Chapters "So, they're not alive?" Galaxy Moon asks Moonlight Bliss as the gallop back to Moonlight's camp outside of Ponyville. "They were," Moonlight replies, "But after a while they come back to eat everypony." Galaxy shivers. Creepy. Moonlight continues, "You have to kill the brain. That's what makes them keep going, their survival instincts." The two mares stop when they see another zombified pony. "That's a trotter, Galaxy. take this," Moonlight says, holding an axe out to the gray mare on her wing. "And kill it." Slowly, Galaxy uses her magic to lift the axe into the air. "Just hit the head, right?" She asks shakily, looking at her friend, then back at the trotter that was starting to notice the living ponies. "Yeah," Moonlight urges, "and fast, before he feeds on us!" The unicorn trots toward the trotter and swings the axe through the air, slicing its head off. She drops the axe and watches as the body falls limply and the head, now helplessly on the ground. Galaxy uses her hoof to wipe a drop of blood that had splattered onto her face. The trotter's head opens it's eyes and starts to snap its jaws open and shut, and Galaxy turns to face her friend. "Nasty!" She exclaims. Moonlight Bliss picks up the axe and whacks it into the trotter's head, making it stop moving altogether. "You have to hit the brain to actually kill it, Galaxy." The mare says, slipping the bloody axe back into her bag. "I got it," the unicorn responds, and the mares continue walking.
When the two ponies finally reach the camp, Galaxy looks around. Everypony had to share tents, and the tents were tiny! They had a table with food on it, but there was barely anything left. Everypony in the camp was very excited when Moonlight put the food and medical supplies from her backpack onto the table. Suddenly, an orange filly with a wild purple mane trots up to Moonlight Bliss, with an incredible smile on her face. Galaxy remembers that filly to be Scootaloo! Scootaloo is so much older than she was when Galaxy knew her. The young pegasus had bigger wings, a longer mane, and longer legs. Her face looked far more grown up than so many months ago. "Moonlight you're back!" Scootaloo yelps, jumping and flapping her wings to stay in the air for a few more seconds. "Yeah!" Moonlight says back, smiling at the younger pony, "I also brought Galaxy Moon back with me." Shocked, Scootaloo turns her head and looks at Galaxy. "Galaxy, we thought you were dead." the young mare says, turning her whole body to face the unicorn. "Well, welcome to our group of 10 ponies!" She says happily, gesturing to the camp with her hooves. "We're survivors!"
After about an hour, Moonlight Bliss, Sunny Skies, and Cloudy Skies return from their hunt. As the sun starts to go down, Blue Stream lights the campfire. Everypony huddles around it to stay warm, but Scootaloo, who was still upset, was walking in circles around the fire. The older mare with the yellow coat and pink mane went to get a few more twigs for the fire. "Be careful, stay where the light from the fire can be seen." Moonlight tells her, and she nods before walking off to the far edge of camp. "So, it's surprising everypony's lasted this long, huh?" Galaxy says, looking at the ponies around her. "Yeah," "It's been hard," "We still lost some ponies." Were the responses Galaxy Moon got, and she frowned. "I'm sorry you lost people, that must be awf-" Galaxy is cut off when a painful scream comes from the edge of the camp. "Golden Lights!" Moonlight says, running in the direction that the older mare had gone in. A trotter has the pony pinned down, while it takes a huge bite out of her throat, killing her almost instantly. Everypony follows Moonlight to her, and they all see the trotter biting into her stomach and eating her flesh. Blood is everywhere, and Moonlight doesn't hesitate to shoot the trotter. "Scootaloo, stay with me!" Galaxy says, pulling the young mare next to her. The gunshot that Moonlight fired called more trotters to the camp, and now there were about 10 of them circling the group. While Moonlight, Scootaloo, and Galaxy were trotting away, they saw everypony else get attacked. Blue Stream gets bitten in his back leg, and when he falls more and more trotters climb on top of the stallion, taking giant bites out of his skin and his insides. "Just don't look back, Scootaloo," Moonlight tells the young pony. They keep trotting for at least an hour, and they stop by a big tree to rest. Scootaloo sits down, in shock and stares at the ground. After a few rest minutes, Galaxy urges them to continue. "They'll catch up if we don't go now." Moonlight agrees and gets Scootaloo to come along, and they continue to walk away from where the camp was. Scootaloo trails a few feet behind them as they navigate through the dark of night. Suddenly, a trotter comes from out of the woods and attacks shocked Scootaloo. The trotter sinks its teeth into the young mare's front leg, and Scootaloo falls down, screaming as loud as she could in pain. Galaxy uses her magic to swing her axe straight into its head, killing it. "Scootaloo...." Moonlight says, kneeling down with the pained, crying filly. "I'm gonna die... It's over... I'm dead.." The orange pegasus whispers, and Galaxy kneels on the other side of her. "Shh," Galaxy says, trying to hold back tears of her own. "Scootaloo, shh, you're ok, you'll be ok," The unicorn lies, holding the filly's not-ripped-to-pieces hoof. Scootaloo slowly closes her eyes, and stops breathing.
After many tiring and silent traveling hours, Moonlight Bliss and Galaxy Moon stop to rest. "Moonlight-" Galaxy chokes, holding back tears. "Everypony's dead... Even Scootaloo," The mare looks down at her hooves, which still had the younger mare's blood on them. The other mare frowns, but stands up and tries to look tough. "That's just the world we're living in, Galaxy." The unicorn nods, and they continue moving away from the old camp, away from the city, and away from their friends' corpses. Galaxy Moon lifelessly follows her pegasus friend through the forest, onto an open road. The mares continue following the road, looking for shelter and food. Moonlight stops Galaxy with her wing when she spots a house on the right side of the road, opposite of the side they came from. "Galaxy, lets check that place. It looks like it's in good condition." The unicorn nods her head in agreement, and the two ponies walk to the house. Moonlight, with her axe in her hooves, knocks on the door with her wing. "Hello?" The mare calls, knocking loudly. Galaxy tries twisting the doorknob, but it doesn't budge. "It's locked, Moonlight," Galaxy reports. Just as the mares turn around to leave, they hear the lock click, and the door open. Moonlight and Galaxy turn around and see a green and yellow stallion holding the door open. "Come in," he says, stepping aside to make room. The mares step inside cautiously, and the stallion shuts and locks the door. "You're safe here, for a few hours. My name is Crystal Clear." He says, looking at the mare's weapons. "I'll let you hold onto those, because you look like good ponies." Crystal Clear says, motioning to their knives and Moonlight's axe. "Thank you," Galaxy says, "I'm Galaxy Moon, and we really appreciate it." The stallion just nods in response. "You'll find food in the kitchen, take whatever. There's plenty." And with that, the stallion walks down the set of stairs to a small workshop where he works on building a new weapon. Galaxy and Moonlight go to the kitchen to eat, and focus more on the food than each other. Finally, Moonlight stops eating and looks at Galaxy seriously. "He said we're safe here, for a few hours . Just so you know, don't plan on staying." Moonlight Bliss tells her friend, and Galaxy's responds, "I know. But at least we're safe here."
After a day had passed, Crystal Clear decided to let them stay... As long as they went out to get food. The two mares anxiously agreed, and today, Galaxy Moon decided to go out to search for some food to bring back. "Be careful, Galaxy." Moonlight Bliss told her friend. Galaxy nodded, although she wasn't listening. "Yeah, yeah," Galaxy said as she grabbed a knife, "I'll be f-" "Just promise me!" Moonlight yelled. Galaxy, who was shocked at her friend's sudden change in mood, nodded genuinely. "Okay. Promise me that you'll wait for me, and if you see me in trouble, you'll help." Galaxy responded. Moonlight nodded. "I promise," "Okay! I'll be back soon," Galaxy said before exiting the home. Moonlight locked the door like Crystal Clear had instructed her to. Galaxy trotted down the littered street, the opposite away that they had come from. So far, so good. After a good thirty minutes of travel, the unicorn spotted a small store. "Maybe there's something left in there," she whispered to herself, using a bit of magic to lift the knife into the air, prepared to fight what might be waiting. Galaxy entered the store and immediately scanned the area for two things. Food and trotters. There was one trotter, who through the chaos of what seemed to be a bloody battle with a living pony, had its legs chopped off. Galaxy cringed at the sight, and used her magic to stab the trotter through the head with her knife. Now that the store was mostly safe, she collected what she could find. A gallon of water, some candy bars, and a box filled with noodles. Perfect. She started to make her way back to the home, because she decided that if she searched for too long, Moonlight would worry. The house came into sight, and so Galaxy picked up her pace. As she did so, three trotters heard her, and made their way to the source of the sound. Galaxy saw the trotters following her, so she trotted up the staircase to the door, and knocked loudly. "Moonlight, Clear, let me in!" She yelled as the trotters got closer. Galaxy used her knife, killing one, and started to fend off the other. The third one, however, snuck up on her. As Moonlight opened the door, her axe ready, the trotter reached out and bit Galaxy in the arm. The unicorn screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Moonlight, in a rage of fury, killed the two trotters and sat next to the dying Galaxy Moon. "Galaxy... I'm sorry..." She whispered as tears drained down her cheeks, "I'm sorry." Crystal heard the commotion, so he made his way to the front of the house, only to see Moonlight crying over Galaxy's body. "Moonlight," Galaxy whispered as she closed her eyes, "You promised."
Moonlight Bliss decided what was next. She tied a rope around dead Galaxy, who was now a lifeless trotter, and decided to leave the safety of Crystal Clear's home. The pegasus walks towards the door with Trotter Galaxy following behind her on the rope 'leash'. Crystal Clear heard her, and came to the front of the shelter. "Where are you going, Bliss?" He asked her, although he was just looking at Trotter Galaxy. "Clear," She responded in a dark tone, "I know what I need to do." With that, she was gone.
Moonlight Bliss trudged through the mud, pulling lifeless Galaxy behind her. She heard screaming. "HELP ME!"
Moonlight let go of her dead friend, and ran in the direction of the voice. She found a small, purple filly, who was being crowded and chased by trotters. So far, she wasn't bitten. "HELP ME! My mommy is attacking me!" The scared filly said, pointing to a purple trotter. Moonlight snapped into action, and used her axe to slice and slay every trotter, including the filly's dead mother. "You killed her," The scared filly said, looking at Moonlight with tears in her eyes. "Yes, I did. But everything will be okay," Moonlight told her,
"I Promise."
Galaxy Moon opens her eyes in a hospital bed. "Nurse Red Heard.." She calls out in a hoarse voice. After not hearing a single sound in response, the mare gets out of her bed. The gray-coated unicorn remembers why she was there in the hospital. Galaxy remembers chasing after her mischievous pet bird, Hex, through the forest and tripping on a log, into the river. She must have hit hard, too, because she doesn't remember anything else. She trots straight to the elevator and tries pressing the buttons, but nothing works. Next, Galaxy runs for the stairwell and climbs down the stairs to the lowest level. She uses her weakened magic to push open the great, heavy doors at the entrance of the hospital. When the mare steps outside of the doors, another pony turns around and looks at her. "H-hello..?" Galaxy Moon calls out, and the other pony starts slowly limping toward her. "What the..?" She exclaims, seeing parts of the strange pony's flesh missing. The pony makes a low grumbling sound and starts to move faster, its jaws closing and opening slowly. Galaxy quickly runs back inside, and shuts the doors. She gallops back up the stairs and walks past another room, and two bloodied hooves smack against the glass. Galaxy Moon jumps back in shock, and tries not to get too scared.
Suddenly, somepony trots across the far end of the hall, with it's wings extended. "W-Wait!" Galaxy yells, chasing after the figure. She follows it into a hospital room. The other pony uses its wing to grab a knife and hold it, ready to attack her. "Don't!" She yelps, flinching back. But, instead of hitting her, the other pony drops the knife. "Galaxy Moon, is that really you?" Galaxy looks at the other pony, a little bit confused, but then recognizes her. It's her best friend, Moonlight Bliss! "Moonlight, what's going on?" She asks, but the other mare just ignores her question and starts gathering medical supplies into her backpack. "Galaxy," the dark blue pegasus says, "we all thought you were dead!" "Thought I was dead..? Why?" Galaxy Moon asks, and Moonlight Bliss responds. "Galaxy, because Equestria is gone."
The next morning, Galaxy Moon wakes up to see everypony in the camp up and working and doing jobs like getting twigs for a fire, or looking out for trotters. Galaxy doesn't see Moonlight Bliss, or the two kind stallions she met the night before, Cloudy Skies and Sunny Skies. "Golden Lights, where's Moonlight, Cloudy, and Sunny?" Galaxy asks the yellow mare keeping watch. "They've gone hunting, dear," the older pony responds, turning back around to continue looking out. Galaxy decides to look for Scootaloo, but she's stopped by the bossiest stallion in the group, Blue Stream. "Galaxy Moon, I know you're new, but you need to help out. Watch the two fillies." He tells her, but Galaxy frowns. "Why can't I do something more important?" She asks him. Blue responds, "Because we've all got a job. It's how we live. How we stay alive. Don't ask questions, just do what I tell you." With that, the stallion walks away to go tell other ponies how to do things right. Galaxy finds Scootaloo and another younger filly by the smallest tent in the center of the camp. "I don't get why I can't go hunting with Moonlight Bliss..." Scootaloo complains, kicking her hoof out to push the old Wonderbolt doll over. "Because we need you here, Scoots. Here, and safe." Galaxy says, and Scootaloo rolls her eyes.