Surviving Equestria's Queen

The office room was silent, aside from the scribbling of a pen held in a purple aura as form after form was signed by the recently-appointed queen of Equestria. Paper after paper was neatly moved from one well-stacked pile to another, only for a teal aura to pick it up and organize it in a nearby cabinet.

“Thanks for coming all the way from Ponyville on such short notice, Starlight,” Twilight said as more forms were added to the pile. “With Spike visiting the Dragon Lands for the next week, paperwork had been piling up.”

“No need to thank me, Twilight, I'm happy to help an old friend. Besides, it's a bit nostalgic too.” Starlight levitated the large pile of request letters sent by Canterlot’s elite with her magic and teleported them into the nearest volcano.

Suddenly, the door to the office burst open and a Royal Guard charged inside, bowing before Twilight. “I bring disturbing news, my Queen. It seems the dead have risen from their graves in a nearby town and are moving towards Canterlot!”

Starlight blinked. “The undead? Are you sure?”

Twilight’s horn shone bright, and a large pool of purple magic spread across a good portion of the floor, forming an overview of the lands outside of Canterlot. After a bit of searching, Starlight was able to spot the crowd of dead creatures slowly advancing through the now dead grass.

“Sweet, Celestia.” She looked at Twilight, who appeared to either be frozen or deep in thought. Maybe she needed help with this one, like old times. "Alright, there's not a lot of them, so if we move the troops right now we should be able to surround the horde and prevent them from moving to more populated areas and growing their numbers. Once encircled-”

Twilight cut her off with a firm voice. "We'll do no such thing."

Starlight was shocked. "W-wha- why?" Maybe she had missed something? Was there a fault in her strategy?

“We can't trust the military, Starlight. They always turn out to be worse than the undead, killing civilians to prevent the spread, if not being the ones that cause the infection in the first place."

Starlight stared at Twilight, waiting for the punchline.

Waiting.

“Are you serious?” She looked at the Royal Guard still bowing to the queen, seemingly having no opinions on the matter. "But, Twilight. We are the military! They answer directly to you!"

Twilight scoffed. "Yes, they'll answer for their crimes. In fact, I want a full investigation to find the culprits."

“It'll be done at once, princess,” the guard galloped away before Starlight could stop him.

“It saddens me to think that our own forces would commit such treason,” Twilight said with a pained voice, to Starlight's complete disbelief.

“Twilight, why in Tartarus would the Royal Guard be behind this? What would they even gain from this?”

“Of that I'm not sure yet, probably some sort of super soldier.”

“Do you at least have any proof this would be even a possibility?”

“Well, if they didn't do it, who else?”

Starlight's eye twitched. "Oh, I don't know, maybe the stallion with rotten skin, emitting green smoke, and carrying like seven skulls on them!” She pointed at said pony through the magical projection who was currently spearheading the horde and cackling with glee.

Twilight looked at him for half a second and shook her head. "That's probably just a Skull Crusher fan."

Starlight raised her hoof, "That…” then lowered it. “No, actually you got me there. He could be."

“See? So it must be the military. Just like in Spike’s comics.”

“A Skull Crusher fan and a necromancer aren't mutually exclusive, though.” Starlight paused. “Wait, did you say comics?”

“We don't have much time,” Twilight announced as she rose to her full height. “Once the troops can be trusted, we'll deal with this situation post-haste.”

“I- alright, I guess we've got a bit of time.” Starlight relented, hoping this wouldn't get out of control.