Dead Rising: Case Equestria

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 66:56:10

"Where am I?" Spike thought to himself as he slowly regained consciousness. "Oh man my head hurts like heck!" He thought wincing in pain as he opened his eyes and began to look around. He noticed that he was still in the Yucatan Casino, and that he didn't seem to have been hurt in any form or fashion, "well I haven't been hurt *yet** anyways,*" he thought with a bit of fear. However, he then noticed to his left a large earth pony stallion, who rivaled the size of Big Macintosh himself, with a beige coat and a sky blue mane and tail, though his mane seemed unkempt, he looked like he meant no harm. However, Spike noticed that the stallion didn't seem to be focused on him, but rather something in front of him.

"Look what I found you pretty girl!" The stallion said, his voice denoting that whatever he was talking to, was obviously important to him. "Fresh meat!"

"What!" Spike's eyes widened in alarm at the implications of the statement. The stallion then turned around to face Spike, having a smile on his face that under different circumstances, would lead the purple dragon to believe that he wouldn't hurt a fly. However, Spike's eyes then fell to what was behind the earth pony. "You've gotta be *kidding** me*!" He thought in horror as he saw a fully grown tiger, sleeping peacefully with a couple of bones from what was obviously its previous meals. "Hey uh mister!" Spike said gaining the stallion's attention. "There are plenty of zomponies around here! Maybe she could eat those?" He said with a hopeful smile.

"NO!" The stallion shouted angrily, which startled Spike at the suddenness of the outburst, "NO! NOT ZOMBIES! That meat is rotten like all her food now!" The stallion then gestured to some piles of meat that had obviously gone bad, as they were a sickly green and left untouched by the tiger. The stallion then continued on, tears almost in his eyes, "It's gone bad! She needs fresh meat!"

"Sure! Sure!" Spike said, feeling a little sympathy for the stallion, who's tiger obviously meant the world to him. "Reminds me of Fluttershy in a way!" He thought. "Hey listen!" Spike began, attempting to reason with the pony, "I can go find some meat! Like some fresh..." Spike stopped, realizing that Equestria didn't really have much use for meat products, "...fish?" He offered, remembering that griffons usually ate the aquatic animal as part of their diets, and that this being a place to serve all manner of Equestrain guests, there had to be some type of meat around.

"NO!" The stallion shouted hesitantly, showing that he had considered the offer at least briefly. He then gained a look of sadness and pain on his face. "Other ponies...not been very good to Thunder Tumble..." He said glumly, Spike noting that he must be Thunder Tumble, "not like Snowflake, " he said with a small smile as he began to gently pet the tiger, who purred in response to this act of affection. "Snowflake my friend..." he said quietly as he continued stroking the tiger's fur.

"Well listen Thunder Tumble..." Spike said, feeling sad for the poor stallion, who had obviously been made fun of many times, "let's talk this over ok buddy?" he said giving Thunder a reassuring smile. "We just need to talk this over nice and slow okay?"

"NO!" Thunder Tumble bellowed, making Spike jump back in shock, "Me not slow!" He shouted at no one it seemed like, "They all said that! Stop saying that!" The stallion said continuing on with tears now in his eyes. He then turned to the tiger, who had woken up amidst his cries of fury and had begun emitting a low growl. "You see!" Thunder Tumble said addressing his pet, "other ponies not nice!" His sadness then changed to a look of anger. "Snowflake..." he began in a low, threatening voice, "go and eat your fresh meat...it's time for supper!" He suddenly yelled out pointing to Spike. The tiger then roared once, it's eyes trained on its new prey.

"Aw *hay*!" Spike thought with unease at the situation presented before him.

[Pegasium Underground Tunnels]

Prince Blueblood sipped his tea calmly. "This day has gone quite perfectly if I do say so myself." He thought happily as he recalled the days events. "Step 1: Gather everypony possible into a setup in a giant arena, Check! Step 2: Release zomponies on said crowd, Check! Step 3: Create mass panic, Check! Step 4: Revel in your victory before looting the city senseless, Check! Step 5: Burst into random song out of sheer joy? Wait a minute..." He thought with a grimace at that last step before turning to a guard pony. "Guard?"

"Yes Prince Blueblood sir?" The pony gave a salute while heading to attention.

"Who wrote step 5 on the agenda?" Prince Blueblood asked with a good amount of annoyance evident in his voice.

"That would be Fancy Scribbles sir!" The guard replied almost immediately.

"Well have him fired!" Blueblood ordered, "...and get me a bottle of AppleJack Daniels, I feel as if I'm in a celebrating mood!"

"Yes sir!" The guard saluted the Prince once more, and then galloped off to go fulfill his orders.

"Ah, it feels quite good to be me!" The Prince chuckled as he began to relax in his chair. Suddenly, the doors opened and the Prince turned around to find the pony who had posed as Rainbow Dash carrying her real self on her back trotting in before setting the pegasus mare down.

"Sir, the mare Rainbow Dash has been retrieved as you have ordered." The mare said giving a salute to the Prince.

"Ah good! Now my plan will finally unfold!" Blueblood said with a malovent grin.

"Sir...just out of curiosity, what do you plan to do with her?" The pony asked seeing the look on Blueblood's face.

"Oh I simply plan to take care of our draconian and pegasus friends," He said nonchalantly, " and what way to get rid of a group, than to turn them against each other?" He smirked.

"B-but how will you do that?" The mare behind him said, voice mixed with nervousness and curiosity.

"It's quite easy really, all I need to do is alter her memories to make her think that she has never known that draconian pest of ours!" He explained, then asking, "you've heard of the 'want it, need it' spell have you not?"

"Y-yes sir!"

"Well then I am simply reversing what I want her to feel towards the dragon, by casting a 'hate it, scorn it' spell, and with her altered memories, she'll have no questions about why she needs to hate the dragon in question!" The pompous Prince said triumphantly. "For a bit of added fun, I'll also place a lock on the 'hate it, scorn it' spell until the dragon says his name, and then things will get...interesting..." Blueblood chuckled darkly as he said this.

"So will you perform it now?" The mare questioned.

"Yes, and afterwards you must take her back to the spot that the dragon and her agreed to meet up, and then we will watch as our two greatest threats take care of each other like a pack of rabid, cannibalistic, wolves." The Prince affirmed as he began preparations to cast the spells. Rainbow Dash however, could only lay on the ground limply, not knowing the fate that was about to befall her and Spike...

[In Rainbow Dash's Mind]

(Dead Rising 2: Off The Record: Pause Menu Music 3 plays)

"Oh man what happened?" Rainbow groaned as she struggled to get up, feeling quite tired. She looked around to see that she was back at the Safe Room where Scootaloo and all her other friends were. "What the- how did I end up here?" She wondered remembering that she had been on the other side of the mall practically before she had woken up. However, as she walked around she noticed something, everypony was gone! "What, but where did they go?" She thought worriedly as she checked all the rooms she could find. "I know that the other definitely wouldn't go anywhere with the younger fillies that would be dangerous!" Rainbow rationalized, "so why can't I find anyone?" Suddenly, a scream broke her out of her thoughts. "That came from downstairs!" She whispered to herself in shock as she galloped towards the source of the sound.

When she got down there, a horrible sight met her eyes. It was her friends, brutally beaten and bruised and they lay on the ground in pain. Huddled against the corner was Scootaloo, and trapping her there was...something she couldn't quite make out. Oddly enough the shape seemed to be that of a dragon, but for some reason she couldn't quite focus on the individual, though she could see everything else perfectly fine! However, she knew that whoever it was, they wouldn't harm her sister under her watch! "Hey you! Stop right there! Don't you dare touch her!" She yelled out angrily at the captor.

"Ah Rainbow, what a surprise!" The figure said, shifting to turn towards her.

"I know that voice! It's...it's...right on the tip of my tongue..." Rainbow thought, frantically, but fruitlessly trying to remember who the voice belonged to. However, she decided that it didn't matter and focused on protecting her sister.

"Why did you do this to Twilight and my friends?" She demanded of the figure, who simply chuckled in response.

"Oh Rainbow, you simply wouldn't understand!" The figure said waving her off as if she were a foal asking a silly question to its parents.

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow said in a challenging manner. "Try me!"

"Oh...if you insist." The voice said relenting, "They simply...got in the way."

"What?" Rainbow gasped in disbelief, "what could they have possibly gotten in the way of that justified this?" She yelled gesturing to her gravely wounded friends.

"Well you see, I am an individual who simply wants the means to get my life back." The figure said casually, not even bothering to acknowledge the beaten ponies. "You see a lot of ponies mocked me back when I should have had the fame I deserved, and instead of getting the praise I so greatly desired, I only had scorn. Since that day, I decided to set my priorities straight. That means, you get in my way, and you'll pay for it!" The figure explained with a bit of harshness at the end.

"You're crazy!" Rainbow scoffed, "Just because of that now you've hurt my friends and family! That's sick!"

"Ah speaking of sick!" The figure cut her off with a voice filled with realization, "Your sister here, needs this doesn't she?" It asked pointing at Scootaloo, who shrank back from the attention.

"You stay away from her you b-" Rainbow was cut off by the sound of a bell. It rang once, twice, thrice, until finally ringing a total of seven times.

"Ah seven A.M.!" The figure clapped its hands together and rubbed them in delight. "It's about time for Scootaloo to take a dose of this don't you think?" It asked her as it pulled out something Scootaloo desperately needed: A box of Ponybrex.

"Give it to me! Now!" Rainbow ordered, narrowing her eyes at the figure, who simply shrugged in compliance.

"Whatever you say!" The figure then looked as if it was about to throw the box to the pegasus mare, but then threw it on the ground, and crushed it with it's foot, much to Rainbow's horror. "Oops!" It's voice filled with mock surprise, "I should really be more careful when handling things like that!" It then chuckled evilly.

"How could you?!?" Rainbow roared furiously at the figure, who gave no visible reaction, "She needed that to survive!" At her outburst the voice simply laughed mockingly at her, making her rage overtake her as she rushed towards the figure, intending to utterly obliterate him. However as she got close to the figure, her dream, or memories in her mind, began to fade suddenly as she woke up.

[In the Silver Strip]

Rainbow gasped as she woke up suddenly, drenched in a cold sweat and panting furiously she looked around and sighed in relief noticing that the horrible scene was gone from her mind. Noticing that she was back in the Silver Strip, she checked the time on a nearby clock and realized that a whole two hours had passed since she had been in the South Plaza. "Man I napped for a while didn't I? She thought to herself as she simply sat down, recalling the dream she had had. "It was so vivid! Did it really happen?" She pondered as she then thought of something else. "Just who *was** that figure, I swear I knew him from somewhere..." She then gained of look of anger mixed with determination, "well whoever it was, if I *ever run into them again, they're going down." she vowed.

[Yucatan Casino]

(Dead Rising 2: Snowflake Boss Battle Music Plays)

"It's-a-tiger-It's-a-tiger-IT'S-A-TIGER!!!" Spike shrieked in terror as he ran through the many slot machines, trying to shake the orange jungle predator. However Snowflake, the tiger, being trained for this sort of situation, stalked him relentlessly as he ducked and weaved through the slot machines frantically. After a while Spike dove behind a counter, holding his breath as he heard the overgrown feline growling, and gave a sigh of relief as he heard the tiger run off to search elsewhere. He then called Twilight to see what he could do about this situation. "TWILIGHT!" He whispered rapidly as he hoped desperately that she would answer soon.

"What is it Spi-" She was suddenly cut off by Spike as he tried to hastily get to his point.

"Can you teleport Fluttershy over to my position please?"

"Uh sure just hang on a second!" Twilight answered as Spike began to hear talking in the background as the unicorn was telling the pale yellow pegasus what she was going to do. Spike then heard a crash and a primal roar near him as he gulped, knowing the tiger to be near.

"Come on Twilight hurry it up!!!" He thought in terror as he began trying to look around for another hiding spot. Suddenly much to his relief, Fluttershy appeared in front of him in a flash of light.

"Spike what is-"

"No time to explain come on!" He yelled hastily as he grabbed her hoof, pulling her away from the current spot they were in.

"O-Okay..." She said, her usual shyness entering her voice as she complied. As they ran/galloped away for a while, Spike decided they were finally a safe distance from Snowflake's keen senses. "Spike w-what's going on?" Fluttershy asked him with a worry-filled voice.

"Okay here's the deal, " Spike took a deep breath before explaining. "There's a tiger named Snowflake out there that's trying to eat me!"

"O-oh goodness, but why would it want to do that?" Fluttershy gasped at his explanation.

"Because this stallion named Thunder Tumble told her to, it seems that Snowflake was his pet and probably his only friend, because he was made fun of a lot as a young colt or foal I think. So I'm thinking that if you can get Snowflake to warm up to you and bring her to Thunder, then he'll see that we are at least a bit friendly and maybe talk him out of making the tiger eat us!" Spike said as Fluttershy thought it over, and then nodded.

"A-Alright, I'll do it." She agreed, flying off to find Snowflake, while Spike followed her, just in case Snowflake got a bit too rough for her to handle. Soon the mare sighted the jungle cat looking around in frustration for the dragon that it had been chasing after. However, it then detected her presence and roared at her as Fluttershy calmly walked up to the tiger, not letting it's aggressive stance faze her in the slightest.

(Music Stops)

(Fluttershy's Lullaby - Music Box Version plays)

The tiger was crouched, and prepared to pounce on the poor pony, but then something it didn't expect happened...the pegasus walked up to her, began stroking her fur, and spoke in a sweet, soothing voice. "There there!" Fluttershy said to the feline, who had stopped pouncing, but still maintained a stance of attack. "It's ok Snowflake, you'll be alright!" She continued stroking the fur of the feline, and noticed it's belly, which was skinny and and emaciated, "Oh my, you haven't eaten in quite a while have you?" She said gasping in shock, "You're not angry at all! Just hungry aren't you?"

As the yellow pegasus mare continued talking to the behemoth of a cat the feline slowly began calming down, gradually warming up to the yellow pegasus. Finally, Fluttershy successfully calmed the tiger into a calm state of purrs after much effort. Spike, who had been busy leading Thunder Tumble to this spot, ran in with the stallion chasing him angrily.

"I'll get you stupid...dragon?" He paused noticing the sight of Fluttershy and Snowflake together in a peaceful state. "Snowflake? You like yellow pegasus?" He questioned as the tiger gave an affirming lick to the mare next to her, to which Fluttershy smiled warmly at the feline.

"See Thunder?" Spike said, smiling as he watched the scene. "We didn't want to hurt you guys at all, we just wanted to be friends!"

"You wanted to be...friends?" The stallion echoed in wonderment as a huge grin crossed his face as he wrapped Fluttershy and Spike in a bear hug. "Friends!" He repeated happily, cherishing the notion of it.

"Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked in a terrified manner, turning a bright red as she was unaccustomed to such displays of affection, and from a stallion no less!

"Woah big guy!" Spike chuckled noticing his friend's reaction to the embrace. "Easy now! Don't want to crush us!"

"Oops, sorry!" The stallion grinned sheepishly while letting go of the pair.

"It's alright, just glad that's over!" The three shared a smile at the fact that a new companionship had been formed. "Listen Thunder, " Spike addressed his new ally, who turned to him, "how'd you like to come back to the safe house with us, I'm sure we can find Snowflake something to eat there!"

"Well, if you think we can then sure!" Thunder yelled happily as Spike and Fluttershy smiled at his joyful demeanor. However, Snowflake, who had noticed the talking that had been going on, had awoken from the nap she had been taking, and looking she noticed the one thing she still thought was food: SPIKE. She gave out a low growl as she began to slowly walk up to Spike, licking her lips in anticipation at the thought of a new meal.

"Oh hey Snowflake!" Spike said cheerfully as he noticed the tiger walking up. "What's going on- wait...why is she growling at me?" He asked nervously as he noticed the feline eyeing him hungrily.

"Uh oh..." Fluttershy and Thunder Tumble both said simultaneously , knowing the look that Snowflake was giving the dragon.

"What?" Spike said, confused as to why they spoke with such foreboding tones, "Why is she drooling? And licking her lips! And- oh you've gotta be kidding me..." He groaned as the tiger roared, lunging at her prey. "AW COME ON!" Spike yelled as he once again ran from the starving tiger.

(Dead Rising 2: Ted and Snowflake Theme plays again)

"Ok Spike, think fast, gotta feed a hungry tiger quickly..." He muttered as he frantically searched for a place to grab a slab of meat. Suddenly, he noticed that there was a restaurant on the other side of the casino. "Well, guess I gotta make a break for it!" He yelled, sprinting towards the diner as fast as he could with Snowflake right on his tail. Suddenly, he heard Snowflake coming from his right as he tried to jump out of the way, but still got tackled to the ground by the tiger. "Get offa' me!!!" He yelled, trying to keep the tiger from mauling him. He successfully managed to break free and keep running after a couple seconds of struggling.

He then managed to make it the rest of the way and dove for the cupboards that were sure to house some food. "Come on come on!" He muttered in a hasty manner, "Where's all the MEAT!" He cried out in joy as he found the object he was looking for. Not one, not two, but three fresh fish right at the back. "Sweet! Now how do I feed her the fish and not me?" He wondered as he suddenly heard Snowflake barrel into the restaurant, knocking over plates and cups before sighting him. "Hope this works..." He gulped as he lay the fish down in a trail leading to him, this enticed the tiger, who began to eat each of the fish one by one, with Spike taking a picture of the scene, figuring he might as well take a picture of the moment. This netted him a picture worth 2000 PP in the "Special" category. "Fantastic!" He yelled out proudly as the tiger finished her meal, looking around for more food before growling at him once again. "B-but I don't have any more..." He said nervously as Snowflake approached him, intent on finishing her meal.

Suddenly, as if by a grace from God, Spike noticed one slab of raw beef sitting untouched on a plate. "Well isn't this a nice coincidence!" He thought happily as he grabbed the piece of meat and held it in offering to the tiger, who graciously accepted the meal by hungrily chowing down on the beef. Then, the tiger looked up at Spike, and seemed regard him with a more...accepting look, walking up to him and giving him a light nuzzle, as if saying thanks for the meal. "Um...you're welcome I suppose." Spike said relieved that he didn't end up being dinner. Then a confused look crossed his face as he had a thought, "wait a minute...you're an orange tiger named Snowflake?" The tiger simply growled as if to say "yeah, and your point?"

(Music Stops)

Just then Fluttershy and Thunder Tumble came running up, half expecting Spike to be devoured, but were surprised to find Spike perfectly fine.

"Spike!" Fluttershy said happily, "thank goodness you're alright!" She then hugged him, relieved that he hadn't ended up lunch.

"Yeah Fluttershy I'm just fine!" The dragon reassured her. Just then, he looked at the clock in realization, before seeing that almost three hours had passed since he and Rainbow had split up. "Aw hay!" He thought, remembering that he still hadn't gotten any bits while in here.

"Spike? You ok little buddy?" Thunder Tumble asked Spike, noticing the dragon's guilty look.

"Well, not really." Spike said with a sigh. "You see, I promised my friend that I'd get at least 5000 more bits when I came here, but I haven't even gotten any, and we're supposed to meet up in a couple of minutes!"

"Oh..." Thunder Tumble said nodding as he concentrated on something, "Bits..." he echoed as he rubbed his chin in thought, before a look of realization found its way onto his face, "You mean like these?" he asked pulling out a good sized bag of the gold coins.

"U-uh yeah!" Spike stammered, not believing his incredible amount of good luck.

"Well, since Thunder and Snowflake don't really need these anymore, you have them Spike!" The stallion said smiling as Spike remained speechless, taking the bag into his hands.

"Thanks Thunder...I don't know what to say..." He said with a grateful smile. Suddenly, he remembered he had to leave. "Hey Fluttershy, can you help Thunder back to the safe room for me?" He asked pleadingly, knowing that he didn't have much time to spare.

"Of course Spike, don't worry about it!" Fluttershy said smiling, "You just hurry along and get back to Rainbow Dash ok?"

"Will do!" Spike said nodding as he ran back towards the Silver Strip. However, as he began to head back, he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen...

[Pegasium Underground Tunnels]

"And now, we wait..." Blueblood said with a smirk as he watched Spike running towards Rainbow Dash on the many screens he had in his hideout, waiting for his plan to come to fruition...

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 66:01:19