It was quite a beautiful day, or rather it would have been had the zombie apocalypse just stayed home. As I swung my hatchet business-end first into another zed cranium, belonging to a rather dull green pegasus, i began to have an epiphany. I had believed this plague or curse or whatever to be some weird unnatural event that must have changed the world significantly in every possible way, and while that is partially true, I also realized this was just another turn in the circle of life. Ponies live, then die, then live and die and get turned into a zombie, and that moves us all to keep moving. I suppose by now I should introduce my self, as well as my faithful compatriots joining me in the undead slaughter. I am Maintenance, a unicorn with an orange coat and red mane who just happens to also want to be a mechanical engineer in the near future. Unfortunately, there aren't many opportunities for engineering when hostile zombies are breathing (and bleeding, gross) down your throat. I suppose I should have figured my life would end up like this, perfectly on par with the rest of my terrible, terrible life. You see I wanted to be an engineer, but I couldn't make rent, bills started piling up, and I still had 3 years of college left, so I had to temporarily opt out for a while, working at the local burger joint for measily tips.
The rest of my crew is a mish-moshed group of ponies and even a griffon, there's Burning Sensation, an ex prostitute pegasus mare with a pink coat and yellow mane that now works at a clinic helping to diagnose ponies with STD's, and much to her chagrin, I found out what she really did in the day and will never let her live it down. Oh and she's also my best friend for not stealing my food like everyone else in the group did, jerks. There's Swift Swoop, the ebony colored, very large and very menacing griffon who very much wants to kill me and serve me on a platter. Then there's that earth pony stallion Cipher, who for whatever reason, is covered in bandages and dark clothing, with a tinted gas-mask covering his head, that joined us recently, he's usually quiet but is always asking us for odd trinkets and items for whatever reason. And last but not least the bull of an earth pony Thick Hide, a brown coated, even-darker-brown-mane-with-red-streaks-in-it crazy mama-jamma, currently functioning as our leader, though at sometimes I think there was a typo in his name at the hospital when he was born.
We were truly a sight to anypony who might have been watching, as we quickly strode through a small farming town, looking for supplies, silently eliminating zombies along the way. There wasn't much in the way of good loot, but there was the occaisonal flower to eat or blunt weapon to take. As we approached town hall, Swift and BS (she hates that nick name) took to the sky to make sure the place was clear, while Hide took point, leading us along some smaller houses to keep out of sight until we finally arrived.
The three of us weren't prepared for what was inside however, as there was an immediant assault on our nostrils with the most horrible stench, the smell of rotting and decaying bodies. We had faced our share of disgusting aromas before, but the overpowering stench of festering flesh and blood really took the mutated, bloody cake. We quickly closed our nostrils to the offending attack on our noses, and I truly under stood why Cipher wore his gas mask, not that it was filtered anymore though. And while the smell was bad, it hadn't prepared us for what lay ahead. Bodies, mangeled and riddeled with bulletholes, strung up like ragdolls on the walls, with a simple but disturbing message written in blood on the walls.
LET THIS BE A WARNING
"Let this be a warning? a warning of what?" Hide spoke up, although we didn't know what it was about, we all had a good feeling.
"Hey, are you three done in there yet? we have some company!" BS shouted. Although that was likely a bad idea to shout, she had a good reason.
"Just a second!" I replied, hoping to find something useful in this disgusting display of brutality
We all spread out, quickly looking for supplies, when I spotted something valuable, that I just knew was going to be useful.
"Hey guys, look over here!" I signaled, though they were hesitant to move due to the possibility of more "messages", they continued on.
"Just what did you find that is so importan" I cut Hide off to show him directly
It was a sword, not just any sword, but one that had been intricately built, likely for royalty. It was a light, colorful blue, with a dark purple handle, and was in-graved in gold lettering with "Sovereignty" it was light, but still held a surprising amount of strength. I had a few practice swings, then loaded it carefully into my pack, with the intention of getting a better look at it later. After doing a very quick sweep of provisions, we headed out, to find that BS's warning was entirely valid. The zombies were closing in on all sides, and fast.
"Anyone got a plan?" Cipher solemnly asked, everyone responded with no, except Swift with a rather terrible idea.
"I could fly you out"
"What? that's a terrible idea, you could drop us and we would be dead in a heart beat, no way!" I spoke loudly. I couldn't see anyway out, but the thought of being left to Swift's mercy as he carried us off... no. Unfortunately, it wasn't my choice to make, as we were all carried off by the bulky griffon, we may be safe from the zombies, but against this newer dilemma, I wasn't sure which was worse. This particular problem ended quickly however, as Swift dropped us on the ground (albeit with a little more force than neccesary) and we began to make the trek back to base. We all had the main ground rule set that we would only loot one town at a time, and since this town, Ponyville I think it was, was now overridden with zombies, we decided to cut our losses and move on.
It was a relatively uneventful trip back to base, to which all of the ponies (and griffon) went to sleep, what they didn't know however, was that somepony was watching them in their tiny fortified building that used to be a prison.
After returning with all of our goodies (my new sword especially) we decided to take the rest of the day off, and while we were all stretched out on various pieces of furniture, we heard a siren not unlike an ice cream truck outside. We all went outside to see what the commotion was, when we realized that it came from a pony driven cart down the road. There were 2 tall unicorns pulling it, with steeled eyes and determination. We sent Swift and Cipher to go check it out while the rest of us covered them with rifles from the roof of our "fortress". As it turns out, the ponies weren't bandits or buzzards (the type of scavengers that wait until survivors fight and kill each other and come to grave rob them), they were traders, of various items and trinkets. Hyde decided that it was safe, but told BS to stay here to cover us, just in case; you can never be too paranoid, especially around other ponies.
As we got closer to the pony-driven cart, I started to notice all of the intricate details. It was rather large, with all sorts of flashy imagery on the side, with big wheels, good for getting traction in areas with mud and snow. Although the cart seemed to be packed with stuff, the two unicorns seemed to pull it with ease, likely because they used a come to life spell on it, albeit at a smaller strength. The trader ponies were tan, with a two toned red and white mane, one had a moustache and they both looked like they hadn't bathed in weeks. The ponies introduced themselves as the Flim Flam brothers, traders by day, scavengers by night. They offered us a peek into their cart, which was filled to the brim with weapons, ammo food, medical supplies and much more. There was also a storage compartment for bits, although it was strangely light, and there was also the very strong aroma of meat, which our feathery friend Swift just loved to eat. We traded some of our supplies that we had in surplus for some ammo, beef, and soap, of all things, but the most important trade worth mentioning was enacted when they saw my new sword.
"Excuse me sir, but may I examine that sword of yours, it looks familiar, and if it is the sword I think it is, we will pay for it handsomely. He gave me his best con mare smile and with a hesitant hoof, I gave it to the moustached one to examine.
"Yes, brother I think it is the one we've been looking for, just look at the engraving!"
"Of course brother but that begs the question of how they got it, these types of artifacts aren't just lying around everywhere."
As they observed every bit of my new weapon I thought about anything else we had in our base that might be worth trading, nothing came to mind.
"Hey young stallion" The moustacheless one cut off my train of thought,"Where did you find this antique, if you don't mind me asking?" They seemed polite, but the brothers also had an unhealthy obsession with with cerulean blade. I replied that I had found it in a cabinet in town hall in Ponyville. That got their attention, as they discussed something in particular, and offered a large bounty of food and ammunition for it, although I had grown attached to Soverenghty, The offer was too good to pass up, and the last thing I saw was a crooked smile on their faces as we took the supplies and they trotted on by.
"What a boon!" BS shouted, she had a habit of doing that, seeing as how she was deaf in one ear, but all it took was a quick hoof signal to remedy it.
"Yeah, I can't believe our luck, all of this stuff for one measely sword?" Hide replied. As we set about packing up our new supplies I couldn't shake the feeling that I had made some kind of mistake, but I wasn't sure what. So I went to the only pony in our group that I could talk to about instincts and feelings like these: Cipher.
Author's Note
Well, it begins, I'm sorry about the poor quality of last chapter, but exposition isn't exactly my strong suit, I appreciate anyone who is following or reading this story. Also if anyone wants to edit/proofread the story, just feel free to ask!
