This chapter took a long while to publish, but I finally got it up, so enjoy!
As Magnus flew over the skies of the frozen tundra, something disturbed his peaceful thought process. He looked up towards Pinkie, wondering how she met her end. He wondered how he should ask… after all, being blunt about it could just make her feel even worse. "Um… Pinkie?"
She was preoccupied at first with enjoying the travel as a dog would, hanging it's tongue out to catch the breeze. She heard Magnus, looked down, and answered, "Yes, your highness?"
He waited a bit, pondering how exactly he would word his question, before speaking up again. "Hmm… how did… how did you end up in a place like that, Pinkie?"
She raised her hoof over her muzzle, scratching her chin slowly in confusion. "I don't know… but it was so… so boring there! I tried to make everypony laugh, but nothing did it."
"I can understand why…" he answered back slowly. Many thoughts lingered in his mind, regarding how he would deal with Canterlot. Or… whether I should deal with Canterlot at all… there's nothing making me. With that, he changed his course of direction considerably, heading southwest now. Pinkie noticed this, and turned to him.
"I thought we were heading to Canterlot," she reminded him.
He shook his head slowly, continuing to gaze in the direction of Ground Zero. "No… as far as I see it… Canterlot has nothing important for me to make it a priority. We're going back to town… and getting rid of these bastards, no matter how it's gonna be done."
"Leon… why do you sound so angry?" Pinkie asked, fear hanging in her voice.
"Because I am!" he snapped with ferocity, his blood red eyes flashing. Pinkie couldn't help but to tremble uncontrollably at his fury. He looked back forward to Ground Zero, now visible in the distance as a speck with smoke and fires filling the air above it. "We're almost there… and when we arrive, I need you to go somewhere safe. Understand?"
She didn't respond, still shaking violently in fear. Magnus sighed in a bit of regret, and spoke again. "Listen… I'm not even sure if Canterlot is worth saving now. It's about ten times the number of ponies than in Ponyville, and if I don't get all of them, what would be the POINT!?" He stopped himself from getting angry again before continuing. "Of helping them… if they would only turn into those things again? There wouldn't be one. That's why I'm only focused on Ground Zero, Pinkie."
Pinkie nodded sadly, stayed silent for a bit, and bugged Magnus again. "What about Twilight… and Spike? They're still in Canterlot."
"They are… but like I said… Ponyville's my main concern right now. I'm sure they can handle themselves." As they neared the demolished ruins of Ponyville, Magnus began to descend closer to the ground. He soon landed near Fluttershy's shed, and allowed Pinkie Pie to step off from his back. He turned to the cottage, and trotted towards it.
He used his hoof to knock on the door, and waited for an answer. It was a moment before he grew impatient and knocked again. Again, he received no response. Pinkie Pie stood behind him, and perked up. "Maybe they're in the bathroom?"
Magnus turned back to her, eyebrow raised. "All of them in the same one? I doubt it." He scratched his chin with his hoof, and smiled. "Wait! This would be a perfect time to use magic!" He then pointed his forehead towards the door. He expectedly waited for something to happen by itself, and stood still for awhile.
Pinkie tried her best to keep from stating the obvious, but she failed. "OK, Leon… nothing's happening. Are you sure you know how to use that?"
He sighed in admittance, and shook his head. "I only know how to exorcise the ponies and bring them back to life. Stupid horn!" he yelled in anger, charging towards the door. He pierced it successfully with the horn, but was unsuccessful in splintering it as he intended, and instead got it stuck. Pinkie Pie couldn't help but burst out in laughter, and she then tried turning the door knob. The door opened easily after she did, and she smirked at Leon. "Don't say it…" he replied.
"I won't…" she said. She peered inside, and found it deathly quiet. She gulped, and slowly walked throughout the inside, glancing side to side and looking for any sign of life.
"Anything, Pinkie?" Magnus called out from outside, causing Pinkie to shriek and jump in fear. She then realized it was only Leon, and breathed easier.
"No… nopony's here," she replied, depressed. "What does that mean, then?"
"Listen… it doesn't mean that they're gone. Otherwise… otherwise, we would've found them…" He stopped for a moment, then spoke up again. "Look for anything that might point to what happened to them."
Pinkie then nodded, and placed her nose onto the floor. She sniffed across the wooden boards, trying to catch a scent or any other hint as to the ponies whereabouts. As she inspected the entire cottage, she went back to the front door, where Magnus had finally succeeded in pulling out his horn. "Anything, Pinkie?"
Pinkie shook her head. "Well… the good news is, we didn't find them hurt! The bad news is… we didn't find them at all!" she announced with happiness and confusion. "But! I did find something! We can go back to the shed and see if anypony else stayed there."
"Good call, Pinkie. Maybe we can see if they know what happened to Alan and the others." Magnus led Pinkie Pie out of the cottage, towards the shed. He stopped her, and placed his ear on the door. For a few seconds, he made no movement whatsoever. He slowly pulled away, and turned to Pinkie. "Faucet running… but I can't hear anypony. Stay here, would you?" Magnus asked.
Pinkie Pie saluted in obedience, and idled around the cottage's yard. Magnus smiled, and turned back to the shed. He opened the door with his wing, and entered inside the pitch black room. I can't see shit in here… Magnus thought to himself. He pondered a bit, and thought of using his horn to light up the room. But how do I light it up? He thought for a moment, much about how to light up a room using only thought.
He noticed as he did, his horn was spurting out sparks. A small glimmer of light, dim and weak, but it was noticeable. He grinned from ear to ear as his horn sparked, and figured if he could keep concentrating on light, he'd eventually have a steady beam of light to see with. He strained as he focused on pure thoughts of beacons and radiance.
His horn sputtered out more sparks now, and grows much more luminous. "Eureka! I've found it!" he announced proudly. He continues focusing on phosphorescence, and uses it to search the shed. OK… usually, they're at the front… but where are they? "Fluttershy? Rarity? You mares there?" he asks, baffled at the ironic silence of the shed. He heard the dripping again, more clear and annoying this time, followed by a buzzing noise. Dear Luna, that sound is driving me crazy! Magnus flopped his ears a bit, trying to find the source of the pestering noise. He stopped suddenly, his ears tense and pointing at the corner.
Found you… he thought to himself, using the light to point him to the corner. Seriously, who leaves a sink running when they… he stopped as he saw flies buzzing around, the reek emerging from the corner obviously attracting the horde of buzzards. Good Luna, that fucking stinks! What is that!?
Magnus pondered whether he should step closer, and decided it could help determine the others' location. He stepped forward a bit, and immediately regretted doing so. As he saw the swarm of flies burying a pile of entrails, surrounded by blood, he grew nauseous. He retched onto the floor nearby, horrified at what he was looking at. Who… who is that!?
He grew more disgusted by the smell now, but he got as near to the remains as he could. He made out a few strands of an orange mane, and tried to think who it could be. Oh shit… that's… that's Big Mac! What the hell happened to him!? He backed away in disgust and horror, until he backed into something slippery and tripped onto the floor with a loud yell. He slammed into the floor, his face splashing into something wet.
He stood up slowly, and rubbed the area that left a dank mark on his face. Rather than clean, the soaked spot smeared more, and it took him awhile before he succeeded. He looked at his hoof, and saw a dried maroon stain. Blood… oh, please don't tell me… He looked onto the floor behind him, and his fears had been confirmed. Indeed, another corpse lay slanted against the wall. Although a bit dissected in the shoulder, the body remained intact enough for Magnus to easily recognize it. "Rarity…" he whispered solemnly to himself. He shook his head, and galloped out of the shed in distress.
As soon as he exited, he bounded into Pinkie Pie, her only reply being, "Hey, Maggie! Find anything?" before he slammed into her. They both lay a bit dazed, before Magnus stood up and helped Pinkie to her hooves.
"I'm sorry, Pinkie. You all right?" Magnus asked.
"Oh, yeah! So, did you get anything important?" she inquired curiously.
Not anything you'd want to find, Pinkie… Pinkie raised her eyebrows as he thought this. "What do you mean nothing I'd want to find, Maggie?"
Magnus immediately forgot about Pinkie's ability to somehow read minds, and he face hoofed himself. "Yeah… nothing we're looking, Pinkie!" he said, trying his best to hide his discovery.
"Oh… well that's too bad. But I found something!" Pinkie announced happily.
Magnus's ears perked up at that. "Really? Well, don't hold back… what is it?"
Pinkie then pointed to many hoof prints on the ground, which led down a dirt path along the river. "They went that-a-way! I found the answer… I found the answer!" she cheered, bouncing up and down.
"Good job, Pinkie. Let's… let's get going…" he said distantly, and proceeded towards the dam.
…
After about fifteen minutes of casual conversation while traveling down the road, Pinkie suddenly slammed her foreleg into Magnus's face, stopping him with a hard thwack. "OW! What was that for!?"
Pinkie then pointed to the scene of some brutal scrap, littered with the cadavers and slaughtered remains of many Pegasi and earth ponies. Moments later, she soon lowers her ears, head, and tail, and slowly walks back to Magnus. He wraps his wings around her, shielding her eyes from the grotesque scene. "Why… why…?" she can't finish, and her eyes leak water slowly.
"Pinkie… I will try to fix this…" Magnus reassures her. Three days… will that be enough time? Still holding her, he guides her away from the graves of the battle, and looks around for anything that might help him find where the others went. Nothing…
"Wait… what… what is that?" Pinkie asked suddenly, pointing her hoof to a green splotch on the ground. Magnus inspected it as well, and sniffed it.
"It… it smells… burnt."
Pinkie then nears it curiously, sticks her tongue out, and prepares to taste it. Magnus stops her quickly, and she turns back to him, smiling. "I wanted a taste."
"You can't just taste anything you see, Pinkie… it could be poisonous."
"Oh yeah… I hadn't thought about that… so what do you think it is? Ooh, ooh! I bet if we follow all these splotches somewhere, we'd find a big tank of this stuff!" Pinkie suggests excitedly.
"Wait, there's more?" Magnus asked.
Pinkie nods a couple of times, and bounces to the trail, littered with the green stains. Magnus stood dumbfounded, and smiled. "I'll never understand how you do it, Pinkie, but I'm glad you can!"
Pinkie leads Magnus through the trail, bouncing as she does.
…
Both ponies stopped when Pinkie suddenly slammed into a metal door and fell onto the floor, groaning in pain. "Are you all right?"
"N-never better…" she says dazed.
Magnus gazes at the door she slammed into, a portion of it somehow lacerated. "What happened here?"
Pinkie Pie nears the gape in the door, squirms into it, and eventually passes through. "Ooh! Maggie! Take a look at this!"
Magnus sighs as he hears the name 'Maggie' yet again, and peers into the hole, unable to squeeze through due to his larger size. He notices a large amount of gadgets, devices, and electronics plundered and scrapped. Sparks fly from severed wires, metal pieces are carved into acute shards, and glass and other particles litter the ground. "What in the world happened here?"
"Maybe they wanted to recycle!"
"I don't think so… look at how the computers are cut…" Magnus states, investigating the scrapped monitors. "These look like they were cut roughly…"
"So… what does that mean, Maggie?"
"Exactly what happened to the door… something broke through…" Magnus then looks around the room, and sees another metallic door, appearing almost deformed as the center had been dissected and broken off. "It can't be…"
"What?"
"Pinkie… stay close behind me at all times. Whatever you do, do NOT leave my side."
"Can I ride on your back, then?" Pinkie asked.
"Yeah. Climb aboard," Magnus offered, folding his wings so as to allow her access. She bounced up, and slammed onto his back, causing him to wheeze. "I said climb, Pinkie…" he said, pained.
"Oops… sorry…" she apologized, giggling. Magnus sighed, and crept carefully through the damaged entryway. He subconsciously pulled out both hatchets from the saddlebag, holding one in each wing. Not realizing it, he spun them in each wing, as if preparing for the worst. Pinkie noticed this, and asked worriedly, "Maggie… do you really think we'll have to… fight?"
Magnus sighs, and nods sadly. "Unfortunately… most of these monsters don't even remember themselves anymore, and the ones that can… will realize too late that they hurt somepony. If you need to… cover your ears and eyes."
"OK…" she states regrettably, using her left foreleg to cover her ears and her tail to shield her eyes. Magnus nodded, and stalked the hallways slowly. Without her sense of direction, I can't tell where I'm going. I might run into those things about four times before I find the others. He stopped as he heard a loud buzz droning in the distance somewhere.
His ears twitched a bit, directed themselves to the right, and listened intently at the hallway in the clockwise direction. He denied the hallway as the source, and tried to focus harder. He looked round the corridors, searching for the foyer where the echo originated from. He stepped forward a few more paces, and saw flickers of light coming from two corridors away. He silently galloped to the correct one, and found the cause of the flicker; a group of Shamblers, Runners, and Predators all surrounding an infected unicorn sawing his way through a door, sparks flying around them. They seemed not to notice Magnus at the moment.
Magnus nodded, and raised the hatchet in his left wing. He pulled back, and delivered the axe with a fast heave towards one of the Predators, striking its head and killing it instantly. Magnus then turned to Pinkie quickly, and spoke. "Pinkie… do NOT hop off my back for anything."
Pinkie nodded, and cowered on his back still. He turned back to the horde, which seemed to notice their fallen member and halted with the door. They looked around for the origin of the hatchet, and Magnus crouched low. He immediately rushed to the horde, hatchet in his right wing, and slashed the closest Shambler, severing its jaw and sending it to the ground lifeless. The horde now took sight of the attacker, and stepped back to allow the unicorn with the chainsaw encased in its magical hue. The saw revved, and thrust to Magnus. He parried the blow with the hatchet, and backed off in caution. One wrong move… and both of us are screwed…