Chapter 3: Day 3

2.8 Days Later

Billy the pegasus awoke to the same sight as he'd seen for the past couple of days. White. Hospital White. He tried to move his hind legs, but they still didn't budge. Rainbow Crash really put a hurtin' on me. He snickered. Totally worth it to see the look on her face… He glanced to his right at the sunflowers that his buddies, Hoops and Score sent to him. A tiny card attached to the flowers read, "Get Well Soon, Buddy!" Blech, flowers. Those guys… They were always a little frilly… He made a mental note to ask them about it later. They were probably just messin' with him. Yeah, that's it. He'd definitely find out for sure what was going on with those two after he got back on his hooves.

Great Celestia, I gotta get out of here. I gotta fly! Doctor Hockenhoof had told him that he shouldn't try moving for another day or so, at least. But what's he know? He probably hasn't flown for fun in, like, a billion years. Billy pulled on the cord that was attached to a tiny bell in the hallway. The "Call String". At least the nurse who's been taking care of me is easy on the eyes. He made another mental note to see if she had a colt-friend when he was finally able to leave.

A knock at his door caused him to start. Wow. That was quick. Alright. Here we go! "Come on in!" he cheerfully called.

The door didn't open. Billy heard another knock, as if somepony was bumping their shoulder against it. The heck? He struggled to get out of his bed and, swaying to and fro, he finally managed to roll himself onto the floor. As shockwaves of pain flashed through his legs, he pulled himself up. Maybe somepony locked the door last night. "I'll get it. Hold on." He practically crawled to his door and lifted himself up to it with all of his might. Maybe the doc was right after all… It's cool, though. Nurse Hottie will have to escort me back into bed. As he reached for the bolt on the door, he played the scenario out in his head:

Nurse Hottie will come in. "Oh, my! You shouldn't be out of bed! Dr. Hockenhoof said that you shouldn't be walking around for another day or so."

Then I'll say, "Nah, baby, it's cool. Opening a simple door is nothing for a pony as awesome as me." I'll give her "The Look" and be all cool. She'll melt like frickin' butter.

"Oh, you're so strong and handsome!"

His hoof lifted the bolt and slid it back.

She'll lead me back into the bed. "Now, I don't want you to exert yourself too much. We'll need to save some of that energy for later…" She'll, like, all wink and stuff. It'll be totally hot... Billy licked his lips as the door swung open to reveal "Nurse Hottie."

But, she didn't seem like herself. Something seemed…off… Billy's first hint that something was wrong was that she didn't chastise Billy for being out of his bed, or wink at him, or anything. She didn't even blink. In fact, the only thing that she did that let Billy know that she even acknowledged his existence was a slight moan. The second thing that should've tipped off the pegasus to the fact that there was something up was that her eyes appeared glazed over, her fur was matted in places, and one could see blood dripping from her slacked jaw. In fact, she looked for all appearances like the 'hobo' who bit him earlier…

Horse ap-

The zombified Nurse Hottie leapt upon the unfortunate Billy. Others in the hallway heard the commotion and began to stagger toward their new meal.

"Whew!" Twilight Sparkle flipped her mane and examined her work while Rainbow Dash hovered overhead. All of the books on her shelves were neatly organized and not one volume was out of place. "Wow, Rainbow Dash! If you weren't here, this would've taken forever!"

Dash performed a midair flip. "What'd I tell ya! Ten. Seconds. Flat."

Twilight giggled slightly. "Well, maybe it wasn't exactly ten seconds, by my calculations, but you were such a big help! I'm not quite sure how to thank you."

The blue pegasus blushed. "Aw, t'weren't nuthin'."

"Nonsense. There must be something I can do." Twilight paced toward her desk and thought for a moment. "Hmm…" She glanced into one of her open spellbooks. As if a light bulb went off in her head, she snapped to attention and gleefully shouted, "I got it! Spell Number 27 should do the trick!"

"Spell Number 27…?"

Twilight giggled again. Dash always thought the unicorn sounded cute when she laughed. She should do it more often, she thought. As Twilight silently read from the spellbook, she explained, "Remember the spell I used to give Rarity her wings when we visited you in Cloudsdale for the Best Young Flier's Competition? Well, I've been working on it in my downtime." She looked up from reading and grinned at her pegasus friend. "And now I finally get to use it!" She concentrated, causing her horn to glow with a violet light. Before long, there was a bright flash. When Dash opened her eyes, her friend was hovering before her, adorned with beautiful translucent wings, much like a butterfly's. "What do you think?" the unicorn cooed.

"I…I…" Rainbow stammered. I know exactly what I want to say… But I can't say it… She nervously licked her lips, trying to find the right words.

"Shh…" Twilight put her hoof up to Dash's lips. "You don't have to say anything…" She fluttered closer to her friend until they were almost within nuzzling distance.

I…I can't believe it… Dash felt a vibration, as if the earth beneath her very hooves was shaking. This was odd, considering that the two ponies were hovering above the floor of Twilight's library. She felt the vibrations getting stronger and stronger, as the two leaned in closer and closer, until…

"RAINBOW DASH!"

*pop*

Dash jerked her head up. She barely had enough time to register that she was in her bed, in her house in Cloudsdale, before she heard a crash. That sounded like Scootaloo's voice… She leapt out of bed to see what the matter was but before getting to her window, she felt a tightness in her back. She glanced backward and noticed that her wings were standing straight up. She rolled her eyes and tried to shake off the embarrassing condition. Stupid Wingboner…

When her wings had loosened up some, Dash leaned out her window to find Scootaloo dusting herself off and picking up her scooter. "Hey!" Dash shouted. "What's up?"

Scoots, having heard her idol's shouts, looked up. Dash noticed that instead of her normal look of adoration, the orange pegasus' eyes showed only the most profound fear she'd seen since…

That's the look that AJ gave me when she said about the… "Hold on, buddy! I'm comin' down!"

Rainbow Dash barely had time to land in front of her admirer before Scoots rushed up to and embraced Dash tightly. "They didn't eat you! Thank Celestia they didn't eat you!"

Dash had to almost peel the poor filly from around her leg. "Eat me? What're you talking about?"

Dash recalled that, sure, there were some ponies in Equestria who were acting stranger than usual, and that's even by "Pinkie Pie" standards. She had heard about earth ponies wandering around Ponyville, moaning and biting at other ponies. Several of the palace guards had gone there and apprehended some of them, but no explanation had been given as to why they were doing what the were doing, or what had happened to the ones who were taken away. She also remembered that things had sort of gone south between the friends in the past couple of days. Applejack had barricaded Sweet Apple Acres, for one thing. During the couple of times that she was able to get in touch with the earth pony, the only information that she'd been able to get from her is, "When I find what I'm lookin' fer, I'll let ya know…" Dash thought that it wasn't like the normally frank and forthright pony to be so cryptic, but perhaps she was still bitter from being "made an ass of".

Twilight remained holed up in her library. She was absolutely convinced that she could find out what this "Solanum Root" was, but by Royal Decree she wasn't allowed to go to Canterlot and search the royal library for any information, even after Dash herself offered to go in her stead.

Rarity, as far as anypony knew, was still in her shop, making dresses. Dash knew that for Rarity, this kind of thing was natural; she wouldn't risk going out with those "Weird ponies" wandering about and possibly mussing her hair. She wondered how many dresses she had actually finished in that time, and if there was any room in her house for anything else.

Whenever Dash had seen Pinkie, she was demanding another odd or end from the other ponies. When she asked the party pony about it, she found out that so far Pinkie had gathered:

7 Shovels, 2 Baseball Bats, 3 Axes, 2 Grappling Hooks, 17 Bottles, A Bolt of Cloth, A Barrel of AJ's "Aged" Apple Cider, A Length of Rope, Flint, A Copper Pipe (even though she would've preferred steel), A Comic Book ("The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well", Issue #5), Ear Plugs, a Fishing Rod, a Stapler, and 6 Pillows.

Nopony had seen or heard from the timid Fluttershy since the "prank". Dash had even made it a point during the past two days to knock at the door to her cottage, but she hadn't responded.

"They…they…" Scootaloo sobbed, "They ATE my parents!" She climbed the blue pegasus' front until she was almost at the other's face. "And they were going to eat me!"

"Now, now… Calm down a sec. They ate your parents?"

Scootaloo grabbed Dash's face with her front hooves and shook it back and forth. "What part of THEY ATE MY PARENTS don't you understand? I was sleeping…in my bed…when I suddenly heard screaming coming from in the kitchen. I came down because I thought mom saw a spider or something and…and…" the young pegasus sniffled.

"And a spider ate your parents?"

"NO! It was the WEIRD PONIES!"

Dash's eyes widened. If the Weird Ponies were actually eating ponies now, then that meant that Twilight… "C'mon, Scoot! We gotta get outta here!" Dash threw her admirer onto her back, knowing that there was no way that the young pegasus could fly anywhere near as fast as her. "Hang on, kiddo!" With those words, Rainbow dashed off toward Ponyville.

"Back! Back, you vile beast!"

"You tell 'im, Rarity!"

Rarity clumsily levitated the piece of broken chair and attempted to strike the offending "weird pony," while here sister hid underhoof. Imagine! The nerve of some ponies! she thought indignantly. To arouse me from my beauty sleep and smashing my storefront window in the process!

The "weird pony" continued to approach, seeming to ignore the white unicorn's warning. "I mean it! Back off!" Rarity cried as her improvised weapon connected soundly with the "weird pony's" face with a loud "CRACK!"

The two unicorns stood there, stunned and wide eyed as the grayish vandal seemed to shrug off the blow, responding only with an offended, "Gragh…wrarg…" After that, it continued to advance.

"I don't think it worked! Hit it again!" Sweetie Belle suggested.

"Oh really?" her older sister replied, sarcastically. She glared at the zombified pony. "Very well. Here we go!" She closed her eyes and struck at it again, even harder this time. When she looked back up, she saw that the "weird pony's" head seemed to be cocked at an extremely uncomfortable angle, but that it also kept approaching.

The two unicorns backed up a step before Sweetie Belle screamed and tugged her sister's tail. "There's another one!"

Drat! This doesn't bode well… Rarity swung her weapon wildly in an attempt to keep the zombified ponies at bay. She had seen firsthand what they had done to her beloved Opalescence. She had to give the feline credit, however; it had fought tooth and nail to its last breath. And now it seemed that the two unicorns would have to do the same.

And they certainly would have if a certain heroic earth pony hadn't shown up then and there. Her entrance was certainly flashy enough.

Rarity heard, from outside her shop, a familiar, folksy voice shout, "Ready, Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom's voice shouted back, "Ready!" Sweetie Belle imagined that the filly likely saluted, as well.

"DUCK!" Applejack's command suddenly registered with Rarity and her sister, and the two were able to hit the floor just before a barrage of small, extremely fast-moving projectiles flew through the shop, destroying nearly everything in their path, as well as cutting down the zombies.

"Ye-HAW! Y'all really let 'em have it, sis!" Applejack leapt off the cart that had been carrying Apple Bloom, herself, and the weapon. Applejack heard that the weapon was called a "Minigun" although, for the life of her, she wasn't sure why. Shoot! There's nuthin 'mini' about it! Mebbe they shoulda' called it a 'mega-gun'!

Her younger sister sat behind the gun, completely dumbfounded. "I…I thought it just spun… I hope everypony's alright…"

Applejack pushed open the door to Carousel Boutique, causing it to fall off of its hinges. She was greeted by an extremely irate Rarity.

"What. Have. You. Done?" the white unicorn seethed. She was breathing heavily and glaring at her savior.

Applejack gave her a confused look. "I, uh…saved your life?"

Still seething, Rarity responded. "No…my dear Applejack! You…DESTORYED! MY! SHOP!"

"And who, pray tell, would buy dresses from ya when yer dead?"

Rarity sheepishly glanced around her decimated shop. "Well…perhaps that…uh…"

"Thank you, Applejack!" Sweetie Belle leapt forward and hugged the earth pony, then trotted out of the shop to greet her friend and find out just what the heck she'd done.

Applejack glanced back at Rarity. "Are we done here? I have a few more ponies ta pick up, if ya get mah drift."