The Graveyard, Equestria
June 5, 5067
[iu]3:45 AM
Fire. Death. Decay.
The smells filled the nose of the earth pony, who was currently holding his breath, sweating and tearing up as he hid underneath a pile of pony and human corpses. Mud and dirt covered his fur coat, blood soaked patches of his fur, pain shot throughout his body and the fear of being discovered was prevalent. Flamers walked among these horrific and brutal lands, a small patch of land set out on the outskirts of everything.
A disease that was killing and bringing the dead back to life was spreading on both Earth and here in Equestria; So Celestia and the president of Earth had decided to dump the infected out into a place known now as the Graveyard; Where any creature that's been infected is sent to die, and then flamers; ponies and humans sent out to burn the corpses and anything deemed to be infected. Corpses were everywhere out here in the Graveyard; Miles can be traveled and you would still be seeing bodies, both burning or rotting.
Alas, this wasn't the case for the earth pony. He wasn't even infected; Not now, and sure as Hell not when he was dumped into the center of this awful place two days ago. He was left here to die by the very people he worked for; Octave Corporations. He saw them do awful things to ponies, dragons...and even their own humans. He nearly blew the whistle on them. But he was caught by them; And now he wad here, with a broken leg and various bruises on his body.
The earth pony froze up as he heard footsteps near him. Boots appeared in his line of sight, as a human flamer stood in his fire retardant gear, his mask muffling his voice as he radioed in something as he kicked one of the corpses that lay on top of the earth pony, using the corpses to hide from these fire spewing guards, who now were his enemy.
"Spaz here; Ain't nothin alive out here in my neck of the woods. What about you, Prancer?"
The man spoke, the gas mask distorting his voice to that of a muffled monstrosity. His flamethrower sparkled in the night, and the earth pony was using everything in his power to stay still.
Spaz's radio cackled.
"Well, yeah; Fuckers are usually dead or undead out here,"
Chuckled the creature on the other side of the radio.
"Oh, fuck you, smartass,"
Spaz continued, looking around now, chuckling. Dark humor was needed for this job; Helps you know you were still able to feel anything, when surrounded by mountains of bodies, and living creatures you'll have to burn alive before your very eyes.
"Ah, you wish. But for real; Ya checked everything? Check under the bodies; Virals tend to hide under them when we come 'round these parts,"
The static cackled. Spaz immediately looked over to the pile of bodies the earth pony was hiding under. The earth pony closed his eyes, praying that the fucker would miraculously not see him.
Spaz sighed, and turned back around.
"Yep. Checked under 'em all. We ain't paid by the hour, Milk. We oughtta head back to do switches."
"Agreed. Be sure to check. Kill and burn."
And with that, Milk clicked off, and Spaz was left alone. He took one last look at the pile of bodies, then turned to leave the scene. He decided that the odds of one of those bodies coming to life was extremely low; they would've done so by now anyways, right?
The earth pony nearly let out a shaky sigh of relief as he watched the flamer turn away. The adrenaline that was now coursing through his veins made him want to dance with glee. Both fatigue and common sense stopped him from doing so. He just had to wait until the flamer was gone; Then he'd be able to run free, run to find a way over the wall. But then the flamer stopped; and the earth pony nearly pissed himself.
Scratch that. He did.
Spaz stepped into a muddy puddle and then stopped, glancing back. Fuck...
He sighed, and made his way back to the pile of bodies. Better safe then sorry...
Spaz holstered his flamethrower; And reached out with gloved hands to move a few of the bodies.
But then he stopped when he smelled piss. Froze, when he saw piss leaking out from under one of the lower bodies. Slowly, Spaz reached for his sidearm; Infected weren't able to urinate or shit. Only virals were, if they're in the early stages of infection.
Freezing up was Spaz's mistake; the earth pony was fueled by dear and the will to live now. He exploded from the bodies, Spaz's eyes widening as he was tackled down by the pony. The pony rolled off, and Spaz was stunned by fear and shock. The pony panicked, and saw the knife Spaz had equipped was now inches away from his muzzle.
Quickly, the pony took the chance, grabbing the knife between his teeth and swinging back around to Spaz; Only to be met with a burning pain as flames suddenly engulfed him. Spaz had rolled over, using his smaller yet effective, one use wrist mounted flamethrower on the 'viral'. The earth pony screamed as he stumbled backwards, turning as he ran full sprint, his face melting and fur burning away as the flames began to soread from hus face to his mane. He managed to find that puddle of muddy water, falling face first into it, the burns and open wounds immediately being met with stinging, irritating pain. But the earth pony brushed it off for now, seeing Spaz only now getting up to his feet. The pony turned, and began to go into full sprint.
He saw the wall in the distance; He saw it, and sprinted faster, feeling his broken bone aching and breaking further, but not caring. He was close to making it back to his soon to be wife, and nothing was going to stop him-
Bang.
There was a loud gunshot, and then the pony felt half of his jaw get blown to bits, pain making him yelp and fall forward, into the rocks and mud, rolling a few feet, landing on his side. Spaz had drawn his revolver, and was shaking as he stood up, slowly, cautiously approaching the 'viral'. Spaz had no idea this pony wasn't infected; All Spaz knew was kill anything that even fucking breathed out here.
The pony was trading up, whining and moaning as pain shot through his skull, jaw hanging open and blood everywhere. He forced himself up as best he could, only getting his upper half off the ground, trying to crawl to the wall, crawling to Unity, his beloved fiance; But the footsteps of Spaz were quicker.
Spaz kept the gun trained on the 'viral', who was desperately trying to get to the wall. Not...uncommon for virals, but...this one was still going. Fueled by...emotion?
The pony turned around, shaking his head absentmindedly and facing the flamer, who stared back, gun trained right between the pony's eyes. Spaz felt something was off. This one was tearing up. Scared. Like the others; But...it didn't seem like this pony's mind or body was infected. No...Spaz was starting to realize that this pony may not even be infected at all-
Spaz froze up again. The pony saw this, and lunged up, trying to get Spaz away from him; trying to fight for the right to live.
Bang.
Bits of brain, bone fragments and blood were sent exploding from the pony's skull as the bullet's force cracked the head back, the pony's body falling into the mud, a hoof landing on the boot of Spaz, who was still shaking and shuddering, staring down at the creature he just shot.
Spaz kicked its hoof away, lowering his gun slowly. He sighed, putting it away, still shook from the whole experience.
Infected or not...it was dead now.
Spaz took a few breaths, before removing a small can of gasoline, dumping a bit of it onto the body of the pony.
"Rest in peace.
And may God have mercy on your soul."
Spaz prayed, setting the body on fire with match. He wasn't much of a religion man; But he felt like that one definitely needed some kind of prayers.
And with that, Spaz stood by and watched the body burn; Wanting nothing more but to end this fucking shift.
Author's Note
Welp. There it is. My first "Equestria 5k" Short Story. This isn't my first story, but it is my first ever official fanfic. Hopefully, y'all like it. If not, and plan to make that known; Comment fairly down below! If this gets any amount of likes, I will probably post another short chapter. Hope to see y'all again soon!
Entries Of A Pit Guard: The Pit
TRIGGER WARNING: There are various mentions of rape, suicide, gore, and other dark topics. Please, read with caution.
May 1, 5054
6:37 PM
I don't honestly know how to start this. I have no fucking idea how to even describe anything I've seen over the past few hours. So, guess I'll start from the beginning.
My name is Rain Breaker. I was formerly a guard of Princess Celestia; Until I got a life threatening injury that took one of my legs. Then the fucking bitch and the rest of the Royal Guard cast me away, no bits or any form of currency, no help. Just a 'Good luck,' and that was that.
I've been working as a handyman since then, and I did part time up at the Apple Farm in Ponyville. Did some security on Earth; But...due to me being a pony, it didn't go too well.
And one day, while in a drunken stupor, searching for yet another...uhm...mare to keep mr company...I heard about this place. Not like...for the first time. Everyone and their grandma knows about this place; Foals in my hometown called it "The Place Where The Bad Kids Go". Parents threatened us with this place, should we have misbehaved.
After working here for two hours...I can say the ways we foals and parents described this hell is foal's play compared to the real thing.
Anywho, I overheard a fellow guard talking about this place. About how they were in desperate need in guards. I asked about it. Pay is 70,000 bits. At the time, I thought holy shit; In two weeks, I can clear my debt with both the loan sharks AND the landlord, and still have enough for some groceries and a few hookers.
Damn my greed...
Obviously, I applied and got the job. And now I'm here; In the bathroom, writing in this God damn journal.
Back to the start of my shift. Today was my first day. I prepared myself, mentally and physically; Not nearly enough to be prepared for the true horrors of this place, but I didn't think it was that bad before I got here. I arrived by train; Few hours of a trip, and I believe I'm going to be spending the week here, then get weekends off.
When I arrived, the first thing I heard was screaming, wails and...laughter. Deep, further down in the Pit, there was fucking laughter, reminiscent of that one pink pony at SurgarCube Corner, but...laced with evil and malice.
The Pit is...that. A pit. A mile wide hole in the earth out here in the Frozen North. I have yet to even see a bottom, and it's pith black below level 34.
The cold bites at your soul and the rain didn't help.
The metal catwalks and stairs on my level(Level 27) was soaked and slippery. I can assure you that some of the inmates here were frozen solid. As in...legit, dead and frozen. One of the ponies I saw had no fur, although wether or not that's his doing or the guards here is beyond me. Yes; I've seen a few guards...more than abuse their power, by the way. And the bad ones didn't try to hide it. I've literally seen guards of both the pony kind and human kind raping one of the prisoners. And the prisoner wasn't fighting back; He just...laid there and took it. I think he was lobotomized, or brain dead. Either way, when they were done, the guards just...left the cell. Left the human nude, with bleeding anus and lying on the cell floor, and as if nothing ever happened, as if I wasn't watching.
I've seen prisoners sobbing. Down below, I heard and still can hear one of the inmates calling out for their mother. I've seen one of the prisoners actually rip out their own eyes, or at least begin to. I ran here to throw up and empty my entire week of food into a trash can. I've seen shit like that before; But the prisoner wasn't screaming or sobbing. He just decided to rip out one of his eyes, and he did just that without hesitation or fear. And he's still there, his eyes thrown onto the floor, him standing and staring at a wall as his blood trickles down his face. I've tried to get him help, but not many of the guards seemed to care and the ones who showed at least an ounce of concern simply told me to ignore it. It's apparently a common thing here, for inmates AND guards to spontaneously mutilate their own bodies.
The guard in the stall next to me is actually sobbing. And he was here when I came in to throw up; Which was at least fifty minutes ago.
To be honest, I'm on the verge of doing the same. But not right now. I have to go; Still have four days left of my God awful shift. Hopefully...Things will get better...
May 3, 5054
8:21 PM
Nope. Not at all. Nothing has gotten even remotely better. If there is a Hell, this is it. Forget Tartarus; Not even the things there could DREAM of a place like this. For starters, one of the prisoners have not only eaten their own shit, but they decided to call me over and SPIT IT IN MY FACE.
And that's the most tame thing here so far. I said nothing, not wanting him to be gang raped by the guards, but I can see how abusing your power could be tempting here.
After I got...mostly cleaned up, and after I voided my stomach once again, I hesitantly came back to work. Oh, and yes; The guard was still sobbing in that one stall.
Immediately after I stepped out, there was a loud scream; And to my horror, I saw the nude human from before, the one who was raped, run out of his cell and jump over the guard rail keeping us from falling down to probably the depths of Hell itself. He didn't flinch, and his screaming didn't stop for a few moments before they frew faint, and then nonexistent. Nobody did a thing about that, either; Just carried on about their day. Some didn't even turn to see what was happening. I felt the need to throw up as well; But I only managed to heave and gag. My stomach has been voided ten fold, so I guess that was to be expected.
The prisoner who ripped out his eyes; A dragon, by the way; Was on the floor in the corner of his cell, limp and probably dying as I write this. Blood is seeping everywhere in his cell.
I've seen other prisoners crying and sobbing, which will probably be a common sight for me now.
But that wasn't all. The worst came a day ago. So, a few prisoners on my level have managed to escape their cells; Five of them, I believe. Two humans and the rest were dragons. Anywho, they escaped, and all, and I mean ALL, of the other prisoners began to cheer and laugh.
I didn't even get time to react before one of the humans threw my against the concrete walls, my skull bouncing off of it and splitting open. Thankfully, that was all that happened to me.
They then continued their rampage. One of the human guards actually drew his gun and fired at one of the humans five times; He didn't last long before the prisoner took the guard and began to smash his head against the cell doors. I've never seen so many skull fragments and so much brain exit a creature's body in such a way before.
The other four continued to rage, throwing over one of the guards into the Pit, and one of them at one point grabbed a guard's gun; And then there were bullets flying. I was barely able to see anything, since I was laying in a pool of my own blood, but I did see the four enter the break room on my level, as guards scrambled to get control. The other prisoner, the human who was shot, was dead by now, having bled out from the five bullet holes put into his chest I believe.
Anywho, I did see two of the dragons suddenly barge out of the break room, carrying the one guard who was sobbing in that one stall. I don't know how, but I knew it was him. He was a young earth pony. He had tears streaking down his face as he struggled to break free from the grasp of his captors.
"NO!"
He hollered and screamed, trying to break free. Poor kid. I could write down that he escaped and survived. But I'd be lying to myself and the remaining bits of sanity I have.
The two dragons ran right into the guard rail, breaking it. They didn't hesitate, it wasn't a mistake. They ran through it, and right off the platform; Sending themselves and the kid flying into the air. The kid screamed for his life, and desperately tried to grab onto something, but obviously it didn't work. He and the two prisoners fell, the dragons not even using their wings. It was as if they wanted to die.
The three of them fell into the lower parts of the Pit, and then there was a loud metal bang.
It wasn't the kid. One of the dragons, I heard, fell a few stories and then hit his neck off of a guard rail. He died on impact. The other dragon and the kid fell all the way to the bottom. Based on the things I've heard; It'll probably be a closed casket funeral, and the families won't even be able to get all the pieces of either creature.
The last two prisoners had a short standoff with the guards, I believe. I didn't hear or witness what happened; Minutes after I saw the dragons drag the guard to their deaths, I blacked out.
I awoke in the medical ward. I needed countless stitches, and now I have a concussion. I was brought here by one of the orderlies. I overheard that the human who got the shotgun blew his brains all over the ceiling and the last prisoner was captured and put back in his cell. I'm assuming the guards beat him to a bloody mess.
But even though everything had cooled down, the other prisoners seem to be still cheering about everything that's transpired. Everything is on lockdown, and none of the prisoners are going to be fed today as punishment.
I have contemplated quitting this job. But I've decided against it. I don't know if it's because my short time here made me succumb to madness. Maybe it's the concussion. But I don't think I could live with the fact I quit, and some idiot youngling decided to take my place. I'm old, useless. My life is a waste as is, even I'm aware of it. Maybe I'm hoping that by telling myself I'm keeping a youngling from taking this job, that some shred of honor will be given to my name.
But I'm keeping this job. If it keeps a youngling from taking it, then I am for now willing to deal with everything I've seen so far, and everything I inevitably will see.
I'll be writing in this journal when I can. Keep whatever creature that finds this updated on the things I've seen. Things I'll experience here. Have to go for now. I still have two more days until I can go home to whatever shack I currently live in.
Wish me luck.
