Walk The Aftermath

An earth pony stallion, his front hooves tied behind his back, was pushed to the ground in front of a black maned stallion that was levitating a long bladed knife in his magic. When he heard the body hit the ground, he turned his head, then followed with his body.

"Ah, you've brought him. Good, you two can go now."

He addressed the mare and the stallion standing on either side of the captive with a low, gravely voice. They both nodded their heads and quickly scampered out of the tent. The standing stallion walked one slow circle around the other, twirling the knife around in the air.

"So, you thought that you could betray me by stealing medicine. What, like you really thought I wouldn't find out? Think I'm stupid or something?"

"Nononononono, of course n-"

The stallion delivered a hoof to the captive's temple, knocking him over but not unconcious. When the stallion on the ground looked up, he saw the point of the blade mere centimetres away from his face.

"You stabbed me in the back, and I'm a big follower of the phrase what goes around comes around."

Before the captive could protest, the stallion drove the knife square into the his spine. The captive let out a sharp cry of pain before his face was pushed into the ground by the standing stallion's hoof.

"Eye for an eye, life for life. May I suggest you think next time before stealing meds that others need more than you do."

The captive was picked up off the ground and his ties were cut as he was forcefully pushed outside of the tent. He was led through multiple arrays of tents, many of them having other ponies outside, watching the event unfold. After reaching the front gate of the makeshift walls around the tent, the black maned stallion ripped the knife out of the other's back, and shove him to the ground again.

"I hope you learn a valuable lesson. And if I ever find you out there alive, you better pray you you have a good shot on me before I get to you. Open the gates!"

Two ponies standing on either side of two large doors quickly nodded and started pushing the heavy improvised doors open. The captive stallion was again pushed onto his hooves and forced out into the outside of the shelter, which was based in a large parking lot.

"Please, please don't do this, I'll die out here!"

The knife hit the ground in from of the stallion just as the doors closed in front of him. As he picked up the knife, he spun around and looked at all the zombies around him. The citizens of the compound all went back into their tents and ignored the screams of the wounded stallion outside.

"C-Command Chain?"

"Surprised you regognize me luitennant."

"What are you doing here?"

"Heard the noise, thought I'd join the party."

"Noise?"

Windy Nights asked as she turned to FireStarter.

"The generator I guess?"

"Damn it."

Windy Nights turned back to see Command Chain closing the door behind him and walking over, revolver cycling between the two.

"So, I have a little bone to pick with you, luitennant."

"How so?"

Command Chain noticed FireStarter's horn starting to glow, and moved his sights onto him.

"Don't even think of drawing a weapon or I'll put you both down. And I won't do you the mercy of shooting you in the head."

The light on FireStarter's horn dimmed, and he slowly backed away.

"What do you want Command Chain?"

"Your little incident killed three innocent survivors, one of which was my wife. And after that, High Road, who I thought I could trust, left with almost all our remaining supplies. I shouldn't have given her the chance to leave, I should have killed her when I had the chance. And just yesterday, I was forced to go scavenge for some supplies to feed me and my son, and I come back to find..."

Command Chain looked down, and soon looked back up, aiming the sights in between Windy Night's eyes.

"Now I have nothing. Nothing but three bullets and bit of a vendetta."

"Listen, I'm very sorry for whatever happened to you, but you gotta remember where we are. We have no control over what happens to us. It's the apocalypse, remember?"

"Yes, but your little adventure with explosives blew the hole in the wall, which led to three deaths, one unaccounted for, and the loss of most of our supplies."

"Alright, fair point, but accidents happen, right? It was just an accident. Are you sure there's no way you can-"

Windy Nights had inched close enough to Command Chain to knock the gun out of his grasp and swing a hind leg that just scraped his jaw. Command Chain stumbled back and focused his eyes on the gun at the side of the room. For a second, both Windy Night's eyes and his own locked, then they both lunged for the weapon. Windy Nights having the winged advantage, she got a hold of the revolver and aimed it at Command Chain.

"Don't make me do it Command Chain. We both know I will, but we also both know that having you as an ally could benifit us all."

"All? You've found more?"

"Plenty."

Fire Starter stated, stepping forwards. He adjusted his glasses and looked at Command Chain.

"Now, I'm not sure with what reason we can trust you, but I'm willing to give you a 'trial run' so to say. More of a mission, to prove yourself."

"I have nothing to prove to you."

Command Chain spit on the floor at FireStarters hooves, to which FireStarter chuckled.

"Well."

FireStarter walked over to the counter and pulled a bottle out of the fridge with his magic. As he walked over to where Windy Nights was standing, gun still aimed steady, he switched the bottle into his hoof.

"Well general, if you'd be kindly leaving us, that would be wonderful. Have this though."

FireStarter threw the bottle to Command Chain, who managed to catch it before it hit the floor. Just as FireStarter was waving Command Chain off with a fake, overplayed smile, there was a loud thud from behind them. FireStarter drew his pistol and aimed it at Command Chain, signalling Windy Nights to check the noise. Windy Nights nodded back and started towards the door, but was soon interupted.

"Wait. Why don't we make him do it?"

"What?"

"Why not? No risk for us, just him. Unless you wish to go check on the things that move around in that dark room?"

Windy Nights contemplated the decision. Something about it felt, wrong. Like forcing rats through an electrified maze. As she looked at the two stallions, a variety of choices ran through her mind.

"S-s-sure. Sure, let's do that."

"You heard her. Go on."

FireStarter's mannerisms were odd and almost sinister to Windy Nights. He almost seemed to be enjoying sending Command Chain into an unsure situation. It was understandable if he asked her to take point, as she would be equipped and ready. But sending somepony in unarmed was different. As Command Chain stood in the doorway, he looked back at Windy Nights with a look that she almost read as fear. The second Command Chain stepped in the door, All ears perked up atbthe sound of the tripwire snapping. All eyes darted around the room for any signs of danger, but saw none. After a few seconds, a sound much like metal hitting wood came from the room. A few seconds later, three infected walked out, one of them sinking it's teeth into a frozen still Command Chain, a scream erupting from him. FireStarter aimed to shoot him and the zombies, but Windy Nights stopped him.

"We gotta do this as quietly as we can."

Windy Nights pulled the hatchet from the side of her leg, and turned to face the group. FireStarter grabbed one of the beer bottles with his magic and smashed it against the counter. He ran over and stabbed the only remaining zombie in the side of the head with it, dropping it dead to the floor. The two looked at Command Chain, writhing on the floor as the infection slowly took him.

"So, who's gonna-"

"I will. Just, give me a second."

Windy Nights held the hatchet in her wing, slowly moving it about as she watched Command Chain's eyes close. As soon as they were shut, Windy Nights close her eyes and brought the weapon down on his skull. The noises emmited when she pulled the hatchet from the corpse made her wretch. She fell back to the counter, coughing as she dropped the hatchet.

"You alright?"

FireStarter asked after a fee seconds, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

"I'm fine. It's just, I don't know, that was weird for me. I've never really had to kill anypony that close to me. As off-putting as his personality may have been, him and I were pretty close."

"Well, let's not think about, let's just do what we came here to do."

"No, I don't want to anymore. Let's just grab some of this stuff, we can share."

Stone Temple looked down at the rifle in her hooves as her hoof tapped rapidly against the wall. She looked through the hatch that had been put into the side of either tower and waved to StarFire. StarFire waved back, but didn't have the smile that Stone Temple had. Stone Temple frowned and picked up the walkie talkie beside her.

"What's goin' on girl?"

"I don't know, I'm feeling really exposed out here."

"Don't worry, they reinforced these, it'll take a pretty serious caliber to hit us, unless we're peeking up at the time."

"You're really not helping. Also, if we do see anything, what the hell am I going to do?"

"Well, I guess the common comparison is a camera. Am and shoot, sis."

"Great, that sure helps."

Stone Temple chuckled as she set the walkie talkie down, but started staring at the weapon again. It was the rifle that Windy Nights had found. She poked her head above the sheet metal of the tower and looked around. As she slowly scanned the horizon, her eyes fell upon the car that StarFire had been rescued from. She suddenly shifted forwards and pulled the rifle out, aiming the scope on the situation that was unfolding. There was a tall, black maned stallion standing by the car, pointing at it and yelling at a mare. The mare was motioning towards the car, and seemed to be panicking. There were a few more moments of what seemed to be heated argument before the stallion walked closer and snapped the mare's neck in seconds, before pulling a pistol out and putting a round into her skull. Stone Temple flinched back in horror, dropping back down into the tower.

"What did you see?"

The voice crackled through the walkie-talkie, startling Stone Temple.

"Uh, I-I'm not too sure. Something bad though, and I have a feeling it's the group responsible for the trap you were in."

"What?!"

Stone Temple looked through the hatch to see StarFire aiming down the sights of her rifle at the car. After a few seconds, she heard her drop back down, and soon after came the static of the walkie.

"Son of a bitch, that's the stallion!"

"Really? How many were with him?"

"I don't know, I'll check."

StarFire peeked over the top again, nervously gripping the rifle she had been given. As she scanned the area around the car, she only spotted the stallion and three other assorted ponies. Her scope eventually moved over to the stallion that had imprisoned her, and he was looking right back. StarFire gasped as she dropped back down into the tower.

"Fuck, I think he saw me!"

"What? Shit. Quick, run inside and tell Stitch and Redline to be ready."

"Okay."

StarFire quickly ran down the stairs and into the main building, where she sae Redline and Stitch talking.

"Hey, you two!"

The two stallions lookrd at her before Stitch sighed and walked over.

"What is it?"

"That stallion who put mr in that trap saw us in the tower?"

"Just the stallion?"

"Plus three."

"Damn. Well, let's see if we can at least try to make this easy."

The group started running towards the door, StarFire splitting off to run back into the tower. When she arrived back up, the enemy group was standing outside the front gate, and Stone Temple was talking to them.

"Ah, there she is."

The stallion chuckled after spotting StarFire.

"Just walk away, we don't want any trouble!"

"Neither do I. I simply ask that I get my subject back."

"Subject? Kinda twisted game are you playing?"

"It's not a game, I assure you. It's more, a test. To see if you can stay at our compound."

"You really need to test people to stay at your compound?"

"I just figure why not?"

"Alright, that's enough talk, you four can leave."

The stallion turned to see Stitch just behind the gate and Redline just outside the front door. Redline had his rifle trained imon the group, and Stitch had his sub-machine gun in his holster.

"You know, it's a little rude I think, that I show up with no weapons drawn, and yet all I'm met with are the barrels of yours."

"Well, sorry if there's an absense of trust. Why the hell would you make such a device?"

"The car? It's actually more of an experiment, that one is."

"Why? Don't you have enough to worry about?"

"Me? No. I'm just about as worry free as I can be. However, I'm concerned that my experiment was a failure."

"Alright, I've heard enough, give me one good reason why we shouldn't put the four of you down right here."

The stallion chuckled for a moment before looking up at StarFire. He started slowly backing up after motioning to his group.

"You found yourself a good group, good luck. I sure hope there are more of you inside, because we'll certainly have more than four next time."

As the group slowly trotted away from the compound, Redline, StarFire, and Stone Temple slowly lowered their guns. Stitch let out a long sigh before walking back to Redline.

"Find someone else for todays tower duty, I have to figure some stuff out."

"I didn't really realize how low we were on meds."

"Unfortunately we were. Thank heavens you two went on that supply run."

"Yeah, yeah, good thing."

Windy Nights blinked the memory of executing her superior officer out of her mind and continued following Angel Boulon as she re-stocked the shelves.

"So, if I may ask?"

"You may."

"How exactly do you have all this medical training? Were you a nurse of something?"

"One of the farthest thing from actually. Your welcome to a few guesses if you'd like, unless you just want an answer."

"Well, I only really had the one guess."

Angel Boulon grinned as she put the last bottle on the shelf and started towards the sleeping area.

"I was a reporter for a newpaper in ManeHatten for a while, then I got put on an assignment that brought me to PonyVille, and I eventually moved there. Somewhere along the line, Redline and I met, and I moved in with him."

"Huh. Well, you two do seem pretty good together, despite how different you two are."

"Well, I suppose on the surface we do seem like opposites, but they say do that those attract. Hey, you didn't happen to see ThunderBolt while you were out, did you?"

"No, why?"

"He told me he needed to go somewhere right after he got back from tower duty, and he hasn't been back since. Left me with his daughter, who luckily enough has been entertaining herself with Oscar."

"Weird that he would just run off like that. Did he say that he was looking for supplies?"

"Well, he was actually quite vague unfortunately. Told me that he needed to go somewhere and that he wanted me to take care of Bubble."

"How long has he been gone?"

"Well, it's about half an hour by now, but he was walking to wherever he was going, which is the strange part, considering how fast he flies."

Angel sat down beside the dog and the filly beside it and sighed.

"I'm not saying that I'm worried, it's just strange."

"It is, it really is."

There was a long silence while Windy Nights thought over her next words.

"Hey, if you want, I can go out and look for him really quick."

"What? No. No, I can't let you do that. We have no means of communication in case he get's back, and we have no idea where he is and what danger awaits either of you."

"I can make it quick, I'll come back one hour, tops."

Angel Boulon looked at Bubble Blitz for a while before sighing again and looking up at Windy Nights.

"One hour. If you're lucky, and you fly fast, you may be able to catch him. I think I saw him go west."

"I'll be back in no time."

ThunderBolt slowly pushed open the double doors and walked into the main room. As he looked from left to right, he saw not what he wanted to find, but rather three zombies. He drew his revolver and shot all three down, bowing his head afterwards.

"She isn't here."

He walked up to the counter to his right and gently lowered his forehead onto the finished hardwood. His front hooves moved from being beside his head to wrapped around it. After a few moments, the door creaked open behind him, and he spun around, drawing his revolver.

"Oh, it's you. The hell'd you catch up to me, and how did you find me to begin with?"

"Well, Angel saw you walking west, so I flew until I heard those gunshots, and I've been outside for a bit."

"I see, spying on me were ya?"

"I wasn't spying, it's just that Angel was a bit concerned with how hastily you left."

ThunderBolt scoffed slightly as he walked back over to the door.

"She doens't need to worry about me. I assume you'd like to be going?"

"Hold on, I have a couple questions."

"Don't we all. Shoot."

"First, why did you come here?"

ThunderBolt sighed and sat down on one of the stools at the bar.

"Come sit. So, back before this all began, before Bubble Blitz had even coke into my life, there was this mare. Never ever happened between us, but believe me when I say I wanted something to. So, we got to talking one night when business at the nightclub she owned and ran was kinda slow. One of the topics was post-apocalyptic plans. Her's was just to hold up in her club, arm herself to the teeth, wait till it all blew over. I knew she would, and I knew that that's where I'd be able to find her if anything did happen. When I saw that we weren't even in Equestria when this started, I lost all hope. Bad enough that I was initially seperated from Bubble Blitz. Poor damn thing, found me half cut in a basement, ten seconds from putting a fucking bullet in my head. Tell you what, can't even imagine what the girl's going through."

"So wait, how come nothing ever did happen, between you and whoever this is?"

"Oh, pfft, she was a lesbian, no hiding it. She was a great pony though, we could talk for hours. I knew that I'd kill just to talk to her again, and I sure as hell wasn't going to die before I even gave a shot at finding her. Eventually, I found this place, painted the name of her club on the outside, and I come back every now and then hoping to see her."

"Sounds like you two were pretty close."

"Ha, close is an understatement. Basically the closest thing to a relationship without it being one."

"You think she's still alive?"

"She'd live through this, I know she would. I also knoe that she'd rather sell her soul than die here alone."

"What makes you think she's alone? Surely she's met up with somepony."

"Maybe, but I doubt it. She never really had anypony. No siblings, her mom died when she was six, and she hasn't spoken to her dad since she moved from ManeHatten to PonyVille."

"Huh. Well, I'm sure you'll find her."

"Yeah, hopefully."

ThunderBolt let out a long sigh before tapping his hoof on the bar and standing up.

"Well, let's head on home then."

"So soon?"

Both ponies at the bar turned and aimed at the unfamiliar voice that had entered the room and spoken. It was a stallion with a long black mane that drooped down to his grey shoulders. He walked into the room weilding a UMP sub-machine gun in his magic, and he was surrounded by at least four ponies, armed with pistols and shotguns.

"Who are you?"

"That's not important missy. What's important is that you drop your guns, and come with us."

"What exactly for lad? What's the big idea here with your guns and all this?"

"The big idea is that you two have just been selected to be a part of something greater than yourselves. Now I'm going to give you three options. Either come with us, or we can shoot you. Or of course, you could try to shoot us before we can shoot you, but..."

The stallion trailed off, while several of the ponies around him racked their guns, each with individual audible clicks.

"So, decision?"

"What if we just say no?"

"No? Listen here little lady, this isn't a 'say no and we walk away' kind of deal, this is a say yes, or you die kind of deal. So, I ask again, what's your decision?"

ThunderBolt and Windy Nights looked at each other for a seconds before both sighing and dropping their weapons to the floor. The stallion levitated them to a stallion with a saddlebag and smiled.

"Good. This is always easier when they're cooperative."

When Windy Nights and ThunderBolt arrived the enemy compound, they looked around at the inhabitants. There were so few outliers, all of them were middle aged, well built, and armed almost to the teeth. This wasn't a community that accepted the weak, and certainly wasn't one that would welcome them with open arms.

"Sit them down."

The two were each pushed down against the wall, the cold steel of the cars sending chills down their spines. The black-maned stallion looked at the two and smiled.

"You two look like some pretty good subjects."

"What do you mean subjects?"

"Well, you see, we're focused on studying and eliminating the zombie threat to what is now our world. The only way that we can study their nature and the overall effects of the virus is if we have certain, control groups. Bonus, if you pass the test, you get to stay here. Assuning you live through it of course."

The gravity of the situation made the two uneasy. Windy Nights frantically looked around the compound, searching for both any way out and any clue as to what this group's intents were. She looked over at ThunderBolt, who seemed to be keeping his cool incredibly well.

"So, since I am kind, I am allowing the two of you to wait here for the night. Under proper survaillance of course. Shadow Spot!"

Windy Nights noticed ThunderBolt's pupils dialate, as a pink coated mare with a black mane walked up and stood beside the stallion. He smiled and looked at the two captives after putting a hoof around her.

"Alright then, lead these two to their tent for when the night comes."