Rarity cracked her eyes open, feeling stiff as a board and acutely aware that the bumpy surface that was under her not a minute ago was replaced with something much harder. She soon discovered it was a cobblestone floor. She tried to stand up but her spine locked up.

“Ah! My back! My back— wait...” she put a hand to her mouth, which was finally free of her jutting teeth. “I can talk again, wonderful! Now if I could just stand... up...” Her forelegs felt very different and she quickly realized why. She didn’t have them anymore.

“What!? I thought I only had one!” She held out two skeletal arms, Inspecting them inquisitively and found that one of them only had four fingers. A small cloud of dust blew down and gathered on the stump, hardening into the last long digit.

She got to trying to stand again. Her back wouldn’t cooperate with walking on all fours and she felt something wiggling on her feet. “Why do I have feet?! You know what, no. One thing at a time, old girl.” She used her arms like canes, working her way up to stand on two legs. “Where am I?”

She was huddled in the corner between a stair stoop and the open street. Some one, a pony, had her face buried in a human body’s chest, and when she momentarily picked her head up, Rarity recognized her face.

“Applejack! Oh thank goodness you... Applejack?”

The fetid mare’s crusty eyes were viciously set on her. She swallowed a mouthful of spongy lung tissue that fell right back out of her blown-open abdomen. Applejack made an empty, deep moan before slouching and staggering in Rarity’s direction.

“Applejack, you’re scaring me...” Rarity backed up and was quickly up against the corner as the corpse-mare drew closer. “Applejack!”

She lunged at Rarity who put her hands out to resist, locking one around her mouth and the other holding back the rest of her as she thrashed and snapped with her slavering jaws. For the first time ever, Rarity was glad to feel another uncontrollable shock coming on that electrocuted them both.

Applejack fell over to the side and Rarity slumped down. Both of them were steaming but Rarity fared better having been the source. Applejack twitched and was otherwise motionless for some time, then yawned and steadily got back to her hooves as if nothing happened.

“Aw, jeez,” she mumbled. “How’d I get here? Rarity! What ‘n tarnation are ya doin’ out here? Didn’t Twilight put ya in a bed ta rest?”

Rarity nodded. “I don’t know how I got out here. And you... attacked me.”

Applejack gritted her teeth, but tried to say calmly, “No, I didn’t.”

Rarity showed her her blood and grime covered hands and Applejack felt the grooves her choking hold made on her neck. Rarity shook the filth off in disgust.

“Are you at least in the right of mind now?”

“Always was.” Applejack helped Rarity up. “I’m not a zombie, okay?”

“Fine, fine. I really just want to go back to the apartment.”

“Where’s that? I’ve been wanderin’ this place for Celestia knows how long.”

“569... Satin Street.”

Rarity stumbled, latching onto Applejack for support. Her hand came off with more of her thick secretions on it "Eeewww..." she moaned. "You're disgusting!"

"First complaint ya made since ya can talk and ah already miss when ya couldn’t talk. T'aint like ah chose this."

"Just help me get back please, please? I don’t think I can walk on two legs yet."

"Lucy, I'm hooome!" Vinyl shouted, kicking the door in and balancing several packs of beverages.

Octavia’s face took on an expression of disappointment, seeing Vinyl plastered again. It was made most evident by the fact that she wasn’t even using her magic to carry the containers. "You couldn't have found something more productive to do?"

"Shut the ffffuck up! I still got paid." Vinyl slammed the cargo down in the kitchen. “And where’s Pinkie Pie? I couldn’t use half my shit at work!” She looked through the hole in the wall she bore at Twilight, curled up and shivering in a lethargic daze. "Wow, what happened to you, Twinkle Hooves?"

Twilight didn’t speak, her eyes emptily staring straight ahead.

“Pinkie Pie apparently had an episode,” said Whooves. “It looked like she had injected herself with a lot of these chemicals in your bedroom—”

“She shot up all my chems?!” Vinyl screeched.

Whooved stuffed his hooves in his ears as the room shook around her. “Vinyl, just hear me out—”

“Son of a bitch!” She charged down the hall, blasted away the barricade and threw the door open, being immediately grabbed by several gripping tongues that yanked her inside.

Whooves and Fluttershy rushed in as Pinkie wolfed Vinyl down. The iron mare grabbed Vinyl’s hind legs and pulled, quickly ripping Vinyl free. Pinkie leapt at Fluttershy, engulfing her head. She immediately let go and screamed as her saliva boiled from Fluttershy’s body heat.

“She tried to eat me...” she muttered, letting the fluids boil off her head and dropped Vinyl. Her lips curled into an angry scowl, then a vicious mask of rage. “You tried to eat me!” Fluttershy jumped at the reeling Pinkie, tackling her to the floor and twice struck her iron hoof across her face.

“Fluttershy, stop!” The Doctor tried to grab her, but her body temperature soared to the point where as soon as he laid a hoof on her, a bit of his fur got singed and she kept besieging the pony.

Fluttershy picked up Pinkie and threw her across the room, bellowing a low beastial roar that she caught herself in and slammed her hooves over her mouth.

“Oh my gosh.” She stared in abject horror at the work her hooves wrought. Pinkie’s tongues dangled loosely and a multi-colored fluid slowly dripped from her nose and mouth. The same substance stained Fluttershy’s hooves. She folded her forelegs, not wanting to see them and hunched over with gathering tears.

“What did I do...? I’m a... a monster...”

“Fluttershy, listen to me,” Whooves said, helping up the coughing and gagging Vinyl. “Pinkie Pie is very sick right now. She’s not in control of herself. Understand?” She half nodded. “Now I need you to bind up her legs and mouth with whatever you can find.”

“At least I don’t have to beat the crap out of her now,” Vinyl spat.

“Do you know how to cure her?” asked Whooves. “You are the one who made these things, right?”

“Yeah, but I never saw anypony take so much at once. The effects might wear off in a few days, or they could be irreversible, but maybe if you get her to take some herbs I know of, they could be slowed down.”

Rainbow Dash’s chest heaved as she waited, sweat rolling down her temple and her hooves on the lever. Her gaze was seelt fixed on the opening ahead, but it didn’t stop the pain in her wings from grabbing her attention now and again.

Whatever that thing is, its taloned claws, long beaked snout and, leathery, devilish wings, somehow it could see right through her disguises, her transformations. She didn’t even know what she did to draw its wrath, but it hounded her like a daemon of Tartarus nonetheless.

She was ready for it now. The lever was a component of a tremendous cannon beside her, perched in a tower overlooking the great walls of Mordheim. Its steel and woodwork frame supported a ribbed bore ending with a gaping bony maw, like the screaming skull of a bull. The weapon itself seemed to creak and moan of its own accord and Rainbow tried to ignore the dark red fluid dripping from its open mouth.

She saw it in the distance, the gargoyle, the fury, closing with the speed of a falcon and sounded a screech that sent chills up Rainbow’s spine. Her eyes met with the creature’s and she was frozen, unable to move, her muscles refusing to act out of fear. It was just before it got to the entrance that it howled again, so close and loud it snapped Rainbow back to reality and in shock, she threw the lever.

The cannon screamed and in a thundering hurricane of blasting flame and smoke, the monster was engulfed and disappeared. Rainbow watched the rippling fireball continue to travel over the wall like a comet, and down, down, until it detonated in a tremendous plume of white-hot energy.

She still spent a couple more moments registering what had happened before thrusting a hoof in the air and hooting at the top of her lungs.

“Mother bucker, YES! Oh my Celestia!” She leaned against a barrel as her legs felt weak, but she would have little time to rest as she heard footsteps from the door to the stairs.

“That’s the last time I let Yorgalek distract me!” The spike-clad dwarf shouted as he barged in. “You get out of here!”

Rainbow bolted for the opening in the tower as he pulled a blunderbuss from the sling on his back and fired prematurely. The shower of lead pellets merely struck the cannon, but Rainbow still felt a spike of pain get rammed into her flank.

Her fight or flight instinct compensated for the burning aching of her wings as she made a beeline for where the others were holed up. She landed on the 5th floor’s outcropping, seeing that Rarity and Applejack were also coming in from the ground floor, she opened the window and poked her head in on a very strange scene.

Pinkie Pie had her legs tied up tight, thrashing and squirming like a worm with a large cretaceous claw where a hoof used to be while Vinyl telekinetically held her mouth shut. The Doctor rummaged through a sack and held a red moss covered rock in Pinkie’s face, catching her attention.

"What the heck is going on here?"

“Rainbow, thank goodness you’re back” Said Whooves relievedly. “We could use another hoof here— Ah! She’s eating my leg!”

Indeed, Pinkie had made it to his shoulder before Vinyl pulled her head back and shut Pinkie’s mouth.

"Did you just feed her a rock?” Dash snickered.

“Yep! Looks like she’ll eat anything,” Vinyl laughed while Whooves shook the spit off his leg. “So we don’t even have to bother scraping the crap off the stuff it grows on.”

“But... Why?”

“Short and sweetly, she’s higher than Cloudsdale. That’s also where she got this little gift from.” Vinyl poked Pinkie’s claw which strained to open against the ropes binding it.

“Okay, Pinkie’, here’s a nice uh... peanut brittle bar.” Whooves held up a moldy slab of wood and she devoured it with the same gluttonous hunger.

Rainbow stepped in through the window. “So whatever’s on all those things is supposed to help her?”

“In one way or another.”

Just then, the door knob melted. “Consarnit, not again! RAAAGH!”

Applejack bucked the door open with rust flaking from her mouth, and the knob disintegrating as she walked in with Rarity. She cast a burning pink eyed gaze at Vinyl.

“Scratch!”

“Hey zedhead! Looks like you two had fun— Oh shit!”

Vinyl jumped as Applejack charged her, leaving a dent against the wall on impact. Unphased with her liquefied greymatter, Applejack quickly recovered and took after Vinyl until a shimmering purple wall shot up between them.

“Applejack, What’s gotten into you?” Twilight said in concern.

“She did sumthin’ ta me! I’ve been eatin’ meat non stop for hours evidently and I dun even know I’m doin’ it!”

“Because you’re a zom—”

“Shut up! Twilight, look at me!”

Applejack got to her hind hooves and showed her exploded underbelly. Twilight couldn’t help but turn away from the sight of her infested and sagging insides and inadvertently drop her shield.

“Applejack... you... It just might be getting worse. We might need you to stay in here if that’s what you’re going through.”

Vinyl took advantage of their distraction to sneak to Octavia as she felt sick and her glasses started to crack.

“That time at last?” said the weak mare.

Vinyl was doubled over and unable to speak, managed to climb up onto Octavia’s lap and position her mouth over hers.

“Do you see what I’m saying, Applejack?” said Twilight.

Her head sank low. “Yeah... Well... I still miss bein’ able to use these like arms though.”

Applejack packed her intestines back in and was distracted by the sound of Vinyl violently coughing over Octavia’s mouth. She actually appeared to be regurgitating something and sure enough, Octavia’s saliva coated soul came tumbling down into its owners gullet.

Even Applejack had to cringe in disgust. “It’s like a momma bird to a baby...”

“Sorry, Tavi,” Vinyl Sputtered as her maw shrank and glasses shattered, “Some of my lunch might be in there.”

Regaining color, Octavia pensively rolled her tongue around a couple times. “Peanut butter and... squig? Where did you find squig meat?”

Vinyl wiped her mouth and grinned snarkily. “Orks.”

Octavia gasped, “Orks!? You did not go messing with those brutes again!”

“But they’re so easy to fool! I literally just said, ‘Oy, look ovah dere! It’s da boss!’ And they dropped to their knees, pleading in that direction like a bunch of babies long enough for me to get away before they realized it was just a goblin.” Vinyl rocked around in laughter. “And all you guys should have seen what they did to that goblin. I never knew they had so much blood in them!”

“Write this one down for the history books, scribe... This is my greatest blunder.”

It was the first time he’d encountered an ork WAAAGH!!! and he was so sure, felt so ready, but it was not to be.

The putrid air stank of blood and smoke, and the dead. An endless roaring of this ubiquitous battlecry rattled the reiksmarshall’s suit. Further down the hill, he watched his men fight for their lives against the green menace, and some were in rout. The Orks stretched on like the green, foamy sea of Eternity’s Crossing.

“Reiksmarshall Shining Armor!” His attention went to the young messenger boy on horseback. “The right flank is collapsing!”

He could see it. The line was growing thin, but there was another anomaly, among the orks. It felt like the general direction of their horse was changing, going west instead of south. Shining spotted bats circling the moon and put on a half-smile.

“Looks like the Vampire Counts are drawing them away.”

He scanned the ridge of the hill. Here was the concentration of the artillery. Cannons, mortars, and helblasters, lined up in an impressive battery of firepower. He was also flanked by his bodyguard, the Reiksguard Knights, who were clad in gilded armor, once polished to a mirror finish but was now dulled by the dust of battle.

Shining himself wore similar attire, but was decorated in a way that made him stand out. Most pronounced was the peacock-styled array of red, white and blue feathers atop his helmet.

He turned to his gunnery sergeant. “Bombshell, how’s the artillery?”

“All loaded and ready to fire.” he responded quickly.

“High explosive shells?”

Bombshell smirked. “Giving the orks some fireworks.”

“Good. Give the order now.”

A vicious grin curled Bombshell’s face as he raised a small flag and bellowed, “Bring down Sigmar’s hammer from the heavens! FIRE!”

The world lit up like a sunless daytime for a micro instant at the simultaneous report of three dozen guns and the atmosphere was instantly choked in their smoky plumes. The artillery shot backward form their own recoil and some unprepared crewmen even stumbled from the concussive force of the blast. The helblaster volley guns continued their salvo of scything fire and after a couple of seconds, the orks lit up like New Years Day.

Craters were blasted out of the landscape, swaths of greenskins took thousands of shards of shrapnel and debris, dropping like flies among their brethren. Entire bodies were eviscerated, heads popped sky high like champagne corks where the barrage was most concentrated, and some of the orks finally knew fear.

Yet, for all that, the greenskins were unrelenting and it would still take time for the orks to be sufficiently distracted toward Sylvania.

“Order the retreat,” said Shining.

The bugleman raised his instrument and blared away a trill from the Lament of Morr.

“Tired of getting our flanks kicked I see,” Locked Stock muttered.

Shining said nothing as he aggressively pushed by him. The artillery were hooked up to their carriages and the blotched banners fluttered solemnly as the remaining forty percent of the army slowly trudged off the field from the rear.