Left 4 Friendship

RAINBOW DASH as FRANCIS

TWILIGHT SPARKLE as BILL

FLUTTERSHY as ZOEY

PINKIE PIE as LOUIS

Prologue

TWO WEEKS AFTER FIRST INFECTION

The streets were strewn with pure filth and the air hang heavy with the stench of death. Every so often, one of them would have to kick away a disembodied limb to clear a path to walk. Ponyville had never been a sorrier sight to see, the four of them agreed wordlessly, as they walked in a solemn silence down the street that was once filled with happy, bustling ponies.

If they walked silently, the sickly, rotting green ponies stumbling through the town wouldn't pay attention to them. They would just stagger back and forth, groaning and vomiting all over the town as their brains slowly decomposed inside their skulls. It was still a morbid sight for the four surviving mares, but at least they weren't being attacked.

"Sugarcube Corner is just up ahead- there should be some extra supplies in there." One of the survivors spoke, her voice so happy it was sickening. Did it not dawn on her that they were in the middle of a crisis? That this was no time to be anywhere near happy and spritely right now? It quite irked the other three, but they bared with it. Having four was better then having three when it came right down do it. "Hurry up, hurry up~!" The bouncy pink pony urged the others on, skipping towards their destination in lieu of the aggravated zombie ponies now giving her hungry looks.

"Pinkie Pie!" Another one of them hissed in a hushed tone, rainbow mane tucked behind her ears for better seeing. "Shut. Up!" Pinkie Pie stopped and turned her head at the young rainbow pony, blinking her innocent blue eyes and smiling. "Why, Rainbow Dash? We're almost there!"

"It doesn't matter, they can still hear you, and you're pissing them off!"

"If you hurry up I'll shut up~" Rainbow Dash dug her hooves into the ground at the sing-song tone Pinkie used when speaking. It aggravated her to no end. She was about to snap back at Pinkie Pie when a purple hoof came to rest on her already burdened shoulder. "Just ignore it."

"But Twilight-"

"No buts, just calm down. She's right, we're almost there." Twilight Sparkle took her hoof away and trotted along the sidewalk to catch up to Pinkie. Rainbow sighed. "Fine. C'mon, Fluttershy..." She grumbled to the lagging member of their party, who was looking left and right frantically, as if there was a zombie about to pounce on her at any moment. Which, most of the time, there wasn't.

"O-o-okay..." Fluttershy tried her best to keep up with the rest of them, but her intense urge to run back home and hide was overwhelming.

"Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to Sugarcube Corner!" Pinkie Pie declared happily as they approached the bright pink door, which in this mood and time of night looked a dark, unhappy red. Pinkie went to open the door when Twilight stopped her.

"Hold on. Do you hear that?"

"Nope!"

"Shh!"

A hoof in the mouth was the only way to get Pinkie Pie to quiet down long enough for them to all hear what Twilight was hearing.

Crying.

"S-someone's still...alive?" Fluttershy whispered softly, after the shock of the sound wore off. Twilight nodded, and took her hoof out of Pinkie Pie's mouth to turn and look at the other three ponies. "Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, stay outside and keep a lookout. Me and Fluttershy will go see if we can't help the pony inside the bakery."

"W-why do I have to...O-okay..." Fluttershy sighed and clicked on the small flashlight that hung around her neck, and Twilight did the same. The darkness around them was immediately banished to the outer rim of the light source, and just couldn't wait to claw its way around the survivors once again. Dash and Pinkie readied their weapons and stood on the steps leading up to Sugarcube Corner, Dash's wings going into motion and holding her a few feet above the dirtied ground. This gave her leave to grip her weapon with both hands. It was a simple assault rifle that she normally kept strapped on her back. Twilight had conjured weapons for each of them using her magic horn doodad that Dash sure as hell was happy she had. Cause where else were they gonna get weapons in Ponyville, besides down at that local farm? Hopefully all those apples weren't infected... Rainbow Dash thought to herself, pouting as she tried to supress her stomach rumbles. Pinkie Pie bounced happily on the ground next to her, a fireaxe strapped across her back as her only protection. Dash didn't know why she didn't use a gun- Even Fluttershy had the sense to take up two pistols halfway through their trek through Ponyville.

"D-do we have to do this, Twilight?" Fluttershy muttered from her place next to the braver unicorn, who's horn glowed with the magic of self defense. Guns were a tad to garish for her tastes, or her abilities. Fluttershy's previously aquired pisols hung in makeshift holsters on her saddlebags.

"Of course we do. We'll have better chances of surviving if there's five of us. Now come on." Without any chance for Fluttershy to protest Twilight opened the door to the bakery and poked her head inside, flashlight glow and magic illuminating a good part of the bakery floor, who's tiles were cracked and strewn with blood and bile and dirt. The crying got louder.

"Hello? Is anybody in here?" Twilight called out as Fluttershy scanned the area with her flashlight, coming across a hunched form in the corner of the large room, near a cracked and empty display case. Her eyes lit up as she took a step closer. "H-hello? Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you, you don't have to cry-" As soon as the flashlight beam came upon the sobbing mare's face, the sobs turned to ferocious growls, and Fluttershy shrank back without the help of Twilight's hand attempting to divert the light source. "Shh! It's not safe!" She hissed to Fluttershy, who was still reeling from what she saw.

A mare who's coat would have been white as snow were it not peppered with dirt and blood. Her purple mane and tail were wavy, limp and useless, lying in disorganized strands hiding her face and flowing across the floor like water. Her front hooves were hideously misshapen and elongated, covered in a fresh coat of blood. The spot on her flank where her cutie mark should be was replaced by a large gash that rent the tattoed flesh from her body. Twilight could guess where the congealing blood on the back-to-sobbing mare's hooves came from now., and hissed for Fluttershy to turn her flashlight off before doing so herself and letting the glow from her horn die out.

Pinkie Pie whistled to herself as she surveyed the surrounding expanse of city. It was all cleary-o, so why did they have to stand out here and be bored when they could be in there and help that poor crying pony? "Hey Rainbow Dash, do you think cartoons are-"

"Sssh! Pinkie, look over there."

Pinkie looked, and cocked her head. "I can't see anything!"

"So turn on your flashlight, idiot." Dash said, whose flashlight was strapped to the bottom frontside of her assault rifle.

"Oh yeah!" She clicked on the light and looked the way Dash was pointing. The silhouettes were faint, but Pinkie could definitely see one, two, seven, eighteen, about sixty pony shadows charging this way, jumping and destroying whatever they had to to get to the source of light and sound that was agitating them.

"...Uh...oh..." Pinkie said under her breath, to which Dash replied with a quiet "yeah". With a quiet squeak of fear, Pinkie turned and jumped to the entrance of Sugarcube Corner, shining her flashlight into the building to do a quick scan for her two friends. She found them, now turned towards her with looks of pure horror on their faces.

"What?"

"Run!"

Twilight's command was almost drowned out by a shriek of sheer malice erupting from the Infected mare in the building. Her large, sunken in and shining eyes turned towards Pinkie Pie, misshapen claw-hooves bared in a position to attack the one who disturbed her sobs of misery. Twilight grabbed the still fear-stricken Fluttershy by her tail and dragged her out of the bakery as the thing began to run towards them. Pinkie Pie quickly slammed the door and held it with her shoulder, managing to grab her axe and hack away at the claw-hoof that burst through the door in a burst of pink splinters.

"Guys, they're coming!" Rainbow Dash yelled over the frantic screams of the mare trying to murder Pinkie Pie through the door and the heavy breathing of Fluttershy.

"Ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness-"

"Save it and get ready!" Twilight yelled, but Rainbow Dash was two steps ahead of her; her gun rattled off bullets and downed the infected ponies left and right, clipping through the wings of the ones that still knew how to fly and piercing the skulls of those that charged willfully onward with pure hatred in their sunken, illuminated eyes.

Twilight joined the fight, flinging what, for lack of better terms, were bullets of pure magic that downed the infected ponies almost as fast as Dash. She forced the ones that got too close back with a strong push of magical energy, and she knew they were going to make it out of this encounter alive-

Until she felt something long wrap around her body and disrupt her concentration, the sparks flying from her horn dying as she was lifted from the ground and into a haze of smoke. "Gah! HELP!" She yelled to her teammates as she was pulled closer to the roof of Sugarcube Corner. Dash turned and frowned, firing a couple bursts of lead into the coughing, long-tongued pony that currently held their unicorn comrade hostage. "I gotcha!" She yelled, catching Twilight as the tongued pony died and plopping her on the ground.

"Thanks!" Twilight yelled in gratitude before going back to dismembering the ponies blindly clawing at her with magic.

Dash went on shooting, grinning and scoffing at the Earth ponies who tried to reach her from her perch in the sky. "It's Winter Wrap Up day, fellas!" She yelled before taking a young stallion's head clean off with the rifle.

"U-um, everybody, please watch out!" Fluttershy meekly yelled from her point in the sky, pocketing one of her pistols and pulling out a piece of metal from her saddlebags. She fumbled with it in her hooves for a moment before Twilight took it from her and activated it with magic, flinging it towards the ever growing mass of ponies. They all frantically swarmed for the beeping, blinking piece of enchanted metal, pawing at it and trying to make it stop. Twilight counted to three and clapped her hooves over her ears, the subsequent explosion from the pipe bomb still deafening even to her covered ears. After that, there were only a few straggling, wounded zombies left, and it was quiet except for their breathing and the infected's moans of pain.

And then, a loud horn sounded, and a light surrounded the survivors for a moment before sweeping away from them.

Pinkie Pie looked up at the sky excitedly and rested her bloodied axe on the ground, spotting the source of the noise, a pegasus-pulled chariot swooping over the city in search of what she hoped were surviors. "HEY!" She screamed at it, hopping after it's rapidly disappearing shadow and flailing her arms. "We're not infected! Stop! Heeeey! Down heereee!" She ran out into the open street, still pursuing the vanished chariot for a good while before deciding it was hopeless and stopping. She sighed. "Dosh garnit! I coulda' sworn I got their attentio-" She was cut off by a loud, animalistic scream and a sudden pressure on her back. Then, blinding pain as she was flipped over and relentlessly clawed and bitten at by a pony who looked more like a wild dog than a pony. Sharp protrusions from its hooves, viciously sharp teeth, and fierce red eyes were clear signs of a higher mutation than what had claimed many other inhabitants of Ponyville. Pinkie could almost see this pony living in this town before the infection- her tied back blonde hair before it was in disarray, her nice orange coat before it was spotty and covered in blood, her tail before it had been torn away by something, probably the mare's own misshapen hooves- and her cutie mark before it had been similarly torn away.

"Ahhh! Pinkie Pie!" Came a hoarse scream, followed by a multitude of bullet shots that got the creature up and off of Pinkie Pie. Said pony scrambled to her feet as she watched Fluttershy ram shot after shot into the pony, until it eventually collapsed on top of a cart.

"Thanks, Flutter-"

Pinkie was cut off by a loud banging, whizzing and screeching from the cart the dead zombie was on top of, small but frequent explosions of fireworks accompanying the ear-splitting sounds.

Stupid cart-alarms.

Twilight and Rainbow joined the other two, Twilight's eyes wide and worried. "Uh oh. This is gonna get bad!" She yelled over the cart-alarm, turning her head to a loud, collective screaming noise coming from down the dirt-packed street. From the shadows of left on shop lights and their own lights they could see tens upon hundreds of infected ponies streaming towards them and the source of the noise, and everyone's eyes consecutively grew to the size of dinner plates. The four survivors huddled close together, weapons drawn and readied- Fluttershy had thrown Pinkie her spare pistol, as the pink pony had long forgotten about her axe. "Stick together!" Rainbow Dash yelled over the impending horde of infected ponies- if they could be called that anymore.

Suddenly, a roar unlike anything they had ever heard erupted from the very back lines of the incoming horde. Ponies were being thrown and rammed into left and right, whole carts and pieces of buildings being thrown as well in the rage that consumed this beast. It was a dragon- if even that. It's obscenely muscled arms grabbed and threw anything in its path, as well as carrying it towards the four survivors faster than it's scrawny legs ever could take it. It screamed and roared at them, and fear over took all of the ponies for a moment.

"R-run or shoot?" Pinkie Pie asked quietly, slowly backing up with the other four as they began to regain control of their bodies.

"RUN OR SHOOT?" She asked again when she received no answer, looking over to Twilight for one.

"BOTH!" Twilight screamed, and they all did just that. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash took off into the air, firing wildly at their massive target that closed in on them quicker and quicker. They ran and shot, ran and shot, ran and shot, looking around for a way out. Pinkie Pie spotted the large, multi-story ponypartment complex that they certainly wouldn't be needing anymore, and screamed, "Get to the roof!" as soon as she saw the fire escape clinging to the back of the building. They all darted to the building, Dash hanging behind in the air and aiming at the corner she knew the monstrosity was going to round in a few moments. "Come on...Come on!" As soon as the purple and green beast rounded the corner she unleashed magazine after magazine on that thing, but it just wouldn't die. Fluttershy was almost on the roof and Pinkie was clinging to the beginnings of the ladder, Twilight urging them upward before turning and witnessing the thing closing in on Rainbow Dash. It was about to slam it's horrible fists onto the pony who had been grounded from sheer fear when Twilight stepped in and forced it back with magic, pouring her own bullets into the thing's body with tears in her eyes. "Spike..."

He just wouldn't die. He slammed his fists into a neighboring building and tore a chunk from the brick wall, throwing it with obscene strength at the two ponies who had just about reached the roof. It crashed against the lower level of the fire escape and tore the ladder loose, but that didn't stop Rainbow Dash from flying straight on up, and Twilight from grabbing the ladder regardless.

Fluttershy had reclaimed both of her pistols and was firing wildly at the monstrosity and the smaller things trying to claw their way up the building. "Hurry! I'll hold them off!" She screamed in a rare moment of bravery, buying time for Dash and Twilight to make it safely to the roof. As she turned to fly up herself, though, the muscular monster leaped and grabbed onto the entire lower level he had broken loose, Fluttershy's wings snapping to her sides in fear and her whole body careening backwards with the giant zombie. She reached a hoof out, eyes frantic and wide as she screamed for help.

Dash caught her with both hooves and pulled her to safety at the last moment, the fire escape she was standing on previously tearing free from the building and crashing down onto the obscenely muscled dragon.

Then, everything was quiet, save for their heaving breaths of relief and exhaustion.

Pinkie was the first to speak, as always, her smile large and bright despite her obvious wounds and fatigue. "We made it! I can't believe we made it!" She announced happily, falling onto her back for a bit of relaxation.

"Pinkie...we just crossed the street." Twilight mumbled in a grim tone, her eyes glancing down at the streets below them. "Let's not throw a party until we're out of the city." Pinkie pouted at Twilight but didn't say anything, observing Luna's foggy night sky and catching her breath some more. Out of the city...how?