Pinkie Pie & Fluttershy's Zombie Crisis
Part 1. Triumph: Together Invincible
Fall into the void of memories and events that lead to this triumph was inevitable. Gravitational forces of her own mind were taking Fluttershy's consciousness on a ride to experience and sum up the dramatic movie of her own, absurdly unpredictable life of the last few months. Indeed unpredictable, her shotgun was reminding her with every big "BANG" it let out, screaming throughout the world. How'd it come to this?
"Pinkie Pie!" Fluttershy wailed with all the strength her mouth was able to gather. Her tired and tortured, but courageous voice was clear in the department of what she wanted: "I need you here. There are too many of them charging!". Having pulled the trigger, but with no response from the jammed gun, fear almost returned into Fluttershy's mind. Luckily, she put herself together and did the only thing she could: hoof kicking.
Standing on a five meter pile of zombiponies corpses, painted with dark, crimson blood coat and onyx coloured ash from the Poniville consumed in fire, Fluttershy was everything but cute. A ruthless grin was drawn all over her grim face, sending enemies into the state of despair, one look at a time. Fluttershy, the grim reaper was looking at them, ready to send their souls to the Otherworld. She was kicking out the last of the zombieponies with her deadly hooves.
"Pinkie Pie...!" slowly she repeated, increasing her voice power from low muttering to a full blown scream. As she finished a U-turn back hooves attack, she found Pinkie Pie, cheerfully as ever coming out of fucking nowhere. Now, the duo was ready to dance the last dance of death and indeed they have. In a blink of an eye, the last ten zombieponies were lying lifelessly on the ground, pale under a crimson, half black sky.
"We've got them all! It's over!" Pinkie Pie lukewarmly cheered. She knew that this was no funny occasion, but her job throughout life was to make everyone happy. She only wanted things go back to how they were before this bloody massacre that destroyed the world. As Fluttershy stood firmly, gazing into the sky, obviously not hearing Pinkie Pie's words, Pinkie knew she does not need to pretend everything's fine, so she lowered her smile and let the sorrow appear on her blood stained face.
Looking not towards, but through the, for her invisible sky, Fluttershy stared into her own soul. Finally, the scary, firm as a rock Fluttershy started to fall apart. The Ponyville was bathed in the flames of hate and destruction. Within such a hostile environment Fluttershy became who she needed to become, just to save lives that yet had not withered away and died. She failed. The world that still was standing, now safe on it's own is not enough. Where is everypony? Pinkie Pie and she may have been able to whipe out the evil, but where is the life they wanted to protect? Heat of the scorching flames spreading all over Equestria dispersed the tear Fluttershy's sorrowful eye let free into this hostile, lifeless world. Everything was fire.
There was only one thing that could bring everypony back and Fluttershy was determined to do everything in and out of her power to bring them back. Right now, she was not able to do so. The tired body of an exhausted pony was too weak to do anything else but sleep. Falling into restless sleep, her mind fell through the gallery of memories. "How did all this happen? A mere few weeks ago I was a shy girl, not a full blown warrior mare" Fluttershy asked herself.
2: Armageddon Twilight
"Um... if you don't mind, that is..." scared to death and defensive Fluttershy retreated into her usual verbal corner where she couldn't be assaulted by poisonous tongues of otherponies.
The surprised stallion was looking at Fluttershy losing her confidence, but not being very familiar with her, he did not know it was her low confidence talking. What he saw was a brave girl that dared to ask him for a date muttering some unclear sentence. Unknowingly, while being confused, his eyes started to stare at Fluttershy, what made the situation 20% more awkward for her.
The horror overtook the yellow Fluttershy's soul and practically froze her body. Not being able to withstand this torture of waiting a few seconds for a response, without any coordination or thinking, she jumped in the side, desperately trying to run away. Badly coordinated, she fell into a bush and started rolling down the steep of the hill she and the stallion were on.
With her head dived into the grass, the first thing she felt as the senses returned to her body was the freshness of this tranquil spring day. She listened - the birds were singing. She looked in front of her - vividly coloured, green grass tickled her. Making a sincere smile, she forgot all about the series of unfortunate events leading her to this heavenly meadow.
"ouch..." Fluttershy muttered as her body started to feel pain. Suddenly she realised something was wrong- while her head was on the ground, her shiny and round, insanely nicely curved plot was sticking up the air, like a mountain. Swiftly, she fluttered her wings and risen the body up. Now, standing on all four of her legs, Fluttershy looked around, stretching her neck.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight yelled from her balcony. Startled again, Fluttershy jumped. Looking around like a maniac, finally she realized that Twilight's awesometacular looking Tree-Library-House was ten meters left of her! "Come here, for a visit Fluttershy!" Twilight yelled.
Ashamed from her bad perception not noticing the house and almost being seen in a quite challenging pose that would surely need to be censored from any medium, she tried not to show her nervousness. Slowly, Fluttershy walked towards the awesome house of Twilight Sparkle. "What will miss Sparkle have for her today?" Fluttershy was curious.
Having entered the magnificent tree of knowledge, the yellow pony was confused where to go next. The whole place was bright, polished and ordered no more and no less than perfectly. Where should I go? Left or right, or maybe wait here? Maybe Twilight is waiting for me upstairs? "Damn" Fluttershy was getting nervous. Luckily, Twilight came down the stairs and sorted the confusion out.
"Fluttershy." Twilight seriousness was surreal.
After making a fragile, scared look for a ten millionth time throughout her shy life, Fluttershy expected Twilight to make this situation less scary. Of course, that did not happen and instead, Twilight continued in the worst possible way:
"The World is coming to an end" echoed through the awkward silence of the room.
"Equestria will burn and everypony will disappear from the face of existence" the room felt cold.
"You are the only one that can change that" Twilight stated bluntly.
Fluttershy felt as if the world turned into a dream. "You must be fucking kidding me" she thought. Anticipating Twilight's next words, unlucky as she was today, she expected to get diagnosed with cancer. What actually happened did not surprise her – she lost consciousness. As she was loosing consciousness, she heard Twilight's last words: "I'm putting an enchantment on you, you'll revive this dying world!"
Now, after finally defeating the ponycopalypse, the next step was to revive the world, somehow... But before that, she needed to rest. Falling into the dreams, her memories continued to whirl as she had a retrospective look on the happenings throughout the last few weeks.
The exhausted, but still very much awake, Pinkie Pie was looking gently at Fluttershy.
"Poor girl, she was always a passive type of pony. This must be a terrible burden for her" Pinkie Pie thought as she sat down right next to Fluttershy, guarding her from any possible danger.
3: Requiem for Fluttershy pt. 1
Day and night, screams filled the ether of the Ponyverse. As zombieponies ferociously kept multiplying, life and the land turned obsolete. One by one, familiar pony faces decomposed, faded into vaguely familiar aberrations. Moon turned pale white out of fear. It reflected the colour of Luna's emotional state. Sun was there by the day, but it's rays were distant and cold. Celestia was nowhere to be found. The God left them to fend for themselves. Just as Twilight Sparkle announced, a big disaster has befallen Equestria.
Everypony ran for their lives. As water in a vicious stream, they scattered everywhere over the mortal plains of fading Ponyearth. A few magnificent bastards, like the godlike Celestia and demigod Luna vanished from the face of planet and went somewhere. Maybe to the Moon or the stars? The whole situation was unexpected, defied all logic, but no one had time to piece the jigsaw puzzle together. For now, it was a time to banish from the deaths sight.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy slept in serene sleep: "Sleep child of mine, you'll relinquish this world" she dreamt someone smiling at her. And then her eyes opened; gray feelings of despair welcomed her. Fluttershy has awakened for some reason. She was entrusted with the job of saving the whole pony universe.
This is a chapter about how I, Fluttershy died for the first time.
"I remember waking up in the wilderness of Everfree forest" Fluttershy commented to herself. "Am I floating? I'm dreaming. That pony lying on the earth over there... These are my memories?" yellow angel's thoughts fluttered, but soon lapsed from her mind as she observed her former self.
The scared little pony just opened her gentle, cyan eyes. Lost in both time and space, she instantly lied into the grass, worried, scanning the wilderness around her with her big, beautiful eyes. Deep green, tree tops were hanging high up in the air, making the forest seem like a big hall in which, a malicious entity from some myth that Twilight could tell, lives. Fluttershy wished there was more light; a few sun rays penetrating the leaf top barricades were able to create the ambivalent feeling of both day and night. The perfect combination for shadows to play tricks with poor wanderer's minds. Even worse, Fluttershy did not know where exactly she was, nor how long was she absent from the world – a few hours? Or maybe a few days?
"Oh my!" quickly, yellow pony was distracted.
"Look at all these different kinds of birds!" cheerfully she commented whilst watching a few unspecified bird subjects fly some ten meters up from the ground, half way in between the earth and tree top roof.
"Maybe this place isn't that bad" Fluttershy apologised to the nature. She thought that every life form is connected to each other through the big cosmic energy of life. "Bad, bad Fluttershy! How could you condemn this nice, tranquil forest!" she scolded herself. Now, after a few minutes of observing this unknown place, the pony started jumping, playing like a child. The forest had everything she liked: anonymity, tranquillity and animals. She even started liking the sinister shadows fighting the light for dominance, for the two made a mysterious, mystic atmosphere.
Adjusting her eyes to Everfree forest's darkness, Fluttershy began to see the big, old oak trees; hundreds of branches building an impressive roof; birds gliding through the air; a deer running over the forest's lush carpet. Fluttershy felt as if she could scream! Taking a deep breath, she unleashed one cute, quiet and heart warming "yay!"
Light hearted pony enjoyed blissful ignorance she swam in. It was a good thing that Twilight did not tell her the stories of the beasts living here. It was no accident that ponies did not wander into this haunted place. Even Zecora lived far away from the deep parts of the forest our favourite pony was in. Unfortunately, Fluttershy's peace did not last much longer. A discordant growl broke loose and attacked the forest from all directions, reminding everyone of the reason why the beasts are the rulers here.
Fluttershy didn't need to be told twice how dangerous you are. Torn apart by panic, Fluttershy fell on the ground. Crouching with eyes wide opened, she started to go somewhere. Any direction is fine, she just needed to get out of here. With adrenaline pumping through her fragile heart, the yellow pony started moving through the bushes and overgrown grass, praying to Celestia that no one finds her. Gentle pony's breathing was heavy and with every breath and movement she was more and more aware of the fact that her body was shaking.
"All alone, I don't know where am I..." fragile pony's mind returned to the reality.
"What happened, how did I come here?" she started over thinking things she knew had no answers right now. Chaotically over thinking everything, feeling threatened and dizzy, she continued to move forward. Every second seemed like an eternity. Fluttershy did not know how much time passed, nor if she moved two or a few hundred meters.
"What if this is no problem, if actually nothing major happened... Everything will be good as soon as I find somepony." lost Fluttershy started lamenting out loud after some time. Her voice was tense.
High grass was tickling her nose during her self proclaimed, fearless march of running away. "It takes guts to run away" she thought. Playing with her own mind, trying to think as little as she could about the forest, shadows around her made her restless. No longer she enjoyed anything in this forest, everything was a problem right now. Animals? A snake could pop up from nowhere at any second. Shadows? They were scary. Vegetation? She can't orient herself because of it. Her tense spirit could not hold any more so she became sloppy: loosing her ninja-esque silence and the cover of grass, the forest life started to notice her loud steps and yellow shape.
"Think of your friends. The rabbit that lives near your house. Come on Fluttershy, don't be negative. Maybe the roar from earlier was a call for friendship..."
Still making much noise in the sleeping forest, she remembered some words from her earlier sleep and Twilight's surreal zomie story. A little angry on Twilight for making that story up as if the current situation was not scary enough, even more fear filled poor Fluttershy's soul. She understood nothing what was happening - she couldn't just simply dismiss Twilight's story; it was mean and unprobable, but they were friends. Twilight would never lie to her.
Practically running now, Fluttershy bumped into a minor beast of the forest – the manticore. Last time she met it, it was hurt and she helped it, but this time it was not a part of the test; it was ready to eat her, or at least she thought that.
Realising what she is facing, fragile and shy pony wanted to curl up in the grass. She imagined the beast swinging it's vicious tail and hurting her. "I want my home..." her life flashed in front of her eyes. Now deathly scared, her pony instincts took over: not knowing what was she doing, Fluttershy ran as fast as she could, right towards manticore's legs. With blind luck she dashed in between those legs. Quickly, she fluttered her wings and rose up in the air vertically. Closing her eyes, she broke through the leaf barricades of the tree tops. Mere moments later, in one second flat, she was over the forest, flying as fast as never before, travelling towards the Poniville, not knowing what was waiting there. Manticore did not follow her.
4: Pinkie Pie's last Party
"In the name of all ponies, I'd like to thank all righteous forces wielding the universe and binding our lives to our PonyEarth..." Pinkie Pie, the pony in the center of attention gasped for air while talking relentlessly: "... I'd like to thank Celestia and Luna the most, because of their constant work. Without them, the Sun would not rise and Moon would not glow in the air, giving us light even in the pitch black night."
Finished with her speech, somewhat awkwardly, Pinkie started threading over the table she rose up on to make her newest party speech. Now, finished with the speech, Pinkie felt as if something was missing. Out of blue (or maybe pink), Pinkie added "I'd like to thank everypony for coming to my first annual party of life!". Finally finishing the boring introduction, her over analytical eyes scanned the crowd of 101 pony that accepted her party invitation. Hopping down the table, she found herself on the floor of her own house. It did not look like it was her house though; not even the most fancy parties she designed had this much decoration. Pinkie Pie may be an over enthusiastic party mare, but even she knew not to go over the top as this party did. Looking around, she found it strange that Twilight would ask her to make a party; then decorate everything to the point of even Pinkie knowing it's overdone; and finally, it was unexpected from Twilight to write a speech for Pinkie to read. She usually just improvised, why is this so important? Pinkie was going to ask Twilight what is the meaning of all this, but with her mind dazzled by all the Braoque decorations and her attention span being that of a small child, Pinkie forgot it. In ten seconds flat.
Turning towards Twilight, pink face of a pony that made the speech wanted to know if she passed miss Sparkles standards. With a creepy smile, thinking it was just a normal, cheerful face Pinkie Pie bluntly asked "Did I do good?"
It may have been unnecessary to ask that question and Pinkie knew it very well, but her impulses always got the better of her. Twilight's body language and general anticipation of the party obviously stated that everything was at least fine if not great.
"Of course Pinkie, great and energetic as always, Pinkie" Twilight abetted, but it was too late. Pinkie was already ten meters away, drinking beer and dancing on the table. How does she do that? This place is crowded.
"The world is on the precipice of a disaster" Twilight knew and so she wandered out of Pinkie's house. I've dealt with Fluttershy earlier today and I've dealt with Pinkie now" she orderly checked her mental "to do" list. And then she went away, not to be seen again.
5: Requiem for Fluttershy: pt. 2
Dashing through the air, barely escaping from the forest, gentle Fluttershy was glad that there was no climatic battle with the beast. "It's not following me. Yay." she thought. Her train of thoughts derailed soon, though. Having escaped the situation, gentle cyan eyes of the pony saw that there are many details of the world in front of her, not quite right. Although the air was rushing over her face, making it a little problematic to see everything, it was obvious that sun rays were cold and that it was still unusually hot.
Confused, landing into Poniville, Fluttershy broke the barrier of ignorance and found out infernal news. The city appeared untidy and Fluttershy's felt disturbed. The zombies walked the streets and Fluttershy didn't like that. Out of nowhere, before she could even react, Pinkie Pie jumped from the second floor of the house in front of her and pushed Fluttershy inside. Fast, Pinkie uncovered a hole in the floor and pushed bewildered Fluttershy inside. Together the two ponies passed through a maze of passages in the walls of the house and ended up in a hidden room of the second floor of Pinkie's house.
Finally settled in the safety of the house, yellow pony petrified. Widely spread eyes had something to tell; mouth soon confirmed it: "There are zombies here. Why aren't they in some book as usual?"
Serious, as she was every day since last week, Pinkie Pie approached this problem diplomatically. Fluttershy was in a fragile state of mind, she needed to hear something that would make her optimistic.
"Well, zombies kindda ruined my party last week." Pinkie tried to sound like an innocent carefree girl.
"That reminds me, why didn't you come to my party that day?" she tried to change the subject.
Standing on all four legs, Pinkie watched petrified Flutterstatue sitting. She made a forced smile.
Fluttershy finally showed signs of life . "I dont know..." she stoped for a moment.
"...maybe because I lost consciousness that day." she paused again.
With a tense voice, she continued "And Twilight told me I was to stop zombie ponycoplalypse"
Visibly frustrated voice of Fluttershy finished her talk "And then I woke up in the Everfree forest where a manticore tried to kill me and then zompieponies here."
Not sure what to say, Pinkie Pie decided to sum up what happened in last few days: "In the middle of party a week ago, this... started"
Obviously frustrated with recent happenings, finally having someone to share her drama with, Pinkie Pie exploded with words. "Oh Fluttershy, I'm so happy you're here. I was alone for at least five days, there's no one else left!"
Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped towards Fluttershy, letting a few tears out by the way "I've got food and ammunition here that I got from Celestia's abandoned castle, but it's no good on it's own. We'll need to make all the zombieponies go away!"
Fluttershy, in a moment of complete clarity muttered "You mean we'll need to kill them."
"Say..." she continued. "Where are... Applejack. Twilight. Rarity. Rainbow Dash?"
There was no answer.
The depths of Fluttershy's brain kept a secret hell machine. It would start sometimes, most notably when her friends were in danger. The angst container of her brain was full. Tank full of sorrow started overfilling. Happiness formula was currently not being used to produce countermeasures to neutralize the former two. Not to break her psyche, the hell machine, turned on. The angst and sorrow were mixed. The door to chamber of stored fear and anger, she accumulated throughout her pacifist life opened. A violent chemical reaction ensured.
Looking at Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie waited for a sign of anything.
Opening her eyes wide as never before, Fluttershy's breathing was loud. The angry pony screamed as she fiercely ran out of the house. She concentrated all the energy she had in her hooves. Fluttershy's jaw was very visible, standing out arrogantly. Through the window, she jumped and flew. Her mind was united, focused on one thing – revenge.
Complete chaos and instincts took over Fluttershy as she yelled "You won't take my friends!". Accelerating, she was rushing towards ground. With her head, Fluttershy bashed into a zombiepony. Crash landing onto land, whiping zombiepony unconcious, all zombiepony eyes were on her. Although having a big headache from the impact, she could count 50 of them, but she knew more were to come. Arrogantly, she wailed: "I'm going to kill you".
Fluttershy wanted to triumph over them all. She activated the bomb she snatched from Pinkie Pie's hidden house. Rolling it right into the masses of Zombieponies, it exploded and unraveled Fluttershy's descent into madness. She screamed and rammed into zombies again. And again. Her head felt big and painful but she didn't stop. MORE, she wanted.
Opening her eyes, Fluttershy was resting in Pinkie Pie's hideout. Pinkie looked at her seriously: "Don't do that ever again".
"I'm sorry" Fluttershy muttered. She was back to her old self.
In the deadly silence, both ponies did not know what to say to each other. Fluttershy was unsettled by her earlier aggressive and self destructive behaviour. This was a mere moment of tranquillity. Next moment, her aggressive side reappeared with the memories of old friends. She had to make everything right again. "That was not me, or at least not regular me. I did not know I had it in myself..." Fluttershy thought "It was as if I died today..."
"We'll fix this" Fluttershy said calmly, looking at Pinkie.
"I know we will" Pinkie Pie said although she had her doubts.
Silence filled the room again, leaving the ponies to reflect on their actions and thoughts.
6: World Burns on...
Cyan eyes amidst the ashes of the Poniville had a strong smirk of arrogance. She awoke finally, after having dreamt of her life. Yellow hooves lifted her body off the ground, quickly. Disturbing the ashes sleeping on the earth, she rose up, over the land of death. She stopped the zombie invasion and defended this soil from a disaster. Reflecting on what had been start of this bloody adventure, Fluttershy had her short rest. It was enough. She regained her faith and belief.
The mysterious strings of fate which made this cruel joke over the spectral plains of life were wrong, she thought. The world constantly goes forward, never, even for a moment stopping, what makes everypony evolve and change every day. That is the way the world is supposed to be. This last turn of faith that abolished the pony race was inexcusable. Now no one could make any progress any more. Such a devious, cruel system, the last turn fate made... It is wrong! Even if the fabric of universe, the faith and time turn against her and pony kind , Fluttershy will not stop.
"It's a vile system. I want my friends back. Fate, I reject you and all decisions you've made in the last month."
Fluttershy's eyes, whenever she thought about this vile development, turned into madman's cry. A scream against the world.
"Whoever made this cruel joke on ponykind, can go to hell. I'll even escort him there."
Recalcitrant, standing firmly on the face of the world, her enemy territory, Fluttershy muttered a few words as her mind was overflowing with ideas :
"The world tried to dismember my life... Destroy all my friends. Everything I know. Faith, time, universe, gods... Whoever made this joke over my life will burn. Yes! Even if I destroy the whole world, I'll bring you all back, my friends. They say the world goes on, but that's not true... I'll make you stop, world. I'll make you burn and BURN, until I get EVERYTHING back. I promise myself. I will succeed."
Unleashing a gaze around her, Fluttershy saw Pinkie Pie overseeing her from the other side of this unfortunate, annihilated street. Slightly surprised on how awesome Pinkie has become during the last month, guarding her from the distance, letting her have some privacy to making peace with herself, Fluttershy looked Pinkie Pie with a lot of optimism.
"I feel like I'm burning inside, screaming from the sorrow, but I feel strong. Like a monster. It's time to do something, for once in my life" Fluttershy thought.
"Pinkie Pie, have you made your own resolutions about what happened?" Fluttershy yelled to the other side of the street. She knew everything was destroyed, but she also knew that she had a great friend still alive, with whom she could and will turn the world to what it was before. Pinkie Pie's eyes revealed that she didn't make peace with anything, just as Fluttershy didn't herself. They both knew that they will never stop, until everything is back to normal. Somehow they will succeed.
"Let's go" the last two mares standing on the world said at the same time, rushing out of the crumbling ruins of Poniville, somewhere, to find how did this happen and why. The world was theirs to correct.
To be continued...