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                 Resident Pony: Zero Hour                  
                      -by Grey Ghost-                      
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                         Chapter 1                         
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Chapter 1
Running. Thats all she could do. She didn’t dare turn around to peek at the dogs that nipped at her hooves. But... they weren’t really dogs were they? Dogs were cute, cuddly, loyal friends. These... MONSTERS were nothing like that. They were vicious, with pieces of their flesh hanging from their bodies and sometimes even missing. Their cloudy eyes held nothing but pure instinct, the instinct to feed.
It hurt not to try and help them but something in the back of her mind screamed at her to run. If given the chance, these monsters would take her life and feast upon whatever was left of her. A snarl to her left brought her out of her reverie, reminding her just how much danger she was in. A tiny part of her screamed to use her wings but it was drowned out by the pure terror that had clouded her mind.
A loud popping sound filled the air, causing the terrified pegasus to look up. A tall metal structure was up ahead, the light pouring in through its windows. A moment later, it started to rain, pelting her with water. One of the monsters nipped at her tail, causing her to scream. Acting on pure survival instinct, she galloped over to the structure and jumped through one of the windows, barely aware as she smashed through the glass. She tumbled inside, landing in a heap.
All was quiet for a moment, allowing her adrenaline rush to subside somewhat. She looked around, taking stock of her surroundings. It looked like she was in a hallway, with a pair of doors to her left and light coming from around a corner up ahead. She shakily got to her hooves, trying to collect herself. “H-hello?” she ‘called out’, though in reality it was a mere whisper. Moving down the hall, she listened to the rain as it hit the building, allowing the sound to soothe her. She rounded the corner, only to freeze up in horror. There, slumped under a window was a body. What kind of creature it was, she didn’t know, but it was dead and whatever killed it could still be around.
She slowly started to back away when the sound of breaking glass made her turn. Behind her, the creatures from before had returned, having jumped through the windows after her. One of them growled at her before charging, killing intent radiating off of it. She stood there like a deer in headlights before doing the only thing that came to her mind: she screamed.
Rebecca moved out of the passenger car as quickly as possible, making sure to close the door behind her, in some vain hope that the horror would be kept at bay. The rookie S.T.A.R.S. member had never imagined her first case would turn out like this. First their helicopter crashed, then the overturned MP truck, and now THIS. The one thing she never expected was to find a train just stopped in the woods. With the intent of doing a quick sweep before radioing in her find, she had stepped onto the train only to find a bloodbath. Bodies were everywhere, most having died in their seats.
It didn’t take more than a few steps for things to turn south. One of the bodies got up. She had assumed, like any good medic, that said body was still among the living and trying to get her to help. That was until several more got up, all staggering towards her with their arms outstretched. After a series of panicked thoughts, she did the only logical thing: she used her gun. Which reminded her... She quickly ejected her handgun’s current magazine, sighing in relief when she saw she still had half of it left. She reloaded it, pausing when she spied movement up ahead.
She took a breath, starting to move down the car. Whatever was up ahead had rounded the corner and disappeared from her sight. She made it to one of the doors before a pair of dogs burst through the windows. They looked about as decayed as the things in the passenger car, with one of them missing an ear. They ignored her, bounding toward whatever went around the corner. A shriek filled the air and Rebecca quickly slipped into her training. She took aim, firing off a shot, which caught the lead dog in the side. It yelped, tumbling into the wall. Its partner snarled at her, pouncing to attack. She cursed, ducking down to avoid its bite. She spun around, quickly firing a round into its skull. It let out a whine, spasming for a moment before going still. She wasted no time in turning around, firing off at the remaining dog, only stopping when it was laying in a pool of blood.
“Well... at least my aim didn’t catch my bad luck,” she muttered to herself, ejecting the now empty mag and shakily slipping in a new one. She moved slowly down the car, which was now silent... save for the sound of whimpering. She eyed the dog corpses suspiciously, keeping her finger on the trigger in case either decided to move. She stopped right before the corner, steeling herself for whatever was there. “Okay... ‘becca you can do this...” She quickly moved into position, aiming her gun at whatever it was. Now to be fair, she was mostly expecting a survivor, a most likely injured survivor. What was wasn’t expecting, besides the horrible situation she was in, was a quivering mass of pink and yellow... fur? She lowered her gun a little, trying to make sense of it. ‘It’ had a yellow coat and pink hair, with what looked like wings on its sides.
“Ok... I was definitely not expecting that...” Rebecca said, putting her gun in its holster. If any of her teammates were with her, they’d most likely berate her for putting her weapon away when confronting a possible threat but whatever it was looked utterly terrified.
“Hey, look,” she said, kneeling down, putting her hands up. “I‘m not gonna hurt ya, see?” she asked, trying to comfort the scared beast. It squeaked, curling in tighter on itself. Seeing that the creature obviously wasn’t going to attack her, she moved over to the body lying nearby. It hadn’t given any signs of life despite all the noise so Rebecca assumed it was just dead. ‘Never thought I’d hope that someone was dead,’ she thought humorlessly, searching through its pockets. Something made her pause, her gut telling her they weren’t alone. She turned her head slowly, spotting a man, not much older than herself, standing behind her, aiming a gun at her. “Billy,” she started, slowly getting to her feet, berating herself for letting him get the drop on her. “Lieutenant Coen.”
“So, you seem to know me,” Billy said, looking her over. “Been fantasizing about me, have you?”
“You were the prisoner being transported for execution, you were with those soldiers outside.” Rebecca said, more as a fact than an accusation.
“Ah I see, you’re with S.T.A.R.S.,” he smirked a little, lowering his gun. “Well no offense honey, but your kind doesn’t seem to want me around so I’m afraid our little chat time is over.” He stuck his gun in the back of his jeans and headed back down the car.
“Wait!” Rebecca called, chasing after him, “You’re under arrest!”
“No thanks, dollface,” he paused to look back at her. “I’ve already worn handcuffs,” he held up his arm, giving the pair that hung from his wrist a jingle. He then ignored her, moving toward the door.
“I could shoot, you know!” she called after him, feeling rather helpless as he just ignored her. ‘The captain is going to flip when he finds out about this.’ she thought to herself with an inward groan. A second later, another window shattered, this time with one of her team mates, Edward, tumbling into the car. “Edward!” she nearly shouted, rushing over to his side, “Are you alright?” she asked, checking his wounds, “What happened?”
He took a few breaths, trying to collect this thoughts, “It’s worse than... we can’t...” he turned to look at her.
“Shh... don’t talk,” she said, hastily ripping open her medical bag, already applying some gauze to his side.
“You must be careful... Rebecca... the forest is full of... zombies and monsters...” he continued, ignoring her instructions. He let out a long sigh before going limp.
“No, no, no!” Rebecca nearly screamed, frantically searching her bag for something to save her friend. “Richard!” she grabbed him by the shoulders, giving him a shake, tears running down her face. After a moment she let him go, his lifeless body slumping to the floor. Rebecca sat there in silence, quietly sobbing to herself.
“I’m sorry...” a gentle voice spoke from beside her. Rebecca slowly turned her head, her eyes widening in surprise when they landed on the creature from before. Now that it was standing up, she could clearly see it was some kind of miniature equine. “He was your friend wasn’t he?” it asked, speaking with a female voice.
Rebecca let out a small cry, quickly pulling her gun out, aiming it shakily at the creature. “D-did you just talk?”
“Y-yes...” she replied, shrinking away from the gun with a whimper. She didn’t know what it was, but she had heard what it did to the dogs.
“I’m going to put this away, okay? Please don’t make me use it.” Rebecca said, slowly putting her gun back in its holster, “and yes... Edward was my friend...” She cast a sad glance at him.
“I’m sorry, I wish I could help,” she said, moving over to Rebecca. “Thank you for saving me...” She scraped her hoof against the floor a bit.
“Hey its no big deal, I’m a S.T.A.R.S. officer, it’s what we do,” Rebecca replied, managing a small smile.
“Stars?” she asked, tilting her head adorably.
“Yeah, it stands for Special Tactics And Rescue Service. We’re like SWAT but we work specifically for the Racoon City Police department.”
“Oh so you’re like a guard,” the pony said with a smile.
“Yeah, you could say that. I’m Rebecca Chambers, it’s nice to meet you.” she held her hand out, giving her a smile.
“Oh... I’m Fluttershy...” the pony said, reaching out with a hoof. Rebecca grasped the hoof gently, giving it a shake.
“So, Fluttershy, how about we find a better place we can talk, hmm?” Rebecca asked, getting to her feet. She took her gun back out, making sure it was in working order. Fluttershy whimpered, backing away a little. “Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you, it’s just in case anything tries to hurt us, alright?”
“O-okay...” the little pony said with a nod, still shaking a little.
“First, we’re going to sweep the car,” Rebecca nodded at Fluttershy, moving back down the car toward the dead body. She knelt down in front of it, quickly retrieving the key she had spotted earlier. She cast a glance at the door on her right, which led to the next car. Next to the door was a console, which gave off a red glow. “I’m gonna assume that’s locked,” she said, getting up and putting the key in her pocket. She moved to the next door, only to find it locked. “Ok, two down...” she said, shaking her head. Fluttershy was silent, simply looking at the floor as she followed her protector. Rebecca moved up to the next door, turning the knob slowly, “Okay... I’m going to go in first okay? Stay close.” Rebecca pushed the door open, sweeping her gun across the room. It was empty, which she was thankful for. “This looks like as good a spot as any.” She quickly ushered her charge inside before shutting the door.
The room was a small sleeping area, with a pair of bunk beds against the back wall. The room itself was a mess, with a typewriter dominating the small table, with the beds covered in books. Rebecca pulled the stool out from under the table, taking a seat. She put her gun away, putting her head in her hands. The brief respite allowed her to clear her thoughts, and said thoughts started to overwhelm her. Tears threatened to escape her eyes, a soft whimper moving past her lips. A moment later, she felt something soft hug her leg. Opening her eyes, she looked down to see Fluttershy’s arms wrapped around her leg, her head up against the woman’s hip.
“It’s okay to be sad,” the little pony said soothingly, “Everypony loses somepony. I’ve lost some of my animal friends over the years.” She gave Rebecca a small smile, “But they wouldn’t want you to feel so sad, you’ll still have your memories of them.”
“T-thanks...” Rebecca said with a shaky smile. “I’ll keep that in mind,” Rebecca quickly composed herself, wiping at her eyes. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself Fluttershy, what’s a... pony like you doing here?”
“Well... I was supposed to be at a picnic...” Fluttershy pulled away from Rebecca, sitting on her haunches.
“A picnic, huh? How’d you end up here?” Rebecca asked, looking intently at the pegasus.
“Well...”
It was a week after we defeated Tirek. He’s this meanie centaur that tried to steal all our magic. We were going to celebrate Twilight’s new castle so we planned a picnic. My animal friends helped me pack up my portion and I went to go meet the others.
We picked this nice little spot near the Everfree forest that had the most adorable family of bunnies living nearby. We set everything up and we rather enjoying ourselves when this weird roar interrupted us.
“Oh my,” I eeped, shying away from the forest, hiding behind my mane.
“Oh relax, Fluttershy,” my friend Rainbow Dash said with a roll of her eyes. “We can handle anything the Everfree throws at us!”
“Rainbow, after everything that’s happened recently, I still think we should be a little careful. I’m just going to put up a shield.” Twilight charged her horn, only to cringe a little as a couple of small sparks shot out.
“Y’alright, Twilight?” Applejack asked with concern.
“Yeah, I’m okay...” Twilight said, giving a smile which quickly turned into a wince. She let out a cry as her magic went haywire, pulsing from her horn. It arced toward me and when it hit me, I screamed and everything went black.
When I woke up, I was in a really scary forest and I couldn’t find anypony. Then those... dogs started to chase me and I ended up here... where you saved me.
Fluttershy finished her tale, looking at the floor. Rebecca opened her mouth to speak when her radio went off. She quickly picked it up, listening in. Through the static, she could hear captain Enrico’s voice.
“You copy?” he asked, followed by static, “More information on... Coen...” Fluttershy looked like she was about to ask a question, but Rebecca gestured for her to stay quiet.
“Institutionalized... killed at least twenty-three people... careful...” Enrico’s voice trailed off, drowned out by the static.
“Enrico, this is Rebecca! Do you read me? Over?” she asked, hoping she’d get through. Her hopes were dashed as her only reply was static. “Captain! S.T.A.R.S. Bravo do you copy?” Again, there was only static. Rebecca sighed, getting to her feet, replacing her radio with her handgun. “Fluttershy, I know we just met and you don’t really know me but it’s my job to keep people safe. Will you come with me?”
Fluttershy looked up at the strange creature that had saved her, various choices going through her head. If she stayed here, the others could find her sooner. But... with no way to defend herself, staying here could get her killed... “Okay Rebeca... I’ll go with you.”
“Good, stay close to me okay?” Rebecca asked, hand on the door knob. Fluttershy nodded, moving over to her. Rebecca gave her the best smile she could before opening the door, the two of them moving back into the world that had suddenly become the very definition of hostile. Fluttershy merely hoped that her new friend was as nice as she seemed, and wondered how she would ever get home again.