The Trotting Dead

Twilight Sparkle stood at the bottom of the stairs, eyes watering and the scent of rotting flesh creeping into her nostrils as she took in the scene before her: Spike, the darling little baby dragon that she had hatched herself and raised was hanging from a noose.

In the center of her basement.

In her house.

Twilight Sparkle ignored her tears as she gripped the rope with her magic and snapped it, laying Spike gently on the floor as she stood before him.

She couldn't bear the sight of him like this; eyes three quarters of the way closed and mouth half open with bits of his scales and flesh underneath missing from where the insects had found a meal.

Twilight Sparkle unloaded her empty stomach again before rushing back up the stairs and slamming the door behind her.

Oh sweet Celestia, no, no, no, no! Twilight thought desperately, closing her eyes and struggling with all her might to wake up from this nightmare.

But she couldn't.

Because it was a nightmare.

It was hell.

How long have I been asleep?! He's already decomposing and-

Twilight's mind froze and her eyes widened in shock and horror.

I can't remember a thing since...Since I left for Canterlot...But how long ago was that...?

Swallowing in guilt and sickness, Twilight cautiously made her way back to the basement door where she took a deep breath to relieve the stress temporarily and fill her lungs with clean air before she proceeded in and down.

-

At least a week... she thought grimly as she eyed the decomposing flesh and scales on the baby dragon. But why would he do this...Why did he board up all the windows and the door...?

Twilight made her way back up to the main floor, resisting the urge to wipe away her tears so that she wouldn't have to breathe in foul air just yet.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she respectfully closed the door behind her and let out a gasp as she struggled to breathe.

This isn't happening...This can't be happening...

As Twilight collapsed to the floor and began to sob quietly at the world around her, a low growl- too low for Twilight to hear- sounded from the doorway as the door to Ponyville Central Library was slowly pushed open...

Carrot Top struggled to place one rotting hoof in front of the other as she entered the library, her one good eye staring at a helpless purple unicorn that had collapsed on the floor.

Her primitive mind told her only two things as she opened her rotting mouth and took another step forward:

Food...

Feed...

Twilight Sparkle let out a screech as some rotting creature collapsed on the floor before Twilight.

It let out a groan, but not one of pain, as it returned to its hooves and continued its slow march towards the helpless mare.

"C-Carrot Top?!" Twilight whispered in fear as she noticed the trio of carrots on the mare's decomposing flank.

No intelligible reply came from the monstrosity that was once Carrot Top before it suddenly leapt at Twilight Sparkle, who gasped and sidestepped the pony.

"Carrot Top, s-stop this!" Twilight begged.

The only reply was a dull moan as Carrot Top got to her decomposing hooves and started off towards Twilight Sparkle; but the terrified unicorn had already darted out the door.

Gotta find Pinkie and Rarity and Applejack and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and- the elements! Gotta find the Elements of Harmony so we can fix....Whatever this is! Twilight thought desperately as she raced through the streets of Ponyville towards Sugarcube Corner.

Everything looked so different to her.

Any door that wasn't left wide open was either kicked in or boarded up, and the street was littered with a few shapes that Twilight prayed weren't bodies.

Carts lay in the ditches on the side of the roads and fruit stands were overturned; their precious wares either long gone, trampled, or rotting and writhing with maggots.

Twilight tore her gaze from the sights as she neared the confection building; door wide open and a few windows shattered.

Twilight groaned in distress and came to a halt in the middle of the T - intersection.

Of course she could just run in there screaming her head off for Pinkie in hopes that she was either still there or still alive.

Twilight shivered at the latter.

Then again, she could carefully make her way into the building just in case one of those...Things that Carrot Top was happened to be in there.

She decided on the second, much more logical option before peering around.

The streets were the same on either side of her; carts in the road, bodies here and there, and a few odds and ends looking like they had been tossed into the street in a random, desperate act.

Twilight noticed rather luckily, however, that Carrot Top hadn't followed her and nothing like Carrot Top was near her.

Gathering her strength, the unicorn cautiously approached Sugarcube Corner and stepped through the kicked in doorway.

"Shhh...It's alright...It's just one of those scary things downstairs again...Don't worry, Pinkie Pie will keep you safe..." Pinkie Pie whispered reassuringly as she rocked the two little babies in her hooves.

Carefully picking her way over overturned tables and shards of glass, Twilight made her way behind the counter and into the kitchen on her right.

Concluding that Pinkie Pie wasn't there, she turned her back on the doorway and proceeded up the stairs instead.

"No, no, shhh...Don't make a sound and we'll be alright...I promise, precious little bundles..." Pinkie whispered as hoofsteps made themselves known on the stairs.

Twilight Sparkle carefully peered into the opened doors on either side of her; one of which being the Cake's bedroom which thankfully didn't contain a body living or otherwise, while the other was filled with boxes that reached the ceiling in the back.

Twilight turned her attention to the door at the end of the hall, Pinkie's room, before slowly making her way towards it.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..." Pinkie Pie sung quietly as she continued to rock the two little children. "Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

"P-Pinkie...?" Twilight whispered hopefully after hearing a voice, an intelligible voice coming from the other side of the door.

A smile came to the purple mare's face as she turned the knob with her magic and opened the door.