Cantering Death

by Scriber

Chapter Ten: Spitfire Shuddered

Cloudsdale

Spitfire felt numb.

For her, time had reneged on the common courtesy of conventional chronological flow. The moments came to her in flashes - brief snippets of time, horrendous mental photographs that were forever burned into her mind. Soarin, twitching on the ground just as that purple unicorn...materializes in front of her. Soarin, eyeballs suddenly dead and inexplicably lambent. Soarin, mouth agape, lumbering toward the three mares in a shuffling, not-so-balanced gait.

“T-this can’t be real...” Spitfire murmured. Her widened, unbelieving eyes stared, unblinking, at her friend - her friend - turned into one of those...monsters. Rainbow Dash, eyes in a similar predicament, was dumbfounded. Words failed her. She took a step backward - then two - and began to shake her head in disbelief.

“GIRLS! GET BACK!!” Twilight shouted. Just at that moment, the zombified pegasus stallion lunged forward, snarling and snapping. Spitfire, acting on reflex, turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees and caught Soarin in the jaw with a quick back hoof, sending the former Wonderbolt sprawling. Rainbow Dash, suddenly jarring into movement, took a hurried step forward.

“No.”

Dash froze.

“Sp-...Spitfire, what are you-”

“Stay the fuck back.” Flash. A shocked pegasus mare, with an equally shocked unicorn at her side. Flash. Soarin, dead but not really dead, rising to his hooves. Flash. Soarin, mouth open in a bestial snarl, roaring in rage.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight, silenced by the events unfolding before them, could only watch. Spitfire turned to face her friend. Wordlessly, she began to approach. A faint glow hung about her as she walked, only the slightest hint of luminescence, radiating outward in an aura that felt as warm as a summer’s day.

flash

oh celestia what do i do i love him i hate him do i really have to kill him oh god why

She stood stock still, embers flowing freely from her vibrant orange and red mane. Twilight stirred on the spot, but didn’t move forward. Rainbow was paralyzed. Soarin’ lowered his head and screwed his lips up in a wolfish snarl that set everypony’s mane standing on end. Spitfire shuddered, despite the arguably ridiculous amount of heat she was now producing.

“...I’m sorry...” she whispered, barely audible. At that, an elongated, wide tendril of flame erupted from her mane, sparkling and crackling as it tore through the cold air of the autumn night. With little hesitation, it dove down at Soarin, engulfing the transformed pony in a glowing inferno of burning death. The zombie snarled and screamed as his flesh boiled and melted from his skeleton, bones charring and eventually reduced to nothing but a blackened, charcoal dust.

“Rest in peace, friend...” Spitfire managed to say. She collapsed.

“Oh my goodness!” Twilight barked, suddenly snapping out of her stupor. She rushed over to the fallen pegasus mare’s side, checking to see if she was all right. Fortunately for the three uninfected pony mares who remained, she appeared to have only suffered superficial burns to her upper torso and stomach - nothing too serious, but sure to sting once she came to. Casting a relatively advanced medical spell, the purple unicorn mare effectively x-rayed her impromptu patient’s chest, confirming that her vitals remained normal.

“I-I can’t...” Rainbow Dash said aloud, still in the throes of shock.

“It’s ok, Rainbow. Everything’s going to be all right.”

“Twi-? How...how can you say that? How can you possibly say that?!” Rainbow Snapped, wings flaring out in defiance. “I mean, yeah, I know you just got here and stuff, but we’ve been fighting these fucking things for like, forty minutes! The city’s completely overrun! We were supposed to get reinforcements by now, but-”

“Uh, Rainbow?” Twilight interjected.

“What?” Rainbow huffed.

“You might wanna look behind you,” Twilight said, motioning with her hoof.

Rainbow made a point out of looking unabashed and cocked her head backward, craning her neck to see-

“-oh. Well. About friggin’ time.”

A platoon of Pegasus Royal Guard had just breached the barrier encasing Cloudsdale, a point which Twilight made certain to analyze in full later. There were sixteen carriages in all, with diamond-shaped clusters of four bunched together in perfect formation.

“Squads...” Rainbow said. “...they’re flying in squadrons! That must mean...oh, shit! That’s the EPU!”

“The EP-what, now?” Twilight asked, confused.

“Heh. Wouldn’t expect a unicorn - even an egghead like yourself - to know about them,” Rainbow teased, feeling a flutter of her usual self-confidence return. “It stands for Elite Pegasus Unit; they’re some of the best combat-trained fliers in all of Equestria!”

“I thought that was the Wonderbolts?” Twilight prodded.

“Well, yeah, the Wonderbolts go through some pretty intense training, but that’s all for show...and you know, style and stuff. The EPU actually spar with real weaponry - they’re kinda like Canterlot’s secret army, I guess. How can you now know about this stuff, Twilight? Didn’t you grow up there?”

“W-well, yeah, but I was...uh, you see...”

“You were cooped up in a library most of the time, weren’t you?”

“...yeah.”

“Hm. Thought so,” Rainbow deadpanned. To Rainbow’s delight - and Twilight’s chagrin - a single carriage broke formation and made a beeline for the three of them. It was almost scary how quickly - and silently - they arrived. Their powerful, unshorn hooves alighted the cloud beneath with the grace of a ballet dancer and the quiet presence of a maretial arts master. The pair of pegasus stallions - one grey, one black - unhitched themselves from the carriage with little fanfare and trotted toward Rainbow and Twilight.

“Greetings,” the grey stallion said. “My name is Ashen Oak. This here’s my partner, Umbra. Do you know that mare?” he asked, motioning toward the still-unconscious Spitfire with a wing.

“Y-yeah,” Twilight answered shakily. “Yeah, she’s a friend-”

“-what happened?” The black-coated stallion interrupted. “Was she bitten? Were either of you?”

“Relax, fellas-” Rainbow said. “None of us were bitten. Spitfire here, she...well, she pretty much just saved all of our lives, but it took a lot out of her.” Rainbow furrowed her eyebrows. “And it’s about fucking time you guys got here, for fuck’s sake! Have you seen the state of the city? We’re overrun!”

“We are quite aware of the situation, Ms...” the grey stallion growled through gritted teeth.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight answered for her friend. “And my name is Twilight Sparkle. Gentlecolts, as a personal protoge of the Priness herself, I can assure you that the situation is under control. I pla on escorting Ms. Rainbow Dash and Ms. Spitfire back to a secure location, where I have a medic on standby.” Twilight held up her hoof when the other pegasus - Umbra - looked as though he were about to interject.

“Furthermore, it is my belief that in order to find a cure to this virus - and, in a broader sense, come to understand how the Cantering Death spread so quickly and with such vigor - the Elements of Harmony need to be gathered together. I have it on good premonition that the Princesses themselves have already hinted at such a solution in previous correspondence.”

Rainbow Dash blinked.

What in the hay did she just say?

Needless to say, the two pegasus stallions did not look pleased.

“If,” the grey one began, “if we were to corroborate your claims with their royal highnesses themselves, would we find any reason to doubt their validity?”

“Absolutely not,” Twilight answered instantly, feeling confident. “Again, I assure you gentlecolts that I have the situation well under control. And think for a moment - would you doubt the capabilities of a unicorn who not only has means to travel to a city in the sky, but walk on its clouds as well?”

“Assuredly not, miss,” the black-coated stallion grumbled.

“Good,” Twilight said. With that, she encased herself and her companions in a translucent purple bubble, transporting them back to her tree home.

=================================================================
A/N: Sorry about the wait...

Comments

[Cuauhtemotzin]

a.images.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/14570576.jpg

Good read

[Xaldon Ajide]

i sit in agreement with the one above o and i feel so sorry for soarin and spitfire too. i'm suprised at how quickly twilight took over the situation how would she know what to do that quickly i mean wth she didnt even know of the elites ahead of time shouldnt there have been some unsurity? and i thought it was spitfire that got bit?hmm i'm gonna have to reread that chapter! anyway good story and good update.
that is all.

[Spectrum]

Kinda was hoping for some more dash kicking butt but right now im just so happy you updated

[Midnight Moon]

Well, it was disappointingly short, and I spotted more then a few grammar mistakes. While the bit with Spitfire killing Soarin' was good, the entire EPU scene felt completely unnecessary, to say nothing of the EPU itself. It felt overly rushed, to be honest.

Also, how the buck does Twilight know so much? And how did the EPU get through the barrier? Anything that gets too close to it gets teleported, remember? And if Trixie couldn't find a way through it, how would a bunch of Pegasi know what to do? And what correspondence between the Princesses? Celestia would be too busy managing efforts to stop the zomponies, and I'm pretty sure that even Luna would be exhausted after sending a telepathic message to every Unicorn in Equestria AND teleporting through the barrier to the Cloudsdale Hotel to warn Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts.

[Bromonn]

A little short for my liking. But still great to see that you haven't forgotten about this.

[Trikdom]

I love the story overall so far, but i'm rather disappointed with this chapter. I hope the following will be somewhat useful.

I'm a bit of a Soarin fan. What happened to him was an acceptable plot twist. But the way you handled it after was not well done I don't think. First was Spitfire's attack. If i'm reading it correctly then she essentially shot a bolt of fire at zombie Soarin. The problem being she's not a unicorn. How do you explain that? Cause I don't get it. Then pretty much as soon as the reinforcements arrive, they seem to forget him. Though the (seemingly pointless) conversation with the EPU would take precedence, RD didn't so much as glance at the ashes or have a thought about her dead idol (but its hard to say that when the chapter ends so soon). I hope you at least have Spitfire show some more remorse over her lost comrade when she wakes up.

Then there's the EPU. Nothing really important came from that scene that I can see and did raise some questions on the side. As of now I feel like their main purpose is to show that RD isn't leaving Cloudsdale to die, but just shifting responsibility to the legit soldiers. But the carriages all the guards were pulling, what's their purpose? Unless you plan on returning to Cloudsdale for whatever reason, they're just going to be big boxes of mystery. And are guards being sent to every major city, or is Cloudsdale a special case for some reason? Honestly the're no worse off then anywhere else.

Oh! just had a thought. I think it's assumed that the large majority of guards, if not all, are male yes? Well, if males can be infected so easily (with the mere contamination of bodily fluid, whereas females have to be outright killed first), and these guys being so powerful, and their likely inexperience with zombies... they may end up doing more harm than help if they're not careful.

Well, that's all I have for now. If you continue this I hope to see some explanations soon. Also you should probably get a beta reader if you don't have one already. I've heard they can help immensely.

[Darkest Bleak]

yay backup