Chapter 20 Fight and Flight
“Come on, come on. Move it. We’ve been sitting here too long! Get on the damn wagons!”
Sunny watched as Willow strode about the camp in the orange light of morning, kicking and poking ponies awake as she strode amongst the rows of bedrolls and blankets. The twenty-three of them had managed to exhaust Happyhorn of any useful supplies in no less than two days. There had been little food to be had within the compound. In his searches, Sunny had come across obvious signs of survivor activity—they must have lived here for quite some time before leaving. No weapons, no supplies, and no bodies.
The staff of Happyhorn had survived the initial infection, and in the process they’d bled the place dry. Sunny wasn’t quite sure, but there was solace in the fact that there had been other ponies living here at one point who could still be alive somewhere. Maybe the Happyhorn survivors had done something similar to what Sunny and his friends had done: escaped to somewhere better, preferably not Baltimare.
Thinking back on it, Sunny was actually pretty glad that he’d spent the first month of the initial infection in an unresponsive state. He hated to imagine, to even think of how it must feel hiding inside those walls knowing that every day there was less and less food to be had. By far, coming in at the end had been much less stressful on him.
“Get up!” Willow bellowed to one of the pegasi, slamming her hooves down on the concrete beside his head with such force that a spiderweb of cracks skewered out from the source of impact.
The pegasus yelled and rolled away from her, beating his wings as he tried to climb to his hooves. “Gah, what the hay!? I’m up, I’m up!”
Sunny flinched. Willow, for the most, part seemed to have control of her… powers, on good days. Really, there was no better word for it. She could chew through steel, crush concrete, eat and successfully digest meat and even see in the dark; if those weren’t powers then Sunny didn’t know what was.
Willow looked up and met Sunny’s eye. For a moment, they exchanged a glance before the white mare snarled and turned away, bearing down on the rest of the ponies who were still foolish enough to remain lying down.
A shiver ran down the course of his spine. The events of that night still burned fresh in his mind. After she’d barged in on him and Moon, Willow had proceeded to the admission building and smashed every desk, chair, window, and wall. Celestia herself must have willed the building to remain standing, because Sunny sure couldn’t see how it had survived.
He’d been afraid to even look at Moon with Willow around. Even when Willow wasn’t around, he still had trouble looking Moon in the eye. Their eyes would meet and Sunny would feel a swathe of crimson run across his face. He couldn’t look into those blue eyes of hers without imaging her warm lips pressed to his. The feeling was both a combination of discomfort and confusing pleasure that left his ears twitching and his legs shaking. Touch was something to be associated with pain; now he wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be.
“Pegasus!” Snowglobe hollered from a makeshift guard stand near the edge of the courtyard.
Sunny’s ears perked straight up and he spun, switching off the safety on the service rifle he’d commandeered from a dead soldier. His eyes scanned the air above them for a quick second before landing on a straggling shape in the distance. It flew with sloppy, irregular rotations of its wings that Sunny would have expected from a filly trying to fly.
His eyes darted to Snowglobe and Loco, who had taken last sentry watch for the night. The two sat next to each other, snickering and pointing at the useless zombie.
“Well they can’t all be winners,” Loco said with a chortle. Leaning back on his haunches, he reached around with a forehoof and pulled forth the shotgun he kept in the elongated holster on his right side. “This one’s mine.”
Watching the earth pony aim the weapon with his forehooves was one of the more interesting things Sunny had seen in the past two days. Loco sat back on his haunches as he held the weapon aloft with both forehooves, aiming down the iron sights.
“Ready?” Loco said, giving Snowglobe a soft nudge with his elbow. “Bolo slug.” He pulled the hoof trigger and the weapon barked, the shortened muzzle of the shotgun letting out a puff of smoke as it reared up in his grasp. There was a quarter second delay, then the pegasus screeched and flipped over in the air. It fell one way and its left wing went the other, the severed appendage falling towards the ground like a wet leaf.
“Ooooooh!” Snowglobe cheered. “You shot its wing off!” She frowned. “Shit... you shot its wing off.”
Loco sheathed his weapon and whistled. “Those little bastards are nasty. Who in the name of Celestia could have thought up something so… brutal?”
“Pirates!” Candy called from down in the courtyard, looking up at Loco. “Well, not exactly pirates… but pirates used them, but it was originally thought up by the navy. First it was called a chain shot—they used them to snap a ship’s masts. Then some genius came along and created guns. After that, it was nothing but a race to see who could kill each other better.”
Snowglobe gave Loco a parting salute accompanied with a short chuckle before climbing down from her perch. “What did we need all these damn guns for anyways? I mean, it sure is nice that we’ve got them… I think Equestria would be completely dead by now if we didn’t have guns to fight off the zombies, but why make them in the first place?”
Candy snorted and flicked her tail. “Not one to keep up on history and current events before the infection, were you?”
Snowglobe shook her head.
“Tension with the Griffons,” Candy said with a shrug. She looked back across the courtyard and waved Cotton over. “The prime minister of Gryphus severed all trade with Equestria, once upon a time. I don’t know the exact date, but it was because of sparring between the two’s military forces amongst the griffon cities. Ponies are looked at as lesser creatures by the griffons—they see us as small and weak. The only ponies they’ve ever really had respect for was the pegasi, but that was only because of a war thousands of years ago that nearly destroyed both races. Nonetheless, the REA had multiple outposts in griffon cities and a lot of Gryphus didn’t like it. One thing led to another, and an Equestrian company wound up gunning down a hundred or so armed civilians claiming self-defense. It didn’t settle well with the public and eventually led to the Minister’s decision to bar Equestria from maintaining forces in griffon territory in order to maintain his popularity.”
Sunny found himself trotting closer as Candy presented her story. He’d never actually heard the full details.
“Hey, Candy.” Cotton gave the striped mare a soft nudge from behind.
“One sec, telling a story,” Candy said to Cotton, pulling the mare into a sideways hug. “Now, that alone wouldn’t have been much of a problem... if he hadn’t of severed the trade route. Celestia was pissed. Griffons are the best blacksmiths, and some of the best farmers around, some of them even better than earth ponies. Equestria traded with Gryphus for food and iron, but without that trade, the majority of the eastern cities couldn’t support their populations. There were food shortages, riots. Celestia demanded the trade routes be re-opened and made the mistake of requesting with force.” Candy lowered her head and raised her hoof, a halfway grin on her face as she looked out over her audience. “She broke rule number one: never insult a griffon’s pride. She sent a small army across the ocean to demand the trade of food after multiple pleas. The griffons met them with resistance. Half our forces were killed and the other half were taken prisoner. Back then, ponies still favored using spears and swords, but the griffons had already embraced powder weapons. Equestria was still playing with the idea of using matchlocks and the griffons were already figuring out breach-loading.
“The Equestrians got slaughtered. Not a single griffon died in the spar. It was a heavy blow, and it was a rude wakeup call to the rest of Equestria. Guns were the next step to the future. After that it was a race to beat the griffons.” Candy shrugged. “If this infection hadn’t broken out, I bet we’d be fighting griffons right now instead of zombies. And of course, guns got popular amongst the civilians. I mean, it’s a stick that shoots a flaming hot piece of lead at whatever you point it at.”
“Wow,” Snowglobe muttered. “All that in ten years?”
Candy nodded. “Fifteen actually. The feud with the griffons really kicked off and fueled the industrial revolution and race for technological advancement, which, in turn, started higher food consumption within Equestrian cities and caused more tension. No matter what, it was going to get bloody.”
Snowglobe asked Candy something else, though Sunny missed what it was when a hoof jabbed him in the side. He let out a little cry of surprise and jumped to the side, turning his head to see Moon. His eyes widened for a second before he played the move off with a less-than-casual shrug and shift of his posture. “Cool story, eh, Moon?”
The unicorn nodded, then tossed her head towards the wagons. “Sure was. Come on.”
Sunny did as was implied, standing up and trotting over to Moon, who then proceeded to lead them towards the skywagons. The pullers were already getting hooked up for the flight. Throwing one look back to Candy, who was continuing on with her ramblings, Sunny kind of wished he’d stayed for the rest of the story. “History major back there...” He turned to Moon. “Why would the griffons pick a fight with the ponies who raise and lower the sun every day?” he muttered.
Moon scoffed and gave him a light nudge. “You still believe those fairytales?”
“Uh…” Sunny blinked. “I never really thought about it… It’s what they taught me in school.”
She only shook her head at him. “Stories, Sunny. Even the princesses themselves don’t have enough power to guide the sun and the moon at will. Celestia stays quiet about the whole thing, but Luna herself once told the media that the sun and the moon would move all on their own were they to step out of the way. The two princesses only guide the sun and the moon—keep them in sync. They don’t actually move them; they do that naturally on their own. Now, the crazy thing is, when Luna became Nightmare Moon, she did actually reverse direction of the moon with an immense show of raw power to eclipse the sun. The repercussions that followed lasted another fifteen years. All around the world the tides were completely off-whack and a bunch of other crazy things that I couldn’t even begin to explain.”
Sunny gave his head a shake and chuckled. “I think I learned more in the past ten minutes than I have in every year of school since I was born.”
Moon smirked. “Didn’t go to college?”
“Nope.”
“Got stuck in Desert Sage working a low end job?
“Yep.”
She nodded. “Ah. Figured it was something like that.” She patted her own chest with a proud little smirk. “Four-year degree in astronomy, Sunny. It’s why I’ve got a picture of a moon on my butt.”
Sunny nearly collided with Willow as the mare directed ponies to the two wagons. Panicking, Sunny froze in place, his eyes darting from Willow to Moon, then back again. Willow glanced between Sunny and Moon with barely-restrained malice.
“Sunny,” Willow said through her teeth, turning her attention to a smiling unicorn painted on the compound wall. “You and Moon can take the right wagon,” she said with forced sweetness, somehow managing to sound even more bitter in the process. “I’ll ride on the left.” Narrowing her eyes at Moon, she patted Sunny on the back. “You two need your privacy.” Taking one last moment to glower, she turned away and stomped to her respective skywagon.
Lucky enough for them, none of their pullers had ditched in the night, so they still had a full flight crew for both wagons. Sunny boarded the right wagon as he was told, Moon right on his tail. Copper and Foresight were already on board and locked in a conversation that made absolutely no sense without context.
Sunny took a seat near the back with Moon as more ponies boarded. Snowglobe and Loco came next. “Skies are unguarded,” the burly stallion declared. “Now it’s time to fly.”
Next came Jade and Sage, which Sunny assumed was all. There really was no bonus to losing two of their party, but it did make travel a little easier on the fliers.
Sage had kept the guitar, having found a case for it labeled with the stamp ‘PROPERTY OF HAPPYHORN STUDENT LIBRARY. PLEASE CHECK OUT BEFORE USE’.
Taking a seat ahead of Loco, Sage reclined and set her guitar case aside, propping it between the seat and the wall. Smirking, she turned around and put her forehooves on the back of the seat, setting her chin on them as she looked at Loco. “Up for some more songs later today?”
The older stallion scratched his neck and laughed. “What’re you trying to do, get us to start a band?” He reached forward and messed up her mane. “You and the pretty pegasus play a good folk tune. You all should take Ember and get her in on it; she’s got a better voice than me.”
Sage pouted. “But you’ve got the bass in your voice that goes perfect with Ember’s voice! We could start up Equestria’s first post-apocalypse band and become celebrities.”
Jade snorted and pulled Sage back into her seat, wrapping the turquoise mare in a tight hug. Her dark wings unfurled and wrapped around Sage as she nuzzled into the mare’s cheek. “We don’t need to be famous, Sage. I’m perfectly fine with just being with you.”
Sage hid her face with a forehoof and let out a fillyish giggle. “Jade, other ponies are watching.”
Sunny’s mind snapped back to awareness and he quickly looked away from the two, instead choosing to meet Moon’s eye. “Heh…” he said with a little shrug. “They’re cute together.”
The wagon jolted as the pullers pulled the slack from the harnesses and started forward, dragging the skids across the stone. Sunny watched as the wagon Willow and the others were on took off, clearing the razorwire with a few extra feet to spare before banking around to circle the compound while the other got into place.
He didn’t like the feel of leaving Happyhorn behind. It had been a safe haven, at least for the time being, but there was no point in staying in a place that offered no food. As much as the compound had to offer, it just didn’t have enough.
Sighing, Sunny watched the ground flash by as they took off and baked into the sky. He leaned his head against the window as the pullers steered the wagon to the southwest, further away from Baltimare, and hopefully the REA.
* * *
The rain had stopped; thank Celestia.
Dove strode quietly between the rows of canvas tents that they’d erected in a field a little ways off the coast. Droplets of rain still clung to the grass, shining like a million grounded fireflies in the dawn. Every hoofstep tromped a tuft of grass, scattering the liquid and soaking the charcoal mare’s hooves. The cold water sent shivers up Dove’s spine, though it couldn’t explain the knot in her belly or the tremble in her jaw. The air was heavy, literally heavy, and every breath tasted of rain, cold and sharp on the lungs.
Far on the horizon, smoke rose from the shadow of a city that was Baltimare. They were still receiving radio transmissions from the city. The evacuation had been messy. Casualties had been massive and the MIA roster could have rivaled a dictionary. Skywagons were still flying in and out of the city, extracting troops where they could and sometimes not coming back. Without the border defenses in place, the fliers were swarming about the city looking for easy prey. Changelings were the worst. The little bastards would pick out a single pony in a crowd and go for them and only them, until the death.
Dove tore her gaze away from the coastal city and instead looked out towards the coast. If she imagined real hard, she could see Striker’s fleet sitting out there, living on their rations and smirking at her and the rest of the REA. What she’d give right now to beat Striker to a pulp...
“Marshal, I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Dove hung her head as the muffled sound of hoofsteps reached her ears. Never a moment alone. “Yes?”
A gray mare in crimson medical barding that had once been white trotted up to her. “I don’t know what to do about the medical bay. We’re running out of supplies and those who’re in critical shape aren’t going to—”
“You’ve got bullets, don’t you?”
The mare blanched. “Um... y-yes, but...”
Dove dismissed the mare with a flick of her ears. “Problem solved. Save those who are worth it. Save the medication for those who can use it.”
The poor mare didn’t speak another word. Folding her ears, she backed away before trotting back towards the camp.
Dove let her shoulders sag; nopony was watching. The REA barding itched at her neck and pinched her legs. Ever since her return from the meeting with Striker, the uniform had seen everything from mud to blood. It was like wearing a rawhide.
She pushed herself to her hooves and started up the hill, towards the edge of the plateau and towards the ocean. There weren’t any tents to weave in and out of on the hill, so it was a fairly short walk to the summit. Upon reaching the top, it rounded off a little bit only to come to an abrupt stop before a rocky cliff face.
Dove sat herself at the edge, looking down on the waves crashing against the rocks fifty feet below.
She looked back at camp. Hundreds upon hundreds of tents spanned out over the field, protected by a makeshift fence and garrisoned, wary troops. In the very middle was the landing field, their remaining skywagons lined up in rows down either side; the remainder probably wasn’t enough to carry a quarter of the ponies here.
Not too far away from the landing pad, one of the few wagon crews still brave enough to make flights to Baltimare was coming in, only the lineup was all wrong. Only three ponies pulled the wagon, the fourth was nowhere to be seen, and the entire carriage yawed dangerously to one side as sparks and puffs of smoke escaped from the ventilation panels in the rear. Most likely, they’d overloaded the flight-assist systems to compensate for extra weight and the lack of one flier.
An alarm rang somewhere on the ground as the wagon came it. Dove tried to turn her head; she didn’t need to see this, but she couldn’t look away.
The skywagon came down on the left skids, and because of the poor lineup angle, immediately pitched right. It took less than a second for the giant tin can to go into a roll, crashing and smashing down the runway at flight speed before coming to a stop on its side. Ponies began to rush the wagon, helping those out who could walk and carrying others.
Dove looked back out towards the sea. They had asked her what to do. Zombies had been swarming all across the countryside, spreading from city to city. The princesses were presumed dead and all hope was lost, and then they asked...
“Marshal, what should we do?”
She glanced up from the doodle on her desk that had been occupying the last couple hours of her time. “Excuse me?”
The stallion stepped forward, removing his hat just as the two other ponies who stood on either side of him did the same. “Colonel Dove, Field Marshal Clean Cut has been reported missing last night. He was vacationing with his wife in Las Pegasus.”
Dove narrowed her brows and waved her hoof at them. “You called me Marshal... but I’m not his successor. There’s at least a dozen others in the REA that rank higher than me.”
The stallion averted his eyes to the ground for a moment. “Yes. They have all either been confirmed MIA or KIA. You are the highest ranking officer in the city of Baltimare at this time. An estimated seventy percent of our total military strength is present within the city at this moment.” He took a step forward, setting one hoof on the desk. “Marshal... the infection is coming.”
Dove swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, wide-eyed.
“What should we do?”
It took her a moment to reply. “Protect the city. Hold our ground. We’ve got enough forces here to wait it out.”
The stallion nodded. “Understood.” Reaching back, he pulled a bundle out of his saddlebags and set it on the desk before her. “Your new uniform, Marshal.”
“You already picked it up for me...?” Dove shook her head. “T-this can’t be right. They can’t all be gone. How can they all be gone!?”
The stallion sighed. “Because half of Equestria’s gone. Marshal... we expect this epidemic to hit us in a matter of days. Its spreading like wildfire. Anypony who’s behind the lines are considered lost.”
She nodded, barely suppressing the squeak that so desperately wanted to escape her mouth.
“Seal the inner city. Build up the walls.”
What else had there been to do?
With a growl, Dove tugged at the top button of her uniform and only succeeded in ripping it off. She shook her head, then sighed, giving one quick jerk with her forehoof that opened up the front of the uniform in a little shower of buttons that pitter-pattered away down the slope.
Pulling the uniform off was like being able to breathe again. The sun shone warmly against her dark coat, kissing the flesh with its golden sympathy. She held it out in front of her, dangling it over the cliff face as she glowered at the insignia on the breast of the uniform.
“You’re not so special,” she said an undertone. “Look at you—a dirty suit that makes those who wear it powerful. Well look at me now. I’m nothing, so you might as well be nothing too. I don’t even need you.” Dove willed herself to let go, to let the uniform fall and be consumed by the hungry waves below. Why not? “...I don’t deserve you.”
“You know, you might need that!”
Dove tensed, her head whipping around as she searched for the source of the voice; it was Graham. He trotted towards her, hooves the same color as the wet grass. With a quick stretch, he sat down beside her. The breeze tugged at his brown mane, blowing it out to the side a little as he stared out over the ocean.
“What do you want?” Dove asked after a moment.
“Hope I’m not bothering, Marshal—”
“Don’t call me Marshal.”
Graham nodded. “Right, sorry... Hope I’m not bothering, Dove, but I figured you could use somepony to talk to. I know you’re taking Baltimare kind of hard... I mean, it was your hometown and all.”
Dove nodded and set the uniform down beside her, pinning it to the hilltop with a forehoof to keep the wind from stealing it away. “I tried. All I wanted was to keep them safe.”
Graham gave her a firm look. “You tried, Dove, there’s nothing you could have done about it.”
“But all those ponies died because of me!” She stomped her hoof, unable to look at him, not with the tears that were forming in her eyes.
“They would have died a lot sooner without you!” Graham countered.
“What about the soldiers? What about the REA? I destroyed it holding on to a stupid cause. All I did was give all those ponies in Baltimare an extra month and a half to live and false hope to die on!” She gestured back to the camp. “Look at us! This is Equestria’s last hope!” Turning fully, she motioned over the extent of the camp. “Equestria’s last hope is nothing more than a bunch of broken and tired soldiers camped out in a field!”
“Yeah, but—”
She silenced him with a wave of her hoof. “We’re not an army! We’re survivors! Just because we wear uniforms doesn’t mean we have any authority—we’re just another gang of ponies trying to survive. The REA is dead!”
“We are not dead!” Graham shouted.
Dove froze, shocked by the sudden change in his demeanor. Slowly, she turned to face him, ears perked, eyes averted.
“We are damaged, Dove.” He took a step towards her, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “We’ve suffered losses, and a lot of them, but we are not dead. We’ve got more ponypower, more knowhow, and more weapons than anypony else in Equestria. And I swear it on my grave, that I will not let the REA fall while I am still alive, even if I have to uphold it myself.” He tightened his grip on her shoulder. “And neither will you.”
Dove turned her eyes to meet Graham’s. “That’s what I’m afraid of. Every decision I make, everything I do—it always gets ponies killed. Every word of command that leaves my mouth leads to the death of hundreds.”
“And where do you think they’d all be if you hadn’t given the command to evacuate when you did?” Graham stared into her eyes, firm and unblinking. “You’re smart, Dove. You knew what had to be done. In times like these, sacrifices have to be made! It was either them, or all of us. No matter what, those civilians, all those ponies, they were going to die, and there wasn’t a single thing that you, or I, or anypony could do about that.”
Dove didn’t speak. She looked into his eyes, shaking her head as she bit her lip. He was right. Of course he was right. Graham had always been the voice of reason.
“We have got an army, Dove. An army with no place to go, and no family to go to. We’ve got the strongest army Equestria has ever seen, right here, right down there in that field. We fight for each other... to survive. All those ponies down there are looking to you for orders. You’ve held them together since the start of this mess, and you can hold them together now. Dove... don’t let them down.”
She shrugged his hoof off her shoulder and turned back to the sea. After a moment’s pause, she lifted her uniform off the ground and gave it one last look. Graham protested as she went to toss it away but she silenced him with a look. Holding the gray uniform out in the wind, Dove let it go, watching as the cold air took it away, blowing it out to sea.
“Why’d you do that?” Graham asked, his voice hardly more than a whisper.
Dove watched the waves as they rolled across the sea. Far in the distance, it was still dark over the ocean, but the sun was ever pushing it farther away as it took its natural place in the sky.
“Because I’m their leader, not their commander.”
* * *
Sunny’s eyes danced over the map laid across the console. There were so many little marks here and there on it, so many different choices... so many wrong choices. Happyhorn had been a lucky landing, but some of these other places he wasn’t all too sure about. Moon stood beside him, making suggestions and pointing the tip of her hoof to different spots on the map while he vacantly acknowledged her with little grunts and the occasional nod of his head.
Landing was was proving to be a lot harder than it had been the first time.
“Okay.” Moon rubbed her forehead as she spoke, throwing a little glance at Sunny. “We’ve been in flight for six hours now and we’ve been traveling at about... fortyish, you’d say?”
Sunny nodded. “Forty five.”
“Right, so that’s two hundred and seventy miles.” She pointed to Baltimare on the map. Cloudstorm had marked it off with a big red X—crude, but effective. “If we add that to the mileage of our last flight that puts us about... six hundred miles southeast of Baltimare, give or take a few in any direction.” Her eyes flicked to the compass on the console. A ruler levitated just an inch above the map, the pencil right beside it making a small mark. “That should put us near the town of... Waterwillow.”
Sunny glanced out ahead. There was nothing to be seen but thick, leafy trees and the occasional wagon trail cutting its way through the forests. “Are you sure we want to try and land there though? Last town we tried was infested with them.”
Moon bit her lip. “Well we’ve got to land somewhere. There’s nowhere to put these wagons down in the trees and there’s no way in Equestria we’re landing on the roads.”
Sunny only nodded in agreement. The roads were death traps; the zombies used them, literally. Every one they’d passed over, he’d seen clusters of multicolored ponies lumbering either this way or that. Apparently, it didn’t take a primitive being to figure out that walking on cobblestone and dirt trails was easier than trudging through the forest.
There were a lot more survivors than he’d originally thought as well. Smoke occasionally rose from inconspicuous spots and fields amongst the trees, or every once in a while he’d see a chimney smogging the sky or a small cluster of ponies that moved with too much organization to be zombies.
Equestria wasn’t dead, but it sure was up to its belly in shit.
Sunny glared at the map. “What would the safest place in Equestria be?”
It was Jade who answered. “Prison,” she said with a snicker, leaning forward in her seat to stretch. “You may not be free but Celestia forbid you make contact with another living soul... apart from the lunchroom. That place was just plain nasty.
Sage blinked and cocked her head at Jade. “You’ve been to prison?”
“Yeah... little things.”
“Like?” Sage poked the mare in the ribs with the tip of her forehoof.
Jade flushed softly and shrugged. “Bah, just... attempted murder.”
“Prison!” Sunny declared, spinning and pointing a wingtip at Jade.
The pegasus mare frowned. “Yeah, okay, don’t rub it in.” she shot a self-conscious look to Sage and shrugged her shoulders. "It was my coltfriend... Long story."
Grinning, Sunny shook his head. “No, I mean, a prison. There’s nowhere safer in Equestria!” He spun back around and occupied himself with looking over the map. “We could find a prison. Like Happyhorn, but, you know, bigger! An actual prison!”
Moon shot Sunny a look, but didn’t speak.
Sunny turned back to Jade. “Where’d they send you?”
The dark mare shifted, glancing between Sage and the floor. “Ashfield. High security. It’s a mares-only prison.” She gave Sage a look. “And before you ask... I tried to kill my coltfriend.” She shook her head, glancing out the window. “He hit me, so I grabbed a knife and... well, to say the least we broke up. He got a trip to the hospital and I got four years. I spent two of them in a cell with a mare who drowned her own foal; that ended when she tried to strangle a guard on duty and the other one shot her dead... good thing too—mare was totally twigged.”
Sunny grinned at Moon, who looked back and shrugged.
“No!” Jade declared, jumping to her hooves. “That place is a nasty place! I’m not kidding you when I say they sent the worst of the worst in Equestria there.”
“It’s just a building.” Sunny fixed his eyes on hers. “If it can get us safety then I don’t really care what it is. Is the place anywhere near here?”
Jade closed her eyes, biting her lower lip for a second. Her wings trembled softly at her sides until Sage stood up and nuzzled against the darker mare’s neck. “You said we’re near Waterwillow?”
“Twenty miles north,” Moon answered.
Jade nodded. “Right... well, Ashfield’s forty miles to the west outside a little farm town called Baker’s Pasture.” She took a step towards Sunny, who took a step back. “Please.” Wrapping a wing around Sage, she pulled the mare close. “Don’t make me go back there. It’s a bad place with bad emotions. You can’t just put all of Equestria’s worst in one building and not expect the feeling to seep into the ground. Just being there makes you want to do something terrible. There’s bad magic there!”
“I... kind of agree with her,” Moon added in a quiet voice, turning to look at Sunny.
Sunny glanced between the two, blinking in mild confusion. “I think you two are missing my point.”
“It’s a mare thing!” Loco shouted from the back of the cabin, a cloud of cigar smoke hovering around his head. The old stallion had a good snicker at the combined glares of Moon and Jade before going back to blowing smoke rings.
“The orange one is right!” Foresight dragged himself out of his seat with a roll of his eyes. “I was sure you ponies could handle navigation on your own, but apparently, it’s going to be an issue.” He trotted up to the front of the wagon and sat down, looking over the rest of the ponies on board. “If we want to land anywhere safe for more than a day or two then we’re going to have to land at Ashfield. If the place was meant to keep ponies in then it should definitely keep them out.
Jade shook her head and looked away. “But what if there’s zombies there?”
Foresight shrugged. “What if? Isn’t that the question we face with every landing?”
Sunny’s ears perked as the radio crackled. While Foresight and the others continued to bicker, Sunny moved to the console and scooped up the receiver. “Go ahead and repeat that for me.”
“I said, preparing to break cloud cover.” It was Candy on the radio. “We’re about to break cloud cover and begin our descent.
“No, Candy, we’ve decided against Waterwillow. Readjust to the west; we’re heading for Ashfield.” Sunny peered out ahead through the windscreen. He couldn’t see anything apart from the swirling clouds and the four fliers coupled to the wagon.
“Ashfield?” The mare sounded skeptical. “You mean the prison?”
“Sure do.”
It was a minute or two before Candy spoke again, in which Sunny had occupied himself with reading the list of REA frequencies that’d been taped to the front of the radio by its last operator.
“Okay, I’ve told our fliers to head for Ashfield, but we’re gonna go a quick fly over Waterwillow just to see how the place looks.”
“Sounds good.” Sunny hesitated for a moment, staring at the transmitter in his hoof. “So... how’s Willow doing?”
Candy sighed into the mic. “Not so good, Sunny.” She lowered her voice. “Won’t stop staring out the window—won’t speak. Sometimes I see her eyes. Sunny, I swear there’s murder in them... What did you do to her, Sunny? She flinches every time somepony says your name.”
He felt himself pale. “...Now’s not a good time to talk about it.”
“Okay then.” Sunny could almost imagine Candy shrugging her shoulders over on the other wagon. “I just worry is all. We’ve been—” Without warning, Candy stopped speaking. Her voice didn’t trail off or waver; it just stopped.
Sunny tapped the radio to see if he’d lost the signal, but they were still on the receiving end of the transmission. “Candy?” he asked.
No response. Of course there was no response. The mare was still holding the button down on her end.
“Luna fuck me sideways.” Candy’s voice was a lot quieter than it had been before. “I don’t know!” she yelled to somepony whose voice the receiver didn’t pick up. “Go, go, get ready! Change altitude now; get us back to five hundred feet!” The receiver on her end barket barked with a rush of static and a clatter that probably came from it being dropped.
“Candy!” Sunny pounded the radio’s metal casing and clicked the receiver a few times. She couldn’t hear him if she didn’t let off the damn button!
“Sunny,” Moon said sharply, placing her hoof on his shoulder.
Sunny tensed and jerked away, throwing his head towards Moon. “What?”
She pointed out ahead.
They’d just broken through the cloud cover, and from here he could see the town of Waterwillow... and it was alive. Zombies swarmed over roads and buildings like maggots on a corpse, nothing but multicolored blobs at this distance. What was most horrifying, however, was how many pegasi there were in the air. Maybe two hundred feet above and a little bit to the right center of the small town, Sunny could see the other skywagon. It already had a dozen or so pegasi giving chase.
“What in Celestia’s name is that!?” Foresight gasped, pressing his face against the window as he looked ahead and down at the mess. “I-it’s some sort of like... gathering point or something, or maybe there were survivors down there a-and they just got overrun, or maybe—”
“Get us up to them!” Sunny pounded on the small transit button that relayed his voice to the headsets the fliers wore. “Get us up there so we can help them!”
“Are you insane!?” the mare in the lead shouted back. She glanced back at the cabin, her mane whipping about her terrified face as she pointed a hoof down towards the town of Waterwillow. “Look at how many of them there are down there!” Static crackled over the line and distorted her words, the wind whipping at her mic, but there were no missing them. “They’ll shred us.”
Sunny leaned on the button and glared at her. “Get us to that other wagon, now!”
Already, more pegasi were taking off from the streets and rooftops, funneling into the air in a terrifying display of organization. Dozens... dozens of dozens. Sweet Celestia they’d stumbled into hell, either that or zombie heaven.
“Sunny!” Moon tugged at his barding, pulling him back away from the windscreen. “I don’t think they’ve spotted us yet. If we break off now we’ll be fine.”
Sunny shook his head, pulling away from her. “No, we can’t we’ve got to—”
“No, Sunny!” Moon, pulled him back again. “I’m not dying for them!”
He didn’t think. Some part of him, fueled by worry and whatever else wasn’t having this. He spun on one forehoof and clobbered Moon across the muzzle. The poor mare was so dazed that she stumbled backwards and flopped over onto her side. “Damnit!” he hollered down at her. “My friends are on that wagon and there’s no way I’m leaving them to that!” He nodded towards the pegasus cyclone that was spreading out and curving for the gray streak of aluminum in the skies ahead.
Panting, Sunny looked down at her, feeling the rage in his eyes and the heat in his glare. He looked down at her, his hoof tingling slightly. Had he just...?
He couldn’t meet the eyes of the others. Instead, he turned back to the console and mashed the button. “Get us up there, now! And if you try to disconnect from your harness, I’ll shoot you.”
The mare leading the puller team glanced back at him. There was fear in her eyes, pure and true, but she nodded. “Okay.” She glanced to the other three pullers. “Come on, lets doubletime it!”
Sunny didn’t hesitate any longer. He needed a good place to shoot from. He had six magazines for the carbine in his saddlebags, plus the one already in the weapon. That was one hundred and forty bullets. Nothing for short range though...
He nearly tripped over Moon as he turned to rush to the back of the cabin. Barely saving himself with a flap of his wings, he turned to look down at the blue mare. She lay on her belly now, glaring at the floor, biting back the tears that were coming. Possibly the worst part about the scene was that he didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for her, not right now; he should have.
“You gonna use that shotgun?” he asked quietly, leaning down a little.
Moon turned away from him and shook her head. “Leave me alone.”
“Now is not the time for this!” he stooped down and pulled the drum-fed shotgun from Moon’s bag and set it in the custom rack on the battle saddle. It was a bit of an awkward fit, but the weapon settled firm and the firing mechanism activated with a soft click. “You just stay there if you’re not going to help your friends. I’ll make sure to remember this when it’s you who needs help.” He huffed and turned away from her. “If there’s one thing this has taught me, it’s that friends stay together, no matter what.” Sunny looked up to the others in the cabin.
Loco, Jade, Snowglobe, Sage, Copper, Foresight—none of them said a thing, but he could read their faces.
What was wrong with them? Was it his eyes? They were looking at him like he was something else entirely. Only Snowglobe seemed to really see him. Her eyes were different; they shone with encouragement. Hidden below the fear and the doubt was approval, and that was all he needed.
Sunny shook his head to clear the thought, then looked over all of them. He didn’t dare look at the cloud of pegasi that was filling the air right beside them. They were in the fray now and there was no heading back.
The radio from the other wagon was still sending. Nothing could me made out as shouts and yells poured over the speakers. Gunshots started to ring out, and that’s when Sunny looked back out ahead for the other wagon. The wave of death was steadily overtaking the aluminum shell, pegasus ponies diving left and right for the roof and windows.
There had to be a way to help them from here. Sunny tore his eyes away from the fray to look, scanning the walls and roof of the skywagon. There, on the roof, an escape hatch.
Without a word, Sunny ran to it, leaping up onto one of the seats to reach the handle. A quick squeeze of the jaw released the latch and the pressure outside yanked the door open to slam it down atop the roof. Immediately, swirling wind filled the cabin, trying to force its way down his mouth and nose. Sunny took a quick moment to ready himself, then jumped, latching his forelegs onto the brim and beating his wings to help pull himself up.
“Sunny!” Snowglobe rushed up to meet him right as he pulled his legs through the hatch and onto the roof.
Sunny forced himself to stand up, glaring against the wind. If he kept himself stooped low, he could avoid most of the wind drag and stand comfortably. Peering back through the hatch, he looked down to snowglobe. “Yeah?”
“Please don’t die.” She gave him a sort of half-grin. “It may not seem like it, but we need you.”
Sunny gulped. “Right...” Only now was the fear getting to him, now that he’d put himself and the others into danger.
There was a loud, angry screech from behind him and he ducked just in time for a pair of talons to go whizzing over his head. Sweet Celestia... it was a griffon. Sunny couldn’t believe his eyes even as he stood up and sighted the creature in. A griffon zombie!? He’d heard Moon talk about them, but this was the first time he’d ever gotten to see one.
One bullet was all it took. He’d missed what he was aiming for, but instead struck the thing’s wing. The massive griffon screeched and howled as it fell towards the ground, its limp wing trailing behind.
There was hardly time to stop and think. The pullers had done good; the two skywagons were no more than fifty feet apart in the air now, flying at the same level. From here he could see the ponies in the other wagon. He could see Candy standing near the front, the barrels of both carbines on her battle saddle smoking as she watched for more of the infected. Brick stood just behind her, firing the machine gun mounted to his back with short and precise bursts. Range and Yew worked as one—a terrifying sight to anypony who hadn’t seen them work before. The combination of these four ponies were enough to keep back at least fifty of their assailants, but there were a lot more than fifty.
Half the windows on their wagon were already shattered or had a dozen bullet holes in them. In all reality, skywagons weren’t meant to be attacked in the air. There was no good way to defend them.
Sunny looked no more. It was time to act. Gritting his teeth against the wind, he stalked his way to the front of the wagon and took stance right at the very edge, grasping a strap designed to tie down luggage and wrapping it three times around his hoof to hold him on spot.
He was fast and lethal with the carbine. A pegasus tried to land on the roof of the other wagon but he shot it down before it could. The beast let out a cry and fell to the side, smacking against the aluminum roof before rolling off the side to be taken by the wind. Down went another that was heading for the pulling team, and a third that was clinging to the bottom of the wagon.
For just a second, Sunny caught Candy’s eye. The white mare stood stiff, looking out at him with a disbelieving gape. After a moment, she stood up a little straighter and gave him a quick salute.
Sunny didn’t have time to return the gesture. He sidestepped a pegasus diving for him and blasted it with the shotgun as it flew by. Blood splattered his face and misted his eyes and mouth, warm and foul-smelling, but he blinked it away and searched for the next target.
There were too many. The skies were cloudy with the flying bastards.
“Bring us in alongside the other wagon!” Sunny bellowed, leaning over the front of the wagon to address the pulling team. A nod from the mare was Sunny’s only answer before he went back to scanning the skies. Something thudded down on the rooftop behind him and he turned in time to blast a pegasus mare away before she could even get all four hooves down.
Another head popped up from the hatch. The dirty yellow stallion grunted and heaved as he pulled his large body onto the roof, a fresh cigar held firmly between his teeth as the wind bit at the ignited tip, flaring it up like the end of a blowtorch.
“What’re you doing!?” Sunny couldn’t even find the time to look at the stallion as he spun this way and that, the rifle on his back discharging with terrifying accuracy.
“Figured you could use a hoof up here.” Loco slammed the hatch closed once he was up and took stance on his two hind legs. Using his forehooves, he pulled his shotgun from its sheath and held it out before him. “I got your back. Keep an eye out ahead an’ don’t let any of those fuckin’ corpses get on the other wagon!”
“What about your end!?” Sunny yelled into the wind, looking out ahead and firing off a few more shots from the carbine. A dead pegasus fell directly into the path of their wagon and smashed against the windscreen, shattering the plexiglass and sending a deep shudder across the wagon’s frame.
“I’m faster than I look!”
He could hear Brick’s gun chattering over the rush of the wind, and while it packed power and speed, it still didn’t do much for the countless swarms of pegasus ponies that besieged the wagons.
Sunny looked out ahead, and what he saw next scared him more than anything. Willow was on the roof of the other wagon. She wore no barding and carried no weapons, but she fought with more force than he’d ever seen from a pony. She spun this way and that, kicking and battering at anything that came near. She hopped nimbly to the side as a pegasus dived at her and kicked it in the ribs with both hind legs as it shot past. The zombie screeched as is ribs splintered and snapped and went spiraling away on the wind.
Another landed on the roof before her, attempting to fight its way forward through the wind. Willow jumped and brought herself down on top of it, all four hooves converging on the pony’s skull and crushing it into the roof. She kicked the twitching zombie aside before rearing up to meet the next one before it could even land. Both forehooves fastened on its shoulders and slammed it down onto the skywagon with such force that it shattered the windows below. In one fluid motion, Willow fastened her teeth in its mane and pulled. Something snapped and that was it.
She turned just in time to meet the griffon that had dived at her with a screech. The creature’s superior mass and speed won over and Willow went skidding across the roof on her back, stopping a few feet from the edge. She held her forehooves on the griffon’s chest, just barely managing to keep its snapping beak away from her face.
Sunny took a moment to aim. He was only twenty feet away now. Right as Willow heaved, he fired. The shot missed its primary target, but shattered the creature’s beak nonetheless. It threw its head back and screeched, but Willow’s forehoof silenced it as it smashed what was left of its beak back into its own head. With a gargled cry, it spasmed and went limp.
Panting, Willow kicked the limp body off her and picked herself up, turning to Sunny as their wagons pulled up alongside each other. “About time you stopped by!”
Sunny laughed, even as he reduced a small flock of pegasi to pulp with four bursts from Moon’s shotgun. “What, you thought I forgot about you?”
Willow blinked, then lowered her head for a second. “...I didn’t think you’d come.” Quickly, she perked back up. She glared at Sunny for a second, then sprang over to his wagon, clearing the three foot gap between the two skywagons with ease. “Sunny, what in Celestia’s name are you doing here!? There’s too many of them. You could have split for the prison while we had them occupied!”
Sunny shook his head. “That’s not how things work, Willow.”
The white mare fixed her crimson eyes on Sunny’s. They shimmered, though he wasn’t sure if that was just the windburn. “I knew you’d stay, Sunny.”
“Cover me while I reload back here!”
Sunny spun on his rear hoof and turned to Loco. The stallion stood on three hooves, cradling his weapon in his armpit while he used the other hoof to load new shells into the breach. His cigar had snapped, but still hung on by a shred of the paper. “How’re you doing?”
Loco glanced up for a second. “Shit’s going south! Whatever ya’ do, don’t look behind us!” He went cross eyed as he glared down at the broken cigar. With a roll of his eyes, he tore the broken half free and pressed the red-hot barrel of his shotgun to the end the cigar, puffing a few times as it reignited. “Fuckers made me waste half a’ damned quality cigar.”
Sunny blinked, then glanced up, looking at the skies behind the two wagons. “No...” What he was looking at wasn’t a flock or two of pegasi... it was hundreds. Hundreds upon hundreds of pegasi and griffons clouded the sky. “F-faster,” he muttered, staggering backwards until his rear hooves reached the front of the roof. “We have to go faster.” He turned to look down at the four pullers. “Faster! They’re right behind us! Give it everything you’ve got! Come on!”
“Sunny!” Willow grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to face her. “We can’t outrun them!”
Sunny shook her off and pointed towards the other skywagon. “Willow, get back over there and balance the weight!”
She gave him a long stare. “Sunny, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? Sorry what?” Sunny watched as Willow jumped back over to her wagon. “Sorry for what!? Willow, damnit!” She gave him one last look before hopping down through the hatch. “Sorry for what!?”
Sunny didn’t have any more time to watch her. Quickly, he turned and started to pick off anything that got too close. He went through the rest of his magazine in five seconds, and by the time he’d slotted a new one, a dozen or so fliers were already nearing them. With Loco handling the ones that dived from above, Sunny took up a firm stance. He had to make every bullet count, and even then it wasn’t going to be enough.
He went through three magazines in less than a minute, but already they were overtaking him. The skies rained pegasi behind the two wagons, but whenever one fell, it seemed that there were two more to take its place. Soon enough, the rifle was forgotten as Sunny tried to make the last twelve or so rounds in the shotgun count. The others fired from the windows, picking off anything that landed on the wagons, but it still wasn’t enough.
This game was about to end. All it would take was one of the fliers to take a bite of any of the wagon pullers and they’d lose their speed, then it would be a buffet.
Sunny looked over in time to see Candy and Willow exchanging fast and tense words. The wind in his ears drowned the two out, but they were yelling over something. After a moment, Candy closed her eyes and nodded, jaw trembling as she stepped out of the way. Willow moved towards the front of the cabin and hit a small button on the console, lips moving as she spoke to the fliers. Sunny watched as, one by one, the ponies pulling the other wagon tensed. They exchanged glances with each other, muttering worriedly.
Suddenly, one of the lead ponies disengaged themselves from the harness and rocketed forward. The others did the very last thing Sunny would have ever expected.
They went down.
Sunny screamed as the other skywagon banked left and started towards the treetops. he bolted to the edge of the wagon and flared his wings. He could still catch them at this distance. It would be hard, but he could.
A strong pair of hooves wrapped around him from behind. Sunny yelled and bucked, screaming profanities as Loco drug him backwards. “There ain’t nothin’ you can do!” the old stallion yelled, dragging Sunny towards the hatch in the roof. “They did that so we’d make it! Now take the chance!”
Tears ran from his eyes as he watched the other wagon streak away. It banked around and leveled out, heading against the horde of zombies giving chase. The wagon was swarmed in seconds. The steel shell jerked and rolled, then started to drop.
Sunny didn’t move as Loco lowered him down through the roof and into the cabin. The knot in his throat made it impossible for him to swallow and near impossible to breathe. “No! We can’t just leave them!”
Loco shook his head. None of the others spoke, only watched as the silver shape in the distance spiraled towards the treetops. The infected didn’t even seem to care about the escaping skywagon. There were ten ponies to be had.
* * *
“Yes, you heard me.” Willow hesitated for a moment, her hoof lingering on the button. “It’s either everyone, or just us! They’ve got more ponies on that wagon and they’ve got Sunny.” She was talking, not only to the fliers, but to the other five ponies aboard the skywagon. “Say what you want, that pegasus is more important than any of us. Now, I’m not going to tell you again.” She glared out the windscreen at the four pullers. “Turn us around!”
There was some bickering amongst them, shouts of worry and cries of anger. The mare at the front right shook her head and reached back, unclipping the buckle on her harness. “I-I’m sorry, but I didn’t sign up for this!” The others yelled for her, but before anypony could stop her, she was gone, flying out ahead of the wagon.
Candy moved up beside Willow and pounded the console. “We’re losing airspeed!”
“Well then,” said an old stallion, glancing to the mare that flew beside him and shrugging his shoulders. “I guess that’s it.”
The mare looked back and chuckled. “Give ‘em hell, eh?”
“Oooha!” cried the a midnight blue mare in the front. “I knew one day I’d have to go but I never thought it’d be like this.... Son of a bitch.” With a powerful flap of her wings, she angled her body and steered them down, the others following in her wake as the wagon pitched forward. Immediately, the speed and momentum stacked up. “What do you say we give that other wagon as much time as possible!?” The mare rolled and banked to the side, guiding them around in a loop that turned the wounded skywagon directly against the flow of infected.
Willow braced herself against a support as they flew against the horde. It was like watching rain fall towards the ground, only the raindrops were a lot less pretty and a lot more deadly. One body after another smashed against the windscreen as the infected banked to attack the wagon, sending spiderwebs of cracks and blood across the plexiglass.
“Come on!” the mare in the lead screamed, dropping her shoulder and hammering a pegasus out of the way, using her entire body to propel the wagon forward. Her voice overloaded the mic and crackled over the onboard intercom, but there was no hiding the fear in it. “Come on, you fuckers! IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT!?”
The wagon shook and rattled as more ponies hammered against the outside, denting the frame and trying to pull themselves through the windows. Willow sat in the middle, breath tight in her chest as she watched the endless horde suicide themselves against the wagon.
“I’m going to disengage,” the stallion said in a panic. “I’m going to disengage. I can’t. I can’t do this. I don’t want to—”
“It’s okay, Sor,” came the comforting voice of the mare who flew beside him. “You’re with me. This may be it, but it won’t be for us.”
Shaking her head, Willow looked back at the others. Brick stood in the aisle, his eyes neutral as he looked back at her. Shattered glass and torn feathers flew all around him, though the stallion hardly moved. His eyes remained on Willow, and he smiled. Choking back a sob, Willow threw herself forward and wrapped her forehooves around him. There was nothing else to do.
Candy backed away from the crippled windscreen and found Cotton. She took the mare’s hoof in her own and sat back. “Not like this. Not here.” Cotton clung to the mare like a drowning pony clung to a life preserver, whimpering.
Range and Yew sat at the back of the wagon. Neither of the two spoke. They simply sat by each other as the skywagon weaved jerked. Range’s eyes were constantly darting about, posture tense, but Yew only hung her head.
Ember sat alone, leaning against one of the only intact windows and watching the trees rip by. She looked like a tired old mare riding the bus any other day.
“I can’t keep this up!” the lead mare yelled, choking on her own words as her vocals found their way into her breathing. Every inhale was a groan and every exhale brought forth a growl of exertion. She weaved and ducked, dodging one target after another. One pegasus swooped by above her back and fastened its teeth in her neck, but she bucked it off and shook its jaws out of her neck. The pegasus fell, taking a strip of flesh with it. The mare didn’t seem to care. Instead, she angled her wings and steepened the dive, bringing them into a spiral that threw off those clinging to the windows.
Infected were starting to group up near the windows now, flying as one to try and cling onto the side of the crippled wagon. As one, they attacked from the side. The mare on the right that flew beside the stallion screamed as a pegasus landed clean on her back. She bucked and writhed in the harness, but it wasn’t getting her anywhere. Willow could only watch as the zombie on her back lunged and fastened its teeth in her neck. It pulled and growled and jerked, and after a moment of this the mare’s spine gave with a meaty pop and she went limp in the harness. The stallion beside her screamed and threw himself to the right, knocking the zombie off the mare, crying and screaming at the same time as he tried to keep his wings moving.
He didn’t last. A griffon got ahold of him before he could do so much as cry out in surprise. In less than a second, he’d been pulled free of the harness and was gone, carried off by the feathered hybrid.
It was only the lead mare now, her midnight blue coat stained with her own blood as she steered them towards the treeline. Infected flew on every side of her, snapping at her forelegs and her wings, but she fought back, lashing out with every chance she got, battering away more beasts than the air had a right to hold.
Willow braced herself as the ground came looming towards her. They were in a near-vertical dive by this point, the wind buffeting her ears as it whistled past the window. The only thing keeping her from falling forward and onto the windscreen was Brick’s firm grasp. He’d wrapped one hoof around a support and the other around her.
The wagon shook and rattled as the wind buffeted at the lightweight frame. The steel groaned and creaked, and what few intact windows that remained were beginning to crack and shatter as the skywagon shook itself apart.
The intercom buzzed again, carrying the blue mare’s voice over the cabin for the last time. “This is Private Streakwing!” She cackled, her voice broken and loaded with more fear than a pony deserved to ever feel. She flared her wings to their fullest extent and angled her body upwards, attempting to do the job of four and pull the wagon out of a dive. “And I just wanted to say...” Her voice was heavy, strained. From here, Willow could see the tendons standing out on the mare’s neck, her brilliant wings shedding feathers in the turbulence. “Wanted to say... I’m still here! Heh... Fuckers haven’t killed me yet!” Then she screamed; it a scream of everything—rage, hate, fear, sadness, everything combined into one, blood-chilling cry.
The skywagon hurtled into the treeline at vision-blurring speeds, ripping through tree limbs and branches as Streak led them with unbelievable agility between towering oaks and greens. Streak kept on screaming, even as her mic overloaded and cut out, she kept on screaming. Her wings shed feathers by the dozens, primaries and secondaries tearing free of the flesh as she pushed her body past the point of no return.
One last, powerful flap was all it took to level the wagon out. Streak hovered in the harness for a second before her wings trembled and snapped backwards, folding against her sides with an agonized cry of pain from the mare that didn’t need to travel over the intercom to be heard.
The infected couldn’t handle the foliage at such speeds; they’d fallen back, far back, and those brave enough to try and keep up ended up skewered on branches or crushed against tree trunks.
The skywagon was nothing but a stone now, hurled from the sky and falling rapidly towards the ground on its own terminal velocity. The skids hit the forest floor and Willow slammed down to the floor of the skywagon. Trees tore by at light speed, branches snapped, ponies screamed.
Grunting, Willow heaved herself to her hooves just in time to look ahead. The trunk of a mighty oak glared back, standing strong and true in their path. There was no stopping. There was no dodging.
Willow found Brick and clung to him. She took a deep breath, and in that breath everything went silent, just for a second. Sunny would be okay, and that’s all that mattered. The pegasus had had the right idea; maybe he could help them fix this—meet up with some scientists or something and help them with a cure. He had the blood for it. He had to be the key.
The wagon met with the tree much too soon. The oak couldn’t even be humored with the thought of sparing a single inch. The front end of the skywagon came to a complete stop, folding up like an accordion, while the back end continued to auger the front end against the unforgiving bark.
The wagon may have stopped, but Willow didn’t. She closed her eyes as the cold, hard bark came rushing up to meet her.
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You know, with everything going on in each chapter, you'd think I'd get used to this story's pacing, yet I still find myself surprised every chapter by just how enjoyably action-packed this fic is. It's the kind of gratuitous energy that I generally don't like in a story, but you just pull it off so well.
As always, great chapter. Keep up the good work.
http://img.pandawhale.com/38848-The-Feels-gif-UHzu.gif
A rather, certain point to stop on, thats for sure.
I'm still thunderstruck how you do 1 chapter so long as these o.o
4263231 Oh darn... Well, I can't catch everything in 270,000 words. I'll probably end up fixing it when I edit through to that point again. I'm in the slow process of re-writing the story's less good bits from the ground up.
I really really really hope Willow and Brick survive.
Finally caught up with this story, and it is unbelievably great! I keep telling myself that the characters have to survive, cant just be killed off. But then I remember all the ones who already have... Can't wait to see what happens
Will Brick, Willow, Yew and Range survive? Find out next time on... DRAGONBALL Zzzzzzz I mean Undead Equestria! (Way better anyways)
4268084 I hated Dragonball Z.
It's a shocker.
Just like I've never watched The Walking Dead. Not one episode.
Well... I guess I caught up to where things are now. Really awesome way to burn... however many hours I burned reading this.
I both enjoy the realism of ponies sacrificing themselves and dying despite being important to main characters/ARE main characters, and am saddened by it. If nothing else, it ensures that we won't know if a character will live or die.. except maybe Sunny.
I almost miss plot armor for a few characters though.
Also I really hope there's some happier moments to come, haha... And that Willow lives. Well, her, Brick, Cotton, and Candy, but that may be a little too much to hope for at this point. Still, there's said hope.
Also, I'm usually not much for love triangles, as I normally have issues picking a side and it becomes quite dramatic, but it definitely adds a good layer of drama on this story regardless that makes it deeper if nothing else. And again, seems pretty realistic too.
I think I'm rooting for Willow and Sunny though.
Assuming she lives.
I'm not sure if I'm misreading signals, but it seems like Sunny has a good deal more admiration for Willow (and protective instincts) than he does for Moon, and perhaps vice versa (Willow for Sunny) than Moon does outwardly for him. ...Even if Sunny and Willow seem more standoffish, and Willow is an angry brute sometimes, but maybe his innocence would be vital for something including that.
But again, it's been established major characters may be killed off, so...
Ah, what the heck. I'll root for them getting back together until next chapter either confirms there's a chance or (more likely) squashes it.
Also (x2); I've kinda been wondering what the princesses have been up to until the last few chapters. Wonder if they have enough food to last them the end of the world.
Not Willow...
Come on man not willow... Anypony but her I'm beggin ya! You already offed my second favorite character, don't get rid of my number one! 
Alright now that my begging is over, I gotta say I found this story a few days ago and wow... this is nothing short of amazing. Every single chapter keeps me on the edge of my seat and I love getting to know more and more about each of them. Of course you have a tendency to make me fall in love with just about every character you introduce, even the ones I KNOW are doomed so almost every death is gut wrenching.
The only thing I have an issue with is sometimes you mess up the quotation marks and it makes it hard to tell whose talking, but if you pay attention to the context of the situation it's easy enough to figure out so not that much of a big deal. I guess what I'm trying to say is, stunning work my good friend. Stunning indeed.
4270196
Thank you very much. I try not to make it too heart-stabbing, but it happens.
Also, I missed quotations? If it's in the most recent chapter I'll be surprised, but if its the old ones then, yeah, I know. I'm working at fixing the old chapters, but it's a long process.
4268358 Do you just not have any interest in The Walking Dead?
Noooo! Not Willow or Brick. Heck I think I would have proffered the other wagon to go down. I really didn't like Willow that much to begin with but now she is my favorite character. Brick is my second I think. Sunny and Moon are kinda annoying me right now. I feel bad for Moon but I am not connecting with her. Maybe its me.
4283051 Hmmm, no. Most people don't seem to connect with Moon. I'm still trying to figure out why.
>4287111 Maybe because Willow was the quasi leader of the group. But after she left and Moon got put in charge of Apploose she never really got to stand out as leader. Not saying she can't but she hasn't. Or maybe it is her relationship with Sunny that is detracting from being able to relate to her. Giving a clear way that she deals with things mite help too. This is my personal opinion so don't take to seriously. Hope this help a little.
4289521 No, I mean it's a good thing a lot of the audience doesn't get her. The reader can't sympathize with every character.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! NOT BRICK AND WILLOW!
*CRIES*
4333085 We still have hope, they did not have the things that were happening to them happen in that chapter, so they might not have the thing that is happening happen.
Wow, finally managed to read my way through all the way to here, and I must say I am very impressed with this story. Besides the few grammatical or punctuation errors (which are rare), I can't really find anything to dislike. Always had a soft spot for zombie related material, but you have taken the cake.
Anyway.... dat cliffhanger.
You have already proven that Anyone Can Die, but I am still expecting that at least some of them will live through the crash landing. However, I can guarentee that Tonight Someone Dies. (Heres hoping its not someone I like a lot, lol).