This is what happens when you mess with forces you know nothing about. You get zombies.
When Zecora tries to create a potion that Pinkie has been working on for years, and seemingly fails, she goes mad and spills it all over the place. And then begins to destroy the lands of Ponyville... Will Octavia and Vinyl be able to stop it, or will our intrepid hero and heroines be the ones to end this madness? Find out now.
As Vinyl and Octavia were leaving their shack, training complete, another pony survivor of a different village afflicted by the first wave of the undead ponies was leaving his. His name you ask? Johnathan Blackdust. Illusionist extraordinaire, with bounty hunting on the side. He had come to Ponyville after retiring from the bounty hunting business, but a month exactly after he retired, this happened. "Get on with it!" Did I forget to mention he is aware of the wall? "No, you didn't. Idiot." Bite me. Now stop breaking it or I'll end it here. *grumble grumble* Good character. Now, back to story, he had his favorite halberd and two throwing knives with him. Should he come across any survivors, he planned to give them the knives and keep the halberd if they didn't have any weapons themselves. But he found that hard to believe. Everypony in Ponyville knew of Vinyl and the Doctors past. They always thought it would happen again, so the cautious ones had come to him for training, since he was not quiet about his past. That was all of three ponies.
"Maybe I oughta check up on them first..." Blackdust thought to himself, as he started towards Lyra's and Bon Bon's house. "Hopefully you taught her Bon Bon..."
As he grew closer he could see that their lights were out, meaning one of two things. Dead, or trained. But seeing as how some of the other houses had their lights on, Blackdust knew it was the latter. But he didn't take any chances and drew his halberd. As he poked the door open a knife flew at the entrance.
"Sloppy," he called out from between his halberd.
"Sorry. Just... Jumpy... Lyra hasn't come back, and one of them already came inside, " came Bon Bon's response.
"Dead. Assume the worst, but hope the best. Can I come in?" He asked poking the door a little farther before noticing a zombie Pinkie Pie walking towards him. "Shit..."
"Quickly. Trixie's on the roof," came Cherilee's voice.
Without further prompting, the zombie Pinkie's head had a giant hole in it. Good aim Trixie. I thought that out of the three of you, you'd be the one to break first in actual fighting... And with that thought, he stepped inside.
And saw a zombie Winona on the floor. What? I hate dogs, and they hate me.
And saw a zombie Cherry Jubilee on the floor. Stepping up, him confirmed the kill by using it's head as a stand for his halberd. And then he checked her over to find the site of infection so that he could better determine the way that they were infecting the others. His village had been destroyed by various types of infection types. There was the biters, and the sprayers. There was also the ones whose lower jaws split down the middle, and ones that could still remember how to fly and use magic. Luckily, it looked like a regular bite.
"Good. No mutations yet. We have time. But not much. Look," He pointed at the cut in the back of her head that Bon Bon used to end it. The cut was closing up. "We'll need to leave a knife or something in it before we can leave to find patient zero."
Bon Bon had trained in knives, Trixie with the sniper rifle, and Cherilee with the katana. He had trained them to deal with various types. But this type? It was new even to him. Which was bad. Very, very bad.
"I'll leave one of my kitchen knives in her," Bon Bon said, moving to go to her kitchen before being stopped by Blackdust.
"Rule one..."
"Never travel alone," Bon Bon said without missing a beat. "Cherilee?"
"I'll come, you might wanna check up on Trixie. She had a hard time hitting one of the flyers a bit earlier," Cherilee said as she passed Blackdust to follow Bon Bon into the kitchen.
He simply nodded and moved to the stairs leading up before realizing there was blood coming from behind a door. Lyra's door. "Damn..." He ignored it for the moment and continued up the stairs until he reached the small attic that Trixie was using as her base of operations during the chaos. He tapped on the ground three times before moving his head far enough for her to blow it off. He waited until she tapped three times in turn before moving up.
"How goes it?" He asked her.
"The great and powerful Trixie has missed hitting the annoying pegasus that clearly has a bite on her shoulder but still flys," was her response without even looking away from her perch behind the window.
"Rule two..."
"Never assume one is dead without first inspecting the body. But she landed and ran water over the spot and exposed a bite," Trixie said, looking away for a second.
"Well piss. We could've used a scout..." Blackdust said, looking down as he contemplated the possibilities of the pegasus being one of the few that were immune, or at least resistant to the infection. Not very likely. Out of his entire village, only he survived a bite. But he wasn't going to take his chances just because he survived one bite. On the inside of his left flank. Don't ask how he got bit there.
"That's why the great and powerful Trixie has pinned down one pegasus and kept them from being bitten or leaving," Trixie said, nodding Blackdust over to the window just before three taps came from the attic stairs. Blackdust responded first and sent the taps back.
Shortly afterward, Bon Bon came up with his halberd on her back and said solemnly, "It's done. Now let's go before the one in Lyra's room gets out, ok...?"
"She did come back, didn't she?" Blackdust whispered in her ear after trotting over to reclaim his halberd.
"Yes... Yes she did... But she wasn't the same..."
To be continued...
"NOT COOL DUDE!" *SMACK* I'll tell you the same thing I told Roseshield, STOP BREAKING THIS DAMN WALL!
Johnathan looked at the flaming words in front of him. THE END. "Author... Not gonna smack... Oh." Blackdust said looking up at the title of the chapter. "So I can break the wall?" Yepers. Just like how I let Roseshield break it. "Lovely. What about the others?" Trixie and them? No can do. I'm having Sonata be the focal point of the crossover galore. Now get going!
And with that, a spectral hand shoved Blackdust into the words...
...Only to faceplant on the ground of the warehouse.
"So. You're the first one here. Welcome to the side story of the Balance Books, A Guardian of Dark Lights," Roseshield said, helping the unicorn up off his face.
"Damn you Author. Damn you to tartarus," Blackdust said before realizing what the human said.
"You can see him too?" They said in perfect unison staring at eachother in awe and horror.
"You two mean the Author that Roseshield told me about?" Sonata asked both happy and confused.
"Yeah..." Blackdust said, not taking his wary eyes off of Roseshield as he backed away from them both.
Johnathan Blackdust was a skilled illusionist unicorn. But the trade off for him was that he could not do any other type of magic. It was both hard and easy for him. He could relate to the Earth ponies that came by, but the other unicorns in his village had a hard time trusting him because of how powerful his illusions were. His ability to fool every sense, up and down, left and right, forward and back, touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight, made him a fairly skilled thief if he had wanted to pursue that direction of his capabilities. But he didn't. Instead he focused on what he could do instead of what he couldn't, or rather, wouldn't.
He was able to make fairly decent potions, work on farms with the Earth ponies, and even direct the pegasi on occasion if they needed a hoof on the ground to help them know just how much adjustment needed to be made to the weather to get it accurate again. But despite all that, he always had a sense of- "Get on with it! You're rambling!" Oh. Right. Sorry. *SMACK* And that's for the wall.
Today, however, the sense of foreboding was every where. And everypony could feel it. It wasn't until one pony approached him with a gaping hole in their front left shoulder, that he understood why. The poor ponys cutiemark was grayed out. And their eyes were distant and blood shot. They also had blood coming out of their mouth.
"Hey, are you ok?" Blackdust asked, slowly approaching them despite the feeling getting worse the closer he got. After he was close enough to see that the wound had fly larvae in it, he realized it was too late to run.
Even as the thought crossed his mind, the pony jumped at him causing Blackdust to fall over and almost avoid getting bit. Almost. Instead of biting him on the throat like the pony- no. The ZOMBIE had planned, it bit him on the inside of his left thigh. Too close for comfort to his stallionhood. After he kicked it's head in and carefully getting back to his house on the outskirts of town, not that far from where he was, but once you throw zombies in the mix...
Once he secured the door, he went to the back of his small laboratory and pulled out a regeneration potion from one of the bandoleers he had mounted on the shelves and chugged it, watching his bite mark fade before his very eyes. He sighed as the pain faded but his breath caught a he saw a very distinct scar in the shape of a bite on the inside of his left thigh. He considered using another potion, but thought better of it.
Sometimes, if a potion won't fix it the first time, it definitely wouldn't help the second time around. But that was sometimes. On occasion, a potion can reheal if a wound was reopened when drank rather than caused. But what he couldn't understand was why he had a scar. He started to reach for a book, but stopped when he heard a pounding on his door. Three bangs and then silence. He snuck over to the door and put his ear close to it. Three more pounds and silence.
"He's either gone or dead. Let's go Alfred," came a voice from the other side of the door. It sounded like one of the mares that visited him a few months back.
"I doubt either of those options. Look, his door is shut so tight it's bulging out of its frame a little. And even if it wasn't, when does he ever lock it?" came another voice. A stallion unicorn regular that went by the name of Alfred Bloomheart.
"I'm here!" Blackdust shouted, hoping to keep them from turning and leaving. To confirm that he was here, he unlocked and relocked the door three times.
"There. I told you neither of those were possible," Alfred said to the mare.
"Can we come in, or are we gonna be eaten before you open this damn door, Blackdust?" The mare snapped from the other side of the door.
"Silverflight?" Blackdust whispered, unlocking and opening the door for his visitors to enter. And sure enough, the unicorn master of the bow, Aurana Silverflight was with Alfred... Who seemed to have some kind of a crystal halberd on his back...
"Hey, you gonna let us in or just sit there with the door open so that the three of us can die together?" Alfred said, snapping Blackdust back to reality.
"Yeah, sorry," he said, stepping to the side so that they could come in. He closed and locked the door behind them.
"So. You got bit. How long ago," Aurana
"Damn... I hoped you wouldn't see it that well. But it wasn't that long ago. And I drank a regeneration potion to heal it. Was that wrong?" Blackdust asked, taking note of the looks of fear in the twos eyes.
"Because no matter what we've done, those that are bit, turn. No exceptions found yet," Aurana said without missing a beat, and stepping back and drawing her bow and notching an arrow.
Alfred on the other hoof, stepped closer and whispered in his ear. When he stepped back, he stepped away from a stunned Blackdust. "And now you know. But don't tell."
Blackdust simply nodded. He was a Resolute. One of the few that were resistant or immune to the disease of the zombies.
"What did you tell him?" Aurana asked, pulling the arrow back a little.
"Just something from the previous village that was attacked," Alfred replied. "Something he needed to know."
"And that would be...?"
Alfred turned to her and said one word. "Resolute."
Aurana gasped and stared at Blackdust saying, "There's no way he's a Resolute! He's never been exposed to the infection like us!"
"But I just was... And are you a Resolute? You never did tell me the story behind that mark on your left forehoof," Blackdust said as he slowly came to terms with what he was hearing.
As she was going to answer there came a moaning bang at the door causing all three of them to jump, startled by the sudden sound. They then all looked at one another and nodded to each other. Blackdust moved to the side of the door that would put it between him and the zombie. Alfred drew his halberd and positioned himself behind the door with the tip of it pointed at the door. Aurana drew the arrow back fully and set herself with the bow pointing at the door in case there was more than one behind it. Once they were all in position Blackdust opened the door and in came three zombies.
Alfred was immediately overwhelmed, Aurana released the arrow too early and it buried itself in the door in front of the first zombie, and Blackdust thought he was screwed. 'Damn straight I did.' How the flying fuck did you get on this side of the screen!?! 'Simple. The wall still had a hole.' GODS DAMMIT! GET BACK TO YOUR SIDE OF THAT DAMN WALL! 'Ok fine. I can see when I'm no linger wanted...' Now that that's solved...
As Alfred was stabbing furiously to try and hold the line, he failed to see the third one slip by and start moving towards Aurana. Aurana, on the other hand was completely stunned by the flashbacks of this same situation happening in their old town that they abandoned after they had Celestia completely obliterate it by focusing a beam of pure solar energy on the town, burning and destroying everything in the blast radius. Blackdust, upon seeing this cried out to her hoping to snap her out of her fear induced hallucinations.
Alfred was soon suffering from the same fears. The same PTSD. But as he stabbed one of the zombie ponies in the head, he pulled it back and stabbed again, he accidentally let go and threw it to land at Blackdusts' hooves. He was quickly dragged out by his hind hooves, screaming all the while, to be eaten alive as more zombies filled the house. Aurana fell next as she ran out of arrows and started flailing her bow around.
Doing the only thing he thought possible, he grabbed the halberd and started swinging, beheading the zombies one after the other. After clearing his house of the walking corpses, he decided to leave the village to the destruction of the solar pillar of death he saw gathering above his head. He prayed that it would get all of the infection this time around. After all, he didn't want to be caught up in another situation like this in the new princess' town, Ponyville...
Blackdust stared at the words that were burning in midair in front of him, then turned his head to the skies and sighed saying, "I just got back and this is what greets me... Fuck..."
Needless to say he didn't argue and put his hoof into the words again and wasn't at all surprised to see Rip standing in front of him with two other humans two circles to his rigght and a pegasus with some six winged serpent looking thing in the one directly to his right.
"Hey Blackdust! How ya doin'?" Rip asked nonchalantly.
"I'd be doing better if I wasn't having to fight to the death again. But that aside, how are you Rip?" Blackdust asked sitting down in his circle.
"Can't complain, but he's just using our dialogue to fill space," Rip said, pointing up at the previous text.
"Yeah, but what can you expect? He's ran dry for ideas. It is 9 PM when he's writing this after all," Blackdust said, laying down and rest his chin on his front hooves.
"True. Anyway, this is Wrath and his sealed curse Six," Rip said pointing at the pegasus and six winged thing then turning to the other two humans, "And Alfonso and Anna Herder from Perfect Killers, really great assassins based on what he has planned."
"And let me guess, the next one is Sol from the story we're in right now?" Blackdust asked without looking over at the next circle.
"Nope! That's the last link!" Rip said pointing at the next circle. Written in it was Magic is a Friend.