NOTE: There may be spoilers in the comments. Read them at your own risk!
A mysterious viral outbreak grips Equestria, threatening the very life of the country. In an effort to stop the infection, Princess Celestia orders all individual settlements within Equestria to be quarantined. Can Twilight Sparkle, along with the other Elements of Harmony, figure out the cause of this horrific virus and put a stop to it? More importantly - can they survive?
Rated M for Violence, Adult Content and Language.
Chapters (23)
please make more i love zombies and my little pony and these put together is
so awesome
Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiii-
best story evar, can't wait till next cchapter
best story evar
Thanks, all, for the positive feedback! Within the hour, I will be adding a significant portion to the third chapter - please make sure to re-read it from about the last 3/4 through before moving on to chapter four.
Chapter four will hopefully be posted within the next few hours - I need to do a bit of editing as well as re-writing a few scenes. Stay tuned for more updates!
... The sound of kung-fu noises, eh?
I think I can tell where that little lines going thanks to the picture, and if it is going that way than Lyra and Bonbon will forever be black belts in my personal fanon!
As for my opinion of the story itself, I think you're doing a mighty fine job. The first chapters were a little bit short, but at the same time they were well done and you showed me that you could write longer chapters if the story required it. All in all, you also have a really clear and concise way of writing. You really did a good job meshing the MLP world with a zombie outbreak.
Really hoping I don't see any of the characters listed under the main character slip get horribly massacred though... Poor Ditzy though, I'm not sure how well she'll hold up...
really good keep them coming
Kind of upset that you got here first. But oh my God, write more. Please. This is currently the only fanfic I'm tracking, so feel free to drag it out as long as you can.
Great chapter
great story
great job, keep it up
Hope you don't mind, but i could not find this on fanfiction.net
so
I created a story advertising this fic, the story i posted it'self has no content but in the review there is a link to your stories page, i've stated i did not write it.
here's a link
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7344125/1/Cantering_Death#
I did this because i feel it needs moar recognition.
hope you don't mind.
3157
I don't mind at all! I'm quite flattered, really.
Oh god, they have a Jacuzi!
Rainbow Dash: 1
Zombies: 0
Of course since they haven't showed up yet, that goes without saying... Can't wait till you finish the chapter!
>update my zombie fic two days ago
>log onto fimfiction
>see this
3182
I didn't do it on purpose, I swear!
Sorry, mate...
3183
Lol it's no biggy. I don't think you made a story similar enough to mine to start crying "Bullshit!" and break out the pitchforks.
Then again, I haven't read your fic yet.
I'll make sure to do that. That is, if you give my fic a glance. 
3185
Absolutely! I'm a bit preoccupied with some other things at the moment, but I'll be certain to give your story a read later on this evening (read: after the Steelers are done playing).
3186
Oh, you wacky sports fans.
And have an update! Sorry I wasn't able to add to this sooner - I've been a bit busy with work these past few days. More to follow shortly!
Lol I thought the gore was going to be awful turns out its no more horrifying than Equestria Fallout x3 Its a great story so far and I cant wait to read more
3563
That's the spirit!
MORE BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
An epic story, continue on
I saw the word "zombies" and immediately started reading. And I'm glad I did. A very good story, well done! Keep it comin'!
I want to see this animated. In comic form. Something. That was AWESOME. And it broke up the tension of the story, which is honestly starting to scare the shit out of me. >_<
Zombie ponies.
Kung-fu ponies.
Good Christ, you've thought of everything.
Good story, but I believe I've spotted a couple typos.
"believe you me" in chapter 1 and "heard" instead of "head" in chapter 2.
4108
Gah! Thanks for pointing those out, I've gone and fixed them.
These are all the emotions I've felt so far during this series, please make more.
When I read that interlude, all I could think about was the movie "Tokyo Zombie" . . .
If you had said anything about Judo . . . it HAD to been a reference, if that were the case.
if i was good at what you needed no problem but im not that at finding grammer issuesand etc
if i was good at what you needed no problem but im not that at finding grammer issues and etc
Ooh, I'd like to lend you a hoof.
I'd gladly proofread your story and/or bombard you with ideas~!
Draco Dei here, forgot my password, so until I can remember it, i am stuck doing unsigned reviews.*
for fear of losing his rank (and perhaps head)
-Celestia doesn't seem like the type to behead people for well-intentioned insubordination.
here was no doubt a similar (or identical) bubble encompassing Cloudsdale as well, leaving Rainbow with no way to join her friends.
-You know RD doesn't LIVE in Cloudsdale anymore, right? Or did I miss you saying that she was visiting it when the bubble went up?
4560
That gets explained in chapter five. I know it's probably a bit confusing at first, but stick with it!
and I’m not sure if it’s even safe to be a the town square right now.
-spelling error(s)
Spike seemed to ease up a bit upon hearing his master’s quickly-returning tone of reassurance.
-Shouldn't that be "mistresses"?
Fluttershy trailed off, her head suddenly dizzy as the full brevity of the situation swelled forth like an anxious scratching within her chest.
-Try "enormity". Brevity means "briefness".
was on the clock tonight, arms crossed across his barrel-like chest with a bent cigarette drooping lazily out of the corner of his mouth.
-Sure you don't mean "fore-legs"?
The bouncer Pegasus was jarred from his mild elation, however, when he spied a rather bony-looking colt staggering in the general direction of the club.
-Let me guess... colt will catch bouncer by surprise, Rainbow Dash (with or without Spitfire) will have to face him (undead, or merely enraged), strength vs speed.
save for the customary goggles that the team only wore during performances.
-Quite frankly, the goggles seem the LEAST optional part of the uniform...
It certainly looked like a good one,
-Totally makes sense she could see pony's dreams, but I am not sure if that is what you meant, or if you just meant that RD was smiling in her sleep or something.
As Luna’s brows furrowed in an unmistakable display of annoyance,
-I would have thought Luna would have riled Rainbow up intentionally to keep her from locking up (ruling Princess with centuries of experience, even if she is a millennium out of date with most of it).
Yokeyo
-Good world-building. Also, Lyra and Bon-Bon as elite martial artists... awesome! But sadly I can't see it for one simple reason; that level of skill requires an intense amount of dedication, it must be the driving passion of an individual's life... and Ponies wear their passions on their flanks. So unless you can explain how their cutie marks somehow actually represent something related to physical excellence...
Having seen this before wouldn't the princesses know better than to make everyone gather up? That just makes them easy pickings for the zombies, which we already saw happen in Ponyville.
Barricading in their homes would be safer wouldn't it?
Honestly? I was put off by Redheart's death enough. I don't think having any of the mane 6 or major supporting characters should end up infected. It gets very hard to read.
I'd say that sticking to unnamed ponies and MAYBE ponies that have been given a name but little in the way of anything else would be the way to go.
4594
All will be explained later on, trust me on this one. There was a reason for Luna to issue that particular order - it's been a concern with some of my proofreaders, but I can't say too much without spoiling anything. Stay tuned!
Yay chapter 6! (You uploaded right when I opened this page lol)
4693
Wow, good timing!
I'm really looking forward to this! Don't let me down!
4693 me too
"...what do you, the reader, want to see in this story? Should any of the mane 6 succumb to the deadly virus, or was Nurse Redheart's death quite enough?"
You know what, I may not be particularly fond of this story so far, but I will forever respect you for actually taking the time to ask this question. I hope that you might hear me out on a little stance, then, that I have held for a long time. I hope that you'll read the whole comment and not simply tl;dr me, because I feel I need to make this point, and it is a rather long winded one...
One thing you want to remember is that you're writing fanfiction. You are writing a story taking place in a world that is not your own. You are writing for characters that other people have grown attached to, that you do not necessarily know all the nuances and qualities of, and that somebody else put a lot of time, effort, and soul into.
So with characters like this, one thing I really don't feel you want to do, is disrespect them. Now I know a lot of people immediately say "but they're fictional characters. How can you really disrespect fictional characters?" Well, for one thing you can certainly disrespect the original author. You can disrespect the other fans by completely ignoring how they might feel about the show and the characters, but if we were to speak strictly about the characters in the story then consider this: Would you really write fanfiction about characters that really didn't transcend just being "characters" to you? If you would write about something that is just a "fictional character" to you, then I envy the amount of free time you must have on your hands. Personally, though, I would never devote much time and effort to something that didn't mean more than that to me. So if this really means something to you, then I would think that it would be both in your best interest AND your readers' to respect the characters.
That being said, we now talk about killing characters. Believe me when I say it IS possible to kill off characters and respect them, but it is very VERY hard. There needs to be a real proper buildup to it. There should be foreshadowing. You should develop them to show that you know who and what the characters are and how they are meant to be portrayed. You need to show them dying in a manner that is suitable to their character. You need to show proper emotion and reaction to their death. To respect a character while killing them off, they need to go out "right" for who they are.
Now you ask us who should die. Should any of the Mane 6 die? Should supporting characters die? should background ponies die? Should anyone else with a name even die? Well, I honestly can't answer this question for you. As the author, it's completely up to you. But I feel the need to ask you a question: Are you capable of sending these characters off properly?
The thing is, these characters don't belong to you. They belong to the makers of the show, and they belong to the fandom as a whole. People are going to be offended, upset, and angry if you keep sending them off wrong. Yes, I really do feel Nurse Redheart was killed off wrong. It was abrupt. There was no real look into who she was. There was little emotion spared. She died in a way that I really feel disrespected her and the fandom.
What you must remember is that these characters all have CHARACTERS. None of them, not even the smallest ones, are blank slates or simply plot devices that you can off whenever you need to build up the tension. Background ponies have been written up by the fandom into full fledged, three dimensional characters that people recognize and celebrate. Even Nurse Redheart, while she's gotten less attention than some like Derpy, Lyra and Bonbon, and Vinyl Scratch, had character that we, the fandom, built up, and you ignored that.
And here we come to the "point." All of these characters are close to us, and need to be respected as they're sent off. And the more prominent they are, the more they've been built up, the more we have seen of them or made them up to be, the harder this will be to do. If you try and off someone that we've never really paid any attention to, like say, Morton (the salt block owner in Appleoosa), then you'll still need to give him a proper send off, but doing that shouldn't be too hard. But if you try to off someone like, say, Octavia, that'll be harder because we as a fandom have built her up and will want to see her go out right. If you want to kill off Big Macintosh or Cheerilee then that'll be even more problematic because not only have WE built them up, but they've been established by show canon, so we hold them in even higher esteem than a lot of others. And if you want to bump off the mane cast, well... let's say that that'll be nigh on impossible at this point given everything we see and make of them... especially in this story.
Because you're already at a disadvantage simply by the nature of the story. This is Zombies. Now, zombies, by nature, are the most disrespectful way to kill somebody. To not only die, but then to have your corpse desecrated and twisted and mangled into a mockery and perversion of your former self, only to start going after everybody you once held dear... it's disrespectful from the very beginning. You've already made the characters ability to "go out right" difficult from the very start. I don't believe it'll be impossible, but it'll be really difficult. Difficult enough that I know that I would never even attempt it. These are characters that we all know and love and to just "make them into zombies" would not be well received.
Now obviously I hold a very passionate stance, but I know I'm not the only one. If you were writing your own original zombie story, then you would have a lot more leeway to do whatever you wished because they would be YOUR characters. But they aren't your characters. They belong to all of us. So, I can't tell you who to end up killing, but I can make the request that, before you do anything, to stop and ask yourself "am I doing this right?" Can you really kill of a character that everybody loves AND make them into a zombie, while still respecting the character and the other people of the fandom? If the answer is no, I'd say it'd be best to stick to OC's.
Anyway, thanks for listening. It's good that someone finally asked the question of what we may want. I may not speak for everybody in the fandom, but I speak for a good portion of it and while we may be rather more sensitive and passionate than a fair amount of the other bronies, the fact remains that we're all bronies here. And these characters belong to all of us.So from one brony to another, thank you for hearing me out.
4833
That was quite informative, good sir. I know that zombies aren't everyone's cup of tea, and I applaud you with not only taking the time to read my work thus far, but also for taking the time to write out your comment. You raise an absolutely correct point in noting that these are not, in fact, my characters - I generally take it as a given that any fan content produced that was inspired by MLP inherently suggests that the author, artist or musician makes no claim of ownership. I now realize that, regrettably, I did not make that statement at the beginning of this tale, and I will amend that issue as soon as I am finished typing this out.
You make yet another excellent point in the necessity to respect the characters. The suddenness of Nurse Redheart's death was a stylistic choice on my behalf: believe you me, I am not one to kill a character without a proper build-up, but in her case, it felt situationally appropriate to have her succumb to the virus in that manner. That being said, while I usually make no apologies for the content of my work, I will apologize for sending her off in a manner that was not to your liking. Should any more prominent characters succumb to the virus later on down the road, I will be absolutely certain to respect the characters themselves. Readers are absolutely the most important aspect of this project; whereas some writers tend to write for themselves or (more commonly) for profit, this work is an entirely unfunded, unselfish literary adventure made specifically for fans of MLP who also happen to adore zombies and the zombie genre as much as I do. That being said, I am trying my damndest to appeal to a wide spectrum of readers, which is the primary reason why you'll note that this story is devoid of any shipping or fan-popular relationships that have become somewhat fanon in this community. Some people loathe shipping, apparently.
Dearest Dusty, it's readers like you that keep me going. Your attention to detail as well as passionate stance regarding certain aspects of fanfiction are somewhat of an inspiration to me, and I thank you again for taking the time to type that small novel of a comment.
I do hope that you'll continue to read this story as it develops, and feel free to voice your opinion at any time, via comments, private message or e-mail. That goes for the rest of you readers, too! I absolutely love comments like these: keep 'em coming!
4833
Wow. That was very, very well-said. Like, for serious.
I do disagree on one point, though, and that's Nurse Redheart's death. While she did die quite abruptly, (and perhaps disrespectfully, like you said) I think it adds a touch of realism to the story. After all, not everypony gets dramatic, Hollywood-style sendoffs in the real world, and in a zombie apocalypse, ponies will die suddenly. It would be nice to have a proper build for every pony's death, but that just becomes too time- and space-consuming.