//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Fragments of Fanzith // by Viscera //------------------------------// "Alright my little ponies, are you ready to get those herbs?" the fillies cringed a bit. "Well Ah'm not too sure I know how to kill hordes and hordes of zombies..." Applebloom said nervously. "First of all, I've explained how to like, 5 times already-" "But Ah don't get all those fancy words your usin'!" "Dont worry about it Applebloom, The zombies won't even come out in the day time." Twist said to break the argument. After a few moments the silence was broken by a voice. "Won't you get going soon? The joke won't cure itself you buffoons." "Hey! Ah ain't no 'buffoon'!" Applebloom argued. "She's right, lets get going guys, you both have the darts in case of emergency, right?" The fillies nodded. "Well lets get going then." The ponies left Zecora's and started moving North East toward the ruins where the herbs resided.After reaching their destination they started looking around for the blue and orange herbs they needed. "Oh lookie lookie I think I found them!" Twist yelled from across the meadow. "Mmphagragueaghpmm" said a voice from underneath Twist. A hoof grabbed at Twist and pulled her under the ground. "Twist!" Twilight and Applebloom both yelled at once, running after her. "Mmpmmphragrrhammph" said more voices. There were zombies rising from the ground. "Hold on Ah'll get em!" Applebloom yelled to Twilight. She started shooting darts at the zombies. "AH!" Twilight exclaimed as a zombie grabbed her right hind hoof. It was dragging her down underground. "Twilight! Twist! nooo! Ah'll go get help" Applebloom ran back through the Everfree forest back to Zecora's hutt. Applebloom knocked on the door frantically. Zecora answered the door. "My my, back so soon? Where are your friends and herbs?" "Wait why ain't ya rhymin'?" Applebloom paused to ask. "Oh sorry, dear I have trouble making up rhymes on the fly." "Oh.. well Ah need help real bad." "What has happened my dear Applebloom?" "My friends! Zombies! Grabbing! Underground! Bad Guys! Help!!" "Oh my it sounds bad I fear. Oh my zombies are coming near!" Zecora pointed to the zombies coming near the house. "Fu chaua kooma lama tara." Zecora said to the zombies, attempting to calm them. It was no use. They kept coming. Zecora got her blow darts and started shooting them in the heads. After shooting all of the zombies, Zecora and Applebloom started walking back to the meadow where Twist and Twilight were captured. "My dear Applebloom, please don't tell the others about my rhyming problem." Applebloom nodded. After approaching the meadow they saw the holes where Twilight and Twist were dragged under. "Come on lets go in this one, my dear." Zecora said, pointing at the hole Twilight had been drug under. After falling through the long tunnel they fell face first onto the dirt of what seemed to be an underground tribal city. All of the people living there were zebras just like Zecora, except they were rotting zombies. As they fell right dead-center in the middle of the dirt street all of the zombie zebras looked at them. "Fana waana sutra kcama." said a bigger, more clothed zebra, presumably the leader due to the golden skull crown on his head. "Arthus gama sutra lama.." he said approaching the pony and zebra. "Zanena farquata sutra lama." Zecora said to the king. The king had a somewhat suprised look on his face. "Hoona igna chowa neha." he said as he and his guards took the pony and zebra to his prison incampment. As they were walking through the hall, there were 10 cages, however only 3 were occupied. "Pony! Little pony!" Applebloom heard from one of the cages. It was a blue pony with a white mane and pink eyes. "You must get me out of here! Zey abducted me and I've been here eating zis terrible food for veeks now!" The two talked as the leader got to know the situation at hand by Zecora translating for Twilight and Twist. "Applebloom! Get over here!" Twilight yelled. "Yeah, Twilight?" "This whole thing was a big misunderstanding! Zecora was translating everything their leader was saying. The only reason they tried abducting us was because of Twist's voice. They sensed some weird 'evil' in it. But after explaining it, They're gonna give us the herbs we need!" "But what about the other pony over there?" Applebloom questioned. "Theres another pony here?" Twilight questioned, walking toward the cage. "Hmm you look a bit familiar.." The blue pony said to the purple. "Photo Finish? How did you get here?" "I am not zo sure I remember." "Come my little ponies we must leave at once." Zecora said to the other ponies. "You didn't rhyme!?" said all of the ponies in shock, including Photo Finish. "Oh I give up.." Zecora said. "Rhyming is just too hard nowadays.." "Oh its fine Zecora, my speech impediment went away too!" Twist said. "And it will be coming back very soon." Twilight added. "Come on guys lets get out of here." Twilight said to everyone. "Even me?" Photo Finish was surprised. "Of course you can come with us." Photo Finish grabbed the only scraps of clothing she had left and ran out the unlocked cell. Zecora grabbed all the herbs she needed, and a bit extra. After arriving at Zecora's, Twist had a bubble bath and her impediment was back to normal. Everything seemed happy..too happy. They completely forgot that the entire fate of Equestria was in their hooves. And that the world would be ending soon if they couldn't get the fragments in time. "Yeah uh guys this is great and all but.. aren't we forgetting something?" Twilight proclaimed. "Oh yeah Ah remember! We gotta get to Canterlot to talk to Princess Celestia!" Applebloom remembered out loud. "Hmm.. does anyone have a way to get to Canterlot Castle? We need to get there ASAP and we're running out of time." Twilight began. "Hmm I sink I might know a vey." Said the newly rescued Photo Finish. "Really now?" Twilight questioned. "Of course! It might still be intact. Ve must go through Ponyville however.. und it can only fit 4 ponies.." "If anyone is going to have to, may I stay? I'm afraid I would just get in the way." Zecora interrupted. "Aww we can't take auntie Zecora?" Applebloom started to frown. "It will be fine, Applebloom. We can visit her later." said Twilight. "Yeah at leatht you thtill have me!" Twist proclaimed. "Zen its settled. Ve vill go into Ponyville and I vill handle it from zere." "Ah'm gonna miss you, Zecora!" Applebloom said, hugging Zecora. "Alright everypony lets get going." Twilight said as they all left Zecora's. ---------------- "Luna! Luna! Princess Luna! We're running low on reinforcements." Celestia said to Luna, barging into her room. "What do you mean?" "We've already had 37 casualties today. Better than last week, but we really can't afford to lose troops looking for somepony that might already be dead." "Well what are we going to do?" "Sorry to do this Luna, but we're sending you." Luna began to look quite wide-eyed. "Don't worry, its already late at night. There shouldn't be too many aliens out there. And besides, your an alicorn. They can't just 'kill you' or anything." Luna got out of her computer chair and left the room. She flew off to Manehattan to start searching for Twilight. ----------------- "Zere she is!" yelled Photo Finish as the 4 ponies were walking through Ponyville. "There what is?" Twilight questioned. "Down here!" Photo Finish grabbed the key out of her ragged dress' pocket and stuck it into the door of the house. "Come, come it is down here!" she said, guiding the ponies into the basement of her barely intact basement hideout. "Und zats it!" She said pointing to the vehicle. "Not much to be proud of.." Applebloom protested. "Its barely intact!" "At least it vill get us zere! Now, Ve go!" she then hopped into the car. The car was once one of the most expensive vehicles in Equestria, but after all the years of never using it, keeping it locked in her basement, along with the radioactive air from the outside world, it wasn't the best looking vehicle. With scratched up paint, worn tires, and a bad muffler. Once everypony was in the car, Photo Finish pulled out a remote control and pushed a button to open the side of the building to reveal a ramp onto what used to be the road of Ponyville. They drove at full speed down the road, making sure that they weren't being followed. After passing by the river that was once Twilight's underwater base they heard a rusty clanging noise. Followed by another and another. ":ZANZEN: :ZANZEN: VERIN WAN FRAN QUELTH" said a metalic voice followed by loud sirens. Not far down the river of Twilight's old base was a mechanical arm coming out of the goopy river. And then another arm. And out rose its head. The creature looked like a combination of a robot and a mosquito.Its wings came out of the river and it started to lift into the air. Out from its forelegs came rocket launchers. ":ZANZEN: :ZANZEN: VERIN WAN FRAN QUELTH" it yelled again, with sirens wailing louder before. The 7 legged creature started to fly. They attempted to drive faster and faster away from the mosquito. Dodging the rockets. "Twilight what the hell is that?!" Applebloom yelled to Twilight. "I have no idea!" Photo Finish, scared for her life, ejected herself from the seat, at least 15 feet into the air. She then pulled out two katanas and dive bombed onto the mosquito's head. "Who ist in zere?!" "Heh heh heh..I'm not sure YOU know who I am, but I can guarentee Twilight does." "Enough talk!" Photo Finish attempted to stab through the mosquito's eye and hit the pony inside the machine.The machine took a leg and threw Photo Finish back ontop of her car, caving its roof in slightly. The head of the mosquito opened and out came a familiar pony. Rainbow Dash- except she was a dull blue, her rainbow mane was gray, black and white. She was wearing a skull coated vest and skull shoulderpads along with skull bracers and kneepads. All complete with horns on top of her head above her ears. She lowered herself next to the passenger seat of the car. The pony looked at Twilight. "Ha ha~ Long time no see, isn't it Twilight? Your friend Rainbow Dash sure missed you ha ha~" "Your NOT the real Rainbow Dash!" "Sure I am!" The 'imposter' pulled out her Element of Harmony. It was a gray lightning bolt necklace with no glow to it. "Now now, I'm sure you all just want to get to Canterlot to talk to your friend Celestia. Well go ahead, I'm not stopping you. After all I AM your best friend, right~? ha ha ha~" The 'imposter' flew back into the mosquito's head. "And remember, its Darkness Dash now~ ha ha~~" She said before she flew off inside the mosquito. "Vat vas zat?" Photo Finish asked everypony. "I'm not sure. But now we need to get to Celestia even more. So step on it". Said the purple mare. The two fillies remained speechless the entire trip. On the highway to Canterlot there was a pony in the middle of the road. "H-help me.!" he attempted to yell, failing due to coughing up blood. It was a brown pony with a dark brown mane and an hourglass cutie mark. "Vat happened to you?" Photo Finish asked the man. "Can you just give me a lift back to Canterlot? I'll explain in the car." The two fillies scooted over to make room for the new guy. "Well aren't you two adorable?" he said petting the fillies on the heads. "So what happened?" Twilight asked the man. The man remained quiet and said nothing. Bloody tears coming from his eyes. "Stop the car!" he yelled, and Photo Finish did. The man opened the door and began to vomit blood along with a different assortment of half-digested foodstuffs. "AGHGAHG" he screamed with new, spider-like legs protruding from his brown back. Blood was spurting everywhere, the fillies crying in fear of what was happening. Both of his eyes fell from their sockets, with blood oozing from what used to be his tear spouts. His coat went from what used to be a light brown colour to an almost black colour. "DaMnIt MaRthA ThE kIdS aRe At iT aGaIn!" he yelled nonsensically. "Oh no, it ist too late to save him." Photo Finish said, pulling out her two katanas. She ran toward the mutant and cut off his head and all 7 of his new legs. He fell to the ground, dead. Oozing out green acid as he died. "Hurry lets get ze hell out of here!" Photo Finish got back into the car and drove off as fast as possible. Everypony being very quiet the entire trip. They finally got to Canterlot. It was covered in a near indestructable clear bubble to protect the folk living there from the radioactive air that was known to be covering the land in a couple days. "Halt! No trespassing." yelled one guard to the ponies. "Uh, excuse us we kind of need to get into Canterlot." Twilight began. "Oh yeah? You and all the others." he said pointing to the line of ponies attempting to convince the other guards to come in. "We just can't let any more ponies inside. We're already at the verge of overpopulation ever since the other cities of Equestria became uninhabitable." "But we need to talk to Princess Celestia." said Twilight. "Bwahahaahahaa~" laughed both the guards. "Your kidding! Your kidding, right?" said one of them. "Listen buddy!" exclaimed Photo Finish. "You give us contact to Celestia right zis instant! Zis is more important zan you could imagine!" "Pfft.. yeah right." scoffed one of the guards. "Fine we'll let you in, but your only allowed to talk to Celestia and then you get the hell out of here." "Fine." said Photo Finish. The city was huge. There were apartments everywhere just to station all of the ponies living there. There was even a miniature Cloudsdale in the sky housing a good few pegasi. The guards took them straight through all of the streets to Canterlot Castle. They knocked on the door and said to the guards inside. "Yeah these 4 mules need to talk to Princess Celestia." "Bwaahaaahaaa your kidding! Your kidding right?" "Sadly, no. They say its 'important'." "Alright 'important ponies'. ha ha ha" The castle guards left for a moment. "Alright your 'important' appointment is three days from now at 6:35 PM." said a castle guard, handing them a ticket to remind them. "Three days!?" the 4 ponies exclaimed. "Three days?!" the outside guards questioned. "We told them they can go see Celestia and leave. Where are we supposed to get room to hold them?" "Just kick them out for a few days, no biggie." "Alright then, come on guys you can come back here later." "NO! I'm Twilight Sparkle! I KNOW the princess! We need to talk to Celestia this instant!!!" Twilight screamed, all kinds of ponies staring at her. "Don't make us get out our nightsticks" one guard said. Twilight sighed and the 4 ponies left to wait a few days. The ponies were sitting on the outside road waiting and complaining. -------------------- "Celestia! Celestia!" Luna yelled while knocking on the castle door. "Look we told you, you can't get in until three days- oh I'm so sorry, Your Highness. Please come in." said the castle guards. "Celestia! bad news!!" Luna was yelling while flying to the second story of the foyer. "Celestia! Celestia!" she yelled while knocking on Celestia's bedroom door. "Yes, What is it, sister?" "I tried looking, I can't find Twilight Sparkle anywhere. Not in Ponyville, Not in the Everfree forest, Not in Manehattan, not in Fillydelphia.." One of the guards heard her yelling "Twilight Sparkle.. Twilight Sparkle.. hmm.. does that name ring a bell to you?" one guard asked the other. "Uhh wasn't she that one crazy purple unicorn we saw a few minutes ago?" said the other.The first guard ran up the foyer stairs and knocked on Celestia's door. "Uhh ma'ams excuse me ma'ams, about this 'Twilight Sparkle', could you describe her for me?" the guard asked. "Well she's a purple unicorn. Dark purple, long mane with a pink stripe. Shiny cutie mark." Celestia began to describe. "Uhh I think I might know who your talking about..." the guard said nervously. "REALLY?!?!?" Celestia and Luna said together.