> Not Dead Yet
>  by Nebula Star
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Why is their skin falling off?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Nebula Star presents:

Not Dead Yet



Prologue: Why is their skin falling off?
***


“Prin... Celestia! We came as soon as we heard!” Princess Twilight Sparkle called out as she and her friends... and Spike, charged into the throne room.

Celestia sighed in relief. “Twilight! I didn't send for you, but all the same, I'm glad you're here. I take it you've heard of the attacks on villages north of the Everfree?”

“Yes, they say that Trottingham was completely wiped out!” Twilight exclaimed. “And nopony knows who did it!”

“Indeed. Though some pegasi have reported seeing a large group moving along the edges of the forest...”

The throne room doors slammed open, interrupting the princess, and one of the lieutenants on duty charged in. “Princess Celestia! A large force of strange ponies is attacking the city!”

Celestia's eyes widened. “What do you mean, strange ponies?”

“Is it changelings!?” Twilight asked. She truly hoped the guard would recognize a changeling if he saw one, but some of her more recent experience with the royal guard left her in doubt of their competence.

He shook his head. “They're just strange looking ponies. They're attacking everypony in sight and... biting them...”

Twilight raised a brow at that. “Just biting?”

“I didn't watch after that...”

“So what? You just turned and ran? With ponies being attacked!?” Twilight demanded.

“Of course! I had to warn Princess Celestia!” He said defensively.

Twilight sighed, shaking her head.

“Well since you're here, Lieutenant, rally the guard!” Celestia ordered him.

He nodded. “Of course, princess!” With a salute he turned to go, then paused and looked back seeming confused. “To do what, exactly?”

“To defend the ponies of the city!” Celestia exclaimed.

His eyes widened. “You want us to go out there and fight those weird ponies!?”

“Yes!” Celestia exclaimed. “You're the royal guard! Why do you think you wear armor? Why do you think you train with weapons!?”

He took a step back nervously. “I... I thought the armor was just for appearance, and the training just to keep us in shape for our duties!”

Celestia clapped a hoof to her forehead. “Of course the training is to keep you in shape for your duties! Particularly your duty to defend the ponies of Equestria! Just what duties did you think you were training for!?”

He hesitated then reluctantly answered. “Well, to keep watch and warn yourself or the other princesses of any danger...”

“Yes, and?” Celestia coaxed.

“...And servicing your highness and the other princesses whenever you should desire.”

“WHAT!?” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes wide. She looked sharply at Celestia who was suddenly very red in the face. “Celestia! Have you been using the guard as your own... I don't even know what to call it! Some kind of male harem!?”

“I'm as pony as the next mare...” Celestia answered softly.

“The entire guard!?” Twilight exclaimed, eyes wide.

“It does promote loyalty... and improves moral...”

It was Twilight's turn to clap a hoof to her forehead as she saw her mentor and role model in a whole new, and very disturbing, light. Then a thought occurred to her and she was almost afraid to ask. “Tia... please tell me you never had my brother...” She trailed of, unable to say it.

Celestia's blush darkened. “Umm...”

Twilight groaned.

“He is quite the stallion...” Celestia said quietly.

Twilight took a moment to rub her forehead with her hoof in a vain attempt to hold back the coming head-ache brought on by the disturbing images, involving both her brother and Princess Celestia in very compromising positions, that were forcing their way into her mind. “Does Cadence know?”

“Well of course she does,” Celestia answered. “Why do you think she agreed to marry him? It wasn't for his personality, I can tell you that!”

“I meant does Cadence know about you and Shining!?” Twilight almost growled.

“Yes... well, she probably assumed as much anyway. I mean, she has the same right to request the guard's... services, and has often taken advantage of it. You have the same right as well for that matter, if you ever want to take advantage of it.”

Twilight blushed at the idea.

“Heh! You should totally take advantage of that, Twi!” Rainbow told her with a grin. “It's great for muscle tone!” Behind her, Twilight could hear Applejack snickering at her discomfort.

“As deliciously juicy as these tidbits of gossip are, shouldn't we be focusing on the unknown force attacking the city?” Rarity interrupted, thankfully cutting off Twilight's rather vivid imagination that had begun running scenarios through her head involving some of the more attractive guard-ponies she'd met 'servicing' her, her brother mounting Princess Celestia, or both at once...

I think I have issues... Twilight thought to herself.

“Right. Yes,” Celestia agreed, glad for the change in subject. “Lieutenant! Rally the guard to defend the city. I don't care what you think your duties are, first and foremost the guard is to defend the ponies of Equestria!”

At that moment a loud racket erupted from the entrance hall. Eyes wide, they all looked up at the throne room doors that had swung shut again after the guard had entered. Had the attacking ponies already gotten into the castle?

The doors creaked as they began to open, slowly. They heard shouts from the hall beyond, then a loud crash as a figure stepped through the doors.

“Auntie Celestia, I must protest about the unruly rabble that has gathered for day court.” Prince Blueblood said, tossing his mane arrogantly.

Everypony breathed a sigh of relief. “It's just you, Blueblood...” Celestia said, completely disregarding his complaint.

“For a second I thought the strange ponies attacking Canterlot had already reached the castle,” Twilight admitted with a relieved smile.

Several ponies leaped onto Blueblood, tackling him to the ground.

“Unhoof me you lowly... Ah, Aaah, AAAAAHHH!” They watched in horror as the ponies attacking Blueblood began biting, gnawing and quite literally devouring him right before their eyes. It wasn't what they were doing to Blueblood that horrified them, though. In fact, most of them were quite pleased, including Celestia herself. It was the appearance of the attacking ponies that horrified them. Most of them seemed to be losing their coats, their fur falling out. Several had severe wounds, broken bones, deep gashes, even missing limbs, but they didn't seem to notice and none of the wounds bled.

“Z-Z-Z-ZOMBIE PONIES!” Spike screamed and for once nopony could deny it as he began to panic. “We're all gonna to die! We're all gonna to die!”

“Everypony remain calm!” Twilight shouted, but Spike wasn't listening; one of the zombies was limping toward him. He suddenly breathed out a jet of flame and a regulation size baseball bat fell into his claws. Without hesitation he swung it down hard on the zombie pony's head again and again, brutally bashing its brains in. 

“AAAAAHHHH!”

Twilight and the others watched with jaws dropped as Spike proceeded to the next Zombie pony approaching and again smashed the bat down on the undead pony's skull again and again, hard enough that he was lifted off the floor by the swings, screaming the whole time. In no time all the zombies that had attacked Blueblood – and Blueblood himself, just to be safe – had been bashed to a bloody pulp and Spike stood there spattered with coagulated blood, holding the stained red bat in his claws, breathing quick shallow breaths, with a manic look in his eyes.

“Wow; it wasn't Twi that cracked first...” Rainbow commented finally.

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Twilight shouted rounding on her.

Rainbow raised a brow. “Want it, need it.”

“...Shuttup.”

Celestia snickered at Twilight's expense, but then they all froze as Spike walked back over, carrying his bloodied bat. “Hey girls! Did ya see those zombie ponies?” His eyes wide, one twitching repeatedly. “That's crazy, huh!”

“Uh... yeah...” Twilight agreed eying him nervously. “Spike... why don't you put the bat down...”

“What bat?” He asked still holding the bloodied blunt weapon over his shoulder.

“Right...”

The doors creaked open further behind him drawing all their eyes as hundreds of zombie ponies began entering the hall, many of them wearing royal guard armor.

“ZOMBIE PONIES!” Spike screamed raising his bat once more. Twilight quickly picked him up in her magic before he could run off.

“Damn, they got Hard Knocks! He was one of my favorites...” Celestia exclaimed.

Twilight chose to ignore the implications of her mentor's comment. “Fluttershy!” She called turning to the shy pegasus. “What should we do!?”

Fluttershy blinked. “What? Why are you asking me!?”

“Because, based on everything I've read, you're the most likely one to survive in these kinds of situations! So if we want to all make it through this then we have to follow your lead!” Twilight explained.

“Oh, okay, if you say so...”

“So what do we do?”

At that moment another wave of zombies poured into the throne room and they all heard screams echoing from elsewhere in the castle.

“Um... run?” Fluttershy suggested, eyes wide as the zombies shambled toward them at varying speeds. 

“Retreat and regroup to assess the situation; good idea!” Twilight said nodding in approval. “You heard her, everypony, let's go!”

“You all go on ahead,” Celestia told them solemnly. “I'll stay here and hold them off while you escape. Go through the residence wing and find Luna, then make your way to Ponyville, hopefully it hasn't been overrun yet. I'll find you there.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay, good luck princess. Let's go everypony. Princess Celestia's going to hold them off! This way!”

Levitating Spike – who was swinging his bat repeatedly in the direction of the zombies – Twilight led them through the back way out of the throne room that led to the resident wing. They headed strait for Luna's tower, hoping that the zombie ponies hadn't made it that far yet.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Princess Luna called from the hall ahead. “I heard sounds of battle! Smoke rises from the city! What is going on?”

“Princess Luna, thank goodness you're alright!” Twilight exclaimed. “Zombie ponies are attacking! They've already gotten into the castle and are killing and turning everypony they come across!”

“Zombie ponies? Truly?”

“Sure looks that way!” Rainbow told her.

“And they are already within the castle?”

Twilight nodded.

“Then we must warn my sister and retreat until we know more!”

“Celestia's holding them off while we escape! She said she'll meet us in Ponyville,” Twilight told her quickly.

Luna's eyes widened. “Celestia is fighting them? ALONE?”

Twilight blinked not understanding why Luna would be so upset by that. “Yeah, why?”

“You left Celestia behind to fight them alone!?” Luna demanded again.

“What!? It's just a bunch of zombie ponies! I'm sure Celestia can handle it!” Twilight replied defensively.

“You foal! Don't you know about Celestia's curse!?” Luna exclaimed.

“Curse!? But, curses aren't real!”

Luna's eyes widened even further. “Oh for the love of...! OF COURSE CURSES ARE REAL! They're just another type of spell! And Celestia is cursed so that she can never win a fight so long as she has somepony else she can have fight in her place!”

“But... curses...”

“Why do you think she lost against the changeling queen!? Why do you think she always sends you to deal with serious threats instead of fighting herself!? Why do you think she and I always worked together in the past! She can't win a fight on her own!”

Twilight worked her jaw soundlessly for a few moments. “But, she won when she fought you! When you were Nightmare Moon!”

“Only because she had nopony else to fight for her! When I returned I beat her easily because she had you to do her fighting!”

“That actually kind of makes sense.” Applejack said thoughtfully and Twilight's eyes widened as she realized her mentor and friend may be in grave danger.

“Watch Spike.” She said quickly, setting him down with the rest of her friends, then she and Luna both galloped toward the Throne room hoping they weren't too late.

“...for I am the unconquerable princess of the sun!” They heard Celestia declaring loudly as they drew close. “Avatar of the day, defender of Equestria, of harmony! You shall not... OH MOTHER OF ME!”

They burst through the door just in time to see Celestia dragged to the ground by dozens of zombie ponies.

“TIA!” Luna cried holding one hoof out toward her.

Twilight stared in horror as her mentor disappeared beneath the hordes of undead, entrails flying and blood spraying everywhere.

Then Luna sighed. “We were too late... oh well, let's go.” She said with a shrug.

Twilight looked up at her shocked. “But, maybe she can still be saved!”

Luna eyed the growing pool of blood spreading across the floor from under the zombie pony's hooves. “I doubt it.” 

“But...! She's your sister!” Twilight exclaimed, appalled by how little she seemed to care.

Luna shrugged. “She'll just be reborn in a few years. Then it will be my turn to be the big sister again...”

Twilight blinked. “What?”

“That's how it works, whenever Celestia or I get killed we're reborn a few years later.”

Twilight blinked again. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“How long before she's reborn?” Twilight asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Luna shrugged. “Hard to say,” she said then glanced at Twilight. “So... you have any coltfriends? A special somepony perhaps?”

Twilight blinked. “What? No, not right now! Don't change the subject! How long until Celestia is reborn?”

She shrugged again. “It may be a few years.”

“Oh princesses! I don't mean to interrupt,” Rarity called in a singsong manner from the hall behind them. “But I couldn't help but notice you seem to have forgotten the little matter of... WE'RE RUNNING FOR OUR LIVES!”

Twilight glanced at the zombies and saw many of them had already lost interest in their white alicorn meal and were ready for darker meat. “Right... RUN!”


> Chapter 1: Well this sucks.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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...”


> Chapter 2: BOOM BOOM BABY!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star


Chapter 2: BOOM BOOM BABY!
***


“So why did Rarity know an invisibility spell anyway?” Scootaloo asked idly while Apple Bloom went over the wagon and bomb dispenser one last time, pausing ever so often to tighten a bolt or screw. The three crusaders were on the roof of a twelve story building only a few blocks from their target. The building next to there's had collapsed forming a rough ramp of rubble up to their vantage point, so they had a clear view of the mall from their position. 

Having escorted them in – using the invisibility spell in question – Rarity had already headed back to help with the ambush and the crusaders were on their own until they took out their target, at which time Rainbow Dash would come for extraction.

“She used it to sneak colts into her room when she still lived with our parents.” Sweetie Belle answered dully. She was busy checking the timing for the charges on her fetlock computer.

Scootaloo looked at her, surprised. “Wha... Really?”

“Yep.” Sweetie Belle said tapping one last button then standing up and stretching.

“You mean she...”

“Is not so prim and proper as she makes everypony believe? Pretty much, yeah.” She turned to Apple Bloom. “The timers are all set; once you're done Scoot can get to planting.”

“That makes me sound like a gardener...” Scootaloo whined.

“Exactly, and you're excellent at growing mushrooms of the cloud variety.” Sweetie Belle replied.

Scootaloo grinned. “I try.”

“Well get to it then. The wagon's all set,” Apple Bloom told them as she retracted the tools on her fetlock mounted toolkit.

Sweetie clapped her hooves together. “Oh, finally we can get to the fun part!” She cheered as Scootaloo hopped onto her scooter. “Now remember once I cast the invisibility and sound dampening spells, you'll have a half hour to place all the charges and get back here.”

Scootaloo grinned and waved her hoof dismissively. “Piece of cake. You just watch, I'll be back here with time to spare!”

“Alright then, good luck!” Sweetie said then cast the spells.

Scootaloo seemed to fade out of existence as the invisibility spell wrapped around her. There was a slight ripple in the air around her that gave it away, but Scootaloo would be moving too quickly for any of the zombies to take notice before she was long gone.

“That's it, you're set!”

With that there was a faint buzz, and a blast of wind, and Scootaloo was gone, using the rubble of the collapsed building to get down.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom watched the trail of dust make it's way down the twelve stories worth of debris.

“So... ya'll wanna play cards?” Apple Bloom asked after a few moments.

“Eh, why not. But we're not playing strip poker again,” Sweetie Belle told her.

“Aww...”

“I don't get why you like strip poker so much! It's not like we wear much anyway!”

Apple Bloom gave her puppy dog eyes. “Please?”

Sweetie Belle sighed, she couldn't resist those amber eyes. “Fine.”


~~~


“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked as she entered the general's quarters.

“I'm in here, Twilight,” Fluttershy called back from the kitchen of the apartment that made up her quarters, though her voice was barely audible.

She wasn't alone. Discord was sitting in a chair at the table, staring blankly ahead while Fluttershy carefully fed him a thin soup.

“Still not responsive?”

Fluttershy shook her head sadly.

Twilight sighed. “It really is too bad; he could have been a lot of help.”

Fluttershy sniffed. “Is that all you care about?” She asked accusingly.

“Of course not! Twilight objected. “I... I do miss him too, it's just...”

“I know... You're a princess; you have to look at the big picture.”

Twilight sighed. “He never did quite know when to quit... He just went one joke too far.”

Fluttershy broke down then. Throwing her hooves around Discord's unresponsive form, she began crying into his shoulder. “Why did you have to leave your brain out on a plate in front of the zombies!? Why!? It wasn't fu-fu-u-nny!”

Awkwardly Twilight tried to offer Fluttershy what comfort she could while trying not to laugh at the memory of Discord's shocked expression as one of the zombies bit into his brain before he could react.

“I'm sorry Twilight... I know... I know we need to focus,” Fluttershy said finally, having regained control of her emotions.

Twilight pat her back reassuringly. “It's alright Fluttershy. You've done so much these past few years and have endured more than your share of hardships...”

“Yes, but it's almost over, I can handle just a little more...” She said resolutely, taking a deep breath as if to steel herself for what lay ahead. “Is your team heading out?”

Twilight nodded. “The crusaders should be starting their distraction in about a half hour, so we need to be ready to hit the lab as soon as it starts. You should make sure the ambush is ready.”

Fluttershy smiled. “Okay, you be safe. We'll kill a few zombies for you on this end. Oh, that reminds me, I mustn't forget Mr. Thunk...” She fluttered into the bedroom. A moment later she trotted out with a mace slung across her back. A mace with a flanged head nearly as large as her body.

Twilight's eye twitched. It should not be physically possible for Fluttershy to swing such a weapon, but Twilight had seen it too often to deny that the former fashion model could, and to devastating effect...

“Right... going now.” Twilight left before her friend's blatant disregard for physics chipped away any more of her sanity. As if she didn't get enough of that already from Pinkie Pie.


~~~


Holding her cards close, Sweetie Belle watched Apple Bloom's eyes, searching for something, some clue to what the earth pony's hand held. But there was nothing. Finally Sweetie decided to call it.

“Two pair! Aces and queens!” She said grinning as she slapped her cards on the ground in front of her.

Apple Bloom's mask fell away into a victorious smirk. “Full house!” She said laying her cards down in front of her.

“Ah, dang it!” Sweetie sighed and took off her hoof band computer and set it with the rest of her gear on the ground next to her. “Guess I lose... again,” she sighed. Apple Bloom just kept grinning at Sweetie. She still had all but one piece of her own gear on.

Just then they heard a muffled buzzing and clanging of a metal wagon speeding up the rubble toward them. Looking, Sweetie spotted the dust trail just as it reached the base of a large slab of cement and used it to ramp up onto the rooftop where they waited.

“Oh yeah! Made it with five minutes to spare!” Scootaloo's voice seemingly came out of thin air, muffled to barely more than a whisper. Horn glowing, Sweetie dispelled the invisibility and muffling spells revealing the pegasus filly standing proudly leaning on her scooter. The bomb wagon behind her was now nearly empty. She raised a brow though when she saw them. “Sweetie, why'd you take all your gear off?”

“Because I suck at strip poker,” She growled.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Why do you keep letting Apple Bloom talk you into playing it then?”

“She did the puppy dog eyes...”

She snorted at that. “You'd think that, with how good you are at doing them yourself, you'd be immune to puppy dog eyes.”

Sweetie Belle pouted. “Well I'm not.”

“Why do you always want to play strip poker anyway?” Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom. “I get wanting to play poker because your good at it, but why strip poker?”

She shrugged. “Well it's no fun just playin' without somethin' on the line, and why bother bettin' stuff when we share everything anyway?”

“I guess you've got a point,” she said with a shrug. “But you'd better get your gear back on, Sweetie. We're supposed to be starting soon and we'll need to be ready to run when we do.”

“Alright! It's showtime!” Sweetie said with a grin, as she jumped to her hooves. Her horn lit up and in moments all of her gear was back on.

“...dang...” Apple Bloom muttered so quietly that Scootaloo wasn't even sure if she heard it at all.

Looking at the time, Sweetie Belle saw that it was just after thirteen hundred hours, and their orders were to start at thirteen hundred hours or as soon as possible if they got delayed. Sweetie smirked. Not that they'd ever been delayed. Moving to the edge of the rooftop overlooking the tower, she raised her hoof and tapped out a few commands on her fetlock computer. “Here goes, starting the countdown! Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, thee...” She trailed off, sitting down and raising her forehooves in the air. Right when she would have reached zero, she brought them down like a maestro conducting an orchestra even as the first explosion went off in the mall. Each charge a different yield, producing a different tone, each timed with precision, and placed for effect. Apple Bloom bobbed her head in time with the beat as Sweetie Belle's music was played through destruction. She recognized the song; they all did. Sweetie Belle had gone with something contemporary this time.

Sweetie continued to conduct as blast after blast tore through the mall sections of it collapsing at random. For nearly three minutes, the mall was consumed by a masterpiece of musical chaos.


~~~


Twilight couldn't help tapping her forehoof to the beat of the explosions that could be heard throughout the city. 

“Wahoo! Sweetie Belle took them to the factory!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed bouncing nearby.

Twilight nodded. “Yes, that's our signal, time to move out!” She told them turning to lead the way.

“Ah just hope Rainbow gets them out safely.” Applejack sighed.

“Oh don't worry Jackie! You know the Crusaders, they always have plenty of surprises for any zombies that give them trouble,” Pinkie told her cheerfully. “They like surprising zombies as much as I like surprising ponies.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Only their surprises usually end with body parts all over the place...”


~~~


Sweetie made one final flourish as the sound of the last detonation reached them. Then, with just the distant sounds of a collapsing building remaining, she turned and gave a bow.

“Thank you, thank you!”

“Excellent work, Sweetie! As always!” Apple Bloom said, patting her on the back.

Scootaloo wasn't as enthusiastic. “Yeah... it was great and all, but... did you have to do Rainbow Factory?”

Sweetie smirked. “What, just because the song gave you nightmares...”

“It did not!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

She snorted. “Yeah, sure it didn't. Hey Bloom, remember when Rainbow offered to take her on a tour of the real rainbow factory.”

“How could Ah forget!” Apple Bloom grinned and did a passable impersonation of Scootaloo cowering in fear. “'No! I don't want to be drained of my colors! I'll be a better flier, I swear!'”

“I did not say that!” Scootaloo shouted, her face red.

“Yes you did, and Ah'm an Apple, so you know Ah ain't lyin'”

“The song did not give me nightmares!” Scootaloo shouted once more.

“My, my, my. What have we here? Three deliciously cute little fillies! Mmm... they'll make an excellent addition to my harem!”

The crusaders froze at the sound of that voice. Once so welcome and familiar, now so wrong and twisted. They were almost afraid to look as they turned toward the source. There standing just on the edge of the roof, blocking the quickest way down, was an, once pink, alicorn; her mane ragged and greasy, her coat pale and her body, slightly decaying in a few spots, but otherwise in surprisingly good condition. They all knew who stood before them.

“It's Cadaver Cadenza!”
> Chapter 3: We need an adult!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star


Chapter 3: We Need an Adult!
***


“It's Cadaver Cadenza!” Scootaloo shouted.

“And Rotting Armor!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, spotting the Stallion as he climbed up onto the roof next to his undead wife.

It had been a tragic coincidence that the day the zombies had first attacked Canterlot, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor had decided to pay a surprise visit to Twilight Velevet and Night Light. They'd stepped off the train and been immediately piled upon by the zombie hordes. They'd risen a few hours later, twisted shadows of their former selves. The princess of love became a creature of lust, her stalwart protector became her attack dog. The most powerful of the ints, having retained almost all of their intelligence – which wasn't saying much for Shining Armor – it wasn't long before they'd taken control leading the zombie ponies in taking down the living. 

“Look at them, Shiny! They're so darling! And, oh! How tragic! They're all still virgins!”

“We're barely fourteen!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“So? Oh I want them so bad! I know I shouldn't be having such thoughts...” She grinned wickedly. “But I am a naughty Princess!” She took a step forward. “They're so lovely, I could just eat 'em out!”

“Uh... don't you mean eat 'em up?” Sweetie asked, stepping back nervously.

She smirked “I know what I said.”

“Eeep!”

“Oh, Shiny, my hansom love machine! Catch them for me and I'll let you have a go at their cute little tushies too.” Cadenza said, giving her own rotting tushie a shake.

Scootaloo's eyes went wide as Rotting Armor started toward them. “Uh... Run!”

They all turned, Scootaloo grabbing her scooter, even as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle jumped into the wagon. Immediately Scootaloo's wings began to buzz sending them across the rooftop as fast as she could propel them. Apple Bloom threw one hoof back, something flying back toward the former princess and her stallion enforcer. A moment later there was a loud bang and a shock wave further propelled them on their way, throwing up a cloud of dust behind them.

“Sweetie, three – zero – five through seventeen in sequence.” Scootaloo called back and Sweetie Belle's horn glowed as she put in the commands magically, her hooves hanging on tight to the front of the wagon while Apple Bloom held tight to her.

A blast went off ahead of them and a section of the roof began to collapse. More blasts could be heard going off down through the building as Scootaloo aimed them directly toward the collapse.

“COME BACK MY CUTE LITTLE BUNDLES OF NAUGHTY LOVE!”

“Hurry!” Sweetie Belle urged. “I do not want my first time to be with a morgue escapee!”

They shot over the edge of the collapse finding it had formed a ramp into a hall on the top floor, then tore through the hall, taking a turn and another new collapse let them down another floor.

“Sweetie, five – two – nine and ten, synchronized.”

A few magical taps on her computer and a couple seconds later, two explosions shook the building behind them and they heard the distinct sound of part of the building collapsing. Scootaloo continued without pause down through the building floor by floor, through the recently collapsed halls that formed ramps for their descent. As they bounced down, floor after floor, Sweetie Belle was only partially aware of Apple Bloom tossing some of the few remaining charges out the back of the wagon.

“Almost there!” Scootaloo called back. “One – zero – one and three – five – seven, eight and nine, synchronized.”

Sweetie punched in the command just as they reached the ground floor, the front doors strait ahead. A small charge went off in the doors, shattering the glass while Scootaloo aimed for a piece of fallen debris, using it as a ramp and they flew through the doorway. Just as they cleared it, the entrance exploded, the shock-wave propelling them half way into the street before they landed and skidded to a stop.

“Oh yeah! Action star exit!” Scootaloo cheered giving a hoof-pump.

It was of course, at that moment that they realized they weren't alone.

“Oh, ponyfeathers...” Apple Bloom muttered as hordes of zombie ponies closed in on them from both directions; impenetrable walls of undead blocking any chance of escape.

“Looks like Cadenza brought her minions...” Sweetie Belle moaned.

“Well that's good isn't it? We're suppose to be distracting them right? And leading them back to the ambush?” Scootaloo asked as the undead continued to close around them.

“Kinda hard to lead 'em anywhere when we have nowhere to go.” Apple Bloom pulled a stick of dynamite from her harness. “But then that's what high explosives are for.”

“I don't think we have enough left...” Sweetie Belle sounded worried as she huddled close to Apple Bloom in the wagon.

“Dang it, where is Rainbow Dash!?” Apple bloom lit the fuse on her dynamite...

“You girls are so adorably shy!”

...And threw it at the former princess. 

The undead alicorn's horn lit up and they saw that even her magic had a sickly dead appearance as she tossed the dynamite away into the crowd of zombies. “I got it!” One of the zombies shouted excitedly, jumping up in the air and catching it in his teeth. It exploded a moment later killing near a dozen of her minions. She didn't care, she had plenty more where they came from.

“You all clearly have so much pent up sexual tension! Let me help you! I'll set you free!” Cadenza said stepping toward them. “Just stop resisting, I promise you'll enjoy it!”

“How 'bout, no,” Apple Bloom told her.

She smirked. “Then I guess I'll just have act out some of those rape fantasies Shiny and I use to do when we role-played.”

“Okay, I did not need to hear that.” Sweetie Belle deadpanned.

“But it really is better with willing partners... Oh I know!” Cadenza's horn lit up and a spell shot out toward Sweetie Belle.

“Look out!” Scootaloo shouted, pushing Sweetie out of the way at the last second. The spell hit Scootaloo in the side and she let out a yelp, dropping to the ground. Sweetie jumped back to her hooves and she and Bloom both turned to Scootaloo, terrified of what they'd find.

She appeared unscathed.

“Scootaloo?”

Slowly the pegasus filly got to her hooves again. She looked up and a wild and hungry look was in her eyes as she looked back and forth between her closest friends. “Oh... Oh boy, ooooh boy! Girls... I'm feeling desires that a filly my age shouldn't be feeling!” She exclaimed, her voice near panic.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's eyes widened. They'd heard rumors of Cadenza's twisted version of the love magic she use to have. Spells that could cause a pony to be overwhelmed by lust to the point that they'd do anything to satisfy their sexual desires.

Before they could think of anything to do, however, there was a loud screech, accompanied by the roar of a precision engine from somewhere beyond the zombie hordes. Many of the zombies turned to look, but none were fast enough as a Bugatti Veyron plowed through their ranks at high speeds. Then the wheels screeched again, breaking hard as the super-car skid sideways through the last ranks of zombies to finally come to a stop right in front of the crusaders.

The passenger door opened revealing their favorite rainbow maned speedster at the wheel. “Need a lift?” Rainbow Dash asked giving a smirk at the bewildered crusaders.

Apple Bloom was the first to recover. “Go, go, go!” She shouted, all but throwing Sweetie Belle into the car while Scootaloo dove in as well, Apple Bloom right after, closing the door behind her. As soon as the door was shut, Rainbow punched it. Spinning the tires and kicking up smoke as they shot down the road, plowing through any Zombies that weren't fast enough to get out of the way. 

They hadn't really expected Rainbow to be picking them up in a car of all things, but at least they'd escaped. Unfortunately the car Rainbow had picked was only a two-seater, which left the Crusaders all crammed into the passenger seat. One of whom was still under the effects of Cadenza's lust spell.

“Scootaloo! Get your hooves off of me!” Sweetie Belle screeched.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“Don't even think about it, filly.” Apple Bloom growled as she saw Scootaloo's wild eyes on her. “You just keep your hooves to yourself!”

“I know, I know. I'm trying!”

“What's wrong with her?” Rainbow asked as they skidded around a corner onto one of the main avenues heading west.

“Cadenza hit 'er with a lust spell.”

Rainbow winced. “Yikes!”

“Speaking of Cadenza, she's right on our tail!” Sweetie Belle warned pointing out the back.

Rainbow glanced in the mirrors to see Cadenza flying after them. “Crap! I don't think we'll be able to outrun her on the ground...”

“Well why didn't you just bring a flying chariot!?” Sweetie exclaimed. “You're the fastest flier in Equestria! Even pulling a chariot you could have outrun her in the air!”

“Yeah, but I'm supposed to be your get-away driver! You can't be a get-away driver without a get-away car!”

Both Sweetie and Apple Bloom facehoofed. Scootaloo would have as well, but she was too busy resisting the urge to put her hoof somewhere else.

“Sweetie. Detonate all the rest of the remote charges,” Apple Bloom said finally.

“Why, we just left the wagon in the street...”

“And my scooter... I'm going to miss the feel of those handlebars. I bet they'd feel amazing...” Apple Bloom jammed her hoof in Scootaloo's mouth.

“You don't want to finish that sentence.”

“Why detonate the charges though? It might kill a few zombies, but that doesn't really help us.”

“I tossed out a few extra charges while we were going down Scoot's escape route. Should be enough to take down the building.”

“Okay, why?”

Apple Bloom smirked. “Rotting Armor can't fly, which means he probably tried to chase us down the escape route. I didn't see him come out of the building before Rainbow showed up so he might still be inside...”

“...And if Cadenza knows that then when the charges go off she'll be worried about him and go to make sure he's alright!” Sweetie Belle finished for her with a grin, her horn lighting up even as she did, punching commands into her fetlock computer.

A moment later fire bloomed behind them and the thunder of all the rest of the charges exploding at once shattering the glass of nearby towers. The Crusaders watched as the tower they'd spent the morning on was enveloped in flames and began to twist and fall. It almost seemed like it was in slow motion as it fell in the direction they were traveling, smashing into another tower next to it, which in turn began to fall as well. It crashed into a third tower, and this one, considerably taller than the others, began to fall toward them.

“Uh oh...” Sweetie Belle murmured.

“Uh... oops.” Apple Bloom said sheepishly. “Guess that's why we usually have Scootaloo set the charges.”

“GO GO GO!” Sweetie Belle screamed and Rainbow floored it, spinning the tires as they shot down the street, trying to escape the shadow of the falling tower.

“We're not going to make it!” Apple Bloom said fearfully as she watched the crumbling tower blocking out the sky.

“TURN!” Sweetie Belle shouted pointing toward a narrow alley not far ahead.

Rainbow didn't have time to consider her options. She braked hard and wrenched the wheel around, the tires squealing in protest as their momentum fought against them. They were going too fast. Skidding into the alley, their momentum carried them all the way across and the last thing they saw was the front of the car smashing into a wall.


~~~


Horn glowing, Luna looked back and forth between her fetlock computer and the Security door interface, rapidly punching in commands on both. Twilight and the rest of her team were gathered around waiting while Luna attempted to bypass the locks on the Big ol' Security Door. It wasn't a description, though the door was indeed very large, it was actually the name of the door as it was written on a plaque above it. 

Applejack and Pinkie were both on lookout; Applejack simply watching the main hall while Pinkie Pie had donned her stealth suit and night vision goggles and proceeded to form a perimeter, appearing at random to keep watch seemingly everywhere at once. Zecora was simply waiting near the door. While Twilight was staying close to Luna and the Zebra, guarding them as they were both vital to the plan.

“How's it coming?” Twilight asked.

Luna grunted. “The owner of this place wasn't just a moron, he was a paranoid moron. This door has three pass-code locks to open it, each protected by 128 bit encryptions... it's going to take a bit.”

Twilight frowned. They hadn't counted on this delay. “Well hopefully we continue to go unnoticed.”

“Ah just hope Rainbow got the Crusaders out alright.” Applejack said softly, throwing a worried glance toward a nearby window where they could see smoke rising in the distance.

“I'm sure they're fine,” Twilight told her. “You know Rainbow would never leave them hanging.”

“Ah know, but Ah can't help but worry.”

Twilight deadpanned. “Applejack, they blow up buildings for fun. If it comes to a fight, I think the Crusaders can handle themselves.”

“Ah know that, Twi. But Bloom's still my little sister; Ah'm allowed to worry,” Applejack sighed, turning back to watching the hall.

Zecora stepped forward and put a comforting hoof on the farm pony's shoulder. “Applejack, my friend, there is no need to fret, for little Apple Bloom is not dead yet.”

“How can ya know?”

“A feeling I have for my youngest friend; though trouble may find her it is not her end. Help shall come from an unlikely source; allies that will make an unstoppable force.”


> Chapter 4: Wait, you were there?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star


Chapter 4: Wait... You were there?
***


“SCOOTALOO! HOOVES OFF!” Sweetie Belle's screech managed to pull Apple Bloom back to consciousness. With a groan she raised her head to look around. The wall they'd crashed into luckily wasn't a load bearing wall and in fact seemed to have been made up of simple wood panels that had replaced glass windows. Most likely a corner shop of some kind; looking around it certainly looked like it. Behind them, through the hole they'd made, she barely make out that the avenue they'd been traveling on was completely buried by the fallen building. All in all, crashing through the wall had probably saved their lives.

SLAP!

Apple Bloom's attention was drawn to her friends; both seemed to be in good shape and had both climbed out of the wrecked car already. Scootaloo was holding her cheek looking shocked, while Sweetie Belle looked simply furious. “Get a hold of yourself!”

“I'm trying!” Scootaloo whimpered.

Apple Bloom decided it might be best if she intervened. “Easy there, Sweetie. She can't control herself right now, you know that.”

Sweetie Belle snorted folding her forelegs across her chest. “Well excuse me for being upset about waking up to one of my best friends feeling me up!”

“I meant to just try and wake you... I just... I... I'm sorry. I just can't control it!”

Sweetie looked away angrily. “Is Rainbow awake?”

In answer the rainbow maned pegasus kicked the driver side door open, breaking it from its hinges, and climbed out of the car. “Yeah, I'm awake and not dead either. So that's awesome. Any sign of Zombies?”

“Nope, Cadenza broke off the chase to escape the falling building,” Sweetie Belle told them. “She probably thinks we were crushed.”

“She might...” Rainbow agreed. “But she may send some of her minions to search for us anyway, so we better not stay here. Without any form of fast transport we'll have to lay low and try not to draw too much attention to ourselves.”

“This wouldn't be a problem if you'd brought something other than a sports car as our get away vehicle...” Sweetie Belle grumbled.

“How was I supposed to know you were going to drop a skyscraper on us!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“It doesn't matter now!” Apple Bloom interrupted, trying to keep the peace. “What matters is getting back to the ambush point without being caught, while still keeping the zombies' attention.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah, but let's just focus on getting back. We'll probably have the zombies on our tails the whole way no matter what we do.”

“Either way, we shouldn't stay here.”

“Alright, then let's move out troops!” Rainbow said gesturing for them to follow as she headed toward the hole they'd made.

All three crusaders just glared at her.

Rainbow was halfway out by the time she realized they weren't following. “Uh, Girls, times a wastin'; I said move out!”

They exchanged glances, finally Apple Bloom stepped forward. “Rainbow, you haven't really worked with us before, so we'll let it slide this time, but in the future, you'd best remember one thing: There are exactly three living ponies that we'll take orders from, and you're not one of them. 

“So as long as you're with us, you either follow us and do what we say to help, or you just follow. Otherwise you're on you're own.”

Rainbow stared at them a few moments. At first she thought they were joking, but the look in their eyes – despite Scootaloo's occasionally drifting toward her friends' flanks – made it clear that they meant it. It was also worth noting that they were the ones with the explosives. “Uh... okay, whatever you say girls.”

“You can offer suggestions if you want, but don't expect us to go along with 'em.”

“Alright, cool your jets... I'll follow,” Rainbow clearly didn't like it but she knew she didn't have much choice.

“Let's go then.” Apple Bloom said finally and the Crusaders trotted out past Rainbow. The avenue they'd been traveling on was completely blocked off due to the tower they'd brought down. Without a second glance, Apple Bloom led the way through the alley toward the next street. From what they could see the next street was in pretty rough shape as well, but at least it wasn't buried.

“Hey, girls... I think it might be best if I were in the lead...” Scootaloo whimpered, her voice sounding strained. “A little too much to look at back here.”

“Well don't look!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

Apple Bloom sighed. “Its probably for the best. Go ahead,” she said gesturing for Scootaloo to take the lead. “Keep your ears open though never know whats around the next corner.

“Yep...” Scootaloo said taking the lead then shivered visibly. “Damn... is this what it's like to be in heat, Rainbow?”

Rainbow blushed. “How should I know, I've never been hit by one of Cadenza's spells...”

“Yeah, well I've never been in heat. If it's anything like this it must suck!”

“Oh don't worry, you'll know the joys of being in heat soon enough...” Rainbow told her with a smirk. “Just be glad we'll be able to get that spell removed as soon as we get back to base. No such luck when you're in heat.”

Scootaloo whimpered softly as they reached the end of the alley. “I don't know if I can handle waiting that long...”

“BRAINS!”

“AAAAAAHH!” Scootaloo reflexively grabbed a grenade and pulled the pin as a zombie that had been just around the corner leaped at her. She was knocked to the ground as the zombie tackled her and the grenade was knocked from her hoof flying almost strait up in the air.

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle shouted unable to do anything as four more zombies appeared around the corner.

A gray blur slammed into the zombie on top of Scootaloo, knocking it away. They only got a glimpse of a gray pegasus mare as she caught the grenade out of the air, jammed it into another zombie's mouth and then spun, knocking it back into the others with a powerful roundhouse kick.

A moment later it exploded silhouetting the gray mare as she landed in front of Scootaloo. They all stared in shock as the mare turned back toward them and smiled, revealing her golden misaligned eyes.

“Hey, girls!” She said cheerfully.

“Derpy!?”

They heard a moan from behind and turned just in time to see three more zombies on top of a pile of debris get taken out by two magical blasts and a hard buck that sent the last one flying. Then a mint green unicorn climbed up over the pile.

“You gals need a hoof?” She asked with a cocky grin.

“Hey, I know you!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “You're Lyra right?”

“That's right!” She said hopping down as several others appeared around the side of debris. First was a cream colored earth pony mare with a purple and pink mane, followed by an orange and green mare, then there was a white unicorn mare with sunglasses and a wild blue mane along side another earth pony mare dark grey in color with an even darker mane and tail that was carrying what looked like a cello case on her back. The first few were all familiar faces while the last two they only vaguely remembered. But not one of them had ever set hoof in their base. In fact, they'd all been presumed dead. The last to appear was a dark purple alicorn with a dark indigo mane and tail striped with purple and red. They didn't recognize her at all.

“What the hay? What are you all doing out here?” Rainbow exclaimed. “We thought you were all dead! How long have you been in the city?”

Lyra snorted. “See Bonnie, I told you they hadn't noticed us. They never notice us.”

Bon Bon nodded. “It's kind of sad though, considering we've been in the city as long as they have...”

“You have?” Sweetie Belle asked sounding surprised.

“Yep, we've been here the whole time, and no one noticed,” Lyra said with a nod. “No one ever notices us. We follow the mane six all the time and no one ever notices. Heck, I went to school with Twilight! I followed her to Ponyville! Colgate and I were two of Princess Cadence's original brides maids! They never noticed!” She finished breathing hard, her teeth clenched.

“Easy dear, you're getting worked up again.” Bon Bon said putting a hoof around Lyra and giving her a squeeze. 

The Crusaders and Rainbow stared at them a moment, not sure what to say. Finally Sweetie Belle broke the silence. “So... who's all your friends.”

“Oh right, introductions. Well I think you all know Derpy, Bon Bon and I...”

“Hang on! Derpy! Where's Dinky!?” Sweetie Belle interrupted.

The sound of a kicked stone drew all their attention as another zombie with vacant eyes stumbled around some of the debris in the road. There was a small black blur that seemed to appear right in front of it and launched itself into the air. A flash of a blade, and a loud thud later, the decapitated zombie collapsed to the ground.

Shing.

The sound made the Crusaders turn around to find a filly dressed entirely in black sheathing a way-too-large-for-her katana across her back. Her yellow mane and tail were all they could see of her save for a tiny bit of gray-purple fur around her eyes. Once her sword was secure, she reached up and pulled down her mask revealing her face. “Hey Crusaders! I'm a ninja!” Dinky said grinning broadly.

The Crusaders stared for a moment in shock. Finally Apple Bloom broke the silence. “Pip isn't going to like this...”

“How is Pip?” Dinky asked eagerly.

“He's doin' alright, but Ah don't think he'll be too happy once he finds out you're a ninja now...” Apple Bloom told her.

Dinky frowned. “Why not?”

“'Cause he's a pirate,” Apple Bloom told her like that explained everything.

“What do you mean?”

“Pirates hate ninjas, they're like mortal enemies,” she explained and the other two Crusaders nodded in agreement.

“That's silly,” Dinky objected. “I bet Pip will think me being a ninja is awesome!”

The Crusaders exchanged glances. “Don't count on it.”

“Anyway... Lyra, you were introducing your friends?” Rainbow said to change the subject.

“Right. You all know Derpy, Bonnie and me, and probably Carrot Top as well,” she said gesturing to each in turn. “As for the ones you may not know, this is Octavia, and Vinyl Scratch.”

Lyra grinned as all her friends gathered around her. “We're the Background Ponies!”

Sweetie Belle raised a brow at that. “Background ponies?”

“Yep! It's a club I started right after the summer sun festival when Twilight first came to Ponyville. Anypony who's ever been involved with some major event simply due to being around the mane six can join, and when we can we try to stay close by the mane six so we can get involved with anything that may and usually does happen around them. That's why we came to Manehattan.”

“Wait, wait... What do you mean, the mane six?” Rainbow asked, eyes narrowed.

She rolled her eyes. “You, Twilight and all your friends of course! You know the ones that everything exciting seems to happen to.”

“So you've been following us around? That's a bit creepy.”

“Nah, just think of it like storm chasing.” Lyra said waving a hoof dismissively.

“Yeah, doesn't really help.”

“I would like to point out that most of us do not actively follow you and your friends around.” Octavia cut in. “Most of us just happened to be nearby when some of the... events, that tend to happen around you and your friends occurred.”

“Yes, it's mostly just Lyra that stalks you.” Bonbon agreed. “The rest of us usually have legitimate reasons for being around you when things happen. We just like to get together and share our experiences of when we've gotten caught up in major events.”

“Right, so only the mint green one gets a restraining order. Got it.” Rainbow nodded. “So who's the alicorn?”

“Oh, we actually just met her. She said her name is Midnight Star, but I've never heard of her before.”

“I told you, I'm not from here,” Midnight said with a sigh. “I don't even know why I'm here; this isn't even my world!”

Without warning, Pinkie Pie popped up out of a nearby pile of debris. “It's probably because of something akin to nepotism.”

Midnight groaned.

“Pinkie! What are you doing here!? You're supposed to be with Twilight!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“Oh yeah!” And with that, she dove back down into the debris and vanished.

“What... how did she? Where did she go!?” Octavia exclaimed, staring in shock.

“Don't ask... trust me... just don't ask.” Rainbow told her, shaking her head.

“Tell me about it. I'm still wondering how she managed to pull me out of nowhere at that wedding reception,” Vinyl agreed. “One moment I was at home, ready to turn in early after the whole changeling invasion thing, the next I feel a tug on my neck and I'm next to Pinkie Pie behind a DJ table... Sweet gig, paid well, but that mare... She's crazy.”

“What do you mean though, that this isn't your world?” Rainbow asked Midnight.

“Just what I said, this isn't my world, it isn't my Equestria. I come from an alternate Equestria.”

They all just stared at her. “An alternate Equestria?” Sweetie Belle asked skeptically.

“Yes!” She tensed suddenly and her expression and tone of voice shifted. 

“You know, the world we call home technically isn't our Equestria either.”

Then her expression and voice both shifted back and she groaned. “You don't have to take control to talk to me.”

“Eh. It's more entertaining this way. Besides, it's not like we need to keep it a secret here.”

“Maybe not, but you're freaking everypony out!”

“You're the one getting mad and yelling at yourself. You don't need to talk out loud to me either, you know.”

Everypony was staring at her at this point.

“I'm fine!” Midnight insisted.

“Right...” Lyra said taking a short step away from her.

“Great, now they think we're crazy...”

“We kind of are.” 

Midnight just groaned.

“So... yeah...” Rainbow said deciding it would be best to leave the mare alone. “How have you all been surviving out here anyway?”

Lyra grinned. “Well, Derpy is a third degree black belt of... what did you call it again?”

“The way of the open wing. It's a pegasus martial art,” Derpy answered.

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I've heard of it. You're a black belt? Maybe we could spar sometime, see how it compares to regular pony karate.”

Derpy shrugged. “Sometime,” she said and gestured for Lyra to continue.

“You saw Dinky's skills. As for Octavia, she's the reigning champion of the underground ultimate fighting ring in Canterlot. Vinyl has some crazy sound magic; you'd be surprised the devastation she can cause with sound-wave vibrations alone. Nopony gets in Carrot Top's way, and I have some crazy magic of my own,” Lyra said buffing a hoof against her chest.

A pointed clearing of a throat made Lyra glance at her marefriend. “Oh, yeah. And Bonbon's a changeling.”

“What, really?”

With a flash of green fire, Bonbon reverted to her true changeling form making Rainbow and the Crusaders jump.

“Why?” Everypony looked at Sweetie Belle.

“What do you mean?” Lyra asked, not sure what Sweetie was asking.

“Why is Bon Bon a changeling?”

“Uh, because her mom and dad were changelings?” Lyra offered.

“No, I mean why would a changeling pretend to be a candy maker in Ponyville? I mean, you've been in Ponyville longer than Twilight, so it wasn't to keep an eye on the bearers... unless you replaced the real Bonbon!”

“No, no! I didn't replace anypony!” The changeling objected quickly.

“Then why would you come to Ponyville?”

“Uh... well, I kind of sort of ran away. And well... I always liked candy.”

“Hmm, works for me.” Apple Bloom said with a shrug. “If you've been in Ponyville that long, you can't be that bad. Besides, you make the best caramel apple suckers.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry if me or my friends gave you a hard time in Canterlot.” Rainbow said rubbing the back of her neck.

“I wasn't there,” Bon Bon said dismissively. “And concerning the invasion, I have one thing to say: My mother is an idiot,” she said then with another green flash, returned to her pony form.

“Okay, okay, done with introductions and stuff? That's nice, now can we please get moving!? ” Scootaloo whined, practically dancing in place.

“What's the rush kid.” Lyra asked with a wry grin.

“She got hit by one of Cadaver Cadenza's lust spells and wants to get back to base so she can get the counter-spell,” Apple Bloom explained dully.

They all winced. “Oh, ouch,” Vinyl said sympathetically. “No need to wait, though, I've got ya covered.”

“You know the counter-spell?” Scootaloo asked hopefully.

“Yep, she hit Octi with it a few months back. Let me tell ya, I never thought I'd get to the point that I was tired of sex, but after a few days I was pretty desperate for the counter-spell.”

“Vinyl Scratch! Did you have to tell them that!? And in front of young fillies no less?” Octavia groaned, covering her eyes in shame. 

Vinyl grinned. “You know you were enjoying it too!”

“I'm not denying that, but that does not mean you should tell everyone about it!”

She shrugged. “Anyway, just hold still kid, it just takes a second.” Her horn began to glow and a similar aura surrounded Scootaloo as the air was filled with the sound of a saxophone playing a soothing melody reminiscent of Kennel G, the famous diamond dog musician. When it was over Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well... that was interesting.”

Vinyl smirked. “Yeah, the cure for uncontrollable lust is smooth jazz. Go figure.”

“At least it worked. Now I can relax and not worry about accidentally molesting my friends...” Scootaloo said with a wry grin.

“Ah, come on, you know you enjoyed it,” Lyra said with a wink and a grin.

“No. No I didn't,” Scootaloo deadpanned.

“Ah come on, we all know you're into fillies.”

Scootaloo groaned. “Why does everypony automatically think I'm into fillies? Just because I'm athletic and tomboyish doesn't mean I'm a fillyfooler!”

“Yeah, that's right!” Rainbow agreed with a nod. Then she blinked and looked at Scootaloo. “Wait, you're not!?” She asked sounding completely surprised.

Scootaloo's eyes went dreamy. “Well, for you I could be...”

Rainbow laughed nervously. “Cute, kid, but I'm not really into fillies either.” 

That seemed to snap Scootaloo back to reality. “You're not? Oh good, cause neither am I!” She said quickly.

“Well I am.”

Everypony looked at Sweetie Belle again. “You are?” Scootaloo asked truly surprised. She never would have guessed Sweetie Belle would be into other fillies.

“Are you kidding? Do you know how many times I've walked in on Rarity with different stallions, when they were...” She shivered visibly.

“Wait, how many stallions we talking about here?” Rainbow asked, eager for some dirt on her otherwise uptight friend.

Sweetie Belle sat back on her haunches and looked up at the sky as she thought back. “Well let's see. There was the senior Wonderbolt, I forget his name...”

“It wasn't Soarin was it?” Rainbow asked sounding worried.

“Nah, the first time was one of the older members, I caught her with Soarin the week after that. 'Course with how loud they were I'm surprised all of Ponyville didn't know about that one. Apparently he's 'quite an animal.'”

Rainbow went pale. She'd had her eye on Soarin for years.

Sweetie Belle didn't seem to notice as she went on. “Then there was Big Mac, I walked in on them at least three times.”

“WHAT!?” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“I caught her with Shining Armor, a couple weeks after the wedding. I bet Twilight would love to know about that one... Oh and Spike, that was last week, and pretty weird really. She's more than ten years older than him!

“There was Prince Blueblood, don't ask me how he managed to find his way into her bed after what happened at the gala. And then there was Filthy Rich, and oh boy was he filthy!

“I've caught her with Thunderlane twice though I saw them together a lot more than that.”

Rainbow groaned. She'd had a relationship with Thunderlane and she'd never even known that he'd been with Rarity.

“Three of Luna's nightguard...” She paused to shiver visibly at the memory before adding; “at the same time...

“I caught her with Fancy Pants one time when she took me to Canterlot, as well as a couple other upper crust jerks. And there were at least four others that I don't even remember their names!” Sweetie Belle shook her head in disgust. “After all that, along with the horror stories she's told me of stallions that may or may not have made it into her bed anyway, I decided I'd rather just stick with other fillies.”

“Really?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sweetie Belle looked at her and nodded confidently.

“SWEET!” Apple Bloom exclaimed before anypony could react, she threw her fore-hooves around Sweetie Belle and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Sweetie Belle seemed surprised at first, but quickly melted into the kiss, putting her fore-hooves around Apple Bloom returning her passion.

“Wow!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed when they finally parted, then immediately kissed Apple Bloom back. 

Scootaloo groaned watching her two friends make out as she realized that this would likely be a common occurrence from then on.

“Yeah! You go girls!” Vinyl cheered them on while Lyra somehow used her fore-hoof to whistled encouragement.

“Yes, go for it, girls!” Cadenza cheered standing next to Lyra. “Show mama what you've got!”

“Not bad for fillies, huh.” Lyra commented, still grinning.

“No, not bad at all. I can't wait to add them to my harem.”

Lyra snorted. “Harem? What do you...” She trailed off realizing that everypony else had fallen silent and were all staring at the mare next to her in horror. Slowly Lyra turned, knowing, but still afraid of what she would find.

“Why hello there!” Cadenza said, their snouts only a few inches apart, her rotting stench filling her nostrils.

“... H... hi Cadenza,” Lyra stammered.

“Oh, Lyrie, you know I prefer Cadence.” She said with a leer. “Now how about we pretend I'm your foalsitter again, only this time I'm not going to be the good girl...”

“Uh... I'd rather not, you see I've got a marefriend now...” 

A black form wreathed in green flame slammed into Cadenza knocking her away, and Bonbon was standing in front of Lyra, back in her changeling form. “Stay away from my Lyra, you rotting hussy!”

“Yeah, her,” Lyra said numbly.

Movement all around them caught their attention then as zombies appeared by the dozens, coming out of buildings and emerging from behind the debris that filled the road.

“Right... minions.”

Bonbon grabbed Lyra by the neck and dragged her to the others as they all started backing toward the alley Rainbow and the Crusaders had come from.

“They've got us surrounded,” Derpy groaned.

“Not quite.” Sweetie Belle chimed in. “We can go through the buildings and find another way out...”

“We'll have these guys on our tails the whole way. And there may be zombies in the buildings as well.” Octavia cautioned.

“Even if there are, we'll stand a better chance than we will being completely surrounded here.”

Midnight Star sighed. “You know what... I just don't care anymore. Your turn, have fun,” she said to no one in particular. 

Her expression changed to eager excitement in an instant. “Wahoo! Don't worry guys, I'll hold them off. Escape while you can!” She shouted charging toward the zombies with her horn glowing as two swords appeared at her sides. “It's just like one of those zombie survival games!” She laughed gleefully as she leaped into the middle of the horde, slashing and casting spells indiscriminately at the Zombies around her, blood and body parts flying.

“All in favor of leaving the crazy alicorn behind?” Lyra asked. Everypony raised a hoof without hesitation. “Okay, let's get out of here.”


> Chapter 5: What was the plan again?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star


Chapter 5: What was the plan again?
***


“I think I've got it...” Luna announced getting everypony's attention.

“Finally,” Twilight said sounding relieved as she turned to the door herself. After nearly an hour, they could finally get on with their part of the plan. It was a miracle that they hadn't been found by the zombies.

A moment later, there was a soft chiming and the door slid open, revealing a decontamination room. Twilight stepped inside without hesitation, Zecora and Luna just behind her. Applejack took up position at the security door, and Pinkie continued to maintain her perimeter.

“Crap...” Luna's moan was followed by several rhythmic thuds and Twilight looked to find the elder princess repeatedly slamming her head into the wall.

“What?”

Luna just pointed, not even stopping as she continued abusing her own cranium.

Twilight looked and saw exactly what had caused Luna's reaction. Across the room from them was a door identical to the one they'd just gotten through. Above it was a plaque that read: Big Ol' Security Door's Twin Brother.

Twilight's eye twitched dangerously, but before she could explode, she managed to regain control and instead decided on a less apocalyptic reaction; she decided to join Luna.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk...


~~~


“General!” One of the pegasus scouts landed silently on top of the small tower that overlooked the ambush point. They'd blocked off the avenue at one end of the block, creating a dead end. Once the zombies entered that stretch of the road, they'd be effectively surrounded.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked the scout.

“Zombie hordes are gathering a few blocks east of here,” the scout reported. “No sign of their leaders.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Thank you, um, you're dismissed, if that's alright...”

He saluted and took off to resume his watch.

“They must be trying to cut off Rainbow and the Crusaders,” Rarity said thoughtfully once the scout had taken off again.

“Or they were captured and the Zombies are just preparing to attack,” Silver Crescent, Captain of Luna's Night Guard said darkly.

“If you think for a moment that they could have captured my sister and her friends, then you've never seen the Crusaders in action,” Rarity told him dismissively. “No, it's more likely they already failed once and are trying again.”

“Well we can't have that, can we,” Fluttershy said softly. “We'll have to try and lure them into the ambush ourselves. Captain, have the pegasus wings begin harassing the horde and luring them this way, if that's alright with you. I mean, if their leaders aren't there, they should fall for it...”

The captain saluted. “As you command.”

“Oh, did that sound like a command? I didn't mean to sound so demanding...”

With a slight roll of his eyes, Silver flew off to give the orders.


~~~


“Blarg!”

Apple Bloom slammed the door in the zombie's face. “Who wants to take this room?”

“I do believe it is my turn,” Octavia said calmly, stepping forward and holding out her Cello case for her marefriend. “Hold this for me, will you Vinyl?”

Vinyl took the cello and Octavia nodded to Apple Bloom that she was ready. Apple Bloom opened the door and Octavia leaped into the room.

The sound of powerful punches and kicks followed, interspersed with heavy thuds and loud crashes. Only a few moments later the room fell silent again.

“All clear!” Octavia called back.

The rest of the group entered the room to find all the zombies that had been inside battered and broken, lying about the remains of office cubicles.

“Not bad,” Sweetie Belle, allowed. “Your rhythm was a little choppy though.”

“Yes, unfortunately they were spaced quite randomly throughout the room, so I wasn't able to keep a steady beat going, despite my best efforts,” Octavia told her as she retrieved her cello from her marefriend.

“Yeah, I hate that; they're never very cooperative when it comes to music.” 

“That looks like it heads to the lobby.” Scootaloo interrupted pointing to a large doorway across the room from them. 

Apple Bloom nodded. “We should be far enough now to be past the collapsed building. We can either head out to the street and make a run for it, or keep moving through the towers and alleys laying low.” 

“Where are we headed anyway? Just back to your base?” Bonbon asked.

“We were supposed to lead the zombies back to an ambush near our base that General Fluttershy was setting up,” Sweetie Belle told her as they made their way across the office.

“General Fluttershy!?” Lyra repeated raising a brow. “They made Fluttershy a general? Seriously?”

“It was Twilight's idea,” Rainbow told her. “Apparently by what she's read, Fluttershy was the most likely of us to survive when the zombies attacked. She figured that if the rest of us wanted to survive, then we all needed to follow Fluttershy's lead. So Twi made her the general.”

“And she was setting up an ambush for the zombies? What is she going to do? Sick herds of cute fluffy animals on them?” Lyra snorted at the thought.

The Crusaders and Rainbow exchanged glances. “You don't know about Mr. Thunk do you?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Mr. Thunk?” she asked confused.

“Fluttershy's mace.”

“Mace!?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Once she understood that the zombies weren't really alive anymore and that it was doing them a favor to finish them off, Fluttershy decided that she needed a weapon. We don't know where she got it or how she learned to wield it, but... Trust me, once Fluttershy snaps, you do not want to get in her way.”


~~~


“Well that was easy,” Silver said with a smirk as he landed back on the barricade near Fluttershy. “Wing group beta has the zombie horde coming in, hot on their tails. Cadenza must have just sent them ahead; there's no real leadership among them. As soon as we gave them something to chase, they came running.”

“Oh, I do hope that none of your fliers get hurt,” Fluttershy worried.

Silver waved it off. “Don't worry, General; the undead pegasi in this group are all too stupid to use their wings. Most probably don't even have enough brain power left to realize they have wings, and the unicorns among them aren't any better.”

“Oh, okay then,” Fluttershy said then turned to face the rest of the soldiers behind the barricade. “This is it everypony. Remember, wait for the signal to break cover and begin the attack. Captain Pipsqueak, have the canons loaded and ready to fire.”

“Arrr! Ay ay, Admiral!” The little piebald colt wearing a pirate hat, vest, and eye-patch replied then drew the saber belted around his waist as he turned to the rag-tag crew of mostly colts and fillies that were manning the canons. “You heard her, pack the powder and ram those balls in like the cannons are your lovers, you scurvy dogs!”

“Oh my...” Fluttershy's eyes were wide at the colt's language. He may not have grown much physically since moving to Ponyville, but his mouth had certainly... matured. “Yes, well, everypony, get ready and wait for the signal.”

Several pegasi took flight up to the surrounding buildings to pass word to the unicorns stationed there and everypony took their positions, hidden from the road in front of the barricade. The barricade itself had been made to look like just another pile of debris like those that clogged the rest of the avenue. With any luck, the zombie horde wouldn't realize it was a trap until it was too late and they found themselves practically surrounded.

They spotted the guard fliers, both pegasi and nocturne, a few minutes later, flying down the avenue low enough to keep the zombie's attention, but high enough to remain out of reach. Ever so often they turned back to taunt their pursuers.

Then the zombie hordes began to come into view, galloping, trotting, stumbling, and limping around or over the debris that filled the streets. More and more poured into their trap. There were hundreds, perhaps even thousands.

“Oh my. Everypony hold...” Fluttershy said softly. They wanted as many as possible to be on the stretch of road in front of them, effectively trapped between the towers where their unicorns lay in wait to rain spells down on them. “... hold.”

The zombies were only a few dozen yards away now, their moans and groans echoing along the supposedly abandoned avenue. Still they waited. Just a little longer.

“Alright!” A unicorn stallion, wearing what looked like a set of armor cobbled together from pieces he'd found off of corpses, leaped up onto the barricade. “Great plan guys, let's do this!” He shouted and charged down the barricade toward the zombie horde. “LEROOOOOOOOY!”

“Stick to the plan! Stick to the plan!” His commanding officer shouted, but it was too late. He'd already charged into the midst of the horde.

He was immediately piled upon by the zombies.

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said softly as the zombies backed off a few moments later, the stallion already turned.

“JENKINNNS” The now zombified stallion moaned as he charged the barricade.

THUNK!

Everypony froze in surprise at the sight of the new zombie being reduced to a red smear by an enormous mace. Their eyes soon followed the mace's handle to the pink and yellow mare that wielded it. Fluttershy's head was down, her face hidden behind her mane. Silence fell over the scene. Even among the surviving ponies, only a few had ever seen Fluttershy fight before. Most didn't believe what they'd just seen.

Slowly Fluttershy raised her head, letting one side of her mane fall back, revealing one furious eye blazing with unbelievable rage. She raised her mace back into the air with one hoof, brandishing it over her head. “WHO ELSE WANTS SOME!”


~~~


“Yeah, ever since the zombies turned Discord into a vegetable, Fluttershy has a tendency to just snap when it comes time to fight.” Apple Bloom told the others as they made their way into the lobby of the building.

“Is it really a good idea to have her in charge then?” Octavia asked.

Scootaloo gave a dismissive wave. “Rarity and the captains know to take over command when it happens.”

Bonbon snorted. “It's hard to imagine timid little Fluttershy wielding a mace and charging into battle.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Scared the feathers off of me the first time she went into berserker mode,” Rainbow agreed. “One moment she's cowering behind us, barely managing to give orders, the next she was pounding a zombie's head to mush with her bare hooves. Then she got that mace...” She shivered.

“It still doesn't sound like she should be in charge though. I mean, why isn't Princess Twilight in charge?” Lyra asked as they entered the building's lobby. “Two BDs,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

Shing, Shing!

Dinky's sword made quick work of the two zombies loitering in the lobby and an instant later she was trotting alongside the crusaders again as if nothing had happened, humming a happy tune.

“Technically Twilight and Luna are in charge, but Twilight insists on keeping Fluttershy as general and lets her give all the orders.” Rainbow shrugged. “Flutters has handled it pretty well. It actually goes to show that you shouldn't assume anything about anypony, they might just surprise you. Heck, we assumed you guys were all dead when you didn't escape Ponyville with the rest of us.”

Lyra smirked proudly. “Three years on our own and in all that time we've only lost a single pony.”

“Poor Colgate.” Octavia sighed.

“She never could resist putting her hoof in other ponies' mouths.” Vinyl shook her head.

“Guess we don't have to worry about not always brushing for the past few years.” Scootaloo commented to the other crusaders and Sweetie Belle slugged her in the shoulder.

“So how's it look out front?” Bonbon asked, getting back to the matter at hoof.

“Not good.” Derpy called back from where she was at a tall narrow window through which bright shafts of light were pouring into the building. “There's a lot of Zombies out there, but they seem to be on the move, heading um... is that west, yeah west.”

Sweetie Belle frowned looking at her fetlock computer. “That's heading toward the ambush point... I bet they were trying to cut us off and the others noticed, they're probably luring them away to help clear the path for us.”

“Whatever it is, there's still far to many out there,” Octavia cautioned.

Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. “Let's keep indoors for now, and try to keep making our way toward the ambush point. If we can get close enough, we can probably make a run for it.”

“Well then let's get going before they find us,” Bonbon said trotting to one of the doors out of the lobby that headed toward the western side of the building and opened it.

“Brains!” 

Dozen's of undead fore-hooves and sickly looking magical aura's grabbed Bonbon before she could react, dragging her into the horde of zombies that had been waiting on the other side of the door.

“Bonnie!” Lyra cried lunging forward, but Octavia and Vinyl caught her, holding her back. There were too many.

With a green flash, Bonbon reverted to her changeling form and sunk her fangs into one of the forelegs holding her. 

And promptly gagged at the taste.

“Oh gross! That's disgusting!” She sputtered, the zombie she'd bitten not even seeming to notice as she was dragged deeper into the teaming mass of undead.

“No, you don't want to eat her!” Lyra cried, struggling against the others that were now pulling her away as zombies began to pour into the lobby through every door. “SHE'S NOT AS SWEET AS HER NAME SUGGESTS!”

Everyone, including the zombies froze as the room temperature seemed to drop; everyone staring at Lyra in shock.

“WHAT!?” Bonbon cried furiously, finally breaking the silence.

“I'M SORRY HONEY, BUT IT'S TRUE!”

“LYRA I SWEAR, IF THEY TURN ME, I AM SO HUNTING YOU DOWN!”

“I LOVE YOU TOO, BONNIE!” Lyra cried even as Bonbon vanished from view among the zombie horde.

“There's nothing we can do for her now, there's too many,” Octavia told her sympathetically as they continued dragging her away.

“Not good.” Apple Bloom muttered as they all backed toward the front entrance of the tower; zombies pouring out of every other door into the lobby, including the one they'd come through themselves. “They've got us boxed in.”

“Looks like we don't have a choice; we'll have to make a run for it from here,” Rainbow said glancing out the windows behind them. There were still a lot of zombies out there.

Then a tall, once white, stallion in armor emerged from amidst the rest of the zombies.

“Crap, Rotting Armor is here.” Scootaloo groaned.

“RUN!” Sweetie Belle pulled a grenade from her harness and tossed it into the crowd of zombies, cloaking it with an invisibility spell as she did. At the same time Rainbow and Derpy kicked the front door open. Unable to see the grenade, none of the magic users were able to catch  it and it exploded behind them as they charged out into the street.

Their appearance caught the zombies there off guard, many of them skidding to a stop and looking dumbly at them for several moments as their undead brains very slowly processed what they were seeing. Most never finished as spells, swords and blunt force trauma quickly reduced their mental capacities down to zero.

“Let's go!” Apple Bloom shouted when the immediate threats were taken care of, and started down the road at a gallop, following the rest of the zombies that hadn't noticed their appearance yet. Rainbow Dash and Derpy flew past her overhead taking point, and quickly taking down any zombies that started to turn back with their martial arts. Apple Bloom noted that of the two, Derpy's style seemed to be far more mobile and evasive, using her wings to throw herself around in unpredictable maneuvers that would often end with a zombie getting pummeled into the ground.

The other crusaders and Dinky stayed close to Apple Bloom. Octavia and Carrot Top were right behind them with Lyra and Vinyl bringing up the rear while holding off the zombies chasing them with their magic.

“Where are you going my little love muffins!” They all heard the undead princess and looked up to find her flying just behind, taking command of the zombies streaming out of the building they'd just left.

“NOT YOUR MUFFINS!” Derpy screamed as she slammed another zombie into a nearby wall with a powerful roundhouse kick.

“Keep going!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Lyra, Vinyl, try to hold her off!”

Even as she shouted, the two unicorns were casting their sound based spells at the incoming alicorn, while still running from the zombies on their tails.

“Oh I just love how your little tushies shake when you run!” Cadenza called lustfully as she easily evaded the unicorns' attacks.

“THAT IS IT!” Sweetie Belle shouted furiously. Spinning around, she shot a blast of her own at the alicorn. A blast that moved far faster than any others, slicing through the space between them before Cadenza could react. The spell impacted against the alicorn's chest and exploded with a single thunderous tone, like a bell the size of one of the nearby towers. The remaining windows all along the road shattered and the undead princess was thrown high into the air, smoke trailing her body.

“Nopony looks at my tush but Bloom!” Sweetie Belle spat.

“Aw. Thanks Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said and gave her a kiss.

Scootaloo groaned. “Make out later, girls; running from zombies now!”

“It's not much further!” Rainbow shouted from above and ahead. “Just three more blocks; I can see fighting at the barricade!”

The rest of the group charged forward, weaving around the debris from partially collapsed buildings that clogged the road. Ahead they could hear the sounds of battle and soon they began to see the horde of zombies that were still between them and the barricade, but they had no choice now, they had to break through, or the second horde behind them would overrun them.

To the crusader's surprise, Carrot Top suddenly galloped past them, taking point. “Out of my WAY!” She shouted, slamming her hooves into the ground creating a shock-wave that shattered the pavement in front of her, tossing dozens of zombies aside like rag dolls.

The crusader's mouths hung open in shock even as they charged after the farm mare through the cleared ground.

“I told you, nobody gets in Carrot Top's way.” Lyra told them with a smirk. Even as she said it, Carrot Top slammed her fore-hoof into another zombie, sending it flying with enough force to take down nearly a dozen more.

Meanwhile Derpy was weaving through the air in seemingly impossible maneuvers, taking down one zombie after another, while Rainbow merely used sheer speed as a weapon, plowing through the hordes and taking down dozens at a time. Behind Lyra and Vinyl did what they could to hold off the second horde along with Sweetie Belle, who would spin around every few moments to cast another explosive bell tone spell, that while not nearly as powerful as the first one she'd used on Cadenza, still produced devastating results.

“Just a little further!” Rainbow shouted back, as the group rounded another pile of debris and finally the barricade came into view, along with what was left of the first wave. Apple Bloom skidded to a stop, finding a zombie directly in her path looking ready to pounce.

THUNK!

Apple Bloom's eyes widened as the zombie in her path was reduced to a bloody pulp beneath an enormous mace, wielded by a butter yellow pegasus that wore a mask of pure rage. A mask that turned off like the flip of a switch a moment later.

“Oh girls, you made it. And you found some friends too! How wonderful!” Fluttershy said happily smiling as the rest of the group came into view. “Um, you might want to get down. If you don't mind that is.”

They all looked past her wondering what she meant and a second later were all diving for cover as they saw the cannons on the barricade, all aimed just above their heads, Pipsquek standing at the fore, saber raised. “FIRE!” He shouted and the cannons roared. Behind them the first lines of the second wave exploded in fire and shrapnel, undead bodies flying everywhere.

“I'm so glad you're all alright.” Fluttershy said smiling as if she hadn't even noticed the carnage caused by the cannons, even as undead body parts rained down around them. “Come along now; let's get back to the barricade.”

The group all exchanged glances and shrugs before climbing back to their hooves and starting on the last stretch.

“Oh you naughty naughty filly! That hurt!” Cadenza's voice called from above and behind them once more.

“OH! COME ON!” Sweetie Belle shouted in frustration.

“You know I'm going to have to give you spankings for that!”

CLANG!

A zombie, launched by a swing of Fluttershy's mace slammed into the undead alicorn, sending her flying once more.

“BACK OFF, BITCH!”

Every eye within earshot widened in shock, staring at Fluttershy. Just as before, Fluttershy's rage turned off like a switch. “Come along then,” she said happily and was practically skipping as she led them back towards the barricade.

“Yeah... that's Mr. Thunk.” Rainbow told the others, then quickly followed after Fluttershy.

“Remind me never to get on Fluttershy's bad side...” Lyra said softly. The others nodded then hurried after the general.

“Oh, an ambush!” Cadenza sounded delighted as she spotted the barricade. “How exciting!”

“Hurry!” Apple Bloom shouted as they reached the barricade and began climbing to reach the safety of their forces.

“I think I know who planned this!” Cadenza continued happily as she flew back and forth just out of range of the weapons and far enough to evade most spells sent her way. “Where are you my little lavender ladybug of love! Come out, come out, where ever you are!”

Below, the second wave of her minions was gathering, filling the street as far as they could see.

The crusaders gathered atop the barricade, looking out over the horde, finally among the safety of their allies. At least a thousand zombies filled the road, perhaps even more. Then as they watched, dozens of the undead pegasi took flight, revealing themselves to be ints that had retained their ability to fly.

“That's not good...” Octavia observed softly.

Dozens of energy shields came to life among the horde, showing that it wasn't only the pegasi that were ints.

“Not good at all...”

Cadence hovered over her forces grinning. “Go my pretties, take the cute ones alive and find my precious Twilight! Find my pretty purple princess!”


~~~


Luna sighed in relief. “Finally...” A moment later, the second security door lock that she'd been working on for nearly a half hour beeped indicating that it was now open.

“Alright,” Twilight said, getting to her hooves and trying to ignore her splitting headache. “This is it everypony. Lets get what we came for.

Luna hit the button, and the door slid open...

To reveal Pinkie Pie standing on the other side.

“Wahoo! Let's do this!” Pinkie cheered and spun, galloping further into the secure lab.

Twilight's eye twitched and she had to try really hard to keep from introducing her head to the wall once more.
> Chapter 6: Looting set to Need Before Greed.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star


Chapter 6: Looting set to need before greed.
***


“Alright everypony, we're here for two things. The Life Bloom and the... device.” Twilight grimaced as she almost didn't catch herself there.

“Ah, come on, you know you wanna say it!” Pinkie grinned.

“No... no I don't.” Her voice was flat as a pancake that had been run over with a steam roller.

“Unfortunately, both items are likely kept behind even more security, which means we'll need Luna for both.” Twilight went on. “So we might as well stick together. We'll get the device first; once we've got it, Pinkie, I want you to take it and get it setup.”

“Okie Dokie Lokie!”

“Wait, hang on. Why Pinkie?” Applejack asked.

“Because Pinkie defies every expectation I've ever had of her. I don't see how she could possibly manage to get out on her own and set up the device, nor do I think she could possibly know how to set up the device, so obviously she'll manage to do both just to spite me.” Twilight said dully.

“You know me too well, Twilight,” Pinkie said bouncing happily.

Applejack just blinked, then shrugged. “I guess that makes as much sense as anything when it comes to Pinkie.”

“Alright, Luna, which way?”

“Going by the blueprints we recovered, the storage for experimental devices should be along the north wall. The cold storage facility where the Life Bloom would be kept is in the northeast corner,” Luna told her, then gestured for them to follow. “This way.”

“Ooo, look at all the sciency stuff!” Pinkie said, suddenly bouncing at Twilight's side as they made their way through the high tech lab.

“I'm trying not to.” Twilight told her flatly.

“Hey, what's this thingy?” A pink blur shot to a nearby station dominated by an enormous machine with all kinds of pipes and tubes looping every which way.

“An alchemical synthesizer. It can create just about any chemical compound or potion from nothing more than the base elements.” Twilight answered with a hint of longing in her voice.

“And this one!?”

“That's a terminal connected to the labs mainframe computer system.” It was Luna's turn to look on with envy. “Over ten petaFLOPS processing power...”

“Oh, oh! What's in here!?”

Twilight didn't even have to look, she knew from the blueprints what the door Pinkie had rushed to held. “That room houses the lab's electron microscope. The third most powerful ever built. Left here to rot,” she said mournfully.

A pink blur shot across the lab to another corner. “And this over here!?”

“PINKIE!” Twilight shouted finally, her horn lighting up as she dragged her pink friend right in front of her. “I am well aware of every wonderful piece of equipment left to rot in this lab. Rest assured, when this is all over I will be sending teams to salvage every last piece of equipment. But right now, we have a mission and we can't afford to be distracted from it. SO STOP POINTING OUT EVERYTHING UNLESS IT'S WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR!”

Twilight dropped her in a heap on the floor and continued on.

Pinking bounced back to her hooves still grinning. “Okie dokie lokie!”

“Over here.” Luna said spotting their first objective, the storage room where the device with the lousy name was kept. “Great, another locked door...”

Twilight blinked as she reached the door as well. “What kind of lock is that?”

Instead of any kind of keypad by the door, there was what appeared to be a giant musical keyboard on the floor just to the side of the door.

“Oh! I love these!” Pinkie exclaimed, dashing forward. 

“It's a musical lock; you have to play the right tune to unlock the door... get it wrong and it could engage extra security, or even put the entire lab on lock-down.” Luna's eyes widened. “Pinkie wait!”

But it was too late, even as she shouted out, Pinkie began tapping out a tune, singing along as she did. “~My little pony, my little pony...~”

With a soft beep, the door opened.

Everypony stared at her in various levels of shock. Twilight and Luna both had their jaws hanging open.

“How did you... wha... How did you know that was the pass-code!?” Twilight exclaimed.

“Because, silly, that song always pops up in the middle of our big adventures.” Pinkie Pie told her then bounced through the open door into the storage room.

Twilight blinked, opened her mouth, then shut it again, deciding it would be better not to question it. Her cranium had had enough abuse for one day and she knew the wall would only look more inviting if she tried to understand Pinkie's antics. Without another word, she followed the pink pony into the room, the others filing in behind her.

“Alright, we're looking for a tall narrow device that's really not much more than a launcher for a specialized projectile.” Twilight said, taking the lead and looking around the room. 

“Twilight...” Applejack tried to cut in.

“There's no telling where it's stored so let's spread out, we'll cover more ground that way...”

“Twi...”

“Luna, you take the far right aisle...”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight finally turned to see what Applejack wanted, only to find the earth pony standing next to a small cubby hole just inside the door where a tall cylindrical device was stored. On the control panel attached to the side, in ridiculously large letters, was written 'Golly Device.'

“Huh, well that was easy.” Her horn lit up and the straps holding the device in place released as she floated it over to Pinkie, using the straps to tie it onto her back. “Here you go Pinkie, go set it up somewhere safe, then come find us when we're done. I haven't a clue how you'll pull that off so you should be fine.”

“You've got it, el capitan!” Pinkie gave her a crisp salute then turned and started bouncing toward the door seemingly unencumbered by the load.

“Alright now we just need to...” Twilight broke off as something else got her attention.

“Hi there, Mister Z!” Pinkie Pie called out cheerfully as she bounced past a zombie wearing an expensive looking business suit that was standing just inside the security door.

“Hey... that's... mine...” the zombie droned as he watched her pass, then he turned back toward the rest of the group. “You're... not... supposed... to... be... here...” With slow deliberate movements he turned to the control panel next to the door.

Applejack charged while Luna and Twilight's horns lit up, but it was already too late. The zombie jabbed a button on the control panel even as two spells zipped past the charging Applejack. The lights turned red and alarms began blaring through the room.

The spells hit the zombie stallion a moment later, slamming him up against the wall just as Applejack spun to deliver a powerful buck right in his head, using the wall like an anvil. The zombie's head might as well have been a melon the way it splattered all over the wall.

“Ah think we might have overdone it...” Applejack said as she shook some of the blood and gray matter off her rear hooves.

Twilight didn't even hear her though. “Buck! The zombies are going to hear this! We need to move fast.”

With that she took off at a gallop toward the back of the lab where the cold storage was located, Luna and Zecora right on her tail and Applejack not far behind.

“There it is!” Twilight said as she skidded to a stop in front of a heavy looking door. Luna immediately went to the controls.

“No, no, no! It's a voice lock... Why in Tartarus did the owner of this place put a different kind of security lock on every damn door!?” Luna growled.

“I'd say, you could ask him yourself, but Applejack just bucked his head into chowder.” Twilight sighed.

“That was the owner of this place?” Applejack asked as she reached them as well.

“Yeah, I recognized him from his picture,” Twilight said, unconcerned. “Can you bypass the lock, Luna?”

“Yes, but it will take time.”

“Well, Ya might want to get started. 'Cause there's no telling how long we have before the ints take interest in that alarm.”

Even as she said it Luna was already ripping the panel under the controls open. She connected a few wires to her fetlock computer and began working.


~~~


“FIRE!”

The cannons roared beside Pipsqueak as he gave the command. The shells, designed by Apple Bloom exploded on impact taking out dozens of zombies each.

It was barely a dent in the writhing mass of zombies that filled the road in front of the barricade.

The battle was not going well.

The fighting was at the very base of the barricade now, they were barely holding them back. And with the unicorn ints providing shields against the unicorns on the towers and the pegasi ints bypassing their defensive lines to attack the defenders directly, they were struggling not to be overwhelmed. If that wasn't bad enough, Cadenza was overhead, casting spells without restraint while she called out for Twilight Sparkle. Already near a dozen of their defenders had fallen victim to her lust spells.

“Look out!” Someone nearby shouted and Pipsqueak looked up just in time to see three pegasi ints diving toward him and his buccaneers, hooves outstretched and a wild hunger in their eyes.

Pipsqueak rolled to the side, then spun and slashed at the nearest of the ints as the undead mare landed heavily where he'd just been standing. The slash only grazed her though and she didn't even slow as she turned, toward him. “You look tasty!”

There was a flash of light, a blur of black, followed by two loud thuds. Pip got just a glimpse of a filly clad in black, wielding a katana nearly twice her body length. Then she was a blur again as she leaped. There was another flash of light on steal then the pegasi int that had been advancing on Pip, fell, her head thudding to the ground a few feet away.

The filly landed in front of Pipsqueak and sheathed her sword. “Hey, Pip!” she said in a startlingly familiar voice then removed her mask.

“Dinky!?”

“Yep! Betcha thought I was dead, huh?” She grinned. “Well I'm not, and I'm a ninja now! Isn't it awesome!”

Pip's expression hardened and he turned away from her, turning back to the battle.

“Pip?” Dinky asked sounding confused. “What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy to see me...”

“Aye I might have been, lass. If you hadn't come back a traitor!” 

“W-what?” Dinky gasped. “Traitor!?”

“You wear the cloth of the black clan; a ninja. No pirate could ever be friends with your kind.”

Dinky stared at him in shock, tears filling her eyes as she remembered what the crusaders had said. She hadn't wanted to believe it at the time, but now it seemed they had been right. Her lower lip trembled as Pip kept his back turned to her; not even willing to look her in the eye. Finally she let out a cry as she turned and ran with tears pouring from her eyes.


~~~


“Yep, I thought so,” Sweetie Belle said softly watching as Dinky ran from Pip, her tears obvious,  even from a distance. “Poor Dinky.”

“We can worry about relationship issues later.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes, peaking over the barricade. Most the rest of the defenders had moved to other parts of the barricade, knowing that the crusader's explosive combat styles weren't really conductive to team combat. “We've got more important things to worry about right now.”

“Yeah, Ah'm out of charges, grenades, Ah even used my last stick of dynamite...” Apple Bloom sighed.

“Me too.”

“Same here, all I've got is my magic now.” Even as she said it, Sweetie Belle, lit her horn. “You might want to cover your ears.” She said just before firing her spell at an incoming pegasus int. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo covered their ears just in time as the spell hit the pegasus dead center in the chest and exploded in highest pitched bell tone they'd ever heard, filling the air with agonizing decibels of extreme frequency. Even from a distance they felt the sound in their very bones; the pegasus the spell had hit likely had his remaining innards turned to mush by the vibrations and plummeted from the sky like a rag doll as did a couple others that had been too close to the blast.

“Yikes,” Scootaloo muttered, a little shocked by the brutality of her friend's spell. “Well at least one of us can still do some damage.”

“Yeah, but I can't keep this up for long,” Sweetie Belle told them. “Half a dozen more shots like that and I'll be out of magic.”

THUNK!

“How dare you try to sneak up on the crusaders!”

THUNK!

“I have half a mind to tell your mother!”

THUNK!

The crusaders peered over the edge of the barricade to just as Fluttershy slammed her mace down for the third time on what had apparently once been a zombie pony.

“Ah think you got him, General Fluttershy.” Apple Bloom called out as Fluttershy raised her mace for a fourth swing.

“Oh, girls.” Fluttershy's rage switched off like a switch and she beamed a radiant smile at them resting her mace on her shoulder. “I just came to ask you not to use those loud sound spells like the last one; half our own forces have their ears ringing now... I mean, if that's alright with you.”

Sweetie Belle winced. “Sorry, Fluttershy, I'll stick to the deeper tones.”

“Okay, thank you, Sweetie.” She said and turned back to the battle. “HEY! Did you just cast a spell at Dinky!?” She screamed, leaping out of sight from the crusaders, followed by a loud THUNK!

Apple Bloom looked over the barricade once more to see the teaming sea of undead still filling the street, climbing over the hundreds of corpses that they'd already dispatched. “This isn't going well. There's too many; it's almost like they know this is the final battle and they're sending everything they have against us...”

“Looks like their evacuating the far buildings,” Sweetie added. “They've got too many fliers and casters.”

Scootaloo took a look herself, the furthest towers down the road, near where the bulk of the zombie horde was funneling into the trap, appeared almost empty of their casters already. She glanced back and forth between the battered tower, and the horde of zombies at it's base a couple times, then grinned. “Hey... I think I have an idea that could seriously thin out their numbers. But I'd need a class four or five charge and some way to get it in place at the base of that tower on the far right corner.”

“Well you've got two problems there. We're out of charges, let alone class four or five; and if you hadn't noticed, there's a few hundred zombies between here and there,” Apple Bloom pointed out sarcastically.

“And even if we can get the charge you need and find a way to place it, if you're thinking of bringing the building down, at the very least we should warn the rest of our forces,” Sweetie Belle told her.

“Well yeah, of course; but we have to figure out a way to actually do it first. Even if we can't, we're still going to need somepony to cover this part of the barricade.”

“Your right there;” Apple Bloom sighed. “We're not going to do any good here without any more explosives. Heck, even Dinky is probably doing more than us now...”

As if to emphasize her point they all heard a shing shing and two headless pegasi int corpses crashed to the ground behind the barricade a little ways away.

“At least she's not just moping about Pip rejecting her.”

Apple Bloom's eyes widened. “The cannons! Their shells are near class four yield and they have more than enough range to reach that tower!”

Sweetie Belle glanced over to where the cannons were, seeing that most the cannon crew were too busy fighting off pegasi to load another round. “Do you think you could place a shot well enough from the outside to bring the tower down without it falling on top of us?”

Scootaloo nodded. “Oh yeah, that's no problem. The structure is already weak from all the fighting; as long as I have time to aim, I could place a shot to bring it down right where we want. We'll flatten half their army in one shot!”

“Sounds like a great plan, girls, we'll hold the dead heads here.”

The crusaders all jumped, spinning to face Lyra in shock, finding her standing only a few feet away with Vinyl, Octavia, Derpy and Carrot top.

“Where in tarnation did you girls come from!?” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

Lyra turned to her friends. “See!? See!? Nopony ever notices us!”

“Nevermind that; you girls go bring that building down; we've got this section,” Octavia told them as Derpy leaped into the air to intercept some incoming pegasi ints while Carrot Top moved to the top of the barricade.

“You sure?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Yeah, we've got this,” Lyra said with a dismissive wave as she and Vinyl took position behind the Earth Ponies readying their spells. “Get to the cannons. Sounds like you'll do a lot more good there.”

Scootaloo nodded and took off at a gallop toward the cannons. “Come on girls, let's go flatten some zombies!”


~~~


“Any day now, Luna!” Twilight growled, her horn glowing as she fed more and more magic into the force field she'd put up across the entrance to the lab. Hundreds of zombies could be seen on the other side, bashing against the shield in varying degree's of mindlessness as they tried to force their way through.

“I'm trying, Twilight. It's one thing to hack a pass-code, it's another thing altogether to bypass the security systems entirely.”

A flash of light from the entrance caused Twilight to grunt and was soon followed by several more. “Well we're running out of time, some of the unicorns just remembered they have horns.”

“I'm going as fast as I can!”

More flashes of light came from the entrance as the unicorn ints sent blast after blast into the barrier. Twilight groaned, pouring more and more of her magic into it.

“That's it; this is takin' too long!” Applejack exclaimed, finally losing her patience. She galloped toward the cold storage door, planting her forehooves and spinning around just as she reached it. “Let us IN!” She shouted as she delivered her strongest buck to the steal door. The door buckled, warping around her hooves and was ripped from its frame, crashing down inside the cold storage room.

Twilight and the others stared in slack jawed shock as another alarm started blaring through the building.

“Well don't just stand there! Get what we came for!”

Twilight blinked and nodded numbly, but didn't move at first. Finally she gave her head a shake. “Right, Luna, take over the barrier! Zecora, with me, let's find the life bloom!” She said and hurried into the storage room.

“The flower we seek is white as snow, but where it is kept I do not know,” Zecora said as she followed Twilight. Lining the walls of the room were countless drawers and storage cabinets all designed to keep the contents at a specific temperature, sometimes even sub-zero if the item being stored would not be damaged by being frozen, which was the case for the life bloom.

“Check the sub-zero units first; they likely kept the life bloom frozen to preserve it.” Twilight instructed and Zecora nodded, starting on the wall opposite Twilight. Unfortunately the storage units were only labeled with numbers, so they would have to check every one of them visually.

One after another, Twilight yanked drawers and cabinet doors open, only to slam them shut again when the contents weren't what she was looking for. Behind her she could hear Zecora doing the same.

“Twilight! Hurry!” Luna called from the door. “I don't know how much longer I can hold this barrier!”

Twilight sped up her search, opening each unit just long enough to scan the contents before slamming it shut again. About two thirds of the way along the wall, she finally opened one of the drawers and found herself looking at a large bundle of white flowers with blood red stems. They looked almost exactly like the picture she'd seen, but it was always best to be sure. “Zecora, is this it!?”

Zecora hurried to her side and looked for herself. “Yes, you geek, this is what we seek!”

Twilight gave her an annoyed look.

“You try to come up with a rhyme with so little time!”

Twilight rolled her eyes as her horn lit up, grabbing one of the portable refrigerated cases from the rack by the door. Opening it, she quickly levitated all the Life Bloom inside and shut it again. “This will be enough right?”

Zecora nodded. “A single flower would make enough to cure a county, there's more than enough in this plentiful bounty.”

Twilight snapped the case shut. “Good, let's go!”

“Got it?” Luna asked, her voice strained, trying to maintain the barrier.

“Yes.”

“Good, now how are we getting out of here?”

Twilight looked at the mass of zombies beyond the barrier. Then to the window beyond. “Luna, can you get Applejack?”

Luna looked confused, but then followed her line of sight, and grinned. “Yes.”

“Alright,” Zecora let out a startled whinny as Twilight levitated her along with the case. “Stay close!”

“What in tarnation!” Applejack exclaimed as she was levitated by Luna.

Twilight galloped forward toward the door even as Luna dropped the barrier. Immediately zombies began to flood into the room, but Twilight was already charging a spell. She let it loose and an enormous wave of kinetic energy tore through the zombie's. Dozens were flung against the windows which shattered outward, leaving the living corpses to rain down into the streets below. Twilight and Luna charged through the cleared path, Zecora and Applejack levitated alongside.

“Twi, what are you thinking!?” Applejack screamed as the two alicorns showed no sign of stopping. “Earth ponies ain't suppose to fly!”

“They're not supposed to keep moving after they're dead either! Which one would you rather do?” Twilight shouted back, then leaped from the building.

“...Ah take your point. But Ah don't like thiiIIIISSSSS!” Applejack screamed as Luna leaped as well, dragging her out after. Both alicorns snapped their wings open, soaring to safety; zebra, earth pony and precious cargo floating alongside. 


> Chapter 7: A Cure for the Hiccups
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star


Chapter 7: A cure for the hiccups.
***


“Look out!” Rarity called out in warning.

Rainbow barely had time to dive out of the way as a spell scorched the air where she'd been.

“Oh, I missed. Terribly sorry about that, let me try again.” The unicorn int said with the refined speech of Canterlot high society. 

“Is that you, Jet Set?” Rarity called raising her head to peer over the barrier. “Oh dear, I'm afraid the past few years have not treated you well, darling,” she said spotting the half rotted stallion among the seething mass of zombies below.

“Well I'll be. That you, Rarity, and still alive?”

“Indeed, darling. Still hanging on. It would seem you didn't get out of Canterlot in time, however.”

“Yes; terrible business that. Why don't you come down and we'll discuss it over tea. We could even make a night of it.”

“I'm afraid I'll have to decline, darling; I do so enjoy living,” Rarity told him.

“Oh, well. Then, have at thee!”

Rarity had to duck as he cast a bolt of energy at her, then a rainbow blur slammed into the zombified high class pony, sending him careening across the road.

“Trouble with your ex lover?”

Surprised, Rarity looked over a Sweetie Belle who had come up beside her. “Whatever do you mean 'lover', Sweetie?”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Don't give me that, Rarity. Even though he's half rotten I still recognize him and he's definitely one of the stallions I caught you with.”

Rarity blushed. “Yes, well, ah...” She cast about searching for something to change the subject, seeing the other two crusaders as well. “What are you girls doing over here anyway; weren't you holding another section of the wall.”

“We're out of explosives, so the background ponies took over.” Apple Bloom told her.

“The what?”

“The background ponies;” Sweetie Belle told her. “Lyra's stalker club.”

Rarity blinked. “What?”

“It doesn't matter, we have an idea to bring down one of the towers on top of them, but first we need to make sure everypony is out of the way.”

“Bring down one of the towers!?” Rarity took a glance over the barricade.

“The one at the end of the block on the right side,” Sweetie Belle clarified. “They already evacuated it didn't they?”

“Yes, but how do you plan on bringing it down if you're out of explosives?” Rarity asked, confused.

“We'll have to use one of the cannons.”

Rarity glanced toward where the cannons were along the barricade and the fighting going on among them. “But, Sweetie, the cannons are overrun!”

“We'll have to retake the cannons, then use them to bring down the tower,” Sweetie amended.

“But do you think just the three of you can retake the cannons?”

“We'll have to gather reinforcements, retake the cannons, then use them to bring down the tower.”

“Who will you take for your reinforcements?”

“Rarity! We'll figure it out!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “We just need you to make sure our forces know to stay out of the way.”

“Oh, very well darling, good luck.”

Sweetie nodded and galloped off with the other crusaders.

“Rainbow, darling?” Rarity called up to her pegasus friend even as she dropped down on a zombie pegasi like an anvil, knocking the undead equine from the sky.

“What's up, Rares?” She asked then did a quick loop to avoid a bolt of magic.

“Could you get Fluttershy and the Captain for me? It seems the Crusaders have an idea and we need to make sure our forces are ready for it.”

Rainbow smirked. “The crusaders have an idea huh? Last time one of them had an idea they almost dropped a building on us by accident.”

“Well this time they intend to bring a building down on purpose.”


~~~


“Dinky!” Apple Bloom called out as she and the other crusaders passed the black clad filly. “Come with us, we need to retake the cannons!”

Dinky threw a glare over at where the cannons were and the foals fighting there. “Why? Just so Pipsqueak can keep playing pirate?” She asked bitterly. “He's not even a real pirate! He's never even been sailing! I at least have actual training as a ninja!”

“Now's not the time for relationship issues!” Scootaloo shouted as she ran past. “If we retake the cannons, we have a plan to flatten half their army!”

“Otherwise we're going to be overrun!” Sweetie Belle finished.

“Fine, but I'm not doing it for Pip.” Dinky told them as she chased after them.

The fillies and colts of Pipsqueak's cannon crew weren't much further. They'd been forced back from around the cannons and were desperately trying to hold the line to keep them from getting behind the barricade and flanking their forces.

“Pip! What's the situation here?” Apple Bloom asked as she skidded to a stop near the young colt.

“It's a right bloomin' mess is what it is!” Pipsqueak shouted back, cutting down another mindless zombie as he did. “They're piled high enough that they can climb right up on the bloody wall now!” He glanced over his shoulder at them, though he refused to look the black clad filly in the eye. “We're just lucky none of the ints have thought to turn the cannons on us!”

“It's just a matter of time before they do though. We need to retake them!”

“Argh, what do ya think I'm trying to do, lass! There's just too many for mi crew to cut down. We need reinforcements, but don't you even think about using your explosives near mi bloody cannons!”

“We're all out anyway.” Sweetie Belle told him.

“Well then draw some iron and help us dispatch these bloody corpses!”

“Um, none of us ever learned how to wield a sword...” Scootaloo admitted, a little embarrassed. 

“Well, other than fencing...” Apple Bloom amended. “But Ah wasn't very good.”

“Then what bloody good are ya!?”

Dinky rolled her eyes and leaped past Pip in a blur. A couple flashes of light on steal and two zombies collapsed almost immediately.

“Well that's bloody brilliant! You want us to retake the cannons, but you can't help!?” Pip yelled, completely ignoring Dinky.

“We have a plan to help, but we need the cannons!”

“Well if you want the cannons, we're going to need a lot more firepower than a single bloody ninja!” Pip growled, slashing at another of the endless undead horde. It was clear he didn't like having a ninja help him.

Sweetie Belle's eyes went wide. “I have an idea!” Then with a flash of light, she was gone.

The other four stared for a moment at where she'd been standing.

“She can teleport!?” Apple Bloom blurted out finally. “Since when can Sweetie teleport!?”

“I don't know, she's never done it before,” Scootaloo said with a shrug. “Sweetie just keeps learning new magic. I don't know how she does it, or when she finds time to study. She's been doing stuff like this ever since she started learning magic, though; remember when she first learned the invisibility spell? I heard Twilight say she's somewhat of a prodigy."

Apple bloom stared a moment more in shock, then slowly smirked. “That's kinda hot!”

There was another flash, and Sweetie Belle was back, but she wasn't alone.

“Hey crusaders!” Spike said cheerfully. “Sweetie said you needed some help.”

Spike had grown a fair amount in the past few years; he was taller than the average pony now, standing upright, though his body mass was still a bit less.

Apple Bloom's eyes went wide. “This is your idea!?” Even as she shouted, Spike took notice of the nearby battle.

“Z-z-zombie ponies!” A jet of flame and a metal baseball bat was in his hands. “AAAAAAAHHHH!”

Sweetie just grinned as Spike proceeded to pound the nearby zombies into oblivion. “Yep. Get 'em, Spike!”


~~~


“How long is this going to take?” Applejack asked, watching Zecora stir the boiling potion. After losing all their pursuers, they'd managed to fly to one of the safe-houses they'd set up throughout the city and holed up there to brew the cure.

“A little longer is needed, I fear; but do not worry, the end of this scourge is near,” Zecora told her.

Applejack sighed. “Ah just want this over with. Ah'm worried about what's going on with the others.”

“We all are, Applejack,” Twilight told her gently. “But the best way we can help them now is to finish this cure and launch it.”

“Ah know, Ah know.”Applejack fell silent and for a few moments the only sound was the soft crackling of the fire heating Zecora's cauldron. 

Twilight watched the zebra as she stirred the cure she was brewing, noticing the determination in her eyes, and something else. Something that was driving her. Zecora had been pushing for this plan to get the ingredients for her cure since even before they'd had a chance to test the formula. Twilight hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now she realized that her zebra friend had been almost desperate to help...

“Zecora, I was thinking; you've been pushing for us to get the life bloom for this cure since before we even tested it. You've always seemed certain it would work. Why?” Twilight watched Zecora carefully, wondering how she would respond.

Zecora winced slightly, continuing to stir for a few moments before answering. “What herb was needed was easy to tell; for life's bloom is always the counter to death's bell.”

Twilight's eyes narrowed. “What does this have to do with death's bell?” She asked. Death's bell was another herb, she knew, one that was usually poisonous but could be used in certain potions. “Zecora, do you know something about this zombie plague that you're not telling us?”

She didn't answer at first, just continuing to stir the bubbling brew, without taking her eyes off her work. “While trying to make a potion, the hiccups to cure; I'm afraid I created a brew, most unpure. This vile potion I did try to dispose; but from all it touched, the undead rose.”

“WHAT!?” Applejack exclaimed while Twilight and Luna just stared.

“Zecora, are you saying, you created the zombie plague!? While trying to make a cure for the hiccups!?” Twilight nearly shouted.

Zecora flinched and lowered her eyes even more. “This is true, my failed potion caused the zombie flu.”

“You're telling me, that you caused the deaths of millions of ponies including many of our friends and families, not to mention Princess Celestia, and the destruction of nearly all of Equestria, because you messed up when trying to make a cure for the hiccups!?”

“... Yes.”

“... just finish the damned cure.”


~~~


The crusaders and the cannon crew watched in morbid fascination as Spike continued pounding zombie after zombie into oblivion. Even Dinky was only standing and watching now as Spike cleared the area around the cannons of undead. Sweetie Belle just watched with a smug grin.

“So... that actually worked...” Apple Bloom said more than a little surprised. She turned to Sweetie Belle. “Think you can get Spike to stop when he's done clearing the cannon's though?”

“Why stop him. So long as we keep him up here, let's just let him kill zombies to his heart's content.”

“Keeping him up here is the problem. You know how he gets when he see's zombies...”

Sweetie grinned. “Don't worry girls, I've got this.” She said then shouted. “Hey, Spike!” Spike paused from chasing after another zombie and looked back where they were. “If you stay up here on the barricade and only kill the zombies up here, I'll tell Rarity how helpful you've been and I'm sure she'll reward you!”

“Really!?”

“Yep just stay up here, okay!?”

“Okay!”

Scootaloo groaned. “After what you told us about your sister...” She shivered. “I really don't want to think about how she'll reward him.”

Sweetie winced at the thought. “At least I'll be less likely to walk in on them this time...”

Apple Bloom looked a little ill as well.

“What?” Pip asked, noticing their reactions.

Dinky just rolled her eyes, declining to answer. “The canons are mostly clear now,” she pointed out instead.

“Right.” Apple Bloom nodded. “Pip, we just need one canon, get your crew back on the rest.”

“Argh, you heard her mi maties! Get your sorry carcasses back to your posts! Rumble, Featherweight, you guard the crusaders while they use your canon.”

“Aye captain!” Rumble saluted. “This way, crusaders!” He said and took off, Featherweight right alongside as they led the way to their canon, the crusaders right on their tails. 

“Alright, yeah, this is perfect,” Scootaloo said as they reached the canon. Stepping up right next to it she took a moment to estimate the range to her target. “Looks like about two-hundred-thirty meters range, with a four meter drop in elevation...”

“You'll need at least a double pack of powder for that far,” Rumble told them and featherweight immediately got started on it.

“Yep.” Apple Bloom agreed as she looked for one of her explosive shells that she'd made for the artillery teams. “Ah, here we go. This should be about a class four yield,” she said, grabbing one of the shells.

“Oh my! Look what we have here! Even more little cuties!”

Sweetie groaned as they all heard the undead princess's voice and looked up to find her hovering overhead.

“Distract her while we load the canon!” Apple Bloom hissed urgently. Sweetie and Scootaloo nodded and took up a defensive position, Dinky and Rumble at their sides.

“Despite how much trouble you've been, I simply can't be mad at you fillies. And now you've got even more friends! All those cute little tushies, and all but one of them virgins! It's a tragedy!” Cadenza said dramatically.

“Yeah, yeah, we all know about Spike and my sister!” Sweetie growled.

“What about Spike and your sister?” Rumble asked curiously, but Cadenza interupted before Sweetie could answer.

“Oh, I wasn't talking about the dragon...” Cadenza said with a smirk.

Scootaloo blinked. “But... the rest of us are all less than fifteen years old! Who...” She trailed off noticing Rumble was blushing bright red.

“Rumble?”

He grinned nervously. “Uh... you remember when I got my cutie mark, how I told you it represented, um... physical training and endurance?” Scootaloo nodded, glancing back at his cutie mark; two overlapping hearts, one red, one pink. Her eyes went wide. “Yeah, that wasn't exactly true.”

“You mean...”

“My actual talent is... well... sex.”

“You mean you... But you were only twelve when you got your cutie mark!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“Yeah... my neighbor, Cloudchaser came over one day. My parents weren't home, and, well... She said I was incredible...”

Scootaloo stared at him a moment more, the undead princess and the rest of the battle utterly forgotten. “So your talent is really good sex?”

His face was completely crimson by then. “Yeah.”

Scootaloo took a moment to let that sink in for a moment before sidling up closer to the colt. “...you seeing anyone?”

Rumble blushed but before he could answer, the rotting princess flew in closer.

“Yes, such a wonderful talent! I can't wait to experience it for myself!” Cadenza called lustfully. 

“Urgh...” Rumble looked about ready to throw up at the thought.

“Oh, don't worry; you'll enjoy it, every last hour of it... I promise.”

That did it, and Rumble dashed for the edge of the barricade to empty his stomach over the side.

“Of course I'll have to make time for the rest of your cute little tushies!” Cadenza said turning back to the rest of them.

“I'd rather blow myself up than let my rotting corpse be part of your harem!” Sweetie shouted, horn glowing dangerously. Finally she released the spell she'd been charging.

… And Cadenza swerved to the side, dodging it with ease.

“OH, COME ON!”

“Silly filly, I underestimated your magic once, don't think I'll do it again.” Cadenza taunted, her voice sickeningly sweet.

“Scootaloo! It's ready!” Apple Bloom called from back by the cannon. Scootaloo turned to dash back so she could line up the shot but stopped short, eyes wide as a blast of magic hit the ground right in front of her.

“Oh know you don't! You and your friends seem to have a knack for causing trouble! Whatever you've got planned stops right here!” Cadenza dove in for the attack, horn glowing and sights set on the cannon where Apple Bloom, Rumble and Featherweight stood.

“Look out!” Sweetie called out in warning, charging a spell but knowing it was too late, she'd likely hurt her friends if she cast a spell at that close of target.

A rainbow blur slammed into Cadenza's side, sending her tumbling down the side of the barricade.

“You stay away from the kids, you disgusting pedophile!” Rainbow Dash shouted, hovering protectively over them.

“Oh, how cute!” Cadenza taunted as she climbed back to her hooves. “Are you protecting the fillies' maiden virtue until they're old enough for you?”

“What!? No! Celestia dammit, why does everyone assume I'm into fillies!?” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Is somepony still in the closet?” Cadenza asked with a smirk.

“No! I'm serious, I'm not into fillies!”

“It's alright, nopony is going to judge you. Be honest with yourself.”

Rainbow glared at her. “I am being honest with myself!”

“The sooner you move past this denial, the sooner you can get on with enjoying life.”

“...I, you know what? Just shut up.” Rainbow dove at her faster than anypony could blink and spun at the last second, delivering a powerful kick to the alicorn's barrel, sending her sprawling once more.

Meanwhile Scootaloo had reached the cannon.

“Alright, a slight wind to the southwest... range two-hundred-thirty-seven, Z-negative four-point-three.” Scootaloo said as she sighted the shot.

“You'll need about a twelve degree incline on the barrel for that range. Fourth notch.” Sweetie told her.

Scootaloo made the adjustment. “Alright, here goes...” She pulled the ignition cord. The cannon bucked with a thunderous rapport, sending the shell sailing across the battlefield... to explode against a pale pink shield.

“Dammit, it's Rotting Armor!” Apple Bloom growled, spotting the white stallion galloping toward the barricade to assist his wife.

“Reload!” Sweetie urged.

“But he'll just block it again,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“Oh no he wont,” Featherweight said, then flew over to where Pip was giving orders.

A moment later Pip raised his sword. “Argh! All cannons! Focus yer fire on Rotting Armor!” He shouted loud enough to be heard across the barricade. Immediately all the fillies and colts began adjusting their aim for the white unicorn.

“FIRE!”

As one, the cannons roared and Rotting Armor was forced to put a shield around himself as the battlefield around him was torn to shreds.

“No! My love bunny!” Cadenza exclaimed seeing Rotting Armor in danger. Rainbow took advantage of the distraction to get in another good hit that sent her tumbling down the barricade once more

“Hurry! I don't know how much longer I can hold Cadenza!” She shouted back at the Crusaders then dove into the fray once more.

“It's loaded!” Rumble shouted and Scootaloo began lining up the shot once more.

“Wait until the next volley.” Apple Bloom advised. “Fire when old rot face is too busy shielding himself.”

Pip raised his sword. “FIRE!”

Scootaloo pulled the ignition cord even as the rest of the cannons roared, the sound almost lost in the thunderous cannon fire. They all watched as the one cannonball went off toward a different target than the rest. It was a perfect shot. The shell slammed into one of the exposed supports of the compromised tower and exploded.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. The tower began to tilt out over the zombie filled road as one by one, more of the supports gave under the pressure. The walls cracked, and debris began raining down as the tower leaned further and further; picking up speed as it fell. Then it began to twist, falling more towards the barricade.

“SHINY!” Cadenza screamed, abandoning her fight with Rainbow and flying to save her stallion.

“Uh, Scoots... I thought you said you wouldn't bring the building down on us?” Apple Bloom said nervously as the tower seemed to loom overhead.

Scootaloo grinned. “I didn't say it wouldn't be close.”

The tower's structure completely collapsed and the building began to crumble. The rumble of its collapse was the only sound on the suddenly quite battlefield. Then some of the zombies began to scream, running from the danger, but it was already far too late. Hundreds disappeared beneath the debris, while hundreds more, possibly even thousands, tried desperately to get out from under the falling skyscraper.

The ground shook as thousands of thousands of tons of concrete and steel smashed to the ground, burying the zombie army all the way to the very base of the barricade. A billowing cloud of dust and smoke filled the street, hiding the rest from view, though they could still hear and feel the rumble.

Finally the air grew quite save for the hacking and coughing of the ponies on the barricade.

“Damn Scoots, -cough- next time could you warn us how close it's going to be? I was -cough- a little worried -cough- for a sec there.”

“Yeah, -cough- didn't think of the dust, either. -cough- sorry about that, Bloom.”

“Hey, don't worry about it; -cough- you have to have just taken out at least half the zombie army,” Apple Bloom told her.

“What about -cough- Cadaver Cadenza and Rotting Armor?”

“I think they might have gotten away.” Sweetie Belle said, her voice slightly muffled by the bandana she'd somehow acquired and tied around her snout. “Here, put these on.” She said holding out two more bandanas. They both gratefully took them and started putting them on. “Anyway, I saw Cadenza grab Armor and fly away, but they may be back soon, so we should get somewhere more secure.”

Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “Rumble, we're falling back, you and the rest of the cannon crews probably should too.”

Rumble nodded, covering his mouth with his wings and breathing through the feathers. “Not much we can do in this kind of visibility anyway.”

“Oh yeah, and where's Spike?”

Sweetie shrugged, then cupped her hooves around her mouth. “HEY SPIKE, WE'RE HEADING BACK NOW!”

“You girls don't mess around.” Dinky said, joining them. She had her mask back on as well. “I think we're clear for now.”

“Ah sure hope so; Ah wouldn't want to run into a pack of zombies in this low of visibility.”

“Oh, but I'd sure like to ram into you...”

The four fillies and two colts froze at the sound of that voice as two tall figures emerged from the dust cloud.

“You fillies have been quite the troublemakers. I'm going to enjoy punishing you.” Cadenza said as she loomed over them, Rotting Armor by her side. “Now, who wants their spankings first?”


~~~


“I am finished now, with this potent brew; I thank you for helping me to see this through,” Zecora said as she picked up a flask.

Twilight's eyes narrowed. “This doesn't even come close to making up for creating the zombie plague in the first place, even if it was an accident,” she growled. “You're going to be working off your debt to Equestria for the rest of your life!”

Zecora lowered her eyes and nodded sadly as she filled the flask with the potion. When it was full, she capped it and held it out to Twilight.

Twilight took it in her magic and secured it in one of her saddlebags. “Alright, now we just have to wait for Pinkie to get back...”

“How can I get back when I'm already here?”

Twilight jumped, spinning around, wings flaring in alarm. “Pinkie! Don't do that!”

“Do what?” She asked looking truly confused.

“Nevermind. We've got the cure; now where did you set up the device?”

“The what device?” Pinkie asked grinning.

“I'm not saying it,” Twilight deadpanned.

“But I don't know what device you mean.”

“Pinkie.”

“Yes, Twilight?”

“Where did you set it up.”

“Where did I set what up?”

“Don't you dare!” Twilight growled. “Tell me where it is right now!”

“But I don't know what you're talking about.” Pinkie smiled innocently.

Twilight grabbed pinkie in her magic. “Pinkie! I'm warning you. Tell me where the device is right now!”

“But you haven't told me what device you mean.”

“THE GOLLY DEVICE!” Twilight shouted finally.

“Oh, it's right over there.” Pinkie said pointing toward the window, while everyone else burst out laughing.

Twilight dropped Pinkie and went over to the window to look, ignoring the others' laughter. “Where?”

“Over there,” she pointed out the window.

“Pinkie, I don't...” Then she saw it. An enormous neon sign in the shape of an arrow pointing to the top of one of the tallest towers in the city labeled: Golly Device. It was halfway across the city, and in the middle of some of the worst of the zombie territory.

“PINKIE! Why in Celestia's name did you set it up there!? Its made to launch the projectile from anywhere! You could have set it up on a random street corner, or at our base, or at any one of our safe-houses! Why would you set it up on top of the tallest tower, halfway across the city, in the middle of Zombie Territory, with a sign for all to see!?”

“Because it's more exciting this way!” Pinkie said with a grin.

Twilight stared at her for a moment, mouth agape. One eye twitched. Then twitched again. Finally something snapped. “Whatever. I'm going to go save what's left of the world.” She glanced around at everyone. “Don't die.” She said, then blasted a hole in the wall and jumped out, flying toward the tower.


> Chapter 8: Love on the Battle Field
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Dead Yet
By Nebula Star


Chapter 8: Love on the battlefield
***


Cadenza took a menacing step toward the crusaders and their friends. Immediately Dinky drew her sword threateningly and Rumble jumped in front of the others defensively.

“Now, now; none of that. Shiny, if you would.” 

Rotting Armor stepped forward, his horn lighting up as he wrenched Dinky's sword from her grasp, then he shot a beam upwards and a dome shaped barrier fell down around them all, trapping them all with Cadenza.

With a wicked grin she took another step toward them. “I'm going to enjoy ravaging each and every one of you until you're all too exhausted to even stand!”

All three crusaders and the two colts screamed, backpedaling into the side of the shield dome.

Dinky leaped forward in a blur kicking Cadenza in the jaw, hard enough to make her head snap back. “I don't need a weapon to kick you plot!” She shouted, following up the kick with two quick jabs, before Cadenza's horn lit up, releasing a shock-wave that knocked the ninja filly into the side of the dome where she fell to the ground, dazed.

Cadenza then took a moment to crack her neck and straiten her jaw, apparently uninjured by Dinky's attack. “Mmm, feisty one aren't you. Don't worry, I'll help you work off all that energy...”

“ZOMBIE PRINCESS!”

All heads turned toward the shout to find Spike had returned. Bloodied baseball bat held high, he charged at the shield dome. Cadenza just watched with a smirk as he swung the bat, only to have it bounce off the dome with no apparent affect. Undeterred Spike swung again and again with the half-crazed intensity he always showed when the undead were involved.

“You're going to need something a lot bigger to get through my Shiny's shield,” Cadenza told him confidently.

CLANG!!!

“AAAAHHH!” Cadenza screamed leaping into Rotting Armor's forelegs as something impacted against the shield dome with staggering force. “AAAAAAHHH!” She screamed again when she saw the pink and yellow embodiment of pure pony rage wielding a monstrous mace, just outside the shield.

Eyes blazing with fury, Fluttershy raised her mace for another swing. “STAY...!” BONG! She swung, hitting the shield with enough force to create a shock-wave that blasted the dust cloud away from the entire barricade.

“AWAY...!” CLANG! She swung again and Rotting armor staggered, dropping Cadenza.

“FROM...!” CLANK! Cracks appeared around the impact.

“THE...!” CRUNCH! More cracks spread across the entire dome and a few pieces broke free, disintegrating as they fell.

“FOALS!!!” CRASH! On the final word, the shield shattered and Fluttershy rushed forward. Cadenza screamed, leaping back out of the way, but dazed as he was, Rotting Armor didn't manage to escape. Fluttershy's horizontal swing caught him dead on and the force sent him flying across the road to slam into the side of a building where he was embedded in the wall.

“NO! My Lovebunny!” Cadenza cried gray-green tears in her eyes. “How could you!” She leaped up into the air high above the barricade for all to see. “I only wanted to share my love with all of you!” Her horn lit up to a blinding intensity, her eyes glowing white as her sickly magic began to swirl around her. “I only wanted to share my love!” Her magic erupted outwards, threatening to cover then entire battlefield.

Dinky's eyes widened. She knew well what Cadenza's magic could do. Sweetie Belle obviously did as well and put up a shield for their group, which Fluttershy quickly retreated under, but with a start, she realized Pip and the rest of the colts and fillies of his cannon crews may not have anyone to protect them. She didn't know if any of the other unicorns their age could project a shield against Cadenza's magic.

She shot off in a blur, galloping at inpony speed to where the other foals were gathered. As she feared, none of the unicorns among them were even trying to cast a shield. She put on a last burst of speed and skidded to a stop in front of them, casting the shield spell even as Cadenza's magic flooded over the barricade.

She winced at the strain on her magic, she couldn't hold up against the onslaught for long, she just hoped it would be enough. Looking around, she saw many of the other unicorns had also put up shields, but a good half of the defenders on and behind the barricade were unprotected against the magic. She could see several nearby that hadn't found the safety of a shield. The wide eyed, hungry expressions on their faces told her all she needed to know.

Dinky glanced back at the other filly's and colts under her protection. “If any of you haven't had 'the talk' with your parents yet, you should probably close your eyes!” She told them as she saw a mare look at a nearby stallion and lick her lips. He looked back at her with an eager grin and started toward her. Dinky's eyes widened. “If you don't know what I mean, close your eyes anyway!” 

“We don't need help from a damn ninja!”

“Oh will you just shut up!?” Dinky shouted, glaring back at Pipsqueak. “Not a single one of your crew tried to shield you all from Cadenza's magic!”

“We didn't ask you! Pirates don't need help from damn ninjas!”

“At least I actually am a ninja and not just playing pretend!” Dinky shouted back, and Pipsqueaks glare hardened, but she didn't give him a chance to respond. “How about I toss you outside my shield and let you get a good dose of Cadenza's magic!? I bet you'd get over me being a ninja real fast, then!”

Even the white parts of Pipsqueak's coat visibly paled. “You wouldn't!”

“I'M TEMPTED!” She screamed, her eyes flashing dangerously. “Now just shut up and let me save you!”

Pipsqueak wisely shut up.


~~~


“Ah really don't think we should be sein' this!” Apple Bloom said wide eyed as she watched what was happening on other parts of the barricade, outside the unicorns' protective shields.

“... Celestia damn it, Rarity...” Sweetie Belle moaned, covering her eyes with one hoof. Apple Bloom looked to where they'd last seen Rarity and spotted her with Captain Silver and another nocturne stallion of the night guard...

Her eyes widened. “Land's sakes! Doesn't Rarity know the shield spell!?”

“Of course she does!” Sweetie Growled. “She let herself be hit on purpose... She's always looking for an excuse...”

“Oh my!” Fluttershy blushed when she spotted her friend as well and quickly put her wings around Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, shielding their eyes and keeping hers shut tight as well.

Scootaloo winced in sympathy, trying not to look beyond their shield. Of course, not everypony was averting their eyes. A click-whir sound made her look toward the two colts with them and she found Featherweight had pulled out his camera from somewhere and was rapidly taking pictures, while Rumble was just watching the scene with a small smirk.

Scootaloo knew from experience it was all but impossible to get Featherweight to put his camera away, but Rumble... She smacked him in the back of his head with one wing. “What in tartarus are you doing!? Don't watch!”

“Hey, sex is my talent! But while I may be good at it, that doesn't mean I can't learn a thing or two!”

Scootaloo blinked. “Oh, I guess that's a good point.” Curious she looked out where Rumble was looking. “Wow... I didn't know ponies could bend like that.”

“Yeah, Blossomforth's pretty flexible,” Rumble agreed. At her questioning look, he explained; “She use to date my brother, and I walked in on them a couple times.”

“Hmm. So, Blossomforth, Rarity, Rainbow Dash... your brother gets around doesn't he.” Scootaloo commented.

Rumble nodded. “Yeah, he has a different filly friend almost every other month.”

“You think you're going to be like that?”

He shrugged. “I doubt I'll have to... I heard some talk that once this is over they're going to be encouraging herding to help get the population growing again. So why would I keep changing filly friends when I can just have them all at once.”

Scootaloo smirked. “Good point.”

Behind them, Sweetie Belle groaned. “I don't know how much longer I can hold this!”

“Just hold on, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom exclaimed still being shielded by Fluttershy.

Scootaloo looked up, fearfully, watching as wave after wave of magic cascaded off of Cadenza and crashed down around them. Even as she watched another of the unicorns' shields fell and more of the defenders fell victim to irresistible lust. 

She gulped and moved closer to Rumble's side. He looked over at her seeming surprised. “If worst comes to worst, I'd rather it be you than anypony else...” She told him.

He raised a brow. “Really?”

She smirked slightly. “Well you did say that your talent is really good sex.”

He looked away, blushing. “I guess that's true.”

“And I kind of like you.” She told him and on an impulse gave him a little peck on the cheek.

She was well rewarded by the look of wide eyed shock that he gave her, and couldn't help giggling a little.

Then the shield above them flickered. Sweetie groaned with the strain she was under, desperately trying to hold the shield up a few moments more.

Biting her lip, Scootaloo pressed up against Rumble's side. Silently he put a wing around her.

“TWILY!” Cadenza suddenly exclaimed, sounding ecstatic, and her magic immediately cut off.

Looking up, they all saw the purple streak passing high overhead at extraordinary speeds the unmistakable shape of the youngest princess at its head.

“Twily can fix Shiny!” Cadenza said as if to herself, then without another word took off after her.

With a gasp of relief, Sweetie Belle collapsed, breathing deeply, and finally letting her shield drop.

“Sweetie!” Apple Bloom exclaimed rushing to her side.

Meanwhile Fluttershy surveyed the defenses; her face flaming red. “Oh my... I'd better organize some unicorns to start casting the counter spell.”

“Flutters!” Rainbow Dash flew in from across the barrier. “You alright?”

“Yes, Sweetie Belle shielded us.”

Rainbow looked at the collapsed filly, surprised. “Really? Good job, Sweetie!”

Sweetie weakly raised a hoof. “Yay,” she breathed, her voice rivaling Fluttershy's from exhaustion.

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy cut in, “I'll take care of things here! You go stop Cadenza! She's going after Twilight!”

Rainbow nodded. “You got it, General!” She said giving a salute, then took to the air, speeding off in the same direction as Twilight and Cadenza.


~~~


The tower wasn't much further. Twilight held the flask of potion close as she sped through the sky. She'd enchanted it to be all but indestructible, but she wasn't taking any chances. 

As she drew closer, she spotted the device (not going to say it) up on a small catwalk around an antenna spire. Essentially the highest level surface on the entire building. Twilight rolled her eyes and headed for it. Blasting Pinkie's sign to pieces as she approached. At least Pinkie seemed to have set it up properly, even if the placement was excessive.

Something slammed into her, making her lose control and plummet toward the tower's rooftop. “Twily!” She heard the happy squeal even as she felt hooves wrap around her midsection. She barely had time to look back and see Cadenza clinging to her, with an ecstatic look on her undead face, before they hit the rooftop.

The crash was enough to make Cadenza let go as they both tumbled head over hooves across the building. Twilight finally stopped when she hit the side of a large air conditioner, and ended up upside down, with her hind hooves up in the air.

With a groan, she rolled over and got to her hooves. Somehow she'd managed to hold onto the potion flask through the crash.

“Twily!”

“Aaargh! Not now, Cadenza!” Twilight exclaimed and took off again, heading for the device.

“Oh no, you're not getting away from me again!” Cadenza exclaimed, giving chase. “When will you accept that we belong together!”

“You belong six feet under!” Twilight shouted back angrily.

“Don't be like that Twily! You shouldn't suppress your emotions! Let me help you get them out!” Her horn glowed and Twilight was forced to snap roll out of the way as a spell burned through the air where she'd just been. Twilight had had one experience with Cadenza's magic already and that was one too many... Being in heat was nothing compared to Cadenza's lust spells.

She couldn't keep dodging Cadenza and launch the cure however; she needed to either take Cadenza down or distract her long enough to get the job done. She smiled as an idea came to her.

Flying down away from the tower, she blasted a window open in one of the neighboring towers and flew inside. She wasted no time in finding a connecting hall and zipped around the corner, knowing Cadenza wasn't far behind. She had a moment however that she was completely out of sight and as soon as she was, her horn lit up and with a flash she teleported back to the Golly Device (Dammit).

Landing on the platform, she began working as quickly as she could. Opening the flask of potion; she emptied it into the device's specialized projectile, and sealed it shut.

“FOUND YOU!” The sickly pink princess slammed into her once more, knocking her off the platform and causing her to drop the projectile next to the device.

Twilight let out a groan as they plummeted toward the rooftop once more. This just wasn't her day.


~~~


Rainbow saw Cadenza tackle Twilight off the platform and fall to the top of the tower. She had Twilight pinned beneath her.

“You're not getting away from me this time, my little lady bug of love. We're going to have soooo much fun together!”

Rainbow didn't hesitate. Diving toward them, she spun at the last moment to deliver a flying kick to Cadenza that sent her skidding across the roof to slam into the guard wall. Twilight looked up at her surprised.

“Thanks Rainbow!”

“Anytime Twi. I'll hold Cadenza, you launch that cure!”

Twilight nodded and took off for the platform.

Across the rooftop, cadenza climbed back to her hooves. “I usually prefer to have stallions ram into me; but I guess an athletic mare like you has a need to be the dominant partner.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Just stay down, I'm not letting you anywhere near Twilight.”

“Protecting your crush? That's cute.” Cadenza taunted. “I'll tell you what; you can join in. The more the merrier after all. A three way with two princesses... Come on, what do you say? I mean, that must be like a dream come true for you.”

“Oh, son of a...! I'm not into mares! Why does everypony automatically assume that just because I'm athletic and tomboyish that I must be a fillyfooler!?” Rainbow exclaimed in frustration.

“Now now, you shouldn't deny who you are...”

“That's it!” Rainbow sped forward in a flash and delivered a devastating hoof-punch to Cadenza's face, slamming her back into the wall and following it up with an uppercut that sent her flipping head over hooves over the wall and off the tower. Unfortunately the undead princess had wings.

“Such pent up feelings! You need to let it go!” Cadenza told her as she flew back up to the rooftop.

Rainbow didn't hesitate, using her speed, she shot up toward the alicorn. Cadenza was ready, however and managed to evade to the side, causing Rainbow to overshoot her. Looping around at speeds fast enough to leave a rainbow trail in the air, she lined herself up for another strike. Cadenza smirked watching her, but didn't move, seeming to think she could take on the pegasus.

Big mistake! Rainbow thought, preparing to strike. 

At the last second, Cadenza's horn lit up and a wave of magic erupted from her in all directions. Rainbow's eyes widened, but it was already too late. She passed through the wave of magic, losing control as a shock ran through her body, and she crashed down on top of the tower.


~~~


Twilight's eye twitched as she watched the progress bar on the device's screen. The potion was loaded and ready to fire, now she was just waiting for the device to be ready. Warming up!? Why in bloody Tartarus does it need to warm up!? The bar ticked another few pixels forward. Fifty-seven percent.

“Oh, Twily!”

“NOT NOW CADENZA!” Twilight screamed and immediately began firing energy blasts at the undead alicorn.

“Such anger!” Cadenza exclaimed as she deftly evaded Twilight's attacks. “Come now, Twily! You really need to relax; I know the perfect way to release all that pent up tension.” Cadenza cast her own spell, and Twilight was forced to go on the defensive in order to shield herself and the device.

Fifty-eight percent.

Where was Rainbow Dash. She risked a look around but didn't spot the pegasus anywhere. Twilight knew she'd have to draw Cadenza away, she couldn't risk the device getting damaged.

Firing another blast at Cadenza to distract her, Twilight launched herself into the air.

“Oh! Are we playing tag!? I love tag!” Cadenza cried cheerfully, giving chase. “That's the one where we have sex when I catch you right!?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. She'd actually walked in on Cadence and Shining playing 'tag' once when they were still alive, not her fondest memory, so it was entirely possible that Cadenza was genuinely asking and not just being crude. “No, we're playing 'Get the buck away from me!'” Twilight shouted back at her. “You win by getting as far away from me as possible!”

Cadenza pouted. “That's no fun, let's just play tag!”

With a groan, Twilight dove down the side of the tower, picking up speed. By the how long it was taking the progress bar, she'd have to distract Cadenza for at least five minutes, before the device would be ready to launch.


~~~


Back on the tower, the device's progress bar hit sixty percent then rapidly filled, the last forty percent taking less than a second to complete.


~~~


Twilight just hoped she could evade Cadenza long enough.

At the last second, she pulled out of her dive, skimming the city street covering several blocks in moments. There were quite a few zombies wandering around that she saw, but luckily they all seemed to be BDs. 

Spotting a narrow ally, she snapped her wings open wide and whipped around the corner at dangerous speeds, glad for all the training Rainbow had given her as she felt the strain of g-forces on her body.

“I'm gaining on you!” Cadenza taunted in a sing-song voice.

Twilight risked a look back and saw the pale pink princess had gained several meters on her. So much for Rainbow's training...

“Oh, we're going to have so much fun! When I catch you! First I'll...” Cadenza began going into explicit detail of just what she intended.

With a growl Twilight shot two blasts to either side of the ally; exploding sections of the walls even as she passed through, filling the ally with dust and flying debris. Once she was to the other side she spun and fired another blast.

“Hey! That's not fair!” Cadenza complained just before her eyes widened spotting the magic blast heading right toward her. She put up a shield just in time, but was still thrown back, tumbling across the ally floor. “You're just supposed to run from me!” She whined as she climbed back to her hooves.

“We're not playing tag!” Twilight shouted. “We're cleaning up our mess.” Her horn and eyes began to glow brightly as her voice began to echo with power. “First step, putting the dead bodies where they belong!”

“Oh, do you have a checklist, I always loved your checklists!”

Twilight's eyes narrowed. She was going to enjoy this far more than she should. The magic she'd gathered coalesced into an enormous fiery orb, looking almost like a miniature sun that completely filled the alley, and without hesitation she launched it at the undead alicorn. Then with a second flash, she teleported into the sky, overlooking the city just in time to see nearly nine city blocks be consumed with light. She shielded her eyes until the light faded enough, feeling the shock-wave pass over her, and then watched as a mushroom shaped fireball rose into the sky.

“Check.”

With a satisfied nod. Twilight headed back to the tower where the device was so she could end this once and for all.

She was almost there when she spotted Rainbow, lying against the base of the spire that held the device. Concerned, she dove down to check on her friend, landing on the roof and galloping toward her. Rainbow groaned, shifting as she approached, and Twilight felt relieved that her friend was still alive...

Unless she wasn't...

Twilight stopped in her tracks, if Rainbow had been turned, then she could risk getting closer. “Rainbow?” Twilight asked tentatively.

She didn't respond.

Twilight bit her lip, worriedly.

Four pink hooves slammed into the ground between her and Rainbow. “That wasn't very nice, Twily.” Cadenza growled angrily. Parts of her coat were blackened and smoking, and a few feathers were missing from her wings, but she seemed otherwise uninjured.

Twilight's eyes widened. How could she possibly have survived that blast!? Looking up, her eyes fell on the device. She had to get to it.

Cadenza leaped at her, and she was forced to dive to the side, rolling once to get out of the way, then she launched herself up into the air, flying for the platform as quickly as she could.

“Get back here, Twily!” Cadenza called, leaping after her. “I have to give you spankings now!”

Twilight felt magic build up behind her and twisted her wings, rolling out of the way, just as a spell burned through the air where she'd been. The maneuver cost her speed, though and Cadenza managed to catch her just as they reached the platform. Cadenza tackled her to the platform, pinning her just out of reach of the machine. Twilight twisted around, managing to get her hind hooves under the princess and tried to buck her off of, but the pink alicorn managed to just hold on, falling halfway off the edge.

Twisting around again, Twilight tried to pull herself to the device. She could see it was ready to launch. She just had to hit the button.

“Stop struggling!” Cadenza growled. “I just want to give you my love!”

“You know what, Cadenza! SCREW YOU!” Twilight shouted in frustration.

Cadenza's eyes widened with excitement, her anger vanishing in an instant. “Exactly!” She exclaimed. “But first you have to help me fix Shiny, then we can have a threesome with some awesome brother on sister action...”

Twilight rolled her eyes as Cadenza rambled and made one last lunge, slamming her hoof down on the launch button.

The device went off like a cannon, shaking the entire platform, and they both watched as the projectile flew up into the sky and exploded into a golden cloud that quickly spread across the city.

“Oooo! Pretty!” Cadenza exclaimed happily. “You prepared fireworks to celebrate you finally losing your virginity!”

Twilight glared at her, “One, what makes you think I'm still a virgin!? And two... Screw you.”

The first of the golden sparkles descending from the cloud reached them, and settled onto one of Cadenza's legs. Immediately that leg twitched then went limp below the fetlock and Cadenza's eyes widened. Another of the sparkles landed on her shoulder and with another twitch that entire leg went limp. Several more sparkles and the fine mist of the cloud itself settled down over her and her body spasmed before going completely limp. She lost her grip slipping from the platform. Her wings refused to move. Her entire body was shutting down.

“NOOO! I HAD SO MUCH LOVE TO GIVE!” She cried as she fell. Twilight moved to the edge and watched as Cadenza hit the guard wall on the edge of the tower roof and fell off the side like a rag doll. “AAAaaaaaaahhhhhhh” She screamed as she fell into the back ally behind the tower. About halfway down, she hit a balcony that sent her tumbling end over end toward the other side of the alley. She careened of a fire escape, tumbled several more times, and bounced off the other wall again, before hitting a trash dumpster and finally splattering into the ground.

Twilight winced. “Well, at least she was already dead.” 

“Ouch...” What was left of Cadenza whimpered then went completely still.

“Or not.”

Looking out over the city, she saw the golden cloud descending down into all the streets and smiled. That cloud would fill the entire city and filter down into ever building, ending the undead plague once and for all, in this city at least. Then they'd just have to make their way around to every major city and launch the cure in each one. She sighed contently, for now, she would enjoy this victory.


~~~


With a tired groan, Lyra sat down, taking a moment to rest. Like most the rest of the unicorns that had been able to protect themselves at the end of the battle, her magic was too exhausted to cast the counter-spell for Cadenza's magic anymore. Only about a third of those affected had been cured. She could still hear what was going on behind her. 

They'd gotten all the foals out luckily; though there had been no preserving their innocence. They'd all seen far more than they should at their age...

For now Lyra was taking a moment to rest while she let her magic replenish itself. Closing her eyes she leaned back, turning her head upwards toward the golden cloud that continued to settle throughout the city. Finally, the zombie plague was cured. The nightmare was over... if only it had been a day earlier. She'd lost more than a few friends to the plague... Lemon Hearts and Twinkle Shine had still been in Canterlot when it fell, Moondancer probably hadn't made it either, though Lyra didn't know for certain. Even Colgate... that weird dentist that looked almost identical to another of her foalhood friends, Minuette, but talked with a completely different accent, having come from Baltimare. Lyra hadn't known her all that well, but she was still a friend.

But one loss definitely hurt far worse than the others; being closer to her heart and far more recent. If only the plague had been cured a day earlier; maybe then she wouldn't have lost...

“Bon Bon!?” Somepony nearby exclaimed in surprise.

It couldn't be... Slowly, she lowered her head, opening her eyes. To find the cream colored mare she longed to see only a leg's length away... glaring at her with an intensity that could have set a dragon on fire. “Bonnie!” Lyra exclaimed happily, jumping to her hooves. Before she could wrap her marefriend in a hug, she froze nervously, seeing Bon Bon's expression harden even further.

“Uh... Bonnie... I know you're mad at us for leaving you behind...” Lyra stammered, “but you know we had to. There were too many of them and... and... I wanted to save you, I really did...” She trailed off as Bon Bon's expression wasn't changing. 

Finally Bon Bon jabbed her in the chest with one hoof, hard enough to make her sit back on her haunches. “You're just lucky they weren't able to bite through my carapace!” She growled, jabbing Lyra again. “As for what you said...”

Lyra bit her lip nervously. “Now Bonnie... you know I just meant that you do have a bit of a temper sometimes.”

“Temper! I... what the heck are they doing!?” Bon Bon's eyes had drifted to look over Lyra's shoulder at the the scene behind her.

Lyra thanked her lucky stars for the distraction. “Oh, um, Cadenza cast a blanket effect spell over the entire area toward the end of the battle... we've cast the counter-spell on as many as we could, but all the unicorns were already exhausted from the battle.”

Bon Bon's eyes went a little wider as they fell on one particular threesome. “Rarity wasn't able to shield herself?”

“...From what Sweetie told us, I don't think she tried.”

Bon Bon sighed. “Well, I guess I'd better get to work then,” she said, and with a flash of green, shifted into her true changeling form. There were several gasps from nearby. “Everypony relax! I'm Bon Bon from Ponyville, I've always been a changeling, and I didn't have anything to do with the invasion; My mother is an idiot. Now I do know the counter-spell to Cadenza's magic, so if you can all get over me being a bug pony; I'll help you out.”

Several of the ponies nearby (that weren't currently under the affects of a lust spell) stared at her a moment with their jaws agape before looking at one another and shrugging.

“Alright, I just spent the last two hours just lying on my backside with zombies gnawing on my legs and horn. As annoying as that was, that does mean that I'm plenty rested. Hopefully it will be enough.” She said and went to work.


~~~


A groan from below the platform caught Twilight's attention. Rainbow!

Leaping off the spire, she glided down to the rooftop. Rainbow had climbed to her hooves and was standing there, her wings fully extended with an almost panicked look in her eyes. She looked up as Twilight landed.

“Twi! Have sex with me right now!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and cast the counter-spell to Cadenza's lust magic. After a few bars of smooth jazz, Rainbow's expression changed from panicked to utterly embarrassed.

“Uh... you know that was the spell talking right? I'm not really into mares...” Rainbow said sounding mortified.

Twilight snorted. “Well I am.”

Rainbow blinked. “What, really?

“At least I know I'm not into stallions, not after all the times I walked in on Rarity when she was...” Twilight shivered dramatically.

Rainbow blinked. “Wow... Sweetie Belle said the same thing. I'm suddenly really glad I hardly ever went to see Rarity at her place.”

“Yeah, trust me. It's not a pleasant experience.” Twilight grumbled, resolving to look into memory altering magic.

“There you are!”

They both looked up to see Princess Luna come in for a landing. “Oh, hey, Luna,” Rainbow said with a wave.

“Greetings Rainbow, I take it you saw Princess Twilight pass overhead and decided to help her?”

“Well yeah, and Cadenza saw Twilight as well so I figured she'd need some help.”

Luna's eyes widened. “Cadenza? Is that what that explosion was earlier?”

Twilight nodded. “I had to distract her while the device warmed up.”

Luna nodded understanding. “Well I'm glad you managed to launch the cure. I have come to report that the cure has worked: zombie ponies throughout the city are dying for good.”

“That's good, because before I left the barricade, Cadenza had turned the battle into an orgy...” They probably would have been overrun if the rest of the zombie horde had been able to reach them.” Rainbow told them.

“Really,” Luna tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm. Well she may have actually done us a favor there. We are going to need to replenish the population now that the plague is cured, and this may help some of the more reluctant mares on their way to motherhood.”

Rainbow's eyes widened. “Oh no; you can count me out on that! No way I'm getting tied down with foals!” 

“Well need every mare to do her part.” Luna insisted.

“Nu uh! No Way! You can't make me!”

“Nopony will be forced Rainbow.” Twilight assured her.

“Well good, because there's no way I'm having foals.” Rainbow said with a nod.

“Of course, as one of the elements of harmony, I really need you and the others to set an example, and as a loyal friend, I know I can count on you to help me out...”

Rainbow glared at her. “That's not fair.”

Twilight grinned smugly. “Are you saying you won't set a good example, that you'll give who knows how many other mares an excuse to not do their part? And make things just that much harder for me? One of your best friends?”

“And what about you!? You just said that you're not into stallions!”

Luna's eyes widened at that. “You did?” She asked, directed at Twilight.

“I'm going to be running the country; ponies will understand if I don't have time to have foals.”

“What!? Oh no no no no! Twilight you have to have foals too!” Luna insisted.

“No I don't, I have to deal with trying to get Equestria back on its hooves and reestablishing foreign relations; I won't have time...”

There was a loud clang and they all turned to find a metal pony on the roof a few paces away. 

Luna blinked. “Ponytron? But I never activated...”

A dozen more loud clangs rang out and they suddenly found themselves surrounded by identical robot ponies.

“Luna, you're pet project seems to have replicated itself.” Twilight muttered.

The first ponytron's shoulder panel opened and a segmented arm extended with a laser canon aimed at them. “Imperfect lifeforms detected. Executing prime directive.” It intoned emotionlessly.

“Luna... what's their prime directive?” Twilight asked nervously putting a shield around them, as the rest of the ponytrons extended their weapons as well.

“Um... to destroy all imperfect lifeforms...” Luna almost whispered.

“WHAT!? Luna! We're ALL imperfect lifeforms!” Twilight exclaimed as they opened fire.

“I meant diseased or rotting!” Luna cried.

“They're robots! It doesn't matter what you meant! They'll take everything literally! Please tell me you have some fail-safe to shut them off!?”

“I didn't think I'd need it...” Luna whimpered.

Twilight glared at her a moment before closing her eyes and gritting her teeth. Here they'd just managed to cure a zombie plague that had nearly wiped out all of ponykind and now Luna had unwittingly unleashed a self replicating robot with the sole purpose of wiping out all life it deemed imperfect. She just couldn't take it anymore.

Her horn lit up brighter than the noon-day sun and her eyes glowed pure white as she floated up into the air. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” She screamed at the top of her lungs as lightning lashed out from her horn, and the world shook with her rage. Though they were not programmed for emotion, at that moment, every ponytron within sight of her turned and ran as they all spontaneously gained the ability to feel fear.


~~~


Elsewhere in the city, a purple alicorn with a dark indigo mane stood surrounded by the corpses of zombie ponies, watching as the last of them collapsed in the golden mist.

“Aw... Looks like it's over.” Midnight said to herself sounding depressed.

Good, then we can focus on finding a way to get back home. Midi told her other side.

Midnight sighed. “I already know how to get us home.”

Surprise came from Midi, within their shared mind. You already know?

“Well yeah, I'm the one that brought us here.”

You brought us here!? Midi exclaimed. Wha... Why!?

She shrugged. “I was bored and I thought it looked like fun.”

WHAT!? You thought fighting hordes of undead ponies looked like fun!?

“Well yeah! I mean, we can cut them up, blow them to pieces, grind them to dust, and we don't have to feel bad because they're already dead!”

Midi groaned - and would have facehoofed if she were in control - at what her other side found to be fun. Whatever, just... just take us home.

Midnight sighed. “Okay... looks like the fun's over here anyway.”

Several loud clangs from behind caught her attention and she turned to see dozens of metal ponies landing on the road. “Imperfect lifeform detected, executing prime directive.”

“Ooo! Robots!” Midnight exclaimed excitement welling up in her.

NO! We're going home! Midi told her firmly.

Midnight recoiled as if she'd been hit and let out whimper like a kicked puppy.

Midi sighed mentally, her resolve crumbling under the onslaught. Sometimes being the kinder, more generous side had it's disadvantages. Fine... Blow a few up.

“WAHOO!” Midnight shouted leaping in to attack.