Survivors During an Infection (THE RP)

Deep inside of the Everfree Forest stood a lone mustard-coloured pony on a wooden bridge that hung high above the ground in the safety of the Everfree canopy. He placed a hoof on the railing in front of him and gazed off into the never ending maze of trees and plants that loomed before him. While normally, the sight of a pony inside of the Everfree forest was an oddity, nowadays it was to be expected. With the outbreak of recent events, the once hazardous forest filled with fearful predators had been transformed into that of a safe haven.

Only a week ago was when it all began; the first case of this mystery disease, and in such a short time the tranquility of everyday life was torn asunder by the madness that came forth. Ponies fled from their homes in fear of their lives, and some even began attacking one another in order to save themselves. It was a place of utter chaos indeed. However, among the disorder of the outside, the Everfree forest provided a harrowing contrast to the outside world. While it was indeed once a place of fear and despair, its very dangers were now being used in favor of those who would wish to survive.

The stallion fixed his gaze on the myriad of transfigured trees that stood behind him. Their branches had been bent and mended in order to form houses, communities, and branches to connect them all; one of which was the very thing this individual had been standing on. The structures were created with the use of unicorn magic. They would send some of their energy into the branches and manipulate them so as to twine the masses together and form the familiar shapes that many had come to know in basic life, the only difference being the large cocoon looking orbs high above the ground. This was the town known as Trottenhoch, and as far as this pony knew, it was the only safe place left in all of Equestria.

A sharp sound rung out as a pony in the distance slammed against a bell and within seconds there were a cavalcade of ponies running back and forth across the bridge.

"Do you see 'im?!"

"No, where'd they go?!"

"There! Over by the eastern bridge! They're congregating!"

"Hey! Bismuth! They're right under you! Get 'im!"

The pony's expression did not change, and as the voices gave him orders, he instinctively followed. There were a series of loose strands of branches that hung off the sides of the bridge. He gripped one of these tightly and peered over the edge. Just below him indeed were the culprits the rest of the town seemed to be after; a group of infected. Bismuth studied their positions for a moment before raising a hoof to his ears and clicking on his headphones. Relaxing instrumental bells filled his ears and he swung down.

The group seemed surprised to be ambushed themselves on an ambush as the yellow pony landed on one of the intruders with a loud SNAP as a couple of bones broke under the momentum of his fall. The other 4 turned around in shock to meet their foe. Wasting no time, Bismuth immediately got to work. He slowly jumped from side to side in beat to the music that filled his ears. One of the infected swung at him with a rusty knife, though the mustard stallion simply jumped backwards in beat to the bells while responding with a swift side towards his opponent. His hooves dropped with tremendous force against the infected's jaw sending it's head into the dirt below. He grabbed the crazed one by it's neck and flung him into one of the ones that stood nearby. The limb body slammed into it's friend and they both collapsed into a heap. One of the intruders attempted to attack Bismuth's blind spot, yet he responded by jumping up into the air and spinning backwards onto the rushing pony's back. The crimson red infected struggles for a moment under Bismuth's weight, but such a fight was swiftly ending with a quick jerk to the left and a disturbing crunch.

"Bismuth! Find some cover!", somebody screamed from the treetops.

The mustard colored pony reacted and grabbed the body under his feet and held it up towards to voice. He closed his eyes in fear as he heard a sound that oddly resembled rain surround him for a mere moment before disappearing. He opened his eyes and abandoned his grip on the corpse above him as it slumped into a heap onto the dirt floor. All around him, the earth and the intruders had been punctured by countless amounts of arrows, the only living thing on the forest floor was Bismuth himself, who shook.

This was Equestria these days, a warzone.

 

Firebreeze bucked another Pegasus phsyco to the ground. "Say hi to the dirt for me!" he yelled out. He saw his own cloud not too far away, which had his flamethrower and machete in it, but it was surrounded by phsycos. 'This is gonna be a pain...' He thought.

 

Firebreeze was becoming increasingly annoyed by his enemies. No matter what, they always seemed to come back. As he headbutted another infected psycho to the ground, he thought of an attack that might just get him his stuff. Firebreeze quickly kicked another enemy to the ground and began to fly towards his cloud, his fire trail heating up. He suddenly rolled up into a ball right before he was to hit the psychos surrounding his cloud. He was engulfed in his own flames and he soon slammed right into the crowd of the infected. Fire then dispersed his flames in all directions, hoping to buy some more time. He jumped into his cloud and ran to a chest, opened it, then retrieved his weapons. The psychos were beginning to swarm Fire's cloud again, when he burst out with his flamethrower and machete. He landed on top of the hospital to catch his breath, and to avoid the other non-pegasi psychos.

 

Dark had gone inside after getting bored with sniping the physcos, she started fiddling with her radio. Although she had lost hope of contacting anypony, she still did while bored. As she turned through the frequencies, she heard a fuzzy voice, barely distinguishable. She picked up her mic in a hurry and said into it, "Hello? Any pony there? If so please change your radio frequency to 180!" she changed her frequency to said frequency and waited for the response.

 

"Hello! This is Dark Light, I am at a barricaded house surrounded by physcos with plenty of weapons and armor. I do not think I can mount a rescue yet, but if I can I will." Dark responded. Her heart was glad that she was finally getting to hear what could be a friendly voice, but her mind was suspicious trying to say it could be a trap.

 

The infected soon began to pursue Fire again. He knew there where too many, so he crashed into a window and rolled into the hospital. He then began to re-barricade the window.

 

Firebreeze heard talking in the other room. He tried to listen in, but he couldn't make out what was being said. Suddenly, he heard a crash coming from another room, "Who's there!" he yelled out, reaching for his machete.

 

Dark burst into a room shotgun at ready when she saw a fimilar pony, "Firebreeze, is that you?!" she said still pointing her shotgun at him if he turned out be a physco.

 

"Dark!" Fire said happily. He put his weapon away, "Thank Celestia for a familiar face!"

 

Dark took off her helmet, "Yea, I'm here because I heard on my radio that some pony here on this floor needed an evac. I know it might be a trap, that's why I came prepared. Now, you want to help me find him?"

 

"Actually, I heard talking in the other room, it might be your guy."

 

Bismuth leaned against a wall inside of the Northern cocoon as a group of ponies around him celebrated about holding off the recent attack. While many others partied and had drinks, he peered out the window as a group of guardsmen dragged the freshly killed infected away. They were to be used to lure away possible predators. Such thoughts send pangs of nausea throughout his body. How could society crumble so quickly in such a short time? Are they doomed to live in such a world forever? Will things ever go back to the way they once were? He turned from the table he leaned and walked off towards the residential cocoon for a good night's sleep.

He walked over from the Northern Cocoon and eventually across the Eastern Bridge where he was earlier that day when the attack occurred. As he walked over the bumpy branch path, he got the urge to look down on the scene of the attack. Getting up on his hind legs, Bismuth peered over the bark railing of the bridge and onto the blood-stained grass that lay below. He slouched over the railing as his mind began to drift off once more, but before he could get too invested in his thoughts, somebody had snuck up behind him.

"Yo!"

Bismuth nearly fell over the railing as he jumped in surprise. He spun around to see who had done so and came face to face with a chuckling green pegasus. The mint colored stallion clutched at his sides and lost his ability to fly as he laughed even harder.

"Hey, you've gotta come with me. Apparently there's been some sort of distress signal on the radio or somn', about time if you ask me, and the chief is sending us out on a rescue mission!" He pumped his hooves in excitement as he hovered around Bismuth.

This was Gale, a long time friend of Bismuth. The two of them escaped from their town together and fled into the Everfree forest together where they were miraculously rescued by the Trottenhoch guard. On the receiving end, it was a sheer stroke of luck to find a group willing to save them, but in reality they did it quite often. Almost everyday the guard would go out in varying groups and attempt to locate any survivors, it was quite the priority. However, nobody had ever been able to establish communications through radio before, so this was especially interesting to the makeshift community.

Bismuth and Gale arrived at the barracks after a few minutes, it wasn't a long walk seeing as how Trottenhoch was only a week old and therefore only had a few buildings. The chief stood at the front of the room and paced back and forth as he was about to begin the briefing. He was an old gray unicorn with a face full of battlescars from years on a militia, yet he still seemed to maintain a positive charisma.

"Excellent, you're here Bismuth. As Gale most likely told you..." he said as he shot a glare at Gale. "We recently received a radio transmission requesting help. Here, I'll let you listen to what we were able to pick up.

He then flipped a switch on a box resting at his feet and instantly sounds could be heard. It was mostly static at first, but as it played it was obvious the one who had been managing the radio at the time found the correct frequency.

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"H##l#, i# a##po#y o## t###e? ##e#se a###er! #m ## th# ho###t#l, #'m tr#ing to su##ive I ha#e almo#t nothing. T#e door to m# room is barri#aded and I'm on the top floor. I don't know the room though, I ran as fast as I could to get away from them. If you hear this hurry, but you might want to be heavily equipped, who knows how many are in here."

"Hello? Any pony there? If so please change your radio frequency to 180!"

"Alright let's try 180... Hello? Who are you? Where are you?! Do you have weapons? I need a rescue because im trapped and have nothing to defend myself with!"

"Hello! This is Dark Light, I am at a barricaded house surrounded by physcos with plenty of weapons and armor. I do not think I can mount a rescue yet, but if I can I will"

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The Chief turned to both Bismuth and Gale.
"You'll both be heading out immediately, this is our first radio transmission, and I'd hate for it to be our first failure too."

"Yes, Sir!" Gale said in an over eager tone, yet Bismuth simply nodded.


It took them a few minutes, but they suited up and met with the rest of the group on the forest floor. They headed out towards the specified location, hopefully they would make it in time.

(Dude, guys, can we seriously chill on the one line posts? I just spent like 15+ minutes typing this all out and now I've got a whole new page to read. Quality over quantity my friends.)

 

"Right then." Dark slid her helmet back on and walked to the next room over. She tested the door handle to see it was locked. She turned around and bucked the door wide open, quickly flipping back so she could use her weapon. "Cal! Are you in here!" she said as the entrance was quite dusty from being forced open.