Three weeks. It took three weeks for Equestria to fall.
We aren't exactly sure how it started. Some ponies say that it happened when somepony ventured out into the Everfree Forest, others say that it was from space aliens that wanted to see our world burn into a chaotic ball of fire. My personal theory? It stemmed from everypony panicking and rushing to the market for butt paper during its early stages. That's when most of the infection happened, I believe.
My name is Peep. I'm a light blue stallion with a white mane and tail. I am a Pegasi, and I'm currently locked up in a stranger's home with my longtime friend Tox. He's a bit rough around the edges, but after a while he gets easier to be around. He's grey, with a white mane and tail with blue stripes running through them. He's a Pegasus like me and was currently peeking through the blinds of the window.
"Psst, Tox, you see anything out there?" I asked, standing nearby while fiddling with the black collar of the tie I had. It was a present from dad, since he knew I wanted to go further beyond simple farmwork.
"Yeah. Three of them." He said, his voice hinting at fatigue, and irritation.
"Crap. Well, I don't think we should go out anyways. It's almost dark out, so maybe we should look for some things in here before we call it a day. What do you think?" I asked him, the abandoned home we had made our temporary refuge for the night giving a light creaking as the wind outside blew around it.
"Sounds good." He said, leaving the window and letting go of the blinds. Now that I think about it, we were rather fortunate to have stumbled in here. We didn't exactly have the best of luck regarding others.
Looking around, I found a sock with some kind of slippery ooze leaking from the seams. Inspecting it further, it was old butter leaking through it.
"Any luck?" I asked, dropping the sock out of disgust and letting it splat on the floor. My foreleg flicked instinctively to shake off whatever had fallen on me.
"Found a glass bottle." He said, setting it onto the counter. It wasn't broken, not yet at least.
"Maybe we should keep looking." I said, moving around in the near darkness. I found another sock, this time with a variety of nails and metal screws in it.
'What kind of owner lived here?' I thought, genuinely confused by the contents of their lewd collection of socks.
"Any more luck?" I questioned, looking over in the poorly lit room. I spotted him lift something up from underneath a couch.
"Yep." He said, showing me a short sword. It was a good find, and probably in better condition since it looked barely used.
"Lucky break." I scoffed, looking around a bit more. Moving into the kitchen, I rooted through them and found a small knife. Plucking it in my mouth, I looked at the edge it had in what light I could use with the setting sun.
"How's this?" He said again, breaking the silence between our scavenging to show a crossbow. I looked at my little blade in defeat and spat it out onto the counter.
"Least you got good stuff. All I have is this knife." I said, lowering my head. I wondered if luck had anything to do with it.
"I don't have any arro- wait, never mind." He said, opening a cabinet revealing 5 arrows conveniently placed in a quiver. I gave one last look around the room and found some bandages in a hastily torn open first aid kit. Most of the more valuable items were gone aside from what I had found.
"I'd say we call it a night. We can look for an exit tomorrow morning or something." I said, giving a yawn as the room was submerged in darkness. He simply loaded an arrow into the crossbow and gave a nod. Curse my partial earth pony genetics! I should be able to stay up longer!
"Night Peep." He said, getting comfortable on the couch.
"Night Tox." I replied. Going into a room, and spotting the rotting corpse tied to the bed. I decided that sleeping on the floor near him would be the better, more obvious choice. I soon closed my eyes, and fell into sleep.
When I woke, I looked over to Tox, who had woken up and held the crossbow in his hooves. His eyes were closed, I think, and I poked him in between his shades.
"Hey, wake up Tox." I said, poking his face with my wing further. He grumbled and got up, saying something about how early it was to be getting up.
"Is it morning already?" He asked, rubbing his eyes under his shades, despite it looking rather uncomfortable when he did that.
"Close enough to it." I said, going up to the curtains and looking outside, the sun just starting to peek over east, since the area all around Ponyville was beginning to gain light.
'They're still there.' I thought, seeing the same three Tox mentioned out on the street, blood caking their mouths and staining their matted fur. They seemed interested in a bush, however.
"Let's go Tox, it's time to get going." I said, hearing him get up from his sitting position.
"Okay." He said, walking right into a wall.
Bonk
"You good?" I asked, chuckling.
"Always." He grumbled lowly, pushing his shades back to their proper spot.
"Heh, sure." I said. Looking back down the hallway that held the room, I spotted another entrance. Or rather, exit that lead to a backyard.
"We should go through the back. Maybe there won't be any of them there." I offered, slinging my saddlebags over my back and strapping them in. I had tossed them in a corner when we had arrived yesterday in the afternoon, and I felt a comfortable weight settle on my sides as I clipped them into place.
"Good thinking." He mumbled, this time sounding much more awake than earlier. I grunted in acknowledgement and went up to the backdoor. Opening it, we saw a mess. It looked like a stampede ran through whoever's backyard this was, with several ponies got caught under the commotion, if their broken bodies were anything to go with.
Looking around cautiously, I spotted another knife. This one better quality and appeared much more durable than the one I had. I decided to drop the one I had for this one.
"Hey Peep, catch." Tox said, tossing yet another sock full of butter at me. Flinching away, I tried to contain my disgust as he chuckled at me. What is with this town and buttered socks? This wasn't a trend, was it?
There were a few bodies we found along the way, some of them being the undead, and others the remains of unfortunate ponies who got caught by the undead, and with only his upper shoulders left. One in particular had a toy train stuck in their skull. Whoever did that has some serious strength and aim. Then I saw the bloodied notepad nearby. It had a name on it, but I wasn't too sure what it said with the blood covering most of it.
I felt sick to my stomach, having to see this as the smell of death and decay surrounded us at all angles. It was unbearable, yet oddly enough, the most rewarding.
"Heck yeah." Tox said suddenly. Turning back to him, I saw that he had more arrows.
"Cool, how many does that ma-" My sentence was cut short when I saw somepony that was mutilated. I nearly gagged from the seemingly recent attack, falling to my hindquarters and reeling from shock.
"Cherilee?" I asked, seeing the smiling sun on her flanks. Or, what was left of them. I also noticed a bloodied knife nearby, and the pair of undead laying by her sides. Only one of them had managed to bite pieces off of her.
"Least she went out with a fight." Tox said, a queasy, yet mournful tone in his voice as he looked at her remains.
"Yeah." I agreed, closing my eyes to break the stare I had begun to do. I wasn't all too close with her, maybe once or twice I would see her around town.
"Over there, somepony is still alive?" Tox whispered, hurrying towards them. I followed, using my wings to help push me off the ground slightly to make my steps lighter. As I got closer, I came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to survive. There was a bite on her neck, and she looked like she had been here for a while, if the blackening veins pulsing around her wound, was any indication. Knowing she was suffering, I knew she had to be spared. Death would be a lot preferable to becoming a walking corpse.
"Leave her Peep. We should find a cart to carry all of our stuff as we go along." Tox said, nudging me with his shoulder. I tried to protest, telling him she needed to be put to rest, but he shook his head no and took the lead. Eventually, against my judgement, I too left. We walked a bit further down the road and I spotted an apple cart. It looked mostly intact, and I pointed it out to him.
"There, an apple cart!" I said excitedly. Maybe our luck was changing for the better? Tox approached the wagon with me and looked at it more closely. He held a toy in his wings grasp. Staring at it before answering.
"Looks like there were quite a few foals here" He muttered, a somber look touching his features as he stared at it.
"Least their stuff will help us get to where we need to be." I said, picking up a magical Spell book. It was a brown book, with a black, odd triangular shape in the label accompanied by a red backdrop. This might come in handy if we had a Unicorn with us, but I wasn't even sure what kind of spell book this was too.
"Yeah." I heard Tox say, tossing something into the cart. My eyes widened at what Tox had just thrown in.
"Oh man, they were prepared prepared." I said in disbelief, hefting a spear in my forearms. It had a decent weight to it, and I knew that it would be great against these shambling freaks if they show up.
"Mmhmm." Tox hummed in response, tossing a machete onto the cart. We spent the next half hour looking for what we could find, a stroke of more luck gracing me as I found more clean bandages, medical wraps, and an old banana. Tox on the other hoof, found a sleeping bag, a wooden bat, and a canister of what seemed like oil.
"Alright, who should pull the cart?" I asked.
"I think we should see who's stronger, which is obvious." He said, his tone flat and void of humor.
"No need to be modest, Tox, we all know you're the strong one."
"That's what I'm saying you hambone."
"..." I didn't respond, sighing being his only answer as he climbed into the harness. I gave a quick look over of the cart, troubleshooting where the squeaking noise when he pulled it came from.
"Hey Tox, any idea on why this thing makes noise?" I asked him, eyeing the wheel closely.
"Not a clue. Maybe if we piss on it, we can make it pipe down." He said, lifting his leg up and ready to relieve himself. WAIT!
"No, no, maybe we should try what my parents did and hit it until it worked again. Did wonders with me." I said, rearing my legs and giving a powerful kick. Letting my leg fully wind up, I released my strike and let my kick fly.
Only to miss and fall flat on my stomach.
"HAH! Bet you won't try that again." Tox joked.
"Well, I don't see you doing anything other than being ready to piss yourself." I shot back, getting myself back on my hooves. I was definitely going to feel that in the morning.
"Why don't we look for something slippery for the bearings. Pretty sure some oil can do the trick." He said, impatience and boredom being a common trait for his family. Mother's side, if I recall.
"Only problem is where are we going to find it." I said, letting my ears droop and wings sag just a bit.
"There's literately some right there." Tox pointed out, towards another broken cart with a small canister of oil.
"Oh, right." I said, meekly going over to retrieve the canister. Grabbing it in my mouth, I squeezed some into the joints of the cart and tested out the wheel. It didn't make any more noise, and when it did it was much more silenced than before, so I suppose that's good.
"Let's go before any more of those undead show up." I said, getting into the pulley spot of the wagon.
And as soon as I said anything regarding undead, four of those terrifying undead showed up, their shambling, decaying forms rounding a corner and coming at us with more speed than I suspected with the dead. I looked over to Tox, who was fumbling to get out of the harness and help with the undead, but to no avail, he only managed to tighten them.
'Looks like I'm going to be the one to do the dirty work then.' I thought hopping off and readied my spear. In a flash of what I could only assume at this point was magic, Suddenly, they were all blasted by somepony, and I used my spear as a sort of shield from the flying undead entrails.
"Oh, hello there!" I heard a feminine voice say, in a strange accent. Lowering my weapon, I saw a white mare with a black mane and tail, a slight manic look in her red eyes, one that, for some reason, seemed like they were hiding something within.
"Oh, thank you!" I said, looking back at Tox.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Two frat boys being fratty? Oh, that's totally not suspicious!"
I paused.
"Uh, what?" I asked.
"Shut up you crazy hambone! You want to help us get to Canterlot or not!" Tox yelled back at the strange unicorn in front of us.
"Will there be more undead on the way?" She asked, the unsettling stare never leaving her face.
"I'm pretty sure there will be, yes." I answered, getting a good look at her. She seemed smaller than most mares. Maybe she was still a teen? Or maybe petite. She made an excited squeal, quickly moving to the cart we had commandeered.
"Eeeeee! Sounds like a great time!" She said, not bothering to lower her voice. She passed me, and the scent of iron and smoke seemed to permeate the air around her.
"Well?! Are you getting in or not!?" Tox said, pulling the cart up to us and waiting. I gave a short huff and walked next to Tox.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going."
"Woo! More slaying!" The mare yelled, trotting in place before hopping into the cart.
"Hey, what's your name anyways?" I asked, wanting a proper introduction.
"Oh, me? My name is Slagathor! Nice to meet you, Mr.Missile material!" She said, extending a hoof to me. I blinked, before extending my own hoof to bump hers.
"Uhm, sure. Nice to meet you too."
After we make our introductions, we found a map that leads right to Canterlot, the only issue being that I was the only one able to read it. And so, after some tripping over corpses, going around broken-down wagons, and a bloodied nose later which Slagathor over-enthusiastically used magic to mend me with, we were almost halfway to Canterlot before we ran into another mare.
She was white, like Slagathor, but had a brown mane and tail, with her mane being a little on the poofy side. Her cutie mark was a light blue with little snowflakes around it. We saw her after she spotted us, and we came to a complete stop as she approached.
"Hey! P-please! Can you help me? I was separated from my group, and I lost them to the monsters. If it's alright, can I stay with you?" She asked, clearly frightened and desperate.
"Yeah, of course you can. Though, we are a bit crowded on the cart." Tox said.
"You weren't bitten, right?" Slagathor asked, raising my spear with her magic.
"Hey! That's mine!" I shouted, yanking it from her magical grip. Slagathor blew a raspberry at me and went back to staring the mare down.
"Thank you! I promise to be useful! My name is Winter!" She said, glad she was safe for the time being.
"Sure, hop on in." Tox said, earning a grin from me. Noticing my grin, he scowled.
"Shut it, hambone."
I just shook my head at him, which made the mare who just hopped up with Slagathor give a nervous look at her. I chalked it up to nerves, and continued walking next to Tox. From what I could see on the map, we were about half a day's walk until we got to the Canterlot Castle. As we walked, we had to cross over a small hill. Hearing something, I immediately pulled the reins that were around Tox's neck. He recoiled in surprise with a small choke, and turned to yell at me when I motioned him to be quiet. Pointing to over the small hill that was just next to us.
Moving over to Slagathor, I saw that she had begun to doze off. I thought I heard her mutter something about a hammer, but brushed it aside as I poked her side, snapping her back awake.
"BA-!" I shoved a hoof in her mouth, shutting her up and motioning to the hill. She seemed annoyed and started chewing my hoof.
"Hey! No biting!" I whispered at her harshly. She rolled her eyes and looked at me expectingly.
"Think you can use your magic and look over the hill?" I asked her, removing my hoof from her face. Winter had begun to shrink into the spot near the weapons we had found.
"Sure, why not." She said, and her magic flashing to life, her eyes glowing a soft red as she too a few seconds. Soon, her magic died down as she came back.
"Yeah, there's a shit ton of undead on the other side, so I'd shut up and sneak around if I were us." She answered, the amount she saw most likely too much for even her.
"Any guess to how many?" Winter asked, a hoof moving to a machete next to her. Slagathor gave her a tilted head stare, before answering.
"Oh, about enough for each of us to be bite sized chicken nuggets to them." Slagathor compared, the thought of a chicken becoming a nugget of gold, or something equal to it throwing me off.
"Oh, wow." Tox said.
"Yeah, so let's get the fuck out of here and somewhere safe. It's getting dark, don't ya know!" Slagathor said, annoyed while taking on an odd southern drawl towards the end of her sentence.
We moved slower as to not disturb the massive herd of undead on the other side of the hill. Burning more daylight than I would have preferred by sneaking around them, we made it past and found another cart. Blood stained most of the cart, with some undead still feasting on the now expired living. The dull crunch of bone mixed with the gnawing of flesh from said bone making an odd, squelching sound that reminded me of a pastry. Then the smell hit, and I knew that I would never be able to eat a jam filled donut ever again.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Winter whispered, watching as we readied our weapons.
"Least we can do is pay our respects once we're done." Tox said, raising his crossbow and firing an arrow. It hit the first undead through the skull, the arrow easily piercing through. Slagathor was eyeing one of them with an unsettling look in her gaze before glancing at me.
"May I?" She asked, motioning to me and the undead with her hoof.
"No thank you." Was my simple response. I didn't like the "magical missile" comment she made earlier, and I didn't wish to risk it. She simply shrugged and hopped off the cart. Approaching the small gang of undead, she used a rock in her telekinetic grasp and slammed it into their hind legs, disabling them before using the same rock to cave in their skulls. A small splatter of viscera and brain matter exposed itself several times while she dealt with them. Winter, Tox, and myself watched in horrified fascination as she worked her literal magic, before picking the undead up and tossing them aside. It almost looked practiced, if her lack of nervousness was anything to go by.
"There, all done! Now let's take their stuff and go!" Slagathor said, grinning enthusiastically. Maybe she was institutionalized, or just a mare with unnatural magical strength and a series of mental sickness. Tox and Winter hesitated to leave the cart and look what was left behind, but I held no restraint as I went ahead with Slagathor in taking what we needed. We found some items of interest like Medication and even a few weapons, while Tox asked Winter to retrieve his arrows. I had begun checking the less orthodox areas to hide things, when I recoiled from an undead lunging at me.
"Aaagh!" I yelped, narrowly missing it's attempt to bite me. A blood-soaked stone fell onto it not a moment after I had evaded death, and it went limp as its head was spread out on the ground in front of me, staining my coat with red with Slagathor's war cry.
"Take this bitch!"
Getting up, I wiped the trace amounts of blood off of my muzzle, and stared at the stone before she lifted it off of it. Turning to her, I gave her my appreciation.
"Thanks." I said, trying to calm my racing heart, and wiping the blood specs off my chest now. I was moderately disappointed it had managed to get on my collar and tie, and even my tuft.
"How about next time, you don't be such an idiot and actually kill it. I thought you were an independent stallion!" Tox said teasingly.
"Kiss my ass!"
"Healing?!" Slagathor yelled for some reason, quickly closing the distance between me and her while pressing her muzzle, or trying to, up against my own to stare me down.
"No, I-I don't think I need it right now. Thanks though." I said, flinching away before spotting a book under the wagon. Going over and checking for more undead, I picked the book up. It looked like a spell book, but with most of the writing on it written in a language I didn't understand. I knew some buffalo, but this was not it. My mind racked itself on what kind of book this could be, before a wave of nausea, followed with a chill shoot up my spine. Something was wrong with the book, and I felt holding onto it would be detrimental.
"It's a forbidden spell book! I wouldn't hold it for very long it if I were you!" Winter warned, using her magic to slap the book out of my grasp.
"But I can't use it in the first place anyways. I'm a Pegasus." I retorted, flaring my wings and wiggling them. She was right, however. I didn't like how it made me feel. Almost as though it was binding to me.
"I can!" Slagathor said excitedly. Before I could protest, she swiped it from the ground and skimmed through the book rapidly. Winter tried to pry it away from her, but Slagathor was, unsurprisingly, stronger than her in regard to magic. Least we got a lance from the cart. Slagathor had managed to snag a Broadsword, and Tox had another Crossbow with a few more arrows.
We made it a little further past the wagon, and decided it was far enough away from that hill to camp for the night. Winter said she would keep watch over us for tonight, but I didn't entirely trust her yet. I did my best to stay up and keep an eye on her, but about halfway through the night my eyes began to sag from their own weight. I thought I heard the faintest sound of crying from Winter, or was it eating? I hoped she wasn't stress-eating.
Soon, sleep took me, but not before another wave of what felt like nausea wash over me. Doing my best to ignore the sickening sensation of ice run up my spine, I fell asleep, the chill of the night giving only a small nip as Winter bundled herself up in whatever she could.
Level of Infection: Low
Author's Note
Hello everyone! Finally got around posting this bad boy since all of those Infection AU's have been going around and decided to add my own twist on it. This has been a work in progress for about 4 years now, the DnD and the writing of this story in relation, but I hope it is to your liking as even wackier shit is to happen in later chapters.
Anyways, this has been Friskers, and I'll be periodically updating this as our DnD is more thoroughly made into the story. It'll take time, but it will get there. Catch you later, and enjoy the show!
Edit: Most chapters will be temporarily gone so I can "Lock in" and make it more readable and less of a crack fic, because honestly, I had no clue what I was thinking when I first wrote this down.
