The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Twilight —

Three. There were three now. Twilight kept her eyes glued between the two table legs they had fastened against the station’s window. She watched as the three zombie ponies lumbered beside the other side of the wall, scratching occasionally to get in. She heard Celestia move up behind her.

“How many?” she asked.

“Three. Only three.”

“Okay. Are you willing to start now?”

“I am.”

They had been trapped in this station for a whole day now. She had hoped all of the zombie ponies would have left by now. While most of them did, a few still lingered around. Overnight, some of them started to peel off as the others rested.

She thought about last night.

Twilight laid on the wooden floor, staring across the dark room at the barricaded door to the station. It consistently shook from the zombies outside relentlessly pushing and occasionally banging on it. They were like hound dogs who never slept. She tried to make logic of these new sick ponies, but she was struggling to figure them out. It wasn’t as simple as mixing some chemicals in a beaker to see what would happen. And as eager as she was to chain one of them up and study them, she deemed that idea very dangerous. It was all about survival now.

From her estimates, the zombies had been off-and-on assaulting the door for the past ten hours. By now, she was ready to bash the bastards' skulls in herself. She had to stop and remind herself that these used to be regular ponies, and like her, they had not wanted this for them.

She looked over at Celestia, who laid on the floor beside her, between her and one of the station walls. The princess was asleep with her head resting on her forelegs, sleeping as peacefully as she could on this cold, hard floor. She and Twilight had gotten into it not long before her sun set. Celestia had brought up this idea of sleeping and staying overnight at the station, insisting they needed it after getting so banged up from the train crash. While Twilight’s muscles ached painfully now, she still did not agree. She wanted to try their luck at the hospital, because even if no ponies were holed up there, at least they would have beds to sleep on. Celestia considered her point but did not like the risk involved, as they had been surrounded by over a dozen of the undead. So here they were.

Before their debate, Celestia explained more about what happened in Canterlot. She also told her about the letters she sent and received from Princess Cadence and her brother Shining. Twilight felt a bit of closure hearing from the princess that the empire was doing much better than Ponyville and Canterlot. According to the letters Celestia received, their royal guards had much more success fending off the ponies, allowing Cadence and Shining to barricade inside their castle safe and sound. Twilight mentioned Discord, knowing he had planned a trip there, but Celestia told her that his magic wasn’t working either. Regardless, she said he was holed up with her brother, so they were all safe, at least. Now she could focus on Ponyville without worrying so much about him and Cadence.

While they talked, Twilight mentioned Cheerilee leaving to see Zecora for a possible cure book. Celestia also remembered what book she was referencing, but it was unclear how many copies there actually were, and if the supposed magic research behind it would even work. She also agreed that the book being in Zecora’s hut seemed unlikely. Even if the cure was in there, and it somehow worked, what good would the book be without magic? From what it looked like, no unicorn held onto any magic anymore. Even the alicorns lost it. Whatever the case was, she hoped Cheerilee had found what she was looking for and was safe at Applejack’s barn now.

She looked to her other side, where the new pegasus, Typhoon, lay. She had not expected the mare to be looking back at her. Ty’s ocean-blue eyes observed her closely. She could not help but notice the mare’s messy mane. Its style, at least from yesterday, reminded her of Rainbow Dash. The only difference was that Ty’s mane was light blue with a white streak in the middle.

“Hi, Princess,” Ty whispered, smiling.

Twilight smiled back wryly. From what she could tell, Ty did not seem to understand the severity of the situation at hoof. They were trapped inside by zombies from what appeared to be a nationwide apocalypse, and she instead worried more about retaining somewhat proper etiquette when conversing with the three princesses she was surrounded by. She looked away from the confusing pegasus.

“Are you alright, your Highness?” Ty asked.

“Please, stop with the royalty speak …” she requested.

“Sorry, your Highn- … uh … I mean Twilight. Are you alright?”

“I am. Go to sleep.”

“After you.”

Twilight looked back at the mare and struggled to hide her annoyance. Ty caught on to this. “Would you like to talk?” she offered.

“Talk about what? Everything is pretty clear. We need to get out of here first thing in the morning. So go to sleep.” She looked away again until Ty spoke.

“I’m sorry about your friend.”

“Don’t. Talk. About. Her. Just go to sleep. That’s an order from a princess, since you still care about that.”

She noticed the sad, worried expression in Ty’s eyes. She averted hers and turned her head toward Celestia as her anger started morphing into sadness. She heard a slight shuffling beside her until the mare’s hoof rested on her back. Twilight turned to argue but lost her battle against her forming tears. She took another moment to grieve over Rarity, not realizing she wasn’t over it yet.

“We’ll get through this. I know we’ll win,” Ty said.

Twilight sighed. “Your optimism is nice to hear, but I’m struggling to share it with you.”

“I know. Probably been cooped up in here too long. Need some fresh air for that brain of yours, Princess.” Ty playfully tapped the side of Twi’s head.

“Well, that, and everything that’s happened. How can you be so optimistic with things falling apart around you? I’m not throwing in the towel by any means, but it is hard to stay cheerful about everything when you keep getting pelted by bricks of crap.”

“I’ve always been a bit optimistic. That’s what my parents said, at least. I don’t know why. I guess … why not? Why be negative when you could be positive, even if you were off sometimes?”

“You are royally off this time.”

“So be it. I’ll die happy. Especially if I do so for any of you, your Highness.” Ty smiled.

Twilight gazed at the mare, befuddled. “I don’t understand you. I really don’t,” she stated, “the world is falling apart, but here you are, treating us like princesses still. I know we are royalty, but does that really matter now?”

“It does to me. I get it … I know the world is falling apart. I’m not denying that. You should have seen what I saw back in Canterlot. But despite all of this, I can’t just throw away what the world was. Then who would I be? You know, before all this, I spent a great part of my life trying to become one of the best flyers in Equestria. You know why? Because I was hoping to get a chance to fly for the Wonderbolts one day, and I wanted to soar with them across the sky above Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and you, making Canterlot, and Equestria, proud. I will hold onto that dream, even now, as I try my best to protect you three until this nightmare ends. With Blaze’s help, I know we will be all right. We will beat this thing, I know it. It’s just a matter of time.”

Twilight sighed. “That is sweet. I just hope you are right.”

“I am. Now let’s rest. Big day tomorrow.”

She took a breath, hoping they would make it out of this unscathed. She worried, since nothing seemed to be going to plan, but she held onto a bit of hope, partially inspired by Ty. She was living. She was breathing. As long as her brain was functional, she could come up with something eventually. She just hoped it would come to her soon.

Yesterday, they had settled on a plan. As much as they wanted to check the hospital, they realized there were bigger priorities and opportunities on the table. After they got past the undead outside, they would make their way south towards Sweet Apple Acres, where AJ was likely holed up with the fillies, as she promised to Twilight yesterday. Sugarcube Corner was between them and the farm, so they could stop by there to check for Pinkie Pie. They could also check on Devan’s house not far from it.

Celestia's group, on their way from Canterlot, had not seen Devan or anypony else before the trains collided. Twilight hoped that Devan had seen the missing train engine from the station and went back to his house, or better yet, AJ's barn. She worried about him. She did not want to think he was dead already. The sooner she could get to him, the better. Hopefully, him and the others were at AJ’s barn, patiently awaiting their arrival.

“On your signal,” Celestia told her, before getting back into place in front of the door.

The plan to escape was simple. Yesterday, they found out that the side window to the station was sealed shut. The only logical way out was the front door beside the window she was at. There were only three ponies on the platform, so Spike and Blaze stood at the side-window with their baseball bat and spear. If they beat on the window hard enough, and the others were dead quiet, the noise would eventually lure the ponies off the platform. Celestia, Luna, and Ty stood by the bench barricading the door, ready to pull it back so they could escape. Simple.

“Go!” shouted Twilight, ducking below the window.

Blaze and Spike took turns beating the window as she listened intently to the muffled groans outside. As badly as she wanted to peer through the window to watch them leave, she knew it was not worth the risk of being seen. So she waited as the others beat the window, faintly hearing the groans outside grow.

As they bashed the window, she turned to watch them. She saw Blaze swing the blunt end of his spear forward, whacking across the windowpane. She noticed the glass instantly change, forming a crystallized, head-shaped crack from the center all the way to its right side. He also saw this, but before Spike could halt his swing, the dragon swung at the window and bashed the glass hard enough for it to shatter. The pieces of glass flew out of the window as he scaredly pulled his baseball bat back, observing the damage.

“Well, that works …” Blaze said across the room. Him and Spike stuck their heads out of the window and began calling out to the platform ponies, who Twilight could hear fading away from the front window. Or so she thought. She lost her battle and stuck her head up to see through the planks, just to see a zombie mare gazing back at her. For a moment, it almost looked like the mare was lost in thought, and she almost mistook her for a normal pony. Her glazed eyes said otherwise as she growled and beat on the window again.

Crap

She ducked her head again, hoping Blaze and Spike’s calls would lure her over quick enough.

“Whoahaoaowoahoah!-” Spike called.

She looked back over to see both him and Blaze dancing their way back inside. Black quickly picked up his spear again, and Spike searched around for a second before picking up a chair and moving back toward the window.

“Spike! What’s going on?!”

“There’s more coming!” he shouted, raising the chair to block part of the window.

“How many?!”

“A crapfest!” he answered.

“It’s another damn mob! Help!!” Blaze yelled, readying his spear in front of the window.

Both Celestia and Ty abandoned their positions at the door and galloped across the station to help them. After grabbing another chair, Celestia made her way beside Blaze and blocked the window. The four of them managed to block the window enough just as grizzly, bloody faces of the undead appeared on the other side. Any of the zombies who managed to poke their head or hooves inside were shoved right back by the others guarding it.

Twilight turned back to look out of the front window. The mare was still there, but she was just one pony. With the other station window now broken, they needed to get out of there now. She galloped over to Luna, and with her help, they moved the bench away from the door. She held her hatchet up as she grabbed the door’s handle, ready to take out the mare outside.

“Let’s go!!!” she shouted back at the others and swung the door open.

The mare quickly lunged for her, but one hatchet swing to her head stopped the pony. She then set the hatchet’s handle in her mouth and made a sharp right outside of the door and started leading the others down the platform and away from the mob at the side-window. She noticed as she ran along the platform that the smoky train had shifted overnight. The front, detached train car now sat near the end of the platform itself as it had slowly rolled forward.

As she closed in on the stairs of the platform, she came to an abrupt stop. At the base of the steps below was another hoofful of unexpected zombie ponies. She recognized one of them, who was apart of the group she thought had peeled off overnight. The group was still there, moseying around the outside of the station. They noticed her as both she and Spike stopped by the edge of the platform.

Damn it!

The first pony trotted up the stairs, just to get roundhouse bucked by Twilight. She thought about spitting out her hatchet to fight, but the quick ponies overwhelmed her senses, and she could count at least four of them grouped closely together. It wasn’t worth the risk, so she turned around and weighed the risks of leaving through the other side of the platform. As she turned, she saw everypony had made it out. She also saw a pale head sticking above the platform ahead before rising as the zombie climbed the steps. Now, they were effectively being trapped into a tunnel.

“Twilight!” Celestia shouted, “Here!”

With little time to think, Twilight turned to her mentor and saw her pointing a hoof at the burnt train. The second train car beside the platform was burnt to a crisp, with the walls and roof caved in. Instead of the smoky pyramid shape the first car made, it made more of a wedge shape, showing a potential ramp to the top of the lesser-caved-in car behind it. While it looked unsafe to attempt climbing it, they had no other choice. She followed Celestia off the platform and used her hooves to take short, quick steps to check for weak points as she used the caved-in wall to climb up the car. The remaining four cars and caboose steadily grew less damaged as the fire had not affected them as severely.

Twilight carefully jumped onto the next car and looked back briefly to see everybody else still following them as Blaze and Luna helped Ty climb up. The mob from the side-window was now climbing onto the other side of the train platform, so she hurried forward to make room for the others to get up. She continued looking for weak points as she jumped the next two cars. Behind her, Blaze made up the rear of the pack now, but was slowly overtaking Luna as the princess cautiously shifted her extra weight over the unstable roofs.

Twilight glanced over the edge of the train car, making sure there were no stray zombie ponies on the other side of the train as she hopped on the last car before the caboose. There was a bit of a drop on the other side, but she planned to lead the others down and make a break for it.

“Off the side!” she told Celestia, “We can break free from there!”

The princess nodded, but as she went to assist her off the edge, they heard a shout behind them. When she turned around to see who yelled, she heard a loud crashing noise and caught sight of the top half of Luna’s body as she fell through the roof of the car two cars behind them. Blaze was also on the car, but he saved himself from falling down by reaching out his forelegs and grasping the edge of it. A cloud of gray dust shot up from the car, obscuring vision from the rest of the train. Ty, who was on the car in front of them, turned and ran up to the edge to help Blaze.

“SISTER!” Celestia shouted, rushing over the gap between their two cars and joining her. Both the princess and Ty were able to drag him on top of the car before gazing over the edge, trying to locate Luna through the dust cloud. Twilight was about to join them until she realized they were putting a lot of weight onto one damaged train car, so she and Spike stayed back. She moved to the edge of the roof and looked down at the groups of zombie ponies clashing together on the platform. Some of them jumped up and down on their hind legs to get to them, but she saw a few of them through the dust make their way up the smoky cars they had climbed. She felt the car underneath her shifting, realizing they needed to get off this train.

“Celestia!” she called, “We have to go!”

After a few seconds, Blaze and Ty were able to pull the resisting princess away and trotted with her to the other edge of their train car. As they did, Twilight heard a metallic groan before seeing the roof of theirs start to cave in as well. The car’s wall opposite of the station sank, causing the three to stumble from their hooves as the roof slanted. As the wall continued to cave in, the roof slanted more and more until they were sent tumbling down the side of the car to the grass below.

“Celestia!!” Twilight cried, turning to Spike, “Help me down! Then follow!”

Twilight approached the edge of her train car, and with Spike’s help, she lowered down the side of it. Once they guaranteed her the shortest fall, she let go and fell to the grass below, her hooves easily taking the brunt of the shock. After quickly situating herself, she instinctively tried to lift her wings to catch Spike in them as he fell. She had forgotten that they were nonfunctional and practically glued to her sides. Instead, she raised up her forelegs and slowed Spike down as he fell through them.

On the grass beside them, the three ponies were shaking themselves off as they stood back up. Twilight exchanged a glance with Celestia when she was on her hooves, seeing the tears and shock in her eyes. The tall princess oriented herself again before leaning down and ordering Ty to get on her back. As she did, a zombie mare started squeezing her way between two of the burnt train cars.

With Ty on Celestia’s back, they were forced to leave Luna. Twilight shivered at the thought of the mob overrunning the collapsed train car she was in. But they themselves needed to survive, so they ran south, hoping to make it to Sugarcube Corner without many hungry followers.