Requiem of Chaos

After what felt like an eternal standoff: Applejack closed the double doors and wrapped the chain around the handles before locking the padlock. She stepped back and looked over at Big Mac and said, "Alright. You're all set." Before Big Mac could move, the man in the red hoodie walked over to the stacked vending machines. He motioned Big Mac and the others to move before he spat into his hands and placed his hands on the vending machines.

To everyone's astonishment, the man in the red hoodie pushed the three vending machines all by himself. They scrapped across the linoleum floor before stopping in front of the double doors. He let out a sigh and wiped his brow of invisible sweat.

"Really?" the woman with purple hair asked.

"What?" the man in the red hoodie questioned.

"You called them Death Hunters," Twilight asked before she added, "What are they?"

"A better question would be who are you all?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm sorry, where are my manners," the man in the cowboy hat said before he introduced himself, "I'm Chad Austin."

"Mark Veering," the man in the red hoodie said.

"Zack Sydell," the man in the plain white t-shirt said in a bored tone.

"Stacy Vermillion," the woman with the purple hair said before she added, "but most people call me Viper cause of my tattoo." in the battle, no one had noticed her large snake tattoo that started at her right ankle and wrapped up her leg into the bottom of her dress. The snake came out of her cleavage and towards her left shoulder. It wrapped around her shoulder and coiled around her arm towards her hand as the snake's maw opened. Ready to eat her hand.

"Rex Royce," the man with the black baseball cap said.

"I'm Pain," the man in the pink vest stated before he moved his sword so the tip of the blade was pointed at the ground and added, "and this is my brother Panic."

"Now that we've shared our names," Chad said before he added, "How about you share yours?"

"Applejack," Applejack said before she rattled off each of her friend's names. Once she finished she looked back at Chad and added, "Y'all called those things Death Hunters? What are those things anyway? I ain't ever seen those things before. For that matter: I've seen some strange things before, but I've never seen the things Y'all were able to do."

"What type of magic was that anyway?" Twilight asked.

"Wasn't magic," Zack scoffed.

"First: the Death Hunters are creatures from our world. They're something man-made, even though we didn't intend to create them," Chad stated.

"What do you mean you didn't intend to create them," Fluttershy asked.

"Our world was once beaming with life, but our ancestors were greedy. They lusted for power, land, wealth and above all: power," Mark explained.

"With the advance of technology, humanity created more powerful and deadly weapons to fight one another. Ultimately, they used their most powerful creation against one another," Viper continued before she added, "the weapon was a nuclear-powered bomb. They launched these weapons at each other and not only dwindled humanities population but ravaged our world's ecosystem with how much radiation filled the air."

"Indeed, once our ancestors saw what they had done. They began to work together to build protection from the radiation. After several years they built domes called ARKS which are large cities in domes that collect both radiation and solar rays. Once humanity began to rebuild itself, it seemed all the horrors of the war were behind them," Chad continued before he added with a grimace, "But they were so very wrong."

"The Death Hunters appeared twenty years ago and began attacking the ARKS and the humans within. It seems the radiation of the bombs created them. Humanity once again found themselves in dire need of protection," Rex explained before he finished, "Humanity dabbled in genetics. Moreover: they dabbled in how to tweak the genetic coding of humans to become super soldiers and here we are."

"So you all are like living weapons?" Pinkie spoke up.

"Pretty much," Viper said.

"However, we're not looked upon as weapons. Those who have been genetically enhanced by going through the Genetic Enhancement Conversion are considered Guardians. Our altered genetics allow us to perform supernatural feats, "Chad explained.

The walkie-talkie on Applejack's belt loop began to breathe out static before a deep, rough voice came from the speaker, "Applejack if you got a minute. We need to talk." Applejack grabbed it and pressed the talk button.

"Got it, will be there soon," Applejack said before she let go of the button and placed it back in its holster on her right belt loop. She turned to both her group of friends and the so-called Guardians and said, "Heavy Artillery needs me in the gym." Her friends nodded and so did the Guardians as the group headed back into the gym. As they walked into the gym Mark whistled in amazement at the size of the gym

The large gym was split into four sections. One of the sections was a makeshift bed area with cots and air mattresses. The second section was a kind of wreck area with tables set up for board games, while also having pool and foosball tables. The third area was closest to the double doors that lead into the kitchen. The area had four folding tables with dirty pots and pans that had feed those trapped in the school. Now, they were being placed in a wheeled tube to be wheeled back into the kitchen to be washed. The final section was set up as a shooting range. Large targets that were used in archery were riddled with bullet holes.

"Is it wise to waste bullets on practice?" Zack asked as he eyed the makeshift shooting range.

"We use rubber bullets for target practice," Applejack said as she walked towards an elderly man sitting on a wooden crate that had the letters RPG spray-painted on its side. The elderly man had dark red skin and his once green hair was now a silver gray. When he saw Applejack, he waved to her as though she didn't see him. She walked up to him and asked, "What's wrong Artillery?"

"Well, I've got bad news and worse news," Heavy Artillery admitted before he added, "Which you want to hear first?"

"Please, just get to the point," Applejack said. Imagining the worst and hoping it wasn't too serious.

"Well, the food rations are running low. That's the bad news," Heavy Artillery stated.

"I figured our food supply wouldn't last long, but we can send search parties out. Just have to be careful of the monsters outside," Applejack said before she asked, "What's the worse news?"

"We're running out of ammunition," Heavy Artillery said.

"Shit," Applejack cursed before she asked, "How long before we're completely dry?"

"If the attacks continue like they've been," Heavy Artillery said before he continued, "A month, maybe less if the food runs out first and we have to send out scavenger parties."

"I can help with the parties," Pinkie chimed.

"Wrong kind of party Pinkie," Rainbow said. Pinkie looked at her puzzled.

While the group was discussing their situation with Heavy Artillery, Twilight had looked around the gym. She then looked back to Applejack and asked, "Where's Sunset?"