The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan —

All of us sat on the Canterlot roof. It was time for a break. Candy’s shop was in a densely packed area in the heart of Canterlot, so we were able to travel a few blocks away from it, only having to cross one sketchy alleyway drop. We were able to use a balcony to jump it, and the others helped me with no problem this time … fortunately. I tried to settle my growing headache as I avoided thinking about Spark. We had finally lost somepony, and it was just as awful as I had expected. I cursed my luck, angry at the recent events, especially at my new disability.

Cloud sat by my side for support. She sat quietly like the rest of us. It was becoming clear to me that our relationship had grown significantly since the train station. She was a close friend now, similar to Dash and Flutters. It was intriguing, since I'd spent months getting to know Dash and Flutters while only knowing Cloud for a few days now. I guess saving each other can work wonders for a friendship. I just wished I could have somehow saved Spark. Maybe, I should have just let go. Maybe that would have been for the best. I watched Celestia’s evening sun hanging over the horizon as I thought about everything.

“I- I need to say something,” the stallion spoke up. When we first sat on the roof, we learned his name was Kings Heart. He had been a royal guard for just a few months before today and was sent by her to help protect this sector of Canterlot. After the city fell, he found himself trapped in a store not far from Candy’s. From what Dash told me, they had seen him after getting pills from the clinic. He called out for them to help, so they helped him escape from the shop. However, this drew the mob all the way back to the candy shop.

“What is it?” Dash asked him.

King looked around at us nervously. He met eyes with me before closing his and shaking his head. “Nevermind.”

“No. No nevermind. What is it?” Dash pushed.

He sighed. “I’m … bitten.” He turned his side to us, trying to show us his bite. It was difficult to see, as his blood almost perfectly matched his fur color. But after pointing it out, I noticed the teeth marks protruding into his side, near his hip.

“You were bit? Are you kidding me?” Candy asked.

“You were bit?” Dash repeated, a sense of malice seeping into her words.

“Y- yes, I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Dash replied, growing tense as she shoved him with her forelegs, sending him on his back.

Candy stood up and trotted by Dash’s side. “When?”

“It was before the shop …”

“You little shi-” Dash swung her foreleg back, but was stopped by Candy.

“We lost Spark cause of him!” Dash shouted, “Least he can get is a few punches!”

“I know, I know,” Candy said, “Just back off for now.”

Dash listened as Candy walked up to the stallion's side and held out her hoof to help him up. After she helped him sit up, she swung her hoof back and socked him across the jaw, sending him back on the roof again.

“You little shit! Why didn’t you tell us?!”

“I’m sorry! It all happened so quick!! I didn't want you two to help me, but I was in a panic! Those things ... they're terrifying!"

Dash wasn't listening and instead wound up her hoof to punch him as well. The stallion rose his front hooves to cover his face. "I'm SORRY! I'm sorry about your friend! If I could take it all back, I would! I didn't want this! I didn't want ANY of this!"

“Girls!” Flutters exclaimed, “Enough! ... there’s too much violence going around as it is. let him be.”

The two mares reluctantly backed off. Dash huffed before returning to her previous spot. Candy shook her head and came to sit on my other side. “I’m sorry about your friend, dear."

“It’s ... thank you,” I replied, blinking slowly, “let’s just … just ... move on.”

I noticed her look over at me despite me staring off in the distance. My eyes were squinted as my headache was turning into a migraine. My skin felt more and more like a furnace, and I had an intense urge to vomit now. My fever clearly had not broken yet, and my body was struggling against it. I felt Candy touch her hoof against my arm.

“Sweet Celestia, you are burning up!” she commented, turning to Flutters, “Did you give him the pills yet?”

“I did,” she replied, standing up to come and see me. She sat in front of me and dug into her saddlebags for the thermometer. After sticking it in my mouth, she pulled it back out and looked at it for a solid couple seconds. Her expression while reading it worried me. “you … you got worse …”

“What do we do?” Cloud asked her, a look of concern growing on her face.

“the antibiotics might not have kicked in yet. he might need to see a doctor, there may be something else going on here.”

Candy looked at her confusingly. “I thought you were a doctor?”

“no no … i’m just a veterinarian. there’s only so much i can do. plus …” she said, looking at me.

“What?” Candy asked.

“we … i … i don’t know a lot about humans,” she spoke softly.

“Would a doctor know any more than you?” Candy inquired, “You probably know more about him than a lot of ponies, right?”

“maybe,” Flutters said, “but doctors know more about ponies than i do. he’s closer to a pony than most of the other animals.”

“He is?”

“yes.”

“Hey,” I said, “If I had ... my other leg, I could ... I could walk on all fours. That’s close ... close enough, right?” I chuckled lightly to myself, trying to ignore my growing pain. The others looked back at me awkwardly.

“Oh no, he’s getting delirious,” Cloud said.

I smiled as my eyes closed, not realizing I was falling backward. My head smacked the roof, only growing my headache. I slowly rolled on my side and stopped, as I had grown tired.

“we need to get him to a doctor,” Flutters said.

“At a time like this?” Candy replied.

Dash joined the conversation again. “Is Canterlot really done for? Like, fully? We can’t even check the hospital?”

“I suppose we could check the hospital,” Candy said.

“No,” King interrupted, “The Canterlot Hospital is a no-go. I passed by there yesterday. It was an eat-your-face-off hotspot. Nopony will be there, not the ones you want to see.”

“Then what do YOU suggest?!” Dash shouted, trotting up to him again.

“Hey, hey, please …” he said as he backed up from her, “I ... do have a suggestion.”

“Go on.”

“You’re not going to like it …”

“I don’t like you right now. Might as well spit it out,” Dash threatened.

“I know a doctor in Manehatte-”

“No! Are you fucking crazy?” Dash cut in, “Manehatten is where this started! If Canterlot fell, there’s no way Manehatten didn’t fall.”

“Manehatten is way too far,” Cloud added, “It would take us a whole day of walking to get there. We can’t put him through that.”

“It’s not,” King said, “I know a quicker way.”

“What? The train?” Dash asked.

“No. I mean … we could check if there’s a train still at the station. But if there isn’t, I know where they store the rail carts they use to maintain the tracks.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

Candy got up. “I know, too. One of the conductors was a regular at my shop. The carts are stored in a shed by the railyard.”

“It’s more of a railyard building,” King mentioned.

“Shut the fuck up,” Candy replied.

“Still!” Dash exclaimed, “Manehatten cannot be safe. We get there, and then what? Let the mob jump us?”

"Listen, I can explain ..." King said, "There's a whole lot to be unsure about right now, but I'm not stupid enough to suggest riding into a damn horde. From-"

"Sounds like you are," Dash interrupted.

"FROM WHAT-" King continued, "-I have heard, at least before getting trapped, rumor has it that the Manehatten police force was setting up a safe zone. My doctor, and his clinic, are in that supposed safe zone, which is why I suggested it. That's all."

At this point, the conversation was bothering me enough to attempt sitting up. I pushed down with my arms but only got far enough to lean on my elbow. I glanced at the others as I tried to ignore my pounding head.

"Guys ... please," I said, "It's not worth it. If I die, I die. Don't risk your lives for me."

"devan ..." Flutters replied, scooting over and setting a hoof on my leg. She looked like she was about to say more, but she struggled as a saddening expression filled her face. On my other side, Cloud held a similar look before averting her eyes. I felt a bit of resentment from my words after seeing the others' reactions, but my guilt was still overshadowing my mind.

“We don’t have to go to Manehatten,” Candy said, “We can just use the carts to go back to Ponyville.” She looked around, remembering that we had come from Ponyville. “... or … maybe not.”

“No, you’re right,” Dash remarked, “Ponyville Hospital might be our best shot. It’s not far from the train station, and there might be ponies holed up there.”

“yes, that sounds better,” Flutters said, looking back down at me. I was still dazed by my sickness, struggling to keep my head up as I leaned on the roof. “we need to hurry.”

Finally.

I think ...

I observed my pistol as I sat on the edge of the train station's platform, trying to figure out if I had cleared the jam or not. The others had not messed with it while I was passed out, reasonably so, so it was up to me to find out what happened back at that damn gate. When I unloaded the magazine inside it, I had to yank the thing out forcefully. After fiddling with it, it seemed to be back to normal. It was a shame that I couldn't test it, seeing as though that would put us in immediate danger. Or ... maybe we were already were.

Needless to say, we had not found any trains at the station. So instead, the others followed Candy and King to the so-called shed that stored the rail carts, not far from the station. I kept my eyes as peeled as I could, swiveling my head back and forth to check all the various corners of the station and nearby buildings. While the others weren’t going far, they were still out of sight. Apparently, the carts they had mentioned were heavy, so they decided to all go to grab them.

It had not taken us long to journey to the station. Thankfully, my fever improved on the way there. The others agreed that I still needed to get checked out, and there wasn’t much of a reason to stick around Canterlot with the state it was in. Ponyville was bad too, but at least for it, there seemed to be life amongst the dead. This place already looked like a ghost town. I turned to look at the station, observing the many glass windows and large clock which hung above them. The hands ticked on, showing it was close to seven o’clock. Celestia’s sun was slowly setting over the horizon, shining bright against the station.

I turned around again to see the four mares each holding a corner of a large train cart as they carried it over. It was bigger than I thought, spanning the width of the track itself and around three pony-lengths long. It was a simple cart; just a flat black surface with very short, hand-sized sideboards to hold equipment inside, and an arm-length handle attached to the front, sitting at an angle to allow the pony sitting on the cart to control it. It looked as if one of the carts could hold all of us, but it would be cramped and uncomfortable given how far we were planning to go. I watched as they eased the cart on top of the track next to me, struggling to drop it into place. They bickered with each other as they tried to work together to set it properly, but eventually ditched it temporarily as they ran to grab another one.

As they disappeared behind a nearby building, I heard a rustling around the corner of the station. I looked down the track and raised my gun, my heart starting to beat as I did not want to risk using it. After a few more seconds of rustling, a tan-colored pony came galloping around the corner before coming to an abrupt stop. Through the sights of my gun, I gasped as I saw Spark’s face. There was blood splattered all over her tan coat of fur, but other than that, she looked normal. Her face lit up as well when she saw me. The mare made her way up the platform stairs, colliding with me in a violent hug that knocked me over. Still, I tried to reason with what I was seeing, wondering if I had passed out at some point and was dreaming now.

“Oh my god ... are you alright?!!” I looked at the blood on her fur as we disconnected, but I didn’t notice any kind of scratches or bite marks. Most of the blood was just patches and dots.

“Shoot yeah! I wasn’t bit. 'least, I don't think I was.”

I helped the mare check herself regardless, looking up and down anxiously for any bites or scratches. It didn't take us long to realize there were none. I was appalled.

“How the fuck did you manage that?”

“I got lucky. Found a path along the wall after I fell n' bucked the piss outta any of ‘em who got too close.”

"Holy shit," I commented, eying her up and down with newfound respect. It was when I met her green-colored eyes that I looked away, shaking my head. "I'm so ... sorry, Spark ..."

“No need. It wasn’t your fault.”

"It was ... I-"

"Ah ah ah ... don't start. I already heard from Cloud how ya take responsibility. If it was anything, it was those stupid ass shingles. Crusty pieces of junk looked like they needed to be redone years ago."

“But still ... I pulled you down ...”

“You were hangin' off a damn roof, Devan, 'course you were gonna pull.” She rose her front hoof and socked me in the shoulder, hard. I grabbed hold of it as it started to throb.

“Damn, woman. I mean … mare? Or … never mind.”

She smiled. “Sorry.”

“How did you find us here?” I asked her.

"Mmm, well, I think fate's keepin' us together. I was mostly just runnin' from the mob, but I figured if y'all were going anywhere, it'd probably be somewhere to get outta this mess."

"We ... we are ... I'm sorry we were gonna leave you ..."

"Again, not your fault. Y'all thought I was ... gone ... it's fine. I probably woulda just got outta here myself anyway."

"Well, I'm glad you're back," I replied, smiling, before remembering why she was here. "Hang on ... what about your dad? I thought you came here for him."

Her expression quickly sunk, and her green eyes seemed to darken with sadness. She dropped her head and sighed.

"My pops lived near the castle ..." she said, taking another breath. "When you were passed out, Candy came with me to check it out. We used the rooftops, since the streets ..." she paused. "... It ... was safer. When we got close, I could make out his townhouse. It ..." she stopped, visibly distressed by her words. "He's gone ..."

I rose my hand, setting it on her shoulder as she fought back tears.

"I'm sorry, Spark ..."

She sniffed, shaking away her thoughts.

"Thank you. It's okay. I've got y'all now. Speaking of ... where is everyone?"

“They're getting these rail carts, since there's no train.”

I pointed to the one on the track. She looked down at it and cocked her head, noticing it was uneven. I watched as she hopped down from the platform and ducked her head to look underneath it. She then grabbed hold of the corner that was sinking down between the tracks and lifted it up. With a single motion, she yanked the whole cart over and set her corner back down. The cart sat on the track, this time perfectly even. She brushed her hooves against her chest before turning to me again.

“You scare the shit out of me,” I told her.

She smiled before jumping back onto the platform with me. “Good. But we needa go soon. I backtracked a bit before comin' here, but I think that mob's followin' me still.”

“Crap. Do you know how far away they are?” I asked.

“Don't know for sure. We have a minute or two at least. Where's the others?”

“That way,” I answered, pointing to the building they had disappeared behind.

“Be right back,” she said, rushing behind the building after them.

After another minute passed, I started to hear distant groans behind the station. I realized I should probably get ready for when the others came back and used my hands to ease myself down on the tracks. I then used my arms to lift my leg up and crawled my way inside. When inside, I scooted to the right side of the cart, allowing room for the others to hop on and get going immediately. I kept my eyes glued to the corner Spark had come from, waiting for the mob’s arrival. Thankfully, I heard the others come around the building on the other side of the tracks and looked to see them carrying the other cart.

As they moved to set it up behind my cart, a zombie stallion came into view around the corner of the station ahead. I raised my gun up and lined him in its sights. Pulling the trigger released a bullet that traveled right on target, dropping him. Another one followed his lead, and another.

“Guys! We have to go!” I yelled over my shoulder. The mob was now pushing us, and they would soon be piling on the tracks in front of us. I fired another shot, taking the second pony who had rounded the corner. The others squabbled behind me before King and Spark both jumped onto my cart. Spark got into position in front of the lever, ready to make this thing move however it was supposed to move. King eyed the mob before eying Spark and me, and before I could say anything, he jumped back off the cart and ran ahead of us.

“Hey!” Spark shouted after him.

“Just go!” he shouted back.

Candy jumped onto the cart and scooted beside me. The mob was now rounding the corner, so Spark pushed something on the lever. I heard a lawn-mower-like engine start underneath us, and the cart started to move forward. I looked behind us as I heard the other cart’s engine start too. Dash, Flutters, and Cloud had jumped on it, and Dash was working the lever as their cart started moving as well. I turned back to see King was not passing the mob around the corner ... he was running straight into it. As our cart got closer, we saw him collide with two zombie mares, slowly shoving them back against more of the mob as they turned their attention from the railroad to him.

Our cart passed the corner, and I watched as the mob overcame him. I caught a glimpse of his face as he gritted his teeth and threw his hooves forward, motioning us to go as the mob bit into him. His distraction alone allowed our carts to pass by with no troubles, and Spark accelerated us away from the cursed city. The sound of the mob was replaced by the wind and the cart's wheels rolling beneath us.

“Geez ... brave soul ...” Spark commented.

Candy sighed, looking back at the grizzly scene we were departing. “Yes ... yes, he is ...”

With that, we followed the tracks out of the city and started making our way down the mountain.