Just an Old Ponytale...

by EternalShadow54

Chapter 2

Just an Old Ponytale...
Chapter 2-

'Scootaloo quickly dashed to the left, then to the right. The shadows of the figures were everywhere as she ran through the town. The doors were nailed shut and the windows barred at every house. She came up to Sugarcube Corner and banged her hoof against the door. "LET ME IN!" she screamed. "Please let me in!" There was no answer. The rain had not lightened up since it had started two days ago. "Please..." she said as she slowly sulked to the ground. The dark figures were closing in ever so slowly. "Let me in..." There was a scream.'

Applejack quickly flung her head to the side and spit out the beaker, shattering it into pieces. She jumped up and looked to her stunned friend and asked with a very worried tone, "Twi, what's gonna happen?" Twilight's mouth remained agape as she stood there in silence. Applejack raised her voice. "Twilight! What's gonna happen to me!?" she lashed with a hint of anger in her voice. Twilight shook her head as she tried to comprehend, much less act upon, the given situation. To make the matter worse, the wind and the initial crash had knocked nearly all the books in the library on the ground for the rain to burrow right through.

"Ummm..." There was a sense of fear and nervousness in the unicorn's voice. "Just... hold on and let me see if I can find a book on this." She started her search through the messy, wet pile of books. Applejack started to have a weird feeling come over her.

"Twi." Applejack raised a air of concern as she looked at her front hooves. They had started to turn to a puke green. "Hurry up, sugarcube." Twilight was searching through the books as fast as she could.

"I'm searching as fast as possible Applejack, just hang in there." Twilight uneasily reassured. After about a minute of frantic searching, she finally came across the book she was looking for. "FOUND IT!" Applejack caught a quick peek at the books title. It read "Equestria's Greatest Collection of Old Ponytales."

Applejack looked at Twilight with the most confusing and puzzled look she could give. The look caught Twilight off guard. "Now how the hay is that supposed ta help meh?" Applejack's front and back hooves were of the ugly green by now and her legs gave out from right under her. Applejack looked at Twilight who seemed to have a very disheartening and sad look upon her face.

"It... wont..." Twilight gave a heavy sigh. "There is no books in here about how to reverse the effects and if there were, the rain has probably destroyed it by now."

"So..... yer tellin' me ya can't....." Twilight nodded. There was a rather long silence between the two ponies as the wind continued to roar and the storm continued to flow rain. By the time Applejack said something, half her body was taken over by the "infection", as the book would call it. "Ya better leave before mah whole body turns..." Twilight looked at her friend with great disapproval.

"But I can't just-" Applejack cut her off.

"Yes ya can. Ah know you can find a cure for this here thing that ah got and ah don't know what will happen once ah completely turn." Applejack tried to pull off a smile. "Just remember that whatever happens, it's not yer fault." Twilight suddenly felt a sense of guilt wash over her as the words left Applejack's mouth. She acknowledged that she understood with a nod of the head and turned from her "infected" friend to set out Rarity's, the closest living friend she had other than Pinkie Pie. 'Going through town in a storm like this would be suicide.' Twilight thought to herself. As Twilight stepped outside the front of the library, she was nearly knocked to the ground by the full sheer force of the wind.

After she was able to retain her balance a little bit better, she started making her way to Rarity's Boutique. The trip was a long and strenuous one as she had to fight against the winds current and see through the heavy thicket of rain. By the time she reached Rarity's she was almost literally soaked through to the bone, least to say what the condition of the book was. The battle with mother nature had nearly worn Twilight out entirely as she stepped up to the door and knocked. There was a long pause as she was waiting, hoping that somepony had heard her knock. After a while, she decided to just turn and try for Pinkie Pie's when she heard a faint sound coming from inside. It was difficult to hear considering the volume of the heavy rain. The door opened, but it was not Rarity at the door. Instead, it was her sister Sweetie Belle.

"Twilight?" Sweetie Belle asked. She had obviously been asleep when she had knocked. "What are you doing out there in the rain? You're getting wet." the young filly asked.

"Never mind that. Where's Rarity? I have a very important matter to discuss with her." Twilight said as she pushed past Sweetie Belle, basically letting herself in. Sweetie Bell didn't take notice.

"She's up in her room taking her, what she calls, beauty nap." Sweetie Belle answered in a rather sarcastic tone. "Why? Has something bad happened?" Twilight winced at the words.

"Well... something... not so good has happened to Applejack." Sweetie Bell's eyes widened at hearing this. She was suddenly full of energy.

"What! Is she alright!? What happened!?" Sweetie Belle asked frantically. Twilight held up a hoof to the filly to indicate to settle down.

"Go get your sister. I will explain everything to the both of you so I don't have to repeat myself. I'm afraid we might not have much time, so please hurry." Sweetie Bell quickly nodded and shot up to her sister's room while Twilight stayed and dried herself off a bit. It took a while before Twilight finally saw a sleepy, grouchy Rarity making her way down the stairs with a ecstatic Sweetie Belle right behind her. Rarity didn't at all look to happy to see Twilight.

"Twilight, my dear. Do you mind explaining to me why in Equestria you're here and why Sweetie Belle's so frantic?" Rarity said rather annoyed.

"It's kind of a long story. You may want to take a seat." Twilight told her with a shaky calmness. Rarity took notice of this and suddenly became serious as she felt that something quite awful must have happened to have made Twilight run through that horrible weather to get here. She sat beside her little sister who was already leaning towards Twilight in pure worried anticipation as to what had happened to the farm pony. Twilight grabbed the book and sat in front of the two ponies with the most earnest face she could make. "O.K." she began "This is going to sound crazy, but here's what happened..."

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Applejack looked at her limp, lifeless green body that was completely unresponsive. The "infection" was now about halfway up her neck and was working its way at a rather alarming pace. Applejack's initial response was fear when she had drank the potion and realized that the more she struggled, the faster it spread. "Heh, so this is how ah'm repaid for helping mah friend save Equestria from some stupid ponytale." Applejack jested to herself. "A little ironic if ya ask me." The "infection" spread to her jaw. She was now unable to speak. 'Ah wonder if this is contagious?' she thought to herself. 'The old tales said it was spread mainly from the bites of the accursed creatures.' The "infection" was at her nose now. 'I wonder if the transformation will hurt?' she asked herself. 'The rest of the process has been rather painless.' The "infection" hit her brain. Applejack jerked and twisted as her mind was losing control. 'Please hurry Twilight' she thought before losing total control. 'Please hurry...'

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"And that's what happened." Twilight finished up. The two ponies listening were absolutely flabbergasted at what they had just heard. This concerned Twilight as she couldn't tell how the ponies would react. Rarity was the first to speak.

"So let me get this straight. You are telling us that you and Applejack were working on a potion that can turn all types of creatures into undead, brainless zombies and a tree crashed into your home and sent the potion flying in A.J.'s mouth?" Rarity asked in a flat tone. Twilight nodded. "That has to be the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard, my dear." Rarity said as she got up from the floor. "Twilight, feel free to stay until the storm passes over but please leave me alone about this nonsense. I've had a hard day being outside picking up branches and rocks." Twilight was appalled at what she heard.

"You think that I would lie to you about something like this?" Twilight asked offended. "That I would run through this weather to get here and just flat out lie? I ruined a book for Celestia's sake to get here!" Rarity paid this information no mind.

"I'm going back to sleep. When you're ready to tell me the real reason you're here, you know where to find me." and with that, Rarity went back to her room grouching under her breath. Sweetie Belle was still sitting down with her mouth wide open. She turned to Twilight and asked, "You're not lying... are you?" Twilight hung her head down.

"No Sweetie Bell, I'm not. Rarity obviously doesn't want to do anything to do with the matter. I was really hoping for some support." Twilight sat back down and gave a sigh. "I can only imagine what Applejack is going through right now." Sweetie Belle looked at the disheartened purple unicorn and put on a sweet smile.

"I believe you." Sweetie Bell said. Twilight raised her head, she apparently had cried a bit while her head was down.

"You... you do...?" Twilight asked as though the answer surprised her.

"You bet! What can I do to help?" Sweetie Belle happily asked. Twilight looked at her with a kind face.

"Well... there's nothing much we CAN do at the moment anyway except study up on the matter. That's why I brought this book." Twilight said as she pushed the book towards Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle gave a puzzled look.

"Is this really the best source of information Twilight?" she asked.

"Sadly Sweetie Belle, it's the only source..." and with that being said, the two stayed up all through the night reading every ponytale about zombies in the book that was still somewhat legabal. They were up until the sun's rising before Twilight finally passed out from exhaustion...

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