Between Life and Death

“I can’t believe it, he’s dead, we couldn’t even do anything to help him.” Nyx said to herself, Monochrome groaned loudly.

“Would you stop already!? He’s dead, so what? Complaining about it isn’t going to bring him back. So for right now, the best thing to do is to get over it-“

“Monochrome, someone just died, don’t you feel anything?”

“I feel annoyed, we lost our only guide to Blackwood-“

“we didn’t lose you and I honestly think we should have, at least Arrowhead knew how to shut-up-“ Clockwork snapped at him. Monochrome turned around and punched him right in his jaw. The others held him back but as they did he started yelling at him.

“Don’t you ever bucking say that to me again you son of a bitch!”

“Monochrome calm down-“

“I already knew it should have been me!” everyone went quite, shocked at what he said. “I know it should have been me. I should have been the one to die, not him. I was about to tell you all to hide while I got rid of all those things, but before I could he shoved me aside and became the bait. I wanted to help him, but he ran straight to the manner, and when he came in contact with it, everything would be forbidden to leave the shield. I would have helped, but Alicorn blood is recognized by it, it kept me out. So you know what, your right, it should have been me.” He freed himself from the others and kept walking. Twilight ran after him while the others helped Clockwork.

“Monochrome, wait up.” She called out to him. She caught up with him and saw his outfit turned blue along with his hair and skin. “Monochrome, are you ok?”

“…It should have been me…” Monochrome kept whispering to himself.

“Monochrome, it’s alright, it isn’t your fault.”

“…’it should have been me…”

“Monochrome?”

“…I don’t like it when I lose a friend…”

“You barley knew him.”

“No…but he helped us, and if someone helps us i consider them a friend.”

“Guess we can all consider him a friend then, he basically saved all of us multiple times.”

“…Yeah…”

“Just cheer up ok? Come on, let’s go get the others and keep moving.”

“…ok…” They turned around and met back up with the others. Monochrome made amends with Clockwork and they all continued to Blackwood.

At noon they arrived at Blackwood during a single battle between the infected and the trained residence of Blackwood. There were clouds of colored smoke everywhere and new ones appeared as the trained vanished and reappeared behind their targets.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked as she walked into the town.

“Looks like the Middonaito Clan has started their war against the undead.”

“The what clan?” Agony asked with confusion.

“Middonaito Clan. A ninja clan made up of the residence here, they defend the town with their lives, making sure nothing evil enters this town. Impressive actually. Each fighter wears something completely different, their design. Take that girl over there for example.” Monochrome paused and pointed to a woman standing on top of a roof. “Her clothes are completely white with a purple headband and ribbon around her waist, pant legs are more open at the bottom, and sleeves are more open, scarf covering her mouth and a hood covering her eyes. See anyone ells here with that outfit?” they all said no in some way. The mare on the roof top jumped down as two infected were about to tackled her. She landed in front of them and through several shurikens at them, they hit them in their heads and they went tumbling down the roof of the building. She then stood straight, placed her hands together and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Monochrome flapped his wings clearing the smoke away, once their sight was clear, the strangest thing happened. The fighting stopped, the clan had won.

“…That was…fast-“

“Yes, they tend to do that.” Monochrome interrupted. He walked forward and examined some of the buildings.

“They all look so…damaged, most have been one heck of a battle.” Nyx said aloud.

“Hmm? Oh, no not really. The buildings were always like this. This town has been here for hundreds of years.” Monochrome continued walking and the others followed him. They wondered around the old village, every time they saw someone they were either tending to their every day chores, sharpening their weaponry, or just leaning against a wall playing with a shuriken, and every time they tried talking to someone, they just walked away and ignored them. “What’s with all the bastards in this town?”

“What are you even trying to do?” Twilight asked him.

“Trying to figure out where Red Tear is, I need to talk to him-“

“Why don’t you ask her?” Twilight pointed to a woman who was sitting with someone ells sitting on the front step of a house reading. She had sky blue colored skin, her mane was a slightly darker blue with silver in it and was gently placed over her shoulder, and her gold eyes. Monochrome didn’t really have a choice. He lead the others and they walked up to her.

“Excuse me?” she turned and faced them. “Uh, do you know where we can find Red tear?”

“Oh, yeah he’s in his castle at the moment. You’re going to need to talk to the guards at the entrance to enter though.”

“Trust me, I probably won’t need to. Thanks for telling us.” Monochrome waved and started walking towards the castle. Once they arrived they met up with the guards, two men wearing different colored samurai armor, one is holding a Guandao, and the other holding a Naginata, two different types of pole-arm based weaponry. “I’ll handle this.”

“Going to try sweet talking them?” Twilight giggled.

“Maybe. Wait here.” Monochrome walked up to the front gate and as he got close enough, the guards lowered their weapon and yelled at him.

“Easy, easy, I’m just here to see Red Tear, I’m his cousin.”

“Izure mo, kono kikan-chū no shiro ni hairu koto ga kyoka sa rete imasen!’ one of them shouted.

“…What?”

“Watashi wa, dare mo, genjitende wa shiro o nyūryoku suru koto wa nai to nobeta.”

“…I’m sorry?”

“Kare wa bugai-shadearu hitsuyō ga arimasu.” One of the guards said as he faced the other.

“Sore wa kare no hidoi nioi o setsumei surudearou.” The other one replied, after that the two started laughing.

“No idea what you said but I’m going to pretend it wasn’t an insult.”

“We apologize sir, we usually only peak our tongue here.” The one with the red armor told him finally speaking English.”What I was saying was, no one is permitted to enter the castle at this time, after the attack we must wait to make sure that the enemies are either contained or dead.”

“Make sure? You’re kidding right? This clan has been known to kill everyone, no surviving enemies, trust me, their dead…these ones at least.” The two guards looked at each other. They turned around and opened the gates allowing them to enter. Monochrome thanked them then continued walking, the guards followed them in. They shut the front get behind them and continued following the others. Once they entered the center chamber they were immediately greeted by several people wearing orange robes. Unfortunately they weren’t greeted in the good way. All the people that were in the room are no blocking their path. They all had some sort of weapon against them, whether it’d be a dagger or a ball made of some sort of element of nature.

“Īe, teishi! Yamete!” the guards shouted as the ran into the room. “Kare wa shōgun e no chi ni kanren shite imasu.” The people looked confused, but what they said stopped them from attacking since they lowered their weapons. “We apologize; the monks are here to protect the castle.”

“Some security-“

“Monochrome!” a voice shouted from the upper level. Everyone looked up and saw a figure leaning over the railing of the second floor, a figure that looked like Monochrome when he was upset. He jumped over the rails and floated to the lower floor.

“Red Tear, what’s up?”

“Monochrome, what are you doing here?”

“Oh you know, just needed a place to stay.’

“No.”

“…Excuse me?”

“You can’t stay here, it’s too dangerous I can’t risk anyone getting hurt.”

“We can take care of ourselves-“

“That isn’t important; I’m not going to risk having my friends or my girl friend’s lives.” Monochrome expression started changing after he mentioned his girlfriend. “…What?”

“Funny thing tear…we have no idea where Rainbow Dash is at-“

“Don’t tell me-“

“she might be dead-“

‘Noo!” Red Tear shouted to interrupt Monochrome. They started arguing about something. While they were the others started looking around the castle guided by the monks. Agony walked back over to the entrance along with Nyx and the two examined the gate aboe the entrance.

“Agony, come see this.” Agony went over to Nyx and she was examining strange writing one ne of the beams.

“What is it?”

“look at this.”

“Oh hey, I know this, it’s Japanese writing.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve been studying different languages in the castle.”

“Are you able to translate it?”

“Yeah I think. 真夜中夕暮れ…huh…ok let’s see, that first letter means True, the second one means night, third means Medium…I think? Forth is Evening, fifth Late, sixth is Re…”

“What does that mean exactly?”

“I…Don’t know, I was only taught to read the characters not the actual words…only made it so far in my lessons.”

“Trying to read the names of honor?” The monk asked as he approached them. “That is a name, Mayonaka yūgure. Or in your language, Midnight Dusk, the one who built this town and this castle.”

“Was he a warrior like the rest of you?” Nyx asked.

“Why, yes, he was, the greatest of warriors. He took down and entire army on his own using nothing more than his katana.”

“Wow, that’s impressive.’

“Yes, very impressive-“

“Yeah well kiss my ass you worthless blue bastard!”

“looks like your friend is done arguing.” The monk laughed as they passed him. Monochrome stood there ignoring everything Red Tear said to him until all the others made it back to the entrance.

“Monochrome just listen to me-“

“I don’t wanna!”

“Fine, I won’t tell you how to get out of Equestria-“

“I’m sorry do what now?” Monochrome took his hands off his ears and looked at him as if he had offer something of great importance.

“I have one of my warships docked in Vanhoover, if you can get there, my crew will guide you out of here and to Eagleland.”

“…Your not just trying to get rid of me are you?”

“You have my word.’

“In that case, come on every one, time to go!” Monochrome shouted triumphantly as he walked out of the castle with his head up high. The others sighed with annoyance as they followed him. Once they were back in the town the others started complaining about not wanting to walk any farther. Monochrome was telling them it was either leave this place or die, most of them argued, Clockwork though, he didn't care.

“All of you just shut up, listen to me, I promise you that this will be the last time we have to go anywhere-“

“Monochrome, we are not walking all the way to Vanhoover just to wind up not being able to leave.”

“Excuse me, did you say Vanhoover?” some lady asked. They turned around and saw that it was the same lady who told them where Red Tear was at. They noticed details about her that they didn’t notice last time, she was wearing a green T-shirt with a book that has a gold lightning bolt on it, deep blue jeans with silver trim even has her cutie mark on it, and a necklace and bracelet made out of some sort of green metal and each one had a gold lightning bolt on it.

“Yes, why do you care exactly?” Monochrome grew suspicious.

“I can take you there.”

“…Right, a single woman is going to guide us from here, all the way to there, funny.”

“Trust me pal, I’m a lot stronger then I look.”

“…Who are you anyway?” the woman opened up her wings and started addressing herself.

“My name is Jetstream Shimmersky, princess of lightning.” Red quickly bowed as the others remained silent. No matter how much they wanted to say something, they couldn’t, they were to shocked about it. “You know, none of you have to act so shocked about it.”

“Well, how ells are we supposed to react? We never met am alicorn unassociated with my family in any way. Ankh’s a friend, Nyx is the alter ego of another, hell even Agony is Celestia’s student!”

“Yet you’re acting as if it was a bad thing, and I was associated with them, Luna used to be  close friend of mine. Anyway, I can lead you to Vanhoover, no problem.” Monochrome hesitated on his answer he looked behind her and saw a girl, purple and white hair, pinkish skin, light purple shirt with a picture of a baseball and a screw on it, and purple jeans, and some weird hat with a propeller on it.

“Who the hell is she?” Jetstream turned around and saw the girl.

“Oh, that’s my daughter Screwball. Say hi Screwball.”

“Hi.” The girl said quietly as she waved her hand.

“And why is she here exactly?”

“She’s with me, ever since the attack on my home she always has been. We used to live in a underground place known as Altur'Rang, but when the out brake began, we had to flee,”

“Why?”

“Screwball wasn’t immune to the virus, so we had to get out of there as fast as possible before she became infected.”

“I see…so you expect us to put up with her during the guide to Vanhoover?”

“Yes, and to make sure you do so; in exchange for me guiding you to Vanhoover, you have to help me protect my daughter. Sound fare?”

“Psst Monochrome?” Clockwork leaned over and whispered. “Would it be cool if I just kicked both their asses’ now-?” Jetstream turned to Clockwork.

“Try me, I dare you. I know magic that could tear you to shreds before you could so much as blink. And if you touch a single hair on my daughter, you will see the powers Mother Faust used to create everything do the exact opposite to you." She yelled at him. Her wings expanded, her horn started glowing silver and she had a gold aura shining around her. They all stood there in shock.

“We’ll, let’s start moving-“

“Monochrome is it really a good idea to travel with someone like…her?” Twilight said nervously.

“Of course it is, if we travel with her, Clockwork will finally behave.” Monochrome chuckled, he walked over to Jetstream and lifted his arm. “You have a deal, we promise the protection of our daughter.” She smiled and shook hands with him.

“Follow me,” she told them, she turned around and took Screwball’s hand then started walking off into the forest with the others following her.