Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star
Chapter 1: Well this sucks.
***
Three Years Later: Ruins of Manehattan.
With a loud clanking of chains and gears, the heavily armored door closed behind a mare and three early teen fillies.
“Home, sweet home!” Rarity breathed, relieved to be back in the relatively clean environment of their refuge. She knew it was the apocalypse and all, but why did the rest of the city have to become so filthy? At least they managed to keep their base clean, even if it was very spartan.
Built into the top five floors of one of the many skyscrapers that made up the city; all the stairways but one leading up from the tower below had been sealed off. At the same time though, narrow rope bridges had been connected to the surrounding towers; each provided a possible escape route, but one that could also be collapsed in an instant if necessary. It was home to nearly three hundred survivors, most of whom were from Ponyville, and so far they'd managed to hold out there for nearly three years.
“Oh Rarity, girls, your back!” Fluttershy said stepping into the entry hall. She was wearing a military dress uniform with the four star insignia of a general on the shoulder. “How did your mission go?”
“Just splendid, darling, we hardly had any trouble at all. Nothing the girls and a little C-4 couldn't handle anyway.”
“Oh good,” Fluttershy said, turning toward the Crusaders. “So did you girls get what you needed.”
“You betcha! We've got explosives!” Apple Bloom said excitedly gesturing to the wagon behind them.
“KABOOM!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, jumping in place as she did.
“Oh, it's beautiful!” Scootaloo said with a dreamy look in her eyes.
Each of them were wearing harnesses holding various grenade's, dynamite, and other explosives, which was nothing out of the ordinary for them. In addition Apple Bloom's attire included a band around her right fore-hoof with several tools attached, while Sweetie Bell's included a vest and a high-tech looking device strapped to her left fore-leg.
“That's wonderful, girls. Now you should probably go get ready for your next mission, and remember, don't blow anything up unless you're killing zombies.”
“We won't!” they said together.
“Come on, Sweets. I need to know what yields y’all will need this time,” Apple Bloom said heading off to their workshop with the wagon in tow.
“I've got the list all ready. And Scoot's you should check on your dispenser wagon. Last thing we need is for it to start throwing bombs all over the place like it did at the stadium.”
Scootaloo sighed. “Yeah, I'll check it over. You're never going to let that go, are you.”
“It ruined my masterpiece!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
Fluttershy smiled watching them go. Those three were inseparable, even their cutie marks bound them together. They'd earned them early on after the zombies had begun invading. Apple Bloom's, a wrench in front of an explosion. Sweetie Belle's, a trio of musical notes in front of an explosion. And Scootaloo's, a flaming wheel flying out of an explosion. In hindsight, it was quite obvious that their talents were, at least in part, demolition.
“Well, you're back just in time,” Fluttershy said, turning back to Rarity. “We were just gathering everypony for one final briefing, if that's alright.”
Rarity sighed dramatically. “I suppose freshening up will just have to wait until after. I do hope everything goes as planned today.”
“Me too,” Fluttershy agreed.
~~~
The soft glow of the three wall size monitors was the only source of light as letters numbers and other archaic symbols scrolled across all three. Princess Luna scanned over the scripting for any errors for perhaps the thousandth time. The hardware was already complete, but the software was giving her issues. Not that it really mattered now. Her little project had always been a backup plan.
She sighed as she looked over at the metal pony body standing motionless against the wall. It was a pity. She doubted she'd ever have reason to activate it.
With a hiss, the door to her chambers slid open.
“Luna, the briefing starts in five minutes. We need to get going,” Twilight informed her in a scolding tone.
“Yes mother...” Luna muttered sarcastically under her breath as she went back to scanning her script.
“Luna, now. You can play with your toys later,” Twilight growled.
Luna sighed. “Fine.”
“I know your disappointed that your plan was pushed to a backup, but we need you to focus now.”
“Yes, I know, Twilight.” Luna said apologetically. “I'm just so close...”
Twilight gave her a sympathetic look. “Maybe we can find some other use for your... what did you name this thing again?”
“Ponytron.”
“Right, maybe we can find some other use for it. But first we need to focus so we can end this zombie plague once and for all.”
Luna nodded reluctantly and got to her hooves. “You're right,” she said with a sigh. She'd almost reached the door before she realized she still had a small wrench over her ear. Lifting it with her magic, she tossed it back to her desk. “Let's go.”
The wrench bounced several times across the keyboard before finally coming to rest on the enter key. As Twilight and Luna left, neither of them noticed the whir of machines powering up and the blinking of lights as a progress bar displayed across one of the screens began to rapidly fill.
~~~
“Um, can I have your attention... if you don't mind,” Fluttershy said, getting the briefing started. Everypony in the room looked toward her respectfully. She was the general after all. She cringed. “Um, thank you, now you all know that today we've planned our final assault against the, um, zombies...” She almost whispered the word 'zombies' in fear. “So, um, Princess Twilight is going to go over the plan one more time, before we set out on our respective missions.” With that she retreated back away from the map table they were all gathered around, taking refuge behind Twilight as she stepped forward, Luna by her side.
“Alright, you all know your missions and our objectives, so I'll make this quick,” Twilight started in a no-nonsense voice. Every eye in the room was immediately on her. It was a fair size group. Twilight and her main group of friends, as well as Princess Luna were gathered at one end of the table. Next to Luna were several ranking officers of the Lunar guard, and across from them were all the remaining officers of the Solar guard – most had been wiped out when Canterlot and their princess fell. Also at the table was Zecora, a vital part of the upcoming mission.
“Thanks to Zecora, we now have a viable cure for the zombie plague,” Twilight said gesturing to the Zebra. “However, we have two problems we need to resolve before we can end the zombie plague. First is supply.
“The cure requires an extremely rare herb as an ingredient, appropriately called Life Bloom, and as it is, we don't even have enough to cure half a city, let alone all of Equestria. The second problem is distribution. How do we spread the cure once we've got it. Luckily, both of these problems can be solved with a single mission.
She tapped the table and a hologram of one of the city's skyscrapers appeared. “This is our objective: Big Ol' Lab...”
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, soon followed by half the rest of the assembly. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know, it's a stupid name, but it is the official name.” She tapped a few buttons and the skyscraper became transparent, revealing the floor-plan of the building. “A sufficient supply of Life Bloom is recorded to be kept somewhere in the cold storage facility, here.” She pointed and a room in one of the upper levels of the building lit up.
“Also kept within the Big Ol' Lab...” she had to pause again as another round of snickers went around the table. “Also kept within the lab is the perfect distribution device for our needs, called the Golly Device.”
“Bwa ha ha ha!” Rainbow Dash erupted in laughter again, many of the rest joining her a moment later.
“I didn't name these things!” Twilight exclaimed. “The company's owner was an idiot!”
“Golly, Twi, what does that thing do?” Rainbow asked, barely containing her laughter.
“The device,” she deliberately avoided saying its name, “is designed to launch an antigen or potion into the sky to burst and form a cloud that would spread the cure over an entire city. Obviously with such a device and enough of the cure, we'll be able to end this plague rather quickly.”
Pressing a few more buttons on the table, the hologram zoomed out to show most of the city, and as it did, much of the area surrounding the skyscraper turned red. “Unfortunately the lab is located right in the heart of zombie territory. The good news is that as far we know, the ints don't know the importance of the lab.”
“Ints?” One of the younger Lunar guards asked.
“Intelligent Zombies! The leaders!” Twilight clarified. “Come on, we've been fighting these guys for three years, try to keep up!”
The young guard looked down embarrassed.
Twilight just sighed and continued. “So, in order to keep the ints ignorant of our true objective, our mission today will be three parts, two of which are honestly just a distraction to keep the ints busy and away from our true objective.
“We'll begin at approximately thirteen hundred hours with our initial distraction. A strike by the Crusader Demolition Squad. Their target, one of the city's malls, here.” She pointed to a large sprawling building within the zombie territory. “We know for a fact that this mall holds one of the largest concentrations of zombies in the city. Apparently even when dead, they like to shop.
“At approximately thirteen hundred and thirty hours, the Crusaders will bring the entire place down, providing us with the distraction we need. They will then be evacuated by Rainbow Dash and return here, luring the zombies after them.” She pointed toward an intersection near their base. “Where Fluttershy and the majority of the guard will be waiting in ambush for the second part of the distraction.
“This whole ruse is to make our enemy think that luring them into a trap was our primary objective. The real objective however is to draw their attention away from the lab. As soon as the demolition team takes out their target, I will be leading a team consisting of myself, Princess Luna, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Zecora, in infiltrating the lab in order to acquire what we need. We will be moving quickly while trying to avoid notice...”
“Uh, why are you taking Pinkie then?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight sighed heavily. “Pinkie sense.”
“Gotcha.”
“We're counting on Pinkie to be our early warning system should something go wrong, but once we've got what we need, we will then find a safe place for Zecora to brew up the cure for immediate distribution using the golly device.”
Once again she had to pause as the room exploded with laughter. “That device is going to save us all, so will you all please shut up!” Twilight shouted slamming her hoof down on the table.
Immediately the room fell deathly silent. They'd all seen by now what happened when Twilight lost it when she was stressed.
“Thank you. Now, are there any questions?”
Pinkie's hoof shot in the air like a foal in school.
“Yes, Pinkie; when it's over, we can have a we-survived-the-zombie-apocalypse party.” Twilight said dully.
“YES!” Pinkie cheered giving a hoof-pump.
“Any other questions?”
Again Pinkie's hoof shot into the air.
“No, Pinkie, you can't invite any of the zombies. They'll all be dead by then anyway.”
“Awww, darn...”
“What do you mean they'll all be dead, surgarcube? I thought we were curing them?” Applejack asked sounding confused.
Twilight shook her head. “We're curing the zombie plague; but those ponies out there, they're already dead. It is only the plague that keeps their bodies alive; keeps them moving, acting on instinct. Their souls are long since gone, so once we cure the zombie plague there will be nothing left to keep them alive.” She looked around the room seeing the disappointment on many of their faces.
“Those of you that thought we were going to save the ponies that have already been turned, I'm sorry, we can't bring back the dead. What's more this is still Equestria and even if somepony had the proper ancient texts and scrolls, sacrificial blood, knowledge of runes, connection to the afterlife, and raw power to do so, it would be completely illegal since it would require the use of Necromancy... And trust me, trying to bring somepony back to life through Necromancy isn't pretty anyway,” she lowered her eyes sadly, for a moment, and whispered softly to herself; “Poor Owlicious...”
Fluttershy cringed behind her, having heard the last bit, though nopony else had.
“The sad truth is that those we've lost are gone for good. But we can save those who remain from having to suffer the same fate. And this is our best chance to do that.
“Now, are there any more questions?”
Again, Pinkies hoof flew into the air.
Twilight sighed heavily. “What is it Pinkie?”
“Where are we going to set up the fireworks?”
Twilight blinked. “Fireworks?”
“Yeah, the fireworks that are going to make all the zombies go, BLEH!?” She threw her hooves out and fell on the table, her tongue lulling out. Before anyone could react she was up again. “Where are we going to set em up? The Golly thingamajig?”
Twilight stared at her a moment as her brain processed the fact that Pinkie's question was actually relevant to the mission. “Uh... well, it can be set up almost anywhere. So we'll find a suitable location when the time comes depending on the situation.
“Okey Dokey Lokey!”
After a moment more of stunned silence – Twilight wasn't the only one who couldn't believe Pinkie had asked such a relevant question – she finally turned back to the rest of the group. “Alright, so if there's no more questions; Rarity, are the Crusaders ready for their part?”
Rarity waved a hoof dismissively. “I'm sure they are by now, darling, you know how efficient Apple Bloom is with her tools. I'm sure they've made all the charges they need for their target.”
“Good, because you head out in a half hour,” she told her then looked around at the table one last time. “This is our best chance to end this nightmare. Let's not screw it up,” she said then stepped back, letting Fluttershy step forward.
“Um, yes. Everypony knows what their part is, so let's all do our very best! And also, be safe. Um, dismissed... if that's alright...”