March of the dead

Fluttershy was laying on a towel at the Manehattan grand beach where usually there would be hundreds of ponies spending a warm summer day. But this day when she had invited all her friends to have a beach party just as they arrived the sun disappeared beyond some clouds and a cold wind seeped over the beach. Now most of them had been trying to prepare the food which Fluttershy had brought that unfortunately due to her putting it in the cooler was completely frozen to the core.

She knew her friends wouldn't say it but she could feel their angry eyes dig into her neck and also some ponies that Fluttershy hadn't invited had just sown up sad that Fluttershy hadn't invited her. But Fluttershy just turned the page in her bock which was the art of war by some accent griffin warrior.

Fluttershy knew this was a dream as it was a common nightmare of hers that she got whenever she went to bed sad or scared, but this time was different. Usually, when she had this dream she always tried to run away or try to fix things which only ended up making things worse, but now she had just laid down her towel and started reading. She knew that she should be scared or upset but something inside her gave her more courage and determination than ever before.

Then as she just had finally come over the fact that she no longer was afraid, a demonic scream rolled over the beach, and from the horizon on a wave of blood and corpses was the Amak´holwa cultist. Standing up Fluttershy desperately looked around for her friends only to find herself alone. She wanted to run, to find shelter, to find anyone that could defend her but as she tried to run away her body steeled itself. It was then she realized that she wasn't scared, she was angry, angry at herself for letting others fight for her, angry for letting her emotions control her, angry at the cultist for killing everything she cared for.

Seeing a thick leather trenchcoat lying under here where her towel had just been, she knew what she had to do. Not because she wanted to do it, not that she was the best at it, but that it was her duty. Putting it on she drew a sword that hung from her flank rasing it towards the wave of cultist she gave them the stare and said to the wave of cultist.

"Do your best" raising the sword she was prepared to die to defend the ones she loved and as the wave crashed over her she with a fierce battle cry swung at the wave. Only to disorientedly jerk awake jumping up only to fall on her flan and bumping her shoder at the ground which hurt like Tartarus. Unable to understand why bumping her shoder would hurt so Celestia banished much, she looked at her shoulder and almost vomited.

There was a large wound running down her solder with some of it covered by coagulated blood and as she saw this at a press of a button she suddenly felt the immense pain from the wound. Holding back the pain surprisingly well she tumbled around where she had woken up noticing the smoldering remains of a fire. She knew what she needed to do and she knew she wasn't going to like it.

Grabbing some wood that had been piled up by the fire she got the fire starting again and when the flames roared high she held her shoulder just by the flames. Removing some leather scraps which seemingly had been used as discount bandages she leat the heat from the fire cauterize the wound. Biting down on a piece of wood Fluttershy's eyes filled up with tears as the pain tripled almost becoming too much to handle.

She had done a variation of this but on a smaller scale during her brief medical training before she arrived at the Red Hoof relief camp with the idea was to quickly stop any bleeding and disinfect the wound. Back then she had used medical instruments but with the only place with any kind of medical equipment by this time probably burned to ashes she had to improvise.

Once done she sat down, spitting out the wood, and tock some heavy breaths astonished by herself for being able to manage this alone. Looking around she saw that she was no longer in the cave but outside by a came made under a large stone slab, the camp was nothing fancy, a fire, and some spare wood to keep the fire going. Also lying on the opposite side of the fire from herself laid a pony.

The pony looked like a moror image of herself but this pony was a stallion and his mane was shorter. The pony laid under a large trench coat that looked exactly like the one she had had in her dream, but when Fluttershy tried to talk to the pony he just vanished leaving the trench coat behind. the coat was grey and resembled something she would have seen on a military officer. Also, Fluttershy couldn't put her hoof on it but there was something powerful about the trenchcoat as if just wearing it, it broth whit it respect and fear by anyone that laid their eyes on it. Initially, she didn't intend on taking it but as she was about to walk away a feeling of unease washed over her as if she was leaving behind a part of herself.

As she put the coat on she noticed a belt around her flank which she hadn't felt earlier and the sword that hung from it. Never having seen a weapon before less tushing one, Fluttershy was about to remove it to the same feeling of unease stopping her from removing it. Now clad and armed with the disappearance of her mirror duplicate Fluttershy was at a loss on what to do.

Turning the alicorn amulet in her hoofs she tried fruitlessly to get Krege to talk to her but there was just something in the eyes of the medallion that told her that he was sleeping or something similar. She was still in the same predicament as before with not knowing where she is or how to get him. Feeling how tears began veiling up in the corners of her eyes she blinked them out preparing to walk in any direction until she found help.

But just as she was about to and thundering of hoofs held her movement and in reaction, she climbed up and hide on the top of the stone slap. Rolling over the savanna was a large hoard of Amak´holwa cultist on large chariots the side of large wagons pulled by dozens of chained creatures looking as if they were on the brink of death. But yets they were piped so hard that flesh was ripped off by groups of cultist branding wipes.

As the chariots drew by for a brief moment Fluttershy could see the one in the middle chariot which was even larger and decorated with bone and burning markings unknown to Fluttershy. But it wasn't the chariot that coth her gaze but the creature standing on top of it. It was a zebra but something was not right with it, being twice as large as other zebras with his body scared with engravings, demonic wings protruding from its back and its eyes glowing and oozing magical energy.

But nither that was what broth dreed over Fluttershy as she saw the convoy pass her, it was the staff that the zebra was holding which was made from the corpse of the very gazel that she had saved. Its legs had been riped clean of flesh and tied to a metal rood by its entrail and its chest flayed of, reviling its ribcage where a red orb had been shoved in. But it wasn't the way one of her patients had been desecrated after that, because the gazel was still alive.

The gazel was screaming at the top of its exposed lungs unable to stop the pain nor close its eyes from the horrors inflicted upon her. As its mouth and eyes had been wired open and when she stope the orb in her chest would glow reviving her and she would start screaming once again. As the caravan of horror passed Fluttershy's location with the echoes of the gazels screams echoing inside her mind and Fluttershy was furious.

Without thinking of herself nor her own fears, Fluttershy flew after the cultist caravan intending to catch up with it and save the gazel. But her new and surprising courage had not both with it more flight strength so it was not long until the cultist caravan disappeared above the horizon. But luckily it left a clear track of weal marks and blood which when tracked led Fluttershy back to the Red Hoof relief camp, ore what had risen over its ashes.

There standing where once a place of healing and compassion had stod now was a castle spewing fire and smog from large shimmies as hundred upon hundred of enslaved creatures mined in enormous holes in the ground spread around the area. The walls of the castle were adorned with the same burning emblems as the ones of the chariot mostly rings with runs in them with the largest being a steel zebra skull with a sword coming down on its head and exiting true its shattered moth.

Also walking between the mines and the castle was hundred upon thousands of cultists making the enslaved creatures work until they were nothing but bone and ash. as Fluttershy saw this her hopes of saving the gazel ore at least put her out of her misery sunk like a rock. there would be no way she alone could charge the castle and there were just too many cultists there so she could sneak in.

then a cold scream sounded behind Flytershy and with lightning reflects Fluttershy spun around drawing her sword just in time to block the blade of a cultist. angeling her blade Fluttershy sent the cultist blade into the ground leaving the neck of the cultist exposed. she knew she needed to kill him not just because of her own safety but for the safety of the countless creatures he would harm in the future. but as Fluttershy raised her blade to slice the head of the cultist but she just couldn't, even with her rage and newfound courage, she could not kill.

"I handle this," a voice said and with a jerk, Fluttershy felt her mind being thrown out of her body and when she got on her hoof again she saw how her body swung the sword cutting the head of the cultist.

"hu?... what?..." Fluttershy said terrified with her previous courage seemingly gone.

"Sorry for that, but we are one now and I won't die again," Fluttershy's body said coldly, then her body froze in its step, and continuing the step emerging grom the body was the male mirror image that she had seen before.

"Krige," Fluttershy asked recognizing the voice as his but not understanding why he looked like her.

"seems like I once again have some explanations to give," Krige said extending a hoof helping Fluttershy up.

"what's going on?" Fluttershy asked seeing that it was not only her body that had frozen but time itself leaving everything frozen in its action.

"Well, the short version is that when I was pleased around your neck, your and my soal were fused together so now we inhabit the same body, have you noticed any changed to your behavior recently?" Krige said and Fluttershy realized that the feeling with the coath and her sudden burst and loss of courage was because of this merger of soals.

"Is this safe?" she asked with Krige just shrugging.

"none of us is dead yet and none of us is a vegetable so I guess it's safe enough," he then said as he turned towards the cultist castle. it was then Fluttershy realized if all her courage came from Krige. there would be no way for her to rescue the gazel or anyone held imprisoned by the cultist. as this sat in Fluttershy began crying.

"what's wrong" krige said walking over to Fluttershy and whipping off her tears, she explained about the gazel who saved her and now was being kept alive in an unimaginable existence. Krige after hearing that just needed and returned his gaze to the Kastle. Fluttershy was baffled how this person who was so kind and warm to her in the cave now seemed so cold, and krige seemingly noticed Fluttershy's confusion.

"The reason why I don't act as I care is while you got something in our mergers I lost something, my compassion" krige said, "I'm am unable to have any emotion, this" he motioned towards the torment in the castle "do not face me and I have no compassion for the salves. instead you must act as both our conscience as we liberate the prisoner" he finished.

"but how we are just to ponies?" Fluttershy said having stopped crying, the presence of Krege having returned some of her courage.

"We are two of the same coin" he began "Separate you are nothing more than a scared kid and I an uncaring asshole who could see the world burn. But together we have what's needed to fight back against the cult so others do not have to get hurt, feel sorrow ore die" reaching out his hoof krige said, "Fluttershy do you trust me". Fluttershy didn't know what to think, while she hadn't know Krige for very long she somehow could see in her mind what kind of person Krige truly was and that he in his deepest essence were neither cruel nor evil.

"I do," she said grabbing Krige's hoof and when she did waves of energy emerged them and Fluttershy felt a wave of courage sweeping over her.

"But we are still only one pony," she said as she stepped into her body.

"Don't worry Fluttershy this amulet of mine still has some tricks left," Krige said joining her inside of Fluttershy´s body. as she that she was overflown with a feeling of might and power as golden energy began encasing her and of in the distance, the sound of macing hoofs filed the air.