Undead Raiser

In his arrival, Cinder found a very tremendous spectacle in front of his eyes. Stardust Marble was now reduced into a ghost town. To Cinder, it seemed like that a massacre took place during his absence. The once beautiful marble colored houses were now partially wrecked, with a few windows being broken and fire coming from some of these. Mangled corpses filled the streets and blood was almost everywhere.

Cinder could tell what happened, judging by that whole crumbled landscape. He was shocked and for a valid reason. He had saw multiple zombie movies and witnessed the desolation that the Bloods' undead minions leaved in their killing in the name of their master's revenge. But he never thought that he would had witnessed that scene being repeated in Equestria.

Everything happened in a chunk of days but for him that happened in a span of a single day.

"I can't believe it. Is it seriously happening?" Cinder said with disturbed disbelieve as he stared at the gruesome scenario. "But I was gone for about-" He interrupted his sentence, remembering his death and getting a clue of the time. "No.... Days passed by since my death," He paused to consider his current dilemma. "Damn, I don't know how much."

Wanting to know what happened, Cinder wandered in the town silently. The mixed stench of dead and burn things permeated the air. The street were emptied of every living being. Something that made him consider another part of his corpse-like body, but didn't want to find out immediately.

Along the road, Cinder found a very long gray cape nearby two pegasi corpses. Since he cannot afford to walking around with his currently wretched body being exposed, he picked that up and wore it to cover most of his body. His still intact face was normal enough, so he doesn't have to cover that.

"Talking about handy." Cinder commented

"Not so much." Somepony commented from behind him, almost startling him.

Slightly surprised by that, Cinder turned around, only to find a unicorn staring at him with a disquieting stern look. He has black mane and tail, and silver coat. His face was paradoxically in between being a younger one and an elder one. His eyes were blue, with the right one being fully covered by a red runic symbol, which instantly caught his attention.

Having saw multiple creatures in the land of Cavalier, Dagon and the Beast itself, he didn't trusted him so much.

"Who are you and what the heck are you doing here?" Cinder asked distrustful.

"That is irrelevant at the moment," The unicorn replied.

He didn't have the time to retort that a chilling laughter caught his attention. Cinder looked at the house with a window being barricaded with wooden planks at his right. That voice sounded familiar, if not a little warped. He seemed to recognize who it was, but wasn't entirely sure.

"Vesper?" Cinder whispered worried.

"Or the worst beginning yet." The unicorn murmured.

Cinder turned toward the unicorn, being about to ask him about that vague statement but the unicorn disappeared from his sight. Cinder was left confused for his sudden disappearance, but then putted aside that feeble moment and galloped toward the house. He opened the door and went inside.

Everything was almost dark, without any kind of illumination. The first room that he noticed was the living room, being mostly messed up. A bookshelf was overturned, the fireplace having crumbled, some shard of charcoal being out of place and a smashed wooden table was laying on the marble floor. His attention was instantly caught by a trail of bloody hoof sprints were leading to the doorway in front of his sight.

Having saw where trails like this could possibly leading in the books, Cinder looked somewhere else to find any clue before resuming the search for the voice. He noticed a leather sack nearby his feet. He took a look inside of it, only to find it's inside being soaked with a strange liquid, a bunch a empty vial with other ones being shattered into pieces and a half soaked scroll. He pulled out the document while trying to not get cut and opened it. His face became a slightly surprised one.

"That's new." Cinder commented.

At all the personal of the E.U.P. present.

As you know, nine days ago, the pestilence known Necromyth managed indeed to decimate half of the Equestria, turning ponies and other living creatures into cannibalistic undead creatures. In pony case, three type of undead creatures, depending of how the pestilence has interacted with them. But I won't explain all of the things since I'm counting that you already know what I'm talking about.

Hopefully, we have developed a vaccine hat has been tested under the supervision of Princess Celestia for six days. The results were positive, so we have a chance. That is powerful and magically enhanced enough to cure the infected ones and immunize them from the pestilence. Even the living ones can benefit from the immunization. It's been nine days since that happened, but I hope that we can finally put a end to this scourge, as soon as possible.

Your task is to rescue every single uninfected pony that you can save. After the operation is complete, we will deliver the vaccine to Cloudsdale, where you can elaborate a strategy to eliminate this plague from the world once and for all. We must not fail.

That you may succeed in your task.

Lieutenant Thunder Blade.

That letter confirmed what Cinder refused to believe until that moment. He shook his hand and then putted the latter back to the sack and examined the empty vial.

"So it's seriously happening." Cinder said with a calm but grim tone. "Incredible... I was in a limbo for about nine days and all of sudden this chaos happens.... Still, that doesn't explain the presence of that bag in this house."

Before he can say anything else, the voice laughed again, this time loudly. He flinched, visibly startled by that. Not just for the sudden laugh itself, but for the fact that it sounded like Vesper's, and yet it sounded so wrong to him. And it came from the door way were the bloody foot strips were leading into.

Cinder didn't even want to go there, but decided to do so anyway. As he slowly approached the doorway, he heard a soft thud. He accelerated his march a bit and stepped into the library, where the hoof sprints where all over the floor.

Lifting his head to look at the very end of the room, nearby a row of bookcases, he found Vesper standing in front of a lifeless body of a pony while wearing a broken golden armor. She was motionless and seemingly silent. As for the body in front of her, Cinder didn't took too long to recognize the corpse. That body is what used to be a white unicorn known as Dusk Camellia.

"Oh, no."

Cinder became mortified for that. He could tell that she was suffering and mourning for her loss. That must be a real trauma for Vesper so there's no wonder if she laughed. He wondered how he died, only to scratch that though since that would be insensitive of him to even ask.

He walked toward Vesper very slowly to not disturb her. As Cinder was getting closer to her, he heard a blood chilling chewing sound coming from her, followed by a gulping one. Startled and confused by that, he stopped a few inches away from her and examined Dusk's dead body.

He became instantly disgusted upon seeing the corpse's upper body being chewed up. Fearing the implication behind this gruesome detail, He immediately turned to Vesper and saw her watching the corpse of her father with a ravenous gaze and her mouth being bloodstained. Her eyes were white and lifeless while her mane and tail were messy. Her broken armor was smeared with blood and partially covered her torn body, with muscle and some bones being exposed. There was a crude bite mark in her foreleg, cementing her not being a pony anymore.

Cinder was horribly disturbed to see his best friend being turned into a flesh eating creature. His heart hammered in his chest, pumping his cold blood, reminding him that he was undead as well. But that didn't mattered to him. Cinder recovered from that and kept his eyes locked on her. He took a few steps back with the intent to leave, hoping for himself to not being spotted.

Vesper suddenly turned his head to him, looking at him with her cold and seemingly lifeless eyes. Cinder was instantly struck with fright. He wanted to run but his body refused to obey. He watched as the zombified Vesper turned toward him and took only few steps toward him, watching him with her ravenous face. Cinder expected her to leap toward her and ripping his flesh apart. Instead, much to his surprise, Vesper made a sinister smile.

"Cinder," Vesper said with a almost coarse voice. "I'm seriously changed beyond recognition?"

Cinder was about to apologize until he realized that she has talked. "Vesper... Is that you?"

"Depend of how much you want to believe that I'm still me," Vesper replied almost normally. "I'm not feeling so much alive right now."

"Wait... How can you still think as a normal pony?" Cinder asked.

"You should thank the vaccine for that, being responsible for that," Vesper responded sarcastically.

Cinder's eyes widened in realization. "So that bag was yours... And you swallowed that vaccine. But wasn't that supposed to immunize you from this plague? Didn't somepony had sabotaged that?"

"There's no sabotage." Vesper retorted. "The vaccine was watched for twenty-four hours for day until it's completion. And yes, Celestia supervised the whole thing. What she doesn't know is that the vaccine's interaction with the plague triggered a genetic mutation that takes three days after being exposed to the infection. I studied biology, so I'm sure that is the case."

"No way." Cinder shook his head in disbelieve. "Are you telling me that..."

"THAT DEMENTED ALICORN SCREWED EVERYTHING UP!!"

Hearing that, Cinder froze up. That wasn't just for the monstrous way in which she screamed that. That was also about it's content. Vesper told him in some occasions that she wanted to protect every pony, including Celestia. Hearing her cursing the princess was unexpected to him. More shocking than that was the confirmation that there is no cure to her conditions.

"Vesper... You cannot be serious." Cinder said incredulous.

"I am... and how." Vesper replied coldly. "If only she even bothered to take a look at the results properly, I wouldn't had end up killing my parents."

"Wait.... You killed them!?" Cinder said shocked.

"You heard me," Vesper remarked. "Three days ago, I was sent in a expedition to rescue the survivors, along with my comrades. They all perished and I got bitten by one of those creatures. Initially nothing happened... Until today."

"Huh?" Cinder looked confused.

"In my arrival," Vesper continued. "I searched for you but you were nowhere to be found. I then stormed in my house, only to find my parents being turned into monsters. I was about to cure them but then... I felt my body becoming cold. A atrocious pain seized me and then... A insatiable... hunger for real flesh... took over me..."

"No..." Cinder whispered, having grasp the gruesome implications.

"When that happened," Vesper said calmly. "I had realized that the cure was completely useless. Blinded by rage upon realizing that, I snapped their necks. After that, I feasted on my mother for a bit and put her body in the basement. Then I had destroyed the remaining vials in spite against Celestia. I then took my father in the library and... You know the rest."

Cinder was about to puke and yet he insisted to contain it and remain composed. Vesper's story was very messed up beyond believe. More messed up if he included how much her sanity has fallen.

"This is... horrible," Cinder whispered while trying to hide his real thought. "That no just horrible... It's fucked up."

"What horrible? What I had gone through or the fact that I'm actually blaming Celestia for that?" Vesper said sarcastically. "Look at me! I failed to protect my now dead companions and save my parents. What fallen heroine I am... Hehehehehe!"

Worried for her sanity, Cinder opened his mouth but couldn't even try to talk her down that he saw both the sides of her body bulging, as if there are things that tried to get out with force. Her body started to convulsing slowly. Bone cracking sounds loudly made the changes known to him.

"What happening to her!?"

"You know!?" Vesper demanded, deliberately ignoring her changes. "GRRR! You are no better than Celestia or the survivors themselves. You had still a future, a life worth to be lived and... ARGH! Your dreams..."

"Vesper..." Cinder called as he took a few steps away from her.

"But my future ended because of the error of that princess! WOOARG! My comrades and others are allowed to live with serenity while I get to spend the rest of my existence as a monster... NNGH! And a miserable living thing who failed to protect those who are dear to it. It's unfair... Really unfair... Unfair, unfair, unfairunfairunfairunfairunfairunfair. UNFAIIIIIR!!"

As Vesper screamed, her convulsion became uncontrolled and the bulging grew more larger than before. Cinder flinched in fright upon seeing the transformation that was happening to her. As her being a zombie wasn't enough.

"Vesper!" Cinder shouted.

"W-w-what? What is happening?" Vesper muttered with a panicked tone as she looked at her deforming body. "It's.. Not... Over yet..."

Unable to take that anymore, Vesper let out a loud, terrible scream. During her agonizing moment, Vesper herself slightly grew in height and claws protruded out of her hooves. Blood came out of her eyes. The things bulging from her body finally managed to came through her decomposed body, revealing six black tendrils with faceless, plant like heads at their tip, that opened into gaping, tooth-ringed mouths.

The convulsion stopped and silence fell. Cinder was horrified for what Vesper has become. His condition as being a zombie paled in comparison to the monstrosity that used to be his marefriend. Blood dripped from her bleeding eyes and the holes in the stomach in which the tendrils protruded from. She was now slightly towering on him. Vesper glanced at him with her bloody eyes, shooting daggers at him.

"What happened?" Cinder asked disturbed.

"It seems like my body was subjected to an additional mutation. A unnatural one," Vesper said with a frenzied face. "But does that even matter, Cinder? Now I am real monster, but you know what? I won't even care about it at this point! If I'm not allowed to have dreams, then you aren't either!"

Cinder promptly galloped toward the exit, only for the undead Vesper to glow her horn in a crude black aura and shoot a black beam at his hind leg. The ray caused him to collapse on the ground while revealing his corpse-like appearance, along with the gruesome wounds being inflicted by the ponies who killed him.

Vesper ferociously approached him with a fast pace and pinned him to the floor, immobilizing him. Cinder could do nothing but watch as Vesper seemed about to kill him. Her ferocity, in a moment, was replaced by surprise. He was confused by her reaction at first, until he realized that his body was now uncovered, along with his gruesome wounds and part of his rib-cage being exposed.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were just like me?" Vesper asked.

"Listen to me," Cinder said, fearing her action. "Is not what-"

"But you don't want to live like this right?" Vesper interrupted him. "I have a idea. You wanted to be with me without anymore suffering?"

Cinder's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm going to do you a favor." Vesper smiled with disturbing glee. "Become part of me."

Grasping the horrific implication behind her words, Cinder wriggled to set himself free as the gaping mouths of the tendrils shrieked and slowly descended toward each one of his limbs and his lower part. Vesper leaned toward his scarred chest as Cinder continued to struggle.

"Vesper, stop! You are better than this!" Cinder shouted.

"Is too late for me!" Vesper retorted annoyed. "Besides, you will probably be afflicted by the same hunger as I am, so stop trying to escape and BECOME PART OF ME!!"

Just when the voracious mouths and the zombified Vesper were about to sunk their teeth on his body, Cinder instinctively pointed his right hoof at her chest, guided by one thought.

"The hell with this!"

Suddenly, black flames engulfed his body. Vesper immediately stepped away from him to not get burned.

"What is this!?" Vesper shouted incredulous.

*BOOM!*

There was a roaring gunshot as a bullet blasted through her chest, creating a hole where her heart was supposed to be. The undead Vesper screamed and collapsed on the floor, with the tendrils falling down due to her loss of focus. She howled in agony, rolling and kicking the floor furiously as her blood was gushing out of her body. She should had died for that blow if wasn't for the infection keeping her alive.

Cinder was completely stunned by that moment. It happened so fast that he can hardly process that. One thing he was sure. He can feel that something happened to him. And he knew what.

His powers had been returned, but in a very different form.

Cinder looked his right hoof and became instantly taken aback to see it being turned into a bizarre black-iron made cylinder resembling the barrel of a gun, still fuming for the blow that was shot from it and with crystal veins pumping on it.

"What the fuck?" Cinder murmured astounded.

Ignoring the still screaming abhorrent unicorn, Cinder took a look at the rest of his body, which sight shocked him. His left hoof was turned into a black-iron clawed hand but that wasn't the only surprise. The hooves of his hind legs were turned into black-iron made talons having the same pumping crystal veins on it.

Feeling a very obscure power flowing inside him, Cinder rose up two legged and walked toward Vesper, whose screams of pain were loosing their strength and began to die off. A normal pony wouldn't be able to walk like that, but Cinder wasn't normal anymore. He stopped in front of the mare, who was bathed in her own blood.

Vesper's screams faded, being slowly reduced into pained moans. Trying to ignore her atrocious pain, she turned her attention to Cinder, watching his new form in his unholy glory with newfound fear as he pointed gun at her with a calm, merciless face.

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*