Chapter 004: Change of Plan

"Now could you please listen to-"

"I DON'T CARE! WE'RE GOING TO ATTACK AGAIN AND AGAIN TILL THOSE PESKY PLANTS DIE!"

The sound of a desperate cry went throughout the facility as Dr. Zomboss slammed his fists as yet again, his plans were foiled by the plants. The doctor looked at the beaten All-Star zombie, who while still in one piece, still proved to be no match for the plants.

"We'll just have to attack tomorrow with all our zombies and we'll continue to do so until we finally beat them!" The grey being in the white lab coat said as he pinched a specific area of the fallen zombie, waking him up. Before the All-Star could even open his mouth, Dr. Zomboss jammed a vial into the undead being's mouth, and his HP recovered once again.

"Now please let me explain somethin-"

"NO! We'll attack tomorrow and that's what I decide!" The maniac zombie said. The commander frowned. All-Star looked at the two of them.

"May I say somethi-"

"NO!" The doctor said as he suddenly spun around to face the All-Star. "You failed me there! I should've been already destroying you if it weren't for your skills that you have and because you're one of the few good ones we have left! Other than that you're useless to me!" Dr. Zomboss yelled.

"Now that was uncalled fo-"

"You just shut up and listen to me!" Dr. Zomboss said as he started working on potions that increased a zombie's potential. With him were a bunch of other zombie scientists, the doctor's team before the apocalypse which turned them into what they became. One of the more wiser and Dr. Zomboss's alive counterpart's friend came up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. This irritated the doctor as he looked at the one disturbing him.

"Let them propose their ideas to you. Perhaps their ideas are a waste of time. But perhaps its not. Let them speak for a moment." The doctor's friend said. His sorry eyes looked at the doctor. "Please Edgar, listen to them."

Edgar was Dr. Zomboss's original name before he turned into a zombie. The one that looked at him had a golden plate on his chest, which read 'James'. When they met in university, they became fast friends due to the fact that both entered there at a very young age, thirteen to be exact. Before that, the human soul that would later start the Zombie War years later, Edgar had lived in a very torn family. His father was a business man and thus had little to no time to be with his very intellectual son. His mother had passed away when he was 5. Many often made fun of the poor boy, but after realizing so much in common with each other, the two became friends. At the age of 15, the young teenager began his study on Thanatology, completing it in merely 2 years, and a year later, he and his brotherly-like friend became the top students of his collage. They began their path in a company known as Bloom and Doom which would later ironically become the same company that would create the plants that would defeat them every single time. The two would later go on to create famous plants like the Marigold and the Sunflower, though in that time there existed no offensive plants. But soon after being blamed for creating unoriginal plants, they fired Edgar. Furious, Edgar decided that it was time to get revenge. Turning himself into a zombie, Edgar, now known as Dr. Zomboss, created the Zombot, which would be the robot that would storm into the company he used to work in, and the same one that would start the First Zombie War. And even so, James, knowing his friend's past, voluntarily sided with his friend, turning himself into a zombie, hoping that this would change Dr. Zomboss mind. But unfortunately this would never work. But even so, whether if his friend won the war or not, he hoped still that he could at least change to what he used to be: a loving kind person.

For a moment a bit of humanity that had been trapped into the undead scientist was revealed as the doctor looked at his friend and started to calm down. The evil still covered it, but what his friend did had did it. Dr. Zomboss sighed.

"Fine. Let's see what brilliant idea you two have." The doctor once known as Edgar said. James smiled softly. The commander cleared his throat.

"I remember when we first engaged in the First Zombie War. We won because we swooped in suddenly, gobbling up as many souls we could to replenish our armies." The Commander said. All-Star frowned. He became one of those many that had been turned into a zombie, though he hid it to not show his disgust. "I was a younger strategist who studied the strategies of the greatest. Adolf Hitler. Napoleon. Alexander the Great. Those big ones. And something I realized was that everything was about speed and efficiency. The Germans easily overran the Soviets, of course before the winter set in, then they got destroyed, but before that they were able to defeat the Soviets not with power, though power also had a major thing with that, but with speed and tactics. They used something they called Blitzkrieg or 'Lightning War' which consisted of sending refugees ahead to slow down enemies, or in Operation Barbarossa, encirclement on a large scale. With that the Germans were able to overrun her enemies, until of course winter just had to kick in and with the winter slowing them down the Soviets were able to beat the once unstoppable army in-" The Commander suddenly stopped himself as he realized the parallels between Nazi Germany and themselves. That and the stony face the doctor had. Thankfully All-Star pitched in.

"So basically we should try to use our new reserves and smash through them now? Let's go!" All-Star yelled, mostly because he just wanted to return to his football career. The Commander stopped him however from leaving the room to prepare their available men.

"Not so fast. What I think we should do is to wait."

This statement received a outburst from Edgar, a groan from All-Star, and a smirk from James who started to know where this was going.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!? THIS GIVES THOSE PLANTS ENOUGH TIME TO REBUILD THEIR ARMY AGAIN!" The human turned zombie yelled. James however smiled.

"That actually seems to work." James said. Before his friend would began raging over him, James added on. "Most of these countries you said already had experience and had prepared before hand. And now thinking about it....All-Star. You got a recording of that battle?" All-Star nodded as he grabbed a tiny camera from his helmet and took out the memory chip, before plugging the chip inside a device. The battle was produced in a hologram, which showed the plants leading the charge. James paused it when it showed all the plants that they had at that point.

"Do you notice something Edgar?" James asked. Edgar frowned.

"Yes. That they already have a plant army?" Edgar said. James started to laugh.

"No! Look at what plants are being used!" James said. Dr. Zomboss started to get the picture. "These are only the most basic ones. For example look at the Peashooters that confronted All-Star. These are newbies!" James said. He fast-forward the the video to the point where All-Star's camera just barely got a glimpse of the seed pocket that Fluttershy had just before the mares used Rainbow Power. The doctor suddenly started to grin and laugh.

"You see? They're missing various plants! And apart from that, their numbers are limited! They actually had to rely on Special Delivery to win this battle!" James said. Edgar smiled.

"And what better time than to attack at night, when the plants need to be recollected and when no sun drops from the sky?" Edgar said. James smiled. "I take back what I said. With this new information in our possession, we now know that they don't have their unlimited resources, or their overpowered weapons anymore. The Special Delivery if I recall correctly, takes a week to be reused again. The night before that however, we'll strike with everything we have and we'll finally destroy them! We'll rebuild our army and with these new reserves, begin training them within this week. James! You'll help me repair a specific Zombot that I'll tell you later. We'll prepare for the attack in seven days! Who's with me!" The doctor said, now enlightened. The zombies cheered as they began to work. Before All-Star could go, Dr. Zomboss motioned him to come along with Commander Zombie.

"Listen up. All-Star. You'll do some scavenging with a few of some our bucket zombies so that we could get the necessary equipment to begin another invasion. Try to raid some houses by night, but do not engage. If you see any plants or those ponies that defeated you, do not engage. We still need you. Sorry for what I said before, but we seriously need you. Got it?" Edgar said. All-Star saluted as he gathered ten zombies before going out in the night. Edgar faced the Commander. "You. I'm certain that this nation will be notified about our act of war against them. We need you and your elites to disrupt their supply routes and communication. If you see any large force, alert this to me. We're counting on you." Edgar said. The Commander saluted, but before he could leave, Dr. Zomboss grabbed him by the shoulder. He cleared his throat. "I also feel a bit humiliated by what I did to you. I should be rational, not irrational if I am truly smart." The doctor said. The commander smiled.

"No worries. You were just overwhelmed with what happened. Even I have my bad days! I worked under someone even crazier than all the leaders combined, so I'm used to having such criticism spat on me. Good day." The Commander said, before turning around and leaving with some of his elites. The Doctor twirled around to see his old pal beaming at him. He frowned.

"Don't think I'm going back to 'Mr. Nice Guy'...." Edgar said, before adding a grin, " James." And with that being said the Doctor began going to his laboratory, smirking as he partially revealed a metallic dragon. "Let the old times begin."

Meanwhile after mourning for the lost ones the Plant Army and the Mane 6 held a reunion.

"It's time to address our problem." Peashooter, wearing now a black helmet with a lone star as his costume, said. One of the new recruits was nervous.

"Yeah.....h-having ponies around....that's one....." The young Peashooter said, before gulping as Pinkie Pie was right in front of him all of a sudden.

"Hello there." Pinkie Pie said. The young Peashooter fell backwards, paralyzed. All Sunflowers face-leafed, with some hitting themselves more harder than others based on how much experience they had with this so called 'Plant Panic Syndrome'. General Peashooter (not to be mistaken with Gatling Pea. This is the first of them all and also the one Fluttershy met) shook his head.

"Fellow Plants and Ponies, " Peashooter said, with Fluttershy translating to her fellow pony friends. "Today we've seen attrition unlike anything we've seen before. The threat of the master of all of the undead, Dr. Edgar Zomboss, is still alive and at high. We've lost a lot of civilians today. So for that we're going into Precaution Level 3. After planting every single seed packet we could currently use, this is what we have left for the next week. This means that none of us can die. None of us can be severely hurt. In fact, none of us should even be a mile from being hurt. We should be in a way, we're this threat is non-existent. We'll train as hard as we can. Most of you are level one plants, and only a few have reached level 2. I'm planning a full 24/7 training requirement."

"But sir-" A Cabbage Pult said but General Peashooter shushed him.

"No 'but's here friend. We're going to begin training on how to effectively shoot. We can no longer shoot anywhere in the body. All of those shots must hit the head. You can't also waste time resting before firing again. Every second, every shot, must count. There can be no room for error. We're going to fight for not only our home, our family, but for the entire universe, a wall of defense against the hands of the the undead. We're going to give not just 100%! We're going to give that times 1000 percent! We're going to stop this zombie invasion for good!" Peashooter yelled, and the others cheered.

"So what do we do right now?" A Kernel Pult asked. Peashooter examined what they had.

"We'll prepare our defenses as well as search for any lost seed packets and plants to add them to our army size before the zombies do the same to their forces. We'll rise early a bit before dawn to prepare for tomorrow's zombie invasion like always. Sunflower, I put you in charge of the Sun-Producing Squad. Cabbage Pult, you're going to train your Cabbage friends, Kernel Pult will train his species as well. I'll do the same with my Peashooter squad. We'll unite later after me and the Mane 6 plan further our strategies." The veteran Peashooter said before moving towards Fluttershy, who was still glancing at the place where they held the funeral ceremony.

"I know that it hurts Fluttershy...but if all goes well, we might be able to get them back..." Peashooter said. Fluttershy attempted to do a smile.

"I know...so it's going to happen tomorrow right?" Fluttershy asked referring to the zombie invasion. Peashooter sighed.

"Back in my world, this happened every single day till they gave up. I believe the same would be here." Peashooter said. He glanced at Twilight who was having a bit of a mental breakdown. So many ponies had died that it shook every survivor's heart. 100 zombies had been able to take down five times their number. The fact that everypony knew each other in Ponyvile was a tremendous lose. It was like losing a family member.

Pinkie Pie tried to cheer Twilight up, but in her eyes all the plants could see the sadness growing in Pinkie. No more will she be able to hold birthday parties, wedding parties, regular parties, and such for the ones that perished, for they perished.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack seemed to be taking it quite well, and so did Rarity, but again one glance at their eyes told the Peashooter that they were barely containing the loss. Spike was of course sleeping throughout all of this. He hadn't waked up yet, and they're all wondering how to break this loss to him.

The Mane 6 reunited in the castle around the Cutie Map. Peashooter was still fascinated by how realistic the map looked like. The Mane 6 were all tired after the battle. The representative of the Cabbage Pults, Kernel Pults, Bloomerangs, and such were with him all on top of the map.

"I'll be gone for a while." Cabbage Pult said as he went off to find a kitchen. Kernel Pult looked at his fellow plant friends.

"We're going to have to find the rest right?" Kernel Pult said. Bloomerang nodded.

"Yes we're going to have to if we want the rest to survive." Bloomerang said, flipping one of his boomerangs, practicing his aim.

"Which should we find first?" Peashooter asked. Cabbage Pult came back with a huge number of soups. He started to hand them to the Mane 6 and to his plant friends.

"Wow. This actually tastes good. " Applejack commented. Cabbage Pult mimicked a smile.

"Thank you." The first of the Graze the Roof level said as he retreated back with his friends. Peashooter thought for a while.

"Which zone is closest to us Fluttershy?" Peashooter asked. The female butterscotch pegasus thought for a moment, then she shuddered.

"The Everfree Forest. It's where you came from." Fluttershy said. Peashooter remembered how the place looked like when he got out of the house and looked to the general direction of that forest.

"That's probably where Dr. Zomboss's new outpost is." Peashooter said. "We can't go there yet, but I'm wondering which plants would be there...."

"Probably our Lost City friends." Bloomerang said. Cabbage Pult nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't think we'd be well enough to take on those zombies if we encountered them." Cabbage Pult said. Twilight was struggling to make a letter for Celestia. Peashooter looked at what Twilight was writing.

"You gotta give them the truth Twilight. This whole story doesn't really show the danger we have." Peashooter said to Fluttershy, which she then translated to Twilight. Twilight sighed.

"I know but how can I express this to Celestia? She'll freak out!" Twilight said. Peashooter frowned.

"I believe this so called Celestia is the ruler here. For how long has she ruled?" Peashooter said. What he got as an answer surprised him.

"Well she's been around for a long time, but if we count the time from her sister's banishment to the moon, and count a bit more backwards, a bit more than 1,000 years." Twilight said.

"OVER ONE THOUSAND YEARS!?" All the plants cried out.

"That's even more back than where I came from!" Kernel Pult said, remembering the time when he was a ship defender in the Pirate Seas Era. Ah! Those were the days!

"Well uhm....if your Princess was able to sustain a country for....this long....I think it'd be best to tell her. Do you want to risk having your Princess getting eaten by the zombies because she was not properly informed?" Peashooter said, still shocked by the age of the Princess. Was she....immortal!? Twilight did a sigh.

"I suppose you're right....I'll inform her." Twilight said as she began writing her letter. Thousands of miles away however, a figure in green was watching her write the letter from afar. Taking a photo of it the figure scanned it and left, but not before setting a sonar outpost there to record what they were saying.

In Canterlot......

Celestia was in her court along with a bunch of nobles. They were discussing the normal things. Taxes. Helping the economy bloom more than ever. Improving on technology. The usual stuff.

"So what now Princess Celestia?" A noble named Fancy Pants said. Celestia was checking through the list of documents and paper that she received today. Requests for loans from the government for some type of project or necessity. A new housing project for the ever growing population. A statistic that showed the population growi-

Then Celestia saw it.

In the statistic paper that showed the growth of the pony population, it suddenly spiked down by 500 ponies. 500 ponies suddenly ceased to live all of a sudden. Celestia was completely shocked and confused. What happened that caused these 500 to die in a instant? A flood that destroyed a coastal city? No. They would've notified her. A tornado? No. The weather team would've prevented that from happening. Volcan- of course not! No pony city was near a volcano! Then what could it be?

A letter suddenly appeared in front of her. Celestia could sense that it wasn't Spike's usual magic, but Twilight's. Something must've happened that hindered Spike from using his flame to cast the scroll to her. Celestia opened the letter and immediately dropped it. Her mouth was wide open, she was shaken to the core. And immediately that shock became a flame of anger. She picked up the scroll again, this time burning every single damn letter that came to her sight.

"Dear Princess Celestia *drop of tear*

Today occurred something that had left a scar in my heart. Yesterday Fluttershy had found a interesting plant called a Peashooter. That isn't what this is all about. It was what happened soon after. A force of 100 undead beings attacked Ponyvile, and while we and our new organic allies were able to fend it off, 500 perished in the attack *tear*.

The leader of this invasion was known as Dr. Edgar Zomboss, the same one that tormented the world Peashooter was in. In that world, they were able to defend from the zombies, but not before nearly 1 billion died there. They had more advanced technology there, but yet still 1 Billion died in the wars caused by the zombies. Help is coming, but we need your help. I'm alerting you this in case they come to you. Cause if we don't hurry quickly, they'll come and kill even more.

Your sorrow-stricken student, Twilight Sparkle"

Celestia was furious. How could they have killed her beloved ponies!? If this was all true then more will be destined to die. And the fact that they caused her star pupil to fall in such a depression....

Celestia lit the paper on fire and threw it on the floor. The nobles were shocked at seeing this side of the Princess. Usually it would be Luna who was the more hot-tempered of the two. This new expression caused the others to feel really uneasy and afraid. The area around the Solar Princess became hot as Celestia expressed her rage.

"Everypony departure this instance! We're in a state of national alert! We'll inform of you the reason why." Celestia said, a stern tone in her voice. She suddenly barked out. "Now! Alert the commanders to begin increasing our army size! We're at war! Go now! Don't tell this to the others except for the commanders! Move now!" Celestia yelled, going a bit out of her character, but as well as in her character. The nerve for someone, if it were to be called someone, to hurt her ponies! Oh she was very mad. So mad that she didn't even notice a camera being thrown into the room to survey the place. The red dot blinked on and off before the camera miniaturized itself into a tiny fly to follow Celestia. On the other side, a evil laughter was heard....

Back with the Plants and the Mane 6....

"So here's our plan." Twilight Sparkle said, now out of her meltdown mode. They have examined the cutie map and discussed where each seed packet could've gone to. She pointed to the Cold North and the Crystal Empire.

"Here is a region filled with snow and cold. This was where the Crystal Empire lays. I believe here is where your chilly plants might be fou-"

"Actually remembering our adventure throughout time, if cold equals Frostbite Caves, then that means that we might encounter Hot Potato and other Frostbite Caves. Plants like Snow Pea, we might find them in the Deserts." Sunflower said. Peashooter nodded.

"However it would be a good idea to go there anyways. The tale tells of a group of Peashooter that had left their place to go to the coldest places, supposedly for a adventure, and over time they evolved into Snow Peas." Peashooter said. He pointed to the Bad Lands. "I say we go to the Bad Lands or whatever place this is. I think we might find either our fellow dragon plants or our fire plants like Torch Wood and Fire Peashooter. We need fire power and plants that can increase our damage, not plants that can just slow down enemies. Sure they're a good option but we need power for now. And plus with Fire Peashooter we can safely travel to the Cold North without worrying about us freezing to death." Peashooter said.

"Or we might encounter our Primal Plant groups. Hey I think we need to quickly gain them. Consider Primal Potato Mine and how much damage he does. We need them to deliver more damage." Cabbage Pult said. Spike who had woken up smiled.

"So there's actually dragon plants as a part of your team? Alright!" Spike said, interested in seeing how these dragon plants looked like. Bloomerang smiled.

"Well we have two types. Snap Dragon and Ice Dragon. Snap Dragon breathes out fire while Ice Dragon, who seems to be Snap Dragon's ancestor of some sort, breathes out a cold air!" Bloomerang said. Then he smirked. "Though I wonder why Peashooter chose Fire Peashooter instead of Snow Pea..." Bloomerang said with a smirk. Peashooter face-leafed.

"Not this again....." Peashooter said. He was quite tired of the other plants saying how he has a crush on Fire Peashooter, which was probably false in his own mind, but right now he need plants to help them mow down the zombies faster, not a plant to be cuddling with, even though it did felt gre-

"Anyways I think Peashooter is right." Rainbow Dash said. "We need more fire power to defeat those zombies! So I say we go to the Bad Lands!"

"Not the Bad Lands......" Timid Fluttershy said. She could support baby dragons, not those real big and scary dragons. Peashooter went to her and calmed her down.

"Don't worry. If things go well we'll be over with this in a few days." Peashooter lied. That wasn't true. It took so many bitter years to destroy the zombies that he could feel his age catching up to him. He was designed to live for 50 years, but the time travel and the constant fighting had taken a toll on the Peashooter, and the Peashooter who would be a young adult/ teenager felt like his time was already only a few years ahead. He seriously didn't want to die before the war ended. So in theory he was telling the truth, the war was going to end soon, but whether they won or not would be something they would have to change.

Death was something Peashooter was afraid of. He seen his friends die in the Z Wars. He nearly died as well. What was after death, if there was anything after it? A rebirth as a new Peashooter? A Peashooter Heaven? Nothing?

Cabbage Pult nudged him to let Peashooter go back to the real world. They knew too, but they decided to remain silent.

"So Bad Lands it is!" Applejack stated. They began to pack up their stuff. They were already beginning to plan for the journey there. Meanwhile Peashooter began assembling their army so that they would be able to defend the town while they were gone. After that they all slept, thinking about tomorrow.

To Be Continued....

Author's Note

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