The Trotting Dead

Chapters

CH. 1: Arrival
CH. 2: A Dinner of Chips
CH. 3: Search Party
CH. 4: Shooting Range
CH. 5: Invasion
CH. 6: Applejack
CH. 7: Out
CH. 8: Zecora's Hut
CH. 9: Shade
Ch. 10: Escape
Ch. 11: The Walk of Pain
Ch. 12: Contradiction
Ch. 13: A Study of Accidental Incident Awareness
Ch. 14: Survivors, Past Tense
Prologue

CH. 1: Arrival

"Are you sure this is safe?"

Twilight Sparkle and her assistant, Spike, were sitting in Twilight's library, surrounded by books. Twilight looked at her purple scaled baby dragon. "Of course it is, Spike," she reassured him. "You know I take great care to make sure each and every one of the new spells I cast is totally, utterly safe."

Spike looked at the purple unicorn, who was grinning in anticipation. "All right," he finally mumbled. "What are we even trying to do, anyway?"

Twilight sighed. "For the last time, Spike, I'm trying to see if dark magic can create, not just destroy," she looked at him sternly and added, "now if you don't mind, I'd rather not have any more interruptions."

Spike took his hand and pretended to zip his mouth shut. Then he crossed his hands and watched.

Twilight returned her attention to the experiment, and took a step towards the thing she was experimenting on. It was her old Smartypants doll. She hated experimenting on it, but it was still a little scratched up from the Want It, Need It spell, and Twilight was determined to make the most out of her fixing it. She focused all of her energy to her horn. Unlike normal magic, she gave no energy to her heart. For the moment you cast dark magic, you have no soul or conscience. You do not care for any individual, not even yourself. You just shoot out your magic with no regards.

...Which is exactly what Twilight Sparkle was preparing to do. She got into the correct position, locked her eyes with the old doll, and fired.

Two months later, the same purple unicorn opened her eyes to a stark white ceiling. She shifted around. Twilight was in a bed, but it clearly wasn't hers; it felt foreign and uncomfortable. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Looking around the room, she could make out that she was in Ponyville's hospital. Her room had a tall, dead lamp over to the right, and a magic nutrient dispenser to the left, hooked up to her.

Twilight took a careful glance at the dispenser. It was made to give the patient nutrients, bypassing the need to eat. On the front it read:

WARNING: MAGIC NUTRIENT DISPENSER EMPTY! REFILL IMMEDIATELY

Twilight gasped. She couldn't believe that Ponyville's hospital would be reckless enough to not feed their own patients! It was an outrage!

After cooling down a bit, Twilight made a mental note to bring the hospital's service up with Mayor Mare. Meanwhile, she focused on the task at hand. "Nurse!" she yelled. No response came. "Nurse!" she yelled, a bit louder. Still, no one answered. She took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs, "NURSE!"

Papers were swept away. Her bed shook. Some of the windows even shattered. But still no nurse.

"Ugh," Twilight finally groaned, "this is useless." She carefully unhooked herself from the empty dispenser, swung her back legs around to the side of her bed, and dropped down. She fell. After two months of not having any exercise, her legs felt extremely wobbly. She put her hooves onto the dirty mattress next to her and tried to get up with the help of the bed, but could still only barely get across the room. Only when she was in the doorway did she remember.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I have a spell for this sort of thing!" She focused her energy to her horn (this time her heart, too) and cast a spell on all four of her feet. They suddenly were no longer wobbly and useless, but were strong and capable. "That's better!"

Twilight confidently strode out of the doorway, only to find the hallway to be completely abandoned. Hmm, she thought to herself, maybe it's just Sunday? However, looking at the way desks had been overturned, the way doors were no longer in their wooden frames, she knew that was not the case. Cutie Mark Crusaders? she desperately pondered. No, not even they are this destructive. The only thing she could think of was that a disaster had happened, but that was so awful she wouldn't even consider it. Instead, Twilight pushed the whole thing out of her mind and headed towards the staircase at the very end of the corridor. She was determined to get out of the Celestiaforsaken building she was currently in.

After reaching the staircase and climbing down it, Twilight Sparkle quickly encountered a double door that lead directly to the main lobby. It was locked (from her side) and had huge, red words over it that read, "DO NOT OPEN" Twilight took a look at what was keeping the door from being opened, and found that the door was being held shut by a lone makeshift wooden bar stuck through the handles of it. Out of a strange curiosity, the unicorn put her ear to the door. She heard numerous unintelligible sounds, most of which sounded like pained groans. Taking her ear off of the door, she started heading back up; Twilight did not like whatever was behind that door. She'd find another way out of the building.

That's when Twilight heard it; a scream, coming from exactly one floor above her. The princess's student went wide-eyed, then rushed up the stairs. She ran up not just to help whoever had made the sound, but mainly just to reassure herself that she was not alone in the hospital. What she saw made her wish she was. On the floor of the hospital's second story, several feet from the main staircase Twilight was on, was a green colored colt with a black mane, and three ponies sitting around him, eating him alive. Twilight screamed.

The three cannibalistic ponies turned in Twilight's direction, looking at her with hungry eyes. One got up from her dinner and started trotting towards Twilight, and the others soon followed. Eventually they did reach the staircase, but Twilight wasn't there to see that. She was already sprinting up the stairs, getting away from the evil she had just seen. Twilight kept running until she had found the roof of the hospital, and even then she didn't stop. She ran along the edge of the two slants that made up the rooftop, headed towards the edge of the building. She didn't even turn to look back at the ponies, just kept on running.

However, she did stop and turn back once at the very end of the rooftop. The ponies that were in pursuit were already to the top of the stairs, and were slowly closing in on the terrified purple unicorn.

Twilight looked down the side of the building. It was a three story drop, and she knew if she jumped she would never make it. However, it was either dying a quick death from jumping, or being eaten alive by the ponies in pursuit. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and jumped off.

CH. 2: A Dinner of Chips

When Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes again, she was not dead. She wasn't lying on the grounds of the hospital, bleeding out, either. She was laying in a tent with her dear friend, Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was sitting against the side of the tent when she heard Twilight groan. "Oh good," Fluttershy said in a soft voice, "you're awake."

Twilight glanced in the direction of Fluttershy. "Where... Where am I?" she asked. Wherever she was, it wasn't anywhere in Ponyville; she could see shadows of trees and leaves through the thin fabric walls of the tent.

"We're in the..." Fluttershy gulped extraordinarily loudly and said quietly, "Everfree Forest."

Twilight was surprised at Fluttershy. She knew the mare was terribly afraid of these woods, so whatever drove her in must have been awfully important. Or dangerous... she thought to herself, recounting her experience in the hospital. How did she manage to survive that fall, anyway?

While Twilight was still thinking, Fluttershy suddenly got up, saying something about how she was going to get the rest of their friends.

After what seemed like only a second to Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were all stuffed into the tent, making the already humid-atmosphere even worse. Twilight waited for her friends to sit before asking a simple question that had been bugging her.

"How did I get here?"

Rainbow Dash was the first to speak, and was very enthusiastic about doing so. "Oh that's easy!" she began, "I saw you jumping off that building to save yourself from those Trotters and took off in your direction! I caught you, and just in the nick of time, too! Then, I took you here where we helped you recover." She took a big breath, as if the story had been inside of her, threatening to tear her open if she didn't let it out. She looked at Twilight, smiling.

"That's-"

Twilight was cut off by Pinkie Pie. "Oooh, ooh! And then I wanted to throw a big party, but then grumpy old Applejack was all like, 'You can't throw one out here, it's dangerous,' and I was all like, 'Awwwww...' and then-"

"We get the point, Pinkie," interrupted Applejack. "We can't go an' throw a big hoedown here because Twilight's recoverin' an'," she looked around suspiciously and lowered her voice, "we don't want any Trotters to hear us."

"Trotters?" Twilight wondered aloud. "What are Trotters?"

There was a rumble of chatter at this, and Twilight could easily pick out her friends surprise at her for never hearing the name.

"How have you not heard?" Rainbow Dash said, speaking mostly to the group rather than Twilight.

"Well she has—"

"It's INSANE, right?!"

"Shh, Pinkie, lower your voice, it's important."

"Girls, she has been in a—"

"I just cannot believe—"

"Well," said a much louder Fluttershy, talking over a now-disgruntled Rarity, "she has been in a coma..."

"Oooh..." Rainbow Dash said in understanding, "That explains why she was on the hospital!"

"And why—"

"So what are they?!"

All eyes turned to Twilight, and Rarity opened her mouth to speak. "Well, to put it in the nicest way possible, Trotters are dead ponies that have come back alive to feed on us."

"How many are there?"

"We don't know for sure, but let's just put an estimate at around..." Rarity looked at her friends for support.

"I'd reckon around ten thousand."

"Somewhere in the thousands."

"Maybe... Maybe a few hundreds?"

"Over NI—"

"Yes, I'd say around three thousand," Rarity concluded.

Twilight remembered hearing something about ponies like that somewhere, maybe Spike told her, but she couldn't put her finger on what they were called.

Spike! She had forgotten all about her baby dragon assistant. Now she was worried. "Where's Spike?" she asked, half wishing she wouldn't hear the answer.

All of her friends looked down at the ground. Rarity shed a tear. After what seemed like an eternity, Applejack answered, a somber note in her normally cherry-sweet voice, "We couldn't find him. We... Tried. We searched all about Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, your treehouse; you name it, we've searched there. We went out shoutin' his name, too, but he... He just wasn't there."

Twilight looked at her friends in horror. She couldn't imagine a world without her Spike. After all, she had had him since she got her cutie mark! Without him, life was just...

The purple unicorn was defeated. She wanted to curl in a ball, to escape from reality. Twilight knew she couldn't, though. Instead, she lay there on her makeshift bed, crying, as one by one each of her friends left her, just like comforts to the world.

For the rest of the day, Twilight lay on her mattress, staring at the ceiling of the tent. She had been crying for hours, but now she just sat there, thinking. She remembered everything she could about Spike, how he would wake up early (or early in his mind) in the morning and get her breakfast, or about how much he loved Rarity, and how he would do anything for her. Now all of that was gone. Forever.

Twilight Sparkle sat up in her bed. She was going out. She didn't know where, but she was going out.

Unzipping her tent, Twilight found herself confronting the warm night air. After re-zipping her tent, she started walking. Past her tent, past her friends' camp, into the bleak, dark Everfree Forest she had once known as a source of danger and wonder.

Twilight stayed in the woods for quite a while, thinking. She thought about Spike, about what had happened to him. All signs pointed to him being dead, but Twilight wasn't ready for that.

There must be some other way, thought Twilight, he can't just be... She trailed off there, not wanting to think about it.

Twilight thought for a while longer until she had come to her conclusion; according to her, Spike wasn't dead. He was just... lost. In her cold, logical mind, she knew that this was unlikely, but she could not accept her own logic. Not yet, at least.

Twilight Sparkle headed back to the camp. As she arrived, she could see the sun rise in the east. While she was watching the beautiful sight, Fluttershy trotted up.

"Oh, good," said the pink-haired mare for the second time, still with a grin. "You're awake."

Twilight turned to face her. It looked like the mare had just gotten out of bed. Probably to check up on me, thought Twilight. She was touched by how much her friends cared about her.

"Listen, Twilight," Fluttershy began, "we all feel awfully terrible about Spike, but we were wondering if you'd want to take a little tour of our camp," she paused and said in a much softer voice, "of course, only if you feel like it."

Twilight smiled. Ponyville may be a disaster, but her friend was still acting as shy as ever. "Sure," she responded.

"Great!"

There were a few other tents set up around, some of her friends (and some others) milling about, and a rather large clearing overlooking Ponyville. When she was within sight, Twilight took a closer look at the ruins of the once great town. Sure enough, she could see the gray ponies walking around aimlessly around the town. Terrible as it was, she was too numb to feel anything.

No surprise there, she thought bitterly.

A voice from above exclaimed, "Hey, Twilight! The camp's pretty nice, right?"

Twilight looked up to find Rainbow Dash hovering several feet above her. "Yeah, it's great!" she yelled up to the blue pegasus. "Fluttershy is giving me a tour!"

"Oh really?" Rainbow Dash floated down the ground. "I guess I'll tag along, too."

The tour wasn't very interesting, with there only being a few tents and and a large merchant's cart. However, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all tagged along with Twilight, and soon enough, the sky was being filled with red and orange hues.

"I reckon it's gettin' late," remarked Applejack.

"And I'm STARVING!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie as her stomach rumbled. "I don't get to eat like I did when I worked for Sugar Cube Corner!"

There was a pause in conversation.

"IDEA!" yelled Rarity in excitement. "We should all go to my tent and eat dinner!"

"Uh, Rarity, our food storage has been running low lately," Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"No, no, no. Remember when we all went to Ponyville to search for," Rarity looked Twilight and paused, "our friend?" she finally said cautiously. After no response, she continued, "Well, I grabbed a huge box with bags of chips from one of the markets I was searching!"

The ponies all smiled, and Rainbow Dash pumped her fist up in delight; they were happy the pony with the chips was the generous one.

After arriving at Rarity's relatively large tent, the six friends all sat down. Rarity took out her prized chips and tore through the packaging with her horn.

"Very creative use for your horn, Rarity," Twilight Sparkle commented as the chips were being passed around.

The white mare smiled. "Thanks! I learned it from my mother."

As she got her bag of chips, Twilight opened it and ate a few, then looked over to the rest of her friends. Most of them were halfway through the bag, and the remains of broken potato crisps were scattered around the tent.

"How long was I out?"

"Mm?" answered Pinkie Pie as she reached for another bag of chips.

"I mean, how long was I in that hospital?"

"Oh, around a month, maybe two, or even—OW!"

"Sorry dear, but only one bag for each of us."

This news surprised Twilight. She thought she had only been out for a week or two, but a full month? She guessed that explained why the MND was empty, or how Ponyville was so destroyed. But how?

"Yer probably thinkin' 'bout where ya gonna sleep, aren't ya?"

"Hm?" Twilight said, slowly processing what Applejack had said. "Oh, yeah... So, uh, do I get my own tent, or is the one I woke up in mine?"

"Nah, that was the medic tent. But I guess we can get another one,"

"I don't know, Applejack, we might not have enough for another one. We're already missing one for Sco—

Applejack waved her hoof, dismissing Rainbow Dash's concern as well as interrupting it, "Nah, we jus' got one from our last search of Ponyville," she then turned to face Twilight. "You can have that one."

Twilight beamed. "Okay, thanks!"

After a bit more chat, each of the mares left, with Rarity exchanging nice greetings as they did so. Most of them went towards their own tent, but Applejack went with Twilight to help her set up her own tent. After bit of trial-and-error, the two ponies finally got it all set up.

"Ya'll set now?" asked Applejack.

"Yes," replied Twilight as she sat in her new home.

The orange pony started to walk away into the dark night when Twilight spoke, "Hey Applejack..." she said softly. "Thanks."

Applejack smiled. "Don't mention it."

With that, Twilight Sparkle lay her head onto her pillow and fell asleep.

CH. 3: Search Party

Twilight awoke to feel a warm presence on the left side of her mattress. She cautiously looked over to see an orange mass laying there. Taking a closer look, she saw that it was Scootaloo. Twilight gently shook the filly.

"What are you doing in my bed?" Twilight asked after Scootaloo had woke up.

"I was..." Scootaloo struggled to come up with an answer, having been just asleep. After a while, she finally answered, "I was sick of sleeping outside."

"Outside?!"

Scootaloo looked at the floor of the tent. "Well, no one would take me in..." she admitted quietly, ashamed. Then she looked at Twilight with excited eyes. "But you'll take me in, won't you?!"

Twilight looked at the young filly. "Of course I will, Scootaloo," she told her.

Scootaloo smiled and rushed forward to hug the purple unicorn. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed, happy to have a home.

I'm going to have a little chat with my friends about this... she thought, angry that not a single one of them, not even Rainbow Dash, would let the small pegasus live with them.

"To be honest, she kinda creeps me out." Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were out in the woods, with Rainbow Dash confessing why she didn't let Scootaloo stay with her.

"That's no reason to force her to sleep outside!" yelled Twilight, full of rage.

"You wouldn't understand, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash roared. She took a deep breath, then said in a calmer voice, "I had a fan like her once. At first I thought it was really cool, having a huge fan like that, but as time went on, he revealed what he was truly after."

Twilight nodded, urging Rainbow to continue on.

"Well, of course I had to say no, but he just kept asking, demanding that I, I..." The blue pegasus paused, getting a little choked up. "Eventually, he kidnapped me! He tied me up, told me why I was there, and started trotting toward me with this... This evil smile!" By this point, Rainbow Dash was crying. "I looked for someway to get out, some other way, but he just kept smiling! He got up really close when I... I hit him! I hit him over and over and..."

Rainbow Dash had collapsed, and was now curled up in a little ball.

Twilight was unsure of what to do. She had never seen one of her friends like this. Eventually, she came up next to Rainbow Dash and put a hoof on her back.

"It's okay, Rainbow Dash. I understand."

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight in distress. "No, you don't," she sobbed, staring at her with bleak eyes. "I... I killed him."

Twilight put a hoof to her mouth in disbelief.

"Please don't tell anyone!" pleaded Rainbow Dash. "I didn't mean to! It's just..." Rainbow Dash looked up to her friend in desperation.

Twilight was shocked. She had never heard of anypony murdering somepony else! No, thought Twilight. Rainbow didn't murder him... She did it out of self-defense. Still, the idea of one pony killing another seemed strange to Twilight.

"Okay, I won't." Twilight responded, not wanting to hurt her friend's trust. "But that still doesn't explain why you wouldn't let Scootaloo move in with you."

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight and explained, "I used to love Scootaloo, honestly! I treated her as if she was my sister, I thought I'd never let her go... But after... It's just that every time I look at Scootaloo, I get reminded of... Him. I know it sounds stupid, but I just can't get rid of it." Rainbow Dash stood up and regained some of her composure. "It's normally not much of a problem, but I decided I couldn't bear sleeping with her, not after..."

She trailed off there, not wanting to go into detail.

Wow, things have really changed out here, thought Twilight as she milled over Rainbow Dash's story. She felt bad making such accusations at first, not knowing what Rainbow Dash had gone through. Twilight imagined how hard it must have been for her to parent for the young filly, considering that every time she looked at her, Rainbow saw her worst nightmare.

When Twilight arrived back in the camp, she was confronted by Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and... Rainbow Dash?!

Twilight was amazed at how fast the mare could travel.

"Oh, hey Twilight," Applejack greeted, "we were jus' 'bout to head off to Ponyville as a search party! You wanna come?"

Twilight considered it. "What are we searching for?" asked Twilight.

"Well, whenever we start runnin' low on supplies, some of us head out to Ponyville and scavenge fer supplies and whatnot," Applejack responded.

Twilight looked at her friends. "Isn't that kind of stealing?" she asked.

Rarity shook her head. "Oh, heavens no!" she said. "The town is already abandoned, why leave its supplies to rot when they can support other ponies?"

Twilight wasn't so sure, but agreed anyway. "Fine, I'll go."

"WOOHOO!" yelled a certain pink-colored pony.

"So, what exactly should we look for?" asked Twilight. She and her friends were going down a trail in the Everfree Forest, headed towards Ponyville.

"Well," answered Rainbow Dash, "We'll be looking for food, water, and pretty much anything that could be of use."

"Keep an eye out fer trotters, though. They could be lurkin' anywhere," Applejack warned. After a moment of consideration, she added, "Here, take this."

Applejack handed the purple unicorn a revolver and a holster.

Twilight had only heard about these in books. "A gun?" she inquired. "I thought these were banned in Equestria!"

Applejack smirked. "And that was before we needed 'em. Now, you can't survive without one."

"Won't you need it?"

"Nah," Applejack said dismissively, "I packed an extra one."

Twilight outfitted the holster and slipped the revolver inside. Then she asked, "How do you-

"Hey, we've reached it!" shouted Pinkie Pie, interrupting Applejack and Twilight's conversation.

"Pinkie! It's very rude to-"

Twilight was cut off by the sheer destruction that had occured to the once-great town. Most of the building's windows had been shattered, and lots of junk was lying all over. The unicorn froze in place.

"You all right, Twilight?"

Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie. The pink mare was looking at her quizzically. "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, noticing that most of her friends had gone up ahead. Trotting up to Applejack, Twilight asked, "So, where are we going?"

"Well, Rarity and Pinkie Pie'll go down to Sugar Cube Corner to find supplies, Rainbow Dash'll scout out any other places we may be able to scavenge, and we'll go to yer library to find any books you might be keepin' on Trotters."

"Isn't it dangerous for Rainbow to go all alone?" asked Twilight.

"Nah, she can handle herself jus' fine. 'Specially with those wings of hers. Anyway, we should get a move on. We don't wanna get caught here at night. The Trotters get more active fer some reason."

After a short walk, Twilight Sparkle and Applejack found themselves in front of a huge tree.

"Well," announced Twilight, "this is it." She looked up to her old home. It was in a state of disrepair; the door was no longer in the door frame, the windows were knocked out, and the actual tree was long-dead, having not been maintained by Twilight's magic.

As the two friends stepped into the main room, they found books scattered all over the floor. She smiled and thought, Spike did always want to use the whole floor as one big shelf.

Applejack interrupted her pleasant thought. "So, ya know where we could find a book 'bout Trotters?" she asked.

Twilight looked around the messy room. "Not with this mess. I suppose we could just sift through them, but I'd take a lot of time."

"It's worth it," decided Applejack. "That book is extremely valuable."

The two mares got to work pulling and inspecting every book from the huge pile. After several hours, Twilight finally heard the words she had been waiting for.

"I found it!"

Twilight glanced over from her stack of books to Applejack to find the earth pony proudly holding a book in her mouth. It was titled, "How to Survive the Apocalypse: A Step by Step Guide".

"Good!" said Twilight excitedly. Then she remembered a question that had been on her mind and lowered her voice. "Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you... What happened to the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

Applejack spat out the book and looked at Twilight with a straight face. "They're dead. 'Cept for Scootaloo, she got lucky."

"What?!" Twilight exclaimed. She hadn't expected such a straight answer, especially from the sister of one of the crusaders!

"Celestia, Twilight, they're buckin' dead!" Applejack snapped.

For the second time that day, Twilight put a hoof to her mouth in disbelief.

Applejack sighed. "I'm sorry, Twilight," she apologized. "It's jus' that I don't like talkin' 'bout 'em much."

Twilight looked at her friend and thought about her assistant, Spike. "It's okay," she reassured her, "I understand."

"Where's Dashie?" Pinkie Pie asked, worried. The two parties had once again met back in the outskirts of Ponyville, and Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, she'll be back soon enough, I'm sure," Rarity assured the pink-haired mare.

"I jus' hope she's all right," Applejack said.

Twilight spoke up, "Hey, I was wondering why none of you would take Scootaloo in with you."

Her friends may have all spoke at once, but Twilight could easily tell what each of them were getting at. They had all expected Rainbow Dash would take her in.

"You mean you all didn't know about..." she paused, suddenly remembering her promise to Rainbow Dash. Man, she thought to herself, I really am bad at keeping secrets. I almost told everyone!

"About what, darling?" questioned Rarity.

Twilight was brought back from her thoughts into reality. "Huh?" she stammered. "Oh, nothing."

All her friends looked at her suspiciously. Twilight started quivering; she wasn't any good at lying, and this was no exception. Suddenly, she saw her break.

"Look!" she shouted, pointing at the sky. "It's Rainbow Dash! She's back!"

All her friends looked in the direction her hoof was pointing at and saw the rainbow-maned pegasus flying towards them.

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief. "Every time she flies off like that, I'm worried she won't come back."

"Mmmm-hmm!" agreed Pinkie Pie.

After she landed, Rainbow Dash looked at her friends. "Find anything interesting?" she asked.

Applejack and Twilight reported that they had found the prized book, while Pinkie and Rarity told her that they hadn't found much food.

"Well, that's bummer," commented Rainbow Dash.

"I know, right!" agreed Pinkie Pie. "I'm gonna be so hungry! All we found is some old cake I baked a long time ago." She frowned for a moment, then went back to normal Pinkie Pie and continued speaking.

Twilight ignored the hyperactive mare and looked up at the sun. It was getting pretty low. "Hey," Twilight interrupted Pinkie Pie's rambling, "we should get back to camp, it's starting to get late."

Her friends looked at the sun, agreed, and started headed towards the camp.

"How was it? What did you do? Was it fun?"

Twilight looked at the orange filly, who was bouncing up and down on her bed. The purple unicorn had just gotten back from the search, and was exhausted. She sighed. "I'll tell you all about it in the morning, but right now I need my rest."

Scootaloo stopped jumping and looked at Twilight. "Okay." she said, collapsing onto the mattress.

Twilight came up to Scootaloo and gently pushed her to the side of the bed, making room for herself. Slipping in to the warm covers, she tried to go to sleep.

"Hey Twilight?"

"Yes, Scootaloo?" Twilight asked in the nicest way possible; she was losing her patience.

"Good night."

Twilight forgot all about her impatience to the filly, and was instead touched by the sincerity of her words. "You too," she responded.

With that, the two ponies fell asleep.

CH. 4: Shooting Range

Twilight woke to find the familiar presence of Scootaloo gone. Sitting up in her bed, she looked around the cramped tent. There was still no trace of the orange pegasus. Now where could she be? thought Twilight as she slipped her back legs over from her mattress to the hard tent floor. After stretching her legs and unzipping her tent's door, Twilight Sparkle stepped outside.

It was a foggy morning, with Twilight barely being able to see the camp's edge. She did, however, notice a hooded figure leaning against a tree to the left of her. Twilight turned and cast a glance at the shady character.

The mysterious mare had a black hoodie on in such a way that Twilight couldn't see her face, but she could see the small horn poking out from the shadow that was her face. Underneath her hoodie, the stranger had a mint green coat with a light blue and white mane.

"Excuse me?" Twilight Sparkle asked cautiously.

The mint green mare looked up to face the purple mare.

"Have you seen an orange filly around here, about this tall?" Twilight raised one of her hooves to the height she imagined Scootaloo was.

The hooded pony nodded her head and pointed further into the camp.

Twilight thanked the strange pony and headed towards where she had pointed. As she was trotting, she encountered another pony, who she recognized as Roseluck.

"Hey Roseluck," Twilight started.

Roseluck turned to face the lavender mare.

"Who's that strange mare over by the tree?" asked Twilight.

Roseluck glanced over towards the tree Twilight was pointing towards. "Oh," she said, recognizing the hooded pony, "that's Lyra Heartstrings." Then, looking around suspiciously and lowering her voice, she quietly added, "She's been acting weird ever since Bon Bon died."

Twilight was curious. "How so?" she inquired.

"Well, for one thing she's only been walking on two legs, and she hasn't been talking, either, It's..." Roseluck paused, choosing her words carefully. "It's unnatural, not socializing like that."

Twilight thought for a bit, and eventually questioned, "Who did you say died again?"

"Bon Bon. Just last month, too. It was tragic."

Twilight realized how insensitive her question had been. "I'm..." she paused, not really knowing what to say next. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," Roseluck stated. "She died fighting." With that, she walked off.

"Scootaloo! I've been looking all over for you!"

Scootaloo and Twilight were standing on the outskirts of the camp (exactly where Lyra had pointed to) with Applejack. Twilight rushed forward to the small filly, hugged her, and then asked, "Where have you been?"

Scootaloo suddenly beamed. "Applejack's gonna teach me how to shoot Trotters!"

Twilight looked at Applejack and declared, "Absolutely not! Do you know how dangerous those things are? I swear, they could probably-"

Twilight was interrupted by Applejack, who was waving her hoof dismissively. "Nah," she assured Twilight, "we were gonna use targets, y'know, just for practice."

"Oh," said Twilight with a sigh of relief. After a moment of consideration, she asked, "Can I come along, too?"

"Sure!" Applejack responded. "Jus' make sure to bring yer-"

Before Applejack knew it, Twilight Sparkle had teleported back to her tent, grabbed her revolver (and holster), and teleported back.

"Well," Applejack said, a little startled by Twilight's display of magic, "Yer... Yer all set now, aren't ya?"

BANG!

"Yer better than I'd thought you'd be, Twilight; that's a perfect headshot!"

Twilight smiled at her friend, Applejack. They, and Scootaloo, were all at the firing range, shooting at dummies. "Thanks!"

"Ooh! Ooh! I wanna try!"

Applejack looked at Scootaloo, who jumping up and down in a mixture of excitement and anticipation. "Now hold on there, nellie! First, ya need to know some things."

Scootaloo stopped jumping and listened to Applejack.

"Scoots, Ah know yer probably real excited, but this thing here," Applejack glanced at the rifle she had brought, which was poking out of her saddlebag, "it's not a toy. Now I want ya to know that if Ah -er any of the other adults- catch ya usin' this like it was one, then you'd be in a whole mess of trouble, no kiddin'. It's dangerous, and it can -and will- kill. Ya got that?"

The orange filly nodded her head and delivered a slightly comforting, "Yeah, okay."

Applejack apparently thought that that was good enough, and, with her mouth, brought her rifle out from its storage. Handing it to Scootaloo, she taught the young filly how to hold it in her mouth and fire with her tongue.

"Dsh ish rely herd!" admitted Scootaloo as she attempted to hold the semiautomatic weapon in her mouth. It seemed ridiculously disproportional compared to the filly's small head.

"Ya get used to it eventually. Go 'head, try to hit that target over there."

Scootaloo swiveled her head over to the target until the barrel of the rifle was lined up with the target's head.

"Okay, now just stick out yer tongue, find the trigger, and-"

BANG!

Scootaloo had fired. Given her nature, she had thought that she'd be some sort of prodigy. The reality, however, did not agree with her thoughts; the purple-maned filly had missed by several meters, hitting not the target, but instead a tree off to the side.

"That's great!" exclaimed a cheerful Applejack.

Twilight chimed in, "Better than my first shot!"

Scootaloo couldn't tell if they were being sincere or just trying to lift her spirits. She, in fact, had been disappointed with herself; she wasn't getting a marksmanship cutie mark anytime soon.

"Oh, don't look so down," said Twilight. Apparently Scootaloo's disappointment had shown on her face. "That was a great shot, especially for someone your age."

The small pegasus looked up to the mare that was smiling down at her. "You really think so?" she asked nervously.

"Of course I do! Everything takes practice! Now, come on, let's try that again."

Scootaloo picked Applejack's rifle back up with her mouth, lined the barrel up with the target's head, and, with a new found confidence, fired.

BANG!

This time, the bullet did manage to find its way into the target.

"Hey, Applejack, what's that over there?"

Applejack glanced over to where the lavender mare was pointing. "That's a..." She strained her eyes to see whatever Twilight was pointing at. "Oh, that's a Trotter!"

Twilight had to fight the urge to run away from the whole situation, and instead levitated her revolver out from her holster. She was preparing to fire when Applejack spoke.

"Wait, Twilight, let Scoots try."

"Huh?" Twilight was confused. "Isn't that dangerous? I thought we weren't going to use live targets."

"Don't be such a hardflank, Twi. Plus, Ah can always jus' shoot it in the head if it gets too close." Applejack then looked at Scootaloo. "Come on," she prodded, "go 'head an' shoot it!"

Scootaloo once again picked up the rifle and fired three shots. The first one missed completely, hitting a nearby bush. The second hit the Trotter in the chest, pushing it back a little bit (the rifle did have some stopping power). The third hit the Trotter in the head, effectively killing it.

"Good job, Scoots!" exclaimed Applejack. "Ya might even be good enough to be a guard one night, give Dash a break!"

"Did you see that? Did you see that? I shot a Trotter!"

Twilight sighed. Scootaloo and her were in their tent, and, once again, she was exhausted; Twilight may be a superior unicorn (in magic terms), but levitating objects all day had taken its toll. "Yes, Scootaloo," she patiently said, "I was there."

"Wasn't it great?!"

Twilight briefly wondered, Why is she this excited? It wasn't that great of an achievement... Then she remembered that her orange friend had never been good at much of anything. She suddenly felt guilty, dismissing her shot like that.

"Well?" Scootaloo asked.

Twilight had a habit of getting lost in her own thoughts, and right now it wasn't helping. "Yes, Scoots," Twilight said, adopting Applejack's nickname for the small filly, "I think that that shot was even better than Applejack's shots. But please, right now can we get some sleep?"

"Not until you tell me what happened yesterday at the search party."

Twilight was reminded of what she told the filly the other night. "Can't we do it some other day?" she asked.

Scootaloo was persistent. "No, you promised!"

The unicorn sighed. Scootaloo wasn't letting up. She was going to have to tell her that story, no matter how tired she was. "Well, fine then. But after this you're going to have to go to sleep."

Scootaloo nodded her head and urged Twilight to tell her about the search she had conducted.

"Wow, can I come along next time?"

Twilight thought about this. She had just finished telling her story, and while it was boring in her opinion, in Scootaloo's it was apparently very interesting. "Sure," she agreed. "I mean, if it's okay with everypony else.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo yelled.

Twilight shushed the filly. Once she was quiet, Twilight opened up the covers for Scootaloo to slide in. After the young pegasus had gotten in, she got in as well. They prepared to go to bed.

"Good night, Scoots."

"Good night, Mom."

CH. 5: Invasion

"Um... Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle woke up to feel a lump on the corner of her bed. Opening her eyes, the mare saw that it was Fluttershy, who was looking at her softly.

"Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle sat up in her bed. "Yes?" she asked politely.

"Well, um, Rainbow Dash wants you to see something. She says it's really important." Fluttershy looked at Twilight and quietly added, "But, you know, I don't really care much if you decide not to..."

Twilight shook her head. "No, no," she assured her, "I'll come. Just give me a second."

A squeaky voice to the right of Twilight asked, "For what?"

Twilight Sparkle recognized that voice and looked over to face Scootaloo, who she noticed was now awake. "Oh, there's something Rainbow Dash wants us to see."

"Oh, I'm gonna get ready! I haven't seen Dash in forever!" Scootaloo rushed out of bed and opened her small-sized saddlebags, which were lying in the corner of the tent.

"Well..." Fluttershy looked from Twilight to Scootaloo, and then back again. "I guess I'll see you two outside, y'know, if that's okay with you..." The shy pegasus slipped out of the tent, leaving Scootaloo and Twilight alone to get ready.

Twilight got out of bed slowly and walked over to the tent's zip-up door. Before leaving, she glanced over to Scootaloo, who was brushing her mane with a light blue hairbrush. "I'm going out to go outside. You can come out when you're ready."

"Okay, Mom!" The orange filly started brushing her mane vigorously, impatient to follow Twilight.

Twilight stepped outside, thinking about Scootaloo's nickname for her. "Mom," she said aloud, rolling it around with her tongue. It may just be easier for Scootaloo to call Twilight "Mom" rather than "Twilight", and it may not be very special to Scootaloo, but to Twilight it was; she felt some longing to the small filly, as if she really was the mother of Scootaloo. But then again, Twilight had been a mother to Scootaloo; she had taken her in, protected her, fed her, everything that Scootaloo's mother might have done, Twilight did. Twilight was a mother to Scootaloo, and Scootaloo was a daughter to Twilight.

"Hey Twilight! Glad you're here; we got a huge problem!"

Twilight looked up to see Rainbow Dash, who was hovering right over that clearing that could be used to see the whole of Ponyville. Twilight shouted over to her friend, "What is it?"

Rainbow Dash yelled back, "It's Ponyville! C'mon, you gotta see this!"

Twilight trotted over to where Rainbow Dash was and noticed that the rest of her friends were staring at Ponyville in disbelief. Twilight soon found herself gaping at Ponyville the same way as she saw what had become of it. In the old town were around a hundred Trotters, and they were all headed toward the campsite. Slowly but surely, they would make there way up the hill, into the campsite, and...

"Hey, what's all the fuss?"

Twilight looked away from the disturbing sight to see Scootaloo. Apparently, the flightless pegasus had finished getting ready, and was now going to see what was so important to the rest of the ponies. With no response, she shrugged and made it to the clearing. Then she looked at Ponyville.

"Oh my Celestia..." she said under her breath. Scootaloo then turned to the adults and asked, "What are we going to do?"

Rainbow Dash was the first to speak. "There's only one thing to do. We have to get out before," she emphasized herself by pointing a hoof to where to Ponyville was, referencing the Trotters, "they get here."

Applejack added, "Or we could always jus' wait it out, sit here and kill 'em one by one."

Rainbow Dash was appalled. "That's suicide!"

"Nah, we got plenty of weapons an' ammo. Hell, I bet we could make it without losin' a single pony."

Rainbow Dash disagreed. "Why take any chances? We can easily outrun them, and we wouldn't be losing any ammo or ponies! Honestly, I don't know why you'd make such a stupid suggestion in the first place! Are you trying to get us all killed?"

Applejack was enraged. "Are you suggestin'," she began, her voice almost shouting at the rainbow-maned pegasus, "that Ah don't put the safety of each an' every one of these ponies as my top priority?!" Applejack stomped her foot on the ground angrily and continued, "Are you suggestin' that I don't care for each and every one of you as if ya'll were my own?!"

"Obviously not! If your dumbflank plan didn't work on your farm, it's not going to work here!"

"You've no right to bring that up!"

"It was your fault he died!"

Applejack had had it. The orange pony whipped around, put her weight on her two front feet, and bucked Rainbow Dash in the face.

Rainbow Dash was forced back from the impact, and landed on the ground with a hard thud. She didn't get up.

Twilight rushed over to the cyan pegasus, and the rest of Twilight's friends (excluding Applejack, she just stood there, mouth agape at what she had done) soon followed. They sat there at the cyan pegasus's body, tears rolling down some of their faces. Rainbow Dash's breathing was uneasy, and the pegasus had been knocked out cold. After a while, Twilight turned her attention to Applejack, who was still just standing there, staring. She suddenly had a burst of rage; Applejack had just bucked her friend! In the face! "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" she screamed at the orange earth pony.

Applejack slowly responded, "I don't know... I-I'm so..." Tears started dripping down from her eyes, finding places on the ground two feet below her.

Before she could continue, Twilight shouted, "JUST GET OUT! JUST GET THE BUCK OUT! YOU'RE A MONSTER!"

The sun dipped low in the sky, and the moon started to take over. Twilight knew that the Trotters would arrive any hour now, and then they'd have to leave. However, Applejack still hadn't shown up; after Twilight had screamed at her, the guilty pony had sprinted off in the direction of the woods and hadn't shown up since.

Twilight knew Applejack had done wrong, kicking Rainbow Dash in the face like that, but she couldn't help but feeling guilty. The way Applejack had tears rolling down her face, the way she was admitting something, it was...

She was apologizing! realized Twilight. And I screamed at her! What... What have I become?! She looked at the ground. Tears were welling up in her eyes when she realized that she could make her situation right again. She got up and, in the process, woke up Scootaloo.

"Wha?" stumbled Scootaloo, confused. She thought Twilight had told her to take a nap, for 'the days ahead' or something. Now the unicorn was getting up, getting ready to leave. Then Scootaloo went wide-eyed. "Are the Trotters here?!" she asked frantically, ready to rush out of her bed and the camp.

"Huh?" Twilight looked behind her to find a very scared-looking pegasus upright in her bed. She didn't think an action as quiet as getting up to go out would wake Scootaloo. Then again, she didn't think two months ago that her life would be in danger from dead ponies. The world had changed.

"No, I'm just going out."

Scootaloo relaxed a bit, but then piped up again. "Why?"

Twilight thought about telling her, but decided not to. The incident with Rainbow Dash and Applejack had scared the filly enough, she didn't need to be reminded of it.

"It's just a little walk in the woods, to get some fresh air, some peace."

That effectively made what Twilight was about to do seem boring as hell to the hyper filly.

"Applejack!"

Some of the leaves from the trees fell down upon Twilight's yelling. She was starting to get tired; the mauve scholar had been outside for about an hour now, just shouting Applejack's name. It had been a fruitless attempt so far, with absolutely no response every time she had called the yellow-maned pony. However, Twilight was determined to find Applejack, no matter how long it took.

"Applejack! Please! We need you!"

Still no response.

"Applejack! Come out!"

This time, there was a response. Off in the distance, someone had screamed something. It was repetitive, with the message repeating every so often. Every time it was the same. Twilight strained her ears until she could finally hear the voice.

"Trotters!"

That was it. That was the alarm. Twilight was shocked. She knew the Trotters were going to come, but she didn't imagine it happening now! She started to rush back to her camp, but then remembered that if she did, she'd be abandoning Applejack. She turned back around and continued her search for Applejack.

"Twilight!"

Now her friends were looking for her. That changed things. Her friends weren't going to leave without her. If she continued her search for Applejack, she'd be abandoning them. Twilight had no clue what to do. On one hoof, she'd be leaving four of her friends, but they'd have each other, while on the other hoof, she'd be leaving one all alone.

"Twilight!"

The conflicted mare had to make her choice fast.

"Twilight!"

She didn't know what to do.

"Mom!"

Now she did.

Twilight emerged from the woods to find hundreds of Trotters in her friends' campsite. Tents were trampled, and supplies had been crushed. However, not one Trotter had noticed Twilight; all of their attention was focused on the ponies standing the opposite side of the campsite. Twilight strained her eyes to see that they were slowly moving away from the huge mob coming towards them. She noticed the merchant's cart she had seen before was being used to not only drag supplies from the campsite, but also was being used to drag Rainbow Dash; the rainbow-maned pegasus had still not come to. Then Twilight saw Scootaloo.

Scootaloo was in tears, clutching onto Lyra's hoodie, which the strange mare had given to her out of empathy. She had obviously broken down; losing two mothers was too much for the filly. Twilight knew that it was foalish, but she shouted out the crowd of survivors, if only to calm down Scoots.

"I'm here!"

Her shouting not only caused all of her friends to look her way, but also some trotters. The evil creatures let out a low moan and started limping towards her in an awkward fashion.

Twilight had had it with these monsters. "I'm not going to play your damn game!" she shouted in the face of one of the Trotters. She teleported to the campers. Twilight Sparkle was right; she wasn't going to play their game.

Moments after Twilight's abrupt arrival, Scootaloo gave up hugging Lyra's hoodie and instead hugged her mother. The magical unicorn looked down at Scootaloo and ruffled her purple mane with her free hoof.

"It's okay Scoots, I'm alright."

The orange pegasus looked up at the unicorn. "I just thought..." she choked out between sobs, "I just thought th-that you were gone, that y-you were..." Scootaloo hugged Twilight's leg even harder and buried her face in her shallow fur.

Twilight Sparkle lowered her face down to the filly's eye level and wrapped her foreleg around her. "It's okay, everything's okay now. I'm here, and that's all that matters."

Scootaloo was comforted for a bit, but then asked, "W-what about Applejack?"

Twilight looked off into the distance, towards the woods where the orange mare had disappeared. Someday, she thought to herself, I'll find you.

CH. 6: Applejack

"JUST GET OUT! JUST GET THE BUCK OUT! YOU'RE A MONSTER!"

Applejack stepped over a rotting log and looked up to the canopy of the woods. The green leaves were shifting over each other in a sort of odd, calming way, as if the forest was trying to comfort the mare. Normally, Applejack would never be in these woods, as she never really enjoyed them. However, with all the ruckus from the morning, she needed it. Applejack wouldn't go back to that camp. She knew no would would accept her back in after what she had done. It was an awful thing.

She kept walking.

Tears were welling up in the orange pony's eyes as Applejack remembered the incident. She just didn't know what got into her that moment, that fateful moment when she turned around and...

"Why do Ah have to buck everything up so bad?!" she shouted, not caring if she drew any Trotters to her location. Let them come, she thought bitterly, maybe then I'll get what I deserve.

The sun dipped low in the sky as the moon started to bathe the forest in its light. Applejack found it getting harder and harder to see. If she didn't find a source of light soon, she wouldn't be able to see anything. However, the earth pony kept trotting further into the woods, sometimes tripping over stones and logs as a result of the low-light conditions.

Within a few hours, Applejack found herself getting very tired. She needed a place to rest, but she knew the woods weren't safe. Once again, she looked up to the forest top. At least, not on the ground it's not safe, thought Applejack as a small grin of realization formed on her face.

The yellow-maned pony started to try to get up one of the many trees that occupied the Everfree Forest, but to no avail; none of its branches were low enough for Applejack to climb onto. She eventually gave up on the impossible tree and moved on to an oak that had appendages low enough for Applejack to clamor on to. Once she had her balance on the lowest part of the tree, she moved on. It was a slow process, but she did eventually reach a height which she deemed safe- around 20 feet off the ground. Untying her saddlebags, Applejack took them off and tied them around both her and the limb of the tree she was currently residing in to keep from falling in her sleep. It wouldn't just be embarrassing or painful if she fell, it'd be deadly. The tired mare then put her cowboy hat in the saddle bags that were hanging off the of the sides of the branch. Applejack then lay her head on the tree and fell into a deep sleep.

"Where am I?"

Applejack looked around the blank room. It was blindingly white, and had a bright light hanging from the ceiling. She could see a window on one of the walls, and rushed over to it.

Looking out the glass pane, the earth pony spotted her friends, huddled around something. They were all whispering.

"Do you think she's dead?"

"Well, what do you think? She's not breathing."

"Where should we bury her?"

"I don't know, maybe somewhere in the clouds. She always loved the clouds."

"Can you even bury somepony in the clouds?"

"I don't think you can."

"We can try."

Applejack strained to see whoever her friends were huddled around.

"I-is she... Is she d-dead?"

All of Applejack's friends turned their attention to one corner of the room to see an orange filly curled up, crying. Twilight walked over to comfort her, which gave Applejack a clear view of...

Rainbow Dash?!

Applejack recoiled back. How had Rainbow died? She didn't have any bite marks, and she looked perfectly normal other than her face, which was still bludgeoned from when she bucked it.

Suddenly, Applejack realized what had killed the cyan pegasus.

Applejack opened her eyes to see that she was still laying in the tree she had fell asleep in last night. Oh, she thought to herself, thinking of her experience in her sleep., it was just a dream. Still, Applejack couldn't help but think of exactly what the dream had been about. She, Applejack, had been the one to kill Rainbow Dash! She could only pray that her dream was not the reality; the mare could not bear to know she had killed one of her best friends.

Applejack looked at the tree she was residing in more closely, and noticed that it was colored various shades of orange. She turned around to see what was causing the discoloration.

The sunset turned out to be stunningly beautiful, with multiple hues painted across the sky. Applejack's jaw dropped from sheer astonishment that something so beautiful could be in such an ugly world, and with that came her bags. They hit the ground several feet below.

"Shit!" Applejack cursed. The orange-coated mare started hurrying down the tree, knowing that every moment without her rifle was a moment risked. She made it down the first to the first limb, then the second. She reached for the third with her hoof, found it, and then proceeded to put her wait down onto it.

SNAP!

The branch was much less sturdy than Applejack had anticipated. It cracked under the pressure exerted by her large body, and she started to fall. While falling, the mare hit one branch, then a rather large limb, and landed on one of her forelegs. Again, Applejack heard a snap. This time it was not from the tree, but rather from her own body. Applejack howled in pain and looked down to her front right leg to see that a blood-coated bone protruding from her leg. The skin around it was ripped and torn, and it felt as though somepony had taken a hacksaw and crudely attempted to amputate her leg from the wrong angle. The raw sight made Applejack gag from sheer disgust.

Then she heard a low moan.

Looking from the gruesome sight to the strange noise, she noticed a Trotter around 50 feet away. It slowly making its way to her.

Trying her best not to pass out from the extreme pain caused by her fall, or at least not panic, Applejack started to get up. She let her severely injured leg droop out from under her, but it was still excruciatingly painful. With each step, each wobble, she could feel the bone sliding in its unnatural place. What's more, the yellow-maned earth pony wasn't making any progress; if anything, she was losing ground to her deadly opponent. The Trotter had advanced some 20 feet on her, and was still going strong. Applejack knew she wouldn't make it out escaping (as the Trotter was faster than her), so she turned her attention to her saddlebags.

Applejack's saddlebags, if she remembered correctly, had her rifle in them, and were only about ten feet away. She knew if she got there she just may be able to survive,so the country pony turned and started limping her way towards the bags.

As she made it closer and closer to her storage bags, she could hear the moans getting louder. The Trotter was in pursuit. Applejack made the foalish mistake to turn and look at the fast-advancing pony. It was only about ten feet away, and her saddlebags were a good five feet away. The mare started to rush, fearing that the Trotter would be on her soon.

She fell flat on her face.

Lifting her head off of the ground, Applejack looked behind her flank to the Trotter once more and realized she didn't have time to get back up on to her hooves. Instead, she continued by crawling. Closer and closer she came, until she was just close enough to reach out to the rifle, which was poking out of her bags.

Applejack brought the rifle to her mouth and whipped around to face the monster.

She fired.

The Trotter kept coming.

Applejack was in shock; she had aimed for its head, so why wasn't it dead? Then she remembered her fatal mistake; the rifle had not been loaded. It was all over for Applejack.

She looked to the sky, praying to Celestia that she wouldn't become one of those... Those things. Her eyes shifted back to the evil advancing towards her when she realized that even if she wasn't bit, she would probably still bleed out from her massive wound. Applejack closed her eyes and hoped it would be over soon.

She felt something crash onto her injured leg as she screamed.

"I have just killed a monster, plain as can be. But I have one question; is that Applejack I see?"

Applejack opened her eyes to find the Trotter that had been chasing her was now on her leg. She panicked and slid back, causing massive amounts of pain.

"That is a serious injury; it may be fatal. Did you get get it while chasing your saddle?"

Applejack looked up to face someone she had deemed dead long ago.

"Zecora?"

CH. 7: Out

"Hey Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle squinted to see the orange filly through the forest's harsh tones of black. "Yes?"

Scootaloo looked down to the ground, and then away from Twilight as she stared longingly into the rest of the Everfree Forest. "Do you think the rest of Equestria is like... Like this?"

Twilight admitted that question had been on her mind for some time as well. Did the rest of the world have the horrors of Ponyville, or was it just isolated? She didn't know for sure, but she would give her own life for the latter.

These thoughts seemed to vanish as Twilight suddenly looked closely at Scootaloo's facial features. Hidden under her small, black brow was a pair of hard, intense eyes, almost glaring back at Twilight. Her eyelids were slightly folded down, and showing these eyes between them only worked to increase the effect. Twilight was suddenly saddened.

Back when Twilight was in Canterlot, Celestia would take her to the dungeon a few times a year. They never went very far, but Twilight was still able to see the faces of hardened criminals. Those eyes that the outlaws displayed and Scootaloo's were one and the same. They both screamed that they had discovered the most adult part of Equestria, that they could handle a lot more than they should have been able to.

There would be no more comforting to Scootaloo.

"I... I don't know, Scoots. I honestly don't know."

Scootaloo looked at the Twilight and said, "I hope it's not."

"Me too, Scootaloo. Me too."

Twilight reached out to feel the filly's soft coat, and when she did, she was surprised to feel Scootaloo scoot up next to her, resting her small head on Twilight's tense shoulders.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Scoots. And, I promise, whatever happens, we'll get through this."

They sat there, staring into the stars.

Twilight Sparkle awoke to the sound of birds chirping.

In the brief moment between dream and reality, Twilight completely forgot about the apocalypse. The warm forest air smelled of pine needles, and the log she had slept on was coated in a shine of dew. Squirrels ran around, and it felt like bliss. But as this wonderful scene unfolded, everything came crashing down with memory.

Twilight got up, putting a hoof to her forehead as she felt an intense headache. But as she stood up, the unicorn also heard something. It was the sound of many soft whispers, carried by the ever so light wind. Following this sound, Twilight took multiple steps into the grass. She suddenly found it strange that although Ponyville was in complete chaos, nature was practically unscathed. In fact, if she didn't know any better, she would have thought plant and animal life was flourishing!

"Oh, there you are!"

Twilight looked away from the vegetation that painted her vision hues of green, and looked at the red and white pony standing only twenty yards away. It was Roseluck.

Trotting towards Twilight, Roseluck explained further. "Hey, Rainbow Dash is awake now, and we'd all like for you to see."

Twilight Sparkle nodded her head and followed, only a small bit offended that no one woke her up.

"Oh, hey Twilight!" Rainbow exclaimed, her voice even more scratchy then usual.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Besides being knocked in the head and dragged into the Everfree forest by a big cart," Rainbow Dash chuckled and continued, "then yeah, I guess I'm great."

Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah," she said, smiling coyly, "Sorry about that."

Rainbow Dash paused for a moment, before breaking off and changing the subject. "So," she began, "we should probably get going..."

Fluttershy seemed almost scared by this. "Oh, no no no! You have to lie here and rest! You can't go out!"

Rainbow Dash looked the yellow pegasus in the eye. "Alright," she said, shrugging it off, "if you really wanna stay another night in the Everfree Forest, it's your decision."

Twilight Sparkle was amazed at how fast minds can change as the rest of the ponies began to pack.

Twilight liked to walk with Scootaloo.

She hadn't gotten much of a chance before, but now that they were on the road - er, trail - together, she realized how comforting it was. Just looking at the sweet filly's face could take the trouble of the world off of her mind. And there were a lot of troubles in the word.

"Hey, Twilight?"

Twilight looked at her daughter's face once more. "Yeah, Scoots?"

"Where are we going?"

Recounting the maps she had studied under Celestia's watchful eye, Twilight began to paint where they'd be headed. "Y'know that old railway? The one that crosses Ghastly Gorge?"

Scootaloo had a brief moment of confusion, then lit up as a wide grin sprouted across the plane of her face. "You mean the one that goes from Ponyville to Appaloosa?"

"That's the one. Anyway, when we exit this forest, we'll be right on it. Then we'll follow that up north, and then...

"...And then?"

Twilight was lost on this one. "I don't know, you got any ideas?"

Scootaloo stared off into the distance as they walked with their friends. After a long moment of thought, she finally said, "Manehatten."

Twilight was confused. She thought the filly would have surely picked Cloudsdale, as that was where her idol, Rainbow Dash, was born. "Why Manehatten?" Twilight prodded.

Scootaloo answered Twilight's question in one short word. "Babs."

"It's the EXIT!"

Twilight was exhausted. "Pinkie," she scolded, "for the last time, it is not the..." Twilight froze mid-sentence to see a small light towards the end of the trail they were currently headed down. Pinkie might actually be right this time! she thought excitedly as she started to rush down the dirt path. She wasn't even paying attention to what she was doing; her feet were acting on their own. Down the trail they went, sending dirt and pebbles flying up in a cloud of dust. Her friends soon followed, but given Twilight's massive head-start, the princess's student was the first to arrive.

"Yes!" she shouted as she flew out of the sprawling forest. She could see the railroad in front of her, and after she and her friends had been trotting for what felt like ages, it was a great achievement to have escaped the Everfree Forest. They all (especially Fluttershy) breathed a sigh of relief upon exiting the huge woodland. It seemed unanimous as to what they do as all the ponies lay down in the grassland, resting.

"Hey, Twilight?"

Twilight opened her eyes to the familiar voice of Scootaloo. "Yes, Scootaloo?" she responded.

"I know I've already asked this, but where are we going?"

Twilight sat up and looked at the flightless filly. Like her, Scootaloo was upright as well, staring off into the distance. This time, Twilight decided to be honest as to what destination she was leaning towards. "Maybe Canterlot?"

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to the conversation between the two ponies. "Why Canterlot?" she inquired.

Twilight looked at the now awake pegasus and thought about her question. She knew from common sense that the princesses had to be alive, otherwise the sun would not have risen that morning, so why was she so anxious to get there? To catch up with old friends? she wondered briefly, before realizing that the thought was foolish; she didn't have any friends in Canterlot. Suddenly, Twilight thought about Spike.

Twilight Sparkle knew that Spike could deliver letters to Princess Celestia by setting fire to them, but would the same tactic work on himself? She knew it was unlikely, but she had to know. Twilight knew that if she didn't, she'd never forgive herself.

Twilight was about to tell Rainbow Dash why she had planned to go to the great city when she realized that that would seem foolish, even selfish. Rainbow Dash may have been the element of loyalty, but even Twilight wondered how far that could be pushed. Would Dash really would go after a dragon already deemed dead just because of the Twilight's crazy hope? The magical unicorn had to think of an excuse, and fast; Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly the most patient one of her friends. She racked her brain, trying to come up with something, Come on, Twilight, think!

Finally, she had it. Her speech was slow, careful, as if she was afraid her real reason would suddenly slip out at any given moment. She spoke, "If any city is safe, it would be Canterlot. They have guards everywhere, and I'm sure the castle of the princesses themselves wouldn't be overrun!"

Rainbow Dash seemed satisfied with this answer. After a bit of thinking, she said, "Canterlot it is, then. There's only one problem."

Twilight was confused. "And what is that?" she asked.

"We'd have to go through Ponyville."

CH. 8: Zecora's Hut

It was only moments after Applejack and Zecora met when the orange mare passed out.

When Applejack came to, she was lying on a raised wooden table. After opening her eyes, the earth pony noticed Zecora next to her, with the her neck craned over the rest of her body.

"Applejack, you have suffered much, but I'm afraid you may have to use a crutch," rhymed Zecora as she brought a makeshift wooden crutch into view.

At first, Applejack was confused, but as her eyes darted to the rest of her body, she noticed there was a gaping hole in one of her hind legs. Surprisingly, it did not hurt.

Zecora noticed the mare's shock and explained, "While you were out, you know, I set your bone and made it so. Then I took this special brew," she briefly paused and displayed a half-empty bottle, then continued, "and poured it on, just for you."

Applejack tried to sit up, but her leg's pain flared up. With a strained face, she collapsed back on to the table. Zecora put a hoof to the orange-coated pony and said, "For it to be painless, you cannot move; I poured a potion that's job is to soothe."

Applejack looked at the striped zebra with weary eyes as Zecora pulled out a needle and thread. Zecora then removed a candle, some rubbing alcohol, and a cotton ball from her many drawers.

Taking a look at Applejack's deep cut, Zecora started to dab it with an alcohol-covered cotton ball. Applejack clenched her teeth, bracing herself for pain, but then remembered that Zecora had numbed her leg. The earth pony sat up to look at the medical operation, but felt her leg sting intensely as she did. Applejack flopped down onto her bed in defeat; the pain was unbearable.

Zecora quickly noticed Applejack's apparent agony and put a hoof to her head, saying, "Now be still, my pony friend; otherwise the suffering will not end."

AJ suddenly understood the meaning of the wise zebra's words; If she remained entirely still, her leg would continue to be numb. If not, she would experience the torture of being conscious during the operation.

After the cut had been sterillized, Zecora got to work sewing up the rather large wound. After soaking the thread in the alcohol and heating the needle in the candle to disinfect it, she tied the string in the eye of the needle. Putting the now-ready stitching needle in her mouth, the zebra bent over Applejack.

Applejack closed her eyes as Zecora slowly threaded the needle from one side of her wound to the other. She started around three millimeters outside the blood-coated area, then went to the other side, dragging the thread along with her. She was around halfway done when Applejack started to be able to feel the needle poking into her skin.

"Hey, Zecora?"

Zecora looked at Applejack, who was staring up at the ceiling in worry.

"I think Ah can start to feel the needle."

The stripe-maned zebra look down at her work, then back at Applejack. She explained, "The numbing, yes, it will wear off. But I know from experience that you are quite tough."

Applejack payed no heed to the compliment given to her, and instead said worriedly, "Ya mean this'll wear off before the stitches are done?! Can ya pour s'more on?"

Zecora shook her head and frowned. "The amount I gave you so generously happened to the last dose for you and me."

"Well hurry it up, then!"

Zecora followed Applejack's advice and continued to pull the sewing needle from one side of the wound to the other, albeit faster. Each time the zebra poked the needle into the orange mare's skin and pulled, Applejack could feel the pain more and more intensely. Zecora only had about two stitches to go when Applejack could feel the wave of pain as if there was no numbing whatsoever. The orange mare was clenching her teeth so hard it looked like they would shatter, and the edges of the wooden table appeared to be molded from Applejack grasping them so furiously.

Zecora noticed this and, in an effort to calm down the mare, she said, "Not to fear, Applejack; there's two more stitches that I lack." After hearing no intelligent response (other than a series of pained grunts), Zecora continued her work. Picking the needle back, she threaded it through another area of Applejack's skin. Zecora then pulled the needle out hard, causing the skin to tighten and close.

Applejack screamed in agony.

Zecora hated seeing her friend like this, but the wise horse knew that the operation had to be done. She quickly threaded the needle back through the skin on the other side and pulled tightly.

This time, Applejack was able to hold back from shouting.

Zecora started to tie the end knot with her tongue when Applejack opened her eyes and coyly asked, "Is it... Done?"

After finishing the tie, the zebra responded happily, "Feel free to relax, my friend; for the operation has come to an end."

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief and confessed, "Ah don't think Ah would 'ave been able to bear another stitch."

"Yes, that is probably true, but you are a tough one, aren't you?"

Applejack sat up. "Yeah, Ah guess Ah am."

Zecora could tell the pony had something on her mind. "What is it, my dearest Applejack? Ask me whatever; I won't attack."

Applejack looked up at the zebra and confessed, "I was wondering... Why do you rhyme?"

The yellow-maned mare could tell she that the question she had asked was too probing when Zecora looked at the ground with tears in her eyes. She was about to take it back, to apologize, when Zecora responded, "It's to personal, the way I rhyme. Let's not talk about this any other time."

Applejack nodded her head in agreement.

Zecora sighed, then looked over to the country pony and told her, "I'd rest easy if I were you, for there's something big tomorrow that we will do."

Applejack looked at Zecora, confused, and asked, "What's that?"

"Tomorrow will be a big day, that is for surest. Tomorrow we will be moving out of the forest."

CH. 9: Shade

One step. Another.

Twilight and her friends had been on the road for what seemed like ages, and had long since run out of food. Everyone was exhausted, even the hyper Pinkie Pie, who was trotting along slowly. She hadn't spoken for days.

"Hey Twilight, are you absolutely sure this is the way?"

Twilight looked back to see Rarity trotting along behind her, sweating. The first time the white mare had begun to perspire, she, like any other time, began to mildly panic. She yelled to her friends to stop, only to have them laugh at her after she told them her reason. Apparently Rarity did not find it funny, and at one point her friends had to stop and walk several miles back because they had kept walking when Rarity insisted that she would not walk a single step until she was "properly cooled."

Eventually, her friends found her, still routed to the same spot that she had refused to move from. They tried to reason with her, even tried to use force (Rainbow Dash can be quite aggressive), but the unicorn refused to budge. Her friends were almost ready to give up when a small pack of Trotters emerged from the woods. Instead of killing the few monsters, which would have been easy, Twilight ordered that no one shoot. The Trotters crept closer and closer to Rarity until she finally sped off in fear, screaming as she went. After the fashion expert's fearful incident, Twilight and the gang shot the remaining Trotters, and Rarity hadn't complained since. However, she had been questioning Twilight's sense of direction a bit too excessively.

"Yes, for the hundredth time, Rarity, I know this passage. We take these train tracks up to Ponyville, and then we keep going to Canterlot."*

Although Twilight's confidence in the truth of what she said was displayed all over her face, Rarity was still unsure. She was about ask another question nervously when Pinkie Pie spoke for the first time in days.

"Look over there! It's a house!"

All the mares (except for Lyra, who remained perfectly unphased) gasped, some at the fact that there might be some other pony nearby, some at the fact that there might be supplies in said house, but most simply because Pinkie had said something. After looking at a very excited-looking Pinkie for some time, those same mares followed the pink mare's gaze. Sure enough, there was a gray, worn-out, two story house. Twilight stopped for a moment, then decided to go pay a visit to it with her friends. Twilight changed the party's course, then hid her weapon and ordered the other armed ponies to so as well. Most obeyed without question, but, like most times, Rainbow was an exception.

"Why should I?"

Twilight pointed a hoof in the direction the rest of her friends were going and said, "If - not saying there is, but if - there is a mare or colt staying in there, I don't want us to come off as hostile. We're out to make peace, not start a war."

Rainbow Dash scrunched up her face in confusion and asked, "A war?"

Twilight sighed. "You know what I mean. We don't know how many ponies could be in there, and I don't even want to think about how heavily they're armed. If Applejack-" Twilight shuddered a little as she briefly remembered the orange mare and the guilt accompanied by it, "If Applejack could get hold of guns, you never know who might also have them."

After a bit of consideration, Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement. The two mares ceased conversing and caught up to the rest of the gang, who were quickly approaching the lone home. They were almost to the small porch in front of the house's front door when its top story windows were lifted. The collection of mares curiously stopped their advance as a loud, booming voice was broadcasted across the vast plain they occupied.

"STOP, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"

The ponies on the ground looked up to the second floor in confusion as long barrels of guns soon took the place of the emptiness that had occupied the windows' frames moments before.

Although most of the ponies stopped in tracks out of fear, one continued to move. Twilight quickly maneuvered herself directly in front of Scootaloo to protect her.

After a tension-filled minute, the voice emanating from the house demanded for them to state their business. Rainbow Dash was the first to respond.

"What's it to you?!"

The menacing barrels took aim at the mare.

Twilight glared at the cyan pegasus. After the brief moment, she turned to the house "We are wondering we could come in and talk."

The voice paused for a moment, as if considering something, and then one of barrels in the windows disappeared. In its place poked out a small gray head with glasses. Although she could not get good look at the pony, Twilight could see that he was an earthpony, a male, and young. Not too young, but maybe in his early twenties.

While Twilight was examining him, the stallion yelled out to the group. "Lay down your bags!"

After a brief confused moment, Twilight Sparkle realized that he didn't trust them. She supposed that she wouldn't trust herself either if she was in his position, and silently obeyed. The rest of the pack soon followed.

The head in the window examined them carefully to make sure they had listened, then nodded his head and said, "Alright, you can come in."

As Twilight and her friends all sat down on the red couch in their host's living room, the purple mare caught a good look at him. From his white mane and tail to his gray body, from his black glasses to his bleached watch, Twilight saw that the stallion was completely devoid of color. Even his tool vest was totally grayscale. The only thing that had any color were the tools he was carrying in his vest, the wall behind him, and the sniper rifle slung across his back.

Twilight then realized that he must have trusted them somewhat, otherwise the weapon he had holstered would not have been something so inappropriate for the current situation; snipers weren't exactly best at close range.

"Why are you here?"

Twilight snapped back from her analyzing of the gray colt to cold reality, where she thought about his question. She knew why she had led her friends into this building, to get supplies, but she couldn't flat out say that; she didn't think the colt in front of her would take to kindly to raiders, no matter how polite they were. Instead, she attempted to buy time.

"What's your name?"

"Shade. Now answer."

Twilight looked for something else to distract him with as she tried to think of another reason. Finally, she settled on his cutie mark; it was a silver gear, with the spokes arranged in a strange pattern.

"What about your cutie mark?"

Shade paused briefly to examine it himself, then shook his head and faced Twilight. "Tell me why your here."

Twilight realized she had no choice but to answer; the host was not letting up. With a sigh, Twilight pointed a hoof at her friends and admitted, "We've been out on these plains for around a week, and we've completely run out of, well, everything. We were wondering... If you would..."

"Give you some supplies?"

Twilight nodded her head, and Shade put a hoof to his head in thought. "Maybe," he said after a moment, then added, "I'll have to go check the storage. Don't move."

As he stepped down into his basement, the mares started to chat.

"You think he's gonna give us anything?"

"Of course, darling."

"I don't know... He said maybe..."

"That probably means he will."

Twilight interrupted to constant chatter to speak. "It doesn't matter, girls." All of the mares turned to face Twilight, who filled the air with her voice. "If he doesn't have any supplies - or can't give any - I want us all to leave. Harassing him isn't going to help, and don't forget we're not armed. Should he decide we're too much of a pain in the flank, we're all defenseless."

"I'm not!"

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, who was throwing a combination of punches into an invisible target. "Shut up, Dash."

When Shade returned from the storage, the eight ponies that were occupying his house were found scattered the living room. After entering the room and ushering them back to the red couch, he exhaled deeply and reported, "I'm sorry, but we can't spare anything."

Despite Twilight's warning, many of the mares were about to object. Twilight saw this, and quickly got up.

"Thanks anyway." she spoke, shaking hooves with him in the process. Shade nodded his head, and the princess's scholar turned to leave.

"But, mom!"

Twilight looked over to the lone objecting voice, and noticed Scootaloo. Although Twilight knew Scootaloo needed food badly, there was no choice but to leave; she didn't want to push her luck, and she didn't trust the gray stallion any more than he trusted them.

"Come on, Scoots."

"But-"

"Now."

Scootaloo looked down at the ground, silent. The orange filly was very hungry, and felt that the situation they were currently in was unfair. However, she knew she couldn't disobey Twilight, so she eventually trudged over to join her. The other mares soon followed, each remembering and understanding what Twilight had said before Shade gave them the bad news. Without any form of goodbye from the host, the group gathered on the porch, looking out to the vastness of the empty plains.

That's when they saw the huge horde before them.

That's when the huge horde saw them.

That's when they heard the door click behind them, locked.

Ch. 10: Escape

Panic.

Some say it doesn't help.

That it's just an obstacle.

But they've never been in a situation like this.

"Twilight, he's not answering!"

"Just, just try again, Scootaloo!" Twilight shouted, still focused on one of the Trotters in front of her. Twilight tried to ignore the fact that it had a camera hanging from its neck, and instead focused her horn on snapping its head in two.

"Twilight, there's no way—"

"Just keep trying, Scoots! Don't look back, we'll all be okay!"

Despite Twilight's warning, Scootaloo turned away from the door and looked out onto the porch.

The survivors, the mares, Scootaloo's friends were scattered, each trying to make their way. Rainbow Dash was above the field of dead ponies, making swoops for the bag they had left, Twilight was directly in front of her, trying her hardest to keep the Trotters away from everypony, and Fluttershy was slowly backing away from a large gang of rotting earth ponies. No one will get hurt, Scootaloo thought to herself. Shade will open this door soon enough, and we'll all be okay.

Sure enough, as Scootaloo scanned the crowd again, it seemed as though it was impossible for anypony to die. Maybe—

Fluttershy screamed as she tripped over a rake.

"Fluttershy!" Scootaloo screamed as she began running towards the yellow mare.

"NO, SCOOTS!"

Scootaloo suddenly felt her lungs being squeezed as all of the air left her, and she was slammed on the ground.

"Stay here!" yelled Twilight at the orange pony as she got off her, running towards Fluttershy.

Scootaloo sat up, trying to force air back into her lungs. That hit had been hard. When she finally was able to see colors other than black, Scootaloo saw Twilight running as hard as ever. Only she wasn't the first one to get there.

Laying between Fluttershy and her pursuers was one, red-maned mare.

Roseluck.

Fluttershy screamed as soon as she saw the redness trickling down onto her coat. Resisting the urge to puke, the pegasus was attempting to push the bleeding mare off of herself when Twilight arrived.

"What happened?" Twilight frantically asked as she joined in the pull to get Roseluck's limp body off of Fluttershy.

"Roseluck was... She was..."

Fluttershy was on the brink of tears.

"Alright, nevermind, just..." There was a burst of magical aura, and Roseluck's body was soon floating alongside Twilight as she ran back to the front porch. Fluttershy followed, crying.

When Twilight reached the front door once again, she set down Roseluck and hit the door with her might, feeling its wood crack under her hoof. It didn't matter what happened now, now that one of her party's members—no, one of her friends had been injured. All that mattered was that this door—as well as the pony inside of it—were keeping her, her friends, and her daughter from salvation.

With a magical burst, as well as a scream of rage, Twilight teleported inside.

"Alright, girls, Twilight's in! Everypony but Fluttershy and Scootaloo get back out, make sure—"

"What happened, Rainbow? I heard Roseluck scream, but then—" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Celestia, we don't have time for this!"

"I hope she's not hurt, that'd be—"

"Fine! Bucking fine!" screamed Rainbow Dash as she pushed her through her friends. "You idiots wanna see her? There she is! Right...Bucking...THERE!"

Rainbow Dash pointed towards Roseluck's limp body.

"Oh my Celestia," said Rarity through her hoof as she looked down upon the gruesome sight that was Roseluck. Blood was streaming down from her leg in rivers, and Roseluck's light-yellow mane was becoming even more bleached.

"What... What happened?" asked a small voice, pushing through the crowd.

"Scootaloo!" said Rarity, who was blocking the filly's sight. You really shouldn't be seeing—"

"I wanna see her."

"Well, honestly, that's—"

"No, get out of my way."

Rarity shifted her weight from one side to another nervously. "It's not really my call..." she said, looking at the door, almost in anticipation.

"I need to—"

"I don't know if you guys noticed, but there are literally thousands of Trotters, and you're about to become their food!"

All eyes turned to Rainbow Dash, who was hovering above a slowly-approaching horde of Trotters.

The first thing Twilight saw when she teleported in was the barrel of a gun.

"Alright, back up. I see one light from that horn of yours and you're getting it."

Twilight didn't move.

"I said, back UP!" shouted Shade, kicking Twilight with his hoof that wasn't on the trigger—he was wearing a contraption on his hoof that allowed him to not hold it with his mouth.

Twilight flew backwards into the wall, her ribs aching from the blunt force of Shade's leg. As the gray pony advanced on her once again, Twilight sprung up to meet him, knocking his gun—as well as his mechanism to pull the trigger—out of his hoof. She then stood up on her two back legs, using one of them to kick Shade as he had kicked her, but a bit harder. He fell against the floor, and Twilight took the opportunity to hit him in the head. It worked the first time, with her hoof making a clunk noise against his forehead. However, Shade anticipated the next time, rolling out of the way and pulling Twilight's arm so that she lay next to him.

Shade got up and dived on top of the purple unicorn, beginning to choke her.

Shade was taken back when Twilight's horn glowed purple, and almost let go of her soft trachea when she teleported the two of them yards away. However, he held on, and Twilight's face began to turn an even deeper shade of purple. Her horn began to glow again, but this time she didn't teleport. Instead, there was a click of the door unlocking.

"Ha," Shade laughed after seeing this. "That all ya got?"

Twilight shook her bruised neck as there was another click, this time behind Shade's head.

"Did you hear that?!" asked Pinkie Pie as she eyed the front door.

"What?" asked Rarity, distracting herself from Scootaloo.

"The door, it's unlocked!"

"You sure? I didn't hear—"

"Yeah, yeah, just look!"

"Alright!" said Scootaloo, finally pushing herself past Rarity to open the door. She reached it, used her mouth to turn the knob, and opened it.

Twilight was laying on the floor, a massive amount blood on her face.

Shade was limp on top her her, lying without a face.

...Or a head.

Scootaloo threw up on the floor as Rarity fainted.

Ch. 11: The Walk of Pain

"Applejack! Applejack! Wake up! Please, sis', I need you!"

Applejack opened her eyes to see the warm colors and comfy feel of her room. It looked as homey as ever, but was suddenly contrasted by her crying sister, who seemed like she could've been miles from home.

"What is it, Applebloom?" Applejack asked in an affectionately curious tone, slowly working her still-warm hoof out of the covers and down to pat her frantic sister's messy red mane.

"It's other ponies, Applejack..." she said, almost hysterically, "They're in our house-"

"Robbers?" Applejack asked, sitting up in a sudden action.

Applebloom shook her head, and with a great sob, she said, "No, th-th-they've already killed..."

But she stopped there. The filly couldn't bring herself go on.

Applejack was shocked, a million sudden thoughts rushing through her skull, each one worst than the last.

Was it her brother?

Was it Granny Smith?

Was it one of her friends?

Was it—

Bang!

Applejack suddenly stood still with her sister in a very different kind of shock. She wanted to run, to take her Applebloom with her. She wanted to get out of her home, to take Applebloom to somewhere where she'd never know what was behind that door. But somehow, she could not move.

Bang!

The next slam against the wooden door, which was now shaking, catapulted Applejack's shock into action, and Applejack suddenly became very aware of the fact that there was an gun—illegal as it was—under her bed. But that wasn't important. Because right then, she needed to get her sister to safety. And she knew that wouldn't be an option if she gave that old door ten more seconds.

She sprinted towards the window, letting it explode under the impact of her front hoof.

"Applejack—" her sister yelled.

"Get in!" said the orange mare firmly, ignoring her sister.

"But—"

"I said get in!"

"What about—"

Applejack sighed loudly, realizing the forceful approach wasn't working.

"Look, Applebloom, I'll be fine, okay? Just get out of here, run as fast as you can to—"

Applejack was never able to tell her where to go, because at that very moment, the door shattered.

"Wha... Where am I?" Applejack stammering, asking no one in particular. Feeling the harshness of wood against her back, she realized that she wasn't in an ordinary bed—if she even was in a bed. Her front leg hurt a bit, but she couldn't tell anything past that. Curious, she slowly sat up, feeling her mind ache in protest, and lazily glanced over to her right. Something black and white was curled up in the corner, moving slightly. Blinking her eyes to focus them once again, she realized it was Zecora.

Memory shot at her like a tidal wave of emotions, reminding her of the dream she had just had. It was a nightmare, and the sudden dampness of her worn sheets proved that fact. But it had felt strangely real. Not lucid, Applejack had never had a lucid dream, but just startlingly realistic, whatever it had been. She shrugged it off, and pulled herself out of her bed.

Applejack's hooves had just hit the ground when she heard Zecora stir.

"Applejack, I have gotten all packed, just give me a second to get out of this shack," Zecora promptly stated as she got up, moving over to the kitchen.

Applejack walked over to where Zecora had just lay and casually inspected her temporarily abandoned things. There was a machete, some medical supplies, canned goods, and another, more padded bag. Applejack was just about to pick this up and inspect it as well when Zecora stepped in, swooping close to pick up the leather bag.

"Come here," she rhymed, headed towards the front door, "we must leave. We do not want those things to lay siege."

Applejack, who was still slowly getting over her curiosity towards the padded bag, silently obeyed, limping over to the front door.

When the two ponies reached the outside air, Applejack widened her eyes in surprise: The wind against her shallow fur was actually giving her the shivers! Zecora, noticing this reaction, gave a friendly laugh.

"Oh, no, my friend, it is this Everfree Forest. It gets cold near the fall, after when it is the darkest."

"Darkest?"

Zecora nodded absentmindedly, saying, "Why yes, the darkest, which is the night. But it will only get warmer now that it is light."

Applejack made grunting noise, halfway between interest and understanding, and without a single glance back, they were off.

"So where we goin'?" Applejack asked after only a few minutes.

Zecora smiled and pointed ahead.

"Nah, I meant... I mean, where does that"—she bobbed her head in the direction Zecora had pointed to—"lead?"

"To the Bogg, simple as it seems. But the ruins are there, so it could fulfill our dreams."

"Fulfill our dreams?"

Zecora nodded.

"What's that s'pposed to mean?"

Zecora chuckled, replying, "What would you want most this hour? Shelter, food, water... A shower?"

Applejack ignored her family desires and instead knitted her eyebrows together, thinking. " You tellin' me that... That this place, these ruins, have all that?"

Zecora shrugged, saying, "Maybe, I don't know. It's just what a heard. But I may be too hopeful, like I have not learned." She sighed at this.

"Well... Why not?"

"'Hm?"

"Well, my thinkin' is... Well, e'rything goin' to shit, right? See, you didn't even flinch at that language!"

Zecora laughed.

"But anyway, like I was sayin'... Ponies are dyin' left and right, bein' turned into those... things, and we got nothin' real to hold on to 'cept for this! So why not?!"

Zecora shushed her as her words began to echo off the trees, amplifying with each syllable.

"Oh, sorry," said a now-much quieter Applejack. Then she continued, "Well, why not be hopeful? We got nothin' more to be hopeful 'bout."

Zecora sighed. "Yeah, I guess that's true. I just don't want to disappoint me or you."

"You thinkin' any other city's gone down like Ponyville?"

"Hm?" Zecora asked.

"Well, y'know, maybe 'nother place ain't got it like we have."

"The ruins might not, but that's a long shot."

"Yeah, maybe. It's just that—"

Zecora suddenly turned towards Applejack, using the joint of her foreleg to knock Applejack down. The country mare's old brown hat flew off as she tumbled down the hill, Zecora rolling down with her. It seemed like forever until Applejack hit a tree, where she hit her injured leg.

"Celesti—"

Zecora stuffed a hoof in her mouth, but it was too late.

"What was that?" said a voice off the path, not too far from where they had been.

"I don't know," said a second voice, obviously foreign. "We could..."

Applejack strained to hear as the mysterious voice faded, but Zecora was on the scene before she could grasp his words.

"C'mon, we have to stay alive. If they catch us, we might not survive," she said in a low whisper.

"My— my leg..."

"You're going to have to work through it, otherwise you won't have legs to deal with," Zecora impatiently said, drawing Applejack's body up. Looking down at her leg, Applejack saw that her stitches had broken.

"Zecora... The..."

Zecora wasn't listening. Instead, the zebra was forcing Applejack back on to her legs, however painful that may be.

"C'mon, Russ, we gotta get there before it leaves," said the voice.

Zecora began walking, Applejack slung over her like a sloppily-placed backpack.

"Nah, dude, when have we ever lost property?"

Applejack's leg was still hurting, and she noticed that the world was suddenly becoming much less bright outside.

"I don't know, there was that one time..."

Applejack felt like her leg was becoming much less painful, like her entire body could just float, if only Zecora wasn't holding on to her.

"Who gives a buck about that one time? You buckin' screwed it up for me, alright?! We already buckin' established that!"

Applejack felt an urge to scold them. Why would anypony use language like that? It was rude. And why was Zecora's coat colored like a raspberry?

"Well—Wait, there they are!"

Applejack fell to the ground as she heard a metallic sound, and all she could smell was grass.

But man, was she tired.

All she could think about was sleep.

So she pretended that the grass, the dirt, the birds, were her home. And this place, right now, was her bed.

She fell into slumber just as she heard thump next to her.

Ch. 12: Contradiction

Applejack awoke with a taste of blood in her mouth.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she noticed she was in a room without windows. Like that was the most important thing. Maybe it was. She couldn't quite remember. All she knew was that her room had lots of scratches, with its walls, ceiling, and floor all deteriorating, and that she had an enormous headache. She reached up to try and soothe it, but when she brought her hand back down, there was blood on it.

"Sorry 'bout that, sweetheart."

Applejack looked up towards the stallion that was now leaning against the doorway. He looked around her age, with a messy mane, sunken in eyes, and a body that reckoned he hadn't been eating for months. Every hair on his coat and mane were a shades of brown, and even his irises refracted sepia. He opened his mouth to speak once again, and what came out was raspy and crude.

"What's your name, pretty?"

"It's Applejack," Applejack said, her eyes narrowing and her mouth forming what was almost a scowl.

"Oh," said the brown stallion, slowly walking towards her, "looks like we got an Apple, huh? One of the last remaining... Shame."

Applejack felt like she could only see the color of her cutie mark, but she resisted the urge to hurt this new pony.

"Heh," laughed the stallion, smiling coldly.

"What?" asked Applejack through her teeth.

"Just... It's just that you're smarter than I thought you'd be. I mean, the last Apple in here tried to—"

"You stay away from my family!" Applejack shouted, her rage finally breaking through. She made a grab for the stallion, but was quickly stopped by the bluntness of cold steel, as well as her own bones creaking. She had been chained to the wall.

The stallion's eyes widened for a split second as he stepped back, but he quickly smiled cruelly, administering a deep, taunting laugh.

"Nevermind, nevermind," he said, his laughter dying off.

"Who... who are you?" Applejack asked, panting from her now-sore arms—she had yanked them hard.

"Really, going on to names so fast, huh?" the stallion asked, starting his laughing back up again. When his enjoyment didn't seem to spread on to Applejack, he stopped, seeming to hesitate. He broke eye contact before saying, "It's Robin Fire, if you have to know."

"Well... Robin, it's nice to meet you," Applejack said, ignoring her instincts to hurt him.

"Oh, don't flatter me," he said in disgust as he spat on a part of the floor dangerously close to Applejack, "we all know you don't like me. But..." he took a pause, glancing at the door, which was closed, "but maybe you'll like my brother... He was always a sweet talker, that one. Here, I'll call 'em in." Robin turned around, took a deep breath, and shouted, "Trash! Next visitor!"

There was silence, but it slowly faded away to the faint pitter-patter of hoofsteps. They were getting louder and louder until—

"Fire, I told'ya not to call me that!"

"Oh, shut up, Trad," Robin said, backing out of the room as he did so.

"What if I called you... Y'know what, nevermind."

Applejack studied the new character who had entered her room. He looked similiar to his older brother, but his mane was pitch black and his eyes were deep red. He looked more like a friendly bartender than whatever his brother was trying to be.

"Well, looks like we got a pretty one, don't we?" he said to Applejack, his voice much smoother and less harsh than his brother's.

Applejack scoffed.

"Hm, got an attitude too..."

Applejack rolled her eyes.

"Fire says we're gonna have to roll that attitude outta you, but your friend's is a lot worse."

"You mean Zecora?" asked Applejack, suddenly sitting straight.

Trad was taken aback by AJ's sudden movement, but answered anyway, "Yeah, the zebra. She almost gave us a real fight, too, but Fire's got a real mean right hook. And a left one... Hay, I bet his whole body's just one big muscle. Not much room for a brain then, huh?"

Trad laughed at his own joke, but died down once he realized Applejack wasn't doing the same.

"So... Heard you're from the Apple family..." Trad commented awkwardly.

Applejack slowly nodded her head, not making eye contact.

"Yeah, I used to know an Apple. He lived in some western town, y'know, like Dodge City, or The San Palomino... Well he came up to me one day, said he needed some work. Wanted to move up north for a change. So I hired him for a month, gave him some bits, never seen him since."

Applejack was only vaguely interested as she asked, "You know his name?"

"Well, it was the name of an apple, that's how I knew he was part of your family, but other than that..."

Applejack decided not to start listing off names of her relatives. Probably all dead anyway, she thought bitterly.

"Well, you don't talk much, huh?"

No reply fell from Applejack's mouth.

"Well, I gotta go discuss what my brother and I are gonna do with you and the zebra, so don't try anything. Or I may finally give in to his decision to keep you two as slaves."

Applejack could here loud arguing for the next hour as she sat in the cell, wondering what her life would be like under the rule of these two stallions.

The door slammed open as Robin Fire stormed in.

"That's it, bitch," he said, looking ready to kill, "we're keeping you as our slave."

"Fire, no!" said Trad, who was squeezing in the doorway after him, "We haven't even discussed it!"

"We discussed enough, Trash, and you didn't give me any good reason not to, other than the fact that you're a bucking pussy!"

"Just 'cause I have a conscience doesn't mean I'm a wimp!"

"Oh, and where's that gonna get you in this world?"

"It's... Celestia Damnit, Robin! We're not bucking slavers!"

"And why the buck not?!"

"Because we're better than that!"

"Well—"

"Wait, wait," Trad interrupted, looking out of the window as his face went paper-white.

"What?!"

"I think we've attracted some of them."

"The biters?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, shit. Trad, get your bow. I'll go get my ri—"

There was a loud bang, and all fell silent.

"Alright, we can still do this," said a much-quieter Robin.

"You sure, brother? My rifle's all the way—"

"Yeah, I'm cool. Just that we gotta be extra careful, 'kay?"

"Right."

With that, the two brothers sneaked out of the room, leaving Applejack's door wide open.

Applejack inspected her cuffs that were binding her to the wall. They were shiny, and probably made out of iron. Maybe if she could find something sharp to cut through it. If one of the brothers had left just a knife, she might be able to—

Suddenly, Applejack sat up, her heart beating wildly.

There was a series of thumps outside her door, and they were growing louder.

Suddenly, that open door was a lot less appetizing than what it seemed.

Especially as a rotting orange pegasus limped through it.

Ch. 13: A Study of Accidental Incident Awareness

Twilight awoke in complete darkness.

She got up, then collapsed, gripping her side. It was hurt—badly. She looked down towards it, before being crudely reminded that she was blind.

Again, she attempted to get up, this time bracing herself for the pain. What had happened to her?

After groping around for what seemed to be an eternity, she found a lightswitch, proceeding to try to turn it on. To her dismay, it was already in its "up" position.

The power was dead. Where was she?

Twilight cursed her luck, then continued groping until she finally tripped over some boxes, bringing them crashing down as the mare yelled profanities.

Before she could painfully get back up, she heard hoofsteps.

"What's going on?" Twilight heard a voice say as a light blinded her. When her eyes adjusted, she saw her friend, Rarity.

"Ra..." Twilight started, trailing off.

Rarity glanced from her towards the floorboards, then mumbled something unintelligible. Before Twilight could ask her to clarify, however, she left.

The door shut behind her, and Twilight heard the mechanical clicks of a locking system.

"She awake?"

"...Yes."

There was a pause, one only interrupted by Rainbow Dash sighing.

"Well... I guess we better let her out."

Rarity looked at her incredulously. "L-let her out?! Surely—"

"Look!" Rainbow shouted, breaking Rarity's thought. "We got a bucking army of Trotters out there, Roseluck's been bucking bitten, and Shade..."

It was deathly silent.

"Look... I know Twilight—I was hoping you did too. She wouldn't freak out like that over anything but mortal danger, or a deadline. And how things were out there, she had a pretty bucking serious deadline."

The air never seemed to lack an abundance of silence. Even Pinkie—who was standing on the top of the stairs to the basement, listening in—looked somber.

"What d'you suggest we do?" asked Rarity.

"Let her free—she's the closest damn thing to a leader we ever had."

"Scootaloo? Scootaloo?"

"Y-Yes..?" Scootaloo's eyes revealed darkness.

"Oh... Good. You're awake. I was starting to—"

The orange filly recognized the voice; it was Fluttershy's.

"Just a second."

A minute later, Scootaloo heard Fluttershy's voice whispering to another, higher-pitched voice that she instantly knew to be Pinkie Pie's. She strained her ears to hear at first, but gave up when she realized it was fruitless; the two mares wanted to make sure their conversation fell on deaf ears, and they were all too good at it.

Scootaloo sat up in her bed and inspected her surroundings. Her bed was surprisingly comfortable—an actual mattress. She couldn't recall how long it had been since she had lay upon a mattress, but it was much more comfortable than a tent floor. Scootaloo put her head back down and enjoyed this luxury. Then, a light was cast over her as Fluttershy returned, this time with a flashlight.

Scootaloo squinted her eyes until they adjusted, and even then she could barely see.

"Oh," Fluttershy said as she redirected her flashlight upwards, "sorry."

"It's fine."

Scootaloo, now having more sufficient light, glanced around the room. She was sitting on a bed—that much was already certain. The bed was then surrounded by curtains, reminding her of a school nurse's cot. There didn't seem to be much else in the room, or at least what she could see on her side of Fluttershy's flashlight.

Without anything else to inspect, she laid her head down with a soft thump.

...And then she saw it.

Up, on the ceiling, a little ways from where the flashlight's projection hit, was a large, red-covered splotch.

"Fluttershy?"

"Yes?"

Scootaloo pointed up towards the stain.

"What's that?"

There was a pause, the only sound being Fluttershy moving her flashlight.

After a sharp intake of breath, the light disappeared with a clunk.

Knock, knock.

"Twilight? You in there?"

Knock, knock.

"Twilight?"

Twilight got up. She walked to the door, pausing before it in a moment of hesitation.

Knock, kn—

Twilight swung the door open mid-knock, surprising Rarity.

"Oh!"

Rarity paused, obviously not sure of what to say. Twilight couldn't say she felt any different. Before anything happened—or didn't, for that matter—Rainbow Dash butted in.

"Twilight, we... Look, it didn't matter what you, uh..."

There was utter silence.

"It just... You need to tell us what happened. We... We don't think..."

"I killed him."

Rainbow Dash was taken aback by the sudden voice of Twilight, as though it had changed drastically from her imprisonment.

"I..."

Twilight sighed, then continued to speak, pausing on every other word as if each one caused pain to say—something that was probably true.

"I...came in, ready to unlock the main doors. I saw Shade. He had a gun, said I shouldn't move. I remember... Some sort of fight. He somehow bruised my ribcage—" she pointed to her discolored chest "—and my neck."

Her neck had traces of green on it, and had swelled to the size of an athletic stallion's neck.

"And then..."

Twilight's breath became faster.

"And then... I..."

Her eyes darted upon her friends' faces, first Rarity, then Rainbow Dash's.

There were footsteps on the stairs.

"Hey, there's still blood coming down from the..."

Fluttershy paused as she saw Twilight, who then burst into tears and collapsed.

"...Incident."

Ch. 14: Survivors, Past Tense

Applejack screamed as she threw her legs against the concrete floor, shoving her backside up against the wall. She didn’t exactly know why—months of living with the trotters had taught her exactly why not to scream. And this certain scenario was no different. If anything, her outburst seemed to spur the trotter on.

It was only a meter or two away when Applejack took the first swing. Although her hoof was stopped midway through by the chains, the thing stumbled a bit. Seeing opportunity, Applejack used the wall as an abuttment to throw her legs onto the chest of the trotter. This time, the trotter fell down. Good.

But not good enough. The trotter simply stood back up, growled, and moved, with startling speed, to Applejack’s head. The mare jumped up on her hind legs, using her forelegs to push against the trotters weight.

Once more, Applejack screamed as she realized that the trotter was breaking her splint, and, in turn, her already broken leg. Her arm went limp, and the other arm flew upwards in reacting terror. It connected with the trotter’s chin with a clank, and then a thud as the trotter’s lower jaw hit the ground He—it watched it fall with an eerie, unnatural curiosity.

It turned back to face Applejack, then flung its body at her. It knocked her down, its legs flying about. Applejack could hear sick cracks and pops as its legs hit the concrete—and sometimes her, but, like her terror, it wasn't enough distract her from something even more disgusting.

The smell.

Oh, Celestia the smell was awful. It filled her nostrils, reminding her of the time when one of her cows had died and she hadn't noticed it until a month later. Except in that case, the cow wasn't centimeters from her face. Applejack didn't dare even breathe through her mouth, in fear that she would taste the rotting meat.

Then, her vision went black.

Had she passed out? No, Applejack could still smell the foul beast, just... Farther away. Then the blackness literally rolled off of her.

Applejack glanced to wear the thing had rolled off of her to see a faint outline of the trotter she was just fighting. It was now fighting something else. Was it... Her? Was this some sort of out-of-body experience? Then, as her vision adjusted, she saw that the "trotter" had a thick, mohawk-like main.

"Zecora?"

She watched Zecora stand up, the trotter beneath her still very much alive.

“This trotter, it will not attack. Have you done something, Applejack?”

“Yeah, I… Disconnected its, uh, lower jaw.”

Zecora furrowed her brow, then looked to the door. “Come, Applejack,” she said,

“we must go. The brothers will be back, this I know.”

Applejack tried to get up before tripping over the chains connecting her to the wall.

“Uh, Zecora?”

Zecora nodded, then trotted out the door, closing it behind her.

Applejack eyed the trotter that was still lying there. What was wrong with it? She almost felt a strange sense of pity, before realizing that it was its disability that had saved her life. That still didn’t stop her curiosity, though. Maybe it was something she did—the malfunction seemed to occur after she removed its jaw, maybe that removed its instincts to attack? She couldn’t know for sure, but even so, she saw herself whacking the jaws off more walkers, saving lives, and, in the peak of her optimistic imagination, removing the plague entirely.

Then reality struck once more as Zecora returned and sawed off the chain with one of the tools from her found bag. Applejack stood up, woozy and pained from the onslaught. Once she regained her balance, she and Zecora walked out the room, glancing left and right of the massive hallway. One side lead to a staircase, the other a lobby. The two tried the lobby first, but stopped dead in their tracks when they realized there was a crowd of trotters towards the end of it. Zecora pulled Applejack back before any of them noticed her, and they both set off in the opposite direction.

Zecora carefully climbed the stairs, then signaled Applejack to follow. There was a similar look to the upstairs, and luckily it was all clear of trotters. When they reached a fork in the halls, they went straight, trying some of the doors and finding that they were all locked. They got to the end of that hallway, then walked back and tried the other hall.

This one was much shorter, and when they got to the end window, Zecora drew a saw out of her bag.

"What are doing?" asked Applejack.

"We must escape," she declared, with no room for negotiation, "through the pool. Better to hurt thyself then die as a fool."

"But..."

Zecora shot her a glance and Applejack dropped it.

Once the locks off of the window were sawed off, Zecora dropped her bag onto the pavement two stories below and backed up.

Applejack flattened against the wall as Zecora thudded down the carpet, out the window, and...

Splash!

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief before Zecora yelled up.

“Applejack, you must come now! I fear I may have been too loud.”

Applejack looked out the window to see Zecora frantically swimming back to the edge of the pool. It didn’t matter how cryptic Zecora’s message was, the scene still instilled fear in her. She drew an intake of breath, backed up, and leapt out of the window frame, hitting the cool water with a sound that was muffled by the water that filled her ears.

When Applejack finally breached the surface, she glanced around for Zecora. Finally finding her, she sunk back into the water as she realized the meaning of Zecora’s words.

Behind the zebra stood a huge mass of trotters, at least five times the crowd they had seen in the lobby. And while they mostly were converging on one point, some seemed to have noticed Applejack’s companion, and were now banging on the glass windows that separated the room from the outside.

Applejack turned around in the water, swimming as quickly as she could in the opposite direction. When she got to the edge, she pulled herself up to the ground and ran towards the woods. Then she stopped, turning around.

Zecora was running after her, signaling to keep going. The glass behind her had already broken, with trotters pouring out by the dozens.

Together, Applejack and Zecora ran towards the woods. Applejack occasionally looked back to see the Trotters getting further and further away, until the trees completely obscured them. But they still pressed on for what felt like three kilometers, until Applejack finally collapsed.

Zecora looked down. “We must keep going, Applejack. They will catch up, and we shall be sacked.”

“I… I can’t run. I just…”

Applejack thumped her head down, and Zecora sighed. “Fine,” she said. “We shall stay.” There was a pause. “But until we escape, we are not safe.”

Applejack made an unintelligible noise in response, and both the pony and zebra sat in silence for fifteen minutes.

“They should have caught up by now,” said Zecora, interrupting the silence. “The trotters no longer in tow.”

Zecora stood up, beckoning Applejack to do the same. She tried, her three good legs struggling to support her weight. Zecora stared at her broken leg and held up a hoof, signaling for Applejack to wait as the zebra dug through her pack. After a few seconds, Zecora retrieved a wooden splint. Taking out her old one, Zecora put Applejack’s new splint in.

“I hope it’s not true what they say about horses’ limbs, or else your future looks very dim.”

Applejack looked down, willing herself not to think about the old mare’s tale. It was just superstition anyway, right?

Zecora and Applejack walked another ways away, until Zecora announced, in her singsong manner, that it was time to pack up. They set up a sleeping bag for each of them, with Zecora taking the first watch.

“What d’you think happened back there?” Applejack asked from her makeshift bed.

There was a silence.

“To those guys I mean. Who were they?”

Another silence, but this time it was broken by a response.

“They were alive. That much can be said. But that was the past, I’m certain they’re dead.”

“Do you think we…”

Applejack trailed off.

“Not directly, but pay it no matter. You did not murder, you shall not get sadder.” She continued, as if she was reading a speech she had prepared beforehand. “You’re a survivor, Applejack, you’ll do what it takes. You’ll save yourself, no matter the stakes. I’m alive as well, that much is true. That’s because, in essence, we’re all just like you.”

Zecora’s cryptic message couldn’t be any more clear to Applejack. Everypony was alive because they were survivors. They were, to some degree, ruthless. And the trotters would just slowly pick off the ones who weren’t strong enough.

Sooner or later, Applejack thought, I'm bound to meet a true survivor. Somepony who does better in this wasteland than they did before it happened. Somepony whose ruthlessness and cunning could not even be envisioned.

She could only hope that this pony wasn’t a reflection.

Prologue

THE TROTTING DEAD

"The government may seem slow, perhaps even obsolete, but take our basic structure away and you'll see what our fellow sisters are capable of."

-Princess Celestia, Reconstitution Speech