Survivors
“Yeah we been holed up in here since this all started.” Applejack spoke as she and Cheerilee made their way through the halls of the castle. AJ was showing her to her new quarters, one of the many extra bedrooms that littered the massive crystal palace. “Rarity and Pinkie were already here, said they were house sittin’ while Twi was away.”
“Away?” Cheerilee asked. “Where did she go?”
Now was the first time in a month that Cheerilee had been without Scootaloo, and to be honest it left her feeling kind of anxious. She knew the filly was okay; she was currently surrounded by a bevy of adults and with one of her best friends in the entire world. For the first time since this started, Scootaloo even looked a little happy. There was still this tugging in the back of her head that she needed to be with her pupil.
“Some friendship mission.” Applejack shrugged with a sigh as she took a turn into an empty room, the bed made up perfectly. The farmpony made her way to the bed and flopped on it unceremoniously. “That dang map made her go alone. When we got word she was comin’ back, Flutters and Ah met her at the station.” Applejack looked out of the window into the ever-daytime sky, focusing on nothing in particular. “She was as pale as a ghost, Miss Cheerilee. Worst Ah’ve seen a pony in a good long while, at least since Ma passed. Said she wasn’t feelin’ well, so Flutters and Ah offered to walk her home. She shrugged it off and said she’d be fine...look how that turned out. Ah was halfway back to the farm when Ah heard the screams.”
“Yeah.” Cheerilee sat next to the mare, resting a hoof on her back and rubbing up and down it slowly. “I was in the schoolhouse tutoring Scootaloo when it happened. I never moved so fast in my life.” The schoolmare gave a cynical chuckle, shaking her head just a little. “I wasn’t sure we were ever going to make it out.”
“Ah know the feelin’.” Applejack leaned against Cheerilee, relaxing for the first time in Celestia knows how long. “Ah ran into Applebloom on the way to the house, and we were gonna get Granny’n Big Mac before comin’ here...but…” Applejack sighed and rubbed her eyes with a hoof, fighting back tears the best she could. “...Granny’s been sick lately, not really able to move much. Y’know I told Big Mac to just carry her but she wasn’t in no shape to move. He told me he’d be fine and keep her safe...so…”
The dam burst, tears pouring from Applejack’s eyes as she embraced Cheerilee, sobbing into her fur. Her body shook as she sobbed, clinging to the older mare as she let our nearly a month of frustration and sadness.
“Ah left ‘em, Miss Cheerilee.” Applejack managed to get out between sobs, eventually pulling away and wiping her face. “A-ah left ‘em to die. Ah didn’t even give it a second thought, I just left with Applebloom.” There was more anger in her voice than sadness, anger only directed at herself.
“Applejack, you know Big Mac wouldn’t change his mind for anything.” Cheerilee spoke softly with a warm smile. AJ stood up, starting to slowly pace. “And he’s a big stallion, he can take care of himself. I bet they’re still holed up in that big old house, safe as can be.” There was an art to calming someone down, Cheerilee had learned that over the two decades of teaching. You needed to appeal to what they knew, the facts. Reason with them when their emotions were running wild.
“And if Twi went up there?” Applejack asked, her emerald eyes burning a hole into Cheerilee’s skull. “What would he do then, huh? Ain’t none of us could stand up to her in a fair fight if she was sane and now she’s a twelve foot tall monster!” Applejack was exasperated and exhausted, it was painted all over her features: the slouched posture, dark bags under tired eyes and how much smaller she looked than normal.
“Applejack, sit down.” Cheerilee’s voice was gentle, but authoritative. The young mare before her had once been a filly in the very first class she ever taught, one of the reasons Applejack still insisted on calling her ‘Miss Cheerilee’. She knew that the farmpony still had respect for her and would listen if prompted. Sure enough, AJ sat next to her on the bed again. “You’ve been in this castle since this started right?” A nod came in response. “There are several balconies in this castle, and I know you haven’t been just waiting on the ground floor.”
“T’be honest, Miss Cheerilee...Ah ain’t been sleepin’ much.” AJ let out another sigh. “Spend most...Ah guess ya still call ‘em nights, or at least what’s s’posed to be nights, sittin’ in the tower and watchin’. Keepin’ track of things.” Applejack the watchful protector, keeping an eye on her flock. Just like a true farmpony. “It’s how Ah knew y’all were at the door. Saw something stirrin’ up the unicorns and Twi, and Ah kept and eye on ya.” Applejack chuckled and gave Cheerilee a small grin. “Don’t think Ah’ve even seen Dash move as fast as you were.”
“Well I’m no spring chicken, but I even run fast when I’m scared.”
The two sat there for a few minutes in silence, Cheerilee enjoying the presence and comfort of another adult and Applejack relishing in the fact that she had an authority figure she knew and trusted to look up to in this bleak time.
For just a sliver of time, a moment in this sun-baked apocalypse, things felt a little normal.
----
Scootaloo actually felt happy for the first time in forever! Sweetie might not have been here, but so many other ponies were. It wasn’t just her and Cheerilee anymore! So far, she and Applebloom had been exchanging stories of what happened in the past month.
Applebloom had a lot more stories than she did.
Most of Scoot’s time had been spent in a basement with a little radio, Miss Cheerilee, a very bad toilet, and not enough food. The few times Miss Cheerilee had gone up into the schoolhouse, Scootaloo had been told to stay put. It wasn’t until today that Scootaloo had badgered Miss Cheerilee into letting her come on one of the excursions upstairs. It was a good thing too, or else Scootaloo would be all alone in that little basement with no food.
“Well-” Applebloom let out a long yawn. “Ah think Ah’m gonna go back to bed.” Scootaloo blinked, looking up and out one of the windows.
“Bed? What time is it?” It wasn’t her fault that it was impossible to tell the time now without a clock. It wasn’t like Scootaloo had been sleeping much, the howling and screams didn’t really let her anymore...not for long periods of time anyway.
“Scoots, it’s almost midnight.” Applebloom let out a long yawn after she told the time to her friend. The little pegasus’ jaw dropped a little at that revelation. “Y’all woke everypony up when AJ came runnin’ through the halls about somepony bein’ alive.” There was a slight pause. “Didn’t y’all have a clock down there?”
“Not one that worked. The batteries ran out after a couple of days and Miss Cheerilee said she had used them all for school stuff.” Scootaloo would never hold any of that against the kindly teacher, though. She had done so much for Scootaloo, even forgoing food for the last couple of days so the younger pony could stay strong. She could never criticize Miss Cheerilee after that.
“Well Ah’m beat. C’mon, we can go up to my room.” The two fillies set off, shuffling towards the stairs and to where all of the guest rooms were. The sound of two sets of hooves clinking against crystal floors echoed throughout the empty castle. It seemed after all of the commotion of the new arrivals settled down, the ponies of the castle went back to their rooms for more sleep.
“So who’s in charge here now that Twilight is...not around?” Saying ‘gone’ in reference to Twilight felt wrong, considering that she and Cheerilee had seen the alicorn only a few hours ago. As they walked Scootaloo kept close to Applebloom, maybe a little too close if she was honest. There was something comforting about it, though.
“Applejack, Ah guess.” The earth pony yawned again, swaying a bit on her hooves as she talked. “When we first settled down here, Mayor Mare tried to corral everypony but Ah don’t think ponies like listenin’ to her in here.” The two veered into a room just to the right of the top of the staircase, a crudely drawn picture of an Apple taped to the door. “Those two butt heads more’n a couple of rams, Ah swear.”
Inside was a single bed, a small tower of books about farming and ample supplies for coloring and writing. A large black curtain hung over the window, keeping the incessant sun at bay for when the occupant needed to rest. Other than that, it looked like almost any other room in the castle but with some simple Applebloom flair.
“And...did anypony else from school make it?” Scootaloo asked quietly, hanging in the doorway for a moment. “M-Miss Cheerilee and I saw Twist outside of the school and...I think I saw Snips and Snails. They were those...things.” It was tough to talk about, images of broken and bloated bodies flashing through her mind coupled with the terrible sounds those unicorns made.
“Diamond Tiara is here, sleepin’ probably.” Applebloom climbed up in her bed. Flopping onto the sheets and looking over at her friend. “Don’t think her parents made it...other than that...Rumble, Ah think. Him and Thunderlane don’t come outta their room much.”
The way Applebloom just sort of shrugged this all off rubbed Scootaloo the wrong way. Ponies were dead. Ponies they knew and went to school with! Then others were turned into giant monsters that were doing the killing! It fried Scootaloo’s nerves to a crisp almost constantly, leaving her ears swiveling almost perpetually for any out of place noise and leaving her eyes to always scan whatever room she found her in.
Before she and Cheerilee had left the bunker, she had been slightly nervous but more curious than anything. But now? She had been out there, she had seen what had happened and what caused all of this. How could anypony be normal about any of this?
“You can sleep up here with me, Scoots. Ah don’t mind.” Applebloom got under the covers, closing her eyes almost as quickly as she got into the bed. It just served to baffle the little pegasus filly more and more. Sleep? How could anypony think about sleep while there were literal monsters right outside of the doors?
“I...think I’ll find my own bed. Thanks.” Scootaloo felt like she didn’t even know her best friend right now. Sure, Applebloom wasn’t as nervous or scared as her, but there was supposed to be a shred of equinity when things got this bad.
The filly took one last long look at the earth pony, who already sounded like she was asleep, and turned around to leave the room. She stood on the tips of her hooves to close the door as quietly as she could, not wanting to wake or disturb Applebloom.
As she turned around, she ran face first into another pony. The filly rubbed her nose with a hoof and looked up, coming face to face with Pinkie Pie.The Element of Laughter’s bright pink coat had dulled to the point of almost just pink hued gray, her poofy cotton candy-esque mane now stiff as a board and about the same color as her coat. The thing that Scootaloo couldn’t tear her eyes from was Pinkie’s left ear, which was half-missing and looked like somepony or something had taken a bite out of it.
“O-oh, hey Pinkie Pie.” Scootaloo gave her best smile, just trying to brighten Pinkie’s mood even a little. The smile wasn’t returned, instead the mare’s half-ear twitched. Once bright blue eyes were now cold and icy, regarding her cooly.
“I’m glad you’re okay, Scootaloo.” Pinkie spoke in an even, monotone cadence. “Applebloom was really worried about you.” There was something supremely unnerving about the way the party pony was acting and speaking, something that just sent a chill up Scootaloo’s spine.
“Sure doesn’t seem like it.” She grumbled out a response, casting her eyes down at the crystal floor. “It feels like she thinks everything is still normal or something.” A hoof rested on her head, heavy and without grace.
“Ponies deal with things differently, Scootaloo.” A hint of warmth re-entered Pinkie’s voice, not much but enough to let the filly know she actually cared. “It’s okay to be nervous and scared, and it’s okay to try and shrug things off.” This all seemed like something that Pinkie would never say, but a lot of things were surprising Scootaloo today. “Anyway-” Pinkie sighed. “-I’m going to try to sleep again. Wish me luck.”
“Okay, good luck Pinkie.” Scootaloo watched as Pinkie shuffled into the room across the hall, noting that she was missing a large chunk of her tail as well. “Goodnight.” The only response Scootaloo received was a door being shut.
The filly sighed and kicked the floor a bit, looking up and around the hallway. Most of the doors were closed, shielding their sleeping inhabitants from anything out here. There was one door that wasn’t shut and had a light pouring out into the hallway along with the soft familiar humming coming from within. Scootaloo made her way to the door and poked her head in.
“Oh Scootaloo, thank Celestia.” Miss Cheerilee was inside, her fur damp and a towel around her mane. It was the best that the schoolmare had looked since before everything had happened, and she even had a small smile on her face. “I was beginning to worry a little bit.” Miss Cheerilee chuckled nervously.
“I was just talking with Applebloom about stuff, sorry.” The filly mumbled as she properly entered the room. It was nothing special yet, nothing to identify that it was Cheerilee’s. Just a standard guest room in the castle for now.
“Oh no no, don’t be.” Cheerilee corrected, a single hoof tapping against the ground nervously. “I just worry easily, you know. I’ve been around you for so long it felt...weird being alone. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Cheerilee sat on the bed, continuing to dry herself off while Scootaloo milled about the room. She wasn’t sure exactly where she would sleep tonight, figuring that somepony would tell her at some point. Instead it seemed she had been left to her own devices on that front.
“Scootaloo, would you like a shower?” She raised her head, looking at her teacher. “I would say ‘I’m surprised the water is still working’, but I would be lying. I don’t think anything can surprise me anymore…”
“Well I was kinda hoping that somepony would tell me where I was sleeping tonight.” Scootaloo hopped up on the bed next to the mare. “But yeah, a shower would be nice.”
“Oh, Applejack assigned us both to the same room. I hope that’s okay.” Cheerilee dropped the towel, her light pink mane frizzing out a bit. “If not, I’m sure we can find something better.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s not like we’re not used to sharing a room or anything,” Scootaloo hopped off of the bed, stretching out her legs and walking towards the other door in the room where the bathroom was. Steam from Cheerilee’s time in the shower still poured from the room, making the crystalline walls and floor slick with moisture.
Scootaloo closed the door behind her and took her time in the shower. It had been such a long time since she felt anything resembling clean, so it was nice to just bask under the warm water for a little longer than she usually would.
When she was done, she dried herself off and did her best to make her mane more presentable. Without a comb or brush it was hard, but it looked a lot better than it did before the shower. She wished there was a toothbrush or something, because that was one part of her that still didn’t feel clean.
When she finally exited the bathroom again, she found Cheerilee passed out on the bed. The covers weren’t even over her, like she passed out as soon as soon as her head hit the pillow. The bed was against the wall, and the mare had her back pressed right against said wall. That left a majority of the bed for Scootaloo’s use.
The filly hopped up on the bed, and passed out almost as soon as she got comfortable.
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Excited to see where this is going. Excited to know what happened to Twilight on that mission.
Surprised neither of them asked about why the unicorns in the castle are unchanged. After seeing all the other unicorns in town turned into monsters, I would be very concerned about the unicorns I'm sharing a living space with.
This is scary asf! Good job OP, I can't wait to see where this will go.
Good to know my sis is safe, even if she's not as enthusiastic as she usually is.
Can't wait to see where this is going, but take all the time you need
Once zhing I'm wondering right now, or better since the first chapter, it has not been exactly stated what happened with Sweetie...
Might she still be alive and with other survivors abd they just don't know?
Has she been killed by those... lets call them mutants?
Or... did she become one herself?
10823152
Spoilers
10823161
Thought so
Its just fun to speculatee stuff
Very happy to see this continuing. Very intrigued to find out more on what exactly caused all this.And I can already sense the interpersonal conflicts brewing between some of the characters, and the bonds forming between others, and some hints of potential plot threads.
If anyone has a solid chance of surviving on their own and possibly holding out against these things, it would be Big Mac. Especially if it was to keep Granny Smith safe.
I see the name of this fic and I know where it is from being a Catholic and all.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. -Revelation 6:8
Of course, you could have gotten it from Total War Attila as well
The art cover, title, and description got my attention I shall read this.
This has been beautifuly crafted and I love it 💘
The mystery and unique flavor of story writing is exquisite
I can't wait for more!
Ooo. I love the Signal story which follows a similar narrative of unicorns being corrupted so I can't wait to see what path this story takes.
Interesting and scary story! At start only two ponies, and now colony in the castle. Waiting continue and hope about others, who may survive in another places.
And what`s about Celestia and Luna? All of Equestria? Or will this story only cover Ponyville? Yeah, I know - its spoilers.
Now that I am caught up I shall put my thoughts down. From what I have read so far it seems that something akin to a curse hit Twilight and slowly turned her into what she is now. The logical thing to do is find out where exactly she went to for that friendship mission and find out what happened and maybe stop it. And it seems to affect Unicorns only, maybe because the nature of this affliction targets those who can cast magic. So I say whatever this thing is it must be magical in nature not biological. That's my two cents, I look forward to more. Well done.
10823446
Considering the sun hasn’t moved in a week, I don’t have high hopes
It ain't exactly clear on how Rarity hasn't become one of them, does she have to get bitten or in contact with them to work or something?
I'm very intrigued to see where this story goes. It's always fun to see a kind of monster type/disease that only affects a certain amount/group of people. And this kind of creature design always freaks me out good.
A very enjoyable read!
Keep up the good work.
so twilight started it?
*man*, this is creepy... I'm fascinated and look forward to what might be next. Where's Starlight in all of this? Sunburst? What's going on with the Crystal Empire?
I was just thinking near the end "I hope the author actually has a plan for this one". I've seen a lot of promising horror stories just die without warning because of that.
10823914
She may have been patient zero, but I don't think she deliberately caused this
10823809
Maybe. I was wondering if it could also be the castle, since it was created by the tree of harmony, shares a connection to it, and it was stated last chapter that the monsters avoid the castle. Maybe being inside protects unicorns from transforming
10824349
Then that would mean she was in the castle in the entirety of the pre and post apocalypse. Questions are why was she in the castle during that time? Whatever happened to Spike? Did Rarity Babysit him? Wouldn't Rarity be with Sweetie Belle?
And Rarity would of obviously gone out of the castle when the apocalypse first happened. She's a hero afterall, and how would she know not to go outside so that she wouldn't become one of them? If you theorize that Element Bearers can't be infected then your wrong, Twilight is literally the first one infected I think.
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Chapter 2 explicitly states that she was house-sitting the castle with pinkie pie when the apocalypse started, and that it started in ponyville when twilight was heading towards the castle after her trip. as for spike and sweetie, I don't know. we also don't know whether she did go outside after the apocalypse or not, regardless of whether you think she was heroic enough.
I also never stated that the element bearers were immune, my theory was that since the monsters are avoiding the castle, it can protect unicorns form whatever is transforming them.
10824445
We still haven't witnessed the method of infection. It's possible only direct physical contact will result in a transformation. I can see the infection being either Biological or Magical. Or maybe a combination. Next chapter will likely be exposition, so we'll see what's up.
Ah, an unknown contagion that got to her on that mission.
I've loved your ART ; Cherry Lee <3