The Page of Pride

The pages of the Necronomicon

Paragraph five

Shadows in the sky

Now that the motors had stopped whirring, everything was drenched in silence. The drivers looked at each other and back at Twilight. “A-Appleboom?!” Twilight stared in disbelief at the monitors.

“Do you know her, ma’am?”

Twilight completely ignored the question and turned around. “Open the trailer!”

“Yes, ma’am!” The drivers saluted in unison.

“And tell my students that they’re to rest now! I’ll call them when needed, until then they are not allowed to do anything!” With that Twilight left the cockpit and made her way to meet a long lost friend.

----[一]----

On the top of a hill two ponies stood. Their coats had lost the colours they had once worn; both to be replaced with dull-green colours that covered their coats. Scars littered their body and bones were showing; their ribcages and jaws were exposed and most of their flesh was rotten. The spark of life in their eyes had long been gone, the white of their eyes had stained and their irises had become dull.

“So this is it?” Vinyl asked.

“We’re almost there…” Octavia replied.

Their gaze was indifferent and cast down as they stared at the forest. Both were aware what they had to do, and without a free will of their own they could not disobey their orders

“Did he really have to show off again? There is absolutely no need for so many zombies."

Masses of zombies filled the plains in front of the Everfree forest with the occasional super-zombie sticking out of the masses. The sky was covered in spots. Shadows of gryphons and Pegasi were whizzing around the skies, making sure that nopony secretly left the forest.

In the distance a few shadows were accelerating towards another trio of shadows. Chasing them from one part of the forest towards another.

“That one won’t make it…” Vinyl pointed at the third shadow who was considerably slower than the other two shadows. She looked closer and could see the other shadows coming closer and closer. “Yes…” She leaned in, expecting her prediction to come true. The third one got hit and fell down, falling through the roof of the forest. Vinyl stopped looking in the distance and sighed, “Lucky bastard.”

“Not for long I’m afraid.” Octavia shook her head. “This is the worst part, knowing what we’re about to do…”

“Well… at least we’re not doing it out of free will, right?” Vinyl grinned at Octavia in an attempt to lighten the mood of her companion.

“That doesn’t make it easier to sleep at night…” Octavia shook her head.

Both became quiet for a mooment until Vinyl spoke up again. “You’re silly… we don’t have to sleep…” Vinyl looked in the distant to see another horde of zombies approaching from Ponyville. She shrugged and resumed to walk towards the forest. “Come on, I don’t want to have to press through all those corpses…”

Octavia poked the ground. “You’re right… the earlier we end this, the better.” She then followed her companion down the hill, both heading towards their target.

----[一]----

The trailer opened and Twilight stepped outside. Applebloom was already waiting for somepony to come out but her face shifted in disbelief as she saw who exited the vehicle. Her eyes glistened from tears and her mouth hung slightly open. Slowly, the corners of her mouth curled up into a smile, she blinked the tears away and ran towards Twilight.

“Twilight!” A small tremor was audible as she spoke the name of the pony she had thought dead for so long. She threw her hooves around Twilight’s neck and hugged her intensively. “You’re alive!”

Twilight returned the hug with awkwardness, for in these years of pain and horror she had forgotten how a real hug felt. Not one of pity or sorrow like she had often gotten from Fluttershy or a reassuring one like Applejack would always give, but a hug out of happiness and relief that something good had happened. “Yes…” Twilight smiled slightly for a short time before breaking the hug, realising that she was wasting precious time. “I’m sorry, Applebloom, but we have not much time. You’re all in danger!”

Twilight explained her that Cerberus had picked up their signal, and that our strategic advisor knew that the zombies would attack the settlement if they would not evacuate soon.

Applebloom just sat there in shock. “Z-Zombies… are coming?”

Twilight nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

Applebloom lowered her gaze and cowered to the ground. “B-But… We were safe here…” She slowly slipped into a small sob.

Twilight sat next to her and patted her back. “Applebloom, I know that you’re afraid. But I need you to be strong for now. We have a base in the mountains of Canterlot. If we’re fast, we can evacuate the settlement and leave without having to deal with any zombies!”

“Why is this taking so long?!” Crafted Shadow walked out of the trailer, but before Twilight could react, the zombie was already in full sight. In the meantime Applebloom had looked up and screamed in terror at the sight of the zombie.

Twilight tried to calm her and hold her so she wouldn’t run away, but the farmpony was stronger and freed herself from Twilight’s grip. She ran until a purple screen blocked her path and formed like a bowl around her, leaving the only way to move towards Twilight. Applebloom desperately cowered against the screen in an attempt to make herself as small as possible and the distance between the zombie and herself as big as possible.

“You’re an idiot, Crafted!” Twilight glared.

He lighted another cigarette and looked dumbfounded at Applebloom’s fear reaction. “What?”

Twilight facehooved. “Are you really that insensitive, or do you just pretend to be?”

Crafted shrugged. “Hey, she would have seen me sooner and later.”

Twilight tried to move as slowly as possible towards Applebloom, fearing that any sudden movement would only scare her more. “It’s ok, Applebloom,” She whispered, “He belongs to us, he’s not dangerous… just an idiot!” She glared daggers at Crafted who couldn’t help but grin a bit.

“Well, I have to say that your sister is way more polite…” He took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke.

Applebloom lifted one of her hooves that was covering her nuzzle so she could see Crafted with one eye. She was shivering, but none the less tried to utter a sentence. “M-Mah, sister?”

“You’re Applebloom, right? Your sister has told me a lot about you..” Crafted started chatting with her like a genuine smoker: he waved his cigarette in every direction as he cited some things that Applejack had told him over the years. Some of the trouble she had caused as a filly, some embarrassing stories and a few things that only Applejack knew she had done.

“She’s… alive too?”

“Alive and well, as are your two friends.” Crafted grinned, which was maybe not the best idea since it distorted his already mangled face. “Now, little filly. Could you show us the way to your settlement before it is too late? Because the zombies that are coming are not as fond of me either, and I would like to avoid having to fight them.” He motioned everypony to enter the dragonfly and accompanied Applebloom and Twilight towards the cockpit. It was obvious that Applebloom didn’t feel comfortable next to the undead, but clinging to Twilights side seemed to calm her.

The motors were turned on again and we continued our way to the settlement.

----[一]----

The dragonflies halted in front of a clearing in the middle of the forest. The trailer opened and Applebloom jumped out of the vehicle.

“GUUUUYS! WE’RE ‘N PROBLEMS!” Applebloom yelled throughout the settlement, but she didn’t get a reply. “GUYS REALLY WE HAVE TO GO, ZOM—” Applebloom was cut off as a cry of agony resonated through the settlement.

A whole bunch of ponies and gryphons had gathered around a yellow Pegasus who was missing a part of his hind leg.

“Echo! What happened?!”

“Echo and his friends went out again. It looks like he was the only one who made it back. Unfortunately not in one piece… I’m afraid that he’ll turn into a zombie too…” One of the settlers had come over to Applebloom.

“Let’s see about that!” Again, before Twilight could protest against the impulsive decision of her undead companion, Crafted spurted out of the dragonfly and towards the group, pushing everypony aside. It took almost two seconds before somepony screamed and the group scattered. Crafted leaned in to Echo’s face and pulled his eyelids up to check his eyes.

“Lucky bastard…” He stood up and turned towards the group of ponies he had just scared away, only to see that multiple gun barrels were pointed at his face. He startled and took a careful step backwards. “Whoah, everypony calm down.”

“Don’t shoot him!” Applebloom threw herself in front of Crafted Shadow and looked with pleading eyes at the ponies who were wielding the guns. “He’s nice, really!”

“Get away from that monster, Applebloom!” One of the ponies commanded.

“No!”

“Don’t make me shoot you too!”

“And who will grow all our food then?!”

“I’m serious!”

“N—” Applebloom was cut off as Crafted pushed her gently away. He shook his head in a way that ordered the mare to not interfere and then focussed back on the ponies who wielded the guns.

“You’re right! I am a monster.” He quickly pulled the barrel towards his brow and grinned. “The question is… can you slay a monster?”

Beads of sweat formed on the brow of the gun-wielding pony and his breath became more and more laboured. He put his hoof on the trigger, ready to pull it and getting more and more uneasy as Crafted just kept on grinning.

“Before you kill me –” The trigger was halfway as Crafted interrupted the pony. “– I would like to say that you can still save that pony if you stop the bleeding. He’s not dead enough for the process to start.”

Everypony looked confused at the zombie and responded in completely silence… well, except for the pony who was screaming in agony.

Crafted deadpanned. “Look, if you’re not going to kill me you could at least start helping that pony there.”

The gunpony signed some of the other ponies to help Echo, yet kept his focus—and his gun—on Crafted.

Crafted let go of the barrel and walked towards us again only to be stopped by the gunpony again. “Y-YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”

Crafted sighed so that everypony could hear it, and turned around to look the gunpony back in the eyes. “Look, I have stuff to do, and I already saw that you don’t have the balls to kill me.”

The gunpony got more aggressive and took a step towards Crafted. “You’re listening to me, maggot sack!”

Crafted smiled and encountered the behaviour of the gunpony by taking a step forwards himself. “Oh, is that so?!”

“CRAFTED!” Twilight interrupted the showing off of the zombie. “Zombie invasion! We have no time for this.”

“By the heavens, it’s the princess!” Everypony looked away from Crafted and realised that they were in the presence of a princess. Everypony bowed, which made Twilight feel more and more uncomfortable as they all seemed to wait for her to command them to do something.

“No, please, I’m not—”

“THAT IS RIGHT EVERYPONY!” Crafted jumped in front of Twilight. “YOUR PRINCESS IS ALIVE AND WELL! SHE HAS COME TO WARN YOU AND BRING YOU ALL IN SAFETY! THESE YEARS LEARNING THE DARK ART OF NECROMANCY, SHE CREATED A WEAPON AGAINST THESE ZOMBIES! AND I AM THAT WEAPON!!”

Twilight grinned awkwardly and leaned in towards Crafted and whispered through her gritted teeth: “Crafted? What the fudge are you doing?”

Crafted winked...kind of. his eyelids were not as lubricated as normal eyes which made it look weird and unnatural. “I’m accelerating things, you can kill me later.”

The gunpony stood up and came a little closer to Twilight. “Princess, we were not aware that this zombie belongs to you. We apologise for being disrespectful for your creation.”

“Right, my… creation…” She looked at Crafted and glared at him, but before Twilight could say anything more, Crafted jumped back in front of her.

“There is no need for apologies, my master is aware that it is more than normal to react to a zombie like that. She has even given me a free will as long as I do everything for the good of the pony nation, thus could you be so friendly and bring us to your leader!”

----[一]----

“Zecora!” Applebloom chirped when she, Twilight and Crafted entered Zecora’s hut. Zecora in the meantime was attending to the missing leg of Echo. The Pegasus was meanwhile in narcosis and Zecora had wrapped the leg in a thick layer of bandages. Zecora turned around to greet Applebloom.

“Welcome back dear Applebloom, may I ask why you’re here so soon?” However, her smile faded as she saw the two other ponies. She gave a dirty look as Crafted entered. But as Twilight entered all her emotions simply vanished. Her look didn’t suggest happiness nor rage nor surprise nor hatred, her look was ice cold and Twilight could feel those eyes inspecting her. Twilight looked down and averted those cold eyes.

Crafted looked back and forth between the two. “Whoah… normally I’m the one to get that look.” He settled on the first chair he could find and took out a box of cigarettes. “Do you mind if I smoke one?” Zecora shook her head. Crafted lighted his cigarette and took a deep drag of his cigarette and straightened himself, taking a more professional pose. “I assume you’ve heard my speech out there?”

“I could hear it loud and clear, but it didn’t explain what brought you here.” Her gaze didn’t leave Twilight.

“Your little broadcast.” Crafted nodded and sighed, “I have to say that you’re very noble. I can imagine that most settlements wouldn’t want to share their resources with outsiders. But, I’m afraid that by telling the world of this safe harbour, you’ve practically invited the zombies to come and destroy it…”

The zebra’s eyes sprung open, but soon they softened and she smiled knowingly. “The forest cannot be entered by the dead, the tree doesn’t allow their chaos to spread.”

Crafted took another drag and shook his head as he exhaled another cloud of smoke while he spoke, “I’m here…”

She looked at Twilight and back at the zombie. “I know that dark art well, and shadows here cannot dwell. Since 'tis Twilight who holds your chain that is the reason you remain.”

Crafted chuckled.

“What is this devil's brood? What has thou in such a mood?”

He pointed at Twilight. “She didn’t create me. I’m one hundred percent pure darkness.”

Zecora stood up and smacked Twilight in the face. “YOU LED HIM HERE WITHOUT DISGUISE, TO MAKE SURE OF OUR DEMISE!”

“I didn’t…” Twilight said as she rubbed the sore spot.

Zecora prepared for another blow, but got pulled back as tendrils of shadow wrapped around her hooves and barrel. The shadows immobilized her and turned her around so that she face Crafted whose expression had hardened. “What the buck is your problem?!”

“SHE LEFT US IN A TIME OF NEED TO SUFFER THE SINS OF YOUR KIND'S GREED!”

“SHUT UP!”

Zecora fell silent as Crafted lashed out. “You really think that she alone could have avoided this?! That she could have stopped my former masters if even the dragons couldn’t stop us?!”

Crafted stood up and let the shadows evaporate, making Zecora fall to the ground, and headed for the door. “Bring me every map you have, I need all knowledge you can provide of the terrain… we have to find a way out.”

“What are you going to do now, Crafted?” Twilight asked.

Shadow oozed out of his body forming two wings that he folded to his barrel. He looked back and smiled. “I’m going to clear the skies.”