Between Life and Death

After a few hours they made it to a cliff leading upwards to the swamps. Once they arrived they stopped the trucks and got out.

“This the place?” Monochrome asked.

“Yup, this is it.” Arrowhead replied as he jumped out of the driver’s seat.

“So how do we get to the top?” Twilight asked.

“Easy, we climb.”

“You can’t be serious.” Monochrome groaned. Arrowhead chuckled at him.

“Of course not, we just fly up there, seeing how most of us can fly.” Arrowhead expanded his wings.

“Well, I’d do that, but my wings got shot a while ago so I’m stuck on the ground for now.” Red sighed sadly. Monochrome grabbed him and Applejack by their arms and started flying upwards along with the others. When they got to the top Monochrome placed the two of them a few inches away from the edge then flew over them and landed on a tree branch. Red turned around and looked over the side of the cliff. When he looked up, fear started racing through him. “Guys, they followed us.” He said to all of them. The raced over and saw the red cloud in the distance.

“Well, aint that just a pain in the ass.” Monochrome complained. He turned around and walked into the thick brush of the swamps. The others continued staring out into the distance for a few seconds then followed him. Once they caught up to him they stopped, Monochrome pulled a map out of the bag he was carrying and placed it and a tree stump.

“Ok, we’re here at the moment,” Arrowhead told them as he point right next to the cliff. “So, we need to get over here, but to do that, we need to make a detour through Dragonclaw-“

“And while we’re at it why don’t we start sighing our wills,” Monochrome interrupted angrily. “No one has ever made it through Dragonclaw alive, nor will they ever.”

“Trust me alright, I know what I’m doing-“

“You clearly don’t, but if you can get s through unharmed then so be it. Let’s get moving.” Monochrome packed the map up and started leading the others to the abandoned town of Dragonclaw Forest. As they walked the trees started shifting in appearance, they went from life filled, to dead and leafless.

“This is getting scary.” Fluttershy whispered to herself. There was a sudden noise and she stopped and fell to the ground covering her eyes.

“Flutter?” Monochrome turned around forcing the others to stop as well. “Fluttershy come on, the longer we stay here the worse everything is going to get.” She didn’t say anything. Monochrome groaned with irritation, he walked over to her and picked her up then started carrying her across the forest path.

“Shh! Everyone get down.” Nyx told the others. They all quickly his up in the tress that were not yet possessed. They hid their for several minutes as a group of infected walked by them, since the infected didn’t feel the need to, they didn’t look up. Once they were out of sight they jumped down from the trees and continued walking. “I’m amazed those things will actually wonder through here.”

“Well you have to remember, undead, are brainless.” Monochrome laughed loudly, but t was  interrupted by sounds of groaning and screaming. “Crap.”

“Should we hide again?” Twilight asked.

“Can’t, these trees are alive, we touch them they start to kill us.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Well duh, we fight.” Monochrome paused as he pulled out his scythe. “If we split  up they won’t be able to get us all.” Monochrome paused again as he handed Fluttershy to clockwork. “Clockwork you take her and Applejack and go that way. Red you’ve known Twilight the longest so you go with her. Agony your with me, and Nyx, you go with Arrowhead. Have your weapons ready at all times and do not get sidetracked. We split up and regroup and the town, see you all there.” After that they all ran into separate directions leaving Nyx and Arrowhead on the trail. Arrowhead twisted his arm and his bow unfolded, Nyx turned her hand into a fist and her sword appeared magically, once they were ready, they continued walking.

“So…Nyx huh? I feel like I’ve heard that name before.”

“It was actually from a story, my mom didn’t know what to call me so she pretty much called me the first thing she could think of.”

“Ahh, interesting. You know, funny story, my mom was originally going to name Hunter, but she decided on Arrowhead instead.”

“How is that a funny story?”

“Because, she thought of Tiffany at first.” Nyx giggled a bit.

“So, what was it like working with Ankh?”

“fur words. Pain. In. The. Ass. I couldn’t stand that guy, every second he gave me some new stupid task  to work on whether it would be helping the recruits or going shopping for him.”

“And you really put up with that?”

“Had to, it was either work for a dumb ass or go hungry. So, what it’s like living with Twilight?”

“It’s ok, it nice actually. We spend a lot of time with each other so we never really feel separated. She’s caring, smart, and generous, the list goes on but I don’t want to bore you.”

“I bet. You know, Ankh loved her.”

“No way.”

“I’m serious, the guy keeps a geranial filled with his dreams and about half of the entries are about him and Twilight.”

“Huh, if only he didn’t die, I would have liked having a father-in-law, more importantly one who’s famous.”

“Bet it would be nice, my parents died in a fire.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s ok, I’m getting used to being an orphan now-“

“Shush!” Nyx interrupted. She pointed her sword at an infected running down the path towards them. Arrowhead readied his bow. Nyx continued standing there, then without warning she turned to her right and raised her sword. Another infected jumped out of the tree line right at her. She swung her sword and slashed right at it waist and neck, she kicked it’s chest knocking it out from between its two new severed body parts. After that she turned to Arrowhead and smiled at him.

“…Marry me?”

“What?” Arrowhead let go of the string sending the arrow flying towards the infected, when it got hit, the two could hear it’s scream for where they were.

“Awesome, right between the eyes. Nice shot huh?”

“…Y-yeah, it was pretty good.” She replied with what sounded like nervousness. She started walking forward with him but she tripped and fell, and right before she hit the ground Arrowhead grabbed her, but unfortunately her glasses fell off and broke when they hit the ground.

“Uh-oh.”

“What’s wrong-?” Arrowhead stopped when he saw her eyes.

“…Are you alright?”

“…Huh? Oh yeah no I’m fine it’s just uh…I’ve never actually seen someone with eyes like yours, they seem…familiar…”

“Long story short, I’m the reincarnation of Nightmare Moon, so, yeah, that’s kind of why I look like this.”

“…Oh..OOOohhhh, wow, and here I am thing it was coincidence that you looked like her. Anyway, we should keep moving, I’ll guide.”

‘Why do you get to guide?”

“Well considering you broke your glasses I’m thinking it must be harder for you to see-‘

“Actually they were enchanted and had no affect on my eye sight at all.”

“…”

“Fine you lead.”

“Yes ma’am your majesty.” Arrowhead replied as he continued walking. Once they got the town they started a camp fire to keep them warm and waited for the others, it took the others hours to arrive but they made it at moon rise. “Bout time you all got here, honestly, your all like a bunch of slugs.”

“Piss off damn it we had a hard time.” Monochrome interrupted. He sat down in front of the camp fire along with the others. “It was hard enough dealing with all the undead, I don’t need you criticizing me.” Monochrome took off his jacket and put it over him as a blanket as he slept. The others didn’t say much, they sat around the fire for a bit before falling asleep. Clockwork was the last one awake, while all the others were sound asleep his was wide awake, staring at the fire. He stared into the fire as if there was something hiding in the flames. After a while he extinguished the flames and went to sleep. The next way he woke up to the sound of gunfire and bright lights.

“Fat ass, it’s about time you woke up!” Monochrome yelled angrily at him as he yanked him up by his arm. “Now that your awake, would you kindly help us kill these rotten skin bastards?!” Clockwork looked over Monochrome’s shoulder and saw and army of zombies. He pushed him out of the way pulled out his gun and hit 10 infected with a single bullet.

“Move now!” Arrowhead yelled as he ran deeper into the town. The other followed him.

“Wait, we can’t just leave. If we lead these things into Blackwood the residence there will kill us if they survive.” Red told them. When they all stopped Arrowhead pushed everyone into the alleyways then kept running.

“Arrow, what the hell are you doing!?” Monochrome yelled at him.

“I’ll lead them away, all of you get to Blackwood!” he yelled back at them while he ran. The zombies kept chasing him instead of the others. Arrowhead didn’t look where he was going and ran right up to the front door of the mansion while the zombies were still following him. He flew up to the roof to get away from them and every time one of the pegusi tried flying up there he shot them down.

“Arrow!” Monochrome yelled up to him.

“I thought I told all of you to get to Blackwood!”

“You did, but-“

“But what!?”

“Arrowhead you ran right up to the mansion, you basically just killed yourself!”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Arrow, anything that draws close to the mansion is forever trapped until death!”

“What!?” Monochrome tried throwing a punch but it hit a force field covering the entire building. “So…I’m trapped here?”

“I’m sorry…” Arrowhead started losing all the hope he had, he began his journey believing he’d make it alive, but it turns out, he doomed himself. “Arrow-?”

“IF you ever see my girlfriend, do me a favor and tell her I love her, ok?” Monochrome was shocked, he was going to kill himself. “Choke on it you bastards!” those were the last things he ever said. He jumped right into the horde and they tore him apart limb by limb.

“Arrowhead!” Nyx and Fluttershy yelled. They attempted to run through the shield but all the others held them back and forced them to move further away from it.

“Monochrome, can’t you do something!?” Nyx yelled.

“I wish i could.” Monochrome punched the force field again with all his strength, nothing. He took his arm and turned it into a sword, he slashed the air and sent a wave of magic at the horde, killing all of them. Monochrome walked over to one of the buildings and tore some of the boards off the window, he took them over to where he was standing. He placed on of them in the ground and put the other one by the top facing sideways. He took a few strands of his hair and made them stiff enough to pierce and object. He put it through the two planks of wood. He left it there and left it as a tribute to Arrowhead, a tombstone for him. He touched his head to his chest and his shoulders to each other, then lead the others out of the town.