Fluttershy's Conscience
Bill had realized that the strange beings he had come upon were horses, and not just horses, but ponies. He had started a discussion with the ponies (as odd as that sounded in his mind), when the yellow one with the pink mane had come up to him in the cutest little way he had ever seen.
The ponies were in the corner, confused and dazed, from what Bill could tell. There was a cyan-colored pony, with a rainbow mane and tail, as well as some sort of lightning bolt tattoo on her side near the rear. Next to the cyan-colored pony was an orange-colored pony, with a yellow tail and mane. The final pony was a light yellow and had a light pink mane and tail. They had weird tattoos as well, the yellow one had three pink butterflies, and the orange one had three apples. They had some contraptions harnessed onto their bodies as well, but he couldn’t tell what their purpose was.
“Um...excuse me sir...at least...I hope you’re a sir...but...just to ask...where are we?”
“Goddamn, you can talk? Now I know I am seeing things. And hearing things. But uh...to answer your question, I really don’t know, aside from the fact that we’re in Fairfield, Philadelphia.”
The rainbow one literally leaped forward at this. “Don’t you mean Fillydelphia?”
“No, I mean Philadelphia. I don’t know how you got Fillydelphia out of that. Probably some sort of horse pun.” The room became silent after this, the 2 parties staring at each other, unsure of what to do next.
The yellow one spoke up, taking the initiative, because, to her, he was an animal, and animals were her specialty, after all. “I know all animals and their names, but I don’t know either for you. Mine is Fluttershy, and I’m a pony. Would it be okay if you told us who, and what, are you?”
“Come now, Fluttershy. This animal might be dangerous, for all we know.” The cyan one stepped forward, and Bill could discern what the contraptions were now; they were pistols, albeit different from his, which he had quickly put in his holster when he had turned the corner to find a bunch of ponies, by a long shot. But a pistol was a pistol, and here was one staring him in the face.
“Rainbow Dash, stop it! You’re scaring the poor thing.”
Rainbow Dash walked away back the corner, submitting. She mumbled something unintelligible.
“Why are a bunch of...ponies...carrying pistols around anyway? But first thing’s first, even if you are just figments of my imagination, I guess it’s rude not to tell you my name. William Overbeck, U.S. Special Forces, retired. You can just call me Bill. I’m guessing that you don’t know what the U.S. Special Forces is, so don’t ask, and I won’t tell. Can you tell me your names, then? I know the one with the piece-of-shit attitude is Rainbow Dash. And that this little cutie is Fluttershy.” Fluttershy blushed.
The orange one stepped forward. “It’s a long story, trust me. Mah name’s Applejack. Now, Rainbow Dash may be a sour apple every once in a while, she’s a good friend to have and will always remain loyal to her friends.”
“That’s right, and don’t you forget it, bub!” Suddenly, an alarm started, and a computerized female voice started speaking. A flashing red light helped convey the nature of the message the voice was delivering.
“Alert. Alert. Zombie in the complex. Hallway, outside the Main Laboratory. All lab personnel please evacuate immediately. Alert. Alert.” Fluttershy shrieked, and then ran out of the room into the hallway out of fear for the voice and the flashing red light, and seconds later everybody else heard three gunshots. Both the alarm and the voice stopped.
“Fluttershy! Hold on! I’m a coming!” Rainbow Dash jumped up in the air, as if to fly, but realized her wings were missing. “What in the hay?” Rainbow Dash was confused, and stood dazed, back in the laboratory, but Applejack and Bill had ran after Fluttershy, and turned the corner to find her lying next to a body sprawled face-down across the ground. She was staring at the ground, silent, stricken with shock, her gun emitting a wispy smoke.
“Uh, sugar cube? You okay?” Applejack seemed genuinely concerned; Fluttershy of all ponies had killed something. Bill paid no attention, and took his pistol out and shot the corpse one final time in the head. Fluttershy, being in shock and not being in view of Bill walking up, jumped back a bit in surprise, and continued moping.
“I...killed it. I killed it.” Fluttershy was shaking and whimpering, repeating the same thing over and over, and Applejack walked up to her, with nothing to say.
“You can’t kill something that’s already dead. It would’ve killed us anyway, or at least turned me into one of them.” Rainbow Dash had crept up behind them as Bill was talking.
“What do you mean, already dead? Where are my wings? Where’s Fluttershy wings?” Bill spun around to find Rainbow Dash, who seemed pissed. Bill turned back
“Why, your wings are right the-” Applejack glanced over at Rainbow Dash and discovered her wings were missing. “That’s funny, they’re gone. At least Fluttershy’s are-” She looked over at Fluttershy to discover the same thing. “Your wings are all gone. Nothing we can do about it now.” Applejack turned to the corpse, and looked a little closer. “Now, tell us what’s going on here.”
“Can we go in the other room? I don’t like to admit it, but I need a goddamn cigarette and these old bones aren’t as good as they used to be. I need to sit down. Plus the stench of this goddamn body smells like shit. I can explain as much as I know in there.”
The ponies agreed, except for Fluttershy, who just sat there and continued to mope, and they set off for the kitchen. Fluttershy limped slowly behind them, getting as far away from the body as possible. Bill explained to the ponies about everything that had happened.
He told them about the Green Flu, the way it had spread throughout the country, starting with Patient Zero right here in Fairfield, how it caused the infected to target any uninfected, and either infect, or kill them. He told them about the common Infected, the way they react to loud noises and bright lights, and how they run faster than he or certainly any human could. How they gather in hordes, and attack en masse in order to quickly kill their targets.
He told them about the Boomers, the way their bulging mass contains their thick bile, which attracts the zombie horde when coming in contact with beings that did not contain the zombie virus. He told them about the Hunters, their hooded faces emitting a screech every time they would go for a pounce, with athletic precision.
He told them about the Smokers, their cancerous body, malformed and misshapen, how their long tongues would travel long distances, just to tie you up, and drag you closer and closer. He told them about the newly-discovered Witches, bringing up the pamphlet he had found in his mind, and described the way they always cried, sounding like a little girl, wandering in the day, sitting down in the night, and if startled, how they would tear you limb from limb until you were eradicated, according to the pamphlet.
Lastly, he described the Tank. Its muscular anatomy, how it shook the ground with its footsteps, with its long arms and how you could hear its yelling miles away. He carefully described the horrors that one would face encountering one, such as the fact they could probably kill you faster than you could kill them. How they could manage to tear off pieces of concrete from the very street, and throw them at you, how they could launch full-sized cars(at this the ponies had wondered what cars were, but Bill just said they were large metal pieces of transportation) at people like it was nothing. He also described how the Tank, while strong, was very rare, and a bitch to kill.
They mostly listened in silence, asking questions once in a while. The ponies, in return, told Bill about basic information about their lives so Bill would have a better understanding of their abilities. But Fluttershy had just sat there sitting quietly, and staring at the ground, in shock over what she had done. Bill noticed this, and was concerned.
“Look...Fluttershy, is it?” She nodded her head, still staring at the ground. “You took care of animals, right?” Fluttershy nodded, still staring at the ground. “Right. So that means that you’re really kind, right?” Fluttershy nodded her head again, without looking up. “So that means you would probably be glad to know that every one of those things you kill, you’re probably saving a life. In fact, probably ten lives for every one you kill.”
“But they’re still able to move around, which means they still have some life, and I’d be taking away their lives,” Fluttershy mumbled under her breath. Bill sighed, as Fluttershy was missing the point.
“Like I said before, they’re already dead. Either we kill them, or their own kind kills them. They fight amongst themselves and kill each other all the time. We’d only be hurrying up the process, and saving a few lives while we’re at it.” Fluttershy looked up at Bill. “Plus it doesn’t help the disease affecting them is incurable and easily transmitted to other living beings. Like you. Or me.”
“Thanks for that. But now that I think about it, how did we get here exactly? The last thing that happened in your world was your friend messing around with that computer. Was that it?” Applejack said, noticing that Fluttershy had a blank expression in her eyes, but appeared to be getting better nonetheless.
“If I know Francis, that son of a bitch probably did screw something up. The one thing I’m wondering though is that how did you guys end up here?”
“I ain’t got a clue as to what kind of magic this computer did to make us be here, but it seems that the same magic caused their wings to disappear. We can’t do nothing about what got us here, but as long as we are, we better darn near try to get back your friends, and try to get ourselves back to Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash, while the others were talking, was wandering around the room, looking at different odds and ends. She found herself next to the sparking machinery, which by then had reduced to nothing but a burst of bright sparks every few seconds or so. She saw a thick notebook next to it, and picked it up, out of curiosity.
“Hey guys, what’s this?” She held the notebook up in the air, and started waving it around in her hoof.
“Gimme that.” Bill walked over and grabbed the notebook from her, and proceeded to look it over. He saw some marker writing on the front that read “BF-3000”. He looked over at the computer, and saw the same name. “Guess it’s some sort of instruction manual, or something.” Bill flipped through the pages, skimming through pages upon pages of scribbled text, with the occasional sketch, squinting as hard as his old eyes would let him.
After about five minutes, he reached the last page in the book. Reading it aloud, he read “The BF-3000 is finally complete! After a week of developing Mr. Weber’s ideas that he’s been thinking up for the past couple of years, I think we’ve developed inter-universal travel! Of course, there’s still bugs in the system that we’ll be able to fix later, but for now, we’ll finally be able to find a universe that’s found a cure for the zom-” The notebook stopped there, but a scribbled line of text showed that the keeper of the notebook had been interrupted while writing the final sentence.
Bill hadn’t noticed any bodies when the survivors first came into this laboratory, which he thought odd for they had found the door to be wide open when they first found this laboratory. Of course, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, they might say, especially since there had been a huge horde right outside the lab. So Bill decided not to think about it, and continue on with the matter at hand.
“Well, at least I know how everybody went where they did. But enough about how. We need to figure out how to get you back.” Bill inspected the broken machinery closely, and looked through the notebook to find a diagram that matched the machinery exactly. He was deep in thought, trying to find what would need to be replaced.
“So, what do y’spose is wrong with that thing?” Applejack was curious, and she had a right to be. This man she had met not 2 hours ago was deep in thought, looking back and forth from a notebook, to a piece of machinery.
“According to this, all that’s broken is a power core to help provide extra power to the machine. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a hardware store a fair distance away from here. Let me check. Make sure Fluttershy is ready, just in case.” Bill left the room to find a map of the city. Rainbow Dash and Applejack walked up to Fluttershy, and Applejack affectionately put a hoof around her.
“What’s the matter, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash tried to get Fluttershy to look at her while she was talking, but the former pegasi couldn’t see eye-to-eye. Fluttershy did start to speak, however, but it was softer than usual, even for Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t understand a word. “What did you say?”
“I said I killed that thing. I know it would have killed other people, but still...”
“Listen here, like Bill said. You saved lives, Fluttershy, isn’t that what you love doing most?”
“Well yeah, but this is different. I’m still taking away the infected peoples’ lives away from them. Nobody should have that privilege. Even if they are...stealing other people’s lives, I don’t feel I have the right to take away whats left of theirs.”
“But Fluttershy, if you kill off one, you’re saving ten, uninfected lives that could be used to...uh, repopulate this planet after the infected die off! You saw it yourself, Fluttershy. You saw that infected before. What exactly did it do to make you shoot it?”
“It...umm...ran after me...the hallways are really long...it saw me...then ran after me...it had blood on its face...I was scared...I used the pistol...and I just fired...three times...the infected just kind of kept on running...but I couldn’t shoot again...it passed me and kept on running...then it fell over and fell on its face...”
“Sugar cube, you’re being silly. We have to help Bill save his friends and get us back to Ponyville! Think about all the animals back home! Think about Pinkie, and Twilight, and even Rarity! Think about us! Think about Bill’s friends! Do it for everybody. The good of the many is better than the needs of the one.”
A grizzled old smoker’s voice emitted from behind the ponies, which startled them. “She’s right, you know. If you don’t help us, we’ll probably get killed out there. You’ll probably die, as well. My friends probably wouldn’t be able to get back here, either. I know it’s hard to take a life. I fought in a war around forty years ago. When I first started, I was green as grass, and was cocky as hell. Then I killed my first enemy. I realized they were just like our side, just that they were on the other team. They had hopes and dreams, just like us, and were only trying to protect their families.
“I still fought them, after all. I had a duty to do for my country, and my enemies were trying to kill me. I got so good they even promoted me. But still, I felt like what I had done was wrong. Especially since after the war, the veterans weren’t welcomed home very well, and we were getting treated badly. I’m rambling just like an old man now. You need to help us, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy looked up at Bill, after hearing his speech. She looked at him, trying to understand him. She could see a certain wisdom in his eyes, even if he was old like Granny Smith, back in Ponyville. Thinking of Granny Smith made Fluttershy think of her friends and animals back home, and she realized they were probably right; she needed to help return home.
“Alright. I’ll help.”
“Good. Applejack, I’ve been meaning to ask you this, but what’s in that bag you’re carrying?”
“This? Why, it’s got a whole bunch of guns in it, I don’t think they’d be useful though.”
“Why not?” Bill said, putting aside the obvious questions about how they would acquire so much firepower. He had decided that logic was not the best thing to associate with these ponies.
“They don’t have any ammunition for them. You can look at them anyways.” Applejack opened up her saddlebags, for Bill to look through, and Bill indeed searched through the bag, sorting through guns that vaguely looked like assault rifles, a sniper rifle, shotguns, and submachine guns to find two pump-action shotguns and a submachine gun that Bill thought looked odd from the rest. He inspected the guns carefully, finding engravings like manufacturers, serial numbers, and even the type of ammunition that it used.
The guns’ ammunition types seemed familiar, but Bill couldn’t put his tongue on it. He had suspicions, however. “Give me a minute, I’ll be right back.” Bill took the shotgun and a submachine gun with him to the kitchen. He remembered that they all had put their guns and ammunition in here, when they had found the food, and couldn’t bother to store it any place else. Bill picked up his Uzi, and checked it to make sure there was enough ammo for it, and picked up a spare Uzi bullet.
Bill tried fitting the bullet into the pony's strange submachine gun, and surprisingly, it went right in without any hassle. Against months of army training, he attempted to fire the gun, after trying to figure out how exactly to shoot the strange firearm, and it fired like a charm. He did the same thing with the shotgun, and got the exact same results, even though the shotgun’s kick just about broke his shoulder. Smiling, Bill grabbed a few hundred rounds for the submachine gun, putting it in his bag, and grabbed a couple hundred shells for the shotguns, doing the same thing. He limped his way back to the ponies, with the extra weight causing pressure on his wounded knee.
He entered the room with the ponies, and realized that the room was the lobby, with the exit door right at the opposite side of the room. “What was that noise? We heard gunshots,” Applejack questioned.
“It was nothing, just testing out your new guns.” Bill threw shotguns to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who both caught them with their hooves. He walked up to Fluttershy and personally handed her the submachine gun. “Oh, almost forgot.” Bill placed the ammo they needed for the gun into their saddlebags. Bill noticed as all but Applejack struggled to add the weapons to their contraptions, who had to help them. He then chuckled as they moved their guns toward their saddlebags, but stopped when he realized that was how they reloaded their guns as the ammunition magically floated into their reloading chambers..
“So, do we go now?” the ponies said in creepy unison.
“Yeah, let’s go kick some zombie ass.”
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Chapter 3 done. I don't like this one as much as the others, it feels bland and like it was an unnecessary chapter.
moar please?
A lot of exposition in this chapter... It's hard to come up with a reasonable explanation for colorful ponies in the Left 4 Dead world, but you handled it okay. You could've slipped in a Black Mesa reference as far as the interuniversal travel goes - Valve is always tying together their games like that.
VERY convenient for you that L4D takes place in Philadelphia, and I'm glad you took advantage of that for an entertaining scene.
Now that all of your setup is figured out, I'm looking forward to some fun zombie killing. With ponies!
83818 Don't worry, I'll have a better explanation soon. I personally can't wait to write the next chapter. But thanks for the support.
Bill used to be great zombie killer, but then he took an arrow to the knee
83822 Actually he took a piece of shrapnel to the knee, back in Vietnam. 2 days after the first infection, he was having knee surgery but it never was performed because the hospital staff turned into zombies.
And that joke is really getting old.
LOVED THIS CHAPTER
die mothafuckin' zombies, DIE!
epic
Not even Bill can resist the cuteness that is Fluttershy!
FUCK YEAH ZOMBIE KILLING
HOO-RA BILL
newsimg.ngfiles.com/200000/200233_L4d___Bill___by_Okina_tyan.jpg Time to kick some ass!
83818 Jason. There is a reason valve is trying to piece together all their games. One. SImple. Reason
HL3
IT'S GONNA HAVE TF2, PORTAL, HL CHARACTERS, AND EVERY OTHER KIND OF CHARACTER THAT VALVE HAS MADE IT'S GONNA BE A MASSIVE EXPLOSION OF GAMES IN ONE GIANT BOMB OF EPICNESS AND FUS-DO-RAH
Personally i think it will be better than Skyrim
But really. Can ANYTHING beat Skyrim?
90151 IN RESPONSE TO MY COMMENT IT'S BASICALLY JUST GONNA BE SUCH A BIG DA FUCK BOMB IT'S GOING TO LEAVE YOU WANTING MORE.
HOW DO I KNOW? YOU ASK?
I FUCKING KNOW. CUZ I PLAYED THE GODDAMN HL3 BETA BITCHES! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
OK my insane time is over.
my main critique would be that there does not seem to be much happening back in Ponyville. There are no zombies, no danger and thus, no excitement. I do not know if you actually DO have something in store, but from reading this so far, i get the impression that nothing exciting is about to happen in the near future, making the parts in Ponyville have been dull in comparison to the humans' world. Fluttershy's fret over the killing was a bit boring to read, but then again it is a necessary part of the story. Maybe you could bring your point across in a more concise way or something.
I'm looking forward to some zombie ass kicking in the next chapter! Things would get so much better once you start having Bill and the ponies fight hoards of zombies and then you can show how the different advantages/disadvantages the ponies have will come into play.
90518
I think there could be zombies in Ponyville. As stated in this comic ( http://www.l4d.com/comic/comic.php?page=61 ), the four survivors are all carriers of the virus. Which could lead to another wide spread plague of sorts, but this time in Equestria.
92497
that sounds interesting :)
For the squeamish, this next chapter probably won't suit them well. Sorry it took so long as well. Class and all that. Did I ever mention this is my first fic?
Two words.Bad.Ass.
163399 pretty good for your first fic