The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan —

The path to the station was empty, fortunately, but my mind was not. I held my baseball bat against my shoulder. There had also been a backpack for me at the bottom of the box, where we all stuffed the rest of the supplies in. The only exception was the combat knife, which Dash carried inside a holster strapped to her foreleg. Glancing down at my holstered pistol, I watched as the deadly steel glimmered in the sunlight. I really, really hoped I would not have to use it, but I was slowly realizing that I might have to soon. Celestia put it clearly: I needed to protect the others. It made sense, so I kept it tucked by my waist, ready to go if need be. I thought about Twilight and how Celestia had mentioned her in the note. I guess she thought we would be together by this point, and I was very disappointed that we weren’t.

The train station was in our sights now. Luckily, there was a passenger train with at least three cars parked out front. A few ponies were gathered outside on the station platform, and a conductor with a blue and white striped vest and conductor’s hat was leaning out of the train engine’s window. We realized the ponies were having a conversation with him. I checked out the ponies on the platform when we were close enough to make them out. I grew a sliver of hope for a second when I saw a purple pony in the crowd with wings. It quickly faded, however, when I noticed her mane and tail were blue and had a swept-back style.

When we got close, we heard hostile voices. The conductor shouted from his train engine at the ponies on the platform. Clearly, there was an argument going on. The others and I ran up the steps to the platform to hear what they were fighting about.

“We don’t know that!” shouted the conductor.

Dash moved up to join the conversation. “Know what?”

The conductor turned his attention to her. “That - I - that -” he stuttered, “Look. This train is not leaving the station until I get further notice from Canterlot.”

“further notice?” Flutters asked.

“Yes. I got word from Canterlot that I must keep this train here until further notice. I am not disobeying their orders.”

“How long ago was this?” I questioned.

The conductor checked his watch. “About half an hour now.”

“Well,” Dash said, “Princess Celestia sent us a letter, telling us to make our way to Canterlot quickly.”

The conductor looked at her, puzzled. He reached out his hoof. “Let me see, please.”

I grabbed the folded letter from my back pocket and handed it to him. He read it and gained a confused expression on his face. “When did she send you this?”

“Maybe fifteen, twenty minutes ago. We got here as fast as we could.”

He stared at the note for a few more seconds until a scream broke out from one of the train cars down the platform. Two mares rushed out of the fourth train car, followed by a trail of grey smoke. The conductor quickly hoofed me back the note, jumped out of his engine, and galloped down the platform to check his train. Dash, Flutters, and I exchanged glances before following him as the nervous onlookers from the platform backed away.

The conductor peeked his head in the car but backed off as a thick cloud of smoke billowed out of it. He shouted angrily as he grabbed a set of keys from his vest pocket. He then ran up to the station’s maintenance door. Flutters and I stopped as Dash snuck forward, creeping her head toward the window to see what had caught on fire. Whatever it was, it was spreading quickly.

“Dash, get out of there!” Flutters snarled.

“No!” the conductor yelled from behind us, struggling to unlock the maintenance door, “Get back!”

Dash started to back up when an explosion rocked the train car, sending her falling backward on the platform. Glass from the windows exploded, sending flying bits all it. She was struck by some of this glass, and Flutters and I were sprinkled with some of it.

“Dash!”

The fire took over a large chunk of the train car as Flutters and I grabbed ahold of Dash and pulled her back to safety. Dash started coughing, recovering from the blow.

“What the hell was that?!” I yelled back at the conductor.

He made his way out of the maintenance closet with a fire extinguisher in his hoof. “There are fuel cans stored in there!” he shouted, “... were stored!”

I leaned down next to Dash. Flutters helped me sit her up, patting her back supportively as she coughed up mucus. The conductor rushed up to the side of the train car, spraying the extinguisher through the busted windows. He could tell that it was not enough to stop the fire, so he stopped spraying for a moment and looked back at us.

“Hey!” he called, “There are some buckets inside the maintenance closet. There’s a small pond just past those trees.” He pointed past the train and slightly down the tracks to Canterlot. “Please help me!”

I checked on Dash again, but she seemed to be in no shape to help yet. There were small patches of blood on her face and neck, and there was pain written on her facial expression. I exchanged a glance with Flutters.

“you go,” she said, “i’ll look after her.”

“Thank you.”

I smiled as I briefly took off my backpack. After carefully sliding my bat inside the tall mesh pocket on the side, specifically meant to hold it, I flung the backpack back over my shoulders. A few of the onlookers had overheard the situation and trotted toward us.

“We can help too,” the light-purple pegasus I had seen earlier said. I could not think of her name off the top of my head, but I did know her.

“Okay, please hurry!” the conductor insisted, continuing to spray the train car.

The other ponies and I rushed into the maintenance closet. There were three buckets inside, one with a mop sticking out. The purple pegasus and I grabbed the empty buckets first and sprinted down the platform. As I passed the car on fire, I saw the conductor messing with something between the burning car and the one in front of it. His extinguisher lay on the ground in front of the blaze, dribbling its last drops out of the nozzle. The car was still fuming, with the escaping smoke slowly darkening to a blacker color. Now the train car behind it was starting to smoke as well as it’s roof caught the inferno’s growing heat.

I led the way to where the conductor had pointed with the purple mare and three others on my tail. I looked back while we ran to see two of them carrying plastic storage bins just a bit larger than our buckets. This made me gain a little more faith in our efforts.

The trees gave way to a sparkling blue pond. I came to a stop at the pond’s edge after nearly falling in and leaned down to grab a bucketful of water. The purple mare stopped next to me and did the same. While we did, I noticed two ponies coming out of the trees on the opposite side of the pond. Their pale bodies and traces of blood indicated their undead status.

“Careful,” I mentioned, elbowing the mare beside me as she stood up.

“I see them.”

I figured we had time to do one more run before having to deal with them. I planned on using my baseball bat to knock them out, so I did not have to kill them. For now, it stayed attached to my backpack so I could focus on carrying the bucket. I was careful not to let too much water spill on my way back. When I rounded the corner and approached the fire, I saw the conductor still in between the train cars. I noticed he was messing with the latch connecting them. He also looked to be having trouble with it.

I considered helping him but decided against it, so that I could take care of the zombie ponies by the pond. I aimed the water bucket for the window closest to the engine and splashed water through it. A grey cloud of smoke and mist billowed out of the window, indicating the water had hit its target. As I turned and hurried back to the pond, I was passed by the light purple mare, and then the others.

When I rounded the corner of trees again, I realized the zombie ponies had traveled farther than I expected them to. Now, they were making their way almost to where we had grabbed the first buckets of water. I dropped my bucket by my side and reached up my right hand, gripping the handle of my baseball bat. With one swift pull, I pulled it out of its mesh holder and set up for a swing.

The first mare came around the pond's edge and lunged forward, but she was halted when I whacked her across the face. She staggered, and another strong blow sent her to the ground, unmoving. The second one was a brown coat stallion who followed her lead. I raised my bat and took a step forward while I swung, but the soggy ground next to the pond caused me to lose my footing and slip. My aim was thrown off, and the bat grazed the stallion’s mane. He was unfazed by this and now close enough to jump on top of me. After swinging my fists up and punching him a few times, I was forced to flex my elbows to hold him back with my forearms. Slowly, he pressed his snapping teeth closer and closer to my neck.

I tried reaching for my gun, but releasing my right hand’s grip gave the pony enough leeway to press closer, biting his teeth just inches away from my face. Rolling him off was too risky, as he could bite me after I lost hold of him. And while bites did not seem to affect me, blood loss from them surely would. Either way, it was not proven that I was okay from Pinkie’s bite yet, so the risk was not worth it.

While I struggled, the pony and his weight were instantly pulled off of me as the purple mare bucked him hard with her rear legs, sending him into the water. This gave me enough space to get up on my knees and pick up my bat. I stood up quickly as he lunged a second time and, planting my feet firmly in the ground this time, I whacked him across the head. The blow sent him down to the ground and another made sure he stayed there.

“Thank you,” I told the mare.

“You’re welcome,” she replied, with the bucket still in her mouth. She turned to grab more water.

“Hey,” I interrupted her, “what’s your name again?”

“Cloudchaser. Yours?”

“Dev-“

“It was a joke, idiot,” she smiled, grabbing another bucket of water.

I smiled and followed her lead. The train was in sight as we ran around the trees, the fourth and fifth cars still producing flames. The conductor was no longer in between the cars. We heard a loud squeal and watched as the engine and first three cars detached from the blaze, slowly rolling down a dip just after the train station. It came to a slow stop a few car-lengths ahead. He must have just released some kind of brake, because steam was still not coming from the smokestack.

After splashing the car again, I saw the conductor run out from the train engine and begin circling the train cars that were still attached. He glanced at me before getting low behind the last car, inspecting the coupling that had detached the two cars. I turned to look back at the fifth car, which was now starting to spit out smoke through the creases of the windows as well. I also happened to see more zombie ponies approaching the end of the train.

They were still a distance away, but would probably need to be handled soon. I checked the platform and saw Dash shake her head next to Flutters. She was sitting up now, thankfully. I looked back at the conductor. He was on the other side of the train, inspecting the wheels.

“Hey!” I shouted, moving closer to talk to him, “should we just leave the burning cars?”

“No. Keep going. We might need them later.”

I looked back at the approaching zombie ponies. Cloudchaser was already running back to get more water, and the other ponies were tossing theirs on the fire. Judging by the distance, I assumed I could grab one more bucket before having to deal with them. I followed Cloud back to the pond and scooped another bucket with her. Rounding the corner of the trees again, I saw Flutters running with Dash along the platform, heading toward the detached front of the train. I kept running as I watched a pale maroon zombie mare follow them. When I got closer, I realized it wasn’t one of the ponies I had seen before. Those ponies were getting nervously close to the station now. I dropped my bucket and pulled out my baseball bat again to fight.

But as I approached between the separated cars, another zombie stallion came around the corner of the one on fire. When he saw me, he abandoned chasing the others and jumped off the platform in front of me. He crossed the tracks and continued toward me. When he was close, I set up the bat over my shoulder and swung once more, knocking the stallion to the ground. He squirmed to get up as another zombie mare turned the corner. I backed up to engage her when I felt a hoof on my leg.

“Dev-“

Instinctively, I turned around and swung the bat, thinking one had snuck up on me. Cloud nearly got the bat to her face, ducking just underneath it as I swung.

“Devan!” she shouted.

“Sorry!”

“We need to go!” She pulled on my leg, pulling me toward the front of the train. I saw the other zombie ponies moving along the side of the caboose now, close enough to join the two I was engaging. The groups were turning into a full-on mob as another one rounded the burning car.

I ran with Cloud up to the train engine. She kept going, but I stopped, noticing the conductor inside the engine. He was messing with the controls, attempting to get the train started. The ponies were too close to risk getting on the train, and there were too many of them coming. I knocked on the window, but he ignored me.

“Devan!” Cloud shouted, “come on!”

I reluctantly rejoined her and ran down the tracks. The other three ponies fighting the fire with us arrived too late, drawing a couple of the ponies that were chasing us to them. One of the live ones, who had a tan coat and blonde mane with pigtails down to her neck, was able to juke them and make her way toward us. The mare quickly caught up with us as we ran. The other two were forced to gallop back toward the pond to get away from them, disappearing behind the trees.

I looked around as we passed the front of the train engine and saw Dash and Flutters running on the opposite side of the tracks. We all met eyes and joined on the track, running for our lives.