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.