M.L.Z.

It was sunset; Rainbow Dash was standing in front of the door, waiting for her to say something, but nothing. No words. Instead, she pointed inside with her thumb. Dash followed and sat down on the couch. The house was relatively clean; it had records and a few pieces of technology (phones, laptops, computers, turntables, etc) scattered around.

"So... what's with the loud noise?" asked Dash. V1NY1 stayed silent, she attempted to use hand signs, but Dash didn't understand her.

"I'm deaf, not to the point I can hear nothing, but it's extremely hard for me to hear anything," said V1NY1, unclearly.

"Oh, sorry,"

"No, it's not your fault, they only reason I can understand you is because I'm good at lip-reading," said a text-to-speech program.

"But, you make music..."

"Beethoven was deaf," said the text-to-speech program.

"I guess..."

                                                                                                        -Sugar Cube Corner-

"Pinkie... did y'all hear that?"

"Yeah... it sounded like breaking glass," The loud screams grew clearer they started to bang on the doors and boards. A hand broke through. Apple Jack Cut right through it, blood gushing onto her hooves. It stuck to them, slowly getting thicker until it hardened, chipping off as she moved. Pinkie stood up, still dizzy. She had barely gotten 3/16 a pint of blood back. She had lost 3 full pints of blood.  It hurt her head just standing up and she was leaning on the wall.

"Pinkie... lay down, I can handle this,"

"OK... I trust you," Apple Jack found a bottle of whiskey and one of Pinkies socks sticking out of her drawer. She found it difficult to destroy the bottle but snapped out of the trance-like state picked it up, stuffing the socks into it until they were difficult to pull out.

"Pinkie, do you have a lighter or some matches?"

"No, we never needed matches and nopony here smokes, but if you get the stove turned on, you can get a flame,"

"Alright, thanks, Pinkie,"

                                                                                                    - V1NY1 DUBSTEP-

"Why, though? Why do you need us?"

"Because, I can't fight alone,"

"What about Octavia?" Silence filled the room. A single tear went down from V1NY1's face. "Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't know,"

                                                                                                     -Three days earlier-

When the infection was less obvious and Octavia was alone at home. An infected came through the window. What it did was gruesome; it bit into her arm. Octavia stabbed it in the arm repeatedly with a key, thinking it would run. This didn't happen; instead, it bit holes in her abdomen that it ripped open. He ate her insides, throwing her intestines to the floor.

Long after her screams had stopped and her breathing slowed, the police kicked down the door and tased the infected individual. It shook uncontrollably, yet after the taser stopped shocking it, it sprang back up and jumped on the officer, scratching him barely on the cheek. He threw it down and shot it in both of its legs and its stomach, leaving it crawling and desperately reaching for him.

He slammed the door, leaving hid mind filled with questions. He was confused and scared, wondering what he saw. The body was retrieved and the infected was put down. There, surprisingly, were police brutality protests all over the town on police brutality. The infection stopped the protests before it came to Ponyville, though.

                                                                                                    -Back to the present day-

"Octavia was my best friend... she was my only friend... I've known her since I was in elementary" said V1NY1, this time with her own voice.

"Well, me and Pinkie are glad to help," said Dash.

"Thanks, I won't get in your way," She said, getting up and hugging the cyan-blue pony. She began to softly cry into her shoulder. Dash just sat there, doing her best to show sympathy. Tear soaked through her open jacket. She briefly knew V1NY1. They'd sometimes talk to catch up or go out for a drink, but she still didn't know her extremely well. Not like she knew Pinkie or Apple Jack. She was being hugged tight and eventually, dash nudged her off.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you,"

"No, it's OK, it's healthy to let your emotions out. Now c'mon, we need to get going, I know a safe route," Dash and V1NY1 ran to Sugar Cube Corner the same route that dash took before. The sight they saw was surprising, to say the least. There were burned corpses everywhere. There was a small fire lower than a foot high on the ground and fire. The alcohol dyed a circular part of the ground yellow with a purple ring surrounding it. There were broken shards surrounding the half away from the house. Each window had a single plank pushed out; behind each one, there were pieces of wood layered in aluminum foil (a lot of aluminum foil) with small rectangle cut into them (probably because they didn't have sheet metal).  "Apple Jack? Are you up there? Are you still breathing?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah... ah'm fine, just let me unlock the doors for y'all," Apple Jack opened the unlocked the door, still shaken from the previous encounter.

"Before I open this, I have V1NY1 with me, so don't be alarmed," Dash said, opening the door and slowly walking in, V1NY1 following behind her. Apple Jack quietly yet quickly closed and locked the door, using a chair and a few weights to jam it.

"Come on upstairs, Pinkie's starting to calm down,"

"Hey, girls! *ahem* How'd it go and who's that?"

"It went well and this is V1NY1, she's a dubstep player,"

"Oh, well hi, V1NY1,"

"Hey," she typed on text-to-speech.

"Well, we should probably rest, it's getting late," said Apple jack, Looking outside.

"yeah, whelp, goodnight everypony," said Rainbow Dash, flopping on the bed.

                                                                                                                      -2:00 AM-

"Hey... Pinkie? Are you awake?" Asked Dash.

"Yeah, I am now, what's wrong?"

"Why did you say not to tell Apple Jack?"