A House Divided Cannot Stand...

Prologue: A House Divided…

It all started with the truth being questioned. When Celestia and Luna disappeared forever, and the sun and moon still moved across the sky, one pony did the unthinkable. They questioned Celestia's true power. What happened? Why did they disappear? Did they even move the sun and moon in the first place? Riots broke out, ponies that wouldn't hurt a fly became bloodthirsty bandits. But soon afterwards, things changed, not for better, but yet again for the worse, when after several uprisings, the elements of harmony decided to take matters in their own hooves, however they soon realize they no longer share similar views on the nature of Equestria.

Twilight seemed to be the only one still believing in the royal sisters and so - planed to follow their legacy by trying to force an alicorn transformation. With help of Rainbow Dash, who was still loyal to her friends, and Pinkie who reluctantly agreed after AJ declared Twilight insane and Twilight banished her; the purple unicorn attempted the transformation.

The results were not what was expected- Pinkie was killed, Rainbow Dash was severely burned and the rest of the elements turned against Twilight and vowed to find their own way to fix the problem.

Fast forward 15 years later - Equestria is divided between five major houses: House Moon and Star, commanded by Twilight, House Everfree commanded by Fluttershy, House Earthborn lead by Applejack, House Stormwing commanded by Rainbow Dash, and House Whitegold commanded by Rarity. Add to that a mysterious cult on the rise called the Cult of Laughter…and you see that the world needs harmony now more than ever…

Sadly, that is not what our story is about.

Our story is about a young stallion, an Earth pony, by the name of White Lie. White has lived most of his life in a small town, not involved with the war, they had been approached before by the Earthborn house, but had refused on the grounds that they were a community of not only Earth Ponies and Pegasus but Unicorns as well. Despite not being part of the war, White Lie was a member of the local guard, and he wears his armor with pride.  And this is where our story begins…

“So, this is our life?”

White Lie turned his head to his fellow guard member Silver Lining with a questionable glance, White Lie then looked over the small town, ponies walked slowly, weighed down by metaphorical and physical weight on their shoulders, the city was not pretty, they currently stood in front of the town hall, ruined and destroyed by time. On the other side of town, the old cathedral stood, it standing as a protector, and a warning system to attacks. Not too far away was the town armory, filled with any kind of weapon a guard could need, (or use.) Countless houses dotted the landscape. White turned back to Silver and looked him over, he was a slim unicorn, what little mass he had was muscle, he had a tan brown coat and a dark brown, almost black mane. they had both joined the guard at about the same time, yet they did not know each other very well. White Lie stood silent for a second before replying.

“Yea, guess this is it, why, you have a problem with it?” White Lie arched one eyebrow at his fellow guard member.

“…I never planned on staying here…I was going to grow up, and explore the world, then Celestia and Luna up and go before I have a chance to do it, then the damn war broke out…and I couldn’t leave after that…” Silver’s unicorn horn started glowing as he levitated an apple over and bit into it.

White Lie couldn’t help but feel empathy for him, he too wanted to explore the world, yet the war stopped any idea he had of leaving. He looked across the street into the glass that covered the shop on the other side of the road, White Lie was average height for an earth pony, and he was muscular, no doubt about that, he mused at the fact that he looked like a royal guard, with his white coat and guard armor, his cobalt mane was fashioned in a short style that partly covered his left eye without obstructing his vision, overall…he wasn’t too shabby.

Suddenly the old cathedral bell began rigging.

*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*

“odd…” Silver looked to the bell tower. “I didn’t think it was noon ye-“

*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*

“…” Both guards waited in silence, two bell tolls meant a practice evacuation, they both silently prayed that that was the last ring…if not...

*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*

Three bell tolls, three times…

The town was under attack.

White, not even waiting for confirmation of the attack, sprinted down the street towards the armory. Silver followed close behind, they could already hear screaming from behind them, White kicked open the door to the armory and grabbed a spear, hooking a small shield to his forearm,  he then looked over to see Silver levitate a mace up, they both nodded at each other before running back towards the door, White Lie pulled the door open...

To reveal the most horrible creature he had ever seen.

It was like nothing he had ever seen before, it had four, spiky long legs that it stood on, it's chest looked like it had it ribs sticking out like teeth, and White swore he could see saliva coming out of it. It's head...it had the head of a pony, but stitches covered every open slot on the body, and it's mouth and ears were stitched shut. Buttons covered it's eyes...like a doll...and was it making a screaming noise?

All these thought went through his head in a few seconds, before his brain sent a message to his body telling him to get the hell out of the way.

White jumped back as the creature jumped forward, the old floorboards creaked under the new stress, Silver quickly smashed the creature with his mace, and the only effect was that the creature turned it's attention away from White, and towards Silver Lining. Thinking fast White scrambled towards the back of the room, jumping over bins and boxes to get to the 'confiscated weapons' bin, after digging through the bin for a few seconds, he came across a weapon the town had gotten it's hoofs on after a bunch of drunk house Earthborn solders wandered into town and started making trouble. White grunted as he lifted the heavy hoof cannon out of the bin, he turned around to see Silver running around the room just avoiding the creature. White Lie placed the cannon on the old floorboards, that once again groaned in protest, the creature turned it's attention to it's new prey, as the creature quickly moved, jumping over bins and boxes that separated the two, White fumbled to put in a cannon and light the fuse, the fuse slowly seemed to burn, meanwhile the creature was almost there, White knew the cannon wouldn't fire in time, the creature made one last mighty jump to clear the last bin... and when he landed, the poor old abused floorboards couldn't take it anymore, and gave out under the creatures weight, the creature desperately tried to free it leg from the floor's grip, suddenly, White Lie got one of those moments, when you know exactly what to say...

"Here, let me help you with that" And with that, the cannon went off and hit the creature, which flew across the room and ironically impaled itself on the collection of hoof-blades and spears on the wall.

White Lie pushed the cannon off to the side before walking over to a panicked Silver.

"What the buck was that! It...was it a pony? Was it one of those magical construct thingies?" Silver started the sentence loud and got progressively quieter.

"Whatever it was, I hope the rest of the town is doing we-" White was interrupted by loud screaming that he had heard during the fight...if it wasn't the creature making the sound...

Oh no...

"Quickly! We have to go defend the town!" White Lie turned and stood behind the door. "Ready?" White asked.

Ready!" Silver replied, and with that, they pulled the door open and ran outside.

They imminently regretted it.

To their horror the entire town was being burnt down, ponies wearing sick insane smiles on their faces wandered about the town killing anypony that was unlucky enough to run into them. How long had they been fighting that thing?!? Silver screamed in surprise as one of them ran towards him. Thinking fast, White Lie plunged the spear right through his skull,  when he pulled the spear out, the pony dropped to the ground. White, not even processing that he had just killed, yelled for Silver to follow him, they sprinted through the town, seeing horrors that they knew would haunt them for the rest of their lives, Ponies that had been slain rose up once more, swarms of those..creatures scurried about the town. All the while, they ran, and hid like cowards.

Silver and White slumped down beside a house, holding their breath as another one of those things passed by, White Lie stuck his head out to see a mare running down the street beside a stallion, and to his horror as the mare pushed the stallion over leaving him to the creatures that swarmed behind them, almost ironically the creature that they had just hid from impaled the mare before walking off once more.

Suddenly, White noticed that the old jail had been turned into a fort, convicts fought back waves of the insane and walking dead. suddenly, one of the crazy's head was suddenly invaded by a long sharp bolt. White looked to the roof of the jail, where a green Pegasus with a light brow mane sat with a crossbow, killing anything that was stupid enough to walk into his sight, suddenly the Pegasus pointed the crossbow at White, yet before he could hide, the bolt flew by him and hit one of those spiky doll things that was trying to sneak up on White and Silver, momentarily stunning it.

“TO THE JAIL!” Silver yelled, both of them made a mad dash towards the building. The convicts look to each other, wondering if they should kill the approaching ponies, but the one that saved them jumped down from the roof and pushed them out of the way to lead Silver and White inside the building.

POV: White Lie

You let out a sigh you had no idea you were holding, as you quickly check to make sure that you had not sustained any major wounds, thankfully you realize had not. You turn your attention to the convict who had saved you.

"Thanks for that, I guess, we would have been dead right now if it wasn't for you, and on that topic, why save guards like us?"  Silver Lining asked, you turn towards silver, then the slim green pegasus, who then grinned widely before speaking

“I want to get out of this hell-hole alive, and none of these numb-skulls are smart or brave enough to attempt a run for it, so now that you two owe me one for saving your flanks, I was wondering if either of you wanted to come with me?” The Pegasus clears his throat before continuing “Ha, where are my manners? Names Bright Bolt, arrested for theft, conspiracy and murder , and damn proud of it.”

Silver, confused by his words spoke “How the hell are you proud of that? Those are serious charges!”

Bright laughed “I’m proud of it because they only got me for one of each charge; I’ve done so much more.”

You grunt, thinking it over, before speaking again. “What do you bring to the table if we take you with us?”

Bright smiled deviously, ”If you can get me out of here alive, I have connections with quite a few groups that could give you information on why your town is currently being burned down, and here's a free tip, just to show how nice I am, this group is called the Cult of Laughter." Bright stopped for a second to gauge our reactions Silver looked confused, but if I didn't have white fur, I would have become white with fear, the cult apparently had spies in every major house, and it was suspected they were necromancers...but why would they attack our town? Convert us? but why kill us then and not capture us? Make an example? Of who? Our town was completely neutral in the war! You pull your attention back to the real world and nod for Bright to continue.

...If you mean what do I bring to the fight?” The Pegasus reached behind him and pulled out a crossbow, "I was a hunter by trade, before I got into the whole assassin business, I’m an expert with this, and once we get out of here, I MIGHT just stick around to see what you do, after all, I do love a good conspiracy...”

Once again you begin to think, tuning out Silvers protests that he is nothing more than a backstabbing criminal, you have to admit, you are curious about why the Cult chose your town to attack, you can’t help but think that there may be an alternate motive for the attack.

“Fine, you can come with us.” You say, noticing Slivers cries of protest and Bright’s large grin.

“Knew you were a smart one, come on, the exits this way” Bright Bolt quickly opened a back door and lead the three of them out of the jail, and into the street...the last thing you hear is a convict scream from the front as the perimeter is breached and the undead and alive both pour into the jail.

“GAH” You yell as you plunge your spear through another undead, you hear another one drop from an bolt from Bright’s crossbow on your other side, you see Silver Lining kill three undead in a row with another mighty swing of his mace. They were so close…the edge of Whitetail Woods was right there! One of the living crazy ones jumps you, you grunted as you were tackled to the ground, you quickly punch him across the face before grabbing his pitchfork and breaking the end off inside the pony’s head. As you stand up you see three things…

One, Silver Lining was locked in a fight to the death with several of the undead, barely holding them back, not noticing that one of the spiky dolls creature slowly approaching him.

Two, on your other side Bright Bolt was out of ammunition, he falls flat on his back as several of the undead approach him, he bucks back and kills another one with a blade attached to his back leg, but any second now he will be overwhelmed, time seems to slow down, you hear them both yell...

"White, WHITE! little help with this undead here?" Silver Lining yelled

"Damn it! White, help! If you want to know what happened HELP ME DAMN IT!" Bright Bolt screamed

Three, you see that you cannot save them both…You breath in...and run towards...