The Trotting Dead: An Interactive Story

YOUR CHOICE HAS BEEN MADEBy deciding to go for the guns first, Python is more apt to use guns rather than blunt instruments or knives. This means that, in a stealth situation, Python is more likely to reveal their cover by using a gun to kill a Trotter.

You follow Thunderlane downstairs to where the living room is. Two makeshift beds are set up in front of a covered window, which confuses you. They had a perfectly fine bed upstairs, so why sleep down here? You also see that the front door isn't boarded up, but the brothers have a deadbolt on it. Won't help much when tons of those… Trotters, as Thunderlane put it, when tons of those Trotters are slamming on the door. Rumble is sitting in the makeshift bed, reading a comic entitled When Humans Attack! You chuckle at the thought of something as silly as hairless beings that only stand on two legs having the capability of thought. Ponies were the smartest race in Equestria, everypony knew that!

You shake your head, trying to get back to the task on hand. You turn to Thunderlane and say, "We go and get the guns first, then we see what happened to my family. My family might be top priority, but I can't do too much if I'm dead." He nods and says, "Get up, Rumble. We're going to go for a little walk to the police station." The younger Pegasus pops out from under his sheets and runs upstairs, coming back down with his trusty shovel. Thunderlane walks over to the dining room and slides his bat into a special harness that would hold it on his back. He offers you one of the harnesses, but you decline. There were more than enough of them at the station. Finally, after you and the other two gather at the door, Thunderlane undos the deadbolt and slowly creaks the door open. Seeing no Trotters, you walk outside with the brothers, heading off to Town Hall.

When you reach Town Hall, you find it deserted. No ponies were there, living or dead. You were glad for that. Not only did you not feel like having to kill things, even if they're dead, you also didn't want to fight over guns with anypony. You walk inside Town Hall ahead of the others, your trusty Python out by your side in case of any hiding ponies. After you check each and every room thoroughly, you holster your revolver and lead the two Pegasi into gun storage. Taking a ring of keys lying on one of the tables, you unlock the caged room and trot right in. Some of the weapons are missing, but there's more than enough for the three of you.

Rumble immediately reaches for a pistol and shouts, "Oh! Oh! I wanna learn how to shoot!" However, Thunderlane slaps his hoof away from the firearm and says, "Hey! Hold up there, Rumble! I'm going to teach you alright, but I gotta make sure you respect the weapon. These guns aren't the same as the cap guns you used to have, you can't play around with these." You give a chuckle and say, "Your brother's right. Every time you shoot it, you have to mean it." You turn your attention back to what you were doing before: loading guns into a large duffel bag. In it, you've stored three shotguns, a rifle with a powerful scope, and many pistols. You've also packed a lot of bullets for each of the weapons, including your revolver. However, you've still left enough ammunition for Thunderlane and Rumble. Also, along with each weapon, you've stored special harnesses so that you and your family could hold each weapon without needing magic.

Turning to the two brothers, you levitate a pistol with one of the harnesses, the barrel facing the ground. "This," you explain, "is a harness developed by officials in Canterlot to let non-unicorns hold pistols. This also goes for shotguns, mind you. There's two simple steps to firing. First, you need to raise it up at your target." You raise the barrel of the pistol so that it's parallel to the ground, and a faint click is heard. "The pistol or shotgun will only fire when it's elevated like this or higher. Now, the second step is even simpler. Just jerk it back as if it had been fired." You quickly bring the barrel up, a much louder CLICK! making the Pegasi jump. You chuckle, then bring over a rifle that had a different harness attached to it. It had one part going parallel to the gun, placed right where the trigger would be, and a second part a bit further up the frame going perpendicular.

"Now, this one is special," you say, "not to mention that it takes more steps. First, slide your left foreleg in the harness that's farther up the barrel. This will help you steady the rifle. Then, slide your other foreleg in the harness that replaces the trigger. There's a special trigger made just for this that fires the weapon when you jab at it. There IS no safety on this, so BE CAREFUL." The Pegasi nod, still in shock from the first demonstration.

You walk over to another part of the gun storage room and put on a special holster jacket. There's two slots in it, allowing you to hold either two shotguns, two rifles, or one gun and a close range weapon like a bat. Slinging the duffel bag over your shoulder, you turn to the two and say, "Let's find out what happened to my family."

As you trot back to visit your house, you meet a Trotter along the way. It's simply walking around, looking for fresh meat to devour. It hasn't noticed you yet, though, so the three of you hide in the bushes. "Now's the perfect time for a lesson." Thunderlane says. He pulls his metal bat from his holster vest and gives it to you. You grab it with your magic for a bit before levitating it to your mouth and grasping it in your maw. It feels weird at first, but you quickly get used to it. Sneaking out of cover, your gallop as quietly as you can between cars, getting closer to the Trotter each time. Eventually, you manage to get right behind it.

As you sneak up on it, you hear a loud KRAK! Looking down, you see that you stepped on a fallen branch. The Trotter, alerted by the noise, turns around and growls at you, wasting no time in lunging at your throat. You dodge out of the way just before it reaches you and bring the bat down on the creature's neck. A satisfying SNAP! is heard as the Trotter's neck breaks. You bash its head in a few times for good measure, getting very used to the feel of the bat.

When you finish, the other two trot up to you. The older brother looks at the dead Trotter and says, "That was one hell of a job you did there, Python." You feel a bit glad about yourself, but you can't get rid of the guilty feeling inside that you've just killed a pony in cold blood. Even though you just saved your own life, you feel like a murderer.

There you sit, in the living room of your house. Your eyes are wet with tears. After a quick search of your messy and dirty house, you find that your wife and child are missing. Anything could've happened to them, you think. Thunderlane bends down to you and pats you on the back, saying, "Hey, Python, if it means anything… I think they're still alive. The house might've just been burglarized or something after they left." You bring your face up to him, a weak smile on your face. Suddenly, a realization hits you. The pictures on the walls are gone. You quickly get up and trot to the kitchen, throwing open the cupboards. There was still food left in there. Not much, but there's enough for a single pony with a normal sized pair of saddlebags to take home. You move to the fridge and throw its door open as well. Items such as milk, eggs, and bread were still in there.

You return to the living room and open up another cabinet. The shelves are dusted over, but there's a few spots that look like something was recently taken. Closing the cabinet doors, you turn to Thunderlane and say, "You're right, they're still alive, but this house wasn't burglarized. It never was." The Pegasus tilts his head and says, "What do you mean, not burglarized? The house looked like it was stripped bare!" You take Thunderlane's hoof and drag him to the kitchen, where you reopen the cupboards and the fridge. "What kind of burglar in this sort of world doesn't take food? I've seen many a movie in my time, and there's ALWAYS a shortage of food in these situations. Makes sense, right?" Thunderlane nods his head as you pull him back into the living room. "Furthermore," you continue, "what thief takes pictures of somepony else's family? Look around you! All of my family photos are gone!"

Thunderlane opens his mouth so as to respond, but a loud growl outside stops him. You walk up to the front door, where you see another lone Trotter standing outside. Without thinking of the consequences, your start to trot up to it, pulling out your revolver and pointing it at the Trotter's head. Not stopping your gait, you yell, "You're the FUCKIN' reason why my wife and child are missing, you undead son of a bitch!" BANG! BANG! BANG! You fire two rounds into the Trotter's head, causing it to explode all over the car behind it, and one round into its body. The decapitated corpse hits the hood so hard that the alarm is set off, becoming a beacon to all the Trotters in the surrounding area. You quickly holster your weapon and trot back to your house, your heart racing and your adrenaline pumping. However, before you can reach it, Thunderlane swoops by you, holding Rumble in one hoof, and grabs you with his other. When he flies back in his house, he throws you onto the floor and begins to board the front door up.

"The hell were you thinking, firing that thing off!?" Thunderlane shouts. "You've probably attracted all of the Trotters within fifty miles of here!" You sit on the makeshift bed, your head hung low. Your mistake has probably cost you another night or two stuck in the house. The Pegasus walks over to the carpet covered window and looks outside. You walk up to it and look outside as well. You see Trotters roaming the streets, most of them swarming around the honking car. As Rumble walks up to the window under you, a group of Trotters in front of the car disperses. The only one left is a white mare with a wild and out of place mane. Her coat is stained with dirt and the blood of other ponies, and she's missing a lot of flesh on different parts of her body. Hearing a sniffle, you look down to find that Rumble is gone. You look behind you to see that he's got his head buried in a pillow, crying into it.

Thunderlane trots over to his brother and tries to calm him down. As you walk over to them, the Pegaus explains, "That mare… she was my girlfriend… practically a mother to Rumble here. She got bit one day and turned into one of… those monsters. Died right on the bed upstairs. Since then, Rumble couldn't sleep on it. She was really nice and caring… she and Rumble had a lot of fun…" You notice a tear forming in Thunderlane's eye as well.

It all makes sense to you now. That's why they stayed. They lost too much here. You can stay another night, you think to yourself. At least, until the Trotters leave. It's the least you could do. You have your own family to look after, after all. You know how it feels to lose somepony close. Closing the carpets over the windows, you put a few of the lanterns on and hunker down for the night.

The sun's rays hit your face as you wake up. It takes you a few minutes, but you eventually realize that the moans and growls of the Trotters have disappeared, as well as the car alarm. You sit up in the bed to find the boards on the door have been removed, and that the two Pegasi are still sleeping. You get out of the bed to write the two brothers a note, telling them that you've gone off to find your family. On the reverse side, you write the instructions to firing the weapons, hoping that they'd remember them. You dress yourself in your police vest and double holster jacket, pinning your badge on the front. Then, you sling the bag of guns onto your back and trot out the front door, making sure to open and close it quietly.

As you begin to trot away, you get an idea. You turn around and gallop to Town Hall. Thankfully, you don't meet any Trotters on the way. You rush inside to your cubicle within the building. You don't find the keys to your cruiser, but you find something that means a bit more to you: your Ponyville Ranger hat. The police of Ponyville were usually nicknamed "Rangers" by the residents due to their Western styled hats and star shaped badges. You put it on and go into Colt's cubicle to take his keys. Luckily, they were in there, hanging on the hook. You take them off and trot outside to his cruiser. Driving the cruisers was normally assigned to dragons, but that didn't mean you didn't know how to. You slide into the uncomfortable cockpit and start the car up with a satisfying VROOM! Before you leave, though, you remember something else that should be done.

You park the car on the side of the road next to the park and get out. The half Trotter from before has crawled all the way from the monument of Celestia to the sidewalk you now parked at. Trotting over to it, you pull out your Python and aim it at the Trotter's head, cocking the hammer back. It only hisses and reaches out at you. You know you have to kill it, but you can't bring yourself to pull the trigger. As you lower the revolver, you remind yourself that this was once a filly, and it feels like this would be murder. You remember your family, though, and that it was things like this that made you lose them. You're stuck in between a rock in a hard place. You want to kill it because it's the reason why your family is missing, but you also don't want to because it was once like you. You sit on the ground a ways away from the Trotter, thinking through your dilemma.

A choice must be made. Will you either put the Trotter down, or will you let it live?