private Journey of the Wanderers

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@ 

She blinked slowly, numbly watching the swift demise of yet another of the Undead. For a moment, she barely registered his question, remaining rooted to the spot as she stared at the third corpse.
"Silver Spectrum." she responded, finally managing to tear her gaze away from the maimed body, "b-but people just call me Silvia."

[Jack Baker 698]

@@Daylight Heretic,

"I see..." he said. "You still remember your name, this is good. Delighted to meet you," he said with a smile. "You were in quite the trouble; it's a good thing I came to help... but it may not be that way the next time." He looked at Silvia in the eye. "The Undead do not stop with just a dagger to the neck, no... they do not fall as easy as the living. The curse gives a special power. With every kill, they grow stronger, absorbing the life essence of their victims as they die. When they die, all the essence they absorbed goes to their killer, and the cycle repeats. You and I, as victims of the curse, are the same as them; the only difference is we still have our sanity about us. If you want to survive, my dear, you must fight them. Do not stop until they can move no more. Take their essence and use it as your own. This is the life which has been bestowed upon you..." He paused, then turned around.

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@

She paused, considering his words. 
Take essence...from the Undead? They were cursed?
"I...wha...How the hell did that happen??" she blurted out, looking from the old unicorn, to the corpse, and back again.
Her confusion and slight indignation gave her the strength to rise, and she gazed out across the rooftops of Canterlot, finally taking a moment to absorb the destruction, the true extent of what had happened.
"Is this... happening everywhere?" she breathed out.
 

[Jack Baker 698]

@Daylight Heretic

"In all of Equestria, yes..." he said, turning back to face her.

"You have not noticed the mark on your flank? The bright orange circle... the brand of the Undead, that surrounds your Cutie Mark..." He sighed. "It seems you may have lost your memory, a rare side effect of the curse. You may think this is just happening, but in fact this has been going on for quite some time... many months have passed since the dark lord inflicted this curse upon us, turning us into these... creatures." He looked at the corpses of the Undead he had just killed.

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@

She let out a giggle that somehow managed to sound both disbelieving and hysterical. Panic was starting to claw its way up her throat, and her entire body felt heavy as lead.
 "So... if I die, I become one of them? And the only way to not die is to fight? For how long? Is there a cure?" She felt as if she was babbling at this point, tripping over her words in a haze of denial and fear, "Is anyone working on this? Am I just supposed to spend the rest of my life "absorbing essence" and dodging the Undead?"

[Jack Baker 698]

@Daylight Heretic

"All in due time, my dear," the old unicorn said. "You seem to have a sort of strong purpose about you; something that is needed to prevent you from being completely taken over by the curse. Look around you. All these people let themselves be taken, finding no reason to live in a world such as this, and they have turned into the mindless corpses you just faced. You cannot let the same happen to yourself..."

 

He paused, then continued. "On the subject of dying... yes, you will turn into them if you die. However, one with a strong will to live will still have control over themselves; the only thing you will lose is your ability to speak, and your mortal appearance. In short, you will be Undead in appearance, but not in mind or soul."

 

He reached into his robe pockets. "There is a way, though, to regain your physical traits." From his pocket, he pulled out five dark colored clay pony dolls. "These were created by one of the royal sorcerers of Celestia's castle, who thought he had found the cure to the curse, a way to bring back the minds and appearances of the completely cursed. But once your mind is lost, it can never be regained..." He gave them to Silvia. "Remember, this is not a permanent cure, but a temporary one. What the real cure is... we may never know."

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@

Lovely. 
She took the proffered little dolls, examining them with grim curiousity. She admired that he'd seen fit to hand over something so precious, especially when he could have kept them for himself. The extra help was appreciated. 
"Sooo this is it then? Best of luck and all that, try not to die?" she asked. From the way he spoke as he'd explained everything, it didn't sound as if he planned on sticking around.  

[Jack Baker 698]

@@Daylight Heretic, 

 

"Perhaps," the old unicorn said, beginning to move away from her. "Maybe we will meet each other again, maybe we won't... in the case that we do, I will offer whatever assistance I possibly can." 

 

He stopped his wheelchair at a corner of the roof. "For now though, let an old pony rest his tired bones, will you? Oh, and be sure to take that bow over there... I would if I were you."

 

And with that, he closed his eyes, drooped his head low and slept.

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@

Well, if that was to be the way of it then.
She continued to stare for a moment after he drifted off, seemingly lost in thought, before slowly moving over to the corpse of the fallen archer. Silvia grimaced as she set her hooves against its sticky, blood-matted flesh and pushed it over. The limp body offered no resistance as it flopped onto it side, making it signifigantly easier for her to guide the quiver over its shoulders. She nabbed its belt as well, securing it around her as she trotted around gathering up the few arrows the unfortunate mutant had shot before its untimely demise.
She made a slight noise of discontent as she swiped the dagger up off the ground, crusted with half-dry zombie blood. 
Gross.
Nevertheless, she tucked it back into the belt and ambled over to the edge of the roof. 
She could feel the dull throb resounding at the base of her wing, and when she moved to test it, it transformed into a sharp jab. It wasn't enough to keep her on the ground, but she could tell already she'd need to take more breaks than usual. 
"Sleep well, old-timer" She muttered as she gently pushed herself into the air, wincing as her wing protested. 
She adjusted in time, and cautiously began to fly towards city-limits. 

[That One Techpriest You Used To Know 2,286]

@,

 

White nodded once, gathering the swords she had left by her side and re-strapping the devices to her hooves before standing up and grabbing the bag with her supplies in them as Raze extinguished the fire and grabbed his gear.

 

As the pair set out- she followed Raze, as opposed to leading the way, for obvious reasons- she found that, amongst the vines and the trees of the forest, she somehow found all of this to be familiar, in a way. Tramping along with a pony from her dreams. Perhaps it was, in fact, her dreams in which she found this pony. But what if this was merely a coincidence? She didn't know if she could defend against him should his initial happy attitude suddenly turn sour. With a sigh, she-

 

-heard a faint moaning, growling sound. It seemed to originate from several things, not just one, and, though not close, wasn't exactly too far away, either. She jumped and a hoof leaped to one of her blades. "I assume... those are the sounds of the cursed ponies who died or lost hope, then..."

[Jack Baker 698]

Raze slowly brought a hoof to his sword and brought his shield up.

 

"You guessed it," he said to White before quietly observing the area. From the sound of it, there seemed to be four of them, approaching slowly from all sides. He didn't move from where he was standing, unsheathing his sword and getting into a combat stance. A few seconds later, they emerged into view. Two of them were armed with halberds, one with a small dagger, and the last with a longsword. They were wearing tattered light armor, appearing to be former soldiers of the dark lord's army.

 

Once Raze sized up his targets, he approached all of them head on. One of the halberd soldiers ready his weapon to strike him, but he was met with a powerful blow from Raze's shield, knocking him off his feet. The dagger soldier began to swing at him with violent, quick horizontal strikes. Raze dodged two of them, then blocked the next one with his shield, staggering the Undead mid-swing. He then thrust his sword at it, stabbing him in the chest, then quickly jumped away from a surprise attack from the Undead wielding a longsword. However, his reaction was too late, and the sword managed to cut his chest, leaving a painful wound that would have been much worse had he not worn armor.

 

He grit his teeth in pain as he tried to back up from the Undead who had just wounded him. Behind him, the halberd soldier had gotten back up, and was ready to strike Raze once more.

[That One Techpriest You Used To Know 2,286]

@,

 

When Raze had gone one way, White had gone the other, diving into the second halberd soldier while the other three focused on rage. She didn't focus on the fact that she was under attack, nor the fact that the halberd was a heavy enough blow to probably decapitate her in one swing, but it seemed as if the world slowed down as she drew her blades.

 

With a pair of light slashes, she glanced the side of the undead's armor as it performed a broad horizontal slash that she flipped over. Finding herself next to the beast, she quickly slashed once and, before feinting one way, dashed behind it quickly. This left the pony's back exposed, and, after a sharp blow to the legs that knocked the zombie down, she quickly used her two swords to decapitate the pony, leaving the headless corpse on the ground as it slowly leaked a black ichor. She vaulted over the corpse before noticing Raze's situation. "Behind you!" she shouted as she quickly moved closer to the halberd soldier, shifting up next before releasing a quick, painful jab intended to draw attention away from Raze.

[Jack Baker 698]

Raze quickly turned around as White Rose warned him, coming face to face with the other halberd soldier. He swung his shield at him, staggering the soldier briefly, then slashing at it twice, the attacks cutting deep. The soldier groaned painfully, then collapsed onto the ground, dead. The longsword soldier was still behind Raze, readying a vertical strike, but this time Raze was prepared. As the soldier brought down his sword, Raze swung his shield at it, deflecting the blow. This caught the Undead off balance, and he fell flat on his back. Raze planted a hoof on the soldier's chest, raised his sword in the air, and stabbed the Undead's neck. The Undead's body jolted from the stab, but went limp after a few seconds. Raze looked around for anymore of them. Nothing.

 

He wiped the blood from his sword on a corpse, then sheathed it. The wound in his chest began to burn with even more pain, and he grunted in reaction to it, trying to cover the wound with his hoof.

[BlackShardNixium 277]

She'd had to stop and rest every now and again, but she found that the longer she flew, the more the ache in her wing faded. Bit by bit, she was able to fly longer distances, haltingly making her way out of the city. 
She paused at every sound, flinched at every supposed garble.
The undead were anywhere and everywhere, and Silvia found herself in a constant state of paranoia and anxiety. She told herself it would take getting used to.
As apparently, according to the old bat, there was no getting out of this.
She kept her weapons on hand constantly, having taken to fiddling with the dagger in her hooves as she flew. Up ahead, she could see the countryside stretching on for what seemed like forever, and she allowed herself a tiny sigh of relief. Surely there would be less of the undead populating rural areas? 
One could only hope, and that's just what Silvia did. 

[Jack Baker 698]

@Daylight Heretic

A couple of Pegasi soldier sentries were hiding in the clouds that Silvia flew past. They looked normal on the outside, but their helmets concealed their afflicted faces. They were half-consumed by the curse; while their ability to fight and talk was still there, their minds had already been eaten away.

 

They had seen Silvia pass by them and, treating everyone unknown to them as any enemy, they flew out of their hiding places and chased after her. One carried a scimitar, and the other a rapier.

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@

 She heard the movement behind her, could feel the shift in the atmosphere as they approached. It was as if their malice had taken physical form and started shouting at her from across the sky. 
Silvia tightened her grip on the dagger, debating whehter or not she should just turn around and confront them or play dumb for a few moments longer. She couldn't seem to decide if the chances of her winning would be better if she struck first. She didn't want to just turn around and throw the stupid dagger; she'd lose it. And she didn't really know how to use the bow and arrow.
She decided now was a good time to learn. 
She threw herself forward, pouring on the speed as she reached to snag the bow from off her back, snatching an arrow from the quiver as she went. Her grip was shakey as she notched it, but regardless, she took a deep breath and turned midair, zeroing in on the closest target and aiming as best she could before letting the arrow fly. 

[Jack Baker 698]

@@Daylight Heretic, 

 

The scimitar pegasus was struck with the arrow, hitting him right in the chest. He cried out in pain and lost his concentration, plummeting towards the ground. The other sped up, flying under Silvia, then shooting straight up towards her, tackling her and grabbing hold. He carried her towards a nearby cloud and dropped her there before landing on it himself. Not waiting for her to get up, he drew his rapier and assumed a combat position, then ran toward her, readying his weapon for a stab.

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@

She flailed when the remaining pegasus threw her onto the cloud, scrambling to get back on her hooves.
The guy was coming at her, though she managed to throw herself to the side in time to avoid a fatal blow. The rapier did manage to leave a sizable scratch trailing down her flank. It stung, but she could work with it. 
She took to the air again, desperately firing off a second arrow at her opponent.  

[Jack Baker 698]

@Daylight Heretic

The Pegasus nimbly dodged the arrow, then flew in front of her while she was taking off, blocking her way. The soldier readied his weapon again and, in a blur, jolted foward and unleashed a powerful, lethal, lightning-quick stab at Silvia, which entered her chest and passed all the way through, the weapon protruding out her back. He pulled the weapon out and flicked the blood off of it, readying again in case the stab hadn't finished her.

Edited February 18, 2016 by The Sad Manikin Mask

[BlackShardNixium 277]

@

She jerked as the rapier was torn from her body, immediately doubling over and dissolving into choked, hacking coughs. Warm, crimson blood dribbled from the corners of her mouth and whatever breath she could take was wheezing and desperate. She could hear her heart fluttering in her chest, pounding out a doubled, staccato rhythm that sent her body into overdrive. Adrenaline flowed through her veins, taking with it the pain and exhaustion, leaving only fear and the instinctual desperation for survival.
She'd like to think that, in times like these, she could be cool, calm, and collected.
But presently the only though running through her head was Please, Gods, not like this!
Silvia turned to face the brute, bleeding heavily and pitifully unprepared. She held the dagger tightly, equipped with the knowledge that there was a 99% chance she would be dead in the next three minutes. She crouched and waited for it to charge.