Author's Note

I'm doing it again.

Yeah, I'm basically a surgeon now, stitching these tiny, broken original chapters together.

Unfortunately, the patient will probably still die of liver failure.

...

yeah

The Only Copy

She awoke to an alarm. Sounds of bullets were right outside her window. The darkness outside still devoured her room. It was night. She heard ponies yelling, and deep voices giving orders downstairs.

Cloudchaser shook out of bed. Despite wanting to go under the covers and wait it out, she knew they needed her.

Over the past few days, they had gotten the hospital ready for zombie pony attacks. They had set up a loud alarm in the lobby in case an attack required everypony's attention. She was told by the guards that when the alarm sounded, she was requested to close and lock the door to her room, take the stock M-16 with an extended trigger hole specially for ponies off the wall to her right, open her window, and spot the zombie ponies from it. So she did. But a guard's voice from outside her door informed, "More humans! Caution your fire! Be careful!"

Oh no, she thought.

But thankfully, because of his warning, she wouldn't lean her head out the window and become an easy target.

She set up the heavy rifle after kicking the window open and then reached for the backpack containing ammunition next to the dresser on her left.

She popped a few shots at where she saw flashes in the dark. She was rewarded with a few bullets bouncing off the window's shutters. She leaned forwards and let off a few more shots at wherever she saw flashes. Pulling down just in time, she dodged shots that made it through the window and whistled defiantly over her head.

There was an explosion downstairs. Then two more. The floor shook and she saw smoke rise in front of her window, some of it seeping in. Another explosion. She reached for the latch that shut her window in order to avoid any more smoke from entering.

She heard screams downstairs. Another explosion and a hail of gunshots sounded. She was afraid of what was happening downstairs. The smoke cleared soon after, and she saw boys with shiny red necklaces storming out of the bushes. Some of them fell as they ran, hit with the flying bullets. She kicked the window open again, and started releasing her own bullets. Another explosion erupted by the hospital's walls, emitting a huge layer of smoke and blowing part of her room's wall with the door down. Some scraps from the roof fell around the room. The smoke was coming in again, but she fired more and more rounds blindly. She shoved in another magazine and let it go.

Yet another explosion as she finished the clip. Feet squished the grass under her window as guns blared. She heard a guard shouting, "Run!" down the hall. There was an explosion inside now. She saw three fillies running through the hall.

"Crusaders! Come in here!" Cloudchaser yelled. They swirled at once and ran into the room. "Cloudchaser!" Sweetie Belle ran up and hugged her leg. She had to keep the fillies safe. Whatever was happening in the lobby was a sight she didn't want them to see, let alone herself.

She debated on hiding them somewhere when a guard ran in. "Follow me. Hurry!" He gestured. Throwing her saddlebag on, she pushed the Crusaders in front and followed them.

The guard led them to a fire escape stairwell that went right out the back of the hospital. He busted through the door first, making sure it was clear. Then he held the door for them.

"Thank you." She hugged him for a second.

"Head that way, but evade any shrubbery farther to the right. Be careful." He pointed to a forest diagonal of the back right corner of the hospital. "Ponyville will be along that way."

Before Cloudchaser could respond, he was gone, back into the hospital, never to be seen by them again. She thanked him quietly to herself and led the Crusaders to the forest, where they would be safe from the mayhem in the hospital.

The fillies stood by Cloudchaser's side, looking at Twi's half burnt castle. The rough, colorful stone the castle was built of made it physically impossible to burn down completely, but now it was dark from the flames. The flag was a crisp and there were no more balconies.

"Well ... there it is," Cloudchaser said, "We'll get in there and see if anything isn't burned."

The sun had risen not long ago. Their escape had nearly ended disastrously as they snuck past humans in the shrubs, but they managed to get away without more than a few scratches. They had taken the path the guard had instructed, which led to the left side of Twi's castle.

A breeze came through. Fall was approaching and the temperature was starting to drop. The breeze cooled them from the summer's last specks of heat.

Cloudchaser led them to the front door, which was burned to ashes. The inside looked even worse with stones black from flame. They entered the library, which had a floor covered with white and grey ashes. The fire had completely obliterated all the shelves.

"Can we stay in here?" Scootaloo asked, hopping over the ashes without permission.

Sweetie Belle replied, "You want to stay in the room with ashes?"

"Sure, why not? There may be stuff under these." She grabbed a pile of ashes and threw them in the air like confetti.

"I'll pass," Belle backed out the doorway.

"Suit yourself. Cloudchaser?"

"Alright. You two hang out in here." She reached back and searched through her saddlebag, pulling out a whistle. "Use this if anything seems out of the ordinary, okay? Me and Sweetie Belle will search the other rooms."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded along.

"Good." She tossed them the whistle. Scootaloo caught the string around her neck and headed in with Apple Bloom.

"Follow me. We have to move quick. Do you want to ride on my back?"

"I'm fine ..."

"Okay."

They ran in and out of rooms. The floors were a colorless black and the rooms were empty despite ashes. It must have been a pretty intense fire to turn everything to ashes.

Eventually, they came back to the main room, which had furniture still standing. The seven thrones that were also made of the stone used to build the castle. It looked like everything besides them was standing. They were almost done looking around when, out of expectation, a whistle sounded from the library.

"Uh oh," Belle said.

"Stay behind me. Hurry."

They ran the short route back to the castle's library. They didn't hear any gunfire or zombie moans. The whistle continued a few more times before they were in the burnt down doorway.

"What is it? Who's hurt?"

"Nopony. We just wanted you to see this." Scootaloo pulled out a book in perfect shape from behind her back. It had a few gestures on the front and what looked like a green pony.

She grabbed it. "Where'd you find this?" She could definitely see the smiling zombie pony on the cover now. She was a normal pony with makeup on to look like a friendly zombie pony. She opened to the title page which read:

Zombie Ponies: The Guide and Cure

She stared wide-eyed at the fillies before flipping the page. The cover picture showed again on this page with words in red below.

The Only Copy