Walking Dead shorts

by jadusstone

01

It was raining.
It was a bit of a relief through a noise that didn't sound like them. The familiar clean smell of rain water falling down from the clouds, spreading a smell she had almost forgotten had even existed. The smell was fresh and clean. Looking outside she saw a Pegasus fly above the large crystal castle looking down upon the area.

“Sweetie Bell darling you should have been in bed hours ago” A voice said.

Sweetie Bell turned and saw her sister Rarity standing there in the doorway, she looked dirty and soaked to the bone. She wore a long ranged rifle with a night scope mounted onto it; her once perfect mane was pinned back into a ponytail. It didn't however take away that radiance and beauty her sister possessed. Through the bullet wound around her flank just above her cutiemark seemed to stick out like a sore thumb on her white beautiful coat.

'I couldn't sleep” Sweetie Bell said. “Besides the rain is nice to watch it makes me remember what it things use to smell like”

Rarity walked over and nuzzled her sister’s cheek; she sat down beside her and looked at the rain drip down off the crystal palace roof.

“It's good to know rainbow dash has the weather patrol back in order” Rarity said, 'Applejack needs the rain if we're going to have a chance of getting any food this season”

“You were on patrol a lot longer than usual” Sweetie Bell said “I got worried...”

“It was nothing to concern yourself about, just a few stray walkers” Rarity said “I took take of them easy; it was good practice for the ponies I’m training to shoot”

Sweetie Bell had been very surprised when Rarity had shown her talent with a rifle, she was sure her cutiemark was going to turn from crystals to a rifle for a few days. Then again the rifles fired crystal bullets, so maybe it was accurate after all.

She looked further out and sighed.

It was that wall, without twilight they might not have even thought about building a thing like that. The wall was wood reinforced with magic, every day a pair of ponies were assigned to check the wall make sure everything was still standing and secure. She took a look over at rarity before walking over and picking up her saddle bag.

'You really should have gotten some sleep” Rarity said,

'I know but it's my turn to go on wall patrol anyway” she said and levitated a bright yellow rain coat over herself and then put on some rubber boots.

“Don’t forget your gun” Rarity said

“I know you only remind me every day” Sweetie Bell said picking up a hand gun in a gun holster hooked onto a belt. She levitated it just above her boot and strapped it around her left front hoof. “If I’m quick, I might even run into Scootaloo she's supposed to meet me in the middle”

'Just be careful” Rarity said.

'I know” Sweetie Bell said and walked to the door.

She headed down the crystal staircase of the palace; she could hear Twilight in the throne room talking with ponies. She didn't stand around to try to make out what they were saying; she had a job to do. She trotted down the crystal halls and to the exit where she stopped and encountered Trixie.

Trixie stood there in front of the huge doors, it was like this every night it was her job to keep track of ponies coming and going from the palace. Take their names, what time they leave or arrive, then when they come back or leave. It was a system that Twilight had put into place, before going on any job every pony had to sign in with Trixie. That way if any pony went missing, they'd be able to track exactly how long they were missing, and where there were supposed to be assigned to be doing.

Trixie looked worse for ware, a scar across her right face showed the sign of a bullet that had torn through her flesh. She remembered that time, a bunch of ponies had showed up demanding to be let inside, but instead of waiting and going through Twilight's usual system of letting ponies inside their walls they decided they were going to force their way inside and help themselves to whatever they had.

Sweetie Bell had been with the other crusaders firing off shots from their posts, Rarity was in a top tower while Trixie had been on front lines with Twilight helping keep not only the attacking ponies from getting into the town but holding off the herd of dead that were coming. Twilight said it was all the noise they had caused that had attracted them. The dead aren’t very smart or fast but in a herd they were dangerous.

“Going out Sweetie Bell?” Trixie asked yawning into her hoof.

“Wall duty” She said “did scoot already sign out?”

“About an hour ago” Trixie said “Trixie had to listen to her complain about wasting time signing in and out every time she had to do wall duty, Trixie doesn't like it ether. Yet you don’t hear Trixie complaining Twilight came up with this system let her complain to her not Trixie”

Trixie levitated a piece of chalk and walked over to a large chalk board mounted on the wall. Paper was a bit rare to come back so the chalk board was a bit more practical to use. She looked for an empty space where she wrote Sweetie Bells name under Scootaloos and marked the time she had signed in.

“If you see Derpy tell Trixie, she's late with her reports from Princess Luna with the situation in Manehatten” she said

“Will do” Sweetie Bell said.

Trixie tapped the doors and two royal guards opened the large doors letting the unicorn outside.

She took a breath and looked up at the sky watching a Pegasus fly above her. The Pegasus were lucky sort of a weird way, when a Pegasus died and changed they had limited flight capabilities. They could still walk on clouds but they couldn't really fly that well more like hovering in the air mindlessly following whatever noise they could hear. Rainbow Dash had been the first to figure that out when she and the other living Pegasus were clearing out cloudsdale, but even now some parts of cloudsdale still weren't safe enough to venture into. Like the weather factory, according to Rainbow Dash the place was literally crawling with the dead. Too dangerous to go into and try to clean at the moment.

She lifted the hood and covered her head before heading towards the wall. It was a good five minute trot towards the huge wooden poles, each stuck into the ground at least five feet and then reinforced with concrete, rocks and a spell to prevent the trunks from rotting. The spell wasn't perfect it needed to be casted on each section of the wall every few days. She wished she had enough magic to do that, but her magic was far from powerful enough to do that spell.

She started walking checking the wall for any breaks, or damage that any walkers could have caused. She could smell them through, she was sure she would never get use to that disgusting smell. The smell of rotting flesh coming from behind the wall, she could hear them moaning. That’s all they did smell, moan, move and eat. Apple Bloom often compared them to mindless animals.

Sweetie Bell stopped along one of the logs and looked at a part of the log cut out carefully then covered by a sliding window. She took her hoof and slid the wood to the side seeing the outside. The holes were used mainly for defensive purposes, if the walkers got too many they'd stick their guns out and start shooting them down, clearing them out. She could see a few drifting along, one pony a mare who’s mane was half gone and coat was rotting away stumbled half its poor face gone showing the inside of its head and mouth. It's tongue hanging lifelessly to the side, somehow managed to keep walking in a stumbling almost dragging motion with its half rotted legs.

At first the sight made Sweetie Bell sick to her stomach but now, she wasn't sure what it made her feel. Anger maybe? Or maybe even remorse. She slid the panel shut and continued walking.

It wasn't until an hour later that she met Scootaloo in the middle. She smiled and waved at Sweetie Bell. Her body was also covered in a large yellow rain coat and boots. She didn't carry a gun instead she had a large axe strapped along her side. Scootaloo had seen better days too, she had a scar along her mouth, an accident apparently when she was making a supply run to sweet apple acres with another pony, she couldn't remember who had been. They had run into a few rouge griffin bandits who tried to rob them. She and the other pony, now that they thought about it she was sure it had been Mrs. Cake, didn't take long to take the griffins out. They hadn’t been all that strong but one of them had slashed Scootaloo pretty in the mouth. Thankfully she didn't lose any teeth or anything just a slash along her mouth which left a nasty jagged scar.

“Your mane is growing back, bout time” Scootaloo said.

Sweetiebell touched her mane and blushed, she had almost forgotten it had been cut by applejacks sword when a walker had grabbed onto it months ago when all this first started. It was finally growing back and almost back to its normal length.

'Yea rarity says I’m going to have to start tying it back, safer that way” Sweetie Bell said “patrol quiet?”

'Yea this side of the wall is secure” Scootaloo said. “Nothing bad, a few walkers outside the walls but nothing the patrol can't clear up”

'Derpy been running late you seen her?” Sweetie Bell asked.

'Nope and she's always late, that mare can get lost in her own closet” Scootaloo said, “She might be a Pegasus but no Pegasus I know of flies like she's blind”

'She isn’t blind, she got some sort of eye condition I think” Sweetie Bell said “least that’s but her husband keeps saying”

“Let's head back and sign in with Trixie it's getting really late” Scootaloo yawned “I’m exhausted”

“Me too” Sweetie Bell said, “I hope the rain clears up tomorrow”

'Least it's clearing up that awful smell a bit” Scootaloo said. “Luna knows they seem to smell worse and worse every time they come near”

“That reminds me you talk with Apple Bloom lately?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“Not since the last run into sweet apple acres for supplies” Scootaloo said. “I’m glad they managed to finally finish a fence around that place, makes the runs a bit easier”

“You know what?” Sweetie Bell said “After all this, the dead rising, us taking our part in helping the town we still haven't earned our damn cutiemarks”

Scootaloo started laughed and Sweetie Bell followed. They had almost forgotten all about that, earning your cutiemark seemed like a trivial matter compared to trying to survive in a world full of the walking dead. It felt like ages ago since they were all together trying all sorts of weird, wacky, and sometimes dangerous ways to earn their cutiemarks.

'I’m gonna need to go see Silver Spoon in the mourning my axe is dull again...I think I might need a new one” Scootaloo said.

“Say hi to her and diamond tiara for me” Sweetie Bell said, “hard to believe those two are actually doing manual labor”

It was hard to believe that silver spoons special talent had turned out to be forging anything out of just about anything. That came in handy especially when she came up with the idea of fashioning crystals into bullets. The iron and metal ones just weren't practical, too hard to come up with gun powder and the right metal for the bullets. Diamond Tiara had made the modifications to their weapons so it could withstand the crystals being fired out of them. Who knew that the crown on her flank didn't symbolize her being all fancy, but designing stuff.

They walked through the muddy road and looked over what remained of the Carousal Boutique. In the beginning of all this it had been overrun with the dead, trapped upstairs Rarity failed to the notice that one of the dead ponies had banged into the table near her sewing machine and knocked down a lantern. By the time they had managed to reach the roof, the smoke was pouring out of the windows. If it hadn't been for two Pegasus flying overhead and rescuing them they would have probably died because a minute after the Pegasus lifted them off the roof it caved in consumed in fire. Rarity couldn't stop crying over the loss of her shop and home; though she was probably crying more over the fact her latest line of dresses had been lost forever.

Now all that remained was skeletal burnt remains of a few stone pillars, and the stone staircase halfway collapsed within the middle. She could make out the bath tub in the rumble, and twisted metal of what were once manikins.

“Hey come on hurry up I don't wanna stay out in this rain any longer then I need to” Scootaloo said.

“Oh right coming” Sweetie Bell said, taking one last glance and then trotting up to the Pegasus as they continued back to the palace.

They walked inside and shook off the rain taking there raincoats off, hanging them on posts to dry, there boots went under the coats. They'd return tomorrow to retrieve them. They then signed back in with Trixie who wrote down there returning time on the board.

They passed by a section of the palace which had a large wooden sign marked a bit crudely Hospital Wing. Since the hospital had been overrun and destroyed beyond repair by the dead, Twilight had relocated the hospital inside the palace. She offered up the rooms in the palace that weren't in use to any pony that needed a new place to stay. It wasn't a bad life through she hated sharing a room with Rarity. Especially since Rarity snored in her sleep, she denied since snoring wasn't lady like but Sweetie Bell hated it. It was like listening to a donkey that had a horrible cold crossed with the sound of a chainsaw.

They walked upstairs and sweetie bell yawned as she stopped at her room door.

'Night I’ll see you tomorrow” Scootaloo said.

'Yea night” Sweetie Bell smiled and nuzzled her friends face giving her soft kiss on the cheek.

They were young and very inexperienced when it came to love but even if this didn't last, sweetie bell cared very deeply for Scootaloo. Scootaloo blushed and kissed her back on the cheek. They hadn't gotten any further then that so far, and hugging. They were both still young, and rarity said they had plenty of time to figure things out. Through in the way the world was now, sometimes Sweetie Bell wondered if there was going to be plenty of time, or even tomorrow.

She opened the door to hear Rarity snoring in her bed loud as ever. She cussed under her breath, and removed the strapped gun holster from her hoof, levitating it next to her bedside where a hook held it up. She then picked up some ear plugs she use to use when first learning how to fire a gun. The sound use to hurt her ears and scare her. Now she was all too use to the sound of loud gun fire. So the ear plugs now served a new purpose, keeping the noise of rarity’s snoring out.

Sweetie Bell crawled into bed and laid her head down on her pillow pulling a sheet over her body. She'd have to see if they had enough water to spare for a bath tomorrow morning, with the rain coming down they might just have plenty enough. She never thought bathing would be such a luxery, now it was gods send to have hot water.

Yawning she blew out the candle on her night stand and shut her eyes. The sounds of rain comforted her, drowning out the horrible sound of moaning outside the walls as she fell asleep.

Author's Note:

I used microsoft office to check my grammer and spelling so if you spot anything tell me and i'll fix it

Comments

[_Rainbow_Nope_]

I would love love love to read more, thank you for this is great