The dead move.

(*Pov of Strongheart.*)

"Okay, what was that? He could have not only left us, but also helped a lot of other ponies, why would he wait until now, just now, to do that?" Storm turned to look at me, she then proceeded to shrug. She seems so unaffected by everything, what is this mares problem?

"Perhaps it takes a massive physical toll on him, look at how sweaty he is, not only that but he was breathing very heavily and could hardly speak. He probably waited until now because he wanted to ensure the maximum bang for his bit."

"Yeah...that could be it, but still, what about when I was running from that horde? Also I guess I never really thanked you for distracting the ones chasing me so...uhm thanks." She simply nodded in my direction, it seemed like she was deep in thought. We both turned towards the earthpony on the carpet, he had snored so loudly it could have woken an Ursa major during it's hibernation. "Damn, guess he has got some good lungs or something."

She turned towards me, her face bared an expression that showed mild confusion. "I thought that you were supposed to be a medical pony? How do you know so little about pony anatomy?" You bitch, you cold-hearted bitch, I don't go makin' fun 'bout you not controllin' the weather, why would you 'bout my limited medical knowledge?... Fuckin' bitch.

Regaining my physical composure and making sure that none of what I had just mind-spoke about, I decided to respond. "Well, if you must know." You abominable bitch. "I worked with children, thus the amount of accidents that did happen were limited most usually to scrapes and cuts...except for Dangerdoo, my word that filly hurt herself constantly, and yet she never wanted any treatment, I don't get it." Crap, I started rambling, now she was staring at me with a look of annoyance.

All of a sudden we heard what sounded like a...Ursa major... that was angry... we both turned towards the earth pony, he was wide eyed and awake...so it was not him...crap.

(*Pov of Swifthooves.*)

What was that, why did it sound like it wanted to eat the faces off of everpony ever? "What was that? Wait, I'm dreaming aren't I, you two should start making out." They looked at me with baring expressions of anger and of seriousness, dammit, I'm not dreaming, why can it not be a dream?!

"We are all going to die." Storm is just pure happiness and rainbows. I really needed to have a talk with her, get her to cheer up some. "We really need to get out of here, or we are going to die." Well at least she knows that we need to get moving sometime soon...and that we are probably going to die.

"Do we have everything that is of use to us while we are uhm... hoofing it across the now Luna forsaken lands?" Strongheart looked a little bit afraid and quite insecure. I suppose I am too, I mean, fuck. We are about to go out and attempt to look for someplace new to stay at for a while and live just a little bit longer...Okay so really afraid and very insecure.

"We have anything that could be useful, I assure you we do." I needed to look confident, for those two, that way they would worry less, sure it would suck but someone needs to look tough. They obviously were not willing to be that pony so I would have to be.

"Okay, then I guess we just...go out there..." Strongheart then looked like she swallowed something huge. Storm looked like someone had taken a shit on her...still. Luna looked like a party animal in comparison to this mare, seriously I remember all those stories from when I was just a little itty bitty colt about how Luna was such a hard-ass in comparison to Celestia, and Storm was just so...saddening? That seems like the appropriate word.

I walked over to my door, time to finally leave I suppose.

"LUNA FUCK ME WITH RUNNING WITH A CELESTIALLY DAMNED CACTUS!" To say things were going bad was a massive understatement, as soon as we exited my house it seemed as though everything wanted to kill us, just us, nothing but us. We were the most wanted bits of flesh in existence to these damn things. We had a horde of about 50 running behind us, we had decided to not go into Canterlot, ground zero being the most dangerous place and all, and head straight out towards wherever really, none of us had maps so actually picking a place to go was kind of out of the question. That was mistake number one, a lot of the infected ponies would want to get away from what had hurt them, thus they went out of Canterlot, by the time they had finally gotten out they were full blown infected and had gotten all bite-y and stuff.

"Okay, hear is how it's gonna go!" I yelled out towards the other two, they were significantly slower than me and I was practically jogging to stay at the same speed as them. "I am going to run off the the side and try to distract them, you two keep running and try to find a safe place to be at, okay." The most they could manage were nods, they were already really tired.

Doing as I had said I ran of the the front right side of the mob, I slowed down even more so as to present to them what looked like a weakened meal that would be easier to get than the other two. About two thirds of the mob had noticed it and direct almost all their attention towards me, now to really get the attention of the mob, I reached back into my saddle bag with my mouth while still keeping just barely ahead of the mob of infected ponies...fuck it, these are zombies, why have we been avoiding saying it, we've all seen the movies. I had taken out a knife, I then sprinted ahead of the group of zombies and lifted up my left forehoof. "This is gonna suck." I cut it, not deeply, just enough for me to bleed a little.

The mob of zombies lost their minds. They began to howl and moan with increased frequency...maybe that was a mistake. My running speed was unaffected by the cut, I missed anything that would make me less able to run thankfully. Now I had the full attention of the horde, they had increased their speed by about 50%-ish? Long story short they were moving faster, nothing I couldn't handle. I picked up the pace some and began in the direction of Canterlot, causing the horde to do a 360 to chase after me, may as well try to contain this damn disease? Virus? Maybe it's a freaky fungus? I don't know.

I had been running for at least an hour, these things do not get tired and even I was starting to get a little tired, and I am the best damn runner EVER! No ifs ands or buts! The group had gotten larger behind me, about 200 were following me now...it was disturbing. I decided it was time to turn back, it was a bit past noon now...so hot. I began to sprint, I can sprint for about twenty minutes no problem so I should be able to leave these things in the dust. I had done just so...until I came across a dead end..."Shit."

Okay, maybe they did not see you turn in here? The lead of the mob then reared it's ugly head around the corner. "Why me?" So this is how I die? I massive mob of zombie ponies, I hoped to go out in some kind of mass orgy or something, but dying from saving two others would be okay I guess. Just then The brick wall behind me exploded. "WHAT THE FUCK!" I was sent about 5 meters from the wall, turning around in my dazed state I saw what looked to be ponies in iron armor...from head to tail. Oh, those are iron-pony suits, on unicorns they increase magical power, and on Pegasi the increase wing power, to adjust to the weight of the suit and then some, and on earth ponies they make them at least 3 times stronger. A group of four iron ponies were before me, two were unicorns, one an earth pony and the last a Pegasus.

The only downsides to iron pony suits were that they

(A.) Had to have magically enhanced gems to work.

(B.) Were made for each race, though an earth pony could fit in any of them it would get none of the desired effects unless in an earth pony suit.

(C.) Were bulky and loud.

Aside from those three major things, these suits were the epitome of bad-ass-ness. Oh please sweet Celestia in the sky let them help me and not be a bunch of insane ponies that had broken into a Royal armory during this mass chaos. I then heard a thick and gravelly voice, like he had gravel and stones in a grinder...yeah, that was a STALLION.

"Quickshot! Grab the civilian."

"Yes sir General Hardsteel!" The one named Quickshot ran over to me, helping me onto my hooves, he then ushered me over to their group, he was the Pegasus. They then all walked forward, as if an enormous horde of death defying creatures was not in front of them. What had really surprised me was that all the zombie ponies had all stopped moving around as much after the explosion, got to keep that in mind. Then with a very loud and slightly painful battle cry the one I believe they designated General Hardsteel ran forward, his companions following him...the ran right into the horde...then again why would they have to worry? They were covered entirely with metal, there is no way those things could bite through metal right?

I had to be proven wrong, I just had to be. One of the unicorns had picked up a nearby dumpster with their telekinesis as though it weighed as much as a pillow and began to swat at the zombie ponies, one had gotten behind them though and bit their right back leg...all the way through...as in they now had three legs, I looked at the zombie ponies cutie mark, and saw that it looked like a pair of dentures...fucking hilarious, I was going to be extremely tired, and might even die, but I needed to help. I froze the world again...or about as close to it as you can get.

I walked up to the denture mark zombie, I stabbed it in the head, no more of your insanely strong biting to take out the one hope I have. I then walked towards the head of the iron pony who had their leg bitten off, I took off her helmet, she was a beautiful mare, this really sucks shit, I put it back on her, I would let her team decide what to do with her. I moved towards  the horde, it's funny, whenever I am like this I am so calm, quite happy even, but outside of it I am scared as a little filly. I had dispatched about half of the horde when I began to feel the effect of my special little power wearing off, I needed to get back to where I was before.

I had gotten there just in time to collapse at where I was before, the iron pony team now surprised that half of the horde was gone, not for very long though and they began to kill even more of them. I was seconds away from blacking out, and I saw the head of the iron pony mare turn towards me, connecting the dots that I was tired and they were dead...again? I passed out as soon as I saw one of the few infected that had its legs destroyed moved towards me, I was too tired to care.