My breathing feels heavy... and my leg is overwhelmed with unbearable pain... I can see my vision starting to fade slowly, and it's hard for me to run, but I have to if I don't want to die. I never imagined that I would be brought to an end in a way like this, by the hatred of other people or by the sheer greed of them either. There's just so much I could have done to try and restore the world, but now it's like I'm going to fall before I ever get the chance...
Luckily, I do know how to make quick blood transfusions so that I can keep going in this mad world, but the hospital is so far... so I have no choice but to rest down in one of the many houses that surround me. From there, I take off my bag, and I quickly patch up a bullet wound that I had just gotten with a roll of gauze, which was slowly running out; I was lucky to even have found it. From my bag, I also take out my pistol, it being a simple USP, a .45 Caliber gun that I didn't have the most ammo for, being down to my final two magazines. I get up and limp my way out, waiting for my pursuers to come for me, pistol tucked away in my pocket. I stood there, not only looking but also feeling weak, my blood level a bit lower than it should be. When my two pursuers finally came, they both held me at gunpoint with their large assault rifles, both looking well-attached with sights and underbarrels. Both of their clothing choices were those taken from the various military posts around the area. One was your traditional Woodlands camouflage, while the other was a dark gray or black, which was great for night travel. One of them said nothing, while the other was yelling at me, obviously telling me to give them my supplies and all of my other stuff. I knew how this all worked... they say they just want your supplies, but then they kill you regardless because they know you could come back and get revenge on them later. So rather than comply to this person's ridiculous orders which would only lead to me being slaughtered, I tried my already diminishing luck and drew my pistol, shooting the one that was barking everything at me square in the head first, the blood from his brain and his head flying out of the back of it immediately putting the second person in front of me, holding my arm around their neck, slowly choking them to sleep rather than killing them, which wasn't always necessary to do in this world. It took almost a minute, but finally it worked.
The person I had killed was worth taking supplies and weapons from, while the other person looked like he didn't even want to be here, doing any harm to anyone, so I left his things alone. I looked through all the things in my own bag, which wasn't very big: a can of beans, a can of tomato soup, a Pepsi, a Root Beer, a single pack of painkillers, a compass, a watch, a small combat knife that someone left in another man's body, (still covered in his blood,) and a mediocre flashlight. I took out each of these things, setting them on the floor, while I took off the other man's bag, which was a military-grade pack, being a very solid dark gray to black, searching through it. In it was a couple of MREs, two bottled waters, a few blood bags, (I only took the two, since my blood type is O+ and the two I grabbed were both O-type blood,) a fine-branded Sabre, a map, a Global-Positioning System, (or GPS,) a detonator for C4 explosives (in which he had only one of the explosive), a few drum magazines for his assault rifle, which was what I think to be an M14, a Glock 18, and a few magazines for the Glock 18. I strapped on the black bag, putting the straps over my shoulders, and grabbed his gun, holding it with one hand. Since my shirt was pure white and my blue pants had some blood still on them, I took off the clothes of the dead person. Luckily, no blood got on his clothing, since it was a clean shot through the head that I took. I folded the shirt and pants up, taking my bag off and putting them inside, zipping up the bag for now and throwing it back over my shoulders. I did a quick search on the other person, not caring to look through his bag, finding a stack of sticky notes and a small, black pen. I wrote a quick little "Sorry" on one of them, sticking it to his light green bag of the same grade as his friend's. Since he was not dead, but rather unconscious, I proceed to drag him into a nearby house, so that he would be safe from other bandits that are strewn about the world. He was safe in a second story room, on a nice bed that had only a couple of tears on the sheets.
After this, I began to transfuse some blood into my stream through my leg, where I had been shot. Of course, I would still not be completely mobile, but it was better than slowly bleeding out. I did a quick run-through of the building, and found a few things, though my bag was heavy as it is with what I had, so I made my way out into the outside world. Luckily, at this time of day, most of the undead were more around the central area of Kin, the city this is all taking place at the moment: Union Square. It's the largest city around here. Of course, there are other areas I could go to, but most of the other areas around the world are said to be overpopulated with zombies and whatnot, so I didn't bother. I headed out in the direction of a smaller city that had a couple of houses I could hide in: Yale. There was also a nearby landmark called Trinity Headquarters, who are said to be the ones who started this whole epidemic. There was bound to be a few zombies along the way, so I put away my rifle, taking out the Sabre instead to use against them. The way I was heading, I had to go around a mountain, but it wasn't the most ground to go around, so it wasn't much of an issue. I managed to avoid most of them where I was going, quite luckily, but had to cut through a hay field to do so.
While walking through the field, I saw a strange little thing, it mainly being a strange blue. This was a world where I was not going to take chances, so I came to a quick conclusion that I should probably kill it, just in case it was some deformed zombie or whatever. I approached slowly - well, slower than my limping - and made as little sound as possible, Sabre in both hands. As I just got up to it, and was about to swing down the blade onto whatever the hell was there, it turned around, revealing something I didn't see from afar, which was what looked like a head of hair, except shaded multiple colors like a rainbow. It also had a tail of the same nature. This was definitely no human, but it wasn't a zombie either; I had no idea what it was. I kept my Sabre in one hand just in case it was suddenly hostile, reaching one hand over and resting it on the strange creature's head. As I did this, its eyes opened up half-way, which were a nice, warm magenta, looking at me. When I moved my hand, it was clear that there was red on it, and it wasn't like red paint; this was blood. I wasn't just going to let this thing die, so I used some of my ever-depleting roll of gauze, taping a few different strands together to make a head bandage that wouldn't stick to this thing's wacky hair, wrapping it around where I assumed the damage was.
Wait... I think I know what this is. There was some kid's show way back then before this whole man-made apocalypse... was it... uh, My Little Pony or something? Friendship is Magic? I wasn't ever really a fan of the show, being an adult and all, but... nevermind. I looked at it for a second, thoroughly. Of course, on its side was that mark I expected to see: a cloud - presumably a thundercloud - with a three-colored bolt coming from it. This was indeed one of those ponies, but was it... uh... Rainbow... Shy? No, that's not it... Rainbow something. I don't know. But this was very strange, because I didn't think it was real... but apparently it is. At least I remember that it was female, as most of the characters were, considering the show was made for little girls.
Then she did something that I never would have expected from such a mythical creature, considering it was a pony. She spoke to me.
"Who are you..? And... where am I..?" it said, right to me...
Chapter 1 - First Step into Madness
...It seemed like I was just standing there for hours, trying very hard to interpret what had just happened. The fact it could talk almost made me jump. I never would have expected it; then again, it was a character I thought was fictional. I was already heading to Yale, and let's face it... whatever they called it - a pony, I think it was - was lucky they found me and not someone else, as it might've been immediately shot at. I wasted no time in picking this pony up and struggling to carry it somewhere safe, because it must've weighed 160 pounds or so. Not normal for a horse, but I wasn't going to question it, since it made my job a lot easier. Yale was probably going to have several other survivors hanging around, so I went over to the little area just East of it, where there was a small shed from where farmers would keep their hay and such, which I didn't realize was very ironic at the time for a place to go to. I set this thing down inside and out of sight from everything, now searching around for whatever I could find that could be useful in this situation, such as some worn-out clothes (or better, new ones) or maybe a second bag, because I wasn't carrying everything in just one bag. The most I found was a red shirt, which was luckily clean, and one of those small packs I used to see many hikers wearing, so I went back into the shed, closing the doors.
Once I closed the doors, I looked at the pony or whatever I could call it, and it was looking right back. It may be a cartoon-like thing, but I could easily see that look of scared confusion, and it really wasn't that hard, because I saw it everywhere that I went. My initial, natural response, was, "Is something wrong?" All I got from the rainbow-haired pony was a nod. "Well then, what's wrong? It can't be because I'm helping you not die out there, because that's what I'm doing."
"I just want to know what they heck is going on here!" it replied. Oh, boy... this was going to be fun. What, it couldn't even say "hell"? Either way, all I could do was go up and put one hand on what I could only assume was its shoulder, in which it initially flinched, considering it probably hasn't seen a human before in its life. "W-What are you doing?"
"Stand still," I told... her? I think it was a her. So she managed to calm down just enough to where I could wrap the shirt around areas of her head that I missed that were still bleeding. I didn't want to use all the gauze that I had left earlier, so I didn't apply much. I tied off the end, and honestly... it just looked like a red headband. I was pretty surprised. "Keep that on there, you're bleeding. I'll take it off when the bleeding stops."
"...Why should I trust you?" she dared to ask me. She was probably still a little bit disoriented. If not, then she's just not very smart. I took a seat at a fair distance away from her, while still being somewhat close.
"I just picked you up and carried you away from the hay field you were laying in, where you were defenseless, may I add, and I don't even know what you are. That's why."
"Why should that mean anything? You're probably just going to... well... I don't know, but it could be really bad what you're gonna do!"
"Calm down, seriously... why would I carry you to safety and stop you from bleeding too much only to do something horrible to you later? How would that make any sense?" My statement could not have been any more clear, and I think that she realized that, since she just sighed and looked at me without saying anything more. I opened up the bag that I had on (via the zipper) and grabbed out a small can of soda I never even realized I'd put in there. It might've been that other guy's, but... oh well. I probably just didn't see it in the bag. I opened it up, pulling back the... whatever you call it, and just held it. I would've drank it myself, if not for the pony sitting next to me, or for the fact it was Coca-Cola, which definitely wasn't my favorite drink. So I did what I had intended to do. "You thirsty?" I offered, in which she had a conflicted expression on her face. It seemed like she was, but it also seemed like she didn't know what the hell I was holding.
"What... is that?" Just as I thought.
"It's soda. Isn't there any where you come from? Or... is that inaccurate?"
"Well... we do, it's just that it doesn't look like that, really." She touched the can like it was some alien device.
"You know how to hold things, don't you?"
"Uh... yeah, why?"
"Hold it, then. Just not too hard, or you'll crush it." I held the can in front of her. Interestingly enough, she used both of her front hooves to hold it, which was actually a bit clever. "Now just... take a drink."
"You're not trying to poison me or--"
"Just take a drink, I'm not trying to kill you. Jeez." That resolved things quickly, as she took a small drink. It was pretty evident she hadn't tasted something like it before, even if there was things similar to it back where she came from. After a few seconds of just sitting there, she downed the rest pretty quickly. "What do you think?"
"Weeeeeell... it wasn't bad, I guess. I was really thirsty, though, and that did the trick."
"That's good. You know, since I saw you like, 10 minutes ago, I've been wondering what your name is, since clearly you're not an ordinary horse... or pony. At least here, anyways." She immediately stood up and looked at me like she had some bold proclamation to state. She spread out her wings-- wait, wings?! I didn't think they were real! If she can really use those, that's going to be more than useful for both of us!
"The name's--" Her speech got interrupted by her closing her wings and repeatedly saying "ow" multiple times. What was wrong? Only one way to find out...
"What is it?" I casually asked.
"My wings hurt... like, a lot..." Oh, great. A pony with wings that can't even fly. Well, for now... but still, I have to take care of this! And I thought traveling alone was tough.
"Wait, they do? How so?"
"They just do! Whaddya want from me, tears?!"
"No, I want to help you! Why are you so aggressive?!"
"Why do you keep asking things?!"
"Because I have no idea what the hell you are!"
"I feel the same way about you, whatever you are!"
"I'm a human! There, now you know! Happy?!"
"And I'm a pegasus!"
"Was that so hard?!"
"Yeah, it was, actually!"
It fell pretty silent after that 20-second argument. We were just sitting there, not saying a single word, just looking about. Sometimes at each other, then away again. This lasted for about 5 minutes. "Hey, uh... so, I never said my name. It's Rainbow Dash. You have one?"
"Mine's Jared. Jared Harem."
"That's a pretty weird name you got there."
"Speak for yourself, Missy. Hey, do you know how you got here?"
"Not really..."
"Well, I'll tell you about here. This is Earth. We're a pretty good planet... or, were. A few years back, some corporation tried doing tests on a few test subjects and ended up creating some virus that got out and infected a lot of us. There aren't that many that survived it, and it's becoming less and less from them being attacked by the infected and from other people that are selfish and kill them just for what they have. It's a dangerous place... but we have to live through it, I guess."
"That sounds like some cheesy movie or something."
"Well, it's not. I've had to live with it--" I would've continued a bit more... if not for the gunfire heard outside. One of the guns being used didn't sound that loud - probably a suppressor - while the other one was clearly a 7.62, probably an Assault Rifle of some kind. The sound of the bullets penetrating the ground and dirt made me freeze in place. As for Dash, the sounds had piqued her interest, since she was now moved to the door and opened it just slightly, to see what was happening outside. Just a few seconds after she did this, we were greeted with the doors being pulled open, one man rushing inside before closing them both again, like he didn't realize we were there. He was gasping for air somewhat, like he ran through all the stamina he had gathered in a matter of seconds. He turned around, not yet seeing Dash, and immediately had his sidearm at the ready, not seeming to have a regular gun of any kind, and it had a suppressor on the end. Then, he saw Dash, shrieking in fear as he shuffled backwards to the other side of the shed.
"W-What the hell is that thing?!" He had his gun pointed right at her... and he looked like he was just about to pull the trigger any second...
