THE TROTTING DEAD - Book One

Chapter 2: Hope

I wake up and RD and Scoots are already up. I sit up and I feel my mane and of course I have a bed head hair do.

"Sooner or later we're gonna run out of food..." I hear Scoots say.

"Yeah you got that right..." RD says back to her.

I go to the table they're sitting at. "Yeah but if Pinkie's still at Sugarcube corner we could get food there..." I say sitting down in one of the chairs. "So what's the plan?"

"I say we stop by Fluttershy's cottage. We can stop by Carousel Boutique next and Sugarcube Corner on the way back." Rainbow Dash says.

"Wow you just came up with that over night?" I ask.

"Nah, this morning." She says back. As we eat little breakfast to save food, me and RD get ready to head out.

"Just be careful okay." I hear Scoots say as we head towards the door.

"Don't worry kid, we'll come back... I promise." Rainbow Dash says. We head out the door with baseball bats and we start to fly to Fluttershy's cottage.

"There aren't many of these things out here during the day are there?" I notice.

"Well you know they could have just moved on... they really aren't that smart and all they do is trot around..." RD states as we get near Fluttershy's cottage. We land and I knock on the door. No answer. I knock again... no answer... "What if she's not here..." Rainbow says.

"I guess we're just gonna have to let ourselves in..." I say as I turn around and buck the door. We walk in to see blood and the bones of animals. "Wow... she really let this place go..." I say jokingly as RD elbows me in the arm. "Right... not the time... let's check upstairs..." I say heading towards the stairs.

"Fluttershy... you here...?" RD whispers loudly. We hear crying from her room.

"Get ready." I say taking my baseball bat in hoof going on one side of the door while Rainbow is on the other side. "3... 2... 1...!" I say. We bust through the door and we see Fluttershy on her bed. At the foot of the bed we see the skeleton of what I think used to be Angel. "F-Fluttershy?" I say shocked.

"What... happened...?" Rainbow says staring at her surprised. Fluttershy is shaking.

"I... I..." Fluttershy starts to say.

"Spit it out." I say. Putting my hoof on her shoulders. "What happened to your animals?" I ask. She looks at us.

"I... I ran out of food..." She says tears start flowing from her eyes. "So I... I had to..." She hugs me. "I had to eat them..." She says starting to cry. I look at Rainbow Dash with widened eyes and RD's mouth open from ah.

"Look Fluttershy... we're gonna get you out of here alright...?" I say looking at her. She nods and we start to head out. We get down stairs and we go out the front door just to see some trotters. "Celestia damnit." I say. I take my bat in hoof after I get up to one and I smash it's head in. Blood flies everywhere Fluttershy squealed at the sight of it. They heard it and they all start coming toward us. "You've gotta be kidding me." Me and RD say at the same time.

"Can't we just fly out of here?" Rainbow asks.

"You up for that Fluttershy?!" I yell as I'm getting slowly surrounded. She nods and we go straight for the sky. "Rarity's next right?" I say looking at RD. She nods. I look behind us just to check out the view... and what the hell... there are 2 flying trotters chasing us down! "What the fuck?!" I yell. RD looks back.

"Are you serious...?!" She says in disbelief. I go back and I kill one of them while Rainbow Dash kills the other one. We both hit their heads with our bats and they fall out of the sky.

"They can fucking fly now, since when?!" I ask, like anyone would actually answer.

"I don't know... but we gotta get to Rarity's fast." RD says. We make our way to the Carousel Boutique and we get to the front door. RD knocks on the door. "Rarity you home?" She asks. The door opens up with a gun pointed at us.

"O-oh it's you guys..." Rarity puts down the gun and hugs all of us.

"Rarity we need to get out of here, get Sweetie Belle and let's go!" I say.

"Why? We're fine here by ourselves." Rarity says.

"You seriously wanna survive by yourself out here? Think of Sweetie Belle... we have Scoots back at my house... we can just go back there and she can be reunited with one of her best friends... just like you can be reunited with us... we're just gonna go get Pinkie and go back to my house with supplies from Sugarcube Corner." I say.

"Alright fine... but can I-" She tries to say.

"No you can not bring your dresses. The world is ending and you're still worrying about dresses?" I ask. She just gives me an ugly look and goes back to pack some things and a few minutes later we see her come downstairs with Sweetie Belle. "Hey Sweetie Belle, you ready to see Scootaloo?" I say putting a smile on my face.

"Yeah!" She says excited.

"So just by going by you only having baseball bats you don't have any guns at your house do you?" Rarity asks as we start walking.

"No..." I say.

"Well good thing I packed some then... along with ammo." She says.

"Where did you get all of this stuff Rarity...?" RD asks.

"Oh I've had this in a secret compartment just in case." Rarity says. She looks at me. "So I'm guessing BrokenFlare is there too then...?" She asks. I blush a little bit.

"N-no he's not there, it's just been me, Rainbow, and Scoots for the last few weeks..." I say looking down. "I do hope he's okay though..."

"I didn't mean to make you feel bad darling..." Rarity states. She puts her hoof on my shoulder. "I'm sure he's fine..." She says. I nod and we continue on. We get close enough to Sugarcube Corner.

"Alright so here's the plan... we go in and see if Pinkie's okay... and then we grab whatever food is left and we get back to my place, understand?" I say.

"Who died and made you leader? Twilight's the one who shoul-" Rarity tries to say.

"It doesn't matter, she's not here is she?" I argue. Rarity backs off and we continue. We get to Sugarcube Corner but the doors were already open. "The hell...? Rarity give me a gun..." I say.

"Why?" She asks.

"Just give me a gun!" I demand. She gives me a gun and I walk in slowly to find raiders bodies. "Holy shit... what happened here...?" I ask. We go deeper into the building and we see that some of the food has been taken. "Are you serious...?"

"Well I guess somebody really wanted the food here huh...?" Rainbow comments. We go upstairs to find the Mr. and Mrs. Cake's room... there they were... lying dead on the floor covered with bullet wounds... even one straight through the brain.

"Why would somepony do this...?" Sweetie Belle says. Rarity shields her eyes so she can't see. "Rarity I'm fine..." She says lowering her hoof. I look at the group. Fluttershy hasn't said a word since the cottage... I would understand if she was traumatized.

"These ponies must have really hated the Cake's..." I say with my ears perked down. "We need to see if Pinkie's okay..." I lead the group down the hallway and we get to Pinkie's room. "Everypony stay back..." I say. I turn around with gun in hoof and buck the door open. What I saw inside... was not what I expected at all...