CHAPTER I - PART I
The Beginning of the End.
Darkness. It is surrounding us. The great plague has spread all over the world and there seems to be no cure.
The only way out is death and no one can escape it. There is no future anymore. They are getting closer.
We are outnumbered And soon we will all die.
Playfully the shadows are moving over the ground as the fire is dancing in front of us. Every noise is scaring us so much that we almost crawl out of our own skin.
But it hasn't always been this way. There used to be light at night too, but now light is something rare unless you always can make a fire.
We don't really know where it came from and we can barely remember the time before the sickness. This is probably our last night, so I'll tell you our story.
This is how it started...
"Daddy, daddy! Wake up!" A light-blue filly with a pink, curly mane yelled at me and I opened my eyes with a yawn.
"Good morning to you too, Caramel Swirl." I said with a sleepy voice and reached out with my hoof to wake my wife.
But she wasn't in bed and I was suddenly wide-awake.
"Caramel, where is your mother?" I asked with a scared voice and widened eyes.
Caramel looked afraid and took a step back, she felt very uncomfortable and wondered what her dad was doing.
"She is downstairs making breakfast dad, it's Straight Arrow's birthday!" She explained and jumped down from the bed.
"Mom sent me to wake you up so we can sing."
I felt so relieved. Chocolate Muffin, as my wife's name is, didn't usually get up early and I have my reasons to be so paranoid.
I was in the army before I met her and as many others I got some enemies in my time in the Wastelands. In the first year with her I felt like I had to protect her for some reason, but that feeling slowly faded when they, the enemies, never came. I must say that Muffin saved me, if it wasn't for her I would have taken my own life. I was so depressed because of all the death I had seen, both friends and enemies. War changes you, drives you to the very edge of madness.
"Daddy?" Caramel watched me with concern. I didn't realize that I had lost myself in thoughts and old memories until she spoke.
"Sorry, sweet pea. Go downstairs and I'll come after in a minute." I smiled and nodded my head towards the bedroom door.
My little filly trotted out but glared at me as she closed the door behind her. I sighed and tiredly got out of the bed. Slowly I walked to my and my wife's private bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My darkblue mane was messy, the yellow eyes were a little tired and my light-blue coat was... Well it was as it has always been, normal and boring. I washed my face quite quickly before I went downstairs.
When I entered the kitchen I saw my beautiful, beautiful wife standing besides the table and sticking in the candles in the big birthday cake. She was the one Caramel had inherited her pink curls from, though Muffins mane reminded me of the topping a soft chocolate ice cream has, with light pink highlights.
"Hi, babe." I murmured and stroke my muzzle along her beige neck.
"Hee hee!" Muffin giggled and shook her head as she got goosebumps all over her back. "Stop that or I'll ruin the cake!" She said with a frown, but her voice was playful as always. I smiled and looked at the cake.
It was chocolate-brown with darkblue whipped cream and orange sprinkles, which all were the colors of my son who became 16 that day.
"No you won't, your talent won't let you!" I teased and kissed her cheek.
"Eeew! Mom! Dad!" Caramel squealed and frowned with disgust.
Muffin and I giggled like two teenagers before Muffin picked up the cake.
"Now be quiet! We don't want him to wake up, do we?" My wife looked at Caramel and the filly quickly shaked her head before tiptoeing to her big brother's room.
We all soon stood at Arrow's door and started singing.
"Happy birthday to yoooou, happy birthday to yoooou..." He opened his bright orange eyes and I saw the happiness in them, but you know how kids are.
Now he is a teenager and thinks he must act cool, so he just smiled and waved us to come to the bed. A few years ago we had to tell him to stay in bed so he could have breakfast in bed.
"Now wish something!" Caramel said and jumped up and down with excitement.
Arrow closed his eyes a while before opening them again and blowed out the candles.
Then suddenly the phone rang. The worst phone call in my life and I blame myself for not believing in what the pony on the other side told me.
So Muffin rushed out in the kitchen to answer. With a worried voice she then called out to me.
"Honey, it's for you." I went over to the phone and picked it up as I carefully watched my wife.
"Hello? This is Silverblade." I said with a harsh tone in my voice.
"Sorry for skipping the formalities, but this is urgent." A dark, familiar voice said.
It was Blue Comet, one of the soldiers who I had fought besides in the great war. He had stayed in the army and later he got promoted to Celestia's own Princess Guard, so I guessed it was some secret intel he was going to tell me.
"I could get executed for telling you this, my friend, and I'm only going to tell you this once." He let it sink in before he continued. "Queen Chrysalis has created an unstoppable disease and released it in Equestria and the rest of the world. If you get infected you die shortly after.. and you come back. You die, but your body awakes again as a soulless killer who eats other ponies."
Then and there I started laughing. He must be joking! He actually described zombies and wanted me to believe him. If I only had.
"This is serious!" He said angrily. "The two ways of becoming one of them is either being bitten or dying, so stay alive! We are all infected now. The only way to kill them is to damage the brain. I gotta go, we are leaving Canterlot.. Get out of Ponyville before it s too late!" Then he hung up on me and I was very, very confused. "Who was that?" Asked Chocolate Muffin with concern.
"Oh, actually it was an old friend of mine." I answered and started to laugh again.
"Really? Why are you laughing?" She was a little confused by my behavior and I couldn't blame her.
"Yeah, it was Blue Comet. You know, my old army buddy. He was talking rubbish. I assume it s because of all his time in the Princess Guard. And then he just hung up." I shaked my head, though my explanation seemed so logical I felt sad for him.
"Oh, how sad! I thought it was something important when he almost screamed at me to hand you the phone." She sighed with relief and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.
"I got really worried you know..." Chocolate Muffin looked down for a moment before her eyes met mine.
"Darling! You don't have to worry about me. My PTSD is in the past, since we got our two wonderful babies I've been fine!" I said with a sincere smile and kissed her cheek. She nodded and smiled. The whole incident was forgotten.
This is my first published fanfiction! Please leave a comment and tell me if you want more! :D
