Between Life and Death

Half an hour later when the others joined the two at the camp fire they started talking about what had happened and during that some of them started laughing.

“I’m serous, that sand storm really did take us to the top of the mountain-“Monochrome protested.

“Sure it did,” Arrowhead interrupted while laughing.

“I’m serous!” Monochrome replied while at the same time trying not to laugh. They were all having a good time despite the fact that they were being chased by zombies.

“How come you all got teleported to a mountain top and we didn’t?” Arrowhead asked before lifting a canteen to his mouth.

“Maybe the desert just likes us.”Clockwork replied.

“Clockwork, inanimate object or not, no one will like you.” Monochrome replied. Arrowhead spat the water out of his mouth and started laughing with the others. “Ok, ok, I think that’s it for tonight, we should get some sleep.” Monochrome interrupted everyone’s laughter. They all moaned but agreed with him. They took out their sleeping bags and unrolled them.

“Good night everyone.” Twilight said to the others, and at almost the exact same second they all said good night back to one another before falling asleep. A while later when all the others were asleep, Fluttershy got up and looked around her and noticed that the others were still asleep. She stood up and moved her sleeping bag over to Arrowhead and placed it right next to him. She lied down next to him and started snuggling with him. She placed her hand under the one he had on his stomach thinking he still had his shirt on, she noticed he didn’t and ended up felling his abs. She started blushing then went back to sleep. As they all slept, strange things started happening in the dark, white eyes started appearing I the shadows, there were high pitched laughs and giggles, and what sounded like screams, and all that stayed there until dawn, and as the sun rose all of it faded away with the darkness. Monochrome yawned loudly as he awoke.

“Good morning my surviving friends!” He yelled out causing the others to wake up. Seconds after the others were up Arrowhead slowly began to awaken.

“Key Scales if you wanted to snuggle last night I wouldn’t have mind if you-Whoa!” Arrowhead shouted and jumped up as he noticed it was Fluttershy. She heard him and jolted up. “Fluttershy I thought I told you that I have a girlfriend!” he told her as he slowly backed away.

“Look on the bright side Arrow, now you have someone that’ll actually want to score a home run with you.” Clockwork added, after that he and Monochrome started snickering immaturely.

“Someone remind me to kick their asses later.” Arrowhead growled as he picked his shirt up off the sandy ground. “As for you, what do you think you were doing?”

“Can’t you tell she has feelings for you?” Nyx interrupted as she rolled up her sleeping bag.

“That’s kind of repulsive considering its you.” Monochrome added, and he and Clockwork broke out in laughter. Arrowhead growled at them. He took something out of his pocket and threw it at them. It hit Monochrome then bounced off his head and on to Clockworks.

“I want to remind you two that I’m the guide, and if two keep acting like a couple of jackasses I’d be glad to leave you stranded here.” He scalded them.

“We don’t need a guide. I know the route to Blackwood like the back of my hand-“

“Yeah, well you don’t know it anymore. During all this it changed. Paths are blocked, trails and mountain paths were destroyed, and unless you want to be dive bombed by a Pegasus zombie you have to walk.” He continued. He put his shirt on and straitened it out. “So, are you going to keep complaining or are you going to follow me?”

“Might as well follow, if the paths are this messed up and flight isn’t an option, we really have no other choice.” Monochrome replied. He picked up his jacket and shook all the sand out of it. “But on one condition. No more sand storms. If we have to pass through another one I’m using you as a shield.” he put his jacket on and in an instant it disappeared, blending in with his skin. Arrowhead nodded as he put on his vest, when everyone was packed he started leading them through the rest of the desert. Hours later they made it to one of the many cliffs of Macintosh hills. They started climbing, they made it to the top of one of the mountains and looked over the ruined land that was once their home. “I can’t believe this…” Monochrome said to himself. “This was once the home to millions, now it’s just hell.” Half of all the forests were destroyed and had fire coming from them, cities and towns were in ruins, it even looks like Canterlot is starting to fall of the side of its mountain. “How is this possible-“

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled from behind him. “We should get going, if we stay up here any longer will eventually freeze.” Monochrome ignored her and continued looking into what once was his home. Twilight walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “Monochrome, I know your upset about all this, but standing here won’t help. We have to go, we need to find a new home-“

“I don’t want a new home.” Monochrome interrupted as he swatted her hand off of him. “I lived here me entire life, I can’t just turn my back on it like this. It isn’t right.”

“Monochrome, I know how you feel, this is my home to and I love it here as well, but we can’t stay. Please, we have to go.” Monochrome turned away from the world and started walking down the mountain, the other followed him cautiously attempting not to fall. When they made it to the bottom of the cliffs, the sight they saw there was even worse than it was on top of the mountain. A massive train wreck, dead bodies everywhere, a trail of blood leading from the engine to the top half of a corpse about quarter mile away.

“Yikes, the hell happened here?” Clockwork laughed. The others looked at him angrily, but he ignored them.

“Should we do something about all the bodies?” Twilight asked as she stepped over one.

“Should probably put them to rest properly. Gather them all together.” Red replied. After that they started gathering all the bodies together. After a while once all the corpses were together they gathered around them. Red took some of the coal from the train and placed a small pile in the middle of the circle the bodies made and a few pieces between each one. “Would anyone like to say a few words to the lost?”

“Why did we do this again?” Monochrome asked.

“It’s a proper burial for those who have been lost, did the same thing at Canterlot during the first infected attack, did it as a tribute to lost guards.”

“In that case, I’d like to say a few things.” Clockwork added.

“Of all people, I expected you to be the last person to care about anyone.” Monochrome interrupted.

“Yeah, well there is a lot of stuff you wouldn’t expect about me. For example I’m considered a priest in Manehatten and Vanhoover, anyway.” Clockwork cleared his throat. “To all the souls that have been lost, may thee find the path to the other world, and may thy souls rest in peace forevermore-“ and right as Clockwork was about to finish talking, their was a burping noise.

“Oh real mature jackass, you have no respect for the dead so you just try to make a joke at a funeral-“

“That wasn’t me dumbass-!”

“Both of you stop!” Twilight interrupted the both of them. “That noise was too far away to be any of us.” They started looking around.

“I don’t see anything-“ Red started but was interrupted by another burping noise. “I can smell it but still can’t see it.”

“Hey, I think I found something!” Nyx yelled out. They all rushed over to her and saw she was in one of the cars looking towards the back of it. The light in the back of it faded into darkness. “It’s a bit hard to tell what it is, but I know it’s alive, I saw it move out of the light.” Monochrome moved her out of the way and took a few steps closer towards the end of the car.

“Hello?” Monochrome whispered. He reached out his hand and offered to help whoever it was that was hiding, and when he got close enough the person jumped out of the shadows and started screeching at him and bit him on his forearm.

“Monochrome!” The other yelled out and attempted to help him but he lifted his hand and made sure they kept their distance.

“No need to panic, immune to all magic based diseases you know.” Monochrome chuckled. He looked at the person biting him, she was missing an eye and the other was glowing green, orange blood stained shirt, blue shorts, missing a chunk of flesh in her side, orange hair, she was missing her left arm, and she had a black colored slime oozing from her mouth as she bit down on Monochrome’s arm.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Twilight asked as she took a step closer.

“Like holly hell actually.” Monochrome chuckled. He placed his hand on the beasts forehead and started pushing back on it and managed to open her mouth enough for him to free himself. When he removed his arm he noticed he had several holes in his arm due to her few but jaggedly sharp teeth. He grabbed her jaw, ripped it right off of her, and then handed the severed piece to Twilight. He then grabbed both sides of her head and tor it off of her shoulders. “Don’t you look pretty.” Monochrome said aloud as he examined the woman’s head. He then tossed it to the back of the car. “Let’s go.” He continued as he walked past the others and out of the train car. A few minutes later they continued the burial.

“-And finally, may the light shine upon you, brave souls of the lost.” Clockwork ended half an hour later.

“Thank you, father ass man.” Monochrome groaned with annoyance as Clockwork finished his speech.

“To the one who watches above, please, guide these souls to the gates of the heavens, and please, watch over them as if they were ones you loved.” Red added. He reached his arms out and took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, a burst of fire came out of his mouth and lit the piles of coal, which then lit all the bodies on fire. As the bodies burnt, they all stood around it watching the fire spark and flicker.

“Hey listen, if all of you are done playing with the dead, I’d like to get to Blackwood before I join them.” Arrowhead complained. The others looked towards him then started following him up the other mountain, except for Red, he remained at the fire. He stood there watching the flames. He stood there until Fluttershy went over to him. It took her a few minutes but she managed to get his focus back and led him to the others. Once they caught up with them, they started moving up the other mountain. They started walking along the path spiraling up to the top of the mountain.

“Are you one hundred percent sure this is the only way to get to the top of the mountain?” Fluttershy wined.

“If it wasn’t do you think we’d be going this way?” Arrowhead replied, and after he yelled there was a sudden tremor which shook the entire cliff face. The path beneath them started breaking and falling apart. “Run!” Arrowhead yelled, he and the others started running up the path as it fell apart behind them. As they ran the path started falling apart in front of them, Arrowhead stopped the others as a large slab of the path broke off and fell down the cliff. “Bitch!” Arrowhead yelled. They all stopped, and so did the tremor.

“What was that?” Twilight asked.

“No idea.” Arrowhead replied. He walked over to the edge of the path and looked over it. “Was anyone expecting any gests during the trip?” the others looked over the edge and saw a massive group of infected.

“Any one ells thinking the earthquake was caused by them?” Monochrome asked as h backed away for the ledge, the others did the same.

“What do we do?” Twilight started panicking, and right as she was about to say something, a pegasi infected flew up past the ledge then crashed back down on what was left of the path causing it to collapse. “Shut, start climbing.” Arrowhead started climbing up the side of the mountain along with the others, and as they climbed, pegasi crashed into the side of the cliff and bombed them with the unicorns. When they got high enugh, the pegasi stopped attacking them.

“They, stopped?” Twilight said with confusion as she looked down.

“They must not be able to stand the cold very well.” Monochrome added. When they got to the top of the mountain the sun started setting.

“That was awful.” Twilight groaned.

“Yeah, but this is the easy part, all we have to do is glide right over the valley and we’ll be at the forest-“

“How are we supposed to “glide” over the valley? Some of us aint got wings.” Applejack complained.

“No, but I know that two of you are strong enough to carry others. Everyone rest up for now, we leave at dawn.”