Young 10 year old Love note was having a normal day at school, did work, played outside, and had choir practice. Everything was good until a feral colt tried to eat her alive, now she must learn to survive in the cruel world she use to call home...
After tragedy strikes, a young filly and her friends are left stranded in the undead version of Equestria. As their journey begins, they soon find others, and make their way to the Crystal empire. If there is anything left of it.
There Will Be Gore (The story is mostly running off of OCs)
A young unicorn filly with a dark cyan coat sighed as she trotted uphill towards the school house, the bell was going to ring at any second and she really didn't want to get another tardy she already has to serve detention after school today.
Her light violet and dark raspberry mane bobbed up and down on her head as she raced towards the school, seeing a few other foals playing outside while waiting for the doors to open.
"Oh good, I'm early," she said aloud to no one in particular as she slowed to a canter once she got close.
Her ears perked as she heard a familiar masculine voice call out her name "Hey, Love Note!", turning her attention towards the voice, she smiled as she saw one of her friends standing next to the swing set, a pegasus colt who was slightly older than she herself. He had a dark gold coat and a mane of Mayan blue and brighter yellow. "What's up Riptide?" Love Note asked with a smile on her face.
"Nothing much really, how 'bout you?" he asked, Love Note simply shrugged "Same here, so uh... where's Star Gazer?" she asked noticing her friend wasn't there with him, "She called in sick today her mom said something about her having a bad fever." Love Note had a worried look on her face as she said "Well I hope she's gonna be alright..." Riptide noticed how worried Love Note looked and sighed as he walked up to his friend's side ''Don't worry she'll be fine knowing her she'll probably sweat it out and be here in an hour." Love Note looked up at her slightly taller companion and gave him a wry smile as she said "You’re probably right."
Sighing quietly Love Note looked up watching as birds passed by chirping at each other, then suddenly she yelped and nearly jumped as she felt a heavy weight rest upon her shoulders looking over to her right she found Riptide had his arm around her shoulders in a brotherly way, looking down at the slightly younger filly Riptide smiled softly as he said "Hey I know something that'll really brighten your spirits." that got Love Note's attention ''What is it?" "Today we have choir practice." Riptide said holding back a grin as Love note put on a face splitting smile "Really?!" she said jumping up and down, choir was her absolute most favorite subject that's how she got her cutie mark.
"Yep." Riptide said just as the bell rang, looking back at the school Love Note said "We should get going." Riptide nodded in agreement as he trotted over towards his saddle pack and placed them on his back, quickly they both trotted into the school house and were greeted by the familiar friendly face of Miss Cheerilee "Good morning my little ponies I hope you all had a good weekend!" she said cheerfully as she trotted towards her desk, straightening her stack of papers she sat patiently waiting for the class to sit and get ready.
Sitting up straight her class smiled" Good morning miss Cheerilee!" they all say in harmony, "Good morning class, as you know today we have choir which will be right after recess so be ready and don't forget anything." Cheerilee said smiling like she always did, ''Now take out your paper and pencils our first subject is math!" everypony in the room groaned except for Love Note ''Ooh! yay math!" Love said sqweeing as she dug through her saddle pack that had her cutie mark of two Eighth notes and a heart in the center, presenting her pencil and paper she neatly placed them on her desk a raspberry colored aurora lifted her pencil above her paper as she watched attentively as her teacher began writing down a percentage equation.
"Today class we're going to be doing pre-algebra, now I hope you have out your pencils and paper because we're about to begin." Cheerile said cheerfully, it was about twenty minutes for math before they moved onto language which lasted twenty minutes as well before the bell rang for recess, RIIIIIIIIIIING! Looking at the clock Miss Cheerilee smiled as she said "Alrighty class its recess time." "Yaaaaaay!" all the foals yelled out in relief as they grabbed their snack and headed outside, grabbing her peanut butter crackers and juice box Love Note merrily trotted outside towards the swing set, it was occupied already by two fillies taking turns but she didn't mind she never went on it anyways.
Sitting down under the tree Love Note set down her snack and watched as all the other foals ran around playing, leaning her head back she sighed lazily as she levitated her juice box towards her placing the straw into the small hole before taking a small sip, closing her eyes she began to sing quietly before taking another sip of her juice and singing again.
"I didn't know you sing while your by yourself." a familiar voice said making Love Note jump up in surprise her eyelids popping open, Riptide chuckled as he sat down next to her, Love Note glared at Riptide as he began eating his snack, sighing and rolling her eyes Love Note rested her head on the tree's trunk levitating her crackers towards her and taking a bit out of one, Riptide nudged Love Note as he said with a mouthful of cookies "Hey have you noticed not a lot of the kids didn't come today?" "Yeah I have, wonder why." Love said brushing her mane out of her face, it was true she had noticed a few kids didn't come today like Snips, Diamond Tiara, and Rumble, but she didn't think any of it until now.
Just then the bell rang, standing up the two foals stretched before trotting to the school house, taking her seat Love Note watched as Miss Cheerilee stood in front of the class "Alright class it should five minutes before the music teacher gets here, so if you can take out a book and do SSR." Cheerliee said with a smile before walking to her desk and sitting down.
Just like Miss Cheerilee said the music teacher, Mister Symphony, entered the class his wavy sleek blue mane neat as ever, and his dull yellow coat was trimmed and shining like always, straightening his glasses he smiled softly as he said "Good morning class." "Good morning Mister Symphony!" the class said, walking around the class Mister Symphony eyed the foals "I hope all you soloist and duets practiced your songs the presentation is this Friday you know!" he exclaimed cheerfully, Love Note chuckled nervously as Symphony passed by her looking her straight in the eyes, she had a duet with another unicorn colt in the class, Lightning Bolt, of course she practiced but she could only pray that her partner did as well.
''Well then class let’s get going, don't want to waste any more time now do we?" Mister Symphony said rhetorically, lining up behind Symphony the class made their way to the music room; it was a medium sized room with a few instruments, a large steel bench, a smallish stage, and a small sound room in the far left corner.
Walking onto the steel benches the class stood in their assigned positions, while Love Note, Lightning Bolt, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Riptide stood in front, the class watched as Miss Cheerilee and Mister Symphony took some microphones from the stage and brought them to the five standing in front.
Standing close to the microphone Lightning positioned it so both he and Love Note could sing into it, smiling Mister Symphony made hoof gestures pointing at Sweetie Belle to start the song, the marshmallow filly cleared her throat as she began softly singing into the microphone.
Adeste Fideles, laeti triuphantes;
Venite, Venite en Be-ethlehem.
Then it moved to Applebloom and Riptide.
Natum videte, Regem Angelorum. And finally Lightning Bolt and Love Note, Love Note started the first two lines before Lightning Bolt joined in their voices mixing in harmony as they sang.
Venite Adoremus, Venite Adoremus
Venite Adoremus, Dominum!
Raising his hooves Mister Symphony signaled for the rest of the class to join in.
Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant
Oh come ye, Oh come ye, to Be-ethlehem
Come and behold her, Born the Queen of angels
Oh Come let us adore her, Oh come let us adore her
Oh come let us adore her, Celestia!
"Great job class, I see you have been practicing!" Mister Symphony said clapping his hooves together, Love Not and Lightning smiled at each other as they hi-hooved one another, pacing around Symphony said "Alright since you've mastered that song let's move on to the next one." grabbing the stereo that rested on a chair Mister Symphony pressed the play button and something in between hip hop and pop came on.
Both Love Note and Lightning Bolt sighed as they got ready to sing again, this time it was just her, Sweetie Belle, and Lightning Bolt, inhaling Lightning started it off.
Saying their goodbyes the class exited the music room and were lead back to their homeroom by Miss Cheerilee and for some reason Mister Symphony followed them.
Taking their seats the school children listened attentively as Symphony congratulated the class on their improvement and how he knew they were going to be great in the show, flicking her ear Love Note looked to the side as she heard a quiet painful moan come from the colt that sat beside her, the colt usually had a glossy neon green coat and bright orange mane but his coat and mane were unusually dull and drool dripped painfully slow through his dry lips as he store hungrily at the music teacher.
"Um... are you okay?" Love Note asked as she placed a hoof on the colt's shoulder, he moaned again as his head slowly turned to face her, instead of his usual bright perky green eyes his eyes were unusually lifelessly dull, he didn't say anything he just stared at her and before she had time to react he snarled, her eyes shrunk to pin pricks as he opened his mouth showing rows of sharps fangs before jumping out of his desk and pinning her down.
Love shouted in surprise before having the wind knocked out of her as the colt using surprising power pushed down on her chest winding her, he snarled again letting out something that sounded like a roar and a shriek before trying to bite her his jaws snapping wildly, Love Note pushed the wild colt away from her as his saliva and blood dripped on her body making her shudder in disgust, raising up her hind legs she managed to get them planted on his lower torso and giving him a good buck she made him fly off her hitting his desk nearly knocking it over.
Just as the colt recovered and tried to jump again Mister Symphony grabbed him quickly, the colt thrashed wildly screeching at the top of his lungs, a mixture of blood and saliva flew out of his open mouth as he struggled to get out of Mister Symphony's hooves, "Whoa! settle down boy!" Symphony shouted at the crazed colt who totally disregarded what he said and continued to writhe in the music teachers hooves, twisting his head to abnormal proportions the colt snarled his yellow fangs glistening before he sunk them into Symphony's arm making the music teacher cry out in pain as he pulled away letting the rampant colt go.
Love note watched, mouth agape, as the colt ate what little piece of flesh he managed to tear of the music teacher with little satisfaction, turning his head back to her the colt snarled pieces of flesh hung off his yellow teeth, eyeing the small prize in front of him the now cannibal colt charged at Love note just as he jumped Love note ducked quickly sliding under him letting him collide with the leg of her desk, falling backwards onto her rump Love note looked back at her fallen music teacher who was currently unconcious scrambling back to her hooves she looked around seeing all the petrified foals watch as the colt stood back up blood trailing down his face, but he didn't even seem to notice as he lunged at her fangs bared and Love note could do nothing but watch as he came closer and closer, clenching her eyes shut she braced herself ready to feel his teeth rip through her tender flesh but there was nothing, nothing came, and after a few seconds Love note peeked out only to find the colt laying on the ground coagulated blood seeping out of his eyes and mouth making a small pool around his head.
He was dead, his lifeless corpse lay there bathing in its own blood.
He just died, before he could even get close to her, Love note was confused and frightened she didn't know whether to cry or be scared she just stared at the lifeless corpse in front of her, the stench of death began to overcrowd her senses as she curled into a small shivering ball.
It was horrifying.
Truly horrifying...
"Cl-class line up please while I call an ambulance!" miss Cheerilee said her usual cheerful state evanescing, the class slowly lined up still looking at the bloody scene with appall, trotting to Love note Cheerilee rubbed the filly's back before whispering in her ear "Please line up while I get help." Love note didn't even look up at her teacher as she nodded gradually before standing up and walking towards the line, eyeing her class warily Cheerilee sighed as she stepped over Mister Symphony's unconcious body and trotted out the door quickly leaving her class alone.
All the foals looked around trying to do anything but look at the horrifying mess that lay before them, Love note kept her head down not speaking even as her classmates asked her questions but finally she looked up as she felt a gentle hoof rest on her shoulder "Riptide-" she was cut off though as her friend hugged her tightly seeming as if he would never let her go, she could feel him quake as she hugged him back tears falling out of her eyes and soaking into his soft coat. They stayed like that for more than five minutes before finally breaking their embrace, Riptide looked down at the younger filly and smiled gently wiping a tear away from her eye, Love note's lips, after a few tries, curled into a weak smile.
Their warm moment was soon broken as a low mumble was heard coming from Mister Symphony, a light pink filly with a pony-tailed blond mane decided to go check up on him "M-mister Symphony ar-are you awake?" she said gently shaking him her only response was a soft grunt, looking back at all her classmates who were watching her she swallowed the lump in her throat as she walked closer towards his chest and placed her ear on it, there was no beat...
And then suddenly, Thump,Thump, and then it stopped again before beating after a long ten seconds, it kept repeating this process so lifting her head up from his chest she turned back to face her classmates as she said "I-I think he's still alive...But its really hard to tell." just then mister Symphony exhaled slowly but it sounded more like a growl, snapping her head back towards her music teacher the filly screamed as she saw rows of sharp teeth in mister Symphony's mouth as he opened them to snarl, and just as he tried to snap at her she jumped away scampering back to her class mates who watched in complete terror as the full grown stallion stood up, his features darkened as he bared his teeth a long serpent-like tongue slithered out of the cave of sharp teeth he called a mouth.
Looking at the door Love note ran towards it opening it as she yelled out "Ruuuuun!" without a moment’s hesitation everyone did with a hungry mister Symphony chasing behind, the large group of foals stopped though as they reached the main hall, Love notes pupils shrunk to pinpricks at what she saw, the whole hallway was infested with the dead who trotted around carrying tons of leisures and lacerations, screams of a mare could be heard from the principal's office.
Leading her class into a corner they stood there silently watching as Love note looked around the corner.
"What do we do now?" a young colt whispered to Love note who looked back at him and the rest of her class, they were all staring at her waiting for her to say something she blinked in surprise at how quickly they just elected her to be leader but there was no time to waste on thinking about that right now, looking around she caught a glimpse of a dead end that was just wide enough yet small enough to keep the whole class in without them being caught by any of the dead, only problem was it was all the way on the other side of the hall she would never be able to get a whole class of foals over there without being caught.
Brushing a hoof through her mane she turned back to her class beads of sweat trailed down her forehead as she came up with a plan but it didn't seem very safe...Or even smart at that, walking to were her class was huddled up at she said in a hushed voice "Alright I have a plan but I need somepony to come with me just in case." her classmates shifted uneasily but one yellow hoof went up "I'll do it." Lightning bolt said making his way towards her "I'll help you." he said quietly and Love note nodded as they walked slightly away from the class to discuss the plan before announcing it "Alright so what's the idea you came up with?" Lightning asked Love note with an expectant expression, sighing lightly Love note brushed her mane back "Alright it might not be the safest but it’s the fastest plan I could come up with." she explained to which Lightning nodded "I-I'm gonna try and act like one of them to get across the hall and over there and I need you to come with me." she said pointing towards her destination, Lightning's eyes widened in incredulity but then to her surprise he saluted and said "I'm game." Love note was in slight disbelieve at how quickly he accepted the challenge but nodded as they made their way back to the others.
Clearing her throat quietly Love note explained "Okay class we've made a decision just come on our cue." her class members nodded in agreement as they watched their two classmates walk to the edge of their hiding spot, looking around the corner Love note found there were more of the dead than she originally thought and they were close to her destination but she had to go on with the plan "Celestia forgive me for my sins." she heard Lightning pray behind her as she signaled it was time to go, observing some of the monsters that lurked down the hallways she began mimicking their painful groans and limping walk cycles and taking in a deep breath of air she stepped out into the hallway.
Limping awkwardly Love note watched as some of the dead staff members groaned limping past the filly but some were a bit more curious eyeing her closely one even began walking by her side grunting, she tried her hardest not to freak out as its cold fur brushed up against her own, but soon the one following her grew less interested and limped away, looking behind her she saw Lightning limping a bit further behind but his impression was spot on, he groaned slight drool dripping from his mouth and he ignored all the dead that bumped into him though she could see fear in his baby blue eyes, limping a bit faster Love note let out a joyous sigh of relief as she scampered into the hiding spot with Lightning trailing behind.
Looking back at her class mates who stood on the other side she signaled them to come, and hesitantly they did groaning and limping but she face hoofed as they all came at once but the dead didn't seem to notice as they just ignored the mob of 'undead' foals,Note to self: undead creatures have a lack of intelligence. Love note thought taking a mental note as she and her class looked at the dark hole they were in, going towards the wall she inspected them looking up to see if there might be any windows, none, not even one window sighing gently Love note paced around trying to come up with another plan Okay so I had one good idea already so I'm sure I can come up with another one. she thought to herself but saying is easier than doing, trotting towards Lightning bolt Love note tapped gently on the colt's shoulder making him turn around to face her "Do you have any good ideas on how to get us out of the school?" Love note asked hoping he did, but sadly Lightning shook his head "Sorry I don't I was just about to come and ask you if you had some, but the answer is obvious now." both of them sighed in unison as they looked at their class who were sitting down whispering to each other, just then Sweetie belle accompanied by a dark blue unicorn colt by the name of Night shadow confronted the two, "Hey you guys." Lightning said casually to the pair, nervously Sweetie belle rubbed her arm as she spoke up "Um... Well we kind of overheard you saying you couldn't come up with a plan to get us safely out of here." Love note raised a brow as she said "Yes what about it? Do you have a plan because that would be nice." Sweetie belle shook her head "Yes- well no not me to be exact but Night does." the midnight blue colt nodded before speaking up "Yes I have a plan." "Do tell please." Lightning said curiously, clearing his throat the colt spoke again "I was thinking we could teleport the whole class out of the school house."
"That doesn't make any sense a unicorn can only take one or two things, including themselves, and teleport without getting a horrible migraine, and also we're just foals so we would barely be able to teleport with a book in our hooves." Love note said but Night shadow shook his head "I know that! But what I was trying to say was collect all the unicorns in class that at least know how to do a basic teleportation spell, so that we can fuse our magic together and create a massive teleportation spell to get us all out of here." he explained, Love note thought it over "It sounds like a good plan but I can spot some fatal flaws." she commented to which Sweetie belle and Night shadow rose a brow to "Like what?" Sweetie belle asked, "Well for one a few of us could get left behind and we might have enough energy to teleport back in but not back out." "Just count the class members." Nigh shadow said as Love note continued "And if a few unicorns can't generate enough power we could end up wasting all of our energy." “Or if they don't generate enough power the whole thing might blow over and we could get scattered." Lightning bolt added in, but sighing gently Love note said ''But I guess we just have to go with it and hope for the best, since we have no other plan." so standing up straight Love note said to Lightning "Alright Lightning bolt gather up all the unicorns and ask if they at least know a basic teleportation spell and how much power they thing they can generate by doing so, and you two!" she said glaring at Sweetie belle and Night shadow who cowered at her " Thank you for the brilliant idea now please go with Lightning." she said smiling, they both nodded smiling at the appreciation before walking off and just as they did Love note let out a sigh of anguish, being a leader was hard especially in life or death situations.
Sitting down onto her haunches she watched as some of the unicorns huddled around Lightning bolt as he talked to them, he seemed to be doing a great job getting them into line order and all, rubbing her temples gently she watched as Riptide approached her making a small smile appear on her worried features, "How you doin'?" Riptide said flicking his tail as he sat next to her shivering at the cool touch of the floor, sighing gently Love note looked over at him "Not very good, and how did this happen were ponies sick like this before?" she asked the slightest tinge of fear seeping into her voice, Riptide shook his head no "I can't recall ever seeing ponies act this way even when they were sick." he said much to Love note's displeasure "Well that doesn't really help if we don't know much about them." Love note said "Well the sickness just started so we couldn't have possibly known much about it, especially if we haven't been around any ponies that had it." "Good point." Love note said to her friend's reason, just as they were about to start up another conversation Lightning and a small band of unicorns confronted them "Alright Love note I got all the unicorns that can do teleportation spells!" Lightning announced presenting the unicorn foals, "Oh wow good work Lightning." Love note said standing up "What're you doing with a bunch of unicorns?" Riptide asked standing up as well, turning back to face him Lightning bolt said "We're gonna try to teleport out of the school by doing a massive teleportation spell." "And you really think that's gonna work?'' Riptide asked anxiously, Lightning shrugged "I can't say for sure but we at least have to try."
"Okay so how're we gonna do this?" Night shadow asked Lightning and Love note while looking back at the small group of unicorns before looking back at the pair, "I was thinking we should pile up all the students that we're teleporting and put the unicorns at the ends." Lightning said, "I was thinking we should pair up weaker magic users with stronger ones we can't afford to have anypony left in here." Love note said getting a nod from Night shadow who commented "Why don't we use both ideas we can put the class in a pile and have pairs of unicorns on the ends." "Jeez we are smart." Lightning bolt announced which got a head nod and a few giggles from his two peers as they departed.
"Okay Lightning could you pair the stronger users with the weaker ones?" Love note asked and Lightning nodded in response before going off to do what she asked, walking to the rest of her class mates who were looking slightly confused she announced the plan and asked them to get into a circle, once they did Lightning placed the unicorns on the ends before pairing up with somepony else.
Love note watched in satisfaction as they got into place but nearly jumped as someone tapped on her shoulder craning her neck she smiled as she saw Sweetie belle "Oh um... Lightning told me to pair up with you." Love note knew Sweetie belle wasn't the best at using magic so it did make since that she was paired up with her, Love note's magic skills were almost above average but it usually didn't last as long "Oh, alright let’s get into the circle then." Love note said and Sweetie belle smiled in response as they made their way to the rest of the class and took a spot facing each other.
"So uh, how do we do this?" Sweetie belle asked looking at the other unicorn foals who had their horns crossed, "Like this." Love note said bringing Sweetie belle's head down towards her own their horns crossing, Sweetie belle thought it felt a bit weird to have someone's mane brush up against her own especially a filly's but it felt warm and comforting as well, "Okay all the unicorns activate your magic on three!" Lightning said from behind Sweetie belle who 'eeped' in surprise at the sudden boom of his voice.
"One.''
"Two."
''Three!" Lightning said in a shouted whisper just loud enough for the class to hear and almost immediately the unicorn foals began to activate their magic, Love note grit her teeth so hard she thought they would break at any moment she was doing double time trying to make up for the lack of magic she was receiving from her partner even though Sweetie belle was trying her best, a large mound of amalgamated aurora surrounded the class before, Poof.
Love note gasped and winced as she landed on her back her head hitting something hard, before she even had time to open her eyes something big and hefty landed on her stomach knocking the air out of her, the mass groaned in slight pain as she tried to push it off it mumbled something before standing up on unsteady legs, opening her eyes Love note grunted rubbing the back of her head her vision slightly disoriented as she stood up but she shook it away trying to speak but her words were slurred as they escaped her mouth.
Rubbing her eyes clear she looked around and spotted Lightning bolt who was standing a bit further away from her in the same condition as she was, looking around some more she also noticed they were alone in the middle of town square, none of the class mates were there which means that the spell must've miscarried, as she trotted unsteadily towards Lightning he turned around to greet her "It seems the spell misfired, but where are the unndead the streets are just empty, its a bit..." he paused for a second before continuing "Unnerving." he finished looking at Love note who nodded in agreement, "It is strange you would think the streets would be crowded with them."
"Maybe something got their attention and they wandered off towards it leaving the streets empty."
"That is a possibility but I still think their might have been a few stragglers."
"True." Lightning said with a small nod before looking around, the infected town was quiet, too quiet for that fact and it disturbed him greatly he just had an aching feeling that something unexpected was going to happen.
Looking around Love note thought about something she should've been thinking about a long time ago, her parents, her parents could be anywhere by now searching for her, or even worse...Dead, but she didn't want to think about the possibility of finding her parents dead somewhere in the house.
No.
It wouldn't happen; she knew it in her bones.
Her father and mother were good strong ponies and can defend themselves they had to survive, she thought with a distressed sigh before looking back at Lightning who was looking around, "Lightning I think-" "We should look for our parents?" he finished for her and Love note nodded, "Yes I think that's a good idea, how about we meet back up here in town square after?" Lightning said and Love note nodded again "Sound like a plan." the two hoofs bumped before going their seperate ways.
Running towards the south Love note turned her head catching a glimpse of Lightning's tail as he ran off the other way, sighing she sped up passing by abandoned houses, the streets she trotted down were eerily empty and the only thing to comfort her were the shattered flower pots and overturned food stands, the condition of the houses she walked past were appalling, creaking doors teased her making her jump in fear at their uncanny noises.
Cold sweat dripped slowly from her brow as she sped up, quickly sprinting through the wasteland she used to call home.
As she reached her house she swallowed hard making a very audible 'Gulp', mustering whatever courage she could she pushed the unhinged door as she began to walk inside, 'CRRRRRRRREEEEeeeeeaaaaak' was the only sound, aside from her hooves, she heard as she entered the house.
Her eyes widened while her pupils shrunk as she looked at the condition of her former house, the wall paper was torn to shreds small pieces of the shredded paper hung lifelessly off the wall, windows were broken, tables and chairs were flipped, and blood was splattered everywhere, it looked like a hurricane just blew through her house and she could only hope that the blood wasn't of her parents, hesitantly she crept through the wrecked house carefully avoiding shards of glass, but she immediately stopped as she felt something warm and...liquid like touch around the bottom of her hoof, bringing her eyes downwards her face struck from scared to downright horror, on her hoof was black, thick, coagulated blood, she would've screamed if she hadn't noticed a trail of the curdled gore.
Without a second thought she followed it, the way it was trailing almost looked as if whatever shed it was either being dragged or was crawling, Love note stopped as she reached the blood covered kitchen floor and cringed at what she saw laying in the middle of the floor, laying in the most uncomfortable angle was a blood covered pony corpse, taking a hesitant step closer Love note observed the dead pony, it was a petite mare with dark brown fur and a bloody matted black mane, sticking out of her skull was a blood covered combat knife with and ivory handle.
Swallowing Love note walked to see the mare's face, she hoped it wasn't who she thought it was, as she got in front of the mare she sighed feeling her heart split in half, the mare that she wished it wasn't was her babysitter, at first Love note didn't think she needed a babysitter at the time but grew to love being around her, "I'm so sorry Ms.Banner." the filly said looking down as tears formed at the edge of her eyes and threatened to break loose but she didn't let them flow, instead her face held no expression as she placed a hoof on the corpse's shoulder and gave the knife that was lodged into the babysitter's head a strong tug.
After a few failed attempts of trying to get the deeply penetrated knife Love note grunted blowing hot air out of her nose as she gave the knife a good yank making it pop out of the mare's head with a sickening Shliick, falling hard onto her rump Love note winced hissing slightly as she stood up and rubbed her sore butt, looking at the knife she finally managed to pull out she sighed gently, it was her mother's own, Love note knew her mother still had her old strap on knives from when she joined the army but she never knew that one day she'd have to use them herself.
"Where's the other one?" she mumbled as she began to search for the straps and the second knife, rearing up she stood on her hind legs as she balanced herself on the kitchen counter, looking on the counter she smiled as she saw her mother's strap and knife lying next to each other untouched, leaning over she grasped for the strap and knife but was a few inches to short, rolling her eyes she activated her horn and a raspberry colored aurora engulfed the two desired items levitating them towards her.
Smiling at herself she held the weapons and their holder in her hooves, bringing them towards her heart she sighed before stepping over her former babysitter's lifeless body and briskly trotting out the door.
Mom. Dad. You better be alive.
Running back to town square Love note panted lightly looking around, Lightning bolt wasn't back yet so she decided to wait there, sitting down she looked around her light green eyes thoroughly scanning the surrounding area, there was still nothing, perking her ears she stood up as she heard the thundering clapping of many hooves on concrete turning her head she saw Lightning bolt running towards her.
Just as she turned around she let out a surprised cry as he snatched up her hoof and pulled her with him while still running, practically dragging the filly behind him Lightning bolt glanced behind him only to find that a small horde of undead ponies were still chasing after him and now Love note as well, Love note also noticed why he was running, so slipping from his grasp she ran side by side with him, they could hear the groans and grunts of the undead as they chased them and to the pair's surprise they were fast and were catching up very quickly.
Taking in short breaths Lightning watched as his surroundings passed them like a blur, "Lets- lets go in there!" he said through gasps pointing his head at a small nook near two houses, Love note didn't even get a chance to say something as he grabbed her hoof again and squeezed themselves into the narrow opening, they both received an equal amount of scratches and bruises from trying to fit in there but it was worth it as they watched the undead limp past their hiding spot.
Both of them were panting hard trying to get oxygen back into system, regaining her breath first Love note looked around both corners, infected were still lingering around trying to looked for the two morsels they let get out of their sights so sticking her head back into the hiding spot she sighed as she turned to face Lightning who was still trying to regain his breath "It doesn't look like they’re gonna leave any time soon." Love note said with another small sigh, rubbing his sky blue mane Lightning grunted wearily still wheezing and breathing hard from the run, rubbing his back Love note sighed gently as sunlight dripped warmly through the cracks of the buildings that towered over them providing little space but dependable refuge.
Dropping the strap and knives Love note studied them, "What's that?" Lightning asked in a hushed whisper, looking back at him Love note said "It’s my mom's strap on knives." Lightning opened his mouth to question but, as if reading his mind, Love note answered "She used to do hoof to hoof combat." "Oh." Lightning said nodding his head, turning to face him Love note said "Hey could you help me try them on?" Lightning stood up as he answered "Sure." levitating one of the straps towards him Love note explained how to put them on just like her mother showed her, "You just place it right here." she said indicating her lower thigh " and then just adjust it so it will fit on snugly." she said, Lightning squinted at the strap that was suspended the in the air by a light blue aurora, the black knife holster was stained with specks of blood, chewing his lower lip casually he watched as Love note strapped on hers adjusting it just right, looking back at the strap he had he hesitantly brought it towards her leg, failing to secure it so it hung onto her Lightning looked up at Love note who was watching him so rolling her eyes she lifted her leg slightly so he could get better reach, blushing lightly at her gesture he strapped it on and tightened it so it could fit snugly onto her thigh "See that wasn't so hard." Love note said making Lightning roll his eyes in response, walking back towards the corner Love note looked to both sides finding that the streets were empty again so turning back to Lightning she said "Okay the coast is clear all the infected are gone.'' ''Infected?" Lightning asked as they squeezed out of the narrow passage, "Yeah, the undead things." Love note said levitating the two combat knives into their holsters, looking behind her Love note noticed Lightning was carrying a small yellowish green bag, "What's that?" she asked tilting her head at the saddle pack, looking back at his saddle pack Lightning said "Oh! I forgot I had this thing on." digging through his pack he pulled out some walkies-talkies and handed her one, "Oh awesome we might need this." "Exactly why I brought them!" Lightning said proudly as he watched Love note hook her walkies-talkie onto the strap of her knife holster.
Looking at the sky the pair watched as the sun began to set into the evening, frowning Love note said "We should look for refuge, it’s getting pretty late." Lightning nodded in agreement "Where though?" he questioned, Love note thought for a second as she surveyed her surroundings remembering some of the landmarks "The apple orchard is just a mile away maybe they could let us rest there for the night." Love note said pointing towards the west where the Celestia's sun sat above the horizon painting the sky with pink, orange, and yellow, it was a truly beautiful sight to behold but the foals didn't have time to bask in its beauty as they began to trot off.
The sound of their small hooves hitting against the stone road could be heard echoing in the empty town, the two passed by a lifeless corpse or two every few feet, their expressions either simulated fear, or surprise, it made Love note sick, What kind of sickness is this, ponies are eating ponies mercilessly and making them turn into more flesh eating freaks! What's happening?! She thought to herself cringing each time she passed by a violated corpse, her ears perked though as she heard a small painful grunt, both her and lightning turned around quickly to the distressed noise.
Looking around quickly Love note saw nothing and heard nothing as well, "Look over there!" Lightning said pointing a hoof towards a small figure trapped under something, "Should we help?!" Love note asked, lightning looked at her momentarily before rushing off to help Love note followed in close pursuit.
As they approached the figure Love note was the first to recognize, "Riptide?!" she exclaimed looking down at her friend who was currently trapped under some fallen crates, he looked bruised and swollen, deep cuts were carved into his arms and she could tell from the way the cuts tore it was from a knife, looking up at the two ponies that approached him Riptide's eyes widened as he said "Hey, I see you guys made it, nice to know." his words were slightly slurred due to a swollen lip, 'What happened to you?" Love note asked as she tried to lift the crates of his leg along with Lightning bolt.
Riptide hissed slightly as the crates shifted "Some jerks-" Riptide cried out in pain as the two accidentally dropped the crate back onto his sore leg, both of them winced a bit hesitant to pick it up again, after a few deep breaths Riptide sighed as the pain subsided " After you guys made that huge spell I ended up being teleported to the park where I found some supplies and then some jerks came up to me and demanded that I give them my supplies, of course I said no but they weren't taking that, so they beat me up, and then suddenly a small pack of walkers came and scared them off and I made my way back here and got trapped by this."
Love note felt a bit sorry for her friend's pain as they rolled the heavy crate off his hoof which was swollen and purple around the ankle, the two cringed at the sight, Riptide turning his head to the side noticed and asked "What? Is it-is it that bad?" Lightning looked up at Riptide as he said "Bad?! This thing is grave!" Love note nodded in agreement "He's right, it looks way worse than bad."
Not wasting any time the two quickly trotted up to his side kneeling down they nudged him from under and rolled him onto their backs, Riptide cried out in pain as they picked him up he was still sore, and the blood oozing out of his gashes wasn't helping much, Love note looked back at Lightning and nodded in silent confirmation it was time to go, he nodded back and with that the trio cantered to sweet apple acres, entering The western orchard they were in slight awe seeing it was still looking pretty much the same, the tall strong apple trees still had fresh ripe apples to give and brought back some feeling that not all hope was lost, looking around Love note beamed as she saw a vibrant red farm house,cantering at the same pace as Lightning they made their way to the front door, Knock, Knock, Knock Love note knocked on the barn's door, there was no answer Knock,knock,knock she knocked again this time a young feminine voice called out "Big Mac, Applejack, is that you?" "No its me Lightning bolt and Love note, we kinda need a place to stay for the night and we have wounded." Lightning answered, and for a moment there was a long lasting silence, Love note feared that she might have left, but then the 'click' of the door locks could be heard as a soft yellow filly with a cherry red mane and an extremely large bow in her head opened the door, "Come in quickly!" she said, the two did as she said and walked inside quickly, their ears perking as they heard the door close and lock "Thank you Applebloom." Love note said as she and Lightning bolt set the now sleeping Riptide on the couch.
Applebloom smiled as she said "Aww t'aint nothin' really, actually I should be the one thankin' you!" "Thanking me for what?" Love note asked, Applebloom looked at her as if she just said to 'go jump into a pile of glass shards' "Fer not only saving my life but the whole class's!" "Well it wasn't only me, the other unicorns helped us." "Yeah but ah'm sure that we'd still be stuck in the first hallway if it wasn't for yer crazy act like 'em plan." Love note opened her mouth to say something else but Lightning interrupted, "So are you just here by yourself?" Applebloom shook her head "Big macIntosh and Applejack just left to look for their friends, but Granny Smith is here with me." "Do you think Big mac and Applejack will let us stay here for the night?" Applebloom shrugged "Ah'm pretty sure they would Lightnin' their not cold hearted." Lightning nodded his head before walking off somewhere, yawning tiredly Applebloom mumbled out "Well ah'm plum tuckered, Ah'm gonna get some rest." Love note nodded as she watched the yellow filly trot upstairs to her room.
Sighing gently Love note climbed up on the couch were Riptide was sleeping, she looked at his pummeled face, bruises and cuts were all over it, The colts who jumped him sure did do a number. she thought as she brushed his mane out of his eyes, squinting she pulled his closed lips apart checking just in case, the last thing she needed was to have her best friend turn on her, Love note sighed in relief to see his teeth weren't fangs used for tearing flesh but still teeth used for eating fruits and vegetables.
Rubbing his head she looked around and perked her ears as an elderly mare stepped out from around the corner, she was a soft green color with a white mane put into a bun, her dull orange eyes landed on Love note as she said "Applebloom is that you?" Love note shook her head as she jumped off the couch, This must be the granny Smith that Applebloom was talking about. Love note thought "Oh-no I'm not Applebl-" "Could you be a dear and get me some applesauce Applebloom?" granny Smith said interrupting Love note, "But I'm not applebloom-" "What was that hun?" granny Smith asked leaning her head closer "I said I'm not-" "What?!" granny Smith asked her voice getting louder, facehoofing Love note said "Fine whatever I'll get your applesauce." "Could you say that louder?" Love note rolled her eyes and grunted before walking off to the kitchen, "Hehe works every time." granny Smith said as she slowly made her way back to her rocking chair in the other room, looking around at all the cabinets Love note chewed her lip, she'd never been in the kitchen before, well actually she never actually came to the barn unless it was cider season, choosing to go with the lower cabinets first she opened one up seeing a few spices and things like that, going to the next one she saw pans and some pie molds, grunting she continued to search through the cabinets.
"Hoo wee! That sure was one heck of a run, huh Big macIntosh?" a mare's voice rang out as two ponies entered the barn house, "Eeyup!" a deep voice answered, the two new voices made Love note jump in surprise her head still deep in one of the cabinets making her head hit the top making a loud 'Thunk', the sudden noise from the kitchen got the pair's attention "What in tarnation was that?" the orange mare asked as she began to walk to the kitchen.
Bringing her head out of the cabinet Love note rubbed the sore bump that was forming on her head, her ears perked to attention as a mare's voice was heard along with the clip-clop of hooves, looking at the kitchen's entrance she saw a orange mare, with a straw mane, and wore an old brown Stetson, "What're you doin' in here?!" the mare demanded, her loud demanding voice made Love note wince, "I-I..." Love note stuttered out, the mare then looked at what the filly was holding (Applesauce if you were wondering) "Why you little thief! Big mac!" the mare called out to someone, "No wait- No no no, I'm not stealing anything!" Love note tried to explain but the mare wasn't listening, just then a large red stallion, with a fiery orange mane, came to the kitchen "Shes stealin' from us Big mac, get 'er!" "Eeyup." the stallion said as he began running towards Love note.
"Wait-wait can't you let me-Oof!" she sputtered as the stallion's powerful head rammed into her making her fly back a little, Big mac was a little hesitant feeling a little sorry for her, he actually didn't mean to use that much force, Love note placed a hoof on her chest still wheezing from the sudden impact, though her vision was getting blurry she stood up on wobbly legs.
''I wasn't stealing anything." Love note wheezed, she hissed at the large pain in her chest, then suddenly passed out.
A/N: Sorry about the late update, writers block got me good.
Day 2
Love note mumbled incoherently as she woke to an unusual hissing, crackling, noise to her left. The strange noise kept on and she soon began to toss and turn in annoyance, after a few minuets her eyelids fluttered open. Her vision was fuzzy as her pupils adjusted to the dimly lit room she lay in. When her vision became focused she half expected to be laying down on the kitchen floor, but instead she was lying in bed in someone's bedroom. Pellucid white curtains fluttered gently in the breeze that managed to whiffle past the open window, and sunlight streamed through the clear glass illuminating the small room. Drawers and closets sat adjacent to each other all painted dark teal. Sitting up slowly Love note yawned tiredly, rubbing her sore eyes she smacked her lips as her mouth suddenly felt dry and she had a raging need for liquid, sighing her ear twitched twice as she heard the familiar crackling again but this time it had a indistinct voice. Turning her head she spotted that an old radio set sitting on a dresser was the source of the crackling noise, the external walls of the radio were rutted and dusty making it seem as if it weren't used for years, edging closer to the radio Love note listened.
It was the voice of a mare on the radio, her voice was static-like and slightly disoriented but Love note could tell out what she was saying and could hear the urgency and fear in the mare's voice as well, " Warning for all those listening, a horrible virus has befallen Equestria wiping out many towns and killing hundreds of innocent lives! There has been more than 917,050 deaths in total. So please if you are listening lock your doors, stay inside at all times, and avoid all contact with ANY infected. As of right now we still do not know how or why this virus has come before us, and sadly epidemiologist still haven't figured out a possible cure this raging disease. Celestial and Lunar guards will be sent to each and every town to collect survivors and take them to the crystal empire, it is the safest place for now until we find out what has happened to our nation." those were the last words Love note heard before the radio went back to static, the cyan filly blinked a couple of times as she digested all the information she just heard, her heart thumped in her chest and she nearly jumped as she heard the door creak open slowly and entered the same orange, stetson wearing, mare from yesterday.
She was balancing a small metal tray on her back that had a bowl and a cup of orange juice on it, "So ah see yer up already." she said with a small smile as she began walking to the bed, Love note watched the mare as she sat on the foot of the bed and answered "Yep..." she said and then mumbled "Woke up from a pretty interesting night." luckily the mare didn't hear as she passed Love note the tray of food.
Taking the tray with her hooves Love note tilted her head as she said "Thank you miss..." she trailed off quietly before tittering nervously "Seems I didn't catch your name yesterday." Love note said tapping her hooves together, "Oh, Applejack!'' the mare exclaimed quite proudly, "Um...Excuse me?" the mare chuckled softly "No, the name's Applejack sugarcube." "Oh..." Love note said in realization "So you must be that Love note filly Applebloom was talkin' about last night." Applejack said and Love note raised a brow as she picked up her glass of orange juice and downed it like it was no tomorrow, "She was talking about me?" Love note asked after licking her lips, clearly intrigued.
"Eeyup." Applejack said with a small laugh "She was talkin' about how you 'n' the other unicorn foals helped em' get outta the school before them muties' found you." "Muties?" Love note asked her, Applejack shrugged "Well that's what we decided ta call those things, but anyways ah owe you and apology and a thank you as well." Applejack said with a small sigh and Love note rose a brow, "What for?" she asked while putting a piece of hay bacon to her lips.
"Fer makin' Big macIntosh hit c'ha like that yesterday, ah don't know what was goin' on through our heads ta make us do somethin' like that to a small filly, and also thankin' you fer savin' that class and especially Applebloom, it takes guts ta do that kinda stuff, but you seem like a strong smart girl." Applejack stated, "Apology accepted and thank you." Love note said before pushing the tray off her lap and to her side.
"Though I wouldn't say scattering little foals around Ponyville is something to be thanked about..."
" s'cuse me?"
"Nothing..." Love note responded quietly making Applejack raise a curious brow, but she decided to shrug it off.
Looking back up at Applejack Love note asked a question that had been burning in the back of her mind for a while, "So...How did Applebloom get here? Did we like, well teleport her inside the barn or something?" she asked folding her hooves, Applejack looked back at her and said with a stolid expression "Not exactly, see me and Big macIntosh were out runnin' trying ta find her when she suddenly just popped up in the middle of the road half conscious, so we jus' took her back in the barn and stayed in until she told us about the other foals. So then we left, you came, and we came back, and etcetera you know the rest." Applejack finished with a wave of her hoof. "I...Guess that makes sense." Love note said watching as the apple mare stood up and stretched, looking back at the small filly Applejack chuckled lightly and said "Well ah'm gonna head back downstairs, you should come too once yer done. That colt Lightnin' is worried 'bout you." and with that she walked out
As Applejack left Love note sighed softly as she finished her breakfast quickly and hopped out of bed as she collected her dishes and placed them onto the tray before walking to the door, placing the tray on her back she opened the door with her magic and walked into the poorly lit hallway, chewing her lip casually the cyan filly made her way down stairs and saw Applejack sitting on the couch were Riptide lay, while Applebloom and Lightning sat on the rug doing nothing.
Applebloom was the first to acknowledge Love note's presence"Oh hey Love note, ah see yer outta bed already." Love note simply nodded in response before making her way into the kitchen and levitated the tray off her back, and placed them into the sink which was half way full with other dishes.
"How is Riptide doing?" Love note asked as she trotted out of the kitchen and towards the three, "His welts are going down, and we flushed out his cuts last night." Lightning said as he placed his hooves in front of himself. Love note sighed gently as she approached the couch the Riptide lay on, her expression was brooding as she saw her friend still laying on the couch lifelessly.
His cuts and bruises were bandaged and hopefully cleaned thoroughly, he was still unconscious as he rested peacefully on the worn out couch, looking up at Applejack Love note asked "Has he began to move at least?" Applejack sighed gently as she placed a hoof on Riptide's untidy mane and said "Yeah, he's been mumblin' and shiftin' around but nothin more." "Well...That's good, I guess." Love note said her eyes still fixated on Riptide who lay unresponsive to Applejack's touch.
The four of them stayed in silence before they heard a few loud bangs on the barn door, all their ears, not including Riptide's, perked as their heads turned to the source, "Is anypony inside!? We are the celestial guards, we're searching for any survivors!" a gruff voice said from outside, Applejack rose a brow as she turned to Lightning and whispered something to him, Love note didn't really hear what she said but it didn't matter as Lightning ran off somewhere, followed by Applebloom.
Applejack then walked quickly towards the front door and opened it up just a little so she could see outside, Love note jumped onto the couch with Riptide and blinked as she watched three celestial guards walk inside, one was a earth stallion, and the other was a unicorn stallion, while the last was a pegasus mare, all three looked identical in color none of them stood out from each other.
Their golden armor was dented and bore many scrapes and blemishes, their faces were covered in dirt and scrapes, and even though they looked liked they've been through hell their facial expressions were impassive as they spoke with Applejack.
"Ma'am we have been sent here, to the town of Ponyville, to evacuate any uninfected survivors and transport them immediately to the crystal empire." the unicorn stallion said in a deep gruff voice, the pegasus mare then added in "We have a train waiting at the station for us, and we really don't have much time." her voice was young and a bit on the raspy side, which made Love note think twice on her actual age.
Applejack nodded "Ah understand that completely, so jus' let us pack up our things and-" she was interrupted by the earth stallion, "I'm sorry ma'am but we don't have any time for that, we have to go immediately before the infected get into our course." he said shaking his head, he had a young husky voice that almost sounded...soothing.
Just then Lightning, along with the other two apple's came down one of the halls, "Whats with all the ruckus?!" Granny Smith said squinting her eyes at the celestial guards, "Nothin' granny, we jus' need ta move out before them muties get 'ere and eat our hide." Applejack said looking back at the elderly mare. The unicorn stallion snorted as he said "Please, we need to get going before the train leaves the station." Applejack then turned back to the three guards and said "Ah understand that sir, but ah just need ta make sure mah family knows what the hell is goin' on." Applebloom then ran up to her older sister and tilted her head "So we're leavin? Where are we even gonna go?" she asked, "Somewhere safe." Applejack answered putting a hoof over her younger sister's shoulder before looking back up at the guards.
"Alright we're goin', but we have a wounded colt with us." Applejack said addressing Riptide who lay near Love note, the guards rose their eyebrows as the pegasus mare asked "Was he bitten?" Applejack shook her head quickly as she responded "Oh no no no no no, he wasn't bitten, he was jus' messed up by some dim witted little rascals." the earth stallion nodded "We'll take your word for it ma'am." "Please just call me Applejack." Applejack said with a deadpan expression, the stallion then cleared his throat as he corrected himself "Applejack." he said before trotting towards Riptide and placing him gently on his back.
Love note watched as the armor wearing stallion took the unconscious colt away and she hesitantly followed as he waved a hoof for her to do so, "Alright let's head out now." the stallion holding Riptide said and his team members nodded as they all exited the barn.
As the group headed outside they shielded their eyes away from the bright sun, the leaves of the apple trees rustled softly in the wind, and the tender strips of green grass tickled their hooves, "Celestia be damned, another beautiful day ruined, its a shame." Applejack snickered, shaking her head.
"Alright let's form a barrier, if there are any infected in our way we need to have the guards around the defenseless, so I need you survivors to form a circle!" the unicorn stallion shouted, and almost immediately the most vulnerable got in the middle while the three guards went on the outside, to act as the defense. Looking around the stallion holding Riptide walked in front of the group as he said "Alright let's get moving." and with that they began trailing down the seemingly empty streets of Ponyville. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The only sound that could be heard echoing through the deserted streets of Ponyville was the thundering clash of the group's hooves as they collided with the stone ground. Everyone was running quickly down the road following every sharp twist and turn the leading stallion made. They suddenly stopped ,though, as a low groan was heard coming from behind a overturned food cart, the three guards drew their weapons, their eyes narrowed.
Just then a bloody head poked up from behind the cart, blood trickled down slowly from the deep wounds in its flesh, its mane was ripped out of its head showing the eroded scalp, and rows of yellow blood stained, snapping teeth that could rend pony flesh,were showing as it let out a small gurgling-like growling noise. The stench of rotting flesh hit the group like a bag of bricks causing, even the guards, to gag at the horrific smell.
The reanimated corpse didn't move as it stared at the group, just then a few other ones came out of their hiding spots, like alleyways, or open houses. Before the group knew it they were surrounded by infected. Love note whimpered as she squared her shoulders and backed up a bit, the guards however seemed unfazed as they eyed each one of the infected, they weren't about to let anything get in the way of their objective.
The pegasus mare's head shot back as she heard a scream-like roar come from behind her, once she turned she was met with a bloody corpse lunging at her, hunger filled its fiery orange eyes as it snarled at her, but she quickly ended it with a swift jab to the jugular with her spear. The point had lacerated its neck, and warm blood spurted out of it like a water fall .
And just like a lever had been pulled the other corpses began jumping left and right at them, seeming to never run out of energy.
The stallion holding Riptide quickly killed any infected within arms reach with grace and power, he stabbed one in its chest and tore through it like it was a sheet of paper, he killed another one with a kick and as it fell he smashed in its face with the hilt of his sword.
Grunts and screeches was all that could be heard as the battle went on, the unicorn stallion let out angry yell as more came his way and he was forced to back up closer to the group just for more fighting space, as one tried to throw itself at him he quickly brought his sword to it's stomach gutting it and swiftly sliced off its head for good measurement. Looking around the pegasus mare noticed more of the infected were coming, and quickly at that, looking back at her teammates she yelled out.
"We need to get out of here! They're advancing on us, and quickly! If we keep this up we'll be buried in infected!'' she could hear two loud grunts before one of the stallions yelled.
"Fall back, we need to keep moving!"
As they began running again they had to find different routes now that the infected were 'awake', the lead stallion grunted as he sliced up any unlucky infected member that got in their way.
By the time they made it to the train station a large pack of infected were already giving chase, looking back the earth stallion could see that the group was loosing energy and stamina and the infected were catching up very quickly, "C'mon you guys we have to speed it up!" He shouted over the hurricane of groans and screeches coming from the band of infected chasing after them. His words didn't seem to help for they were still tired, looking back in front of him he saw the conductor waving at them with one of the box car door's open for them, "Hurry, Hurry!" he could hear him shout as they got closer.
Just as they were half way there he heard a small scream, immediately he stopped and turned, and to his very clear horror he watched as Love note tripped and the infected gained on her. Looking back at the rest of the group he gave Riptide to the pegasus mare before he yelled out "Keep moving!" before unsheathing his blood spattered sword again and racing towards her.
Love note had never experienced something so horrifying in her life, a whole group of infected ponies charging at her fangs bared and ready to rip right through her, the stench of death was overwhelming her senses and made her vision blurry as she gagged. Looking back up she saw a blurry figure standing over her and could tell it was one of the infected, her eyes widened in terror as it opened it's mouth showing its rows of sharp teeth. Though she had seen it many times before it still didn't make it any less scary then what it was, as it began shooting down at her Love note's life flashed before her eyes.
Just as the undead pony was only a few moments from chewing off her face she watched as one of the guards practically body slammed it into the ground and stabbed it in the neck, standing back up he readied his sword and swung striking one from the underbelly and going all the way through.
After he killed off another one close to her he sheathed his swords and ran back to her, she let out a small yelp as he ducked his head under her torso and lifted her onto his neck and she immediately wrapped her hooves around him trying to hold on as he ran back to the train at break-neck speed.
Looking back she found that the infected were literally on his tail, constantly snapping their jaws at it, seeing this her grip only tightened around him but he didn't seem to mind. As he ran Love note could hear his heavy breathing along with the mixture of snarls and gurgling sounds from the infected, looking up she saw that the other guards were beginning to close the train door half way and noticed that the guard she rode on began to speed up.
Before she even realized what he was doing Love note found herself along with the royal guard gliding through the air as he jumped, her eyes widened as they flew inside the train landing roughly on the rugged floor of the box car, climbing off his back Love note watched as the other two guards immediately shut the door behind them and locked it with the metal latch.
"Are you guys alright?" the pegasus asked as she help Love note and the guard stand up, "Yes, I believe we're alright." he looked down at Love note a if to ask if she was alright and she nodded yes. Just as he got up and began to walk towards the other guards he stopped as he felt something grip his hind leg, and on instinct he looked back. Love note was standing on her hind legs, with her front hooves wrapped around his back leg, "Thank you." she said while letting go, and to her surprise the guard turned around and hugged her back. It kinda hurt because he was practically crushing her with his muscular arm, but at the same time it felt good. It felt nice to see something in this world hadn't changed.
At least not yet...
Letting go of her he said "Your very welcome." before trotting back towards his teammates
Love note nearly yelped as she felt something grabbed her from behind, craning her neck she saw that Lightning was hugging her alongside with Applebloom "Oh thank goodness your alright!" Lightning said letting her go. "Yeah for a second we thought we had lost you, and the guard!" Applebloom said, as she made the weirdest gestures with her hooves, then Lightning added, "But now we know your safe, so we don't have to worry anymore!"
As the train's horn blew and they heard the engine start the three went off to go find Applejack and the others, as they went from car to car they found that many other ponies were there too. Most had bandages on various parts of their bodies and others sat in corners crying their eyes out, they barely saw any foals which made them feel a bit worried. After making it through four passenger cars the trio finally found the apple family sitting in a passenger car that had beds luckily, the apple farmers sat on the side talking as the three came inside.
Hearing the door open and shut Applejack turned her head and smiled as she saw the three foals, they smiled back as they trotted up to them and jumped onto a chair of their own. Looking out the window Love note watched as the scenery outside began to change, first it was slow but as the train sped up the the outside world was just a blur, looking back at the rest if the group she sighed as she saw them talking to each other, smiles on their faces.
Yawning she decided it would be best to take a nap, it would probably take hours before they actually made it the the crystal empire, so climbing off her chair and walked to one of the beds and wrapped herself into the covers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Love note opened her eyes all she could hear was screaming and loud popping noises, like metal on metal, as the world around her twisted and contorted. she couldn't understand what was going on, only that her vision was slowly fading back to black as she lost consciousness.
When Love note opened her eyes again she felt extremely nauseous and dizzy, her vision was still blurry as her hooves hung lifelessly near her head, letting her head fall limp she let out a quivering breath.
Whatever room she was in it was dark, way too dark for her to really tell out anything for the moment. Grunting she squirmed around finding that she was somehow suspended upside down in the air. She could feel something wrapped around her left hind hoof and no matter how hard she tugged on whatever it was it wouldn't budge. Though her vision was still blurred she used all her upper body strength to lift herself up. Straining herself, she fiddled with whatever was holding onto her hoof until she heard a soft *click* and the thing holding her hoof suddenly let go letting her land on her neck. She yelled out in agony and slammed her front hoof onto the floor multiple times while biting her lip.
Tears stung the corners of her eyes but they did not fall, once the pain subsided Love note hissed as she rolled onto her shaky hooves, when she stood up straight she immediately felt vertigo set in and it didn't help that she couldn't see anything correctly. As she began walking her movements were clumsy and off balance, and she began crashing into things as she made her way through the dark. A ray of light suddenly came from her right shattering the darkness surrounding her.
Looking towards the lights source Love note squinted her eyes at the intensity of it. Standing in the light was a tall dark figure, she couldn't really tell if it were a zombie or a regular pony "Hello? Is anypony in here?!" Love note heard the figure say while it began to cluelessly stumble around, she couldn't decide whether or not to answer or just keep quiet.
The figure continued to walk around obviously searching for something, almost desperately. Seeing the pony get closer Love note dropped onto her stomach and hid behind a overturned train table, her breath caught in her throat as the figure walked closer to where she hid and stopped. She could hear their heavy breathing as they loomed over her, they stood there for a few more minutes before turning around. Love note sighed gently and began to stand up again, but her front hooves lost balance and she fell back down with a loud thud.
The figure stopped, its ears perked as it turned its head towards the noise. Love note shook with trepidation as the figure's hoof steps were heard coming closer and closer to her hiding spot, looking around frantically Love note grabbed the closet thing next to her with her magic and when the figure stood over her she flipped onto her hooves and swung.
The pony cried out in pain as whatever Love note held struck them in the face, a sickly crunch was heard along with the clash of iron on iron.
"CELESTIA DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL?!" the figure yelled out in pain as it rolled on the ground clutching its muzzle, Love note's eyes widened in surprise and she dropped the object being held within her magic. Running towards the figure she saw its golden armor and recognized the owner's voice "Oh man..." she mumbled.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! I am sooooo sorry!" Love note said while going to the guards side, the guard stopped yelling suddenly and stood up before Love note even realized it.
"Oh good your still alive." the guard said as if the whole situation that happened only a few seconds ago never happened, "Yeah, but where are the others at? And what happened here?!" Love note exclaimed looking up at the pegasus guard, the guard straightened herself up before answering "The others were evacuated from the train after it got derailed and tumbled down hill, we couldn't find everyone but I can assure you all of your group is fine." Love note let out a sigh of relief, "We do have to go though, its only a few hours before night fall, and the infected will be waiting if we don't hurry." the the guard said while putting a hoof towards her bloody nose.
"I think... I might have broke it." Love said sheepishly and the guard growled, "So I've noticed..." she uttered resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
Walking out the train Love note surveyed her surroundings. All it was, was a vast land of arid dirt. There was not a sign of any other significant life forms except for them.
It made her feel a bit...Uncomfortable, and she visibly shivered. Not because she was uneasy, but because the temperature was much colder than in the train, and the wind was heavy. Her mane blew against her face as she and the guard began trotting away from the wrecked train "Come on, this way." the guard said walking towards the north where the wind was blowing from, catching up with the guard Love note trudged through the harsh wind, the barren soil they walked on was hard crunching under them each time.
The guard snorted in annoyance and squinted her eyes as dirt and dust blew towards them "If we keep at this pace night will come before we even get half way to the safe house!" she shouted over the wind, Love note looked up at her and asked "So? what're we gonna do about it?" the guard stopped and said "Get on my back if we fly there we could get there within half the time."
Love note didn't hesitate to do what she said and quickly climbed onto her back holding onto her neck, "Not so tight kid." the guard said in a visibly strained voice. Loosening her grip Love note gave her a hangdog expression but the guard only ruffled her feather and spread them to full span. Taking off she could hear Love note let out a small ''Eep!'' and she tightened her grip around her neck again. Sighing gently the guard asked "So...What's your name?" wanting to start conversation, Love note clenched her eyes shut, too afraid to look at the ground and said in a shaky voice "I-I-I'm L-l-l-l-love n~ote..." the guard smirked, rolling her eyes playfully. "...Nice name, I'm Azure clouds. But everyone just calls me Azure for short." the guard said as she began surveying the ground below, "I like it." Love note said with a small, shivering sigh.
After a few minutes of silence Azure said "I see it just down there." she pointed a hoof downwards and Love note looked down from the side only to catch a glimpse of a dome shaped iron building with no doors. Azure slowed her flapping to almost a flutter as they began to descend towards the earth, landing she helped Love note off her back and the two began to trot briskly towards the safe house.
Once they got there Azure had Love note take a step back before she knocked a few times rhythmically. Nothing happened for a couple of minutes but soon enough a lavender aurora surrounded a small segment of the dome's front making it look as if it were a door, "C'mon." Azure said waving a hoof for Love note to follow.
Walking closer towards the aurora lit area Azure walked inside right through the metal, Love note's eyes widened but even through her disbelief she followed the pegasus mare inside. Once they were in Love note spotted a lavender mare with a indigo mane, streaked with one stripe of purple and one stripe of pink , standing next to the door a lavender aurora surrounding her horn. "Good your back, and I see you found somepony." she said looking at Love note, looking back up at Azure she asked "Were there anymore survivors that may have made the wreck?"
Azure shook her head remorsefully, "No. There weren't anymore, I searched every part of the train that wasn't caved in, but all I found was either nothing or crumpled bodies crushed under something." she said. And she,and the mare, sighed simultaneously.
"Well anyways the others are in the lounge trying to devise a plan for us to get to the Crystal Empire." the mare said turning on her heels, ''Also Azure, some volunteers are going to go out and search the place to see if its alright. And maybe see if it may have any weapons and/or food and water, and I would really appreciate it if you went along. They should be in room Fa which is down the hall to the left." Azure nodded and then saluted "Yes princess, right away!" she said before trotting off at a brisk pace.
The mare then looked down at Love note and smiled as she asked "So... What's your name little one?" Love note's concentration was elsewhere but her ears perked as she heard the mare's voice turn a little bit sweeter and knew she was talking to her.
She was at least fast enough to hear the word 'name' and immediately said "Oh, um... I'm Love note." she said while pawing at the cold steel ground nervously, "Oh, well I'm Twilight Sparkle." the lavender mare said, "You mean like 'Princess Twilight Sparkle'?" Love note asked quirking an eyebrow, "Yes, but if you start squealing I'll explain it plainly to you right now. Not. In.The.Mood." Twilight said, annoyance creeping onto her features.
Love note knew that she wasn't about to squeal over a princess she just met in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. She had a little more dignity than that, and also it really wouldn't be the right timing, and nor did she care to meet a princess anyways. Prestige didn't matter anymore in this cold hearted world, but Love note understood where the whole concept came from anyways. So nodding she said "I completely understand, but I wasn't about to scream over you anyways. It is already a bad time, and I'm pretty sure you have a lot of tasks at hoof and don't need another fan-filly squealing over you and trying to get your attention every second of the minute."
Twilight looked surprised at the filly's remark yet satisfied "So what Applebloom tells me is true, you are very smart." "Applebloom said something about me? again?'' Love note uttered and Twilight answered "Well yes, she has spoken of you. She told us that you and some other foals helped safe your class, and that you were still stuck on the train. Really if it weren't for her and that colt she's with, we wouldn't have checked the train again for any survivors!"
Love note had a shocked expression on her face after she heard Twilight's comment, "Really if it weren't for those two I would probably still be on that train?" Love note thought putting a hoof to her chin, "Well Love note, I think we should head back to the group." Twilight said as she began walking, Love note followed in close pursuit.
"So...Um, how did you do that spell back there? You know with the door?" Love note asked curiously, and Twilight chuckled softly at the filly's interest. "Well.. I learned it back when I was just a little filly, its really easy actually. Its a temporary intangibility spell, you can use it on almost any inanimate object, and even animate objects as well! I had a great time learning it with Princess Celestia." Twilight exclaimed happily, "Wait, you were Princess Celestia's student?" Love note asked raising both eyebrows. Twilight looked a bit surprised that Love note would ask that question, but answered."Well yeah I was. But um, didn't you learn about that in school already? You know about the elements of harmony, and what not?''
"Well yeah of course I learned about the elements of harmony, they were five ancient stones that princess Celestia used to banish Nightmare Moon, who is her sister Luna. They kept saying on the news that six mares are now the new elements of harmony, because they're the ones that managed to cast out evil from princess Luna, and even found a sixth element as well.'' Love note said with an unimpressed tone, "Well did you know that me and my friend are those six elements?" Twilight asked with a sly smile. "Possibly." Love note said with a smile of her own, "Applebloom always talks about how her sister and her friends go out on adventures all the time, and saved equestria from destruction. But anyways, what does this have to do with you being princess Celestia's student."
"Nothing." Twilight said. Love note had a mixture of expressions on her face as she looked at Twilight. Twilight laughed softly and shook her head as they continued walking.
As the two kept walking down the seemingly endless corridors an awkward silence hovered over them, So Love note decided to strike conversation again. "Sooo, how did you find our group?" Love note asked Twilight as they sayshayed down a dimly lit hallway. The lights flickered on and off and a small draft passed by them every few seconds, "Well actually your group found me. See, my friend Fluttershy and I were on a train like you guys, but we ran into a horde of the infected and the conductor fled on us. We managed to escape and found this place here, that's when your group found us a couple hours later. We let them stay because Applejack promised that you guys were good and could even help us get back to the Crystal empire, of course I trusted her. She is the element of honesty anyways, and one of my closest friends." Twilight explained as they reached the end of the hall, they faced a large steel door that had a number and a letter over it that read "R1" Twilight knocked on it a few times before someone opened it.
It was a young pegasus stallion with a messy head of chocolate brown hair, his body was a brownish tan color and the tips of his wind were smudged with brown. His eyes though were off putting, they were a beautiful azure color but near the pupil spirals of bright orange surrounded it and became white at the rings of the iris. His cutie mark was a black eye inside of a circle, it had no pupils only an iris that had spirals of his eye color.
He wore various bandages over one of his wings, head, and fore hooves, "Oh p-princess, y-you brought someone with you. Uh, p-please come in.'' he stuttered, Twilight smiled as she and Love note walked inside, "Thank you uhm..." Twilight started waiting for the stallion to say his name so she could finish her sentence.
The stallion looked at her then, at Love note, then back to her before talking "Oh I'm sorry, I'm uh...I am Bright eyes." he stuttered again rubbing his mane roughly, he looked extremely sleep deprived and acted like it as well. "Oh well, um... Thank you, Bright eyes." Twilight said hesitantly before adding in "You know I think they have beds in the upper levels maybe you could get some rest with some of the others." Bright eyes seemed to shake at the suggestion but nodded quickly and walked out into the hallway.
Love note looked up at Twilight with her eyebrows raised, the purple alicorn shrugged before walking towards the group that was huddled in the center of the room. Most sat on the outsides away from the two guards and extra few ponies who were sitting down discussing something among each other.
"Just look at what I'm saying here." One said in a whispering voice, "The infected roam around mostly at night so we would need to leave as soon as the sun rises, we have the map right here so we could run to the Crystal empire within at least three to four days." the same voice said, "Yeah we could do that but there is one problem to your plan. We have other ponies that are to wounded to get around, let alone walk all the way to the crystal empire! How do you expect us to even get one mile past here without having problems?!" another voice complained, "I agree, seeing that fact we wouldn't even get there within a week!"
"And look here, according to the map that's all of the infected territory!" a younger voice said.
"Everywhere is the fucking infected's territory! They'll roam anywhere at any fucking time they want!" a gruff voice cursed.
"Alright everypony, what seems to be the problem here?!" Twilight asked budding into their group conversation after telling Love note where Appljeack was. A dark grey almost black looking unicorn stallion, with piercing yellow eyes, and a navy blue mane answered "These dimwits can't find out a plan for how to get outta here!" his remark caused an uproar of swears from the group. Twilight grunted, "Look you guys." she said, they ignored her and continued to argue again, "You guys..." she said this time a bit louder, they still ignored her. "You guys, quit arguing and shut up!" she yelled, anger booming in her voice.
That got everyone's attention... Eveyone's.
Clearing her throat Twilight straightened herself and said in a slightly calm demeanor, "Alright. So let me ask again, what seems to be the problem here?" the stallions were deathly quiet as they continued to stare at the purple alicorn, but a younger stallion with a bright blue coat and a flurry of ash blonde hair spoke up, his expression was stolid as he spoke "Well princess we were just discussing on how to get the hell outta here.", Twilight looked at him with a raised eyebrow as her expression went from angry to mild as she asked "Alright, and have you devised one yet?" "No princess, we were unable to figure out one." the unicorn guard said shaking his head, Twilight sighed in response "Well why not?" "Well see here princess if you look at the map, all of our courses are now blocked by infected. And even if we did somehow get around them, we would lack in supplies to carry the wounded.'' a white stallion with a brushed back brown mane said with a grave expression.
Twilight grunted at this comment, This is not good Twilight, this is not good! Everypony is expecting me to help come up with a plan to get us to the Crystal Empire, but we don't have one! Oooooh, I wish princess Celestia was here. Twilight thought as a cold sweat began to form on the ridge of her brow. She shook her head quickly though as she began using that breathing technique Cadance taught her last time she and her friends visited the Crystal empire, looking back the group she said with a dead serious tone, "Let me see the map." the royal guard immediately handed it to her and she held it in front of her with her magic.
It was a yellowed and coffee stained map of Equestria, near Ponyville, Canterlot, the railroad, and the Everfree forest, were red circles. They were all different sizes and shapes, and Twilight suggested that the red stood for infected territory, looking on she saw that there were from three to ten small black circles standing dangerously close to the infected. She squinted her eyes at them, not exactly sure of what the were so without even moving the map away from her view she asked "What do these small black dots stand for?" a stallion quickly answered, "Those are other guards, they went out to see exactly how many infected there were, and how close they were towards here." Twilight hummed curiously as she asked "How long have they been gone now?" the same voice answered, "Umm, not to long ago. They came and drew the markings on the map before leaving again."
Exhaling through her nostrils Twilight looked over the map again before asking another question "Are there no working radios here? Have you not tried to radio the Crystal Empire?" this time the unicorn guard answered "Negative princess, all the radios are dead." Twilight huffed "Thought so." she mumbled quietly as she lowered the map and handed it back to the stallions.
"Well then...How're we gonna do this?" she asked raising a brow. The stallions seemed to pause for a moment before their faces became deeply inscrutable, making it hard for Twilight to read their expressions. It was at least twenty minutes before the stallions began discussing among each other again, "There's no possible way for us to get through the infected." a soft voice spoke, "As if we all don't see that." a slightly annoyed voice said, "I think we should go in small groups, meet up at one point and then get on the road." another voice said.
Twilight sighed gently as she rubbed her temples, looking towards the window to her right she watched as the sun speckled the sky with orange and soft red as it began to set. Quietly she made her way towards it and rested her elbows on it as she watched the sun gradually go down minute after minute, and as it went down she saw that the surrounding land was scarcely visible in the twilight. Just then Azure along with four other ponies trotted inside, Twilight raised a curious brow as she saw sweat dripping down their faces and could hear their heavy pants, "What's going on?" she asked as she confronted them, and Azure immediately stood at attention, her nose was now bandaged making her sound a bit nasally.
"We've just returned from the lower levels and there is some news, do you want the good news or the bad news?" Azure asked while trying to calm her breathing, "Good news first." Twilight said and Azure nodded, "The good news is, is that we've found supplies and weaponry, that could last us for a while." Twilight rose a brow as she put a hoof to her chin and said "Alright then, so what's the bad news?" Azure sighed heavily "Bad news is, is that most likely infected staff have crowded the supplies room, blocking our way." "WHAT?!" Twilight screamed in alarm but Azure seemed unfazed by it as she continued "We managed to keep them all in one spot so that they don't get up here, but I'm not sure it'll hold up for long."
"Well, umm... You couldn't have taken them out?" Twilight asked. Some bits of hope shimmered in her eyes, but it all was flushed out like a tidal wave as Azure shook her head "Negative, there's about hundreds of them in there. Those poor souls." Now Twilight was really nervous, though she had faced many life or death situations, this one was different. She didn't even have the elements of harmony to help, nor did she even know where half of her friends were at through all this madness. The alicorn stomped her hoof on the ground in anger, annoyance, and fear, "Dammit! It hasn't even been two whole days since this outbreak happened, and we're already in critical condition." she thought while gritting her teeth.
"So, you weren't able to find any weapons?" Twilight asked, her expression brooding. Azure shook her head 'no' "Actually princess we were able to find a few things lying around that could be used as weapons, but I wouldn't say it'd be enough for the whole groups protection." Twilight shrugged, "It'll have to do, so lets see them." Azure nodded, and on cue the four other ponies began digging through their saddle packs taking out different makeshift weapons. They set them all in front of Twilight, as Twilight looked through the pile she found that a particular weapon happened to catch her eye. It was a shiny metal object with a handle and something that looked like a muzzle, levitating it she asked "What is this?" an older unicorn stallion with a dark crimson coat and steamy yellow eyes answered "Its a gun, specifically a double-action revolver." "A gun?" Twilight asked now intrigued, he nodded "Yes, most likely you haven't seen one in person because they were taken off market after too many accidents with them, that almost always ended with death."
"How come you know so much about this?" Twilight asked while still examining the gun, "I'ma retired police officer." he said, and Twilight looked up at him "I though they didn't have those anymore." she said with a quizzical expression, "They don't, that's why I'm retired." he deadpanned, Twilight rolled her eyes in a playful manner. "So anyways, how does this thing work?" Twilight asked while lowering the gun, the stallion then took the gun with his own magic and placed it in his hooves.
"Alright then, revolvers operate with a revolving cylinder-" he pointed at the cylinder which was in the middle of the gun "For a magazine, in which you load ammunition and from which you must remove the empty shell casings." he then took out the cylinder and inside of it were six round bullets, he spun it with his hoof before locking it back place and continuing. "After each bullet is fired, the cylinder rotates to line up with the next shell with the firing pin.These guns are primed to be fired when the hammer-" he pointed at a small metal piece sticking up behind the aim, "Is cocked back into firing position." he pointed at the trigger then, which about half the size of his hoof and said "And lastly, pulling the trigger activates the firing pin, discharging the weapon. A release pin opens the cylinder and rotates the bullet out of from the barrel."
After he finished it seemed that really only Twilight was listening, but that didn't matter he was explaining it to her anyways. "So you understand right?" he asked tilting his head, Twilight brought a hoof to her chin as she answered "I suppose, but I don't think anypony else would use one of those anyways, so you can just keep it." the stallion nodded, and soon after Twilight dismissed them, but kept Azure for a while longer.
"Azure, we need to establish who gets weapons and what not." Twilight said with a mild expression, "Like who princess?" Azure asked while looking down at the medium sized pile of tools and weapons, most of them that they found were either tools from a tool box or damaged pipes, and even a few fire hatchets. "Most likely ones that have experience with weapons." Twilight responded and Azure saluted before grabbing a few weapons and trotting off.
Love note sighed as she lay uncomfortably on her side, Lightning was laying in front of her already sound asleep. He was facing in her direction and since there was nothing else to do she just stared at him, she could hear every inhale and exhale he made and occasionally he would snore and make a weird gurgling noise. Love note couldn't help but giggle every time he did, it was weird and somehow fascinating. Sighing gently she turned her back to him and closed her eyes, but before she could fall under sleep's spell something nudged her in the back and her eyes popped open. Craning her torso she looked behind her to see, to her surprise, Lightning who was standing behind her rubbing his eyes and yawning, grunting she asked him with a lazy yawn "What do you want?" stretching out his hind leg Lightning said with a tired raspy voice "I wanted to give you something, but then I forgot and fell asleep." Love note grit her teeth as she asked "You woke up in the middle of the night to get me up, just to give me something? What's so important here that you would do that?" Lighting looked at her, his blue eyes making contact with her red ones "It's your mom's knives, you left them back at the barn but I managed to get them." he said, and Love note sighed gently as she stood up. Not everyone was asleep, matter a fact majority of them were still wide awake talking amongst each other.
The two foals walked over or around the sleeping bodies of their group until they reached a corner that held all kinds of bags, purses, and satchels. Lightning dug through it until he found his yellow saddle pack, pulling it out of the pile he sat firmly on his haunches and dug through it searching for Love note's knives. "Ah, here they are." Lightning said pulling out the twin strap-on's, just as he was handing it to her one of the guards confronted them "What're you to doing?" he asked in his usual gruff voice, and almost immediately Lightning stuffed the two weapons back in his pack and stuffed it behind him before stuttering out "Umm...N-n-n-nothing s-sir!" Love note shook her head vigorously and added in, "Ah-um, yep. Nothing at all." the guard could obviously tell they were lying but he shrugged it off thinking it couldn't have been anything dangerous, "Alright then, I'll let you off with a warning." both Love note and Lightning sighed simultaneously "Okay, now get on outta here." the guard said in a seemingly playful voice, but Love note thought otherwise as she and Lightning briskly walked back.
Keeping her head down Love note angrily shouted in a whispering voice "Next time just keep it in the bag." Lightning only looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she sighed gently.
As the two made it back to were the other three were at they saw both Applejack and Applebloom were sleeping, Applebloom was sleeping peacefully on her sister's lap while Applejack slept sitting up, with one hoof over her sister's back. Looking around they found that Big macIntosh and granny smith were resting on the other side of the room. Sighing gently Love note took spot next to Lightning as they laid down a bit further away from the apple sisters. Again Lightning went to sleep facing her but Love note didn't mind, yawning gently she closed her fatigue ridden eyes and fell asleep.
Day came quickly, leaving many of the ponies unsatisfied with their rest, especially Love note. Her bright red eyes and dishveled mane made notice of that. As the sun rose and painted the sky with gold Love note yawned, while trying to blink the sleep away. As she rose to her hooves she noticed that everyone else was forming some kind of line in front of Azure and another guard. They seemed to be counting, maybe it was for taking roll...Or something like that.
Creasing her brow Love note inched behind someone already standing in line, peering from the side of them she saw, Azure and the stallion guard, direct one pony after another into two different sets of lines, which seemed to be managed by the last guard and Twilight. As Azure continued the line got shorter and shorter until finally she came up to Love note.
Azure looked down at her and said "You're in line number two." she then pointed at the group being managed by the guard. Love note nodded and began to briskly canter towards the line getting in the back.
"Alright everyone!" Azure said loudly getting everyone's undivided attention, "Now I know your all probably thinking, 'Why Are they waking us up this early, right?' " she said with a dumb comical voice as if to mock her audience. "Well I'll tell you why!" she yelled making Love note flinch in surprise. "There's been a report, if we ever want to get to the Crystal empire and get the appropriate supplies for you all then we need to get moving!"
Azure's expression hardened, her brows furrowed into a line across her forehead and her mouth formed into a tight-lipped frown.
"The infected, as you saw yesterday, are relentless and will stop at nothing. They will continue to kill and disrupt our once peaceful land and won't let anything stop them, that is why wemust move quickly!" she grit her teeth, her demeanor never faltering, "The guards posted at the Everfree forest have cleared a path for us. They warded off most of the infected and it should at least be safer for us to get through in one piece, we don't have much supplies so we might have to ask some of you to offer to others that are in worse condition."
Twilight then stepped into view and added in "We leave this evening, which gives us just about enough time to pack up maybe serve some breakfast and head out. But we'll need everyone's help, disabled not included."
Azure nodded firmly, "So...Everyone got that?" everyone nodded in unison, though there were some grumbles of anger, "Then lets get going."
"The supplies are in the kitchen, that's where we're getting everything prepared at, all your bags and possessions have been moved securely to the kitchen and have not been touched." Azure said, her expression stone hard. She was really serious about this, which only reminded Love note about how horrible the situation she was in was.
"So, chop chop everyone, let's get going!"
The dead silent hall was now filled with the loud Click, Clack and Cling, Clang of the group's heavy hooves, the harsh ragged breathing and low whispers only added to the noise. Love note stayed silent though until Lightning caught her attention, he was with the line following Azure.
What could he possibly want?, she thought while looking at him. The lines weren't even arms length apart due to how closed in the corridors were so it was easy for them to strike off a conversation.
"Hey Love note." Lightning whispered, "Do you think we'll run into more of those things?" Love note looked at him for a few moments before looking forward again and answering, "I don't know, probably. Azure said that the other guards got them away from our path so...I guess we might." Lightning nodded at that, looked forwards for a few seconds, then turned back towards her.
"Do you think that they found your knives in my saddle pack?'' he asked with a somewhat worried expression. Love note almost groaned with annoyance but didn't and answered, "I don't know Lightning bolt...I doubt it, but we'll find out soon enough though.''
Lightning stop talking after that and Love note sighed in slight relief.
The two groups stopped in the middle of the hallway as they reached an open door. Inside were very small piles of saddle packs, weapons, and supplies. They all stepped inside one by one, and Love note looked around the room seeing boxes on every side of it. Each one of them had a symbol of a cow head on it which probably meant they all came from the same place. She barely gave it a second thought though as they stopped near a lunch bench, much like the ones at her school.
"Alright everyone." Azure started, "What we're going to do here is, taking the supplies that you are assigned to and putting whatever can fit inside of a box," she pointed at the boxes around the room, "So we can get them into the wagons, which the other guards are preparing. " "So everyone got that?" she asked, "Yes." everyone said before the guards began assigning places.
Love note was placed to pack up medicine with some of the others, they had given them paper bags to put specific medicines in. It definitely wasn't a lot to pack and they only needed one box to put them all in. Since they were one of the first to finish packing, Love note and the group she was with were able to wait for a bit until they were needed to help loading.
Thirty minutes went by quickly, and soon everyone was finished packing up all the supplies. Everyone grabbed their saddle packs and whatever they could carry and began making their way outside after Twilight had cast her spell on the door for the last time.
The air outside was filled with dust, choking their lungs and scratching their throats. After walking a few feet away from the safe house five ponies were seen, three of them were lunar guards while the other two were celestial guards. The celestial guards were hooked up to traveling carts, ready for them to pack the boxes in them.
Azure met up with one of the lunar guards and they began discussing something, while the other two helped put up all the supplies. "The way through the Everfree is still very dangerous though, especially at night time." Love note happened to overhear the lunar guard say as she helped place smaller boxes in the traveling cart, "We know that but hopefully they won't trouble us. And it's not any safer in that building we were in either, there was a bunch of infected inside of the basement down there, and it didn't seem like those doors were going to hold them back any longer." Azure remarked. The Lunar stallion sighed uneasily, "How did this even happen? Its only been three damn days since the outbreak and it seems that already half the population are...infected..." he said only above a whisper, Azure sighed and nodded in agreement.
"We should hurry up and meet with the other three in the forest and set up camp there." the lunar guard said quickly, as if the whole conversation hadn't started, and Azure nodded. Turning back to the group Azure spoke, "Alright everyone, its time to get moving."
The group and the five extra guards walked through the forest, it was already past noon, but they weren't able tell due to the thick parcel of trees. The wind whistled through their leaves and blew the dying ones from the branch they used to live on.
The whole trip had been mainly quiet besides the constant squeak of the carts as they rode over rocks. Love note sighed, her body undulated to the wobbling of the unsteady cart she rode in.
Twilight, had allowed foals and very weak to ride in the carts, and most of the riders had fallen asleep already...but Love note couldn't, despite how exhausted she was herself. Looking around she observed her surroundings, the eerie rustling of the trees and the squeaking of the carts disturbed her. She was just expecting something, anything, to jump out and attack them when they least expected it.
But alas, none of that did happen, which surprised her. Surely something would've happened, especially from what she had heard from the guard's conversation. Her eyes narrowed to a barely noticeable squint as she surveyed the landscape, but she sighed and shook her head. Maybe it was just the paranoia getting to her, but her mind disagreed with that thought. She even began to wonder why she thought that.
"Whoa!, she let out an unexpected yelp as the cart stopped suddenly.
Getting back up she peered over the side of the cart to see if everything was alright and saw that three other celestial guards were standing in front of the carts.Twilight and Azure headed over towards them, while the other guards began unpacking the tents and sleeping bags, which they managed to find back at the safe house in one of the rooms. Love note was helped out of the cart and stood at the sides near everyone else.
Twilight turned to face them and said, "Alright everyone, we're going to be setting up camp here. Night time will come soon so we should hurry up and get settled in." she then called over some ponies to help set up things while Azure instructed the rest to just sit tight and wait until they were done. Then she and the lunar guard she was talking to earlier set out to find firewood in the meantime.
Love note chewed her inner cheek as she waited for everyone to finish up, she was jaded, and out of boredom began trying to straighten out her messy mane, she sighed gently. She defiantly couldn't wait until she got to the Crystal Empire, then maybe finally she could take a bath.
She smiled at that thought and looked around, everyone working or resting looked just as miserable as her, maybe even more so. "How did things end up this way?" she thought and groaned silently. Blinking tiredly she saw little specks, of barely even noticeable, splinters of sunlight cascade down onto the forest floor, lighting up small parts of the grassy forest floor.
Sitting upwards she saw that the tents were done, they looked very big, maybe enough to fit at least six ponies in one of them. Love note almost sighed happily but was interrupted as Azure said, "Alright everyone, before we go on to sleep, we're going to eat. Its not much though, so be grateful you got anything." Love note's stomach rumbled loudly just then, and she noticed just how hungry she actually was.
Standing up and dusting herself off she made her way towards Azure. She and another celestial guard, had began unpacking a few boxes with packed grass, energy bars, and water bottles. It definitely wasn't the best food but it was what they could manage to get their hooves on. They portioned the food so everyone would have the same amounts and gave everyone half a bottle of water.
Love note sat down and looked the mound of grass she had received, it was at least cleaned and free of dirt. She chugged the water first, being as parched as she was, and then begrudgingly began to eat her grass. It tasted bitter, sour, and earthy, all at the same time. It was a bit tougher than most foods she had eaten so it had taken her longer than she would have liked to get it down. Finishing the rest of her grass she watched as they placed a bunch of big rocks in a circle around the firewood and then someone began the fire with a lighter.
Smoldering, the fire licked the bottom of the wood, like a hungry kitten with a bowl of milk, crackling, and playful at first. Then soon enough the fire rose, leaped and twirled in a golden dance. The glowing embers popped and shimmered like stars in the hot swirling air before cascading back into the flames. Love note watched the fire, mesmerized by its dance, grey and black puffs of smoke rose from the fire as the flames licked at the air.
Love note sat by the fire with many others, enjoying the warmth it gave, but it wasn't much. After about ten minutes of sitting there she finally felt all the fatigue of the day wash right over her, exhaustion got the best of her and she felt as if she could collapse right then and there. Standing up onto tired legs she made her way to a random tent, it was a bit smaller than the other ones, and inside of it she found that everyone had to share a sleeping bag with someone. It didn't matter if you knew them or not, all of the other ones were occupied except for one that was taken by that stallion she met the other day, Bright eyes.
Sighing loudly she walked over to him, looking over him she saw he was already sound asleep, much to her relief.
Tiredly she made her way to inside the sleeping bag, awkwardly sliding her body inside next to his. Their bodies weren't close together due to how big the sleeping bag was, but Love note could still feel the heat radiating off of Bright eyes as he slept beside her. Closing her eyes Love note sighed as she began to fall asleep.
Four guards were sent on watch, each positioned out of sight of each other. As the wind blew and rustled through the dead leaves on the forest floor the guards stood at attention with readied weapons. They stood a good two feet away from the camp, and after two hours was over another guard would come running from the camp to swap places with them. A pegasus celestial guard with, charcoal grey fur and amber yellow eyes, stood alone in the dark Everfree forest. His spear was pointed and ready by his side as he waited and watched. His eyes never once left his surroundings, his ears perked though as he heard heavy hoof steps behind him coming towards him, turning around he sighed softly as he saw a unicorn royal guard approach him through the darkness. The other guard's armor shimmered dully in the pale moonlight, "Captain..." the other guard panted out, "Captain, your shift is over." he approached his superior, who placed a hoof on his armored shoulder and sighed.
"What the hell has Equestria fallen into?" asked the captain, the other soldier looked up at him then sighed shortly after. "I-I really don't know." The two shared a sigh before the captain began making his way back, leaving the younger in the dark forest. His pale green eyes scanned the terrain, looking over every rock and tree.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and swiveled his perked ears. Rustle, rustle... His breath cut, and he suddenly snapped his whole body backwards. Frantically his eyes looked around for the sign of a possible threat, Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustel, rustel..., the sound of leaves being shaken was getting louder. The young guard's heart began to race, pounding against his chest as he began to slowly walk forwards towards the noise. His blue magic held his pointed sword above him as he walked, his golden armor clanking softly against the ground. "W-who's out here?" he asked through grit teeth,...nothing..., he thought with a short sigh. His whole body relaxed, "Damn this blasted forest, and damn this stupid outbreak!" He suddenly yelled loudly in frustration as he rubbed his temples. His ears perked again as the same rustling sound returned, sending cold shivers down his spine. Crinkling his features he grasped his sword tighter with his magic, "Damnit, if anybody's out here just come the hell out already!" He hollered out. A sharp gasp escaped his mouth as he heard a loud groan or two, finally out of the bushes that surrounded him two undead ponies crawled out. One, a large bulky stallion with his belly torn wide open and ribs protruding through rotting flesh, while the second was a young filly, her face was a mangled bloody mess, and from her stomach and lower was torn and shredded, her intestines were the only things keeping her body from splitting.
The unsuspecting guard was now stricken with horror and disgust as the foul stench of blood and death entered his nostrils. He hacked and sputtered at the putrid smell, staggering backwards a little bit. His eyes watered slightly as his stomach tried to retch up whatever it could. But there was nothing for him to throw up, stomach acid burned in the back of his throat and its disgusting taste was left to burn in his mouth. The two undead ponies snarled as they saw the retching stallion guard, the stallion was the first to charge, hunger filling his dull eyes. The stallion guard looked up in just enough time to jump away from the charging, flesh eating, monster. Looking through his blurry, watery eyes, the guard readied his sword, coughing heavily.
The undead stallion stumbled a bit but regained its footing as it charged at the guard again. The guard, with sword ready, swung at the stallion, striking its chest. The cut bled dark red, almost black looking, blood but the undead stallion showed not a bit of pain. It just snarled showing its yellow fangs as it growled. The guard stumbled backwards again, coughing roughly, his hoof covered his muzzle at an attempt to block out the smell of rotting corpses but it didn't work a bit. The undead stallion charged again this time grabbing the guard's armored shoulder and knocking him down. "Ahh!" The guard wailed as he was suddenly shoved onto the dirt. The sharp pain of his armor digging into him, as he landed on his back, distracted him from the foul stench for a split second. The undead stallion let out a growl-like roar as it snapped it teeth together and began biting the guard's armor. The stallion guard yelled, struggling under the undead ponies grip, the bite force of the stallion making his armor dent and cut his skin under it.
Tears filled the guards eyes again, mainly from the smell but also from the pain as well. Screaming and wiggling in pain the guard activated his magic again and grabbed his sword. Grunting he brought it over to him and began to randomly strike the undead stallion, but nothing worked, it only seemed to get the undead stallion angrier. Suddenly the guard felt something tug on his hind leg, and to his horror it was the undead filly, it steadied itself over the un-armored part of his leg and vigorously began biting into it. It was the most horrible, most excruciating pain he had ever experienced in his entire life. The guard yelled into the night. Wailing for anyone to help him as the two undead beasts began to tear and eat him up alive.
A yell echoing in the midst of night awoke Azure as she slept standing up, leaning on the side of one of the carts. The flutter of birds flying off filled her ears and she automatically brought up her spear, her wings shifting on her sides. "What the...hell..." she whispered quietly, slightly disoriented from just waking up, she scanned the campsite. There was no danger to be spotted, but that yell certainly sounded like whoever made it was in pain. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Somethings not right..." she mumbled, furrow in her eyebrows. There was nothing to see except the leaves fluttering down from the trees, and the dying campfire licking at the air. Her ears swiveled and so did her head as she heard heavy, short, pants and gasps for air. Running from the bushes a unicorn guard, bleeding and bruised, approached her. He collapsed into a heap, making Azure catch him before he hit the ground. "Whoa, what the hell happened to you?!" She yelled with raised eyebrows. The shivering heap in her hooves looked up into her eyes, "They...at-tack...ed...m-" The stallion guard tried to say but was interrupted by a coughing fit, blood bubbled up and Azure crinkled her eyebrows in frustration. Her mouth twisted into a an angry snarl,"Dammit, their here too?!" She looked back down at the dying stallion and set him down on the grass. "Let me end your suffering quickly." She whispered to him. The stallion guard nodded, understanding what she meant. Taking out her spear she swiftly cut his head clean off. Sighing quietly she backed away before taking off a in a full sprint to began waking everyone up.
"EVERYONE, WAKE UP! THERE'S AN EMERGENCY, WAKE UP!!!" Azure yelled at the stop of her lungs as she ran towards the tents. The guards sleeping were the first to wake up, disturbed from their slumber as Azure shouted. Some of the guards approached her asking what was the matter, and just as she told them three or four undead ponies snuck out of the bushes, groaning and growling with hunger. Azure grit her teeth with frustration, her features darkening as she readied her spear. "Celestia dammit, there here already!" one of the guards yelled, and the sound of multiple swords being pulled out filled the air along with the frightened screams of the ponies waking up.
Azure grunted, snorting angrily, as she squinted her eyes through the darkness, trying to see where the undead where. Some had already began to enter the campsite, and now the other ponies had began to run around trying to avoid getting their life taken away. The fleeing of ponies and undead did not help any of the guards, and only worked as more confusion. Azure's head shot up though as she heard a growl from behind her and immediately turned around to see and undead pony bite at her.
She quickly jumped away, found her footing, and went for the jugular. The undead freak of nature dropped within seconds, and Azure was already back into a fighting stance. Running over to a group of ponies cowering near a few bushes she fought of another zombie before instructing them to head over to the carts. Just as Azure turned to run back to the fight two undead ponies jumped her, growling and snapping their jaws at her. Their gnarled faces holding sunken milky white, lifeless eyes, and their gaping mouths holding rows of meat tearing canines. Azure gagged at the smell of fresh blood and dying corpses as the two ganged up on her. They both aimlessly attacked her, one of them being able to knock off her helmet. Azure grunted angrily as her helmet was knocked off, pink and light orange hair spilled into her face as she grabbed her spear and attacked.
Swiftly she stabbed one in the chest, a wet ripping noise echoed as its rotting flesh tore, the undead pony snarled growling wetly as blood gurgled up to it's mouth, yet it still wouldn't die. It struggled on the end of her spear, and Azure grunted as she pulled it out, the other undead pony coming up behind her. Before Azure even had a chance to struggle the rotting corpse knocked her down, both toppling clumsily on the grassy floor. The spear still held by her mouth stabbed the corpse through the neck as it fell over her. Thick blackish red blood dripped from the opening in the opening bin it's rotten flesh, and dripped down onto her armor. She didn't have time to waste though, so ignoring her minor disgust she rolled back onto her hooves. The other undead pony lay on the ground, weakly trying to bite her. Azure's features darkened as she narrowed her eyes, "Fuck off, ankle biter." She said coldly before jabbing the head of her spear through its skull. Brains and bone matter splattered across the forest floor, and Azure quickly pulled her weapon out from the corpse's head. Looking back towards the campsite she quickly ran back, and it was complete chaos.
The living were being killed off by the undead faster than light itself. And guards were trying their best to fight them all off, but too many were coming in too fast. Loud bangs of a gun going off rang out through the night, louder than the bloodcurdling screams, and whimpers of innocent lives being taken away.
*** The night felt cold, and the wind was hard as it blew past Love note. Her cyan coat dancing in the wind, as the pale moon light shined down on the black ground. Love note looked around, a worried expression plastering her young face. "Mother...? Father…?" She said softly, her voice echoed through the dim land, when suddenly the squawk of black birds could be heard as they flew out in a group. Their wings of darkness covered the low light of Luna's moon, and their screeching caws and heavy flapping wings disturbed the unsettling tranquility. Love note cowered at the mass of birds as they all suddenly dove downwards; they seemed to be heading right for her! She ducked, only to find it had been in vain. The black birds began to fly around in a circle in front of her, soon creating a tornado of wings and beaks.
Love note backed away slightly, a hoof shielding her eyes as the strong turbulence blew dust all around. Soon the birds began creating a black silhouette of a pony. The birds soon disappeared, no longer to be seen, almost as if they hadn't existed at all. And now standing there was a dark pony, it looked much like a stallion from it's head to it's build. Love note, bringing her hoof down slowly, stared in awe at the black stallion. He was almost hard to see in the pitch black sky of the night. Suddenly his eyes flashed open, glowing bright yellow, and as far as she could tell he seemed to be smiling. It was a soft, comforting smile, one of which she didn't expect to see coming from such a scary looking stallion. "Do not be afraid..." she heard a voice say. She guessed it was the stallion's, but the voice didn't come from where he was standing. His lips moved in sync with the words but the voice came from all directions but his.
Swallowing hard Love note took a hesitant step forward, but as she got closer the stallion suddenly appeared different. No, this pony was not even a stallion anymore, now he...He was a mare! No, no...More specifically it was her mother! A dark blue unicorn mare with astonishingly bright sapphire blue eyes, and a purplish red mane put into a messy bun, stood facing the opposite direction. The mare bore scars across her body, and one large one had destroyed her cutie mark on her left flank.
Love note stopped in sheer surprise. Her eyes must have been failing her as she stuttered out whatever she could come up with, "M-m-m-mom? Wh-wha-? How???" The filly's mother turned towards her daughter, her ears perked as she heard her daughter's voice. "L-love note?" The mare asked, astonished to see her daughter just as much as her daughter was to see her. Without thinking about her actions Love note ran to her mother, and hugged her legs tightly. She was welcomed by a loving hoof wrapping around the small of her back tightly. Tears suddenly began to drip from her eyes as she gently sobbed into her mother's soft fur. "W-where are we?" She heard her mother ask, but Love note shook her head, "I-I, I don't know mom..." the filly responded. Sniffling softly love node's head suddenly shot up as she heard a familiar moaning. Looking around frantically she watched as five, six, eight, ten! Walkers lurked out of the gloomy darkness. The stench of death suddenly filled the air, choking her lungs with the putrid smell of rotting flesh. The walkers moaned and hissed hungrily, their dead eyes looking over the mother and foal with pure and undying hunger. They didn't care what they killed or how much they killed, just as long as they were fed, which seemed to be impossible seeing as how they were never satisfied with whatever they got. Love note gasped softly as she felt her mother's grip tighten around her, she smiled as she looked up at her mother. Her smile was soon replaced with a look of sheer horror as she watched as her mother's face melted into one of a distorted, lifeless, HUNGRY, mangled face. Her face was ripped from the eye all the way down to her jaw. Chunks of flesh hung off her exposed skull. Her body was bloody, and Love note could see the exposed intestine hanging partially out of her mother's torn stomach. "looOOOOOVVVVvvveee...NnnnnnOOOOOTTTE..." Her 'mother' groaned out, her voice low, and raspy. Love note broke away from her mother's grasp, and backed up slowly. Her head shook in disbelief, "N-no...Nooo...Please, Celestia! NO!!!" She whimpered as she backed away, this…This COULDN’T be real...it - it had to be some kind of crazy joke, some hallucination.. an illusion? A dream?! SOMETHING!!! Her mother began advancing, slowly "LOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEE NOOOOOOOOTTTTEEE." "…No..."
"no,no,no,nononononononoNONONONONONONONONONO!!!!" Love note screamed.
Suddenly a pain surged through Love note's abdomen, and her eyes popped open. Screams of ponies, moans of walkers, and the sound of swords being drawn was what now filled Love note's ears. She could no longer hear the deafening sound of her mother's screaming her name. No...Not anymore. Now she could hear the sound of foals and adults screaming for their lives; the sound of flesh being torn, and fire crackling. The stomping of rowdy hooves on the forest floor; the slashing of swords, the breaking of bones, and the cries of guards as they fell into the clutches of the dead...That of which she had experienced before wasn't real. THIS was real...What she had just witnessed was nothing more but a mere dream...No. Not even a dream, a nightmare. A horrible, horrible, nightmare. And now she had awoken, to a real nightmare; a nightmare in which she could not escape by just opening her eyes. This was her life now... And it was a living hell.
