> Friendship is the end. > by MegaMonsterPony > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The begining of the end > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was nearly four thirty by the time me and Big Macintosh had actually woken up to start the day. It was indeed an early start to what was going to be a very long day. The reason we had woken up an hour earlier is because we had to get enough of our work done so I could meet PinkiePie for lunch. I had something incredibly important to tell her. By five we were out in the cold dark morning hauling out the work lights so we could see what we were doing. It was a nice crisp clean smelling morning with a slight breeze just like any other applebucking season morning. We began bucking apple trees immediately, sending the apples rustling down through the leaves into the wicker baskets waiting below. We were doing immensely better then we had the previous years. By sunrise we already had over thirty trees stripped of their apples and we were still bucking strong. As Big mac and I started hauling up some of the baskets up towards the barn a dark shadow raced across the ground enveloping ponyville in a blanket of darkness. Big Mac raced off towards the barn as i looked up towards the ever darkening sky. I wondered if it was a planned storm or if we were having actual weather. If it was a planned storm then what town meeting had I missed. It began to sprinkle drops of water down on the land as far as I could see and I had to call Pinkie so i could reschedule and meet her at sugarcube corner instead. I ran as fast as possible towards the barn hoping to get out of the rain before it became a torrential downpour. I was almost to the barn when i heard " Looook Ouuut!". The shrill warning cry was followed by a rainbow colored explosion a mere ten feet in front of me which caused me to rear back so i wouldn't run directly into it. I had a certain lurking suspicion that it was a pony who had a terrible crash, and that pony was most likely rainbowdash. After the smoke cleared up ,enough for me to get near without dying, I looked and was able to see it was rainbowdash. "what have you gotten yourself into?" I asked pulling her out of the small crater that had formed when she crash landed. She was vomiting all over her self and leaving a trail as i dragged her through the dirt into the barn. I noticed that she looked slightly greener than usual and her vomit was laced with blood. She obviously needed help so i decided to take her to fluttershy's hut. Instead of carrying her the whole way by myself, I began looking applebloom's wagon. " Hey, Big Mac have you seen..." I begin to ask if he had seen the wagon but I am interrupted by scootaloo pulling up. " hey Applejack is applebloom around?" She asks dragging a wagon with sweetie belle up to the barn. " I have absolutely no idea but I need your help. Rainbowdash is really really sick and needs to see fluttershy will you take her? " I ask showing her rainbowdash to prove she is actually sick. "Sure. Are you going to come?" She asks as I load the vomit ridden half dead rainbowdash into the wagon. "As soon as I can I have to go talk to pinkie first." I say rushing off towards sugarcube corner. During the search for the wagon the rain had started coming down as if somepony was up there dumping buckets of water down on the rest of us. The darkened sky made it hard to see anything at all but My spirit rose when I saw the pink top of sugarcube corner. I rushed in and banged on the door willing for pinkie to open it. Sadly as I had expected though Mrs. cake opened the door. " Hey applejack! Come inside, you'll catch there death out there in this rain!" Mrs. cake tried gesturing me into the house. "PINKIE!! Rainbowdash is really sick. We need to go to fluttershy's house!" I screamed around Mrs. cake turning back out into the rain I began running towards fluttershy's hut when a flash of pink appeared behind me. " Good that stupid pony is finally going to die!" She says a bit louder than she had expected and i heard the words stupid and die. " What was that" I shouted back at her over the roar of the rain. " I said... I am so stupid I knew that cupcake was bad, I shouldn't have let her eat it I hope she doesn't die!" She shouts back loud enough for me to hear. I didn't know whether or not she was lying but I just ran on in silence until we reached fluttershy's hut. We slowed to just a walk as we approached and heard lots of banging and crashing happening inside. The noise stopped about five seconds before Rainbowdash crashed upwards through the roof out into the dark dreary sky. I almost began cheering at her amazingly fast recovery until I realized she hadn't actually recovered at all. She hovered for a moment allowing me to catch a glimpse of her ripped apart skin, tattered wings, and bloody mane. She zoomed off sprinkling blood along the ground as she went. I was about to ask pinkie what was going on when the the door behind us came crashing down and moans sounded out behind us. Pinkie spun around whipping out a glock and putting a bullet through scootaloo and fluttershy's head without hesitation. " Pinkie!" I screeched through the rain in horror at the slumped over body of my friend and the little one i constantly saw running around. " What it had to be done." She said holstering her weapon. " had to be done.. PINKIE those were our friends! You realize you just shot both of our friends in the head and killed them." I say pointing at the bodies multiple times during my rant. " You cant kill something that is dead." She said looking me dead in the eyes. " Yes they sure are dead...NOW! Because you shot them in the face!" I yell not looking her in the eyes. " AJ look at me", She grabbed my chin and pulled it up until my eyes met hers," They were zomponies. That means they already were dead." "Well, what the hell was in that cupcake?" I ask glancing at the bodies that were riddled with bites and scratches. " Kop-Virus. It was meant to teach rainbow dash a lesson by Knocking her out but it reacted differently and mutated her into a zompony." She says calmly as she looks into town. " Well what do we do know?" I ask her looking off into the rain. " Head back to the farm and I will meet you there. Oh and take this with you, for protection." She says handing me an automatic pistol. I assume its an uzi and i rush off towards the barn. > Preparing for battle > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The rain continued unrelenting as I ran towards the farm. As I was about to pass twilight's house, but a zombified snails stepped into my path. Not wanting to waste time I turned to my right to go around him but, the bleeding derpy stepped out into my path. Everywhere I turned more zomponies continued to step out and intercept my path. Very fast I was surrounded by the undead and pinkies words rang through my head. " It had to be done." " They were already dead.". I reached into my saddlebag and grabbed out the uzi. I kicked snails's teeth into the back of his throat, then I turned to derpy and put seven bullets into her head which in turn dropped her to the ground. The sound of a sub machine gun sounded somewhere behind me, making me fearfully turn around to see every zompony slouch over onto the ground. The zomponies on the other side of me rushed biting at my tail which made me run forward and right into pinkie. " you do know how to use that gun I gave you right?" She asks and I don't know if shes kidding or not but the look on her face leads me to believe she isn't kidding. " yes didn't you see me?" I ask trotting along beside her. " I saw you nearly die." She says in a way that is a lot more serious than usual. " I would have got out of there alive." I said as if it was nothing sounding way to much like Rainbowdash. " Help me with this." She said tossing me a rope. The rope was attached to a wagon that towered over pinkie and I, the wagon was covered with a large pink tarp that had pinkie pie's cutie mark right in the middle. I grabbed the rope and continued running although the weight of the wagon slowed me tremendously. As we ran across the bridge a streak of blue light flew very fast in between us. Pinkie pulled out her gun, and wanting to be ready like her I pulled out my uzi. The streak made another pass, pinkie reacted much faster than I did and shot the flying zompony leader out of the sky. As we rolled past her dead body I dumped half a clip into her right wing, the sound of the wheel thumping over her was sickening but pleased me. We ran quickly to the barn not slowing until we had arrived there. " If you have any guns go get them now the others will be here soon, that is if they didn't die along the way." She said untying the tarp. " OK I will be right back" I said rushing off into the house, being quick but silent. The silence was deafening as I crept through the small house towards my room. I yanked my gun out of my bag leading with it that way if anypony or anything tried to attack me I could just put a few rounds into its head. Eventually after what seemed like an eternity I reached my room which for some unknown reason was a complete disaster. My shotgun was lying in the middle of the room covered in blood, although I didn't want to think where that blood had come from. I lifted it out of the small pool of blood pumping it, only to find that all the shots were still in it. What ever had gone down in this room today was unthinkable, whoever died didn't even have time to pump the gun. I crawled out the window back into the roaring rain. I practically crawled to the edge of the roof searching through the rain for any sign of pinkie or anypony else for that matter. "Hey applejack!" Twilight called from somewhere on the aluminum plated roof, which actually looked more like tin foil. " Oh hey twi...TWILIGHT!" I screeched freaking out at the fact twilight was on my roof. " Yeah, Pinkie told me to chill up here and snipe." She says a smile on her face. "Who else is here?" I asked scanning the rain for any other signs of life. "Vinyl and Pinkie Pie. You should get on the ground, that shotgun isn't going to do well for long range." she said sounding smarter about guns than I was which was surprising to me. Moans and groans sounded off in the distance which meant that they were on there way. > The Great Defense > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I swung my legs down over the edge of the balcony and dropped down, I didn't land right and fell backwards my gun slid across the dirt and landed near the bushes. I slowly got up and walked over and picked up my gun, looking into the dark forest just beyond the strawberry bushes. As I lifted the gun from the thickets and thorns underneath the bush a few ripe strawberries fell, it made me realize how beautiful life could actually be. Then moans and groans snapped me back to reality, putting me back into reality that although life can be beautiful it is usually just a messed up place. I straightened up, away from the felled fruit and looked around. The rain had lightened up a little, which gave much better visibility. I saw a large horde of zomponies trudging through the trees up towards the barn and the farmhouse. I was stunned in fear as the most vile things, anypony had ever laid eyes upon, neared closer and closer. I had wanted to run but there was nowhere left to go. The undead freaks continued closer until a hail storm of bullets flew out of the blueberry bushes to my right. " Pinkie? Is that you?" I questioned the bush. " Hi! " She shouting springing out of the bush as a train of blue light, followed by pounding music, bowled through the rest of the zomponies. Groans and moans made me spin around, as they usually did now, with my gun held high. My gun already being pumped, all I had to do was just pull the trigger. I splattered dark red blood against some of the trees of the everfree forest. I thought that they were the only two zomponies who were going to come from behind us so I turned back to the orchard which was where the main onslaught was coming from. " We should get you a gun that is more FUN!!" She said with a large smile spreading across her face. I followed her towards the knocked over wagon, wiping the blood that splashed me off my legs. " This should suit you well!" She smiled handing me a ppsh41 which to my understanding was a kaikrussian made weapon that could fire one thousand bullets per minute. " I think it will! Thanks Pinkie!" I happily took the weapon, checking the sights, a large smile spreading across my face. " Looks like you will be able to test it too!" She continued smiling at me. The slightly discolored ponies walked through the orchard and I rushed straight towards them. I let my hoof connect with the first pony to reach me, spraying down the second one that appeared on my right. I didn't even have to aim in, just spray towards the group. Eventually I did run out of ammo because even though the drum fed gun had a lot of ammo, it was in no way infinite. " Vinyl! I could use some jams right now!" I yelled over my shoulder hoping she would understand what I meant. " Coming right up!" She yelled before a blast of blue light smashed right through the zombies, then as usual a loud burst of dubstep followed. I immediately rushed back to the barn so I could be close to the ammo stockpile. " Thanks." I say breathless arriving, at her side. I grabbed a drum of ammo from the pile and loading it into my gun. I hadn't heard the zompony sneaking up behind me, but I did hear the sniper shot that killed it. " Nice shooting!" Pinkie yelled up to twilight. " Well I did read up on the subject a few da..." she began only to get interrupted. " We don't have time for this twilight!" Vinyl shouted pointed to the skies as a few streaks zoomed directly over head. We all took aim and began attempting to shoot down the blurs. We weren't fast enough and the four streaks crashed directly into the roof of the farmhouse next to twilight. That created a shock wave great enough to throw us and all of the weapons out into the orchard. I smashed into a tree, I thought I had broken my back but I could still move. I slowly crawled towards the others, who had landed in a small clearing only a few feet away. I was just getting to my weapon when it began to float above my head. I looked up as a crusty mane that was filled with dry blood brushed against the back of my neck. The reanimated corpse of Celestia was standing above me, blood and drool dripping from her mouth. I rolled away from her but then into the air because Luna was there as well, suspending the three of us up in the air. Vinyl reached out for a submachine gun, then she shot the gun , using the low gravity to propel herself back towards her bass cannon which had been flung with us. She smashed the button, making the train of blue light fire and hit princess luna, causing us to fall from the air. Pinkie plucked a rocket launcher out of the air and aimed in on Celestia. " There's a party in hell and your invited!" She yelled pushing the fire button on the launcher. Celestia got blown into smithereens and all of the weapons dropped. " Vinyl, drop those guys please!" I shouted , fear creeping into my voice, as I noticed the large horde coming up through the orchard. " I can't if you fire it too soon it will explode!" She shouts back picking up the nearest gun. Of course it does I thought to myself as I scooped up my ppsh41. Everypony scooped up a gun and aimed it towards the zombies moving towards us through the orchard, swerving around the trees. The bullets flew out of the ends of our guns and lodged themselves into the heads and bodies of the ponies. The two shrill beeps scared me, but had vinyl launching herself onto the cannon and smashing the button. The blue train of light smashed through the group of zombies, leaving a path of burnt soil and limbs. Apples were shaken and fell through the leaves and bounced along the ground, until they landed in the burnt trench. "Vinyl, you think I could get you out here during harvest season?" I joked lightly as I reloaded my gun. She was about to say something but was interrupted by pinkie. "Vinyl look out!" Pinkie yelled causing her to turn the cannon at point as it beeped twice. She was standing face to face with octavia, except octavia had rotting flesh and blood dripping through her teeth. "Vinyl! Fire It!" I yelled launching myself towards vinyl although octavia got to her first, ripping a hole into vinyl's neck. I backed away firing twenty shots into octavia's forehead. Quicker than I realized possible vinyl stood up, her face melting away showing her jaw under neath. She turned the bass cannon on us her face in a demented smile. She fired the bass cannon right at us causing me to duck under the beam its heat singing my hair as pinkie pie launched herself up and over the beam. The beam burned some of my mane off. I rolled out behind a tree, Vinyl still saw me and turned the cannon on the tree. The two sharp beeps were followed by the burning laser knocking the tree I was behind over. "You're not the only one with a cannon!" Pinkie yelled firing a cake, streamers, and lead filled balloons at vinyl,"Applejack you alright?". I didn't answer because I did not want to draw the cannons attention, not yet at least. "Vinyl! Im over here!" I screeched before clambering up a tree, praying she thought I was still at the bottom. She spun and fired the cannon right at the base of the tree, as I lept to the tree next to it. "Run! Pinkie!" I yelled leaping through the air, I crashed down on the button before the beeps sounded. I cast a glance over my shoulder at Vinyl's surprised face, then I took of running towards the smoldering remains of the house. The explosion launched me forward, until I smashed face first into a tree, draining the consciousness from my eyes. > The queen > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was an intense ringing in my ears as the fuzzy world began to appear around me, spinning out of control as a colorful pink splotch appeared in my face. It was moving about, shouting something, I could not hear what it was saying. The intense ringing in my ears was overpowering, until eventually the ringing quieted down. "Get up! Unless you want to die here!" Pinkie was yelling repeatedly in my face. "Help..." I gasped trying to catch my breath. Her face lit up with delight and she held her hoof out to me. "You alright?" She asked pulling me up off the ground. "What happened? I can't remember the last twenty minutes." I said taking her hoof and getting back to my feet. "Well you blew vinyl up, then you got flung into the tree, and I have been protecting your body." She was cheerful and I don't know whether it was from me being alive, or if she had just gone back to being her old self again. "I've been working with trees all my life, runnin into one aint gonna kill me!" I said looking around at the trees that were slowly burning despite the heavy rain that was still pouring down on us. "Well, its time to say goodbye to them because we need to split like a banana." She said gathering some of the ammunition and weapons that were scattered around. I began to scoop some up too, then I dumped them into my saddle bag. I was now fully loaded carrying two sub-machine guns, the ppsh41, another heavy machine gun that I didn't know the name of, and a double barrel shotgun. "Alright I guess that's it and we oughtta get goin." I say casting a sad glance over my shoulder at the smoking rubble. "Not yet we don't know if it has gone airborne, you're gonna need one of these just in case." She said holding a black mask, with NO.42, written in a dull yellow on the back. I pulled the dusty antique onto my head, tightening the chin strap until the only air getting inside was coming from the two large filters that were on both sides of my mouth. "What do we do now?" I asked as we began to walk through the rain towards town. "I learned that occasionally rainbowdash, the queen of the zomponies, will do a sonic rainboom resurrecting all the fallen, undead warriors for an everlasting party!" I stared at her blankly as she walked through the rain. "And that means what?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "I think if we kill her, our jobs of saving whats left of equestria will be a lot easier." She continued with her gun held high, anticipating any attack. "So I noticed you had some beef with rainbow dash, what was that all about?" I asked over the roar of the rain. "She was always mean to me, you never saw but she would beat me to an inch of my life. I would hide for days or weeks while the cuts and bruises healed, that's why you didn't see me at all during February, she would break my fingers on a regular basis, she said that if I ever told anyone she would kill me, which is why I killed her. It was just supposed to kill her violently but it mutated her to this and ruined everything. It was quite interesting how her body reacted to the virus." Pinkie said her expression changing when she told me about the beatings. Her face becoming one of terror when she told me about what rainbow did, and seeming to become one of interest when she got to the part about the virus. "Well, what is it that you are talking about?" I asked concern falling onto my face. I knew that rainbowdash could be a bit of a bully but I had no idea it had gone so far out of control. I convinced myself that she had done the right thing, although I didn't know if I would would have done the same thing but I didn't judge her. "It was a highly unstable chemical that someone I know from the science lab, up in canterlot, gave me. It was part of the project they were working on, it was called... Bio war which was short for biological warfare." she explained looking me in the eyes. "You do realize what you just said, right? It was a 'highly unstable' chemical, meaning no one knows what is going to happen when it's used." I said not understanding her logic at the momoent. "It was unstable but it was just supposed to bring on a high fever. That's what happened with all of the other test subjects." she said thinking hard to remember something. "Wait this was tested on other ponies!" I shouted in a whisper careful so no zomponies would hear me. "This was tested on prisoners who had committed treason, they were going to die anyway it was better to use them for science." She said which made me feel a little better, although it still horrified me that this had been tested on ponies. "Okay where do you think rainbowdash would have gone." I asked scanning through the rain for the sky blue pony. "Well in ghost lore spirits will haunt the spot they died in." She said smiling because she was proud of herself. "Have you been hanging out with twilight?" I asked giggling to myself. "Yes, but that's beside the point, do you have any idea where she died at?" she asked after giggling a little to loudly. "Well that would be the farm and she wasn't there, so where would she be?" I asked trying not to slow down. "She could be at sugarcube corner, or at fluttershy's place." She said slowing down to a walk. "Well lets go check fluttershy's hut first, I have a strange feeling that is where she'll be." I said leaving out the thought that she might have an army with her. I fell into my usual long distance running pace and continued side by side with pinkie until we approached the large tree house. Pinkie put her hoof out in front of my face to single to stop, then she pointed towards the top of the tree. Rainbow dash was standing on the very top, with an army of undead huddling around the base of the tree. "We should try and kill rainbow dash from a distance, then I will burn the ones at the bottom." She said producing a small rocket launcher and a small flame thrower. Instead of saying anything I pulled out my ppsh41 and cocked the gun which set the firing pin into place. She nodded and aimed the collapsible rocket launcher at the pony sitting atop the tree and pressed the button to launch the rocket at her. > "Is it over?" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbowdash did not notice the rocket until it hit her and split her into five different pieces, which were then scattered across the ground underneath the leaves. Snarls, screeches, and howls sounded across the grassy lawn as the zomponies spun and locked their bloodshot eyes onto us. "well, here comes the party!" Pinkie yelled dousing the ground in front of us with flames. I raised the kaikrussian ppsh41 and began to spray down the approaching horde. I noticed the flying rock, the zomponies were apparently getting smarter, I ducked and sprayed down the spot that the rock came from. The ammo cartridge held seventy one bullets, but they were being depleted very quickly, and I was going to have to pull of the heavy machine gun soon. "Pinkie, I don't know how long we will be able to hold here, I am chewing through ammo fast." I yelled gunning down to or three more zomponies. "Come on then! We need to start heading back towards sugarcube corner!" She screamed throwing a short burst of flames into the crowd before turning one hundred and eighty degrees and running back towards the town. I finished the little bit of ammo left in the clip, then spun around and followed her towards sugarcube corner. I didn't drop the gun even though it was out of ammo, it was heavy enough to use as a bat if I truly needed to. The rain slowed to a stop as we ran but the clouds stayed in the same spot, not letting the sun through. A zompony appeared in front of my and I smashed the butt of the gun into his teeth, then swung it over my head and back, down like an axe, which flattened his head and splattered blood across the ground. I slowed as I approached the gingerbread house with the bright pink roof, Pinkie appeared in the doorway. "What are you waiting on you slow poke?" She yelled as I closed the fifty or so feet to the brightly colored building. She took me by the hoof and dragged me through the building towards her room, which we reached quickly. "How is this going to help us?" I asked looking out the window into the fog. "Just help me move the bed." She said trying to push it away from the wall. "The world is falling apart on the other side of this wall, and you want to redecorate your bedroom?" I ask slightly frustrated as she continues to push at the bed with all of her force. "Just stop whining and help me with it!" she yelled obviously frustrated with me. "Okay, okay, there's no reason to yell at me." I said pushing the heavy bed. There was a loud scraping noise as the bed moved away from the wall revealing a gaping hole. "You can go first, guest." She said shoving me down the dark hole. I screamed as all the blood rushed through my veins and into my head making me nauseous. I slid down the metallic slide for about fifteen seconds, then I landed on something soft and rolled onto the hard floor. Pinkie yelled in delight as she fell down the long hole and landed next to me. "Pinkie, I can't see a single thing." I said crawling around, bumping into things until a vibrant white light flashed on, burning my eyes. I slowly got to my hooves to see that there were guns on tables all across this large room we were in. I dropped my saddle bag and began admiring a large double sided battle axe that was on the table I had run into while it had been dark. "Choose whatever guns you want." She said leaning on a wall that had a sign on it that read ' Welcome to the fun room.' I ran over to the table that had a small sign that had kaikrussian written on it, the table next to it had ludesma written on it. I ran my hands over the smooth saiga-12, across the PPD-34, and along the smooth wooden frame of the Mosin-Nagant. I quickly pulled the saiga off the table, and grabbed ammo for it and my ppsh41. I was not paying attention and ran right into a M67 barrage, also kaikrussian, that was mounted on a slim metal stand, which had a small switch which detached the gun if needed. "There are only five of these in the entire world! How the hell did you get your hands on one?" I ask a little upset that I had never known about this beautiful gun before this. "I know people, don't bother trying to take it with us, the only person in this town strong enough to carry that gun would be, Big mac." She said yawning acting as if the gun was not a big deal. A look of defeat and sadness washed across my face, so I just moved along to the ludesman table. I lifted the FN SCAR MK 17 and aimed down the sight before dropping it into a backpack I had found, I was determined on leaving my filth ridden saddlebag behind. I skipped over the M16, M1918 Bar, Remington M870. My hands carry themselves to the large AA-12 and drop it into my new bag, along with a few clips of ammo. "Pinkie I think I've got all the..." She tackles me putting her hand over my mouth. "Be quiet." She whispered quietly looking over her shoulder. I didn't hear the moans and groans until after pinkie threw me to the ground, which hurt slightly and knocked out my breath. I silently moved her off of me and slid towards the large mounted M67 barrage, trying not to make a sound. My arm scraped across some loose gravel and made a loud skidding noise, which attracted a nearby zompony. It stumbled around upstairs until it fell down through pinkies slide, screeching its head off the entire way down, which would no doubt attract more zomponies. Not caring about stealth any more I hopped up, grabbed the gun, aimed in on the zompony, and cut his undead body to shreds. "well here comes the fun." I said pointing the gun towards the opening to the large metal slide. There were a lot of screams as they slid down through the long tunnel which I assumed that pinkie had built herself. I squeezed the cold trigger, as the first undead body slid through the hole, which caused the bullets to rip through the barrel, flying through the air, until they embedded themselves into the bodies of the zomponies. I had dumped half the clip when pinkie tapped on my shoulder. "We can't stay here!" she yelled over the sound of the guns rapid fire. I let the gun go and ran after her down a hall, that had been previously hidden by a stone colored door that matched the wall. "Pinkie, I need to tell you something, just in case we don't make it out of here." I said watching her furiously hitting the wall. She didn't answer me, so I felt that I needed to continue with what I was saying. "Pinkie, I really like you. I always have I just didn't have enough courage to tell you, I was going to today but..uh..this all happened. I should..." I was saying when she cut me off. "I know already I like you too, but we don't have time for this." She yelled banging on the wall. "No pinkie, I meant I..."I continued as there was a hissing as clean air rushed into the hallway. "I got it let's go! We can talk about this later!" She yelled jumping into another tunnel slide. "I wasn't done." I mumbled pulling the pin from a grenade and throwing it behind me before dropping into the darkened tunnel. ---TO BE CONTINUED---