Chapters "Everyone ready for our trip?" Sunset asked as she and the other double checked their gear. Rainbow Dash gave thumbs up and Applejack slung her bag over her shoulder with ease with an affirming nod. Pinkie had a bag that was stuffed to the brim with party gear, and Fluttershy had the bare minimum with only clothes and animal food. Rarity and Twilight had bags filled with similar items, make-up, clothes and the like, only Twilight had an extra bag with scientific equipment.
Rarity spoke up, "I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are indeed ready for our Spring Break in Equestria!" The other girls cheered with her, each of them wondering what their counterparts were like. Everyone except Sunset Shimmer. She was purely Equestrian, yet had never once met her counterpart from this world. She wondered if she was an anomaly here, but eventually pushed those thoughts aside. Grabbing her journal from her bag, she messaged Princess Twilight.
Hey, Twilight! We're all ready on our end to start our vacation. How's everything looking on your end?
Everything's looking good! My friends and I are excited to see the girls for the first time... again! They might be a tad bit disorientated at seeing themselves not in front of a mirror, but as Pinkie tells me "It's like the Mirror Pool, but better!" I hope she's right about that part...
Laughing at the written words, she closed the book and stuffed it back in the pack. "Alright girls, they might be a bit confused at first but just let them sink it all in when we go through okay? And Pinkie, please try to keep calm, okay? We don't need another "Who's on First" skit." Everyone all agreed and put their hands together in a circle.
"Let our first Equestiran vaction... begin!" Pinkie cheered as they all shot their hands in the air. Nothing could ruin their fun now.
"Ellis! Oh, shit! Come on, come on, I got ya." Rochelle urged, picking up the young mechanic from the ground. Once on his feet, Ellis was still a bit shaken up but still able to give a bat a mean swing. Said swing connected with an infected, knocking of it's jaw in a bloody arc, then he finished it off with a brutal swing to the nose. It stumbled a bit before falling and Ellis gave himself a mental pat on the back. Pulling up the shotgun slinged on his side he and the other three formed a circle, back to back shooting and smashing infected alike. The four survivors against a horde of zombies, at first Ellis would be ecstatic about it, him and his buddies Keith, Dave, and Paul would've been shooting the shit while shooting shit... He shook his head. "Not now Ellis, not now..."
Rochelle had had worse days, she could still be an intern at the news station or maybe even still stranded in Savannah. Somehow, in some sick twisted way she was happy with her situation. As it turns out, zombies are a good outlet for pent up anger, and did she have a lot. She thought back to being an intern, how her boss treated her (and everyone else) like shit. Now though, she had an auto-rifle in her hands, a knap-sac full of ammo and one hell of a bone to pick. "Jacob, this one's for you."
On her right was a man in a fancy suit, now stained red, brown, and other colors that he didn't even know about. Nick was a conman at heart, being part of the Hells Angels after all. He met another member from the Philly sect, but he couldn't really see eye to eye with him. For the most part, he's been alone all his life. He doesn't know who his parents are, he shot his ex-wife, he's been on the bad end of the law plenty of times. Now though, there is no law except for fend for yourself, and boy could he ever. However in the situation he was currently in, fighting what seems to be endless hordes of infected, he realized that sometimes being alone was the worst way to be. "If I had to pick between dying alone or surrounded by friends, I'm pretty sure I'd be buried by now..."
The last man, the defacto leader, was a big huggable man called Coach. None of the others knew his real name, but he didn't mind it at all. Coaching a highschool football team and leading a rag-tag team of survivors was much more the same than what he had previously thought. While Nick wanted to run the second they were out of the Mall, it was Coach that convinced him to stay. Revving up his chainsaw as more infected came his way he swung violently in their direction and cut them to shreds. His big heart and fatherly attitude was enough to keep this team together, but he couldn't just give himself all the praise, Rochelle and Ellis and admittedly even Nick had their own ways of keeping the group together. "AAAAHHH! Eat that shit!" He cried as the chainsaw mowed through more and more infected recklessly charging at them. "C'mon Teddy, you made it through the Mall and the Port, you can make it through a goddamn theme park!"
A choked scream cut through through the howls of the infected, and Rochelle suddenly found herself being moved against her will. "Shit, I'm being dragged away!" She cried, before Nick aimed up with his rifle and shot the Smoker dead. Rochelle fell down to the ground, regaining her barings as Nick helped her back up. "Man, I owe you one good."
"Yeah, don't mention it." Nick said, handing back her rifle to her. Both took aim over each others shoulders and shot the infected coming at them at high speeds. "Everyone stick together! We're almost to the safe house!" And there was a safe house... right inside of the Tunnel of Love. "Come on! Everyone inside the Tunnel of Love!"
"Aw man, of all the places to be, it HAD to be the tunnel of love..." Ellis said groaning as they slammed the door shut. Everyone cheered their luck at making it before Nick turned to Ellis.
"I'm gonna regret this, but why do *you* hate the Tunnel of Love, Ellis?"
"Well, back when I was younger I had girlfriend named Gretchen, and every time we hung out together she would always make us go through the tunnel of love back in our local amusement park. I hated it because it wasn't even romantic and shit, it was just an excuse for her to start smoking and she always constantly blew it in my face. Worst time of my life." Ellis said as he leaned against the door recalling a time that did not have any of his friends in it. Nick raised an eyebrow.
"So if you hated her so much why'd you still go out with her?"
"Let's just say her daddy was a cop and leave it at that, okay Nick?" This raised the eyebrows of all three survivors, and Nick let out a low whistle.
Coach spoke up. "Okay, okay, enough reminiscing. I've been through the Tunnel of Love here once or twice, and I know that there's a maintenance tunnel around here somewhere. If we're lucky, that tunnel will lead straight outside. Also, something y'all should know is that the tunnels here are narrower than shit, so every place is gonna be choke point. Don't get swarmed, and we all stick together. Everyone ready?"
"Hold on Coach," Rochelle spoke up. She took a look at the supplies in front of them and took note. Grabbing more ammo for her auto-rifle and slinging a new health pack on her back, she gave a thumbs up.
"Ellis, you ready to rock?" He asked the youngest of the group, and Ellis cracked his knuckles and cocked his shotgun. Coach nodded in approval. "Nick? You all good?"
"Yeah, yeah give me a second." He said downing the last of the pain pills and filling up his ammo. He reloaded his pistols, and cracked his neck. "Alright, good to go."
"'Ight then," Coach said taking the bar off the door and pushing it open, "Game on, baby!"
Twilight and her friends all awaited Sunset and their counterpart by the mirror, excited and antsy to meet them. "Oooh, Twilight when are they getting here?!" Pinkie asked jumping around and pronking about, zipping to and fro around the castle ready to meet her herself again for the first time. Suddenly stopped by a magenta glow, Pinkie was calmly set down.
"I know you're... nervo-cited, Pinkie," Pinkie giggled, "but they'll be here shortly, they're just double checking some things before they come through." Twilight said as the book in mirror began to vibrate. Bringing it down, she opened to see three words written which made her smile even wider than before.
Here we come!
"Okay girls! They're coming so everyone get ready to give... ourselves, I guess, a nice big Equestrian welcome!" Twilight said as everyone got into position.
"Oh my, I've never said surprise to *myself* before..." Fluttershy mumbled, and Rainbow Dash through a hoof over her withers.
"Speak for yourself Fluts, I say hello to myself in the mirror all day!" She said, polishing her hoof on her chest. Her brow furrowed for a moment in realization before posthumously adding "N-Not that it's a bad thing..."
Applejack and Rarity laughed lightly at the speedsters slip up and even Fluttershy felt a little better now, seeing as it would be like talking to a mirror. As they all eagerly awaited, a rumble blew through the town of Ponyville, making all the girls jump. Twilight looked outside of her castle to see a celestial beast, a Scorpio running around rampant around the small town. "Looks like the meeting is gonna have to wait a second girls! We got a monster to fight!"
Teleporting both herself and her friends, they took up stances for the upcoming battle. Unbeknownst to any of their knowledge, a dark figure had entered her castle and made it's way straight to the mirror. Raising a glowing clawed hand, the book was removed and the magic feeding the portal died out. The figure read through a few pages before shutting the book entirely and without a second thought, the book began to smolder. Soon not long after, the figure looked through the window and saw them cleaning up the mess the Scorpio had made, and decided now would be a good time to leave. A pair of leathery wings shot out from under his cloak, and he cackled a wicked laugh as he made an escape that not even the Princess of Friendship knew about.
While this shadowy figure had an ulterior motive behind burning the book, he inadvertently caused even more grief. The Rainbooms were already going through the portal when the magic shut off, and with no connection to Equestria, the mirror a shot them in a new, different direction. It was Earth, just not their Earth...
"Ah god, not again! I just washed this!" Rochelle complained as the Boomer exploded on her, causing all of the infected in the area to go berserk and focus all their attention on her. Foregoing the rifle, she hefted up her machete and began swinging into the incoming horde. Ellis and Nick were body guarding her, and Coach was picking off infected running by, making their jobs easier. "Eugh, if I ever get used to this shit, it'll be too soon." She said as her eyesight cleared and she managed to wipe the rest of bile off of herself. "Come on, lets keep going."
The survivors managed to find Coach's maintenance tunnel, but the way outside was blocked. "Damn it! So close..." Coach grumbled, clearly upset that the way was unusable. Ellis began looking around before a small breeze tickled his skin and he began to follow it. Opening a backroom door, he saw a big hole in the ground, and looking down it he could feel the breeze grow slightly stronger. "Hey y'all! Over here!" The other three came jogging in, looking at the hole and feeling the breeze.
"Good job, Ellis!" Nick patted his back and was getting ready to jump down, only for Coach to stop him. "Hey, what gives? There's a breeze so that means theirs a way out!"
"Nicolaus, I want you to think for a second: What could've made a hole that big, and is it still down there?" Coach said calmly, but rather cautiously. The implication made Nick second guess the hole and he stepped back very far away from it. "Alright y'all," Coach said gathering around Nick and the others, "Ellis here found a way out, but the only problem is that their may be a Tank down this way. Everyone reload, and make sure that you're 100% dead ready. Once we jump down, no going back up." Everyone looked rather concerned. Here was the only way out, but there might be a really nasty surprise for them waiting around the corner. Ellis raised his hand to catch their attention.
"Okay, listen I got an idea. I jump down alone and do a little re-con. If there's any trouble I'll come yelling for help. I'll only go as far until I see the zombies." He explained, to which both Rochelle and Coach flat out said "No". Nick riased his hand next.
"I suggest we do Ellis's plan, but with me rather than him." Everyone turned to Nick, rather shocked at the sudden selflessness. "Listen, you guys, you're all good folks. Ellis was a mechanic, Coach is a, well, coach, and Rochelle was just a news girl. I know I always joke around saying that I'll leave the first chance I get, but being with you guys for a week... God, I can't believe these are the real words coming from own mouth, it's made me see you guys as a family." Nick said pulling the charger handle of his rifle. "And no family needs a con-man like me. If the coast is clear, I'll call you guys down. If you hear gunfire... Try to find another way." Then without wanting to hear a complaint, he jumped down the hole into a lower part of the Tunnel of Love. "Okay Nicky... you just made a stupid decision by sacrificing yourself to get made into hamburger meat by a possible Tank... defiantly going on my list of firsts."
Ellis, Coach and Rochelle waited for five minutes, and in Coach's opinion, that was five minutes too long. "Okay everyone, get ready to jump down. 3... 2..."
"Hey guys! Come on, there's no infected down here! Where ever the big guy he must be long gone by now." Nicks voice carried up from the whole and he gave a little thumbs up. "Jump down, I got you guys." Rochelle jumped down first, and Nick reached down and caught her enough to slow her fall. "Hey, I didn't know it was raining women." Nick said as half joke. Rochelle said nothing, save for a smirk and a chuckle. The other two were caught in the same way, and they looked ahead to confirm Nick's statement, no zombies, no specials, just them.
"Well shit, no zombies. Thank God for small favors!" Ellis exclaimed, sitting in a swan boat to relax. Coach took a seat next to him and started relaxing too. Rochelle sat on the wall and let her feet rest while they had the brief respite. Nick joined her the wall and sat down next to her.
"So, was that pick up line or joke?"
"Mostly a joke, I know you got eyes for the Biker back on the bridge." Nick said coolly. He looked away for moment before looking back to see Rochelle's reaction. She was looking kind of surprised and kind of frustrated, in Nick's lady killer mind, that was a 50/50 shot in the dark, so he picked his next words carefully. "Listen, what I did was dumb, but I meant it when I said you guys as my family. I... I was bad person in the past, before all this. I was con-man, a hustler." he took off one of his rings, "hell, I was even in a biker gang." Rochelle snorted at that.
"For real? A biker gang? No offence Nick, but I can't see you riding a motor bike, let alone wearing a leather vest." She said laughing a little. Nick nodded his head at her.
"Oh yeah? What about you miss 'Run and get my coffee'? How did you go from busgirl to news anchor?" he challenged. She was going to retort, but the smirk on Nicks face said it all. She lowered her hand and gave another chuckle. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Anyways... yes, I was in a motorcycle gang. I was the right hand man of our boss. I was gonna be next, but uh... well..." He trailed of, gesturing around. Rochelle nodded in understanding and stretched out her arms. Nick suddenly felt tired too, as did Coach and Ellis, who were both trying really hard not to fall asleep. Coach got up from the swan and grabbed Ellis by the shoulder.
"Come on everyone, we need to keep moving. We're almost--" Coach was cut off by a large, blinding flash as one of the side rooms lit up like the sun. "What the hell?! Everyone up, now!" Hearing the older man's urgency, the other three stood up, guns ready for whatever kind of infected had stumbled into the Tunnel. "Okay y'all, on three. 1... 2... 3!"
All three jumped from behind the wall ready to blast the hell out of whatever made that light. They were all rather surprised when seven girls, no older than 17 were in a heap on the floor. The first girl, short in stature and rainbow colored hair, was the first one to look around and stared wide eyed at the four survivors who were carrying guns... and pointed at them.
"Uh..." She said in a raspy voice looking at Coach. "Don't be alarmed... we're... uh..." she stumbled on her words for a moment before looking back at Coach. "We're cops...?"
Nick put his head in his hand as his gun fell away from the group of girls. "Oh brother, not another one..."
Author's Note
Sorry for the delay! Work has been a bother, and I got a bit of a fucked up knee. It's my day off today and I finished this just for you guys, thanks for sticking around!
The Seldom Seen Kid
"Oh brother, not another one..." The man in the fancy suit said lowering his weapon and putting his head in his hand. While the guy in the t-shirt was chuckling a bit, and the lady and the big guy were still looking over them. Rainbow knew guns, shot some with her dad, and then went to the range every so often with Applejack and her brother, so seeing big guns being pointed at something that wasn't a target made her very cooperative despite herself. Soon the other girls began to come to and began looking around, all of them stopping at the big man with a big gun and chainsaw on his back.
"Okay y'all, we don't want no trouble. Don't know who you are, but quite frankly, I don't care at the moment. You're not trying to eat us, so get up and follow us." He said before Rainbow rounded on him.
"Now wait just a--" Suit stuck his rifle in her face and was just itching to pull the trigger. "Come on, Blue... give me a reason."
Rainbow, while always being the hothead she was, smartly stood down, watching as Suit aimed at her a little longer, seeing if she would make a move. Seeing nothing was going to happen, he backed up still staring before turning around following the big man. The truckie came up to her. "Hey, listen. You kinda caught us at a bad time. We're all on edge. Any of y'all know how to shoot?" Rainbow, Applejack, and surprisingly Rarity raised their hands. "Huh, alright. You three, grab a weapon from the table over there. The rest of you, stay in the middle of us. They'll ambush you quicker than ants."
"Ants don't ambush, Ellis." The girl said as she walked after the other three. The Truckie, named Ellis, coughed a little and mumbled something. Fluttershy raised her hand and Ellis nodded at her.
"Um, mister Ellis, what uh, do you need g-guns for?" She asked, staring cautiously at the gun in his hand. Ellis looked at the timid girl, seeing her soft features and brimming innocence. An extremely bitter thought flew through his mind, but he swallowed it down.
"Well ma'am, we're shooting zombies." Ellis said, seeing the group with a varying amount of stares.
Twilight Sparkle, child prodigy, science whiz extradonare, was just told by a mechanic that zombies were real. She wanted to laugh, she wanted to scoff, and do many things. However as she glanced over Ellis' body, she noticed bruises, scratches, she suddenly began to wonder how that all happened. She opened her mouth to say something when a menacing growl echoed through the area. Ellis was suddenly alert, gun up and eyes scanning the place. He looked over at Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity. "You three grab a weapon now. We have a bit of a problem." The growling began getting louder as they came back with two pistols and pump shotgun. A dark figure in a hoodie came from around the corner on all fours. One of the first things the girls noticed were the boils and calluses on it's arms, the bleeding from it's mouth and the nails that ended in claws. Needless to say, Twilight herself was gobsmacked by an actual honest to God zombie in front of her.
Said zombie seemed to single her out, as its head turned to the purple haired girl and crouched even lower. She took a step back as it howled and it leaped like a lion towards an antelope. Landing on her and knocking her friends away it did not hesitate for a second. As the first swipe ripped deep in her chest. Then, for a brief moment, Midnight woke up. Her eyes burned blue and her hands glowed a blackish purple and she tore the zombie off of herself. The zombie let out a confused and surprised squeal before it suddenly saw what was behind it. The fiend fell limp and Twilight carelessly discarded the corpse as she got up from the floor and clutched her chest. She looked at her friends, noticing the shocked faces of Rarity, Fluttershy and the others and took into account what just happened seconds ago. Her eyes, still a burning blue scanned all of them, including Ellis who just stared in surprise. She shut her eyes tight, forcing herself to calm down and force the monster within back into it's cage.
Ellis tapped Rainbow on the shoulder, "This something that happens often?" She only shook her head as she came up to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder, along with the others. Coach and the others came back after hearing the Hunter scream, but when the came back they saw the girls crying and Ellis standing there staring at them.
"Damn Ellis, normally I make women cry, what did you do?" Nick said sarcastically as he noticed three of them had guns now. Ellis still didn't say anything, but he just turned back to the corpse of the Hunter that was thrown away.
"I saw all of that... it was just seconds but I saw it." Ellis thought replaying the scene in his head again. The Hunter jumped on her, it got one swipe in, then suddenly it was launched up and... he shivered. "I know they probably mean no harm, but I thought zombies were bad enough..."
Nick shook him lightly, now concerned. "Hey, if you need to talk you can always lean on us." Ellis, still strangely silent nodded and walked out without a word. Nick looked at the Hunter then back at the girls, the noticed the one crying was bleeding. "She's still a kid..." he thought bitterly. He had nothing against kids, but that made the situation worse. Back when he had a more questionable clientele, he always refused jobs that involved people with kids. They called him a coward, a fool and many other names, but inwardly he didn't mind it one bit.
One of the girls looked at him and her expression lit up a little bit. "Could you s-spare that medical kit?" She said pointing at the med kit on his back. He took it off his back and handed it her and she gladly accepted it, though her face fell a little after feeling the weight. She opened it to confirm her fears, a single roll of gauze and small little bit alcohol. She went back to Twilight and began to go to work. Cleaning the scratches first, she took a scrap of cloth that was in the kit and began to gently yet firmly clean her wounds. The painful hisses coming from her friend made her heart hurt, but she had no time to be sorry. Being careful, she began to tightly wrap the gauze around Twilight's chest and used the tape to hold it all together. "There, good as new. We'll have to change it later in the morning though." She said patting her shoulder.
At that moment, all of them thought the same thought. "If we make it to the morning..."
While the seven girls huddled around their hurt member, the four survivors gathered around. Coach swallowed, his throat going dry. "Okay, so we have two major problems: First, these newcomers. We don't know them, only 3 of them can fight according to Ellis, and one of them is hurt already. I hate to say it, but I don't know if we can take 'em in." He said looking back the girls with a sorrowful look.
Nick cleared his throat and shook his head. "No, and this is coming from me. They're just kids Coach, they can't survive by themselves... even is what Ellis said is true." He said, still skeptical that the one hurt killed a Hunter with her mind. The others had their doubts too, thinking that Ellis was making it all up.
Ellis groaned. "I TOLD you, she just picked it up with her MIND and she popped his top off like a bottle of beer! Why would I lie about that?" He argued crossing his arms. The other three just couldn't believe anything that he was saying, thinking he killed it and then made it look like the girls killed it, probably to gain points to stick with them. Coach wouldn't have any of it.
"Ellis, I know you want to stick up for them since they're so young," he said placing a hand on his shoulder, "but I think it's time to stop with the games. We'll help them up until the next safe room, after that, they're on their own." Coach decided. Ellis stared at Coach then turned to Rochelle, looking at her expecting her to throw her input in.
"Hey, don't look at me! I might be a girl, but that doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. I hate to say it, because I can tell it's not that easy for Coach to say it, but I think he's right." She said siding with Coach. "And also... that's gonna be a problem, it's two and two."
Coach groaned a little. "Look, I'm not happy with it either, if I could have it my way I'd take them and everyone else with us! But we can't, and we won't. We need to look after our own Ellis. S'far as I'm concerned, it's just us four." Ellis looked at the older man and realized he sounded a lot like how Zoey described Bill, their lost member. Before a decision could be reached, the seven girls came out of the tunnel and went out to meet them. Before anyone could react, a strangled cough cut off any conversation that would ensue.
"Look alive people, Smoker's arou-- AH SHIT!" Coach said struggling against the tongue that lassoed around his body. A Smoker, high up on the rollercoaster could be seen dragging him and pinning him against the fence. The tongue constricted tightly around the large man, and before anyone could react Rainbow Dash was already up their behind the Smoker with a bat in her hands. Nick took a moment to notice that his back felt a little light all of the sudden. The Smoker itself was not paying attention to Rainbow haired assassin behind it, and only noticed her too late as heavy swing to its back made it roar in pain and bite it's tongue off, freeing Coach.
"C'mon ugly I can take you, you Richard Simmons looking mother f-- WOAH!" Rainbow exclaimed as the Smoker swiped at her with disease ridden, boiled hands. She swung against it, dodging swipes and scratches. She was fast, but not all of the time. The Smoker, seemingly getting mad at toying with it's prey bull charged at her. Not expecting such a bold rush, she was caught off guard and stumbled allowing the Smoker to wrap it's hands around her neck and squeezed as hard as it could. The Smoker coughed violently in her face, releasing green smoke that made breathing harder and her eyes watered like onions were in front of her. The noxious fumes and the choking together almost made her go limp, and in a last ditch effort she took the bat jabbed it into the knee of the Smoker as hard as she physically could.
The Smoker howled in pain and let go of her neck, allowing Rainbow to breath once again. She coughed as gasped for air like never before, clutching her neck feeling the fingers of the Smoker around her still, like a lingering phantom. She grit her teeth and grabbed the bat and went to the floored Smoker, who was trying to stand despite it's broken leg. In response to this she swung the bat into it's other leg, causing it fall over completely. When she was sure it wasn't trying to stand back up she threw the bat down the side of the coaster and began dragging the still alive Smoker by the legs. Seeing a rail that was broken she looked down the drop, a good 20 feet down. She nodded and dragged the Smoker to the edge.
"So long shit for brains." She said before football kicking the Smoker in the head, making it roll the rest of the edge over, and where it fell head first into the pavement, causing a green cloud of smoke explode from it's body. Touching her geode, bright baby blue wings erupted from her back like an angel and she soon touched down in front of her friends and the survivors. "Hell yeah! Rainbow one, zombies zilch." While her friends gave her some hoots and hollers, the other 4 looked in amazement.
Coach cleared his throat and turned to Ellis. "You know what?" he said looking at the younger mechanic, "I take back everything I said."
Author's Note
I forgot to hit publish. I feel dumb.
Mortification
The moment they saw Rainbow start flying Nick, Coach, and Rochelle knew that Ellis had to be telling the truth. She landed and started fist pumping in the air, yelling and screaming about how she kicked the zombie's ass. As her screams echoed through park, infected began to pick up her voice with their sensitive ears. Screams of the infected began echo back, homing in on the source of the loud sound, and all the girls and the survivors heard the howl of the infected. Rainbows screaming halted abruptly, looking in all directions as the howling began getting closer, and the four survivors scrambled to get into cover.
"Ah man, it's about to get all Baghdad and shit!" Coach said hefting his chainsaw, shaking it a little. "Damn... almost out." The fence began shaking and fast approaching footsteps began getting closer. Ellis started looking around, looking for a way to get his friends out. He turned towards the coaster and nudged Coach, and the old football coach took the message. "Everyone, we gotta start the Screamin' Oak! It's the only way out of here!" The seven girls and four survivors went to the main console of the rollercoaster, the sounds of the infected coming even closer now; Sunset could swear she heard the screams of them tear through the sky.
Pinkie, having experience with all sorts of carnival gadgets, hit the big button that started the ride and shot the lever full throttle. What she didn't know though, is that hitting the lever full throttle made a warning alarm go off and now the infected doubled their efforts. "Uh oh, RUN!" She screamed as the first of the infected tore through the fencing. Needing no second opinion the whole group began to run up the track, chasing after the coaster car. Gunshots ran out through the marathon, shotgun bursts and auto-rifles lighting up darkened areas meant for suspense. Applejack, even though she had shot deer with rifles and shot birds with a shotgun was suddenly put off by the fast moving infected closing the gap. Rainbow had no such qualms, as she took aim and began shooting, and while some shots went wide, she hit her mark more than once. A few shots to the chest to slow it down and shot to the head to keep it down.
"C'mon AJ! No hesitation with zombies!" Rainbow said, motioning to Rarity where even she was taking them out, albeit with a complaint every so often. AJ nodded and steeled herself for the next few infected that came her way, watching them barrel over each other to get to her. Applejack aimed for center-mass and pulled the trigger, watching as both infect flew back dipped over the railings. She couldn't help it; she chuckled a little. Taking aim again she began blasting through infected, watching them fall.
"Just remember AJ, they aint people... they're dead." She said reminding herself of what she was shooting at. Meanwhile, Rarity was not having the best of days, and that was being generous to say the least. She had no problem shooting zombies, and whether she were to admit it or not, the games the Rainbow Dash had showed her helped quite a lot in the empathy factor. Shooting someone wasn't above her; she was an upcoming star after all, but with these infected zombies running after her, rather intent on ending her existence, she couldn't care less of what she was shooting, much less who they were.
"There!" Sunset pointed up towards the alarm console, "We can probably shut it off from up there!"
"Alright people, just a little more an-- Oh, shit! WATCH OUT!" Coach began to back up, prompting everyone else to look ahead, and they didn't like what they saw. It wore overalls that had a big, golden and blood stained 'WO' embroidered on the front, the rements of a t-shirt and one big massive arm. "CHARGER!" Someone yelled, the Charger looked at the group in malice and hate and it steamed towards them, knocking them down and crashing into the railing on the tracks.
"Help! It's got me!" A meek voice called out and everyone looked up to see Fluttershy held in its grasp. The Charger itself was not intending for this thing to be it's target, but it didn't complain. Not that it could anyways. It grabbed her tightly in it's giant meaty hand, bruising her sides as she flailed in pain. "It... It hurts..." she thought as it began to pick her up and then it slammed her back down with incredible force. All the wind was knocked out her in an instant, and she could barely move her arm to stop its assault. The Charger, not caring for the victim it had pinned, raised it's arm once more and slammed it back down. Fluttershy had been kicked by a horse before, but she'd probably prefer that over what was happening right now. The second slam had broke a rib, and she tried to stare into it's eyes... but as she locked gazes with it, it became more clearer that there was nothing human left. Beady orange eyes met the large cyan ones and the Charger froze, just for a second, but a second enough for Rainbow, AJ and Rarity to begin shooting the monstrous infected.
Fluttershy was suddenly released, but could hardly breath, and as gasped for air. The Charger, now adorned with many bullet holes, fell limply on its front heavy side, the orange glow now lost from its eyes. Fluttershy reached out to Pinkie who helped her onto her feet and hoisted her onto her back in a piggy back ride. She gave a small smile before falling limp and passing out, which made Pinkie and her friends go into a panic mode. Suddenly without warning the alarm stopped and they saw the survivors up by the console. "Come on!" Rochelle called out reaching for them over the fence. One by one, they each climbed the railings and they eventually came to the shelter of a safe house. Blocking to door with all kinds of crates, everyone rested easy.
Nick, Coach, Rochelle and Ellis were all gathered around in the corner as girls began to tend to their passed out friend.
"Look, we can't leave them." Ellis whispered, "If we leave them now, they'll never survive. They have two hurt already and one of them looks like she ain't even gonna wake up."
"Ellis," Coach sighed, "we can't take 'em. I told you, I want to to, but that helicopter ain't gonna have enough room for all of them. We talked about this."
"Listen, I know I agreed with Coach before, but Ellis is right." Rochelle said trying to be the voice of reason. "We can't just leave them here to die. They wont make it a few hours let alone a night. Come on, you agree don't you Nick? ...Nick?"
Nick didn't answer. He actually wasn't paying attention at all, he was calmly staring at the girls working on their passed out friend. It stirred up memories he hadn't thought of in a long, long time. He could almost hear-- "Nick!" Rochelle said shaking him out of his daydreams.
Without really thinking he pushed back, almost knocking Rochelle on her ass as he took the scene in. "Sorry, I was kinda out of it, ears are still ringing. So what were we talking about, the girls? I think we should help them, yeah." He said hastefully, restocking his ammo and walked to the door to take pot shots at the zombies outside. The odd behavior of the normally snide con-man was throwing the other 3 off, something about it didn't rightly stick well.
"You okay?" Ellis said, still holding on to Rochelle. She didn't say anything but watched as Nick shot through the door hitting any infected that were in the way. She noticed how he was postured; stiff stance, incredibly focused... something was on his mind, something big.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She assured, standing back up. "Alright Coach, that's 3 on one. Majority wins, we stay and help them." She said turning to the loosely called 'leader' of the group. Coach was still looking at Nick, but he nodded his head in response.
"Yeah, I guess we do, huh? Sorry, I was being selfish, ever since we came across..." he trailed off, remembering the bridge back in at the port town. Rochelle, knowing what he was mentioning came up and gave him a little side hug.
"Hey, you ain't gonna be like that. You're a tough old bull." She reaffirmed. Coach chuckled and gave her a full blown hug.
"You really know what to say, little sister." He said laughing lightly.
"Hey! You're old enough to be my dad. " She laughed back, and soon they began to laugh outright, catching the attention of Ellis and Nick, and all the other girls, including the now awake Fluttershy. As the laughter died down, Pinkie suddenly appeared in between Coach and Rochelle, arm on each shoulder.
"Heeeeya! Name's Pinkie Pie!" she zipped around them and popped up by her friends. "Since I heard the laughing, I figured we need to get a party going on! But I left my supplies-- GAAAASP OUR STUFF!" Suddenly, every one of the girls became aware that they left their bags back on the other side of the coaster.
Rarity began whining. "Oh no! All my make up! It's gonna get ruined by... ruffians."
"Rare's, all due respect but I don't think make up and hygiene aren't exactly the highest thing in a zombie apocalypse." Rainbow Dash said, giggling a little.
Nick and Rarity both turned to her, "Yes it is!" they both yelled, then looked at each other in shock before the whole room devolved into laughter.
"So, since you girls are gonna be staying with us, we're gonna need your names. We already know Pinkie Pie was it? How about the rest of y'all?"
"Name's Applejack, toughest farm gal in the town. Apples are in the name, in the blood, and in the sweat of every Sweet Apple Acers farmer!"
"I'm Rainbow Dash! Fastest track and field runner in the state! I'm the head of every sports team, and everyone listens to me!" She got skeptical glares from her friends and the four survivors. "...Okay, maybe not all the time, but I'm good at strategies." She walked over to Fluttershy, "This here is Fluttershy, she's an animal care taker and sometimes a medical assistant at the games. She's patched me up more times I can count!" Fluttershy weakly waved from her spot and tried to sit up, only for a searing pain her side to flare up again.
"My name's Twilight Sparkle. I do things from science, biology, and other laboratory related works. Oh, I'm also possessed by a demon who wants to rip the universe asunder to understand magic." She explained without really thinking, and this caused the survivors some discomfort, none more than Ellis who saw first hand the brutality her supposed 'other half' displayed back in the Tunnel of Love. "Here, don't move Fluttershy, this is gonna hurt... probably a lot." Twilight said as she slowly traced her hand on the meek girls side and used her magic to carefully move the broken bone back in place.
"Wait a second back up," Nick said putting his hands up, walking to the girls "Magic? As in, hocus pocus, presto magic?"
"Well... Maybe not to that extend," Sunset said walking up to him, "but something similar. My names Sunset Shimmer, and... I used to be a raging bitch back in high school, I was a manipulative, arrogant person who thought of nothing but myself. Like Twilight, I was also a raging she-demon back then too... both metaphorically and literally." She said holding out her hand for shake, then quickly pulled it away. "I'm also an empath, a very powerful one, I still don't know how to completely stop myself from-- ahem seeing into people's heads..." This gave the four survivors pause. She could read minds? They all made a mental note to keep her arms length.
"I, am Rarity, caretaker of the Carousal Boutique and head of-- HURK!" Rarity's introduction was cut short as a Smoker tongue shot through the gaps in the door wrapped tightly around her neck and began pulling her to the still locked door. Nick started pulling her away from the door while Ellis took a knife from his pocket and cut the tongue. "cough, cough, cough! That... was most... cough, cough ...unpleasant." She said rubbing her neck and finding a line of greenish saliva coating her hands. She visibly gagged and her face turned green and ran into the farthest corner to vomit. "Very unpleasant..." she muttered walking back to the group.
After the rather surprising experience, Coach had everyone gather around the 7 girls. "Alright people, we need start moving. I know it's a little early, but here's the thing: with this recent attack on our fair lady here," Rarity smiled to herself at that, "the Specials are getting more bold now all of the sudden. We've never been attacked INSIDE the saferoom. We need to get to that helicopter as fast as possible, or else we're all gonna go 6 feet under, you guys feel me?" Everyone nodded, even the meek Fluttershy. Coach looked at Fluttershy with concern. "You gonna be okay Flutter-butter?" He said putting a hand her shoulder. She could feel the warmth of the kindly old man and she nodded.
"I'm ready... actually I want to try something." She had everyone clear out from around her and she slowly but agonizingly stood up. She grasped her geode and soon pony ears and wings of her own, much larger than Rainbows, appeared from her back. She gave an experimental flap before taking flight for a small period before falling back down and holding her side. "Sorry, I thought I could fly so no one would have to worry about me." She lamented and stood back up holding onto Rainbow.
"Hey don't worry about Flutters, you tried that's what matters. Now, everyone load up and get ready... we got zombie ass to kick." Coach said cocking his weapon.
