Chapter 7: Man Are We Bucked
“Hey, uh, it’s time to wake up,” Scootaloo said softly. The filly gently shook Lucky’s front left leg. The brown colt opened his dark blue eyes slowly and looked up at the pegasus. He was still lying on the floor with his right front leg draped over a sleeping Jetstream.
“Oh, okay, thank you,” he replied before yawning. He removed his leg from around Jetstream and gently shook him as well. The white pegasus colt awoke with a start before calming down once he took in his surroundings. Lucky sleepily stood up and looked at Scootaloo.
“I’ll go wake up the next watch,” said Lucky. He wanted to tell Scootaloo to do, well, something to make up for what she had done to Jetstream, but he was too tired to really do anything. He would deal with it in the morning. The brown colt began making his way towards the staircase to the raised walkway with the many bedrooms.
Jetstream stood up to all fours as well and walked over to his stuff. He retrieved the pistol and began putting it back into his saddlebag. Scootaloo stepped forward from behind him.
“Jetstream,” she said quietly. The colt tensed up.
“What do you want?” he asked. He closed his saddlebag and pulled them onto his back. He slowly turned around to face the orange filly. She looked down at the ground and rubbed the back of her mane.
“That I’m sorry,” she said.
“Huh?” asked Jetstream.
“I’m sorry,” Scootaloo said again, still looking at the floor.
“Come again?”
“I SAID I’M….” she snapped her head up to see Jetstream smiling smugly.
“Just messin’ with ya’,” he said, getting a playful punch in response. Then he suddenly had Scootaloo’s front legs wrapped around him in a tight hug. He hugged back, of course.
“But you do accept it, right?” the orange pegasus asked hopefully.
“I accept it,” he replied.
************
It was around ten in the morning, rain pelted the windowed wall and thunder rumbled above them. Everypony was at their spot in the squad room doing their usual work. Well, everypony except Lucky, who was avoiding his work to look at funny videos he had downloaded to his computer. He pulled up another one and watched intently, before bursting out laughing and falling to the floor.
“What’re you even laughing at?” Mist asked from behind him. She looked up at the screen before ending up doing the same actions as Lucky. They stood up again and continued watching the video. Suddenly, the screen started going grainy a couple times before buzzing and going out completely.
“What the…” Mist began saying when the room began flickering. The unicorn filly looked up to see every light in the room starting to go on and off. Many murmurs came from all of the fillies and colts in the room. All the computer screens were going grainy or flashing before going completely black. Suddenly, the lights went off and didn’t come back on. The agents looked around in confusion. The room was now relatively dark, the only light coming in through the windowing.
“Look!” a colt yelled out, pointing a hoof up at the raised walkway. A single silhouette of a figure stood on the middle of the walkway. Lightning flashed, revealing the ragged pony looking down on them all with its whitened eyes. The room went dark again and the thunder boomed. After a second, lightning flashed again, this time there being a whole horde standing all around on the walkway. This scene issued a scream from some of the agents.
“Shoot them!” a filly called out, grabbing up her gun and taking aim at the zombies. Other agents did this as well, arming themselves as quickly as they could. Confidence was soon replaced with terror as a chorus of clicks echoed throughout the room.
“W-w-what in the….t-t-t-there’s no ammunition,” the filly murmured. The zombie ponies climbed over the railing, landing on the ground perfectly on their hooves. They smiled evilly, mocking the terrified fillies and colts as they began advancing on them. The agents dropped their weapons and began slowly backing up. As groups were backed against the wall, the creatures’ evil smiles grew wider. A zombie colt pushed in front of the group of zombies, eagerly getting closer to the group of cowering ponies. Mist, being sort-of more at the front of the huddling group, daringly made one last move. Reaching out a hoof, she slapped the zombie colt hard across the face. The colt turned his head back towards her with an astonished look. After a couple moments, the rest of the horde suddenly burst out laughing and the lights and computers suddenly came back on. The colt pulled a grey wig off his head, revealing the black and whitish blue mane underneath.
“Dang, you may as well have sucker-punched me,” said Buckshot, “Good hit.”
“Uh, thanks?” Mist replied. The rest of the horde began pulling off parts of costumes. Under the costumes, were a bunch of colts and fillies, either wearing the NWU camouflage uniforms and eight-point hats worn by Equestria Naval Guard or the BDU jungle camo and black ball caps worn by those in the Equestria Air Guard.
“You seemed a bit bored today, so we decided to pull a little prank,” said Lockheed, the other leader of Military FCD. “Well really, we were bored.”
“Shut up, don’t tell em’ that!” Buckshot whispered hurriedly.
“Oh save it, Bucky,” said Lucky.
“Don’t call me Bucky,” said Buckshot.
“Bucky!” said Lockheed, causing the navy colored colt to facehoof.
“Whatever, okay see ya’,” said Buckshot. The uniformed ponies turned to leave when the lights and computer monitors began flickering again.
“Guys, the jokes over,” said Buckshot. The room continued flickering.
“Uh, Gauges, I shut the lights off before,” said Lockheed. The electricity went out once again in the squad room, leaving it in the dark again except for the lightning.
“Then, who’s doing it?” asked Mist. As if on cue, many moans were heard right above them along with the sound of hooves on the roof. Suddenly, the floor to ceiling window shattered behind them, the glass raining down on the floor of the squad room. Zombies came from the roof and dropped down to the floor. They focused their eyes on the many fillies and colts.
“Uhhh, Bucky, what do we do now?” asked Lockheed.
“Well, Gunship, we….RUUUUUUNNN!” he yelled. Many of the agents screamed and ran for their lives, tripping over each other as they scrambled towards the double doors. They all made it through, Buckshot and Lockheed slamming the doors shut and leaning up against them. They pushed against the doors when the zombies started trying to force them open. Three other agents began pushing against the doors as well, trying as hard as they could to keep them closed.
“It’s at times like these….” started Buckshot. The doors were forced open a crack and he and the other agents pushed them shut again. “…that I really, really, wish I had gotten that Gatling gun for my birthday.”
“I think you did get one,” said one of the other agents, “but you lost it.” The doors were forced open wider, only to be shut once again. They couldn’t hold the door much longer. Lockheed Gunship looked over at the other FCD agents. They were standing around in the corridor, most of them looking towards the doors in fear. A familiar orange earth pony came through the crowd with a couple agents behind her. It was Applejack.
“Get FCD out of here!” she commanded towards Buckshot and Lockheed. The tan pegasus colt looked towards the many fillies and colts.
“Get to the train, all of you!” he yelled. The agents did as they were told and galloped in the direction of where to get to the train. Suddenly, the doors were flung open, sending the young ponies flying. They fell to the floor but soon recovered and were galloping after the others.
************
“Sweetie Belle, power up the engine!” yelled Buckshot as he jumped into the locomotive. The agents that had held the doors shut hurriedly boarded the train. Within under a minute, the train crashed through the busted gate to the Canterlot castle and was steaming down through the woods.
“How did they even get in?!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle. Buckshot pushed the throttle lever one gear up, and then suddenly looked up to the windshield of the train. He could see a reflection of something in it, something outside the train and flying. He put his head out the window, to see thousands of zombie pegasi following the train, while flying.
“They’re chasing us!” Buckshot screamed.
When you work for the ZPTF, your life can get screwed up in so many ways, but in this special scenario there’s only one thing I can say……..Man are we bucked.