Chapter twelve
That "rock and roll" doesn't really match my wings.
I had told my friends and family that I was going to help Hot Lead. Chip had insisted on going, but I had managed to convince him to stay. I was, however, going to owe him some bottle caps. I only had five.
The grey earth pony and I had walked into the city, and were headed towards the record shop. I glanced at the abandoned raider camp, as we passed it, a chill ran up my spine, I had almost died there a year and a half ago. Emotions and images started churning in my mind, I quickly looked away.
“Something wrong, Diamond?” he asked
I shook my head and told him it was nothing.
A few minutes passed, then we stopped at the old store, the windows were all smashed, and round black records where scattered across the floor.
He walked in first, and quickly followed, checking behind us. Lead’s face lit up, and he trotted over to a intact glass case. He lifted the lid off, then dropped it on the floor. The glass lid shattered with a crash. He grabbed several of the black disks, carefully choosing which one he took.
“Classic metal” He said, turning towards me.
I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, so I ask
“What do you mean by metal?”
He glanced at me, a sad look on his face. “You don’t know what heavy metal is?”
I shook my head.
“Rock and roll?”
“No” I replied.
He grinned, “Well, lets fix that.”
He walked over to a un-smashed record player. He then set one of the disks into it, the switched it on. A fast paced beat started playing, I felt my head bobbing. A pony with a gruff, but high pitched voice started singing.
“Hey, hey, everypony, put your hooves in the air!
Lets show ‘em we don’t need no help!
Damn the Zebras, ‘cuz we can take ‘em!
We don’t want your help, 'cuz we don’t need it!
Yeah!”
The guitar started screaming, being played extremely fast.
“Horse Apples, One the best punk rock bands ever.” Lead explained.
The lyrics continued, more aggressive
“Hey, hey, everypony, let’s kill the government!
Drop the bombs down Ministry walk!
Damn the Pegasi, ‘cuz we don’t need ‘em!
We can do it the earth pony way!
Hey, hey, everypony, lets start a riot!
Lets march down the streets of Canterlot!
Damn the Unicorns, ’cuz we don’t need ‘em!
We’re gonna do it the earth pony way!”
I didn’t know about the lyrics, but I was enjoying the music.
He then removed the disk. “Don’t wanna attract any more unwanted attention, let’s...”
He was interrupted as the back door exploded, zombie ponies started swarming in.
“...Run!” I finished for him. Then, we ran. We ran as fast as our legs would let us.
Lead tripped over a rock and crashed into the ground. I tuned, levitating all four of my weapons, and began firing into the the zombies. One zombie’s torso exploded, as I shot it with the Gauss rifle. Some of it ended up in my mane, I almost vomited. The earth pony quickly got to his hooves and started running again.
My legs locked up. SHIT!
“Diamond, run!”
Work, damn it! I was yelling at my legs to try and make them move. I looked at the zombies, wishing I hadn’t, they were almost on top of me. Shit, shit, shit!
“I can’t” I replied
He turned and grabbed me, dragging me away. We were too slow, the zombie ponies were going to eat me! I started screaming. Lead drew his revolver and started firing into the undead ponies surrounding us. I screamed again, as one of the zombies bit into my leg and started dragging me toward my doom, it’s head exploded. Lead told me he had one bullet left.
“Me, or you?” he said, “I kill you and get eaten alive, or I kill myself, and you get eaten alive. Which?”
“What!?” I demanded.
“Diamond, we’re both gonna die, at least one of us shouldn’t have to die painfully” He replied, bucking a zombie away.
He opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted by a familiar roar. Chip had followed us? The undead ponies were shredded or scattered by... Steele Sparks!? What was he doing here? Zombie ponies started converging on him, only to be ignited by a flame thrower. Steele had made a few upgrades, it seemed. He walked over to us
“Diamond Sky,” he started, ”I’m surprised to see you again.”
“You’re not the only one.” I replied, getting to my hooves. Pain shot up my right hind leg, where the zombie had bit me. “What are you doing here?”
“Apparently saving our asses from zombies.” Lead smirked.
“I’m on a job” the armored pony replied, annoyed “Some ghoul scientist sent me to collect samples so he could make a cure for ghoul rampancy, or some crap like that.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” I asked.
“There is only one cure for ghoul rampancy; genoside.”
Lead growled at him. “I know lots of ghouls, they’re all good folks. Hell, most of them are better than half the ponies in this Luna forsaken wasteland!”
“That’s true, but I’m not saying that would be the right thing to do, I’m just saying that’s the only cure. I have nothing against ghoul ponies.”
There was an explosion, and was sent flying. Dazed, I tried to get my bearings. My ears were ringing, and i felt a warn stickiness in my mane. I could barely hear the sound of Steele’s minigun. Looked toward he, he was firing into the sky. I looked up and spotted a griffon weaving over head, I levitated my Gauss rifle, and fired, the griffon let out a scream and fell to the ground. She did survive my shot, but not her landing.
Steele glanced over at me,”Nice shot, kid.”
Kid, really?
Lead stepped out from a building, he had apparently flown through a window.
“Did you piss off some of the Talons or something?” The grey earth pony asked.
“No” Steele replied,”But, I’ve got Red Eye wanting me dead.”