I clawed my way out of Willamette, I fought hard, to uncover the truth of what happened in that mall. And things were good... real good... for a while. Then, I let things get to me. I let things get out of control. I just wish, I had one more chance
I clawed my way out of Willamette, I fought hard, to uncover the truth of what happened in that mall. And things were good... real good, ...for a while. Then, I let things get to me. I let things get out of control. I think deep down, I knew I had to uncover what was really going on. I just wish, I had one more chance... one more chance, to get back in the game.
WARNING: Blood and guts, swearing, probably adult themes and Frank West badassery. While working on my main fic, Defender of Equestria, I realized I couldn't write any more of it until I posted another fic to jog my brain and get me in the mood, so after a bit of playing and nostalgic memories, I came up with this. A crossover starring Frank West. Made this with anthros because it would make it easier for Frank to get used to the world. So sorry if you're not the biggest anthro fan. And by anthro I mean, just like Equestria girls, but with them keeping their wings, horn, magic, etc. Cover art used with permission by Jaimito on deviantart, please check him out, his art is really awesome.
"Zombies, they took our Willamette, they took our Las Vegas, but tomorrow night, America, we're getting a little payback!" The sound of explosions, groaning and the splattering of blood from the television filled the dark room. And sitting in a couch in said room was none other then forty one year old, Frank West. Wearing nothing but plain white boxers, a beer in one hand and the remote in the other.
Taking a swig, the freelance photojournalist, ex superstar watched in boredom as the commercial played on the screen. "Don't miss Terror is Reality, as contestants fight off massive hordes of the undead trying to win fabulous cash and prices!"
Frank slowly blinked as he watched. "I wish I'd gotten fabulous cash and prices." He muttered out loud.
"And as closing act, we have the most bloodiest motocross race in all of American entertainment, with special guest, ex motocross champion, Chuck Greene!" The screen flashed white as it was suddenly replaced by a picture of a dark blonde, man wearing a black and yellow leather jacket, the name Chuck Greene flashing behind him. The sound of a roaring crowd in the background.
With a roll of his eyes, Frank took another swig from his beer. "Man, it seems anyone can be a zombie killer these days, in my day, you needed balls to do that shit, and now, they even get paid for it..." He groaned as he placed the now empty beer bottle on the table in front of him. When suddenly, the sound of a beeping alarm clock was heard, and with yet another groan, Frank reached to the cabinet in his side, opening it, he reached inside it and pulled out a small blue and white box with the words 'ZOMBREZ' labeled on it.
Opening it and taking out the syringe inside, Frank proceeded to inject himself in the neck, the sound of compressed air and sizzling liquid escaping was heard. With a grunt, he pulled it out and threw it to the trash can beside him. "Alright, no more zombification problems for another twenty four hours... yay."
Getting up, Frank headed towards the bathroom, turning on the faucet, he began washing his face, raising his head, he looked himself in the mirror, his face sported a few wrinkles, a bit of his hair had fallen off, and his eyes... they looked so tired. "How I wish I could get another chance... another chance to get back in the game." He whispered to his reflection.
"Get back you son of a bitch!" The sound of gun fire was heard, and the sound of blood splattering and flesh being torn apart as well.
Smoke, fire, blood, guts, this what could only be seen around Ponyville, actually, there was one more thing, zombies, hordes of them.
Everywhere, ponies of all kinds ran for their lives while others were being eaten alive, their gargled screams filling the air. While others fought off with guns, swords or any makeshift weapon, that's where a cyan pegasus comes in, surrounded by walking corpses, she held a bloody baseball bat with what looked like nails hammered into it, panting and breathing heavily, she yelled out. "Come on, bring it on, all you're gonna' find, is death!" Swinging at the closest zombie, the pony known as Rainbow Dash sent the brains of the undead flying, successfully killing it.
But a quick look around her made her start shivering, zombies were starting to group around her. "You cowards, all getting together to take me down, well, guess what!?" She dropped her bat and pulled out a machine gun from her waist, cocking back the hammer she squeezed the trigger and a barrage of bullets was sent flying everywhere, she had no time to aim and just shot from her hip. "I'm not ready to die!"
After a few seconds, a clicking noise was heard, she ran out of ammo, luckily for her, it was enough to kill or at least incapacitate all of the surrounding zombies, with a sigh of relief, she released the empty magazine and replaced it with a full new one.
Bending down and picking up her spiked bat, she began walking towards a certain treehouse, hoping a certain egghead was still alive. But on her way over there, she stopped in her tracks, looking at the ground, she saw a couple of zombies on the ground, moaning and groaning, their bodies filled with bullet holes. But Rainbow Dash knew better, they weren't just zombies, they used to be her friends, and know... they're nothing but flesh eating monsters.
Biting down on her lower lip, she held back a sob as she spread her wings and took flight.
"Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh, everyone is dying, there is blood a-and guts all over the streets, and I haven't heard from the princess's or anyone else from my family, and I have no idea how to fix it!" Yelling was what filled the library of the newest princess, Twilight Sparkle, said princess was now pacing back and forth, her hair messy and out of place, dried tears adorning her face.
Meanwhile, a purple skinned, green haired kid looked at her worryingly, he held a large kitchen knife in hand and wore a cooking pot in his head as a helmet. "Twilight, stop, there's no way you can blame yourself for this!" He yelled. "You had no idea a friggin zombie apocalypse was going to happen, no one did!" The boy known as Spike glared at his life long friend.
"Spike is right Twilight, no one knew... no one knew." Sadly said a white skinned unicorn with a curly mane, she was siting on the ground, a smaller unicorn with curly pink and light purple mane beside her, hugging her.
A loud thump was heard. "Especially Big Macintosh and Granny Smith, those bastards just fucking gobbled dem' up, and I couldn't do a damn thing but watch!" A well built orange skinned earth pony yelled out, her stetson covering her eyes and light blonde hair, her fist resting on the wooden wall next to her.
"Applejack... please don't sah' bad words." Weakly said the little yellow skinned filly beside her, as she looked up with sad eyes, probably on the verge of tears.
Applejack looked down and immediately kneeled down to hug her sister, Applebloom. "I'm sorry Applebloom, I just still can't believe they're gone..." The orange mare clenched her teeth as tears started falling down her face. "But don't you worry, I'll protect you, no matter what, I swear on Ma and Pa's love, I won't let anything happen toy you, my baby sister..." She sobbed, Applebloom could do nothing but start crying as well, hugging her sister tightly.
Suddenly, the sound of a window opening was heard, everyone turned towards the sound, the upper window, Spike readied his weapon, Rarity hugged Sweetie belle, Applejack got in front of Applebloom and finally Twilight froze in place, her left eye twitching.
Only for all of them to sigh in relief as a familiar rainbow haired pegasus jumped inside, her black and blue jumpsuit covered in blood. Bat and gun in hands. "My Faust, that was shit, they're everywhere, the only reason I'm still alive is probably this uzi I found on that guy's hand, a few spare clips too." She sighed as she walked towards the group. "Twilight, please tell me you have a solution with this thing, Lyra's place was filled with those undead bastards, so getting this was really friggin hard..."
Rainbow Dash handed said librarian a large bloodied book. And for the first time in what seemed forever, Twilight smiled. Grabbing the book, the alicorn started flipping through the pages. "Ok, if I remember correctly, this book is for summoning creatures from other worlds, and if I'm luckier, I can manage to find that one guy from that earth place!"
Spike went slighltly wide eyed. "You mean that famous guy that we saw signing the books?" Twilight nodded. "Yes, we need him... but before I try anything else, I need to study up on him." She then jogged to a secret cabinet in the wall, opening it she rummaged around several thing until finding what she was looking for. A book, with the title 'The Willamette incident.'
Frank stepped out of the bathroom, with a towel in his hands while wearing track suit pants. He sighed as he dried his hair, but not before looking at a nearby full length mirror, he moved to the side as he patted his stomach. "While I'm at it, I wish I could lose weight too..."
After getting dried up and a change of clothes, Frank picked up his camera, stretching his back. "Ugh, maybe get a bit younger too..." Finally ready, the photo journalist walked towards his door, ready to go outside and earn some cash. But as soon as he opened the door, he was blinded by a flash of light. After a few seconds of blindness, Frank regained his vision and looked at what was before him, a large, what looked like, a swirling portal.
Now, any other guy would question his sanity, run away or just gawk at this, but this isn't some other guy, this is Frank West. Checking his camera, Frank noticed it was full battery, he had a couple of spare ones in his pocket, running back to his cabinet, he picked up all the zombrez he had, five boxes to be exact. Smiling, he walked towards the portal, turning on his camera. "Back in the game..."
Darkness, that's all Frank could see, until his vision, albeit blurry, was starting to come to. With a groan he got his upper body to get up. Grabbing his head, he said "Geez, what the hell happened..."
"Uh, mister West, are you ok?" Frank recognized that voice, it sounded like that girl that came to the autograph session in that small town, how he remembered was easy, she was the only one that went.
"Yeah, I'm alright, thanks, say, aren't you that-" The photojournalist stopped in mid sentence as he looked up, in front of him, multicolor skin people were standing in front of him. Two of them had horns in their foreheads, one of them had wings and the one in front of him had both wings and horns. "Uh mister West, umm, hard to explain, but yeah, it is me, listen, we need your help, you're the only one who can right now..."
Twilight gave him a sad look, but was caught by surprise when a small flash of a camera went off in her face.
Frank had just took a photo of her, lowering his camera, he smiled. "Fantastic..."
Frank stared at himself in the mirror, it was to good to be true, not only has he found a whole new story, but somehow, he was young again!
Last time he looked like this was around the Willamette incident, hell, maybe even younger, that girl said it was magic, but he didn't give a damn, he was back in the game. "I don't even care if there are zombies, this is amazing..." He uttered out.
Everyone in the main room looked towards him, some with a questionable look, a glare or just neutral sadness. The first to get his attention was Twilight. "Um, mister West-"
She was cut off as Frank turned from the mirror, a smug look on his face. "Kid, the name's Frank, not mister West."
The freelance photographer started going up the stair of the library. "Frank West, photojournalist..." He said as he got his camera ready. "Um, Frank, please, I need to talk with you!" Twilight yelled out to him, following behind.
Frank walked through the door in front of him, looking around, he saw a balcony, slightly jogging to it, he saw the outside world.
He'd seen this happen multiple times, yet, he couldn't help but always feel shocked. Such a peaceful town, crawling with the undead, smoke rising from fires, blood in the walls, on the floor, everywhere. With a small unintentional gulp, he raised his camera and started taking pictures.
"Frank, please!" Yelled Twilight as she appeared next to him. "I need your help!"
Deciding he had enough pictures for now, Frank lowered his camera and turned to Twilight. "Alright, I'm all ears, what do you need? You want me to help you figure out what happened? You need someone to take pictures? Someone to help find survivors?" He asked.
Twilight sighed in relief that he was willing to help, but a little confused at how he was taking this so easily. "Yes, we need your help, when I was in your world, I saw how it also had this problem, and how you were the first to survive during the Willamette incident."
Frank hmm'ed as he looked at the town again. "Alright, tell me what you know..." He started taking pictures again, this time at cities far in the distance.
That's when Twilight just dawned on something, she had no clue how this mess all started. "Oh... um, well, you see, I have no idea how this came to be." She looked at the ground in shame, how could she do that? Just go to the closest option, bring some person from another world, heck, maybe even the zombies here are different from his world.
She turned to see a possibly irritated Frank, but only found him starring into the distance, his hand in his chin. "Well, let's start with basics, this has never happened before, am I right?"
Twilight went wide eyed before regaining her composure. "Uh, yes, this has never happened before, ever since this morning, there were reports of riots in various cities, and by noon, there were these things everywhere!" The alicorn exclaimed 'Things' as she pointed at the limping zombies in the streets.
Frank stayed quiet, thinking, until he raised his head, an imaginary light bulb appearing over his head. "Ok, do you have any idea where this all started? The first city that reported the so called 'riots'?"
Crossing her arms across her chest, Twilight started to think where she heard it started, but nothing came up, by the time she started investigating, her neighbor was already trying to have her for lunch. Curses... wait, maybe town hall had some information, reports from all over Equestria circulate through there to keep the city up to date! But there was one problem.
"Grahhh..."
It was filled with zombies.
Turning towards Frank, Twilight nodded her head. "Yes, in Town Hall but-" Again, the alicorn was cut off as she saw Frank get up on the edge of the wooden balcony, and was about to ask, no, yell what was he doing, when suddenly, he jumped off!
Landing on top of a zombie, Frank used his left foot to crush it's head on the ground, a sick crunch and splat was heard. Going wide eyed, she looked off the edge of the balcony, suddenly everyone inside looked as well from the balcony.
Grabbing a nearby mailbox, Frank looked around, zombies starting to surround him ready to feast on his flesh. And he loved it, the rush, the adrenaline, he missed this feeling, although he would never admit it. Smiling he raised his camera and readied his makeshift weapon.
"Frank West is back in the game..." He muttered, soon, blood and pieces of heads started flying around.
Everyone in the balcony just stared in awe even the less strong willed ones turned away as the photo journalist dispatched of the undead, with swings of the mailbox and kicks. Twilight had managed to see how some people killed zombies in her visit to earth, in that program, but none of them were as fast as Frank, even if they had weapons made for killing zombies, he was doing it with a mailbox, and taking pictures while doing it.
"This guy is unbelievable..." Muttered Rainbow Dash.
Turning towards her friend, Twilight thought the same thing, even if Frank couldn't help with finding out what happened, he could surely help to survive.
And before they knew it, the group of zombies around the treehouse was gone, only a bloodied photojournalist standing there, checking his camera. "Fantastic!" He said out loud.
Twilight started smiling, there was hope now, hope that she could now be able to fix this problem.
"Gahh!"
But that all went crashing down when a presumably dead zombie sprang to life and latched onto Frank, and took a bite.
Frank yelled loudly as he grabbed the undead pony behind him and flung him across.
With a loud thud, it landed on the ground, still moving and groaning it wasn't expecting to get it's head kicked off like some sort of soccer ball. Frank panted as he grabbed his shoulder, what an amateur mistake, getting bit like that.
"Ugh, such an idiot, this is going to be a pain in the ass for a while..." He complained as if it was only an ant bite.
Twilight Sparkle on the other hand was the complete opposite. Frank just got bit, that means...
"You idiot!" Yelled Rainbow as she jumped down to the ground landing in front of the bitten photojournalist. "Now you're going to turn into one of them!" She glared at him as she raised her spiked bat.
Frank raised his arms. "Wow, hey, easy, I'm not going to turn!" He explained. "At least I hope so..."
Twilight's ears twitched as she heard that. "Wait, what do you mean by you're not going to turn?!" She asked from the balcony.
The photojournalist was about to explain when the sound of a beeping alarm clock interrupted him, raising his left arm, Frank noticed it was already time to take his zombrex. "You know what, let me just show you..."
Reaching into his coat pocket, he took out a box of zombrez, opening it, he took out the syringe and readied it.
Everyone watched as he raised his arm holding the shot and then injecting himself in the neck, the sound of compressed air and sizzling liquid heard.
Taking it out, Frank threw it to the ground. "Can't get infected if I already am." The photojournalist smiled, his sunglasses shining.
Twilight starred at Frank for a few seconds before jumping off the balcony, tackling the photographer to the ground. "You have a cure!?" She exclaimed on top of him, getting her face a little to close for comfort.
"Um, it's not a cure kid, it only temporarily stops the infection, I've been infected for over ten years..." Frank groaned as the girl on top of him managed to knock some of the wind out of him.
Twilight's expression turned from slight anger and annoyance to confusion, to then excited. "Wait, do you have any more?! I can maybe remake the ingredients and re make it for other ponies so that they don't turn!"
The freelancer thought for a few seconds, his zombrex supply isn't infinite, he will need more zombrex. "Alright, I'll give you one, but in exchange, you gotta make me more, alright?"
The alicorn nodded before getting off the man and then extending her arm to help him up. Frank took it and got up, but not before wincing and grabbing his shoulder.
Twilight gasped lightly as she then brought both her hands towards his bitten shoulder, a purple aura surrounding it.
Before the photojournalist could even say anything, he saw the bite mark starting to get smaller and smaller before it closed up and looked like as if he never got bit in the first place.
"Wow, it's gone..." He said dumbstruck.
Twilight sighed. "Yes, basic healing magic is pretty easy for me, unfortunately, all I can do is close the wound, I can't stop the virus from spreading through the bloodstream as I don't have it's life signal."
Frank rubbed his chin as he heard this, Isabella knew more about this then he did, wish she was here now.
But before either could say anything more, an explosion was heard, turning their heads towards the sound of the source, they saw flaming zombies convulsing before falling to the ground, dead.
"Well that sure is a way to get rid of them." Commented Frank.
As soon as he said that, a pony wearing a red fire proof suit, mask included, started walking into their line of site, holding what looked like a flame thrower, the sound of heavy muffled breathing was heard before it turned it's head towards them, not saying anything, it just turned towards them and walked.
The silence was starting to make everyone uneasy, Rarity held Sweetie Belle, Applejack scooted Applebloom behind her, Spike lowered his pot helmet to cover his eyes.
Meanwhile, in the bottom, Rainbow Dash strengthened her grip on her makeshift weapon, Twilight backed up slightly as she didn't want to hurt anypony, that and her mind wasn't really in shape to think correctly.
Frank just started taking a few pictures before talking again. "Hey, are you friendly or have you lost your mind? Cause if you did, I'd like to take some pictures before I fight you and you end up killing yourself somehow."
Everyone just looked at Frank with a confused expression, but then turned their attention towards the pyrotechnic pony.
It sounded like it was giggling. Then, it reached towards it's neck and started to remove it's mask.
As it did that, slowly, everyone stared, wanting to know who it was, Frank was readying his camera.
And suddenly, in a swift motion, it removed the mask, revealing poofy pink, curly hair, it was none other then party pony extraordinaire, Pinkie Pie.
"Pinkie Pie?!" Blurted out Rainbow Dash, her face giving off a confused expression.
Said pony giggled more as she skipped towards the group. "That's my name." She said, but then suddenly gasped as she saw Frank, and in a matter of seconds, she dashed towards him.
"Oh my gosh, I didn't see who you were behind the mask so I didn't know you where new, and if you're new here that means I'll have to throw you a party, I just hope you don't mind a zombie filled party because there are zombies eeeeeeeeverywhere and they're just a bunch of party poopers, wanting to grab you and bite you, but not in the good way, well good way if you're into that, I know I am, and-!"
The party pony was cut off by a single finger placed on her lips.
"Ok, I get it... you can be quiet now." Said Frank, he wasn't annoyed, no not at all, he was actually surprised this girl had such a happy attitude despite what was going on right now. "Listen, that sounds nice and all, but I think I'll pass until these zombies are gone."
Pinkie Pie blinked before smiling and nodding, her curly mane bouncing up and down.
Twilight then gently started walking towards both Frank and Pinkie. "Umm, Pinkie, I'm glad you're ok, but..."
Pinkie pie, turned her head from Frank to Twilight and smiled. "Oh, hiya Twilight, what's going on?" She asked innocently.
The alicorn flinched at that, it may be possible, Pinkie had mentally snapped an is just ignoring this at a dangerous level, but then again, she was killing the zombies and even mentioned them, but she wanted to be sure. "Um, Pinkie, how can you still be happy? some of our friends have just been turned into flesh eating monsters and you're ok with it? I thought you'd be a bit more, you know..." She trailed off.
Pinkie Pie then started giggling, catching Twilight slightly off guard. "You mean crazy? Loony? Loco in the coco? A psychopath you's fight for extra pp?"
Frank blinked.
"Nah, I mean, yeah, some of our friends are dead now, but that's ok, they don't have to be here anymore, they're in a better place where there are no zombies, and besides, these zombies aren't our friends..." She said as she pointed at a legless yellow coated zombie, crawling towards them.
"Like this, I mean, this zombie may look like Lemon Drops, but it's not really her, it's just someone pretending to be her, and that big meany needs to be punished!" She then pointed her flamethrower at the crawling zombie and squeezed the trigger, unleashing a stream of burning flames, covering the undead in seconds before it died.
Everyone watched uneasily, even Frank as Pinkie finished burning it and proceeded to stomp on it's burned skull. "These zombies are just stealing everyone's bodies, so it's okay to gruesomely kill all of them... Every. Single. One."
At the same time, everyone gulped, except Frank, who just took a picture. "Girl... that was hot." He said smiling as he lowered his camera.
Pinkie Pie giggled. "Nice one Journalist guy." She said as she held her flamethrower behind her like some sort of innocent toy.
Frank raised an eyebrow at the name she had given him. "My name isn't Journalist guy..." He then raised his hand, expecting the pink girl to accept his hand shake. "The name's Frank, Frank We-ugh!" He was cut off as Pinkie wrapped him in a hug, squeezing the life out of him.
"Well nice to meet you Frankie!" She exclaimed as she kept hugging him. "I hope you manage to stay with us and not have to burn you to a black and smoking crisp, I mean, what kind of friend is a black and smoking crisp? I'd rather have the normal not bitey you as a new friend!" She continued talking as she kept hugging him.
Frank had a confused expression on his face as he looked at the girl hugging him. 'Geez, she hugs tighter then any other nut job I faced in that mall!' He thought.
Looking slightly down under his sunglasses, he spotted something else that was crushing him. 'And it doesn't help that her chest is helping her suffocate me!' He thought as the metaphorical zoomed out of his face, revealing that Pinkie's breasts were covering half his face.
Everyone looked in confusion, only to smile, Pinkie's good mood was just as infectious as the zombie virus all around them.
"Well, glad to see you are still alive Pinkie, but I have to ask... where did you get the fire proof suit and flamethrower?" Asked Spike as he removed his pot helmet, letting his green hair spike back up to it's normal state and walking closer to the pink mare and photojournalist currently suffocating from said pink mare.
Pinkie blinked as she turned her head to look at the dragon, smiling and letting go of Frank, which caused him to reel back to breath, only to have done it a bit too hard and fall backwards with a thud and an "Oof!"
"Well Spikey, I always had this for an emergency smore related emergency!" she exclaimed as she raised her flamethrower and then place it on her back with a strap. "And the suit... well, it was just lying around." She added as she grabbed some of the fire proof latex that clinged to her bosy and stretch it back, letting go and making a small whip like sound, her body jittering for a second.
With a blush on her face, she looked up smiling. "Hehehe..." she giggled rather strangely, her tongue slightly showing out of the side of her mouth.
The dragon looking at her raised his eyebrow. "Okay..." Was all he said as he looked down at the photojournalist on the ground.
Walking up to his head, he looked down at him. "Yo Frank... you alright?" He asked as Rainbow walked over and looked down at him too, Twilight joining as well, and not wanting to be left out, Pinkie did too.
Frank groaned as he opened his eyes and the start getting up. "Yeah... I'm alright.." He said as he was now completely up. Out of pure instinct, he grabbed his back, expecting a strong pain.
But much to his surprise, he felt nothing.
"That's right... I'm not old anymore.." He said as he started smiling as well as checking his camera for any scratches. "All right, now that we've been introduced, let's go to this town hall you talked about."
Frank started walking forward, until he heard Pinkie yell behind him.
"Wait!" She said, getting everyone's attention. "Where's Fluttershy?!" She asked, sounding worried.
Rainbow Dash frowned. "I haven't seen her anywhere, when I went to her cottage, it was completely empty, I tried looking for her, but the undead jerks in the sky were getting to bitey up there!" She said as she pointed at the sky, a few undead pagasi flying above them, a gut falling out of one of them and landing next to them with a splat like flop.
Rarity held a hand over her mouth as her cheeks turned slightly green.
Frank West sighed. "Off course, get out of a safehouse and the first thing I need to do is find a survivor..." He whispered to himself.
Pinkie nodded her head, a determined look on her face. "Right, first things first, we find Fluttershy, not only cause she's our friend, but because Franky here needs to level up so he doesn't die as easily! He hasn't even saved his game yet!" She yelled as she placed her mask back on and start running to a group of zombies. "I ain't no Heather, I don't need no shower!" She yelled as she tackled an undead and started ripping it's head off and quickly get up to kick it like a football.
To which she then proceeded to yell to the sky.
Everyone looked extremely confused and even a little scared at Pinkie Pie, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle even shook a little.
Frank just started taking pictures. "This is going to be fun..." Was all he said as he started walking forward, still taking those pictures of course.
Frank was currently walking around an abandoned store, searching for the right tool for the job ahead, moving around the fallen metalic shelves and other items on the ground to the side to find what he was looking for.
In the entrance of the store was Rainbow Dash and and Pinkie Pie, who was still wearing her fire proof suit but her mask was off, dangling behind her head with each little movement.
The rainbow colored pegasus was inspecting the submachine gun in her hand as well as checking her current ammunition.
"I didn't know you had one of those Dashie." Said Pinkie as she walked closer to her friend and inspected the gun.
Rainbow smiled. "Well, I actually found it on a crashed truck back in the road towards Ponyville, thank Celestia for rednecks." She said as she chuckled lightly.
Pinkie gave a puzzled look at the gun before back to Rainbow Dash. "But only an uzi? I thought there would be more from those kind of ponies." The pink skinned mare giggled.
"Well... there was actually a whole lot of other weapons and ammo, but, I couldn't carry it all, this was the lightest thing there was, maybe we can pass by and pick up the rest." Rainbow said as she then inserted the magazine in her hands into the submachine gun and pulling back the hammer.
Turning around, she placed a hand on her hip and another near her mouth. "Hey, West! You founf what you were looking for yet?" She asked.
Frank heard the girl while still walking around the store. "Almost, just need one more... aha!" He said as he bent down and picked up what he was looking for.
A wooden bat.
Smiling, he placed the iconic object and placed it in the gym bag in his back before picking up another bat. "Never hurts to carry more then one..." He said to himself before turning around, bat in hand back to the entrance.
Once outside, he stared into the distance, a few zombies crawling out of whatever hole they could and walking aimlessly around, groaning and filling the air with their stench.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at Frank. "It took you that long for a baseball bat?" She asked.
Frank turned around and shrugged at the Rainbow haired girl. "It'll surprise you how many times a bat has saved me, besides, it wasn't the only thing I got."
Both girls looked down at Frank's hands, he was wearing MMA gloves.
Rainbow Dash gave an unamused look. "Seriously? Listen, I know where you come from your a total badass, but, are you honestly planning on bucking punching them in the face?" She asked.
Frank smiled as he looked around. "What? You're telling me you haven't?" He said.
The rainbow haired girl opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Pinkie Pie. "Of course not, Dashie is smart enough to know that punching them could lead you to cutting your knuckles and leaving them open for all the zombie blood to get all over them and infect you!"
Frank looked back slightly at the pink girl. "Smart girl then..." He said.
Rainbow Blinked before slightly shaking her head and smiling. "Pssh, yeah, I wouldn't make that kind of rookie mistake!" She exclaimed.
That's when the photojournalist frowned. "Right now, you all are rookies, remember, you all have important people waiting for you, be smart and don't be reckless." He said, catching the two girls behind him by surprise.
At first they thought he was right, but then Pinkie Pie thought of something. "But Frankie, when you fight the zombies, you really don't act careful..." She said.
"That's cause I ain't got nothing holding me back, no family, no... friends, I live for this stuff, my job has always been dangerous, even before the zombies." He said as he gripped his bat and lifted it over his shoulder and placed it firmly on it.
"I've covered wars you know." He said before beginning to walk forward.
Rainbow and Pinkie looked at each other before back at Frank and beginning to walk alongside him.
"So... since we're 'rookies', what does that make you West?" Asked Rainbow as she lightly floated over the photojournalist.
Frank chuckled. "An idiot who's watched way too many wrestling shows."
Rainbow gave an unamused look at Frank. "Wrestling shows? What does that have to do with killing zombies?" She asked.
That's when Pinkie dashed in between them smiling. "Easy, means you can do some awesome headlocks that can separate head from necks, killer dropkicks, roundhouse kicks, dive bombs, tiger driver!" She yelled out in excitement, clenching her eyes shut.
Frank gave Pinkie Pie a puzzled look before chuckling. "Not going to lie, I've probably used half of what she said."
"No way, you'd have to be nuts to get close enough to a zombie too-"
Rainbow was cut off as Pinkie suddenly rushed towards a single zombie from behind and grabbed it from it's waist.
Letting nothing out but a simple groan, the wingless and hornless zombie waved it's arms lazily around before being lifted up entirley by the Pink girl holding it.
Lifting up the zombie, Pinkie smiled as she shifted all of her weight back and executed a perfect german suplex onto the zombie, it's head colliding the ground with enough force to make it break off of the body.
Getting up, Pinkie Pie raised her arms into the sky. "Wooh! Did you see that?! That was bucking awesome!" She exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash stared with a completely surprised expression, her eyes widened and her mouth open, looking to her right, she expected the same from Frank, but only saw him with his camera up and pointing it at Pinkie.
"Yeah..." Was all he said as he lowered his camera.
Pinkie Pie giggled as she dashed towards Frank's side. "Did you get it? How did I look?!" She asked as the photojournalist began showing the pink girl the photos he took, each one showing the advancement of the executed wrestling move.
From the first one of Pinkie holding the zombie by the waist all the way to the final one of her raising her arms in triumph next to the now headless zombie on the ground, it's cracked head next to her feet.
Frank smiled. "That was nice Pinks, really nice..." He said as he felt that the photos he took had made him feel good, like a job well done, almost as if he had...
LEVEL UP
The photojournalist raised his head and looked around, almost as if he heard something. Shrugging it off, he lowered his camera.
Pinkie Pie smiled. "I look so cool!" She said.
Rainbow couldn't help but smile as well. "Can't help but admit, that was pretty effing neat." She said as she crossed her arms.
"Sorry if that was reckless Frankie!" Said Pinkie as she jumped up and latched onto the back of the photojournalist, luckily strong enough to not be affected by the sudden extra weight behind him.
Chuckling ha waved his hand in front of him. "Don't worry about it kid, as long as the zombie is unable to sink his teeth into you, it's fine, they're too slow and dumb to react fast enough, let alone figure out how to bite you." He said as he lowered his hands and surprisingly let the pink Girl place her legs n to make her more comfortable on her piggy back ride.
Luckily Frank had placed the gym bag on his side, avoiding any uncomfortableness.
Giggling, Pinkie was enjoying her piggyback ride.
Rainbow gave a questionable look towards Frank and Pinkie. "You okay with giving her a piggyback ride like that all of a sudden?" She asked.
Frank smiled, his sunglasses shining. "I'm used to them, besides, this is good exercise, it'll get me used to them again."
The rainbow haired girl raised one of her eyebrows before shrugging it off and continuing to walk towards their destination.
"Hey, does anyone hear a bee?" Asked Pinkie Pie.
"Hmm... nope." Replied Rainbow.
Pinkie hmm'd as she rested her head over Frank's head. "Huh... must of been my imagination then."
The walk trough the dirt road was rather quite after Pinkie had dozed off on Frank's back, one arm still over his shoulder while the other dangled freely, her snores quite and almost unheard.
Rainbow Dash had her hands inside her hoodie's pockets, her uzi swinging forward and back slightly with each step she took as she looked around, watching the rather zombie free road ahead and surroundings.
Frank just kept looking forward, his sunglasses occasionally shining from the reflection of the sun now high in the air.
Deciding that the silence was starting to get annoying, Rainbow turned to look at Frank. "So... does it hurt?" She suddenly asked.
The photojournalist turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"When they bite you... does it hurt a lot?" She asked once more.
Frank lowered his head slightly before raising it back up and looking back at the road. "Of course it hurts, they're sinking their teeth into you, why wouldn't it hurt?"
Rainbow Dash went slightly wide eyed as she turned her head elsewhere, realizing that her question was kind of stupid. "Oh... right, it's just... when they bit you... you only seemed to show that it hurt for a while, and then... you just shook it off! Like it was ant bite!" She said as she turned to look back at the photojournalist.
Frank blinked under his sunglasses before chuckling. "Well... get bitten, clawed and shot at as many times as I have and you kinda get used to it..." He said as he slightly shifted his hands forward, moving the sleeping pink girl on his back forward so she wouldn't fall down.
The cyan skinned pegasus took in the information and went slightly wide eyed. "Clawed... shot... just what the heck are you? Some sort of... super person...?" She asked in slight disbelief.
"Hehe... super? Nah... I'm only a guy trying to get a story..." He said as he continued walking forward, Rainbow slowing down as she watched him keep moving. She blinked once before her cheeks began growing hot with a blush. "Wow..." She whispered.
"This is... disturbingly fascinating..."
Deep in the basement under the golden oak library, stood Twilight, covered in various medical and hazmat gear, in front of her a large metalic table, and on top of that table was the corpse of one of the undead.
In her hand, she held a scalpel, cutting away several layers of the skin and dead muscle off of the chest of the zombie, it's lifeless gray eyes starring at the dark ceiling.
"Spike, take notes... every organ, while continues to decompose, stays alive as well, almost as if something on the brain is sending it signals to keep going..." The alicorn raised a vial of dark red liquid up to her masked face. "The blood, is completely dead, and contains traces of some sort of... biological fecal matter of some sort..."
The also geared up reptilian, Spike, wrote down on the clipboard on his hands.
"I will now open up the head and inspect the brain..." She said as she raised a glowing gloved finger that then started emitting large amounts of purplish sparks. Lowering her hand, she then started tracing her finger on the exposed skull of the corpse, revealing the contents insides.
Expecting a dying brain, she gasped slightly as nothing but red goop started pouring out slowly.
Taking a loud cliche gulp, she used her magic to reach inside and try to find anything else inside.
"Brain seems to have completely decompose, proving my theory wrong, the state of the brain is in no condition to give command to organs to stay alive, let alone move the entire body to try and... eat..." She said out loud, Spike, while trying to keep his lunch in his stomach, writing down every word.
Suddenly, she felt something, something inside the head... wiggling.
Blinking under her mask, she then glared, concentrating her magic to reach in and pull out what was causing the wiggling. Grunting, she felt that whatever was inside there, was latched on to what she could guess was the brain stem.
Until she finally felt it detach and pulled it out, the organs still inside the corpse suddenly stopping to lightly move.
Pulling it out of the brain goop inside the skull, it was... a larva!
Twilight stared with confusion at the wiggling creature in her magical hold.
"This... this is what causes them to turn into zombies?" Asked Spike, lowering his clipboard.
Twilight slowly nodded as she finally began putting the pieces of the mysterious puzzle that was this outbreak together. "I think so... this isn't a virus Spike..." She then slowly turned around, a thousand yard stare etched on her face. "It's an infestation..."
Walking away, she reached out with her hand a small jar that was on top of a shelve and placed the larva inside before placing a lid over it, preventing it from escaping.
Raising the jar, the alicorn started taking off the mask that covered her face now that she knew that the disease wasn't airborne. "Okay you... lets see what makes you tick."
Spike gulped as he took off his mask as well. 'Twilight ,she's really getting to the bottom of this...' He thought.
"Guah!"
Wham!
Pieces of teeth and skull landed on the ground before an undead unicorn followed, it's now broken jaw hanging by a little thread of skin.
Frank lowered his bat as he looked forward, they made it to their destination, Ponyville town square, this was the center of the town, if they were going to find Fluttershy, this was the best place she could of ran into when all the commotion happened.
"Now... are you sure your friend could be here?" Asked Frank.
Rainbow and Pinkie nodded.
"Yeah, a few minutes before the freaks started showing up, I was taking my normal morning jog around the town, and I saw her walking around here." Said Rainbow.
"She usually always goes to the market to buy food for all of the animals in her shelter in the morning." Added Pinkie.
The photojournalist nodded before turning around, several zombies beginning to limp out into the open and toward the trio of still alive beings.
"Grahhhh...." One moaned out, raising its hand towards them as it slowly walked forward.
Frank raised his hands, one clenching a fist, the mma glove squeaking slightly while the other held the baseball bat tighter. "Alright, show time..." He said.
Rainbow raised her spiked bat, taking a small gulp as she tried to keep her cool.
Pinkie grabbed her mask from behind her head and placed it back on her face, her breathing heard for a second before she raised her flamethrower, the small match at the tip dancing wildly.
Twilight sighed as she investigated the rest of the body of the corpse before her, using her magic she levitated a scalpel before her as she then used a pair of tweezers to pull out another tissue sample from the flesh of the zombie.
Once again walking towards the table behind her, she began mixing several liquids in a flask, preparing to ready the sample for a closer examination.
Spike in the meantime, starred at the wiggling larva in the jar, his reptilian eyes watching it's every move, never in his life had he seen anything like this, not even in the movies, it was always a virus or some sort of evil magic, but, a parasite?
That's completely unreal.
Suddenly, he heard the alicorn behind him sigh in frustration once more.
Turning around, he raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong Twilight?" He asked.
Walking towards the jar, Twilight picked it up and starred at the specimen inside. "I've found nothing in the blood and tissue samples but a virus that does nothing but mask itself from the bodies' antibodies... I can understand if it was for it to be able to reach the brain and infect its host... but...!"
"But...?" Said Spike.
"But the virus is harmless, and it doesn't explain how this thing gets inside someone!" She exclaimed.
Spike blinked as he crossed his arms, thinking of every zombie movie he had ever seen, what did they all have in common when it came to infecting others?
But with his slight curiosity, he couldn't help but focus at the slowly falling jaw of the lifeless corpse behind Twilight, decomposition and the smack to the face from a mailbox taking its toll on it.
And then it came to him, with sudden realization, Spike remembered. "Biting!" He exclaimed as he raised a hand and pointed towards the bloodied set of teeth on the corpse's jaw.
Twilight turned around as she heard that, wanting to facepalm after forgetting all of those cheesy movie nights she had with her assistant that involved zombies.
"Spike! You're a genius!" She exclaimed.
"I am..? I mean, yeah, totally, I-I can't believe you forgot about that yourself..." The dragon nervously laughed as he rubbed the back of his head, looking away just as nervously.
