The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan —

There it was—Zecora's hut. I stopped briefly and held my knees while I caught my breath. I had lost Pinkie entirely to my knowledge, and I hoped she would eventually lose interest and go somewhere else. On the other hand, if Zecora really did have some kind of potion or magic cure that I assumed Pinkie was thinking about, maybe her following me was a good thing. I approached the door and knocked, also trying the doorknob. It was unfortunately locked.

After a minute, there was no response. I sighed heavily, hoping she was just asleep or using the restroom. I knocked on the door hard this time, making sure she could hear me. Another minute went by until I realized she may not be home. I then climbed over the base of the tree beside the steps to peer in the window beside the front door. The only light coming from inside was from a slight green glow of her big pot in the living room, which contained some bubbling green liquid. I sighed as I backed off from the tree. Wherever Zecora was, I did not have time to stick around and look for her. I also realized that while heading back, I would have to go past Pinkie. Now was not the time for me to get lost in the Everfree forest, so I had to stick to the only path I knew: the one we were on.

As I started heading back, Pinkie's outline showed up not far in the distance. She arrived faster than I thought, so I had to make my move now. As we closed in on each other, I veered to the left side of the path. She did the same. It hurt me to see her pale body and glazed-over eyes approach me with her clumsy trot. There were only a few seconds until we would meet, so I got my foot ready to juke her. This would have to go perfectly if I were to avoid getting nabbed. However, as I started to sidestep to the right, my foot slipped on what felt like mud.

I fell to the ground just in front of Pinkie. I desperately squirmed to avoid her, but failed to do so as she pounced on me. Her weight knocked my head back down as I struggled. I extended my arms to her chest in an attempt to hold her back as she snapped her teeth at me.

"Pinkie! No! Stop it! This isn't you!" I hollered, attempting to scoot back. It only took a few more seconds until she proved too strong, pushing herself down enough to sink her teeth into my left bicep. Pain radiated as I felt her saliva wash over it. I shoved her forcefully with my legs and free arm, eventually managing to unlock her teeth's grip. I rolled over on the path and scrambled to my feet, forced to kick her in the face as I got up to avoid another bite. Part of me knew it did not matter if I got away anymore, but my fight-or-flight senses were at their peak, sending my legs into overdrive as I fled from her. I turned back again after I had made some distance, seeing the same clumsy trot.

Damn it, Pinkie.

On my way back to Ponyville, I clenched my arm to stop the bleeding. This morning had gone south very quickly. A few tears escaped my eyes as I tried to come to grips with what was happening. I also tried to convince myself that everything would be alright. This was not a normal world. This was a magical world. Things as crazy as this had happened in the past, but the ponies of Equestria lived on to see another day. The same thing would happen here most likely. I hoped and prayed that magic could fix this quickly, before it got out of control.

I decided to return to my house while I jogged out of the Everfree forest. It was a relief to be out of those eerie woods, but on the way into Ponyville, a stray zombie was there to greet me. His presence did not matter to me. I needed to get back to my house to grab my walkie-talkie. I realized on my walk with Pinkie that I had left it at home, which wasn’t usually a big deal, but Celestia wanted me to carry it at all times if possible.

She was going to be pissed. Realistically, she would probably just be a bit upset, but Celestia intimidated me a bit. Maybe it was the fact that she stood at eye level with me and could maul me easily if she were rogue. That was a stupid thought, though, as she was one of the friendliest ponies I had met. Her presence alone seemed to have a comforting aura. I started wishing I was in her presence at the time.

The zombie pony that approached me was a bit slower than Pinkie had been. I was uncertain why, but I definitely wasn’t going to start questioning my luck. A quick zig zag maneuver gave me enough of a gap to run by him and continue my jog home. So far, this apocalypse did not seem terrible, but I imagined what it may look like if a larger group of them were to attack. The thought of being in a zombie apocalypse seemed a bit unreal, and my nerves started to tense a bit. It was a scary feeling, and my mind didn’t want to accept it. It would have to start, as everything seemed to be moving quickly now.

I finally entered Ponyville. I had been lucky not to see any more zombie ponies. Perhaps the ponies of Ponyville had started to gather at Twi’s castle. That would be the second place to go during an emergency of this magnitude, right after Town Hall. I planned on heading to the castle after grabbing my walkie-talkie. On my way, I noticed a white pony lying by a nearby house. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Nurse Snow. She was passed out on the doorstep with blood on her neck. Gently moving her head showed that she had been bitten. The bruise around her bite looked similar to Pinkie’s. I backed up, knowing now how quickly ponies could turn.

She had a saddlebag draped over her body. There was some gauze creeping out of one of its pockets. I looked down at my bite. Blood had been trickling down my arm, making it look a lot worse than it was. I needed to get it wrapped up before it got infected. As useless as it may turn out, maybe preventing infection would slow my rate of turning.

I hesitantly grabbed the visible gauze before backing up again. My eyes scanned her chest thoroughly before quickly reaching into her saddlebag and searching for a rag and some tape. Luckily, she had everything I needed in the saddlebag. “Thank you, Snow.” After giving myself some space from her, I took the rag and wiped my bite with some rubbing alcohol. It took a lot not to scream out in pain.

The pain subsided a few seconds later, so I took some of the gauze and applied it to the bite. I glanced back at Nurse Snow as I wrapped the gauze with tape, and noticed her chest starting to move. Her head fidgeted slightly. Crap. With the tape mostly holding the gauze in place, I stuffed the rest in my pockets and hurried away from her.

It took another few minutes to reach my house. When I reached for the door handle and pushed, it would not budge. That’s weird. It didn’t have a lock to it, as there wasn’t much of a reason for it in a town as friendly and safe as Ponyville. I pushed harder with no luck. A third push caused the door to crack open a bit before stopping. Somehow, it was barricaded. I heard steps inside before the door started pushing back on me.

“Hey! Stop it!” I yelled.

The door suddenly stopped pushing back. I heard Dash’s voice inside.

“Devan?”

“Dash! Let me in!”

"SHHHH!!!"

I looked around anxiously after realizing I was being too loud. I lowered my tone.

“Dash, let me in please …”

She grunted as she and somebody else started moving the furniture out of the doorway. Eventually, the door pulled open and I was greeted by Dash.

“Thank goodness.” She gave me a warm hug after shutting the door. Beside her was Flutters, who gave me an even bigger hug. After disconnecting, Dash raised her hoof and socked me in the shoulder. “Where were you?” She looked back at my other arm and saw the bandage. “And what is that?”

I clenched my shoulder.

“Ow … It’s … I was …”

I looked down. Was now a good time to tell them? What about Pinkie? I decided to keep it to myself, at least for now.

“It’s nothing. I cut myself by accident last night,” I answered.

Dash looked at me skeptically before continuing, “Okay. So where have you been?”

I sighed. “I was with Pinkie …”

They both looked on, their expressions turning frightful. They could tell from the look on my face that it was bad news. They exchanged a nervous glance with each other.

“is she …” Flutters muttered.

“… Yes …”

Dash facehoofed before turning back and pacing around my house. Flutters curled up on herself and cried softly, hiding her face behind her wings. I took a minute to come to terms with what had happened. Everything had changed drastically in two hours, and it wasn’t a good change.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Dash turned around. “How? What happened?”

“She was bitten before she came to visit me. She took me to the Everfree Fores-“

“The Everfree Forest?! At a time like this?” Dash exclaimed, “Why?!”

“She wanted to see Zecora! She thought maybe there was something she could do. She turned before we got there.”

“oh, my …” Flutters whispered.

A minute of silence as they took in this new information.

“Okay,” Dash spoke, “I’m sorry. Tensions are just high, y’know?”

“I understand. I’m sorry I had to tell you.”

“It’s fine. But we need to come up with a new game plan now. We were thinking of Twilight's castle. We just got pinned in here by a few of them while looking for you. I guess they wandered off already.”

“Pinned?” I asked, “What about the attic? You should be able to push out of those windows.”

They both exchanged nervous glances before Dash stepped forward. “Devan ... for some reason, we aren’t able to fly.” She bit her lips, obviously distraught from what she had said. Flutters put her hoof on Dash’s shoulder.

“it’s true," she added, "we don’t know why, but since last night, our flying has gotten worse and worse until we couldn’t even take off this morning.”

I looked at them, dumbfounded. “Really?”

They nodded defeatedly. Well, that’s just great, I thought. I looked at Flutter’s wing in curiosity. There was nothing unusual about its appearance, and no signs that it wouldn’t be able to function.

“And neither of you have any idea why?” I asked.

Flutters shook her head.

“as far as we know, it might be all pegasi. Dash knows of a few with the same problem, and so do I.”

Fuuuuck. This was some of the worst news possible at a time like this. This was the one time that pegasi needed to fly.

Dash looked up. “We don’t know if it's related to the outbreak that escaped Manehatten or not, but we have tried to fly countless times and it isn’t happening. Our wings have a numb sensation whenever we try, and they feel like a million pounds. They are practically glued to our damn sides. It is very frustrating.”

I rubbed my eyes, frustrated as well. “Okay. Well, I was going to head to Twi’s castle too. Are y’all okay walking there?”

Flutters grew a worried expression, but Dash thought about it and said, “We want to. We are just a bit … frazzled … from the mob that chased us in here. Let’s just be a bit more careful?”

“We could also take the outskirts of Ponyville to avoid them,” I suggested.

“Good idea.” Dash turned to Flutters. “It’ll be alright. We’ll have Devan by our side too.”

Flutters nodded worryingly. “okay …”

I smiled forcefully to ease Flutter’s tension and got a nervous smile back. “Before we go, I was stopping by here to grab my walkie. I forgot it when heading out with Pinkie.”

Flutters looked down and grabbed something lying beside her. She reached out her hoof to me with the walkie-talkie in it. “we can’t get it to work, Devan.”

I grabbed it from her and flipped it around. The batteries were still in there, so I assumed it was the same problem as before. After turning it on, I shook it, waiting to hear the static. A few shakes didn’t do it this time. “C’mon, you piece of junk.” More shakes did nothing. Now was not the time for these kinds of problems.

“Careful Devan-“

I shook it violently. Nothing. Stress from the morning got to me, and I raised it up before slamming it against the countertop. Thankfully, the batteries stayed in place, but it still didn’t turn on.

“Devan! Relax.”

Dash came up by my side and put her hoof against my back. I set the walkie-talkie down and put my hands on the table, defeated. Deep breaths…

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“I know. It’s alright. We will get through this. Now, let’s get going to see Twilight.”