//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Rise // Story: The Trotting Dead // by ZombieBrony22 //------------------------------// RICK'S P.O.V Once we came up with a battle plan, we wrote a division of work on a slab of the wall. One side said IN and another said OUT. I came by later and saw that Dewy, Glenn, Aria, Sonata, Norman, and Dwight chose OUT. I met up with Dewy later and told him to go with the Dazzlings when they left. "No. No way." Dewy said. "Dewy... I don't expect you to like it, but we need to be sure every time they leave, they aren't reporting our plans." I told him. I got a huff from him. "Fine. One time, no more." Dewy said. Then, Daryl ran in. "Rick! It's those Dazzling girls!" "What?" Dewy asked. "They, Dwight, and Norman are gone!" Twilight said behind him. "I'll go. Where did you see them last?" Dewy asked. "I saw 'em near the portal." Daryl said. "Don't let my people after me." Dewy said running. Twilight then walked out when Celestia called her. "What?" I asked Daryl, who was looking at me. "It's that pony girl. Twilight, is it? I don't trust her." Daryl said. "Me neither. Somethin's wrong with her. She had piles of chopped up Walkers. Tyreese and Luna were in there. Who does that?" I asked him. "Someone who's been through a lot. You heard her story, the Walkers all over their most guarded city, Spike bitten, all of it. I don't blame her." Daryl said. "These people, they need to take care of themselves. You feel different 'bout it?" I asked him. "What people?" Daryl asked. "The Resistance, Dazzlings, and her people. Do you feel different about it?" I asked him again. "Yeah, I do." Daryl said to me. DEWY'S P.O.V I was looking for them in CHS, which was nearly overrun and destroyed. At every turn I made, I saw Walkers, Runners, and chunks of bricks and concrete on the ground and the sun shining through. I finally found a forest with footsteps in the trail. I followed it and saw a small horde of Runners! I ran for a hill I saw nearby and I kept running. What I didn't see was that cliff near where I was running... Then, out of nowhere, a figure tackled me and pinned me to the ground in the bushes. I looked behind me and saw Aria. I quickly shook her off my back. "Don't you touch me again!" I said sternly. Then what I saw was those Runners falling off the cliff and into the rocks. "You're welcome, you rotten little brat." Aria snarled. "You're lucky I can't kill you right now... What are you doing out here?!" I asked. "Looking for some rabbits." Norman said walking behind her. "Wanna join us?" Sonata asked. "...Fine. But remember, if I see you near HER, I will kill all of you." I said. "Of course." Aria said. CELESTIA'S P.O.V I was sitting down with Twilight and asking her about Rick and his people. "I should have just put you in charge..." Twilight grumbled. "Twilight, Rick's planning a peaceful society here." I said. "How? Letting in monsters? That just screams peaceful..." Twilight said. "What's gotten into you? You're never like this." I said. "Celestia, Rick--" "He's leading us." I said slightly louder. "RICK IS DANGEROUS! You know that." Twilight said before walking out of the room. I stood in shock. I've seen this before... RICK'S P.O.V After talking to Daryl, I gathered him, Twilight, Glenn, Daryl, Maggie, Fluttershy, Sunset, and Flash. I said we were going to attack Adagio and Negan on their next supply run. "I'm in." Flash said. "Me too. They did enough damage as it is." Sunset said. "I think we should ask Dewy when he comes back." Daryl said. "From what I heard, it needs to be done." Glenn said. Hershel came up to Maggie. "I wish I could go with you." He said. "I'll be back, dad." Maggie said. "These people sound like monsters. We need Dewy with us; maybe even one of those girls." Michonne said. "No. No way." I said to her. "Rick, they know her weaknesses, her potential. We need them out there with us." She said. DEWY'S P.O.V I was following the Dazzlings to a small town with an swarm of Walkers inside. "Crap..." Aria said. "What's here besides Walkers?" I asked them. "We came here for recon. If we're lucky, we could catch one of Adagio's men or two for interrigation." Dwight said. "Whoa guys, no. If anyone comes here, they're dead." I said. Aria and Dwight were looking at the town and clearly thinking. "Fine. We'll find another way." Dwight said. "Where can we go that isn't overrun?" I asked. Before anyone could answer, we saw about 20 Walkers following us. "Shoot. Come on!" Aria said. We ran near the town to escape, that was our mistake. I saw over 60 Walkers surrounding us. We hid in the dumpster and saw them swarm us. I was unfortunately crammed between Aria and Sonata. "Trust me. This is as uncomfortable for me as it is for you." Aria said squriming for air. "You have no idea." I said trying to get up and see. "What do we do?" Sonata whispered. "We can't shoot these Walkers. It'll just attract the rest and we don't have enough bullets." Dwight said. "How about stabbing?" I asked slamming the dumpster door open and stabbing a Walker with my knife. Aria got up first and smashed a Walker with her hammer, then Dwight got up and sliced one with his machete, then Norman got up and smashed a Walker's head into the dumpster. I handed him my screwdriver and we fought the Walkers. As we fought, more kept coming. We were swarmed by about 900 Walkers all around us. It was over. But, I got an idea. I pulled a dead Walker from the pile and skinned it. Aria was staring in little disgust, Norman was about to puke, Dwight was shocked, and Sonata puked out the dumpster. I slipped the skin on and dragged another in. "Just do it, Aria." I said handing her the skin. After a moment of disgust, she placed the skin on and noticed it was smushed with her skin. Then Dwight placed it on with small hesitation, Norman placed it on after claiming he threw up in his mouth, and Sonata placed it on after a full minute. I then slipped into the horde and told the others to come down. We walked through the herd until we were near CHS. "Well, that was something." Aria said. "Feel free to puke it out. That's what you and your sister did to me, what they made me do." I said sternly. "I told you, that wasn't me, I don't molest children!" Aria said. "Well, you were with her on this. You could've stopped her." I said. "I tried. I tried and I got this!" Aria pointed to her burnt face. "You think I like what I did?! I wake up everyday when we left just thinking about what I saw her do to children!" Aria said. "ENOUGH!" Sonata screamed. We both stopped an looked her way. "We all did things we regret. Aria, you let Adagio molest children, Norman, you were her slave, Dwight you left your girl for her, and you wore Walkers, so what?! We need to walk back to Ponyville, and say this was all a misunderstanding. Let's go!" Sonata said. We were about to go, but we heard gushots nearby. 3 MINUTES AGO RICK"S P.O.V We were driving to the supply run location and we saw a military vehicle with weapons, a chainsaw, nailed baseball bat, and a shortsword. No guns. We followed the tracks until we saw about 50 men nearby. "Do you think we can do this?" Glenn asked. "No. Not this easily. Do we have that grenade?" I asked. "Yeah, we have it." Fluttershy said. She handed the grenade to us and waited to take out a group of them. We threw it right as Adagio and Negan walked out of their truck. The 50 turned into 36 and we started shooting at the soldiers. Before we could take out the remaining 30, a guard came from behind and pointed a gun to my head. "Step out." A voice said. We walked out in front of the militia and dropped our weapons. "Who-- wait... Fluttershy, right?" Adagio asked. "Not the one you know." Fluttershy said coldly. "Oh, you're the Equine. Of course. You're... Rick, Glenn, Sunset-- great to see you again, and Flash. On your knees. All of you." Adagio said. We were surrounded and had no choice. "Negan, you handle this." Adagio said. Negan than stepped forward. "Now, I don't want to kill you, but you just killed over 20 of my people, and I can't have that out there. Now, we know where you're from. Rarity here has been very helpful." As Negan said that, Rarity walked out with a gun to my head. "Hello Rick. Excellent to see you again. How's Sweetie Belle doing?" The traitor asked. "Good. Spike's been with her." I said. "Good. It's a shame one of you will have to die." Rarity said. "We trusted you! Rick, Twilight, Rainbow trusted you!" Daryl said. "Well, that's too bad for her." Rarity said. A soldier held Daryl back as he tried to strangle her. "So, where are they set?" Negan asked. "Ponyville. Here's a map." Rarity handed Negan a map of Equestria, Negan read it and turned to Rick. "Point me to the places that are alive." Negan said. Twilight reluctantly pointed to Ponyville, Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and Our Town. "Everything in these towns now belong to us." Negan said to me. I looked in anger. "Now, one of you is going to have the great honor of being bashed the hell out of by my little friend, Luicille." Negan pulled out his barbed wire baseball bat. "Like her? Yeah, this is going to be the last thing you see for one of you." Negan said. "The question is who..." Rarity said. "Twilight and Fluttershy are out because Rarity wants you on our side, Rick, look at you! You have no idea who I am, do you? Well, I'll tell you something: Your son will be the first person I take." Adagio said That was it. I lunged at her, but Daryl and Fluttershy held me back. "LET GO OF ME! I'LL KILL YOU BEFORE I LET YOU PUT YOUR HANDS ON MY SON, YOU HEAR ME?!" I screamed. "Rick, let it go, man." Daryl said to me. "I have 30 men surroung you, 30! Sit the hell down now or you're all dead!" Negan said. I sat down and looked in anger. "Now, Daryl. How will your story end? Rarity showed me her tapes of your interviews. You've lost your brother and father to the Eaters, you've been shot by an arrow and climbed a mountain in a day! We could use someone like you... Glenn, I'm considered many things-- Monster, whore,--" "Child molester?" Glenn asked sternly. "But a racist? No way. Maggie, you are Glenn's sweetheart. He'll listen to you. I just don't want to kill you." Adagio said. "I can't just freakin' decide!" Negan rubbed his head in frustration. "Wait, I have an idea..." Negan held his bat to one of us. He started moving it to the left, obviously choosing one of us. "My mother..." The bat pointed at me. "...Told me..." The bat pointed at Twilight. "To pick..." Fluttershy. "The very best one..." Now Maggie. "And you..." Flash. "Are..." Sunset. The bat stopped at Glenn. "It. Bring him up!" Negan said. "NO!" Maggie leaped in. Daryl and Twilight held her back. Negan pushed Glenn down, making him kneel. "You can breathe, you can blink... you can cry. You'll be doing all of that." Negan swung down. BAM! I looked up and saw Dewy, the Dazzlings, Dwight, and Norman shooting the 30 men down to 10. "Let's get out of here!" Negan said. "What about the boy?" Adagio asked about Glenn. "Leave him. YOU LUCKED OUT, RICK. I WILL KILL HIM! I SWEAR I WILL!" Negan was pulled into the truck and they drove away. Glenn was hit once and his eye was popped out. "GLENN!" Maggie engaged him in a hug. "It.. I-It's okay, M-Maggie..." Glenn said before passing out. "How is he?" I asked Aria. "He's breathing. We can save him, someone help me carry him." Aria said. Twilight and Maggie got up and helped us carry Glenn to CHS. We got back to Ponyville and Glenn was carried to Ponyville Hospital. Maggie wasn't far behind. "What happened?" Charles walked out. "We were attacked. We're okay." Twilight said. Twilight and Charles walked away and Michonne walked up. "We should've left when we had the chance. We would've been better off." I said to her. "No. You're wrong. This place, it's a chance. Instead of staying out there, instead of just making it. Because right now, anyone who makes it goes to her." Michonne said. "How is he?" Fluttershy asked. "He'll live. He may have a severe cuncussion and a cracked skull. Nothing we can't fix if we understood the human skeleton." Nurse Redheart said walking out. "Wait, I have something." Dewy pulled out a picture of a human skeleton. "You want to focus on the top part. Here." Dewy pointed to the skull. "Let's go." Nurse Redheart said to Dewy. They went to help Glenn and we went to plan our next move. "We got lucky today, always remember that." I said to Daryl and Michonne.