The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Twilight —

“Quit squirming!!” Celestia shouted.

“Sorry, Princess!”

Twilight looked over to see Ty struggling to hold onto her back. They had not run far from the station, making their way toward Sugarcube Corner using the edge of Ponyville. As they ran between the tree line of a sparse forest and the backs of some of Ponyville’s outermost houses, it was clear Ty was slowing her down. She slowed to run beside her mentor.

“Celestia, let me and Blaze take her,” she offered.

“No, I-“ she started, until Ty slowly started tipping off. Celestia started side-stepping at her weight, and while Twilight sidestepped as well to avoid her, she could not evade Ty in time. The pegasus fell on top of her, causing her to stumble forward into the ground. Her weight quickly subsided as Ty rolled off of her.

“Sorry Sorry!” she exclaimed, “this damned forsaken pity curse of a burdening hoof!”

Celestia turned around to face them. “Are you two alright?”

“I'm ... okay,” Twilight whimpered.

Celestia helped Ty stand up again. Twilight glanced behind them to see that some of the group from the station were still on their tail, clumsily trotting toward them. There were not as many now, but these ponies seemed eager to get them. They really were hound dogs.

“Get back on,” Celestia ordered Ty, laying down on her hooves so she could hop up again.

“No, Princess. No.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m slowing you down. Just … just leave without me. I’ll be okay.”

“Typhoon,” Twilight said, “you cannot be serious.”

“I am. I can get them off of you. Just go.”

Twilight observed the mare, sensing her seriousness. She looked up at Celestia, who was gazing back at their pursuers.

“No,” Celestia said, “we don’t have to.”

The princess turned to her with a confident new glare in her eyes. “We will fight them.”

“WHOA!” Spike hollered, “are you sure?? There’s like a dozen of them! And only …” he counted, “5 of us! 4 without Ty’s help!”

“Without my help? I may be crippled, but I’m ready to bash some heads in!” Ty objected.

“She’s right. We can beat them,” Blaze said.

Twilight pulled out her hatchet and held it in her hoof. She observed the others as they prepared for the fight too. Spike gave Ty his taser so she would have something to help them with, she had her hatchet, Blaze had his spear, Spike had his baseball bat, and Celestia had her large horn and powerful hind legs. The group lined up side-by-side, with her on one end and Blaze on the other. Celestia took the middle as Spike and Ty held positions at her flanks. They were ready to fight.

Their pursuers trotted forward. Twilight counted them. Nine so far. The first three were mares who were spread out enough to allow for thinking in between taking them down. However, the remaining six were more closely grouped up.

“Spread out a bit,” Celestia called.

The group spread another pony-length from each other, forming an arch. Twilight got ready as the first attacker was moving toward her. She held up the hatchet, and at the last second, she jumped up on her hind legs and used both of her forelegs to tightly grip it as she swung. She used a trick with it, however. Instead of swinging the blade toward the attacker, she swung the blunt end of it toward her. When it made contact, instead of digging through the pony’s skin, its blow simply knocked the mare unconscious. Twilight hoped this would save her, as she still did not want to kill these ponies. If push came to shove though, she would do it.

She observed the pony while Blaze knocked out the second attacker. The pony’s chest continued moving, but she was out. Twilight would keep an eye on her in case she happened to reenter the conscious realm before the battle was over.

The third attacker was bucked hard by Celestia. The blow sent so much force that she felt the ground vibrate lightly through her hooves. Whether unconscious or flat-out dead, the mare was sent to the ground where she laid. Six remained. Twi backed up a step as they were bunched closer together. Two of them had their eye on her, so she would have to make the first KO quickly. It was only when they were a few pony-lengths away that she realized she could not risk using the blunt end here.

She regretfully eyed the first mare, who gazed back at her with those same glossed-over eyes. Despite her paleness, the beautiful mare’s olive coat glistened in the sunlight as her curly red hair fell messily above her bright blue eyes. Twilight blinked at the last second as her hatchet made contact with the mare’s head, sending enough force through it to break her skull and stop her instantly. It was then that Twi realized the hatchet had gone too far. She tried to yank it out as the mare fell, but it was lodged into her forehead. Twilight backed up as the second attacker lunged at her.

As he did, Spike’s baseball bat came into her vision before connecting with the stallion’s head. The blow sent him to the ground where he squirmed. Before she could intervene, Spike ran in front of her and swung it again, stopping the attacker for good. Twilight was about to comment on Spike preparing a third swing when she heard Celestia shout.

When she looked aside, she noticed the princess backing up toward the remaining attackers. She then saw another zombie mare who had snuck up behind them, held back by one of Celestia’s forelegs. The mare bit the air anxiously in an attempt to get a bite of the hoof Celestia had planted on her forehead. The princess slowly backing up only made this more difficult. Twilight leaned down, and with one foreleg pushing against the downed zombie mare's head, she dislodged her stuck hatchet. As it unstuck, one of the remaining attackers lunged for her.

She backed up quickly to get distance before swinging the hatchet and slicing the pony’s face with it. After the hatchet recoiled, she swung it again and landed another blow on the pony’s forehead, careful not to dig it too deep this time. As she pulled it out, she looked up to see another pony in front of Celestia. Twilight realized they were being surrounded when she noticed more of them approaching from their rear.

Beside Celestia, Ty had sprung into action, as well as Blaze. After Ty tased the mare pushing against Celestia, causing her to drop to the ground, she helped the princess take out two more of the surprise attackers. However, they did not notice one of the zombies from the initial mob lunging toward the princess’s hind legs. Twilight started to move when Blaze’s spear connected through the pony’s head. Despite this, another zombie stallion followed the first, also gunning for her hind legs. Twilight could not get there in time, but Blaze was ready. Not offered enough time to pull back his spear for another stab, he dropped it and sprung forward, using his body to tackle the stallion. Yet another zombie mare from the original group hurried toward Celestia’s hind legs until she noticed Blaze fighting with the attacker on the ground below.

Twilight approached them, but she was too late. The stallion Blaze was wrestling distracted him from the other mare, who leaped forward and sunk her teeth into his exposed neck. As Blaze squirmed to confront her, the other stallion bit into his foreleg. Now, Twilight was in range. She swung the hatchet furiously at the mare’s head, who froze when it contacted. Her teeth were still ingrained in Blaze’s neck as she pulled it out.

While she was focused on getting the zombies off of Blaze, she had not noticed two more attackers moving close to her. After catching a glimpse of them, she instinctively backed up a few steps. The first mare rerouted for Blaze, and the other lunged for her. She did not have time to swing the hatchet, so she instead ducked to the right, narrowly missing the pony’s slobbering mouth shooting forward. The pony skidded past, giving her enough time to turn around and swing the hatchet into their skull as well.

She glanced back quickly at Celestia and the others, who were finishing with the last of the surprise zombies. She then focused on Blaze, who had the one mare laying motionless next to him, but was still wrestling with two of them. He was losing. As they both gnawed on him, she ran forwards and swung her hatchet. She managed to take out the stallion with a blow to the back of her head. The other mare was pulled off by Ty before getting bucked unconscious by Celestia.

The final attacker was finally knocked out by Spike. Twilight scanned their surroundings, confirming that all of the zombies were down. She then helped the others pull the stallion off of Blaze, who writhed around on the ground. His armor had not helped him, as the zombies targeted any exposed fur they could find. He held his neck with his hoof, unable to stop his blood from spitting out. His other hoof leaked violently as well, and a dark red blood puddle was forming underneath him. The stallion locked a fearful gaze with Twilight.

“P … guh … Pl- Please …” he choked. Blood gurgled out of his neck, which was now dribbling out of his mouth as well.

Twilight looked up at Celestia. The princess gazed at him for a second before wincing her eyes shut, shaking her head from side to side in despair. Spike and Ty watched from a bit farther away, but Spike had to turn around as the sight was too much for him. Ty awkwardly trotted up to his side with tears rolling down her cheek.

“I’m so sorry, Blaze! I’m sorry! I’m sorry …”

“Ga … chu …” The stallion spit up more blood before finally getting a word out. “Don’t …”

“What?” Ty leaned down, setting a hoof on his shoulder.

“Guys!” Spike called. Twilight looked up again to see what he was warning about. In the distance, where the first attackers had come from, was another small zombie pony group trotting towards them. She growled furiously to herself.

When will we catch a fucking break? Sweet Celestia, I am sick of this crap!

She looked back at Blaze to see that he saw them too, despite being laid out on the ground. He looked back at her with fear still shimmering in his dark green eyes.

“Pssh … guh. Twi … light ... Kill … me, ugh, please …”

Twilight’s eyes widened at his request. She exchanged a scared glance with the others before responding, “Blaze, no. We can’t do that.”

“PSH, Gah … PLEASE. Don’t … guh … Don’t let them- get … aah … me!”

The zombie ponies were approaching now. They only had half a minute at best now to decide. Twilight, overwhelmed, looking down at her bloody hatchet lying in her hoof, looked up to Celestia. As she did, the princess grabbed the hatchet out of her hoof. Before she could work up the will to respond, Celestia stepped next to Blaze.

"I'm sorry its come to this," she said, "Thank you for your sacrifice. Rest easy, warrior."

A couple tears ran down the princess's cheek as she rose the hatchet and swung.