Within the royal palace the two sisters sat alone within their study going through the lists of what supplies they had left. As to be expected, medicines were in the shortest of the supplies they had remaining, but food was not far behind, as Celestia was reading.
Other than the shuffling of papers as the two read through them and the tickling of the grandfather clock in the corner there was no sound. But finally Luna broke the silence, returning to an argument that they had shared many times, born of regret and self-resentment.
"We could have saved more, Tia!" Luna again repeated angrily to her sister, shoving the various documents on her desk to the floor and making a mess. "We more than had the power to bring the majority of the population to safety! Why did you only take these few?!"
"You've read the reports that came in from nearly everywhere, Luna. Many of the worst outbreaks happened because somepony was bitten and hid it from his or her fellows out of fear. When they turned, they infected their families or friends first, and when someone would eventually come to check on them several Shamblers would eat or infect that pony, and then they'd attack an unsuspecting survivor colony with nowhere to run from the inside. We could not take the same risk here."
"I've also read that full infection took as short as three hours from the first infection to up to three days to occur, sister. Our combined guards could have searched everypony we brought in by then!"
"And if a bare hoof full of infected hid away from everypony else where they could not be found out on the hopes that they might be immune?" Celestia asked quietly. "How many might we have lost then? Might we ourselves have gotten infected as we suspect happened to-" she broke off as the image of Twilight walking around with chunks of flesh missing from her body and milky white eyes filled her mind. It horrified her and nearly brought tears to her eyes. In Celestia's heart she suspected that Twilight was probably dead, but every night before bed she prayed to her mother that it was not so. "We raise and lower the sun and moon, Luna. Our deaths would mean the demise of the rest of the world.
"Infection risk wasn't the only reason, though. Have you noticed lately, Luna, that the cooks aren't giving out the portions they used to? To us or anypony else?" Luna's eyes widened in realization.
"We're running low on food supplies, aren't we?" Celestia nodded.
"You don't really think about it when the nation practically gives you food as if you were a Goddess, but our food supply is not infinite, and it came from the surrounding farm lands. Farm lands that are now abandoned. That is why I've been encouraging those brave and ingenuitive ponies that wanted to create the rooftop walkways and gardens."
"Should we not be negotiating for food first and foremost from the other nations, then?" Celestia shook her head.
"No. Unfortunately, even with the potential end of the world on our hoofs should this infection spread beyond our own species, the other nation leaders are still obsessed with politics, and the Gryphons have never stopped wanting to expand their borders. While I don't think their entire empire thinks the same way, nor do I believe that the Minotaurs would be so heartless, if some of their more ambitious leaders found out that we were already running low on food they would find a way to stall the sending of help until our little ponies all starved. A country cannot exist without its citizens."
"And of course the local Diamond Dog packs have problems of their own due to their burrows and dens being dug or built mostly at ground level..."
Luna felt bad for them. Even though only the Equestrians were the only ones to be infected by this disease (and possibly the Saddle Arabians and Zebras. They'd heard no reports so far about that, but it was well known that the zebras and the ponies and horses shared a common ancestry) that had not stopped the Shamblers from attacking and devouring them when and where they could. Nearly every den of Diamond Dogs that their nation had on record being within their nation's boundary lines had either evacuated, or been devoured (as reported from Pegasai scouts). Every other one had all their entrances and exits collapsed and sealed. "We should expect no help from them."
"If anything, they're likely to try tunneling from their homes to us looking for help. It is far more likely that they'll go back to their homelands, though." Most of the Diamond Dog dens within Equestria had only been made for the easier mining of gems and precious metals. Their own lands were much rockier and prone to stone or shale cave-ins.
Luna sighed and began picking up the mess she'd created.
"What can we do, Tia?"
"The only thing we've ever done, Luna. Never give up, and keep searching for a solution, and safer alternatives to those solutions."
Celestia didn't say 'We'll get through this'. She had no idea if they would. But she'd rather face King Sombra and Discord at their worst in battle than give up on her subjects. Time and again they'd shown that they could survive the most seemingly impossible of situations, and Mother-willing, they'd survive this too.