Hollyhoof Undead- Take One:
In the cool night air, if you had the eyes for it, you might be able to discern the outlines of shambling shapes far of in the trees, or perhaps the wafting stench of death on the breeze, that was signal to the disaster that was to befall the town of Ponyville on that cold autumn night. However for most of the Ponyvilians, confined inside until daybreak, it was a night like any other, a night as plain and ordinary as the one before, giving no indications of it being otherwise. For two mares resting inside a simple, run-of-the-mill home, this night was as dull and uneventful as a night could be in a Discord-cursed town such as Ponyville. Ironically, as if foreshadowing the struggles to come, it is on a night like this that the two sisters, Lyra and Bon Bon, find themselves in an argument over the very reason for the trouble to follow.
“LYYYYYRRRRRAAAAAAA!” a loud and offended voice rumbles from the simple house’s second story.
Flinching up from her copy of ‘Humans and Other Mythical Creatures Monthly’, the mint-green mare knows that tone of voice, coming from her sister Bon Bon, can only mean one thing. Or rather, two things: trouble for her, and most likely a very long lecture. Unwilling to endure either, Lyra pulls herself up from a stationary position in a flash and throws herself behind the couch, taking refuge in the crawl-space between it and the living room wall. With the wall before her and her back to the couch, Lyra prays to whatever gods may hear her plea that her sister will conveniently forget to look for her in the most expected of hiding places.
“LYRA!” Bon Bon’s voice echoes down the stairs, “You had better not be hiding behind the couch again! Stay right there; I’m coming down!”
‘Crab apples,’ Lyra thinks to herself, ‘Maybe under the sink? I doubt she’ll be angry enough to make a really thorough search this time’
In her heart of hearts Lyra prays that her hopes will prove true. However the loud thumping of her sister’s hooves as she storms down the stairs tells the green mare that her hopes are pure fantasy.
Lyra gulps heavily. ‘Then again, maybe if I come out and own up to my mistakes she’ll go easy on me this time. For whatever it was that I did this time.’
The sound of hammering hoofsteps comes to an abrupt stop and Lyra can practically feel the earth pony’s gaze glaring at her makeshift hiding place. “Lyra, I see you hiding behind the couch! Get out here!”
Knowing her goose is metaphorically cooked, the pony sheepishly pulls herself out from behind the couch and right into the piercing gaze of the cream-colored mare. Lyra’s eyes widen and try to evade the gaze of the mare before her, however the tapping of Bon Bon’s hoof speaks volumes to the fact that, no matter what excuses she makes, she is in real hot water this time.
But then again, Lyra Heartstrings was never one to give up early. “Ok now, before you lay into me let me be the first to say that I love you and care deeply for you. And that no matter what you say or what I have done I will always love you with all of my heart.”
Lyra lets fly with a grin that could break her jaw as she hopes her ‘sincere’ words will somehow lighten her looming punishment. A hope that is instantly dashed as her sister fails to budge even an inch, her anger remaining despite Lyra’s honeyed words.
Bon Bon rolls her eyes. “Nice try, Lyra Heartstrings.” Lyra flinches from the use of her middle name, knowing it’s usage can never be good. “But buttering me up won’t help you this time. You are in SERIOUS hot water this time. Though I doubt you even know why you are in trouble to begin with.”
Lyra sweats. “Sure I do! It’s……… uuuuuhhhhhhhh……… give me a second here…… Laundry?”
“No Lyra, you took care of the laundry yesterday. In fact you actually did it without me having to nag you more than three times, very good job.”
“Uh…. thanks, Bonnie!”
“NO, Lyra, this is much more serious.” Bon Bon reaches over onto her back, taking the large brown box she is carrying and throwing it to the floor.
Lyra’s reaction is as surprised as her words are incriminating. “My Miracle Stones! I…. uh, I mean my rock collection that I uh……”
“Once again, nice try, Lyra.” Bon Bon advances on the mint unicorn, who falls to her rump as her sister closes the distance between her and the incriminating stones. “I know for a fact that you have been doing your little ‘Stand team ups’ and gathering these stones, even after you PROMISED me not to.”
Lyra sweats profusely in a blind panic, her secret that she hoped to never be revealed suddenly blown wide open by the one pony she tried to keep it a secret from. “Oh.” Lyra taps her hooves together as she tries to vainly think up a way out of her situation. “Well that’s because i….. um. Well it’s a funny story, really.”
“It’s a story I’m not in the mood to hear,” Bon Bon replies, the room growing ten degrees colder from the sound of her voice alone. “Do you know why going after these stones is a horrible idea? Do you even remember promising me that you weren’t going to involve yourself in anything dangerous like this?!”
“But Bonnie!” Lyra counters, “The stones aren’t dangerous at all! They just attract dangerous ponies is all…..”
“Exactly!” Bon Bon states in a very condescending tone of voice, “These stones attract trouble like nopony’s business. There’s no point in gathering them, especially if the pony who is gathering them is prone to making disasters in the first place!”
“But they aren’t useless! They can help ponies, Bonnie; Applejack’s sister Applebloom was cured because of them, and Carrot Top got better because of them too!” Lyra looks her sister in the eye, leaning closer to her in an effort to defy her logic with her own passion and conviction. “I made lots of great friends thanks to them, like Twilight, and Derpy, and Vinyl Scratch (and I guess Octavia? I don’t know how that works….)” The mint mare clears her throat as she tries to make her position known. “Anyways, I went through too much trouble to get those stones to just give them up! You can’t just…...”
“But NOTHING, Lyra!” Bon Bon shouts as she slams her hoof into the ground, silencing any further argument from the unicorn mare. “These stones are dangerous. Did you forget what happened when you got ahold of one in the first place? You practically beat Applejack to within an inch of her life!”
Lyra blinks. “Wait… how did you know about….”
“Oh please, Lyra.” Bon Bon rolls her eyes yet again. “Do you really think that I’m that dense? I knew that something was up then, so I went by Twilight’s later and got the full story of your little ‘quest’ out of her. And let’s not forget that time when you fought that gryphon chief!”
Lyra manages to stand on her hooves at the mention of the accursed chief and his Stand power. It had taken her three of Bon Bon’s home cooked meals to recover from that catastrophe. “That guy was dirty from the start, Bonnie!” Lyra states with conviction as she tries to recover some ground. “He was trying to drive you out of business, for crying out loud. And I could have beaten him if he hadn’t gotten the drop on me! And besides, didn’t we help that pony Dar….. Dare something? I can totally handle myself in a scrap! That one time was just a fluke!”
Bon Bon’s gaze burns with such anger that Lyra can’t help but feel threatened by it. Yet the unicorn stands resolute against her sister, neither one of them willing to back down in the face of the other’s arguments. Eventually, however, one does give in, and with a defeated and sorrowful downward gaze Bon Bon sighs in a sudden drastic change in mood. “One fluke is all it would take, Lyra,” Bon Bon comments dryly as she looks into Bon Bon’s eyes. “In something as risky as combat it all comes down to a single move, Lyra. If you make one mistake or misread one attack, then you die. One mistake is all it would take and…. And I would lose you forever, Lyra.”
With a look of brazen determination the mare picks up the box of stones and throws it on her back, levelling a gaze that frightens even Lyra. “And I can’t have that. That’s why I’m taking these stones to Twilight’s first thing tomorrow.”
Turning her back on her sister, Bon Bon trots up the stairs, a dumbstruck Lyra left watching her flank as she ascends. Suddenly, just as Bon Bon reaches the top, Lyra’s senses return and she chases after her sister in a desperate attempt to be heard. “B-Bonnie! Wait!” Lyra runs after her, practically flying up the stairs to keep her sister from escaping. Yet just as she reaches the top of the stairs the door to her sister’s room slams shut, erecting a sturdy barrier between the two sisters and sealing Bon Bon away from the world. “Bonnie, wait!”
Raising her hoof, Lyra knocks furiously on her sister’s door, eager to establish any kind of connection with her, her elder sister closing herself off. “Bonnie, let me in, we have to talk about this!”
Lyra ceases knocking as she holds her ear against the door hoping for any sign of life from her sister, hoping for a message from somepony she loves. “Go away, Lyra!” Bon Bon’s muffled cry issues out from behind the door. “My decision is final! I’m not letting you keep those miracle stones or whatever you call them so just stop trying!”
“I don’t care about those Strange Stones! Bonnie, just listen.” Lyra takes in a deep breath as she prepares to bare her heart and soul to the mare currently hiding behind the door in front of her. “I know that your time in the Royal Guard had a big impact on you, and all you want to do is protect me from danger; I understand that. And I’ll admit it, Bonnie, I screw up a lot, and I know that I’ve always been inconveniencing you with all of my crazy beliefs and antics. But not once did you ever regret becoming my sister and never once did you leave me hanging, Bonnie.”
“……….”
“I just thought, you know, gathering them might make you more proud of me, that it might make me more worthy of being your sister. You’re always protecting me, I just thought…..” Lyra sniffles. “I thought that by collecting the Stones and keeping them safe that I could protect the ponies of this town too. I thought that if I was more like you that…… that you’d be proud of me for once……”
“……….”
“But I realize now that nothing I do could make me any more worthy of being your sister, or of having such good friends that I’ve gotten so far thanks to this messed-up journey.” Lyra paws at the door with her hoof. “So please open up, I don’t care about power or what others think. I just want to make you happy, Bonnie, I just don’t want to see you sad. Please….please don’t close yourself off ….. not again...”
“………”
“….uh, Bonnie? Are you alright in there?” Lyra, confused at Bon Bon’s sudden silence, knocks once more only to find the door opening at her touch. The quiet sound of the door creaking echoes eerily through the hallway. “Uh… Bonnie? Did you forget to lock the door? Can I come in?”
No response comes from inside, the silence becoming more uncomfortable by the second as Lyra looks at the slowly opening door before her. The dimness of the room distracts her from her current concerns as she trots headlong into the dark. Yet what is by far more distracting is the coppery smell that seemingly fills every crevice of the room. “Blech, Bonnie, did you put on perfume or something? It smells awful in here!” The mare steps in something wet, the hairs on her neck standing on end as she makes out a shape in the ambient darkness of the room. All of a sudden Lyra’s heart skips a beat as she realizes that she is not alone in the room and the shape before her is anything but her Bonnie.
“What a touching scene,” a dark and terrible voice originates from the shadows. “I can almost feel a tear or two welling up inside of me.” The dark voice laughs. “Almost.”
Lyra gapes as her flailing mind struggles to take note of the scene before her. A dark grey stallion with what looks like a Red Stone sticking out of his skull sits straightening his dark pinstripe suit. Cleaning the drops of blood out of his dark coat - as if it were an act as natural as brushing his teeth - the stallion stares uncaringly at the mare before him with beady green eyes. In his aura sits the entire box of Stones that she spent months gathering, the stallion’s dark purple aura seeming to stifle the Stones’ natural radiance. However, it is what - or rather, who - the stallion has chosen to sit on that occupies the mare’s attention. For under the stallion’s offensive rump, her breath shallow and ragged from loss of blood, is her sister Bon Bon.
“To tell you the truth,” the stallion resumes as he faces the stunned unicorn mare, “I am quite surprised that a nopony like you would come to possess so many Corpse parts. Then again, I suppose that is why you were at the top of the Traitor’s list. Or perhaps it was mere luck.”
“BONNIE!” the unicorn shouts, her horn blazing golden with magic as her teeth clench. “Get off of her you creep! Or so help me I’ll END you!”
“So you aim to kill me?” The stallion polishes his hooves as he sits on the bleeding body of Lyra’s sister. “An understandable gesture, certainly. Though if I were you I would hold true to the cream pony’s wisdom, little one. One mistake, one move can decide a battle. Therefore if you were to attack me…” The stallion levels his malevolent gaze, his very stare freezing Lyra’s blood. “…. I would make it count.”
For a moment Lyra only stares at the beast before her, his eyes devoid of any spark of warmth, as she feels like her world is spiraling out of her control. However it only takes one ragged breath from the injured mare resting beneath the monster’s flank to reinstill an undaunted purpose into the mare. Overwhelming her fear, her terror, is the simple fact that her sister needs her; and with that the mint-green mare manifests her spider-like Stand as she growls at the dark figure.
“MONSTER!” Lyra shouts as she jumps at the unicorn, her teeth bared and her Stand’s multiple arms preparing to strangle the stallion sitting on her sister’s prone body. Yet in the space of a second the beast disappears, causing the mare to land on top of her sister. Looking around her in a full three hundred and sixty degrees the mare searches for sign of the stallion, dumbfounded that any pony can disappear that quickly without magic. However, her sister’s breath from beneath her causes her to push any other concerns out of her mind as she focuses exclusively on the one thing she cares about more than anything in the world. Using her Stand to create a protective cradle of arms around her Lyra looks down to her sister, pouring what little healing magic she knows towards closing the gaping wound in her chest.
“Don’t worry Bonnie,” Lyra assures her unconscious sister as she pours more magic into healing her sister’s profuse wounds. “It’s not that deep, I’ll get you out of here, now just hold on…...”
MUDA!!
Lyra doesn’t even have the chance to finish as a dark hoof falls over her head, smashing her exposed face into the floor beneath her. Lyra’s muzzle breaks from the force of the blow as the wooden floor buckles and shatters, and in less time than it takes to blink the mint green unicorn is out cold. Sneering at the prone, bleeding form beneath him Sombra reaches into his coat pocket for a white handkerchief, staring down in contempt at the mare.
With impartial concern, the stallion wipes the blood from his hoof with his pocket handkerchief as his simple, eloquent voice calls out to the unconscious Lyra Heartstrings. “As I said before, one mistake decides a battle. You made the mistake of checking on your friend when you should have been more concerned for your own well-being.”
“Had you made an effort to defend yourself, this battle would not have been decided so quickly.” Done with the handkerchief the stallion quickly incinerates the cloth, erasing its presence and any trace of blood. “And here I expected a decent fight, how foalish of me to expect anything resembling a challenge from fools like you.”
As the mare beneath him fades out of this world the stallion glances back to the box full of stones. Part of him regretted the fact that he had to be seen by these two ponies, but he had succeeded in his task and for now that outweighed his paranoia about being seen. Sombra stands over the prone bodies of his foes, a small smile of twisted joy crossing his face as he savors the acquisition of the fragments of the Holy Corpse. With practiced measure he levitates the box into his deep satchel knowing that, before the night is through, he will have far more pieces to collect. The sound of screams and violence finally crosses over to the bosses’ threshold of hearing, causing his smile to expand even further at the thought of his night’s work just beginning.
Looking out the window of the small house with almost detached concern, Sombra watches as his well-planned distraction begins to take shape. Ponies with black splotches over their bodies writhe about as sharp jaws snap and bite at any that come close, while hordes of zombies pour out of the woods on the outskirts of town and well timed fires planned ahead of time come to life.
“10:16, right on time. Now, while Noteworthy and Caramel distract the guards and the rest of the populace, I can slip in and recover the Corpse fragmes at my leisure.” Looking back on the heavily-bleeding body of the mint green unicorn the green-eyed monster revels in his moment of triumph.
“You fight well for a common Stand user, but as I said before little one, those that dare to cross me and my plans are…….”
…………….
“…….Finished!” Twilight shouts to herself as she gracefully flips the back cover of the book closed. Smiling at another successful read, Twilight holds the book - ‘Indiana Colt and the Chamber of One Thousand Snakes’ - up with her hooves. “Wow, that was a great read. I don’t know what those reviewers were thinking, that was Indiana’s best adventure yet! Who knew that you could overcome your phobia of snakes by jumping into a seven-foot-deep pool of poisonous reptiles? This book is going right up in the recommended reading section!”
Twilight looks around at the stark, spartan arrangements of her cell, the bare stone walls and nearly empty bed beneath her, before recalling her predicament. “Oh, right. I’m in jail……” The unicorn’s cheery mood is lost as her ears fall. “Well, at least Shining and Zecora are working to get me out of here, and if I know Zecora’s skill with paperwork this shouldn’t take too long.”
“After all….” The unicorn laughs as she prepares to utter a phrase.
She opens her mouth to utter a phrase that could never end in something good.
A single phrase that has made fools of the righteous and evil alike with its cruel indifference.
A single phrase whose irony can sink ships and drive learned ponies into madness with its ability to incite mass disaster and destruction. “….What could possibly go wrong?”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIII!!!!”
The unicorn’s mane stands on end at the piercing scream that echoes through the whole of the building, its sound chilling her to the bone. “What is that?!” The unicorn flails her head looking about the cell for any sign of danger, her mind working overtime to determine the source of the threat. Her ears swivel about as she hears faint sounds echoing through her cell, originating no doubt from the police station proper.
“Is that…. Is that screaming?” Twilight hops tentatively from her bunk over to the door. Hearing more loud and unnecessary noises the unicorn gulps, placing her ear against the door crack and listening for the sounds that are currently putting the normally calm and collected unicorn on edge.
From the crack of the door Twilight can just barely make out the sound of muffled cries and bodies clashing against one another. The sounds seem distorted, echoed, but are none the less terrifying to the little purple unicorn. Pressing her ear further against the door Twilight listens even more intently for signs of what’s happening outside the six by five cell.
“What in Equestria is happe….”
WHACK!
The door swings open with a force that sends the purple librarian sprawling on her back, her eyes rolling in her head. Struck dizzy by the blow, all the unicorn can do for the moment Is mutter curses under her breath at the coincidental attack of fate. “Ughhhhh, what is it with me and doors? Did I spite the god of doors or something when I was little, or am I just the butt of some cosmic joke?”
Her mind reeling both from the situation and the blow to the cranium, the unicorn shakes her head and quickly rights herself as her disoriented senses take measure of the world around her. Standing in the middle of the hallway, leaning against the doorframe of her cell, her brother Shining Armor catches his breath. With sharp, focused eyes he looks to the unicorn in the cell with a an expression of concern and, even more worrying, his armor is missing its golden helm and is covered in dark black marks of what looks to be dried blood.
“Shining?” Twilight asks fearfully, “Shining, what in Equestria is going on? What is happening out there?”
“I’ll explain later.” Reaching over, Shining grabs the cuff on her neck with his teeth and drags her out of the room in the way a lioness might hold their cubs. Dropping her in the middle of the hallway, Shining looks back and forth down the hall urgently before turning back to his sister. “Keep close to me. Don’t make a noise and don’t you dare run off. Got it, Twily?”
To the best of her ability Twilight suppresses her own curiosity, awed by her brother’s aura of command. Or perhaps it is the fear in his eyes that has deprived her of any desire to know what is troubling him, or what the source of the wretched noises is. Either way, Twilight nods curtly, and Shining Armor quickly dashes to a nearby corner, checking for any signs of trouble before waving for Twilight to follow.
“Alright, so far so good.” Shining looks around, his senses on edge. “So, first thing’s first, we get you to the center of the Station where everypony else is making a barricade, then we go up and reinforce the second floor to prevent any intrusions up there. And from there we make our next move.” Shining looks down the next corner as Twilight follows close on his heels. “Sounds simple enough, and if we can make some adequate defenses we may be able to hold out until……”
Coming to the end of the hall both ponies stare at the scene before them, and Twilight realizes now where the awful din was coming from. “Celestia preserve us….” Twilight mutters under her breath, watching the battle raging before her.
To Twilight’s credit, she could hold her nerves pretty well, and though she detested violence she could hold her stomach and fight if the lives of those she cared about were in the crossfire. However, to see an entire police station filled with the undead and plague ridden victims fighting to the bloody death against trained Stand users of the Royal Guards in such enclosed spaces was far too much for the poor unicorn’s nerves. The wails of the dead, the crunching sound of fangs biting flesh, and the screams of battle overload the petite unicorn’s senses in a matter of milliseconds, leaving her unable to tear herself away from the scene before her. She watches as Zecora bashes another of the slobbering, infected monsters with a yardstick, knocking the pony out, the creature continuing to lurch forward at the soldiers of the Royal Guard. All around the normally-peaceful office setting, the Solar Guards fight with Stand and spear alike against rounds and rounds of advancing undead and infected, as they pour from every opening and crevice in the building.
“Great, it’s gotten even worse!” Shining Armor shouts as Twilight watches the scene of unfolding horror as guards and corpses alike fight a gruesome war of attrition.
Realizing his sister’s distress the white stallion turns to his sister, placing a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight, you wait here and don’t you dare move.” With a resolute glance the Captain of the Guard looks over to the fray, his eyes igniting with a fierce desire to protect that comes to him when ponies someone cares about are suddenly thrust into harm’s way. “I’ve got to go and thin their numbers.”
Without even giving her time for an argument the pony leaps into the fray, protecting endangered allies with his bubbles while attacking with his magic, turning zombies into piles of dust with every flick of his horn. “How did they get in here?!” Shining shouts out to the troops. “I thought that I gave orders to lock down the building?!”
“I’m sorry, Captain Armor!” a white-and-blue-maned pegasus shouts over the din as an infected maw on his arm bites deep into his shoulder again. Screaming out in pain, the stallion nevertheless answers, “T-There were ponies crying for help. Asking us to save them from the advancing horde, but when we opened the door, these black-jawed things swarmed us!” The stallion screams again as a deep black blotch pops out of his shoulder “H-How were we supposed to know that they could mimic voices? We thought there were only the one enemy, those walking corpses. YEAGHA!”
Shining blasts the guard unconscious, sparing him any further pain as the black mouths on him grow and expand by the second. “Well apparently there are two Stand users now. One that creates mass numbers of undead, and one that causes these sores that control ponies to appear from physical contact.” In a swift and fluid motion the Captain of the Guard leaps through the air, dodging as the previous, unconscious guard lurches at him.
“Switch to using Anti-Stand collars on the infected ponies, they’re still alive! Waste the undead!” Shining shouts over the fray as he turns to cover the Zebra behind him. “Zecora?” Shining bucks another of the infected off of him, simultaneously placing an anti-Stand collar over the light blue pegasus. “Any thoughts?”
“Though I should like to make a stand here, i fear that these numbers are nothing to sneeze at.” Interrupting her poise, a large, bulky zombie slobbers over the zebra’s back, earning it a stern smack from the zebra’s hooves. ”And as they surround us from the rear, their numbers only increase with every one of ours they defeat.”
Shining takes a moment of reprieve from the combat to survey how his troops are doing, taking in their desperate situation. Already, half of his guard has been incapacitated, either by the infection that takes them over and turns them against their allies, or their fatal wounds inflicted on them by the horde. At this rate they will be wiped out in a matter of minutes no matter how well trained they are. For mindless bodies, they know exactly how and where to attack them where they are weakest. Shining grimaces as he realizes grudgingly that a good offense won’t win them this battle, and against such numbers there is only one real solution. “FALL BACK!” Shining shouts over the fray, “Fall back to the second level! I’ll cover you all! FALL BACK!”
Responding to their superior’s command with rapid effectiveness, the guard backs off as Shining’s barriers push and prod the horde back away from the retreating troops. “Twilight!” the Captain calls out as he batters away the horde with his magic, “That means you too! Get up there!” With haste spurred on by copious amounts of adrenaline and fear, the guards and personnel pile into the stairway to escape the bellowing and screaming swarm behind them, each and every one of the monsters calling out for their blood. Finally, the rest of the survivors make it upstairs as Shining teleports over to the only flight of stairs that leads to the upper levels. Smiling cockily as the wall of flesh closes in around him, Shining conjures up a dark purple bubble around the doorway and smiles triumphantly. “Sorry guys, but dinner’s canceled. I’ve got other plans.”
The horde slams itself against the wall of the bubble with monumental force, however the unbreakable sphere holds, its shiny surface not even cracking under the strain of hundreds of hooves smashing into it. Smiling in contentment the Captain turns away from the barrier and trots up the stairs. “And to any of my men that have been captured by this infection that is controlling your actions,” Shining states as he turns back around to face his men, his eyes filled with an honest glint. “Don’t worry; I give you my word that I’ll save you all.”
The few infected can only stare vacantly through the translucent barrier, their eyes revealing the relief and hope given by the reassuring words of their Captain as the resolute stallion marches back up the stairs. With a heavier heart than when he began his climb, the soldier ascends with a steely calm, knowing very well that his own words were a complete and utter lie. There was no certainty that he could save any of them; it might come down to him being forced to kill his own men in cold blood if he wanted to save the town and the Corpse. As a pony he wanted to give anypony he could the blessing of hope; however, as an orphan he knew that life could be far too cruel to just ponies such as the stallions he commanded. But overall he knew that as a soldier he was required to protect his country and the ponies of his country - to the death, if necessary. And so, as the Captain of the Solar Guard trotted slowly up the stairs, he burned his compassion from his heart and prepared to once again make a weighty sacrifice for the safety of his country.