It Only Takes A Bite

"...Then the air was filled with 10,000 things. Boards, poles, cans, garments, stoves, whole sides of the little frame houses, in some cases the houses themselves, were picked up and smashed to earth..."

-St. Louis Post-Dispatch (March 20, 1925)

  The sound of a low breeze filled Applejack's ears as she slowly opened her eyes. She found herself lying in a large empty field. The sky above blanketed by dark, menacing clouds. In the far distance, Applejack saw a dark funnel twisting across the landscape. Confused, she stared at the twister for several long seconds, watching it as it ripped up the fields it passed through without any mercy, still lying on the ground with a bunch of twigs, branches, and other random debris strewn around her.

  Suddenly, she realized what had happened.

  She quickly got up and looked around, finding no signs of the cottage she was previously in the last night. She started galloping through the field and leaped over a fence and onto a dirt road. She ran down it, not knowing whether to scream for her fellow survivors and risk unnecessary attention, or just look for her group herself. As she ran, the distant tornado started to slowly dissipate until it was no more. Small rays of sunlight shone through the shield of clouds that blanketed the sky and lit the land below. Applejack ignored the beauty and continued to gallop along the long dirt road.

  Applejack spent several relentless minutes searching along the sides of the empty roads, but to no avail, she couldn't find any of her fellow survivors. She eventually gave up, and came upon a small barn house, damaged severely by the storm. At that point, the sky was now clear and the wind had now died. Only a gentle breeze blew through the air. In defeat, Applejack slumped up against the wall of the barn. Tears started to well up in her eyes.

  "HEY!" A voice yelled, startling her. She looked up and found a stallion wearing a dark red jacket and quiver filled with bloody arrows that were used for the bow that was pointed directly at Applejack's head with an arrow, sharp as a knife, pointed directly at her eye. Applejack saw a horn protruding from the short, wavy brown mane of the stallion as the bow hovered in front of the cowpony. "You friendly!?"

  "Um- Yes!" Applejack stammered. "I just got lost!"

  The bow was lowered.

  "Good. You don't have much on you anyways." The stallion replied. "Name's Archer. Not my real name, but I don't really like telling my real name with the way things are."

  Applejack nodded. "Ah'm Applejack. Pleasure to meet ya."

  "There's a town nearby we can head to. It's called safe haven by some, but we call it Hayseed." Archer explained. "I've been trying to get to Canterlot for awhile now."

  "Yer heading there too?" Applejack asked. "Ah was with a group yesterday heading there."

  "Say, by the way..." Archer looked at Applejack as she got up to her hooves, "There was a small orange pegasus with a purple mane and she said that she was with somepony. I think her name was Scootaloo..."

  "Yes! I know her!" Applejack happily exclaimed, smiling. "Is she in that town?"

  "Yep. She's in the hotel there. I can take you there. Just follow me and stay close, this storm threw a bunch of flesh eaters around the place."

  Applejack presumed that flesh eaters was Archer's name for undead. Archer started to trot down the dirt road, and Applejack followed. They spent several minutes walking along the road.

  "So, you from around here?" Archer asked, still looking forwards.

  "Nope." Applejack replied. "Ah came from Ponyville."

  "I think I've been there before. It's a good town."

  "Ya know about Sweet Apple Acres?"

  "Yep. You work there?"

  "Sure do. Or at least Ah used to before this all went down."

  Suddenly, from the corn stalks, something crawled out. Applejack saw Lyra, partially rotten and eaten crawl out. Archer immediately raised his bow and shot an arrow, piercing the mint green unicorn's skull and killing it. Applejack looked down towards the ground in sadness.

  "Are you sad about something?" Archer asked, pulling the bow out from the corpse.

  "Yeah. She was with mah group." Applejack sadly sighed.

  "Sorry for your loss." Was the only thing Archer told the cowpony. They continued to walk down the dirt road and eventually came up to a town. The entire village was surrounded by a makeshift fence made of wood. A gate at the entrance served as it's only point of entrance. The two went up to the gate and stopped in front of it.

  "Hey! Open up!" Archer called.

  "What's the password?" A mare behind the gate asked.

  "Password!" Archer replied.

  The gate opened much to Applejack's amusement, and a mare stood next to the gates.

  "Come on in and let me check you both for bites."

  Archer proceeded to casually unzip his jacket and take off his quiver, exposing the rest of his grey body. He was clean and free of bites. Then, the mare eyed Applejack, looking at her from every side. After that, she smiled.

  "You're clear." She nodded.

  "Thanks." Archer told the mare as he zipped his jacket back on and slung the quiver back onto him. He trotted down the street, which was the only one in the town, and proceeded to go up to a two-story wooden building not unlike the ones from Apploosa. A sign on the front told Applejack that the building served, or at least used to serve, as a hotel. Archer and Applejack went up to the entrance and went inside. There was an old-looking stallion at the front desk. A pair of reading glasses were on his face as he read a book, not paying attention to the two.

  "She's in room 106. That's on the second floor." Archer told Applejack as he trotted up the staircase. Applejack nodded and closely followed. As they went up the stairs, Applejack noticed how quiet the hotel was. Her own hoofsteps echoed throughout the hallway they went down through. Eventually, Archer reached a door and stepped up to it and opened it.

  "Hello?" A familiar voice asked.

  "Hey, kid." Archer replied. "I think I found one of your group members."

  Applejack saw Archer move aside, letting Applejack through. She saw Scootaloo on a single bed, now staring at her in amazement.

  "You're okay!" She happily exclaimed, running up to her and hugging her. However, after a second, she realized what she was doing and immediately unwrapped her arms from around Applejack's neck embarassingly. "Don't tell Rainbow Dash I did that, okay?"

  "Ah won't." Applejack chuckled. "Glad to see yer alright."

  "We should probably be talking about our plans for getting to Canterlot now." Archer interrupted, walking in. "I think I know a good route for us."

  "You do?" Applejack asked. "There's barely anything out here for miles and we lost our stuff to that twister!"

  "Actually, there's a shop across the street." Archer smiled. "And there's an abandoned carnival not too far from town. It was opened just before the flesh eaters came. I been through there once, which was last week, and there was still some good stuff there we can use."

  Applejack got the feeling that they were going to be alright. She didn't know what to think of it as, but she couldn't help but smile at the thought of getting to Canterlot. However, she immediately felt saddened when she remembered the rest of her group, knowing they were most likely undead, or probably trying to find her and Scootaloo.