Title: Trotting Dead: Waking up to a nightmare

Premise: MLP: FIM. Sunset Shimmer is woken in the middle of the night by Lightning Dust to a horrifying sight.

Date Posted: 08/17/13

Personal Comments: So recently I've gotten into The Walking Dead. It's a pretty good show. Even before I started watching the show, I imagined what a crossover between it and MLP would be. I always thought it interesting that both shows premiered in October, 2010. And such an idea has been with me especially after I started watching the former show. I find a surprisingly small number of such crossover stories on both this site and FIMFICTION.

And then I recently came up with the idea in MLP to ship Sunset Shimmer with Lightning Dust. From those two ideas spawned this new idea for a story:

Grogar, a G1 villain, rises and unleashes a plague which starts a zombie apocalypse in Equestria. The protagonists of the story would be Sunset Shimmer and Lightning Dust, reformed and after recently became a couple, who struggle against the infected trotters and other survivors. They eventually meet up with Princess Twilight and her friends and decide to help find a way to defeat Grogar and stop the plague. The story may be told from several characters' POV, and there would be many warring parties made up of minor and background characters to face.

I've had many ideas for this story within the past few days. I think I'll try writing up some scenes I've made up here. And then if I want, I'll try writing up a real story.

"Sunset. Sunset come on, wake up!"

Sunset Shimmer heard Lightning's voice speak to her with hushed urgency before a strong hoof gently shook her shoulder. Her sleep disturbed, Sunset rose from the bed, still in the trance of slumber.

"Huh?" She yawned and rubbed her eyes, trying to shake off the drowsiness... but to little avail. Her mind still blank, she turned toward her lover. She was not on the other side of the bed, but instead she had shaken her from her side. Sunset turned to see Lightning standing up before her. Sunset simply stared at Lightning, waiting for an explanation for waking her up.

"Sunset, something's wrong," She whispered. "You gotta get up. We gotta move!"

By now, Sunset was starting to notice a look of horror in Lightning's eyes, and grasp the urgency in her voice. She was still too tired to really act on it though. All she could think of was going back to sleep.

"What?" She questioned, still staring more into space than her marefriend's eyes.

"Go out and look. Something's just not right. Something really bad is happening. Look out the window. I'll start packing." Lightning quickly walked around the bed and went right to the dresser, grabbing up a suitcase from under it.

Slowly, Sunset slid out from the bed and trotted to the window, trying to blink the dreariness from her eyes. She started to notice a faint orange glow coming from outside. Using levitation, something so simple and second-nature to her she could do it even in her drowsy state she finally pulled back the curtains and looked. In the streets of Canterlot she could see the silhouettes of a few ponies wandering about. Only they were not simply walking along their way like a normal pony would.

No. These ponies seemed to be walking as though in some sort of trance, as though their head were empty and they simply wandered about the street in circles with no particular direction, as though looking around the streets searching for a lost though.

They walked slowly, and stumbled, as though their hooves were filled with lead and they could scarcely keep their balance.

Sunset's eyes drifted to the source of the orange glow. She found herself looking at one building. A small fire was dancing inside the windows, slowly eating away at whatever was inside.

A sudden piercing scream snapped Sunset's attention away from the fire. Her eyes darted around the street, searching for what might have been the source.

Sunset opened the window a slight crack, and a small storm of noises flooded into the room.

Screaming. Running. Moaning. Cries for help. Fire.

"Okay, that's enough!" Lighting's voice spoke up behind her. Sunset held down a scream before turning.

"Close the damn window before they see us!" Lightning hissed, closing the window and drawing the curtains again.

"Okay, I'm awake!" Sunset panted once the windows were closed. "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" Lightning replied. "I just heard a scream, I took a look outside, and saw that. We can't stay here. We gotta get out of here."

"And go where?"

"I don't know. Let's just follow the crowd for now."

"Crowd?"

"A mob of ponies are making a run for it! We're all packed. Come on!" Lightning grabbed Sunset's hoof and pulled her towards the door, grabbing their one suitcase on their way out.

On the way out, they rescued a few other survivors, even saving a few foals from a fire.