See You on the Other Side

Chapters

Part I
Part II
Part III

Part I

See You on the Other Side Part I

A parasprite buzzed in a random flight pattern off in the distance, other than the ambient beating of the creature’s wings, there was no sound. All was silent on the range, Rainbow dash was all alone with nothing but a box of ammunition and her 7.62 rifle. 200 yards from the pegasus stood a target, made of nothing but a wood plank with a piece of paper displaying an evil-looking pony with several small targets on it, each one indicating a point of a kill shot. Dash’s scope had been sighted in recently, and she was training; for all her life she swore that someday a virus would take over all the ponies, and she would have to prepare for what would be conventionally known as a zombie apocalypse.

She lined up the shot. BOOM! A bulls-eye right in the head, Dash knew that when the day came, she would have no problem protecting herself and her friends from an Equestria full of zombies.

The pegasus gathered up her supplies and started flying back to Cloudsdale when out of the corner of her eye she noticed something strange, she saw off in the distance what looked like a flaming piece of debris falling from the sky, moving at astronomical speeds. Dash assumed that it must have came from the rainbow factory, some pony probably spilled some rainbow, from that height it must’ve reached very high speeds, luckily Cloudsdale is far enough away from any civilization on the ground to hurt any pony.

Rainbow dash reached Cloudsdale and decided not to worry about what she had seen, and as she was putting her firearm back in her gun safe, she recalled that she had a previous engagement with Zecora to test out some new potions. Dash left her house and headed towards the everfree forest, and approached the zebra’s house, only to notice that there was a bit of smoke rising from part of Zecora’s roof. Dash proceeded to knock on the door, which gave in to the force of the knock and allowed Dash to see one of the strangest sights she had ever seen.

She saw her zebra friend sitting in the corner of the house, facing towards the corner. Dash was not so shocked by this as she was the fact that the zebra had wings and a horn, and a small rainbow splotch on her head. Dash didn’t dare say anything, as she feared Zecora may be dangerous in this state, but it didn’t matter; Zecora’s head made a full 180 degree turn to face the pegasus, and said one word… “blood”. Rainbow Dash didn’t need to think a whole lot to know that she was in trouble, so staying true to her name, she was out of there so fast that she had to take a break as soon as she reached Cloudsdale.

Dash went straight to the rainbow factory and started asking the workers about what effects rainbows could have on a pony’s health, but she only got laughed off, while workers said things like, “why worry about that?” or, “what have you been doing? Drinking rainbows?” All these things only aggravated the pegasus, so she went home to sleep on it.

That night, Dash had a horrifying dream. She dreamed that it was just another day, she woke up and went to Ponyville to get some food, and say hello to her friends, but all was not right in Ponyville. Every pony had both wings and a horn; there were no unicorns, there were no pegasi, and there were no earth ponies.

Rainbow Dash went to Sweet Apple Acres in hopes of finding that Applejack would be normal, and that she could retrieve some apples for breakfast; but such was not reality. As Dash approached the farm, she found it to be completely ravaged; all the trees were gone, the barn was in pieces, and the farm house was destroyed, the ruins were surrounded by ponies, all of which looked very malnourished, and they all had the wings horn combination.

Dash went to engage one of the ponies, “what happened here?” said Dash, “where are all the trees? What happened to the barn? And where in Equestria is Applejack?” The pony responded, “you could have prevented this, now you will reap what you sow. Your friend has either become one of us or is dead. It is best that you leave now.” The pony then seemed to lose all sense of intelligence and began chasing Dash wildly down the road.

Dash managed to outrun the pony and found herself standing in front of a ditch, filled with the dead bodies of all her friends, each one soaked in blood. Dash wanted to run, but couldn’t help but notice a note stuck on Twilight’s horn. The note read, “Rainbow Dash, where were you when we were being ravaged by the beasts? Where were you when our souls were torn from us and dragged to Hell? You will now pay the price, and live for eternity in Equestria with our lives on your conscience.” Right as Dash finished reading, all his friends’ eyes lit up and stared at her, each eye pierced through her soul and brought into it pain and misery. Rainbow Dash woke up.

Rainbow Dash found herself soaked in sweat, breathing heavily and terrified by the images she had just seen. She decided that she better alert the other pegasi about what could be in the future if no action is taken. She went to the rainbow factory.

As Dash walked through the doors she saw Zecora, surrounded by dead factory workers, their blood painted the walls, and their intestines were sprawled about the room randomly. Zecora’s face was painted with the same blood, and she had built a sort of rainbow catapult, launching buckets of rainbows all about the major cities of Equestria. As soon as she saw Dash, she gave her a big smile, and all Dash noticed was that Zecora’s teeth were covered in blood, and had many pieces of gore stuck in between them. The zebra had razor sharp teeth, quite unusual for a creature that is usually an herbivore.

Rainbow Dash went on instinct and threw herself at the zebra, who fell into the rainbows and began sizzling, and soon died. Dash observed the locations which Zecora had struck with rainbows, and headed toward Ponyville after retrieving her 7.62 rifle.

Dash found the town to be fairly untouched, the only exception was the blotch of rainbow sitting right in the middle of the town, where several ponies had been transformed into beasts, much like Zecora. Dash went straight to Sugarcube Corner in hopes that Pinkie Pie had not been touched by the effects of the rainbow phenomena.

Dash walked into the sweet shop and found it to be in perfect condition. Pinkie Pie was in the kitchen making cupcakes, so Dash walked right in and said “Pinkie Pie, we need to get out of Ponyville right now. We could all be in very grave danger.” Pinkie pie gave Rainbow Dash a weird look and said “not until my muffins are done, they will burn if I leave now.” Dash refused to let Pinkie Pie remain in Ponyville, so she said “You don’t understand, we don’t have the time it takes for those cupcakes to burn, if we don’t leave now, you may never taste another cupcake again.” Pinkie Pie decided to heed the warning and left Sugarcube Corner with her pegasus friend.

Dash then decided to get Applejack from the farm, she went around the rainbow splotch to avoid running into any of the changed ponies. Dash found the farm to be normal, and found Applejack picking apples. Dash gave Applejack the same speech and they agreed to find Rarity.

Rarity heard the warning, but said that Sapphire Shores would be pissed if she didn’t get her dress in time for the next show. Rainbow Dash, having gotten aggravated at Rarity’s stubbornness decided to leave without her, and let fate decide her future.

The three ponies then hurried to Fluttershy’s house, and took their animal loving friend with them to Twilight Sparkle’s library which, they all agreed, would be the best place to hold up if things really do go South.

They entered the studious pony’s library to find it in pristine condition, with the genius sitting at a desk reading something on agricultural spells. Rainbow Dash told Twilight what she had seen in the dream, and Twilight immediately found a book on prophetic dreams. Twilight said that prophetic dreams are very rare and often times vague in what exactly they mean, but would not mind staying in the library for a while in case things really were bad.

Twilight then asked Dash why Rarity wasn’t with them, and Dash said, “she wouldn’t listen to a word I said, I didn’t want to risk it so I decided to let her stay.” Twilight looked disgusted at Dash’s actions and replied, “you’re worried that we are all about to fight off a horde of crazed ponies and you left Rarity there to die? What you just described was not a bunch of diamond dogs, insanity does not respond to reason. We are going back for Rarity right now.” Rainbow Dash had just noticed that it was getting dark, the sun might as well have been down; this was a dangerous situation to be in.

The five ponies left the library and started walking towards Rarity’s house when Dash noticed off in the distance, a very vague silhouette of a pony, with wings and a horn. Dash stopped all the ponies right there and went prone with her rifle, she turned on the infrared scope and got a bearing on the beast. But just as Dash is about to pull the trigger, a noise behind her grabbed the attention of every pony. Out from the darkness emerged a pony, with wings and a horn. The pony appeared disoriented and stumbled around a bit, blood was strewn across the pony’s mouth, it was a sight of horror. Rainbow Dash, without missing a beat, whipped around and shot the beast right in the skull; the beast fell to the ground and twitched a bit before stopping. It was dead.

Rainbow Dash then turned back around to find that the one she was originally going to shoot had vanished. Every pony was now worried, Fluttershy was in tears, Pinkie Pie’s hair had gone straight, Applejack was pretending to be fearless, but every pony could sense that all was not right in their Southern friend. Twilight began to question everything she had ever learned in magic school, as if none of it could ever apply to life as she knew it, but only life before the incident.

Every pony then turned their attention to the dead pony, she had blue hair, bubbles as a cutie mark, and eyes which did not focus in the same direction, but each went off in its own direction. One pony said under her breath “not derpy.” And every pony mourned the loss of their fallen friend.

The ponies continued down the path to Rarity’s house, and as they approached it, all felt a chill. The air felt like death was lurking, no pony said it, but all felt it. The door was halfway open, Rainbow dash pushed it the rest of the way and was the first to enter.

The whole room had been torn apart, fabric was all over the floor, jewels had been lodged in the walls as if some pony had thrown them with very heavy force. While there was much sign of struggle on the ground floor, there was no blood, no gore; for all they knew, no pony had been hurt. Dash proceeded to go up the stairs to see what lay in her future. As the pegasus reached the top of the stairs she was mortified at what she saw. Dash’s friend had been pummeled by whatever it was that entered her home. Every dress in the room was soaked in blood, organs lay all over the floor. Rarity’s still-beating heart lay right at Rainbow Dash’s feet, Rarity was behind it coughing up blood and crying in the physical and emotional pain.

Rarity, who was very hard to understand at this point, was barely able to cough up the words “See you on the other side, Rainbow Dash.” This threw Dash into a state that was almost hysterical, unable to imagine the things that lay before her.

Dash took a quick look around the room to ensure that no changed ponies were in the room. No, whatever had killed the gem-finding pony had left already. The 5 remaining ponies left their fallen friend’s house, they could not stand to stay.

The ponies headed back towards Twilight’s library, all were silent, every pony was in shock and could not speak a word, for fear that one pony would break down, making every pony unable to carry on and survive. But as they approached the library, all those thoughts disappeared, for what was before them made a very serious situation for every pony.

The sight made every pony freeze, Twilight’s library was surrounded by changed ponies, no pony dared make a sound, it was too dangerous to try to clear it; Rainbow Dash could not possibly shoot fast enough to eliminate the threat looming over the perfect safe house. They decided to go towards Zecora’s house in the Everfree forest, since Zecora was dead already it must have been a safe place to hold out, no pony lives in the Everfree forest.

As the ponies got about halfway through the forest they noticed that they were entering a huge clearing in the trees, all were in awe of the reality that became of the forest. A massive temple rested in the middle of the clearing, likely 500 hooves in height, it was surrounded by changed ponies standing in a military fashion, each one painted white with black stripes and had a painted on cutie mark resembling the sun. At the top of the temple sat Zecora, on an extravagant throne, surrounded by changed ponies, fanning her with palm fronds.

Rainbow Dash recalled her dream, when one of the changed ponies would speak normally, and seemed very high functioning. Rainbow Dash decided to approach one of the guards and request to speak with their leader, but none would respond, they just stood and stared into the distance. Rainbow Dash decided to walk to the top of the temple herself, followed by her friends, and speak to Zecora.

After a long hike to the peak, Rainbow Dash began speaking to Zecora, “What have you done to Equestria? Why are all these ponies serving you? Why are they killing?”Zecora began to respond, “Your pony friend, her life was meek. Why do an answer for this you seek?” Dash’s face became red at this point, “Because she was my friend!” Zecora laughed a bit “That rainbow that fell through my roof, it just gave me the upper hoof. I made some more to get some friends, and now your world is at its end.” Now Dash was curious as to why Zecora wasn’t dead, and got even angrier, “Then HOW are you still here after I killed you?!” Zecora laughed a little more “the one you killed, that was not me, it was my minion now, you see?” Dash decided to give up reasoning with the zebra, all the rhyming was confusing her, and now seeing the future, she decided to just leave with her friends and find a new place to die.

But Dash’s plans didn’t last long when Fluttershy started going off on Zecora for causing the death of Rarity. One of the guards saw this and put a spear right through Fluttershy’s head, proceeding to throw her down the stairs to her doom. Zecora spoke again “Resisting me would not be wise, your death would be like Fluttershy’s.” No pony spoke after this, each one walked down the stairs in silence, none wanted to continue living.

Every pony walked in a group, but had no aim in where to go, none had a life left, all felt meaningless. In their blind walking, they found themselves back at Sugarcube Corner, it no longer felt happy like it did before the rainbow phenomena. Pinkie Pie was the first to enter, finding it, to her surprise, unaffected by the apocalypse. Everything was as Pinkie left it, except that it was completely deserted; every pony had left before any of the changed ponies had a chance to destroy the place. Pinkie Pie immediately remembered the cupcakes that she had left in the oven, she took a peek and saw that they were only slightly burned, but still good. But as she went to remove them, a changed pony emerged from the darkness and pushed the pink pony directly into the oven, and proceeded to close the door.

Every pony left the sweet shop as soon as they saw what happened, they heard some screams coming from the oven, but they dissipated quickly. Pinkie pie was killed.

No pony was sure where to turn at this point, Twilight was contemplating joining the changed ponies, Applejack wanted to go see if her family was safe, and Rainbow Dash was on the verge of tears.

Twilight, who had given the idea much thought, started running towards the big rainbow blob, but before she could reach it, both princess Celestia and Luna flew in and impaled both halves of the purple unicorn’s body from opposite directions, tearing her into two pieces. Celestia flew off with her new trophy, but Luna stayed back and stared at the two remaining ponies, her eyes were glowing red, and she had that smile of razor sharp teeth. Both ponies, without saying a word, ran straight for Sweet Apple Acres.

When they arrived at the farm, they both saw a family of ponies, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, and Apple Bloom were all there. Applejack ran to meet them, but Rainbow Dash stood her ground, having a bad feeling about the situation. She watched Applejack run, then suddenly stop. Applejack was stopped by a bear trap. Rainbow Dash watched, from a distance, as Big Macintosh approached Applejack. Big Macintosh appeared, now closer, to have wings and a horn. They had all been changed, and now Big Macintosh was proceeding to place another bear trap right over Applejack’s head. Rainbow Dash couldn’t bear to watch, she just flew away.

Rainbow dash woke up on a cloud, she must’ve fallen asleep at some point, but it was still night. Rainbow Dash did not know where her future was, she had no friends left, nothing to live for. Rainbow Dash could no longer stand the harsh reality, she leaped from the cloud and allowed her wings to go limp, and landed head first on the earth. While her neck cracked, she remained conscious for a short period of time, just long enough to see Zecora standing before her, laughing at the pegasus pony. Then all went dark, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait to join her friends on the other side.

To Be Continued

Part II

See You on the Other Side Part II

Rainbow Dash awoke. She opened her eyes, but all hopes of seeing were lost, as wherever she was, there was no light. Had it all just been a crazy dream and she just awoke at night? Or is the reality much more grim?

The pegasus stood up and walked a few feet, the ground was rough, dry, and rocky; this was not Cloudsdale. The air was stale, and made Rainbow Dash feel alone; for the first time ever, Rainbow Dash had no pony to turn to. Dash felt sick, she wanted to go back to Ponyville and see all of her friends, the way things used to be; now, she had no option but to carry on alone.

Rainbow dash had walked for miles, the rough ground began to bother her feet; she did not want to keep walking. Dash sat down for a long time when suddenly, off in the distance she saw a white light; finally the pegasus had a lapse of hope in this sad, dark universe that she had been banished to.

Dash followed the light for what felt like an eternity, and would be relieved by the source of the light. The light came from none other than Rarity, who was quite the sight for sore eyes; she stood there smiling, she looked very glad to see her friend. Rarity appeared completely unaffected by the other world, she had no blood on her; everything was as it was before the rainbow fell. “I am so glad to see you, Rainbow Dash. I don’t know where we are, but I do not want to stay here; we have to find a way out of here.” Rarity continued, “You are the only other one who died, right?” Rainbow Dash started to sob, she could barely make out the words, “We all died.” Rarity’s smile died, she did not cry, but her joy for seeing Rainbow Dash was killed by the bad news. Rainbow Dash refused to go into details about the gruesome deaths of her friends. Instead, the two ponies began the search for their friends.

The light emitted from Rarity’s coat served as a great light along the way, and cleared up a lot of questions about the terrain for Rainbow Dash. As they walked, Dash realized that the ground had several marks of dried blood, giving the ground the rough texture; the ‘rocky’ feeling on the ground was actually teeth, this gave Rainbow Dash chills. The universe in which the two ponies now resided appeared to have no end to the sky, no ceiling, but no other celestial bodies in space; wherever they were, that was all that existed in this universe. After a short period of time, the two ponies happened upon a small box. The box was made of mahogany, with 4 carved feet on the base; the wood was highly polished and, upon opening it, was found to be lined with purple silk. Inside the box lay a purple horn, which made Rainbow Dash want to vomit; she did so away from the box, then closed it and took it along with them.

As the ponies began to continue walking it began to rain, Rainbow Dash felt relieved by the rain at first, but after a while the rain began acting very strangely; the rain began instantly freezing on the ground, forming sharp spikes of ice on the ground, which made their hooves bleed with every excruciating step. After a long while the rain stopped, and their hooves left blood prints on the ground; only forcing Rainbow Dash to focus on other things, one of which was a small patch of yellow on the ground.

Rainbow Dash ran towards it, Rarity following her. The two discovered that what they found was a disembodied cutie mark. Yellow skin, with 3 butterflies was what it was; Rarity broke down in tears. Rarity stepped closer to it, when a series of large, scarred, black hands emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around the white unicorn; they brought her with them as they went back to where they came, her body followed, and the ground made no attempt to stop her.

Rainbow Dash could not be affected by the event; she had seen too much at this point to be shocked or saddened by the event, only seeking to escape the afterlife. The pegasus took notice of a light in the world, which seemingly had no source, but only existed as its own entity. This light pointed out a box of matches and a bone next to the cutie mark; only having one label on the box “to light the way, you require a torch.” Rainbow Dash was sickened by the idea, but had no choice if she truly desired escaping. Dash wrapped the cutie mark around the bone and lit it on fire; the cutie mark burned very well, but Dash had just eliminated the one thing that set Fluttershy apart from every other pony; Dash had just deponyized the one pony who truly did not deserve it.

The torch served to light the way for exactly as long as it needed to; Rainbow dash discovered a large black building, with no windows, and only one door. Just as rainbow Dash reached the large metal door, Fluttershy’s cutie mark burned out; clearly it was fate for the pegasus to be here. The door was composed of a very strong metal, Rainbow Dash tapped it with her hoof; it felt like titanium. The door had no knob or any other means of gaining entry, the hinges were on the inside; all that was to be found was a metal plate on the ground, Rainbow Dash stepped on it. The door stood its ground for a long time, until some pony opened it. The creature to be found here was tall, roughly 9 feet in height; the creature was skinny and had shackles around its wrists and ankles. The creature had 8 eyes glowing red, and a single bloody horn that emerged from the back of its head; the creature had a mouth filled with teeth sharp enough to cut clean through bone, the nose had a sharp point to it, and the creature had no ears. The creature had long arms covered with veins, and the same could be said about the legs; the creature, who was answering the door, was clearly in a position of power, but the shackles indicated that even this one was a prisoner in this universe.

The creature held a beat up metal lantern, and held his arm out inside the prison, as if to indicate that Rainbow Dash must enter. Rainbow Dash followed the creature down the hall for what felt like days, until eventually the creature stopped in front of a cell and opened it, motioning for the pegasus to enter the cell; Rainbow Dash complied. As soon as Dash was fully inside the cell, the door slammed shut; the tall creature said nothing, but turned back and walked back down the dark hallway, until Dash could no longer see him.

Rainbow Dash looked back in the box and closed it, no longer wanting to remember what lay inside. Dash turned to see the inside of the cell. The floor was wet, and the air had a moldy stench to it; the ceiling dripped water every now and then, and the bars of the cell were cold and rough. On the back wall of the cell was a message that read “your purple friend cannot escape without that, can she?” Rainbow Dash then recalled the fact that she was unable to find any of her friends when she had arrived, and inferred that they all must have arrived in the prison as well. Rainbow Dash looked as far down the hall as she could, and her eyes fell upon a cell containing a purple pony sleeping on the floor.

Rainbow Dash decided not to try to call out to Twilight, as it might alert some sort of a guard in the prison; Rainbow Dash decided to recall her skill in horseshoes instead, and threw the horn at her friend. The horn hit Twilight right in the back, which awoke the sleeping unicorn; she put her horn back where it used to be and it mended itself magically. Twilight looked at Dash and spoke no words, but only nodded; she then made herself a portal to walk straight through the bars, and did the same for Rainbow Dash.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash silently devised a plan for if they hear guards coming, to get out of sight quickly; the two silently walked down the hallway, searching for their friends. On their way they happened upon Applejack, who was in tears at the idea that her family would betray her, Fluttershy, who was missing her cutie mark and had long since fallen asleep, and Pinkie Pie, who was sitting in silence, wishing she was back at Sugarcube Corner.

The ponies continued to the end of the hall but found no signs of Rarity, Dash recalled that on her way down the hall with the creature she did not see rarity anywhere. At the end of the hall, the ponies discovered a large room, the ceiling was not detectable from the ground; there were several large pits of lava in the room with ponies hogtied to ropes hanging above the pits, some begged to not be dipped again, others had been burned down to the muscle and were unable to speak. Some ponies were laid down on tables with ropes tied to all four limbs, the other ends of the ropes were attached to large wheels which more ponies were forced to turn, being whipped while they worked. Creatures similar to the one at the door were whipping the ponies working, and dropping the other ponies into the lava; some of the creatures were being tortured themselves, it appeared that there was no ring leader; it was a land that existed solely for suffering.

Rainbow Dash looked about the room and saw that Rarity was hanging from one of the ropes, and had already been burned pretty badly; the ponies huddled and devised a plan to help Rarity escape. Fluttershy stood behind the creature and began to sing; the creature got drowsy and eventually fell asleep into the lava. Once the creature was taken care of, Twilight untied Rarity and floated her to safety. Rarity was shaking from the pain of being burned, but was willing to carry on.

At the back of the room there was a large, horrific throne, upon which sat he whom the ponies assumed was the great Satan himself. The ponies, now reunited, approached the being who, now up close, appeared much more ominous. The entity had broad shoulders, was slightly taller than the other creatures, and had two large horns which curved upwards and had several blood stains on them; he also had long, well-toned arms and long nails on his fingers. Satan also carried a large sword on his belt which, every pony assumed, was also covered in blood.

Rainbow Dash bravely approached Satan, and before she could even speak, Satan told her to get out of his sight. Rainbow Dash ignored this and said in her most brave of tones, “Sir, My friends and I are all here by a crazy mistake, we would really appreciate it if you could send us back to Equestria.” Satan laughed at the pegasus’ request, and only said back “no pony is seen entering my domain, and no pony leaves.” The ponies all understood what the lord of darkness had stated, and left his presence.

The ponies did not know where to go, so they snuck through the cells and out the big metal door, no pony wanted to stay in the prison, and with Rarity now they could see. The ponies began to walk in a random direction, only following where their will chose to take them.

For years the ponies wandered these forsaken wastes, with nowhere to stand, and nowhere to stay. But on one night, or perhaps day it may have been, they happened upon the same creature which had fallen into the lava on the day when Rarity was freed from the rope. The creature looked exceptionally angry, and with one huge feat of strength, lifted up all six ponies at once and launched them into a deep pit. On the way down the pit, Twilight’s horn was broken off, and once again she was powerless. Each pony landed on a pike, unable to free themselves, and unable to escape through death, for they were already dead. For all of eternity these ponies remained, impaled shells of what they once were. The ingenious Twilight, the green-hoofed Applejack, and the speed demon Rainbow Dash; the cheerful Pinkie Pie, the generous Rarity, and the kind-hearted Fluttershy, each one was forgotten by time. But what happened in Equestria after these six were gone, that is a story yet to be told

To Be Continued

Part III

See You on the Other Side Part III

Rainbow Dash could no longer stand the harsh reality; she leaped from the cloud and allowed her wings to go limp, and landed head first on the earth. While her neck cracked, she remained conscious for a short period of time, just long enough to see Zecora standing before her, laughing at the pegasus pony. Then all went dark, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait to join her friends on the other side.

While Rainbow Dash and her five friends now lay dead, all is not lost in Ponyville, for not every pony was ended by the virus. All of Applejack’s family members were taken over by the virus, and later decided to join Zecora’s army; the remaining of the staff at Sugarcube Corner saw that Pinkie Pie was gone, and managed to make it to Canterlot to warn Princess Celestia of the zombies, allowing Canterlot to close its gates and be unaffected by the virus. But what of the young cutie mark crusaders?

Clearly Apple Bloom was no longer part of the club, as she had fallen victim to the virus; but two fillies’ tales remain untold; these are their stories.

It was a warm, bright summer day. Sweetie Belle had been begging her big sister to help with the dresses she was making for Sapphire Shores, but alas, her sister took pride in her work and would not accept any help on the dresses. Sweetie Belle decided to go assist Twilight Sparkle in organizing her books, so off she went to Twilight’s library.

At Twilight’s library, Sweetie Belle spent the entire day organizing books on every subject, sometimes she would sneak a peek inside a book to learn more about the subject than the title could tell her, and she was delighted to learn so many new things. Sweetie Belle was especially interested in how much Spike knew about book keeping, and how he could locate any book in the library just by the name of it.

Later that night, as things were winding down, Sweetie Belle was talking to Spike in the back room while they both worked on dusting the shelves. Sweetie Belle recalled hearing some commotion in the other room, but was too interested in the conversation to bother seeing what was going on. When Sweetie Belle went back to tell Twilight she had to go home, she noticed that Twilight was gone. Spike came to see what was going on and looked out the window, only to see a mob of changed ponies surrounding the library; thankfully the door was locked, and there was no way any of the changed ponies could possibly get into the library.

For weeks the two lived in that library, living off emergency rations and tap water; but the mob did not want to leave. Several months passed, they were running out of food, and the changed ponies still had not left. One day, as all hope was beginning to die, a bright flash of light showed from the Everfree forest, and every one of the changed ponies took off towards it, never to be seen alive again. Sweetie Belle left the library accompanied by spike in search of her friends and family, and food of course.

The first pony Sweetie Belle wanted to find was Rarity, seeing her sister was the one thing that would make her feel better after the apocalypse. Sweetie Belle went straight to Rarity’s house, only to find the horrific scene upstairs which at first made her vomit, but she then went outside and sat down to cry; the loss of her sister was the emotional equivalent of all of Equestria on her back, she now had to carry on the legacy of her sister, and she no longer had any pony to look up to.

Sweetie Belle, no longer knowing where to go, decided to search for Apple Bloom, hoping that her friend may have survived; but upon arriving at Sweet Apple Acres, she found it to be deserted, no signs of the family anywhere. Sweetie Belle then began searching for Scootaloo, ignoring all of Spike’s complaints that they should’ve been searching for food. Sweetie Belle decided to check the school, Cheerilee being Scootaloo’s big sister, they might’ve both been there when the changed ponies took over.

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath as she walked into the school, she had no idea what she would find. The hallways were completely empty. Sweetie Belle walked through the hallways, looking through all the empty classrooms, hoping to find her friend. Sweetie Belle was getting ready to quit when she heard some pony banging on a locker, confused, she looked all around but found no pony. Sweetie heard it again, but found it to be coming from inside a locker; she approached the locker to see who it was trapped in the locker. Sweetie Belle peered through the holes in the locker and saw… Scootaloo! Scootaloo sounded very hungry and pushed a small key through the slits in the locker, requesting to be freed. As soon as Scootaloo was free, she gave Sweetie Belle a big hug, “I didn’t think any pony was going to save me.” Scootaloo began to cry, “I thought you and Apple Bloom were goners.” The whole situation confused Sweetie Belle, she wanted to know how in Equestria Scootaloo lived through those several months. “How did you survive in there that whole time?” asked Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo began to explain the story of her survival.

She was riding her scooter all around Ponyville on that warm summer day; everything was as it should have been. Scootaloo recalled that she was going to meet Cheerilee up at the school to discuss their plans for the weekend. Scootaloo raced to the school, she was there so fast that it would have made Rainbow Dash proud. Scootaloo walked into Cheerilee’s classroom and they had a long conversation about what they were going to do over the weekend, and Scootaloo was excited. Cheerilee decided to go home so she could work on lesson plans, but Scootaloo stayed back so she could use a textbook and work on homework.

Scootaloo worked for a long time until she heard a noise coming from outside, she left the classroom to see what was making the noise. Scootaloo saw one of the changed ponies, with a crazy look on her face, standing right in the lobby of the school. Scootaloo ran back into the classroom and started to think, remembering that wherever she hides, she might have to hide for a while. Scootaloo remembered that Silver Spoon always kept a bunch of bottles of water and sugary snacks in her locker, with barely enough room to fit her backpack; it would be a tight squeeze, but Scootaloo would make it work. Scootaloo saw a set of keys on Cheerilee’s desk, and she knew that one of those keys could unlock all of the lockers, for things like fillies forgetting their combinations, and getting locked inside.

Scootaloo exited the classroom and made a mad dash for Silver Spoon’s locker, the changed pony turned to her and began to pursue. There were five keys on the ring, she tried the first one, fail, and the changed pony was about 3 classrooms away. The second and third didn’t work, the changed pony was just one classroom away. The fourth key, perfect fit; Scootaloo jumped inside and slammed the door shut, just in the nick of time. The changed pony banged her hooves against the locker, but it would not give; all Scootaloo thought was, “wow, these are well-built lockers.”

Scootaloo found all the water and food to be there, plenty to last her a while. When it came time that Scootaloo had to ‘do her business’ so to speak, she found that she could undo some pins in the back of the locker and found there to be a cavity behind where she could leave waste.

After a month, Scootaloo felt she was losing sanity, she began writing letters to all the ponies in her life; she didn’t know if any pony would ever receive them, but it made her feel good to know that she had gotten some things off her chest. After 2 months passed, Scootaloo was completely out of food; she only had water left. By the time Sweetie Belle showed up, the water was all gone, and Scootaloo could only think about food; but of course, she did not forget to take her letters along, she treasured them as reminders that life is short, and she should live each day as if it was her last.

The three all agreed to go to Sugarcube Corner in search of food, particularly for Scootaloo. After a long time of talking and walking, they walked through the door to the sweet shop; but they were shocked by a strange burning smell in the air, they considered opening the oven to see what it was, but they overcame curiosity in that they probably didn’t want to know what was inside. Scootaloo searched the refrigerator and found a box of cupcakes in pristine condition, she ate half of them right there, and offered the rest to spike and Sweetie Belle, knowing that they had already been eating. They were about to leave when they noticed a note on the counter, it read “we are going to Canterlot before this virus gets out of hand –Mr. and Mrs. Cake,” they all agreed that it would not be a bad idea to go to Canterlot and meet up with them, so they headed off the fastest way they knew how: through the Everfree forest.

Spike made several requests not to go through the Everfree forest, but he was shot down every time; the two fillies were dead set on going through the forest. They all happened upon a large clearing about midway through the forest, which had a large temple in the middle of it, but was surrounded by dead changed ponies, all of which were painted to look just like Zecora. The three ascended to the top of the temple to find the real Zecora, lying dead; a foul stench filled the air, the group could swear that the smell is what killed all the changed ponies. They were getting ready to leave when Princess Luna flew in and landed on the temple. “I bet you are all wondering what happened to Zecora, aren’t you?” the royal alicorn inquired. Every pony nodded their head, “a long while after the apocalypse, we discovered that all the changed ponies were following Zecora, and if we took out the leader, the rest would fall like dominoes.” Luna continued, “I came in and killed Zecora, and immediately her body let off that powerful stench and a flash of light, any one of the changed ponies who smelled it would die, and all the changed ponies responded to the light; the virus is gone.”

The three were relieved to know that the virus was no longer an issue, but they still wanted to go to Canterlot to escape the deserted Ponyville. When they finally arrived at Canterlot they found it to be in pristine condition, untouched by the virus. But they still had nowhere to stay, so they went to the castle to discuss their situation with Princess Celestia, who was more than glad to allow them to stay in the castle.

For years they lived in Canterlot, Scootaloo became a member of the Wonderbolts not too long after she learned to fly, Sweetie Belle became the best singer in all of Equestria; Spike became a massive dragon and went to live in a mountain full of jewels. After 40 years had passed since the apocalypse, Ponyville had long been rebuilt, and the three friends used their wealth to have statues erected in Ponyville of all 6 of the ponies who defended Equestria from Nightmare Moon and Discord. The 6 may be dead, but their legacy would live on for all of eternity.

The End