The Poncho Chronicles II: South Beach

Chapters

Beachside Hotel
Ravenous Game
Infectious Start
Hasty Preparations
Gungho Scouts
Severed Bond
Subtle Sunset
Incomplete Reunion
Wearisome Escape
Curable Answer
Final Departure
Flameless Stars
Sketchy Savior/Epilogue
Troublesome Return

Beachside Hotel

“South Beach? Fuckin’ awesome, there’s gotta be weed everywhere, knowing how close we are to Cuba and shit!” said Wahlburn happily.

“Yep, don’t know how we ended up so far from where we were supposed to go, though,” said Quantico, as he looked out the bus’s front window.

Cannon ran to the front of the bus and looked at the giant skyline of the city. “So what are we going to do? I mean, look how big this place is!”

“Well,” started Quantico, “this bus needs to be fixed up a lil’, so we could be stuck here for a couple of days.”

A flash of excitement erupted on everyone's face. Cannon looked back at the others. “At least there’s shit to do here, unlike the west coast. And better yet, there has to be plenty of gay bars for Jeb and Poncho.” Cannon laughed while both Jeb and Poncho shook their heads in disappointment.

"That's not even funny," said Jeb. "Others are going to call you a douche for saying stuff like that." Cannon laughed and shrugged away the comment.

“I guess we can finally find a nice hotel to stay in for two nights,” said Rarity happily as she turned to the girls. She looked over at Clyde and the others too, but she only focused on him. “No more tents or filthy cells and we should be able to afford a decent one if we all pitch in.” Everyone agreed as they all didn’t want another situation involving cells or crazy cults to happen again.

“I’ll check online to see how many rooms and which hotel we can afford,” said Patel, bringing up a web browser on his cellular device.

“Kick ass, dude!” said Wahlburn, springing up on his hooves, “Ay, Spike!”

“Yeah, bro?”

“Let’s go get some green!” Spike agreed instantaneously while Twilight yelled at him. Spike began complaining to Twilight as Patel looked at Wahlburn.

“Don’t spend too much damn money, we all need to chip in.” Wahlburn nodded and brushed the comment aside.

It was a sunny, hot day in Miami and there was a gentle breeze that made for the perfect weather. It was almost too perfect. Wahlburn and Spike ventured off of the bus, which was parked just outside of a repair shop near downtown. Both of them stuck together since they didn’t want to get lost in the sea of buildings and skyscrapers. Soon the pothead and his new apprentice approached a sketchbag on par with Poncho himself on the corner of a less wealthy street.

“Hey, you, come here,” said Wahlburn, motioning for the dude.

“What’s up?” asked the sketchy guy. He was wearing a closed hoodie and decked out in black clothing.

“Do you have any....products for sale?” asked Spike looking around suspiciously.

“Oh, I think I know what you’re talking about. Wait here.” The dealer disappeared down an alley and soon returned. “Okay, what exactly are you looking for?”

“Some ganja, that’s about it.”

“Alright.” They made the transaction and the dealer looked back at them. “Are you sure you don’t want any bath salts? Shit is in high demand right now.”

Both Spike and Wahlburn looked at each other confused, “Bath salts, what the hell are bath salts?” asked Spike as he looked at Wahlburn. Wahlburn shook his head as he didn't know either.

The dealer looked at them funny. “You haven’t heard about this shit? It’s like cocaine, but with more of a ‘kick’, shit’s crazy. ‘Bout to be all out of it soon.”

“Nah, we’re just good with the grass.”

Wahlburn and Spike walked away with enough weed to last them for two chill nights in the hotel, and some extra for the bus ride back home. The two eventually arrived back at the bus, and found Patel and Rarity discussing which hotel to stay at. It was the first time since the initial outburst on the bus that night they found Quantico dead since they last talked to each other again.

“I’m game with staying at a hotel on the beach,” said Patel.

Rarity frowned. “But that’s gonna cost us a lot of money....”

“It’s just for two nights. Besides, we need some relaxation from that shit we just went through.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s all go down to the hotel and check in.”

“Hey Patel,” said Wahlburn, “how many rooms are we getting?”

Patel looked at everyone and counted numbers in his head. “We’ll be able to afford six rooms, so I think we should have four rooms with three people each, and two rooms with two people each.”

“Nice, so who’s with who?” asked Wahlburn.

“Well, we know Jeb is with Applejack and we know that Rivs and Sticky will be together. As for the groups of three, we can decide that when we get to the hotel.”

“Alright, everyone, let’s go.” Poncho and the others left the bus and proceeded to the hotel through the bustling streets of South Beach.

The walk took only five minutes getting to the hotel due to the fact there were so many side streets to cut their travel time. The hotel, which was right next to the beach, was extremely large and modern. The outside was decorated with palm trees and the smell of the ocean air was present no matter where you were outside.

“This shit’s going to be epic,” said Spike looking around at all the bright lights of the city life.

“Yeah it is, but I’m hungry, we need to get something to eat,” said Rainbow Dash.

"You're always hungry girl," said Tyrone.

“We can get something to eat after we get the room situation figured out,” said Twilight annoyed by her friend’s constant hunger problem.

The group walked into the hotel, and immediately recognized how luxurious the hotel was. The lobby was filled with residents and other tourists. While the others looked around the lobby in astonishment, Rarity walked up to the counter. The desk assistant was missing so she rang the bell three times. She waited for a few minutes then sadly walked back to the others.

“They aren’t here. Maybe it’s a lunch break?”

“I don’t think so, it’s three in the afternoon,” said Twilight, “I guess while we wait we can figure something out. We still need the list of roommates.”

“I’ll room with you, Twilight...” said Fluttershy in her usual quiet toned voice.

“Alright, anyone else want to room with us?” There was an awkward pause, and even a random cough. Twilight frowned, “Fine, Poncho you’re joining us because no one else will.”

“Aw, come on guys...” said Poncho sadly, “I wanted to room with Patel or Cannon...”

“No.” said Cannon, “I got to be with my wingman. Isn’t that right wingman?” He looked around and saw Clyde was ignoring him and talking to Rarity. Cannon stormed over to them. “Wingman!”

Clyde looked at him. “What?”

“I thought we discussed that if we ever had to be roommates with anyone in the world, we would be the two together until the end! It’s our destiny as wingmans!”

“Yeah, each room can have up to three of us so you can just join us if you want. I don’t know why you are making a big deal about this.”

“But there’s a third wheel to our wingman destiny!”

Rarity was going to say something but Clyde spoke first, “Technically, you are the third wheel to this group. Now, I’m starving so I’m going to get something to eat.” He departed with Rarity closely following him. Cannon stood there in shock.

“I’ve been replaced in the wingman destiny...” he said disheartened. Wahlburn walked up to him and put his arm on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it brother. You can have some of our new weed we bought.”

“Sheeeit man,” said Tyrone, who was sitting down on the couch in the lobby watching a basketball game, “we just got here.”

“I don’t give a fuck!” replied Wahlburn as he sat down on the couch beside him. “Anyway, what about the other rooms. We can afford two more?”

“Yeah, I’ll crash with you and Spike,” said Patel. “I want to have fun in this city. It’s fucking South Beach.”

“That leaves Tyrone, Pinkie, and myself for the last room. Now can we please get something to eat?” complained Rainbow Dash.

Before anyone could answer, an elegant pony wearing a uniform with the colors of the hotel strode behind the check-in counter. He looked at some papers left on the counter and smacked his right hoof to his head in anger. Curious, and still in need of rooms, Patel walked up to the counter.

“Hello, and welcome to our lovely hotel,” said the pony behind the counter without looking up. “Were you here earlier?”

“Eh, not really. We just got here a couple of minutes ago and tried to order some rooms. We rang the bell and no one came.”

The pony finally looked at him. “So, I decide to show up later than normal, and I find out that none of my coworkers were here in the first place! I’m working with idiots!” He gave a long sigh and looked back at Patel. “Sorry about that. I needed to vent. My name is Still and I’m the manager of this hotel. About how many rooms were you looking for?”

“Well it depends on how many we can fit in each room? How many beds per room?”

Still looked at a chart on the counter. “Most rooms on the bottom few levels are a single doubled sized bed. As we go up, we start to add more room and bed, and of course price. However, the view from the top is rather grand so it’s preference really. Also, depending on your room selection, you will receive a pass for free food at the cafeteria for the duration of your stay with us.”

Patel ran down a list in his head and counted his party. “We need about six rooms near the top of the hotel as they all have two beds, if you don’t mind. Also, can we have them close to each other? We don’t feel like getting separated again.”

Still gave a list of available rooms, locations of each one, and the price. Patel paid for them and returned to the others.

“Got them,” he said showing the keys.

“Great, can we get food now?” complained Rainbow Dash again. The others sided with her and all decided to leave for the cafeteria. Once there, they saw a myriad of hotel residents in a huge cafeteria, ordering food and chilling out, watching overhead televisions. They saw Clyde and Rarity sitting at a table talking and watching a television hanging above them. While the others went to get food, Patel walked over to them.

“Did you eat yet?” asked Patel when he reached them.

“No, I was going to but I decided to wait. I can’t go all crazy here, seeing how we have a budget.” Clyde looked around and saw Tyrone and Poncho fight for a cheeseburger across the cafeteria. “Did you order the rooms yet?”

“Yeah, here.” Patel tossed a key at him. “Oh, and take these, we get passes for free food.” He handed him two passes and left to order some food.

As Clyde and Rarity got up, Poncho and Tyrone blazed past them and sat down at a table close to theirs. Both of their plates were full of various foods. Without speaking, they began devouring everything on their plates. Slowly, the others began to regroup with an assortment of cuisines of all flavors. The next hour was spent eating and socializing with each other.

“Man,” said Cannon slowly and holding onto his stomach, “I haven’t ate like this since your birthday party Jeb.”

“Yeah, you ate all my damn food.” Jeb shook his head, in disappointment and anger. They all laughed while Poncho struggled to eat his last cheeseburger. Before he could take a bite, a mysterious pony walked up to the group.

“Hey, there,” he said to them, “you all residents here?”

“Uh...yeah, well actually, we just got here, but you know, we still are residents.” Poncho stumbled on his words while eating his cheeseburger.

The pony looked at them. “Saaaaaaaame.” His prolonged word made everyone curious and confused.

“So, uh, what do you want brother?” asked Wahlburn.

“Eh. Nothing really. I saw you all hanging out here so I decided to come here and check what’s going on. Anyways, ¿Comó están Uds.?” He threw his black mane to the side with a turn of his head.

The mention of the foreign language made Poncho cough up his food and look at the stranger. “Guys, I got this!” Poncho studied the stranger and after a few seconds of deep thought, faced the group. “He asked where the bathroom is.”

Cannon began to laugh. “No you dumbass! He asked how we are all doing! It's a basic phrase from the South Beach area!"

Poncho frowned while the stranger gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry hermano. You’ll get your groove back. Besides, we are in South Beach, after all.”

“Yeah, I guess I will.” Poncho gave a chuckle, “they don’t call me the Foreign Language Master of our town for no reason!” The others gave a sigh while they let Poncho have his fifteen minutes of fame.

“It’s getting pretty late so I’m going to head to my room,” said the stranger, “it was nice to meet you all.” He turned around and began to leave.

“Wait!” yelled Poncho extremely loudly that everyone in the cafeteria looked, “what’s your name?”

“Me llamo Fluffy Johnson.” He gave a wave goodbye and disappeared into the main lobby of the hotel.

The group stayed at the cafeteria for a few more minutes then all decided to go and see their new rooms to get some sleep.

Ravenous Game

Once everyone woke up the next morning, they all decided to go back to the cafeteria and get some free breakfast. When everybody got their food, Tyrone proclaimed what he wanted to do that day.

“Yo dudes, we should go see a Miami Flamers game. They are playin’ the Chicolto Phulls at one.” Most of the guys agreed, with Poncho being the only exception.

“I don’t know...I really don’t like basketball. Can’t we just relax for the next few days?”

“What are you talking about Poncho?” said Cannon, “baseketball is relaxing!” Cannon and Tyrone both went on saying examples on why basketball was indeed relaxing. After a few minutes of pointless banter, Poncho stood up.

“I’m not going to go with you guys. I’d rather go to the beach.”

"Shit pussies say?" said Sticky as he began coughing.

“The beach?!” said Twilight, “We’d love to go to the beach, right girls?” Her friends all shouted with glee.

“Alright, fine, you girls go to the beach then,” said Cannon, “we’ll enjoy the game without you.”

“Hey, you forgot that I’m going,” said Poncho, “you said girls and not girls and Poncho.”

Cannon looked at him sternly. “You know what I said.”

At noon, all the guys, except Poncho, met in the lobby. They were all decked out in jerseys of the players for the Phulls or Flamers they bought in the lobby of the hotel. Tyrone had a matching hat and necklace with a chain for his jersey. After everyone was ready to leave, they took the bus to the stadium from the hotel.

“Let’s try to get courtside seats,” yelled Cannon over the noise of the thousands of other basketball fans outside the stadium. All of the guys agreed and went to the ticket booth. After waiting for half an hour, they bought the tickets, which happened to be on sale that day, and entered the stadium and proceeded to take their seats.

When the group sat down, the Flamers were still participating in shootarounds. Every time LeBrony James missed, which was every shot, all but Jeb would yell at him. Clyde noticed this and asked “Hey Jeb, why aren’t you helping us make fun of LeBrony? Don't tell me you're a fan of his game.”

“He is trying really hard out there and I don’t think he’s that bad” answered Jeb.

“Shiiiieeettt man, shut up dumbass, he’s terrible,” retorted Tyrone. This made Jeb silent, realizing that he was wrong.

As the Flamers were going into the locker room, the group continued to tell LeBrony how terrible he is. He then turned them and started to break down, “Stooooooppp it,” he cried, “It’s not my fault I’m terrible.”

The group laughed at him as he went into the locker room, nearly in tears. The guys talked amongst themselves until the two teams came back out onto the court. The Phulls fans in the crowd and some Flamers fans got crazy when Nikola Splashovic, or Nikki Splash for short, came onto the court. He was the reigning league MVP, so most people really liked him. The Phulls also had the former league MVP, Verrick Lily, or better known as “V Lily”, sitting on the bench. Due to an injury in last year’s playoffs, V Lily had to sit out for the whole postseason. He was cleared to play this game, but decided not to, as he was mentally “not ready”. He watched Nikki dunk and do crazy layups from the bench in awe. Nikki was Tyrone, Rivs, and Sticky’s favorite player. They tried to call him over, but to no avail, as he ignored them. They still retained their level of excitement into the start of the game.

The Phulls won the tip off and the ball went to Nikki, who was the point guard. He drove down the court and made a three, at which time, a splashing noise played throughout the arena. This excited the Phulls fans, who started chanting Nikki. The Flamers took the ball and gave it to LeBrony, which was a big mistake. He tripped over air and just threw the ball towards the basket. This same pattern continued for most of the game, which ended with a score of 123-37, with the Phulls obviously winning. As Tyrone, Rivs, and Sticky went to get Mr. Splash’s autograph, the group took the opportunity to make fun of LeBrony again. They did this until he ran into the locker room crying.

After Tyrone and the others got their autographs, they decided it was time to head back to the hotel and see how the day at the beach was. On the way out, all of the guys met someone who was selling T- Shirts outside the stadium. This dude looked eerily similar to someone they had previously met. They still went over to him and each bought a “LeBrony Sucks” shirt, all except for Jeb. As they went to leave , the man asked them if they wanted anything else in a familiar tone, and then it hit them. The guy looked and sounded almost exactly like Xarlin, whom they had already met and killed not but a week ago. They all stared at him until he asked why they were staring at them like that. “So, what are you doing staring at me like that?”

Wahlburn spoke up. “You son of a bitch,” pulling back his hoof to hit him, ”how are you here?”

At first, the man seemed shocked, but then his face brightened up. “You must have me mistaken for one of my brothers, and judging by your anger, I would assume Xarlin.”

“Yep,” responded Cannon “But if you’re not Xarlin, then who are you?”

“I’m Pharlin, and before you ask, no I am not mixed up in all of that cult stuff that he was involved in. In fact, I haven’t talked to that tool in years, I do wonder how he’s doing though.”

Cannon, being the one who killed him, chimed in “Uhh... he’s kinda dead.”

Without even thinking, Pharlin spouted, “Good, he had it coming. He was a douchebag to me anyways.”

Pharlin and the group continued to talk for ten more minutes before they departed. They learned that Pharlin was an avid South Beach sports fan, going to nearly every game possible. The group told Pharlin about the past week and where they were staying at. Pharlin told them he would meet up with them later and tell stories how Xarlin ruined his childhood, and left.

“Shit,” said Patel looking at his phone, “we missed the bus.” They decided to walk back to the hotel instead of waiting for the next one. They started to talk about everything that happened throughout the game and with Pharlin when, out of the corner of Spike’s eye, he saw two stallions, one on top of the other in the adjacent alley.

“Hey look at those dudes screwing in that alley!” The group looked, just as a squirt of blood flew into the air. A dark crimson pool began to form near the pony on the ground. It took the group a second to realize what was going on, at which time, Spike said quietly and hurriedly “Let’s get out of here, quickly”. They ran the whole way to the hotel to tell the others.

Infectious Start

When the guys reached the hotel, they all bolted to the cafeteria, hoping to find Poncho or the others. Lucky for them, Poncho was sitting in front of a mountain of food on a plate. Beside him at the head of the table was Fluffy Johnson eating almost the same as him. The girls were sitting at another table to the left of Poncho, talking about something making most of them giggle. Cannon rushed over to Poncho and quickly sat down in front of him.

“Cannon! Hey man, how was the game?” asked Poncho scarfing down food. The mention of Cannon made the girls turn around and look over at their table.

“Oh, it was fine,” said Cannon as the rest of the dudes finally caught up to him, “I’m not here to talk about that. We saw a pretty sketchy thing out there that can compare to you, Poncho.”

Poncho ignored the comment. “What was it?”

“Well,” said Spike, who jumped onto the table to be at eye level with the others, “I saw two dudes on top of each other in the alley. I was about to say how homosexually gay that was, but I then saw drops of blood as the dude on top got off of him.”

“Well,” said Twilight, “what happened?”

“Oh yeah! I think he was literally eating his face off.” Poncho and the girls shrieked in horror.

“Eat yer face off? How is that even possible?” asked Applejack.

“I don’t know, AJ, maybe just bite their face and pull back?” laughed Rainbow Dash in ignorance.

“I don’t know about you all, but I don’t want my face eaten off,” said Spike looking around the room, “I’m freaking starving. Ima get some grub.” He jumped off the table and walked into the populated cafeteria line. Wahlburn and some others quickly joined him leaving Cannon and Clyde at the table. The girls all turned around again, talking amongst themselves. Cannon took a sandwich from Poncho’s plate and stared at the TV overhead that was showing highlights of the earlier game.

“So, how was the beach?” he asked with a mouthful of food.

“Fantastic!” said Poncho looking up at him, “I-”

“Yeah, I really don’t care.” Cannon stole another item from Poncho’s plate then left. Clyde sat down in the seat in front of Poncho’s massive plate, with Fluffy to his left. He took some fries from Poncho’s plate and leaned back in the chair and watched the same TV Cannon was watching. He then glanced at Fluffy.

“Are you his tutor now or something?” he asked him.

Fluffy laughed, “No, I was at the beach also today and saw Poncho with them,” he said pointing to the adjacent table, “so I decided to ask him if he needed a bro for the day.”

“Yeah, we had a lot of fun today, you should’ve came to the beach instead,” said Poncho swallowing a bunch of food.

“Same,” said Fluffy dragging out the word. Clyde leaned farther back on the chair, continuing his gaze towards the TV and occasionally looking to his right. After Fluffy finished his sandwich he looked at Clyde. “¿Tú estás Clyde, verdad?”

Clyde looked at him and anchored the chair back to the floor. It took him a few seconds to translate the sentence in his head. “Yeah, why?”

He leaned his head closer towards him. “Oh, well, a certain one over there was talking about you for most of the day today. Poncho and I were able to overhear most of their conversations because they all seem to talk really loud,” he whispered and pointed to the girls’ table. Clyde saw Poncho roll his eyes and resume eating.

“Really? Should I be glad or nervous?” asked Clyde ignoring Poncho’s gesture.

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything bad.”

Clyde smiled. “Good.” And they left it at that.

Night quickly approached the group as they spent all afternoon and evening talking away. They all decided to go to sleep at around ten.

“Hey guys,” said Sticky as Rivs, Tyrone, Cannon, and him walked into an elevator. The elevators were rather small for the size of the hotel as it could only hold about a fourth of the party at one time. “Let’s not become a LeBrony when we grow up.”

Rivs laughed. “Yeah, he blows. I’d rather take my talents to Nola instead. I hear that place is pretty sweet.”

“Keep dreaming Rivs,” said Cannon and Tyrone. They all laughed.

Everyone was acquainted with their rooms in about a couple minutes. The rooms were all placed on the same floor so they wouldn’t be separated from each other. Each room consisted of a king sized bed with a decently sized TV on a table to go with it. Also in the room, was a comfy futon couch against the wall the TV was placed on. The rooms each contained an elegant bathroom that had two sinks and shower stalls. The most noticeable feature of the rooms was the view of the Miami skyline from their window and terrace. Everything was fine and dandy and all of them quickly fell asleep.

“Man, I’m really hungry,” said Poncho stumbling out of his bed and checking the room’s mini-fridge. Disappointed due to the lack of food, Poncho decided to go back to the cafeteria to eat a quick snack. He looked at the clock on the wall of his room. “Huh, it’s midnight. Guess I need my midnight snack!” He rushed out of the room, quietly closed the room door, and headed to the cafeteria. The hallways of the hotel were of course empty since it was the middle of the night, so Poncho was able to reach the lobby through the elevator in a minute. No one was in the lobby during this time, not even a check-in manager. He continued to the cafeteria and stood in line. There were only about three other people in the cafeteria ordering food making Poncho extremely happy.

After eating his midnight snack, Poncho slowly walked back to the elevator. “Uhh...,” he said rubbing his stomach, “I think I ate too much for a snack...” He pushed the “Up” button on the elevator and waited for the door to open. As the door opened, a sound of crashing glass emanated behind him. Jolted, he quickly turned around and went back to the lobby. He looked around and saw no one. He searched for the source of the noise and saw the remains of a window on the far side of the lobby. From what he could see, there was nothing outside the hotel that would have caused the attack.

“I guess someone tried to break in and fled.” He yawned, closed his eyes, and turned around to head back to the elevator. As he turned around, he ran into a solid object behind him. He opened his eyes and there in front of him was a rotten corpse of a stallion.

The stallion’s skin was dark and torn away, showing flesh holes. His mane was nearly gone and his eyes were open, deathly, and devoid of a spirit. Before Poncho could react, the zombie pummeled him on the side of the head with his bony hooves. Poncho laid there, half-conscious, while the zombie looked down at him. Poncho closed his eyes and heard a loud smack.

Unsure of what happened, Poncho opened his eyes and saw Still before him with the zombie on the ground. “Close one, huh?” he said as he helped Poncho up. Still was carrying a crowbar, which Poncho assumed was used to defend him. “We heard rumors pop-up about zombies being in South Beach, but this is ridiculous.” He went over to the counter and pressed a button. Soon, many hotel workers started to pour into the lobby. Most of them yelped at the sight and some even yelled “Yeah zombies!”. Still waved off their reactions and spoke up.

“Alright, my fellow workers, as you can see, a zombie, yes, a freaking zombie, attacked a resident and vandalized our hotel. We need to work together and fix the damage and make sure the hotel is safe. I want some of you to carry this, thing, outside and dump it somewhere. We want to make sure to keep this place a calm, safe, living space. It’s bad for business to have zombies about.”

The employees gave a cheer and quickly rushed to work, whether it was to fix the window or get rid of the zombie in the lobby. Still walked back to Poncho. “So, as you can see, we have a very busy night ahead of us. Make sure you try to be calm about this and try to not freak out the other residents. We’ll be on watch from now on until this zombie outbreak is over, so don’t worry about your safety. Promise me you won’t try to leave this hotel before zombies come and try to get you?”

Poncho looked at him and nodded. “I won’t say a thing.”

Hasty Preparations

“Guys! We need to leave this hotel before zombies get us!” yelled Poncho as he ran through the hallway back to his room. Cannon, being trained to sleep with one eye open, immediately sprung up, with a butter knife in hoof, barrel-rolled into the hallway and stood up looking at Poncho, knife at ready..

"For Celestia's sake calm down!" said Poncho, who flinched back.

"Well you should know by now not to wake me up in such a matter, you sketched out fuckface." retorted Cannon.

"Wow,” said Poncho looking sad and pissed off at the same time. He shook his head and continued to explain his random yelling “Anyways Cannon! We need to get everything the hell up and the fuck out of here! Zombies are fucking everywhere man!".

"You've got to be fucking kidding me..."

"No man! I'm totally s-"

"This is fucking awesome! Lets go kill some mother fuckers!" yelled Cannon.

The ecstatic pony then ran over to another door of the hotel. After banging on it for a few seconds, he broke into it. Soon, shouts from Patel and Wahlburn were heard from the hallway and in a few seconds, all three of them were clad in makeshift armor and weaponry.

“I always dreamed about a zombie breakout,” said Patel grinning, “time to own some bitches.”

“Yeah brother!” yelled Wahlburn in excitement. “Who else is going to come with us?”

“Well let’s see,” said Patel stroking his jaw while thinking, “Jeb won’t come since he’s Jeb and Sticky and Rivs are too busy with debating about basketball all the damn time.”

“Well, how about Tyrone and Clyde?” asked Wahlburn.

“How about you guys think about this in the morning and get rest?” asked Poncho.

“Fuck that noise. Besides, by the time morning comes around, the other residents will be yelling at each other for food to stock up for upcoming wait game.” Wahlburn and the others then went back to ignoring Poncho and talking about their plan.

Angered, Poncho went back to his room. He walked past the still sleeping Twilight and Fluttershy and onto the futon. Before thinking about the whole zombie ordeal, he quickly subsided to slumber.

Poncho was quickly awoken by the beaming South Beach rays through the window and the talking in the hallway. After falling to the floor, he slowly walked out of the room. Cannon, Patel, and Wahlburn were giving orders to the others, including a random appearance by Fluffy. Poncho walked up to them. “What’s going on?”

“Well, as figured, the hotel already ran out of food due to the other residents. There’s a giant mob of ponies in the lobby demanding food and other shit and we aren’t going to even bother with that noise. So, we need to journey out and retrieve some for us.” Wahlburn began to strap on his makeshift protective jacket. He waved his hooves to quiet the noise and spoke loudly throughout the floor. “Us three will be labeled as Silver Team, while you all will be Gold Team. Gold Team will remain at the hotel while Silver Team will be recon and supply gatherers.” The others all nodded.

“Because of this, we need leaders, probably three, for Gold Team and we have chosen the lucky suckers,” said Cannon. “First, Tyrone, you will be in charge of access to this floor, seeing how we are the only residents on this floor. We took the key from the lobby and with this, we can lock the door from anything trying to get us. Seeing how we are pretty high up in here, the only way to get up here is the stairs, elevator, and the roof.” Tyrone gave a salute and nodded.

“Second,” said Wahlburn, “since most of you probably couldn’t handle pain at all, we nominate Applejack as main fighter if there ever is a zombie or hostile resident up here. You can’t trust randoms during zombie outbreaks, that’s just common sense.” Applejack gave a nod of entrustment.

“Last,” said Patel, “as the main overseer of Gold Team, we choose Clyde. Your goal is simple, make sure everyone is not trying to kill each other, or themselves, and help Tyrone or Applejack when needed. Also, we found some walkie-talkies in the storage room of the hotel and you can have this one. Don't ask us why we aren't using cellular device. These are cooler. Anyway, we can use them to communicate with each other.” Clyde walked up to him and took the item. Patel motioned to him closer and whispered so no one else could hear.

“We wanted to have you come with us, but we know how much you don’t give two flying fladoodles about zombies.” Patel grinned. “Besides, we also know how much you would want to stay behind to protect your b-, oops, I mean your special lady friend.”

Clyde looked at him and gave a warning glare. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. I told you to never call her that again.”

Patel laughed and grinned again. “Hey, I might not even see you again. I had to at least tell you before I died just to piss you off one last time.” Clyde brushed past him and returned beside Tyrone and Applejack.

“Alright, we’re heading out. We might never return so I just want to say, stay strong my good old and new friends. Before we go, are there any questions?”

There was a silence throughout the room. After a few seconds, a shout from Fluffy bloomed into the air. “Gold Team RULES!”

Cannon, Patel, and Wahlburn all waved goodbye and rushed down the stairwell in anticipation of what was about to come.

Gungho Scouts

As Clyde, Tyrone, and Applejack assigned smaller jobs to the remaining group and prepared for any zombie infiltrations, Silver Team took time to gather weapons and armor. Wahlburn was the designated killer and had found a meat cleaver in the main kitchen of the hotel, as well as a pan he used as a helmet. He took note at the absence of the kitchen workers. Cannon’s job was to carry supplies, he pulled out parts of his Trident from their previous adventure he had hiding in his bag, to use as his weapon of choice. He also took a backpack to carry the supplies they would find on their scavenge. Patel was the one who had to get the supplies, he had retrieved his switchblade from his bag and changed into less heavy clothing to damper slow movement. After they were all situated correctly, they proceeded towards the main door of the hotel.

There were two sentries guarding the main entrance, when the trio approached one of the guards stopped them.

“You can’t leave this hotel residents, it’s too dangerous out there.” The guard lowered his makeshift lance, blocking the doorway.

“Yo dude, we got to go out there,” said Patel to the guard. “The lives of our friends depend on us to go out there and return with food since this whole place is barely feeding the other residents.”

“I’m sorry sir, but we have duties to fulfill by staying right here.”

Cannon gave him a pat on the shoulder, “You know, if we all starve up there because of a lack of food, it’s going to be partially your fault.”

“What?” said the guard, this time scared.

“He’s right,” said Wahlburn. “We’re going to come haunt you then until the end of time unless you let us go out there. If we die out there, then it will be our fault, not yours.”

“God damnit Franky, just let them go out there to stop this pointless conversation,” said the other guard. Franky looked at the other guard in shock then back at the trio.

“Fine, if you wanna get killed out there be my guest.” Franky opened the door to be blasted by the hot South Beach air. The trio took a step outside when a shout from Franky came a few inches behind them. “Wait! It’s dangerous to go alone, take this!” He handed them some sort of remote.

“What’s this?” asked Patel as he took the remote from Franky. The remote had only one button on it.

“Still gave us these remote things to give to residents that persuade us to let them journey out in the city.”

“Which wasn’t that hard, seeing how you’re talking with Franky...” said the other guard as he rolled his eyes.

“Shut up, Preban!” yelled Franky. Preban chuckled and resumed taking watch of outside. “Anyways, when you do get in trouble, press that button. Your location will flash up on this screen over there.” He pointed to the map of the city near the reception desk. “Depending how far away you are, we might send backup to your position, that is, if the hotel is in a state of calmness first.”

“Thanks?” said Cannon sarcastically. “Glad you support us.”

“Hey, you are the ones who want to go out there.” Franky waved at them and quickly shut the door of the hotel. The trio quickly jogged away from the hotel and into the deserted streets of South Beach. They continued down the streets looking at the broken-into stores, random litter on the road, and the debris of some buildings piled up.

“Man, it looks like a war happened in this place, not some zombie outbreak,” whispered Patel to the others as they slowly advanced through the streets.

“You right,” said Cannon in return, “where are these bastards anyways?”

“I have no idea brother.” Wahlburn turned and looked at the surroundings. He pulled out a map from his pack and looked it over. “It seems we are here seeing how the hotel is over there,” He showed Patel and Cannon. “There seems to be a convenience store of some sorts down this street.”

“I guess that’s where we will start,” said Cannon as he looked farther down the street. “It must be farther down, or there’s a strange haze in front of us, because I can’t see shit.”

“I ain’t trying to go through some strange haze. Let’s go around it through an alley or something.” Patel got up and tried to find an opening to the adjacent street. After a few moments he called them over to a pile of debris. “I think we can climb over this. Help me up.” Before Cannon and Wahlburn hoisted him on the debris, Cannon saw a lone figure about 100 yards behind them.

“Fucking zombie!” he yelled as he dropped Patel. The zombie slowly advanced towards them.

“Only one? We got this,” said Wahlburn as he took out the butcher knife. As the zombie was about 75 yards away, more zombies crawled out of the shattered windows of the stores and buildings they passed. Soon, about twenty zombies were fifty yards away from them.

“Shit,” said Wahlburn.

“You idiot!” yelled Patel. “Why do you always jinx us!”

“Calm down man. I guess we got to go down fighting, huh?”

“No, we are going through that haze, it’s the only way,” said Cannon. “Did you guys bring protective goggles?”

“Why the fucking hell would I bring goggles to Seaddle! We were to pack for a road trip for a football game, not a winter blizzard!”

“Alright, I guess we are going to have to close our eyes and run through.” Cannon then turned around and ran towards the haze. Patel and Wahlburn quickly followed. As they got near the haze, they stopped and turned around. There were more zombies than before. They turned back towards the haze and gulped.

“Good luck brothers!” yelled Wahlburn as he ran into the haze. Cannon and Patel then quickly followed his action. Since they were blind throughout the run, they crashed into many objects like a streetlamp or bus stop, but quickly got up and maneuvered around it. They made absolutely sure not to open their eyes. After what seemed like an hour, they ran into each other.

“Guys, is that you?” asked Patel.

“Yeah buddy,” said Wahlburn.

“No, I’m a fucking headless zombie, about to eat you,” said Cannon. He then laughed.

“Why do you always got to be a douche?” asked Patel to his friend.

Cannon laughed again and replied, “Someone has to.”

“Hey, can we open our eyes now?” asked Wahlburn. “I say we open at the same time.” He gave a three count and they all opened their eyes. They looked around and saw that the haze they went through was long behind them and the zombies were gone. They also noticed that they were sitting in an abandoned parking lot near the same convenience store Wahlburn pointed out earlier.

“I guess there is no choice but to get in there and take some shit back to the others,” said Wahlburn to the others.

“You right,” replied Cannon, “I have a feeling it’s not going to be a walk in the park getting in there though. That building might be trapped or a bunch of zombie douches just waiting for us to barge right in.”

“Only one way to find out.” Wahlburn started to walk towards the building with his friends tagging behind. As they approached the doors of the store, they saw a sign.

“Welcome to the Super-Shop Emporium!” read Patel. “I guess this is kinda like their major chain store down here in South Beach.” He slowly opened the door in case of an alarm or trap. After nothing happened, they all walked in.

The interior of the store was a lot larger than what the outside of the building showed. Aisles of items went back farther than what they could see. Luckily for them, most of the aisles still had food and other items in them.

“Holy shit, this place is huge!” exclaimed Wahlburn, “I guess that’s why they call it a super store!”

Patel turned around and looked at him. “Dude.”

“What?”

“That was probably the fucking stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my damn life. Say anything stupid like that again, and I swear I’ll punch you in the throat.” Patel kept his serious gaze towards him.

“Brother, calm down. I was just being funny.”

“Yeah, well that sucked. Like, really sucked. Don’t do it again.”

“Alright man, chill. I’m done.” Wahlburn looked around the huge store. “Where are we going to start guys?”

“I could help you guys.” Shocked of the sudden voice, Cannon grabbed a dagger from Patel’s pack and hurled it towards his right, the area where the voice came from. The dagger plunged into the wall and soon, Pharlin fell to the ground.

“Fucking hell man! You almost made me kill you!” Cannon ran towards him and helped him up.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” replied Pharlin. “I quickly dove when I saw that dagger fly in through the air, I won’t scare you again.”

“You damn better not. Next time I won’t miss.” Cannon pulled out the dagger and put it back into the pack. “Enough talk, let’s start gathering.” They all nodded and split up, searching and scanning the store.

* * * * *

Severed Bond

After Patel and the rest of Silver Team left for supplies, the others that were assigned jobs went and did them. Rivs and Sticky were in charge of entertainment. Most of the time, they debated about sports and famous athletes, a notable topic being LeBrony, how terrible he is, and the fact that he doesn’t deserve his championship or any future titles. Also, they played full-hallway basketball. Jeb, along with most of the females in the group, were in charge of cooking. Spike, Sticky, and Rivs made fun of Jeb the whole time and told him that he was really lame. Fluffy was their official "South Beach' translator if other 'South Beachean' speaking residents came up to their floor and asked them for stuff. Spike was basically a fetch dog and was ordered to take items from the hotel lobby and cafeteria and sneak back up. Finally, Poncho, who had the worst job of them all, was ordered by Clyde to stay at the bottom of the stairwell and make sure no zombies came up. He was the first line of defense.

“This is stupid,” Poncho complained to himself looking out towards the lobby. Hotel personnel were suited for and holding down the front door. Poncho could see a bunch of zombies occasionally run at the doors, but gave up after being unsuccessful. “I don’t even need to be here. The hotel ponies have this john locked down.” He sighed and sat down on the step.

After an undetermined amount of time, Spike came running down the stairs. He noticed the disheartened Poncho sitting on the step. “Hey man, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m just sitting here because I’m forced to. What are you doing down here?” Poncho looked past him and saw the sun getting close to the horizon. Patel and the others have been out for nearly the whole day now.

“They want me to get something from the kitchen in the cafeteria. We’re about to have a meal.”

Poncho looked at him in anger. “And you never came down here to get me?”

Spike flinched back. “We were busy. We’ve been having fun up there all day. I never realized how fun basketball is when you play in a hotel hallway and you have Rivs and Sticky on different teams.”

Hearing this made Poncho stand up. “Shit. I’m sorry man, I shoulda got you.” Poncho never heard him as he began running up the stairs. It took him no time at all to reach the floor where they all were on.

“Ey! Poncho, where ya been?” Poncho ignored him and continued past him. “Sheeit...,” said Tyrone as Poncho strode on.

Poncho walked down the barren hallway to the far door on the right. He went to knock, but stopped, and forced it open. Clyde was laying on the bed, watching a pre-season football game. He looked at Poncho and spoke up. “Hey Poncho. Good timing. We’re about to have dinner and I was about to call for you.”

Poncho stared at him. The past few minutes had him building up rage. Unable to contain in anymore, he unleashed it. “Fuck you.”

Clyde sat up. “Woah. What the hell man?”

“Shut up. You weren’t going to get me. You were all going to ignore me while you all continued to enjoy yourselves up here.”

Before Clyde could answer, Rarity walked into the room. “Jeb and Twilight says the food will be ready soon.” She noticed Poncho also in the room. “You went and got him?”

“No. He didn’t. He only gave me the worst task in the whole group just so you all could enjoy time without me.”

“Poncho. You didn’t get the worst job.” Clyde got up and turned off the television.

“Oh really?” Poncho turned to Rarity. “What did you have to do today?” Rarity looked at him confused and sad. She shook her head. “Huh? What’s that?”

“Nothing,” said Clyde, “she didn’t have to do anything. She didn’t want to do anything so I didn’t force her to.”

“Wow. Let me guess, you didn’t do anything either?”

“To be completely frank with you, I layed on that bed over there most of the time.”

Poncho paced in a short circle furiously. “You’re telling me, I sat down there for nearly a whole day for no reason while you two did the same thing up here.”

“If you put it that way, it sounds like we did the same thing, except I played Rivs in 1v1 hallway basketball.”

Poncho laughed. “See Clyde-”

“We were going to get you...” restated Rarity softly.

“Shut up bitch, I’m trying to talk!” Rarity fell silent and looked away, with tears in her eyes.

Clyde stood up and faced Poncho. He sized him up and stared at him. “Don’t bring her into it. If you have a problem with me, then say it.”

Poncho accepted the stare. “I would but your b-” Clyde drove him past the door, into the hallway, and into the door of the room in front of Cannon, Rarity, and his. Before Clyde could throw a punch, Poncho kicked him off and began to run down the hallway. Clyde chased him and tackled him. The sudden noise of the tackle and a Rarity scream brought Tyrone and Rivs to rush towards the fight and pull them apart. As Tyrone pulled Clyde off of Poncho, Poncho swung and hit him square on the left side of his face. Clyde, who spat out blood on Poncho, broke free and rushed back towards the still fallen Poncho. Tyrone caught up to him and grabbed him from behind from the neck and began a submissive hold on him. By this time, everyone was looking in the hallway to see what the ruckus was. Rivs helped up Poncho while Tyrone let go of Clyde as he fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

“I’m done...,” said Clyde slowly getting up. “I’m not dealing with you anymore.” He slowly walked past everyone and headed for the stairs. He stopped in front of Poncho and spat blood at his feet. Poncho quickly turned away, as Rivs was holding him back to not start anything again. Everyone returned back to their rooms and Poncho was escorted to his to calm down. Tyrone returned back at his station near the elevator and stairwell. Clyde made his way there as well.

“Where you go’n?” asked Tyrone as Clyde was at the stairwell.

“Not here, or anywhere near him.” Clyde turned around to say something, but was stopped by Rarity who ran up to him.

“I’m going with you,” she said still with tears in her eyes.

“It would be safer for you to stay here with your friends rather than go with me. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be. It’s South Beach.”

Rarity looked at him sadly again. “I don’t want to stay here with them. I want to be with you, Clyde.” Clyde was inclined to tell her no, but he saw the determination in her gloomy eyes and he knew she would just find him anyway. He sighed and turned his back on her and Tyrone.

“Fine. Bring anything you want.” She ran back to the room happily as Clyde turned back to Tyrone.

“Tell her to come find me then.” He shook his good pal’s hoof. “I don’t know when I’ll see you again, but make sure no one dies.”

“Not a problem man. What do I tell Cannon and the others when they come back?”

“Just tell them something.” He then closed the stairwell door. Tyrone sat back down in his chair and continued to drink his grape soda. Soon, Rarity came back with Clyde and her’s packs and asked where Clyde went, which he told her his message. She frowned and also disappeared behind the stairwell door. Tyrone sighed, posted his feet on the nearby table, tilted his hat forward, and tried to doze off and forget what had occurred in the past few minutes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Subtle Sunset

After two hours of scavenging in the store, the trio and Pharlin decided to stop and rest for the night. They made a makeshift fire in the middle of the store and took out some blankets to lay on. They barred up the door so no one could get in, whether it be a zombie or other Miami survivors.

“So, Pharlin, how long have you been here?” asked Cannon as he opened up a bag of chips. He crunched on some but quickly spit them out as they were over a year stale.

“Uh,” he replied, glancing at the floor, “about seven hours now. The zombies surrounded me out there and I quickly ran to the nearest building. I’m just glad there are many supplies still left in here.”

“You shoulda came to our hotel, our friends are pretty much untouchable up there,” said Patel.

“Yeah, unless zombies just storm up that hotel and slaughter them one by one.” Cannon then gave a chuckle.

“I swear man, why are you such a douche?” asked Patel again. Cannon just laughed again.

“Anyways, you gonna come back with us to the others?” asked Wahlburn towards Pharlin.

A flash of expression appeared in Pharlin’s face. “Of course, that is if you have room for me. I don’t want to take room for somebody else who needs it more than me.”

“Are you kidding me?” said Cannon, “of course we have room, I mean even if we didn’t, we can just get rid of Jeb. Nobody likes that loser anyway.” They all gave a chuckle in agreement. After the laughter subsided, Cannon spoke back up. “We are staying here though for the night. I ain’t going out there in the middle of the night and getting mobbed.”

“That’s understandable,” said Patel as he collapsed onto his blanket. “Besides, the others can survive another night. Oh shit!” he said as he jolted back up. “We have a walkie-talkie still don’t we?” Cannon rummaged around in his pack and handed Patel the walkie-talkie.

“Hey, can anyone hear me?” said Patel into the device. Patel repeated the message and set the device down. They all stared at the walkie-talkie hoping for someone to answer back. “They better not be dead. We only left a few hours ago!”

“Actually,” said Pharlin looking at his watch, “it’s nearly eight in the evening. Sun will be down in a few minutes.”

“Oh, well that’s-” Suddenly a loud crackle came from the walkie-talkie that made Patel and the others stop in their tracks. After a few seconds of the fuzzy sound, the voice of Clyde rang out in the room.

“Patel?”

“Shit, Clyde? You guys ain’t dead?”

“No, well not us at least...the others....” The fuzzy static cut out half his sentence. Worried, Patel picked up the device.

“What? I can’t understand what you said.”

The device was silent for a second then the static filled voice of Clyde was heard again. “I said...roof...the rest are...hotel-” After that, the static stopped as Clyde’s connection was cut.

“God damnit! What the hell is going on?” Patel threw the walkie-talkie on the ground and sat there looking at it.

“I guess the outside area has too much interference between us and the hotel,” said Pharlin, “I wonder what is happening over there. It seems like he said roof if my hearing is correct.”

“He did,” said Cannon sternly. “I have no idea what that’s about, but it sounds troublesome.”

“I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we get there,” said Wahlburn. “We should try and wake up early to get back as soon as possible.” In unison, they all proceeded to fall asleep for their journey tomorrow.

* * * * *

“Hey, Poncho, you alright?” asked Spike as Poncho slowly opened his eyes and adjusted to the light of the room. He slowly rose from the couch he was on and rubbed his head. “You fell asleep after that dispute.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Where is he at now?” Poncho got off the couch and walked around. He looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting.

“I think he left for somewhere. No one knows where he went.” Spike showed a worried expression on his face that Poncho ignored. Poncho swept by him and back out into the hallway. “Yo dudes! Poncho is up!”

Suddenly the thunderous rush of the others filled the hallway. “Poncho, you’re alive!” yelled Pinkie Pie in excitement.

“Y-You cared?” stammered Poncho, surprised on the sudden remark.

“Well of course I cared! I don’t want to see any of my friends die!” Pinkie then bounced back into her room.

“Oh...,” said Poncho sadly. He then slumped down the wall beside his door. Rivs and Sticky were still playing hallway basketball and the others seemed to not really care about him or Clyde’s status. Soon, Spike sat down beside him.

“Hey man, why so glum?”

“I’m not glum.”

“You look glum.”

“I’m not fucking glum!” His shout made everyone look at him strangely.

Spike slid farther away from him. “Jeez man, calm down.”

“Sorry,” apologized Poncho. Soon, Twilight and Pinkie sat down across the hall from them. Poncho tried to ignore their presence but soon gave up. “Do you two want something?”

“I want to know what happened that caused that conflict. We have a missing pony among us and I want to know why he left in such a hurry.” Twilight looked at him with such an ice-cold glare, Poncho hesitated on answering.

“He got pissed about something I said after I yelled at him for not getting me for the dinner and for him not doing anything.”

“What did you say about him?” asked Pinkie, in her non-giddy voice.

“Well....”

“Was it about her?” asked Twilight. Poncho just stared at the floor and nodded. Twilight sighed. “Well, I guess that’s the reason why she locked herself in their room and won’t answer us.”

Poncho kept his gaze at the floor. “I still go with what I said to her though.”

Spike looked up at the ceiling. “Man, you must have said something real bad.” Poncho hurriedly got up and went back into the room. He collapsed on the couch and tried to shut out the world around him for that one night.

“There you are. I finally found you.” Rarity walked through the door leading to the roof of the hotel and saw Clyde overlooking the city from the edge. As she closed the door, Clyde ran over and with a flimsy metal pole, tied a knot around the handle.

He smiled at his work. “There, now no one can come up here. And I’m just going to guess that these zombies can’t climb up hotels.” He looked over at Rarity and took his pack from her. “Did you tell anyone that you came up here?”

“No, while everyone was confused and watching over Poncho, I got the bags, locked our room, and left trying to find you. You didn’t try to leave the hotel?”

“If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s dusk and not dawn, I would've probably been gone by now.” Clyde then went back to the ledge. The sun was setting with the sun’s beams going through the cracks of the South Beach skyline. “This view is pretty chill right now.”

Rarity came over and stood beside him. She was in awe by the clash of colors in the sky and the shadows on the ground. “And it’s very beautiful and romantic.” The two stood there and admired the skyline for a few more moments until a muffled sound came from Clyde’s pack. Clyde quickly ran over and dug through the pack. He found the walkie-talkie his friend gave him earlier.

“Patel?” he asked to the device. Soon the voice of Patel answered back.

“Shit, Clyde? You ain’t dead?”

“No, well not us at least. For the others, I have no idea since I’m not with them. Rarity and I are on the roof.” A few seconds went by before Patel talked back.

“What? I can’t understand what you said.”

Confused, Clyde repeated himself. “I said, Rarity and I are currently on the roof due to Poncho, and the rest are still in the hotel rooms.” The walkie-talkie remained silent and Clyde never got a response back. “Gah! The interference is messing this thing up.” Furious, he sat down and tore open a bag of chips from his pack.

Rarity sat down beside him and took out blankets, pillows, and his jacket from her bag. “How long are we going to be up here?”

“I have no idea,” he responded, “maybe when the others get back from their scavenge they will be willing to go on another. If you want, go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll take watch for awhile.”

“Isn’t that unnecessary? I mean, you have the door barred up.”

“I just want to make sure nothing happens to you. Plus, I know how much beauty sleep means to you.” He sat up against the edge they were leaning on before and smiled at her. Rarity put on his jacket and covered herself with more blankets and laid down on a makeshift bed on the floor of the roof. She looked up at him, who was looking back at her. “Goodnight.”

She smiled. “Goodnight Clyde.” She closed her eyes and thought about happy thoughts. After a minute or two of not being able to fall asleep, she partially opened her eyes to see if Clyde was still there. She saw him grab a blanket and lean back on the wall, while looking at her and the door the whole time. She smiled and quickly drifted into slumber.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Incomplete Reunion

Fluffy woke first in the hotel. He slowly walked to his bathroom and cleaned up like every other day. He got dressed and proceed to the hallway to see if the Scavengers had returned. Almost immediately, Fluffy noticed smoke billowing out from underneath the door to Wahlburn’s room. Assuming that there had been a fire, he ran to the door and started banging as hard as he could to wake anyone inside. Soon the door opened slowly and Spike come out from a cloud of smoke.

“What’s the deal, bro?” asked Spike.

“Is there a fire, are you alright?” replied Fluffy, looking around nervously.

“Nah bro, we’re just chillin’ out, if you know what I mean.” Spike coughed on on his words.

“We’re? Who else is in there, I can’t see for shit this smoke.” Just as he finished his sentence, Cannon appeared through the smoke and asked what was going on. “Woah, you’re back?”

“No shit, what’s up?” said Cannon in a mellow voice.

“Did you guys make it out alright?”

“Totally, we also have a new guest.”

“Who?”

“Sup,” said Pharlin appearing from the corner of the room.

“Is that Pharlin I hear?” said Fluffy, looking over Cannon’s shoulder.

“Yeah it fucking is, get your ass over here,” he replied with a grin.

Fluffy cut through the thick smoke and took a seat on the bed, he looked over and saw Patel and Wahlburn watching TV.

“What’s up man?” asked Wahlburn and Patel.

“Nothing much, shit went down yesterday, though. Shit was crazy.” Fluffy took a deep sigh.

“Like what?” asked Cannon who walked over to them, “Spike didn’t tell us anything.”

“Well I’m not sure how it started, but I was just sitting in my room watching the Mexicolt channel, when I heard yelling. So I step out into the hallway and would you believe the weirdest thing, Poncho and Clyde fighting, literally. I also heard Poncho call Clyde a ‘butt humper’, laughed pretty hard to be honest. Next thing I know, Tyrone and Rivs broke up the fight.”

“Then what?” asked Cannon.

Fluffy cleared his throat. “Clyde was pissed, so pissed he just vanished, and I guess Rarity went with him. Poncho has just been in his room all yesterday, maybe we’ll see him today.”

“Do you have any idea where they went?”

“No clue, those two are probably dead by now.” Fluffy waved away smoke in the room and looked at the South Beach skyline through the window. “But enough about what happened here, how was the scavenge?”

“It went alright, though I think Patel has a story to tell,” said Cannon.

“Yeah I do,” said an ecstatic Patel.

“Well shit man, go,” said Fluffy.

“We were on our way back to the hotel this morning, and I had already scouted ahead and only found a small group of zombies. So we’re slowly going past the zombies when Wahlburn's shitty helmet falls off and gets their attention. So I tell them to run while I distract them. I found myself in some deep shit and out of nowhere LeBrony James comes out of air and saves my life.”

“Weird,” said Fluffy, stroking his chin with his hoof. Everyone nodded in agreement, as it seemed like nobody cared about LeBrony.

“How has everyone else been?” asked Wahlburn

“Other than that fight, really quiet, especially the girls,” said Fluffy.

“Good,” stated Patel firmly. “I think they’re annoying.”

“We all do,” said Wahlburn.

* * * * *

Clyde felt the painful burn of the summer sun scorching his face as he woke. He yawned and got up slowly. Once he stood up, he went to get his bag to grab his tooth brush but he couldn’t find his bag. Confused, he looked around and was unable to find his bag. He looked over at the hotel roof door and saw that it was completely open.

“Rarity, wake up,” said Clyde who sat down beside her. She remained sleeping even through Clyde’s message. After a few seconds, he decided to shake her and wake her by force. “Wake up,” he said shaking her gently. She woke slowly.

“Sorry, but did you take my bag?” he asked her.

Rarity yawned, “No, I didn’t. Why would I take it if I have mine over there? I also was sleeping the whole time.”

Clyde slumped down. “I guess that makes sense. Well whoever it was, they somehow got through the door.”

“Don’t worry about it, just go down and see who took it.”

“If it’s Poncho I’m killing him,” said Clyde as he got up. “After I settle this, do you still want to come with me?”

Rarity frowned. “Well, of course I do, but....”

“But what?” asked Clyde. He could tell she was worried about something.

“Where are we going?”

Clyde turned around and looked through the skyline. After a few seconds, he pointed to the city arena that hosted the Flamers. “Over there, we can get there before night time.” He looked over at Rarity. He saw the nervous expression on her face grow. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anybody, or thing, hurt you.”

“Promise?”

He felt the surge of memories hit him from the adventure before. He put his head to hers. “I promise.”

After he told her to wait in the stairwell, Clyde ran down the stairs and onto their floor. He was so loud he got the attention of Fluffy and the Scavengers, who walked into the hallway to see what the commotion was.

“Clyde, you’re back!” yelled Fluffy. Clyde ignored him and ran to Poncho’s door, he started banging on it with his hoof as hard as he could. Eventually Poncho opened the door and Clyde barged into the room searching for his pack.

“What are you doing?” asked Fluttershy, still in her monotonous quiet voice.

“Poncho stole my pack!” exclaimed Clyde.

“No I didn’t-” began Poncho

“Shut up.” Clyde gave up his search and ran into the hallway, where everyone on the floor was watching to see what was going on. In frustration of not finding his pack he picked up Cannon’s supply pack in the middle of the hallway. “If you need me I’ll be at the Arena.”

“Hey, what the fuck? We spent all of yesterday scavenging for that shit!” yelled Cannon. Clyde ignored him and stormed down the stairs and out of sight. “Well it looks like we’re out of supplies again....”

Tyrone slowly walked out of his room. On his back was Clyde’s pack. “Ey yo guys, I heard Clyde talk out here. I wanna give his pack back.”

“Why do you have his pack?” asked Cannon.

“I just needed to borrow it.”

“For what reason?”

“I accidentally ripped my hat and needed some duct tape to fix it.” Suddenly, everyone heard a faint ‘ruff’ from Tyrone’s room. After laughing, the Scavengers and Fluffy went back to their room.

“Great, now we need to go out again,” said Patel sadly.

“We still have enough for today and tomorrow, but we’ll go out later today,” said Cannon

“I have an idea,” began Pharlin, “instead of going back to the Super Shop why don’t we just go to my condo?”

“Why would we do that?” asked Cannon, “do you even know how many Zambies are between us and that place?”

“I have a lot more supplies at my condo, or at least better supplies, like tools to make barriers and an Xbox with Halo 3. Worth it, in my opinion.”

“I’m sold at Halo 3,” said Patel without a trace of sadness in his voice.

“Yeah I’m game,” agreed Wahlburn.

“Alright then,” said Cannon, “I guess we are going to your condo.”

“Oh, and the basketball arena is on the way to my condo, so maybe we could get our supplies back from Clyde.” The group decided their next plan and then sat and watched TV until the time was ready.

Wearisome Escape

Clyde and Rarity made their way to the lobby of the chaotic hotel. Ponies were rushing past one another grabbing the daily food from the hotel. Hotel security was steadily growing each day, with more and more guards situated near the main entrance. After finding a non-compacted area, Clyde opened the supply bag that Silver Team retrieved.

“Let’s see, we got food, medicine and...syringes.” Clyde shuttered when he moved the syringes out of the bag. “We got water, flashlight, all the other basic stuff.” Clyde returned all the items back into the bag and noticed Rarity’s silence. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she answered.

Clyde sighed. “You don’t have to go with me, you know. I’ll be fine.”

Rarity sat there for another few seconds then got up. “ I would much rather stay at this half-elegant hotel, but I can’t let you go by yourself.”

“I swear I can-”

“Because knowing my luck, you’ll die out there, and I won’t ever see you again and it will be all my fault that I would never be able to get over it.” She began to have tears in her eyes. Soon, she began crying softly and before she could say anything else, Clyde walked over to her and gave her a hug. She returned it, crying into his forelegs, and they stood there for a few moments, enjoying their respective company. After she was done crying, Clyde let go and walked over and picked up the bag and put it on his back. He turned around and saw Rarity strap her bag on her back. He watched her for a few moments and walked towards the doors.

“Woah, woah,” said Franky, “I know we let a bunch of guys similar to your age out there yesterday, but not this time. It’s getting way too crazy out there. Zombies are growing in numbers everyday.”

Clyde looked outside the grand doors. “Listen, chill out and hear me out on this.”

“Fuck! Just let him go out there and die,” said Preban, “I’m tired of these damn kids trying to kill themselves out there. Fucking just leave and don’t tell us. I don’t care.”

Franky rolled his eyes and opened the doors. He took out the remote he gave to Silver Team yesterday. “Before you go, take this it’s-”

Clyde grabbed the remote from his hoof, “Yeah, yeah, I get the reference. We aren’t in the 90s anymore dude.” Clyde and Rarity both stepped out into the South Beach air while Franky was closing the doors behind them. “Hey, tell your friend he needs to stop getting mad at others.”

“Kid, watch your damn mouth!” yelled Preban, “I’ll fucking come out there and kill you myself.”

“Hey, thanks for being ‘okay’ of letting us die out here anyway, buddy!” Clyde laughed then waved goodbye to the guards. After turning around, he sighed and led Rarity to the streets and looked around. They stopped in a bus stop that was still intact. Clyde looked around the corners of the bus stop and once clear sat down and pulled out the map from the bag.

“Well? How far is the arena from here?” asked Rarity who sat down beside him.

“We can see the arena from here, so if we follow this boulevard we should be fine.” Clyde looked around the bus stop and pulled out some duct tape. He picked up a small piece of a fallen branch and kicked out the glass on the side of the bus stop. He began to fiddle around with the items. “Hey, I want you to stay close to me at all times out here. We could get ambushed at anytime.”

“What happens if we do get ambushed?” asked Rarity, “will we have to kill them? I don't think I'll be able to do it.”

“Well, try to get me between you and them at all times. I’ll handle them all if I have to and if you don’t want to kill anything.”

“How? We don’t have a weapon of any sorts.”

Clyde grinned. “That’s why I made this.” He showed her a makeshift shiv he made. He used the branch piece as a handle and the glass shard as the blade and taped it into a small, easy-to-hide, weapon. “I can make you one if you want.”

After pondering, Rarity decided to at least have one just in case, whether it be as Clyde’s replacement or if, which she hoped never happened, she had to use it. She carefully placed it in the side pocket of her bag.

“You ready to go?” asked Clyde. Rarity nodded and they set off. Since it was still morning, the abandoned city atmosphere didn’t faze them. Clyde marched confidently through the streets, avoiding any suspicious looking areas like alleyways and random piles of rubble, unless he had to and which he gallantly guided Rarity through. The two of them talked about the past during their travel to help be occupied and learn some more about each other. After a good hour walking, Clyde stopped them at the sight of a strange haze in the streets. “Well, this could be a problem.”

“What are we going to do? Go through it?” questioned Rarity.

“I don’t think that’s even possible.” He looked around the vicinity, searching for an alternate path. “There,” he said pointing, “that park has a bridge that connects to the road that is across from the arena.”

“Clyde...,” said Rarity.

“Hmm?”

“Look at the haze....” This time he heard fear in her voice.

Clyde turned around and saw about five zombies slowly advancing from the haze and the alley near them. “Remember, stick to me as best as you can.” Rarity nodded, and they both bolted towards the park.

The park was bigger than normal parks the two have seen before, but it probably was also the fact that they were in South Beach and not some small town. Clyde turned around constantly to check if the zombies were still trailing, which they were. He also saw Rarity losing energy as the journey through the park prolonged. Once at the bridge, Clyde turned around and saw that the number of zombies behind them increased from five to about thirty. They were still about sixty yards away so everything was fine for now. As Rarity caught up with him, Clyde saw that haze they saw before was in the middle of the bridge.

“Gah! What are we going to do now!” Clyde started to nervously pace while the zombies were edging closer and closer with each second.

“Clyde! We have to think of something!” Rarity yelled. The fear in her voice returned.

He looked back at the bridge. He saw the arena past the bridge, only half a mile away. He quickly turned around and saw that the zombies were thirty yards away. He gulped and looked at the bay under the bridge. “That’s it. We’re going to have to swim.” He started to push Rarity towards the water.

“Swim? No I can't! My mane and all of my stuff will get ruined!” She dug her hooves into the ground to help resist Clyde's pushing.

“We don’t have time to do anything else. I’ll buy you new clothes and whatever else you want, just get ready to float to the top. Trust me." As he finished his sentence, he grabbed her and jumped into the bay. Rarity screamed in surprise on the way down until they hit the water.The surge of water rushed through them as they sank lower into the water. Still having a Rarity by his arm, Clyde pushed as hard as he could to the surface making sure to at least save her. She kept struggling, due to survival instinct which slowed them down more. As Clyde was about to lose his breath, he came to the surface. Rarity quickly swam over and held onto him for support.

“We gotta hurry, and swim over to the arena before I pass out to exhaustion. This pack is too heavy for this,” said Clyde as he took deep breaths with his chin high above the water to avoid drowning. Rarity gave a slight nod and together they swam slowly towards the arena. Clyde stopped Rarity occasionally for a quick 5 second breather, but they managed to swim the width of the short section of the bay in a few minutes. Once at a pier that was connected to the site of the arena, Clyde threw both of their bags on the wooden dock and slowly climbed up. He turned around and pulled Rarity up onto the pier. They both laid there, looking at the sun at its highest peak in the sky, gasping for breath.

“We made it...,” said Rarity weakly. Her long, wet, mane cascaded down the sides of her face.

“Almost, we gotta get in there first.” Clyde shook his head to get some water away from his eyes and looked at the huge arena before them. They were located at the backside of it, meaning they had to go all the way around to the main entrance if they wanted to be completely safe from the outside threats. He looked back at the sky. “Geez, I sure am tired....”

“Clyde, you can’t go to sleep here!” yelled Rarity.

“Why not?” he asked, dozing off.

Rarity gently hit him and pointed towards the arena. “I really mean it, look!”

Clyde turned to his side and saw four zombies watching them from the part of the pier that connected directly to the site of the arena. “I want you to move back, farther down this pier. If a zombie gets through and is running at you, jump in the water,” he whispered to Rarity while remaining absolutely still. “I’m going to grab my shiv and as soon as I do, I bet you they will start running towards us.” He slowly turned around towards her. “Are you ready?”

Rarity nodded and leaned forward and gave Clyde a quick kiss on the cheek. “Please don’t die.”

Clyde smiled. “I don’t feel tired anymore because of that, so good signs already.” She smiled back and quickly backed up towards the end of the pier behind him. Clyde looked back and saw the group of zombies heading towards him now. He pulled out his makeshift shiv and got up. “One on four? Seems a bit unfair.” Once the first zombie came within a few inches away, Clyde stabbed it with the shiv. The second one was drawing nearer as he failed pulling the shiv free. Instead of fighting it without a weapon, he used the zombie he just struck and pushed him into the second one, making them both fall into the water.

“Heh. Easy.” The third zombie was approaching as Clyde took out the shiv from Rarity’s bag. The zombie lunged at him and Clyde sidestepped to the right and stabbed the zombie into the side of the head and pushed him off the pier. As he turned around to look for the last zombie, it tackled him to the ground. Clyde heard Rarity scream his name from afar and punched the zombie in the face to shake it off of him. The zombie surprised him as it dodged the attacks. Clyde saw the zombie ready to bite him, when he heard a gunshot fire. The zombie fell onto him and Clyde quickly pushed it off and into the water. Confused, Clyde looked up the pier and saw none other than the Miami Flamers point guard, Rio Chalmers standing there with a 9mm pistol.

“Holy hell,” said Clyde as he got up. Rarity came up, hugged him, and clung on to his foreleg. They both picked up their bags and walked down the pier to talk to their savior.

“Glad you two are safe,” said Rio when they approached, “what were you two doing down there?”

“We came from a hotel a few miles away from here. It’s running out of food so we decided to come here to see if they would take us in,” said Clyde. “Anyways, thanks for saving me Rio, you were always my favorite member of the Flamers.”

Rio beamed with light after that comment. “I’m always there for my fans. I hear that the National Guard is in town now and bringing citizens to this arena as it’s a safe place. That line isn’t going to go down anytime soon.” Rio looked around, feeling the warm breeze hit him. “How about we go inside to be safe and talk there?”

“That would be extremely wonderful,” said Rarity. Rio led them into the back door of the arena, bypassing the line of citizens that wanted to get in for refuge. After walking, for what seemed like around the whole arena, Rio stopped by a door.

“We have been in here the whole time since this zombie outbreak disaster began,” said Rio, “welcome to the party.” He opened the doors and Clyde and Rarity walked into the locker room of the Miami Flamers.

* * * * *

Curable Answer

Fluffy woke first again this morning. He walked out into the hallway and noticed that the ones who slept through the Clyde altercation was still sleeping and had their doors closed. He wandered over to Patel’s room as it was the only one open. He saw Patel and the other scavengers grouped around a table.

“Oh hey pal,” waved Wahlburn, “we’re glad you came on by.”

“Really?” asked Fluffy confused. “Why is that?”

“Well,” began Pharlin, “since Clyde stole our stuff, we have to get more supplies. This time though, we are going to head over to my condo a few blocks from here. I have more shit there, and it’s also closer to the arena so we can steal back our original supplies.”

“I’m kinda mad Clyde did that,” said Patel.

“What a dick!” exclaimed Cannon.

“Indeed.” Wahlburn walked over to Fluffy and put his hoof around his shoulders. “Anyways, we are going to leave around noon. What we want you to do, and I guess Spike, is to make sure no more chaos happens around here.”

“You mean have somebody escape and kidnap somebody else so we are the ones responsible if anything happens to her?” asked Fluffy.

“Yeah...,” said Wahlburn, “Clyde fucked us over by getting too close to her. Now we have to deal with the other ones if she gets hurt, or dies because of him.”

“I’m hoping that doesn’t happen because I don’t like any of them and don’t want to associate with them anymore,” said Patel.

“Same. The only thing they did that was good was bringing Spike.” Spike’s face lit up at Wahlburn’s comment about him. “Spike, we’re glad you’re a cool fucking dragon.”

“Hell, he’s cool for just being a dragon!” said Cannon.

“Aw, come on guys,” said Spike tearing up. “You’re making me cry.” The scavengers all stood up and gave him a group hug while Fluffy awkwardly watched from the hallway. After the bro-hug was finished, Fluffy cleared his throat.

“Anyways, I’ll be sure to make nothing loco happens.”

“Good dude,” said Patel. Fluffy nodded and headed back to his room to catch a few more hours of sleep before inevitable chaos ensues. He looked up at the ceiling a drifted to sleep.

Not even an hour later, Fluffy was awoken by shouting in the hallway. He sighed and quickly went to see what occurred. He saw Twilight on one side of the hallway and Pharlin and the rest of the scavenger team behind him.

“Is that what you were going to do? Leave us again so we all die and you guys can leave this city with no worries?” Twilight was serious and very angry.

“You know I would do that,” said Patel under his breath.

“I told you,” said Pharlin, “everyone here will be thanking me after we return from my condo.”

“Why?” asked Twilight, “we might be dead by then!”

“You’re overreacting. Besides, zombies have yet to attack this place. What makes you so sure they are today?” asked Pharlin.

“I just know,” she said quietly.

“You just...know.” Pharlin and the others turned around to leave. “We’ll return with more supplies and something super awesome that I can’t talk about here.”

Before Twilight could respond, the scavengers fled the hallway and went down the stairs. She gave a furious sigh and went back to her room.

“Well that was interesting,” said Spike, walking up to Fluffy. “I’ve never seen her that mad before at other ponies.”

Fluffy looked at Spike. “It seems that everyone from Ponyville is either psychotic, super over-dramatic, or both.”

Spike laughed. “You right.”

When the scavengers made their way to the lobby, they noticed the giant blockade at the main entrance. The hotel staff and Still was all around their makeshift barrier of lobby furniture and crates and boxes from the storage room.

“What’s going on here?” asked Patel trying to look out the windows.

“Well my friends,” said Still sadly, “it looks like the zombie horde has increased dramasticly. This is our last stand at the hotel. I called the NG and they are currently escorting civilians to the Flamers arena and they will try to help us as soon as possible.”

“Dramasticly? What the hell...,” noted Cannon to Wahlburn. Wahlburn shrugged.

“So you’re saying that this place is surrounded?” asked Patel. He finally was able to look out past the barrier and saw a massive army of zombies, probably around a hundred or so, waiting to get in.

“Yes, I would go back up there and get your friends and hide in a room or something. If you hear a siren go out through the hotel, it means they broke through.” Still left them and ran back to another group of staff members, pointing and yelling at them about something. The scavengers went back to the staircase.

“What are we gonna do now?” asked Cannon, “we can’t leave through the main door now.”

“There has to be a side door or back door or something,” said Wahlburn gazing out towards the lobby.

“You right. There is a back door over here.” Pharlin walked into the storage room that was connected to the stairwell room. “See?” He pointed towards the back of the room and Patel, Cannon, and Wahlburn saw a door outlined by the sun’s light. “We can go out there and run straight to the condo.”

“You think this is even going to work? I mean, we don’t even know if that door is safe to use. There could be hundreds of zombie out back.” Cannon stood there and waited for Pharlin’s respond, knowing he was going to say something to go against his comments.

“Well,” began Pharlin, “I guess we could try this thing I’ve found at a costume shop.” He took off his pack and dug through it, searching for a certain item. After a few seconds, Pharlin took out what appeared to be a mask. He turned around and pulled it over his head. As he turned around the others laughed.

“You found a mask of a zombie that’s part of a kid’s costume and actually think it’s going to make zombies not attack you?” asked Patel laughing.

“Hey, I saw it on a video game. If it works on there, then it must work in real life.” Patel, Wahlburn, and Cannon kept laughing for another minute. After they stopped, Patel found a flaw in Pharlin’s “Master” plan.

“Is that the only mask you have?” he asked.

“Yes, why?”

“Then how the hell are we supposed to be safe from them!” shouted Wahlburn.

Pharlin quickly glanced at the ground to think of something. “Ah!” he exclaimed, “we will walk in a group and if zombies get close to us, I’ll go over to them and make them leave. Just have your faces turned away from them. Anyways, we don’t have much time, let’s go.” Pharlin quickly bust through the back door outside. The others quickly followed.

The bright sunshine hit them as they walked into the South Beach air. Pharlin looked around and pointed towards a group of buildings. “The condo is about 5 blocks behind those hotels. You fellas ready?”

“You bet I am,” said Wahlburn, adjusting his pan of a helmet.

“Let’s do this,” said Cannon straightening up.

“For that sweet, sweet, sweet Halo 3,” stated Patel, grinning.

They hopped over the fence that closed off the hotel’s property and quickly ran down the streets. Last time, the streets were an eerie location, as it was abandoned and quiet. They managed to get to the condo mostly without any distractions, but on the last block there were a group of three zombies chilling around the condo entrance.

“Alright, I got this, I’m going to walk up to them and distract them. Sneak around and then kill them from behind.” Pharlin looked around to see if there were anymore, but he didn’t see any.

“You’re a crazy motherfucker,” said Cannon quietly to avoid the zombie’s attention, “how the hell did Xarlin become a douche and this guy be a fucking boss.”

“I don’t know,” said Pharlin, “I’m super glad you killed him though.” When everything was golden to the plan, Pharlin slowly walked over to the zombies. The zombies carefully watched him walk up to them, but didn’t turn hostile. Pharlin stopped a few feet in front of them and attempted a growl which was suppose to sound like a zombie, but it was actually the signal for the others to sneak around and execute the targets. The zombies looked at each other then slowly started towards Pharlin. Pharlin backed up a few feet and saw that the other three were directly behind their targets. Pharlin growled again, and the three ran up to the zombies and attacked them from behind, killing them instantly, with a butcher knife, switchblade, and trident.

“I can’t believe that the mask worked!” said Pharlin happily.

“What the hell are you talking about. You were about to be killed.” Wahlburn cleaned off his knife with a ripped off piece of cloth. “You’re lucky we were even able to pull that off.”

“Because of the mask,” said Pharlin laughing.

“What? No, it was...fuck it. Never mind.” Wahlburn simply walked away. Pharlin opened up the door to the condo and they all flooded inside. They went up the stairs and after a few floors of climbing, they stopped in front of a door.

“Alright, this is my room. Take whatever you want, but I want to show you guys something after a few minutes since it’s extremely vital to our well beings.”

“Holy shit,” said Cannon, “it must be super important if he used the term well beings.” Pharlin chuckled and opened the door. The room itself was quite messy, but it was nothing compared to Poncho’s room back home. Pharlin disappeared to the back room of the hallway, while Cannon and Wahlburn rummaged his stuff. Patel sat down on the couch and began to play Halo 3.

“Man, I fucking love this game,” he said as he picked up the controller.

“Come on man, help us get shit. We can play that when we get back home,” said Wahlburn as he half carelessly tossed items into the pack.

“Fine,” said Patel. The three of them soon filled Wahlburn’s pack with an assortment of items that they also took during their time at the Super Store. They all sat there looking over the items.

“I think we are good to go,” said Cannon.

“What about Pharlin?” asked Patel, “what is he doing?” As soon as Patel asked that question, Pharlin burst out of the room in the back of the hallway. The three of them jumped at the sound.

“You bastard!” yelled Wahlburn.

“Guys, I did it,” said Pharlin. His voice was shaky.

“Did what?” asked Patel and Cannon simultaneously.

“The cure. The FUCKING cure!” Pharlin held up a glass bottle. In it was a weird silverish substance. “This, my friends, is the solution to the zombie outbreak.” The three of them looked at him dumbfounded. Pharlin began to laugh. “I’ve spent countless days, even months, making this, just in case a zombie outbreak would occur. I finally got it.”

“So you are a chemist or something?” asked Patel.

Pharlin sighed and took them to his back room. In it was a hundred of so test beakers, tubes, and other chemist things none of them knew about. Pharlin pointed to the wall and there they saw a certificate. They all gasped at the information.

“You have a PhD in Medical Biochemistry!” yelled Cannon, “How the fuck did you manage that?!”

“It was a long and arduous journey, but I don’t have time to talk about the past. We need to use this and fast, as the zombies are growing every second and half the city is either dead or in trouble.”

“Do we drink it or-?” asked Cannon.

“No!” yelled Pharlin, “drinking it would be suicide, as one drop can kill a stallion. No, the only horses that can use this in our time of need is the National Guard.”

“NG? Why them?”

“Well, this cure is more like a purge. It’s the fuel needed to terminate the danger of zombies. The NG have the,” he paused and waved his hoof around, “magic to utilize this. Look, it’s way too complicated to explain to you normal folks. We need to get to the arena as soon as possible.”

“Well, shit just got crazy,” said Wahlburn, “we leaving now?”

“The sooner the better.”

“Alrighty then.” They gathered their packs and stocked up for the journey to the arena. Pharlin gently wrapped the glass bottle around with towels from the condo. He placed it in Wahlburn’s pack and surrounded it with soft materials to make sure it didn’t break.

“Why the hell do you have to keep it in a glass bottle?” asked Wahlburn.

“It’s not just an ordinary glass bottle, it’s a magical enchanted glass bottle.” Pharlin zipped up the pack and handed it to Wahlburn to carry.

“Wonderful.” They made their way outside, back to where the three zombies have been killed earlier. The corpses were still laying there from that attack. Pharlin put on his zombie mask as the others began to laugh again. Pharlin ignored and issued the advancement. The streets again were quiet as before.

About half way to the arena, Pharlin stopped them. “Hey guys, stop for a second.”

“What is it?” asked Cannon.

“See that guy up there? He’s part of the NG.” Cannon and the others looked at him more closely. The NG guy was carrying M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. He also was carrying bags with a bandolier holding his ammunition for his weapon. He was wearing a uniform and on it, was the shiny NG badge.

“What are we going to do?” asked Cannon.

“I’ll talk to him,” Pharlin jumped out and began to walk towards the guy. The other three stayed hidden behind the rubble and watched. The NG guy quickly turned as he saw Pharlin approaching.

“Stay back zombie, I’m warning you!” The guy lifted up his weapon, ready to aim.

“Zombie? Oh, I’m still wearing my mask.” He began to pull it off. Before Pharlin was able to fully remove the mask, the NG soldier began to fire his gun at him. The others watched in horror as Pharlin’s body was quickly torn apart by the hail of bullets. After about thirty rounds have been fired, and another burst to make sure he died, the guy stopped firing.

“What the fuck man!” yelled Wahlburn jumping over the rubble. “You just killed our friend!”

“That was a zombie!” replied the soldier.

“Look at his face, it was a fucking mask!” The soldier dropped all of his packs, including his ammo and weapon, and ran away from the scene.

“What a fucktard,” said Wahlburn, “he dropped his gun.”

“You idiot, he just killed someone!” Patel and Cannon rushed over to Pharlin’s dead body. There was no point on trying to see if he was breathing at all. Before they puked at the sight, they quickly turned away. After searching the trooper’s packs, which had nothing of importance, Wahlburn picked up the gun and turned to his friends.

“Well, it looks like it’s our last ride.” They nodded and quickly continued on their quest to the arena to deliver, what hoped to be, the final solution to the zombie question.

* * * * *

Final Departure

Preban was sleeping on his shift yet again, when Franky bitch slapped him awake. “Wake up, asshole, we’ve got zombies trying to force their way through the doors!”

“Well fuck me, let’s go,” said Preban stretching. Preban got up out of his chair and rushed into the lobby. He saw a massive horde of zombies clawing and pushing at the front doors.

“We can’t hold the doors much longer, they’re pushing through!” yelled some ponies that were part of the hotel staff. Their barricades were slowly falling into pieces. Preban looked at the door carefully.

“On three open the doors and get in a defensive posture, we’re gonna have to fight them. Franky go upstairs and tell everyone to get ready to bug out just in case shit gets real.” Franky nodded and quickly rushed up the stairs to warn the others while the rest of the staff got ready for the ensuing fight. “Alright, One, Two, Three!!!”

The doors were swung open and zombies poured in.

After stumbling up the staircase because of the sudden rush, Franky finally made it to the top floor and saw Fluffy and Spike. “Hey, you two!”

“Sup brah,” said Spike, “do you want some grass or what?”

“No no, there are zombies breaking into the hotel, get your shit together just in case it doesn’t get sorted out.” Franky began his way back downstairs.

“Wait,” called out Fluffy, “how would we know if we would have to leave or not?”

“If someone doesn’t come back in five minutes then get the hell out of here.” Franky then disappeared down the stairwell leaving the two confused. Fluffy and Spike quickly alerted the others and everyone packed the essentials and gathered near the stairs.

“Where’s Tyrone and Poncho?” asked Pinkie.

“No idea,” said Fluffy, as he brushed past her, mostly to ignore her. He was still trying to find the rest of his stuff.

Meanwhile, on the hotel roof, Tyrone and Poncho were talking about what they would do when they got back home.
“When we get back, Imma open up a pimpin business, and you can be my partner,” said Tyrone.

Poncho looked away quickly. “No that’s alright, I think I’m going work at that potato chip factory in town.”

“Why?”

“I think you get a discount if you work for the company.”

Tyrone took a step backwards. “Damn son, how much do you spend on chips that you need a discount that big?”

“50,000 dollars a year,” said Poncho.

“Shiieeeeeeeeettttt.”

Back at the staircase, the rest of the group had finally stopped waiting after ten whole minutes.

“Spike go check the roof, they’re probably up there,” said Fluffy angrily.

At first sighing, Spike made his way to the roof to find Poncho explaining to Tyrone why he ate so many chips. “Guys, we might have to evacuate the hotel lets go,” said Spike.

“Alright man, let me find Greg,” said Tyrone. Spike ran back downstairs and told the group they were coming.

“Hey Tyrone, I don’t think I’m coming,” said Poncho.

“C’mon mayne, why the fuck not?”

“I’ve got some, uh, problems I want to work out.”

“Aight, whatever mayne.”

“Forget this, I’m leaving. It’s been ten minutes, and forget about Poncho and Tyrone. They can hold their own,” said a very anger Rainbow Dash.

“Calm down,” said Twilight, “give them a few seconds.” As she finished, Tyrone sped past them.

“Tyrone what are you doing?!” yelled Fluffy.

“I can’t find Greg, mayne. Just go without me I can catch up.”

Fluffy sighed. “Alright everyone let’s go.”

The group, excluding Pocho and Tyrone, slowly made their way down the stairs. Eventually, they made their way to the lobby. The lobby at this time was vacant and mostly destroyed.

“There’s no one here! What the fucking fuck?” asked Spike. He noticed Twilight's glare to his side about cursing, but he paid no attention to it.

“Wait, what’s that in the corner?” asked Fluffy, pointing. As Fluffy approached, the mass in the corner shifted. “Holy shit, Preban and Franky are holding each other.”

“And crying like little bitches,” laughed Spike. The group walked over to them and asked what had happened.

“Well, right as we opened the doors to let the zombies in I literally shit myself. Then like thirty seconds later Franky came down and he shit, too.” Preban shifted a little.

“Where’s the rest of the staff?” asked Twilight.

“They escaped out the back, they said something about going to an arena in the city.”

“Alright I know how to get there,” said Fluffy, “It’s not safe here anymore so let’s get the hell out of this crummy hotel.”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” said Franky.

Everyone slowly snuck to the back door, not to alert any zombies that might have stayed behind. Fluffy checked outside and made sure the area was clear. Fluffy decided to take a longer, yet safer backway to ensure they wouldn’t come across many, if any, zombies.

“Damn, what smells like shit?” asked Spike, holding his nose.

“Probably Franky and I, you dumb dragon fuck,” responded Preban.

“I thought you were just dicking around when you said that,” said Spike. “Also, I love you guys too.”

“No, we actually shit ourselves,” said Franky.

Just then Fluffy turned right into the next alley and bumped into something. “OH SHIEET, it’s a fucking zombie!”

“I got you, bro!” Spike jumped onto the zombie and tried to wrestle it to the ground. The group sighed in relief to see Cannon was the one Spike was trying to kill.

“What the fuck is going on, get off of my back, asshole,” said Cannon throwing Spike on the ground.

“Oh sorry,” said Spike rubbing his head, “we thought you were a zombie and shit.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Well I can see that now.”

Cannon turned around and shouted behind him. “Guys, I found the hotel group!” After a few seconds, the rest of the remaining scavengers appeared at the end of the alleyway and greeted the others.

“What smells like shit?” asked Patel as he got a scent of the smell.

“Long story,” said Spike.

“No it’s not, Franky and Preban shit themselves.”

Wahlburn looked up. “Gnarly.”

“Sooooo,” said Spike looking around, “I guess Pharlin either stayed back, died, or you abandoned him because he was brothers with that Xarlin tool?”

“Yep. He died,” said Patel. He seemed to not be bothered by his death at all.

“I could see that coming from approximately three and a half miles away.”

“So, where you guys going?” asked Cannon looking at all of them and noticing the packs and whatnot.

“The arena.”

“You mean the same arena Clyde went to and that we also did a few days ago to watch the Flamers get destroyed because LeBrony is a joke?”

“Yeah,” said Fluffy laughing, “the hotel lobby got purged so we’re looking for the rest of the staff, who are apparently going to the arena.

“Well it looks like we’re going to the same place then.” Cannon looked the direction of the arena and waved the group to follow him in his trek.

“Oh, we also found the cure. You know for the zombies and shit?” said Wahlburn.

“Yeah, nobody really cares,” replied Spike.

The group exited the alleyway and made their way to the streets when they were blinded by flood lights. “Don’t move!!” shouted a soldier, who came out from behind the blinding light.

Fluffy dropped his pack and raised his hooves. “We’re just civilians, we need to get to the arena.”

The soldier walked around him then threw his cigar into the dirt. “Keep your hooves up, we’re going to search all of you then we can take you to the arena.”

Flameless Stars

“I’ll go wait at the check-in line to see if your friends at the hotel have made it here yet,” said Rio as Clyde, Rarity, and himself walked into the locker room. There were other members of the team gathered around in the room, some talking, others drinking, or some doing both actions. Rio turned back to Clyde. “Give me a list of names I should be looking for. If, or when, they are here, I’ll show them to you two.” Clyde and Rarity gave a quick rundown of the others, including name and a brief physical description of each one. Rio nodded and cleared his throat and turned towards the locker room.

“Ey yo fellas! We got some fans here that saved my life!” The locker room roared. “Be sure to welcome them to the great locker room of the reigning back-to-back champions!” The others gave a cheer by raising their bottles and resumed talking amongst each other.

“That wasn’t what happened,” said Clyde to Rio.

“Nah,” replied Rio, giving him a pat on the shoulder, “I’ll return when I find your friends, get to know these ballers while I’m gone.” He left the room and headed towards the main entrance.

Clyde looked around the room. He knew some of the familiar faces of the team, as he watched the Flamers during the Finals last season. Before he could think of any names, someone in a suit walked up to him.

“Ah, nice to meet you two,” said the stallion in the suit, “I’m the head coach of the Flamers, Coach Frogstra. Since you saved our point guard, if you need anything, like season tickets or a signed LeBrony jersey, I’ll be sure to get them for you.”

“Thanks for the offers, but we aren’t from here,” said Clyde. He looked around and saw that LeBrony wasn’t in the locker room. “Where is LeBrony anyways?”

“Ah. He was here earlier, but he told us that after saving a kid around your age in the streets, he was going to take his talents elsewhere and become a savior and help as many ponies as he possibly can.”

“So, he thinks he’s a superhero now?” Clyde sighed in disbelief.

“I guess so...,” Frogstra walked away as another pony in the locker room walked up to Clyde and Rarity.

“Hello,” said the pony. “I’m known around here as Bird Hoss.” Clyde looked at him and saw that his mane was gelled up into a massive mohawk. He also was covered in tattoos from head to hoof.

“Um, hello there,” said Rarity nervously.

“I’m guessing you like tattoos, huh?” asked Clyde.

“You bet I do! I get a new tattoo after every game we win. I also have an addiction to meth, cocaine, and heroin.” He began to chuckle.

“Lovely...” said Rarity, as Clyde dragged her away from Bird Hoss. They made their way to the group of three players near the back of the locker room.

“Ah, some college aged fans!” said the one in the middle of the group. He was wearing his jersey and a backwards hat. As he turned around, Clyde saw the name “Shuttlesworthless” on the back of the jersey. Shuttlesworthless turned back around and handed Clyde and Rarity a beer bottle. “I know how crazy you kids get these days, drink up.” Clyde took one, while Rarity refused. “Alright, more for me then.” He quickly chugged the bottle.

“Damn it, Jesús,” said the stallion on the right of him. “You don’t have to drink that if you don’t want to. The name’s Duane.” He extended his hoof.

Clyde returned the shake and saw that Duane had the number “3” everywhere on his jersey. “Why the love of three?”

Duane laughed. “I’m a three time world champion baby! Three is the meaning of life for me man!” He laughed again and saw Clyde’s mark. “You have a basketball. You a baller?”

Clyde shrugged. “I’m not on the skill level of a professional yet, but I know how to do one or two things.”

“Come on,” said Shuttlesworthless, “you can’t be any worse than Shane over here.” He laughed and patted the stallion on his left.

“Hey!” yelled Shane Floppier, the most notorious member of the Flamers. Everyone in the world knew him because of his lack of basketball skills other than flopping every possession of the ball. “Flopping is a skill!”

“Yeah, okay,” said Duane, “if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have those two rings.” Shane, Shuttlesworthless, and Duane walked away leaving Clyde and Rarity to stand there. Clyde looked at the bottle of beer he was given.

“Are you going to drink that?” asked Rarity.

“Probably not.” Clyde set the bottle down on the floor. “Why, did you want it?”

“No.” Clyde was confused on the serious tone of her voice, but he ignored it and looked at the last stallion in the room they have yet to talk to. He was sitting against his locker, eyes closed and listening to music.

“No way...” said Clyde dumbfounded.

“What?” asked Rarity.

“There his is. There is my idol, Chris Boshasaurus.”

“I thought you said Rio was your idol.”

“They are both my idols.” Clyde continued staring when suddenly Boshasaurus opened his eyes and looked up at them. He took off his earphones and stood up. He smiled.

“What is going on, my two, never before seen, new friends!” Boshasaurus looked around. “No, but seriously, what did I miss?”

“Well, my name is Clyde and this is Rarity, and we are in here because Rio saved us from a zombie down by the docks behind the arena.”

“What were you two doing down there?” asked Boshasaurus.

“Well Boshasaurus-”

“Just call me CB.”

“Well CB, we walked, ran, and swam, from a hotel down a few blocks from the arena because the hotel was running out of supplies. Our friends are still there. This was the only safe place I could think of to take her.”

“Her?” asked CB. He looked at Rarity. “Ah, so you two are a couple?”

Clyde flushed red. “Er, well-”

“Yes.” Rarity’s comment made Clyde turn around and look at her. He noticed the serious tone again in her voice, that was perfectly clear that she meant it. He looked back at CB.

“Well, I hope everything works out for you two.” CB began to walk past them. “I also have to ask, do you want some towels or something to dry yourselves off?”

“Yes please, that would be wonderful,” said Rarity. Just then, Frogstra returned into the room.

“Guys, since our court in now home to the citizens of this city, we have to move our practice to the secret practice court under the arena. Everyone, let’s move out and begin.” The locker room roared again, as the members of the Flamers rushed out of the room and into the hallways. CB turned around.

“I’ll get the towels first for you two first, give me a few minutes. I ain’t going to practice. Like come on, practice?” He walked out of the room, talking to himself about “practice” very loudly.

The room was silent as Clyde and Rarity were the only two in the once jubilant room. Clyde stared at the floor as Rarity sat down against the wall and took off her bag. He sat down beside her. “Did you really mean it?” asked Clyde, “the couple thing?”

Rarity looked at him strangely. “Of course I did, why would I ever lie about it? Unless, you don't want to be with me?" Rarity pouted at him.

“What? No, it's just, well, we never had an official first date, nor did I ever ask you out or anything so-”

Rarity laughed. “Clyde darling, that doesn’t matter. We can worry about that when we get out of this city. All I know is that we both want to spent more time with each other so I said we were together.” She smiled and looked at him with her lowered eyes and began batting her eyelashes. "You can ask me out now if you want to.”

A feel of nervousness came across Clyde. He didn't know why he was so nervous, as he knew Rarity now for over two weeks almost. "Um, Rarity?" he asked.

"Yes?" she asked in an excited tone.

"Will you, uh-" Clyde stopped and looked over at the Flamers' decor painted on the wall.

"Don't look over there darling. Look at me when you ask."

Clyde turned his head towards her and felt nervous again. "Rarity, would you like to be my...girlfriend?"

Rarity giggled and closed her eyes and put her head in the air. "Well, I normally wouldn't answer a bold request like that on such a short notice"–she opened one eye to look at him–"but, since you are very compassionate towards me and I think you are handsome, I suppose...yes!" She quickly hugged him and kissed his cheek as Clyde felt his nervousness go away. After she let go of him and smiled, she pulled out a towel from her bag, which Clyde noticed that both were completely dry.

“How is your stuff dry?”

“It’s an enchanted bag I made myself. It’s waterproof, fireproof, and pretty much indestructible.” Rarity looked over to him. “Do you honestly think I would be so careless with my belongings?”

“No, actually.” Clyde looked at the bag. The bag looked normal, but no one could see any enchantments on it with a normal eye. “Wait, you said you didn’t want to get it in water because your stuff would get ruined.”

Rarity laughed again and pulled the towel around her. “I did. I wanted to see what your reaction was. Looks like you’re going to buy me some new clothes anyway. That can be one of our dates!” Clyde sighed as she gave a sly giggle.

They both sat there waiting for CB to return. To pass the time, Clyde close his eyes and sang a song in his head while Rarity fell asleep on his shoulder. After another ten minutes passed, CB returned.

“Sorry, I’m late. I was having a real good argument to a fan who kept calling me a dinosaur. I told everyone, including the media, I’m only part dinosaur.” He saw that Rarity was sleeping, so he quietly tossed Clyde a towel.

“Still would be cool being part dinosaur.” Clyde opened his bag that was to the other side of him and took out a bottle of water. Unlike Rarity's enchanted bad, his bag was still wet from the plunge into the bay earlier. The water was sealed so it didn’t matter to him.

“So, you ball with your friends? You got a team?” asked CB, sitting down on a chair near Clyde.

“Yeah, I play point, so all I really do is pass, which is fine by me. Cannon plays the two, as all he does is jack up three pointers. I mean his name even implies that.”

“Yeah, I see.”

“Tyrone, who is our small forward, is probably better than all of us combined. That dude was meant to ball. Some Drake dude is our power forward. He’s not really that good, just more of rebounds and screens. Other than games, we don't really talk to him. Lastly, Sticky is our center as he’s the tallest one of us.”

“Sounds like you guys mostly play for fun and dicking around?” asked CB.

Clyde laughed. “You could say that.”

CB smiled. “Maybe you guys could play against us while we wait for this zombie thing to pass.”

“That would be cool, but none of my friends are here yet.” As Clyde finished his sentence, Rio barged back into the room. Behind him was the others from the hotel and the scavenger team.

“There’s that asshole!” yelled Cannon. Cannon walked over to Clyde and took the bag beside him. He looked at the stallion beside him and immediately dropped the bag. “Chris Boshasaurus!”

“What’s up man,” said CB waving. Sticky and Rivs both ran over to CB.

“CB, you’re the best player on the Flamers,” said Sticky, “I’ll follow you anywhere.”

“I appreciate it.” The four of them continued the conversation while Patel, Wahlburn, Jeb, and Twilight’s group walked up to Clyde and Rarity.

“Clyde, what did you do to her?” asked Twilight.

“What? She’s sleeping, wake her up if you want to talk to her.” Twilight shook Rarity until she woke up.

“I’m sleeping...” said Rarity groggily, waving away Twilight. She grabbed onto Clyde’s arm.

“Get up, we need to talk to you.” Applejack came over and helped Twilight pull her off of Clyde’s arm and dragged her away from the others. Clyde was about to get up and go after her, but Wahlburn pushed him back down.

“What?” asked Clyde.

“You know how much shit you caused in the past few hours?” asked Patel.

“No, I don’t really care.”

“That’s the thing, you don’t care,” said Jeb, speaking up for once.

"Shut up Jeb, what did I do to you?”

“Well, after you left and these guys left, zombies attacked the hotel. We had to get escorted over to here while Poncho and Tyrone are still at the hotel.”

“Wait, are you serious-”

“But wait! There's more,” said Patel in a joking manner. “Pharlin died on the way here. Turns out he’s a smart dude and not a douchey evil bitch like his brother.”

“DID YOU JUST SAY PHARLIN!” Suddenly, Bird Hoss ran back into the room. “MY SON IS DEAD!?” Bird Hoss began to cry and bang his head on the floor.

“You just what, mate?” immediately replied Patel.

“What the fuck is up with that guy?” asked Wahlburn.

“Long story, but we have to go back and save Poncho and Tyrone!” yelled Clyde.

“We? I think it’s time you did something besides hang around with those other ponies nobody likes and do something good for your friends. Remember, we were here first.” Patel then walked away towards CB. Clyde stood up.

“I guess I do have to do something.” Clyde walked over to CB. Without saying anything, CB nodded to approve of Clyde’s new task. He looked over at Twilight’s group and saw that they all were talking to Rarity about something, but from what he could tell, she was ignoring them. He walked over to Wahlburn and Spike who were near the door to the hallway.

“Good luck, my non-drug influenced friend,” said Spike.

“Thanks, but I’ll be back soon. I’m not stopping for anything.”

“SHIT!” yelled Wahlburn. He place his bag on the floor and dug out a small glass bottle, “I gotta give this to someone here.” He quickly ran out of the hallway.

“Alright, I’m outta here.” Clyde walked into the hallway and read the signs leading to the back door Rio first took them through. He opened it, and quickly felt the cool breeze of the ocean air.

Sketchy Savior/Epilogue

The journey back to the hotel was easier than the journey to the arena. Instead of taking the park route from before, Clyde went along the streets and through alleys to get back to the hotel in the fastest possible way. Once there, he noticed the lack of guards or security at the front gates. He made his way back to the lobby where he once stood a few hours ago. Most of the lobby was torn apart, as the windows were either cracked or shattered. The furniture that was part of the barricade was scattered around the floor. Seeing no other option, Clyde turned around and went up the stairs to the floor where they stayed at.

Once on the floor, he saw the empty chair on where Tyrone sat to keep floor watch. Clyde turned the corner and saw that the doors to the rooms were still intact.

“Good,” he said, “looks like the zombies didn’t make it up here.” He went into each room searching for traces of clues on where Tyrone or Poncho could have gone. After searching all of the rooms, including his own, Clyde sat down on the bed. He looked out the door to the hallway and remembered this was the place Poncho and him had that argument those few days ago. Clyde chuckled to himself.

“Heh. That argument was so pointless after I think about it now.” He looked outside the glass doors to the balcony. He looked across the skyline and saw the distant horizon of the ocean. He shifted his gaze and saw the clean hotel pool below the room. “When was there even a pool at this place?”

Just then he heard a noise from the closet. Curious he walked over to it and opened it.

“Gah man, you back!” said Tyrone as he rolled out of the closet.

“Tyrone? What were you doing in there?” asked Clyde as he helped his good friend up.

“Well man, I heard you down here earlier and I wanted to give you your bag back. You left so I put it in the closet, thinking you were going to come back for it.”

“So you are the one who stole it from me?”

“I didn’t mean to steal it, only borrow. I wasn’t going wake your ass up.”

“Why did you two stay behind and where is Poncho?”

“Poncho? I don’t know man, but I stayed back because I couldn’t find Greg. I forgot I made him turn into a new hat that I put inside your bag.”

Clyde picked up his bag and put it on. “I guess we need to find Poncho then we can leave.” Before they could say anything, a strange growl was heard from the doorway. They both turned around and saw that a zombie was looking right at them. As the zombie stepped forward, Clyde and Tyrone stepped back.

“What are we gunna do?” asked Tyrone nervously.

“I don’t know!” yelled Clyde.

“STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!”

Before Clyde or Tyrone could even think, Poncho ran into the room, running into the zombie and pushing him through the glass door and over the balcony. In shock, Clyde and Tyrone went over to the hail of glass shards. Clyde thought the world was in slow-motion, as he saw Poncho and the zombie falling more than twenty stories downwards to the pool below.

“Mmm, whatcha say...,” began Tyrone. Clyde snapped out of it and punched Tyrone, telling him to stop.

“What the hell just happened?” asked Clyde sporadically.

“I don’t know man. I’m just tryna get in the mood.” They quickly ran down the flight of stairs, ran through the lobby, and headed outside towards the pool. Once at the pool, they saw Poncho begin to crawl in the low section, trying to get out of the pool. Tyrone and Clyde helped him out of it.

“Poncho, you a crazy bastard, man,” said Tyrone.

“Seriously, though, that was pretty freakin’ sweet,” said Clyde.

“Heh...I know you guys woulda did the same thing.” Poncho laid down on the concrete. “I landed on the zombie once we hit the water, so I’m lucky.” He looked over at the pool again and sat back up quickly. The zombie was slowly walking out of the pool.

“What the-?” said Clyde, “how is that still alive?” Before anyone could plan an attack, a gunshot went off behind them and the zombie fell into the pool, bloodying the pool water. The three of them looked behind them.

A stallion was carrying a 9mm pistol and was looking at them with his head slightly tilted in the air. He kept nodding his head upwards while remaining his pistol and body still. “You guys alright?” he asked them.

“Yeah, I think we good,” replied Tyrone, “hey wait a min’, I know you. You Andy Samberg.”

He smiled. “That I am, my good friends, that I am.”

* * * * *

It has been one year since the events in South Beach and our group had made it out barely unscathed. Quantico turned up shortly after Poncho saved Clyde. As it turns out, he was in a mechanics garage holding up with three others. The mechanic ended up fixing the bus for free, meaning everyone could return home. They stopped at a few places on the way back to the Canterlot area, but they made not to stay in one area too long.

Pharlin’s cure was given to the NG by Wahlburn and was quickly deployed. After a few hours, all the zombies in South Beach were killed and the city was back to reconstruct all the damage the zombies had caused in the city.

For Twilight and her friends, they returned back to Ponyville and had their curse undone to return them to normal and able to use magic or flight. Spike decided to move out of Twilight’s house and live with Wahlburn since he wanted to enjoy life more in extreme ways. Twilight obviously didn't want that to happen, but she uncharacteristically allowed it, saying Spike was just going through a phase.

Almost everyone else in Poncho's group spent their next year differently. Wahlburn and Spike were caught with weed and were forced to do community service and to take rehab, which they both finished within six months. The rehab obviously didn't purge their love of “dat dere ganja”, as they actually began dealing shortly after, and, as the statement goes, they began “making bank”.

Tyrone decided to take a break from basketball and was put in jail for robbing a local chicken restaurant for all of their chicken. Tyrone got a generous sentence of eight months, in which he spent his time getting even more jacked. When Tyrone got out, he carried through with his pimping idea, which made him a fair bit of money.

Poncho also went through with his idea and began work at the local potato chip factory. He did get discounts, 50% actually. This saved him $25,000 for the year.

Clyde stayed in the Verona area, who soon joined Canterlot's basketball team, which was only a short ride from said town. Majority of the time, he stayed at Ponyville to be with his new girlfriend to see her everyday. They spent majority of each day together, which made his friends pissed off at him some more, but Clyde had no worries and ignored their pointless rage.

Cannon decided to try his luck making the local basketball team with Clyde, Sticky, and Rivs. They all made the reserve squad in the new Canterlot Crusaders basketball team, except Clyde who was a starter, as undrafted rookies. With the money they all got from ballin', they all rented their own condo in Verona.

Jeb became a-, wait it doesn't really matter what he did as nobody actually cares about him.

Fluffy Johnson left South Beach with the others and decided to live in Canterlot. Soon, he became one of the members of the crew.

Finally, Patel sat on his lazy ass watching Futbol and Greg was the couch on which he placed his ass. Tyrone asked him to take care of Greg while he was in jail.

* * * * *

After a long day of dealing, Wahlburn and Patel were sitting on Greg the couch, watching “The Walking Dead: South Beach Edition”.

“Business is slowing,” said Wahlburn sadly, throwing his remaining money stack onto the table. “My supplier got busted and it’s getting harder and harder to find weed.”

“That’s unfortunate,” said Patel.

“Damn right, I need to find a supplier fast.” Wahlburn slouched down and sat there looking at the last remaining money he had.

“Dude, I’ve got an idea,” said Patel suddenly. “There’s this great place you can get your weed at.”

“Where?” asked Wahlburn, jolting upwards.

“Oh you’ll find out, I’m about to-”

“Shut the fuck up and tell me!”

“We can go to Amsterdam, get a metric shit tonne of grass, then somehow bring it back. Then your business is booming again.” Patel grinned.

Wahlburn got up and began to walk away. “No, we’re not going to Amsterdam, what’s so special about that place, anyway?”

Patel also stood up and placed his hoof on Wahlburn’s shoulder. “Hey Wahlburn. You do realize what’s legal in Amsterdam, don’t you?”

A revelation struck Wahlburn instantly. “Heh,” he chuckled.

Patel grinned. “Oh hell yeah.”

TBC

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! C&C is always welcome!

Troublesome Return

Pharlin was the first of the now group of four to wake up. He stood above them all and spoke. “Wake up everyone, it’s time to get moving.” The rest of the group was surprisingly fast to get up, mostly because they wanted to get back to the hotel to make sure things were going well. Also, sleeping in the Super Shop wasn’t too comfortable. After everyone was up and running, they stood at the door.

“Cannon, make sure you have all the supplies we need in the bag. Wahlburn, take a quick look outside to make sure we’re clear to go. And Pharlin, try to get through to Clyde on the walkie talkie. I’m gonna go take a piss.” Patel hurried off to the back corner of the store where the Baños were located.

Everyone did what they told, Cannon had everything needed, Wahlburn gave the all clear, and Pharlin tried to get through to Clyde but was unsuccessful. Patel came back a minute later. “Alright, let’s pack up and get this shit out of here. Pharlin did you get through to Clyde?”

“That’s a negative,” said Pharlin, “I guess we need to get closer to him.”

“How about we find another way back so we don’t have to go through the haze?” suggested Wahlburn.

“I second that notion,” said Cannon.

“Same,” chimed in Pharlin.

Patel sighed. “We can at least try, if you guys want to so badly.” The group set off out of the store and into the dead streets of South Beach, the sun had just risen and the sky was extremely clear. The group set off the way the came and had noticed something had changed.

“Hey, the haze is gone!” cheered Wahlburn.

“Fucking yes, we’ll be back in no time,” said Cannon with excitement in his voice.

“Hold the phone motherfucker,” said Patel stopping them, “I’m gonna go scout ahead. Stay back here and wait for me, if I don’t come back in five minutes, wait longer.” Wahlburn, Cannon and Pharlin looked on as Patel quickly maneuvered through the streets checking every alley and back street for any sign of danger.

“That guy's fucking crazy to go alone,” said Cannon to the others.

“At least we don’t have to,” said Wahlburn with a laugh.

“So, Pharlin,” began Cannon , “how did your first night of the zombie outbreak go?”

“Shit was so cash, just kidding, it sucked ass.”

“Elaborate....”

“Alright,” said Pharlin as he looked at the sky, “So, I was walking to my beachfront condo, like a boss, when I started hearing some freaky shit, like screams and growls. Needless to say, I needed some new pants by the time I got to my condo. So I proceeded into the elevator, hopped off on the top floor, and there it was....”

“What was it?” asked Wahlburn in suspense.

“A damn zombie, what else would it be? So I proceeded to shit myself again, then mashed the elevator call button. The elevator opened up, I scooted in, and went to the lobby. When I got there, everypony were being eaten all over the damn place, so I ran the fuck out of there and tried to make my way to the police station. Without going too deep into the story I ran into some obstacles and I found myself in the Super Shop, then you guys came.” Pharlin posted on the nearest streetlamp.

“Wait,” said Cannon, “how the hell can you afford a beachfront condo?”

Pharlin grinned. “That’s a secret.” There was a moment of silence until Pharlin spoke again. “So what are we gonna do when we get back to the hotel?

“Chill, smoke, sleep, repeat,” said Wahlburn, “pretty much the way of life.”

“And if we run out of supplies?”

“We scavenge, bro. We’re only the best damn team of scavengers in the greater South Beach area,” said Cannon, as he took pride to his statement.

“Said the guys with pans for helmets and kitchen utensils for weapons.” Pharlin laughed.

“Go fuck yourself,” said Wahlburn in disgust.

“Will do, bro.”

Patel returned out of nowhere, and gave the go ahead to move out. “Alright, we have a small group of zombies on the third street on the right, and that’s it, then it should hopefully be a straight shot to the hotel.”

The group set off, jogging steadily on the side of the road, while trying to remain as quiet as possible. When they came close to where the group of zombies were, they slowed to a stealthy walk.

“Alright, to the right there are about ten zombies,” pointed Patel, “just cross in front of the street slowly. I’ll go last and watch the zombies to see if they see us or not.”

“I’ll cross first,” said Cannon. Cannon had no problems crossing in front of the street. Pharlin volunteered to go next, he too crossed without a hitch. Next up was Wahlburn, who seemed uneasy and was shaking uncontrollably.

“Dammit, calm down man,” said Patel, annoyed at his shaky friend.

“I’m trying,” said a nervous Wahlburn. He gulped and began. Just as Wahlburn was about to get clear, his pan ‘helmet’ fell off of his head and made a loud clunking sound as it crashed to the ground. “Oh shit...,” whispered Wahlburn.

The zombies slowly turned their heads and noticed Walburn at the end of the street and Patel’s head peeking from the side of the building.

“Guys fucking run, I’ll distract them!” yelled Patel to the others.

“Good enough for me,” said Cannon.

The group of three sprinted in the direction of the hotel as Patel sprinted toward the zombies. Just as Patel was about to clash with them he veered left onto another street, so he was on a parallel street to the other three, running in the same direction.

Three of the zombies easily caught up with Patel, and he was tackled to the ground hard. He found himself on the bottom of the deadliest pile of cluster fuck you’ll ever see. He managed to deploy his switchblade and struggled to stab them, but eventually he killed all three, barely escaping without any scratches. Though this wasn’t the end of his ordeal as the seven remaining slower zombies had surrounded him in a full circle, and were closing in on him.

Patel attempted to escape by killing one zombie and running through the gap. Unfortunately after killing the zombie, the gap closed and he was dragged down by two zombies. Patel luckily killed one, but his blade got stuck in its’ skull and he couldn’t retrieve it.

The remaining zombie still on him was about to bite, when a hammer flew in from the side and smashed its’ head in. Patel quickly jumped and looked over to his right, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Standing next to Patel was none other than LeBrony James.

“LeBrony? What are you doing-”

“Everybody gets one.”

LeBrony vanished down a nearby alley as Patel stared in awe. He realized there were still five zombies left, and his blade was still stuck in the skull of the zombie on the ground. Patel, with no chance of winning this fight, booked it toward the direction of the hotel. Less than a minute later he arrived at the front of the Hotel, where the two guards let him in.

Patel walked through the doors and into the lobby and noticed the other three scavengers sitting down leaning against the wall, taking a breather and drinking some water. Cannon looked up when he saw the figure walk towards him.

“Holy shit, it’s Patel!”

“Sup, brahs.”

“We thought you got killed,” said Wahlburn as he gave him a bro-clutch.

“I thought I was going to be killed, then....”

“Then what?”

“Strange shit, mate, strange shit. I don’t want to talk about it right now.” Patel took deep breath and exhaled. By this time the group looked like shit, especially Patel and Pharlin, who had their fair share of close calls.They made their way to the elevators and eventually made their way to the top floor. Spike was the first to notice them as he took over Tyrone’s shift.

“Hey! The Silver Team is back!” Spike ran over to them and opened up the hallway door to the stairwell.

“Yeah we are,” said Cannon, acting like a superhero that just saved the world.

“It’s 7 am, you guys left almost 24 hours ago, what took you so long?”

“We found a Super Shop down the street and made sure we had adequate supplies. Pharlin happened to be there, too. It got dark quick so we decided to stay the night. It didn’t help that Patel almost got killed this morning.”

“Fuck this shit,” said Wahlburn dropping his pack, “who wants to smoke up?”

“At 7 in the morning? Fuck, I’m in.” Cannon took his supplies pack off and with Wahlburn’s and his, placed them in the middle of the hallway.

“Me too,” said Pharlin, dropping his pack.

Patel shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

“May I join in?” asked Spike.

“Go out for a whole day and scavenge for supplies, then you can join in,” said Wahlburn in a serious tone.

“Seriously?”

“Nah man, I’m just fuckin' with ya. Just don't tell Twilight.” Spike saluted and they all quietly walked into Patel, Wahlburn, and Spike’s room to avoid waking anyone else up, and smoked some weed, enjoying the fact that no one died on their scavenge.