The Trotting Dead Ep. 6: Far Behind Us
"I have to keep running or we will all die," Pinkie told herself as she ran and hobbled through the frost covered winter grass. Pinkie, unfortunately, had to tape the twins mouths shut to keep them from crying. A few ripped blankets were all that she could find to keep them warm but it would have to do. She could hear the growls of the trotters nearby in the woods and they could probably hear her. Pinkie took in hard breaths as she talked to herself in her mind, "The prosthetic leg is holding up well but how I got it is still stupidly crazy.
Seeing the twins looking at Pinkie with these blank stares was enough to make her cry. As she started to bawl she could feel them come and sit near her, Pinkie brought them closer with her forearms as they began to cry. She wiped the tears from their eyes and began to get up when there was a loud THUMP from the door. She quickly grabbed rainbow's now blood stained rifle from the ground and aimed it towards the door. With just enough light from the returning stars, she could clearly see the door be smashed to splinters by a hoard of trotters. She used a forearm to push the foals behind her while trying to aim down the sight at the trotters with the rifle. She would have sworn at the fact that when I pulled the trigger there were no bullets left in the gun, but she didn't want the foals growing up with that kind of language. She got up quickly and grabbed a nearby blood covered chair smashing it through a window behind rainbow's corpse.
She yelled to the foals behind her, "Get onto the roof through the window, make sure to stay together." The foals nodded and quickly made their way towards the window. Seeing a trotter in their way she grabbed the barrel of the gun, spinning around and slamming it down onto its head causing an unsatisfying cracking sound followed by blood splatter as it fell to the ground. Seeing the stoppage in the foals movement she yelled at them, "Go now!" Their fear was enough to freeze them so she grabbed them in her forearms and half jumped out the window keeping her back leg left forearm inside. She helped them onto the roof and jumped back inside hitting a trotter with the butt of the gun while doing so. She whispered a curse under her breath at rainbow, "She knew I was going to kill her, that is why she only left one bullet in the gun," she said while limping towards a small box that appeared to have an unknown amount of bullets in it. Once in the corner, she noted her mistake, she would have to fight her way through the hoard to get to the roof.
As Pinkie clumsily start loading individual bullets into the gun she could hear a muffled explosion off in the distance that made the ground shake. The explosion caused the whole house to shake which in turn made a large amount of the trotters fall onto their sides. She took that as an opportunity to get to the roof.
As she was climbing out the window she barely had time to see a crying blur move past her, " I am too old for this," she told herself as she fell after it. Seeing the filly heading straight for the ground she pull it close to her while landing on her tail springing them both upwards back towards the roof. Once on top she placed the filly back next to her brother.
She lied down next to them pointing the rifle at an empty roof, "What caused that explosion, and who was stupid enough to bring attention towards them?" A small smile came across pinkie's face when she saw a familiar mare riding a massive black box speaker on wheels. Pinkie turned herself around over the edge of the building and waved over the mare.
The speaker looked different than it was before the trotters. On top of both speakers were mounted turrets, while the wheels that it stood on were protected by a blood covered curved blade. The cover on the speakers was missing and replaced by barbed chicken wire. Four half circle things sat two on each speaker, one in front one in back. The controller of the death machine sat in an office chair mounted behind a large arrangement of glowing controls. She pulled the machine close to the house where she hopped off the chair kicking a button and climbed a ladder on one of the speakers. Small pipes popped out of the half circles and automatically started shooting nearby trotters.
By the time Vinyl was at the top of the speakers Pinkie already had the foals ready to toss. The mare was definitely changed by the trotters existence, Her glasses were smashed in some parts while some blood mixed in with her blue hair. She had a glowing bracelet on her forehoof while a gray and blue handkerchief was covering her neck Pinkie threw both fillies to Vinyl, she caught them with her magic and motioned for pinkie to hop on. Pinkie threw rainbow's rifle at Vinyl's hooves and attempted to get across to the speaker. While doing so she slipped and began to fall, Vinyl stretched out a hoof and pulled pinkie onto the speaker. Vinyl pointed at the mounted turrets and hopped down with the fillies. She put them into her office chair and buckled them into it. She reached over the chair and pressed a button which caused a metal fence to slowly rise behind her. Vinyl raised a hoof and Pinkie nodded back. Vinyl looked down at the controls and smiled, with a press of a button the machine quickly started moving forward. Pinkie had to catch herself from the unexpected forward movement. Seeing more trotters ahead Pinkie took control of the mounted turret and began shooting.
Pinkie stared ahead and realised where they were heading, "Vinyl you do know that the bridge is out," She didn't respond. Pinkie sighed as she rolled her eye, "Vinyl the bridge is out," she shouted. Vinyl looked up at Pinkie and nodded. Pinkie realised that Vinyl was going to try and jump the river, Vinyl pressed a button that looked like a play button. Vinyl placed her headphones over the twins heads and motioned for Pinkie to cover her ears. Pinkie wrapped her hooves around one of the bars on the turret and covered her ears. The sound emitted from the speakers was loud enough to spread across all of Ponyville, "Oh it's nothing special it's just my bass cannon." On cue of "Cannon, " The machine was flung into the open air by what was left of the bridge. At that moment, Vinyl slammed another button that shook the machine.
By some miracle, they landed on the other side with an unexpected softness. Vinyl motioned for Pinkie to hop down to her, once she was there Vinyl motioned for her to put her hooves level with her head. Pinkie questioned it but obeyed, Vinyl with an evil smile grabbed rainbows rifle and held Pinkie against the speaker. Vinyl reached down by Pinkies leg that was missing and pressed the button that made the half circles come to life. Pinkie didn't move out of fear, "Vinyl what are you doing." she managed to say. There was clearly a hint of discomfort on Vinyl's face as she messed around with her bracelet. In a few seconds, it came to life in a robotic voice, "I can fix your leg but it is going to hurt a lot." Pinkie nodded and chuckled, " I don't know how you can fix a missing leg." Vinyl reached into a box and pulled out a bulky needle, without a second thought she stabbed it into Pinkies stub. Pinkie let out a blood-curdling cry as Vinyl let her sink to the base of the machine. Again the darkness took her as she passed out.
"Not again Vinyl why would you test an experiment on the road, you are going to be in a very large amount of trouble if she dies on us."
Pinkie opened her eyes to a blinding white light, "Where am I," she said shakily. She could she the faint outline of the familiar mares Octavia and Vinyl.
Pinkie tried to lean up but was quickly stopped by a hoof, "Pinkie you need to lay down until the pain goes away," Octavia said.
Pinkie lied there and asked, "Are the foals safe, that is all I need to know."
Octivia smiled, "Yes they are and if you are wondering there will be more pain, I'm sorry"
"As long as the foals are safe that's fine," Pinkie said as she entered the darkness once again.
