Dashie and Flutters get Left 4 Dead

Chapters

The arrival
You must be this tall... To die!
Well that got real bad real fast
Bit of a cliff here before the meat of things
Well ain't that a Witch?

The arrival

“Umm, Twilight? Are you sure this is safe to be in here?” Fluttershy asked nervously as her unicorn friend led the way through a crumbling corridor.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy,” Twilight assured her “I came down here a few days ago to research these ruins; they’re perfectly safe.”

“So why are we here?” Rainbow dash asked as she hovered overhead “Last time I checked, you were the expert on all this old stuff, not us.”

“Because of this.” Twilight announced as they entered a huge open chamber.

The ceiling must have been a hundred feet high, the ancient pillars supporting it were carved into the shapes of giant pegasi holding it up with their wings. Most of the floor had collapsed into a cavern deeper underground. Along the paths converging in the center, water trickled down from chutes in the ceiling and into pools along the edges that drained into the chasm below once they overflowed. At the far end of the massive chamber was a gigantic stone monolith with inscriptions on the sides, written in some forgotten language.

“Woah.” Rainbow mouthed as they made their way to the monolith. But then a thought caught her mind and she tapped her chin trying to figure it out. Coming up with nothing, she decided to ask “Hey Twi, this is cool and all, but I still don’t see why you brought us out here.”

Twilight giggled a bit. “Don’t you see the statues, or maybe the carvings on the walls? They’re all depictions of pegasi. This door over here is the same.” she pointed out a pair of giant stone double doors with a carving of a pegasus, wings outstretched to cover both sides “The inscription, which I translated myself, reads that the door is protected by a magic barrier that only a pair of pegasi can open. So what do you say?” she turned to them hopefully “Think you can help me open a door?”

“Pssh, no sweat Twilight. Come on Fluttershy, you get the left side, I’ll get the right.” Rainbow flew over to the right door as Fluttershy cautiously took her place on the left.

“Okay,” Twilight pulled out a book of her notes “now just turn those dials all the way to the left… and then move those sliding blocks to the top… now put your left hoof in… and take your left hoof out… and put your left hoof in and shake it all about…”

Rainbow dash and Fluttershy couldn’t tell if their friend was joking or not, but followed her instructions anyway, and soon the magic field around the door dissipated, the mechanism clicked, and the doors slowly swung open. Twilight was absolutely giddy as she watched. Who knew what ancient secrets had been buried away here. She could have just unearthed some long forgotten piece of Equestria’s past. She anxiously danced in place as the doors finally opened all the way.

On the other side was a tiny lone chamber with… a severed human hand?

“Eew, what is this thing?” Rainbow said as she ironically picked it up.

“I wouldn’t touch that Rainbow,” Twilight cautioned “it might be a valuable part of history, or have some ancient curse, or-

Suddenly the hand sprang to life and latched itself to Rainbow’s face.

“GAH! Get it off. Get it off!” she yelled in panic as she tried to pry it off her face, flying backwards through the chamber as she did so.

“Hold still Rainbow!” Twilight shouted back as she tried to remove the hand with her magic.

Unfortunately, Rainbow didn’t stay still, and ended up flying into Twilight as she tried to help. The hand was dislodged by the impact and sent flying onto Fluttershy’s back, where it held onto her with all its disembodied strength. Fluttershy shrieked as the decaying hand gripped onto her fur.

Rainbow was up in a flash “Get off her you!” she yelled as she tugged on the stump of the hand.

“Ow, my head.” Twilight moaned as she got up.

She was about to help her friends again, but slowed her advance when she noticed a bright light emanating from the hand. Fluttershy didn’t’ notice as her tearstained eyes were squeezed shut. Rainbow’s were also closed as she strained to remove the offending appendage.

Twilight gasped “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, get down!”

But it was too late. A flash of white light enveloped them both, and in a second they were gone, the severed hand left behind where they once stood. Twilight was silent as she picked up the hand with her magic. Coming out of shock, she stared at it intensely. “No no no no no no no no NO!” she repeated over and over as she ran out of the chamber in search for answers.

Fluttershy awoke to the sound of crickets chirping in the distance. Surrounded by the tall dark figures of trees, the moonlight shining down through the canopy of leaves overhead told her that it was definitely night time. Looking around in the dark, she found Rainbow laying unconscious in a bush a few feet away. Immediately, she rushed over, and checked to make sure she was alright.

“Rainbow, Rainbow please be okay.” she gently shook the blue pegasus and breathed a sigh of relief as Rainbow stirred.

“Ugh, five more minutes.” Rainbow groaned before her surroundings hit her “Fluttershy? Where are we?”

“I don’t know, but I really don’t like it here.” she replied, her voice quivering slightly and she listened to a shuffling in the distance.

On that queue, a monstrous howl came from deeper in to woods. Hundreds of screeches and yells sounded at once to form a noise like all the wicked souls had escaped from Tartarus.

“Yipe!” Rainbow shouted as her mane stood on end. She scooped up Fluttershy and flew as fast as she could in the opposite direction. With Rainbow’s speed, they made it a good distance from the source of the noise.

Rainbow didn’t slow down for a second, continuing to make a beeline for whichever way was out of there. But as she flew, another howl sounded off; this one was singular, but no less terrifying.

Like a bat uses echolocation to find its prey, a snarling creature in a blue hoodie pounced on them from the trees as they passed by, clawing at Rainbow’s face as she desperately tried to stay airborne with the added weight. Thinking quickly, Rainbow held Fluttershy closer to her and pressed Z or R twice to do an aileron roll as she weaved through a dense cluster of trees, sending her aggressive hitchhiker into one of them.

Although they had quite literally made it out of the woods, they weren’t out of danger yet. And this became blatantly obvious when they were lassoed mid-air by a slimy vine-like appendage.

Looking below, they saw a tall, spindly creature with a deformed face trying to pull them from the sky with…

“This is its tongue? Gross!” Rainbow shivered as she and Fluttershy tried to free themselves to no avail as the creature kept reeling them in. “Alright, if that’s how you want it, then I’m coming at you bro!”

The Smoker’s remaining eye widened as the two pegasi dived straight towards it, one screaming in anger, the other in terror. The collision sent Rainbow and Fluttershy sprawling across the ground as the Smoker was sent over the edge of a nearby cliff. It wasn’t about to give up though, as it dangled there with Rainbow Dash still ensnared in its tongue, it tried to either pull itself back up, or her down with it.

“Oh no, no no no!” Rainbow panicked as she dug her hooves into the ground to gain some traction.

“Dashie!” Fluttershy grabbed hold of her.

“Fluttershy hold on, don’t let go!”

“I’m trying.” she said as she strained against the Smoker’s pull to keep her friend from plummeting off the cliff.

But luck was on their side at last. The Smoker’s tongue broke, sending it falling to the bottom of the chasm, a cloud of spores erupting upon its death.

…

Fluttershy and Rainbow breathed heavily as they sat on the edge of the cliff.

“What were those things?” Rainbow said in both confusion and fear as she pulled the remains of the Smoker’s tongue off.

“I just want to go home.” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Hey,” Rainbow said as a thought occurred “do you think Twilight knew this would happen?”

Fluttershy gasped “Rainbow, that’s a terrible thing to say,” she scolded “Twilight would never do something like that.”

Rainbow had to admit it sounded pretty bad when she said it out loud, and pretty stupid. “Yeah, you’re right. If anything she’s running around trying to find a way to get us back right now.”

“I hope she isn’t blaming herself too much. She never takes these things well.”

“I just hope she gets us out of here soon.” Rainbow said as she touched the cuts across her forehead. Her ears perked up at a plethora of muffled howls and screams sounded far in the distance.

“We really shouldn’t stay here.” Fluttershy said as she heard it too.

With that they picked the first direction that seemed like it would lead to safety, and that kind of feeling didn’t come quickly as they marched off in the direction the of searchlights in the distance, not knowing the challenges they were about to face.

You must be this tall... To die!

[Difficulty - Advanced]
[Realism - Enabled]
[More realism - Enabled]

[Extra settings]
- Gun shortage (Weapons are not duplicated when picked up)
- Slow healing (Medkits heal damage slowly over time instead of all at once)
- Relentless dead (Common and uncommon Infected can only be killed with headshots, and will pursue survivors so long as they have at least one remaining limb)
- Like a fish (Survivors can crawl and use primary weapons, but not melee weapons, when in final stand mode)
- You kids turn that music down (Hordes will be drawn by gunfire, explosions, and other loud noises)
- This is NOT a 90’s railshooter (Infinite ammo on pistols is disabled)
- Won’t take that lying down (Survivors can fight back against infected incapacitation holds to take reduced damage, but still require help to get free)
- Stop, drop, and what now? (Fire doesn’t cause infected to panic)
- When push comes to shove (Shove attacks affect allies)
- Well isn’t that convenient? Stop it. (Picked up ammunition must be loaded into clips before it can be used)
- A little variety (More kinds of Weapons, Armor, Ammo, and Healing items to be found)
- Pick up, ALL the items! (Survivors can carry twice as many Healing and Grenade items)
- Jolly cooperation/ Stand and deliver (Lone survivors can be encountered and will either help you or attack you)

After what must have been a solid two hours of wandering near aimlessly through the woods and ducking behind trees and bushes whenever a loud noise cut through the inky blackness around them, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were positive they weren’t getting anywhere. It was so dark out that trying to get any sense of direction from the air was impossible, and had thus rendered their flight as nothing more than a way to get off the ground; something they had done several times just to feel a bit safer. But now both of them were getting worn out and had stayed on the ground to conserve their strength. Rainbow may have been known for her legendary speed in Equestria, but her endurance… not so much.

“Uhh, this is getting us nowhere.” Rainbow sighed in annoyance as she looked around for something, anything that would tell her where she was going.

She wiped the sweat off her face, along with a smear of blood. Her wounds from earlier still hadn’t stopped bleeding, light though they were. If only it were daytime out she could fly up and know exactly where she’d ended up, the moon and stars seemed so far away here, their light was almost muted compared to what she was used to.

At least Fluttershy was with her, that was a comfort. Rainbow would have preferred having Applejack in this situation, but Fluttershy had her perks too, no mistake. She was great with animals, if there was an animal alive, Fluttershy knew how to care for it. And though she was overly timid most of the time, she also had a good number of wilderness skills under her belt, including first aid. And then there was that stare. By Celestia, the stare; Rainbow had seen her talk down a giant dragon with it. She wasn’t sure if she could fight these monsters with her, but Rainbow was glad to have her by her side.

“Hey Fluttershy, how far do you think we’ve walked?” Rainbow asked the yellow pegasus, but received no response. “Flutteshy?” Rainbow looked behind her to find that her friend had gone missing. “Fluttershy, where are you?!” she called out in panic as she leapt into the air, her eyes scanning her surroundings.

“Over here.” Fluttershy called softly as she poked her head out from behind a tree.

Rainbow swooped down and hugged her. “Don’t do that to me!”

“Oh, sorry Dashie.” she apologized “But I found something, come look.”

The thing that Fluttershy had found was a large opening in the middle of the woods with a giant, black stone path that stretched out seemingly forever in both directions. Along the sides ran a metal fence, which they propped themselves up on as they looked around.

“What is this thing, it’s so flat and smooth.” Rainbow touched down on the surface of the road, remembering the dirt and cobblestone streets back home.

Her pondering was interrupted by a set of voices in the distance. Looking over, they saw a bunch of weird-looking creatures standing around a beat-up metal box. Rainbow spied from behind a tree as she tried to figure out what they even were; the only things she’d seen that walk on two legs before were diamond dogs and spike. And these things didn’t look anything like a dog or a dragon.
While the two of them watched, she caught a bit of their conversation.

…

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news guys, but unless Ellis knows how to build a monster truck; we ain’t drivin’ through this.” Nick said in his usual sarcastic, condescending tone.

“Sorry guys, guess it wasn’t such a hot idea after all.” Ellis replied as he looked at the wrecks blocking the highway.

“Hell, it got us this far. We’ll find another way to New Orleans.” Coach assured him as sorted out their remaining supplies; a couple of melee weapons, an MP5, two magnum pistols, an SAS auto shotgun, and a bolt-action rifle along with three first-aid kits and a shot of morphine.

“So, any of you boys know where we are?” Rochelle asked as she checked her map.

This unlikely quartet of survivors had met up at an evacuation area in the city just as it had left them behind. Since then, they had teamed up to get to New Orleans; the closest military outpost not overrun by the hordes of infected. They had their differences, and argued amongst themselves most of the time (especially with Nick), but all of them knew that the only way to survive was to stick together. And when things got tough, each would do everything in their power to pull through for the rest; that’s how they’ve survived this long.

But for all they’d overcome together. None of them had any clue of what was to come.

“Hey there!” a high-pitched voice called over to them.

Each of them whipped their heads around to see… a rainbow colored, cartoon horse with wings?

“Ow hey, enough with the lights!” Rainbow shielded her eyes from the flashlights shining in her face. “Okay, that’s better. Now I- Hey, are you guys okay?” Rainbow flew over to them as their mouths hung open. “Hey. Heeeelloooww, anybody home?” she waved her hoof in front of their faces, trying to get some kind of response.

Nick was the first to say something. “Uhh guys, are you all seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Well… I’m seeing a little horse like the one I wanted back when I was five.” Rochelle said, just as confused as the rest “What are you guys seeing?”

“Holy shit guys!” Ellis ran over the out-of-place pony and looked her over before pulling her into a headlock and turning back to his friends “Did ah ever tell you ‘bout the time mah buddy Keith pissed off the brony fandom? Those’r the worst burns he ever got, and he’s gotten some bad ones I tell you what. Man I’ve never known anyone's been in the hospital that long.”

“Hey, take it easy!” Rainbow backed away from the strange bipedal in a tee-shirt and coveralls “I just need to ask for directions. Any of you know how to get back to Equestria?”

“Well… see gettin' to Equestria might be a bit tricky seein' as how it's in a different world an' all. But y’all can come with us to New Orleans if ya want; ‘bout the only safe place left.” Ellis offered “What d’ ya say guys?”

The rest of the survivors looked at each other unsurely.

“Aww c’mon. She’s gonna get eaten by the zombies if we leave her here.”

“I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Rochelle shrugged, still weirded out by this new turn of events.

“We best get movin’ either way; don’t want to get caught out in the open.” Coach told them.

Ellis gave a quick fist-pump of victory and rejoined them, beckoning their newest team member to follow. They were slightly surprised when the Rainbow pony turned and beckoned to someone behind her as well. After a few seconds she seemed to get irritated and flew off into the forest again.

…

“Come on Fluttershy! These guys say we can come with them.”

“I don’t know Rainbow. Are you sure they’re not monsters like those ones in the woods.”

“Well they didn’t try to eat me, or drag me off a cliff. And they weren’t screaming and growling like the others. I think they’re the good guys or something.”

“Well, okay… if you say so.” She flew out from the cover of the bushes and hid behind Rainbow as they made their way over.

“Good God, they’re multiplying!” Nick face-palmed “Ellis, what have you gotten us into?”

“Oh man, these abandoned cars go on for miles.” Rochelle commented as they walked in between the clogged streets of the highway.

“Maybe people left them when they got rescued.” Coach said optimistically, though it was mostly to keep everyone else’s spirits up.

“That’s… one theory.” Nick said slowly as he inspected a broken, blood-smeared window on one of the cars.

“So who are you guys anyway?” Rainbow asked “And what are these things?” she tapped the barrel of the pistol in Nick’s hand, causing it to fire a round into the air. “GAH!”

“Whoa!” Nick staggered back before glaring at the nosy pegasus “Okay first off… this is a gun and no you can’t have one. And two… My name’s Nick, and If you ever do that again I’ll be shoving this gun up your-

A familiar wail echoed across the highway, signaling the approach of a horde.

“Aww dang-it.” Coach readied his shotgun “Everyone, get in formation.”

With that, the survivors formed a semicircle with a bus guarding their backs. They were in a defensive stance not a moment too soon, as nearly three dozen infected charged out from the treeline, scrambling over and around the abandoned cars like a river around rocks.

Flutteshy and Rainbow took to the air as the survivors opened fire below. The noise was nearly deafening as shotgun blasts and bursts of machine gun fire filled the air, the metal pellets felling several infected while grazing a few others. The group held their ground as the thirty remaining infected descended upon them, using their guns as shields between themselves and the mob of post-human cannibals they shoved back the infected in front causing them to fall over into the rest of the horde.

Using this time, Nick and Rochelle lined up headshots with their pistols and SMGs while Coach and Ellis switched to melee weapons; a machete and tire iron. They had taken out another row of the infected and were holding them off adequately until…

*”KTH-SPITHC!”*

That was the sound a zombie with a stretched neck and a melted jaw made as it spat a florescent green gob of acid at the survivors.

“Burning shit coming!” Coach called out as he and the others scrambled away from the impact zone.
Small splashes of the acid still landed on them, burning into their clothes and skin where it touched, but this was nothing compared to the waves of zombies that were bearing down on them with their formation broken.

…

Rainbow and Fluttershy had watched as their new allies fended off the waves off the same ravenous monsters that attacked them in the woods. Seeing them getting wailed on and knocked to the ground, Rainbow Dash decided to get in on the action and help them out. Diving to the ground she bodyslammed the first zombie she found, sending it flying several feet. She flew back up and repeated the process with one of the five infected Rochelle was fending off as she tried to reload.

With a fresh clip in her gun, Rochelle was able to make quick work of the other four and help the others. Speaking of which, Nick was standing atop an SUV like the captain of a sinking ship, headshoting any zombie that tried to climb up the sides. With most of the remaining horde focused on him, Coach and Rochelle managed to pick off the infected with relative ease.

…

Fluttershy hovered above the battle, watching and wondering what she could do she could do to help. She wasn’t that great in a fight, and being the pacifist that she normally is, had stayed well away from the action below. That is, until she heard a sound like an enraged bull, a crash and the sound of shattering glass, and Ellis call out for help.

Ellis had gotten separated from the others when he went after the Spitter. Until now he’d held off the two common infected that had pursued him, but now found himself pinned by a freaking Charger; those things are a lot faster than you’d think was possible. Now one of the massive one-armed infected had slammed into him from out of nowhere and was repeatedly hitting him against the side of a tour bus.

“Help, Charger’s got me!” he yelled out as the Charger smashed him against the bus and he felt a few of his ribs crack.

“Let him go you big bully!” Fluttershy yelled as she came to his rescue, but it wasn’t much of a rescue as the tiny pony’s attempted to pull the Charger off, which it pretty much just ignored and kept hitting Ellis against the bus.

“Get my gun! On the- OW! -ground over there!” Ellis pointed to his desert eagle.

Fluttershy quickly did as she was told and picked up the shiny piece of metal.

“Now shoot it! OW! Pull the trigger and shoot the Charger man! OW! It’s poundin’ me to death!”

The pistol shook in Fluttershy’s hooves as she held it upside-down, trying to figure out how to work the thing. A couple seconds seemed like painful frustrating hours as she fumbled with it.

“I’m sorry,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks “I don’t know how!”

A shot rang out and the charger toppled to the ground with a gaping hole in its head.

“Jesus Christ, Ellis, how many time have we told you not to get separated when we’re fighting a horde?” Nick said as he reloaded a pistol and Coach helped Ellis to his feet. “And you…" he turned to Fluttershy "What the hell was that!? Ellis almost died ‘cause of you!”

“I’m sorry, couldn’t do it. I just didn’t know how. I’m sorry.” Fluttershy blubbered as she dropped the gun on the ground.

“HEY!” Rainbow Dash swooped down to get right in Nick’s face “Leave her ALONE!”

“You’re the one that brought all those damn zombies in the first place! So don’t go talking to me like I’m the asshole.”

“Nick, take it easy will you?” Rochelle scolded him “It was all just mistake, so stop yelling at the… colorful ponies.”

Nick just scoffed and kept walking down the highway as Rainbow pulled Fluttershy into a hug and tried to calm her down as she kept crying and whispering that she was sorry.

“Hey there, don’t cry. It’s oookaaay, I’ll be fine.” Ellis said when he walked over and patted Fluttershy on the head “It’s not your fault, and besides, this happens all the time. Nothin’ some gauze and prescription-grade painkillers can’t fix. Now let’s get movin’ again.” He grabbed his gun off the ground and practically skipped away, bandaged up and high as a kite on morphine.

A little while down the road the group of survivors came across a billboard illuminated in the moonlight. It was advertising a carnival fairground a few miles away and had the words “Military Evac” hastily written on in spraypaint.

“Hey, Whispering Oaks!” Coach said as he looked at the sign “Shit, I used to go there when I was a kid!”

“Oh good, now we can die there as adults.” Nick snarked.

“We head down that off-ramp over there, and we should be right at the Whispering Oaks motel, might be a good place to search for supplies.” Coach said, ignoring Nick’s comment.

…

Near the off-ramp were a few makeshift campsites which they decided to search for anything useful before moving on. Meanwhile, Ellis had decided to go on ahead to check out a military Humvee that was crashed at the bottom, near the overpass. Seeing him split off from the rest, Fluttershy decided to follow him.

“Oh umm, I really don’t think we should split up.” she said as she galloped after him “What if more of those monsters come?”

Ellis gave a chuckle as he searched the truck. “Ah don’t worry about it, more of those zombies come and I can handle ‘em. Especially now that I got this.” he pulled an AR-15 and a helmet off a dead soldier “I’ve wanted this gun since I was like nine.” he smiled as he stuffed as many extra clips as he could carry into his pockets as well as a couple hand-grenades.

…

Back at the campsites Rainbow and the others were sifting through coolers and collapsed tents, and had found a few over the counter medicines (Pills here!) as well as a box of incendiary ammo and a freaking chainsaw... without any gas in it.

“So who are you? I get the feeling you’re not exactly from around here.” Rochelle asked as she stuffed a few cans of food in a backpack she’d found.

“Well, my name’s Rainbow Dash, and I’m from Equestria.” she introduced herself “My friend back there is Fluttershy. We were helping Twilight with some old dig site when this hand grabbed us. I guess it brought us here somehow. Where is here anyway?”

“Right now we are in Gorgia, in what’s left of the USA.” Rochelle sighed “Ever since this infection hit, everything’s just been going to hell. But where are you from, and more importantly, what are you? You remind me of some cartoon I used to watch when I was little.”

“Me? I’m a Pegasus. What, don’t you have ponies here?”

“Well, yeah. They’re just…” Rochelle struggled to find the right words “Not like you are?”

The multi-colored pegasus seemed to take this as a compliment more than anything else. “Well yeah they couldn’t be like me. I’m way too awesome!”

“Not really what I meant.” Rochelle rolled her eyes and headed for the off-ramp with the others.

“So what did you mean ‘infection’?” Rainbow asked as she followed close behind, carrying a few cans of soda.

“Right, right. Well… it’s some new kind of disease, messes up people’s minds and turns them into ravenous, mutated, homicidal maniacs.” Rochelle explained matter-of-factly “All those things that attacked us back there, they used to be as human as you or… well I guess not like you so much, but they were human at one point is what I’m saying.”

Rainbow looked back at the piles of bodies they left in their wake. Unsure of what to say, she simply followed the rest as they continued on in silence.

Whispering Oaks motel. This overpriced, two-star lodging was once a place where families would stay before heading down the road to enjoy their weekends and vacations at the Whispering Oaks theme park. Now it only served as a reminder of how much the world had fallen apart in the wake of the infection. A military barricade blocked off the highway overpass and the road to the theme park while more Humvees were parked in the lot. Dead bodies drenched in gasoline piled high inside the swimming pool and in a ditch near the roads. It seemed the main hotel had been turned into a sort of purge area for disposing of infected bodies before it was overrun by the very things it sought to get rid of.

“Oh god the smell.” Rochelle gagged as they passed by the first buildings.

“What is that?” Rainbow asked as she tried not to breathe.

“Looks like the military was burning bodies to try and stop the spread.” Nick commented as he saw the piles of carcasses.

“Somehow I don’t think it was the military that done this.” Coach motioned to a number of zombies hanging from pikes, and a bedsheet that hung from the second floor with a message that read [WE DON’T SHARE: LEAVE US ALONE] written in blood.

“Oh my goodness. Maybe it’s best if we leave.” Fluttershy suggested as she edged as far away from the bodies and smoldering piles as she could.

“HEY!” shouted a voice from high up on the roof “Can’t you fuckers read? GET LOST!” the figure them proceeded to fire a spray bullets at them, peppering the ground at their feet.

“Whoa shit!” Nick yelled as he and the rest dove into cover, narrowly avoiding the inaccurate barrage.

“Hey whoa, hold on there! We are NOT infected!” Ellis yelled.

“Like I give a damn!” came a reply from their assailant.

“Listen. We didn’t mean to wander into your place.” Coach tried to negotiate “We’re just passing through on the way to the fairgrounds. What do you say you just let us go, and we never bother you again?”

Another burst of bullets was his answer.

“Oh screw this, we need to take this asshole down.” Nick loaded the bolt-action rifle and took aim at the man on the roof “I’ll keep him pinned, you guys work your way around the buildings and flank him.”

The other three nodded and went around the management building to get at the stairs on the other side. Nick fired off a round that grazed the man’s leg, making him duck for cover before blind-firing over the edge of the roof with his SMG. Within about a second, his weapon had run dry and he fumbled to snap in another magazine.

It was at this point that the other survivors had reached stairs. Ellis was the first to make it up the makeshift ramp the man had put in place.

Ellis made it to the rooftop just as the man finished reloading and aimed right at him. Ellis’ eyes widened as he saw the muzzle flash and he tried to duck out of the way. But there was no time, he would have taken a huge amount of lead if a third party hadn’t intervened.

“NOOOOO!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she grabbed the gun, pushing it away from its intended target and sending the bullets flying harmlessly into the air.

“Grr, gah. Ger-roff mah gun you freak!” The man shouted as her tried to wrestle his gun back from the angry pegasus.

Coach and Rochelle had joined the others on the roof, but none of them could get a good shot on the crazed gunman with Rainbow in the way. And unfortunately, she had lost the advantage.

The man had managed to maneuver his gun so it faced into Rainbows torso. His eyes lit up with glee and he pulled the trigger.

Rainbow screamed. It was the worst pain she had ever been in. Crashing and breaking her wing wasn’t as bad, flying through a big stack of rocks wasn’t as bad, helping Applejack demolish her old barn and getting splinters for days wasn’t nearly as bad. She fell to the ground and curled up in a ball, bleeding heavily from a gash in her neck and three holes in her shoulder and left foreleg.

“How DARE YOU!” Fluttershy yelled as she flew into the man’s face, her stare drilling into his soul “You should be ashamed of yourself. What gives you the right to hurt an innocent pony like that? We’ve done nothing to you!”

The man raised his gun and tried to shoot her only to find that it was empty again. Terrified out of his mind, he backed closer to the edge of the roof, trying to put some distance between himself and the stare.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Fluttershy demanded sternly as she pursued him.

Just as the man was about to make a response, a gunshot rang out and his head exploded, showering Fluttershy with blood and bits of grey matter. Her eyes widened and she stared quivering in horror as the decapitated body just slouched there before her.

“Was no one else gonna’ shoot that jackoff?” Nick questioned the rest as he cycled the bolt on his rife.

Rochelle glared at him before rushing over with Ellis to help Rainbow dash, Coach gave him a disapproving shake of his head before doing the same. Nick looked back at Fluttershy, who was slowly coming out of shock and fighting the losing battle of not bursting into tears.

“Hey come on, he was totally asking for it!” Nick walked over, doing a terrible job of consoling the traumatized pegasus “You saw what he did to your friend, guy deserved it.” he gave the still standing body a small nudge with the butt of his rife.

That small nudge was enough to send the dead body of the former maniac plummeting over the edge and landing right onto an alarmed sports car with a shatter of glass. The constant obnoxious beeping coupled with the gunfire from earlier was like a dinnerbell for the infected, who were now swarming the motel and piling on top of each other, scrambling up the walls to get to the squishy beings up top.

“Oh shit.”

“Everyone, this way!” Coach called to them as he jumped down to the second floor carrying a bandaged up Rainbow Dash on his back.

“You heard the man, time to move.” Nick started after them only to notice that Fluttershy was still glued to the spot, unwilling to move “We don’t have time for this, come on!” he pleaded with her as she kept staring down at the body laying broken on the car below.

While Nick was distracted, the first of a great many infected made it to the roof and charged at him, grabbing onto his ten-thousand dollar suit. Nick quickly pulled out his pistol and shot the infected off, only to see about a dozen more charging at him across the roof top. One was taken down by a headshot, and two more were sent stumbling and falling over as their legs were shot out.

“Come on, grab ‘er and let’s go!” Ellis yelled as he fired the last four rounds in his pistol at the infected, downing two more.
For once Nick did as he was told and hurried after the rest of the survivors as they headed into a broken out room.

…

Coach and Rochelle were laying down suppressing fire from the doorway as more and more infected tried to force their way in.

“Three comin’ in!” Ellis yelled as he and Nick, who was carrying Fluttershy, climbed inside over the pile of bodies.

“Over here, out this window.” Rochelle led the way, followed by Nick and Coach. Ellis picked up the rear after throwing one of his grenades into the room.

It exploded a couple seconds after he got out, causing the rotting roof to collapse and block of the room. This didn’t slow the infected for long however, as soon they were vaulting over the fences while more rushed from the nearby roads to join the swarm.

With the main road blocked, the survivors had no choice but to turn right. A drop-off of at least sixty feet greeted them as the horde closed in. With barely a second thought, each of them slid down the cliff, the infected leaping and throwing themselves off in pursuit. It was then that they heard a loud hacking cough. And of all the things that could have happened at that moment, this was, the. Worst. Possible. Thing.

A Smoker lashed out with its tongue and snared him around his neck, dangling him out of reach of the others. The asphyxiation caused Coach to lose his grip on Rainbow Dash, who forced her eyes open the smoker choked the life out of him. Quickly acting through the pain, she bit into the Smoker’s tongue and ripped through it with her teeth.

Coach rolled to the bottom of the cliff, coughing as he pulled the rest of the Smoker’s tongue off of himself. “Hey, thanks.” he wheezed as he looked over to where Rainbow Dash lay as she nodded in response before falling unconscious. “Whoa now, stay with us, you hear?” he picked her up again and began moving down the water run-off with the rest, stepping over the mangled bodies of the infected that followed jumped down the slope as they went.

…

Ellis and Rochelle were on point, clearing the way for their friends who were busy carrying the incapacitated ponies. They were down to their final clips and Ellis had switched back to his tire iron. Fortunately, very few infected seemed to be chasing after them now, when they reached the top of the hill and to the entrance of the fairground, they realized why as a car flew over their heads.

“Oh shit, TANK!” Ellis alerted them to the obvious as the improbably large, boss-class infected barreled towards them.

“Scatter!” Coach yelled and they all split into different directions.

The Tank chose to go after Nick and Fluttershy, charging after them and smashing the ground in frenzied attempts to make them part of it. A barrage of machinegun fire echoed out and multiple projectiles embedded themselves into the Tank’s stretched out hide. It turned its attention to the offending survivor, who’s efforts to kill it by emptying the last clip from his assault rifle only served to anger it further. Slamming its gargantuan, meaty fists into the ground, the Tank ripped up a chunk of pavement and lobbed it at Ellis, who swiftly dodged out of the way, making it instead hit the fuel tanker behind him and spew gasoline everywhere.

“Everyone, get inside the safehouse!” Ellis yelled before turning back to the Tank “Hey you! Yo mama so fat, when people ask me to pick the top five fattest people I know, she’s three of them!”

The tank charged at Ellis, even more enraged than before if it were possible. Lifting up its humongous arms into the air, it smashed down on the fuel tanker where Ellis had been not half a second ago, lodging its arm into the metal and getting covered in the flammable liquid in the process.

Scrambling away from the two varieties of tanks, Ellis pulled the pin on his last grenade and chucked it into the pooling gasoline. Twenty feet from the saferoom, the leaver sprang out of the grenade.

Seventeen feet, the grenade bounced on the ground once.

Thirteen feet, the grenade skidded to a halt next to the gas tanker.

Ellis stumbled at five feet, the Tank had freed itself and made began to pursue the survivors again.

Ellis scrambled on his hands and knees two feet from the iron door of the saferoom, the Tank stepped on the grenade.

The grenade exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere, blowing off one of the Tank’s legs, and igniting the gasoline.

Several pairs of hands and a pair of hooves grabbed Ellis, dragging him into the saferoom as the fire spread into the fuel tanker.

The door slammed shut, and the tanker exploded into an inferno of shrapnel and death that swept across the entire parking lot of the Whispering Oaks themepark.

Well that got real bad real fast

The survivors and their new pony allies breathed heavily while the flames outside the armored door of the saferoom died out along with all other noise. Rainbow Dash was still unconscious and had started bleeding again. Seeing this, Rochelle began to treat her as best she could with their last remaining medkit. Meanwhile, the others regained their bearings after the exhausting chase and began their usual procedure of searching for weapons and supplies to replenish their stock.

The saferoom was set up in a trailer that looked like it belonged to the manager of Whispering Oaks. Posters of the attractions and upcoming events lined the walls along with charts showing profits in a steady decline, folders and fliers littered the floor where they were spilled. Mounted on a wall was a first-aid box that contained only a box of band-aids and a couple glowsticks. Resting on the table was a box of .22 pistol rounds; the gun they belonged to rested in the hand of a middle-aged man, slouched in his chair with a hole in his forehead.

Coach gave a silent prayer for the former owner of the themepark as he picked up the revolver and the extra ammo.

“Well shit. What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Nick said in his usual annoyed tone as he looked out the window at the overrun military outpost. The military barricades lay thrown asunder and bodies of soldiers and civilians alike littered the ground near the entrance as numerous infected wandered the area within, likely drawn out of whatever corners they’d been lurking in by the sounds of gunfire and explosions.

“I have no idea.” Rochelle huffed “But we have barely any ammo left, and I just used our last health kit saving... Rainbow Dash, was it?” Rainbow wasn’t in any condition to respond “Ellis what do you think?” she asked, hoping for some comic relief from the group’s man-child “Ellis?”

Ellis was completely silent as he stared at a poster next to the door, a smile creeping further and further onto his face as nostalgia flooded his mind. “Do you guys know who these guys are?” he held up the poster for them all to see “It’s the Midnight Riders!” he exclaimed joyously as he remembered going to their concerts.

“Hey! The Midnight Riders!” Coach joined in “I used to listen to them when I was in college. I’ve got all their albums, even their new stuff that ain’t no good! Still the best light show in the business though.”

“I’ll back you up on that, I went to see them in ’05; front row center! Lost mah eyebrows.” Ellis remembered fondly.

“Not to ruin your trip down memory lane, but how does this help us?” Nick asked as he loaded the last few rounds into his M1911.

“Do not doubt the Midnight Riders, for the path to salvation lies within the words of their music.” Ellis said, suddenly a mountaintop philosopher “Hell, their music saved my life like three times.”

“Somehow I doubt trying to get laid using innuendos of repairing cars is going to help us.” Nick frowned as he read a book full of lyrics to the songs that was laying on a nearby table “Although… a suitcase full of pistols and money would be nice right about now.”

Just then, they heard the sounds of a motor directly above them. Cautiously stepping out of the saferoom, they found the cause. A news helicopter was flying around the park.

“TO ANYONE STILL ALIVE DOWN THERE, POP FLARES TO LET ME KNOW YOU’RE THERE.” the pilot’s voice boomed from the megaphones “I’LL BE CIRCLING THE AREA ‘TILL SUNRISE. CHOPPER SEVENTEEN OUT.”

“You see? The Riders are looking out for us.” Ellis gave a salute towards the ceiling.

“What does some crappy band have to do with- never mind. Let’s just find some way to signal him; there’s gotta be some flares around here somewhere.” Nick set himself to the task and left the saferoom.

“Okay then, we have a plan.” Rochelle said as she and coach readied their weapons and moved towards the door “So who’s carrying Rain… Oh.”

The three of them looked over to Fluttershy, who had been sitting in the far corner behind a filing cabinet the entire time. She slowly rocked back and forth, and her eyelids were squeezed shut as tears seeped out from under them.

“Hey there, y’all okay?” Ellis said as gently as he could as he knelt down beside her. He only got a small whimper in response.

“Sweetie don’t worry. I don’t know if we can get you home, but we’ll do our very best to protect you.” Rochelle walked over and reassured her.

“Yeah, the two of you will be just fine long as you stick with us.” Coach joined them.

Fluttersy finally opened her eyes, red from her crying. Slowly she forced out a sentence. “Y- y- you killed them. Th- they were people once, they were alive… and then.” She clamped her eyes shut again and pulled away from them.

The survivors grimaced to each other and tried to think of a way to coax the traumatized pegasus back from the mental breaking point.

“Look, I know all this is probably a big shock to you with all the blood, and shooting, and crazy people trying to kill us and all.” Rochelle started “But we’re not bad guys- Well maybe Nick, he’s kind of a jerk. But what I mean is, this is what we’ve had to deal with, and we’re just trying to stay alive. A few weeks ago I’d never even thought of using a gun, but I’ve had to survive and keep protect the others. If that meant killing some crazy zombies, I’m completely okay with it.”

“B- but that man on the roof-

“Would have killed us all the same as the infected.” Coach answered Fluttershy’s question “Shootin’ him might have gone too far, but there’s no tellin’ what he’d have done if we hadn’t.”

“We protect each other.” Ellis told her “And as long as y’all are with us, we’ll protect you too. So what do you say; will you come with us?” he held out his hand as Fluttershy looked up at him.

“You bet we will!” came a voice from behind. They looked over to see Rainbow Dash struggling to her hooves. “Come on Fluttershy, if we ever want to get back to Equestria, we’ll have to be alive to do it. These guys helped us get this far, and I for one won’t stand by doing nothing while they risk their lives for us. Now let’s get out there and kick some flank.” She knocked her hooves together and headed out the door.

“It’s about time you guys showed up.” Nick complained as the rest of the group emerged from the trailer “I thought I was going to have to kill all these things by myself.” With that he brought his fire axe down into the head of another infected, not-so-cleanly splitting it in half.

“Well, time to get to work.” Ellis said as he drew out his tire-iron.

…

About a minute later they’d silently cleared out the infected from the toll booths at the entrance to the park. Nearby was a weapons locker about the size of a small car, likely used by the soldiers to store extra rifles and ammo. The survivors discussed various ways to get it open, but with its reinforced steel and keypad locking device, it was completely inaccessible. The dead soldiers proved to be more plentiful when it came to weapons, though not by much.

With a single, working combat rifle with three clips plus an M9 handgun now in their possession along with a handful of grenades, the survivors were deciding on how best to clear out the next area; a prize game section that had been converted into a sorting zone by the military with several dozen infected wandering aimlessly about. They’d nearly decided on the best course of action when they heard the sound that would haunt their dreams for days to come.

*Squeak*
*Squeak!**Squeak!**Squeak!*

At that moment, a mob of zombified clowns rounded the corner. Their once colorful clothes now faded into muted, pale shades, along with their smeared and bleeding face paint gave them the appearance of something from a child’s nightmares. With a unified ghastly roar they charged towards the survivors, every infected within earshot of that intolerable squeaking of their shoes following behind.

“That squeaking is driving the zombies crazy; kill the clowns!” Nick shouted as he drew his pistol.

The survivors took aim and opened fire as the infected closed the distance, several dropping to the ground as the bullets tore through them. It wasn’t nearly enough though, and within seconds the infected were upon them.
But just as the first infected reached the survivors and they’d began to shove back the horde, a loudspeaker sprang to life in the distance, blaring an advertisement and drawing all but the most stubborn infected away.

With her curiosity piqued, Rainbow flew up to get a better view. Once she was high enough, she saw the infected gathered around a megaphone rigged to a tape recorder, with a cluster of red canisters hastily scattered near the bottom.
A second later a blur of light hit the cans and they exploded into flames, slowly turning the crowd of infected relentlessly clawing at the speakers into charcoal.

(Achievement unlocked – Fried piper x 12)

Gladdened but confused by this turn of events, Rainbow flew back down to find her new allies conversing with a pair of strangers.

…

“You see Mr. Darian? I told you there were people here, I was right.” A little boy in a tee-shirt and sweatpants said excitedly to a masked man in a grey hoodie and military fatigues.

“Thomas, get back. We don’t know who these people are, they could be dangerous.” he said as he pointed his rifle at the group “Who are you?”

“Oh, well shit… I’m Ellis, this here’s Coach, Nick, and Rochelle. Hidin’ behind mah legs is Fluttershy, oh and that right there’s Rainbow Dash.” Ellis introduced them as Rainbow flew into the man’s face.

“And just who are you, pointing this thing at my new friends?” she demanded as Darian’s posture slumped as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. “Hey! I’m talking to- YOU!”

Rainbow was interrupted when Thomas gabbed her tail and dragged her down into hugging distance. “Horsey!” the eight-year-old shouted as he put his hands all over Rainbow, smearing her with dirt and nearly undoing her bandages.

“H- Hey, get off.” Rainbow protested as she hovered a few feet off the ground, much to Thomas’s enjoyment as he clung to her hind legs and howled with laughter.

“Umm… yeah okay.” Darian said awkwardly as he watched with the others while Fluttershy tried to help her friend “Soooo, does someone want to explain this… or, what.”

“Don’t look at us man, we just ran into ‘em.” Nick told him “They say they’re from another world, but that’s probably bullshit. More likely they’re some sort of freak experiment that got loose or- Oh come on.” he said with annoyance at the looks the others gave him “You guys can’t seriously believe that there’s an entire world of talking ponies, and that two of them somehow ended up here, can you?”

“Well with all the crazy shit I’ve seen in the last few weeks, I doubt anything would surprise me at this point.” Rochelle reasoned “So who are you two anyway?”

“My name’s Darian Cordd, the kid is Thomas. His parents… well, they didn’t make it. And I got split from my group on the way to one of the evac centers; that was… about ten days ago. Ever since then we’ve been trying to find someplace that hasn’t been overrun. So far, no luck.” Darian said with a sigh “What about all of you? You seem friendly enough.”

“We here came all the way from Savannah, headed to New Orleans. Seems like the only place that might have had a chance. Flutter an’ Dash joined up just a few hours ago, said they needed to get home to Equestria.” Ellis told him “You wouldn’t happen to know where that is would ya?”

Darian just stared at him blankly through the eyeholes in his ski-mask.

“Well, y’all are still welcome to come along if you want. Safety in numbers an’ all that.”

“Yeah, until one of those numbers stabs you in the back.” Nick snorted and was promptly slapped upside the head by Coach.

“Sure, be nice to have someone to watch my back in a tight spot.” Darian said as he watched Thomas and Rainbow crash through a sign of lil’Peanut, the park’s mascot “You guys wouldn’t happen to have any extra .308s on you by chance?”

“Sorry son, but we’re pretty dry on ammo ourselves. But man, if we could get that locker open back there.” Coach motioned to the weapons locker a couple of buildings behind them.

Darian’s eyes widened as he spotted the locker in question and he frantically searched through his pockets, only stopping once he found a plastic keycard. He looked at it, then back to the survivors.

“Aww yes. Now this is what I’m talkin’ ‘bout.” Coach said as he slung a bandolier of shotgun shells over his shoulder.

“Darian my friend, welcome to the team.” Nick said as he picked up an HK417 sniper rifle and handed Darian one as well.

“Heh, thank Thomas. He was the one who went around picking up this kind of random junk when we got here.” Darian told them as he chambered the first round “Where is he anyway?”

“Whee! Higher, higher!” Thomas yelled outside.

…

“Gah! Will you get off already?”

“But, I don’t want to. You’re so awesome.” Thomas said with a quivering lip.

Rainbow stopped trying to pry the boy from her leg. “He just said I was awesome..” She thought to herself. I am awesome. And I can’t just deny a fan."

“Okay kid, climb up.”

Thomas smiled from ear to ear as he climbed aboard Rainbow’s back, just behind her wing joints, and in a second they were off. Fluttershy watched from the ground, actually managing a smile for the first time since they’d arrived in this world full of monsters and people with guns. A rainbow trail formed across the darkened sky as Rainbow Dash and Thomas flew laps across it, finally landing as the others finished loading their clips.

“Okay, that’s enough for now. Gotta let these finish healing.” Rainbow said, gesturing to her bullet-wounds as she let Thomas off.

“Alright gang, let’s get moving. And keep an eye out for something to signal that chopper with.” Nick told them as they began the trek into the fairgrounds.

“Man, I loved this place as a kid.” Coach said as they walked through the food court “Heh, all these signs are makin’ me hungry; corn dogs, funnel cakes, popcorn.”

“Hey can we stop and make some cotton candy?” Ellis asked as he opened up one of the stalls “Seriously.”

“Ah, cotton candy, the wise Pharaoh of foods. Sittin’ atop the food pyramid and reigning judgment on all the lesser foods.” Coach gave praise to the supreme overlord of all sweets.

“Oh man I love cotton candy.” Rainbow Dash joined them “It’s like a cloud, only it’s made of sugar and melts in your mouth.” she remembered how great it would have been if Discord hadn’t turned all the actual clouds into cotton candy.

“Oh, you guys aren’t seriously thinking of doing this are you? The chopper, getting out of here, any of that ringing a bell?” Nick reminded them of the task at hand.

“Umm, I wouldn’t mind stopping and having some.” Fluttershy nervously raised her hoof.

“Count me in.” Darian said as Thomas jumped up and down excitedly next to the machine.

“Dude! I thought you were cool. Okay Ro, are you with me at least?” Nick grasped at straws.

“Sorry man, but I haven’t had cotton candy in years.” Rochelle cast her vote.

…

So half an hour later, after jury-rigging a car battery to the machine and finding the bags of mix, the group headed out, each of them taking bites of the fluffed up sugar. They even persuaded Nick to have one.

Making it through the rest of the park was going to be pretty easy with the weapon suppressors they’d picked up. Being able to pick off the wandering infected from a distance without alerting all the others proved invaluable to the survivors, but it didn’t mean that they didn’t need to be careful. With all the stands and attractions set up from when Whispering Oaks was still in business, plus all the medical tents set up by CEDA, and the military posts, there were plenty of places for the infected to lurk in waiting for something to pounce on.

“Holy shit guys, KIDDY LAND!” Ellis yelled at the top of his lungs “I wanna ride one, just one. I mean when are we ever gonna be here again?” he didn’t even look back as he rushed off into the concrete lot to find which ride he wanted to start up, Thomas sprinting in tow.

Rochelle shook her head with a smile. “I wish we could all be that happy.”

“You mean happy as that little kid with a gun… and Thomas?” Nick commented before going to retrieve them.

…

Ellis had just finished reconnecting the wires to the rideable toy trains when the others reached them.

“Alright… there we go!” Ellis said as he was about to flip the switch to turn it on. “All aboard!”

“Ellis! Hold it boy!” Coach yelled to stop him.

“Ellis are you out of your goddamn mind! Do you have any idea how much noise that thing is gonna make?” Nick scolded him, unaware of the growls growing in the distance.

“I hate to agree with Mr. Snarky Mc-Buzzkill over here-

“Hey!”

“But starting up a loud ride and bringing more of those things, probably isn’t the best idea right now.” Rainbow told him.
“Umm… Rainbow?” Fluttershy tried to get her attention.

“It’ll only take a second.” Ellis argued “Pleeeeessssee?” he and Thomas whined in unison.

“Ellis, I was a lil’Peanut ridin’ these back in the day, and I know how much this means to y’all. But we got a chopper to signal fore it leaves.” Coach reminded him as Fluttershy waved her hooves in front of their faces, trying to warn them about the intensifying growls.

“Alright,” Ellis sighed “But that would’ve been fun as-

“LISTEN!” Fluttershy yelled finally, shrinking back a bit when she realized she had everyone’s attention “Oh, umm…” she jabbed her hoof behind them.

Turning their attention away from Ellis’s shenanigans, they were finally made aware of the growling that filled the air, as well as its source. All around them, crawling out of corners, hanging off walls and the monorail line above, and peeking out of garbage cans and other improbable areas were at least three dozen Hunters, all dressed in tattered and torn Whispering Oaks hoodies.
The air was still for a moment as the Hunters prowled around, getting into vantage points as the survivors slowly raised their weapons and picked targets, Nick silently cursing under his breath that he knew this would happen. Fluttershy stayed close to Rainbow Dash as they hovered off the ground, ready to dart away with the rest at a moment’s notice.

Everything was still… and then-

A high pitched yell came from the train ride as a little girl Hunter pounced on Ellis’s back, biting into his shoulder as he attempted to throw her off.

This transgression was like firing the starting gun at a NASCAR race, as every single Hunter pounced at the survivors. Each of their unique howls merged together to form a symphony of terror as they jumped and bounded so erratically that very few shots the survivors fired even hit anything.

In less than a second, the survivors were getting pinned and forced to shove back their attackers, the Hunter’s claws raking their arms as they did so.

Rainbow and Fluttershy tried to get above the chaos, but with their frog-like legs, the Hunters eisily jumped up to reach them. Of the seven that darted at them from higher ground, two got lucky, latching onto the pegasi and pulling them back to the ground.

Ellis had finally gotten the little Hunter of his back only to be pounced by another, full-sized one. In the process they slammed into the control mechanism for the ride, setting it off with no way of stopping it. “Aww shit.” He said as another chorus of howls filled the air, and common infected began pouring over the chainlink fences.

“Everyone, cover your eyes!” Thomas yelled as he pulled two black cylinders from his pockets.

As soon as he released them into the air, they exploded into a blinding flash of light followed with a deafening bang. The Hunters were sent into seizures or stumbling into pieces of furniture.

Within a few seconds, the survivors had recovered from the flashbangs and Darian sniped the Hunters off Fluttershy and Rainbow before they could get their claws in too deep. “RUN!” he yelled as he and Coach led them into the back alleys past the [employees only] zone.

Fluttershy Scooped up Thomas and quickly followed them as Rainbow focused on knocking away the incoming Hunters.
Pursued eagerly by Hunters and infected, the survivors rushed down the alleyway. But it would seem the special infected had anticipated this, and another of their ranks joined the hunt.

Appearing like a Grim reaper at the other end of the alley, a Charger padded the ground before bowling through the entire team of survivors.

(Achievement unlocked – Scattering ram)

As Darian was piledrived into a wall, the other survivors helplessly struggled as Hunters descended on their prone froms three-to-one, tearing and biting into them as they easily detained their prey.

…

“Ugh, did someone catch the number of that train?” Rainbow groaned as she recovered from the Charger’s attack in mid-air just in time to dodge a pair of Hunters.

Through the chaos, she heard her friend’s cries for help. The first she spotted was Ellis, Coach, and Rochelle getting torn to bits, followed by Darian getting mashed to a pulp. Nick had managed to get free using his pistols, but was now getting stomped by nearly half a dozen common infected that had caught up to the group. The final scene she saw made her eyes tear up in rage; Fluttershy was on the ground in a growing pool of her own blood, using her own body as a shield to defend Thomas as four Hunters relentlessly clawed at her with more joining by the second.

“Get… OFF THEM!” Rainbow screamed as she went from zero to mach five in point three seconds, her signature sonic rainboom exploding behind her as she smashed into the infected like an enraged pinball, splattering herself with blood before coming to a crashing halt as she hit the Charger like a car hits a brick wall.
Looking back at her friends as she lay crumpled on the ground, she saw them slowly getting to their feet in the wake of her destruction. All except Fluttershy, who remained on the ground in a quivering ball as Thomas desperately tried to get her up.
That was when she heard the low groan of the charger standing over her. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was the Charger’s fist coming at her face, followed by a loud bang.

…

“Shit! Dash, you still with us?” Nick pushed the dead Charger off her and checked to make sure she was alive as the others shakily got to their feet, huge chunks of their flesh torn and covered in claw-wounds. Seeing that she was still breathing, he looked over his own injuries before turning to the others. “You guys okay?”

“Can’t remember the last time I hurt this bad.” Coach told him as he pulled out some syringes.

“Gah, hurts… to breathe.” Darian said behind him, coughing up blood into his ski-mask.

Just then, another horde signaled its approach and infected began leaping from the rooftops in order to get at them.

“Damn it, we need to get moving.” Rochelle grunted as she injected herself with one of the painkillers.

It was then that Nick spotted a crude drawing on the concrete wall beside him, one that spelled salvation for them all; a house with a plus in the middle with an arrow pointing down the alley.

“Thank freaking god, there’s a saferoom nearby!” he informed the others “Everyone shoot up on morphine and fight through the pain, we need to get there now. Rochelle, get Flutters, we don’t leave anyone behind. Ellis, grab Rainbow Dash and watch the rear, Coach, you and me are on point. Darian, you see any Smokers, Spitters, whatever the hell… shoot it. Just shoot it.” Nick gave them their orders and turned to Thomas, who was currently crying as Rochelle picked up a heavily bleeding Fluttershy.

“Alright kid, time to man up.” Nick handed him one of his pistols “Hold this with both hands and stick close to us. Anything bad tries to grab you, point this at it and squeeze the trigger. Okay?”

Thomas wiped his eyes and gave a firm nod.

“Then let’s get moving. Come on, let’s go!”

Making it out of the alley was the easy part, but their path was now blocked by fences and overturned forklifts. Coach found an exit and blew the lock off a nearby door with his shotgun.

“Everyone in!” he called as he kicked it open. As soon as he did, a small, hunched over infected jumped out and latched onto his face, laughing maniacally all the while. “Oh god, not one o’ these things!”

Nick pressed the muzzle of his rife to the cackling infected’s chewed up face and blew its head to bits while the rest filed inside, Ellis and Darian stood guard at the door opening fire on anything that pursued them.

A few seconds later, they were inside the cramped storage area, barricading the door with a stack of boxes. But they didn’t have much time to catch their breath as the infected began pounding on the other side of the door, shaking it on its hinges.

“Up that ladder.” Nick pointed to a ladder leading to the roof through a trapdoor.

“Hold up,” Rochelle called as she lay Fluttershy on a table and pillaged a first-aid box mounted on the wall “She’s bleeding really bad, I don’t think she’ll make it without help.”

There were no objections as she set about patching up the wounded pony.

“Let’s see here; bandages, gauss, rubbing alcohol, defibrillator, sewing needle, antiseptic… industrial strength nail clippers. Anyone know how to treat... all this?” Rochelle asked as she listed off the contents of the kit. With all they’d been through the last few weeks, the survivors were pretty good at patching themselves up, but they’d never had to deal with anything this severe before.

“You need… to stop the bleeding with pressure... and tourniquets.” Darian wheezed out as he took a knife to a sheet he’d found on the floor and tore it into strips. Rochelle stepped aside as he tied the strips around Fluttershy’s legs as high up as he could, attempting to staunch the bleeding.

“Now hold this gauss on her wounds and- gah… keep pressure on them.” he instructed them before he tightly wrapped up her wounds. “Alright, that should hold for now. I’ll have to stitch her up later, and she probably need either a transfusion or a lot of liquids to replace the blood she’s lost.” Darian said as he wiped the blood off his hands, raising an eyebrow under his mask at the looks the others were giving him.

“How did you know all that?” Rochelle asked.

“My dad was a veterinarian, believe it or not. Wanted me to be one too.”

The sound of liquid hitting the other side of the door told them that their time was up as it slowly melted through the metal, revealing an angry mob and three Spitters outside.

“Go!” Nick yelled as he fired the rest of his clip through the now open doorway.

The others quickly headed his instructions, Rochelle grabbing Fluttershy off the table and heading for the ladder with the others.

…

Darian was first to bust open the hatch and get onto the roof, but in the time they’d spent saving Fluttershy, the infected had set up an ambush. A slimy tongue shot out and grabbed him before he could get his rifle up.

“It’s got me!” Darian yelled before the air was squeezed out of him, the crushing power of the Smoker’s tounge being more than enough to overpower his already shattered ribcage.

“I got it!” Ellis yelled before getting slammed into the wall by another charger “Shit, I don’t got it!”

A pair of shots rang out and the Smoker’s tongue went limp as its owner exploded into a cloud of spores, leaving Darian gasping for breath through the pain. He looked up to see Thomas standing there looking like a badass with the magnum pistol in his hand as Coach saved Ellis from the Charger.

“Nice one kid.” Darian coughed as he got to his feet again.

“Man this would be awesome if we weren’t fightin’ for our lives.” Ellis said as the group of survivors and two unconscious ponies slid down the giant carpet-slide, firing at the growing mob of infected behind them. When they reached the bottom, an SUV crashed through the fence to their left, the angry roar of a Tank accompanying it.

“Keep moving, we’ve got a Tank coming!” Nick yelled.

“That way!” Coach spotted the saferoom sign and led them in the general direction blasting a couple infected that lingered in their way. As they came into view of a passage under an operator’s booth for the monorail, another Tank smashed through the barricade in front of them. “Whoa, not that way!”

“Stairs!” Ellis called out, directing them up.

The survivors scrambled up the stairs as fast as they could, Ellis and Darian covered them as they made their ascent. Darian stayed behind a moment longer to line up a shot on one of the Tank’s legs. The round hit, but did little slow the hulking monster, and he barely avoided getting hit with a slab of pavement.

…

“Over there! Saferoom’s in the tunnel of love!” Nick spotted the spray-painted sign “Tunnel of love… geez, why’d it have to be the friggin tunnel of love?”

Each of them climbed down in turn, but as Nick was about to climb down as well, the Tanks had caught up. Nick turned around just in time to see a giant fist slam into him and send him flying off and onto the pavement below. There was a sickening pop as Nick’s leg caught the brunt of the landing and his ankle twisted.

“Hrrg, ain’t that a bitch?” Nick gritted his teeth and hopped over to the gate where the rest of them had gathered.

“Alright, this’ll open the gate, and what the hell else?” Coach said sarcastically as he hit the button for the electronic gate.
As he did, the gate slowly slid open and the merry-go-round started up, its music box apparently corrupted by lack of maintenance, causing its normally cheery tunes to become a distorted mess of despondence. It was fitting, as right at the moment that they made it past the demonic-sounding ride a third Tank showed up to the party.

“Oh are you freakin kidding me?” as Coach and Darian helped him forward with his twisted ankle, Nick made his displeasure of their terrible situation known to the heavens.

“Just run! We’re almost there!” Rochelle yelled to them as she and Thomas neared the safehouse, Fluttershy still on Rochelle’s back.

After nearly falling over a few propane tanks near the entrance, Ellis got inside second with Rainbow and held the door open as the rest neared.

With an entire horde of infected on their heels, followed by a whopping three Tanks, Coach, Nick, and Darian practically dove into the saferoom. Ellis slammed the door, locked it, barred it, welded it shut, and barricaded it with wooden planks before they’d even touched down on the floor.

Literally two seconds later, there was a huge explosion outside as the structure around the entrance of the tunnel-of-love collapsed into rubble, further blocking the saferoom door.

“Hah, get fragged you zombie bastards.” Darian breathed out before falling unconscious.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay on this chapter everyone. But, better late than never right?

Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's read, liked, and/or faved this story. It really means a lot to me.
Coming up next: We have to run... the coaster? It's Christmas!

Bit of a cliff here before the meat of things

The peeling pink and sky-blue wallpaper lining the room gave them a small amount of comfort as their painkillers slowly wore off and the aches and pains returned. The last hour had been nerve-racking for the survivors, the wounds they’d sustained were a testament to that. It was fortunate there were saferooms, armored boxes built by other survivors to cache weapons and healing items and to hide in while they held out for rescue. But any other survivors that were once here were now long gone; that and the explosion and subsequent collapse outside meant this particular saferoom wouldn't be used anymore.

As its swan song, the saferoom gave the group a chance to relax and recover. They’d bandaged and taped up their wounds like they’d done since meeting in Savanah, and got Nick’s leg into working order, with no small amount of complaining from the former con-man. Unfortunately for Darian, his wounds were much more severe and could only be given remedial treatment. For a second he’d woken up with a start and began hacking up blood, but simply waved off the other’s attempts to help and slouched into a corner where he passed out again.

The light wasn’t that great, considering it was from a stream of Christmas lights hooked up to a car battery, but for the moment they were finally safe, and thanks in no small part to their new pony friends. Rainbow was now awake again, and Ellis helped clean the blood off her feathers before helping her over so she could watch over Fluttershy, who was resting on the remains of a mattress, occasionally taking sips of water to help her regain the blood she’d lost to the Hunters. Ellis flopped down on the floor next to them, and Thomas soon joined in, dragging a still unconscious Darian with him.

“Alright guys, enough layin’ around. Time to get moving.” Nick said as he started handing them their weapons.

“Man, so soon?” Ellis whined as he stretched out on the ground.

“Yeah Nick, what’s the deal? Give us a few more minutes.” Rochelle argued.

“This might be the most relaxing saferoom I’ve ever been in,” Nick admitted “but somehow I doubt that that chopper pilot will care when he’s taking off without us.”

“We can’t leave yet.” Rainbow said stoically “In case you missed it, we just got our flanks chewed up out there! Futtershy is still hurt.”

“Oh Rainbow, I’m fine.” Fluttershy said weakly as she struggled into a sitting position “Really.”

“You’re NOT fine.” Rainbow made her lay down again. Fluttershy flinched as some of her stitches broke and she started to bleed under her bandages. “Oh my gosh! I’m sorry.” Rainbow tried to help.

Nick let out an exasperated sigh and checked his expensive watch; it was a quarter after three, and the sun would be up soon. “Fine, we’ll stay here a little longer, but be ready to move in one hour.” He sat at a desk and tried to assure himself everything would work out. Despite his stubborn attempts to resist how tired he was, he eventually closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Nick stirred as the world came back to him, along with the dull pain coursing through his head. At first he just ignored the mumbles in the distance that woke him up, and tried to fall back asleep. But try as he might to shut out the sound, it annoyingly persisted.

“Alright, now y’all just have to point it at the target and pull that there trigger.”

Then there was a spray of gunfire and Nick’s eyes shot open. Clambering to his feet he looked over to see Rainbow Dash lying flat on her back, tightly clutching a machinegun as everyone around her ducked and covered, a snow of plaster falling from the ceiling after the entire magazine of 5.56 was emptied into it.

“Well okay then.” Ellis broke the silence “That was pretty good for yer first try. But next time, remember. Aim forward.”

“G- g- got it.” Rainbow stuttered as she got to her hooves.

“What in the flying hell is going on here?!” Nick yelled from across the room.

“Well, we’re trying to teach these lil’ponies how to shoot.” Coach explained “Kinda hard when they don’t have any fingers.”

“But man when we do, they’re gonna be kickin’ ass with us! Ah tell you, the best way to turn colorful ponies into badasses is to give them guns. That there's just common logic.” Ellis said excitedly as he dreamed of an airforce of pegasi flying overhead and raining bullets on zombies like a bunch of mini gunships that were also alive somehow. “Hey you want to give it a try?”

Fluttershy jumped when she realized he was talking to her.
“NothanksI’drathernotusetheexplodingsticksofdeath!” she screamed before hiding behind her own tail.

“Umm, okay… Suit yourself.” Ellis shrugged.

“Are you guys crazy?” Nick yelled as he got over the shock of the situation “Freaking ponies can’t use guns!”

“Hey!” Rainbow yelled indignantly “I can learn! And besides, that was the first time I tried to fire this thing, I’ve only been practicing for a couple hours now!”

Nick stood completely still. “What?” he said through gritted teeth, before slowly and reluctantly looking at his watch. He felt himself go lightheaded as a wave of panic washed over him. “Five fifty-one! We’ve been in here for two and a half hours! Christ guys, why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Chillax, hot-head. We’ve got until morning to signal that flying thing don’t we?” Rainbow said as she finally managed to get another clip into her rifle.

Nick nearly chipped a tooth as he glared at them all. “It is morning, and we still don’t have anything to signal him with.” Nick limped over to the door to the saferoom and readied his rifle “I hope you guys got nice and rested, ‘cause we’re going out there now, and we’re gonna move fast. I’ll be on point and-

Nick was about to give them their positions when he noticed one of the team was missing. “Where the hell is Darian?”

The others looked around and shrugged in response when they found no sign of the ski-masked sniper.

“For crying out loud, the guy was out with a broken ribcage! How did we lose track of him in this box?” Nick slapped his forehead “If we were all working at a public park where a bunch of weird shit happens all the time, I’d fire every one of you.”

“Don’t worry Mr. Nick,” Thomas piped up “he left me a note, see?”

Everyone gathered around to read. Written on a piece of cardboard with crayon were the words [You guys are taking too long. I’ll find the stupid flares myself. I’ll leave some signs for you to follow if you ever decide to get moving.]

“Shit, gotta hand it to him; that Darian’s a trooper.” Coach said as he finished reading.

“He left this note too.” Thomas pulled out another piece of cardboard that read [I also took your barbecue-flavored chips]

Coach narrowed his eyes. “That son of a bitch.”

Making their way into the main part of the tunnel-of-love, the survivors dispatched the few infected aimlessly wandering around, the rest were on the ground with most of their heads missing. Darian had apparently made his way through already.

“Man, for a tunnel of love, this is kind of morbid.” Rochelle said as they passed by a pileup of broken swan-boats intertwined with bloated corpses.

“I’m don’t think I like this place very much.” Fluttershy said as she eyed the dried blood smeared on the walls, shivering to think about the people that got trapped inside the ride.

“Did ah ever tell y’all ‘bout the time mah buddy Keith drowned in the tunnel o’ love.” Ellis began another of his stories “I mean he didn’t die, but he fell in and started chokin’ on the water. You wouldn’t think it’d be possible ‘cause it’s so shallow, but that’s how it gets you man, overconfidence. He was with his girlfriend at the time, and he was screaming for her to save him, but she didn’t wanna get wet, and-

“Mr. Ellis, now’s a bad time for stories.” Thomas told him flatly.

“Okay… but they got married later that day. That was the best wedding on a Ferris-wheel I’ve ever been invited to.”

A little ways down the cement river (an over the head reference to the swimming pool called the cement pond from Beverly Hillbillies) the group found their way blocked by a pile of rubble; one that happened to collapse on a giant heart prop, fittingly enough.

“Hey check it out y’all, the air-duct of love.” Ellis pointed the way forward “Something video games have taught me, good stuff always comes in vents.”

“You do know video games are nothin’ like real life, right Ellis?” Coach asked as he and the rest crawled through the dust covered metal shaft “Ellis, you still there boy?”

Ellis was in no mood to answer as he pressed his back flat against the wall, and all seven of them saw why when they got out into the darkened room. Sitting alone in the center of the hard concrete floor was an emaciated woman with bleached hair, loudly sobbing in a chilling wail. When she sensed their presence, she quickly turned her head in their direction, her glowing red eyes cutting through the dark as her long hair fell back over her face.

“W- what is that?” Fluttershy stammered as she and Thomas took turns trying to hide behind each other.

“Shh, that’s a Witch.” Rochelle told her in a loud whisper “Don’t get close, and don’t make her angry. Just sneak past her, and everything will be fine.”

Slowly, and with bated breath, each of them sidled along the wall towards the door on the other side of the room. A light came from underneath it, seemingly marking their safety for them as the Witch continued to sob mere feet in front of them, looking up every few seconds, her razor-sharp talons ready to rend apart anyone foolish enough to disturb her sorrow.

Only an arms-length from the door, and the survivors were holding their breath entirely as Nick reached out to turn the handle. Then there was a clatter of plastic against stone and everyone in the room turned to see Rainbow Dash standing wide-eyed and heart racing as she looked at her fallen AR-15, only a few inches from the Witch’s legs.

The other survivors watched in horror as she began to lean in and pick it up. They made frantic motions for her to stop while silently mouthing “No”, “don’t do it”, and “just leave it”.

For a moment, she was about to heed these warnings, but this was the rifle the Ellis had modified for her; it had a bar for the trigger she could pull with her hooves, and even a loop on the foregrip to slide her other hoof through so she could aim. She had to get it back, without it she couldn’t help them fight.

She took a deep breath, and very slowly stepped down. With an equally slow exhale she took a step forward, the Witch gasping and looking up at her with bright red eyes as Rainbow places her front hoof on her weapon.

The Witch began to growl and Rainbow quickly yanked the weapon away and stood against the wall. The Witch let out a short yelp, and the survivors cringed, expecting the worst. But the worst did not come, and the Witch simply pushed away and curled up into a ball again to the immense relief of the survivors and the two ponies as they made their way out of the room.

“Eep! Umm, help.”

It would seem they were not quite in the clear yet. As they turned around, the saw the Witch had crawled out of the room and latched onto Fluttershy, gently wrapping her arms around her neck and crying into the back of her mane. There were two words collectively spoken by all the survivors at that moment, the only two that came to mind…

“Oh shit.”

Well ain't that a Witch?

Everyone looked in horror as Fluttershy sat ensnared by the Witch, bony talons digging into her fur as the sobbing infected held onto her like a giant plush toy.

“We need to get it off of her! Hurry!” Rainbow yelled, ready to spring into action.

“Whoa there, hold on. Them Witches will slice you into lunch meat if you’re not careful. We gotta be smart about this.” Coach reined her in. “Hold on a sec. I’ll try and handle this quick.”

Coach took a deep breath and slowly approached with his shotgun ready to Cr0wn the Witch. He carefully raised the barrel to the Witch’s head, but the Witch instantly met his gaze with her glowing red eyes and put Fluttershy between herself and the survivor like a shield. Coach tried to move around her for a clear shot, but the Witch turned to keep her Flutter-shield in the way of a shotgun blast before scooting into a corner, growling slightly as she did so.

“Aww, dammit now.” Coach muttered as he was forced to retreat, or risk aggroing the Witch.

“Okay, okay. Let’s not try to panic… maybe there’s still a way we can help.” Rochelle looked at Fluttershy, who was silently praying for something to save her, then to the others in the hopes of a helpful suggestion. “Oh who am I kidding, there’s no way in hell we’re getting her out of this in one piece.”

“Man I hate to say it, but ah don’t see how we can help. Guys… ah, think this is it for her.” Ellis took off his hat and held it over his chest in a solemn salute, his eyes tearing up. “Ah’m real sorry Flutters. Really.”

“Will you guys stop talking about her like she’s already dead!?” Rainbow steamed before looking back over at her friend “Fluttershy, try to wiggle out or something.”

Fluttershy slowly nodded her head and cautiously attempted to dislodge herself for the Witch’s grasp. She’d managed to get her front hooves free and start crawling away when the Witch growled and dragged her back, leaving four little cuts on each of Fluttershy’s sides and holding onto her tighter than ever.

“Oh, okay then. I guess I won’t try to escape then.” Fluttershy said submissively as she bled from the newly-made wounds and her eyes teared up from the pain.

“Oh that’s it!” Rainbow yelled before flying up to the Witch, dragging her away from the wall and slapping her, hard “Let her go!”
Rainbow immediately regretted this decision as the Witch’s eyes became beams of red light. She backed up a few steps as the infected stood up and snarled at her, still keeping a tight grip on Fluttershy. Rainbow gulped and pointed her weapon at the Witch as the other survivors did the same. Fluttershy was still in the line of fire, but now that the situation had escalated, there was little choice between fighting and endangering one of their own, or dying outright.

But then the Witch did something none of them expected; she disregarded them completely, and made a run for it with Fluttershy as her captive. As though they were mere piles of meat in her way, she charged straight through the survivors and through a hail of gunfire as they frantically fired in her general direction. Amazingly, none of the bullets so much as grazed her or the terrified yellow pegasus in her arms.

“After her!” Rainbow yelled before flying off down the tunnel, the other survivors struggling to keep pace.

As skinny as the Witch was, she was incredibly fast, but Rainbow was slowly gaining on her as they weaved through fallen chunks of ceiling and wandering infected that littered the tunnel-o-love. Behind her, Rainbow heard gunfire and shouts to wait, but she paid them no heed as she continued in her pursuit.

The Witch made a hard left in front of her and ducked into another room. Rainbow made it inside just quick enough to see the Witch reach out and slice open a pair of pipes with her claws and recoil as a thick vapor sprayed out into the small room.

“Oh no.” Rainbow mouthed as she realized what the infected had just done. Gas pipes weren’t too common in Equestria, but the flame-symboled warning label told her all she needed to know about the fumes flooding the room.
The Witch ran out through another door, dragging her claws against the metal doorframe as she left. The resulting sparks ignited the gas in the room, leaving Rainbow only a split second to dive out the door in a fashion that would look awesome in a slo-mo shot.
She dove into the murky water, extinguishing the flames that clung to her before quickly looking around for the fleeing Witch.
“Over there!” Nick yelled as the rest of them caught up.

“Into the swan maintenance room of love!” Ellis specified in a hilarious manner.
Once they bolted into the large, conveyer-belt filled room, they spotted the Witch clear on the other side, already scaling the final catwalk to the exit. Rainbow wasted no time in charging forward through the air; this turned out to be a very bad idea.

A pair of *KACK-SPTHS!* sounded out, signaling that the other survivors had been stuck at the entrance, cut off from the chase by a pair of Spitters and their acid. Then from one of the catwalks, a madly cackling infected dove onto her and began steering her into walls and bits of machinery.

“Low bridge, ya stinkin hitchhiker!” Rainbow yelled defiantly as she regained control just long enough to graze under the final catwalk, knocking the Jockey off as it screamed its final “Wheew!”

“Finally!” Rainbow huffed as she got within grabbing distance of Fluttershy as the Witch ran through the final doorway.
The two pegasi reached out to each other, desperately trying to link their hooves when there was a loud coughing sound and something reduced Rainbow’s reach, stopping her just short of Fluttershy’s hoof. “What the?” she said in surprise as she turned around. Wrapped around her waist was the familiar slimy tongue of a Smoker.

“No!” Rainbow yelled as she turned back to face the Witch that was just standing there, mockingly dangling Fluttershy mere inches out of reach as the Smoker pulled her away. “Let go, darn it!” Rainbow yelled as two more Smokers lashed their tongues out to detain her.

Rainbow then remembered that she had her assault rifle and hastily pulled it out, aiming at the nearest Smoker.

*click*
*click**click*

“Huh?” Rainbow looked in confusion and panic at her malfunctioning gun as the three Smokers began a tug-o-war over which one would get to strangle the blue pegasus, crushing the air out of her in the process.

With a combination of cursing, grumbling, and hitting the rifle with her free hoof, Rainbow finally got it to work (the safety was on) and began spraying lead in every direction.

“Ow!” came a yell below her “You. Are. Shooting. Me!” Nick explained in annoyance as he and the rest made it past the Spitters and the maze conveyer belts and caught up with their speedy friend, swiftly dealing with the Smokers on arrival.

Now that she was free, Rainbow Dash zoomed up to the doorway where the Witch had patiently waited for her… so she could slam the metal door in her face.

With her face stuck to the glass window in the cartoonish manner like it was, Rainbow got a perfect view when the Witch held up her hand and bent back all her talons except for the middle one. Rainbow didn’t know what the gesture meant, but it made her angry all the same. The Witch seemed to enjoy upsetting her, and took the time to blow a raspberry before continuing to flee.

“You dirty cheater! Ooh, when I get my hooves on that- I’m gonna- And then- And pow! Right in the kisser!” Rainbow screamed incoherently as she banged on the solid steel door like a common infected. “Let… me… in!”

Rochelle quickly pushed Rainbow out of the way so she could get at the door. “Here, let me- Oh crap. There’s no handle on this side.”

“Shoot the window!” Ellis yelled and fired a burst at the glass only for the rounds to get lodged in the inch-thick slab. “Who the hell built this place? You can’t get out!”

Just then then light above the door turned from red to green and it swung open. Thomas stood a few feet away at a control panel with only two buttons, giving them all an unamused yet somehow smug grin.

Outside the tunnel, the Witch had slowed her pace a bit. Light had begun to creep up over the horizon, allowing the surrounding areas to be seen without the use of a flashlight.

As the two of them walked on, Fluttershy began to notice how the Witch walked in a deliberate direction unlike the other infected that merely stood around aimlessly or rushed toward sources of noise like wild animals. With her curiosity momentarily overcoming her terror, she decided to ask about this.

“Umm, excuse me, but where are we going?” Fluttershy asked the Witch; not a very smart thing to do, nor an idea that made much sense considering she’d never heard an infected talk before. But the Witch didn’t seem upset by this, she simply nuzzled the back of Fluttershy’s head and continued on.

Within a few minutes they reached a broken in door leading to a warehouse. It was rather small inside, and the Witch made a bee-line for an office in the corner. The inside of the office was absolutely filled, wall to wall, with plush toys; there were elephants, and tigers, and lots of bears with little hearts on them. Upon closer inspection, each of the toys had holes ripped in them, likely from the Witch’s claws.

“Oh my, have you been collecting these?” Fluttershy asked as she looked at them all.

The Witch absently nodded as she placed Fluttershy on the floor and wandered around, as if she was looking for something. Soon her search become more frantic and she picked up the stuffed animals and even lifted a few desks as if something would be hiding underneath them. Finding nothing, the Witch began to growl, not an angry growl mind you, but more of a worried one. After a few more minutes of upending furniture, the Witch simply collapsed on the floor and began loudly sobbing once again.

Fluttershy sat a fair distance away observing this odd behavior. This wasn’t the normal crying that she’d heard when she first encountered the Witch, this time it sounded like cries of genuine sorrow. Unable to just sit there and do nothing as the creature before her continued to wail, Fluttershy cautiously walked over and placed a comforting hoof on the Witch’s back.

The Witch spun around and looked at her with her glowing eyes, both of them gasping and recoiling a bit in fright. The Witch immediately recognized her though, and Fluttershy found herself wrapped in another death-grip/ snuggle hug.

“Umm, there there?” Fluttershy said unsurely “It’ll be okay, I’ll help you.”

Seemingly having recovered with the mighty healing power of cuddling a Fluttershy, the Witch released her, stood up began making a series of awkward gestures at her.

“Oh, umm… you found something? Something big? No, something… nice! You liked to hug it?” Fluttershy tried to interpret what the infected was trying to tell her, luckily she’d had plenty of practice at charades with Angel.
The Witch then grabbed onto her and let her go. Then she did it again and pointed at her.

“You’re letting me go? You let it go?”

The Witch shook her head.

“It… got away?”

The Witch nodded, and then pointed at the doorway, then at the room they were in and made a ‘walk and carry’ motion.

“But you caught it again and brought it here!” Fluttershy put the pieces together “And… now it’s missing? Do you think it left?”
The Witch seemed to perk up as a realization hit her and she bolted outside.

“That was the longest tunnel of love I’ve ever been in!” Nick complained as the survivors finally breached into the early morning air.

Rainbow wasted no time in getting a bird’s-eye view, and zipped around in the air as she scanned the park for any sign of her friend or the infected that took her.

But her searching was interrupted by a strong gust of wind knocking her out of the sky as the news helicopter flew by, it’s searchlight washing over the park below. Luckily she managed to recover before she face-planted into the ground, and was joined by the others as they waved their arms and shouted at the helicopter, trying to get the pilot’s attention.

Just as the chopper was about to leave, having not heard their calls for rescue over the noise of its own engine, a bright red flare was fired from the highest rails of the Screaming Oaks roller-coaster.

“Holy shit, is that-“ Coach began as he stared at the quickly fading flares.

“It is!” Nick yelled as he looked through the scope of his rifle “Darian freaking made it!” Then a thought struck him “Damn! That guy’s making us look bad!”

“I SEE YOUR FLARES BUT CAN’T LAND HERE! MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE STADIUM AND SIGNAL ME SO I CAN PICK YOU UP! CHOPPER SEVENTEEN OUT.” The pilot blared through the copters’ megaphone, and Darian’s silhouette limped its way down the coaster’s tracks.

“There should be an entrance to the stadium past the coaster and through the bumper cars, right next to the farm exhibits.” Rochelle told them as she looked at a conveniently placed sign with a map of the park.

“Alright everyone, we need to get inside that stadium.” Nick urged them forward.

“No. We need to find Fluttershy!” Rainbow harshly reminded them “I don’t care if that heli-whatever is waiting for us, I won’t leave her behind.”

“You’re kidding right? She could be in like a million places by now!”

“So then we’d better start lookin’” Coach said, siding with Rainbow “C’mon y’all, it’s not like that crazy Witch is just gonna show up with her.”

And then that exact thing happened. The Witch rounded a corner, quickly looking around with Fluttershy following close behind trying to calm her down.

Before any of them could react, the Witch froze in place for a second, her glowing gaze firmly locked onto a single shifting shadow moving about at the end of the Screaming Oaks.

Meanwhile at the end of the coaster, Darian would’ve complained about the day he’d been having. He would have complained about how it hurt to breathe, or how he was covered in blood, not all of which was his own. He could have scolded himself for leaving without the others, or even felt a bit of pride at the fact that he had single-handedly signaled the chopper to be their rescue.
But Darian did none of these things. In fact the only thing he felt right now was pure terror with a side of disbelief as he turned around to see those red beams of light cutting into his soul like a laser. Then, like a call straight from hell, the Witch let out a screech that was likely heard across the entire park.

“Oh… you have gotta be kidding me, not this bitch again!” Darian yelled with a mixture of anger and fear as he painfully picked up his pace to escape the Witch that had resolved to chase him to the ends of the earth, and all because of a plastic Gnome.