The Trotting Dead

Rarity screamed like a little filly as she threw herself up from her prone position.

She placed a hoof to her chest and struggled to get her breathing under control again as a little orange head poked itself in from the doorway.

"Hey, keep it down in here!" Scootaloo whispered. "There are still some things walking around out there!"

"S-Scootaloo?! Where am I, where's Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom? Where are the others?" Rarity questioned, her words a simple flurry of noise that Scootaloo barely picked up.

"Whoa, calm down Rarity; you're safe. You're in the Cutie Mark Crusader Base of Operations!" the orange pegasi said proudly. "Which is really just our tree house on Sweet Apple Acres, but still. Apple Bloom's up on the roof and Sweetie Belle's just outside. I don't know about your friends though." Scootaloo replied.

As she finished, Sweetie Belle came running around the corner and plowed into Scootaloo to reach Rarity, who held out her hooves in an attempt to catch the little filly who had launched herself at the fully grown unicorn mare.

"Rarity! I've missed you so much!" Sweetie Belle cried happily as she and Rarity embraced each other.

"Oh, I've missed you too, darling..." Rarity whispered through sniffles. "Have you three been living out here all by yourselves since this happened?"

"Uh huh! We even got our cutie marks in zombie killing! Look, look!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, climbing off her sister and presenting her flank for Rarity to see.

Scootaloo joined in happily alongside her friend.

"We all have the exact same cutie mark!" the pair announced happily, much to Rarity's surprise.

"Will y'all keep it down in there? Ah'm trahin tuh fahnd Twilight an' the others!" Apple Bloom hissed from the roof.

Rarity sighed in relief that her younger sister and her friends were all safe, but something began poking at her mind.

"Sweetie Belle, how did I get here? What all happened?"

"Oh, well, we were all just minding our own business up in the tree house when all of the sudden Rainbow Dash swooped in!" Sweetie Belle said.

"Yea, and then we all raced off towards where she said you guys were with Big Mac and we beat him!" Scootaloo cheered, swinging a hoof up in an uppercut-like-motion.

"But before we got him down he was throwing his hooves around like crazy! One of them caught you in the face and he started charging at the others so they ran off." Sweetie Belle concluded, as if retelling an epic battle that hadn't
left Rarity with a black eye and a throbbing head ache, not to mention being without her friends' company.

"Sweetie Belle, where any of you three...Bitten?" Rarity asked cautiously.

"Nope! Not a scratch on any of us!" Sweetie Belle answered.

"Eeyup! We're as fit as a fiddle!" Apple Bloom added as she came into the room.

Turning to Rarity, the little yellow filly's face lit up as she opened her mouth again to speak. "Ah found yer friends! They're huddled o'er by the edge of the trees, but they're nowhere near where Twilight is. So, who do ya wanna go save first?"

Rarity saved herself a moment to simply stare at the trio before her, all beaming with pride and happiness as they stared back.

How can they be so happy? Rarity mused. Have they not witnessed the horrors? Or is their friendship simply strong enough to keep them all going...?

"Uh, Rarity?" Scootaloo asked curiously, breaking the white unicorn's concentration.

"Oh, I'm sorry...Twilight seems to be the most vulnerable right now, and the rest of the group is sticking together, correct?" Rarity wondered aloud.

"Eeyup!" Apple Bloom responded.

"Well then, let us go rescue our purple-coated friend."

"We're lost." Pinkamena snarled.

"We are not lost. We're just...Uh...Directionally confused." Rainbow Dash defended as she headed the group with Fluttershy close behind and Pinkamena bringing up the rear.

"Lost."

"Um...I-If we all could just stop fighting...? I mean, we're missing two ponies now and I don't think we're alone out here..." Fluttershy begged quietly.

Her protests went unnoticed as the pink and blue ponies continued their argument.

"Look, me and Fluttershy could just fly off and leave you here, and then you'd be the lost one!" Rainbow Dash retorted.

"Fluttershy and I." Pinkamena corrected smugly. "And what would Rarity say when she found out? Assuming, after all, that she's still alive after you ditched her."

"What are you, a dictionary? And you're here with me, so what does that say about you, huh?!" Rainbow Dash snapped, spinning on her hooves and trotting to the back of the line.

As the two mares pressed their foreheads together and growled at each other, a little yellow wing carefully made its way between their chests and gently pushed them apart.

"G-Girls, we can't be fighting each other; or at least not out here. We still have two missing ponies that we need to find..." Fluttershy reminded them.

The two glared at each other before returning to their original positions and marching on through the apple trees.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep-

"Wait a second." Twilight said to herself, pulling her mind from her...Well, from her mind. "Ponies don't swim..."

The little sanity and logic that Twilight suddenly possessed was lost in an instant as a twig snapped from somewhere within the orchard.

Twilight curled up into a ball and gently petted her ruffled tail, humming quietly to herself while she waited for two things.

A) The inevitable discovery of her being by one of those horrendous creatures which would lead to her ultimate demise.
B) The discovery of her being by her dear, safe, non-zombie friends and her rescue.

Another twig snapped, and Twilight felt the undying need to peer out from the leaves and branches...