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The zombie ponies guarding Grogar’s compound charged… or, hobbled. One raised his head, lip-less maw spread wide and letting out a wail that signified an order to attack contacts on the perimeter.
The groan died in its throat as a razor tipped feather slashed through the air and hit the zombie right in the eye. With a sideways twitch, the pony crumpled and dropped to the ground laying still for the last time. Dozens more projectiles rained form the high ground with straight, terminal trajectories. Over half found their targets; headshots.
A good dozen zombies dropped, but there were many more to be had, limping up to the ridge where the trio were attacking from.
As Mare Do Well was raining an unholy plethora of bladed projectiles on the flanks to keep the attackers bunched together, Bungee and Luna charged right down the middle breaking ranks. Luna’s blasts of magical energy only matched by Bungee’s ferocious war cries; barks echoing off into the distance.
Between them and the bunker were a healthy horde of zombie ponies, rabid and ready to get some killing done. Three versus fifty hostiles. Even odds.
Charging up to the line, Princess Luna drew a deep breath, preparing her lungs and voice for the first melee. Though, not so much a ‘melee’ per-se. Her breath exploded from her mouth with a mighty cry – the Royal Canterlot Voice echoing across the woods. Whole trees swayed, patches of grass and undergrowth flattened. Clouds of fallen leaves danced into the air, playing in the shockwave emanating from Luna’s vocal chords.
“BEGONE!” she yelled as loudly as she could, the effort thrown into her usual tone causing enough force to shake the ground.
Zombie ponies were lifted into the air in ranks, tossed like toys down the hill where they hit the ground and crumpled. The area directly ahead of the princess was cleared, a forty-five degree angle neatly uprooted by just her voice.
But much to her shock, there were no embers. The unclean undead weren’t cleansed by the sheer power of her words. They simply rolled to their hooves and proceeded with their charge.
“What on…” she could hardly finish her flustered comment when a particularly speedy zombie lunged forward, cutting her off.
The princess recoiled as two rows of filed down yellowed teeth snapped at the air mere millimetres from her neck. Within the same moment as the interlocking teeth came gnashing down at her air, the zombie was thrown sideways by an unseen force.
Unseen, until both figures hit the ground and the black and tan blur rolled to his paws.
Bungee shook off his daze having collided with the zombie pony mid-air, tackling him off course. Stumbling to one side the German Shepherd found his centre again just as the zombie pony tried to get up and charge Luna again. Locking his teeth around the pony’s mane, the dog tugged fiercely with a low growl, flooring the zombie once more. The monster kicked and bucked, struggling to find balance, before he twitched and suddenly went still with a razor tipped feather sticking out of his head.
Stepping back, Bungee looked up to see Mare Do Well enter the fray.
The vigilante leapt hooves first past Luna, scissor kicking a zombie pony in the head. The sheer force of the blow twisted the head right around with a sickening snap, and the creature’s body fell limp. Landing gracefully, the mare’s scowl was visible through her mask as she regarded the momentarily stunned princess having been saved by her dog and masked ally in quick succession.
“Shake it off, princess!” Mare Do Well snapped with a flare of her cape. At the same time a plethora of razor tipped feathers scythed through the air, suppressing the advancing zombie ponies for a moment. “Go with the simple methods!”
What followed were two more snaps of necks as the mare leapt up and swept a rear hoof around in a whirling flying-kick, twisting one head around before twisting another with a powerful swing of a forehoof.
Luna managed to shake it off and nodded. Her horn glowed in an instant, and a solid beam of light matching the colour of her magical aura materialised in the air before her. Leaping forth into the fray after Bungee and Mare Do Well, Luna started swinging.
The magical blade curved like a scimitar as it sliced through ranks of zombie ponies. She had never been one for swordplay, but unlike with chess, she could still beat her older sister in fencing. Though despite looking like she had reasonable knowledge of what she was doing, there was no finesse to her motions. Just semi-controlled cutting, left-right, up and down.
Heads rolled one way. Legs, tufts of manes, tails. There was no blood; just a light sizzling with each cut leaving a cauterised stump on both ends of the dismembered zombie ponies.
Bungee never left her flank, often breaking a zombie’s attempted tackle on Luna’s side, or grabbing a mouthful of mane or tail to hold a zombie still for Luna.
Mare Do Well’s progress was on the other hand much more fluid. She’d let the zombies get behind her, but it did them no good. She never stopped moving, so they couldn’t even keep up to hit her from a blind side.
Leaping into the fray, she whipped three-sixty degrees in a deft flying-kick, snapping around three heads in one sweep. Before landing, one of her forehooves came down, connecting with the next zombie pony, a reanimated pegasus guard. His helmet was missing, and the blow caved in his skull against a rock. Without even realising she’d put Sergeant Ironwing out of his misery, she threw herself sideways, shouldering the next monster to the ground.
A hoof stomped down on his neck and the creature stopped squirming with a flare of Mare Do Well’s cape, three feathers embedding in the side of his face. At the same time a wide fanning array of projectiles shot from Mare Do Well’s opposite flank, causing four charging zombies to tumble back head over hooves.
But it was in that moment of inactivity; that brief instant where she wasn’t moving that she lost her stride.
In that pause, a zombie pony grabbed her. Or her hat to be more precise.
With a hard tug, the pony held the hat in his yellow teeth by the brim and pulled it clean from Mare Do Well’s head. Leaving her mask in place, the long chestnut coloured horn protruding from the forehead of her mask was revealed in its glinting glory. Gilded with a spiral pattern, much like that of the princess it ended in a delicate point.
Gritting her teeth, the masked mare reached out and locked a hoof on the zombie’s throat. Pulling him in close, she immediately threw her head forward, her horned forehead slamming violently into the zombie pony’s face with a ‘crunch!’ Pulling back – the hat fallen from the zombie’s broken grasp - she immediately dragged the dazed pony in close again, slamming her forehead into the zombie’s face again.
Again and again and again and again… until the zombie dropped to the ground, a bloody porridge with bits of shattered teeth where the creature’s face had once been.
When Mare Do Well whipped around, flinging two feathers into the face of the next pony, there was a distinct spiderweb of cracks across her right eye-lens. She didn’t seem to notice, or just didn’t care as she ran furiously into the next melee. More limbs broke, more faces caved in the onslaught that followed.
She only paused when something pulled at her shoulders. Looking back she saw a zombie pony clutching the edge of her cape in its teeth. Another latched on, with a third jumping on the stationary mare’s back. Grunting, the mare felt her face pushed against the ground as she struggled to straighten up, sharp teeth nipping at the air by her ear.
Growling, she quickly shifted her weight sideways and rolled, pulling down the zombies holding on to her and flattening the pony trying for a free ride. A distinct ripping sound echoed in her ears, and the mare’s heart sank. Not too far. There was no pain, so the ripping noise wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
With the zombies falling off her, the mare pushed her forehooves hard against the dirt and somersaulted backwards, landing heavily on all fours with some reasonable range between her and her attackers.
Glancing back she saw the damage; her cape was ruined, some tatters still hanging from the offending zombie ponies’ mouths. With and angered growl, the vigilante snapped her revealed wings forward, unleashing a volley of razor tipped feathers.
With a whisper quiet ‘thwip’ the zombies dropped to the ground and lay still.
Taking a deep breath, Mare Do Well turned her head to see Luna cut through the last few zombie ponies still standing. Bungee in the meantime was snipping through the remains to make sure there were no survivors. The trio were the only things standing in a small sea of corpses either torn up or riddled with chestnut projectiles.
Turning to face her, the princess gasped lightly at the sight of Mare Do Well. And it wasn’t the damage to her costume that shocked Luna . It was the horn planted on her forehead and the pair of chestnut feathered wings folded neatly against her back that really threw her.
Mare Do Well was an alicorn? And to add to that, without the oversized hat throwing off her proportions and a baggy cape draped over her form she did seem awfully buff for a mare.
Luna wasn’t sure what to make of the vigilante anymore. Was she some sort of lost relative? Removed perhaps? Was she perhaps a princess from a faraway land? She’d only known of alicorns to be princesses, not rough-around-the-edges vigilantes who beat individuals to a pulp with their bare hooves.
Realising she was staring, Mare Do Well scowled at the stunned princess.
“What?” she growled darkly.
Luna quickly shook her head innocently as the vigilante led the final stretch to the compound. “N-nothing.”
“Good,” the masked mare grunted.
Though Mare Do Well and Princess Luna were following the lines of common sense; Bungee was used to the motions that followed. He was stacking up in preparation of a breach. Luna took cover at one side of the only doorway leading inside, Bungee at her side. Mare Do Well stood opposite them.
Luna’s horn glowed as she looked up from Bungee standing ready to pounce to the masked mare. An orb of light formed in front of Luna, and Mare Do Well gave a firm nod. Luna nodded back and the orb of light shot into doorway…
BANG!
The thousand decibel bang was preceded by a flicker of light, even while standing outside it burned spots into Bungee’s field of vision. But what came next was almost second nature to him. He had this procedure drilled into him since he was a puppy.
Samantha had taught him well.
Slipping around the doorpost, Bungee sprinted into Grogar’s compound making as much noise as he could. He was barking in rapid fire as he ran, sweeping the area as he fearlessly crossed into the enclosed space. It was as he remembered from before. Celestia’s cage over against one wall. Dividing walls beyond hiding other rooms. Grogar’s grizzly workshop of death dominating the space.
And there they were. Four hostiles. Grogar and Rourke, joined by two particular zombie ponies.
Rourke was covering his eyes with his sleeve, while Grogar stumbled around blindly in a puddle of his latest ruined love poison batch.
The zombie pony Neckless didn’t bother fighting, throwing himself to the ground and cowering under his forelegs. Tripod tried to hobble away to no avail. Bungee was on top of her in and instant, colliding with the three legged mare and knocking her to the ground. Pinning her under his front paws he growled in her face. The zombie pony’s expression twisted innocently as she behaved.
Rourke and Grogar were recovering from the flashbang spell Luna had unleashed. Bungee looked up and locked eyes with the lieutenant. As he climbed off Tripod, he let her scramble towards Neckless and allowed the two to slip into the next room to cower. They weren’t exactly Grogar’s finest creation, but in a way that was a good thing. It had made them harmless.
Head low, Bungee stalked from side to side as Rourke realised the dog was back. Already he could tell the human was regretting not killing him. A mistake he’d probably not make again.
Rourke immediately snapped up his rifle from its sling and aimed at the dog. There was a click of the safety before a rapid double tap.
Bungee didn’t flinch as the bullets evaporated into dust, debris scattering to the ground mere inches from striking the dog. Gaping, Rourke looked up to see the midnight alicorn step up behind her dog, her horn aglow with fierce magical energy. Two more shots rang out. Another double tap – a loud pak-pak – this time aimed at Luna.
The rounds immediately flattened against an invisible barrier erected between the pony and the human. The alicorn’s horn was still flaring dangerously.
“That hardly seems fair,” the human growled, backing into a corner of the workshop with Grogar.
Satisfied the hostiles were relatively secure, she ordered Bungee to heel and looked back at Mare Do Well. Bungee didn’t budge, keeping his stare fixed angrily on Lieutenant Rourke.
“Mare Do Well?” Luna called out.
Framed in the doorway, watching for any zombie ponies that may be left over and following them into the compound, the masked vigilante gave a noncommittal grunt.
“Are we secure?”
“Relatively. Make it quick,” the vigilante nodded without taking her eyes off her sector.
Turning back to her imprisoned sister, Luna’s horn began to glow.
On the inside the cage was impervious to magic. But on the outside… not so much.
Luna’s blast of magic shattered the bars, sending a million embers scattering into the air before flickering and dying out. Flexing out a crick in her neck, Princess Celestia quickly stepped out of the patch of dirt she had been confined to. Black streaks stained her brilliant white coat, her pink mane and tail were dirty and tangled.
She had every right to wear a pissed-off expression.
“Luna,” Celestia greeted casually.
“Celestia,” the younger sister returned.
Bungee watched silently, looking between them with his tail wagging slightly.
Their conversation as cut short by a loud “Buck!” that drew everypony’s attention. Turning to look, Celestia saw Mare Do Well’s wings flick out in turn, each flick flinging a plethora of razor tipped feathers out the compound’s doorway.
As she jumped back, it was revealed zombie ponies were mobbing the position. Three zombies stumbled through the open doorway as Mare Do Well flicked her left with forward. The tattered remains of her cape wavered up as a trio of razor feathers darted forward, each of the projectiles hitting a zombie pony right between the eyes. With a wet squish they fell in a heap like all the zombies before.
“Say, wouldn’t you like to hurry up and arrest the bad-guys so we can leave? This ain’t as easy as it looks!” the vigilante yelled before her horn began to glow with amber light.
The orb of light surrounding her horn cracked, beams of light splitting from the core as Mare Do Well charged forward. She leapt clean over the fallen zombie ponies and charged outside; crying out at the top of her lungs as she did. What followed could only be described as an explosion. Amber light pooled the floor just inside the compound’s doorway as the blast shook the foundations. Dust drizzled from the ceiling as the first magical blast loosed from the vigilante was followed by several more as she let loose on the approaching undead horde.
Nodding to her sister and her loyal canine companion, Celestia turned to where Rourke and Grogar still stood in standoff. “Lieutenant Rourke and Grogar! You’re cornered! Surrender!”
“Or what, ‘ya fuckin’ pansy?” Rourke snarled without lowering his rifle.
Luna averted her gaze a little, letting Celestia make that call. And the answer surprised her.
“Or you die.”
Even Grogar was shocked at that, his red eyes widening visibly. “T-that’s a little d-dark for you, Celestia.” A stammer didn’t sound good in his voice.
Celestia’s glare did not falter. She was a hundred percent serious. And that caused the ram to gulp audibly. All of the princess’ glow was gone. That motherly affection had disappeared. The whole ordeal had reminded her of old Equestria. A time before Equestria even.
Dark ages. Dark pasts. Dark times where Celestia wouldn’t have thought twice about doing what needed to be done to protect her ponies.
Grogar recognised that look and knew very well how serious Celestia was.
In moments the ram had made a full one-eighty, revealing a side Rourke hadn’t seen before. Grogar was grovelling, dragging his stomach across the ground as he threw himself before Celestia’s majesty. He’d transformed from a necromancer into a kitten.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, princess! Please!” Grogar whined, turning into a blubbering fool. “Don’t send me back to Tartarus! I’ll be good! I’ll sit quietly in the Canterlot dungeons!”
Rourke scowled with part surprise, part disgust. “Don’t be a chicken-shit, Grogar,” he snarled out the corner of his mouth.
“Buck you!” Grogar snapped over his shoulder at the human. “You don’t go to Tartarus when you die! You don’t know what it’s like!” Grogar’s eyes widened at a sudden realisation and he quickly pointed a hoof at Lieutenant Rourke. “Him! It was all his fault! Killing your subjects was his fault! You know me, Celestia! I never would have murdered ponies on my own accord!”
“You fucking asshole!” Rourke yelled realising the ram was trying to pin it all on him.
“Oh, buck you!” Grogar repeated at the human. “If you never came along we never would hav-…”
BANG!
The shot was deafening and startled everypony – even Bungee was caught completely off-guard. Before they knew what had happened they saw Grogar slump to the ground. One eye was missing, replaced with a sucking bloody hole. The back of his head was gone completely, shards of bone framing an exit wound, and what remained of the necromancer’s cortex drooling all over the floor.
When they looked up realising Rourke had executed Grogar with a headshot it was already too late. He pulled something from his vest and tossed it at them. A small metal ball with bolt yellow writing clattered to the floor in front of the trio, the ponies cocking their heads.
Bungee instinctively recognised the ball and didn’t pause to watch. Leaping to one side he collided immediately with Luna, in her surprise dragging her to the ground and laying down on top of her, putting his body between her and the ball.
Not about to second guess the dog again, Celestia leapt to the deck on top of them, her horn flickering with light.
The M67 hand grenade exploded a moment later.
The fragmentation grenade was not designed to kill with concussive force like most conventional explosives. The fragmentation grenade, as the name suggested, was designed to be more visceral than that, killing with steel fragments scattering into a kill-radius of about five metres.
Inside the confines of Grogar’s shack, Bungee and his companions were well inside that kill-radius.
Jagged steel fragments hissed through the air as the black smoke cleared. A small crater pronounced the area the grenade had rested in and the surrounding area was embedded with vicious looking pieces of army-green steel.
Some of them even stuck into the golden bubble of light enveloping the two alicorn and the German Shepherd. Princess Celestia’s magic flickered and the bubble collapsed allowing the fragments of shrapnel to fall to the ground. Slowly the two alicorn lifted their heads and looked at each other before the dog between them squirmed.
Luna smiled as Celestia managed to get to her hooves, scratching Bungee under the chin. “Good boy, Bungee,” she said realising this was the second time inside twenty-four hours she’d been saved from an explosive by the German Shepherd.
Bungee wasn’t paying attention. He was on his paws scanning for Rourke. And following his nose he found his target. He caught Rourke’s heel as he disappeared into a back room, slipping around one of the compound’s partitions.
He was getting away!
Pausing for a moment in a poised stance, Bungee suddenly jumped around where Luna lay and sprinted after the human. Stealth and finesse were out the window as Bungee’s anger took over, the dog barking loudly as he gave chase.
Sliding around the corner Rourke had disappeared through, the German Shepherd scrambled for balance and traction before shooting down a set of rickety looking stairs leading down into the earth. Each tread creaked and groaned under Bungee’s weight, but he didn’t seem to notice over the clicking of his nails on the wood as he pattered all the way down with short but rapid steps. At the bottom he followed the usual breach and clear pattern. Sticking close to a wall and seeking out cover, he swept the area for hostiles to prioritise.
There were none. In fact the basement was empty. The brick walls were bare, the floor was clear. There was no lieutenant. He was gone, though it hardly seemed possible. There was nowhere to hide, and nowhere to run.
Apart from a hole.
It was a hole in the brickwork, framed by the blocky outline where the bricks were missing. Only instead of leading into a dark tunnel or meeting a solid wall of earth, beyond the hole there was nothing. A vast plain of greyish earth under a grim sky.
Even Bungee knew, looking through the hole in the basement wall, that that shouldn’t have been possible.
Walking up, the dog curiously looked down at where the brown clay of the basement floor suddenly ended and gave way to the grey earth at the threshold. A soft warm breeze blew into the basement through the hole. It had no smell. Rourke’s scent was nowhere to be found, but there was nowhere else he could have gone.
But it wasn’t just the lack of the human’s smell that was upsetting. There was no smell. No sound… nothing.
Lowering his head, the dog reached out with one paw and gingerly pressed it onto the ground in the plains beyond. He expected it to be like the portal that brought him to Equestria. He expected disorientation, unconsciousness and discomfort… there was none of that. It was just like stepping out of one room and into another.
So he pushed his way through. On the other side the wind faded. And then there really was nothing. The air was stale and odourless. Not to dry. Not to damp. Just normal.
Plain.
Standing looking out over the plains, not too far away Bungee saw a river. Shallow, home to crystal clear water glinting in the grim light bathing the barren plain and flowing gently from the right to the left. Beyond that was an endless desert of nothing. No rocks, no vegetation. Just endless grey clay right up to where the grim sky met the grim earth.
Looking back, Bungee saw much of the same. With one difference.
The basement wall. At least, part of it. About ten metres long and ending in jagged, crumbling edges, it was built of red brick just like the inside of Grogar’s basement. And the hole right in the middle led like a doorway back to the world he’d just come from.
Confused, Bungee quickly moved around the other side of the wall and looked up against the bare bricks. At the back the hole wasn’t visible, but when Bungee walked around the side he had stepped out of; there was the hole leading to Grogar’s basement again.
It wasn’t enough to give Bungee a headache, but it was enough to blow his mind. Mind you, after talking ponies, magic and zombies the dog had been left with a rather open mind.
As he walked around the portal-side of the wall, he spotted Celesi and Luna, following the dog through.
Luna looked surprised, looking around with awe. Her older sister had clearly seen this place before, as her expression was impassive. Grim even, like she had been here before and had no desire to return.
“What is this place?” Luna whispered as Bungee took position by her side on his own accord.
Celestia answered with a voice as uninviting as her expression. “This is purgatory. The river Styx will lead us to the gates of Tartarus,” she pointed to the river flowing gently past them.
Luna was willing to take Celestia’s word for that, but she was still confused. “Why would Rourke come here?”
Even Princess Celestia wasn’t sure of that, but she made an educated guess. “An escape route of opportunity to be sure. But it won’t be long before he realises Tartarus is a prison for the greatest evils our world has ever known. If he throws open those gates...” Celestia trailed off with a shake of her head unwilling to think of the darkness that would befall Equestria. There would be no coming back from that. Not even with the Elements of Harmony.
“We need to catch up to him,” Luna decided, taking a firm stance and cropping the ground with a hoof. Realising the princess had a ready stance, Bungee mimicked looking ready to run.
“No.” The older alicorn’s answer took her sister by surprise. “I’ll catch up to him. You should take Bungee and head back. Should I fail somepony needs to watch over Equestria.”
Luna scoffed with a glare. “We will both watch over Equestria when this is done,” she chided. “Together, as it has always been. So with all due respect; shut the buck up, ‘Tia.”
Such language! It was hardly befitting of a princess. But at the same time it didn’t surprise Celestia. Luna had every right to berate her sister. Celestia had made all the wrong decisions up to this point. She had to remember Lieutenant Rourke didn’t follow the rules of Equestria. Her way didn’t work, so she would have to try his.
She looked down at Bungee, the German Shepherd watching the two tall ponies eagerly… expectantly.
Celestia sighed with a nod and a smile. “Very well.” – Luna smiled back – “Together.”
So together they set off, following the bank of the Styx; walking the razor’s edge.
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so...
Whens bungee gonna get to rip Rourke's throat?
Also, it would be amusing if the princesses (and bungee) met Grogar while in Tartarus... maybe even allied with him?
Haha there you go. Blame it on grogar and got killed XD
Man, now I really want to play Batman Arkham Origins
I really hope after bungee gets his revenge his journey doesn't end there he deserves to enjoy his life and I selfishly want to read about it
I am always on the edge of my bed at the end of each chapter.
3417367 I just want to see Grogar crack the shits at Rourke for offing him
Are you brain‐dead you overgrown horse? You want to cut the only possible interdiction force by two‐thirds after you just said that there is nothing that can stop the sealed evil in a can that Rourke may just be ignorant enough (or malicious enough) to open? Damn it sunbutt, when you decide to grab the idiot ball and run you really do give it your all.
Here's a video of a 278 decibel bang and a flash of light. :v
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yEje927dygM#t=72