See You on the Other Side

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