Berry Punch and Lyra Heartstrings' Zombie-Filled, Blood-Splattered, Gore-Pasted Adventure (With Zombies)

Berry and Lyra slowly peeled one of the boards off the front window, peeking outside. Nope, she was still there. The peeling, green, mouldy face of Granny Smith was staring intently in at them, her mouth awash with blackened blood. She had been doing this for at least the last hour or so. Every once in a while, the pair had taken a peep outside, and that one rotting mare remained outside, just staring at them. By now, the undead ponies which had swarmed the house before had apparently left to hunt somepony else. After all, there had been a loud screaming from somewhere outside a short while ago. The board was replaced over the window.

"How long has she been standing there?" Lyra moaned, slumping back down on the sofa. Her eyes were still a little pink from weeping over the loss of her beloved TV. Berry sighed, stepping toward the living room door.

"Look, we're going to have to go out there. We need to see if anyone else needs help, and besides.." She began shoving the pile of furniture out of the way of the door. "There's no more alcohol in your kitchen."

"But there could still be more of them in the house.. And Granny Smith is right outside.." Lyra said, a hint of apprehension in her voice. Berry finally got the door open, peeking out into the hallway.

"Just.. Follow me." She muttered, quietly edging out into the hallway. Lyra followed, and immediately dashed to the cupboard under the stairs. "What are you doing?.." Berry hissed. She craned her head inside the spacious cupboard, and stared. She was a little dumbfounded.

Lyra was sorting through a box of human memorabilia, pulling out a baseball bat and a golf club. There were photographs and posters pasted across the walls of the little cupboard, all dedicated to humans. A small table held a group of lit candles, an athame and a large book, which turned out to be a part of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Lyra stepped back from the shrine, handing Berry the baseball bat. She solemnly shut over the door.

"Tell no-one." She breathed, holding the golf club in her hooves. "No-one." She glared at Berry, more seriousness in her eyes than she had ever shown in her life. Berry nodded vigorously, quite afraid at this point. After an awkward moment's silence, the two made their way back down the hall to the front door. The door hung open, stained with dark blood and battered with hoof-marks, dents and minor scratches. The pair peered around the doorway.

Granny Smith was still standing in front of the window, her body stiff and unmoving. Her mouth still dribbled a little.

"Wait.. What if she's dead?" Berry offered, raising her eyebrows.

"Haven't you ever seen a zombie film?!" Lyra hissed in return, wielding the golf club and glaring. "She's already dead. She can't be more dead, or she'd be double-dead. And that doesn't make any sense, does it?" Berry considered this for a moment, and then stepped forward. she held the baseball bad in her hooves, standing up on her hind legs. With the very tip of the bat, she nudged the rotten old applecore. Granny Smith remained quite unresponsive and still, not moving a muscle. Lyra looked a little confused.

"Well whaddaya know.." Berry smirked, dropping the bat. She leaned forward and tapped Granny Smith on the nose with a hoof. Again, no response. "I fucking told you so." She called in a smarmy voice, turning her head back to face Lyra. "She's dead and completely harmless. I don't know what you're so worried about."

Granny Smith bit down on Berry's hoof.

Berry began to scream, flailing around as she felt the pain course through her foreleg. The damage would be terrible, she told herself, as she chanced another look back at the old, wizened ghoul biting down on her arm. Granny Smith was trying to maul her hoof with a toothless, gummy mouth, slobbering dark gore and Celestia-knows-what all over her foreleg. Berry shook the little old mare off, picking up the baseball bat down on her head a few times. Eventually, she stopped moving. Lyra was wathcing the entire event, a little horrified. Her eyes were wide, and her legs shaking.

"That was Granny Smith.. You just.. How could you?" Berry glared at her.

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you're going to go soft on me now.. She was already dead. They're all dead."

There was a moment of silent consideration.

"Oh yeah. Forgot that bit."

Ten minutes later, Berry and Lyra were trotting down the darkening road into the middle of town. The sun was setting, and the groans of the undead drifted on the air, mixed with the cries of their victims. It was all rather unnerving.

"Right.. First, we go and check up on Mayor Mare, and then we can-" Berry stopped abruptly. Turning the corner, the two mares took in the sight before them. The middle of town was a bloodbath. Zombie ponies littered the place, and the ground was pasted with dry blood which had pooled around a handful of torn-up corpses and body parts dotted about the place. At a glance, five ponies had been mauled to death overall - although their bodies now lay in pieces across the floor. The closest undead pony noticed Berry and Lyra, her face rising from a ripped-open torso. A gory strand of intestinal tract dropped from her mouth as she let out a breathless moan. It was Bon Bon, her neck chewed to a bloody pulp and her eyes as dull and lifeless as all the others.

"Oh.. At least we know where Bon Bon is now." Lyra mumbled. The rest of the undead noticed, and began to move, slowly but surely, toward them.

"Oh for fuck's sake.. RUN!" Berry yelled. Lyra didn't need to be told twice. The pair dashed through the streets, clutching the makeshift weapons in their teeth as the horde followed behind, slowly shuffling forth in a groaning, gurgling mass.

"Where are we going?!" Lyra yelled over the commotion behind them as they sped onward. In the distance, Berry spied the looming structure of the Sweet Apple Acres barn on the hill.

"Follow me!" She called, sprinting at full gallop toward the apple farm. Lyra followed on, glancing back at the undead. They had fallen behind, and they were now a good distance away.

Berry and Lyra burst through the door of the farmhouse, and screeched to a halt just in time to avoid being skewered on the pitchforks being held at the ready by Applejack, Big Macintosh, and even little Applebloom. The Apples quickly lowered their weapons, ushering the two startled mares inside and slamming the doors of the farmhouse - then sliding a heavy bar over the door to seal it shut. After a few minutes of calming down, putting away their weapons and catching their breath, Berry and Lyra were ready to talk. They and the Apples sat in the living room. As though the night couldn't get worse, the darkening sky was lit with a flash, followed by a loud booming of thunder.

"All right.. So y'all are tellin' me that you were too hung over to notice those flesh-eatin' varmints?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. Berry nodded, and Lyra confirmed the fact.

"So.. Could we stay here for a while?" Berry asked, her voice trailing off a little. "We won't be any trouble, we promise." Lyra cast an amused glance at Berry, considering to herself just how much trouble her friend's alcohol addiction could cause in the space of a mere few days. Applejack sighed, and gently nodded.

"Ah can't have y'all staying out there with them brain-feastin' monsters.. You can stay in the barn, it's plenty warm in there, and there's enough hay to make a comfy enough bed for sleepin' on." The two thanked them, heading through the back door and down a newly built fenced-in path to the barn's back door. Applejack called to them over the sound of the crashing rain and rumbling thunder. "Don't open the front doors of the barn, if y'all were stupid enough to consider it.. And dinner's served in an hour, so you're welcome to wander back in for somethin' to eat!" Berry and Lyra shut over the door to the barn. A few lamps set up in the structure illuminated it with a dim golden glow. The two mares collapsed onto a pile of hay, and let out huge sighs at the very same moment.

"Are we getting something to eat, like Applejack said?" Lyra asked. Berry turned to her with a glare.

"Take a friggin' guess." She answered grimly, before cracking a little smile and getting comfortable. Lyra nodded, smiling to herself and staring into the hazy glow of the lamp on the far wall.