“Look. He’s waking up.”
“Yes, I can see that, Moon.”
Sunny could hear voices. They spoke confusing and disconnected words, but they were about him, or at least he thought they were. He opened his eyes and immediately closed them against the blinding light, turning his head to the side and letting out a quiet groan.
“Is he okay?”
“He was okay yesterday. Nothing has changed.”
Sunny opened his eyes again, this time a little more slowly. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the light, but it wasn’t long before a white room came into perspective. Not surprisingly, he was in a hospital bed. Something had happened. Maybe Willow was doing more tests.
Willow and Moon stood looking at him like a pair of anticipating and slightly hungry animals.
Sunny blinked and looked back.
“Uh... hi.” He gave a half-wave of his forehoof.
“How are you feeling Sunny?” Moon asked
“Okay I guess.” Sunny really didn’t know how he was feeling. Tired? There was a blanket over him. He reached his head forward and pulled it off. Several tubes ran from an IV stand down to his foreleg, which led him to his most important question. “Why are there needles in me?”
Willow snorted. “Well we had to feed you somehow. We could have put a tube down your throat but most ponies don’t like to wake up like that.”
“Wait, what?” Sunny wasn’t quite sure about the look on Willow’s face. “Why did you need to feed me?”
“You were asleep for quite a while,” Moon added.
“How long?” He didn’t like the sound of that.
Willow shrugged. “About three weeks.”
“Three weeks?” He pulled the IV from his leg. How had he been asleep for three weeks? Last thing he remembered was being in confinement.
“That’s what I said,” Willow drawled. Moon shot the white mare a glare. “Turns out after nearly dying of suffocation, your body put itself into something very similar to a coma; it had something to do with the virus in your system as well. Your body basically went into emergency shutdown mode. I could have caught it earlier and prevented your little nap but I was… away.”
“You mean asleep,” Moon spat.
Willow glared back. “Look I was in bad shape. Okay!”
“He almost died because you needed a nap!”
Before Sunny knew it, the two mares were now nose and nose with each other.
“Wait, wait, wait?” Sunny cut in before the mares could start an argument. “I nearly died? Again? A third time? After I nearly suffocated?”
Willow backed away from Moon and chuckled nervously, rubbing her muzzle with a forehoof. “Well. Technically... you died.” Sunny balked at her. “But only for a minute,” she added hastily.
“I died?” This was ridiculous. He had been living normally all his life and now all of a sudden he had been bitten, held in confinement for being bitten, suffocated, and then killed and brought back to life. Well, he assumed they had brought him back considering he was definitely, not dead.
“Your heart stopped a while after we brought you in here.” Willow threw a sideways glance to a brooding Moon. “She was the one that noticed it. If it hadn’t been for Moon you would be dead.”
Sunny couldn’t think of anything to say. His mind was still reeling. He had died! He had been not-alive for however long it had been. Just the thought of it felt stranger than the effects of a healing potion. He had actually been dead... then brought back to life again! Just thinking about it felt wrong.
Moon looked sheepish. “I was sitting in here... you know, thinking. I noticed some warnings on the machine. I knew they were bad considering they were red and blinking—obvious stuff.” She chuckled. “So I went and got Willow, who was able to do her… Willow things before anything else happened. I’m just an under-trained pediatrician. These kinds of things are really out of my league.”
Sunny smiled at Moon. “Thanks.”
Willow coughed, drawing a curious glance from Moon. “I wouldn’t recommend that.” Sunny had tried to roll over, but Willow planted a hoof on his belly. “You haven’t moved for three weeks. Give yourself a little while to recover.”
“Come on. I haven’t moved for three weeks. I can’t just sit here.” Sunny shrugged Willow off and rolled off the bed. Instead of the desired effect of landing on his hooves and standing, the second part of his plan failed him as his hooves buckled below him. His muscles stung and screamed for a good second or two, then next thing he knew, he was on the floor.
He tried to pick himself up but fell back to the floor. The two mares giggled at him as he flopped around on, trying to get his hooves under him, irritation building by the second. After another three tries Sunny finally gave up. His limbs might as well have been rubber. Even Moon was having a good laugh, despite her normal serious nature.
“Aren’t you supposed to be helping me?” Sunny looked pleadingly up at Willow who only laughed harder.
She leaned up against Moon for support and stomped one forehoof, shaking her head. “I don’t see anything wrong with you,” she teased. “As far as I can tell you’re just flopping around like a fish to entertain us.” Both mares cracked up and Moon flopped down next to him with tears in her eyes. Willow lost her balance and landed on top of her.
“What is so funny about this!?” Sunny half screamed, trying once again to gain his hooves.
This was a rather awkward awakening—waking up to find out he had died and come back to life. Now there were two giggling mares rolling around on the floor while he could only watch. “How long am I going to be like this?” he asked a cackling Willow.
Willow pulled herself together long enough to give a response. “Day or two,” she chuckled. Sunny tried to climb to his hooves one last time but failed miserably. With nothing else he could do, Sunny stopped trying to get up. He sighed as the two mares laughed at him. He didn’t understand what was so funny. He had just fallen down... four times.
Well, at least the two were getting along.
* * *
“Do you have any idea why Willow is calling us to a meeting in the middle of the night?” Sunny asked Moon as they walked down the semi-dark hallway.
Moon shrugged. “It’s Willow. Don’t expect me to know.”
It had been three days since Sunny had awoken in the recovery room. Nothing had really changed while he was in his coma-like thingy; Willow had said something more medicine-y but he hadn’t really been in good enough shape to care what it was she was talking about. Ponies still sat around with nothing better to do but act scared and bored at the same time. Mindless zombie ponies still wandered around outside in what he assumed was an attempt to find a way in... or maybe they were just wandering. They really didn’t seem to have any motives other than to try and take a bite out of whatever moved.
He wondered why they didn’t attack each other—like there was some strange way they knew whether or not you were one of them. Just thinking about it was enough to send shivers down his spine. If this really was an apocalypse, he had thought it all wrong. This was boring. Sure he was alive, and that was what mattered most. But being alive was almost... boring. Sometimes he would find himself wishing something would happen, only to strike the thought down. If something happened, it was going to be bad and that was the last thing they needed.
He knew they wouldn’t be able to stay here forever—that was obvious, but not thinking about it was much easier. Nopony liked to think about the day when they might die. Strangely, it didn’t seem like a pressing matter. One would think possible death would be rather high on anypony’s agenda, but really, it just felt like a thing that was coming, like that monday on the calendar where you had to pay bills but didn’t have the money—you knew it was bad and you knew you had to do something, but you just sat back until monday anyways.
Moon stopped walking, one hoof still in the air. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.
“Hear what?” He silently took back his thoughts of something happening. He didn’t want anything to happen.
“Listen.” Moon held perfectly still and Sunny did the same. The hallway was dead quiet. But now that he listened, Sunny could hear something. One thing was for sure: it was getting closer.
“I think it’s above us,” he whispered, looking up at the roof. It sounded like it was coming from the vents, definitely somewhere ahead of them. As it grew closer Sunny could hear the sound of metal banging and groaning.
Neither of the two moved as the sound passed over them and continued on down the hall.
“What was that?” Moon was crouched low to the ground as if she were expecting something to spring at her.
“I don’t know... Something big.” Sunny shivered. Now that he couldn’t hear it anymore, it seemed almost worse—like something was sneaking up on them. Sunny looked at Moon, who looked just as unsettled as he was.
“You don’t think that—” Moon started but Sunny cut her off before she could finish.
“Don’t say it. I don’t know. Come on, we need to get to that thing... whatever it is Willow wanted to do. We can tell her about it when we get there.”
“Right.” Moon gave herself a shake and they started down the hall again.
Sunny could tell that Moon was scared—he was scared even. They passed the elevator and set off for the stairwell; Moon said Willow had shut down the elevator to conserve energy, that and the lights, and the life support systems, but not Sunny’s; he’d gotten a guilty pleasure from that revelation.
The two climbed up to level five and left the stairwell. Another hallway stretched away in either direction. They turned left towards the room Willow had told them she’d be in. Sunny watched the walls. They were white. Maybe somepony could have painted them. They only painted hospitals all white because that’s what ponies thought clean looked like. That’s why all of those buildings were always painted white. Sunny frowned. That couldn’t be the only reason. Maybe white was comforting to most ponies. Or maybe white paint was just cheap.
“There you two are!”
Moon squealed and Sunny nearly jumped clear through the roof. Willow stood looking at them from an open doorway, an impatient look on her face.
“Don’t do that, Willow!” Sunny gasped. “It’s creepy enough around here without you jumping out at us.”
“I wasn’t creeping. I was just standing here quietly.” Willow shrugged. “Come on, everypony else is already here.” She turned around in the doorway and entered the room. Sunny and Moon followed.
The room was rectangular. White walls, of course. A rectangular table sat in the center and fake plants filled every corner. Three ponies sat around the table. Sunny recognized Brick and Dusty, but there was purple-maned, gray unicorn he didn’t know.
He took a seat across from Dusty, and Moon sat down beside him.
Willow walked around to the head of the table before taking her seat. “I’m assuming everypony knows why we’re here,” she said, then smirked. “I always wanted to say that.”
From the baffled looks she received, Sunny was pretty sure that most of them didn’t. The gray mare sat patiently as if she already knew what was about to be said.
“What ah’m wonderin’ is why you made me come up here when ah could be sleepin,’” Dusty jabbed.
Willow shot him a glare. “Because I didn’t want anypony else to know we are having a meeting.”
“So I’m assuming this is important?” Sunny asked raising a hoof; Moon batted it out of the air.
Willow nodded. “Yes, very. That’s why I have called you all here to speak with me.” She looked around the table at the five ponies. “We’re leaving.”
Dusty and Moon immediately burst out in protest while Sunny just balked. The gray unicorn looked a little surprised. The only one who didn’t seem to care was Brick, his expression remaining flat.
“Are you crazy?” Dusty gaped. “Why the hay would we want to leave?”
Moon was gazing at Willow as if she had suggested they all start eating foals. “I don’t see why you would want, or even need to leave. Have you looked out a window? Those things are everywhere out there!”
“Yeah, I’m sorry, Willow,” Sunny added, “but that sounds absolutely insane.”
Fire seemed to glow in the white mare’s eyes. “I know how ridiculous it sounds, but hear me out. I have been checking up on things, and I think that if we don’t leave now, we may not be able to leave later.” Now that she had everypony’s attention, Willow waited for one of them to interrupt.
“Go on,” Dusty chided. “You got all this attention. Now make do with it.”
Willow took a deep breath. “Yesterday I went around and checked the building’s resources. The three main ones that I was worried most about were water, food, and electricity. Some of the other staff members and guests noticed me snooping around. I think that they’re getting suspicious. But we’re in bad shape. At our current rate, the remaining food in this building is going to run out in about a week.”
“What?” Moon burst in. “You said this building was stocked for two months. We’ve only been here a little under one.”
“Exactly.” Willow sighed. “For one, we’re over occupancy. And I think ponies have been stealing food. I’m not the only one that thought of this place running out of food. It was pretty obvious. I’m pretty sure everypony has thought it at some time or another.” Willow looked around at the now-worried looking ponies. “I have also been speaking with Snowglobe, and according to her, that generator down there is only going to be running for about another two weeks.
“Well, give or take a few hours.” The gray mare shrugged
Willow shot a look to her. The gray mare glared back and stuck out her tongue. “Snowglobe, a few hours isn’t going to make a difference.” She looked back to the rest of them, her eyes worried and serious. “Here is where the problem is going to come in. We have about two weeks of power, and only one week of food.”
“I think I see where this becomes a problem,” Sunny said. He had heard stories about ponies who had ran out of food.
“Exactly!” Willow stomped her hoof on the table. “Ever heard of what happens when a group’s food supply runs out? A riot. Ponies will start going to the extreme just for the tiniest scraps of food.”
“She’s right,” Dusty added. “Ah saw it happen to a town further south a’ here. A lot more cut off than others. The food was shipped monthly to the town by a group of caravans. Well one time the shipment never arrived an’ ponies decided to wait it out. When they finally realized the shipment wasn’t comin,’ and that there was hardly enough food left to leave for the next town, ponies damn near killed each other just for what was left. The place was fit to explode by the time the next shipment made it.
“When ponies get hungry, they get nasty.”
Moon frowned. “But, you think ponies would try and work together to survive in a case like this?”
“Moon,” Willow looked at the blue mare, “I know you’re nice and all, but you can’t be such an optimist. The second somepony sounds the alarm on the food supply, and trust me, it’s going to happen, this place is going to go downhill really fast. That’s why we need to get out before it does.” The room was completely silent. Everypony was looking at one another just waiting for one of them to speak up.
Finally Snowglobe broke the silence. “Why did you pick us? I mean there’s like sixty other ponies here to pick from.”
Willow actually smiled. “Two reasons actually. One, you were the only ponies in the building I knew and felt I could trust.”
“Aw, how sweet.” Moon smiled fakely.
“None of your sass,” Willow snapped at Moon. “And two, because if we are going to get out of here, then we’re going to need ponies who can hold their own.”
Willow wasn’t addressing anypony in particular anymore—she was speaking to all of them as a whole. “From what I have seen so far I’m saying that Sunny and Moon can cope considering they were the first to discover the virus, and neither of them flipped out. I specialize in medicine, so that asset will prove useful if any of you manage to get savaged by something. Dusty is the only one here with any decent weapon training. Am I correct?” Dusty nodded. “Snowglobe is our fixer pony.”
“Gee thanks,” Snowglobe muttered. “I’m the fixer pony.”
Willow ignored her. “And Brick is... Well, he’s Brick.”
As Willow finished Moon seemed to boil beside Sunny. “So let me get this straight.” She spoke slowly, irritation seeping into every syllable. “You put together a group of ponies who would leave with you without even checking to see if it was okay with them first? Or even if they wanted to go?”
Willow banged her hoof on the table. “Would you rather die? And that’s the main reason I called you all in tonight—to see if you wanted to. But I can tell you this... if you stay here, you are going to die. There is no maybe. The food will run out. And you will either be killed by a mob, zombie ponies, or starvation, maybe even all three at once if things get really bad.”
Moon opened her mouth to retaliate but Sunny laid a gentle hoof on her, feeling a twinge uncomfortable. “You know she’s right. Just leave her alone and stop trying to cause problems.” She turned to look at him. “Please,” he added. She glared for a moment before looking down at the table.
“Ah’m with you,” Dusty said. “Things are gonna hit the fan, and ah’d rather be away from it when they do.”
Snowglobe spoke up. “I’ll go. I’ve been working this building on and off since I was a filly. I don’t want my life to end here.”
“I’m in,” Sunny added.
Moon nodded. “I’m in too.”
“Perfect.” Willow clopped her hooves together.
“What about Brick?” Moon asked.
Willow looked at the brown stallion. “He’s Brick. He goes anywhere I go.” She shrugged. “So it’s settled. We leave tonight.”
“Tonight?” Moon gasped
“Uh, ah’d hate to butt in here. But how do you expect to get out?” Dusty asked.
Willow pointed a hoof at him. “I was waiting for somepony to ask that.” She gave a little nod to Snowglobe.
Snowglobe cleared her throat. “Well, as you probably already know, this place used to be an establishment under the control of the Royal Equestrian Army. This building was used for the experimentation of medical…” She threw a glance to Willow, who just shrugged. “…of whatever they did. They did some weird stuff here. And like every building ponies do weird and secret things in, they left themselves an escape route. Well I know where it is. I found it, two years ago.”
Willow took over. “Snowglobe told me about it. It’s down in the basement. Big heavy metal door.”
Snowglobe nodded. “I don’t think it’s ever been opened but it’s still hooked to the electrical grid. That’s the other thing. That door’s electrical. So if we lose power, we lose our only means of escape. But as far as I can tell it all works. All you have to do is throw a switch and it opens... Theoretically.”
Dusty stood up, apparently satisfied. “Okay then, what’s the plan?”
“Is there a plan?” Moon looked accusingly at Willow.
“I was getting to that.” Willow waved a hoof in Moon’s direction. “If we’re going to leave, we need medical supplies, food, and preferably, weapons.”
“Ooooh! I have a shotgun in my room.” Moon looked like a foal about to present their show-and-tell project as she waved her forehoof in the air.
Willow gaped at Moon as if she had just changed colors. “Really?” Moon nodded and Willow snorted with laughter.
“Really!” she defended as Willow dropped her head on the table. “I got it from a pony outside.”
Willow regained herself and gave her head a little shake. “Wow, okay.” She chuckled one last time. “We need to get out of here before daylight. The last thing we need is ponies waking up and seeing what we’re doing.” She pointed a hoof at Snowglobe. “You go with Moon to get that gun and get down to the basement as fast as you can. Sunny and Dusty will head to the second floor and take what they can from the pantry. And me and Brick will stock up on medical supplies.”
“Wait a minute,” Sunny said. This didn’t sound right. “We’re going to steal from the already dwindling food supply?”
Willow sighed, closing her eyes. “Look, it’s going to run out no matter what. The point is, we need food. The only thing we’re doing by taking from the pantry is speeding up the process a little.”
“But if we leave they’re going to die.” Sunny knew this wasn’t right. He wanted to leave, but he couldn’t just leave all these other ponies here to die.
“Fine,” Willow groaned tapping her hoof. “I’ll leave a note explaining the situation and how to work the override for the barriers. I’m sorry, Sunny. I feel just as bad about this as you do, but there honestly isn’t any reasonable way to try anything without killing ourselves. Just look at the way the ponies in the square acted. The ones in here are probably going to act the very same way... It’s them or us.”
Sunny thought about it for a moment. He felt bad for even thinking it, but Willow was right. No matter how much he wanted to save those ponies there was no easy or rational way to do so. But Willow’s plan did make sense—tell them how to open the gates so they could at least get out to get eaten rather than die of starvation in here... No, that wasn’t right. There had to be some other way that they could help these ponies. It felt wrong to just abandon them. There was no way they could all come with them to the basement. The bigger the group the easier it was to get into trouble, Sunny knew that just from what he had heard and seen. Theoretically, he knew a lot of things. He had never really experienced many of his thoughts and ideas. But they were there; maybe a few were open for experimentation later on. But no, taking them was a bad idea. From what he could tell, Willow’s idea was the best... as immoral as it was.
“Come on, Sunny.” Dusty gave him a nudge. “Let’s get going.”
Willow stopped them before they could leave. “I want everypony down there in an hour. If you’re not there by then, I can’t leave you behind so I’ll have to go up there and get you. And if that happens then your rump is mine for a week.”
Dusty nodded seriously, but Sunny couldn’t help but to chuckle. “Ouch!” Willow snapped the orange pegasus across the muzzle with her tail. “What was that for?” Sunny rubbed his nose. Ouch. Willow was good at that.
She smiled. “For being you. Now get going.” Dusty and Sunny turned to leave and the two started down the hallway.
“Hey Sunny?” Willow called.
“Yeah?” He trotted back to the mare. Snowglobe and Moon were talking about something that they both must have found interesting on the other side of the room, leaving Willow alone to speak with him.
“Don’t be too late.” She smiled mischievously.
Sunny gawked. “Wait, what?” He glanced over to the other mares who still weren’t paying them any attention. Dusty had continued down the hall without turning to look back.
“Stop standing around.” Willow pushed him forward. “Get going. One hour, Sunny!”
“Right.” Sunny turned and took off after Dusty.His mind was still reeling when he caught up with the light blue pegasus.
“So what’s the plan?” Sunny asked, trotting next to Dusty.
He shrugged. “Well as ah see it—get to food storage, get as much food as we can carry, and get to the basement.”
Sunny chuckled. “Well that sounds like a good plan.”
“What?” Dusty looked at him defensively. “It is a good plan. Just keepin’ it simple.”
Sunny was really starting to miss the elevator as they descended the three flights of stairs to the second level.
“I need some saddlebags or something,” Sunny said as they pushed out onto the second level.
“Don’ worry,” Dusty drawled. “They most likely have a pair where they keep all the food. Gotta move it all somehow.”
Sunny knew by now that the cafeteria was just down this hall. Hardly any light filled the dark passage. Along with the elevator, the hall lights had been turned off as well. Now, only a single fixture shone brightly midway down the hall ahead. Sunny definitely needed to find himself something to carry food in. Dusty would be good—his barding covered most of his flank and hindquarters. Sunny chuckled; there were enough bags on his barding to steal the whole hospital.
“What’s so funny?” Dusty turned to look at him, his eyes shadowed in the darkness.
“Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if you could have anymore carrying space on that barding,” Sunny teased.
Dusty frowned. “Lookin’ at our current situation ah’d say mah bags are pretty handy.”
They had reached the cafeteria. Dusty turned and pushed through the door and Sunny followed right behind.
“We should have asked Willow where they keep the food,” Sunny muttered.
Dusty nodded towards the counter. “Ah’d bet it would be somewhere back there.” He trotted across the room and hopped the serving counter. Sunny followed him. Dusty crossed over to a door and tapped a hoof on it. “Ah reckon this is it.”
Sunny came up next to Dusty; the door had a plaque labeled ‘Food Storage’. He gave it a push but it stayed firmly closed. “Think we should have asked Willow for the key?”
Dusty rolled his eyes. “Move.” He pushed Sunny aside and pushed on the door.
“What are you going to do? Ask it nicely to open?” Sunny scoffed as the light blue Pegasus gazed coolly at the lock.
“Pretty much,” Dusty muttered. He pulled his revolver from its leg holster with a quick snap of his head and fired a single shot into the lock.
Sunny jumped. “Are you crazy?” he scolded quietly. A single hole was blasted clean through the center of the lock. “Everypony in the building must have heard that.”
Dusty reared up and planted his hooves on the door. There was a little crack and the door swung inward. “Worked didn’t it? Not like the lock was high quality.”
Sunny nickered. “Let’s just get that food before somepony decides to come and see what that sound was.” Sunny pushed past Dusty into the dark room and hit the lights. Cans were stacked on shelves all around the walls. Pallets and empty boxes lay on the floor in the center of the room. Willow wasn’t kidding. They really were almost out of food. Most of the pallets and boxes were empty. Really the only things left were the cans and a few bags of wheat and corn.
As Dusty had predicted, there was a set of barding hanging on the wall just inside the door. Sunny pulled it down and slipped into it. He shrugged; it wasn’t that bad, actually pretty comfortable considering he wasn’t used to wearing anything more than the occasional satchel. It even had places where he could slip his wings through. The barding covered his flanks, the black material clashing with his orange coat but blending with his mane.
Dusty, who had been looking around at some of the shelves looked over to him. “Oh how nice,” he teased. “You found some bardin’ that matches your mane.”
“Now that you mention it, it kinda’ does doesn’t it?” Sunny trotted over to the nearest shelf. “It doesn’t have as many pockets as yours, but it’ll do.” He flapped his wings, frowning a little as they rubbed on the reinforced denim and polyester mix—the bags would probably impair flight, not that it really mattered to him.
He took a can in his mouth and dropped it into one of the bags. Dusty started doing the same on his end of the room.
“These ponies are terrible,” Dusty huffed. “Where are the cinnamon apples? All they got here is...” He peered at a can. “Asparagus soup with diced celery. Who in their right mind would willin’ly eat this stuff?” He glared at the cans and scooped some more of them into his barding.
Sunny added a few more, not really paying attention to what they were. “What do you think’s going to happen once we get out there?” he asked.
“Ah wish ah knew.” Dusty continued collecting cans, sweeping them into his bags with his wing. “All ah know is that that pony ah shot off you was ravin’ mad an’ he wasn’t even that far gone yet. From what ah can guess, it’s not gonna be anythin’ pretty.”
Sunny stopped collecting cans and looked over that the light-blue pegasus. “Thanks, Dusty.”
“For what?” He stopped as well and looked over to Sunny. “What are you thankin’ me for?”
“For saving me.” Sunny looked at Dusty, now feeling quite awkward. “If you hadn’t shot that pony off me in the street, I would have died out there.”
Dusty shrugged and swept a few more cans into his bag. “Don’t mention it. If ah see somepony in trouble, ah can’t just sit back and watch it happen. Besides,” he added. “Ah’m the one who should be thankin’ you.”
“What?” Sunny shot Dusty a curious look. What could he possibly have to thank him for?
Dusty chuckled. “Well, if you hadn’t gone and gotten your leg eaten, ah’d have never even spared you a second glance. Remember how you asked me to fly you to the hospital? If you hadn’t of made me take you here I would’a been left out there with the rest of them.” Dusty shrugged and went back to filling his bags. “Ah’d be dead.”
“Wow,” Sunny trailed off staring at a can of applesauce. “Never really thought about it that way.” Dusty didn’t respond, so Sunny swept the applesauce into his bag and moved on to attack the corn. He remembered that flight now. Had he not been in a state of panic and pain, he probably would have squirmed out of the pegasus’ grasp. Damned haphephobia.
“Did you hear that?” Dusty whispered. Sunny looked over to see the pegasus poised perfectly still. Although his head didn’t move, his eyes darted all around the room.
“Hear what?” Sunny asked.
“Listen,” he whispered. Sunny tilted his head to one side, trying to hear whatever it was Dusty was hearing. His ears perked as he picked up the sound. He knew that sound. It was the same sound he had heard in the hallway with Moon earlier.
Sunny crouched low to the ground. “Dusty, it’s in the roof,” he whispered.
Slowly, Dusty’s eyes rolled up until he was looking at the tiled ceiling above him. He shook his light brown mane away from his eyes. “What do you reckon it is?”
Sunny opened his mouth to say something but the roof above them groaned. “What the hay?” Dusty drew his revolver and pointed it at the ceiling. “Thumfins up there,” he murmured around the handle in his mouth. The ceiling sagged and the two ponies backed away.
Sunny yelled as the entire ceiling collapsed, sending plaster and whatever else was up there raining down on them. He watched as Dusty disappeared behind a sheet of raining plaster.
* * *
Moon and Snowglobe trotted down the dark hallway side by side, tossing anxious glances around.
“You would be the last pony I would expect to have a gun,” Snowglobe said from beside Moon. A bright green glow emanated from her horn, lighting their path.
“That’s a cool trick.” Moon nodded towards the gray mare’s horn in an attempt to sway the conversation. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
Snowglobe looked puzzled for a moment before looking up at her horn. “Oh, that. My mother taught it to me when I was just a foal. I was afraid of the dark, so...” A blush hinted her cheeks. “She showed me a way to make it go away—comes in real handy when working with maintenance.”
“I bet,” Moon marveled. “I wish I knew how to do that.” Moon thought back to when she had been in the dark hallway. It would have been nice to know that spell then. She counted off the numbers on the doors as they walked on.
“I could teach it to you some time if you’d like.”
“Really?” Moon asked, smiling.
“Yeah. It’s not that difficult.” A lock of her purple mane fell into her face. Snowglobe tossed her head and flipped it back with the rest.
“Here,” Moon stopped in front of her door. “Give me a minute. The gun’s in here.”
“Kay.” Snowglobe sat down and turned off her horn.
Moon pushed through the door and turned on the light. The shotgun still sat on the dresser where she had left it. She pulled open one of the drawers and levitated out a set of saddlebags. Moon slung them across her back and filled one pocket with the twenty or so shotgun shells. She levitated the gun in front of her, looking it over. She didn’t know much about guns but this one looked like it must have been made for unicorns only. There wasn’t a firing bit on this one like the pistols had, and it was much too long for an earth pony or pegasus to hold in their mouth. There was just a mechanism that she could easily pull with her magic. She pressed a little lever on the side with her magic and the gun split at the middle. Two shells inside popped halfway out. She didn’t know much about guns, but she knew enough. This was a double barrel. She levitated out one of the empty shells and examined it. Twelve gauge, one of the big ones. She pulled out the other shell to see that it hadn’t been fired.
She continued to stare at it. After the unicorn outside the gate had given her the gun she had never unloaded it. It was scary to think that she had been sleeping next to a loaded gun for weeks. She returned the unfired shell and replaced the empty one, then snapped the breech closed and it gave a satisfying metallic click. Moon had no idea why, but she liked that sound.
She turned and headed towards the door, the loaded gun enveloped in her magic. She kind of understood how Snowglobe did her horn-light thingy. The magic from her horn was casting blue light across the walls. Maybe the spell had something to do with just using magic. She shrugged; Snowglobe could tell her later. She flipped off the lights and pushed through the door back into the hall.
“Snowglobe?” Moon couldn’t see the mare anywhere. The only thing she could hear was the creepy banging in the vents she and Sunny had heard earlier. “Snowglobe where are you?” The darkness was starting to get to her again. Something moved in the edge of her vision, and without thinking, she swung the butt of the weapon. There was a ‘thwack’ and the little shape darker than the rest cried out and thudded to the floor.
“Ouch,” moaned the shape on the floor.
“Snowglobe?” Moon asked.
“You hit me in the face,” she groaned.
Moon helped her up. “I’m so sorry. You snuck up on me.”
“Can you hear that sound too?” Snowglobe asked. She wobbled and leaned up against Moon for support.
“You mean in the roof?”
“Yeah,” Snowglobe groaned again. “Jeez, Moon... You hit me really hard.”
“Sorry,” she apologized again, blushing. She hadn’t meant to hit her. Well, technically she had, but that was before she knew that Snowglobe was Snowglobe... Thinking back on it, who else could it have been? “And yes. I do hear those noises. And I think we should get out of here before we find out what they are.”
“Right.” Snowglobe took an unsteady step forward. “Let’s go.” The two started forward, Moon still helping Snowglobe as they walked.
“Think you could get that light going again?” Moon asked.
“Maybe.” Snowglobe closed her eyes and bowed her head. A faint green glow erupted from her horn. It shone for a second then flickered out. She tried again and the light returned. It wasn’t as bright as it had been before. But it stayed. “There we go.” She gasped. “It’s a lot harder when your head’s still spinning cause somepony hit you with a gun.”
“Sorry,” Moon muttered for a third time. The stairwell was just ahead now.
Something banged in the vents above them and both mares squealed.
“There’s something big up there.” Snowglobe shook and pressed up against Moon.
Moon would have found it awkward, had she not been scared as well. She couldn’t see anything beyond Snowglobe’s circle of green light. Moon pulled back the hammers on her shotgun and Snowglobe turned to look at her. Something was going to happen—she could feel it. And it wasn’t just her freaking out in the dark this time. As if her thoughts had called it, a crash sounded somewhere down the hallway ahead.
“What was that?” Snowglobe crouched low to the ground, eyes gazing with fright down the dark hall ahead.
“We need to get to the stairs.” Moon nudged Snowglobe to her hooves and they started slowly forward. They made it a good thirty feet before Moon heard the rapid pounding of hooves ahead of them. She raised the shotgun and Snowglobe crouched down again.
“Keep that light going,” Moon whispered.
A pegasus appeared in the circle of green light and threw itself at Snowglobe with a screech. Snowglobe shrieked as the pegasus neared her. Not even sure if she was doing it right, Moon fired both barrels and the pony reversed direction in midair. It flew backwards and bounced off the wall, leaving crimson streaks in its wake. The recoil of the gun knocked it out of Moon’s grasp and it clattered to the floor.
Snowglobe stared wide-eyed at the still shape on the floor. “I-is it dead?” she squeaked.
Moon levitated the shotgun up from the ground. “I think so. I’m pretty sure I fired both barrels into it... I didn’t even know you could fire both barrels at once.” The gun felt like it had kicked her in the brain. “Now my head hurts,” she added.
Snowglobe scoffed. “Oh you poor thing. It must feel like somepony hit you with a gun.” The shape on the floor twitched and Snowglobe shrieked, pedaling backwards until she fell against Moon.
The bloodied shape rose to its hooves—well, three of its hooves. The maimed shape lumbered towards them, then fell on its face. What were these things? Moon cracked open the shotgun and replaced the old shells with new ones. The mangled pegasus rose to its hooves again and Moon raised the shotgun. She fired, being careful to only pull one trigger this time.
It didn’t get back up.
“We need to get going.” Moon pushed Snowglobe away; the gray mare seemed to be trying to hide underneath her. “I bet you everypony in the building heard that.” The two headed forwards again, stepping around the dead zombie pony on the floor. A moment later they reached the stairwell.
“How did they get in here?” Moon gasped as they descended the stairs. She was shaking. It was hard enough to help Snowglobe down the stairs without tripping and falling over her own clumsy hooves.
“It sounds like they’re in the vents,” Snowglobe replied.
Moon stumbled but Snowglobe held out a hoof and caught her. “Thanks,” Moon started down the stairs again, this time with more care.
Snowglobe nodded, then frowned. “There’s definitely more than one of them. I’ve been hearing those sounds all over the building today.”
The stairs stopped at level one. Moon looked around for a door, or something that would take them down further. “How do we get to the basement?”
“This stairwell doesn’t go to the basement.” Snowglobe trotted over to the door and pushed it open. “Basement access is across the lobby.”
“Is there anything out there?” Moon asked.
Snowglobe stuck her head out the door and looked around. “Nope. Nothing that I can see.” Moon trotted up to look out beside her. Snowglobe didn’t exactly clarify; nothing that you could see seemed pretty broad. She couldn’t see anything at all.
Cautiously they both left the stairwell and proceeded to cross the lobby. “Just have that gun ready,” Snowglobe murmured as they walked slowly through the darkness.
Moon looked at her. “You think they’re down here too?” Moon glanced around nervously. She could see some light now. Two white roof lamps shone over the check in desk, casting bright white light down on the floor around it.
“I don’t know.” Snowglobe didn’t sound too confident about anything. “The ventilation runs everywhere throughout this building. If they’re on the levels above us all it would take is for one of them to find a vertical shaft and they’d end up down here.”
“Oh, that’s nice.” Moon chuckled. She looked up at the ceiling to make sure there weren’t any zombie ponies jumping out at her. How were these things even getting in here? Willow had said that this building was built by the REA—it wasn’t like somepony had just opened a window for a nice breeze and accidentally let them in. And why the ventilation?
“Hey Snowglobe?” she asked.
“Yeah?” she responded.
Now that Moon thought about it, Snowglobe looked really creepy doing her horn-light thing. It cast shadows over her eyes while the rest of her face was illuminated in the light so that it looked green. “Do you have any idea how they could have gotten in?”
Snowglobe frowned. “I have a hunch. The intakes for the ventilation are on the roof. That pony we saw was a pegasus.” Snowglobe tilted her head to the side. “Do you think zombie pegasi can fly?”
Moon thought for a moment. “I think so. Willow told me that the virus kills a unicorn’s magic. But I don’t see why a pegasus wouldn’t be able to fly after they... turned.”
Snowglobe nodded as Moon spoke. “That makes sense. But here’s what I think—I think this building was made to keep things in, not out. We’re doing it backwards. So I’m guessing they’re getting in somewhere on the roof.” Snowglobe stopped. “Sweet Celestia... look at them.” They were near the check in desk now, under one of the two roof lights.
Moon followed Snowglobe’s gaze to the barrier at the entrance. “Well they definitely know we’re here,” she muttered.
Dozens of them were milling around outside the barrier. Some of them were unmoving and quiet, but others were staggering around letting out guttural grunts and other noises that may have once been words. One of the more active ones spotted the two ponies inside and threw itself against the metal grate. The rest copied the first one and piled up against the barrier as well.
Snowglobe stepped closer to the gate and cringed. “What could do this to a pony?”
“Snowglobe, I wouldn’t get too close if I were you,” Moon warned.
The mare ignored her; she moved closer still until she was less than a foot away. “I wonder what they’re thinking.” A pink mare snarled and snapped at her through the metal grating. She shoved her muzzle through the gate until blood blossomed from where the metal dug into her skin.
“What the hay do you think you’re doing!?” a voice called. Moon jumped and Snowglobe backpedaled away from the gate and fell on her rump. Moon looked back. It was the lime-green wagon pony. She hadn’t noticed him when they approached; she had been too busy looking at the ponies outside. He sat in the back of his crashed wagon with a yellow mare.
“What are you doing here?” Moon gasped, still frightened from the sudden shock.
“What does it look like?” the green pony scoffed. “Making sure nopony steals my things.”
Snowglobe cocked her head. “You could be sleeping in a bed... What do you have in that wagon that’s so important?”
The two earth ponies in the wagon exchanged a glance, then mare spoke up. “Look, I don’t know who you two are, okay, but I know what’s going on. Things are about to hit the fan. Just look at the signs, they’re clear as day. The power saving, the food rationing. We’re almost out of resources and you know it.” She looked at Moon and Snowglobe who gazed steadily back. “I knew from the moment I saw that white mare have a breakdown in the square we had to leave. She was just like the ones from Canterlot. That’s exactly what happened to them before they ended up like the ones out there.” She pointed a hoof towards the barrier. “After what happened in Canterlot, it was obvious that civilization is dangerous.” She glared at the green pony next to her. “But somepony thought it would be a good idea to stop and try to warn ponies in the town ahead.” She scoffed. “Now look at the shape we’re in. We’re trapped in a dying hospital with at least a thousand of those things milling around outside. Well I’ll tell you this, we aren’t going to starve like the rest of them. We were lucky enough to make it out of Canterlot alive and we aren’t about to die here.”
Moon glared. “You have food! Don’t you?”
The yellow mare drew a pistol and pointed it at Moon, who in turn raised the shotgun. “Ish you tell anyfony bout…”
The green pony held out a hoof and took over. “Oh, you’re a smart one. We should kill you now. If this gets out we’ll be swarmed.”
Moon glared. “You know it’s wrong!”
“I don’t care!” he shouted, voice echoing around the lobby. “Right now, all that matters to me is my wife, and our survival. And if that means fifty or so ponies dying now rather than later so be it! Now back off. And don’t you dare tell anypony!”
Snowglobe cut in. “Moon, we’re doing the very same thing. Maybe we should just—”
“No,” Moon cut her off. She never took her eyes off the green stallion. “I have a gun; your mare has a gun. If she shoots, only two ponies out of the four here are walking away.”
“Moon, we really need to get to the basement.” Snowglobe was glancing nervously around the lobby.
“Now hold on a minute.” The glared at Snowglobe. “What are you two going to the basement for?”
“None of your concern!” Moon spat.
Snowglobe opened her mouth to say something but the green pony cut her off. “If you two are going to do something that’s going to screw us over then I want to know about it.”
“Oh yeah?” Moon shook with sustained anger. The shotgun was feeling very light right about now, and the trigger seemed tempting.
“Moon!” Snowglobe insisted.
Moon ignored her, too angry at the green stallion to take her eyes away. “And you don’t think ponies would like to know about you little stash?”
He jumped down from the wagon and shoved his face in hers. “Don’t you dare.”
“Everypony shut up!” Snowglobe bellowed.
All of them fell silent and looked at the flustered Snowglobe.
She looked up at the ceiling, trembling. “Listen.”
* * *
“How much do you think you’ll be able to carry?” Willow asked.
Brick shrugged.
The two walked down the third floor hall towards medical storage.
“I’ll assume that means a lot,” she chided.
They reached the door marked medical storage and Willow tried to levitate the keys from her barding. She groaned; she had forgotten that her magic was still dead. At least the effects of that drug she had taken had worn off. She felt mostly normal again, and she was no longer falling over every ten seconds. What kind of a virus could do that to unicorn magic? Unicorn magic was one of the most powerful forces in Equestria, and the virus just snuffed it out like a candle. Once she had seen a mare who had actually managed to break her horn. The poor mare had been in terrible shape. It was as if something had died inside her.
Willow thought back on it. When the mare arrived she hadn’t known what to do. She had ended up calling in a specialist form Canterlot, who had miraculously regrown her horn. The medicine and spells he had used were still a secret to her. But even after the mare had her horn back, it was months before she could even coax a spark from it. Willow still knew her to this day... well, had known her; they had used to have lunch on the weekends.
She was probably dead now, or worse.
Willow reached back and grabbed her keys in her mouth. This was terrible. She was no more than an earth pony with a bone sticking out of her head. She sorted through the ring until she found a big key with a green handle. She struggled to fit it into the lock. Honestly, she didn’t understand how earth and pegasus ponies could do everything with just their hooves and mouths and the small amount of magic they possessed internally, conjurable through their hooves.
The key fit and she pushed open the door. This was one of the few rooms that always stayed lit. Shelves lined the walls, stacked with every kind of medicine imaginable, plenty of bandages and disinfectants as well, also healing potions and a lot of other magical remedies.
Willow found that she preferred the medicine over magic, but both worked about the same. Only magic did most of the work for you. But where was the skill in just making a pony drink a purple potion and have everything be all better? Sometimes a pony would request one or the other, and in very few rare cases only one or the other would work... or they’d be poor and have to go with traditional healing. Magical remedies were more expensive than they were efficient.
In the corner of the room sat two metal crates, rectangular with rounded edges. Both crates were about the length of her middle and if she stood next to one of them it would come about halfway up to her knees. Those were definitely coming with them. That drug had worked on her. She silently thanked the ponies who had accidentally shipped those crates to this hospital, instead of wherever they were supposed to be going, and then thanked Mitsy for forgetting to file the paperwork to send them back. If it hadn’t of been for that little screw up, she would either be dead or like the rest of those things out there.
She walked over to one of the crates and fumbled with the latches. After a moment of irritation she managed to undo them and nosed open the lid. Fifteen vials of electric blue liquid sat in a neat row. Black foam surrounded the fragile glass capsules, protecting them from damage. Each had a small label: ‘100ml’.
She reached back and pulled a vile form her saddlebag, the one she had used in the square. She carefully laid it down in its foam slot at the end of the row, making the total count of vials in the case sixteen. This was it. Thirty two hundred milliliters of this unknown medicine, minus the twenty she had used.
She closed the lid. “Hey Brick,” she called. The brown pony turned to face her. “Find a way to carry these.”
She closed the lid on the case and trotted to the center of the room. “Let’s see, what do we need?” Willow murmured to herself as she looked over rows upon rows of supplies. Making up her mind, trotted about the room, stocking her bags while Brick tried to figure out a way to carry the two cases.
“Oh yes, penicillin. We definitely need that.” She carefully added a case of the liquid to her bag. “Let’s see, what do I have so far? Peroxide, bandages, spellbound bandages, healing potions, painkillers. What else?” Willow headed over to another shelf. “Artificial adrenaline, antibiotics for what they’re worth.” She looked at her bags. There was still some space left. She reached another shelf and added some surgical tools and a box of hypodermic needles. She pushed aside a box of needles; at the back of the shelf were some old bits and pieces of stitching equipment.
Willow chuckled; she didn’t even think she had been alive when ponies actually used stitches; now, if a pony had the bits, stitches were completely obsolete. Healing potions and spells worked just fine for cuts and gashes. No, she wouldn’t need to be giving anypony stitches. Healing potions would be plenty. Some unicorns could even perform healing spells. She had tried to learn some of them, but hadn’t ever been any good, and they always tired her out really fast. Willow sighed; if her magic didn’t ever return, there wouldn’t be any need to know them anyways. It had been almost a month now and she could barely coax a spark from her horn. The last time it had worked at all was back when Sugar Apple had been chasing her.
“Earth pony with a bone growing out of her head,” she muttered glumly, then turned to look at Brick. “How are you doing over there?”
He had rigged up a kind of sling so that the metal cases hung on either side of him, his normal saddlebags slung atop those.
“Oooooh, Very creative,” Willow complimented. Brick just shrugged and collected a few things from the shelf in front of him. “I think that’s everything. Feel free to point out anything I missed.” Willow looked expectantly at Brick. He looked around the room and shook his head. Willow nodded. “All right then.” She had never really thought about it before, but medical supplies were kind of heavy. Well, four saddlebags full of them would probably have to weigh something.
Willow didn’t bother to lock the door as they left. It wasn’t as if they would be coming back.
The two set off down the hallway in the low light. She looked up at the ceiling; if they hadn’t of fried the emergency system they would at least have the orange safety lights. The hallway was starting to creep her out—every hallway in this building was, and considering this building was basically just rooms and hallways…
Willow froze; she could hear something. More or less it sounded like somepony banging on a sheet of metal. “Do you hear that?” she whispered to Brick. The brown earth pony nodded.
“What do you think it is?” Brick just shrugged and Willow shot him a glare. The two started forward again, Willow keeping her ears perked for a repeat of the noise.
They went on for what seemed like hours, which was little more than a minute in reality. “Look,” she said suddenly, agonized with the silence. “I know you can talk. I’ve heard you do it before. Now why don’t you just stop with all the body motions and at least talk to me.” Brick just shook his head. Willow sighed.
He used to talk. One would think that after knowing a pony your whole life he could at least talk to her. She couldn’t even remember his voice. The last time she had heard him speak, they were just foals.
Willow smiled, cruel and self-proclaimed witty idea popping into her head. She walked closer to Brick and nudged him. “You know,” she lulled. “I really do like you.” Brick cocked his head and shot her a curious look before shaking his head. “I’d never know how you’re feeling if you don’t speak to me about it...” Nothing.
Willow wanted to scream. What could she do to get him to talk? “Nah, you don’t talk enough,” she added, trying to get a response. Nothing. “Damn it Brick! Just say something!” Brick replied by shaking his head for a third time.
“Are you smiling?” He was laughing at her in his own silent way. She could see it in his eyes. “Stop that!” This wasn’t fair. He was teasing her! Willow wanted to kick him.
She sighed and they continued walking in silence.
They were nearing the end of this particular hall now. Up ahead it merged with yet another hallway.
And the sound was back.
Apparently, Brick could hear it too, because he stopped and readied his flashlight. Willow perked her ears. It sounded like two sets of hoofsteps. And from the ruckus they were making she figured that the two ponies must be in a hurry.
A moment later two ponies rounded the corner towards them. Brick flipped on his light, illuminating the two shapes. Willow and Brick dodged to the side as the two ponies skidded by.
Willow took up her best defensive stance as the two ponies whirled around, ready for some sort of conflict.
“Oh thank Celestia, it’s you two,” Sunny gasped.
Willow snorted; both Sunny and Dusty were white as ghosts. “What happened to you two? It looks like you both got in a fight with a sack of flour.”
“It’s a long story.” Dusty waved her comment away. “But we need to get goin’, now!”
* * *
“How did that thing get in here?” Sunny gawked.
Dusty holstered his revolver and looked down at the dead pegasus zombie. “Ah don’t know; but ah reckon this means trouble.”
“You think?” Sunny layered his voice with sarcasm. “That pony just jumped out of the roof and tried to eat me!”
“Ah’m pretty sure ah may have noticed.” Dusty looked up at him. “You know, considerin’ ah shot it an’ all.”
“We need to go.” Sunny checked his bags. They were almost full; maybe a few more cans would fit. “I don’t think that’s the only one.”
“Well what gives you that positive idea?” Dusty muttered.
Sunny collected a few more cans. “Because there’s a whole lot more of them outside, and if one found its way in, I could bet you more will too. Also, when I was on the fourth floor with Moon, we heard banging in the roof.”
“Right,” Dusty started out of the room. “Ah reckon we should be getting to the basement then.” The two left the storage room, Sunny doing his best not to look at the dead pegasus on the floor.
“We’re on the second level, right?” Sunny asked as they rounded a corner.
“‘course we’re on the second floor,” the blue pegasus shot back.
“Just making sure.” Sunny froze—he could hear something. It was coming from the roof, just like it had been when he was with Moon earlier. “Do you hear that?”
“Yes ah do.” Dusty sighed. He pointed somewhere ahead of them. “See that vent over there?”
Sunny nodded. It was hard to spot in the dull light but he could still see it: a metal vent cover in the ceiling about ten feet in front of them. “You don’t really think so?” he asked.
Dusty nodded and drew his revolver. “Wath thiff,” he slurred around the bit. The banging above grew louder until it was almost above them. The vent cover ahead of them burst open and clattered to the floor. A white pegasus flopped out of the ceiling to land in a heap; it would have been funny under any other circumstance. Dusty didn’t even hesitate. Before the thing could even get on its hooves the blue pegasus gunned it down.
Sunny cringed. He hated that sound. He had never really heard anything like it before: the sound a bullet made when it hit a pony. He couldn’t even explain it very well. It sounded like somepony dropping an egg on a tile floor, but a lot louder. “Jeez cowpony. Right to business there?”
Dusty holstered his gun. “Ah ain’t no cowpony. Try trainpony.” They set off again, stepping around the shot pony and the growing pool of blood.
“Really?” Sunny asked as they trotted along. He grunted; the bags were starting to feel really heavy. At least they would be going down the stairs with them.
“Yep. Ah may be good with a gun, but ah can do other things too you know.”
Sunny frowned. “Well yeah. I just never thought you would be a trainpony. I kind of just thought of you as that pony who shoots a gun.” Sunny chuckled.
Dusty smirked. “Pony who shoots a gun, huh?”
They had reached the stairwell. Sunny pulled open the door and walked in. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he added quickly.
“Shut up,” snapped Dusty from beside him. Eyes looking at—as far as Sunny could tell—nothing.
Sunny blinked, confusion washing across his face. “Look, I’m s—”
Dusty silenced Sunny with a hoof across his mouth. “Listen,” he whispered.
Sunny did as he was told. He could hear hoofsteps. Check that, a lot of hoofsteps, from below them. “Up the stairs, now!” Sunny jumped, startled by Dusty’s order. The light blue pegasus took and Sunny was left to follow.
“But don’t we need to go down!” Sunny yelled over the pounding of their hooves.
“Not unless you wanna’ get dead!” he yelled back.
“What if they aren’t zombies!?” Sunny gasped, turning onto the next flight.
“Then they aren’t going to take too kindly to us takin’ all their food!” came Dusty’s reply.
Sunny barely caught sight of Dusty’s tail as he rounded the the stairwell. The blue pony was nearly a flight ahead of him. Sunny groaned as he passed the marker for the third floor. “Dusty, for the love of Celestia, stop going up!” As he took to the next flight, his hooves slipped and he nearly tumbled backwards. Breathing heavily, his heart beating in his head, Sunny reached the top of the next flight.
“Hurry up damn it!” Dusty called; he was holding open the door to the fourth floor. Sunny raced through and Dusty slammed it shut behind him.
“Never again,” Sunny panted, collapsing onto his side. The door shook as something on the other side hammered against it and he shied away from it.
Dusty flopped down beside him. “To answer your question, yes, zombie ponies. But if you still aren’t sure you can always open that door and ask them if you really want to.”
“How do you know they don’t just really...” Sunny cringed as there was a meaty thud on the other side of the door. “...really want to get out?”
Dusty sat up. “Cause, ah’m pretty sure a normal pony would know how to open a door. It’s not like it’s locked or anything.”
“Right,” Sunny pushed himself up as well, looking at the ceiling, breathing heavily. “That makes sense.” Looking up at the ceiling with a hole in it... There was a hole in the ceiling. “Horseapples! They’re in here too.”
“Huh?” The blue pegasus looked around. Sunny pointed a hoof up towards the ceiling and his eyes followed. Dusty groaned. “We really need to get to the basement.”
“Says the pony who took us up!” Sunny forced himself up to all four hooves. “We should get going before that door stops being a door.” He shied away from it as it shook again. The two set off again. This time a little more winded than before. Dusty strafed a dead pegasus zombie fallen on the right of the hallway.
“Looks like we aren’t the only ones who’ve met our new guests,” he murmured, rubbing against the left wall to avoid the dead pony.
Sunny spared a glance at it and immediately wished he hadn’t. Somepony had really done a number on it. He cringed. where was its other leg? How could somepony do this, even if it was a zombie? It looked like they had shot it three times.
Sunny gagged; it smelt terrible. He turned away to look for Dusty, who had continued on without stopping. Sunny ran to catch up to him. “So, exactly—” He looked over in time to see Dusty’s head drop from view.
Sunny froze, turning to the spot where the pegasus had disappeared. “Dusty...” No, he hadn’t just disappeared; He’d fallen through the floor.
The tile below Sunny’s hooves lurched and he let out a cry as the floor gave way beneath him. He flapped his wings and fought for traction on the tile, but his efforts came a second too late as he plunged rump-first through the hole in the floor.
Despite the fact that he was falling, Sunny found it easy to think. Why would a floor collapse, especially in a hospital? Generally, hospitals were supposed to be safe places, and a structurally unsound building wasn’t exactly his textbook definition of ‘safe’. To be fair though, there were a bunch of zombie ponies crawling through the vents and falling out of the roof. Maybe that had something to do with it.
The landing didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would have.
“Get off me,” a voice growled. Sunny looked down to see the light blue pegasus pinned below him, his head twisted around to glare at him.
“Oh sorry.” Sunny rolled off the pegasus. “I was wondering why my landing didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would.”
Dusty scoffed and pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Well thank your cushion.”
“Thank you, cushion,” Sunny answered cheekily. He didn’t understand why he felt so happy right now. Now was not a time to feel happy. They were shooting zombie ponies and falling through ceilings. Why was he so happy? Sunny reached out a hoof to pat Dusty. “Maybe you’re going a little soft. Can’t always be a hardened gun pony.”
Dusty glared. “You say one more word and ah’ll buck you so hard that your grandkids’ll grow broken teeth.”
“Understood,” he quickly replied, looking around. “Now where do we go?” Neither of them had died in the fall so he guessed they hadn’t fallen more than a single floor. He looked up at the roof which seemed to be sagging all around them, not just the part they had fallen through, but all of it. A part of the ceiling gave way, raining more white powder and plaster down on them. Sunny dodged out of the way as a whole section of ventilation fell from the roof and landed where he had been standing a moment before. He gaped; this whole floor was falling apart.
Dusty looked at Sunny and then to the vent that now lay in between them. “Whoa.” He shook his head and looked up at the ceiling, now looking quite irritated. “Why don’t you just drop this whole Celestia forsaken place on us!?”
A crash resounded somewhere upstairs and Sunny shied away from the hole in the ceiling. “Dusty, please don’t do that. It might actually happen.” Dusty just scoffed and shook some rubble from his mane. “You look like a ghost,” Sunny teased. The normally-blue pegasus was all white.
The now-white pony glared at him. “You don’t look any better.” He frowned. “And ah think it’s just about time ah started makin’ your grandkids bleed.”
“Let’s just focus on getting to the basement before you make my grandchildren bleed. Okay?” Sunny groaned. Falling through a ceiling and then having part of it dropped on you kind of hurt.
“Fine, it can wait.” Dusty stepped away from the pile of rubble. “Let’s git’ then.” Sunny followed Dusty, who was now running... again.
“Do we have to run?” he panted. “I thought we just finished running.”
“Yes, ah don’t think the door’s gonna last forever.”
They rounded the corner side by side. Sunny gasped as a beam of bright white light blinded him and covered his eyes with a forehoof. Both he and Dusty slid to a stop, bumping unsteadily against one another.
“The hay?” Dusty muttered, glancing to Sunny. They had run past the source of light and it was now shining behind them. They exchanged a look and as one they turned, Dusty readying to draw his revolver. But sunny held out his hoof. “Oh, thank Celestia it’s you.”
Willow snorted. “What happened to you two? It looks like you both got in a fight with a sack of flour.” Both Willow and Brick looked like they had grabbed their fair share of goods too. Willow’s saddlebags looked like they were overflowing. And brick had two metal cases strapped to his flanks like some sort of impromptu armor.
Dusty glared. Sunny figured he wouldn’t be the only one to get a good bucking tonight. “It’s a long story, but we need to get goin,’ now!” Dusty pushed
He made to set off but Willow didn’t move. “Why, what happened?”
“They got in,” Sunny replied, still trying to catch his breath. “I don’t know how, but they got in.” He was tired; he may have been a little out of shape, but he could still handle himself fairly well. But running up two flights of stairs loaded down with canned food would have done a number on anypony.
“I see you got food,” Willow mused.
“We did,” Dusty replied. “We also sprinted up two flights of stairs with it.” He chuckled. “Cans are kinda’ heavy.”
“Why the hay were you going up?” she questioned.
Sunny was starting to feel better now. His breathing had slowed and he wasn’t quite as tired. “They were in the stairwell,” he added. “A lot of them, below us.”
Willow stomped her hoof. “Who is they?” From the look on her face Sunny assumed she had a pretty good idea.
Dusty shook his mane and white dust rained down around him. “Zombie ponies, what else would we be makin’ a big deal about gettin’ in? Mice?”
Willow’s pupils seemed to dialate. “Are you sure?”
Dusty scoffed. “Pretty sure a normal pony wouldn’t jump outta’ the roof an’ try to eat me.”
Willow looked around at the three ponies in the hall. She folded her ears, then sighed. “It appears we have a few problems then—” She winced as something crashed on the floor above.
Dusty groaned. “An’ that would be the door not bein’ a door anymore.” He looked over at Sunny. “As you put it.”
“What door?” Willow looked around frantically.
“Well those zombie ponies chased us up the stairwell—isn’t that right Sunny?” Dusty looked over to Sunny who nodded. “And we locked em’ in there... well, we had em’ locked in there.”
“What!?” Willow looked like she wanted to pound them into the ground. “You two locked a bunch of zombies in the stairwell? The only way to get down to the basement without power?”
Sunny cut across the blue pegasus before he could reply. “Look, I know it’s nice to sit here and yell at each other, but we really need to get going before those things find the hole we made.”
Dusty nodded. “Right, let’s get to the stairwell then.” He and Sunny started forward, closely followed by Willow and Brick.
“Wait,” Willow trotted up alongside Dusty. “Didn’t you just say you locked a bunch of them in the stairwell?”
“Well yeah. But judging from that sound we just heard upstairs, ah don’t think they’re in the stairwell anymore.”
Willow shot both of them a curious glance. “You said you two ran up two flights of stairs? From the second level?” Both stallions nodded. “If you locked them in the stairwell after going up two flights of stairs you would be on the fourth floor...” She glanced between the two of them, narrowing her brows. “How the hay does that work? We’re on the third.”
Dusty nickered. “We took a one-way elevator.”
“What!?” Willow yelled, stomping her forehoof. “There isn’t any power. How did you take the elevator?”
“We fell through the floor.” Sunny said bluntly. Willow didn’t seem all too sated by the answer.
“This place may be old,” she muttered to herself as they trotted on. “But that doesn’t mean whole floors should just start collapsing.”
“Tell me about it,” Dusty muttered.
The stairs were just ahead now, the door glinting in the reflection of Brick’s flashlight. Sunny could hear noise all around the building now. Crashes and rapid hoofsteps sounded on the floor above.
There was a scream from behind them, much louder than the rest of the sounds. Brick jumped around and beamed his light down the hall behind him. A purple unicorn was being dragged down the hall by her tail. A zombie pegasus pulled her backwards, shaking his head and jerking the mare around as he pulled her away like a dog playing tug of war.
Willow went slack-jawed. “What in the name of—”
Dusty drew his revolver and fired. He missed on the first shot but the second stuck its mark and the crazed pony dropped.
The mare immediately curled herself up, muttering and whimpering under her breath. “Come on!” Sunny yelled, at least getting her to look up.
She blinked, glanced around, took one look at Dusty’s gun, then picked herself up and galloped towards them as if another zombie was right on her tail. “What was that thing?” she whimpered, eyes endlessly scanning the dark halls.
Dusty spat his revolver back into its holster. “What we’ve been hiding from.”
“Let’s go,” Willow insisted. She nudged Sunny, a little more firmly than he would have preferred. “Stairs, now!”
Dusty reached the door first and held it open for the rest of them, he and the mare entering last.
“What was that?” The purple mare whimpered once they were little more than a few steps in, looking all around the stairwell. Sunny listened; he couldn’t hear anything. Dusty had been right, they weren’t in here anymore.
“Quiet.” The blue-white pegasus slapped a wing over the mare’s mouth. “We need to be quiet.”
They set off down the stairs, Dusty once again taking the lead. But they had only made it halfway down the first flight before the purple mare, who had been traveling at the back, froze in place. “I heard it again” she whispered.
“Heard what?” Sunny stopped to listen, as did the others. “I don’t hear anything.”
“It’s in the wall,” she whispered, pressing her ear up against the wall next to her. “It’s like a banging... inside the wall.”
Seemingly without warning, the wall burst open and the mare screamed as a blue pegasus more or less fell on her. Before Sunny could even react it sprung, snarling. The mare screamed again as it forced her backwards into the railing. She leaned back trying to avoid its snapping jaws and both her and the zombie pony toppled backwards over the railing.
“What the—” he stammered. He cringed at the sound of the two reaching the bottom, their bones nothing more than twigs against the concrete below. “They’re in the walls too!?” He looked around at the others, all on different levels of the stairs. They looked just as shocked as he did. Even Brick’s normal, vacant expression seemed to show some sort of repulse.
“C-come on,” Willow stammered. They all started down the stairwell, this time much more slowly.
Sunny made sure to listen for more sounds in the walls. He dreaded reaching the bottom for he knew what would be down there. It was hard to understand what had just happened. One second she had been there, alive. Then next, just... gone, not alive. The only evidence that it had actually happened was a hole in the wall.
Willow stumbled and Brick held out a hoof to steady her. “Thanks,” she gasped. “Still a bit tipsy from that drug, I guess.”
Even though Sunny had known what would lie at the bottom of the stairs, he still wasn’t prepared to see it. The purple mare lay dead, her neck twisted at an awkward angle. The zombie pony next to her was no better off. Dusty muttered something under his breath as Willow slowly shook her head.
“I’m Worried about Moon and Snowglobe,” Sunny muttered, addressing nopony in particular, trying to draw his attention from the two on the floor. “Do you think they made it?”
Willow shook her head. “I don’t know. They didn’t have anything to do so it’s most likely they were ahead of us.
“Right,” Sunny muttered, trying to put thoughts of what could have happened to them out of his mind. “So why do the stairs stop here? How do we get to the basement?”
The white mare frowned. “I was getting to that. The staircase to the basement is on the other side of the lobby.”
“Oh well that’s great,” Dusty scoffed. “So what are our chances of it being the same way out there it was above us?”
“I don’t know what it’s going to be like out there.” Willow turned to Brick. “I want you with your light. If I could, I would make you take the gun while I hold the light. Buuuuuuut,” she drawled. “My magic still isn’t working so I’m about as useful as a horn-headed earth pony.” Brick glared at her. “No offense,” she added hastily, turning to Dusty. “How many bullets do you have for that thing anyways?” she asked
“About fifteen or so,” he replied with a shrug.
Willow looked around at the three of them. “So is everypony ready?” They all nodded. “Going out then.” She paced over to the door and pushed it open. Brick filled the space next to her, lighting the way ahead. Willow looked back at them. “Keep your hoofsteps light and keep an eye out for... whatever happens.”
Slowly, she stepped out into the lobby. Sunny and Dusty both followed. The lobby was completely dark except for the light from Brick’s flashlight and two roof lights that shone over the check-in desk.
Sunny looked up at the holes in the ceiling and the twisted ventilation grates on the floor. “Looks like they’ve already been in here,” he murmured. The others followed his gaze and Sunny heard Willow curse under her breath.
“I still want to know how they got in,” she growled.
“Ah think they’re in the vents,” Dusty added. “Been hearing all these bangin’ sounds all day, plus all of them are pegasi. Haven’t seen a single earth or unicorn zombie yet.”
“That makes sense. But how did they get in?” she huffed. They were nearing the check in desk now. The crippled wagon still sat in front. Five dead pegasi zombies lay around it.
Dusty whistled. “Looks like we aren’t the only ones that have been through here.” They continued forward to find two more bodies behind the wagon, their combined pool of blood only just beginning to clot.
Slowly, they approached the wagon from the side. Willow held out a hoof. “Listen.” Sunny was really tired of hearing ponies say that. Every time somepony said ‘listen’ something bad always happened. “There’s something back there,” she whispered. Sunny froze and the others did the same. If Willow hadn’t of pointed it out, he never would have noticed. He could definitely hear something; he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. But it was definitely coming from the back of the wagon.
“Ah got this,” Dusty whispered. Nopony moved as he drew his revolver and slowly approached the wagon, making sure to keep well away from it. He circled around until he could look into the back, taking a few cautious steps towards it.
“Careful, Dusty,” Willow whispered. The pegasus shot her an annoyed look, and at that moment all the lights in the lobby flicked on at once.
Blinding light washed over them as the room was brought into proportion. Dusty yelled as a gray shape flew at him from inside the wagon. His gun fell from his mouth as it drilled him in the chest. The crazed pony grappled with him, but Dusty rolled onto his back, and with all four legs kicked the biting pony away from him.
“Who turned on the lights!?” he gasped, trying to roll to his hooves. He made it about halfway up before he flopped back down on his back. “Damn cans,” he groaned. The gray zombie picked itself up off the ground with shocking speed. But instead of going for Dusty, it flung itself directly at Sunny.
At this distance, it was impossible to miss its features. Its eyes were deep red and blood covered its muzzle, running all the way down its chest like an untended nosebleed.
“Sunny look out!” Willow screamed.
With a yelp, he dodged to one side and the creature shot just to his right. It snapped at his flank and missed only by inches. Sunny shuddered; the sound its jaws made was terrifying. He imagined how hard a pony would have to bite to get their teeth to make a sound that loud. The pony who had bit him hadn’t really even turned yet. The bite he’d been given was probably only a nibble compared to what this one could do.
The zombie pony immediately spun around and made another lunge for him from behind. Sunny was forced to drop onto his belly to avoid being caught in its menacing jaws. A few feet away, Dusty scrambled across the tile floor, reaching for his pistol. The pegasus didn’t seem to be able to pick himself up off the ground in the position he was in. He must have been carrying more than Sunny had thought... Maybe that’s why he’d fallen through the floor.
Sunny felt a weight land on his back and he tried to pull forward. But he couldn’t, the creature’s grasp was like iron. By now, Dusty had reached his pistol. Lying on his side, head slightly lifted, he aimed down the sights with both eyes open.
So many things were happening that Sunny was finding it hard to process it all, his brain seeming to move in slow motion. Brick had his pistol ready and was training it on the pony on his back. Willow stood wide-eyed watching the whole scene unfold. Dusty aimed the barrel right at Sunny and fired. Sunny screamed and writhed, pain blossoming all through his body as he pulled free of the weight on his back. He jumped around to face it, prepared to ready himself for what it did next.
...It was dead, a clean hole through the left side of its chest. Sunny looked around at the rest of them. Brick shrugged and dropped his pistol back into his bag. Willow stood still as a statue.
“Sweet Celestia!” Sunny gasped; he turned to look at Dusty who had managed to get himself back to his hooves. “You’re crazy.” He realized just how close he had come to getting another, much more painful bite. The phantom pains in his body had faded now that the realization that the bullet hadn’t actually hit him was flowing through his mind.“...Thanks.”
Dusty chuckled. “Ah was a little skeptical bout’ that shot.”
“Why do you say that?” Willow asked. “That was a perfect shot.”
Sunny trotted over to the cart, trying not to think about just how far off Dusty’s shot bad been. “Dusty... thanks and all for that, but for the love of Celestia don’t you ever do that again.” He jumped at a rattling sound behind him and turned to see dozens of zombie ponies throwing themselves against the barrier.
“Don’t worry,” Willow reassured. “They can’t get in ... at least not this way.” She grimmaced at the snarling, mucus-crusted, bloody faces pressing up against the steel grate.
Sunny climbed up into the back of the wagon and looked around. He really didn’t know what he was looking for, more or less just exploring. Two more dead zombie ponies were back here. And at the back of the wagon, propped up against a crate was a green stallion. Well, mostly green. Sunny tried not to gag. It looked like he'd made a pretty good snack. Worst part about it was that Sunny knew this pony; it was the pony who owned the wagon; the one who had confronted them in the square. He had never even found out the green pony's name. Beside him sat a gun, its slide open.
He picked it up and turned to the others. “Look, I foumd a ghum.”
Willow cocked her head. “Know how to use it?” she asked.
“Short’ of.”
Dusty nickered. “Just don’ try an’ make any fancy shots near me with it.”
Sunny reached back and dropped the gun in a side pocket in his barding. “Don’t worry,” he reassured. “Doesn’t have any bullets. Besides, it’s you I should be worried about.” He gestured to the green pony in the back of the wagon. “He must have made a last stand here or something. I found the gun next to him." He tried not to think about the stallion. He couldn’t imagine thinking of any more ponies he had known being dead. He'd never really had anypony he knew... well, die; he still didn't know how process it. There was a churning in his belly that made him want to curl up on a soft, warm bed and groan until it went away, which he assumed was his own way of handling it.
Notebook...
Dusty looked sadly at the defeated pony. “He made one good stand, that’s for sure.”
Sunny jumped down from the wagon and they all set off again. Leaving the gruesome scene behind and passing the check-in desk, they continued on towards the basement access.
Sunny had no idea how, or why, he was coping so well. He had never really considered himself to be strong-minded. Ponies were eating each other, and instead of freaking out like most ponies were, he almost felt calm. But none of this felt right at all. From what he knew, Equestria was in shambles, or at least, part of it was. He didn’t even know if he could kill one of those… things. It wasn’t right... they still looked like ponies. For the love of Celestia, they still had cutie marks! They'd used to be ponies, just like him... normal ponies just like him, who had been turned into crazy, mindless, biting monsters. Except unlike them, he couldn’t even turn into one. What was so special about him? Why hadn’t he just died out there with the rest of the townsponies? He was nothing special; he was anything but. It was just pure luck that he had found Notebook in the park. If it hadn’t of been for that, he probably would have died out there with the rest of them. Some of the luckier ones may have gotten away, but there were a lot of those things out there, most of the town from the looks of it. Things would have also turned out bad for him if they hadn’t of run into Willow and Brick the very next day.
Yeah, he was basically alive off of luck and more luck.
A chilling thought suddenly struck him. What if all of this had happened because of him? He was the one who had gotten in a fight with Moon over a box of muffins, then chose to go to the park, where he had later found Notebook. What if they had never found Notebook? Would he have just died there? Or gotten up and stumbled away from town? Had having Moon go get the hospital ponies to take the sick pony into the middle of town doomed them all? Maybe, if he had never found Notebook, they wouldn’t even be in this situation at all. Notebook would have never ended up in the well. And all the townsponies would still be alive.
The thought alone made him want to cry. All of this was his fault, maybe not the thing in Canterlot. But everything bad that happened here, all happened because of him.
“Here we are.” Willow pulled open a metal door and they all stepped through into a dark stairwell.
More stairs...
After this, Sunny never wanted to see another flight of stairs again in his life. Brick pulled out his flashlight once again and lit the way. Sunny followed the brown pony down the stairs, the others behind him.
But what made him so special? Why was he immune, and as far as he could tell, nopony else? It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t anything. He had never done anything special, never achieved anything important. He couldn’t even fly. Why did he deserve to be like this when there were so many other ponies that were much more worthy?
The biggest loser in Equestria, and all of a sudden, fate was slapping a big sticker on him that made declared him chemically superior to everypony else... and it just wasn't fair.
They were nearing the bottom of the stairs now. Another door loomed just ahead. Brick put away his light, plunging them all into darkness. A moment later the door ahead swung open bathing the hallway in dull, yellow light. Immediately, a deafening hum filled the air, echoing around the narrow space.
It was a weird feeling. Sunny figured the basement would be dark. But upon entering the basement it appeared quite bright. Yellow lamps hung from the roof, casting their dull, yet still bright light across the dank walls. The deafening hum came from one of two large shapes in the center or the room. He looked around for Moon, but he couldn’t see her or Snowglobe anywhere.
“Where’s the way out!?” he asked over the sound of the giant machine.
Willow raised a hoof and pointed towards a spot on the other end of the room. A shelf had been toppled, spilling cans of paint and cleaning supplies across the floor. A wooden door was located where the shelf must have previously been standing. “That looks like the place!” she called.
“Where’s Moon and Snowglobe!?” he asked, looking around the room to make sure he hadn’t missed them.
Willow looked around as well. Along with Sunny, she also seemed worried. “I don’t know! But I think we should check that door before we get too worried! That shelf wasn’t toppled before, so I’ll bet they’re in there!”
Sunny nodded. Together they crossed the room, passing the noisy machines. Sunny was the first to reach the door, having to step over scattered debris and spilt paint to reach it. He reached out a hoof and pushed on the door; it swung open without resistance. The door opened to a small room. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw both Moon and Snowglobe sitting on a cushion near the far wall.
Moon jumped up and headed over to greet him. “You made it!” she said happily.
“Not only me,” Sunny replied as the rest of the ponies behind him filed in. Willow, who was the last through, shut the door. The sound of the loud machine was immediately extinguished. Sunny was slightly surprised to see that Moon had crimson stains on her coat, as if she had tried to wash out what he assumed was blood, but couldn’t.
Sunny looked around at the room. It must have been some sort of janitor’s lounge or something. Some seats sat against the far wall and fake plants sat in the corners.
Sunny had never really understood why ponies liked fake plants so much. They just smelt like plastic.
He figured the big metal door at one end was the way out. The room had carpet that had seen better days and the walls were a dirty white. His attention was drawn to a yellow earth pony mare in the corner. She was on her belly, her head resting on her hooves. Her eyes gazed sightlessly at a patch of wall. Well, eye, the other eye was obscured by her orange mane.
“Who’s she?” Sunny asked.
The mare lifted her head and looked around as if something had startled her before spotting Sunny. “Oh, I’m Butter Blossom.” She shrugged her shoulders before dropping her head back to her hooves. Her eyes were crusted with dried tears, her nose still running as she gave the occasional sniff to clear it.
“Is something wrong?” Willow asked her, appearing next to him to cast a worried look at the mare. Sunny looked to Moon, who just looked down at her hooves. Snowglobe seemed to be intent on examining the plastic plant.
Butter Blossom sniffed. “Did you go through the lobby?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Dusty added with a little flap of his wings. “There were a whole bunch of dead zombies everywhere. Did you guys do all that?”
The mare buried her face in her hooves and whimpered.
Willow gave Dusty a rough smack over the back of the head. "Would you shut up?" she hissed.
“Hey,” he muttered. “What gives? That hurt...”
The yellow mare picked her head up, now with fresh tears in her eyes. “W-was there a g-green one there?” She looked at them expectantly, fear flashing in her eyes.
Sunny sighed inwardly. He recognized the mare now... This was the mare who had come into town with the green stallion he had found in the lobby. This was his wife.
Slowly, he reached back and pulled the gun from his saddlebag. Nopony said a word as he laid it down in front of the mare. She stared at it for a second, eyes watering. The mare sniffed and closed her eyes, more tears flowing now. Sunny couldn’t watch anymore. He turned away and walked over to Moon who was now Helping Snowglobe watch the plant imposter. He was shaken, but it didn’t seem that he was the only one. Everypony in this room looked shaken. This entire ordeal was terrifying. He had no idea why he hadn’t collapsed crying like a foal yet. What was holding him together? It had to be something.
He approached Moon and forced himself to give her a nudge. “Hey, are you okay?”
Moon nodded. “Yeah, we just had kind of a hard time getting down here. Pretty crazy thought huh? Going down into the basement to get out of the building.
“Yep,” Sunny chuckled. “Down and out.” He joined the two mares with their silent interrogation of the plant.
Moon swept some dust from his coat with a forehoof. “Why do you and Dusty look so… dusty?”
Sunny looked back at his own coat. It was still full of plaster and whatever else had come from the roof. His normal black mane looked gray. “Oh that,” he chuckled halfheartedly. “We fell through the floor.” Moon just nodded. “So why are you covered in blood?”
“There were a lot of them in the lobby.” Moon sighed. “If it wasn’t for that green stallion we may have not made it down here.” Moon leaned up against him, mixing her blood with his dust. “We left him to die,” she added in an undertone.
Sunny took a step away from Moon, leaving her to stand by herself. He thought back to the mare in the stairwell. They had tried to help her. “It’s okay, Moon, I’m just happy that you made it.”
They stood there for a while longer, no longer really focusing on the plant. Somewhere behind him he could hear Willow talking to Blossom in hushed tones. This all seemed so surreal, like it was all a dream. And at any moment he would either wake up in the hospital or in his bed at home.
Sunny left Moon and trotted over to Snowglobe, who was taking her time to recline on the couch. “Were you guys the ones that turned the lights back on?”
She nodded. “That gemmy doesn’t have much time left. And looking at the conditions up there I figured those ponies would need as much light as they can get.”
He was hit by a sudden wave of despair. They had run… They had run and left all the other ponies in this building to die. What made them any better than the things out there. They had run, fled to save themselves and let dozens of ponies die. “Isn’t there any way else we can help them?” he asked her pleadingly. “We can’t just leave them like that. They’re all going to die if we just leave them. They can’t even get out.”
Snowglobe hung her head, looking about as bad as he felt. “I would have done anything else I could have. Full power was the best I could do. I’m sorry Sunny. I want to help too. But there is nothing else we can do for them now. “
Willow appeared beside them. “We’re all lucky to be alive. If I hadn’t of called that meeting when I did we would all still be in bed right now. We are so lucky, there isn’t even a word to describe how much luck we have right now.”
Sunny chuckled dryly. “So we live and they don’t because we’re really lucky. Well that makes me feel special.”
Willow looked around the room wildly. “This is ridiculous. Bizarre!” She staggered over to the cushion and flopped down on her back, forcing Snowglobe to move. “How did I get dragged into this?”
Moon sat down next to Willow, who glared at the blue mare for taking some of the space she had stolen from Snowglobe. “I’m pretty sure you were the one who dragged us into this," Moon jabbed.
Willow looked up at Moon, going cross-eyed. “No, you two insisted on knowing what was going on, then you drug yourselves into my problems.” She waved an exasperated hoof in the air. “Remind me to thank you for dragging yourselves in with me when I wake up.”
“No can do.” Snowglobe chided, she gave Willow a hearty nudge. “In case you’ve forgotten, there are a whole lot of zombie ponies up there, ones that could easily manage to stumble down here. Besides, that door is electric. And I don’t trust that gemmy out there very much. If we lose power and that door is still closed we’re going to be in a heap of trouble.”
Willow rolled up to a sitting position. “Fine,” she groaned.
Blossom stood up and approached them. She looked like she had, more or less, regained herself. “Is that really a way out?” she asked, pointing to the big metal door on the opposite wall.
“We’ll find out in a second.” Snowglobe called, trotting over to the door. With her her magic, she opened a panel on the wall to reveal a switch. The switch was labeled with a big ‘Open’ and ‘Closed’ sticker, with open at the bottom. “Everypony ready?” Snowglobe asked, looking around at the six ponies, all waiting eagerly. Snowglobe almost seemed to bounce with excitement.
Then her eyes flicked to another switch and widened in what Sunny could only describe as disdain. It had a much less pleasant label.
'Primary power transfer: 500 Amp switch.'
Sunny opened his mouth to say something, but found a lack of words. He shared a look with Snowglobe, who could barely meet his eye. With a little shake of her head, she yanked the auxilary power switch and powered up the junction box beside it.
She threw the next switch. There was a clunk from somewhere inside the door, and with a squeak and a groan, the heavy metal door swung open. A dark hallway loomed from the now open doorway. A single light bulb flickered to life just inside the entrance before flashing out.
Moon groaned. “Well that’s convincing.”
Willow chuckled inwardly.
Dusty looked around at all of them. “So, who wants to go down the dark scary hallway first?”
Willow nudged Brick, who reached back and pulled a flashlight from his bag. It wasn’t as large as his normal one, but it still looked big enough to cast a fair light. He tossed to it Dusty who caught it in his mouth. He blinked, frowned, then shot glare at Brick.
“Fhime,” the light blue pegasus groaned. "Smarth ath."