The C̸̞̙̭̽̌̀̈́̽̕̕ȗ̵̧̨̢̻̩̞̘͙̉̋̊͂͘ŕ̷͖̦̍͝s̵̫̪̋̍͂̆̆͆̄é̶̡̧̺͖d̸͎͒̒̿̈̀ Apocalypse

Splash!!

“GAHH!!!”

The feeling of cold water exploding on my face ripped me from my sleep as I shot my head up.

“Haha, morning loser!”

Dash snickered evilly as she gained some distance from my bench with an empty water bottle in her hoof. I sat up and wiped the water from my eyes.

“You shithead! Fucks wrong with you?!”

“Thought you might want another shower after what happened last night.”

Dash couldn’t stop snickering to herself. I continued wiping the stubborn water dripping in front of my eyes. After finally managing to wipe them dry, I shook my head and met eyes with her.

“Yeah, thanks shithead. Real refreshed now. What time is it?” I asked, peering out the window. Celestia’s sun was up, casting morning shadows on the slow moving forest we passed.

“Who cares? Sometime in the morning.”

“I want an exact time.”

“It’s time for you to get up, bozo.”

“And why is that?”

“We’re almost there. The station is close.”

“Awesome. Can’t wait to get off this stupid fucking train and sleep in a bed.”

“Feel ya there.”

“Wait… did you sleep at all?”

“Nope. Feel like you right now—straight-up slavin’ it.”

“What?”

“Nevermind. I told the princesses it’d be alright. I’m for sure gonna conk out once we get to the hospital though.”

“Right on.”

She smiled and left to get back to helping Luna mare the train engine while I got up. I mean, there wasn’t much I had to do besides go get my bag, but I was hungry. Maybe I could be blessed with another bowl of dry-ass cereal!

I exited the train car and entered the one in front, which Snow was using for medical reasons. It was also where we were storing most of our equipment, including my chainsaw and backpack. Most of the others were awake inside this one. This car was like the one the princesses were in, where the inside was converted to look like a subway car, with the benches pushed up parallel to the walls.

Honestly, why did the boys even bother rearranging all this shit? What a waste of time. Why’d they want it to look like a damn subway train so fucking bad? They shoulda just let it look like a jolly version of Marta like before.

Anyway, Snow, Trix, the guards, AJ, and the little bastard were inside this car. They were all equipped, or finishing up getting equipped, when they noticed me.

“Mornin’, D’mitry,” AJ called.

“Mornin’, ma’am.”

“The princesses want to see you up front, whenever you’re ready.”

“KK.”

They returned to their previous conversations as I walked up to the equipment we had stored in the front corner of the car. We’d come across a lot of boys now, and because of this, we had a lot of weapons. It seemed like every boy they brought in was carrying his own gun.

The others had set the rifles we’d scavenged from them leaned up against the wall. A quick count let me realize there were ten damn rifles amongst the other supplies. Jesus. Most of them looked military-grade too. It was an absolute miracle none of us had been murdered by them. I know they’d mentioned they weren’t out to do that anyway, but the thought alone was scary.

I took a moment to appreciate the m4s and m16s when I noticed one that stood out.

An AK-47. Huh.

It looked pretty out of place, sitting in between all the American assault rifles. Upon closer look, it also had a ballsack on it. Yeah—a 100 round drum mag!! Holy shit.

I was distracted by this beautiful gun for a hot minute, so badly wanting to pick it up and check it out. Despite this, I quenched my curiosity and returned my attention to my equipment for now.

I picked up my backpack, but something was off. There was a part I hadn’t seen before that wrapped around the bottom half of the bag, leaving a weird looking, sizable compartment hanging off the back. As I was twisting the bag around to inspect this, Trix walked up to my side.

“Hey love. Hope you don’t mind, but Luna and I stitched together something for you.”

“Ah. Thanks, sugarbaby creampie.”

She took a quick glance around to make sure nobody heard me before shutting her eyes and pressing her lips together in great distaste. I loved getting on her nerves. She shook her head before continuing.

“So… do you even know what it’s for?”

“Snacks?”

“No, retard. It’s for your chainsaw.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

She rolled her eyes and demonstrated how my chainsaw, despite being long as hell, could fit snug inside the compartment, with the blades hanging out of the top. There were a couple straps on the sides to keep it snug, and she also demonstrated how to pull ‘em loose quickly so I could access the saw fast. Looked pretty badass, not gonna lie.

“Radical! Thanks, Trix!”

She smiled. “Just one more thing.”

She gestured for me to hand over the chainsaw, which I did. After setting it on the ground, she made me lean in close to the motor and its controls.

“Notice anything different?”

I looked and looked, but nothing stood out to me.

“Uh… did y’all… paint it?”

“Where would we get paint, dingus?”

“From the market.”

She shook her head and pointed to the motor again. “Look. You remember the squishy button, right? We took that off.”

I squinted curiously, dramatically shoving her hoof aside and leaning close to see that she was right. The one squishy button had been removed, and… welded over? I could tell where it was supposed to be, but it wasn’t ther-

smack

Trix lightly whacked the back of my head, causing my forehead to bop into the motor.

“Bruh.”

She snickered. “But yeah, while Luna and I were stitching together the pouch for it, she came up with the idea of a quicker way to start it. Now, you just have to flip the switch and pull the cord to start it. No more button-mashing, as she called it.”

…

I looked on curiously, nodding along with her explanation.

“One question,” I said.

“Okay.”

“How the fuck did y’all manage that?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t ask me. I just assisted with my magic. Luna was the megamind behind it all. She did some weird stuff when we peeked into this engine thing.”

She tapped the motor a few times. I shook my head, even more questions bubbling. “Okay. Well, thank you, Trix.”

“You got it,” she said, winking before leaving to join the others.

After hucking the heavy chainsaw in its compartment and flinging the pack over my shoulder, I adjusted to how it felt on me. Having chainsaw blades a foot behind my head was a bit bothersome, but Trix and Luna had designed it in such a way that my head would likely never tap them. Besides, the chainsaw sat parallel to my shoulders, meaning the blades wouldn’t really hurt me anyway.

I made my way inside the princess cabin to hound Luna. Celestia and Twi were there too, also accompanied by Discord and the murderer girls. The murderers were sitting in the back corner of the car, where they noticed me first. Abby averted her eyes as soon as she saw me, while Jen warily smiled before averting hers too.

As much as I wanted to talk with them, Celestia told me not to do so, for now. She’d read the scene like a book last night, calling me out after our little emotional moment. She knew the girls murdered him. She knew I knocked Blaze out. She knew we’d all attempted to work together to cover up both of these things.

Smart ass.

Don’t tell her I said that, please. Still… she read right through our bullshit. She told me last night that she knew, and ordered me to keep quiet about it. The girls didn’t know that she knew, and for some reason she wanted to keep it that way. So, to avoid another spanking, I kept my big mouth shut about it.

With this in mind, I passed the murderers and Discord, who was laid out across, like, five seats on the other side. Guess he had to fit in somehow, right? Haha. Tall ass.

I approached the three princesses, who were speaking with each other toward the front of the car. Their conversation must have been important, because when I walked up to them, they quit talking and stared me down instead. Not menacingly or whatever, just looking at me. With all eyes on me, I took a moment to bow dow-

AHHH!

Splat!

I plummeted face-first to the floor, forgetting that my new, heavy-ass chainsaw backpack was weighing me down. My balance was immediately ripped from me the second I took a bow. After this splat, I pushed myself back up and brushed myself off.

“Way to go,” Twi mocked.

“Pssssht. You want respect or not?” I retorted.

Before they could start speaking with me about whatever it is they wanted to speak with me about, I hounded Luna, interrogating her about how she altered my chainsaw. She spent the minute-long conversation trying to get me to shut up and quit worrying about it, but she eventually gave in and told me she had learned about motors during my stay.

This conversation quickly got boring, since none of us knew what the hell she was talking about. Eventually, Celestia interrupted her explanation to get down to bass tax.

Or however the phrase goes.

“...so, D’mitry. Unfortunately, you’ll be the last one to hear this…” she stated.

“Last one to hear what?”

“So,” Luna took over for her, “both Celestia and I know how many humans we’ve brought into this world in total. But from what we’ve heard about your scuffles amongst them, we cannot be sure how many of them remain.”

“Bruh. Why not?” I asked, glancing at Twi. “Don’t you remember how many we’ve dealt with? There were 3 at your castle, 4 at the tracks, 2 at the… uh… trap… uh… I think, and… wait… wait a minute. We never found Pete!”

“Congratulations,” Celestia replied, “You answered your own question. To add fuel to the fire, we weren’t able to see how Peter and Pete arranged their little groups after they took us prisoner. Since they took control of the train, we don’t know how many are in Canterlot, or Ponyville, or even possibly other locations.”

“How many did y’all even bring in?”

Luna bit her lip. “Mmm… well…”

“Thirty-two,” Celestia finished.

“WOW!” I exclaimed.

“I know, I know,” she continued, “But like we said before—we panicked. We made the wrong decision, and we have paid for it. I can promise you that we will not make this same mistake again, even if enough magic returns for us to do so. We had originally just planned on bringing in six humans, but things happened.”

“Things happened?”

She sighed. “Yes. Long story short, we kinda crashed a college house party.”

…

“What?”

“The brothers, Peter and Pete, were the main humans we were trying to bring here. Unbeknownst to us, we’d stumbled across their house party in doing so. As you know, we sometimes forgo our little ‘human disguises’ when they aren’t necessary. They were definitely necessary then, but it cost us too much magic at the time to run them. Therefore, once we were caught out in the open, we had to snatch up a total of thirty other party-goers to avoid suspicion.”

“Bu-”

Celestia raised her hoof. “I know, D’mitry. We know there will still be a lot of suspicion, given that you know how bringing humans here works now. We feel it’s better to leave no witnesses and thirty-two unconscious party-goers than to risk a handful of them telling police that they saw two fucking unicorns spreading magic and knocking out their friends.”

I debated this, taking a second to wrap my head around it. “Well, I mean… the police would probably chalk that up to a bunch of idiot college teens getting high off LSD or something, don’t you think?”

“Possibly. We figured at the time that it would be better to just bring them all with us. It was definitely a heat-of-the-moment decision, but it’s cemented in place now.”

“Okay… so… what happens when they die and go back?”

Celestia sighed. “It’s likely that our decision doesn’t matter anymore. Peter, and whoever else we have killed, have likely awoken from their comas and started talking. Perhaps the hospital staff, and anyone else they speak to, will believe they are all crazy and delusional. Either way, there’s no stopping it now.”

I nodded along. “So… what you’re saying is… we can keep killing any humans we come across?”

“Yes. It is likely they will be threats anyway, so I encourage you to kill any of them we come across.”

I swung my head around to look at the murderers at the other end of the car, catching Jen’s eye from afar.

“D’mitry,” Celestia hissed.

I swung my head back around and met eyes with her again.

“Not them,” she stated.

“I was just lookin’ at ‘em. Sheesh.”

I took the next minute to process everything the princesses just told me. It was nice knowing more of the story, but… I was starting to get mad. I thought we’d been getting close to wiping out the rest of Pete’s little dick brigade, but noooooo—he had a whole fucking platoon still out there somewhere.

I sighed. “Hopefully the zombie ponies will eat the rest of ‘em or something.”

I was returned three unconvinced faces.

“Yeah…” Luna said, “I don’t know about that one, D’mitry. These shiny new rifles we have now aren’t the only ones. We brought in a lot of guns. We know there are many more rifles like these amongst their remaining groups.”

I was starting to get woozy with anger, so I sat down on a nearby bench and rubbed my face frustratingly.

Celestia sighed. “I’m sorry, dear. I admit, we probably should have done some more research about humans during your stay than we did. If we had known just how vile your species can be, we would have never thought to bring them in.”

“Bruh,” I commented, waving my hands around and gesturing to the entirety of me. “How did you not see vile in all this?”

“Because we don’t? Everypony knows you’re a bit crazy, D’mitry. But evil? Not so much.”

“Bruh.”

Twi joined, “Might as well take the compliment, dumbass.”

“Okay… thank you, Celestia.”

We talked some more about our upcoming journey. As we were talking, Dash came in to confirm that we were stopping. Because of the busted ass engine, the power to the brakes was somehow affected, meaning we had to squeal to a stop for the next five minutes. This was great. It was like we were sounding off a dinner bell for any zombie ponies that happened to be near the station.

Once the train finally stopped, Twi, Dash, and I stepped out onto the open, indescribable car. Dash kept the train engine on in case we had to skedaddle, but the station and surrounding area looked empty. Real empty. Despite Celestia’s morning sun beaming down and illuminating everything beautifully, I felt an eerie chill creep down my spine, as if it was almost midnight on Halloween.

We stood there for a few minutes, quietly talking with one another as we listened for any nearby zombies. However, none made an appearance. Guess we’re pretty lucky, huh?

“Well?” I asked, “Shall we start our little jou-”

BANG!

Out of nowhere, an immense stabbing pain burst through my abdomen, causing me to fall backward in the car. My back hissed out after falling on my backpack, but adrenaline began firing through my body as quickly as I had fallen. I grunted at the new, sharp pain in my abs, noticing it dull in the moment. I’d been shot.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

More gunshots rang out as Twi and Dash hit the floor. I saw one of the bullets tear a hole through the side of the…

…

Half-wall

Sigh

Yeah yeah yeah. Anyway, the bullet tore through the half-wall, causing us to flinch.

“Inside!” Twi shouted.

The two of them helped me frantically crawl back inside the car with the important princesses, where they both were huddled behind the benches shoved up against the wall. I hadn’t noticed it before, but at this angle, I could see sheet metal bolted into the bottom-half of the train’s sidewalls. That’s when I realized…

The boys had fortified the train. Holy shit. It wasn’t just some wannabe subway car bullshit. I could even hear a few shots ding off the side of the car. This was great news for us. That’s about where our luck ended though.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A few more gunshots rang out. I could hear them clanging on the engine behind us. Right after, the hum of the engine rattled and hissed to an abrupt stop.

They’d taken out the train. Motherfuckers…

I observed the rest of the car, trying to ignore the pain radiating through my abs. Discord had rolled himself off the benches and onto the floor, taking up part of the aisle. The girls had also dropped to the ground, laying flat on the floor as well. The princesses kept themselves pinned beside the benches. By the looks of it, we were all protected by this sheet metal.

Celestia eyed me, noticing I was clenching my stomach. “D’mitry, were you hit??”

“No, no. I have a tummy ache.”

Smack!

Twi smacked the back of my head before Dash got the chance to. She then rolled me to my side and lifted my shirt to see my abs. My wonderful red blood that I hadn’t seen in, like, 8 hours, was visible, slowly oozing out of a hole in the left side of my abdomen.

“Dash,” she said, “Can you grab Snow, please? Tell the others to shoot back, but to stay below the windows.”

“Gotcha!” Dash exclaimed, quickly squeezing and crawling her way past Discord and the murderers.

BANG! BANG!

A few more gunshots popped off, but then it was quiet for a minute. This finally gave us some time to think. I exchanged a glance with Twi, who was nervously checking my wound. It looked similar to the shots Pete had put through my chest, but wasn’t bleeding as badly this time. As she was observing it, I met eyes with her.

“Did you see who-”

“Yes… D’mitry,” she answered, sighing, “I caught a glimpse.”

“...and?”

“It’s the boys.”

I laid sideways against my backpack in silence for a minute. It was a long minute, given the boys had paused their shooting. However, after this minute, the gunfire started up again. I could hear ruckus in the car behind ours, as well as gunshots emitting from it.

Good. The others were firing back.

However, the gunshots were starting to muffle in my ears. Not because I was passing out, or getting woozy, though. I was just getting angry.

…

Very angry.

“D’mitry?” Celestia asked, pulling me from my trance. She had joined Twi and was now hovering over the back of me. She took interest in checking my wound, which Twi was now pressing down on with her hoof to stop the bleeding. I hadn’t even realized she’d started doing that.

“Just hang in there,” Celestia continued, “We’ll get through this.”

I shot my eyes around the cabin. I’m not sure if I was actually looking for anything, but I could feel anger competing with adrenaline for space in my veins. My heart beat fast, and my breaths were the same.

When I leaned my head back to see the back of the car, I caught sight of Dash’s bright, rainbow body through the open doors of the cars. I could vaguely see Snow following behind her. Dash started making her way between the cars to g-

BANG!

I flinched slightly at this gunshot but kept my eyes on Dash. She’d almost made it across the walkway, but she suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground at the doorway of our car. Discord’s body blocked my view of her now, so I hastily leaned up on my shoulder to see.

She squirmed on the floor for a second as Snow gunned it across the walkway, leaping over her to get into the car. She then bit into Dash’s shoulder blade and dragged her fully into the car.

Despite Twi telling me to be still, I shifted my body in an attempt to sit up.

“Stop!” she hissed.

I paused my squirming as she started shouting out to Snow and Dash. That’s when we found out Dash had been struck in the leg. When I heard this, my vision blurred. My ears joined them, somehow drowning out the shouting. I didn’t know what was happening, but my brain actively ignored whatever they were saying.

While Twi was busy shouting to them, I raised my hands and forcefully shoved her hoof off of my wound. She damn near slipped, not expecting me to overpower her. With her hoof free, I rolled to my stomach, ignoring the wet sensation on my abdomen.

Through muffled ears, I could hear both Twi and Celestia trying to say something. My brain didn’t care. I began crawling down the aisle, ignoring th-

Stomp!

My crawl was immediately halted by a hoof stomping on the back of my leg. I attempted shimmying out of its grasp, but it weighed me down enough to prevent this. I was forced out of my daze, my eyes unblurring and ears unmuffling as I looked back over my shoulder. Celestia glared back at me, her long foreleg sunk into my hamstring.

“Stop,” she hissed, “You need to stay still. Don’t worry about Dash right now. Nurse Snow is on it.”

I huffed loudly, turning back to look at Dash again. She was right—Snow was already in her saddlebags digging shit out to care for her. I shook my head and looked back at Celestia.

“Can’t I just join them? I need to get seen, Celestia.”

Celestia eyed me suspiciously before meeting eyes with Twi. Although Twi looked pretty upset about me shoving her off, she agreed to help crawl me over to Snow to get checked out. Celestia attempted to get me to take off my heavy backpack, but I couldn’t be bothered right now.

By the time Twi and I crawled over to them, the murderers had joined them. Both of them huddled over Dash, attempting to help Snow. When we crawled up, Snow promised to get to me as quick as she could.

“No, it’s fine,” I replied.

Before any of them could react, I quickly shifted to my knees. Fighting the weight of my backpack, I just as quickly rose to a stand, exposing myself through the windows.

“D’mitry!” Twi shouted.

Before she could swipe me back down, I sidestepped past Dash, nearly colliding with Jen on my way to the doorway. With nobody to stop me, I ran through the doorway and gunned it across the walkway to get to the next train car. I heard Twi yelling after me, but it didn’t matter to me. I made it across just fine.

Now, my eyes were blurring again. My ears muffled as well. My brain was seriously fighting some kinda emotion right now. I wasn’t woozy, still. But man was I mad.

After crossing the walkway, I dropped to my knees to get back under cover… for now.

I was fighting against myself, though. I started seeing red in the blur. I could feel a heartbeat twitching in my left eye. I couldn’t even feel the pain in my abdomen anymore, but I was feeling warm all over. I could vaguely see a few pairs of eyes looking at me from this car, but it didn’t matter to me.

My bloodshot gaze drifted from these seeing eyes to the corner of the car, where I’d taken my backpack. I could see the rifles sat up against the wall still, but I was looking for a particular on-

There she is.

The AK-47.

The beauty herself. I grabbed it with my eager hands, quickly checking it over. It was ready. One flick away from total destruction. A smile protruded my lips—one I could not squander. I gathered a few more regular magazines and stuffed them in my pockets. While I did, somepony crawled up to my side.

“D’mitry,” Trix said, “Are you okay??”

I swung my head around to face her. Despite my bloodshot, blurry ass vision, I could still make out her pretty, concerned face. It only grew more concerned when I faced her. I didn’t know why at first, but I realized I was still smiling. I sucked my teeth, but the smile remained.

“...D’mitry?” she repeated concerningly.

“Hehehehehe.”

“The fu-”

I stood up out of cover again, unexpectedly. With the badass AK held firmly in my hands, and my chainsaw nearly scraping the roof of the car, I casually walked down the aisle. Startled expressions filled everypony’s faces as I walked by them. They remained huddled down low, behind cover.

Some of them might have been trying to talk to me as I walked by, but at this point, all I could hear was a low guitar riff. It echoed inside of my ears, seeming to stem from the inside of my brain. Multi-dimensional audio. I was one with this sick-ass guitar riff out of nowhere.

I ended up making it to the other end of the train car unphased. When I reached the door, I raised my boot off the ground and-

POW!

My boot met the door, blasting it open. It swung so hard that it damn near shut on me again. I shoved it back open and walked outside. Wasting no time, I lifted the rope barrier of the walkway and slipped my way off of it, my boots hitting the gravel of the tracks below.

I cracked my neck, racking the slide of the AK and raising it as I walked out from between the train cars. In front of me, just a little ways from the train, was a patch of forest. A single flash emitted from the treeline, confirming where we were being shot from. This is all I needed. In my head, the bass dropped.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

I let her RIP. The AK blasted my exposed ears until my hearing was really muffled. The thunderous shots gently destroyed my ears as they popped off. The butt end of the AK viciously beat against my shoulder as I used all the strength I had to keep the monster steady, sweeping the forest we were being shot from. After about thirty rounds, I released the trigger briefly.

A few flashes continued coming from the tree line. The AK’s trigger enjoyed all of about one second before I set the sights on them and lit her up again.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

This time, as I fought the ferocious recoil, I stepped forward. While it did feel a bit odd, I kept going. I continued walking forward as the gun shook in my arms, taking very brief pauses to reorient the sight before holding the trigger down again. Before I knew it, I was wayyyyyyyyyy exposed, leaving the safety of the train behind. I only realized this when a bullet cracked by my right ear, causing me to stagger.

The tree line wasn’t far in front of me. I’d even seen a body moving from left to right during one of my barrages. I also saw it tumble to the ground when I swept my barrel across it. Immediately after, I heard some rounds cracking to the left and right of me. They were close enough to make me nervous, so I released the AK’s trigger and bolted into a sprint for the treeline.

I noticed a boy not far away, partially hidden by a pair of shrubs. He noticed me too, but I’d already slowed to a jog and raised the AK again. His body danced in the sights for a second before I flexed my finger hard on the trigger, letting four to five shots blast his way. Unlike the other body, I saw these bullets hit directly. His body flinched violently upon the first hits. It was then briefly hidden by a burst of red as the last connected with his head.

I lowered the AK briefly as I sprinted up to the closest tree I could find. Bark blew off the other side of it as I came screeching to a halt, positioning myself on the other side. Though I couldn’t hear worth a shit at this point, my brain worked hard in locating the exact position they were firing from.

Keeping my face pointed at the tree, I waited for a second until the bullets paused. Immediately after, I quickly leaned my top half out and pointed my AK where I thought they were. Although I couldn’t see them visibly, I knew they were in the direction. With this in mind, I swept my AK across the area.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

I managed to catch a glimpse of a boy poking out behind another tree to the right of where I sprayed. After unsuccessfully sweeping the gun toward him and shooting one or two shots that bounced off the bark, I ducked back behind cover just in time to avoid a few angry retaliatory shots. While they shredded the bark on the side of my tree, I dropped down to my knees, making sure to get low.

Once the bullets paused, I leaned out again and set my AK’s sight on the previous boy. He was still poked out, his gun now raised at me. However, it was pointed too high. Before he could lower it, I let the AK rip again.

BANGBANGBANG!

Three quick shots flew his way. His shoulder flinched violently, his arm flying out to the side as he dropped his gun and fell to the ground. I didn’t have time to see if he was down for good before noticing another boy through the bushes I’d just sprayed.

He looked to be moving from one tree to another, repositioning I guess. Before he could reach the other one, I quickly swept my AK and sprayed him down. After a few shots of nothing, he finally tumbled to the ground just shy of the tree. I kept the AK firing a few seconds longer, sending a couple more bullets through his fallen, flinching body to make sure. Now he could reposition his body’s organic matter with the cold, hard ground.

After finishing him off, I noticed the first boy still squirming next to the tree he’d been hiding behind.

BANGBANGBANGBANG!

My AK’s bullets met his squirming body to relieve it from doing so. Once I knew he was finished as well, I got back into cover.

For the next minute, my rampage continued. I moved from tree to tree, hopped up on insane levels of adrenaline and rage. The boys ended up dropping like flies. I didn’t even have any, like, military training, but I guess none of them did either. None of them even managed to hit me. The only thing they managed to do was piss me off… by me tripping over one of their dead bodies.

By now, I was approaching the other edge of the forest, that led into town. They were running out of places they could be hiding. The overall gunfire in this wooded area was also getting pretty sparse, and not many bullets were flying my way anymore.

However, less bullets were flying their way too. It hadn’t taken me long to drain my ballsack…… drum magazine. The two regular mags I’d grabbed emptied even quicker. I even managed to empty my baby’s mag in between a reload. I’m not sure how many bullets I had left, but I was down to the last mag of my AK as I shuffled through the forest. My adrenaline hadn’t worn off, so I was still in hunt mode.

As my bloodshot eyes darted around the trees and shrubbery, two human bodies huddled against a thin tree caught my eye. They both had rifles, but neither of them were looking at me. One was facing right, looking in the completely wrong direction. The other was actually facing me, but he was frantically working to fix a weapon jam.

The one fixing his weapon quickly eyed me before giving up and dropping his rifle, instead opting to grab a pistol holstered on his side. As he did, I raised my AK and set his chest smack dab in the middle of its sight.

BANG!
Click!

The AK stopped abruptly, as I’d finally run out of ammo. The one bullet made its mark, though, causing him to drop his pistol and clutch his chest. Although he was already low to the ground, he slunk down even farther, lying up against the tree they were trying to take cover behind.

The other boy finally noticed me. Not only was I out of ammo now, but I was also in a bad position. I was in the open, no trees or any other cover in my immediate vicinity.

My adrenaline still pulsing, I sunk my boots into the forest floor to propel myself into a sprint. They were pretty close, but not close enough. As I reached peak speed, he swung his rifle my way.

BANG!

The first shot cracked by my side. Through pure rage, I barely flinched as I continued gunning it toward them. Not to brag or anything, but I also think I could compete with Usain Bolt at the pace I was going now. The leaves on the forest floor were a blur… but that might also be tunnel-vision.

I’d expected a second shot to fire off, but ironically, it looks like the boy’s gun either ran out of ammo as well, or jammed. He frantically checked the slide as I bolted toward them. When I approached, he shot to a stand, attempting to use the dead rifle as some sort of spear shield to hold me back as he himself staggered backward. This was meaningless.

WHACK!

I used my AK to forcefully kick his rifle aside. Miraculously, the boy managed to keep ahold of it as he continued backing up. Even though I had slowed now, my momentum got me within range. With the butt end of my AK facing him, I violently drilled it forward.

Whoosh!

What the fuck!

Despite a perfect trajectory aimed at his face, this nimble motherfucker dodged it. As he did, though, he lost his footing. He was still staggering back, so he ended up tumbling backward. This would be great if I wasn’t also tumbling forward to the ground.

To make matters worse, I’d rolled over myself for a little bit longer than he did, given I had come in hot. By the time I was picking myself up again, he was already standing. He used this to his advantage, and before I could make it off my knees, he ran forward and swung the rifle my way.

Whack!

His rifle met the side of my head, knocking me back to the ground. I shook this off as quickly as I could, rolling to my back to keep my eyes on him. I still had my AK in my grasp, so I raised it up as my own makeshift, wannabe spear. Funny enough, I guess the tense situation got to the boy. He looked to be readying to hit me with his rifle again, but flinched and staggered like an idiot when my barrel swept him.

Maybe he didn’t know I was out of ammo? Either way, I played along, yelling like a wild baboon as I pretended to line his head up in the AK’s sight. The boy freaked the fuck out, diving down to the ground. While he was being an idiot, I quickly shot back to a stand. As I did, he finally realized I wasn’t able to fire and shot up to his feet as well.

Before he could, though, I’d already come up with an idea. This rifle-whacking could only go on for so long. Instead of readying the wannabe spear again, I dropped it to my feet. I noticed the other boy I’d shot had somehow come back to a stand, clutching his chest and stumbling around the tree to come help his friend.

There would be no need for this.

I threw my hands back, underneath my backpack. Although Trix had only shown me how to do this once, it stuck with me. I waved my hands around until I felt the straps hanging down and pulled at them, immediately feeling the heavy chainsaw start to loosen.

I don’t know how I managed this, but I quickly felt around with my left hand until I felt the switch to start it. As the saw slowly loosened out of place, I flicked the switch and kept feeling around until I felt the T-shaped starting handle. I then leaned the top half of my body to the right, and slightly back, allowing the loose chainsaw to begin falling out of its compartment.

By now, the boy was rushing me again. This would be close.

As the saw fell out of the compartment, my left hand remained in its place, causing the starter cord to extend. My right hand was already back there, catching the trigger handle of the chainsaw as it fell. With the trigger held, and the cord pulled, the saw rumbled to life. Despite almost falling over from the sudden weight of the saw dropping in my hand, I managed to pull my body straight.

Letting go of the starter handle, I shifted to swing the saw back around, partially using the momentum of its fall to do so. My right hand kept the trigger pulled down, the blades happily starting their dance around the plate. I then quickly reattached my left hand to the handle to help.

In one sweeping motion, the saw growled as I yanked it up and around my right side. The blades spun violently as they flew up with it. The boy was in range now, and he’d realized what was happening too late.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

The vicious blades met perfectly with the side of his neck. Immediately, they got to work tearing through it. To make matters better, the boy had halted. Not to stand still so I could cut his head off, obviously, but he just so happened to stop to probably try and start backing away. This was unsuccessful.

Therefore, the saw happily cut through his skin. I felt its momentum weaken as it met his bone, but not by much. This beast of a saw didn’t give a single fuck. It traveled through the bone within just a second or two before quickly accelerating out of the other side of his neck. I wasn’t able to stop it soon enough, so this release of pressure caused the saw to fly out to the side, sending me into a 180-degree spin.

I eventually regained control of it, holding it out in front of me as the motor crackled maniacly. I took a step forward and swung around to see the aftermath. The boy’s detached head laid on the ground just a foot away from his slumped-over body. Blood sputtered out of both ends of his cut-open esophagus, quickly painting the grass underneath in a crimson red.

After staring longingly at this grotesque scene for a moment, I raised my head to see the other approaching boy. And boy… he was not approaching anymore. He’d just come to a grinding halt, not far from us. His wide eyes shifted from his dead friend to me.

We stared each other down for a few seconds, but I bet they felt like hours to him. I revved the chainsaw a few times, a grin reappearing on my face. The boy staggered back a few steps, still clutching his shot-through chest.

“I feel ya, bro,” I mocked between breaths, keeping my eyes glued to him as I slowly stepped around his dead friend’s corpse.

“S-... stop…” he pleaded.

I stopped stepping forward, detaching my left hand from the chainsaw to set a finger on my chin in a playful thinking pose.

“Hmm…… nah.”

I grabbed the chainsaw again and bolted into a sprint toward the boy.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The boy quickly swung around, staggering to an awkward sprint. He started moving pretty quick too, completely driven by his will to survive.

My will to reap his soul was hungrier.

It didn’t take him long until he bolted out of the forest, crossing its edge. I did, too, a few seconds later. A couple of houses from the outskirts of town were in the distance now, and he began running to them with all the strength he could muster. He wouldn’t have enough time to do so, however.

Despite lugging the heavy chainsaw, my sprint was a helluva lot faster than his after the initial takeoff. He’d noticed this too after looking back over his shoulder at me. He struggled to pick up his losing speed with his chest wound slowing him down. I approached closer… and closer… and finally… the boy staggered.

He slipped on the grass ahead of me, his body falling forward and smacking the ground below him. He squirmed frantically in a fighting attempt to come back to a stand, but his foot slipped from his haste. For some reason, instead of trying again, he twisted his body slightly to look back, just to see me rapidly approaching.

“NOOOOO!” he shouted out as he squirmed on his side, eager to get away. He threw his hand up instinctively, but this would not stop the saw. I slowed down once I realized he was mine and pulled down on the trigger. I then swung the saw to my right side as I jogged forward, within paces from him and-

“NOO-!”

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

The saw first connected with his defending arm, causing him to pull it back down. As it did, my saw followed. The blades once again spun violently as I drove the tip of the saw down into his chest. For a moment, a high-pitched scream erupted from him. The moment after, it faded away, as it was literally sucked out of him.

Just like the zombie ponies I’d cut up with Trix at the castle, the saw generated a lot of blood. A fountain of red shot up from the boy’s chest, splashing everything in the nearby vicinity, including me. I ignored this as I forcefully dug the saw up his body, digging it through his neck until it cut open his face. When I’d reached his chin, a few drops of blood hit my eyelid, causing me to close my eyes.

After sawing through his face, I blindly pulled out the saw and released the trigger. I tried blinking my eyes open, but they were seeing actual red with the stupid drops of blood. After using my semi-clean bicep to wipe them dry, I observed the boy to see if he was still moving.

Haha, of course not. I don’t think movement was even possible with what I was seeing. The saw had literally cut a gaping line from his chest to his forehead. Honestly, it looked like he was just missing a zipper to zip himself back up. A ribcage was poking out of the opened skin, though, bits and pieces of broken-off bone scattered around his corpse. Oh, and lots of blood. Like… everywhere.

I backed up a few steps, feeling pain grow in my stomach. At first, I’d thought this gruesome ass scene had finally gotten to me, but then I remembered I’d been shot. Glancing down at my shirt made me realize I was getting pretty dizzy. The ground was swirling as I struggled to keep my balance. I lifted my shirt up with a free hand, just to find my abs covered with my own blood, as opposed to the outside of the shirt, which was covered with the boy’s.

This was probably unhealthy.

I straightened my leg behind me to prevent myself from tumbling backward. With the dizziness growing, I was quickly getting disoriented. The grass around me swooned, and the nearby houses grew fuzzy in my vision. I tried scanning my surroundings in an attempt to snap out of it and happened to notice a pony off by the tree line.

At first, I’d thought it might be one of the others finally coming back to get my crazy ass. However, my eyes briefly unblurred, allowing me to see a pale blue mare. Her eyes looked glazed over, and her mouth was open slightly, dripping saliva on the grass she was walking on.

Gross. Slobbering bitch.

I chuckled lightly to myself as I watched her trot closer to me. I had a chainsaw, so I didn’t really care. So long as I could avoid falling ove-

Woo!!

Caught myself, don’t worry. Haha.

I’d staggered backward again, having to dig my foot in the grass to avoid keeling over. As I did, I was forced to look down at the ground to reorient myself. When I looked back up to gauge how far away the zombie mare was, I was startled to see her paleness had vanished. Her eyes weren’t glazed over anymore, and she wasn’t slobbering all over the grass.

“Hey!” she called, “Are you alright?”

…

What?

I kept my eyes locked on her distant, unglazed blue irises. She continued trotting forward, eying me awkwardly. However, a smile grew on her face she she got closer. She was within throwing range when she called out again.

“Human. I haven’t seen you in a while!”

Who the fuck is even that? I don’t remember seeing this mare before. I wanted to ask her name, but I was too queasy right now. I continued just watching as she trotted up to me. However… it didn’t look like she was stopping. As she trotted within feet from me, she called out again.

“C’mere, human! Gimme a hug!!”

She lunged forward, and when she did, I blinked away her normal appearance. The previous pale version of her reappeared, her mouth open wide to take a bite out of me. I staggered backward, attempting yet failing to pull the trigger of my chainsaw to defend myself. Don’t ask why—I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t ready for this. Defenseless, I watched as the zombie mare jumped up her front hooves and reached out to-

ɮʟǟֆȶ!

A flash of blue light beamed briefly in my eye as a magic orb smacked into the side of the mare’s head. The orb blasted her sideways, just before she got to me. I felt the end of her hoof brush my right arm before she fell to my side.

Miraculously, I’d managed to stay standing. I still staggered back a few steps in a pathetically delayed attempt to dodge the mare. After this, I glanced down at where the mare landed. She was frozen on the ground, a thin layer of melting ice surrounding her body.

Once I knew she wasn’t a threat anymore, I swung my head to where the orb had come from. In the distance, Trix was sprinting toward me. I could vaguely see Twi and Dash, I think, not far behind. I met eyes with Trix, who’d just shouted something I couldn’t quite make out. My vision was also blurring.

Awe shit. Here we go again.

I tried to save myself from falling, but it wasn’t happening this time. I ended up dropping my chainsaw, passing out once more.