Dead-Pony Rising

“...Here we are!” Lyra said as she squeezed through an opening in the ventilation shaft. Rainbow wasn't too far behind. When Lyra got out she looked up to see who was staring at her and froze up in attention stance and saluted. “Commander! Survivor found!” She said.

The blue, sparkly alicorn raised her eyebrows as she heard a grunt come from the shaft behind Lyra. Rainbow Dash fell out of the shaft embarrassingly in front of the royal alicorn. Rainbow Dash looked up to see her princess in something like a climbing suit. Rainbow struggled a little, but got up and bowed before her princess.

“Princess Luna!” Rainbow said as she bowed.

“Rainbow Dash, I'm glad to see you're okay after that shoot down. So many pegasi are getting shot down out there. You put yourself in our sticky stituation. Are you willing to help us and yourself out here?” Luna asked.

“Of course, Princess.” Rainbow responded.

“Then I'm no longer your princess. I am your commander...” Luna flinched when she saw how damaged Rainbow's wing was. She grabbed some wrapping bandage from the corner of the room. “Hold still.” She said. She wrapped her wing in the bandage. “You're not goin' anywhere with that wing. Lyra!”

Lyra saluted her once again. “Yes, commander?” she shouted.

“... Rainbow shall stay with you. She's your problem... you found her after all. Take her in as your partner.” Luna ordered.

Lyra nodded. “Yes, ma'am!” She tuned to Rainbow with a blank face. “If you would, Rainbow, follow me to my... rather our... room now.”

Before they could head out the door, Luna stopped them for one final announcement. “Oh, one more thing, Rainbow. You're first mission won't be too long from now. Lyra here is a part of the rescue operation. You two are in charge of rescuing survivors, and I'm counting on you.”

They both saluted as the walked out the door. “Yes, commander!”

Closing the door, Rainbow let out a sigh of relief. “Whew. That was really unexpected.” she said to Lyra, who had a distressed face. “Uhh... Lyree, what's wrong? You look angry...”

“Really, it's nothing too bad, it's just that our room has... one bed... and it'll be kinda awkward.”

Rainbow blushed. “Umm... that's alright. I don't mind. I mean it's better than nothing in a zombie apocalypse.”

Lyra gave her a weird look. “Well... alright. If it doesn't bother you. Here's our room.”

As she opened the door, Rainbow couldn't imagine a worse home. The bed looked hard, the covers were light, the walls were rusty orange. Rainbow sighed.

“Hey, it's better than nothing.” She told her.

“I guess...”

As soon as they were ready to get comfortable, a siren went off and startled them. Lyra looked up, but Rainbow squeaked and hugged Lyra. Lyra raised her eyebrow.

“Heheh... sorry...” Rainbow blushed.

“No time for apologies, a survivor was caught on camera! Come on!”

She dragged Rainbow out of the room and to the control room She slammed open the door, and Luna was looking at the cameras.

“So... where we going this time, commander?” Lyra asked. The sparkly alicorn turned to them with a serious face.

“There's been a catch of two near one of the bathrooms on the first floor of the nearest casino. However, take a look.”

They both leaned into the camera, where there was a struggle between two mares. It was two mares that they both knew very well.

“Hey, that's Bon-Bon!” Lyra shouted.

“And that's Fluttershy!” Rainbow added. “... but why is she beating Bon-Bon up? That's not like her... something's up.”

“And we're gonna find out what! C'mon Rainbow! Let's see what that athletic side of yours looks like!” Lyra said as she ran to a closet and opened it. A dozen and a half types of knives and weapons were in it. “Catch!” She yelled as she tossed Rainbow a large knife. She juggled it for a second, but Rainbow caught it. “Be back, commander! We won't let you down!”

Lyra and Rainbow ran to the ventilation shaft and disappeared into it. Luna huffed and slowly blinked. “Don't screw this all up, you two. It could mean your lives.”

_______________________________________________________________________

They exploded out of the ventilation shaft, running as fast as they could to the restroom. Rainbow Dash didn't necessarily know exactly where to go, so she just followed her new partner. They plowed through hordes of zombies, well Lyra did. Rainbow was still quite scared of even getting near them yet, while Lyra was bucking their heads off.

Lyra's running came to a grinding halt, and Rainbow slammed right into her flank, not watching herself.

“'Ey, Rainbow! Watch it! The last thing I need is a sore ass.” Lyra told her.

“Sorry, didn't watch where I was going.” Rainbow said, rubbing her head.

Rainbow looked up to see an ominous bathroom. Blood trailed into the bathroom, as did broken glass. It was extremely unnerving for Rainbow.

“Anyways, Fluttershy and Bonnie are in this bathroom. Are you ready to face the worst outcome you can think of? I sure hope you are.”

“Umm... Y... Yeah.” Rainbow shook, her knife unstable in her hooves.

“Then let's go.” Lyra said as she slowly stormed in.