The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan —

I woke up on the cold, hard floor of Zecora’s hut. The typical feeling of a well-rested nap flooded over me as I stretched regardless. Tiredness slowly exited my mind while I sat up, relieved to have another moment of rest after everything that had happened since last night. On the bed was Trixie, with her hooves laid out on my side of it. I shook my head as I stood up, wondering how long ago she had kicked me off. I felt the desire to maliciously pull her off as well, until I realized just how peaceful she looked.

So instead, I quietly walked out the front door and sat down on the steps out front. The rain had stopped yet again, and the dark forest let in just a little bit of Celestia’s evening sunlight. I gazed up at the dense treetops, admiring the rays of light poking through them. Perhaps the recurring closeness of death was haunting me to take none of my time for granted, causing me to constantly take in the beauty of this world every chance I could get.

However, my mind was still sad. We had lost the others. Pinkie Pie was dead. Zecora was dead. More ponies were dead, in this otherwise magical world. A few tears fell down my cheeks as I feared whether or not my friends were alive. If I found out that Twilight died, I don’t believe I could live with myself anymore. I then thought about Trixie and my growing bond with her. How would I manage if she died in front of me? What would I do? I struggled with these thoughts, but they gave me motivation to keep her safe.

While I danced with my thoughts, I started hearing hoofsteps inside. They were quick, and growing louder, until I turned around to see the door behind me swing open. A frazzled Trixie stopped in the doorway when she saw me and took a deep breath.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Damn it, Devan. Nothing.”

“Didn’t really look like that …”

“Look,” she replied, shaking her head. “Just forget it. Are you fully rested now?”

“I am.”

“Well, here's what I'm thinking. I'm going to look through the book a little bit more. Since Cheerilee didn't mention where she went, I can use a detective spell so we can track her down. She might be with others, or maybe her and I can discuss the spell to make it work. We'll leave after I'm comfortable with what I've thought up.”

"Geez, you can do that? I don't think I've even heard Twilight mention a spell like that."

"I can. It's a pretty complicated, energy-intensive spell, but it works, mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Eh ... it can mix up tracks from time to time, especially in bigger cities. Thankfully Ponyville isn't that populated, so hopefully I'll have no issues."

I took a second to think about her suggestion.

“You sure about this?” I asked.

“You got a better idea?”

“I don't know. Maybe we look for Twilight?”

“Where do you suppose we look? You mentioned her castle was abandoned. She could be anywhere now. What’s to say she's even in Ponyville? She might even be in Canterlot because of those letters Celestia sent.”

I realized she made sense. There was no telling where anypony was right now in the chaos.

“Alright,” I said, “I guess you’re right. Let’s look for Cheerilee.”

After Trixie spent some more time studying the spell inside, I watched as she packed up the book and papers in my bag. We were ready to leave now, so I flung the backpack on my back and walked outside with her.

Out front, Trixie lit her horn a vibrant blue and charged the spell. The bright glow dimmed to a small one focused around the tip of her horn. She then surveyed the ground around us, scanning for what she said would be a trace of hoofsteps. Even though she told me I would not be able to see them, I still looked around anyway. After a minute, along with some walking, I was under the impression she had not found anything.

“Hey,” I said, “Do you see them?”

“Gah. No. Stay here.”

She turned around and trotted back to the hut, circling the outside once before making her way inside. I waited outside until she came back out with a discouraged look on her face. She gestured for me to go before passing me and trotting down the path.

“Trix, communicate! Damn!” I shouted as we ran.

“Alright!” she huffed, “I can’t find her tracks. I might be able to catch them if we hurry back.”

We hurried along the path, making our way to Ponyville rather quickly. As the forest was thinning and houses from Ponyville were appearing ahead of us, Trixie called out.

“Found them! Follow me!”

Her speed instantly increased, and I had to break out into a fast jog to keep up.

“Trix! Wait!”

The stubborn mare ignored my call, seemingly oblivious to the danger we may be heading into as we crossed the bridge into Ponyville. I could vaguely see the top of Town Hall through the houses we started passing. The area became instantly familiar as we were running along a path that passed both Sugarcube Corner and my house. As much as I wanted to stop Trixie and check on my house, I also did not want her to lose Cheerilee’s track.

Once again, we came across a few zombie ponies roaming the streets of Ponyville. Both of the ones we encountered were far enough from our path to avoid, but we easily caught their attention as we continued our careless run. I looked back to see both a zombie stallion and a mare now giving chase to us. Like before, their speed seemed to be a trot at best, so we would lose them eventually at our rate. The problem was not their speed, but their endurance and persistence. It appeared as though we could run across Equestria to get away, but eventually, they would catch up to us. I hoped we were not leading these ponies straight to Cheerilee.

We continued running for a few minutes until we reached the Ponyville train station. From our approach, I immediately noticed the back few cars of the damned train that my old group had to abandon on day one. Starting from the caboose and going forward, the cars were burnt black with increasing severity. The last one I could see, partially blocked by the station, was also caved in.

Trixie finally slowed to a trot as we rounded the corner of the station. On the station platform ahead of us, three zombie ponies were weakly clawing at the front door. We both froze in the hopes that they did not notice us, but the closest one turned his head and caught us. He stopped his assault on the door and instead shot into action at the sight of us.

“Trix, come on!” I hollered, tugging at her to follow me back into the town. She reluctantly dropped her detective spell and followed as we sprinted back to the nearest house we could find. Rushing to the front door, I frantically jiggled the handle just to find it was locked. I wasted no time pulling out my bat to bust the door's window until I noticed movement through it. Inside, I saw a living, light blue pony ushering a filly to another room of the house. Despite my surprise, I turned back around to see Trixie aimed at the door, lighting up her horn. I sidestepped in her way to prevent her from busting the door down herself.

“No, there’s fillies in there! Come on!” I yelled, continuing our run.

Unfortunately for us, the two zombie ponies from before were rushing toward us, causing us to stop. I looked back to see the three station zombies rushing at us from the other direction, realizing we were quickly being surrounded.

“I got an idea! Follow!” Trixie shouted as she galloped through a gap in the houses on either side of us. I followed her as she looped us back around to the station, where she crossed the tracks and headed for the pond from before. Memories from the first day of the apocalypse tried hard to fight their way into my mind, but I focused on the present as Trixie led me to the edge of the water.

God damn it.

“What’s the plan?!” I asked.

“Look, we need to go under.”

“Are you crazy?”

She lit up her horn before responding, “Take off your bag.”

The zombies were closing in on us now, so I hesitantly followed Trixie’s instructions and tossed the bag away from the pond. Her horn was glowing brightly now, until a flash of light surrounded us. I then felt a strange, windy sensation flow through my throat and into my lungs.

“Now!” Trixie yelled, leaping into the water.

After taking a deep breath, I dove in beside her. I blinked my eyes open underwater, able to see from Trixie’s horn, which illuminated a small area around us. She swam farther down into the pond, so I hesitantly followed, still holding my breath. Once we were slightly away from the edge, Trixie stopped on the pond’s murky, sandy bottom and started looking around it. The pond was not as deep as it looked, but I was not happy about her seemingly stupid idea. Eventually, we would have to resurface, and the zombies would catch sight of our idiot heads poking out of the water again, right? I hoped her idea did not involve staying in the water until they left. I could feel my breath running out, so it was almost time to resurface. Growing agitated, I swam next to her and shook her shoulder. When she looked over at me, I waved my hands around in confusion.

She then used her snout to mouth the words: “Open your mouth, stupid.”

Confused by this, I reluctantly opened my mouth, expecting a rush of water to flood in and expedite my drowning. Instead, the water stayed out and floated in front of my mouth, as if there were a shield between my teeth. I then took a breath in, and to my surprise, fresh air filled my lungs again. I looked back at Trixie in shock, but she was back to scanning the pond floor. I was still admiring her spell when she lit her horn even brighter. Small auras of blue light then glowed around various parts of the dirty pond’s bottom. From them, rocks and sticks were dug out and raised toward the water’s surface. I watched as Trixie charged her horn with a very bright blue glow before the rocks and sticks were sent shooting out of the pond in a bright trail of light.

Immediately after, Trixie turned back to where we swam from and ushered for me to follow. As we made our way along the rising underwater ground, I could see the edge of the pond we had come from was clear. Trixie poked her head above the water to make sure, and after it was clear, she gestured for me to follow her out. Her horn dimmed back to normal, and I felt the same wind as before exit my lungs.

Once I was out of the water, I turned around to see all five of the previously pursuing zombies trotting along the other side of the pond, completely distracted as they followed where Trixie had tossed the rocks. I was then attacked by water when Trixie shook her body dry. I stood up, fighting jealousy as I grabbed my bag and flung it over my wet shoulder. She looked back at me and held back a tired grin as she turned and started trotting back to the station.

That is when I noticed the train engine was missing. The conductor from day one must have succeeded in getting the train going, but how had we missed the train on our trip to Canterlot? It was then that I remembered the other train that took Cloud’s hoof. A sinking feeling entered my stomach as I realized they must have collided somewhere between here and the bridge, and I hoped that it was not too severe of a crash. Hopefully there weren't too many ponies on either of them at the time.

The severity of the fire on the remaining part of the train was evident, as the first, initial car looked burnt to a crisp. On top of this, most of the cars looked caved in. The one in front of the caboose had collapsed sideways to the grass opposite of the platform, and the car in front of that one had it's roof and inside wall caved in.

In the meantime, we had to ignore the damage so we could find out who was trapped inside the station. My brain began to excite me with the idea that it could be Twilight or the others. With this in mind, I passed Trixie and anxiously knocked on the door. Realizing my knocks probably didn't sound far off from the zombies, I leaned in and called for whoever was inside.

“Hey! We drew them away! Who's in there?”

Trixie glowed her horn to pick our way in until there was movement from behind the door. We listened as the sound of furniture moving grew for a moment. The door then opened to a shaken Doctor Hooves. He was relieved at the sight of us.

“Oh, thank goodness! Thank you! Thank you! We’ve been trapped in here for hours!”

“Who is with you?” I inquired.

Doc Hooves opened the door wider, revealing Nurse Redheart. While I was disappointed that it was not Twilight or the others, I was happy to see Redheart. During my stay, Twilight accompanied me to a couple doctor visits, during which I got to meet the nurse for the first time. She was a very caring pony, and very accommodating given my non-pony status. She smiled when she saw me and stepped forward.

“Hi Devan. And thank you. But there is somepony else,” she stated.

“Somepony else?”

“Yes,” Doc Hooves said, “In one of the train cars! They are trapped inside! We must rescue them!”

Both of the ponies trotted past Trixie and me and made their way along the platform to the car two cars ahead of the caboose. We followed them there, observing the mangled wreckage. I exchanged a suspicious glance with Trixie, as it looked like an unlivable circumstance. However, after Doc called out, we heard a muttered response underneath the sunken roof.

“Just hang on! We will figure out a way to release you!” Doc yelled.

“Move back,” Trixie said, stepping up to the train car. Doc took a step back as she lit her horn.

“Great wickering stallions! Is that magic?!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Trixie replied dryly as she focused on her spell. She then dimmed her horn. “Devan, I need your help. Stand in front. You too, Doc.”

She pointed to a location right beside the train car, so Doc and I stepped up to it and prepared ourselves for whatever Trixie was planning. The train car illuminated with her blue magical aura as a section of the collapsed ceiling was lifted up from the floor. It was pulled over the collapsed wall sections and forward into my hands and Doc’s hooves. With her help, we dragged the heavy metal back to the platform and went back to our previous spot. She repeated this a few more times with more sections of debris.

Then, a weakly flowing blue mane was visible through the rubble.

“LUNA!” I yelled, instinctively jumping on the car to get closer.

“Devan!” Trixie shouted, “Back up! We almost got it.”

I restrained my eagerness and backed off the car, anxiously waiting to free Luna. After we removed a few more sections, Luna was able to wiggle her way out of the remaining rubble. Once again, I jumped up on the car and kneeled beside her. Just like in my dream, Luna was similarly banged up. Her weakly flowing mane laid flatter than usual on her sides, and her cheek had a visible, bleeding scratch to it. One of her ears was pointed down, hanging beside her cheek. Finally, her foreleg was twisted near the hoof, obviously crushed under the weight of the car. Despite these glaring issues, she smiled back feebly with tired eyes.

“Oh thank God! We can help you! What do you need?” I asked her.

Trixie jumped up beside me with a similar enthusiasm for finding the princess.

“I ... could use some water. And probably a bit more,” she teased, smiling and blinking at the new sunlight entering her retinas.

I took off my backpack and pulled out a bottle of water as Trixie called out to the others.

“Nurse! She needs to be looked at. Do you have any supplies on you?”

“I have some stuff,” Redheart replied, “but the rest of it is at the hospital. That is where we're holed up. There are other ponies there. We can help you take her there.”

Redheart ran back inside to grab her stuff. I looked back at the princess, helping her swig from the water bottle.

"Princess, how did you end up like this?"

She took a few moments to catch her breath. "We were running on the tops of the cars to get away from a mob ... the car collapsed on me." She glanced up at me. "Devan, I was with Celestia and Twilight. Have you seen either of them?"

My eyes widened. "N- no, but you were with them?! Were y'all going somewhere?"

"We were planning on going to your house, then Applejack's farm."

SWEET APPLE ACRES

Why the hell did I not think of that? A huge new wave of optimism flowed over me as I heard this. However, the princess's weakly appearance was concerning. I thought about what Redheart said, realizing we needed to take her to the hospital first. The hospital wasn't very far from here anyway, so it made sense, as opposed to crossing town to get to the barn.

Redheart came back out and hopped on the car with us, kneeling between us to check on the princess. She used a small flashlight to observe the princess’s wounds, and a concerned look appeared on her face when she looked at her stomach. She felt her hoof against it, but Luna squirmed, obviously in pain. The nurse then shined the light in her dark blue eyes and examined them.

“Shit,” she cursed, setting the light aside.

“W- What? What is it?” I asked nervously.

“I think she’s bleeding internally. We need to take her to the hospital now.”

I stood up quickly, nearly bumping my head on a section of damaged wall leaning beside us.

“Well, let’s go! Can we carry her?”

“We brought a stretcher!” Doc called from the platform. “Turns out that was a perfect idea! Go me!”

He rushed back inside the station as we stood around the princess. The three of us, with the help of Trixie’s magic, carefully lifted the princess onto the platform as Doc came back out with the stretcher, designed for ponies. While Luna was bigger than a typical pony, she was able to fit on the wide stretcher, only having to deal with her legs partially hanging off the side. The stretcher featured a yoke in front, which Redheart helped Doc set up over his chest so he could haul Luna. After checking the wheels, Redheart gave him the signal to go, and we all ran alongside as we headed for the nearby hospital.