Friendship is Survival

Chapters

I Hate Computers
You Know What I Don't Hate? Ponies
Fluttershy's Conscience
I'm Not Crazy, You're Crazy!
Ace Survivor(unfinished)

I Hate Computers

It was a bright morning that day in Ponyville, not unlike any other beginning to the day. Mr. and Mrs. Cake's shop was exhausting fumes that smelled delicious. Cheerilee's class of young fillies and colts were filing into their seats. One thing was different, however. Up in the skies, some pegasi were patrolling, looking for any irregularities in the weather. Any other day, a particular rainbow-maned pony would have been on the squad. Instead of regulating the clouds or tending her fields, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were at Sweet Apple Acres, outside the barn, waiting for Fluttershy. Applejack was pacing around at a fast speed, wondering where her yellow flying friend was.

“Where do you think that pegasus is? It’s not like her to be late for appointments. Do you think that she ran into some trouble?” said Applejack nervously. Rainbow Dash was flying around the barn, seemingly uncaring about Fluttershy’s current whereabouts.

“Nah, she’ll be fine. Can we start now? I’m booooooored. Nothing bad is going to happen anyway,” Rainbow Dash said during one of her laps around the barn.

“I don’t know, Rainbow Dash. I have a very bad feeling about this. These guns can kill things. I’ve only used them against critters who chew at my crops and even then I’ve only used it around five times. I don’t know what it could do to a different animal, or even a pony. I don’t feel like I should’ve mentioned them to you. I don’t even know why I mentioned it. T’ain’t right,” Applejack worried. Rainbow Dash had momentarily stopped and lowered herself just above the ground, hovering herself in front of Applejack so she could talk to her and look in her eyes while doing so.

“Oh stop being such a Twilight. It’s not like we’re going to aim them at anything living. We’re just going to shoot them at some stationary targets. And you mentioned it because I just have that effect on ponies,” Rainbow Dash started flying around the barn again, just as fast as before without showing a sign of slowing down.

“I don’t think Fluttershy would be happy if we started without her.” Applejack was inspecting her barn carefully, trying to pass time while waiting for Fluttershy. A sound that wasn’t Rainbow Dash scared her and made her jump, at least until she realized it was Fluttershy.

“Of course I wouldn’t be happy. I promised I would be here on time. I’m not late am I?” asked Fluttershy with a frown that could make grown stallions cry.

“Yeah you’re late. It’s twelve o’ clock! You were supposed to be here half an hour ago!” Rainbow Dash had stopped flying by then and landed ruggedly in front of Fluttershy, making an impression in the dirt.

"I'm sorry," Fluttershy sighed. "Angel got into the other bunnies' food, and I had to give him a time out. I knew that if I wasn't there he wouldn't stay like that. I’m sorry everypony.”

“It’s okay Fluttershy,” Applejack said with some compassion. “The higher the sun, the more light there is and there is better of a chance is that y’all won’t miss the targets.”

“Wait, I have to shoot? I don’t think that’s a good-”

“Let’s go then! I can’t wait!” Rainbow Dash said excitedly, interrupting Fluttershy.

“Whoa there, eager beaver. I need to go through some things first,” Applejack said worrying about Rainbow Dash’s eagerness. “Let’s talk about them while we make our way to the targets.” They departed with Rainbow Dash and Applejack taking the front, and Fluttershy taking the back. Rainbow Dash was about to start flying again, and Applejack noticed that, saying “Rainbow Dash, I need you to listen to this. It’s really important.”

“I really don’t think this is a good-”

“Fine then. Hurry up Applejack, I can’t wait!” Rainbow Dash said while they were walking down the path.

“Alrighty then. I have this saddlebag here. It has all our guns in it, including some extras I keep in there so nopony will find it while I’m not home. I warn you that some of them are highly illegal in Equestria and if you tell anypony, I will personally drop you off in middle of the Everfree Forest without a map and leave without you,” Applejack said with complete seriousness.

“You have to swear not to tell anypony. Not Rarity, not Pinkie, not even Twilight. I haven’t told Big Macintosh, not even poor old Granny Smith. It’s so big a secret that you have to Pinkie Pie swear before I believe you'll keep it.” Applejack halted them so they could Swear. Rainbow Dash was sure that she would never tell, so she Pinkie Pie swore. “You too, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy Pinkie Pie swore as well, but still tried to show concern by stalling.

“Applejack, I know you mean well but-”

“Just do it Fluttershy. I want Applejack to hurry up!” Rainbow Dash said with growing impatience.

Fluttershy sighed, but said anyway “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” doing the necessary motions. “I still think that we shouldn’t-”

“Alrighty then. Y’all just take care to aim the sights at your target, hold your breath if you’re going for precision(which y’all should be), and to pull the trigger slowly. The bigger the gun the more kick it has. Good thing today we’re only shooting with pistols. I brought enough ammo to take down a swarm of parasprites. Let’s just hope we don’t have to ever do that. If for some reason you run out of ammo in your clip, just physically move your gun towards the ammo it uses. The gun was magically enchanted by unicorns to automatically reload, so we don’t have to worry about that. It’ll only reload if it’s near ammo of the caliber it uses. Any questions?” Applejack was sure there would be questions, as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy still looked confused. She went over the instructions one more time. She asked them once again, “Any questions?”

“Nope. You have any questions, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash said hurriedly. She could see the firing range without straining her eyes from here, and had gotten anxious.

“No, but I still-”

“Then let’s go!” Rainbow Dash started to fly and flew until she became a dot in the distance. She appeared to be at the range already, and appeared to be grabbing a cloud to nap on. Fluttershy and Applejack arrived 5 minutes later to Rainbow Dash snoring.

“WAKE UP LAZY BONES!” Applejack yelled at the top of her lungs. It was so loud that Fluttershy appeared to jump back a couple of steps and continued walking after realizing it was Applejack’s voice. Rainbow Dash seemed to have a heart attack and flew 5 feet in the air before flying down and punching Applejack on the left foreleg.

While surveying the surrounding landscape, Applejack had noticed the weather had changed since that morning. It was now gloomy and looked like a storm was coming. She thought to herself to remember to wrap up the guns when they were done so the guns won’t get wet. “It’s not my fault you decided to go ahead of us and start napping. You’re the one who wanted to shoot, so let’s shoot!” Applejack then proceeded to set down the saddlebags by the path they had just taken. She glanced at the hay bales that had a piece of round paper on it, which was decorated to look like a target, just to make sure everything was set up right.

“Alright! Let’s see you shoot first, Applejack! Let’s see how fine is that aim you were bragging about to me yesterday!” Applejack was 10 seconds ahead of Rainbow Dash and had her pistol ready. She fired fifteen rounds into the target on the left. She missed no rounds. From what Applejack could tell, she had made ten rounds into the bulls-eye and the other five into the second ring. “I bet I could be 20% more accurate then you Applejack!” Rainbow Dash grabbed a pistol, aimed at the middle target, and fired. Applejack counted ten bullets on the target total. Five of them had hit the bulls-eye. Three hit the second to last ring. And two had barely hit the target, being in the last ring on the very edge. “No fair! Your pistol’s better then mine!”

Applejack ignored this accusation, instead turning around and searching for Fluttershy.
“Rainbow Dash, why don’t we let Fluttershy shoot now?” The poor mare had been sitting down in the grass by the path and was covering her ears with her hooves. She had never heard this loud of a noise before, and was scared to death. Nothing scared her more, except maybe dragons. “Fluttershy, why don’t you come up over here? We’re done shooting for now.” She took her hooves off of her ears, hearing what she hoped meant the end of the day. “It’s your turn to shoot.” Fluttershy paused momentarily at hearing this statement, and continued to slowly walk towards her friends, thinking of what to tell them.

“I really don’t think I-” Fluttershy almost finished her sentence but then thought that the day was not going to end well in her favor if she resisted. “Sure, why not? I need to learn to use it so if I ever have one, which I doubt, I’ll know how to hold it correctly and not injure anypony. And like Pinkie says, I need to face my fears and laugh at them. What better way to face a gun then know how it works?” The reaction on Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s faces was disquieting to Fluttershy. “Unless you don’t want me to. I just want to have control over one of my fears, that’s all. I’m sorry.”

“Nah, Fluttershy. It’s okay. I’m just shocked you’d be willing to use a weapon that’s so dangerous. And so easily too.”

“I’m trying new things, Applejack. I’ll do anything for my friends,” Fluttershy said, flashing a grin that seemed to make a sound that if attempted to be described, would sound similar to “squee”. Fluttershy armed herself with the last pistol left in the bag. Fluttershy tried to stall by checking her pistol over the saddlebag with the guns. She noticed that Applejack was right that some of them were highly illegal. She spotted shotguns, assault rifles, and even a sub-machine gun.

“Applejack, if you don’t mind me asking, where did you get these guns anyway?” Fluttershy said, trying to stall for time.

“I found them just sitting in the pasture the night after Trixie hightailed it outta here. Why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

Fluttershy walked up to the range and aimed at the last uninjured target on the right. Nearby, Applejack looked at the sky and noticed it was beginning to rain, and closed her saddlebags tight. Rainbow Dash was trying her hardest to stay still while Fluttershy concentrated. Just as she was about to fire, there was a flashing light, and then darkness that seemed like days to her at a later date.

In eastern Philadelphia, in a town called Fairfield, it was dark out, and if there were still a need for clocks, it would be around eleven o’ clock P.M. The Witches stopped wandering and began to choose a spot to cry in for the night. Bill, Louis, Francis, and Zoey decided to bunker in a laboratory on the west side of Fairfield for the night. More or less they decided then they were just too damn tired to continue walking.

Bill was in a rather large room labelled “Storeroom”, although it appeared that nothing had been stored in there for quite a while, except maybe dust and grime. Bill had been cleaning a corner where they would sleep in for the night. He had all the guns on top of a crate, right next to where they would put down the sleeping bags They would take shifts, and of course Bill had the first shift, voluntarily. Bill had enough of the day and needed some thinking. He had found a CEDA pamphlet that called those fat, vomiting, exploding bastards “Boomers”, and that apparently there were strains of the Green Flu other then the Boomer, Smoker, Hunter, and those steroid pumping Tanks.

The pamphlet had described a new strain and very peculiar one at that in detail, saying those infected with the strain were called “Witches” and that they cried like a normal human girl who was under great amounts of stress. They were passive aggressive, and only attacked survivors if they had gotten close, surprised her with some sort of light, or just plain shot at her. The Witch could eviscerate anything in seconds if it is startled by one of the methods that was listed, and will run away from any uninfected humans after the target is down. At night the Witch would sit on the ground somewhere to cry. In the day, however, it would wander around and was harder to startle then at night. The pamphlet continued to make a joke about it being similar to a girl on her period. Bill had smiled at that, one of the few smiles he ever had in his adult life.

Bill decided he would tell the others in the morning. For some weird reason he felt that wouldn’t be the case. He had just finished laying down their cots in the corner when he heard Francis and the others, all the way from the room labelled “Testing Area”, that they had found a kitchen right next to. At least, what Bill hoped was a kitchen. He didn’t like the noise. It sounded like somebody was surprised, and not a pleasant surprise at that. He unholstered his pistol and ran like hell.

Turns out, Francis had found a working computer. And he apparently thought the only way to operate it was pressing as many buttons as possible and as fast as possible.

“What the hell are you doing, Francis?” Apparently Francis and the others had been too busy watching the computer to realize Bill had entered the room.

“Trying to find out how to operate that camera over there, old man.” He pointed at a strange looking device that Bill would have testified wasn’t a camera. “I have to have a photo of this moment so I remember the days when ‘Francis, The Great Vampire Hunter’ started his great and awesome career as a vampire hunter.”

“For the last time Francis these are zombies! Not vampires!” Louis nearly screamed at Francis. “I have a feeling you’ll never figure it out without somebody having to slap you across the face...”

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Louis. Just shut up and let me find the program that operates the camera.” Bill looked worried. “What’s up with you, old man?

“First thing’s first. Stop. Calling me. Old. Man. Second thing, are you sure it’s wise to mess around with that computer, Francis? You don’t know what the hell you’re doing. This room is called ‘Testing Area’, for God’s sakes. For all we know the scientists were working on something serious like a nuclear bomb down here. All I know is that they left a while ago, probably around the time the Green Flu outbreak started with Patient Zero. That could mean that these people-”

“Stop your whining already, old timer.” Bill seemed angrier at hearing the words ‘old timer’, but Francis didn’t care. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’m sure nothing bad will happen.”

“I have a very bad feeling about this, Francis. I’m not sure. I’ve gotta hit the can. Make sure not to blow up the building while I’m gone.”

“Will do,” Francis said without a care as to what Bill had just warned. Bill left the room with a disgruntled look on his face. Francis watched him leave and then focused his attention back to the computer. Zoey and Louis had become bored so they had begun to play Tic-Tac-Toe on a piece of paper they found while Bill was talking with Francis.

“Do you want to go first Zoey? I don’t really mind going second.”

“It’s fine Louis. I really think you should go first. After you.”

“No, no, I insist. After you.”

“After you.”

“WOULD YOU LADIES KINDLY SHUT THE HELL UP?!” Francis screamed at the top of his lungs. “I think I’ve found it. Here we go. Something called, ‘Trons-pore-tir.’ I think it’s old douchebag talk for camera!”

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Francis? That doesn’t sound like a camera.” In fact, Zoey knew exactly that it wasn’t a program that operated the “camera”. She felt that if she had told Francis outright it wasn’t a camera, it would break his pride. So she decided to play along with it. But still, she didn’t like that word. She couldn’t remember what it sounded like exactly, but she knew it didn’t sound right. “But if you say so, Francis, I guess it’ll be alright. Isn’t that right, Louis?”

Louis hadn’t been paying attention to what anyone was saying. He had been too focused on Zoey’s beautiful, beautiful face...

“Louis!” That broke Louis out of his trance. He snapped fully awake like he had just taken a whole bottle of pills...sweet delicious- “Louis! Wake up! Don’t you think we’ll be alright?”

“Huh? What? Yeah, sure, whatever.”

“Then you ladies better get over here and smile for the camera.” Francis somehow set the “camera” to delay 20 seconds until the “picture” was taken, more by luck than skill. The 3 survivors posed for the “camera”. “Say cheese, everybody!”

“Cheese!” Everybody screamed out loud. Zoey was still trying to figure out that word. Tronsportir. Tronsporter. Transporter. Transporter. What did that word mean again? No wonder she was failing in college.

“Guys, I don’t think this is a-” Flash of light. Darkness. For a second, just one second, maybe three talking ponies. How did she know they could talk? She just knew.

Bill had never had a faster Sudoku than today’s. It was a good stress reliever, and now he definitely needed to relieve some stress. Too bad there was never going to be a new one. It would eventually be just erasing the old ones and redoing them. He wondered if that what Hell was like. He was thinking about that in the bathroom, whilst Francis and co. were messing with the computer. And then all Hell broke loose. First, he heard a gunshot, probably a pistol. Second, he heard something electronic breaking, probably from the gunshot. Then he heard a girl screaming. He got up faster then Jimmy Gibbs Junior’s race car going down the track. That is, before Jimmy Gibbs became a zombie.

He half-ran through the door and through the hallway to the Testing Area. “Zoey!? Are you alright? Louis? Francis? God damn it.” His heart was pounding at least a thousand beats per second. He felt his heart was going to explode. He was worried that something had happened to them while he had been away. He was nearing the Testing Area. He leveled his pistol. He turned the corner, to face...three horse-like creatures that seemed too colorful for this world to be real. If Bill hadn’t been in ‘Nam all those years ago, he would have had a heart attack right there and then.

“What a crock of horseshit.”

You Know What I Don't Hate? Ponies

Twilight Sparkle had been studying right next to her favorite window that day, the one that faced the countryside in the direction of Princess Celestia’s castle. The sun had been shining brightly, straight up in the middle of the sky where it belonged at this time of day. She looked up when she heard her baby dragon assistant, Spike, call up from behind her.

“Yo, Twi. Where do you want these scrolls?” Twilight took a moment to think of a place to put them, then finally thought of a location.

“Here, give them to me.” Twilight glowed her horn, and proceeded to lift the scrolls in Spike’s hands, as Spike tensed his hands to prepare for the magic. “I think you deserve a break anyway.” Spike proceeded to walk over to the book Twilight had been studying.

“‘Are There Realities Other than Ours?’” Spike turned around to face Twilight, who had popped up right in front of his face. “Dude, that’s creepy. Back up a bit.” Twilight did so. “Anyway, why this book? It seems so weird. Do you really think that there are other realities out there?”

“Cheerilee recommended it to me. I thought it sounded interesting. Besides, I haven’t read it yet and you know I have to read every book I can get my hooves on. It explains that there could be other realities called ‘parallel universes’. I haven’t gotten very far, but from what I can understand, there is an unlimited amount of realities out there. In each reality, there’s something different that sets it apart from every other reality. It also gives a simile how they’re like snowflakes; no two realities are the same. Every possibility is out there. Anything you can think of, it probably exists.’

“So you’re telling me there’s an unlimited amount of realities where I’m going out with...with...Rarity?!?” Spike started drooling at that thought, but quickly stopped himself. “Of course, that probably means there are unlimited amounts of realities out there, including this one, that I don’t go out with Rarity.”

“Yes Spike, you’re correct. There are unlimited amounts of realities. However, we are unable to visit them, at least in our lifetime, so don’t get your hopes up. It could be that in alternate realities they’ve already discovered how to visit other realities. But not in ours.” Twilight smiled at Spike at that statement.

“Oh. I understand, Twi. I’ll see you later. I gotta go back to my date with my pillow.” Spike started walking away, yawning as usual. Twilight walked up past Spike to her book as Spike was going back to his napping. Twilight snuck a glance outside the window, surveying the distant countryside. She could see Sweet Apple Acres from here. Twilight was about to turn around when she glanced a look outside the window, and saw a big flash of light in her peripheral vision, to her left. She tried looking for the source of, but it seemed it was behind Applejack’s apple trees. The flash of light disappeared as soon and as fast as it appeared, but it was the brightest thing Twilight had ever seen. Twilight decided to investigate.

Twilight walked down to the library’s door, after preparing her magic spells, just in case, and grabbing a snack for the road. She opened the door to find Pinkie Pie and Rarity, poised, as they were about to knock. They both had their saddlebags ready, like they were about to go on a trip. Rarity was the first to respond.

“You saw that heavenly light too, Twilight?” Twilight nodded her head. “Oh my, then I’m not seeing things.”

“Hey! I saw it too, Rarity, you silly filly. Are you calling me loco in the coco?”

“To be honest, my dear, you tend to perceive situations oddly. You could have just seen a unicorn’s spell for all you know. But I know what I saw. This was bigger then a simple unicorn’s spell. And I’m prepared to investigate. I can see you were about to depart as well, Twilight.”

“I was actually about to get you both. I was scared to go find the cause of the light alone, in case of something dangerous. Have you gotten the others?”

“I tried to, Twilight. Fluttershy wasn’t home, Big Macintosh said he hasn’t seen Applejack since this morning at breakfast, and you know very well I can’t check if Rainbow Dash was home.” Rarity indicated her wingless body as she said this. “If she was working I can’t interfere with her official weather duties anyhow. So it appears just to be us on this investigation.”

“Okie Dokie Lokie. Let’s go!” Pinkie set off with an unusual enthusiasm, hopping up and down with all four hooves like normal, not unlike her usual cheerfulness one bit. Rarity and Twilight followed her. They took their time, getting to the spot where they saw the light around sunset. When they got there, the things they saw would change their perspective on life as they knew it.

"-camera,” finished Zoey as she came into existence in this new world. She looked around, wondering how she had gotten into this strange place, and remembered the “camera” that Francis had been tinkering with before the flashing light. She saw Francis and Louis, and thought that whatever had happened, they had experienced the same thing as her. The bright surroundings scared her as well, compared to the dreary and dark laboratory she had been in before. “Uh, guys, where are we?” Louis and Francis shrugged, and quickly reached for their holsters for their guns, remembering the zombie outbreak. At least, where their guns had been, until they took them out back in the laboratory, right before they were about to sleep.

“Shit. Wish we didn’t set our guns down.” Louis said as he took in more of the surrounding than Zoey did, not just looking at the weather, but actually looking around and noticing little things. He saw there were some targets nearby, with bullet holes. He walked over, inspected the holes, and found the freshly fired bullets in the targets. He had fired enough at the firing range to know they were fresh. “Hey guys! These bullets are fresh! There must be survivors near here! But why would they be shooting bullets at targets?” Zoey and Francis made their way over there, shrugging at Louis’ question, and to go inspect the holes for themselves. Louis backed away to give them room to investigate.

Louis took this time to really take in the surroundings. He saw a town in the far distance, with bright colors and...colorful horses? No, he must have been seeing things. Why would there be colorful horses in a town with a bright color scheme? Unless...

“I think you’re right Louis! I ain’t no scientist, but these bullets smell like they were fired a while ago. They don’t look like a very big caliber. Must have been some pistols. Whoever these guys were, they did a very shitty job at aiming. At least, the ones in the middle and the far one over there.” He pointed at the target, that if standing from the path, would be on the right. “The last one seems like they did a fine hell of a job.”

“Way to go, Francis! Who knew you were such a genius when it came to guns?” Zoey clapped for him.

“Just don’t mention it to Bill, or else he’ll...wait a second, where is Bill? I don’t see the geezer anywhere.” They all looked around for Bill, unsuccessfully finding him. “Jesus Christ, do you think he’s...?”

“Don’t think that way, man. He’s survived this long, I’m sure he’ll survive without us for a little while.” Louis forgot what he was thinking about earlier. He still scanned the horizon, possibly looking for the people who had shot the bullets, or just looking and seeing if he could see anybody at all. He spotted a farm, possibly an apple farm with all the trees around it. “Anyway, nothing to do here but wait.”

“Now just wait a second there, Louis. What makes you think we have to wait here? Just because we don’t have guns doesn’t mean we can’t fight.” Francis punched his fist into his other hand at this statement.

“For one thing, we’re in a different place than before. When we were in the laboratory, it was nighttime. Here, it’s about noon, if you haven’t noticed. Second, you realize that punching zombies won’t kill them, right? At least, not until you punch them about a hundred times. What happens if there’s a whole horde of them while we’re moving? Third, I’m tired as hell. We need to sleep here, even if it is daytime.” Francis didn’t argue with that. He had about 2 more hours left in him, before he would collapse and fall asleep. He just nodded his head in agreement.

“We’ll take shifts for watch, then. Since you’re so eager, you can take first shift. I’ll take second shift, and Zoey can take third shift. We’ll sleep about 6 hours total, each shift covering two hours. You can take my watch. When the little hand is two big marks ahead of where it is currently, wake me up. Don’t go off of what the time actually is.” Louis actually looked at his watch, and realized that it had died. “Scratch that. When you feel two hours has passed, wake me up. If I wake up and it turns out that it hasn’t been two hours, I will hit you.” Normally, Francis wouldn’t be scared of threats from Louis, but today, he was in a good mood, due to the new atmosphere that he had been placed in. It was just so sunny and cheerful, and actually gave Francis a smile on the inside.

“I’ll do it, Louis. It’ll give me more time to think about what’s going on.” Louis ignored the possibility of making a joke about Francis thinking(or lack of), and continued.

“Alright then. We’ll use those bales of hay as pillows. Good day, Francis.” Louis and Zoey proceeded to set up their little sleeping quarters, and fell asleep. When Louis woke up, he immediately noticed it was a lot darker. He guessed that it was sunset, and looked up to see that it was indeed sunset. He looked over and saw Zoey and Francis sleeping. He thought he could see something protruding from their backs...wings, maybe? If they were wings, Zoey’s were a light yellow, and Francis’ were teal. But they couldn’t be wings, they didn’t have those before they went to sleep. Did they? Louis couldn’t remember. All he knew was, he might be going crazy.

“Damnit Francis, I thought you would have been able to stay awake,” Louis whispered under his breath. “At least everybody is okay.” He glanced up at the path and saw movement. He strained his eyes and saw that it looked like a bunch of colorful horses. So he was going crazy. He didn’t know if he should wake the others up, or not. He then realized they all got 6 hours of sleep either way, so he did it anyway. He went over and shoved Francis awake, then gently woke up Zoey.

“Whuzzat?” Francis was groggy momentarily, then came to his senses realizing his error. “Goddamn it, I fell asleep. Sorry Louis.” Louis was surprised that Francis actually had the capability to say sorry.

“It’s okay. We’re all fine now, anyway.”

“Louis, is that you?” Zoey had now stirred fully awake.

“No, it’s the tooth fairy," Louis said sarcastically. "Yes it’s me, wake up.” Zoey and Francis both got up and started to stretch. Louis remembered why he was skeptical about waking up the others. “Hey guys, do you see movement on that path over there?” Francis and Zoey were still half-asleep, and they knew it. But they saw movement, nonetheless. They nodded their heads yes. “Do they look like horses to you?” The others were kind of surprised by this question. They looked again, more closely this time, and saw that they had horse-like figures. Zoey was the first to respond.

“Yeah, those are horses. But why are they all different colors? The one on the left looks like it has pink hair and a pink coat. The one on the right looks like...if I had to describe it, a marshmallow with purple hair. And the one in the middle looks purple. It also seems like...it’s...it’s...it’s a unicorn! I think the marshmallow is a unicorn too!” Zoey could see tiny little horns sticking out of the middle one and the marshmallow’s heads, and she doubted they were just bumps.

“So, what do we do Louis?” Louis was surprised that Francis was looking at Louis like he was the leader. He was momentarily confused on what to say, given the new responsibility, and found his words.

“We wait. I have never seen horses like that before. I don’t feel like horses are exactly hostile. It’s the only living thing we’ve seen so far, anyway. They might know what’s going on.”

“What the hell are you saying, Louis? Are you saying that you feel they can communicate with us?”

“I don’t know, Zoey. I don’t know. All we can do is wait and see.” Louis took a seat on the hay he had been sleeping on, and folded his hands in front of him. He rested his chin upon his hands, and started to think. Zoey started pacing around nervously, wondering if Louis had gone crazy or if this was just a dream and she would wake up and her dad would still be alive. Francis in an uncaring fashion, grabbed both his and Zoey’s bales of hay and proceeded to lay back and watch the sun set. It had a calming effect on him.

Louis looked up from time to time, about every 3 minutes. Francis would occasionally yawn. Zoey would kick the dirt every so often, trying to find peace with herself. After about 15 minutes, Louis looked up and saw them. Their big eyes looked surprised to see the survivors. The fact they had stopped walking made sure of the fact that they were aware of their surroundings. The fact they were both surprised and that they had stopped walking made sure of the fact that the survivors were the first humans the horses had seen.

The pink one was the first to break out of the trance. It hopped forwards on all four of it’s hooves, and stopped right in front of Louis. “How ya doing? I haven’t seen you before! You must be new! But, what are you, exactly?” Louis realized it was a girl horse. He also was not surprised that they could talk, at the least, that this one could. He felt they all shared the ability to talk, however. At hearing the voice, Francis and Zoey looked up to see the horses. Their reactions were very similar to the horses’ reactions to the humans; stopping what they were doing and being surprised.

“Well, what are you? Can you speak?” The purple one followed suit after the pink one, pushing the pink one out of the way. Now that Louis could see the pink one’s side, he realized there were 2 blue balloons and a yellow balloon on the side, near the rear. The “marshmallow” with the purple hair also had a mark on her side, but hers was three diamonds in a sort of pyramid fashion. He moved his head slightly to the right and left, locating the same kind of marks on both sides of the purple one. The purple one’s mark was different, however, and looked like fireworks on the 4th of July. All of this seemed familiar to him somehow, but he couldn’t put his tongue on it.

The marshmallow stepped forward, approaching Louis, and stopped in front of him. “It appears you’ve scared the poor dear, Twilight. If only Fluttershy was here...she has such a way with animals...”

“Hey! I’m no animal! I’m Francis, the greatest vampire hunter in existence!” Francis had popped up right next to Louis when he heard the marshmallow say this. “And who are you to call me an animal?”

“Why, I’m Rarity, the most fabulous dress designer this side of Equestria. If I may say so myself, perhaps the best designer in the whole world!” She said this with a pompous tone.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle. And this is Pinkie Pie.” She pointed her hoof at the pink horse. “You still haven’t told us who you are.” Zoey regained her composure and stepped forwards.

“I’m Zoey. The loudmouth over there is Francis. And right here’s Louis.” She pointed at the respective owners of the names. “In case you don’t know, we’re all humans. And you are...?”

“Ponies, of course! Who else would we be? Mules?” Pinkie Pie said like this had been the thousandth time she had said this. Louis was still thinking about where they were. Equestria...Pinkie Pie...Rarity...Twilight Sparkle...Fluttersy...why were these names so familiar to him? The purple one(Twilight Sparkle, remember Louis!) took charge after an awkward silence between the two groups.

“I don’t think I’ll have to inquire what humans are, we can discuss that at a later date. Do all humans have wings, or is that just common among the peach-colored ones?”

“Did you just call them peach-colored?” Louis could swear he could hear racism in that statement, but then realized that the way the ponies were all differently colored, there was different colors of ponies everywhere, and it had just become everyday life that they hadn’t even realized what they were saying. “Never mind.” And what did she mean, wings? Louis looked over and indeed, saw wings on Zoey’s and Francis’ backs. Francis’ was indeed blue and Zoey’s was still the yellow Louis remembered seeing earlier. At least he wasn’t that crazy. Not yet anyway.

“What the hell? I have wings!?! Since when?” Francis was rotating in a circle, trying to get a good look at his new wings. Now realizing that he actually had wings, he was trying effortlessly to flap them, but couldn’t just find how to operate them. It was something he would have to learn, if he kept them for any longer. Zoey was having similar success. She managed to pull off one flap of her wings, but didn’t gain any air. Twilight Sparkle didn’t pay any attention to them. She was intent on figuring out how these...”humans” had gotten into Equestria. Clearly they were the first of the kind that had ever been here.

“So...how did you guys exactly get here? I doubt you didn’t just walk out of your front door and then end up here. Did you?” Twilight appeared to talk to nobody in particular, but she was hoping the darker one would catch up. He seemed the most intelligent of the group, and would probably be able to communicate better. The others seemed...different. Louis was the closest to the ponies, so he naturally responded.

“We don’t really know, exactly. This dumbo head over here thought a highly technological device was a camera, and somehow we ended up here. One second we were in a dark, kind of musty laboratory, and the next we’re here.

“Wait, did you say laboratory? I had a dream about a laboratory last night, now that I think about it! Now that I think about it, it had humans in it too! I’ve never seen a human before, but that was one weird dream. Even for me.” Pinkie jumped at the opportunity and was excited. “You want to hear about it? Do ya? I bet you ya do.”

“Pinkie, I know you mean well but a dream is just a dream. Besides, you have never seen a human before today. There’s no way it could-”

“I heard one of the humans say your name, Rarity.”

“Please continue. I must hear this dream!” Twilight and the humans were intrigued by the concept of this dream. Except Francis, who was trying to still figure out how to operate his wings.

“Ah, screw this. Do we have to stay here and listen? I’m hungry!”

“Good idea...um...Francis. Let’s head back to Ponyville. On the way Pinkie Pie can tell us her dream. We need to figure out what’s going on, and I need to send Princess Celestia a letter, pronto.”

Fluttershy's Conscience

Bill had realized that the strange beings he had come upon were horses, and not just horses, but ponies. He had started a discussion with the ponies (as odd as that sounded in his mind), when the yellow one with the pink mane had come up to him in the cutest little way he had ever seen.

The ponies were in the corner, confused and dazed, from what Bill could tell. There was a cyan-colored pony, with a rainbow mane and tail, as well as some sort of lightning bolt tattoo on her side near the rear. Next to the cyan-colored pony was an orange-colored pony, with a yellow tail and mane. The final pony was a light yellow and had a light pink mane and tail. They had weird tattoos as well, the yellow one had three pink butterflies, and the orange one had three apples. They had some contraptions harnessed onto their bodies as well, but he couldn’t tell what their purpose was.

“Um...excuse me sir...at least...I hope you’re a sir...but...just to ask...where are we?”

“Goddamn, you can talk? Now I know I am seeing things. And hearing things. But uh...to answer your question, I really don’t know, aside from the fact that we’re in Fairfield, Philadelphia.”

The rainbow one literally leaped forward at this. “Don’t you mean Fillydelphia?”

“No, I mean Philadelphia. I don’t know how you got Fillydelphia out of that. Probably some sort of horse pun.” The room became silent after this, the 2 parties staring at each other, unsure of what to do next.

The yellow one spoke up, taking the initiative, because, to her, he was an animal, and animals were her specialty, after all. “I know all animals and their names, but I don’t know either for you. Mine is Fluttershy, and I’m a pony. Would it be okay if you told us who, and what, are you?”

“Come now, Fluttershy. This animal might be dangerous, for all we know.” The cyan one stepped forward, and Bill could discern what the contraptions were now; they were pistols, albeit different from his, which he had quickly put in his holster when he had turned the corner to find a bunch of ponies, by a long shot. But a pistol was a pistol, and here was one staring him in the face.

“Rainbow Dash, stop it! You’re scaring the poor thing.”

Rainbow Dash walked away back the corner, submitting. She mumbled something unintelligible.

“Why are a bunch of...ponies...carrying pistols around anyway? But first thing’s first, even if you are just figments of my imagination, I guess it’s rude not to tell you my name. William Overbeck, U.S. Special Forces, retired. You can just call me Bill. I’m guessing that you don’t know what the U.S. Special Forces is, so don’t ask, and I won’t tell. Can you tell me your names, then? I know the one with the piece-of-shit attitude is Rainbow Dash. And that this little cutie is Fluttershy.” Fluttershy blushed.

The orange one stepped forward. “It’s a long story, trust me. Mah name’s Applejack. Now, Rainbow Dash may be a sour apple every once in a while, she’s a good friend to have and will always remain loyal to her friends.”

“That’s right, and don’t you forget it, bub!” Suddenly, an alarm started, and a computerized female voice started speaking. A flashing red light helped convey the nature of the message the voice was delivering.

“Alert. Alert. Zombie in the complex. Hallway, outside the Main Laboratory. All lab personnel please evacuate immediately. Alert. Alert.” Fluttershy shrieked, and then ran out of the room into the hallway out of fear for the voice and the flashing red light, and seconds later everybody else heard three gunshots. Both the alarm and the voice stopped.

“Fluttershy! Hold on! I’m a coming!” Rainbow Dash jumped up in the air, as if to fly, but realized her wings were missing. “What in the hay?” Rainbow Dash was confused, and stood dazed, back in the laboratory, but Applejack and Bill had ran after Fluttershy, and turned the corner to find her lying next to a body sprawled face-down across the ground. She was staring at the ground, silent, stricken with shock, her gun emitting a wispy smoke.

“Uh, sugar cube? You okay?” Applejack seemed genuinely concerned; Fluttershy of all ponies had killed something. Bill paid no attention, and took his pistol out and shot the corpse one final time in the head. Fluttershy, being in shock and not being in view of Bill walking up, jumped back a bit in surprise, and continued moping.

“I...killed it. I killed it.” Fluttershy was shaking and whimpering, repeating the same thing over and over, and Applejack walked up to her, with nothing to say.

“You can’t kill something that’s already dead. It would’ve killed us anyway, or at least turned me into one of them.” Rainbow Dash had crept up behind them as Bill was talking.

“What do you mean, already dead? Where are my wings? Where’s Fluttershy wings?” Bill spun around to find Rainbow Dash, who seemed pissed. Bill turned back

“Why, your wings are right the-” Applejack glanced over at Rainbow Dash and discovered her wings were missing. “That’s funny, they’re gone. At least Fluttershy’s are-” She looked over at Fluttershy to discover the same thing. “Your wings are all gone. Nothing we can do about it now.” Applejack turned to the corpse, and looked a little closer. “Now, tell us what’s going on here.”

“Can we go in the other room? I don’t like to admit it, but I need a goddamn cigarette and these old bones aren’t as good as they used to be. I need to sit down. Plus the stench of this goddamn body smells like shit. I can explain as much as I know in there.”

The ponies agreed, except for Fluttershy, who just sat there and continued to mope, and they set off for the kitchen. Fluttershy limped slowly behind them, getting as far away from the body as possible. Bill explained to the ponies about everything that had happened.

He told them about the Green Flu, the way it had spread throughout the country, starting with Patient Zero right here in Fairfield, how it caused the infected to target any uninfected, and either infect, or kill them. He told them about the common Infected, the way they react to loud noises and bright lights, and how they run faster than he or certainly any human could. How they gather in hordes, and attack en masse in order to quickly kill their targets.

He told them about the Boomers, the way their bulging mass contains their thick bile, which attracts the zombie horde when coming in contact with beings that did not contain the zombie virus. He told them about the Hunters, their hooded faces emitting a screech every time they would go for a pounce, with athletic precision.

He told them about the Smokers, their cancerous body, malformed and misshapen, how their long tongues would travel long distances, just to tie you up, and drag you closer and closer. He told them about the newly-discovered Witches, bringing up the pamphlet he had found in his mind, and described the way they always cried, sounding like a little girl, wandering in the day, sitting down in the night, and if startled, how they would tear you limb from limb until you were eradicated, according to the pamphlet.

Lastly, he described the Tank. Its muscular anatomy, how it shook the ground with its footsteps, with its long arms and how you could hear its yelling miles away. He carefully described the horrors that one would face encountering one, such as the fact they could probably kill you faster than you could kill them. How they could manage to tear off pieces of concrete from the very street, and throw them at you, how they could launch full-sized cars(at this the ponies had wondered what cars were, but Bill just said they were large metal pieces of transportation) at people like it was nothing. He also described how the Tank, while strong, was very rare, and a bitch to kill.

They mostly listened in silence, asking questions once in a while. The ponies, in return, told Bill about basic information about their lives so Bill would have a better understanding of their abilities. But Fluttershy had just sat there sitting quietly, and staring at the ground, in shock over what she had done. Bill noticed this, and was concerned.

“Look...Fluttershy, is it?” She nodded her head, still staring at the ground. “You took care of animals, right?” Fluttershy nodded, still staring at the ground. “Right. So that means that you’re really kind, right?” Fluttershy nodded her head again, without looking up. “So that means you would probably be glad to know that every one of those things you kill, you’re probably saving a life. In fact, probably ten lives for every one you kill.”

“But they’re still able to move around, which means they still have some life, and I’d be taking away their lives,” Fluttershy mumbled under her breath. Bill sighed, as Fluttershy was missing the point.

“Like I said before, they’re already dead. Either we kill them, or their own kind kills them. They fight amongst themselves and kill each other all the time. We’d only be hurrying up the process, and saving a few lives while we’re at it.” Fluttershy looked up at Bill. “Plus it doesn’t help the disease affecting them is incurable and easily transmitted to other living beings. Like you. Or me.”

“Thanks for that. But now that I think about it, how did we get here exactly? The last thing that happened in your world was your friend messing around with that computer. Was that it?” Applejack said, noticing that Fluttershy had a blank expression in her eyes, but appeared to be getting better nonetheless.

“If I know Francis, that son of a bitch probably did screw something up. The one thing I’m wondering though is that how did you guys end up here?”

“I ain’t got a clue as to what kind of magic this computer did to make us be here, but it seems that the same magic caused their wings to disappear. We can’t do nothing about what got us here, but as long as we are, we better darn near try to get back your friends, and try to get ourselves back to Ponyville.”

Rainbow Dash, while the others were talking, was wandering around the room, looking at different odds and ends. She found herself next to the sparking machinery, which by then had reduced to nothing but a burst of bright sparks every few seconds or so. She saw a thick notebook next to it, and picked it up, out of curiosity.

“Hey guys, what’s this?” She held the notebook up in the air, and started waving it around in her hoof.

“Gimme that.” Bill walked over and grabbed the notebook from her, and proceeded to look it over. He saw some marker writing on the front that read “BF-3000”. He looked over at the computer, and saw the same name. “Guess it’s some sort of instruction manual, or something.” Bill flipped through the pages, skimming through pages upon pages of scribbled text, with the occasional sketch, squinting as hard as his old eyes would let him.

After about five minutes, he reached the last page in the book. Reading it aloud, he read “The BF-3000 is finally complete! After a week of developing Mr. Weber’s ideas that he’s been thinking up for the past couple of years, I think we’ve developed inter-universal travel! Of course, there’s still bugs in the system that we’ll be able to fix later, but for now, we’ll finally be able to find a universe that’s found a cure for the zom-” The notebook stopped there, but a scribbled line of text showed that the keeper of the notebook had been interrupted while writing the final sentence.

Bill hadn’t noticed any bodies when the survivors first came into this laboratory, which he thought odd for they had found the door to be wide open when they first found this laboratory. Of course, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, they might say, especially since there had been a huge horde right outside the lab. So Bill decided not to think about it, and continue on with the matter at hand.

“Well, at least I know how everybody went where they did. But enough about how. We need to figure out how to get you back.” Bill inspected the broken machinery closely, and looked through the notebook to find a diagram that matched the machinery exactly. He was deep in thought, trying to find what would need to be replaced.

“So, what do y’spose is wrong with that thing?” Applejack was curious, and she had a right to be. This man she had met not 2 hours ago was deep in thought, looking back and forth from a notebook, to a piece of machinery.

“According to this, all that’s broken is a power core to help provide extra power to the machine. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a hardware store a fair distance away from here. Let me check. Make sure Fluttershy is ready, just in case.” Bill left the room to find a map of the city. Rainbow Dash and Applejack walked up to Fluttershy, and Applejack affectionately put a hoof around her.

“What’s the matter, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash tried to get Fluttershy to look at her while she was talking, but the former pegasi couldn’t see eye-to-eye. Fluttershy did start to speak, however, but it was softer than usual, even for Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t understand a word. “What did you say?”

“I said I killed that thing. I know it would have killed other people, but still...”

“Listen here, like Bill said. You saved lives, Fluttershy, isn’t that what you love doing most?”

“Well yeah, but this is different. I’m still taking away the infected peoples’ lives away from them. Nobody should have that privilege. Even if they are...stealing other people’s lives, I don’t feel I have the right to take away whats left of theirs.”

“But Fluttershy, if you kill off one, you’re saving ten, uninfected lives that could be used to...uh, repopulate this planet after the infected die off! You saw it yourself, Fluttershy. You saw that infected before. What exactly did it do to make you shoot it?”

“It...umm...ran after me...the hallways are really long...it saw me...then ran after me...it had blood on its face...I was scared...I used the pistol...and I just fired...three times...the infected just kind of kept on running...but I couldn’t shoot again...it passed me and kept on running...then it fell over and fell on its face...”

“Sugar cube, you’re being silly. We have to help Bill save his friends and get us back to Ponyville! Think about all the animals back home! Think about Pinkie, and Twilight, and even Rarity! Think about us! Think about Bill’s friends! Do it for everybody. The good of the many is better than the needs of the one.”

A grizzled old smoker’s voice emitted from behind the ponies, which startled them. “She’s right, you know. If you don’t help us, we’ll probably get killed out there. You’ll probably die, as well. My friends probably wouldn’t be able to get back here, either. I know it’s hard to take a life. I fought in a war around forty years ago. When I first started, I was green as grass, and was cocky as hell. Then I killed my first enemy. I realized they were just like our side, just that they were on the other team. They had hopes and dreams, just like us, and were only trying to protect their families.

“I still fought them, after all. I had a duty to do for my country, and my enemies were trying to kill me. I got so good they even promoted me. But still, I felt like what I had done was wrong. Especially since after the war, the veterans weren’t welcomed home very well, and we were getting treated badly. I’m rambling just like an old man now. You need to help us, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy looked up at Bill, after hearing his speech. She looked at him, trying to understand him. She could see a certain wisdom in his eyes, even if he was old like Granny Smith, back in Ponyville. Thinking of Granny Smith made Fluttershy think of her friends and animals back home, and she realized they were probably right; she needed to help return home.

“Alright. I’ll help.”

“Good. Applejack, I’ve been meaning to ask you this, but what’s in that bag you’re carrying?”

“This? Why, it’s got a whole bunch of guns in it, I don’t think they’d be useful though.”

“Why not?” Bill said, putting aside the obvious questions about how they would acquire so much firepower. He had decided that logic was not the best thing to associate with these ponies.

“They don’t have any ammunition for them. You can look at them anyways.” Applejack opened up her saddlebags, for Bill to look through, and Bill indeed searched through the bag, sorting through guns that vaguely looked like assault rifles, a sniper rifle, shotguns, and submachine guns to find two pump-action shotguns and a submachine gun that Bill thought looked odd from the rest. He inspected the guns carefully, finding engravings like manufacturers, serial numbers, and even the type of ammunition that it used.

The guns’ ammunition types seemed familiar, but Bill couldn’t put his tongue on it. He had suspicions, however. “Give me a minute, I’ll be right back.” Bill took the shotgun and a submachine gun with him to the kitchen. He remembered that they all had put their guns and ammunition in here, when they had found the food, and couldn’t bother to store it any place else. Bill picked up his Uzi, and checked it to make sure there was enough ammo for it, and picked up a spare Uzi bullet.

Bill tried fitting the bullet into the pony's strange submachine gun, and surprisingly, it went right in without any hassle. Against months of army training, he attempted to fire the gun, after trying to figure out how exactly to shoot the strange firearm, and it fired like a charm. He did the same thing with the shotgun, and got the exact same results, even though the shotgun’s kick just about broke his shoulder. Smiling, Bill grabbed a few hundred rounds for the submachine gun, putting it in his bag, and grabbed a couple hundred shells for the shotguns, doing the same thing. He limped his way back to the ponies, with the extra weight causing pressure on his wounded knee.

He entered the room with the ponies, and realized that the room was the lobby, with the exit door right at the opposite side of the room. “What was that noise? We heard gunshots,” Applejack questioned.

“It was nothing, just testing out your new guns.” Bill threw shotguns to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who both caught them with their hooves. He walked up to Fluttershy and personally handed her the submachine gun. “Oh, almost forgot.” Bill placed the ammo they needed for the gun into their saddlebags. Bill noticed as all but Applejack struggled to add the weapons to their contraptions, who had to help them. He then chuckled as they moved their guns toward their saddlebags, but stopped when he realized that was how they reloaded their guns as the ammunition magically floated into their reloading chambers..

“So, do we go now?” the ponies said in creepy unison.

“Yeah, let’s go kick some zombie ass.”

I'm Not Crazy, You're Crazy!

(Author's Note: Somewhat grimdark in this first italicized part, it may not be the best for the squeamish.)

Darkness...maybe a concussion...but now light! I’m finally in the magical land of Equestria! Fuck the human society and their problems, I’m in Equestria now...me...Tim Weber...after all these months of other people mocking me for believing that other worlds like Equestria existed...finally...I’ve proved my worth.

This past week...Dr. Morris...Dr. Steinberg...Dr. Grewal...Dr. Marshall...they didn’t write it down in their reports about my reasons for providing the U.S. government with a way to go in-between alternate universes...but everybody knew...I really wanted to go to Equestria...to see Fluttershy...and Twilight Sparkle...and Pinkie Pie...and Rainbow Dash...and Applejack...and Rarity.

I remember coming to the government with the plans months ago...they filed it away for later...ten days ago, one of their scientists found my plans while trying to find a cure for the Green Flu...somehow, they managed to locate me and commission me to help oversee putting together the necessary components...everything but the power core he had been unable to attain...the power core had been planned to be nothing but a simple cordless drill battery, jury-rigged to power up the machine that wouldn’t be powered by the computer.

The machine’s original purpose was to transport me to Equestria so I could meet them...the ponies...but...these...scientists...they’ve distorted the purpose into something that the nation “needs”...for the greater good of humanity, they said...who cares about humanity...when I’ve got Equestria.

Two hours ago...we finished production of the BF-3000...they tested it by sending an apple to a universe that apparently contained only a single apple...they had determined the apple would have the least amount of effects on this universe...they sent it to the universe...and received an orange in place of the apple...I guess that adding objects to a universe...causes imbalance...and must be rebalanced by replacing it with something that resembles it the most...but not the actual object itself, if it exists in the receiving universe.

In a nutshell, we send something over to a different universe; something similar(but not equal) must come back to our universe to bring balance back to the universes involved in this process...but I’m digressing.

As soon as the orange was transported back here...I killed them...I personally snapped Dr. Marshall’s neck...I made Dr. Morris bite his own fingers off...one...by one...I drowned Dr Steinberg in the toilet...and Dr. Grewal...I...tore his heart open with the kitchen utensils...and yet...I feel nothing...no remorse...no regret...no joy...just...nothing...the only thing I feel...is blindness...because I lost my glasses trying to find Dr. Grewal’s heart with nothing but a butcher knife...that butcher knife...the way I carved up his chest...how I stabbed it...back and forth...back and forth...back and forth...

Of course, they resisted...I would have...they pleaded to me...taking back what they had said about my beliefs...or at least, that they believed they were taking it back...if you didn’t mean it, cocksuckers, you would never have said it in the first place...just like my ma back in Minnesota used to tell me...”If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. At least, not to their face. Behind their backs, you can talk as much shit as you want, as long as you don’t tell them about what you said.”

The bodies had to be dealt with swiftly...I dragged them up to the second floor...tossing them through the window at the infected hordes that had began to gather...I left no organ, nor vein, nor body part behind...everything must go! Sale in Aisle 6!

I went back to the BF-3000...I pulled up the coordinates to Equestria on the computer...I turned away from the computer to stand up, reaching back to hit the button...and it...it felt like I never hit the button...but I’m probably imagining things...and now, here I am. In Equestria...nothing looks different...maybe my bad eyesight is distorting my vision than what I’m used to...or they made a laboratory just like ours in...Fillydelphia...with the exact same layout...if that’s right...then the exit should be that way.

I made it to the exit...it’s so dark outside...I can see figures moving...that one...it...looks like...a pony...it is Equestria!

“Rarity!” I ran towards Rarity...and gave her a great big hug...in return, she kissed my face...but this wasn’t a kiss...it felt...more like a bite...and I could feel an aching sensation in my stomach...when I looked down...I saw ‘she’ was sticking her...claws? She was sticking her claws...into my stomach...and...was ripping out my intestines...she was growling at me...I looked into Rarity’s face...and found myself staring into an infected’s face...what wasn’t covered by its hood, that is...NO! I WAS SO CLOSE!

“That’s it! That’s my dream! I saw it through his eyes, like I was actually him! I could hear his thoughts, like he was telling a story!” The pink party pony kept on hopping towards Ponyville, even though the rest of the group had stopped. “Guys? What’s wrong?”

“Pinkie Pie...that’s just...sick. Doesn’t that horrify you in the slightest?” Twilight looked like she was going to barf.

“I know I’m a kick-ass vampire killer and all, but that’s just sick. Who would do such a thing?”

“Meh, it sounds like an average zombie movie to me. 5 guys spending time together in close quarters, while a zombie apocalypse is raging right outside their front door, one of them is bound to go crazy. Even then, he could have done much worse, at least he didn’t-”

“Zoey. Please. I don’t want to throw up the little food I have in my body.” Louis' stomach felt like it was going to throw up every piece of food that had ever entered Louis' body.

“Why, that’s just...wait a second, what’s a finger?" Rarity wondered

Louis stretched out his hand in front of Rarity, and withdrew every finger into a ball except for his index finger. “It’s what us humans use to hold onto things. Without them, we’d be completely useless. Everybody has ten fingers, on two hands.”

“That’s crazy! We ponies get along just fine without fingers, I don’t see how you would be completely helpless! You’d have your other limbs to use!” Pinkie Pie said in disbelief.

“It doesn’t quite work that way, Pinkie Pie. We only use our other limbs to walk. It’d be a little complicated to use them for every day life. We should probably start using them now, if we want to get where we’re going any time soon.”

“Why my dear Louis, you’re right, we have to keep moving. It’ll be time for supper soon.”

“You guys will just love supper! We’ll have cake and pie and we can even throw a party for you guys!”

“Uh, Pinkie Pie, I don’t think a party would be the best idea. We have no idea about these...humans’ intentions. But first and foremost, I’ll need to run tests and inform Princess Celestia of our situation.”

“No party? Aww.”

Louis, Francis, and Zoey were sitting inside of a humongous hollowed-out tree. Louis had been in disbelief when he was led into the giant tree, which had actually turned out to be a library. Equestria 1, Logic 0. The others weren’t as much in shock, as Francis had been lost in his thoughts, and had actually shut up. Zoey, on the other hand, was just too mystified by her surroundings, and was thinking of all the possible ways her life would’ve gone if the Green Flu hadn’t surfaced.

Rarity and the delightful party pony had gone to their homes, Rarity’s reason being that she needed to watch over her sister, Sweetie Belle, and that Pinkie Pie needed to babysit some rambunctious toddlers. Twilight had let the humans into a large main room, where shelves upon shelves of bookshelves surrounded them, save for a spot where the staircase led up to the next floor, which Twilight had gone up to after giving the humans strict orders not to touch or do anything but sit.

So they had sat, and sat there in silence. The only one who made any noise during the entire time wasn’t any of the humans, but a small purple creature, who had green spines sticking out of his back. The creature brought them food, apparently something that Twilight had made the recipe for herself. No one attempted to talk to him, nor did he try to talk to them. He walked back the way he came, muttering something about interrupting naps.

They ate their food, often glancing at each other, and having unspoken conversations. Louis would sneak looks at Zoey, trying to find how she was taking the whole mess. Zoey was checking to see if she could find any semblance of hope in his face that he was taking this whole ordeal sanely. Francis, on the other hand, was staring in an absent-minded manner out of the window near the staircase. He hadn’t a care in the world at that moment.

After about an hour, Twilight finally came back downstairs. She addressed them in a rather calm voice, despite her nervousness. She had come back to her study earlier to find Spike already waiting for her, letter in hand. He had given it to her without a word, and she read over it five times, not missing a single letter.

“My most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

It appears that Ponyville might be in a bind or two over the next several days. I’m writing this letter to forewarn you. You may not have noticed, but over the past few weeks several ponies have been disappearing at night.

You need not concern yourself with this matter, for I have instructed my personal unicorn guard to come to Ponyville to help deal with the issue. There may be darker forces than Discord working near Ponyville. I’d rather professionals deal with it. I know you and your friends are the Elements of Harmony, but this is a matter of upmost importance.

I have already contacted Mayor Mare about this matter, and she was given strict orders to arrest you if there is any attempt by the Elements of Harmony to find the source of this problem. There’s something very troubling afoot. Luna and I can feel it in our bones. This is for your safety, not to punish you.

This very well may be nothing, or this may be the cause of a world war.

Princess Celestia.”

Twilight was very worried by this letter, both by that Celestia didn’t believe in her abilities, and that these ponies were missing. It’s not like the humans sitting down in her library were going to help in the matter. Even if they did help, they were too exhausted to do anything. No, the humans would have to sit out of any mess that occurred, no matter what.

Twilight decided to send Spike to make food for the humans, so she could write a letter herself to Princess Celestia. She outlined that she understood what Princess Celestia meant, and she explained as quickly as possible about the humans’ situations and how they ended up in Equestria. She had to cut her letter short when she heard Spike approaching her study. She quickly closed up the letter, and gave it to Spike to send it off.

Unbeknownst to Twilight Sparkle, she had failed to mention the zombies that had plagued the humans’ world, and the apparent disease that had caused so much destruction.

After the letter was sent and done, Twilight went back downstairs to the humans. By then, Francis had fallen asleep, Zoey was attempting to find a horror story amongst the various books on the shelves, and Louis was still thinking why this place was so familiar. He was so desperate for ideas, that he thought he was in a TV show he loved to watch. He quickly dismissed the thought as a figment of his imagination, due to exhaustion.

Zoey was the first to notice Twilight enter the room, followed by Louis, who had to wake up Francis. An onimous silence filled the room, as the humans seemed to stare down the lone unicorn.

“What now?” Zoey broke the silence.

“Now? Now, you need to rest. You guys look insanely exhausted, even if you are as tough as you say you are, Francis. Everypo- I mean everybody needs some rest every once in a while. Even gigantic monsters like hydras and-

A knocking at the door interrupted Twilight, and she jumped back a foot.

“Excuse me a moment.”

The knocking continued, even as Twillight opened the door. The hoof that was knocking continued forward and bopped Twilight on the nose.

“Derpy? What are you doing here?”

“I brought you a letter!” Derpy reached into her bag, and pulled out a small envelope. She handed the envelope to Twilight. Twilight took the envelope out of her hoof, and she kept her hoof out.

“Uh, thanks I guess. You can leave now” Except Derpy wasn’t leaving yet.

“Muffin!”

“Oh. Hold on, let me get one for you.” Twilight pulled a muffin out of a box labelled “For Derpy” near the door. She gave the muffin to Derpy, and she flew away in her unusual(but still perfectly normal for her) manner, bumping into things, but never seeming to lose a hold of her muffin. Before Twilight could close the door, Rarity popped into view, who spotted Twilight.

“Yoohoo! Twilight! Sweetie Belle is all taken care of!”

Before Twilight could call back over to Rarity, Pinkie Pie jumped off of a rooftop onto where Rarity would be when she landed.

“Rarity catch me!”

“What?” Pinkie Pie would have struck Rarity at full speed, if it wasn’t for Twilight slowing her fall with magic.

“My bad. I was practicing my parkour, and I didn’t see that there weren’t any more buildings off this way.”

“Why on Equestria were you practicing parkour? And what about Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake? Weren’t you supposed to take care of them, my dear Pinkie Pie?”

“I only had to take care of them for an hour, Rarity! Silly, I wouldn’t leave a bunch of wittie itty bitty babies all by themselves.”

“Pinkie Pie, Rarity, this is serious. Follow me inside.” Twilight had left the door open because she had ran as soon as she saw Pinkie jumping off of the roof. The letter had been dropped on the ground when Twilight rushed to lessen Pinkie’s fall. Twilight entered the library with Rarity and Pinkie in tow, and shut the door behind them. “Excuse me a moment while I read this.”

The envelope had no information as to who had sent it, but Twilight could tell by the actual contents of the letter who had mailed it.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

Princess Celestia sent our town her personal unicorn guard to help deal with a problem that’s been occurring, as you may or may not know. We were told to expect them to arrive noon two days ago. While this may be an overreaction, I fear they have been spirited away. You understand, of course, that the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot is of a medium distance, however, these ponies left five days ago, and from what Princess Celestia told us, they were equipped with the fastest moving transports alive- five of the Wonderbolts’ top fliers.

You can understand my concern. I know Princess Celestia gave me strict orders to prevent you from intervening, but I’m at a loss. I have nopony else to request help from, and you’re the only one who can communicate to Princess Celestia at a fast rate. I’ve had a unicorn enchant this letter so that when you read it, the testimonies of those who witnessed the kidnappings will appear in the main room of your library.

Help us Twilight Sparkle, both as an Element of Harmony, and as a citizen of Ponyville. It very well might be a small filly or colt who’s kidnapped next.

Mayor Mare.

Twilight took this all in surprisingly well, partly due to the fact that she believed that she expected something of this sort to happen, even if it meant what she thought it meant; that so far fifteen ponies have disappeared due to this mysterious source of power. There hasn’t been these many disappearances since...well never!

The testimonies the letter had mentioned appeared on a table in the corner with a loud thump and a shimmering of the air. The stack wasn't particularly large, but it did only contain five testimonies.

“What are these, Twilight?” Zoey was right next to the table, and was sifting through the papers. When she saw one that caught her eye, her face dropped from her usual carefree smile to a grim and depressing grimace. “‘The witness claims to have seen a creature walking on two legs that used its tongue to pull in the missing victim and kidnap them. The creature apparently was coughing and was giving off smoke in his vicinity.’ Is this what I think it is?”

“No...no...not here of all places...” Louis was palming his face at the horrifying thought that was occurring in his mind.

“Goddamnit, I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure they had no way to follow us, right?”

“I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, Francis.” Louis was trying to remain optimistic of the situation, even though he realized how grim it would be if it meant what he thought it meant.

“No, it’s not, listen to this. ‘The witnesses to this kidnapping claim that a creature was leaping around large distances and emitting a piercing shriek. The victim was pounced, and then the creature attempted to leap away with the victim, but the victim, being a unicorn, used her magic to light up the creature's head, due to the witness being in close proximity, and the witness claimed to see a hood covering the creature’s face, exposing nothing but its nose and wicked teeth.’ Sound familiar?” Zoey said with a smug look on her face.

“Zoey, whatever does this mean?” Rarity and the rest of the ponies were confused, although Rarity was the only one to regain her composure.

“It means that whatever happened to these ponies, the zombies from our world are kidnapping them. But I don’t get it. They normally attack anything that’s not Infected like a pack of savage dogs.”

“Maybe they’re not like they normally are,” Louis said. “Maybe they’ve changed. Or worse, they’re being controlled. Either situation doesn’t change the fact that we’ve got a situation on our hands.”

“You’re right Louis. We have a situation on our hands. One that you and your friends won’t be able to participate in.”

“What? Why not?” Francis appeared to have a surprised look on his face. Even Francis could comprehend that their little ensemble had the most experience with the zombies in Equestria at that moment.

“Because one, you have no weapons. You guys told me that you used guns to kill the zombies back on Earth. Here, in Equestria, the only guns we have are used by the royal guards or ponies involved in the black market. Even if you were to acquire a gun, you wouldn’t be able to use it. They’re specially hoofmade for ponies, and Celestia’s secret unicorn guard at that. The black market did make straps for Pegasi and Earth ponies to use in case they were potential customers, but Princess Celestia never endorsed them for her own needs for fear of it getting in the wrong hands.

“Two, you guys are exhausted. You’ve been killing zombies for how many days now? At least 3? Obviously you’ve had little sleep, and the sleep you have had was plagued with nightmares of days long gone. Am I right?” Zoey looked away from Twilight as she said this, remembering her dad’s unfortunate end. Louis appeared to think over this for a minute, and then made his mind and spoke.

“I, uh...guess we have been sleep-deprived over the past few days. It’d be nice to not have to worry about anything.” Louis looked at Francis and Zoey for approval.

“Uh..yeah! We can stay here in the meantime. I mean, we can read through these books, right?” Zoey seemed eager to get her hands on some horror stories.

“What about me? Can’t I get some sleep around here and get some grub?” Francis’ stomach rumbled at the thought of food.

Twilight chuckled. “Of course, you guys, make yourselves at home. I’ll make sure Spike and Pinkie Pie keep you company when I leave to deal with this; Rarity will have to come with me. For now, I guess I’ll have to go write another letter to Celestia. I think I have an idea of how we’re going to deal with this.”

“We!?” Rarity expressed alarm at this.

Twilight chuckled again for an usually long time. “Oh you’ll see. You’ll see.”

Ace Survivor(unfinished)

The force of Bill’s boot forced the door to fall off of its hinges, revealing a dark and empty street. The entire street ran for around ten blocks, as far as Bill could tell. If the streetlights had been functioning correctly and if “traffic” wasn’t such a hassle, he would have been able to see that this street could go from one end of the city to the other in a straight line.

The only thing about the street that Bill found weird was that there wasn’t any zombies. Nor could he hear any in the close proximity. He did hear gunshots in the distance that seemed to increase in intensity as time went along.

“We better take this time to get our bearings. If my memory doesn’t fail me, the place we’re looking for should be about ten blocks East, and then a couple blocks North from there. You know what I mean by North and East, right?”

Rainbow Dash was offended by Bill’s remark. “Who do you think we are, babies??”

“Of course not. You’re a bunch of magical ponies from the land of Equestria. Why would I be mistaken that you’re a bunch of little babies that don’t know the basic cardinal directions?” Bill replied in a sarcastic tone. The ponies shut up at that. Bill led the group Eastward down a still abandoned street. Rainbow Dash was growing impatient as Bill checked every crevice and corner. She held her tongue as best as she could, doubting his behavior, until he did find spoils.

Next to a burning taxi Bill had pulled away a garbage can to reveal a dead man in a blue suit and red tie. The dead man’s hair was all ruffled and messed up, but four weeks previous it had been spiky as a porcupine. Next to the dead man, however, was a bottle of pills and an Uzi submachine gun.

“Whatever this guy’s job was, it doesn’t seem like he was an ace at surviving. But he is an ace at leaving us things to survive off of.” Bill seemed relieved, being left with nothing but a pistol previously. He grabbed the Uzi and the pill bottle, and checked the contents of both. The Uzi had a full clip, but that was only fifty rounds worth. The bottle had enough painkillers to help deal with a temporary injury, but anything else would require a first aid kit. Speaking of which...

Bill had seen an ambulance back the other way, but had thought not to open it for fear of a zombie hiding inside and would tear him apart limb from limb, due to the lack of a firearm. The ponies did have weapons, but they were inexperienced and would most likely have failed to defend him in that situation. With a gun, however, he felt more confident in their abilities.

“Hey, ponies. We’re going to backtrack a bit to that ambulance.” Bill cocked his head back in the direction that they had just came from.

“What do you mean backtrack? We need to hurry up so we can get back to Equestria!”

“Rainbow Dash, to me you seem bit saddlesore. You just don’t see what Bill’s trying I’d rather survive long enough to get that far than end up zombie bait because we rushed ahead. Unless you want to get eaten by zombies,” Applejack said in an annoyed tone.