Chapter 1
The Walking Dead
Episode One
First Light
---------------------------------------
Light.
Light is the first thing you see and, in many cases, it is the last thing you see. It represents both the creation of life, and the end of it. What you see after you die used to be a final light, a gateway to a more peaceful resting place. One where your loved ones await you and you can give guidance to those you left.....
.....Not anymore.
---------------------------------------
There was that fucking light again.
"Turn it down you crazy assholes!" I screamed out my window for the third time in one night to the neighbor across the street.
Every time, every single night, that light stood in my windowsill and kept me awake with the assistance of the loud pounding electronic noise of a bass so noisy I couldn't even think to myself. These idiots across the world who think they own all of Equestria just keep at it all night long. I was pissed off to say the least.
"Baby just let them be. You've got an early morning tomorrow. You've got to try to get some sleep." I heard the sweet voice belonging to my wife say lovingly from back in our bed.
Her back was turned to me but I could still see her beautiful mane and her horn on her head. She was always the eye catcher of us two, so gorgeous and elegant. Nothing like her mother that was for sure. I've always been the guy they notice she’s with, and the guy they don't want to mess with.
I climbed back into bed wrapping my forelegs around her and gently rubbing the large lump that was soon to be our new baby son. We were pretty far along in the process, six months by the day before. Her long brown mane tickled my nose as I nuzzled into her lightly grey coated shoulder. She gave a small laugh and wrapped her hooves around mine.
"My little soldier needs to get his rest for tomorrow." She turned towards me and gave me a small smile before lightly pecking my lips and turning over to go to sleep herself.
"Goodnight Marmalade." I said.
"Goodnight Hun."
---------------------------------------
I woke up in a cold sweat. My heart pounding hard enough in my chest I thought it was going to jump out. It was the dream again. Sometimes things can get to you, in ways most people can’t even imagine. Being in war is one of those things.
I turned to my window only to be blinded by a very bright light and soon noticed that it wasn't just my heart that was thumping. My neighbors across the street were still going at it. The music still played and the lights still blazed. I couldn’t see any ponies in through the windows though.
I turned over fully and looked at the small clock on my bedside stand.
"Come on. It's five thirty for Celestia's sake!" I angrily stood up and walked over to the door into our bedroom.
"Baby?” Marmalade sat up. “Ace where do you think you're going?" Clearly she wasn't too happy about my trying to leave.
"I'm going to ask them very nicely if they could just... pack it in for the night. I won't be long." I turned and started back towards the door.
"And who said it was your job to do such a thing? Why don't you just let the police handle it? I'm sure they'd be more than happy to send someone down." She said in a matter of fact manner.
"Honey it's just easier for me to do it. I'm right across the street anyway, aren't I? I'm just gonna ask them nicely to turn it down a notch." I replied.
"Ace...."
"No, I'm going. We both know if I don’t no one else will." I walked straight to the door and left the room.
I closed the door softly.
I continued down the stairs until I arrived at the front door. I magicked my robe over to me and wrapped my body in it. Giving the small tie a tug to ensure it stays tight to my body so the could breeze doesn’t get to me completely.
"Damn I feel old." I mumbled as I walked out my front door and into the cool night.
I didn't notice it in the moment, but looking back on it, I should have immediately picked up on the fact that something was wrong. Something was in the air that night. It was a certain... smell. It may have been the smell of death. A smell I wouldn’t have given much mind to. A smell I should have been familiarized with by now given my time spent in the military.
As much as the government loves to deny it, war was not unheard of in the history of Equestria, especially not now. Half the ponies in Ponyville didn't even know how tense things were with the Griffin Empire right now. If we were to go to war tomorrow I don’t think half of Equestria would even begin to comprehend what it meant. The only reason I was home with my family was due to an honorable discharge by injury. But I wouldn't expect them to know. Celestia kept things under wraps. She couldn't afford not to.
I crossed the street rather hastily due to the cold bite in the night air. It was late fall and winter was moving in fast. Hardly anyone had anytime to help prepare for the winter; it was going to be a harsh one too. Most of us were already wondering how we’d ever pull off a Winter Wrap Up. As I got closer to the front door I noticed something out of the ordinary.
The door was cracked open.....
I walked with a little more stealth in my step now, trying to not be too loud. There wasn't much need due to the music.... Wait. Where'd the music go? It was just on wasn't it? I moved to the door silently and pushed it open with a hoof. Tentatively I walked into the main room of the house.
The smell hit me like a brick wall. It was everywhere in the room, being circulated by the fog machines and fans that were set up all around what looked like a dance floor covered in blood and gore. I managed to cover my mouth with my hoof before I had the chance to throw up due to the grisly sight. Three bodies lay on the floor looking like they were torn to shreds by a large animal. I knew sometimes animals got a little ballsy, but even timberwolves wouldn't have done something like this.
I tip toed around the bodies as best I could, inching closer to the center of the room, trying to keep the blood off of my tan coat and my purple robe.
I slipped on a particularly bloody spot on the floor and fell on top of one of the corpses. I was covered in its blood. I stood up quickly and lost my ability to hold down the contents of my stomach. Craning my neck to the side I threw up everything left from last night’s dinner onto the dance floor. I stripped the blood soaked robe and threw over one of the bodies, the one closest to the door.
That's when I heard the pounding.
My ears perked and I swiveled them to the stair case, of which the sound was coming from. I got up and walked across the room, reaching the stairs pretty quick.
"Hello?" I yelled up the stairs. The pounding stopped for a few seconds but then returned to its original rhythm less beat.
I started to ascend the staircase. It went up a flight before turning around to continue the ascent to the next level of the house. I followed the stairs all the way up and stopped at the top. The stairs had led to a hallway that stretched along the length of the house. On the left side there were only windows spanning halfway down the wall from the roof and on the right there were a few doors that I had guess led to rooms… all of which were closed. At the end of the hallway there was a door. And someone was in front of it.
I could see the outline of a pony, supposedly earth considering it had no wings or any horn I could see, with a darkish grey coat and a deep black mane. The pounding sound I was hearing seemed to be originating from it... pounding its head on a door?
"Hello? Do you need some... help? There are three ponies dead downstairs; do you know what happened to them?" I asked to the dark silhouette down the hallway.
The pony stopped its pounding on the door and turned to face me. It was a mare, I could tell by her body structure. She looked to be... wobbling when she walked and she walked at an impossibly slow speed. She let out a tiny moan, not a moan of pleasure or even of some small amount of pain. This was a moan of...hunger? No no no, maybe... sickness? It was too hard to tell.
Once she saw me she started to move at a slightly faster pace, wobbling on one of her hooves.
"Hey... H-hey why don't you just stay over there until I get some help? Alright?" I asked her.
She continued on towards me, actually moving at a faster pace. She seemed to be charging at me. Closing the distance, and fast.
I had to do something. If she's the one who did that to the ponies down stairs then she could easily be a threat to my own health as well. I turned to my right to discover that a fire ax had once been there but was gone now. Someone else must have been there before me and taken it. I started to get a little panicked but remembered my training I had received in hoof to hoof combat in boot camp.
"Miss I'm gonna have to ask you to stop or I will make you!" I yelled at her.
She came faster now, consuming some of the few precious seconds that I had left.
"Mam I'm warning you! Don't make me hurt you!" I gave one final plea.
She hit the light from the window just at the right angle to reveal the right half of her jaw hanging off and her left ear completely missing.
"What the fu...."
I was cut off as she tackled me down the stairs. We both tumbled down at ridiculous speeds. I landed at the bottom of the first flight before her and watched her continue to tumble down the staircase. Watching as bones on her body broke like they were glass. She continued to roll down the stairs until slamming her heard into the wall. I heard a loud crack and could only guess that her neck had been broken. I gazed at the unmoving body of the mare and examined only with my eyes the damage it had sustained.
One of her hooves was dangling by a mere thread of… something I couldn't even begin to describe. Her torso had been so badly beat up and cut up that it didn't even look like it was pony anymore. And her face... How could she have still been alive!? She would have been dead by now! She SHOULD, have been dead by now! Why was she still alive!?
I heard the sound of a door opening from up stairs. I began to get up only to fall back down.
"Fuck!" I screamed out in pain. My right ankle was clearly sprained. I heard a small voice call from upstairs.
"Hello?"
It's another mare’s voice. How many mares are in this place?
"I'm down here, on the steps!" I yelled back to her as I finally got myself up to standing again.
I heard the sound of hooves come running down the hallway. As she reached the top of the stairs I immediately recognize her as my neighbor, the one who had always been blasting music and throwing large parties.
"Y-you... y-you killed it... right?" She almost seemed to whimper as the words left her mouth.
I looked to her and then to the corpse lying next to me. I noticed its jaws were snapping mere inches away from my left leg. Instinctively I lifted it and put more pressure on my injured one, sending me sprawling to the floor and down the other flight of stairs.
"Holy shit!" The mare yelled from upstairs, "Hey... whatever your name is! Meet me in the front yard! I'll be there I promise! Just get there! And... a-and don't let them bite you!"
With that she was gone, and I was starring at three more of those... things, all crowded around the strobe light set up on stage. Mumbling and groaning.
I started to try to sneak my way around them. They seemed more attracted to the light show then they did to me. Carefully and quietly I rounded the corner heading to the front door which was wide open... when I slipped on some of the blood still resting on the floor.
The sound of my fall was enough to draw their attention towards me and now they were headed straight at me.
I only had one option. Run.
I got up and hobbled over to the front door with the three monsters in tow snapping at my tail. I could feel the burst of air as their jaws clasped together just inches behind my tail.
I reached out to the door and managed to slam it behind me, but one of them had gotten a hoof stuck in the door. And soon enough all of them had one in the door, pushing against me with all their strength. They were gaining ground on me. My hooves dug into the soil I fought so hard to keep. I was inches from defeat... from death.
I felt the weight of the door become a whole pony load lighter in a matter of seconds.
Next to me the mare from upstairs had slammed into the door, helping me push back the monsters behind the door. It took us quite some time to gain back the ground I had lost, the two of us combined were barely enough to get the door closed. Once we finally managed to get the thing closed we were both out as out of breath as one another.
"Vinyl..." She said reaching out a hoof. "Vinyl Scratch."
"Ace." I replied as I took her hoof in a friendly hoof shake.
I looked out upon the horizon witnessing the sun rise from the town of Ponyville. It looked so peaceful compared to the hell I had just experienced in that house I so barely excaped.
Wait... that wasn't the sun...
"Holy shit... is... i-is the town, on fire?" Vinyl asked starring out at the same sight I was.
The sounds of fire wagons and sirens rang through the town in front of us. I could see tiny dots like ants running through the town below. All of them were seeking shelter from the same thing I was. Most of the town was in fact on fire, Town Hall seemed to be the only safe place to go. Considering it was the only place not on fire.
"Look," I pointed with a hoof to some Royal Military wagons arriving at Town Hall.
"Looks like that's our best shot." She said.
I looked back to her quizzically. "What are we some sort of team now?" I asked her.
"Well you saved my life; I'm only repaying a debt." She explained.
"I don't need anyone saving my life," I argued, "especially some little, irresponsible mare who is utterly useless to me."
"Well you sure looked like you needed saving from these guys." She knocked on the door behind us and a new rapping of hooves on the door started up.
"Look," I got up a bit wobbly but managed to stand up straight, "if I ever need a fucking party I'll come right to you, how about that? Until then, I have a family..."
Oh no.
"My family!" I exclaimed as I turned and bolted into the direction of my home only to fall flat on my face due to my injured hoof.
"Welp. See you around then." I heard Vinyl say before she started to whistle and turn around. The sounds of hooves on rocks were getting farther away.
"WAIT!" I yelled.
She stopped.
"Please..."
She seemed to pause for a few seconds, probably contemplating whether or not she should help so grumpy bastard like me. I heard the sound get closer as she came near me and up to my side, helping me up and letting me use her to help me walk.
We started towards my house as fast as we could.
Dawn had come and the new light revealed the destruction and devastation that surrounded us. Bodies lay in the streets. Some moving. Most with their heads destroyed or removed. Some ponies still alive run around, trying to gather supplies or loved ones. Anything they can hold onto. It's complete and utter chaos.
It’s a silent walk across the street.
As we neared the front door to my house I realized with relief that it is closed, and hopefully locked. I limp up the rest of the stairs on my own, scrambling to try to find the key to the door.
I finally found it and switched the lock to open, charging into the main hall.
"Marmalade?!"
"Marmalade are you here!?"
I wondered through the house yelling and screaming her name. Trying to catch any kind of sign that she was okay or that she had made it out alive or… SOMETHING.
I got up the stairs as fast as I could, slipping up only a few times, completely disregarding the injury I had sustained earlier. I heard Vinyl coming up the stairs behind me.
I got up to the door... and saw the puddle of blood seeping under it.
I thought I heard Vinyl say something but quite honestly I didn't care. The only thing that mattered at the point was getting through that door to my family. I opened the door but I didn't walk in.
Her body lay there, sprawled out on the floor mangled and torn apart.
But... she wasn't dead, I could save her.
I had to save her... and him.
Her chest rose and fell as she got up, her eyes staring into the depths of my soul. I couldn't pull myself away. I was frozen; the breath had been pulled directly from my body. There was nothing left of me.
I saw the white hoof only out of the corner of my eye as it reached for the door handle and closed it.
I sat there for, I don't know how long. Vinyl would be mad, I think she needed my help... but I couldn't tell. I couldn't even feel, or think...
I was brought back to reality by a slap across the face and an angry white mare looking at me screaming.
"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING!? WE HAVE TO GET OUT!"
I snapped out of it fully.
"What are you doing!? That's my wife in there! Get the fuck out of the way!" I exclaimed.
"She's one of them, you saw her! We can’t help her and we can't open that door!" She argued with me.
She's arguing with me! My wife and kid are in there alone and she's fucking arguing with me?! I have to get in there I have to help!
"Get out of the way Vinyl."
"No! I'm not...." I never allowed her to finish.
"Get. Out. Of. The. Way."
A look of pure confusion took over her expression. Slowly she got out of the way and moved back down stairs, mumbling something on the way down.
I looked to the door.
"Honey...."
A growl resonated from the door and some more pounding began.
"H-honey... I'm leaving... I-I'm going to... I’m going to get help. I'll be back for you, I won't leave you here. I promise you I won't leave you. I'll come back for you. Someone somewhere has a... cure... or... something! Take care of our little boy... I-I... I love you.."
I turned away from the door. My tears escaping my eyes a falling to the ground. I weeped. For them, their suffering.
"Ace..." I heard a whisper from the bottom of the stairs.
"Ace we have to go."