Pinkie Pie & Fluttershy's Zombie Crisis; Act II


2.1: Desolate Soil

There was a castle in the sky. In a desolate valley. Valley enclaved by piles of mountains, stretching over the bland, vast horizon without end. Castle stood in the middle, levitating, untainted and untouched by anypony for aeons. It's white walls faded to a grey hue from the impact of time. Obediently, the castle walls stood petrified on their place even through the worst disasters and weather conditions this world had to flail them with.

From a distance, moving towards the castle, two ponies strolled silently. It was middle of the day; Sun was indifferently changing it's position over the naked sky and the wind slowly blew, carrying the apathy of this alien world around. Pony duo was slowly making their way towards the giant architectural marvel, silently listening the sound of hooves constantly colliding with grainy, rocky and dusty earth.

Fluttershy was trying to resolve tangled feelings dwelling within her psyche. She didn't know if it was the general apathetic atmosphere of this strange land or her own feelings that she felt last few weeks. Fluttershy felt slow indifference and constant faint tension in her heart. It was as if she had locked some problems deep within herself. Maybe, with time passing some feelings got imprinted deeper and deeper into her, until she forgot them. Really, how much time did it pass since she and Pinkie Pie went onto a quest to revive the world? Neither of them counted, for they knew it would take long. Time after all, did not meant almost anything, any more. There were no ponies you wanted to see or jobs you had to do. The only reminder of time left was the eventual reality of death, waiting for everypony at the end of his life. She remembered the lustful fires of the will for revenge and blood thirstiness she felt when the mission was simple matter of banishing the hordes of zombies to death. But now, there were no beings Flutterage could release her destructive anguish and frustration on. These feelings, along with most of frustration she felt, caved into her subconsciousness as she could not handle the ambiguity of feeling them all the time, every day. The constant reminder for that was, she thought, the feeling of nervousness and tension that her heart felt faintly all the time. She feared that she was losing motivation. But Fluttershy knew she'll never stop looking for a solution. Besides, right now, she was marching towards the possible answer to the problem! It was better for her to take a deep breath and stop having so many doubts. Fluttershy inhaled fresh air, slowly, as much as she could. Kept it for a moment - then exhaled.

One and a half meter left of Fluttershy, walked Pinkie Pie, the self proclaimed great explorer! Although she didn't want to rub it into Fluttershy's face, Pinkie actually enjoyed the last few months. Although remembering her friends stirred her calmness and invoked the wrath of her own skeletons in the closet, she was happy with the way her life turned after the catastrophe. Pinkie was enthusiastic and proud of her very own psychological development. In the old days she fitted the role of just another silly comedic pony, but now she had the burden of almost impossible, self imposed mission on her back; the hardest type of the mission. And she was trying to be as serious and objective as it was possible. Her heart tingled every time she remembered how, when the hell started, she put herself together and joined with Fluttershy. For such a fragile pony as Fluttershy to be tortured this way, Pinkie Pie was unhappy about though. It was not that bad, the two had some great time together, but Fluttershy too often reacted seriously, even to jokes.

"Umm... Pinkie Pie?" Fluttershy quietly and unenthusiastically turned towards her.

"Yes?" Pinkie answered relatively quietly for her usual habits as she tried to match her wavelength to Fluttershy's.

"I was wondering, what if we find nothing here?"

"You can't know that. Even if we find nothing, we'll be the first ponies in aeons to walk on this sacred soil. Enjoy this place a little more. This is still your life, not just a mission."

The yellow pony made a faint smile for a moment, just to let Pinkie Pie know how she appreciated the reassuring answer. She was already aware of everything that Pinkie said, but her doubts were here and she needed someone to extinguish them. Who's better at that than her only, strong and dedicated companion?

Fluttershy speeded up her walk and tried experiencing the world more personally. Still, she was nervous. Or excited? Yellow pony was not sure how to distinguish those two feelings any more. The castle seemed nearer. After thinking a little more, it hit her that this was indeed an honour; no pony walked on this land in a long time and this sight is virtually unknown to any being that ever lived on earth. It was the garden of pony creation.

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was sorting the data in her head. Who knew what waited for them here? She tried to remembered everything she found about this place in Celestia's royal library. Before she found Fluttershy in infected Poniville, she made a stupid decision – she was going to hide in Celestia's royal castle and use it as her base. Unfortunately, she didn't think that even the castle would be desecrated. When she uncovered the inconvenient truth, after she finally arrived to the castle, Pinkie was able to hide in royal library for a whole day before dashing back to her little city hideout. Although she didn't have a reputation for being a bookworm as Twilight was, she had a few tricks of her own. While Twilight knew everything of the usual calibre, Pinkie was more specific. She read wacky literature and some really underground stuff. What she found at the royal library was something of extreme importance what was obviously kept from sight. A strange book lacking any pictures or words on it's cover. The book was hidden in Celestia's own personal desk, within a magically sealed containment. Pinkie was sure that opening the desk was something that'd send you for a million years to the moon or maybe even kill you. Good that the desk was broken due to zombie mayhem! Pinkie Pie giggled.

Book had words "Virtues of the Beasts" imprinted on it's first page and it told a story of the oldest known pony existence, long before Celestia was born. The parts of the book that Pinkie could read told about the myth of creation and gods who assembled pony world from ashes. Of the grand self realisation the ponykind had. What she couldn't read scared her. There were languages in the book that no one except maybe Celestia and maybe not even her knew to read. To the pink pony, right now the weather was exciting with a few clouds of potentially scary.

"Fluttershy, I'm very excited" Pinkie Pie was obviously, excited. "We're going to the place where ponies originally came from. The gates of the garden of eden. Or at least this book says it's it!" Pinkie giggled.

Still walking, but being very close to the castle that seemed bigger and bigger, Fluttershy felt similar to Pinkie, but a lot more cautious.


2.2: Crystal Ammunition

Under a small tree Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy decided to make a camp. Flogged by the wind since the beginning of time, this land grew desolate. It seemed dead as the freezing tundra, but devoid of chilling ice. It instead presented itself with grey and brown, colours of scarcity. Journeying into this vast valley, as ponies reached nearer and nearer towards their destination, more and more did they see hostility. And it was obvious why – winds were getting stronger the more they dived into the east, far from the last place charted by maps. Finally arriving near the castle, the ponies stopped and made a camp. Sun burned and drained energy from ponies on these long marches over the deserted land. The ponies needed rest under a shade, so they do not overheat. As usual, they found a tree to rest with.

"So, we're finally here" Fluttershy glared at the big castle in the sky.

"You couldn't say it in more cliched words, could you?" Pinkie Pie teased Fluttershy. She waited for a few moments and made some kind of an apology "But I get it, you're just trying to start a conversation!"

Ponies lifted their heads towards the sky, carefully positioning them under the shade of the nearly, lonely tree. Because of castle's gigantic nature, the girls were not sure how high was the building floating. From what they could see, it's lengthy walls transformed into at least eight slim, spiky towers.

"This is quite a frightening sight. Big tower, origins of pony race and desolate expanses. I'd like to rest here now and it'd be good if we'd wait for tomorrow morning to continue our exploration" Fluttershy, quickly and intelligently summed up her thoughts on the current situation. Satisfied with her firm attitude, she waited for Pinkie to respond. Yellow pony took another deep breath to relax a little.

"Yep!" cheerfully Pinkie shook her head.

The ponies had come to their destination. Duo sat onto their plots, looking into scarce landscape and setting sun, waiting for night to fall. They were tired not just physically, but also mentally. In various fiction, in both real and pony world, the destination is universally depicted as a safe place, a haven where ecstasy and rest await self sacrificing travellers. It was no wonder the ponies thought they have deserved a big rest.

"Wait!" Fluttershy panicked "One of us needs to be awake, just in case. We can't just doze off both!"

Quickly, to counter a possible objection from Pinkie she added "Just in case. You never know what can happen now. We're not in just the middle of nowhere any more. We're in its center! So, we should be careful.. that is, if you don't mind."

Neither of ponies liked the idea Fluttershy purposed, but she was right. There had been a time for fairy tales, but since then time has long passed. And so, Pinkie decided first to guard their sleeping space.

Fluttershy fell to her rest. Sitting besides the gentle and cute Fluttershy, although a little dusty from the dirt, Pinkie looked over the horizon. Ignoring the castle, she tried to feel the nature and maybe even meditate. Relax herself and pass the time until Fluttershy woke up.


Typically for her, Fluttershy dreamt of death. At first, the dream was a half conscious black void before her eyes. Slightly, feelings of frustration and rage started dripping into the picture of nothingness. Confused Fluttershy found herself with Pinkie Pie's after the black picture violently burnt down.

"Fluttershy, are you paying any attention to what I'm saying? Or are you dreaming?" agitated, Pinkie scanned Fluttershy. With a obvious grumpy attitude, she turned around towards the rocket launcher. They were in Poniville, in Pinkie's "hideout".

"Now..." she continue lamenting about the impending doom. Pausing for a moment, Pinkie constructed the train of thought which her words will follow "... you'll be using this as you're obviously more destructive than me". Taking the rocket launcher, Pinkie continued "What I'm worried about is what will happen after we win Poniville back". She gave the launcher to innocent looking Fluttershy "There's a lot of zombies all around Equestria. It's just a matter of time we attract them here". Suddenly realising how dirty from the gunpowder her hooves were, Pinkie ran towards the bucket of water in the corner of this small hideout. Washing her hooves, the speech she was having went uninterrupted "That means that we'll need to find a way to banish the whole zombie race".

Uncomfortable and scared Fluttershy looked at the rocket launcher in her hands. "Is this really me?" she thought. Her pony ears heard the sound of heavy metal clicking. It was Pinkie Pie; she was standing on two legs, arming herself with the coolest pistols in the room. Fluttershy admired Pinkie Pie on her enthusiastic approach to slaughter, but only a little!

After catching a glimpse of uncertainty on Fluttershy's face, Pinkie slowed down. She lowered herself down to all four hooves and with her front right hoof touched Fluttershy's face.

"Wake up" Pinkie said. "Look around you, you've got nothing and you're fighting for your life"

"But..." Fluttershy's spirit fell into a pit of sorrow. "I don't want to... Is it the right thing..."

Pinkie Pie crossed her eyes with Fluttershy. Seriously, Pinkie Pie talked "They destroyed your life. You've got only one friend now. You happy now? Where are others? Yes, they killed everyponi. Make them pay."

Fluttershy suddenly felt sick. And she overflew with rage. Something was waking up in her, again.

Swiftly, the pink pony ran to the window and looked at the street.

"Let's go." she said


Frank, the zombie was confused. For a week now, he's been wandering through this cartoonish wonderland. He didn't like it. Somehow, his instincts were telling him this was not his home and pony body not his natural form. But what did he know? He was stupid. Then again, it wasn't a problem because all his friends were also. Danny, Joe, Ricky, Al and Steve were not much smarter than he was. Frank was at a loss of what to do. For five days now, he's been starving as he didn't see anything tasty to eat around. "Maybe his friends had a pineapple or something that they'd like to gamble for" he thought. Ever since invading Equestria, all he did was gamble.

Frank was a lazy zombiepony with a limply front left hoof. Ever since he was revived from the dead, his adopted parents and teachers told him that he'd become next big thing. With only one limply leg, he'd become the fastest zombiepony of them all. All hopes were on him, but when the mistress, guardian of all the zombieponies actually sent him to Equestria, he failed. Procrastination, zombie's worst nightmare consumed him.

Having decided to go back to "Sweetzombie Sweets" pub, Frank lagged down the street. Minding his own business and remembering the old days, he was suddenly killed. A big, roaring explosion consumed half of the street in a fire. A sound of metal screeching overflowed the air for a moment. Before they could put their hooves over their poor ears, a house collapsed over zombiepony survivors. A rocket flew through the street, over to the other side of Ponyville. Another big explosion echoed and launched the whole city into a state of mayhem. The gentle veil of secured world and zombiepony victory dissolved by Fluttershy's rage.

Wailing powerfully enough for the whole Poniville to tremble from fear, Fluttershy's figure appeared from the smoke put up by explosion. When the nearest zombies turned towards her, she had a short speech. Ripping her throat with impossibly high and rough frequency, Fluttershy howled "I am Fluttershy!". Exiting the smoke, her yellow colour was becoming visible. Face of the pony has been distorted by a glass of hate. "Hear me all of you!" she continued, stopping for a moment, only to get a little air. Her neck hurt and she could feel her veins overflowing with hot lava "You killed my friends and you're going to die like dogs now!"

Stopping in front of the horrified crowd, with a rocket launcher on her back, Flutterage trembled from hate. "Game over" she fired the rocket launcher. From behind her, Pinkie took her .357 Magnum revolver and started covering Fluttershy's rear.

This city was going to burn with all it's residents. Burn in the colour of my rage. I'm so mighty. Your existence will be nullified. Look how easy you fall! HAHA! You're but mere helpless, broken crystals under my hooves. You will never ever hurt my hooves again. I'll smash you. This ammunition is ammunition of my rage! Break in my explosions! Yes, I'm powerfull, I'm the law! YES! INVINCIBLE!

Flutterage continued firing as she got covered in a coat of more and more blood. More and more dust. More and more destruction. She and Pinkie danced a dance of death. Fluttershy was the leader and Pinkie covered her. The fight went on for only a few minutes. Every zombiepony was finished soon. More of them were sure to come in the impending days from all over Equestria. The fight was long from over, but for now, it felt righteous and it felt good. It was the first victory in the war.


With her heart beating violently, Fluttershy woke up in the desolate land of east, next to Pinkie Pie. It was middle of the night. Pitch black.

"Pinkie? I woke up. Are you here?"

"Pinkie?"

"Yes, of course I'm here, you silly!" Pinkie Pie was cheerful and in good mood.

"Nice to have you around again, Fluttershy. It is so lonely with you sleeping. Oh! We're gonna swap places now? All right, but I'll stay awake a little more, so you get all woken up. You're maybe still sleepy!" Pinkie Pie bursted with playfulness.

"Ummm, Pinkie, I always admire your optimism. But how do you keep that nice appearance? Sorry for asking you again but I don't get it" Fluttershy was rueful.

"War dreams. Again?" Pinkie Pie tried to look at Fluttershy's face. Unfortunately, it was too dark

"Fluttershy, I've said this a million times to you and I'll say another million if it helps you eventually – what happened we'll change, but in the meantime you need to lead your own life."

"I know, but it doesn't help..."

"Well, maybe you need just a little more time" Pinkie quickly warped up the topic in hope that Fluttershy will take it as her own mission this way.

Due to the nightly cold, the ponies pressed their bodies together, feeling the heat of each other. They still saw nothing. It was pitch black.

Suddenly, totally random, Pinkie Pie threw a question on Fluttershy "When we won Poniville, what made you think that the answer to banishing all zombieponies was in Everfree forest? I've never quite got that"

"I woke up there when the apocalypse started. It seemed natural at the time to return" Fluttershy's voice showed a little pride. She was happy she has done something and not just dragged along with Pinkie, the commander of the squad.

The ponies didn't say a word after that. Pinkie went to the world of wacky dreams soon. They weren't as fun as they were before the incident, but they still helped her relax. Fluttershy guarded the camp with her hearing.


2.3: Point of Creation

Pinkie Pie realised that she wasn't dreaming a few moments after she thought a phoenix was rising at the end of the world. A majestic beast lighting the world was actually the morning sun rising over the sky. It was morning.

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie jumped and started running around the tree the ponies spent last night under.

"I woke up! We need to pack! Time to go!" Pinkie was anxious to finally see the castle.

Without losing any time, the ponies quickly packed all of their supplies. They checked the food and first aid kit for the quantity and quality of products left. No words interrupted them, this was nothing special, just another routine check. Ponies calculated how long it'll last and Fluttershy flew with it on the top of the tree. No animal they saw living here will be able to take it from there. With their supplies hidden, the two decided to study the eerie castle hanging from the sky.

Only a few minutes worth of walk and the ponies were already at the gates of the gigantic fortress. The only problem was that there was no gate.

"Fuck." Pinkie Pie yelled.

Between Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and castle there was quite a few meters of distance. They'd gladly walk it, but the problem was that ponies could not walk on air. Lifting her head towards the air Pinkie Pie admired the height she would need to jump to get into the big building hoovering high over her head. On the other hand Fluttershy was looking at the ground in front of her. It was yellow, a desert colour and coated in dark shadow of that castle thing high up in the air. She saw no buildings on the ground, nor any elevators to rise them up.

"Pinkie, I see no way to get us up. No staircase nor elevator. It's time I use my wings for something useful for the second time ever." Fluttershy stated totally unamused.

Thus, she grabbed Pinkie Pie in her hands and Pinkie Pie hugged her. The two ponies, now having a tight grip on each other, started the risky mission. Fluttershy tensed her wing muscles and started flapping. Fluttery wings soon turned into wide wingboners that lifted the two ponies up. With a grin saying "Fuck you gravity, I found someone better, I'm breaking up with you" she flew up fully satisfied by this turn of events. It was hard to lift herself up from the earth with Pinkie's weight, but now she fixed an old problem bugging her. The time she let go of Twilight in the first episode of the television series. That was not a good debut. Concentrating onto the air currents and wind, Fluttershy had no time to notice her surroundings. On the other hand, Pinkie Pie could do only that. Watching Fluttershy pouring all her strength into defying gravity, Pinkie was amazed but also a little worried that it may be too much for her. So, Pinkie did only thing she could do to fix the problem – she ignored it. Turning her head all the time around as if she was a camera making a landscape photo, Pinkie made the flight even more difficult to Fluttershy, but the yellow pony did not waste her energy to complain. In fact, she tried to fly even more, she did not have to be fragile one anymore. She enjoyed being the hero with zero complaints.

Reaching the height the castle was situated on, Fluttershy now needed to observe the stone wall of the fortress so she wouldn't crash into it. Reminded on their height by the wall, Pinkie tried looking down; she barely saw the tree they slept under from this altitude. Except for the potential problems which fall from here would cause, everything seemed to be going well. At least, until vicious wind draped the air. Luckily, Pinkie Pie just saw a window on the bland surface of the vertical castle wall. They needed to descend there.

With wind continuously bawling through their ears, Pinkie screamed to make Fluttershy notice the window. Unfortunately, she did not hear even a word. Completely focused onto keeping them airborne, Fluttershy locked her ears far away from the point of her focus. Ascending themselves to the top of the gigantic castle, Fluttershy battled the winds fiercely. Neither of the ponies knew how long has it passed. It seemed though, that the end was near. Both of the ponies were shaking by this point, desperately trying to hold on each other and not to let go. Pinkie was starting to think that they're goning to fall, but Fluttershy suddenly swung her over the edge of the wall. The floor felt hot, probably due to the sun's rays. Following Pinkie, Fluttershy flew a few meters over the same wall and then stopped fluttering her wings, falling down to the rocky floor. The loud punches of the wind stopped. Here, ponies were in a lee.

Fluttershy was gasping for air loudly. She was hot, her cheeks were red and her body was all sweaty from the ascend. The floor was hot; she needed to get somewhere cold. Fluttershy rose her body up from the floor and with lowered head and messed up, chaotic hair style dragged herself to the nearest shade. Pinkie Pie soon followed. Tired, Fluttershy took some time to rest while examining her surroundings. Pinkie Pie waited silently.

Not surprisingly, the two were in what seemed a rocky balcony on the edge of the castle, in between two high towers rising both left and right. Not exactly what they expected.

"Pinkie, let's go into this place. Stay on guard." Fluttershy was determined. She started walking towards the doors leading deeper into this fortress. Her hair was still a mess. She was glad Rarity wasn't here to see it.


Pinkie Pie expected either a thousand of chimeras and monsters to attack them or over nine thousand apple trees hanging over lusty green grass. However, none of that was found. This place seemed to have a coldly calculated design. Mathematically attentive and considerate, as if someone worshipped geometries in this place. Pinkie Pie once read a book about the underground pony subculture that worshipped Nightmare Moon. This place reminded her of how those ponies celebrated pentagrams and some alien moon geometries. She felt uncertain of what waited ahead.

Fluttershy didn't expect anything of this place. So far, to her it seemed tolerable. In fact, it seemed a little friendly. There were no labyrinths nor traps. Walls were made of light brown stone. This place reminded her of Twilight and her meticulous planning. The only thing this place lacked was a tourist guide.

The ponies continued walking down the hallway, towards the heart of this architectural miracle.

The walk lasted for what seemed forever. The hallway did not break into a room nor did it grow apart into more hallways. There were only two ways to move – forward and backward. To the disappointment of both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, the place seemed anti climatic. There were no visible evidence of an old civilisation nor any spectacular revelations.

And thus, the hallway ended in a dead end. It was the end of the road. And their hopes. Fluttershy was first to react angry to the finale of this place: "What the fuck?". Pinkie Pie soon followed with a disappointed gasp.

"I made a promise to myself. That I'd return everything to normal. What is this?" Fluttershy had a monologue, completely ignoring Pinkie Pie.

"And then, my heart started to ache, after I found that place is. USELESS." she aggressively started to sound melodramatic. Somewhat like Rarity when overwhelmed with failure.

"Failure. No, this place is too strange, there must be something here!" Fluttershy ended, looking at the ceiling for any sign of magical reaction. To Pinkie it looked as if Fluttershy was going to collapse dramatically, to get a better effect.

"Wait!" Pinkie Pie started to be suspicious.

"This place looks familiar. Deja vu! We've been here before!" Pinkie continued. Then she went silent.

"umm... Pinkie? This may be strange, but I feel as if this is some big dream. Not just the castle but this whole... apocalypse thing"

"I feel that way all the time silly, but now that you mention it, it felt more like a TV show before..." Pinkie was ready for them to conclude something shocking.

Taking a few moments to quietly rethink everything they were interrupted by a crushing sound. Soon, something split corridor into half, both up and down. It was as if castle was sliced in two parts. A big hole divided castle in two parts. It did not fall. Instead, Twilight Sparkle appeared in front of them.

"Twilgiht!" the two jumped towards her.

Instead of hugging them, she suddenly dispersed in the air with a message: "You're ruining everything."

Soon the castle started to crumble. Walls started to shift towards each other. Fluttershy was fast to react; the crack on the floor from a few moments ago was still there. She pushed Pinkie Pie down it and jumped herself only a moment later. The ponies ended badly bruised while falling down. Down the crack, they were soon under the castle with ground quickly approaching. Only due to luck, Fluttershy was able to grab Pinkie Pie and slow themselves not to die on impact with earth. Instantly rising from the earth, looking at the sky to see what will happen, Fluttershy was pumped with adrenaline. The castle was annihilated. Instead, a tiny metallic sphere was on it's place. And it seemed to be collapsing. On the far east, over the most distant mountains the ponies could see, there was no sky. A black void replaced it. It seemed strange. Then it hit her – it was getting nearer. Fluttershy trembled from fear as she watched total annihilation. World was being dissolved.

"Pinkie Pie!" Fluttershy screamed. Pinkie Pie, still recovering from the fall looked toward Fluttershy.

"World's ending!" Fluttershy's wail filled the air.

"We need to run."

To be continued.