The royal guard. Part 1

Chapter two. The outbreak.

“What, is he some kind of… pony zombie?” Strong Horn asks, with a concerning tone.

“Ask Princess Luna. She knows it.” I turn to see Luna to her eyes.

Luna knows what I’m speaking of. The zombie outbreak seems like a logical reason for the past events. However, Luna’s answer shakes me up.

“We didn’t know anything about this.”

“Captain, what are you talking about?”

“All we know is that something weird was happening in here. But what was it, or the origins, we didn’t. Until this moment, of course.”

Swift stands on front of us. He turns angrily to me.

“Wait. You’re telling us that we were sent here only to face an unknown enemy? Only the five of us?”

“Our mission is to be recognizement.” I turn to Luna, remembering all the past events, even feeling somewhat… betrayed. And Luna can see it. “And I think that we’ve seen enough. Prepare yourselves, we’re going back to Canterlot.”

“Ghuuuu…”

“What the-“

The zombie was starting to move, getting clumsily into his hooves.

“Strong, didn’t you cast the long-period spell?”

“Yes, I did!”

“Then, why is he moving again after only five minutes?”

“I don’t know. But he’s moving again.”

“On guard!”

The zombie stands and after a look to his surroundings, he starts to walk toward us.

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know… just… wait.”

After some tense moments, the zombie reaches us. But, instead of trying to attack us, he just sees upon us. Even, he even takes the time to smell us. Then, he turns around and starts to walk. We can barely believe what just happened before us. Flash is the first one to react.

“… What the hay was that?”

“He was smelling us…”

“But why he didn’t even attack us? We were right in front of him.”

“He must have his reasons.”

“But what reasons?”

“Captain?”

“Just look. We’re in the middle of the city, and Swift said that he saw a lot of them in the other block, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but, they weren’t advancing here.”

“Does that matter? Just look. We’re in the middle of a trap.”

“A trap, sir?”

“Yes. They are surrounding us. Strong, confirm.”

When his horn starts to glow bright green, we start to see a massive group of them coming toward us. Strong Horn was in his full concentration when he realizes what is happening.

“umm… Sir? We are surrounded.”

“I can see that, Strong.”

“May we prepare to fight?”

“Stand by to attack.”

Just when the horde of zombies surrounds us in a circle at five meters from us, they turn around and retreat. Once again, we’re speechless. We try to manage to see what happened.

“Excuse me for the question, but… weren’t they going to eat us?”

“I was starting to think about it.”

“But then again, why didn’t they do it?”

“I don’t know. Strong search movements patrons.”

His horn glows again and he catches some signals. “Some of them are retreating. However, a small group is coming toward us. His movement patron seems like they don’t are zombies.”

“Survivors?”

“Where are they coming from?”

“From the ceilings of the buildings.”

Suddenly, I can only see a rain of bullets coming toward us.

“Get cover!”

Some bullets almost hit us before we could find a good spot to hide.

“Crap, what were those?!”

In my time in here, I learned that ponies don’t use fire guns, like us, humans. Then, an idea rushes to my mind, just when a bullet passes buzzing near my ear. Humans. There are others in here.

“Stop shooting! I’m a human, too!”

“Sir? What are you saying?”

The rain of bullets stops and then, I can hear another voice coming from the top of the building.

“Another human? Then, show yourself!”

I turn to Luna and the others. “Stay here and hide. I’ll check it out.”

I discover myself. I can see at least five of them in the building. They talk something between them, which I can’t hear. Then, they shout me.

“Sorry for that! We thought you were one of those… ponies!”

Ponies, they said? That can only mean one thing. If they find Luna and the others, they will be killed.

“Not a big deal, dude! Say, can you help me?! I’m kind of lost in here!”

“Sure, stay there. We’ll send somebody.”

A rope is thrown from the ceiling and a soldier comes down.

“Hey, dude. Where did you come from?”

“Ummm… not quite sure, ya know? When I awoke, I was in here.”

“Oh, another one lost. Say, do you want to join us?”

Joining them. Tempting. If I join them, then I could drag out information about these guys in here and, obviously, from the zombie outbreak.

“Sure thing, bro. I suppose that’s better than hanging around whit these zombies roaming around.”

“The zombies? Meh, don’t worry about them. I’ll explain to you later.”

“John, are you nuts? What are you doing?”

Luna was communicating telepathically, which gives me an opportunity of telling her my plans.

“Don’t worry milady. I have a feeling that these guys have something to do with the zombie outbreak. I’ll find it out, but I need a source. That’s where these dudes come in.”

“What do WE do then?”

“Hide in that building. I’ll meet with you at midnight in here.”

When I snap out of telepathy, we’re already near the building.

“You ready, dude?”

“Uh? Oh, yeah. Let’s go.”

We climb in the building with the rope. Once in the top, I can see at least twenty more of them.

“Yo, dudes! Here’s another civilian lost!”

“Another one? How much are out there?”

“Don’t know. Maybe thousands. Do you remember how many were aboard in the ship?”

“Around 6 thousands. Who knows?”

“Were did your escape pod landed?”

“Umm… out of the city.”

“Well, you’re alright now.”

“Umm… Really? ‘Cause with those zombies roaming in the city…”

Another soldier who comes out of the stairs to roof starts to laugh.

“Ha! The zombies? Those things won’t hurt you!”

“What do you mean?”

“The zombies have some kind of nanobots in their blood that makes them our slaves.”

“Yeah, whatever you ask, they do it for you.”

“Even if I ask them to drop from a building?”

“A-NY-THING” Another soldier empathize these words.

“Hey, that’s great. So… what do we do now?”

“We head to the camp, and we rest. That’s until they find our preys.”

“Preys? What preys?”

“Some ponies where running along in this area. One of them looked different, though. A dark one with blue mane, a horn, and wings. Hadn’t you seen them around?”

“Ummm… no. I don’t think so.”

“Damn! I was thinking that we could find them at once!”

Damn it. They were actually searching for Luna and my team. If I didn’t do something, then they would surely be found.

“Hey, relax dude! Yo, do you want to come to the camp?”

“Sure thing. Thanks, bro.”

After twenty minutes of walking, we reach the center of the city, where the camp is established to form a circle. Then, I start to wonder how they got in here. There’s only one idea that could work. I step in a stone in the road. The trip works, because I hit against some hard object. My plan works: My head is bleeding, everybody is running toward me to attend. One simple question is enough.

“Where am I? Who am I?”

Everybody thinks that I have amnesia. They rush with me to the medical room, installed inside of an apartment building. Moments later, I’m in a medical bed, with my head still bleeding. I close my eyes to get a good sleep (you know, because I’m tired), and I sleep for about four hours, deducting by the clock in the wall. A man with a white uniform appears in my room.

“Hey, how it’s going?”

“Uh? Oh, my head. It hurts.”

“Well it’s obvious. You tripped with a stone and hit against a metal bench in the park.”

Obviously, I remember every part of it. However, my plan dictates me to pretend that I’m amnesic.

“I-I’m afraid that I cannot remember… speaking of which, who am I?”

“Well, we don’t know. You just got identified by the name of John.”

“John… that sounds familiar.” I realize that my clothes had my name written on it.

“Yeah. Well, I need to see other patients. Keep on your bed. You must rest.”

“Thanks… mister?”

“Jackson. Doctor Jackson, if you please.”

“Alright. Thank you, Doctor Jackson.”

“See you later.”

After a few minutes, the same soldier that brought me here appears in the room.

“Yo, man. You okay? That was some hard-hitting.”

“Umm… Do I know you?”

“Well, technically speaking, yes. I brought you here.”

“He, well… you’ll have to excuse me, ‘cause… I can’t remember a thing.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. My name is Albert. Albert Friscon.”

“John. John who-knows-what. I can’t remember.”

“Well, John who-knows-what… glad to meet you. Hope you get better.”

“Thanks. Nice to meet you, too.”

I have to remind me that these guys are the enemy. Too bad they are the bad guys. There seems to be good dudes over here. A nurse comes to attends me. I use this occasion and bombard her with a lot of questions. Soon, I know every detail of my former home.

Looks like Equestria is in another planet. The Earth itself is gone. The war (the one which started years before I was born) reduced the planet to a lifeless orb. The water was overwhelmed by pollutants, the plants died by the extreme heat generated by the pollutants in the atmosphere. And there seemed to be only one option: Search for another “home”. And here is it. The new Earth.

Only to think about what they could do to this planet, I realize the little time I have left. The outside cities in the region have been already targeted. I fall asleep again (only pretending to) to be aware for midnight. When the night falls, then I get up from my bed, draw my clothes and get out of my room.

I’m aware of my sword, which is still hidden in the interiors of my jacket. I start to go to the stairs, when I trip over someone.

“Hey! What the fuck?! Oh, it’s you.”

When I lift my sight to see who it is, I realize that it’s the same Albert I met earlier. This puts me in a very rough situation. What am I going to tell him?

“Oh, hey Albert.”

“Hey… John, was it?”

“Yep, that’s me.”

“So… what are you doing out here?”

“Umm… this may sound ridiculous but… where is the bathroom?”

“Hehe, down the corridor. Second door to the right.”

“Thanks, dude.”

When I reach the bathroom, I start to think. I have less an hour to reach Luna and the others, and less of 48 hours to warn Celestia about the imminent attack. But there’s no way to get out of here without Albert noticing me. So there’s only one option: kill Albert.

When I exit the bathroom, I can barely see Albert still watching the stairs. I start to approach to him, feeling the urges to draw the sword and finish this once.

“Hey, finished already?”

“Yeah. Thank you, again.”

“No problem, dude. Good night.”

Then, I draw my sword. With a fast movement, I stick it in his chest, causing him to look at me with a wondering expression. I can only feel a warm and dark fluid running through the sword and falling onto my hands. Then, with another move, I drag out the sword, now targeting his head.

“Good night.”

I slice his neck, causing his head to fall to the floor, still with the same look in his eyes. I can barely stand the sight, so I pick up his gun and return to my fleeing of the hospital. Once that I reach the outside, automatically my mind starts to remember the route we followed to get here.

It doesn’t take me more that forty minutes to reach the same building where I left Luna and the others. Here is when I remember how I killed Albert, realizing that it was my first killing in my whole life. It crushes me the fact of how it felt to kill somebody.

“John… can you hear me?”

Luna’s telepathy brings me back to reality. What should I be doing in these moments comes to my mind.

“Milady, where are you?”

“Inside of the building. Fifth floor.”

“On my way.”

I bring myself up and go running the stairs to reach the fifth floor. When I get into the room where they were, I can barely stand up. The feeling of seeing them alive is pure ecstasy.

“Milady… I have come back.”

She runs toward me and place her head in my shoulder and a hoof in my back.

“It’s good to see you’re okay.”

The only thing I can do is to give her back her own embrace. Obviously, she notices the blood that covers some parts of my clothes.

“Oh, by Celestia. Are you okay?”

“Uh? Oh, yeah. I’m okay. It’s not my blood.”

I can see behind Luna’s expression the horror of thinking that I could kill someone. She’s about to ask when Swift goes ahead.

“So how was it, sir? Did you find something useful?”

“I think so. But I fear that we may be too late.”

“Why?”

“Maybe for the zombie outbreak?”

“No. Princess Luna was right. These humans are the responsible for the zombie outbreak. They are controlling them.”

“Why is that? Do they plan on having a five star hotel?”

“Maybe not, Flash Hooves. Maybe they are planning to kill them once they finish their purpose.”

“And what is their purpose?”

Everypony turns to me. I do know the answer, but still is like if I didn’t wanted to know it. But it must be known by the others.

“Conquer Equestria.”