Chapter 18: A Nightmare Begins

The walk back to the library was silent as Twilight walked beside me, looking in every direction but mine. I was about to ask her what was up when my ears picked up a certain sound. The sound of hooves hitting the ground in a frenzy. Twilight picked up on it too as her ears were trying to focus in the direction of the sounds. I turned around to find the source of the noise when I noticed a pony galloping full speed towards me. The pure white pony, who was unmistakably nurse Redheart, finally made it within shouting distance.

"AAAAWAAAAKE! THEY'RE AWAAAAAAKE!" She shouted as she closed the gap between us, panting as she attempted to catch her breath.

I walked up and rested my hand on her back, patting her slightly. "Woah woah, calm down there, what are you talking about?"

She closed her eyes and took a few breaths before looking right into my eyes. "Your friends, they're awake!"

Twilight couldn't see my face but i'm pretty sure she could sense my large smile as it graced my face. But it faded as I saw the worried expression of the nurse.

"You say it like it's a bad thing!?" I ask as I immediately start making my way to the hospital.

"What? Oh no... it's great! Well..." She trailed off for a moment before continuing. "You see... they kind of... barricaded themselves in their room." She finished in a hushed tone.

I blinked once before I took off in a dead sprint towards the hospital, Twilight and Redheart close behind.

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"NOW NONE OF YOU TRY ANYTHING FUNNY YOU HEAR?! OR I'LL HURT THE HOSTAGE!" James shouted to the ponies on the other side of the barricaded door.

"James... we don't have a hostage." Chris said under his breath as he covered his face with his hand and shook his head.

"SHHHH! They don't know that!" James replied in a hushed voice which just caused a huff of an annoyance from Chris.

Suddenly a voice from the other side of the door spoke up. "Come on now! Just open up! We're only here to help!"

"HA! I've heard that one before! And you know how that ended?" James began as Chris interrupted him.

"You got smacked around by a couple guys way bigger than you for sleeping with some guys daughter?" Christ added smugly.

"Exactly! That's why you can never trust em'!" James finished with a smile as he waved the scalpel around.

"Well that's not entirely true..." Spoke a familiar voice from the other side of the door.

James and Chris both froze up as the voice spoke before they both smiled widely.

"Son of a bitch! Deckard! We thought the muties ran off with ya when we didn't wake up with you here!" James added as he began pulling things off of the barricade. "What are they anyway?"

"James they're not mutants. They're ponies, and trust me they're really friendly." Deckard chimed in from the other side.

As the last of the debris was cleared from the doorway, James slowly opened the door and was met by the sight of his friend. A few seconds passed before Deckard stepped forward and brought him into an embrace.

"God I've missed you bastards." He said with a small chuckle.

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"God I've missed you bastards." I said aloud as I released my hold on James.

"Woah, calm down boy. What the hell happened yesterday? First we were driving through all those walkers... next I woke up here?" James asked as he looked at me with questioning eyes.

"Well there are a few things you should know... but I'm gonna ease you into it as one of you, " I paused as I glanced over to Chris, "Didn't take to well to the straightforward approach. But here is what I can tell you, one, you haven't been out for one day, you guys have been out of it for a while. Two, we are safe for now, three, put down the scalpel before you hurt yourself, and four, I have a huge urge to punch you for some reason so I would back up a bit."

Giving me a sideways glance but backing up a bit he began, "Wait, why would you want to punch me? I don't remember doing anything."

Shrugging I answered, "I'm not sure, I just feel like I should."

As James set the scalpel down on a nearby table, I turned towards Chris and gave a small nod. "You remember anything from what we discussed before?"

Chris nodded. "You don't forget something like that Deck..."

Nodding back, I motioned towards some chairs as James and Chris sat down. "Alright Twilight! You can come in now!" I shouted towards the door as Twilight made her way through. "Okay let's get this over with..."

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_-Research Facility, underground, Location unknown-_

A brown unicorn stallion made his way to a set of double doors and pushed them open as he stepped inside. He took a look around the almost empty room before his eyes landed on their mark. Not far away was a light blue unicorn mare reading some documents as she sat in-front of a destroyed wreck that was called a "Truck".

"So... where did this thing come from anyway?" The brown unicorn asked as he looked the massive pile of metal over.

Shrugging the mare replied. "I'm not sure, it was sent from Ponyville with a message from the Princess. Apparently this thing is called a Truck and it was used by some creature as a mode of transportation."

"Pfft. This thing? It's made of metal! How in the world is this thing used for transporting ANYTHING?" The stallion answered as he walked up to the truck and tapped it with his hoof.

Before the mare could answer he heard a low growling noise. Curious he listened closer. "Sh! Did you hear that?" He asked as he looked around the room.

Once again he heard the noise but noticed it was coming from the massive wreck in front of him. Crouching low he looked underneath and spotted a puddle of what couldn't be mistaken as anything but blood.

"Oh my Celestia! Get over here there is something stuck under the damned thing!" he yelled out as he saw the mess that was plastered under the bottom of the machine.

Once again, whatever was jammed under and into the bowels of the truck growled again this time louder. Ducking down, the stallion tried to get a better look at what exactly was under there.

He barely had time to scream before an arm shot out, grabbing him whilst it's teeth sunk into his flesh...

Author's Note

Hope you all enjoyed reading and are ready for the arc where the dark and gore tags come into play.

REMEMBER TO LEAVE A LIKE/FAV IF YOU ENJOYED!