The two stare in terror at the creature's dark form as it slowly moves to them. A loud shot snaps through Rainbow Dash's reality as the Dark One crumples. She looks to her side to see Cartridge's rifle smoking at his hip, a single bead of sweat trailing down the side of his face. The small smile that started to form on her face disappears as it stands up again, a gaping hole in its side, which fills with deep blue- almost black smoke fills it, solidifying into a new piece of flesh.

"Wh-what?" Cartridge stutters at the spectacle, his voice cracking with nerves. Rainbow doesn't answer- can't answer. She just stares at the creature. This must be what two-seven thought when he was…

"Please, do not judge our many by the acts of our few," the Dark One's voice echoes, as if reading her mind, and trying to appeal to her.

But what if they do just want to be friends? Doubt starts to creep into Dash's thoughts, making her question her entire mission as the room slowly blurs. As if from a great distance, she hears a sickening wet squishing sound, and a scream is cut off by a high whine that fills her senses.

"That's just it," the mutant voice calls out again in her mind, "All we want…" her mind snaps back to reality, her vision slamming back into focus, and the deadly cracks of gunfire ringing once again in her ears. A freezing sensation licks at her chest as her eyes get through to her brain, relaying the horrible image in front of her. The creatures face is just inches from her own, its eyes boring into hers, dancing with tongues of fire. The full weight of the Dark One registers across her body, pinning her to the ground. She looks to the side, searching for Cartridge. She immediately wishes she hadn't.

Cartridge is slumped against a wall, slowly rising and falling as his breath grows shallower. Blood is trailing down his torso and dripping down from his chin, his rifle lays beside him, the barrel bent to a ninety degree angle, two spent shells next to it. His hooves are pressed against a gaping puncture wound in his chest. The glass of his mask is shattered, as is the glass of the shades that have covered his eyes since they met. His silver eyes are nauseatingly relaxed, as if drugged on the excruciating pain that must have been shooting through him.

"All we want," the mutant repeats, "Is death." On the last word, the creature's voice register drops deeper than Vinyl's bass back in Ponyville. She suddenly notices that the gunfire below has stopped.

No… NO! her thoughts almost radiate audibly like the Dark One's. She realizes that her old friends are dead, her new friend is slowly dying as blood leaks from his body, and his breathing becomes more labored and audible as the toxins that make up the air fill him. She squeezes her eyes shut, not even trying to fight the tears that are running down her face.

The beast raises its arm, making its long fingers with sharp claws into a point. Dash tenses, sure of what will happen. Time slows as the point of the beast's hand plunges down. It inches closer and closer to her, she sees the blood-soaked tip approaching. Almost there, just an inch away, and a bright light flashes.

"Gah!" Rainbow Dash screams, bolting upright. She pants heavily, gulping down air as her shoulders go rise and fall quickly. She looks to the side, and the bright summer sun sends searing pain through her eyes.

"Rainbow, what's wrong?" Twilight's familiar voice calls.

"N-n-nothing," she replies, not completely convinced that's the truth, "J-just a… a dream?"

"You sure? You sound pretty out of breath."

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine," Dash says, standing up and flying out of the window of the old tree library.

Library. She shudders, quickly running a hoof through her prismatic mane. Seeing Twilight walk out of the door below her, she descends, landing next to her.

"So Twi', whaddaya plan on doin' today?"

"Well," Twilight seems to think for a bit, "I was thinking that I wou-" she stops short when a high pitched whine fills the air. They stop along with everypony else in the area and stare, dumbfounded, at a telephone pole with megaphone-style speakers on the top pointed in every direction.

… 4… 3… 2… 1… Everypony breaks into hysteria, screaming in panic and turning every which way, bolting to the only building that could help them escape, help them live if only for another day.

Dash grabs Twilight from the waist, making her squeal in surprise, then bolts to the new safest place on the planet. The only safe place on the planet. She just follows the river of moving bodies below.

Dash rocks back, then forth on her small cot for the 13,249th time that day. She counted. Anything to get her mind off of the announcement that had been made .

A loud whine slices through the shocked murmurs of the station, followed by a staticy, metallic voice.

"Attention, everypony in The Equestrian Metro, repeat, attention everypony in the metro: The final numbers are in, and congratulations, you are one of 34,212 live, accounted-for ponies on the planet. That is all, as you were."

That message would haunt her for the rest of her life. 34,212 ponies are alive. Out of a world of 7.5 billion ponies, only 34,212 live to tell the stories of yesterday. Her eyes squeeze shut as if trying to block out the pain, like if she couldn't see the world, and its pain, and its loss, it couldn't see her, and her shame, and her sorrow.

I'm supposed to be the toughest pony in all of Equestria, her still confident side says to her, trying to pick her up out of her feeble state.

Shut up. There is no Equestria anymore. There is no Equestria anymore… But I, of all ponies, should have known. And I, of all ponies, have to deal with the pain of knowing how it all ends. To nothing and nopony in particular, she says the new most commonly used phrase in what's left of the world.

"Noo, dyer'mo," Well, shit.

---

Fin. Sorry, but I just had to end it like that at least once, if I get people wanting an alternate ending (or two or three), I'll do that, if people want any backstories, I'll do that, but you have to let me know. Or, if you want, write your own endings, and send them to me, and if I like if, I'll post it and give you credit. Also, small fact, the whole '34,212' number for the survival count is actually the total word count, minus authors notes. So... yeah. Have a nice *appropriate unit/description of time here*, thanks for reading my first fanfic all the way through, and as always: /)*(\