//------------------------------//
// Revalations 
// Story: Truly Alive 
// by To Define Life 
//------------------------------//

The banging grew louder. The dead piled over the barrier, trying desperately to get at the meals inside. The air I breathed was stiff with fear.

"Uh, Twilight?" I said, quickly barring the window shut. "When's that pickup?"

"Should be any minute now…" she replied, still unsure of the where all the racket was coming from.

"Listen, this is going to sound insane. Well, more insane. But I need to get to that mirror pond or whatever. There are things that can keep us safe there. Can you help me?"

She paused "We could always teleport there."

"Really?" I asked, in utter disbelief.

"Sure, how long do you need?" she returned, beginning to truly understand the gravity of the situation.

"30 seconds, 45 tops."

"Alright, according to what I read, I can take another pony with me by teleportation. Just touch my horn when I say so."

I put my hoof on Twilight's horn which was slowly beginning to glow. "Any idea if this'll work?"

"Nope."

"Great."

Then came the whiteness. The whole universe seemed to collapse in on one point, then burst out just as quickly.

I took my hoof off of her horn had a look around. Sure enough, we were there. Problem was we had visitors. Only two, but they smelled the living off of us pretty quickly.

"What's Boulder doing here?" Twilight asked, pointing at one of the ponies in front of us.

The two ponies looked up at Twilight. They both made guttural sounds before starting to limp toward her.

"What's wrong? Did you hurt your leg or something? That does look pretty bad, maybe Drive can get that fixed up for you. Right Drive?"

She turned right to look at me, but I had already dashed over to my emergency weapons cache and was halfway through putting all of it in my backpack. I heard my name and looked back to see the two zombies on their way to meal time.

"TWILIGHT GET BACK!" I yelled zipping up my pack hurriedly.

"Huh? Why? They just need some help Drive. Come here Boulder, we'll get you patched up."

The brown earth pony was a yard away from Twilight, the other unicorn close behind.
"NOO!" I screamed, dropping my pack and pulling out a Desert Eagle. I flew parallel to the water at a hundred miles a minute, parting the normally still waters momentarily. With the zombie's teeth inches from Twilight's outstretched hoof, I pulled the trigger.

Boulder dropped like a, well, boulder.

The next one stopped in it's tracks for a beat, a beat in which I side-kicked the undead unicorn an extra three feet back. I put the gun up to his forehead, pulled back the hammer and whispered "Sayonara." before pulling the trigger a second time.

I felt something as I pulled that second trigger. I don't know what, but I felt something.

I turned to Twilight and she was dead eyed. I went over to her and put a hoof on her shoulder.

"He- he tried to kill me."

"No Twilight. IT tried to kill you. These aren't ponies anymore. They are merciless killing machines. You need to realize this, and help others to."

She nodded, then took a step back from the once-Boulder. "H-how long d- do you think you need?" She asked, face to the ground.

"Another minute..." I answered. I flew back to my pack and closed the zipper. I checked and double checked the cache.

I threw my current eagle in the water. As before, two popped out. I took the weapon's duplicate and put it in the empty cache, then turned and walked away.

I came back to Twilight, pack on and my double holsters loaded.

"You ready?" I spoke softly, knowing the purple unicorn was still in shock.

"Yes." She nodded and I put a hoof on her horn as I did before.

The world imploded once again.

I blinked and we had returned to the library.

Twilight struggled to stand.

Applejack ran over "Twi', you okay?"

"No, that took a lot more energy than I thought it would."

A massive crack echoed through the library.

"Was that the... yep. Crap." I commented on the bubble-shield with it's newest feature: a partial shatter.

The dead's meal struggle became faintly audible.

When I thought things couldn't get any worse, the princesses of the day and night appeared in a flash of light, which I assumed to be teleportation.

'God I hate what that does to my brain. Physics just goes down the freaking drain...'

I looked toward the princesses "Excuse my lack of formalities, but we need to move fast."

"Twilight hast asked of our immediate arrival, but neglected to include the exact reason for the disruption." The smaller of the two princesses said. "Maybe you can tell us what troubles all of you so."

"I can, but on a condition. We need to get everypony here to safety first. Then I can tell you everything you want to know." I countered, hearing the rooftop sounds increase.

That hole had to be getting bigger.

The taller one approached me, a look of obvious authority in her eyes. "You were the one with the strange box as a gift, weren't you."

"Yeah, sure, that was me, whatever. We need to move everypony NOW."

The groaning increased and purple glow around the tree house seemed to fade.

Then the doors began to bulge. Everypony backed up instinctively.

"You gonna listen now? Let's move!"

The princesses nodded and both of their horns began to glow. Everypony began to levitate the instant before we teleported.

The last thing I heard was the door bars breaking.



Again, the trippy light show. I shut my eyes again against the intense light.

When I re-opened them, I found myself along with everypony else in the middle of a massive hall.

"Our loyal subjects," Luna began "You have been brought to Canterlot for reasons of safety. You may give any questions to us later."

The night princess turned to me "As for you, follow us so you may explain."

I turned to the crowd, then back to Luna "On the case that Derpy, as well as Twilight and her friends are present."

"Granted." Celestia spoke, overshadowing her sister.

I grabbed Derpy and she grabbed Twilight, and before long the 8 of us were behind the princesses.

Twilight was deep in discussion with Celestia so I turned left to Derpy and sighed.

"You wanted to know where I came from right?"

She looked back at me, eyes still crossed "Well, yeah... but I want to know what's going on more."

"Well, you'll find both pretty soon."

And with that we were led into a room with two ponies in bio-hazard suits attempting to crack the cube with welding torches.

I watched for a minute, but then the cube turned red.

Murphy's law has the worst timing.

I kicked down the door separating us from the workers and tackled the nearest one.

I looked up to the other pony.

"Drop that torch. NOW."

He turned it off and placed it slowly on the ground.

"What the hay was that?" Luna burst.

"I told you he knew something about it sister." Celestia reasoned

"More like what wasn't that. You do realize what happens to this object-" I raised it in my left hoof "-when it gets superheated right?"

Pinkie bounced from the watch booth "Does it give everypony candy?".

"Sure. If you call an explosion of nuclear standpoint candy, then sure; it gives EVERYPONY candy."

The HoloCube's red tone faded back to it's former blue glory.

"And you know thus how?" Luna asked, getting more suspicious by the minute.

"You could say it's somewhat-" I pulled the original HoloCube out of my pack "-familiar."

I put my hoof on the cube and concentrated, trying to find an old file. I had lied about the testing on Morning Star, and rather slipped him a lethal injection with some neurotoxins when everypony's backs were turned. I had hoped I could just steal one from the CDC's files, but It was taking longer than I had anticipated.

I took my hoof off of the cube. "You all should probably sit down. This will take a while."

"We have all the time in the world." Luna replied

I chuckled softly 'No, you don't. Not if we don't get this under wraps quickly...'

I sighed and thought long and hard about what to say. I knew that I had only one shot to explain, and even after that they could deny my story.

"Everypony ready? I will only say this once. But first, any questions? I want to see If there's anything I can clear up first."

"Canterlot officials detected a disturbance of some kind a few days ago. Any knowledge on that?" Luna said.

I remembered the portal I came through. "Yes. In fact I know it's source."

I cleared my throat "I'm going to say something obvious. I'm new. But before you ask or say 'Big deal...' let me clarify. I'm new, period."

Some cocked their heads and some were still listening intently.

"This world, Equestria you call it, is what I'm new to. That disturbance you noticed," I turned to Luna "That was my arrival."

There was a gasp from both Fluttershy and Rarity.

"I come from a world known as, or well, was known as Earth." I touched the HoloCube to project a spinning globe of the planet. The planet's green grassy surface was projected, half in the bright day, and half in darkness, city lights poking through. "Nice little ball of fuzz, you know? A bunch of cities, not the cleanest water, but not bad in itself."

"Well if it was so nice, why did you leave?" Derpy asked.

"You see what's outside? Or what was outside? That used to be my problem. Earth's problem." The green faded quickly to a dullish brown and lights went out. "I was surviving for three years with the whole world about 500 times worse than what it was out there."

I paused, "Another thing. Do you see me? The way I look I mean."

"Well of course we see you, silly." Pinkie responded with somehow unfazed happiness.

"Well, I'll tell you this: saying 'everypony' has been a change."

The room seemed to blink.

"What?"

"Excuse me darling?"

"Ar' ya sayin' what I think you're sayin'?"

"Pop quiz!" I said starting to pace back and forth "Who can tell me what a human is?" Twilight raised her hoof. "Yes?"

"Humans are mythical creatures that walked on two legs and had no wings or magic. They made up for this lack by their incredible ability to create, think, and imagine."

"Correct." I pulled up some photos of one person in particular; some alone, some with family. "The things in these photos are examples of humans. Where I come from is a human planet. Nothing other than humans can talk intelligently and even so some humans speak differently than one another."

"Uh, Flash?" Rainbow asked.

"Yes? Question?"

"Yeah, how do you know so much about humans if they're mythical? Why do you care so much about them."

"Simple answer! They are not mythical."

I heard whispers from the back. 'He's worse than Lyra...'

"So I'm full of it then? Is that what you're saying Rarity?"

She jolted and turned slowly forward "Sorry."

I continued "The human in the photos, his name is Dean Styner. And before I came here-" I gulped, "-that's who I was."

Even the princesses were in denial that time.

Twilight tried to deny the logic. "It doesn't make any sense! How are you a pony if you were a human? And who are the other humans in the photos with you?"

"I don't know how exactly I became a pony, but those other people in the photos you see? They are my parents."

"So where are they currently? With you I presume?" Celestia asked.

I choked back tears, "They-they've been, de- dead for t-two yea-years..." I stopped talking and sat down. I was fighting back tears. 'Don't cry, whatever you do, just don't cry.'

I wasn't crying, but for the time being I was broken.

Derpy was fighting back tears too. She ran over and put her front hooves around me. "Hey, I've been there too, when my parents died I was horrible mess inside too."

Celestia was in taken aback "My apologies, I- I did not know…"

I sniffled, then looked Derpy in the eyes and choked out "Thank you, I mean it too."

She wiped the tears out of her eyes. "Hey, I get it. No need to say anything."

Derpy went back to her seat and sat back down.

"That's my back-story." I got the courage to finally say. "That's all you need to know about my past. And this?" I picked up the HoloCube "This is a token from my travels. It displays information and can hold just about anything."

"Then why could our top scientists do nothing with it?" Luna asked, no longer pessimistic about the whole ordeal.

"Another good question. But first one thing. I don't know exactly how or why, but I can interact with computers and machines unlike anyone else can."

"So only you can access it. That's what you're saying."

"Pretty much. I mean the only other thing I know about it is not to overheat it."

"I don't know what kind of answer I expected…"

I found the CDC file and ignored the princess's comment.

"Moving right along, this is the scan of your average zombie." I pulled up the diagram. There was a heart monitor, a glucose reader, and a live brain activity feed.

I pointed to the brain "Do you see all these blue lines? They are your thoughts, your feelings, your memories, everything all at once. Everything that controls everything is displayed right here. I'm gonna fast-forward about 20 minutes to the time of death." The person's mouth opened and closed repeatedly until I paused the footage.

"The zombie virus is a disease that attacks your central nervous system swiftly and violently. After it takes over your brain, it kills you." I resumed the tape and all the functions stopped. The mouth stopped moving, there was no more blue in the brain, and the heart rate flat-lined. "You're probably thinking: 'How long do you have after they die?'" There were nods. "Well I've seen times as long as 2 days to as short as a minute and a half. This one took 30 minutes."

I skipped 25 minutes.

"5 minutes before revival was interesting. Some viral pathways were shown. See the red? Those lines are what part of the brain is activated by the virus. No memories, no feelings, no personality. Nothing. Just muscle movements."

I played the tape. For five minutes, the ponies I knew best were taught how the things I knew best worked.

The last second of the video, the red stopped as a crack formed in the picture.

"What happened?" Applejack questioned.

"They killed it. Bullet through the brain does the job quite nice actually."

I un-holstered my left Desert Eagle and laid it softly on the ground.

"Can anypony tell me what this is?" I asked rhetorically. I looked around and everyone's eyes were locked on the weapon. "Twilight has seen what it can do, but do you know what it is?"

No answer.

"This is a firearm, a gun as it's commonly called. This is the smallest class, handgun, but the pistol is the largest in it's class. So if you find a bigger pistol than this, I would be very surprised."

Anypony could have said anything, but no-one did.

"It fires bullets. Bullets are small pieces of metal with sharp points and a small case full of gunpowder, an explosive, to propel them forward. So it's much more effective at ranged combat. Anypony want to see how it works?"

Rainbow Dash put her hoof up "I'll try it."

"Alright then. Come up for a sec." I found a cup underneath the work table and set it up as a target.

"First off, pick up the gun. It's like a sword, it can kill, but not if you use it correctly."

She picked the gun off the floor and everypony watched in anticipation.

"It's kinda heavy."

'I run with these things...'

"It's alright. Now hold it out in front of you so that both notches are lined up with that cup."

She was a little shaky, but seemed okay for her first shot.

"Don't lock your elbows, you can break your arm that way. Hold it tight, it'll have more kick than you expect. And you're ready! Now squeeze the trigger slowly but smoothly and…"

She fired. The gun nearly leapt out her hoof, but she hit the target all right.

"A lot of punch for something so small and quiet." she remarked as she rejoined the others.

"The silence is because of this nozzle at the end. It takes the normally huge sound and makes it into that little pop you heard." I unscrewed the silencer. "This is what it normally sounds like."

I pulled the trigger of the no longer silenced Eagle and my ears rang. When the intensity of the blast died down I replaced the silencer.

"That little thing gets rid of all that noise?" Pinkie asked in wonder.

"Never judge anything by it's size..." Fluttershy whispered from the back.

"And that concludes my telling you what's going on… thing. Yeah."

The princesses looked at each other and began disputing back and forth.

"Do you actually believe what he says Luna?"

"I would agree with you before, but he's got me convinced."

They stood taller in unison, before Celestia said "We have come to the conclusion that you are telling the truth. We have also inquire so that we can get more of these weapons you call 'firearms'."

"All very simple." I replied, before my heart sank at what it meant we needed to do. "We just have to go back."