ML54: This part will be in Soarin Winterfall's point of view!

Soarin: My last nae is Winterfall?

Applejack: *shrugs* It is now.

ML54: I decided to do a perspective from a few ponies POV's, but it will mostly be Applebloom. I don't own MLP.

Falling

"I was suppose to be a Wonderbolt, a stunt flyer...Never thought I'd have to actually use my military training...Well I hoped not to anyway..."

One Week After the Fall of Ponyville

Soarin Winterfall

Cloudsdale

"Fleetfoot! White Lightning! Keep close!" I shouted to my team-mates as we flew through the cloud structures of our home city.

After Canterlot was attacked, the Princess herself sent us a message telling us that she needed us to arm and prepare for a fight. We just presumed she meant a war with a neighbouring country, we didn't think this was something she'd mean.

I, as Co-Captain of the Wonderbolts, led my team towards the Cloudstadium on the message that there were survivors inside and the monsters were outside, trying to get in. I led my part of the team to the north entrance while my Captain, Spitfire, led her team, Surprise and Rapidfire, towards the South entrance.

We all, rather than our usually flight-suits, adorned a notably golden armour plated guards on our legs, chest and head, a razor sharp wind splitter on each of our wings. Usually these would be used to cut the air in front of them for aerodynamics and speed while wearing the heavy armour...

...but it was pretty good at cleaving zombies in half too.

"Pull in and swoop down!" I ordered as the three of us pulled up, before diving into the large crowd that had built up around the stadium. We outstretched our wings as one and rushed in, levelling the wind splitters with the zombie's heads.

Using our speed to our advantage, we managed to cleave into a good amount of them, but soon I felt my momentum start to reduce from colliding into so many obstacles. "Pull up!" I called and, as orientated as a team should be, we did just that.

I turned to check the well-being of my team when I noticed White Lightning clutching his front right hoof. "Sorry Captain..." He answered my silent question, showing me the bite mark. "Forgot to tuck my legs in."

"White!" I heard Fleetfoot cry out front my left.

"I saw White Lightning look back at the crowd with a resolve and broke formation. "If I'm going down, I'm taking as many of them as I can with me!" He called, tucking his wings in and dive-bombing into the crowd.

"No!" I heard Fleetfoot protest, before I held her back. I didn't quite feel like losing two team-mates today. That's when I noticed a string with several pins attached to it as I realised the true extent of his plan.

As soon as he was close enough, he pulled up and swept his bladed wing across the neck of one of the living dead before he grinned and a huge explosion emanated from his chest, the ignition of flames consuming those nearby and those less fortunate to be standing closer were killed by the pure force of them.

See the military Wonderbolt death procedure during wartime was to...go out with a bang, so to speak. Each of our armour plated chest guards had several hoof grenades attached to it, a string tied around each pin, the end of the string within our hoof reach only, so our bodies couldn't be used for mind probing or...turning into these things.

Another explosion caught me off guard and me and Fleetfoot look onto the South entrance and saw a little smoke rising in the area. "Shit! Who do you think that was?!" My remaining team-mate asked, looking back at me.

"I don't know, but we still have a mission here, we'll just have to worry about it later!" I responded, free her from my grasp. "A couple more passes and the horde should spread out!" I continued, leading her back down, tucking our legs in and levelling of in the same manner as before.

"Pull up!" I shouted in the same order as I broke off from the horde...

...only problem was, Fleetfoot didn't follow.

She stayed down there, hooves on the ground, slashing left right and centre. "This is for White Lightning!" She replied, pulling the pins out of the grenades before she was been bit.

"NO!" I screamed, but was too late, the explosion rang out and the horde thinned out. So much so, only a few remained, those of which decided that the meal in this building wasn't worth the effort and dispersed.

I felt myself tearing up at the sight below...I could see the pieces of armour that was formerly worn by my companions discarded among the corpses that littered the ground, some parts still had their body parts in.

They were my friends...They were my team-mates...I was their Captain...They were my family...

...and I failed them...

I was so distraught I hardly noticed another explosion that resonated from the South side of the Cloudstadium, but my body seemed to make the decision for me as I found myself rushing over that way.

I saw the fiery orange mane and yellow fur of my Captain and longest time friend Spitfire staring at the scene in front of her in horror...Apparently My teams efforts at the North entrance were futile since the horde had already entered through the South entrance...

...and from the looks of it, they had been entering for at least the last two hours...

The distraught look on her face and the tears that cascaded down her cheeks were almost too much to bear. She was the strongest mare I knew...Well maybe Rainbow and Applejack tied for close second, but Spitfire has always held strong through even the toughest times.

But I guess these are the toughest times. We've never had to endure death like this in Equestria before. Never had we had to be the ones to slaughter these creatures, who were once ponies like the rest of us. I guess that's too much even for someone like her.

She noticed me and smiled weakly, despite her obvious depression. "I-I see you made it..."

"Yeah..." I replied, not sure how to break it to her. "Unfortunately Fleetfoot and Whi...Fleetfoot and White Lightning weren't so lucky..."

She let out a wail after that, followed by a few sobs, so I tried to calm her down by placing a hoof to her shoulder. "C-C'mon...Don't you worry Spits, we'll make 'em pay..."

"You don't u-understand Soarin..." She replied, tilting her head to the side, show a nasty looking wound. "...I-I got bit..." I felt my heart stop short after that.

"No...No Spits, don't you worry! You'll make it!"

"No I won't!" She screamed back at me, grabbing me by the shoulders. "I won't make it! How could I make it when nopony else has?! There's no cure! Our team is dead!...I'm dead..." She whispered the last part before I suddenly felt her press her lips against mine.

I was shocked at first and I didn't even realise it was over until she decided to drop another bomb shell. "I-I've always loved you Soarin..." She said, before she pushed me away and dove into the crowd, pulling the string that attached to all the pins to the grenades, causing the countdown to start.

"Wait!" I cried, deciding, against my best interest and safety, to rush after her. I never knew she felt that way about me, it was a pretty big revelation. I mean, sure the others were spreading rumours about why she would call me into her office for 'meetings', but I never thought it was anything other than work related.

I couldn't really say I felt the same way, as much as it pains me to think it. I just never thought of her like that before. If it were the old world, sure I'd give us a chance. I mean, she's probably the only one who wouldn't let my job define who I am since she's in a higher position anyway. And she was always a blast to be around, but I just didn't feel the same.

By now I was regretting going after her since it meant I had front row seats to her final moments...And since it was an explosion I was launched back as well.

I fell through the cloud flooring, along with several of the zombies to, who were flailing comically around, I would have laughed if I wasn't so terrified at the moment.

I felt it was ridiculous to see a world class flyer, his wings flapping like a chicken's trying desperately to stay airborne, but that was what I was reduced to to try and save my own skin. But even if I could get them flapping again, the force of the air resistance at this point would probably snap them off.

I grit my teeth as I turned in mid air so I was standing with my feet pointing towards the rapidly approaching ground and spread my wings, bracing them against the resistance to I could try to keep them, and the rest of me intact.

It seemed to work as now, rather tha falling, I was gliding down towards the ground from about twenty feet up. I saw five or six zombies around me zoom past and make a sickening splat against the unforgiving ground and I, too, braced for impact.

I seemed to have drifted off near some apple trees and, rather unfortunately, one of my wings had struck the truck of one of the gala trees. Yes, I happen to know my apples. After all, apple pie is my favourite and I have an acquired taste for the round fruits.

However, the trees I was not too keen on right now as I fell the last ten feet and land with a thud against the ground. Now, I know the razor sharp air cutters had the potential to cut even the thickest of trees down, but only with enough speed, but I was going no where near fast enough.

I glanced at my left wing and found it bent in a way I was sure wings weren't supposed to bend. Regardless I grunted and brought myself to my hooves. See, Pegasus ponies were the most fragile ponies of all, since they needed the hallow bones to be able to fly, but those hallow bones also made it so it was easy to break them.

The other thing about Pegasi is our extremely high metabolism. We need a constant amount of energy otherwise our flying could go wrong and we could fall. So to build this energy we either sleep a lot, like a certain rainbow maned Pegasus, or we eat a lot like me.

Once those particular thoughts crossed my mind, my stomach growled at me and I groaned. Luckily my saving grace was the very thing that caused my distress.

I picked up one of the red fruits and was about to bite into it before a voice stopped.

"We don' take too kindly ta pinchin' wit'out askin', Sugarcube." I heard from behind me and turned to see the familiar form of Applejack behind, smiling widely at seeing me I guess.

I felt a similar one spread on my lips as I dropped the fruit and trotted forward to envelope my friend in a hug. "AJ, you're okay!" I heard her chuckle at that, and pulled back to grin at me a bit.

"Takes more than tha end o' tha world ta take me an' ma family down..." She replied, motioning with her head to follow her. "C'mon Sugarcube, farmhouse is this way." She continued, as I moved to follow her, my left wing deciding to hang loosely at my side.

"Tha' don' look too good..." She mentioned, nodding to my wing. I cringed thinking about it. Is was bad, but not thinking about it helped a bit.

We arrived at the farmhouse and I noticed Granny Smith on her rocking chair on the front porch, Winona the dog at her side and a shotgun in her hooves. "Um...You guys had a shotgun?"

"We're country folk, Soarin, country folk always have a gun o' sorts lyin' around."

"I thought that was a stereotype?"

"Nnnope." I heard from behind us, and I looked back to see good old big red coming out of the tree line with a cart of apples attached to his back.

See, a lot of ponies don't know this, but I was a fairly good friend to the Apple family ever since the Grand Galloping Gala. After I bought that apple pie, I had to get another one, but the yellow Pegasus that came in with all the animals kind of distracted me a bit. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but I was frustrated for a time.

Well at least til I found out were her work place was and I swooped in to order a pie. Ever since them I popped by every lunch break to order pretty much any apple related product they might have lined up. I even helped little Applebloom with her crusading a couple times...got covered in tree sap.

Wait...Applebloom!

"Where's Applebloom?" The other two suddenly shut down from their conversation and turned to me, looking a bit sad.

"Spike sent us a letter from tha library sayin' tha' she's in a coma...They don' think she's bit, bu' she's in pretty bad health..." Applejack explained, a lace of sadness in her voice, a deep concern for her sister's well-being integrated into her words.

"Eeyup..." Big Mac agreed before deciding to expand. "We also heard she...she's missin' an eye."

My hoof flew up to my mouth, despite my shoulder joint screaming in protest of said action. "That's awful!"

"Ah know...We wanna git ta her, bu' we can' git passed tha wall..." I rose a eyebrow at that statement so she decided to elaborate. "There was a wall built 'round Ponyville ta try an' keep tha infected out...bu' all it seemed ta do is seal them in..."

"Eeyup. We know our little sis, as well as a few others, Rainbow, Spike, Lyre, Princess Twilight, Caramel and Thunderlane are holed up in there too, but we jus' couldn' find a way in. Or at leas', no' near our homestead."

"Yeah, I was wondering why it seems so peaceful here?" I asked, looking around and not seeing a single zombie in sight.

"Tha's 'cause we usually don' see many 'round here, an' when we do we take care o' them." Applejack answer, pointing out the large pile of charred remains of what looked to be the zombies.

"I can get in there." I spoke up after a few seconds silence. They looked surprised as I lifted my good wing. "A wall won't stop me cause I've got a pair of these, and unless those fucking things learn to fly I'll be well outta their reach."

"You're in no shape ta be flyin' anywhere righ' now, Sugarcube." AJ said, a little too forcefully in my opinion, but then again it was her. "Y'all go see Fluttershy firs'! She'll be in tha barn wit' Pinkie an' Bon-Bon."

I nodded to appease her and headed in that direction, Big Macintosh following me with the cart on his back.

Me and him were on a good base in terms of friendship, he didn't see me as a high strung Wonderbolt and I didn't dismiss him as an idiot for his quietness. "Sooo, you ask Pinkie out yet?" I saw Big Red blushing beside me and snickered a bit. I loved teasing him like this.

"Don' really think this is tha time for tha' righ' now, Soarin." He answered, before deciding to give as good as he got. "Y'all actually gonna pony up an' ask ma sis out?" That got a blush out of me.

That's another reason I didn't reciprocate Spitfire's feelings. I had a crush on AJ already...

...It wasn't a big one! Just enough of one to make me think that I should do something about it, so naturally I asked Big Macintosh if it'd be okay to do so. He had studied me for a bit, before using his trademark 'Eeyup'.

"Um...Yeah I guess I can agree that now really isn't the best time..." I replied before we entered the barn.

There were some hay bales arranged in in rows with each one with a separate blanket. There were at least twenty hay bales as far as I can see, I also saw, in the corner, several large barrels of apples and vegetables.

Don't act so confused, just because they mainly farm apples doesn't mean they can't grow other foods.

I also noticed the butter yellow Pegasus, Fluttershy, the bouncy pink Earth Pony, Pinkie and a multi coloured maned Earth Pony, who I presumed was Bon-Bon.

I also noticed two babies sleeping on one of the hale bales that had some smoothed down wooden sticks to act as barriers. I gave Mac a confused look.

"Uh...Who are the kids?" He smiled, looking at the two of them sleeping peacefully, pulling in the cartload of apples.

"Their Pumpkin an' Pound Cake." He replied, turning his head to Fluttershy. "Miss Fluttershy, we need ya help if it no trouble."

"Oh it's no trouble at all. You're letting us stay here, after all." I saw Big Red smile a bit. He and her were always quite good friends. I heard some rumours going around saying that the two of them were actually dating, but they strenuously denied them, saying they preferred to be just friends.

"Well ma friend, Soarin here, hurt his wing. Ya think y'all can take a look, Ah need ta sort these apples." She saluted, looking a little silly but it did cheer me up a bit. Seeing the remaining survivors in high hopes is always good.

I snickered when I noticed him sitting down the bubbly pink mare, who grinned at him widely.

"Hm..." I heard her mumble to herself as she looked over my wing. "I don't think it's broken, so that's good...Could you lie down on that hay bale over there, please?" I nodded and crawled up onto it, I was always a little unsteady climbing things, but I didn't really think it was much of a problem since I'd just fly there instead.

I noticed that Fluttershy wasn't being as...well...shy as she usually is...and that a certain bunny was nestled in her pink mane as well, giving me a look as if to say 'don't try anything funny'. That rabbit of hers really is quite scary. And this is coming from a guy who flew into hordes of zombies and fell out of the sky earlier.

I felt the air cutters of my wings come off and turned to see her removing them. "Okay, your wing isn't broken, only dislocated. So I need to pop the joint back into place...if that's okay with you?"

"Sure just uh...get me something to bite down on. Last thing I want is to bite my own tongue off." She nodded and handed me an apple. A russet apple to be precise, very sweet and delicious but known for their extremely tough skin.

I popped into my mouth, using it to muffle my voice so, if I do cry out in pain, the babies won't wake up.

I felt a tender hoof grip the base of my wing and the other resting on my back, then she jerked that hoof up and slotted the wing back into place.

My teeth clenched into the apple, breaking into the skin and letting the juices of said apple run onto my tongue as I let out a muffled scream. The sweet taste helped to relieve some of the pain, a bit like when the doctor would give the foal a lollipop after an injection, it help get their mind off the pain.

"You're very brave Soarin..." Fluttershy cooed, like my mother would when I had my shots done when I was a foal. I grabbed the apple out of my mouth and smiled. Mac and AJ were right, Fluttershy really was the kindest mare there was. Someone like Rainbow woulda just told him to 'stallion up' or something.

She then took the apple out of my hoof and peeled the skin off for me, before handing it back. "Eat this and get some rest. You look tired and quite hungry."

I didn't argue and soon, apple having been transferred to the pits of my stomach, I fell into a much needed slumber.

ML54: There's the next chapter, I hope you enjoyed it.

Rainbow: He would like you to review, but not to flame...Though I'd flame him, he killed most the Wonderbolts!

ML54: *Raises eyebrow* Wouldn't that make it more likely for you to be able to join?

Rainbow: *Ponders* Well maybe not TOO badly...