Minutes were passing and nopony dared to speak. It’s been some time since the trio reached Zecora’s house. Rarity didn’t know if she should feel safer now; she has always felt awkward around the zebra. Her company was better than that of ponies eating each other though – at least for now. Seconds after the thought had left Rarity’s mind Rainbow finally managed to start talking, still having terrible images stuck in her head, but desperate to find answers.
‘So what?’ she asked, looking at Zecora with anger. For the last few minutes she has been ignoring her guests. Both had been sitting there in awe – the zebra just minded her own business, cleaning the shelves and taking an old book from one of them.
‘Stop being impolite, you’re like a parasite. Why everyone should flee? I’ll show and you will see.’
Zecora put the book on a table and opened it. She was searching for the right page as the two concerned ponies approached, unsure of what they would discover. They leaned over zebra’s shoulders, trying to make out shady letters on paper yellow because of its age.
‘Outstanding quality’, Rainbow muttered, rolling her eyes. Rarity didn’t pay attention to her and kept staring at the dirty pages with disgust, waiting for some answers to come.
‘Are you blind or can’t you read? Ponies are diabolic seed. Now they’re harmful, calamitous, waiting to do something vicious… No defense, no one will hide, a tragic end towards us strides.’
‘The haaay…?’ asked Rainbow, putting as much disrespect as she could into her voice. Rarity had been about to do her drama queen pose but she decided to listen to Zecora’s reply first. Also, the floor didn’t seem to be too clean and there was no place for her beloved sofa in the tiny hut. She stayed quiet and stared at the zebra. Finally, she spoke.
‘What hero are you, filly, my dear? It should’ve already become clear. The dead are rising to live again, now in Equestria they shall reign.’
‘The hay?’ The cyan pony repeated, less confident now.
‘Decipher that and you will understand, even though it’s really hard to comprehend.’
The zebra left Rainbow Dash and Rarity and began taking care of herself again; the two ponies looked at each other, feeling scared and insecure.
‘Should we…?’ Rarity whispered. Her voice sounded as if it belonged to some other pony, it lacked the usual confidence. Normally, she would speak in this special, fabulous way of hers – forming each vowel with pietism, making sure everypony noticed her good manners and thought well of her. But now, she was making words come out of her mouth as fast as they could, as if she was afraid something terrible would happen before she could finish what she was saying.
Rainbow just sighed and started reading the book. It’s never been her thing, she couldn’t understand how sitting still and looking at letters could be fun for ponies. She loved moving, flying, being in a rush, taking advance of possibilities her wings gave her. She kind of yearned for all her poor, poor friends who were unable to fly; Fluttershy also counted with her fear of everything including taking to the air. Rainbow thought of her as a little bit ungrateful to the most amazing gift anypony could ever receive from fate, fortune, princess Celestia or whoever was responsible for this.
This time, however, for the first time Rainbow didn’t get bored with reading. Making out shady letters that held secret of the mysterious events that had happened right in front of her eyes seemed exciting; with every paragraph she was getting more and more scared, but at the same time every word she read, everything she learnt made her more likely to survive. She was eager to read as fast as she could and every time she had to blow dust of the book’s old pages, every time she finally had to blink, every time something distracted her – she felt as she always did when she was forced to leave the sky and stick to the ground. She had no time to carefully think of the information the book was giving to her, it just kept flowing through her mind. Rainbow wasn’t sure if she was too absorbed by reading or just didn’t want to understand how the stuff she was reading about would affect her future life.
Because “the stuff she was reading about” was nothing but horrible. At first, she hadn’t wanted to believe in such nonsense – undead ponies, dying and then awaking to bring chaos and confusion to the world, making it a never-ending calamity. However, after a minute or two she understood that it was the only logical explanation – one she would never believe if she didn’t see the evidence with her own eyes. And she did. The undead were supposed to turn after getting bitten; it was the thing that could infect them. Afterwards, they wouldn’t think nor feel anything – no love, no fear, no insecurity. No pain. No memories. Perfect machines designed to spread the infection as fast as possible, as effectively as possible.
‘Finally a match for me.’ Rainbow Dash smirked.
‘You… you wouldn’t… You are not being serious, now, are you, darling?’ Rarity had her eyes wide open, looking at her friend in awe.
‘Why wouldn’t I be being serious? Now I know what it’s all about. It’s like a challenge, this new world… Do you imagine all the chances for me to do something heroic? Beware, undead ponies, for Rainbow Dash will not let you hurt her friends!’
Rarity had already opened her mouth to try to dissuade Rainbow from saying such things when she understood it actually wasn’t that bad. The most loyal of all ponies has always wanted to defend ones she loved at all costs. Now her characteristic trait she had lost after encountering the undead was back and Rainbow Dash has become Rainbow Dash again, getting out from marasmus she had been stuck in. Having thought of it, Rarity closed her mouth; a small smile formed on her lips. Suddenly, she felt more secure and confident, more like herself. Her friend was right, if what they had read was true, there was no point in plunging into despair. The world has changed and they couldn’t have done anything; now they couldn’t be this helpless. They had to take the law into their hooves and undo every harm that could be undone, understand everything that could be understood, help everypony that hasn’t ran into safety yet. It was high time they took care of themselves
‘Indeed’ Rarity smiled. ‘Indeed, Rainbow Dash, you will not.’
She hugged the surprised pony and felt everything she had acknowledged find place inside her mind. There was a new world to discover in front of her, a new world to conquer and to make her home again, and she didn’t have to deal with it on her own.
***
Rainbow Dash simply couldn’t manage to lie still. She has been listening to Zecora’s snoring and Rarity’s slow breathing for what seemed to be ages and she just couldn’t take it anymore. The floor she was lying on was uncomfortable even though she had put some blankets on it. There was too little space; she was sure she’d break something if she moved an inch. Furniture was everywhere around her. One of her wings had gotten stuck between chair legs and Rainbow was afraid she’d wake everypony up if she tried to set herself free. Apart from feeling physically awkward in this strange, foreign house, she knew she shouldn’t just lie here waiting for a miracle to happen. Book she had read made her feel more secure – the danger was there, indeed, but at least she knew how to deal with it now – but it wasn’t enough. It was time to find out more about the enemy, to check if her friends were alright, finally, to kick some ass!
She began moving slowly, gently, trying to free herself as quietly as possible. After a few minutes she managed to do it and grinned with joy; it was time for Rainbow Dash to do something cool. Something like…
Rainbow put her hoof on the doorknob and slowly pushed. Everfree Forest’s silence welcomed here, as spooky as it’s always been, not impressing the bravest of ponies though. However, that night something was off. She looked around her; everything seemed to be alright. She couldn’t hear anything except of her own heart beating. She wanted to do something to add herself some courage, she wanted to spit on the ground or taunt an invisible foe, but she didn’t feel secure enough to violate forest’s sanctity. Smile disappeared from her lips as she carefully closed the door behind her and stretched out her wings. She felt her muscles tighten and bones crack; it felt really good to be able to move again. Rainbow Dash took off into the air, slowly, watching everything around her. She didn’t feel like doing tricks, she just wanted to leave the forest as soon as possible, something prevented her from doing so though. She couldn’t understand all the contrary feelings. The forest didn’t let her speed up, she kept flying higher and higher at slow pace, trying to reach trees’ tops and finally find herself in the place she was meant to be in – the sky.
Having left the forest, Rainbow Dash finally started feeling better. All the open space around her almost made her forget what had happened; ponies may have changed, the whole world may have done so too, but the feeling she always experienced when she flew has stayed the same. The forest below her was less dense now; she must have been reaching its borders. Sweet Apple Acres. Rainbow felt alarmed; up till now, she hadn’t really thought about her best friends, she just took for granted that they’d be alright. It was easy to be so sure when all the other ponies were far away. Now, however, as she was landing on the field next to Applejack’s stable, she got pretty scared. There was no noise coming from any building; no light, either. Nopony in sight. Rainbow Dash assured herself there was no need to worry and started walking towards the stable’s door.
‘Nothing to worry about…’ she murmured and pushed the door open. Moonlight from behind her seeped into the room, making Rainbow Dash able to make out dark shapes inside. A big barrel was there, moving; something trapped under it kept moaning and growling, apparently trying to set free.
‘Anypony here…?’ Rainbow wanted to yell, but her voice betrayed her; only a quiet squeak left her mouth. She blushed and tried again. ‘Is there anypony here?’
‘Eeeyup.’, she heard quiet whisper from somewhere far back inside the stable.
‘Big Mac? You there?’ Rainbow Dash asked, walking in his direction.
‘Eeeyup…’ he said again. She saw him slowly draggling towards her.
‘Did they… did they bite you?’
Silence counted as another eeeyup, Rainbow Dash guessed. She wasn’t sure if it was that bad; in the book Zecora had given them, it was written that earth ponies were the most resistant pony species; the strong, healthy ones could heal minor wounds and not turn, while for unicorn ponies any contact with a zombie could end tragically, even if it only scratched them, not even using their teeth. Pegasi were situated somewhere in the middle and Rainbow thought it was simply perfect; not too easy to survive, but also not making her unable to fight. A challenge.
‘Come on, Mac’ she said. ‘We’ll find our way back to safety, okay?’
He gave out a small smile and nodded. Having him cooperate, Rainbow looked at the barrel, still moving and shaking in every possible direction. Big Macintosh stiffened, seeing what his savior had in mind.
‘Is it big?’ she asked. This time the answer was a slight shake of his head. She grinned. ‘Then it’s time to finally kick some ass.’ The book assured her the undead were actually dead, absolutely, inevitably dead, with no memories, no personalities. Just corpses. She had no compunction when it came to dealing with mindless killing machines. Apparently, the only way to kill the bastards was to severely damage their brains. It didn’t really sound… inviting, but Rainbow Dash knew she would have to kill to survive and this time was as good to start as any other. She grabbed a shovel that had been leaning against a wall and tried swinging it in the air a few times.
‘Step back’ she said, grinning to cover the sudden fear that struck her. Was it really the right thing to do? Maybe she should leave the undead foal alone? But if she was to hesitate now, wouldn’t she get herself killed in a situation of real danger? Now she could control the situation and score her first kill with no problems. At least she hoped so. So it was time.
She kicked the barrel, releasing the raging colt; it rushed in her direction, and she was just about to attack, when the foal stretched out his wings and leaped into the air, flying.
‘The hay…?’ she whispered, sounding as if she was about to cry. The bastards could fly!? She’d just keep standing still if it wasn’t for Big Mac; he pushed her so the colt couldn’t reach any of them, he just missed and flew farther, stopping after flying a few meters more. His reaction woke Rainbow up; she stood in an attacking position again, wielding her shovel as if it was a sword, and when the foal tried to hit her again, she swung her weapon, chopping his head off. She closed her eyes when blood splattered in every direction including this of her face; feeling the warm liquid all over her, she knew she wasn’t going to look at the foal’s now-really-dead body. She just wiped the blood off her face and looked at Big Macintosh, her eyes showing no feelings at all.
‘We’re outta here, Mac.’
And they left Sweet Apple Acres, closing the stables doors shut, hoping to find some more ponies alive in their beloved town gone mad.