Chapter 1 : Rainbow's Crash
Rainbow Dash sat uncomfortably, looking at her hooves. Even her awesomeness couldn't break through magically reinforced chain. She silently cursed herself for getting into this situation. Ya done bucked up big time, Dashie
"Well, you gonna protest, or what?", the white coated stallion asked her. She looked up, cocked her head. "Huh?". The colt looked at her reflection in the glass front of the carriage. "By this time, I usually get the big speech about how they didn't do it". He was an alright looking guy, Dash noted. Maybe in another life, she sighed. Although he IS an Earther.
Her attention snapped back to him. "One time, I had this mare, as soon as she got chained, starts sobbing and wailing she was innocent". Dash was intrigued. "And was she?". Her driver looked her straight in the eyes. "Guard found her beating her wife's head in with a brick".
"Ahh...", Dash muttered, sinking back into her seat. It was such a beautiful day outside. Shame she was cooped up inside the reinforced carriage. The sun was shining, birds singing, a pony trotting into the middle of the road.
"So she's there, cryin' like a little foal, when-". Wait, pony in the middle of the road? "Stop the bucking car!", Dash screamed. The pony in the middle of the road turned its head a split second before impact.
And everything went black.
***
The Trotting Dead Vol. 1
Rainbow Dash awoke, her head pounding. She was lying at an awkward angle, one wing under her. She moved, and gasped at the horrible pain. She looked at the pinned wing. "Bu-u-uck...", she winced.
A New Day
The wing was twisted out of shape, with a bone jutting from it. Blood coated the back panel of glass in the carriage. The magical field had broken, meaning Dash could break out, but the agony from her broken wing was sapping her strength. She decided, Buck it, laughed at her own unintentional pun and slammed her rear hooves against the glass with all her might. It cracked, but held. Another kick and it shattered, shards sticking into Rainbow's legs. She cried out, but quickly stifled it. For some reason, she felt like someone was watching her. She squirmed from the wrecked carriage, and observed her surroundings. Trees everywhere. "But that would mean this was the...", she finished the sentence in her head. Everfree!
It was then that she noticed the colt that had been detaining her. He was lying, face down, looking slightly... Off... Rainbow couldn't put her hoof on it, but he seemed... Wrong.
As she warily trotted over, she noticed what. Firstly, he wasn't breathing. Secondly, his mane was more... Faded. Greyer somehow. Thirdly, his ribcage was visible. Not only had his ribs punctured the skin, but some of the flesh around the puncture had been... Eaten? Dash vomited, cleared her mouth and shakily took another step towards his body.
The keys! Dash spotted the metal ring lying under the guard. That would make it easier for her to go and get help. She reached for the keys, not an easy task with the hoofcuffs on, especially since she was trying not to touch him. Eventually, she picked them up.
There were three keys attached. The first, a heavy, brass one three times bigger than the lock on the hoofcuffs probably wasn't it. The second one she shakily eased towards the lock on her right hoof. She fumbled them, and knocked them across the ground, where they came to rest in front of the corpse's mouth. Buck.
She reached for the keys slowly, as if the dead colt would bite her. "As if that's gonna happen", she laughed nervously, annoyed at the quiver in her voice. She gently picked them up, and opened the hoofcuffs.
At that, the colt leapt at her. Adrenaline reacting for her, she kicked him in the face, and scrambled away from him. It. The thing crawling towards her couldn't be called a pony anymore. Half of it's face was caved in from the kick, but pieces of flesh were missing. A shard of cheekbone poked through the flesh. It's face was sunken, gaunt. But worst of all were the eyes. It's yellow, soulless empty eyes.
Dash reached around her for a method of defence, until she found a wooden rod of some kind. She swung it round, and hit the thing in the side of the head, stunning it fore a few seconds. Then she recognised her weapon. It was a Scattershot. A weapon used by the guard. It's chamber could hold 2 magical charges, and it let out a deadly blast of energy. She had seen one fired before, she could handle it, right? She aimed the gun at the thing-that-had-been-a-stallion's head and pulled the trigger.
Click. Dash sat for a moment, wondering what the hay happened. Of bucking course! She grabbed a charge from the carriage behind her, and slotted it into the gun. The monster leapt at her. She closed her eyes, hoped she didn't miss, and fired.
She could see the flash through her eyelids. The Scattershot kicked back into her shoulder. But worst of all was the deafening blast. It crackled with magical energy, and left a ringing in her ears for a whole minute. She eventually opened her eyes. The thing's head was gone, only a ragged stump of a bloodsoaked spine remained. It's brain and skull covered several metres in front of her.
She threw the gun down and vomited again. Tears welled in her eyes. Did I just... She didn't finish the train of thought. Three shadowy figures in the trees were slowly lurching towards her. "Buck", Dash muttered. the noise had attracted more of them. She ran for it.
She fell over twigs, roots, branches, Faust knows how many times, but kept going, running blindly, the adrenaline to her wing being relocated to running for her life. Eventually she broke through the trees. She climbed over the fence of a nearby house.
"Hello?", Rainbow Dash tapped the back window with her hoof. "Anypony home?". No answer. She tapped harder. "Anypony hear me?". Still nothing. In no mood to try another house, she slammed a brick lying nearby into the window, and let herself in. The first thing she noticed was the blood on the floor. "What happened here?", she wondered aloud. "Another one of those... Things?". She shivered.
A device nearby crackled, and she heard something she'd wondered if she'd ever hear again. A voice. "+++H-hello? Is anypony there?+++". It sounded like a young filly. "+++Anypony? Can you hear me? Car? Is that you?+++".
Rainbow Dash picked up the radio. "No... I don't know where she is. Where are you?". The voice hesitated, before asking, "+++Are you one of them?+++". "Nah. They couldn't beat me", she said, the usual swagger returning to her voice. "I'm the invincible, unbeatable Rainbow Dash. 'S you're name?"
"+++Scootaloo. And I'm in my clubhouse, outside. It's where my friends and I would hang out... Y'know, before..." Rainbow Dash nodded solemnly, despite not knowing if Scootaloo could see her. "If you come down, I'm sure I ca-". "+++Look out!++", Scootaloo screamed.
Rainbow Dash turned around, just in time to spot the emaciated not-pony crawling towards her. She bolted, slipped on the bloodied floor and hit her skull on the way down. Vision swimming, she desperately tired to back away from the abomination, kicking it back.
A hoof behind her handed her something. As her vision cleared, she saw it was a hammer. She stood up on her hind legs and brought it down on the creature's skull, denting it and causing one of it's eyes to pop out, almost comically. Not taking any chances, she hit it again, and again, and again, until it's head was a bleeding pulp.
Breathing heavily, Dash turned around to see her helper. A small orange filly with a purple mane looked up at her, concerned? "Is your wing okay, Miss Rainbow Dash?", Scootaloo asked. "Oh, this?", Dash replied, as if she hadn't noticed it. "It'll be fine".
"And Top?", she asked, gesturing to the orange maned ex-pony lying in a puddle of it's own bodily fluids. "She's... She'll..." Rainbow faltered. "She was one of the bad things, right, Rainbow Dash?", Scootaloo looked up. "Yeah... Yeah she was...", Dash sighed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to see a pony about a complex wing procedure". And with that, the mighty, invincible Rainbow Dash slid down the wall and began to snore.
