Chapter 8: The Return to PonyVille

Exhaustion. Although it was something Rainbow Dash was used to after flying all over Equestria and taking on huge hordes of the undead, it still wasn't very nice. Rainbow Dash and Soarin were experiencing just that when they arrived at the Chrystal Empire, even with several breaks along the way. They had to dispatch several ponies who's names no longer meant anything to the world during their travels.

The two guards at the front didn't include Steel Hooves or the other one, so the Pegasii duo had to wait. The guards changed shifts every six hours.

"You know, two guards won't be enough to hold back a swarm. There aren't even any walls," remarked Soarin.

"There's a force field. The guards just decide who goes in or out," replied Rainbow Dash. Soarin nodded in realization. They waited for several hours, drifting in and out of sleep, until Dash saw it was Steel Hooves's shift. Her and Soarin flew down and broke the news (with the lie about the dead guard's fate). Steel just remained quiet, though Dash spotted a tear forming in his eye.

"Ok. A deal's a deal. You may enter," he said, his voice shaky with sorrow. "I guess this disease just takes from everypony." Soarin just rushed into the safety of the magic field. Rainbow Dash felt annoyed at his lack of pity; after all, Soarin was the pony who killed Steel's brother. Dash dipped her head in respect of Steel Hooves's loss, then followed Soarin.

"Alright. Where can we find your little friend?" asked Soarin, a hint of both impatience and sarcasm in his voice. He was starting to irritate Rainbow Dash, but she hid it well.

"She'll most likely be at the library. That's her solution to everything," Dash replied. Soarin nodded and the two ponies went to the library. They passed several crystal ponies on the way. The way they sparkled and shone rejuvinated Dash.

"Race ya there!" she exclaimed and zoomed towards the library. Despite the short head start, Soarin was soon caught up. Dash won by a feather-length. The race had lasted 2.5 seconds total.

"Dammit," murmured Soarin.

"Oh be a good sport. I promise I won't tell anypony," giggled Rainbow Dash. Soarin shot her a disapproving glance. "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing," he snapped, then instantly regretted it. "I'm sorry. These recent events have been hard on me, since the battle in the PonyVille library."

"I forgive ya. None of us have had it easy."

Rainbow Dash almost kicked open the library doors. Relief flooded over her in a wave almost big enough to knock her down when she spotted a familiar purple unicorn with her nose buried in a book.

"Sup egghead!" Dash teased, her voice shrill with glee. Twilight jumped, then hugged Rainbow Dash.

"Where in Equestria have you been?" Twilight asked, then noticed none of her other friends was with Rainbow Dash. "Where's the others?"

"Applejack and Pinkie are in PonyVille. I had them look for Fluttershy. Hopefully they found her by now. Rarity and Spike... they..." Twilight could see by Dash's faltering that the news wasn't good.

"You don't need to say any more. I've been trying to find out if this new disease was new at all. Turns out, this same thing happened thousands of years ago, before Celestia was even in power. It wasn't very well documented, however. The only thing the book mentioned was the symptoms. Nothing in the way of a cure, however. If everything I read is true, then Equestria is in for something too big for us to handle..."

"Can you make it back to PonyVille?"

"My magic won't be able to handle teleporting anywhere near PonyVille, even if I was by myself. But I did hear of a train that some engineers have been working on..."

"Then that's our ticket outta here. C'mon, let's go find it!" The three ponies took off outside and traveled to the train station. Sure enough, a large train sat there. The sight of it filled the trio with newfound hope.

"I need to tell Shining Armor and Cadence," said Twilight. Rainbow Dash nodded. Soarin just grunted impatiently. A few minutes later, Twilight returned. The trio walked to a trainpony and asked if the train was ready.

"Well, yeah, in it's current condition, it'll take ya righ' out side a' PonyVille. But, we nee' it," he replied. The engineer was missing several teeth, which explained his slurred speech.

"Alright," replied Dash. "Let's go, everypony."

"Dash, we-" Twilight was cut off by Rainbow Dash.

"Just shhh, come on." Dash flew off slowly, and the other two followed. "We'll come back at night and steal it," she said, when they were out of earshot of the engineers. The others nodded agreement.

Night fell. The trio snuck around the back streets, sticking to the shadows. They reached the train undetected.

"Sooo... how do we start this thing?" asked Rainbow Dash, uncertainly.

"Just dump some coal into that box and pull this lever," answered Soarin. Dash did just that. The train roared to life and several lights came on.

"Now we just wait for the engine to warm up for a few minutes," muttered Soarin. Dash could already hear Guard voices coming her direction.

"We need to distract them," Dash said.

"How are we supposed to distract them enough to forget about us stealing a train?!?" Twilight screamed in outrage.

"To make someone forget an explosion, you need to set off a bigger one right next to it," Soarin stated. Dash nodded and looked at Twilight.

"Think you can set off a magical vortex?" Dash asked.

"I sure can," Twilight responded. Her horn was illuminated by a soft purple glow and she squeezed her eyes shut. Just a few blocks down, a light erupted. At first it was a blinding white, then slowly changed colors, to gray, then blue, then green, then red. The source of the light swelled up and flared, then exploded into a huge ball of magical energy.

"That'll work," Rainbow Dash commented. A few minutes later, the train was ready. The ponies hopped into a car and locked it up. Soarin stayed by the engine to make sure there was enough coal to complete the journey. In just an hour, the train had arrived just a mile from PonyVille. The landscape looked surprisingly clear of undead, since the last time Dash was in PonyVille, the town and all it's surrounding areas were filled with undead. Then she remembered what Spitfire told her: the undead follow the living. PonyVille was nearly deserted, so the infected probably moved on to find more food.

The walk was uneventful. It was around midnight when the ponies arrived at the outskirts of PonyVille. Rainbow Dash was wondering if Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and possibly (more like hopefully) Fluttershy had survived the massive invasion. Dash also wondered how so many of them had gotten here so quick.

The library was in ruins. Instead of a doorway on the tree, the entire front had collapsed under the sheer weight of hundreds of ponies. Dash was grateful she had wings, otherwise that would have been a death trap. She was surprised that Soarin had survived. Twilight, however, was just in distress of the damage done to all the books in there.

Dash heard groaning. She signaled for the others to keep quiet, and then slowly slinked to the source of the noise. It was the mayor. She had bites all over her face and her flank, but she wasn't rotten at all. Rainbow Dash figured that she had turned recently. It didn't matter. What mattered now was that it was a threat to the group and had to be dealt with accordingly. Dash picked up a medium sized rock and crept up behind the mayor (well, what used to be the mayor) and thwacked it on the head. Since it was a fresh corpse, the skull remained intact (mostly), but the brain had been fractured by the shock of the impact, which disabled life for the used-to-be mayor.

The group passed by the corpse without looking at it. Rainbow Dash took them to the rooftop where she had first went. She told Twilight to teleport up once Soarin and Dash had gotten to the top. Twilight agreed. Dash started ascending, praying to Celestia that her friends were alright...

Author's Note

Things slowed down a bit in this chapter. Don't worry, there'll be action next chapter. You all can look forward to that.