Velvet Underground

by MagnetBolt

20 - White Light

The road into town was quiet. Incredibly quiet.

“There are no birds,” Cadance said, breaking the silence. “That’s what was wrong before. I couldn’t hear birds, or crickets, or anything. The woods are totally quiet.”

“They probably fled,” Velvet said. “Animals can sense danger.”

“Or they’re dead because they tried to run away through the death fog,” Sunset muttered. “Animals are stupid and do stupid things. We need to be smart.”

The curtain of mist parted slightly as they continued on, lingering in corners but revealing the town. Half the buildings were burned-out husks that were still smoldering, lingering traces of a blaze that might have been days old. The others were worn by age and more recently by the kind of rough wear and damage that could only come from a riot or, perhaps, teenagers.

A few ponies milled around, wandering aimlessly in the half-light. Most of them had splotchy patches across their coats and walked with limps like their legs were totally numb.

“Look!” Cadance gasped. “That’s Mister Sandman! He digs up clams on the beach in my town! We’re in the right place!”

She pointed to one of the less-filthy ponies wandering across the street, walking like he was either exhausted to the point of collapse or sleepwalking.

“At least we didn’t find some random cursed town,” Sunset sighed.

“Maybe if he sees me he’ll come out of it,” Cadance said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Velvet warned.

“I have to try,” Cadance said.

“Sure, go ahead, I mean, don’t listen to the mare who can literally see this going wrong about two seconds after you say hello.” Velvet rolled her eyes.

“...Really two seconds?” Cadance asked, hesitating.

Velvet nodded.

“Maybe we’ll try something else,” Cadance sighed.

Unfortunately, her sigh was just loud enough to get the wandering stallion’s attention. He turned slowly, spotted Cadance, and about two seconds later wailed an alarm and started lumbering towards them, eyes focused on the alicorn like she was the only thing he could see.

The two guards ran in front to intercept him, holding him back.

“Don’t hurt him!” Cadance shouted. “He’s a nice pony! He’s not usually like this!”

The guards struggled against the stallion’s insanity-born strength. “We’re doing our best, Princess!”

“There are more of them coming from this way,” Night Light warned, pointing down a side street where ponies were stumbling closer, mumbling to themselves and dragging tools behind them as they approached the group.

Sunset fired a blast at Mister Sandman, knocking him back on his flank.

“We need to get inside,” Sunset decided. “I can’t protect all of you when these ponies are surrounding us!”

“Most of these buildings look like they couldn’t keep out a strong wind!” Night Light yelled, flinching as a thrown rock bounced off of his shield, the magic barrier barely keeping it out.

Mister Sandman started getting back up. The two guards backed away, watching his empty expression for some clue about what he was going to do next.

“We’re not spoiled for choice!” Velvet yelled, kicking the door to the house next to her. The sturdy door rattled in the frame. She swore and grabbed the handle with her magic, trying to pull it open to no avail.

“Move!” Cadance yelled, Velvet ducking out of her way and letting the alicorn buck the door, the lock popping out of the frame. “Everypony inside!”

Cadance stood at the door and ushered them in, pushing the guards when they tried to make her go first. As soon as everypony else got through the door, she ran in and slammed it shut.

“It’s not going to hold with the lock broken!” Velvet yelled. “Help me with this!”

She pushed a bookcase along the floor until Sunset lifted it and shoved it against the entrance just as the door started to inch open.

“That’s still not going to hold,” Sunset said. “But as long as they have to come through the door, we can pick them off one at a time.”

“I don’t want to pick them off, Sunset,” Cadance said. “They’re practically my family!”

“Between them and Princess Celestia, you’re trying to hog all the relatives,” Sunset muttered. “How about you try and figure something out and I’ll only blast them until you have a better idea?”

One of the windows shattered, and Sunset snapped her head to the side, firing a bolt of magic that direction and knocking a blackened, soot-covered pony back outside. Smoke poured from his mouth when he hit the ground, and he didn’t get back up.

“Move the other furniture against the windows!” Cadance said.

“Night Light, help me with this,” Velvet said. The two grabbed a dinner table made of ancient, solid planks of wood and pulled it into place against the other window, getting a good look at what was outside waiting for them.

“There are dozens of them!” Night Light gasped, almost dropping his end before they had it in place.

“Two town’s worth,” Velvet agreed.

The guards pulled a dresser toward the other window. One wasn’t watching carefully enough, and one of the crazed ponies from outside the window reached in, grabbing him.

“Get him off!” the guard yelled.

“I can’t get a clear shot!” Sunset shouted.

“Hold on, I can--” Cadance started, but before she could do whatever she was going to do, the guard was dragged outside screaming.

“Oh Celestia,” Night Light whispered. Even Sunset was afraid!

“No!” Cadance yelled, bolting for the window. The screaming cut off with a wet gurgle, and she stopped, her legs losing all their strength. The pink alicorn’s flank hit the floor.

The last guard swallowed and shoved the dresser into place, cutting off their view of whatever had happened to his comrade outside. He stepped back and whispered an apology under his breath.

“With everything covered up, we should be able to hold out here for a while,” Velvet said, quietly. “I’m sorry.”

“He did his duty,” the guard whispered, his voice hoarse. “If we weren’t here, that could have been you or one of the civilians, Princess. We’d gladly give our lives to prevent that.”

There was a slam against the front door, the bookcase shuddering.

“They won’t get through that,” Sunset said. “That bookcase weighs like a thousand pounds. It’s, like, practically made of logs, the lumber is so thick.”

The slam turned into a deafening boom. The bookcase slid an inch forward. Sunset pushed it back into place, holding it there with her magic as another thunderous burst rang out against it.

“What is that?” Cadance asked.

“It’s nothing… I can’t… handle!” Sunset growled through her teeth, the light of her horn growing brighter and brighter as she strained against the unseen force.

The bookcase cracked, the head of a sledgehammer pushing through.

“You’re joking. A pony is doing that?” Night Light asked, backing up.

“A possessed, crazy pony,” Velvet said.

The sledgehammer hit home again, and the bookcase broke in half, a huge earth pony in ragged clothing trying to fit through the gap.

“A really big, possessed, crazy pony,” Night Light corrected.

Sunset changed tactics, letting go of the bookcase and firing a blast at the pony trying to shove it aside. The bolt caught him full in the chest and he only paused for a moment, rocking back on his hooves like it was no more than a stiff breeze before resuming the task of pushing everything out of the way like a juggernaut.

“Also he’s invincible,” Velvet said.

“I don’t think I can stop him unless I’m willing to kill him,” Sunset said, unsure.

“Don’t,” Cadance warned. “It’s-- he’s a victim. We’re not going to kill ponies who are suffering.”

Sunset nodded, not arguing for once.

The big pony shouldered his way inside, hefting the sledge and lumbering forward.

“Upstairs,” Cadance decided. This time the guard wouldn’t let her go last, pushing her toward the stairs.

Velvet looked around the small upstairs room, little more than a filthy bedroom, more broken windows on either side.

“I have an idea,” she said. “We can get to the next building from here. Maybe it’ll confuse them long enough for us to think of something.”

“They don’t seem very bright,” Night Light agreed.

“It’s a better plan than waiting here,” Sunset said. She pulled open one window, and one of the dazed ponies leaned in, reaching for her.

Cadance grabbed Sunset, pulling her away from the reaching hooves.

“Get away from me!” Sunset yelled, firing at the pony in the window, knocking him off the roof and out of sight. “Why can’t they be monsters?! If they were monsters I could just set them on fire!”

“That’s probably why they’re sending ponies at us,” Cadance said. “They know we don’t want to hurt them. That’s why they’re monsters and we aren’t.”

“Well when we find the real monsters, we’re going to blast them apart,” Sunset mumbled.

Velvet opened the other window, looking before getting too close to make sure the same thing wasn’t about to happen to her.

“We can get to the next roof from here,” she said.

“Ladies first,” Night Light offered.

Velvet took a step back then, with a running start, she jumped over to the far side. The next roof was low, this building only a single story. The wooden spars of the roof creaked under her weight.

Cadance was the next one out, flying through the window and setting down on the other side of the roof. When her weight landed on the building, the whole thing groaned, and they heard something snap. Ashes rose up into the air around their hooves.

“That’s not good,” Cadance said.

“I don’t think this building was exactly built to code,” Velvet muttered.

“The inside must have burned. The beams are mostly charcoal!”

Sunset appeared in a burst of light, and they actually felt the roof start to lean with the tiny added load.

“We need to be very careful,” Velvet whispered. “We’ll slowly move to the other side and drop down to the ground where the mob can’t see us and--”

Night Light jumped out of the window and slammed into the roof, the whole thing collapsing down into the tiny house below with a choking cloud of billowing ashes. Only one outer wall was intact, the others ruined by the flames that had gutted the building.

Above them, the last guard leaned out of the window, trying to spot them.

“Princess!” he yelled.

Cadance coughed and looked up, and she saw the relief on his face just before he was dragged back into the darkness without even a chance to scream.

“No,” she whispered.

A soot-covered pony stepped out of the window above them, falling to the ground and getting back up like it hadn’t even felt the impact, more of the mob following it, shuffling towards them, the burned-out building offering nothing even close to real shelter.

“What do we do?” Night Light asked.

“Um, we can…” Velvet looked around at the crowd, trying to spot a way out. “We can…”

A bell rang out, long and low.

The horde of ponies paused.

A second bell rang, and they started shuffling away, turning on their hooves and stumbling towards the town hall.

The light changed, and the sun rose into that thin slit of sky between mountain peaks, shining down into the valley for the first time.

Before the bell rang the twelfth and final time, the last of the enslaved ponies had vanished inside, escaping the sun.

Sunset looked around at the sudden ghost town. “Where’s everypony going? Lunch?”

Comments

[Mitch H]

Poor unnamed goldshirts. Zombies. Why'd it have to be zombified villagefolk?

[Darkstarling]

...I just realized. The houses are all burned because they were desperately trying to stay warm.

Also, that Sunset in Equestria Girls made a zombie army almost exactly this way, and was probably basing it off one of the scariest things to ever happen to her. Being high on magic digs out the old trauma for inspiration you know?

[Arkonfleight]

“Between them and Princess Celestia, you’re trying to hog all the relatives,” Sunset muttered. “How about you try and figure something out and I’ll only blast them until you have a better idea?”

I mean, this was chilling and all but I was busy trying to retrieve my sides from the vast reaches of space.

[Starmist18]

Sunset looked around at the sudden ghost town. “Where’s everypony going? Lunch?”

Lol genius

[darkhabit]

Sunset looked around at the sudden ghost town. “Where’s everypony going? Lunch?”

No, clearly its Bingo night.

I knew you were going for the Resident Evil, but that line cemented it

[FoldabotZ]

“Oh Celestia,” Night Light whispered. Even Sunset was afraid!

i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/750/812/eeb.png

[djthomp]

Unfortunately, her sigh was just loud enough to get the wandering stallion’s attention. He turned slowly, spotted Cadance, and about two seconds later wailed an alarm and started lumbering towards them, eyes focused on the alicorn like she was the only thing he could see.

Figures.

It's never good to be the unnamed last remaining guard who hasn't been picked off one by one yet.

And there he goes. Someone should have gotten his name while they could.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Ah, they share the solar sensitivity. Clearly the answer is to blow the roof off of the town hall. Hopefully Sunset Speedwagon has the presence of mind (and, you know, consciousness) to attempt it.

[Asolem2]

Well this chapter went all Resident Evil 4 on us

[redmar]

The posessed ponies are avoiding the sunlight which means they should be exposed to it to end their posession.