Bride of quiet, Bride of all unquiet things...Come the infantry, Come the archers Of hell

[secondcity_npc]

Characters: Anyone not in an endgame group and wants to kick asses and take names
Time: Panic O'Clock
Location: Union Station
Content: Phages. Outsiders. Screaming civilians
Format: Prose/Action/ WHATEVER
Warnings: Fear. Violence. Action. Shit hitting the fan.

Comments

[sailorkindness]

There were too many people on the streets, and it seemed a great many of them were so frightened that they even yelled at the sight of her. There was so much pushing and shoving, as well, that trying to figure out where she was going was nigh impossible. Flying, however, presented a whole new problem, with strange creatures darting through the sky. The little pegasus was far too nervous at the shapes and shadows to go up high; her wings seized up entirely, making flying impossible.

Struggling against the crowd, Fluttershy finally managed to see some of what everyone was running from... and she let out a yell of terror herself. These, these things... they were just hideous, the most terrifying creatures she had ever seen in her whole life, and there were so many of them! In an instant, she forgot all about the friends she'd been looking for, and turned to scramble away.

Fluttershy ran in an attempt to find a good place to hide in--there, by the wall, a series of pillars made easy nooks to get behind. Upon scrabbling over, though, Fluttershy found she wasn't the only one to have that idea. A young boy had curled up behind one, shaking like a leaf, and he let out a yell the moment she appeared before him. She let out a small gasp. "Oh--oh no, oh, are you all right? Is... um--" A terrible, wailing shriek sounded somewhere behind her, and she squeaked and pressed in close to him.

The pillar, though, wasn't the ideal hiding place. Suddenly, the boy yelled again, and threw his arms about Fluttershy's neck in a desperate hug. Turning to look, the pony saw another horror--a huge dog, but not like one she'd ever seen, with huge hunks of dirty hair missing, skin stretched paper-thin over bare bones with writhing bulges squirming under its flesh. greenish foam dripped from bleeding gums as it stepped closer. When Fluttershy tried to back away, the boy only clung tighter around her and sobbed into her mane.

For a moment, Fluttershy looked at the shuddering little figure around her neck, then at the slavering monster pacing closer, eyes brimming with fire and drool sizzling where it fell. The more she stared, the larger it seemed to get, the hungrier it looked, the more grotesque it seemed. And the boy was clinging to her for protection.

Fluttershy shifted her stance; she put herself between the dog and the boy, and faced it. She planted her hooves, spread her wings, and stared.

"Bad dog," she snapped.

The creature paused, taken aback by the sudden defiance. Fluttershy leaned forward. "Bad dog!" She set her jaw. "What do you think you're doing?! You're scaring the poor boy! Is that how you act?!" The dog wavered a moment, before setting its eyes on the still-shaking boy, and taking another step forward. "NO!" Fluttershy snapped, and took one more step towards it. "Bad! You stop that right now! You should know better than to bother somepony who doesn't want you around!"

The boy looked up, red-rimmed eyes wide. The dog faltered. "Now you just turn around, and go back home! I'm sure your owner will be very cross with you!" The dog tried to snarl at her, but Fluttershy flapped her wings to blow a puff a wind in its face. It sneezed. "We'll have none of that backtalk, mister. Go on, then, until you can play nice!"

She looked back to the boy, whose mouth hung open. "Sweetie, why don't you get on my back, we can try and find your mommy, okay?" The dog tried to growl but she silenced it with a quick glare. The boy looked from her, to the dog, and back, and gave a slow nod. "There now. Just stay still, and don't worry. None of these big meanies will bother us, okay?"

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie didn't have the option of flight, but it was okay - she wasn't finding the crowded streets nearly as much of a problem as Fluttershy. She wound easily through the mass of terrified people in a way that almost seemed to defy the actual laws of physics as she tried her best to bounce up and catch a glimpse of whatever was scaring them all so badly. She wasn't having much luck, though; the only thing she found was a bedraggled multicolored hat, that looked like it had come from some sort of clown. When she'd stepped on it in all the chaos, she'd just blinked at it for a second in surprise before bending down and slipping it on over her own poofy mane. It was so colorful, how could she not?

Nearby, a terrified man stumbled on a loose brick as he was running, falling hard onto the ground. Pinkie frowned and trotted over. "Oh my gosh, are you okay? That looked like a terrible tumble!"

The man scrambled backwards, terror written all over his face. "Oh my god, not another one!" he managed to gasp, before regaining his feet and running past Pinkie.

"Oh! Goodbye then! Look out for monsters!" The pony waved goodbye at the man's back, before an idea occurred to her. Maybe by 'another one,' he meant another pony? Oh my gosh, one of her friends could be in there! Rainbow Dash or Rarity or...or Fluttershy! Pinkie gasped. Poor Fluttershy, she'd be so scared! She had to find her!

Pinkie broke into a gallop, peering around the train station for any sign of her friends. The place was utter chaos, even worse than that one time with the Parasprites, only this time it was monsters and not bugs and she really didn't think a trombone would help anything. Out of the crowd, a clown stumbled, mouth fixed in a rictus grin as his eyes fell on Pinkie. At first, the pony didn't notice the rust-red blade or the evil look in the phage's eyes; she only saw a clown, someone who would probably be great at a party. "Hi! Have you seen any of my friends around here? They're ponies, just like me, well I mean not just like me - "

She ducked as the clown swung his blade at her, nicking the top of her hat. "Hey! I'm not a pinata, silly, I'm - " Her eyes widened as they fell on the knife, and she gave a loud gasp. "You're not a nice clown at all! You're just a big mean monster!"

The clown confirmed this by once again attempting to slice at Pinkie with the knife. The pink pony jumped out of the way and stomped hard on the clown's oversized shoe, then wheeled and darted away into the crowd. If the monsters could even look like happy fun clowns, then she definitely had to find all her friends! Then, behind a pillar, she spotted a flash of pink and yellow. "Oh! Fluttershy! Fluttershyfluttershyfluttershy!" Heedless of any clown monsters that might still be on her tail, the party pony charged forward.