I awoke the next morning to see Braeburn corner me to a window "now you're gonna die"

Applebloom stepped towards him "Braeburn" I pulled her back and got up slinging my bag on my back with Applebloom in the bag but her head out enough for her to breathe.

Sheathing my machete and putting my rifle on my back I backed up to the window "I knew you humans were weak"

"Really? Because I have a plan"

"What is it then?" he asked so snidely

"Applebloom what do you think of a bit of freefall?" I leaned my head back to ask her

"It sounds scary" with that I jumped backwards out the window and landed just as I wanted to, facing the exit of Appleloosa.

"What happened to Braeburn?" Applebloom asked from the bag as I started running

"You see Applebloom"

"Don't treat me like a child"

"But you are"

"Tell me" She screamed into my ears

"Your cousin ate some bad meat"

"More details"

"Fine but if you get scared blame yourself"

"Ah can deal with it"

"Your cousin Braeburn ate some meat from a creature called Royal and it poisoned him and now he's a much smarter version of infected"

"That's it?"

"I spared graphic details"

"Where are you taking me to?"

"Ponyville" I looked behind to notice I was at least one kilometre from Appleloosa "So I heard you have a missing friend"

"Yeah, Sweetie Belle, she's Rarity's little sister"

"I know that, so what's her cutie mark?"

"We still don't have them and the person I thought you were helped Scootaloo get her cutie mark but probably one minute later she died"

"I heard and I am sorry for you loss"

"There wasn't anything anypony could do"

"You said anypony"

"Yeah? So?"

"So that implies that there was someone from another race could have done something"

"Umm, how long do we have until ah cain' get home?"

"Judging by these rails and the probability of coming across Royals, I'd say fifteen hours"

She cried out aloud "Fifteen hours? Ah cain't wait that long"

"Well unless a train comes along you're gonna have to" after about an hour of switching between walking and running.

Applebloom started getting scared of what was ahead "what are those scary things up ahead"

"That is a desert Royal" it came charging at me, at least it did until my machete came down and went through its skull "that was a little too easy, we better keep going" I slowly walked over to the dead royal, its leg twitched "It may not be dead" I walked even slower to it, I went to grab the machete, it jumped up at Applebloom

"Ah don't wanna die" she screamed, I pulled the Mosin-Nagant off my shoulders and beat the half dead Royal down to the ground

"Applebloom are you okay?"

"Ah'm okay now"

"Good because we're gonna need to get the fuck outta here"

"What did you just say?" I jumped back, shot the Royal in the centre of the head and ran towards the dead body to retrieve the machete "I'm going to be going quicker than I was before, so brace yourself" I started running to the machete and picking it up while I was running to another two who pulled themselves out of the ground. Holding the machete out to the right and the rifle in the left I shot the Royal on the left and slammed the one on the right with the back of the machete.

Applebloom got blood her face, she didn't tell me until later "Vasili?"

"What is it Applebloom?"

"Ah got some stuff from that thing on mah face"

"Wipe it off, now!"

She was obviously struggling to wipe it off "It's not coming off" I flung the bag off and wiped the blood from her face and then rubbing it onto the railroad bars

"That was lucky"

"How an' why was that lucky?"

"That blood is poisonous, the blood may have been what caused Braeburn to turn into what you saw earlier"

"Ah'm bored, I wanna do something"

"Well I can't let you out of this bag"

"An' why not?"

"Those Royals could be anywhere and I don't have the time to pick you up and run. If it cheers you up we've only got about thirteen hours and eight of those have daylight"

"Ya mean we're gonna get back during the night?"

"Calm down Applebloom, I have a light"

"Ah sure hope ya do"

Nightfall reached and we hadn't seen a Royal or an infected pony in hours "Ah'm gettin' scared Vasili"

"And I'm getting curious"

"Why?"

"We haven't seen anything in hours"

"That's a good thing though, right?"

"No. Because where might they be, hiding?"

"Ah dunno? Wait you just said they're hiding"

"No I said they might be hiding"

There was a strange voice which kept repeating itself 'She pays you more attention then she paid me'

"Applebloom did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"A voice said: she pays you more attention then she paid me"

"Ah didn't hear anything"

As we got closer to Ponyville it the voice changed what it was saying to 'they're coming and I'm gonna kill you'

"Applebloom wake up"

"What is it Vasili?"

"I need you to watch my six"

"What in the hay does that supposed to mean?"

"It means watch behind me and call out any threats, in other words infected ponies"

"Infected ponies?" she asked with a little bit of curiosity

"Sounds like you've seen something like this before"

"Ah have, years ago"

"How many?" I asked bringing my rifle off my back again

"Ah dunno maybe thirteen"

By the time we had reached Twilights' library Applebloom was asleep again. I went to grab the door handle and twist it, it was locked "Damn, better knock" all the knocking did was just wake up some infected ponies, within seconds I was surrounded by the infected "Fuck, I am screwed" the ice-pick had fallen from the bag. I picked it up and slammed it into the tree, I took the bag off and threw it onto the ice-pick, I unsheathed the machete pointing at the closest infected "Do it!" The infected pony jumped at me, bringing the machete down I crushed its head.

The voice came back in a taunting tone 'you're not gunna make it'

"I FUCKING WILL!" The other ponies started to circle around me, I hadn't noticed it but one was invisible and crawling down the tree, it jumped at me, only having one split second to turn around it pushed me over "ah fuck it's worse when I can't see the bastard" I sliced at a random spot, it started to bleed and appear "I got ya now" stabbing its brain going through underneath, I killed it. Pushing it off me and getting up I decapitated one of the three remaining infected, shoving the claw at the back of it through another infecteds' chest "come on you pussy" it growled at me but never came closer "BOO!" It ran away. I jumped up and pulled the ice-pick out of the tree and put the bag on my back "I guess we'll have to break in" I had both the machete and ice-pick in my hands shoving them in the tree I used them to climb it, after about half a minute of climbing I reached the balcony. "Applebloom wake up"

"What now?" she rubbed her eyes

"We're here, now you can get out of the bag"

"Finally" she jumped out of the bag and onto the balcony, I soon climbed over the bars on it

"Now Applebloom pay attention: Don't go more than fifty centimetres unless I tell you"

"Ah'm sick of this Vasili"

"so am I Applebloom" I pulled the machete out of the tree and used it to crack open a piece of glass next to the lock inside the door, I then pulled the ice-pick out of the tree.

'You will set me free' that voice came back

"Who the fuck are you?" it didn't respond, Applebloom and I were extremely tired but I wasn't ready to let anything slip. Applebloom had collapsed from lack of sleep. I had picked her up and placed her in a bed, there was a noise behind me "what was that?" I was frightened and the machete and ice-pick were too blunt to use, the noise grew louder as it came closer, I reached behind me and picked up two kitchen knives with engravings of: WDFP. What happened next, I don't know. But it was a bloody miracle.