Chapters Author's Note
Note: Pony stuff doesn't happen 'till chapter one.
Thank Swift Aegis for editing the prologue.
Prologue
Rakdarian awoke with a gasp, the previous night's terrors quickly sealing themselves within the recesses of his mind. He rubbed his eyes as he looked around his surroundings, still not quite used to the almost militarized fashion in which his new group lived their life. He was in a corner, as he looked across at the room. Bunk-beds lined the wall next to him, by the wall there was an armory of sorts holding sledge hammers, a few lawnmower blades welded to makeshift handles reminiscent of a Shishkebab from the Fallout series, several shotguns, a couple of baseball bats and even an army issue machine-gun.
"Hey, you should get up and get your rations for today before all the good stuff gets taken. I heard they're serving split pea and ham soup," Said Khamisi, the kid who found Rakdarian.
"Yeah thanks," He said while standing up, trying to shake the dark shadows from his mind.
Rakdarian moved to walk out grabbing his shotgun and machete, picking up a small pouch of 12 gauge rounds. He walked out of the makeshift barracks into the main area of the Wal-mart he lived in. As he walked by, the conversations dwindled to silence as everyone warily looked at him. All of this went completely passed Rakdarian as he walked towards the remains of the food court.
"Hey," Said a voice behind him. Rakdarian turned to see Tanaka, the leader, sheriff, and general hold-togetherer of the wary group of survivors. .
"Yeah?" Rakdarian replied turning around to look at Tanaka. He wore a carefree grin that didn't quite reach his eyes, at his waist there was a double barreled shotgun with a really short barrel across from a makeshift sword made from scavenged lawnmower parts. "What do you need from me?"
"I need you to go on a Scav run. I know you did it last time but you're the best at it, and right now we are really low on food." he replied in a tone that brooked no argument.
Rakdarian sighed, exasperated. He looked at the stores of canned goods in front of him, noting that there were several piles that stood almost as tall as he was. Enough to last a few weeks at least. However, Tanaka's word was law here. Finding food wasn't very hard, if you knew where to look. But feeding a group of eleven people for an extended period of time with no reliable way to store food was hard and severely limited what one could take. And heat drying food brought on The Swarm. "Alright, I'll be back by tonight." Rakdarian walked to the fortified entrance. The heavy shelves lining the two entrances together into a kind of hallway that doubles back and forth on it. It had two gates, one leading into the kill zone and the second one headed outside.
He walked out to the parking lot where stripped cars lie rotting in the hot desert sun. Rakdarian put on his black baseball cap and began walking into town, grabbing a cart on the way out,Placing his shotgun in it within easy reach. "This is going to be a long day."
Tanaka and the others watched him leave. He had a guarded look on his face. He turned to the others and said. " Now we need to discuss our little problem."
******
A few hours later Rakdarian came across a part of The Swarm, It Looked like a walking corpse, with its putrefying flesh almost falling off as it shambled forth. An eyeball hanged from one of its sockets, and you could see the corpses broken teeth through the holes in the cheeks. There was a gurgling sound as it turned to face me. When it focused on the teenager It let out a strangled braying call.
"Fuck!' Rakdarian cursed as he pulled his machete from the leather holster on his back, he rushed the braying zombie, brandishing his shining blade, the blade ate through the flesh of the zombie, hitting its ribs with a satisfactory crunch. The denizen of The Swarm tried to scratch him. Rakdarian ripped the blade from the torso of the decaying body and brought it down on the being's arm severing it cleanly, black tar gushed out of the stump and from its chest, Rakdarian spun and hacked at the creatures neck, cutting halfway through before he pulled it out and hit it on the head breaking open the brittle skull, splattering his arms with gore.
Rakdarian wiped down his machete making sure to use the cloth from the now all-the-way-dead creature. And he moved to sheath the blade when he heard a deep guttural roar echoing on the empty streets. "Goddamn it!" He sheathed the blade and pulled the police issue shotgun from the basket, he pumped the shotgun and prepared to meet a brute.
It came around the corner from an alleyway. A ridiculous amount of putrefied muscle covered it, blood stained the area around it's mouth where it's teeth were as sharp as steak knives. It bellowed an angry roar as it rushed toward Rakdarian with a near orgasmic glee, running on all fours. Rakdarian raised the shotgun and fired. The shot rang out clear and a dozen lead balls flew from the barrel at near the speed of sound. They ripped through the face of the brute knocking him back, and spraying viscera everywhere.. Rakdarian Pumped the shotgun again when the brute leaned forward. The pellets missed his head and tore into his right shoulder tearing free several pounds of putrescent flesh . pushing him back further. Rakdarian pumped the shotgun a third time as the creature roared in rage and sprinted towards him. Rakdarian aimed the hand-cannon at the beasts head as it closed in and at the last possible moment pulled the trigger. The Lead pellets tore through the head at near point blank range, exploding the skull and flinging desiccated brain matter and skull fragments in all directions.
"And stay fucking dead." Rakdarian panted, trying to shake off the jitters of the adrenaline rush.
He turned around to grab his cart which was half full and looked at the scavenged supplies. A few cans of fruit, some dried meat and a large bag of raisins. A very lucky catch. He opened the bag of dried grapes and grabbed a handful and stuffed them into his mouth, relishing the semi-sour flavor. Noticing that it was getting dark he started walking back.
When Rakdarian returned Mike, one of the guards was there to meet him. When he noticed the dried fruit he said "Are those raisins?"
"Not now Mikey, I am so not in the mood."
Rakdarian pointedly ignored Mike as he put the new additions to the food stores. Which he noticed were almost full. "That's odd..." He muttered, remembering what Omisha had said. " He shrugged it off, you can never have too much food.
Omisha came upon behind Rakdarian "Hey, you're back" There was almost a sneer in his voice. Rakdarian jumped.
"Sheesh, are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Sorry about that, So me and the rest of the others had a meeting while you were gone"
Rakdarian wasn't liking where this was going, "and what, pray tell, was this 'meeting' about?"
"Well, we deci-" His decision was put on hold for the moment by the alarm going off.
"MASSIVE SWARM ATTACK EVERYONE PREPARE FOR BATTLE!" is what was shouted by the sentry.
"Guess you'll have to tell me later," Rakdarian scowled and ran to the gates. There were several thousand zombies. All in the parking lot advancing to the gates. Rakdarian pumped his shotgun, and grinned. He fired upon the advancing horde killing a couple front-liners. He continued firing, tearing into the faces and torsos of each advancing zombie. When he ran out of shells he turned to retreat. Only to discover, to his horror, that the shelves were moved to prevent access. Meaning he couldn't retreat.
"Fuck you guys!' Rakdarian screamed as he was brought to tears at the prospect of dying. He was on the edge of panic. "I will let the fear take me for five seconds, then it will be gone. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." the zombies were almost upon the outer gate. " I'm not going to die without a fight." He reloaded his shotgun. The zombies were advancing in a ring. He fired again. And again. Eleven more times. He put the strap across his body, letting the gun drop. He drew his sword, and then leaped over the barricade. Letting out a battle cry he went into a frenzy.
Cutting, slashing, stabbing, he was a machine. Eventually he was surrounded. Beheadeding and dismembering anything that got close. Cut, Stab, behead, Dismember, repeat. Soon after he began to tire. He was grabbed and there was a flash of light. Everything went dark. 'So this is death' Rakdarian thought, as he drifted off.
A pinnacle of light shot from the sky, bringing the gory scene to a stark brilliance, blinding those who were cowering behind the walls. Heat fell from it in waves, as if from a furnace bellows. Then the lights were gone. And with it Rakdarian. In its place was a dark ashy spot where he fell.
Chapter one: Strained introductions
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter Two: Where, for fuck's sake, am I?
Chapter Two: Where, for fuck's sake, am I?
"So, now that we're here, and not suspecting each other to attack... I hope. Can you kindly explain what I'm on that's making me take this so mellow?" Rakdarian said as he sat down
Twilight sat down a few feet away and explained "I had you sedated, so there wouldn't be violence"
"Okay then, I was drugged. Great. So where am I?" Rakdarian asked while he pulled the tube out of his arm. "More importantly, How? And can I get back?"
"Heh... Heh... About that..." Twilight replied sheepishly.
"No, Don't tell me. I'm stuck here, aren't I?" Rakdarian replied in a frustrated tone
"Er... Yes-"
"Great, now I'm stuck here In what appears to be a magical land where horse's with wings and death spikes on their heads are doctors."
" Well, that's hardly friendly."
"Well I still don't know where I am, or why, hell, I don't even know where the rest of my stuff is. Where am I"
"You are in Ponyville castle."
Rakdarian gave Twilight a look. "..." You could hear the ellipsis
"What?"
"Really?"
"What's the issue?"
"Are you bullshitting me or is it actually called Ponyville?"
"Umm... It is called Ponyville. Why?"
"Well because I don't believe you. No one in their right mind would name their town after a dumb farm animal unless they they're Alaskan."
Twilight scowled," I'm pretty sure we're not dumb farm animals, and not only that this town was named after the group of ponies who founded this place."
"My bad, What I meant to say was-" Rakdarian paused for a second when he realized something, "Wait there's more of you?"
"Yeah, do you have something agaisnt ponies?" Twilight said petulantly
"No, I mean I thought they we're all dumb animals, but- No. Where am I, seriously where on Earth am I?"
" You have a city named after dirt?"
" No, it's a planet. Wait you mean you don't know what Earth is?" Rakdairain voice began to crack.
" Oh so you're an alien? I guess that explains the burns then?"
"WHERE THE FUCK AM I?" Rakdarian shouted
" Obviously Ponyville didn't help and there's no reason to shout. You are on Equis, In the country of Equestria."
"Okay calm down... Calm down..." Rakdarian muttered to himself, " It's okay, You're going to be fine."
Twilight's voice offered a softer tone. " Are you okay? What's wrong?"
Rakdarian seized his emotions dug a hole put those emotions in a box at the bottom of that hole. Then filled it up and built a house on that hole.
"No-nothing, I'll be fine. Thank you for your hospitality. But I think I need to leave now. Do you still have my things?"
"What's wrong?"
"I just need to go. Do you have my things?"
"Yeah they're in a drawer. Can you tell me how you got here?"
It was then that Rakdarian remembered what had happened before he woke up here. The betrayal, The fight, the searing pain as he fell to the hordes, and the bright light with the burning.
"No idea," Rakdarian said distantly only halfway telling the truth. " Where is this drawer?"
"It's just outside of the door in a dresser. Why are you leaving? What are you?"
"Leave me alone" Rakdarian said coldly as he walked out of the room that had been his resting place. He turned to the dresser and noticed his clothes were in fact there. Along with his shotgun. The machete was noticeably absent. Not wanting to talk to Twilight he just let it go. He put his stuff into a bag and set off through the corridors. Checking through his belongings he noticed that he still had a few shells for the gun. "Sweet," Rakdarian said as he quickly loaded the shotgun.
A few minutes later Twilight caught up with him just as he found the stairwell. "Wait! You cant just leave."
"Watch me."
"No, you need to stay here I want to be sure there's no other conditions and i want to know more about you."
"What has two thumbs, a loaded shotgun, and will shoot you if you don't leave me alone?"
"What's a shotgun?" Twilight asked as she spun Rakdarian around.
" If you don't cut the magic and let me leave I'll demonstrate by painting the wall behind you with your brains." Rakdarian said as he pumped his hand cannon, pointing it at Twilight's head.
Twilight looked fearfully at the gun, "That's a shotgun isn't it?"
"Yes, yes it is. Now, I don't want to have to become a fugitive on my first day in this country by committing regicide, but I will if you don't leave me alone. All i want to do is leave. That's it."'
"O-Okay." Twilight stammered as she released her hold on Rakdarian. And then she flew away.
Rakdarian turned around, slinging his gun onto his back. And he descended down the stairs. After taking some apples and a loaf of bread out of the kitchen he ran into Spike.
"Well aren't you one of the ugliest things I've ever seen." Rakdarain said as he saw him
Spike turned to look at his insulter, "Well you're not going to be winning any handsome contests either." He said sarcastically. "Name's Spike, I see you've woken up."
"That I did, Well this has been a nice repartee, but I must be going, Do you by chance know the way out?"
"Yeah, down the hall and to the left."
"Thanks, bye." Rakdarian jogged out of the room and followed his instructions.
As he finally made it out the door he was met with a very pink pony staring at him, with less then an inch between their faces.
"Why hello there." Pinkie Pie said.
Author's Note
Well It's still Saturday so I'm still on time
Chapter 3: Everfree Forest
"HI there," Pinkie said nonchalantly.
Rakdarian, on the other hand screamed, and jumped about six feet into the air. After which he broght his gun up to bear at The Pink Menace's head. "Holy fuck! Where, on earth did you come from!?" He shouted.
"You see when two ponies love each other VERY much, they do a sort of wrestleing and if the seed and soil is fertile out comes a baby pinkie 11 months later." She replied, speaking almost too mast to understand. She was also looking up through the barrel "More importantly, What is that? Some kind of feeding tube? Or maybe it's a water sprayer, is it a mini party cannon?"
Rakdarian looked at The Pink Menace confused, unsure of what to do next. "Uh, okay... well umm." Deciding this pony wasn't a threat he lowered his scattergun.
"Or maybe its a doomstick from aliens sent with you to destroy all of Equestria," She continued.
'She doesn't seem very bright, maybe I can get away with a distraction' Rakdarian thought. "Hey look over there a distraction!" He said. 'This is so not going to work.' Pinkie looked.
"I don't see anything, are you sure there's a distraction over there?" She asked.
'No fucking way. She actually fell for it' " Keep looking, I'm sure you'll see it." Rakdarian warily walked away from The Pink Menace.
He walked towards the edge of town, noticing that a lot of ponies of all different colors were looking at him. It looked like a damn cartoon. the building were thatch roofed, and it all came out to appear like a small english village. So he continued walking, trying to ignore the stares. They unnerved him in a way he couldn't understand. Rakdarian was in no way small. He towered over the ponies by several heads. He was a little broad shouldered, and had he walked confidently as if he owned the place. The ponies sensed an aura around him as something to be feared. Eventually he reached the edge of town, off to the right there was what appeared to be a farm. And behind it, a forest. The forest stretched across the horizon.
Rakdarian didn't want to be near the strangeness that was ponyville and thought that the forest was his best chance to find solitude and number his thoughts, come to grips with what had happened and plan out his next move. So to the forest he went.
Hiking on the trail and not wanting to be followed generally don't mix, so it wasn't long before he strayed. The forest smelled like peat, rot, and something that smelled faintly of iron. The air was humid, but cool, and insects buzzed around him biting and stinging. As he hiked though the veritable jungle he began to feel hungry. Realizing that he didn't have any supplies he began to doubt in the wisdom of hiking into a forest, and not finding out about it first. His survival skills were limited to movies he barely remembered and his time as a boy scout. With all of this in mind he began to berate himself quietly.
Another few hours passed, and the slight twinge of hunger started to gnaw at him and he was very thirsty. As luck would have he had found a long moderately fast-moving stream. He drank from the stream and the water tasted clean and fresh. He sat down and examined himself. There were burrs and thorns covering his pants, and he was still wearing his shoes. Brushing them off he then examined the skin on his arms and face to the best of his abilities, there were a few mosquito bites embedded in his arms and a nasty welt by his wrist but other then that he seemed to be fine.
Rakdarian unslung his shotgun and checked it for damage, pulling out the shells one by one. There were still seven, and the gun looked weathered, covered in scratches, the wooden stock nicked here and there, but otherwise appeared to be clean. He loaded all but one back into his gun, slipping the seventh into his pocket. He then looked at his surroundings, It appeared to be early afternoon, with the sun high in the sky. He leaned back agaisnt a rock and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the forest. It was then that Rakdarian realized that it was quiet. Birds weren't tweeting, crickets weren't chirping, and the insects around him had disappeared. It was if the forest was holding its breath. Rakdarian opened his eyes and looked around. There wasn't anything in the clearing, but the edges were dark. He stood up and quietly chambered a round.
There was a slight pressure change as something behind him suddenly lunged forwards. Sensing the changes and reacting accordingly, something he thanked the post-apocalyptic world for giving him, he leaped to the left and landed in a tight roll. Then he turned around to see the hulking form of a manticore. The coat was a rich black, which shined in the sunlight. The tail which ended in a vicious point, was swelling with liquid. On its back were two massive wings, which were a dark green and covered in fur. The predator turned and roared at Rakdarain, its mouth filled with pointed teeth with fangs on the sides..
"Fuck you," Rakdarain said simply as he lifted the shotgun to his shoulder and aimed at the manticore. The manticore charged at Rakdarian, leaping into the air and diving down at the young man. The shotgun roared, and a slug buried itself into the head of the monstrosity, The beast landed next to Rakdarain with a meaty thud. It's head in multiple fragments as brains dripped down the trees. As the blast echoed through the forest Rakdarian realized that he needed to use as much of this as he could.
Rakdarian peeled the shirt off his body switching to the one in his pack. He walked over to the still warm corpse of the manticore and kneeled down to its mouth. It's fangs were very sharp and rakdarian had to wrap The cloth of the purple shirt around his hand to safely grab onto it. He messily ripped the fang out of the corpse's maw with the sickening sound of ripping flesh. He cut a strip of fabric off the purple shirt and tied a small piece of wood to the tooth, making a crude hit. He now had a makeshift knife. He slipped that into his pocket and began to clear the area of debris, stacking the wood into a pile. After a few minutes of this he picked up a flint rock and set it next to his fire pit. A series of stones made to be a circle. Rakdarian then tore up some more of the fabric and placed it into the pit. after which he gathered some dry leaves and piled it onto the pile of fabric.
Rakdarain grabbed his shotgun and the piese of flint and quickly dragged the black stone across the barrel unleashing a small shower of sparks, he did this a few times until a flame took. With a fire now built he piled wome of the loose wood unto the meager blaze.
Rakdarian sat back and watched the flames take for a moment.
Author's Note
Sorry about my tardiness, Hopefully it won't happen again. And Yay more editors.
Chapter 4:TBA
Rakdarian looked into the flames. He pondered on what happened in the last day. First there was the betrayal. His own group cast him out and left him to die, it appeared through chance, at least in his eyes, that he surived the encounter. That was something at least. Then he wakes up in a place where fantasy appeared to be reality. He shuddered at the thought.he stared at the manticore corpse, I wonder if there's more creatures like that? he thought. Another thing struck him as odd, his behavior. Looking back on it he felt that he wasn't in control of his actions. Twilight must have been telling the truth when she said she had me on sedatives, on the other hand why diod i react so violently if I wasn't in my right mind, and supposedly calmed. There has to be more to this, i have to find out. He thought back to his flight from the pony town. They must not have needed me for something important, since if that were the case then with their magic and the fact that they can fly, or at least some of them can, they should have been easy to catch since I was really just calmly walking out of town. Or maybe it was becasue i didn't start running 'till i could easily see the forest that they hadn't stopped me. Anothwer question is why they treated me with a mixture of suprise and a little bit of fear. I mean I'm not that scary am I? I'm just a gaunt bean pole-" Rakdarian stopped as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. I'm a predator... They can feel it. Interesting.
With these thoughts now thorughly put to rest, he got up and started working on the manticore. Using the knife to carefully peel away the hide, which he wanted to use later, he started flaying the flesh from the bone, it was bloody work, and he was in no way an expert but he eventually made enought progress to start cooking the steaks. There wasnt Much brains left, from the slug but the rest of the teeth were still sharp. With them he made three more knives and the beginning of what would be arrowheads. He had no skill with a bow, but since there probably wasn't a gun store anywhere nearby he would just have to make do. Thirty-three heads was what he got when he had finished. He laid the ends in the fire to sterilize them. The meat, was aa rich dark, and while he wasn't sure if the meat was toxic, but he was starving and it was becoming dark so he didn't have time to find possibly safer meals. If i go out to find possibly safer food i'll get lost, and like starve to death or more likely i'll be eatn by something else. And if it turns out to be poisonous then I die anyways. Might as well stay here then. He rationalized.
So after he felt it was thoroughly cooked, he began to eat it. It tasted foul, was vvery stringy, and had the texture of shoe leather. But like shoe leather he choked it down. It was filling at least, and wasn't immediately lethal. So at least he would sleep content tonight. He put more wood on the fire and, using the rcently flayed hide as a blanket and his pack as a pillow he fell asleep.
Twilight was frantic, she couldn't belive herself. How could she have let an obviously dangerous creature to roam about Ponyville. There's no telling what that creature, whatever it was, would do. She thought back to when the smoking near dead body was found, on the edge of town. bitemarks covered his body and he held a short sword made of a metal she had never seen before. Her friends had come across the unconcious individual and brought him to the vet. Which no one there had seen anything like him but gave her something for its pain if it would wake up. The hospital wasn't much help either. But lent some garmets and a heart monitor. At the very least the creature was intelligent. It carried itself in a way that was off, like something was dangerous about him. She felt the same way about the griffon that had come by a while back.
She really wnated to know more about the creature. It was strange, The thing didn't have any defenses as far as she could see. No claws, his teeth were small, and he didn't look very strong. Hair only covered the pelvic area and most of his face, but was really thin everywhere else. It simply befuddled her. Granted this was all done while she did some dangerous healing magic to git rid of the burns and bitemarks. Another thing wass that she wanted to know how it got those wounds. The area around whre he was found didn't have any charred grass. So naturally when she saw that it had woken up she felt that it would have been a great idea to view how it reacted. Sh was shocked when he discovred that it poke equstrian, and appeard to understand her.
With all of these thoughts in her head she called upon her friends to help her find it
"Alright girls, Remember a few weeks ago when that strange creature appeared close to the edge of town by white tail woods?"
There was a chorus of nods, and Pinkie pie shouted "Oh Oh! I know what it is, Please pick me! Pick me! Pick me!" She shouted raising her hoof impossibly high.
"Yes Pinkie," Twilight sighed in exasperation. After the encounter where discord betrayed them, Pinkie's apparent lack to take anything seriously had began to wear at her patience.
"Was it that nice young guy that walked out of your castle to show my his neat little tube of ultimate annihilation?" She said in an orgasmic glee.
\
Twilight sighed again. "Yes Pinkie, That was probably him, Do you know hwere he went." Twilight ignored the last part.
"Oh yeah, the guy went towards the forest, on the east side of town, you know by the Apple farm?" She said offhandedly.
"Well thank you Pinkie, though why you didn't just say 'The Ever-"
"WAIT!" Pinkie shouted as something fcame through her head.
"What?" Everyone replied in unison. Including Pinkie.
"Twilight, how do you know it's a guy?" Pinkie waggled her eyebrows.
"Alright Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, can you go into the forest and see if you can find him, I'll be here with Pinkie and Rarity, looking for any clues on what this creature is." Twilight ignored the question.
Rainbow Dash gave a quick salute and the group split up to find more clues about the strange creature.
"Oh one more thing, The creature might be dangerous. So be careful." Twilight called over her shoulder. With that final word they all took off.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. 