The First Actors Fall
Parish Nandermane collapsed to the floor, a large welt beginning to form on the back of his head. Vinyl lowered her bat and let it fall with a small clink to the floor, her eyes blank. Tavi set down her knives and began to pace, her hooves clopping onto the floor incessantly. After a few minutes of this, Vinyl finally moaned, "Tavi, please…" The earth mare froze in mid-step and gently set down her raised hoof, looking embarrassed and fretful.
"Sorry Vinyl, it's just…. What if he turns?"
"Let's wait and see, and if he changes then we can have the upper hoof and take him out." Vinyl said after a short silence. Tavi nodded, concern written all over her face, before the two mares sat down a ways away from the unconscious Parish, their weapons in their grasps.
After a few minutes, Parish began to stir. The stallion shifted and, as his fur and mane moved, the mares noticed a sickly green sheen had spread all across his body. They raised their weapons and were on his before he could release his first , guttural, moan of thirst. Vinyl raised her bat and repeatedly bashed on Parish's head, cracking his skull and snout as blood and bits of brain splattered and flowed from the freshly Zomponified stallion's face; while Tavi used her knives to pin his hooves and neck down onto the floor, sinking the sharp tools deep into Parish's flesh and bones.. The kill only took a few seconds and, after cleaning their weapons, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch took up their saddlebags and a map, and trotted out their small flat door and into Ponyville, never to return to their old home again.
"So, Vinyl."
"Yeah, Tavi?"
"When are you going to tell me what that little box is about?"
Vinyl looked back into her left saddlebag where the small gift, still wrapped in its little bow tie and tag, and coughed awkwardly.
"Later, when the time's right."
"Okay, Vinyl."
By the time night finally fell, Tavi was blood drenched and exhausted. Right as the duo had escaped the buildings and alleys of Ponyville, they met a horde of at least 20 Zomponies, and had to bolt. They both knew that was way too many to fight at once and they didn't want to risk even a scratch before they understood more about the Disease, how it began, and how it was transmitted from pony to pony if not just by biting.
"Hey, Tavi, I think that's a river."
Octavia's head snapped up, her thirst burning in her throat, and she looked over at where Vinyl's hoof pointed. Off in the not so far distance was not only the aforementioned river, but what appeared to be a camp of pony survivors.
"Is that…?" Tavi rasped, her heart rising with hope for the first time since the concert that morning.
"Only one way to find out. But we can't just waltz in, especially not looking like this,-" Vinyl raised a hoof and gestured to the two mares' blood drenched formes, "-they'd kill us on the spot. No, let's aim for a few hundred yards over that way, clean up a bit in the river, get some water and refill the canteens, and then we can go see the camp."
Octavia nodded, pleased with the plan, and trotted over to the bank with Vinyl, glad she had her friend to help her through these Dark Times.
Vinyl sunk her hoof into the cool stream and nearly moaned with relief. She waded out into the water, slowly testing the ground to make sure she wouldn't slip in the fast currents. After her shoulders and back were submerged, she dunked her head under and rubbed at her hair with her front hooves. Once she felt satisfied and clean, she swam back up to the bank and shook herself dry, grinning at Octavia when she clambered out of the river and did the same. They shared a small bag of chips, refilled their canteens and drank several gulps from the river before putting their bags back on and slowly making their way over to the camp. They emerged from a small wood and Tavi gasped, her eyes wide and shocked.
What had just an hour or so before been a thriving survivors' camp was now a burning Zompony feeding grounds. Vinyl winced as she saw Bon Bon's entire front left leg ripped off at the shoulder, her mane torn and drooped, and her flank and stomach being devoured, all by a certain Zomponified Lyra Heartstrings. She tore her eyes away and cried out as the Zompegasus previously known as Blossomforth fell from the sky and into a burning tent with a resounding crash. She had obviously tried to escape in the air, but not before she had been infected, and had turned before she could get too far.
Vinyl turned from the screaming, moaning, burning crowd of ponies that lay not 200 yards away and looked at Tavi, and was shocked to see tears streaking down her face, the brown mare's eyes fraught with pain and fear. Vinyl couldn't stand to see her friend like this and reached out her hoof, pulling Octavia to her and wrapping her in a hug. Tavi clutched at Vinyl, sobbing, for some minutes before the white mare eventually had to gently push her away and look into her eyes, red staring into purple, and say, "We need to get out of here. Those Zoms are going to be spreading out soon to find their next meal, or maybe they'll even travel in a pack. I don't know, but I know we need to get the hay out of here and find somewhere to stay for the night, far away from here."
Octavia nodded.
After walking for another few hours (time was getting harder to tell already, they had to look and watch the moon for a while before realising it hadn't moved in ages. This confirmed what the two mares had already assumed; the Princesses had abandoned them.), Vinyl finally pointed to a high tree and suggested they rest up there for a while. After climbing up the tree and helping pull up Tavi, Vinyl offered to take the first watch. She climbed a few branches higher and settled herself to keep an eye out for any approaching Zomponies. They'd be safe if it was only a couple, but if it was a lot they'd have to decide to either stay hidden in the tree into the mob passed or jump down and make a run for it.
Both were very risky.
Tavi settled herself into a fork in two sturdy branches and curled up, wishing she'd had the foresight to bring a couple blankets. If the sun really never rose again, then she and Vinyl could only survive for a few weeks before they eventually froze or starved to death. Saying a silent prayer to Celestia, in which she begged the Sun Goddess to raise the sun the next day, Octavia laid back and dropped off to a dreamless sleep.