With her consciousness slowly reconnecting with her brain, Rainbow opened her eyes. Her face being almost vacant. As her vision was slowly adjusting itself, she felt something soft under her head. She looked around to get a hint about her surrounding. It didn't took her much time to realize herself being in a hospital bed. Wondering how did she got there, Rainbow took her time to recall what happened..

She was with the other elements when that happened, except for Twilight who wasn't with them due to her having to assist Celestia in some magical issue. They were returning from Canterlot, headed toward Ponyville, unaware of the pandemonium that was occurring in their now destroyed town. The Castle of Friendship was initially their own safe place, but that lasted for one day. Knowing that they couldn't resist any longer, Rainbow volunteered to act as a bait to lure the zombies far away from there, allowing them to escape. That plan worked, except that Rainbow was then injured in her wings during the escape, making her fall in a pit. She hits her head on a rock and slowly passed out for the physical trauma. But not before having seen a faint unicorn figure approaching her.

Even now Rainbow was wondering who could that unicorn be, and why he was in the pit in the first places. As she was trying to find sense on him, her pondering was then interrupted by a rose pony with a yellow mane entering the room. Rainbow know who she is.

"M-Meadow Flower?" Rainbow said, dazed.

"Oh, goodness," Meadow replied, half relieved. "You were sleeping for about three days"

"D-days?" Rainbow demanded incredulous.

"Rainbow, let me cut the chase for you. You are currently in Cloudsdale Hospital."

Rainbow's eyes instantly widened as she rose up from her bed. "Cloudsdale You- Argh!"

A dull, throbbing pain suddenly struck her head and back during her attempt. Meadow promptly put her hoof on to held her down.

"Don't force yourself," Meadow soothed her. "You better rest. We have bandaged your head to prevent any bleeding and blocked your wings with them."

Still confused, Rainbow looked around the room and then out of the door. Everything was almost silent and one medic passed nearby the room. It seemed to be ok but after what she had gone through in the past three days, one question wormed through her head.

"Is this place... Safe?" Rainbow asked.

"Rainbow, you don't have to worry," Meadow replied. "Cloudsdale, along with other cities located at very high heights, were untouched by that plague."

"You are not kidding me, right?"

"Trust me, the entire city is safe thanks to a barrier that Celestia provided to us. That blocked the entrance that prevent undead pegasi to enter."

"How did I got here?"

"A unicorn found you and brought you to Spitfire's group during the rescue of the civilians. Is kind of a miracle that you managed to survive this plague."

Rainbow went wide-eyed upon hearing that part. "He save me..."

"He's... A very odd type." Meadow rolled her eyes. "Besides, there are some good news for us. A group of research ponies under the guide of Celestia managed to develop a vaccine to cure anypony and immunize us from the plague."

"Seriously?" Rainbow asked, almost hopeful.

"Spitfire, Fleetfoot and the others told us that when they had returned. They were previously vaccinated and went to rescue the other sane ponies and carry them to the safe cities, including this one."

"That means that we could still save the infected ones?"

"Maybe..." Meadow responded unsure of that. "We never tested the formula on the others before."

"By the way, did you know anything about Twilight and the others?"

"I'm sorry. We don't know what happened to them."

Hearing that new, Rainbow looked away with a crestfallen visage. Once again, was at the starting point. Unable to fly and stuck in the limbo of uncertainty about her friends' whereabouts.

"I see." Rainbow murmured.

"Well, is time for me to reach Spitfire and I have some much work to do. See you later," Meadow wavered her hoof at Rainbow and went out of the door.

A half of an hour passed. Rainbow remained motionless, staring at the ceiling. Her mind raced for a bit, from hoping that they were alive to fearing that they had succumbed to the pestilence. A thought that she shrugged off and dismissed it as stupid. There's now way they would had fall for that. That certainty, however, didn't help her to mitigate that sense of insecurity about their safety. Being unable to fly and her injures frustrated her to no end. So, of course a little outburst cannot be avoided.

"That sucks!" Rainbow slammed her hoof on the bed. "Being stuck here and kept in the dark is infuriating! Why I have even-" She stopped her sentence and let out a distressed sight, calming down a little bit. "Complaining will get me to nowhere. But what I'm supposed to do?" Her eyes slowly closed by themselves. "I guess that I have to remain in this silent place for while."

Rainbow was about to close her eyes, but then she reopened her eyes upon realizing something. In these minutes spent into pondering about her friends' situation, she didn't heard any sound or any voice except the ones coming for the outside. Everything is too quiet and there's nopony that passed nearby her room or even bothered to check up the other rooms.

"Why I'm starting to think that Meadow's didn't told me all of the truth?" Rainbow asked to herself.

Rainbow slowly got up from her bed, ignoring the pain that is partially vexing her head. She firstly headed toward the window, only to find a dark-gray, clouded sky and the streets being almost empty. She then went out of the room and glanced at both the sides of the hall. There's no sign or any living soul in her sight.

This until a female scream echoed through the stairs. That startled Rainbow, but most scarier than the scream itself was the possible implication of that. Not wanting to believe that, she reluctantly walked her way to the stairs and went down two floors, until she heard horrible sound of something being ripped and chewed up. Rainbow stopped at the corridor where the sound where more audible and found something that she didn't wanted to see.

Two zombie ponies were feeding on a helpless nurse. She was far gone, but that didn't mattered to the mindless creatures that where gorging themselves with the pieces of her flesh. Rainbow was far too horrified and stuck in denial to even react. That reaction was then followed by instant nausea. She took a few steps away from them. Unfortunately, the two zombies acknowledged her existence and slowly headed toward her, with bloodstained, voracious mouths.

They were going to pounce when a something invisible pierced both of their heads, killing them instantly as portion of their rotten gray matter gushed out of their skulls. That gave her a sense of deja vu that, combined with the gruesome scene that she just saw, aggravated her nausea even further. Rainbow promptly galloped toward the empty, metallic recycle bin next to her and vomited inside of it. It took a few seconds for her to recover, mentally.

"You know, you could at least have the courtesy to run away instead of remain still." A stern voice coming from a patient room said, getting Rainbow's attention.

That being said, somepony, being a unicorn went out the room with a disquieting stern look. He has black mane and tail, and silver coat. His face was paradoxically in between being a younger one and a elder one. His eyes were blue, with the right one being fully covered by a red runic symbol, which instantly caught Rainbow's attention. She stared at her with a creeped out look, being almost at loss of words.

"You... You are the one who rescued me, right?" Rainbow stammered.

"We have no time for that," Moon replied impassive. "I suggest you to follow me, If you want to see your friends again."

"Hold on," Rainbow halted him. "I don't know who you are and you expect me to trust you?"

Their discussion was then interrupted by cacophony of screams and chilling groans and roars coming from the floor below them.

"Follow me or I will gladly die with the pleasure of letting you in the dark about Twilight and the others," The unicorn warned. "Your choice."

Hearing that, Rainbow felt like she was in a dead end, as if his words putted her judgement to test. Despite her mistrust toward the stranger, she was so eager to see Twilight and the others. She wasn't sure about his intentions but she couldn't even remain there waiting for the zombies to get her either.

"I guess I have no choice," Rainbow murmured before looking at him with mistrust. "You better not trick me about this."

"I have no reason for that and I wouldn't even waste my time for that." The unicorn replied sarcastic.

Rainbow and the unicorn went downstairs to the first floor and headed toward the hospital's exit. As they stepped in the hall, chilling groans and wails could be heard from some rooms and outside the exit in front of their sight. Such horrible melody was far aggravating for her psyche.

"How could this happening? Wasn't the barrier supposed to prevent them from entering in the city?" Rainbow demanded incredulous.

"Somepony brought a infected pony in the city after the retrieval, right when no one was looking," He said bluntly.

Rainbow's face contorted in horror, followed by a bit of anger. "No way... Who could had done this?"

"I suggest you to spare that for later," He said when slowly releasing her mouth. "Also, the name is Moon Shard if you ask. Now follow me."

They galloped toward the exit, not minding the zombies and other noises coming from the other rooms. As they were getting closer, something crashes through the wooden door and whizzed in between the two ponies. They recognized that being the corpse of male pegasi. As Rainbow was about to ask what happened, a disturbing roar coming from below caught their attention.

"WHOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"

They turned toward the one who emitted that sound, being a female zombie unicorn. Her exposed rib cage, a missing eye and her torn figure were already creepy. But the most disturbing and unusual thing that instantly caught her attention were her veins and arteries glowing like the bright of a wild fire. Her face filled with seething rage.

"What is that thing?," Rainbow said, disturbed upon seeing the raging creature. "And why she can use magic? How can-"

"It's a Flailer." Moon interrupted.

"A... What?" Rainbow looked puzzled at him.

Moon took his aim and glowed his horn as he was about to shoot something to he Flailer, who was rushing toward them. The undead unicorn instantly glowed her own and engulfed Moon into a gray aura, interrupting his charge and lifting him in mid-air before throwing his body toward Rainbow like a flail.

Rainbow instinctively dodged Moon, making him collide on the ground. A muted grunt was heard from him before being lifted once again. She felt really intimidated by the raging unicorn in front of her, reminding her all the times she risked her life during her escape from Ponyville and her fly in the woods.

Growing fed-up of being the prey, Rainbow glanced upon the metallic, empty cycle bin near to her and tossed it on the Flailer. "I have enough of ANY OF YOU!"

The object struck the creature in the head, making it losing it's focus. Moon was released from the magical grip and fell on the floor. Angered than before, the glowing zombie glared fiercely toward Rainbow and roared more fiercely as he glowed his horn.

Lured by ruckus of the Flailer's wreckage, the other zombies came out of the rooms and rushed toward the two still living ponies. Seeing this, the raging unicorn promptly took a first aid bed nearby her, quickly lifted above her and furiously flailed it on them, crushing all of them into a putrid bloody pulp repeatedly.

Rainbow was totally dumbfounded upon seeing the scene happening in front of her as the remaining zombies turned toward the Flailer and fought against her, with the latter having the upper hand on them. "Are they... Killing each other? What the hay is going on!?"

As the raging undead unicorn was too busy killing the other zombies with his magic, Moon took his time to recover a little bit and charged his horn toward it. He aimed at his horn and shoot a invisible projectile. When the magical bullet collided with it, the Flailer's skull was literally blown up in a magical explosion coming from his horn, pulverizing him and the other zombies. No traces of bones, blood and brain matter remained, except a few bits of what used to be part of the Flailer's body.

Moon slowly stood up, which made Rainbow questioning about his ability to endure such brutality. They took a look at the whole massacre that happened in that moment. Corpses reduced into pulp, the first-aid bed being twisted and bloodstained, the walls and the floor being tinted in blood and the crater being created by the explosion. Rainbow couldn't still believe that happened.

"This is insane. ," Rainbow commented in disgust. "Why they are killing each others?"

"For the most simplest reason: Us." Moon responded. "The normal zombies, the Lessers are no concern to a Flailer as long as they don't stand in between it and it's prey. The same thing goes for another Flailer and others."

"That doesn't explain why they can use magic. I had saw no unicorn zombie that could do that." Rainbow pointed out.

"The Flailers," Moon begun. "Are raging beasts that would use anything at their disposal to block their preys or even beating their bodies badly enough to make them unable to stand up if they make them furious. Including magic if they are unicorns. The reason why they can use it is because they retained a little modicum of intelligence. They were born by the pestilence twisting their magic and using it against them during their failed attempt to heal their friends of themselves."

"Huh?"

"We have no time for other talk. Move." Moon commanded.

Putting the wake of the slaughter behind them, the two ponies walked toward the exit. As they stepped outside, they were met by a undead hell.

The Cloudsdale that was supposed to be untouched thanks to the barrier was fully infested. The ungodly sounds of the infected and the healthy's screams formed a involuntary and yet demented symphony. Not wanting to see the rest, the two galloped as fast a they can, dodging the zombies every step of the way and trying to avoid various unicorn Flailers. The healthy ponies being ripped apart was almost unavoidable, especially if some of the healthy were bloodily falling from the sky after being chewed up in mid-air, much to Rainbow's horror.

"Don't get distracted! Run!" Moon screamed to Rainbow, making her return to her path.

They continued their run among the whole chaos and the half crumbling cloud buildings. After some miles, the finally saw one of the Wonderbolt Academy's buildings being in front of them. Unexpected to Rainbow, Meadow Flower was waiting for them nearby the entrance.

"Meadow?" Rainbow said surprised.

"This way!" Meadow shouted.

They galloped as fast as they can, being chased by a horde of zombies in the distance, with only two Flailers being among them. Reaching the entrance, Rainbow, Moon and Meadow dashed inside the building. The entrance was immediately sealed by metallic doors, that closed it in a loud, echoing sound, that caused the three to close their ears. The sound was then slowly replaced by that of the zombies trying to break through the metallic structure but was all in vain.

The three ponies panted heavily, trying to regain their oxygen. For a moment, Rainbow thought that she wouldn't had make it since she wasn't used to run. However, that didn't mattered to her since she was still alive.

"I hope that I could return to fly. Seriously, I know that walk is important too but I'm not equally faster in that way... I'm a little tired already." Rainbow thought.

Rainbow and Meadow sighed in relief, with certainty that they were safe from the hellish mayhem that was occurring outside. Moon Shard, however, didn't looked so convinced.

"Just wait until you see the third type."

Author's Note

When I wrote this whole thing, I expected the have only the first chapter. But, due to my expectation and the time I took to gather some ideas, it was stretched in three. In other words, it will take two chapters before the main character shows up. Yes, I'm saying that. Rainbow Dash is not the main character.