The Trotting Dead

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.