The Strange Tale Of Ezekiel Henderson

That's what Henderson assumed when he saw the red quadriped standing in the room before him. The guard was facing away from him. Henderson breathed a quick sigh of relief.

"Hey, the Pri-", he stopped mid-sentence as the guard turned to face him. This wasn't a guard.

It resembled one of Celestia's Royal Guards, but it was horribly disfigured. Most of its hair was missing, as were large patches of hide. Bulbous growths had sprouted on its back and neck. Its fore-legs had been replaced, or encased, by jagged, misaligned metal plates. Its face, or lack there of, had been split down the middle. A large, gaping maw occupied the jagged orifice.

Henderson's brief examination was cut short as this new monstrosity charged forward. It wasn't agile, it slammed into tables and equipment in its effort to claim its prey. It was obvious it wasn't about to thank its would-be rescuer with a hug, so Henderson fired. A three-round burst to the head was sufficient to drop the thing, the slugs blew divots in its skull and it fell to the ground, momentarily. Too Henderson's unpleasant surprise, the thing shakily lifted itself off the floor, then lumbered towards him. Its speed had been greatly reduced, but seemed otherwise unaffected by its wounds. Its large, vertically oriented mouth opened as it neared Henderson, revealing several rows of jagged teeth. It had come within ten feet of Henderson when he fired again. Another three round burst to its torso caused it to drop like a rock, and stay down.

Henderson was leery as he approached the beast. He nudged it with his foot just to make sure it was dead, it was. He peered into the holes his rounds had made in its head, what he saw looked more like muscle tissue than grey-matter. He knelt to examine the similar wounds in its chest.

Wait. Is that?

He pulled a flap of tissue out of the way. Sure enough, one of the spider creatures was firmly lodged on the guard's spinal cord. He had hit this parasite when he had fired the second time, he made a mental note of this as he stood and continued out of the room.

He had found his way out of the medical complex, through what looked like a machine shop, then living quarters. Between these he had encountered two more of the guards-turned-monstrosities, as well as another group of the mechanical spiders; all of which had fallen under well-aimed gunfire. Now, he was stopped at another door, preparing to open it.

And what wonders await me beyond this one..., he thought as he flipped the lever.

This time, the door opened to reveal a pleasant.

Bout damn time.

Sitting at the other end of the long room was what looked like a lift.

Hopefully a way out of this shit hole.

He forced himself not to jog to the other side of the room. He quickly found out just how well he had done with that decision. The room was lined with alcoves, spaced evenly down the length. Out from one of these alcoves came, A walking piece of shit. At least, that was Henderson's first thought as this behemoth stepped into view. It was large, very large, at least 8 feet tall. It was a mottled brown color, completely covered in the now all-to-familiar fleshy growths. It was thick, and bipedal, this one wasn't based on anything equine. It was nearly featureless, just a big walking deuce.

It shuffled about the room. Henderson knew he wouldn't be able to sneak past it, so he prepared to open fire. He reached into his hip pouch, drawing and priming one of his fragmentation grenades. The grenade arced across the room, bounced, and rolled under the titan.

BOOM

The monster's legs were blown off, it fell to the ground with a loud, wet thump. No sooner had it begun trying to pull itself around with its arms did it come under small arms fire. Henderson's rifle boomed as round after round pelted the beast. He had gone through two and a half magazines before it finally quit moving.

He made as wide a circle around it as he could on his way to the lift, on which he stepped and begun searching for the 'up' button. Then he heard them. Closely followed by visual confirmation. Thousands of the little spiders came pouring in from vents that sat in each alcove. If the first ones he'd seen had been a tidal wave, this was a tsunami. He fired his rifle one handed as he continued to search for the button, switch, lever, that take him out of here.

Ah ha.

He found it and pressed it with more force than it required. The lift groaned, then slowly started to rise.

Click, He reloaded and continued firing.

Another one of the behemoths appeared on the floor below him, as well as a half dozen former guards. He fired on everything that moved below him, fired until the lift rose into the ceiling. It continued to rise for another five minutes, then ground to a halt in a small stone room, in which he found a door. He sighed as he opened it, preparing for whatever lay beyond. It slid open and he was immediately blinded by sunlight. He blinked as his visor automatically polarized.

"Good door.", he patted the door he had just opened, then stepped through it.

He was on the side of an embankment, on a natural terrace, over the edge of which he glanced, there was a river far below him. He turned around, snow capped peaks towered above him. He looked back at the river, his eyes following its gentle curves, there, Ponyville sat beside the river. It was a good ten, fifteen miles away.

What I'd give for a helo' right now. He thought as he began his trek.