Between Life and Death

“Is everyone ok?” Monochrome asked as he threw a piece of scrap metal into the distance.

“Yeah…I think.”  Key Scales answered as she got up.

“That’s good, Clockwork, you here!?”

“Yeah I’m here!” He yelled back as he put his mechanical arm back onto the stub attached to his shoulder.

“Hey, you got something…in your…” Monochrome started as he pointed to his chest, Clockwork looked down at his and noticed he had a metal pipe sticking out of his chest.

“Oh, look at that.” He pulled the pipe out and looked through the hole in it. “Where are the others?”

“Over here!” Twilight yelled, she was in the distance holding up a plate of metal. The Monochrome and Clockwork raced over to her and help her. “I think Fluttershy is hurt.” They looked at her, she was lying on the ground unconscious and she had a metal rod sticking out of her side.

“That isn’t good.” Monochrome went over to her and picked her up. “Come on, we need to get the others and get out of here, if those things finds us, we aren’t going to survive.” He carried Fluttershy over to a pile of metal and placed her down leaning against it.

“Hey, I found someone over here!” Key Scales yelled, when they began running Twilight yelped and fell, Monochrome stopped and turned around.

“Clockwork, take care of her.”

“Right!” Clockwork ran over to her and picked her up and piggybacked her to catch up with Monochrome, when they caught up to them they noticed the two were trying to help Applejack, Red, and Agony out of a pile of scrap.

“Where’s Nyx?” Twilight asked as they got close to them.

“Who?” Key Scales asked.

“Nyx, tall, dark black skin, purple hair, evil looking eyes?” Key Scales shrugged, Twilight started growing upset.

“Mom!” a familiar voice shouted in the distance, she turned around and saw Nyx waving to her.

“Nyx!” she jumped off of Clockwor’s back and started limping over to her and she walked over to her. When they got to each other Twilight tripped fell into her arms. “I’m happy you’re alright.” Twilight smiled. A while later they gathered everyone together into one group.

“Ok, Fluttershy, Red, and Agony are unconscious. Apple is in slight pain-“

“It’s start’n to get better.” She interrupted.

“Good to know, anyway, Fluttershy is majorly injured, Clockwork got stabbed in the heart-“

“But since I’m immortal it really doesn’t matter.” He interrupted.

“Not really, Key you’re fine right?”

“I’m a little dizzy, but I’m fine.” She replied as she held her head and smiled.

“Good, and Twilight.”

“Yeah?”

“You have shrapnel sticking out of your leg.” She looked down and saw a small jagged piece of metal sticking out of her lower leg, she was about to start screaming but Monochrome calmed her down.

“Can’t you take it out!?”

“Do you want to bleed to death?”

“No!”

‘Then no I can’t, and since that daughter of yours or…what’s her name don’t know the advanced healing spell, you’re stuck with it until I managed to get my magic back, but don’t worry, you’ll get used to it, eventually the pain will completely disappear.”

“I hope so, It’s already unbearable.”

“Yeah, but, the real problem is Fluttershy, if we don’t get that thing out of her she Will die. She’s losing too much blood. Clockwork, you still have the bandages with you?”

“Check.” He pulled a first aid kit out of the bag he had packed and tossed it to Monochrome.

“Good.” He opened it up and pulled out a vile with a quark on it. “Clockwork, I need one of those syringes.”

“Shore thing, but you might want to clean it out first.” He handed it to him, when he got it he dumped out all the stuff he had in it, he stabbed the tip of the needle into the quark and drew some of the red liquid out of the vile. He put the needle to Fluttershy’s arm, he pierced the skin and injected her with the medicine. “What’s that stuff for?”

“It slows down blood flow, now she won’t bleed as much.” Fluttershy began waking up and noticed him. “Hey Fluttershy, listen, I need to do something alright? So on the count of 3, you might feel…something either like a light prick…or an unbearable stabbing pain.” She tried saying something but her voice was to faint to understand. He grabbed onto them beam sticking out of her and held her down by one of her shoulders. “Ok, ready? 1…2…3!”he pulled the rod out of her and she started screaming, her screaming woke up the other two next to her, when the awoke, they immediately covered their ears. When her screaming died down Monochrome started wrapping the bandages around her to stop the bleeding. “That wasn’t so bad was it?” Monochrome asked in a sympathetic voice.

“So, why can’t you do the same to me?” Twilight asked. Monochrome turned around and faced her.

“What?”

“Why can’t you take this thing out of my leg?”

“2 reasons, first, that thing is jabbed into at least 3 different arteries, so if I took it out, you’d bleed to death while the bandages were on. Second, that thing I just pulled out of flutters’, it was made of lead, and if I didn’t pull it out he would have died in two different ways.”

“Oh.” Twilight replied with slight sorrow. Monochrome stood up and took a step back away from Fluttershy.

“Ok Flutters’, see if you can stand up.” And as soon as she got onto her hooves she began to vomit all over the ground. She started to fall over and Monochrome caught her. “Don’t worry I got you.”

“So now what do we do?” Key Scales asked, everyone faced her. “Most of us are injured, at least 2 of us can’t walk, she just puked everywhere-“

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that thinking like a pessimist get’s you nowhere?” Monochrome interrupted as he helped Fluttershy stand up. “We’ll head back over to Ironworks and stay there for a while, when we’re all rested we’ll head out.”

“Head out where, every corner of the world has been infected-“

“Yeah I know, that’s why we’re going to kill everything.”  Everyone went silent. “In the past I know I said I’d try to heal everyone, but that’s not going to happen, and because of that, we’re going to kill them all and put them all to rest.”

“But Monochrome.” Twilight spoke up and he faced her. “You promised, you’d heal them all.”

“I know, I’m sorry, but I can’t.” he turned around and handed Fluttershy to Red who just stood up. “Take care of your mother, I’ll be right back.” He turned back around and started walking but as soon as he did there was a colossal explosion coming from the horizon. “What the hell was that?” Monochrome asked as he stood still.

“It looked like it came from Iron Works.” Twilight added, and just then, Monochrome went lifeless, he stood there with his head hanging. “Monochrome are you ok?” and suddenly a black flame lit it’s self on the back of his left hand.

“Oh. Shit. Everyone get back now!” Clockwork yelled as he started running away from Monochrome, the others looked confused but as more flames lit themselves they followed him. When his body was covered with the black fire it all shot into the sky and formed a pillar and he started screaming with anger and hatred. After a minute the flames went away and Monochrome stopped screaming, but when they saw him, his appearance had changed, his arms and hands turned into black bones and his hair and tail burned with a sinister purple flame.

“That’s it! They can take my sisters! My Wife and my son! They can even take my cousin! But when they take my daughter, that’s when I kill them all!” a got on his knees then slammed his fists on the ground causing a ring of black fir to appear around him, it shot up into a pillar and a few seconds later when it disappeared his wings grew back and he had an evil red aura shinning around him.

“Monochrome calm down-“

“Don’t you bucking tell me what to do!!” Monochrome snapped at her, as his head turned towards her she managed to see his face, and it was horrifying, his eyes were completely black and had a red mist coming from them he had fangs sprouting from his jaw and the top of his mouth, and strange markings that almost looked like blood covering his face.

“Monochrome-“

“We’re leaving!” he interrupted her and began walking off again.

“Wait, where are we going-?”

“Straight to hell! The birth place of this bucking virus!” he replied, he turned around and he had a crooked smile on his face that made him look like he was beginning to go insane.

“If we’re leaving then I need to get a few things-“

“I don’t have bucking time-!”

“Well to-bucking-bad! I’m not going anywhere without my stuff-!”

“Who said you were coming with us!?”

“Me, and you have no choice, I’m coming with you!” she replied, and Monochromes smile faded away and he went back to looking demonic.

“Hurry up.” He growled at her. She ran off leaving them all there. As they waited, the flames radiating off of Monochrome started becoming more intense and hotter. When Key Scales got back the other noticed she was carrying two swords a hand gun and several daggers.

“Think you got enough stuff to kill with?” Clockwork asked her sarcastically.

“Keep talking, but remember, you can never have enough weapons-“

“Enough! We’re leaving!” Monochrome snapped. He began walking into the waste land and the others followed him. Later that day they somehow managed to make it out of the arctic and into Crystal Empire territory and started walking through the empty streets.

“It’s been a while since we visited this place huh?” Clockwork said aloud with a smile on his face.

“Yeah, I wonder if Cadence is still alive-“

“I bet that whore is burning in hell right now!” Monochrome interrupted.

“Monochrome! She’s my sister in law and your niece!”

“Does it look like I care!?” Monochrome shouted at her and his voice echoed through the streets.

“Halt!” a guard yelled as he and two others ran towards them. “The city is currently in lock down! You people have no permission to be here-“

“Buck off you tin headed buck ass!” Monochrome interrupted. He lifted his hand and a ball of black fire shot out of it, it hit the guard and sent him flying backwards.

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled at him.

“Stand down!” a voice shouted as he ran over to all them. When he arrived he removed his helmet and showed his face.

“Shinning Armor!” Twilight called out, she jumped down off of Clockworks back and raced over to him and hugged him.

“Twilight hey. What happened to your leg?” Shinning Armor asked with worry.

“It’s ok I’m fine, I’m starting to get used to it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Ok then, so what are you all doing here-?”

“None of your bucking concern!” Monochrome snapped again.

“What!?”

“Sir please restrain thy self!” a guard demanded as he attempted to hold him back.

“Get your bucking hand off of me!” Monochrome yelled, he smacked the guards hand off of his shoulder then placed his own hand on his face. The guard started screaming in agonizing pain as Monochrome’s hand began releasing smoke from it. When he moved his hand, the guard fell to the ground and revealed that his face has been reduced to scorched bone.

“Hey!” Shinning Armor shouted at him, he moved past Twilight and drew his two swords, and when he swung them, Monochrome caught them. The metal they were made of began glowing a red-ish orange color. The tips of his blades fell and made a clanging noise when they hit the ground and Monochrome flicked his hands, throwing the melted steal off of them.

“You should bucking know by now. You Never attack me!” Monochrome growled at him then wrapped his hands around Shinning Armor’s throat. “You will burn along with the demons in hell!” the armor covering his neck began melting and fusing it’s self to his skin. As it started glowing a strange beam of light flew out of nowhere and pierced Monochrome right in his forehead, he fell backwards and became motionless. Shinning Armor panicked and began throwing all the burning steel off of him.

“Shinning, are you ok!?” a familiar voice asked. He and Twilight turned around and saw a woman with a pink dress.

“Cadence!” Twilight shouted with joy as she hugged her. Shinning Armor smiled, he walked up to her and hugged her as well.

“Your neck is really warm.”

“Yeah, Monochrome almost fused my protector to me-“

“Allow me to fix that situation and completely fuse it to you.” Shinning Armor and Twilight turned around and Saw Monochrome standing straight up.

“I thought…I thought I killed you!” Cadence said in a shocked voice.

“You can’t kill me!”  he raised his hand and a ring of black flames appeared surrounding them.

“Monochrome!” Clockwork yelled, he tackled him to the ground, attempting to prevent him from snapping his fingers.

“Get off me you fat son of a bitch!”

“No! I Won’t let you kill our friends!”

“Since when the hell did you care?!” Monochrome elbowed him in his side which managed to get him off of him. ”They’re all going to die eventually so I might as well kill them now!”

“Why would you do something like that!? Their your friends, you care about them remember?!”

“I lost all the people I care about!”

“No, you lost your family, but you still have your friends!”

“They are not my friends!” Monochrome snapped his fingers and a pillar of fire surrounded Twilight and the other two.

“No!” Clockwork got up and sucker punched him. He turned around and slapped him with the back of his hand, sending him flying into one of the many buildings.

“We’re leaving!” Monochrome snapped his fingers again and Twilight appeared lying down behind him, she picked her up by her shirt and started dragging her. He did the same to Clockwork, he took him by his arm and started dragging their unconscious bodies out of the city. “If any of you expect to stay alive, you are to follow me, or I swear, I will kill you the same way I killed those other two.” They didn’t hesitate, they immediately ran over to him and stayed close to him as he guided them into the wilderness.