End of Equestria

Chapter Three: New Ponyville

Twilight had never had to be so quiet in her life. Her and Spike were hiding inside the Three-Leafed Clover café from a hoard that had seen them around a hour ago. “I cant hear any more groans Twilight, I think we can go out now”, “I don’t know Spike, I’m pretty sure I saw some shadows moving across the walls a moment ago”. Spike cautiously got up and peeked out the window, “I don’t see anything, I think its ok to go out”. Twilight looked out the window and saw nothing, she then proceeded over to the door and slowly opened it, trying not to make any noise. “Ok, lets get going” Twilight whispered. The two quickly ran outside and crouched behind a over-turned table. “where do we go now Twilight?”, “well, we’re pretty close to Sweet Apple Acres, so we should probably head over there”. Spike nodded and followed Twilight through some abandoned houses. They would see the true horrors of the zombie outbreak in almost every home they passed through. Blood was stained on the walls and rotted bodies could be found lying on the floor. Twilight had never seen such carnage, it was almost too much to bear. Spike looked away at the hunks of dead flesh that were once ponies, he was only a baby dragon and Twilight could see that this was disturbing him deeply. She suggested that they stop in the next ‘clean’ house they find, Spike agreed and tried to wait patiently. “Twilight, look” Spike pointed at a house across the road from the one they were in. Twilight recognised it as Sugar Cube Corner. “Well, if we want to stop and eat I guess that’s the best decision”. The two hurried across the road and through a broken window into the kitchen. Inside they were met not by the smell of rot but the sweet smell of ovens baking pastries. Twilight looked into one of the ovens and saw that it had recently been lit and a cake had been placed inside. “Spike, somepony’s been here”, “what? Really?” Spike looked excited “well come on we gotta find ‘em”. They started to look around for any sign that somepony was or had been inside Sugar Cube Corner. Spike hurried up into Pinkie’s room while Twilight looked in the shop. Spike slowly opened the door slowly and looked inside. All of the curtains were drawn and it was very dusty. Spike picked up a framed-photo that was sitting on the dresser. It was a photo taken at Pinkie’s birthday, they were all there, happy. Spike gave a sad sigh and put the photo into a bag he was carrying. He then picked up a object next to the dresser that was alien to him. It was a piece of wood, like one you would use to whack a piñata but it had a large metal nail stuck through it. “hey Twilight! Look at this!” shouted Spike down to Twilight. Twilight came in the door and looked at the strange object that Spike was holding up to show her. “What is it?”, “I dunno, it was just lying next to the dresser, it looks like it has blood on it”. Twilight inspected the red stains on the object, “it looks like somepony has used this as a weapon”. Spike swung it in the air a few times, hitting at a invisible target. “You know Twilight, you’ve got your magic to take care of zombies, how about I use this?”. Twilight contemplated the idea before nodding at Spike. “That’s a good idea Spike, but, who made it? I mean, Pinkie’s been dead for a long time now and Mr and Ms Cake evacuated to Manehattan”. Spike wondered for a bit and shrugged, “beats me, but I’m wondering who would leave it here”. Spike inspected the object carefully and noticed a mark on the side. It was carved into the side of the wood, it read ‘Happy Birthday Rainbow Dash, xoxo Pinkie Pie’. “Its Rainbow Dash’s!” shouted Spike, “this means she might be still alive!”, Spike was nearly jumping with joy and Twilight gave a warm smile. “This must mean that she came here not long ago, but..” Twilight stopped and looked at her hooves. “But what?”, “well, that cake downstairs was made pretty well and I know that you know that Rainbow Dash cant cook for horse apples”. “So, you mean that Rainbow Dash wasn’t here?” Spike looked at Twilight with disappointment, “Spike, if Rainbow Dash was here, it would have been a few days ago”. Spike looked at the weapon and gave a heavy sigh and started to walk out of the room. “Well, no matter, I’m pretty sure we can still find her”. Twilight followed Spike down into the shop and they sat down and ate some apples and pastries. After about ten minuets they gathered some supplies and headed off towards Sweet Apple Acres.

“Oh Celestia please no!”, Cinnamon Swirl was being cornered by the strange pony that she had saved a few days ago. She found the pony being chased by a group of zombies and quickly brought her into her home. She seemed very nice, she said that her name was Ice Crisp but Cinnamon wasn’t sure of that now. “Come on now Cinnamon, this wont hurt too much” Ice Crisp was levitating a sharp knife in front of her and was slowly walking towards Cinnamon. “Oh please no don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!” she was crying uncontrollably and shaking a awful lot. “My my this is depressing, all of you ponies are always begging for me not to kill them, I really would appreciate it if one or two of you put up a fight”. Cinnamon was against the corner now and the pony was just a metre away now and the knife was coming ever closer. “I trusted you! I brought you into my home and now you try to kill me and steal my supplies?!”. Cinnamon was now very angry and panicked at the same time, she still couldn’t stop crying. “Hush now, its time to go to sleep”, Ice Crisp swung down the knife deep into Cinnamon’s shoulder and pulled it out with a spray of crimson. Cinnamon screamed out in pain and slumped down into the corner while trying to stop the gushing of blood. “Ice Crisp you bitch!” she screamed as her blood pooled on the wooden floorboards. “I’m sorry Cinnamon but there’s no other way”, knife struck Cinnamon’s throat this time, blood flowed down her chest and stained her golden coat. As she chocked on her own blood the pony leaned in towards Cinnamon’s ear. “And by the way, my names not Ice Crisp”, the pony smirked, “its Trixie”. Cinnamon closed her eyes as she took her last breath.

Twilight and Spike approached Sweet Apple Acres. There was a large wooden wall built around the farmhouse which was boarded up with planks. “Do you think they’re still alive?” asked Spike as he munched down the last of a cupcake. Twilight surveyed the area, looking for any small details that could show her that anyone was still alive. “I don’t know, lets go a bit closer”, just as they started to head towards the farm a loud crack broke the silence before a huge rock flew towards Spike and Twilight. Twilight screamed and grabbed Spike before the rock hit the dirt, throwing soil everywhere. The two ran towards the gate and banged furiously on the hard wood. Suddenly, the gate swung open as Big mac’s hooves came towards Twilight. She screamed and dogged the hooves just in time, “what the hay are you doing?!” yelled Twilight angrily. Big Mac turned around and looked surprised at the two. “Spike! Twilight! I cant believe it!”, He quickly hugged the too before being pushed away by a angry Twilight. “You almost killed us!”, Big Mac looked a bit embarrassed and shuffled his hooves. “Uh, yeah, sorry about that, its kinda hard to see if somepony’s infected from here, we thought you guys were one of them”. Twilight accepted the apology and hugged Big Mac. “Its good to see you Mac, where are the others?”. “Granny Smith is sleepin and AppleBloom is feedin the pigs” Twilight looked a bit puzzled, “what about AppleJack?”. Big Macs expression suddenly turned to that of sorrow. “Oh, AppleJack’s in the barn, do y’all want to see her?”. Twilight nodded and followed Big Mac to the door of the barn. Mac opened up the door, Twilight wondered why there were so many locks on it. It was very dark inside the barn and Twilight could only make out the shape of a pony in the shadows. “AppleJack! Why don’t ya come out now” yelled Big Mac. This was followed by a bloodcurdling scream and AppleJack leaping towards the group. Twilight and Spike jumped  ack in surprise only to notice that AppleJack was held back by a chain around her neck. AppleJack had dark rings around her eyes and a deep bite-mark on her side. “Oh..oh my..” Twilight held back the tears from seeing her friend like this. She was so excited about seeing AppleJack that she didn’t contemplate the fact that she would be like this. “Yeah, old AppleJack was bitten around a year ago when she went out to grab some apples from the field, we didn’t want to put ‘er down so we keep ‘er here”. Twilight gave a sad smile and looked at Big Mac, “well, its good to see that you guys are still ok”. Big Mac smiled back and closed the barn doors before walking over to the gate. “Its good to see that you’re ok because we were just about to head into Ponyville, we could really use your help”. Twilight gave a confused look, “we were just in Ponyville and the place is deserted, why do you want to go there?”. Big Mac turned to Twilight, “Well, AppleBloom says she saw a group of infected ponies wanderin round the apple trees in the South Field”. “So?”, “so if there’s a few ponies that have found our little fort that means there’ll be a whole lot more”. Twilight knew this was true, if one zombie pony came near the library a whole hoard will soon follow. “You’re right about that, but why Ponyville? Why not try head out to Canterlot or Trottingham?”. Big Mac rolled his eyes, “because we know that our friends are still alive, just a few days ago we saw a pegasus pony flying over near Ponyville, only one pony is as fast as that pegasus and that’s Rainbow Dash”. Twilight told Mac about how she and Spike found Rainbow’s bat in Sugar Cube Corner and that she was probably still alive and in Ponyville. “Hmmm, interesting, we should try and find her first when we head in there”. Twilight smiled at Mac, “when are we going to go in?”, “in about an hour” said Mac. “An hour? Why so soon?”, Big Mac turned to the South Field, “cause a bit of trouble is on its way”.