//------------------------------// // Ep. 1 - Chapter 2 - Clementine // Story: Apocalyptic Outcast // by Bringiton6611 //------------------------------// "Spike! Can you pass me that plate please?" "Sure thing Twilight! Just hold a second... got it!" "Thanks Spike." Twilight said, smiling at her number one assistant. "You're welcome Twilight. So, you think this thing will actually work? What it's supposed to do anyway?" "This Spike, is supposed to enhance a unicorn's magic to perform more complicated spells easier! The best part is that it runs on magic, so you can recharge it once for multiple uses!" Twilight explained, all to happy to. "How going to test it?" "Teleportation spell. If it works I should be able to teleport far beyond a unicorns normal teleportation range." "Cool. Sounds like you know what you're doing." "I just need to make a few small adjustments. I'm also planning to write to the princesses about this." "why don't you tell them now?" "Well, the princesses already know about it, so I'll just tell them to come down for a visit once it's done." "So, they know about it, they're just waiting for it to be finished." "Yep." Twilight concluded. "So... when is it supposed to be ready?" "Should be ready when I get this plate attached... there! It's all ready to go! Just have to test it to make sure it works." "Alright then. Give it a shot." Twilight, not wasting another second, lit up her horn preparing her magic to cast on the device. After spending a few seconds charging her magic to her horn, Twilight casted the spell needed to charge the device. It was a simple spell, so she had no trouble casting it. The device powered up. "It's working, it's working, it's working, YES! Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs. "Nice going Twi! Uhh...is it supposed to do that?" Twilight stop her cheering to look at the device, only to drop her ears down, her face turned quickly to concern. The device was currently blinking a lot of different colors, but the most interesting thing about the device was her magic aura was now changing colors from a light purple to a deep blue. "No it's not!" Twilight yelled as she rushed to the machine, hoping to shut it down. "Twilight! What happening!?" Spike asked, starting to get scared. Twilight ignored the question while examining the machine, which was starting to shake. "Spike! Run!" Twilight yelled to Spike as she started to run from the machine. However, before either of them could get far, the device exploded. Sending a magic shock wave through the room, catching both of them in it. Before either of them knew what was happening, the light became to bright and they shut their eyes. The light disappeared slowly... Only to reveal a empty room. "Twilight! Twilight! Wake up!" "Uhhh..." Twilight moaned as she open her eyes. Only to shut them again to protect them from the sunlight. "Twilight! Thank Celestia you're ok! I don't know where we are!" "What do you mean you don't know where... we.... are..." Twilight slowly trailed off as she got up and looked around. The place she was in was NOT equestria. It looks like they're in the middle of a road. Surrounded by... big metal... things. "What are these things?" Twilight asked as she approached one of the many metal things. "You're asking me?" Spike deadpanned. Twilight was absolutely terrified. It didn't help the fact that she saw what looked like a body of... something in a pool of what she thought was blood. She just sat there with tears in her eyes. What did she do wrong? What went wrong? After a long silence, she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper," We should get inside before somepony sees us." "Yeah... yeah okay...," Spike looked around for a brief moment,"How about there?" he pointed his claw at a house that had tannish walls and a brown roof. "Okay, let's get moving." Twilight said weakly, getting up to go to the house Spike pointed out. They got to house, which was unlocked and the door was open, which was very weird to Twilight, walked inside and shut the door once they were inside. They froze when they turned around once the door was closed. The place was ransacked. There was a bookshelf turned over on the stairs to block them, there was a... box thing that had a black and white going crazy on it, as well as the horrible noise it was creating. But what got them to froze was the giant pool of blood in the entrance of what Twilight assumed was a kitchen. If the fridge and sink were anything to go about. "Sweet Celestia... what happ-" *BANG* The sudden sound cause Twilight and Spike to both jump and turn their head to a glass door. They soon started to hear growls unlike any other growls they've heard before. "What is that? Growling?" Spike asked. "Sounds like it, but I haven't heard any growling like that before." Twilight responded, looking unsure herself. Before they could say anything else they heard a grunt as well as a thump from outside. They turn their heads to see out the door only to see... something crawling away from the fence. Twilight then heard more of those bangs from earlier. They didn't make her jump this time due to them being quieter. She figured the source of the sound was further away than the last time. The growls then ceased and the thing stood up on its hind legs, 'How is it not falling over?' Twilight thought to herself. "Hello...? Anybody...?" The creature outside said. "It can talk?" Spike whispered to Twilight. Twilight put the pieces together,"I think that's a human." "A what?" "A human. They're a type of creature a was studying a few weeks ago, but the book said they were extinct." "Of course you were studying." Spike mumbled to himself. "It's coming this way! Hide!" Twilight quietly screamed. Twilight dragged (literally dragged) Spike over to the bookshelf and they hid underneath that. It was a tight fit, but they managed. "Hello? Anybody home? I need a little help." Twilight figured it was best to stay quiet. "Hellooo? There's something going on..." 'Something going on? What's going on?' Twilight thought to herself. She heard the door open and felt her body tense. "Coming in. Don't shoot okay?" 'Shoot?' She heard the door close followed by a cry of pain from the human,"Ahh, shit. Hello. I'm not an intruder...or one of THEM. "Twilight, what does it mean by "THEM?" "I don't know Spike." Twilight heard the human say something else in a whisper,"These people might need more help than I do." Now Twilight was VERY confused. She couldn't put any pieces together. Before she could think any more, she heard a beeping sound from her left. "What's that beeping?" She heard the human say to himself. She then heard a clicking sound followed by a new voice. "Message one. Left at five-forty-three p.m." "Hey Sandra! This is Diana. We're still in Savannah. Ed had a incident with some crazy guy, so we had to get him back to the ER and have him checked out. Anyway, He's not feeling well enough to drive back, so we're staying a extra day. Thank you so much for looking after Clementine and I promise we'll be back in time before your spring break." "Message two. Left at eleven-nine-teen p.m. "Oh my god finally! I-I don't know if you've been trying to reach us, al-all the calls are getting dropped, they're not letting us leave, and aren't telling us anything about Atlanta. Please, please just leave the city and take Clementine with you back to Marietta. I've got to get back to the hospital. PLease let me know that you're safe." Twilight had been studying the human as it walked around, probably examining its surroundings. But as soon the third message started playing, the human stopped and looked toward the source of the messages with a sad look on his features. As soon as Twilight started to listen to the message, her ears folded back and she to had a look of sadness on her face. "Message three. Left at six-fifty-one a.m." "Clementine baby. If you can hear this, call the police... that's 9-1-1... we love you... we love you... we love y-" The message was cut off. Twilight tried her best to stop the tears from coming out after hearing the human's voice trying to warn her child. Twilight saw the human pick up a square frame, which Twilight assumed was a picture of whoever lived here. A voice from the kitchen surprised both Lee and Twilight. “Daddy?” “Huh?” The human's head looked over to the kitchen and started to limp over there to find whatever caused the voice. A few seconds later, Twilight saw the human standing in front of the glass door. “Hello?” The human asked, “You need to be quiet.” The voice responded. ‘How is that possible? How are they talking to each other? Who is he even talking to?’ Twilight had so many questions. “I’m not a monster.” “Good” ‘Monster?’ The human backed away from the door he walked into the house from and chose to walking into the living room. He was no more than a few feet from where Twilight and Spike were hiding. The human continued to look around while continuing the conversation with something he had in his… claw things… “Who is this?” “I’m Clementine. This is my house.” “Hi Clementine. I’m Lee.” “You’re not my daddy.” “No, I’m not. Twilight could now hear Lee’s voice more clearly now, so Twilight made a guess and concluded that Lee was male. “How old are you?” “Eight.” “And you’re alone?” “Yes. I don't know where anybody is. How old are you?” “I’m uh… 37.” “Ok” Lee started to make his way back to the kitchin. He then asked the question that Twilight was wandering. “Where are your parents?” “They took a trip and left me with Sandra. They’re in Savannah I think. Where the boats are?” Twilight heard something hit the bookshelf that she and Spike were hiding under, causing her to almost jump out of her skin.They heard it fall to the floor. Then Twilight saw looked human legs, but they looked rotten and the figure was walking with a limp. “Where are you?” She heard Lee ask. “I’m outside in my treehouse. They can’t get in.” “That’s smart.” Lee praised. Lee saw a child poke her head out from the treehouse. “See? Can you see me? I can see you from the widow.” The girl waved to him and Lee waved back. Meanwhile, Twilight has made the decision to go and investigate the thing see saw just a few seconds ago. “Wait. You’re going out there?” Spike asked, confused. “I just want to get a closer look at what we just we just saw.” Twilight answered in a hushed voice. Twilight then turned back around and headed for the kitchen where she figured she’d find the thing. But then she remembered that the human was in the kitchen. Without thinking, she ran to the kitchen and stopped when she saw the thing heading toward Lee. She had to warn him! “Watch out!” Lee turned around, only to be meant with a snarling, rotten, human corpse that lunged at him the moment he turned around. He managed to grab its arms to keep it at bay. Twilight was frozen to where she stood. She has never seen anything that terrifying in her life. ‘Come on Twilight! Snap out of it! He needs help!’ But she couldn't move. Lee, in the meantime, managed to push off the corpse toward the counter where it fell to the ground. Lee took a quick moment to catch his breath before he turned around and bolted to the exit of the kitchin. In the short time he was running, he could have sworn that he saw a something that looked like a pony just staring at him. Lee was too busy staring at the pony that he was not looking where he was going and stepped in the pool of blood, which caused him to slip and hit his head on the edge of the counter. The living corpse took the advantage and started to crawl over to where Lee was lying, but before it could get close, it was blasted in the head with a beam of purple light. It did not kill it, but it did go flying across the room. Lee quickly stood up and began running again, only to for the corpse to grab his ankle, causing him to fall again. He turned around and punched the corpse which caused it to fall back, but it only got right back up. Lee continued to back away. Twilight saw a little human, which Twilight assumed was Clementine. She was holding a hammer and opened the door. At this point, Lee was flat on the ground struggling to keep the snarling beast away from him. He did manage to push it off of him and turned around to grab the hammer that Clementine offered him with a frighted “Here!”. As soon as he grabbed the hammer and turned around again, the corpse was on top of him again. Twilight fired another beam of magic at the corpse which caused it to be stunned for a second. Lee took that second to swing the hamer the head of the beast, which made contact.It fell to the ground the beside him and Lee qiuckly stood up and stepped on the chest of the snarling human to keep it down. Lee proceed to bash its head in four powered swings. The last swing caused the hammer to get stuck in the head of the now dead corpse. Lee responded to this by jerking the hammer a few time until it came free. Twilight had to look away from the scene before her. She was gagging from the smell the body was now giving off. “Man…”,Lee groaned,”Hi there.” Clementine slowly backed away from the pool of blood forming at her feet.”Did you kill it?” “I think something else did. Before me.” “Sometimes they come back.” That sentence caused Twilight's eyes to widen. Come back? Her eyes widened even more when the girl spotted her. Lee caught her gaze and turned around himself and follow the gaze to the purple pony and the little dragon standing behind said pony. “Uhh….hi?”