The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Twilight —

“Twilight!” Ty exclaimed, swinging the door open.

Both Twilight and Celestia looked up from the desk of her writing, startled at the urgency in Ty’s voice.

“What is it? What’s going on?” Twilight asked as she stood up.

“We need you! There’s zombies on the farm and both Applejack and Rainbow Dash are trapped on the well!”

"WHAT?! HOW?"

"They went out front to lure a few zombies away! I guess they got ambushed or something-"

"Without telling me?!"

"Sorry, Twilight! We just figured we should leave you and Celestia alone."

"Shit!"

Twilight rushed out of the room, passing Ty in the hallway. She gunned it downstairs and saw Carrot Top and Fluttershy peering out of the barricaded dining room window. Moving in between them, she looked outside as well. The dusk sky was darkening, making it hard for her to see, but she squinted her eyes and saw what Ty had mentioned.

Outside, she saw AJ and Dash on top of the well, surrounded by a hoofful of zombie ponies. Thankfully, the well was high enough that they could not reach them, but they were stuck nonetheless. Twilight let out a small sigh of relief as she glanced around the inside of the barn. Celestia and Ty were standing behind them, and she could see Cloud hopping down the stairs alongside Spike. She turned back to Ty.

"Where is Derpy? Why didn't she go instead?"

"She's luring a couple zombie ponies that wandered in on the West side earlier. She's been gone a while, but it's getting too dark to look for her."

"Son of a bitch," Twilight cursed, "Okay ..."

She made eye contact with Celestia before gathering everypony’s attention.

“Listen up everypony. This won’t be too difficult, but we need to do this carefully. I don’t want any of us getting bitten when we can easily avoid it.”

She scanned the room, but everypony already seemed to understand her.

“We’ll send two groups. Ty, you can come with me.”

Ty happily grinned from ear to ear as she perked up with excitement at their new adventure.

“Fluttershy, you and Carrot Top will stick together. The plan is simple, okay? I counted at least four zombies around the well. We will assume six to be on the safe side. We all know how fast they can trot, right?” she asked.

“we do,” Fluttershy agreed.

“Okay, good. First, Ty and I will run out and round the left side of the well. A few seconds later, you two will run out and round the right side. Hopefully, the zombies around them will split into two groups when we close in. Once we are closer to the gate, Ty and I will lead our zombies to the chicken coups. You two lead your zombies through the carrot fields to the East. After that, we all regroup and get back inside. Sound good?”

Everypony nodded in agreement, happy with her quick thinking. Twilight led the others to the side door, followed closely by Ty. She set her hoof on the handle and patiently waited until the others set up behind her. After a few seconds, she took a breath and threw the door open.

She could hear Ty directly behind her as she took off toward the well. As they ran, she yelled out at the zombies to gain their attention from her friends. This worked, as most of the zombies jumping up and down to get them turned around to look at her. In the dim light of dusk, she could see AJ and Dash glance back at her. She yelled out to them to “RUN WHEN THEY’RE GONE” and continued her path along the left side of the well. Three of the zombies peeled off after her, but one changed her course. She looked back to see Fluttershy and Carrot Top’s bright bodies rushing toward the other side of the well. Her plan was working flawlessly.

Right up until she heard Applejack holler from the top of the well.

“TWILIGHT!!!!!!”

Twilight, still looking at the well, glanced up to see AJ pointing frantically ahead of them. While she kept up her pace, she turned to look ahead of her, where the front fence was. She had not noticed the wall of zombie ponies who were now crushing their way through it. Some of them hopped over, while others took the brunt of the damage from the barbed wire spiraling along the top. She came to an abrupt stop. From what she could see, there were at least eight more zombie ponies directly in front of her. However, as her vision slowly adjusted to the dark, her peripheral vision picked up many, many more ponies.

The wall of ponies was closing in as they trotted onto the farm in a pointed wave. The unintentional leader of the pack seemed to pick up her pace. Twilight turned to Ty and shouted at her to run back as she started galloping the opposite way. However, the zombies they were initially luring were beginning to cut them off. She started to veer to their right side with Ty to avoid them, but the zombies were surprisingly smart enough to cut them off from their path back to the barn.

With no other option at play, Twilight closed in on the first zombie pony within just a pony-length and swiveled around quickly to buck him with her hind legs. After she dropped the unsuspecting pony, she looked beside her, where Ty copied her move on the second pony. There was one more in their way, so Twilight lined herself up to buck him as well. What she did not notice was just how close the wall of surprise attackers had gotten to them.

“TWI-” Ty started, before leaping into action. Although startled, Twilight followed through with her action and slammed her hind legs hard into the last pony’s face. This sent the pony falling backward, allowing her to look back at what Ty was mentioning. As she turned, Ty’s bright blue head flashed right in front of her, brushing against her as the mare set up for what looked like a buck. While Twi backed away in an attempt to give her space, Ty raised her hind legs, but right as she sent them flying back, the zombie jumped up and grabbed hold of them with her forelegs.

The mare kicked back frantically as the zombie snapped her jaws. With no time to think, Twilight bolted forward, rubbing her side against Ty’s as she rammed the attacker forcefully with her horn. The power she sent through the blow was strong enough to send the mare to the ground, releasing her grip on Ty in the process. Both Twilight and Ty exchanged a very quick glance before they turned back to the barn.

During their struggle, both Fluttershy and Carrot managed to lead the other two zombie mares away from the well. However, they had a similar issue when the wall of ponies busted through the fence. Twilight watched as Carrot was chased away by one of the two original zombie ponies, unintentionally leaving Fluttershy behind as she made her way back toward the barn. Fluttershy was left with the other zombie mare, who was cutting her off from rejoining Carrot.

She also noticed Dash and AJ were off the well now. AJ was sprinting full speed after Carrot, and Dash was rushing to help Fluttershy. Twilight helplessly watched as Fluttershy, on the other side of the well, failed to dodge the one zombie mare, who lunged and grabbed hold of her hind leg, causing her to stumble to the ground. Twilight split from the path she and Ty were taking and gunned it toward the well. As Twilight reached the well, she saw the mare bite into Fluttershy’s hind leg. Fluttershy was able to kick her off and stand up, but the damage was done. Dash finally reached her and both of the mares started galloping back to the barn.

In her pursuit, Twilight was tunnel-visioned, not noticing the herd growing dangerously close to her. They were just pony-lengths away, and now she had mere seconds to act. She turned back quickly to see Ty behind her and realized the mare was practically glued to her side. The well sat next to them now. The zombie ponies they had bucked earlier were starting to get up again. The ones chasing Carrot were also an issue. With no other safe option seemingly available, Twilight gestured to the well. From what she had seen when AJ and Dash were stuck, it was tall enough to prevent zombies from jumping up to them. It would take two of them to climb it though.

Ty quickly caught on and ran to the base of the well, leaned against the side, and extended her forelegs out. Twilight used them to climb up and swiftly crawled up on top of the well. She then swung around and extended her forelegs out, grabbing hold of Ty’s. Her heartbeat raced as she slowly helped Ty up, watching the zombie ponies right behind her.

As she pulled her up, she felt resistance as one of the closer zombies jumped up and hooked onto Ty’s hind leg. Twilight tightened her grip on Ty's hoof as she struggled to maintain her balance on the well. With a burst of energy, she managed to pull Ty’s upper half on the well with her, but the well’s slanted, gable top was making it difficult to get her all the way up. After a few more attempts at pulling, Twilight realized she was at a stalemate with the zombie grabbing onto her leg. Ty kicked below her a few times before giving up and looking up at her.

She looked up to see an almost unreal sight beyond her imagination. In the growing dark, she could make out dozens on dozens of endless, pale-colored ponies. When she gazed out past the fence, she was terrified when she could not make out the end of them. She looked from side to side as some zombie ponies circled the well in an attempt to get them and some of them continued past to chase the others headed for the barn.

She looked back and squinted to see the others, and as she did, the side door to the barn slammed shut. For a second, she was relieved, until she noticed AJ’s orange body in the distance. When focusing her eyes, she saw both her and Carrot struggling to climb up a nearby haybale. The bale moved briefly before the few zombies around them evened it out. Both of the mares managed to get up to the top of it and used their legs to balance it out. Twilight watched as the horde continued on, swarming the outside of the barn as well as AJ and Carrot. She looked back at Ty and exchanged a fearful glance.

She held on tightly to the mare as a very stretched-out minute passed them by. The groans from the horde only grew, and Twilight could only watch on in terror as the farm’s grass was replaced by nothing but zombie bodies. She looked back to see that AJ and Carrot were thankfully still holding onto the top of their haybale. The horde was surrounding them as well now, but from here, it looked as though the zombies at the base were balancing out the haybale for them.

The barn was also surrounded, and Twilight squinted to see zombies banging on the sides, huddled more closely around the windows and doors. The whole scene was chaotic and disturbing, and while Twilight watched, it got worse. Through the dim dusk light, she could see the side entrance they had come out of starting to cave in on itself due to the horde’s enormous presence. This seemed to be caused by a domino effect of the very eager ponies right outside the walls. She watched the side entrance begin to crumble, which struck a new fear in her of the barn collapsing altogether. She looked back at Ty, whose fearful eyes had calmed slightly.

“If you have to let go, just do it!” Ty called over the mob.

“I AM NOT DOING THAT!” Twilight shouted back.

She felt her hind legs aching as they gripped the other edge of the roof. While she was holding on for now, it wasn’t clear to her how long she would be able to do so. Her muscles were tiring slowly, and her heartbeat was not slowing from her adrenaline rush.

“It’s okay,” Ty assured.

“No. I’m not letting you go. If we go down, we go down together.”

Ty shed a tear and smiled softly as she kept her eyes locked with her. She felt Ty’s grasp weaken.

“NO!” Twilight cried, strengthening her already firm grip.

As she fought with the mare, she looked back at the barn once more. It almost seemed to be trembling as more and more of the horde around them started banging on its walls. Despite the structure being as sturdy as it was, every inch of the barn had zombie ponies around it now. Twilight's heart raced, realizing that if they didn't do anything, the horde would likely drop the entire barn, killing everybody inside. She frantically thought about what to do as she turned back to Ty.

Just then, a faint, repetitive bell-like sound grew over the groans of the horde below them.

She couldn’t quite make it out, but the sound continued. She scanned the top of the horde in an attempt to locate it, but the sound of them all around her made it difficult. She then peered toward her right side, where the fields on the left side of the barn rolled into a hill in the distance. Above the hill, she noticed a strange shape appear, illuminated by the soft glow of Celestia’s almost set sun.

She realized the shape was multiple things, noticing what looked like two pony outlines hauling a black, box-shaped object. The distant bells continued, and an even higher-pitched bell started dinging from their direction. She watched as the box suddenly illuminated a faint blue glow that was hard to see from this distance. The box also grew as smaller boxes seemed to stem out of it.

The faint blue glow grew very bright, and just a second later, the rolling sound of ground-shattering bass filled the air. She instantly felt vibrations rush through her from the well below as both a repeating bass thump and a constant, rumbling bass trembled it. The thundering booms were so loud that they overshadowed the sound of the horde right next to them. The sound was also accompanied by bright blue flashing lights coming from the box. She held on tightly to both Ty and the well as the bass shook the ground below.

As she did, she looked back down to see nearby heads of the horde turning to face the new noise. It was not long before the turned heads also began moseying off in the direction of the music. Around this time, there was another noise that sounded faintly over the bass. The sound resembled a rumbling, buzzing noise that she had only ever heard come from a lawn mower. Looking back at the hill, she saw another figure appear on the edge, noting the shape of a pony on what looked like a bicycle with a very thick frame to it. The pony stopped beside the bass-emitting box for a few seconds before taking off down the side of the hill, moving toward them at an angle.

The rumbling sound of the bicycle grew again as the pony drove it down the hill and turned to loop in front of Carrot’s farmhouse behind where AJ and Carrot were trapped. Twilight’s eyes followed the pony as she closed in near the edge of the horde by the haybale. When she was close, the rumbling sound rose and fall in a revving manner. Twilight lost sight of the pony as she started herding some of the ponies around the back of the barn.

She was thrown off when she felt Ty’s grip strengthen suddenly and felt the mare pull on her forelegs. She also pulled on her, realizing the zombie was no longer holding onto Ty. When the mare was finally up, they both collapsed on the roof and gave their muscles a much-needed break. As they rested, the noisy sounds around Twilight distracted her.

“Twilight!”

She jolted at the sound of a mare right behind her, feeling the familiar wind of a pegasus. Derpy was hovering next to the well, flying steadily and gazing at them with her crossed, golden eyes.

“Are you alright?!” Derpy shouted over the bass.

“We are!” Twilight yelled back.

“Okay! I’m gonna help lure them away! Just hang on!”

Before Twilight could protest or give her thoughts, Derpy flapped her wings and glided off toward the chicken coops on the opposite side of the barn from the bass. She caught a glimpse of the bicycle pony moving around the barn and behind the coops. A pattern throughout the horde was forming, and Twilight saw the sea of movement grow as part of the horde started moving in the opposite direction of the bass. It was then that she saw a partial split in the horde form between her and the barn. This split was filled a second later until another one formed. This time, the split grew, and eventually, a path large enough for a pony appeared.

The mysterious ponies that were distracting the horde were effectively splitting it into two, causing a larger and larger gap to form. She looked back at the barn, where the small side-door room was now very caved-in. If they were to make a break for the barn, they would need to use the front door. Zombie ponies still lingered around the outside of the barn, but even with the side door collapsed, it looked as though they still could not get inside. Twilight worried as she could faintly make out shifting movement in the rest of the barn’s structure, and struggled to figure out if it was the barn itself or the bass vibrating her too much to tell. She realized the combination of the horde beating on the side of the barn as well as the new, immensely powerful bass was pushing the building's structure to its limits. It was very likely, even with some of the horde backing off now, that the barn would collapse. They had to move quickly. She glanced over at Ty, who had shimmied her way beside her.

“We need to get the others out of the barn!!” she called over the noise.

“Okay!! When should we go?!” Ty yelled.

“Follow me when I do!!” Twilight shouted.

She waited another fifteen seconds as the gap between the horde grew a comfortable size, only filled by a few stragglers unsure of which direction to follow. While the left side of the barn, where AJ and Carrot were still trapped on the haybale, still had a collection of zombie ponies, the front was clear now. She scanned the ponies ahead of them before leaping off the well and gunning it for the barn.

The vibration of the bass only grew as she made contact with the ground. Ty hit the ground behind her and the two shifted to the left, behind the two nearest stragglers. With the rush of adrenaline they both possessed, they were able to juke the last straggler and make it all the way to the barn door with no problems. But as they approached the front doors, they busted open.

They screeched to a halt to avoid being whacked by the doors swinging open. A second later, Cloud and Fluttershy ran out. She had not expected a zombie stallion to chase them out. Cloud, who came out first, stopped in front of Twilight when she saw her and set up for a buck. As the stallion trotted forward, she threw her hind legs out and bucked him back, wobbling around as she replanted herself on her three good legs. When the stallion started standing up again, Dash rushed out of the barn with her knife in her mouth. She jolted her head back and stabbed the stallion from behind. The bass had grown in the past few seconds, so Twilight had to scream for the others to hear her.

"Where'd he come from?!!" she exclaimed.

"They got in through the side!!" Cloud quickly explained.

Twilight rushed to the doorway, adjusting her eyes to see a few more zombie ponies inside the barn. She didn't know where anypony else was in the chaos, but they all had to act now. Ty and Cloud started warding off a few stragglers coming from the horde outside as she turned around to buck another zombie mare coming out. After she dropped her, she turned to Dash and Fluttershy.

"The barn is gonna collapse!! We need to go!! Where are the others?!!"

"They're inside!!" Dash exclaimed, "The side entrance collapsed on us!! Celestia got stuck!!"

"FUCK!!!" Twilight exclaimed.

She turned around and bolted back inside, followed by Dash and Fluttershy. As she led them through the living room, the fillies, led by Spike, rushed toward them.

"Spike!! Fillies!! Go with Fluttershy!!" Twilight demanded, continuing past them. She glanced back to see Fluttershy hesitantly eye her before leading them all out. Dash stabbed another zombie mare coming at them.

She could see the side entrance from here, noticing the front half of Celestia's white body sticking out from collapsed rubble. However, a few more zombie ponies were between them. She noticed Cheerilee trying to pull her body out as Applejack defended her from the attackers. As she called out and rushed forward to help, more zombie ponies entered from the hallway past the side entrance. Some of them turned to go for AJ while some of them broke off and trotted toward Dash and her.

She finally pulled out her hatchet and started swinging as Dash used her knife to down them. However, as they both fought back, they had to start edging away from AJ and the others to avoid getting bit. She heard wood from the barn groaning around them, despite the bass and roars of the horde outside. As she sliced another attacker, she noticed Celestia's body slowly stand up from the rubble. Twilight met eyes with AJ across the room, glancing over the few zombie mares still between them.

"GO!!" AJ hollered. She and Cheerilee started helping Celestia run after them.

She and Dash stopped fighting back and rushed toward the front door, luring the few zombie ponies with them. The others out front had started making a clearing, taking care of the stragglers not following the rest of the split-up horde. Right after she and Dash rushed out the front doors, she swung around to deal with their pursuers. The zombie mares continued for her. At the door, she took the first one out.

Inside, Cheerilee took out the last zombie mare that was between them as Celestia and AJ dragged behind her. AJ was helping the princess, who limped forward in an awkward trot. But before Twilight could rush back in to assist her, a loud groan emitted from the barn again. The bass continued to rumble the ground as a deafening crashing sound grew above them.

Dash and Ty pulled Twilight back as the roof started collapsing through the second story. The others inside frantically rushed for the door. Dust shook from the base of the barn as the roof started loudly caving in on itself. Right as the first-story ceiling collapsed in front of them, Cheerilee made it to the doorway. Celestia and AJ did not. The barn fully came down, causing an enormous plume of dust to fly into Twilight's eyes as debris smacked around her. The dust surrounded everypony, making it impossible to see anything, especially in the growing dark.

Twilight coughed as the dust filled her lungs. From what she saw, there was no way Celestia or AJ had made it out. It was also possible that Cheerilee had not done so either. She struggled with the sudden realization that all three of them may have been crushed to death, right in front of her.

Strangled by fear, she squinted her eyes in an attempt to find the others, finding Ty’s bright white body in the process. She walked swiftly around where she believed the barn used to be, and after a few steps, she stepped on what felt like a pony. She glanced down to see Cheerilee’s purple foreleg laid out on the ground, causing her breaths to stop briefly, until it started moving and reaching out to her.

She leaned down and grabbed onto it, immediately feeling the hoof squeeze back. She could see Ty’s bright body beside her grab the other one, and as the dust slowly started to settle, she could make out the outline of Cheerilee’s head. She heard her coughing as Cheerilee tried to speak. What Twilight assumed to be knocked-over Cheerilee turned out to be something different as she struggled to pull the mare forward. In the dark, surrounded by dust, Twilight could not figure out what was happening until Cheerilee called out.

“The door!” she shouted over the bass and roar of the horde, “It’s on me!”

Twilight pulled frantically, but could not free her. She was able to tug her maybe a hoof-length forward, but the door trapping her seemed to be too heavy. She struggled to figure out what to do. Were they going to have to leave her, trapped and waiting for …

Her thought process was cut off when Dash’s bright body appeared right next to her.

“Is she stuck?!!” Dash shouted.

“Yes!!” Twilight yelled, still fighting the bass and noisy horde not far from them. She wondered why the bass had grown so damn loud, but couldn't stop to think about it now.

In the dark, she could see Dash’s colorful body jump over Cheerilee and lean down to grab what she assumed to be the door on top of her. As Dash lifted, they felt a slight release, allowing them to partially pull Cheerilee even farther out. She then saw part of Cloud’s outline rush in front of Ty and lean down to grab the other side. With both of them lifting it, the weight was released, allowing Ty and her to pull Cheerilee out fully.

“Come on!! We have to go!!” Cloud called.

Despite being crushed under the heavy barn door, they were able to help Cheerilee to her hooves and ran beside her as she partly limped into a trot. The farther they ran from the barn, the less dust was blocking their vision. In the dark, Twilight could faintly make out Fluttershy. Then the small outlines of the fillies, and finally Spike. Once they saw them too, they all sprinted through the lasting gap between the horde and started fighting their way back to Ponyville.

Once they reached the knocked-over front archway of the farm, Twilight looked back at the collapsed barn and came to a stop. Dash, who was running behind her, stopped and looked as well. The dust was settling, revealing an enormous pile of debris where the tall barn used to stand. She also noticed Celestia's sun had set fully now, with no sign of the previous dusk. It had grown dark as midnight when they were lost in the dust cloud, and there was no sight of Celestia or AJ through the debris.

They had been crushed to death.

While she wanted to deny this fact, the sight pierced her brain. The rapid transition to night also proved this. And if Celestia had not survived the crush, there was no way AJ's smaller body had either. Her eyes swelled quickly. There was no sign of Carrot Top, despite her being on top of the haybale with AJ when the horde ran through. She peered over at the hill the bass had come from, but the outlines and mysterious box from before were no longer on the hilltop.

She gazed back at the horizon, slowly realizing the extent of what had just taken place. Celestia had been crushed to death, and her sun had set along with her. The darkness of night flooded her feeble mind. She glanced up, and through the spotted clouds ... she finally saw Princess Luna's moon. It slowly rose to a spot high in the sky before coming to a stop.

The princess had survived.

A chill danced along her spine. This realization was nice, but they were still in big trouble. Luna had mentioned at the train station that she was not able to control the sun, despite her moon-raising logic defying the apocalypse's magic disappearance. Celestia wasn't able to control the moon either when she was alive. So, unless they found a way to bring back magic, nopony was left to raise the sun.

Soon, the night would grow colder, and colder, as the heat from the sun would fade.

The clock was ticking now.