Discovery Horizon I

We lived our lives in fear now. Fear of becoming an undead monster with a never-ending hunger for pony flesh. Fear of being killed by others who've taken survival a bit too far, but where does one draw the line of morality in the middle of a zombie apocalypse? Fear controlled the world now. We feared everything, whether it be the flesh-hungry creeps stalking in the night, other ponies just trying to survive or the long, cold winter nights. We still had mother nature to deal with. We feared her too. All of those things were the least of our worries now. We had run out of food and now we faced starvation. It was times like these that you saw what everypony was really capable of.

It was a cold December night. The wind was just shy of harsh and borderline bitter as it howled through the trees. Snow covered everything for as far as we could see. My companion- a dragon named Esmeralda- and I were holed up inside of an old ski lodge as we desperately tried to figure out someplace we could find food and propane for the gas camping stove we had found. We had located a supermart a few miles away in a nearby town. Our only problem was the snow and although the infected were extremely slow and near inactive in the cold, snowy environment, they still posed a threat, especially in high numbers.

"What do you think we should do?" Esmeralda asked, "should we brave the snow and cold or wait it out until morning?"

"If it keeps snowing like this, we won't be able to go outside," I replied "and it's safer to travel at night. Looks like we're just gonna have to suck it up and make it to that supermart."

"Yeah, you're right," Esmeralda said with a sigh "I've got thick scales, so I won't get as cold as quickly as you will. I'm just worried about you. I don't want you to freeze to death."

"I'll be fine, Esmeralda," I said confidently "the faster we move, the less cold we'll be."
"Quickly and quietly seems to be our forte," Esmeralda said with some confidence "as long as we're careful, quick and quiet, we should be okay."

"Just like we always are," I said with a grin "well, the majority of the time."
Esmeralda wandered off towards the makeshift beds we had made out of couches and blankets not far from the front door of the ski lodge. As I watched my dragon companion gather our gear for our snowy expedition to the supermart, I thought back on how we had met. It had been a warm, summer afternoon. The world had ended a few days priors and it was taking everypony a while to get used to the idea of survival. I had my own little ragtag group of survivors, namely a few coworkers of mine and some folks we didn't know too well. We had holed ourselves up inside of cozy little cottage a few miles outside of Vanhoover. The ponies who owned the place happened to be farmers, so we were in luck- luck which had only graced us for little over a month.

We had seen the infected in groups before, but never once had we seen or heard of the infected gathering into such a large horde. There had to have been at least a hundred or more stumbling and staggering their way towards our camp. Trying to fight them would've been nothing more than a suicide mission, so, instead, we took what we could and ran. Here and there, we had made makeshifts camp and stayed in only in one place until our resources were all but depleted. As we wandered from place to place, we- naturally, of course- lost some of our friends. Some to illnesses like the flu, others to the infection that had been reanimating the dead. Some got lost as we wandered and we never saw them again. As time passed and luck would have it, my group dwindled down to only five- including myself. Being so few of us, we had found it much easier to get by and survive. Fewer ponies meant fewer mouths to feed, less ammo to be distributed and all around meant we could supplies around longer before having to move on again. It was earnestly sad, but in one way or another, we all had been glad and grateful to be alive and we swore the sacrifices our companions had made to keep us alive would not go in vain.

The five of us had wandered into Ponyville one day looking for supplies. To say the least, that had been our gravest mistake, not that we could've known ahead of time that Ponyville was a death trap of psychotic survivors and flesh-craving zombies. Our radios had run out of batteries and that had been our main reason for going to Ponyville. Only a young unicorn mare and I had made it out of Ponyville just barely intact. The young mare had been injured worse than I and it wasn't long after finding shelter just outside of Apple Loosa that she had succumbed to her wounds and died. I had been left on my own at the point and- without my friends- I had no idea what to do. I had doubts that I could survive on my own and quite a few times, I considered the possibility that it could be the end for me too.

The day I had reached my lowest point and could hardly care less if I had lived to see another sunrise had been the day I met Esmeralda. Despite all the death that loomed around every corner and despite the fact the world had ended, she seemed to be so happy and carefree. She had been traveling with a small group of ponies who had graciously taken me in. Being their makeshift doctor, Esmeralda and I had naturally formed a bond as she cared for my wounds. As time went on, I became close to everypony in that little group as we traveled around Equestria searching for supplies and a safe place to live. All great things must come to end had been the lesson I learned after we had been ambushed by another horde of zombies. Our group had been split in half as some of our companions had stayed behind to fight the oncoming horde to allow the rest of to escape. We had just barely managed to wander up north towards the Crystal Empire some days later when more misfortune struck. We had found ourselves severely unequipped for the freezing weather and what little of us remained began to perish to the below freezing temperatures. Snow had nearly been up to the top of our legs but what was left our group managed to find lodging in a small cabin. There had been four of us left at that point- including Esmeralda and I.

The other two members of our little group had wandered out one day to look for more food and wood to keep our fire at camp burning. They never came back and that had left just Esmeralda and I. Sometime later, we had wandered from the little cabin and found the ski lodge we were now holed up inside. Now, we were faced with the problem of absolutely no food, water, and little gas to cook any food with. If it weren't for Esmeralda and that smile she gives that seems to make everything so much better, I doubt I would be here now. For her sake more than anything else, I had made it my goal to keep going- to keep surviving- for as long as I possibly can.

"You'd better put these on so you don't freeze to death," Esmeralda said, snapping me from my thoughts.
I smiled warmly at Esmeralda as I took the thick winter clothes she had picked out for me. With a small bit of difficulty, I managed to get the warm clothes on and continued to prepare to head out into the cold winter night.

"You ready to go, Dosey-Doe?" Esmeralda questioned.
"As ready as I'll ever be," I answered with a grin "let's go."