Vacation

ooo000---000ooo

Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Rainbow cursed and growled as she flew through the air, blasting through the thick cloud layers to try and find the airship. Much to her frustration, she couldn’t find any trace of it. Worst of all, she could sense a storm was coming; her pegasi instincts were acting up, hairs standing up on the back of her neck as her feathers felt the drastically different wind currents and temperature changes. It was going to be a bad one, a typhoon if not worse! She needed to find the airship now and turn it away from the storm.

Her hard wingbeats filled the air as she zoomed around, eyes rapidly scanning the skies. She listened for the airship’s distinct engine sound but heard only the increasing wind and lightning. The clouds were already forming on the horizon, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsoon hit the island proper.

Rainbow was confident she and a few fliers could potentially disrupt the storm, possibly veer it away from the island so they could land safely, but she needed to find those fliers first.

Although…

Every cloud she flew through sent shivers down her spine. They weren’t at all like their Equestrian counterparts. None of them were tangible like the clouds of her homeland, she could barely interact with any of them! It was like trying to grab smoke or fog.

“Rainbow!” Lyra’s faint voice carried over the growing winds and the pegasus perked up her ears to try and find the source. “Rainbow! Where are you!?”

“Lyra!” Rainbow called out, looking towards the far left where the island was. She finally saw the airship, but there was a problem.

“Ahhh!” one of the ponies on board screamed as they were taken down by another pony, who immediately began ripping into him with a screech.

The monsters! They were on the airship!

Rainbow shot towards the Celestial Decadence with a powerful flap of her wings, swiftly closing the distance and landing hard on the deck. She saw several earth ponies and unicorns were acting similar to the monsters from the other aircraft. Wide, bloodshot eyes and deadly screeches escaping them as they charged the other ponies on board. Rainbow panicked. “What the hell is going on!?” She turned around just in time to see a pegasus run at her, shrieking for blood.

She yelped and spun on her heel, bringing her leg around in a vicious kick that sent the other pegasus careening towards the side of the airship. Rainbow didn’t waste time before darting away and trying to find her friends. As she looked, she wondered what could have possibly happened while she was gone. Why were these ponies acting this way? They were acting just like the weird alien things on the metal flying thing! She was confused and scared—and she never got scared!

She rushed up the stairs to the stern where the captain would be, throwing open the door before jumping back. The captain was in the doorway, growling and snarling. The mare swiped at her as blood ran down from a recent neck wound. She growled, eyelid twitching. Rainbow was preparing to bolt, to run away and try to find Lyra and the others, but stopped when she heard the captain speak.

“H-help me!” She choked, stumbling and acting as if her body wasn’t obeying his commands.

Rainbow calmed down slightly and said, “J-just stop! I can find something to hel-” She didn’t get to finish her sentence; the captain charged straight at her with a throaty scream. Rainbow stumbled back, unprepared for the sudden attack.

Tang!

The sound of metal on bone echoed as something smashed into the side of the captain’s head, sending teeth and blood flying before she tumbled down the steps. Rainbow looked up from the crumpled body to see Lyra holding a cast iron pan and shivering violently. The mint green mare was covered in droplets of blood, looking terrified.

“S-shit, come on!” She grabbed onto Rainbow’s hand, yanking her up onto her feet.

Once she was up, Rainbow hissed, “Lyra, what the hell is going on!?”

Lyra walked shakily to the banister and stared out over the deck as ponies fought for their lives; she looked to Rainbow to be on the verge of breaking into tears.“I-I don’t know! We were waiting for you to come back, then all of a sudden a pony came running out of the ship and bit another pony! It was so crazy! And now they’re all acting like monsters!” she said in panicked tones.

Her panic only grew when the storm suddenly closed in around the airship. The typhoon was upon them! The winds grew stronger and rain pelted the deck, the dirigible’s overhead air ballonets offering little protection as they swayed perilously back and forth, threatening to turn the entire airship on its side. A handful of unlucky ponies were plucked up by the wind, tossed over the edge to their grave. The rest managed to hold on to anything and everything as the winds forced the vessel closer and closer to the island’s jungle-like expanse of trees.

Lyra and Rainbow held on tightly, the winds rocking the ship as it sailed into the trees. Branches snapped and trees groaned, the ship crashing through palm trees and just missing the rocky cliffside.

Rainbow saw Lyra get snagged by something, falling away with an anguished scream.

“Lyra!” Rainbow cried out. She rushed over to the side before jumping off, catching sight of her friend smacking into a tree branch before sliding off and hitting the sandy trail below. Rainbow swiftly landed on the ground while the airship smashed through more trees, continuing to sail downward towards an unknown area.

The unicorn was curled up on the ground, groaning in pain and gripping her arm with a distressed grimace. “Ahh, shit!” she cursed, struggling not to move to avoid even more pain.

Rainbow rushed over to Lyra as she hissed and growled into the roaring wind.

“Shit, don’t move much,” Rainbow told her, looking left and right for any sign of the monsters she had seen on the plane. There were none in sight, thankfully. She knelt down to Lyra, helping her stand and offering her a shoulder. “Anything broken?”

“I don’t think so,” Lyra wheezed. “Just g-got the wind knocked outta me.” The injured mare took a step forward, wincing and holding an arm to her chest. “Shit.”

Lyra leaned heavily on her friend for support as they both looked forward, hearing a loud crash come from up the pathway along with distant yells. “Damn it...” Rainbow gave a look to Lyra and soon the duo began the trek down the path to the crash site.

After a few moments, Lyra spoke up, “What a trip this turned out to be, eh?” She gave a weak chuckle, wincing afterwards.

“Yeah, no shit...” Rainbow agreed, shaking her head. This was supposed to be a fun, week-long trip for not only herself, but for Lyra and the others on board, too. But all hopes of a fun time had gone up in smoke the second she saw those monsters on that strange aircraft. They had killed the ponies that came with her to help and worse, she realized with shiver, whatever the strange condition that had afflicted them seemed to have somehow spread to their own vessel

“Dash,” Lyra held her arm close to her chest, trying her best not to move it. “What happened out there? You were gone for awhile, and we were worried about ya. And the others that were with you still haven’t come back.” Lyra’s tone was pained but curious about what had transpired on the strange metal aircraft that almost clipped them. “What was that thing, anyway? How did it even fly?”

Rainbow gulped and stared straight ahead as what happened on the aircraft ran through her mind. “I don’t know, but there were some weird pygmy minotaurs or something on that thing, and they were acting strange.” Rainbow thought back to them, how they looked, how they moved, and how they acted. They attacked like crazed animals, that primal look in their eyes made her spine tingle in the worst way. Fear nipped at the back of her mind, and she could tell it plagued Lyra’s as well. Whatever was going on made them both fearful, though they tried not to show it. “No joke, Lyra, They were acting like fucking-”

“-zombies?” Lyra finished for her and Rainbow nodded her head in agreement. “I-is this a necromancer’s island?” She looked around with wide eyes, prompting Rainbow to look over at her.

“Necromancer?” Rainbow rose an eyebrow towards the mare. “You mean like… from storybooks? Those dark mages and stuff that raise like skeletons to fight for them?”

Lyra gave a little nod in response, continuing to lean on Rainbow. “Y-yeah… sorta,” She gulped, looking around in the trees, “Their magic speciality is the dark art of necromancy, or just… raising the dead, skeletons, corpses, doesn’t matter. If you see any shrunken heads or some kind of weird little trinkets hanging from the trees… it’s probably necromancer territory.”

Rainbow shivered a little; raising the dead? That was something she had only read in books, but they existed in Equestria? “So those storybooks are just stories then?”

“No, t-they’re not.” Lyra was nearly quiet now, taking care to watch her step and wincing every now and then. “F-fuck, my side… anywa-way. Necromancers… there might be s-some on this island, if they’re the ones who turned the ponies into z-zombies, they’ll be on this island somewhere, raising corpses to protect their hideouts...”

“I hope there’s not any...” Rainbow thought back to the creatures that were on the plane and the ponies who acted the same way. What had happened to them all was something she wanted to find out. Was it really a necromancer? That seemed the most likely explanation, though it also raised the question of where the necromancer was. Damn it, I need to send Twilight a letter. Rainbow recalled the magic candle she had in her backpack that Twilight had given her.

She would have to use it at some point to tell Twilight what was happening. She needed to get help for everyone who crashed in the airship, not just Lyra and herself. A dozen different thoughts ran through Rainbow’s mind in that moment; foremost among them were worries of what might have happened at the crash site. Images of burning wreckage and dead ponies littering the ground assaulted her mind, and it only made her speed up along the path she was walking.

The duo limped through the jungle, the calls of tropical birds filling their ears alongside the distant sound of crashing waves. Rainbow could make out the faint cries of someone yelling, but she couldn’t tell where exactly it was coming from. The skies were slowly growing darker the more time passed; by the progressively louder sound of the thunder the storm was closing in on the island. Rainbow could sense it was only going to get worse.

No sooner than she realized that when the skies opened up and rain pattered down from above, the deluge quickly soaking them both to the bone and making their clothes feel heavier. They needed to find someplace to hunker down, lest they risk getting caught in the worst of the storm, or possibly even injured by the raging winds that whipped around them with ever-growing strength.

The path down from where Lyra had fallen kept narrowing to the point where they were forced to squeeze between trees and fallen rocks to continue. The sound of waves slowly grew louder as they broke free from the foliage and into a small clearing that had some surfboards and footwear strewn about. A trail of planks and debris from the airship littered the sand further ahead, forcing them to pick their steps carefully.

“Jeez…” Lyra muttered, still holding her arm close as they moved through a narrow gap in some rocks on the opposite side of the clearing. “What are we gonna do, Dash!?” she called over the wind just before lightning struck a nearby tree, making them both flinch hard

“I… I don’t know. If I can get my backpack, there’s a dragonfire candle inside it. I can use it to write to Twilight, tell her what happened to the airship and these zombie-looking… things....” Should probably also tell her about what happened on that other airship, or whatever that thing was, she mentally noted. She was wholly intent on explaining the full situation to Twilight as best as she could before asking her to come help them, hoping she knew a spell or something other trick to cure the nightmarish affliction that seemed to have infected almost everypony.

“So we have to find your bag, and then hope Twilight reaches us in time with answers,” Lyra said without holding out much immediate hope. She fell silent after that, so Rainbow kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.

The path finally opened up to a large expanse of beach littered with more wood, ice chests, glass bottles, and what appeared to be party supplies. To the pair’s immediate right was the airship—most of it, at least.

It had crashed into a rocky outcropping on the edge of the treeline, a dozen feet up from the beach. It was suspended over the sand, slightly tilted and wedged between several thick trees and the rocks. Its hull was badly damaged by the crash and its ballonets looked to be shredded beyond repair; their only way off the island was now lost to them. On the far side of the cliff, a wide overhang extended partway over the water.

Craning her neck to look up at the deck as best she could, Rainbow noticed a pony was lying across the railing, unmoving; directly below him was a reddened patch of sand.

“Celestia have mercy,” Lyra murmured, looking up at the ship, choking back a sudden surge of bile. “Y-you think… anypony else is still on it?”

“I don’t know…” Was all Rainbow could answer, noting that the ship’s entire bow was smashed and splintered. The damage looked pretty bad, but with enough time and knowledgeable ponies, they could possibly repair it. However, that would take a while, given the extent of the damage and what all they had to do to get it airworthy again.

And I bet none of the survivors have any idea how to do that... I don’t either! “I have no idea. If they are, hopefully they’re alive.” Rainbow gulped nervously as she led Lyra over to a nearby rock. “Rest up here, I’m gonna check the ship--don’t worry; I’ll keep you in view at all times.”

After letting Lyra go and giving her a smirk, the unicorn questioned, “You sure you c-can handle yourself?”

Rainbow snorted, flexing her arms and patting the toned muscle there. “I used to box, remember?”

A tiny laugh escaped Lyra, who looked up and said, “So I guess you forgot how to throw that mean right hook when the captain jumped you?”

Both mares froze at that; both reminded of what happened not too long ago.

Clearing her throat, Rainbow spread her sore wings before flying up to the ship. Her normally graceful strokes were tight and shaky, fear’s chilly claws digging deep into her shoulders.

The deck of the airship was thrashed from what she could see. Boards had snapped in half, creating gaping holes leading into the bowels of the ship. Worse, rocks had fallen from the cliff overhang upon the airship’s impact and crushed several ponies who lay motionless. The deflated ballonets acted as a sort of canopy, providing shade across the entire deck. She didn’t see any familiar faces among the bodies, which was relieving and worrisome at the same time. Were the Pie sisters inside? Did Derpy and Dinky fall off somewhere along the way? Or were they all...?

Rainbow couldn’t finish the thought as she dropped carefully onto the deck, the damaged boards creaking under her weight. All was silent, save for the crashing waves nearby, the tropical birds in the sky above, and the storm that had begun to die down. Her eyes flicked back and forth, ears perked up high and straining to hear something, anything at all.

Nothing.

Walking slowly along the deck, she tried not to tremble at the sight of dead ponies lying around her. The concept of death was nothing new to her, but seeing dead bodies this close was more than enough to make her confidence waver. A few painfully long and silent seconds passed before her voice started working again.

“H-hello? Anypony here?”

No response.

She crept up to the door of the main cabin, gripping the knob tightly for a moment before wrenching it open, body tensed and prepared to face another monster. Thankfully, the hall was empty.

Heading inside, she didn’t find much of anything except the stairs leading down to the quarters, the galley, and so on. She continued calling out for anyone to answer, but was met with the same suffocating silence. She tried a new tactic, switching over to the names of ponies she knew were on the ship before everything went to Hell.

“Limestone? Derpy?”

Still nothing.

She cracked open a door, peering inside to see a stallion sprawled underneath a pile of broken wood and glass. A trail of blood snaked along the floor, leading to a gaping hole in the wall that exposed the room to the ocean’s spray. The stallion wasn’t moving, his gray eyes staring straight at the door, straight at Rainbow.

Swallowing her panic, she quickly shut the door, trying to keep her heart from bursting out of her chest. H-holy Celestia. Taking a shaky breath, she turned to face the foreboding stretch of doorways and darkness. Her only sources of light were the beams of sunlight piercing through the cracks in the deck above and the few light crystals that still had some magic left in them.

The remaining doors were all open, the rooms holding neither living nor dead. The ball of fear in Rainbow’s gut only grew heavier as the silence grew stronger. She could hear nothing but her own heartbeat pounding away in her ears. Not even the boards creaked liked the ones above. It was as if sound itself had died, leaving behind a lone mare and a ship full of corpses.

Rainbow sped up her steps, passing room after room, each one empty and quiet. So horribly, deafeningly quiet.

Where were the rest of the ponies? The crew?

“Guys?” she croaked, the word sucked away into the void the moment it left her.

No response.

She didn’t want to check any more rooms. Everything was empty.

A pained, feeble moan briefly cut through the veil of silence. Rainbow latched onto it like drowning sailor to a lifeboat, sprinting down the hall to find the source of that wonderful, awful noise.

She quickly reached the end of the hall, finding another closed door—the only other one. Wrenching the knob in terrified elation, her growing hope stumbled when the door refused to budge.

Rainbow cursed inwardly, twisting it futilely over and over. The crash must have bent the frame; not surprising, considering how close it was to the wrecked bow.

“Hello? Anypony in there?!” Rainbow cried out, pounding the door with a shaking fist.

She held her breath, hoping for something, anything that would tell her she wasn’t alone in a wooden graveyard.

“H-help.”

The voice was faint. It could barely be heard over the combined clamor of Rainbow’s pounding heart and the almighty silence.

But it was a response. She wasn’t alone.

The strangling fear immediately vanished, at last allowing Rainbow to breathe freely. The rush of relief was so strong, she nearly threw up and passed out, but somehow managed to hold onto herself.

“Don’t worry,” she shouted with false bravado, “I’m gonna get you out of there!”

She took two steps back, then threw her entire body into a spinning kick, smashing the door to splinters. This was a first class airship, but the doors were absolutely shoddy. The pieces flew across the room, striking the opposite wall in a series of hollow cracks.

It was music to Rainbow’s ears.

She wasted no time rushing into the trashed room. Nearly every piece of furniture was overturned. The floor was studded with shards of glass from the window, the bed was crushed underneath a heavy support beam. She saw no one inside.

“H-hello? Hey! Anypony in here?”

Another muffled moan. It sounded like it came from under the bed. Dropping to her hands and knees, Rainbow pressed her head to the floor, coming eye to eye with a pair of dull gold irises. Dinky Hooves stared back from her cramped position under the bed. She appeared to be pinned against the floor. “D-Dash?”

“Dinky!” Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. “You okay, kid?”

“I-I’m stuck!” she cried weakly, seeming on the verge of panic. “I can’t get my leg out!”

“Shit... Don’t worry, I got ya,” Rainbow reassured her. “Just hold tight.” She looked around the edges of the bed, noticing two of the legs had snapped from the weight of the beam, trapping Dinky’s leg underneath it. Squatting down slightly, Rainbow grabbed the bed frame and tried lifting, driving her legs into the floor with all her strength. It rose a few inches, but that was all she could manage by herself. Damn it! she growled as the bed slammed back to the floor.

“I-it’s too heavy!” Dinky groaned out. “Agh! I can’t move!”

Shit, I can barely lift this by myself. Come on, Rainbow! Think! She looked up at the beam, trying to see if there was a way to move it. It had broken in two separate places—the first being a complete break and the second only being a partial crack, which caused it to swing down onto the bed. If she could somehow finish off the second break, then she could drag it away and lift the bed. But she was already exhausted from fighting for her life, and the beam looked way too thick... Maybe she could-

A set of rapid footsteps suddenly grabbed Rainbow’s attention. She spun towards the doorway and dropped into a fighting stance, expecting a pony or not-minotaur zombie. Her fears were dismissed when a set of familiar red eyes turned the corner

“Vinyl!”

The white unicorn had obviously seen better days. Her glasses were gone and her club-hopping outfit was tattered and muddy. Rainbow had no idea how she found them, but that didn’t matter at the moment. With Vinyl’s help, she just might be able to lift the bed off of Dinky.

Self-consciously trying to wipe the grime from her hands, Rainbow made a few quick signs to explain the situation, ‘Dinky’s trapped under the bed, can you help me lift this?’

Vinyl’s eyes widened and she ducked down to look under the bed. Popping back up, she gave a quick nod and rushed to grab the corner nearest to Dinky. Rainbow immediately joined her and together they heaved, the bed creaking loudly in protest.

The bed rose slowly, inch by inch, until a loud crack made Vinyl and Rainbow freeze. Dinky whimpered below, still straining to pull her leg free.

“I-is it high enough?” Rainbow gritted out, her arms unable to go any higher. Vinyl looked to be the same, if not worse.

A muted ‘thud’ was her response, and seconds later Dinky crawled between the two mares, breathing heavily. They released the bed with a combined sigh of exertion, not bothering to drop it gently now that Dinky was out of the way. Rainbow looked behind her to see that Dinky had crawled over to the dresser nearby, lying on her back and panting. Rainbow gave a brief nod to Vinyl as thanks, then plopped down next to the teenager.

“You alright kid?” Rainbow asked, scanning Dinky for any major injuries. A few scratches covered her face along with some bruises scattered over her body, barely visible beneath her gray fur. Her thin crop top was torn slightly near the collar and her short shorts had some blood on the hem. Aside from a slight cut, her leg appeared to be uninjured.

“Y-yeah,” Dinky nodded shakily, running a hand through her hair and looking around the room. “My mom… She said to hide under the bed when the other ponies started acting crazy. Then the whole ship shook and… I-I think I passed out. I woke up a few minutes ago with my leg stuck and everypony gone.”

Shit, poor kid. Rainbow rubbed her temples, feeling a bit of a headache coming on for some reason. “A storm hit the ship and it crashed. It’s wedged up in some rocks right now.” She explained. Where the hell is Derpy? And everypony else, for that matter?

Dinky was rarely out of Derpy’s sights, as the mother lived up to the stereotype of overprotective pegasi parents well. So not finding her with her daughter made Rainbow very nervous.

Waving to catch Vinyl’s attention, Rainbow signed again, ‘Did you find anyone else?’

The DJ shook her head sadly. ‘No, I’ve been on my own since the crash.’

“Damn it...” Rainbow muttered. Could everypony be dead? She stood up and walked to the cracked doorway, face creased with worry. “Lyra’s down on the beach. Let’s do one last check of the ship before leaving.” she sighed. “I don’t wanna leave anypony behind.”

Rainbow signed the message to Vinyl, who nodded once and stood to follow, Dinky on her heels. Rainbow was reluctant to poke around for more corpses, but she was very glad to have friends with her this time.

ooo000---000ooo

Lyra sat huddled beneath a tree, gripping her side and trying to ignore the throbbing in her arm while the worst of the storm crept closer.

The winds had picked up, blowing around debris and causing the waves to crash against the shore. The rain was light for now, but she was still soaked to the bone, her hoodie clinging uncomfortably to her body. She knew that she was going to get sick if this kept up, but she didn’t want to leave in case Rainbow needed her. I hope she finds the others soon, this storm is getting really bad!

As if her thoughts had triggered an event, she heard a distant scream.