ML54: Hey guys, me again with more undead, pony fun!
Rainbow: *Rolls eyes* Joy...
ML54: I don't own MLP:FiM!
Cheering Up
Seven weeks after the Fall of Ponyville
No-one's POV
Sweet Apple Acres
"He's been doing this for hours now," The Doctor said, watching from the post tower next to the gate, as Button jammed his knife into another trotter's head. "I count twenty seven, do you make twenty seven?"
Lyra sighed, resting her cheek against her hoof. "I thought it was thirty three?" She mentioned, waving a hoof towards the growing pile of corpses outside the wall. "Someone should really talk to him."
"He only listens to Sweetie Belle, I've heard," He mentioned, picking up a walkie talkie to his side. She cast a glance at him, curiously, then to the rifle besides him, then to the two zombies that Button was currently slaughtering, then back to the Doctor again.
"So any particular reason you don't want to use a gun?"
The Doctor cringed and shook his head. "I just don't like them. They bring back...bad memories."
Lyra sighed, picking up a rifle from beside him. "Okay, then maybe you shouldn't be here. If you aren't prepare to shoot, there's really no use for ya here."
The Doctor looked over and sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're right. I'll talk to you later...bye."
Lyra flinched at his tone and quickly stopped him. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a jackass. It's just stressful right now, last thing we need is people doing things they don't want to do."
The Doctor let out a small smile and nodded. "You do make a valid argument. Anyone you want me to find to keep you company?"
"If you see Rainbow or Flash, send them my way," She instructed, to which the stallion nodded.
"Gotcha!" He said, saluting, as he made his way down the ladder.
Lyra smiled for a bit, before looking back out. She saw Button growl and yell out for...well.
"Hey you ugly mother buckers! Get out here so I can make your insides your outsides!"
Just as he shouted this, a grey bald trotter stumbled out, letting out small, guttural moans, limping towards the brown colt.
She watched as the young pony launched towards the undead pony like a brown missile, and constantly thrust the knife into the general vicinity of it's head. That's also when she noticed that she lost count of how many he had killed.
She sighed as she started to count the pile of bodies. One, two, three...
Mac hissed as Fluttershy gently placed an icepack over his eye. "Oh you poor thing, that must have hurt," She said, after having been told the reason that her crush and Thunderlane had been brought in here.
"Aw shucks, weren't that bad," Mac said, holding it in place as Fluttershy started to tie it on with some string. "Least Thunderlane's alive."
Fluttershy sighed, glancing at the unconscious pony that they decided to secure to his hay bale bed with rope, more for his own safety than anything else. "Yes, fortunately."
Mac blinked, able to recognise some hostility in his friend's voice. "You okay there?" She looked up at him, tilting her head to the side. "It's just...You sound a little angry."
She blinked and shook her head a bit, but ultimately knew that she couldn't lie to him. "Ah'm just upset that he did this to you. If'n he punched any harder he might have caused some serious damage to ya."
She heard him chuckle a little and rose an eyebrow at him. "Oh, sorry Flutters, but ya sound like yer pickin' up a bit of an accent."
He grinned at Fluttershy's embarrassed face and turned to her medical supplies. "Oh, um, sorry about that...but Ah have-I mean I've spent a lot of time with you and Applejack, so Ah may-I mean I might be-"
"It don't bother me none, Sugarcube, just thought Ah'd let ya know," He said, tapping her in the shoulder. She blushed, but giggled and punched him in his shoulder back.
"Well thank you," She replied, picking up her medical supplies with her wing. "Ah need to check on Spike, so Ah guess Ah'll see you later?" She asked, hopefully.
He smiled back, fondly. "Sure, Ah'd like that. We haven't had a lot of time to talk, lately, have we?"
"Nope," She smiled, resisting the urge to squee. She had to remember that there's every possibility that he's going to return Rainbow's feelings and be unavailable. But that doesn't mean Ah can't put in my own two bits.
She, reluctantly, left him alone with his own thoughts, but she decided to shake her hips a little more prominently as she left, letting out a little grin.
Mac noticed this and averted his eyes, politely, but couldn't help but blush brightly. Remember Mac, it's heat season soon! She can't control what she does!
With that settled, he left the barn to continue to help preparations for Rumble's burial.
Fluttershy, meanwhile, met up with Twilight who was fussing over Spike, wrapping up a few cuts and scrapes with medical gauze, ice packs on any areas that looked like they may bruise and such.
"Um..."
"Oh there you are, Fluttershy!" Twilight declared, her mane sprung up in a few areas, her eyes wide and manic. "Could you be a dear and look him over, see if he's okay?!"
Fluttershy shook Twilight's craziness away from her mind, and settled down next to her to take a look over him.
After a few minutes of checking him over, she looked up. "He seems ta be fine, physically, just a few cuts an' bruises. An especially large one from AJ, but he should be as right as rain when he wakes up. If'n he feels nauseous, it may be an idea for him to take this ta settle his stomach a bit," She said, setting a bottle of pills on top of a fold out table next to Spike.
Twilight, deciding to ignore the accent, looked up incredulously. "What?! Then why isn't he awake yet?!"
Fluttershy shrugged. "He may be in shock. Ah mean, Applebloom's got his bun in her oven, even the most even minded ponies could be thrown outta whack by something like that!"
Twilight blinked, taking a step away from her yellow friend. "Okay, what's up with the accent? You sound like a softer-spoken Applebloom."
Fluttershy shrugged. "Dunno, just started picking it up fer whatever reason."
"Ooookay," Twilight said, settling down next to Spike. "Well I'll stay here until he wakes up, you can go check on Thunderlane."
"Don't know how much help Ah'll be, Ah ain't no psychologist," Fluttershy shrugged, trotting off, confidently, towards the dark grey Pegasus.
Twilight blinked, before sighing, nuzzling the side of Spike's face. "Please wake up soon, Spike, I think you may be the only sane one left here."
Applebloom was sitting in a clearing of their little woods, sobbing her little heart out, punching the ground in front of her.
She was sad alright, but she was also tired and angry. She was angry that AJ had almost killed Spike, she was tired of all the drama and she was sad because...because Applejack might be disappointed in her.
She hiccuped and slammed her hoof into the ground again, before flinching her hoof back up, away from the sharp stone that jutted out of the ground, her blood now slowly oozing out of the palm of her hoof.
Yeah, in pain. She was in pain now, too.
She unwrapped her bow from her head to re-wrap it around her new injury, grunting and cursing the world as she did so.
"Bucking stupid, undead buckers coming outta tha bucking ground ta bucking eat us, if it weren't fer those bucking things, none of this would be bucking happening and Ah could just go ta bucking school, learn maths, hang out with mah bucking friends and buck!" She screamed, kicking the sharp stone out of the ground so hard, it embedded into one of the trees in front of her.
She looked down at the ground in front of her, lifting her hooves to her face, noticing her tears fall onto them. "What am Ah supposed ta do?"
She blinked when a handkerchief was levitated in front of her in a green glow. She looked to her sides and found Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sitting either side of her.
"You look like you need this," Sweetie Belle said, nonchalantly, wiping Applebloom's eyes for her and gripping said pony's hoof with her own, Scootaloo mimicking her actions for her other hoof.
Applebloom blinked. "What are you guys doing here?"
"What? Don't want to hang out with your bucking friends?" Scootaloo grinned, teasingly, nuzzling her cheek into Applebloom's. "You seem like you're way overdue for some fun."
She blinked again, looking down at her abdomen. "But...Mah baby-"
"Will still be there in half an hour, but right now you need to forget about that," Sweetie Belle supplied, supporting Scootaloo. "We will talk about it, you can vent, rant, cry your heart out, whatever. But when was the last time you had fun? Real, no strings attached fun?"
Applebloom sighed. "Last week when me and Spike played kick around with the ball."
"And with us?" Scootaloo asked.
Applebloom opened her mouth to answer, before slowly closing it again. When was the last time she just let loose and played with her two best friends?
Probably...just before this whole mess started, She thought to herself, guiltily. She spent so much of her time patrolling the wall with her sister, cooking the food with her grandmother or just keeping an eye on the younger group to try and keep them out of harms way.
She had thought she had been growing up, acting like an adult. But look at where that got her, pregnant with a kid that none of them were prepared for, stressed to all heck and as sleep deprived as an insomniac living next door to Pinkie Pie.
Maybe...Maybe she should let loose and just have some fun. Even if it was just for a little while.
"So...What did you want to play?" Applebloom asked, hopefully.
"Well I was thinking..." Scootaloo said, before pausing for a few seconds. Applebloom was going to ask what she was doing, before she was tapped on the shoulder. "You're it, count to twenty and no peeking!" She declared, rushing off, Sweetie Belle giggling and running the other way.
Applebloom blinked, before she smiled widely, and covered her eyes with her hooves. "One, two, three-"
Rarity sighed as she entered the barn, noticing Twilight snuggling up next to Spike, before shaking out of it and approaching Thunderlane, who appeared to be awake.
"Thunderlane?" She asked, hoping for a response. She saw his ear twitch but, other than that, he had no reaction. "I just want to let you know that...We're planning on having Rumble's funeral tomorrow. But if you're not up for it, we can postpone it...Would you like that?"
Thunderlane said nothing, just blankly looked at the spot that he had previously been looking. Rarity looked to where he was staring and noticed that, if there wasn't a wall in the way, then they'd be looking at where their little graveyard was.
"Should I postpone the funeral then? I understand if you're not ready yet," She waited about a minute, hoping he'd reply with something.
When only silence greeted her, she sighed, turning to leave the stallion alone.
She was halted, however, when she heard a depressed sigh leave him. "I've lost him..."
She turned back and laid down in front of the stallion, so she had to look up at him, hoping to put him somewhat at ease with a less imposing figure. "I'm so sorry-"
"Don't be, it's my own fault," He said, his eyes already welling up. "I wasn't strong enough to protect him, not smart enough to teach him how to protect himself, not fast enough to get back here sooner!"
"It's not-"
"Yes it is! It's all my fault!" He cried out, nuzzling his face into the hay bale he was tied to. "When you were looking after him, in the middle of Ponyville no less, he was fine! When it was up to me, I left him alone and he...now he's..."
Rarity quickly enveloped the stallion in a hug, nuzzling his cheek comfortingly.
Thunderlane nuzzled back into her cheek as he ranted. "I'm a failure! Cloudflitter and Cloudchaser died! Caramel died! Rumble died! I should've been there for them! I should've done something! I shouldn't have been a useless-"
"Shut up..." He flinched as Rarity said this. She didn't raise her voice, it was barely a whisper, but that was probably what made it all the more powerful. "You're not a failure...If anything, it's our fault. We should've been more careful with the children when the floaters started falling all around us...I should've-"
He blinked when Rarity pulled back to look him in the eye, her own starting to mist up. "It was my idea for the younglings to take cover in the house while we cleaned up the mess so, if you should blame anyone, you should blame me."
His mouth felt a little dry when she said this. This new information should've shifted the blame, like she was planning, but instead he couldn't find it in himself to blame her.
He noticed tear streaks trailing down her face as she continued. "I should've looked after them, I should've stayed in there with them. I should've known that Granny Smith and Applebloom wouldn't have kept them in there for too long so..."
"It's not your fault," Thunderlane mumbled, shuffling uncomfortably against his bindings, wanting to comfort the mare in front of him.
"...Yes it is," She said, using a quick spell to detach the rope from his side, but still having a spell ready, just in case. "I-"
Thunderlane wrapped his hooves around her, silencing whatever she was going to say. "It's okay...Please, don't say anything else just..."
"Enjoy the silence," Rarity finished, hugging back, both their tears rolling out and landing on one another's shoulders. "You still have me, if no-one else...I know I can't replace Rumble but...
"Rarity..." Thunderlane whispered, tightening his embrace a little more.
"Yes?" Rarity asked, nuzzling herself into the side of his neck.
"...Thank you."
ML54: Hope you guys enjoyed it! All...Maybe five of you!
Applebloom: You really should get back to doing Pokémon-
ML54: Not you too!