The Equestrian Apocalypse

— Devan —

We edged our way through the bushes, peeking out every once in a while. We had made it to the outskirts of Ponyville, looping around until we could see the top of Twi’s castle.

“Almost there,” Dash whispered.

There were a couple of zombie ponies limping alongside houses in the distance. We figured smell might be a possible detection method they could use to find us, so we stayed low in the bushes and away from the wind. Thankfully, it was blowing toward us instead of them. Dash turned to me.

“Have you seen any of them gallop at all?”

I thought for a second before replying, "No. Pinkie was fast, but not galloping fast."

“Good. Hopefully, we can just keep outrunning them.”

We left the bushes briefly and started walking down the path that led to the castle. It only took another minute of walking before we got a better view of it. Sparkling in the morning sun, the crystally purple, gold, and blue colored castle rose high over the path ahead of us. On the golden staircase out front was a small group of ponies. After closer inspection, we quickly recognized them to be zombies, as they eagerly clawed at the golden front door. We silently shimmied into a nearby bush.

“Crap,” Dash muttered.

“Do you think Twi is in there?” I asked her.

“She has to be. I don’t think she was expecting any visitors today. Especially of the undead kind.”

“what do we do?” Flutters asked.

We all scanned the castle some more as we looked for a solution. Dash turned to me.

“Could you maybe lure them away and loop back around to us?”

“I might-“

“but what if some of them gallop?” Flutters interrupted, “we don’t know much about these … ponies … yet.”

“They aren’t ponies,” Dash said, “They are undead.”

“that’s so … vulgar though. do we have to call them that?” Flutters asked.

“But they are vulgar.”

“Trotters,” I spoke up, “We should call them trotters.”

Dash looked at me funny. “Really, Devan?”

“What?”

“That name is stupid. Why would we call them that? We might as well call them zombies.”

“I ... guess that works too.”

I backed away from the bush a bit and looked for anything we could use to distract them. There was a hand sized rock nearby that I thought might work. After grabbing the rock, I gestured to Dash and threw it off to the woods beside us. We could barely hear it thud from where we were. The zombie ponies didn’t even turn their heads.

“Damn.”

“wait,” Flutters said, “I have an idea.”

We looked over to see her staring up. After exchanging curious glances, Dash and I looked up to see a large crow in the tree next to the bush we were in. Before we could say anything, Flutters cupped her mouth and crowed at it. The crow cocked his head and looked down at us. Flutters crowed again, this time pointing toward the mob. The crow looked at the mob, then back at Flutters and nodded.

Wow.

I had seen Flutters work her ‘magic’ with animals before, but it was always cool to see. As we spectated, the crow moved toward the forest and sat atop the rock I had thrown. After adjusting his feet, he started flapping his wings violently and crowing loudly. There was no chance they couldn’t hear him, but would they go for him?

In front of the castle, a few of the zombie ponies started to turn their heads. After a few more seconds, some peeled away and started heading toward the crow. Then a few more, until the last zombie stopped scratching the door and started limping toward him. As they neared the bird, we made our move. In my peripheral vision, I saw the crow take flight and get up in the trees before continuing to mock the zombies.

“Amazing,” I remarked.

Flutters smiled. As we got to the door, the signs of scratch marks on it were evident. Dash tried to open it with no luck. After gently nudging it didn’t work, she glanced over at the mob. We saw the tail end of them disappear into the forest, still hearing the crowing softly. With the mob far enough away, Dash turned around and bucked the door. Nothing. She bucked it again without success. I tried kicking the door a few times myself, but it would not budge.

“Well shit.”

“Is there another entrance? Any fire exits?” I asked.

“Not that I know of,” Dash replied.

“Sounds like a safety violation.”

Dash rolled her eyes. As we looked up at the balconies and around the trunk of the castle, we heard a muffled voice from inside.

“What?!” Dash yelled, shoving her ear against the door. Flutters and I leaned in to hear too.

“Help! I’m trapped!” A mare yelled from inside.

Dash backed up and scanned the castle’s front wall.

“Damn it, how are we supposed to get in??”

I looked up. The deck above our heads was a good four or five stories up. I looked back over at the now-empty forest. There were sticks of various sizes laying on the ground around the trees.

“Makeshift ladder?” I suggested.

Dash looked up at the balconies before shooting an annoyed glance back at me. “Devan, I need you to stop being an idiot right now. That is way too high for a makeshift ladder.”

I raised my hands in surrender. “Sorry, I’m just spitting out ideas.”

“I know. If we were to make a ladder, it would have to somehow connect to those hanging ornaments.”

She pointed at the ropes hanging off the side of the big balcony to the left. Ornaments that were attached decoratively to the ropes swayed gently in the wind. Not only would it be complicated to get a ladder attached to the ropes, but the end of the ropes were still a good two to three stories up. I looked at one of the purple-stained windows on the front of the castle, just left of the front door.

“Oh duh! Why don’t we just break the glas-” I started.

“Devan-” Dash interrupted, “there’s a reason we didn’t mention that. The glass is reinforced, remember?”

I thought hard for a second about if I had been enlightened with this knowledge or not. “I don’t remember. Why the hell is it reinforced?” I looked down at Dash, waiting for an answer. She was staring intently at the glass now. “Dash?”

“Hold on.” She raised her hoof. “There’s a crack in the window …”

I looked back at the glass. It was purple-stained with streaks and little white star patterns, and near the bottom right corner of it was a slight crack. Before Flutters or I could say anything, Dash hopped over the stair’s railing and onto the purple rock below the window. She raised her hoof and pushed softly on the small part of glass below the crack.

“Guys! I can feel it giving way!”

Flutters and I hopped over the railing and joined her on the rock.

“Let’s all push on 3 …” Dash suggested.

We all set up in front of the window. As the two mares set their hooves against the bottom corners of it, I set my hands up higher.

“1 … 2 … 3!”

With all our might, we pushed the glass forward. I felt the weight of the glass fight back briefly before started to give way. After just a few seconds, the bottom half of the glass shattered, sending little shards flying inside. It also sent me flying through the window. I had not been paying close enough attention to how high I was pushing on it, so when it gave way, I tumbled over the bottom of the window. As I fell to the floor of the castle, I caught shards of glass in my hair and face. I hit the wooden floor inside with a comedically loud thud.

“Devan!” Flutters exclaimed.

Dash pushed her head cautiously through the window, avoiding the shards of glass left on the bottom part of the window. She looked down at me. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I'm fine ... I'm fine.”

I turned my body to look back up at them, but ended up rolling on glass bits and cutting my left elbow. The sudden stings also agitated my arm's bite.

“Ow, fuck!”

“Be careful!” Dash shouted.

I used my hands to carefully sweep aside some of the glass bits that I was now laying in so I could push myself up. When I stepped out of the glass puddle, Dash leaped over the remaining glass at the bottom of the window and tip-toed around the ones on the floor. Flutters followed her and accompanied me.

“Oh, thank goodness,” the mare inside spoke.

In front of the door beside us was Daisy, who was trapped under a bookshelf and one of the thrones from the main room that were wedged against the door. Thankfully, she didn’t appear hurt besides being smothered underneath the presumably heavy throne.

“Daisy! How did you get in there?” Dash asked.

“Long story, but please get me out of here! My legs hurt so bad.”

All three of us ran over and grabbed onto the throne above her. We coordinated once more and everybody lifted a side of the throne at the count of 3. While it was very heavy, the three of us were able to lift it just enough to pull it off of Daisy. The bookshelf was still laying across her hooves, books strewn about. We all set the throne down, wedged behind her, and pulled the bookshelf up enough for her to wriggle her hooves free.

“Oh sweet Celestia, thank you,” Daisy said, rolling over to lay on her back and sighing with relief.

Flutters sat beside her, observing her legs. While she wasn’t a doctor, I had come to realize in my stay that she was a good caretaker. She was great at taking care of animal injuries, and ponies were just … well … a different kind of ‘animal’ in this world.

I watched her until I felt Dash grab my arm. She gestured to my elbow.

“You’re bleeding.”

Sure enough, there was blood from the glass that started seeping out and making a mess of things. “Crap …” I looked around at the rest of my body, only finding more blood stains on my other arm. “Stupid glass.”

“We need to get you patched up,” Dash said, “Do you have any more gauze?”

“I do.”

I pulled out the extra gauze I got from Nurse Snow’s saddlebag, which Dash snatched from my hands. She also grabbed bandages from me and started dabbing the blood from my left arm. She sat me down by the door and started tending to the cuts. The bite I got from Pinkie was on my bicep, just above where she was working. I could feel its makeshift bandage loosening and noticed that the glass had cut a slice in it. Dash was intent on cleaning up the blood when I took my right arm and methodically grabbed hold of my bite’s bandage. Unfortunately, Dash noticed.

“You okay, Devan?”

“Yes,” I answered quickly.

She turned her attention toward the bite bandage and my hand covering it.

“Is that cut hurting you?”

“Just a little. It should be fine though.”

I tried to keep a convincing face when she looked up at me skeptically.

“I can rebandage it if you’d like,” she suggested, “and make sure that the wounds alright.”

“No, it’s fine. Promise.”

Dash caught on and shoved my right hand off the bandage before I could react. This caused the bandage to loosen more, rotating around my bicep and almost revealing the bite. I went to grab hold but Dash’s hoof stopped me.

“Devan, stop. Let me change it.”

Aw fuck it then.

This did not seem like the best time for them to learn, but I figured it also wasn’t honest to hide it any longer. Applejack would probably buck me in the face right now if she was here. Well, not literally, but it was still dishonest, and probably dangerous to hide it from them. Dash grabbed the bandage with her hoof and pulled it off with her teeth. I looked away beforehand and waited for her reaction.

“Not terrible. Does it really hurt that bad?” Dash asked.

What?

I looked down at Dash, then at the bite, but to my surprise, there was just a bruise and a few small gashes where her teeth marks used to be. The bite seemed to be fading away, with my skin taking back control of my arm. They could hardly be noticed as teeth marks anymore. Honestly, they looked like just a few minor cuts now.

“But …”

Dash looked at me awkwardly. “What, Devan? Why are you acting so weird?”

“It was- It-“

Dash’s gaze grew concerned before her eyes suddenly lit up. “You were bit?!”

Shit.

Flutters looked over her shoulder, shifting her attention from Daisy to me.

"I- ... I was …”

“How?!” Dash interrogated.

“when?” Flutters joined in, “when were you bit?”

I sighed. “It was Pinkie. I couldn’t get away from her on time after she turned. I had to leave her in the Everfree forest …”

Dash shook her head. Flutters eyed me once more with sad blue eyes before turning back to Daisy. Maybe telling them wasn’t the best idea. Everything was happening so fast that even small decisions seemed really difficult to make. It was like we were living in fast forward now, and every second counted. Dash looked back at the bite. She leaned her head in closely to see the small cuts better. The remnants of a bite were still noticeable, and she could likely see them. She looked back up at me with a slight glare in her eyes.

“You just weren’t gonna tell us?”

There was a nervous silence as I searched for an answer.

“I was! It’s just … I didn’t know how. It all happened so quick.”

“Applejack would probably buck you in the face right about know,” she replied.

“I know, I know …”

Flutters got up after she was finished helping Daisy and trotted up to me. “Devan …” She placed her hoof on my shoulder. “we are your friends. you can trust us with anything, especially at a time like this. please don’t hesitate to let us know these things.”

I leaned forward and hugged her. “I won’t anymore. I'm sorry.”

Dash grabbed my arm again. “You’re still bleeding, Devan.” She pulled off the old bandage that had come loose and starting placing new gauze over the bite. “And none of that explains why it’s just going away. Do you feel any different?”

"Uh ... no ... no, I feel normal," I answered.

My body felt the exact same as before. There was just a new pain in my arm where she had bitten me. I had no fever, no headache, no upset stomach ... nothing. I was just as taken aback as they were.

“Maybe it’s because he’s human,” Flutters suggested, “and maybe it only affects ponies.”

She and Dash both exchanged curious glances before Dash spoke, “So ... maybe Griffons and dragons are immune too?”

Flutters nodded, rubbing her hoof below her chin in thought. Dash finished wrapping up my new bandage while Flutters hoofed her the supplies. Daisy was still laid out, now with some kind of wrap on her right leg. She listened on as they worked on me. After they finished, we all turned our attention to her.

Dash asked, “So what happened here? What’s the long story you were talking about?”

“I was with Twilight. And Spike, and a few other ponies here not too long ago,” Daisy answered.

Dash cocked her head in interest. “A…re they still here?”

“No, unfortunately. At least not to my knowledge.”

“where did they go?” Flutters asked.

“I don’t know. We had been talking with Twilight about heading to Canterlot, but that wasn't discussed a whole lot," she explained, eying me before continuing, "She had hoped you all would be here by then.”

I looked away, thinking about how the morning had played out so far and regretting not coming here first. Sure, Pinkie might have been on to something, but now that I thought about it, we should have discussed it with Twilight and planned it out better.

“To Canterlot?” Dash repeated.

“Yes. Twilight also talked about going to Sweet Apple Acres first if we did choose to leave there. She had a feeling Applejack would be delayed with her family. Supposedly Rarity was going to visit so she may be there as well.”

"Wait, wait, wait ..." I interrupted.

Daisy and the others looked up at me.

"Why would y'all want to go to Canterlot? I would think Twilight would make a plan here, sending messages back and forth with Celestia until she could figure out the magic. Is there not a spell that can cure these zombies?"

Daisy gulped as she averted her eyes from me for a moment. She thought of a response for a second before answering, "Devan ... Twilight and the other unicorns ... they're losing their ability to perform magic."

FUCK.

I beat my hands in the air and turned to pace. The little bit of hope I was holding onto was crashing down now. First, flight, and now magic? How the hell would we solve this now?? Dash and Flutters continued talking with Daisy, telling her their story of not being able to fly. It was becoming evident that everypony was losing their abilities now. I walked back up after pacing out some frustration.

“So … what happened here?” Dash asked her.

“We had to barricade ourselves in when some of … them … started trying to break down the door. But while we were in here, somepony turned. I tried to move the stuff to run out the front door, but I got squished. I don’t know if the others escaped or are hiding in one of the other rooms. Thankfully the … zombies … inside didn’t come for me under there.”

“my … that would have been terrible,” Flutters said.

Daisy nodded in agreement. “We need to check the rooms to see if they’re still here.”

“Agreed,” Dash said, galloping off to search the rooms.

“Wait!” Daisy shouted, “Be careful!” She glanced back at her wrapped leg and looked up at me and Flutters. “I’m going to sit here for a minute. I'll come join you.”

Flutters and I took after Dash, running down one of the long hallways to search the rooms. I looked down at Flutters.

“You think they’re still here?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon …”

We made our way past the main room. The cutie map table sat silently, not calling any of the mane 6 anywhere. It was a bit frightening to think that maybe even the overworld magic that controls the map thinks this problem is a lost cause. After clearing the empty first room, we checked the next room on the left. The stench had already made its way through the crack under the doorway as we heard a groan. I nervously grabbed my knife from my belt and held it up to the door.

“Behind you,” Dash said, placing her hoof on my back.

“wait,” Flutters interrupted, “we don’t have to kill ...”

I looked back at Flutters and was met with worried, googly eyes.

"I know, we just have to check …” I replied.

Flutters nodded slowly as I turned my attention back to the door. After turning the knob quietly, I slowly pushed the door open. The groaning stopped briefly as I peeked into the room. Blood was pooled around the corner of the room and some chairs were knocked out of place. It was clear there had been a fight in here. As I opened the door more, I saw a tan mare just standing, looking out of the window. From her grey hair and faint cutie mark, it looked to be Mayor Mare. There was another light blue mare pegasus digging with her forelegs at the other window in the room. Both of their bodies had an odd, pale color to them, so I hesitated a moment before talking.

“Mayor?” I asked softly.

She looked over her shoulder at me to reveal blood dripping from her neck. Part of her cheek was bitten off with another trail of blood leading down to her neck as well. She looked at me with mysteriously white, tinted eyes and groaned. The other pony did the same.

“Devan,” Dash said, grabbing onto my hip.

The two mares distracted me from her as I watched nervously. As they started to turn towards me, another head came right out from behind the door just finger-lengths away, scaring the living shit out of me. The pale stallion reached his hoof around the door as I slammed it shut, almost taking part of his hoof with it. I thanked my reflexes briefly as the pony started banging on the door. Dash looked up at me and shook her head.

“That was too close. We should have just knocked.”

“but, what if it isn’t a zombie pony and they think we are?” Flutters asked.

“We can call out as well,” Dash suggested.

“what if they can't speak?”

Dash sighed. “Fine. Why don’t we just quickly open the door, check, and close it?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

We checked the rest of the rooms this way but found nobody. While we were bummed, we also had not found any more zombie ponies or corpses. We also found two rooms with busted-out windows, which means anypony that was here likely escaped. After we checked the last room, I thought about Twilight. Ever since Celestia brought me to Equestria, Twi had grown a huge interest in me, wanting to study what, why, how, where, and who I was. We had become really close friends during my stay, and I started to worry deeply, hoping she was alright. Dash noticed this and placed her hoof on my hip to comfort me.

“She will be okay. I promise.”

I looked down at Dash and smiled. Suddenly, a ball of green mist appeared in front of us. Sparkles accompanied the mist and vanished as a note, a baseball bat, and what looked like a shoe box popped into existence, dropping to the floor. The bat rolled to my feet.

Princess Celestia.

She still had magic? I had gotten a couple of letters from her this way in the past, but if I remembered correctly, she used magic to send them. A newfound hope entered my mind as I picked up the letter and started reading.

Devan … I am sure you remember my Alicorn power, being that I got you here all the way from your universe. I am sending you this before my magic totally fades away, as I need you to protect Twilight and the others. I do not know how this will play out, Devan. And I am sorry if this decision does not sit right with you, but I find it necessary. Please use this stuff to protect yourself and the others, and make your way here to Canterlot, right away. We have guards and it is safe here. That way, we can buy ourselves time to figure this mess out. Stay safe, Devan.

– Celestia

I looked down at the box. Dash looked back up at me after observing it too.

“What does it say?”

“Hold on.”

After pushing aside the baseball bat, I leaned down and flipped off the top of the box. As I glanced inside, I could not believe what Princess Celestia was thinking.

On top of some other supplies was a pistol. A pistol. I was not very experienced in guns, but if I remembered correctly, this was a 9mm Beretta. It was a pretty gun, sure, but what??? Celestia wanted me to SHOOT them? I understood now that magic wasn't an option, but just blasting my neighbors in the face? I took a moment to pick up the new pistol, running my fingers over the deadly steel as I thought.

"What in Equestria is that?" Dash asked.

"Hang on. I'll explain it in a second."

There was also a holster for it in the box, so I carefully set the gun inside of it. In the rest of the box, Celestia had stuffed in what looked like a combat knife tucked inside a holster, few first-aid supplies, a flashlight, a lighter, and more ammo for the Beretta. As I stood up, I unclipped the walkie-talkie from my belt and fiddled with it. After impatiently messing with the dials and screws, the green LED finally lit up again.

Thank GOD.

I pushed the button to talk.

"Celestia!"

No response. I gave it a minute, awkwardly exchanging glances with the others as they waited for me.

"Celestia! Please!"

A crackling started. This time, it crackled a lot more than before. The static buzzed as I heard a muffled voice talk. After a moment, I made out some words.

"-you he-"

When the crackling stopped, I responded, "What??"

"-Devan," static "- come to Canterlot. I-" static "-y note, b-" static "-Twilight i-" static

I angrily shook the walkie-talkie to fix the reception, but the LED turned off. I stubbornly poked, picked, and prodded at the device before dropping it on the ground in a fit of rage. The batteries flew out of it and rolled away from us.

"Devan!" Dash exclaimed, "Calm down. It sounds like we ... don't really need it anymore anyways."

I took a deep breath. "Yeah ... I guess you're right. Let's get going."