It Only Takes A Bite

"Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep,

And yet a third of life is pass'd in sleep."

-Lord Byron

"Hey miss? Ma'am? Are you alright?" Applejack heard a voice in the dark, empty void she was in. She had a pounding headache that wouldn't stop. She slowly opened up her eyes and was blinded by the sunlight. She found herself lying on the ground with an amber coat and a brown mane.

  "Finally!" Applejack happily said. "Somepony that ain't trying to attack me!"

  "You're Applejack, aren't you?" The stallion asked, ignoring what she said. "You run this orchard, right?"

  "Yep. That's me." Applejack replied as she got up, with help from the stallion.

  "Oh sweet Celestia..." Caramel smiled lightly. "I thought you got killed off in that farm accident three weeks ago!"

  Applejack immediately frowned, and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

  "You have NO idea what happened while you were out." Caramel said to the mare. "I just heard an accident occured here and you had to be sent to the hospital. I saw your body, and I thought you were a goner!"

  "What happened while Ah was out?" Applejack nervously asked.

  "A lot. A few days after you got into the hospital, Celestia started to evacuate the town. However, only a day after that was ordered, a bunch of creatures, which I personally call undead, started coming out of Everfree and eating anypony they could find."

  Applejack remembered that stallion she saw. She knew why Caramel called them undead now.

  "If you got bit, then that was it. You only had Celestia knows how long before you died off and turned into one of them."

  Applejack now considered herself extremely lucky that the undead from earlier hadn't managed to take a chunk out of her.

  "How long have ya'll been here?" Applejack asked.

  "Only two days. I have three others with me. One of them is a foal." Caramel answered. "Come inside and I'll introduce you to them."

  Caramel motioned the cowpony to follow him and Applejack obliged. The two went inside the bright red barn and into the living room. Three ponies were inside. A foal sat on the couch, resting there and staring up at the ceiling. Another, a unicorn, was hammering wooden planks to the window. The last was helping out the unicorn. However, Applejack instantly recognized the foal.

  "Scootaloo?" Applejack gasped.

  "Applejack!?" The filly said in shock. She hopped off from the couch she sat on and ran up to her. "Oh my gosh! You're still alright!"

  "I see you already know Scootaloo. We found her while we were sneaking out of town." Caramel explained, looking at the foal. "The green one's Lyra."

  "Hey." She casually said, focusing on boarding up the windows.

  "And the one with the curly hair is Bon Bon."

  The mare in question casually turned and waved, then continued to set boards up on the windows.

  "Ah actually encountered one of those... Undead, as you call them, earlier. Do you think you may know him."

  "What did he look like?" Scootaloo asked.

  Applejack thought back to what the stallion looked like. She could only remember the colors he had and the cutie mark it bore.

  "It had three clovers as a cutie mark, dark grey mane, and grey coat." Applejack answered. "Does that help any?"

  Everyone in the room turned towards her, shocked. Caramel's face immediately went to one of depression.

  "Lucky Clover..." He sighed. "I was guessing he got caught yesterday."

  Applejack didn't know how to respond. She didn't want to upset anyone in the room, yet she wanted to know what he may have been doing before ending up as Applejack saw.

  "I knew he wouldn't return from that supply run, Lyra." Bon Bon pointed a hoof at the green unicorn.

  "I was just trying to be positive when I said he would." The unicorn turned towards her.

  "So," Applejack started, wanting to change the conversation. "How do ya stop these things?"

  "You have to destroy the brain." Caramel simply replied.

  Applejack's eyes widened in shock. She started laughing to Caramel's confusion.

  "That's really funny, ya really got me there." Applejack laughed. "But seriously, how do you stop them?"

  "You have to destroy the brain." Caramel repeated himself, louder this time. "They won't stop until they are rotten to the core, or have their brain damaged."

  Applejack knew he wasn't kidding from the serious look on his face.

  "Isn't that killing them, though?" Applejack nervously replied.

  "Pretty much. It's easier to do it when you know they aren't actually your friends or family anymore. Think of them as..." Lyra rubbed her chin trying to find the right word. "I don't know... Changelings."

  "Changelings don't make you eat the living." Scootaloo told the mare.

  "I didn't say they did, kid." Lyra replied in an annoyed tone. She hammered the last piece of wood to a window and smiled, standing back and admiring her handiwork on the makeshift barricade that protected them from the dangers of the outside world. "Barricade's done!"

  "Good. Now we can probably rest here in peace." Caramel happily said. "In fact, looking outside right now, I think we should be heading to bed."

  "What about dinner?" Applejack asked.

  "How long have you been out?" Bon Bon asked, as if she was the stupidest mare in Ponyville. "We have to ration our food."

  "Can't we just go buck some apples?"

  "Out in the darkness where those undead can sneak up onto you? Be my guest." Bon Bon replied before heading upstairs with Lyra and Scootaloo. "Don't expect me to come get you if you start being eaten alive."

  Applejack grunted in frustration at the pony.

  "There's an extra bed upstairs." Caramel said. "You can rest there. I just hope you like getting up early."

  "That's what Ah usually do every day." Applejack replied.

  "Then you should get used to the sleeping schedules in no time. We'll be doing night shifts. Somepony keeps watch for any of those undead for part of the night, then switches with another. It's currently me, Lyra, Bon Bon, and finally you, since you arrived here."

  "Well alright then." Applejack simply replied, hesitant about doing the seemingly dangerous task. Everyone with her would be depending on her when it was her shift.

  "Well, you head on up to bed." Caramel said, heading up to a barricaded window and peeking through the slits in between the planks. "One of us will wake you up when it's your shift. Just keep watch and call us if you see anything when it's your time."

  "Alright then. G'night." Applejack told the stallion before heading up to bed. Her instincts told her to immediately head to her room as she always did. She maneuvered through the dark hallway, and stepped up to the door that was the gateway to her own little space in the entire orchard. She slowly opened it and to her happiness, she found it empty. She slowly walked over to her bed. She could already feel the warmth of the sheets and the softness of the pillow. She climbed up into the bed, and put her hat onto the small table next to her, then shut her eyes.

  "Celestia, if you can hear me," Applejack whispered. "Please let my family be alright."

  "Wake up." Applejack heard Bon Bon tiredly tell the cowpony. She groggily got up and looked up at her.

  "Mah turn to keep watch?" Applejack asked, grabbing her hat and putting it on.

  "Yep. Head downstairs and keep watch. Get up here and wake us up if there's trouble."

  Applejack simply nodded in response and climbed out of bed. She yawned and stretched out and turned on the light.

  "What are you doing!?" Bon Bon angrily said, immediately turning off the light. "You'll get us attention if you do that!"

  "Sorry." Applejack tiredly replied. She left the room and slowly went down the dark stairway. With the dangers Applejack now knew about, she felt very vulnerable in the darkness. Anything could be waiting in the corners to jump out and take a bite out of her. As Caramel told Applejack, it only takes a bite to turn. She continued down the dark stairwell, hearing the boards below her creak as she took each step. Soon, she found one of the windows. She carefully trotted over to it, and started her first shift.

  She could see Canterlot in the far distance. The lights there were all on. Applejack hoped that it meant that it was a safe haven, or that they haven't been affected yet.

  The time she spent looking outside was mainly uneventful. Nothing ever happened. However, she did see a crowd of ponies in the town a few minutes before the sun rose over the horizon. She didn't want to find out if the ponies were more undead or not. Soon, the sun was over the horizon. It lit the landscape like a flame lit a dark room. She felt more safer now that she could see into the darkness better.

  Suddenly, she heard trotting coming from the stairs. She turned around and saw Caramel slowly going down the stairway.

  "Morning." Applejack said, waving at him.

  "Morning. Any problems happen while you were up?" Caramel asked, coming over to the mare.

  "Nothing." Applejack replied. "Say, are the lights over at Canterlot usually on?"

  "Yeah. I heard they used that as an evacuation zone." Caramel answered. "The mountain protects it pretty well. Those undead can't climb for anything. Not only that, but they're more stupider than any living thing should be. They will walk off the side of a cliff if they see you at the bottom of it."

  "Huh. Also, there was a large crowd of ponies in the town awhile ago."

  "That was a group of undead. In the earlier days, the undead were more spread about, but now I guess they got attracted to the sound of each others moaning and they started to form large groups."

  "You seem to know a lot about this stuff, Caramel." Applejack chuckled.

  "I guess I do. I guess you learn more from watching." Caramel simply replied. "Say, we should go get some breakfast."

  "Can't we just go buck apples? Ah suggested that yesterday!"

  "That makes noise. Undead are attracted to noise. Do you want that huge group of undead over here?"

  Applejack immediately thought of what they would go through if they were to have a horde of a hundred of undead come over to the orchard.

  "Well... Shoot. No."

  "We usually just pick them off, but most of the scavengers from Cloudsdale already took most of them." Lyra said from the stairs, startling the two.

  "Wait, Cloudsdale is still fine?" Applejack asked.

  "Yeah. I forgot to say, undead can't fly and can't use magic. The reason for flying is probably because of their decomposition, and the reason for the lack of magic is probably because dead things can't cast spells." Caramel answered. "Cloudsdale has a group of scavengers that come down here every once in awhile. They just look around the homes and check for any stuff that the city can use. When we got here, most of the apples were gone."

  The cowpony felt a hint of anger towards the pegasi, but it subsided as fast as it came when she realized that they did it just to survive.

  "We can't stay here forever." Lyra said. "We eventually have to leave soon. Far away from town."

  "Well we're going to do one last supply run before we do." Caramel said. "Applejack, do you think you're up to this?"

  "Ah guess..." She sighed. She may as well figure out how the survivors killed off the undead in case she got into a similar situation.

  "Alright. We're not going through town, we're going around it. We haven't checked the other side of town yet, but hopefully there may be some stuff there." Caramel explained the plan. "Get two saddlebags and I'll meet outside. Lyra, tell Bon Bon and Scootaloo we'll be back soon."

  "Alright." Lyra replied as Applejack went over to a coffee table and put on a pair of green saddlebags. Caramel got another pair from the table, except they were orange. "You two be careful."

  "We will." Caramel said as he trotted over to the door leading outside. He opened it up and cautiously looked out before stepping out into the bright sunlight. "Come on Applejack."

  "Ah'm coming." The mare quickly replied, trotting outside. Caramel shut the door and the two started walking off down the path. Applejack continued to stare at the large, elegant castle that was on the distant mountain. She could only hope that was where her family and friends were.

  The two were now almost three-fourths of the way around town. It was mostly tall grass and wilderness. It was peaceful as any other day. However, there was a lack of wildlife. No animals that stayed on the ground could be found, and only birds could be seen in the sky. As the two walked, Caramel heard the sound of a moan and raised a hoof up, telling Applejack to stop.

  "There's one right there." He whispered, pointing to an undead mare that wore a nurse's cap and had a white but bloody coat. It's hind legs seemed badly damaged, and it was eating something hidden by the bushes. It had yet to notice the two over the sound of it's chewing. Caramel sneaked up slowly to the undead pony, and turned around. He immediately bucked it, causing it to fall to the ground. It started to loudly moan and started writhing on the ground. Applejack could already smell the stench of rotting flesh from where she stood. Caramel rose up to his two back hooves, put his two forelegs together, and stomped onto the head of the mare. The sound of a sickening crunch resounded, and the moaning suddenly stopped.

  "What was it eating?" Applejack asked, walking up to the stallion, wiping the blood off his hooves.

  "A rabbit." He casually replied, motioning over to the dead creature. Applejack kept her distance away from the animal. "Don't worry, they don't turn into undead for some reason. They just die."

  "Oh, good." Applejack chuckled. The two continued into the direction they were headed. Eventually, they came upon a path that lead up to a cottage.

  "Hey, that's where Fluttershy lives..." Applejack said.

  The cottage was abandoned, yet it showed no signs of damage. No animals were nearby as there usually was, and it was eerily silent.

  "I hadn't checked this place yet..." Caramel walked up to the door of the home. "We should check the place out."

  Applejack felt a bit bad for taking things that wasn't theirs, but she guessed Fluttershy wouldn't mind if they took some supplies. Caramel slowly opened up the door, and was greeted by a dark room. He pulled a small flashlight out from his saddlebag and turned it on. The ray of light lit up a wall. He looked around, being cautious. He found a lamp, and he turned it on, lighting up the room. A piece of writing on the wall read something that reminded Applejack of the writing back at the hospital, except more darker.

I*t's fun to cut into the animals. Like cutting butter apples with a knife. Too bad they all ran away when I started cutting the first.*

  "Disgusting..." Applejack whispered, grimacing at the simple words scribbled into the wall.

  "No kidding." Caramel replied.

  The two started searching the home. Applejack looked around the living room. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that everything was covered in a layer of fine dust. She didn't figure they'd find any food in there, so she headed into the kitchen. It wasn't much different than the living room was. The two started checking the drawers, the fridge, and eventually, Applejack found a pantry after a few minutes. She opened it up and found a load of food inside.

  "Caramel, found some things we can take." Applejack happily said.

  "Great." He replied, lowering the flashlight he had. "Just grab as much as you can and let's get out of here. I don't really want to stay here much longer."

  "Me neither." Applejack replied, thinking back to the writing she saw earlier.

  The two spent five minutes stuffing their saddlebags with food. Soon, when the bags were full, they quickly left the cottage. They left at a quicker pace. They saw the sun was now higher in the sky. Applejack looked back towards the small cottage. She felt sorry for Fluttershy, knowing she'd be upset that her animals were all gone. She'd probably be even more upset when she saw the writing on the wall.

  "Actually," Applejack started, "Can't we get rid of the writing on the wall?"

  "We can't. It will be a waste of time." Caramel replied. Applejack sighed as they stepped off the path and entered the foliage that lined the dirt trail.

  "Say, where are we going to try to get to?" Applejack asked Caramel as they walked through the tall grass.

  "We were actually going to head up to Canterlot." Caramel replied. "However, I don't know why, but they blocked off this side, so we probably going to have to go up the other way."

  "We'll have to go around the mountain though!"

  "Pretty much. We don't really have any other choice." Caramel told the cowpony. "I was thinking of heading northwest, since there's some farmland over there, and we could find some food for us. Then we will head northeast, and go up the mountain from there. Hopefully, there will be a track or a makeshift path we can take to make the trip faster."

  "That's going to take days! Possibly weeks! Are you sure about this?"

  "It's the safest route I can think of. Unless you have a better idea, we're going by my plan."

  Applejack didn't want to take his intended route, but she knew that it would be the only way to get to Canterlot. She knew it was going to be a long time before they were going to see the city.