Sunday, Febuary 10th

For two days we walked along the outside of the force field. The longer we traveled, the weaker the light from my axe grew. Luckily all we had seen were fleeting glimpses of skeletons. They were all too afraid to approach us. We took turns watching at night, but nothing ever came for us.

"Hey guys...." I spoke up as we trudged on. I was standing at the back of the group. Everypony's shoulders drooped and their heads hung exhaustedly. I could tell we needed someting to happen or morale would sink even further. The group slowly turned to face me. "It's obvious we're never going to find the madpony by doing this. I have an idea." The poines stood up straighter and leaned forward slightly. "If I were this guy, I'd make my fortress or base near the center of this place. That way some wandering ponies wouldn't discover me. No shit Sherlock. I'll be honest, I kinda thought this the whole time, but it seemed too dangerous for you guys..." One of the ponies tilted their head at me.

"How could it be more dangerous? We've already faced some undead..." The mare asked curiously.

"Well, think about it. If you were this guy, wouldn't you keep more powerful undead near yourself for protection?" The ponies seemed to think about this for a moment before sharing nods and a few murmers of agreement. "Right, so if we get closer, it's more likely you all will die..."

"Do you think we care?" Another mare spoke up.

"Well, when you put it that way... LEROOOOOOOOOOYYYYYY JENKINS!" I ran off into the Forbidden Realm. I had taught them all the Leroy Jenkins call a few days ago as a joke. With a grin, they all drew their weapons and charged after me further into the dark. The skeletons around us chattered nervously as I ran through them quickly. The ponies followed closely behind, likely afraid of being left in the dark. After a while we slowed to a stop and laughed to each other about our ridiculous behavior. We walked more ordely after that, keeping together and staying on guard.

"So Sharky, what do you think is the next thing we'll find?" Anubis asked me.

"What makes you think I'll know?"

"Well, you're pretty good at fighting... and really good at thinking like the enemy... and you seemed to know a little about undead..."

"Well, I'm not really that great of a fighter. I just... react you know... Thinking like the enemy huh? It's just common sense... I used to play a lot of chess, maybe that's it. How do you figure I know about undead?"

"Well, call me crazy, but if everypony's reaction was as well-trained as yours, we'd be a warrior race. Also, you play chess? I heard of the game, never really tried it though. You never really said anything about knowing undead, but you seemed to know an awful lot about the Forbidden Realm for somepony unfamiliar with our legends..."

"Warrior race? Heh, I see you have a knack for exaggeration. Well, chess is a really good strategy game. I'll have to teach you to play someday. As to knowing about this place... I talk to a dragon every once in awhile and she mentioned a realm for undead. I see now that she was talking about this place.." Anubis stopped midstride and stared at me.

"... Did you just say you speak with a dragon?"

"Huh? Well yeah."

"Casually?!"

"Do I speak with the dragon casually? Yeah. She's a good friend of mine."

"... Every single moment you speak, you become all the more amazing." Anubis smiled at me broadly. "I can't believe the things you do!"

"What, speaking with a dragon? She's a nice dragon! It's not all the impressive."

"It's incredibly impressive!" Another pony piped up from behind me. I turned to see a light pink unicorn mare with glasses and a white mane gazing at me with adoration. Her cutie mark was a dragon wing. "Kind dragons are soooo rare! I've been wanting to meet one my whole life!"

"Your whole life huh?" I chuckled a little at the mare's overabundance of excitement. "I'll tell you what, I'll take you to meet Esmerelda after we finish this job, ok?"

"Really?! That would be fantasti-- ... What's that?" The mare pointed a hoof behind me. I turned around to see what she was pointing at.

"Hey, that looks like a pony!" Anubis shouted. He was correct. There was a pony right at the outer edges of the circle. As soon as Anubis shouted, the pony turned towards our group. It appeared to be a stallion. He was wearing golden armor similar to that of Celestia's royal guards. His coat was mostly white, but it was stained with spots of red around his mouth and hooves.

"What's wrong with him?" I heard Spot Light ask behind me. The pony was letting out low moans and stumbling towards us. As he got closer, I saw that his eyes were really balls of black flame.

"Everypony, get into battle formation!" I shouted. I turned to look at the company, but they were all blinking at me blankly. I sighed. "Get into the formation that you did when you fought the skeletons!"

"Oh!" They exclaimed all together as they scambled to get into position.

"Why? What's going on?" Anubis asked as he got into position behind a spear mare.

"That's a zom... pony. He may look like a pony, but he's really an undead."

"Ah yes, I believe I've heard of such things. What do you know about them?"

"They should be slow and stupid if what I've learned is correct. Thank you video games. However, they should be strong and more damage resistant than skeletons. The only way to really kill these guys is to destroy the brain."

"Wow, you really do have fantastic knowledge of the undead!"

"Yeah yeah, quit the kissing up and focus on not dying! What he hasn't told you yet is that even the smallest bite from these things, and you'll be one of them." The company gasped fearfully.

"Just a bite?!" The dragon-loving mare exclaimed. I blinked at her blankly.

"Just a bite of what?"

"Look!" Anubis yelled in response. I turned back to the first zompony, and even more were trailing out of the blackness. Some of them looked like soliders, but more looked like civilians. There were one or two with weapons jutting out of their sides. One was missing a back leg. In total, there were about five visible and more still appearing. What Anubis was pointing out though, was that the first one was leaning out to bite me.

"Gah!" I jumped back and whipped the Buster Sword around to smash his head with the flat of the blade. A magic wrapped dagger flew forward before my blow could land, spearing the zompony's head. The flames in his eyes extinguished and the green aura-wrapped dagger retreated from his skull. I looked to the unicorns and Anubis threw me a quick salute. "Thanks!"

"No problem, let's get this going!"

"You got it, ok everypony! Looks like my axe isn't strong enough to repel these things! That means we get to fight our way to the middle of this place from here on out! Fucking great. Well, at least we get to kill shit." The group didn't bother to turn and respond to me, they all simply held their positions and nodded. I turned to the nearest zompony and sliced at it's head. The head rolled away from the body. The body limply fell to the ground, but the head kept rolling toward me. A spear appeared and stabbed through the head. I nodded to the spear pony as she shook off the skull with a smile.

"Ok, everypony follow my lead and walk forward!" Anubis yelled above the growing moans of the zomponies. There were at least 20 more zomponies in the circle of light now, and they didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Anubis started a slow shuffle forward through the zomponies, spears and swords cutting a merciless path. I followed alongside the main group, making sure to share the point of my sword with any zompony dumb enough to come within my range. The group retained remarkable focus on the enemy, obviously not wanting to end up like poor Lime Light.

"Man, do you know what would be amazing right now?" I asked as I sliced a zompony's head in two.

"What is that?" Anubis gasped as he double-stabbed a zompony through each of it's flaming eyes.

"If I could play some music! I know a song that would totally fit this..."

"Well, think of it later. We need to focus at the moment."

"Right, well said Anubis... At least we're doing much better now than we did against the skeletons..."

"Ah!" A mare shrieked in pain. I turned to see a blue mare with a zompony's jaw latched on her foreleg. "Get it off, get it off!" She wailed. She flailed around, striking nearby allies as well as the zompony gnawing on her leg. She quickly was seperated from the group. She screamed helplessly as the zomponies started to zero in on her, targeting the easy meal rather than the fighting group. The group turned to me expectantly.

"... Well? Aren't you going to go save her?" Spot Light spoke up as the zomponies neared the mare.

"I can't. Even if I got all of them away, she'd turn into a mindless killing machine just like them in a matter of hours. Maybe less."

"Well you can't just leave her like that!" Anubis shouted. "Do something!" I sighed shakily.

"There's only one thing I can do to make this easier for her... and I really don't want to do it... Yeah, and I'm not too sure you want him to either."

"Well, do it!" Another stallion shouted. "You can't let her suffer like that!"

"Fine..." I sighed. "Remember, you asked me to do this. Wow, he's actually going to do it." I hefted my sword and started a reluctant jog towards the mare. At least three different zomponies were ripping mouthfuls of flesh off of her in their slow manner as she screamed. I flinched and hastened my pace towards her. The zomponies were totally oblivious to my approach because of their squirming meal. I made short work of them, splitting their skulls before sending their heads rolling away from their bodies. The mare looked up at me with pain and tears in her eyes.

"Please! Make it stop!" She shreiked. I turned my head away from her and closed my eyes as I brought the Buster Sword down on her dying body. She let out a sudden gasp before becoming entirely silent. I raised the Buster Sword with a shuddering hand only to become sick as I realized the mare's body was still attached to the blade. I gave it a quick shake and her body fell to the ground. I turned away from her and back to the group. They were all gaping at me with disgust.

"Focus on the fucking enemies you morons! Guys, look out!" More zomponies continued pouring out of the shadows, quickly closing in on the distracted group. My warning was too late. The zomponies bit into a stallion and two more mares before the rest were able to get their senses back. The unlucky ones were dragged away from the main group and swarmed. I screamed in rage and split an approaching zompony clear down the middle with the entirety of the Buster Sword. I swung around again and removed the head of another zompony, taking care to stomp the head in before I roared and chared towards the ponies being eaten. I reached the first pony, the stallion. Only two had gotten to him. I swung down the Buster Sword, removing the back legs of the first zompony as I drew my axe with my left hand and sliced at the head of the second zompony.

"I-it hurts..." The stallion whimpered as the axe contacted the zompony's skull. The zompony let out an in-human shriek as a bright light flowed from the silver moon and into the zompony. The zompony's head was not only destroyed, but it was sliced perfectly and quickly through even the bone with no resistance. Because of this, the power I had put in the swing turned turned out to be far too great. I ended up over-extending myself and leaving my chest wide open for an attack. Luckily the only zomponies near enough to hurt me were either missing legs or re-dead.

"It won't for much longer." I promised as I brought the Buster Sword down in an arc that sliced through the zompony's head and into the stallion's chest. I let the rage in me boil as I struggled not to think about my murdering of innocent ponies. I ran at the next macabre feeding spot, four zomponies in my way this time. I slashed horizontally at the first two with my axe, slicing through them cleanly and quickly through their heads. The other two noticed me and decided to attack me instead of continue eating. The first one leapt at me, but I slammed my gauntlet blade into his face, sending him flying.

"Help me! Help me please!" The mare in the final group of zomponies screamed as I worked on the group I was at. The final zompony of this group tried to bite into my leg, but his teeth met only metal. I sliced at its exposed head and looked to the mare. She was dead already, her chest was torn open and all the organs were unidentifiable. I grimaced and quickly slashed her skull to ensure she would remain dead. The last group was clearing before I could even take my first step towards them. The mare that had been taken by them walked among them now, proving that the disease was much faster than I thought it would be. I gave her now mindlessly moaning form a sad look before running back to the group. Luckily my axe had its own light, because I had run much farther away from the group than I thought. I was almost to them, when I heard a slight swish behind me. I whipped around quickly, Buster Sword outstretched. I contacted something that felt like stone and the impact jarred my arm so badly I was forced to drop the sword in shock. The thing I had hit, was a pony. It was a tan stallion with a red mane. It grinned at me, sharp canines curved over his bottom lip.

"Well, it seems my suprise attack has failed." The stallion's voice sounded ancient and powerful. "No matter, I suppose this will have to do..."

"Oh damn, not more vampires... Bitch, did you just try to sneak up on me?! I'm gonna stab you and turn you into steak!" The pony blinked at me confusedly a few times.

"... Don't you mean stab me with a stake?"

"No. I was planning on beheading you with my somehow blessed axe, but your idea works too."

"What?... Forget it! I've never fed on something like you. Let's see how you taste!" The pony leapt at me, fangs bared and wings outstretched. I met his leap with a right cross to his chin. His jaw felt like iron, but his mouth snapped shut and he flew to the side with the blow. As he landed, two orbs of light flew out of nowhere and started circling me. I held out my axe in front of me as the vampire got back to his hooves and turned to me. He saw me standing there, axe held offensively in both hands with two orbs of light circling me.

"Thank you..." The orbs whispered to me in the voices of the two non-zombified ponies. The other two souls did not appear, leaving me to believe the dead one had moved on... but the last one... it was being held in the zombified mare's new form, doomed to life as a cannabalistic monster. I let out another roar of pain for the fate of the final mare. The vampire flinched and started to look unsure.

"Perhaps... I have made a mistake..."

"I'mma fucking kill you!! You think?" The two orbs joined the axe, intensifing the glow enough to where it was now brighter than all of the unicorn horns. My gaze locked onto the vampire, and I let my rage flow.

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"Yes... Let your rage CONSUME you!!"