> The Trottin' Dead > by bronrg > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Epilogue: The End of the Beginning > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 26, 2035. The birthday of the Princess of the Night, Luna. Everypony in Equestria were preparing for that event, even trying to get a trip to see her in Canterlot. Every town was encouraged to participate in giving the Princess a gift, it was the biggest event next to the Grand Galloping Gala and her sister’s birthday. Preparations had been prepared for a long time before the actual anniversary, and all was going smoothly on the day. Every city mayor was invited, and all was well. Until a royal guard barges into the party. Princess Luna was appalled. “What do you need? Did you not get the memo to not interrupt OUR party?” The royal guard panted, “I’m sorry Princess… but, there is a very, very weird problem happening…” The princess looks at him, raising an eyebrow, “What is it then?” He leads her out to the balcony as she looks out, jaw dropping instantly. Out in the skies, a certain darkness rolled across the light blue area. However, it wasn’t a night kind of darkness; this was more ominous, and terrifying. It felt like it was darker than dark, and it was evil for another reason. Most of the pegasi who flied up couldn’t seem to stop its expansion. Not even the Wonderbolts could slow it down. Luna’s expression turned from shock, or worry. She quickly runs off back to the throne room to check on her sister. Luna stumbles upon Celestia writing a letter, and she inquires, “Are you contacting Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia replies, “Of course, the Elements of Harmony will solve this problem, I know they will. They always do.” Luna looks a little worried. “You sure we shouldn’t deal with it ourselves? I think we might do better than them, no offence,” Luna inquires. Celestia sighs, “I have faith in them, they can do it.” Luna looks at her again, really worried, but turns her attention to the outside. Meanwhile, in Ponyville, Spike quickly delivers a letter to Twilight. Instantly, she opens it and reads it. It was a letter from the Princess! There’s a cloud of black goo covering Canterlot, and it needs removal. She immediately runs out, leaving the baby dragon behind, looking for the other Elements of Harmony. She gathered them together at the train station to discuss the situation. Applejack was the first to speak, “So, what’s all the fuss about Twi? Y’all seemed to be in a big hurry earlier.” The rest of them agree to that. Twilight exclaims, “There’s a black cloud covering Canterlot and we need to stop it! Grab your Element, and we’ll get on the train.” All of them put on their necklaces and take the train straight to Canterlot. Everyone on the train didn’t seem panicked, they were all calm, until they see Canterlot in the distance, with the ominous black cloud. At that point, everypony on the bus goes crazy. Even the train conductor stops the train before it reaches the station. The group, upon seeing the train conductor run to the back, they immediately get off the train. Pinkie starts wondering, speaking aloud, “Hm… I wonder why they are so scared.” And the other five just take a few seconds to stare at her, before they all start running to Canterlot. Twilight exclaims, “We need to hurry girls! Canterlot’s getting covered!” The girls keep running, and managed to slide under just in time before the whole city is covered. A mare is floating in the center of the city, shouting using a similar thing to the Canterlot Royal Voice. “You shall all pay for what you have done! My minions shall roam forever!” The group immediately runs and confronts her, throwing threats at her. The mare doesn’t give up though, so they charge up the friendship laser thing they do. It launches out as it’s done with all the previous enemies, and it hits the mare, she starts screaming out, “You’ll pay for this!...” The mare disintegrates, but the dark cloud doesn’t seem to disappear. Instead, it seems to collapse into a thick ball, and light rays start breaking out. Twilight instantly shouts, “Duck everypony!” Everyone takes cover, but the cloud explodes anyway, into a large radius. Rainbow Dash wakes up, groaning. She looks around, and finds she’s landed on a cloud, though she has a couple of injuries on her hoof and head. She gets up slowly, looking down. She’s in Ponyville, but it looks worse. Far worse. Nopony was walking around, most of the buildings are rundown. She quickly flew to the hospital, along the way she saw nopony. Inside the hospital, there was nopony. It was so… strange. She quickly bandaged her hoof and head, when she heard a low growling. She armed herself with a plank, and started to look into a nearby ward. There, she saw, standing in the middle of the room, a pony. But her eyes were soulless, her skin, pale. As she approached the pegasus, she looked at the second pony with suspicion. As soon as she got close, she began to attack Rainbow. Instantly, she retaliated with the plank, managing to knock her down in one hit. Rainbow felt a rush of adrenaline, and she continue to beat the strange pony, making sure she was dead. Panting, she checked her vital signs afterward, only to realise, this was rather familiar. She’s seen this situation before, or read it before, in a book. Equestria was having… a zombie apocalypse. Rainbow looked around, on the outside through the window, and the inside of the ward she was in. She quickly pulled off a pipe and used it as her weapon. Suddenly, she hears the sound of a pony crying from upstairs. She slowly climbed up the stairs to take a look at who was making the noise. She found that it came from behind a door, and she trots to it. Putting her hoof on the doorknob, she takes a deep breath before opening the door…