Chapter 14: Welcome Back
Perspective: Edgar Worthington
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 26, 2025
“…r…the…”
I tried cracking my eyes open, but the light shining on them was blinding. I was distinctly aware I was lying face up on the ground. However, my body refused to budge despite my brain’s insistence. I heard something off in the distance…or maybe it was closer than I thought. There’s a constant ring in my ears, like an explosive went off too close to my eardrums (a feeling I’m all too familiar with). I tried opening my eyes again. No dice.
“Home…t…Phoenix…al…there?”
The noise must be coming from the Walkie-Talkie. It mentioned…Phoenix? How would anyone in Equestria know Phoenix? My eyes sprang open regardless of their desire to do otherwise. There’s a transmission on the other side of that radio, and it’s not Eddy, Jon, nor Mike! ‘We’re home!’ It was a slightly exciting, yet immensely terrifying thought.
I tried standing, only to realize my legs were entirely numbed out still and wouldn’t support me. Mentally cursing, I tried my arms. They thankfully responded, so I drug myself across the floor to the portable radio. The ringing in my ears died down noticeably as I did so.
“Home Base, this is Phoenix, please respond. Is anyone alive in there?”
“Let it go Phoenix…they’re gone.”
“No god-dammit! There’s no way the Infected did that, they have to be in there, they have to be!”
“Home Base *huff* reads you, over,” I forced out between pants. I wish my stupid body would start working normally. Trying to do anything while it’s rebooting sucks!
“Holy shit, you’re alive! Is everyone ok in there?” Strength was returning to me, and allowed me to turn my head and look around quickly. All the ponies were, incredibly, up and about. The guys however, not so much. They were beginning to stir though.
“We’re still kicking. What happened? What’s the current situation?”
“What happened!? Infected breached your defenses. After a couple of minutes, you…I don’t know teleported or something, like 100 feet away, that’s what happened!” I whipped around to Celestia.
“Why the hell did we move?” I asked.
“If something was in your original location at the time of teleporting, one of the spell’s safeties would move our final location over to an empty spot,” Celestia explained quickly.
“I see,” I replied. I hit the ‘Talk’ button on the radio again. “Listen Calvary, a lot of shit went down when we teleported, and I cannot even hope to explain any of it without sounding deranged. We’ll explain everything after this I promise, but for now you’re going to have to trust us. In the meantime, update me on the situation.”
“…*sigh* we’re holding you to that, you hear? Anyways, Home Base is clear for now, but they’ll be a large group, about 80 or so, on your position in about 8 minutes. Get ready.”
Feeling confident enough to stand, I attempted to do so and succeeded. “Thank you Calvary,” I replied. “Oh and one more thing; be advised that there are now eleven personnel inside Home Base, so don’t shoot into the house.”
“I assume this is also going to be explained later?”
“Thanks for understanding!” I sing-songed and put away the radio. I had just turned around when-
“No, No, NO!!” Eddy screamed behind me. Guess he’s awake now. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You weren’t supposed to come here!” Strangely enough, for once I actually agree with Eddy’s complaints. The others were also silent. Eddy wheeled around and ran for Mike’s room.
“Eddy, where are you going?” Mike asked.
“Going to fetch some tools,” he replied venomously, and disappeared into the room. I turned to the princesses, whom didn’t seem quite as fazed as they should have been with this whole situation.
“He seemed quite agitated sister,” Luna mused.
“Really?” Jon asked in disbelief. “Do you guys really not realize the mess you’re in right now?”
“We understand quite well Jonathon,” Celestia replied. “We are grossly outnumbered, Luna’s magic as well as mine is severely depleted, and one of our subjects here is…inexperienced, in ‘matters of death’. Panicking however, will get us nowhere. We must think through this rationally.”
“She’s right Jon,” Mike added. “Let’s focus on what we can do. Princesses, how long until your magic is fully recharged?”
“Unfortunately, the ambient energy in this universe is almost non-existent, and we exhausted quite a bit of magic to get here,” Celestia reminded us solemnly. “Aside from basic offensive spells, we can do no more.”
“I still have my reserve of magic,” Twilight reminded.
“And you must be very careful with how you use it, Twilight,” Luna responded. “For it seems that it cannot be easily replenished. And must I remind you how serious a condition magical exhaustion is?” Twilight shook her head.
“But what do we do then?” She asked.
“I’ve got an idea,” a voice said behind me with a bite. Eddy marched into view and thrust a vest at Twilight. “Put it on.” She didn’t argue. When she finished, he handed her a rifle, the FN-SCAR. “You wanted to come to Earth? Fine, but you’ll live like Earth people do, and right now Earth people are fighting for their fucking lives out there. Happy hunting.”
He turned to us. “Edgar, take Celestia and go defend the master bedroom. Mike, go upstairs and cover us from above. Take Twilight with you. Jonathon, take one guard with you and cover the rear. Make sure to clear our friendlies out before switching on that auto-turret. Luna, pick two guards and cover those windows over there. You! *points to a Solar Guard* You’re with me. Let’s move people!”
Eddy and the Solar Guard, a white unicorn, bolted for the front. Luna chose her two Night Guards from the group and dispersed, while Mike grabbed a stunned Twilight and pushed her up the steps. Jonathon grabbed the last guard and quickly made his way towards the auto-turret, the complaining guard in tow. She looked a bit familiar, but there wasn’t any time left to figure out why. I turned to Celestia, and pointed down the corridor to the Master Bedroom.
“Down that corridor, let’s go,” I stated, feeling a bit weird giving a sun goddess orders. She nodded without a hint of insult however, and we took off. The way Eddy split the group, the four sides of the house were covered. He would cover the front, Jon would cover the back, I got the left and Luna got the right. Mike, our top shot, would provide cover from upstairs. Twilight, whom had the least amount of combat experience, would follow him upstairs, where it was safer.
Entering quickly into the Master bedroom, Celestia and I set up near the big three windows. Tentatively, I peeked out of the port in the window’s plate. They were coming, but still a ways off. I noticed Celestia looking out from another window.
“What do you think?” I asked. “Can you hit them from here?”
“Probably, but I would need more power to refine my aim,” she responded, never breaking eye-contact with the Infected.
“Shit. Save it then, they’ll be coming closer anyways.”
“Comm check everyone, report in. Eddy checking in.”
“Jonathon checking in.”
“Mike checking in.”
I grabbed my radio. “Edgar checking in.”
“Alright guys, if you think you can hit em, then shoot. Let’s give em hell!”
Perspective: Mike Britowski
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 26, 2025
A cool late afternoon breeze swept across the room from the open windows upstairs, providing a pleasant relief from the heat downstairs. Twilight and I had just reached the window I wanted her to shoot from when Eddy checked in. Addressing him quickly, I returned my attention to Twilight. “Alright Twilight, you set up over here, and I’ll take that side over there. If you need anything, just holler.” The nervous mare nodded, and I ran to my window.
I really felt bad for Twilight. She got dragged into this shitstorm and was now expected to kill to save her life. She had to be panicking, even if she didn’t outright show it. I chanced a glance in her direction. Twilight had set up, cheek welded firmly to the cheek rest on the stock, aiming through the scope. She seemed to be taking this all in stride; I must say I’m-
“I can’t do this Mike!” she yelled. That’s what I figured… Bolting to the distraught mare, I noticed she was trembling, tears beginning to stream down her face. “I can’t do it,” she repeated. “Those humans, they look so…so alive! I-I can’t bring myself to shoot them. Please! Please don’t make me shoot them-”
“Shhhhh.” A single finger to the lips silenced her immediately. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. That said however, I had to calm her down quickly, or she’d be unable to fight and quite vulnerable. But what the hell do I say?
“Listen to me and listen to me well Twilight; those things down there, are not human, and are most definitely not alive. They used to be alive, used to feel emotions, and had hopes and dreams just like you and me. But the Infection robbed them of that Twilight; kicked out their consciousness and took over their bodies. Imagine your soul, your mind, trapped inside a body you no longer controlled and being forced to witness the destruction it causes. Does that sound like a pleasant experience to you?”
“No of course not! No…”
The realization of what I said was quickly sinking in, her panicked expression falling to one of loss, but also of acceptance of the inevitable. “Are…are they really still, you know, ‘in there’?”
“No one knows for sure Twilight, no one’s ever had proof. But the popular theory is, unfortunately, yes. And if that’s true…I’m sure you can guess the implications.” I gave a casual glance down at the scene outside, eyes distantly scanning the chaos. “We don’t hate the people Twilight, only what their bodies have become. That’s why we address them as ‘Infected’, not ‘people’ or the like.” I peeled my eyes from the destruction outside. My hands rose up as I turned and rested gently on Twilight’s shoulders, pleading eyes now staring straight into hers. “You have to help us Twilight; help us kill those fucking Infected so we can set those poor souls free. Please!”
For a moment, she was still. For just a moment, I thought I didn’t make it through to her, that she just couldn’t do it. Slowly, ever so slowly, delicate purple fingers curled around the handle. The machined steel instrument was set once again on the window sill, the precision glass-filled tube staring out into the fray.
“This…this will set them free, right?” Twilight whimpered hesitantly. I nodded solemnly. I wasn’t lying to her; there was no point in that now. Everything I said was the truth, and I could only hope it was enough. Twilight once again gazed upon the mass of undead. She was no longer crying, no longer shaking.
“Goodbye, and I’m sorry.”
*BANG!!*
A lone crack echoed in the empty desert as a single lead projectile exploded from Twilight’s gun, ripping through the air faster than the speed of sound. Eight days of target shooting paid off, as the bullet tore directly into its intended target, an Infected’s head. The being, minus a sizable chunk of its face, dropped like a stone, dead before it hit the ground.
The solitary crack was soon followed by another, then another, as Twilight began picking them off one by one, nailing one almost every time.
“Thank you Twi.”
It was all I said between shots before running back to my window. I grabbed the radio.
“We’ve got you covered from above guys.”
Perspective: Jonathon Burley
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 26, 2025
“Hey, let go of me already!” the guard complained in a familiar voice. It stunned me momentarily, and I felt her arm rip away from my grasp. Chancing a look, I instantly recognized who I grabbed.
“Sword?” I said incredulously. She looked at my face, seemingly for the first time judging by her reaction. Her facial features dropped into a kinder expression, though not completely forgiving.
“Yea, it’s me Jon. You didn’t have to drag me here you know,” she said with no small amount of annoyance. She glanced out the window. “They’re close enough to hit with my crossbow,” Sword noted, withdrawing a crossbow. A quick glance revealed she was indeed right, though there was one thing that still bothered me.
“When’d you get a crossbow?” I asked.
“Luna made them for us just before we left after seeing all of you with ranged weapons.”
“Didn’t she need to conserve her magic?”
“Yep, which is why she used existing wood rather than materializing it. Notice anything missing?” Looking around, the fact that the dining table and chairs were missing finally clicked.
“*Sigh* you know, I actually liked that table.” A twang to my immediate left startled me, and I turned with a jump. A flash of color streaked across my vision as the arrow sailed into the crowds, sticking right into one of their foreheads.
“My apologies, but I’m sure you like being alive much more than that table,” she retorted, quickly reloading her crossbow before letting another one loose. “Now, if you’re done bickering, I’d like some help. Well, I say that, but I see all you’ve got in your hands is some hollowed cylinder attached to a fancy-looking handle.” ‘That’s right; Sword has never seen a gun before!’ I smirked.
“Yea? I’ll show you what this ‘cylinder’ can do.” I aimed down the sights of my Vepr shotgun. The thought of warning Sword of the weapon’s report crossed my mind, but where’s the fun in that?
“Hey Sword, you wearing those earplugs I gave you?”
“Yea *twang* why?”
*BOOM!*
Sword, who was reloading her bow, must have jumped good couple of feet in the air. The pellets dug into the Infected’s face, scattering and peppering others as well. Two Infected dropped, a few others stumbled. But a lot of Infected remained. Fortunately, I had a nice stash of ammo. The muscles in my finger twitched again.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!* Round after explosive round got pumped into the crowd, kicking up a fine red mist from within. Time and time again, someone went down before the empty shell even hit the ground. I was vaguely aware of Sword freaking out in the corner, but I had a more pressing matter to attend to right now.
*Click.*
As I reached for another mag, noting from the corner of my eye that they were getting too close for comfort, Sword sat there, trying to regain her bearings. One satisfying smack later, the mag was in, and I grabbed my radio. No use riddling my teammates with holes after all.
“Jonathon to all units, the auto-turret is coming on. Clear the south side of Home Base immediately!” I called into my radio. A sudden hand in my shoulder drew my attention. Spinning to meet it, I got a face-full of spit for my troubles.
“What in the sweet holy name of Celestia was that!?” Sword all but screamed in my face. Using a hand to wipe my face, I opened my mouth to speak when-
“All units clear Jon. Now hurry up, cause there’s a shit-ton of Infected about to crawl in!” the radio blared. There was some strange static noise right after. It was shortly followed by a quick warbling squeal. Finding it very odd, but having to ignore it for now, I instead gave Sword a mischievous grin.
“Oh, you mean this old thing?” I replied sweetly, turning to face the horde of undead, while grabbing the charging handle on the Vepr. “Why, it’s just a hollow cylinder,” *cha-chick* “attached to a fancy handle.”
My finger found the turret switch. *Click.*
Perspective: Eddy Culivin
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 26, 2025
“You ever decide to follow someone’s plan, only to realize halfway in that it’s a really fucking stupid plan?” I asked the Solar Guard, whom was busy staring out the other window with his mouth agape. “Cause that’s what you’re supposed to be feeling right about now.”
“What the hell are those things?” he asked frantically.
“Infected, I already told you! Listen up, the only way to kill them is to stab their heads, or stab their heart, located right about here for humans *point to heart*. Don’t, and I repeat, do not get into hand-to-hand combat with them. Not only are they freakishly strong, one scratch or bite and you’ll die out slowly, and turn into one of them. Ranged weapons almost exclusively, we clear?”
The stallion nodded, setting his spear in a corner as he did so. Taking my advice, he withdrew the crossbow that was strapped to his back with his magic, and leveled it on the port cut out on the window plate. But something wasn’t right. His eyes grew wide. His breathing increased. With a hoarse voice, he barely managed to get out a shaky “how many were there supposed to be?” I looked out…
“Holy shit, shoot! SHOOT!!” The sound of explosions filled the room as arrows and bullets flew. Using the slit in the plate as a rest, one hand fired and pivoted the weapon as the other reached for the radio. “God damnit Phoenix, there’s a lot more than 80 of those things out there!” I shouted amidst the cacophony in the room. One problem, no response. “Phoenix? … Phoenix!” No answer. Cursing out loud, I grabbed the gun with both hands and quickly exchanged the old magazine with a new one, the bolt slapping closed with a satisfying clack. Three Infected got too close. Four bullets fixed that. Grabbing the radio, I tried again, with a different audience in mind. “Mike, I need eyes up top. What the fuck is going on out there?”
“You’re not gonna like this, but a whole bunch of the Calvary team just split, and I have no idea why,” Mike reply came through. “Some Infected followed, but the rest were attracted to the only stationary target here, us.”
“Son of a, why didn’t they warn us!?”
“My only guess is that the strange noise was their warning…somehow. They all tried to call in at the same time, and their transmissions must’ve cancelled each other out.”
‘So that’s what that was!’ *CRASH!* The noise immediately grabbed my attention. A number of bodies smashed into the front side of the house. The walls held rigidly, but arms were already reaching into the window ports, grabbing to tear off the plates. The first of the Infected hit the wall; the others weren’t far behind.
The guard, who was shooting through that window, let out a startled yelp. The surprise caused the crossbow to lose its glow and crash into the ground, releasing its arrow into the wall with a solid thump. However, when the arms started coming through, he kept enough composure though frightened, and began blasting the Infected with golden beams of pure magic. The attack was incredibly powerful, arcing from wherever the impact point was towards their heads.
That guard had some tricks up his sleeve, I’ll give him that.
It took a little bit to recover from the shock, but once I did, I immediately grabbed the radio again.
“Mike, we need extra cover, north side!”
Perspective: Mike Britowski
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 26, 2025
As I fired shot after ringing shot, I got the unwanted privilege to see the battle play out beyond the window. I watched the Infected get shot left and right, saw them attack right back. I watched our side loose cars, stalling out due to fuel starvation, watch those inside desperately fend off the horde. And when we lost too many cars, I got to watch a large chunk of our force disappear into the sunset, hopefully to return, but perhaps not. Got to see a sizable mob follow after them.
Did I mention I got to see the Infected left behind turn their attention towards us?
“Mike, we need extra cover, north side!” Eddy’s request blared thought the radio’s speaker. The problem was, the side we were covering, Edgar’s side, was getting hammered with the sudden surge of Infected. I grabbed my radio, frustration evident as I hit the ‘talk’ button.
“Home Base to Calvary, the hell is going on out there!?” I hollered into the unit.
“Lost too many cars sir!” someone on the other end responded. “Some of the guys down there didn’t make it…we…we picked up who we could, but if we lost another car…”
I sighed. ‘Not the time to be yelling Mike.’ “I’m sorry for your loss man, but we have to focus. Is the main unit coming back?”
“Y-yes sir, ETA 20 minutes.”
‘Shit, that’s a really long time!’ “Anything you can do about our sudden ‘workload increase’?”
“Hands are pretty much tied up out here, but we’ll see what we can do.”
“I appreciate it,” I finished, snapping the Walkie-Talkie back onto my belt. “Twilight!” I called. Only the continuing gunfire answered me back. “Twi!”
I found the poor mare firing erratically out the window. Compared to her previous accuracy, she was doing absolutely terribly. Shot would miss by feet, not inches. Sweat poured from everywhere, eyes wide and pupils shrunk, clammy and shaky hands; this mare was a mess. Disturbing her now was a very bad idea, so I waited. When her gun clicked empty, I gently grabbed her shoulder and shook lightly. It’s a good thing I waited, because I have never seen Twilight jump so high or scream quite as loud before. She had to visually confirm it was me who grabbed her before she settled down.
“T-there’s too many of them!” Twilight cried out, a trembling quality present in her voice. She was in fact correct; a large group was arriving at the windows at Edgar’s and Celestia’s quarter. The Calvary probably wouldn’t be of much help thinning this out till the main force arrived later. That said, however, there was little we could do right now except divide available resources, and Eddy also needs help.
“Relax Twilight, we’ve been through worse,” I assured her to calm her down. I wasn’t entirely sure that was accurate though. “I need you to concentrate on aiming right, think you can do that?” She hesitated a moment, presumably unsure of the answer. Reluctantly, she nodded. “Good. We’ve had a change of plans; you’ll go down to north side and help Eddy, and I’ll take this from here.”
“But this crowd is huge!” Twilight protested.
“Twi, I’ve got this. Now g-”
There was no warning, no epic buildup, nothing. All of a sudden, the window lit up like the sun, the theoretical ball of fire blinding us from outside. I had just enough time to twist my head away from the harsh light before it was very quickly accompanied by a loud explosion that rocked the house throughout. Being forced to suddenly drop to a knee to avoid falling over is not a fun experience.
When the trembling stopped, my body went on autopilot for a second. As if anticipating her response, my body was standing up and my arms were extending before I even realized. By the time Twilight turned around, my arms were wrapped around her torso, already restraining the wildly flailing mare.
“Let me go!” she screamed. “I need to help her! I need to go down there and-”
“And what?” I snapped back. “Get yourself killed!? Twilight, you wouldn’t know what the hell to do down there! If you’re panicking this much without seeing the scene, you’ll be useless down there.” I spun her quickly and forced her to look me in the eyes. “I need you to stick to the original plan. Go down the hall, assist the North side personnel.”
“But-”
“But nothing Twi! I’ll go down there. Are we clear?” Presumably out of fear, she nodded quickly. With that cleared, I grabbed the small plastic radio from my belt, and quickly handed it to Twilight. “You remember how to use that?” Again, she nodded.
“What about you though?” she asked. I was already flying down the stairs when I answered.
“I have Edgar’s, now go!” I didn’t look back, I didn’t wait for a response, I just ran. Despite being mostly calm on the outside, I was absolutely terrified of what might’ve happened down there. Reaching the corridor that led to the master bedroom, I turned sharply into it and sprinted down it. The door to said room wasn’t closed, so I could see clearly the chaos within it.
Celestia was on one knee, panting heavily. Her dress was torn and blood wept from minor wounds, but she was otherwise alright. Edgar was face up on the ground, not far from Celestia. He appeared to be alright, though he was groaning as he stirred on the ground.
By far the most prominent thing in that room though, was the giant gaping hole in the wall.
Forget individual window plates, a sizable chunk of the entire wall was missing! Beyond it, lying some distance away, was a sea of Infected corpses. Like 60 bodies, haphazardly strewn about on the barren desert floor. Stepping through the rubble, and receiving a nod in Edgar’s direction from the princess, I made my way to Edgar, concerned something had happened to my dear friend. Edgar was caked in dirt, his clothing torn like Celestia’s. He groaned as he sat up.
“Ugh, God damnit,” he spat out, rising to a seating position. Relieved beyond belief that he was alright, I actually chuckled a little as I offered him my hand.
“Heh heh, no rest for the weary man,” I joked, pulling simultaneously with my arm to bring Edgar to his feet. He gave an appreciative nod, before turning his gaze to face out the window. His eyes widened a bit. Then they closed, his head coming down as he sighed. Deciding to also look out the window, I noticed that some of the corpses were getting back up again. There were some that were charred beyond recognition, others missing pieces of their heads or chests. But some were unfortunately lucky.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me with this shit,” Edgar complained while picking up his rifle and dusting it off. “It’s like we’re in Hell or something!” A cheeky grin grew on my face.
“No Edgar, we’re not in Hell, we’re home. Welcome Back.”