The town of Evergreen was almost completely empty, devoid of life, abandoned. The only sign that anything was still alive there was the building sitting on the river that ran through the center of town, just before a small bridge that had once been the cause of many a traffic jam. Though the structure was nearly dead silent the lights inside were still on thanks to a small generator that chugged along, it had been pushed to the back of the building for ventilation reasons. The saloon had once been a place of merriment and good times, as it was now, it stood as the last bastion of life in the small Colorado town. The wooden structure was simple, nothing flashy, but the windows had been covered by plywood. Inside the walls that had been decorated with posters for bands were now adorned with trinkets and pictures of those that were lost, pictures of families that the on living there had managed to salvage from the ruins of civilization.

The figure that sat at the bar now stared at the empty space around him for a few moments before he hunched back over with a scowl. The darkened atmosphere made it difficult to see his face, but a pair of piercing green eyes stared down into his mug of beer. His mane of thick, dirty black hair was now covered by an old steel pot helmet. A cold wind from outside filled the room, prompting him to tighten the long leather jacket for warmth, stitched to the shoulder was a small patch depicted a purple six pointed star, surrounded by five others. It was one of the few reminders he had that there used to be actual people, and not the things that roamed around outside that wailed and barked like animals.

His face was hidden by a black bandana worn like the desperados in old western movies, but it served a purpose other than to hide his identity, for outside it became a shield against the blistering cold winds. Across his chest were two bandoleers that he could only manage to stalk half way, they were crude items he'd pulled from a ruined gun shop, but they did their job and that was all that mattered. Whatever ammunition he couldn't or wouldn't put in the bandoleers was stuffed safely in an old backpack sitting by his feet.

He sighed after taking another sip of his beer, it was bitter but it was better than the water that flowed in the river. The lake that fed it had become so clogged with bodies he didn't dare go near the water. Three years ago he was sitting with his mom and dad in that very seat, talking about how he had gotten his permit to drive. They had been so proud that day. That memory brought a tear to the man's eye, he was quick to wipe it away as if he was in front of someone and didn’t want them to see it. Feeling nostalgic, and a bit lonely, he pulled his wallet wallet from his jacket pocket and leafed through the contents. Old and made of duct tape, the wallet had served him since he had made it all the way back in first grade.

“Dominic Occisor.” He read his name aloud of the ID card with a shake of the head, he wasn't sure if that name really fit him anymore, not after all he'd seen and done. Dominic sighed before reading the information to himself. He always wanted to remember that despite everything that had happened, no matter who he'd killed or way, he still had his humanity. The same guy that had taught his sister how to ride a bike, or watched TV shows with his goof off best friend. With these happy memories also came bitter ones, memories that had haunted him since the fateful day that Evergreen feel into the unmerciful clutches of the undead. He remembered the screams, the terror on his mother's face when his sister had been bitten and died, only to come back as some horribly deformed monster. How his mother, the nurse that she was, tried to help the sick. How his family was torn asunder only hours after the first of the infected had arrived in town.

Dominic looked at his weapons for a moment, a semi-automatic shotgun and a revolver that had been chambered to fire different rounds. That was his personal favorite as it had been a gift from his father. The steel was hard, cold and black and the words ‘Overkill Is Underrated’ were proudly inscribed along in the barrel, and the textured grip was more than comfortable after many a year of use.

Dominic sighed as he looked about the room, eyeing his revolver for a moment. How easy would it be for him to stick the barrel in his mouth and pull the trigger, how soon could he be reunited with his family. He was sure god would understand why he'd done it. After several moments he tore his eyes away and shook his head vigrously. Instead he stood from his seat and slowly walked over to the door, he leaned to a slit in the plywood and looked outside. There they stood, unmoving, snapping their jaws as if trying to speak. Dominic turned back to the bar and picked up his guns, then slung his bag over his shoulder. He needed to get more supplies, as he knew that soon winter would be coming and his dwindling supply wouldn't last long. The only place not touched by looters was the Little Bear tavern down the street, mainly because that was where the most infected were. It was a risky idea, but it was either that or starve and freeze to death. The man found it a tad Ironic the business rival of his favorite saloon was also going to be his salvation.

Between him and his supplies stood at least one hundred infected, maybe more. He had a plan for that though, as it seemed that the undead were very particular hunters. They liked loud noises, banging pots and pans, gun fire, anything that sounded like people. Dominic took a breath before he went back into the darkness of the saloon, rifling through a couple cabinets before withdrawing a string of firecrackers and a lighter. He hoped like hell the plan worked, Colorado was very anti-firework in its day, and that meant finding more of them would be damn near impossible. He silently ran to the back deck of the bar, overlooking the rushing water in the river, before he lit the fuse on the fire crackers and tossed them as hard as he could. They landed on the other side of the river near several abandoned cars before the began to crack off loudly.

The loud noise caught the attention of the infected, all of whom let out a shriek as they looked where the firecrackers had started to go off. They charged like a wall of meat, ignoring everything else but the loud popping noise. Meanwhile Dominic took off towards his destination at immense speeds of his own, he had taped a large kitchen knife to his shotgun and was using it to slash any of the ugly monsters that got in his way. He didn’t call these creatures zombies, as technically the disease they carried kept them alive some how. A knife to the chest was as lethal as any bullet to the head, and that helped in times like this where Dominic had to be as quiet as possible. He dodged as many of the creatures as possible while he ran in a dead sprint like a bat outta hell, occasionally one of the creatures would reach out after him but ultimately they were to busy going after the firecrackers that had woken them from their slumber.

After several tense minutes of running past ruined shops and abandoned vehicles he made it to the Little Bear and kicked in the front door. To his surprise he found the building wasn't empty as he'd hoped, there were at least five of the foul creatures there waiting for him. Slowly one of them turned and pointed a grotesque finger at Dominic before shrieking loudly, gaining the attention of its fellow ghouls. Dominic readied his shotgun and took aim at the creature's chest before pulling the trigger and sending a spray of bird shot into its chest, the shot broke the kitchen knife at the end, leaving it a jagged piece of metal that was just as dangerous as its predecessor.

“Come on!” Dominic shouted angrily as the infected ran at him, one leaped from the bar that was about five feet in front of him and was about to pounce when time seemed to slow down for the man. Dominic raised his shotgun and the creature impaled itself on the jagged blade before the man pulled the trigger and blasted the monster in the gut, as what felt like seconds ticked by Dominic had taken another shot at one of infected. He pulled the trigger sending more lead flying through the air and into several of its companions, sending at least two more to the ground in crumpled heaps. Dominic let out a battle cry before unleashing the anger that dwelled within him. Fed by the rage that had built up over the past three years he moved as fast as lightning, slicing and shooting his way through the infected until all of them lay on the ground, his shoulders heaved up and down as blood dripped from his coat. Cautiously he looked outside and saw that none of the others had heard the noise, perhaps they just had a thing for firecrackers, he didn't know for sure, but he didn't want to stick around and find out either.

Dominic breathed a sigh of relief before walking through the trashed dining room until he'd gotten to the kitchen, he had tried to make a run like this a week before, but he'd stupidly forgotten his backpack, all the stuff he'd come for was right where he'd left it. As he stepped over several of his twitching victims he made sure to look at their faces, they deserved to be remembered by someone. After doing that he began to look at all the canned ingredients and food left in the old bar. Quickly he began to toss it all into the empty part of the backpack, looking over his shoulder every thirty seconds or so to see if any of the infected had wandered in behind him. When he had finished he reloaded his weapons and prepared to exit the kitchen, he was all set to go, but a rustling noise caught his attention.

Carefully he approached the source of the noise with his shotgun at the ready. The noise came again, this time from a large metallic refrigerator in the very back of the kitchen. He got closer nervously and stowed his shotgun, preferring to draw his revolver and pull back the hammer. With his free hand he grasped the handle of the fridge and quickly he yanked it before leaping back.

A massive wave of energy blasted Dominic off his feet and sent him flying through the air, he slammed into a wall behind him and his his head before the wave seemed to reverse and pulled Dominic towards a bright glowing light inside the fridge. It was so bright he was forced to cover his eyes with his hands, only that didn't help, it continued to get brighter and brighter. He knew it was reaching out for him, he could feel tendrils of energy grabbing him. His vision became white as his body pulled into a viscous warm energy that made his hair stand on end.

Dominic tried to scream, he prayed to whatever deity would listen, he tried to beg for forgiveness for everything that he'd done and then some, but no matter how hard he struggled he was still pulled closer to the glowing light. The sound of him shouting in protest was deafened by some unseen force and soon the edges of his vision began to turn dark, was it the blow to his head or something else, he wasn't sure. All he knew was this was the end. He was furious that this would be the way he went, without a last stand or no final battle, he was going to be killed by a magical glowing refrigerator, as he mused on that his vision went dark and he fell unconscious.

{♠}

Twilight Sparkle was still getting used to living in Canterlot again, being a princess was far from what she thought it would be. Ponies with magic problems came to her for help, which she was happy to lend, and occasionally ponies with questions would ask for her advice. In layman's terms she was BUSY. To pass the time when she wasn’t signing off on papers, giving advice or studying, she often looked through the Starswirl The Bearded wing of the archives. That evening was no exception, her eyes read over the ancient equestrian scripts with large interest.

“Hmmm.” She would occasionally hum when she read something especially interesting, her eyes widened as she set her eyes on on spell in particular. “Transdimensional Teleportation, A spell to use when one requires something otherworldly to study.” She read aloud before looking over the spells parameters, to her it would be foals play. She was a smart alicorn, she realized that casting a spell like this inside the most important archive was dangerous and so she memorized the spell in her head before walking off to her room.

As she walked through the palace her mind shifted to how exciting it would be to study some other worldly artifact. Perhaps it would be a piece of literature she could translate, perhaps it would be a statue of an otherworldly creature. Oh, how proud Celestia would be! Twilight made her way to her room with a massive smile on her face, she couldn’t wait to see what wonders other dimensions held. She nodded to her guards and entered the room before closing the door and bolting it shut.

“Okay, lets see how did it go again? Oh yes!” Twilight’s horn ignited brightly, the room instantly bathed in bright purple light. “From a world not our own, whether it be flesh or stone, bring to me what I request, So I may see the universes guest.” Her horn exploded in a massive blast of magic, she flew into a wall and groaned before getting to her hooves. In front of her was a milky white portal, it pulsed and hummed loudly. Its surface shimmered before it began to part, Twilight gasped as a strange creature began to emerge from the portal and immediately ran to the door. The second she unbolted it a dozen guards rushed in, armed and ready for battle.

“Princess! What is that thing!” One of her guards asked gesturing to the unconscious creature, its clothes were stained with blood and the sickly sweet scent of death seemed to permeate the air around it.

“I don’t know... Princess Celestia must though! She’ll know what to do!” Twilight replied, the guard saluted and rushed out of the room. Twilight took several tentative steps towards the creature and poked it with her hoof, it didn’t move in the slightest, it only response seemed to be laying there on her floor as if it were dead. For a moment she thought it was until she saw its chest rising and falling in a steady, if not rapid, pace. Whatever this thing was, it was in for a surprise when it woke up.

{♠}

Dominic moaned in discomfort as his senses began to come back to him, he instinctively tried to move his arms to rub his eyes only to find them bound. One word ran through his mind at that moment. ‘Raiders.’ He angrily thought, his thoughts went back to what had happened. Was that a dream, had he been drugged?

“It’s waking up!” A feminine voice called from his right, his eyes slowly opened only to be assaulted by bright light. He snapped his eyes shut and waited a moment before trying again, the second his eyes stayed open and he could see the ceiling of a room. “Oh Celestia this is so exciting!” Dominic didn’t know what to make of that statement, perhaps this raider was a member of the fandom before the outbreak. Dominic took a second to try and take stock of his situation, he knew was dressed in his regular clothes, save for his jacket and helmet which had most likely been taken with his weaponry.

“Should we tell the Princesses?” A more masculine voice interjected, Dominic could swear that they were entirely serious. These Raiders’ leader must have referred to themselves as ‘Princesses’, a prospect that annoyed him more than he thought it should. “I mean this is the strangest thing in Equestria I’ve ever seen.” At this point to Dominic the joke was over and it was no longer funny.

“No it hasn’t, Princess Luna and Celestia will want to hear about this. Would you mind getting them, Azure Gear?” The first feminine voice asked.

“Yes ma’am!” Another voice replied before what sounded like a double pair of footsteps left whatever room he was in.

“Okay lets see if its eyes are responsive.” The Masculine voice said, Dominic felt something round press down on his chest before a bright light was shone into his eyes causing him to wince.

“Gah, knock it off you goddamn raider scum!” Dominic shouted angrily, the light immediately died and whatever had been on Dominic’s chest disappeared just as quickly.

“It...IT SPOKE!” Said the female voice, Dominic growled angrily.

“Of course I spoke, what you think just because I'm tied to a bed I'm some sort of dumb animal, you stupid piece of shit!” Dominic turned his head to look at the speaker and for the second time in his life he had nothing to say. Rather than seeing a human raider, he saw a small white horse with a soft pink mane and a little hat atop its head. On its rear was a red cross with four hearts surrounding it, its eyes were massive and its snout was shorter than a normal horse. What made the situation even more unbelievable was the fact that he KNEW who this pony was. It had been years since he’d seen her but there was no doubt in his mind. Finally his mind found the right words. “What the fuck...?”

{♠}

Celestia was pacing back and forth, what was she to do with this creature. She could destroy it and cast a memory spell on all who had seen it, but that wouldn’t be right. It wasn’t his fault that he was brought here, she couldn’t destroy an innocent being, even if he'd been covered in blood when he'd arrived, how was she to know the context of what its situation was before it came to her world. She could keep it prisoner, that would only prompt it to be angry with her and what if its fellows had the ability to come to her world and demand him back. She could unveil him to the world, but that would lead to dozens of political problems, not to mention the social problems that the creature would face. The princess put a hoof to her forehead and sighed, why had Twilight gone and cast that spell?

All of these thoughts were clattering around Celestia’s head like a million bouncing bowling balls, but at the center of it all was the what the being had with him. Specifically his jacket and the patch that had been sewn into it. It was the same as of Twilight Sparkles cutie mark. How the creature knew what it was was a mystery to her, but it made her shudder to think what it could possibly mean to its culture. The strange metal objects seemed to be weapons of some sort, was he a soldier? Was it part of his culture to carry such weapons? Why was his clothing covered in blood? Even more shocking thoughts echoed through her head to the point she could barely think straight, her stupor was shaken away when the sound of soft knocking on her door drew her attention.

“Enter.” Celestia said, her motherly tone all but completely subdued. The door slowly opened and a guard poked his head in. “Yes?”

“It’s awake your, highness.” The guard stated, Celestia rose to her hooves and walked to the door.

“How long ago did it wake up?” Celestia asked, her eyes facing ahead as the guard lagged slightly behind her.

“Ten minutes ago, your highness, it seemed quite agitated.” The guard stated, the rest of the walk was silent until the two ponies arrived at a door.

“....No, this has gotta be a god damn nightmare!" There was a loud crash, followed by a couple screams. "Get the fuck away from me! None of you are fucking real, I'm laying in a ditch somewhere with a head wound or something!” A very young, deep, masculine voice shouted.

“How did he get out of the restraints!” A more frantic male voice shouted from within as yet another loud crash echoed through the door, Celestia cringed at the sound of all that property damage. The guard beside her tensed up and was about to buck the door open when the princess shook her head to him, she instead opted to just pushed the door open. Seconds later she was met with a large metal pan that had been hurled by the strange creature, it was caught mere inches from her face by the yellow glow of her magic.

“Get! The! Fuck! Away! From! Me!” The creature shouted, punctuating each word with a thrown piece of medical equipment. Several nurses and doctors rushed out the open door, Celestia dropped the pan to the ground and saw the creature glaring at the only nurse left in the room. She coughed and his gaze turned to her, she winced as she saw the emotions in his eyes, confusion, anger, hatred, misery...fear. “You!” He pointed at her with a trembling finger, sweat was staining his already stained shirt. “You aren't real, none of you are!” He turned his attention back to the nurse, Nurse Redheart stared at him with wide eyes. “It's all a fuckin' dream!” He turned back to Celestia and stormed over to her until he was only inches away from her face.

“I could kill you if I wanted and it wouldn't make a lick of goddamn difference! I would wake up right as rain and there wouldn't be a hint of regre-” There was a very loud clang, and Celestia could see the creature's face contort into a mix of pain and surprised. He swayed on his feet for a few moments before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Celestia looked wide eyed at Nurse Redheart, who was holding an Oxygen tank in her hooves. She was panting through gritted teeth and glaring at the now unconscious creature, she saw the massive bump forming on the back of his head.

“Nopony... Messes... With My…. Staff!...” Redheart grunted out with a huff between each word, she looked up and realized the Princess was staring at her. She dropped the O2 tank and into a bow, Celestia looked at her still shocked.

“Rise my little pony.” Celestia said, still a bit shaken by the events that had unfolded, Redheart did as she was told and stood up. Celestia eyed the now unconscious creature laying on the floor, he looked younger than she remembered. Maybe the fact he wasn’t wearing his jacket and helmet made him look more innocent. Celestia turned to the guard that was standing behind her, he too looked stunned. “Guard, take him to my quarters. Seal it off from everypony save for my sister and myself. Even Twilight Sparkle. If he should wake and we are not there do not let him out, if he becomes violent....subdue him.” The guard looked at her for a moment before nodding. The guard hoisted the creature onto his back and began to trot off. “And Guard....return his jacket and helmet.” Celestia frowned a bit as she saw the guard handle the creature roughly but said nothing.

Author's Notes:

Re-Edited and Re-Written on 1/10/2016 at 13:27.