ML54: Another chapter of the Ponypocalypse!

Spike: *Raises eyebrow* you sound far too enthusiastic about that.

ML54: I don't know why I'm happy! I guess I'm just happy that my financial trouble is finally going away! I don't own My Little Pony!

Group Merging

"Just keep running and don't look back! You look back, you're dead!"

Six Weeks after the Fall of Ponyville

Ditzy Doo

Everfree Forest

I narrowed my eye, zeroing in on my target, drawing the bow string of my bow in preparation to take a shot...Just a little further to the right...Left a bit...Right a bit...FIRE!

And a direct hit to the centre of the fruit as it fell to the ground in front of me. I smiled, victoriously, and picked the fruit up...Well, you know, after I cleave the head off this zombie, but that's a minor detail.

I drew my sword and threw the blade straight through the zombie's head, it falling limp before me.

I sheathed the katana and picked the bow off the floor. And the Doctor said I'd never have a use for these weapons! Haha! I showed him!

I resumed grabbing the fruit and turned to get a better look at this one.

I flinched as a frown suddenly formed on my face. I recognised this one...It was poor old Mr. Cake. The nice pony who'd always wish me a good day after I bought my daily muffin...

...Muffins. My mouth started to water at the thought of those delicacies...Well, at least now they're delicacies! I haven't found even one little muffin on my last raid through Ponyville, I'm starting to think we may have already scavenged what's left.

I shook the thought from my head as I turned tail to get back to my group. They need me to keep strong for them...

...It's strange how I became the leader really...I'm not exactly all that special or bright. But I guess they just needed someone who could remain positive in a time like this.

I kept an eye out for the Doctor as well. We arrived back in Ponyville three weeks after Ponyville had been destroyed and I was lucky enough to find my daughter in all the destruction. However, we had left the TARDIS in this forest and...well...it got lost!

It's kind of typical really! The one thing that we could use to prevent this from ever happening and it just disappears! I kinda expected to see a bunch a trees with troll faces on them as we got in here!

But it kinda seems the Everfree forest is a lot calmer these days. There's been no sign of any Timberwolves or Manticores at all...Maybe they're afraid of the trotters too...

Oh listen to me! My jumbled thoughts can't stay on one topic and just throws a bunch of different thoughts at me all at once...

...I wonder what it's like to have claws?

No focus! Keep your eyes open, Ditzy! One false move and a Lurker can get ya!

...Oh yeah, a Lurker is one of the trotters that seem to remain in the shadows, ready to jump out at ya when you least expect it...

...Whoops! That one almost got me!

"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!" I declared, giggling as I sliced through the Lurker's neck! This is a lot more fun than the video games, that's for sure!

I sheathed the blade again and continued on into my camp.

"Mommy!" I heard my little muffin call me as she jumped into my embrace. This is the reason I don't let myself get down, you know. My daughter is the most important thing I have in my life! I'd die before I let anything happen to her.

"Hello Dinky!" I replied, nuzzling the top of her head, above her horn, lovingly. "How's everypony doing?"

She looked up at me, her beautiful little smile faltering a bit. "Button Mash still isn't talking...The Doctor is working on the traps and Sparkler isn't back yet."

Sparkler was my daughter's babysitter when I travel with the Doctor, since our adventures get a little too intense to bring her along. She was a close friend of mine, despite being slightly younger. So much so that she became like a second daughter to me. We were both the scavengers of the group, so she had gone in another direction, claiming she had seen some apple trees nearby.

I nodded and looked up. The brown colt just sat on the log, staring blankly into a small fire we had going to start cooking breakfast. I had found the little guy in a house I was scavenging in, hiding in his room from three trotters...

After I killed them, it turned out that they were Button's parents and older brother! They must have told him to stay up there and hide. I had felt bad, of course, but they were already dead. And I'm sure the last thing they'd want is to be eating the poor kid.

I looked further on and saw the Doctor, sonic screwdriver in mouth, looking over some strange metal contraption in front of him. I nodded over to Button, hoping Dinky will take the hint and try to cheer him up...It won't work, but we've got to try something.

"Mommy...Maybe we should try to find Sweetie Belle...She always cheers him up...And...I want to find Pipsqueak..." I looked down at her frowning face and sighed sadly.

"I know Muffin, but the last time mommy went into Ponyville, I was almost snatched...I promise I'll look again once the trotters calm down a bit..." I hated lying to her like this! Me, Sparkler and the Doctor all agreed to never step hoof in that town again. It was a death trap in there!

Her smile sent a stabbing pain in my heart. "You're the greatest mommy!" She said, trotting towards Button Mash. I let my smile drop as I continued towards the Doctor.

"Ah Ditzy! You're just in time!" He said, enthusiastically. I always loved hanging out with the Doctor! He was funny, kind, selfless and always made me feel safe when things got down...Plus he's frigging hot to boot!

...eheh...I think mating Season may be just around the corner, which is quite bad in this world! The last thing I need is to be knocked up when we're trying to survive against killing machines!

"What's up Doctor?!" I replied, cheerfully. He handed me a black rectangle.

"I managed to get these Walkie Talkies working! They should prove useful if any of us get stuck!" My eyes lit up. These would give us a one up if we ever got separated!

"Great work Doctor! You really are amazing, you know?" I grinned as I saw him blush. For some reason, I was able to embarrass him to red, but it was always incredibly cute.

"I try..." He replied, modestly. Modest too! He always down plays his role in a plan and how important he is to the group.

I was about to leave, before he stopped me. "Hold on, Ditzy, I need to speak to you about something."

I turned to him, questionably. "What's up? Are we running low on food?"

He shuffled on his feet, uncomfortably, which worried me slightly. "Um...W-well...I...was just wondering...i-if maybe you would...maybe..."

Whatever he was about to say next was cut off as a loud scream reverberated through the area, causing us all to snap our attention in the direction of the scream.

"SPARKLER!" I screamed, running towards the scream, scooping up Dinky on the way. I was not leaving her behind if there are trotters nearby!

I barely noticed the Doctor picking up Button in the corner of my crossed eye, as I raced into the forest towards my daughter's babysitter!

I burst into the opening of another clearing and was horrified by what I saw!

There were, at least, ten of them here, all crowding around the screaming mass that...

...was Sparkler...

"GET THE BUCK AWAY FROM HER!" I screamed, drawing my sword and stabbing the closest one I saw. I noticed one try to get me from the side, before Dinky threw her knife into it's eye socket with her magic.

I'm so proud of her!

The Doctor and Button burst through now as well, and the Doctor told Button to stay put as he charged in with...his umbrella?

He stabbed a trotter through the neck and pressed a button, causing the umbrella to expand out and ripped the trotter's head off it's shoulders...

...hey, give him an A for creativity!

He then pushed a few away from me with the expanded umbrella which...well, it was indestructible! It had gotten us out of some very tough jams, deflecting Dalek lasers and stopping falling glass shards from slicing us to pieces!

Whoops, better start paying more attention. I thrust the blade into a trotter's forehead as it fell limp on the blade. Ah I hate it when that happens! It's always so hard to get my sword back out!

I heard Dinky scream and turned to see, at least, fifteen more of them stumble into the clearing!

I grit my teeth as Button joined us. We were getting surrounded by these things!

I turned to the Doctor, and he made eye contact with me. "I love you Ditzy..." He whispered to me, causing my eyes to bug out! Why was he telling me this now?! Couldn't he have told me la...Oh right, this could be our last chance...

"I love you too..." I whispered back, causing a small smile to spread across his lips. My face then set on a resolve. We are not going to die here! Not now, not ever!

With all the might I could, I drew my blade back and held it in front of me as more stumbled towards us. If I'm going down, I'm going down kicking, screaming and taking as many of these bastards as I could with me!

Just as they were about to start overwhelming the Doctor, a couple of gun shots crack in the distance and blood exploded from the trotters skulls.

The Doctor grabbed me, Dinky and Button and huddled us all under the umbrella as even more shots fired, taking out the trotters left, right and centre, I even saw one embed itself in Sparkler's skull...At least she won't be one of them.

Soon, the area was completely clear and we peered out of the umbrella into a worried pair of green eyes attached to a familiar orange mare. "Y'all alright?!" I heard Applejack call down to us.

"We're fine! Thank you for the help, Miss Applejack!" I heard the Doctor call back. I nodded and turned to Sparkler...

I heard a sniffle from my back and turned to see Dinky start to cry...I guess I can't blame her since I feel a few tears welling up.

I fell to my knees and hugged the body to me, desperately clinging to her, just to give her the goodbye I was too late to give her when she was alive.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder and looked up, noticing Thunderlane looking back at me. I guess he was helping AJ since he had a rifle on his back. "I'm sorry, Ditzy. We came as fast as we could, but it was too late..." I nodded, knowing it wasn't their fault at all...It was mine, really...I shouldn't have let her go off on her own.

"It's not your fault..." I whispered, letting the poor mare go.

Thunderlane nodded, grimly, and moved Sparkler onto his back, much to my surprise. Applejack noticed and smiled, comfortingly at me. "We bury tha ponies we recognise an' burn tha rest. We bury our own."

I smiled a bit...At least she'll get somewhat of a funeral...But she was sixteen years old, damn it! She shouldn't of died! Not like this!

"Mommy..." I looked down at my little muffin, her big, doe eyes looking sadly into my own. "It's not your fault mommy...I know that look..."

Damn...My little Dinky was always very smart. Though her words did give me some comfort.

I felt a hoof go around my shoulders and turned to see the Doctor wrap his hoof around me. Though as a gesture of our new found love or a gesture of comfort, I didn't know...

But hey, I wasn't complaining.

"Well, we best be gettin' outta here before more o' them show up." Applejack declared, thrusting a knife into a nearby corpse's eye socket, I guess to make sure that it was dead. "Y'all better come with us. Ya look like ya could use a proper sleepin' place...Well at least a better place than tha ground."

"Yeah. The Everfree Forest is not somewhere I'd want to be during this time." Thunderlane added, nudging the young Button Mash, who looked up silently. He still had that dead expression on his face. It's like he became a mute...That could have actually been the case, actually.

Thunderlane seemed to recognise him though. "It's good to see you're okay, Button. I wanted to check on you, I really did, but there were a lot of them between the Boutique and your house. But the important thing is that you're safe..." He seemed to catch a cold stare from the kid as he flinched.

"Oh man...I'm sorry...I...I didn't know..." He knelt down and offered his back. "Tell ya what, how 'bout I give ya a ride to the farm. Rumble'll there." Button looked down, but still climbed onto the stallion's back.

I shrugged. He got somewhat of a response, I guess.

We hurried out of the area as Thunderlane took to the air, I guess to lead us out of the Forest. Clever, it would've been very difficult trying to navigate through here using plant life and stuff.

Applejack nudged me and I turned to her. The Doctor was giving Dinky a lift alongside me. "Can Ah ask ya a favour Ditzy?"

I rose an eyebrow, but nodded. I always liked to help out, but I usually tend to make things worse...especially the last time I tried to help with Applebuck Season. I ended up striking the tree with lightning! Then I knocked another one over with my butt...Yeah I'm a bit of a klutz.

"Well...You remember mah little sister, Applebloom right?"

"Yeah? What about her?" I asked, curiously. Applejack sighed, giving a quick scan to make sure the area was safe before answering.

"She...She lost an eye..." I gasped, holding a wing over my mouth.

"Holy Celestia! How?!" She sighed again and explained.

"Apparently she was runnin' around town when tha trotters came. She had a knife in 'er mouth an' she tripped over. Tha knife...Th-tha knife stabbed 'er in tha eye. She killed a few then passed out. Twilight then told me that Spike carried 'er inta tha library an' he got ta work. He removed 'er eye an' disinfected tha open wound..."

I turned to her as I saw tears starting to come to her eyes. "H-he stayed by her side...Tha whole time she was unconscious...T-two whole weeks...He saved her life...He stuck by her..."

"It sounds to me like he might be in love with her." I mentioned off handedly, to which her eyes widened considerably.

"Ya sure?"

"Well with his dedication to keep her alive I'd say so. I mean, if somepony was unconscious for two weeks I'd assume them dead by that point. But Spike held onto the hope that she'd be okay. That's quite a strong commitment for a friend, I'd say." I explained.

I saw that Applejack contemplate something, before saying out loud. "Well...Usually if there would be somepony tryin' ta court mah little sis, Ah'd want ta kick that pony's flank an' send 'em home...But fer Spike, Ah think...Ah think Ah can make an exception."

"That's great." I replied, happily.

"But if he breaks her heart, Ah'll kill him before tha trotters can!" I rolled my eyes at her. She was always incredibly overprotective of Applebloom. I kinda assumed, what with the World going to Tartarus, that she'd be keeping an even closer eye on her.

"Oh yeah, that favour!" Applejack suddenly seemed to remember as she looked back at me. "Ya see, she can move around fine, but she's havin' trouble with her aim...An' since you got that lazy eye ya might know what it feels like...So can ya help her?"

"...Her aim?" Applejack grinned, proudly.

"Eeyup! Before she lost her eye, she was tha best shot in our whole family! Surprised tha filly didn't get a cutie mark fer that!"

We soon made it to the familiar feel of the Apple family Orchard, however the front gate was barricaded to look more like a wall then a gate. "Rainbow! Ya there!" Applejack yelled over the gate, causing me to cringe a bit and glance behind us. You can never be too careful after all.

"Yeah! Give me a minute!" I heard good old Rainbow's voice reply. Though she sounded a little less upbeat then usual. I wonder why?

I heard grunting on the other side of the wall and a large amount of cursing too. I would've covered Dinky's ears, but I've not exactly been careful with my potty mouth recently. What's the point, we had bigger things to worry about then Dinky learning what the word 'buck' meant.

Eventually we heard a movement and the wooden barricade had opened up and allowed us entry to the farm. Applejack grinned at me. "Flash an' Blitzkrieg put it together fer us." She added, before we walked into the farm.

The first thing that happened when we entered Sweet Apple Acres was that the gate slammed closed behind us just as we saw a trotter coming towards us. At least this wall looks stronger then Ponyville's walls.

The second thing was the activity. I saw a few familiar faces and a couple of unfamiliar ones wandering around, doing separate things. I could see two ponies in Royal Guard uniforms standing over a map, pointing at it and discussing something.

I saw Pinkie holding the cake twins in her hooves, rocking them to sleep while trying to stay awake herself. It took a load off my mind to see that the babies hadn't shared the same fate as their father.

Looking beyond that, I saw Fluttershy tending to the farm animals such as the chickens and cows. With her, Rarity seemed to be discussing something with Daisy Jo, one of said cows. I don't know what about, maybe the weather? With Rarity, anything's a good a guess as any.

I saw Lyra and Bonbon sorting through some of the produce the farm must have given them. It was almost as if the inside of the gate was a completely different community! You could almost forget their was an apocalypse going on.

Lastly I saw Princess Twilight talking to the foals, almost as if she were teaching them something. I saw her with a book in her magical grip and the little ponies looking up with slight interest.

From the group I could distinguish the purple and pink mane of Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo's orange form...I think that was Rumble next to her...Wait?

"Um, wouldn't Applebloom be with them?" I asked, pointing to the mini school. Applejack sighed.

"She would, but Twilight's only usin' tha books that she found around tha farm an' she was apparently taught when they were in tha library. Applebloom's kinda ahead."

"Oh...Then where is she?" Applejack opened her mouth to answer before I saw her falter.

"Uh...Rainbow! You seen AB?"

Rainbow turned to us and that's when I finally noticed what must have offset her mood. I saw a stub where one of her wings used to be.

"Yeah, she and Spike are with Granny Smith in the farmhouse, I think they're working on lunch." Applejack seemed physically relieved by the news, but by her continued worried look, Rainbow continued. "And Mac and Soarin are harvesting some more apples. They're thinking in we get one more load in, Twilight could use a cooling spell in the older barn and create a giant fridge! Pretty cool huh?"

Applejack nodded and pulled out a hoof gun out of a holster on her right hind leg. "Right, well Ah'll take out tha one outside tha gate." She was about to move before I stopped her.

"Hold on, that shot will just attract more of them." I then ushered Dinky off of my back and pulled out my sword, jamming it through one of the gaps in the fence, where I saw it's head through my wall eye, and pierced it's skull, dropping it to the ground silently.

I grinned and pulled the sword back and put it away. "The quieter you are, the less there'll be."

Rainbow whistled. "Damn that was cool." She said, wrapping a hoof around me. "It's good to see you're okay, Derpy."

"You too Rainbow..." I said, trying my hardest not to look at the stub. She won't want to talk about it, that much I'm certain of.

Out of the corner of my correct eye, I saw Dinky gallop towards the group of school ponies and tackle one of them to the ground. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was Pipsqueak, her little coltfriend. That made me smile as I let go of Rainbow so she could get back to her position on the little guard tower that I just noticed was there.

I felt a hoof wrap around my shoulders and glanced to see the Doctor smile at me warmly. "I think we made it, Ditzy."

"Yeah..." I replied, smiling sadly, glancing at the corpse of poor Sparkler out of the corner of my eye.

He saw me looking and nuzzled my cheek. "She'll be missed...I know Ditzy. I liked her too, she was fun, clever and just brilliant."

A single tear slipped don my cheek as I turned a leaned my head onto his shoulder. "Doctor...We're safe now, aren't we?"

"As safe as we can be my Dear..." He answered, already knowing what I was going to do. "Let it out, Ditzy...You can mourn now..."

I let out a my tears. For a friend that was taken before her time...For Sparkler...

ML54: The latest chapter installment! Hooray!

Big Mac: Yer takin' too long.

ML54: I know, but with University and everything, I've had less time to do things. I'm very sorry everyone, but I will try my best to get updates out more often, but I can't promise anything. I have started the next chapter of Critical Condition 2 and I am slowly piecing together where ever the Hell I as going with Trying to be Noticed. So I will, hopefully, have a new chapter for one of those two. Once again, I'm sorry.