Contact

The story progresses however you, the reader, choose it to. It will be tailored by the decisions and the choices you make.

Equestria.

Home to many sapient beings, from ponies to donkeys and everything in between, as well as a wide variety of wildlife. Where almost everything and everyone got along just fine. Where violence and death was a rare sight to behold.

And then the outbreak hit.

The initial outbreak began in Vanhoover before slowly spreading across Equestria. Ponies panicked as their long deceased loved ones started rising out of their graves; shambling bags of rotting flesh began roaming the lands of Equestria, devouring and killing the living. What was the cause? Nopony knew. The princesses had promised that they'd come up with something - anything - to deal with the crisis.

But the ponies knew that things would get far worse before it got better. And so they flooded stores, barns, and anything that had food and supplies and stocked up. They were locking themselves in their own homes, thinking that they could wait it out until the princesses came up with something to help them.

Last they heard of them, they'd locked themselves up in Canterlot and sealed it up tight alongside the Crystal Empire. Nopony got in; nopony got out. They'd gone silent. But rumor had it that Princess Twilight wasn't very happy about that decision, and wanted to get out there and help out. Celestia supposedly refused to let her exit Canterlot grounds, out of fear that she might get murdered, or even worse, bit.

And so, ponies were left to fend for themselves. They immediately thought of getting boats. They could be sailing out to sea to wait all this out, and maybe even look for somewhere else to live. Some planned on bargaining with the griffons; maybe they'd let them stay until their homes weren't filled with the dead anymore. The Manehattan folks and the Baltimare folks got it lucky. They sailed out to sea as soon as word got around that Equestria wasn't safe anymore.

As for you, you lived in Las Pegasus where you served as the clerk of a pawn shop, selling and buying antiques. You envied the pegasi and the unicorns for having wings and magic, while earth ponies didn't have too much except their exceptional agricultural skills. It wasn't all bad, as customers would usually bring in old guns and you and the others usually got to test fire them. But that didn't change the fact that you still longed someday for a pair of wings or maybe a horn.

You gazed out at Ghastly Gorge as the carriage continued moving. One of the foals had started to cry as her parent consoled her. Everypony else on the carriage was silent.

After the dead started spreading, the authorities had advised citizens to move as far east as possible, preferably before the dead reached their town. And almost everypony was smart enough to obey. A couple of really headstrong ones payed the radio broadcasts no heed and treated it like nothing. Some movie directors had actually talked about kidnapping and using live zomponies for their movies. Just the thought of it made you sick, how could they even think about trying to make money at such a dark time?

You had gotten out just in time. Already the place was almost overrun with the things. The whole city was in ruins, buildings were on fire, and blood and gore covered almost every road. You got the message and decided to leave while you could.

      "Hey." The stallion next to you said.

He was purple, with an orange colored mane. He looked incredibly thin, slightly shorter than you, with wings folded by his side.

      "Hi." You replied nonchalantly.

      "Where's a pretty mare like you headed?"

      "East I guess. Go to Baltimare, get a boat, wait out at sea. Maybe even find someplace new. You?"

      "I'm going back to Vanhoover. Couple of my friends are still back there. Gotta make sure they're okay."

      "Vanhoover? Isn't that place overrun?"

      "All the more reason to go make sure they're doing fine."

The two of you kept quiet as silence filled the air. The foal had calmed down eventually and was now snoring peacefully in her mother's embrace.

      "Things have gone to shit haven't they?" The stallion grumbled.

You nodded in agreement.

      "I saw a couple of ponies out in the woods, fightin' over supplies. Then all of a sudden, one of them pulls out a gun and shoots the other in the head, for a good five times. Bastard even spat on his body." he said.

      "Wish somepony would do something about this, anything would do so long as it helps." you responded.

      "Well, we'd better get used to it. Things are gonna get a lot worse before they get better."

      "How can we get used to it? Their numbers just keep rising and ours..."

      "We just gotta look on the bright side of things. Too bad there isn't one right now. By the way, name's Sunray. You?"

      "Hard Luck."

You and the stallion kept quiet, the carriage continued moving along at a slow and steady pace. It was supposed to take everypony to the train station, where they would hitch a ride to Baltimare. But it was a risk; nopony knew if the rail roads were even functional, but there wasn't a better alternative.

      "Celestia damn it." The stallion pulling the carriage cursed.

Before him was the dead, deformed corpse of a pony. Its mane was nothing but tufts of red hair here and there, its fur coat also had a few patches of grey fur, and its face was disfigured to the point that there was no chance of recognition. You couldn't even tell if it was a stallion or a mare. Several wounds and holes littered its body, and dried blood was caked into whatever was left of its fur.

The carriage pony decided to try and step around it. He cautiously placed a hoof forwards, but the corpse didn't move. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued.

Bad idea.

Almost immediately after he stepped forwards, the corpse shot awake and used its mangled hooves to push itself forward, sinking its teeth into the foreleg of the carriage pony. In response, he screamed in pain and used his spare hoof to try and push the zompony off him. It was useless, as the weight of the zompony brought him down to the ground before allowing it to devour him. It plunged its rotting muzzle into his belly, ripping off the skin and flesh that kept his insides... well, inside.

      "Mother of Celestia..." Sunray muttered.

Before you could even panic and bail, another one of the things had snuck up on the carriage; it bit onto Sunray's wing before dragging him off. He landed on the ground with a thud as the zompony bit his neck, resulting in a stream of blood squirting out of his throat. One of the passengers started screaming, but you didn't have time to stop and look. Instead, you hopped off and ran as fast as your legs would allow you as their terrified screams attracted even more of the things.

…...

You slowly walked along the railroad tracks, hoping that they'd lead you to a city, a town, or something. And where there's a town, there's supplies. Even if said town was overrun by zomponies, you were confident that'd you'd be able to find some food for your almost empty saddlebags. (Which contained an old revolver your boss had given you as a departing gift, three bullets, and half a bottle of water).

You'd been walking for a good few hours now and you wanted to stop and rest, but you knew you had to try and find some shelter in the safety of daylight. Along the horizon, a small town came into your sights. You breathed a sigh of relief as you were filled with a glimmer of hope. Maybe the town hadn't even been hit yet.

As you got closer, you found out that you were wrong.

Various buildings were burned and destroyed; stalls and carts were vandalized and overturned. So far, no visible zomponies roamed the streets. A couple of corpses littered the streets, but they were far too mutilated to reanimate. As you forged on, you encountered various signs of gore. A decapitated head, a pony in half with his intestines still connecting his upper half and lower half together, amongst others.

You held in your lunch as you continued on along the path.

You made no effort to search any of the ruined homes, because the supplies were most probably already used up or tainted. Instead, you saw a bakery up ahead. You assumed that they'd had plenty of stuff to keep you alive, and it looked like it was in relatively good shape.

You were about to set foot towards your destination, but something stopped you. The faint sound of grunting, as though someone was having difficulty moving something. You cautiously advanced towards the source, which you tracked down to a old, destroyed building, the top half of it had collapsed. You would have pulled out your revolver, but you were afraid that firing it would cause more trouble than it was worth.

As you entered the home, the floor was littered as rubble, glass and wood was strewn amongst the wreckage of wood and hay. The furniture inside had been destroyed by the top half of the home. You traced the grunting to the kitchen.

You peered inside and what you saw broke your heart.

Inside was a pegasus stallion with a dark gray coat and a blue-silver mane. His cutie mark was a storm cloud with a lightning bolt descending from it; half of his body was trapped by a mess of wooden pillars and concrete. The worst part? A small colt, with a gray-ish coat of fur and a dark gray mane, was trying to pull him out. The stallion had his eyes closed. You were unsure if he was unconscious, or dead.

      "C'mon Thunderlane! Wake up!" The colt begged as he continued trying to pull the stallion out.

You slowly approached him.

      "Hey, kid?" You asked.

The colt turned around and looked at you. His eyes widened and  they had a certain twinkle in them.

      "You've gotta help me, please, miss!" He pleaded.

He looked up at you with a desperate look in his eyes. You wanted to help this colt, but you didn't know how. You weren't exactly the strongest mare alive, and you didn't know how you could get Thunderlane out besides cutting him in half. Even if you could bring yourself to do it, you had no knives, no axes - nothing.

      "Kid, I'd love to help, but I'm not sure if he's still al-"

      "Rumble..." Thunderlane groaned.

      "See miss?! He's still alive, he's just trapped!" The colt exclaimed.

You walked over and braced yourself, but as you were about to try and pull him out, he interrupted you.

      "No... don't waste... your time." Thunderlane croaked.

      "Huh?" You questioned.

      "Listen... I'm done for... but Rumble... you gotta bring him to Dodge Junction... Where our parents were headed..."

      "Thunderlane!" Rumble cried out.

      "Listen Rumble... I know you don't want to leave...but you can't stay here... follow the lady... she'll bring you back to mom and dad..."

      "But Thunderlane-" Rumble began.

      "No... just get outta here..."

      "But... okay." Rumble relented.

The colt walked over to you and sat down next to you with his back facing Thunderlane. You turned your attention back to Thunderlane, who was still wheezing. You wanted to say something, but you found nothing suitable to say. Even if you did, it'd come off sounding cheesy.

And then, Thunderlane's wheezing stopped. He fell limp; Rumble choked back a sob, and you sat down and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

      "Everything's gonna be just fine, I'm gonna help you find your parents alright?" You comforted.

      "I-I guess." he sniffled.

      "You ready to go?"

      "Y-yea I guess."

      "RARGH!"

You turned around as Rumble hid behind you. Thunderlane was straining to get to you, his eyes were orbs of complete white; he struggled to gain some grip to pull himself out, but his attempts were futile. He didn't stop growling and snarling at you.

You were unsure as to what to do; you never thought it took them that quick to reanimate. Rumble continued to whimper and cower as he peered from behind your legs. You would put down the zompony if you could put the revolver close enough to his head, as it would probably be enough to silence the shot. But if you left him here, you'd spare yourself a bullet.

a) Put him out of his misery

b) Leave him

c) Kill them both.