//------------------------------// // No Time Left: Founded // Story: The Mane 6 And Lee Everett // by Can-dees_Murder_Weapon //------------------------------// Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Kenny were all waiting at the mansion. Fluttershy and Applejack sat patiently on one of the couches in the lounge whilst Rainbow was getting anxious about the others that had gone. Too many people were either leaving, splitting up or being taken. They never should've decided to split up in the first place. Rarity should have never volunteered to go scavenge for supplies and Pinkie had left to help Lee look for Clementine. How could she be sure that they would come back? It's been a whole day since Rarity left, Twilight had searched endlessly for her and she said she hadn't found a single trace of her anywhere. Where could she have possibly gone? Did she leave the city? Was she forced to? Thinking about the possibilities only brought more stress to the rainbow pegasus. She wasn't able to force herself to stop thinking about it, considering the only thing that they were doing was waiting for the others to get back. So, to stop thinking about it; was close to impossible. It seemed as though, Fluttershy and Applejack were the only mentally stable ones left; after everyone that had transpired over the past few days, it was a wonder to think how they were both still managing to keep themselves together. Ever since they arrived, their magic was slowly draining from them. Back at the st. Johns the first human encounters that tried to attack them, Twilight had threatened their lives in order to get her friends back; something she had never done back in Equestria. Pinkie had continuously ridiculed her friends, letting her anger on them. Tired of being stuck in the world. Truth was, she was hoping for an adventure and it seemed like one the first time they arrived but the more things she witnessed, experienced; that excitement soon turned into disdain. After losing Duck, she fell into a depressive state and that was when she began to lose touch with her element. Rainbow Dash had attacked her friend simply out of anger. She had gotten into confrontations before but she'd never attack them. She even threatened Applejack for stopping her when she wanted to go after Twilight. It was strange, they had been in bad situations before and not once did Rainbow threaten her friends but in this world? The only ones who were managing was Fluttershy and Applejack. With Rarity gone, it was just them two. You had to wonder how long it would take before they would start to lose touch with their elements... that's if they haven't already. "What are we gonna do?" Rainbow Dash suddenly asked. Applejack and Fluttershy both looked at her with slight frowns. "What do ya mean? What? About Rarity?" The country pony asked. "No, about the boat. I saw how small the it is, it might not be able to hold all of us." Rainbow came over, standing in front of both ponies. "The boat did look a bit small," Fluttershy added. The country pony paused, adding up the amount of people and ponies in the group. Assuming that they'd make it back, That would be way too many people for the boat. "Well... ah dunno. We'll figure it out, when everybody gets 'ere." "I wish we were home," Fluttershy softly muttered. Aj sighed. "Ah do too, Fluttershy. Ah do too." "I wonder what's going on back there," Rainbow added. "Does anypony even know where we are?" "Of course, they do Dash. It ain't like we just vanished in the middle of tha' night." Aj sarcastically remarked. "But seriously, ah'm pretty sure nopony knows where we are." "So... t-this is our new home now?" Fluttershy muttered. A few moments past, Aj exchanged a look of uneasiness with RD. "Ah... a-ah guess so Flutters." "Do you think we'll find Rarity today?" "Ah don't know but maybe Pinkie'll bring'er back." "That was just weird," RD interjected. "What do you mean?" Fluttershy curiously asked. "Like... why did she want to help? She was bullying us yesterday and now suddenly she's like, oh I wanna help now?" "Maybe she felt guilty?" The yellow pegasus offered. "Yeah well, whatever it may be, she-" "What the fuck 're you doin' 'ere!?" Applejack was cut off by Kenny, he shouted from the backyard. The three ponies all glanced at one another before sprinting over to the backdoor and into the backyard. Upon exiting, a gunshot was suddenly fired; echoing throughout the yard and onto the streets. Lee gingerly sat up and rubbed his eyes. "W-what... what happened?" "You... fainted," Christa answered. She waited for a moment. "We were waiting for you to wake up so we can talk about what we're gonna do about the bite." Lee gave her a confused look. "Do about it?" "They were talking about cutting off your arm," Pinkie clarified. Lee stilled before looking around the group. "They"- the mare gestured to the three other humans. -"Were talking about cutting off your arm. I wasn't, I stopped them." A slight grin came to the mare's face. "It might save your life," Christa reasoned. "Don't listen to them, Lee. They're being silly." "It could save his life!" Christa snapped. "He already fainted so I'm guessing the walker-virus-infection-whatever it is, has already spread to-like further than just his arm." "We're leaving it on," Lee calmly interrupted, silencing everyone. The tension was quickly diffused by his answer. Walkers were still outside the room but were no longer pounding on the door. Everyone stood silent, mulling over in sympathy for their friend as they were forced to come to terms with his decision. "Are... are you sure?" Christa softly asked. "Yes," Lee answered, making sure that his word was final. Christa sighed. "Alright. Are you good to walk? We still have to find a way outta here." "Yeah, I'll be fine." Pinkie watched as the man climbed off the autopsy table. "Hey! Guess what, you know that door me and Lee found? I almost got it open." She walked off in the direction with the others following behind her. She stood to the side while the others looked through the gap in the door. "Did you do this?" Lee asked. Pinkie nodded. The man walked past her, he gripped both of the slide doors and pushed them open. The room revealed was dark, and had an echo to it. The elevator hatch was empty aside from the scraps of junk on the dirty floor. To the right was a ladder that led all the way up to the top floor of the building. After climbing up the ladder, the group continued down a short narrow hallway with a door at the end of it. Lee opened the door, stepping through. Pinkie was behind him and she discovered quickly that they were on top of a roof. The pink mare quickly glanced around, noticing a few things. On the wall behind her, there was word painted in white that read "No Help". A near empty paint can that consisted of the color white, sat near the wall next to a ladder. There were also white vents that came from the exit and ended in the middle of the roof. Pinkie walked over to the edge of the building. The hospital provided quite a view, as they were able to see the Crawford tower in the distance. The streets below was infested with walkers, every direction, every exit was filled. The sight of the walkers, brought a shudder to Pinkie's chest. How in Celestia's name were they going to get through all those hordes? If no diversion presented itself, it was going to be extremely hard - if not, impossible to get through them without a scratch. Not to mention, trying to stick together. Hopefully Rarity was fairing decently. One day they've been separated for, was the group still alive? Was Lilly alive? Pinkie couldn't care less if she was alive or not, which was strange but then again; she didn't care for much at all in her time being in that world. "Those Crawford bastards did one thing right, I guess," Christa's voice interrupted. "Did they follow us here?" Ben asked, coming up on the ledge leaning over to take a look. A thought had crossed Pinkie's mind. Maybe I should kick him off. She chuckled lightly to herself. Just imagining him "accidentally" falling over the edge was funny to her. "No, that would be crazy." The woman turned, facing the teen. "They don't track, they just roam." "Yeah, but if you make noise that's when they'll follow you." Pinkie stepped away from the ledge and stood next to Lee. "What do we do now? We're pretty much trapped up here, actually." "We need get off this roof as fast as we can," "That's... great thinking Lee!" Pinkie's voice was laced with sarcasm. "Thanks, Pinkie Pie. Actually, do you have any suggestions?" "Yeah, let's jump off the roof. That way, we don't have to run through the streets." Pinkie gave a cheeky smile. "Well, that's... morbid," Omid replied to which Pinkie merely shrugged. "O...kay then. Why don't we look around? Maybe there could be something that might help us get off this roof." Lee suggested. "Good idea," Ben praised. The group went off in separate directions. Christa and Omid went to the east of the roof. Lee and Ben, to the west; leaving Pinkie to wondering wherever the wind blew. After a few minutes of chit chat and idle wondering, Lee had suggested getting over to the bell tower over on Omid and Christa's side. The gap between the hospital and the bell tower wasn't that wide, fortunately. Pinkie looked over to the ladder, an idea popping into her head. "Hey! Think we can use this?" The mare glanced around the group. Lee came up and stood beside her. "Yeah, we could use it to get over to the tower." The man picked it up, walked over to the edge of the building and carefully layed the ladder down. The end of it, touching the tower. "We could use that bell tower to attract the walkers." "Attracting walkers? Great... so who goes first?" Omid bit the inside of his cheek. "I-I think I should go." Ben reluctantly volunteered. "Hey yeah, I think Ben should go. Come on, Ben let's go." Pinkie began nudging the teen closer to the edge. "Now, hold on now." Lee stepped toward them. "If we're deciding who should go, it should be the guy who's got the least to lose." "Aaaaand Ben is the perfect candidate!" The mare smiled, turning to Christa and Omid. "Christa has Omid and Omid has Christa." Pinkie then turned to Lee. "You have Clementine and I have my friends so there for Ben-" "Ben is too young," Christa interrupted, as always. This was becoming a constant occurrence for her. "So?" "So, I don't think he's the one that should be going!" Pinkie scoffed with a fake smile. "Christa, stay out of it. Okay? You're being silly again." "At least I'm not the one treating her friends like dirt." The mare stilled as she stared the woman with an unreadable expression. She didn't look angry nor did she look irritated by that statement. "Alright, enough." Lee intervened. "I'm going that's that. Any more questions?" When he was met silence, he nodded and turned toward the ladder. He began climbing up the unstable ladder. Whether it was stable or not, this was the only way to get down from the hospital roof. He tried to keep his gaze on the ledge of the bell tower and not death sentence down below. Suddenly, he heard a light ting and the ladder shook vibrantly. Immediately after, it began to descend and Lee quickly climbed up the rest of the ladder just narrowly avoiding death. The ladder had fallen down the crevice, landing on a walker head. "Holy shit! That was close!" Omid exclaimed. "Are you alright!?" Christa shouted. "I'm fine! J-just...no, I'm not fine." Lee slowly peered over the edge, of what could've been his tomb. "Shit." He muttered. "Are you gonna ring the bell!?" Pinkie asked. "Yeah, yeah just-needed to relax for a bit." "Oh okay, take your time! It's not like Clementine is missing or anything." Once Lee had gathered his composure, he approached the large rope going from the roof to the floor. He pulled on it and the bell began to rang. They could faintly hear the growls of the walkers growing louder as more approached the building. "So, what happens now?" Pinkie asked. There was a pause. "I guess I'm gonna have to jump it!" Lee replied. "Good luck!" Lee let out a shuddering sigh before he backed up to the other side of the edge, getting a better run up. He started running, just before reaching the edge, using every single morsel in his legs, jumped off the building. On the brink of death, he managed to grab the ledge of the hospital building, pulling himself out of danger. He bent over. "That was close." "I'll say but I knew you had it in you!" Pinkie offered a cheeky smile. Once Lee was ready, the group made their way over to the hospital stairs and down onto the street below where it was now empty just as it was when they first arrived. After passing a few blocks, the group slowed down to walk. They checked through multiple, various buildings throughout the city for Twilight and Rarity but it all had been futile. It must've been in the afternoon, well Pinkie felt like it was at least. Christa had suggested that the two ponies could've made it back to the mansion while they were gone. As they were passing a another church, Pinkie couldn't help but notice a purple figure hunched over by a set of stairs, leading into the church. The parking lot of the church was nothing short of a messy, gut-wrenching bloodbath. Dead walkers scattered all over the blood coated, concrete ground. Limbs, arms, legs, decapitated heads were a common factor. It was like stumbling into a serial killer's playground. As she got closer to the figure, being careful to not step into any splat of blood or any piece of a rotting limb that was decaying on the ground, she realized that the purple hunched over figure was her friend. "Twilight!" Pinkie shouted and ran to her but began to slow down once she saw the horrifying state the unicorn was in. Blood, gunk, disheveled mane. Strands of hair poking out. Blood trails all over the mare's fur. It was like approaching a lion that had just got done devouring it's meal. Pinkie could see that the mare was still breathing but she was still hunched over. Her head hanged, her disheveled mane covering her face. She slowly got closer to her friend who didn't acknowledge her presence. "T-twilight?" The unicorn stopped, her breath hitched, the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling came to a halt as she slowly tilted her head toward the source of a familiar and comforting voice of her friend. Her eyes in a haze of red as if she had been crying. "Pinkie?" She softly whispered. Seeing her friend in such a fragile state, made Pinkie feel like the worst pony alive. With memories that had occurred not too long ago, came rushing back to her. With how she had been treating her, constantly taunting her and saying it was her fault. To attacking her friends, not just verbally but physically too. She couldn't handle her grief so she took it out on her friends, now she was witnessing first hoof of what she had caused. "T-Twilight, are... are you okay? A-are you hurt?" She worriedly asked, taking another look at the mare's grotesque figure. The unicorn didn't respond right away. Her eyes trailed down to nothing. "I-I'm okay... f-for now." She admitted with such defeat. Pinkie turned, sparing a glance at the others who were all patiently waiting a few feet away. She turned back to her friend. "Okay... so, a-are you able to walk? Do you need any help?" "N-no," the unicorn simply answered. After a moment, Pinkie solemnly nodded and backed up for Twilight to move. The unicorn finally arose and walked over to the group, silently with her head slightly hanging. Something was wrong with her, obviously Pinkie had shrugged it off as the unicorn being in shock. It was clear that the unicorn had slaughtered all the walkers in the parking lot, so it was to be expected but what she couldn't ignore was the fact that she was responsible for this. Pinkie had caused this, if she hadn't of gone off on Twilight the way she did, she wouldn't of ended up here. She wouldn't have had to kill all of these walkers. Thank Celestia that nothing bad happened to her, she could've been bitten or at worst killed! But right now, Pinkie couldn't see any injuries aside from being completely drenched in, not only walker blood but organs too. Hopefully, when they get back to the mansion the shock would wear off. Pinkie hated seeing her friend in such a hopeless state and knowing she was the cause of it? She'll do whatever she needed to help her get better.