A foal splashed against the ground, blood and gore spraying on Rarity and Twilight. They looked up and saw Rainbow Dash.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “Hey, Applejack! I’m gonna take the next one even higher! Maybe it’ll burn in the atmosphere!”

“Umm... It seems that we’re interrupting something...” Rarity whispered to Twilight.

“Excuse me!” Twilight shouted. “Can you–”

Another foal hit the ground next to her with a wet crunch. One of the eyeballs rolled towards her. She automatically smashed it with her hoof and winced at the realisation of what she just did.

“Hey, Applejack! That was sixteenth! How about you?”

They heard a sound of a skull crushed by a powerful buck. “Twenty one!” A sound of a spine being ripped out of the body. “Twenty two!”

Rainbow Dash landed next to them and wiped sweat from her forehead. “How’s she doing that?” she asked.

A sound of a horn being stuck into its owner’s left lung distracted them for a moment. “Twenty three! Top that, sugarcube!”

“Well,” Rarity said. “While your tactics are quite picturesque, darling, I must admit that Applejack is more, umm... effective...”

“You’re right...” Dash muttered. “Hey, you!” she shouted to one of the zombies, who happened to be Snails. “I’m gonna rip your heart out and pee into the left chamber!” She darted forward.

“Eww...” Rarity winced watching the scene happening before her eyes.

“Actually, it was the right ventricle...” Twilight muttered.

“Seventeen!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Umm... Excuse me!” Twilight shouted. “We need to talk for a moment...”

“Eighteen!”

“Twenty four!”

“Nineteen!”

“Smothering with his own bowels?” Applejack asked. “Okay! Ah’m gonna cut the top of her skull off and take a–”

Twilight closed her eyes and covered her ears. Rarity didn’t manage to do that in time and passed out seeing what Applejack was doing. Since then she couldn’t look into Applejack’s eyes for long. And not only eyes.

To her surprise, Twilight saw that Applejack and Rainbow Dash weren't fighting the zombies alone. One of the zombies screamed when Granny Smith grabbed his wing with her teeth and started to bash his head with a cane. She threw his body into the crowd, causing a couple of attackers to trip, and stomped on their skulls in a way similar to her granddaughter. However, more zombies were cornering her. She had to retreat and now she was defending herself desperately leaning against a barn's wall.

Twilight opened her mouth to shout, seeing a small filly zombie about to sink her teeth in Granny Smith's leg, when suddenly the filly's head exploded under a giant hoof.

"Nope!" Big Macintosh said.

Twilight stood up, fire burning in her eyes. “Girls! Stop killing them!”

“Why?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We can defeat them with Rainbow Power and turn them back to normal! Or, if it fails, borrow the Elements from the Tree of Harmony!”

“Yeah... Tell that to Fluttershy...” Rainbow Dash muttered. She caught the leg of a zombie trying to attack her from behind, bent it in a way no leg could bend, and shoved it into the owner’s throat. “Twenty!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Where’s Fluttershy?” she asked.

“Mostly in the barn,” Rainbow Dash replied. “And Rarity is lying on her wing...” She grabbed Sassaflash who tried to tackle her and broke her spine. “Twenty one. And if you believe in such stuff, she’s in Elysium, playing lyre... And you’ll soon join them!” The last words were directed at Caramel, who almost caught Rainbow’s wing trying to take revenge for his marefriend. Before Rainbow could counterattack, a wave of Twilight’s magic hit Caramel, changing him into a charred skeleton.

“Sorry for stealing your kill,” Twilight said, her voice quivering and her eye twitching. “Just... When I think about poor Fluttershy... I think that...” she sobbed. “That we should... wake up Rarity... find Pinkie Pie... and break every single bone in the body of a motherfucker who did this…”

“N-no problem...” Rainbow Dash said. “By the way, where’s Pinkie?” She turned back to see that Applejack had corralled the rest of the zombies in the barn. Granny Smith and Big Macintosh were already lighting it on fire. “Hey! That doesn’t count!”

Applejack smiled sheepishly. “Will y’all help me rebuilding that barn later?”

“Sure,” Twilight deadpanned, swallowing her tears. “Do you know where’s Pinkie Pie?”

“Ah have no idea,” Applejack replied. “But Ah think she’ll give us a sign...”

At the same moment, the sky darkened and the ground started to shake. A mushroom-shaped cloud appeared over Ponyville.

At last Rarity woke up, screaming.

“W-was it...” Rainbow Dash looked at the sky unsurely.

“Pinkie Pie,” Twilight muttered, shaking her head. “Seriously, who else but her?”

Tootsie Flute looked around. Most of her new friends were gone, either killed by explosion, or running away. Tootsie shrugged, stood up and spread her brand new pair of wings. They suddenly sprouted from her back just after Sugarcube Corner exploded. Tootsie smiled and took her bucket of candies. She’d always wanted to be a princess.

She looked around and through the falling ashes and debris she saw an old, battered fridge lying on the ground. She trotted to it and poked it with her hoof. The door of the fridge opened and hit her head. She groaned and flew away, deciding to watch the further events from the top of the nearby ruins.

“We’re alive!” Button exclaimed. “I’m sorry, oh great A.K. Yearling, for doubting in your wisdom!”

Twist groaned. Not only Button landed on her when the fridge had been thrown out of Sugarcube Corner, but also Gummy was now holding her tail with his mouth. She stood up and got out of the fridge, holding the katana ready. “We should watch out,” she said. “The radiation...”

“If there was radiation here, we’d already be dead,” Button replied. “Apparently Pinkie had a short half-life...”

“Seems that my sister’s house was destroyed...” Twist muttered. “But I guess she’s in the basement...”

“Let’s go there and end this once and for all...” Button said, trotting forward.

Tootsie Flute watched them from the top of the scorched building. Part of her was telling her to attack them and eat their brains. Tootsie remembered the voice she’d first heard when she ate those beautiful red candies, which kept telling her to attack other ponies. But since the explosion, the voice was gone. Tootsie no longer felt like the other zombies. Of course, she still liked brains, but now she was going to eat them only when she wanted, not when some disembodied voice in her head told her to.

She stretched her wings. She was now a free alicorn zombie and wanted the others to respect that. With an ear-piercing shriek, she took off and started to circle above the town.

Scootaloo was sitting by the river with a bottle of beer she’d found somewhere in town. It tasted awful, but she didn’t care; one of her friends died a horrible death because she preferred to run away instead of helping her, and the other was now a zombie. In such days, even a filly like her just had to have a drink.

Sure, Sweetie Belle killed her parents, but it was a long time ago. Scootaloo got used to the fact that she was an orphan. Being the cause of death of both her friends was, however, a completely new feeling for her. If she had cigarettes, she’d smoke one.

Scootaloo sighed. Apple Bloom did nothing to deserve her fate. Sure, it was her idea to leave Sweetie Belle as a bait for zombies... But still, dying like that, because of Scootaloo’s cowardice... Something was crawling in her skin. She knew those wounds wouldn’t heal. Fear was how she fell. Now, after downing almost a whole bottle of beer, she was confused what was real.

“Yeah...”

She turned around to face Bulk Biceps. He seemed even bigger than usual. His eyes were glowing green; he was slowly walking towards her, his skin covered in wounds.

Scootaloo stood up, her wings shooting open. “Come on!” she shouted. “You can eat my brain!”

Bulk Biceps only growled, approaching her. Scootaloo backpedalled and felt that her hind legs touched the water.

“Come on!” she cried. “Rip me to pieces! At least I’ll see Apple Bloom again!”

He trotted to her, raising his hoof. Scootaloo closed her eyes, ready for a finishing blow.

She heard an ear-piercing shriek and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. She opened her eyes and her jaw dropped.

Before her Tootsie Flute, now sporting a pair of wings, grabbed Bulk’s hoof with her teeth. Her horn started to glow. Bulk Biceps thrashed, but he couldn’t do anything when the spell caused him to go limp. Tootsie opened her mouth to sink her fangs in his head, but then stopped. She jumped off the sleeping Bulk’s body and trotted to Scootaloo. “Brains!” she exclaimed happily.

“Yes, you can eat my brain,” Scootaloo muttered.

Tootsie shook her head, grinning widely. She pointed at the bucket on her neck. “Candies!” she said.

“No, I don’t want candies,” Scootaloo replied.

Tootsie chirped, tilting her head to the left. She approached Scootaloo and wrapped her wing around her. “Candies!” she exclaimed.

“No,” Scootaloo replied.

Tootsie murmured something and kissed Scootaloo, who winced – Tootsie’s breath smelled of numerous brains she’d devoured.

Scootaloo looked at the candy bucket. “You know... My parents are dead... All my friends are dead...”

Tootsie nodded and ruffled Scootaloo’s mane with her wing.

Scootaloo looked at the candies again. They were so beautiful... “You know?” Scootaloo asked. “Fuck it. I’ll eat one.”

She was about to take a candy, when a magic beam flew past her and hit Tootsie’s chest. Scootaloo dropped the candy and watched her new friend collapsing slowly, the smile still plastered on her face. She turned back to see Twilight Sparkle walking towards her with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack.

“Scootaloo!” Twilight exclaimed. “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”

“N-no...” Scootaloo replied. “I’m okay...” She lowered her head and poked Tootsie Flute with her hoof. “Applejack, Rarity... Apple Bloom is dead and Sweetie is a zombie... It’s all my fault...”

Rainbow Dash landed next to her and patted her mane. “It’s not, squirt... You couldn’t do anything about that. We’ll talk about it later, okay? For now, find some safe place to hide...”

“Y-yes...” Scootaloo replied. “You’re probably right...”

They left her sitting next to Tootsie Flute’s body, staring at the spilled candies. She waited till they disappeared and collapsed on the grass, sobbing openly. Memories consumed her. It was like opening the wound. It was picking her apart again.

She was just about to give up hope and succumb to despair, when she felt something moving next to her.

“Brains?” Tootsie Flute asked.

“Yes...” Scootaloo whispered, wiping her tears. “Brains...”

The ruins were awfully quiet. Twist started to look for the door leading to the basement, using her katana to put debris aside. Button was looking around with a guitar in his teeth. He shuddered, thinking that they could be the only ponies left alive in Ponyville. What if Celestia ordered them to repopulate the area? Twist would probably bite his head off.

Twist was also lost in her thought. After all, she had to face her sister soon. For the first time that day she started to think that maybe it was a bad idea to not stop her earlier. So many lives could be saved... Pinkie Pie wouldn’t have to change herself into a nuke...

And, above all, the mentally challenged alligator wouldn’t hold her tail.

“I think I found the basement door,” Button said, pointing at the trapdoor in the floor. At the same moment, the trapdoor bursted open, knocking him down.

Bon Bon emerged from the underground trying to look menacing. It was hard, however, since she had to shield her eyes from the light. It seemed that controlling the zombies drained her; she was staggering; her mane was dishevelled. She turned to look at Twist and smiled the way she practised for hours in front of the mirror – a cold, emotionless smile of somepony who just burned down a kindergarten. “Hello, sister,” she said.

Twist looked at her, trying to find the right words to welcome her. Unfortunately, she found nothing that’d sound original. “I came here to end this,” she said eventually. After all, it was her purpose and there was no reason to pretend otherwise.

“Oh, I was waiting for you to say this,” Bon Bon replied. “I’d like to inform you that it’s no use. You’re too late.” She threw her head backwards and laughed, only to cough when she choked on her saliva. For some reason, her evil laughter still didn’t work.

Twist patiently waited till her sister could breathe again. “Give up,” she said. “We defeated all zombies you’ve created. And no, I won’t join you to rule Equestria together. And while I believe there’s still good in you, I’d rather kick your flank for what you did...”

“For what I did?” Bon Bon asked. “I only gave them mind-controlling, power-enhancing candies. I didn’t slaughter half of the town like you and those who didn’t eat them...”

Twist staggered, remembering all those zombies she and Button had killed with her death ray, blender, guitar, and Pinkie Pie-powered nuke.

“I have an antidote, you know,” Bon Bon said. “Blue candies in the basement. Once I would’ve taken Princess Celestia’s place, I’d change everypony back. You know, economy doesn’t work best when most of the citizens require eating brains to function.”

“And what with those who didn’t eat candies?” Twist asked, gritting her teeth. “Silver Spoon ate Apple Bloom’s eyes. I had to spend a day with a moron who thinks condoms are bubble gum. Have you thought about it?”

“Collateral damage,” Bon Bon replied. “Also, resistance prevents stagnation... Even though...” She laughed. “Resistance is futile...”

Suddenly something heavy hit her head. She crossed her eyes and collapsed on her knees before falling into the basement with a loud thud suggesting a broken leg. Button smiled sheepishly, standing behind her with a guitar in his hooves. “Rock’n’Roll, bitch!” he exclaimed.

“Hey! It’s my sister!” Twist shouted. Gummy let go of her tail and went to Button.

“I’m sorry...” Button muttered. “Just ‘Rock’n’Roll’ then...”

“Anyway...” Twist looked around unsurely. “We did it, right? We stopped her...”

“It seems so...” Button replied. “So, it means... We’re heroes now, right? Fame, fillies, fun times...”

“No...” Twist lowered her head. “It means we are alone in the middle of the desolated town, my sister’s insane, everyone we knew is dead, and our only companion is a toothless alligator.” She pointed at Gummy, who was munching something. Button looked at him and spotted a red candy wrap in front of him.

“Motherfu–” Twist muttered.

Button didn’t lose his mind. He simply kicked Gummy down the basement, locked the trapdoor, and sat on it. “I’ve heard something about an antidote,” he said as if he wasn’t interrupted. “Some zombies are still alive... If we travel around with it...”

“Aaargh!” They heard Bon Bon’s scream from the basement. “Noooo!” Her voice drowned in the sound resembling ripping one’s spine out.

“She had an antidote in her basement,” Twist said with a sigh. “Do you want to go there?”

“Umm... no...” Button replied. “Maybe if we wait some time, Gummy will eat it and change back to normal?”

“Maybe...” Twist said. “But I don’t think I can be normal...”

“Hey, you!”

They raised their heads to see Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash approaching them. Twilight was charging her horn, aiming at them.

“Are y’all zombies?” Applejack asked.

“We? No!” Button replied. “It was Bon Bon who did this.”

“Where’s she?” Applejack asked. “Ah had to give her apples for free... Now Ah could...”

“She’s there, with Gummy.” Button pointed at the trapdoor, trying to look as innocent as he could, which wasn’t easy since Twist was glaring daggers at him.

“Okay, let’s end it!” Rainbow Dash flew to the trapdoor, pushed Button off of it and opened it. Suddenly, her expression changed. She paled and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. She retched, but quickly swallowed it back – showing weakness in front of six witnesses definitely wouldn’t be cool. Then she closed the trapdoor back, grabbed Button and sat him back on it. “What, by Discord’s psychedelic colon was THAT?” she exclaimed.

“Gummy,” Button replied, smiling sheepishly.

“W-why was he... s-so... umm...” Rainbow Dash looked at the trapdoor unsurely.

“Candies,” Button said.

“I wish there was a way to prevent all that...” Twist muttered, looking at the ruins of Bon Bon’s house. The blast after Pinkie’s explosion turned the whole town into burnt-down sea of wood and bricks, inhabited by the remains of zombie infestation, mutated and confused after their master’s death. Even from the point where they were standing they could see Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle sitting in the ruins of the Carousel Boutique. They were sitting at the table, drinking something they were pouring to glasses from a charred blender and playing poker, using spoons and eyeballs as chips. When Rarity saw that, she passed out again – she’d never expected her sister to become Silver Spoon’s friend.

Twilight’s ears perked up. “There may be a way to prevent that...” she said. “Too bad time travels are so dangerous...”

“How do you want to travel back in time?” Twist asked. “Dr. Whooves died in an explosion... And we don’t know how he looks like after regeneration...”

“His name was ‘Time Turner’, and he wasn’t a Time Lord, sugarcube,” Applejack said.

“There’s a spell for that.” Twilight sighed. “But it only lasts two minutes... We’d have to go back in time to a very moment when Bon Bon got that idea... And we don’t know when it was...”

Rarity’s eyes shot open. “Umm... Maybe that notepad I conveniently fell on when I collapsed will tell us something?” She levitated a thick notebook with Bon Bon’s cutie mark on the cover.

“Let’s see...” Twilight muttered. She took the notebook and opened it. “Buy eggs... No, it’s not that... Lyra repairs our old radio... Not that... Four words: Applejack is a– No, that’s not important...”

“What am Ah?” Applejack asked, glaring at Twilight angrily.

“Dunno, it’s a bit smeared...” Twilight replied, smiling sheepishly. One didn’t have to be the Element of Honesty to smell a lie.

“What. Am. Ah?” Applejack muttered through gritted teeth. Twilight levitated a notebook to her. “What? It was only once...”

“Told you.” Twilight took a notebook and started to read further entries. “Today I caught my sister with an interesting picture of Mistress Mare-velous and Zapp. Note to self: try bondage with Lyra.”

“What?” Button exclaimed. “You ship that? So mainstream... And those two would never get together!”

Twist’s face was of the same colour as her mane. “Should I remind you of Hum Drum and Radiance’s sister?”

“Umm... Can we change the topic?” Rainbow Dash asked, throwing nervous glances at Applejack. “Twist surely feels awkward when we discuss her, umm... sister...”

Twilight raised her head from the notebook. “I think I found it,” she said dramatically. “3rd January: Today I stepped on Lyra’s roller skate and fell down a flight of stairs. After that I had a rather unusual idea. Note to self: check if candies can control a foal’s mind.”

“We have the time,” Rarity said. “Now we have to send somepony back to take that roller skate away...”

“But who?” Twilight asked. “It’s dangerous... Also, we shouldn’t tamper with time... Who knows what’ll happen if we change the past...”

“Well, nothing worse than this...” Applejack said, pointing at the town. In the ruin of the Carousel Boutique, Silver Spoon ran out of spoons and eyeballs, so Sweetie bit off one of her legs. Since after the nuclear explosion caused by Pinkie, Silver got a few additional limbs, it didn’t bother her much.

Twilight nodded. “But still, the world we come back to may be drastically different... We need a volunteer...”

Twist raised her head. She opened her mouth...

“I’ll do that!” Button exclaimed. Everypony looked at him. “What?” he asked.

“Are you sure?” Twist asked. “Because if you screw up, we won’t send you again to stop yourself from screwing up...”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” Button said and trotted to Twilight. “C’mon, Twilight, magic me to the past...”

Twilight aimed her horn at him and started to cast the Starswirl The Bearded’s spell. Just before it hit him, Button heard a sound of the trapdoor opening. His eyes widened when he saw Applejack and Rarity who were staring at something behind his back. Applejack fell on her haunches and threw up. Rarity’s eyes became bloodshot before they exploded in a fountain of blood and vitreous fluid. Button heard some hissing and gurgling, accompanied by Rainbow Dash and Twist’s screams. He was about to turn around, when Twilight’s spell sent him into the past.

Button closed his eyes, letting the flows of time and space take him to the same house he was in, but a few months, one zombie infestation, and one nuclear explosion earlier.

He opened his eyes. He realised that he was in the same place as before, sitting on a trapdoor. Yet, the house around him had all the walls and furniture intact. He looked around and saw his target. A roller skate standing innocently on the top of the stairs. Remembering that he had only two minutes, he darted forward and ran up the stairs.

Somepony knocked on the door. Button stopped halfway through the stairs and looked at it unsurely.

“I’m coming!” Bon Bon shouted from her room upstairs.

Cursing under his breath, Button started to run to the roller blade. He realised that he didn’t know what to do if Bon Bon saw him, with his dishevelled mane, covered in... well, water from the toilet in the HayDonald, dirt, and zombies’ blood. He thought, however, that it probably wouldn’t be as bad as what’d happen if he didn’t take the roller blade.

Hearing Bon Bon’s hoofsteps, he galloped faster. He was inches from the roller blade, when suddenly, he slipped on the loose carpet. He started to fall, but he managed to grab the roller blade with a tip of his hoof. His head hit the step and he rolled downstairs. Just before Bon Bon came into view, he disappeared, taken by the vortex of time and space back to his times.

Bon Bon looked at the stairs unsurely. “What the hay was that?” she asked and went to open the door.

Button hit the floor hard. He was about to look around, when the roller blade fell on his head. He groaned and got up slowly, looking around.

He cursed, seeing that the house was still in ruins. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Twist were nowhere to be seen. Button blinked. The house was in ruins, but they were different. Not exactly “nuke levelled it”, but rather “it was hit a few times with a death ray” kind of ruins. Button scratched his head and, thinking that he wasn’t going to make anything out of it, he left the house.

He barely opened the door, when he saw an enormous, metal-clad leg in the street. He looked upwards and saw that the leg belonged to a large tripod with a spotlight on the top, wandering through the town. The sky was dark. Several similar tripods were visible on the horizon.

“What the hay...” he muttered.

Suddenly, he saw a small silhouette behind the corner of the nearby building. It made a gesture and several more silhouettes appeared. Button’s ‘comic book cliche’ sense started to tingle. He trotted far from the house and watched the tripod.

“AIM FOR THE LEGS!” a familiar voice called. A couple of ponies jumped from behind the buildings, carrying death rays similar to the one Twist had owned. They aimed them and fired at the tripod’s legs. The machine staggered. Another burst of shots and it collapsed on the house Button had just left. One of the ponies galloped to the cockpit of the tripod and fired at the windshield, killing whatever was inside.

Button recognised her. She was dirty, she was wearing a bandana, and she had goggles with HUD instead of her glasses, but her curly, red mane didn’t change. She jumped of the fallen tripod and trotted to the rest of the group.

“Twist!” Button exclaimed, running to them. “I just came back from the past! What the–” He was interrupted when Twist hugged him and their lips connected. She smelled of smoke, ozone, aliens’ slime, and peppermint. Button raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t protest when she forced her tongue into his mouth. He even regretted a little when she stopped.

“What the hay?” he asked.

“Button!” Twist exclaimed. “H-how did you survive? They... They burned you to ashes! Everypony saw that...”

The rest of her group nodded. Button Mash’s jaw dropped when he saw them.

Sweetie Belle with a large scar on her cheek. Scootaloo in a camouflage uniform, with two chainguns in her battle saddle. Apple Bloom, or rather Apple Bloom-shaped cyberpony, with two death rays in her forelegs. Tootsie Flute, with cybernetic wings and an eyepatch, standing next to Scootaloo and hugging her. Diamond Tiara, wearing a torn catsuit and casually smoking a cigarette. Silver Spoon with a cybernetic eye, wearing an exoskeleton.

“W-what... H-how?” Button stammered.

“He doesn’t remember anything,” Tootsie Flute said. “Maybe it’s a clone they sent...”

“Let’s hide,” Scootaloo proposed. “We’ll think about it later.”

They trotted to the side street. There was an opened sewer there. They climbed down the ladder and Apple Bloom closed the hatch. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were looking after Button, aiming their death rays at him.

“Can anypony explain me what’s going on?” Button asked.

“The aliens attacked Equestria,” Twist replied. “You were the leader of our resistance group... But you were k-killed just two days ago... We decided to continue your efforts...”

“What? M-my efforts?”

“Cloned and dumb,” Scootaloo chuckled.

“Oh, please...” Sweetie Belle said. “He was like that before the apocalypse...”

Button decided to ignore that remark. “B-but how did you get all that cool stuff?”

“My own inventions,” Twist patted the death ray hanging from her neck. “Captured alien technology... And we robbed the secret research facility in Canterlot.”

They stood in front of enormous, metal door. Twist put her hoof on a panel and the door opened slowly with the sound of hissing air.

“But how did the war start?” Button asked. “How did... Ouch!”

“He Isn’t A Clone,” an Apple Bloom-shaped cyborg said, retreating a probe. Diamond and Silver lowered their weapons.

“Couldn’t you, like, warn me?” Button asked, glaring at her angrily and rubbing his rump.

“What Do You Mean Question Mark. I Lubed It Up,” Apple Bloom replied.

“Fuck you...”

“Cannot Follow That Order,” Apple Bloom said.

“Anyway, since you isn’t a clone, how did you survive being burned and trampled by a tripod?” Silver Spoon asked when they were walking through another dark corridor, leading them deeper underground.

“Well...” Button hesitated, before he realised that honesty was the best policy. “I... I kinda came from the past... Or future... Or maybe an alternative dimension... You know, wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff.”

He didn’t know if he should be happy or horrified seeing that nopony was surprised by his explanation.

They left the corridor and entered a large hall full of ponies, both adults and foals. Some of them were cybernetically augmented. Some had scars and eyepatches. All of them gasped in surprise when they saw him. “He’s alive!” somepony shouted. “Thanks Celestia!”

“Okay...” Button muttered, watching the hall. Ponies were sitting there, studying maps, polishing power armours or repairing guns. He noticed a large stash of rubber bands lying on the nearby table. “Can you tell my how the war started?”

“It was Lyra Heartstrings,” Twist replied. “She wanted to repair an old radio and accidentally changed it into a transmitter. She sent a signal to a nearby alien fleet which attacked the planet. Button? Are you okay?”

“Umm...” Button stood, horrified, remembering one of the entries in Bon Bon’s notebook. Lyra repairs our old radio.

Bon Bon never got the idea to use zombies to take over Equestria. She didn’t feed Lyra to her test subjects. Lyra repaired the radio. Equestria was doomed.

“Equestria to Button!” Twist shouted.

“Y-yes, I’m okay...” Button muttered. “I’m just thinking... About time travels...”

“They don’t exist, silly,” Twist said. “You need a blue phone box, Starswirl the Bearded’s spell or Doctor Brown’s silver carriage for them. And, since the Princesses were killed and Twilight Sparkle became a part of alien hive-mind, nopony can cast it. Do you think we could fix this?”

“No, I’d rather not tamper with time again,” Button replied. Somepony gave him a death ray. He looked at it and saw Twist’s cutie mark engraved on its handle, along with “BM” in a heart. He opened it, checking if the rubber band was okay, closed it and twirled it. “You say that Twilight Sparkle became a part of the alien hive mind?”

Twist nodded. Button looked at his group and at all the ponies who were staring at him in disbelief, waiting for him to say something.

He cleared his throat. “Well, I guess it’s time to kick some alien ass!” he exclaimed.

Author's Notes:

I think the sequel should be a comic. Mainly because I'd feel justified not doing it since I can't draw.