The Monster Within- Take 3:
The entire world goes white.
The field booms with the crash of thunder as both her mother’s body and her father’s disappear in a fury of white light, their dried and worn earthly forms vanishing in the pillar of light that comes from the heavens. Applejack, stunned by the scene unfolding before her, blinks, unable to understand what happened. Was it a miracle? The last wish of her parents to protect their children? An act of God?
No, it was a miracle, not the phenomenal kind that comes from beyond, but the timely arrival of a helping hoof when a pony needs it the most. Standing over Applebloom, her spear lodged in the exact spot where her parents once lay and the ground singed beneath her lance, stands a light green pegasus with a yellow flowing mane. Decked out in the full armor of the solar guard, the pegasus rises from the ground with a look of righteous fury at the foes before her.
“What is this?” the unicorn, Noteworthy, asks, “How did…. Who are you?”
The mare flicks her cowlick out of her face as she stares down the pony in front of her, helm accenting the fierce anger in her eyes. “Lightning Dust, First Lieutenant of the Solar guard, currently assigned to a special task force in Ponyville. I came here to observe the Stardust Crusaders for signs of being traitors. However, being attacked by Melodia was the last thing that I expected to find.” The pegasus chuckles to herself. “Guess I owe Guard Captain Shining those sixty bits, you guys are clean as a whistle after all.”
“The Solar Guard,” Noteworthy mouths, “It looks as though our operation has been blown, and just before we could deliver the final blow.”
Lightning Dust, Lieutenant of the Solar Guard, looks to the pile of ashes where the two parents of the Apple family once stood as her eyes burn with barely-suppressed fury. “HOW DARE YOU!” The solder points her spear at the priestly unicorn with levels of malice that could kill. “You scum. You dragged the corpses of these ponies from their graves to torment their children? That’s sick, even for trash from a gang like Melodia.”
The priest’s no doubt well-organized and rehearsed response is cut off by the loud and tumultuous shouting of a much less intelligent adversary. “HEY watch your tongue, ya minx!” Carmel shouts, “Youze can talk trash about that necrophiliac all youze want, but I’m a regional commander, Head of Prostitution, Caramel Cider! And I ain’t some common thug,” Carmel spits out in pride as he continues his rant without a thought. “An get this, weze were hoof-chosen by the boss ta kill Stand users! So youze better shut up!”
“……Caramel, can you ever shut that craw of yours?” The unicorn shakes his head with pity.
“WHAT?” the brown stallion shouts, “What is it now, Noteworthy?”
“You just told her that we’re members of Melodia and our respective ranks.” The brown stallion flinches as Noteworthy continues, “You also told her our names, and our mission, which were supposed to remain a secret.”
Caramel’s face blushes furiously as he realizes his mistake. “S-So what! We’re going to kill her anyways so it doesn’t matter!” The stallion turns back to the soldier. “You hear that, ya minx, youze days are numbered and soon….. HEY don’t you turn your back on me! Ize am talkin ta youze, you minx! Get back here an face me!”
The gaze of the solder, torn from her opponent, turns down to the no-doubt traumatized filly as Lightning Dust places a gentle hoof on her head. The filly flinches from the touch, however eventually the softness and gentle care of the Lieutenant win out as the filly looks up into her warm eyes. “Don’t you worry there, kid,” Lightning says with a level of compassion that one would not expect from a pony as harsh has her. “Your parents are free from that monster’s control, they can finally rest in peace. And no doubt they would be very very proud of how brave you were.”
The filly’s tears begin to cease as the Lieutenant raises her gaze to the vile brown stallion before her. “Now you just stay put and leave this to me. It’s about time somepony blew these guys away.” The mare grins cockily as she levels her spear at the stallion in the cheap pinstripe suit. “And you, horseshoes, are first on my list.”
The stallion fumes as a multitude of carnivorous jaws pop out all over his body. “It’s Caramel! Not horseshoes, ya minx,” Horseshoes shouts as he charges at the mare, teeth gnashing.
With years of dedicated practice and focus the mare dodges the stallion’s flailing strike, countering with a rapid assault from her spear. However the stallion before her is no slouch either, and manages to dodge her rapid blows by a hair, each time deflecting her hardened spear tip with his sharpened teeth. Yet Lightning keeps up the assault, delivering a flurry of blows from multiple directions as she slowly pushes the stallion back. Finally the stallion’s balance falters as Lightning Dust, ready for the kill, charges in, only for her lance to be grabbed by the sharp teeth of Caramel’s The Monster Within. Lightning Dust frantically yanks the spear in an attempt to free her weapon, Caramel pulls back on the weapon, and they both find themselves in a fierce exchange as they both wrestle for the spear in their hooves. However, eventually Caramel wins the exchange with his greater strength, yanking the spear out of Lightning’s grasp and sending it spiraling through the air, to fall embedded in the ground behind the mare.
Seizing the moment as the mare recoils from having her weapon ripped from her grasp, the stallion rushes in with his jaws snapping. A large sharp maw appears on the bottom of his hoof as he throws a sharp uppercut at the mare’s underside, putting all his earth pony strength behind the blow. “Got ya, ya minx!” Carmel shouts as he prepares to finish her off.
However, noticing the pegasus’ cocky grin, Noteworthy shouts out just as Caramel throws his punch into the mare’s unguarded sternum. “Caramel stop! Lightning’s Stand power is….”
Caramel’s blow connects as his Stand bites deep into the pony’s unguarded barrel, resounding force of the blow echoing through the clearing. Caramel, satisfied with his blow, smiles prematurely, confident that it is a lethal bite. Yet the grin on the Lieutenant’s face dashes all of his confidence as the mare begins to glow, her body transforming into pure energy as her form crackles and sparks around the stallion’s hoof. In a time faster than the stallion can blink the mare vanishes, flowing up his arm and into his body in the form of pure electrical energy. The stallion doesn’t have even time to scream as twenty thousand volts of electricity courses through Caramel Cider, frying his body in less than a millisecond as Lightning Dust reforms behind the stallion completely unharmed. Grinning confidently as the stallion falls limply to the ground the mare takes to the air, landing before Noteworthy and ripping her lance out of the ground in the process. Completely unharmed, the mare points her lance at the unicorn as she mentally celebrates her victory. “Riding the Lightning, a Stand power that can turn its user into pure electricity; it makes me completely invincible to physical attack. But then again, you already know what my power is, didn’t you?”
The mare feints with her lance as the unicorn is forced to back off. “Alright then, one down! That only leaves you next, and I don’t think that you’re going to be any tougher to beat than that hack.”
The mare readies her spear to strike as the unicorn manifests his bony Stand for a fight, his body poised to defend against the Lieutenant’s power. The unicorn’s horn glows with a crackle of magic as he prepares for the inevitable confrontation when suddenly a look of surprise crosses his face. “Well, though I would not be averse to fighting you, it appears as though your previous fight is not over yet.” The unicorn points behind him at a sparking, smoldering figure slowly rising to his hooves.
The mare gasps as the stallion rips himself off the ground. “No way….”
Noteworthy sighs as Caramel struggles to pull himself up. “Well, if anything could be said in Caramel’s defense….he IS hard to put down.”
Literally steaming from Lightning’s Lightning, the stallion rises to his hooves as he coughs up another cloud of burnt fibers. “I”LL KILL THAT MINX! I SWEAR IT ON MIZE MOTHER’S GRAVE!”
“But how?” Applebloom asks off to the sideline, “That was a direct hit! There’s no way he’s still standing? What, is he immortal or somethin?”
The stallion brushes off his singed pelt. “Aze have ta admit that was, shockin. Turnin inta lightning like that, but luckily Ah know how electricity works.” The stallion extends his hoof revealing his slobbering maws. “Take a looks here. See how my maws slobber?”
The Lieutenant shies away from the gruesome sight. “I’m trying not to.”
“HEHE yawl should listen ta the boss!” the maw cries out, “You see cause our slobber got all over boss’s coat, it redirected the lightning away from his heart and lungs across his pelt. It was like a lightning rod was redirectin all that power of yours! Pretty impressive, hunh?”
The stallion smirks as he brushes off the last vestiges of his damage. “So, lucky fer me and bad fer youze yer little bolt of lightning only singed mah skin a little, the rest of yer attack was barely a Taser!”
“But it was still capable of knocking you on your rump, yet again.” Noteworthy smiles at his partner’s misfortune. “Though I suppose that is what you get for underestimating your opponent. First you fall to a filly, then a mare? What is next for the great Carmel to lose to? A rock?”
“Shut UP, Noteworthy!” Caramel complains with no small amount of frustration. “Ah got this mare. So youze better not interfere or else!” The stallion grins. “Sides, I’ve got an impressive plan to finish off the little minx and an break her shiny metal pointer, too.”
“Whatever,” Lightning remarks, “I don’t care what you think. But I will give you one piece of advice for your benefit alone.” The solder levels her weapon, pointing it at the stallion’s eye level. “You can insult me, and my power, but don’t you dare insult the spear. This weapon is the symbol of the Solar Guard and an extension of my desire to protect the ponies of Equestria. This spear is an extension of my soul and the symbol of the solder, and i will not let some brain dead mobster insult it.”
The stallion raises his voice to yell at the mare in front of her, to tell her exactly how wrong she is. Yet that was exactly what Lightning was waiting for, and with years of practiced precision the mare thrusts her lance towards the stallion in an attempt to decapitate him with a single stroke. A fate that the stallion avoids by a hair as he manages to tilt his head to the side just in the knick of time, the thrust taking a chunk out of the stallion’s cheek and drawing blood from Caramel’s big and pompous mouth. Caramel whimpers at the new addition to his face as he backs off to nurse his wound, only to be hounded by the advance of Lieutenant Lightning Dust and her glistening spear. Again Lightning’s spear blows are levied at the stallion, this time her attacks are sharper and stronger, the force of every blow pushing the pony back. Every blow cracks the stallion’s teeth and jaws as the force continues. Knocking the stallion off balance the mare seizes her chance as she readies her spear of the final thrust.
“Game over, Caramel,” Lightning states with a tone of finality as she puts her weight behind the thrust, her wings providing a sudden and explosive burst of speed as she closes in for the kill. Yet this is exactly what Caramel was waiting for, as he reaches behind his back with a grin. At the last second the stallion throws his projectile at the mare, her spear catching the large glass bottle as it explodes in a shower of sharpened glass and noxious liquid. Averting her eyes as the glass pelts her coat and recoiling from the sudden shock of Caramel’s attack, her blow misses completely, leaving the mare wide open for a blow. Licking his lips in anticipation the stallion rushes in, a large maw materializing on his hoof as he leaps in to attack. Reflexively Lightning activates her Stand at the moment of impact, preparing to turn to lightning and shock the stallion once again. A sharp pain courses through her arm causing her to yelp in pain, however unlike before nothing happens as the mare feels deep sharp teeth dig into her flesh.
“What?” the mare gasps as she watches the liquid covering her mix with her blood and drip down across her pelt, the teeth of Caramel’s maw piercing through her skin and into her flesh as she winces in pain. “How did you….”
“It’s hard liquor, ya minx!” The stallion grins as his teeth begin to draw blood from the mare. “See ize had a great idea, ya can’t turn ta lightning if yer body is covered in water cause that would shock ya too! That’s why I covered ya with the liquor, if yer wet ya can’t turn to lightning.”
The mare pounds the stallion’s hoof as she tries vainly to free herself from the iron grip of Caramel’s maw. “Damn! How could a loser like this discover my weakness like that so quickly? There’s no way he could find out my weakness all by himself unless…..”
“……Unless of course,” the unicorn behind her speaks up with a mild, satisfied grin on his face, “we had some ‘inside information’ that just so happened to list the targets for disposal and their respective weaknesses.”
“The Traitor,” Lightning dust mouths almost silently before realizing the truly worrying part of the unicorn’s words. “Wait, other targets? What other targets?”
“And I happened to think that a Solar Guard would be smarter than that.” Noteworthy looks at her with pity. “Do you really think that the boss would take the time of dispatching his most senior members to a backwater town like this?” The unicorn gestures over to the three ponies lying on the ground beside him with an obvious look of disdain on his face. “All to dispose of a stallion without a Stand power, a farmer, and a little filly?”
“…..It could happen….” Applebloom admits shamefully.
The stallion chuckles darkly at the mare’s antics as she tries to continually free herself from the jaws of Caramel’s attack. “No, if you haven’t deduced already, our Stand powers allow us to create almost infinite numbers of shock troopers that are successful in overwhelming an enemy’s defenses with sheer numbers alone.”
“That means that our Stands can create whole armies!” Caramel interrupts. “Noteworthy and his lame undead, and me and my ultra-impressive army of infected slaves that obey my every command!”
“…. As I was saying before I was so RUDELY interrupted,” Noteworthy continues, glaring at Caramel with a furious look at the world ‘rudely’. “Our mission, to put it in simple terms, is to attack the town and the police headquarters, to retrieve the Corpse and eliminate all the Stand users who might oppose us.”
“ATTACK THE TOWN?!” the filly shouts in urgency. “Twilight an mah friends are there! We got to warn everypony!”
The filly’s attempts to run off are suddenly dashed as the wall of the undead closes in on her. “That is quite a shame, because neither of you are going anywhere.” The unicorn smiles as his bony, stringed Stand moves its hooves, the waves of undead surrounding the mares growing even thicker by the second. Powerless to stop them, more and more of the damned corpses join the ranks of Noteworthy’s army as the mares watch on in growing apprehension.
“Oh by the way, Caramel,” the unicorn states snidely, “your little plan only worked because alcohol DOESN'T conduct electricity, not because it does. It kept her from turning into electricity and flowing through you because it created a barrier through which her electricity couldn’t flow.”
“W-Whatever! It worked right? That’s all that matters,” Carmel admits. “I just brought along the bottle of hard liquor because it was part of my impressive get up!”
“Or you forgot about it and had to improvise with dousing her with the contents of your pockets. If you had brought the bottle of water like I told you, you wouldn’t have to resort to such improvised methods.”
“Shut up you necrophiliac!” The stallion raises his hoof to point at the unicorn. “I don’t see you doing anything. Sides, I’ve got her right where I want her! She’s mine now!”
“I forgot again, who is ‘yours’ now?” Both stallions cease their bickering as they look with a slack-jawed expression over to the light green mare standing perfectly unharmed a distance away from them. Extending her sore hoof the mare gives the two a short wave and smiles at them at them, making them feel like two grade A stooges. “Because from where I’m standing. I look pretty free to me.”
Caramel, momentarily struck speechless, looks down at his hoof that he pointed at Noteworthy, the same hoof that was holding Lightning in the iron grip of its jaws up until a few second ago.
“Caramel, you idiot!” Noteworthy facehooves and shakes his head with a mixture of annoyance and apathy. “You let her out of your grip! This is what I get for working with ponies that couldn’t graduate middle school.”
“Screw you! Middle school is hard!” Carmel shouts back as he stamps his hooves. “Who has use for stuff like ‘grammar’ and ‘proper speakin’, it just gets in a fella’s way! Sides, you made me let go! So who's the real idiot?”
“You are you fool! You’re the one who conveniently forgot motor control AND hoof-eye coordination at the same time!”
“Only cause youze distracted me!”
The unicorn massages his temples as if the very logic coming from Carmel’s mouth is giving him a tumor. “Why did our benevolent boss ever decide to team me up with you? You can barely spell logical, let alone follow a plan without your dreaded improvising.”
“WHATEVER! Did youze ferget the power of mah The Monster Within? Ah still got her, look!” The stallion gestures over to the mare who is clutching her bleeding hoof and groaning as if her limb is on fire.
“What…..” the mare pants as her wound begins to fester black. “What’s going… URAGH!” the mare screams as the dark festering blotch of flesh grins at her with a jaw of sharp serrated teeth.
“IMPRESIVEEEEEEEEEE,” the maw whispers as the mare’s eyes widen in fear.
“Lightning!” Applebloom shouts as she watches her hope of defeating the two stallions fade before her eyes. “Watch out! If yawl gets bit by the jaws of that thing it controls yer body! Ya can’t let it bite ya anymore.”
“You’re mentioning this now?!” the mare shouts as weaves to the left, trying to keep her own arm from biting her head off.
“How was I supposed ta know that Horseshoes over there had the same effect?
“It’s Caramel, ya minx!” the stallion shouts as he watches the mare try and push away her infected arm with all her might. “Whatever, Ah'm in too good of a mood fer a filly like youze ta spoil it now!”
The stallion raises his hoof to his mouth as he yells at the writhing mare. “Ya see that, Guard minx? Yer under mah control now! An as soon as yer decked out in mah impressive marks youze will belong completely ta me!”
The mare pushes back on the slobbering maw before her with all her strength as its gaping teeth snap furiously, each snap closing the distance between the mark and her. The mare looks between her and the filly to her side, taking in the worry of the little Applebloom’s face as Lightning struggles with her own personal demon. “So this mark controls me, hunh?” A look of resolve crosses her face as the mare looks at the hideous snapping jaw in front of her. Reaching up with her two hind legs, the mare grabs her infected arm with an armbar as her one free fore hoof reaches off towards her lance. “Then I guess I’ll just have to remove it.”
Caramel snickers. “Ha well good luck with that, there’s only one way ta remove mah Stand and I ain’t tellin youze how, there aint no way…”
SLRICCCCCKKKK!!
A sharp gristly ripping sound cuts through the air like a knife, and all three ponies stare at Lieutenant Lightning Dust with utterly stunned and sickened expressions on their faces. Everypony in the circle watches the brutal sight before them with each pony’s expression ranging from somewhere between amazement and disgust at the sight before them.
“…No way….” Caramel mouths as Lightning Dust finally stands up, her hooves shaking from the incredible amount of pain and adrenaline that is coursing through her body.
Embedding her now-bloody lance in the grass beside her, the mare throws the discarded lump of black and writhing flesh on the ground with utter disdain. Her arm gushing blood, the mare stares down the sickened stallion in front of her with a level of intimidation that should be impossible for a mare in her state.
“S-Se-e-e, I jus-s-st removed it. How bout t-that.” Reaching onto her armor with her one good hoof the mare shakily removes a roll of emergency bandages and patches her arm in an effort to stop the bleeding.
“N-No wound, n-n-no infection, guess your chances of c-c-co-o-ontrolin-n-ng me just went down the drain.” Lightning tightens the now blood-soaked bandage around her injured hoof and stands lamely up, retrieving her lance with her free hoof and storing it against her side under her left wing.
“Impressive,” Noteworthy speaks with a level of repressed awe that can’t help but seep into his every word. “She ripped off the infected flesh without even screaming. What an incredible threshold for pain.”
Applebloom can only stare on silently as the mare limps on her injured hoof towards her, grinning like she just won the lottery every step of the way. “Now then,” Lightning speaks up as she grabs the filly with her one good hoof. “As much as I would love to beat the both of you completely senseless…” The mare throws the filly on her back with a flick of her wrist. “….Me and the kid here have an alarm to raise. So, later.”
Turning behind her the pegasus mare flares her wings as she prepares for flight. “Hold on tight kid!” Sensing her intentions, the filly wraps her arms tightly around the mare as Lightning takes off into the dark blue sky. Her yellow and green trail leaves a line of color coursing through the sky as she leaves the two stallions eating her dust.
As the guard vanishes into the distance the earthbound Caramel can only watch as his prey flies further and further away from him. Originally, Carmel was glad to see them go, to see them flee before his power, up until the point he remembered what exactly they had done to him. The kicks in the balls, the surge of lightning, the embarrassment that he, a Captain of Melodia, was forced to endure at the hooves of ponies who had escaped his grasp. Caramel begins to breathe heavily as very angry thoughts course through his small head about how the two mares that inflicted such bodily harm on him, who were right in front of him, managed to escape. The fact of two ponies, a filly and a mare no less, that had injured him so badly and just escaped his grasp is all that is necessary to set off the stallion’s hair trigger as he explodes outward unrestrained anger.
“Damn it, Damn It, DAMN IT!” the stallion yells as he punches the ground furiously as if the dirt beneath his hooves is the cause of his woes, the ground cracking and contorting abnormally with every furious blow. “Noteworthy, she’s getting away from me! Why didn’t you stop her!?”
“Didn’t you say to ‘leave the minx’ to you?” the unicorn comments nonchalantly. “You didn’t ask for help so I didn’t offer it. It is as simple as that.”
“Besides……” The unicorn looks off as the lightning trail of the mare disappears. “At the rate she is flying even my undead pegisi wouldn’t be able to catch up. And even if they could catch up to her they would be unable to beat somepony so capable.”
Watching her sister fly away to safety, Applejack for the first time in forever lets out a relieved chuckle. The stallion turns sharply towards the infected mare, having long ago forgotten they have a captive audience. “Applebloom’s safe, thank Celestia,” Applejack breathes in relief as her unconscious brother groans underneath her, still stuck in dreamland. “Yawl might as well throw in the towel now.”
Applejack remarks off hoof as she suddenly becomes the center of attention for the two living ponies in the clearing. “Mah sis is safe, and in no time at all mah friends will be here ta save me too. An when they do…. Well, let’s just say yawl don’t want ta be tha ones stuck between Rainbow Dash and a one of her friends when they’re in a pinch.”
Applejack smiles confidently as the brown suited mobster grimaces from her snide comments. “Tell you what, if you let me and mah brother go now, and take us to yer boss that’s behind this….” The mare glares at the Carmel with a malevolent look. “…..we’ll consider only breakin half the bones in yawl’s body instead of the whole set. How about that?”
Both of the stallions cease their normal mannerisms as they stare at the mare with an serious expression, their faces devoid of any humor. The two partners in crime then look at each other, mirroring the other’s expression before bursting out into uproarious laughter. Both of the villains, as if reenacting a horrible cliché, break out into villainous laughter together as their voices echo through the darkness. Bellowing together as if the captive mare had just told the world’s funniest joke, their faces ooze with snot and tears as they roll about on the ground like a pair of hyenas.
“What, the…. Ah’m serious, yawl better call it quits before mah friends get here!” The stallion continue to roar in laughter as Applejack blushes in embarrassment, completely ignored by the two who had moments before been hanging off her every word. “What’s so gosh darn funny? Hunh?!”
As the laughter dies down the stallion wipe the tears from their eyes as their chortling dies down to a mere chuckle. “What’s so funny my dear farmer…” The unicorn Noteworthy rises to his hooves in chuckling to himself as he trots up to the mare. “….Is that your sister and the Lieutenant are NOT safe.”
Without waiting for a response the unicorn flicks the mare in the forehead. “Think for a moment, Applejack, use that underused brain of yours. Caramel’s power allows him to infect any number of ponies that he bites.”
The unicorn gestures to the horde of flesh around him. “And these lovely guests here are the residents of the Apple family cemetery plot.”
“So?” Applejack resists the temptation to spit in the unicorn’s face as she hocks a logie off to her side. “Yawl are turning mah kin and mah family against me. Yer as rotten as a moldy apple in a cellar corner, so what?”
“So, my dear Applejack,” Noteworthy smiles as he gestures to the swarm around him, “If these ponies are the result of ONE of Ponyville’s four graveyards….” The unicorn points to the singed brown coated stallion who puffs up his chest “……And if Caramel can infect any number of ponies with his powers…….”
Moving close enough into the mare’s face so that she can smell his breath, the unicorn continues “……Then take a guess, my dear Applejack, as to WHERE are the rest of our combined forces are right now.”
…………………
“Ah said TURN BACK!” the filly shouts as she tugs on the pegasus’s ear, her whines becoming more persistent the more distance the two fly through the sky.
Lightning Dust ignores the filly for the moment, tightening her gauze as she looks behind her for tails. “Whew, at least there’s nopony following, probably that Noteworthy’s call, he knows that his undead freaks can’t keep up with my level of speed. But still, darn it!” The mare curses under her breath as to not alert the filly. “I had to leave my spear behind! And with this injury, and their knowing my Stand power, I’d be at a complete disadvantage if I had to fight them again.”
“Did ya hear me Lightnin? Ah said TURN BACK!” The filly pulls on the mare’s ears even harder as she looks behind her with a worried look. “Mah sister’s back there, we can’t just leave her there! We have ta save her!”
“No, we can’t!” Lightning shouts over the roar of the wind, “in case you didn’t notice, we were outnumbered a hundred to one. If I had managed to take out that dumb one then maybe I would have stood a chance against the other guy, with you and your sister helping me. But between my degree of blood loss and that guy’s toughness, we would have been the ones to lose.”
The filly’s eyes water as she looks back towards her home, where her sister still remains trapped by hostile powers. “B-But Applejack…..”
“Will be fine. If they wanted to kill her right off the bat that smart one, Noteworthy or something, would have killed her already.” The mare looks at the filly on her back with a stern, serious look. “Most likely they’ll try and use her as a shield against us, and that’s when we can save her. For now, our priority lies with alerting the town for the upcoming attack.”
Averting her eyes from behind, where her sister still remains trapped, the filly looks forward towards the town, and her face blanches white as a sheet. Applebloom’s eyes widen at the sight before her as her mouth finally manages to materialize words. “…..Ah… Ah think it’s too late fer that, Lightnin…..”
Her head still turned back towards the filly, Lightning dust scoffs at her sudden lack of faith in herself. “Pessimism won’t solve anything, kid! What happened to that confident filly that held off two experienced Stand users all by herself? What, and I don’t mean to be cocky, I’m pretty fast. In fact, we should be in town in less than thirty seconds, so makes you think that we’ll be too late?”
With mechanical precision the filly places her hooves around the mare’s head and turns it to face forward, showing the mare exactly what she has been seeing. Lightning Dust hovers in midair as the orange light coming from the town illuminates the situation for her as clear as daylight. “Oh, that’s why….”
Hovering hundreds of feet in midair, the two ponies get a pristine and uninterrupted view of the town of Ponyville in front of them.
In other words, they get an in depth view of pure Tartarus.
Fires rage through unoccupied buildings on the outskirts, doubtless an effort by the fleeing townsfolk to stem off the hordes of undead advancing slowly though the town. Already many of the houses and abodes on the edge of the town have been swallowed by a wave of death, the sound of shattering glass and screams of fear echoing up into the stratosphere. Desperate house-to-house defenses are waged by those with the strength to fight as the rising hordes - and even worse, ponies that have been turned into infected slaves - pound against the fortifications of the living with tireless strength. Those bitten by The Monster Within scream the loudest as they feel their own bodies rebel against them. Their forms contort unnaturally as the maws bite and claw at every un-blighted part of their bodies, the ponies powerless do anything but cry in pain as they slowly lose control of themselves. Through the cacophony of the pained ponies screaming, the dead’s constant moan is perhaps the more unnerving as a haunting chorus fills the town in an almost musical way, their varying octaves creating a disconcerting sound that echoes off the multitude of building. The undead march in rank and file as they swarm over every living thing unfortunate enough to be engulfed by the rotting tide. All in all, it is a scene of hellish terror and torment, a sight that would break lesser ponies like matchsticks, and the two ponies looking down at the chaos before them know that this hellish wasteland is their destination.
“Ah think…..” Applebloom begins as she watches the unfolding horror before her, “Ah think we’re gonna need backup…..”
“From the looks of it….” Lightning Dust clutches her mouth, half to keep herself from throwing up and half to remain as objective as possible. “…It looks like there aren’t many casualties so far. They’re probably seeking to expand their numbers with Caramel’s ability to ‘infect’ others before they move in for the kill.”
Before such an apocalyptic sight, any sane pony would gouge out their eyes and curse the very world that they were born into, rather than weather such a storm. Yet despite their fears, despite their own apprehension, both ponies realize that their friends and family depend on their actions, depend on their resolve and their will to resist in the face of adversity. Lightning Dust looks back at the filly, who gives her a quick nod of affirmation and hugs the pegasus tighter for comfort. The pegasus nods back, and both mares hold their breaths as they fly down, away from the safety of the clouds and into the hell before them.