//------------------------------//
// The Dead 
// Story: Bells and Keys 
// by ComradeCthulhu 
//------------------------------//

(Ponyville Library, Ponyville, Equestria)
“Remind me again why we’re here.” Said Rainbow Dash.
“We're here cause' Twilight found some goshdarn portal spell she wants us tah watch'er try" Replied Applejack. Twilight was currently skimming through a book on the far side of the room. 
“The least she could do is hurry it up.” whispered Rarity. She quickly got quiet as soon as Twilight turned around. 
“Alright, let’s try this. Everypony form a circle.” She said. The mane six quickly made a circle, and Twilight used chalk to draw a strange symbol in the center. 
“Now everypony stand still. Rarity, I need you to transfer a bit of your magic to me so this will work.” Said Twilight. Both of the unicorn’s horns began to glow, as did the strange mark.
“I don’t think this is how it’s supposed to work.” Said Fluttershy nervously. She had been looking at the book before the spell started. Just as she finished talking, there was a bright flash, and then everything went black.
(The Perimeter, Ancelstierre)
It was a dark, misty evening. It had been raining for the past few hours, and the ground had become a soft brown mud. Also, it was very, very, dark. The only light was coming from a solitary oil lamp burning in a small trench. Inside that trench were too cold, wet, and miserable soldiers. They each had light skin. The one on the right had dark brown hair and the one on the left was blond and looked slightly younger. Both of them had green military uniforms, but the dark haired one had a black armband. He also had a strange symbol on his forhead. Both were holding their rifles and staring out into the darkness.
“There’s something out there. I just know it!” said Corporal William Hayes of the Crossing Point Scouts.
“I’m telling you, there isn’t anything.” replied his friend, Ivan Kobilev, who wasn’t a scout or charter mage like Hayes. His talent was that he could actually operate the team’s lewis gun. 
“I’m going to take a look, just in case.” said Hayes “Take my rifle.” He drew his sword, Charter Marks glowing along the blade.
“Why are you leaving your rifle?” asked Ivan.
“If whatever out there is Dead or Free Magic, a gun isn’t going to help me is it?”
“I suppose not.” said Ivan. Hayes climbed out of the trench and moved toward whatever was lying on the ground. His footsteps were almost silent as he moved. As he reached to point where the figures were, he looked down and saw…six multicolored ponies with weird symbols on their flanks. They were about half as tall as Hayes, around three feet high. Two had wings and two had horns. Unicorns and pegasi. What else could go wrong today? First the crossbow and now this! And of course they had to be weird colors too! Cobalt (or cyan, he couldn’t be sure), white (ok, that’s normal), orange, pink, purple, and yellow. By the Charter…
“We’re clear Ivan. I think. Come on out.” Said Hayes. Ivan climbed out of the trench, still clutching his rifle. 
“What are they?” he asked. 
“How should I know?” Hayes started suddenly. 	
“There are Dead nearby! I can feel it!” he hissed in Ivan’s ear, “We have to get out of here! Help me drag these things back to the trench”
“We all know how many times we’ve listened to your Death sense and most of the time, you’re wrong.”
“I was wrong three times out of five. That’s not most of the time. Just help me get them to cover.” Then both soldiers jumped back as the rainbow one sprang up.
“I can get to that trench myself in ten seconds flat! What do you think, I’m disabled or something!” she yelled. The other ones got up as well, and all six began to walk slowly towards cover.
“Well, we thought you were uncon- you know, I really don’t care who you are, but there are about six Dead Hands and most likely a necromancer on the way. If you could hurry to the trench, it would be appreciated.” said Hayes.
“You would not believe the paper work that we would have to fill out if you got killed.” agreed Ivan. After this, the ponies seemed more eager to reach the trench, even though they had no idea what the two humans were talking about. 
“What are we even hiding from” asked the pink one as Ivan jumped into the trench after them. She noticed that the one with the glowing sword stayed out of cover.
“You’re hiding from them.” hissed Hayes as six stumbling figures appeared through the mist. “See Ivan, I told you. Here they come! I’ll hold them off, you set up the lewis gun.” The creatures howled as they smelled Life, and charged the soldier. 
“You sure he doesn’t need help?” said the orange pony to Ivan.
“Hayes fought at Wiverley and Forwin’s Mill. He knows what he’s doing.” replied the human. One of the Dead made a swipe at Hayes’ head. He ducked and cut the creature in half with his sword. Ivan took out two with the lewis gun. Hayes stabbed a fourth one and cut off its head. The remaining two charged Ivan, who shot one. Then Hayes raised his hand a shot a jet of golden light at the remaining Hand. It was blown through the air and disintegrated. 
“You guys are good at this!” said the purple one.
“We have our moments. Then there’s stuff like the crossbow incident...” replied Hayes. He turned around, and a look of surprise appeared on his face. Everyone turned around, and saw the white pony staring down the blade of a strange, evil looking sword. At the other end of that sword was a Necromancer. 
“No one moves, or I kill the strange talking horse.” He rasped. Of course, someone moved, but the necromancer was too busy watching the obvious threats, Hayes and Ivan, that he didn’t see the orange pony until she kicked him. His head smashed into a rock. Ivan jumped out of the trench and checked his pulse. 
“He’s alive, but he’s out cold.” He said. Hayes jumped over the trench, and the ponies went over to the rock as well. 
“If he’s unconscious, then this will be even easier.” said Hayes. Before anyone could react, he pulled out his revolver and shot the necromancer dead. Then he turned around and walked away.
(Army Headquarters, The Perimeter, Ancelstierre)
When Hayes walked out of General Tindall’s headquarters, Ivan and the ponies were waiting in the lobby. 
“You know,” he said “I don’t think anyone can tell you six aren’t human. The general just asked me about the “civilians”. He didn’t mention ponies.”
“You know, I’m plum tuckered of you just callin’ us “the ponies” all the goshdarn time.” said the orange one. The rest nodded in agreement.
“Well considering we don’t know your names, what should we call you?” asked Ivan.	
“Maybe it’s time for some introductions.” said the white one. “I’m Rarity. The purple one is Twilight Sparkle, the orange one is Applejack, the pink one is Pinkie Pie, the yellow one is Fluttershy, and the rainbow one is Rainbow Dash. 
“Right…you’re six weird looking horses with weird names. Where are you even from?” asked Hayes. He sounded interested, but gave the general impression that he just didn’t care. He sat down in a chair opposite the ponies.
“We’re from Equestria of course!” said Rainbow Dash. Hayes and Ivan looked at each other, and then looked back at the ponies.
“Yeah, sorry, we don’t know where that is. Do you have a map?” asked Ivan. 
“Um, no.” said Pinkie. 
“Well, let’s get out of here before someone asks what Equestria is.” said Ivan. I two soldiers got up and left the command building, with the ponies following them. “First order of business, we need to find a place for you six to stay until we can get you back to, um, “Equestria.” How about you’re your house, Hayes?”
“Excuse me? Are you suggesting that we all stay at my house until we make a plan, or indefinitely?” asked Hayes, raising one eyebrow. 
“Don’t worry, it’s just until we figure out what to do.” replied Ivan. 
“Well, I already have a plan. So we should only be at my house a few hours to get some maps, weapons, and different clothes.”
“Different clothes?”
“We can’t just waltz through the Old Kingdom in our uniforms.”
“We’re going to the Old Kingdom!?” 
“Can you two please stop talking for a second?” said Fluttershy “Arguing makes my stomach hurt.” 
“We’re here anyway.” said Hayes, “Come on in. Just don’t touch anything.”
(Hayes’ House, Bain, Ancelstierre)
Hayes unlocked the door and held it open while Ivan and the ponies entered. 
“I keep weapons, equipment, and traveling clothes in the basement. Follow me.” Hayes led everyone downstairs and opened a hidden door. Inside were several chests. He opened one and pulled out two longswords and handed one to Ivan. Then he pulled out two pistols and handed one of those to Ivan.
“Those weapons look different than the other ones.” said Twilight.	
“Yes, these are not revolvers. They’re new automatic pistols, specially modified to work in the presence of magic.” said Hayes. Then he removed to grubby old traveling cloaks from the chest, and handed one of those to Ivan as well. “And if you’re wondering, yes, you six get weapons as well.”
“I’m not sure if I want to hurt anypony.” said Pinkie, even as Hayes tossed her a cloak and some special saddlebags. On one side of the bags was a sheath with a shortsword in it. 
“While you might not have much choice. Once we cross the wall, it’s kill or be killed.” replied Ivan. Hayes gave Applejack an identical pair of saddlebags. 
“What do I get?” asked Rainbow, sounding irritated. Hayes threw her a pair of saddlebags with a bow and some arrows, and a cloak, “What am I supposed to do with these?”
“Fly up into the air, and shoot the enemy.” replied Hayes. He gave Fluttershy a bow and cloak as well, “As for you two unicorns, you’re just going to have to rely on magic to protect you. Do you know anything about Charter magic?
“No, I’ve never even heard of the Charter.” Said Twilight
“Neither have I.” said Rarity. 
“Do you know any defensive spells or anything that could help?” 
“Well, I can stun enemies, conjure shields, stuff like that.” Said Twilight.
“I’m sure I could do that with some practice.” said Rarity.
“Excellent.” Hayes threw them both a cloak and saddle bags. Rarity looked at the cloak in disgust. 
“Brown? How drab.” She exclaimed. “Don’t you have something in purple?”
“Most obvious color ever… give me a second to check.” replied Hayes sarcastically. Rarity sighed and accepted the brown cloak.  
“How’re we even supposed to know how ta’ use these?” asked Applejack, looking at the sword. 
“We’ll start weapons training after we cross the wall.” answered Ivan. “Come on Hayes, tell us your brilliant plan that you said you have.”
“Follow me.” said Hayes. He led them up to the kitchen and they all sat around a rectangular wooden table. “First, we cross the wall. That is the difficult part. You pegasi can probably fly over. Can unicorns teleport?”
“How did you even guess that? Yes, we can.” replied Twilight. Hayes looked back at his map of Ancelstierre and the Old Kingdom.
“Then the unicorns will teleport across. Once you four are across, find each other and hide. Wait for the rest of us. Now, Applejack, Pinkie, you’ll have to come with Ivan and I. Since it’s impossible to get a visa to cross the wall these days, we’ll have to sneak across using an old crossing point. Let’s go!” The eight adventurers packed some food and other supplies in their bags and walked out. Two of them were wondering why they were even doing this, four of them were wondering if Hayes was insane, one was worrying about hot water, and the last one was just hungry.
(The Old Kingdom, Three hours later)
It seemed like it had been forever since the unicorns and pegasi had crossed the wall, and Rainbow Dash was pretty ticked off.
“When are they going to get here?” she said in annoyance. Twilight poked her head out of the bushes.
“They’ll get here when they get here. Hayes did say that sneaking across would be hard.” Just then, they heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. Then Hayes, Ivan, Applejack, and Pinkie stepped out. 
“It’s about time you got here!” said Rainbow. Hayes and Applejack rolled their eyes at the same time. 
“We had some complications. There was a patrol going by the old crossing point and we had to hide until they passed. Then the wall didn’t want to let me cross for some reason. I kept running into invisible walls until I finally got across.” answered Hayes patiently. 
“Why wouldn’t the wall want you to cross?” asked Fluttershy. Everyone looked back at the huge monolith in the distance.
“How should I know?”
“Maybe the Wall hates sarcasm.” said Ivan. Hayes glared at him and pulled a special edition Old Kingdom Almanac and Atlas out of his pack.
“Let’s see. The guard post at Barhedrin is close by.”
“Is that where we’re going? At last, some food and a proper bed. I’m sick of lying on damp leaves.” complained Rarity loudly. Everyone else stared at her.
“You’ve only been in the forest for a few hours!” yelled Rainbow. 
“Hey, it doesn’t matter.” interrupted Ivan “What Hayes was trying to say was that once we’re close to Barhedrin, we need to be careful. We’ll need to avoid patrols and scouts and all that stuff!”
“So we ain’t goin’ to the guard post?” asked Applejack. Rarity groaned.
“No, we aren’t. We need to move farther into the forest and find somewhere to camp. Preferably somewhere with running water.” Hayes gave this statement a sense of finality by shoving his book back into his pack. “Come on, we need to get moving. I want to find a camping spot before dark.”
“What happens after dark?” questioned Twilight. Ivan grimaced.
“That’s when things you really don’t want to know about come out.” He said. Then he turned and followed Hayes into the forest. The ponies glanced at each other, then went after him, Rarity still muttering about hot water.