Chapter 11: Sometime After the Last Day
“So what did you mean by the first time you met a ghoul? When was this?”

Well… It begins like all terrible tragedies do, it was one fine day sometime after the end of the world. The green radioactive snow had stopped falling in the region for a moment, and we somehow made it back to Hollow Shades after driving hard through Zebrican territory for the last several months.

We were alive, tired, sick and low on supplies. Hellcat needed gemstones for her spark engine, too. Everyone’s ammunition levels were dangerously low and the acid rain had washed away the camouflage we hastily applied in Zebrica, causing the machine to be a mix of camouflage and generic green paint with streaks of silver showing through. Its lower half was covered in mud from the melting snow and the wagons behind us were in just as sorry of a shape.

As I looked back at them I counted two medium tanks with a few dings, one captured Zebrican heavy tank and many transport wagons filled with both supplies and worn out ponies. A few zebras had come with, but they were in the lead tank replacing the lost crew.

I looked to my left where a pony sat in a bright yellow radiation suit with a map floating in his magic. He sat in the slush. I merely stood in the shit in my Equestrian Army uniform. I leaned against the Hellcat with a nearly empty whisky bottle in my own magical grip.

“Alright, look,” he began with a slow drawl to his voice that said he hailed from Appleloosa. A place I had heard was hit hard and we had to keep the unicorn away from the zebras by sheer virtue of putting them in Hellcat. After all, why would you pick a fight with a tank when all you have is a pistol?

I think he was saying something, as his mouth was moving, but I wasn’t paying attention, because my drink was more important than his words. The alcohol scorched my throat with a familiar burn and filled my gut. Never would I have been allowed to wield a missile launcher while drunk in the army and they still wouldn't let me, so I was stuck with my basic bolt-action rifle taken from a gryphon. It rested on my back and was a familiar reminder that I had been a part of the hell that caused the world to end.

The end of days was my fault in a way. With a bullet, I could end a zebra. Or a pony…

I frowned deeply at that and stared at the bottle, wondering if the alcohol was starting to think for me. Surely I wouldn't shoot a pony just because? They’re friends, not enemies!

“Lilly!” the pony to my left snapped as he stomped a hoof down in the muck. He held an evil glare I wanted to slap off his face, but I settled with a snort.

“What?” I grumbled. “Think you’re too good to face the elements with the rest of us, hm? My mane’s starting to fall out and you’re hiding in a suit!”

“Look, we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got.” The stallion shook his head at me. “That’s why we’re here at…” he slowly looked down the road toward what could only be described as Tartarus.

Even before the Last Day the city looked like a wasteland with constant fighting, fires and smoke rising into the sky. Robotic factories produced weapons even while they were being fought over, inside, and around. Ponies had fortified it, zebras took and reinforced it. Ponies improved and made the defenses impenetrable.

And now zebras had it again.

“Is this really Hollow Shades?” The stallion asked with clear confusion in his voice. “It looks nothing like I imagined!”

I merely nodded.

He turned toward me, blinking a few times. “Is it?”

I sighed heavily at him since he clearly didn’t see the nod. “It's a little worse for wear,” I said, waving a hoof once more to the ruins, “but I will remember that ruined smoking skyline until I die.”

“Oh pony… It was like this before the end…?”

“I’d say it is better since I was last here.” I let out a laugh and shook my head. “Less ponies and it's so quiet. So very quiet…” my eyes slowly narrowed to fine slits as I turned my ears forward to listen.

Nothing, no distant chattering of gunfire, no wailing shrieks of artillery screeching overhead, no pleas of the dying. Only a deathly silence reached my ears.

“Something’s not right,” I said softly.

“You're damn right something's not right. It looks like you ponies made this—”

Ignoring the unicorn, I looked up at the Hellcat and raised my voice. “Murdak!”

A striped face appeared over the side of the turret, wearing a leather tank crew hat. “Aye, boss?” He asked in zebra. I hadn't known much when I first joined the army, only a couple phrases, but working with them improved my vocabulary greatly! I was fluent enough for a conversation.

“Anything feel strange to you?” I asked, motioning toward the city with a hoof once again.

He slowly looked toward it and gave the air a sniff or two. Then the zebra grimaced visibly. “Death. Pink Death.”

“Shit…” I frowned.

“What’d he say?” the unicorn whispered.

“Someone used a pink cloud bomb on the city,” I replied and glanced at him. “Meaning death will be near instantaneous if you breathe it in.”

The unicorn shuffled slightly and gulped visibly, even through the suit. He looked out toward the city before looking at me, then the zebra and back out at the city. “What savage uses such a weapon?”

“Shut up and tell me where to go before I kick your ass,” I growled at Banana Butt.

He cleared his throat and showed me a map of the city. The useless map he had likely picked up in a gift shop just outside of town. One that showed the pre-death hole state it was in. The unicorn had circled one area about fourteen kilometers to the southeast where a hospital would be.

I slowly shook my head and pushed the map away. “No good. That hospital was turned into the Zebrican Headquarters. We flattened it, but they built a bunker over it. Let me see your map.”

Before he could reply, I snatched the map in my own magic, grabbed a marker from a pocket and began scribbling out lines and circling various things I could remember. It was hard to recall everything thanks to the booze and never seeing it from the air, but I think I had a good idea of what it looked like.

“Hay!” the stallion shouted. “What are you doing?!”

“Shut up and let me finish!” I kept drawing, marking an ‘X’ over one cross street, running a faint dotted line underneath a park, toward a mall and then branching out toward other areas.

The stallion huffed and stood there waiting for me to finish and when I finally did, he gave the map a good hard look at it before proudly stating the obvious. “This looks nothing like the original map…”

I facehoofed and shook my head. “Moron.”

“What are these zigzagging lines?” He pointed at a pair that led the length from one ‘castle’ to another across a large portion of the city.

“A trench network both sides made,” I replied and motioned toward one of the castles. “And those castles are bunkers. Your best bet to find supplies is deep inside the bunkers.”

“That’s insane! Surely there are supplies above ground?!”

“Irradiated supplies,” came a mare’s voice from inside the Hellcat. A brown mare with a ten gallon hat atop her head looked out over the open turret. “Those bunkers got them there fancy seals an’ maybe one of ‘em has a command stable. ‘Least that’s where I’d put supplies if I wanted to keep ‘em safe from harm.”

“What she said.” I motioned up toward her. She tipped her hat and flashed a grin at me. Murdak merely watched, since his Ponish wasn’t too good.

Banana Butt sighed deeply and tried to scratch at his head, but failed miserably due to the helmet. His hoof clinked against the glass, causing him to gasp and step away from it when he smeared mud on the helmet.

“Alright then… how do we get into the city without dying?” he asked in an attempt to not look like a fool.

“That there lies the problem,” the brown mare said with a chuckle and pointed a hoof at me. “See, what I just heard from Lilly is that they done rebuilt this place after the zebras rebuilt it, makin’ the tunnels an underground maze of death.”

I nodded. “And that’s if we even get there. We’ll have to come up through the northeastern forest to avoid any chance of being spotted. Once there, we’ll need a team to go in on hoof toward that bunker.” I pointed to one on the map. “We have the tanks sit back and provide indirect fire support should they meet resistance. Hopefully we find a path of least resistance, because make no mistake, Mr. Banana Flanks, they—”

He frowned at me. “I am not a banana!”

“Whatever. Make no mistake, jackass. There’s an entire garrison of ponies, and an entire garrison of zebras out there and the city’s too damn quiet.”

“It's been months since the last day,” he replied. “They're probably out of ammo or they’ve made up and are working in harmony?”

I looked up at the mare above me, she looked down at me and we both laughed at the stallion.

*** ***

“I fuckin’ hate being right!” Apple Cart shouted as she hunkered down inside of a hastily dug hole. The poor mare clutched her helmet close to her head while bullets snapped above us, one after the other. “We should have gone through the western gate!”

“Hellcat, Hellcat, fire two,” I said into the radio, ignoring Apple Cart’s screaming. I rested on familiar ground; the mud next to the mare with a radiophone in my ear and the actual radio box on another mare’s back.

”Roger that Pathfinder One, firing two,” came Murdak’s static filled voice over the receiver.

All I could hear from the ‘deserted’ bunker Banana Butt had picked as our entry point, was the rapid chattering of a buzzsaw-like machine gun. Peeking up to see anything would be death, trying to dig away would be death. Staying in the hole would be death once they decide they got bored of shooting and lob mortars.

Speaking of Banana Butt, the fool had elected to come along as a liaison for the Ministry of Peace, and as a medic in case shit hit the fan. He was still in his now muddied radiation suit cowered as close to me as he could get. Close enough he should be buying me dinner. Banana Butt muttered nonsense while I listened for the screeching of friendly artillery, but then I heard words I never wanted to hear a pony utter in such a situation.

“I can't be here any longer! I’m not a fighter, dammit. I shouldn't have come! M-maybe if we hold a white flag up they’ll not shoot us…?”

I quickly grabbed him by the collar with my magic and glared a glare that tried to pierce his very soul. My eyes narrowed, teeth clenched before I yelled, “Do you wanna die?!”

His eyes widened, jaw trembling visibly. “I… I… no! I want to live!”

“Then keep your head down and stay put!” I hissed at him, keeping my death grip on his collar. “I’ve lost too many friends to them ‘just taking a peek’ and I won't lose another!”

“But if we just—”

“They’ll blow your fucking head off as soon as you look regardless of the white flag! This isn't some merry little war where both sides follow a decree. Both sides are dead! These are zealot zebras and we’re ponies. They. Want. Us. Dead.”

He gulped and shut his eyes, muttering to himself, “There’s no place like home… There's no place like home! I want to go hooooome!”

I rolled my eyes and shoved Banana Butt back into the mud. “Then keep your head down, idiot!”

As soon as I said that the chattering of machine gun fire was broken by the shrill wail of an artillery shell screaming its death song over head. Listening in, I heard it thankfully continue on past us toward its destination where it impacted something and exploded.

Dirt rained down upon us, brought about by the wind. The machine gun slowed to a stop, making it seem like the bunker had been hit directly, but I knew better. Apple Cart knew better. Everyone but Banana Butt knew better.

“They stopped!” Banana exclaimed. “Surely that means we hit them?”

Apple Cart was using a tiny mirror to look over the crater as she lay on her side. “Hellcat didn’t hit shit!” she exclaimed. “I knew I shoulda stayed in the tank. Have ‘em lift up one and a half degrees.”

I relayed the message to Hellcat before turning to Banana Butt. “It just means they're either reloading or trying to trick us. Sit tight. If we have to, we wait for nightfall.”

The stallion hugged me as tight as he could, causing me to groan. “Lilly,” the unicorn whined. “This plan was stupid. Why did we have to leave our tanks behind?! We could have rolled in and no one would bother us.”

“I’m babysitting a moron,” I muttered and shoved the pony away from me.

“We woulda lost ‘em if we brought ‘em. Enemy looks pretty dug in.”

As I looked up to the sound of another shriek, I swore I could have seen the shell had I not blinked, but then it vanished from view as it continued on. An explosion rocked the area as the shockwave washed over us, sending concrete and dirt over our heads with chunks raining down.

Apple Cart grinned widely and let out a hearty laugh. “Haha! Direct hit! They ain't shootin’ anytime soon!”

With a nod, I tried to look toward one of the other craters, whistling as loud as I could. “Razorclaw! Smoke ‘em and get ready to move out.”

“Aye! Aye!” The hippogriff replied as a smoking grenade came flying out of his crater, landing some distance between us and the bunker.

I placed the radiophone to my ear. “Good hit! I say again, good hit! Ceasefire, Hellcat. Pathfinder One on the move toward the target.”

”Roger that, ceasing fire. Let us know if you need any more support. We’ll be waiting.”

“Tell the Chief we’re entering the complex and expecting heavy resistance. Send what support he can asap. Pathfinder One out.” I gave the radio receiver back to Apple Cart with a quick toss.

“Smoke’s ready,” Apple Cart mumbled as she continued to watch the mirror.

I glanced over at the stallion to see how he was doing. The poor banana suited pony was still curled up in a tiny ball, shaking and muttering to himself about wanting to go home, or Celestia’s embrace. I couldn't be certain. Regardless of what he was mumbling, I gave him a swift punch to the shoulder to jar him out of it. “Asshole!” I shouted. “It's time to wake up and move.”

He blinked in clear surprise as he scrambled back, letting out a very loud and quite mare-ish shriek of surprise. “Don't kill me! I’m not a zebra!”

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at his antics. “I’m not going to kill you, doc. We need you more than you know,” I replied quietly and turned my ears to listen for the shouts of my comrades.

“Oi! Zebras!” Razorbeak’s shrill chirp-like voice pierced the air, just before a loud thudding roar of a heavy gun drowned out his reply. The sound was quite familiar to me, one that said it was Razorbeak’s rifle that fired large caliber rounds. It was distinct enough to know it anywhere.

Apple Cart was the first to crawl out of our hole while Razorbeak let loose with another short burst, likely not even hitting anything but doing enough to make whatever was on the receiving end cower in fear.

Motioning with my hoof for Banana Butt to follow, I headed up over the crater after Apple Cart, keeping low in case someone spotted movement through the smoke. Despite smoke grenades being useful, they did not create clouds of impenetrable fluffy clouds. Nay! They created clouds you could walk through that were wholly dependent on the wind. And the wind was blowing the smoke far to the east, giving me a full view of the bunker and what Razorbeak was shooting at.

Much like what Apple Cart had described. The bunker took a direct hit to the front with a bunker busting round, though ‘direct’ was not dead on center. More of to the bottom right with a large pony-sized hole in it. The rest of it, however, appeared intact and there looked to be a machine gun setup right smack dab in the center.

Bullet holes surrounded the machinegun’s mounting plate and more were added by the second thanks to Razorclaw’s suppressing fire. Should any zebra dumb enough go for the gun, they would surely die a horrible, yet quick death.

With a nod, I got up and trotted forward toward the smoke behind Apple Cart. She glanced at me and flashed a smile, eyes fluttering slightly. “Eh? Eh? I told you I could hit the bunker without being in the tank.”

I ignored her look and checked on Banana Butt. He was peering over the crater, eyes and ears on a constant swivel while he slowly looked around us.

“Why are you still shooting?!” he shouted to Razorclaw.

The half-pony, merely ignored him and kept shouting in what could only be described as drunk speech. I made no attempt at discerning what it was, as even when sober the purple hippogriff was incoherent.

“Apple Cart, how about you knock?” I asked her.

She nodded at me and dug through her bags. After a moment or two she withdrew a grenade clenched firmly in her teeth. A stupid, suicidal move but hey. What can you do when you're not a gryphon with claws or a unicorn with magic?

She rushed forward, grenade in mouth as she made her way toward the break in the concrete, but before she got there. She tossed her head to the side, throwing the grenade out in front of her, the pin somehow staying with her teeth. She jumped onto one of her forelegs, spun around and gave the grenade a swift roundhouse kick toward the bunker.

I quickly dropped to the ground, covering my ears with my hooves.

Apple Cart landed and did a quick roll, coming to a stop next to the hole where she had easy access for a second toss. Razorclaw, however, stayed standing like a fool and kept up the suppressing fire every so often.

“Oh fuck!” a mare yelled in Ponish from inside the bunker. Then the grenade went off with a hollow thud, filling the room with both light and shrapnel.

The voice caused me to frown deeply and narrow my eyes as the air around us became silent. Razorclaw had heard the voice, too. Judging by the fact that he stopped shooting and was looking over at me.

With no more shooting and no need for cover I quickly galloped across the gap and slid next to Apple Cart. She had already drawn another grenade in preparation, but I placed one of my hooves on hers and shook my head. “I don't think that’s needed.” My voice was low enough that she could hear me, but no one else.

She nodded slowly and grinned. “Okay. Ladies first.”

“Hah. Hah. Hah…” I deadpanned, hovering up the bolt-action rifle before running through the hole. What I saw inside made me stop dead in my tracks and take a step back, jaw dropping slightly.

I could not be sure at first if they had been ponies or zebras before, as most were piles of bloody paste on the ground or so covered in shrapnel and dust that it blocked their coats. One or two looked like they had sat far, far too long in the sun and were hairless, wrinkles covering every surface of their scorched body.

Hellcat’s shell could not have done such damage to the mare, so it was likely done before, yet there was no way a pony could live with their entire body burned like so. My eyes flicked from one mangled corpse to the next, seeing no signs of movement from any.

Beyond them and to the right lay a steel blast door with faint splotches of surface rust. It was shut, which meant we needed to cut through it to get to the complex on the other side. Smashed radio equipment and smoldering papers were to my left, a wall of few firearms and half-empty ammo cans next to the equipment.

“Clear!” I shouted loudly. “Collect what’s useful and—”

“Help…” came a faint, pain-filled voice from somewhere to my right. Raising the rifle to my eye, I glanced that way and followed it to its source, knowing that whomever owned it would be near death. Either it was a trap and they had a surprise grenade, or they were on death’s door.

The voice belonged to the heavily wrinkled pony… or zebra. However, if one were to go off the mare’s uniform then it would have been a pony. Her familiar green uniform with a patch of the 75th battalion was like a needle to my brain. The 75th had been left in Hollow Shades as a defense force when my unit was pulled out to support the advance into Zebrica.

The name on her tattered uniform simply read Merry. I slowly knelt down in front of the earth pony, leaning the rifle on the wall next to us. She could not hope to use it. Hell, judging by the massive piece of bloodied rebar jutting through her chest, and likely lung, I’d say she shouldn't even be able to speak.

She stared at me with wide hazel green eyes. “We thought…” Merry’s voice sounded to me like she had eaten a hoof full of rocks. “Raiders…”

“Raiders?” I asked, eyes narrowing slowly. “What are raiders?”

“They kill…” she took a deep breath and didn't even wince at it. If I were in her position I would be screaming in pain right about now, yet the wrinkled pony acted like it did not even phase her aside from long sentences. “For food, supplies. Been attacked three times… this month. You’re the fourth.”

I motioned to myself. “I’m not a raider, Private Merry. My name is Lilly of the Forgotten.” I turned to the side to show her my unit’s patch on my shoulder. “My unit and I have been making our way home from Zebrica since the Last Day. We would have bartered for supplies, but you gave us no choice. You shot first, Merry.”

“Funny… isn't it?” she asked.

“What is?”

“You and I fought so hard to save the city… Now look at us, dead mares walking the both of us. The lucky ones are dead. Soon, you will be like me.”

My lips pursed together. “What do you mean ‘like you’? What happened to you?”

She motioned with a shaky hoof toward the hole. “I was on the surface with many others… when the sky split in half. A green cloud of balefire... with a bright rainbow rose to the sky. My buddy lost his vision and went mad, shooting everything around him. I felt the wave wash over me, the warm hoof of death touching me and I died.”

I took a small step back, reaching for the rifle with magic. “But you're here talking to me. You're not dead. Just…” my eyes looked the mare up and down, noticing her horrific injuries that seemed to not phase her in the slightest. Indeed, it seemed that the shrapnel wounds were already starting to vanish. Pieces of the grenade were falling to the floor! Whatever the mare was, was pushing the shrapnel out of her body. “Just mostly dead,” I added.

Merry chuckled quietly, her voice sounding like rocks clanking in a bucket, and then shook her head. “Mostly dead… I’ll have to remember that.” She slowly held a hoof out toward me. “Please. Help me off this rebar.”

I shook my head and took another step back, quickly aiming the rifle at her face. “No… I don't want your curse. I don't want to become… whatever it is you are! I’m me, Lilly. Not some ugly gravel voiced zombie.”

“I am not… a zombie!” She hissed at me and glared.

“You are! You said you died, but you still live! Zombies are undead, and I don't know about you, but you look undead to me!”

“I still live thanks to the curse,” she growled. “Please, help me! I can't move my hind legs right now. If you help me, I swear I’ll help you. We can still trade like civilized ponies!”

I tried to process her words, tried to listen. My instincts, however, told me that she wanted to curse me. She said I would end up like her; an ugly, hairless bacon-skinned mare. And I didn't want any part of that. With a shake of my head, I stepped back again. “I am trying to get home, Merry. Do you understand? I want to settle down and have a family. You can't have a family if you're a zombie.”

She groaned and banged her head against the wall behind her. “You're an idiot, Bell…”

I turned around and walked toward the others. “Hey, doc!” I shouted loudly, shaking my head from side to side again. “I found a live one that needs your help!”

“Where?!” The radiation suit wearing stallion quickly trotted over to me with a look on his face that was a complete mask of worry and horror at the sight of the bunker’s interior. I could tell by his green face that he was lucky to not have eaten before we left.

I motioned toward the undead mare with a flick of my tail. “She’s back there. A private from the 75th by the name of Merry, shrapnel wounds and rebar through the lung.”

“Are you alright?” Banana asked me, eyes practically softening to a look I hadn't seen before from him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Lilly.”

“I’m fine. Just… do whatever the mare says and don't freak out.” Shaking my head in disbelief for the third time, I trotted over to the steel door to see what traps and death it could hold. Already Razorclaw, Apple Cart and the other stallion I forgot the name of, were busy inspecting it for traps.

“Freak out? Why would I freak out?!” Banana Butt asked.

I ignored him and focused on the three in front of me. We weren't Raiders. No, we were just looking for supplies and we’ll take them anyway we can, either through ruins, barter or… well, if they didn't wish to give them up… that’s what a rifle is for.

Author's Note

Hello!

I'd like to start off this message by saying thank you to all my lovely readers who have stuck with me thus far and keep coming back for more. You are appreciated and your comments keep me going forward with the project even if it seems like I am not writing.

Writing Shock has been an adventure for me just as it's likely an adventure to read. She was my first attempt to write a villainous character as the lead and started off as a one-shot idea. The chapter you have just read was written way back in 2017 during a time I didn't quite understand myself. It took me until 2019 to fully realize that I was trans and I've been on a journey of self-discovery since then, even though I had a feeling something wasn't right for the longest time before that year.

The reason there has been little to no updates since 2016 was because I lost almost all self-esteem during that time period and fell into a deep depression where I felt like I couldn't do anything right and everything I wrote was trash. I still struggle with it on occasion in addition to a hefty work schedule. So I apologize to you all if it seems like my updates are at random times throughout the years. I am also working on another Fo:E spinoff, which will be released into the wild soon.

I have not forgotten about Shock, but my progress writing her story will most likely be slow and updates infrequent. Again, I apologize for that.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.