Something Halloween

Some hours later Twilight was already pleasantly buzzed and deep in conversation about Equestrian literature with Becky from QA. The woman was quite well-read, for Earth standards, so the mare was giving her advice.

"H-Hold, 'old on," Twilight said, "lemme grab my phone. I took a- a picture last time I was in Canterlot, of the- of the library!" She levitated the device up and fumbled through to the image gallery. It was a good thing she wasn't showing Becky the screen yet, because the first few pictures were very compromising ones of Anon. The mare blushed, but hoped no one would notice. It was a tiny bit warm in the offices and the drink had been flowing freely.

She quickly scrolled past those images and back to where she had visited her friends in Equestria. "Here, here, look!"

She held the phone out and Becky took it. "Wow, it looks huge!"

Praise for the Canterlot library made Twilight grin widely. "Some day I'ma take you there!" she promised.

The girl just laughed at it. "Alright. I'll remind you Monday about those books, so don't worry about it over the holidays, okay?"

Twilight just nodded happily. "Yeah, yeah yeah! I'ma write to Celly- Celestia to send me them-" She froze and tried to remember the titles she'd promised Becky. "What were they again? There was, um- Leghecies an' Propends... an', an'-"

Becky laughed again and tousled her mane. "I wrote it down, I'll email you on Monday. Just have fun, Twilight."

The mare planned to do exactly that. She gripped her glass with a levitation spell and weaved her way across the room. People were talking, there was upbeat music playing and the far corner already had a Wii set up for some games. It looked like a popular spot, so Twilight headed there, searching for Anon. She wanted an ear-scratch, bad. Well, she wanted other things just as badly, but those would have to wait until they came home. Or at least until they were alone in the car, some of them.

She didn't even notice how her swishing tail smacked a few people in the legs, nor how they grinned to themselves. It wasn't every day they saw a pony, who was technically their boss, get sloshed. Twilight found her human in a crowd of spectators. Four others were playing some bowling, by the looks of it.

"Hey. Any- anyfink fun?" she asked.

Anon spotted her and crouched down to be closer to her eye level. "A lot of games. Wanna give it a try?"

She looked at her nearly empty glass, then shook her head. "Don't think I'm in uh- I'm, what's the fing? Pissed. Yah. Go 'head, I'll, I'll watch."

Hopefully Anon would notice how she was leaning her head towards him. His hand was right there. Success! Anon wrapped his fingers around her ear and-

"Mmmm, niiiice..."

He chuckled softly, then put his other hand on her other ear. "Oh, you like that, don't you? Just like a kitty." The man was careful not to remove her fake glasses.

"Meow!"

Twilight drained her glass while having her ears scratched, then closed her eyes. Unfortunately it didn't last long enough. With only a faint sigh of disappointment, Twilight turned and headed for the drinks table again. A few steps in, she remembered she didn't say bye to Anon, but turning around again would have been a hassle. He'd probably figure it out. Before she made it to her intended target, though, Twilight paused. There was another stop she had to make first. The glass floated down on a nearby surface, then the pony headed for the restrooms. All that drink had to go somewhere, right?

This part of the building was more or less deserted. She walked down the hallway, only staying upright thanks to having four legs, and turned a corner. Someone was sitting next to the toilet doors, leaning on the wall. Twilight blinked in surprise.

"Mm? Every- um, everyfink okay?" She went closer to inspect. Possibly someone had had too much to drink. Maybe it would be a good idea to get them back in the crowd, where a friend could drive them home. Or, failing that, call him a taxi.

"'ello?!"

The person wasn't responding. She saw it was one of the Legal department, judging by that fancy zombie costume. That blood looked scary real and the mare's step faltered. She hadn't yet been able to appreciate just how lifelike the makeup was from up close. Or how un-lifelike. Who was it under all that red and gray paint? The face was hidden from her view and the hair looked like it was coming out in large clumps. A wig as well as makeup, then. Such dedication.

"Anyway, I kinda- um, I really like you guys' costumes."

Still no response. By now she was starting to worry. Maybe whoever it was had just fallen asleep from all the booze? She was a few steps away when the smell hit her. Decaying flesh, rot, viscera. Twilight didn't remember ever smelling these before, but she was easily able to identify them. The unexpected odor had a very sobering effect.

"Ew, yuck! You didn't have to do smell, you know?!" she complained, waving a hoof before her muzzle.

Finally the person stirred and looked up at her. The stare made Twilight take a step backwards and swallow a sudden lump. The eyes were gray and lifeless. The mouth was parted and a bit of drool was hanging from his chin. It was a man, but not one Twilight recognized.

"W-Who are you?"

All she got in reply was a grunt. The man was really dedicated to his role.

"Okay, y-you can stop now," the mare whined. "It's not funny anymore."

Instead of the desired effect, the guy reached over and tried to grab her. She just barely dodged.

"Hey! Not cool!" She backed away, tail firmly pressed against her backside and ears laid flat. "Stop it this minute or I'll make sure you get in trouble! A costume is one thing, b-but this is going too far."

She wasn't afraid, not really. It was probably just an overenthusiastic prank on their boss. Despite telling herself that, Twilight's breathing quickened and her heart began to hammer in her ears. Whatever joke those Legal guys were playing, she was having none of it. Forgetting her original intention, Twilight turned and walked briskly back to the lounge. There were people and music and whatever this joker was trying to do wouldn't work. She was already smiling in relief when she stepped through the door, but then she froze.

They were all dead. Well, dead, but standing. It didn't make sense! Only the Legal people were costumed as zombies!

"W-What's happening?!" she squeaked.

One of them shuffled forward in that lurching, unsteady walk. There came a hoarse, guttural cry from somewhere in the room. A moment after that they all moved, coming for her.

"Guys, this is not funny!" she whimpered, backing away.

They were all in on this?! How was it even possible? She became aware of the stink. Like a very bad compost pile, or the back of a slaughterhouse, or - she gulped - a bunch of dead, rotting people right under her nose. Surely you couldn't get those aromas in a store, could you?! Who'd want that?! Her rump hit the door frame and the pony jumped in surprise. It didn't look as if the people were slowing down. They were really committed to the act. She tried putting on her angry boss face.

"Knock it off! I've just about had it with all this! ANON!"

The man was nowhere to be found. If he was part of this, she'd show him later, but right then Twilight didn't want to be in the room anymore. She turned and almost ran back down the hallway, when she saw the guy from before. He was still crawling after her, leaving a long smear of blood and viscera from the open wound on his belly. Surely they hadn't bought special effects that good?! A raspy breath alerted her and she looked behind and up, just as one of the corpses loomed above her, hands outstretched.

Time seemed to slow down and she looked up at the face that was half-missing. One cheek was just a loose flap of skin, showing the white of bone underneath it.

This wasn't a mask! Something bad - something magical had happened and turned all her coworkers into these monsters! Twilight was only frozen for a second. A fear blossomed forth.

"Anon!"

She ducked under the groping hand and between the legs of the people in front of her. More than one had broken limbs, pieces of bone sticking out from their flesh. She saw missing arms and open chests, sometimes with... things hanging out, but often just a mass of red viscera. It turned her stomach, but Twilight kept it down and moved. A hand grasped at her back, but she quickly bucked the zombie. Bones crunched and she was released. In moments she had scrambled past the crowd and was looking for Anon and any coworkers that weren't yet monsters.

He was okay, right? He had to be! Tears streaming down her face, Twilight kept herself from outright crying as she ran around the room, searching.

The Wii was still on, one controller on the floor and the other three missing. She looked back. There, one of the walking corpses still had a white rectangle dangling from their wrist. The people really had turned! How and why weren't important right at the moment, though. She had to find her lover and get him out of there. Except there was no sign of Anon and she couldn't recognize him in any of the dead, rotting faces.

Maybe he had managed to run away. She should check the other offices! The only problem now was that the bodies had bunched up. She would never be able to run through them again. Finally she remembered she had magic. A quick spell later and she popped out of existence and appeared on the other side of the wall of zombies. They reacted with confusion, but one of them spotted her and groaned. Soon they were all turning, fighting with each other to get to her.

It was surreal. Fear faded under the onslaught of adrenaline and the mare ran for it. The guy from the hallway was still on all fours in the door, but she just jumped over him before he could react. The first office on her left was Accounting and she threw the door open with her magic. It was empty- Well, mostly empty. A woman's corpse lay on the floor, bloated and misshapen. She couldn't even identify it! The eyes, shrunken like raisins stared at her, unseeing.

"How?! What?!" Twilight demanded.

It didn't make any sense! The thing, whatever it was, had just started five minutes ago. How could the people look like they've been rotting for days, or even weeks? She backed out of the room and fled further down the hall. The mass of zombies from the lounge was still struggling to get through the door, which was still being blocked by the eviscerated guy. At least that part was good.

Maybe she'd find some answers in the place where the whole thing had started. Twilight threw open the door to Legal and fearfully looked inside. There was a pile of guts on the floor just inside, crawling with insects. This time there was no holding it down. She puked out the liquor and canapes she had earlier that day, and then, catching sight of the guts again, threw up what was left in her stomach. It burned like acid on her tongue. She didn't wait around to see any more and just fled onward. There had to be something still normal in the building, hadn't there?!

The elevators! She rounded the corner and saw that both were open, square, black holes into nothing. She carefully approached and shone the light from her horn into the shaft. They looked completely empty, all the way down. What was happening? She tried the emergency stairs. The door opened easily, but one look inside changed her mind. More dead people, shambling up. The nearest one saw her, extended her arm and groaned. A few moments later some of the others grunted as well. Maybe it was just her imagination, but they were walking a bit faster, too.

The mare slammed the door shut. Without the lifts and without the stairs, she was trapped on the floor, unless she could teleport all the way to the ground. That one was still tricky - her horn wasn't entirely back to its old self yet, and magic on Earth was weaker. She didn't want to end up in the middle of a wall, so that would be a last resort, Twilight decided. While she considered her next move, undecided in the hallway, the creatures in the lounge had managed to fight their way through the blocked door. She heard them coming closer.

The ones on the stairs were nearly there, too! There were no more places to go!

Lacking other good options, Twilight continued down the hall. It looped back around to the toilets. All her other ways were blocked, so that was the only way. She poked her head into a few more offices, but they had dead people inside them. At least these didn't seem inclined to get up and follow her.

What would even happen if they caught her? The mare really didn't want to find out.

More importantly, if none of the offices were empty, she had no real place to hide. Even if she did, how persistent would the monsters be? Could they hear or sense her somehow? Smell her? At best she could keep running away from them for a while, but that was not a long term solution. Twilight needed a minute to think. Unfortunately she didn't have one - already there were some of the faster corpses showing up around the corner.

They lurched for her with the determined shamble of the restless, tireless undead.

"Fuck this!" she swore and sniffed. "Where are you Anon?! I fucking need you!"

The thought that the human would be just as helpless as her didn't even enter her mind. Anon always knew what to do! She ran to the next corner and looked around it. Crap! Some of the lounge zombies were either slow, or crippled enough so they didn't move particularly fast. That meant there were probably zombies strewn all around the hallway by now. The fastest ones were catching up and the slowest ones were... waiting for her.

Where to go?

Twilight looked behind and squeaked in alarm. They were almost on top of her! She moved a few more paces, but her exclamation had alerted the ones at the lounge. They started crawling or shambling slowly towards her.

"Shit, shit, no no no!" she mumbled and looked for another exit.

There was one office and she ran for it. The door was unlocked. This time she didn't inspect what was in it, just hurried inside and shut the door behind her. Then she locked it for good measure. It wouldn't stop them forever, but it would give her some time to think. She looked at the pair of people still sitting in the office and hurriedly turned her face away. They both had maggots crawling over their faces. She would have thrown up again, but there was nothing left, so she just dry-retched.

She was beyond the point of trying to figure out what was happening and almost incapable of any thought at all! Her legs were trembling violently and she was gasping for air, panting. In a moment she would be jabbering and whimpering.

There was a thud on the office door and Twilight jumped. "EEK!"

Several of the corpses were hammering on the wood by the sound of it. There were urgent groans as they tried to get to her. It wouldn't hold them for long. They didn't care if they broke their arms on the door. Another thump and again it made her twitch violently.

"Please no! Please!" she wept. Was this where she died? She could teleport again, but not seeing where would make it a gamble. The hallway was probably thoroughly infested by now anyway. She could try for the street, but any miscalculation would mean a very painful and unpleasant death. Earth wasn't Equestria, so full of magic which would guide her to a safe space. Here she had to see.

There was a mighty crash at the door and the lock gave way. The door tore from the frame and several zombies landed in a pile inside the office. Others immediately began climbing over the fallen ones.

She couldn't get out. The mare looked at the window and considered jumping. At least that way would be faster. She didn't have the guts to do it, though, so she just backed away into a corner as rotting husks approached.

"Please..." she whispered.

Hands reached out for her and she felt a warm trickle down her hind leg. It barely even registered. The nearest corpse reached for her and she tried to rear up and kick it. This one was faster and ducked under her hooves to tackle her.

They both slammed on the ground. Twilight whinnied and kicked for all she was worth, trying to dislodge the zombie and get free, but he was pinning her down and she couldn't shift him lying on her back like that. She screamed as the creature opened its mouth and lunged for her neck. She couldn't look. Twilight closed her eyes and waited to die a gruesome death.

Nothing happened.

The corpse was pinning her down, but it wasn't biting her. She opened her eyes.

"A-An-Anon?!"

It wasn't a zombie, it was just her beloved human. That was the point where her mind gave out. She couldn't understand what had happened or how, or why. All she knew was that Anon was there and she was safe with him. Urgently, she grabbed him with all four legs, and buried her muzzle in his coat. The tears finally had time and she began weeping uncontrollably. She didn't remember what happened after.