Sirens flared in all directions and panic was in every direction.
A glossy white earth pony was lost in the chaos, frustrated and desperate she galloped into a nearby alleyway in between a barber and a bakery. It seemed like just yesterday, Angelwhiskers had her whole life sorted out, she'd move in with her now deceased coltfriend and continue her job as a nurse in the Manehattan Central Hospital.
But today, she was crying into her golden mane in an alley way. She sobbed through the memories of her coltfriend, Safehaven, being EATEN by that thing that was once his mailpony. It wasn't until the screams grew closer did she sink further into her alley, she desperately ran through the back streets until she reached the main road.
That's when everything went black.
Angelwhiskers woke up to find herself staring at the ceiling. Dazed from her unconscious state, she moaned as she looked around at an unfamiliar room only to find one other pony sitting against the wall. The light brown earth pony tipped her royal blue hat in greetings, her sapphire eyes glistened in the florescent lighting and finally spoke.
"Hey hun, you passed out on the streets and ah carried you to this here sanctuary. Ah'm Sapphire Stone, but you can call me Sapphire. Pleasure to meet you-"
"Angel. My name is Angelwhiskers.." The white pony finished her sentence.
"Well howdy partner, ah should warn you, zombies aint the right folk to be fainting near." Sapphire chuckled.
As if on que, Angel's golden eyes dilated at hearing the word 'zombies'. She heard about them in an old mares tale but believed it was just a crazy story. "Wha- what are you talking about? Where am I?"
"You're in an apartment building off of Hoofen street, believe it or not but the folks made an emergency shelter here. Didn't expect zombies but ah'm not complaining. Golden Sentry almost wouldn't let me bring ya in here without having a full body search for bites." Sapphire answered tiredly, as she had just run several blocks with a mare on her back.
"Who's Golden Sentry? Are there other ponies who came here?" Angel was shaking, growing worried about the nearby future.
"Golden is the colt that saved us. Also not many ponies came, just Golden, Charcoal, you and ah. Not many ponies know about the sanctuary down here, Golden Sentry led me here after he saw that I was with ya. Suppose hes got somewhat of a soft-spot for strugglin' mares." Sapphire replied.
Two colts then came into the infirmary after hearing the mystery mare had awoken.
Golden Sentry was a khaki colored stallion with the same radiant eyes as Angel. His mane was in dissaray.
Charcoal on the other hoof had an ashy coat with smokey eyes. His mane was deep blue and long, he also looked unsettled.
They exchanged glances with one another before Golden Sentry spoke up.
"So Angelwhiskers, eh? Look. Charcoal and I put a lot on the line sticking our necks out for you two. So I don't wan't you doing something stupid while zombies are out there."
Charcoal nodded in silent agreement.
Sapphire spoke up to offer her rebuttal. "We won't cause any harm."
"Funny you say that.. Look there are several ponies struggling for survival out in the area. We need- expendable ponies out there to help anypony and bring them back here." Golden Sentry lowered his muzzle in grief.
"Wha-what! You expect us to go back out there?! You have to be joking.. I'm no fighter, none the less a zombie killer!" Angel was astonished at such a request.
"Wouldn't you want them to do the same for you? Just like your friend here did for you?" Golden replied.
Sapphire sat quietly in the corner of the room. "Please Angel.. There are more ponies out there.. We can save them!"
"No, no this is a ridiculous request!" She hid her muzzle into her hooves.
"Just sleep on it, it's nearly 2 am. You can come back to me tomorrow morning." Golden finally said while he and Charcoal stepped out of the room.
"Come on hun, you're bunking with me tonight." Sapphire said as she let the white earth pony out of the room and into a small room with two beds and a lamp lying on the floor.
Angel lied down on her bed and watched Sapphire expertly toss her hat onto the end of her bed and jumped into it.
"So why'd you do it?"
"Why what?" Sapphire was confused as she settled into her cot.
"Why did you pick me up? On the streets?" Angel investigated.
"Ah dunno.. Just something in mah head told me to." Sapphire replied.
"Oh.. I don't mean to be rude, but you don't sound like you're from Manehatten." Angelwhiskers bit her lip for a moment waiting for the dark-brown maned mare to respond.
"Ah'm from Dodge Junction, the city that grows cherries all day? Ah just moved into Manehattan a few weeks ago." Sapphire replied.
"Why? Do you have family or something?" Angel asked her new friend.
"Nope, Ah just came to explore Equestria. Not much to do in Dodge anyway." Sapphire said with a broad look on her face.
"Well thank you so much Sapphire. For uh.. picking me up and all." Angelwhiskers said and Sapphire gave her a nod of acknowledgment. Angelwhiskers then felt exhaustion hit her like a brick wall and at that the two mares fell asleep quickly.
Sapphire Stone stirred awake first.
She yawned and stretched her legs and then perfectly kicked her hat onto her short mane. As much as she tried to keep herself together she was just as nervous as the white mare that lay across from her. However she was a rodeo champion in the mares rodeo challenges that were held back in Appleloosa awhile ago. She exited her bed as stealthy as she could and proceeded to go into the kitchen to see what was stored in the apartment. To her delight, Charcoal was already awake, cooking breakfast.
"Care to join me?" Charcoal had said for the first time Sapphire could recollect. She nodded in agreement and sat at a table for four and watched the colt slide a couple of slices of toast onto a second plate and walked over to where the mare had situated herself and served the plates of toast.
"So what's your story?.." Sapphire had asked while they ate.
"We may be dead by tonight so I'll tell you." Sapphire nearly choked on her food at hearing this. "Born and raised in Baltimare. Golden as well, after all we're fillyhood friends. We've done most things together, as a team. I think he's more in control but I don't mind, hes got a good sense of leadership." Charcoal paused for a moment to swallow his food. "We came to Manehattan for the usual: parties, mares, and excitement. Although it wasn't like that for very long, we started hearing the radiation explosions from the Crystal Empire up north. So we decided to become prepared for anything and set this safe haven up."
"Ah see." Sapphire listened to him speak as she enjoyed her food.
"And yourself?" Charcoal inquired to hear the country pony's story.
"Ah don't have much to tell. Rodeo champ down south, bucked cherry trees most of mah life. Moved to Manehattan because ah grew tired of the same ol' thing, ah wanted to see the bustlin' city."
Angelwhiskers awoke as Sapphire left the room. Resting in her cot for a moment she got to her hoofs, yawned and walked out the door to bump into Golden Sentry
"Oh, sorry.." Angel said worried she had angered him.
"It's fine, come with me I have to show you something." The large colt said as he led her down the hallway and into a room to the left. The room was filled with monitors and electrical equipment.
"What is this place?" Angel had asked the colt.
"This is the camera-room, I'm not going to let some innocent mare wander the streets without my guidance. Days before the outbreak in Manhattan, Charcoal and I set up everything we could think of." Golden had reassured the poor mare it was safe or at least, not suicide.
"How did you know zombies would infest Manhatten, why didn't you tell anypony?" Angel had a shocked expression thinking about her colt-friend, wondering if he could still be living rather than sprawled on the floor of his kitchen.
She fought back tears as Golden replied. "We didn't know for sure. We just took a chance. Look, I just want you to know we'll be watching over you for a ten mile radius. We've broke into every camera possible we could find the past few days."
"Alright. I'll do it." The white earth pony finished her statement when Golden Sentry grinned and led her into the kitchen.
Golden and Angel walked into the kitchen to be greeted by the two other ponies and be served by Charcoal. Sapphire Stone and Angelwhiskers exchanged friendly smiles as she sat next to the brown mare. Golden Sentry had rushed back out of the kitchen to only return with 3 walki-talkies and two saddlebags that clanked with gear inside of them. "Ready girls? The longer we wait the less ponies there are still surviving."
Angelwhiskers quickly ate her breakfast only to be given a quick briefing. Golden had sat down with a map that he pulled from one of the saddlebags. "Ok so here is the apartment, I've circled it in red for your convenience, you're welcome, and over here is the Super-Duper Market, only a few blocks down the road. Charcoal and I will also be informing you two along the way via walki-talkie. You two need to just get into the market and search for any SANE pony that you can convince to travel back with you to the apartment, there's a basement door in the back in which you'll be using permanently. There is a nine millimeter pistol in each saddlebag, although use them as a last resort, we don't need to draw attention and we need to conserve ammo. Other than that, you two ponies have canteens and small knives. Any questions?"
Angel and Sapphire looked at each other and gulped down a struggling breath.
"Ah think we're ready."