"Earl!" Shining shouted. "We've been walking for two hours! Where are all these "Zeds" you told Celestia about?!"

The captain was clearly annoyed, but Earl payed no mind, he kept scanning the forest for signs of infected activity. So far, he had found only snapped twigs and scattered footprints. Now he was scanning over a ghastly pile of animal remains.

"Celestia saw them too Shines, I'm not messing around here." The grey unicorn said, scanning the dirt path before him.

More footprints. Earl shut his eyes and let thoughts of Twilight enter his mind, he was quickly greeted by a teal glowing trail directing him further into the forest.

"C'mon." Earl said as he walked farther in.

"No!" Shining said angrily.

The former human quickly stopped and tuned around.

"What?" He asked, sharply.

"You heard me."

"You're kidding, right?

"Two hours, and we haven't seen even one member of this 'Zed Army'? I'm starting to think you're full of shit Earl." Shining replied, nearly shouting now.

"Hey, keep it down! You want them all to come at us at the same time?!"

"Want what to come?! Your imaginary monsters?"

"Shining." Big Mac quickly cut in.

The white unicorn glanced towards the large red earth pony.

"Ah think he knows what he's talkin' about." Mac said.

Shining glanced between Earl and Mac before sighing and continuing down the path.

"Fine." He said under his breath.

"C'mon dude," Earl said catching up with him. "We've got a lot to deal with right now, the last thing we need to do is fight."

Shining nodded and the group continued.

After a few minutes of walking, Earl stopped the group and closed his eyes again.

"It's close!" The grey unicorn said with a smile. "Just a little bit longer and we should find it."

As Earl sprinted down the path, he was quickly greeted by the sight of a massive burn scar on the ground in front of him.

"Woah, what the hell came through here?" Shining said as he caught up to Earl.

"Maybe a fire by the looks of it." Mac said.

"No..." Earl said, approaching the burn mark. "I know exactly what it was." He continued under his breath.

Earl briskly searched the land around the burn mark but found nothing.

"Where the hell is it?!" Earl shouted angrily.

"What are you looking for?" Shining asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uhh, just watch my back." The grey unicorn replied as he searched around some nearby trees.

Shining shrugged and scanned the tree line.

"What do you think he's looking for?" Shining asked, his eyes still glued to the forest.

"Beats me," Mac said with a shrug. "But if it's something that can help, ah reckon we give him a sec."

"Yeah, I guess that-"

A ghastly moan faintly entered Shining's ears.

"Woah. You hear that?" The royal guard captain asked nervously.

Mac looked around, then raised an eyebrow.

"What?" He said, confused.

The moan sounded again, louder.

"That!" Shining said, hearing it again.

"Ah honestly don't know-"

Another moan erupted from the treeline at a much higher volume.

"What in the hell was that?!" The large earth pony shouted.

"Earl!" Shining shouted nervously.

The ghastly sounds produced were nothing like the two ponies had ever heard. It menacingly rung in their ears, chilling them as the noise continued. The former human was too lost in his searching to notice, however.

"What?" The grey unicorn asked, still searching.

"Me and Mac are hearing things." Shining said, shaken by the sound.

"Uhhh, that's cool. Just one second."

The dense tree cover of the forest contributed to the extremely low amount of light. Shining and Mac could barely see a few feet in front of them.

Foot steps quietly sounded next to the two a few moments later.

"Eh, maybe it was nothin'." Mac said.

"I don't know," Shining said. "It sounded pretty- GAH!"

The white unicorn quickly disappeared from Mac's view, followed by struggling grunts and more ghastly moans.

"What the?! Help!" Shining shouted.

His voice sounded exactly where he used to be, Mac noticed. He quickly trotted over to where his team mate had been standing and saw a creature on top of the white unicorn, pinning him to the ground.

"Mac! Earl!" Shining shouted as the creature began gnawing at his face.

"Earl, get over here!" Mac shouted before gripping his shovel in his teeth.

The large red earth pony sprinted a few more feet and quickly grimaced at the thought of killing anything. Slightly hesitantly, he swung the shovel at the creature and knocked it off of Shining Armor. The white unicorn quickly stumbled to his hooves and backed away.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" He shouted, as he dusted himself off.

"I reckon it was one of the-" Mac started to say.

He was briskly cut off as a second creature shoved him to the ground. Caught off guard, the red stallion simply fell to the ground with a thud. A deafening bang quickly erupted from the trees nearby, in sync with a massive flash of light. Shining flinched and stumbled back a few feet and Mac looked around quickly for the source of the ear-piercing sound. Earl came out of the tree-line, levitating a smoking metallic device beside his shoulder. The blue glow surrounded the metallic-colored device and only made it shine more, providing a small amount of light to the forest.

"Zeds." He said, finishing Mac's sentence.

The red pony glanced to his right and saw the creature laying dead next to him.

"What is-? And you just.... Holy shit..." Shining said, shocked.

"Heads up." Earl said, securing the pistol into his belt.

The grey unicorn then levitated another item, a long, painted black, wooden bat. He quickly charged over to Shining, who flinched and backed away.

"Woah, woah!" The white unicorn shouted as Earl approached.

The former human had other plans. He used the magic to swiftly swing the baseball bat at another nearby Zed, the one who had just pinned Shining. It connected with a harsh crack and sent the infected human falling to the ground. After a few more hits, it's head exploded, spreading the contents across the grass for anypony to see. Shining flinched slightly as the sickening image entered his mind. After wiping the bat on the grass, Earl re-secured it to his belt and turned to the other members in his group.

"Rule number one," Earl said. "For fucks sake, be attentive."

"What the hell are those things?!" Shining asked.

"Theres a lot of things..." The grey unicorn replied.

"Those things." Shining said, pointing at the items in Earl's belt.

Earl levitated the gun out from it's slot on his belt and in front of his face.

"A Colt 1911 I think... I know it's a .45 caliber." He said, reading the words engraved on the side.

The former human put it away.

"It's formerly known as a gun, it shoots pieces of metal, and it makes bad things go away. This," He said as he unsheathed the bat, proud to be showing off his weapons.

"Is a baseball bat."

"Mighty affective if ya' ask me." Mac said as he walked over next to Shining Armor.

"Yeah..." The white unicorn said raising an eyebrow. "Where exactly did you find that?"

"I uhh.. left it here, when I was studying last week." Earl replied nervously.

"Uh huh..." Shining said, his brow still raised.

Trying to change the subject, the grey unicorn walked over to his most recent victim.

"And that was exactly what you thought it was, a Zed." He said.

Shining and Mac both nodded.

"Now you see what we're up against." Earl continued as he levitated his bat back into the belt. "And we should probably get out of here, because there's going to be more coming."

Earl had come to know the downsides of firing a gun during the zombie apocalypse very well. Where there was a large amount of light and sound, there was a large amount of zombies. He had just painted a target.