The Trotting Dead: Unquiet Equestria

The Trotting Dead: Unquiet Equestria

As written by Joseph Raszagal
Book One – Finding Friendship
Chapter One – Awakening to Death Following a Near Death Experience

“Nopony gets justice. Ponies only get good luck or bad luck.”

~ ~ ~

“You're gone, gone, gone away
I watched you disappear
All that's left is a ghost of you
Now we're torn, torn, torn apart
There's nothing we can do
Just let me go, we'll meet again soon”

• “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men

~ ~ ~

Two unicorn mares, one white and the other purple, trotted down the midnight streets of Canterlot somewhat less than soberly after having enjoyed a late night of celebration. As they leaned against each other, eight legs attempting to work in tandem so as not to stumble, they passed under a flickering streetlamp.

In a rush, a stallion burst from the darkness and bucked the white mare off to the side, knocking her out cold against a wall, then turned menacingly towards the other.

She never even knew what hit her.

A pair of hooves tore away her saddlebags and held her down against cold concrete.

A rag was stuffed into her muzzle so she couldn't scream.

A blur of colors flashed and the entire world span before her eyes.

There was a sudden noise, loud like a thunderclap, and it echoed relentlessly through her ears.

“Please,” she attempted to plea around the rag, blood running down her face.

The hooves didn't listen.

Another loud noise boomed, one from much further away, and though the grip she felt pinning her down disappeared, the entire world began to fade along with it.

“Miss!” somepony shouted, hasty hoofsteps growing in volume along with the voice. “Miss!”

Wishing she could muster up some kind of reply, she felt a wave of numbness wash over her, further muting her already muffled lips.

Closing her eyes, she embraced the total darkness and silence that swallowed her senses whole.

~ ~ ~

“Miss Sparkle,” spoke a voice, distorted as though coming from the other side of a long tunnel. “Miss Sparkle, are you with us?”

After a few seconds passed, a feminine voice absently replied, “Huh?”

“Miss Sparkle, it's past visiting hours, but I pulled a few strings and brought you some flowers from your friend.”

“One of the girls brought me some flowers? But... but it isn't even my birthday.”

“Yes, they're from your friend, Rarity, but Miss Sparkle, do you remember where you are? You remembered yesterday. Do you remember what happened?”

Twilight giggled incoherently and rambled, “Rarity's always been so nice to me. Haha, no occasion and still she sends me flowers. Isn't that... isn't that nice of her?”

“Oh dear,” stated the other voice before rushing off and shouting, “Doctor! Doctor Strain! She's conscious again but she still isn't completely lucid!”

A minute passed and then a masculine baritone spoke up.

“She keeps drifting in and out. We had her up and aware yesterday, didn't we, nurse?”

“Yes, but barely. All she seemed to know was that she had been attacked. Could her current level coherence be a result of the surgery compounding her concussion?”

“It was about as invasive as surgery can get. Still, there wasn't any choice, we had to remove the bullet. She would have died otherwise.”

“I'm not questioning that, doctor, I'm just asking... what can we do for her?”

After a second of silence, the masculine voice huffed, “Believe me, I'm frustrated too. There's nothing I hate more than when I'm unable to help my patients. But the fact of the matter is, outside of some form of impossible cure for the effects of violent head trauma, there's simply nothing we can do. All we can do is wait. Wait... and hope.”

~ ~ ~

Twilight Sparkle awoke in a blurry daze, sunlight filtering through her mostly-closed eyelids and effectively destroying any hope she had at returning to sleep.

“Five more minutes, Spike,” she mumbled.

A continuous nuzzle against her cheek eventually brought her to a begrudging state of semi-consciousness.

“Please, Spike?” she continued. “It's too early, I'm tired.”

“Twilight, if you can speak then you can get up,” said a familiar voice, the urgency of which registered somewhere in the back of Twilight's logical mind. “You need to get up. We don't have much time.”

Blearily, the unicorn relented and opened her eyes.

Hovering over her, with the most worried expression she'd seen in her entire life, was her older brother, Shining Armor. He stood there, still nudging her, completely armored as though he were expecting a battle to break out.

“Shining?” she squeaked, her voice strangely weak. “What are you doing here? You're... supposed to be in Canterlot, aren't you?”

“There's no time to explain,” he replied hastily, turning to look over his shoulder at the room's closed door. “We need to get out of here now. Right now.”

Forcing herself up, Twilight turned her own head and regarded a vase of dried and wilted flowers with a look of tired confusion.

"Why would Rarity bring me dead flowers?" she asked.

"Twilight, she brought you those flowers a month ago," Shining stated bluntly, tearing the sheets and covers off of his little sister unceremoniously.

At that, the lavender unicorn tilted her head, even more confused.

"You guys let me sleep for a month? That... that can't be healthy. You should have woke me up earlier."

Gritting his teeth, the white stallion placed his hooves on her shoulders and shouted at full volume, "Twilight, you weren't asleep, you were in a coma! You were shot! It's a miracle you're even alive, but if you don't get up and follow me right now I can guarantee that there won't be another miracle to save you!"

For a moment, Twilight merely blinked several times, her gears grinding into motion painfully slowly. Without really registering the situation at all, she simply obeyed her instructions and pulled herself to the edge of the bed. Immediately, however, her atrophied muscles failed her and she fell flat on her face, her limbs tangling with the hospital gown that she only just then noted was draped around her.

"Ow," she groaned as her brother helped her up, taking a moment to check over his shoulder again. "Stupid floor... Stupid hospital gown..."

"Wait, hospital gown?" the mare thought to herself. "I don't remember going to the hospital for a chec~

It's at that exact moment that Shining's words from earlier finally dawned upon her.

With a frantic expression, she looked up to her brother and stammered, "Sh-Shining...? W-what's going on?"

"Bad, bad things, Twiley," he replied, his face painted every single color of the worried spectrum. "You were shot and you fell into a coma, but now you're awake. That's all that's important, you're awake again. You're fine and you'll be fine if you just follow my lead and do exactly as I say. I can't have you freak out on me right now, I need you to compose yourself. No offense, but things have gotten so much worse since you two were attacked. Now, please, I need you to follow me. Stick close and don't leave my side for even a second, okay?"

Numbly, Twilight nodded. It was the most she thought she could manage.

"No, I have to hear you say it. You have to promise me that you won't leave my side. You can't afford to, you will die. I can't stress that enough. Tell me, tell me right now that you won't."

Opening her mouth, the purple unicorn forced out a meek, "I w-won't."

“Good, now put this on your foreleg,” he commanded, levitating a large device with a strap and a lock over to her. “I've been saving it for you. It'll help in the future, so long as we're able to get out of here at all.”

Again, she did as she was told, but this time with much more coherence, identifying the cumbersome ankle strap as a Pip-Buck 3000. That knowledge immediately startled her, however, the advanced hoof-held computer normally issued only to high-ranking military personnel such as the stallion standing directly in front of her.

“Ar-aren't these reserved only for elite members of the guard?” she questioned as she nonetheless locked the device into place, wincing as the needles mounted on its underside pierced through her skin and allowed it to link directly with her nervous system.

“Long story short,” Shining said with a grimace, turning to face the room's doorway, “I stole it. If it makes you feel any better, consider yourself drafted and promoted to Guard Captain.” Levitating a pistol in front of him that Twilight hadn't noticed up until that precise moment, he adds, “Now, like I said, stick close and no matter what you see or hear out there, do not run off.”

Adjusting to the Pip-Buck's systems, she gulped and repeated much more firmly, “I won't.”

“Don't worry, Twiley, I'll get us out of here, I promise.”

Hesitantly, the lavender unicorn met her brother's fierce stare and said, “I don't know what's going on, but... I trust you, Shining. I'm right behind you.”

~ ~ ~

To be continued in Chapter Two – Escape from Ponyville...

~ ~ ~

Author's Game:

Guess the opening quote before the song lyrics!