Leon opened his eyes after he heard the gunshot. He was still alive... somehow. He looked at himself and noticed he was completely unharmed. He looked to Applejack, who was standing absolutely still, as though she were in shock. He didn't know what she was so surprised at at first, and he noticed she wasn't looking at him. Leon turned to where she looked, and saw why, and horror registered on his face. Leon saw Fluttershy lying on the ground, not moving at all. He ran up to her, and inspected her. He turned her over, and saw she was the one who was shot with the shell. Many pellet marks were embedded into her midsection, and his hooves were trembling heavily. He was breathing hard, and he was hyperventilating, not knowing what to do or think.
The Control Freaks chained inside stood with shock, and they all hid themselves from Applejack.
Leon lowered his head, and then turned sharply towards Applejack, who had now noticed what she had done. He took the gun from her, and used the stock to whack her across the head. She fell to the ground, and looked up at Leon with frightened eyes. He approached her, with fury and rage. "YOU FUCKING CUNT! HOW COULD YOU!? FLUTTERSHY... SHE HELPED YOU AND YOUR SISTER! AND WHAT DO YOU DO!? SHOOT HER!? THAT'S HOW YOU SHOW YOU'RE WELCOME!?" He smacked her with the butt of the gun again, and she was now crying, not because of the pain, but because of what she had done.
"No… NO! I…I tried to get you!" she stammered.
"AFTER SHE HAD ADVISED YOU NOT TO!" He grabbed a shell from the ground, and loaded it into the gun. He closed the barrel, and aimed at Applejack. "WHY!? WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU SHOOT HER!? YOU TRY TO KILL ME… AND NOW… SHE'S DEAD!"
"I… I never would shoot her!" she pleaded, which earned her another vicious whack from Leon.
"HOW COULD YOU LIE TO ME AFTER WHAT I SAW!?" He snatched her, and slammed her into the wall. He punched her with his hoof, and she fell to the ground again. She was badly beaten, and she lay on the floor, shedding tears.
"She… she got in the way!" Applejack said. Leon stopped, and closed his eyes as tears flooded out of them.
He aimed the gun at Applejack, and stared at her with cold eyes. "What was it you said to me before? I'll see ya in hell? That's where you're going… no doubt," he said calmly but coldly. He aimed at Applejack's head, but stopped when he heard the door to the shed open.
Alan came inside, and looked around the shed. He noticed the chained ponies, Fluttershy on the ground, and Applejack being held hostage by Tar Pony. Alan became enraged, and tackled Tar Pony to the ground. "I don't think so, you bastard!" Alan said in fury as he kicked the gun away from Tar. Alan had tears in his eyes, and he stood on top of Tar Pony. "Applejack, grab the gun and blow this fucker's brains out!"
Applejack slowly went over to the gun, and picked it up. She checked the barrels, and made sure they were loaded. She closed the barrel with a loud click, and readied the gun.
Rather than shoot Leon, she turned the gun on herself. She fired the shot into her chest, and flew back, dead, leaning on the wall, her hat covering her face. Alan, completely taken by shock and horror by the action, ran over to her, and shook her corpse. He lowered his head, and stayed for a moment. He turned back towards Tar Pony, and pulled out the sickle Eric had. He got on top of Tar Pony again, and stuck the blade to his neck. "Oh, I'm gonna enjoy killing you, you fucking piece of shit!" he said angrily, gritting his teeth.
Coughing came from behind Alan, and he turned around. He saw Fluttershy, still alive, struggling to breathe. Alan ran over to her, and knelt beside her. "Alan… don't. He's not who you think he is… don't kill him," Fluttershy struggled to say as she breathed hard.
"Fluttershy… what happened? What did he do to you?" Alan asked.
"Tar Pony… was only helping… me. Applejack… threatened to kill him… so I ran in front of her," Fluttershy explained, rasping and coughing up blood.
"What? Why would you do that? Why would Applejack do that?" Alan asked.
"She… went… mad when… she saw… her siblings. Alan; you need to know… who Tar Pony really is. He's… he's…" She never finished as she collapsed on the ground. The Control Freaks inside all lowered their heads in mourning as she did.
Leon stood up, and went over to Fluttershy, and knelt beside her. Her eyes were still open, and he closed them slowly, tears flooding out of his eyes. He lowered his head, and began to sob. Alan looked back at him, and was also sobbing as well. Leon embraced Alan, and Alan didn't mind, as they were both mourning the loss of their friend. Alan looked up at Leon, with tears in his eyes. "Tar Pony… who are you? Fluttershy… she said you weren't who I thought you were."
Leon looked back down at Alan, with tears in his eyes as well. "Hand me that sickle… and I'll show you," he said slowly. Alan handed him the sickle, and Leon began to scrape off the tar from his body. He shaved off much of the tar around his body first, then the tar around his face, until all the tar was removed from his body. Tar Pony was no more, and Leon stood as himself for the first time in three years. Alan was surprised, astonished, that his father was standing right in front of him. Alan, upon seeing his father again, ran up to him and hugged him.
"Dad… is it really you?" he asked with tears in his eyes.
"Yes… it is. You don't know how much I've missed you and your mother. I was so relieved to see you were OK, and I had never wanted you to do anything dangerous out there. Anything I did was to help you guys out," Leon explained.
"Dad… I missed you too. You were gone for so long, and when this happened…" he didn't finish.
"It's OK, Alan. I'm terrified at what's going on as well. But as long as we all stay together, we'll make it out OK." Leon looked around, and turned back to Alan. "Where's Draco? Shouldn't he be back by now with Rainbow Dash?" Leon asked.
Alan looked up at him with sad eyes, and Spike came into the shed, carrying Draco's corpse on his back. He placed Draco on the floor inside the shed, and Leon was devastated. He shook his head in denial, and nodded sadly. He clenched his hooves, yelled out in misery and anger, and punched the wall inside the shed, breaking a hole into it. He was seething with rage, and more tears flooded out of him. He turned towards Spike. "What happened to him, Spike!?"
"We headed from Canterlot back towards here. We were assaulted by those things and a Manticore, which we fought off and killed. He was bitten on the neck, though," Spike explained.
Leon could not accept this, and he immediately went into a fit of rage. He continued punching holes into the wall, bucked inside the shed, and neighed crazily. He then turned towards Spike, his fury ended. "When do we head to Canterlot?"
"Whenever you're ready," Spike answered.
"Good… because I wanna take off as many Shambler heads as possible! These things are gonna fucking die, right now!" He left the shed, followed by Spike and Alan. He entered the cottage, and the remaining ponies turned towards him. They were all shocked to see not Tar Pony anymore, but Leon, alive and kicking. They all ran up to him, and were flooding him with questions. He motioned for them to calm down, still seething in rage, and spoke what was on his mind.
"OK… Derpy and Rainbow Dash, you two stay here with the foals, and make sure they don't leave this cottage. Alan, Spike, and I are heading back to Canterlot. Whatever you do, don't go back into that shed. The total body count just rose, and I don't want you risking your lives," Leon explained.
Eric lowered his ears, and walked away sadly to another room in the cottage. So… Alan's father has returned to him… why do I feel so alone? Answer… because I am alone now…I have no pony left to be with. The ponies watched as Eric left, but they didn't know what was wrong.
The others all agreed to the plan, and Leon set off with Spike and Alan. Leon turned to Alan. "Where is the Amulet, Alan?" he asked.
"Right here, Dad!" Alan said as he handed the Amulet of Rebirth back to Leon. Before Leon put on the Amulet, Leon saw that Alan wore the locket he had given him. Leon smiled, and remembered that day. After the memory, he laughed a bit, and patted Alan on the head.
He placed on the Amulet, and began his transformation into Magnus. His coat turned a bright yellow, his mane and tail caught on fire, his eyes shone from yellow to red, and his wings became more powerful. He stood now as Magnus, Leon's birth name and alias when he was the Phoenix Bearer. He motioned for Spike and Alan to hop on, and they did so. He opened his wings, and began to fly back to Canterlot. He flew quickly, and he passed over Ponyville quickly. He saw Canterlot in the distance, and flew much lower now.
…
He landed in front of the gates, and many of the guards were surprised to see the return of the Phoenix Bearer after three years. They opened the force field quickly, and allowed them inside. The fields then closed, and Magnus questioned where the CDC was. The guards allowed Spike to escort Magnus to the CDC, and they made their way through the town. Many eyes saw the Phoenix Bearer, and were filled with surprise that he was indeed alive since three years ago.
They soon arrived at the CDC, and Doc greeted them again. He saw Magnus enter as well, and looked in surprise. "Leon… is it really you?" he asked.
"Well, yes and no. Technically, I'm dead. But that's why I'm here. We need you to test me for any way that we could fix this problem. Already most of the ponies I stayed with in Ponyville are infected… including Draco," he said sadly.
"Of course!" Doc said as he led Magnus to a room, filled with many lab utensils, test tubes, charts, and chemicals. Doc then sat Magnus down, and strapped him to a table. Doc attached many IV needles into Magnus, and began injecting fluids from the machines into him. Magnus felt no change inside him, and after fifteen minutes, Doc shook his head.
"Well, whatever this 'disease' is, it's not biological inside you…" Doc said.
"What does that mean? That there's no cure?" Magnus said.
"No, there may be, but… you're technically not dead…" he said reassuringly.
Magnus gave Doc a quizzical look. "What? I'm… not dead?" he said.
"No… in fact, it seems as though you resurrected fully back to life... somehow. By now, you're corpse would have rotted to some degree… tell me, what happened before you came back up?" Doc asked.
"I… don't know…" he said slowly. An idea popped in his head. "Wait a minute… Alan! He was at the cemetery before everything went haywire! Maybe he knows!" Magnus declared.
Doc left out of the room, and brought Spike and Alan in moments later.
"Dad, anything yet?" Alan asked.
"No… but you're going to help us out. What happened at the cemetery before you left? Did anything suspicious happen near the cemetery?" Magnus asked.
Alan thought for a while, trying to remember what he had noticed. Let's see, I went to Dad's grave, left him a sandwich, brought some things like the locket and Amulet, and saw a pony leave toward Ponyville. "Well, I did notice one other pony alone in the graveyard, but I think it was a Shambler," Alan said.
"Did you see how they looked?" Doc asked.
"No, they were on the other side of the cemetery. I still think that was just a Shambler," Alan said.
"Well, we won't know for sure. Doc, I'm going to come back with one of the infected ponies… what did you call them, son?" Magnus asked.
"Runners. The dead ones are Shamblers, the infected ones are Runners," Alan clarified.
"Right. Alan, you are going to stay here until I get back. Doc, don't let him leave," Magnus said.
"Got it," Doc replied. Alan looked up at his father disappointedly.
"Dad, I wanna help too…" Alan complained.
"No... it's far too dangerous. Stay here, Alan, and don't do anything dangerous," Magnus warned. He left the CDC, and decided to fly back to Fluttershy's cottage to bring one of the Control Freaks in the shed back to Canterlot. Magnus opened his wings outside of the building, and flew over the gates, while the guards quickly opened and closed the force field to allow him to exit.