Undead Equestria

With the sun and moon no longer a reliable source of time, Sombra had us both wear watches so we could tell what time it was. Night and day now have the most random schedule I’ve ever seen… well it’s the only schedule I’ve ever seen, but still. According to our watches it’s five p.m. Since we no longer can rely on the daylight, Sombra and I decide to just get work done as fast as we can.

Right now I’m flying around a huge metal dish on top of the castle. Sombra is back inside me so he can properly look at the wiring. “Where did you learn this?” I ask, amazed at Sombra’s seemingly endless knowledge.

When one no longer needs sleep, one begins to pick up hobbies. While you slept and I was able to roam free, I would watch and learn from the ponies up at the late hours. Even in my shadow form I can use little magic. Mainly levitation, so I would read. The castle library and public library had more than enough books for me to catch up on everything.

“Neat… So how are the wires?”

We’ll need to replace the main power supply cable and get three new circuit regulators before we can get this thing working. Those should all be in storage.

“How big is it?”

Three floors, each a kilometer long but about sixty meters wide. Used to be the dungeon, but after your mother took over she had it converted into a storage to keep extra supplies. Can’t really argue since it did come in handy. I haven’t been down their much though so I don’t know where they are.

“Joy.” I say while rolling my eyes. The sun suddenly began to set very fast. “Damn it, again!? That’s the fourth sunset today.”

This is going to be very annoying. I wonder how this will affect crops?

“Can’t ponies just use greenhouses with those sunlight spells?”

Yes, *Ponies** can. Minotaurs and Griffons rely on sunlight. I doubt you could grow crops under a light bulb.*

“Fair enough. Let’s go find the stuff then.” I fly down, and enter the castle through the hole that was blasted into the castle. It lead to the Isolation Chamber, which has never felt more unsafe than it does now. My wings and back are still sore from earlier, but the pain is manageable when flying. Thankfully, Sombra got me out of my suit and ran water on me so I wouldn’t be messy, and even popped my wing joint back into place while I was out. “When time comes for us to sleep, where should we sleep?”

Well, I don’t need sleep. You, however, may want to rest up in your parents bedroom. It’s one of the safest places in the castle.

“Might actually help me sleep after today. Something of theirs to keep the nightmares away.”

Sound’s like a good idea.

Turns out that the entrance to storage is through a small door outside the castle, yet still in the protective field. With the sun down and the moon up, lots of those… Undead, were out and about. I don’t want to go into detail about them, but one of them caught my attention. It was an Undead with the body of a unicorn mare, and had an assault rifle, different from mine, strapped across her back. Lots of the Undead had guns on them from when they were ponies, but this one levitated it out when she spotted me. “Is that one of the smart ones?” I ask Sombra.

Most likely. Better hurry; they can’t come in, but bullets can. Let’s not let the smart ones learn that.

I quickly make my way to the door leading to storage. It was large, crystal, with a small window way above any ponies reach, even on hind legs. When I opened it, I was met by a large, downward staircase. “Really, Sombra?”

Don’t blame me, these were here when I was alive!

“How far down is it?”

Not far. The stairs are spiraled, so it seems like a long hike, but it’s only about six meters. This is the main way to enter; a secondary entrance was made when your parents turned this into storage, but that’s outside the castle’s barrier.

“Why a secondary entrance?”

For larger things that can’t be carried or fit through the stairway.

Walking down, I noticed there was very little light. No light bulbs or sunstones anywhere. It eventually became so dark that I bumped into the door, muzzle first. “Ouch.”

Hope the power here is working . If not, we may need to use your pistol’s flashlight attachment.

I lifted up my pistol, my magic giving a small amount of light for me to at least see the gun. I noticed that a part of the gun had a switch on it. I moved it and a surprisingly bright light shined from the relatively small gun. “These things come with built-in flashlights?”

It’s an attachment. They come on and off, and you can turn it on or off at any time.

“Cool.” I say as I hold the gun so the light shines in front of me. Boxes emerge from the darkness as my pistol shines light on them. Many are crates, but most are large cardboard boxes. Luckily, they all seemed to be labeled. “This may be easier than I thought.”

I looked at the wall next to the door and, oddly, there was no light switch. Looking at the walls, I saw that the torch decorations that used to hold sunstones were all empty for as far as my flashlight attachment shone. “That’s weird... Where did the sunstones go?”

I’m as lost as you are right now. I haven’t been down here much so I can only guess that they moved it to use elsewhere.

As I passed through the aisles of boxes and crates, I noticed that almost all of them were construction related. There were large red metal boxes filled with tools, big and small, stacks of wood planks that reach the ceiling, and bags of cement mix. “This must just be for repair purposes, right?”

Looks that way. I’d guess that if a building was to be damaged, they’d want the proper tools to fix it in close reach.

I shined the light all around and, way in the back, almost out of the light’s reach, a door was removed from the darkness. Walking over and opening it showed another stairway, but this was just aligned next to the wall going down. At the bottom, a single, dull, light bulb kept the darkness at bay. I turned the flashlight attachment off and placed the gun back into its holster. The second floor had light, albeit most were burned out and the others were on the verge of death.

“This is… creepy.”

The surface is currently dying, covered in the corpses of the fallen, Undead and dead. You’ve seen all of *that** and more, and you’re creeped out by bad lighting?*

“Oh, shut up. It just makes everything have an eerie feeling. All it needs are a few Undead to complete the scene.”

Walking around, the boxes were more randomly labeled. Kitchen equipment, door hinges, water filters, and blank paper, to name a few, labeled the crates. What seemed odd was that most of the boxes that were medical related were opened. Guess that does make sense though; lots of fighting, lots of injuries to fix. “You think the smart Undead can feel?” I ask, remembering the smart Undead we saw earlier.

Hard to tell. From what I’ve seen, they’re smart enough to run away from gunfire. Maybe?

Close to the door that lead to the third floor, several boxed labeled “Electronics” were stacked against the far corner. The first one we opened had large green metal plates with smaller metal bumps on them.

Those are circuit boards and computer chips. Think of them like organs for a computer.

“Anything we need in here?”

The circuit regulators should be in here, and the new wires might be in here. The regulators look like very small green plates with a few light bulbs and small silver boxes on them. We need five.

“What exactly do these regulators do anyway? And I thought you said we needed three?” I ask while sorting through the box of computer guts.

They keep the electricity flowing properly in the event of a power surge, and five because it’s safer if we replace them all. Unfortunately, the Freeze caused the entire empire's power to go out. It was a power surg that big was too much for them to handle. That surge also burnt out the power cable.

“If the power is gone then how is the radio going to work? Wait, how’s the castle running?

Currently the castle is running on a rather ingenious backup generator that runs on magic. Twilight really knows how to make miracles happen.

“So it doesn’t need any fuel?”

It needs fuel, but not your typical gasoline. It needs pure magic from a unicorn. I’ve seen it before; it has this helmet that covers your horn. All you need to do is channel magic into it for an hour and the generator will last a day. That’s just an hour of charging, though. Twilight designed and charged them, so a full charge, an entire day and night of charging, will last a month.

“Daddy did always said that Aunt Twilight could build anything once inspiration struck her.”

I eventually saw the brown bottom of the box, yet not one of these green chips looked like what Sombra described. I pushed it over, searching through the next one. More green chips, smaller than the last box, cluttered the box. “Why is everything loose in here?” I say as I move the chips around.

Actually, they shouldn’t be loose. Electronics are usually kept in bubble wrap inside of custom sized boxes. What idiot did this?

Creek. The door that lead to the next floor slowly began to open. Hide!

I did as Sombra said, quietly running behind some large boxes. Soon, the sound of hoof steps entered the room. I slowly peaked out from my hiding place, and felt my heart drop to my stomach. It was an Undead, mare, earth pony, half rotted leaf green coat and mane. Her… it’s cutie mark was a question mark. What scared me was the fact she… it, was holding a gun in it’s mouth. A pistol, much smaller than mine, but she… IT, was holding it like it knew how to use it. It’s a smart one!

Keep down, stars only know if that thing has any aim.

Staying hidden, I watched it as it began looking through the boxes I was just looking through. It searched for a while until It dropped the gun and smiled. It actually smiled! It wasn’t scary or even disturbing, it looked like a normal happy pony smile. It reached into the box and pulled out, a small green chip, four small light bulbs stuck out on it from all corners, and a silver box placed in the center. Is that the part we need? I ask Sombra mentally.

Yes, what an Undead, smart or not, would want with one is beyond me. Why haven’t we just shot it already?

The Undead grabbed the gun with a hoof and began to walk back to the door, until another Undead, a normal looking one, came out. It hisses, sniffed the smart one, then walked away. The smart one looked annoyed and poked the normal one. It growled, turned over at the smart one, then walked away.

“Ba, bak.” The smart one spoke.

So they can talk, to an extent. Sombra said, suprise clear in his tone of voice.

The normal Undead hissed and walked around, ignoring the smart one. It hit it. “Bak!” It repeated, louder this time. The normal one growled and, surprisingly, it went through the door, down to the third floor. The smart one followed, closing the door behind it.

“The hell was that?” I finally managed to speak after some time.

I think that smart one commanded that other Undead. I’ve only ever seen them fight, I didn’t think they could do something like that.

I ran over to the box the smart Undead was searching through. I quickly looked through it, but I couldn’t find any other regulators in here. It dawned on me that, with that happy expression she had finding the one in this box, did she have others. “We may have a problem.”

Why would it take the regulator? Sombra replied, understanding my tone of voice.

“Who knows, but if she has that one, she might have the others. I just hope it doesn’t actually know how to shoot.” I slowly opened the door that lead to the third floor, the hallway walls were covered in sunstones, all glued to the wall. “The heck?” Was all I could get out.

So this is where they all went. Does this Undead have a thing against the dark or an affinity for shiny things?

I walked down to the third floor's door and upon opening it, was nearly blinded by all the light. Sunstones, light bulbs, and all manor of light producing devices were everywhere! The floor was even covered in tin foil, making the room even brighter. “Shiny things, VERY shiny things.” I say as my eyes desperately try and adjust to the light.

“Bud?” The Undead's voice echo’s from somewhere further ahead. I immediately hide. Flying up and landing on some high stacked boxes. The smart Undead soon makes it’s way over to where I was, it was looking around. “Bud? Bud!” A loud growl sounded, and the normal Undead soon came out from a large box. “Silly Bud.” The smart one said. It pulled the normal Undead up and was leading it back towards wherever it came from.

“That’s weird, the smart one treats the normal one almost like a pet.”

It didn’t have the regulator with it. Follow it, stay air born.

I took flight, careful not to alert the Undeads below me. Eventually, they came to a very large metal box that had open double doors. Lots of metal items, even a few guns, were littered all over the place. The large metal box had a few shiny things in it, but what surprised me was that there was a messy sleeping bag in there. The smart Undead curled up onto it and fell asleep, I think? These smart ones act almost exactly like any normal pony. The normal one just dropped on the floor outside the metal box, and just layed there. “The smart ones sleep?” I whispered.

Maybe, doubt it’s an act. No way it saw us. Now, since it’s asleep can we shoot it already?

But she acts so much like a pony! I reply mentally.

We’ve been over this already, she’s not a pony! No matter how smart they are or how much like a pony they seem to be! They’re monsters!

“I bet Hope never saw you that way.” I muttered. Sombra fell deathly silent, I could feel how much that remark hurt him. Minutes passed with me just flying mid air and Sombra not talking. Eventually I spoke up, not to Sombra, but to the smart Undead. “Hello?” The normal Undead got up immediately, hissing and searching for me, thank stars it was an earth pony.

The smart one soon walked out of the box and looked up, her eyes widened when she saw me. “You.. Live?” She asked me.

“Yes, I am alive. And I’ve been watching you for a while, you’re not like the others I’ve seen.”

“Last live pony try hurt Bud and me.”

“I promise I won’t hurt you or Bud, Although not to offend you, but I think Bud thinks I’m a meal.” I looked down and the normal Undead, named Bud apparently, was under me, biting at the air.

The smart one noticed this. “Bud! She nice! No for food!” She yelled. The normal one, Bud, suddenly stopped stopped biting at the air, walked over to her, and sat down. “Sorry. Bud no smart. Listen to me, but only if yell.”

“Oh.” I say as I fly down, landing on the ground a meter away from them. “So… I’m Flurry Heart, what’s your name?”

“K...Kits...Kitty. That only thing I member, that and Bud.”

“Oh, you remember things from when you were a pony?”

“Little. Part of name, Mostly member Bud. Think we kin, maybe?”

I looked at Bud and Kitty, the coat colors were both the same, But Bud’s mane was yellow. “I can see that.” I reply. “So, Bud eats ponies?”

“Bud eat not Bud’s. Dummies like him, but only when they dead.”

“You have to order him to eat huh.”

Kitty scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, don’t like yelling, but he no listen if don’t yell.”

“So… what do you eat?”

“Live pony food.” At that moment, Kitty walked back into the metal box and came out with an MRE bag. “Taste better than pony.”

“Wait, you don’t need to eat flesh?”

“No, only eat meat once, feel sick later, ate this, feel good.”

That’s weird. She really is more pony than Undead.

Seems that way. Sombra finally spoke, replying to my thought.

Well somepony is finally talking… Sorry about what I said, I didn’t think-

You were right though. I did so much wrong, and despite my sins, she never thought I was a monster. I forget that, even monsters spit out oddballs every now and then. I’m one, I guess Discord counts, so I guess… Kitty can be one too.

Thank you, Sombra. “So, Kitty. Are there any others like you. Smart I mean?”

Kitty rubbed her chin. “One other. She mean though, kill dummies and angries often when they no listen. Learn shoot from her, she carry gun like yous.” Kitty was pointing at my assault rifle. I remembered that smart Undead looking at me from outside the barrier. So she’s not going to be friendly.

“Angries?” I asked.

“Odd looking ones, like big fly chase you earlier.”

The near petrifying memory of being chased by that massive flying Undead caused my heartbeat to increase. “Oh, well. That makes sense. What’s with all this light though?”

“Keep angries away. Keep her away. Like angeries, she no like light. Keeps them out. Dummies come, but easy to kill.”

“They can come in here?”

“Yes. Can’t go through door to outside though. Can’t see wall.”

So she’s been keeping under the castle Undead free? We had a guard and never knew it. Sombra said in a shocked tone.

“But, then how come you aren’t affected by the light?”

Kitty shrugged. “Maybe, not angry like them. Just… wonder.”

“Wonder?”

I think she means curious. Would explain why her cutie mark is a question mark.

“Kitty,” I say, getting her attention. “When I was watching you on the second floor you pulled something out of a box. I need that, and a few others. Would you mind if I take them?”

Kitty looked confused for a second, then beamed with joy. She ran off to the a small cardboard box in the corner. She dragged it over, and it was full of regulators. “You can have. I just take cause look funny.”

I giggled. “Thank you! We need these to find other ponies. Not picky but we are looking for a specific type of pony.”

Kitty’s ears went down. “Others might hurt.”

I looked at Kitty. She was scared. Scared like I was, scared of dying. “I promise I won’t let that happen.”

I might have an Idea.

* * *

We all went up top, save for Bud. Kitty actually tied rope around him like a harness and leashed him to the metal crate that is her bedroom. I told Kitty “Welcome To The Empire.” and her whole body flashed white for a second. She walked up to the door, and was now in the castle courtyard. She looked like a happy foal, just walking around and looking at everything. The sun was rising now, lots of the special Undead were already gone. Save for, in the shadow of a building, that smart Undead with an assault rifle. The one Kitty mentioned. I saw her cutie mark, it was a chess board with the all the pieces laid out.

Kitty saw her and immediately hid behind me. That made the Undead smirk as she turned around and walked down a shadowy alley and out of sight.

“Not nice. She mean. She evil.” Kitty said, shaking and almost crying.

I gave her a hug. “Does she have a name?”

“... Call self, Chess.” Kitty said, almost shuddering as she spoke that name. What did Chess do to you Kitty?

After a few moments of comforting Kitty, Sombra came by, possessing his mannequin body and carrying full saddle bags. ”If survivors are coming here I don’t think they’ll take kindly to an Undead and a mannequin walking around. Kitty can talk, not very well but we can think of something, all we need to worry about is appearance.” Sombra dropped his saddle bags and tossed a full body suit over to Kitty. It was blue, with some kinda black material around the barrel, legs, and neck sleeve. There was no tail hole. Sombra also tossed one of those masks the ponies that used to guard the Isolation Chamber wore. We wear these and nopony will know that this body isn’t alive or that Kitty is an Undead.”

“You are a clever pony.” I said. I’m pretty sure Sombra smiled at that.

“And you’re a silly pony, you and Kitty.”

Kitty managed to put the suit on by herself, but I had to help with the mask. Sombra was the same. His mask was for a unicorn and he said he still had an Idea for that.

“Don’t see good.” Kitty said. Her voice slightly muffled by the mask.

”They won’t even be attracted to you Kitty, so I don’t think it will matter.”

“Who’s you?” Kitty asked.

Shit! How are we gonna explain this? “Uh, Kitty, this is Sombra. He’s my…”

”I am Princess Flurry Heart’s bodyguard.”

I gave Sombra an “I can’t believe you just said that” glare. Kitty seemed to had bought it as she just nodded. “He nice?” Kitty asked me.

“He can be hard headed at times but he’s good at heart.” I reply, not taking my eyes off Sombra. “You have a look around inside Kitty, Sombra and I will catch up.”

Kitty trotted inside and I walked up to Sombra. ”What pissed you off?”

“Did you have to call me princess? It’s the apocalypse for stars sake!”

”Hope and I went to Canterlot some time after I was healed. Those pricks only respect social standing. Like it or not we are going to have to throw your title as princess around to catch any attention. Especially from a noble.”

“Crap.”

”The one thing all of your family has in common is that you hate it when ponies address you as royalty. Twilight your mother, Celestia and Luna, they all hate it.”

“What about daddy?”

”Especially him. Once, after a meeting with nobles, a guard accidentally called him prince instead of captain and he had that guard cleaning the locker room for a month. Called it a ‘schedule error’.”

I snickered. “Least he wasn’t fired. Let’s catch up with Kitty and get those regulators installed, you did grab the power cable, right?”

”I just need my wings” Sombra said while patting my head.

“Oh shut up.”

After a few hours of work, and three more sunsets, the parts were finally installed and the equipment in the Radio Room, as I call it, hummed to life with buzzing computers and a faint static noise coming from a speaker next to the broadcast mic. Sombra decided that I should send out the broadcast since ponies would trust my voice more than his.

I sat in front of the mic and spoke. “This is Princess Flurry Heart broadcasting on all frequencies. To any and all survivors that can make the trek, please come to the Crystal Empire. We have safety, food, shelter, and ammunition to spare. The Prince and Princess, my parents, as well as the entire Empire’s citizens and soldiers are currently frozen in magical ice. It was a drastic measure that I greatly regret but there were no other options as the Undead overrun the kingdom. The castle is currently the only safe place within the Empire, nopony living or dead can enter without my invitation. Please, if you can hear this, come. And be safe.”

I backed away from the mic and let go of a breath I thought I let go in that speech. “Now what?” I ask Sombra.

”We wait, might be a whi-”

”Hello? Hello! This is survivors contacting Princess! Please respond!” A voice boomed from the speaker. It sounded like a young stallion.

”Never mind.”

I jumped back on the mic. “This is Flurry Heart, I hear you loud and clear!”

”Thank stars! We’ve received your message and we’ve actually been on our way up the the Empire. What happened? What do you mean by magical ice?”

“Long story short, it was either freeze everypony then find a solution later, or let them die. Least this way they are alive.”

”That explains why communications just stopped. How’d you escape being frozen?”

“Was in the throne room. It was the only place that wouldn’t be affected.”

”Alright then Princess the gang and I will be up there as soon as possible. We’re currently camped out on the train tracks near the Galloping Gorge. ETA is four to six days.

“How many in your team?”

”Myself included, four.

“Alright then survivors, rest up and be ready to travel. Keep your ammo for when you get here if you can, lots of those unique Undead around here, keep in contact.”

"Will do Princess. Survivors out."

As I was getting down from the console another voice came up on the radio. ”This is Reaper calling from Manehattan. You seriously alone up there and offering shelter?” it was another stallion, but he sounded much older.

“I have a few… guards, but yes there are only three of us here.”

”Got guts kid, I’m currently escorting a group out of the city. Tomorrow we’re taking the Friendship Express out of here. Thing’s still parked in the station and loaded with coal. I’ll contact you once we’re on the rails and/or if we experience any difficulties.”

“How many in your group?”

”Twenty, eleven of which are children. We’ll be there ASAP. Reaper out.”

After some minutes of no other answers I finally got off the mic. “That was surprising.”

”If that Reaper guy manages to take that train they’ll be here within a few days, much sooner than the ones by Galloping Gorge.”

“We have work to do then.” I looked at my watch. Nine PM and the sun is just rising. “It’s late, tomorrow we should make some repairs, and whatever else needs to be done here.”

”I’ll make a list. Kitty, you should go back to bed or… something.” As I was walking out Sombra spoke again. ”And Flurry,” I turned and looked at him, he did look like a pony in armor and not just a mannequin with that stuff on. ”Way to act like a Princess and a leader.”

I felt myself blush. “Shut up and good night.”