Between Life and Death

They walked down to the bottom of the chamber and what they saw was surprising, it was Blitz, and the sight of him was more disturbing then Braeburn’s mangled corps. Almost all the flaming hair on the top of his head was gone and all that was left was a small splotch on the top of his head and the rest is on the back of it, all the flesh has been torn of his jaw raveling nothing but bone and teeth, his left arm was just bone and had no flesh just like his jaw, his right wing was gone, his eyes were glowing red, he had a hole going through his stomach, his knee caps were busted, and he was wearing a straitjacket made of chains and there were other chains linking off of it and connecting to the ground preventing him from getting up.

“Who is he…?” Nyx asked as she crept closer. She reached out to touch him but it looked up at her and started hissing and growling.

“He’s my cousin, his name’s Blitz, Mayor of Central city, best fighter in the world-“

“And now first alicorn infected.” Ankh interrupted. “How he became infected is still a mystery to us, but when the infection spread through his body it was brutal and unbearable,” ankh turned around and started walking back to the entrance. “It took him three and a half days to stop screaming.”

“Wait, what? What do you mean by that?!” Monochrome rushed up to him and grabbed his arm.

“When the virus started spreading through his body he started screaming, it was unbearable and even brought some of my men to tears and suicide.” Ankh yanked his arm out of Monochrome’s grasp. “During then I lost over 30 men, and I don’t tend to lose any more.” He told the others to follow him out of the tomb and they started moving, and as Nyx got  to the ramp leading upwards something grabbed her leg, she looked down and saw the upper half of a body looking back up at her. She started screaming and the others noticed, she summoned a sword from thin air and stabbed it in the head, she then freed herself from its dead grip.

“Nyx!” Twilight yelled as she ran to her. “Are you ok?” Nyx ran up to her and hugged her.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She answered while attempting not to cry.

“Maybe I should have warned you all that there was a brake in earlier and we had trouble clearing them out.” Ankh mumbled.

“Yeah that would have been good to know, freaking psycho path.” Monochrome snapped at him as he walked by, and as Red walked by he glared at him angrily, Ankh side then continued leading them out of the tomb. Half an hour later he lead them to a tent then stopped them outside of it.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” He announced, he then opened the flap to reveal that inside of it were millions of weapons. “Choose you’re weapon.” They were all impressed by what they saw especially Clockwork.

“Damn Ankh, I know I’ve been calling you four-eyes, nerd, egg-head, but listen, I’m sorry.” Clockwork walked into the tent.

“When did you get all these?” Monochrome asked as he let the others pass by him.

“I started my collection when production started on them.”

“Some collection…Holly crap is that a .50 caliber sniper rifle!” Red yelled at the top of his lungs then rushed to the back of the tent.

“Whoa, slow down there, that gun is for me and fore m only.” Ankh stopped him.

“But, .50 caliber-“

“Mine and mine alone.” Red moaned with sorrow then picked up a rifle next to him. “Oh, Clockwork, I have a present for you-“

“Is it a gun?! I love guns!” Clockwork yelled with excitement.

“Yes, it is a gun, but it is a special gun-“

“Is it a piece of crap?”

“The exact opposite.” Ankh walked by him and the back of the tent. He took a key out of his vest pocket and used it to unlock a chest underneath the table his rifle was on. He put the key away and pulled out a colossal artillery cannon. ‘Clockwork, I’d like to introduce you to the “GUAS Quick shot” He grunted as he pulled up the heavy gun and placed it on the ground at his feet.

“Oh…Sweet…Celestia” Clockwork whispered as he approached Ankh and the weapon. “Hello beautiful. Ankh this is the sexiest gun I’ve seen in my entire life…and I have a gun with Applejack on it.”

“Yes I thought you’d might like it, I had it specially made for you-“

“If you were a woman I’d kiss you.”

“…Yes that’s uh, nice to hear.” Ankh mumbled. “Any way, she weighs 758 lbs, fires .88 caliber explosive and incendiary rounds, kickback capable of knocking someone 12 feet into the air (if they were standing on the end of it if it fired into the ground), compact spring for reloading, and each round has a 20 foot blast radius and-…are you crying?”

“Tears of joy…I couldn’t be any happier.” Clockwork hugged Ankh and hugged the gun.

“Last thing about it, it’s impossible to reload while carrying it.”

“How do I reload it then?” Ankh separated him from the gun and stood it up on its end.

“Step on the bolt.” Ankh told him. Clockwork placed his foot on the bolt and pushed it down opening a door on the side of it, then Ankh took a large shell out of the chest, the ammunition on it had a spiked tip with small blades sticking out the top of it. He placed it in the hole of the barley of the cannon, and as it fell in the blades on it collapsed and folded to the top of it. Clockwork then took his hoof off the bolt and it slammed shut and Ankh knocked it onto its side.

“Fire when ready.”

“…What do I shoot?” Clockwork asked with an excited look. Ankh left the tent and Clockwork picked up the cannon and followed him, as he got out of the en he saw him standing there with  megaphone. He lifted it up to his mouth and faced down the path to the north.

“Clear the way!” He shouted threw it and all the workers in the path cleared to the side and at the very end of the path there was a small target. Clockwork grabbed the handle on the front of it and the back of it and lifted it to his waist, he hit a button on the back handle and there was an extremely loud explosion like noise coming from the gun, a white line made of smoke, then in less than a millisecond the target at the end of the path lit up with a bright orange light. “Believe it or not this thing can hit anything with exact precision from a mile away.” Clockwork started laughing with joy, he dropped the gun and hugged Ankh tightly.

“Hey, Ankh!” Arrow head shouted from the top of a wooden pole. “We got company!”

“Damn it, not now! Every one, they’re here! Get ready, the fight has begun!” Ankh shouted through the megaphone. The others left the tent to see what was going on. “Twilight take your friends and get to the back of the sphinx, I have a crew there that will lead you to the head, it’s the safest place.” Ankh told them before he ran off.

“Don’t listen to him, the safest place is on the paws, trust me.” Arrowhead told them. He jumped off the pole and lightly landed on the ground. “Come on, follow me!” He lead the others to the sphinx, along the way they were cut off by a group of zombies. Arrowhead flicked his wrist n his left hand and a large needle appeared out of his gauntlet, he used it and stabbed both the zombies in the head, he then took it out of the gauntlet, he stuck out his arm and violently twisted it around, and amazingly a fully sized bow unfolded it’s self, he loaded the arrow he got from his gauntlet into the bow, he turned around and without aiming he shot the head of a unicorn zombie behind the others.

“…Daumn…Shit I forgot my gun!” Clockwork ran back to the tent. He grabbed his gun off the ground then ran inside, he put it in the chest closed it then took the chest and ran back to the others.

“I hope that gun was worth it,” Arrowhead complained, he continued leading the others to the sphinx. One by one he helped them all onto the left paw, after they were all up he opened his wings and flew up onto it.

“Now what!?” Twilight panicked.

“Just stay calm, as long as we’re up here the only things that can get us are the Pegasus but they aren't that big of a threat-“

“Arrowhead what in the pharos name are you doing up here!?” Ankh yelled at him. Arrowhead turned around and saw him flying right next to the paw.

“Shouldn't you be helping in the defense?”

“I was until I saw you up here. I thought I told you to take the others up to the head.”

“The head is structurally unstable, it would collapse and kill us, and with the Pegasus bombarding us with unicorn infected it would just make it worse!”

“You!...Well…fine, but I need you to do me a favor.”

“What is it.”

“Seal the tomb.”

“Do what now?!”

“Seal the tomb. When I give you the signal seal the tomb with me in it.”

“Ankh you hired me to protect you not help you get killed-“

“I hired you, which means you are to do what I say!” Ankh yelled at him. He didn’t argue back, he just nodded his head, and so did Ankh. He closed his wings and fell to the ground. He pulled out a small gun and pointed it into the air, he pulled the trigger and sent up a flare which exploded a second later. Everything went silent, then after that all the infected started screeching and racing towards the sphinx. “Remember what I said, wait for my signal the seal the tomb!” Arrowhead nodded again the activated his bow. When all the infected were close enough Ankh ran into the tomb and every single infected that was their chased after him. About a minute later there was a loud thud meaning that the other gate was opened, that was Arrowhead’s signal, he loaded an arrow into his bow that shot it at the wheel on the other paw, it spun rapidly then stopped. He went to the other wheel and pulled it off, and right when he pulled it off the stone gate started closing the eventually crashed shut.

“Bless that moron’s brave soul.” Monochrome said aloud. He jumped off the stone paw, the others followed him. Arrowhead rushed in front of them all and stopped them.

“Guys I have an idea.”

“What is it?” Monochrome asked as he walked past him.

“Back in the arsenal, we had some experimental weaponry we've been meaning to try out.”

“I like weapons!” Clockwork interrupted.

“Good, you’re going to like these then, come on.” He moved past Monochrome and led them all back to the tent, he walked up to Ankh’s rifle then opened the flap behind it. “This way.” He allowed the others to move through one at a time then he joined them all once they all entered. He closed the flap and walked do the sandstone staircase hidden behind the tent. At the bottom of the stairs was a colossal sandstone room filled with weaponry.

“…Is this heaven?” Clockwork asked as Arrowhead passed him. He laughed then continued walking.

“Listen up, these weapons are experimental, no promise that they won’t explode when you use them. Take what you want, but only take what you can carry with ease.” After that the others separated and started looking at the weapons. After an hour of searching they were all ready to move. Applejack chose a double-barrel shot gun with explosive buck shots, Red chose a sniper rifle with specially made rounds, and Clockwork came back with an RPG with bladed rockets, a bandoleer of frag grenades, a grenade launcher with incendiary ammunition, more ammo for the GUAS, and experimental grenades called black matter reconstructers.

“So, the rest of you don’t want anything to kill with?”

“I’m good with what I got.” Agony replied as she pulled out the spectral bow.

“Ok then, you’re choice. Ok so here’s what we’re going to do-“

“What’s that?” Clockwork interrupted as he walked over to a strange vest that has iron pipes with strange circular tanks on the bottom of them.

“Ah, that, that’s the turtle back artillery. Portable mortars. We’ve used them a few times but whenever we do, someone tends to get a broken spine-“

“That’s because none of you are strong enough.” Clockwork took of the bandolier and tossed it away, he then took the vest and put it on. “…Fits like a glove.”

“Lucky you, now, as I was saying, during the result of an attack, if the fort is over ran all personal will be escorted to Blackwood where they will set up a new sanctuary. See here’s what we do, I’ll escort you all there, I know the route like the back of my hand, it’ll be easy.” The others agreed to his plan except Clockwork who was face down in a pile of guns. “Ok, let’s move.”