Chapter 18-Hollyhoof Undead:Take 2

Hollyhoof Undead: Take Two

“NO you shut up!”

“No YOU shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

Applejack rolls her eyes as she once again wishes to the point of selling her own soul that she could move her hooves, if only to cover her now bleeding ears. When Noteworthy had threatened to kill her if she didn’t come along (And deciding that following the two enemies to see what they were up to) the two ponies had alternated between glorifying the destruction of her town with their psychic powers and arguing with each other. And if that wasn’t enough the pointless bickering would follow the same predictable pattern.

Caramel would insult Noteworthy’s ‘hobbies’ involving his stand power and his ‘necrophilia’. Then Noteworthy would make a thinly veiled insult that would take Caramel a few seconds to understand. Finally Caramel would retaliate with a very loud proclamation of his own superiority and they would argue until something else distracted them or they ran out of breath.

Frankly if Applejack had to choose between watching the destruction and waves of plagues and undead unfolding before her, and listen to the two bickering, she would probably have chosen to feed herself to zombies ages ago. Yet thanks to Caramel’s power she was barely able to move an inch of her own accord and thus was unable to do anything aside from listen to the two argue at the top of their respective lungs.

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“How about both of you SHUT UP!” Applejack yells at the top of her lungs “Ah’m getting real sick of yer bickering, if yer gonna force me ta watch the destruction of mah town the least ya can do is keep me from hearin yer pointless arguing!”

Applejack’s own fore hoof picks itself off the ground delivering a curt and powerful slap to the mare’s face “Don’t you tell our boss to shut up!” The maw shouts “How about You shut up for a change, you’re throwing off the boss’s impressive flow you dig?”

“Yeah don’t insult me!” Caramel turns to the mare “Ize know that this Necrophiliac voice is annoying as heck but that’s no reason for youzes insult!”

“Caramel my dear even if I took the time to straighten out your grammatical mess you call your conversation skills then you would no doubt still be unable to pass a garbage pony.”

Pushing his face right up to the blue unicorn Caramel snorts like an enraged bull “Ize has no idea of what youze just said but from the smug tone of yer voice it sounds like youze are trying to insult me!”

Mustering up every sarcastic bone in his body the stallion rolls his eyes with enough force to pop a blood vessel “And the high school dropout says the most insightful thing he has said all night! What brilliant powers of deduction!”

“Well, why don’t ah take mah hoof and shove it up youze…..”

“IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA! SHUT UP!!” Applejack yells at the top of her lungs “Yawl are makin me sick, an not just cause yer tryin ta kill everypony!!”

The mare’s loud shout seems to have broken the two out of their argument as they cease their infighting to glare at each other resentfully. Deciding that any second that they’re not talking is good second Applejack attempts to take the ball and run with it guiding the conversation away from something that two can argue about.

“What’s yer deal anyways?” Applejack asks while channeling a great deal of her exasperation “Ah mean do ya really feel good about razin an entire town? Think about it! That’s hundreds of ponies that yawl are making suffer!” Applejack gestures over to the town with a nod of her head putting her all into one last appeal to appeal to the moralities of two mobsters in a last ditch effort to save her town. “Is this what you really want to do with yer lives? Kill ponies and bring sufferin? Is this really what yer life’s about? Is this somthin that yawl can be proud of?”

Both mobsters look at each other and then at the town before them, from their view on the top hill they can see it all. Their handiwork is visible to all the world in all its twisted monstrosity. As they gaze upon the wreckage of the town for the briefest of moments Applejack believes that she has finally made an impact on the stallions that her words have actually managed to pierce through their icy hearts. With a swift turn of their heads both Noteworthy and Carmel turn back to the mare, clear their throats and say…..

“Yeah I think this IS what I want to do with my life!” Caramel states happily

“And finally something we can agree on.” Noteworthy smiles to himself

“What?!” Applejack gasps as she steps back in horror. “Why…. How… What…. Are you two insane?! Yer talkin about razin a town, mah town, an killin fer the heck of it! How could ya possible want ta do somthin like that?! Just how sick are ya that this….” Applejack gestures to the burning buildings down the hill “….. is somthin any pony would want?”

Both stallion cease their little chuckling at the orange mare’s naive nature as Caramel clears his throat approaching the mare “Look kiddo. Weze knows that youze gotts problems with killin an that’s fine and all fer a minx like youze.  But if yoze have heard of the phrase ‘ya can’t make an omelet without crackin a few eggs’ then yoze will know what ize mean.”

Gesturing out towards the overrun town the corrupt stallion straightens his dirty suit as he smiles in pride. “The fact of the matter is, Ize got an Impressive job here tonight ta ‘take care’ of any problems tha boss has. So what if a few ponies get whacked, it’s all part of the job!”

“And for once I agree, despite my partner’s butchered accent.” Caramel shoots a sharp glare at the Blue unicorn in response to his pointed words. “To bring lasting peace to pony kind is the goal of any self-respecting pony. And nothing is more peaceful than a body at rest. Therefore bringing death is tantamount to bringing salvation!”

The zealous priest extends his hooves to the moon above as his fanaticism reaches its crescendo. “Ponies may fear death but when it is embraced and accepted then purification from the filth of the world can be achieved.”

 “Now do youze see Minx?” the stallion smiles as his putrid alcoholic breath fills the mare’s nostrils “Killin aint personal, it’s just a job! An youze can’t be mad at two ponies fer doin their jobs, right?”

Applejack sighs at her own situation wondering what evils she must have performed in a past life to deserve to be tied at the hip with two of the most horrible ponies in existence. “Can somepony just put me out of mah misery already?”

“I agree with the mare.” Noteworthy looks over to her as he readies his skeleton of a stand to strike at Applejack’s heart. “She is one of the targets and she is fated to die. Let me bring the peace of death to her.”

“An Ize ah said No!” the stallion swats away the hoof of the Blue unicorn “Youze keep yer hooves off her Ize say when we knock her off an not before. She’s bait fer the others, for the other minxes. They’ll come back fer a rescue an then….” The stallion rubs his hooves as he contemplates thoughts of revenge. “….And then…. I’ll add her and her friends to my harem.”

“YOUR WHAT!?!” Applejack yells at the top of your lungs her disbelief and disgust rising with every word spewing forth from the gangster’s vile tongue.

“Youze heard me minx! See I’ve got me a whole bunch of pretty mares like youze.” The stallion grins as her strokes the mare’s pelt and the mouths sticking out of her skin. “All under mize command. Doin whatever ah want them ta do. An let me tell youze, if yer friends are half as pretty as youze ah think that we’ll be getting along pretty well.”

Applejack shudders as this time it is Noteworthy that swipes the stallion’s hoof away. “Caramel that is highly inappropriate!”

“Thank Celestia.” The mare sighs in relief.

“The boss gave us orders to kill all the stand users in ponyville and that was a direct order.” Noteworthy states harshly “Not in a harem, not under our control. Dead, as in a peaceful death, not your abomination of life.”

“What?” The stallion looks over to the mare with lustful eyes. “Surely you want to live don’t you minx? Just say the word an you can be number fourteen of my special little club. Come on! Youze will get anything youze want and serve a hot stallion like me fer tha rest of yer days!” The stallion grabs her cheeks with his hooves as he looks deep into her eyes “so what do youze say?”

Applejack looks into the eyes of the wicked stallion before her, the very act of him touching her skin filling her with a level of revulsion that she didn’t think was possible. Suddenly in response to Carmel’s question the mare opens her own mouth as she mulls over her options. “What do ize say?” Applejack asks as curiosity courses over Carmel’s dull face. Reaching deep down inside her, deeper than any pony thought possible the mare clears her throat and spits the mother of all lougies directly in the stallion’s face. As the spittle drips down the his face the mare grins cockily. “That’s mah answer. Is that clear enough fer you?”

 “…..Can I kill her now?”

Caramel slaps the Blue unicorn upside the head “Shut up youze necrophiliac!” reaching into his suit pocket the stallion pulls out a small handkerchief to brush the spit out of his face. “So youze think that youze are too good fer ol Caramel here? That youze are too good fer me!? Well ize know exactly how to break stubborn mares like youze!”

The stallion grins evilly as he slowly approaches the paralyzed mare her hooves unresponsive to her desire to flee as the stallion’s muzzle comes to within inches of the mare. As the mare struggles to move she watches in fear as Caramel extends his hoof towards her face as she pictures all the horrible things that this stallion can do to her. Yet defying the mare’s expectation she feels neither pain or discomfort as the stallion extends his hoof to the orange farmer’s golden locks his very touch sending cold shivers through her spine. With almost tender dexterity the stallion brushes the mare’s exposed mane with practiced precision creating a soothing feeling in the mare despite her attempts to pry herself from his grasp. Yet the evil glint in Carmel’s eyes tells the mare beyond a shadow of a doubt that his intentions are the furthest thing from a compassionate act. “Tell me Minx.” Caramel asks softly.

 “Tell me…….” The stallion continues “have youze had your first kiss yet?”

Applejack’s eyes widen in terror, color flashes from her face as she realizes where the stallion’s inquiries are heading. With desperate fury the mare flails about in an attempt to move away from the loathsome stallion before her only to find her hooves planted in the ground by his equally loathsome power.

Smiling at the mare’s struggles the stallion moves his muzzle closer to the “No?! So youze haven’t kissed yer special somepony yet?” The stallion grins at the mare’s desperate attempts to escape “Probably not. Well then remember this ya minx yer first wasn’t somepony ya liked! It was me Caramel Cider who took youzes first kiss!”

Applejack struggles, she flails about with all her strength; however the discolored sores across her body move her face closer towards the stallion. Caramel grins in a twisted sense of pride as the mare forces herself towards him, her lips ripe for the conquest as the wicked stallion closes his eyes and moves in for the kill. Puckering his lips comically the stallion inches closer to the mare all his thoughts focused on the spoils he is about to reap.

‘Now give me some sugar ya minx!’

Suddenly two pairs of lips meet and the stallion dives in exploring every crevice of the pony’s mouth with his rough liquor flavored tongue. ‘HA it’s over!’ The stallion thinks to himself as he continues to take advantage of the open orifice, his eyes clenched in deep pleasure ‘Now that ize has stripped away this stubborn mare’s pride she belongs solely to me! To turn her into a mindless fool I won’t let her have any other friends or lovers, only me Caramel Cider! Soon she’ll turn inta a fool with nothin ta live for an then she’ll be all mine!”

“BRUGHA!”

The stallion clenches his eyes even tighter at the offending sound ‘Humph, sounds like some pony lost their lunch. It seems like that Necrophiliac Noteworthy couldn’t handle the sight of a real stallion conquering a mare! Ize knew that he was a freak.’

“Urrp. That is…. The most disgusting thing…..that ah have ever seen Urp…..”

‘Humph talk all youze want Noteworthy but yer not……’ the stallion’s mind suddenly snaps to attention ‘Wait a second!? That voice, that didn’t sound like that necrophiliac, it sounded like…… Applejack? But that doesn't make sense that minx is right….”

The stallion opens his eyes to the figure before him, and his heart stops completely. Caramel’s eyes open to the figure in front of him, however instead of the beautiful orange coated southern belle he thought he was making out with he finds a ragged decrepit corpse. The yellow coated pegasus stallion zombie in front of the brown earth pony moans out a deep throated raspy cry as blobs of slobber dribble down its chin like rain.  Its black sunken eyes give the faintest spark of light as the Zombie moans enthusiastically before continuing on its way. Carmel however stands rooted to the ground, unable to think, unable to move, his heart barely beats as his mind tries to avoid acknowledging the dirty dead he just performed. Craning his neck slowly behind him he finds the orange mare wiping the remains of her dinner off of her chin, and one giggling Blue unicorn.

“Amazing what a little undead control can do Isn’t it Caramel? Close your eyes for a second and they appear to pop out of the ground exactly where you least expect them to. Now then…..” The Blue unicorn chuckles at the aghast face of his cohort, taking his own twisted sense of satisfaction at the sudden terror and wordlessness that has overtaken the normally rambunctious stallion. “……Correct me if I’m wrong I seem to have forgotten which one of us is the necrophiliac. Could you kindly inform me who it was that made out with a corpse?”

…………..

POP!

With a loud thump five mares pop out from between space in a tumble their bodies lying in a jumbled dogpile on the floor. All five of the disoriented mares, Trixie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all writhe about in discomfort as they try to adjust to not only the jumbled position of their bodies but also their jumbled senses. All while Twilight lies comfortably at the top of the pile made by her friends groaning like a gryphon with a Saturday night hangover, all the while rubbing her fizzling horn.

“oooowwwwwwwwww…..” The librarian rubs her horn tenderly “Ugh…. Sorry guys I guess that wasn’t such a clean jump after all….. I guess I should have spent more time picturing Pinkies’ place before I tried to bring five other ponies along with me.”

For the most part Twilights’ friends seem fine despite their unorthodox method of travel as they slowly and steadily pry themselves from the leaning pile of ponies.

“Ugh…. Twilight darling could you be a dear and cut back on the turbulence the next time we go teleporting around it’s messing up my mane!” Rarity complains as she re adjusts her hair with her stand’s power. “I mean I know that Applejack is in trouble but is that really any excuse for arriving a mess? I think not!”

“Well….. Um….” Fluttershy fumbles and falls cutely to her hooves as she manages to pull herself from the pile “If it bothers you so much Rarity, you could just think of it as being Fashionably late.”

“Late or early, the Great and Powerful Trixie needs no preparation.” The showmare booms “For the Great and Powerful Trixie always arrives fantastically!”

“Will you give it a rest already.” Rainbow dash groans as she flutters over to a nearby chair rubbing her aching head. “Geese I feel like I lost a cider drinking contest with Applejack…. Not cool at all.”

Pulling herself off the top of the pile Twilight brushes off her coat as she takes stock of her surroundings. When she tried to teleport from Carousel Boutique she had imagined arriving in Pinkie’s room, however a last minute change of thought had landed them in the main eatery of the pastry shop and sent them spiraling through space as well. Straining her eyes against the dark Twilight tries to create a light spell only for her horn to fizzle like a wet firecracker.

“Great, my magic’s burnt out; it’ll take minutes for my mana to recover like this.” The mare sighs as she is forced to be content with the darkness around her. “I knew that five extra ponies was really pushing it. Teleportation is a specialty of mine but that was way too much Extra baggage.”

Trixie, grinning that she can one up her rival, ignites her horn creating a gentle pinkie glow that fills the room. Twilight turns to the mare behind her to offer her thanks only to come face to face with the cocky face of the showmare. “Well Twilight? Care to offer the greatest unicorn in all Equestria Praise? Well I don’t blame you it takes a skilled and clever unicorn to create a light spell as powerful as…..”

“Yeah that’s great Trixie.” Twilight cuts her off “Now just keep that glow steady. Remember we need to find…..”

The sound of clattering steel and ominous hoof steps echoes through the abandoned house causing, the hairs on every mare’s coat to stand on end. Trixie’s eyes grow noticeably wider as her sudden fear of having her brains eaten cause her to lose control of the spell sending the entire room spiraling into darkness. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” the showmare screams out in the dark. “It’s the Zombies! The Z-z-zombies are coming to eat Tr-r-rixie’s fabulous brains! Get them away get them away! GET THEM AWAY!!”

The light comes back on thanks to Rarity’s quick use of her horn the light pink of Trixie’s light replaced by the light blue of the Fashionista’s magic. With the light on, all eyes focus on the cowering showmare as it becomes readily apparent to her how embarrassing she must look curling into a fetal position on the floor. “Ummmmmmmm.” Trixie blushes under the focused stares of the other four mares. “Doja?”

“Wowie!” all five mares jump as the sound of a sudden but very familiar voice. “That was some trick Trixie! You had even me thinking that you were scared! But I guess that’s why you’re a showmare after all!”

The librarian’s head swivels around trying to locate the sound of the very familiar voice her eyes and ears straining against the consuming darkness. “Pinkie, is that you?” Twilight asks skeptically as she tries to peer through the shadows “Pinkie where are you?”

“Yepers Twilly! I’m right here!” the pink mare pops out of the shadows. Suddenly the reason that Twilight couldn’t notice her becomes apparent as a mare decked out in a skin tight black spy outfit and night vision goggles emerges from the darkness. “Hey ya Twilight! Glad that you could make it! Do you like what I’ve done with the place?” Pinkie gestures to the room around her with her open hoof.

To the group’s surprise they find the normally hospitable and open windows or Sugarcube Corner reinforced with plywood and steel bars. The entire room looks like it could hold of a siege and the massive amount of supplies sitting in the middle of the floor attest to the face that any long term attack would be doomed to fail. “See I was going for this ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ look! You know with boarded up windows and barricaded doors! And I’m not half the designer that Rarity here is but I think I pulled it off pretty well! Now if only I had more flickering lightbulbs and squeaky door hinges..….”

“Pinkie! This is no time to be making a haunted house, we….” Twilight stops another one of her lectures, quickly stopping herself as she remembers once again that Logic and Pinkie Pie do not mix. “Never mind. Are you okay Pinkie? The infected ponies didn’t get to you did they? Where are Mr. and Mrs Cake? Are they alright?”

Ripping the black skin tight outfit off of her body the mare grins with such force that it could break a pony’s eyes trying to look at it. “Oh Mr. and Mrs cake are fine! They’ve been out of town for a week! see there was this bossy, and kinda cool Pegasus and she was all like ‘you have to evacuate!’ and I’m like ‘no I don’t cause this is a free country’ and she was like ‘it’s for your own safety you dope!’ and I was like ‘I know but I can’t leave cause Mr. and Mrs Cake are out of town on their second honeymoon so I have to keep the store safe!’ and then I told her all about why me and the cakes are like family and they love me and how I met them and she was all like ‘fine be that way!’ and she just flew off really fast!” the pink mare blinks repeatedly as she realizes a rainbow mare is in present company. “But she wasn’t as fast as Dashie of course! and she wasn’t half as cool….. or as cute and she didn’t have a ticklish spot….”

“OKAY Pinkie!” the rainbow mare shouts at the top of her lungs “we get it. You’re the only one here and we’re really glad you’re safe.” Rainbow Dash suddenly looks out the boarded up windows with a look of deep concern on her muzzle. “It’s getting hectic out there Pinks, one minute I was sleeping and the next zombie ponies everywhere! It’s a good thing that I remembered Fluttershy had a panic room, otherwise those corpses and infected ponies would have taken a bite out of me!”

“Fluttershy has a Panic room?” Twilight asks skeptically as she turns to the light yellow pegasus. “but we found you sitting in the middle of your home defending yourself from dead house pets! If you had a panic room why didn’t you just hide there?”

The yellow mare blushes profusely “Well….. um that’s because…. Well I just decided I had to fight off my fears for once. You know? I said to myself ‘Fluttershy you go out there and you face down those zombies!’ so… um…… that’s what I did.”

All five mares look at the yellow Pegasus with a surprised look. “Fluttershy darling, are you saying that you WANTED to fight an endless horde of the undead, just to prove yourself?”

The yellow Pegasus looks at her ivory friend as she shuffles her hooves “Well yes! I mean I can’t be a coward forever right? Besides fighting Zombies sounds kind of….. cool?”

The entire group is consumed by a prevalent silence as everypony stares sternly at the yellow mare emulating the yellow pegasus’ stare with brutal effectiveness. Fluttershy unused to being on the other end of such powerful intimidation can only glance around as their perching gazes cut the mare to the quick.

The yellow mare sags her head down in defeat. “…….I lost the key to the panic room and couldn’t open the door to get in.”

“Now that sounds more like the Fluttershy we know and love.” Twilight nods affirmatively as the entire group basks in the satisfaction of learning the truth. “Well it was probably for the best, if you hid yourself away we would have never found you in time and believe me we need all the help that we can get!”

Looking around her Twilight Takes stock of her friends their postures and demeanors telling her far more than words ever could. Ever since she had met them she had learned enough about each of them to write a book on each of them, and in a way she knew them better in some ways than she knew most forms of magic. And the looks on her friend’s faces show the mare no trace of doubt or fear, confirming that Twilight made the right choice in relying on them in her time of need. With a single stamp of her hoof all their eyes turn towards the purple mare as they all instinctively circle up, knowing that now is the time to put Twilight’s plan into action. Nodding affirmatively Twilight thanks whatever god exists in this world that she has such capable and reliable friends by her side in moments like these.

“All right!” Twilight shouts getting the undivided attention of every pony in the room “Now that the gang's all here we are finally ready for the counter attack. However the next step is the most difficult we need to find where Horseshoes and Noteworthy are hiding here in this town so we can defeat them and end this stand effect. Pinkie I need you to use your pinkie eyes/ Pinkie Sense/ whatever power to search the entire town for any po…”

“OH SWEET CELESTIA WHY!!!!”

The piercing scream reverberates through their very bones, echoing over the din of the one thousand infected Zombies and she vicious screams of the dying. After a few seconds of dumbfounded surprise Fluttershy finally manages to raise her voice. “um… what was….”

“WHY NOTEWORTHY!? WHY WOULD ANYPONY THINK THAT THIS IS FUNNY!!!”

The second shot hits the building like thunder cowing the six mares into submission with shear volume. “Wha….” Twilight gapes “What was that?! That was the second loudest shout I’ve ever heard.”

“Oh that.” Pinkie waves her hoof dismissively as she continues to grin “that was just Applejacks’ make out session going horribly wrong.”

“WHAT!” Rarity shouts, her face flustering in disbelief and outrage. “A-Applejack was m-m-m-a-a-a-aking out?!”

“Oh no no no! Don’t’ worry Rares, Applejackie’s not that kind of mare!” Pinkie pats the unicorn reassuringly on the back as she continues. “It’s just that nasty Horseshoes guy had some trouble!”

“THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!!”

“Horseshoes Guy?!” Twilight’s ears perk up at the sudden mention of the very pony she is looking for. “You know where those two stand users are?”

“Yepers!” Pinkie salutes sharply like a soldier reporting in from the front “I placed my Pinkie Eyes all over town remember? See I saw this bag wave of zombies going ‘rargh!’ And I was like ‘OH NO!’ so I sounded the alarm and got as many ponies to get the heck out of dodge! Even though this isn’t dodge junction or any kind of dodge! This is Ponyville! Anyways I told them to get away and used my pinkie eyes to try and find the sign of trouble and I found out they were on Cemetery Hill overlooking the town and I was like going to go all Rabo on them but but when I saw that you were picking up our friends to take them down together I raced over here to protect the store cause I promised the Cakes that I would and put on my special mission outfit while I waited for you to come pick me up.”

The Purple unicorn snorts out in barely contained frustration as she approaches with head butting distance of the pink mare. “So let me get this straight Pinkie. You knew not only that there was a storm of Zombies coming towards the town, AND that we were teleporting all over the town to look you AND the location of the two ponies that we were looking for that are destroying the town.” The purple mare takes in a deep breath “AND YOU DIDN”T TELL ME!?!”

Pinkie shrugs “You didn’t ask.”

 “IS THIS ABOUT THE HAREM, IF SO I PROMISE TO GET RID OF IT, PLEASE JUST PLEASE TELL ME THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN!!!!”

Forgetting her intense anger for the moment Twilight turns her head in the direction of the voice, peering through the cracks in the boarded up windows towards cemetery hill. “All right then that’s enough waiting around then, if we know where they are I can teleport over to them as soon as……Wait” Twilight pauses as her mind begins to process all of Pinkie’s information “You said they were on the old cemetery hill on the outskirts of town, but that’s two miles away! That’s impossible!”

“Yeppers!” Pinkie nods her head in confirmation. “I mean Nopers! I mean I think the fact that we can hear it proves that it’s impossible! Wait, what’s impossible and what’s possible again? I’m so confused!” The pink mare cries out as she falls to her rump.

“What is the matter Twibright?” Trixie scoffs “is a scant two miles to much of a teleport for the pathetic Twilight sparkle?”

“No it’s not that Trixie,.” Twilight’s cutting remark quickly brings Trixie down. “I’m just surprised that that any pony’s voice can reach that far, he almost puts Celestia’s Royal canterlot voice to shame.”

“UREEREERRERSERREEREREREERRERR!!!!”

Rarity blinks repeatedly “Royal canterlot voice? What In Equestria is the Royal Canterlot voice?”

Twilight freezes her muscles lock in place as a long repressed memory of her teacher bubbles steadily to the surface, unbidden by the unicorn’s intent. With years of mental discipline the mare tries to push down the rising memory, reminding herself this is not the time to be reminiscing, however she quickly finds herself unable to suppress the swelling of memories as they flood into the forefront of her mind. Unable to keep down the flood of memories any longer the mare recounts with a mixture of both nostalgia and regret the first time that she heard the Royal Canterlot voice and subsequently lost her hearing for three days.

…………………..

“…….. and that’s why extra dimensional magic is so difficult Twilight! I hope that answered your question.”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she does the one thing that she loves more than any other, absorbing Knowledge and learning new things. The fact that it came from her absolute favorite pony in the world only made it better. “Wow princess you know so much!”

The alabaster goddess chuckles at the antics of a young Twilight sparkle “Well, my faithful student, I have had a lot of time to learn.”

Twilight’s gazes down at her own hooves her muzzle a mixture of humility and admiration “But you know so much…… I’ll probably never even know a quarter of what you know…..”

Celestia smiles as she raises her student’s vision to her own “That does not mean that anything you, or any pony learns or does is any less valuable. It’s not important so much what you know, but how you use it that counts.” Both smile at each other as Celestia turns her gaze igniting her horn in a short blaze of light. An instant later a small but elegant chocolate layered cake appears on Celestia’s desk “But enough of lessons today, who wants cake?”

Twilight licks her lips as she gazes at the perfect cake, a single slice missing allows her to gaze upon the interior of the pastry and all its glory. It was no secret to any pony in Equestria that the princess harbored a strong and powerful lust for pastries and sweets of all kinds, but cake was by far her favorite. Being the private student of Princess Celestia Twilight had sampled the best of the best of all kinds of cakes and like her mentor had a very good eye for them. And Twilight could tell from a single glance that the cake before her would be a cake she could never forget.

Celestia and Twilight salivate a little in anticipation of the feast they are about to enjoy as Celestia raises the knife to cut an even slice. However before the knife could even touch the cake, the door behind the Goddess slams inward revealing a very sweaty and tired Shining Armor. “Twilight!”

Celestia surprised by the sudden interruption slams the knife into the table cleaving the table neatly in two. The resounding crash of the desk sending all the various piles of paperwork, paperweights and yes the cake itself sailing through the air on its first maiden voyage. Celestia stunned by the sudden aero-dynamic status of her cake, can only watch in stunned silence as her precious cake was sent sailing through the air, her eyes memorizing every flip as it crashed into the ground with a messy splat.

Right at the hooves of a certain guard captain who completely oblivious to any pony except himself walks over the pastry trampling it under hoof as he walks over to the purple filly “Twilight, you thought that it was so funny to fill my armor with itching powder didn’t you!? Well wait till the princess hears about………Why are my hooves covered in icing?”

Shining looks from his hooves to see the grim face of his boss and leader……. “Princess Celestia!” Shining salutes sharply “Forgive me I didn’t know that you were in here! Your schedule said you would be entertaining dignitaries from Saddle Arabia.”

Princess Celestia Invicadias Quakes in anger as she looks down upon the face of her up and coming guard captain. Despite his age he was a capable stand and magic user who was unmatched in his creation of barriers yet it was days like today that made her regret ever consider giving him the position. True National Pride needed to retire, but how could any guard captain stand there like a limp fish saluting while his hooves lay in the middle of a priceless treasure, a treasure that he destroyed? “Princess Celestia are you okay? You look a little………red. Should I summon the royal doctor?” And the fact that Shining armor had as much social sense as a turtle probably didn’t help matters much.

Finally the goddess could handle it no more, her mane ignited into roaring fire her eyes burned bright as the sun as the princess invoked the Royal canterlot voice for its intended and divinely created purpose. For the true purpose of the Royal Canterlot voice was a sacredly created tool with a very specific purpose. Such a divine and almighty power was not created for commanding legions of flowers, not for speaking at long distances, but for shouting curses so loud and vulgar that they would be an affront to the heavens themselves. It is said that that day all the windows in canterlot castle not protected by level three wards shattered into dust in her divine fury. It is also said that the guard Captain Shining armor is also deaf in one ear to this very day.

However Twilight Sparkle, an innocent bystander to this crime against cakes didn’t know any of these things. She didn’t know anything about the royal canterlot voice aside from the fact it was very, very loud. All that Twilight knew for certain was that by the end of the day she had acquired several impressive and verbose new curse words.

…………………..

“……Twilight?” Rarity asks with a small hint of worry snapping the lavender unicorn from her reprieve. “Are you alright darling? You didn’t respond to anything we said for a whole minute! You just kept muttering….. Things.… under your breath. Are you sure you’re all right?”

Twilight is about to give the mare a long winded lecture on the importance of taking your time when she is cut off by the sound of her horn sparkling with magical charge. With a slight grin the mare smiles hoof pumping the air as she turns back to her friends. “All right! Sorry for the long wait everypony I’ve built up just enough charge for another jump, now we can follow the sound of that voice to wherever those two ponies are!”

Extending her two hooves in a wide arc the mare quickly encompasses her six friends as she makes the calculations for her longest jump yet, the one that will bring them into battle with the ones that are trying to destroy their town. The five ponies huddle closer around Twilight as the mare’s face crosses in intense concentration her horn buzzing with life and power as an aura encompasses the “everypony hold on, this one could get a little dicey!” Suddenly, with a quick burst of magical energy the Purple mare and all her friends disappear in a flash of light leaving the inside of the bakery completely vacant.

………………….

Meanwhile off on a hill overlooking the portion of ponyville downtown two demonic and evil ponies plot the destruction of all that is good in the world.

With their respective stand powers the two ponies use their best skills tactics and formidable abilities towards nothing less than the destruction of our fair heroes.

Truly who could be more formidable than these two enemies who were capable of bringing a town to its knees in a scant few hours?

Who are these mysterious stallions working for?

What are they after?

Will they be stopped?

And why…….

Why is one of them writhing on the ground, while throwing up and slobbering like a rabid dog?

“BLUAHAKAHIDKOOOLAA!!!” Caramel moans as he scoops fresh dirt into his mouth doing everything in his power to drown the taste of decaying flesh out of his mouth. The brown stallion’s coat is matted in dirt, his mouth foaming and his face is still several shades whiter than normal as the stallion weeps gently at his own misfortune. And though the original kiss had disgusted the orange farm mare Applejack to her very core, even she had to admit the previously stuck up stallion’s reaction was nothing short of priceless. And the fact that it was happening to the pony that had tormented her the entire night only made it better for her as she struggles with actual pain from having to suppress her laughter this much.

Only Noteworthy seems unamused as he constantly pulls out a golden pocket watch to glance at the time every ten seconds, his mood growing even more sour with every second that passes by on his watch. “Are you done yet?” Noteworthy asks, with a tone implying that his joke has lost its humor. “Need I remind you that we have a schedule to keep?”

“NOTEWORTHY!!” The brown stallion snaps to attention his rage suppressing his inner disgust. “This is all youzes fault! If it wasn’t for youze, Ize wouldn’t have…. Ize wouldn’t have….. URP!” the stallion falls to his knees, his mind unintentionally recalls his horrific experience as he shovels more dirt into his mouth.

“Yes, Yes you kissed a corpse.” Noteworthy rolls his eyes “If I had known that you were going to freak out that much I might have reconsidered it. Just consider us even for all those Necrophiliac comments you’ve made.”

“EVEN!?!” The stallion explodes as he presses further into the Blue unicorn’s face “Youze an me aint even CLOSE TO BEING EVEN!! Ize swear on me mother’s grave that….”

The Blue unicorn slaps the stallion curtly on the cheek “Get over it, remember we have a job to do.”

“Ferget the job! just because youzes some creepy necrophiliac doesn’t mean youze had ta force others ta make out with some dead broad!”

This time it is the Blue unicorn who explodes in anger as he begins to push his forehead back against the brown coated stallion. “For the Last Time! I am not a necrophiliac! I do not derive sexual pleasure from death, unlike how you force ponies to obey your twisted fantasies!”

“Really? Youze kill an ize kill, looks the same ta me.”

The Blue unicorn opens his mouth to no doubt give the stallion a stinging lecture, however after a few seconds of intense staring he only sighs while looking out into the empty sky. “How can I make a corrupt soul such as yourself understand?”

Noteworthy asks the stars in the sky with tears in his eyes as Carmel realizing where his partner is going slowly backs away. “What I do is a privilege! A sacred art! Not some form of business!” Noteworthy gets to his knees in prayer as if to give thanks for the very concept of killing. “Life is full of pain, corruption and evil. Yet when one dies all of life’s burdens, all their suffering is thrown aside, it is the ultimate form of purification. To bring this endless peace to everypony is tantamount to SALVATION!”

The silence that falls over the hill from the fanaticism of the blue unicorn is almost physical; his devotion alone capable of swaying the ideologies of the sentient ponies with his overwhelming charisma alone. Slowly the silence becomes longer and longer as the Blue unicorn prays silently on the hill his closed eyes a sign of his intense thought and focus. Finally after what seems like hours Caramel shakily opens his mouth.

“Ize understand…..” The brown earth pony gapes as he looks over the field of devastation before him. Noteworthy practically leaps out of his skin in glee as he takes pride in another soul saved.

“Ize understand…….” The brown stallion slams his hooves into the ground “That youze are a complete nut job!”

The Blue unicorn scoffs at putting his expectations so high for a pony like Caramel as he pries his gaze from the brown stallion. “Tch, Like you would understand the intricacies of life and death.” Noteworthy is about to quit his lecture when his eyes land on the captive orange farmer. “But perhaps there is a pony here that can understand the magnificence of what I am trying to accomplish.”

Applejack might have thought that Noteworthy was talking to her were it not for the fact she knew that he was completely insane. However over the course of a half minute the multiple gestures the dark priest makes in her direction slowly convinces the farmer that the pony he is trying to refer to is….. “…….ME!?!”

“Of course maid of Apples!” Noteworthy gazes deep into Applejacks’ eyes before prying them away and pacing on the ground before her. “Just consider it!  All your effort on your farm all your love for your family is a shallow patch, for the loss of your parents. You try so hard because you know no matter how perfect your farm is, no matter how good of care you take of your family you can never see them again in this life.”

The Blue unicorn pushes further in as if sensing the mare’s unease and reluctance to admit any truth in what he is saying. “Now wouldn’t you like to be reunited with them? To see their loving faces once more? To have lasting and permanent peace that transcends anything you could find on this broken world?!” Noteworthy practically screams as he reaches the crescendo of his argument. “Well that is what death is for! It is to liberate the soul from the confines of flesh! It is deliverance! It is purity! It is…..” The stallion shudders as he takes a deep breath “….SALVATION.”

The stallion looks down on the mare his wicked sick smile a contrast to his normal calm demeanor as he stares down the cowering orange mare. Applejack looks up at the stallion, her mind tumultuous and confused as her mind tries to rebuke the twisted priest’s doctrine of death, her breath ragged and  shallow. Yet as the stallion continues to bear down on the mare with his powerful presence it is the orange farmer who lowers her head in defeat. “Yer right……… ah would love ta see them again.” The orange mare admits shamefully, her head hung low.

“Exactly what I thought.” The Blue unicorn smiles in satisfaction “then just say the word and I’ll make your passing….”

“Ah miss em, ah can’t deny that. But…….”The mare swallows back a heavy lump in her throat “but ah have a family here, an not just Applebloom an Big mac an Granny.”

“What?” The Blue unicorn scoffs “And I thought you were an honest type Applejack. I checked your records you don’t have any other family and you certainly don’t have any other…….”

“They’re pretty unexpected ah’ll give ya that.” The mare continues talking over the Blue unicorn much to his frustration “An they are pretty weird fer family, fer sure. Ah have a sister one who is faster than the wind and more reliable than harvest. A have one who fills mah life with happiness and is always there ta brighten mah day. Ah have a sister who acts all meek but is far stronger than even she believes. Ah have a smart, beautiful mare who never puts herself before others an is obsessed with fashion. And ah have a bonafide magical master, who has the ability ta keep us together through even the darkest storm.”

The mare chuckles to herself “Yeah ah even have a little sis who boasts an brags like there’s no tomorrow.” The mare smirks to herself “But…… Ah’ve never known a more stubborn mare in mah life, she’s the kind a pony who pretends she doesn’t care, but really she fights harder than any pony ah know when there are lives on tha line.”

Realizing where his victim is going with her conversation the twisted priest can’t help but grimace at Applejack’s sudden defiance and uplifting mood. “They are without a doubt, tha most special, tha most interesting, most carin ponies ah have ever had the pleasure of knowin, an they all have one thing in common…” The mare stares down the Blue unicorn with such a fiery gaze that even a pony as cold as him falls on his rump in fear. “….an that’s that they all never give up or leave a friend behind, an that’s’ the truth!”

Now the mare has literally turned the tables on the unicorn with the dark blue mane as the previously confident stallion sits with his rump in the dirt staring up at the fiery mare before him “So, bring it on! Cause ah know that even now when the world looks ta be ending, an whenever ah’m in trouble…..”

BANG!

The hill explodes in an explosion of light and sound as a burst of magic blows back the manes of the three ponies on the hill. Noteworthy and Caramel surprised by the sudden explosion fall to their hooves only to back step away from the center of the singed grass with cautions fear. Yet more surprising than the explosion is the six mares that have arrived in the middle of it their faces contorted in a mixture of battle readiness and rage as they manifest their stands one by one.

The orange mare grins ear to ear as a she looks upon the faces of her best friends in the world. “…….Ah know that they’ll always be by mah side, cause that’s what family’s for!”

The six mares however look less than pleased to have arrived, their throbbing heads and broken posture a sign of a less than stellar teleportation.

“Twilight what was with that lame teleport?! You said ‘hold on’ and it took you like an hour to teleport us out here!” Dash complains “So what the heck.”

“Well excuse me for wanting us to arrive safely!” the unicorn shouts back “maybe next time you can teleport six ponies two miles to a place you aren’t intimately familiar with! Oh that’s right you can’t!”

“Will you two stop bickering, this time it’s Trixie who you’re giving a headache!”

“Um, we’re supposed to be saving the town right? I think it's best that we don’t fight each other…….”

“Yeah these super menies are going DOWN! Like down town! Cause we’re overlooking downtown! Get it? Cause we’re on a hill overlooking downtown! I’m SO funny!!”

Rarity and the rest of the group rolls their eyes “Yes Pinkie I presume we get the joke, however if you could refrain from ‘cracking wise’ the rest of the time we are fighting for our lives that would splendid, thank you. After all we currently have a job to do and we don’t need any more of your….. improvising if we’re going to save our Applejack.”

The six ponies though independent stand as a unified force defiant in every sense of the word as they prepare their bodies and minds for conflict. Each one knowing that their victory

“Well Caramel.” The Blue unicorn says as he rises to his hooves, glancing over at the stallion behind him. “It looks like I owe you those ten bits, they did come right to us.”

Caramel grins as he extends his hoof catching the bag of bits thrown to him by his compatriot “Heh! I told ya! All ize had ta do was hold that orange minx hostage an they’d come right to us! An youze doubted mane plan!”

“Shut up Corpse kisser.” The Blue unicorn snaps more sore at the fact that Caramel was right than his loss of bits. Caramel noticeably greens as he holds back his lunch as Noteworthy takes center stage. “I’ll applaud your courage.” Noteworthy begins as he addresses the newly arrived group. “Not many ponies would go out of their to walk headlong into their own executions. However I appreciate the fact that you no longer wish to prolong your fate, and will give you a proper funerary procession.”

“What’d he say?” Dash scratches her head while she hovers in the air “Twilight! I think that guy’s trying to insult us or something.”

As if anticipating the Pegasus’s response Noteworthy rolls his eyes “And will you look at that, another genius to add to our merry band.”

Twilight puffs up her chest “Thank you!”

Noteworthy face hooves “I was being facetious you dolt!”

“Wait, were you being facetious to me, or Twilight?” Dash asks “because all I heard was ‘look at me, I’m a scary priest guy, I play with dead ponies, I’m a huge egghead’.”

“Youze an me are speakin the same language now minx!” Caramel comments punching the Blue unicorn harshly in the shoulder “Ize hear the same thing whenever this necrophiliac opens his mouth!”

“I am NOT a Necrophiliac!” The Blue unicorn shouts.

While the two ponies and one necrophiliac blue unicorn continue to argue pointlessly about sexual orientation and sexual preferences Twilight wisely seizes the opportunity created by their bickering. Taking stock of the graveyard covered hill around them Twilight gestures over to her friends pulling them quickly into a huddle. “Wow. I’ve got to admit Dash did a great job with distracting those two. I didn’t even have to tell her to create a diversion so we could come up with a plan.”

“Um Twilight?” Fluttershy raises her hoof “I don’t think Dash is trying to distract them… I just think that she’s being Dash…… not that that’s a bad thing.”

“I know Fluttershy. But more importantly.” Twilight pulls out of her huddle to look at the battlefield around them, instantly processing the strengths and weaknesses of her opponents. “…..we should use this time to come up with a plan.”

“Plan?!” Trixie scoffs “The Great and powerful Trixie says there is no time for a plan. We have the advantage in numbers, let’s simply push our advantage and attack!”

“That sounds like a swell idea Trixie!” Pinkie cheers “Well all team up and hit them with a super wonder ultimate…..”

“No Pinkie!” Twilight lightly slaps some sense into the mare as she looks at the field around her. “Did you forget about the hordes of zombies and infected ponies surrounding the hill?! If we rush in we’ll be surrounded and crushed! We’re the ones outnumbered, that’s why we need a plan!”

“All the more reason….” Trixie pushes back with her rhetoric “…Why we should take them down before they knew what hit them! If we hit them fast and hard there is no need for another plan!”

“And I say we can’t just rush in against two ponies without some form of tactics.”

“For once I agree with Twilight darling.” Rarity remarks as she looks over to the two dense and completely oblivious dunces and Noteworthy. “One does not simply rush into battle all helter skelter! It is a pony’s ability to control their baser instincts and direct this primal fury in a way….”

“Heyz Noteworthy!” Caramel yells pointing to the group of ponies “Theyz huddling around that white minx with the ugly mane an talkin all secret like! Theyz are comin up with a plan!”

The temperature in the huddle grows ten degrees colder as a dark and frigid shiver passes through the body of every mare.  All heads turn over to the white fashionista, her eyes blazing like the fires of an exploding volcano as she looks up from the huddle at the brown gaudy clothed stallion. And then she takes a step towards the stallion her hoof step still as dainty and well controlled as before, but harboring untold malice.

And so it was, that for a moment the Stardust Crusaders did not fear the thousands of hordes of the undead or the horrible infectious disease that can cripple them and control their bodies. They were not even afraid of the two ponies responsible for the very atrocity that is destroying their town. For a single moment no fear on this green earth could hold a candle to the mind crushing levels of terror that every mare huddled in the circle felt radiating from Rarity’s dark fiery eyes.

“I beg your pardon?” Rarity blinks in confusion as she slowly approaches the stallion. “Excuse me my good sir but I fear there’s been some form of confusion.” The mare laughs in a way that sends shivers down the bodies of her six friends “You see, you said you saw ‘a white minx with ugly mane’ and for a moment there I thought that you were talking about little old me.”

With less commons sense than a louse and more disinterest than a corporate banker being asked for a loan, the stallion promptly reaches up his nose and flicks a booger off to his side. “Yeah ize did. So what, youze want me to apologize fer youze havin no fashion sense?”

The stallion laughs along to a joke that only he finds funny as the mare steps closer. “Ize mean, Youze might be stupid enough ta think it looks cool. But it looks like youze glued youze but to youze head!”

Carmel laughs again as Rarity steps closer. “Ize can’t believe there are minxes as stupid as youze that think that looks cool! Ize mean culled manez are like from the seventies an youze still think it looks cool! Bwa ha ha ha ha!!”

The pale white Unicorn doesn’t make even a single sound as she stands not ten feet away from the laughing earth pony stallion, save the ominous sound as she cracks her neck.

“….give me a break…..” Applejack gulps in fear rooted to the ground.

If one could compare the wrath of a scorned mare to something easy enough, say a pony like Caramel to understand, an erupting volcano would be a good simile. Insulting a woman’s acquaintances and livelihood is fine as long as it is done in the ‘society proper way’ (Have you seen that new mare Janice? Darling however do you keep yourself occupied all day?) With apologies immediately offered should things turn sour. However insulting a mare’s looks and appearance is tantamount to standing at the mouth of an erupting volcano. And for Rarity a pony who had dedicated her entire life to beauty and perfection you might have better luck throwing yourself into a volcano than facing her fury.

Applejack had known that. Applejack had been there when the three bullies that had tried to pick a fight had dared to insult Rarity’s mane. And from that day on, the bullying problem that had plagued ponyville elementary for years stopped completely. The three bullies in question soon moved to another town entirely, unwilling to admit to their parents how each of them had managed to break all four of their legs at the same time. Little did the bullies know that the little filly that they had dared insult was the reigning junior judo champion for the district of Canterlot, and had studied since she was six on how to dislocate and shatter pony bodies with as minimal strength as possible.

In a flash of silver light Rarity’s stand lashes out living up to its name as Quicksilver as a beam of hardened metal smashes into the offending stallion’s face. The stallion recoils back as his gums begin to bleed profusely. However the mare’s assault does not cease as she slams the stallion’s head into the ground with the flat of a newly formed silvery hammer. Caramel yelps in pain as the force of the hammer’s blow shatters six of Caramel’s perfectly pearly whites and sends a small spurt of blood over the ground from his mouth. The stallion flails about as he struggles to recover from the sudden assault his senses reeling as the hammer smashes into his unprotected ribs causing painful hairline cracks as he is powerless to do anything but yelp in pain. Then before the stallion can even recognize what is happening his is kicked with a spinning buck kick from the ivory mare sending him skidding against the ground and into a nearby tombstone. Smashing into the stone with enough force to break it, Carmel sides to the ground hacking profusely as he attempts vainly to clear blood pouring out of his mouth and eyes.  Hacking up the blood pooling from his lungs the stallion lies at the foot of the tombstone trying vainly breathe properly.

Rarity’s friends can only gape as the mare telekinetically swings the heavy silver hammer in the air as it lands gracefully on her shoulder.

“I’m dreadfully sorry there sir, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble you be so kind as to repeat what it is that you just said?” Rarity blinks cutely. “Because in case you were too stupid to understand, NO PONY, I REPEAT NO PONY CAN SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT MY MANE!!!”

For a moment it doesn’t look like the stallion can even move, his badly battered face a testament to Rarity’s powerful combination. Yet defying common sense and demonstrating legendary toughness the earth pony Carmel rises shakily to his hooves blood leaking from his mouth. “The minx brok mah nose!” Caramel screams as he tries spit the copious amounts of blood from his mouth. “IZE GONNA WHACK THAT MARE!!” The stallion shouts as he spits out his lose teeth with a feral growl.

With razor precision the two stallion manifest their stands. Noteworthy’s bony projection ripples out of his skin it’s sharpened hooves and rainbow string covered body swaying in the wind in anticipation of a fresh kill. Caramel his anger ignited growls as hundreds of sharp toothy maws cover his body like a horrific tattoo each one gnashing to devour the flesh of the offending white mare.

As the two stallions ready their stands Trixie can’t help but smirk at the change in the situation. “Well Twilight, it looks like your plan is shot, because it looks like our local fashionista has finally taken the imitative. Good for her!”

Twilight can’t help but sigh at the situation. “B-But I like plans….”

“Well it doesn’t’ look like Rarity’s going to follow a plan now does it?” Trixie smirks with snarky flare.

“PLAN?!” Rarity turns her head around leveling her gaze on her friends “I’ll tell you what our plan is! Our plan is to beat those two ponies that dared insult my mane INTO THE DIRT! That is our plan!”

Rarity paws the ground like a wild bull as she readies her horn to impale the two ponies in front of her, her nose snorting in rage. However much to Twilight’s dismay Rarity’s plan finds a great deal of support among her other friends.

“It’s about time somepony came up with an awesome idea!” Dash cracks her hooves as she lands right next to Rarity “Rarity’s right! There’s no time for your egghead plans now Twilight, let’s just beat them up!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie states as she bounces right next to Dash “It’s better not to have a plan so when Twilight does come up with a plan it will be a surprise! Now that’s a plan!”

“Um…” Fluttershy taps the shoulder of the white fashionista in an attempt to assuage her wrath “if it’s any consolation Rarity. I don’t think that you’re mane is…..”

“The plan Fluttershy.” Rarity growls her eyes locked on the offending brown stallion “WHAT. IS. THE. PLAN?!”

“Beat them down?”

“Beat them down.” Rarity nods with a dark twinkle in her eye.

Realizing that she is outvoted the lavender library mare sighs as she trots up to the front line “Whatever but just to be clear, this was my idea!”

“Attack my great and powerful underlings!” Trixie shouts with her normal fanfare. “Show those two fools what happens to those that cross the Great and Powerful Trixie! And I suppose save Applejack and the town while we’re at it.”

With their doubts swept aside the six ponies rapidly close the distance between them rushing towards to two stallions. However despite the six ponies rush Noteworthy remains undaunted. “You may think that you are the ones who hold an advantage, but as you will see you are the ones who are hopelessly outnumbered.” Noteworthy’s stand cackles incessantly as it slams its bony hoof into the ground with a sickening crunch.

Suddenly as if coming from the depths of Tartarus the ground explodes in front of the six ponies halting their charge as more decrepit corpses paw their way out of the ground. “….or did you neglect to notice that we are in a graveyard by chance.”

The dead ponies moan horribly as their decay radiates of their very bones with enough force to flatten a lesser pony with stench alone. “And since ize don’t like takin back seat…” Caramel grins as he raises his jawed hoof into the air, it’s mouths glibber with horrific effect as dark vacant eyes emerge from the dark around our heroes. Suddenly to their great horror the six ponies find themselves completely surrounded by the pained screams and slobbering maws of the infected as they close in around the group.

“In fact, Ize think a little get tagather is in order, doncha say….” The stallion turns back to the farmer who lurches forward against her will “….minx?” Applejack tries to resist the stand’s power however she quickly finds her strength taken over as she is forced to move in to attack her own friends.

Waving his hoof forward Caramel laughs as his legion of followers charge in from all sides. Noteworthy taking the initiative sends his own legion of the damned forward as the Stardust Crusaders find themselves running out of empty space.

“Well Trixie?” Twilight laugh sarcastically “This is your plan, so what do we do now?”

“Easy Twilight.” Trixie says as she cracks her hooves and ignites her horn “We do just like Rarity said, we push our stands to the limit and beat them down. ATTACK!” With a war cry that would be impressive were it not coming from a twenty something showmare the mare charges into the fray directly towards the two stallion as she blows the a hole in the ranks of the undead menace with a ball of arcane fire.

Inspired by her courage and leadership by example the five mares look at each other for only a second before joining the showmare mare herself in charging directly into enemy lines. As they ready their stands and charge they enter battle in a frenzy hitting the enemy from every direction at once. Pinkie leaps through the fray like a whirlwind attacking with everything from party poppers from the kitchen sink which she swings erratically around like a flail. Dash coating her hooves in her Valkyrie power eschews any weapon for the satisfying crunch of her enemies beneath her hooves as she shockwaves of pure force throws her enemies like rag dolls in a windstorm. Fluttershy’s narrowing gaze, focused and powerful sent no small amount of enemies screaming like little girls back to the safety of their homes or back within the deep earth where they belonged; the fury at having her town targeted by these monstrosities adding fuel to her power. However Fluttershy’s fury was perhaps eclipsed by Rarity who moved like a river through the battlefield attacking one moment only to flow away and attack again. already she had piled dozens upon dozens of bodies on the field knocked senseless by the flailing steel which was Rarity’s stand. Trixie always the master of misdirection used her power flawlessly luring her enemies in with an illusion of herself only to blast them to pieces with pyrotechnics or direct attacks from her stand. So far the mare hadn’t even suffered a scratch, her attacks always hitting an enemy from their blind spots before they could even manage a blow. Applejack powerless in body was only able to pin herself to the ground with her stand not far from where her friends were fighting. Yet even then she would fight in spirit warning her friends about attacks from behind, shouting words of encouragement as her ‘family’ fought for her on her behalf.

And standing in the center of this carnage like a pony in the eye of a hurricane was Twilight sparkle. Never once did she stop shouting encouragement or advice to her friends around her as she used her magic and her stand to protect them from harm. With flawless distribution and multitasking one would expect from the princess’s protégé she would flatten the infected with her stand F.R.I.E.N.D.S causing the them to fall into a deep slumber only to attack the automatic stand The Monster Within directly. The mental feedback would quickly shut down the simple mind of the maws so even though the sores were still festering on many a pony’s body, the stands themselves were shocked senseless by her blows. Meanwhile she would conserve her own magic and deploy it sparingly, but efficiently do destroy Noteworthy’s undead. And better yet every time Noteworthy tried to pull another of his twisted creations from the ground Twilight would signal to her friends and the beast would be pushed back into the earth before it could even attack.

The result of the six mares working in tandem was undoubtedly a sight to behold Six untrained mares holding back an entire attacking army while beating said army into the ground as the bodies pile up around them. In their furry the two stallions push their own stands to the limit as they work overtime to pump out more soldiers; yet even as more and more of the army congregated around the Stardust Crusaders they would redouble their efforts dispatching their foes with supernatural ease. Thus a pattern was formed, that the more the two villains sent in, the faster they were beaten down by the mares and the shorter the distance grew between the vengeful crusaders and the two generals.

“This is impossible!” Noteworthy shouts in disbelief as he watches Pinkie send another of his undead flying with a blow from her party cannon. “They should be dead by now! How could their will to fight be this strong?”

Caramel smirks as he dodges a stray magic bolt from the Great and Powerful Trixie “Well if ize had mine guess it’d be that youze undead are slackin! The boss should have known not ta put youze in charge when I clearly outrank youze!”

“Well from where I’m standing…..” Noteworthy narrows his gaze at the stallion at his side “…..you haven’t infected even one of them with your power, At least I’m hitting them!”

“Why you little Necrophilia!” Caramel shouts “I’ll have youze know..…”

However the sound of the two once again arguing was cut off by the enormous din coming from around the five ponies their breaths become more labored by the second. Twilight flings another of the dead ponies like a flail as she encourages her friends around her knowing that even though the enemies’ numbers are thinning the battle could go either way if their exhaustion gets any worse.

“Remember guys!” Twilight yells over the din of battle as she barely manages to dodge as a zombie erupts from the soul underneath her “That pony ‘Horseshoes ’ can control your movements if he bites you, so don’t let him!” Twilight cries as she blasts another corpse into dust with a bolt of magic.

“Please Twilight!” Dash shouts as she beats down another one of the stallion’s infected “As if I’d let this loser’s slow attacks get to me! In fact….” Dash narrows her gaze at the offending stallion “I think I feel like ending this guy, Right NOW!”

With speed that could only be achieved with years of hard work and dedication the speedster launches off a nearby tombstone hugging the ground as she races towards the brown stallion like a lightning bolt. Her hooves resonate like thunder as she smashes through obstacle after obstacle, crushing them before they even have a chance to attack as she beats her way through the crowd of enemies. Suddenly just as a venerable wall of the infected surrounds the intrepid mare she leaps into the air and towards the stallion preparing to come down right on top of him in a rainbow arc.

Smiling in anticipation of the victory she is about to see Dash braces herself for impact as she preps her hooves for impact. “Game over.” She declares as she falls directly on top of the gaping brown coated Stallion. With an explosion of color and sound the mars smashes into the mobster’s body smashing him into the ground with enough force to create a deep crater in the soft dirt. The ground explodes in a cloud of dirt and debris forcing even the Stardust Crusaders to shield themselves from the blast as the dust settles. However one mare does not look away, and as the dust clears on her battle Rainbow Dash stares dramatically forward in an impressive pose that conveys her excitement and elation at her own victory. “Heh like I always say, I can wipe the floor with any pony in Ten Seconds Flat!”

Brushing back her mane the rainbow mare fawns over her own awesomeness as she stares intimidate at the Blue unicorn in front of her. “And guess what, you’re next, so if I were you I’d throw in the towel before you really make me mad!”

Noteworthy however seems completely undaunted by the mare’s threats. “Really?” He asks “Because from where I’m standing I don’t think that you’ll be backing up your boasts any time soon.”

“DASH! Look out!” Applejack cries out in urgency “Yawl need to get away now!”

“Hunh? Why?” Dash asks as she cranes her neck back to her orange friend ignoring the hideous orange mouths covering her coat to glance into her dark green eyes.” I mean the bad guy’s defeated, problem solved, right?”

“Dash look at me!” the mare writhes on her knees as she tries to present her black blisters to the oblivious blue mare. “All those horrible maws are still on me, an Caramel said that as long as he was conscious the maws wouldn’t go away! That means that he’s still kickin! Git away before he bites yawl too!”

At this Rainbow Dash flares her wings in surprise “No way! I hit him full force! There’s no way that he’s….. alive?” Looking down at the pony beneath her hooves Dash sees a dark brown pony dressed in the gaudy brown coat that she had seen on the obnoxious pony that had hurt her friends. However on closer inspection the rainbow hued mare realizes that the pony beneath her hooves could never pass for Caramel in open sunlight, given that the pony’s face was rotten and decaying from years of being buried underground. Looking down at the undead stand in that is clearly not Caramel Dash recoils in a mixture of both surprise and fear “You're not…”

CHOMP!

The rainbow mare screams in pain as she clutches her hoof desperately the jagged bite mare already festering and turning black under the light of the moon. Recoiling back off of the long dead corpse the stunt mare looks on in shock at the evilly grinning pony with a cutie mare of three horseshoes pulls himself out from behind the tombstone to her left. His body naked of its normal dark brown coat presents his bulging muscles and horrible toothed maws popping out of his pelt as he walks over towards the broken corpse Dash stood on not a moment before.

“Impressive aint it!” The evil pony laughs in glee small with drops of blood from his broken teeth dripping on the ground. “All ize had ta do was take of mine impressive coat an get one of Noteworthy’s flunkies ta wear it an youze fell fer mine bait hook line an sinker!”

The stallion grins as he trots over the broken corpse and rips his torn shirt off of the body of the now twitching zombie, only for the cheap fabric to fall apart in his hooves. “However youze did mess up mine coat. Ize will have ta take it out on yer hide, after youze are listenin ta my commands!”

Rainbow Dash opens her mouth to tell the stallion off, to tell him that she’ll never surrender and obey a freak like him when her arm explodes in pain. Dash clenches her solid jaw shut as she watches powerlessly as a large mouth with serrated teeth appears on her arm grinning like a predator cornering its meal.

“Iiiimmmmmmppppprrrrrreeeeeeeeessssssiiiiivvveeeeee!!!!” the mouth wines as it’s jaw lurches forward to bite the rainbow mare with its unnatural strength.

Only Rainbows’ keen reflexes and her physical strength keep the hungry jaw at bay as it presses forward to eat her. Reflexively in order to avoid attacks from her own arm she leaps into the air dodging her own attacks as she rolls around in the air to avoid the bites and gnashes of the infectious stand. The light blue mare’s unorthodox flying allows her to constantly dodge the predictable movements of her controlled arm as she flies higher and higher out of sight flailing against the dark maw on her hoof shouting curses all the way.

“She’s getting away!” Noteworthy shouts as she gestures to two pegasi corpses behind him. “Quick you two, go after her and…..”

“Ferget about it!’ Carmel says good naturedly as he wipe his bloody mouth with remnants of his torn jacket “Ize got her didn’t I? Now it’s only a matter of time till she’s covered in maws! Once she runs outta steam she’ll be swarming with mah stand! Fer now we should wrap up on finishing off tha other minxes.”

Caramel glares hatefully towards the panting ivory fashionista “Sides Ize gots me a score to settle with that not-impressive minx! I’ll make her suffer fer what she did ta mah impressive muzzle!”

Rarity prepares herself as she watches the hateful stallion step towards her “In fact…” The stallion grins “Ize know just how to pay this minx back fer my muzzle!” Turning back to the orange mare he yells with a loud dominative voice. “Hey Minx! Come on over here!”

However despite his cry the mare stands rooted to the ground, defiant of the stallion’s wishes. Smiling at the disappointment on the stallion’s face the mare smiles “Heh Nice try ya varmint, but thanks ta mah stand power I aint goin anywhere!”

Yet the stallion’s disappointment soon gives way a confident expression that the mare can’t quite place as he continues to stare the ivory mare down. Just before the mare attempts to voice her concerns to the stallion she feels a heavy tearing beneath her hooves as her body plods forward against her wishes. Crying out in surprise the mare looks down to find giant clods of earth hanging out from below her hooves.

“Impressive aint it?” The stallion laughs as Applejack is forced to trot up to the stallion’s side. “This here mare’s power may have kept her glued to the earth but that doesn’t work if she’s strong enough ta pull the earth out of the ground.” The evil maws lick the orange mare’s coat sensually Applejack shivers in a horrible mixture of disgust at her situation and fear for her friend as she stallion rants on. “After all what could be better than getting a mare’s best friend ta whack er?! Nothing that’s what! An given that this minx was strong enough ta tear the earth out of the ground roots an all ize says that youze are gonna be gettin a pretty one sided beatin ya ugly maned minx!”

With a contorted moment that should not be possible for any pony Applejack vaults off the ground in a cartwheel as her body’s power is thrown into one attack. However Rarity though stunned initially by her friend’s forced compliance and the situation, she responds just in time with a back step landing a pony’s length away from the earthen crater created by Applejack’s brute strength.

Rarity lands shakily on the ground from the mere shock wave of her friend yet Applejack continues her assault slamming her hooves into Rarity’s shakily constructed shell made of her stand. Blow after blow hammers into the metal shield as Applejack’s amazing strength tears it to pieces as she flails her arms at her friend. However Applejacks’ sudden assault leaves her grossly off balance, a weakness Rarity quickly exploits as she mare grabs the mare’s hoof with her magic to temporarily immobilize it, and then throwing her entire body weight into her shield she slams it into the farmer’s form.

Feeling her opponent slam into the ground from her sensitive hooves the mare reforms her metal shield into a heavy spiked flail as she reflexively swings her weapon for a finishing blow on her attacker. Yet as she orange mare turns her head Rarity’s senses recover, her mind floods with memories of fond times with her friend Applejack and in less than a millisecond the mare realizes that she is trying to attack her friend with a lethal attack. With a loud cry the mare swings her flail wide missing the mare by a margin as the orange mare’s head dodges the crippling attack.

And though in any normal situation Applejack would be enormously grateful to Rarity for such an act however the orange farm mare knows that her body is currently not her own. As such Applejack can only watch on in terror as she feels all her muscles in her back tense up like a coiled spring. With a single shed tear the orange mare closes her eyes as she feels her entire leg strength slam into the mare’s white coat pounding her flesh with the force built up from years of applebucking. Applejack winces as she feels two ribs snap like kindling as the white mare lands in roles over the ground like a broken wagon wheel landing in a heap at the base of a broken tombstone.

Rarity unwilling to be beaten down attempts to rise shakily to her hooves only to fall back on the ground with a sickening thud as she clutches her side to suppress her desire to scream in pain. And standing over her friend, tears pouring down her face stands Applejack, her black toothed maws crying out for the white mare’s blood. And as if a dark contrast to the two mares is Caramel laughing like a maniac as he contemplates his revenge against the mare who wronged him.

“HE! HE HA! that’s what a minx like youze gets fer makin a fool of me! Now my little slave….” The stallion points to the white mare writhing on the ground.  “Do meze a favor an finish the minx off Impressively, an make it painful!

The orange mare’s how shakes erratically her nerves and muscles tense as she tries to use all the vestiges of strength in her power to disobey, to keep herself from making a mistake that could ruin her entire life. Yet to no avail the dark maws gnash her hoof poised to strike as the orange limb is swung down with her entire body weight directly where Rarity’s head is. For the scarcest if moments everything moves in slow motion Applejack’s tears pouring down her face Rarity staring up in horror as the finishing blow falls and Caramel laughing in victory as he flaunts his power over the two horrified mares.

Suddenly like a bolt from the heavens a bring flash appears over Rarity as a large purple object stands over the prone fashionista her eyes glaring upwards at the mare with a force that would give Fluttershy’s stare a run for its money. Suddenly Applejack’s blow stops her hoof frozen in space as the lavender unicorn stares back at the orange mare causing her to slowly back away from Rarity, an action that greatly confuses and infuriates the brown coated Stallion.

 “What?” Caramel shouts in disbelief of the scene before him “How my commands are absolute youze little friend should be ripping ya to pieces! Why ain’t she obeyin me? CRUSH HER!”

“Oh, THAT.” Twilight remarks nonchalantly as she straightens her hooves standing straight up in front of her injured friend Rarity. With Applejack’s hoof hovering not three inches from her muzzle Twilight steps forward as Applejack is forced to retreat away from the confident purple mare as Twilight draws closer to the fuming Caramel. Trotting around the controlled mare without fear Twilight walks behind Applejack as she stares down the stallion with a confident smirk “That’s just a little effect of my power F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I thought that you knew all my powers? Or perhaps your information is incomplete otherwise you would have heard about my ability ‘friendly fire’.”

“F-Friendly fire?” Noteworthy asks as he watches Applejack’s quaking arm refuse to injure her friend “How? A stand should only have one power, to possess two….. is that possible?”

“No you’re right a stand can only have one power.” Twilight confirms with a nod from her head as she continues to circle around the frozen Applejack “this is just a simple result of my Stand’s mind link ability.”

Clearing her throat in a way that would make a pony believe that the librarian has sat in front of a mirror practicing clearing her throat in a condescending way the mare launches into yet another of her long scientific tirades. “It’s simple really, after all a mind does all it can to keep from injuring itself just like the body keeps itself from hurting itself by holding itself back. It’s similar to the way that the body places limiters on muscles so a pony doesn’t use all their physical strength and destroys them. Or perhaps it’s closer to a pony’s natural instinct to keep from damaging themselves.”

“Hold on a second.” Noteworthy tries to interrupt “I may be only a humble priest but to me that does not sound…...”

“And since during a mind link two ponies become one…..” Twilight continues conveniently ignoring the Blue unicorn’s moot point “…..even after the link is severed the two minds are still linked in the form of an invisible bond. It’s like how a transplanted liver will always acknowledge its host as friendly and compatible in a way what prevents the body from attacking it like a foreign invader. And because of that a pony I’ve linked with is incapable of harming me in the same way that they are incapable of harming themselves.”

Twilight grins as she trots around her orange friend who stands completely unable to attack. “It also keeps me from being hurt by my friend’s stand powers since a stand is an extension of a pony’s psyche. Otherwise when me and Rainbow Dash fused that one time I would have been blown to pieces along with my library wall by her own stand’s destructive force.”

The entire hill top stands silent; perhaps in awe of Twilight’s new power or perhaps it is the result of her long winded speech before Applejack clears her throat to interrupt. “Uh Twi? It may just be cause ah’m a simple country farmer an all, but that makes as much sense as a chicken rollin around in mud.”

Shooting the immobile farmer a dirty look Twilight continues “You just don’t have the years of scientific training and research into stand powers to understand that it does not make sense.”

“….Twi, did you just call me dumb?”

“And now…..” With a smirk of satisfaction at the dumbfounded expression on Caramel’s face Twilight manifests her stand. “And now that Applejack can’t attack me I can put my stand’s true power to its most efficient use.” Raising her stand’s hoof the mare touches Applejack’s body its hoof combining with Applejacks’ stand as the two become one. “And boost her power to its limits!”

Her eyes igniting worth the full power of her stand the two ponies begin to combine their powers Applejack’s stand finally manifesting past her frame as the power to Caramel’s stand becomes mitigated by her sharp power increase. Yet just as it looks that the battle is turning it her favor Twilight finds herself slammed back by the body rush of an undead corpse her power interrupted as she falls to the ground with a heavy impact. Sliding from the body rush the mare quickly rises to her hooves her eyes turning back to their normal hue as she prepares to fight.

Wiping a cold sweat from his neck Noteworthy closes in on the lavender mare driving her back “That… that was too close, had you managed to use your power to boost Applejack’s strength further….” The Blue unicorn gulps “…Not even I could tell what would become of it.”

“Caramel!” Noteworthy shouts “don’t let them fuse together! That purple mare can boost stand powers if you let them touch then we may be the ones to lose tonight!’ Manifesting his stand Noteworthy slams his hoof into the ground as more and more undead pile out into the land of the living “Remember the strategy swarm and overwhelm them! No more messing around.”

Combing his greased black mane back into position the stallion gestures with his muzzle causing his loyal ‘followers’ to once again swarm around the desperate mares. “Yeah Yeah, Youze made it clear the first time let’s just get this over with, these minxes are getting ta be more trouble than they’re worth!”

With nervous eyes Twilight looks around as her friends form up back to back, their retreat cut off by even greater swarms of enemies than they had fought off before. As the five mares look around at their enemies the hundreds of rotten undead and hundreds of controlled ponies circling around them like a ring of death. Even Rarity rising shakily to her hooves looks nervous as the swarms of undead cackle and moan while they close in on our intrepid heroes, their jaws snapping and opening like a chorus of gnashing teeth.

“Tch.” Twilight looks around at the scene before her. Her mind unlike her friends is unclouded by the fear of the situation of the evil of her foes as she pushes her intelligence to the limits as she frantically strategizes. ‘All right Twilight think, what do we do now? Or rather what can we do, Trixie thought that if we could finish these guys fast enough then there wasn’t a need for strategy’ Twilight looks around her as the zombies march in ‘and look where that got us!’

Twilight looks at her friends behind her their breaths heavy and their shoulder’s sagging ‘at this rate we won’t survive another wave, so our options are retreat or surrender, and surrender is not an option. True I if I had enough magic I could attempt a teleport. But my magic it too week now to get us far, and even if it wasn’t, these two won’t stop attacking the town so by the time I could muster enough magic to teleport us back there’s no telling what they would do without us to hold their attention.’  Looking around as the circle closes even tighter the mare begins to lose hope as the situation around her looks even more bleak.

‘Can we really escape while surrounded? Only Fluttershy can fly so we can’t go up. And this circle keeps us from leaving on hoof. That means the only way we can escape is if we could….’

With expert timing Pinkie pulls out a lightbulb and places it directly over Twilight’s head just as a surge of inspiration hits the unicorn. The lightbulb flickers on and Twilight grins ear to ear as a brilliant idea enters her head. “That’s it!” not willing to waste a second the purple mare rushes over to Rarity grabbing her with her hoof as she manifests her stand.  “Hold on Rarity I’ve got an idea! We need to fuse now!”

“Wait, What?” the fashionista protests “B-But is that really necessary Twilight I-I’m not the most comfortable with fusing, not to say we aren’t a pinch but…”

“Rarity! I don’t have time to explain, but the moment we fuse you’ll know the plan and why it is so important that we fuse. Now mare up and fuse already!”

Without even giving the mare time to respond the Twilight’s stand touches Rarity’s Quicksilver as their eyes fill up with light. With almost sentient will the silvery amorphous stand begins to flow over Twilight’s F.R.I.E.N.D.S. coating it in a solid metal shell as a silvery sheen covers and highlights the stand’s gleaming saddle.

“They’re fusing!” Noteworthy shouts with a sense of urgency “hurry attack now before they have a chance to use their power!”

With killer intent the passively advancing circle surfaces in, the zombies and infected converging on the six mares as the hundreds cry out for blood. With bloodlust and fury the undead charge only to run headlong into a giant metal pillar. Raising their eyes to the heavens even the mindless undead look on in awe as a large metal figure forms towers over the undead horde. The figure, a silvery set of giant armor four pony widths in height from hoof to head stands over the mares like a guardian angel it’s embroidered steel plates covered in cascading etching designs of varying variety. Rising above the six mares like a giant metal skeleton a large suit of unicorn shaped armor eclipses the battlefield its large metal legs surrounding the mares on four sides. Suddenly with a sweep of its mighty hoof, the attacking undead find themselves swept away by the giant metal pony their bodies cracked and broken by the mildest sweep of its hoof. The undead recoil as their rotten brains begin to recall terror as even the infected maws flee in fear from the metal monstrosity.

“Don’t youze stand there's!” Caramel shouts over the din “That big lug’s slow as heck. Surround them an bring it down!’

Obeying their master’s orders the two legions reform and charge in from both sides as they approach the mares from every direction. Reforming effortlessly the silver titan melts like hot metal as it reforms into a large razor tipped funnel surrounding the group of ponies in a protective shield. Slowly the metal funnel spins around like a top, its momentum increases by the second, each revolution of its metal body kicking up more wind and turning it’s sharpened spikes into a whirling develirish of flashing blades. The result is a cycling Hurricane of razor sharp blades that spin around with incredible speed, dicing any undead unfortunate and stupid enough to approach the silver tornado. The infected halt in their tracks as the remaining infected back up, a dark cloud of dust swept up by the hurricane filling their fields of vision as they collectedly hunker down to endure the artificial hurricane.

Dust flies and circles through the air as every quadruped falls to the ground or is blown to the ground by the sweeping winds that circle around the hilltop. The air swirls around in a terribly powerful current as even the lightest touch from the winds bites into the surrounding solders with terrible force. And then as suddenly as the wind came the circling cyclone of death vanishes into thin air, the wind from the storm dies down, Lingering on for only a few seconds before it too dies down. As the swarms surrounding the top of the hills pick themselves off of the ground the dust slowly falls down upon them like drifting snow covering their bodies with a thin layer of dirt as the dust settles. The suddenness of the tornado’s conjuring and disappearance is only half as surprising as its intended effect, for as both of generals look around the open field to find with no small amount of surprise they find that the Stardust Crusaders are…….

“They’re……“ Noteworthy looks around open jawed “They’re gone!” Looking around with his keen eyes the Blue unicorn scans his surrounding to find that the six ponies have indeed disappeared into thin air right in front of his nose. “They’re Gone without a trace to follow. They must have used a dirt storm as a smokescreen to escape.” The stallion looks around at the carnage before him, his decimated undead a testament to the power of their stands “And this was them trying to escape. I am loath to admit it but their teamwork is incredible.”

Caramel’s eyes widen to pinpricks as he looks around to find that another pony of his is missing. “HEY! Where’s the orange minx!? She couldn’t have vanished inta thin air! Where are those cowards?” the stallion looks around the hill only to find no sign at all, of the group’s passing “Where did those minxes go!?”

 ………………

In the dark of the world around them Twilight finds her head spinning around like a pinball as she tries to reorient herself to the situation that she once more finds herself in. Her throat filled with dust and debris Twilight coughs up a storm as she faintly ignites her horn a light purple light flowing over the group’s surroundings. With a raspy strained voice Twilight calls out to her friends in hopes of hearing them safe and sound. “Is every…” The mare hacks out a large hoof ful of dust from her lungs “…… is everypony all right?”

Much to the unicorn’s elation she begins to hear signs of life emanating from the darkness and dust around her.  Straining against the darkness Twilight increases the strength of her light, illuminating the small dark room around them as well as the stony walls of beautiful calligraphic writing that surround them. With their bodies currently out of harm’s way the six ponies with the exception of a bound Applejack, quickly rise to their hooves taking stock of their situation.

”Wowie Twilight, this place is so cool!” Pinkie shouts as she resumes her normal bouncing “I mean it’s pretty scary but still pretty cool too! Where are we, some ultra-old amusement park?”

However Twilight does not respond to Pinkie’s inane comments, in fact from her wide eyed vacant stare it seems as though she doesn’t seem to be responding too much of anything her mind trapped in the levels of deep thought that only intellectuals seem to enjoy.

 “Uh Twilight?” Pinkie taps the librarian’s head rapidly as she quickly dons a pair of headphones with a built in microphone “Equestria to Twilight here, Equestria to Twilight do you copy? Over?”

That simple reference seems to do the trick as Twilight is brought back to the present by Pinkie’s unorthodox performance, the librarian blinking rapidly in an effort to process the pink pony’s mannerisms. “Oh right!” Twilight shakes her head as if trying to throw out a nasty thought. “Sorry about that Pinkie I was just…… Just….”

The lavender mare looks over cautiously to the ivory mare slightly to her side watching as the fashionista carefully binds the Applejack head to hoof with the strongest bands of her quicksilver. The lavender’s mare’s eyes narrow in suspicion as she stares at the back of the ivory mare her face equally nervous and fearful as she looks closely over Rarity’s injuries as if her demeanor is revealing of something that was so obvious to her before. “..…Distracted.”

Tearing her gaze away from Rarity for now the Librarian looks over her group re-assessing her friend’s situations and states, content to find that despite some heavy breathing and some scrapes and bruises they appear to be fine. “And in case you couldn’t tell yes we are safe, for now. With any luck it will take quite a while before our friends above find out we’re hiding in a tomb.”

Everyone snaps in attention at this statement as Fluttershy’s wings flutter in a panic. “Wait? WE’RE WHERE!?” Fluttershy screams out only to find her muzzle zipped shut with a magical zipper.

“SHhhhhhhhh!” Twilight shushes with all her might as the six mares listen tensely for any sign that they have been discovered. Seconds pass in silent tension before Twilight breathes a sigh of relief. With a slight gesture Twilight looks over to Trixie who quickly understands the librarian’s intention and ignites her horn.

Closing her eyes in concentration the showmare builds her charge in to the point that it crackles with magical power until it bursts soundlessly around them. Trixie exhales as she turns back to the curiously looking group “Silencing spell, now no pony outside the spell’s radius can hear us. Now then perhaps Twilight can tell us why in Celestia’s name she has decide to bury the Great and powerful Trixie alive!”

“Thank you Trixie.” Twilight says ignoring the show mare’s drama as she gestures to her surroundings “And yes Fluttershy we’re in a tomb or more accurately we’re in a Burial vault or catacomb since the casket is buried in an open air space underground.”

Looking around nervously the showmare begins to apply one of her most well-known of coping techniques, sarcasm. “Oh! It’s a only a tomb! Silly Trixie to assume that we were somewhere dangerous and frightening when we were only hiding in a place where there thousands of undead waiting to tear us limb from limb! A Burial vault.” Trixie repeats as it was a novelty “What a wonderful place to hide from a stallion who can reanimate corpses!”

This earns the showmare a quick slap upside the head. “Quiet Trixie, It was the closest place for us to get away from Noteworthy. Using our combined powers I was able to kick up a storm of dust while me and Rarity used Quicksilver’s drill to dig us into this underground tomb. Noteworthy uses his power to reanimate the dead out from underground so luckily this tomb is unoccupied. It's not the ideal place for shelter…..”

Trixie scoffs

“….. but it’s hidden and safe from attack, as well as the last place they would expect to look for us.” Twilight smiles triumphantly as she taps her horn “And as a plus we’re unicorns so hopefully he thinks that we’ve just teleported away, and that gives us enough time here to come up with a plan to counter attack.”

“Well that does make sense.” Fluttershy comments as she looks around at her new surroundings with an air of cautious skepticism. “But um, why is Applejack here, I mean it’s not like I would want to not have our friends with us but…… um she’s sort of, Well….. um how do I put this…..”

“Capable of killing us at any moment?” Trixie comments.

“Um yes that, I mean she still has those ugly awful mouths on her. So what if……”

“Don’t worry about Applejack darling.” Rarity trots up placing a comforting hoof on her friend as she gestures over to Applejack’s silvery bonds. “As you can see by my amazing needlework I made Applejack a nice little straitjacket so that she wouldn’t feel inclined to kill us.”

Looking at the orange mare the group is surprised to see that Applejacks’ tacky bonds have been replaced by an eloquent but full body straight jacket that covers every one of Caramel’s offensive maws. Yet more surprising is the fact that the orange mare seems to be enjoying her new accommodations given her previous condition. “Urgh, yeah galls. Doncha worry bout me I’m tied up as tight as a hog at a rodeo.”

“Southernisms Applejack.” Twilight reminds the orange mare with a death glare. “And now that we’ve fielded the random questions perhaps we can get down to the main point of thinking up a plan because in case you failed to notice, I’ve got nothing.”

Pinkie pie responding in her normal over exaggerative fashion gasps heavily and rushes up towards the purple mare. “YOU. DON’T. HAVE. A. PLAN!? But you always have a plan Twilight! That’s like the third best thing about you! Right next you being a smarty pants and your cute tushie!”

“Well I’m sorry Pinkie but I can’t think of anything that can get us past all their defenses and….” The purple mare does a double take. “Wait what was the second thing that you said?”

“You being a smarty pants?

‘No Pinkie not that. The other thing.”

“You’re love of books?”

“That wasn’t one of the things that you said was one of my good points.”

“But your love of books is totally one of the best things about you Twilight!”

“And I’m not saying it’s not but…..”

“GASP! Could it be that you don’t think that you loving books is one of the best things about you Twilight?”

“Of course not, I love books!” Twilight shouts defiantly. “I just really want to know what you said about my….”

“Because if you did then I just have to say silly filly that love comes in all shapes and sizes so if you would love to spend a nice candle lit night of passion, curled up with a good book then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!”

“………. Night of passion?”

“And even if there was, you would still be my bestest of bestest friends in the whole world and I would support you all the way!”

“…………. just help me think up a plan Pinkie.”

“Okie dokie Lokie!” Pinkie salutes sharply.

As the Twilight’s body remains stationary, her eyes closed and her pulse steady, her mind is running in overdrive as her thoughts race at a mile a second. Her imagination works in overdrive as she mentally calculates every possibility and every outcome in record time. Her thoughts and purpose all focused towards a single goal defeating the two enemies that have dared to harm the ponies that they all care about for their own selfish reasons. Suddenly with a flash of inspiration the mare reaches her conclusion, her eyes open slowly as they sparkle in the ambient light of her horn. Everypony leans in on their tip hooves as the lavender mare licks her lips, slowly opens her mouth and with a measure of absolute certainty declares to the world……..

“I’ve still got nothing.”

“What?!” the mares shout at the top of their lungs in disbelief.

“I’m sorry girls but there’s just no way of reaching the two ponies that are controlling the two stands.” The lavender unicorn hangs her head in defeat as she paws the ground. “They have the ability to create an infinite supply of soldiers while we’re only five mares strong. The fact is that they’ve had the advantage all along. I thought that we could push our way through their defenses before they knew what hit them but they just keep replenishing their numbers.”

The group not used to seeing the normally optimistic mare so down in the dumps look at each other with confusion their minds struggling to process the mare’s logic. “Surely you’re exaggerating darling.” Rarity places her hoof on her friend's’ shoulder “I mean I was able to get that cretin myself surely we can defeat them if we all come together.”

Throwing off the mare’s hoof a little too forcefully Twilight groans “That’s because they let you get close Rarity. Caramel didn’t think that you were a threat so he let you close up on him, but that won’t happen again. Now that they know the potential of our stands they won’t let us get anywhere near them. They’ll just keep mobbing us with their numbers until we collapse from exhaustion.”

“B-but that’s not fair!” Fluttershy protests “Dash got by them so we can….”

“That’s because it was a trap Fluttershy. They lured Dash in so that Caramel could put Dash under his control, and by now she’s probably under his complete control biting ponies.” The more looks around at her friends a look of frustration dominating her expression “That’s the problem, any ground we cover, any attack we make could be easily countered by them. They’re anticipating our every move. If we try to get close we’re beaten back, if we try and attack from outside their range their stands and bodies can take the blows for them, and if we push forward we fall into a planned trap of theirs. I just can’t think of a way to get around them.”

“I’m….” The purple unicorn lowers her head as tears begin to drip down her muzzle “I just don’t see a way out of this…. I’m so sorry that I’ve wasted your time.”

The mood of the room immediately hits rock bottom each and every pony bites their tongues each one not knowing what to say in the wake of overbearing pessimism. Seconds quickly turn to minutes as our brave and resolved group of heroes lay about like rocks, their will to resist, drained as they become painfully aware of the odds stacked against them.

With her spirits at an all-time low even Pinkie sighs as she watches Twilight’s tears pitter patter against the dusty ground. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help Twilight. If only we could make a surprise for those nasty guys too. Then we could surprise their surprise, that’d sure be a big surprise.”

A sudden spark of inspiration fills the young unicorn’s eyes she looks back to her friends, her vision slightly clouded by teary eyes. “P-Pinkie….. what did you just say?”

The pink pony perks up at having being addressed by name. “Well I was just thinking that we can’t get to those meanie mc meanie pants because they would always surprise us if we tried anything. But if we surprised their surprise then they’d be too surprised to be surprise us? To be honest I was just adlibbing most of……”

The unicorn’s sudden embrace cuts off the pink mare’s further words as she feels her strong body compressed like a vice by the strength of her friend. “PINKIE you’re a genius! A surprise is exactly what we need!” Twilight laughs as she squeezes Pinkie Pie like a bath toy.

“T-Twilight, I love hugs too, but URGH I think I can’t breathe!”

“Oh sorry Pinkie I was just a little excited.”  The purple unicorn drops the pink earth pony to the ground. “Is that better?”

“….well…..” The pink unicorn blushes slightly as she taps her hooves together “Well I'm really glad I can breathe again, because otherwise I couldn’t talk and that would be able to talk and that would be really really awful!”

“Really.” Rarity states with a deadpan expression.

“…… but I still sort of miss the hugging cause friend hugs always make me happy and….”

“Alright that’s enough!” A flustered Trixie shouts as she trots up to Twilight. “Entertain your filly friend on your own time Sparkle! Just tell Trixie your plan so we can get out of this hole in the ground!”

“WHAT?” Twilight fumbles with the show mare’s sudden accusation as she feels her heart race in equal measures embarrassment and surprise at Trixie’s claim. “That was a friend hug, Pinkie and I aren’t….. You know what forget it. You’re right Trixie we’ve had enough filler for one segment, it’s time to bring this chapter to a close. ”

“Um Twilight? I hate to be a party pooper and all but breaking the fourth wall is kind of my thing so it’d be real great if..…”

“This nightmare’s got to end sometime, so it might as well end with us. It’s like Pinkie was saying.” Twilight wraps her hoof around the party pony. “We can’t get by those zombie ponies with brute force so we just have to give them a surprise that they won’t ever forget!”

The rest of the group sensing on an instinctual level the sudden and dramatic change on the Unicorn’ disposition all huddle up (including a bound and now gagged Applejack who creeps towards the group on her tip hooves) as they prepare themselves for another one of Twilight’s’ plans that are sure to save the day.

“It’s going to be to be a trap that they won’t ever forget, something that they’ll never see coming. And best of all we’re going to pull it off by working together.” Twilight states with pride her normal enthusiasm returning as the light of hope gives her words and ideas strength and merit.

“And as a matter of fact…” Twilight grins as she looks over to the bound Applejack “I actually think that Applejack’s current condition will be the key to bringing them down. Now here’s the plan….”

…………..

The broken battlefield at the top of the hill once filled with the loud cries of battle is now as quiet as a graveyard, devoid of any living ponies save the contorted infected and the two insidious ponies responsible for the destruction of the town before them. As quiet as the dead, the infected and corpses ramble about as they search every square inch of the hill their eyes peeled for any sign of their master's’ enemies.

“I'll admit one thing.” Caramel spits a bloody lougie to the ground “those minxes are good at hiding!” Kicking another of his captive infected to the ground in frustration Caramel continues to tear across the hillside looking for signs of the escaped mares.

“Patience Caramel.” Noteworthy reminds the impatient stallion. “They can’t escape us for long. They may possess the ability to hide for now, but it only delays the inevitable. Eventually they will be found and against our endless numbers they will be quickly overwhelmed.”

“Bute Ize can’t help it!” Caramel shouts as he punches one of Noteworthy’s undead to pieces with a single blow. “Those minxes took that Apple-minx away from me! She’s mine! They had no right ta take that pretty minx away from me!’ Caramel growls “At least not before ah made her pay fer getting in mah way!”

“And as I said before Caramel.” Noteworthy grows menacingly. “Our task is kill them, not to make them our slaves. If you had bothered to pay any attention to the mission than we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Manifesting his stand Noteworthy gestures to the undead who coming through the surroundings of the hill this time at a much more rapid pace. “Now pay attention and double the search for those missing ponies. After all it’s not like they’re going to…..”

KA-BOOM!

One of the crypts explodes in an explosion of dark green mist as the two stallions brace against the shock wave coursing over the hill. The dark cloud of green hangs ominously in the air as the two stallions nervously and cautiously brace for any attack that could possibly come from the green mist that slowly dissipates as to falls to the ground. Second by second the visibility increases as five shadow cloaked figures slowly emerge from the green cloud as the ninjas of old once did. With dumbfounded surprise every set of vacant eyes on the hills stares at the five mares standing in defiance of everything thrown at them so far by the hordes, eager to take them on once again.

“….Pop out of thin air.” Noteworthy finishes.

The two stallions though far of in the distance from the mares ready themselves for a fight as they prepare to stick their respective armies on them. Yet before they can even issue a command the five mares do the unthinkable. With almost machine like unison they subsequently turn their backs and gallop away at full pace making for the outskirts of Ponyville in a desperate attempt to escape. As the zombies move in their rotten teeth and broken hooves poised to strike Fluttershy’s piercing gaze flashes in the darkness as the undead directly before them stare blankly ahead stunned by the immense power of her Stare as the five ponies gallop wordlessly past the blank eyed undead.

“That yellow minx’s stare, it’s keeping youzes pathetic zombies from attacking!” Caramel yells as he gestures to the five mares passing through the gaps in Noteworthy’s ranks “They’re gonna get away!”

“Well then after them you dolt! We can’t let them escape. Attack from the yellow one’s blind spots!” Noteworthy screams as his stand waves its’ bony hooves causing more of his undead soldiers to rip themselves out of the ground around the retreating party.

Acting in unison Caramel extends his fore hoof as a dark maw appears on it as he yells out over the din of the combat. “Get em!” He yells at the top of his lungs as his legions of the infected course in from all sides towards the retreating mares.

Yet even as the mares retreat something nags the light brown mobster as if suddenly remembering something he wanted not too long ago. “Hey theirs is only five of them minxes….” Caramel states almost to himself as he watches as the Stardust Crusaders begin to run out of sight. “So where’s…..” The black horse cranes his neck across the battlefield as he peels his eyes for “….That orange minx!”

Caramel taps Noteworthy’s shoulder as he points off in the distance. Sure enough only a few mere hooves away from where the five mares had appeared with a dramatic flash Applejack lays before the hole her body lying prone on the ground.

“Look there she is just lying on the ground!” Caramel grins at the fact that at least something is going right for him tonight as he trots casually over towards his prize. “They must have left her behind once they realized they can’t remove my stand’s maws!” Caramel shouts over the din of in the distance as he quickly runs up to the prone farm mare.

Brushing back his slick mane Caramel makes an effort at appearing presentable as he leans down and whispers into the mare's’ ear with alcohol baited breath. “Hi ya minx, so youze decided ta stick around! Smart choice now youze can have some real fun, just you and me!”

“Caramel!” Noteworthy shouts as he rushes up to the stallion. “That’s not part of our orders! We’re supposed to kill them not make them our pets!”

“Tch, forget youze, Ize do what ize wants!” Caramel states, earning him a slap upside the head from the hooves of the ever patient and watchful Noteworthy.

With keen observant eyes Noteworthy watches as the five mares take off on hoof narrowly avoiding the attacking infected as despite their efforts to escape the group begins to find itself surrounded by greater numbers. “Anyhow it looks as though our decision to pursue them was the correct one.” The Blue unicorn states as he watches the five remaining ponies barely dodging the attacks of the legions that surround them. “True we must keep our distance or risk an in-fight with them but if they go out of earshot we won’t be able command our armies as effectively and accurately assess our foe’s situations.”

“Yeah yeah ize hear youze.” Caramel states as he watches as the five mares are once again surrounded by Noteworthy’s hordes of the undead as his own infected are barely held back by the yellow pegasus piercing stare. “Now it’s only a matter of time till they crack under the pressure. Alls we have ta do is wait, an we win!”

Caramel turns back to the prone orange mare lying face first on the ground as he flashes her a broken twisted smile.“An the fact that they were willing ta abandon their friend here shows that themes are pretty desperate. At this rate they’ll all be part of my special little club in a matter of minutes!’ Caramel rubs his hooves greedily.

“That’s no excuse for you behavior Caramel!” Noteworthy interjects “Like I said these ponies, especially that orange mare who craves her own demise, deserve a peaceful purifying death you have no right to deny her the salvation she deserves you….”

“In case yawl couldn’t tell….” Applejack interrupts. “…..mah friends didn’t leave me behind.” Applejack remarks with no small amount of confidence, quickly earning her the attention of the two bickering stallions “Ah chose ta stay cause ah’m the bait!”

“Bait?” Noteworthy asks skeptically “bait for what?”

“Bait for the beautiful ponies standing directly behind you, perhaps?”

The hair on the coats of the two stallions stands on end as they heads jerk sharply in the direction of the voice. They eyes widen in surprise their faces contort into anger and their bodies stand in rapt attention as they look to see the four ponies that they had thought were so far away from them, the Stardust Crusaders, are standing battle ready not ten feet away from where they are.  Rarity plants her hooves firmly on solid ground, Twilight and Trixie ignite their horns and Pinkie, well Pinkie was being Pinkie. Each of the mares however merely stands there in place as if awaiting the stallion’s next move or perhaps savoring the utter surprise covering the stallion’s faces.

“Those minxes!” Caramel readies himself for a fight as he looks around for any infected ponies he might use as a shield “How did they get so close ta us?” Did they teleport or somthin?”

“My Zombie’s constant attacks shouldn’t’ have given them a chance to teleport!” Noteworthy states as he as well manifests his bony stand. “And the magic and concentration required to teleport that many ponies that amount of distance is not feasible!” The blue unicorn looks off in the distance “Besides they were right there a second ago….”

Looking off in the distance the Blue unicorn stallion hopes beyond hope to see the ponies he has been tasked with ending are being torn to shreds by his massive hordes of the undead. He hopes that the trap that he has blundered into thanks to his ignorant partner is a simple hallucination, that the five battle ready ponies in front of him are simply an illusion. However to his utter shock Noteworthy watches as the five mares off in the distance explode into a cloud of smoke leaving behind only a single pony. With unmatched bravery, Fluttershy continues to stare down the crowd surrounding her moving her head from a full three hundred and sixty degrees around as she frantically tries to keep the hordes from approaching her from all sides.

“The yellow one used her power to keep my Zombies from attacking?” Noteworthy mind begins to race, his tactical mind slowly comprehending what the mares were trying to achieve as he turns back to face the real Stardust crusaders. “Of course, it was a diversion! You lured us in with fakes!”

Twilight can’t help but grin as she savors the dumbfounded look on the demented priest’s face. “You catch on quick, if you’ll look at this hole here.” Twilight points a single well-worn hole in the ground. “you’ll remember this is the exact spot where we disappeared into thin air. We used Rarity’s’ stand to dig this hole and then I covered up the entrance with a thin layer of dirt!”

‘So youze dug a hole ta escape. So what?”

“So what!?” Twilight shouts in disbelief to the stallion’s ignorance “I develop a tailored plan that taps into all our special talents to defeat an entire army and you say so what?! Do you know that making four completely functioning illusionary clones that follow the lead of a single pony? And Trixie did that with her eyes closed, literally!”

Turning her head off in the distance the purple mare yells back to her yellow friend “Oh by the way you did a great job Fluttershy! You can come back now.” Wiping the sweat from her brow in relief the yellow mare takes to the air as she flutters back towards her friends.

“You may also thank the Great and powerful Trixie for that Trick!” Trixie puffs out her chest. “True Fluttershy might have used her stand’s power to keep the Zombies from attacking them, but it was Trixie’s magnificent stand Magic mare that made functional illusionary copies of all the hayseeds here. Of course when it came to fooling a pair of foalish naysayers such as yourselves was there really any doubt?”

“Um I really did my best as well.” Fluttershy shyly states as she lands gracefully with the rest of the group. “I tried my best to keep the zombies from attacking so that you couldn’t tell our fakes were… well fake.”

“And it was a good job Fluttershy!” Pinkie joins in on congratulating her friend. “If those fakes had been faked out or touched in any way then our little surprise would have been completely ruined! And there’s nothing more worthy of a frowny face than a spoiled surprise.”

Realizing with even his limited intelligence that whatever the five mares have planned for him is not good for him in the slightest Caramel takes advantage of the group’s distraction as he tries to backpedal away from the group. Only to find his hooves planted firmly into the ground as a strong orange hoof presses down on him from his shoulders.

 “Hey, What are youze doin ya minx?” Caramel shuffles his hooves a bit more as he fails to move an inch Applejack’s stern hoof clutching tighter into his shoulder. “UR! Seriously youze are starting to get on mine nerves! Ize am commanding youze ta let go now!”

The stallion pulls harder as he finds his body is unable to pry itself from the iron maiden’s grip, however as the stallion turns his head to confront his former slave on why and how she is managing to defy him that he sees a sight that stuns even him. The orange farmer formally covered in his flesh controlling maws Now finds her body plated in layer upon layer of silver tarnished armor, each plate moving is harmony as each plate moves along with her Its’ strength boosting her physical power far beyond its peak. As the frightened stallion gazes upon the beautiful exoskeleton he realizes with a frightened realization the tables have turned and now he is the captive in this situation.

Rarity chuckles drawing the attention of the two villains “You thought that we lured you here for no reason? You may still be out of Twilight’s range, but in case you’ve forgotten you are still well within the range of my stand Quicksilver.” Rarity fluffs her mane “In addition to being readily fashionable Applejack’s fine suit of armor is completely soundproof blocking out any more of your dreadful commands, all while boosting her own strength! Now that’s what I call a functional accessory!”

Realizing the extent of the trap that he has willingly walked into, Noteworthy tries to rapidly retreat only to find that he too is held fast against the ground. Looking down he too finds a familiar silver stand, namely Rarity’s Quicksilver is binding his legs its metal tendrils slithering up his limbs and holding him in place.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Rarity asks rhetorically “I call it my lake of moonlight.”

“You see.” Twilight continues “Rarity’s stand is in its true form a liquid so it’s easy to just pour it across the ground only to solidify it later. That’s our trap, it’s a thin but strong sheet of metal poured across the ground that allows the user to freeze the movements of its enemies.”

“But how?” Noteworthy flails against his new restraints. “Your stand isn’t invisible so we should have seen its’ reflective coating a mile away! How could your clunky stand possibly sneak up on us?” As the Blue unicorn flails more small shavings of green peel off of Rarity’s stand causing the stallion to momentarily cease moving, staring down as more of the light green shavings seem to fall off of the silvery surface of Quicksilver.

“What the….” Cautiously the Blue unicorn lowers his nose to the ground sniffing cautiously. “is this… wet paint?”

“He he.” Pinkie grins as she waves around a large green spray can “and it was my job to decorate it! I gave it a little forest green some light greys cause its night, I even painted some cool looking tombstones!” Grinning ear to ear Pinkie holsters her artist’s tool in a newly acquired holster “And I for one think that, it’s my best work ever!”

“See that little smokescreen That Trixie’s magnificent doubles appeared in was not simply a smokescreen.” Trixie booms “It was a thick cloud of the pink one’s spray paint, since the paint was already falling to the ground all the fashionable hayseed had to do was spread the sheet of metal across the ground while the paint fell on top of it!”

Twilight points to Applejack her excitant bubbling within her as she continues on explaining her plan. “Of Course you’d have noticed that your zombies were turning green from the cloud or perhaps you might have noticed if you had been paying closer attention. But just to make sure that everything would go smoothly Applejack made sure to keep you distracted while she lured you in closer.”

Noteworthy looks down at his silver encased hooves a cold sweat breaks out over his body as he tries vainly to free themselves from the metal hoof cuffs. As more and more of the thin layer of paint comes off of the  large metal stand Noteworthy’s eyes grow wide as he realizes the immense are covered by Rarity’s empowered stand. “She took the liquid metal of the stand, and spread it across the ground! And we stepped right into it! They lured us closer so that we would get stuck in it, now glued to the ground like flypaper!”

 “By the way Trixie.” Twilight states as an afterthought “You can go ahead and remove the optics illusion now.”

‘Really? So soon?” Trixie asks jokingly “Being the master of illusions Trixie can keep this up all night. But if you insist.” A slight pulse of light echoes off Trixie’s horn as a slight magical aura falls off Rarity and Twilight’s bodies and with dramatic flair the two ponies their eyes revealing an infinite expanse of light where their pupils should be.

“M-Mindlink…” Caramel shudders in fear. “Iz didn’t know cause their eyes looked all normal an like! So that’s how she boosted the ugly maned one’s power like that!”

“And it’s all thanks to Trixie’s magic.” Twilight grins at her successful ruse

“After all if you had seen both our eyes glowing you might have suspected our plan.” Rarity states.

“But the hardest part was speaking out of turn like. It almost took all of our concentration not to….”

“…Finish each other’s sentences. Even I was slightly averse to mind linking like this again.” Rarity states with a sigh “But I suppose that a lady has to make sacrifices sometimes for the greater good.”

Her plan in full effect and her enemies trapped like rats on a sinking ship, Twilight takes a proud step forward. “It was an impressive plan no doubt, and we all played a part in it. Trixie used her stand Magic Mare to create illusionary doubles that lured you closer towards our trap.” The showmare tips her hat giving credit to her great performance.

“Fluttershy used her Stare to keep the Zombies and infected ponies away from our illusionary clones keeping them intact and preventing you from discovering our ruse.” The yellow mare blushes slightly as she tries once again to hide behind her mane.

“Pinkie Pie painted Rarity’s stand insuring that it would go undetected by your senses as you were lured in to our trap.” Pinkie laughs along with the scene, her expression almost as giddy as Twilight’s.

“All the while Rarity and I poured our combined powers into making the trap that even now holds you in its clutches.” The two unicorn mares stamp their hooves in pride as the loud metallic sound of the plate of metal beneath their hooves reminds the two stallions the impressive trap that they walked blindly into.

“And Applejack…” Twilight can’t help but laugh at the mention of her friend’s role “Applejack’s role is the most. Important of all.”

With her newfound armor encasing the orange mare, Applejack breaths steadily as she slowly and ominously cracks her hooves and rolls her neck. With almost giddy anticipation Applejack gives Caramel a grin almost as large as Pinkie’s smile on free cupcake day at Sugarcube corner as she stares right into Caramel’s pinprick eyes. “An that job sugarcube……..well ah guess that even a fell like yawl can figure out what mah special job is, sides from makin sure that you would walk headlong inta our little trap like a raccoon towards a garbage pile.” Applejack cracks her hoof one last time as she stares hatefully into Caramel’s eyes “…..now can’t youze?”

“Um…. Ize…. Uh….” Caramel gulps nervously as Applejack pulls back her hoof for what is sure to be the most intense beating of his short miserable life. “Youze weren’t takin that whole harem thing seriously were youze? That…. That was just a joke!”

Applejack does not seem amused. Caramel gulps again “Um that task wouldn’t happen ta be poundin me inta a bloody pulp while shoutin ‘Ooooooverdrive’, now would it?”

Applejack nods. “Raging Earth…….”

Caramel for the last time in his miserable life gulps heavily. “Um…… I surrender?”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOVVVEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRDDDRRRIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEE!”

To make a long story short the beating that Applejack gave the incompetent stand user of ‘the Monster Within’ was as magnificent as it was brutal. It was a beating that pounded his frame into the ground like a pancake. Unloading all of her suppressed rage and righteous anger with a barrage of punches that shook the earth Applejack actually succeeded in burying the offending stallion six feet under in a crater about the size of a small house. And needless to say, Caramel did not enjoy it as much as Applejack did, the brown coated stallion now black and blue all over his body as his arms and legs remain permanently bent in directions a contortionist couldn’t mimic.

“Tha……that’s not very…. Impressive….” The stallion groans in pain just as he passes out on the ground.

As the vile stallion Caramel slowly fades into unconsciousness his nightmarish effect slowly fades away like a bad dream. Like ash from a fireplace the carnivorous maws slowly turn to dust and fall off of the bodies of the infected ponies that surround the hill, much to their great surprise and joy.

“W-We’re free!” A nearby mare shouts at the top of her lungs.

“We’re all free!” A stallion responds in jubilation.

Applejack looking around at the previously subdued captives can’t help but smile as Rarity’s metal armor peels off her body revealing for the first  time that night her pristine orange coat free of Caramel’s controlling sores. Giving a soft chuckle the mare rubs her coat, never before so thankful for a clean coat. “Give me a Break. It may be clean now but it’s gonna take weeks o washin before mah coat feels clean again.”

“Well then partner…” Applejack turns towards the Necrophiliac Blue unicorn behind her. “…That’s one desperado down, an only one more ta go. Ah hope yawl have a good dental plan cause ah haven’t forgotten what ya did ta mah sis Applebloom!”

However despite the malice radiating off the orange mare’s coat as she stomps towards him or the murderous glint in her eyes The Blue unicorn remains deathly calm as he remains fastened to the ground. As the mare approaches the blue unicorns’ face contorts into at first a bemused expression, then amused one just before breaking out into dark laughter. “Fool.”

Suddenly with the force of an explosion a swarm of the undead rip themselves out of the ground dirt and debris flying everywhere as Applejack shields her eyes from the stray projectiles. The other ponies can’t help but stare on more and more of the undead horrors rise out from beneath the metal sheet placed over the ground, ripping through the metal with a gruesome metallic groan.

And in the center of it all is Noteworthy, laughing in glee as he rides the wave of undead surging from beneath him as his metal shackles are torn from his hooves. Forming a platform of rotting flesh and brittle sharpened bones around the Blue unicorn as the Mane 6 back up in terror as the Blue unicorn looks down on them from above.

“The…..the undead!” Twilight gasps as she watches as the thin metal sheet that she and Rarity painstakingly constructed is ripped to pieces from the dead rising out of the ground. “They’re ripping a half inch sheet of metal to pieces! Just how strong is his stand?”

“You may have defeated that fool Caramel….” Noteworthy remarks as he lounges on top of the mounds of rotting flesh beneath him “……But it will take far more than a surprise attack to divert me from my righteous mission!”

The five mares leap forward to stop the Blue unicorn’s stand from reanimating more of his undead followers, only for their advance to be halted as a wave if the undead tears through their shallow graves directly in their paths. Rising out of the ground like stalks of desiccated flesh the hordes of Zombies multiply as the Blue unicorn lounges on his undead throne. “Sinners.” Noteworthy spits out “When will you finally accept your blessing and surrender to the peace of death? As long as we stand on this hallowed ground my stand is undefeatable, your deaths certain.”

Twilight clenches her teeth as she prepares for another fight only for a prismatic sparkle from the corner of her eye to cause a smile to cross her muzzle. “Noteworthy was it?” Twilight points her hoof at the stallion in front of her with a deadly sharp grin on her muzzle. “Your next line is going to be…’Submit to the salvation of your deaths!!’”

“Submit to the salvation of your deaths!!” Noteworthy shouts only to audibly gasp a second later. “W-W-What!? How did you….. forget it! It makes no difference.” The dark priest growls “you may have brought down that idiot Carmel with petty tricks but I won’t be fooled so easily. Now that I know your scheme I’ll never let you get close enough to hit me! And eventually you’ll be overwhelmed by my vast numbers!”

Raising his hoof dramatically the Blue unicorn shaman prepares to strike his final blow. “Now die! Hollyhoof Un…..”

WHAM!!

With the subtly of a steamroller (And the physical force of one) a bolt from the heavens falls down smiting the priest like an act of God. The shockwave, knocks the mares flat against the ground as a tall mushroom cloud containing every color of the rainbow, spreads out from the point of impact. Noteworthy’s throne of bones shatters to pieces as a rainbow cloud crests over the hill the result of the deafening explosion As the dust falls from the sky like rain, the five mares rise shakily to their hooves The mares almost unable to process the speed and suddenness at which Noteworthy was defeated stare with gaping mouths as a prismatic maned figure blows away the dust with the slightest flutter from her wings.

Emerging from the dust surrounding the crater, Rainbow Dash stands admiring her hoof as if such an awesome display of power were as natural to her as breathing. “Yeah Fillies it’s not your imagination, it’s me! And my sense of timing IS just that awesome, it’s not an act.”

Managing enough force of will to close her mouth Twilight can’t help but whistle as she looks down at the still twitching body of Noteworthy. “Wow Rainbow, clearly you’ve never heard of the word Overkill” Twilight admits with grudgingly. “Well better late than never I suppose. Though when I saw you about to hit Noteworthy at full speed I kind of thought you’d try and hit him without killing us. ”

“Okay little miss perfect, maybe next time YOU can bring down a supervillain in a single punch!” Dash strokes her mane “I mean beating a guy that took out an entire town in a single blow, yeah that’s one hundred percent Dash. I didn’t need any lame plan I just WHOOSHED in and POW! Game over.”

“…… enlightening Dash.” Twilight looks over to the remains of the undead as they collapse powerlessly to the ground “Well At least the last stand user was defeated, even if it was totally sloppy and went against my carefully orchestrated plan.”

However despite Twilight’s protests there is no pony at this moment that could care less about procedure than the prismatic mare curtly flaunting her superiority over everypony in existence. “Yeah just gonna keep being awesome over here.”

Fluttershy giggles for a moment at Dash’s normal display of confidence as she looks around at the battle field around them. The infected ponies now free from the commands of Caramel are slowly treating the wounded and enjoying the simple freedom to move that they had taken for granted their entire lives. The undead that previously ravaged the countryside now lie powerlessly on the ground their earthly remains once more at rest. And most importantly all of her friends are all safe and healthy despite the immense danger that they just went through. It is just as this thought passes through the Pegasus’s mind that she realizes something that she has only now noticed.

“Twilight….” Fluttershy addresses her friend with wide eyes. “Do you know what this means?”

Not missing a beat Dash responds “That I’m awesome?”

“No… I mean Yes Dash that was very impressive too. But, um, I was thinking of something completely different.”

“Really? Like what?” Dash asks.

“Ah think that ah know what yer talkin bout Shy and ah gotta say that it is pretty amazin!”

“Soooooooooo this thing that you’re talking about isn’t about me being awesome?”

“Um hum it is super-duper ultimately exciting! In fact I think it calls for some loooooooouuuuud shouting!”

“Um hello there! Earth to Everypony! What is everypony talking about?”

“Well darlings, I say if we’re all thinking of doing the same thing, I think that we should do it at the same time!”

“Um Rarity what are you talking about?”

“The great and powerful Trixie agrees. Shall we do it together on three?”

“Um I’d really like it if everypony would stop ignoring me!”

“All together then! One…..”

“GUYS!”

“Two…..”

“Stop ignoring me!”

 “One…..

“Will somepony PLEASE tell me what’s going on!”

And with that, the ponies that went through a night of almost heart stopping terror, fierce combat and facing down some of most evil ponies they have had the misfortune of meeting, can finally hold their heads high that their nightmare is over. Despite the odds against them, despite the evils that they have faced, they have survived, and better than that, they saved their town in the process. Letting all their pent up fear and anger, hatred and pain fall by the wayside the six brave ponies raise their arms to the open night sky, shouting to the very heavens the reason for their jubilation in one voice.

“WE WON!!!”

“We won?” Dash asks skeptically as the fact of their victory suddenly brings a genuine smile to her face. “I mean of course we won, those zombie knockoffs never had a chance against us! Let alone me!”

And with that every single pony breaks out into laughter as they roll around in the grass like free ponies with the entire world ahead of them. And without a word between them they share an intimate moment that will carry with them their entire lives, and from that day on that starlit night on cemetery hill will hold a place in their hearts as a place where they fought and lived together. Needless to say all of them can’t help but giggle like a bunch of mad mares as they laugh along with their lifelong friends.

“Hey guys!” Everypony looks over to Pinkie Pie “You know what this calls for, right?”

“Let Trixie guess…. A party?”

Crossing her hooves with a frustrated and perplexed expression the pink party mare stares over at the showmare. “How’d you guess? GASP! Do you have Pinkie powers too?”

And with that the entire group once again breaks out into laughter as they roll about on the hill staring at the stars above them.

Twilight in response to Pinkie being pinkie, gives a slight giggle only to cut her off a second later. “EHEM, A party sounds great Pinkie! And I hate to be a wet blanket, but….”

Everypony groans loudly their exasperation clearly evident to the bookworm.

“Twilight….” Pinkie chuckles “Everypony here knows that you LOVE being a wet blanket! That’s, like, the fifth best thing about Twilight Sparkle! Right next to your cute tushie and your sarcastic attitude!”

Shooting every pony in her close group of friends a death glare Twilight gives pinkie an especially stern look as she snorts steam from her nose. “…..one of these days I’m going to have to take a look at that list.”

“Anyways like I was saying, we should probably get these guys…..” Twilight points to the two severely beaten villains their shallow breathing the only sign that they are still alive “…..down to the station before they can cause anymore trouble.”

“Gggggggguuuuuuaaaahhhhhh.” Trixie moans like a pony told to wake up in the next five minutes. “Does Trixie have to? She just found a nice spot on the hill to relax on.”

“I’m serious Trixie, they’re out cold now but if we don’t get a stand harness on them before they come to they could still cause some trouble.” And with that purely logical argument in play the purple unicorn turns her head slowly to gaze at the battered building off in the distance. Even from miles away Twilight can tell the police station has seen better days, and despite the lack of zombies clawing at its walls the moonlight above still paints the picture of a fortress under siege. “Plus…. I want to check up on my brother and the rest of the guards we left behind to protect the corpse.”

Everypony looks up at this as they realize with a pained expression that tonight’s battle did not just involve them. As the mares looks down towards Ponyville they realize that hundreds of innocent ponies have most likely been injured or, Celestia forbid, killed in tonight’s struggle as they try to keep themselves from thinking about the grim reality that they now find themselves in.

“Um Twilight?” Fluttershy rises to her hooves shuffling awkwardly. “ I know that there was a lot of fighting tonight and that you're worried about if your brother is…… anyways I just think that you should go check up on your brother if that’s what you really think is the right thing to do.”

The purple unicorn pulling her vision away from the buildings shakes her head dismissing the yellow mare’s concerns. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’m not worried.” Twilight admits with a certain grin “My big brother is captain of the Royal guard, and he’s the most reliable pony I know! I just want to make sure that he remembers to clean up after his own mess for once.”

The entire group shares a brief laugh at this, their spirits coming back to an all-time high. Even the nippy night air, now noticeable that their lives aren’t in danger, cannot dampen their spirits as they look or to the east as they anticipate the dawn’s warm embrace.

“Well ah suppose that that makes sense.” Applejack states frankly as she punches the blue showmare in the shoulder. “You heard the mare, go get em Trixie.”

“ME?!” Trixie asks as she gets up off the ground to face Twilight “Why does Trixie have to come with you? Can’t somepony else come with you to drop off our guests?”

“Well for starters you’re an actual government agent that can give an official report. Last time I checked, I wasn’t. And second you should probably escort me back.” Twilight paws the ground “Remember until the charges are officially cleared by Celestia I’m still technically under arrest. So it would make more sense if you escorted me back, to prove that I am still complying with the authorities.”

“Well Trixie does love to make her reports thorough.” Trixie states as she looks at the police stallion off in the distance. “Very well Twibright, let us get this misunderstanding resolved, and drop off this criminal scum while we are at it. Trixie herself will escort you on this mission of grave importance.”

And with that five of Twilight’s’ closest friends stand by as they stand by to see their friend off each of them offering their best to a pony whom they simply could not live without.

“Good Luck Twilley! I’ll get the balloons for our celebration party!”

“Yawl take care now! An don’t’ be getting us into any more trouble now Twi!”

“Be careful Twilight! I’d feel just awful if anything bad happened to you now!”

“Don’t worry! They’re not going to do anything to a pony as awesome as Twilight!”

“Do take care darling! Once you get this awful mess wrapped up, the spa’s on me!”

Twilight smiles “Don’t worry everypony, it may just be me but I have a feeling that everything is going to be fine.”

“Let’s get a move on Twibright!” Trixie grunts as she hefts the Caramel onto her back. “In case you have failed to realize these two ponies are VERY heavy.”

With an affirmative nod Twilight responds by picking up Noteworthy’s still groaning form and placing it on her back as she builds the charge in her horn to a boiling point. Her horn grows brighter and brighter with a brilliant lavender light as Trixie trots up next to her in preparation for the jump. Her friends stand of the side, only able to wave off silently as Their friend vanishes into thin air, once again plunging into the depths of a darkness so great that not even they cannot begin to comprehend its purpose.