zomb1e: You can (not) escape
The rustling of the amber-hued fall leaves fill the air as an icy breeze rips across the Equestrian country-side. The wind cut through the grass as the cicadas chirped their evening song. Four ponies, camping in the middle of nowhere. Three dedicated to survive, one just didn't care.
"Should we talk to her?" Said the snow white pony as she inched towards her lavender friend. "She's gone through so much today, Rarity. Maybe we should try to comfort her." The young Twilight Sparkle said staring at the meek, shy pegasus who stood upon a hill staring back at Ponyville, with tears and dark mascara running down her face.
"She could use a good laugh!" An inapropriately happy Pinkie Pie cheered. "Fish neck tie or spinning bow tie?" Pinkie chirped as she pulled out two novelty props. Twilight, understandably shushed her down, quickly changing Pinkies face to a more negative demeanour. "Pinkie we don't need laughter now. This isn't the time." Twilight barked with a cross look in her eyes.
"We need food and water from a source we can trust" the organized and studious pony said, with a slightly frustrated tone. "Applejacks is using both her home and barn as safe houses. If we can head west, we can meet up with the Apples so we can make a stand for as long as.." Rarity cocked a concern eyebrow "As long as what, darling?" Twilight sighed, dark bags under her eyes. "As long as it takes before we are overrun."
Fluttershy continued to sob as the loud pops of gunfire echoed from Ponyvilles distant flames. She lost someone very close to her.
Rarity, with a look of sadness in her eyes pleaded to Twilight. "Let me be night watch tonight Twilight. You're positively a mess. How long has it been since you rested? 48 hours? 72 hours? This isn't beauty sleep we're counting on you to..." Twilight snapped and responded with feral vigor "To do things right! That's exactly why I won't sleep! If I don't do this by the book we won't make it to Applejacks!" Realizing how aggravated she had gotten, the frazzled mare apologized. Rarity backed down and Pinkie watched from her crude dirty blanket bedding, eyes full of childish naïveté and uncertainty of the situation.
Twilight took a deep breath and closed her tired eyes. "You guys get some sleep, we'll make for the farm tomorrow. My magic will protect us."
Pinkie and Rarity submitted and headed to their impromptu beds. Fluttershy decided to lay on the grass and sleep. They would have a rich, full day tomorrow. A rich, full, horrible day.
Meanwhile.. At Ponville square.
Rainbow Dash, along her troop of weather control ponies flew over the chaos that unfolded, just three days prior.
"Hey you! Earth pony hiding in the barrel!" She yelled into a bullhorn as a barrel used for holding corn shivered and wobbled. "We need everypony who hasn't been bitten, into quarantine for thorough evaluation! C'mon I'm talking to you!". Rainbow dash. Was losing her patience as the well-trimmed caramel-coated stallion worked his way out of the barrel.
A loud shrill horse whinny, like the sound of polished hoofs on a chalkboard, reverberated across throughout the scene as a grotesque olive coloured "earth pony" spotted the attempted escapee, extended several bloody pink gill like organs from it's abdomen, becoming a twisted fan of meat that expelled the most horrid shrieking noises.
Lower guttural grunting whinnies grew as the sound of clamorous hoofbeats grew. Before long the square was filled with decaying equine hell spawn that swarmed the panicked caramel colt. He made a mad dash for the road out of town, one pony against hundreds that filled the square wall to wall. Rainbow knew that saving him at this point was a lost cause. Caramel galloped past the food cart, when a swamp green mare burst out of the apple cart, lunging towards him, diving snout deep into his shoulder. Loud slurping and snarls as he was pinned to the ground. The horde of zombies diving into their new meal with the feral perversity of rabid beasts.
Loud throaty groans of anguish as Caramel's blood splattered left, right, up and down across the food stands. Some zombies dove face first, tearing through skin and fat with their blunt, rough herbivore teeth. Some stomping his guts into a paste with their hooves to make an easier slurry to consume. One thing was for certain: Hundreds of ponies wanted a pieces, but there wasn't enough to go around. The screeching zombie continued his horrible cry as Caramel's cheek was tossed around like a blood frisbee as zombies fought amongst each other for the piece. The more ravenous ponies snapped and crunched through bone like hyenas, leaving none to waste. By the time the frenzy was over the screeching had stopped and Caramel was nothing but a puddle of blood. Within seconds the square was empty as the zombies bolted out in all directions as fast as they came.
2ombie: You can (not) endure
"Wake-up Fluttershy" The waking world blurred into the meek Pegasus eyes as the cool morning air blew the grass which clinged to her tear soaked eyes away. Twilight Sparkle smiled as Fluttershy appeared to be much less downtrodden than the night before.
"Twilight, you look awful." Fluttershy said wiping the residue from her eyes. Twilight gave an optimistic chuckle. "I've been up for a while. You holding up okay?" There was awkward silence as Pinkie and Rarity watched. "I'm.. I'm fine." Fluttershy softly said with slight tearing up. Twilight wrapped her hooves around her gently. "Sorry about Angel. If there was another way..." she said trying to comfort her emotionally distraught friend. "Oh, I know. I should just.. Accept facts and move on." Twilight nodded affirmatively. "That would be the most reasonable thing to do" she said with a smile on her face.
"Um Twilight deary, where did all the food go?" Rarity piped up, interupting their touching moment. Twilight looked back with a stern look. "It went nowhere but our mouths. I told yesterday that those raisins were all we got till we got till we got to Applejacks. All the other food was grain-based. This didn't happen till the grain came in from Appaloosa. I'm not gonna take any chances with the food we eat." Pinkie bounced towards Twilight "Oh Twilight you joker you. Bet that saddlebag is full off taffy, and popcorn, and taffy flavoured popcorn and popcorn with taffy inside, ooh! And chocolate covered peach tarts with popcorn-flavoured taffy centres? Or maybe.." "NO!" Twilight shouted. "Just bandages, antiseptic, an emergency flare gun, bottled water and some quills with paper." Rarity looked appalled. "This is a 30 mile trot, and you're telling me you don't have any..." Fluttershy finally got a word in edgewise "Girls.. Don't fight." Twilight blew a gasket and screamed. "STOP IT ALL OF YOU!!"
The camp grew silent. "You have a problem walking 30 miles hungry. Stay here. I'm doing the best for my friends. Rainbow Dash chose to stay and help survivors. Spike is staying with his dragon friends in the mountains. They made their choice. You stood by me and what I see as the most reasonable way to handle this. Fluttershy! You are the only one here on my good side! You've stood by me, even after Angels death. Even after those monsters ravaged your animals and you wanted them to take you. I stood by you and you stood by me! And that! Is why! We'll survive! Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie looked back with a smile. "Ponies are dying and you're acting like this is all a game! There's a time for humour but your childish nonsense will get use killed!" Pinkie's smile quickly turned to a frown. "Rarity! Do you honestly expect comfortable living in all this!? If you want gourmet cuisine and a warm made to lay on, go back to Ponyville! Just don't expect me to come to your aid when your beauty sleep is disturbed by those monsters bursting into your boutique! I have the knowhow to keep us all alive but I need you guys to work with me! Beggars can't be choosers. You either put your fate in my hooves, or you risk your lives carving your own path!"
By the end of her long tirade Twilight Sparkles friends were speechless. Twilight was drenched with sweat, exhausted from her rant. The insomnia was killing her. Her friends looked legitimately sorry for their selfishness, with the exception of Fluttershy who felt sorry simply because she felt obligated to be.
"Darling.. Get my shoulders. We'll take turns carrying you to Sweet Apple Acres. You need rest." Rarity said with the deepest voice of concern. "No!" Twilight snapped back "I need to make sure everything-" Rarity gained a smug look. "I need you to stop being so selfish if you want us to survive." The ivory pony said mimicking Twilight's little spiel. The purple mare hung her head and submitted. "You're right."
Pinkie brushed up against Twilights side. "We'll take super good care of you. I'll even hum you the lullabies I sing the cakes babies." Twi sighed with appreciation. "I'd like that."
Meanwhile.. In the Ponyville town hall.
Crowds of ponies murmur in a large dark meeting room. The windows and doors have been nailed shut and very limited candle light illuminates the cold safe house.
The mayor stands at the podium. No microphone in place. She gently taps her hoof on the podiums wooden surface, hoping the crowd would pay attention to her. They do.
"Fillies and gentlecolts." She said with an uncharacteristically subdued volume. "I know for many of you, this doesn't seem real. I'm sure many of you just want to wake up in your beds and be relieved that this was all just a bad dream. I would like to believe this as well. If this is a dream, that somehow we all are sharing, I'd pray to Celestial that we'd all wake up right now. But the longer this lasts, the less it seems likely to be true." "So what are we gonna do!?" Shouted a panicked elderly stallion with a goatee and flimsy green hat." The mayor gently tapped her hoof on the podium again to keep order. "We need to keep our voices down, Mr. Greensleeves. Once these.. Aberrations.. Once they see one living pony, the hive is stirred. We have our best scientists on this. They have only retained two key senses. Hearing and sight. They can not taste or smell." "So why are they eating us!?" Another pony barked. The mayor tapped again. "Please hush everypony. All we have to go on is their metabolism. That's our only lead. We've received a letter from the princess. I need us to all stay calm while I read this. Make to much noise, and we'll have a problem on our hooves. Thank you."
The mayor pulled a small scroll out of the drawer compartment in her podium.
"Dear citizens of Ponyville. For a thousand years you have been my subjects, ever loyal and unwavering. I am well aware what is happening in your town, but I'm afraid my power to fight it is limited. The plague that has taken over your home is known as the necrine. Believed to be as old as the very soil itself. The tiniest of life, small creatures buried deep within Equestrias crust. There is a species of grain weavil, who's eggs and larva are carrying the necrine bug.
Ponyville, you are not alone. Both Cloudsdale and Canterlot have smaller regions afflicted by the plague. My sister and I are working on a solution but this disease predates ponies themselves. Before ponies this was taking the earliest dragons, the fish in the rivers, everything. We don't know what killed it for so long but the last necrine plague was over twenty-four million years ago. Since then only old mares tales spoke of pony corpses walking among the living.
Our hooves are tied. If you are here to hear these words I have written, you have passed the test I ordered the mayor to give all survivors. Your blood is clean. You are in the safest place I can place you given the circumstance..."
Carrot Cake stood up while his wife tried to keep the babies calm. "Given the circumstance? Some of use have foals here. If only parts of Canterlot are infected I say we belong there." Cup Cake pulled her husband down with one hoof. "Shush dear we should trust our Princess Judgement."
The mayor resumed reading the princess letter.
"While my royal guard keeps Canterlot under control, I have issued a strike force from Cloudsdale to aggressively terminate the presence of the infected. Rest assured. They are not your loved ones. They are a perfect machine designed for endurance and survival across all life. These creatures only exist to find prey, then consume it. Survive an attack, and you are one with their swarm. Quiet seclusion is your only hope while I find a solution. Be brave and stay strong. We will live to see another day. With the sincerest love, Princess Celestial."
zombi3: Disillusionment and Decapitation
zombi3: Disillusionment and Decapitation
Author notes: I notice this is getting a negative reception thus far. Constructive criticism is welcome I'm just happy to tell the story I want to tell. :)
====================================================== Jammo!
Twenty of Cloudsdales best flyers. The ones who proved their ability to cope and stay composed in the tightest of situations. These fine colts and mares are the most agile, most resilient and by far the most proud in service to her majesty's throne. They stand in formation atop a cloud overlooking Ponyville. receiving an intense briefing by the reigning commander of flight, a shorn-mane, brown coateded, no-nonsense pegasus by the name of Oscar Mike. The revered officer who earned his grenade cutie mark whilst he was still being foalsit.
"I don't think I need to tell you what's at stake here. You've proved well enough that you can handle a crisis. A wise pony once said 'We make weapons so that we may hopefully never have to use them.' Bah. Idealist prattle." The gruff commander adjusted his cigar in his mouth.
"Of course we'll need them. It's inevitable. Though those high-class sissy britches Canterlot types have kept these out of our hooves for years, they've finally come to their senses and realized to deter aggression and establish dominance we need force!"
A cyan blue mare dressed in tradional Cloudsdale gladiator garb raised her hoof. "Rainbow Dash! Do you have a reason you're interrupting my speech?!" Rainbow Dash backed down with a nervous smile. "That whole guns are need for peace thing. Know this egghead, she called that a 'paradox'" Oscar Mike scowled and puffed his stogie "Yes, and?" Rainbow backed down further "Just wanted to.. Uhh.. Impress these guys." she squeaked as she grinned at the Wonderbolts standing next to her. They casually ignored her bid for attention.
Oscar Mike stood up unimpressed by Rainbows insolence. "If you're gonna brown nose in the military, do it to a superior, not someone of equal or lesser rank!"
Oscar Mikes hoof reached out to a large sturdy chest sitting next to him. "Now! In here we have all the equipment we need. You are already outfitted with the Gladiator light-class aerial combat armour. Resilient fibre weaving outfitted with the finest weight-reducing unicorn magic, but bear in mind that a single bite from these creatures and I will order your execution. The armor sacrifices sturdiness for aerodynamic effectiveness but the wings and joints are not protected so mind where you fly"
"Yeah!!!" A massive mountain of pegasus yelled as he got himself pumped for the attack. Oscar Mike opened the chest revealing two long distance sniper rifles, six automatic assault rifles and twelve submachine guns. "Now. Our speedster class will be equipped with these lightweight submarine guns. That means you Ms. Interupty-pants." Rainbow Dash hung her head. You will be in charge of the ground team, clearing out the infected from this suburban district down in Ponyville. Please hover exactly 12.89 inches off the ground so I snipers won't shoot you. Not 12 inches, not 12.9. I expect perfection from all of you, including you Rainbow Dash". Rainbow gets a frustrated look on her face. "No zombie can fly. Not even infected pegasi so if you want to be able to trust our snipers we need you to hover."
The troops with the assault weapons will fly over hand and shoot anything trotting around in that danger zone. We are not in the business of helping ponies at this point. Treat all trotters as hostile. Do I make myself clear?" "Sir yes sir! (YEAH!!)"
"We'll then. Down ya go." Oscar Mike slammed his hoof down the cloud causing it to dissipate. Rainbows ground team diving down toward the street, two machine pistols in hoof. Ripping through the air, the assault team second and the snipers up in the nearby clouds.
Rainbow makes touchdown, hovering gently over the ground. "Screeachhh" The glass in the suburban stone hovels windows shattered with the shrill noise. Rainbows team standing in the middle of a cobblestone street square.
Rainbows tongue licked her lips as she uttered under her breath "Aww yeah."
Cascades of gloppy, wretched ponies poured out of every building. Strands of rotting tissue clinging to the soil around them as they try to gain enough composure to start their rush.
Rainbow shouted to the assault team above her "assault team and snipers! Take out the shrieking one! We make enough noise we don't need all of Ponyville after us!"
Thunderlane, had been assigned to sniping duty moved his scope around the various cottages and huts looking for the source.
The zombies were galloping at full force as Dash's team braced for battle. "Yeah!!" The herculean white pegasus with blood red eyes yelled as he charged his mass through the crowds, causing the beasties to blow apart in gooey seaweed line strands of green rotten flesh and inky dark red, nearly black blood. A zombie grabbed onto his ripped shoulder trying desperately to bite through his armor. Slobbery jaws and yellow teeth gnashing as the fetid yellow-green phlegm leaves vile trails on him.
"Noo!!" He shouts, stopping for a moment of silence to reevaluate his sentiment while zombies crawl up his put to find a good spot of exposed fur. The gears turn as he realized what he should have said. "YEEEAAHHH!!" He bellows spinning his hooves outright like a massive equine tornado, zombies blowing apart like plasticine, undefinable bits of horse matter splattering all across the square in a gruesome torrent of rancid slime.
Rainbow Dash continued to pepper the crowds of zombies with lead as the loud anguished screeching continued. "Thunderlane!? Any pony up there? Get the shrieker! What the hay is taking so long?"
Suddenly the loud wet electrical sound of magic energy shot through the scene. Tidal waves of nasty olive-coloured light ripped through the cobblestone, tossing bricks and dust through the air, nearly striking Spitfire has her flank was turned to the fields to the east.
The sounds of laborious feminine moans now complimented the vile shrieking and gunfire. "Oh for Pete's sake what now!?" Slow shambling zombified unicorns we approaching from the eastern field. They moaned ominously as if an intelligent soul was preserved inside, trying to retake it's own body. Their bodies were dry, cracked and coloured with a subdued variant on what was likely their natural colour. The horns were grooved and misshapen with many twists and gnarls. Magic spewed out of their ends not with the concentration of a typical unicorn, but a gross vomit of unfocused and ugly magic that continued to spew even when not casting.
"Hah! New guys. I like them!" Rainbow cheered with a mischievous grin on her face. Spitfire smiled back. "Show my your best, 'Bow. Bet you you can't take them all on." Rainbow Dash, never turning down a challenge got a determined look on her face. "Oh you are so on." She bolted towards them, slowing as she closed in, then flew in a quick strafing motion showering them with bullets. They were unphased by the assault. The bullets cemented in air an inch from their bodies.
Boomboomboom! Snipers attempted to take shots at the unicorns, unappreciated by Dash. "Hey! I'm supposed to be the one to..!!" Boom! A bullet whizzed by her head, barely missing her. When she turned back to reengage her target they were just as terrifying as before, sans their heads, which the snipers antimaterial, antimagic rifles made quick work of. The zombicorns neck stumps sparked and steamed as the residual magic escaped their bodies. These zombies stayed far better preserved than the zombified Earth ponies. Their meat was still red and their fur was still intact, unlike their sludgey green non-magic kin.
The shrieking continued as Dash' squad was being overwhelmed back at the district square. Things were going south fast for Skydreamer and Swiftwing, who had their limbs ripped off and head cracked open respectively. The horde buried snout-deep in Swiftwings brain matter making loud throaty slurps as it's face contorted spastically with bliss inside his meal.
Destiny Sunbeam, Pegasus aspiring to be an air guard for Princess Celestia's air guards was being pinned down and maimed by a persistent zombie that continued to attack, even without a lower body. Grimy hooves crashing in her sternum as noxious syrup drips from it's hungry maw.
Even the nigh-invulnerable meat-head, drug-fuelled pegasus was slowly being overwhelmed by the wave. Blasting apart the freaks with a auto-shotgun he likely smuggled into the battle. He couldn't hold out forever.
Rainbow Dash panicked. "I don't care what that lameoid drill sergeant says we don't need to be this close. Why the hay do we need to float near ground level!?"
Spitfire spoke similar concerns "They should be watching our flanks but instead they are taking out the one's.." She hoof punched a zombies skull in. "That AREN'T killing us." Dash sprayed clip after clip. "And they still don't have the shrieker down!"
Dash fired her twin machine pistols into the crowd of undead, sending the grimy chunks of rotten gel that composed their body up in their air like rotten chopped salad.
Several zombies came dangerously close to biting Soarin. "Dash's right we don't need to be this close!" Soarin flew several feet in the air to gain a safer position.
"Guys get up here they can't fly!" Soarin insisted as the ground team shredded through zombie bodies with clip after clip.
"SHRIIEEEEKKKK!!" The sound of the yet unseen shrieking zombie grew so loud that Dash thought her eardrums would burst. A loud reverberating bang shook the square as Soarin was sniped out of the sky. Spitfire shrieked as she balanced her emotions between what she saw and her will to survive the zombies. The shrieking deadened to it's normal volume.
"You bastards! I'll kill you all! Why did you kill him!?" The zombies dived into the bloody cornucopia that was Soarin. Ripping off his ear with their teeth, burying their filthy jaws into his sternum, hissing and snarling as they consumed him from the inside out, leaving the rest of the ground force ignored.
Spitfire, in tears abandoned the fight and flew straight for Oscar Mike, who stood on the cloud alongside the snipers.
With another loud bang Spitfire was shot out of the sky like her comrade. Rainbow Dash weeping as two of idols fell. The zombies then gravitated towards the newest source of food. Dash was horrified. Point blank she chewed through the beasts who were feasting on Spitfire with her spray of bullets.
Dash yelled upwards towards the clouds "Is this some kind of cruel joke!? Why'd you kill them?! Are you so dense that you think they're the shrieker!?" Dash had then realized that they shrieking had stopped and the zombies were coming smaller packs, completely ignoring them while trotting towards the fallen as if they were bait.
The assault team, the snipers and the four ground troops still alive after the onslaught were killing zombies like shooting fish in a barrel.
Dash' face reddened with rage. "I HATE YOU ALL!! Does loyalty mean nothing to you guys!? Friendship here is dead!!" Rainbow spewed justified bile as she lobbed grenades from her belt into houses, indiscriminately demolishing them. With two loud pops to snipers took failed potshots at Dash.
"HUH!?" She raged at the clouds. "Is that your answer!? Out of line once and then you ice them?"
Oscar Mike picked up a electronic bullhorn and spoke down to her. "We're shooting you cause you've clearly turned hostile."
Dash was at her most hot-blooded. "Hostile!? You killed them!!" Oscar sighed not of frustration, but a look of deep regret. "Come up here Dash. This missions done. Assault will clean up the rest."
"So you can take shots at me again!? Why in Celestia's name would you do this?" A recognizable face grabbed Oscar Mikes horn. It was Fleetfoot, another member of the Wonderbolts. "Dash. This is Fleetfoot. You and your crew are welcome up here. I can promise you your safety." Rainbow Dash looked up, caked in blood and gooey, swampy zombie matter, a wide-eyed expression on her face. She did as she was asked as she flew with her team up to the cloud vantage point.
Oscar Mike extended his hoof out. "I guess I owe you an explanation." Rainbow ignoring him as she hugged Fleetfoot with a mournful expression on her face.
"That shrieking dowhattle thing.. It gets louder when it sees prey escape. I felt that putting your crew in the action, facing the enemy would give your crew the rush you needed to do this. The further you'd retreat, the more that thing would have drawn attention. We couldn't have all of Ponville stirred."
Dash sobbed, voice cracking as her blood soaked coat was embraced by Fleetfoots compassionate arms. Her voice cracking "Th-that's no excuse. You'd didn't tell us why we couldn't retreat. Never told them to go back down. You had them shot. You're a monster."
Oscar Mike snorted. "You're right I am. I murdered. There were better ways. Dash.. I'm willingly turning myself to Canterlots court to be tried for my actions. I feel like I've cast aside my soul in this. I robbed Equestria of these fine ponies.." "NOT GOOD ENOUGH! This was senseless!!" Dash yelled. "You think you can just say 'I'm sorry and expect me to feel better? You killed them!" Mike quietly contemplated his actions. He had grown old, and the lack of any significant war during Celestias rule. The first action he'd seen in decades and the pent up frustration that led to his rash thinking. "Listen.. Dash." He reached out. "DON'T!!"
The disgraced official hung his head in shame. "I see.." He slowly trotted to the edge of the cloud, allowing himself to fall over the edge. He fell like rock hitting the ground with a wet splat, a few straggling zombies trotted out of hiding to consume him, with Thunderlane picking them off one by one.
Fleetfoot gave Dash one more hug. "Let's go home, dash. You did good. We all need some rest.
