Author's Note

From this chapter on, I'll let the readers govern what happens next. This story is, after all, centered around YOU finding out bits and pieces about the Dead Brigade, the army that took over and basically turned Equestria into one big hellhole.

I'll leave an obvious hint regarding possible choices (which will be typed in blue) at the end of the current chapter, as well as the subsequent chapters.

Chapter Three: Trek through Ponyville

It's been a couple of hours since you woke up from a pitiful night's sleep and had a meager breakfast that nearly made you gag due to it being partially stale and saturated with sugar. Your back is stiff, intolerably so, but no matter which way you twist or bend, that satisfying popping sensation won't come to provide relief and ease of motion. You decide to ignore the discomfort and set out to find your way to Canterlot through the rubble of a once-bustling town.

As you trot along the newly formed paths bordered by various debris, you notice a tattered banner sticking out above some ruined masonry. The fabric was blood red, held aloft by a decorative dull brass winged ball on the end of an obsidian black pole. A white skull occupied the center of the fabric banner, and its forehead bore the letters D and B. You can hear somepony grunting, most likely because they're stuck. Curiosity gets the best of you, and you move towards the banner.

After you step over the rubble, you're greeted with several bullet-riddled corpses and a grey pony (who's still squirming about) impaled with the lower end of the banner's pole. The pony's eyes were just like those of the one that shot at you not too long before. Evidently there was a skirmish involving this one pony against several others, and, for the most part, the pony squirming at the end of the pole won. The impaled pony notices you and points a silvery object at you. You notice the hole on the end, and you brace for the shot...

-Click-

"....I didn't hear a 'bang' like the last time..." you say, surprised. You look at the pony with the firearm with a confused look on your face, then look at all the bodies strewn about it. Of course, they all still had the same holes from before. Nothing changed. You cautiously approach the pony as it continues to squirm and snarl as it makes several futile attempts to remove the pole from its body. Upon closer inspection, you notice the pony's bright yellow mane and its crossed eyes. This was Derpy Hooves, the klutzy mailpony that used to mix up your letters with someone else's whenever she was on the mail route that circled around to your home.

She seems awful eager to get that pole out of her gut, but then again, she also seems pretty intent on shooting you as well, regardless of whether her gun is empty or not. You could probably take the gun with you to protect yourself, but the likelihood of getting extra rounds for it are pretty much at rock bottom. On the other hand, maybe if you help the recently-converted mailpony, she might end up helping you in return. That is, if she still has any humanity left...