The Trotting Dead Ep. 4: Beasts
There was a butterfly on the wall of an East End house.
A monarch...
A splash of color so rare to the world, especially so late in the winter, it was welcome in any form.
The butterfly took off, and landed on Pinkie's outstretched hoof.
The foals stood behind her, awing the tiny thing.
She gently turned and bent down to the foals, careful not to startle the insect.
Pumpkin Cake reached forward to pet its wings, and Pinkie was quick to pull it away. The butterfly flew off, startled, into the cool night.
"You can't pet a butterfly," The mare told the foal.
"Why?"
"Well, you'd hurt it. Butterfly wings are very weak. You'd remove its ability to fly, even though your intentions were good. In a way, you'd be taking its freedom away..."
"Oh, I do not want to hurt it..."
"I know, honey. Come on, it's almost your bedtime. Your aunty Twilight gets cranky if foals like you are out past curfew."
Pumpkin Cake climbed onto Pinkie's back, Pound Cake flying just behind them.
The foals were soon tucked into their rickety crib.
"You all ready for bed?"
"Yes, awnty," they said in unison.
Pinkie turned to leave the room, but Pound Cake intercepted her.
"Awnty?"
"Yes?"
"We shouwd go back to the bakerwy. We were safe there. Maybe Mama and Papa will find us there. We couwd be happy.''
The mare froze, recalling the sight of an undead Mr. and Mrs. Cake.
She could here Pumpkin squeak and whimper a little bit, she understood.
As much as it broke her heart, she needed to tell her little pegasus that all could not be well in that matter.
"..."
"Your Mom and Dad won't be coming back. And we can't go back to the bakery..." she said without turning her head (The foals couldn't see her crying!).
"W-why?" Pound asked, his voice quivering.
Pinkie bit her lip, sniffed, and wiped a plethora of tears from her eyes. "Mommy and Daddy won't come back. They can't care for you or love you anymore. They're gone, they're...they're dead."
Pound Cake was silent after that. Pinkie galloped over to the crib only to find that he was crying harder than she had ever seen him do so. Pumpkin, was pretending to sleep, but Pinkie sensed a terrible mix of sadness of closure within the filly.
The mare swept the colt from his place. "They didn't know what was going on, little one. None of us did, and your mommy and daddy just got unlucky."
Pound Cake buried his head in Pinkie's chest, letting his whimpers and cries slip away from his muzzle.
"Hey now, I promised them I would take care of you while they were gone. While I couldn't...while NOPONY could predict how far this would go, that was a Pinkie Promise. Just because its gotten difficult, I'll never leave you. And I'd go through herds of the bad things if only to keep you and your sister safe."
Pound Cake peered up at her with wet eyes.
"Go to bed, go to sleep. We're safer here than in the bakery, anyway. Okay?"
"Okay."
With the matter settled and the twins asleep, Pinkie Pie silently stepped to the door.
With some time to herself, the pink mare relaxed onto a recliner in her home. With the light of a blazing fire in the hearth, Pinkie began to reread Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny.
Despite the redundancy of the book, it made Pinkie nostalgic.
She had to wonder if it was like this over the entirety of Equestria. She wondered if Daring was safe in her isolated home, or if she died trying to find and make sure her family was safe. And what of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy? She knew AppleJack was...gone. A trotter she couldn't bear, and couldn't afford, to put down.
In time, even her worries submitted to exhaustion. Pinkie's eyelids grew heavy, and she fell asleep.
The mare awoke when a rolled-up piece of paper landed on her head.
Yawning, Pinkie removed the seal.
Pinkie,
A caravan has been spotted at the north entrance
Recon suggests passengers are heavily armed
Likely nothing, but we're having some of our
ponies check them out. Need your negotiation
skills to keep situation controlled.
~Twilight
Pinkie sighed. She quietly trotted to the twins' nursery, quickly making sure they were still asleep, then grabbed a First Aid Kit.
All was well at home, but what was to come of this caravan?
It was simple to tell where the disturbance was. A wall of ponies blocked Pinkie's view of the intruders, but she could see a line of covered wagons behind them.
Pinkie could tell that she was needed quick, a barrage of threats and insults was mixed in with guns poised to fire.
"Everyone calm down!"
"You're here to rob us! You just said that!"
"I said we needed a contribution to our supply stack."
"You had guns pointed at us. What should we have expected?"
"Now you can expect us to fire these guns up yo-"
No...
No more!
"Enough!" Pinkie bitterly spat above the voices of the small crowd.
All voices stopped, East Enders turned to face her, shock in their faces. They all lowered their firearms and parted to let the mare through.
The caravan ponies all had steeled, scarred faces. Their was a bit of confusion at the sudden stop of the argument, but their aims did not falter.
Pinkie lifted her eyes to the front wagon.
And in it,
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
Pinkie's jaw dropped, leaving her speechless.
Fluttershy saw her in the corner of her eyes. A smile wider than Pinkie had ever seen crept across her muzzle, and was quickly followed by tears. When Rainbow did not catch her, Fluttershy caught her attention to her.
Shock appeared on her face, followed by a quiet "Damn."
Curfew had been replaced by a small, quiet celebration. The rest of the living elements had been found! There was a tiny feast of peaches, twinkies, and daisies. A meal that was comparable to ambrosia in the local times.
Pinkie didn't join the celebration. No matter how happy she was, she needed to make sure the foals didn't become scared if they woke up without her.
She did invite her missing friends to her home, along with instructions on how to get there.
And soon enough, Rainbow Dash was knocking in the door.
Pinkie graciously invited her inside, asked if she wanted to set her flask down for a sober conversation (she said no), and finally sat down to catch up.
"Well, if you're going to drink, try not to drink too much. I don't want you to be too far from grace if the foals wake up."
"Y-you're a mother? You weren't pregnant before this, were you? You certainly won't showing!"
Pinkie chuckled. "The cake twins, not my own."
She glanced over to their room, her soft smile faded from her muzzle. "Pound Cake only just realize his parents are...gone."
"They were weak."
"Excuse me?"
"Something I've learned from all of this. Everypony who's one of things, those...trotters, is some pony who was too weak to make it in this world. Or somepony stupid enough to try to protect the weak."
Pinkie's jaw fell a little. She looked into Rainbow's eyes, and saw...she didn't know quite what, but it wasn't the Rainbow she once knew.
She looked away. I must be going crazy. It's Rainbow Dash!, she thought.
"I...When all this happened, I took them under my wing. I fed them, cared for them, I even got them to East End! They're my foals now. ...I love them."
"Guess they couldn't really have done better. You were pretty motherly beside them, almost more than their actual mother."
"We...we saw them. We found out about the trotter scent that could disguise, that's how I got us all here. We saw them...trotters in the crowd."
After that, there was a long silence
Rainbow glanced around. "So,...uh...Nice place you have around here. Not quite defendable."
"You'd be surprised. Twilight has kept this place rather orderly and protected."
"Even so, even if everyone here could wield a gun, do you think this place'd hold off a herd of trotters? Or if bandits attacked, would everyone make it through alive?"
Pinkie hadn't thought of any of that.
"I've tossed the idea at Twilight. She's considering it."
"What idea?"
"I have a plan to move every east ender to my group's residence. I have completely fortified the city hall, and plenty of areas around it. It's a strong habitat for anyone; the strong, the weak. Even the foals. Twilight wants your opinion before she decides if it's a good idea to move everyone there. Think about it."
Pinkie stared at the foals' room. She couldn't push aside the feeling that she was agreeing to a deal with Hades.
Still, they went. They all went.
It was a bumpy ride, but Pinkie's tired demeanor was too strong to ignore. She quickly dozed off in her covered wagon.
Fluttershy woke her up.
She wasn't the same.
Even Pinkie felt the air of hatred around her. She didn't seem too happy about bringing East End to the camp.
"We're here," she said, and abruptly flew off.
Setting the lethargic twins on her back, Pinkie bounded off the wagon.
The first thing she saw was the barrier.
It was horrific!
Fifteen, maybe eighteen feet tall.
Made of dispatched trotters, there were even some living, though they were harmless. Stuck on pikes.
Rainbow seemed to lavish their presence.
She shielded the foals' eyes, and continued through an opened doorway.
"Welcome," Rainbow started "To the Capitol."
"You'll all be assigned to duties that will be based on your cutie-mark. If your marks aren't related to any job, you'll be put to work in the yard. For now, report to the warehouse. There, we will take all new recruits into account."
A gruff stallion gestured over to a large building. The various East Enders began to trot over to it.
"One more rule!" Rainbow called, halting the crowd.
"There will be...consequences for those who break our rules or can't pull their weight."
It was a disturbing sign.
Leaving her foals with Fluttershy, Pinkie started towards the warehouse, unsure of what would become of her.
Entry 1
Feria Quinta, November 11, Age of The Dragon
It's been two weeks since East End has transferred to "The Capitol".
It hasn't been pleasant, I'll admit that much.
Fluttershy gave me this journal, told me it was important to write down every
thing that happens to me while I'm here. She isn't the same, she's a real downer
to be around. She hates Rainbow, but she almost never leaves her side. Said
she needs to make sure Rainbow "doesn't do anything drastic" to survive.
I agree with her.
Rainbow is...corrupt almost seems like an understatement. I know this mare
must be traumatized by what's happened, we all are. But some of the things
She does to ponies to punish them are far beyond questionable. And when Capitol foals
do things wrong, she brings up Scootaloo. She says she couldn't handle the
rules of the place. So instead of taking the reasonable option of seeing
somepony about it, she dragged Sweetie Belle and Applebloom away from
the place. She says they were too weak, they died.
I'm beginning to think that this isn't the Rainbow Dash we knew at the start
this.
I was very close to being put to work in "the yard". Which basically means I
was almost put to work capturing live trotters for guard-dogs and pulling weeds.
The longer I'm here, the more ponies get amputated or killed because they were
bitten. Rainbow made sure I became the Capitol's negotiator.
Rarity (a miner. Yes, the capitol has miners) isn't doing well, either. She was with Sweetie Belle at the start of it.
Apparently, she was hiding something big, and when her sister found out,
she left. Poor mare was pretty unnerved when she learned her sister was
dead. I did find out about the secret she was hiding. She called me up to
her room one night, and I found her staring at a family album...
Rarity's parents had died after the outbreak. Against her intuition,
She hid it from Sweetie Belle. She's driving herself to the brink of sanity.
How many am I going to lose to this place?
Pinkie shut the journal. Sleeping foals to her right, a window overlooking the yard to her left.
She looked through the window. Twenty-eight ponies were partially missing limbs.
I was almost put there...
Pinkie Pie herself was becoming unnerved by the Capitol.
The other night, Rainbow Dash called her down to the basement, where three scared ponies were tied up,
one was Inkie.
Rainbow told her that they tried to escape, so they needed to be made an example of.
Pinkie watched in horror as two of the ponies were shot square in the head. A shotgun at such a close range caused quite the splatter. Every head shattered would bathe everyone in the room with blood.
Trotter blood, Pinkie could handle.
But this? This blood belonged to ponies who hadn't done much wrong...
Rainbow, she loved the bloodbath. Smiling as each victim suffered.
Inkie was the last one.
Rainbow grabbed the gun away from her executor, and tossed to Pinkie.
"You are soft, Pinkie Pie. Borderline weak. Kill her."
Inkie struggled against her binds, screaming, crying like a child who scuffed their knee. She looked into Pinkie's eyes, reducing her cries to a soft whimper.
"I-I'm NOT doing this!"
Rainbow set her bloodied hoof on Pinkie's faltering shoulder, chilling her friend.
Deep down, a part of her wanted to aim the gun at RD.
She stood their for so long, racked with indecision.
After several minutes, Rainbow Dash frowned, and grabbed the gun from Pinkie.
Their was no hesitation, and she smiled.
Pinkie froze to her spot, watching her last sister die before her eyes.
Rainbow's coat was crimson with blood. "Something you need to learn Pinkie. Killing the weak so the strong could live is part of survival. Part of evolution. Those ponies were too weak to stay here, they chose to die, in a way."
Pinkie trudged back up the stares, eyes wide and unblinking.
She stared at the journal. Writing a final thing.
The foals aren't safe here, and I promised that I wouldn't let that happen.
I have to escape...
When Pinkie came downstairs for breakfast, she found Twilight and the rest of the elements (Except, of course, Rainbow and AJ).
Rarity subtly gestured for Pinkie to join them.
The mare's stomach growled, hungry for food, but that could wait.
Spread over the table was a map of Ponyville, a marked circle around The Capitol representing the Trotter-barrier.
"The herd is coming tonight. RD will be distracted with last-minute preparations. We can escape, but we'll need to take nothing but a few supplies with us."
"Escape?" Pinkie joined the mares at the table. "Yeah, escape!" She smiled.
"I'd thought she'd be more reluctant..." muttered Rarity.
"Why would I be reluctant? This place is worse than the trotters."
They stared blankly at her for a few seconds.
"No real reason..." Twilight whispered.
"We're ready to go tonight. I've taken one of the wagons, and put some necessities within. I've set my alarm clock to eleven. Based on my calculations, that will be just before the herd invades. I'll grab you all, and we should be ready to go."
The four mares nodded.
11:00:02
Fluttershy's alarm went off. She climbed out of her cot.
With silent hooves, she walked down the hallway, knocking softly at Twilight, Rarity's doors. They responded with soft taps, but Pinkie wasn't there.
11:02:29
Something the mares couldn't predict, Rainbow having Pinkie for cocktails.
Fortunately, Pinkie offered to make one of these cocktails her. And instead of just putting in the standard ingredients, Pinkie added a few drops of the sedatives used in the infirmary to the drink.
Rainbow was out in a few minutes.
Pinkie still needed to grab the twins, but her friends had to have been worried by now.
She'd have to check in, get her foals, and get back to the wagon in a few minutes.
11:04:52
"We can't wait for Pinkie too much longer, the herd will be here soon!" Fluttershy said, plumes of winter-breath spreading from her mouth.
"She's coming, just give it a few more-"
"I'm here!" Pinkie interrupted Twilight.
"Ready to go?" asked Rarity.
"I need just a minute more. The twins are still in my room. I need to-"
There was a sudden, acute pain in the back of her head.
The world around her blurred and spun, and the ground grew below her.
Then everything was black.
11:06:01
Escape successful
