//------------------------------//
// The Journey 
// Story: Gray's Gone 
// by ArmOfSorrow 
//------------------------------//

“Ugh.” I muttered, as I sat on the edge of a cliff with my Barrett in my lap, miserably wrapped up in my thermal blanket as a light rain poured around me. “I fucking hate rain.”
It had been two days since Matt’s semi-funeral, and we were slowly getting closer to our destination. Having exited the Everfree almost immediately, we headed North-West until we got to some pony city named Van Hoover. Since Celestia’s infected guards were likely informed about me, along with the natives not knowing about Humans, Princess asked me to stay outside of the city until she returned with supplies.
So, here I sat, in the middle of the night, looking through a portable telescope that I snatched from one of Luna’s guards at this Pony city, watching the Princess’ progress. She was wearing a black cloak and hood to hide her royal appearance, which also made her a prime target for the infected guards. As a last resort, I kept my Barrett close by in case any guards became trouble.
She had decided not to take any of her own guards with her, for some reason. Probably because a larger group would be more obvious.  As such, her guard sat behind me, gathered around a small campfire, talking and playing the pony equivalent of poker (I assumed).
Thankfully, after nearly two combined hours of travel time and bartering, Luna eventually returned, laden down with saddlebags full of rations. No meat for me, unfortunately.
She brought with her a small map of Equestria, which listed all of the major towns and cities, pointing out exactly where we were. Just North-East of Van Hoover, West of the Galloping Gorge, and South of Stalliongrad, which for some reason wasn’t on the map.
“It is because Stalliongrad is an old prison city. The only residents were the prisoners, the guards, and the guards’ families. However, according to ‘Tia, the prison part of the city was shut down nearly a century ago, and now only the families remain. It is not a major settlement anymore, so it has been taken off of all the maps.” Luna explained, as she pointed out the route we should take.
“Would it be a good idea to use Stalliongrad as our last resupply point before heading to the mine?” I asked, looking at all of the snowy areas on the map. Maybe I would have a chance to ask Luna to buy me a cloak or something.
“It would not. The prison area was shut down due to a large scale breakout, orchestrated by the Griffons. After the guards left, many prisoners came back and have somehow lived in relative peace with the remaining settlers. However, they are not fans of outsiders, especially Princesses. We will have to make due with what we have.”
***
The journey North was pretty unpleasant, considering my only source of warmth was my thermal blanket and my spare BDUs. Fortunately, it only took about a day and a half, considering it was now mostly flat terrain. My bullet wound had been giving me some trouble, even though Luna had done her best to speed up the healing process. I occasionally had trouble putting weight on that leg, which made the traveling difficult.
The entire time, I carried my Barrett slung over my back and my SCAR clipped on to my vest. Since the infection had originated from that mine, I was trying to be wary of what we might come across.
Fortunately, we didn’t run into anything, and we arrived at the mine safe and sound. Looking at it from a small hill, I saw that the mine itself was really just a tiny cave entrance, with a small shantytown of shacks surrounding it.
Flicking off the safety, I led the group into the shantytown, checking every possible angle before moving further. Finding a shack that was less worn down than the others, Luna said “Mason, we will spend the night here. I would like you and Nightstalk to search the rest of the shacks to make sure we are completely alone. “
“Who’s Nightstalk?” I asked, taking a quick glance at the six batponies surrounding us.
“I am.” Said one of the batponies, stepping forward and saluting me. “You may be a corporal, but it seems that you have more combat experience than any of us, and in a different form of combat too. I’d say you’re the leader here, aside from our Princess.”
“Oh. Um… alright then.” I said,  wrapping my head around actually being the leader of someone other than the FNGs back at base. “Lets move out then. Princess, we’ll be back before nightfall. Here, if you need to contact us, take Matt’s personal radio.  Just hold this button, and speak into this side, and then release the button to listen.”
I tightened the knot that secured my thermal blanket around me, and led the way into the shantytown. There were about six or seven shacks left, all of them one room and closest to the mine.
Nightstalk and I closed in on the first shack, each taking a position on either side of the door. I motioned for him to buck it, and immediately after I jumped in and scanned the room down the sights of the SCAR. Nothing.
We moved on to the next shack, repeating the process until we got to the second to last room. As Nightstalk got into position to buck, we were surprised by the door crashing open, which threw Nightstalk to the ground. A brown earth pony dashed out, covered in blood and gore, and dove at my partner. Before I could raise the SCAR and fire, the earth pony had lowered his jaws onto the batpony’s throat and ripped it out.
Blood spewed across the snow, spraying the infected pony and pooling around Nightstalk’s head. Quickly, I raised the SCAR and fired two suppressed shots into the pony’s head, and kicked his lifeless body off of Nightstalk, flinching slightly at a small burst of pain in my right calf.
Nightstalk lay on his back with his front hooves up at his neck, trying to stem the flow of blood, to no avail. He was gagging and writhing on the ground, weakening as he slowly died. I slung the scar back over my shoulder and dropped down to my knees, clasping my hands over the wound. Even though there was nothing I could truly do to help, I kept at it, tightening my hands over the jagged hole, with blood seeping through my fingers and into the snow. After nearly a minute, poor Nightstalk had stopped moving, and was gazing lifelessly at the clouds above us.
Sighing, I wiped my hands on the clothes of the infected pony and called Luna over the radio. 
“Princess, we were in the process of searching the remaining shacks when we were attacked. Nightstalk was taken by surprise, and a miner ripped his throat out. I still need to search the last two shacks, and then I’ll bring his body back.”
Luna responded after nearly three minutes, voice heavy with sadness. “I see… please be careful, Corporal. We will atone for this murder shortly.”
“Yes ma’am.” I replied, and stuck the radio back into my pocket. 
I limped into the second shack, keeping my SCAR ready in case there was another attacker. There wasn’t, but instead there were the remains of apparently another miner; basically nothing left but bloody skeleton, with stained scraps of clothing and chunks of flesh still attached.
“Eugh.” I said, before closing the door and jogging over to the last shack.
Without hesitating, I kicked the door off of its weak hinges and scanned the room. Crumpled in the corner was a guardspony, the most fucked up one I had encountered so far.
His coat was loose and rotted, no longer even resembling white, just a solid gray with enormous blood smears, all originating from a gash running up his chest. His helmet had come off, and was laying crumpled beside him. His neck was covered in scratches, hoof shaped and raw to the point of bleeding, and his eyes were bloodshot and tearing. There were rot spots running along his back and his front legs, and would probably have them on his back legs, if they were still there. One had been ripped off at the hip, the would frozen shut. His other one was clean cut, just above his knee, the wound also frozen shut. The remnants of the amputated leg lay nearby, nothing but bone and scraps of skin, along with the guard’s sword, which had dried blood crusted onto it.
He was staring at me, squinting to try and get a better look before cracking a demented grin and chuckling; blood dribbled out of his mouth as he laughed.
“My mother said you would come. She sent me up here to await your arrival. Told me that you would arrive with Luna and search the mine. She ordered me to tell you everything, because you’ll be dead soon like the rest of us. You’ll soon be part of Her army.”
His voice was thick with liquid, which he had to stop and swallow fairly often, making me feel like puking.
“Who do you keep calling your mother? Celestia?” I asked, trying to refrain from gagging at the sight and smell.
The guardspony chuckled again, before saying “No, that filth is only a host for our beautiful mother. We all serve her, to aid in her destruction of the living kind after sitting in that containment unit for over a hundred thousand years.”
His answer baffled me. ‘So it’s not actually Celestia that’s trying to murder us.’ I thought, before asking another question.
“What do you mean a containment unit? That mine is only supposed to hold the remnants of an ancient pony tribe.”
“That, and so much more, Human. You will find that your world and ours aren’t quite as different as you thought. They’re actually very, very similar. Nearly the same.”
I stopped at the way he emphasized the last two words. ‘No… he’s just spewing bullshit. There’s no way that’s even possible.’ I thought, before another question popped into mind.
“How the fuck are you able to speak? All your fucked up siblings are just brainless cannibals.” 
“Mother gave me the gift of intelligence. Imitated after your smear of a friend, Matthew Barker. Speaking of which, I have these for you, pig.” The guard magically upturned his helmet, where a small metallic object jingled and fell out of it. Taking a small step forward, keeping my SCAR trained on the guard, I took a closer look, and gasped in horror at what lay on the dirt floor.
Matt’s dog tags.
“I was the one who was given the honor of torturing him. You should be proud, the only other living filth that we’ve done it on was Celestia. Only this time, I enjoyed the process.”
My face contorted in anger at his words. I could just barely refrain from blowing his brains out right then and there.
“Oh, you should have heard him scream. As I watched him turn, I tore apart his torso and feasted on his intestines, as he watched. He screamed, be cried, he begged. And he died like a foal. A pitiful foal that couldn’t do a bucking thing to defend himself. When he eventually reanimated, mother sent him to you.”
I couldn’t stop myself. I lunched forward, holding the SCAR by the barrel and swinging it at him like a baseball bat. The butt of the rifle collided with his skull, earning a sickening crunch and causing the guard to fall over. Then, I kicked him in the jaw, and pounded his head with my boot until my calf was screaming in pain. 
He laughed the entire time, right up until a put a bullet in his skull.
I collected Matt’s dog tags, scraping the dried blood –his dried blood, probably- off with my fingernail, before wearing them around my neck.
Walking back towards our temporary shelter, I collected Nightstalk’s body and deposited it outside of our shack, before stepping inside. The Princess, along with her five remaining guards, all gasped at my appearance. Looking down, I saw that there was blood running up my arms and dried on my hands, blood smeared on my boots, and gore plastered to my chest from carrying Nightstalk.
Without saying a word, I stripped down to my boxers, throwing the ruined BDUs outside, and replaced them with a fresh set. Luckily, it was warm inside the shelter, the guards and Luna had built a fire with scraps of wood from other shacks.
I tiredly pointed outside where Nightstalk’s body was laying, and layed down on a bedroll that someone had set out for me, falling into a solid sleep.