Twilight Sparkle could not process what she was seeing. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of creepers streaming towards the cemetery, and just about all of Ponyville was in it. As she stared at the horde, it had anything but a calming effect. Twilight stood their looking at it, realizing she had no clue what to do until suddenly she heard Fluttershy’s voice in the back of her head. For a fleeting second Twilight wondered if she was going insane. But regardless, Fluttershy’s voice told her to do one thing: panic, and that’s exactly what she
did.

“EVERYPONY FOR THEMSELVES!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs.

Considering the situation, that was probably the single worst thing Twilight could have done. At the split second before her outburst, she was at the podium and all eyes were on her; nopony had noticed the impending doom coming their way. If Twilight had taken a second to analyze the situation she would have realized the cemetery is surrounded by a gate. If she had thought about the gate Twilight would have remembered that the letter Celestia sent about the creepers said they only explode when they are close to something they can kill. This would have brought Twilight to the realization that if all the entrances and exits were closed, and if everypony gathered in the center of the cemetery, they would be safe. By the time this thought occurred to her, it was too far late.

At first the ponies of Ponyville were confused, what were they running from? What’s the danger? Eventually a few caught on and shouted:

“CREEPERS!”

Finally understanding the danger, mass panic ensued. The situation became complete chaos. After running around like caged animals for far longer than necessary, the ponies headed for the gates and ran out of the cemetery; basically meeting the creepers head on. There was a loud hissing which was then drowned out by sickening screams and booms as the explosions commenced. Limbs were ripped off some ponies while others were entirely disintegrated in the creeper’s suicidal detonations. The force of the explosions set hooves and tails rocketing across the cemetery. Not knowing what to do in the carnage, all those who were near the podium huddled together in fear.

At first everypony was silent; not knowing what to say. Nopony wanted to watch the slaughter of their friends.

Eventually Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Twilight, can you get us out?”

Dazed, and distraught from her mistake, Twilight did not understand what Dash wanted. “How?” she responded.

“Uh, with your teleporting magic maybe?” Dash said.

“Um, no, well I have only ever teleported Spike along with me.” Twilight took a breath then continued. “I, I don’t, I can’t teleport this many ponies, maybe I might be able to take two, I just don’t know”

“Then save ‘urself and Spike” Applejack interjected

“Friends don’t leave friends to die!” Twilight shot back

Dash looked at Twilight sternly “So all of us should die when we could save a few!? ”

Twilight was shocked; this was a facet of friendship her research hadn’t covered yet. She didn’t now know how to respond. Twilight didn’t want to lose her friends and didn’t feel like it was right to leave them to die either, but after some thought she eventually relented. “Fine, but who do I take! How can I choose? “

This brought back memories of the fiasco with the Grand Galloping Gala tickets. The ponies all stopped talking, stunned yet again.

“Well, ya take the fillies” Big Mac said, finally adding his two cents to the conversation.

“They are small, you can probably take all three” Rarity added

Twilight looked over at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo; the three were pale and shaking from fear. Twilight knew Big Mac and Rarity were right. She began to say her goodbyes, knowing that she would never see any of her friends again.

Suddenly Pinke interrupted Twilight. “Stop saying goodbye! We don’t need to say goodbye!”

“What?” the dumbfounded group said in unison

“The booms and the screaming, it stopped!” Pinkie exclaimed

The whole group had been so involved in their debate that nopony realized that the sounds of death and destruction had ended. They slowly looked out across the landscape to see what had happened.

The cemetery looked like the moon. The whole area was pitted with craters where the creepers had ignited. While there were no physical remnants of the green invaders other than a course dark gray dust, the ground as soaked in pony blood and unrecognizable parts of ponies were strewn everywhere. Even worse, the explosions had uprooted coffins and now long dead ponies covered the ground. Finally Apple Boom spoke up.

“Ah don’t get it, are we dead?”

Scootaloo poked Apple Bloom. “You don’t feel dead” she responded

“I don’t feel dead nether” Sweetie Bell added

“Ah’m pretty sure were not dead, but ah don’t exactly understand why.” Applejack told her sister.

After a long pause Rarity finally chimed in “Well isn’t it obvious?”

A short “Huh?” came from the ponies

“Fluttershy’s fame saved us” Rarity continued “Did nopony else notice all the different models and designers and celebrities and paparazzi here? If it wasn’t so sad, it would have been glamorous!” Rarity smiled as she spoke “This is actually such a great turn of events; I would have absolutely hated to see pictures of me looking like this in the tabloids. I couldn’t even put on makeup; every time I even though about beauty supplies it reminded me of poor Fluttershy and I would burst into tears.”

“But Rarity, what does that have to do with us not being dead?” Twilight asked

“Oh yes, well, you see there must have been sooooooo many ponies that all the creepers exploded before they could get to us” Rarity responded “as I said, it’s all quite obvious”.

“I get it!” Pinkie announced “so it like if you took some matter, and then antimatter and then made them go boom and then there would be none left! But there was a teensy weensy bit more matter, it would be left over, and that’s us!”

Tired and confused, nopony was able to comprehend Pinkie’s randomness in their current emotional state. The lack of a response irked Pinkie. They’re just standing there, Pinkie thought. Staring at me. It’s like their brains broke. Hay! I remember when my brain broke; I got all mean and grouchy and I had a party with Madam le flour and Mr Turnip and Rocky! I wonder if the creepers got them, probably not, Mr. Turnip is a smart Turnip. That’s it! They just need a party. I wonder if they want vanilla or chocolate cupcakes, or ooooo, strawberry, I love strawberry cupcakes! And what kind of streamers? And Balloons! I wonder if Fl…
Pinkies inner monologue was cut short by a loud belching. A puff of green fire escaped from Spike’s mouth and materialized into a scroll. Twilight quickly grabbed it with her telekinesis. She unrolled the scroll and read it allowed:

Dear My Most Faithful Student Twilight Sparkle,

I pray that this letter gets to you. As you have probably already seen, Equestria is under attack. These creepers who were first seen last week in the Everfree forest have increased in numbers exponentially. This morning the creepers began attacking everything. Other than Canterlot and Cloudsdale, just about every city and town is destroyed. I received word a few hours ago that both Manehattan and Fillydelphia have been reduced to rubble. I have been unable to receive any response from Hoofington and Fort Stalliongrad will probably fall within the hour. I fear that not many ponies are left.

Because of the high cliffs and walls, Canterlot is reasonably safe from the onslaught, so all ponies should come here. It is where pony kind will be making its last stand. Please hurry and get here as soon as possible. Even without kindness; the remaining Elements of Harmony will be an invaluable asset. And don’t despair, if we can defeat the creepers I may be able to reclaim what is lost. Just remember to be strong; it’s what Fluttershy would have wanted. Hopefully I will see you soon.

Your Loving Mentor,

Princess Celestia

I’m sure some of you are wondering why just about every named pony in the series survived the massacre. I agree with you, it’s unlikely, but there is a good reason: emotion. It will be very difficult for the remaining mane cast to get over Fluttershy’s death. I wanted to lessen the impact on them as much as possible so that they can actually come out of their shells a little. This will be a very long and boring fic if they spend the whole time mourning dead ponies.
Also, comments help me improve my writing, so please, comment away!
The "My Little Creeper" image is by sonderjen (sonderjen.deviantart.com/) and is used with his permission