that they were going much faster than he’d ever heard, almost to the point where he questioned if it was physically possible. Something else that dawned on him and made him all the more afraid was that they were fused at the back, they still had their eyes, but all black and had no pupils, a stark contrast to the all-white eyes everyone else had.

They still carried on with their childlike antics, laughing and doing their trademark dance, acting as if nothing was wrong. When it was over he was confused, mainly as to why they didn’t attack him. Despite this, he kept his eye on them, walking backward out of the building, turning around once they were out of eyeshot. However, their troubles were far from over.

Because in their haste to leave they had forgotten about the drops coming from the ceiling, a drop of the dark substance falling on his shoulder, and he didn’t realize it until it was already too late.

Part 3: D0pP3lg@nG@r

When BF woke up it took a little while for him to realize where he was, he was at the stage where his career first began. He remembered it like it was yesterday. Him singing against her dad for his first battle, where his legend was born.

It seemed like an eternity ago, yet here he was again. It was now that he realized what had happened, he was just walking along with GF away from their battle with the spooky twins when she cried out, and he looked down to see the darkness crawling up his legs, he remembered fighting back for a few seconds before everything turned black as night, and he woke up here.

Upon realizing this, he immediately scrambled to his feet to find his way back, however, he also noticed now that his position was completely surrounded by darkness, it seeming to expand infinitely in all directions, the stage he was on now feeling like an island on an endless ocean. Looking around the stage itself he saw who his opponent was. It was him, but a corrupted version of him.

He had the same general look as all of the other infected he’d seen, his eyes had no pupils and were dilated to an unnatural extent, and his entire back was covered in it as well. But other than that it was like looking in a mirror. Something that puzzled him was that in all the time he was so disoriented this copy of him had all the time in the world to attack him, yet didn’t, just standing there, bopping his head to a non-existent beat, as if waiting for him.

OST: Blue Balled (BF vs. B0yFrI3nD)

3...

2...

1...

G0!

^^^original

^^^remix 1

^^^remix 2

Remix 3 (The BLAZINGMUSIC Remix)

[Adult story embed hidden]

The music seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, the darkness surrounding the two moving with the beat, like the lines that move up and down on beatboxes. At his core, Boyfriend valued his music and career more than anything, although his girlfriend was a very close second (and that isn’t a fact he’d ever tell her because he’s not suicidal). But, when he was singing, no matter the context, if there was nothing (or everything) on the line, he always cared more about how good his verses sounded rather than how difficult it was for his opponent.

And this corrupted version of him was a perfect representation of that, going for a very aggressive approach while still sounding as good as possible. While most of the others he’d fought up until this point, like Pico, sounded more garbled, but still okay, this one, in particular, sounded almost exactly like him, aside from the typical distortions. Even though it didn’t seem like it, he could’ve sworn that this corrupted knew what he was doing, his verses just sounded too cold and calculated, not something you’d expect from what you believe is a mindless zombie.

While in his mind BF was battling the seemingly separate corrupted doppelganger, on the outside, from GFs perspective, it looked like a battle for control, like two people trying to possess the same body. Every few seconds one of them would seem to have control for a second only to be pushed out by the other. Interrupting each other as they did their verses.

The real BF eventually came out on top, the darkness seeming to reject him like a vending machine that had a dollar put in it the wrong way, throwing his body a half dozen feet. Getting up, he noticed GF standing not too far away from him.

Before he could get any words out, he was embraced in the biggest hug he had ever received from her to the point it was hard for him to breathe. Despite his discomfort, he embraced it, being glad that of all people at least the two of them had survived until this point. No words were exchanged, just a silent embrace encompassing them that seemed to last an eternity. After they were done, they walked off, no particular destination in mind, just one goal:

To find other survivors, if there were any.

Part 4: D3s3RteD

A few weeks later they found themselves in the desert, far away from what was left of civilization, they recognized this place as the same desert they had fallen into all that time ago after their plane crash, and how they were held at gunpoint while having to battle the captain of the tankmen, they were lucky that he was bored at the time otherwise he would probably have just shot them. Looking back on it now compared to their current situation, he almost wished they had shot him.

almost

===========================***=================================***======================

“Uh, Captain?! What’s that over there?” Steve asked.

“What do you mean?” He replied, getting up from his chair and making the binoculars away. Looking through said binoculars, he saw what appeared to be some kind of enemy force, and it was moving quickly, a sea of black seeming to trail in its wake.

“Rally everyone!” He shouted, “I think we’ll be under attack!”

“Huh?!” Steve replied, confused, “But that doesn’t look like any army we know of.”

“JUST DO IT!” The Captain shouted back, Steve knew not to make him say something twice, even if he didn’t agree with it.

Having gathered their forces, Captain and Steve took turns using the binoculars, slowly becoming more worried as time went on.

“What are those things?!” Steve said “They look like civilians, but they’re headed straight for us?! What do we do? And what’s that black substance following them?!”

Despite all of Steve’s questions, the captain only had one reply.

“Be ready” he said, which he knew was code for “shoot them as soon as they’re in range.”

Laying his rifle on the sandbag fortifications in front of him, Steve prepared for a seemingly inevitable fight, questions swarming his and everyone else’s minds as to what these things actually were

=============================***========================***=============================

Suddenly, BF was very rudely interrupted from his thoughts by GF tapping him on the shoulder, to tell him that it didn’t look like they were alone in this seemingly empty abyss.

“Look! There’s some kind of fight going on over there!” She said.

Looking to where she was pointing, he noticed the tankmen that he had just been thinking about, and they were fighting the infected (that by this point he was too used to seeing, and didn’t like that). It didn’t seem like there was anywhere they could go where there was truly no one, corrupted or not.

Realizing that he was too deep in thought again, he looked closer to learn what the situation was. Once the two got closer they saw the darkness had just started infecting their ranks and they seemed to be losing the battle, not surprising all things considered. By this point, GF had realized what was happening too and looked at him

“Should we help?”

“I don’t see why not, it would be great to have some more friendly faces around.” He replied, unholstering the gun that used to belong to his friend.

And with that they started approaching the battlefield, once they got pretty close he remembered exactly where they were, it was the same setting as the first time they were there, he even recognized the speaker, sitting in the same spot as if no one had bothered to move it even after all that time. He also noticed the captain standing nearby.

He looked like shit, being covered in the same slime, and his head and neck moved in and at unnatural angles. However, His visor was cracked in multiple places, indicating that he hadn’t gone down without a fight.

He was standing in front of the speaker, with another surviving Tankman holding him at gunpoint, but he probably knew as well as BF knew that guns didn’t do much to the infected, just slow them down for a while.

Suddenly the infected captain spotted the pair and held up a gun towards them, it looked pretty similar to the one Pico held, probably the same model, all the while his head continuing to jerk around like ragdoll physics had been enabled.

Songs: Hgu, Ugsn, Rsetss, Desolate Wasteland, and A Familiar Face (Ugh, Guns and Stress with the letters scrambled).

(BF vs. Th3 C@Pt@1N)

3...

2...

1...

G0!

^^^Song 1 (Hgu)

^^^Song 2 (Ugsn)

^^^Song 3 (Rsetss)

^^^Song 4 (Desolate Wasteland)

^^^Song 5 (A Familiar Face)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT0DUxRea68

^^^Gameplay version

Nearby one of the surviving tankmen stood guard near the two while he fought, BF knew that if he lost and was attacked there probably wouldn’t be anything this survivor could do, but he appreciated the sentiment.

After it was all over, BF raised the gun and fired, causing the captain to stagger and fall over, BF knew that guns only slowed them down so he and GF, along with their new surviving friends, got away as soon as they could, using a tank that had been abandoned nearby. Because none of our group of survivors knew exactly where to go because everything everywhere seemed to be corrupted they just wandered the landscape, without any particular destination. Through all of the time they had wandered the landscape, they had only found two survivors, Sarv and Beepie.

They found the two hiding on top of a building, with a small horde of infected trying to get to them, the only reason they found her in the first place was that one of the tankmen just so happened to look up at the right time. BF remembered Beeps, she was another of his obsessed fangirls who ruined his and GF’s night at that anime convention and nearly killed the two with fire, Literally. At first, he was a little against taking her in but quickly pushed the thought out of his mind, after all, she DID apologize to the two and they had become friends after it was all over, but he never was able to see her the same way, he forgave, but didn’t forget. Packing back up, the survivors went on their way, riding into the sunset on their tank, presumably to find a place to stay.

It was the apocalypse after all

Chapter 1 Alternate path (The BLAZINGMUSIC Remix)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 2: Catching up

Author's Note

Only thing to really note here is that in this chapter, as well as every other one that takes place in Equestria, is that Bf and Gf are ponies, not human. For the purposes of the story, I made Bf a unicorn and Gf an earth pony. Their designs originate from the Elements of Insanity mod, which I'll link HERE. The other FNF characters, though are still human.

I tried to upload pictures of Bf and Gf's pony forms but got an error code every time I tried.

This chapter follows the events of the previous one, but takes place entirely in Equestria, so there isn't much that probably won't make sense besides the characters. Regardless, feel free to contact me or see the blog post for this one HERE.

There is also another fic that is mentioned here because I liked the concept enough to make it a plot point, and it made this chapter easier to write, so huge shoutout to the author PoisonClaw for indirectly giving me a helping hand here. The fic can be found HERE.

Another thing: If you aren't on board with the whole OST's thing, which I can understand, then these next few chapters will be a breath of fresh air. There's a really large gap starting here where there are none, and BF and GF take on more of a background role. I wanted this story to be more than just OST's, so I made these chapters, a way of giving the story more depth and purpose. Essentially plot development

Chapter 2: Catching up

Part 1: Escape

They did not find any other survivors.

Not that they didn’t try, though, they must have searched the city at least a half dozen times, clearing each building at least twice, trying to avoid the corruption as best they could, though they had battled it a fair few times since then.

After they came to the solemn conclusion that there was no one left, GF opened a portal to escape through. They had nothing left to fight for so there wasn’t any point in staying. She couldn’t keep it open very long due to her powers being not quite mature enough so they hurried through, no bothering to ask where the portal went. There was no point because anywhere was better than there, right?

They all fell a few feet to the ground, knocking the breath out of some of them, they get their bearings, and then look around at the strange-yet-oddly-familiar world they now found themselves in. Although none of the other survivors knew where they were, GF knew exactly where they were, with BF realizing soon after they landed, realizing at the same time that they had taken on their pony form, with everyone else staying the same, now looking at the two as if they had grown three heads, which wasn't far off, as they had grown something, it just wasn't that.

"Uh, is that supposed to happen?" Sarv said, giving the two a very puzzled look.

"Um, yeah, it's a bit much to explain now, but just know that yes, this is supposed to happen, to us, at least."

Evidently that spell Trixie had put on them to change their form last time they were here still affected them. Specifically, they were in Equestria, in a part called the Everfree forest, just south of Ponyville, which the two knew was where the Mane six lived. They had been here before, how long ago? Probably between a few months to a year or two at most. Neither gave it much thought as they had more important things to worry about.

The two walked into town using the same route as they took last time, with the other survivors heading northwest to stay on the outskirts of town until it was okay to head in. The reason for this was that BF and GF had already been here, and they didn’t want to raise any eyebrows with the presence of all of them. So many unfamiliar faces at one time would probably cause panic/confusion among the locals. Unbeknownst to them, however, the darkness had seemed to follow them here, emerging from seemingly nowhere in a rift above the land, seeming to tear the sky itself with its entrance, dark tendrils extending from the new hole in reality to explore this new world.

.- -. -.. / ... --- / - .... . / .. -. ...- .- ... .. --- -. / -... . --. .- -. .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-

Part 2: Ketchup

Upon getting out of the forest they spot Pinkie-Pie, GFs favorite and the one who had thrown them a welcome party last time they were here.

“Hey Pinkie! Over here!” GF shouts.

“Oh hi, guys! What brings you back to Ponyville?” Pinkie says, hopping instead of trotting towards them, in a matter that reminded BF of a pogo stick.

“It’s... Um... Complicated, can we... see you and your friends?” GF asked, scratching the back of her head. She was struggling to find the right words as the English language wasn't built to convey something as big as a world-ending glitch. (At least not easily.)

“Yeah! Just give me a few to find them and then we can catch up!” Pinkie said, before hopping/trotting off, presumably to find the rest of the mane six.

“How are we supposed to tell them why we’re here?!” We can’t just say, “Oh hi, we’re not here to catch up, we’re here because our world is now an apocalyptic wasteland!” BF stated, his words a little too exaggerated, however, he did have a point, and that’s not a very good way to start a conversation.

After finishing their short conversation on how to break the news to their old friends. They noticed pinkie walking, or in this case trotting, back over to them. This surprised both of them, they weren’t expecting her to be gone not even five minutes, if that.

“Okay, I’ve got everyone together! I can’t wait to catch up!”

“Uh, yeah... Catch up...” GF said, starting after her. It was honestly a miracle that Pinkie hadn't already caught on to the twos very obvious discomfort.

The three headed towards a lone tree out in a clearing where the rest of the mane six were waiting, sitting on a picnic blanket and with food ready. The journey to it had made the two even more uncomfortable, seeing an uncorrupted world for the first time in seemingly forever.

They had gotten too used to the doom and gloom of their world, the happiness and good vibes of everypony around them now being a culture shock, and the groups reminding the two of those they had lost, very nearly bringing a tear to BF's eye. Oh how he missed when their world was the same, but he couldn't let that cloud his thoughts, swearing to himself that he wouldn't let this world face the same fate. But you know what they say,

-.. --- -. .----. - / -- .- -.- . / .--. .-. --- -- .. ... . ... / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. .----. - / -.- . . .--.

“I decided to get everyone together for a welcome back picnic! I would have done something bigger but I only had short notice.” Pinkie said, disturbing BF from his thoughts, which he was glad for. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

“It’s fine, we just need to talk,” GF said, equally uncomfortable, it was as if they had had the same thoughts on the way here.

“Is something wrong? You both look anxious.” Evidentally the fact that “we need to talk” were the four worst words in the English language someone could hear, was something known even in other worlds.

At this point, they had reached the spot under the tree where everyone, well, everypony was waiting, and they started to exchange pleasantries. Neither of the two was quite used to the minor vocabulary changes the locals used here, or why they were necessary, because at least to the two of them everyone worked just as well here, as did most other vocab they were used to. But they went with it to not sound strange. Still, they would occasionally mess up, only because they didn’t visit this place too often.

“Welcome back you two! Twilight was the first to break the silence. “What’s wrong? You both look like you’ve seen a ghost.” She followed up with.

“Yeah, you could say that... Excuse the two of us for a sec.” She takes BF aside.

“How am I supposed to tell them? We can’t just drop a bomb like that at the start of a conversation!”

“Just start at the beginning, and work our way towards why we’re here, even if it takes a while,” BF responded before they headed back.

“Okay, we’ll start at the beginning, but as much as I wish it were true we’re not here to catch up. BF, why don’t you start?” However, in response to this, he just looks at her, making her start instead.

GF told their story from start to finish, from waking up to a world covered in syrup-like slime (they didn’t know for sure what to call it yet) all the way to why they were there. At first, the 6 just listened and ate but by the time they got to the point in the story where BF had to fight for his life against one of his closest former friends and against two Halloween-loving children fused at the back their faces slowly went from confusion to tenseness and then to horror, they cycled through those emotions like a roller coaster does it’s track until GF finished.

“Wow, that is quite the story...” Twilight seemed to be the only one capable of talking, giving a "are these two crazy?" look to the others, who seemed to feel the same way.

There was again, a long pause between anyone saying anything, at the moment none of them knew what to say, pondering what would be best considering the situation.

“I really, really wish we were joking, but it’s, unfortunately, true, after we accepted that our world was gone we decided to come here to stay for a while because our world is now a hazardous wasteland.” GF ended with. BF, on the other hand, didn’t talk, he never had been good with talking to anyone besides GF, even if they were friends like with these 6. He often let GF do the talking for him and only interjected when he absolutely had to. But they knew each other well enough that 99% of the time he didn’t have to.

“I’m sorry that happened to you, but I’m sure there’s somewhere you can stay until you figure things out, what is that black substance you were talking about anyway?” Twilight asked.

“We don’t have any clue, it looks mostly like slime. It also seems to be capable of moving because in the time before we came here we noticed that it seemed to move on its own. We learned that the hard way after it tried no less than a dozen times to grab one of us.

“You mentiond' that you came here from a portal, did you make sure nothin' followed you?” AJ was now the only one other than Twilight who had said anything.

“We were too panicked at the moment so we didn’t check, but as far as we know it can’t jump worlds or whatever,” GF replied.

There was another silence for a few minutes, mainly BF and GF hoping they didn’t think they were crazy and Twi accessing whether or not this stuff could affect them, pressing a hoof up to her muzzle, indicating deep thought.

“Do you think we would be able to defeat it if it came here?” Twilight asked.

“No idea, but any form of weaponry in our world just slowed it down or bought us enough time to run,” GF replied, which visibly worried Twilight, Twilight had never been good at hiding her emotions or when something troubled her, and that was something that BF and GF had learned even in their limited time knowing her.

Part 3: 1Nv@S10N

After another brief silence they all exchanged awkward goodbyes and went their separate ways, BF and GF ended up staying with Twilight, and Twilight ended up spending the entire night worrying about this “threat” that had supposedly taken over their world. She looked through books, notes, anything she could find to find out what it actually was and if it could harm her world, and if she should bring it up to the princesses or not, because of all these questions she didn’t get any sleep, but this was probably what saved all of them.

She was looking through a window out into the distance out of paranoia when she saw it covering a tree in the Everfree forest. When she did her eyes went wide and she had to do a double take. Realizing the implications of what she’d seen, she quickly went to wake the two up. They probably wouldn’t know what to do either but it was really the only option at the moment.

Because she had been up the entire night, her mane and tail were very messy, giving her that familiar unsettling crazy look. She went to wake the two up, who at the moment were sleeping on the floor of the main library. Not wanting to startle them despite being in a panic herself, she tried to wake them up gently and then slowly tell them, but that went to hell as soon as she started.

“You two need to come see this, NOW.” She said in a voice that was very loud but not yelling, not even giving them a chance to open their eyes.

“Huh? Five more minutes.” GF said, not even realizing it was Twilight. Neither of the two hadn't gotten a good night's rest in over a month, so you can imagine how either of them felt being woken up at the crack of dawn.

Twilight, understandably frustrated, slapped GF with her hoof out of annoyance and repeated what she said. After a few moments of them refusing to get up Twilight practically dragged them using her magic to the window, the darkness now more visible than it had been before. Had anyone else been there it would have looked like she was dragging dead bodies, the two still with their eyes closed as a constant shuffling sound came from them being dragged across the floor.

“Look,” Twilight said to the two, annoyed because of how sluggish they were being,

The two were still half asleep at this point, but when they saw the sight from the window it looked like they injected a gallon of red bull into them.

“What the hell?! How did it get here!?” GF cried out in as much surprise as Twilight. Even though neither of them said it out loud, BF and GF both knew how it had most likely gotten here, in their panic to get through the portal they must have forgotten to check and it followed them, but that wasn’t something they wanted Twilight to know for obvious reasons.

“What’s the plan?!” Twilight said.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the princess here?” GF responded, grabbing Twilight and shaking her.

"We-well-if-you'd-stop-shaking-" She got out before grabbing GF with her magic, levitating her a few feet off the ground, much to BF's surprise as he hadn't seen much magic besides basic spells. He still had a lot of getting used to, what with how this world seeming backwards compared to his.

“Now that I can finish," Twilight started, giving GF a stony-eyed look as she tried to move "I’ll go find my friends, and we’ll meet in Canterlot by tomorrow.” She finished, dropping GF with a thud to the ground

"Wait!" GF called after her "Where's Canterlot?"

"Just head slightly northeast of here by train and you'll figure it out!" Twilight said, galloping into another room.

With that, BF and GF left to go to where the other survivors were camped to warn them as well. Twilight, on the other hand, galloped to where the Crystal mirror was kept, she decided to find Sunset first, because she was in another world and wasn’t sure how much time she had, but she’d have to be quick because she did NOT want to find out what would happen if Ponyville fell before they could get back.

“You guys... Gotta come... Quick...” GF said in between labored breaths. BF emerging from behind her moments later.

“Hmm? What’s happening?” Steve asked, before turning back towards the gun he was cleaning.

“It followed us.” Was her reply

“Shit” Even though he had his back turned to them, GF could still see the look he had on his face while jolting up as if he’d been tazed.

With the rest of the survivors grouping together, the two went back to Twilights castle to wait for her, mainly because they’d only ever seen Ponyville before and had no idea where Canterlot was, despite knowing of its existence from the last time they were here, as well as keep an eye on how the darkness and how it was spreading.

Because Twilight had been galloping when she jumped into the portal, this led to her falling in a weird position on the other side, luckily there didn’t seem to be anyone around to see her come out of it. From where the sun was in the sky and the fact that the school seemed empty, she could assume that Sunset was home, which would make the search much easier on her, which was great as she didn’t have much time. On this side of the portal, it was impossible to tell how far along the glitch was in its invasion of her world, so she had to move as quickly as possible, lest she finds out firsthand what happens if you’re consumed. Running through the streets, she looked for Sunset’s apartment complex, it had been a while since she had been here so she prayed that Sunset hadn’t moved or anything similar.

Sitting in her apartment, Sunset was studying, her books laid out in front of her in a fan-like shape, “The midterms are coming up, and I can’t afford to let my grades tank, not when I’ve come this far.” She thought to herself, determined. She was in the middle of turning the page in her Calculus book when she heard what sounded like someone hitting her door with a battering ram, followed by a pained yell that could only belong to one person, no two, but she had a feeling she knew nonetheless.

After taking the meaning of “use your head” a little too literally, Twilight stumbled, nearly falling over, and momentarily forgetting what she was there for. After regaining her composure, Twilight turned to start furiously knocking on the door instead, but to her surprise was met with another pained yell, except this time it wasn’t hers. While she was out, Sunset had opened the door without her realizing it, so instead of wood, her furious knocking was instead met with Sunset’s forehead.

“OW! Twilight what the hell?!” Was Sunset’s response to this so far a very rude meeting.

“I am SO sorry,” was Twilight’s response before trying to explain herself. “You need to come with me NOW!” She made sure to make it clear that she wasn’t asking.

“What?! Why?!” Sunset replied, still aggravated, and a small bruise was now barely visible where Twilight had accidentally hit her.

“Equestria is under attack!” At this, Sunset’s expression went from mild anger/annoyance to one of worry.

“What? Why?”

“There’s some kind of dark mass starting to take over everything!”

“What?!” Twilight’s explanation had given her more questions than answers.

“Just- Come with me, we don’t have time!” Twilight yelled before grabbing her arm and almost yanking her off balance with the force.

“Wait!” Sunset said before pulling free of her grip. Twilight didn’t have time to protest before Sunset was back in the apartment, luckily it was only a second before she re-emerged, this time with a certain spotted gecko in tow. Because this seemed like an emergency, Sunset had no idea how long they’d been gone and didn’t want to take any chances.

From there it didn’t take long for Twilight and Sunset to make it back to Equestria, in fact, they did so in a time that even Usain Bolt would be proud of. However, in their rush, they forgot what happened to Sunset’s gecko Ray on the other side.

“OOF!” Sunset cried as they fell through the other side, again, she had forgotten about being a pony on the other side and tumbled a good few feet after getting through, trying to catch herself on now non-existent hands.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, having seen Sunset finally come to a stop thanks to a pile of books, she tried to stand up, but again, forgot she was a pony and started stumbling on her hind hooves.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She replied, finding her footing on all fours. “I’m never going to get used to that.” She said, followed by a nervous chuckle.

Galloping to a nearby window, Twilight gazed out to see how far the corruption had advanced since she was gone, it thankfully hadn’t moved all that much, partly because Twilight had been much faster than she thought and partly because it was moving at a snail's pace for now. Everywhere she looked, the rest of Equestria seemed oblivious to the new threat they all faced. Good, because that meant that they had plenty of time.

“Um, Twilight?” Sunset said from behind her, jerking her from her thoughts. “What are you looking at?”

“It’s better if I show you,” was the reply followed by Twilight stepping to the side to give Sunset a view. “Look towards Everfree forest.”

Looking towards the same area that Twilight had, she quickly spotted the glitchy mass that seemed to worry Twilight so much. “What is that stuff?” She asked, pressing her muzzle up to the glass in an attempt to get a better view.

Before Twilight could reply, they heard strange noises from the mirror, before a large dragon claw made itself known.

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Sunset said before the rest of the creature made itself known. This creature was Sunset’s pet, and this wasn’t the first time this had happened. Sunset had brought Ray through the portal before, but in her rush to catch up with Twilight to get to the portal, they had completely forgotten about what happened to Ray on the other side.

Before long there was a familiar sight in the chamber where the Crystal Mirror was kept, with Twilight and Sunset having a staring contest with the familiar Wyvern struggling to fit in the two sizes too-small room.

“Maybe this can help,” Twilight said, breaking the silence. “With Ray, we can get to Canterlot 10 times faster than if we took the train.”

“What do we have to go to Canterlot for?” Sunset replied.

“Well although it may not look like it,” she started, “that glitchy stuff in the forest poses a threat to the very existence of Equestria, I think.”

“You think?”

“I’ll explain on the way there.” Twilight said, before turning to Ray, “Come on Ray, I need your help with something.” Ray turned to Sunset, seemingly for confirmation.

“Yeah, follow her.” Sunset said, before pointing a hoof towards the door.”

“SPIKE!” Twilight shouted, catching the attention of the small drake.

“Yeah?”

“Take a note.”

Now in view, Spike went about the usual letter business, conjuring pen and quill from seemingly nowhere.

Sunset didn’t pay attention to what happened afterward, instead opting to lead Ray outside and let Twilight catch up. She still didn’t quite understand what was going on, the only glimpse of the supposed “threat” was that black goo she’d seen from the window. Seeing that Twilight was worried enough to send an urgent letter and go straight to Canterlot right after getting her was worrying. She gazed out into Ponyville, everything seemed normal. Nothing about it made sense, but she decided to go with it.

Although it took a little bit, mainly because no building in Ponyville was meant to accommodate a dragon of Ray’s size, they were eventually in the air, moving at a gentle cruising speed so that Twilight could explain herself.

“So…” Sunset started, up until this point she had very little information on what was so urgent that Twilight had to come to get her.

“Well, it started when a couple of old friends decided to pop up using a portal.” She looked over to Sunset, who was fully engraved with her words.

“And they were the first to tell me and my friends about this otherworldly threat, according to them it had invaded their world overnight, turning everypony there into zombie-like monsters.” She paused, “They, along with some other survivors who I haven’t met yet, claimed that they were all that’s left of their world, and requested that they stay here for a while.”

“That’s terrible…” Sunset said, before letting Twilight continue.

“That was yesterday, I was up all night worrying about it when I happened to look through a window and saw it. Somehow it had followed them and is now here, and I have no idea how long we have before it starts attacking ours, so that’s why I came to get you first, because there were too many unknowns, and I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if you ended up being taken because I didn’t get to you first.”

“Aww, that’s sweet, well in that case I’m glad you got me, we were having exams tomorrow anyway.” She paused, “But this does seem like a very big threat, any more information you got from those "friends?” of yours?"

“From the description they gave, it seems like this stuff infects on contact, fully consuming the victim once they do. After that, they said the infected somewhat varied, but all had some common symptoms. Those being, no pupils, the black substance would drip off of them in multiple places, and they would be extremely violent, trying to touch survivors to pass it on, and would seem to be possessed, kind of like Sombra’s soldiers, having no mind of their own, and operating like a hive.”

With this more detailed explanation, Sunset now looked very worried, the color starting to drain from her face, but Twilight continued, “In some cases they saw, the infected would fuse, and become cursed globs of goo, they also saw a case where a close friend of theirs had no eyes at all, they were replaced with new, very disturbing ones, that same friend then tried to kill them. They also saw that most of them would jerk around in unnatural movements that would normally break bones, but didn’t affect them.”

“So how do we stop it?” Sunset said, her pupils having shrunk to pinpricks out of fear.

“Unfortunately, I have no idea, they said that no matter what they tried it didn’t stop, and before long destroyed their world, forcing them to come here. On top of that, none of the books I looked through yesterday night even mentioned it.” By now Sunset looked almost catatonic, very disturbed and worried about what might become of Equestria.

“But there still might be hope, maybe the princesses will know what to do or we can use the Elements of Harmony somehow.” Twilight stopped after that, seeming to fall into deep thought after she finished, Sunset did the same, trying to imagine how something so horrifying could exist. Although they were very well aware of the darkness’s existence, they had yet to see somepony actually become corrupted, they could only imagine at the moment.

Once they made it to Canterlot things went relatively quickly, they had to land on the outskirts of the city, mainly because like Ponyville, no building or open spaces were made to accommodate full-grown dragons. But after that, it was just a one-way trip, the two galloping at full speed towards the palace where the two sisters lived.

Twilight was the first inside, keeping with the regular formalities despite her panic.

“Did you get my letter?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, but compared to others it seemed… frantic.” Princess Celestia said. “The description you gave was rather… Lackluster.”

There was a brief silence, Sunset looking between Twilight and the two Princesses with concern.

“Can you… come with us?” Twilight asked. “I wish I could explain it to you better but we really need to go. There’s absolutely no telling what this stuff could be capable of.”

The two sisters exchanged glances, silently debating whether to take Twlight’s frankly rather messy explanation and warning seriously.

“Normally, we’d ask for a better explanation” Celestia started, looking over to Sunset, “but seeing as Twilight was panicked enough for her usually well composed personality to go out the window, and the fact that you’re here, I think it’s safe to assume this is something worth investigating.”

Having convinced the two royals that this was in fact something to be concerned with, they headed out, the sisters bringing a handful of royal guard, just in case…

Part 4: B3c0M1nG tH3 Sh@d0Ws

Arriving back in Ponyville, Sunset, Twilight, and the Princesses were met with a very distressing sight. The darkness had made LOTS of progress, and a scene of pure pandemonium met them upon landing. If they didn’t know what infected looked like before, they definitely did now. Ponies ran in all directions, some of them being chased by infected. Just like BF and GF said to Twilight, they fit the exact description. No pupils, some had no eyes at all, the substance dripped off of their bodies, sometimes eyes, giving them a crying appearance, and some were fused to one another in various cursed configurations. And it wasn’t just ponies, they also saw animals roaming around, sometimes part of the cursed fusions they saw.

It was a scene of chaos not even Discord could’ve dreamed of.

“Holy-“ Sunset started, but was interrupted by a civilian galloping up to the princesses.

“Princess Celestia! You have to help us! There’s some kind of infection turning everypony into monsters!”

Although they had been momentarily frozen up to this point, the cry for help zapped the sisters out of their trance and changed their looks from ones of horror to determination. Celestia immediately started ordering the few royal guards that had followed them into the fray to save as many as possible, and Twilight and Sunset did the same, charging up their horns and blasting any attacking afflicted, sticking together and watching each other's backs like a pair of elite soldiers.

A similar fight was going on at Twilight's place, with the surviving tankmen doing what they could to hold them off so that ponies could escape. Although none of the ponies they saved had any idea who or what they were, they were more than happy to thank them before galloping off.

“Steve! What’s the situation looking like!” GF shouted, she had to for it to be heard over all the gunfire filling the air around them.

“We won’t be able to hold them back long!” was the reply, they were a very small force, their fight against the corruption had been a hard one up until this point, and it had done a number on them, the ones that weren’t taken were wounded and not capable of holding for long. It was very valiant what they were doing, sacrificing themselves so that beings they’d never met before could run. Something that stood out to BF and GF was that things had gone from 1 to 100 insanely quickly, not long after Twilight and Sunset had come back through the portal and headed for Canterlot, the darkness sped up 10 fold, reaching Ponyville within 20 minutes, from there was when the situation became dire. None of Ponyville’s residents had any idea it was coming, surging over the first houses like an unstoppable tsunami, taking the first few civilians before they even knew what hit them. From there they had to blow their cover, taking the fighting positions they now struggled to hold while the Princesses called for reinforcements.

Before long they had to fall back, retreating through alleyways towards the outskirts of town. Despite their efforts, a good 40% or more of the population had been taken, forming various amalgamations of their former selves. But because of this more royal guard were able to arrive and make it a more even fight. Even though they had no idea what they were fighting, much less how utterly terrifying it was, they still fought hard, Princess Celestia and Luna sometimes leading them themselves. Imagine the King Sombra timeline from The Cutie Re-mark but much more intense, violent, and with higher stakes and desperation. Twilight and Sunset broke off from the main fighting after a while to find their friends, they had no idea where they were, and they weren’t sure how long the lines would hold, so they galloped off into the distance, hoping to find their friends before the darkness did.

Chapter 3: Reunion

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Teaser Chapter: @ F@m1Ly Guy

Author's Note

If it wasn't already obvious, this is a teaser chapter for a separate storyline to go along with the main one. What this new storyline will be about should be obvious, but I'm not just gonna tell you everything, no. I have hidden tons of puzzles and other tidbits here so it's possible to get a rough idea of what I have I store for you. This is probably the most ambitious chapter so far that I've written. Have fun and enjoy cracking the code.

This storyline is based heavily off of an existing one in development. Once the first chapter is out in its entirety I will be sure to give credit where credit is due. This would not have been possible without help.

(But legitimately you have my utmost respect if you're actually willing to solve this lmao)

Also worth noting is that every puzzle leads back to the original creator. I didn't just rebrand it, no. Everything leads to the original source.

Teaser Chapter: @ F@m1Ly Guy

@1̩̀R͚̚P̟̽L@N͔̋3

.̋͢..̣̓. -̬͡ ͙̀-͔̌ .-̮̾-͔̉. ̣̂...̭̀ --̳͠-...̤̈ -.̰͆.-. -..̮͌-̟̌.̲͒ .-̪̿- .̗͡--̣͌ ̝̓.̖́-̜̇- ͕́.-̞̉.̪̓-͓̓.̼͋- -.̞̒-̠̃-̫̈́ -̕͟-̨̓- ̩̈.͍͝.̝͂-̳̀ -͎̃ .͖̂.- -̫͞.̣̊.. ̡́. .-.-.-̞͛ -̺̓.̧͒-.̨̆ -̾͜--̗̅ ̨͠-- -..-͔͠. ̬̓.͎́--̪͛ ̼̎.̹̍- -̘́ ̖͠-̜̆.͈͒-͙̌. .̙̿.̘̎..̰̓ ..--.. .̭̾..̲̚- -̙̒..̉ͅ.- .-̡̍. -̮͒-͉͐-̼̅-. ̥̀--.-̀͢ ..͕̌.̼͗-̯̊- ̢͑.- .- ̛̦--.̠͐.̻̓ ̪́.̥͛-.̜̽.̲̍ ..-̝͗. ͎̓-͊͜---̯̀. .͇́-

.-̞͐. ̩͗.-̧͂-͍̾.̼̎-.͛ͅ ̛̱.-̧̆.̘̆. ͕͌.-͙̄..̧͛ ̘̄--̯̀---̡́

H̥̓é̦'s̨͊ not̙̀ just a mo̤͗n̗̈́st̢̄er..̡́.̮̔

̨̐He'̨̈s̱̾ oṷ͛ṙ͚ ͇̔p̠̆al͎̊.̼͂..̣̾

"I f͒͢o̗͋und ̭͐ag̻̾ai̬̋n̹̈ ̱͊tha̧͘t ̞̉b͙͡lue͈̓ hair̗͑e̲̅d d͉͑wa͎̓r̞̽f cṙ̫ossỉ͍ng t̫͆h̡͠e ̛͜st̺̍r͕̊eets̽͜!̻̀ g̡͛o̰͞nna͈͐ ̦͞ș͒ee ̘̕w͢͡h̖͆a̗̓t he’s̲̍ u̻̅p̻̈ too.͓̑"

..̜́..̤͑ -̯̾ -̯͡ .̩͊-̟͂-͉̌.̲͊ ̘̔... --̙̆-.͕̾..̰̉ -̞̃..͈̐-̛̼.̹̀ -.̗̽.-. ̝̒.-̭͋- ̧͠.̳̓-- ̤̉.̨̇-- ̠͡.-.̠̍-.̝̈- -.--͓̉ -̆͢-̜̊-̧́ .̪̕.̘̑-̩͡ - ..̥̂-͎̎ ̡̂-͉̋.͔̍.. . ͍̇.-͖̒.-͆͟.͎̂- ̓ͅ-͈͑.̟̿-. --̝͆- --̛̮ -̉͢.̘̍.̞̓-͍͡. .-- .̖͆- ̨̄- -.-.͔̚ ..͈͑.̗̃. ͕͂.͇̕.-̖̑-.͍͌. ..̦̓.͇͐- -..̲̔.-̺̚ ..̿͟.͉͒ ̖̄..- ̡̂..-̨̀ -͎̐.͍̽.̪͆ ̧͐-̠́.̢͑.̙͊.̦̈́ .̢̑.̡̐-. ͖̿-. ̧̂--͓̓ ̧͡--͈̉..̐͢.͇͐ .͍̐ -͕̚-̘͠

"̪̔hel͔͞p̲̉.̺͛.̣͂."
̜̍
̰͛"̢̔help̢̈...̑͜"͍̚

"͕͊nigh̲̊tm̻̄a̤͛re͉͑ fuel̬͆.̛͙..̨͛

"Brian?!

"Stewie what's going on?!"

"B̑ͅ1TCH"

"̱̎S̙̽0Ḿ̳3̦͘0̜̈N3 N͔͛33̫̂D͘͜S̟͌ ̠͞@͎͛ D̹͐1@͖̑P3͉͛R̺̚ ͕͠C̝̅H@N̗͌G3̏͢!"

"̧̏G̛͓A̤͆H!͓̾"̛̤

"AHHHH!"

"BOYFRIEND!"

B̨̀URN̳͞

h͉͌e̱͊l̮̀p̧̽ u͖̚s̝̕

͉̉hel̘͝p̩̄ ̫̎ù̫s̳̔

burṋ͐ bü͕rn̼͑ b̙́uȓ̼n
͍͡
b̭͠u̡͑rn ̈͟bur̞̈́n ̱̓burn̲͗
̡͂
̡̕bur̙̎nbur̝̈n̿ͅb̬͐ur̛̰n
̱͘
bur͎͠n̥̎ ͍̋b͍̆urn ͇͌b̭͊ü̫rn

̉͜Õ̤N3̢̑ 0̩̉F͔͋ ͚̎US͕͋

͖̇O͉̍N̰͘3 ͍͐0F̜̔ ̲̇Ũ͔S
̺̏
0N͇͊3̣̾ ̡̇0F̯͐ US̹̓

"BRIAN LOOK OUT!"

"AHHHHHH!"

''IT&89/WA1SN'T 0VER ST3W!E!!^^&**(()))))))))))))(fo0l"

..͔̀.̼̆.͔̌ - -̧̌ .-̊͟-. ͍̋..̻̍.͊ͅ ̗̈́--̛̮-̤̈́.̽͜..̲͌ ̹̂-̖̍.̭͒.̜͋-. ̝̒-.͓̉.̭̓-̪̓. .͕̂-- .-̬̈́- .-- ̱̂.-̞̑.̰̌-.-̫͗ ͇̓-̞͗.͉͗-̗̋-͙̃ -̲̔--͖̌ .̧̈́.-͚̍ ͇̽-̰̂ ̯̕.͖́.̟̆-̦̆ ̤̒-.̹̄.̣̽. ͉̔.̩̐ ̄͟.̻͌-̖̒.-͉̉.͉̿- -̮̀.̢̔-. -̞͞-͓͋- -̣̽- -.̦̿.-̻̏.̝̔ ̺̾.̹̈-̭̑-̘͞ .̤͌-̘̐ -̛͎ ̨̋-̠͠.̲͂-. ̀ͅ...͉̒. .͂͟.--.̲̈́. .͓̔.̹̉.-̩͛ -...͔̏- ̉ͅ---̢̉ ̜̏-̬͝.-. ̻͛.̼̈-̯̅-.͕̾ ̺̉.̓͢ ̤͆.͊͜--͎͞-̟́- ̰́-̹͘-.͙̾-̯̋ .͍̓.-̥̚.͉̅ ̟̈-.. .̦͑-͕͡.. --͍̆- ̯̉.̍͟.
H3Y

ST3W13!

"̙̽Ple̗̿a̙̋se̢̐ dỏ̝n̓͜'̩́t ͉͆broţ̋he̡̒r"̡̆

"͙̎Re̻̾a̳̍l̰̈́ly ̯̉d͖͞on̗̈́'͍̒t br̝̽ô̬th̘̆ḙ́r"

"D̖̋o̯̊n't͈̐ ̤͆g̞͝o r͖̽ȩ͒ą͆ll̩̂y ̠̇do̳͡n'̮͑ṫ͜"̣̋

́͢"̩͐D̮̃ȏ̱n'̢̊t̜̓ g͖̓o̊͢ ͙̓reâ͍ľ̹ly͇̑ ͘͟do̱̚n't̙͒"

"Ple̱̓a̻͞se d̳͗on't go̮̒ ͊ͅpl̩͞ẹ̓a̖̎s̜̆ḙ͂"
͙̓
͇̽"P̨̏le̳̎â͕s̹̓e̲̒ do̬̿n'̜͐ť͉ g̖̔o̹͐ ̲̐pleaṡ̲e"

"B̛͕r͕͂ain ̭̓i̲͠s ̭́gò̢ne.̲͘.̨͠.̛̦
Ṇ̾ō̙̙̆
"Dö̰́n͍̅'ť̻ g̡̀o pļ́eā̳se"
̇͜
̲̈́"̢̛N̗̉ȯ̱ ͎͝r̖̀e͈͂ą͡llẏ̗ I l̻̑o͛͢v̖̂e ÿ͓́ou̧̒.̧̀.̻͘."͚͛

C4RWR3CK

Q̺̚uag̥͗mĩ̼r͍͐e sť̡ȧ̯tus͕͒: ͆ͅŲ͆ ̡̚N ̽ͅK N ͓̅O ̳̇Ẇ̱ N
J̠̒o͈͑e̝̐ S̰̽t̫͗at̙͘us:̗̊ ̠̂U̫͊ ̟̉Ṇ̊ K N O ̠̄W N̥̑
̹̓C͈̆l̛̪e̱̊v͉͗el̮̎and̀ͅ ͉̕S͚͞t̰̅ḁ̈́ț̚u̟̕s:͎͛ ̬͌A͓͠live

"Oh god Joe! are you okay?'' ''yeah, i think so uh.. you know maybe im not feeling that good uhh.. i feel tickles on my body. By the way wheres cleveland?'' "I dont know, but im sure he's somewhere here.." &%%%&*)))))))))))))))))))))

''Okay Joe we found him, Now what..?"

.̢̺̊̽.̦̑..͙̙̂̚ ̬͍͛̿-̱̤̔͐ ̘̔-̫̮̓̔ ̍ͅ.̺̃-͍͠-.͑ͅ ̛̯͋͜..̪̳̍͑. --̰͑-..̱͆̇͢.̳̈́ ̛̙̫̿-̰̍.̨̙̑̈́.̩̊-̺̀.̞̒ ̙̈̚͟-̣̂..-. ̗̈́.̱͋-- ̜͙͑̕.̫̻̌̚-͍̌-̹̝͐͡ ̧͡.̣̅--̞̄ ͎̠́̚.͓̀-.͔̅̄͢-.- -̗͌͛͜.-͓͖̽̅-̳̂͋͢ ͈̗̑̈́-͚͛̓ͅ-̖̻̍͘-͈͕́̅ ̡͇̓͝.͇̚.̟̼̎̈-̤̊̔ͅ ͙̄- ̥̎̉͢.̪̖͗͒.̤́-̤̾ ͇̼̍̚-̙̺̈́̎.̮͠.̪̹̎̾. ̧̑.̲̎ ̢̡̀̊.-͖͞.̈́̉͢ͅ-̤̼͐͆.̭̩̈̔-͖͋ -̤͠.̦̎͜͝-. ͚͚́͗--̞͚̾́-͉̱̋̇ -̨́̋ͅ-̣̤̀̓ ̭̄̓ͅ-̩͞.̠̋̚͜.͓̥͗̚-̛̭̜͑. ̳͚͊͛.̨͓̇͗-͕̤͒͛- ̤̀.͙͇̆͘- ̿ͅ-̫́ -̡̰̿͞.̯̀̄͟-̘͍͐͂. ̗̣̂͝...͕̹̅̿.̪͐ ͇̔.̢̏.--̢̐.͕͛.̫̈́ ̟̆.̛̗.̻̌͌ͅ.͉̲̀̂-̼̠͐̑ ̗̺͗̍-̰̣̏͡.̛̲̳̅.̻̹͂̄.-̜̊ ̟̒-̜̝̌͂.͍͗ _̖͙͋̚_͓͈̾̈́ ͕͇̓͐.̘̏..̳̃.̭̥͛͊.̗̤̀͞ .̡̈.̯̎-.̛̤̩̀ -̙͋ ̢̜͋̓.͍̖̀͂ ͙̿͢͝-̡̣̽̾-͍̇.̠́ ̧͈̀̉-͚̫̽͡.̗͔̆̆ ͇̮̂͞.͎͊.-̼̿̕ͅ.͔̠͊̽ ̖͑-̮̤͐̓--̞̦̓̓..̬͠

c̶l̵e̷v̸l̸a̴n̸t̷e̶r̴g̵r̸i̸f̷

brow̠͊n
̝͊
͌͢c̢̔lè͟vȇ̬l̨̇and ḇ͝ṛ̐ő̩wn

c̐͢l̲͆ev̪̉ę̽l̖̎an͖̏d ̰̈́b̹̂r̢͛o̱͡ẅ̪n

̥̌c̻͌lev͖̐ȩ̓l̆͜an̫͠d̳̾ b̮̂r͉̐oẃ͟n
̙̒
̖͗cl͓̀evę̄l̖͠a̳͋n̩̈d ͇͋b͕̅r̨͆ow͔̉n
̞̿
̮̕c͚̿le̡̓v̞̓é̝lǎ̼ṉ̌d b̜̃ŕ̥own̬̍

cľ̫evelaǹ̨d̳̂ ͉͑b̺̕ȓ̢own

clę͊v̂͜é̜lä̧́n͙̆d̯̒ b̡̋ŗ̌own

̾͜c̤̒l̪͞ē͟v̻͌elǎ̦n̼̿d̥͘ ͔͠bro͚͂ẁ̗n̰̂

cl̝͝e̺͘ṿ̉elan͎͡d ̻̀b̟̆rỏ̺wn̑͜

v01C3 St3@l3R

"Twilight?"

"Sunset?"

"C0M3 H3R3..."

.... .- - / .. ... / -. --- - / ... ..- -. ... . - .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-

.͎̄...̧̂ ̜͌-̣̅ -̮̇ .--.̻̄ .̟̾..̮̉ -̢͆--.̣͝..͕͠ ̟͘-.̝̽.̰̎-̬͐. -̖͞.̈́͢.-.͘͜ ̹͝.̡͊-̼̏- .̡́-̞͋-̰͐ .-̌͢-̻̽ .-̛͓.̞͝-.̪͒-̦̀ -.̺̕--̲͠ ̩͂--̱́- .̠̓.- -̨̕ ̱̔.͕̃.̤͘-̭͌ -̞͘.̨͒.. . .-̱̕.-.- ͎̕-.̈́͟-̖͐.͈̽ ̙̌-̛̖-- -̹͐-͚̌ ̞̒-̌͢.̤͝.-̥̃.͕͠ .-͔́-͎͗ .-̥́ ̻̓-̣̾ ̣̂-.̤͞-̠̃.̋͟ .̠̈́.͈̏.̫́. ͉͌..--͚̉..͚̓ ̬̚.̯͗.̘̆.-̧̈́ ̡̕-̪̿...- .̰̌-̃͜-̩̊. .̣̋..̗̕. ̮́.̥̃.̫̄-. ---.̖͑.̤̾ ̲̓.̙͗-̲͘.̝̃ ͚͆-̮̀..̖̽-̺̆ -- ͖̈́-.̧̔. -̩͆.̗͂.̨̑..͉̓-̖̓ ---͉͗-̬̅-͍͂ ͉͞.

D3̣́@̬͋TH ̫̄L1V3S̟̑..̪́.

"I DIDN'T ASK TO BE IN THIS FAMILY!"

Twinkle twinkle little star...

How I wonder where you are...

Up above the world so high...

Like a diamond in the sky...

Chapter 3.30: Through the Portal

Author's Note

This is another spinoff chapter that takes the POV of non-main characters, as in situations like this there's a lot going on at one time. Chapters 3, 3. this one, and a few others in the works are all meant to be happening at one time, the events of the glitches invasion documented from many different characters POV. Here you'll find the plight of the human Mane Six, now finding themselves trapped, the mirror having been corrupted. Can they make it out? Or does their story end here?

Chapter 3.30: Through the Portal

Part 1: QU13T

It was a quiet evening in late October, and like Sunset had been the previous night, Twilight found herself laying on her bed, covered up with a math workbook, used sheets of paper, and other educational items strewn about the room.

Hearing a knock at the door, she got up to go see who it was, but also like Sunset, she wondered who could be visiting this late, their movie night had been 2 days ago, and as far as she knew no one was scheduled to visit. Still, not wanting to be rude in case it was one of her friends, she opened the door.

And screamed.

She was half right, whatever she was looking at was her friend, but a twisted abomination of one.

What she was looking at was Flash, his neck bent at a ninety-degree angle, as well as having no pupils, his eyes just white voids, a strange black glitch-like substance dripping from his mouth like a rabid dog.

"FLASH!" She yelled, "What-what happened to you?!" She said, having fallen on her back and now crawling as fast away as she could while trying to stand up at the same time. In response, the only thing that came out of Flash's mouth was distorted nonsense, like a heavily corrupted audio file.

"What-what are you doing?!" She said in response to her friend extending his arms out towards her. Thinking on her feet, she pivoted, before thrusting all her weight backward then forwards in one motion, the force propelling her feet straight into Flash's stomach, sending him flying out the door.

Now on her feet, Twilight fumbled, trying to get to the door and lock it before he could come back. She had barely gotten it shut and locked before he began banging on the door with such ferocity and strength that she feared it would come down any moment. Not wanting to find out, she ran, flinging a window on the other side of the room open before silently climbing out so that Flash wouldn't hear. It hadn't even been a moment before she heard the door come down, the sound of wood splintering echoing around her. Stumbling, she got to her feet and then ran, hoping to find some cover and her friends. Hiding in some bushes, she poured through her pockets, withdrawing her phone so that she could call each of her friends. Before she could though, she received a call from Rainbow Dash. Making sure her ringer was off before she picked up, she put the phone to her ear, but before she could say a word, Rainbow had already started talking.

"Have you seen what's happening?!" She said, her voice very panicked and panting like she had just run a marathon.

"Depends on what you mean by that." Twilight replied, her voice very shaky.

"I- I don't know! Everyones gone crazy or something! They all have no pupils, and they stalk around like zombies!"

"Have you seen any of our friends?!"

"No! That's what I called you for! None of them are picking up! And worse still, there's some kind of black goo everywhere!"

"DON" T TOUCH IT!" Twilight sputtered, I- I mean I think that's what's causing this."

"It wouldn't take a detective to figure that out! Everyone and everything is covered in it!" She said, followed by a scream and what sounded like Rainbow going into a full sprint again. "Oh god, they found me! At this, Twilight found her stomach dropping even further than it already had, thankfully though, Rainbow was the fastest person she knew, so if anyone could survive, it was her.

"Just hang on! We need to meet up somewhere!"

"O-Okay, let's meet at the high school in about an hour, we may be able to use the portal, but I'm not leaving without the others, be careful please!" She said, the sound of wind roaring through the speaker from whatever Rainbow was running from.

"Alright, stay safe." Twilight said before Rainbow hung up.

"O-Okay Twilight, you can do this, just find your friends and get to the portal, can't be that hard right?" She found saying to herself as a pep talk. Peeking her head out of the bushes, she took a quick look around to make sure none of those things were anywhere before silently jogging out of her cover.

Part 2: L0ST

For the first time in a long while, Rainbow found herself tiring out, the seemingly endless chase between her and the things following her taking its toll. "This doesn't make sense!" She thought to herself, "How are they keeping up with me? No one kept up with me before!" She thought before looking back at her pursuers. They mainly consisted of her former classmates, the ones she could recognize as Snips, Snails, Wallflower, Derpy, and...

Sunset?!

Even with her disfigurations, Rainbow could tell it was her. She was more towards the back, seeming to be fused at the leg to someone she didn't recognize. As much as she would've loved to mourn the loss of her friend, she'd have to outrun her first.

"If I can't outrun them, then I'm gonna have to lose them." She said to herself before turning into a more suburban area of the neighborhood she was in, using fences, chairs, cars, anything she could to lose them. Her athleticism proved to be very useful, as without it she'd have already been caught. To her surprise, her attackers didn't face any of the physical limitations she had, more or less just brute forcing their way through whatever she went past, showing no signs of injury no matter what it was they went through.

"Come on, come on!" Rainbow said under her breath before putting on one last burst of speed, the last of her adrenaline being used up. Looking ahead, she saw what she thought would be her saving grace. Ahead of her was a tall brick wall that was part of one of the more expensive-looking houses. She hadn't ever vaulted over something that high before, but she had no choice if she didn't want to die. Speeding up, she put everything she had into the jump, barely making it high enough to grab the ledge. Pulling herself over, she looked down before jumping, and fortunately, her pursuers were unable to get to her. She would have taunted them, but she had no time for that, especially not now, so jumping down, she continued at a jog, hoping to find more of their friends before getting to the portal.

Part 3: T0G3TH3R

"Stay behind me!" Applejack cried towards a crying Apple bloom, neither of them had any idea what was happening, and despite her best attempts to stay strong for her baby sister, she wanted to cry as well, but that could wait, the only thing that mattered at the moment was staying alive. Despite her strength, she still had a very hard time getting the barn doors shut, her corrupted family members trying to get in, as well as a few randoms, all of them having been corrupted. Finally getting the doors closed, she turned to face everyone who was there. By pure chance, the rest of the ones unaccounted for by Twilight and Rainbow happened to be with her when it all began. The crusaders had been having a sleepover to study for the same upcoming tests as Sunset and Twilight, Fluttershy had wanted to play with the animals on the farm, and Rarity had been perfecting a new line of country-themed youth clothes and wanted to use the crusaders as guinea pigs. Because of this, they had all been in one place when the invasion started, the darkness sweeping over the city like a tsunami, instantly taking whatever and whoever had happened to be there at the wrong time. It had come from the portal that Sunset had gone through the night before, and was now spreading in a circular motion through the land. However they didn't know that Sunset had already gone through, so to everyone except Rainbow, she was MIA.

"Alright, is anyone hurt?' AJ asked.

"I-I don't think so, emotionally yes very much, but not physically." Rarity replied, looking around at the barn they were in. The crusaders, as well as Fluttershy, were all collectively crying in a corner, the sound drowned out by the pounding of those outside.

Looking around the vast room for another way out, AJ found that there was none, that didn't mean they couldn't make a way out, after all, other than the doors most of it was just plain wood slabs, nothing they couldn't break through. Grabbing a shovel, AJ went to one of the weaker portions of the wall and started breaking it down. She'd have to work fast or else they'd be heard.

Also looking around, Rarity found something most unexpected...

A shotgun.

Admittedly, firearms weren't something any of them had ever really paid mind to as they'd never needed it, magic had been more than enough to solve their problems so far, but there was also the fact that well... If you stopped a villian with a gun rather than magic you can imagine how that'd go. There was also the issue of none of them besides AJ knowing how to use one. But seeing their current situation they'd just have to learn.

Rarity inspected it for a second, until then she'd never really been hands-on with one. Pulling the pump back, she watched as a shell ejected from the breech, before loading a new one when she repeated the motion. They didn't know if guns would be any use to them, but it couldn't hurt to try.

"Come on ya'll, we're getting out of here," Aj said while breaking down the last piece of wood so they could get through. "Whoa, Rarity, are you sure you can use that thing?" She questioned, motioning to the life-ender in Rarity's hands.

"Honestly, not really darling, it would probably be better if you used it." Rarity said, handing it to AJ.

"Come on, we gotta get outta here."

"You're gonna need to get them first," Rarity said before gesturing to the CMCs and Fluttershy, who was still in that same corner.

"Fine, keep a watch" AJ replied before heading over, kneeling in front of the four of them, taking her hat off and holding it in front of her "Look yall, I know yer scared, we all are." She paused, "But if we all wanna live to see another day we're gonna need to get out of here." She paused again, "If not for me, do it for your friends." She waited, watching as the four of them slowly picked themselves up.

"Yer right," Applebloom said, her face still red and puffy "Let's go find our friends."

They all gathered near the hole AJ had made, peering out to make sure none of those things were around.

"Okay ya'll, we're gonna need a way to sneak on outta here to start looking for our friends, any ideas?"

Instead of answering with words, Fluttershy walked up to them, covered head to toe in the assorted brush, leaves, hay, etc.

"Just what are you doing looking like that?" AJ asked.

"What, you said you wanted to sneak? Besides, I thought it would be a good idea to take a page out of the book of my chameleons."

"That's- actually not a bad idea," AJ replied.

"Aww, I don't wanna cover myself in dirt!" Rarity quietly cried out.

"Really? We're in the middle of an apocalypse and you're worried about that?" Applebloom said, giving Rarity a "really" look.

"Fine," She said, crossing her arms, meanwhile the others had already started to cover themselves using whatever they could find. Eventually, she joined in as well, just very reluctantly.

Making their way outside, they saw no one as far as the eye could see, the landscape dotted with patches of the dark substance, some moving, some not. Despite this, they still kept a low profile, moving slowly until they got to the woods.

"Does anybody have their cell phone?" AJ asked, breaking their 5-minute silence. They all searched their pockets, Scootaloo eventually coming up with hers. With shaking fingers, AJ dialed Twilight.

Making her way through town, Twilight was heading for the high school where she had agreed to meet Rainbow, who after their call she hadn't heard from since. She didn't want to call in case she was hiding from something, but at the same, it killed her not knowing if her friends were okay or not. Her prayers had been answered, her phone started to buzz in her pocket. Looking at the number, she saw that it was Scootaloo, so she wasted no time picking it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Twilight, this is AJ, thank goodness you're okay."

"If you're who I'm talking to, what are you doing with Scootaloo's phone?"

"Oh, the crusaders, Rarity, Fluttershy and I are all in a group, we were together when everything went to hell."

"Oh thank god, I was so worried that you hadn't made it."

"Nope, we're good."

"Hi, Twilight!" Applebloom interjected from AJ's end.

"Be quiet!" She heard AJ shout at her younger sister.

"Any idea where Rainbow is?"

"Not really, I called her about an hour ago, she picked up but had to start running from something and hung up."

"Oh jeez, I hope she's okay"

"She should be, no one can run faster than her, before she hung up she said to meet her at the high school so we could use the portal."

"What about Sunset?"

"No word from her, I've called 4 times now and got nothing."

"Hmm, well I don't wanna be leaving without her."

"That's what Rainbow said before she hung up, I hope she found her."

"Welp, only time will tell, see you at the high school." AJ said before hanging up. The conversation had left Twilight both hopeful and afraid. All of her friends were okay except Sunset. For a brief moment, Twilight questioned if Sunset had already taken the portal, but quickly shoved the thought out of her head. "No," she thought, "Sunset would never leave us."

"Would she??"

Twilight was interrupted from her thoughts by a building that stood in front of her. "Gun Store" it said. She stopped for a moment, debating whether or not to take any. It had been quiet ever since the invasion began, so it wasn't like she'd be stealing. But then again, she didn't know how to use one either. Sure, she'd read and learned plenty about them over the years, but it was one thing to see a gun on paper and another when you're actually holding one.

Walking inside, Twilight took a moment to analyze the walls in front of her, all of the walls were lined with guns, everything from small handguns to large shotguns and rifles. She spent a few more minutes deciding which to take. Handguns were portable and the easiest to use, but they lacked the stopping power that might be needed. Shotguns packed a huge punch, and you didn't really need to aim, more so just point it in that general direction, but they were also the loudest and couldn't be silenced, so that would attract unwanted attention. Rifles were great for precise fire at range but that was also the problem, you had to be precise, and that isn't ideal for a novice. Ultimately, Twilight decided to just take a few of each, because why not? She walked out of the store with 2 handguns, each strapped to one side of her waist and with silencers on them for stealth. In her hands she carried a shotgun. Being in a tight city space she wouldn't have the liberty of lining up a shot in a pinch. On her back were a rifle and another shotgun, so that 2 of her friends could be strapped to an extent too. She made her way through town, getting closer to the school by the second. She levitated the shotgun in front of her, levitating shells into it before pulling the pump back to cock it. It was hard to explain but she derived great joy from it, the sound of the pump echoing through the alleyway she was in.

Walking past another store, she saw herself in the reflection of the window. As funny as it sounds, she actually digged the look, it gave her a much more badass vibe, the dull colors of the firearms she was carrying a stark contrast to her usual brightly colored clothes. However, this also allowed her to spot the corrupted Bon-Bon moving towards her, her eyes blanked out like everyone else's, her arms dragging by her sides, mouth agape to an unnatural extent. Turning around, Twilight whipped one of her silenced pistols out, putting a bullet directly between Bon Bon's eyes. She crumpled, her body glitching out from the impact. Twilight realized that bullets did not kill them, Bon Bon's body beginning to stir again after only 10 seconds. It did, however, slow her down a great deal, her body now almost incapable of moving for a brief time. Twilight took the chance, sprinting as silently as she could away from her former classmate. back on her route to the school.

Part 4: D3aD H0p3

Over the next few hours, the 3 groups made their way towards the portal, their only hope of leaving this place and getting to Equestria, which they all dearly hoped hadn't already been taken over by whatever this substance that invaded was.

Rainbow was the first to arrive, being the fastest of the group, followed by AJ and her group, then finally Twilight. Now that they were all together, they all walked toward the portal.

And immediately lost almost all hope.

The portal was completely covered, in fact, that was an understatement, it seemed to have been where the stuff had come from, the surrounding area being much more corrupted than any other part of the city. And worse still, Sunset was still nowhere to be found. For a while they all stood there, mouths agape, watching as their only path of escape, and one of their friends seemed to fade right in front of them.

"No, no no no NO!" Twilight cried, getting as close to the portal as she could without touching the black substance.

"Now come on ya'll, I'm sure we can figure another way out of this," AJ said, although her words didn't sound very genuine.

"Where's Sunset?!" Twilight asked, looking at the group with wide eyes.

"Yeah... About that" Rainbow said.

"What happened?!" Twilight said, looking as if she'd kill Rainbow if she didn't answer her.

"You remember when I was getting chased and had to hang up?" She started. "Well, I looked behind me while I was running and... She was one of them." With this they again all went silent, taking in the harsh reality of not all of them making it. Most of them started to cry, others just stood in solemn acceptance. Regaining her composure, Twilight looked up.

"We need to find another way out of here."

"But how? The portal's done fur'!" Aj replied.

"Well... What if I told you there was more than one portal?"

Although it had taken a while, the six of them had eventually found a boat, having retraced their steps and heading to the dock they had made that cruise on that ended up being more loose equestrian magic, and made it to the second portal location.

"Uhh, r' you sure 'bout this?" Aj asked.

"Well, it's not like we have any other options," Twilight replied, staring down at the quicksand below them.

"I'll go first" Rainbow volunteered, taking a few steps into the quicksand, it starting to pull her under.

One by one, they each walked in, all hoping that Equestria had fared better than they had...

Chapter 2.5: The Ex-Boyfriend

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.