//------------------------------//
// The Beginning 
// Story: Truly Alive 
// by To Define Life 
//------------------------------//

The scream didn't last long. About a minute later the whole town was in a mass panic.

"What the hell was that?" I said, struggling to understand.

Applejack was pale. "Sounded like whoever tha' pony was is in serious trouble!"

Twilight switched instantly into a leader mode. "Come on girls."

I raised an eyebrow.

She sighed. "And guy. I'm working on it."

She turned and started giving out jobs quickly. "Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy, you're to calm everypony down and if necessary evacuate the town."

"On it!" came the reply and they took off running.

"Drive and Dash, you two are on scout duty. Find out what's wrong and meet me and Rarity back at the library. When you get back I want to look up a reversal spell, and Rarity's going to help me find it."

Dash nodded then swiveled her head around. "Gotcha, so how fast can you fly?"

"Fast enough."

Rainbow flew up while I took off like a rocket. I'm guessing that she didn't expect my speed to be what it was. She caught up quick however, her face full of surprise.

"Where'd you learn to fly like that? They didn't teach that in flight school."

"Never went. Self taught."

Her mouth was agape. I guess I was special, well, other than mechanics anyway. I sneered and sped ahead, onward to our destination.




We reached the scene of the panic and I stared in horror. It was then that I remembered my dream.

'Your nightmare is on it's way…' the words echoed in my head.

"No no no no NO NO NO NO!" I screamed.

Dash landed and immediately vomited. "What IS that?!". Her head rose slowly and our eyes locked briefly "You know what... that... is?"

I gulped "Unfortunately so."

Then, with all the seriousness I could muster, spoke sternly. "We need to leave. NOW."

"Oo..okay…" she responded shakily, right before she vomited again.

We took off and left the top half of Diamond Tiara for reasons I couldn't explain. Hell, I still don't know why we left her there.
For she would become the first of many.



Arriving at the tree house library, we burst in.

Twilight looked up in surprise "You're back early. What is it? Snails make another-"

"Twilight, you need to listen to me." I cut her off "Two things need to happen right now."

She noticed the harsh tone and reacted justly. "What is it? How bad is it?"

"Screw evacuation, screw calming everypony down. Is this the most secure building you have?"

She was obviously startled, but tried to prove superiority over the situation. "It is... but look, I can probably trust your judgement, but a lock-down in here wouldn't solve anything."

"LISTEN TO ME! DO YOU WANT EVERYONE HERE IN PONYVILLE TO DIE?"

Rarity looked up and Pinkie burst through the door.

"Die? Nopony's going to die silly."

"Listen, listen very closely because I may not get the chance to say this again. This is anything but normal. The…" I gulped "the… the dead walk among us."

Spike was at the top of the big spiral staircase scared out of his mind. "You… you mean… ZOMBIES?!"

Twilight was not amused. "Flash, you're scaring Spike, I want you to stop the nonsense and-"

Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Diamond Tiara is dead."

'Well, that got her attention at least.'

Twilight blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Dead." Dash continued, taking a seat and staring at the floorboards "We found her, well, half of her."

The purple unicorn was speechless. "That's not possible."

"Trust me, I've dealt with this before, I can deal with this now."

Pinkie was reduced to a whisper "How?"

I ignored the question, the inner survivor in me taking charge. "Five things need to happen, not in order, but simultaneously. One, somepony needs to get your friends back and inside this building. Two, I need to get Derpy and Dinky. Three, gather the rest of the ponies and try to get them all inside here. Four, fortifications need to be made. And five... we need to have a way out of here; a bug out plan. Let's move!"

Dash went off to find Fluttershy and Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity gathered everypony inside, and Twilight worked on defensive spells.

I flew as fast as I could, knowing any hesitation could cost them their lives. I smashed into the ground outside the house, making a small crater as I did so. I ran up to the double doors and kicked them open marine style, aiming for the bolt between them. The doors swung open to reveal two very surprised ponies.

Derpy was visually both startled and confused.

"Flash, what's going on?" She asked, clearly oblivious to the town's events.

"I'll explain on the way. We need to leave NOW." I spoke trying to remove as much edge as I could off my voice.

Derpy obviously got the message, but was still pessimistic. "Can you carry Dinky?" I asked, remembering that the filly was a unicorn.

"Flash what's going on?" Dinky asked

I struggled not to tell her. "Bad things are happening and we need to get somewhere safe. Okay?"

She seemed to sort of understand "Okay, is Twilight helping?"

"Yes, she's making sure nothing bad will happen to us when we get there. But we need to hurry. Grab some books or crayons and paper; something to keep you busy."

She kinda smiled "Okay, be right back!"

I turned to Derpy, and said "I'll help you carry stuff, we need to bring food."

Derpy was still in shock. "Why Flash? Why?"

"Because there is half a pony in town that's gonna be real hungry real soon! That's why!" I exploded.

I saw the look on Derpy's face turn to horror.

"No. I don't believe you. Sorry, but I just don't." she sat down on the spot, shaking her head.

"Look, Derpy? I'm sorry. I really am. But I'm really stressed out and we need to figure out how to solve this. But we CAN'T STAY HERE." I looked at Dinky's room.

"Think of her, you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her, so you need to follow me and get out of here now!"

Derpy's eyes uncrossed and she had the most serious of expressions I'd ever seen. "Alright, what needs to happen."

I exhaled in relief, glad we were finally on the same side "You get Dinky ready to be away for a few days."

"Got it."

I ransacked the cabinets for whatever I could find. Peas, cans of soup, cereal. If it could last a while, it went in the bag.

I tied the bag to my waist with my mouth and pulled the knot to a sturdy taut. As I did so, Derpy helped Dinky get some stuff out of her room.

I gave Derpy a nod and went over to Dinky.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked her, keeping in mind that she had no clue what is going on.

"Yeah, but I'll be better when we get to the library."

And with that we left.



When I got back the place was crowded, full of ponies who had as to no indication of the day's events.

I looked outside at the purple bubble surrounding the library.

"So, what will this do?" I asked, Twilight's horn at a constant glow.

"Before you left I gave you a small amount of magic, it's on your pack right now. That magic is what let you pass through that bubble."

"Hmm. If this get's worse we may need to revise that..."

"How do you know so much about this? This is the first time Equestria has seen this… ever!" The unicorn said, levitating books off shelves and flipping through them at incredible speeds. "I mean... look! It's not in 'Equestria's history of deadly diseases' or 'Symptoms for simpletons' or even the 'Encyclopedia Germica'!"

"I need to speak to the princesses about this. Stat." I replied, avoiding the question.

Twilight was taken aback. "What?! No, we can fix this by ourselves. We're fine." She turned back to the shelves. "There has to be a record somewhere, maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?" 

She hadn't finished the word before Applejack barreled in the door, "We got trouble!"

"Are we fine?" I glanced back at Twilight, not waiting for a reply.

Pinkie was close behind Applejack, wheeling a pony into the library via makeshift stretcher.

I swung my legs over the top railing and fell down to the floor, breaking into a four-legged run.

"Gangway!" I yelled at the scrambling ponies, pushing some over as I ran. I went to the opposite side of the stretcher as Pinkie, then went underneath it. I used my wings to push off from the ground and carried the stretcher over the frantic crowd. I brought it to the second floor, Twilight's room.

As I set down the stretcher the elements of harmony rushed over. Whoever this pony was, he did not look good. His eyes were bloodshot and he was shaking uncontrollably. His light yellow coat was darkly stained with crimson blood.

I quickly turned to the girls. "What's his name?"

"M- m- Morning… st- sta-... Morning Star…" Fluttershy choked out.

"Morning Star, my name is Flash Drive, can you hear me? Raise your right hoof if you can."

The stallion's hoof went up and I saw it. A small chunk of the front hoof was gone; replaced with a bloody mess.

"Dear god, this is happening faster than expected." I muttered under my breath, then said to Star "You're going to be fine. Let's get you cleaned up here."

I had Dash pass me a pocket kitchen from Pinkie's arsenal. I tied a tourniquet near the top of the leg, and the bleeding drastically slowed. Then I took a match, spray can of cooking oil, and a wooden spoon.

"I won't lie to you, this is going to hurt. A lot. But this needs to be cauterized." I saw the panic in his eyes and quickly used the available straps to tie him down.

"I could do this slowly, but that would take too much time and you could bleed out. Besides, we need you with us." I gave him the wooden spoon and he bit down on it. "This is for the pain. It isn't much, but it's better than nothing. "Give me 2 seconds. Twilight, hold his right hoof high." Her horn lit up as she did so and all the girls braced for the worst. I pressed on the nozzle and the harmless spray turned into an inferno, surrounding his hoof entirely. I stopped the blaze by capping the can, and observing the wound. The immediate surrounding hair was singed off, but the bleeding stopped and wasn't going to kill him.

As heartless as it was, these ponies needed to see just what happens to those bitten.

I looked into his eyes and they were a mixture of pain and gratitude. I carefully removed the remains of a splintered spoon and the straps.

As I turned to leave, he put his injured hoof on me, and I understood the gesture.

'He must know he won't make it. I have to do something...'

I filled a syringe and gave it to him, the green liquid now in his system.

I walked off and thought to myself 'I could just make another machine and leave…'. Yet I thought about Derpy and Dinky, how they would share the fate of everypony else.

'Dammit Dean! How heartless can you get?! No. I can't leave. It was because of me the viral spores got through, so I can't leave. For Derpy, I will stay.'

I walked out to the panicked room and and stood at the top of the staircase.

'This'll be fun.'

"Citizens of Ponyville, may I have your attention for a brief moment?"

The whole room went silent as they looked up at me.

"Thank you. Now I wish to explain this in two levels. One for everypony, and two will not be good for fillies and colts."

"Why isn't step two good for us?" I heard a small brown pony ask, his small propeller cap spinning.

"It's a little graphic. Somepony your age shouldn't have to see it."

I thought about how to tell the kids.

"Step one goes like this: Truth of the matter is, I'm new here. Many of you I take it have realized that. That doesn't mean that I don't know how things work though, as you saw me and a few others take care of that rushed in pony a few minutes back. The world as you know it is changing. FAST. And it isn't for the better. Things are happening, things that I can explain."

I paused.

"If I could have all the fillies and colts leave the room. Pinkie, if you could."

The pink pony started bouncing and led the kids into a room behind the main lobby.

"Alright, here goes nothing. What is happening has only been imagined in the most outrageous of science fiction. The dead, aren't."

I stumbled on the last piece. The room was silent until Spike yelled "ZOMBIES!" from the other room, sending the town into another panic attack.

"NOT HELPING SPIKE, NOT HELPING." I yelled back.

"Ponies, ponies, calm down. There is something we can do about this. But first I'll take some questions."

A thousand and one hooves shot up.

I pointed to one in the front.

"Umm, do they eat brains and stuff?"

"Unfortunately no. These eat whatever they can get their hooves on. Rip you to shreds deal." I shrugged it off. The pony shivered. "Next question?"

A blue pony with a fancy hat from the back started talking without being called on, pissing a lot of ponies off. "The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to know how to fight these creatures."

"Another good question. For those who are squeamish, you might want to cover your ears. You can't fight them. There is no way to win. I'm sorry to say that the only way to beat a zombie is to kill a zombie."

All the hooves went down. I guessed that either that was a common question or nopony dared ask anything else.

"So how do you become a zombie?" I began to pace in my thoughts. "The zombie virus is spread via salivary glands. So a bite transmits the infection."

I looked out at the crowd. No one spoke a word.

"So if somepony were to get bitten, how long would they have? Roughly half an hour of life left. It attacks fast, striking your body very quickly. Symptoms will include irrational fear, tiredness, black veins, headaches, and an inability to stand."

The town was in a state of unbelieving.

I sighed. "I was afraid of this. Who here believes a word that I just said?" Other than Rainbow Dash and Derpy, no hooves went up.

"Morning Star, anypony know him?" There were nods. "Well I'm sorry to say he was bitten roughly 45 minutes ago." The ponies gasped and looked between each other frantically.

"We couldn't show this to anypony, but we did some pre- and post testing. Anypony who doesn't want to see may leave."

I got a nod from Twilight from her bedroom. I guessed that she sent that message after all.

"Actually never-mind that. It seems that we are en route to Canterlot shortly."

There was a mumble between the crowd.

"And this concludes part two. Could I have the mayor see me now?"

A brown mare made her way up the steps. "Yes?"

I wanted answers so I asked impatiently "How many ponies are there? In Ponyville… any given day?"

"I don't know for sure, maybe 150?" she replied, not fully understanding the question's purpose. "That is strange though, the room is pretty empty…"

"Just curious. Thank you Ms. Mayor."

She nodded and went back down the flight of steps.

'This is NOT good. There are 50 some ponies down there.'

I gulped 'That means the others are… oh god. Oh dear god no.'

I remembered the evac. 'Alright, these are no longer citizens. These are survivors.'

Then the banging started. Loud thuds seemed to rattle the library down to it's very bones. I, wanting to evaluate, went our to see the source.

Well on the bright side I found the rest of the town.