The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan —

The overcast gray sky was raining down on us now. Both Trixie and I were already getting drenched by it as we continued alongside the river. The Foal Mountain range stood tall beside us as we ran along the trees beside its base. We could also see Canterlot Mountain across the river, rising above the forest on the other side. The valley we were in was wide, seemingly ending ahead of us as we moved farther away from Canterlot Mountain. I noticed Trixie constantly turning her head toward the mountain and river, obviously gauging the right moment to cross. It had been raining for some time now, so the river was moving pretty fast. The stretch of it that we were running alongside was particularly wide.

Trixie slowed and looked up at me. Her eyes showed a sense of distress as she watched me clutching my chest. I followed her eyes and lifted my hand off my jacket. While we were running, blood seeped out of the wound and covered my hand in an uncomfortable shade of red. I realized bandaging it up to stop the bleeding could not wait any longer. I slowed down to a stop, and Trixie followed.

“Devan …” she said, stomping her hooves on the ground. "Fucking shit. That was fucking stupid! Why did we do that? We should have just fucking run! DAMN IT!”

“Trixie, relax. It was the heat of the moment, okay? Can't blame us for not thinking straight."

I took off my backpack and set it beside me. Trixie stared back at me quietly, trying to figure out what I was doing.

"Can you help me wrap this up?” I asked, gesturing to my chest.

“Wrap it up? I mean, we could, but is there really a reason to?”

I looked down at her and remembered she was not aware of my supposed immunity. I then started second-guessing myself, wondering if I should have taken this risk. However, if Pinkie's bite went away, I figured this one should also. I still wondered if I really was immune, or just to a certain extent. Pinkie had bitten my arm, while the attacker from the mob bit straight into my chest, right where my ribcage sat. It seemed as though my body was warming up, but with a wound this size, that seemed typical, regardless of the existence of a wicked zombie virus. Either way, it was too late to do anything about it now.

“Trixie, I am immune. As far as I know, at least. I was bit on day one, and the bite healed.”

She looked back at me with a new glimmer of hope in her eyes after taking this information in. “Oh, thank Celestia. Let’s get you patched up quickly then.”

I reluctantly set my knees on the wet ground as I pulled the backpack toward me and unzipped the smaller compartment. Inside was the gauze bandage and a few washcloths the others collected back at the clinic. I picked up the washcloth and alcohol just to have them snatched by Trixie.

“Take your clothes off. I’ll get this set up,” she said.

“Gotcha,” I replied, pulling my arms out of my jacket. It was more difficult than usual, as the jacket had been soaked from the growing rain. My shirt underneath was also wet, so I fought to pull it off as well. After I did, I noticed a crescent-shaped line of blood that was slowly dripping down to my pants. The bite felt painful, but I had not expected it to look so bad. I looked back up at Trixie, who was setting aside the alcohol and stepping up to me. The washcloth hovered in front of her, illuminated faintly by the blue glow of her magic. She eyed me warily.

“Just hold still, this is gonna hurt.”

I took in a deep breath as she moved the cloth to my wound. The coldness shocked me briefly, but it was replaced almost instantly with a very sharp, stinging pain searing through my chest. I could not help but pull my chest back as the pain proved too much. Instead of pulling the cloth away, Trixie followed my movement and kept the washcloth on my chest. I tried to cry out for her to stop, but the pain temporarily took my breath away. I backed up, raising my knees in an attempt to get away from the torture. The slippery ground caused my feet to slip under me, and I was sent falling backward. The cold, wet ground shocked the exposed skin of my back, but I was too focused on stopping the pain.

“Devan, stop fighting!” Trixie begged. With the cloth still to my chest, she jumped on top of me and grabbed it with her hoof. She set her free hoof on my shoulder blade and set her hind legs on top of my thighs to stop my movement. For another few seconds, she rubbed the wound as I squirmed underneath her, reaching up and grabbing her forelegs. She finally finished abusing me with the cloth, pulling away from my grasp.

“Get up,” she said, stepping off of me.

My chest ached, throbbing with the painful, stinging sensation brought about by the alcohol.

“Jesus!” I cried, clenching my wound as I slowly sat up. “What the hell, Trixie?!”

“You forced my hoof, I am sorry.”

My back was uncomfortably soaked now. I watched as Trixie grabbed the dry washcloth and gauze bandage. She was moving quickly, as the rain was starting to drench everything exposed. It only took her a few moments with the dry cloth to dry off the wound. After observing how quickly the rain was wetting everything, she lit up her horn. I looked at it, wondering what kind of magic she was brewing. Six seconds later, she released the spell in a bright blue flash. I felt hot air circle my body, as if several blow dryers were surrounding and blowing my skin on full blast. This continued for a few seconds, but that was enough time for the spell to dry up my exposed skin. Right after it ended, Trixie quickly wrapped the wound with the gauze bandage.

“Thank you,” I said once she finished.

“Get dressed. We need to find the others and get to Canterlot.”

“You cannot be serious.”

“I am.”

I held off my retaliation so I could reluctantly put my wet shirt and jacket back on. It was then that I realized she had extended the spell to my shirt, which was only partially damp from the growing raindrops. After quickly throwing it on, I reluctantly threw on my wet jacket as well. The only comforting part of it was the jacket’s hood, which I threw on to further block out the rain. I took my backpack from Trixie’s impatient hooves and slung it back over my shoulder, gazing behind her at the river. The rain caused it to grow slightly, raging fiercer than the one back at Canterlot had. Along with its violent appearance, it was the same river that Spark, Candy, and I had fallen into earlier, so I knew it could also be deep at this section.

“Trixie, we cannot cross that right now,” I argued.

“We will. It will be fine.”

“No. Let’s keep walking. We can cross when it narrows, closer to Ponyville, or when the rain dies down. Please, Trixie.”

“No, Devan. We are going to Canterlot. Like it or not, that mishap sent the others that way. We cannot stall now. We need to get moving.”

"What the fuck was that mishap about anyway? Did you do that intentionally?"

"I SAID IT WAS A MISFIRE, YOU FUCKFACE!"

"HOW?? How did you shoot it the wrong way?"

"I WAS HIT! My head got smacked by some flying object when I was leaning out the window. I don't know if the mob threw something at me or what, but they sure timed it fucking right!" she hissed.

"Well shit. Regardless, we have to move on."

"No the fuck we don't. Don't you want to find your friends too? Your little lover unicorn?"

I was growing agitated now. "Of course I do! And we aren't damn lovers! She's just a sweet pony. You would know that too, if you weren't such a bitch!"

"Fuck you, Devan."

I sighed. "Look, Trixie, I want to find the others too, I do ... but there's no way we'll find them out here. Besides, it's too risky with the mob. Whether or not they look for us, they'll eventually make their way around the mountain and head back to Ponyville. That's where we'll meet them."

"Fucking quitter."

The stubborn mare was really getting on my nerves now. She was facing the river now, not even facing me as we argued.

“Trixie …” I grumbled.

“Shut up.”

“Trixie!” I hollered, reaching down and setting a hand on her back. “Forget about Canterlot! Did you not see the fucking mob?! They came from Canterlot! Let’s take our leave and go to Ponyville.”

“Get off of me,” she demanded, moving away from my hand but keeping her eyes on the river.

"Trixie! Just look at me!" I yelled.

After a moment of hesitation, she angrily glanced up at me.

"Do you not understand your situation, Trix?"

"Don't call me that. You haven't earned the right to nickname me."

"Whatever, Trixie. But do you? What you said earlier ... about taking risks. I agree, but we can't take such big risks right now."

"And why is that?"

"YOU! Trixie, you, as far as we know, are the ONLY pony with magic left. Do you know how big that is? Like it or not, you have become the most important pony in this whole fucking world! We need to keep you safe. I need to keep you safe. So please just listen to what I say."

The mare's expression softened. She looked away and gritted her teeth, staring blankly in the distance while she thought for a moment. She then shook her head, turned back to the river, and began lighting her horn to cast another spell.

I had had enough. While she was fixated on the water, I took both of my hands and strangled her horn. The blue light faded as I did. She started flailing her head around, so I used my bigger body to knock her sideways to the ground. This caused me to lose grip of her horn, but I quickly regained it and squeezed hard in an attempt to stop her magic. She finally quit resisting me, and there was a moment of silence as she furiously side-eyed me from the ground.

“Let ... go ... of my ... FUCKING horn,” she hissed.

“NO. Just LISTEN!”

“You know, once you let go, I’m shoving your face straight in the river, right? I won't drown you, but I'll make you wish I fucking did.”

Her threats made their mark on me, causing me to grow a bit anxious as I realized I put myself into a pretty ominous situation.

“No ... Trixie, don’t. Just listen to me, please. I just needed to get through to you, okay? I’m sorry. But please listen. We cannot go to Canterlot right now. I don't mind going to Canterlot with you later ... maybe even if it's just us, but not. right. now."

I looked up at the river, trying to recall my Equestrian geography. "Now ... if we follow this river, it leads to the Everfree forest, right?”

She huffed. “It splits into two. One part goes to the ocean, and one part goes to the forest.”

“Well, we will follow the one to the forest. We'll be more protected against the rain, too. Which, that brings up a point … Canterlot Mountain would be a real bitch to climb right now. We would just slip over ourselves. So, we make our way to the forest and go to Ponyville, okay? Please, Trixie.”

She averted her eyes, looking out at the river beside us. There was nothing but the sound of rain and the flowing river as she thought about what I said. She then looked back at me with slightly less glare in her eyes.

“Alright, listen,” she said, “We’ll make a truce, okay? Let go of my horn.”

“Tell me the truce first.”

She huffed again. “Fine ... we will go to Canterlot later. But I still want to cross the river now.”

“How come?”

“We will need to eventually, and I don’t think it gets much thinner downstream.”

“Then what?”

She sighed defeatedly. “We’ll go to Ponyville …”

I sighed with relief as I released her horn. I finally won the battle over Trixie. This victory was deemed short as I looked back down to see her glowing horn. A second later, a bright blue flash erupted before an orb smacked my face, sending me backward onto the cold grass beside her.

“Asshole,” she commented as she stood up again. I shook off the blow and sat back up.

“So, how do you plan on us getting across?”

“Water spell. It’s pretty complex, but I think I can manage.”

“Wait. Before you just blast it off, can you explain it to me first, please?”

“I was going to …” she said unconvincingly, “So, the spell will form a cold layer on top of the water flow and turn it to ice very briefly. I know of an atmospheric workaround that will also weaken the slipperiness of the ice, but we should still take caution not to slip. Since the water is moving pretty fast, there might also be some water that climbs over top of the ice after it is made. So we move quick, carefully, and get across, got it?”

“Yeah. That is pretty badass. How long do we have until the ice melts?”

“It will vanish, not melt. The longest I can hold it for is around four seconds per section.”

“Oh damn.”

“Come on, don’t think about it. You ready?”

“Ready.”

Trixie and I walked to the very edge of the river. I stood behind her, ready to follow her once the ice was set. She lit up her horn again, warming up the powerful spell. It took a solid eight to ten seconds until she released it. In front of us, the water glowed briefly as her spell quickly used the very top layer of it to form a line of ice just wide enough for us to cross. She started trotting along it, so I followed suit. I noticed water pushing over some parts of the ice as the river continued to rage. Another thing I noticed was how slippery the ice was. Perhaps it was the fact that I had not experienced walking on normal ice in years, but it seemed just as slippery as it looked. I focused on balancing myself on it as I walked along, keeping my eyes focused solely on where my feet were about to go.

While I focused, I heard Trixie holler something when we were halfway across and looked up. In my peripheral vision, a flash of brown interrupted the blue of the river right before a large tree branch floating on the water collided with both of us. The slipperiness of the ice helped the branch knock us off and into the cold water. My body rushed to adapt to the new wave of cold as my head was thrown underwater. I fought the blindness for a few seconds, struggling to overcome the powerful river’s tug. I felt my body start to pull quickly along the water.

I was finally able to surface a few seconds later. I coughed up water and pushed hard with my legs to stay afloat. As I scanned the water, a wet, blue mane popped out ahead of me. I saw Trixie kicking furiously with her legs as well as she struggled to see with wet hair covering her eyes. I called out to her as we were dragged, causing her to turn. She shook her head to get the hair away from her eyes before finally seeing me. The branch that had struck us was beside her, and she had to briefly go underwater to let the tail end of it pass. When she resurfaced, I saw her glow her horn while she looked toward the other side of the river.

Preparing for whatever spell she might use, I caught a glimpse of grey ahead of us. I realized in fear that it was a collection of sharp rocks. We were moving too fast for me to warn her, and I watched helplessly as her body slammed into one of the bigger ones. The force of the blow sent her head underwater for a second as the water pushed her around it. I got ready to receive the same blow, kicking my legs against the current in an attempt to mitigate it. The rock approached quickly, and with extended hands, I took the blow with much less force than Trixie had. I immediately felt the current push me against the rock, but it was big enough to hold onto. It was also long enough to fit a pony or two, so I climbed against it, fighting the current trying to push me around it.

After slipping a few times, I finally got my chest up on the side of the rock. Throughout the endeavor, my backpack stayed glued to my back. I glanced down the river to try to find Trixie again, but the water in the river and the rain pouring down made it difficult. I took a few breaths to slow my beating heart, but anxiety was taking hold of me. After a few moments of rest, I eyed the river bank. Beside me were more rocks, albeit smaller than this one, that led to the other side of the river. My baseball bat floated on the water, drifting behind two of them. I carefully navigated the tops of these rocks so I wouldn't slip, and managed to grab it before it could get sucked down the river. It took a bit of patience, which I did not have, to get across the remaining rocks. I was rewarded though when I managed to step foot on the river bank. After setting my bat in its mesh again, I wasted no time and began sprinting alongside the river in a desperate attempt to find Trixie.