ooo000---000ooo
It was dark...
Really dark and I could barely move; my side was stinging like a bad crash through some trees, or I got kicked real hard by one of Fluttershy's animals.
I guess I landed near her cottage again, stupid, I could never stop myself from crashing over there for whatever reason.
It was my curse, I guess.
I tried opening my eyes, and it was hard to do. I managed after a few tries, but I regretted it right after when a bright light shone into my eyes. Loud noises filled my ears; crickets, murmurs, worried voices. I think I heard Fluttershy’s voice, timid and scared as always.
“Rainbow?” I heard her say.
Flutters...
“Rainbow?”
Crap, I must have messed up big this time...
“Rainbow?!”
My eyes shot open and everything suddenly came crashing back down to reality. I felt the stinging pain in my sides, the blinding ache in my wings, the sweat covering my body. I was being dragged across a smooth floor, and someone was pulling me.
“Wa-wa-wake u-u-up a-a-anytime n-now!”
That wasn’t Fluttershy.
Everything was a blur, flashing lights. My vision forward, I saw blurry shapes, brown and dark reds with gross smells along with them. And I heard growls, moans...
“Dash!” That guy’s voice, the one I met... Dustin? “Wake up! Wake up, girl, come on now! We gotta move!”
Everything cleared up for me after a few shakes of my head, and...
Suddenly I wish I was still asleep.
It was a darkened bloody hallway, turned over chairs and weird beds on wheels, flickering lights and this... creepy feeling surrounding everything. And right down the hall, barely lit up by the lights and packed tighter then a six pack of cider were dozens of those monsters.
Zombies.
“O-oh buck!” I don’t know how I managed it, but I was able to scramble onto my hooves. “Ahh!”
“Come on!” He yelled seconds before I heard a loud BOOM sound from him.
“Yah!” I yelped at the loud bang and started galloping down the hall, almost slipping on something and knocking over a chair. “Buck buck buck!”
Dustin panicked and ran right behind me, yelling, "Just go! Run run run!"
"I a-am running!" I screamed back.
"Well run faster!"
I can barely move as it is! I don't remember what happened. All I could remember was flying up to try and find that road, a loud boom sounded and suddenly I was... falling? Shit, I... I can't remember. Right now though, I had bigger problems on my hooves.
My body was feeling so freaking sluggish and all of my movements were off; whatever had happened to me was messing me up, bad.
Trying to stay awake was hard; my vision kept blurring in and out and my ears were ringing like a bad punch to the face. I could barely breathe and everything stung, making it hard to keep running and not pass out.
"Wha- -ove now!"
I blacked out for a brief second, leaning against the wall... or a cart?
"-hit!" Everything was so slow, was I even moving?
A pair of arms wrapped around me, and suddenly I felt weightless.
"-old on tig- -I'll ge- -elp!"
I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer...
ooo000---000ooo
"Rainbow?"
With a gasp, my eyes opened up.
I saw a pair of blue eyes staring into my own, that worry flickering around in them like starlight.
"Rainbow, are you okay?" Fluttershy's sweet voice filled my ears with that one question.
I felt better now, truth be told.
"Y-yeah," I gave her a little smile and nod, and she returned it.
"I was wondering if you fell asleep," She tittered, sitting back and laying down next to me. Her smooth pink locks of her mane fell down on either side of her head, like sheets of silk. Those pretty pink tipped wings of hers were nestled at her sides, perfectly and delicately preened. Fluttershy always did take good care of herself.
"Ahh, well..." I rolled onto my side to face her, flashing her a little grin, "You know how I am~ I like my power naps!"
She giggled again, hoof held to her mouth. It was this cute little noise that only she could pull off. "I could tell," Her lips pulled back into that sweet smile of hers, "I almost didn't want to wake you up."
Gah... Flutters. My grin fell back into a little smile, "Eh, I don't mind." I shrugged. Truthfully, I really didn't mind much that she woke me up, it was better than that dream.
BOOM
I was startled a little by that and so was Fluttershy, she yelped as I looked up into the skies. Dark clouds loomed overhead, covering the once blue sky. I narrowed my eyes.
I don't remember there being a storm scheduled for today.
"R-Rainbow?"
Turning back towards Flutters, I was about to tell her we should head inside...
But when I turned to her, her cheeks were sunken in, her eyes growing bloodshot and gray, her mouth opened in a pained wheeze. Her pristine fur, wings and feathers, her mane, all of it looked ragged and rotten.
"F-Fluttershy?" What was wrong with her?!
I didn't get to ask her before she lunged at me.
"AHHHH!"
My eyes opened, I shot up on whatever I was laying on and looked around, ears trying to pick up anything. Where was I?!
"Hey, whoa now," I looked to my left, body shaking and I saw him... "Don't move so much."
The monkey thing, Dustin.
He was standing next to whatever I was lying on, eyes looking down at me with the same look Fluttershy was giving me... worry.
"You lost a lot of blood," He told me. It was only after he told me that that I felt so weak, like a bad night of drinking too much cider. "I patched you up as best as I could, but it's a temporary fix at best."
Glancing down at my body, I saw ripped up cloth wrapped tightly around my barrel stained with blood. I hesitantly poked it, wincing when it stung. "W-what happened?" I couldn't remember.
What did he want to be called, Dee, I think? He took a seat in a nearby chair, sighing and saying, "You were flying up to try and find that highway I told you about, so we could get out of the city." He looked over to me, eyes bloodshot. "You found it but... you got shot down by someone, I'm thinking a sniper or something got you in his sights and took the shot."
Sniper? "The heck is a sniper? And shot with what, an arrow?" It sure as Tartarus didn't feel like an arrow had hit me, but... I don't exact get hit with arrows often.
"Err, not exactly." He scrunched up his weird flat face a little, "You got hit with a bullet. If I had to guess, I'd say it was maybe a seven six two round? I have no idea."
I gave him a look, I was so clueless! What on Equis was he talking about? "A bullet? Seven six two?" I was getting confused, this sounded like some nerdy egghead stuff Twilight'd be burying her head in if she was here.
He stroked the patch of hair on his chin, eyes narrowing. "Basically a piece of small metal, propelled by gunpowder and fired from a gun," He reached behind him and pulled out a piece of black metal. His hands pulled on the top part, sliding it back with a click noise and causing a piece of brass metal to pop out. Dee caught it, and held it up, "One of these, but more pointy and bigger."
I eyeballed it and thought, one of those hit me? It was so tiny! How could one of those mess me up so badly? "Seriously? It's so small!" I didn't believe it... no way did something that small take me down.
"Yeah, seriously," Dee just nodded, putting the 'bullet' back into the weapon. "Better consider yourself lucky, if that bullet had hit any of your vital organs... we wouldn't be talking right now."
My eyes drifted back to my side and the makeshift bandage. My coat was stained with blood, now that I could see it more clearly. The cloth was also pretty bad, dark red with all of the blood it soaked up.
I didn't feel so good looking at it either; I felt sick to my stomach, weak, and I could barely move without feeling something wrong. My mouth was sticky and dry, my sides ached, and I felt like I was seconds from throwing up. Shame Twilight wasn't here, she could probably do something about this...
"Oh jeez." I held a hoof to my mouth and glanced around the room I was in.
I don't remember how we got here, but I guess he carried me in here after I fell or passed out.
The room was pretty big and had a lot of hospital stuff everywhere; charts and graphs, those weird little plastic things that showed you the inside of your body, lots of books that had titles I could barely understand. The whole color of the room was pretty plain, about as plain as a doctor's office or hospital could be. The only bright colors were a couple of books sitting nearby... looking at myself, I was probably the most colorful thing in the room.
I looked at where I was laying and saw I was on a hospital bed, stained with blood...
My blood, I hoped.
He was sitting next to me on a chair, holding that... 'gun' I guess and looking around. I still didn't have a clear idea of what he was. He said before that he was a human or something, and his name was Dustin. "W-what exactly are you?" He turned to look at me, giving me a better look at his face.
I guess he was kind of average looking—his skin was slightly pale from what I could see; but most of it was covered by all of the clothes he was wearing, a bloodied shirt and blueish pants, and some shoes. On his head, a bright orange hat sat, casting shadow across his face. He ended up taking it off after a moment, revealing his face.
Hazel green eyes zeroed in on my own, bright and curious. A patch of hair sat on his chin and some grew around his mouth, almost scraggly looking. He also had a lot of freckles, almost like that farmer pony I saw in Ponyville, heh.
"I told you before, but... I'm a human," Dee told me, leaning back in the chair and causing it to squeak, "I'm from Arkansas, originally, one of the fifty states of the country I was born in."
"Human..." I murmured; I think I heard that before from but I don't know from where. It sounded so familiar, maybe my mom told me? She always did like reading me weird storybooks from authors I didn't even know. I gave Dee another once over, but he didn't really look like the ones my mom had described in those books; he was pale skinned and had dark colored hair, the ones she told me about had colors like ponies almost.
"Yee, human," Dee nodded, rubbing his chin and still looking at me. He looked so strange to me... tall and pasty skinned, long arms and those spidery hands of his. "And I know what you are, if only from my world's mythology and legends, a pegasus." He snapped a finger and pointed at me, smirking, "Greek mythology, actually."
"W-wait, pegasi are a myth?" I scrunched my face up, doesn't that mean-
"Yep, so you're technically the only one in existence right now," Dee cut off my trail of thought with that. I was seriously the only pegasus in this world? "As far as I know, anyway. Not sure how you ended up here, but if any other ponies like you do like you did, then maybe there're others here... hopefully that's not the case."
"You're telling me..." I sniffled, laying my head down for a tiny bit and glancing over to him.
Dee rose an eyebrow towards me, "Whaddya mean?"
I shrugged a little bit, sniffling against the scents of the room hit me; old medicine and blood. "A lotta ponies aren't like me..." I thought back to my last few moments in Equestria, before everything went dark for me and I... I guess I ended up here? "I'm the only pony in Equestria that can pull off a sonic rainboom," He looked at me now, leaning forward in that chair he was in.
"Whew, damn," Dee swept his hand across his face, wiping away some beads of sweat. His eyes had a bit of a curious twinkle to them, and his lips pulled back into a bit of a frown as he looked at me.
"Yeah... and on top of all of that, I'm planning on joining the Wonderbolts and stuff, heh," The zombies filled my mind all of a sudden; their groans, the rotten smell, the blood... I involuntarily shuddered at the thought of them. "I don't think a lot of ponies would be able to survive if they were here."
I didn't know how many of those monsters were here, and yeah they were slow... but we almost died back in that pawn shop; getting cornered like we did, if I didn't kick down that door.
Dee patted his knees a few times and leaned back in his chair, he took his hat off and ran a hand through his messy brown hair, eyes looking up, "Maybe, but... well, you have four legs and a pair of wings, the zombies have two legs and are slow as hell. I think ya'll would do just fine," Looking back down towards me, he gave me a smile, kind of like the ones I've seen that AJ give me.
I looked down myself. 'Everythin'll be alright, sugarcube, trust me on that.' she'd tell me whenever I was looking down. She was a strong looking earth pony, that's for sure... could probably take on a whole bunch of these zombie freaks no problem!
"Everything'll be a'ight," I heard Dee tell me. I looked back towards him; he was leaning forward a little and his eyes were brighter, lips pulled back into that smile, causing his freckles to pop out a bit more on his cheeks. "Trust me on that, if there's one thing I can promise... it's that we'll both get out of this alive, yeah?"
I felt a bit of a flutter in my chest when our eyes locked again—from the way he said that, I didn't feel as... well I didn't want to think it, let alone say it, but I was kind of scared about this whole thing. But now? I... I didn't feel so scared anymore. It still lingered, yeah, but it wasn't as bad as before.
I managed a tiny smile, "Yeah..."
Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.