The Equestrian Dead

"LET ME OUT!"

Applejack had been crying for what felt like hours. She had pushed herself onto the floor and up against the steel door pounding senselessly on it. Outside she heard no noise. Eventually, she gave up and began to silently weep on the padded floor.

"Was that all....a dream...?" she pondered, "Have ah gone...insane...? Ah must be. I MUST! Twilight told me the definition of insanity. It's doing the SAME FUCKING THING OVER AND OVER EXPECTING A FUCKING DIFFERENT END!" And headbutted the wall non-stop. She stopped when she heard a noise from outside, a sort of gasp. She looked up with desperate eyes and called, "HELLO?! PLEASE! THERE'S BEEN A MISTAKE! AH'M INNOCENT!"

She heard hooves trot down stairs towards her. She sat up, preparing for a guard to come. However, all she got was a bloody hoof slap onto the barred glass and slowly slide down with a groan. Terrified, she tried to stand to look out the glass, but fell due to the straight jacket. Irritated, she hopped to the cot where she pounded the metal locks of the jacket against it. After much tearing, they snapped off. Applejack slid out of the jacket, stood, and fell. She looked at her stump and remembered.

"No...that WAS real...". She stood up and looked outside her room. She saw a guard pony, dead in a pile of blood. "What...?" Applejack said in confusion and looked closer. Then, the guard stood up and snarled through the glass, screeching.

A Deadite.

"DAMN!" Applejack cried as she fell onto the ground in surprise.

The guard roared and burst his hooves through the iron door, pulling it out with his massive claws. It stood looming in the doorway, staring Applejack down.

Applejack frowned, grinned, and muttered, "Protect and serve? AH'L SHOW YA PROTECTION AND SERVIN'!" and ran up to the Deadite and bucked him into a wall, knocking him on the floor. Applejack seized his nightstick and proceeded to beat his skull in. "Call the slaughterhouse." she said, "This pig's been butchered.". Holding the bloody nightstick in her mouth, she limped down the institution corridors, not hearing any sounds. "This can't be good..." groaned Applejack.

As soon as she said that, she heard Deadites screech in all of the prison cells, reaching their hooves out to grab her in all directions, snarling and snapping.

"FUCK THIS!" she cried, "I need ta get outta here!"

She ran out of the corridor and into the Sheriff's office, where she saw the Confiscated Goods Cabinet. She opened it up and found what she was desperate for, her chainsaw, harness, and shotgun. She fastened the harness over her scrubs, attached her chainsaw to her stump, and secured the shotgun on her back.

"Back in business..." she said.

was about to make it out of the station when she heard a laugh behind her. She turned to see the possessed sheriff, laughing with an unnaturally wide grin. He brought his hoof down on the Cell Release Button, freeing the devils. Applejack turned to the exit door as it was shut by iron bars. Realizing the gravity of the situation, she groaned and ran.

She ran up every flight of stairs, seeing hundreds of Deadite ponies escape from their cells and sprint after her, their bloody claws stretched out in front of them. She made it to the final flight, only to be blocked by a massive pony, its rotting stomach bursting with red and black pus. It flashed its jagged fangs at her and stalked down the stairs, roaring. Applejack sighed and ran up to the behemoth, slicing her way through him with her chainsaw. She emerged from its back covered in stomach pus, but she figured it was better than being dead. She turned around and used her chainsaw to cut a hole in the top of the stairs, hoping that would stall the evil ponies and opened the door to the roof of the institution.

She locked the door behind her and headed to the very edge of the roof, having her first long look at Ponyville. It had quite literally gone to Hell. The sky was black as sackcloth, rivers flowing with organs and blood, dead ponies littered across the streets, buildings in ruins, and an overall feeling of Evil. She couldn't believe her eyes and buckled to her knees, crying, "H-how long have ah been out for...?". She heard the Deadites approaching and heard the furious clawing at the door. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she stood, roaring her chainsaw, to make her last stand.

The door burst open and a wave of Deadites slowly approached her. Applejack screamed as she decapitated every one that came up to her, its bodies flying off the side of the building.

She was roaring, "COME GET SOME!!" as the gore splattered all over.

The swarms became too massive for her to handle after a short time. She stopped and realized, out of her friends, only she had lived. She couldn't stop now, or bring shame to the dead. She ran away from the hoards looking for a way to get out. She saw far below a garden, with large hedges. Looking back at the Evil Dead, she realized she had no other choice. Just before they could seize her, she jumped off the roof, falling into the hedge.

She woke up with a bruised body and an aching head, but at least she was alive. She sawed herself out of the bush, but as soon as she got out, her chainsaw ran out of gas. She sighed in disappointment and detached it, strapping it to her back.

"Ah need more killing power..." she said, looking around the garden, "No bullets, no gas... Hmmm... Shovels? Nah. Rakes? Aw come awhn now..."

She rummaged through the garden, stopping at the most beautiful sight. Her eyes gleamed with an unnatural pleasure as she limped to a lawnmower.

"Oh yes..." she purred as she rubbed it, eyeing the bottom of it, imagining the potential. She hung the lawnmower over her neck, the bottom razor propeller pointed ahead. She grabbed the start-up string and latched it onto her harness.

She flung open the door into the institution and screamed, "HEY!"

The possessed monsters heard her and rushed down to the first floor, surrounding her, almost overfilling the entire room.

Rather than cower in fear as she would before, Applejack chuckled maniacally and said, "PARTY'S OVER!" and roared the lawnmower.

The Deadites screamed and rushed to her, as Applejack slowly stepped forwards, screaming with adrenaline as the lawnmower slowly ripped every body it touched into a smoothie of blood with chunks of gore and bone. Entire ponies went through it like paper in a shredder. As it became clogged with gore, Applejack spun in a circle, whirling the bodies around, knocking down Deadites and throwing the diced bodies around. Intestines wrapped around Applejack's neck while chunks of brains and skull forced her to shut her eyes. Blood splat into her mouth as she licked it all up.

She charged through the institution, demolishing all who stood in front of her. When she heard the bodies stop shredding, she turned off the blades of death and wiped the waterfalls of blood off of her eyes and looked around. The entire first floor was splattered in a deep red, blood up to her knees. She spun around, looking for any other Deadites and slipped on the lake of blood. She struggled up, gasping for air, and she wiped more blood off of her face and opened them up.

That's when she heard it. A massive bellow coming from down the hall. She went to it and saw the largest pony she ever saw. He had to be at least 6 feet tall and had legs the size of Applejack's head. Veins were literally bursting as blood sprayed at all open wounds on him. Still in a straight jacket, it charged at Applejack.

Applejack gasped and struggled to turn on the lawnmower; it was clogged from the huge amounts of gore.

The behemoth screamed as he tore his massive claws out of the jacket and charged head first at Applejack.

Applejack roared as she finally started the lawnmower as she was knocked to the floor. The lawnmower, facing up, was slowly eating away at the monster's head. He spun around and around with the lawnmower blades as his entire body was slowly reduced to nothing but a uncontrollable fountain of blood.

All of the blood landed right on Applejack as she lay on the floor, gasping for air. She stood up, cringing from the sheer amounts of gore. Throwing the busted but still roaring lawnmower on the floor, she pulled the intestines all wrapped on her off and shook the chunks of various organs out of her mane. As she did this, her ponytail got trapped in the lawnmower. She screamed as her hair got stuck inside of it. Grabbing a nearby dismembered claw, she was forced to cut off her long flowing hair to avoid becoming an Apple Smoothie.

She swam to the entrance to the garden, took her chainsaw and shotgun back, pressed the Release Locks button, and opened the doors to the institution exit, letting the ocean of blood flow out. She stood pondering where to go next and decided to just wander around Ponyville looking for survivors.

"... Twilight's library..." she eventually thought and trotted off to it. On the journey there, she saw few Deadites scattered around, but they were occupied with eating dead pony flesh to notice her sneak past. She finally made it to the library, which had massive gem barricades and boarded up windows.

Applejack took one step forwards only to get her head nearly blown off by a pistol of some sorts inside.

She cried out, "Help! Ah'm not sick!"

She heard a pistol cock and some boards on the front door slid open, revealing large weary emerald eyes. They saw Applejack and opened wide as the boards closed back. Applejack heard a series of unlocking chains as the door swung open and a purple scaly arm pulled her inside. Inside the dreadful library was dark, but Applejack saw one light bulb over a hunched over figure. She stepped closer and saw, it was Spike.

Spike sat on a stool and pointed the gun at Applejack's head, eyeing her. He decided she was not Evil and hugged her, tears in his eyes.

"APPLEJACK!" he called out, "E-ever since...the cabin...Awful, awful things...Everypony's dead! But..but not m-me. I...survived. I'm...I'm strong..." The gun in his hand trembled as he dropped it. Applejack saw Spike was much larger, nearly the size of Applejack. He was a nervous wreck, shaking, trembling, eyes darting everywhere. His skin hung from stress and paranoia, his eyes bloodshot.

"Spike..." she said, "Ye been stealin' stuff...?"

Spike looked at her, "Oh, I HAD to, to live! To kill those..damned creatures! And what do the Princesses do to help us? Nothing...NOTHING!"

Applejack saw broken framed pictures of Rarity and Twilight Sparkle at his feet.

He noticed and sorrily asked, "H-how are...Are they...?"

Applejack shook her head shamefully. Spike's lips quivered. He tried to cry, but his tears had all been used. He grabbed his pistol and put it into his mouth, shaking and closing his eyes. Applejack punched the gun out of his hands.

"LOOK SPIKE!" she exclaimed, "Ponyville, maybe even EQUESTRIA, has gone to Tartarus, but that don't mean we can still LIVE! We need ta stick together. Fight this Evil..."

Spike rattled his head, "You're right. I...I just can't think straight..."

"Yeah..." Applejack remembered, "How long..has it been...?'. Spike pointed to a wall, where tally marks covered it, scratched in with his bare claws. Applejack counted, "6 months...And AH thought TWO days was enough..."

Spike stepped to Applejack. "Look..." he said, "I know ponies gathered in your barn for safety. Maybe they're still there? And at least we can see your family, see if they made it..."

"Honestly..." Applejack said, "I think their fates are solid as a tombstone...But we can still check..."

"Good!" Spike exclaimed. "Oh, you need supplies? Here, I took all of these as scrap." and gave her gasoline and shotgun shells.

Applejack loaded up with a smug look on her face. "Let's rock this Hell-hole." she uttered. Spike charged up his fire breath and loaded his pistol as they set out to Sweet Apple Acres.

The Deadites were no problem to dispose of. They were the least of their worries. What troubled Applejack was the unavoidable revelation of her family back home. Nevertheless, they trekked across the desolate Ponyville to it. They finally made it to Sweet Apple Acres, once a proud orchard now was reduced to flame-scarred fields. Applejack noticed some apple trees were rooted onto the sides of the Barn, similar to the cabin. They approached the entrance to the Barn and Applejack knocked. Nothing. Applejack held up her chainsaw leg as she buzzsawed the barricaded door open. They strode into darkness, Applejack with her humming chainsaw and Spike with his pistol. She felt a shadow move behind her. She turned and saw only darkness. Spike trembled and gulped. As they made it closer and closer to the center of the room, Applejack noticed many tree roots leading there. She followed the roots to find a hideous sight. Applebloom lay dead on the floor, roots penetrating through all sides of her body and out of her eyes and ears.

Applejack couldn't resist and cried. She trotted over to Applebloom, mourning her as she patted her soft head.

It twisted upwards, and Applebloom laughed hysterically. The branches seemed to control her as she was lifted into the air and screeching. Spike and Applejack turned to escape, but a possessed Big Mac closed the exit. His mouth was sewn shut, his eyes a ghastly white, his black bloodied body shaking uncontrollably. He stood there, trying to scream without a mouth. Applebloom was laughing as she sent branches and roots down towards Spike and Applejack. They dodged them and they took barricade behind a fallen wall.

"GAH!" cried Spike, "Applejack! What do we do?!"

For the first time in a long while, Applejack was truly terrified. She cried silently and whispered, "...Kill them...T-that ain't mah family...."

Spike nodded. He came up from the barricade and fired at Applebloom.

Unable to speak, she roared as the branches pulled her towards Spike. She grabbed him and lifted him up with her. She stretched her mouth wide and out slowly came roots. They rapped around Spike, constricting them, their spikes digging into him. Spike raged and shot fire at Applebloom's face. She let him go as he fell to the ground, hurt but alive. Applebloom, suspended into the air, stumbled around the barn hollering. She laughed again and ripped the skin off of her face, revealing a gnawed skeleton. She flew at Applejack hissing her name, roots and branches stretched outward.

Applejack cried and said, "...Ahm.....sorry..." and roared the chainsaw in front of her.

Applebloom flew directly into it, torn and sliced apart as she flew through Applejack and hit the wall behind her, shattering into multiple pieces of flesh and wood. Her head was clean off and only a bottom jaw remained. It moaned as it sat there suffering. Spike limped to it, wiped his tears, and shot her straight down her open wound, ending Applebloom.

Big Mac let out a muffled roar, but Applejack, without even looking, shot his head off with her shotgun.

Spike said, "Applejack. I'm..sorry..."

"Nah Spike.." she said, "Least Ah put them outta their misery..."

"Well, where else can we go?" asked Spike.

Applejack looked around, "Anywhere but here."

They stepped outside and off into the night. They stopped when they heard cheering, off near the City Hall.

"S-survivors?!" Spike exclaimed.

Applejack nodded and said, "We oughtta check..."

They made it to the City Hall, where they indeed heard regular ponies in a sort of chant. Applejack flung open the doors to the City Hall and saw a mass gathering of ponies around a bloody alter, standing on it, wearing ridiculous lavish garments including a cane topped with Snails's severed head, was Trixie.

Trixie's eyes opened wide and she called out to the crowd, "Well, well. Looks like MORE ponies wanna join our commune. Come on in."

"Trixie..." Applejack growled, "What is this?!"

Trixie chucked and announced an end to the meeting and took Applejack and Spike away from the crowd. "Not sure if you noticed," she said, "But Ponyville has literally gone to Tartarus! It's clear Celestia is damning us for our sins. So, I formed this Committee of Equestrian Safety, to protect the ponies."

Applejack was unsure. "Yeah..." she said, "A pony like YOU tryin' ta save all of our lives. Now, Ah smell somethin' fishy."

"Oh, that's typical of you!" she exclaimed, "I am the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie! You're just a hick, and a disabled one too it seems. By the way, how's that wimpy Twilight?" Applejack looked down in shame. Trixie smirked, "Hah. Just shows who is the REAL master here!"

Spike got furious, "You bastard! Twilight's dead and all you do is laugh?!" and pulled out his pistol.

Trixie warned, "Ah ah ah..." as two royal guards came to both of Trixie's sides. "Now then." she scolded, "What should I do next? Oh, silly me, I know!". She ordered the guards to tackle Applejack and Spike, pinning them to the ground. One of them brought their spear don onto Applejack's chainsaw, snapping the blade off. Trixie's magic grabbed Spike's pistol and twirled it in the air. "Look like I have the upper hoof here. Well, at least I have four..." Trixie gloated.

"Oh, lemme guess..." Applejack glared angrily, "Yer gonna have us killed like the coward ya are, huh? This is all a big fat cover-up for yer insanity..."

"Hmmm..." Trixie thought, "Kill you? Well, um, no. I mean, you're going to die out here anyways. Here everypony is a dead horse trotting. And as the head of the Committee of Equestrian Safety, I will be, oh, 'gracious' enough to end your sufferings." Applejack cringed as Trixie cocked the gun, "After all..." she said, "Fight the dead, fear the living."

Spike couldn't contain it anymore. He confessed, "There's a book!"

Trixie stopped and turned to him confused, "...What?" She ordered the guards off of Spike and Applejack.

Applejack eyed Spike, shaking her head angrily.

Spike continued, "Applejack told me on the way here. This is no divine intervention! It's an evil book, the Necronomicon. It released these...things into OUR world! We can STOP it!"

Trixie dropped the gun, leering at Spike, "And how do you propose we do that?"

Applejack confessed, "The book is destroyed. There ain't no way we can seal 'em away."

Trixie muttered, "Damn..." and turned away thinking. She twirled around to Applejack, "I GOT IT! Well, rumor has it that there are...time travel spells in the Magic Archives in Canterlot?"

Applejack was unsure, "And what if there is...?"

"Well, then we can go back in time and destroy the book in the past!"

"Ah get that..." Applejack said, "What I don't get is why ya want ta help us so bad."

"Oh, think of it as an....apology...." Trixie grinned, putting a hoof behind her back.

"I like this idea." Spike said, "Applejack, what other choice do we have?"

"You don't HAVE another choice!" demanded Trixie, "Now or never! Do you WANT to save Ponyville? By Tartarus, this shit is probably all over Equestria by now! Come with me Applejack. We need to get a team ready."

The group went into the back of the City Hall, where the few living citizens resided. Trixie announced, "*I*, your faithful leader and savior shall lead an expedition to Canterlot in search of a way to reverse these 6 months! Coming is Applejack of Sweet Apple Acres and Twilight's dragon! Which brave souls will join us?!"

There was silence in the crowd. Everypony was too afraid of their inevitable fate.

Trixie growled and used magic to grab Lyra, Time Turner, and Octavia from the crowd and placed them next to her. Lyra looked shaken and nervous, Time Turner was exhausted and had streaks of dry blood on his face, and Octavia, she was the worst of them all. Her left ear was torn off, her eyes always bloodshot, scars all over, and an unhealthy look around her. Trixie introduced them, telling Applejack to ignore Octavia as she had been shaken up by everything.

"She's always blabbering that she could have stopped them from killing everypony. Says the Mayor and some fillies attacked her home first and killed her friend. Well, if that's true, then consider this punishment for her." Trixie grinned.

Applejack knew this was not right, but she was more worried with getting out alive and needed all the help she could get. Unfortunately for her, it seemed Trixie was her only hope.

"Right. Seems we're about ready to go." said Trixie. She looked back to her gathering of ponies and told them all to stay low and keep calm while their "great leader" was gone.

"Wait," Applejack cautioned, "Shouldn't we wait 'till the Sun comes up? They hate the Sun."

Spike looked at Applejack with weary eyes, "The Sun doesn't come up anymore..."

Applejack got serious. "We need ta go to Canterlot now. I fear somethin' bad is goin' on there..." They stepped out of the makeshift fortress and trotted through the dead remains of Ponyville, avoiding any and all Deadites.

Trixie remained in the back and waited for the other ponies to pass her. Grinning, she looked at the fortress behind her and cast a spell on it, attracting all the Deadites. In minutes were everypony inside either shredded to pieces or turned into more Deadites. Chucking, she ran back to catch up with the group as if nothing happened.

The ponies were getting weary as they trotted on. Suddenly, everything turned black, darker than it had already been. Trixie groaned and Octavia cried.

"We need to find shelter. NOW!" Time Turner demanded.

Applejack looked around confused. Spike came to her and explained, "It's like, in Ponyville, it phases in and out of Evil. Right now, we're helpless to the demons."

Applejack's eyes widened as everypony looked frantically for cover.

Lyra called out, "I SEE SOME SHELTER!" and pointed. The ponies looked and saw Sugarcube Corner, patched all up via wood planks.

From behind, Applejack heard the familiar howl of the Evil. She turned around and screamed as she saw the unspeakable terror. The rest of the group followed suit and they bolted it for Sugarcube Corner. Their screams attracted Deadites by the tens and they chased the ponies as well. Applejack stopped, calling out, "AH'LL TAKE CARE OF EM!"

She revved up her chainsaw and buzzed through the Deadites. It wasn't after long that she saw herself overwhelmed. She turned and fled to Sugarcube Corner when she felt the Evil snag her chainsaw. It was tugging her back into the few remaining Deadites, and Applejack had only one option. She snapped the V-shaped lock off of her harness and swung the blade into the ground. The Evil pulled harder and harder, just what she was hoping for. Her chainsaw's blade snapped off in the pressure and sent Applejack flying into the Evil. She lifted her bladeless chainsaw and smashed it on its face, shattering her weapon and leaving only her stump. She fell on the ground and booked it for the crumbling shack. The others were inside and slammed the door shut once Applejack stumbled into it.

After barricading the door, Applejack sat treating her wounded stump. Trixie sent Time Turner and Lyra to go search the ruined and desolate shack. Spike sat staring outside, and Octavia searched through the shadows for any hidden threats muttering to herself. Time Turner and Lyra came back to Trixie.

"Nothing." said Time Turner.

Trixie nodded, paused, and said, "It's terrible that we can't just teleport there already. See, these things, they 'react' to magic."

Applejack nodded. She was trying to balance herself with her stump. She looked at Spike and some cans on the ground, and she came up with an idea. She called for Spike to gather the cans and forge them together with his fire breath. He finished and made a metal sort of brace. Applejack attached it to her stump, making a hard prosthetic. She slammed it into a wall, making a massive and deep hole in it. She grinned and could not resist, "Groovy..."

She sat with the rest of the group as they went over their plan.

"We barge into the magic archives, look for these supposed time travel scrolls, use them to go back, and destroy the book, right? Seems simple enough" said Trixie.

"Believe me, with these things, nothin' is that simple." warned Applejack. Just then, she heard a scattering noise coming from the hole in the wall. She got up and turned to it. Nothing. She relaxed and sat down again.

Lyra jumped a little and said to Octavia, "Don't grab my leg like that. It scared me."

Octavia turned to her, "B-but I...didn't..."

Lyra's face turned white as she lifted her leg up.

Clinging onto it was Pound Cake. He had sharp teeth, black throbbing veins bursting under his skin, and eyes different from the others. They were white but surrounded by a ghastly yellow ring. Black bloody spikes were coming out of his spinal cord and head. Black slime was flowing through his ears, eyes, and mouth. He giggled as he crawled over Lyra.

She screamed and ran around in the room. The rest of the ponies stood up trying to help her, but Pound was snarling at then and swatted with his tiny claws. He was on Lyra, front left leg when he began to tear it open and spit the ooze into the wound. Lyra collapsed in pain and slowly lost the struggle.

Octavia stood up, ran to Pound, and using a wooden plank, swatted Pound off of Lyra and onto the floor. She went to him and cried as she crushed his skull with her hoof. Pound was bawling as his brain was squashed into mush and slowly died.

Lyra was gasping for air, holding her leg. She looked in horror as her entire leg became black and covered with pus-filled warts. Black spikes and claws burst out of it and a stream of blood shot straight up. She screamed as her leg twitched and writhed and tried to strangle herself.

Applejack, knowing from experience, pinned Lyra to the ground. She called for Trixie, who used magic to levitate shards of metal and wood on the floor and spun them around faster and faster like a chainsaw blade. Lyra looked up at it and shook her head, silently crying.

Applejack said, "Look missey, it's the only way. Ya don't wanna look like them..." Lyra nodded and braced herself.

The makeshift blade cut into Lyra's arm and colored the walls red. Lyra screamed in agony and her arm howled and writhed. The leg, after a few seconds and pints of blood lost, was finally off.

Time Turner rushed to the group's medical bag and pulled out some adrenaline. He slammed the needle into Lyra's stump saying, "This will ease the pain, but soon, well, you'll feel like shit again." and Spike breathed fire on the stump to stop the bleeding and disinfect it.

A short time later, Lyra got up on her hooves again. She was crying, "Thank you so much. Oh, my soul is saved."

She failed to notice Pumpkin Cake sneaking up behind her. Attracted by all the noise, she jumped up onto Lyra's neck, slicing a wide hole in it. She stuck her head inside and crawled through Lyra's skin, slashing her muscle and tissues with her claws and spikes. Lyra let out a final gasp and fell on the floor in a growing pile of blood. The ponies turned away gasping for air as the smell of rotting flesh filled the air.

Octavia was crying, Trixie was smug, and Time Turner was petrified.

"S-she's dead. Isn't she...?" he asked.

"Not yet." said Applejack. She turned to Lyra and observed.

Pumpkin had torn out of Lyra and must have scampered away. She pointed her shotgun at Lyra's head and waited. Her head tilted up, her eyes not pale white but similar to Pound's. She was slobbering pus and twitching as monstrous spikes burst out of her stump, face, back, and chest. Two foot long devilish claws swatted Applejack onto the floor and throwing her shotgun across the room. Applejack gasped as she scooted away from the monstrosity. The spikes on Lyra's back grew so long they carried her high inthe air. She roared as she charged at the ponies. Spike strode to her and doused her in flames. Lyra screached and staggered around the room, her skin melting away revealing rotting and pulsating flesh.

Trixie stood back and observed. Octavia was crying. Time Turner came back into the room wielding a nail gun in his mouth. He was screaming in adrenaline as he embedded nail after nail into Lyra's what used to called face. Her makeshift spike legs snapped as she slammed onto the floor.

Applejack got back up, eyed her shotgun, grabbed it, and went back to Lyra. She looked up at Applejack, nails acting for eyes. She reached her right hoof out and groaned. Applejack blew it clean off with one shot as blood flowed through the would. Lyra slumped to the ground, nothing in the front to support her. She looked up at Applejack moaning. Applejack stood over her, shotgun pointed straight at Lyra's head.

"Yo she-bitch!" she called, "Let's go!" and shot Lyra. Her head exploded, splattering brain all over the room.

Time Turner buckled to his knees panting.

Trixie trotted to the mess, "Sooo...t-that's how you kill them..?"

"Bodily dismemberment, yes." Applejack answered.

"G-guys...outside. It's...clear..." observed Octavia.

The group looked out the boarded windows, no Deadites around.

"Alright." Trixie said, "No more risks waiting here. Let's go."

The ponies unlocked and unbarricaded the back door and stepped out. They walked until they were clear of Ponyville. Canterlot lay ahead so far away.

Applejack groaned, "Trixie. Can't ya just teleport us all there?"

Trixie laughed, "HAH! And what? Risk attracting the attention of all these demons?" She stopped herself and began to think, "Wait wait wait. You know what? Yeah. Let's risk it! No way I'm walking all of this. Besides, this is all dead territory anyways.". Spike reminded them that it was very likely Canterlot is completely dead as well. "Then it's settled! Alright everypony. Get over here and I'll warp us to the entrance of Canterlot. That shouldn't attract TOO many monsters."

They did so and in a flash stood in front of Canterlot. Like Ponyville, there were no signs of life. Buildings were toppled and crumbling. Decomposing half skeleton bodies littered the streets. From afar, a siren could be heard.

"Hear that?!" cried Time Turner. "There might be some ponies here that are still alive!"

The group trotted towards the source. Strangely, not a single Deadite was found, but that doesn't mean there was still gore splattered everywhere. It had come as an idea to the ponies that maybe nothing had survived and the siren was just an automated thing.

All of them made it to the source of the siren. It was a massive military barricade sealing off Celestia's castle. Broken floodlights hung from it and it appeared to be deserted.

Trixie ordered Octavia to go and search, smiling with a smug look. Octavia helplessly shuffled forwards to the barricade.

Suddenly, a cry came out of the barricade, "THERE'S ONE!" and a throwing knife flew out of it into Octavia's chest. She fell to the floor gasping for air as blood trickled down the wound.

Applejack ran up to her, eyeing the barricade. She exclaimed, "WE'RE ALIVE HERE! HELP US!"

There was a pause for a while. A voice came out from behind the barricade.

"How many are there?!"

Applejack counted, "5 of us! Including the one ya just wounded!"

The voice came again, "...Don't worry! It's just a throwing knife! Nothing fatal! Now, yes, you all cam come! None of you are infected?!"

"Open the barricade and we'll find out!" cried Applejack.

Silence followed and finally, the barricade entrance slid open. Trixie levitated Octavia and the rest trotted inside. Inside were Royal Guards. They reeked as if they stayed hidden for months in a ditch. All of them hopeless looking and paranoid. There were supplies and Octavia was taken to a makeshift medical bunker and treated. Applejack, Time Turner, Trixie, and Spike collapsed from fatigue, eyeing the distant horizon.They were now in the care of Celestia's militia. The Magic Archives so close. And of course the Princesses themselves. They thought they were safe.

They were not.