Sugar Cube corner was the last place they had left.
	"Rainbow Dash! The sun is almost down! Get back inside, now!"
	Rainbow Dash glared up from her post on the ground towards Twilight Sparkle, surveying the horizon from the improvised parapets and barricades lining the roof of the sweets shop. Her look was one of grim determination.
	"I have to finish checking the rest of the town. If somepony is still out there..."
	"There's no time!" Twilight's voice was exasperated, demanding. Normally sensible ponies didn't question her orders, given her prowess for organizing, but given the circumstance, no one was in their best state of mind.
	Twilight sighed, closed her eyes briefly, before opening them shouting down to the rainbow pegasus preparing for a house to house dash on the ground below her.
	"We already lost Pinkie Pie... I don't want to take any more chances. I'm not losing you too!"
	Dash understood. She didn't want to admit that she was scared too, but she knew the risk of venturing out even a minute past sunset. This didn't mean she was willing to comply, readily, but it did mean that she could be persuaded. The mention of Pinkie Pie tugged at her heart strings, and she spat on the earth bitterly as she turned in frustration to the door of Sugar Cube Corner.
	Twilight sighed in relief as Rainbow Dash closed the door behind her, the clunks of the bolts being laid into place following her, before her hooves rattled on the stairs up to the roof emplacements. Rainbow's expression had softened a bit on the way back inside, and now she merely looked frustrated rather than anguished. Given the circumstance, however, nopony would blame her...
	"How much time do we have left?"
	This question came from an upright white pony on Twilight's right side - rarity. Even in the current situation, she couldn't go without accessorizing, and a tattered but still fashionable scarf was wrapped around her neck. Instead of her normal well-groomed mane and polished coat, however, Rarity looked frazzled and unwashed. Unfortunately, hygiene was the last thing on anypony's mind right now.
	Twilight pondered the question as she met Rarity's gaze. Her eyes couldn't help but slip upwards, to where Rarity's horn - to the remains of what was left after the incident. Tragedy was commonplace after the turnings had started, but Twilight knew how much it must have hurt, to lose a horn - though she couldn't sympathize, her imagination was vivid enough. If only I had been there that night, I could have helped, she thought-
	"Twilight Sparkle! How much time do we have left?"
	Rarity's tone was insistent, un-phased by her comrade's ill-timed speculation. Twilight shook her head briefly, clearing her thoughts and reminding herself to focus on the present. What had happened up to this point was done, and all they could do now was focus on what would come ahead...
	"By my calculations, not longer than ten minutes."
	Rarity nodded grimly, and returned to her station several feet down the battlements, lifting the binoculars from the wooden plank in front of her and placing them at her eyes. The whole town looked calm, from the nearest store far into the distance - but, it always seemed that way, before night fell.
	A grunting noise behind the three stationed at the roof emplacements drew their attention, and the three spun to cast their eyes on a familiar figure. Applejack gave a last groan as she laid down her load of heavy crates on the surface of the roof. He fur was dirty, and matted in spots, patches of unwashed debris clotting here and there. Her face was grim, ever staunch in face of the inevitable manual labour she was forced to endure each day. By now, her muscles had been toned to the apex of their potential, long-since past being used for simple apple-bucking, and now the greatest asset of the movement and construction tasks that arose in many places.
	"That's the last o' the supplies from the last stop-over." Applejack explained, wiping the sweat from her brow with a hoof and she leaned on one of the crates she had just dropped. Twilight Sparkle nodded knowingly, and raised her clip-board in front of her, ticking off one of the many items on her improvised list. It seemed to be growing in scope every day.
	Another item that needed to be dealt with. Hm.
	"Has anypony checked on Fluttershy?"
	Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck in subtle embarrassment. Fluttershy was usually her duty, being that the two of them had been so close before, sharing their wings and view of the sky. Now, though... it was painful sometimes, most of the time, to see her friend... like that. Still, a job was a job.
	"I"ll... uh, I'll go check up on her."
	The other four ponies nodded as Dash hopped the small step down to the roof from the wooden fortification, and made her way to Fluttershy's cot in the roofs corner.
	There, she found the yellow pegasus pony huddled in her usual fashion, curled up with a blanket wrapped around her, eyes staring into space.
	"Hey, Fluttershy, how are you doing?" Dash's tone made an attempt at playful inquiry, but it was dampened by the reality of Fluttershy's condition. Most days she was lucky to get a response at all, let alone one targeted to her, or anypony really there. Today didn't look to be one of those days.
	Fluttershy simply shook her head, wide eyes, pupils dilated as she rocked back and forth, her hooves clinging to the blanket that covered her for warmth. She barely seemed to hear her friend Rainbow Dash - her attention seemed far away, visiting - or re-visiting - a scene that was hard to forget, or escape.
	"Just... you call if you need anything, okay?"
	Dash waited a moment, hoping for something, anything to indicate that Fluttershy had heard her. The yellow pony simply continued shaking back and forth, gaze locked on a faraway place in time, remembering things that no pony should ever be forced to see in the first place.
	Before she could resolve herself to return to her post, Dash heard the shout. Rarity's voice.
	"Movement, south, street-side!"
	Twilight jolted left in surprise.
	"No, we should have five more minutes at least."
	Rarity didn't speak, but handed the purple unicorn the pair of binoculars, as if to say, 'see for yourself'. Twilight grabbed them and gazed down to the south of the store, searching for a flicker of motion indicating that someone - or something - was indeed active.
	She saw it. A figuring moving from the alleyway between houses, coming out into the open slowly.
	Damnit.
	"Movement confirmed, to your posts!"
	In an instant, the friends took up stations. Twilight and Rarity locked their attention on the now confirmed south-side movement, while Applejack pushed the lid of a crate off onto the roof. It made a thump as it landed, revealing the cache of contents inside the wooden container.
	Apples. Applejack had never preferred conventional weaponry, after all.
	Rainbow Dash had sprung into flight at the announcement of the night's movement, and was spinning rapidly, trying to assess any further potential threats that might reveal themselves, and give the five on the roof a chance to prepare. Seeing what looked like a possible signal, she floated closer to the roof's edge to get a closer look. What she saw caused her to shudder in her flight path and dip almost a foot.
	No. Not that many.
	"There's - I dunno, tons - this side, uh, east!"
	Rainbow normally tried to be as concise and formal as protocol dictated, but the shock of that much activity had jarred her from her senses for a moment. Communication of urgency was, at this point, more important than protocol.
	Immediately Twilight and Rarity rushed to the roof-side, binoculars in hand.
	There they were. Dozens, if not hundreds. Lurching, shadowy figures, four-legged, slowly ambling towards the group of five ponies and their make-shift habitat at Sugar Cube Corner. As they got closer, the dull moan of the horde began to increase in volume. They were hungry.
	It was going to be a long night.