The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan —

After a solid fifteen to twenty minutes of running, and galloping, we had finally made enough distance from the mob to slow down to a walking speed. All of us took in much-needed breaths as we continued down the track. The rising sun beamed down on us, but thankfully, the autumn weather felt nice. Despite my sweat, I felt quite cozy in my cargo pants and fleece jacket.

“Are we really doing this?” the new, tan mare asked me. I happened to be the target of this question, since I was unintentionally leading the pack. I looked over my shoulder at her.

“What? Walking?” I asked.

“No. Not fighting them …”

Dash joined in, “We don’t know how many are back there now. There could be even more. These things seem to group up a lot.”

“Well, why don’t we just wait and see?” she suggested, stopping on the tracks behind us.

“Suit yourself …” Dash carried on.

I stopped and looked back at her freckled face. She looked like a country mare, with a blonde hairstyle not very different from Applejack's. The only difference was the hair behind her head, which tied into two pigtails instead of AJ's ponytail. Her tail was also shorter and did not have a band near the end of it. The mare's cutie mark was a wrench and screwdriver in an X-shape, which looked pretty badass, at least to me. Dash eyed me as she walked up to my side, nudging me to keep moving.

“Come on," I pressed the mare, "Dash is right,"

She glanced at the gun on my hip, furrowing her brow curiously. She then eyed the bat I was holding against my shoulder as well as Dash's foreleg knife.

“Why not? We need that train,” she stressed.

“We don’t,” Cloud said.

“WE DO! It’s been half a day!” She started getting a kind of fire in her voice. “Look at what's already happened! If we walk, we won’t get there till tomorrow. Will there even be anythin' left by then?!”

We were all stopped now, still catching our breaths from the run. There was a slight curve in the tracks where we had come from, hiding the rest behind the trees of the forest on either side. I thought about the possibility of going back, but I worried that we wouldn’t be able to fend for ourselves. In reality, I could shoot my gun as they came, taking most of them out before they got close. However, I had never fired a gun before, and I knew it couldn’t be as easy as it looked. I looked back at the tan mare, who was already locking her bright blue eyes with mine.

“What’s your name?” I asked her.

“Spark,” she answered.

“Well, it is nice to meet you, Spa-”

“Devan,” Dash interrupted, “We don’t have the time.”

“Hold on, Dash. So, Spark … where were you planning to take the train to? Canterlot? Or somewhere else?”

“Canterlot,” she replied, “My dad is there.”

“That is where we are going. While it may take us until tomorrow, it will still be there. Celestia herself said it was safe there. We shouldn't risk getting bitten right now.”

Spark looked to the side, sucking on her teeth. She glanced around at the others, then down the tracks behind them. It was clear she was very hesitant about walking, but it looked like she was starting to understand the reasoning behind it. She sighed and looked back up at me.

“Alright then. Let’s keep going.”

“Shit,” Cloud cussed. She was looking down the tracks behind us, so I looked up to see what she was seeing. The zombie ponies were making their way around the bend now. They were still quite a distance away, but they had made decent progress closing the gap.

“Come on!” Dash yelled, taking the lead and galloping the other way. We all followed her, once again, running for our lives. We ran for another ten minutes until we encountered a tunnel ahead of us. The hill the tunnel ran through extended on either side of the track as far as we could see through the greenery. On either side of us, the forest had grown thicker the farther from Ponyville we got. With one arm, I slung my backpack in front of me and set my baseball bat back in its mesh. I then pulled out the flashlight inside before tossing the backpack over my shoulders again. We all exchanged nervous glances but were too out of breath to speak as we all entered the dark tunnel.

The tunnel was either too long or had a bend that prevented us from seeing light from the other end, so I turned the flashlight on to see. The flashlight Celestia had packed me was surprisingly strong, illuminating much of the tunnel right ahead of us. The tracks took up most of the narrow tunnel space, and the rough stone walls seemed to encapsulate us. Above, the tunnel arched in a looming pattern, and the echo of our steps crunching on the gravel below carried through it.

Despite being able to see now, we kept our speed to a light jog to prevent tripping on the rough tracks. Once again, I took the front of the pack since I had the light. I occasionally turned back to make sure the others were still following.

“Good gravy, how long's this damn tunnel?” Spark growled.

“Too damn long,” Dash agreed.

We continued jogging, and trotting, through it for a couple of minutes until a light appeared around the corner of a slight bend in the tracks. Thankfully, it looked like we only had a few minutes of jogging left until we were out of the increasingly creepy tunnel. We picked up our pace as the light grew slowly brighter. I then noticed the light grow dimmer. Shortly after, I started feeling weird vibrations through the tracks below.

I adjusted my eyes to see why when I noticed the light turn into a weird eclipse-like shape. Then, the previously silent echoes of the tunnel carried an eerie rumbling. We all stopped in our tracks as the light was quickly taken over by a smaller light, and the rumbling sound slowly grew louder with the vibrations.

“FUCK! It’s a fucking train!” Spark hollered.

It was a train. Why on planet Earth and Equestria combined was there a train headed this way? We were probably about halfway in the train tunnel already, and the the light of the train seemed to be moving very quickly. Too quickly to even attempt outrunning it. Even if we did, we would be met with zombie ponies at the other end. There was nowhere to escape. My veins ran hot as an unsettling fear ran through them.

“What do we do?!” Cloud shouted.

The tunnel was narrow, but it still offered a small amount of space on either side of the tracks. I shined my flashlight at the wall and pondered if we would be able to fit without getting hit. Dash caught on.

“Just get against the side! It’s our best bet!” she yelled.

I shined the light on the left wall as we all lined up against it, pressing our bodies against the cold stone. I took the front of the line and looked back to account for the others. When I felt my backpack brush the cold wall, I pulled it off and set it against the wall beside me to reduce my size. I held the flashlight by my side, pointing it at the floor to keep some part of the tunnel lit for us. Cloudchaser stood beside me, unintentionally brushing her mane against my hip as she pressed her left side against the wall.

The vibration was strong now, along with the rumbling that echoed through the tunnel. The light shone brighter and brighter until it lit all of us up. This train seemed to be moving quickly, so I hoped we wouldn’t have to stand like this for long. I sucked in my already flat gut and pressed as hard as I could when the deafening engine flew by my face. The wall had offered me very little breathing room as the car behind the train engine zipped by my face just a few feet away. The wind from the speeding train started to push against my left side as I held my breath against the wall.

I had used the trains in Ponyville quite a bit to get to and from Celestia in Canterlot. Not once in my stay had I witnessed any of the trains move this absurdly fast before. The wind associated with the train proved to be too much for my body to handle, causing me to lose my footing for a second. My body was pushed to the right, causing me to push against Cloud’s. I regained my footing soon after by using every ounce of my strength, but before I did, I heard Cloud scream out.

The last car finally passed just a second later. I exhaled deeply, relieved. I looked down by my side to see why Cloud had yelled. The light from my flashlight shone on the ground, illuminating my feet and her front half. My heart stopped as I saw blood, and I looked on the tracks beside her to see ... her detached front hoof. She raised what was left of her shaky front right foreleg and stared at it. I looked on mortified as she looked up at me, shock covering her face before she fell sideways and passed out.

“Cloud!!!” I screamed, dropping the flashlight as I unstuck myself from the wall and kneeled by her side. The flashlight shone down the tracks where the train was headed and illuminated the others. I looked up and quickly checked, but everybody else seemed to be okay.

“Awe shit!” Spark yelled, galloping beside me.

Flutters picked up the flashlight in her mouth as she and Dash joined us. Under her light, we rolled her over to get her right foreleg above her. Flutters messed around with the light before yelling, “there isn’t enough light for me to work here! we need to get her out!”

I looked down the tunnel again. We still had a ways to go. Looking back at Flutters, I saw the seriousness of her statement in her blue eyes alone. She was the only one out of us that could save Cloud, so it only made sense for us to follow her lead. I quickly stood up and tossed on my backpack again.

“We still have a ways to go!” Dash protested.

“It’s okay!” Spark yelled, “We can get her there. Both of us can carry her on our backs.”

Dash nervously agreed, and we all worked to set Cloud up across their backs. As Cloud's wounded foreleg hung over Dash’s left side, blood started dripping from her unsightly stub.

“Devan!” Flutters shouted, “hold her hoof!”

I grabbed ahold of her hoof and held it awkwardly in both of my hands as we started running toward the end of the tunnel. I used my left hand to cover it as my right one held it up, but her warm blood continued to flow onto my hand. I frantically pushed my hand against it, feeling the warm liquid slowly seep through my closed fingers.

Please, Cloud, please don’t do this to me.

We reached the end of the tunnel quickly, adjusting to Celestia’s bright sun as we rushed Cloud to the grass beside the track. Dash and Spark laid her out as I held onto her hoof. The sun shone brightly on her, revealing dots of blood on her chest and face. I let go of her hoof as Flutters pulled my backpack off of me to get to our first-aid supplies. Blood was oozing from Cloud's hoof, and both of my hands were now fully covered with it.

“Devan, get back,” Dash said, grabbing me by the armpit and pulling me away from her. Flutters took my place, and Spark got on the other side to help her as she dug into my bag. I stood up and turned around, taking a few steps away from them. I held my shaky red hands out in front of me, watching as blood droplets fell off of them. I couldn’t hear Dash behind me as I dropped to my knees, guilt quickly filling my soul.

“Devan!” Dash shouted, galloping to stand in front of me. I looked into her eyes, but she could sense my shock. She lowered her head as I lowered my gaze. “No, Devan, look at me.”

I looked into her eyes, fighting to see through the tears welling at the bottom of mine.

“Keep looking. Take some breaths.”

My chest expanded as I inhaled, listening to her advice. She guided me through some deep breaths that helped slow my rapidly beating heart. She then wrapped her hooves around me in a hug. I hesitantly returned it, keeping my blood-soaked palms off her coat.

“Thank you,” I said.