The city of Canterlot is in total shambles. One day, everything was peaceful and quiet. The next… the dead were coming back to life, seemingly out of the blue. Like pouring gas to a flame, chaos ignited within Canterlot, covering the city within the span of a day. Most of everyone gathered what they could and attempted to flee the city which only spread the chaos even further as the undead quickly grew in numbers. Within a few days, the entire city was overrun.

It had all started one spring day when a certain curious and nerdy girl by the name of Twilight Sparkle was experimenting with strange magic she had discovered not long after the disastrous Friendship Games. Being consumed by magic and being turned into a demon didn't seem to have taught the young woman a lesson, but that didn't stop her from being curious. But then all of a sudden, the device she had this magic sample contained in experienced a malfunction due to unknown causes, causing the magic to escape and morph into the nearest living thing, that of course being Twilight. Instead of being turned into a she-demon once more, something else happened instead, something worse. She was killed. And moments later, what had awoken and risen from the floor of her bedroom was no longer Twilight, but rather an undead corpse with glowing white eyes and slightly paler skin.

And now, almost a week after everything went to hell in a handbasket, four survivors are all that remain as far as they knew, having been smart enough to wait out the beginning of the chaos.

“Sunset, how much food do we still have?” Ashana asked her adopted big sister.

“With all four of us, what we have left won’t last more than two days,” Sunset replied.

Ashana was a twi’lek and for as long as she could remember, she was raised on Earth and had ended up here with no knowledge as to how and why. But it was one fall day eighteen years ago that she was discovered in a basket in the woods of the Everfree Forest just outside city limits. All she had as a reminder of where she came from is her lightsaber, and.. Well.. herself, since she’s not exactly human, but rather a humanoid. Ashana had cyan skin with pink hued eyes, her choice of clothing is a white collared sleeveless shirt over a fire orange t-shirt with purple jeans flowing into purple boots that went three quarters up her calf.

Her adopted big sister, Sunset, was of course human as was the rest of their group. Sunset was 28 years old and had a career as a famous musician, but after the death of her parents, she put her tour at the time on hold so as to look after Ashana, as the young twi'lek was then and now the only family she had left.

The other members of their group were women by the names of Luna and Celestia. Luna was the former vice principal of Canterlot High, the 33 year old also happened to be Sunset's wife.

Celestia was 36 years old, and the former head principal of Canterlot High. Celestia had a plump and beautifully curvaceous mature figure that could put an adult film star to shame, complete with an hourglass figure, a dump truck booty that was as soft and squishy as dough, and a pair of full and luscious breasts. The older woman took her career very seriously, just as seriously as her relationship to Ashana, which was quite the shock to everyone when they made it public. Sure, a principal dating one of her students was incredibly frowned upon, but the two women went through the proper legal steps and they both now have documents from the mayor herself that proves their relationship is perfectly legal and fully consensual. Regardless that the young twi'lek was half her age, Celestia loved Ashana very much, and they sure had fun together as girlfriends.

"And to think the military ran off to who knows where, leaving all of us to die," Celestia spoke up.

During the initial start of the apocalypse, the military thought they could contain it but were sorely mistaken. And when they realized this, they panicked and ran away, leaving everyone in the city to die. At the first sign of trouble, they abandoned the people they swore an oath to protect so as to protect themselves.

"Well let's get going then. I'm not sure how many of those things are out there, but I suppose we're about to find out," Luna said, clutching her metal baseball bat.

Each of them had their own choice of melee weapons as they didn't dare try to find a gun shop during the dawn of the apocalypse as it was far too chaotic and even now it's not likely there would be much left, but it was worth a shot to check out. Luna had a bat, Celestia had a katana she had acquired not long after she had graduated college and hadn't used it until now, Sunset had her electric guitar, and Ashana had her lightsaber which had been with her since she was found as a baby.

Preparing themselves, Sunset moved the spare sofa she had placed in front of the door, unlocked it, and opened the door as they all walked out into the lobby with Sunset shutting it after them. Regrouping in the lawn of Sunset and Ashana's simple one story house, they looked out to see a sight that had remained the same for almost a week. Cars and bodies littered the streets with various pillars of smoke still rising throughout the city. Knowing that the best move was to leave Sunset's car behind as it would most likely draw unwanted attention, the four survivors decided to head out on foot to scavenge for any supplies.

Going right, they made their way down the street, looking over the various corpses and damaged vehicles, recognizing some and not being able to make out others. Passing by one of the houses on their block though, Ashana did identify two corpses that were pretty mangled in the front lawn.

"It's a shame Fudge and his mother didn't survive," Ashana commented, stopping briefly to look over their partially devoured corpses. "Even though he went to a different school, he always cared about everyone regardless of their school. His mother certainly raised a gentleman."

"He certainly was a bright young man," Luna added. "One of the top students at Crystal Prep second only to Twilight from what Cadence has told me when we last talked."

Before she stood back up, Ashana collected Fudge and Lavender's lightsabers with the intent that they be taken care of and put to good use and kept them in her back pants pockets for the time being.

"Hmm. Cocoa's not here. Hopefully she either managed to survive or is dead like them so she doesn't have to suffer as one of those zombie freaks," Sunset commented.

Continuing their trek down the street, they came across a wrecked police convoy with the trunks of each vehicle wide open. Agreeing to make another pit stop, they looked through the trunks, and to their surprise, they found rifles, shotguns, and pistols with quite a bit of ammunition to top it all off. How this stockpile wasn't raided by now is baffling, but that mattered little. They each took a gun of their choosing and a good portion of ammo for each. Sunset and Luna both took an M16 assault rifle, Celestia took an auto shotgun, and Ashana just took two Glock 19 semi-auto pistols as she preferred to use her lightsaber.

Aside from the guns and ammunition, another trunk also had molotov cocktails and pipe bombs.

"Damn, we hit the jackpot," Sunset commented, looking down the sight of her new rifle. "I don't know if this was from the police station or a raid, but it's now our good fortune. We should take what we can. Not too much or it'll weigh us down."

After they each grabbed a molotov and a pipe bomb, they continued their journey to the grocery store to hopefully get as much food as they can. Getting further into the city, they decided to weave through back alleys so as to stay off the streets and out of the open as much as possible. They of course knew they'd be discovered eventually, but that doesn't mean they can't still be careful.

Walking down one of the city's dark alleys, the quartet came across an odd sight. And boy was the smell revolting.

"Oh-.. they smell worse when they're actually dead," Sunset commented, covering her nose and mouth.

One of the corpses appeared to have had its entire top half blown off.

"Eugh. Let's keep moving," Luna spoke, pinching her own nose.

Moving along, an audible scream cut through the air and the quartet sprinted to find the source of the scream. Going down another alley, they found what caused the scream: a young woman, sitting on the ground while leaning against one of the brick walls, a hand over the area between the left shoulder and the neck, a sign that she had just been bitten as the wound was oozing blood.

"Cocoa?" Ashana spoke up, identifying and getting the attention of the young woman clutching her bleeding wound.

"He-.. cough, Hey, A-Ashana. Good to.. see you guys made it this.. far. So much for.. me though.." Cocoa sputtered, her words catching in her throat as she continued to bleed out, the infection beginning to take hold of her.

"I wish we could have found you sooner though," Ashana responded, crouching in front of her dying friend.

"Don't… worry about me. But… be cough careful. The zombies.. they're getting.. smarter. Like the one… cough.. that just bit me. It.. it was, following me. Please… kill me. I don't… want to become one of them.." Cocoa croaked, now coughing blood.

Before Ashana could speak again, Cocoa lazily reached out her own lightsaber to the twi'lek, to which Ashana took it in her hand. She really didn't wanna take her friend's life while she was still breathing, but she knew that Cocoa didn't have long, and it would only be moments after her death that she would reanimate as a zombie. So as she clutched the saber in her hand tightly, she placed the emitter against Cocoa's forehead as the young woman closed her eyes.

"Goodbye, Cocoa," Ashana said as she ignited the lightsaber, the indigo blue blade piercing Cocoa's skull, putting her into an eternal sleep and ending her suffering. Moments after deactivating the lightsaber, Ashana fell completely to her knees, the weight of having taken a human life hitting her like a bus.

"Ashana, sweetheart, I know it hurts, but we have to keep going. If we survive, her death and everyone else's won't be for nothing. As long as we live on, so do the memories of them," Celestia commented, placing a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder.

Recollecting herself, Ashana stood back up and took a deep breath.

"You're right," Ashana responded, keeping what Luna had said in her mind. "Here. Take Cocoa's lightsaber. Sunset and Luna… take Fudge and Lavender's. You'll need them whenever you run out of ammo."

As they collected the sabers, a faint growling noise caught their attention and looking down the alley, they spotted a group of zombies at the end of it, their eyes glowing a bright white.

"Uh oh. Looks like we got company," Sunset spoke.

Some of the zombies let out a shriek and began running toward the survivors. And before they could get within a few feet of the survivors, Ashana ignited her fire orange lightsaber and threw it with the force, cutting each of the zombies' heads off with precision. Within seconds, all of the zombies were decapitated.

"Well… nevermind," Celestia commented as Ashana pulled her saber back to her and deactivated it.

"We need to hurry," Ashana said, taking the lead. But just before they got to the edge of the alley leading out into the streets, a faint but audible sound caused the twi'lek to stop dead in her tracks as the others followed suit.

"What is it, Ashana?" Sunset asked.

"Shh," Ashana responded, holding up a finger. "Do you hear that?"

Although they didn't catch it at first, Sunset, Luna, and Celestia soon took note of what caused Ashana to pause and dawned worried expressions themselves. The sound was that of repeated thumping on the ground, almost like if a gorilla was loose in the streets. As Ashana peeked around the corner, what she saw was definitely not a gorilla. There, in the middle of the intersection several yards away, was a big hulking monstrosity, pounding its massive trunk-like fists on the ground as it walked down one of the other streets.

"I think that was one of the new zombies that Cocoa was talking about, but I can't say for certain. That thing was massive. Boy I'd hate to get that thing's attention. It'd probably take more ammo than what we've got to take it down," Ashana spoke in a somewhat quiet tone.

"Like some kind of zombie tank or something? Oh great," Luna grunted. "The supermarket shouldn't be too far, right?"

"No. Just a half a mile to go. But since that big guy is around now, we need to take extreme caution. All hell's gonna break loose if we get its attention," Ashana responded.

"Ok. Let's get out onto the sidewalk, but be careful. Stay sharp," Ashana continued.

Slipping out onto the sidewalk, the quartet made their way across the intersection while trying to be as quiet as possible so as to not alert the big guy. Getting over to the other side, they kept going until Luna felt something grab her ankle, causing her to stumble.

"Gah!" Luna shouted, igniting the lime green blade of Lavender's lightsaber and cutting at whatever had grabbed her ankle without thinking, and also cut into the vehicle this arm had come out from underneath, setting off its alarm.

"Oh shit," Sunset croaked as a loud roar cut through the air as the big guy had turned around and beat his chest with his fists and then pounded them on the ground. If that wasn't terrifying enough, a loud howling sound soon followed as a large group of the undead began running towards them on the end of the street behind them. "To the left! Go!"

The quartet of survivors made a run for it down the street to their left as the horde pursued them as well as the big guy, shooting at the undead when they could. The regular zombies that were shot were killed instantly, and the big guy was unphased. In fact, the bullets that hit him only seemed to anger him further. Remembering they had grenades, Sunset quickly took out her pipe bomb, used Fudge's lightsaber to ignite the fuse, pressed the button to activate the beeping, and threw it at the horde. For the most part it worked, drawing in the regular zombies as they clawed at the little ticking bomb. The only one still pursuing the survivors was of course the big guy who then slammed his fists into the road, ripping out a large chunk of the asphalt and threw it towards them.

"Look out!" Sunset shouted as they just barely missed it as it crumbled upon impact. Regaining their composure, the survivors continued running as the pipe bomb Sunset threw finally went off as it took care of the horde, sending blood and body parts flying, leaving only the hulking monstrosity still in pursuit.

"It seems as though Big Macintosh has had extensive exercises," Luna said, recognizing the monster as what used to be the elder brother to Applejack and Apple Bloom. Whatever the virus actually was had turned what used to be Big Mac into a raging mutated monster hellbent on crushing any living person it happened to come across.

Deciding to try and get to higher ground and figure out a way to escape the city, the survivors spotted a fire escape on the side of an apartment complex and ran towards it. Before reaching the ladder, Ashana ignited the cloth in her molotov and threw it at the raging monster, the bottle shattering upon impact and the monster instantly ignited into flames. Using the force to hold it in place as long as possible so the others could get up the fire escape first, Ashana let go of the monster and leaped up from wall to wall all the way up to the roof of the complex where her group waited.

Still immensely enraged and also engulfed in flames, the monster attempted to climb up the fire escape, but due to its massive size, the structure began to collapse and it fell to the ground as its burning body was pierced by the sharp broken ends of the fire escape, sending it back to death.

"That… was a little close. If they're beginning to mutate, then we can't stay here any longer. We need to get out of the city," Luna said.

"Agreed. We need to get back to the house as soon as we get some food to last us for a little while so that we'll have a car," Sunset added as they looked down at the burning corpse of what used to be Big Macintosh.

"Well then. We'll need to-," Ashana began to speak before she felt another presence up there with them, and the fact she could feel this presence was an indicator that this was a living person. "We're not alone up here."

Turning around, the quartet eyed what appeared to be another survivor. And any face that wasn't rotting or had flesh hanging from its mouth was a welcomed addition to the group.

Things were beginning to look up….

Author's Note

And we're off. Now I'm going to write this on my own as I feel confident enough to do so. Bear with me as it may not be the best at times, but I'm gonna do my best to make sure this is a good read for you all.

Big thanks to Some Leech for being a big inspiration as a whole, as well as being a good friend.

Stay safe everyone, and may the force be with you.