Chapter Two — Escape From Ponyville

A FEW MINUTES EARLIER…

"Spikey-wikey? Are you alright, darling?"

"Huh?"

After what he heard from Dusk Shine's horrid outburst, Spike continued to be silent while hiding his anger from Rarity when cleaning the boutique. He had already known from his arrival that Dusk Shine would be the stallion everyone thought he was, but he's not.

He was a mean, cruel, and distasteful pony who hid his true colors behind Rarity's back. And Spike knew that he out be the one to mess with him.

While looking at Spike, Rarity wondered what had happened while she was upstairs. Did Dusk Shine did something to Spike? Or was it something else. This was something the white unicorn could figure out from…

"Spike." Rarity spoke out. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Finally, Spike turned to face Rarity and spoke out. "Yeah. I'm sure I'm fine."

"I know you're not telling me something, Spike…"

Spike then sighed.

How will Rarity take this?

Elsewhere, a familiar stallion was walking into the Everfree Forest when he stumbled upon two Pegasus stallions connected to a carriage. He then opened the door to see another stallion sitting on the seats.

"What took you so long?"

"Sorry, I just have to take a visit for a while."

"Alright. I understand."

"Well, let's go then." The stallion then took one last look of Ponyville up ahead. "Those poor bastards won't be able to know what's coming after them…"

"Right."

As soon as both stallions were seated, they then commanded the Pegasi to start flying as the carriage flew up to the sky…

Back at the boutique, Rarity was still wanting Spike to tell her about what happened until she heard a knock on the door. Except, the knocking was strangely loud.

BANG! BANG!

"Oh? Who would that be?" Rarity said as the knocking got louder.

BANG! BANG!

"Oh for Celestia's sake! Who would be banging like that in this hour!?"

But when Rarity opened the door, she immediately screamed.

"AAAAAH!"

"RARITY!" Spike screamed as he ran to find her.

When Spike came into the main room, his eyes widened to see a strange-looking pony on the ground with blood marks and revealed insides all over his body. And his eyes were pitch white and was moaning very sickly. Rarity was there on the floor as well, looking scared and covering her mouth with her hooves while tears were spewing out of her eyes.

"A-a zombie pony…?" Spike said softly.

"Oh Spike!" Rarity ran to Spike as she hugged him while crying. "It was so horrible!"

"I know, Rarity! Right now, we should get out of here!"

Suddenly, the zombie pony looked at the two hungrily as it gave out a banshee-like scream and ran after them. Spike prepared himself as he blowed out green fire from his mouth, killing the zombie—but unfortunately—burning the entire boutique apart.

"Aaah! My boutique!" Rarity screamed.

"Come on!" Spike then Rarity as he immediately spotted an axe along with a broom. He then grabbed the axe while and gave the broom to Rarity. "Use this!"

"Okay." Rarity levitated it with her horn.

"Now let's get out of here!"

"Right."

The two then got out of the boutique as the entire building went down in flames. But before Rarity could cry over the only place she loved, she and Spike gasped in horror to see the zombie apocalypse happening before them.

Multiple ponies where being chased and eaten by the intruders in gory detail. One pony gets eaten by two zombies while a mother is morning over the loss of her filly being killed by them. Fire and a few explosions were seen caused by the panic. Rarity—who fears the rampage from her eyes—cries on Spike's shoulder while the dragon comforts her.

"It's okay, Rarity. It's alright." Spike said.

Suddenly, a few zombie ponies encountered them while Rarity screamed. Spike then used his axe as he started to kill of the zombies by chopping off their heads. One zombie was about to attack Rarity, but luckily, the unicorn was able to swack it off with her broom. When the zombies where defeated, Spike then grabs Rarity's hoof.

"Come on!" He said as he and Rarity left the area…

THREE MINUTES AGO…

Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie looked at the zombie apocalypse in total horror as Twilight realized something that she had left in danger.

"Spike…" she murmured while tears came out of her eyes.

"Oh no!" Pinkie Pie shivered. "My Pinkie Sense is starting up again!"

"What is it!?" Rainbow Dash worried.

"It means that something else is coming! And it's that bad!"

"Then that means Spike and the others are in danger! We have to find them before those attackers get to them first!"

Twilight grabbed a sheet of paper and an inked quill as she began writing…

Dear Princess Celestia,

I know this is going to sound crazy, but there are literal zombie ponies attacking Ponyville! I don't know how this had happened, but you must warn everyone about the danger! I hope for sure that me and my friends will be able to escape in no time!

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

When she finished writing, she then turned to pet owl, Owlowiscious, sleeping until she whoke him up. The owl then hooted in confusion.

"Owlowiscious, I'm counting on you to go to Canterlot and immediately give this to the princess! And please hurry!"

The owl hooted as he grabbed the letter from his claws and escapes from the window, hopefully finding his way into Canterlot.

"Alright, now we need to board up all of the windows until the time comes!" Twilight said.

"Hold up!" Rainbow Dash said. "What about Spike and the others!? Should we find them too!?"

Twilight then thought for a moment until she sighed. "Don't worry Rainbow Dash. Just trust me on this one—"

BANG! BANG!

Loud banging was heard from the door as Twilght used her magic to board up the door and the windows. When she was done, she turned to Rainbow and Pinkie. "Alright, who do we need to rescue?"

"We need to find Scootaloo!"

"What about you, Pinkie?"

"Well I have Gummy with me!"

"But I don't see—"

Suddenly, Gummy popped up out of Pinkie's tail and bit her mane. "He's fine! But we do need the Cakes too!"

"Okay then. All we need to do is teleport out of here in order to find the others."

"And if we don't?" Rainbow said.

"Then…I don't know."

Suddenly, a crack was coming out from inside as multiple zombie ponies were breaking into the library. Twilight then grabbed on to her friends and began to teleport.

"Hold on tight!"

A bright flash appeared as the three ponies disappeared…

Meanwhile, Spike and Rarity were downtown from Ponyville, trying to find any survivors. But unfortunately, they have to keep avoiding the zombie ponies from within the town. Finally, they made their way into Sweet Apple Acres.

After thirty minutes of running, the two stopped at the apple orchard, resting from the terrors upon them.

"Spike?" Rarity panted. "How long will we keep running?"

"I don't know, Rarity." Spike panted back. "But we have to find the others, including Twilight."

"Alright."

Suddenly, they heard some barking and turned to see Applejack's dog, Winona, smiling at them.

"Winona!" Spike relieved. "Thank Celestia! Where's Applejack and the others?"

The dog pointed towards the home the family lived in as Spike and Rarity were relieved to know that they were still alive. They then followed the dog to where they were.

Elsewhere, a Pegasus stallion was running away from the madness in town that was the zombie ponies. He was able to attack a few of them with a few items, but was unable to stop them enough. Finally, he spotted a cottage that belonged to Fluttershy as he tried to find shelter there. He then banged on the door once he got there.

"Hey! Is anypony in there!?"

There was no response…

"Hey! You have to let me in!"

Luckily, the door was open as he opened the door to see the house completely empty, but was stained with blood marks all over the home. Suddenly, he heard loud footsteps. And then again, and again. Finally, he spotted something white from the floor.

"What the hell…?" He said.

Suddenly, the white thing turned around as it was revealed to be a zombie rabbit about to eat the stallion. Luckily, he was able to swack it with one of his hooves as he made his way into the exit, with the rabbit following him.

Outside, he made his way into the backyard as he encountered the rabbit again. Once the rabbit pounced, the stallion grabbed a shovel and killed it instantly. He took the shovel with him and made pass through the Everfree Forest, hoping that none of the zombies would spot him…

…

Once he was inside the forest, he heard loud whimpering from up ahead. When a little closer, his eyes came widened to see a Pegasus pony crying on the floor. She had a light pink mane with a cream-colored coat, and her cutie mark of three pink butterflies. The stallion then came up to her gently.

"Hey…"

The Pegasus looked to see a blue colored Pegasus with a dark blue mane, cyan-colored eyes, and a cutie mark of three black stars as she screamed. "Please don't hurt me!"

"Don't worry! I'm not going to hurt you!"

"A-are you one of those creepy creatures from Ponyville?"

"You mean the zombie ponies? Um no. I'm not."

"Oh. Then that's good then."

The stallion then came up to her. "So um, who are you?"

"My name's…Fluttershy." She said quietly.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"It's…Fluttershy…" She said shyly.

"Well," The stallion smiled. "My name is Lance Walker."

"That's a nice name."

"Oh, um, thank you. So, Fluttershy, how did you got here?"

"Well it happened when me and my bunny Angel were at Ponyville taking our errands. When suddenly, this strange-looking pony bit Angel. He was looking so sick that I had to take him back home to take care of him. But when he got back…" Fluttershy began to cry. "H-he started to go into a frenzy and bit the other animals. It was so scary, I had to run away!"

Lance then remembered the bunny he encountered while escaping. "Actually, Fluttershy, I also encountered Angel and…"

"And what?" Fluttershy said.

"He's dead…"

Fluttershy then cried. "Nooo! Angel!"

Lance then put a hoof on her shoulder, causing her to look in his eyes. "Hey, don't worry. Everything's going to be alright."

"Y-you promise?"

Lance smiled warmly. "I promise.

Fluttershy then smiled. "Okay."

"So who do you need to find?"

"Well there are my friends for starters. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike."

"Alright, let's see if we can find them. Also, can you fight back with a weapon?"

"Well no. I actually never fight back with a weapon before…"

"Well, I'm going to train you, if we could survive hopefully. Now let's find your friends."

Fluttershy nodded as she and Lance flew out of the forest…

Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends were able to teleport themselves to Sweet Apple Acres where there about to be killed by hordes of zombies.

"Were trapped!" Twilight said.

"Oh no were aint'!" Rainbow Dash said as she took out at apple and threw it from the back, causing the zombie ponies to run after it.

When that was done, the three ponies made their way to the Apple's home as Twilight knocked on the door.

"Who is there!?" The voice was coming from Applejack.

"Applejack it's us! Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow!"

The door opened to see Applejack relieved as she then hugged her friends. "Thank Celestia you're alright! Please come inside! Everyone's inside already."

Once the girls went in, Twilight was relieved to see Spike, Rarity, the Apple Family, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders all in one place. Spike then ran up to Twilight and hugged her.

"Twilight! You're alright!" Spike said.

"You too, Spike!" Twilight said. "I'm so glad all of you guys are alright! I'm so relieved!"

"We are too, sugarcube!" Applejack said.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo hugged Rainbow Dash with joy. "You're alive!"

"I'm glad you're alive too!"

"But wait," Apple Bloom spoke up. "Where's Fluttershy?"

Twilight frowned. "We don't know yet. Spike?"

"Me and Rarity hadn't checked on Fluttershy yet." Spike frowned as well.

Suddenly, there was some knocking on the door.

"Applejack, it's me, Fluttershy! I'm with someone else!"

"Fluttershy?" Applejack opened the door to see Fluttershy and somepony else as the cream-colored Pegasus quickly ran inside.

"Oh my Celestia! Thank you for bringing me in! It was so scary out there! And—"

"Fluttershy," Lance comforted her. "You can calm down now."

"Oh." Fluttershy lightly blushed. "I'm sorry…"

"Um, sorry to break this up but, who are you?" Twilight stared at Lance.

"I'm Lance Walker! I'm new to Ponyville. Or, what's left of Ponyville. Anyways, I found Fluttershy from the Everfree and helped her find you guys."

"Well alright then. Now that were all here, I sent Owlowiscious a letter to Princess Celestia, so hopefully we could find a way to escape."

"So what are we going to do?" Lance said.

"Everypony, I have a plan! All we need to do is to escape from Ponyville until we can get to Canterlot. It's our only way of survival. But in order to get out of here, we need to know more about the zombies. Spike, you read about the zombies before, can you tell us what he know?"

"Sure!" Spike came up. "Well for starters, zombies can easily hear loud noises, so it's best to stay quiet."

"Alright." Twilight turned to the door. "First of all, we need to get some weapons. Everypony, grab what you can find."

Everypony then started to pick the weapons they needed, even Pinkie Pie, who uses, of course, her party cannon. Fluttershy—on the other hand—was very nervous to which weapon she would take until Lance came beside her.

"I don't know what to do, Lance." Fluttershy said. "I don't know if I should fight or not. What should I do?"

"Fluttershy, it's alright. I'll stay by your side for now until Celestia's willing, I'll train you." Lance said as he gave her a frying pan. "Use this until the time being, alright?"

Fluttershy then smiled. "Okay." It looks like she's starting to like Lance.

When everypony got back to their spots, Twilight looked to see Applejack and Big Macintosh armed with actual shotguns. "Are those shotguns!? I thought they were banned in this area!?"

"Well we usually keep them hidden until something bad happend. And this is the right time to use them!" Applejack grinned.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac agreed.

"Well alright." Twilight said. "It's time we go outside. But keep yourselves silent. We don't want to let the zombies hear us."

Everypony nodded as the door slowly opened. Twilight turned left and right to find any zombies until it was empty. "The coast is clear." she whispered.

The gang then quietly went outside and closed the door, making their way into Ponyville. All of a sudden, Pinkie Pie started to sneeze until it was a false alarm. But suddenly, she actually sneezed, causing the zombies to hear her.

"Whew! Excuse me!" She smiled innocently.

Suddenly, a banshee cry was heard as the zombies started to run up to them. The gang then started to attack them. During then, a zombie was about to eat Lance until it was hit with a frying pan. Lance turned to see Fluttershy carrying him up.

"Thanks, Fluttershy." Lance smiled.

Fluttershy blushed. "Um, you're welcome."

But however, something was flying down from the sky as the gang looked in horror to see zombie pegasi from Cloudsdale up above.

"RUN!" Twilight said.

The gang didn't know what to do while running as they were about be eaten alive when suddenly, the royal guards appeared and hold the zombies off.

"Are you Twilight Sparkle?" one of the guards said.

"Yes! I am!" Twilight responded.

"Well we are the recruits from Canterlot and we are here to bring you all to safety. Colts, take them down!"

A few of the guards used there weapon to fight them off while the rest of them took the gang into the carriages from the Pegasus guards as they finally flew off from the town.

Once they left Ponyville behind, Spike was sitting next to Twilight, looking worried. "Twilight, are we gonna be alright?"

Twilight turned to Spike and hugged him. "I hope so, Spike, I hope so."

After escaping the town, the gang arrived at Canterlot under the nearly setting sun…

TO BE CONTINUED…