Between Life and Death

by Prince Monochrome

Rating: mature
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Dark, Alternate Universe, Anthro
Length: 68408

Agony and Spell Nexus contact the king of trtaros who then creates a plague that kills half Equestria

After being defeated by the Elements of Harmony and the time keepers for the hundredth time, Agony and Spell Nexus contact Pitch Black, The king of Tartarus. They ask him to bring the down-fall of Equestria, and to do so, he creates a plague that infects and kills half of all of Equestria. But the people who are infected by the plague come back to life as cannibalistic monsters. It's up to Twilight and Monochrome to cure them, whether it be by medicine, or by bullet.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-04 13:33:00 UTC

Don't belive in hell

“Spike, can you get me some more ink pots from upstairs.” Twilight asked as she handed him a small empty glass pot.

“Sure thing Twilight!” he replied happily as he took the pot and ran up stairs. Twilight then got a book off one of the shelves and opened it, she flipped ahead a few pages and stopped on one marked with a gold feather, she took it out and placed it on the paper she was writing on then closed the book and put it away. She went back and started examining the feather like it was a rare artifact then suddenly there was a loud roaring noise from the basement and footsteps racing up the stairs, she quickly hid the feather under the paper right as the basement door opened.

“Twilight,” Monochrome started, he slammed the door behind him then put his back against it. “I think it would be a good idea if we don’t go into my room for the next year.” He continued as he panted heavily, his face was drenched in sweat and he had blood coming from his nose.

“What did you do this time?”

“Uhh…summoned a demon?” he smiled nervously. Twilight raised her eyebrow then turned back to her paper.

“What’cha writing?”

“Nothing special.”

“Twilight, found the ink pot.” Spike interrupted as he raced back down the stairs. He stopped right next to Twilight and handed it to her, she took it then patted him on the head.

“Anything ells I can do?”

“Hmm…no, that will be all.” Spike nodded his head then went back upstairs to reorganize the books.

“Twilight, can you explain this for me?” Twilight faced Monochrome and saw he was holding the gold feather. She started panicking and attempting to get it back from him, he took a step backwards and placed his hand on her head preventing her from getting close.

“Twilight, explain what it is or I incinerate it-‘

“Don’t!-“

“Then explain-“

“Alright fine!’ Twilight smacked Monochromes hand off of her. “I found it a few days ago and it looked interesting, so I, kept it.”

“Twilight, that’s dangerous.”

“How?”

“Because, I’m detecting some black magic trases on this thing, do you know what that means?”

“Monochrome it’s just a feather, there’s nothing bad about it-“

“Then why were you hiding it?”

“…Oh, um, well.” She quickly took the feather back from him. “Because I didn’t want any pony to take it-“

“You suck at lying.” Monochrome interrupted as he crossed his arms.

“I’m not lying!” Twilight yelled at him, he flinched back and covered his face.

“Ok fine you’re not lying! But still this thing is bad, you have to get rid of it.”

“It’s just a-“

“No it isn’t. Twilight trust me, I know what I’m saying.” Twilight looked at him sadly then at the feather.

“Ok, I’ll get rid of it.”

“Good,” Monochrome huffed. Twilight opened the window and through it out. Monochrome started screaming and attempted to get it, he rushed right out the window but his waist got stuck.

“Twilight!” He pulled himself back in. “Are you crazy?! You don’t just throw a cursed item out the window like that-!”

“Oh well,” Twilight replied smugly as she walked away.

“…Oh well? Oh well! That thing was dangerous!”

“It was just a feather!”

“It was more than a-“ Monochrome stopped as a red ball flew through the window and shattered it, it landed under the table in the center of the room. The two exchanged looks then Monochrome walked over to it and picked it up.

“What is it?” Twilight asked as she approached him.

“It’s a-…Holly shit!” Monochrome screamed, he flipped onto his back and scurried away from it.

“Monochrome what’s wrong?”

“That’s a heart! That’s a heart that was just ripped out of someone!” he screamed as he crawled into the corner. Twilight looked at the strange item more closely, he was right, it was a heart, and it was still beating, and it spurted out blood every time it did.

“How…?” Twilight asked herself. She started reaching for it then suddenly there was a loud thud at the door, Twilight looked away from the organ and towards the door. She got up and walked to it.

“Twilight be careful! I f someone could just throw a heart through a window like who knows what ells they can do!” Twilight rolled her eyes and opened the door and when she did a fowl odder immediately entered the room.

“What is that smell?!” Twilight wined as she backed away from the door.

“Twilight.” Monochrome stuttered, she faced him and pointed back at the door, she looked at it again and saw someone pinned to it by their head with a spear.

“What’s going on,” She whispered to herself, she walked over to the body. She reached for it slowly then suddenly It opened its eyes and started screaming. Twilight jumped back in fear. She raced back to the door and slammed it shut.

“See, I told you that thing was cursed!”

“Monochrome the feather didn’t do this!” Twilight yelled back. The woman was still screaming, but it was muffled. It went on for a few minutes but just suddenly stopped.

“…Monochrome, it stopped.” Twilight whispered from across the room.

“Halleluiah! Preys Celestia!” Monochrome shouted in his deluded state. He started getting up but as soon as he got back on his feet there was a knock at the door and he started groaning and slid back to the floor. As he sat back down Twilight cautiously walked over to the door, she opened it and was surprised by who it was.

“Hey Twilight!” A tall man happily shouted as he saw her, he stood twice as tall as her and wore a white suit and blue under shirt like Monochrome, his skin was the same color and the only noticeable differences were his voice and hair.

“Hey Red, haven’t seen you in a while.” Twilight replied with the same level of joy.

“Yeah, I would have been here earlier but there was a problem at Canterlot and-…who’s that and why is he cowering in the corner?” Red asked as he peaked in through the door.

“Oh, that’s Monochrome. He’s kind of my new roommate.”

“Hi how you doing?” Red asked with a slight chuckle.

“Hi.” Monochrome replied.

“So any way, there was a problem at Canterlot and I had to defend Celestia and Luna until it could be resolved.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, i would have requested to protect you and the others if i knew you had the same problem”

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up a sec. First off who are you. Second what do you mean “Same Problem”?”. Monochrome complained as he got up from the corner and walked over to the two.

“Red, my names Red.” He extended his arm and shook hands with Monochrome. “By same problem I really mean same problem, these freaks just popped up in Canterlot and started eating the civilians, don’t know what they were, all I know is that the only way to kill them and make sure they actually stay dead is by breaking in their skull, or at least something like that.”

“Any idea on how they could have gotten here?” Monochrome asked with a suspicious look and tone.

“Buddy, wipe that stupid look off your face, I had nothing to do with this.” Red aggressively replied. Monochrome folded his arms and stuck his tongue out at him, Red then grabbed his tongue and yanked him to the floor. “Now Twilight listen to me, you need to get out of here. Celestia is evacuating people at Canterlot, if you can get there in time then you can bored the sky yacht.”

“What if I don’t make it in time?”

“Then you do this: Don’t. That’s the only way to get away from all this.” Twilight nodded her head nervously.

“I have to go, I need to warn the rest of the town. Remember what I said, got it?” Red told her one last time. He took a few steps back and flew up into the air, Twilight walked outside and looked up at him, he looked down towards her. He lifted his arm and waved to her but before he could start flying another Pegasus tackled him and rammed him to the ground

“Red!” Twilight screamed. She ran to the back of the library and screamed as she saw the other person eating him alive. She ran back to the front of the library and helped Monochrome back up.

“Monochrome you have to help!”

“What happened?”

“Red got tackled by someone and now their…” Twilight paused.

“Their?”

“Their eating him!” Monochrome shot up on to his feet. Twilight led Monochrome to the back of the library, when Monochrome saw what was happening, he walked up to the red haired creature and took them by the choler of their shirt, he yanked them back punched her in the face and threw her back. After she was gone Twilight ran to him and Red.

“Is he-?”

“Yup, she bit his wind pipe, suffocated and bled to death.” Monochrome interrupted with a sorrowed tone. He reached for the body and as soon as he grabbed it, it grabbed his arm and started growling and hissing at him.

“Monochrome-!”

“Hold on I got this.” Monochrome calmly interrupted. He flicked his wrist and his hand instantly turned into a three foot long blade, he pulled it bag and swung, and managed to take of Red’s head.

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled at him angrily.

“What? He was trying to eat me-“

“He was Flutter Shy’s son!” Twilight continued.

“Ok, sheesh, calm dow-Flutter shy has a son!?” Monochrome yelled in sudden realization.

“Yes she has a son, he was adopted and-“

“Twilight!” Someone shouted from behind, Twilight and monochrome turned around and saw Red running up to them. When he got close enough he slid and stopped right in front of them.

“Red, How?”

“I can time travel…remember?”

“Oh, right” Twilight chuckled nervously.

“You from the past or the-…you know what your obviously from the past.”

“Yeah, past.” Red agreed with him.

“Why? how?” Twilight stuttered, she was trying to figure out how to react.

“When your brainless friend killed me, a telepathic message was sent to past me telling me who killed me-“

“Is there an easier way for you to explain this? My head hurts.” Monochrome wined as he held his head.

“Fine, When you kill future me, past me kills you. Got it?” Red scalded.

“I…guess? So wait, you’re going to kill me?” Monochrome tried not to laugh.

“Nope just this.” Red lofted his arm and smack Monochrome right across his face. He rushed towards him and attempted to hit him but Twilight held him back.

“I’m going to skin you alive you little-!” His anger kept growing until his hair and wings turned into fire and his skin and jacket turned red. Red then pulled out two Cutlasses made out of black crystal.

“I have to go, best of luck to you two.”

“Take care.” Twilight groaned as she continued to hold Monochrome back. Red then unfolded his wings and flew off.

“Can you remember all that?” Twilight asked as she let go of monochrome. He straightened his shirt and jacket and stared at her blankly.

“Yes.” He replied with absolutely no tone in his voice.

“Good,” Twilight shrugged and walked back into the library. Monochrome looked angrily at the sky then ran back inside and joined her.

On the road

“Twilight?” Monochrome started as he walked up to her. “Do you really think that this is a good idea? You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine-…wait, what do you mean “myself”?” Twilight asked with confusion as she faced him.

“Do you really think I’m going? No way, I’m staying here to help support all the other people.” He replied with a sad tone. He handed her a book off the shelf labeled offensive spells.

“Monochrome you have to come with me! You’re what’s going to keep me alive during all this.” Twilight argued back. Monochrome shrugged his shoulders and took another book off the shelves, he opened it up and pulled a dagger out of it. “Monochrome, please. There’s no way I’m going to survive this without you’re help.” Twilight started pleading and crying. Monochrome ignored her and handed her the dagger, he then closed the book and put it back and the shelf. “Monochrome-“

“Twilight enough!” Monochrome snapped at her. “Listen to me, you’ve been through more than this. You faugh Nightmare moon, Discord, you helped stop Chrysalis, and Sombra. You defeated those creeps who were trying to bring back Nightmare Moon, and that Agony creep.” Monochrome started speaking in a more uplifting tone. “Twilight, for you this should be a walk in the park, after everything you did, this is nothing compared to all that.” He reached out and helped Twilight back onto her feet. He got more books off the shelves and handed them to her. “Twilight, I trained you to use weaponry, I trained you to uses magic enhancers, use them.” He ended. He snapped his fingers and a cane with a purple glass sphere appeared out of nowhere, he grabbed it and handed it to her. As she took it the orb began to glow. He whipped away a tear rolling down her cheek and let go of the staph and light faded away. He then pulled a long black rod off his back and swung it to the left and right, when he did large silver blades appeared out of it, and when he slammed it on the ground a small spike appeared on the top of it. “Take care,” he said as he slowly backed up. He turned around and ran out the door. Twilight side then started walking upstairs. A few hours later she came out with a large bag, hanging off it was a canteen, a rolled up sleeping bag, a map of Equestria, inside were several other things that she thought she’d need. As she walked down the path leading out of the town she was immediately stopped by Monochrome, he flew down wards and landed in front of her.

“Hey.” Monochrome lightly said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“…Hey.” Twilight replied in the same way.

“So…where’s Spike?”

“He’s staying, he’s going to help you.”

“Ah, I see.” They stopped talk for a moment as they attempt to re-gather their thoughts. “That uh…that bag looks kind of heavy.” Monochrome pointed to the large bag she was carrying.

“Yeah, it kind of is.” Twilight chuckled nervously, and so did Monochrome. They both side. Monochrome snapped his finger and the bad instantly teleported off of her back and on to his.

“You should let me carry it, it’ll slow you down.”

“I thought you said you weren't going to help me?”

“Well, I did some thinking and-“ he paused for as he looked down at her. He smiled. “I thought that since you needed my help, I should help you. The folks here already got things taken care of,”

“Really?” Twilight replied with sarcasm.

“Yeah, the men here are really brave.” He chuckled as he lightened up. He stepped to the side and Twilight walked past him, when she was ahead of him he followed her. “So why do you need all this junk?” Monochrome asked with a slight laugh.

“Because, since all this is going on my best guess is that the train isn’t going to be running anymore.”

“I see, I guess that makes sense.” Monochrome started looking around at the surroundings, he was still trying to take in the fact that his home has been destroyed. All the buildings were ruined, their windows were boarded from the inside and so were their doors, he could see smoke a few blocks away coming from a building that was on fire. He side deeply with depression and started slowing down.

“Monochrome, is something wrong?” Twilight asked as she stopped and turned around. Monochrome shook his head.

“What? Oh yeah I’m fine.” Twilight grew a worried expression on her face as she continued walking. Monochrome took one last look at the cloud of smoke before he raced to catch up with Twilight.

“You know what, I forgot we could just fly to Canterlot-“

“No.” Monochrome quickly interrupted.

“What, why?”

“Because,” Monochrome stopped. “Almost all the pegasi in Pony-Ville have turned into those things. If we try flying their going to see us and kill us.”

“How come they didn't attack you?” Twilight asked.

“What makes you think they didn't, heck I got bit on the way here-“

“Wait.” Twilight interrupted him. He lifted his arm and revealed a bit mark on his right triceps. “Monochrome, if you got bit, wouldn't that mean you’ll turn into one of them?”

“Well I would.” I started in a sarcastic tone. “IF I wasn’t immune to all magic based diseases.” He started gloating and cheering.

“Ok I get it!” Twilight stopped him. Monochrome’s laughter died down until he eventually just stopped and coughed nervously. After that Twilight Continued walking until Monochrome stopped her and dragged her against a wall.

“Monochrome what are you-“

“Sush, Shut up!” Monochrome interrupted. He peaked his head around the corner and started gaging.

“Monochrome what-“

“Ok, shut-it.” He held his breath and stopped. He breathed deeply then looked at her. “Twilight, you’re not going to like this.” He started, he pulled out his scythe and got ready to use it.” One of those freaks are around the corner.”

“So?” Twilight replied unamused.

“So, that freak…it’s Pinkie Pie.”

“…What?” Twilight’s voice became more depressed, she looked around the corner and there she was. It was Pinkie, her skin was gray and bloody, her hair was covered in blood, she was missing an ear and half of her face was gone revealing her skull, she was missing her left eye and the other was glowing blue, a large portion of her right side was missing along with part of her right leg, she was even missing her left shoe.

“Pinkie..” Twilight mumbled to herself before she went back around the corner. She covered her mouth and began to cry. “This can’t be happening.” She kept telling her self that hoping that eventually she’d just wake up and it would all just be revealed as a dream.

“Twilight?” he tried talking to her, he reached to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, tears were rolling down her face and her eyes were blood shot from crying. Right as Monochrome was about to ask if she was alright she jumped to him and hugged him. Since he didn’t want to make her any more upset he hugged her back.

“Twilight, it’s ok-“

“How is it ok?!” Twilight snapped at him. “I lost one of my closest friends, and because of that the elements of harmony can’t be used to stop this.” She kept crying, and begging for all this to stop and eventually Monochrome started to cry and held her tighter.

“Twilight I promise I’ll find a way to fix all this, no matter what.” Twilight pushed away from and looked up at him.

“Promise?” she sniffled.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” He told her softly. She smiled and went back to hugging him. They let go of each other and raced to an ally way that lead past the infected Pinkie Pie. The ran down it as fast as they could and when they got to the other side they were stopped by two other infected people. Rarity and Big Mac, they almost looked the exact same as Pinkie but their injuries were different, and Big Mac’s eyes were glowing green. Twilight screamed at the sight of them.

“Would you kindly NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!” Monochrome yelled, he covered his ear in pain.

“I thought you said they were gone?” Twilight complained as she hid behind him. Monochrome took a step to the right and revealed her to the infected.

“You know what, I think I might have exaggerated, they killed a lot, but, I don’t know.” He started dazing out. Twilight looked at him angrily, then back at what used to be two of her friends.

“What do we do” She asked him while trying not to panic. Monochrome shrugged his shoulders acting like he really didn’t care, then out of nowhere he pulled out his scythe and rushed towards them. “Monochrome wait!” she tried to get him to stop, but he kept running, and the two started running towards him. When he got close enough, he took the tip of the pole planted it in the ground and pole-vaulted over them, he landed roughly on the ground then took his scythe and slashed right their legs and took off their shins. They fell right off their shins and onto the ground. Monochrome stood up and placed his scythe over his shoulders.

“Monochrome-“

“What?! You just told me not to kill them, you never said I couldn’t cripple them.” He laughed loudly as he walked out of the ally.

“Wait, Monochrome.”

“Yeah?” He peaked his head back.

“How do I get past?”

“Do the same as I did, pole-vault.” She took out her staff and ran towards them, when she got close enough she planted the bottom of the staff in the ground and jumped over them. She put her staff away and rushed to Monochrome while trying not to let what used to be her friends trip her.

“They’re going to be really mad when their better you know.” She told him as she approached him from behind.

“So? Big Mac isn't all that much of a threat to me, and what’s Rarity going to do?” He started laughing. Twilight groaned. A few minutes later they reached the well in the town.

“Wait here”

“Why? Is there something ells ahead?”

“What? No, I’m just thirsty.” Twilight groaned again as he walked towards the old stone well. He leaned over and looked into it, then backed up and started running back towards Twilight. He pushed her out of the way and stopped at the garbage can next to the corner of one of the many collapsing buildings and started vomiting.

“Monochrome, what happened?”

“That thing was filled with blood-“ He continued throwing-up.

“Blood-?”

“There was even a skull and a kidney floating in it.” He stood up straight and straightened out his jacket and shirt again.

“Feeling better?” Twilight asked sarcastically.

“I would if I could have gotten something to drink.” He started walking back towards it, this time he went around it, before the day’s end he and Twilight made it out of the town.

“Finally, fresh air!” Monochrome yelled out in sarcasm. Twilight sighed in irritation then walked ahead of him. He sped up an caught up with her.

Reunion

“Monochrome?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think anyone survived any of this?”

“Yes.”

“Besides us?”

“Yup…wait, no.” Twilight sided with depression. “What’s wrong?”

“You know what’s wrong.”

“Twilight listen, it’s going to be fine. I already told you that I’ll cure every one, remember?”

“I know, but, I’m just upset that I lost my friends-“

“Twilight, you lost the stuck up Rarity, the maniac Pinkie, and the egocentric Rainbow Dash.”

“Rainbow Dash got infected to?”

“yeah, didn’t I tell you, I decapitated her-“

“Monochrome!” She yelled at him and he started laughing.

“I’m kidding, sheesh! Learn to take a joke.” Twilight growled at him then kept walking. “To be honest-“ He paused as he stepped over a log. “I haven’t seen her at all during all this. Someone could have killed her already-“

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled at him louder.

“I’m just saying! Honestly Twilight, calm down.” Twilight glared at him angrily, it took him a few minutes to notice and when he did he glared back. They stood there staring at each other for a minute until Twilight looked away from him. She breathed in deeply and exhaled. Monochrome slowly walked past her and into the train tunnel leading through the mountain up to Canterlot.

“Dark,” Monochrome whispered to himself.

“Did you say something?”

“No, just admiring the scenery.”

“Monochrome?” Twilight stopped.

“What?” Monochrome stopped as well.

“…Never mind.” Twilight sighed then continued walking, Monochrome followed her shortly after. “Monochrome, think you can use a spell so we can actually See where we’re going?”

“Well I would but I kind of like wandering around in the dark-“

“Monochrome.” Twilight interrupted with irritation.

“Ok fine, one light spell coming up.” A moment later the tunnel was lit up by a light coming from Monochrome’s horn.

“Thank you.” Twilight told him, she continued walking and so did Monochrome. “So, how’s your family?”

“Oh, you know what, I almost forgot about them. Gilda’s fine, Amber doing alright, and Corruption…I don’t know really I haven’t heard from him for a while.” Monochrome started dazing off. It took Twilight a few minutes to notice, when she did she walked over to him.

“Monochrome?” she waved her hand in front of his face but he stood their completely motionless. She started snapping her finger in front of his face, he didn’t even flinch. Hello? You still there?” she sarcastically attempted to get him back to his concuss state. She looked behind him a noticed some sort of figure, it was wearing completely black and had glowing eyes. “Monochrome…” She whispered to him. She placed her hands on his shoulders and started shaking him violently. “Monochrome wake up!” she looked behind him again and the figure was gone, she looked back at Monochrome and he had an annoyed expression on his face.

“…Would you kindly get off of me?” he told her with a lack of emotion. She quickly let go of him and they continued walking. Hours later they made it out of the final tunnel, they sun light had just raised over the horizon.

“It’s about time we got out of those tunnels, I was feeling kind of…I don’t know a good word but still.” Monochrome started laughing and Twilight side.

“Get of her you dirty varmints!” a familiar voice yelled, Twilight and Monochrome started running up the path, and as they reached the top of the hill they saw Apple Jack and Flutter Shy, trying to fight off two infected royal guards. Monochrome rushed up to them and jumped straight into the air and landed right on the two guards, on one of their backs and on the other’s head crushing it beneath his hoof. He then turned his left hand into a sword and stabbed the other guard in the back of his head. He pulled it out and whipped it off on the dirt road then changed it back to normal.

“So ladies, need help?” Monochrome chuckled.”

“Monochrome? Ha, that really is you! We thought you got turned into one of those things.” She chuckled back as she shook his non blood covered hand. “Where have yawl been?”

“Well, me and Twilight-“

“Wait! Twilight’s alive to!”

“Thanks for noticing-“

“Twilight!” Apple Jack ran up and hugged her tightly. “It’s nice to see your still alive sugar cube!”

“It’s nice…to see your…still alive…to!” Twilight replied while at the same time attempting to breath and not get crushed to death. Apple Jack let go of her and she started panting uncontrollably.

“So, what are yawl doing up here?”

“What are You doing up here?” Monochrome asked sarcastically.

“We heard that the princess was evacuating everyone so we high tailed it over here.”

“Yeah, it was going so well-“

“Until you figured out that the gates were closed due to quarantine and that there were infected individuals roaming around up here.” Monochrome interrupted. Flutter Shy and Apple Jack looked at him confused. “What? I can read thoughts remember?”

“What, oh, no I know about that, it’s just, uh…I didn’t really understand half of what you just said.” Apple Jack chuckled nervously then eventually stopped.

“So, Monochrome.” Flutter Shy started, Monochrome looked at her. “If it’s not too much trouble can you, um, help us?”

“Sure, why not.” Monochrome walked past them and to the front gates of Canterlot, he kicked it and it flew open. “Well ladies, shall we continue our voyage to sanctuary?”

Change of plan

As they walked through the main gate they saw what was left of a once proud city, the buildings were in ruins, trails of blood and bodies lined the streets as far as the eye could see, the castle was collapsing and on fire as well as some of the other buildings.

“Sweet name of Celestia, what the hell happened to this place?” Monochrome asked himself as he walked down the streets. The others followed him cautiously, thinking that one of the infected could pop out at any time.

“Uh…Monochrome?” Flutter Shy whispered as she walked up to him. “Do we have to go through here?”

“To be honest, I wish we didn't. But this is the only way to get to the evacuation site.”

“…Oh…” moments later they arrived at a 4-way intersection with a giant puddle of blood in the middle of it.

“Ok, which way do we go?” Monochrome asked, they shrugged and hesitated, attempting not to answer. “Seriously! We’re trying to flee Equestria and none of you know where the exit is?!” Monochrome yelled at them all, Twilight and Apple Jack smiled nervously, but Flutter Shy started crying. “…Flutter Shy, are you ok? I didn’t mean to yell at you, I swear-“

“I’m fine…I’m just a little scared.” she slowly sat down on the could stone road.

“Listen sugar cube, it’s alright if you’re scared, heck I’m scared to.” Apple Jack tried comforting her as she sat down beside her.

“Yeah,” Twilight sat down as well. “So am I, but it’s ok, we’ll get out of this, right Monochrome.”

“Oh defiantly, these things are weak trust me.” He started walking off. “I’ll go scout ahead, you three stay here got it?” he pulled out a small black orb and tossed it to Twilight who barley caught it. “That’s a brother’s bomb, I snagged it off one of those brother hood freaks during the invasion last week. If your ever in trouble, pulled off the cylinder on the top of it and throw it into the air, I’ll be here in a heartbeat.” He turned around the continued walking. The others looked at each other then stood up.

“Now what?”

“I think we should get going, if we stay here, one of ‘em things are going to show up, and if ya haven’t noticed, me and flutter barely got past those last two.”

“But didn't he say to stay here?” Flutter Shy added.

“Flutter Shy, there’s a better chance of getting attacked if we stay here you know.” Flutter Shy’s eyes widened in fear, she then took off running down one of the streets Twilight and Apple jack laughed for a moment then ran after her. After about a half hour of running the finally caught up to her, she was standing in the middle of a T-junction panicking since she didn’t know which way to go, the other two could even hear her asking herself which way.

“Uh, flutter, are yawl feel’n alright-?”

“Which way!?” Flutter Shy interrupted in her state of panic.

“Flutter Shy calm down it’s ok, we just have to head away from where we came. So, all we have to do is go down that street.” She pointed to her left, and this time as Flutter Shy attempted to run off Apple Jack grabbed her by the choler of her sweater.

“This time, we move together, got it?” Flutter Shy nodded her head. Apple Jack let go of he and then the three started walking down the road. As they did they saw some of the strange machines Twilight discovered during one of her trips to the alternate universe, small metal vehicles with four wheels and glass plates on the front sides and back of it, and she believed they were called cars.

“It’s still weird seeing these things.” Apple Jack said to herself.

“They aren't that bad-“

“I know but their weird. I can tell that something bad is going to happen and it’s goin to be because of ‘em” Twilight and Flutter Shy laughed a bit at Apple Jack’s paranoia. Then for no reason, Flutter Shy completely stopped, she was dead frozen in her tracks. The others turned around and noticed her, they looked down and saw a long shadow looming over her, they looked up at one of the buildings and saw an infected royal guard.

“Run!” Twilight yelled as she and Apple Jack started running. Twilight looked back and noticed Flutter Shy was still frozen, so she rushed back and grabbed her, and as she tried to move her the guard finally started moving, he jumped into the air and started flying towards them, and before he could reach them Apple Jack came out of nowhere and tackled them out of the way causing the guard to smash right into the stone streets,

“Are yaw’ insane ‘er something!?” Apple Jack snapped at them as she helped them back up.

“Flutter Shy’s paralyzed, she can’t move-“ Apple Jack moved her out of the way and picked her up, then they started running away from the guard.

“What now?!” Apple Jack asked as she tried keeping hold of Flutter Shy.

“I don’t know, keep running I guess!” Twilight answered back. She turned around and saw the guard rushing towards them, his wing was almost severed from his body.

“Twilight, what are yawl doing? Keep running!” Twilight shook her head and continued following Apple Jack. The past the street they came from and ran down the other one, and at the end of it was a blockade made out of armored vehicles. Apple Jack placed Flutter Shy on the ground and started ramming into them attempting to move them out of the way.

“Ya see, I told you these things would get us killed!” she yelled as she continued ramming them. Twilight looked down the road and saw the guard, he was still far behind them but he was getting closer. Twilight stood there, thinking to herself.

“Apple Jack, where’s that bomb at?” Apple Jack stopped ramming into the armored truck, she pulled out the black sphere and tossed it to her. When she caught it was heavier then it looked so she almost dropped it. She took it and attempted to pull the small cylinder off the top of it but was unable to.

“Twilight, what’s taken so long?!”

“It’s not my fault, it’s near impossible to pull this thing off!” Apple Jack took the bomb from her and attempted to pull it off herself. After about a minute of struggling she pulled it off and threw the bomb into the air, and went off in a loud explosion, but nothing happened.

“Where is he?” Twilight panicked. Apple Jack gave up on trying to move the truck and sat down.

“Guess this is it.” Apple Jack mumbled. The three of them sat there. The guard drew closer with every second, and right when he got close enough he jumped into the air and attempted to pounce on them. They started screaming, and while he was in mid-air something came out of nowhere and pierced him right in his for-head. The Apple Jack and Twilight stopped screaming and saw him hanging by his head on a black pole. They turned around and saw Monochrome holding his scythe with one hand. He grabbed it with his other hand then tossed the body over the trucks, it landed on the other side with a loud thud.

“Didn't I tell you three to stay where you were?”

“…how long were you-“

“I got here right as that thing went off. Also, can you three seriously not take care of one single infected! It was just one, all you had to do was destroy the brain! Twilight, I showed you how to summon you’re weapon remember?” Twilight looked away from him nervously. “Anyway, I found the airship, but we need to hurry. I got Celestia to delay the, but only for so long. So let’s go.” He walked past them and clapped his hands loudly, shocking Flutter Shy out of her state of paralysis. The three stood up, Apple Jack and Twilight told Flutter Shy what happened then started following Monochrome. Half hour later they arrived at the port but something was wrong, infected civilians were everywhere, the normal civilians were everywhere, attempting to get through barricades, the Pegasus were soaring around through the sky constantly ramming into the sky yacht attempting to bring it down, and the Unicorns were using their magic, not to help the other infected, but they started exploding into a red mist and the Pegasus even lifted them into the air and threw them at the yacht to bring it down, and as they hit it, they just exploded.

“Monochrome…what’s happening?”

“The infection. Celestia had them all locked up in quarantine, I have no idea how they escaped.”

“What do we do?” and just then there was a massive explosion and the sky yacht coat on fire and started falling. The four stood there in shock as they watched it burn and fall, they could even her the screams of all the lives that were lost.

“Monochrome…” Twilight whispered to him. He didn't say anything, he just stood there

The gunman in the woods

“My hooves are killing me,” Apple Jack complained as she continued walking through the thick brush of the Everfree. “Can’t we just stop for a second-“

“No,” Red interrupted. “It’s my job to escort the royals to safety-“

“First of all, you’re not escorting me; I’m escorting all of you,” Monochrome added. “Second; you are the worst body guard I’ve ever met.”

“He’s not that bad.” Nyx replied.

“Yeah, he might be seriously annoying, but he’s really good.” Agony added. Red held his head up smugly, and Monochrome sighed with irritation.

“Ok mister high and mighty, why don’t you lead the way since I have no idea where we’re going-“

“Gladly.” Red interrupted as he shoved him out of the way.

“Oi, watch it! I can still kill you whenever I want you know.”

“Yes, yes, but without me you’d be lost-“

“Without you I’d be sane.” Monochrome added with a laugh.

“You know what,” Red stopped and faced him. “When I first met you I thought you’d be cool, but instead it turns out you’re a complete jack ass-“

“Watch what you’re saying before I kick Your ass-“

“Both of you shut-up!” Twilight yelled. The two faced her in shock. “The two of you are giving me a headache with all your arguing. So here’s what we’re going to do, from now on until we’re safe, you two are not to argue with each other-“

“But-“ the two said at once.

“You two are not allowed to say anything mean about each other, and you’re not allowed to come into contact with each other unless it’s 100% required that you do.” The two stared at her for a moment.

“Yes you’re majesty-“

“Whatever,” Monochrome interrupted as he flipped his hand and walked off. Red looked at him angrily, he took a deep breath then sighed and continued walking with the others.

“Hey Red?” Twilight attempted to talk to him, he faced her. “Do you have any idea how this started?”

“Afraid not, all I know is how it spreads.”

“How?”

“Depends on the species, if a unicorn uses magic the virus can find them and infect them.”

“What do you mean “Find them”?”

“It has a mind of its own, and it uses that mind to infect people. As I was saying, it will find them and infect them, if they use magic while infected it spreads faster. For Pegasus, if they fly to high the disease is air born, if they fly to high they become infected, after that the higher they fly, the faster it spreads. For normal people, it spreads through bites and stuff, the disease is air born at the moment, if they get a cut or and open wound big enough for blood to flow through, they become infected.”

“And for alicorns?”

“Don’t know, Celestia and Luna died while they were carrying the disease, so they didn’t really tell me, Monochrome is immune to all magic based diseases, these two are extremely cautious so they have next to no chance of getting it, and you’re in perfect health.”

“And how do you tell if you’re infected?”

“Muscles in one’s body start to contract and tighten, constant bleeding from nose, eyes, and mouth, hearing loss, constant craving for meat of any type, increased salivation, and the list goes on even farther.”

“Oh,” Twilight quietly whispered. Everyone was quite for a few minutes until Twilight spoke up to ask Red something.

“Why are you acting like this?”

“Excuse me-?”

“What happened to the Red we all knew and loved, that little boy filled with excitement and happiness? That brave soldier that loved his family and his friends?” Twilight looked at him with worry and sadness, and he looked at her in the same way.

“I have to act like this when I’m on duty.”

“Well then go off duty, you don’t have to protect anyone any more, we have to learn to protect ourselves.” Red began smiling, he then raced past every one and up to Monochrome, he ran past him and stopped in front of him.

“What is it color boy-“ Red held out his hand and offered to shake it with Monochrome’s, he looked at him with confusion. “What are you-“

“I want to apologize for everything ive done to you, I have to keep focused when I’m on duty so that’s why I’ve been acting like…like a…-“

“Like a jack ass?”

“Jack ass yes” Monochrome smiled and shook hands with him.

“I’d also like to apologize for killing you…twice”

“To be honest, the first time was necessary.” They both started laughing.

“So are you two done fighting with each other?” Apple jack asked

“Yup,” Monochrome replied.

“Now we’re fighting them,” Red added.

“Does this also mean you’re done protecting us?” Nyx asked. Red looked away from them for a second then back at them.

“Yup.” The two started cheering. “What are you two doing?”

“Sorry, were just happy that you’re finally done following us around everywhere.” Agony replied.

“You could have told me that you were capable of fending for your selves.”

“To be honest, we thought you wouldn't listen.” Nyx added. Red opened his mouth in an attempt to speak but shut it after he figured out he had nothing to say.

“Yeah you’re right, I wouldn't have.” He started laughing.

“Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt, but uh, where are we even heading?” Monochrome stopped his laughing.

“Right sorry, we’re heading to the old castle actually, Ankh said he hired a watchman to protect the checkpoint there, once we arrive he’ll guide us to the safe haven in Ce’Dal”

“Did he say who the watchman was?” Twilight asked.

“No, but he did say he was a power house.” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black cylinder that turned onto one of his swords. He then started making marks in the dirt. “So right now we’re here, I know a short cut to the castle that will only take us about half a day, so if we go that way we’ll make it before sun down. Got it?” The others spoke up in agreement and Red put away his sword then started leading them. A while later along the path the reached a thin road on the side of a hill and they crossed it in a single-file line, and as Twilight began crossing it part of the ledge gave way and she fell and tumbled down the steep hill, when she reach the bottom she slowed down.

“Twilight, are you ok?!” Monochrome yelled.

“I’m fine, just keep going I’ll find another way around!”

“Twilight I can fly down there and get you-“

“NO it’s ok, just keep going!” Twilight ended, and even though the others didn't want to leave her they made and acceptation. She didn't want to leave them, but she didn't want them to attract the virus with magic or flying. She got up and brushed some of the dirt off her pants and shirt then continued moving. As she moved through the brush the light started to fade away beneath the canopy. She wandered aimlessly in the faded dark until she made it to the path that leads straight to the castle, she followed it and in less than an hour she made to the old bridge and crossed it one baby step at a time. She made it across and approached the gateway of the old stone ruins.

“Hello!? Is anyone here?!” she shouted as she wandered in. She looked around and saw nothing but cobwebs and moss. “Hello?!” she shouted again. She approached the old stone sculptor in the center of the room. She looked behind it and saw nothing but an empty door way leading to the upper level. She walked around the sculptor and cautiously approached the stair-well. As she approached it she heard a faint moaning from the main entry-way. She turned around and saw something past the sculptor, she leaned to the side and saw and infected Pegasus standing there, she covered her mouth to prevent herself from screaming then started moving to the upper floor to get away from it. She made it up a few steps but the Pegasus saw her and started screeching at her, she screamed and raced up the stairs. She got to the upper floor but was surprised to see that it was empty, she turned around and saw a shadow walking up the stair-well. She raced to the back of the chamber, she started looking around to see if there was a secret switch or something to free her, but it was just an empty chamber. She turned around and saw the Pegasus standing there watching her. She stood there watching it. She started sliding to the side but he screeched again and started rushing towards her, and as she screamed there was a loud bang and everything above its shoulders exploded and it flipped onto it’s back and she stopped screaming.

“Twilight!” she heard all the others scream from the lower level. She started walking forward until she saw Nyx, and after her one-by-one the others entered the chamber.

“Twilight are you ok?!” Monochrome shouted from the other side of the chamber. Twilight stood their unable to move from shock, but she nodded her head.

“I didn’t shoot any of you did I?!” a voice shouted from above, they all looked up and saw a shadowy figure standing there. “The hell am I saying?! If I shot any of you, you’d be dead.” The man was standing on the roof of the castle, he jumped through one of the many holes and landed on the headless body and crushed it spreading blood everywhere.

“Wait a minute…Clockwork!? Damn it I thought it might actually be someone-“

“You finish that sentence I swear to Celestia I’ll shove my boot up your ass.” Clockwork yelled at him as he pulled his boots out of the corpse’s back. “So, let me guess, you’re here for the evac, right?”

“How’d you-“

“I’m the watchman jack ass,”

The desert road awaits

Clockwork’s outfit appeared to be very strange, he was wearing a black tank-top that showed every muscle on his arms, a tan vest with hundreds of pockets on it, black jeans that looked almost identical to Monochrome’s with the exception of a few holes in them, his hair was a light blue color and messy like always, and he had a strange sent on him, the smell made people around him feel woozy and off balance, and his shoes were the strangest part of his outfit, they were a dark brown colored combat boots with spikes lining the sides of them and steel souls . He pulled a cigarette out of the carton in his vest, he put it in his mouth, then snapped his fingers which created sparks the lit it.

“I cannot believe that you’re the watchman, “Monochrome complained. “You’re a complete idiot, you don’t even like Ankh-“

“Guy’s gotta do what he can to survive you know, also who the hell gave you the right to call me an idiot-“

“Just like old times huh you two.” Apple Jack laughed.

“You stay out of this.” Monochrome snapped. “Ok Clockwork, since you’re the watchman it’s your job to guide us to Ce’Dal.”

“Yup,” He replied, he exhaled a puff of smoke.

“Ok, guide us then.”

“Nope.”

“…Excuse me-“

“I’m here for the princesses, not for you bozos.”

“Clockwork, your job is to guide people to Ce’Dal, princess or not-“

“I’m just following orders.” He interrupted. He inhaled and blew out another puff of smoke. “Ankh said to wait here for the princesses, if anyone ells tell them to wait, his words.”

“Ok then.” Twilight walked up to Clockwork. “As a princess I demand that you escort me and the others to-“

“Kiss my ass you purple feathered harpy.” Clockwork interrupted. “I’m here for the sisters, not for a whore like you.” Twilight started growling at him. “When the sisters get here I’ll escort them then come back for the rest of you, so otherwise or until then you can all go to hell-“

“My sisters are dead.” Monochrome interrupted. Clockwork dropped his cigarette.

“…What-?”

“Those things killed them, they were evacuating Canterlot when they attack the sky yacht, it went down in flames with everyone on it.” Clockwork started trembling.

“They’re immortal how could they-“

“Immortality can stop disease and age, but not this.” Clockwork fell to his knees and his entire body started shaking.

“I can’t believe this, this is worse than I thought…I’m going to need more guns.” He stood up and pulled another cigarette out of his pocket. “Ok, I’ll take you all to Ce’Dal, but in exchange I ask for one thing.”

“And what would that be.”

“I come with you on your voyage out of this place, I’m not staying with Ankh anymore, the guy pisses me off.” Monochrome nodded his head in agreement, Clockwork pointed to the stairs and told them to wait downstairs for a few minutes, everyone except Nyx turned around and started walking down the stairs, Twilight walked past Clockwork and bumped him, he ignored her and turned around, Twilight passed by Nyx who looked like she was going to tear off Clockworks head. She approached him, spun him around and grabbed the coaler of his shirt.

“What was that you said to my mother?” she growled at him.

“I said she was a beautiful women with great taste in clothing and could charm anyone.” Nyx shoved him away then went to join the others. An hour later Clockwork met up with them on the lower level, he gave all of them a plastic helmet with tainted visors on them and led them to the back of the castle.

“Would you kindly tell us why we need these things already?” Twilight complained.

“No.” Clockwork replied smugly. He walked up to a bush and moved it to the side to reveal a strange vehicle.

“What is that thing?” Twilight asked.

“It’s called a quad, it’s good for moving off stone roads, now put the helmets on they’ll keep your heads safe.” He sat down on it and put a key in on the handles and turned it, he then grabbed a small T-shaped piece of plastic and pulled on it with half of his might and the quad roared to life.

“So, what do you expect us to do now that you have...whatever the heck that thing is started?”

“First I want you to use your copy spell to make multiple, 3 to be exact.” Monochrome snapped his fingers and three more appeared lined up right behind the first.

“Ok, now what-“

“Get on,”

“…What-“

“Get on, two of you on each of them. Red, Apple Jack, and Monochrome, you three are going to be the drivers, got it.” Monochrome shrugged his shoulder then walked over and sat on the quad behind Clockwork, Apple jack took the one behind him and Red sat on the one in the back. “Ok, each of you pair up,” Clockwork demanded. They didn’t argue with him, so they went up and sat with one another. Flutter shy sat with Red, Nyx with Monochrome, and Twilight with Apple Jack.

“What about me?” Agony wined. Clockwork turned around.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Agony, princess of life-“

“You’re with me.” He patted the seat behind him and she walked up and sat down.

“Ok, now what?” Monochrome asked. Clockwork snapped his fingers and the engines came to life. “How do I know how to drive this-“

“You’re welcome.” Clockwork interrupted. He revved up the engine and sped off into the distance, the others did the same. Monochrome increased his speed and caught up to him.

“So Clockwork! How’d you do all that magic stuff with the memory enhancer!?” Monochrome yelled over the loud noise coming from the quads.

“I’ve been training my magic! Now I’m as good as you!” he replied right before he sped up. Monochrome slowed down and the others passed him, then eventually he stopped completely.

“Something wrong?” Nyx asked. Monochrome didn’t say anything. “Yoo-hoo Monochrome!” Nyx yelled in his ear. He remained silent. Eventually Nyx grew to annoyed, she used her magic and threw him off the bike and into the grass.

“Who, what where, what happened!?” Monochrome yelled as he was freed from his silent trance.

“Would you be kind enough as to keep driving so we can catch up with the others?” Nyx pouted.

“Oh…yeah sure.” Monochrome got back up and walked back over to her. He sat down and revved the motor back up then continued.

“So, what was that about?”

“I don’t know, I just sort of, froze.” Monochrome replied, he went silent again, but this time he continued driving. A few hours later they caught up with the others, they were all parked right in the center of Apple Loosa and they joined them.

“Where the hell have you two been? If you wanted time to your selves you could have said something-“

“Clockwork, shut-up.” Monochrome interrupted with a tired voice.

“What, I’m just saying-“

“Clockwork, I don’t care, just shut-up.”

“…What’s wrong, didn’t get lucky?” Clockwork started laughing.

“That’s it!” Monochrome walked up to him and punched him, he then spun around and stumbled backwards and the others rushed up and held Monochrome back.

“Dude, what the fucking hell!?” Clockwork yelled at him afterwards he spat out one of his teeth.

“I’ve had a long day damn it, and you making jokes is just making it worse-“

“They’re just jokes!” Clockwork yelled back as he stood up.

“Yeah, jokes about me and Twilight’s daughter!”

“…Twilight has a daughter?” Monochrome groaned then freed himself from the other’s grips. He went up to Clockwork he started cowering in fear, he took the gun with the barrel the size of his forearm out of his holster and pointed it at his head, Clockwork opened one of his eyes and looked right down the barrel of the gun. Clockwork started chuckling and stood up strait.

“You wouldn’t use that on me…would you?”

“You wanna bet?” Monochrome pulled the trigger and the gun clicked.

“Apparently you would use it on me.”

“Like hell I’d use it on you, you stupid son of a- why is there a picture of Apple Jack painted on this thing?” Clockwork started freaking out and attempted to take the gun back. Monochrome did the same to him that he did to Twilight a while ago, he placed his hand on his forehead and took a step back, and as Clockwork attempted to get it from him he started smiling. “Hey A.J. come see this! He’s got a picture of you on his gun!”

“What are yawl talkin about?” Apple Jack asked as she walked over to them.

“He’s got a picture of you nake-“

“Bitch!” Clockwork yelled as he kicked him in his shin. Monochrome yelped and threw the gun into the air, Clockwork shoved him out of the way, he dove and caught it right as it landed on the ground. He side with relief and joy and as he stood back up Monochrome walked up to him, and when he was up Monochrome lifted his leg and kicked him between his. He groaned and fell back to the ground without saying a single word, and when he finally lied down, Monochrome flipped him over and took the gun back from him.

“Thank you.” He sarcastically said as he took it. He then walked over to Apple Jack and handed her the gun.

“What in tarnation!” she yelled as she saw the picture painted on the side of it. “Clockwork what in tarnation is this?!”

“…the greatest mural I’ve ever painted..” He groaned while he was still face down in the dirt.

“Look on the bright side, it could be a compliment-“

“A naked picture of me aint a compliment!”

“Well considering that he’s a heartless jack ass and looking at it, must mean he’s in love.” Apple Jack growled at him then walked over to Clockwork, she took the gun be the handle and dropped it on his back.

“I’m going to forget about all of this.” She snapped at him then walked back to the others. Clockwork started groaning and stood up.

“So grease monkey, what do you call this work of art?” Monochrome asked smugly as he helped him back up.

“Mug slut-“

“What!” Apple Jack yelled at him angrily.

“Let me explain…uhh…I got nothing” Apple Jack started stomping towards him and he freaked out and hid behind Monochrome. “Now just listen ok! I…um…ok so you see the thing fires 50 caliber rounds and-“

“You might want to say stuff she could actually understand.” Monochrome interrupted as he stepped out from between the two.

“…Shit…” Clockwork stood there speechless, Apple jack took him by his shirt and posed ready to punch him. “Before you crack my skull can I at least tell you that you are the most beautiful women in the world and that I would gladly die to protect you?”

“…You…You really think I’m beautiful?” Apple jack repeated as she let go of him and lowered her fist.

“Beyond words, remember that thing I gave you for hearts and hooves day?”

“You mean that gear with the glass heart in it?”

“That’s the one.”

“Yeah I kept it, I kept it in my room.” After Apple Jack was calm Clockwork grabbed her and hugged her tightly and she started blushing. He let go of her and looked into her eyes and right as she was about to speak he kissed her. The others stood several paces away with their mouths agape.

“…Uhh…Clockwork.” Monochrome attempted to get his attention. He pulled his face away from her.

“Yeah?”

“We are kind of running from those things, is now the best time to make a move.”

“…Fine.” Clockwork moaned, he let go of Apple Jack and she fell straight to the ground.. The others started to panic and rushed towards her. After about an hour she started to wake up, her vision was blurred and her hearing was fuzzy.

“You alright?” Clockwork asked her.

“…Do it again.” She told him with a blank expression. Clockwork laughed.

“Ok come on.” He reached out his hand and helped her back up.

“Ok, were all here, no one’s infected or a carrier…now what?” Monochrome asked.

“Well we were supposed to make it to Ce’Dal by now but because of all this stuff that just happened we’re going to have to stay here for the nigh.” Everyone looked around, the buildings were ruined, the windows were boarded, and the doors were barricaded.

“So, we have to stay here in a literal ghost town…for the night…” Monochrome asked.

“Yup”

“…Sounds good to me, Twilight you did pack campfire stuff in this thing right?” Monochrome took of the backpack and started unpacking it. An hour later when the sun was down, the group was gathered around a fire and calmly talking. The crickets were chirping in the distance, the fire roared with popping sparks, and the night sky was clear.

“It’s incredible you know. Middle of nowhere during a deadly epidemic…and the night is just perfect.” Monochrome said aloud. The others agreed with him.

“Yawl said it.” Apple Jack agreed as she snuggled up to Clockwork.

“So Clockwork, when are you two going to get married?” Monochrome asked and the others started laughing.

“Yeah laugh it up, at least I got someone.” Clockwork said triumphantly.

“Don’t forget Greygear, I’m married, and I have two children.”

“Speaking of which-“ Apple Jack started.

“CRAP!” Clockwork interrupted and all the others started laughing. When the laughter began to die down Clockwork pulled a syringe off the right shoulder of his vest.

“Hey, Clockwork what is that?” Monochrome asked.

“Huh, oh, it’s just medicine.” He replied. He pulled a bit of string out of his pocket and tied it around his arm, he put one end of it under his arm and put the other end in his mouth then bit down on it.

“Is it really necessary to do that? I’ve gotten hundreds of shots and I never had to do that.”

“Yesh, it’sh  nesheshary.”

“Wait,” Red interrupted the two. “That’s heroine, That’s an illegal substance-!”

“Yeah well geush what,” Clockwork interrupted. He inserted the needle into his arm and injected himself with the drug, he removed the needle then loosened the string. “Equestria is dying, so I think the least of our problems is me doing drugs.” He stood up and threw the empty syringe over a building, then he sat back down and acted like nothing ever happened, and the others slowly started to forget.

Road to Ce'Dal

The next morning, the group started getting everything packed away and prepared to continue their journey to Ce’dal.

“Clockwork, where’s my toothbrush!?” Monochrome yelled as he rummaged through the large travel bag Twilight packed.

“How should I know, I never touched it!” Clockwork yelled back as he torn down some of the boards on the buildings.

“Clockwork I know you did something with it, this has you’re drug addicted scent on it.” Monochrome picked up a rock and threw it at him, and without noticing he ducked down and it went through the window he was un-boarding. He looked up and saw the hole in it. “Clockwork, just tell me what you did with it since I’m not leaving without it.” Monochrome continued. Clockwork ignored him and continued ripping boards of the window, Monochrome sighed.

“Monochrome, come see this!” Nyx yelled from a block away, Monochrome put the bag down and rushed over to her, when he turned a corner I met with the others.

“What is it?” They moved out of the way and he walked past them and was immediately surprised by what he saw. It was Braeburn, his body was in a mangled mess, hos right ear was missing, his legs were gone, he was missing his right arm and he had no eyes.

“Holly shit-“

“I think I’m going to vomit.” Agony interrupted and went back around the corner.

“Who is that?” Nyx asked.

“He’s a relative of mine. Was kind of wondering what happened to him.” Apple jack replied, and without saying anything she walked off. Monochrome touched his head to his chest then his shoulders together then walked off, then the others joined them shortly later.

“So, all of you ready to go?” Clockwork asked as he threw a board threw the window.

“Yeah might as well, got nothing ells to do-why are you doing that, I’ve been wondering that.” Monochrome asked as he put his helmet on and sat on the second quad.

“Oh, I kind of got bored, so decided to do a little destruction.” He replied as he tore off another board and threw it through the window again.

“Clockwork, problem!” Monochrome yelled.

“What is it.”

“Things are out of gas, it won’t start.”

“…Crap, ok hold on, give me a sec.” Clockwork snapped his fingers and red tanks appeared next to each thing. “Fill them up; I’ll be with you in a sec.” He continued pulling off the boards, Monochrome shook his head in irritation then picked up the red tank and started filling up the quad and the others did the same. After about seven minutes everyone was all set and ready to go, they got onto their quads and started them, as they got ready Clockwork finished pulling boards off the windows then got onto his quad. “You all ready?!” everyone sounded off, afterwards, Clockwork started his engine the led the others further into the desert. Three hours passed and the group made it to the border of the Ce’Dal research camp. They stopped the motors of the quads and dismounted.

“Yo! Ankh, we’re here.” Clockwork shouted as he took off his helmet. Ankh side with disappointment.

“So it would seem.” He turned around and faced them. “You’re majesties I welcome you to sanctuary, for reason of safety I must ask that you not wander off the…grounds.” He slowed down as he noticed that it wasn’t the regal sisters Clockwork brought with him. “Clockwork…what the bloody hell is this?”

“Oh, yeah, the sisters died so…they kind of demanded that I brought them.” Clockwork started laughing nervously. Ankh’s eyebrow started twitching with irritation.

“Clockwork, we had a deal, you bring the sisters here and I allow you to stay here-“

“Hey, you never said what to do if they died-“

“Their bloody immortals! They can’t die-!”

“Yeah well tell that to the two tons of metal, the fire, and a horde of undead the size Pony-Ville-!”

“Wait, wait, hold up a second…Did you just say, undead?” Monochrome interrupted.

“Yes, undead, zombies…how could you not know?” Clockwork replied.

“I was honestly thinking they were just sick.”

“Monochrome, some of them had missing limbs. How could you think that.” Ankh added. Monochrome groaned. “Anyway since your all here, might as well let you stay, I could use the extra security while I’m researching. Come with me, I’ll show you to where you’ll be staying. Oh, and before I forget, be careful, there is this one man here, he tends to anger quickly.”

“Who is it?”  Monochrome asked, as he took a step forward, a special carbon steel arrow hit the sand ground right in front of his hoof. He looked up to see where it came from, turns out there was no one there with a bow besides Ankh.

“That must be him.” Ankh told the others. He lifted his arm and pointed behind them, and it turns out the arrow came from behind them all. “Ladies and gentlemen,” He walked pass them all and up to the strange man and patted him on his back. “This is my body guard and personal assistant, Arrowhead-“

“I don’t mind you calling me a body guard, but don’t you ever, Ever, call me an assistant.” The man snapped at him. He was wearing a light brown vest with what looked like tacks in the pockets, greyish colored jeans, and a blood red shirt.

“Nice to meet you all, the name’s Arrowhead.” He reached out his arm and offer to shake hands with one of the others. They all hesitated to meet him, but after a second Twilight walked past them all and shook his hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of magic.”

“Ah, princess, it’s an honor to meet you.” Arrowhead too knee.

“You can suck up to her later Arrow, we have business to take care of.” Monochrome separated the two of them. “Ankh you said you needed extra security?”

“Yes, yes I did-“

“What, worlds best archer not good enough?” Arrowhead complained. Ankh groaned in annoyance. “So, Ankh told me that he hired someone to escort the regal sisters-“

“Right here.” Clockwork stepped forward.

“Cool…so, where are they?” Arrowhead asked.

“Where are who?”

“…The sisters, you were hired to escort theme here.”

“Oh…um, yeah sorry pal, they uh…didn’t make it”

“What…?” Arrowhead replied with a fainted voice.

“Yeah sorry…but why do you care-“

“Clockwork shush.” Ankh interrupted. Arrowhead turned away from them, his body started shaking and trebling. Ankh approached him casually. “Arrow, are you all-“Arrowhead extended his arm and punched him causing him to fly 5 feet away.

“”Luna was my mother…” Arrowhead started, he turned around and faced them. ”When I was 5 my house caught on fire. My parents couldn’t get out, so they got me out. Luna must have been watching out of pity that night and couldn't get there on time. She took me in, raised me, and treated me like her own son. When I was of age, Princess Celestia saw potential in me for the royal guard. She sent me off to a master of Archery off the coast of Manehattan there's literally an invisible island called Isle Artemis. She sent me there to train with Quick Shot, the master of archery.” Ankh stumbles up to him and places his arm on his shoulder to keep himself balanced.

“Any who,” Ankh said as he striated his glasses. ”Follow me, I have something important to show you all.” He lead them all through the camp site and to the sphinx, he waved to the two people on the paws and they started turning the wooden wheels on it and the large stone gate leading into the catacombs started opening. Ankh guided them in and when they were all in the gates quickly closed behind them.

“So…what’s going on exactly?” Monochrome asked as he lit up his horn and lit up the entire room.

“I have something, very shocking to show you all, be prepared to see this.” Ankh walked forward and knocked on the stone wall, and a second later it started opening.

“We had to transform the temple into a prison due to all this.” He guided them deeper into the tombs of the stone temple and eventually they reached a colossal stone room that was almost empty, except for a single light source at the bottom of the pit.

“This is all because of…him…”

Judgement of the sands

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.”

Rising Sands

As they walked along the desert sands, the heat started growing hotter, and the sands started scorching even more.

“Somebody kill me!” Monochrome yelled right before he fell face first into a sand dune.

“I’d kill you if you weren’t immortal.” Clockwork replied as walked past him while dragging the GUAS by the barrel behind him. “It’s too hot; can’t we head back to the camp?”

“Does he always complain this much?” Nyx whispered to Twilight, she shrugged her shoulders and continued walking.

“Listen Clockwork, if you want to head back to the Ce’Dal sight you can, but we’re going to Blackwood, with or without you.” Red replied. Clockwork groaned.

“Wait, where’s Monochrome?” Clockwork stopped. He turned around and saw Arrowhead dragging him by his hooves.

“Right here.” Monochrome replied as he passed him. Clockwork shook his head then continued following the others.

“So, Arrowhead, when we get to Blackwood, will the princesses be safe?” Red asked.

“Huh, oh yeah sure…Why not.” He groaned with annoyance as he continued dragging Monochrome.

“So they’ll be safe?”

“Why do you care?”

“It’s my sworn duty to protect all royalty.”

“Duty.” Clockwork interrupted and chuckled.

“Real mature.” Red complained as he continued walking, but for some reason froze.

“Oi, guard boy, what’s wrong with you?” Clockwork asked.

“What’s that?” He pointed to a large tan cloud in the distance as Arrowhead approached him from behind.

“Oh…shit…Sand storm, everyone move!” Arrowhead yelled. Everyone turned around and started running, but it was too late, the storm got to close and shrouded the entire area.

“What do we do!” Twilight yelled over the loud winds.

“We have to get behind cover as quick as possible!” Arrowhead replied. As they started moving there was a high pitched scream.

“Flutter Shy!? Flutter Shy!” Twilight yelled as she looked around. “We have to get Flutter Shy-!”

“You keep going, I’ll get her.” Arrowhead interrupted, he pulled a pair of goggles out of his vest pocket then turned around and started walking with the wind while the others continued moving forwards. He wandered for what seemed like an hour then eventually bumped into something and fell backwards. “Flutter Shy, that you!?”

“Red?!” Flutter Shy asked.

“No, it’s me Arrowhead from the camp site!”

“Where are the others?!”

“I told them to go on without us, I turned back to get you!”

“Why!?”

“Ankh hired me to protect him and the research site! And if the site was ever overrun then it would be my job to protect people on the escort to Blackwood, and that’s what I’m going to do! Take my hand!” Arrowhead reached out and Flutter Shy grabbed his hand and he started guiding her threw the sandstorm. Hours later the winds died down and site became clear once again.

“Where are we?” Flutter Shy asked. She and Arrowhead were in the middle of nowhere with nothing but sand for miles.

“Don’t know, but I think it would be best if we keep moving” Arrowhead replied. He took off his goggles and dumped out the bit of sand that was in them then put them back in his pocket. He then pulled a map out of his satchel and opened it. “Ok, let’s see…yeah, I have no idea where we are. But, if we head north we can get out of the desert and take the longer route to Blackwood.”

“That sounds ok,” Flutter Shy replied. Arrowhead pulled a compass out of his vest pocket.

“Ok, so north is...” he looked at the compass and the needle was spinning quickly. “Great, magnetic sand….crap.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, all it means is that this compass is a piece of, JUNK!” He yelled as he chucked the compass into the distance. “Well, looks like we’re going to be relying on instincts now.”

“What do we do now?”

“Well, if I’m correct, that mountain should have a river flowing next to it; we head their get supplies then continue heading north, sound good?” Flutter Shy nodded her head and they walked into the desert. As they walked the sun kept growing hotter and brighter.

“Can we stop and take a break?” Flutter Shy complained.

“We can stop when we get to the river, if we don’t make it we’ll die of dehydration.” Arrowhead replied as he whipped away the sweat on his forehead. A few minutes later Flutter Shy tripped and fell into the soft sands, Arrowhead turned around and rushed over to her.

“A can’t make it.” Flutter Shy softly said when he flipped her onto her back.

“Come on, it’s just a little further, you can’t just give up-“

“I can’t, it’s too hard, and I can’t do it.”

“Flutter Shy, come on, I now you can.” Arrowhead ended. Flutter Shy didn’t say anything; she just lied there with her eyes closed. Arrowhead picked her up and piggybacked her through the desert. Arrowhead started talking to her even though she was unconscious. He kept telling her that he’d make it and that she’d be alright and he also kept telling her not to give up or give in, then 3 hours later, when the sun was setting on the horizon, the finally made it to the river, the water was flowing calmly and as he got closer it got colder.

“Flutter Shy, wake up, we made it, we’re here!” Arrowhead said excitedly, but she didn’t say anything. Arrowhead kneeled down and placed her on her back. “Flutter Shy?” He went over to her. He placed his hand on her stomach and noticed she wasn’t breathing. “Flutter Shy, come on, wake up, you can’t give up at the final leg of a race.” Arrowhead complained. He picked her up and started shaking her, nothing. “It was my job to protect you, and that’s what I’m going to do.” He took her by her shoulder and dragged her into the shadow of the mountain. He then rushed over to the river and took out is canteen, he dunked it into the water then rushed back to Flutter Shy. He lifted her head and put the canteen in her mouth and helped her drink. He moved it away from her mouth and noticed she still wasn’t breathing. He started freaking out then got an idea to save her. He placed her back down and held her head up and attempted to perform CPR, he breathed air into her lungs and attempted to start her heart up, and after a minute she started coughing. “Flutter Shy! Are you ok!?” He panicked.

“…Arrowhead…?” she started as she reached up to him. He took her hand. “What happened?”

“You almost died, but don’t worry, I promise that I’ll protect you until this is over.” She smiled then lied back down. Arrowhead picked her up and carried her over to the edge of the river and placed her next to it. He took his canteen out again and dunked it back into the river. He took it out and placed it next to Flutter Shy’s head to keep her temperature down. Hours later the sun started setting. Flutter Shy groaned as she woke up, there was a roaring fire a few feet away from her, she looked around and saw Arrowhead sitting at the water’s edge. She got up and walked over to him.

“Arrow?” she softly said. He looked up at her.

“Oh, hey. Nice to know you’re still alive.” He replied as she sat down next to him. They sat next to each other in silence for a while until Flutter Shy finally said something.

“So, who are you exactly?”

“I’m just a mercenary, trying to get paid, nothing special.”

“Do you work for anyone?”

“Just the people who hire me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I charge about 500 bits per kill, so they’re usually rich.”

“Why did you choose to do this as a job?” Arrowhead stared at her, lost in his thoughts.

“Because…deep down, I have a hatred for everyone.” Flutter Shy quickly looked away from him.

“You don’t hate me do you?” Flutter Shy asked, he looked up at her and she was still looking into the water.

“I don’t really see why I should, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Flutter Shy smiled and moved closer to him. “What are you doing?”

“I thought you said you liked me.”

“As a friend, not like that.” Flutter Shy started snuggling up to him. “I have a girlfriend you know.”

“I’m just trying to preserve body heat.”

“Get off!” Arrowhead yelled as he jumped into the river. He reached his hand out and climbed out. He started walking over to the fire. He opened his bag and started searching through it, he pulled out a new shirt and pants and started undressing. Flutter Shy watched him with her wings unfolded, and when he turned around she quickly looked a different direction, and every time he looked back she start staring at him again. “I’d appreciate it if you’d stop looking at me.” Arrowhead told her. She turned around and faced the mountain.

“So…uh, what was her name?” Flutter Shy asked nervously.

“Her name’s Key Scales, and she’s the most beautiful creature to ever exist. Beautiful black hair and purple eyes that just make you fell…happy on the inside.” Arrowhead started laughing. “I can still remember how we met. We were at a Café in Canterlot, she forgot her clarinet and when I went to give it back to her we started fighting. But after she found out it was a misunderstanding we sort of became friends, and our relationship just started growing since then.” Flutter Shy started feeling happy for him.

“So, what are we supposed to do now? The others are gone, probably at Blackwood, and were stuck out here in the desert.”

“I was hired to protect during escorts, I’m going to continue that…even if my boss is sort of…dead. But for right now we should probably get some sleep.” Arrowhead put his shirt back on then pulled out a sleeping bag and placed it a few feet away from the fire for Flutter Shy. She walked over to it and lied down on top of it.

“Hey you guys!” Someone shouted from far away, the two looked up and saw Monochrome waving to them and he was with the others.

Continue to the vally

Half an hour later when the others joined the two at the camp fire they started talking about what had happened and during that some of them started laughing.

“I’m serous, that sand storm really did take us to the top of the mountain-“Monochrome protested.

“Sure it did,” Arrowhead interrupted while laughing.

“I’m serous!” Monochrome replied while at the same time trying not to laugh. They were all having a good time despite the fact that they were being chased by zombies.

“How come you all got teleported to a mountain top and we didn’t?” Arrowhead asked before lifting a canteen to his mouth.

“Maybe the desert just likes us.”Clockwork replied.

“Clockwork, inanimate object or not, no one will like you.” Monochrome replied. Arrowhead spat the water out of his mouth and started laughing with the others. “Ok, ok, I think that’s it for tonight, we should get some sleep.” Monochrome interrupted everyone’s laughter. They all moaned but agreed with him. They took out their sleeping bags and unrolled them.

“Good night everyone.” Twilight said to the others, and at almost the exact same second they all said good night back to one another before falling asleep. A while later when all the others were asleep, Fluttershy got up and looked around her and noticed that the others were still asleep. She stood up and moved her sleeping bag over to Arrowhead and placed it right next to him. She lied down next to him and started snuggling with him. She placed her hand under the one he had on his stomach thinking he still had his shirt on, she noticed he didn’t and ended up felling his abs. She started blushing then went back to sleep. As they all slept, strange things started happening in the dark, white eyes started appearing I the shadows, there were high pitched laughs and giggles, and what sounded like screams, and all that stayed there until dawn, and as the sun rose all of it faded away with the darkness. Monochrome yawned loudly as he awoke.

“Good morning my surviving friends!” He yelled out causing the others to wake up. Seconds after the others were up Arrowhead slowly began to awaken.

“Key Scales if you wanted to snuggle last night I wouldn’t have mind if you-Whoa!” Arrowhead shouted and jumped up as he noticed it was Fluttershy. She heard him and jolted up. “Fluttershy I thought I told you that I have a girlfriend!” he told her as he slowly backed away.

“Look on the bright side Arrow, now you have someone that’ll actually want to score a home run with you.” Clockwork added, after that he and Monochrome started snickering immaturely.

“Someone remind me to kick their asses later.” Arrowhead growled as he picked his shirt up off the sandy ground. “As for you, what do you think you were doing?”

“Can’t you tell she has feelings for you?” Nyx interrupted as she rolled up her sleeping bag.

“That’s kind of repulsive considering its you.” Monochrome added, and he and Clockwork broke out in laughter. Arrowhead growled at them. He took something out of his pocket and threw it at them. It hit Monochrome then bounced off his head and on to Clockworks.

“I want to remind you two that I’m the guide, and if two keep acting like a couple of jackasses I’d be glad to leave you stranded here.” He scalded them.

“We don’t need a guide. I know the route to Blackwood like the back of my hand-“

“Yeah, well you don’t know it anymore. During all this it changed. Paths are blocked, trails and mountain paths were destroyed, and unless you want to be dive bombed by a Pegasus zombie you have to walk.” He continued. He put his shirt on and straitened it out. “So, are you going to keep complaining or are you going to follow me?”

“Might as well follow, if the paths are this messed up and flight isn’t an option, we really have no other choice.” Monochrome replied. He picked up his jacket and shook all the sand out of it. “But on one condition. No more sand storms. If we have to pass through another one I’m using you as a shield.” he put his jacket on and in an instant it disappeared, blending in with his skin. Arrowhead nodded as he put on his vest, when everyone was packed he started leading them through the rest of the desert. Hours later they made it to one of the many cliffs of Macintosh hills. They started climbing, they made it to the top of one of the mountains and looked over the ruined land that was once their home. “I can’t believe this…” Monochrome said to himself. “This was once the home to millions, now it’s just hell.” Half of all the forests were destroyed and had fire coming from them, cities and towns were in ruins, it even looks like Canterlot is starting to fall of the side of its mountain. “How is this possible-“

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled from behind him. “We should get going, if we stay up here any longer will eventually freeze.” Monochrome ignored her and continued looking into what once was his home. Twilight walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “Monochrome, I know your upset about all this, but standing here won’t help. We have to go, we need to find a new home-“

“I don’t want a new home.” Monochrome interrupted as he swatted her hand off of him. “I lived here me entire life, I can’t just turn my back on it like this. It isn’t right.”

“Monochrome, I know how you feel, this is my home to and I love it here as well, but we can’t stay. Please, we have to go.” Monochrome turned away from the world and started walking down the mountain, the other followed him cautiously attempting not to fall. When they made it to the bottom of the cliffs, the sight they saw there was even worse than it was on top of the mountain. A massive train wreck, dead bodies everywhere, a trail of blood leading from the engine to the top half of a corpse about quarter mile away.

“Yikes, the hell happened here?” Clockwork laughed. The others looked at him angrily, but he ignored them.

“Should we do something about all the bodies?” Twilight asked as she stepped over one.

“Should probably put them to rest properly. Gather them all together.” Red replied. After that they started gathering all the bodies together. After a while once all the corpses were together they gathered around them. Red took some of the coal from the train and placed a small pile in the middle of the circle the bodies made and a few pieces between each one. “Would anyone like to say a few words to the lost?”

“Why did we do this again?” Monochrome asked.

“It’s a proper burial for those who have been lost, did the same thing at Canterlot during the first infected attack, did it as a tribute to lost guards.”

“In that case, I’d like to say a few things.” Clockwork added.

“Of all people, I expected you to be the last person to care about anyone.” Monochrome interrupted.

“Yeah, well there is a lot of stuff you wouldn’t expect about me. For example I’m considered a priest in Manehatten and Vanhoover, anyway.” Clockwork cleared his throat. “To all the souls that have been lost, may thee find the path to the other world, and may thy souls rest in peace forevermore-“ and right as Clockwork was about to finish talking, their was a burping noise.

“Oh real mature jackass, you have no respect for the dead so you just try to make a joke at a funeral-“

“That wasn’t me dumbass-!”

“Both of you stop!” Twilight interrupted the both of them. “That noise was too far away to be any of us.” They started looking around.

“I don’t see anything-“ Red started but was interrupted by another burping noise. “I can smell it but still can’t see it.”

“Hey, I think I found something!” Nyx yelled out. They all rushed over to her and saw she was in one of the cars looking towards the back of it. The light in the back of it faded into darkness. “It’s a bit hard to tell what it is, but I know it’s alive, I saw it move out of the light.” Monochrome moved her out of the way and took a few steps closer towards the end of the car.

“Hello?” Monochrome whispered. He reached out his hand and offered to help whoever it was that was hiding, and when he got close enough the person jumped out of the shadows and started screeching at him and bit him on his forearm.

“Monochrome!” The other yelled out and attempted to help him but he lifted his hand and made sure they kept their distance.

“No need to panic, immune to all magic based diseases you know.” Monochrome chuckled. He looked at the person biting him, she was missing an eye and the other was glowing green, orange blood stained shirt, blue shorts, missing a chunk of flesh in her side, orange hair, she was missing her left arm, and she had a black colored slime oozing from her mouth as she bit down on Monochrome’s arm.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Twilight asked as she took a step closer.

“Like holly hell actually.” Monochrome chuckled. He placed his hand on the beasts forehead and started pushing back on it and managed to open her mouth enough for him to free himself. When he removed his arm he noticed he had several holes in his arm due to her few but jaggedly sharp teeth. He grabbed her jaw, ripped it right off of her, and then handed the severed piece to Twilight. He then grabbed both sides of her head and tor it off of her shoulders. “Don’t you look pretty.” Monochrome said aloud as he examined the woman’s head. He then tossed it to the back of the car. “Let’s go.” He continued as he walked past the others and out of the train car. A few minutes later they continued the burial.

“-And finally, may the light shine upon you, brave souls of the lost.” Clockwork ended half an hour later.

“Thank you, father ass man.” Monochrome groaned with annoyance as Clockwork finished his speech.

“To the one who watches above, please, guide these souls to the gates of the heavens, and please, watch over them as if they were ones you loved.” Red added. He reached his arms out and took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, a burst of fire came out of his mouth and lit the piles of coal, which then lit all the bodies on fire. As the bodies burnt, they all stood around it watching the fire spark and flicker.

“Hey listen, if all of you are done playing with the dead, I’d like to get to Blackwood before I join them.” Arrowhead complained. The others looked towards him then started following him up the other mountain, except for Red, he remained at the fire. He stood there watching the flames. He stood there until Fluttershy went over to him. It took her a few minutes but she managed to get his focus back and led him to the others. Once they caught up with them, they started moving up the other mountain. They started walking along the path spiraling up to the top of the mountain.

“Are you one hundred percent sure this is the only way to get to the top of the mountain?” Fluttershy wined.

“If it wasn’t do you think we’d be going this way?” Arrowhead replied, and after he yelled there was a sudden tremor which shook the entire cliff face. The path beneath them started breaking and falling apart. “Run!” Arrowhead yelled, he and the others started running up the path as it fell apart behind them. As they ran the path started falling apart in front of them, Arrowhead stopped the others as a large slab of the path broke off and fell down the cliff. “Bitch!” Arrowhead yelled. They all stopped, and so did the tremor.

“What was that?” Twilight asked.

“No idea.” Arrowhead replied. He walked over to the edge of the path and looked over it. “Was anyone expecting any gests during the trip?” the others looked over the edge and saw a massive group of infected.

“Any one ells thinking the earthquake was caused by them?” Monochrome asked as h backed away for the ledge, the others did the same.

“What do we do?” Twilight started panicking, and right as she was about to say something, a pegasi infected flew up past the ledge then crashed back down on what was left of the path causing it to collapse. “Shut, start climbing.” Arrowhead started climbing up the side of the mountain along with the others, and as they climbed, pegasi crashed into the side of the cliff and bombed them with the unicorns. When they got high enugh, the pegasi stopped attacking them.

“They, stopped?” Twilight said with confusion as she looked down.

“They must not be able to stand the cold very well.” Monochrome added. When they got to the top of the mountain the sun started setting.

“That was awful.” Twilight groaned.

“Yeah, but this is the easy part, all we have to do is glide right over the valley and we’ll be at the forest-“

“How are we supposed to “glide” over the valley? Some of us aint got wings.” Applejack complained.

“No, but I know that two of you are strong enough to carry others. Everyone rest up for now, we leave at dawn.”

Mad Men of the red valley

“We live in-*hic*-in a world with lies and-*hic*-and undead beings! We sing togeth-*hic*-gether as one!” Clockwork sung in his drunken state. The others attempted to put up with him but grew tired of it rather quickly. “WE, the people of the-*hic*-land! WE, the beings of the new! WE-*hic*-EE, the new beginning, of the life of the world-!”

“For the love of sanity, shut the hell up!” Arrowhead yelled at him. Clockwork stopped an looked at him.

“Who the he-*hic*-ell do you think you are to tell me-*hic*-ee what to do!?”

“Clockwork, stop, just stop.” Monochrome complained

“Screw you guys. *hic*. Anyone want a beer?”

“No.” Everyone ells said at once.

“Right, let me guess, *hic*, underage drinking thing right?”

“No, we just don’t want any.” Twilight replied. Clockwork shrugged his shoulders and continued drinking, he put the bottle he was holding up to his mouth and leaned his head back, and while doing that, he fell backwards off the rock he was sitting on, he fell onto his back then passed out into a deep sleep.

“Thank my dead sister.” Monochrome cheered.

“Yeah, now we just have to deal with his snoring.” Arrowhead added. “But I guess it isn’t as bad as his singing.”

“Trust me it isn’t. Ok, we made it to the top of a freezing mountain, we’ll make our way down tomorrow and continue to Blackwood, any objections?” Monochrome asked.

“Just one,” Applejack started. “We need food. I haven’t eaten for at least 4 days.”

“Don’t worry, before I left home with Twilight a managed to get a few things to bring on the trip.” Monochrome reached into the bag that Twilight packed an pulled out his backpack. He opened it up and pulled out a bag of marshmallows and a few metal sticks and passed them around to the others. “I know this isn’t much, but it’ll give us a bit more energy for the journey tomorrow.” He passed the bag around and they each took a few of the white puffs out of it. The skewered them with the sticks and held them over the fire.

“You’re right, it aint much, but I aint complaining.” Applejack laughed. After they finished eating they fell asleep, hours later when the sun rose and everyone woke up to the next day. Clockwork was the first one to awaken, and with a terrible hangover. He held his head as he stood up, he looked over to the others and saw they were asleep.

“Isn’t that adorable.” Clockwork smiled sinisterly. He pulled out his gun. “Wake up you sleeping bitches!” Clockwork yelled as he pointed his gun into the sky and fired. The others started freaking out and scrambling to get up. “good morning yah bitches!” he yelled. Monochrome snarled at him then approached him. He lifted his finger and pointed it at him for about a minute. “…Can I help you?”

“I swear, if you ever do that again, I will point that thing up your ass, and pull the trigger.” Monochrome snarled. Clockwork ignored him then walked over to the ledge. “Ok,” he yawned. “Everyone get packed, we’re leaving.” The others started groaning with annoyance as they packed everything away. After they got finished they started walking back down the mountain, and an hour later they made it half way to the base. “There is no way in hell you’re going to be able to get one of those things to run off a cliff.”

“You wanna bet?” arrowhead added.

“Fine, 500 bits says you can’t get one of those things to do that.”

“700 says I can.”

“Deal.” Monochrome and Arrowhead shook hands as the deal was struck.

“Is now the best time to be competing with each other?”  Nyx complained.

“Yes, yes it is.” The two said at once. After that they suddenly stopped as they approached a turn in the path.

“What is it?”

“One of those things is right around the corner. Monochrome make a cave for the others, I’m going to prove you wrong.” Arrowhead said smugly. Monochrome chuckled as he placed his hand on the stone wall, he waited a second, then at random the red stone turned into dust and he guided the others into the shallow cave. Once they were hidden Arrowhead walked around the corner and started yelling at the infected calling it a rotten chunk of meat and a maggot magnet. He growled at him then started rushing towards him. He took a few steps back until he was standing on the edge of the path, when it got close enough, he took a step out of the way and watched it plummet to its death. The others came rushing out of the cave and over to him. He held his hand up telling them to remain quite, then after a few seconds there was a thud and he lowered his hand and held it open in front of Monochrome.

“…Bitch, fine.” He pulled a small sack of money out of his pocket and handed it to him. “You got lucky, nothing more.” Arrowhead laughed as he put the money in one of the many pockets on his vest. After wards they continued walking down the mountain. Hours later they made it to the bottom and started walking through the waste land ahead of them.

“So, all we have to do, is cross the valley, and we’ll be in the swamps?” Clockwork asked.

“Yes, for the 9th time yes.” Arrowhead started complaining. He covered his ears as Clockwork continued talking. He turned around and was about to hit him until he saw a cloud of red dust in the distance. “…Son. Of  a. Bitch.”

“Something wrong-“

“Run, all of you run…Now!” Arrowhead yelled. The others didn’t ask what wass going on, they just started running with him.

“Arrow!” Twilight yelled as she caught up with him. “What’s going on?”

“Mad men, a group of people that roam around the valley. Bunch of dumb ass hics.” He groaned. As they ran the sound of their laughing and the music from their radio started getting louder.

“We can’t out run them!” Twilight started panicking. Arrowhead ignored her and kept running. As Monochrome ran he turned back and saw them, one of them climbed onto the back of their truck and armed a mounted gun on it and started shooting them. The bullets flew by them and hit the ground at their hooves.

“What the hell is with these guys-?!” Monochrome yelled

“Don’t ask!” Arrowhead interrupted. As they were running one of the bullets managed to hit Monochrome and ricochet off the back of his head.

“Gahh-Son Of A Bitch!”

“What happened?!”

“Those bastards shot me!”

“And your alive?!”

“I have flesh made of a steel titanium mix and bones made of diamond, of cores I’m alri-Gahh, damn it!” Monochrome yelled as another bullet ricochet off the back of his head. “You know what screw it! I’m gonna kill these bastards!” Monochrome slid to a stop. He turned around and pulled the black pole of his back and swung it to the sides reveling 3 blades. He faced the men chasing him, he swung his scythe causing a wave of magic to fly from it towards them. They swerved out of the way and continued driving towards him. He tightened his focus, and as he was about to attack again, another truck appear out of the cloud of dirt. “…Bitch.” He said to himself. The second truck moved to the side and launched a strange canister towards him. He landed heavily on the ground. Monochrome looked at it then without warning, the pannles on the side of it shot off and it started releasing a gas that made him feel sleepy. He started coughing, the fell straight to the ground and went unconscious. One of the trucks raced past him and continued chasing the others, the other one stayed there, the people on it got off and bound Monochromes hands behind his back and threw him onto the bed of the truck, they got back on then the driver drove them back to the cliff face.

“Arrow, I think we just lost Monochrome.” Twilight told him

“That aint good.” he replied.

“You guys go on ahead, I’ll stay.” Clockwork told them. He slowed down until he came to a complete stop. He pulled the GUAS off his back then turned around towards them. “Smile, you red-neck bastards.” Clockwork whispered to himself. He leveled the GUAS the fired it. The truck swerved out of the way causing the shot to miss and explode on the ground behind it. The blast managed to clear away some of the dust revealing a third truck which raced out and joined the first one. Clockwork placed the gun down and started reloading it, and before he could fire it again, the second truck shot at him. The shot hit the ground and exploded sending him flying. As he got up the same truck that shot at him drove by, the gunner pulled out a club and hit him causing him to black out. They did the same to him as they did to Monochrome, they bound his hand together then took him back to the cliff face.

“Arrow, I don’t we’re going to out run them.” Twilight told him.

“All of you keep running, I’ll stop them.”

“Red you can’t be serous!” Twilight started complaining.

“Still my job to defend royalty you know.” He opened his wings and started flying. He did a U-turn mid air and flied towards them. He drew his swords and got ready to attack. He landed on the hood of the truck. The gunner readied the gun and started shooting him. He ducked down and the bullets went right above his head. The gunner started aiming downwards and ended up shooting the window off and the engine. Red jumped to the side and onto the bed of the truck. The gunner let go of the gun and started fighting with him. He managed the throw a few punches but Red hit him too many times and he started swaying as he lost his balance. Red picked him up and threw him off the truck and into the red cloud. He then picked up the driver and threw him out causing the truck to spin out of control. He jumped into the air and started flying towards the others as the truck started rolling on its side until it came to a stop. He turned around and smiled as he saw the damage, but as he was about to fly off bullets came out of nowhere and hit his wings causing him to fall. As he started getting up a forth truck raced out of the cloud and attempted to run him over. He lied back down and it passed right over him. He opened his eyes and saw a random man wearing a welding mask and holding a pipe, and before he could react the man hit him and knocked him out, and just like the others he was tied up and token away.

“Arrowhead, I can’t keep running.”

“Don’t give up, we’re almost there!” the last six of them kept running. They turned back and saw about three other trucks following them. Two of them went around to the sides. Two of the people had lassos, they threw them out and caught Nyx and Agony, the trucks stopped and tripped them. They struggled to free themselves, but were eventually knocked out cold and taken away.

“No!” Twilight yelled. She wanted to go back and get Nyx and the others but Arrowhead demanded that they keep moving. Then eventually the third truck came up behind them. The gunner on the back leveled his gun and shot a net out of it that entangled Applejack And Fluttershy, the truck stopped. The gunner and the passenger got out and threw the two into the back. Twilight gave up, she stopped and turned around and started racing over to them. She pulled out her staff and was ready to attack them. She leaped into the air, the orb on the end of the staff started glowing, she slammed it onto the ground and a wave of magic started shooting out of the ground and headed to the truck. It launched it into the air and caused it to explode. She was about to do it again, but someone came up behind and knocked her unconscious. Arrowhead stopped, he turned around and saw nothing, nothing but the red cloud. He fell to the ground. He failed, it was his job to protect them, and he failed, and before he could do anything ells, his sight went completely black. Everything was cold and silent. He started opening his eyes and he saw himself being moved away from somewhere. His sight was blocked by the red fog but he knew he was moving. He couldn’t keep his eyes open and he ended up losing sight, next time he opened his eyes he heard someone talking, it was Applejack, she was yelling at someone. Arrowhead closed his eyes again and immediately opened them wide. He shook his head and started looking around.

“Where, am I?”

“Nice to know yer awake bud,” a mysterious man said to him. He looked over to his right and saw a man wearing jeans and a hat, nothing more. The sight of his hideus body sent shivers down Arrowhead’s spine.

“Who the hell are you?”

“My name’s Redneck, these are my boys, they aint important.” He stood up and his fat stomach seemed to grow. Arrowhead almost threw up when he started moving around. He closed his eyes and looked away from him.

“Why are you-“

“Just getting ready.” He paused and stretched.

“Getting ready for-Holly crap, I’m blind.” Arrowhead opened his eyes when he said that, when he did he saw him bending over right in front of him. “Ready for what?”

“Well, me and my boys call it a “play date” but you and yer “civilized” friends call it somthin ells.”

“…What?”

“Get off me yah fat blob!” Applejack yelled. Another one of the Mad Men forcing her to walk, she was shirtless but still had her bra on.

“Ey! Can I have this one?” the other man asked.

“All yours Poncho.” He told him. After that the other man lead her over to a table then bent her over on it.

“Wait, what are you…- Oh, please no!” Applejack started screaming. But before that man could actually do anything, there was what sounded like a roaring noise coming from behind one of the walls. Everything was silent except for the few tears hitting the floor from Applejack. After about a minute of pure silence, the wall exploded and someone flew right through the hole in it. He hit the wall and blood spurted out of his stomach and he had blood coming from his mouth, ears, and eyes. Everyone was focused on him, but after a second a dark figure appeared in the smoke, and when it cleared, it appeared to be Clockwork. He turned his head and saw the man holding Applejack.

“You get your hands off of her you fat ass bitch!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. He lifted his hand and punched him, and his fist went right through his hade and came out the other side of it. He picked up his now lifeless body and threw it at the other dead body.

“Hey you can’t just-!” and before Redneck could finish, Clockwork lifted his gun and blew his head off, covering the wall behind him with blood. He put his gun away and hurried over to Applejack.

“A.J., are you alright!?” he worried as he untied the rope binding her hands together. When she was freed she hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back. “Applejack, I promise you I will never let anything like that happen to you again.” He told her in a caring tone. Applejack started smiling, but she was still heavily crying.

“Not to ruin this moment between the two of you but uh…help?” Arrowhead interrupted them. Clockwork walked over to him and placed his hoof on his back, forcing him to lean forward. He drew his gun and shot the chain connecting him to the wall.

“Need help with the cuffs?”

“Nah, I got it.” Arrowhead replied. He stood up and bent forward, he twisted his wrist which opened his bow and caused one of the cuffs to break off. He flicked his other wrist and it shot out one of his arrows also breaking the other cuff.

“Thanks.”

“Not a problem.” Clockwork replied.

“Hey, I’ll be right back I need to get my shirt.” Applejack interrupted as she started walking into the other room.

“Can’t you leave it off? You look better this way.” Clockwork asked.

“If it was just me you and the girls…maybe, but since he and Monochrome are with us, no.” Clockwork sighed with sorrow as Applejack walked into the other room. A minute later she came out buttoning up her shirt.

“Clockwork, where are the others?” Arrowhead asked. Clockwork shrugged his shoulders.

“Get off of me you disgusting pervert!” Nyx yelled from another room. The others raced through the hole Clockwork made and saw her cornered by another one of the Mad Med, missing her shirt just like Applejack.

“Hey jackass!” Arrowhead yelled, the man looked at him and when he did an arrow flew right through his eye and pinned him to the stone wall, he didn’t scream in pain or anything, he died instantly. The others ran over to Nyx and untied her.

“Where’s my mom? Is she safe!?”

“Nyx calm down, we don’t know yet?” Applejack tried calming her down. There were another two screams coming from down the hall.

“Nyx get dressed, me and Arrow will be right back.” Clockwork told her as he ran off. He told Arrowhead to follow him as he passed by. When they turned the corner they saw Agony and Twilight being dragged.

“Arrowhead, help!” Twilight yelled. He raised his bow and shot the man dragging her in the back of his head. The other one turned around just in time to be shot by Clockwork. Twilight untied her slef using her magic and Agony did the same thing.

“Mom!” Nyx yelled as she went around the corner. She raced over to her and the two of them hugged. “Mom I was so worried about you, I thought- wait why a’m I hugging you your shirt less.” She let go of her then helped the two up.

“Where are the others-“ Twilight started but before she could say anything ells the wall collapsed. They all looked at what used to be a stone wall and saw Monochrome and Red standing there.

“…Good evening.” Monochrome calmly said to them. He walked over to them stepping over all the rubble and dead bodies. “So…why are you two shirtless?”

“Long story, don’t want to talk about it.” Twilight told them.

“Fair enough-“

“Your majesty I am So sorry I couldn’t protect you.” Red interrupted.

“Red, shut up, it’s not your fault.” Agony told him.

“Where is Fluttershy?” Monochrome interrupted them.

“Actually I think I saw her get dragged into one of the rooms you destroyed-or she could be through that door all the way over there.” Nyx pointed to the door in the room that Red and Monochrome were in, and standing in the door way is Fluttershy fully dressed. They all cheered and raced over to her, they asked how she escaped, and when they did she moved out of the way and looked into the room and saw a man cowering in fear in the corner. The men were shocked but the girls were just impressed.

“So, how do we get out of here?” Agony asked.

“Leave that to me.” Monochrome said. He walked over to one of the walls, he lifted his leg and kicked, the shock knocked down the wall he hit and several others. They raced through what was left of the cave and managed to finally get outside.

“Fresh air finally, I was getting sick of that sweaty smell.”

“Hey!” one of the Mad Men yelled as he raced out side.

“Get in the trucks!” Clockwork demanded, the all raced over to the trucks and paired up with 4 in one 5 in the other. No one knew how to start them. Clockwork snapped his fingers and just like the quads the engines roared to life and they drove off, the Mad Men didn’t waste time, they got into the trucks and followed them.

“Shit, what do we do?” Monochrome asked.

“Easy, do as I do.” Clockwork told him. He climbed out of his seat and onto the bed of the truck, Monochrome did the same thing. Then they both pulled back a bolt on the mounted guns which armed them, once they were armed, they laid waste to all the Mad Men destroying at least 12 trucks a second.

“Can you guys speed it up a bit? I’d rather not get killed.” Monochrome complained. Red and Arrowhead sped up and managed to get further away from the army following them. Monochrome and Clockwork continued shooting.

“Guys we got a problem!” Red yelled at them, they looked to the front and saw a giant crane equipped with a wrecking ball.

“Turn, turn, turn!” Monochrome yelled, and at the last second before the ball could hit them they turned out of the way and instead of hitting them it hit all the others. Monochrome started up the gun and started shooting the cockpits of the crane. The bullets just bounced off instead of going through the windows and killing the operator. “Bitch bullet proof casing.” Monochrome complained as he continued shooting. Clockwork got bored of him shooting ineffective rounds and fire an explosive round at it and managed the blow off half of it.

“Their, now kill him!” Clockwork yelled, Monochrome turned back at the crane and shot a single round that managed to hit him in his head. His head came off but his body fell and get caught on the controls causing the crane to go haywire. It started spinning out of control and hit all the other trucks that got near it. They left it as it is then continued driving out of the canyon. It was originally going to take at least a day, but now it only took 5 hours.

Arrowhead, the bravest warrior

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.

Jetstream Shimmersky

“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.

The ritual

“Come on Clockwork we don’t have all damn day!”

“Keep your pants on I’m almost done!” Monochrome sighed with irritation as he placed his hand over his forehead.

“You know, I don’t even know why we even stop for you.”

“Because I’m the strongest out of all of you-“

“Physically, yes. Mentally…not even close.” Jetstream interrupted. Monochrome laughed. Seconds later Clockwork walked out of the bushed buckling his belt.

“You know, I’m startin to find it repulsive that yer the one who loves me.”

“Yah, well I’m the only one you got so if you want a family, you got me-“

“Stop scaring her, Clockwork.” Monochrome interrupted before the others broke out into laughter.

“Screw you fancy mane.”

“Ok, boys, boys enough, we need to keep moving. We need to get over the hills before sundown or ells it’s going to be harder to see.” Jetstream interrupted them. They agreed with her then continued moving.

“You know what lady, I just realized something.” Clockwork froze where he stood and refused to continue moving. “I just realized you’re the one leading us, and you know what, I think it should be me who leads-“

“Clockwork is now really the best time-“Monochrome started

“No, no let him speak.” Jeatstreaam interrupted.

“I’m just saying. A girl like you should be in the middle of the group where it’s safe-“

“Excuse me? I can take care of myself, you’re the one who needed help when your hoof got caught in that vine-“

“It looked like a hand-“

“It looked nothing like a hand, hell, without me, you might not have even got past that sink hole-“

“I could have helped myself”

“Ahhh, help me, help me, please I don’t want to die, mommy help” Jestream imitated Clockwork. The others started laughing while he stood there and blushed.

“Buck off you whore-“

“Excuse me!?”

“Easy! Clockwork you had no right to say something like that-“Monochrome got between the two.

“She keeps insulting me-“

“Your and idiot, you deserve it.” Clockwork scowled at him.  “And Jet, calm down alright? The last thing we need is you turning his head inside out.” Jetstream took a deep breath and exhaled.

“I can take care of myself Clockwork. I don’t need anyone protecting me.”

“Ok then, you lead, but when a zombie blocks your path, don’t come crying to me.” Jetstream held her head up high and kept walking. The others followed her for a while until they got to a split in the path. They stood there attempting to decide which path to take, and when Jetstream suggested to go right, Clockwork started moving past everyone and went left.

“Oy, dumbass, where are you going?” Monochrome called out as he ran up to Clockwork.

“Going on my own, I’ll meet up with the rest of you.” Clockwork replied as he kept walking.

“That’s not a good idea.” Jetstream added as she joined up with Monochrome.

“And why not?” Clockwork stopped and turned around to face her.

“That path leads nowhere, you go that way it’s going to be a hour wasted.”

“When I get to the end I’ll turn around come back here and take the other path-“

“The other path has multiple splits in it, you’ll get lost and we’ll wind up having to come get you.”

“I can take care of myself.” Clockwork turned back around and continued walking. Jetstream sighed and Monochrome shook his head in disappointment. When they started walking back Screwball ran past them and over to Clockwork.

“Screwball, come back here.”

“Listen to your mother kid, that guy’s brain is a lost cause.” Monochrome added. Screwball stopped and looked back at them then continued running. Once she got close enough to Clockwork she started slowing down until she was at the same speed as him. She caught up with him and started walking along side him.

“Why are you traveling on your own?”

“Because your mother is a bitch that’s why.”

“Yeah, well I think you should listen to her, she’s usually right most of the time-“

“Piss off you little brat.” Clockwork interrupted. He placed his hand on her chest and shoved her onto the ground. Jetstream saw him do that and started growling. She ran over to her and helped her back on to her hooves.

“Are you ok sweety?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Once she was standing up again Jetstream walked over to Clockwork and tapped his shoulder. When he turned around she punched him right in his jaw and he spun around and landed face first into the dirt path. She kneeled down and grabbed the hair on the back of his head and lifted him up by it.

“If you ever touch my daughter again, I will kill you.” She let go of him and his head fell back into the dirt. She then took Screwball and went to rejoin the others. Monochrome smiled then followed her. Moments later Clockwork got back up, daze and disoriented he turned around and started heading towards the others. When he got over to them he fell on Monochrome who caught him and held him up.

“You ok there?” Monochrome asked as he held him up. When he tried talking it was just weird noises. “Say again?” Clockwork repeated himself but it was the same thing. He lifted his head and revealed that his jaw was dislocated. He lifted his hand and pointed at Jetstream. He attempted talking again but same as the last two times, it wasn’t understandable. Monochrome grew irritated with his random noises so he grabbed his jaw and shoved it back into place. The pain caused Clockwork to start screaming. After a few seconds he stopped and started ranting again about Jetstream breaking his jaw.

“List, buddy, are you going to keep complaining about it or are you going to get over it?”

“Screw you!” Clockwork yelled. He got Monochrome to let go of him then started walking down the other path that he should have go down. The others slowly followed behind him, thinking he’d pass out, he didn’t, but he fell down several times, and the tenth time he did, he decided not to get up.

“Clockwork, are you going to keep moving or are you going to give up?” Monochrome asked as he approached him, Clockwork didn’t say anything, he just lied there. “I’ll take that as a no.” Monochrome picked him up and started carrying him over his shoulder. After a few feet Jetstream stopped them. She ran in front of everyone and told them to stop. They stood there for a second waiting for something to happen, and something did, the air in front of them started rippling and moving, they were able to see it. Jetstream got into a stance and stayed in it, the suddenly out of nowhere, a unicorn dashed out of thin air coated with a strange aura. She dashed at Jetstream and she grabbed the infected woman and threw her right over the others. She teleported before she could hit the ground and reappeared above Jetstream. This time she lifted her leg and kicked her right before she could land on her. It sent her flying away but she got back up and started running towards her. Jetstream reached for the holster on her left side and pulled out a combat dagger which she threw into the air, she kicked the unicorn and caused her to stumble backwards, she caught the dagger mid-air and slashed at her and cut her eye. The cut was less than an inch deep, but it didn’t matter, when the unicorn tried focusing again it turned into dust. Jetstream put the knife away. She faced the others waiting for them to say something. They remained speechless. Jetstream smiled and continued walking. After a while they arrived at another split in the road. Monochrome placed Clockwork against a tree and attempted to wake him up. While they decided which road to take the clouds started gathering together and a storm started growing.

“…Damn.” Jetstream mumbled with irritation as the rain started to fall. They all started panicking due to the heavy rain. While the others scrambled to take cover under the trees, the heavy rain fall caused Clockwork to wake up. He looked around him and saw the others hiding under trees. He slowly stood up holding himself steady by leaning against the tree.

“How long have I been unconscious?”

“At least half an hour.” Monochrome replied. Clockwork looked around and noticed a cave. He stood up and started walking over to it, completely ignoring the rain. Once he was inside he called to the others and told them to hurry up. They all rushed over and made it in before they got completely soaked. “So, does this place have and alternate exit?”

“Yeah, but it’s at least 3 miles.” Jetstream answered. Monochrome sighed with annoyance.

“Might as well get moving then.” Monochrome started leading the others threw the dark tunnel, lilting up the way with a spell. Half way through, they started hearing strange noises and started seeing strange markings on the wall. Red markings and words that almost looked like they were written in blood. They continued moving and once they were father in, the noises turned into laughter. “Hold up.” Monochrome stopped them  as he peaked around the corner. He saw a strange man, white hair, light blue skin, his eyes were a light blue color like Nyx’s, and he was wearing black robes. He was curled up in a corner smiling and laughing, rocking back and forth. “Who the hell-“

“It can’t be, I thought he was dead.” Nyx whispered.

“You know him?”

“His name is Spell Nexus, he’s the reason I’m alive, if he didn’t mess up the ritual I’d be Nightmare Moon.” Monochrome looked away from and towards her then back at him. He went out from behind the corner and started moving towards him.

“Uh, hey-“

“Don’t stand in the circle!” Nexus yelled at him. Monochrome paused for a second. The others joined him and moved out from their hiding place. “You! What are you freaks doing here?! How are none of you dead!?”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked. She started moving forwards but Nexus at random again yelled at her and told her not to step in the circle.

“This is just ridiculous, why the hell are you-“Monochrome took a step forward and placed his hoof right on the edge of the red circle. There was a jolt of lightning and was sent flying all the way to the wall of the back of the cave. The others panicked and rushed towards him, but Spell Nexus told them to stay as far away from him as possible. They backed away from him and stood completely still.

“You have to stay away from him, he’s a monster now…no…no, No, not again! I can’t deal with it again!” Nexus covered his ears. The others became consumed as to what he was doing or talking about. Jetstream walked over to the circle, she used her magic to destroy some of the ground the circle is on to prevent it from affecting anyone ells.

“Ok Spell Nexus, what did you do to Monochrome.” Twilight demanded. But before he could say anything, Monochrome jolted to life and started screaming. Everyone in the room covered their ears hoping to block out the sound, but somehow, it did nothing, the noise stayed the same, it wasn’t muffled, it wasn’t any quieter, nothing. He just screaming in agonizing pain. Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, and when she did, she saw something that she’d never forget, when she closed her eyes she saw thousands of souls that have died over time, screaming and begging for death thinking that they were still alive. She quickly opened her eyes again to see the others starting to tremble in fear and sorrow. They couldn’t take it, his screaming was unbearable and fiscally painful. Their skin started to feel like it was burning and they started crying. Hours later he finally stopped, his screams died down and the echoes had stopped. They looked towards him and his flesh looked like it was rotting away, it was turning moldy and looked like it was damp.

“What…what was that?” Twilight asked in complete shock.

“He became infected…he stepped in the circle…just like her.” Nexus pointed to a dead corpse lying against the wall.

“Who is-“

“That’s me…my alternate side at least.” Agony interrupted. The corpse was completely mangled.

“I had to kill her…I had to kill her when she stopped screaming…if I tried killing her while she was screaming…it wouldn’t work…it wouldn’t work…” Nexus started laughing again. They looked over to Monochrome, thinking he was dead, but he wasn’t, his dead corpse started standing up.

“The hell…” Clockwork shouted out in shock. What was once Monochrome started pulling out his scythe. He lifted it up and pointed the tip at Nexus.

“Pro peccatis, et percutiam te, quia induxisti super me.” He said in a gurgling voice. He took a single step forward and somehow wound up in front of him. He slashed his scythe upwards and cut him in half; he then turned to the others and started speaking again. They weren’t able to understand what he said, but they knew it wasn’t good. He dashed forward again and slashed at Twilight, but Red shoved her out of the way in time. He turned towards Clockwork.

“Ego vitam finire, nigrum bestia” he rushed towards Clockwork and right as he was about to swing, Clockwork jabbed him in his stomach causing him to flinch. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at his head.

“Got any last words you rotten flesh bitch?” Clockwork smugly asked him. Monochrome looked up at him. He opened his eyes and they were shinning blue. “I’ll take that as a no.” He was getting ready to pull the trigger and before he could, Monochrome took the gun from him and knocked him to the ground. He raised the gun and smashed it on the ground right at Clockworks hooves. He was stunned. The gun he spent the last year making destroyed right in front of him. Clockwork grew angry, when Monochrome was about to swing the scythe at him, he grabbed it right by the blade. His hand began to bleed, but he didn’t care. He slowly stood up still holding on to the blade. Once he was up he took it away from Monochrome and threw it away somewhere. “You just made the biggest mistake of your entire afterlife you good for nothing, maggot ridden, blue eyed, son of a bitch.” Clockwork lifted his hoof and kicked him in his chest, the strength caused Monochrome to fly back to the back wall. Clockwork pulled a black rod out of his pocket. He applied pressure to it and it extended. He then slammed the end of it on the ground and two massive metal circles appeared out of the sides of the top of it, both were connected by scythe blades, there was a metal spike at the top, and a small black sphere under it. “Prepare to have that fat ass of yours kicked!”

“Multo labore sudatum est et tu, ut me ridere mortales" Monochrome stood up again and turned his hands into blades. The two stood there, refusing to let the other leave their line of sight.

“…Your move, jack ass.” Monochrome dashed towards him and slashed upwards, Clockwork took a step back and completely dodged it. He took his war hamed with both hands and slammed the head of it on the ground right at Monochromes hooves, the strength caused a slab of stone to fly up on one end sending Monochrome face first into the celling of the cave. He fell back down and struggled to get back up. When he did he saw Clockwork holding his hammer ready to swing, when he did, Monochrome caught it right when it was an inch from his head. Clockwork struggled to get it away from him, when he did Monochrome slashed at him and cut his chest. Clockwork took a step back and covered his wound.

“Dic mortale tibi vota in hoste furit” Monochrome told him as he held one of his blades to his face. Clockwork looked up at him and smiled. He stood up with his arm still across his chest.

“It’s weird how you think you’ve won.” Clockwork said smugly. Monochrome turned around and saw all the others there with their weapons drawn and ready.

“Vis crescit numero in omnibus, et in me. Videbitis iterum cum copiis movet.” Monochrome spoke with his gurgled voice. There was a flash of light and he disappeared. Everyone started cheering except for Clockwork who was dangerously injured. The cheering died down when they noticed Clockwork struggling to stand up. They started approaching him.

“You alright?” Jetstream asked.

“You know…know what…I’m sorry. I could use some help…help getting back up at least.” Jetstream smiled and walked over to him and held him up. Twilight walked over in front of him and placed her hands over his chest. She took a deep breath. When she exhaled there was a bright light coming from his chest. The light faded away a second later. She moved her hands away and the cut was gone.

“You’ll be weak for a while so take it easy.” Twilight told him. He smiled. He pulled a piece of string out of his pocket and tied it around his right arm, he then pulled one of the needles and inserted the tip of it in his arm and pushed down on the needle.

“Are you…are you doing drugs-?!“ Jetstream yelled at him.

“I can’t help it it’s a massive addiction, if I don’t use this stuff every now and then I can’t focus.” Clockwork pulled the needle out of his arm and removed the string.

“Feeling any better?” Twilight asked with annoyance.

“Yes…Jetstream, to the exit” He looked at her and she was looking back at him angrily. “…Please?” she rolled her eyes and guided them out of the cave and back onto the trail.

Bad memories

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.

Jetstream, the caring mother

“So, Red, think you can explain what happened back there? I’m still confused.” Jetstream asked.

“Sure, I have the power to jump from one time stream to another.”

“And, what does that mean?”

“Well, it means…huh, well think about it this way, say there was one person and two different events that happen to her at the same moment in time.”

“Uh huh.”

“Those events are, winning money, and finding true love, and since she can’t do them both she has to do one or the other. So here’s what it is, there are millions of different events in history, and I have the power to choose which one I go to, or something like that. So, like I was saying, say we live in the time stream where the girl got money, what I can do, is go from that time stream, to the other one. Example; when she one the money, someone else lost and started stealing, so, I got to the one where she found the love of her life, that person wins the money, they don’t steal, And, the start a business that helps everyone, get it?”

“Yeah, I kind of get it now-“

“Would you all shut the hell up your killing my brain?!” Clockwork yelled out. Everyone went silent.

“Think you can take me to the time stream where Clockwork isn’t a jackass-?” Jetstream giggled.

“Screw you, you bucking whore!” Clockwork snapped at her.

“What did you call me-?!”

“A…Bucking…Whore!” Jetstream growled at him. He turned around and kept walking, when his back was turned Jetstream went up to him and tried to sucker punch him, but he noticed her and caught her fist before she could hit him and he punched her in her stomach and knocked her back. “You want to try that again-?!”

“Hey, you can’t hit my mom!” Screwball yelled at him.

“Yeah? What are you going to do about it?” Clockwork laughed and kept walking. Screwball ran up to him and latched onto his back, wrapping her arms around his throat. “Get off me you little bitch!” he slammed her into a tree behind him, when she fell off he picked her up by her neck and slammed her against the tree and put his gun to her head. “You crossed the line you little bucker.” Jetstream got up and rushed over to them, and before he could pull the trigger, she took her combat dagger and stabbed him right in his lower spine. He started screaming, he threw Screwball and smacked her with his flailing arm while he was freaking out. She fell to the ground, he turned around and placed his foot on her and prevented her from getting up. “You, bucking bitch!” Clockwork screamed, he took his gun and pointed it at her head. “I’m going to kill you and your bucking daughter-!’

“No!” Screwball yelled. She ran up behind him and tackled him, sending him flying into a tree. She helped Jetstream back up then backed away from Clockwork. He attemped to climb out of the tree but fell onto his back, sending the knife deeper into his spine, he started screaming even louder as he flipped onto his stomach.

“Somebody get this bucking thing out of me!!” Clockwork started screaming uncontrollably. The others ran over to him and helped him up long enough for Twilight to pull the dagger out of his back, and right as it was removed she dropped it and yelped.

“What happened?” Applejack asked.

“It, burnt me.”

“The knifes’ enchanted.” Jetstream told them. “Anything unholy it kills immediately, everything else it burns.” Twilight looked at her hand, there was a red mark with blood running down it, and it was her blood.

“You bitch! I’m going to kill you-!”

“I wouldn’t have attacked you if you didn’t attack my daughter-!”

“I wouldn’t have attacked your daughter if she was such a pain in the ass-!”

“Both of you shut up!” Applejack interrupted. “Now is not the time to be fight’n one another, we need to get to Vanhoover so we can get out of here, and if we keep fight’n we’re never gonna make it!” The two of them stopped arguing. They looked at each other angrily, they didn’t say anything, they just looked at eachother. “Now, if the two of you are done, I think we should keep going, it’s going to take a while to get over the mountains.” After that she walked off with the others leaving Clockwork and Jetstream behind.

“…You know, I can’t move my leg’s because of you and your bitch of a daughter-.”

“How is that my problem-?”

“You stabbed me, yeah, it’s your problem.”

“Ok…it’s my problem, what do you want me to do?”

“Carry me, duh.” Jetstream growled at him and walked off to join the others. “…Uh, hey, where you going? I still need help!” Clockwork sighed then started dragging himself along the path, it took him a while, but he managed to catch up with the others. He stopped and started breathing heavily. He looked up at Jeatstream. “…Bitch…” he mumbled as he continued crawling.

“What’s with Clockwork?” Twilight asked.

“He’s just sore about the thought that he lost to a girl.” Jetstream chuckled. Applejack and Red went over to Clockwork, they offered him help to stand up but he refused, but eventually the ignored him and helped him up, he kept whining as they helped him but they ignored him.

“I could have done this on my own-!”

“It would have taken you at least a month to get to Vanhoover in this condition-.” Red replied.

“I don’t need your help!” Clockwork kept shouting and arguing, telling them he didn’t need their help, but everyone kept ignoring him and continued walking along the path until they finally got to the mountains guarding Vanhoover.

“Well, here we are, the rocky mountains, well…good bye-“

“Wait what do you mean good bye? We’re not at Vanhoover yet-.”

“No, but this is where we part, see over there? Underneath the largest mountain is the royal changeling hive of Queen Formora-“

“What does that have to do with us?” Clockwork rudely interrupted.

“I agreed to come with you so I could get Screwball here, I need to help her master the ancient language so she could awaken her Alicorn powers-“

“Ok, you know what, blah blah blah, all that is complete crap-“

“Yeah, don’t care. Anyway, if you all want, you could come with me into the hive. Changelings are immune to the disease so, they won’t turn, and since the entrance would be sealed off, it won’t be able to enter the tunnels.”

“…Well, the whole point of this was to get somewhere safe so I guess we could-“ Twilight stared before she was cut off by Clockwork

“Yeah, no. We’d rather take out chances with all the undead bastards then be stuck in a cave with you and that bitch daughter of yours.”

“Listen, I don’t care if you die a painful and blood filled death but I’m asking the others, not you.”

“Yeah well I’m answering for them and we say no-“

“You say no, they didn’t say anything-“ Jetstream replied, slowly becoming more irritated.

“Well they would have said no-“

“Actually we would have said yes-“ Twilight added

“You mean no! Come on lets go before the two whores do something stupid-“

“Call me that one more time-“

“WHORE-!”

“Go to hell you greased up, perverted, son of a bitch!”

“Go buck yourself you bucked up witch-!”

“Clockwork stop it-!” Applejack tried stopping him.

“I hope you burn in hell for all your sins you jacked up bastard-!”

“You can suck my dick you buck ass harlot-!”

“Clockwork I said enough-!”

“You don’t deserve to have friends you good for nothing buck faced bastrad-!”

“Go buck yourself in hell!” and that’s when the argument ended, Clockwork pulled out his gun and fired off a shot, he was trying to shoot Jetstream, but instead, the bullet went off course and hit Screwball in her head.

“NOO!” Jetstream screamed as she raced over to the body of her daughter.

“Pfft, BWAHAHAHAHA, I MENT TO SHOOT YOU, BUT THIS IS EVEN MORE HILAREUS!” Clockwork started laughing uncontrollably. Red and Applejack dropped him and walked away from him. “Fine, like I said, didn’t need your help.” Clockwork held himself up with his arms and tried to crawl away.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going…?” Jetsream demanded. Clockwork turned around and looked at her. Her eyes looked like they were lifeless.

“Wow, and I thought you looked stupid before.” Clockwork taunted her. She growled and then instantly was consumed by a pillar of green flames, when it vanished, her appearance had changed, her right wing turned into a bat wing, her left arm became a lion’s paw, and her eyes looked just like discords. Clockwork chuckled. “And I thought you looked Ugly before.” She roared at him then vanished, she then reappear in front of him. She picked him up and tossed him into the air then punched him sending him crashing into the trees and causing them to collapses on top of him. The trees started moving and one of them started rising as Clockwork started standing back up. “You, bucking, harlot.”  He tossed the tree away and started walking towards her.

“How are you standing? I thought you became paralyzed-“

“I did, thanks to you. But now, using a heal spell Monochrome taught me years back, I’m mostly healed.”

“Mostly?”

“You’ll see.” Jetstream roared again and the two started charging at each other. They both punched and both their firsts hit each other and caused Jetstream to fly back several feet. Clockwork chuckled sinisterly right before his left arm started sparking. “Damn it, piece of shit can’t g 10 seconds without breaking-“

“Clockwork what are you talking about?” Applejack asked. Just then, 4 ports opened up on Clockwork’s forearm and released jets of steam and closed back up. “Clockwork, what’s wrong with yer arm!?” Applejack and the others became both confused and scared.

“So that’s what you mean by that.” Clockwork started rushing towards her and she rushed towards him, he swung at her but she jumped out of the way and started flying above him.

“What’s wrong, scared I’ll kill you?” Clockwork taunted her. She grew annoyed, she lifted her hand and her started floating, then he swung his arms and he fell back down. “Do you really thing that your stupid magic is strong enough for my physical strength?” Jetstream charged at him and started slashing at him with her tiger claw, but he managed to dodge every attack and eventually attacked her back. He grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head and started punching her in her stomach repeatedly. He then threw her away. “You better not die on me now, I’m not done kicking your ass yet.” He walked over to her and picked her up by her hair, but she swung her claw and slashed her face, he started screaming and threw her again, this time she stood back up and rushed towards him. But before she could get to him he grabbed her by her throat. “You’re going to pay for that.” Clockwork pulled back his fist and four sharp spikes appeared from his knuckles. Right as he was about to punch her she flew into the air attempting to free herself from his hold. Clockwork struggled to hang onto her throat but eventually let and fell several feet to the ground.

“I’d like to see you get me from up here.” Jetstream taunted him. He took knew and pointed his robotic arm at her, he clenched his fist tighter and it flew off towards her. She flew out of the way and the metal fist fell into the forest and shatter several trees.

“Face it lady, you can’t get an advantage over me.” Clockwork laughed. He started realign his hand back using the chain it was attached to. Once it was reeled back he moved his fingers to make sure it was still working.

“I have to admit, that is impressive.”

“Danke, made it myself.” Clockwork stuck out his arm and launched his fist again, and like last time Jetstream moved out of the way and dodged it, but this time, Clockwork reeled it back while it was midair. “Can’t you stay still long enough for me to kill you?”

“You wish.” Jetstream held up her hand and instantly, a beam of light appeared and she threw it at him, he lifted his arm and blocked it completely, but his arm turned from it’s normal white color to a steel-ish silver color.

“your starting to piss me off!”

“Good.” Jetstream laughed. Clockwork held out his fit and spikes shot out of his knuckles, he then pointed his arm at her and shot his fist, and this time instead of dodging it, she caught it.

“Let go of my hand.”

“Make me.” Jetstream started yanking on the steel chain attempting to lift him into the air, but all it did was drag him forward slightly.

“Knock it off! Your throwing off my balance-“

“Good!” Jetstream pulled o the chain one more time causing Clockwork to fall face first into a patch of mud. He got up and started reeling the chain back, along with Jetstream. She lifted the chain, and when it got short enough she flew up higher and started spinning, by doing that Clockwork got lifted into the air and was spun around. He grabbed onto the chain and started using it to pull himself closer to her, when he was within reach of her, she let go and sent him flying into the forest, once he was gone she flew downwards and landed.

“…Mom?”

“Screwball?” Jetstream faced her daughter, she was attempting to stand up. She raced over to her and helped her up. “Screwball, are you alright?”

“…I feel, dizzy.” Screwball fell over but Jetstream quickly caught her.

“Don’t worry, it’s alright.”

“What happened to that man?”

“I…he’s gone, it’s ok-“

“You arrogant bitch!” Clockwork yelled as he stepped out of the brush of the forest, everyone looked over at him in surprise, he was somehow alive, even thought he had a tree branch sticking out of his chest and his robotic arm fell off. “You think you can kill me that easily!? I’m bucking immortal! You can’t kill me!” He rushed towards her in an attempt to attack, she stood her ground and attempted to protect her daughter, but instead, she stepped out from behind her. She lifted up her leg and Clockwork ran into it and her hoof landed right in his groin. He stumbled back holding his pelvis and groaning in pain. “Little…bitch…” he wheezed right before falling over. Jetstream and Screwball started laughing at him.

“You can survive a battle with me but you can’t survive one kick?!” Jetstream said as she laughed loudly. The two of them fell down due to their heavy laughter.

“It’s…not funny.” Clockwork groaned, still in pain. Eventually the others started laughing along with Jetstream and her daughter. Eventually the laughter died down and Jetstream returned to her normal form.

“Ok, ok, listen, tell you what, if you apologize to me and my daughter, I’ll let you stay with us in the changeling hive-“

“No!” Clockwork yelled, he attempted to get up but quickly fell back down.

“You sure? It’s safe there-“

“No, I’ll never apologize-“ Clockwork started groaning again, causing Jetstream and Screwball to start laughing again.

“Well, your choice. What about the rest of you? I still never got an answer.” Jetstream asked as she turned towards the others.

“Well-“ Twilight replied nervously. “It’s a nice offer, but we had a run in with the changelings a while back so, I doubt they’ll let us.”

“Don’t worry, they were under the rule of Chrysalis, I promise you Queen Formora is nice.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I think we should keep going.”

“Ok, your choice. Oh, Clockwork-“

“Just leave me be woman.” Clockwork interrupted in a depressed voice, he started getting up and faced away from everyone. “I lost my pride, I have no right to speak to the champion, nor the right to live-“

“Wait, what?” Jetstream shouted out in confusion.

“You won, which means I have to do what the winner wants, and considering you want me dead-“

“Ok, listen, you might be a complete jackass, but you can’t just kill yourself, I mean so what if you lost to a 13 year old girl-“

“Are you trying to make me feel better?!”

“Ok fine, forget it, if you want to die, go ahead, it’s not like I care about you anyway.” Jetstream turned her back to him and refused to speak to him anymore. He started walking towards the forest. Screwball looked at the two of them than raced over to him.

“Hey, mr-“

“What do you want kid, I’m trying to get myself killed.” Clockwork asked with annoyance. Screwball closed her eyes and a bright light appeared, when it went away, he mechanical arm appeared, and she was holding it.

“You should probably take this with you.” Clockwork took it and reattached it to the stub on his left side.

“Thanks kid, don’t know why you’re helping me, but, thanks.” Clockwork patted her head then continued walking.

“Screwball, why did you help him, he hurt you.” Jetstream asked.

“If he’s going to go get himself killed, should at least give him a fighting chance.” Jetstream smiled and hugged her.

“So listen, I can escort you the rest of the way to Vanhoover, if you want.” Twilight and the others smiled.

“Thanks, but we’ll be fine, besides, you should get Screwball into the caves, she might get infected because of the wound.” Twilight replied, Jetstream nodded and so did Twilight after that she and the others started heading towards Vanhoover.

“Hey.” Clockwork called out, Jetstream turned around and faced him.

“Oh…thought you would have been dead by now.” Jetstream said smugly. Clockwork started walking over towards her, she forced Screwball to get behind her, when he got close to her he stopped and held it his arm. She looked at t with confusion then back at his face.

“You’re one hell of a fighter, I’ll admit that.” Jetstream smiled and shook his hand. “Listen, it’s not in my nature to do this but…Sorry. I’m sorry  shot your daughter, insulted the two of you and attack you, sorry for all of that, I’m just in a bad mood.”

“Why’s that?”

“First off, Ebony betrayed me, me and him have been friends for as long as I can remember and…yeah, second, I lost Monochrome.”

“Oh yeah…why do you care about him, considering how you act around me and the others, I’m amazed you two don’t try to kill each other.

“To be honest, I can’t hate him, he was the first friend I ever made, we’ve been friends for thousands of years, even when I was turned evil, he still cared about me, and now…again, I’m sorry.” Jetstream smiled at him and he started walking off to rejoin the others. Later that day, when they all made it to Vanhoover, the town was in complete ruins, the buildings were collapsing and on fire, blood and corpses as far as the eye could see.

“What happened here?” Twilight asked herself. They continued walking into the city and towards the docks. They reached a four way intersection and none of them knew which way to go, they split up, Twilight and Nyx went down the northern street, Flutter shy and Red went down eastern street, and Applejack and Agony went down the western street. Along they way Nyx and Twilight reached another four way street.

“Now which way?” Nyx asked. Twilight looked around then eventually came to a conclusion.

“Over there, the sea is to the west, we head down this street and we’ll be there in no time.” Nyx smiled and followed her, and after a few minutes, a strange noise started sounding from behind them.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know.” They turned around and drew their weapons. They waited there, waiting to see if they were being followed, after a few minutes they put their weapons away and kept walking, and that’s when it appeared, an infected man raced out of one of the alley ways and headed towards them, he made almost no noise as he ran. He was a few feet away from them, he jumped into the air and right as he did a mysteries gun shot hit him in his head and knocked him back to the ground. Nyx and Twilight turned around and saw the body.

“Do I seriously have to protect you twits everywhere we go?!” the two looked up and saw Clockwork standing on top of one of the many skyscrapers.

“Clockwork!” Twilight shouted happily.

“We thought you were going into the forest to die?”

“I was-“ Clockwork paused as he jumped of the building and landed on the concrete road. “But I decided not to, so consider your selves lucky ok? Without me, you two would be that things next meal.”  Clockwork started kicking the corpse around like a soccer ball.

“So, why did you come back?”  Clockwork stopped kicking the body and looked over at Twilight.

“Do you really think I’m going to let you have all the fun? Like I’m really going to let you go out and kill all the zombies.” Clockwork put his gun away and kicked the body one last time. “Come in, let’s get to the docks before something bad screws us all.” Clockworck started guiding them thre the blood filled streets of the city until they eventually reach the Vanhoover docks, they waited there for the others and half an hour let they showed up.

“Clockwork? I thought you left.”

“Like I could leave a girl like you.” Clockwork replied while smiling.

“Well, we’re all here, so, I guess we can finally leave Equestria.” Twilight said to herself.

“I’ve haven’t been here for long, but I’m going to miss this place.”

“It’s ok Red, once we get to Eagland we’ll have a new home.” Fluttershy told him with sympathy.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, I wonder if I can find a nice griffon to fall in love with-“

“Hell since Monochromes’ dead why don’t you just take Gilda!” Clockwork started laughing, bt after noticing the others weren’t laughing with him he stopped. “…To soon?” they ignored hi then went over to the old Japanese war ship, docked at the end of the pier.

“Hey Nyx, hold on.” Red stopped Nyx and he let the other go ahead of then. “You remember what I said, the thing about finding a griffon?”

“Yeah, it was a few seconds ago, how could I forget?”

“Well, I wanted to tell you something. I was kind of joking about it, there was actually someone else to be honest.”

“Who is it?” Nyx asked. Red looked at her, she was smiling at him, he started blushing.

“Uh…was…uh…I, don’t think I can remember.”

“Oh…But hey, why did you only tell me?”

“Well…I just thought that, since you and I have kind of, similarity’s being related to someone evil ithought you might want to be the first to know…”

“Oh…ok…” Nyx looked at him with slight suspicion. “Well.. we should get going before the boat leaves without us.”

“Um, yeah, that would be best.” The two got over to the boat just in time to hear Clockwork arguing with the captain.

“For the last bucking time, Redtear sent us here so you could take us to Eagleland, if we wanted to hijack it we would have killed you-“

“No, we only take orders from the shogun! Now leave before we use force-“

“I’m about to kick your bucking head in-!”

“Clockwork, just stop ok, you’re not going to achieve anything by yelling at him. Listen, I am princess Twilight Sparkle, and I request that you transport us out of Equestria-“

“Princess, forgive me but we are only to depart under order of the shogun-“

“What the hell, you listen to her and not to me-“

“That’s because she actually knows what she’s saying.” Red interrupted. The ship captain looked at him then immediately bowed to him.

“Sir, what are you doing here, we thought you departed already .” Red looked around thinking there was someone else.

“Are you talking to me?”

“Yes, Red, the honorable warrior of Equestria. We didn’t know you were still here.”

“Uh…yeah, I’m still here, so listen, think you can get me and my friends out of here?”

“Of course, we would be honored to serve a man of your rank.” Afterwards the ship captain walked off yelling things ina different language.

“…What the hell, he serves you but not me!” Clockwork yelled.

“He is man of great honor, he is warrior of the royals, he surpasses even our Shogun, of course we serve him.” The ship captain walked off again and headed to the wheel, a few seconds later the ship started moving, everyone was finally heading out of Equestria.

“So, Clockwork, how did you get past Jetstream? Considering the fight you two had I’m amazed she didn’t try to attack you-“ Twilight asked

“Pfft, that whore? Yeah, I snuck past her-“

“You came to an understanding didn’t you?” Red interrupted.

“What!? Hell no! Like I’d ever do something like that-“

“Clockwork, you’re not fooling anyone, we know you apologized to her, we know treat her like a friend and now you think of her as one-“

“Ok fine yes, I said sorry to her ok! But it was only that one time, from here on out, I will never have another change of heart, it was only that once.” Clockwork pulled a cigarette out of his vest pocket, he placed it in his mouth then flipped open the top of one of his fingers on his mechanical arm and a small flame appeared and he used it to light it.

“So, Clock…what do you think about when you hear her name?” Red asked as he leaned against the rails next to him

“I don’t know, my mind just sort of goes all weird and my chest feels heavy and-Buck off!”  Clockwork yelled at him as the others started laughing at him.

Oporation: Stand Off

Later the same day as the team roamed the abandoned town. As they walked the streets they could hear faint moans coming from the undead that were still standing along with the sound of a few collapsing buildings and cracking fires. A while later they arrived at an intersection leading in four different ways, two lead to other streets while the third lead to a giant castle sitting on a cliff side. While deciding which street to take Dance Party pulled out a two-way radio, he extended the antenna on it and held it to his head.

“Attention, this is General Orange Hoof requesting extract at following location, X-9354, Y-293, arrive when contacted, over and out.”  As he began to put away the radio Monochrome started walking down the street leading to the castle. “Hey, blonde where do you think you’re going-?”

“First off, go to hell I’m not blonde, second, I need to go to the castle, I need to make sure that the people that live there are still alive-“

“Why do they matter to you? It’s not like you live there.” Dance Party replied, he started heading down the north street. Monochrome pulled out his scythe and teleported in front of him, he took his scythe and started forcing him back to the intersection.

“Listen, my wife and children live in that castle, and considering the condition of it, I doubt that they’re all still alive, but right now, I can tell that at least one of them survived, also, due to the large amount of infected, I need back up for escorting them out of there.” When he finished talking he put his scythe away and continued head towards the castle, the others hesitated then eventually followed him. Along the way they reached another intersection, when Monochrome attempted to keep moving Dance Party shoved him out of the way and moved in front of him. “What the hell are you doing now soldier boy?”

“Give me a second, I know this territory, and something’s wrong.” Dance Party stood there motionless for a moment, then out of nowhere, 3 infected charged out from behind the buildings and charged at him, he waited for a second then pulled the triggers on his guns; he got one with the first bullet then the other two with the other. “I sensed that there were a few extra things then their used to be.” He put his guns back into the pockets on his vest. Half an hour later they arrived the main gate.

“Ok, A.J., Dance, you two re up-“ Monochrome announced as he stood at the back of the group.

“Why do we have to do everything?” Dance Party complained as he moved away from the gate.

“Because, this gate has a magic seal on it, it can only be broken be two non-special people.” Dance party sighed with annoyance.

“What do we need to do?”

“See those two chains on the sides of the gate? You two need to take hold of them and pull them back with all your might.” Dance Party looked back and saw them, he sighed again and started heading towards the one on the left.

“This ota be good.” He grabbed the chain, and as soon as Applejack grabbed hers the two started pulling them back and the gate started sinking into the ground, after a few minutes, it was completely buried within the stone walk way.

“Ok, let’s go.” Monochrome announced, he started leading them down the path until they arrived at a colossal chasm. “Ok, Red, I’m going to need your help with this part.” Monochrome expanded his wings and jumped into the abyss, a moment later he flew back up holding a rope. “Come on Red, get the other one.” Monochrome demanded, he flew forward and took hold of the other rope then flew back alongside Monochrome. Once the ropes were held out a bridge rose from the green fog beneath them, Monochrome and Red held it steady as the others moved across it to the other gate, when they were all across, the two dropped the bridge and followed them. When they arrived at the next area, they noticed a mirror reflecting a green light off of it and four stone heads on the castle walls a normal one, one with wings, one with a horn, and one with horns and wings. “Ok, how do we do this part?” Monochrome whispered to himself.

“How do you know how to do all these other challenges, but not this one?” Dance Party asked with irritation.

“Bitch I built this place! Anyway, the problem isn’t that I don’t know how to solve it, the problem is how we do it.”

“…What?” Dance party replied with confusion, Monochrome sighed.

“Listen, I built the castle walls for this place-“

“What about the castle?”

“That was already there, I just improved it, but like I was saying, I built the castle walls. There are about 5 lairs to it, the first one was the Earth lock, second was the sky, third, aka this one, is the illusion lock, next will be youth lock, final is…wait no,there is no lock after that one, there was supposed to be one before the earth lock and it was…torn down so…huh…anyway, we need a unicorn to solve this-“

“What about an alicorn?” Nyx interrupted.

“As long as it has magic, but if we do use an alicorn for this part, we’ll need another one for the next part.”

“Why?”

“Youth lock, alicorn has to reduce their age to fit within small areas, it would be children but since we don’t have them with us we’ll-how long have they been here?” Monochrome asked, he pointed behind everyone and standing behind them all was Scootaloo and Applebloom.

“What!? What in tarnation are yall doing here, you were told to wait back in Ponyvile!”

“We wanted to help-“

“I told you little brats to wait with Brimstone-!”

“Clockwork shut up.”

“Can’t you pleases just let us help, we’ll behave, promise!” Applebloom negotiated with them, they gather together and thought of an answer, after a minute they thought of a decision and turned around to tell them.

“You two can stay, for now, after we get past the youth gate you two are to go back to Ponyvile-“

“How are we supposed to get there? The boat left.” Scootaloo interrupted.

“I’ll teleport you two back there. Now, since we got everything sorted out, Twilight, I need you to use your magic and turn the mirror and have the light shine on the statues in this order; normal, horned, winged then horn and winged, can you do that?”

“Yeah, give me a sec.” She used her magic and started moving the mirror, he tilted it towards one of the heads and it’s eyes  started glowing green, she did the same to the rest of them, and once all their eyes were glowing green, they began to fade to blue and the gate on the other side opened.

“Ok, let’s go-“

“Hold on, I need to make a call before we go any further.” Dance party interrupted as he pulled out his two-way radio again. He extended the antenna and held down the button on the side. “This is General Orange Hoof, connect me to the bas leader, over”

“Roger sir, this is Bombing Run, what do you need? Over.”

“I need a carpet bombing on my immediate area, over.”

“Roger that General, I’ll send out the convoy now, they’ll be there in about 2 hours, over.”

“Roger, over and out.” He began putting away the radio, and when he looked over to Monochrome he punched him.

“You bastard!” Monochrome yelled as the other held him back. “We save your ass and now you’re trying to kill all of us and my family-!?”

“That’s not what I’m planning-“ he replied as he got up and wiped the blood off his lip.

“Oh, it isn’t?! Ten explain what you just did!”

“Listen, that castle is the source of this outbreak. I was sent here to find it and destroy it, people in it or not-“

“If you kill my family I’ll beat the holy hell out of you!”

“Forget about your family, there are millions of other lives that need to be saved and it’s my job to protect them-“

“It’s your job to kiss my-“

“Scootaloo, Applebloom over your ears now!” Applejack shouted, she covered Applebloom’s ears and Fluttershy covered Scootaloos’. Monochrome and Dance Party continued yelling at each other, the two couldn’t hear them but the others could.

“If you’d just listen to me for one bucking second I could explain-“

“The only thing you’ll be explaining is how your face became a tangled mess to your superior!”

“You know what, forget it, you can go save your half assed family, I’m out of here.” Monochrome roared as he broke free from the others and raced towards him. He tackled him to the ground and started beating him, before he could do too much, Clockwork tackled Monochrome. He picked him up and threw him too far and he fell into the pit in the previous gate. Clockwork walked over to Dance Party and helped him up.

“You should know better than insulting his wife and kids pall.”

“Sacrifices have to be made to save others.” He replied as he swatted his hand away and stood up. “And why should I care about His family, what makes them so important? I bet their just another bunch of civilians.”

“His wife is royalty and so is he. His daughter is the carrier of an ancient spirit and his son is as strong as him.”

“Congrats to him, but I honestly still don’t give a shit-“

“I’ll burn your soul you mother bucker!” a voice yelled. Clockwork and Dance Party turned around and the pit from the previous gate started glowing with a blue light.

“Shit, start running!” Clockwork panicked as he started running away from the pit. Dance Party was paralyzed with fear, and by the time he started running a blue ball of fire shot out of the pit and into the air. He looked up at it for a moment, he was about to run again, but it shout out smaller balls of flame and revealed itself to be a white skeleton with a horn of bone, and wings and a tale made of blue flames.

“You’ll burn in hell for all the things you have said about the ones I love!” he opened his wings and flew towards him, but he jumped out of the way and Monochrome bounced off the ground and back into the sky, Dance Party looked down at where he landed and all the grass was burnt and dying. “Take back what you said!”

“Make me!” Monochrome roared again and dived towards him again thinking he could get him this time, he jumped out of the way again and pulled out his dual pistols and began shooting him. But when the bullets got close, they turned to dust due to the heat radiating off of him.

“I shall damn your soul till the end of existence!” Monochrome yelled at him. He held out his hands in front of him and a small orb of red fire appeared. The orb began to grow and smaller sparks of flame began rising from the ground and burning all the grass as they flew up towards him and into the orb.

“Monochrome, stop, please!’ Twilight yelled.

“Your soul shall burn!” Monochrome yelled. He raised the orb above his head. Its size was now 10 times of when it started.

“You think you can scare me!? Huh!? Do your worst you bucked up son of a bitch!”

“Yes…do it…” A dark and sinister voice whispered to Monochrome, everything went quiet, all the noises died down until they were eventually gone. Everything went still, colors started to fade away, and lights when dark. “Use your hatred…fuel the flames…kill them all…” the voice continued. Monochrome turned his head and he could see someone else leaning over his shoulder whispering into his ear.

“…Stop talking to me, I only want one of them to die-“

“No…you want all of them to die…you know it…just drop the flames…and watch them burn-“

“Be silent fiend-!”

“Burn them all…burn them…watch them suffer…make them beg-“

“Shut up!” Monochrome yelled. He let go of the orb and turned around, the man was gone.

“They must suffer…they all must suffer-“

“Silence!” Monochrome yelled as he turned his arm into a sword and turned around. He slashed it through the air attempting to use is magic, but when he did, his attack just floated in front of him, unable to move. His anger began to die down, he turned back into his normal self.

“Admit it…they must die…all of them…they all…must…die-“

“You must die you shaded bastard!”  Monochrome screeched. His arms and legs turned to bone, his skin turned yellow, and his hair tail and wings turned blue.

“They have sinned…you must cleanse them…”

“Never!” Monochrome turned his arms into sword again and started swinging them around uncontrollable, sending a wave of magic out every time he swung them.

“You hate them all…you know you do-“

“I hate no one but you!”

“You and I are alike…you cannot hate me-“

“I can hate any damn person I want-“

“Then hate them! They are your enemies! They are the ones who want you dead-!”

“You are the only one who wants me dead!”

“Kill them now-!”

“Never!” Monochrome shouted one last time before time went back to normal. The magic waves he sent out started flying everywhere, the other dodged them as they crashed near them, and the ball of fire Monochrome was holding exploded sending hi flying downwards. He crashed into the ground right on the ledge of the chasm.

“Monochrome!” Twilight rushed over to him. “Monochrome, are you ok?”

“…Kill me.” Monochrome replied with a blank expression and no emotion. Twilight helped him up.

“What happened to you? Why are your arms and legs like this?”

“It’s a mix of three of my emotions. It’s complicated.” Twilight chuckled as he got up.

“Are you still angry?” he looked at his arms, he took a deep breath and he went back to normal.

“Not any more. Hey, Dance boy-“

“If you still want to fight then at least give me some more ammo.” Monochrome walked over to him and picked him up by the collar of his shirt.

“If you ever, say anything negative about my family again, I swear to Celestia, I will bucking, kill you.”

“…Understood.” He replied. Monochrome put him down and walked over to the next gate.

“Let’s go! After that event I’m pretty sure we only have an hour left before that idiots bombing raid begins!” the others caught up with him. The next gate looked menacing, there were three small pipes made of steel pipes leading to three different locations, the large gate was broken and they could see the next gate through it, and the path was falling apart. “Well, let’s just skip this one, were going to need all of us for the last one-“

“I thought you said there wasn’t one after this!?” Dance Party started yelling at him.

“Yeah well I forgot ok!? Come on let’s go.” Monochrome started leading them through the current gate their at, he climbed through the hole on it and landed roughly on the stone path which looked like it was in near perfect condition. He looked up at the gate as he waited for the others to join him.

“Monochrome, didn’t this gate take four unicorns?”

“It did, but since I couldn’t get in without four other people, I made a few modifications.”

“Modifications like?”

“Modifications like this.” Monochrome walked to the gate and kicked it over, when it fell the ground began to shake. “I had the guards make the gate door weaker, that way, if I ever get locked out, all I have to do is kick down the doors.”

“That’s…good, I guess.” Twilight replied. “But, why didn’t you just do that to the other doors-“

“Hey, would the rest if you please hurry up before I die of aging!” Monochrome interrupted.

“We would be move’n faster if Someone would get out of the way!”  Applejack replied.

“Hey, I’m trying, the hole is too small for me!” Clockwork yelled back at her.

“That’s what you get for being a fat ass-“

“People! We don’t have bucking time for this! The bombing is going to start any time now, we have to hurry up!” Dance Party shouted. He rammed Clockwork and shoved him through the hole, he jumped through it then told the others to hurry.

“Who made you the leader?” Monochrome asked.

“Don’t start this damn it!”  Dance Party replied as he walked past him. He stepped onto the gate and headed towards the castle. Once they got to the colossal door separating them from the inside, Monochrome walked up to it and kicked it off its hinges. “Ok, until we get out of the interior, we need to use stealth-“

“Since when should we have to listen to you-?” Monochrome interrupted.

“Damn it, would you shut the bucking hell up and let me do my bucking job!” Dance Party yelled at Monochrome with every bit of anger he had in him, after that, Monochrome didn’t say anything, he just stood there in fear nodding his head. “Good, like I said, stealth, reason; so we don’t get caught, sound like a good enough reason?” the others nodded their heads. “Good, let’s go.”

“Hold on a sec.” Monochrome stopped everyone, he turned around and faced Applebloom and Scootaloo. “It’s time for you two to go.”

“What? But can’t we stay long enough to see Amber-?” Scootaloo whined.

“No.” Monochrome interrupted her, he lifted his hand and snapped his fingers causing a bright light to flash, when it faded the two of them were gone. “Ok, let’s go.” Him and the others entered the castle, and as soon as they took their first steps in the ground started shaking. “What the hell is going on?” Monochrome whispered to himself. He took a step forward and somehow something in front of him exploded and sent him flying.

“Monochrome, are you ok!?” Twilight yelled as she and the others ran over to him.

“Yeah. I’m fine, just startled is all.” Monochrome got up and went back to the main door, he looked down at where he was standing and examined the floor. “Well, this isn’t good.”

“What is it?” Dance Party asked as he approached him.

“Someone got the idea of turning my home into a fun house; there are arcane trap circles everywhere.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Well, yeah, if we step in one of them, something’s going to happen.”

“Like?”

“How should I know, the effects are random with each one, we could wind up in space, we could be frozen or burnt, hell we could even up as kids again-“

“So, watch our steps?” Twilight interrupted.

“Basically.” He pulled out his scythe and tap the ground in front of him to make sure their wasn’t another one waiting. “We need to be careful, one wrong move and we could wind up in a situation much worse. Ok, here’s what we do, Twilight, you and the girls head that way, me and these bone heads will head the other way, got it?”

“What if we run into one of those…things?” Fluttershy asked.

“Simple, check the ground and see if there’s a trap in front of you, if there is let it run in to it, if not, kill it.” Monochrome walked off heading towards the left side of the castle, once he and the others were out of sight Twilight led the others down the right side. After a while the two groups got to a different set of doors, as Monochrome went through the one he was at, he was lead outside to a massive garden, when Twilight went through hers, she ended up in the kitchen.

“Ahh the garden, I remember this place as if it was just yesterday…I don’t remember it being so dead.” Monochrome looked around, all the plants were either dead or dying.

“You can replant everything later, right now we need to hurry, the bombing will begin soon.”

“How can you tell?”

“I just got a call, the convoy is 10 clicks and closing.” Dance Party took a step into the dead grass of the garden, and as soon as he did a black vine with black leaves wrapped around his leg. “What the hell?” Dance Party started shaking his leg attempting to get the vine off of him. “Get this damn thing off me!” Monochrome turned his arm into a sword and slashed the vine off his leg and pulled him back into the interior of the building. “What the hell is that crap?”

“That’s Ivy Weed…Who the hell planted Ivy Weed in my garden!?” Monochrome yelled out with anger.

“Calm down. Listen, since you know so much about all this stuff, tell us, how do we get past it?” Red interrupted him in the middle of his rant.

“All we have to do is expose it to a source of light, but since the sun is in hiding, we’re going to need to something else-“

“You have magic dumbass-“ Dance Party interrupted him.

“Won’t work jack ass, these things absorb almost all types of energy. Life energy, electrical energy, Magic energy.” Monochrome held out his hand and pointed two of his fingers towards the door on the other side of the garden, after a second a light started glowing from his finger tips, the light caused the plants to grow, but it also faded away. “See, the stuff is stronger since there’s so much of it, because of that, it can suck magic energy out of the air.”

“So now what?” Red asked.

“I don’t have time for this, let’s just hurry up-“

“What the hell are you doing you dumbass!?” Monochrome yelled as Dance Party started walking through the Ivy Weed, with each step he took the color of his skin started fading. “You idiot!” Monochrome yelled, he flew over to him and picked him up. “I told you, this stuff absorbs life energy, what do you think that is!?”

“I don’t have time for this shit.” He replied in a fainted voice. Monochrome sighed, he looked down and saw the plants were beginning to grow.

“Great, you just fed all of them-“

“The hell are you talking about?”

“This stuff feed’s off of energy, the more you feed it, the more it grows, and thanks to you, you managed to feed it enough for it to cause it take energy from the air. Alright you two come on, we need to fly over all this-“

“I thought you said it could take energy out of the air.” Red complain as he flew up to him.

“I did, but it takes a while, if we hurry up we can fly to the other side before this stuff can kill us, now come on.” Monochrome flew off and the other two followed him. When they got to the other side of the garden, it revealed that their problems have only gotten worse. The door was covered in fully grown Ivy Weed. “Well this is just great, stupid plant-“

“What’s wrong?” Red asked.

“The door is covered with this shit.”

“Can’t you just cut it down?”

“I wish. If my magic gets close to it, it get’s absorbed, if I get close to it, my life force gets sucked out of my body-“

“I thought you said that if your flying it takes a while for you energy to be drained-“

“This stuff is fully grown, if I get within range, I get sucked dry of life in less than a minute-“

“Can’t you tell us all this shit earlier!?” Clockwork yelled at him.

“Buck off I never thought it would be a problem! Here, hold this.” Monochrome tossed Dance Party over to Clockwork, he held his hands in front of his mouth and inhaled deeply, when he exhaled he shot out fire which he used to burn the plant, but on contact with the flames the plant began to scream as if it was in pain. “Let’s hurry up before it re-grows.” Monochrome flew downwards and rammed into the door, when it opened he landed softly and the carpeted floor. He waved to the others signaling them to land, and a second later they landed next to him and laid Dance Party on the floor against the wall.

“Am I going to die?”

“No, not yet...unless you want to.” Monochrome placed his hands on Dace Party’s chest, a light began to shine and he turned back to normal. “There, good as new, now don’t do anything that assigning again, got it?”

“Yes your highness.” Dance Party replied with sarcasm as Monochrome helped him up.

“General, come in!” a man shouted out. Dance Party took his radio out of his vest and extended the antenna. “General, sir, come in!”

“This is general Orange Hoof.”

“Sir, this is Lt. Barker calling from the convoy, we’re dealing with some massive resistance!”

“What’s going on?”

“We have just entered Eagleland air space. The pegasi are everywhere, they keep ramming into the planes, the hauls can’t take much more!”

“Keep calm Lt. state your area!”

“6 klicks and closing! Sir, the planes can’t take much more, and if we lose the bomber, we’ll have to turn back!”

“Calm down Barker. Continue with the convoy, when you get to the castle release everything you got, understand!?”

“But sir-!”

“Listen! Continue the convoy, get to the castle and bomb the hell out of it! Once done turn around and retreat!”

“…What!?”

“When done, retreat, I just realized that a few warheads aren’t going to be enough, I’m going to call in heavier artillery.”

“Sir, a carpet bombing is already powerful enough, what could you possibly call in to do more damage-“

“I’m going to nuke this place.”

“…You…you’re serious!?”

“I don’t joke; you should know that, now continue as planned.”

“Sir yes sir!” he folded the antenna back up and put the radios away, he turned around and face Monochrome who was glaring at him angrily.

“…What-?”

“You know what!”

“I have no choice, if someone get’s in here, they’re going to get them self killed!”

“That doesn’t give you the right to nuke my house-!”

“This place is to big for a common bombing run, how else to you expect me to get rid of it-?”

“How about you don’t get rid of it-!”

“Both of you, shush!” Red interrupted. Everyone went silent, Red held his hand to his ear. “Can you hear that?”

“…Hear what?” Dance Party asked.

“Some one’s here, I can hear them crying.”

“Which way?!” Monochrome asked in panic.

“Over there-“

“Hold on I’m coming!” Monochrome yelled as he ran off.

“Look at this place, It’s in complete ruins.” Twilight said as she and the others entered the kitchen.

“This looks like something right out of a horror movie.” Nyx added. As they walked deeper in to the blood soaked room faint screams could be heard as if someone was trapped somewhere within the same room.

“Do we have to go this way? Can’t we go the other way?” Fluttershy asked in fear, the others ignored her and she sighed with sadness, after she took a step forward the door slammed shut behind her with a loud gunshot like noise. She started screaming.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled out. She and the others ran over to her. “Fluttershy, are you ok?”

“Yeah…” Fluttershy mumbled as she stood up.

“Come on, the sooner we get through here the better.” Twilight took her hand and started guiding her and the others through the kitchen. As the navigated past everything, it seemed that it was getting worse somehow, they passed a table with a man laying on it, his head had been cut off using one of the many butcher knives, there was an open oven with someone in it, their skin was sired and they had a horrifying expression on their face, their mouth was wide open and so were their eyes, it looked as if they died screaming, the petroleum floors were covered in thick sticky lair of blood, and the walls were decorated blood covered knives and hooks with people hanging off them by their head. “You know, now that I think about it, we really should have followed the others.” Twilight stated, the others agreed with her. As they kept moving, Applejack bumped into a cart, causing all the plates and dinning utensils to fall off, the plates shattered and the silverware made other loud noises. They all turned around and looked at her, she stood their frozen with fear. They kept moving. When they made it to the other side of the kitchen they realized the door was locked, Applejack attempted to ram it down. Nyx turned around and noticed a rack that had several pots and pans hanging off of it, and the strangest thing, one of the pots was clean while the others were covered with blood. She walked over to it and looked into it, she saw her reflection and smiled,  but her smile faded as a black figure rush past her behind her, she twisted around, nothing was there, when she turned back around she let out a blood curdling scream as she saw her reflection but it wasn’t her own, it was a black face with tusks and glowing red eyes, and it was smiling at her with its blood stained teeth. She fell backwards as she continued screaming, the others turned around and ran over to her.

“Nyx, what is it!?” Twilight asked in panic as she kneeled down next to her.

“I saw something, I. I don’t know what it was.” She replied as she started crying, she turned over to Twilight and hugged her tightly as she continued crying. Twilight helped her up and as they stood up there was an intense screaming coming from somewhere in the room, all the ovens turned on and all the stone furnaces lit up.

“What’s going on!?” Agony yelled out as she pulled out her bow.

“We have to get out of here now!” Twilight yelled.

“You cannot leave…” a faint voice told them, they looked around trying to find out who was talking.

“Fluttershy?” Appljack asked, everyone looked over at her and were shocked by what they saw, Fluttershy’s eyes were completely black and she had blooding dripping out of her mouth.

“This room…it shall become your tomb-“

“Fluttershy, what’s wrong with you?” Twilight asked, she attempted to approach her, but she opened her wings and a gust of wind sent her backwards, when she got up she noticed her wings were ruined and covered with bloody.

“You shall not survive...you have escaped death for your last time…even the immortal will fall…on this day-“

“Who are you and what did you do to our friend!?” Applejack yelled.

“Your friend is mine…I control her soul now…and it shall be damned…” she lifted her hands up and the room caught on fire and the others started screaming.

“Hold on I’m coming!” Monochrome yelled, he ran around the corner and saw a single girl kneeling in front of two bodies. “…Amber?” Monochrome called out, the girl looked up at him.

“Daddy?” She stood up and the two of them ran towards each other and hugged each other. “Daddy, I missed you!” she cried, as she was crying she started digging her sharp claws into Monochromes back.

“Amber-ow-what’s wrong, you never-ow-dig your claws into me like this unless something bad happened-“

“I killed them.” She interrupted. “Corruption got infected, and mom made me kill him along with her self-“ Monochrome looked over at the two corpses. “When he was screaming, mom held him back and told me to use the bow on him, but, I had to shoot him in the head, and to do that, I had to do the same to her…I’m sorry.”

“I’s ok. But, how did all the spell circles appear?”

“I had to place them, I had to defend everyone somehow…but I failed.” As the two of them hugged, someone started screaming. “What is that?”

“No…the girls! Come on we have to move!” Monochrome yelled, he let go of his daughter and ran towards the kitchen. They entered the dining room and across room where they entered they saw the kitchen door, it was blocked off by a tipped over book shelf and it had smoke rising for the top of the door. “Shit, Clockwork, Dance boy let’s go-“

“What about me?” Red asked.

“Stay here and look after my daughter!” Monochrome and the other two rushed and jumped over the table in the center of the room and headed towards the door. Monochrome and Clockwork lifted up and threw the book shelf and Dance Party attempted to open the door.

“I’s locked from the inside!”

“Ok, I got an idea! Dane, against the door, on the count of three we ram it down and Clockwork you use your hammer and cause a blizzard!”

“Got it!” Clockwork replied, he pulled out his hammer and readied himself. Monochrome held up his hand and three fingers.

“Ready, 1…2…3!” and right then Monochrome and Dance Party rammed their bodies into the door, it flew open and Clockwork slammed his hammer on the ground causing a blizzard to either extinguish or completely freeze the flames. “Are you all ok?” Monochrome asked, as he entered the kitchen Fluttershy fell to the ground. “What happened?”

“We don’t know, something happened to her and…she…-“

“Never mind, doesn’t matter, we need to go before the bombing starts.” Monochrome picked up Fluttsershy and walked out the opposite side of the kitchen. Once they got outside they looked over the horizon and saw a massive plane and several small planes surrounding it.

“General Orange Hoof, come in!” Dance Party pulled out his radio again and extended the antenna.

“Go ahead.”

“Sir, you need to get out of the castle now! The bombing is going to start in less then a minute-“

“Roger, I’m out front, continue as planned and forget about us-“

“But sir-“

“That’s an order, over and out.” He looked at the top of the radio next to the antenna; he turned a switch on it and put it back up to his ear. “This is General Orange Hoof, I request and emergency extract.”

“Roger that general, Vulture Convoy is on its way hang tight, over and out.” He put away the radio and threw it back into the castle.

“Now the only problem is getting out of here alive.”

“Leave that to me.” Monochrome snapped his fingers and teleported all of them back to the front gate.

“…Not bad-“

“Yeah, well you guys are on your own now, I’m out of magic.”

“What?” Dance Party replied in confusion.

“I haven’t been in my healing circle for weeks, which means, I can no longer use magic, sucked dry because of this stupid parasite.” As they started walking the planes reached the castle, as they flew above it the dropped bombs on it and one chunk at a time, the castle collapsed. When all the dust cleared there was a loud screeching noise, they looked around and notice that they were no longer alone.

“This is why I wanted to nuke the area-“

“What?” everyone interrupted.

“My mission; infiltrate the area, evacuate all survivors, bring down the horde, get back in time for dinner, but since there were more than I thought, I had to use more force-“

“Do you change your goal every time we do some  important thing in this stupid story?” Monochrome interrupted with irritation.

“Apparently.” Dance Party smiled. Monochrome sighed with annoyance, he pulled out his scythe and placed Flutterhsy over one of his shoulders.

“Well, you called for evac, so I guess were going to have to fight our way to it.” Everyone smiled and pulled out their weapon. They waited for the first zombie to appear then started rushing towards the cliff face, slashing at every infected they saw along the way.

“Are you sure this is where we get picked up?” Twilight asked as she swung her staff at an infected.

“Affirmative, this is where the Osprey appeared to get the others-“

“Did you say…Osprey?” Clockwork asked with interest. Dance Party took one of his guns and shot an infected that was sneaking up behind clockwork.

“Yes, I did.” He replied as he continued shooting all the other infected. They continued running through the streets until they made it back to the cliff.

“So, where’s our ride?” Monochrome asked as he swung his scythe and decapitated another zombie.

“It should be here, we have an evac station in the area, this doesn’t make sense.” Dance Party said to himself, he pulled a grenade off his bandolier and threw it into the horde. As it exploded the sound of a propeller started growing louder in the distance. “Their late.” He looked up and saw it flying over head and it went to the edge off the cliff and hovered there. The door of it opened up and someone started yelling at them telling them to get in. One-by-one they jumped over the crack separating land from the Osprey, Dance Party was the second to last one in leaving Monochrome. “Come on we need to go!”

“Give me a minute!” Monochrome yelled. He held a zombie back, after a second he pushed it away and cut off its legs and head.

“Monochrome, we need to go!” Twilight yelled as she leaned out the side of the Osprey as it started flying away.

“I said hold on-!” he started screaming as an infected went up behind him and pulled off one of his wings, he quickly turned around and punched it with the force that sent his hand straight through its head. He looked back to the others, noticing that they were flying away he rushed to the edge of the cliff and jumped, he just barley caught the edge of the chopper, he pulled himself up. When he got inside the others held him up as he started swaying from blood loss.

“Where’s the med-kit?” one of the pilots asked as he rushed to the cockpit. The pilot driving pointed under the seat next to him, he took it out from under the seat and rushed back to Monochrome. “Don’t worry, I promise you’ll be fine.” He told him as he opened up the kit and started wrapping bandages around him.

“That was the most dumb ass thing I’ve ever seen any one do.” Dance party told him with annoyance as he kneeled down in front of him. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“Immortality…only works…if you have magic…and blood.” Monochrome replied with a faint voice.

“Your wing had an artery in it.” The man told him as he finished wrapping the bandage around him.

“Will he be ok?” Amber asked with worry.

“Yeah, he’ll be fine, he just needs to rest.” He replied. Dance Party lifted his arm; he looked at his wrist watch and started counting down.

“3…2…1.” Then at that exact moment, an explosion and a mushroom shaped cloud appeared over the Eagleland castle. Everyone became shocked as they stared out the circular window.

“Damn.” Amber said to herself, she walked over to Dance Party and stood next to him as he stared out the window, as they were about to go back to their seats the Osprey started shaking and tilting, causing everyone to lose balance and fall.

“Sorry about that, shock wave caused a bit of turbulence.” The pilot told them all. They all got up in a hurry and strapped themselves in to their seats, except for Monochrome who lied on the floor groaning in pain.

“Get over it you big cry baby.” Clockwork taunted him, Monochrome got up and sat down in the seat next to Fluttershy, he buckled her seatbelt then his.

“We’ll be arriving in Iron Air in about two hours, so get comfortable.” The pilot said to them all. Monochrome stretched and yawned as he fall into a deep sleep, and the others did the same, except for Dance Party, he looked at them all with anger , hoping that they’d all just vanish, he sat down across from Monochrome, he lied down on the row of seats and closed his eyes.

SUB Chapter: Audio Log: Truth

Half an hour later, the sun started setting in the horizon. Everyone was sound asleep, Monochrome rested his head on top of Fluttershy who was leaning on his shoulder, and his daughter was resting her head on his lap. Applejack and Twilight were leaning against each other, Red held Nyx in his arms as the two of them slept, Agony lied down on an empty row of seats, and Clockwork lied face down on the steel floor, blowing bubbles out of the puddle of drool he was laying in.

“Sir, we are 1 klick away from Iron Air sir.”

“Good, I can’t wait to get back on solid ground.” Dance Party replied. He took tape recorder out of his bag and held down button on it. “Audio log entry number twenty-two three. Operation City Storm has been completed with the acceptation of a few difficulties. During the midpoint I ran into a few…unwanted allies, hopefully I can get rid of them soon; I doubt we have enough rations. Once we enter Iron Air I’ll send them away so we can continue with our next objective, it’s going to be a tuff one, but it’ll be worth it if I can finally get rid of all these…whatever the hell they are, infected, I’ll have to talk to the base captain to get the ok on getting rid of the pest though, but I doubt that’ll be a problem. Log, out.” He released the button and put the tape recorder away.

“Why do you want to get rid of us?” Monochrome asked, Dance Party looked over at him.

“Weren’t you listening to me? Not enough rations-“

“Your lying.” He interrupted, Dance Party smiled at him.

“Yeah, I am, to be honest, I’d rather not be stuck with any of you, the only reason that I teamed up with you back in Eagleland is because I had no other choice, you dragged me with you into that stupid deathtrap of a castle.”

“It wasn’t originally like that you know.”

“…Sure it wasn’t.” Dance Party laughed at him and he looked at him angrily. “I don’t care if it was or wasn’t to be honest. When we land, you are to take your friends and get lost-“

“And since when do you command me, huh? If you haven’t notice, I’m a king, which means I command you-“

“You’re a king of a dead nation, literally.” Monochrome scalded him, he moved Fluttershy and Amber off of him and leaned forward.

“Listen, I don’t like you anymore then you like me ok? But that doesn’t give you a reason to not help my friends, they’re not as strong as me, especially Fluttershy.”

“I don’t care-“

“Sir, we have arrived in Iron air, we’ll be landing in a minute.” The pilot interrupted them.

“Just listen to me, please, I’m too weak to help my friends, I need someone to protect them, and since you control an army, you have to help-“

“Why not that blunt headed dumb ass friend of yours?”

“If I could trust him, we’d all be safe by now.” Dance Party turned around and looked at all the others.

“Alright, I’ll help your friends, but only until my next mission starts.”

“Fine” Monochrome shook his hand then woke up Fluttershy and Amber, Dance Party also woke up the others.

Operation: Tower Top

When the Osprey landed on a pad about a quarter mile away from the base camp, the door opened up, allowing everyone to step out of it.

“Hey, Dance boy, I thought you said we were in Iron Air?”Clockwork asked

“We are in Iron Air-“

“No, we aint, this is Iron Works, I should know, I used to live here-“

“Well it’s been renamed, it’s now called Iron forte-“

“I thought it was called Iron Air!?”

“The hanger and take off area is, the town isn’t.” Dance Party smugly replied as he walked off, Clockwork growled before he started following him. As the approached the gate leading into the town Dance Party stopped them all, and as Clockwork started complaining, Dance Party pointed to the ground and right at his hoof was a small metallic dish, he leaned down and picked it up, when he stood back up he threw forward, when it landed another one shot out of the ground, into the air and exploded.

“What was that?” Twilight asked.

“Bouncing Betty, we get to close to one that happens.” Dance Party replied. He looked into the distance and saw a guard string at him, he started waving his arms and the guard walked behind a tower and out of sight, a second later, several red lights appeared from under the snow. “We have 2 minutes, let’s go.” He and the others started running towards the gate past all the lights. When they arrived at the gate the lights turned from red to green then disappeared.

“So, you made it back.” a man chuckled from behind the rusted iron wall.

“Yes, we did, now open the gat-“Dance Party replied, but was rudely interrupted.

“What’s the password?”

“Bitch please open the gate.”

“Nope, that’s not it.”

“Since when was there a password?”

“Since I said there was.” The man chuckled again as Dance Party sighed with irritation.

“Let me try.” Red requested a he walked up to the iron wall. “My name is Red, Captain of the army, I demand entrance.”

“Like I’m dumb enough to fall for that.” The man started laughing at him, Red pulled out his sword and stabbed it through the wall. “Oh shit, alright fine! Just take your sword!” Red smiled as he drew his sword from the wall. A moment later the gate slid to the side and the man who was talking to them appeared as he stood with in the opening. As Red walked by him he turned and allowed him to pass without bumping into him.

“So, Orange Hoof, did you finish the mission for once?”

“Yes, no thanks to you, you spineless son of a bitch-“

“Whoa, watch the language, we got kid’s here-“

“I bet half of them are yours.” Dance Party interrupted him; Clockwork started laughing historically as the others looked at him with confusion. As they walked into the town Clockwork rushed ahead of them and started looking around joy and happiness.

“Wunderbar! I missed this place!”

“You’ve been here before?” Dance Party asked as he approached him.

“Like hell I have, I used to live here, they used to call me ‘Master of the Steel Flames’ because I was the best weapons forger here!”

“Congratulations, I don’t care.” Clockwork stared at him angrily. As they walked further into the town they arrived at an old shed house that was falling apart.

“Wow, home never looked so good-“

“You used to live here?” Dane Party asked.

“Yup, although, it looked a lot smaller in the past.”

“We…remodeled.” Dance Party told him, he opened the door to the building, and when Clockwork rushed in his expression of joy quickly faded into shock and sorrow. The inside was completely different then he imagined, there were large glass cases with lights in them lining the wall, shelves with weapons and ammunition on them, and a table in the center of the room with a map on it and a light above it.

“What the hell did you do!?” Clockwork yelled with anger.

“Like I said we remodeled-“

“What? Oh no not that, I was talking about Dagger Fang!” Clockwork rushed to the back of the room that had a tank with a large snake in it, he opened it up and it slithered out. “You ok boy? Did those mean people hurt you?” Clockwork asked it sympathetically, as it slithered out it started wrapping it’s self around him.

“You shouldn’t do that, that thing is dangerous-“

“No…he’s just…lonely.” Clockwork replied as it strangled him. He fell over and his face started turning blue.

“Should we help him?” Dance Party asked as he turned to Monochrome.

“…Nahh, let his snake love him.” Dance Party walked to the back of the room and got a pair of keys off the hooks about the tank.

“We’ll take the Humvee and a Jeep, I’ll take you all to the safe haven in Central City, you’re on your own from there.”

“Wait, so, you’re just going to abandon us?” Twilight asked.

“I have to, if I don’t I’ll be considered A.W.O.L and they’ll hunt me down.” He walked past her and the others joined him. When Twilight turned around she saw Monochrome trying to unwrap Clockwork from dagger fangs hold, a few minutes later he managed to free him and dragged his unconscious body out of the building and the three of them rejoined the others. When they met back up with them Dance Party just handed his keys to two other soldiers who saluted him and ran off. “Our rides will be here in a few seconds, so don’t get comfortable.” He turned around and saw Monochrome dragging Clockwork behind him. “Did he get enugh ‘love’ from that snake of his.

“I hope so, if that thing loves him anymore his head is going to pop off like some toy action figure.”

“I’m happy I rescued him.” Clockwork added as he started waking back up.

“Clockwork, that thing hates you-“

“It loves me, your just jealous-“ and just then, an alarm started going off, everyone started looking around wandering what was happening. Monochrome looked into the distance, he saw someone smiling and heard him say “Time for us to shine” to some other guy before he started running.

“What the hell is that guy doing?” Monochrome asked himself, and right as Clockwork said something a giant machine rose from the ground on a lift. “Holy shit, look at that.” Monochrome smiled and dropped Clockwork he sat up. The man started climbing a latter on the side of the machine and sat in the seat, he then closed the two glass panels on the sides of him and it roared to life.

“Admiring the mech?”

“No bucking way you guys have Mech suits!?” Clockwork shouted with excitement as he stood up.

“It took years to get them corrected and fully operational.” They looked back towards it, it had a large glass windshield for the cockpit, two large cylinders on its back, a claw for its left hand and a flame thrower for the other hand. The cylinders on its back lit up, it ran forward and jumped into the air and landed on the wall, when it jumped again it landed outside the wall.

“I have to see this!” Clockwork yelled as he got up, Monochrome followed him. Clockwork flew up to the walkway and Monochrome climbed up the latter, and when he reached the top another two mechs landed near him on the wall then jumped down.

“This is going to be awesome.” Monochrome told himself as he looked over the railing. Three mechs stood in a single file line right outside Iron Works.

“Looks like the both of you find them interesting.” Dance Party said, Monochrome turned to his left and saw him standing between him and Clockwork. “Eachone has a code name, the first one you saw is Dawn Brake, the one with the drill is Miner, and that last one on the right is Moon Shot-“

“Why do you call them that?” Clockwork asked.

“Miner has a drill, Dawn Brake has a flamethrower, and Moon Shot has a .50 caliber mini-gun.’

“No way.” Clockwork said to himself as he looked back towards them.

“Hew, Dawn!” Dance Party yelled, the pilot in the center mech turned around. “Show them your weapon.” He lifted up his arm and shot a ball of fire into the air.

“Cool, hey, do that again!” Clockwrok called out, he pulled a cigarette out of his vest pocket and held it out and the mech pilot lit it for him. “Thank you!” he yelled before he started smoking his cigarette.

“So, what are the names for the operators?” Monochrome asked.

“Huh? Oh, Dawn Brake is controlled by Icarus, and Miner and Moon Shot are controlled by our two drunken morons-“

“Hey, I think they said yer name!” the Moon Shot pilot said with a heavy Irish accent.

“Yeah what do ya…-O’h buck off ye wee drunk prick!” the Miner pilot yelled at him with a heavier Scottish accent as he laughed at him. “Fine, if I’m the drunk moron then yer the drunk Leprechaun!”

“Are you call’n me short?!”

“I ain’t call’n ya fer dinner!” Dance Party sighed as the two of them fought each other.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Shamrock the Irish, and Kilt the Scottish.”

“Do these two always fight like this?” Twilight asked.

“Only while they’re drunk.”

“And another thing, yer mother hat the face of a hamster!” Shamrock yelled.

“What did ya say about me mum!? If ya say anything like that again I’ll break that bottle of whisky over that head of yers!”

“Bring it on ya dress wear’n, bag sacking-!”

“Would the both of you knock it off!?” Icarus yelled at the two of them. “We got multiple hostiles inbound, get ready.”

“Get, that skrew of yers ready lady man-!”

“That dress is a native fashion, and it ain’t a screw it’s a drill-!”

“Whatever floats yer boat!” Shamrock laughed at him then looked into the distance.

“Monochrome, I think we should get going.” Twilight told him.

“No way, I have to see this.” Monochrome replied then went back to watching the mech pilots excitedly. Icarus started pressing a few buttons on a screen and it turned on.

“This isn’t good.”

“What is it?” Shamrock asked.

“Ye didn’t break yer viewer again did ya?”

“No, they’re all earth walkers, be careful we got heavy hitters!” Icarus lit the flame for his gun and got ready to attack. When the infected got close enough a started firing and lit all the ones in front on fire. “Attack now!” he yelled to the other two. Shamrock lowered his gun and started firing at them, and Kilt shot the claw off his mech, he caught one of the many infected and started reeling it back towards him. Once the claw was reattached he raised his drill and it started rotating, when it was spinning at its full speed, he put the tip of it in the infected’s  head and it completely demolished it.

“Ah come on now Kilt, ya need to think of a more efficient way-“ he paused as he crushed a zombies head with the tip of his claw. “To kill these sorry bastards.”

“Alright lad, you want to see an efficient way to kill, I’ll show you one!” his drill split into four separate pieces and revealed a gun barrel, he pointed it upward and it fire a mortar shot which landed in the middle of the horde and killed most of them.

“Cool.” Monochrome and Clockwork both said at the same time.

“No one told me that Miner could do that.” Dance Party mumbled to himself.

“Theirs your efficient way to kill ya green hared drunk!”

“Who are you calling a drunk, ya drunk!?”

“You’re both drunk!” Icarus yelled at them both as he continued lighting everything on fire.

“Sir!” two men said at once. Dance Party turned around and saw two people standing in front of two different vehicles and saluting him.

“Hey, our ride’s here, we should get going-“

“But I want to see those three kill everything!” Clockwork whined.

“To bad, we need to get going before this gets out of hand.” he jumped down and landed in front of the two. Monochrome and Clockwork hesitated before they jumped down. “Ok Clockwrok-“

“I call Humvee!” he shouted and interrupted Dance Party, he ran to the armored truck.

“Great…Monochrome, you’re with Clockwork.” Dance Party  continued, Monochrome saluted to him then walked over to the Humvee.  “Uh…You and you.” He pointed to Agony and Twilight. “Humvee, rest of you with me.” He walked over to the Jeep and the others followed him and took their seats in it. Clockwork got into the  Humvee threw the passenger door while Monochrome got into the driver’s seat.

“You rush over to this thing and you don’t even want to drive it?”

“I wanted to use the turret…plus I never really cared about driving, even though it’s been my lifelong dream to ride in one of these things, same with the Osprey.” Monochrome rolled his eyes. He inserted the key into the ignition and turned it.

“You guys ready to move?” Dance Party asked over the radio built into the vehicle.

“Ready.” Monochrome replied, and as he put his hoof on the peddle their was loud noise that sounded like an explosion. He looked up and saw there was a dent in the gate. “D.P…what the hell was that?”

“I’d rather not find out.” The noise sounded again and another dent appeared on the gate. “Mechs aren’t responding!”

“Think the infected got them?”

“Impossible, those things are indestructible.” The noise sounded a third time.

“How strong are those things!?” Clockwork started panicking.

“We measured them at several thousand pounds.” It went silent for a moment, nothing happened for a few seconds then eventually one of the mechs flew over the wall and landed right behind the Humvee. “That’s Dawn Brake.”

“What happened to it?” Clockwork asked.

“I’d still, rather not find out.” Dance Party revved up the engine to the Jeep and drove to the back of the town and left threw the back gate. “I’ll go out this way; you guys take that way and drive over everything that gets in your path.”

“Roger that.” Monochrome started up the engine, and as soon as the gate opened he started driving as fast as he could running over all the infected in his path. “Dace, where you at?”

“Look to lour left stupid.” Monochrome looked out the window and saw him and the other waving to him.

“…Oh…Clockwork, get on the turret-“

“Aye sir!” Clockwork opened the top of the truck and climbed onto the bed in the back of it. He took the chain of bullets out of the box behind him, put them in on the side of the gun mounted on the stand in the back and started shooting everything that got close to them. Dance Party did that same, he took a pair of guns from under his seat, he gave one to Applejack and he kept the other, and as something got closer to them they shot it.

“Dance, how far away is Central City?” Monochrome asked over the radio.

“About 5 klicks, why?”

“Just wondering.” About half way through the frozen waste land they encountered a bigger problem, another horde, bigger than the one they just faced, and it was blocking their path. “Shit.” Monochrome whispered to himself, Clockwork climbed back into his seat from the roof.

“You do know that there’s an army in front of us right?”

“Yes Clockwork, I can see that.” Monochrome began speeding up.

“Monochrome, what are you thinking?” Clockwork asked. He started speeding up more which caused the others with him to panic.

“Monochrome, I think you should stop.” Agony told him, but he ignored her, and when they reached the horde, he drover right threw them all, running over all of them like they were speed bumps.

“Monochrome, your insane.” Clockwork told him and the two of them smiled, but Twilight and Agony didn’t find this amusing, while they were driving and running over everything they kept their eyes closed. Eventually, somewhere in the middle of the army one of the tires blew out and they started spinning until they completely stopped.

“Well…were bucked.” Monochrome laughed. When he was about to get out of the Humvee, Dance Party and the others drove up to them.

“Stay in the Humvee, I’ll take care of this-“

“You going to change the tire?”

“No.” Red Drove forward and got in front of them, then Dance Party leaned to the side and planted something into the ground then drove off. When they were gone it started blinking, then after a second a mech landed in front of them, but this one was special, instead of a claw and a weapon, it had two massive circular saws. He turned around and Monochrome waved to him with a nerves expression on his face, the mech pilot saluted to him then turned back around. He held his arms out and the saws started spinning. He slashed a zombie in front of him and it cut it right in half. Monochrome got out of the vehicle and approached him.

“Stay in the Humvee.” He told him with a British accent. “It’s too dangerous for you to be out here.”

“I can take care of myself.” Monochrome replied.

“You sure about that? What about your friends, they look like they can’t.” Monochrome turned around and saw the Humvee was being attacked.

“Oh shit!” Monochrome pulled out his scythe, he ran over to the infected and started slashing at them. The pilot didn’t bother with helping him since he knew Monochrome was strong enough to handle everything. As he was slashing at the infected, one of them jumped onto the cockpit window, and to get it off, he held up one of the saws and placed it right on the infecteds back, when it started spinning it cut it in half but it sprayed it’s blood all over the glass window preventing him from seeing. He opened it ad right as he did, another infected jumped on to him and bit him, he was incapable of doing anything since it had him pinned, he fell backwards causing the mech suit to fall with him. Clockwork saw the zombie, he pulled out his gun and shot it, it’s head exploded and the rest of its body flew away and landed at the suits feet. “Shit, did we lose our support?” Monochrome yelled as he helped the others out of the vehicle. Clockwork jumped out through the passenger side window and ran over to it. He looked into the cockpit, the pilot was bleeding from his neck and mouth and he had a faint orange light coming from his eyes.

“Monochrome, we have a problem!” Clockwork yelled, and as he did the saws started spinning and the mech got up. It turned around and faced Clockwork, his skin was starting to rot away already, and his eyes were glowing a bright orange. “Monochrome, we got an even bigger problem!” the beast roared at him then started swinging the saw attempting to hit him. He ducked out of the way each time it attacked him then eventually pulled out his gun and shot him, but before the bullet could reach him, the cockpit door closed and the bullet bounced off of it. The door slid opened again and the beast roared at him once more. Clockwork roared back and rushed towards it, it swung one of the saws at him, he was to slow, he moved out of the way but it cut off his right ear and blood started tripling down the side of his head. He didn’t care, he held up his mechanical arm and attempted t punch it, but his fist hit one of the saws while it was still spinning . “Monochrome, get your ass over here!”

“I’m a little busy!” Monochrome yelled back as he slashed his scythe at several zombies as they got close to him and the others. Clockwork took his fist back, he jumped into the air and attempted to punch the pilot again. He closed the cockpit door, but Clockwork’s fist went right through it, he grabbed his head and pulled it off of him and the mech fell back down. He released the pilots head and withdrew his fist, he attempted to open the cockpit door, he struggled for a moment then an alarm sounded and it slid open and he almost fell in face first. “Hey, think I could use this thing?!” Clockwork shouted to the others who were still defending themselves.

“If you can then do it, we could use all the help we could get!” Monochrome yelled back as he cut a zombies head off. Clockwork dragged the body out of the pilot seat then got in, he strapped himself in a pushed a few buttons and instantly the mech came back to life. When he stood up so did the mech.

“I kind of like this-“

“Good for you now get your fat ass over here and start killing!” Clockwork started up the saws then ran towards them, he swung once and managed to clear away enough of the infected, once they were gone he picked up the others. “What are you doing?”

“Hang on.” He took Agony and Twilight under both his arms and Monochrome climbed onto his back. Clockwork flipped a few switches, he started running then jumped into the air and somehow jumped higher then he would originally be able to. When he landed Monochrome looked back and saw all the zombies were running after them, and without warning Clockwork started running again nearly knocking Monochrome off. He jumped into the air again and landed even farther away, and this time when they landed they saw the others in the distance. Clockwork jumped one lasttime and landed right next to them, knocking th jeep onto it’s side when they landed.

“Where have you four been?” Dance Party asked as he climbed over the over turned vehicle.

“Fighting for our lives no thanks to you-“ Monochrome replied angrily.

“Hey, you four were in a armored truck, we were in an open roof Jeep, you have no right to complain.” Clockwork put Agony and Twilight down then opened the cockpit door. “Who- Clockwork? Where’s Lumber?”

“You mean the other guy? He’s dead-“

“You killed him!?”

“Buck no! Would have, but those other things beat me to him. So hey, I think we should get going since those things back there are going to be here in a few minutes and since they managed to get this guy, it’s going to be easier to get me since I’m nearly blind in this thing an theirs a big hole in the window.” He closed the cockpit and Monochrome pated the top of the suit signaling him to go, he ran forward and jumped into the air and landed what seemed a mile away. Hours later the others arrived at Central city and saw them waiting there for them.

“You guys do know you could have just ran alongside us instead of ditching us there.” Dance Party told them with annoyance.

“We’re just doing the same thing you did to us.” Clockwork replied. Dance Party rolled his eyes then looked up at Monochrome who was standing straight up on top of the mech.

“Monochrome, what are you doing?” Dance Party asked, he turned around and looked down at them, he was holding a pair of binoculars.

“There’s someone in the tower.”

“How can you tell?” Twilight asked.

“I saw them kick one of those things out the window.” He jumped down off the mech and landed roughly on the blood soaked stone walk way. He threw the binoculars into the Jeep then turned and walked past Clockwork who was smoking a cigarette. “Oh, and f-y-I dance boy, everyone here is dead.”

“What?”

“Yeah, these guys didn’t stand a chance. Everyone here was trained in un-armed combat, which made them easier to get bit. Also, they were never trained to kill anything, so all they did was constantly punch them since they’d never go down.”

“So everyone here is either infected or lunch for one of those things?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Buck. Well, we might as well do something about that last person.”

“Yeah, we should.” Monochrome replied.

“So how do we get to the top of the tower?”

“Easy, theirs a stair case that leads to the top of that big dome, then theirs a ladder that leads to the tower top.” Monochrome walked off the central area, the others hesitated, but the followed him.

Dance Party: Strongest of Soldiers

As they entered the building they heard constant moans coming from within. AS they moved deeper a light appeared at the end of the dark tunnel and they ran towards it, when they reached it they noticed it was the sun shining in from the glass roof and the moans were from the infected stumbling in the ring.

“Those things are blocking our way to the roof.” Monochrome told the others as he leaned over the railing.

“Do we really have to go into the fighting ring just to get to the roof?” Dance Party replied.

“Unfortunately yes, the architect of this place was an idiot.”

“I’ll take care of them then.” Clockwork said. He jumped over the railing and landed with a loud thud onto the stone floor. The infected turned towards him and he waved the arm of the mech at them. They screeched and started running towards them, he started spinning one of the saws and as soon as the first infected got to him he cut it in half, when the upper part of its body hit the ground he took a step forward and crushed it’s head under the mech’s foot. He pressed a button on the control panel of the suit, a quick alarm sounded and the windshield flew off and killed about five other zombies that were unlucky enough to be in its path. For the last few, Clockwork knocked them over and stepped on their heads.

“Nice job grease monkey.” Monochrome congratulated him as he jumped into the ring. “But, why did you eject the windshield?”

“Two reasons, 1: I couldn’t see because of all the blood on it, 2: I had no idea what that button did.” Monochrome shook his head with disappointment then walked over to the gate on the other side of the ring and lifted it up, he held it open until the others got passed it. When they entered the next hallway it was completely dark, Twilight pulled out her staff and a ball of light rose into the air and hovered above her.

“Ok Monochrome, where do we head to now?” Twilight asked.

“Once we get to the end of the tunnel we’ll head left then there should be a ladder there that goes up into one of the supports on the side of the dome.”

“And how do you know that?” Dance Party asked.

“Because I’ve been here before.” Monochrome replied as he walked off into the dark, the others stood there for a moment until Monochrome yelled out from the dark. “Are you people going to follow me or am I going to have to run into something else?” Twilight chuckled then lead the others into the darkness. A while later the made it to the ladder and climbed up it until they reached a hatch, Monochrome opened it and was instantly met with cold air and heavy winds. He climbed out and turned around and saw the horde they passed a while ago heading towards them. “Ok, we need to hurry, more of those things are on their way.” Monochrome called down to the others. He continued climbing up the ladder which now started curving. While they were climbing the tower started creaking and moaning as the heavy winds blew it.

“This structure doesn’t seem all that safe.” Dance Party whined.

“Don’t worry, if it survived for 50 years it can survive a few more.” Monochrome replied. As they continued climbing Fluttershy’s hoof slipped and her grip on the bar and started to fall. “Fluttershy!” Monochrome yelled. As she fell she grabbed onto another one of the bars and she slammed into the wall, upon contact there was a cracking sound that sound like a twig broke. “Fluttershy!?” Monochrome yelled again, she could barely hear him. Her sight started fading and her grip started loosening.

“You alright?” Clockwork asked as he climbed up the ladder and grabbed her hand.

“I don’t…feel so good.” She told him. She almost fell but Clockwork grabbed her and started caring her up the ladder. “My chest hurts.”

“Bet it does, you did managed to crack most of your ribs with that stunt of yours.” He continued climbing up the ladder until he met back up with the others.

“What took you so long?” Monochrome asked.

“The mech got stuck, I got lost, ladder is big, yadda, yadda, yadda.” Clockwork replied with an annoyed tone. “Hey, did you guys know that all those zombies we passed earlier are trying to kill us-“

“Yes, we know.” Monochrome interrupted. He continued climbing at near the top where the ladder ended a walk way began. He stepped onto the iron walkway and started moving forward using the railing to help him move up the slanted path. Clockwork turned around and looked downwards towards the ground his eyes widened and he moved past everyone.

“Monochrome, we got a problem!” Clockwork yelled. Monochrome turned around and noticed he was moving past everyone one, he moved to the edge and saw what was happening, all the zombies that were after them started climbing up the side of the dome.

“Unfair.” Monochrome whispered to himself. “Everyone, move, go now!” he shouted, everyone started moving faster. When they got to the tower they noticed there was a ladder on the side of it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, more climbing!?” Dance Party complained.

“Just move!” Clockwork yelled as he shoved him against it, he started climbing with the others following him. Monochrome stayed behind, he held his scythe tightly and waited for them to reach him. “Monochrome! What the hell are you doing!?” Clockwork yelled. He shook his head and noticed where he was and what was happening, he slid his scythe into a holster on his back then started running towards the tower. He started climbing up the ladder and every few seconds he’d launch himself upwards to catch up with the others. “What the hell were you doing!?” Clockwork yelled at him.

“Shut up, I forgot I didn’t have any magic left!” Monochrome yelled back as he continued climbing. Seconds later Fluttershy started waking up from her unconscious state, when her eyes opened she screamed when she saw all the infected climbing up attempting to get them.

“Shit, what the hell Flutter’s!?” Clockwork scolded her. They kept climbing and when they were near the top a zombie flew out the window and fell towards the others that were chasing them. When it landed a strong wind started blowing from behind the tower causing it to tilt, when it did someone fell out of the room and started falling.

“I gotcha!” Monochrome called out as he caught her, she swung down and their was a loud bag as her hooves hit the side of the tower. “You alright?”

“Yeah, thanks for catching me.’ She replied. As she was about to grab onto the ladder an infected under her grabbed her leg and started pulling her down and she started screaming. She managed to kick it off and it fell into the horde but more of them kept climbing after them.

“Theirs to many of them!” Monochrome yelled to the others.

“What do we do?!” Twilight yelled back. Just then, Dance Party stopped climbing.

“Hey fat ass, keep moving!” Clockwork yelled. Dance Party took hold of the bar with one hand and he turned around so he was out into the arctic waste land. He closed his eyes and jumped off the ladder. “Hey!” he fell past Clockwork and all the others and on the way down, his hooves slammed into all the zombies climbing up the ladder, the all fell and when he landed on them they splattered and their blood went everywhere. He pulled out his pistols and started shooting everything.

“D.P. What the hell are you doing!?” Monochrome yelled at him.

“Buying you guys some time now go!” he yelled back as he continued shooting. Monochrome and the others hesitated but kept climbing, when they got closer to the top the wind picked up and almost blew them off the ladder and Dance Party off his hooves. He looked around and noticed that there were too many of them and there were others climbing up the tower, he threw his guns down then took hold of the two strings sticking out of his vest. “Burn. In. Hell!” he yelled, he pulled the strings and a second later there was a colossal explosion it reached the edge of the dome and started braking it and it climbed up the tower and came close to engulfing the woman they met in flames but she used her magic to shield her from the flames and the heat. A while later they made it to the top of the tower, they climbed into the somewhat safe area one-by-one and rested there, when Monochrome reached the top he assisted the woman and helped her into safety.

“Thanks, I owe you guys, if you weren’t there; I guess I’d be dead.” She spoke with a kind voice.

“No problem, so, who are you?” Monochrome asked.

“Me? My name is Key Scales, why?” when she said her name all the life in Fluttershy vanished, her face turned pale and her eyes widened. “Hey, are you ok?”

“Yeah…I’m…I’m fine.” Fluttershy stuttered, she looked at her, black tank top, grey military jacket, black pants, and a necklace with a blue gem, and that was only her outfit, she had Vibrant purple eyes, she had spiked black hair that looked kind of like Rainbow Dash’s, and her skin was a dark grey color, she was beautiful.

“So!” Monochrome shouted, Fluttershy shook her head and escaped the trance she was stuck in. “What’s a lady like you doing here?”

“Oh, it’s an intern job, I was supposed to be the mayor’s secretary, then, all this happened so…yeah.”

“Interesting.” Monochrome stood up, he held out his hand and offered her help to stand up.

“So what are all you doing here?” she asked as Monochrome helped her up.

“We heard it was supposed to be safe here.”

“Wish it was, but it isn’t.”

“Yeah we noticed.” Monochrome walked over to the edge of the room they were in. He stared off into the arctic waste land of the north. He turned around to face the others and when he did the tower started tilting and swaying.

“What’s going on?” Key Scales asked in fear as she clung onto the pillar next to the desk.

“Apparently, when D.P. detonated all those explosives, he managed to take out some of the supports.” Monochrome replied.

“Is that a bad thing?” Clockwork asked.

“Unfortunately yes, the towers going to break into two halves and the half we’re on is going to crash into the ground.” The tower creaked one last time before it fell and crashed into the stone ground with everyone in it. Everything went dark, quite, and cold, as if death finally caught them.

The beast awakens

“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.

Gates to hell

“You bastard!” Twilight yelled as she started hitting Monochrome. “How could you do that!? How could you kill them in cold blood!?” she began crying. Monochrome slapped her and she fell onto the ground.

“If you touch me again I won’t hold back.” He growled at her then continued walking. She growled back at him, she got up and started running towards him but Clockwork held her back.

“I’ll kill you, you sick bastard!”

“Twilight stop!” Clockwork begged as he struggled in an attempt to hold her.

“Please, mom calm down!” Nyx begged as well.

“I’ll kill him!”

“Twilight that isn’t Monochrome, not anymore!” Twilight stopped. “It’s not him anymore.”

“What?”

“That’s one of his 2 lost forms, that one is obtained in a state of extreme concentrated anger, and he’ll remain like that until he accomplishes the goal he set.”

“What’s his goal?”

“He’s going to kill Pitch Black, and he’s not going to stop until he does, and if anyone tries to stop him, he kills them.”

“..How-how do you know this?”

“I’ve seen it before, once, before the war against the shadows, he was taking care of an orphan, one of those things killed her, and he went berserk.” Clockwork let her go and she stood there, hanging her head and crying. “Twilight-?” she turned around and hugged him, wanting comfort, and not wanting to upset her anymore he hugged her back.

“Will he ever go back to normal?”

“When Pitch Black is dead he will.” He let go of her and she whipped the rest of the tears off of her cheeks. “Monochrome, I think we should stop here for the night-!”

“We’ll stop when we’re dead-!”

“We stop here!” Twilight snapped at him, everyone went into shock, they’ve never seen her like this before.

“…Fine, we’ll stop for the night.” He walked over to them, he held his hand up and a fire started next to him. “The flames attracts the beasts, so be cautious.”

“Can’t you use a different fire then?” Applejack asked.

“Do you want me to rip off your head you ignorant hillbilly!?” Monochrome snapped at her, she quickly moved away from him and near Clockwork. “I’ll take watch, and if I’m gone, then I’d appreciate it if you all would not follow me.” Hours later when the sun went down everyone gathered around the black flames which somehow kept them warm and lit up a large area.

“29 bottles of beer on the wall, 29 bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around now you have-uh…what comes after 29?” Clockwork asked in his drunk state.

“In which direction?”   Twilight asked, she finally returned to her cheerful self.

“I think it was…wait no…I don’t know!” Clockwork shouted with joy. Everyone laughed with joy.

“Wow, you guys are hilarious.” Key Scales said with a happy sounding laugh.

“That my lady, is because I’m drunk…You have a really big rack you know?” Clockwork stated drunkenly. Key Scales looked over to him with a smile on her face, that out of nowhere she slapped him with enough force to knock him onto the ground.

“I’ve got years of training and a short, short fuse. Keep that in mind if you shoot off your mouth about me again.” She growled at him.

“Fine…bitch.” Clockwork murmured, she turned to him with an enraged look on her face and he began cowering in fear.

“So, I don’t think we ever properly met, what was your name again?” Twilight asked, attempting to prevent her from killing Clockwork.

“Oh, my name is Key Scales, but you can call me Scales if you want.” She replied with a smile, as if she forgot about Clockwork.

“It’s nice to meet you Scales, my name is Twilight, and these are my friends. This is Applejack, Fluttershy, my daughter Nyx, Agony, Red, and that man you were about to kill, he’s Clockwork.” Key Scales turned to him and noticed he went back to drinking his beer.

“Is he always this stupid?”

“Don’t know, but it shore seems like it.” Red chuckled.

“Hey, you-*hic*- watch your mouth you little brat-*hic*-I’m still older then you!”

“Physically yes, mentally, I out age you.”

“Yesh phsaminngr.” Clockwork started rambling In his drunk state.

“Ok…So who’s he?” Key Scales asked as she pointed to Monochrome.

“Oh, that little-*hic*-ittle ball of hate? That’s our “leader” Monochrome.” Clockwork leaned closer to Key Scales and started whispering to her. “He thinks that-*hic*-that he’s stronger than all of us.”

“ok…”she placed her hand on him and started pushing his face away. “You know I can’t wait for all this to be over, I might finally get a chance to spend time with my boyfriend again.”

“Really, is he anyone special?” Nyx asked.

“I wouldn’t say special, but he’s a really nice guy.”

“What’s his name?”

“Arrowhead.” Clockwork immediately spat out the beer he was drinking into the fire and began coughing, and the life in all the others vanished. “What?”

“Oh, it’s…it’s nothing.” Twilight replied with a nervous tone.

“No something happened, what is it?”

“It’s nothing-“

“Tell me!” everyone went from being nevus to being scared.

“We…knew, Arrowhead.”

“Really? What happened to him, where’d he go?”

“He…he’s dead.”

“Your jo-…No, you’re not joking, I can see it in your face.”

“We’re sorry.” Key Scales face went emotionless, she held on to the blue pendant on the necklace she was wearing.

“Did he die an honorable death?”

“Yeah,” Nyx answered. “He sacrificed himself to save all of us.”

“He died with more honor than any soldier I fought along with during all this.” Red added.

“Well, that’s good to know.” She looked up at them and was smiling, it seemed like she was completely untroubled by what she had heard.

“Alright lights out.” Monochrome interrupted.

“But it’s only midnight.” Clockwork whined.

“Does it look like I give a shit you drunk dumb ass?! Light’s out!” he flapped his flaming wings on the gust from them put out the fire, but the light from the fire coating his body was still lighting up the area, it acted like a nightlight for all of them. An hour later, everyone was sound asleep, except for Key Scales. She lied down in the grass; tears were running down her face as she held onto her pendent, she spoke to herself, asking for another chance, that way she could be there for him. The next morning as they walked along a Key Scales started tripping and eventually fell face first into the grass.

“Scales? Are you ok?” Twilight asked as she looked back, Key Scales got up and whipped the grass off of her. “Scales-?”

“Huh, oh, I’m fine don’t worry.” She yawned loudly.

“Are you sure?” Twilight looked at her, her eyes were red, and it looked like she’d fall over again any second. “Did you get enough sleep?”

“Yeah, of course.” She replied while yawning.

“Something’s wrong, isn’t there?”

“How can you tell?”

“…Lucky guess.” She answered back with irritation both in her voice and on her face. Key Scales looked at her with nervousness then looked away.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about him.”

“Him?...Oh, Listen, it’s ok, I bet where ever he is, he’s thinking about you and wishing he could be here with you-“

“If you’re trying to make me feel better it isn’t working.” She interrupted as she whipped a tear off her face.

“Oh, sorry. But if you keep thinking about him it’s not going to help, you need to let him move on, for his sake and yours.” Key Scales began smiling.

“Your right, I need to forget about him.” Twilight started smiling with her.

“Hey!” Monochrome yelled, the two of them turned around to see him and the others waiting patiently. “If you two are done with your little moment, I’d like to get to where I’m goin before I die of old age.”

“Seriously, what’s your problem?!” Key Strokes asked sarcastically.

“You, and her, stopping for no bucking reason, now get moving-“

“You know, I don’t have to listen to you-!”

“If you want to keep all your limbs attached to you then you will!” Monochrome yelled at her, she growled at him. “Now all of you get moving.” Monochrome walked off and the other followed him. AS the wandered through the brush of the forest they eventually wandered into an ambush, infected surrounded them from all sides, everyone drew their weapons, except Monochrome, he stood there with a blank expression, waiting for them to attack. When the first infected leaped at them , Key Scales immediately drew one of the two swords she had and slashed at it with a blinding speed, she slashed at its eyes, knocked it to the ground and cut its head off. When she sheathed her sword the other infected attacked, Monochrome teleported everyone out of harm’s way and put himself in the center of the attack.

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled out, when she tried to help his there was a sudden burst of light and heat, when they opened there eyes all the infected were gone, and instead, there were multiple piles of ash. “Monochrome?”

“Did I tell any of you to stop? No! Now keep moving!” he yelled at them, the didn’t hesitate and kept moving, An hour later they arrived at a hill surrounded by trees, when they reached the top of the hill Twilight looked around and saw nothing but the forest surrounding them.

“Monochrome…what are we doing here?”

“Shut up and keep look out!” Monochrome snapped at her. She groaned and turned back around and continued looking into the vast ocean of trees. While the others were looking away Monochrome waved his hand in front of him and a ring of fire appeared on the top of the hill, it had strange markings within it and two shapes that looked like rectangles. “Ok, you can all look now.” When they turned around they saw the ring of burnt grass, Twilight was about to ask him what he was doing, but when she saw that he was staring at her angrily, she decided not to say anything, he turned back around and raised his hand into the air. “By the lights that shine on us from above, from the ground we tread, by order of a being of that which is holy, I order that gate of hell, to unlock thy self and revealed thy passage to the underworld to I and my followers!” at out of nowhere, there was a creaking sound and something else that sounded like hundreds of locks all unlocking themselves at once, when the noises died down, the two rectangular shapes started rising out of the ground and opened like they were a door. As they moved there were sounds of screaming and fire. “All of you, go, now!” Monochrome told them as he pointed to the gaping hole that has just been formed, no one attempted to argue, they just walked into the hole, and after Monochrome entered it, the gates sealed behind them and the screams and sounds of fire disappeared from the outside world.

Dawn of Black Flames

“It’s burning down here, I feel like I’m in a sauna.” Key Scales stated as she whipped the sweat off her forehead.

“Well get used to it, since we’re going to be down here for a while.” Monochrome replied. After a minute he and the others stopped at a colossal steel gate. “Grate, where the hell is the gate keeper-?”

“Up here,” someone replied, Monochrome looked over his shoulder and saw a woman lounging on a rock. “And just to let you know, no one is allowed beyond …this…point…Twilight?”

“Rainbow?” Rainbow Dash smiled, she jumped off  the rock and raced over to her.

“Twilight, it’s so good to see you again!” she yelled as the two of them hugged.

“Rainbow!?” Applejack called out, Rainbow Dash looked behind Twilight and saw the other two.

“I can’t believe it, your all here!” she yelled as she hugged the other two. “How did you all get down here?! I thought the outer gates were sealed?!”

“Monochrome opened them.” Twilight answered.

“He did? Huh, never thought his magic was that strong-“

“Are you going to open the bucking gate or are you just going to stand there scratching your ass!?!?” Monochrome snapped at them.

“Alright fine! Sheesh, what’s his problem?”

“It’s a long story, we’ll probably explain it later.” Twilight replied. Rainbow Dash went over to the gate, she took a small black key out of her pocket, she walked up to the gate, she kneeled down and placed the key into a hoe on the ground, and when she turned it the get went up in flames, when the flames disappeared, the gate was gone.

“Ok, gate’s opened.” Rainbow Dash said as she got up. “Wish I could come with you guys, but if I leave my post…Ah who am I kidding, Pitch Black is going to kill me for just letting you guys in-“

“Wait what?” Twilight interrupted her. “Why do you care about Pitch Black?”

“Well, he rules this place, and when I got infected, I couldn’t really fight him so…I just sort of started doing what he said.”

“Smart, when you can’t beat someone, kiss up to them.” Monochrome stated with annoyance, he kept moving and the others quickly followed them, and once they exited out through the other side of the cave, they saw the most horrifying sight, and entire kingdom made of red stones and flames, they heard screams every few seconds from the souls that were being tortured, and there were strange beasts flying around, they didn’t look like them. “Welcome to hell.” He said, he started walking down the staircase that looked like it went on for miles, and along the way, they approached a pair of people who were struggling to push a steel cart, as they got closer to them their voices became more clear.

“Pinkie, hurry, if we get caught slacking they’ll kill us for sure-“

“I’m sorry Rarity, I can’t go on, my legs feel like jelly.”

“Yall need help with that?” Applejack asked, the two looked over the top of the mine cart and saw her holding on to it. “Applejack!” Pinkie Pie yelled with joy, she jumped over the cart and hugged her.

“I can’t believe it, how did you get here? Please don’t tell me you suffered like we did!”

“Nope, Monochrome took us here using…some, spell thing.”

“Yes, and as a sign of your appreciation, I’d like to keep moving-“Rarity screamed as she saw him in his altered state, she jumped away from the cart, Applejack struggled to hold on to so she let go, and before it could reach a higher speed Pinkie Pie jumped out of it and then it went speeding down the rusted rails.

“Well…if those beasts weren’t going to kill us before, their certainly going to do it now.”

“Was there something important in it?” Twilight asked.

“Yes actually there was, a rare gem here that is referred to as Hell Crystal, we were ordered to harvest it as punishment from disobeying a direct order from our king.”

“Did you just call that buck ass a king!?” Monochrome yelled at her and she moved back and hid behind one of the many rock formations growing from the ground.

“Hey, you two slackers are in big trouble for losing the cart!” a strange sounding man yelled from above, they looked up and saw his skin was a blood shade of red along with his eyes, his legs turned into spikes instead of hooves, he had no eyes, bat ears, and bat wings instead of arms.

“What the hell is that thing?” Clockwork whispered to himself.

“Intruders! Prepare your selves for immediate execution!” he lifted his legs up to his chest and grabbed a strange thing hanging of a string around his neck, he put it up to his mouth and started blowing on it, and as he did it created an earsplitting sound. As the sound spread across the sky, a black cloud starting forming above them.

“Not the bats again, I still have scars healing from last time.” Rarity whined. Monochrome opened up his wings and waited.

“Monochrome what are you doing, we need to run-!” Twilight shouted at him.

“I never run from a challenge.” Monochrome interrupted her, he continued standing there as the black cloud of bats grew bigger and louder, eventually the bat’s stopped appearing and the flying demon like man blew the whistle again and all the bats headed towards Monochrome, right as the got close to him, they all started turning into ash, as if the flames of the world there in finally got them.

“What! Alright, you want to play the hard way, we’ll play the hard way! Let’s see how you deal with the Red Water Leviathan!” he blew the whistle again and this time two holes opened up in the ground and both sides of Monochrome, and out of them came two massive snake likes monsters, tan scaly skin, no eyes just like their master, and teeth that look like torn up scraps of metal. They lunged at Monochrome and they both caught on fire, they started screeching then retreated back into the wells of blood. Monochrome growled then flew up to the guard, he grabbed him by his neck and tor the whistle off of him.

“If you value your life, you are to go to Pitch Black, and tell him, that Monochrome is coming to kill him, got it?”

“Y-yes sir.” Monochrome let go of the demon and he flew off towards the colossal castle on the other side of the area. Monochrome flew back down and landed next Twilight.

“Let’s go.” He said quietly, he led the others into the town, and after an hour they made it to the entrance, Monochrome kicked the door off its hinges and on the other side of it were more of the demons that patrolled the area, Monochrome pulled out his scythe, ready to attack, but they didn’t do anything, they just continued their patrol.

“Are they even a threat?” Clockwork asked.

“No not really.” Rarity replied.

“Yeah, those are the normal guards, their blind, deaf, have the brains of a rock, barely even talk, and that’s just the top of the list, it goes on for a while.” Rainbow Dash added.

“What makes them such a good choice for a guard?” Monochrome asked as he put his scythe away.

“They have the best noses of anything, if something has an out of place smell, they can find it, even if the smell is invisible to us.”

“In that case, I suggest all of you not do anything odor related, got it!?” they all agreed with him then followed him through the city, and along the way Clockwork bumped into one of the guards and knocked it over, he drew out his hammer ready to fight, but the guard just got up and kept walking.

“I know you said these things were stupid, but this…just wow.” Clockwork chuckled as he put his hammer onto his back.

“They make you look like a genius.” Red laughed.

“Yeah…I like it down here!” Clockwork shouted.

“Shut up and keep moving!” Monochrome snapped at them. Later on s they passed an ally way, they heard voices coming from it, Monochrome stopped everyone and drew outhis scythe as he listened to them.

“I’m telling you, it’s true-“

“Right, a group of freedom fighters attempting to free the sinners, funny-“

“Come on, just trust me-“

“Why should i? Last time I did I almost got caught by one of those maestro guards-“

“I told you it wasn’t my fault, they appeared earlier than I thought-“

“Didn’t I tell you that thinking was dangerous for my health?”

“Just shut up and trust me!”

“…Fine, one last time, if we get caught, I’m blaming you!”

“Fine whatever, let’s go-“

“Hold it!” Monochrome stopped them before they could leave the ally way. “I need information, and you two are going to give it to me, sound fair?”

“And why would we do that?” one of the two men replied. Monochrome smiled sinisterly, he raised his scythe and dropped it right on the person who refused to help him, splitting him right in half. “Are you going to help us or do you want to wind up like that guy?”

“…What do you need?” Monochrome smiled.

“I want to know who these “Freedom fighters” are.”

“They’re just some guys, I think there were four of them, but they aren’t important.”

“I asked who they were, not for this bullshit story, now, this time, you’re going to tell me, or, I can kill you on the spot, like what’s his face there, got it?”

“Ok, ok fine, I don’t know their names exactly but, I think one was…Arrow-something, I don’t know.” And just then Key Scales face lit up.

“Do you know what he looks like!?” Key Scales eagerly asked as she shoved Monochrome out of the way.

“I think he was…red…with a vest…he had these weird gloves gauntlet things, I can’t really remember, I’ve only really seen him once-“

“Where are they at now!?”

“They’re at the execution site…in front of the palace.” After that, Key Scales ran off leaving the others behind.

“You, stay here, if you follow us, I’ll turn you into a puddle of blood.”

“Yes sir.” The man replied, he sat down on a box and remain motionless. Half an hour later when they got to the other side of the city they arrived at a another gate, this time it was blackwood and black steel. Monochrome Walked up to it and kicked it down just like the first gate, on the other side was the same thing, multiple guards roaming around aimlessly, as he stepped in, one of the guards looked upwards and started sniffing the air, then it looked over at him and the others and started snarling.

“I think we spent too much time out in the fire areas.” Rainbow Dash stated.

“What makes you say that?” Monochrome asked.

“Well, since it was hot out in those areas, it caused us to sweat, and now, that thing can smell us.” Monochrome pulled out his scythe and walked over to it, it roared and rushed towards him. He pulled back his scythe and when it got close to him, he swung and cut off the upper half of its head. The smell must have been considered an out of place sent since all the other guards started sniffing the air. “I probably should’ve told you that, if a guard is killed, they release a smell that latches onto its killer.”

“So, I’m basically a walking demon magnet at the moment?”

You, me, and the rest of us.”

“Well, this ought to be interesting.” The demons started racing towards him and the others, and every time they got close, Monochrome would just swing his scythe and decapitate them. After a few minutes they reached a pole that shot out of the ground, and chained two it, were four people, and each one of them was blind folded.

“Arrowhead!” Key Scales yelled out as she started racing over to them.

“Scales, is that you!?” Arrowhead replied as he started blindly looking around. Key Scales slowed down as she approached him, she kneeled down and took his blind fold off. “Scales, it is you.” the two of them kissed, and then Key Scales hugged him tightly as she cried with joy.

“I thought I lost you.”

“Don’t worry, even if I am dead, I’ll always be with you.” Monochrome walked up to them, he raised his scythe and cut all the chains off of their hands and their necks, and as they stood up they removed their blindfolds.

“Shining Armor!”

“Twilight!” the two of them hugged each other. “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you to Twily.”

“Gee, how heartwarming.” Monochrome stated with sarcasm, Shinning Armor looked over at him they moved Twilight behind him. “Calm down dumb ass, I killed you nonce, and honestly I don’t feel like doing it again.

“Tsk, tsk, Monochrome, I expected better from you.” Ankh taunted.

“Buck off you sandy assed son of a bitch!”

“Say it like it is brotha!” Clockwork laughed.

“I see your all as stupid as you normally were.” Dance Party added with annoyance.

“Yeah well it’s good to see you to-“

“All of you shut up and let’s go!”

“What the hell’s with him?”

“Long story, don’t feel like talking about it.” As the moved on the ran into one last guard, it rush over to Monochrome, he lifted his knee and hit it in its stomach, he then placed his hands on both sides of its head then started twisting it like it was a cap on a bottle, and a few seconds later, it’s head came completely off. He shoved the boy out of the way and went up to the gate, as he reached for the door, a hand grabbed him, he looked over and saw Blitz smiling at him.

“What do you want?” Monochrome asked with annoyance.

“An explanation as to why you’re in hell, and a “Hi Blitz how are you”.”

“I’m here for, none of your concern! And the second thing you’re not getting.” He smacked his hand off of him then opened the door into the main chamber of the palace.

“Someone die?” Blitz asked Clockwork as he passed by.

“Yup.” Clockwork replied then led the others inward. Once they were inside they started hearing some sort of coir coming from the upper floor. “Wow, must be the Brothers Choir.”

“The what?” Arrowhead asked.

“The Brothers Choir, a group of singers that work for the Brotherhood.”

“How can you tell it’s them?” Dance Party asked.

“They’re the only ones that can sound that heavenly.”

“And they’re the only ones allowed within the royal chamber.” Monochrome added, he flew up past the stair case and started walking down the corridor. At the end of it was a door way marked with large red symbols and skulls. He approached and as he placed his hand on it a voice sounded from behind him.

“That’s not a good idea you know.”

“Does it look like I give a shit Nepheus?” he turned around and saw a man, demon wings on his back, a black robe, red eyes, black skin and red scars covering his face.

“Why are you here? You know my father dislikes unannounced company.”

“Like I said, does it look like I give a shit?”

“No but you really should.” Another voice sounded, he turned over to him, shirtless, black pants, a mask covering his mouth, every time he speaks the mask lights up, messy hair, and red scars covering his body. “Uncle isn’t in a good mood at the moment, maybe you should wait until tomorrow to kill him.”

“He dies today, and no one is going to stop me.”

“Listen to us Monochrome, as a friend, I’m only trying to help-“

“I don’t need your help you demon son of bitch.”

“Monochrome, this isn’t wiae, attacking uncle during this day.”

“Why do you care Berserker, didn’t you once want me dead?”

“Yes, I once, wanted you dead, but we are allies now, and as such, i only want to help.”

“You want to help? Then stay out of my way-“

“Monochrome for the love of our kind can’t you just listen to them!?” Clockwork begged. Monochrome turned around and saw him and the others. He had no time to deal with any of them, he turned back to the door and placed his hands on it.

“We tried to warn you. But if you won’t listen then so be it.” Nepheus walked down the corridor Monochrome entered from.

“I’m with him, if you want to die then go ahead, but don’t expect to drag us down with you.” Berzerker turned into black smoke then eventually disappeared, when everything went quite, Monochrome opened the door the Royal Chamber and walked in.

Pitch Black: the Unholy King

“Pitch Black where are you!?” Monochrome yelled s he entered the chamber. “Get your phantom ass out here so I can kick it! Pitch Black!”

“Monochrome calm down!”Twilight begged. Monochrome stood where he was refusing to move.

“Twilight, you, Agony, and Nyx lead the girls out of here, Men, you’re staying here with me.”

“Why do we have to stay?” Arrowhead asked.

“Because I said so, now get in here.” The others moaned as they walked into the main chamber. As they stood with in the empty room Twilight started guiding the others out of the palace. As they moved, Key Scales looked back to the others; they were getting ready to fight, even though there was no one there, she stopped where she was.

“Scales? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked as she stopped the group, Key Scales whisper something. “What-?”

“Not again!” he yelled as she started rushing to the main chamber.

“Key Scales, wait!” Twilight called out as she and the others chased her down, but they weren’t fast enough, she made it into the chamber and tackled Arrowhead, almost knocking him off his hooves.

“Scales, what are you doing!?” Arrowhead asked.

“Not again!” Key Scales began crying as she looked up at him. “I’m not leaving you again. The first time was a mistake, and I don’t want to lose you again.” She held onto him tightly refusing to let him go.

“Scales come on, we need to get out of here.” Twilight said, she attempted to walk into the room with them but she ran into something as soon s she got to the doorway.

“Damn it, the shadowy bastard expected this.” Monochrome groaned as he walked over to Twilight.

“What’s going on?”

“You and the others are locked out, Pitch Black Doesn’t want anyone else to enter.”

“Why not?”

“For the fight shall be, unbalanced.”  A deep growling voice announced the doors began closing, Monochrome moved away from them before they slammed shut.

“Monochrome!” Twilight called from the other side, her voice was quite and muffled.

“Twilight get the girls out of here now.” Monochrome answered.

“But what about you and the others-?”

“Just get them out of here damn it!” Monochrome snapped at her, Twilight didn’t answer immediately, and after a second she replied telling him she’d go. “Key Scales you complete bitch-!”

“Don’t talk to my girl-friend that way!” Arrowhead yelled at him.

“I’ll talk to her however I bucking want! Because of her, we can’t leave until we kill that shaded son of a bitch!”

“What did I even do1?” Key Scales interrupted.

“Pitch Black doesn’t like people like you entering his chamber.”

“People like…that sexist bastard; I’m going to kill him!”

“Are you bucking stupid or are you pretending!? Do you really think that you can kill him!?”

“How hard can it be?” she started walking to the throne. “All I have to do his stab him a few times and he’ll be begging for life.” She face him and the others but continued walking. “It’s that easy you know-“ she bumped into something, she heard heavy breathing, she looked p and saw sinister soul piercing red eyes looking down at her. She screamed and ran back over to Arrowhead. When she looked back at the man she saw him more clearly, he was wearing a black cloak with the hood over his head, he had red scars covering his body, just like the other two people she saw, and he even stood three times taller than her.

“Here I am, thinking that the female race was the weaker one.”

“Black, don’t you know it’s impolite to keep people waiting?” Monochrome growled as he turned his hands into their sword forms.

“Forgive me child, I was busy with…preparations.”

“The only thing you need to prepare for is the afterlife!” Monochrome roared as he rushed towards him, Pitch Black snapped his fingers and three pillars of black flame appeared in front of him, when they disappeared he stopped dead in his tracks, with in the pillars were the three princesses

“I should have let you known, the preparations were for the ceremony, and I am to be wed before nightfall.” Monochrome’s hands went back to normal and he began backing away from them. “Allow me to tell you the story, upon their deaths, I took the liberty of housing them, I kept them safe in the dungeons, and as they stayed there, I began to think to myself, after that reached council of winged beasts murdered my wife, I would have to find another, and what better substitute, then a princess.” H turned around and walked over to Cadence, he grabbed her by her hair and pulled her head back, revealing her neck ad a strange necklace she was wearing. “At first I thought that this one would make a perfect bride, but her heart, it made me sick, her joy was one of the few most putrefying things I ever known.” I flicked his finger and a massive claw came out of the tip of it. He held the claw up to her neck. “And because of her heart, I was unable to wed this one.” He started guiding his claw across her neck, and as he did, a line of blood started dropping out of her.

“Let her go!” Shinning Armor yelled as he pulled out his sword. Pitch Black smiled sinisterly and it could be seen through the shadows of his hood, he let go of her head, and when she looked forward she revealed that she was crying in pain.

“After I figured out that I was unable to wed that one, I moved on, to my favorite of the three.” He placed one of his hands on Luna’s head and forced her to look upwards; she was wearing the same necklace as Cadence. “When I moved on to this one, I began thinking of the advantages of being wed to the princess of the night.” He let go of her head and instead placed is hand on her shoulder, he also placed his clawed finger on her cheek and started cutting her, and also like Cadence, she cried in pain. “If I was wed to this one, I could force her to make it eternal night up above, I could have her eclipse the sun, or I could even have her turn back into the beautiful Nightmare Moon. But when I realized that her soul was to pure, I became angered, knowing I couldn’t be wed to the younger two, so I settled on the elder of the three.” He moved away from Luna, the right side of her face was almost completely covered with cuts and blood and her crying became even more intense. “Since I can’t be with those two, I decided to be wed to your favorite sibling; I’ve decided to be wed, to Celestia.” Pitch Black didn’t even touch her yet, but Celestia was already crying. “Celesstia will be the perfect bride, if I was to be wed to her, I shall have rule over Equestria, the sun shall never be raised and my children of shadows will be able to roam freely, and, there will be nothing to stop me, from controlling this world-“

“Your wrong about that.” Clockwork interrupted, he pulled out his war hammer. “You have us, we won’t rest until your dead.”

“Clockworks right.” Ankh agreed with him as he pulled out his bow. The others began feeling pride within them and they all pulled out their weapons.

“There is no way we’re going to let you take over our world.” Clockwork said, attempting to intimidate him. Pitch Black smiled, he flinched both his hands and massive claws shot out of all his finger tips.

“If you want to stand in my way, then so be it, but, do not expect me to show mercy during our battle.” Clockwork, Shinning Armor, and Key Scales all charged at him at once, attempting to tackle him, but they somehow missed and all their weapons fazed through him. “Do you expect to defeat me with such mortal tools?” he raised one of his hands and slashed at Clockwork, he held up his hammer to block, but his claws passed right through the handle, cutting it into smaller pieces. In shock, he dropped his hammer and backed away from him. “It shall take more than that to even harm me.” He took a step forward and as soon as he did, Dance Party shot at him and the bullet hit him in his shoulder. He looked at the wound then back at him.

“Take another step and the next one will go straight in to your ugly mother-bucking face.” He growled.

“Unless your bullets are blessed, then they shall not hurt me.”

“You want to prove that?!” he shot him again and like he said the bullet hit right in his eye. He started screeching in pain, and as he did, Dance Party smiled smugly.

“As I said, it shall not hurt me.” Pitch Black laughed, he held his head up and it revealed that his eye was starting to regenerate. “Nice shot, but it is not enough.”

“Oh bloody hell…Monochrome, do something! We can’t win on our own-!”

“Get rid of the necklaces!” Monochrome yelled.

“…What?”

“The necklaces the princesses are wearing, their enchanted, and if we can’t get rid of them, we won’t be able to save them!”

“What the bloody hell does that have to do with killing him!?”

“Just do it!” Ankh rolled his eyes, he raised his bow and released the arrow, it flew right past Pitch Black and the others and skimmed right off the side of Cadence’s neck cutting the string on the necklace and as it fell to the ground, so did she.

“Cadence!” Shinning Armor dropped his sword and ran over to her.

“Uh hey, guy, I can’t win on m own…even though I said.” Pitch Black slashed at her, she ducked down and he cut the blade right off the dagger she was using.

“Cadence, are you ok!?” Shining Armor asked as he held her up.

“Shiny, I thought you forgot about me.” She answered with a faint voice.

“I’d never forget about you.”

“Nor will I.” Pitch Black added, they turned around and saw hi, standing over them with Key Scales on his back constantly trying to stab him in his head. “To think that I almost let you live, now, allow me to fix that.” He threw Key Scales of his back then raised his hand which still had claws on it. As he was about to slash at them an arrow flew at him and went right through his throat. He turned around and saw Ankh holding his bow, he let go of the string and another arrow launched towards him, but this time, he caught the arrow when it was an inch from his face then broke it.

“Oi! My grandmother made that arrow!” Ankh complained.

“I met your grandmother, she is nothing more than a harpy.” He took a step forward then immediately felt a stabbing on his back.

“Why the hell won’t you die?!” Key Scales yelled out as she pushed her sword deeper until it appeared on the other side of him.

“Shouldn’t you have learned by now” Pitch Black started turning around, and the sword that was still lodged deep within him started fazing through his body as he did. “Your pathetic weaponry cannot harm me.”

“No, but I bet they can slow you down!” she pulled out her other sword and stabbed him right in his heart then started pushing him back, she got him to his throne and pinned him to it, she began panting heavily. “See…told you they could slow you down-“

“You have proven your point.” Pitch Black Smiled at her before he slapped her causing her to fall to the ground. He pulled one of the swords out of him then walked forward and the other one began phasing through him. Shining Armor attempted to attack him, but when he got close Pitch Black slapped him and sent him flying. He looked back over to Key Scales, she was attempting to get back up. He kicked her back down then placed his hoof on her back. “You should know better, then to attack me.” He took the sword he had and threw it down, it went through her and into the ground, pinning her there.

“Key Scales!” Arrowhead called out. Monochrome went berserk and rush over to him, attacking with every chance he got, and while he was attacking him Arrowhead ran over to Key Scales who was just barely alive. “Scales, are you alright.”

“Arrowhead, I’m happy I got to see you one last time, I didn’t want to leave you without saying good bye-“she said to him, her voice was growing weaker.

“Please don’t talk like that, just hang on, we can help you-“

“I’m sorry, but you can’t, this is my time.”

“Scales.” Tears started running down his face. Key Scales reached for the pendant on her necklace, she took it off then handed it to him.

“Please, don’t forget me.” She lied her head down and went motionless and silent.

“…Scales…Please get up…Scales!” the tears going down his face disappeared and he started growing angered. He drew the sword that had killed her, he started yelling as he rushed to Pitch Black who at the moment was still fighting Monochrome, he turned around in time and managed to dodge him, but Arrowhead kept slashing at him and managed to cut him a few times. “I’ll kill you, you sick bastard!” he yelled with complete anger, Pitch Black stepped back and Monochrome took both his hands which he turned into blades and stabbed them in his back, while he was stunned Arrowhead took his sword and stabbed him in his chest.

“The rest of you, get my sisters and make sure their alright!” Monochrome demanded and the others went over to Luna and Celestia, the got the necklaces off them and carried them away from the fight.

“Release my bride!” Pitch Black demanded right before a pulse of energy sending Monochrome and Arrowhead flying into the walls. He started moving towards the others and when he was half ways towards them he immediately became stunned and unable to move for some reason, he turned his head and saw something almost as terrifying as him, someone as tall as him, half his face was black and had a purple serpent eye and the other was white with a blue eye, and long black dreadlocks.

“I’m amazed you forgot about me.” The man spoke calmly, but his voice was twisted, it sounded as if two people were saying the exact same words at the exact same time.

“How did you enter this chamber, it was sealed as soon as the gate had closed.”

“Me and the others have been here the entire time, waiting for an opening to attack. “

“I see, and how is it that you have paralyzed me?”

“Special poison I made, right before you killed us all.” The man took his two swords and using the dull sides of them he swung at Pitch Black and sent him crashing into the side wall of the chamber. “Father.” He turned and faced Monochrome. “Father you must awaken, for the battle is not yet over and you must continue.”

“…Corruption?” Monochrome whispered to himself as he stood up.

“Daddy!” a girl yelled from behind as she hugged him.

“Amber? Is that really you?”

“Daddy, I missed you.”

“Amber!” Monochrome shouted with joy as he hugged her back. His form started turning back to normal. “I can’t believe it, I came here to get you and the others back…I…I thought…”

“You thought it wouldn’t be this easy?” Amber interrupted.

“Yes, actually…where’s your mother?”

“Right here.” A familiar voice answered, he turned around and saw Gilda standing behind him holding a strange gun.

“Gilda!” he hugged her tighter then he held Amber. “I can’t believe I lost you, I promise, I’ll never let that happen again.” He looked past her and saw the man that attack Pitch Black, the two of them were almost identical with the exception that the man was wearing a black T-shirt, black leather jacket, and blue jeans instead of what Monochrome was wearing, Blue button up shirt, white jacket, and black jeans, the man also had a strange black ooze on the side of his face.

“Corruption, son.” Monochrome let go of Gilda and walked over to him. “I’m happy to see you again.” He held his hand out expecting Corruption to shake it, but instead, he threw his swords down and hugged him tightly.

“Father, never make me think that you became one of those things ever again, understand?”

“Yeah, I understand.” Monochrome smiled as he hugged him back.

“What a touching moment between you two, it is a shame that it must end, along with your lives.” The looked over to him, he was getting out of the hole he formed on impact. Corruption let go of his father, he picked up the two swords he dropped and rushed to him, he started swinging the two massive blades as if they were nothing, and during the attack he knocked him down several times but each time he got back up and continued fighting. “Give up child, you won’t win in a fight with me.”

“That is what you think demon, you don’t know it, but I already won.” Corruption jumped back, Pitch Black turned his head and was immediately shot by the gun Gilda had, she pulled the trigger and a massive blue light appeared, it didn’t hurt him, but the light moved around him and broke the wall leading out of the chamber. “Now, everyone go!” everyone rushed out the hole.

“You shall not escape me!” Pitch Black yelled as he started chasing after them, when they got back to the town they became surrounded be the demon guards, and once Pitch Black caught up with them he stopped and stood within the army of guards. “You should know better than to trick me like such.” He held up his hand and there was a screaming noise as strange shadows started forming together, and once they were formed, he slammed it on the ground and the shadows vanished and revealed a scythe the handle on it was crooked and looked like a stick while the blade was massive and on the back of it was a goat skull. “This time Monochrome, I shall win.” He raised the scythe and before he could swing it, a beam of light lit up the entire area and killed all the demon guards. “No…No! What caster is strong enough to use this spell!?”

“I am.” a female voice announced from above. He looked up and saw someone flying down towards them.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Jetstream Shimmersky, Princess of Lightening, and the one who casted that spell.”

“Impossible, that was and advance spell, you couldn’t have been the one to use it.”

“Well I was, so too bad.” Pitch Black growled he took a step forward and when he did another beam of light shot down right on top of him, when this one hit, the celling started caving in.

“Mom, are you ok!?” another voice shouted from above, this time Screwball landed next to the others.

“I’m fine Screwball, nice job.”

“Jet, hey, it’s nice to see you again.” Monochrome smiled, she turned around and smiled back at him.

“It’s nice to see you to, but, didn’t you turn into one of those things?”

“I did, but it didn’t last long.” Seconds later the entire area started caving in on them. “We’ll talk later, we need to go, now!” Monochrome led the others out of the dark land, and once they got to the above world, they immediately met up with the others.

“Guys, your back!” Twilight shouted joyfully.

“Twilight!” Cadence shouted back with joy.

“Cadence, I can’t believe your back!” the two of them hugged.

“Twilight, it’s nice to hear your voice again.”

“Jetstream? What are you doing here?”

“I thought you guys could use some help so…yeah.”

“Now is Still not the time!” Monochrome interrupted as he panted heavily, he got up and turned around to face the gate way in the ground, he raised hs hands into the air and started chanting something. “By order of the land above, yadda, yadda, yadda, Close, now!” he yelled out and the gate way began closing. “Ok, now we can talk.”

“What was that about?” Nyx asked.

“Pitch Black is still alive, and I can tell that if he gets out of there, he’s going to be pissed-“

“Why would I not be!?” he interrupted, a black serpent like creature flew out of the gate way right before it closed and landed in front of them. When they looked at him, they saw he had changed, he went from a normal person, to a strange dragon. “You vial creatures, you have destroyed my home, and for that, you shall all suffer!” he took a deep breath and when he exhaled a strange green and black smog shot out of his mouth, everyone jumped out of the way, the smog hit several trees behind them and the trees died.

“What was that?” Twilight asked in her panicking state.

“I have no idea, but I think it’ll be a good idea if we avoid it!” Monochrome replied. He did the same thing again and this time aimed for Twilight, when he exhaled Monochrome shoved her out of the way, but at a cost, when he shoved her his leg got caught when they landed on the ground Monochrome started screaming in pain, when he looked down his leg was starting to rot away.

“Monochrome? Are you ok?”

“I think I know what that does now.”

“What a shame to, now you have to die.” Pitch Black taunted them, he started inhaling, when they attempted moving they noticed the Monochrome couldn’t get up and they ended up stuck there. Twilight closed her eyes and waited for the end, then everything went quite, she opened her eyes and everything was completely black, she looked around and there was nothing there, she looked down and saw Monochrome wasn’t there so she stood up.

“Hello?” she began walking around, she eventually bumped into something, she attempted to move past it but it was like attempting to walk through a wall, she eventually heard a twinkling sound, she turned around and saw the golden feather she got rid of before all this started. She started heading towards and as she did, the world of black started turning white, she started moving faster and when she grabbed it the entire world vanished. When she opened her eyes again she noticed that all the green smog was moving around her and Monochrome, like something was protecting them, she looked at her hand and saw she was holding the feather. “Monochrome?”

“I know, I’m seeing this to.” Monochrome interrupted her. Monochrome looked down at his leg and noticed that it was healed so he got up then helped her up. When smog cleared away everyone noticed that they were fine.

“How are you not effected!?” Pitch Black Roared at them.

“Don’t know, but I think it has something to do with this.” Twilight showed him the feather.

“Impossible! That item has been locked away for centuries!”

“Well that’s interesting, since I found it floating around the Everfree.” Pitch Black growled at them.

“Hand it to me now!” he took a step forward and the ground lit up at his claw. He looked down and saw a circle with a strange pattern in it.

“Look at that, and here I am thinking you weren’t that stupid.” Monochrome chuckled.

“What kind of joke is this?”

“Joke? Buddy, if that was a joke then it be one hell of one. No, that there is a special circle, forged a while ago-“

“What spell is it?”

“You tell me, you brother made it.” Pitch Black’s eyes widened with fear.

“You foul, this spell is too dangerous for mere children like you!”

“I’m not a child, and no it isn’t, only to you.”

“Monochrome, what are you doing?” Twilight asked.

“Twilight let me tell you something, that circle, is a holy spell made by Purity, it’s called Raptures Blessing, and it destroys all things unholy, including him.”

“But do not forget child, if I die, I am reborn in Tartarus-“

“Which is why I destroy it-“

“You destroyed it?” Jetstream interrupted.

“Alright fine, We destroyed it, point is, since it isn’t there anymore, you don’t go there upon death.”

“And where do I go then?!”

“To a non-existent realm, banished for all eternity.” Pitch Black looked down at the circle again.

“In exchange for my life, what do you want?”

“First on my list, I’d like you to revive a friend of mine.”

“Which friend-“

“Which one do you think?” Monochrome interrupted with sarcasm. Pitch Black closed his eyes and a moment later there was a flash of light and Key Scales appeared in front of him.

“Scales!” Arrowhead shouted as he ran up to her and caught her before she fell over.

“There is your friend, now what is your second request-?”

“I want to make a contract with you. In exchange, you may live.”

“Very well then, what is the contract?” Monochrome went up to him and started whispering in his ear, Pitch Black groaned with annoyance. “Very well, the contract shall be forged.”

“Excellent, Jetstream, I need your help.”

“With?”

“I need to open up a time rift, I need to go alert a few people, oh, and also, put a memory lock on him so he won’t be able to break our agreement.”

“Forward or backwards?”

“Both.” Jetstream smiled, she held up her hand and a ball of light appeared, she then threw the ball at Pitch Black who began snarling.

“Good, ok, let’s go-“

“What of me!?” Pitch Black demanded.

“Oh, you…right…you can just wait here-“

“What?!”

“Hey, you bargained for your life, and since your still alive, I guess the deal is still in play-“

“You treacherous swine-!”

“Yap, yap, yap, come on everyone let’s go.” As they walked off, Pitch Black started roaring as if he really was a dragon.

Epilogue: How it all ended

“Ugh, I can’t believe we lost again!” a female voice wined, this is like what, the hundredth time, the two hundredth!?”

“Don’t ridicules Agony, it’s only been seven times.” A male voice groaned.

“Yeah well, it’s seven times to many.” She replied. As the two walked through the forest they arrived at a cave, when they entered it, it revealed to be almost completely empty and silent. “So, what are we going to do this time? Another ritual, because the last four times we tried ended so well.” Agony ended with sarcasm.

“Close, my blood thirsty complies, were going to summon someone special this time-“

“Nightmare Moon I know, you don’t have to keep saying “someone special” you know, it’s getting on my nerves-“

“How many times am I going to have to tell you that it’s not her this time?” He pulled a piece of chock out of his pocket and began drawing on the cave floor.

“My hooves are killing me. Which remind me, we should be in charge by now, we should have nice big comfy thrones to sit in, cushioned stools to put our hooves on then a few people behind them, massaging them…I yeah, that would be nice.” She smiled as she slid down the cave wall and onto the ground. “But no, you and your stupid friends had to screw up the ritual again-“

“I told you once Agony, it was because of those stupid elements of harmony, and those stupid time keepers.” The man replied. He stood up and removed the hood covering his face; he had light blue skin and white hair and light blue eyes. “Agony do you have any chalk with you? My last piece just broke.”

“Do you have any of this!? Do you have any of that!?” She replied in a snappy sarcastic tone as she stood up. “Why don’t I ever get anything from you?”

“Just give me the damn chalk.” The man demanded.

“Fine.” She pulled the chalk out of her pocket. “Catch Mr. D. Mandson.” She threw the small bit of chalk at him and he caught right before it hit the ground. As he went back to drawing Agony slid back down the wall, she sighed loudly, and so did the man.

“What’s wrong?” the man asked in a tone that sounded like he didn’t care.

“It’s just-“ Agony removed her hood, and revealed her face, her skin was a purple color, her hair was spiky with purple tips and her eyes were a light blue color. “I’m just lonely.”

“Get over it, you’ll have slaves once we start our rule.”

“I know but-“she turned away and began to cry. “I don’t want a slave…I want a friend…one who’ll actually care about me.” The man looked up at her. “You have all you friends in that colt of yours…but…the only friend I ever had is gone…and…and…” she stopped talked and began to cry. The man sighed, he got up and walked over to her then sat alongside her.

“Come on Agony cheer up, she wasn’t your only friend you know.”

“Yeah, right, I have all the people I killed-“

“No, you have me.” Agony’s eyes lit up with joy.

“You…you actually want to be my friend?”

“Yeah, I mean, we both have the same goal, we both hate the same people, we both worship the same person, why not?” Agony began to blush as he smiled at her and whipped a tear off her face. “Come on, I need help to finish the circle.”

“Ok Spell…but, first, can you Please tell me, who the hell were trying to contact?”

“Didn’t I tell you-?”

“I need more info then just a friend.”

“Guess I didn’t tell you, were trying to contact him-“

“For the love of Luna! Him who!?” Spell sighed loudly.

“Pitch Black! Are you happy now?!”

“…I would be…If you weren’t trying to kill us!” Spell sighed again.

“Just trust me ok?”

“Fine…but only because I like- I mean, only because you’re my friend.” Spell continued drawing the pattern on the floor, and once he was finished he stood up and backed away from it.

“Ok, final ingredient, magic of an alicorn-“

“Bet you didn’t think this through.”

“Actually, I did, I never attempt to do something without thinking ahead-“

“Yet you still screwed up the first ritual-“

“At least I got it right on the first try-“

“Oh here we go again! It’s not my fault! Every time I tried, for some reason, it just exploded in my face-“

“Literally-“

“Buck off!” she turned away from him and held her head up high, spell sighed with annoyance.

“Just use your magic.”

“I would, but I’m not an alicorn-“

“Yes you are.” Agony’s eyes widened.

“How did you know?!”

“Do you have any idea how many times you made me hug you in the past?” Agony started blushing again. “You do know, that I know how you feel about me right?”

“…I don’t want to answer.”

“I know you love me-“

“Lie-!”

“I know you love me! Ok, and to be honest, I kind of like you to.”

“You…you do?”

“Yeah, you’re a psychopath who wants to kill everyone and reincarnate and evil beast, what’s not to like.”

“Oh…ok.” Agony began to smile. “Alright, stand back.” She held her arms out and her horn started glowing along with the chalk circle on the ground, she kept it like that for a moment, and when the light around her horn faded, the light on the circle remained as is. They stood there waiting for a moment, until something happened. The chalk outline began to move, it started moving together near the center of it then it started rising off the ground, when it did that, it began to form a skeleton, once the skeleton was completed its eyes started glowing red and a black liquid started oozing from its head down it’s body until it formed a cloak.

“Who dares awaken me from my slumber?” the beast spoke with a deep growling voice.

“It is I, Spell Nexus, follower of Nightmare Moon.” Spell Nexus stated as he bowed

“And I, Agony, worshiper of Nightmare Moon.” Agony stated as she took knee.

“You two must want me to reincarnate your princess, don’t you?”

“Not quite, we wish for you to cast a plague across all of Equestria.” Spell Nexus requested.

“A plague you say?”

“Yes, we want you to damn all those who oppose us.” Agony added.

“I’m afraid I cannot do that-“

“Why the buck not!?” Agony yelled as soon as she heard him.

“Because, I have signed a contract Monochrome, in exchange for my life, I am not to use my magic to create and form of virus, disease, plague, illness, parasite, or any other form of biological creation that can be…fatal-“

“Does it look like we care!? We just escaped the most elite prison in Equestria just to get you to kill everyone, and you are to do so!” Agony demanded.

“When was this contract forged?”

“Two months from now-“

“What!?” Agony shouted with anger.

“How is that possible?”

“The ones you seek to destroy, have already conquered the plague and have bested me in battle.”

“That’s right, and since you two are still at it, we thought it would be appropriate for us to come stop you in person this time.” Spell Nexus turned around and Saw Monochrome and the other 6 standing behind him.

“How…how?”

“Long story, we’ll explain while you’re in jail-“

“Not again!” Agony yelled right before running back into the forest.

“Monochrome-“

“I can see Twilight, just let her run, I already got everything set up.” Monochrome walked over to Pitch Black and grabbed him by his cloak.

“I have not violated the terms of our agreement-“

“No, but you are using black magic, and that’s illegal.” And suddenly, Monochrome’s eyes lit up and he sent a wave of magic down his body and on to Pitch Black’s and when he let go, he fell straight to the ground.

“What did you do to me?”

“Petrifying spell. Nothing special though.”

“King of shadows, forgive me for what I am about to do next.” Spell Nexus said to him right before running off.

“You coward swine, I shall watch you suffer for this!” Pitch Black yelled at him. Spell Nexus looked back and smiled thinking he got away, bu when he turned back around he saw Nyx in front of him holding a sword to his face

“You!” he growled at her.

“Nice to see you to.” She waved the sword in front of him and he fell to the ground just like Pitch Black.

“Why-?”

“Paralysis spell, Monochrome taught me.” She interrupted him, she sheathed her sword then picked him up and started dragging him back to the others. Meanwhile, as Agony ran through the forest, she began to slow down, thinking she was free, she continued walking and out of nowhere someone tackled her to the ground and she was no longer able to move.

“Damn you, you little bitch!” Agony yelled in anger. “I should have known you had something to do with this!”

“Nice to see you to.” Agony smiled as she began to drag her evil-self back to the cave. Hours later when dawn had risen, Celestia, Luna, and their royal guards arrived at the cave.

“Tia, you’re just in time for the party.” Monochrome chuckled.

“It’s nice to see you to big brother.”  Celestia smiled as the two of them hugged.

“Brother!” Luna called out happily as she hugged him.

“Nice to see you to Luna.” Monochrome smiled. “Come on, their all inside.” Monochrome guided the two princesses and the royal guards into the cave. When they entered, they saw that the three were still paralyzed on lying on the ground.

“This was an excellent plan brother, I’m amazed.”

“Thank you Tia, I’m flattered.” Monochrome smiled as he picked up Pitch Black and carried him outside, and while he was doing that, the royal guards took the other two and followed him, when outside, he threw Pitch Black into a cage and closed the gate to it, and as soon as he was in it, his paralysis wore off and he started slashing at the bars, but every time he did, there was a quick flash of light and they remained in perfect condition.

“Why can I not free myself.”

“Because that cage has been blessed by your truly.” Jetstream said smugly, the two of them looked up and saw her and Screwball sitting on the cave entrance, Pitch Black Growled at her. When the other two got out of the cave they were thrown into the same cage.

“I swear I will kill you Monochrome!” Agony yelled at him.

“Yeah you go ahead and keep saying that, whatever makes you happy.” Agony growled at him then started yelled and shouted as the cages were taken away.

“This was a great idea Monochrome, I’m amazed you thought of it.” Twilight told him with happiness.

“Thanks, it took a while to make sure it was full proof, but, it was worth it.” He looked down at her and saw she still had the feather, and with interest he took it from her and started examining it. “You know, I bet this all could have been avoided if we just carried this things with us, there’d be a lot less dead people, a lot less B.S.”

“Yeah, guess there would be.” Twilight agreed, Monochrome smiled at her and put the feather in her hair.

“You did great Twi, and heck, if it wasn’t for you finding that thing, we would have lost, so, congrats.” Monochrome patted her head then walked off. When he was out of sight she took the feather out of her hair and looked at it one last time before putting it in her pocket. “Yo Twi, you coming or not!?”

“Yeah, hold on!” she called back before running to catch up with him.

The

End

Forever Together

The four of them just stood there, frozen by shock at the horrific site they just witnessed.

“Monochrome-“

“This isn’t possible,” he mumbled to himself. He slowly began to sat down as he continued talking to himself. Twilight looked up away from him and saw that all the infected people were just standing there watching them.

“…Monochrome-“

“Not now Twilight, I’m too depressed.” He interrupted. Twilight looked back at all the infected, most of them were still standing there but about twenty of them started rushing towards them.

“Monochrome, we could use some help right about now.” Twilight began panicking, Monochrome ignored her and kept talking to himself. Twilight looked up again and they were getting even closer. “Monochrome, any day now.” She looked up one more time and noticed they were about 2 yards away. “Monochrome!” Twilight grabbed his shoulder and started shacking him. This time Apple Jack looked up, she saw that one of the Pegasus start flying into the air and then straight towards them.

“Monochrome, get off yer lazy rear end and do something!” Apple Jack yelled at him, he waved his hand around telling her to go away. The three of them looked up and saw the Pegasus, right as it got to them something tackled it to the ground. It cut off its wings then it’s head then threw it into the hoard of the other infected.

“…Red?” Flutter Shy asked as she approached him. The man turned around and looked at her with a smile on his face. “Red! It is you!” Flutter Shy shouted as she hugged him.

“Hi mom, nice to see you to.”  Red replied. He let go of her then turned round to face the rest of the hoard.  He flicked his swords and summoned a black mist which radiated from them. “Why isn't Monochrome defending you?”

“He’s upset because that incident.” Twilight replied.

“I see, I guess I’d be upset to if my family died.” He took one of his swords and slashed off the head of one of the infected as it got close. “Listen, you need to get out of here, there are to many of these things, I won’t be able to hold them off for long, but I’ll be able to hold them off long enough for you all to escape.” He took both his swords and stabbed another infected in it’s chest then drew the swords out of it and cut off its head.

“Red, we can’t leave you here-“ Twilight attempted to persuade him

“You’re not leaving me here, I’m choosing to stay. There are two other people here I need to defend, it’s my job to protect them.” Red interrupted. Another three infected got close, he stabed the two on the sides and kicked the one in the middle down, he pulled his swords out of the two then cut their heads off.

“I thought it was you’re job to protect Celestia-“

“To be honest-“He threw his sword down and stabbed the third infected in its head. “I got promoted; I’m now the royal body guard. It’s my job to protect all royalty, royal family or not.”

“But, there’s no more royalty in Equestria besides me and Monochrome, why are you staying?” Twilight asked. Red looked at her with a blank expression. The all of the sudden there was a bright flash of with light behind him that killed the rest of the infected that were attacking.

“What was that?” Red pulled his sword out of the beasts head and whipped it off on its shirt, he then pointed it at a dark figure standing on a roof top.

“Who is that?”

“It’s Agony.” Red replied with a lack of emotion. Twilight looked more closely, she was holding a bow made of gold, it hade flowers on both ends of it, she was wearing a white dress with a purple ribbon around her waist, her hair was dyed white with a light violet color at the end of it, it looked as smooth as silk and it was perfectly rested over her left shoulder. Her expression was faint and it looked like she was upset. She opened her wings, jumped off the roof top and floated gently to the ground.

“Agony!” Twilight yelled from where she was standing. Agony looked over to her and vanished instantly, she then reappeared right next to her. “Agony, how have you been?”

“I've been doing fine, until these things appeared. How are you and the others?” Twilight looked away from her and to the others. “Is something wrong?”

“Most of them didn't make it. It was only me, Apple Jack, Flutter Shy, and Monochrome” Twilight side.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Agony confessed.

“Wait, wait, wait hold on a sec!” Monochrome shouted out as he stood up. “You said there were two princesses that you had to protect right? Where’s the other?”

“Up there,” Red pointed a sword into the sky. The four turned around and saw a black shadow flying to them.

“Who is that?” Monochrome asked. The shadowy figure landed about ten yards from them.

“Nyx!” Twilight yelled as she ran up to her, Nyx started running towards her as well. When they finally got close enough they hugged each other.

“Twilight, it’s so good to see you again!” Nyx told her. She was wearing a purple dress, her glasses and a silver crown, her purple hair was a mess but her headband managed to keep it out of her face.

“I mussed you so much!” Twilight continued. Nyx looked passed her and towards the other.

“Where are the others at-?”

“It was just us.” Twilight interrupted and began to cry.

“Twilight…” Nyx held her closer.

“Hey!” Monochrome shouted from far behind them, they turned and faced him. “Think we can start moving before we get into any more trouble?!” Nyx and Twilight let go of each other and headed towards the others. “And who are you anyway?”

“Monochrome, this is Nyx, she’s sort of, my daughter.” Monochrome stared at the two for a moment.

“…Why do you never tell me anything?” Monochrome asked her, he spoke calmly but on the inside was screaming and yelled with anger.

“I thought you’d might over react, I mean, she’s the spawn of Nightmare moon and all so-“

“Stop, just, stop ok?” Monochrome placed his hand over his face in a sign of disappointment.

“You’re majesty, may I ask why you left me and Agony?” Red interrupted as he stepped forward.

“A town needed my help.”

“You’re majesty, it’s my sworn duty to protect you, if something happened to you while you were there I wouldn't have been able to fend you.”

“Here we go again, listen Red, Equestria is dying, you don’t need to protect us-“ Agony groaned.

“I took a vow to protect all royalty, in Equestria or not, member to the royal family or not, it’s my duty to serve.” Red aggressively replied.

“Red listen.” Nyx grabbed Red by his shoulders, he looked at her and started blushing. “We don’t need you to fight for us, we’re perfectly capable of defending ourselves.” Red nodded his head and Nyx let go of him.

“Ok, so, hey” Monochrome got everyone’s attention. “Are we just going to stand here or are we going to keep moving?” The other’s all agreed with him and started their way throught the blood ridden streets of Canterlot.

“So Twilight, who is that?” Nyx asked.

“Oh, that’s Monochrome, he’s one of the new friends I made-“

“Did someone mention my name?”

“Well, Monochrome.” Nyx walked in front of him. “It’s nice to meet you.” She held out her hand thinking he would shake it, but instead he stared at her with a blank expression.

“…Put that hand down, I don’t interact with evil.” Monochrome walked past her.

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled at him, he stopped and turned around and so did the others. “She’s my daughter, be nice to her.”

“Twilight, if I showed you a piece of blank paper, would you wonder what I called it?”

“What-?”

“The list of shits I give! I honestly wouldn’t care if she was your mother! Now shut-up and keep moving!” Monochrome snapped at her then kept walking.

“That’s it.” Red approached him. “Listen up you blond headed freak you do not-!” Monochrome turned around and punched him right in his fore-head and he went flying backwards.

“Don’t you ever touch me again-!”

“Monochrome what is with you!?” Twilight yelled as Nyx and Flutter Shy ran past her and towards Red.

“First of all; I don’t like evil. Second; I don’t like idiots. And right now, I’m traveling with both! So if you want to know what’s wrong with me, why don’t you go ahead and looked at that daughter of yours and that red headed moron.” He continued walking, but after his forth step he was hit by a strange  black mist like energy. He stumbled forward then turned around and saw Red holding his sword and it was radiating a black mist. Monochrome growled then pulled out his scythe and rushed towards him at a blinding speed, and within less than a second he was directly in front of Red, he swung his scythe and separated his upper half of his body from his lower half.

“Red!” Flutter Shy screamed as she ran past Monochrome. He placed his scythe over his shoulder then went back to walking, Flutter Shy went over to Red’s upper half and held him, he snapped his fingers and there was a bright flash of light and a second him appeared infront of Monochrome and started attacking him.

“What’s the hell!?” Monochrome yelled, he turned around and saw the other Red turn into dust. “How did you do that!?”

“Same way I did it earlier.” He continued swinging his two swords, and eventually hit him leaving a cut on the chest of his shirt.

“I thought you were supposed to protect royalty!?”

“Yes, I am, but you don’t deserve to be a prince.” He reached out his arm and stabbed him in his stomach.

“Oi! Watch where you’re swinging those things!” Monochrome took his scythe and swung it, he missed by less than an inch.

“Both of you stop!” Twilight yelled. The two ignored and her kept attacking each other.

“Why are you attacking me?!”

“Because you killed me!”

“It was self-defense-!”

“It was murder!” Red swung his sword and cut open his throat. He placed his hand over the cut then removed it.

“…You know if I wasn’t immortal that would have killed me.” He lifted his scythe and swung it right at him, he ducked and managed to lose only a strand of hair of the top of his head. Monochrome’s skin started turning red and his hair caught fire.

“Stand still you little bastard!”

“Hey I find that offensive!” Red jumped as Monochrome swung at his feet.

“Both of you stop!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs. The two of them stopped attacking right as their weapons were placed at each other’s throats. “What has gotten into you two!? We’re trying to run from all those things but with you two attacking each other like that I wouldn’t be amazed if they gave us a head start!” They lowered their weapons and stared at each other. “Monochrome what is with you? Everything was going well with you until we met up with them-“

“Is now the best time-?“ Monochrome started.

“Why are you acting like this-!?”

“It isn’t important!” The flames on his head started to die down.

“Monochrome-!”

“Twilight it doesn’t matter!” He dropped his scythe, his hair started turning blue and black and his skin started turning blue.

“Monochrome just tell me why your-“

“How would you like it if you lost the people you cared about the most!?” everything went silent after that, no one talked. Monochrome fell backwards and sat down. “Because of those things I lost my sisters. They were on that thing when they attacked it.” He started crying. “I’m just sensitive at the moment.”

“Monochrome, I’m sorry, I didn’t-“

“It’s not your fault that this is happening, so don’t apologize.” Red held out his hand and offered to help Monochrome up. He took his hand and got back up.

“Monochrome, as a loyal subject to royalty, I’d like to help you, along with the others.”

“How are you going to help me-“

“I received message from Ankh, he has an outpost set up in Ce’Dal and offered to shelter us.”

“How do you know that?”

“The message was supposed to go to the sisters, but they refused the offer.”

“Ok, Ce’Dal it is.” Monochrome picked up his scythe and it faded into thin air. Monochrome held out his hand and shook it with Red’s. “I apologize for attacking you, even if you are the spawn of Sombra you didn’t deserve to die like that.

“Spawn of- how’d you-?”

“I can read minds, remember that.” Red rolled his eyes then let Monochrome pass him, hours later they made it to the bottom of the mountain and into the Everfree.

Code Name: Orange Hoof

“Yo-ho mattes! Set sail-*hic*-to the land of birds!” Clockwork shouted as he stumbled drunk around the ship. “First mate Twifight parkle, where be-*hic*-us!?”

“…What?” Twilight took his hand off her shoulder.

“Fef…Applecrap my love-*hic*- where are you!?”

“Did you just call me Applecrap-?”

“The hell do you-*hic*- look fishmisthbrup min…” Clockwork started saying random things until eventually his face puffed up and he ran to the railing on the side of the boat and started vomiting.

“Why is it that whenever we’re on an important voyage, you get drunk?” Red scolded him.

“Because-*hic*-it makes that Ugly ass of your look better-“ he paused and started vomiting again.

“I’m disappointed to even know you. Captain, how much longer until we reach land?” Red shouted to the upper deck.

“Not much longer, one hour and we shall be within sight of Eagleland.” The captain replied.

“Great, another hour of watching you vomit-“

“Hey, blame the captain for not hiding the-*hic*-rum.” Red sighed with disappointment. An hour later the fog started clearing away and a large cliff face appeared.

“Land ho!” The captain yelled out, everyone started gathering their stuff together. Half an hour later they arrived at a cave with a wooden dock leading into it. Once the boat was docked everyone except Red got off.

“So captain, I have a question for you.” Red asked as he put his pack on. “How do I outrank Red Tear? If he’s your leader-“

“To be honest, you don’t, I just wanted to annoy your friend.” The captain laughed as well did Red before he stepped onto the dock. “We must part ways now, we have heard rumors of this land, and we do not want to stay long enough to know if they are true-“ and just then, there was a gunshot coming from the main land. “Apparently, we are not the only one’s here, someone waits for you, along with the spirits of the dammed.” The anchor on the boat started rising out of the water. “We wish to you all the best of luck, but farewell.” A second later two of the Pegasus crew members flew up to the sail and started flapping their wings in front of it to start a breeze, another few seconds later the ship started moving away from the cliff. The others didn’t feel like moving through the cave, so instead, they flew up to the top of the cliff. Once they made it to the top they were immediately surprised, horde after horde of undead, they couldn’t even see the town.

“I knew the captain said that the virus was already here but, wow.” Red said to himself. They started moving towards the horde cautiously, and somehow, they started dying. Enough of them died that a path opened up leading to the edge of the town, at the end of it, a man, blue skin, black jeans, and some sort of vest, and he was killing everything with no effort.

“Who the hell is that?” Clockwork asked as he began to sober up.

“Don’t know, but I think we should stay away from him.” Red started guiding them around the horde, and each time they stopped and hid, more of the infected died. “How the hell is that one guy doing all this?”

“Probably because he’s better than you-“ Clockwork smiled.

“There is no way he could be better than me, I work for royalty, he’s just a messed up freak-“

“What did you call me!?” the man yelled. They looked out from their hiding place and all the zombies were dead.

“…Oh yeah, he’s defiantly better then you.” Clockwork laughed as he went back to hiding.

“What. Did you. Call me?” he asked again as he started moving towards them. Red puffed out his chest and moved out from behind his cover to face him.

“I called you a messed up freak-“ and before he could say anything else, the man pulled out a gun and put it right under his chin and hesitated to pull the trigger.

“Do you have any idea, who I am?” he growled at him.

“Does it look like I give a shit-“ Red replied, and when he did, he lifted his gun and hit him over the head with the handle of it. When he was on the ground he put his hoof on his back and pointed the gun at him again.

“My name is Dance Party, Code name; orange hoove, rank; General.”

“Why should I care-“ he started pressing the gun closer towards his head.

“I was sent here to contain virus and assist the people here, unfortunately I was to late, so, I had to resort to my next tactic.”

“And that would be?”

“Neutralization, I have to kill it off before it can spread.” The others looked out from around the corner of the building they were behind and managed to get a better look of the man, he was wearing sunglasses, some sort of vest with weaponry and ammunition on it, a white T-shirt, and orange fingerless gloves.

“So, Dance Party is it?” he drew out his second gun and pointed it a Clockwork. “You call that a gun?” Clockwork pulled out his gun and pointed it at him. The two of them held out their weapons and attempted to stare each other down, and eventually, the man’s arm grew weak and he put his guns away.

“Why are you people here? This zone is supposed to be under quarantine which means no one is supposed to enter.”

“Yeah, well we had an escort from a few Japanese guys, took a boat here-“

“Don’t care, leave-”

“Hold on, we came here since we thought it would be safe here!” Twilight interrupted as she stepped out from behind the corner. “And since you killed all the infected-“

“Are you arguing with a superior?” the man reached for his gun and Red quickly got up knocking him off his hooves, he summoned his swords as he started getting back up.

“Stand down.”

“You think you can just give me an order like that? I’m a superior, you can’t tell me what to do-“

“Actually, I can tell you to do whatever I want, since I’m ranks ahead of you.” Red replied as he pulled a medal out of his pocket, it had several stars connected by their points and it had pentagon formed between them. Dance Party saluted to him as soon as he saw his medal. “What gives you the right to attack me and my friends?”

“Sir, I had no idea, I thought you were normal civilians sir.”

“Some of us some of us aren’t, did you even take notice that those 3 have horns and wings?”

“Sir, I um, I had no idea sir.”

“Shut up and stop saluting me.” Dance Party dropped his hand but continued standing straight. “How did the virus reach this far off the coast line?”

“No idea, all I know is that some of these things were lead here.”

“Lead here? By what?” Nyx asked.

“Per me.” A familiar voice answered. They turned around and saw him, Monochrome; he looked just like he did after he was infected.

“Crap, not this again-“ Clockwork sighed.

“You know him?” Dance Party asked.

“He used to be our friend, until he turned into that.” Twilight answered with sadness.

“Stulti rebus meis non licet, sine me, et ego vivere arbitror relaxaret” Monochrome tried telling them with the same gurgling voice he had earlier.

“What he say?” Red asked

“Who cares, just kill him!” Clockwork replied as he pulled out his war hammer and started charging at him, Monochrome stepped back after his first swing and summoned his scythe and started attacking him back. Hit jabbed Clockwork with the dull end of his weapon and he stumbled back, then Dance Party ran to the side of them and started shooting at Monochrome, but every shot was unsuccessful, they just bounced off his iron hard skin. He took his scythe with one hand and swung it, creating a wave of magic, Dance Party jumped out of the way and it kept going until it crashed into a building and caused it to collapse.

“Superbia cimex: state, et contra mortem.” Monochrome growled at him as he continued swinging his scythe. Dance Party got sick of what he was doing, he dodged his last attack and leveled his gun, he pulled the trigger and the bullet flew from the barrel right into his eye.

“Nice shot, think you can hit the other one?” Clockwork asked, he rushed over to Monochrome and swung his war hammer at him again, and upon contact it sent him flying, but while in mid air, he cloned himself, the one Clockwork hit continued flying and crashed somewhere in the city along with his scythe, while the other one flew in the air, getting ready to attack. “Come at me bitch! I’m ready!” Monochrome swung his arms and they turned into blades, and he started flying towards him. He crashed into the ground and created a cloud of dust preventing Clockwork from seeing him, he stepped closer and Monochrome rushed at and slashed him across his chest. “Son of a bitch, what’s with you and my ribcage!?” Clockwork kept swinging his hammer aimlessly, he managed to hit him once, but after that, he missed every time. “Stand still damn it!” he swung the hammer again, and just like back in the cave, Monochrome caught it right when it was an inch from his head. He took the hammer from his hands. He took the handle and swung it at him, shattering almost all his bones and sent him flying and crashing into an already collapsing building at an invisible speed. He turned towards the others. He slowly walked towards them, giving them a chance to run so he could hunt them down. He lifted the war hammer and got ready to kill them, but suddenly out of nowhere, a white blur appeared and cut the head of the hammer off its handle, Monochrome looked up at it and noticed that it was just a black rod, he turned to the left and the blur appeared again and cut the top of his head off, it went by another few times and cut him every time it passed until he was nothing more than a pair of hooves. When it stopped the others were surprised by who it was, the one who killed Monochrome, was himself.

“Monochrome!” Twilight yelled as she started rushing towards him with open arms.

“Twilight.” He dropped his scythe and opened his arms and hugged her. “How are you?”

“Monochrome, I thought you were, or you…how!?” Twilight became confused, she kept looking at him and the pile of blood bones and flesh scattered along the ground.

“It’s pretty funny actually, remember how I said I was immune to all magic diseases?”

“…Yeah?”

“Well, still am. You see, when I got infected, the disease only affected the outside of me, my body, for normal people, it infects their minds but for me, anyway, since it didn’t infect my mind, my emotions remained the same, Sadness remained a blubbering cry baby, Anger remained a pain in the ass, Love remained gay-“

“Joy remained obnoxious and annoying?”

“Exactly…wait.” Twilight giggled as she let go of him. “Anyway, when that infected me made a duplicate, joy, a.k.a. me, this form, took over that copy since diseases can’t be transferred between duplicates so, I’m back.” Monochrome smiled.

“It’s nice to have you back Monochrome.”

“It’s nice to be back…Wait…where’s jet?”

“Oh, she left.”

“Awww, I like her, she was funny…Where’s Clockwork?”

“Over there.” Twilight lifted her hand and pointed to the ruined building. Monochrome gasped, he grabbed his scythe and rushed over to him as the other followed him. When he got to the building her threw the rocks away until he eventually found him.

“Clockwork, buddy, wake up!”

“…Monochrome?” Clockwork asked as he opened his eyes. “I thought…I thought you were dead…”

“WAS, dead, not anymore. Hold on, I’ll fix you up.” Monochrome placed his scythe down, he clapped his hands together and they started glowing and he placed them on Clockworks chest.

“…Am I going to die?”

“I hope not.” Monochrome smiled at him, he smiled back but fell unconscious.

“Monochrome-!” Twilight began to panic along with the others.

“It’s alright, he’ll be fine, he’s just in pain, poor guy.” Twilight sighed with relief after hearing that.

“I tried to tell you that this place was dangerous, I suggest you all leave before anymore of you get hurt.” Dance Party said with a demanding voice. Twilight turned to him.

“You, you said your name was Dance Party?”

“…Yes?” he replied with suspicion.

“Well I just wanted you to know, me, and those two over there, we’re princesses, so by order of royalty, I order you to SHUT UP! Listen, we know what we’re doing, most of us at least.” She turned to Monochrome and Clockwork. “We’re strong enough to take care of ourselves, so we don’t need you telling us that it’s dangerous here, we could already tell.” Twilight walked away from him and aided Monochrome in Healing Clockwork. Dance Party side loudly.

“Fine, you can all stay”

“Excuse me?” Twilight replied as she turned away from Clockwork.

“You can stay, but I’m coming with you. I was sent here to execute the infected, and that’s what I’m going to do. So from now on where ever any of you go, I go-“

“Whatever you say general pain in the ass.” Monochrome chuckled. Dance Party took out one of his guns and pointed it at the back of his head.

“You insult me again I Will kill you-“

“3 things pall, first of all, I’m a prince, second, my bones are made of diamond, third- get the bucking gun away from me before I shove it up your ass!”  Dance Party grew scared and Quickly drew the gun away from him.

“Damn, I wake up just in time to hear you re-use a threat.” Clockwork said smugly.

“At least I didn’t get my flank kicked by a zombie.” Monochrome replied with a laugh as he helped him up. “Nice to see your still with us Clockwork.”

“Nice to know your back to.” The two of the shook hands, when they let go Applejack ran up and hugged Clockwork. “Didn’t you think of me as disgusting earlier?”

“I did, until I realized how kind of a guy you are.” She smiled at him, and he groaned loudly.