Love in a Hopeless Place

The rain drenched Ponyville, leaving everything barely visible through shades of grey. Many ponies continued to trudge along, oblivious to the weather. However, one pony stood out from the rest. Unlike the other ponies, she was clad in a dark colored rain jacket, and moved much quicker than the others.
The pony stopped in front of a building, many of its windows broken, and its front door torn off the hinges.

“Here we go…” The pony quickly glanced around, checking to see if anypony had followed her. Satisfied, she pulled the hood of her jacket down, revealing herself to be Bon Bon, worse for wear. Her mane is a mess, curls ruined, and she has heavy bags under her eyes. She pulled a bag out from under her jacket and wandered the ruined store, searching.

“They have to have something left…..” She muttered, while scanning the room.
She stopped by the shattered remains of a countertop and blew onto it, scattering the dust. The moldy remains of pastries and baked goods come into view.
Bon Bon’s nose wrinkled in disgust and she backed away.
“No, that’s no good.”

The earth pony approaches the remains of a hinged door way. While one is torn completely off the fall, the remaining door dangled haphazardly. Bon Bon carefully pushes it back, only for it to fall off and hit the floor with a thud.
Her head whips around, looking for any signs of movement. After several tense moments, she sighs and relaxes. She begins to wander around the destroyed kitchen, looking through cabinets.

“There has to be something….” Her face brightened, “What about upstairs?”

The pony wandered over to the stairs and began up. Reaching the second floor, Bon Bon stepped in something sticky.
Looking down, she noticed all the dried blood on the floor, leading to a severed head. Its rotting eyes stare into hers, and it slowly snapped its jaws at her.
Moving closer to inspect the head, Bon Bon looks over its features; the shape of the head tells her it was a very young pony, perhaps not much more that six months old. Its matted hair is coated in dried blood and other waste. Bon Bon pushes it away with her hoof, watching it roll under the dusty, ruined remains of a bed.
Continuing her search, Bon Bon scours the room, discovering a rotten bucket of some vegetable, a pile of rocks and lint, and the remains of a bag of flour. Dissatisfied with her search, she shook her head and went back down the stairs.

Reaching the front of the building, she peeked outside, scanning for something. Satisfied, Bon Bon pulled her jacket hood up over her head and exited the building, passing a yellow pegasus pony.
Both the pegasus’s wings are little more than bones, while large chunks are missing from the pony’s flank, lower body and neck. One of the missing chunks breaks up her cutie mark, now only one and a half pink butterflies. Pale, glazed over eyes watch Bon Bon leave and continue to follow her as the living mare plots.

“Alright, so Sugarcube Corner was a bust. Maybe I can break into one of the other houses….” The mare shook her head, “No, that might attract too much attention. Can’t have one of them sneaking up on me.”

Bon Bon stopped by an overturned cart. Quickly scanning the area for others, she set to work, pushing the cart onto its side. With a groan, she set it down, and quickly scanning the remaining contents.

“Ah!” the Earth pony dug through the rubble and pulled out a jar of some unknown mush.
“Carrot Marmalade.” Bon Bon frowned, “Normally, I wouldn’t eat this, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
She set the jar in her bag and scanned the area.
“…I don’t think this will be eno-”

Something caught the Earth pony’s eye. Turning her attention towards a building, Bon Bon walked off to inspect it.

“…something isn’t right here…” Bon Bon knelt to peer at a damaged wall, “This wasn’t here yesterday. And I know I didn’t make it….”

Peering inside, Bon Bon does her best to scan the room. Suddenly something moved in the corner of her eye, causing Bon Bon to step back. Reaching onto her back, she grips a length of iron piping in her jaws, and prepares to swing.

“Wait! Mith Bon Bon!”

Bonbon paused, as a pony struggled out into the open.

“Twist?”

Bon Bon quickly scanned the filly. Twist’s hair is matted and tangled and her coat is dirty. One of the filly’s lenses is cracked, but there seemed to be no sign of injury.

“Are you bitten?”

“No.” the filly shook her head.

“We better get out of here, Twist. I’m certain some of them would have heard the commotion by now. Do you have somewhere safe to go?” Bonbon glanced around, watching for other signs of activity.

“I wath hiding in the Mayor’th office, until they broke down a window. After that I fled here.”

“I see. Let’s get going. Stay behind me.”

The two Earth ponies trot down the street, avoiding the undead.

Sometime later

After she scanned the area for any straggling ponies, Bon Bon unlocked the door to a barricaded shop. Twist entered the door first, as Bon Bon scanned the area. The Earth mare quickly entered the door, closed it, and locked it.

Satisfied, she removed her jacket, and hung it on a dusty coat rack to dry.

“Lyra, I’m back!”

“Mith Lyra ith here too?”

“Of course.” Bon Bon smiled, “But we agreed that it was safer for one pony to stay here at all times, just in case they start attacking. Otherwise if both of us are out there’s no way to defend here, and if we come back when it’s besieged by them, we have no place safe to go, right?”

Twist pondered Bon Bon’s logic for a few moments and then nodded in agreement.

Bon Bon set her sack on a table littered with old used cans and jars of food. Reaching into the sack Bon Bon pulled out the jar of carrot marmalade, another jar with a brown mush, and a can with no label.

“Oh, guess who I saw today?” Bon Bon called out to her marefriend, “Fluttershy! Yeah, she doesn’t look too good. Poor girl’s wings are worked to the bone.
Well it’s not like she really used them all that much anyway.”
Bon Bon chuckled, “Waste of a pegasus, really”

“Mith Bon Bon, that wasn’t very nice.” Twist frowned at the mare’s comment.

“Oh, you’re right.” Bon Bon shrugged, “Well, Lyra’s never really complained about what I’ve said.”
Bon Bon stops talking to the filly, working to open the unlabeled can. Finally prying it open, she sniffed its contents.
“…Cat food.” Bon Bon wrinkled her nose at it. “…why is all the canned food I find cat food? Oh well, good enough.”

She stuck a spoon into the can, and called out to her marefriend.
“Lyra, I’m coming in. Got something for you.”

Bon Bon picked up the can with her mouth and walked towards another room. Twist followed. Bon Bon placed the can down and motioned for the filly to come up to the door.

“Do you mind Twist? It’s sort of stuck.”

The two ponies manage to open the door. Twist peers into the blackened room.

“Mith Bon Bon, why ith it tho-”

Bon Bon spun around, bucking the filly in her side. The impact of the sudden attack sent Twist into the blackened room, glasses flying off. Before she could collect her wits, Bon Bon bit down on the doorknob, and slammed it shut.

“Wait! Mith Bon Bon!”

Twist winced as she got back onto her hooves and limped toward the door. She stopped as she heard the sound of groaning and a metal chain dragging on the floor.

“Mith Lyra?”

Twist slowly turned around, back to the door. She continued to limp backwards, eyes darting around looking for some sign of another pony.

Suddenly something leapt onto the filly, pinning her down with its weight. Twist squinted to see a vague pony shaped thing pinning her down, as she feebly tried to fight back. Suddenly the pony thing slams its head into hers, stabbing Twist’s eye with something. The filly screamed in pain, as she felt something rough and dull bite down on her stomach, tearing her skin and muscle off.
She feebly continues her attempt to fight off her attacker, as it tore off another hunk of meat, and began to feast on the filly’s now exposed intestines.
Twist slowly faded into the blackness, as her attacker began to feast upon the filly’s vital organs.

Light poured into the room, as the door opened again. Bon Bon stepped in clutching a bloodstained pickaxe in her mouth. With an awkward swing, she drove the pick into the head of Twist’s corpse.
Letting go of the pick, she smiled at the scene.

A zombie unicorn sat upon the corpse, feasting on its innards. The unicorn’s aquamarine coat and striped mint mane is splattered with both fresh and dried blood. Her horn is caked in gore, blood, and small chunks of rotting flesh. Several bite marks are noticeable on the unicorn’s back and rear left leg.
It tears another chunk of meat off the filly’s chest and chewed, watching Bon Bon with glazed white eyes.

“Dinner, sweetheart.” The Earth pony beamed.

You’re…you.
You don’t know what that means or why it matters so much.
All you know is hunger.
It hurts when you don’t eat, although you don’t know what hurt means.

It sounds appetizing though.

You don’t remember much. Just that you’re stuck in a dark room, if you knew what “Dark” and “Room” were, and you don’t get to wander around looking for food.

Some food comes in every now and them, and feeds you food.
Not good food. Doesn’t taste right.
Not like what you had before.
Small white food with pokey thing on its head.

Bad food doesn’t look like that. Too small. Things on head too big. Food called it “Angel”, but you don’t know what that means.

Today you’re happy though.
Today good food. Small white food with strange thing on face.

You tried to eat that, but not good. Food said something about glass and metal, but you don’t know what that is.

Finally.
Meat.