//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: One Mad Mare. // Story: Nation of the Damned // by Tyrannical T-Rex //------------------------------// I woke with a start, attempting to sit upright before I felt the tight rope that bound my body. My legs were tied tightly together which caused my panic to grow. My vision was blurry but the smell alone was enough to let me know that wherever I was wasn't exactly safe...and the cold, wet floor wasn't exactly helping. Soon enough my vision returned to normal as I blinked the blurriness away. I groaned a little as I began to register the pain that caused my entire body to ache. From what I could see I was lying on the floor of some dark basement, the faint sounds of movement reached my ears before somepony walked out of the shadows. "Sleep well?" Lyra asked, her bloodied apron adorned her frame as she peered down at me. Her face was splattered with small specks of blood while her forehooves looked like they had been drenched in it. I frowned up at her, confused and hurt by what this mare had done to me. I'd known Lyra well back in Canterlot, we often talked to each other and it was always pleasant enough...so why in Celestia's name was she standing over me looking like somepony out of a horror story? "Why am I tied up? A-And where's Spike?!" I asked, frowning as I started to struggle in my bonds. I was stopped by a swift and rather hard kick to my gut from my captor, which left a smear of blood on my coat, while Lyra frowned down at me. "Shut up! You're not in a position to ask questions," she stated, wiping a hoof on her apron before she sat down beside me. It was then I tried to use my magic, gasping and wheezing from her blow before. But all I got was a sharp sting that ran down my horn, causing me to whimper like a wounded dog. Lyra smirked at this, moving a hoof to rub the tip of my horn as she watched me struggle. "Don't bother using your magic, I gave you a little...something while you were sleeping to make sure you didnt try to teleport away or hurt me..." she explained before clearing her throat. "Now then, I bet you're confused and quite scared by recent events, hm? Well let me put these fears to rest. I'm not going to harm you or your pet...well...not fatally anyway. Not as long as you be a good little filly and do as I say," she continued, tapping a hoof on the floor idly. With a grunt I nodded, frowning up at the mare with tears in my eyes. Is this how bad things had gotten in just a day? Now I had Lyra to worry about as well as those things. "Fine, I'll...I'll do what you say, Lyra. Just don't hurt Spike," I mumbled, choosing not to defy the mare. She was clearly out of it, and if I disagreed she could very well hurt me or Spike without so much as a second thought. Lyra seemed pleased by my reply and clapped her hooves, grinning like a filly who'd just gotten her first kiss. "Great! Now...I understand you're a whizz with magic and such, heck you trained with Celestia so you’re bound to know pretty much everything about magic...and that's why you're going to help me out!" She got back up and stretched before glancing into the darkness of the basement. "My Bon-Bon is...sick...and you're gonna use that magic of yours to help her get better! And if you don't...I'll make sure she has more food..." she warned before she trotted off into the darkness. I heard some soft whispering from the darkness before Lyra reemerged. Though this time she wasn't alone...and, oh Luna, how I wish she was. Standing beside Lyra with a rope collar around her neck was Bon-Bon, twitching and trembling. Her eyes were glassy and vacant, her muzzled maw dripped with reddened drool as she let out a few grunts and gurgles. "You're going to help her. You're going to use your magic and knowledge to fix her," she started moving a hoof to softly smooth the top of Bon-Bon’s head, getting only a growl and gurgle as a response. I simply stared at the scene with wide eyes, unsure of what to do or say as I looked at the infected Bon-Bon, who stared mindlessly back, a pool of drool forming at her forehooves. "Lyra...I, I can't fix her...she's not Bon-Bon anymore..." I told her, talking slowly and softly as to not anger the mare, whose smile had melted into a frown. "What do you mean? She's still herself...just a little sick is all...a-and you know everything about magic so you're going to help her recover from whatever this is!" she hissed before she turned to Bon-Bon, nuzzling against her cheek with a soft smile. Bon-Bon just snarled in response, her jaws straining to open within her muzzle. "Lyra, please...j-just let me out of this rope and let me see Spike...t-then I'll try to help, alright? I can't do much while I'm tied down..." I pleaded softly, earning a glance from the mare as she leaned down, scrunching her nose. "And how do I know you won't run away?" she hissed, moving a hoof to poke my forehead which caused me to blink a little, frowning. "Because I'm not going to leave a fellow pony here. Even if you're a…” I hesitated, “little ‘disoriented’," I couldn’t use the word lunatic. This seemed to work as Lyra’s horn lit, her yellow aura undoing my bindings before she stepped back, pulling Bon-Bon along with her. "Spike’s upstairs in the kitchen making Bon-Bon some dinner. And don't bother trying to run away. Your arrival lured out some of the leftover ponies who weren't fortunate enough to hitch a ride with the guards when they evacuated the town—heh—that whole plan turned out to be a complete slaughterfest..." she mused before she turned and headed back into the darker corner of the basement, with Bon-Bon in tow, reassuring the infected mare. “It’s ok now Bon-Bon, Twilight’s going to help. She’ll be able to cure you, I just know it.” I wasted little time as I looked around and found the staircase that led up into the main house, and after I'd climbed them I took the chance to look around. Lyra's house was a mess, walls smeared with blood, trash littering the floors as well as furniture and wooden boards pressed against the windows. Nopony won the battle that was fought here. I could only hope that there was some part of the town, somewhere, that did. It was after a moment of looking around that I found the kitchen, the tiled walls and floor having smears of blood on them. Various lumps of gore rested in the sink, putrefying and making an awful stench that caused me to gag. But the worst part was seeing Spike standing on a stool near the counter, a knife in his small claws and rope around his ankles which were connected to a large cinder block, stopping the dragon from going anywhere. My heart stopped when I saw what he was doing. My Spike, the most innocent dragon and kindest friend I knew was hacking into a severed foreleg, which looked like it could have belonged to somepony I’d once known, as if it were some vegetable. His eyes were wide and his cheeks wet while his scales had been stained with spots of crimson as he slid the sliced chunks into the sink. It didn't take long for the dragon to notice me standing there, eyes wide with shock as he dropped his knife and whimpered, hopping off his stool and running towards me, only to trip at the end of his rope. I quickly scooped up the young dragon and sat down with him on the floor. We held each other close as he began to sob into my chest, his claws clutching my fur as he trembled and shivered. "T-Twilight...sh-she made me do it...I didn't wanna b-but she told me sh-she'd hurt you if I didn’t..." he sobbed, quite obviously ashamed and disgusted by what he'd been forced to do...but I didn't care at that moment. I wrapped my forelegs around him and held him tightly, shushing the small dragon as I moved a hoof to softly smooth the back of his head. "It's alright Spike, don't cry...this isn't your fault, I'm merely glad that you're alright..." I whispered softly, kissing the top of his scaly head before I broke the hug. I smiled down at him as I licked my hoof and moved to wipe some blood from his cheek, as if it were some food from a messy meal. "Now, let's get this rope off of you." I said softly, moving to gently untie the rope around his scratched scales, which the young dragon quickly moved to rub with a small sigh of relief. "Thank you, Twilight...I was worried I was gonna be stuck in here doing...t-this..." He gave a disgusted glance back to the gory leg before he shivered with a frown. I then helped the young dragon onto my back, letting him rest and relax. I had missed him in the short time I’d been awake and was glad to have him perched upon my back once more; the poor guy deserved a rest. With a sigh I left the vile kitchen and went to the living room, which, apart from having trash all over the floor and the furniture pushed to the wall, seemed like the safest place around to get a little rest. I cleared a space on the floor and levitated down a cushion off a sofa that had been pushed against the window. With a makeshift bed prepared, I placed Spike on it and snuggled up with him, sighing softly. "Don't you worry Spike. We’re going to get out of here once I figure out how to convince Lyra to let us go...that, and we gotta figure out a way to get past those ‘things’ " I said softly, nuzzling the dragon’s cheek. I tried to keep my mind off the steady thumping against the windows, as well as the occasional muffled growls and snarls from outside. We rested there for a while until the sounds of hooves caught my attention. I lifted my head to look at the door just in time to see Lyra round the corner and lean against the doorframe. "Well, I see you took the time to untie my cook. You’re lucky he had already finished with the other legs." She frowned at me. I returned her frown before looking down at Spike who'd already fallen asleep. I slowly got up and approached the mare, leaving Spike to rest. "I'll see what I can do for Bon-Bon, but don't expect me to perform a miracle alright? From what I've seen, when ponies get sick like this they don't recover." I told her softly, passing the mare who quickly went to follow me with a huff. "I don't care about what you've seen, Twilight. I just want her fixed," was Lyra's response as she followed me into the basement. This time she lit her horn and made a light source, enabling me to see the basement in all of its demented glory. It was quite a disgusting sight to behold and could rival the bloodied halls of Canterlot Castle for the amount of gore splotched on the walls and floor. The thickest gore was near the culprit—Bon-Bon. She was tied to a chair, her maw muzzled and her limbs bound while she sat motionless. Her head was tilted back as she stared, as if in a trance, up at the magical light that Lyra had cast. I could see her clearly now, she was bloodied and scratched up, her once bright fur had faded and had quite a few patches missing, revealing bluish grey skin beneath...and a rather nasty looking bite wound at the base of her neck. "By Celestia..." I mumbled, looking at the creature that had once been one of the town’s beloved confectioners. I approached the bound mare and only then did she react to my presence; her gaze slowly turned from the light to me, groaning as she strained against her bonds, drooling like a starved animal as she twitched and shivered in her seat. I looked away at that and felt my stomach do somersaults. Bon-Bon was long dead, her body a puppet to whatever sickness had her in its clutches. Lyra had walked to my side, smiling at her moaning housemate as she moved a bloodied hoof to pat my back. I didn’t have to look back, I could feel the red streaks she was smearing into my fur. I don’t think she even knew she was doing it. "So, what can you do, hm? I'm running out of food to give her so we need to fix her up nice and fast!" she chirped happily, as if all of this was perfectly normal and that we were merely treating the common cold or a fever. "Lyra, look at her! That's not Bon-Bon, that's not even a pony anymore!" I yelled, pointing at the groaning beast and stepping back, frowning. Lyra was also frowning, turning to face me with a snarl as she stomped a hoof on the floor. "Of course that’s her! She's just sick, sick like the rest of them. But she'll get better! I...I tied her up, I fed her what I could get—she'll get better!" she yelled back, tearing up while her horn lit once more, crackling with energy. It was then that she looked about ready to kill me, her eyes narrowed while tears trickled down her cheeks. She trembled and shook, repeating the words “Fix her!” and “Liar!” as she got ready to cast her spell...but then something happened. There were a series of snaps as the ropes containing Bon-Bon broke, the mare fell forwards off her chair and grabbed onto Lyra in the process, clutching the mare’s lower half as she tried to bite into her side, the muzzle protecting Lyra from any bites. Lyra struggled to break free of Bon-Bon’s bone breaking grasp...and I took my chance. With a second glance at the scene I turned and bolted, heading back up the stairs and shutting the basement door behind me. A shot of pain that ran down my spine as I used my magic to lock it; what did Lyra do to me while I was unconscious? Once that was done I staggered into the living room and quickly woke Spike up and helped him climb onto my back. I headed towards the back door of the house, hoping the back street would be less populated...and I can only thank the sun that this was the case. We slipped out into the desolate street, the echoing moans of the sick ponies drifting over the house before another sound cut through the air—a deafening and electric Crack followed by dead silence. "W-Where are we gonna go now?" Spike asked softly, snuggling into the back of my neck. His small claws grasped my mane as I continued to walk down the street, hoping to forget what had transpired in that house. "We're going to Applejack's farm. With luck, she and her family will be there...and if not, we can just stock up on apples and rest at the farmhouse for a few days until we figure out where to go next." I replied, trotting along the road, hoping that we'd avoid any more conflicts until we reached the farm. I silently prayed that we weren't the only sane individuals left in this mad world.