Ponyhazard
Chapter 1
At the Start
Nnngh, my head. What in Equestria happened? Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, only to shut them tight immediately out of pain. She opened her eyes slowly to allow herself to adjust, her vision returning by the second. She was surprised to see her friends all unconscious on the floor around her.
The room they were in must have been the main hall, the massive sagging steps and sheer size of the room were enough to confirm her suspicions. The stairs were covered in a large and arguably expensive-looking ornamental rug. The chandelier and numerous wall sconce gave a the room a bright yet somewhat oppressive atmosphere, as if simply being here broke a very important rule. Sighing, she began the delicate task of waking up her friends.
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"Alright, is everypony okay?" She looked her five friends, each nodding in confirmation. Though a bit singed , it seemed her friends were no worse for wear.
“WOWIE ZOWIE, this mansion is gigantic! It musta cost a million zillions bits to build!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, zipping underneath the massive staircase and back to the group.
Rainbow Dash took off the ground to lazily glide around the foyer. "What the fuck happened? One minute I'm napping, and the next I'm here with all you guys in this...wherever! Twilight, did you have an idea what the hells happened?" The cyan pegasus asked, landing next to her purple friend.
"All I remember is eating lunch with Spike, then a snapping sound." Twilight looked around, wondering why anypony hadn't come to welcome their uninvited guests.
"Well, I don't know about any of you, but I'd prefer not to stay here. I mean, look at this place!" The white fashion unicorn trotted over to a small end table. The only thing taking up any space on it was an old fashioned typewriter. Rarity took a sharp breath, and blew on the ancient writing tool. Immediately, a thin cloud of dust kicked up before dispersing into the air.
"See? It's as if nopony's been here for months. Beautiful as is it, the place is obviously deserted. I think we sho-"
Several muted pops sounded in the distance, followed a THUMP.
"What the hay was that?" Pinkie Pie shouted. Even in this confusing situation, Pinkie Pie was still Pinkie Pie. "It sounded like a POP! and a THUMP! Maybe someone's having a really, really late surprise party! I'll bet that's why nopony is here!" She bounced towards the source of the noise; a pair of dark, heavy looking doors. “C’mon everypony!” Fluttershy could be heard mumbling something about wanting to stay in the foyer.
Twilight trotted up to Applejack, the only one of her friends she would have thought to outwardly show concern for all of this. "Are you alright, AJ? You seem almost as quiet as Fluttershy."
Applejack simply looked at her unicorn friend and said "I'm worried, but gittin all worked up n' such jus' ain't gon help us none. We jus' gotta take this here problem one step atta time. Truthfully, ah’m down right terrified. Ah’ve seen scary movies a’fore n they always happen inna big, spooky mansion.” She readjusted the Stetson on her head.
As they entered the room, Twilight noticed the loud ticking of an old clock. The room was a dining hall, as big as Princess Celestia's in Canterlot. The room was cut in half by a second floor balcony, stretching all the way around the room. The chandelier cast the room in an almost cheery mood, if it weren't for the thin layer of dust over everything.
At the end of the extravagant table, in front of an impressive fireplace, was Pinkie Pie. She shifted her weight impatiently, waiting for all her friends to see what she had found for themselves.
"What is it?" squeaked Fluttershy.
"It's blood, duh!" Even things as morbid as a pool of blood sounded childishly sweet when spoken by Pinkie Pie. She quickly went back to studying it intensively.
"Perhaps somepony is hurt real bad." Fluttershy said.
A soft crunch came from a door behind them. Again, this time louder. Fluttershy bleated like a goat and almost fainted, but managed to steel her nerves. Moments passed. Nothing else made a single sound.
"Twilight, Maybe I should-" Twilight put her hoof on her meek friend's shoulder.
"I’ll go, Fluttershy. If I find anypony, I’ll bring them back here for you to treat. " Twilight hugged the timid mare tightly.
“Wait, Twilight!” Pinkie shouted, “My knee is pinchy! Be super-duper EXTRA careful, okay?”
“Right.” Twilight gulped, and magicked the door open. Stepping though, she gently closed the old door. Even as she tried, the door still let out a loud clunk after closing. The studious unicorn scanned the hallway she currently resided in. To her right, the hall stretched out a few yards before ending in a pair of aged, dark doors. To her left, the hall turned sharply into a small rest area. A hunched over shadow was cast in the light of the full moon.
Twilight silently crept into the tiny alcove, leery of the situation. She knew Applejack was being honest, it was starting to feel like a scary movie, and she was about to dismiss the silly thoughts when she caught sight of the shadows source. It was a...thing, a creature. It wore ragged clothes and stank of garbage and...something else. Huddled over another creature of the same species, this one bloody and hurt. She thought the first creature was scared, maybe desperately trying to save it's friends life.
"Are you alright? I can help if you’re hurt... hello?" She was worried. The smelly creature responded with wet noises. Perhaps too busy trying to save a life to notice? Twilight thought until she heard a wet and disgusting snap. The head of the second creature rolled towards Twilight just an inch, it's dead eyes forever boring into her sanity. She couldn't scream, couldn't speak as the monster turned around.
It had been eating the other one. Full of confusion and fear, she could barely get back into the dining hall, too focused on the monster in front of her. It stank like death, and it reached for her with rotting, peeling fingers. Twilight had managed to backtrack into the dining hall, the monster in slow pursuit.
"Help! It's some sort of monster!" Twilight cried. She wanted to go home. She had faced horrors before, but nothing Discord could conjure up was this mind-crushingly awful. The others were frozen in place by fear as the monster -no, zombie- was nearly upon her. She could smell its fetid breath, could smell the chewed remains of it’s previous gruesome meal.
Until Pinkie shoved her out of the way. “Pinkie, what are you doing!?” Twilight exclaimed.
“Run girls! I’ll hold it of-AHHHHHHHH!!” The monster had lunged at Pinkie and bitten the nape of her neck, sending rivulets of blood down her spasming body. If moved to her face just as quickly as it could, and began feasting on the exotic pony flesh. She twitched and coughed blood, her left side of her face now permanently grinning without her lips to cover her teeth. Red muscle flexed and relaxed, blood poured from her terrible wound.
Nopony could move as the beast dined on their energetic pink friend
Twilight had snapped out of her trance at the gurgled cries of her dying friend. Looking around, she found herself a weapon to kill the evil monster: a sword. She flung it from the mantle at the abomination with all the might her magic could muster. The vengeful blade found its mark; the head of the zombie. It let out an almost sorrowful moan as it and Pinkie Pie collapsed onto the cold mansion floor.
Fluttershy galloped into the main hall and threw up, crying her soul out at the loss of her dear friend. Applejack followed to help console her. Rainbow Dash was shuddering; Rarity was completely in a state of silent shock. Twilight reached for the former pink party pony, futilely trying to feel a heartbeat, a pulse, anything.
"She's gone."
After a few moments, Twilight rose.
"Come on, we need to come up with a plan." Rarity and Twilight entered the main hall again. It seemed like an eternity ago. Pinkie Pie was dead, and they had no way of going home.
“Twi? Was that thing back there a-” Applejack began before being interuppted by a frazzled Twilight.
"It was a monster.' Twilight stepped forward, addressing everypony. "I saw it eating it's own kind. But it was different. It looked like a zombie, and that means something must have turned it into one. But I don't know what and I don't care. I just want to get out of here." She looked back at the dining room door.
"But first we should bury Pinkie Pie. That must be the front door, we can bury her out there and come back to formulate a plan."
But as they reached the end of the hall, they stopped in complete horror.
Pinkie Pie was gone.
