"Thank god." Victor ran a hand over his list, then festooned with checkmarks next to some of the items listed on it. Even better, a crate rested beside his desk with those collected items, ready to be used. "Alright, then we know what we still need." He pulled the list off the board, popping the poor pin along with it in the motion. "Let's have a look at the map and see if we can't spot it."

Luna was there in a moment. "A sound plan. We shall find where these ingredients may be." Her voice went quiet. "And if they are not to be found, we'll deal with that when we come to it."

"Hear Luna?" Angel poked her head in, just to walk in eagerly on spotting Luna. "Victor wake?" That was when she saw him. "Oh. Happy?"

Toby hopped into the room behind her, grinning as well. "We happy. Go?"

Sally came up the stairs and around the two bunnies, a cocky smile on her lips. "I bet Victor'll be happier with a nice mug." She placed a mug of coffee down. "A rare treat, but this feels like it calls for it."

Victor grinned at the newcomers. "Thanks. Good to see you two." His attention focused on the map, his hand tracing over the red lines. "Alright, the best hope for this stuff would be in a store, if it's anywhere at all. And the store we'd want, that we haven't picked clean already, would be here." He tapped at the map meaningfully. "Get in, grab a bag of fertilizer, get out. Don't get killed."

Luna nodded gently, her eyes locked on the map. "That sounds simple enough, given what we have been dealing with thus far. The plan being to spray it on zombies?" She chuckled softly, shaking her head slightly.

"Not just the fertilizer." He waved at his collection. "We have to make what we're gonna spray. A, uh, magic potion, if that helps."

Toby and Angel looked at each other with a shrug and a nod.

"We go. Find. Help?" Angel stepped forward with a grin. "Help yes?"

Toby grinned and patted her on the back. "Yes. We go."

Victor looked over the two smiling, and huge, rabbits. "This is becoming a bad habit. If we let you two take care of each mission, we'll forget how to do it ourselves." He pointed to them, then to Luna. "You all want to get back to wherever you came from. Whenever you do, we won't have you. And having that day hit us with us being too used to it would be bad."

He looked to Sally. "Grab a few boys. Go in, get out, keep it quiet. You know the deal."

"Right you are, Captain." Sally saluted sharply and wheeled around. She stopped by the two tsuki, reaching out and patting them gently on the backs. "You've been great help so far, both of you. We're not mad, but you can't do every mission. I bet he has a different one for you." She marched with purpose from the room.

Luna watched her departure, then turned to Victor. "Do we?"

Victor laughed softly, pointing to Angel and Toby. "I want you three to get me something."

"What?" Angel perked up with a smile.

Victor grinned at them. "I want you to find me some entertainment, something quiet enough that we can have some music and fun without drawing zombies here."

All three tilted their heads, though some left and others right. Luna raised a hoof. "Quiet, but it has music? Isn't that a contradiction?"

Victor laughed softly and waved at them. "It sounds like I've given you your mission, soldiers. Get me something to pass the time. I'll be here working on the recipe for the potion."

Hearing a dismissal, the tsuki scrambled from the room without another word. Luna was slower, peeking back at Victor before she ducked her head through the door and joined the others.

"I have an idea, which I remember from Equestria. I will have to hope they have it here too. If a pony wanted to play music quietly, they'd put on headphones." She raised her hooves to her ears, which twitched gently. "They cover your ears and let one person hear the music."

Toby grinned and nodded. "Find. Yes!"

Angel followed his excitement. "We get! Make find!"

"Let's go!" Toby leaped out to grab up weapons, shouldering a rifle and two pistols with ease.

Luna was on Toby in an instant. "Hold on, friend. Since when did you two consider weapons? I thought speed was your weapon."

Toby and Angel shared a glance, then he turned to her. "Too many. Can't always run. We try guns. Help."

Angel nodded along. "Fast is safe." She nodded firmly at that. "Not fast enough? Weapon." She grabbed a shotgun for herself, slipping it onto her back snugly. "Where go?"

Luna considered that. "If I had to guess, a store that shows music. Notes in the window? That would be where I'd search for both things that play music, and headphones." She raised her wings slightly. "Let us depart, and find these items!"

"Goodbye!" They both waved, eager to depart, and scrambled out.

***

Toby landed on the rooftop of a building, a short leap having carried him to this location. He could see the zombies milling about below, unaware of him for the moment. He nodded with satisfaction as he scanned the storefronts. Most of the windows were dirty, or just smashed. There were few clues on what might lie within. He grinned to himself as he saw a sign that looked to have some musical meaning. An old, tarnished horn hung above the door. His ears raised as he spotted it, pointing forward to catch any noises. What musical sounds may have come from it had died long ago, with the power.

Still, Angel and Luna saw where he was looking. Angel bounded in a great leap as Luna soared in on quiet wings. Toby was right behind them, landing heavily atop her.

"Toby!" She pushed up, her head shaking as she struggled to free herself from the ground. "What was that for?"

Toby grinned at her, patting her on the head. "Sorry." He stepped free of her, just to point ahead. "Music?"

Luna looked up at the horn. "Maybe. Let's be careful, please." She stepped up to what was once a window, broken long ago. "This way." She stepped up onto the counter behind the window, entering the store proper with a little flutter of wings.

The others followed, though not with so much grace and ease, instead stepping heavily into the dark interior. The dust in the air hung in place as they took position inside the shop. None of them saw anything moving around, at least.

Luna began picking and pulling through things along the darkened aisles. "Look for music, and headphones. I don't know what music would look like. Do they have records? Look for records." Her horn glowed, conjuring the image of what a record looked like.

Toby grinned, nodding eagerly. He could see the image perfectly, and that helped quite a bit in his search. He bounded down an aisle, finding it empty, but there were more. In the next, there were many things that could be music, but appeared nothing like records. He pulled one apart to find a smaller thing held inside. He held it up towards Luna with clear confusion. "Music?"

Luna squinted at the cassette. "Oh!" She nodded quickly. "I saw that musician, DJP? She had many letters in her name, but she used one of those with the contraption she wore constantly to play music." With that thought fresh in her mind, she scanned quickly through. While salvagers of the past were searching for things to keep them alive, many left the unassuming tape players behind, there, tucked in an open cubby in the counter.

Toby's ears perked as he watched what Luna was grabbing. "Oh!" He turned and grabbed another cassette tape. He passed it to Luna with a smile. "Music?"

Luna grinned and nodded. "Music." She turned to display the plastic container she held. "Behold, it comes with headphones!" She was pointing with a hoof, the box held in her magic. "Get all the tapes you can stuff in your bags."

Toby grinned and nodded, filling his bag with the cassettes that were left, while Luna busied herself with figuring out how exactly to get the tape player into her bag. Angel had been looking over the tapes with interest, grabbing up some of them to put away as well. She saw Luna still musing and grabbed the player from her, stuffing it away. "We fast. We go."

"Yes, let us get these back to Victor and his people." Luna nodded eagerly. "They will be very happy to see what we've found." She waited for the others to finish their gathering of loot, then made a quick escape out of the shop. They crashed into a zombie walking past so hard, the zombie went sprawling on the ground with a soft groan of discomfort, or was that hunger?

Luna looked down at the fallen zombie. "My apologies, sir." She turned to the others. "We'd best leave before he calls more friends to join him in looking at us. Farewell!" She snapped her wings out and took to the sky. Toby and Luna launched into their great leaps, leaving the poor zombie to rise and perhaps ponder what had just happened to it.

***

They came back to the compound without further incident, Toby grinning proudly as the door was opened by a soldier behind it. He and Angel both made for Victor's office.

Luna, however, paused, spotting something out of place. "Some of you are missing. Is Sally still on her mission? Did they make it out alright?" She turned to the nearest soldier, her head tilting with worry. "They did make it out?"

A soldier nearby turned to her, then waved down the hallway. "She's still out. We won't find out until she gets back." He sighed gently, shaking his head. "You'll know when she's back when she's back. Or she isn't."

Luna nodded, looking out towards the door. "I wish her well in her search." Humans seemed adaptable beings, but not as fast as a winged alicorn, or a tsuki. She put the thoughts from her mind as she pushed to join the tsuki in Victor's office.

He was there, smiling, perhaps grinning with the naked joy of what they had pulled out for him. "I wear, only one of you is called Angel, but you're all them. Half of you even have the wings." He took the player from Angel's furry fingers and tore at the plastic shell to free it to the air. "Please please please, damn it." Against his wishes, there were no batteries included. "My fault, good odds you don't even know what that is."

Toby and Angel looked confused. Luna chuckled softly. "I remember. They're in the red crate." She gestured back towards their supply cache. "They are a power source, if I understand it correctly."

He reached for one of the slender cylinders. "They are. We only have so many of them, is the thing. I'll have to keep my listening down to an hour a day at most to be responsible about it." He slid two into the player and closed it up. "Might last a month if I do it right. Still, it'll be a good month."

Luna nodded quietly. "You've found music, something to keep your spirits up and bring a smile to your face. Just as you told us to do."

Victor chuckled softly. "I didn't know you'd actually find something like this." He popped the headphones on and ran his hands over the tapes. "And so many choices. From nothing to spoiled for options. And none of you got hurt? Did you even see any zombies?"

Toby laughed and nodded. "Saw many!"

Angel nodded her agreement. "Saw. Not hurt."

Victor grinned at that, nodding to them quietly. "Good. You had no problems, and you found me some sweet entertainment." Sliding one of them into place, he pressed the play button and the rest could hear distant music coming from him. He sank into his chair with a pleased, but more sedate, smile. "I missed this so damn much." He almost looked like he could cry.

Luna waved to the others and led the way out of the room, leaving Victor to listen in peace. "I hope they found what they were looking for."

Toby and Angel both nodded at that.

Author's Note

Sometimes, a little music can brighten a dreary day. I think a zombie apocalypse counts.

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