-Aj-
Where's Big Mac?" I asked a few soldiers.
"He's leading a band of Apples toward Canterlot," one soldier asked.
"Without me?" I asked, "Dammit!"
"What do you want us to do?" he asked.
"I want you to get rid of all the zombie bodies. Burn them. Burn them all."
"Where's Commander Smith? We need her approval for this."
"She's dead. I know this may come as a huge inconvenience for everyone; but guess what?" I got in his face and lowered my gaze so I could look him into the eyes, "That makes me person in charge and I'm telling you that I want the zombies and the dead that are infected to be burned."
"Lady Aj," a woman was slowing from a run, "I need to speak with you."
"It had better be important Sergeant. I have to rally another small army to go to Canterlot."
"There are more zombies on radar," she explained.
She handed me a ball and I pushed a button on it. A hologram of the station popped up. Zombies were just aimlessly wandering the area and I couldn't see any humans but I had to make sure that there were survivors, "Send Party Nine out to sniff out any humans."
"What is going on here?" I heard from behind. Turning around, I saw seven people in dark red robes walking up to us.
"Council," I smiled and walked up to them and bowed at the hip, "Thank you for gracing us with your presence."
"Cut the formal crap," the lady in the middle hissed, "Where is our army?" she rushed.
"They're all dead," I responsed, "Chain of command has landed on me. I'm in charge of whatever army we have left."
She just started laughing, "You mean to tell me that the whole country's life is held in the hands of a teenager?" they all began laughing.
"Listen, you may not now me. But I am Applejack. Daughter of Sweetie Bluing-Apple and Thunder Bluing," they stopped laughing and just stared me down, "Apple Smith is now dead, so yeah. Your precious country's life rests on my shoulders. Hell, probably the whole world hangs in the balance and it is up to me to save whatever and whoever is left. But by all means, I'm just a teenager; why don't you use your military expertise to save us," they just kept quiet for a few moments, "That's what I thought. Now if you don't mind, I have a country to save."
"Wait!" the woman in the middle stopped me after a few steps. She pulled out a piece of old worn out paper from her inner robe pocket. The picture had a triangle formation of three apples on a tilt, "I wish to see your hip."
"Uh, how about, uuuuh," I rolled my eyes around sarcastically, "No?"
"Please," she looked at me with fiercer eyes. I groaned a little as I pulled at the right side of my pants down a little. I looked and expected to see bare skin, but I didn't. I saw the same three apples from the picture on my hip.
"Huh? That's new," I glided a finger across the mark and if felt like skin which was weird, "I thought I'd never get my Cutie Mark."
"Lead our people to victory," the woman said when I looked at her.
"That is the plan. But I need to talk to Celestia and Luna."
"Sorry, I don't know whe-!" she was cut short by the sound of something heavy cratering the earth. We all looked and saw Celestia throwing zombies off of her back. Two zombies had been forced into the ground below her; their heads had exploded.
Celestia panted heavily for a moment before falling back with her limbs sprawled, "I'm getting too old for dis shit!" she heaved. The Council surround her and badgered her about her safety, "I'm fine you guys," she was helped back up to her feet.
"You are of royalty, so you shouldn't be fighting," a Councilman said, "Leave it to the military to defend us."
"I am in charge of this country and that means I will do whatever it takes to protect and save it."
"You might regret fighting Princess Celestia," he fought.
"The only thing I have regretted was appointing sniveling cowards like you. Under the Protection Act Clause, you're all fired."
"What?" they all exclaimed in unison.
"Under this Act Clause, both royalty and military and malitia alike must fight to save their dying country. If they won't or don't that means that power has compromised them. Which means that they aren't fit for office or ruling. So in turn, you're all fired. I want your robes and badges now."
"You Can't Do This To Us!" the shortest one of them all roared.
Celestia looked to me, "Commander, arrest them!"
"With pleasure," I smirked as I beckoned a few soldiers over, "Cuff these bastards," I ordered, "All of them. They are now considered enemies of Equestria," the soldiers pulled out cuffs from their pockets and cuffed them.
The soldiers read them their rights as they walked off, "So, any break on the zombies?" Celestia asked.
"There is a small group of zombies just wandering the train station. But they're harmless because they're all contained. Big Mac and a small group of soldiers are heading toward Canterlot to take out what is left of those creatures."
"Leave them be. I'll take of them. As for you, I want you to take a couple soldiers and aid Big Mac and his platoon. There's too many of those dastardly things to handle alone."
"Yes ma'am," I began walking away from her and she called to me.
"On more thing," she smiled, "Welcome to being a Commander. Your parents and Apple Smith would be so proud. Especially at your age."
"Thanks and I'll try my best to make this..." my voice tapered off when I thought of my sister, "Holy Shit! Applebloom!"
Celestia held my hand and the world around me began to fade and distort. I was launched into the air and shot back down. I was in front of my house and there was Big Mac there. He had his shotgun ready. He was alone and he had his gun pointed toward the door, "Mac!" I called. He whipped around as I quietly walked over to him.
"C'mon," he pulled me in. I stayed behind him as we entered the house. I heard the sound of a child's laughter. Big Mac slowed his steps before whipping left and pointing his gun in the direction of the Den room. His eyes went wide and he immediately dropped the gun.
"What?" I asked, "What is it?"
He slowly turned in my direction and just stared at the floor with a face of horror and disbelief. He just walked toward me and only said, "I think you might want to take this one," he patted my shoukder and just leaned against the wall to sit.
I pulled out into the threshold of the door and the sight before me was just both horrifying and surprising. There was a zombie sitting there playing with Applebloom. It's droopy eyes and drooling mouth; Applebloom was talking to it as she was playing with her dolls. The zombie had a doll in his hand and he made it dance a little, "Applebloom?" I said quietly and I got her attention.
"Hey!" she said happily as the zombie shot up with fear in his eyes, "Noooo!" Applebloom stood up and held his hand to keep him from running.
"AB," I reached out my hand for her, "Come over to me. It'll be all okay."
"He's my friend. His name is Grum," she looked up at him and he smiled at me nervously.
"Okay, that's nice. But we have to go now."
"Can Grum come?" she asked.
"No, honey. No, I'm sorry. Grum has to stay."
"I want him to come with us!" she whined, "He's my friend. Watch," she looked up at Grum, "Grum. Say hello!"
He took a step forward and stuck out his hand. He waited for me to shake it and after a few seconds he slowly said, "Hiiiiiiii," he groaned.
To make my sister happy, I shook his hand. Applebloom cheered, "You see. He's nice."
"My..." I looked deep into his grey eyes as he spoke, "...name...is...Grum. I am Grrrruuum."
"H-h-hey Grum," I stuttered.
"I am Grum," he smiled, "Meee heeelllp. Mee goooood," he nodded.
"Maaac?" I called out.
Big Mac walked up behind me, "Yeah, I heard everything. So call it Commander."
"
I looked into my sister's eyes and she silently pleaded with me not to kill Grum, "Grum stays. I think he might be a good asset."
Applebloom ran up to me and hugged my legs, "Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!"
"Yeah," I looked to Grum and he seemed like he was happy as well.
"So Big Mac," I turned to face the man with gold hair, "What were you doing here?"
"I came because I saw Pinkie and she asked about you and Applebloom. So I had to rush over here to make sure that she was okay."
"Who was suspposed to watch her?"
"Flutters was supposed to watch her."
"Then where the hell is she?" I shouted at him.
"I don't know where she is!" he shouted back.
"I can't believe that you would leave our sister with someone like Fluttershy! You know that she scares easily!"
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence jackass," Fluttershy spoke.
"Flutters," I faced her, "How could you leave my sister," I stoped talking when I saw a tray of food and drinks.
"I never did leave her," Flutters set the tray on a stool, "But of course you wouldn't take the time to know that," she teared up and left.
"Flutters," I ran after her.
She ran out the back door. Right when she stepped outside, a zombie dropped from above and landed on top of her, "NOOOO!" before I could run further, Grum shot out from behind and tackled the other zombie off of my friend.
Grum roared and rammed his fingers through the other zombie's head. The other zombie stopped fighting and just laid there motionless. Grum turned his head and gave me a toothy grin, "I am good."
"At least someone cares about me," Fluttershy brushed herself off as she stood.
"Come now, don't be like this."
"Be like what? Exactly? Yes, I am soft spoken and yes, I may be polite, but the thing I am not is a coward. I may be sweet and innocent on the inside, but you just questioned who I am. You question my ability to be able to watch your sister. If that isn't a slap in the face, then I don't know what is. It hurts knowing that my supposed best friend can't trust me."
"There was a zombie in the house. What else was I supposed to think?"
"It doesn't matter. You just think that everything you come across is bad. Grum wasn't bad and I heard Applebloom beg for you not to hurt him. Actually, ya know what? I gotta get home anyway. See ye around, Commander," Flutters scowled at me before leaving.
As she did, another zombie came into the house. Grum's eyes went wide when he saw that I saw. I pulled out my gun again and pointed it at the female zombie. The zombie just stopped and stared at me. The female zombie looked at me with such blood lust, but I was hesitant in pulling the trigger. After the whole ordeal with Grum, I guess I was just waiting for someone to stop me from shooting her.
"Hi there!" I was just lost for words. She... she spoke, "I'm Mandy!" I just dropped my gun and just began mumbling and babbling in confusion.
"This sh- its not," this isn't possible. I focused my gaze on, "Mandy?"
"That's my name! Don't ware it out!" she said happily.
"Are y-y-you, hu-hu...," I trailed my voice off and cleared my throat, "Are you human?"
"Eh, sorta," she shrugged, "I'm half and so is Grum," she looked to Grum who was sitting down with AB in his lap. AB was pointing toward the sky and just babbled on. Grum looked to where she was pointing like he truly knew what she was talking about, "We both are the product of being created and made to be a half zombie, half zombie. It was only because of the zombie outbreak that we got away. We hated all the experiments they had us bare through. One test damaged Grum's brain," she got sad, "They never did fix him right. But he's happy and that is what is important to me."
Tears streamed my face, "I am so sorry for you."
"Judging by your reaction," her sad smile faded into nothing more than a bland expression, "You have lost someone close to you recently."
I crossed my arms and looked away, "My grandmother. Earlier today," I tried not to cry even more than I already have today.
"I'm so sorry for you," she smiled at me, "I see that you try to stay strong," she took a few steps closer to me then shifted her eyes to Dashal then back at me, "But I also see that someone loves you very dearly and wants you just open up a little and allow her in."
"Ya know what?" I wiped my face free of tears, "I don't need any of this. I have a country to save."
I walked to the back door and was stopped at Mandy's words, "You will have to open up at some point yellow hair. You can't run from your feelings forever."
I kept quiet and left the house.