Heart Of Equestria

Chapter 3: The Hood Lifts

Big Macintosh was not an easily phased Stallion, far from it, living in Ponyville and being the brother of one of the Elements of Harmony taught him quickly to always expect the unexpected and to be ready to defend himself or just ready to duck.

He was not ready for this.

Whatever the hay the things emerging from the Everfree Forest were, they weren’t ponies; they might look like them in some small ways, shape, having manes but the pure hatred they radiated had no business in their town, or Equestria.

He growled as he saw them from his patch of orchard; abandoning his apples he headed down the dirt roads leading into town and marched past nervous and frightened onlookers to the south entrance to Ponyville and glowered in the direction of the advancing creatures, his face set in a mask of anger and determination.

By now other ponies were reacting to the advancing horde; some brave souls stepped up to confront them with him, he could see Colgate and Bon Bon among them. Some prepared for the worst; he could hear Berry Punch rounding up a group of fillies and colts who had been playing and taking them into the nearest house. Still more chose to get assistance, Thunderlane hurriedly muttering about going to Canterlot for help before speeding off toward the mountains that hid the city.

It seemed to take entire days but the hordes of what they could now clearly see as undead ponies halted just 20 feet from the small group of defenders; for every brave defender there were at least 5 undead and none of them were fighters.

“What the hay do y’all want?” Big Mac demanded, his voice even deeper than his usual baritone.

A particularly tall undead pony stepped forward, his (or he assumed, he couldn’t tell the mares and stallions apart) steps twitchy and unnatural.

“You all bear the marks, and you are surrounded by freaks; we’ve come to get rid of them, to protect you.” Its voice was as dead as its appearance hollow, emotionless and seemed to be a whisper even as it shouted its declaration.

Beside him he saw Colgate gulp.

“Y’all ain’t coming in here; we don’ need no protectin’, ‘specially not from the likes of y’all.” Big Mac’s voice had dipped again; even the Ponyville residents could not help a slight shiver travelling their spines.

Evidently the undead ponies were still able to comprehend that; the speaker actually took a step back before regaining its composure.

“You are deluded noble stallion; the mark on your flank diminishes you as we knew it would, we were able to spare ourselves from such a gruesome fate but alas, it seems it is too late for you. You are surrounded by those afflicted and these, freakish abominations.” The Speaker nodded its head towards Colgate, disgust evident.

Big Mac scowled as Colgate shivered at being directly addressed.

“You keep calling ma friends abominations and Ah’ll rearrange ya face for ya, can only be an improvement.” Looking over the assembled horde, he finally saw what they were referring to; the undead ponies all had no trace of cutie marks, and unless they were degraded even further than he thought they all appeared to be Earth Ponies too.

Oh Celestia, this can’t end well.

“Enough of this, it’s time to rescue those lucky few who have escaped corruption,” The Pony began to walk toward the group, “any who oppose us shall suffer a terrible-“

CRUNCH.

The Pony never finished its statement as its skull collapsed under the force of Big Macs’ forehoof; before it had time to hit the floor he whirled around and bucked as hard as he could with both backlegs.

The Undead Pony exploded in all directions as shards of bone, nothing bigger than a hoof remaining.

Big Mac snorted in the direction of the remaining ponies and stomped his forehoofs, challenging them to approach. He tried not to falter as he noticed the un-phased appearance of the other undead, in fact some seemed almost amused.

He quickly realised why as he heard a stallion yell in fright from behind him.

The fragments of bone that were the pony were moving, twitching and sliding along the ground to make a pile in front of Big Mac; Bon Bon smashed a leg bone under her hoof but it did not good as the remains moved independently.

The assembled ponies could only watch in horror as the fragments slotted themselves back together, poking and twitching until they found their correct place like some sick jigsaw puzzle until finally the undead pony once again stood before them.

For a being without most of a face, the pony looked remarkably smug.

There was no warning as the horde suddenly galloped, crossing the distance between themselves and the defenders in a moment. The defenders responded in kind and soon the two groups collided in a mob of flailing kicks, headbutts and bites.

Big Mac advanced on a zombie with ribbons of flesh hanging from its back like a cape and aimed a kick at its head. It dodged to the side and snapped its jaws towards where Big Macs’ neck had been just seconds before, Mac responded by slamming a forehoof into its muzzle and shattering most of its’ teeth.

Behind him a zombie pony advanced to aid its comrade but soon felt a mighty slam into its ribs as Bon Bon bucked with all she had and sent the creature colliding into a cohort that had been moments from chomping down on Colgate.

A scream tore Big Macs’ attention away from the thoroughly beaten zombie, his heart seemed to drop from inside his chest as he saw a thoroughly beaten Roseluck, two zombie ponies biting down on her legs.

Big Mac reared in anger and charged his way to Roseluck, scattering enemies and allies alike until he reached her; both zombie ponies did not run fast enough and soon found themselves pinned to the ground by an enraged stallion.

The first zombies head was crushed to dust but repeated stomping as its friend tried to squirm out from under Big Macs leg; when there was practically nothing left of the first zombies head Big Mac turned on the second and grabbed its legs with his mouth while still pinning its hooves and, with an almighty tug, the ponies flank and back legs separated from the rest of its body, as the zombie roared in agony.

Big Mac turned to Roseluck; she was bleeding badly and unconscious but seemed to still be breathing at least. He quickly whistled for Colgate, who nodded and levitated Roseluck onto her back and took off into Ponyville, as Big Mac returned to the fray.

Even as he headbutted another zombie and split its skull Big Mac was becoming increasingly aware that they were delaying the inevitable; he and his friends were powerful but they tired and they hurt like anypony else, these creatures seemed to do neither, content to return again and again to attack no matter what they did do them.

Bon Bon rushed past Big Mac to aid Carrot Top; she looked as though she had been dropped off a cliff and though her eyes still burned with determination he could see her movement slowing down. Likewise he could see Aloe and Lotus back to back fending off attacks from all sides, exhaustion and fatigue clear in the two spa workers.

He galloped his way over and lowered his head in a charge, scattering the gathering wall of attackers, giving Aloe and Lotus room to organise as Bon Bon and Cherilee charged in to maintain the chaos.

Cherilee?

Big Mac did a double take as he indeed saw his marefriend joining the chaos, splitting a zombie ponies skull down the middle and tumbling another into a zombie that was reassembling, causing the two to become conjoined and immobile.

Cherilee caught Big Macs gaze and nodded with a fierce, determined look; any thoughts of telling her to leave were quickly invalidated.

He and Cherilee backed up together as a group of five zombie approached.

“I thought you were protecting the foals, sugar bunny?” Big Mac asked, hardly able to believe the joke at the end of his question had left his lips.

“Your human friend volunteered to guard the schoolhouse, sugar bear.” Cherilee returned, blocking a kick aimed at Big Macs head and flipping the attacker head over hoof.

Big Mac thought over that, where the hay had Lyle been all day? And why hadn’t he come back to the house?

Returning his thoughts to the battle, Big Mac threw yet another kick at a zombie but before he could have it connect he felt his knees buckle; even a pony as strong as Big Macintosh tired and he had been leading the fight from the beginning.

He heard Cherilee gasp and saw her stand directly over him, shielding him from attacks as he laid exhausted his limbs disobedient and useless.

Even as he glanced around, Big Mac could see their defence crumbling; injuries came faster and in greater severity, zombies faced fewer opponents as ponies either fled or were overcome by wounds and overwhelmed those who remained.

Looking back to Cherilee, he saw at least ten zombies approaching the two.

He struggled harder than he had ever struggled in his life to rise to his hooves but still his muscles failed him. It looked like this was truly the end, they had put up a fight at least, some would have escaped…

A bright flash of light made him reopen his eyes; before him their attackers barely stood, several engulfed in flames, others jolting painfully from muscle spasms. As he watched another sharp flash of lightning crashed down on them from the thundercloud that had appeared above them.

“Bring it on you freaks, I’ll blast you all night or take you apart bone by bone, your choice!”

A cheer erupted from the surrounding defenders as they all recognised the cocky and boastful voice of Rainbow Dash even before she zoomed down from her thunder cloud perch and joined the fray, scattering zombies left and right, compensating for weakened ponies and taking pressure off those still able to fight.

She wasn’t alone.

From nowhere above Big Mac a large a ferocious looking blade, stylised as a bat wing, swung down and decapitated a zombie; Big Mac, finally standing again, watched in amazement with Cherilee as the head screamed in agony before both it and the body exploded into a cloud of darkness and did not reappear.

The sword was held by what Big Mac could only guess a human actually looked like, or at least this person was standing and shaped the same way Lyle was; he had a long flowing white mane that somewhat covered his eyes and he also wore far more clothes than ponies tended to, with denim covering his legs and a white jacket covering his torso.

Behind him Big Mac could see more humans; a human with a spiked hair style to make Vinyl Scratch envious was slashing away at zombies with what Big Mac could swear was a giant key, while another human, a girl, was slashing away with a similar key that seemed to have metal carvings of flowers engraved to it.

As each of these warriors sliced at the zombies they did not return, fading away to wherever they had come from he hoped; the others had taken notice, several zombies were attempting to retreat to the Everfree Forest only to be bottlenecked into the warriors’ blades by Rainbow Dash.

Soon, there was stillness as they cast glances around at the battlefield that the Ponyville outskirts had become; several ponies hadn’t made it that much was clear. Big Mac almost felt guilty that he didn’t know many of them by name.

A cry of anguish came from behind him and he turned to face Aloe, her face seemed like it had been carved from sheer grief; beside her lay her twin Lotus, still, bloodied and very obviously dead.

Big Mac really had no idea what to do in this situation and was grateful to the female human who rushed to comfort Aloe, taking her in her arms and whispering comforts to her.

“So, where’d they come from big guy; I wanna make them hurt now.”

Big Mac didn’t need to face Rainbow Dash to hear the fury in her voice but before he could answer her voice perked up again, now frightened.

“Wait, where’s Scoots?”

Big Macs’ blood turned to ice as he thought of Applebloom; Lyle was no warrior, if a zombie had made its way to the school house, but no, surely they had kept them all at bay, there was no way they could’ve.

“Come on, they’re at the schoolhouse with Lyle!” He took off at a gallop but turned confused as Rainbow Dash hadn’t followed him. He turned to her, almost physically flinching at the look of fear and dread on her face.

“Y-You, left her alone. With that thing!?” Big Mac had never heard so much anger and fear in one ponies mouth but before he could get an answer Rainbow Dash had zoomed off at speeds threatening a Sonic Rainboom toward the schoolhouse.

Dreading what he might find, Big Mac galloped after her; if anyone had laid a hand on Applebloom they’d be begging to die…

****

As soon as she shattered the schoolhouse door into splinters for her entrance Rainbow Dash’s worst fears were confirmed; the schoolhouse was quiet and abandoned but desks had been overturned, a chair had splintered and what looked like a bloodstain was smeared on a cracked window.

Rainbow Dash slumped to her hooves and sobbed, forgoing any sense of strength, bravado or reputation, it didn’t matter; she didn’t care if everyone in Equestria saw her breaking down like a filly, Scoots was in trouble, which was all that mattered.

She shook herself slightly to regain composure.

“Well, that certainly shook you up.”

Fire almost burst from Rainbow Dash’s eyes with the glare she bestowed on the hooded figure across the classroom; his pose spoke for his lack of face, his smug sense of superiority, his sadistic glee at having Rainbow Dash in such a terrible position.

“Lyle, what do you want? Answer me, name it, I don’t care what it is, just please, anything!” Rainbow Dash’s attempt at a threat died as she succumbed to begging, pleading for Scootaloo to be okay.

“Hmm, that’s going to be a bit difficult; see, all I can really think that I want is what I have, you and your friends squirming and begging at my feet, and releasing that worthless, flightless bird kind of undoes that.”

“Don’t call her worthless! She’s worth ten of you, her and all of her friends. I don’t care if she never learns to fly, she’s my little sis and you’re nothing but a cowardly backstabber!”

“Funny, to be a backstabber wouldn’t I have had to be on your side to begin with?”

Before Rainbow Dash could respond she heard the tell-tale thundering of Big Mac as the red stallion marched into the room, eyes promising pain beyond imagination.

“Where is mah sister you varmint?” His voice was soft but it oozed hatred in every syllable.

Neither pony needed to see Lyles face to know he was smirking.

“Well, depends which one we’re talking about; the annoying brat is who knows where and the dope in the Stetson I don’t know, I can tell you where she will be when I’m done with her though, six feet under.”

Big Mac growled in anger which only made Lyle chuckle. He calmed himself; if he attacked Lyle might run off and this might be their only chance, he’d learnt that from Applejack from the Changeling invasion, “keep ‘em talking, they’ll let somethin’ slip”.

“Why are you doing this partner? We put you up, you got no reason to be hurtin’ us, hay those zombies woulda torn you apart without us; ain’t they got a thing called honour wherever the hay you came from?”

Lyle twitched in annoyance, as if ridding himself of an annoying insect.

“Oh we had honour; I was once bound by honour, and for what? I was never appreciated, never respected or recognised. Oh but I guarantee my friends, they know me now; even now the ones who disrespected me dread that I may one day return to punish them for their injustice once again. Well, the day has arrived, and they will suffer at my hands a thousand times what they suffered all those centuries ago!” Lyles voice rose as he spoke and his tone became laced with venom as he confused Rainbow Dash and Big Mac, just what the hay was this madman talking about?

He collected himself.

“Well, as much fun as this has been, I’m afraid it’s time for me to take my leave; The Monarch will be most displeased if I don’t return after all, and it would be so rude of me to disappoint her after everything she’s done for me, wouldn’t it?” He laughed as shadows engulfed him before he had disappeared completely, leaving two ponies to stand confused, emotionally wrecked and alone in a ruined schoolhouse.