//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Dance with the Deceased 
// Story: The Titans' Orb 
// by Mister Horncastle 
//------------------------------//

“Are you for real?” Twilight scoffed, propping herself up, “Zombies? As in, the dead brought back to life?”

“Take one bloody look at them and tell me I’m wrong.” I retorted, pointing to the edge of the roof.

Shaking her head, the unicorn didn’t need to look, not after the chase we had just escaped from. She knew that I was right, these things were zombies, the living dead. This was a step above cartels and crocodiles, we were now dealing with something of a genuinely supernatural ilk. Radiation alone couldn’t have done this, the whole ‘ghoul’ thing from Fallout was nothing but a work of fiction, and entirely impossible. No, what was going on here was beyond a few spicy waves of nuclear energy, and I already had a hunch as to what elements were really at play here. Casting my mind back to Brazil, I considered those crocodiles in the lake, and how they had been magically enhanced by the nearby Orb fragment; I got to thinking that the same thing might have occurred here. Radiation on its own would kill you, or at the very least, give you a bunch of cancers and a heavy dose of rad poisoning. But sprinkle in some magic from an otherworldly artefact? Well, then something like this became not only a possibility, but as we had now learned, a reality.

There was one thing I didn’t get though, which was how this had gone so deeply under the radar. The details surrounding the Chernobyl disaster were well documented, and widely accepted by all. The inhabitants of this city had been evacuated, with no more than thirty people being killed in the initial incident. Over the following years, that number had risen from people dying to radiation induced cancer, but that had been long after the event, and far outside of the exclusion zone. There very simply shouldn’t have been anyone here…

Contrary to all that, we were in a fully occupied city, with hundreds, possibly even thousands of feral zombified inhabitants. Had it all been covered up? Had the USSR been so desperate to keep this a secret that they had faked the mass evacuation of over fifty-thousand people? Thinking about it, it was hardly something the Soviets weren’t capable of. When compared to events such as the Red Terror, the Holodomor, or the Rape of Berlin, covering up a little zombie outbreak would have been a walk in the park for the bastards.

Still, there was no point in trying to rationalise it any further, the facts were the facts; Pripyat was owned by the irradiated undead, and we were their guests. Sniffing emphatically, I told the girls that we needed to press on and to make as little noise as possible, for that was what seemed to attract them.

“Heh, I guess Pinkie did try to warn us…” Rainbow pointed out, shrugging.

“Jeez… you’re right.” I sighed.

Thinking back to when Pinkie Pie had mentioned ‘smelling zombies’ upon Twilight’s return, I realised that our little pink goofball wasn’t so crazy after all, she truly could detect things that no one else could. Perhaps this was also why she had referred to the microwave as an ‘evil voodoo box’ as well? Thinking about it, the very concept of zombies had originated from voodoo, or to be more specific, a religion in Haiti called Vodou. Knowing Pinkie, it was entirely possible that she had foreseen this revenant danger from the start, before we had even left for Brazil. Shaking my head in disbelief, I vowed to never again doubt that mare’s bizarre sayings and prophecies, and to heed them with care.

Stepping forward, Twilight asked what we were to do now, as we were stuck on the rooftops. We settled on waiting for the crowd below to disperse, and then for her to retrieve the broken ladder with her magic. From there, she would carefully prop it back up in a way where we could clamber down and embark into the streets. Although the unicorn’s mana was dangerously low at this point, she could just about handle a quick and easy telekinesis job. With the zombies not having anything to move for, they weren’t exactly the speediest when it came to leaving, and so I decided to speed up the process. The rooftop had a fair few loose bricks, and it wasn’t all that hard to pull them loose. From there, I threw them as far as I could, causing them to smack into the pavement below on the far side of the road. It worked a treat, and soon enough the dead started to clear out of the alley.

“Hey, I’ll give you five bits if you can hit one of them from up here.” said Rainbow Dash.

“You don’t even have five bits!” Twilight barked, “And even if you did, humans don’t use bits!”

Chuckling, I said that Rainbow could pay me with a nice compliment instead, and then I chucked a brick at one of the larger clusters of bodies. It struck one of their brittle heads, caving it inward and killing the creature immediately.

“Bullseye!” I exclaimed with a grin.

Rainbow cheered and started shaking my wrist with excitement, while Twilight looked away with absolute revulsion, covering her mouth. She then came over to us and shoved the pegasus away from me, glaring into my eyes.

“What is wrong with you?” she spat, “Those things were people once! They were humans like you. They had lives, families, and you’re here treating it like it’s some kind of joke! See, now this right here is why I’ve been right not to trust you, and exactly why I can’t stand you or your kind. I was right all along, you’re a sick-minded, violent, brute! And if I didn’t need you for this damn mission, I’d have half a mind to throw you down there to those things, and then we’ll see if it’s still funny!”

Dipping my chin and lowering my shoulders, I knew she was right. I opened my mouth to apologise when she whipped around to face Rainbow Dash.

“And you…” she growled, “What in Tartarus has gotten into you? Egging him on? Laughing at death? You should be ashamed of yourself! I can expect it from the human, but from you? Disgusting…”

Dashie’s eyes glazed over and she lowered her head guiltily.

“I… I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking…” she croaked.

“Yeah well, that I can expect from you.” Twilight snapped, “It’s not as though you’re the brightest pegasus around, are you?”

“Hey come on, there’s no need for-”

“Shut it, human!” she barked, cutting me off and whipping back around to face me, “You don’t get to speak to me. If I wanted to hear a loathsome piece of shit talking to me, I would take myself off to sleep and go dream about one. You are my guide, nothing more, so guide me to my damn Orb shard, so I can be another step closer to never having to look at your nauseating face again!”

Exhaling heavily out of her nose, she marched past me and began raising the ladder with her magic. My eyes glazed over like Rainbow’s, and I felt all the colour and mirth leaking out of me, as I realised that I had just put my relationship with Twilight straight back to square one. Gritting my teeth and hanging my head even lower, I closed my eyes and swore under my breath.

“Fuck…”

It had been going so well. Ever since her apology in Brazil, things with Twilight had been incessantly on the incline, with her demeanour becoming more and more normal. She was addressing me by my name, we were having conversations, and I had seen her smiling and laughing with her friends. Hell, just today she was happy to educate me on her world’s languages and humour my curiosities. After I had cooked that food for her, and provided that warm bath, it was almost as if she was starting to like me!

And now, I had ruined it.

“Hey…” Rainbow Dash quietly said to me with a weak smile, “It was a good throw.”

“Not now, Rainbow…” I sighed, shaking my head.

I knew she was subtly honouring her wager to pay me a compliment, but being so soon after just undoing all my progress with Twilight, all I could feel was bitterness. Not knowing what to say, the pegasus gave me a regretful expression and walked past me, joining Twilight by the roof’s edge. I did the same, and as the metal ladder rose out of the alley and was propped against the wall, the unicorn ordered me to go first. Not arguing, I silently lowered myself down from the roof and planted my feet on the upper rungs, before steadily making my way down. Reaching the ground, I found quite a few zombies still littering the alleyway. Thankfully, these ones were now truly dead, having either fallen from the ladder during the chase, been shot by Wrinkleboom, or had simply been trampled to death by their own.

I held the ladder to keep it steady while the other two clambered down, and then we formulated a plan. Despite her renewed distaste for me, Twilight was at least civil when discussing what to do. With the majority of the undead being in the open road, the proposal was to use as many backstreets and alleys as we could, slinking through the city and relying on stealth. Any zeds that crossed our path would be dealt with via Krocsbane, or if their numbers were too great, they would be distracted with a spell or two from Twilight, as and when her mana had replenished enough.

With our stratagem established, we cautiously left the alley. Thankfully we were able to cross the street and make it to the next block. Over the next half hour or so, we successfully dipped and ducked through this particular patch of the city, and it seemed like we were making good progress. I had only needed to use Krocsbane once, quickly dispatching a zombie with a swift blow to the back of the head. It seemed that their bones had become awfully brittle during their time in undeath, for the knife had pierced its skull with barely any resistance at all; it was no different to slicing into a rotten pumpkin.

“Having fun?” Twilight sneered as I wiped the blade clean.

Choosing not to respond, I looked away and clenched my jaw. For what it was worth, I wasn’t having fun at all, I had actually been quite disturbed upon delivering the blow, not that the unicorn would have cared.

“How much further do you think we have to go?” Rainbow wondered aloud, trying to change the subject.

“Hard to tell.” I muttered, “With how overgrown this place is, every block looks the same.”

I was about to check my phone map to get a better gist of our position, when we heard a noise up ahead. Like the lowest note on an untuned piano, a bassy twang rang out, and all three of us stopped in our tracks. We scanned the road ahead to find the sound’s origin, but much to our horror, the sound’s origin had found us first. Rising up out of the undergrowth, came a mutant creature unlike any old zombie. It was like two people had merged into one, sporting four gnarled arms, and a pair of bulky legs that had clearly once been multiple. Its head was mangled and bulbous, with an odd number of asymmetrical eyes. Opening its unnaturally wide mouth, it revealed a smaller second mouth within, which in turn opened up and let out an almighty screech.

“Run!” I shouted.

Tucking tail, we bolted away from the creature, back to where we had come from. It gave chase, and thanks to its powerful legs, it was much faster. Darting to the right, we cut through the treeline and turned into a block of buildings, where we made an attempt to lose it inside one of them. Regrettably, it didn’t relent, instead forcing its way in after us and smashing everything in its path.

“Can you hurry up and shoot this thing!?” Twilight yelled, her eyes wild with fear.

“What, and attract everything else?” I snapped back, skidding through a narrow doorway with her.

“That’s a then issue, can you please deal with the NOW issue!?”

“Well, you did say please…”

“Oh shut up and shoot it already!”

Spinning around and taking out Wrinkleboom, I let the hulking beast get closer before firing the first barrel. The buckshot struck true, knocking the creature back and shredding one whole side of it. After recovering from the shock, it made a lunge for me, clearly not adhering to any thoughts of self-preservation. Unloading the second barrel, I was able to blow apart one of its legs, sending it clattering to the floor. Still alive, it continued to crawl towards me, and I quickly fumbled around with my ammo belt to load another pair of cartridges. Lining up the barrels, I fired both for good measure into its head and delivered a grim, undignified end. With my ears ringing and my face spattered with dark blood, I turned to face Twilight and grimaced.

“I don’t suppose you have any cleaning spells?”

Remaining silent, Twilight just stared at the twitching body, in a state of shock from the violence. I cleared my throat loudly and it broke her trance. She blinked rapidly and gave her head a shake, and then raised her chin and gave a distasteful huff.

“I thought you things liked bathing in the blood of your enemies?”

Turning away from me, she caught up to Rainbow Dash, leaving me to wipe away as much blood as I could with the sleeve of my shirt. I didn’t have much time to clean up however, as from outside the building came a chorus of madness, hunger, and anguish. Drawn in by the shotgun blasts, a cluster of zombies had come, and were now searching for a way in.

“Well, Twilight… looks like our then issue has arrived.”

“I don’t want to hear it, Callum!” she snapped, sounding as vexed as she did afraid.

The dead arrived, smashing through the windows and clambering inside to join us. We escaped out the back and ran deep into the trees, only to find more zeds coming from that direction too. Almost getting surrounded, we were forced yet again to fall back on ourselves, our progress undone as we were driven back to the northwestern side of the city.


Eventually we got away, and in a bid to find an easier route, we moved further east, hoping to find less company there. It initially paid off, as we found the undead’s numbers to be much thinner. However, it soon became apparent as to why.

“Um, Callum…” Rainbow Dash began with a gulp, “What the heck is that?”

With a nervous gulp of my own, I fixed my eyes on the mass of dark matted fur that was feasting on the body of a zombie up ahead. It was low to the ground and had a gigantic toothy snout, currently buried halfway into its decomposing meal.

“I think, erm… I think that used to be a wolf.”

Shuddering, I realised that the magically altered radiation had affected not just the people of this place, but also the wildlife. We began backing away, only for it to look up and spot us. In seconds, it was charging for us, ravenous and yearning for fresh meat. Without much of a choice, I had to use Wrinkleboom again, blasting the creature with a round of buckshot and sending it skidding to a lifeless halt in front of me.

“Well, let’s hope these things aren’t attracted to sound.” I grumbled, reloading the spent barrel.

And then, as though the universe itself was sticking a middle finger up at me, the treeline ahead came alive as four more of them burst from the undergrowth, evoking an exasperated sigh from me.

“Oh, of course they are…”

Pulling out Inigo’s pistol, I was able to shoot two of them from further away, before swapping to Wrinkleboom to take out the other two upon their approach. By now, my ears were aching from all the shots fired, and for as much as I was racking up quite the kill count, I was more than ready for this to come to an end. Going over my ammo, I found that I only had five shots left in the pistol, and twenty-six shotgun cartridges.

“I really need to stop shooting.”

“Couldn’t agree more.” Twilight muttered, her ears still flattened to her head.

Just as we began to press on, the group of zombies that had chased us earlier arrived, once again lured by the shots. Running to where the mutant wolves had come from, we were thrust into yet another pursuit. But this time, it would seem that we had some help…

With a distant boom, that familiar whistle sounded off above, followed by one of the zombies up ahead dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Our mysterious gunman was nearby somewhere, providing overwatch and aiding our escape.

“Thanks!” I yelled openly, not knowing where the shot had even come from.

As we fled from road to road, we came across more wolves, but much to our surprise they didn’t go for us, they went for the zombies instead. Other creatures also joined the fray, things that weren’t quite zombie, like the multi-armed creature from earlier. It seemed as though there was a rivalry between the different forms of mutant; it wasn’t just the living they attacked, it was anything that wasn’t them. Before we knew it, most of our chasers were no longer after us, they were ravaging one another instead. During the frenzy, we were able to slip into a block of apartments and lose them.

My heart was now pounding hard enough to physically feel inside my chest. Being an athlete, Rainbow Dash was doing okay, but poor Twilight was so out of breath that she couldn’t even stand up anymore, falling to her knees and gasping deeply for air. However, we weren’t in the clear just yet, and as we tried desperately to catch our breath, we were met with yet another brand of mutant.

Emerging from one of the apartments came a tall, crooked, twitching body that could no longer be described as human. Its glossy hardened skin was a blend of black and orange, all of which was blistered, bubbled, and tautly stretched over a set of vastly elongated limbs. Its once-human forearms had split open, with the thinner ulna bone now serving as a long weaponised spike, controlled by the remnants of its hands, which now functioned like additional elbows. The creature’s head was no longer anything like my own, with the entire skull opening up at the back and forming a large mask-like faceplate, without an eyeball to be seen. The lower jaw was now parted down the middle and lined with serrated teeth, best likened to the mandibles of an insect, eager to rend the flesh and sinew of anything it could skewer with its forelimbs. From top to bottom, this malformed entity could only be described as an eldritch horror.



Noting the lack of eyes, I remained perfectly still as it entered the hallway. Copying my actions, the girls froze on the spot and watched in terror as the unholy creature lumbered towards them, swaying from side to side as it scanned its environment. The mandibles opened, and from it came a low raspy clunking noise, followed by dozens of rapid clicks, varying in pitch.

It was using echolocation…

{Don’t… fucking… move…} I thought to myself, gulping.

Even without eyes, this thing could still very much see, and all it would take was for us to move, and it would know we were here. With a gait like a macabre slow-dance, it strode past me, honing in on Twilight as she rattled with fear, still wheezing pathetically as she fought to control her breathing. As it passed me, I noticed that its spine had erupted from the back, with shards of bone jutting out like armour. More interesting however, was the back of its head; without a skull to protect it, the brain was perfectly exposed, encased in a thin white membrane. The organ stood out like a sore thumb, and considering how the rest of the skin had hardened into a chitinous material, it was likely the only way of killing it.

Moving at a snail’s pace, I raised Krocsbane into the air and tiptoed towards it. I had to match my footsteps to its own or it would hear me, of which went without saying, would only end in disaster. As I got close, my foot crunched on some broken glass, and I had no choice other than to dive forward before it whipped around to look at me. Jamming Krocsbane into the exposed brain, the monstrosity let out a loud shuddering creak as we fell to the floor together, where it then began to twitch violently beneath me. Ensuring my strike was a fatal one, I gave the knife a hard twist, promptly putting a stop to its emphatic spasms. I lay still for a moment, letting my mind catch up to what had just happened, before I finally propped myself up to look at the girls. Letting out an exhausted sigh, I raised my eyebrows at them.

“You both okay?”

Rainbow Dash nodded, while Twilight swallowed loudly.

“Y-You… s-saved me…” she panted, still quivering.

“Yeah well, believe it or not, I prefer you alive.” I huffed, tugging the blade free from the creature’s head.

Breaking eye contact, Twilight continued to puff heavily, while Rainbow Dash came over to inspect the mutant, giving it an apprehensive prod with her hoof.

“Why didn’t it go for you?” she asked, tilting her head.

“Echolocation.” I replied after getting to my feet.

“Echo-what-now?”

“It could see using sound.” I explained, “Did you hear that clicking noise it was making? Well, that was helping it map the world around it.”

“Oh, you mean like a bat?”

“Exactly like a bat.” I answered, “Stand perfectly still, and you’re just a part of the environment.”

“Ohh…” she hummed loudly.

Despite already being fit to move again, Rainbow contently allowed for me and Twilight to continue catching our breath. Heading over to a nearby window, she peered out across the mist and scanned for movement, which for once, there wasn’t any. The nearby conflict between the zombies, mutants, and the wolves had concluded, with the victor unknown. After a few minutes of recovering, the unicorn gave me a nod, and we set out once more.

The day was getting on now, and if we didn’t get to the Orb shard soon, we would be spending the night here, which none of us were looking forward to. I took out my phone to check our location, to find that we had pretty much been going in circles, wholly disoriented by the constant slew of hostile encounters. Finally getting on the right track, we pushed into the lower half of the city, creeping through the trees and slinking through the alleyways, which was when Twilight came to a halt.

“You good?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she replied, “It’s the Orb, we’re close enough to the piece for me to sense it. I know which way to go now.”

“Sweet!” Dashie cheered with a grin.

“What does that feel like exactly?” I inquired, “The Orb shard, I mean?”

Moving her mouth to one side, she best likened it to the sensation of a magnet, pulling at her horn and trying to steer her towards the missing piece. With an intrigued hum, we pressed on, now knowing exactly which way to go.

Along the way, I decided to come up with a new name for the zombies, as calling them ‘zombies’ felt equal parts surreal and uninspired. I gave it some thought, and after a few ideas sprang to mind, I eventually settled on calling them ‘zomrads’. Aside from the obvious play on the words ‘zombie’, and ‘radiation’, the name also sounded somewhat like the Slavic-accented pronunciation of the word ‘comrade’, which was fitting for the once-Soviet denizens of this city.

While moving from one road to another, we came across a handful of the newly-named zomrads, who began to run at us. In a bid to lose them, we slipped into the nearest building, which in hindsight wasn’t the smartest thing to do, as we bumped into even more of them inside. I was able to kill a few of them, but with all the noise, more of them were lured inside. Soon enough the ground floor was heaving with them, and with the entrance cut off, we were forced into one of the back rooms. With some of her mana restored, Twilight helped me by way of levitating as many furnishings as possible to block the door. It worked for a time, but slowly but surely the mass of writhing bodies began to break through. Their hands pushed through the barricade, reaching out blindly as their owners emitted warbling, twisted shouts of anger, as if the tormented souls within were trying to call out to us. Without any windows, we were trapped in here, and with about thirty to forty zomrads now trying to get in with us, we were beginning to panic.

“What do we do?” Rainbow cried out, her tightly bound wings squirming at her sides.

Looking around frantically, I searched for an answer, and just as things seemed bleak, I laid eyes on our solution. At the back of the room I spotted a sizable break in the wall, just big enough for us to squeeze through and escape. However, the passageway was right up against the ceiling, much too high to reach without a jump.

“Up through there!” I ordered, “Come on, I’ll give you a boost!”

Rushing over to the hole, I dropped to one knee and put my hands together. Without hesitation, the pegasus put one of her back hooves into my hands and allowed me to push her up. Grabbing the ledge, she hauled herself up and wriggled through the hole, dropping down into the street outside. I was about to repeat the motion with Twilight, when a cluster of zomrads broke through the barrier, billowing out and clattering to the floor. I rushed to meet them without hesitation, doing anything I could to keep the unicorn safe. After stamping on one’s head, another grabbed me from behind, to which I whipped around and delivered a hefty backhanded smack to the side of its head, knocking it away and sending it tumbling to the ground. Pulling out Krocsbane, I shivved the next one in the neck, which was when a third tackled me from the side. Almost being taken to the ground, it took every ounce of my strength to wrestle back against the attack and push the zomrad away, slashing out with Krocsbane as I did so. As the others rose up to join the frenzy, I realised just how outnumbered I was, and with a frustrated growl, I prepared myself to possibly go down fighting.

“Do you have enough mana to teleport?” I shouted, slashing at another one’s throat.

“I… uh…” Twilight whimpered, “I think so, but only for myself!”

“Then teleport!” I barked.

From outside, Rainbow Dash overheard me and gasped loudly.

“Are you crazy? You can’t take all those freaks!”

“Watch me!” I spat, only for the fifth attacker to dive at me and take me to the ground.

The zombified woman clawed bluntly at me with her decayed hands, and I was forced to drop Krocsbane to grab her by the wrists. Only partially subdued, the putrefied fiend tried to bite into my neck, her teeth snapping loudly as she chomped at the thin air between us. With a burst of energy, I rolled sideways and knocked her off balance, allowing me to tuck my legs up and dish out a two-footed kick, flinging her away. I retrieved the knife and tried to scramble away, only for five more of them to descend upon me, followed by a sixth. With true panic setting in as they piled onto me, I started screaming at the top of my lungs and kicking out wildly, flailing in a mad attempt to get away, which was when their weight was suddenly lifted off me. I rolled over to find them being pulled away from me by a shimmering magenta glow. Their heads were then suddenly snapped back at a very literal breakneck speed, killing all six of them simultaneously. The remaining furnishings were then levitated to the broken gap, reinforcing the barricade for a short while. Rolling over, I saw Twilight staring at me with a look of fierceness, her horn still glowing brightly.

“That makes us even.” she said, “Now give me a damn boost.”

Scrambling to my feet, I ran over to her and helped her up to the hole. Clambering through, she dropped down to join Rainbow Dash, who reared up and planted both of her hooves against the outer wall.

“What about you?” she rasped, anxiously pressing against the concrete.

“I’ll be fine!” I shouted, “Just get yourselves somewhere safe before it gets dark. I’ll catch up, I promise!”

Desperate not to leave me, Dashie asked how I was going to find them, to which I assured her that I would follow my phone to the Orb shard and meet them along the way. The barricade then started to break, and I turned around to prepare myself. Things then went from bad to worse, as Twilight informed me that there were more zeds outside, of which were quickly closing in.

“Then move!” I bellowed, “Get out of here and find somewhere to hide!”

There was no time for a better plan, and so Rainbow Dash conceded. The two ponies bolted away, now on their own for the time being. Clenching my fists, I looked back to the remaining zomrads as they began pouring into the room with me. Now separated from the girls at their behest, I felt the panic leave my body, and a rampant anger take its place. These monsters had just separated me from the girls, and now they were going to pay dearly for it. Clinging tightly to Krocsbane, I gritted my teeth and readied myself for the bloody slaughter that lay ahead.


“Alright then, you rotting sacks of meat…” I hissed, “Let’s fucking go…”