The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Trixie —

The zombie mare’s face disappeared briefly as Trixie’s blue magic orb zipped toward Split and her. The mare stood upright on her hind legs behind the dumpster, reaching her forelegs above it. Her hoof was just a hoof-length away from snatching Split’s hind leg as Vinyl desperately tried to pull him up. Trixie watched Split close his eyes as her orb approached.

The orb then zipped beside his face, striking the zombie mare behind him square between the eyes. The force of her shove spell was strong enough to push the mare’s head back, causing her to lose balance and fall backward. She fell on top of the zombie stallion right behind her, giving her and Vinyl enough time to pull Split up on the awning with them.

The metal groaned louder this time as he tried lifting himself up beside her. A second later, the supports below them snapped, tipping the whole awning forty-five degrees. Split and Vinyl were able to steady themselves on the awning, but Trixie started slipping off the crooked platform. Her body started sliding over the edge until Split forcefully hooked his foreleg around her front hoof. She desperately clung onto the awning with her other foreleg as the sound of zombie ponies from below grew.

She looked down, hind legs dangling above the growing horde of zombie ponies. She curled them up to her belly to prevent the mob from grabbing them as they jumped up and down on their forelegs. She looked back up to see Vinyl balancing herself against a window not far above the awning they were on. Vinyl then started striking the window with her horn in an attempt to break the glass, unable to buck it due to the awning’s instability.

She looked up at Split, who had wedged one of his hind legs in the newly formed gap between the wall and awning. He was trying to wedge his other hind leg too, but it was proving difficult. He turned to look back at her.

“Just hold on, Trix! I got you.”

“Thank you,” she whispered through her fright.

She turned her attention back to Vinyl, who was struggling to break the window. She had managed to create a sizable crack in it, but it still would not give. Trixie shouted at her to stand aside while she readied a rather complex blast spell. After a stretched-out seven seconds, she released it toward the window, generating enough force to shatter the glass. Vinyl then began sweeping the remaining glass shards aside using her horn.

The spell she used required quite a lot of energy to perform, especially in a situation like this, where she was not afforded the ability to concentrate. Subsequently, her hold on Split’s foreleg as well as the edge of the awning weakened. He felt her grip loosen.

“No. Hold on to me, Trix,” he begged, “Please keep holding on.” His grip around her hoof tightened as he finally managed to wedge his other hind leg behind him. She began to feel even more feverish. Her body protested the energy, both magic and physical, that she was overusing. Between two long blinks, Vinyl’s bright white body appeared in front of her. She stuck one of her hind legs in the gap Split was using and offered her hoof out to her.

Trixie grabbed onto it, and all of them pulled to bring her over the ledge. When Trixie was halfway up, Vinyl repositioned herself with a hind leg through the window to ease her weight off the awning. Split was able to stand up, balancing himself on the part of the awning that used to connect to the wall. He and Vinyl continued pulling until she was all the way up, and they all made their way inside the building. Once inside, Trixie collapsed face-first on the dark room’s floor.

“Trix! Fuck, are you alright?” Vinyl asked.

Trixie breathed deeply in an attempt to calm herself as she fought off growing numbness waves. She felt a hoof on her back before Vinyl rolled her onto her side. The worried unicorn lifted up her head and set a hoof on her forehead. "Shit. I think you got a fever.”

Trixie looked up at the mare's fuscia-colored eyes as she looked up at Split, who was making his way around the dark room they were in. Beside her, she could vaguely make out a bed frame. Her eyes were still adjusting to the dark room when Split hit a light switch and blinded her.

After some mumbled cussing, she opened her eyes to see they were in an empty bedroom. The sounds of zombie moans and groans from the mob outside continued traveling through the open window, reminding her they were still in danger. The zombie ponies she had seen were not typically what a pony would expect in this seemingly unreal scenario. They were smarter than she expected. She processed this knowledge as she stood up.

“We need to get out of here,” she told Vinyl.

“I know, I know. Split and I will check the other rooms. Stay here.”

“No,” Trixie protested, “We need to get out of here.”

“Did you not see the mob, Trix?! Let us investigate this place. We will barricade this room shut if the other rooms are safe.”

She started to argue, but Vinyl left her to follow Split out of the bedroom door. She turned back to the broken window and eased her way to a stand, careful not to step on any of the glass bits scattered around the floor. Outside, the tilted awning stood underneath the window with its couple remaining metal supports desperately clinging onto the wall. The dumpster was only partially visible below it. Trixie was unnerved to see two zombie ponies had somehow made their way on top of the dumpster, and she watched them jump up on their hind legs, attempting to get a hold of it.

Despite still recovering her energy, she warmed up another blast spell. She released it another nine seconds later, targeting the awning supports beneath her. The blast spell ignited on two out of three of them, sending its anchor screws spitting out onto the mob below. The one remaining support proved to be strong enough to hold onto the awning, but the rest of it was sent pivoting down, swinging past the dumpster. The awning sent the two holding onto it tumbling off of the dumpster and to the ground below. She got a kick out of watching one of the zombie ponies in the alley get smacked to the ground by the heavy metal beams before it eventually hung perpendicular to the ground.

Trixie looked down at the slowly growing mob. Some of them were aggressively trying to figure out where her group had gone, turning their pale heads ever so often to see where to go next. The rest were eerily staring up at her, grunting and groaning as they bounced up and down on their forelegs. By looking at their faces alone, Trixie felt a primal urge rushing inside of her, telling her to run. She nervously gazed over the mob until she realized her vision was swooning. Stepping back, she lost her balance and fell sideways.

Her heartbeat had accelerated without her knowing, attempting to recoup her lost energy. She knew from her studies that this kind of energy depletion was not normal. It was likely that the new sickness intensifying inside her was the culprit. That was her thought, at least. Regardless, she lied there for a minute just listening to the distant sounds of the mob as her energy slowly came back. She started feeling sleepiness wash over her despite her body’s recovery efforts.

As she fought her increasingly heavy eyelids, muffled yelling from outside the room gained her attention. She could vaguely make out Vinyl’s voice before hearing rustling. With newfound adrenaline making its way through her veins, she stood up quickly and dizzily ran for the bedroom door. Outside of it was a small living area hosting a fair amount of seating. Beside it was an open kitchen area that was relatively clean. The front door between the two areas sat wide open, revealing wooden flooring. She made her way to the open front door, realizing they were in some kind of apartment building.

The rumbling continued, and Trixie heard the sound of a pot banging down the hallway. When she turned to look, a pot came bouncing down a set of stairs and settling on the hallway floor. There was more screaming, so she ran by the pot and made her way upstairs. She followed the rumbling up to the next floor. Down the hallway ahead of her, Split and Vinyl were now beating on a door to one of the apartments. Trixie made her way toward them.

“What’s going on??” she asked.

“It’s the bitch from the window!” Vinyl exclaimed, turning to yell through the door. “Open the door, bitch!”

“Trix, use your magic,” Split insisted.

Vinyl stood back as she lit her horn with yet another blast spell. She could feel her body calling out this time not to cast it, but getting inside seemed important enough to ignore it. After eight seconds, the spell released, blowing the door open. Her vision blurred, but once it returned, she looked inside to see the mare from before anxiously fiddling with one of the window’s latches. Before she could get it open, Vinyl tackled her to the ground. Split joined in a few seconds later, helping restrain her to the floor. Beside the window they had pulled her from, Trixie noticed a makeshift rope made from bedsheets that were tied together. She carefully trotted up beside them to get a view of the mare herself.

“Now what?” the mare huffed, still resisting their hold.

“Shut up!” Vinyl yelled, “Trix, can you hit her with a freeze spell?”

Trixie looked down at the mare, who now angrily stared back up at her. She gazed into her dark blue eyes for a few seconds longer before looking at Vinyl. “Is that necessary?”

“Trix, are you serious? She threw a mirror down at us so the mob would be distracted eating us while she escaped! This bitch is lucky she isn’t DEAD.”

Trixie stared at the mare again, who was still staring back at her. “Is this true?” she asked her.

“Trixie!” Vinyl shouted, appearing even angrier than the mare now.

“Did you hear that from her?!" Trixie interrogated, "Why are we being so aggressive?”

This only set the anger burning in Vinyl’s fuscia eyes to become brighter. “What happened to you not trusting ANYPONY? It’s pretty obvious what she intended, especially after she RAN the second she saw Split and me. Having a pot thrown at your face doesn’t make her look very innocent either!”

Split joined in. “She’s right, Trix. You said it yourself, now isn’t the time for trust. She did it, so let’s get her tied up while we figure out what to do, alright?”

Trixie sighed, looking back at the mare. Her anger had faded, and she stared back with nervous blue eyes. She believed the others. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe them at first, but she was starting to feel a bit sympathetic given all that had happened in the alley. Regardless, she warmed up a long freeze spell despite her body’s protest. She stared into the mare’s dark blue eyes as she released it.