Between Life and Death

Later that day they made it out of the Hayseed swamps and onto a trail leading to Vanhoover. Clockwork was back to walking on his own, but only because Jetstream couldn’t stand him, he kept falling asleep while she carried him.

“Ok, we should stop for the night-“ Jetstream announced

“What’s the point? It’s not even that dark yet-“ Clockwork complained.

“No, but if we stop now I can tell you all the route we’re going to have to take.” Clockwork pouted then sat down. Jetstream pulled out a map and placed it on the ground and told the others to join her, including Clockwork. Once they were together she started explaining what they’d have to go through. No one argued about the route until they heard a single detail about it. Once Jetstream told them they’d have to go through Ponyville there was a massive uproar. None of them wanted to go back there under any circumstances. Red even said he’d “rather die than go through hell again.”

“Listen, if we go through Ponyville we’ll make it to Vanhoover in less time-“ Jetstream attempted to negotiate.

“We’re not going through Ponyvill again. I was there when the infection started.” Twilight argued.

“The town is pure hell, blood stained buildings and streets, corpses everywhere.” Red added. Jetstream sighed with irritation.

“Listen, it’s through that town, or we waist an entire day and risk missing the ship-“

“Would all of you shut-the-hell-up!?” Clockwork yelled. He managed to get their attention, they turned towards him. He was just sitting there with his back towards them. “I would appreciate it if you’d all shut-up for a minute so I can concentrate-.”

“Concentrate on what-?” Jetstream asked.

“Concentrate on whoopen your ass, now shut the hell up!” Clockwork turned his back again and continued doing whatever it was I need to do. The others went back to disgusing the route they were going to take, but since no one could think of anything, they decided to go through Ponyvile. Jetstream packed the map back up and started leading the others. A week later they made it. The town was worse than when all this started, buildings were completely collapsed, zombies were everywhere, but on the brighter side, there were a few other people who stayed in the town, they were perched on top of buildings with guns shooting down everything that got too close to the building.

“Well, this is a lot worse than I thought-“ Jeststream started.

“Done, finished, all better.” Clockwork interrupted. Everyone turned around and saw him twirling his gun around on his finger.

“Didn’t Monochrome brake that?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, yes he did. But I fixed it. Know how?”

“How-“

“Because I’m a master when it comes to building, rebuilding, and forging weaponry, that’s how.” Clockwork announced and interrupted triumphantly. He spun the gun around one more time and placed it back in his holster.

“Ok, you’re good at building stuff, big whoop.” Jetstream replied with annoyance. “Ok, we need to get through this town and we’ll be good, only problem, those guys on the roof tops, will hoot anything that get’s to close.”

“Anything?” Fluttershy asked.

“Anything. Birds, bugs, zombies, and more importantly, survivors.”

“Why would they shoot us?”

“Lack of supplies, and ammunition, no room for anyone else, for the heck of it.” Clockwork answered.

“Basically, so, we need to get through here undetected by both them and the infected.” Jetstream added. “So, let’s go.” She continued. She then started guiding them into the town. Once they were in, they immediately were overran and surrounded.

“So, what now princess lady?” Clockwork asked

“Duh, we kill them.” Clockwork smiled, and before Jetstream could pullout her knife Clockwork had already drawn his pistol and killed them all. “And believe it or not that was with one bullet.” Clockwork chuckled. The others were impressed seeing as he saved them all. He put his gun back into his holster and led them all through the town. They went down all the alley ways to prevent being caught from the snipers perched on top of the town hall. “Few more turns and we should be safe-“

“Shush, do you hear that?” Jetstream interrupted. She held her hand to her ear and listened carefully. “This way.” She ran to the corner ahead of them and turned left, the others were confused but followed her anyway, Clockwork sighed with annoyance but followed them. They went around a few of the turns until the made it to a alley with no other exit, and sitting at the back of it was a little girl. “Hello?” the girl looked up and revealed her large purple eyes that had a cut across one of them.

“Scootaloo?”

“…Applejack!?” she got up and ran over to her and hugged her tightly. “I was so worried, I thought I’d never see any of you again.” It was hard for her to talk since she was crying heavily. Applejack felt bad so she hugged her back. She looked behind her and saw another girl at the back of the alley, but she looked familiar.

“Hold on, is that-“

“I’m sorry, they made me kill her, I didn’t want to but they made me-“Applejack threw Scootaloo off of her and rushed over to the corpse. She lifted its head, and she started crying.

“…Applebloom…Why did you kill her!?” Applejack yelled as she cried.

“They made me! I wanted to keep her alive, but they made me kill her. She got bit a few days ago, I tried to help her hide it but, she changed. I chained her up so she wouldn’t get hurt, but they found her…and since I was taking care of her they made me kill her.” Scootaloo fell to her knees and cover her eyes as she started crying more. “I didn’t want to, but they made me, I even begged them but they didn’t listen.” Applejack looked back towards her little sister, she didn’t want to leave her so she picked up her body and carried her out of the alley. When she got to Scootaloo she stopped.

“Thanks for keeping her safe for as long as you could.” Applejack smiled as Scootaloo looked up at her. She held out her hand and helped her back up. Clockwork stopped Applejack before she could get back out onto the street; he placed his hand on her shoulder.

“I’m spry for your loss.” Applejack nodded and kept walking. When they were back out in the open Clockwork looked up and saw someone on top of a roof a few blocks away. “Get down!” Clockwork yelled as he tackled Applejack to the ground causing a bullet to just barley miss her and hit the ground behind them. “Get up and run!” clockwork yelled as he helped her back up. Once they started running Jetstream stopped and looked over at the man on the roof top, he was pulling the bolt back on is rifle. She snapped her fingers and a second later there was a small explosion sending the man to fly to the edge of the building, and before he fell he grabbed onto the ledge and held on with all his might. Jetstream smiled and followed the others. She caught up with the others and they were stopped in the middle of the market district.

“Why did you all stop-?”

“Shut up and drop your weapon.” Clockwork interrupted. Jetstream looked down and saw they all dropped their weaponry. She didn’t want to know, instead she pulled out her combat dagger and dropped it on the ground.

“Now what?” she asked.

“Now, we treat you as friends and not foes.” Some man replied form nowhere. He approached them from behind and picked up all their weapons. He was a tall man, dark brown hair, light brown skin, and cargo shorts. “This is some high quality stuff.” He spoke with a Jamaican accent. “But what should I expect from the master of weapons himself.” He ended as he looked up at Clockwork.

“Nice to see you to Ebony.” Clockwork replied as he raised his hand and shook his. Ebony whistled then started waving his hands signaling everyone around them to lower their rifles and show themselves.

“You remember the gang, don’t you?” Ebony asked as he handed him his gun.

“How could I not, greatest shooters in the world. Ever meet my crew? These are my friends, and…two others.” Clockwork stepped to the side.

“It’s nice to meet you all.” He announced. He went up to them one by one giving each of them their weapons back.

“So, Ebony, legendary marksman, famed mercenary and assassin, wanted everywhere but here.” Red said as he was approached by him.

“That’s right man, and how do you know all that?” Ebony replied, he held his swords out and flipped them over catching them by the blades. Red snapped his fingers and they vanished into black smoke.

“I have to know this kind of stuff just in case someone ever does something stupid.”

“You don’t say, and who is this lovely lady?” Ebony called out as he walked over to Jetstream. He held out her combat dagger and she quickly took it from him.

“I don’t think my name is any of your concern-“she snarled at him.

“Perhaps not my pretty friend, but to me, a name is worth more than any amount of money, or more than any gem.” He smiled while Jetstream rolled her eyes. “And who is this sweet young child?” he asked as he kneeled down.

“My name’s Screwball.” She smiled.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you.” He held out his hand and she shook it.

“You better not try anything with my daughter-“

“I would never-“

“Then why do you care about her?” Ebony chuckled.

“The best way to the mother’s heart is through their child.” He winked at her and she shivered.

“Ebony, if your done flirting with the princess, think we can get something to eat?” Clockwork asked.

“Shore thing, come with me.” He waved his hand signaling the others to go back to their posts, then he guided the others to town hall. Once they arrived he opened the front doors and allowed the others to enter but stopped Applejack. “I’m afraid you can’t bring that in here.”

“What do ya’ mean?”

“The body, it stays out here-“

“Now you listen here you fancy talkin weirdo, this here is my little sister, and I refuse to leave her.-“

“She stays here-“

“She stays with me-“

“Is there a problem?” Clockwork asked as he held his gun to the back of Ebony’s head. He sighed disappointingly before he replied.

“No, no problem at all-“

“Then let the girl bring her sister, you know what it was like to lose someone you care about, so leave her be.” He sighed again then moved out of the way allowing Applejack to enter the building. Once they were all inside; he closed the main door and locked it.

“Listen up, we have but a small amount of food left, so don’t eat all of it.” He snapped his fingers and a few Pegasus brought down a cooler and placed it on the balcony on the upper level then flew back upwards.

“What gives Ebony-“ Clockwork stared.

“First one to reach the food without the aid of wings gets to keep it all, those who fail get nothing and must starve and die.”

“That’s just sick bro, you can’t do that-“

“Says the man who held a gun to my head-“

“You know what, I remember why your wanted in all those places, you’re a jackass-“

“Say that again and I swear-!”

“Shut up!” Jetstream shouted, everyone looked towards her. “Listen bitch, you are to get all of us food or I kill you and all your men and we keep it all to our selves-“

“Ha! Funny. You really think you can take my men? The best shooters in the world and you think you can take them.”

“I know I can take them.” Ebony laughed and shook his head.

“Like I said, first to the cooler without using their wings gets all the food.” And before anyone could say anything ells he shouted go and Clockwork shoved everyone out of the way and raced up the stairs. Red sighed with irritation.

“That selfish bastard.” Red raced to the back and started climbing up the walls and managed to beat Clockwork who just got to the top.

“That foods mine jackass-“

“We’re all hungry so I think it belongs to all of us-“

“Buck off!” Clockwork shouted as he tackled him and knocked him to the lower floor. Fluttershy ran over to him.

“Red, are you okay?” she panicked as she helped him up.

“Yeah…What the hell Clockwork, you could have killed me!”

“Does it look like I give a shit!? I need this food I’ve gone 10 weeks without eating, and if I wasn’t immortal I’d be dead!” Clockwork yelled back. He opened up the cooler and started eating everything in it.

“Well looks like Clockwork won the challenge.” Ebony started laughing. “Guess the rest of you get to starve. Clockwork, come here.” Ebony snapped his fingers, clockwork looked at him and jumped down and went over to him. When he turned around to face the others his eyes were glowing blue, he was drooling a black sludge, and his skin was starting to rot.

“…What did you do to him!” Red yelled as he got up.

“The food was tainted so we had to get rid of it somehow, and by coincidence, all of you appear-“

“You sick twisted bastard!” Red shouted, he started running towards them. Ebony snapped his fingers again and Clockwork punched him in his stomached stopping him in his tracks, then punched him again in his head sending him flying to the back wall.

“You forgot, he is the strongest man to ever exist, undead or living.” Ebony laughed as he started patting him on his head. “It’s nice to have him back on my side-“

“Bet you forgot he was a unicorn.” Red interrupted. Ebony looked up and saw him struggling trying to stand back up.

“How could I forget that? He sucked at magic but he was one hell of a fighter-“

“Unicorns explode when infected.” Ebony stopped talking and stared at him.

“…What?”

“That’s right, when a unicorn becomes infected they explode.” Red laughed then snapped his fingers, he and the others disappeared. Ebony looked over at Clockwork and his horn was glowing.

“…Buck-“ after that he exploded killing Ebony. A few seconds later Red and the others returned with Applebloom and another Clockwork both alive.

“Remind me to thank you later.” Clockwork said as he walked away from the group.

“Thanks for doing that for us Red.” Applejack added.

“Not a problem, anything for a friend.” Red smiled and kneeled down. “Applebloom, you’re going to be living in this world ok?”

“Sure thing.” She replied happily. Red stood back up and looked over at Clockwork.

“Something wrong?”

“Is this me? If it is I’m going to kick the ass of whoever did this-“

“The guy who did that is dead-“

“Then I’m going to kick his corpse.” Clockwork grunted as he started kicking Ebony’s dead body. Red shook his head in disappointment then turned to the others.

“Ok, we should get going before anything else happens-“

“To late.” Someone interrupted He turned around and saw a man with dark grey skin and hair, and shorts just like Ebony’s.

“Brimstone!” Clockwork shouted as he got up. He rushed over to him and hugged him. “Where have you been?!”

“Outside, waiting for that bastard to die…get off me.” He shoved Clockwork off of him. “Thanks for that anyway, me and the others were beginning to think he was crazy…turns out he was.”

“Good men always die that way.” Clockwork replied.

“I’ll say, well, at least now I can finally take over.”

“Won’t the others try to take that position?”

“Nah, we worked it out, you’re looking on the new leader of the Hawks.”

“…Cool.” Clockwork smiled. He bent down and took the watch off his corpse and it disappeared as he stood up.

“So, you want to join us again now that, that freak is dead?”

“No thanks, I need to get these guys to Vanhoover, but, can I ask you a favor?”

“What is it?”

“Those two girls over there-“

“Scoots and Bloom?”

“Yeah, I need you to watch over them and protect them, there close friends of mine and the others.”

“Understood.” Brimstone nodded. Clockwork turned around and walked over to the two and kneeled down.

“Listen, you two stay here with Brimstone, he’s a really good friend of mine and I promise he’ll take care of you and keep you safe-“

“You can’t do that-“ Applebloom started.

“Yeah we want to come with you-“

“Both of you stay here. Listen, Monochrome is dead, but if he was alive he’d want you two to be safe, got it.” The two didn’t argue, they nodded their heads in agreement. Clockwork stood up and looked at the others. “Alright all of you, we spent too much time here and it’s time to head out, so let’s go.” Clockwork announced, he turned around and looked at Brimstone one last time. “Remember Brim, if those two get hurt, that glass eye of yours isn’t going to be the only part of your head that’s cracked.” Brimstone nodded then allowed him and the others to pass. It took them a few minutes to get out of the town, but after that, they were back on the path to Vanhoover.