Spitfire grabbed the handle in her teeth and rammed the safe-room door shut, bolting it with a quick jerk of her head.
“Everypony okay?” she asked.
“While tired I am, I must confess. I have found myself in no distress,” Zecora murmured as she leaned against a nearby wall.
“I must agree with our zebra friend there,” Hoity Toity said, pushing a hoof through the remains of his pompadour. “The only things causing me distress is the lack of a good mirror and these archaic scribblings on the walls. Such horrible misspellings and horrendous grammar usages.”
He gestured to the graffiti that covered the safe room walls. Some were personal messages, but most read: “Where’s EEDA?” “It’s not the Blue Joke! A bath won’t help when they try to bite you,” and “This is payment for all your cupcakes!”
Spitfire rolled her eyes and looked for the fourth member of their group who was sitting in the corner of the safe room. “You okay Cheerilee?”
The mare looked up, startled at being addressed, and quickly nodded, “I’m-I’m alright.”
Spitfire nodded, “Good. Now everypony start looking for some supplies. Once our saddlebags are loaded we’ll rest before we head out again.”
The others nodded and began rummaging through whatever supplies had been left behind by other survivors.
Cheerilee started restocking their med-kits with the thoroughness possessed by a grade school teacher. Hoity Toity picked through the weapons trying to decide between a bat and a crowbar before settling on a hunting rifle. Spitfire was busy reloading her shotgun when she heard Zecora make a sound of delighted surprise.
“Find something useful there Z?” she asked around the shell in her teeth.
“Indeed I have, it seems quite a find. A recording crystal left behind.” Zecora held out a small lavender colored crystal.
Spitfire cocked an eyebrow, “A what now?”
“A gift this was to friend Twilight. I hope it shows she is all right.” As she spoke, Zecora pulled a piece of chalk from her saddlebag and began sketching on the cement floor.
Soon an intricate pattern of loops and whorls decorated a small area of the floor. Satisfied, Zecora placed the crystal in the middle and began to chant. Slowly the crystal began to glow and pulsating tendrils of light crept along the designs.
“Egads!” Hoity Toity proclaimed in astonishment, “You never told me that our friend here was some sort of hedgewitch.”
Spitfire shot him a look, “You have a problem with that?”
The gray stallion fidgeted nervously under her gaze. “Well…uhm…what I meant to say…that is…what I mean is simply that no one had informed me of her abilities.”
“Times like these,” Spitfire turned her attention back to Zecora, “you can’t be picky about who your allies are, right?”
Hoity Toity simply readjusted his shades and tried to look composed.
Zecora opened her eyes and as she finished the chant, light leapt from the floor, twisting and shimmering to create a visual image.
“Wow, Z,” Spitfire said in awe, “This is really something.”
Zecora frowned at the image, “Some thing for sure, this may be so…”
“But…?” Spitfire urged.
“This pony folk I do not know.”
As they watched, the image seemed to solidify into a small, white unicorn with purple and lavender two-toned hair.
Cheerilee gasped, “That’s Sweetie Belle. She’s a filly from my class in Ponyville. Oh! And there’s Apple Bloom and Scootaloo! I-I’m so glad they’re all right.” Tears began to well in her eyes.
“Well,” Hoity Toity gave a polite cough, “this speaks of good news. If those three little ponies could make it this far, the four of us should be simply fantastic!”
They all nodded in agreement.
“Hey?” Spitfire asked, nudging Cheerilee, “Who’s that one?”
“Oh, that’s Twist,” Cheerilee said, wiping her face. “I’m surprised to see her with them. It seemed that Apple-Bloom didn’t hang out with her very much after she got her cutie mark.”
Zecora mused, “You must have taught them at some length, that with more numbers comes greater strength.”
Cheerilee’s ears drooped and she blushed slightly, “I did what I could to make my students ready for the world…but not for this.”
In the crystal’s light, Apple Bloom’s hoof suddenly engulfed the view and the image shook as she tapped on the crystal.
“This thing workin’?”
Her voice sounded tinny and far away. The little filly stepped back to join her friends.
“Ahem. This here crystal is gonna show you all the stuff we’ve done and where we’ve been.”
Scootaloo cut in, “And all the infected we put down.”
Sweetie Belle piped up, “All the other ponies we saved.”
Twist popped up, “Even thome of the awethome explothionth we cauthed!”
Apple Bloom leaned back into view, “Because we are-”
The four of them slammed hooves together for a team high-one, “THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SURVIVORS!!!”
“And vampire killerth!” Twist added.
There was a silence as the others stared at her.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes, “Twist, how many times are we gonna go over this? There’s no such thing as vampire ponies.”
“All I’m thaying ith that if there’th zombie ponieth, there’th probably vampireth too.”
The argument was well underway when the image suddenly flickered and skipped to a different scene, and again before changing again at random.
“Hey Z,” Spitfire asked, “what’s going on?”
Zecora scrutinized the crystal and made a sad sound, shaking her head. “The crystal is fractured from its long trip. And I’m afraid the recording will now easily skip.”
“Wait,” Hoity Toity exclaimed, “How did these young fillies acquire your crystal, let alone activate it?”
Spitfire snorted, “Well, duh. Cheerilee just told us they attended her school in Ponyville. So this-Twilight?” She looked to Zecora for confirmation, continuing when the zebra nodded. “Yeah, Twilight, she probably gave it to them and showed them how to work it.”
Zecora smiled, “Indeed you seem quite the sleuth. Dear friend, Spitfire, you speak the truth.”
“Could-could we still watch it?” Cheerilee asked, “to see if they made it to safety?”
A quick glance around the room showed her companions approval; the ponies all settled down to watch as the scenes in the crystal played out.
oooOOOooo
The Crusaders trot down an abandoned road past the Whispering Oats Motel, the sign out front reads: CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO SICKNESS. Apple Bloom leads the small herd, a bat clenched tightly in her teeth. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo follow close behind with Twist checking behind them every now and then.
The scene changes to show a barricaded door. A double–buck kick rips a board clean off and a yellow hoof reaches through the hole to open the door.
The recording crystal pans around the store and Apple Bloom’s voice can be heard off image.
“Report un-usual behavior...”
In the corner, Scootaloo presses a button on a register, smirking at the drawer full of bits.
“Barri-cade your homes...”
Twist opens the doors to a large gun locker. Getting a good look at the weapons lining the wall, her face crinkles into a giddy smile.
“Avoid all contact with infected in-di-viduals...”
At the counter, Sweetie Belle unfolds a map of the area, studying the streets and intersections. Twist canters by and places a pistol in front of her friend. Sweetie Belle glances at her before pushing the gun away and turning back to the map.
“Wait for offi-cial instruct-tions,” Apple Bloom glares at the checklist from the Equestrian Emergency and Defense Agency. “Wait my flank!”
She snorts, crumpling the paper beneath her hoof as she takes a bite of an apple.
There’s a sound from the gun cabinet and Twist turns around, armed to the teeth with as many weapons as she can cram into her saddlebags.
She grins and, in her cheerful, stuffed up way, proudly declares, “Kill all th-tudth of mareth.” She racks a shell into her shotgun, “Thothe are my official inthtructionth!”
The crystal skips and Twist gives a grunt as she kicks out the Safe Room door. An infected mare with one front leg and half her jaw whirls, whinnying in rage. Twist blows a hole in the mare’s head as Sweetie Belle hacks at another infected with her axe. Apple Bloom charges into the fray while Scootaloo fires at an infected, catching it just under the horn.
Day became night and Apple Bloom headbutts a unicorn in the face, sending it tumbling to the ground. Sweetie Belle darts forward, flipping her axe from blade to hook as she drives it into an undead pony’s neck.
Apple Bloom storms up to the undead unicorn, the little yellow filly’s face a mask of rage.
“This used to be a nice neighborhood!” she yells, driving the butt of her shotgun into its head with a sharp ‘crunch’.
A quick skip and Twist is running for her life, dodging around the abandoned carts that clog the roadway. A maniacal giggling echoes through the night as an infected colt scampers after her; its grossly elongated forearms propelling it from cart to cart.
The unicorn’s coat, once tan, has been rubbed raw and only a few wispy strands of its blue mane and tail remain. The creature chortles in glee as it leaps atop Twist’s back, slamming her into a cart. Twist screams as it tangles its hooves in her frizzy mane and yanks her stumbling backwards.
Scootaloo hears the commotion.
"Ponyfeathers!” she hisses. Skidding to a halt she quickly aims and cracks off a shot.
The crystal flickers to show brief glimpses of a downed hot air balloon crawling with mud-spattered ponies. Sweetie Belle’s voice can be heard in a panicked whisper:
“What the hay was that?”
A mud-pony wades through the swampy surface, body half submerged in the water. It nickers at the beam of light in its face.
“Hey watch out!” Twist yells, as the creature gives an inequine scream and charges forward.
The crystal changes again, this time showing Sweetie Belle and Twist crouched behind a fallen tree. Twist opens her mouth only to have Sweetie Belle stuff a hoof in it.
“Shhh.” The little pony’s eyes focus on the top of the downed tree as a knobbly, sky-blue hoof clutches at it.
An infected mare rises up on her hind legs, staggering slightly as her malnourished body twists and sways through the air like a rickety snake. The unicorn’s dislocated mouth trails thin luminous green spit. A pointed wizards hat and cape cling to her hide.
Sweetie Belle’s voice drifts across the image.
“This is some hard candy we've got ourselves into...”
The creature whirls, spewing noxious green goo as the image jumps to an abandoned neighborhood.
“Get back! Get back!” Sweetie Belle hollers, firing an assault rifle as she retreats.
Apple Bloom gives a yell as she cranks off a shot. Behind her, Twist helps Scootaloo limp franticly up the street.
Apple Bloom gives a loud, “YAH!” as shotgun pellets tear through an infected’s shoulder, sending it tumbling to the ground.
Another switch and the group is trotting up flight after flight of stairs. Apple Bloom struggles to keep up, panting in exhaustion.
“Who in their right mind...” she gasps, “puts a pegasus evac station...up thirty flights of Celestia’s Dam stairs?”
“Come on Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo gasps, moving around her friend. The pegasus smiles, “Maybe the chariot...maybe it's made of apples.” Chuckling, she heads up the stairs.
Apple Bloom shots her friend a withering look.
The image shifts to show the top of a building. Other than a burning flare, it is completely desolate.
Twist looks around, “Hey where ith everybody? Helloooo!”
“Oh, this is not happening...” Sweetie Belle murmurs.
“Anypony here?” Twist cried out.
“This is not happening.” Sweetie Belle whispers her mantra, “This is not happening.”
Apple Bloom watches four pegasus chariots take off from the buildings across the street.
“Thought they were supposed to be saving our flanks?”
Scootaloo looks up, panting to catch her breath, determination on her face. “Looks like there's been a change of plans.”
The crystal starts flashing as image after image speeds by. Members of the Royal Guard streak across the sky unloading the cache of bombs from their armor. Explosions tear through abandoned carriages along the Louis n’ Anna Royal Boatyard. A horde of infected in the Ranch Quarter are sent tumbling through the air, one of them ripped clean in half. Infected ponies gallop across a bridge as an explosion sends a large freight-wagon crumpling towards them.
Sweetie Belle crouches behind a royal-guard cart, fumbling with the radio in her hooves as debris rains down around her.
She hollers franticly into the radio, “Stop the bombing run!”
A Royal Guard banks over the collapsing Shetlands Memorial Bridge, his voice coming in over the radio waves.
“Celestia’s mane! That's coming from the bridge!”
Apple Bloom looks up as another guard flies by. A bomb hits a large grass tanker, igniting the dry hay in an explosion that flings her into the air. The little pony comes down hard on the front of a squadcart, tumbling to the pavement.
Scootaloo rushes to her fallen friend only to hear Twist yell from off image.
A quick shift and an infected griffin bursts through the wreckage of a burning shack; sending Twist tumbling through the air. The birdlike monstrosity was so misshapen and deformed that it could hardly fly; a fact that didn’t stop it from buzzing across the distance like a 400 lb. humming bird. Bellowing in rage, it reaches out with a massive-bloated arm, wrapping its talons around the filly’s chest.
Twist screams, “It'th got me!”
The creature lifts Twist into the air and slams her back down with enough force to shatter dock it’s standing on.
Another switch and Scootaloo is climbing up the side of a massive wooden roller coaster; infected ponies, their faces still horribly smeared with clown makeup, crawl up the scaffolding behind her. Suddenly Sweetie Belle is at the top her outstretched hoof reaching toward her friend. Scootaloo fires up her wings and leaps forward. Sweetie Belle lunges over the rail and they locks hooves just in time.
“Hang on!” Sweetie Belle yells.
Dangling over the abyss, Scootaloo looks down in time to see a colossal fireball billow up from the ground, swallowing the clown ponies below her.
And then they are in a hotel that’s engulfed in flames. Infected ponies screech and whinny in panic as the flames burn their flesh. Amidst the inferno two EEDA ponies stride, the flames rolling off their hazmat suits. One turns and the infected pony inside bares its teeth as a laser sight hovers across its brow.
A skip and the crystal shows the Crusaders running towards an elevator. Twist lashes out at an infected Royal Guard, knocking him aside. Another pony lunges from the darkness knocking the gun from her hooves.
Abandoning her weapon, Twist gallops towards the elevator as a gray-colored infected crashes to the floor behind her. The infected mare’s face and flank are covered in large, swollen bubbles of flesh, its molted wings hanging uselessly from its back. The creature gives a phlegm-filled screech and spits out an impossibly long tongue. Twist darts into the elevator just as the tongue wraps itself around her chest.
“Ah! What the haaay-EEEEELP!?” Twist yells as she’s hauled her off her hooves.
Scootaloo throws her forelegs around Twist, hauling her back as two infected stallions lunged towards them; their bodies getting trapped in the closing doors. Apple Bloom fires up a chainsaw.
“Apple-buckers! Eat that!” she yells, slamming the chainsaw down.
The filly holds on as the teeth chew their way through both the stallions and the thick, ropey tongue, coating them all in a layer of gore.
The doors finally slide closed, squishing the gooshy carnage.
The crystal fades out and back in as Twist collapses to the floor; coughing and groaning in pain she unwinds the length of tongue from her chest. Opening her eyes, she peers out the elevator’s glass walls, and gasps.
“Celethia’th toilet,” she moans as the elevator descends into a large mob of infected ponies.
Her body sags as she slumps her shoulders in defeat. Suddenly, a yellow hoof is in front of her. The frizzy-haired filly takes it as Apple Bloom helps her up and clops her on the back. Sweetie Belle hands Twist a grenade launcher.
“Hey,” she says in her sing-song voice, “‘Kill all studs of mares,’ right?”
The surprised Twist nods, beaming at her new weapon.
The crystal starts flickering again. The floor count ticks down from five to four.
The fillies are on a stage, a mosh pit of infected surrounds them. Lights flash and music blares as Scootaloo caves a pony’s head with an electric guitar. Apple Bloom charges to the edge of the stage, a gas can clamped in her teeth.
With a loud, “YAH!” she pitches it into the herd, fireworks exploding around them. Twist sights on the flying can and pulls the trigger. Gas explodes in a fiery rain and Scootaloo’s voice could be heard above the noise.
“I havenot…”
Four ticks down to three.
Sweetie Belle ratchets the ammo into a heavy machine gun. The little unicorn pulls the trigger and holds on for dear life as the bullets saw through the charging herd.
“…come this far…”
Three ticks down to two.
The Crusaders were back on the bridge as a monstrous clydesdale lifts a cart over its head. The red behemoth pitches it towards Apple Bloom and the little pony hits the pavement to avoid being crushed.
As the stud vaults a cart, Twist pops out of her hiding place and pumps a grenade into its chest. It stumbles back and Sweetie Belle unloads her pistols into its side.
“…to die now.”
Two ticks to L and a ding echoes through the mall.
Infected look towards the noise. As the doors slid open Twist turns from the window, Sweetie Belle aims her assault rifle, Scootaloo clamps her teeth tighter on her fire axe, and Apple Bloom revs the chainsaw into a Celestia-tier roar.
The fight has begun.
oooOOOooo
“Well,” Hoity Toity commented as the scene started to fade, “It looks like they’re-”
The crystal suddenly sprang to life again:
The Crusaders are trapped in a sugar mill, the winds howling outside as the herd charges them from all sides.
“Hey guyth!” Twist grins cheerfully as she knocks an infected down the stairs. “I ever tell you about the time my buddy Dinky and I tried to make a cake? We figured a gath powered mixther would work better thince it’th larger. Long thtory-thort, thugar cube wounds over 90% of her body. Wouldn’t go near the bakery for a month, and then-”
“TWIST!” Apple Bloom hollered, shoving back a snarling infected, “Is now the time?”
“Okay,” Twist mumbled before the crystal faded out completely.
Spitfire threw an arm around Cheerilee’s shoulders, “See? What I tell you? They’re going to be completely fine.”
The teacher put on her best expression, “Yes, I-I’m sure they’re alright.”
“I hope this does not sound terribly wrong.” Zecora said, “But the time has come to be moving along.”
“Zecora?” Cheerilee asked as the others trotted towards the far door. “Is it possible to leave the crystal running?”
The zebra cocked her head and the teacher gave an embarrassed cough.
“It- it’s just that I think it would be good for other ponies to see instead of…well,” her hoof gestured to the swears and epitaphs on the walls around them.
Zecora smiled and gave a little chuckle. “My friend I think you not a dope. To try and inspire a sense of hope.”
“Come on mares,” Spitfire called. “We’ve got to get these hooves movin’.”
Cheerilee cantered towards them as Zecora bent towards the design; a few more markings added and the crystal sprang into perpetual life.
“This thing workin’?” Apple Bloom asked once more.
“Thank you,” the school teacher said as the zebra joined their friends.
“All right, everypony ready? Go on three?” Spitfire asked.
They all nodded.
Spitfire grinned and yelled. "123GO!"
Gunfire roared.
Cheerilee risked a glance back and smiled at the image of her four students fighting together. Then she drew a machete, turned and leapt into the fray.
***
LEFT 4 FRENDSHIP 2
Starring:
Apple Bloom as ………….Coach
Sweetie Belle as …………. Rochelle
Scootaloo as ……………. Nick
And introducing ….
Twist as …………………Ellis
Total campaign time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Difficulty: Normal
Number of times restarted: 1
Deaths: 3
Number of times incapacitated: Twist – 14
First aid kits used: Apple Bloom – 9
Pain pills used: Scootaloo – 2
Molotovs used: Sweetie Belle – 13
Melee kills: Twist – 95
Derpies killed: 7
Gildas killed: 6
Snails killed: 5
Trixies killed: 13
Number of times disturbed the Fluttershy: Twist – 5
Took the least amount of damage: Sweetie Belle – 45
Took the most amount of damage: Twist – 342
Fewest friendly fire incidents: Scootaloo – 40
Most friendly fire incidents: Twist – 897
Revived the most teammates: Sweetie Belle – 19
Protected the most teammates: Apple Bloom – 27
Healed the most teammates: Apple Bloom – 12
Overall accuracy: Scootaloo – 87%, Apple Bloom – 82%, Sweetie Belle – 73%, Twist – 19%
Headshots (percentage of all hits): Scootaloo – 86%, Twist – 8%, Apple Bloom – 1%, Sweetie Belle – 0%
Time taken to kill the Big Mac: 3:45
Most amount of damage done to the Big Mac: Twist – 892, Sweetie Belle– 734, Scootaloo – 235, Apple Bloom– 12
13,572 Common infected were killed in the making of this fanfic
Author's Note
Yeah, I went for realistic on Twist's lisp. Did I go too far with it?
Errr, outside of that, I was inspired by another story over on fanfic about two years ago and I don't know that I could find it again to give him inspiration credit.