The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan White —

Sunshine cascaded through my bedroom. Frankly, it was probably the only way I would ever wake up. Multiple alarms never phased me, annoyingly. I rolled out of bed to start off the day, as today was the day I visited Twilight's castle to become another lab experiment. It was hard to blame her, as I stood out very much.

I am the only human there is, ever was, and maybe ever will be, in Equestria. I had been sent here by Princess Celestia with her amazing alicorn magic and energy to help the ponies of Equestria rebuild after an extremely rare mega-storm swept through and tore it apart. Originally, she had planned to bring more humans. However, she was concerned about Equestria's safety, so to be on the safe side, and as an experiment, she only brought one.

Me.

Princess Celestia had picked me specifically, partially by chance, and partially because I fit the bill. I was young, at my peak in terms of endurance, I already knew about Equestria through my own world, and I had always wanted to know what it felt like to be in a magical world such as this. I also wasn't an asshole ... according to her. I had not turned the offer down, because my life back on Earth was not exactly what it was cracked up to be. I felt much better in Equestria. I felt much … safer.

I thought again about what Twi might do with her experiment today. I was just oozing with excitement. It was not that I disliked Twi … she just happened to come off as a mad scientist sometimes. I could not recall a time when I felt safe sitting in her chair while she hooked me up with suspicious-looking wires. I even got electrocuted by accident once. Yeah, electrocuted. Regardless, Twi always accommodated me for my troubles, and she was a very good friend of mine, so my silly self kept agreeing to more and more experiments.

There was a knock at the door while on my way to my mini-kitchen. If I had to guess, that would be Derpy, my favorite mailmare. Upon opening the door, my hunch was correct.

“Murnin Diven,” she greeted.

I looked down and grabbed the mail from her mouth.

“Good morning, Derpy.”

These ponies stood roughly three-in-a-half to four feet tall when on all fours. I wasn’t huge, but standing at 5’10 made a noticeable height difference, with most of them only coming up to my abdomen. The only exceptions were alicorns like Princess Celestia, who stood slightly taller than me.

“How are you?” she asked.

“Pretty good, how 'bout yourself?”

I sifted through the mail while she and I caught up on what had happened since yesterday's delivery. Ever since Celestia brought me to Equestria, I grew a close bond with some of these ponies. Being a human didn't set me apart as much as I initially thought it would.

“... his relatives are pretty upset ...” she continued with her story.

Over the past week, an illness had spread in one of Manehattan's largest hospitals, and many ponies were growing concerned about its lethality. I had not followed the stories as much as some ponies, Twi included, but I didn't think much about it. Sickness can be cured, as long as you have people, or should I say, ponies, who care enough to do so.

“You … You aren't worried about it, are you Devan?” she asked.

“I'm not too concerned. I haven't read the newspapers much this week. It'll probably make its rounds the next few weeks before going away.”

She smiled, causing me to. “Well, I gotta go. See ya around, Devan.”

“Alright. See ya, Derpy.”

I shut the door and tossed the mail on the end table by my shoes. Strolling into the kitchen, I decided to have a snack over a big, fancy breakfast. Why? I felt extra lazy today. It was chill being a human in Equestria, but sometimes I did miss the benefits of being back home on Earth.

If only Equestria had a Waffle House ...

Whenever I stumbled upon a thought like that, I reminded myself how bad I had it back on Earth, as if I could afford it anyway. My broken past led me to very rough times, and thoughts about going back in the next couple of weeks bothered me. Initially, Celestia had brought me here under an 'experimental contract' that expired two months ago, when Equestria finished its storm relief efforts. When I met with her in her castle on expiration day, I pleaded for her to give me at least another month. Graciously, she had set me up with an extended 3-month stay, but the end of that seemed to be lingering around the corner. Twilight and I would have to talk it over with her before then.

As I grabbed chips from my little pantry, I clumsily bumped into the counter and knocked over my walkie-talkie. That walkie-talkie was one of only two in Equestria. Celestia had brought a pair of them in from Earth recently to see how well they worked. While magic did exist, she wanted to try something along the lines of real-time communication. She hoped this would be a step forward for Equestria, but she was very cautious about all of this as well.

Ponies only just found out about Earth when Celestia announced she was going there to find a human fit enough to help out with the storm. The funny thing about that is the fact that she had known about the existence of Earth and its universe for 21 years. This meant she knew about it throughout my entire 18 years of life. She was also wise enough not to disclose too much information about it, for fear of messing up all of Equestria. It was worthy enough to be kept secretive, and to this day, ponies still thought I had come from something equivalent to the 19th century. Nopony knew about all the innovations and man-made horrors from Earth, and they probably wouldn't for quite some time.

Interestingly enough, one of the only things to come from my world besides me and the walkie-talkie happened to be tools for landscaping. Magic and Earth ponies were able to landscape for themselves, but some equipment Celestia had seen on Earth apparently deemed useful enough to bring here. So, now Equestria had lawn mowers. Pretty random.

When the walkie-talkie fell out on the floor, its batteries were knocked out. I carefully slipped them back in before turning it on. I knew it was very important to Celestia that these walkie-talkies worked, so I made sure mine did. I panicked slightly when turning it on did nothing. After shaking it a few times, the green power LED turned on. Phew.

“Princess Celestia?” I spoke into it.

Quiet for thirty seconds.

“Celestia?” I repeated.

I waited nervously for a reply. After a few more seconds, the active LED turned on.

“Hello Devan, what is it?”

I let out a quick sigh of relief.

“Nothing. Sorry, Celestia. I just wanted to make sure my walkie-talkie worked.”

A few more seconds of silence.

“What do you mean Devan? Why wouldn’t it work?”

I could hear a sense of motherly tone in her response. It felt like I was about to be grounded.

“I dropped it. Sorry, princess. It works though.”

She tsk’d a few times before replying, “Be careful with it, Devan. Next time I might have to throw you in the dungeon.”

We laughed and talked a bit more before letting each other go. I set the walkie-talkie down very carefully. As I was grabbing my snack again, there was another knock at the door. Busy day. I just hoped it wasn’t an impatient Twi ready to drag me into her experiment chair. I still had an hour according to my watch. When I opened the door, I saw Pinkie Pie's face for a split second before being pounced on. I fell back on the floor and took a second to recover while the mare stood over me. I noticed her twitch aggressively.

"Devan! I need your help!!"

"Pinkie, Jesus! What's wrong??"

"I can explain on the way. Can you come with me to Zecora??"

"Zecora? Why?"

"Come on!" she exclaimed, grabbing my hand and practically ripping me off the floor as she twitched again. Whatever Pinkie was on about, it had to be serious. While she was full of energy most of the time, she usually was not as pushy. I stood up and quickly shut the door behind me as I ran beside her. I really did not want to go into the Everfree forest, especially this early in the day, but I had to help Pinkie.

"Will you tell me what's going on?" I asked.

She twitched again as we ran. "Devan, I have been having these strange twitches, You remember the twitches, right? The ones where I sense something is about to happen, I have been having them, the twitches."

"What about th-"

“Devan, something bad is about to happen, I have no idea what it could be because the twitches don’t follow a pattern I know, heck, it doesn’t follow a pattern at all, there’s no pattern! It’s driving me wonker bonkers, Devan, all I can sense is that something is about to happen, and it’s probably something bad! Bad!!”

"What do you think it is? And why are we going to Zecora??"

"I don't know, Devan! But I believe there is something she can do if I remember right."

The home Celestia had given me was very close to Sugarcube Corner, and subsequently nearby the Everfree forest. It only took us a few minutes of running to enter. I looked around at the dark trees and the intense amount of overgrown greenery. The path to Zecora’s hut wasn’t in bad shape though. I had not been through here in a while, but there was no doubt that it was at least twice as creepy as before for some reason. Thankfully Celestia’s sun had risen a bit and it wasn’t as dark. I looked over at Pinkie while we ran through the forest, and noticed a bandage wrapped around her hind leg.

“What is the bandage for? That’s not related, is it?” I asked.

"It, I, Ugh." Pinkie suddenly slowed to a stop. "Devan, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?? Please don't tell me it's bad."

She turned and unwrapped the bandage around her leg to show a bloody patch. It looked almost as if somebody had bit her. It wasn’t pretty in the slightest, and around it was a big purple bruise.

“Pinkie … what bit you?”

She sighed. “I was walking through an alley to get to the party shop across town. But this pale-looking pony came towards me. I thought he was just sick, so I went over to help him. But he grabbed ahold of my hind leg and sunk his teeth into it. I managed to get away, but I'm afraid of what this means.”

"Another pony bit you?? Are you serious?"

"Yes! Devan, it had to be a zombie! I didn't want to believe it but it has to be!"

"When?!"

"Earlier! Not even half an hour ago!"

I stopped and thought for a moment. A zombie? Did this mean some kind of zombie apocalypse was coming? In Equestria? It seemed far-fetched, even with all the crazy stuff that had happened in this universe. I really hoped magic would fix the problem. It had to, right?

"Pinkie, we have to get you help now! What if you turn?!"

"That's why we're going to Zecora!"

"What can Zecora do about this?"

"I believe she has something that can help, I know it is a stretch, maybe not a great time to go to through the forest now, and I'm sorry for putting you in danger, but I need your help in case things go south. We have to try at least!"

"Well shit, let's go then!" I yelled.

We ran through the forest again with a new speed to our steps. I wished Zecora's hut was closer than it was. Would she even be home? I guess that was something we would have to find out ourselves. Halfway to Zecora's hut, Pinkie slowed her pace and twitched a bit.

"Pinkie?"

"I-" she started, before slowly wobbling around for a moment, losing her balance, and falling to the ground.

"Pinkie! Come on, you're okay, we're almost there."

She looked up at me with a new fear in her eyes.

"Devan, my legs ... they're giving out on me!"

"Then I'll carry you! Come on, get on my back or something."

While Pinkie only stood at around three and a half feet tall, most of these ponies did carry some weight on them for their size. It was possible that I could carry her, but I would probably risk spraining a few muscles in the process. Zecora's hut was too far for me to attempt it.

"Devan, no, you might hurt yourself, Just go to Zecora and come back for me."

"No, Pinkie! I can't leave you here. What if you turn and wander off??"

"Devan. Devan..."

Her speech was slowing. I grew concerned to see her blinking slowly and growing tired.

"Come on, Pinkie."

She shut her eyes.

No.

I began to panic. Looking around, the forest seemed to snicker evilly. The trees swayed with the wind and clouds started forming overhead. Great timing, pegasi. Bending my knees, I tried to pick her up, but she was too heavy with her additional dead weight. I did not want to leave her here on her own, but feeling her body cool worried me. I wished to Celestia that somebody would arrive to help us, despite being in the middle of the forest. I wished for it to be a unicorn so they could use some kind of magic on her.

"Pinkie, please. You've got to wake up. We can still make it. Come on, Pinkie ..." I breathed deeply while looking at her motionless body. "Pinkie ..."

She started moving again. I was relieved for a split second until I realized how pale she had become in the past minute. I watched her chest’s up-and-down motion return as I scooted back. Was this it? Was she turning? I stood up and backed away a few paces, watching her squirm a bit. Only a few seconds later, her eyes opened. They looked at me, and I saw a new white glaze over them. She growled as she rolled to her belly.

Adrenaline burst through my veins as she leaped up a lot quicker than I would have imagined, and I took off toward Zecora's hut as she started to chase. My feet collided with the ground as I struggled to generate enough power to get the hell out of there. When Pinkie first mentioned zombies, I had not expected this level of speed. I was hoping more along the lines of slow and dumb.

Normally, I was able to keep a steady pace with ponies who were galloping, as long as it was not their full-on sprint. This was thanks to my size advantage over them. If they were my height, they would easily smoke me in any race. Even now, they would beat me most of the time. I was envious of their speed, especially in this situation. I looked behind me to see that I was gaining distance from her. Contrary to what I thought, she was moving at a clumsy trot, and I was very grateful for this.

After a minute of running, I lost sight of her. On my way to Zecora's hut, I prayed that magic could fix this. Magic had been stronger than anything I had ever seen, and there had to be a spell to get Pinkie back to normal. There had to.