The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Trixie —

Trixie was awoken when somepony shook her. She slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to the dark room. Expecting to see Vinyl’s bright white face, she was surprised to see Misty's above her. Before she could scream out, the gray mare shoved her hoof against Trixie’s snout, covering up her mouth. She looked over at the couch on the other side of the room to see Vinyl passed out on top of Split.

“Shhhhh,” Misty whispered, “I’m not here to hurt you.”

The mare hesitated before raising her hoof slightly, allowing her to speak.

“What are you doing??” Trixie whispered, “If they wake up, they might actually kill you.”

“Doubt they can. But, they won’t wake up ... right??” Misty insisted, pressing her face close to hers to intimidate her. Trixie ignored the gesture, knowing she could easily overpower her using magic, as long as the mare didn’t retaliate by strangling her horn with enough pressure to block it. If she did, well, Trixie still had a mouth.

“What do you want?” Trixie asked.

“Come with me. I’m going to make a break for it.”

“There’s no way you'll make it.”

“I will. The mob outside is smaller now. I just need to use the alley to distract them and we are golden.”

“I-” Trixie started, glancing back over at Vinyl. “I can’t leave them. They mean too much to me now.”

“Oh come on. They are holding you back. They want to just stay here, meandering around this apartment floor until the world magically recovers. I know you don’t want that, and neither do I. Plus,” she said, using her hoof to slowly rub Trixie’s horn, making her uncomfortable. “You still have magic. You can help me save my sister. I know you think that’s a bad idea, but I will help you. Come on, what do you say?”

Despite having a bit of jealousy over Vinyl and Split's sudden relationship, she was not mutually interested in Misty's flirtatious gestures. While she disagreed with Vinyl on a lot of things, she could not abandon her in this. They had grown a friendship, and she did not take it for granted. Besides, she had much more important things to do than mess around in this dangerous city trying to save other ponies.

“No. Just go. I won’t say anything.”

The mare frowned, but eventually backed away from her. “Fine. You’re missing your chance though.”

“So be it. Good luck.”

Misty stared at her for a solid bit of time. “Thank you. I hope you get through to these idiots,” she said, picking up the rope of sheets in her mouth and sneaking out of the room. Trixie tried listening in for the next few minutes, but she only managed to hear a distant glass breaking before silence filled the room again. She looked back at Split and Vinyl, who were unphased by it. She waited another couple of minutes before throwing her hind legs over the side of the bed.

“VINYL!” she shouted. The unicorn jolted, nearly falling off the couch as she sat up next to Split.

“Fuck me! I’m awake!” Vinyl replied, waking him up in the process.

“Where’s Misty?!” Trixie yelled, pointing to where she used to be tied up.

“Shit!” Vinyl exclaimed, leaping off the couch and quickly scanning the rest of the bedroom. When it was clear Misty was not with them anymore, both she and Split ran out of the bedroom door to find her. Trixie quietly smiled to herself as she eased out of bed and trotted up to the window.

The outside was dark, as the power in the city had fully gone out last night, but she could vaguely see the streets thanks to Luna’s moonlight. Below her, only a few zombie ponies were moseying around. She looked down the street toward the station, but it looked barren now. Looking down the other side of the street, she faintly noticed the outline of a pony galloping away. A growing mob spilled out of the alley behind her, starting to give chase. She realized the pony was Misty. She actually did escape, also taking the mob with her. Trixie hoped for her sake that she made it to the hospital safely, but she remained skeptical. Nonetheless, she grabbed her saddlebags from against the wall and slung them over her shoulders when Vinyl came rushing in.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Look outside,” Trixie replied, pointing at the window. “The mob is almost gone. Now is our chance!”

Vinyl trotted up to the window to see what she was referring to. “Holy shit.”

“Holy shit indeed. Let’s grab our stuff and go.”

Vinyl hesitated, but Trixie saw the realization in her eyes. There was no better time than now to make their escape. She hoped that a train would still be there. While she knew nothing about operating trains, Vinyl did have a small bit of knowledge. That was enough to pursue it at a time as desperate as this. Vinyl also mentioned that, from what she knew, conductors sometimes left manuals in the train engines about how to operate them. So even if there was an abandoned train, they were still good to go.

The two unicorns rushed out of the room after Vinyl grabbed her own saddlebags. They met with Split in the hallway and waited for him to get his things after Vinyl described the situation. The three ponies continued to the stairway, which was still mostly barricaded with furniture. Vinyl used a flashlight she had found to illuminate the mess, noticing the small gap above the barricade that Misty must have used to escape. One by one they crawled through it, careful not to shift any of the furniture. They slowly made their way down to the second floor, where Trixie noticed the broken window at the end of the hallway.

Like the third floor, this one also had 4 apartments with 2 on either side. The first one on the left was the one they had busted into from the alley. The group galloped down the short hallway before approaching the window Misty had broken. Attached to the frame was the makeshift rope, still dangling to the ground below. Luna’s moonlight did not reveal many zombie ponies on the street below.

“Who’s first?” Trixie asked.

“I’ll go,” Split replied, easing his bigger body through the window. Once he was through, he grabbed the rope and slowly rappelled himself down. He was on the once-busy street now, so the two mares quickly made their way down as well.

As they galloped down the street, Trixie only had to use one freeze spell on a zombie pony who got too close to them. There were more of them down either side of the street, but the darkness seemed to be working in their favor. Trixie wondered just how powerful these ponies’ eyesights were, given the typical glazed-over eyes she saw in all of them. Regardless, the ponies seemed to have a harder time seeing them as they trotted through the shadows of the tall buildings above.

This helped them immensely as they made it to the train station, galloping past the two corpses as they rushed up the stairs. The doors of the station sat in the darkness in front of them. As they neared the top of the stairs, Trixie fired a simple quick-charge spell to bust one of the front doors open. They came to a stop when it wouldn't budge. Trixie annoyingly charged a more powerful blast spell and shot it again. Despite the blast hitting the door dead-center, it still wouldn’t budge. The group looked around nervously for any zombie ponies who may have heard it, but none of the visible ones had.

“Shit,” Vinyl cursed, pulling out her flashlight again. She flicked it on and shined it on the doors. While they were opaque, showing just their green wooden exterior, they noticed the door Trixie had shot was slightly ajar now, with a slight crack revealing a dark interior. Split tried bucking it open, but it wouldn't budge any farther. He glanced back at Trixie.

“Hit it again maybe?” he suggested.

“I don’t think that will have a big effect,” Vinyl replied.

“Can’t she just make an even bigger blast?” he asked.

“That would be even noisier. Besides, that would take too much energy from her. What if there are zombie ponies inside? She needs to conserve her mana, especially since she hasn't fully recovered yet. Look at her, those spells alone exhausted her.”

Trixie looked up, trying to hide her quickened breaths. “Nuh-uh.”

“Uh-huh. We need to find another way in,” Vinyl stated.

The three of them looked around the dark entrance. Vinyl carefully used her flashlight to illuminate the sidewalk without drawing attention from nearby zombie ponies. Near the bottom of the stairs, where the sidewalk met the road, laid a knocked-over green street lamp. Somehow, it had cracked near its base, leaving a roughly three to four pony-length metal pole. At the end of it, the three glass domes covering the lightbulbs inside had smashed open. The lightbulbs inside were busted as well, with just sharp glass shards remaining.

“There,” Vinyl said, “We can use that to bust the door down. Medieval style.”

"Won't that make a lot of noise too?" Split asked.

"You got a better idea?"

The stallion shrugged, eventually accepting her idea and following them down the steps to pick it up. The three of them coordinated their lift, with Split holding the top end just beneath the lights and the mares holding onto either side of the base. After Vinyl counted down, Trixie used a bit of her magic to help them lift the heavy light pole up the stairs, struggling to ignore the corpse with its guts pulled out beside her.

As they rushed forward, the pole collided violently with the ajar door. They were all knocked back in return, dropping the pole, but their force was strong enough to wedge the door open enough for a pony to fit in. Vinyl stood up and took the lead, using her flashlight to check the inside. They did not have much time to mosey around, as a few zombie ponies on the street had heard the commotion and were now trotting to come and join them. Knowing this, Vinyl hurried inside and waved the others in when she knew it was relatively safe.

Inside, the tall walls of the elegant station towered over them. The front desk and its red queue ropes sat empty with most of the poles to the queue knocked over. The benches on either side of the large room also hosted nopony. Starting to feel a wave of pessimism, Trixie made her way past Vinyl and started trotting toward the other end of the building where the tracks were.

“Trixie, wait up!” Vinyl huffed, galloping to catch up to the stubborn mare. As they approached the doors to the tracks outside, she shone her flashlight on the windows beside them. The light from her flashlight was too bright, reflecting off its light and preventing them from seeing out. Therefore, Trixie opened the door slowly, listening for any sounds on the station platform. There were only a few distant groans.

She eased her way through the door, followed by Vinyl. When Vinyl was through, she lifted her flashlight and shone it down the platform. On the set of train tracks closest to them, a typical passenger train sat idle. There seemed to be nopony on it as she turned the light toward the front of the train where the groans were coming from. Outside of the train’s engine, three zombie ponies were huddled close together, taking turns beating on the window. They were so focused on whatever was inside that they ignored Vinyl’s flashlight.

“Conductor?” Split whispered.

“That would be miraculous,” Trixie commented, slowly moving towards the zombie ponies. She took note of the platform’s layout, noticing an open door behind them. She also noticed a fire extinguisher against the wall beside it and got an idea. “Hang on,” she told the others, “I’m going to distract them.”

After moving a bit closer in order to conserve her magic energy, she used her magic to ease the door open fully and waited for a few seconds. If anypony happened to be in the room, she wanted to give them reasonable forewarning before absolutely screwing them over. There was no response in return, so she used her magic to pull out the fire extinguisher. Hovering it in front of the door, she shook it aggressively before pulling the nozzle out and bashing it against the ground. This caused the desired effect of an uncontrollable spray, and the screeching sound of water rushing out caught the attention of all three zombie ponies. She smiled as the ponies turned and trotted toward the extinguisher, which she held onto despite the nozzle flailing around on the floor. Once they were close enough, she tossed it inside. One by one, the dopey ponies ran in, followed by Trixie slamming the door shut on them.

“Bravo!” Split called from behind.

Before the group could make it inside the train engine, a frenzied conductor hopped out of it. “Oh thank you! Thank you! I’ve been stuck in there for too long.”

“Stuck?” Vinyl asked, shining the light on him. His orange coat of fur around his vest and brown mane peeking underneath his conductor hat showed a few blood splotches, but from what they could tell, he looked normal. He squinted his eyes and cocked his head in return.

“Yes. I got trapped by them while everypony else escaped.”

“Escaped?” Split asked.

“They used the tracks.” The conductor pointed ahead of the train. “I was about to follow them but got cornered in my train engine.”

“Who was with you?” Vinyl continued the interrogation.

“Shit, a lot of ponies. Some came and left but I was with a large group when we were ambushed.”

“How long ago was that?” Trixie added.

“It’s been a while.” The conductor looked up at the analog clock hanging up high on the station’s wall, which read a few minutes past 11. Vinyl shined her light on it so he could see. “Thank you. Yes, it’s been quite a while. I’ve been trapped since this afternoon.”

Vinyl started asking another question before the conductor stopped her. “Hey, give me a minute, will you? I need to pee really damn bad. Just wait here.”

The group waited briefly as the Vinyl gave him his flashlight so he could do his business in the station’s bathroom. He returned with a look of relief on his face before hoofing the light back to Vinyl. “Thanks. What were you going to ask?”

“So, why did you not take the train?” Vinyl asked him.

“I was told to leave the train here by Celestia herself, yesterday morning. Haven’t heard from her since. I hope she’s alright, given the circumstances.”

The group exchanged nervous glances, trying to figure out why Celestia would want to keep the train here, in this mess. Trixie grew nervous at the implications of this. Was something awry in Canterlot? She felt a stronger urge to get a move on to see for herself.

"She really told you to leave the train? Did she explain why?" Trixie asked.

"I think it was a lockdown effort. Probably didn't want these ... things ... to spread to other cities."

"Well, we aren't those things. Can you take us to Canterlot?"

"No can do," the conductor answered.

Before Trixie could respond, Vinyl butted in.

"Hang on. You don't understand. My friend here," she said, setting a hoof on her shoulder. "She still has her magic, due to ... an incident. Nopony else we have seen does."

The conductor turned to Trixie and eyed her horn briefly. “Well, aren’t you lucky?”

"I am. So, let's go. The city is collapsing."

“She’s right,” Vinyl added, “Let’s all get on your train and get outta here while we have the chance. I’m sure Celestia will understand when we get there.”

“I can't do that,” the conductor stated.

“... And why is that?” Vinyl asked.

“My son is out there. I need to find him. Besides, I can’t disobey orders from the princess.”

“You don’t understand,” Vinyl pressed, “It’s a shitshow out there. You will die looking for him.”

“Then I will take my chances.”

"Bro," Split joined in, "Don't. It's not worth it."

"It's my son. I have to."

“NO!” Trixie retaliated, “Please. We need you. Your son might be fine. What part of town is he in?”

“He’s not fine. He got the illness a few days ago. He’s at the hospital now.”

Trixie winced before she could stop herself. The conductor noticed the gesture. “What?”

Split cut in, “Your son is dead, bro. I’m sorry.”

“Split!” Vinyl shouted, slapping the stallion. “You moron!”

She turned back to the conductor. “I’m sorry. Don't mind him, he's just an idiot. As my other friend said, your son might be alright. The hospital had some of them but it wasn’t as bad as the rest of the city.”

Trixie exchanged a glance with Vinyl and went along with her lie. “Yes, they were barricading the hospital when we left there. I’m guessing your son is still in there.”

“Then why'd you leave? I don't believe either of you. I need to see him myself.”

“You don’t. Don’t risk your life if you don’t have to. Getting to Canterlot is much more important right now, for everypony involved. I need to see Celestia.”

“Why?”

“My magic! Have you not been listening? She could have a cure, or somepony important there might. I need to use this magic to our advantage while I still have it.”

“I don't care. The answer is no,” the conductor replied, turning toward the door as he walked past them.

“Wait!” Vinyl called, “is there a manual in there at least?”

The conductor turned his head and talked over his shoulder. “Unfortunately, no. I told those idiots to print a new copy but they never got to it. Sorry.”

Both Trixie and Vinyl ran up to his sides as he started walking off again. “Just wait!” Vinyl exclaimed, “Can you tell me how to start it or something? Please?”

“No, it’s too complicated. I need to go,” he replied, continued his walk toward the station doors. Trixie trotted forward and stood in his way.

“Move. I’m not taking you to Canterlot.”

“You are.”

Trixie lit up her horn, causing the conductor to halt. He was startled as she brightened it, causing him to back up a few paces. “No!” he protested, “Don’t! Just get out of my way! You can find another damn way to get there.”

"We found our way," she said, warming up a shove spell.

"No!"

Trixie shot him with the powerful shove spell, sending him to the ground beside Vinyl.

“It will only get worse for you, believe me. I can do so, so much more. Don’t make me hurt you.”

The conductor leaned on his foreleg, cautious of standing back up as he glared back at her.

“You fucking monster! What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing!! Just take us to Canterlot! NOW!” she exclaimed, “You can come back for your kid after. He will still be here.”

He stood up, getting ready to protest, until she lit her horn up again, causing him to flinch.

“Fucks sake! Fine … fine! You crazy bitch!”

They followed him back to his train. Trixie stood at the doorway of the train engine, making sure the only thing he was doing was getting the train started. The now shaky stallion was pulling levers and checking gauges on his dashboard. The train fired up, taking a few minutes to ‘warm up’ by his description. Eventually, they started to accelerate slowly. The conductor looked back at her once they were getting up to speed.

“There. Happy now?”

“I am. Even if you aren’t, this is good for your son too. Even if he was somehow bit and is one of them now, I may have the ability to change him back. I get it, he’s your son, but this is leagues more important right now.”

“Honestly ... screw you,” he hissed, sighing as she checked his gauges.

“Keep talking.”

Trixie walked up beside the conductor to see what he saw. The start of the train ride was pretty rough, as the conductor had to cross many streets. Every so often, a zombie pony would wander onto the track in front of them. Trixie was baffled to see a few of the zombie ponies who noticed them scurry out of the train’s path. She was noticing more and more that these zombie ponies were not the dumb, brain-eating, walking corpses one would find in a book of fiction. At times, these were some eerily smart ponies. It was becoming clearer to her how the illness had practically destroyed the city in such a short period of time.

It took them a few minutes to get out of downtown Manehatten, and as they did, the conductor continued upping their speed. Trixie was happy to see the skyscrapers turn into smaller shops, then into more spread-out buildings as yards and areas of forest took over the bustling streets. As it did, the conductor pushed their speed over the normal for usual rides. Trixie continued looking out the engine’s side window, not aware of the threat looming behind her.

In a quick second, her head was shoved violently against the glass she was looking out of. Pain seared through her forehead as she fell below the window. Before she could retaliate, the conductor grabbed her by the neck and pulled her up quickly. She blinked her eyes, noticing the crack that had formed where her face met the window. Again, her head was sent forward, before she could react. This time, the glass shattered, sending her head out of the window. Mustering up all the strength she could, she used her forelegs to push against the wall below the window. When she realized the conductor behind her was grabbing onto her hind legs, she pulled her head back inside with the help of her forelegs and purposefully dropped herself to the floor. Her head pounded as she squirmed, kicking her hind legs hard enough to stall the conductor. Eventually, he gave up on grabbing them and instead got on top of her, using his hooves to grab and squeeze her horn.

“You will not stop me from seeing my boy!” he yelled.

“Stop!” Trixie pleaded, attempting to warm up a spell. His strong hoofhold prevented her from trying to cast even the most minor spells, so she continued to squirm.

The conductor then wrapped his hind legs around her hips, pushing close as he rolled her on top of him. Trixie did not know how to fight, much less this kind of wrestling. Without her magic, she was helpless as the conductor used his powerful hind legs to kick her backward. She was sent tumbling through the engine’s open door, desperately reaching out and grabbing onto the edge of the doorway of the train car behind it, while also wrapping one of her hind legs around the engine's door to prevent falling between them. Her body hung down as her belly vibrated on top of the coupling connecting the cars below. The fast-moving ground filled her peripheral vision as she struggled to hold herself above the coupling. She caught glimpse of Vinyl through the open door of the next car, who rushed to the edge to help.

Without speaking, Vinyl reached out her hoof and grabbed Trixie by the neck. She pulled it up, attempting to help her not fall through the cracks. The conductor grabbed hold of Trixie’s other hind leg, despite her frantically kicking it. He then pushed it out of the car as she struggled to keep her other hind leg inside for support. As Vinyl and the conductor fought for her, Trixie saw a large flash of dark blue whiz above her, right before the grip of her hind leg was released. She used this opportunity to push herself up on the coupling, and with Vinyl’s help, pull herself into the other train car. She promptly collapsed to the floor and rolled over to see Split now wrestling with the conductor. The two of them tussled, slamming each other against the walls of the engine. Right as Vinyl prepared to rush in to help him, the two stallions crashed against the side of the engine with the broken window, causing the conductor's body to fly out.

She and Vinyl peered through the doorways at Split, who slowly came down from his adrenaline high. The stallion took a moment to catch his breaths, gazing out the broken window before rushing up to it to look outside.

After the mares took a moment to ground themselves, Vinyl turned back to her. Trixie rubbed her head as it pounded furiously, feeling a migraine quickly erupting inside.

“Trix ... shit, are you alright?” Vinyl asked, standing over to inspect her.

Trixie groaned for a moment. “Aah ... I ... I think so ... ”

“You little rockstar. Let me get you some pain reliever.”

Vinyl threw off her saddlebags and dug into them as a frazzled Split made his way into the train car with them.

“Trix! Shit, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine …” she answered, still rubbing her head.

“I … I’m sorry you guys … I tried to stop him, but … I didn’t mean for him to fly out! I … I …”

“Babe …” Vinyl replied, raising her hoof. “It’s alright. Just go back in there and pull the emergency lever if we look like we’re gonna run into something. I’ll be there in a sec.”

The stallion’s nervousness subsided as he smiled. “Thank you.”

He made his way back to the engine as Vinyl gave her the pain relievers and laid her back on the car’s floor. She thanked her, taking some deep breaths to slow her rapid heart rate. Despite her raging new headache, she felt okay overall. Vinyl still checked her over thoroughly.

“I’m sorry that happened, Trix. We shouldn't have trusted him. Don’t worry, though. I can try to operate the train from here … it was mostly starting it up that I was unsure of. I’ll get Split to come and lie you down on one of the seats.”

“Thank you,” Trixie replied.

Vinyl made her way to the engine, and soon, they would be out of this cursed city, and instead, arriving at Canterlot's pearly gates.