Apocalypse

"Nay! Stay away, creatures!!"

Princess Luna kept her elder sister wrapped protectively in her grasp as she glared wearily, and weakly, up at the creatures that stood before her. They were not like anything she'd seen in her return to Equestria, nor in her time before Nightmare Moon. They were animals, she assumed, or at least, successors to a species much like Ponies are to the Horses. The four stared back at her, either in shock or in severe confusion and disarray, their weapons lowering as they took her as non-threatening compared to what they've been through. After a moment, the one with the heaviest-looking weapon shouted.

"What in the actual hell is this?"

The others then questioned further.

"Are those horses?"

"The fuck is up with their colors?"

"Are those crowns? What are they, magical talking horse Princesses?"

Luna fumed at being called a Horse, but kept her tongue sedated of insults. It was of little doubt these apes were confused, and have never seen the likes of her and her sister, but she still protected her sibling with cautious gazes, struggling to ignite her horn to cast defensive spells.

She scooted back as one of them took a slow step forward, getting a better look at her and her elder sibling before turning and glancing at Twilight and Cadence, the former of the two barely able to comprehend and adjust to her new surroundings. She barely looked any more than catatonic, but was able to recuperate and blink herself back to reality. Sitting up, she rubbed her eye with her hoof, blinking again as she brought it back.

"A hoof...? But... we should be..."

She turned her eyes up to the humans that stood before her. They were different than the ones at Canterlot High. In fact, this whole place seemed completely off compared to the altered reality of the Kingdom. The foundation of it all, the way everything seemed more detailed; it certainly wasn't familiar like home. Even the humans that stood before her didn't bear the same aspects as the ones she knew beforehand in her last adventure through the mirror. Gone were the array of skin colors that matched the Pony they were in Equestria. Now, they were tanned, and perhaps a little bit taller than the average adult like Principal Celestia. The added weaponry was also a curious, yet intimidating change.

Groaning as she stood up, she ended up on her haunches as she still gathered her bearings. Rubbing her head as a fleck of embers drifted past her vision, she watched it go, tracing it all the way to a horrific sight.

"Sweet Celestia..."

A burning and collapsing city greeted her as her eyes got their focus back. Screams and sirens echoed from down the streets, and even passing the hotel she appeared on top of.

'Wait a minute...!'

She stood up, ignoring the queasiness in her stomach as she looked around frantically, failing to notice Celestia and Cadence now coming back to the land of the living as well.

"Where's the mirror?!"

Luna's ear flicked as she, too, turned her head to and fro. Their only means of escaping this plain of existence was nowhere in sight, and it made her breath hitch in her throat as an imminent instinct of danger pumped blood through her veins harder and faster from her heart.

In all this time, the four humans had formed up before them, watching with curious eyes as they moved and spoke like... well, them. Sharing several concerned looks with one another, all of them flinched when hearing a sound behind them that made their blood run cold.

*SLAM... BASH... SMASH*

The Inventor swiftly turned around, widening his eyes as he saw the door to the rooftop they entered from shake and tremor from the pounding hands and fists coming up against it. With every hit, it bent and shifted outwards, letting the inhuman screeches of the undead escape through the cracks. Backing up towards the Ponies, Twilight helped Cadence up as Celestia drearily opened her eyes, as if she was coming off an anesthetic after surgery. The Bounty Hunter looked down at the Ponies, eyeing them all before turning to the purple one.

"Can you four get up and run?"

Twilight looked up at him, nodding as Cadence was shaking off the daze. Celestia, however, jolted her long neck up when she saw the monstrous rotting humans reaching through the door at them, howling and roaring out their plea for flesh. Soon, the door gave way on the top hinge, making the rest of it come down on the concrete. The horde spilled through the doorway, falling on one another and shambling back to their feet to rush at the group of eight. Luna, Cadence, and Twilight backed away from these monsters as the Bounty Hunter grabbed Celestia by her neck ornament, yanking her to her hooves.

"Move it, horse lady!!"

He shoved her along as they all booked it without question towards the slope turning into the hotel's parking garage. The Engineer, Inventor, and Bounty Hunter led the group, the Scientist following in the back while the Princesses were in the middle. He turned back and fired at the swarm, putting holes in a few of the once-living humans' heads before rushing back after the others. Split up into pairs, the Princesses stood closely by the humans they escaped the roof with as more of these rotten counterparts were bleeding from every section of the parking garage.

Luna, with the Engineer, shaking stood firm to defend herself, though didn't need to, as with the firearm, the Engineer also had a kitchen knife acquired from the hotel's buffet on the third floor. He gashed a living corpse's face in half before stabbing it into another one's head. Gasping as they were surrounded, he acted quickly to get him and the blue horse thing out of harm's way.

Twilight and Cadence stayed behind the Scientist and the Inventor as the latter shoved one of the damned humans to the ground, wrestling with another till his companion blasted it through the eye. Taking out his own acquired melee, the Inventor cleaved a fire axe through a third necromatic being, leaving it behind as they backed up away from the horde lumbering towards them.

Celestia, still trying to snap herself awake, could do nothing with her experience as the Bounty Hunter was expertly holding back the line that was crawling ever so closer to them, dropping the dead like flies in a bug zapper. When he ran out of ammunition for the Glock 22, he ushered the largest horse Princess of the four towards the doors behind them, where everybody else converged and retreated to.

The Engineer shoved a shellshock Cadence through the entrance as the rest of the Ponies followed after. A rogue undead sprinted around the corner in pursuit, but was blasted to bits by the Inventor before the Scientist slammed the doors shut. Buying them mere seconds, they raced down the hallway, the Princesses all panting and scared beyond what anypony in their world would ever see. They didn't understand what was happening, and the danger and threat of a mortifying death kept them going blindly with these tamer humans, as they seemed to oppose these monsters that wore their faces.

Slowing down as more of these undead creatures were in the hallways, the Scientist strode forward, firing once ahead before turning and doing so again behind them, taking out two of the thinned crowd. The Engineer stabbed his knife through a dead man's skull, losing it as the body dropped. The Bounty Hunter, seeing more coming down the steps, fired at them once he reloaded his weapon, popping their heads like melons. Seeing only one more in their path, the Inventor grabbed another fire axe from its casing, and literally threw it at the last walking corpse. With every obstacle out of the way, the Inventor, putting his hand on Celestia's back, pointed ahead at a room.

"There! Get to the Security Offices, now!!"

Not needing to be told twice, every living soul sprinted for the finish, hopping inside the room and shutting the door just before the horde at the parking garage got in. With their trail masked without sight, the group was finally able to breathe as the horde either split up, or went past the Security Offices. As a just-in-case procedure, however, the Engineer and Bounty Hunter siblings worked together to barricade the door as quietly as possible, using server racks, empty ammunition cabinets, and a trash barrel to block the only way in and out of the offices of security. Once they had the last bit of the barricade set up, they slumped away, exhausted from the run for their life.

The Inventor, leaning against the wall, looked around at everyone.

"We all still got our fingers and toes? Oh, and, erm... hooves?"

As if to answer that question, the Scientist turned his attention to the four Princesses, who were trying to console one another after having escaped from the most horrifying experience of their life. Walking over to them, he didn't care that they reeled and twitched away from them. He needed to make sure.

"Are any of you bitten?"

None of them spoke up, though Celestia was forced to look at him as he put a hand forcefully under her chin.

"Hey, look at me! Are you bitten? Scratched? Anything?"

He checked over Celestia, top to bottom before moving to the others, not caring once again about consent. Once he was sure they were fine, he sighed, looking back at the others.

"They're clean."

"Clean?"

The Bounty Hunter ushered to them.

"What the hell even ARE they? Fucking techno-colored horse-thingies?"

"Excuse you!"

Cadence returned his narrowed stare with her own, frowning at the red-clad human disappointedly.

"We are Ponies, Mr. Tall Red Creature. Please stop calling us the h-word."

The Bounty Hunter rose an eyebrow at the 'Pony' referring to the word: Horse as the 'h-word'. Still fuming and confrontational, Luna spun around to face the four humans.

"Wh-What in EQUESTRIA is GOING ON??!! We come to your land to spread magic and friendship and we are greeted to death and chaos of the worst degree?! Explain yourselves!"

The Engineer walked past them as the Inventor rose up his hand.

"Hey, cool your jets, star-hair. We're not that informed on this, either."

The Bounty Hunter shook his head as he rested his arm on one of the barricade's shelves.

"We were attacked this morning in our respective hotel rooms. We don't know what's going on. It's like the whole hotel had gone insane. We were lucky to find these guns on the officers that have already died in the lower levels by those... things."

The Scientist rolled his eyes.

"You don't have to sugarcoat what they are, Raymond. It's clear to anybody that they are the undead."

The Bounty Hunter scoffed.

"Yeah, but actually saying that they're 'zombies' is ridiculous, Will. This isn't any damn game or movie."

"I wouldn't be too sure, brother."

The Bounty Hunter and Scientist turned to the Engineer as he was staring up at a TV hanging on the wall. On it was the Channel 6 news, and the subtitles were enough to make the Inventor snatch the remote and turn up the volume. The Princesses, seeing their sudden alarm, joined them. At first, they marveled at the advancements they made with simple screen technology, especially Twilight, who had a lab full of the most advanced Equestrian technology of the modern era. Soon, curiosity and wonder turned to horror as they heard, and saw, what was before them.

["-government has started to do something this on-going revolt. However, the politicians--"]

"What the hell? They're calling this a REVOLT?"

The Engineer took the remote, flipping the channel to an Emergency News Coverage channel, where they were outside on the streets a little ways away from the hotel.

["The number of deaths in the northern sector of San Francisco already exceeds 10,000. The prefectural governor has declared a state of emergency-"]

[*BANG*]

Everybody and everypony flinched as the camera moved at the sound of gunshot, focusing on the officers unloading their own handguns into the moving bodies inside body bags.

["That was gunfire! Just now, the police opened gunfire! Jeffery, what are they shooting a-"]

["MRRREEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"]

The camera shook before falling to the ground, the camera guy getting tackled to the ground while the reporter screamed and thrashed as multiple of the undead forced her onto her back, dogpiling on top of her in front of the camera and turning her into a living bundle of meat ripe for the taking.

["NO!!! GET OFF OF ME!!! GET AWAY!!! HEEEEEEELP!!!"]

After the camera was kicked around a few more times, the feed suddenly went to static, then transferred back to the studio, where a shaky news anchor woman was handed another document. Gulping, she steeled her nerve as she turned to the camera.

["T-There's been some sort of problem. F-From now on, we'll be broadcasting from the studio here. As you can tell, the situation outside has become grave. We advise you please stay in your home unless it's absolutely necessary to come outside. Once it's safer outside, we'll bring you more information about the on-going situation."]

The Ponies in the room were frozen stiff at what they saw, and to an extent, so were the four humans, but that didn't stop the Engineer from flipping the channel again.

["This unusual phenomenon has spread rapidly throughout America and has yet to be brought under control. The government authorities have evacuated the White House and will relocate to a command center on-board an aircraft carrier. There are reports that this transfer is in preparation for the possible use of tactical warheads. We have currently lost contact with Moscow. Berlin is in flames, and while France has maintained order, there are reports of lo-o-o-o-o--"]

Static rolled over the screen as the Engineer started flipping channels again, finding each one to be just the same. The other humans were either wide-eyed or blankly staring forward, the realization settling in quickly.

"Jesus Christ... This is happening EVERYWHERE..."

"The whole world had gone to shit in less than four hours..."

The Bounty Hunter took off his hat, putting his hand up on his forehead as he sat down. The Princesses, mortified by what they heard and witnessed, could only share their sympathies and fear with these young human stallions. What they've just experienced is happening in greater ferocity all across this Kingdom and others. Celestia closed her eyes, not wanting to imagine something like this happening back on her soil. Her little Ponies, reduced to monsters by a trivial parasite that may as well be spread through a cough. The Engineer put down the remote, licking his lips as he wanted to vomit. Everything was in shambles, the home he knew was no more, and to top it all off, people were f***in EATING each other!!

"This has got to be some sort of goddamn trick..."

Cadence walked up beside him, her eyes giving a caring aura as they stared up at him.

"S-Surely this won't go on forever. Things would get right back to normal in no ti-"

"No..."

She turned to the Scientist as he was leaning on a desk in front of a window.

"Nothing about this situation gives us the notion that things are going to return to normal. It's a pandemic... No, it's worse than that. It's an apocalypse."

Celestia opened her eyes, looking towards the Scientist as he hung his head.

"A pandemic has begun consuming every ounce of life on this planet, human or otherwise. The same disease that's affected people here is spreading throughout the world, like the Black Death from the 14th Century on steroids."

The Inventor peeked through the window's blinds, seeing the shambling bodies outside in the hallway, the numbers thinned from the earlier onslaught.

"But unlike that disease, this one doesn't kill hosts. It... transforms them, transmitting the disease and perpetuating itself inside the ones it converts. Even if it's only in the hotel, or in the city, there's no doubt the world would suffer, and things would change."

He turned away from the window, ushering to the undead outside.

"Hell, I'm not even sure if these bastards even decompose. Science doesn't work, nor explain why dead are coming back to life and eating people."

Twilight nodded in agreement. She always thought that Zombies were fantasy, a thing of somepony's disturbed mind. Seeing them now, and rationalizing their fundamental existence, the Inventor was 100% correct when he assumed that science wouldn't be on their side. The Bounty Hunter stood back up, putting his hat back on his head.

"I doubt that any of that shit matters now. We need to get out of the hotel. The longer we stay here, the more of those things are gonna come, and we don't have enough ammo or weapons to fight an army."

He glanced towards the Princesses, staring at them before facing them fully.

"So... who are you four? You don't look like you're related to this outbreak. Wanna explain why four horse things came falling outta the sky in a flash of electricity?"

Celestia rose an eyebrow at being called a horse, sighing as she ushered to herself.

"I suppose introductions are, indeed, in order. My name is Princess Celestia. I am one of the two co-rulers of the Kingdom of Equestria. The pony you see beside me is my little sister: Princess Luna. Together, we govern our Kingdom full of Ponies and raise the sun and moon."

The Inventor blinked before turning around.

"Wait, you RAISE and LOWER the sun and moon?"

Luna nodded, facing the side to show her Cutie Mark.

"That is correct. We discovered our talent for doing such feats and earned our Cutie Marks in the process. These marks on our flanks show our special talents. As with mine and my sister's, you can see what the sun and moon emblems represent."

She pointed to Twilight and Cadence as the humans either had risen eyebrows, or deadpan stares.

"The first here is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, also known as Princess Cadence. She governs a branch of Equestria known as the Crystal Empire, and is in charge with managing and spreading the element of love throughout her Empire and our Kingdom. The smallest of us is the newest Princess of Equestria, crowned the Princess of Friendship: Twilight Sparkle. I can assume that you'll guess what her purpose is."

Silence was her only response as the four boys stared back at her. After about five seconds of that quietness, the Inventor looked down, then shifted his attention to his allied neighbors in this hotel.

"So... Um... Did... anyone have anything on them?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, are we sure we're seeing this? Have we checked? Are we sure we all didn't get really fucked up and pass out in the broom closet at the end of our floor?"

That comment actually elicited a giggle from Celestia as she brushed her wing up his back.

"If I were a hallucination, I do not think you could physically touch me, no?"

He stepped away from her as she retracted her wing, closing her eyes and focusing her horn to channel her magic, but something went wrong almost immediately. Not only did her horn fizzle out, but a splitting headache stopped her from the attempt just as fast as she started. Hissing, she rubbed her head as Luna came up to her side.

"Sister? What is wrong?"

"Gh-... My magic... I cannot conjure it..."

Twilight nodded.

"That's to be expected. I saw all of it get ripped from us when we passed the barrier. The same happened to me when I went through the mirror to Canterlot High, though it wasn't that... painful last time."

The Bounty Hunter gave a quizzical look as he heard about them wielding magic. Shrugging, he figured talking horses had to be magical as well.

'It's like every little girl's dream to have one of these things, after all.'

Shaking his head, he put a hand on his hip.

"Well, my name is Raymond. Raymond Seraph. The guy in blue over there's my little brother: Roland."

Roland, the aforementioned Engineer, waved to the four silently as the Inventor stepped up next to Raymond.

"Name's Nate Schmidt. Right now, that's all you need to know. I don't trust anyone who hasn't earned it, so you got a long way to go before you're alright in my eyes."

The Scientist smacked Nate as he came up next him.

"Don't be an ass, you fool."

He turned to the Ponies.

"I'm William Snow, a member of a big family in San Francisco. We run a company just across the bridge outside of the main city. It manufactures our chemistry, biology, and general science to any smaller business wanting to make a contract with us, and give us new projects."

William looked back at the static-rolled TV, then to the girls once more.

"It seems you're stuck here with us for a while. If you wanna come with us, we'll give you safe passage."

Celestia smiled.

"I thank you for the gesture, Mr. Snow, but I'm afraid our adventure leads to more than just surviving. We need to reach the mirror that sent us to this place."

"Mirror?"

She rolled her eyes.

"It's a long and, quite frankly, emotional story that I'd rather not get into right now. In short, it has the power to jump through space and time to alternate dimensions of Equestria, either in the style of your kind or my own."

She ushered a wing to Twilight.

"My former-student: Twilight Sparkle, has a certain map that calls for Ponies to go to specific locations and solve friendship problems. The most recent play it's made is summoning my sister and I, Princess Cadence, and Twilight herself to the mirror we used to come here."

Nate scratched the side of his head.

"So, what? You're here to spread joy and friendship to all who will listen? Sorry to say, priestess, but you ain't finding no friendship here."

He picked up his shotgun, loading it with shells.

"Though it may prove to be very valuable in the next few days..."

Raymond slipped his pistol under his belt as he hummed.

"The mirror..."

"Something on your mind, brother?"

He turned to Roland as he walked up to him, the former in thought before voicing his concerns.

"That mirror could very well be the only way out. If the world is broken and doomed this early after an pandemic hit, we may not survive here forever. Things could get even worse here, and mutations of those walking corpses aren't off the table, either..."

Nate, William, Roland, and Raymond all turned to Celestia, whose ears folded back in concern to what bringing them with do in terms of repercussions. She wanted to help them. She did, but if she recklessly made that decision, she could break Equestria, too, or worse, spread this contagion over to her Kingdom.

'That cannot happen...'

Biting her lip, she locked her gaze with Raymond's, standing her ground as her sister, Cadence, and Twilight were behind her.

"I... wish I could say there was an easy decision, or solution to your dilemma, Mr. Seraph, but as I'm sure you've already assumed in your pondering, if there was even a sliver of a chance that this... viral infestation could travel between interdimensional means, you wouldn't wish it to invade otherworldly Kingdoms, would you not?"

Raymond's eyebrow twitched as he looked into Celestia's eyes, reading what she was conveying in her sugarcoated words. They couldn't come with her. If they did, they risk spreading this... zombie-ism to their Kingdom on the other side. Given that they were Princesses, they may very well govern not only Equestria, but have a foothold in other parts of their world as well, and thus, have to look out for them first before Raymond, his brother, and his other acquaintances.

"..."

Roland put a hand on his older brother's shoulder, giving him a look that said it wouldn't be worth it to travel to this 'Equestria' if it meant wafting off the infection onto its inhabitants. For a moment, Nate questioned whether or not the same sort of situation would apply to the Princesses, but since they were magical or whatever, he doubted it mattered in their cases. He wasn't even sure they could get infected.

Still, he didn't want to chance a bite on any of them. Every last man and woman is needed to survive this, along with a shit load of guns and weapons. Taking a breath, he propped his leg on the corner of a desk as he looked to everyone.

"We can worry about that later. If we really are doomed to die, I might as well die doing something right before kickin' the bucket. You four Ponies know where this mirror is?"

Celestia tried to conjure magic once more, but only got another headache.

"Unfortunately, I cannot cast any spells to track the presence of the mirror. However, all is not lost with that objective."

Twilight nodded in agreement.

"She's right. If this world doesn't have magic, then we could not function properly. However, while our horns cannot generate magic, our bodies still contain some of the magic from our world, which means, like anypony from our world, we can innately sense magic."

Raymond rose an eyebrow.

"You mean like some organic metal detector for magic?"

Cadence laughed at his quip of a question before nodding.

"It doesn't quite work like that, but to avoid any confusion on the more direct details, you could say that."

"So where is the mirror now? Is it inside the city?"

"Well, that depends. Where are we now?"

William pointed up at the security monitors. More specifically, the one that shown the entrance.

"We're in the Geary Parkway Motel in the Inner Richmond District, which is in the northern section of San Francisco."

Luna hummed as she trotted about the room, trying to pick up the direction of which the strongest signal of magic was coming from.

"I do not have any specifics, but if my instincts do not deceive me, I believe the source of any potential magic is due east of this current location."

"East?"

Nate brushed his chin before further questioning.

"How far east?"

"It's not an accurate assumption, like I said, but I can only assume an estimate of about twenty miles."

Roland widened his eyes.

"Twenty? That's further than the shoreline! We'll have to cross the bridge over Yerba Buena Island or use the ferry, and both aren't good options if people are trying to get out of the city."

William pursed his lips, contemplating the locations Luna could be sensing the mirror from.

"The only place I can think of that would be in the twenty-mile range, and be of importance is the University of California in Berkeley. It's either there, or somewhere in Chinatown or Uptown Oakland."

Raymond nodded.

"In either case, we have a big walk ahead of us, unless, of course, someone has a vehicle stored somewhere."

Nate glanced towards the wall, his eyes moving around the security lockers till one of them, halfway opened, had something shiny inside. Walking over to it, he reached in and pulled out a set of car keys. Judging from the fab, it wasn't even security. It was a SWAT truck.

'What was the SWAT doing here...?'

Thinking nothing more of it aside from a stroke of good fortune, he tossed the keys to Raymond.

"Here's your ride, Ray. Dunno where the truck is, but it's something."

"Shit... If the keys are here, that means the assholes who worked in here didn't make it out."

William ushered to the door.

"Wouldn't that mean the truck is back where we came from?"

Roland grimaced, not liking where this was going.

"The Parking Garage... Oh no..."

Nate held his shotgun in both hands firmly as he narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah. Seems like we're gonna have to go back through the thick of it. Wherever we go, though, we need to stick together. Acting on our own is a certified way of getting your face eaten off."

The rest of the humans cocked their pistols, all of which loaded and ready to fire once more.

"Princesses, it's best you stay as close to us as you can at all times. If you can fight back without your 'magic', remember to aim for the head. Anything else will just slow them down, but not kill them."

The four Alicorns nodded back in kind, coming together with them at the door as Raymond placed his hand on the knob. Looking back at the others to make sure they were prepared, he turned the lock and shoved the door open, discarding the barricade and quietly rushing out into the halls. Taking up the fire axe Nate threw before, he chopped the head off of a shambling undead in their path before moving forward, going towards the parking garage. However, it seemed as though Lady Luck was not on their side at the moment. The horde was still on this floor's parking lot, wandering outside and inside area before the garage itself. Ushering everyone to be quiet, he pointed to an outdoor fire escape. Moving along, the group had made their way to the staircases on the other side of the door and descended a few floors to evade the walking dead. Stopping about three floors down, roughly the second or third story, Nate leads the group out, aiming his shotgun down one path while William trains the pistol he has the other way. The Princesses file out after him, and the Seraph brothers take up the rear. As they make their way down the hall towards another entrance to the parking garage, Roland quietly mumbles to the four Alicorns.

"Just to ensure our safety, do not, under any normal circumstances, engage the undead. Refrain from attacking when the opportunity arises, as from our prior experiences show they react only to sound. If you make too much noise, their eyes will glow purple, and will always know where you are. Keep an eye on their eyes, and you will be fine."

Raymond stepped up on their other side, walking carefully around some crumpled papers and tickets.

"This is important, Princesses. On top of their odd shift in senses, the infected are powerful enough to break down a normal door, as you've seen in the parking garage up above. Once you get grabbed, it will be hard to get away, so tread carefully, OK?"

They nodded as the group managed to reenter the parking garage. Staying to the sides, they kept their footsteps and hoofsteps light, hoping that even the faintest echo will not draw any untimely attention from the beasts that lurk above and below.

"KYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

""""!!!""""

The four boys immediately grabbed the Princesses, slamming their hands over their muzzles and ducking under the ledge that looked off into the city. The Alicorns struggled for a moment, then heard the screaming outside.

"NO!!! DON'T BITE ME!!!"

Nate, who had Luna, leaned up to peek over towards the commotion, hearing plenty of the screeching of both the people and the damned souls that fell to this contagion. A group of younger folk, some even students, had alerted a fair bit of the horde that initially chased the four boys and the Alicorns. Without guns, or adequate weapons, they didn't stand a chance. A horrendous crunch on a girl's ribcage made Nate close his eyes as Luna's ears folded back. Nate, sitting back down, looked to the others. Twilight and Cadence looked as if they wanted to intervene, and to an extent, so did Luna, but Celestia knew very well they couldn't save them. She, like Raymond, braced for the horrific noises that would assault their ears.

"NO!!! STOP!!! SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP!!!"

*CRUNCH*

"OOOWWWW!!!"

More screaming and howling came before the silence was only met with the dead feasting on their freshly-made corpses. For a time, the group of eight sat there, silent and still. Twilight wanted to scream, to call out and yell at the boys for letting those people die, but she paused. Roland's hand, which was still over her mouth, was shaking. She turned her eyes up to him, seeing a blank expression that didn't even need emotion to tell the anxiety and fear laced in his eyes. The other boys shared similar looks, but some were more nerved than others, and slowly, they let go of the Princesses, standing back up and looking over the rail.

"Jesus..."

"This is getting bad..."

Raymond walked by them, patting Roland's shoulder as he moved along.

"C'mon, let's keep moving..."

Twilight and Cadence didn't budge. At least, not until Luna and Celestia ushered them along with a bit of force. No matter how much they wanted to protest and intervene, they knew the elder Princesses had experience with war, and moreover, sacrifice. They, on the other hand, were still fresh to their roles, and had yet to experience an all-out war. This plague may as well be their first.

Descending down another level, Nate stopped the group as he peeked around a corner.

"We got some of the horde here... No purple eyes, though."

He leaned back and motioned them to lower their noise and their pace.

"Go slow. They may not be able to see you without the purple eyes, but they know when someone's footsteps is off-pattern. Keep yourself paced slow."

They all nodded, moving in a single file behind Nate as he slowly walked out. Keeping their steps spread out and gentle, they quietly approached and melded with the horde, swallowing their voices as several grunts, shrill hisses, and squeaks from the dead unnerved them. The boys had their guns trained on every nearby corpse coming and going, and the Princesses were either tensed up, or shaking like leaves. Twilight almost gave them away when a shambling body brushed past her, but she was quickly silenced when Cadence stuffed a hoof in her mouth.

William cringed. There was no way they'd be able to get to the SWAT truck undetected if they kept going like this. Looking around, he spotted a brick by his foot. Picking it up, he turned himself and threw it to one of the cars off to the side, breaking the side window.

A collective cry came from the small-numbered horde, and they fast-walked towards the noise. They beat on the car limply, still unaware of any Human or Pony presences. Once they all passed them, the group was now able to move freely. Finally getting down to ground level, it seemed as if they had a chance to get through unscathed and without having to fire a single bullet.

*BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP--!!!*

That is, until Celestia's rump hit the side of a car's fender and set off its alarm. The echoing beeping of the alarm made the four humans go pale, especially when they heard the howling of the dead from every direction.

"OoooooOOOOOH SHIIIIT!!!!"