Kirkyard Rest Halloween Event

“YEE-HAW!”

Thunderous cracks rippled through the once quiet ruins of Manehattan, punctuated by furious roaring and gleeful laughter. A manticore, fleeing from an unseen enemy, launching itself furiously into the air, spinning and flailing at the demonic unicorn straddling its head. His stinger whipped at her over and over, but it couldn’t penetrate the unwavering shield she maintained around herself.

Gripping the mane of the beast in her teeth, Nei jerked his head to the side to steer him away from a broken, faded billboard advertising Sparkle-Cola Rad and back down towards the empty buildings. Her manticore landed on the ruins of a skyscraper with a crash, his claws scrabbling for purchase. Grinning, Nei threw her weight to the side, pulling them both off balance so that they fell together down through the buildings. Her steed roared in panic, flapping his wings uselessly before launching himself against the side of the building. Slowly his claws scraped down, halting their fall, a little too early for Nei’s taste. She lived for the thrill of death, lived for her heart racing and her knees turning to jelly. Turning his head at her, the manticore hissed and struck out at her with his stinger, but it couldn’t penetrate the shield that she maintained with her pale blue magic.

Laughing like a madwoman, Nei settled her weight once more and bucked the beast in the side, throwing him back into the fray.

In an act of desperation, the manticore, whom she had mentally dubbed as a “Steve”, began bounding through Manehattan, heading straight for the irradiated crater where a balefire bomb had once decimated the city. Pigeons scattered before them, fleeing from the rampaging beast. Nei rocked from side to side as Steve smashed himself into whatever he could find in his attempt to dislodge her from his head. Crater territory was ghoul territory, and Nei began pulling at Steve, trying to get him to turn back to the east of the city where it was only skeletons and the occasional traveller or raider. Steve shook his head again, deafening roars shaking loose dust and old bricks as they flew past. Nei could feel the heat from the crater, even this far away. Her mind flashed to her little sister, waiting at home amongst her books and potions, but soon that was swallowed in the sheer insanity of the moment.

The wind had undone the braid she usually kept her mane in and it whipped around her face, obscuring her vision. Steve let out another teeth rattling roar, and this time it was answered by an unearthly scream. Shoving her mane back, Nei scanned ahead only to groan out loud. She started ripping at Steve’s mane, trying to pull him into a turn, but he ignored her and spurred himself on, now for his own protection. The crater might not be harmful to manticores, but the legions of feral ghouls roaming around it certainly were. Steve was heaving with sweat and foam, Nei could see he wouldn’t be able to sustain a long run from a horde of ghouls, but he would have no choice. She kicked a hoof deep into his flank, spurring him on.

Howls and squeals grew around her, savage and unhinged. Legions of glowing eyes and gnashing teeth poured out from the once lifeless buildings, undead and rotting bodies racing towards them with the speed that only necromance could grant. Steve’s roaring had turned from rage to fear, and he began to flap his leathery wings, attempting to gain altitude. The still air trapped between skyscrapers offered no help. Nei could see he would need to get higher before he would have any chance at flight, but the buildings around them were infested with ghouls. Climbing one would be impossible, especially with Steve already tired, but she knew it was their only chance. Any closer to the crater and she wouldn't be able to walk away with a few rad-aways, she would have to go to Tenpony to get a full purge.

“HA!” She yelled, spurring Steve onwards to a building that had half collapsed in on itself. The rubble offered a form of stairway, mercifully free of ghouls. It was at the last minute she noticed the glowing eyes, just as Steve made the leap up the building. The ghoul screamed, hurtling out of a pile of rubble and onto Steve’s back, sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Steve bellowed in pain, and began to buck and claw at his back, narrowly missing Nei. His stinger punctured the ghoul repeatedly, but poison can do nothing to the already dead. She pulled a knife from her tail, the blade glowing under the light of her magic, and began hacking at the neck of the ghoul. Being so close to the crater was unhelpful, the cuts she made healed almost as fast as she could make them, but it did serve to distract the ghoul. Releasing Steve, it turned its eerily glowing eyes to her and snapped at her hooves. Nei knew from her sister’s lectures that being bitten by a ghoul was almost certain death due to infection, and she found herself doing a mockery of a dance to keep out of its reach. The screeching horde behind them began to pile up against the building, bodies crawling over each other to reach the struggling manticore.

Nei shuddered in horror, bucking out hard against the ghoul on Steve’s back. Her hooves connected with soft, rotting flesh with a sickening crunch, and the ghoul tumbled back down into the throng.

“Up here!” Nei’s head snapped up at the shout, spotting a bright green and grey pony leaning out from a floor higher up. Limey! She was a pony from Tenpony Tower, one of the few that Nei could consider a friend. Limey reached her hooves down, stretching out to grab Nei’s hoof as the manticore dragged them up to the safer higher floors. His great leathery wings snapped and flapped, desperate to fly away.

Balancing on Steve’s head, Nei could see she would have to jump if she wanted both herself and Steve to survive this mess. She turned, looking down at the ghoul horde seething and roiling below them, then back up at the outstretched hoof of her friend. Grinning, she released her shield and threw herself into the air, a momentary fall into nothingness before strong earth pony hooves gripped her own. Limey grunted with the effort, pulling Nei into the building with her. Steve gave a rumbly growl and swiped at Nei’s tail as she sailed past him, but freed of his burden he was able to easily climb to the building top and take off, flying back to the safety of his herd.

Nei lay on the dusty and faded carpet of what was once a plush room, gasping for air. Her stomach swam with the slight radiation sickness from being so close to the balefire crater, and her limbs shook with adrenaline.

Limey’s face appeared above her, concerned. “What on earth were you thinking? That was dangerous, even for you!”

Nei didn't reply, instead reaching a trembling hoof up to her friend’s face. “Boop!” She said, tapping Lime on the nose before her leg fell back to the floor with a thump. She began to giggle softly, before giving away to loud guffaws through the sheer exhilaration of her adventure.

Lime found herself beginning to smile despite the ridiculousness of her friend, and soon the girls were collapsed in a heap on the floor of a once prestigious hotel, laughing like lunatics.