//------------------------------//
// Chapter Sixteen: Strife 
// Story: Equestria; UNDEAD 
// by runningtoastgirl77 
//------------------------------//

	"Happy Birthday, Autumn!"

I heard my parent's hooves clap as I blew out the candles on the slice of cake slid before me. My mother on my right, my father in front of my floating a camera out taking mass pictures from all angles, as always. "Hard to believe it's only been five years..." said my mother, a lovely pink unicorn, while dancing out a fork. "You look so much like your father."

I looked over at my old stallion, a picky baker's son and delivery pony for our family's bakery. He had traveled all over Equestria, and more than anything loved his history. He was more of a beige pony than me, a darker red-orange mane without a lick of my green, though I had been told I got that from my grandparents.

I could barely even remember the house we were at at the time, though it seemed as memorable as a safe distant lullaby. 

"Eat your cake, darling!" My mother cheered, patting my head. "Next you can open your..."

A loud knock came to the door, and they both turned and scowled. "Should I get it?" My father grimaced.

"No. Just wait for him to leave. We can summon the local guard if he doesn't go." My mom calmly took the cake from the table and floated it to the kitchen. "We can eat later."

Knock. Knock. KNOCK.

I glanced up to my dad. "Who's at the door?"

"Nopony. Ignore it Autumn." said my mom from the kitchen, putting away the food. 

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

My father sighed, sitting on the couch. "Honestly, this would be a lot easier if we talked to him."

"Who?"

"An old friend of mine. Your mother doesn't like him to well."

I frowned. "It's not nice to ignore ponies."

"That's right..." he sighed, frowning. "When did you get so smart?"



I woke up in a daze. "Huh?"

"Your awake." Zian smiled.

I sat up and looked around. I was lying on a couch covered in a blanket. The high walls amazed me. "Where are we? What happened?"

"You passed out. You're running a fever." Zian gave a soft smile. "We're in the library."

My vision blurred, and I stared at the huge bookshelves. "Oh wow!"

"Nice to see she's finally come too. Now we can get to business, right?" I glanced over and saw a fairly tall bat pony in dark purple and silver armor. They weren't as tall as Tea Rose, but still a decent height. "I've been patient. She's been insisting on waiting for you to get back up."

"Autumn, this is Star Strife, Captain of the lunar royal guard. She was sent here from the Princess, and we started talking, of course I was waiting for you to get deep into things, but, well... yeah."

"Umm... yes, well, I prefer to be called Strife, if that's okay. Sure strife means hardship and all that, but I've come to accept it as a secondary meaning." Strife blinked confusingly. "Uhm... anyway moving on. As you know, I was sent by Canterlot to check with the Friendship Castle adviser and check on the situation here. Well, we have seen things a little different in Canterlot, I can tell you that much. On the day that this all started, from the Canterlot Castle, in the early morning, I could see something to the north from my station. It was small, blip of light. It looked like a magic blast. It leads me to believe that it's possible that this whole mess was started by a massive magical blast, it's shock waves wide spread across Equestria. It could be hard to notice if you weren't Magically inclined, everyday ponies wouldn't be able to comprehend what they saw or felt. It's an assumption, sure, but be can guess that somepony or some large group of ponies decided that the world would be better off gone. What better way then invoke the apocalypse?"

"I was right... a spell." Zian frowned.

"Yes. A spell we have been trying to counteract, but of course there are risks. We need to figure out the EXACT spell used, which we are on the verge of finding out. the blood of those undead ponies left specks of a kind of "magic bacteria", we have some of our best scientists trying to deconstruct the remnants and possibly compare it to a long list of candidate spells for all we know, it could be a mix of spells. Once we figure out that much, we can develop a counter spell that would kill the bacteria, and then these 'zombies' will just go back to being corpses." Strife sighed. "That's all I know though, the science stuff isn't particularly my jurisdiction after all."

"A bacteria, huh?"

"That's what they're calling it. It's just magic, really." They looked down. "If your interested, Zian, you could always go with me back to Canterlot. You've been studying magic, right? Perhaps you could help?"

"You think so?" Zian blushed a little. "I... I guess if you think I could be helpful, though I don't really know what I could do..."

"Good choice. I'll be happy to vouch for you to the Princess herself." They smirked and seemed to look like she gained a massive amount of confidence,truly a guard material. "I'm leaving first thing in the morning. See you then."

"W-wait!" Zian said. "Why don't you come over to my house and... have dinner?"

They looked skeptical. "I'm sure you'll be to busy. That, and you have this mare to worry about."

I glared. 'I can handle myself, you know...' Although I didn't really have any evidence to back that up, I still didn't like the idea of being baby'd. Zian smiled. "Nonsense! My sister and I can handle everything, come on, it'll be fun!"

Strife thought it over. "Well... I guess I could use some relaxation before I head out. What the hell, why not?"