Dreadnought
"This is a shit idea" I once again reminded Edge as we, to use the correct word edged closer and closer to the Crossed Encampment. "I'm full of shit ideas, just watch our flanks and stay frosty" she ordered as if she was the boss of me.
"What a bitch" I thought as I kept tilting my head from side to side, ears pricked, wings flustered, ready to take off when I needed even if it meant leaving Edge behind. Maybe it was for the best considering how many of these little "escapades" she had begun taking us on, all because she was the daughter of the Commander.
We moved closer through the undergrowth, the Ferns and plants giving us cover until finally we reached a small overview from where we saw the Crossed. My face scrunched up naturally, even after 3 years since this all started it still made me super disgusted and equally afraid.
There were about 16 of them, at least that we could see all around the camp. All of them were Crossed and all of them were as all Crossed are Insane. We don't know how it happened, where it happened first and why but when the Crossed Virus hit 3 years ago it decimated the Equestrian population, killing or worse, turning ponies into these sick, twisted versions of themselves.
The Crossed, named for the red, bloody markings of a cross on their faces were insane, maniac sadists who lived simply to infect other ponies and take sick pleasure from raping, maiming and sometimes murdering non-infected ponies like us and not always in that order.
There were many types of Crossed but they were essentially all the same, all crazy and all willing to die at a hair drop, they really didn't care as long as they got their kicks the sick twisted fucks.
"Okay 16, now we can go!" I whispered urgently, looking behind me and tightening my grip on my crossbow as we continued to nestle in the ground, still scouting out an encampment for Crossed that I'd been able to count in 5 seconds. "Shh, 5 more just entered my view, there might be more nearby."
I face-hoofed and looked at her with my best "seriously" expression. "There are definitely more nearby, which is why we need to get the fuck out of here and get back to Haven before someone decides to stroll 45 metres in this direction and take a piss, which if I can remind you would also result in us joining the camp which is not something I wanna do today."
Edge looked at me, her brown eyes boring holes into my skull. She flicked her cropped jet black mane and nodded, obviously fuming inside at my "cowardice" or as I would call it "common sense" but then that could be disputed.
We began to move back but just as we did we heard a cheer of cackles and suddenly we were both back, overlooking the camp as in trotted a pony that made both our jaws drop. It was none other than the element of Loyalty, the famed Rainbow Dash, a pegasus I'd actually seen first-hoof back when I was a Cloudsdale banking manager.
Even though we'd never spoken she was a minor celebrity in Cloudsdale and even though she had a normal weather pony job. Now she was this, a cackling beast, her hair ragged, filthy and her body covered in scars, one of her wings was twisted wrong and the other looked like it hadn't been preened in a while.
She was obviously the leader of this encampment, that would explain why there was so many Crossed, most Crossed never remained in packs over maybe 10, the reason being that when they got bored and wondered aimlessly they generally started killing each other which was no fun at all but better than not killing.
Some ponies however had the ability to lead them, they promised fun times and an end to boredom, which meant bloody rape and murder and generally if they delivered we'd heard of packs of up to 300 Crossed roaming the Equestrian plains, hunting down survivors encampments and having huge bloody battles.
"W-We should probably go" I half said, half begged as Rainbow began to say something to the Crossed amongst her as a stallion behind her mounted her, his stubby erection sliding into her blood stained folds.
Edge almost vomited, not a great thing considering how close we were and whole heartedly agreed although the new development was one that really had disturbed the both of us.
Suddenly however something changed as more Crossed showed up and had tied to a pole they were handling a family of ponies, most Unicorn but one, the Mother was an Earth pony, all uninfected, all screaming and begging and trying to get away.
They hadn't been touched yet, probably Rainbow was saving them for the tribe, everyone would get their turn as stabbing, raping, biting, amputating whatever they fancied. Maybe one or so would live, I didn't think any would though they were obviously intended for slaughter
"Now we really need to go, I count maybe 35, and more parties arriving, one's going to come this way or maybe they're coming up behind us!" I whispered urgently, moving away and trying to pull her with me to no avail, herself being rooted in position.
"We both have Crossbows, we could kill the children before they begin and bolt, they're all relaxed they probably wouldn't catch us" she said almost with an absolution in her stupid fucking voice. "Stupid bitch" I thought whilst actually saying "They're distracted now, they're dead either way and I don't want to join them, we need to get out of her and you're talking crazy! We can't get caught, think of the camp, if we got turned we'd have what? About 50 Crossed now on Haven, they could handle it but with our knowledge, especially yours they might devise a plan, who knows they have Rainbow fucking Dash Edge!"
The truth I hoped was sinking into her thick pink head, I bet before all this she was a real Princess, Daddy's little filly. By the looks now however she looked like some kind of tom colt, trying to show how tough she was probably to make up for when her brothers died.
She sniffed quietly and looked at me and smiled before saying "You're a fucking coward Dreadnought" and taking position, raising her crossbow. "Fuck" I cursed and begrudgingly, even with every muscle in my body screaming "NO" I raised my Crossbow as she began counting down.
"Range, mark in 3…2…1…" and that was that. I took the one on the right, she the one on the left. Poor little chubby fucker, brown coat like his brother ahead of him, tears streaming down his face whilst his Mother pleaded with the Crossed.
I caught him in the chest, the air knocked out of him and he died fast his heart pierced. Edge's shot was not as great, she wasn't as good a shot and caught the thinner brother in the stomach. He cried in agony as he probably felt some of his essential organs get punctured and blood began spurting from his stomach, still he'd die quicker than his Mother and Father for sure.
"Fucking go!" I said as I turned and bolted, not waiting to see the reactions of anypony or to feel the hooves of the crazy maniacs who now all knew where we were. Edge, the stupid mare blinked before galloping behind me, gunning it as I was and probably feeling like a real fucking heroine.
There were shouts and crys of madness behind us. I caught some of their words behind us, not out of the norm. Words like "Fuck your little cunt" and "Celestia fuck you!" and generally "fuck your assholes" was the most intelligent they got.
We kept running, too afraid to look back at them, we knew they were hot on our heels though, the need to kill and take pleasure from our bodies was so important to them they would probably cut their legs off for it. In truth some that were missing legs and probably were still crawling towards us, the thrill of the hunt that took up their main wants these days so strong.
Time passed and the shouts grew slightly fainter and our breathing seemed to take up everything we heard when suddenly I heard Edge cry out and a small thud behind me. I kept running for a moment but decided to take a glimpse back and saw Edge had tripped and was obviously injured.
"Don't leave me!" she half begged and half ordered, the Daddy's little girl syndrome still there. The shouts began to get louder and in those few seconds I weighed up my options. I could leave her and I would get away easily, they'd be too busy with her to worry about me. Then again returning alone from a mission considering this was the Commander's daughter would not put me high on his list.
"Fuck" I cursed as I rushed back to her and after pulling her fore-legs up I began to beat my wings and after much strain I began to lift her. "Y-Your n-not strong enough surely to fly us out?" she asked stupidly and I grunted as I finally reached the thick branch I'd been aiming for, dumping her frame on it before taking my own position, clinging to the branch and trying to look as inconspicuous as I could.
A minute passed by as the sounds of The Crossed came up to us. Led by Rainbow they were charging in the direction we had been running, completely insane and completely devoted to ending our lives.
"Stay quiet" I murmured as they passed underneath, the front line sprinting whilst some slower and probably more malnourished ones trickled in behind. Some stopped and sniffed the air, other scratched themselves and moved on, their howls dying out, the chase already boring them as they probably remembered the live victims they had in their camp.
Edge was obviously in some mild pain, her hoof looked a little bashed up, probably dislocated although I was no Doctor and we certainly weren't going to risk giving away our location by poking and prodding it.
So we waited, myself with my eyes shut tight, holding onto the branch like it was my life whilst Edge tried not to whimper too loudly. Light came upon us and there were no signs of Crossed though we knew there'd still be some out looking for us, Rainbow probably amongst them.
I flew us down, Edge landing on her bad hoof, whimpering in pain with a tear rolling down her cheek. "W-We need to fix it" she uttered, the morning air crisp and not at all pleasant. Despite having been stuck in one place all night we were not rested or relaxed and still very much paranoid.
I reloaded my crossbow, placing it to the floor and puling the mechanism back with my hooves. :I think… I think it's broken" was the last thing I wanted to hear from Edge right now but still the stupid cow had gone and done it, put me in an almost impossible situation.
"For fuck sake you couldn't have just left it!? No you had to play the hero, Daddy' girl has to impress Daddy" I spat as I got down beside her and felt her injured hoof. It was indeed broken, as was my hopes of a more or less speedy brisk walk back to Haven.
"Shut it Dread and help me up, we'll just have to take it slower back to Haven but they're gone for now" she said as if I had no choice but to help her out. Of course I begrudgingly did, no point in as I'd mentioned in returning home only to be kicked out because I lost Haven's Leader's little precious.
We splinted her hoof, wasting 20 minutes and I made sure her Crossbow was loaded in case she needed to fire it and then we were finally off at a snails pace to what we could have been. In all reality we could have been home last night but no the clumsy idiot had to break her damned hoof tripping on a damned rock.
All the things weighed against us were seemingly non-existant however as after two hours we were about home and I could finally relax a little. That was of course the mistake of a lifetime.
"Can already taste that carrot pie Hilda is making" I muttered back to my sweaty but still alive companion who simply grunted, her fore-hoof taking all her front weight and obviously making her tired to add to the pain she was in.
Suddenly and without warning there was a shriek from up above and with a cry I fell back as something collided with me and stabbed me right in the side. "Little biiitch" the Crossed laughed, an Earth Pony once, middle-aged, probably a Father.
He pulled his knife out and went to stab me again but he was surprised when he found a bolt sticking out of his breast. He collapsed, giggiling and bleeding and I quickly pulled myself away from the body, making sure our blood didn't mix.
"Fucker was hiding in the tree like we were" I panted, the pain reaching unbearable levels in mere seconds as I felt my coat get soaked with my blood. "The knife it wasn't… it wasn't coated in anything was it?" Edge asked me as she threw down her crossbow.
I grit my teeth together in pain and replied "I'd be fucking gnawing your face off if it were, we need to get the fuck out of here right now and back to Haven before…" but as if to make clear my words there were howls and hoots from all over the forest as our presence was lit up like a homing beacon.
Edge and I looked at each other before we both got up and made a break for it. Haven could only be half a mile away, who knows the sentries might have actually heard my scream and were already preparing for some shit storm.
We limped and groaned through the undergrowth, our own bodies complaining through the waves of pain we were receiving. Of course in light of it all mine was a much worse wound, running through the undergrowth with a deep wound like this spilling out all over the place was not only suicide but damned stupid but there was no time to bandage it and so I pressed on.
Haven was by some means beautiful, a castle made of some kind of tough crystal on the edges of an old town that was once the home of the Elements of Harmony. They'd said that in the early days most of the Elements had pulled back to the castle with the citizens but something had happened and they had all turned.
The Commander's magic was what protected it now though, say what you like about his bitch daughter he was a marvel. A tough, jet black Unicorn who had been a Major in the army before this all went down. His Protection magic they said was grand and it was the main thing protecting Haven from the crazies and he made sure that we knew it.
We kept running as suddenly another Crossed came up on us, I fell back and shot at him with my Crossbow, the bolt catching him in the throat, stopping any giggling but not preventing that twisted smile and stare from piercing me.
I got up to see Edge had already made it through the clearing and was half limping, half running to the castle, fighting through the pain. I on the otherhoof was not doing so well. I couldn't feel my flank and I was feeling feint and now I had only my knife, not having time or strength to reload the crossbow.
"Edge wait!" I yelled, as I myself found a burst of speed and began moving as fast as possible towards Haven.
I could see the Sentries up above in the towers with their binoculars staring at us, they were Unicorns armed with regular bows, crack shots from what I'd seen and from what I'd heard they were part of the Equestrian Games team but then again that was speculation, all I knew is they kept to themselves and respected the Commander above all others.
Right now I could see them readying their arrows as we made the 300 metre dash to the castle. My mistake was probably looking back as when I did I saw around 20 of them on us and catching up fast, there was not much chance we would make it but I was taking it.
At 200 metres I'd caught up to Edge who was now struggling, the splint making life difficult for her but none the less her will to survive mirrored my own at that moment as an arrow flew past us, outside of the magical aura emitted by the Commander which stopped Crossed coming closer than 50 metres and pierced the nearest Crossed in the eyeball.
"Cunts!" I heard collective shouts from the Crossed who seemed to be ever increasing in number until it looked like the whole party was on our tails. The Archers kept picking off the ones getting closest to us but there were only 3 of them and despite their aim the Crosse were wily bastards.
Within 100 metres of safety one tried to pounce me whilst screaming "MEEEAAAAATTT" but I dodged thankfully, regretting it as my wound gushed fresh torrents of the sticky life liquid I needed and the Crossed craved.
Looking back on this actually the blood gushing from me must have made me a much nicer target, something of an eclair to all the Crossed, the sickos. Still eclair or not I was an eclair who wanted to live and so I got up in a swift movement and kept moving.
We couldn't have been more than 10 metres from the protective sphere when suddenly Edge fell, her clumsy fucking hooves doing it for us for the second time that day.
I surprised myself by turning back and actually taking a step to help her, she certainly asked for it screaming "HELP! DREAD!?" and to be honest the blood loss probably was making me a bit spaced so I did go back and grab her hoof.
That was as a female Crossed jumped up and onto her back grinding herself away at her as she stabbed her in the back repeatedly, giggling and whispering sweet nothings to her. I cried out in fear and shock and let go as she screamed, but I didn't have time to mourn then as another tried jumping at me.
An arrow by luck caught him in the shoulder, pushing him back and I, using the time scrambled back the distance until I felt the warm feeling of the shield wash over me followed by the attempts of the Crossed to enter it there after.
The shield upon coming into contact with their infected makeup caused them to burst into flames, something they didn't really care a lot about but eventually after ten or so did the same thing trying to get to me they realised that it was pointless and focused on the live piece of meat they had.
Poor Edge, the fucking stupid bitch that she was. She cried in fear and pain as they pleasurably took her. I watched it all, I was stuck there, I couldn't move the pain and blood loss being too much to do anything else.
They opened up holes all over her form as Crossed fought over who got to fuck her first. Arrows rained down all the time at them but they didn't care. Some sick fuck cut her injured hoof off, signalling her death, she'd likely bleed out from that before she turned but not before she screamed bloody murder as some Crossed won the battle and had his way with her.
"S-Somebody s-shoot her for fucking Celest-tias sake" I groaned as I passed out, the pain becoming too unbearable both mentally and physically. I hadn't dreamed much since the Crossed took over but when I did I always saw them, the Crossed that was, judging me and telling me how I'd failed to save them or left them behind. Now there was one more to add to that number.
Points to whoever knows the Crossed. Leave ideas if any in the comments and any critical feedback or complaints.