//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 Guns // Story: Undead Equestria // by Sorren //------------------------------// Undead Equestria By: Sorren Chapter six: Guns “Look what ah found.” Dusty said happily as he dug around in the hall closet. Sunny chuckled at the pegasus’ cheerfulness. After reaching the outskirts of town they had searched multiple houses. Most of them had been emptied. The last one they had tried to enter was locked up tight. But after giving Willow a minute with the door, they were in; and the white mare only had a mild headache. This house was stocked with all sorts of goodies. The pantry had proven sufficient enough to restock their food supply after they had lost half of it with Blossom. “What’d you find?” Sunny asked. The pegasus reached into the closet and pulled out something by the strap. “A gun.” He smiled. Sunny looked at it. It was a gun, complete with a strap and holster so a pony could tether it to their body. Black finish, the thing looked half plastic. “It doesn’t look like the best gun,” Sunny poked. Dusty frowned. “Well it’s not the best. But it still shoots things don’t it?” Sunny chuckled. “Probably some hoofball-mom’s home defense system.” “It’s not entirely the gun that’s the prize.” Dusty stuck his head back into the closet and pulled out a few boxes. “Ammo,” he added cheekily. “Three boxes of low caliber ammunition. Aaaaaaand,” he said eagerly. “One box of rounds for Valediction.” “Hurray,” Sunny drawled. “Now we have more stuff to shoot stuff with.” Dusty shot him a look. “Well fine then mister I-don’t-like-to-shoot-guns. Go and hang out with the mares.” Sunny shrugged. “Okay, I’ll leave you on your quest for ammunition. Or whatever you’re doing.” Dusty just waved a dismissing hoof and buried his head back into the closet. Sunny chuckled and headed down the hall towards the kitchen. “Look, I’m telling you.” He heard Willow’s voice from up ahead. “I’m going to cook them, and if you don’t want to eat them then you can go hungry.” “It just doesn’t feel right,” Snowglobe protested. Sunny walked into the kitchen to see the two mares glaring at one another. “What’s going on?” he asked idly. “This mare is resorting to barbaric terms,” Snowglobe huffed. Sunny shot Willow a, “What’s she talking about” glance. The white mare replied with a chuckle. “I’m cooking eggs.” Snowglobe shot Willow an angry look. “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re herbivores.” Willow shrugged. “Well yeah, but eggs taste good. It’s not like we’re eating an animal or something.” “Snowglobe, a lot of ponies eat eggs,” Sunny replied cautiously. “Just like ponies drink milk. It’s not like we’re eating the cow. You know, just eating the stuff from the cow.” Snowglobe sighed. “I just don’t want to be anywhere near eating something that came from something alive. It’s too much like them.” She made a hoof motion out the kitchen window. “Well technically plants are alive,” Willow murmured. Snowglobe glared. “That’s not the same!” Willow lifted a hoof to cover her face in mock horror. “Okay, easy there. Don’t hit me mrs. perfect.” Moon walked into the room. “What’s going on?” she asked. “We’re talking about eggs,” Sunny replied. Moon frowned. “Why eggs?” Sunny shrugged. “What do you think?” Willow asked the blue mare. Moon looked puzzled. “Think about what?” “About ponies eating eggs,” Willow insisted. Moon tilted her head to once side, thinking. “Is this a trick question? And why are you and Snowglobe looking at me like hungry animals?” Willow chuckled. “No, it’s not.” She looked over at Snowglobe. “And stop looking at Moon like you want to eat her. We’re herbivores, remember?” The angry gray mare stomped a hoof. “Would you stop that!?” “Stop what?” Willow asked in the most unconvincing innocent voice Sunny had ever heard. Sunny stood back and tried not to laugh as Snowglobe glared daggers into the white mare. Moon shrugged. “I really don’t see much wrong with eating eggs,” she replied cautiously. “It’s not like you gain any nutrients from eating them but they still taste good.” Willow beamed triumphantly at the gray mare. “Ha,” she chided. “That is it!” Snowglobe threw herself at Willow and the two mares fell to the floor. “Bahahaha, help!” Willow chuckled. “She’s got me.” This only angered the mare further. She continued to try and get a blow in on Willow. Sunny couldn’t quite tell what kind of a fight this was. It wasn’t a play fight but it wasn’t exactly serious either. Willow rolled onto her back and drew her hooves up close to her body. Snowglobe jumped on top, intent on getting a blow in on the antagonizing mare. Willow bucked out, bringing her hind legs up into her attacker’s belly. Snowglobe went sailing into the air. She struck the roof with a thud and landed on the kitchen table. One of the legs broke and the mare was sent tumbling to the floor with an assortment of plates and glasses. Willow looked genuinely surprised. She scrambled to her hooves and ran to Snowglobe’s aid. “Are you okay?” she asked worriedly. Snowglobe groaned. “You hit me with a roof.” Willow frowned. “Well, you were the one that hit the roof, but yeah, sorry.” Moon was staring wide eyed at the white mare. “Willow?” she murmured. Willow turned to look at her. “How did you do that?” “You mean throw Snowglobe into the roof?” Willow asked casually. Moon nodded. “I don’t know, I guess Snowglobe doesn’t weigh very much. Maybe?” Sunny snorted, everypony turned to look at him. “Sorry,” he said. “This just looks really funny.” Dusty poked his head into the kitchen. “Is everypony alright? Ah heard a noise.” “Yeah,” Sunny replied. “Snowglobe just hit the roof.” Dusty nodded. “Okay then.” He made to leave, then did a double take. “Wait… what?” Moon chuckled. “It’s okay, nothing major.” Dusty still looked skeptical. “Oh yeah,” Willow added. “Would you like some eggs for breakfast?” Dusty nodded again. “Sounds good to me.” “I think you are out-ruled.” Willow batted her eyes at the stunned mare on the floor. “You’re strong,” Snowglobe awed. Sunny could agree with the shell-shocked mare. Willow had thrown her like she was a bag of paper. He thought back to when Willow had charged right through the fence, or when she had broken the lock back in the tunnel. He couldn’t help but wonder what was up with her. She wasn’t normal. But he had known that since he had seen her eyes glowing in the tunnel. Sunny couldn’t stand it anymore. “Willow,” he asked tentatively. “Is something going on with you?” The white mare tilted her head to one side. A lock of her crimson mane fell into her face and she flicked it away. “No,” she replied dumbly. Sunny sighed. “Come on Willow; you just threw Snowglobe like she was a balloon animal.” Snowglobe chuckled and pointed a hoof up at the roof. “Look, I left a mark in the ceiling.” Sunny looked up. There was, in fact, a Snowglobe-shaped indentation in the ceiling. Willow rolled her eyes. “Okay, if you really want to know, it’s going to take me a while to explain. Brick!” she hollered. “Could you come and finish the food?” A moment later the brown stallion trotted into the room. “Thank you Brick,” Willow shot the stallion a smile before turning back to them. “Let’s find a comfortable place to sit if I’m going to tell you this. Better get Dusty too.” “I’ll get him,” Moon offered. She left the kitchen to go find the blue pegasus. Willow led them to a sitting room. The mare sat down on a comfortable looking cushion and motioned for them to do the same. They sat on the opposite end of the room so each of them could look at Willow head-on. Snowglobe rubbed a spot on the back of her neck. “I think my neck must have hit a stud,” she muttered. “Look, I’m sorry,” Willow said, sounding sincere. “I didn’t mean to throw you into the roof. It was an accident.” Moon and Dusty entered the room. Moon took a seat beside Sunny while Dusty remained standing. “So,” Willow started. “You are all sitting here looking at me because I need to tell you exactly what the hay is going on with me. I think I’ll find this a lot easier to tell if you all hear this from the beginning. Plus Snowglobe hasn’t heard the full story yet.” Snowglobe opened her mouth to say something but Willow shot her a look. “Snowglobe, I swear it by Celestia, if you interrupt me while I’m talking I will throw you through the roof.” Snowglobe decided not to speak. Willow tapped her hooves together. “Right, so let’s start from the beginning. When all of this broke out, I was the first to know what was going on. Mainly because I watched as Sugar Apple slowly turned into one of them. Then next thing I know, he escapes and bites me. I managed to quell the virus, or so I thought. I did stop it, for a while at least. I stopped the original infection before it could spread any further than the wound, with penicillin and formalin,” Willow smirked. “As Moon so greatly approves of, but two days after, I found myself turning. So I took a large dose of that unknown chemical. I just started calling it medical drain-o. So after taking that, I seemed to be fine, again. With that dosage I almost killed it. Almost, but it managed to stay hidden somewhere in my body. I started to feel its effects again back in the tunnel. So that night, as you all know, I took three times more than the last dosage of the stuff. That one nearly killed me, but it worked. I ran a few screens on myself last night. I am virus free.” She smiled around at all of them in turn. “But that still doesn’t explain why you’ve been acting so weird,” Sunny said. Willow nodded. “I was getting to that. But this is the part I’m not quite clear on. Now while I did eliminate the virus; I think I acquired some of its traits. Like for instance, the strength. I noticed that the zombie ponies…” Willow stumbled. “Damn it,” she muttered. “Now you guys got me saying it.” She waved it away and continued. “With them, strength seems to be an attribute; considering doors don’t seem to last very long if they want to get through them. Also, this one may come as a bit of a shocker, but I can see in the dark. So if I can, I bet they can too.” “Whoa,” Dusty awed. “You can see in the dark?” Willow nodded. “That’s so cool.” “Dusty,” Moon face-hoofed. “That’s not supposed to be cool.” Willow shrugged. “Actually, it is kinda’ cool.” Moon rolled her eyes. “But, the point is that I somehow inherited the traits of our zombie friends. I don’t know how it happened. Even after the virus is gone, the effects it had on my body still remain. I’m just glad I didn’t inherit the desire to eat ponies along with the strength and eyesight. So there you have it,” Willow chuckled. “I’m half zombie.” Moon shook her head as if she were taking in too much information at once. “So let me get this straight?” she said. “You somehow managed to get zombie strength, and the eyesight thingy, yet you have no desire to eat ponies?” Willow lowered her eyes and Moon caught the motion. “Willow?” Moon asked tentatively. “What is it?” The white mare shuffled a hoof and looked back up at them. “I have plenty of self-control not to go taking bites out of ponies…. but…” Willow hesitated. “Meat does… it’s not bad.” She finished awkwardly. Snowglobe gasped. “You...? Meat?” Willow glared. “It’s not like I chose to! I inherited certain traits of whatever those creatures have. I guess I kind of got the whole meat eating thing as well.” Snowglobe continued to gape at Willow as if she were chewing on a foal. “Look Snowglobe, just because I can eat you, doesn’t mean I will. Somehow I bonded with the virus but still managed to maintain my pony traits. I can still eat fruits and vegetables. But I can also eat meat.” Every time the mare mentioned the meat eating part she cringed. Sunny frowned. “So you’re not like… contagious or anything?” Willow shook her head. “Nope, I am one hundred percent safe. Like I said, I bonded with the virus. Don’t ask me how, even I don’t know that. But it’s not in me anymore. I just have the after effects. So yes,” she smiled. “It’s still okay to hug me.” Moon chuckled nervously. “No thanks. I would like to keep my ribs intact and un-crushed thanks.” Willow took a sharp intake of breath. “I almost forgot.” She looked at Sunny. “You aren’t the only one who’s immune anymore.” Sunny looked around; but Willow’s gaze was fixed on him. He suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. But he had no idea why. “Why’s that?” he asked cautiously. “Last night I did some testing on myself. I took a sample from some of the blood on Moon’s shotgun. And I took some of mine. Apparently when I bonded with the virus I also, somehow, found some sort of immunity. The cells from the virus won’t even touch mine. Well, they will touch. But they won’t bond.” “Hurray,” Moon drawled sarcastically. “We found out how to make ponies immune. Just have a zombie pony bite them. Inject them with a bunch of drugs and embalming fluid. Then inject them with more drugs and hope they don’t die. And then they might just be immune.” Willow shrugged. “Maybe, or I might just be an exception. We can’t really know unless we get an actual specialist to look at it.” Snowglobe stood up and stretched. Sunny thought she seemed to do it a lot. If he didn’t know any better he would say that she was over exaggerating it. Sunny looked at Moon, who rolled her eyes. She had been doing that a lot recently. Willow stood up as well. “I don’t know about the rest of you.” She shot a teasing look in Snowglobe’s direction. “But I’m hungry.” Dusty nodded. “Ah say we eat. Then we need to pack up and get out of here. We got quite a long ways to go, best to get started as soon as possible.” * * * “I’m just curious,” Sunny asked as they walked in the mid-day sun. “Is the road really the safest place to walk?” Dusty shrugged. “It’s a wagon trail. Ah figure if we follow this, it’ll take us straight to the next town. Besides, Ah’ve never been the best at navigation. All I really know is that Appleoosa’s that way.” He pointed a hoof down the dirt road. “Sounds good to me,” Sunny replied. He was getting used to the battle saddle now. At first it had felt big and awkward. The bit that hung right under his jaw had been driving him insane as well. But now he had gotten used to his chin brushing the piece of metal occasionally. Sunny was starting to have doubts that there was even an apocalypse at all. So far he hadn’t heard anything, seen anything, nothing. The only word was that of the two ponies who had pulled into town so long ago, and they were both dead now. What if they got to the next town to see all the ponies holding a big banner that said “FOOLED YA.’?” Sunny gave his head a quick shake. His mind was starting to wander. He was a little afraid of the ideas he might produce if he let it continue. “Does anypony have a pair of sunglasses?” Willow asked, almost pleadingly. Moon shot the mare a curious glance. “Why do you need sunglasses?” “Because,” Willow replied. “I can barely see at all. The sun is blinding me. I think it has something to do with this night vision thing.” “Sorry Willow,” Snowglobe said. “I don’t think any of us were thinking about sunglasses when we packed up.” Willow nodded. “Right, well if you see a pair, please for the love of Celestia give them to me, before my eyes melt. I don’t care if they’re shaped like stars. I need them.” “Sure can do,” Snowglobe replied casually. Dusty sighed. “Ah really wish we had a sky wagon right now.” Sunny frowned. “What’s that?” Dusty chuckled. “What have you been living under a rock?” Sunny shot him a look. “Oh yeah right, you’ve never left Desert Sage.” “Sadly, no.” Sunny hung his head. “Mind telling me what a sky wagon is?” Dusty obliged. “Well, sky wagons are special wagons with magical talismans in them. They have to be pulled by pegasus ponies. They got really popular around the larger cities. One pegasus can usually pull a small to medium sized wagon fairly well. But if you get any larger than that then more are needed. The things either run off of a small generator or a spark battery. They’re meant to get ponies places, and pretty fast too.” Snowglobe nodded. “It’s quite a genius design. Before sky wagons they had sky chariots. But with two pegasi pulling they could usually only carry the weight of about one or two ponies. The sky wagon uses magical energy to create an upward thrust, using the core structure itself as means of propulsion. With this, two pegasi can carry about ten or so ponies.” Dusty looked puzzled for a moment. “Uh, yeah, what she said.” he added dumbly. “Maybe we can find one.” Sunny aimed for a cheerful note. Both Dusty and Snowglobe shook their heads simultaneously. “Not out here,” Dusty said “You aren’t going find a sky wagon anywhere this side of Canterlot,” Snowglobe finished. “Well okay then,” Sunny said. A sky wagon did sound pretty nice. Walking did get boring really fast. Sunny peeked into the back of a wagon as they passed it. Inside were two shot ponies. They had been dead long enough to start rotting. He shied away. The wagon had been heading towards Desert Sage. That wasn’t a good sign. * * * A day later, they were still walking. The sun was low on the horizon, casting them in shadow as they walked. A wooden sign on the road read. 'YOU ARE NOW ENTERING NA LE.' The middle of the sign had been torn away so that the name of the town was no longer decipherable. Sunny could see the faint shapes of houses in the distance. The town didn’t look very large at all. He guessed no more than two or three hundred ponies lived there, or, had lived there. “Do you think there are ponies there?” Moon wondered aloud. Willow shook her head. “Don’t know, I don’t see any smoke so I’ll take that as a good sign.” She nudged Brick. “What do you think?” The brown pony just shrugged. “I think so too.” Willow replied. “The question is,” Dusty said. “Do we want to risk it? It would be nice to stop and refill on water and sleep for the night.” “Maybe there’s a supermarket,” Sunny voiced aloud. Snowglobe shot him a funny look. “We have plenty of food. Why the hay would you want to find a supermarket?” “Because there might be muffins there,” he answered. Snowglobe looked puzzled. “He has a thing for muffins,” Moon clarified. The gray mare nodded in partial understanding. Dusty chuckled. “So what do you all say?” he asked them all evenly. “Town or no town?” Sunny shrugged. “I could do with either.” Dusty rolled his eyes. “Anypony else have an idea?” “It seems safe enough,” Moon said. “It wouldn’t hurt. I say we go to see what’s up.” “I guess we check out the town,” Dusty said. * * * “Seems safe enough,” Willow muttered in a perfect mock of Moon’s voice. “Shut up!” the blue mare snapped. She fired her shotgun at a charging zombie pony and stopped to reload. “How was I supposed to know?” “I don’t know, let’s see.” Willow reared up on her forelegs and delivered a heavy applebuck to a yellow zombie. “The fact that there were half eaten ponies in the streets and a big sign that said ‘condemned,’ right outside the town?” The pony she had bucked scrambled back to its hooves and charged at Willow again. The mare jumped into the air and came down right on top of the zombie pony. She drove it to the ground with multiple kicks to the head until she was pretty sure that it was dead. “Should have left me alone,” Willow panted. Sure the whole getting infected thing sucked. But the strength was amazing! She couldn’t wait to use the night vision to her advantage. Willow looked around the narrow road for more of them. Shops ran down both lengths of the street. A clothing store, bakery, general goods, a couple café’s. Her eyes fell on a store with a large wooden sign on the front. It inconspicuously read. ‘GUNS,’ in big bold letters. “Dusty!” Willow yelled. The light blue pegasus fired of his pistol twice, then turned to face Willow. She pointed with a hoof to the store. Dusty’s eyes lit up as he gazed at the old sign. “To the gumn shtore!” he yelled around the gun in his mouth. More zombie ponies were swarming in from every direction, out of houses, alleys, two story buildings, everywhere. “I think we may be in trouble!” Willow heard Sunny yell nervously. “Don’t worry!” Moon yelled back. “From the look Dusty has in his eye, if we make to it that gun store we’ll be fine!” The group fought their way across the street towards the store. Moon dispatched two more as they charged. “They just keep coming!” She tossed the spent shells and levitated two new ones from her flank. “I only have four shots left!” she called in worry. Willow had never really thought about it; but zombie hordes made a lot of noise. The little grunts and screams they made weren’t that loud on their own. And when you get fifty of them doing it all at once it almost became deafening. Sunny fired his rifle at a pegasus pony swooping down at them. The shot struck it clean through the left eye and it thudded to the ground right in the middle of their group. “Nishe shot,” Dusty complimented. They had formed a rough circle. Willow and Snowglobe stood in the center while the rest of them stood facing every angle. Brick fired two shots from his low caliber pistol and dropped a charging unicorn. The gun store was still a good twenty feet away. Willow watched as Moon fired off two of her last four shots. She cursed when one of them only skimmed her target. “Why are they all coming to my side!? I’m running out of ammo!” She loaded the last two shots into the double barrel. Willow could hear her companions shooting all around her, but she focused on Moon’s side. So far the heat of them seemed to be running at the side the blue unicorn was covering. There was a click from beside her. “I’m out!” sunny yelled. “That was the last box!” Snowglobe yelled back. Moon fired at one that decided to try and jump at them from a building. The shot took out most of the creature’s underbelly, destroying its internal workings. It hit the ground with a crunch and began dragging itself towards them, a heavy trail of blood in its wake. They reached the double wooden front doors of the store. Sunny pulled open one of the doors, which was miraculously unlocked, and they piled in. Moon used her last shot on a zombie running for the doorway. Sunny and Dusty slammed the doors shut. Willow looked around the room. “Well would you look at that,” she said with mock cheer. “We’re trapped.” The only way in or out of the small shop was through the front doors, which were now being swarmed with zombies. The windows were barred, most likely to prevent robbery. Dusty didn’t seem to mind. He looked around at interior of the store. “Look at all these guns,” he awed. Willow couldn’t see his mouth watering, yet. Behind the glass counter, guns covered the whole back wall. Pistols, rifles, and even more that Willow couldn’t even identify. “You guys,” Sunny said nervously, glancing at the door. “We all know what happens to doors when zombies want to get through them.” Dusty tore his head away from the firearm display. “Okay,” he instructed. “Everypony grab a gun.” Willow hopped the counter and began looking for something to use. The others did the same. Moon cringed as the door behind them groaned. Willow looked for a gun she could shoot with her mouth. Her horn still wasn’t working well enough to levitate anything heavier than a piece of paper. But that was another sign that she had killed the virus, her magic was starting to return. Her eyes fell upon a rather large rifle with a mouth bit. “What’s that?” she asked Dusty, pointing a hoof at the unknown gun. Dusty gazed at it for a moment. “That’s an earth pony rifle, only meant to be used while stationary.” “Sounds good to me.” Willow went to examine the rifle more closely. “So what are we doing?” Moon asked. “Are we just going to sit in here and shoot things?” Dusty shrugged. “I don’t see anything else we can do. There’s enough ammo in here to stack to the moon.” Snowglobe looked around at the rows of guns. “Why would a small town have all these guns?” she asked. She nuzzled open a crate, which was filled to the top with unfilled magazines. “It’s a small town,” Dusty replied simply, making it hinted in his voice that the answer was obvious. The door cracked as one of the hinges bent. As quickly as she could, Willow lifted the rifle Dusty had described from the wall and set it on the glass countertop. “What kind of bullets go in this thing?” she asked. Dusty stuck his head under the counter and pulled out a green box. He tossed it on the table next to her. “These ones.” He passed her two more boxes. She pulled it open with her mouth and emptied its contents onto the countertop. Twelve, very large bullets clattered onto the glass. “Jeez Dusty,” she exclaimed. “What am I shooting with these things? Dragons?” The light blue pegasus pulled a more compact looking gun from the wall and set it on the counter. “Hey you chose it, not me,” he chuckled. “Load up as many magazines as you can,” he instructed, switching to a more serious tone. Snowglobe looked around at the guns skeptically. “What? We just shoot them until they stop trying to eat us?” She pulled a pistol from the wall. The mare handled the gun as if it were going to explode in her mouth. She set it down and levitated an ammunition box towards her. She reloaded Sunny’s rifle. Willow looked over at Brick. He was sorting through a stack of crates in the corner. “What are you doing?” she asked, trotting over him. He didn’t respond. The brown pony pushed over a whole stack of crates, which toppled to the ground, spilling more ammo and weapons across the floor. “Easy with the merchandise,” Dusty grumbled. Brick ignored him, instead he drug a large rectangular crate, which had been on the bottom, out away from the wall. Willow watched curiously as Brick lifted the lid away. Inside was the biggest gun Willow had ever seen. It was as long as her. Willow couldn’t imagine a pony being able to actually use it. It was huge. A small piece of parchment was taped to the bottom of the lid. Willow levitated it up to her, and read it. “Here you go, standard REA issue. I don’t know why in the hay you would want this thing. Careful with this though. If you get caught with one of these you’ll end up on the moon. And if anyone asks, you stole it. p.s. There are four extra boxes of disintegrating belts in the other crate; it’s got an X on it.” “What’chya got over there?” Dusty asked curiously. He crossed over to them and nudged Willow out of the way to peer down into the crate. He let out a little scream and looked away. Slowly, he looked back. “Now I know I’m dreamin.’” “Why’s that?” Willow asked. The pegasus looked like he had just been invited to speak with Celestia herself. “Because,” Dusty replied, dumbstruck. “That there is a Mare-60 military issue Equestrian chaingun. Ah saw one of these in a magazine once.” “How the hay are we supposed to shoot it?” Willow asked. “It’s almost bigger than me.” Dusty smiled at Brick. “Ah got an idea.” Willow snorted. “If you think it’ll work.” Dusty turned to look at the others behind the front counter. Willow followed his gaze. Sunny and Moon were both loading small magazines. Moon was having a much easier time. Snowglobe was readying weapons on the countertop. “Snowglobe,” Dusty called. “Come help me with this. The mare looked up and trotted over to them. “Yeah?” she asked. Dusty pointed a hoof towards the machine gun. “Help me put this on Brick.” Snowglobe shot him a look. “You’re joking, right?” Dusty grabbed the gun by a handle and pulled it halfway out of the crate. He released it to talk. “No look, it’s already got all the tetherin’s and everythin.’ Ah just need your help figurin’ it all out.” With some effort, the gray mare levitated the massive gun up to examine it. “It has the same setup as a battle saddle would,” she observed. “Looks fairly simple. Weight displacement looks fine. Bit’s already set up.” She threw a glance at Brick. “If we’re going to put it on him were going to have to rearrange those cases.” Willow had gotten used to the bulky shape of Brick in the past few days. The two cases containing the unknown blue liquid were still strapped to his flanks. “I’ll let you two figure out how to get that working,” she said. “I’m going to go see what I can do to help Sunny and Moon.” She left them to their experiment and crossed back over to the counter. The heavy front door cracked again. This time a few nails pulled free of the wall. Moon looked up worriedly at the sound. Willow found a few magazines for the gun she had picked out and set to loading them with the ammo Dusty had given her. She quickly realized that loading magazines was hard. She had to clasp the metal case in her hooves and load the bullets with her mouth, which was a tedious task. Willow wasn’t much for guns, but she wasn’t very shy of using them. If the need arose, she would gladly use one to save her life. And the need had arisen. The door shook again and part of the wooden frame fell to the floor. Willow looked over to the two that were still fussing with Brick. “Are you two done turning Brick into a machine gun yet?” “Almost,” Snowglobe replied. She grabbed a strap in her mouth and crawled under Brick’s belly to the other side of him. The brown stallion watched with mild interest, his face remaining impartial. Willow could see that they had taken the case on his left and moved it to his back. They had strapped the… Willow forgot what it was called. It was a really big machine gun. They had strapped the really big machine gun to his left flank so that it rested higher up. The gun itself had come all ready to be mounted on a pony. Willow could see that it had the same concepts as a battle saddle. A piece of metal curved around his front so that the trigger rested in front of his mouth. It was almost exactly the same as Sunny’s, except it didn’t use the saddle part. “Oh yeah,” Willow told them. “There should be a box over there with an X on it. There should be more ammo for the gun in there.” Dusty nodded in acknowledgement. Moon was looking worried. “You might want to hurry it up,” she warned nervously. “I bet we only get another minute or so out of this door.” As if her words had drawn a response, the door on the right buckled, the bottom half breaking free. Sunny tensed behind the counter, a good ten feet from the front door. A zombie tried shoving its way through the hole but Moon gave it a hearty blast with the double barrel. Dusty trotted over, they had finally finished turning Brick into a walking gun. He reared up and pulled a shotgun from the wall. He set it down next to Moon. “Ah reckon this one would be better. Holds more ammo and it’s a pump action, specifically unicorns only.” Moon looked at the double barrel that had been in her possesion since the hospital, then to the shiny new one. She shrugged and strapped the double barrel back to her flank. She levitated up the new one to inspect it. “What’s so special about it?” she asked. “Nothing special,” Dusty replied. “But it holds eight shots instead of just two and is easier to reload. Shotgun shells go in the bottom, bullets come out of the long part an’ empty shells come out the top, that’s all that really matters.” “I thought it was illegal for shotguns to hold any more than three shots?” Snowglobe mused, having come over to hear the conversation. Moon started loading her new shotgun. Dusty turned to reply to Snowglobe. “Do you think the pony who owned this store gave a damn about what’s legal if he’s got that thing in here?” He motioned towards Brick’s new gun. The answer seemed to satisfy the gray mare. Dusty turned to face Brick. He cringed as the door buckled further, threatening to collapse inward at any second. “We want to save as much ammo for that thing as possible. Only use it when it looks like we might be in trouble.” Brick nodded and picked up a pistol from the countertop. Willow looked at the big brown pony and chuckled. “You look like a tank,” she teased. He just shrugged. Willow rolled her eyes, subtly failing at another attempt to get a rise out of the silent pony. She took hold of the rifle she had set up and looked down the sights experimentally. She could see a zombie pony trying to push through a hole at the bottom of the door. She sighted in on it, flipped the safety catch, and fired. She was rewarded with the crimson splash of its head turning inside out. The rifle bucked her, hard. “Ouch,” she gasped, rotating her jaw to make sure she hadn’t pulled something. “Gun too big for you?” Dusty chided. “It kicks pretty hard; good thing it’s mounted.” Dusty took aim with a rather large mouth-held weapon. “No,” she pouted. “I just wasn’t ready.” Snowglobe hesitantly levitated a pistol by her side. “Point and squeeze,” she murmured. The pistol fired a shot into the door and Snowglobe let out a little squeak. Dusty tensed. “When that door goes down, shoot anything that moves.” “Sure thing captain obvious,” Willow jabbed. At that moment the right door gave an almighty groan and burst inward. The other door, not having anything to hold it in place, burst open as well. Moon was the first to fire. Her buckshot peppered the horde of zombies before they even had a chance to cross the threshold. And in a second, all havoc was unleashed. Everypony opened fire. Willow took careful aim with the rifle and sent a bullet right at a pink unicorn. Not only did the projectile hit the unicorn, it also hit four other zombies behind it. She took the kick much better now that she was prepared for it. They mowed down the first wave but they just kept coming. “Snowglobe, reload!” Sunny yelled, picking up a pistol from the desk and firing with that. The gray mare dropped her gun and set to reloading for Sunny. Dead zombie ponies rolled through the open doorway. One sprung over one if its fallen comrades and flew directly at the counter. Moon blasted it with the shotgun and it fell short. Its head struck the glass counter, sending splinters of glass from the point of impact. Willow fired again and was rewarded with five more dead zombies. “They’re lining up like bowling pins!” she jeered. Snowglobe finished reloading Sunny’s rifle and the orange pegasus took the bit of his battle saddle again, abandoning the pistol. “How many are there!?” asked Moon. Her shotgun clicked and she set to the task of reloading. To Willow’s horror, slowly, the zombie ponies were advancing. They had pushed forward about halfway between the front door and the counter; and they were still coming. One of them broke off to the right and Dusty leveled it before it could sneak around to the side. The blue pegasus dropped his gun to yell. “If they fan out we’re done for, now would be the time Brick!” The brown stallion stepped forward, almost casually, and took the firing bit in his mouth. The machine gun on his back blared to life. Empty bullet casings flew like popcorn kernels and the room was filled with the earsplitting noise of the automatic rifle. The wave of advancing zombie ponies was decimated, pushed back to the doorway. The high caliber bullets shredded anything unfortunate enough to be in way. “Sweet Celestia!” Sunny yelled. “That thing’s shooting bullets like a garden hose!” “Yeah!” Dusty jeered as the horde was shredded. “Get some!” Willow fired once more, taking a few more. All of a sudden, it all stopped, the screaming, the shooting, the zombie ponies, everything. “Bit quiet,” Willow murmured. Smoke hovered throughout the building, having accumulated from the gunfire. A zombie dug itself out of the pile of bodies stacked in front of the door and stumbled towards them. Willow still couldn’t believe these things could take the kind of damage that they did. The monster had almost been scalped by a bullet and chunks of its neck and chest were blown out altogether. And yet, it was still trying to get them. Sunny fired a single shot and it dropped. Dusty chuckled, looking around at the scene. “Sweet Celestia, did you see all those zombies?” He trotted over to Brick to examine the weapon. Brick had only fired a good twenty rounds. And according to the ammo container connected to the gun, every container held a hundred bullets. “No, I think I missed them,” Willow replied sarcastically. “Of course I saw them!” Moon hopped the counter into the main room. She had reloaded her shotgun and was looking around cautiously. “I doubt that was all of them. We need to grab as much ammo as we can and get out of here before we have to deal with more of them.” Willow looked at the rifle she had used. “You know, as much as I loved trying to bash my teeth out with this thing, I think I’ll leave it here.” Dusty looked at the rifle and a curious look formed on his face. “Wait?” he asked. “Did you shoot that thing manually?” Willow shrugged. “Yeah, why?” Dusty gawked at her. “Willow, that thing’s designed to be mounted to a solid object. With a bullet that size, it kicks hard enough to break a pony’s neck.” “Willow strength,” she replied cheekily. “Oh yeah,” he jabbed. “I forgot, you’re part zombie.” She shrugged off his comment and pulled a few boxes of ammo from under the counter. She didn’t really care much what kind it was, as long as it shot things. She dropped the boxes in an empty pocket in her barding. She laughed silently to herself. Medical supplies in one pocket, bullets in the other, what kind of a doctor was she? “You know,” Snowglobe spoke aloud as they prepared to move out. “I was always fascinated by the way guns work. But I really don’t like shooting them much.” She set to the task of reloading Sunny’s rifle. “Hold up a minute,” Dusty said to Snowglobe. He pulled a black rifle from the wall and brought it over to them. “Let’s change out Sunny’s rifle.” “What’s the difference?” the orange pegasus asked curiously. Dusty crossed to Sunny and undid one of the clasps holding the old rifle to his saddle. “Yours only holds six shots,” he clarified. “Also, it stores its own ammo. This new one has a newer mechanism. So that means it’s a lot harder to jam. It’s also clip fed.” Dusty pulled the old rifle from Sunny’s back and replaced it with the new. “The clips for this gun that we have here hold fifteen bullets. Plus, the advantage of the clip is that you can reload it by yourself. It’s still kinda’ hard, but you can do it.” Sunny nodded in understanding. “Sounds good to me.” Dusty finished hooking up the firing mechanism. “You’re all good.” He inserted a loaded magazine into the sleek black rifle. “Point and shoot.” He looked over at Snowglobe. “Find as many bullets for this rifle as you can. Since you kind of ended up being Sunny’s dedicated support pony, you should probably have some of his magazines on you.” Snowglobe nodded. “Look at Dusty laying down the law,” Willow teased. The light blue pegasus snorted and went back to loading his saddlebags with more ammo. He pulled open the crate with the X on it and set to filling his saddlebags with the spare ammo containers. Willow wondered just how much he was carrying. His bags were still loaded up with cans from the hospital. “Do you want me to carry some of that Dusty?” she asked him. “I do have the benefit of zombie strength after all.” He shook his head. “Naw, but you could carry us out some guns. It wouldn’t hurt to have extras.” Willow nodded. She headed over to the wall and examined the rows of firearms. She realized there was a small problem. There wasn’t any more room in her barding. She looked around for something she could use to carry them. She found her solution under on one of the display shelves in the front counter. In the glass fronted counter was a set of saddlebags. A label in front read, ‘GREAT FOR STORAGE.’ Willow figured with a label that big, they had to hold something. She walked over to the counter and tried the sliding door. Of course it was locked. She raised a hoof and kicked in the glass front. There wasn’t any time to fiddle with locks right now. Willow pulled out the bags and examined them. They were a desert tan, two large bags with smaller pockets on the outside. They were designed to be worn over the back, with a strap on the bottom to run around your belly. There were also multiple undoable straps on the outside that would suffice for holding larger guns. Willow picked up the bags and slung them over her back. They would do quite nicely. “Hey Snowglobe?” she asked. The gray mare looked over at her. “Could you do my belly strap?” Snowglobe rolled her eyes. “Really, why am I the one who ends up dressing you all?” She trotted over Willow and grasped the strap in her mouth. She ducked down below Willow for a moment and fumbled with the mechanism. Willow felt a little awkward with the unicorn’s head brushing her belly. Snowglobe finished and gave the strap a hearty tug, setting it tight. “There, all set.” Willow shot Snowglobe a questioning look. “Why didn’t you just use your magic?” Snowglobe flushed. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. “Because,” she finally answered. “I just wanted to, you know, use my mouth.” She gave a nervous chuckle. “Well, um, thanks.” Willow replied awkwardly. Snowglobe went an even deeper shade of red. “I’m going to go get guns now.” Willow turned her back on the gray mare, trying not to blush herself. She headed over to the wall of guns and gathered four pistols. She dropped them in one of the larger bags, them and a few extra magazines. After a few minutes, Willow could have considered herself a walking armory. Both bags were filled with small weapons and extra magazines, all of which had been filled. The smaller pockets on the outside mostly held boxes of ammunition. Then she had two larger rifles strapped on either side of her, along with one on her back. Dusty looked at her and chuckled. “Well why don’t you just take the whole store. Isn’t that heavy?” He motioned in her general direction. “You got enough guns there to arm a small town.” She shook her head. “Not really.” She paused. “Well, I know it’s supposed to be heavy. But really it feels like I’m carrying bags full of toilet paper.” Dusty shook his head, smiling. “We got ourselves a mobile armory.” “We all ready to move out?” Sunny asked them all. Willow nodded. “I’m ready.” Everypony else agreed as well. Willow looked around at the rest of them. They were all stocked and loaded down with weapons. She caught Snowglobe’s eye. The gray mare hurriedly looked away. Willow couldn’t help but smile. As a group, they left the gun store. Back out on the street, the sun was low on the horizon. Dead zombies lay scattered all around the front door. More milled around in the street, either having not joined the onslaught, or had simply arrived late to the party. One made the mistake of running at them and Moon sent part of its head in the other direction with a well-placed shot. Willow couldn’t believe how temperamental they were. Zombies were totally unpredictable. Sometimes they would spot you and attack on sight. But sometimes you could trot right up to one and poke it in the eyeball and the thing would ignore you. But if one did decide to try and eat you, it wouldn’t stop until it either killed you or you killed it. They walked slowly down the main street, towards the other end of the town. Sunny, Moon, and Dusty walked at the front of the group, shooting anything that moved. Willow fell in stride beside Snowglobe, who was trying her best to avoid her. “So how are you doing?” she asked, poking at conversation. “Fine,” Snowglobe replied dismissively. Willow smiled mischievously. “Get a nice peek?” Snowglobe shot her a brooding look, her face going red again. “I’m not answering that.” Willow gave her a firm nudge. “You know you’re cute when you’re embarrassed.” Snowglobe balked at her, eyes going wide. “Are you really—” she stuttered. “Did you just…?” Willow chuckled. “Maybe. But one rule, no more peeks unless I say so.” Snowglobe stammered, at a loss for words. Her mouth dropped open. Willow walked ahead and gave the mare a flick with her tail. Willow looked ahead; they were nearing the edge of town. * * * “Find anything good?” Sunny asked Dusty as they dug through the crashed skywagon. “Not really,” the pegasus replied. “Nothing but an empty can of beans and a couple low caliber rounds.” They had been walking for the past three days. Dusty had been right about the water shortage. Without the imported rain from Cloudsdale, water was becoming scarce. They had spotted the downed wagon from the trail. They had all agreed it may hold something valuable, and was worth scavenging. It had crashed on the side of a ridge, about halfway up a rather large hill. Dusty had said the detour on the way to Appleoosa anyways, so there was no harm in checking the wagon. To their mild disappointment, there was nothing in the wagon to be found. On the other hoof, there had been two rotten corpses. Sunny found that skywagons looked nothing like a normal wagon. Instead of wheels, they had runners. Unlike most wagons, which were made of wood; the skywagon was made of metal and aluminum. It was also fully enclosed. Barely padded seats lined both walls and another row went down the middle. If four ponies squeezed side by side, they could barely fit in a row across the width of the space. Snowglobe told him that this had been a twenty seater; that, and it took a pegasus team of four to pull it fully loaded. Its outer shell was painted a dull green and had once sported windows. They had all been shattered in the crash. From the look of it, Sunny could tell it had crashed rather hard. The entire metal frame had bent so that the skywagon had taco’d in the center. “I wonder why they crashed,” Moon wondered aloud, digging through a set of discarded saddlebags. She levitated out a very large bag of bits and tossed the gold coins without a second glance. Sunny spotted something tucked halfway under one of the cushions. He bent his head down and picked it up. He carried it over to a seat and set it down. It was a journal. Sunny flipped it open to see that there was writing in it. Only the first few pages had been used. He read the first entry. <=ooOOoo=> Canterlot is still on full alert. Something bad is happening. We saw the REA in the streets earlier. What would the Royal Equestrian Army be doing in Canterlot? We never have any problems here. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. <=ooOOoo=> Sunny looked around at the others. They were still scrounging for supplies, not really paying him any attention. He read on. <=ooOOoo=> The entire city got infected with what everypony was calling some sort of a virus. Now I wish I’d left with the paranoid ones. They were right. I can see them walking around outside. Like they aren’t ponies anymore. Me and six other ponies are hiding in this office building. A sky wagon flew by about an hour ago. They were playing a broadcast. They said that the REA was setting up evac points all over the city, to help the ponies who were still trapped get away. The closest one they named was on the roof of a hotel not too far from here. The others have been talking. I think we’re going to try for it. We made it! We actually made it to the roof. We lost Breeze along the way though. She was the only pony who was willing to talk to me. The only one that was as scared as I am. I saw those things corner her. But I ran away. I left her to die after she was the only nice one. I know there was nothing I could have done. But it still feels like my fault. One of the flying pegasi is acting kind of funny. I think he may have that thing that everypony else is getting. But I don’t want to say anything. The last thing I want to do right now is cause trouble, especially when we’re on our way out of here. They took us up into the air about ten minutes ago. They say were going to Las Pegasus. Apparently it’s still safe there. <=ooOOoo> Sunny felt his own worry building as he read the contents of the journal. He turned the page. There was only one entry left. <=ooOOoo=> I knew there was something wrong with him. He turned and bit the flier next to him as we were crossing the desert. He pulled out of his harness and actually managed to end up inside the wagon. He bit me as well. Me and another pony managed to push him off. But it’s too late now. I’m starting to feel sick to my stomach and I’m starting to feel really cold. We crashed. With only three pegasus left flying the wagon, and one injured. They couldn’t hold all our weight. We crashed somewhere in the desert. I don’t know where. Everything’s spinning. But all the ponies on the wagon are looking at me funny. I think they are going to kill me. Me and the other pegasus that got bit. I know they are. <=ooOOoo=> Sunny reexamined the two corpses on the floor. One was a gray pegasus, the other an orange unicorn mare. Now that he looked closer, he could see that both had been shot. Sunny fought the urge to vomit. Reading the stories of things happening was almost worse than actually watching them happen. “Ah don’t think there’s much here,” Dusty said idly. “The ponies who crashed this thing must have made off with everything of value,” Willow added. Moon looked curious. “I wonder where this wagon came from.” “Canterlot,” Sunny replied. She shot him a look. He passed her the journal. She skimmed it, her eyes widening as she turned the page. “So,” she said absently. “Canterlot really is gone then. I had always hoped that maybe it was… it’s just gone.” “What is it?” Willow asked, peering around Moon to read the journal as well. Snowglobe sighed, looking around the battered interior of the wagon. “No way we’re going to fix this thing up,” she said, totally off topic. “Dusty looked at her and chuckled. “Even if we could fix this thing up, there’s no way ah could fly it by myself. It takes twenty wingpower to fly this thing empty. Last ah checked, ah only pull about twelve. Willow nodded. “That’s pretty impressive Dusty.” The pegasus gave a cheerful flutter of his wings. “Well thanks,” he said. “Think it’s time we got going?” Sunny suggested. He didn’t like being in the wagon. It made him feel claustrophobic, which was strange because he only got claustrophobic in the dark. He scolded himself. What was he thinking? He had been shooting zombie ponies the past few days, and he was scared of a crashed wagon. “I’ve seen all I need to,” Moon answered. “Not much to be found here,” Dusty added. Together, they left the twisted wreckage of the wagon behind. Unlike the area around Desert Sage, the landscape here was rocky and jagged. Not much grew other than scraggly bushes and shrubs. Occasionally, sand filled rocky hollows where it had been blown in and trapped. Sunny could consider this a fairly inhospitable environment. Maybe that was why they hadn’t seen any zombie ponies for the last two days. Water was scarce; maybe they needed it just as bad as normal ponies did. “Who’s up for a little rock climbin?’” Dusty asked with layered enthusiasm. Willow snorted. “Sure, we climb the rocks while you fly around with your head in the clouds?” “Hey now,” the pegasus chided. “Ah can’t help the fact that ya don’t have wings.” “I should make you carry me,” Willow added jokingly. Dusty stood in front of the white mare, sizing her up. “I think I could carry you. But I’m not so sure about the gun store on your back.” Willow got a mischievous look in her eye. “I doubt you could carry me. I’m way too much mare for you to handle.” Dusty grinned evilly. Sunny knew what was coming next. Willow had set herself up for this one. “Ah think you might be right,” Dusty said with mock thoughtfulness. “You’d have to lose about ten pounds first.” Willow’s haughty expression was quickly washed away to be replaced with one of defeat. “Well,” she said dejectedly. “I had that one coming.” Dusty snickered. “She’s not fat,” Snowglobe spoke up. “She just looks fat cause’ she’s always carrying all that stuff. She’s actually quite average weighted.” Willow rolled her eyes. “Thanks Snowglobe,” she said, grinning slightly. Snowglobe flushed. Sunny shot the gray unicorn a curious glance. Had she just stood up for Willow? Willow was like fair game in their little group. She picked on all of them and they all teamed up on her back. Now Snowglobe was defending her? Sunny decided to stop thinking about it. Nothing his newly-found friends did made any sense. He found it rather funny how Brick was always there, tagging along behind them. None of them really ever gave him a second glance except for Willow. He was just kind of… there. He was like a big light brown blob on the edge of everypony’s vision. But if he were gone, they would all notice it immediately. The machine gun the size of a small pony gave him a little more of an impact now though. They started up the rocky slope. Reddish-brown rocks jutted from the steep ascent every few feet. Sunny found the stones rather peculiar in shape. Instead of the normal smoothed rocks around Desert Sage, these were square and much more jagged. His hooves slipped on a lose patch of shale and he slid back down the hill a pace. He walked around the loose section and continued on. A minute later, they crested the hill. By now the sun was midway in the sky. It shone down on the harsh landscape, which provided no shelter whatsoever from the sun’s harsh rays. Sunny found himself feeling rather hot. “It’s a little hot out,” Moon voiced his thoughts aloud. Sunny looked out ahead and barely suppressed a moan. Rocky ridges like the one they had just climbed stretched on for miles. But much further beyond the ridges was a flat. And in the center of that flat was a small spot. “Look!” Willow exclaimed, pointing a hoof at the spot Sunny had just noticed. “Is that Appleoosa?” he asked. Dusty nodded. “Ah think so.” “Well let’s go then.” Willow took an insistent step forward. “It’s not that far.” Sunny looked out over the rows of ridges and hills. Sure, maybe they weren’t too far away from the town. But climbing those ridges would triple the length of the walk. “Sure,” he chuckled. “Not that far.” <=I have decided. I am changing to the 'Mature' tag. I could keep the gore down, but I can write the story with more effect and feeling if I use gore. So for any of you under 18, sorry :P <=And I do actually still have an editor. Due to misunderstanding I stated I did not in the last chapter. Thank you Turtle. <=Please, leave a comment or something about your favorite part. I want to see what the few ponies who read this have to say about what I write. ~Sorren