"I hate this place," Frank said aloud. If it weren't for the groaning hordes of the undead drowning out his snide remark, his comment may as well have been heard throughout the entire Wonderland Plaza.
Flesh-eating demons from Hell aside, the real reason why Frank West held such disdain towards this section of the Willamette Mall was because of its "look." The colorful playing area on the level below, roller coaster hanging above his head and children's stores everywhere he looked, it was all very macabre to Frank; to see such a bright and happy area flooded with these soulless beasts just didn't sit well with him.
But he had to kill time before hearing back from Jesse. To occupy himself, Otis told of a group of survivors that needed rounding up in the Wonderland Plaza, in the Play Park specifically. From his perch on the second level, Frank didn't see anything that looked like a survivor down in that blocky little village: no bodies (at least no fresh ones), no sign of a fight or struggle; it all seemed relatively peaceful, given the current situation.
Frank shrugged and continued on his way, stepping over the bludgeoned corpses piled at his feet. The stock elevator music was crackling over the loudspeakers, and Frank couldn't help but whistle to the tune while dragging his bloodied baseball bat against the railing.
"Hey, buddy, wanna race?"
Frank let out a startled gasp and swung his bat at the voice behind him. It hit nothing but air.
"Wo-ho-hoa! Somepony's a bit jumpy!" the voice, female and scratchy, came from above; it was strangely playful, almost devious. That alone placed an uncomfortable weight in Frank's stomach.
He looked up at the speaker and found she was a blue pegasus pony descending from the air, settling before him a few feet off the ground, just so that the two were eye-level. Her mane was striped with every color of the rainbow, matching this sugar-coated plaza perfectly. The left side of her face was splotched with blood, but aside from that, her coat was spotless.
"Uh... hi?" said Frank. "You're, uh, you don't look like a zombie. Or a human. Unless..." he rubbed his forehead, "Unless I'm already in Hell, which would actually make everything else be a lot more sense." He looked to Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be fixated on his camera until he met those cartoonishly bright eyes again. "Where'd you come from?"
The pony smirked an odd smirk; one that seemed to twitch at the corners, as if someone was forcing her to at gunpoint. "The name's Rainbow Dash," she said quickly, beginning to fly a slow circle around Frank. "I'm the fastest flyer around."
"Yeah..." Frank decided not to pry this creature for details, instead finding it easier just to coin her in the growing list of weird things he's seen in Willamette, right below zombies and banana-raincoat-wearing cultists. "Uh, the name's Frank West, photojournalist. Hey, mind if I take a few pictures?" He held up the camera hanging from his neck.
Rainbow Dash's eyes seemed to sparkle at the notion. "Of course! Heck, why wouldn't you? It's not every day you see somepony as amazing and daring as me!"
"Uh... huh." As Frank held the camera to his face, preparing to snap a photo, he asked the pegasus, "So are you alright? How long have you been out here?"
Rainbow Dash landed and posed, placing a hoof across her chest. "Is that really a question? Obviously, I'm fine! These biting guys are dreaming if they think they even have a chance at catching me! I am the world's fastest flyer, after all!"
"Yeah, you've said that already," grumbled Frank. He snapped a picture. Rainbow shifted into another pose, this time with her hoof running through her mane and giving the camera a half-lidded stare. "You know, there's a safe room. I can take you there if you'd like." He took another picture.
"Who needs a safe room when you've got these?" Rainbow asked, ruffling her wings. "I can just out-fly these guys no problem!"
Frank snorted. "Fine, suit yourself."
Just ask Frank was about to turn and part ways with this creature who, in all honesty, was giving him a headache, she trotted round and stopped him in his tracks.
"I bet I can even out-fly you!" she declared with a smugness in her grin.
Frank looked down to the creature whose muzzle only reached his camera. He shook his head and walked around her. Looking into those dark, blank eyes, Frank felt it was good for his health not to say 'I don't even have wings.' Instead, he forced a chuckle and said, "I bet you can."
He pushed past her and continued on his way, propping the dented baseball bat on his shoulder as he did so. But like a really bad rash, Rainbow came back, nastier than ever.
She took to air once more, whipping around Frank and stopping him with a hoof jabbed in his breast. "I saw that!" she snapped with an out-of-nowhere hostility.
"What? Saw what?" Frank asked, honestly baffled.
"I saw that way you grinned as you walked away!" she snapped, jabbing him in the chest even harder. "You think you're a faster flyer than me, huh? Is that it?" Frank could only hang his mouth in utter confusion. "Is that it!?" she asked again, tone growing more hostile.
Frank was unsure of how to respond to this prideful pony without upsetting her further. But he knew better, and he knew how this situation would turn out if he didn't clear out of here soon.
With furrowed brows, he tried pushing her aside. Rainbow Dash somehow proved resilient, as she remained hovering inches away from Frank's face. The notion only seemed to add an extra layer of steeliness to her ferocity.
"You think you're a big shot, huh?" Rainbow asked, folding her forelegs.
She was inches away from his face; Frank rocked his head to the side and sighed. The moment he took that first step towards walking around her, Rainbow swept before him with that same competitive glare in her eye.
"Hon... just let me through. I've got stuff to do."
"You're not going anywhere," she growled. Rainbow's eyes trailed up and down Frank's figure, as if sizing him up. "I bet you're the kind of guy who would abandon his friends, just like he's abandoning a challenge right now!" Rainbow was now closing in; she came to almost breathe hot air in his face.
"I never agreed to a challenge," Frank explained in the calmest tone possible. "Look, I think we just need to calm down, get back to the safe house so we can-"
"Liar!" Rainbow screeched; her screams were loud enough to attract a herd of zombies at the very end of the level. "If there's one thing I hate as much as traitors it's no-good filthy liars!"
It was with a heavy heart and a burst of adrenaline that Frank knew what was coming next, and so he clenched his hand around the hilt of his baseball bat.
"My wing!" Rainbow Dash cried in terror. As her flight pattern became erratic, she screamed at frequencies that echoed throughout the entire plaza, over the zombies' hungry groans. They were like a dinner bell to them.
Frank regarded the sight as if it were a display of fireworks: with smug satisfaction.
After a long and grueling battle, the fastest flyer around had damaged one of her wings and was slowly zigzagging about the Wonderland Plaza until she crashed head-first into the the Play Park's entrance sign. She peeled herself off and immediately fell to the ground.
Groaning and sobbing in between gasps, Rainbow stroked the ruffled plumage of her busted wing. "My wing..." she whispered. "My... my wing!"
Rainbow's anguish was released as an enraged cry. She wept loudly, attracting the attention of many undead foes and causing them to amble in her direction. "My wing!" she sobbed. "It was all I had left! Now. I. Have. Nothi-hi-hing!"
Rainbow's face was buried in her hooves for only a second before she looked up to the ceiling with her teeth gritting in rage. "This is all your fault, Twilight Sparkle! Everything falling apart is because of you!"
Frank saw the undead beginning to close in on her and felt a pang of regret slash across his chest. "Hey, get out of there!" he cried from his spot on the second floor.
Rainbow glanced about the undead horde surrounding her, not with fear or anger, but a crass devilishness displayed on a smirk. "Come on, you freaks! Isn't this what you want!?" Even as the zombies began piling on top of her, her insane taunting made no effort to lighted up.
Her final words were appropriately, "I hope you choke on me!"
Author's Note
I'm sorry for this. I for some reason just really needed to get this down and public. If it gets a positive reception, hey, I guess I'll do the others.
So yeah; just intros and death scenes.
