Little Sunshine stared out of the window of the shelter, staring at the sky, looking at the gray masses of storm clouds. That's all she had ever known in her life; the filly had been born after the plague struck. She had lived with death her whole life, and it didn't bother her at all. She did see it every day, after all.

Her father, Rock, had told her stories. Of course, most of them were about the time before all this happened, but he had told her one in particular, one that she would never forget. It was about a heroic mare named Rainbow Dash, who had made the ultimate sacrifice to make sure her father and the other's survived. Rock had told her about them leaving the cave to see a giant rainbow in the sky. He said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Rock had trained Sunshine to scavenge, to hunt, and of course, to kill. It was the normal way of life; neighbors these days tended to greet each other by pointing guns at each other and walking away slowly and carefully. Sunshine was a dead shot with a rifle, and despite her tender age, killing the infected was her favorite pastime. Food was scarce; all the towns and farms were overrun years ago, and food production was at an all-time low. They hunted in the Everfree for all their meals now; while most of the meals consisted of fried Parasprite, occasionally the hunters would bag a Manticore. Manticores were delicious, once you got out their claws and venom sacs.

Rock and his friends were always going on about how the pony race couldn't continue going on; how they would run out of food, or the infected would finally catch them. They've mutated several times in Sunshine's life; being able to gallop with the muscles being in such low condition, growing strange protective tumors on their heads, and even being able to be transmitted through rodents. That's why the hunters always burn the Parasprites they catch in water before cooking them; an extra precaution. It seems to be working; nopony's been infected by that yet.

Sunshine lived a good life (considering the circumstances), until one day, her father was bitten. Since the survivors only look out for themselves and their own families, Sunshine was left an orphan. She left the shelter one day, in her teenage years, to live life for herself. She went around, staying in abandoned towns, villages, and houses, taking food from whomever and whatever she could, and shot anything that dared try to get to her. Every day, Sunshine fought off the depression that was created by her father's death. She vowed that she would eradicate this disease to avenge him. One day, the world would be safe again. One day...

Author's Note

This is both to summarize what happened (low food, mutations) and make a gateway for a sequel. Well... bye everypony!