Equestria of the Dead

Both Flash and Thunderlane met up with no success in finding Spike. The two of them decided to head to the food court where Button was; hopefully he had some luck finding him. As the two started to make their way over, they stopped when they noticed Button himself walking towards them with a very, VERY pissed off look on his face. "I take you didn't find him." said Flash.

"Follow me." Button said coldly as he passed them up. With confused looks on their faces, they followed Button; asking him what was the matter, and only receiving dead silence as an answer. The trio made their way back to everyone else and Button waisted no time in locating Shining Armor. His anger seemed to intensify as he grabbed his rifle; not caring that he was in the middle of a conversation with Rarity. Button made his way over, and with all of his strength, hit Shining Armor across the face with the back end of his gun. He went down hard and didn't get a chance to recover as Button stomped down right on his neck with his rifle pointed right at the cop's face.

"BUTTON, WHAT THE HELL!?" yelled Rarity.

"What did you do?!" he growled; anger seething through his words.

"BUTTON, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" came Twilight's voice as she came down the escalators. Thunderlane and Flash were in shock as well; not really knowing just what came over Button. "BUTTON, GET OFF HIM!" Twilight yelled as she ran towards him.

"They're dead, Twilight!" he responded; caused her to stop in her tracks. "Spike's parents are dead, and chained to a pole like their some kind of decoration!" A deafening silence filled the area as Button's words settled in. Twilight's eyes were locked in on her brother who was still holding the side of his face before she looked over at the other members of her neighborhood. The looks on all their faces said that not only did they know, but might've played a hand in it. The only one among them who looked to be innocent was Spear Head since he appeared to have no idea what Button was going on about.

"H-Hey now, kid, hold on a second." he said; attempting to defused the situation. "Yes, they're dead, but that's because they were both bitten by zombies while trying to help the other groups of people get in."

"Is that what HE told you?!" Button asked. "Because, it's a lie. My mother and I saw them, and they had no such marks ANYWHERE on their bodies!" Shining Armor was confused by what was going on. Why is he mentioning Spike's name? Was he somehow still alive, and in this building? He wanted to get up to confirm this, but Button's foot on his neck prevented that. Shining managed to glance over at his sister who looked too shocked to say or do anything, however, in the background, was what he thought was his salvation, their mother. She slowly approached Twilight from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder. Twilight looked over at her mother; seeing the same look of regret as before. "Is it true?" she asked; fearing the answer. Velvet couldn't even bring herself to even answer, instead, she looked away from her daughter in shame. Twilight, visibly shaken, took two steps away from her mother with both hands over her mouth. As Twilight's wide eyes started to tear up, Rarity's entire body slightly trembled as she resisted reaching for her gun and unloading on him right then and there. Spear just couldn't believe that his friend would do something like that, and believed that their had to be an explanation for this.

"What happened?" Button said while putting a bit more pressure on Shining's neck. His question was aimed right at Velvet, even though he wasn't looking at her. The tone in his voice said it all, either explain or he'll kill her son right in front of her.

"It happened, two days after we got here." she started in a soft tone. "We saw a group of survivors being attacked by those creatures. Onyx and Sapphire wanted to help them, but most of everyone from the neighborhood were on the fence about doing so; especially since we had no idea if there was enough resources here to survive on. Eventually, they convinced everyone that we should, especially since there were children among them."

"What happened after that?" Button asked; eyes still on Shining.

"They, along with Shining, went out and distracted those creatures long enough for the people to make their way inside." she continued. "I had just made it to the area when I heard the gunshots go off.....and.....there he was, standing over their dead bodies. He said they'd gotten bitten while help everyone, but I knew that wasn't true."

"In other words, he saw an opportunity and took it." Button said; putting his finger on the trigger. Shining took this time to make a move that needed to be 100% precise on, otherwise, he'll be eating bullets. Gathering all the strength he could muster, he shifted his body to the side, grabbed Button's free leg, and threw him off balance. While button stumbled backward, Shining quickly rose to his feet and drew his gun, but before he could pull the trigger, an orange blur passed right in front of him and sliced his weapon in half. The next thing he knew, he had a katana right against his neck and a furious Sunset Shimmer staring right at him; waiting for an excuse to cut his head off.

"You DO realize that this is a felony, right?" he said; trying to sound intimidating.

"You DO realize I don't give a fuck, right?" Sunset responded; pressing her blade even closer.

"HEY, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" yelled their father as he came running down the escalators. He was heading straight for Sunset, but two gunshots at his feet from Adagio was enough to stop him. Everyone else was in shock and couldn't believe the actions that were being taken right now. Twilight looked around at the shocked looks on the people's faces, specifically those from her neighborhood. She wondered just how many of them felt the same way as her brother. How many of them wanted to do harm to Spike's parents simply because of what Suri did? She remembered the looks and harassments the entire family was given for that whole year; even after Spike was proven innocent. Even her own mother, even though she never participated in the harassments, believed Spike was some kind of monster. She couldn't even bring herself to look at her, or the rest of her family right now.

"Button, where's Spike?" she asked.

Twilight's question answered Shining Armor's own. Spike was indeed alive and was here in the building. "He's with my mother in the food court." he answered; rising up from the floor. Twilight instantly started to make her way over there; ignoring the calls from her father and brother. Velvet didn't say anything; just looked at her son with heartbreak written on her face before following after her daughter.

Shining himself wanted to move, but with a katana right at his neck, that was an impossibility. He glanced over at Spear Head who couldn't believe what he'd done. They were both police officers; sworn to protect and serve, not murder citizens. "Why?" he asked. "Why would you.....HOW could you?!"

"Let me answer that." Rarity said; still fighting the urge to put a bullet in him.

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Cream was sitting in the middle of the food court holding Spike's non responsive body in her arms. Upon seeing his parents dead in front of him, Spike went into a type of shock that caused him to just completely shut down. She had only seen something like this once before, during her early days as a nurse. It was a child and a heart breaking moment as she and the others tried their best to help him. As she held Spike, she could only just apologize to him over and over.

"SPIKE!" screamed Twilight. Cream lifted her head to see Twilight heading over to her as fast as she could. Seeing Spike laying in Cream's arms, staring off into space caused her to fall to her knees. "W-What's wrong with him?"

"Seeing his parents dead put Spike in a state of shock." Cream explained. "I did everything I could, but he won't come out of it." Twilight scooted closer to Spike where she placed both hands on his face to look at him. There was nothing in his eyes, just a dead void as he laid there. Twilight called out to him, but he didn't respond. She continued to do so while shaking him repeatedly; almost screaming for him to say something, but nothing happened. Twilight then pulled Spike out of Cream's arms and into her own where she held him close and broke down crying. This was what she was afraid of. Her brother took everything away from him, and now he was left with nothing. Velvet slowly walked to her daughter to place a hand on her shoulder, but Twilight jerked away and looked at her with nothing but pain, anger, and hatred in her redden eyes. She didn't say anything, she didn't have to, her facial expression said it all. She blamed everyone for this happening, her mother included. Velvet slowly took a few steps away from her daughter just as Cream slowly stood up. She started to walk away; going right pass Velvet without even looking at her before coming to a stop. "J-Just leave them alone." she said in a shaky whisper before continuing onwards. Velvet stood there for a few more seconds before she finally walked away; leaving Twilight alone with Spike.

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To say there was extreme tension in the area would been a major understatement. As Rarity was explaining the entire situation about Spike to Spear Head, all of the survivors who were saved by his parents all moved to one side while everyone from his neighborhood remained where they were. The survivors were all appalled at everything they heard, especially about how Shining killed the two people responsible for their safety. Shining didn't even try to deny what he did, in fact, he took pride in it. For too long, the people responsible for raising these monsters have never faced any kind of consequences for how they raised them. May they be mass shooters, terrorist, or rapists, they're the ones that brought them into this world, so they should face justice. That was Shining's reasoning, and argument once Rarity was finished. That just added even more fuel to the fire as he also refuse to believe that someone would lie about being raped. No, no, if they say it happened, then it must be true, no matter what.

Spear Head was at a lost for words. To think that his closest friend was actually trying to justify murdering two people over something that most probably didn't happen. Spear wasn't going to act like he knew Spike, because he didn't. In fact, everything he knew about him was through Twilight, and based on how she talks about him, there's not an evil vein in his body. Looking over at Rarity, a thought started to enter his mind, what happens now? The whole reason they traveled this way was to get everybody to safe area, but after what just happened, will they even want to? He wasn't the only one thinking that as those from the neighborhood as well as the other survivors had the same thoughts.

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Twilight sat with Spike in her arms; only the sounds of her sniffling filled the area. "It's not fair." she whispered. "Why, did this have to happen? Why to you of all people?" Pulling his head in between her breasts, Twilight held him tight. "Spike....please....say something." Just as she was about to start crying again, she heard a soft groan coming from Spike. Looking down at him, the first thing she saw was Spike's eyes blinking as though he was waking up from a dream, but this WAS no dream.

".....ie......" he mumbled.

"W-What?" she spoke up.

"I....wan....ie...." he groaned. Twilight had no idea what he was trying to say. It was only when she moved in closer did she fully understand him. "I...want...to...die." Twilight felt her heart sink. "Let....me....die."

"No." she said; holding him even tighter.

"They're....gone. I have....nothing now." he said. "They won."

"You're wrong, they didn't win!" Twilight argued. "You have me, Spike! You still have me!" The tone in his voice said it all. Spike had given up on living, and who could blame him. Everything was taken from him. His parents were all he had left, and now they were gone. Twilight tried her best to console him, but her words were falling on deaf ears. Her display of sadness was soon turned into anger; anger towards her brother. She wanted to leave, and unleash and untold amount of hell on him, but didn't want to leave Spike alone; especially while he's like this.

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Shining Armor was handcuff to the gate of a department store and stripped of his weapon. He made an attempt to break free, but to no avail. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" he yelled. "I DID WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE!"

"You murdered to innocent people." Rarity said coldly.

"They gave birth to, and raised a rapist, I definitely wouldn't call them innocent." he said.

"You were in the courtroom, witnessed every piece of evidence that was shown, and you still believe her lie?" Rarity asked.

"She didn't lie, girls never lie about stuff like that." he argued. "Just because that court found him innocent doesn't he is."

Rarity knew there was no point in even talking with him anymore. He's the kind of guy who'll believe what the supposed "victim" will say and nothing will change his mind; even if there's evidence to the contrary. She turned to walk away from him; making her way back to the others who were wondering on what to do next. "So what now?" asked Aria.

"I say we just leave them all here." said Thunderlane. "At least, the ones who were in on it at least."

While the others were in agreement, Rarity crossed her arm and sighed heavily. "No." she said. "We came here to help as many people as we could, so that's what we do." Rarity would've loved nothing more than to abandon Shining Armor and all those who were in on it to their fate, but that would go against everything her father taught her. "So here's the plan, a small group will head over to the nearby transit station and see if there's an extra bus we can use." she explained. "Then, from there, we take the backway to the airport."

"Makes sense." said Sunset. "If we go through the city, there's a good chance we'll be attacked. So how small of a group are we talking about?"

"The group will need to be at least three people." Rarity continued. "No more, no less. If you there's no buses there, then we'll have to find some other way."

"Another thing, assuming there IS a bus there, the noise it'll make will definitely attract those zombies." Button added. "Meaning, we'll have to fight them all off before getting everyone outta here. So which one of us is going?"

"Thunderlane and I will go." Flash answered. "And we'll take that Spear Head guy with us; he seems to want to help out. Besides, I think it's best you guys stay here and look after Spike; who knows what's going through his head right now." A feeling of hopelessness washed over everyone. Spike was suffering an unimaginable pain right now, and they had no idea on how to help him. They just knew that right now, leaving him alone would be a bad idea.

"So, have you all decided what you're going to do?" came Spear Head's voice. The cop walked up to the group wondering if the plan was still on, but to be honest, he wouldn't blame them if they refused to help; seeing what happened to their friend and all.

"Perfect timing." said Flash. "You, me, and Thunderlane are the ones heading out."

"We should go right now while it's still daylight." Thunderlane suggested. With a nod, and sigh of relief, Spear Head followed the group towards the entrance where he, Flash, and Thunderlane took a step outside.

"We'll make sure there's someone by the door when you get back." said Rarity. "Be careful you guys." With a thumbs up from Flash, the trio were off towards the station. As they continued to watch the trio walk off, Shining Armor continuously made attempt after attempt to get free; only stopping once he noticed someone walking up to him; his mother.

Velvet simply looked down at her son with a disappointed look on her face; though it was mostly at herself. She wondered where did she go wrong, she never raised him to be like this. He used to be caring of those around him, so what caused this dramatic change? Before she could continue with her thoughts, her husband soon walked up towards the two of them. He wanted to set his son free, but couldn't even if he wanted to. Spear Head had the only key, and he was no where to be found. On top of that, there's no telling what Rarity and the others will do.

"Don't look at me like that." Shining said to his mother. "You hated them just as much as everyone else."

"I never hated them, and I never wanted them dead either." she said. "Yes, I believed that lie, just like you and everyone else did, but you took it too far, Shining!"

"Not far enough." he said. "Spike played us; he played everybody. Making us think he was this innocent angel when in actually, he's nothing but a cold and calculated rapist. Why can't you see that?! Why can't you see that we live in a culture that encourages this behavior, and something needed to be done about it."

"Do you really believe that Onyx and Sapphire deserved to die, just because of an accusation?" she asked.

"They raised a rapist, mother." he argued. "They brought that MONSTER into this world. All three of them deserves to be taken out!"

"Then I guess, I deserve death as well." she said with pain in her tone. "Because I gave birth to a murderer." Shining said nothing; his mother's words piercing him. He could only look on as she slowly turned her back towards him and walked away.