Manehattan Museum of Fine Art, Day Zero, 12:50am

Starlight Glimmer studied the painting in front of her closely. She could see the attention to detail and the interesting method the painter used. "Pointillism" it was called, where a painting consisting of hundreds of thousands of tiny little dots of color mix together to form what looks like a solid image.

"A Sunday Afternoon of the Island of La Grande Jatte." Starlight read the plaque under the painting aloud. She looked back up at the painting. It was quite well done, depicting a lovely looking park next to the water with several ponies wearing old timey clothes.

Starlight was so interested in the painting that she didn't notice Pinkie Pie next to her, looking at the painting with a magnifying glass.

"Wow, those are a lot of dots, how did he paint every single one?" Pinkie asked Starlight.

"Patience and way too much time on his hooves." Starlight responded before turning away to look at the other works of art around the gallery. She noticed Twilight and Spike standing in the center of the gallery next to a large sculpture of a Pony sitting on a rock with his head resting on his hoof.

"What's this one called?" Starlight asked as she and Pinkie joined Twilight by the sculpture.

"It's called "The Thinker." Twilight said.

"Wow! I never would have guessed!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed in a voice that sounded anything but sarcastic.

"You know, I never took you for an art lover Twilight." Starlight said.

"Usually I'm not, but Shining Armor and Cadance told be about how much they enjoyed visiting this museum one their last trip here, so I just had to see it for myself." Twilight explained.

"I wish Maud was here, she would have loved the sculptures." Pinkie Pie said. Spike chuckled.

"Yeah, she would probably list all the different types of rocks in each sculpture." He said. Twilight rolled her eyes at Spikes comment.

"So, which exhibit should we go to next?" Starlight asked. Twilight then unfolded the map from her saddlebag and looked it over.

"There's a clay pottery exhibit just across the hall." Twilight suggested. The others nodded and started to walk over.

The Museum was fairly empty that day, with only a few other ponies seen browsing around the gallery at the art. The Museum offered several different kinds of art from surrealistic, to abstract, to still life, to realism.

As the group entered the clay pottery room, a red mist came from down the hall, passed through them, and disappeared. As soon as it did, Twilight dropped the map she was holding, as her magic failed.

"What the-" Twilight said after dropping it, she tried to use her magic to pick it back up, but couldn't no matter how hard she strained.

"What's happening?" Starlight asked, also trying to use her magic.

"I'm not sure, but I think we should find out." Twilight said before turning back to head back to the front desk.

The group passed a few other ponies, some of them also unicorns struggling to use their magic. They eventually entered the entrance hall and reached the front desk.

"Excuse me, is there a magical dampener in here, we can't use our magic anymore in the gallery." Twilight said. The front desk clerk, who was a unicorn mare shrugged.

"No, we don't magically dampen the gallery. I don't know what's happening, I can't use my magic either." She said before trying her magic again.

"Think there's something strange going on." Starlight said.

Suddenly, the front doors to the museum burst open and a few ponies ran inside, followed by several more ponies moving very slowly. They had darkened coats, and dead, sunken in eyes. One of these dead-eyed ponies tackled a patron to the ground and began to bite into his neck, tearing out a chunk of flesh, killing him.

The other patrons began to scream and panic, one patron even jumping out of a window, shattering it.

"Okay, something is definitely happening, and it looks worse than just no magic." Starlight said.

"Run for it!" Spike shouted. The group then turned and ran back into the gallery, where several other ponies were running, trying to find an alternative way out, like an emergency exit. Eventually the group did find one that was being opened by another patron, but when they opened the door, one of the dead-eyed ponies lunged at him through the open door, letting several more in.

The 4 turned again and ended up hitting a dead end, in one of the galleries with only an employees only door in it.

They turned back to where they came in and saw several zombie ponies trudging towards them.

"I can't believe it, Zombies do exist!" Spike said as he hid behind Twilight. Twilight tried to use her magic again to get rid of them, but again, she couldn't.

The zombies closed in on them, and it looked like the end, but suddenly, the employees only door flung open, and an earth pony stallion emerged, he was wearing a museum security uniform. He had jet black hair with a brown coat. He had a gun in his hoof, which he raised and shot one of the zombies closest to the girls and spike.

"Hurry, this way." He shouted and motioned for them to enter the employees only door. The 4 wasted no time and quickly ran in as the guard shot a few more zombies before heading back into the employees only area and locking the door behind him.

"That door should hold them, follow me." The guard said, leading the 4 down a hallway.

"Thank you so much, I thought we were goners for sure." Twilight said as she walked next to the guard.

"Don't mention it, the name's Silent Watch, Museum Security, protecting the patrons is my job." He said as he turned a corner to another hallway.

"Well Mister Watch, do you know what's happening?" Pinkie asked.

"To be honest, I have no clue, but when I saw that horde burst in on the cameras, I knew I had to do something, to bad I was so late, I opened up about 3 other doors besides yours, and you were the only ponies I saw that weren't zombified or being eaten." Silent Watch said. Twilight shuddered when he said "eaten" and she thought back to that one patron who had a chunk of his neck.

The group finally made it to the end of the hall and entered a security office. It had a gun locker, table, vending machine, and a wall of monitors all showing live feed from security cameras. Twilight looked into them, and saw that the museum was now overrun by the zombies, there was not a single living pony left in the building that they could see.

"I think we need a plan, because judging by the looks of this, it's gonna take a while for this to be sorted out." Starlight said as they all looked at the monitors.

Suddenly, in the monitor showing the front desk, a large truck could be seen driving towards the open doors. When it crashed, the camera went out, and the ground beneath them shook as they heard the explosion.

"Yeah, we're gonna need a plan before the museum burns down." Pinkie Pie suggested.

Author's Note

There we go, the introductions to each story is now done, the story is now set up and ready to continue. Also, big thanks to Lovecraftia and SamuelK28 for their suggestions for OC names. Lovecraftia suggested Silent Watch, thank you.