Feast

Shock Wave was shouting, I didn’t know what it was, nor did I care. The only thing that came to my mind was Star Dust, as she opened a kit that she had, and screaming the only words audible since we stepped inside the house ; “AUSTIN!”. Somehow, those words sprung me into action and I moved beside Shock Wave. Star Dust gave us simple instructions, or at least, simple to her. She ordered me to wrap a pair bandages around the stump of the wing to stop the excessive blood flow, and for Shock to elevate Derpy’s hind legs in case he went into shock. I wasn’t a medical expert, but I wasn’t an idiot either. On the floor of the doorway stood a machete and right next to it the amputated part of Derpy Pant’s wing and on the wing was large, red bite mark. No one had done this to him; Derpy had done this to himself to prevent his own infection. I bent over Derpy but was instantly told to move back by Star. A pair of gloves and a medical mask was then thrown to me and Shock thanks to the wonders of pony telekinesis. I looked at them curiously and then to Star.
“Better to be safe than sorry, if there’s any chance he’s infected, you don’t want his blood in your system; I don’t think you want to be running around eating people.” was her response.
This was mine; “How do you know that?”
“I used to study to be a doctor, still remember a lot actually.”
“I meant how do you know how’s it spread.”
We all stopped then. Silence filled the air, and Star looked at Shock, unsure about something and biting her bottom lip. The silence was interrupted by a gurgle form Derpy’s throat. Not a zombified gurgle, just a collection of saliva in the throat. That broke the silence. Star Dust explained (after the three of us quickly put on the things she gave us) that if Derpy any more blood, he won’t be alive for long. She told me to wrap “these” bandages, around Derpys wing stump and to apply pressure to stop him from losing any blood. Shock was told to raise Derpys back legs, to “get him out of shock”. I took the bandages handed to me and went to work. Star turned back to her med pack, looking through it for something I couldn’t see. I turned back to Derpy, the medical bandages almost wrapped completely around. I didn’t understand how this was supposed to work; the bandages seemed to be pushing the blood out of the wound, not stopping it. I tied the bandages closer to the end of the stump and gagged; the sight of it all burning my eyes. 10 minutes later, I turned to Star, who was now helping Shock get more of a response from Derpy. He was pale; the leaking had slowed but was not nearly close to done. I figured that we should have sewn have the wound shut, but I realized my stupidity only moments after. Every now and then Star would come over and pour a small drop of a potion onto the wound. I said nothing, more worried about Derpy. 20 minutes later, the bleeding had stopped and Star Dust had wrapped more bandages on top of the wound, completely covering it. We had tied a metal pole to the side of the wing and position Derpy in way to keep the wing elevated. Star had also taken blood from Shock via clean (and large) needles, into a packet with a tiny pump and attached it to Derpy. I asked what if they were not the same blood type. She reassured me that they were the same, also stating that she had treated them both.
It appeared then that we were finished; I stood up, looked at Derpy and bolted. I ran out of the room, the kitchen, the door, bent down, hugged my stomach, and threw up on the ground. The stream of yellow, green and brown seemed endless. The clenching of my stomach made the feeling worse, and my brain was too fuzzy to process my emotions properly. When I was done I walked back to the porch, sat down, buried my face in my arms and sobbed quietly. I sobbed for everything, the creature, the people, everything. The horror that had just taken place shook me to my very core. I prayed that I would not lose my sanity. Sometime after, Star stood next to me and spoke softly.
“Austin?”
I didn’t respond.
“Listen we’re all tired, maybe we need some sleep”
It was almost night by then I realized.
“Yeah where? We turn our backs for one second, we’re dead!”
Star responded casually “Shock found a door leading to a basement, he already searched it, and it’s safe.”
I said nothing.
“Okay, come when you’re ready, we’ll be waiting.”
She left, I followed. We all helped move Derpy but Star did the majority of it. We slept on hay that night, but the problem was I couldn’t sleep. Nightmares where waiting for me, and I was not ready, shortly after, somewhere in the distance, screams filled the air.

The breeze brushed my hair lightly, the smell of fall heartwarming, yet depressing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shock come out of the house. He rubbed his eyes gently with his hooves, yawned and spoke.
“Why are you up so early?”
I motioned him to be silent and my eyes moved back to the large structure barely visible. Shock followed my eyes and opened his mouth in surprise. At that moment, Star also came of the house, opened her mouth to say something, only to look at what we were; a purple/pink dome, sparkling with energy, a force field. We could only barely see the top but we knew exactly what it covered.
“Canterlot” I said.
“Why?” Shock asked.
“Protection, it’s there to protect it.” I responded.
“I meant why just Canterlot? There a bunch of other places suffering from this! Canterlot shouldn’t be the only one with protection!”
“Maybe, but it only provides a sense of direction, a safe haven.”
“Should we go?” Shock asked.
“No”.
“WHY NOT?”
“Think, if we travel directly towards Canterlot, we’re traveling directly towards the infected.”
Shock was silent for a moment, then nodded.
“Where do you say we go?” asked Star Dust.
“To find the Slender Mane”
The Slender Mane, a demonic being with incredibly close ties with death, pain and hell itself. Yet somehow, we’ve achieved a neutral standing, almost a friendship. However, he was too different for many; he has witnessed extraordinary things, despite dimension reality or time and has done those things as well. His vast knowledge and wisdom of what occurs and his insatiable taste for flesh (among other demonic traits) alienates him from anyone, except those who try to see past that, or those who he deems “worthy”. Therefore, Stars reaction was not surprising.
“WHAT? The world is in chaos and you want to go look for him!!?”
“I told you that you did not have to come with me but you chose otherwise. If anyone knows more about what’s going on, it’s him. “
“And if he doesn’t? What if we don’t make it? Where does he even live?”
I sighed, “I don’t know, and I don’t suppose you know either that’s why I’m at a loss.”
Silence once again. I could understand, it sounded like quite possibly the most stupid idea ever but it was the one I was going with. I opened my mouth to tell them that they could stay or go their own ways when at that moment, a voice came from the doorway of the house.
“The Everfree forest” said a, pale, bloodied and panting Derpy Pants; “He lives in the Everfree forest.”

40 minutes. That’s how long it took for us to pack, scavenge the rest of the house, put Derpy in a hay wagon we found and begin to travel towards Everfree. Before we left however, I found a pair of flowers next to the bed Derpy was in. I don’t why, maybe it was instinct, but I took them and put them in my bag. I had volunteered to pull the wagon, mainly because I couldn’t stand watching them doing it. Another 10 minutes later, we had begun to climb a slanted, yet tall hill. The purpose of this was to be at ta better position in case of any other attacks. Sweat dripped from my face. I won’t lie, this was hard work, and I wasn’t the most muscular or strong. Pony-Ville wasn’t safe at all anymore when we left. There were infected and the higher we traveled, the more of them we saw. I was right; going to Canterlot would have been suicide. I turned back to the hill. Star and Shock were in front, keeping an eye if any of the infected were close by. I looked back to the wagon and to my surprise, I found Derpy sleeping. After he had told us where Slender was, we immediately made him rest. Poor guy I thought but I had question that kept nagging me. What was Derpy doing in Pony-Ville? If I was to guess where he would be, it would be with Colgate (his girlfriend), and she was nowhere close by. I wanted to ask, but it wasn’t the right time, or place for it. I gasped as we reached the top of the hill. I lay on my back on the dirt, panting and grateful we were here. I reached for my bag and took out an apple and bit into it deliciously. I had a clearer view of the force field now so I asked Shock for his binoculars, made myself comfortable, crouched and pointed them to Canterlot. The sight was not pretty, not even close. There appeared to be a number of openings around it, yet each one had its problems. There were a number of guards allowing other ponies inside, but for every 1 pony going in there was 1 infected pony waiting to assault the guards. In fact, even inside there were infected, ponies who had been fine going in, but had turned while inside. It was a horrible sight, blood stained the ground, and a feeding frenzy was ensuing. I moved the binoculars around focused on the inside and froze. Isaac and Dusk, two of my friends, helping a guard fend off a group of three of the infected. In short, they won, but I lost sight of them after. Instead I caught a glimpse of a dark and light pink mane, not Pinkie Pies but someone else; Shimmer. I moved around and saw the most of unlikely of people there, Kyle Mosley, a friendly, quiet pony, and he was beating an infected pony to death. The situation seemed hectic but under control. I wanted run down there and help them, but that would only guarantee my death. I lowered the binoculars, I had seen enough. I handed the binoculars back to Shock, stood up and moved back to Derpy.
I was surprised to find him awake now, looking in my direction when I approached.
“Hi Derpy.”
He smiled slightly.
“Hey.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Okay, tired.”
Awkward silence ensued, followed by even more awkward glances.
“Uh, what were you doing in Pony-Ville?”
Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could I say something like that? I just spit it out! I was mentally beating myself up; Derpy looked up to me with sad, tearful eyes.
“You know the flowers you found?”
I tried not to look surprised, instead I simply nodded. I had no idea Derpy was awake then.
“I ordered a bouquet of them and I went to Pony-Ville to get them.”
He was crying now, a certain memory triggering pain.
“They were for her Austin, they were for her.”
I didn’t know what he was talking about, and I wanted to know, but Star and Shock called me over, and so I left Derpy.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Look, in the sky.” Shock responded.
I looked in his direction, and I saw it. Dozens of pink and purple swirly orbs descended from the sky surrounding the force field, and they weren’t stopping. I felt like I knew what these were but I couldn’t remember…. That’s when Star shouted the answer.
“They’re spells, big ones!!”
I didn’t turn around; I just looked at the orbs of doom. I understood then what they were for, they were to exterminate the remaining infected surrounding the sphere, killing everything in its blast radius. Or was it? I had yet to see an explosive spell, but I wasn’t going to take that chance.
“Can it reach us?” I asked.
Star responded with a no. I looked back to the spells, as they touched the ground with deep rumble... The blast was blinding, light erupted from each of them, causing me and everyone else to shield their eyes. I felt I wave of pressure and force and wind knock me flat on my back and keeping me there. Slowly, the light died down. I sat back up and rubbed my eyes. I forced them to look at the Canterlot, blinking several times. I was right, anypony around the force field had been eradicated, yet the majority houses and buildings remained untouched. It was almost if the spells were meant just for ponies. There was the occasional corpse on the floor, but that didn’t matter; what mattered was that the giant force field was no more, Canterlot was vulnerable. I heard the growls and the galloping first, standing straight up and reaching for my hammer. Star and Shock reached for their weapons, also household items and we prepared ourselves. The sight couldn’t have been more terrifying. There were dozens of them, some exposing flesh while others seemed relatively unharmed, but they were all the same thing, infected. They came down from the hill opposite from us, snarling, roaring and screaming. They were all different, Earth-Ponies, Unicorns and even the scariest of all, Pegasus’. There were only two but that didn’t stop me from telling the others to run, it was impossible, we couldn’t them all on. Star screamed, Shock grabbed his pack, I grabbed Derpy, slung him over my shoulder, and together we ran. I didn’t want to think of the pain Derpy was in right now, I just ran, and ran, and ran. We began running down the hill, left where we came from. I didn’t know where we would go; I just didn’t want to die like this. The hill was incredibly steep, causing me many times to almost trip. Shock motioned to cave up ahead, causing me to look, trip and twist my ankle. This is it, I thought, this is how I die. I tried to move my ankle, only to have pain shoot up my leg like a bullet. Dirt and mud covered my face. Shock and Star had stopped and were screaming at me to get up. They were begging me. I ignored them, and instead facing the incoming group. One of the Pegasus’s flew down toward me, teeth sharp and yellow; I closed my eyes, and prepared for the worst.
The bite didn’t come, nor did anything for that matter, just the spray of blood on my pants. I looked up, and saw 2 black tentacles holding one half of the now dead Pegasus, its intestines landing on the ground with a sickening flop. Suddenly, more of the same tentacles appeared, tearing each of the infected apart, in different, brutal ways. Soon, there were now infected left, just mangled corpses. I looked up to see our savior, or saviors to be precise. The slender mane floated several feet in the air, holding a live and healthy Alaina, a close friend of mine and another pink pony whom I have not seen before. They floated to the ground, and Alaina ran towards Shock and Star, hugging as if this was a family reunion, and began moving towards me. I didn’t care, I only locked my eyes with Slender, and he “looked” back. I said nothing, but once I could walk again, I and he would have quite the conversation. Alaina tried speaking to me, trying to get me to move my leg, but I turned away, and focused on the flowers only a few feet away. On it there was tiny paper, and written on it was a name, a name I knew all too well, Colgate.