//-------------------------------------------------------// Through Fire, Blood and Anguish PT I: The Summer when -by Jammex- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Chaos //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Chaos It all started as a normal day in Canterlot when it happened. No pony could have possibly known that what at first seemed like a series of unfortunate events was actually the begining of the most disasterous event Equestria had ever known, and that ignorance... Was their death sentence. Everything was calm when  Bruiser got out of bed that day. Had he known what was going to happen in just over four hours he would have got a knife from the kitchen and Barred his windows instead of grabbing toast from the toaster. He did everything normally, he brushed his teeth, watched TV and took the bus to work. On his way to work he noticed that not many ponies were on the streets. The few that were slowly shuffled along and thier eyes looked empty and vacant until they noticed the bus  driving past them but would quickly lose interest as. Eventually the bus arrived at the Canterlot bank. Bruiser opened the door to the bank and, not to his suprise was greeted by an empty lobby. The recent events that had occured in major towns and cities all over Equestria had caused most ponies to leave the capital and go to the nearby towns and villages. This left Bruiser with an empty bank and a security team at half strength but Bruiser still had a job to do and he was going to do it. He casually went to his office and sat at his desk. It was a fairly average office. It had the stuff you would expect to find, things like a filing cabinet, a computer and a really tacky nameplate on the door. Bruiser spent a couple of hours in his office not really doing much apart from surfing the internet on his computer. He was made the acting head of security last month when the last one died in a horrific car accident. Bizarrely his body was never found. Now it is just him, a few desk jockeys and his security team in the Canterlot bank as everyone else fled after a "mysterious disease" suddenly swept through the villages and small towns of Equestria and even Los Pegasus suddenly lost all links to the outside world. There were three types of pony left in Canterlot. The royal guard and other authority figures, the ignorant and then there was Bruiser and his close friends and family [ by friends I mean friend and and by close family I mean... Actually who the heck do I mean]. The sound of screams from the hallway tore Bruiser away from his "work" and made him look at the door and then his desk. He opened a draw and pulled out a stun gun. It was probably nothing he believed you could never be too careful. It belonged to his predesessor and was probably the only weapon in the building that was not a baton or pepper spray. He was a paranoid old pony and most of the security team including Bruiser thought he was a right... Individual. He was Morose, miserable and was generally quite mean spirited and so they were all quite glad when the old codger bucked the bucket. Bruiser opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He doubled back in disgust when he saw a stallion with horrific injuries feasting on the corpse of a happless secretary. Her throat had been ripped out and her killer was in the middle of gnawing on her spleen when he walked in. Bruiser aimed the weapon at the stallion and pulled the trigger, he hesitated slightly but pulled the trigger none the less. The electricity coursed through the ponies body and he tumbled backwards twitching uncontrolably on the floor. He picked himself up from the floor, he looked at Bruiser and began to shuffle towards him while groaning loudly. Bruiser fired again and again until all that came out the gun was a chargeless click. The stallions torso was now twitching like there was no tommorow but he just carried on moving towards him. Bruiser backed away into a wall as his security radio crackled to life. He couldn't hear much of what the security force were saying  but he made out one sentence. Go for the head. Without a second thought he hit the colt in the face with the gun, knocking him to the floor. Before he could get up he was hit again, and again, and again until all that was left of his head was a bloody mess of bone and grey matter. Bruiser and the nearby parts of the hallway were covered in blood and no-pony would be able to tell that the stun gun was originally silver in colour.  Bruiser dropped it and sat next to the corpse. He looked at the body of the secretary and his eyes widened as he noticed the body was gone and there was a trail of blood leading down the hall. It led towards the managers office and Ex decided not to follow for fear of having to fight another violent phsyco. One thing was for sure. It's going to be a long day and he was not getting payed for any over time [that sucks right]. Bruiserexamined the corpse next to him and it quickly became apparent that he was a cop. He found a hoof gun with two rounds in the clip with a holster, a baton and a pair of handcuffs. He took everything as it would probably all come in handy at one one point or another. He heard some more screaming coming from somewhere else in the The radio picked up more information from the security team in their struggle against the strange group of canibals that were in the middle of assaualting the bank. It was mainly curses and screams but some was just the never ending groans and snarls of the attackers. All Bruiser knew was that he had to get out of the bank and get as far away from the city center as possible. Bruiser got up and trotted along the corridor, he checked every room he was near for any survivors but no pony was there, only some useless office supplies and the odd locked cuboard. He continued along the hallway until he reached the staircase to the lobby. He could hear groans and shuffling coming from down the stairs and was certain he wasn't leaving without a fight with at least one of these freaks. he cantered down the steps and was greeted by the deformed faces by five of the strange half eaten creatures, four of which were eating what appeared to be the remains of Soarin of the Wonderbolts. The poor stallion's body was almost completly hollowed out by the what Bruiser had now concluded to be the undead, a look of fear and anguish was on Soarin's face. He looked absoloutley mortified. A loud groan made Bruiser turn around to see a  sixth zombie behind him. It was a black earth pony mare with brown eyes. Bruiser waited until she got closer and struck the zombie with the baton. Before he could hit it again it leapt onto him and wrestled him to the floor. "Get the buck off of me freak!" Screamed Bruiser as he struggled to keep her at bay as her jaws snapped at his face. The sound of gunshots made both Ex and his bloody assailant look at the bank entrance to see a pair of armed police colts firing at a a group of the undead. Before the mare could turn her attention back to bruiser he kicked her off of him and was up and at the front door in seconds. As he threw open the door and galloped out of the bank he noticed that both the police and most of the horde of undead monsters had left. All that was before he could survey his surroundings further he was knocked off his hooves by a large truck speed along. He flew  through the air only to be stopped when his head hit a lampost. He landed on the pavement with a loud thud. Blood was trickling from a large gash on the side of his head. The last thing he saw before losing conciousness in a puddle of blood was the zombified mare that attacked him just seconds earlier shambling out of the bank towards him. A horrendous amount of saliva and blood dripping from her gaping mouth onto the ground. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Choices //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Choices In a quiet part of downtown Canterlot a lone mare wandered the usually bustling city. She, like everyone else in the city had no idea what was happening. All she knew was that the city she knew had disappeared seemingly overnight and all that was left was an empty husk. The eerie silence of the dead city was broken by the of tires squealing. She looked back to see pick up truck skid around a corner. Almost immediately after a brown stallion burst out of a bank and came to a stop straight in front of the speeding truck. Before she could warn him the vehicle smashed into him. The impact sending his frail form flying into a metal streetlamp to land in a bloody useless heap on the pavement. The pick up truck on the other hand swerved to right and crashed into a parked ice cream truck sending the reckless driver through the windscreen and hitting the truck with a sickening splat as his head caved in against it's burnt out shell. she looked looked back at the unknown stallion and saw one of the zombies shuffling towards his unconscious body then back to the pick-up truck. She had a choice to make. Help a stranger or try to escape. All she knew was that she knew was that she had to choose one or the other... And choose quickly.....