An Undead Test of Friendship

by Muffinlover4

Distance

“AJ! Come on! We have to make it to the Metrorail subway before the infected get to us. HURRY!” Pinkie Pie bellowed as she was sprinting just ahead of Applejack. Fleeing down the open street, Applejack couldn’t help but question if any of this was real. Starving, undead, Florida citizens chasing her wasn’t exactly the type of situation she was accustomed to.

“I know Pinkie Pie! I’m tryin’ sugarcube. This sure aint one of Twilight’s survival drills” she responded. Applejack had always heard stories of Miami. The sunshine, beaches everywhere, living the life. She had thought about possibly taking a vacation down to Miami. It is definitely a change of pace from chilly Colorado. With the way things had progressed, she would be satisfied if she was just back home with all of her friends being safe and sound. Oh girls. I believe in y’all. Just make it to Los Angeles before it’s too late. I’m countin’ on y’all, she thought right before shifting her main focus to the raging horde gaining ground and intensity on the duo. Applejack figured that Pinkie and herself would have no trouble outrunning most of the group seeing as how a lot of them were deteriorated. Her main concern was the sheer number of citizens still intact enough to hunt prey. There were only two of them and about 30 of the zombies. As long as they could reach the subway then they should be safe.

Pinkie thought to herself, Well this isn’t much fun at all. All I wanted was to spend time with my amazing friends, and now we are forced to run for our lives. That’s not very fun at all. She didn’t want to show it, but Pinkie Pie was more scared than she ever was. Not for herself, but for her friends of course. They were practically her family and she was terrified of anything grim happening to any one of them. I will absolutely have to throw a ‘We Didn’t Get Eaten By Zombies’ party when all of this is over, Pinkie pondered. Not used to the intense burning in her legs, Pinkie wondered how Applejack hardly looked winded. Working on the farm really prepares you for a lot, Pinkie figured.

Practically sprinting, the two women finally made it to the stairwell leading down to the subway station. Pinkie ran for the right side and grabbed the collapsible gate in front of the turnstiles. Following just behind her, Applejack dashed to the left side and grasped her half of the gate. Charging at each other, they closed the gate, locked it and stood as they watched the infected toss themselves at the gate. Luckily for the girls, the gate was much sturdier than it seemed and looked to be keeping the zombies at bay.

Standing in the barely illuminated entrance of the recently battered subway, the girls took a second to become familiar with their surroundings. A glance around revealed a depressing sight.

To their left and right were the familiar shadowy tunnels in which the subway actually travelled. Strewn about the worn tile in front of them were possessions of those caught in mayhem resulting from the virus outbreak. Purses with their contents spilled, clothing items ripped and spotted with blood, and puddles of blood surrounded the area. A single overhead fluorescent light flickered feebly as the duo surveyed the area. The light’s faint buzz was the only presence breaking the silence.

“Well we ain’t getting no closer to the gals and Spike just standin’ around. Let’s take a look through here and see if we can’t get this subway runnin’” Applejack said as she motioned for Pinkie to follow her. Going towards the subway car, Applejack had it all planned out. They would search the cars to find the power source and anything of use, get the subway running, and take it as far west as possible. Florida was quite the distance from Los Angeles and AJ wasn’t too keen on the concept of walking all the way there. They reached the doors of the subway car and pried them open. Giving a moderate amount of resistance, it opened with a satisfying whoosh. Peering deep within the shadows of the car, Pinkie shuddered and wondered why everything had to be so gloomy. Wouldn’t a pink subway with streamers be more fun? Or maybe candy canes!!!! OR even gumdrops for the headlights! Pinkie pondered. I have to remodel our new house once we settle down.

“Come on sugarcube, let’s try to find some lights so we ain’t fumblin’ in the dark” Applejack said finally breaking the silence. As they tried moving through the cars, Applejack noticed that the darkness was very debilitating. She had to keep shifting her focus on different masses of the darkness, or the shadows would start to merge with each other and swallow shapes whole, leaving her blind. Every step, she would pause and slowly move her hands around to check for doors, poles, or the worst possibility of a stray infected. AJ softly fanned her right arm from her right to the left and brushed against a hard metal surface. Pulling the door open, she noticed that they had made it to the front of the subway cars. She spotted the emergency brake pulled up and the gauges lined up on panels at about waist level. Nothing was on of course, but it was a start. “Alright Pinkie, the only thing we gotta do now is look for the power source since this here subway looks like it’ll work once it’s got some juice. Now, I’m sure there is some sort of panel outside of the cars themselves and we just have to flip a breaker or switch to get it goin’” she said.

“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie said as she bounced off before Applejack could give her further instructions. Applejack sighed and figured that Pinkie would be fine. The gates were up outside and they could still run if they needed to. We can’t run forever though AJ thought. Deciding that it would be safe to travel through by herself, she left the front and started doing a more thorough search of the cars. Perhaps there was something they could use to survive. Since they had been in the car for about 5 minutes, her eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to make out most of the objects strewn about. The first car yielded nothing more than a child’s coloring book and some crayons. She thought of Applebloom and quickened her pace as she stumbled into the second car. A far more useful discovery was made in this car. Applejack hoisted the harsh, icy metal down from the overheard rack and felt the reassuring weight in her arms. She cocked the 12-gauge and thought, Now this is what I call security.

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“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie said as she bounced off before Applejack could give her further instructions. Making her way towards the back car, Pinkie could see more clearly thanks to her eyes adjusting to the shadows. She could recognize the dingy chairs along the walls and standing straps on the ceiling. Now I can start looking for helpful . . . things she thought to herself. Pinkie Pie was terrified of losing her friends, but disappointing them would be just as severe to her. Driven with newly attained fuel, she proceeded to search every crevice and crack in the seats.

A black trench coat messily clung to a battered chair, purses littered walkway, and this all made Pinkie very uneasy. She didn’t like thinking of how much pain the outbreak had caused, and seeing the aftermath of a hunt made her very depressed. Despair, fear, death, loneliness: all foreign ideas to Pinkie Pie. Well, that was true after she managed to get away from her old home. There wasn’t enough time to dwell on that now however. Her mind cloudy with the thankfully foggy past, Pinkie hardly noticed when she reached the caboose of the subway.

“End of the line folks!” Pinkie said out loud as she pretended to be the conductor of an old steam engine train. She giggled at her own silly joke and turned around to make her way back to Applejack. A noise reached her ear as she took her first steps away. A rock shifting in the rubble is what it sounded like. Spinning around, Pinkie stared at the back door with curiosity. “Hello? Is someone out there? Are you hurt?” she asked as she crept closer to the door. Fear never crossed her mind because she never had a reason to worry about much. Applejack is a strong, helpful friend and Pinkie loved having her around. It made her feel safer and less nervous. Her finger connected with the door handle and the noise now erupted. This time it compared to a boulder smashing against the wall, and Pinkie didn’t think to fetch Applejack. She immediately flung the door open and hopped out of the back.

A single light illuminated a small area of the tunnel. She could make out a pile of rubble strewn across the subway tracks. Nothing else occupied the tunnel, and that made Pinkie a little suspicious. Starting towards the pile, something moved within its contents. Gasping, Pinkie raced towards it expecting it to be an unfortunate animal that got trapped in the chaos. As she drew closer, she found instead a wispy mass of shadows. As a generally happy-go-lucky individual, Pinkie didn’t put much thought into her actions before she crouched down and reached her bare hand out to console the . . . thing. Her finger brushed against the darkness and it recoiled.

“Don’t worry little guy. My name is Pinkie Pie, and I’m your friend. I’m everyone’s friend and I am here to help you!” she exclaimed. As if it understood her, the creature stood still for a moment before drawing nearer to her cheerful presence. “Awww there you go. You poor thing. You must be scared silly” she cooed as the creature reached a tentacle-like appendage out and wrapped it around Pinkie’s wrist. The shadow moved in the fashion of a solid, but wisps of smoke seemed to branch off the tendril. It didn’t seem to change mass and simply changed shape as it moved further up her arm. Standing up straight now, the creature had transferred its entire being along the length of Pinkie’s arm and was now slithering to and fro with serpentine fluidity. “You are an energetic ball of . . . shadows, huh?” Pinkie questioned playfully as she started back towards the caboose of the car.

“Surrender the source” floated across the tunnel and travelled to Pinkie’s ears. Whipping around to check for the source of the whisper, she was left with nothing but the pile of rubble and the faulty light bulb.

“Is somebody there? Do you need help?” Pinkie asked gleefully hoping for more friends to take back to Applejack. As Pinkie spoke, she was suddenly aware that she could see her breath due to some phantom chill. Sensing a shift in the atmosphere itself, Pinkie grew uneasy. She didn’t mind the dark, but something definitely made the air seem heavier and she didn’t appreciate that too much. Feeling out of her element, Pinkie decided to go regroup with Applejack and have her check out the creepy tunnel. A wall of shadows met her as she turned back towards the subway car.

Shotguns. The human nature of spray-and-pray. Applejack was used to using firearms when she and Big Mac would go out and set up the old soda cans to shoot at with her old Springfield that they kept on the farm for protection. She wasn’t too bad of a shot if she didn’t say so herself. Carrying the newly acquired weapon at her side, she cautiously journeyed towards the back. Now with some firepower in their hands, Applejack felt a new sense of relief hang with her. Her main goal was to keep her friends out of harm’s way and a 12-gauge was one of the many ways to reassure someone’s safety. A clang of metal rang through the cars and the vigilant cowgirl was already creeping forward with the shotgun held steady. A second noise emanated: a gut-wrenching slurch followed by a splat.

“Aw hell” Applejack mumbled. “Pinkie Pie!!! I’m comin’ sugarcube! Don’t you worry!” she bellowed as she bounded down the remaining cars. When she reached the caboose, Pinkie was there to greet her.

“AJ!” she exclaimed. “Whatcha doing here? Did you get the train up and running?” Pinkie seemed to be fine. Her bright blue eyes shone, and her poofy hair framed her gleaming smile. But Applejack was sure that she had heard some . . . unhealthy noises coming from this direction.

Lowering the shotgun, Applejack asked, “You alright, hun? I heard some noises over here. I thought you might have been hurt.”

“Nope! No noises here, silly. As for me, I’m a super-duper trooper.” Her gleeful tone should have assured AJ, but she felt this terrible pain in her gut. It was as if somebody had driven a stake right into her stomach. Applejack decided to ignore it for now, chalking it up to hunger or overextension.

“Alright then, Pinkie. Did you find anything out here at all? I found this shotgun, but no food or first aid. I just hope the next town has something of use” she said.

“I’m sorry AJ, but I couldn’t find a thing out here. Nothing at all” she said with a drooping frown. Again, Applejack felt the throbbing pain in her stomach. She was sure that she hadn’t hurt her stomach anytime during her search of the subway. So why did she keep feeling this sharp, intense pain in her abdomen? Ignoring the pain again, she looked around the decrepit tunnel and spotted a fuse box to her immediate right. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about! I think that we can use this here fuse box to get some power running to the subway. C’mon Pinkie Pie. Help me out won’t ya?”

Applejack would later give thanks to her personal attachment to her friends and her tendency to physically grab them by the arm to guide them when she was working hard. What happened next is still a challenge to explain to her friends.

An intense chill flowed from Applejack’s hand up the length of Pinkie’s arm. Stricken with terror and confusion, neither of the lost souls moved an inch. Continuing across her entire body, a dull glow accompanied the harsh bite of the unexplained cold. Applejack tried to loosen her grip on Pinkie’s arm, but the shock seemed to cement her fingers to Pinkie. Once the glow managed its course over all of Pinkie’s skin, Applejack felt a floodgate open within her. Comforting warmth swept swiftly through her veins and over her skin. The feeling compared closely to working hard on the farm all day and walking inside to one of Granny Smith’s delicious country meals loaded with potatoes, chicken, and the unforgettable apple pie that she was famous for.

“S- Surrender her . . . to us. She . . . is the . . . Source for the queen.” Pinkie mumbled.

“What are you goin’ on about, sugarcube? You feelin’ alright?” Applejack responded with concern apparent in her voice.

Convulsing every other word, Pinkie responded, “The Source! I must have it, and you know its location!!”

Before Applejack could respond with more confusion, an alarming sight unfolded before her eyes. Convulsions shuddered through Pinkie’s torso while everything from the neck up remained rigid and cold. A rib shot out of her chest and poised itself like a spear ready to slaughter. Blood oozed out of the wound; the spilled ink stained the subway tracks.

“Pinkie?? Are you alright?” Applejack proclaimed.

“You asinine fool! I’m . . . ugh . . . not your wretched friend. Don’t place me in . . . argh . . . the same category as your incompetent race! Her majesty would be most displeased with your filth and commonplace attitude.”

Applejack tried to remove her hand from the deranged thing inside of Pinkie’s body, but it remained fused. Maintaining eye contact, she stealthily steadied the shotgun in her free hand in the event that violence erupted.

“Well, if ya aint Pinkie Pie, then who are ya?” Applejack demanded.

The body shuddered, and then scoffed, “Your race is positively daft you know that? The entire lot of you makes me sick with your utter incompetence. It is wise of the queen to cleanse this realm of your . . . pestilence.”

Her head hurt. Knives were penetrating her stomach, and nausea crept up on Applejack due to shock. Just keep yer head on yer shoulders there AJ. There’s gotta be some sorta explanation fer all of this here mess. Maybe if I get this “thing” talkin’, then I can find out where Pinkie Pie is.

“What do you mean by ‘cleanse’? We aint dirty or nuthin’. I pride myself on bein’ very hygienic” said Applejack. “And who is this queen yer puttin’ on some pedestal?”

“Ugh, you really can’t function higher than the newly born of your species. We are going to slaughter your kind. Eviscerate your flesh and cause your organs to rot. We are rejuvenated on the despair and dismay that secretes from your foul pores. And as for the queen . . . I will not speak further about her majesty. If you are to be a corpse soon, I hardly think knowing the queen should be your priority.”

Not too much luck with specifics I see. I guess I’ll have to ask him some different questions. There’s gotta be somethin’ that he’ll answer outright.

“Y’all aint hurtin’ me or my friends sugar. We won’t let ya. What are ya anyways? You look like Pinkie, but obviously we’ve been over that” Applejack pestered.

An exasperated sigh came from the creature, “Do you learn nothing in your life? I am what’s known as a changeling.”

“A what?” AJ said.

“We have the fantastic ability to take the form of humans for our own purposes. It comes in handy when we need to infiltrate your establishments and tear them down from the inside, or when we need to murder your kind with the façade of being human. That way, our hands stay dry while yours remain stained with blood. We adopt your visage, toss it aside once we’re done, and leave the wreckage for you to deal with. Quite useful if you ask me. Better than your rather pathetic attempt with your ‘costumes’. It takes you hours just to wear something convincing” the changeling said with condescendence.

Applejack processed the sneering overtones and tried to find something else to pry out of the snarky bastard. “So y’all are tellin’ me that you don’t take over a human’s body? Y’all just shape yerselves to look like us?”

The changeling rolled his eyes with so much sass that Applejack almost felt herself get dizzy. “Of course we don’t take over the human body, you dolt. There’s entirely too many organs and mushy things in the way. We wouldn’t be able to fit. And would you like to know something else?”

“What’s that?” Applejack pondered.

“I think I’m done talking!” he said as he threw his arm in the air, releasing Applejack’s grip. Applejack didn’t hesitate and hoisted the shotgun into both of her hands.

“I guess since you ain’t borrowin’ Pinkie’s body, I ain’t gotta be careful.” The pull of the trigger was preceded by a very human splatter of blood and flesh. Staining the walls, Applejack’s heart skipped a beat. What if that damn changeling was lyin’? What if I really just killed Pinkie? Still in the midst of shock, a groan stirred Applejack’s clouded emotions. Spinning around towards the noise, Applejack spotted Pinkie Pie sprawled on the tracks on the other side of the subway car. “Pinkie! Yer alright!!” she exclaimed with relief.

Pinkie sat up and felt a dull pain in her head. “Of course I’m alright silly” she said bringing a hand to her forehead. “Just ran into something . . . unexpected.” Pinkie giggled and all Applejack could do was smile at the ever-bright demeanor of her companion. AJ was thankful for her resilience and for Pinkie’s optimism. Strengths like that were few and far-between in the survivors nowadays.

“That weird shadow thing attached itself to my arm and then I remember falling over and going to sleep” Pinkie said as she stood and reassessed her surroundings. She looked behind her because she hadn’t bothered looking on this side of the subway car before she lost consciousness. “Ahhhh!!!!!” she screamed as she scrambled towards something on the wall.

“Pinkie!!!! What is it darlin’???” AJ bellowed. Pinkie had already fallen for the changeling’s trick, and she didn’t want her becoming involved with more fatal situations.

There was no answer from Pinkie, and Applejack was about to shout again when she was interrupted by a sudden onset of light and a low whirring noise. It took her a moment to deduct the new environment. I’ll be damned. Pinkie was more concerned about the power switch than her own well-being.

Reaffirming her assumption, Pinkie ran back around the car to where Applejack was. “AJ!!! I did it!!! I found the power! Now we can get out of here!” Her energy was apparent as she practically bounced back onto the train, heading towards the front.

Shaking her head and letting out a light giggle, AJ felt confidence wash over her. They found some power, and now they could start heading towards Los Angeles. Tossing the shotgun back over her shoulder, she boarded the subway. She wasn’t about to let Pinkie operate the controls. AJ let Pinkie drive her car once, and the whiplash was enough incentive to assume control of their mode of transportation. I told y’all we were comin’ girls. I’m sure we’ll be seein’ each other soon.

Author's Note:

Tried for double spacing all around, and indents on all the paragraphs. Sadly, the format keeps fighting me. I'll figure it out soon enough. Enjoy chapter 3!!!

Comments

[KKak]

Dude silly question but how do you make stories?