The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Twilight —

As the train accelerated, Twilight took a second to reorganize herself and look for any maps or manuals the engine might have been hiding. She was startled when the door behind her opened. Rarity stuck her head through the doorway and caught sight of the bloody hatchet on her hip and dismembered hoof beside Twi. She winced and looked away, easing herself into the small engine room with her.

“I’m sorry,” Rarity said.

“I am too …”

The train was moving at a steady speed now, not taking very long to accelerate given the really small length of it now.

“Is Spike back there?” she asked.

“He is. We’re about to check the other train cars.”

“Oh sweet Celestia, I forgot about that! Do you need my help?”

“No, dear, you need to drive the train. I was just checking on you.”

Twilight made her way to the broken window and used her horn to sweep the bottom free from glass. She then leaned against it and let her front hooves and snout feel the cool wind. “I’m … okay.”

“I know this is even harder on you,” Rarity mentioned.

“How so?”

“You tend to take responsibility for things.”

“I have to.”

“You don’t,” Rarity insisted, “None of this is your fault. And you don’t have to fight this battle alone. We are all a part of this now, and we will come out victorious.”

Twilight sighed.

“This isn’t my fault, no. But what happened at the castle is.”

“Twilight, dear, don’t be so hard on yourself. Somepony turned, that was out of your control. I know you want to look back and ask yourself if you could have done anything differently, but we can’t reverse time. You did what you could to help. They know that too, whether or not they made it out.”

There was a few seconds of silence. Rarity set her hoof on her shoulder.

“We have to focus on now. You got the train running for goodness sake, that has to count for something. Even if ... I'm slightly terrified right now.”

Twilight turned her head and smiled warily. It was quickly replaced by worry.

“But what if Canterlot is falling apart? What if we show up too late? We could be riding to our deaths.”

She had been pretty shaken by what had happened at the castle. She was only partly relieved by Celestia’s letter as her anxiety was slowly building. Everything seemed uncertain now. For a pony as curious as herself, this was unacceptable. She wanted to find out who was alive, if Canterlot was okay, if her friends were okay, if Devan was okay ... She worried more and more as this nightmare continued.

“Twilight, dear. We will face it when we get there. Together. Whatever happens, we have to keep going. Somepony will end this, sooner or later. Let’s try our best to be the ones to do so.”

Twilight looked at her and smiled, given a new sense of hope. The moment was cut short when they heard a loud train horn out the window.

She stuck her head out the window fully to get a better look down the tracks ahead. Another train’s headlight shone brightly in the distance as the train laid on the horn again. “Fuck!” she yelled, sticking her head back inside the car. She frantically pulled down the emergency brake lever as Rarity peeked at what she was looking at. The window was only wide enough to fit one of their heads, so Rarity pulled back as Twilight stuck her head out of the window again.

The approaching train was barreling down the tracks, and Twilight realized no amount of braking would prevent the imminent collision. The trains were already mere seconds away from impact. Before Twilight could turn to warn Rarity, she felt hooves shove her bottom up, and her body started to fall out of the window. Wind buffeted against her as she tumbled out to the grass below, rolling over and over as her body slowed. As she rolled, a deafening boom rocked her eardrums before her mind faded to darkness.

Her forelegs radiated with new pain as she awoke. She felt cool grass underneath her as she slowly started to feel her body again. With her head laid against it, she opened her eyes to a blur. As they focused, she saw the train tracks beside her. She also saw the last car that had been on their train. The car looked off-center, and she slowly realized it was partially derailed, with its right set of wheels sitting in between the rails.

She rose her head and looked back to see the other train engine. The train engine she had been in was hidden behind it, and both of them sat halfway in the tracks. The other engine leaned at an angle with one set of its remaining wheels sitting on the grass behind her. The front half of it with the smoke stack was crumpled in on itself, and some of its dislodged wheels had rolled near the treeline. She noticed blood splattered on the shattered, heart-shaped window.

Her eyes lit up with shock as she realized Rarity and Spike were still somewhere in the mess. She hastily got up from the grass, ignoring the pain in her hooves as she ran in between the cars of her train to get to the other side. Behind her derailed engine was the less-severely derailed open train car. On the grass beside it, Spike was laid out. She panicked as she approached the dragon, but as she did, she saw him wriggling his body.

“Spike!” she cried, awkwardly trotting up to his side.

“I’m fin-“ he coughed, “I’m fine!”

Twilight helped him sit up. Besides a few scratches, he looked fine. She told him to stay still while she went to search for Rarity. The open car and engine had been squished together as they derailed, so she wasn’t able to access the door on the backside of the engine. Her derailed engine also tipped an an angle, so she was able to look up through the broken left window. Inside, Rarity was laying next to the dashboard. Panicked, she reached up and crawled her way through the busted window. The inside was splattered with blood that must have flown out of the conductor's hoof when the trains collided. She leaned over her friend.

“Rarity? …”

With her hoof, she turned Rarity’s limp head toward her, only to see blood trickle from her dented forehead. Her eyes remained shut, and she was no longer breathing.

“RARITY!” Twilight cried, sobbing uncontrollably as tears rushed from her misty eyes. She held her head against Rarity’s, succumbing to a sudden, overwhelming sense of grief. She struggled to come to grips of whether or not what she was experiencing was real as her friend's recent words floated inside her mind. Spike stubbornly joined her a minute later, and she watched him suffer a strong sense of grief as well. He burst out in tears beside her. Twilight turned and hugged him closely, dripping tears on his scaly back. It took her a couple more minutes of grieving until she could come back to her senses.

“Spike,” she called quietly, “... we need to go.”

She grabbed his claw with her hoof and gently tugged it while he mourned. The dragon stubbornly resisted, but he eventually surrendered and followed her out of the window. Still struggling to grasp the reality of what was happening, she shook thoughts from her head as she turned her attention to the train that had hit them. She pondered why there was a train coming this way, wondering if it was just here to collect evacuees, or if there was more to it.

The first car she could see past her derailed train was the third car. Behind that one was three more cars, meaning the train that struck them was twice as long. She glanced through the third car’s windows and saw a knocked-out light blue mare pegasus laying on one of the seats. She watched nervously as her chest moved up and down. Surprisingly, there was nopony else inside. She beat on the window, but the mare was out cold. Spike followed her to the next car, but just as they got ready to check its windows, a tall white pony stepped out from between the last two cars.

Princess Celestia?

Twilight took a second to observe her, seeing if what she saw was right. It really was Celestia. She was limping slightly and had a small amount of blood running down her left flank, but otherwise she appeared to be okay.

“Princess Celestia?” she called. The princess turned to her and opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't. Twilight galloped awkwardly on her aching hooves toward her and wrapped them around Celestia’s foreleg. Celestia returned the gesture by placing her other foreleg on Twilight's back.

"Twilight ... are ... are you alright, dear?"

Twilight refused to let go, weeping on her hoof. Celestia gave her the time to do so. As they disconnected, she saw Princess Luna step out of the car as well.

“What ... are you two doing here?” she asked them.

Celestia set a hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight … I’m so sorry. That letter I sent you earlier ... it took too long to reach you.”

She looked back up at her with frightful eyes. “W- what ... what does that mean?”

Celestia sighed. “Canterlot is overrun. We were forced to flee as our castle was breached. I ... I am sorry.”

Twilight dropped her head in defeat, still struggling to get Rarity’s words out of it.

“Twilight," the princess continued, "Is anybody with you and Spike?”

“R- r-” she struggled, “-Rarity ...” Her lips quivered as she started breaking down again. Spike sat behind her, covered his eyes, and rocked himself back and forth. Celestia realized the extent of the train crash as she looked at the derailed train behind her. It was then that a royal guard crossed in between the train cars beside them and limped to meet them.

“Your majesties, I am so sorry!” he cried.

Celestia released her hoof from Twilight and turned to him.

“BLAZE! What the HELL was that?! Why were you going so fast? I ORDERED you to go SLOWLY.”

“I’m sorry, princess! I was, but I ... I let Drift operate it temporarily.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!!” she yelled.

Twilight looked up. She rarely saw Celestia get this angry. She watched as the princess fumed, stepping forward to stand tall over the guard.

“What in Equestria were you thinking? YOU were supposed to operate the train, not him.”

Blaze could not help but tremble underneath her glare, likely shaken by the crash as well. “P-please ... I’m sorry … I just needed a break ... please ....”

“Sister.” Luna trotted up beside Celestia. “Let him be. We are all pretty shaken up after Canterlot.”

Celestia reluctantly bowed her head before setting a hoof on the guard’s chest. “We will discuss this later. Where is Drift?”

“He’s … he’s dead …” Blaze uttered.

Celestia took her hoof off of him and cursed to herself. “What about Typhoon?”

“Is that the blue pegasus?” Twilight asked, wiping tears from her face.

"It is."

"I saw her. She's passed out in one of the cars."

Celestia sighed. “Alright ... let’s get her out.”

“We’re gonna have to break the windows ..." Blaze mentioned, “the ... the door to the car she’s in was jammed.”

“Guys,” Spike interrupted, “look!”

He pointed down the track that Celestia's train had come from. Twilight looked to see almost a dozen zombie ponies trotting toward them down the track. They must have followed Celestia’s train, but she was confused as to where they came from. There was no way these ponies were from Canterlot.

“Damn it,” Celestia said, “we have to hurry.”

The group followed Celestia to the side of the train car that Typhoon was in. Twilight looked inside to find her wiggling around on top of the seat inside. It looked like she was in pain. Celestia pressed her horn against the window beside her and cocked her head. As she cranked it in the opposite direction, she slowly pushed the tip of her horn against the glass. This corkscrew motion caused the glass to form a small crack. She then turned around and readied her hind legs before bucking the glass powerfully with them. The glass shattered loudly as her large hind legs violently smashed into the window. Inside, the mare covered her head as shards of glass sprinkled onto her.

“Typhoon!” Celestia called through the window, “are you alright?”

“My hoof ...” she replied, holding up her left foreleg.

“Come out. We have to go now.”

Celestia reached her hoof through the window. Ty grabbed hold with her good hoof. Twilight joined her, and with her help, they carefully pulled the mare out of the car. The group of zombies were getting close now, only a train length away. Celestia and Luna stood beside Ty as she stood on the grass, hopping away from the train. The mare tried to step on her wounded hoof, but grimaced as she quickly pulled it back up.

"It hurts bad. I don't know if I can walk."

"Hop on," Celestia said, leaning down so the mare could get on her back.

"Are- are you sure, princ-"

"NOW!"

Ty rushed on top of the princess's back and held on with her three good legs.

“Let's go!” Celestia ordered.

Twilight took one last look at Rarity through the window of her train engine before moving on. She grabbed her stick and saddlebags as they passed. She then galloped with the rest of the group down the tracks. It wasn’t until they had galloped for a minute when she remembered something. She came to an abrupt stop. “Wait!”

“What?!” Celestia hollered, stopping in front of her, “Twilight, we need to move!”

“There are more of them this way! I completely forgot. They chased us on the train.”

“How many?” the princess asked.

“At least six.”

Celestia huffed, looking around at the forest beside the tracks. It was dense, but not too dense for them to trot through. Luna looked over at her. “Why don’t we hide and let them pass?” she suggested.

Celestia weighed the option for a moment. “Yeah … okay. But let’s run for a minute until we are out of sight.”

Luna agreed, and they all galloped down the tracks for another minute. The zombie ponies behind them were still in their sight, but they were a safer distance now. They could only hope that they weren’t seen as they shimmied through the thick bushes beside the tracks. After backing away from the tracks a bit more, they managed to get really low in the thick bushes, laying themselves flat on the ground. Twilight watched through a less dense section of shrubs in front of her and waited.

“How long do we wait?” Blaze whispered.

“As long as it takes,” Celestia answered, “just shut up and stay still.”

From her vantage point, Twilight just barely saw the last car on her train. To her surprise, there were no zombie ponies between them and the train. She waited for another two minutes, but they never came. She then turned her head and looked down the tracks toward the station. The few zombies she had warned them about were approaching now. She shimmied back and waited, then watched anxiously as the six ponies passed.

Their pale-colored bodies trotted along the track. From pony to pony, the amount of blood on their coats, as well as bite marks and torn flesh, varied. One of the last ones even had her shoulder bone sticking out of her coat. She watched as the six seemingly stuck together as a group intentionally. However these zombies came to be, they had done so very efficiently. For a moment, she was fascinated by them. The scientist in her was awoken. She took a moment to observe their movement patterns and strange habits like raising and lowering their slobbering jaws occasionally. They were almost completely past them when a stallion at the rear of the pack lowered his head to the ground. She watched, intrigued, until she realized the pony was sniffing the ground. He turned while his nose worked, until he was facing them. He then rose his head and growled.

“Shit,” Celestia muttered.

“We can take him out quietly,” Luna reassured, “right Twilight?”

Twilight looked back at her hatchet. “I think so …” She watched as the pony approached, but regretfully, two more of them turned their heads and started following the sniffer. They had almost no time left to react as they all rustled the bushes getting up.

“Get to the station!” Celestia yelled, pausing for a moment so Ty could climb on her back. She and Luna then stood up and followed Blaze out of the bushes. Twilight and Spike followed closely behind. The sniffing zombie pony was close enough to leap on her as she jumped out of the bushes, so she was forced to slice his face with the hatchet. His cheek took the brunt of the cut, and he stumbled to the ground, giving her enough time to flee.

It took them another roughly fifteen minutes of running to reach the station. By now, the fire was out, and grey smoke rose high in the sky. Twilight noticed a hoofful of zombie ponies hovering around the station, likely drawn by the grey cloud.

“Do we go inside?” Blaze asked.

“Yes,” Celestia replied, “we need somewhere to hole up so we can recuperate.”

“Shouldn’t we try the hospital?” Spike asked.

“Not right now. We're not in a position to risk going into town, and using the outskirts would take us too long. Let’s give it some time.”

A zombie pony from the station noticed them and started to approach. He was blocking their way to the platform’s stairs, so Twilight took the lead. She pulled out Rarity’s stick from behind her and gripped it tightly with her teeth. When she arrived, she shoved the stick against his neck, pushing his head up to prevent his teeth from biting her. She was able to hold him up long enough for Blaze and the princesses to pass and climb up the stairs to the platform. Spike ran forwards and whacked the pony with his baseball bat. This only slightly phased him, but a second, more powerful hit sent the stallion to the ground. She and Spike then ran up the platform to find the others rushing into the station’s door. They followed suit and slammed the door shut behind them.

The station’s waiting room looked empty as far as they could tell. Only the restrooms were unclear. She noticed Blaze grab hold of a waiting bench from the lobby and went to help him. After they pushed it up against the door, she stood next to the window, peeking out of it to watch the few ponies pass by. Only a few seconds later, they started to bang on the door.

For the next minute, Twilight observed their situation. In the vaguely illuminated station, the others limped to chairs and other spots inside away from the front door. She took note of everypony's injuries and realized they might be in here for a while.