//------------------------------// // Day 5 // Story: Prototype: Black Rain // by Fuberrari //------------------------------// "Apple Bloom?" Applejack found herself in a clinic, staring down at the still pony at her feet. She looked nothing like Apple Bloom. Her Apple Bloom didn't have a pale-blue coat, nor a dark brown mane that was cut-short like Scootaloo's. Furthermore, her sister definitely did not have silver-blue eyes. Yet... Applejack couldn't help but see her as her sister. Her sister who lay motionless in a lake of blood with her back toward Applejack. Her silver-blue eyes, dull and covered in red-veins, stared right back at hers. That was when she noticed Apple Bloom's head was pointed at an odd angle. With a sense of dread, she followed the head down. To her horror, she found that Apple Bloom's neck was bent at an odd angle, and her neck was sliced open. The open wound had long since stopped bleeding, but it explained the source of the lake of blood she now lay in. Without fully knowing why, she looked down at her own hooves. They were covered in blood. In that instance, a terrible thought crossed her mind. I killed her... "... no..." I killed her... "No..." I killed Apple Bloom... "NO!" Applejack flung herself out of her bunk bed and crashed into the ground with a thud. She struggled against the bed-sheet that wrapped around her and tore them to ribbons. Finally free from the bed-sheet, she wrapped her hooves around herself and rocked back and forth on the floor. "Applejack?" came a gentle voice, followed by an uncharacteristic thump on the ground. "Oh... I really need to be more careful... are you feeling okay?" Applejack looked up and found Fluttershy staring right at her. Her cyan eyes were blood-shot and streaks of matted hair ran down her cheeks. In the darkness behind the pegasus, three more pairs of eyes looked back at Applejack. A quick glance outside told her that she wasn't asleep for more then a few minutes. Memories of last night slowly came back to her. Twilight Sparkle had told Braeburn as much as she could. Of course, she left out the part where Princess Celestia got infected and the part where Princess Luna's wing turned into the alicorn they're now chasing. Twilight Sparkle talked about the changes that happened to Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and her. Braeburn actually looked hopeful when Twilight Sparkle mentioned that the Canterlot university was working to discover a cure with them. By the time Twilight Sparkle finished, it was late at night already. Braeburn left to take up his night shift. He was accompanied by Night Light, who wished to discuss some strategies on how to protect the town better. Their biological clock soon caught up with them. Rarity had insisted that they all get some rest. Twilight Sparkle had agreed with her. She argued that having six very tired ponies won't do the town much good. However, judging by the four pairs of eyes now looking back at her, that may have been a losing proposition. "Ah'm... fine. Just a bad dream..." said Applejack. "Can any of you sleep?" One by one, the four ponies shook their heads. Rainbow Dash being the only one not present among them. "Ah guess Rainbow can sleep though anything then..." "Actually..." said Fluttershy. "She left a while ago... said she needed some air..." "Oh... maybe I'll go find her then..." said Applejack as she head for the door. "I need some air anyway..." "I'll go with you..." said Fluttershy. "I'm not that sleepy..." "Do you... *YAWN*... want us to go with you?" asked Pinkie Pie. Her eyes looked bleary and her normally fluffy mane looked like it lost some of its fluff. Applejack thought it over. She decided that at the moment, she just wanted some quiet time to think things over. "Nah... just... get some sleep yourself." said Applejack. "Okay." said Pinkie Pie before the three pairs of eyes disappeared in the bunk-bed. As Applejack left the car, she heard Pinkie Pie started to sing in a wavering voice. "What I was a little filly and..." Applejack quietly closed the door behind her and walked away from the train. Fluttershy followed behind her without a word. Applejack walked through the quiet town pass burnt out campfires. Around them were clusters of tents, where buffaloes and ponies who no longer have a home slept. Once in a while, she could hear faint sound of foals and calves crying from them. Applejack turned around when she heard a sniff behind her. Fluttershy walked with her head low. Drops of tear from her eyes left a trail of dark spots in the ground. "Fluttershy?" Applejack stopped and watched the pegasus with worries. "It's so... so horrible..." said Fluttershy. Her teary eyes met Applejack's. "She knew what's happening... She knew she was going to turn into a monster... She had to ask other ponies to kill her..." Fluttershy sniffed again. "It's... it's just... too cruel..." Applejack listened in silence. "And I can't do anything..." continued Fluttershy. "I can't help her... I can't do anything... I even hurt the Princess... I'm useless..." "Stop it right there." said Applejack, her hoof jabbing at the pegasus. "You're not useless. Never say you're useless." "But..." "You helped!" said Applejack. "Without you, Rainbow Dash wouldn't be here now. Without you, Apple Fritter and the foals might be gone." "But..." Applejack sighed. "Look, you're not going to save every pony you come across... but you do the best you can... all of us will." Fluttershy nodded. "We'll do the best we can..." "That's right." Applejack started walking again and Fluttershy followed. "We do the best we can." "We defeated Nightmare Moon." said Fluttershy. "That's right! We did." "We defeated Discord." a note of confidence filled Fluttershy's voice. "Shure did." "And we will defeat... this thing!" "Together." said Applejack. "Together." echoed Fluttershy. The two soon found themselves near the edge of town, where ponies and buffaloes sat around campfire. The ponies had their spears on the ground beside them, while buffaloes had large machetes tied to their horn. The machetes pointed to their side with the sharp edge pointed forward, likely allowing them to injure or kill the infected buffaloes when they run past. Unicorn guards patrolled the perimeters accompanied by spear carrying town ponies. Against the starry sky, Applejack could make out the glimmer of the pegasus guards' armors as they circled above them. Applejack also saw the apple orchard nearby, or what's left of it. Even now, she could see ponies harvesting the last of the apples from them before chopping them down. Off to the side, she saw ponies and buffaloes chipping the logs into sharp points. The sharpened logs were dragged to the perimeter wall to replace the broken spikes, a large section of which looked like they were damaged recently. Amidst the ponies in the orchard, Applejack noticed the sky-blue pegasus among them. She quickly trotted to the orchard. When she got close, she could see that Rainbow Dash had transformed her wings to claws, and was using them to make deep gouges in the base of the tree. "Rainbow, what are you doing?" asked Applejack. "Are you trying to cut down this tree?" "Yeah..." said Rainbow Dash with a grunt as she swiped the tree against with her wing. "Thought... I... could... help... TIMBER!" The tree creaked and fell over to the ground. A panting Rainbow Dash drove her claws into the trunk and started to drag them away. Applejack exchanged a look with Fluttershy. "We'll help." said Applejack. ===================================================================== The morning light shone into the sleep car, where three ponies were beginning to stir. Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes to the rising sun, and blinked them to try to drive the sleepiness away. As she expected, she didn't get much sleep last night. While Pinkie Pie's singing did help distract her from the dark memories, every time Twilight Sparkle managed to fall asleep, her dreams were plagued by the sight of the doomed mare being crushed. "Oh... I look terrible..." came the morose cry of Rarity. Twilight Sparkle looked over her bunk-bed and couldn't help but agree with the fashionista. She looked terrible. Her azure blue eyes were a bit blood-shot and surrounded by dark shadows. The shine in her normally sleek mane was gone and left her mane dull, curled and frizzled. "... and I feel terrible..." "I feel great!" came Pinkie Pie voice. Twilight Sparkle couldn't believe her eyes. As far as she know, Pinkie Pie had trouble sleeping just like her, if by the frequent bouts of depressed singing through the night was any indication. Yet, here she was, bouncing up and down the train like she got energy to burn. "...I'm up and ready to go!" "Pinkie Pie... how did you..." before Twilight Sparkle could finish, Pinkie Pie shoved a plate with a steamy mug on it right in front of her. "Twi eet." said Pinkie Pie as the plate and mug wobble ominously in front of Twilight Sparkle. She levitated the mug and gave its content a sniff. Suddenly, the reason Pinkie Pie can still be that upbeat that morning was revealed to her. Coffee. ==================================================================== Twilight Sparkle felt... better. Not great, but at least better was, well, better. While she preferred tea to keep her awake, the coffee provided a good kick to the flank to wake her up. However, the buzzing feeling was not exactly comfortable. In retrospect, she probably should have ate something first before chugging down that much coffee. However, she was worried about where the rest of their friends went. For as much as she could remember, those three never came back to the train last night. She found her answer at the edge of town, where ponies and buffaloes were setting sharpened logs into the ground around the perimeter wall. The source of those logs, however, appeared to have come from just three ponies. In the apple orchard, which Twilight Sparkle swore had a lot more trees in it yesterday, were Applejack. She was using her bladed horn like an axe, except that a normal axe couldn't slice through a tree in single swipe. Even more impressively, Applejack caught the falling tree on her back, keeping it off the ground while Rainbow Dash proceeded to sharpen it like a pencil with her clawed wings. Fluttershy was there too, using her whip-mane to drag the spike to the wall, where a row of other spikes were waiting to be put into the ground. "Applejack! That was the last one." Twilight found Braeburn shouting at her side. His mood appeared to have improved much since last night. "Good morning miss Twilight Sparkle!" "You're... much happier today." stated Twilight Sparkle. "Of course! Thanks to those three, we're almost done with the wall!" said Braeburn. His hoof pointed at the new fence that surrounded around town. "In the past, we never had time to finish it before a couple of those... monsters showed up and destroyed them." Twilight Sparkle looked at the now sparse looking apple orchard. "But how about food? I think you just cut down most of your orchard." "We got enough stockpiled to last a month..." said Braeburn. "... and given recent event, I think starvation is the least of any pony's or buffalo's worries." "If it comes to that..." said Captain Night Light, who had just joined them. "... we can request Canterlot to send aid by air while the railway is being repaired. I'm sure the Princess will grant that request." "Yo Twilight!" Applejack trotted up to them with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy beside her. "You're up! How ya feeling?" "Better." said Twilight Sparkle. "So this was what you had been doing all night?" "Yep!" said Applejack. "Dem monsters will have a mighty hard time getting in now!" The sound of stomach growling behind Applejack caused her to turn around. Fluttershy's face had turned red as she shrunk back a little. "I'm sorry... but... um... I'm a bit hungry..." ===================================================================== The atmosphere in the town square was more cheerful now. Rainbow Dash could see that while she stabbed an apple with her wing claw and tossed it in her mouth. It wasn't saying much considering how miserable it was yesterday. But never-the-less, the ponies and buffaloes looked happier, and Pinkie Pie was doing her best to keep it that way. The method she chose, however, was quite frankly, weird. Namely, she got the little foals to play jump ropes... "Um... Pinkie Pie, dear, are you sure you're not bothering Fluttershy?" asked Rarity. ... using Fluttershy's whip-mane as the rope. The owner of which was still eating her plate of hay and ignoring the fact that the jump-roping was causing her head to bob up and down. "Oh... I'm... fine..." said Fluttershy, her voice in sync with the bobbing of her head. "It's... kind... of... fun... like... this..." Off to the side, Applejack finally relented to the demand of calves and foals around her and let her bladed-horn emerge. The crowd promptly went "Ooh" and "Ah" at the sight. "Your horn's bigger then daddy's..." one of the calves said, to which a nearby buffalo snorted in indignation. Rarity had setup a sewing station and offered any pony with a hat or vest that walked by a free repair. Judging by the pile of hats and the number of hat-less ponies nearby, quite a few took up her offer. And by the town perimeter was Twilight Sparkle, who was deep in conversation with the buffalo's chief, Thunderhooves, and captain of the guards, Night Light. From what the unicorn told her, she was trying to find out if anyone saw the infected alicorn. It had appeared that Twilight and Night Light took a while to convince Thunderhooves that the alicorn they were seeking was in no way related to the princesses. While technically incorrect, Rainbow was sure that telling Chief Thunderhooves that the monster was created from Princess Luna's wing would make things difficult. "Um..." Rainbow Dash felt a tug on her tail and looked back. A small group of foals stood behind her. "Excuse me... but are you Wolverwing?" Rainbow Dash looked at them, back at her clawed wings, and then at the foals again. "No... I'm Rainbow Dash." "Aw..." the foals looked disappointed for a moment before a look of realization dawned on one of them. "Oh! I got it!" He shouted. "That's just your secret identity... right?" "Wait! No! I'm really..." Rainbow Dash couldn't get a word in when the foals swarmed around her, each asking for her autographs. As much as she loved attention and adoration, getting them by being mistaken for a fictional super-hero was not something she had in mind. "Okay! Okay! Every pony stand in line." said Rainbow Dash. She picked up a pen and started scribbling her signatures on them. After several minutes, the last foal in the group thanked her for the autograph and left with a wide smile. "What was that?" asked Twilight Sparkle as she approached one annoyed Rainbow Dash. "Oh, they wanted my autograph." Rainbow Dash saw a confused look on Twilight Sparkle. "They thought I'm Wolverwing in disguise." "You don't look... happy about that." stated Twilight Sparkle. "I thought you like attentions." "I like it when ponies pay attention to me because of me! Not because they think I'm some fictional pony." Rainbow Dash sighed. "You made them very happy thou." said Twilight Sparkle, who looked at the excited group of foals that were comparing the signatures they got. "I guess you're right..." Rainbow Dash smiled on seeing the sight. "So, what's happening?" Now it's Twilight's turn to sigh. "No news. Chief Thunderhooves had sent out scouts to find the source of this... disease. But none of them reported seeing an alicorn." "So... that's a good news?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I don't..." "Something is coming!" the cry of a pegasus guard cut-off Twilight mid-sentence. Almost in tandem, the two of them darted toward the sound. The rest of their friends followed close behind. They soon arrived at the western gate of the perimeter wall, where groups of ponies and buffaloes had their weapons at the ready. Braeburn stood on the watch-tower by the gate. His eyes squinted at the horizon. "It's Little Strongheart!" shouted Braeburn. Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes. True enough, there was the young buffalo Little Strongheart, who was running flat-out toward them. The reason became obvious as she got closer. Right behind the young buffalo was close to a dozen infected buffaloes. ==================================================================== "For goodness sake! Open the gate!" pleaded Braeburn to Sheriff Silverstar. "We can't! Those things will get in if we open the gate!" said Sheriff Silverstar. Applejack couldn't help but agree. Despite pegasus guards' effort to cover the young buffalo's escape with their bolts, it's apparent that they would only take down two or three of those monsters before they reach the heavily braced gate. But with her and Rainbow Dash... "Just get that gate open!" shouted Applejack. "We'll keep them away! Rainbow, let's go!" Rainbow Dash nodded. The two of them leaped over the fence and headed toward the young buffalo. Behind them, Twilight Sparkle started to help the town-ponies un-brace the gate. "Rainbow?" Little Strongheart shouted as they approached. "Just keep running!" Rainbow Dash yelled back before she launched herself in the air. She arched over the fleeing buffalo before landing on the back of a pursuing one. The force of her impact caved in the back of the monster and sent out a minor shock-wave through the ground, knocking the pursuing buffaloes off their hooves. "Way to go Rainbow!" shouted Applejack. She locked her eyes on a buffalo that was still on its hooves and galloped head-on at it. At the last moment, she side-stepped to her left and let her horn gouge deep into the monster as she ran past it, killing it instantly. Without missing a beat, she headbutted another infected buffalo before hooking her horn under its head and decapitated it. Beside her, Rainbow Dash had stabbed out the eyes on one of the buffalo and was standing on its back with her claws in the monster. Her tactic became clear when she steered the blind buffalo into impaling its horn in another of its kind. Applejack looked back and saw two buffaloes had made it past them. However, Fluttershy had used her whip-mane and dragged one them to the ground. The royal guards quickly turned the now stationary monster buffalo into a pin-cushion. A second one was dispatched when a trunk-sized spike, courtesy of Twilight Sparkle, skewered it. "Applejack! Watch out!" Applejack turned back just in time to see a buffalo leaped into the air toward her. She caught the monster between her horns, and with a twist of her body, slammed it into the ground and sliced it in two. The corner of her eye caught a buffalo trying to run past her. Applejack reared up and slammed her front-hooves into the ground. Cracks appeared beneath her hooves and extended toward the charging beast. It face-planted to the ground as its hooves sank into it. She charged forward to the trapped beast, and with a single fluid movement, cleaved its body in half. Within minutes, all the infected buffaloes lay dead on the ground. Rainbow Dash and Applejack made their way back to town to the whooping cheers of ponies and buffaloes. "That was amazing!" said Braeburn as he trotted up to them. "I mean, I thought your friend was exaggerating..." Twilight Sparkle looked like she took offense at that. "... but I couldn't be more happy to be wrong about that!" Applejack saw Captain Night Light said something to Twilight Sparkle before escorting Little Strongheart and Chief Thunderhooves into the town hall. "Applejack, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight Sparkle. "We have a meeting in the town hall." "What's happening?" asked Applejack. "It's Little Strongheart." said Twilight Sparkle. "She found the source." ==================================================================== "... okay, please tell me you are really, really bad at drawing to scale." said Rainbow Dash as Twilight Sparkle examined the drawing on the table. It showed what looked like small bumpy mountain in the midst of a swarm of buffaloes. "That's thing is like... what? Thirty? Forty-feet tall?" "It's more than a hundred feet tall." said Little Strongheart. She stood on the other side of the table beside Braeburn and Chief Thunderhooves. "What else can you tell us about it?" asked Captain Night Light, standing with the six wielder of the elements. "It looks like it was once a buffalo... or several, I'm not sure. But those... boils on its back..." Rarity made a disgusted face at the description. "... appears to be where it... make more of those monsters." Just like in diamond dog's lair... thought Twilight Sparkle. "It only make those things by day," continued Little Strongheart as she pointed to a short list of numbers on the side, "and it only made a few dozens of them everyday. But, yesterday it made a whole bunch, like close to a hundred or something." "Yesterday we killed a lot of them on the train-ride here..." Twilight Sparkle looked up from the list of numbers. "Perhaps it knows when one of them was killed and will respond to it..." "So you're saying that no matter how many we killed, it just keep making more?" commented Night Light. "This does not bode well..." he thought for a few moments before continuing. "You said it makes those thing by days, how about at night? Do they sleep?" "By night, the whole pack moves." Little Strongheart bit her lip before continuing. "From the last few nights, I'm pretty sure it was heading here." A worried look spread across the assembled ponies and buffaloes, but otherwise no one commented on that. Little Strongheart pointed to the drawing at the buffaloes that surrounded the towering monstrosity. "Those things appears to protect it. There's always a few hundred of them, with small packs leaving and returning constantly." "They behave as one..." said Twilight Sparkle. "... like an ant-colony." "It looks like we have to kill that thing..." said Night Light, his hoof tapping at the towering monster in the drawing. "... or face a never-ending stream of those monsters." "No offense, captain, but y'all already had trouble dealing with a dozen of those monsters at the same time." said Applejack. "How do ya plan to deal with a few hundred of them at the same time? Or get close enough to kill that thing?" Captain Night Light didn't look offended by the comment. Instead, he simply nodded in agreement. "True, that is a problem." "We'll take care of it!" said Rainbow Dash, her hoof tapping against her chest. "Let's go!" "Wait! I don't think having you three hitting it will work." said Twilight Sparkle. "It is very likely that that thing possesses similar toughness as the monster it creates. In that case, it may be nearly impossible to kill it just by slashing it with your claws, whips, or horns." "So how do ya plan to do?" asked Applejack. She was slightly disturbed when Twilight grinned. "We need a very... very big boom." ==================================================================== "Whoa nelly, dat's one big... um... buffalo." said Applejack as she peeked over a small ridge. Little Strongheart's drawing didn't even come close to illustrate the size of the beast. The blood-red flesh mountain looked like a massively engorged back of a buffalo, which loomed over the rest of the herd like a twenty to thirty stories tower. Hundreds of yellow, translucent, and pulsating mass covered it, some of them looked like they had recently burst open. She followed the side of the mountain down and saw no other distinguishing features on it. The whole thing just looked like a blob of blood-red meat covered in boils sitting on the barren plain. Applejack gagged as one of the sacs exploded in a shower of blood and released an infected buffalo from it. "It's just like what happened in diamond dog's lair." said Rainbow Dash, who was crouched beside the earth pony. "Okay, is dat always that... nasty looking?" asked Applejack. Rainbow Dash simply nodded in response. "It's just like having babies..." said Fluttershy. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both went pale at the flash of mental image of a mare giving birth by exploding. "It must be in pain all the time..." "Well... we best put her... it out of its misery..." said Applejack. "Do y’all think Twilight's plan will work?" "Let's find out then." with that, Rainbow Dash went over the ridge and galloped toward the herd. Right behind her, Applejack and Fluttershy quickly followed. ==================================================================== A mile away, a stretch of railroad track ran across the rocky desert. The track was one of the few that extended out from Appleloosa deeper into the frontier. It was meant connect the town of Appleloosa to a future trading settlement near the Pony/Griffin border. However, the track, at the presented, was obstructed by a particularly large boulder. If one was to look closer, one would notice that the track seemed to have disappeared right into the boulder. And if any-pony were to look in that exact moment, they would noticed a purple dragon's head sticking out of said rock for a moment before disappearing right into it. "Rock disguise is still there." said Spike. Rarity, with her horn still glowing, huffed in indignation. Her target was none other than Twilight Sparkle, who was standing on the train-engine with a clipboard in front of her. "Honestly Twilight! Do you have such low confidence in my illusion spell?" said Rarity in exacerbation. "Just have to make absolutely sure..." Twilight Sparkle stomped on the train-engine roof. The engine itself was emitting a faint whistle. "Pinkie Pie, engine check." The earth pony poked her head out of the window. "Everything is good! The needle thingy is still in the yellow." Pressure's still good... thought Twilight Sparkle as she checked off another item on the clipboard. She had gone through that checklist periodically for that past hour, checking and rechecking everything to ensure that when the right time came, everything will work perfectly. Twilight Sparkle examined the train itself. In front of the train engine the pilot was modified into a massive wedge, designed to allow the train to plow through the masses of buffaloes. All the rail cars were removed, saved for the caboose. Twilight Sparkle looked into it. The explosive cannon-ball, made useless by the destruction of the cannon, packed the interior with long fuses trailing out of them. "Do you think this will work?" asked Spike, who made a point to stay away from the bomb-filled car. Twilight Sparkle looked toward towering monstrosity in the distance. "I don't know..." She levitated a binocular to her eyes and saw a sky-blue shape arcing through the air. "We're about to find out." ==================================================================== The plan, to Rainbow Dash' surprise, was working almost exactly as planned. It had taken them a while. Her dive-bombs and Applejack's horns had killed a few dozens infected buffaloes between them. Fluttershy, while her whip was unable to kill any of the buffalo, was doing a fine job at harassing and drawing the buffaloes away from their target. The herd of monsters appeared to be as numerous as always, likely owing to the fact that with each one they killed, one of the sac on the flesh mountain would rupture and release another infected buffaloes. However the plan was working, the towering form had let out a low groan and started to move away from them. The featureless blob squirmed and wobbled as it slide along the ground like a slug. Slowly and surely they drove it toward the track, leaving behind a trail littered with dead buffaloes. After almost half an hour, the monster had finally moved onto the track. ==================================================================== Inside the boulder illusions, Twilight Sparkle watched as the nest "queen" move onto the track. It's now or never... "Pinkie Pie! Now!" shouted Twilight Sparkle. She heard the sounds of whistling increased in volume and pitch as plumes of steam shot out from the stack. The wheel started to turn, spinning on the track itself as the train started to move. Normally, one would not operate the train engine like this. Once cranked to full power, the heating crystals used to boil the water would be depleted in matter of hours. For longer trips, such as to Appleloosa, the train engine was mostly used to accelerate the train up to speed. After which the earth ponies will take over at maintaining that speed. But this trip would last but mere minutes. Twilight Sparkle stood on the train and felt the roof rumbled beneath her as the train picked up speed. "Spike! Light it!" Twilight heard the whooshing sound of Spike's dragon-breath followed by the hissing of the fuse. She quickly jumped off the train behind Pinkie Pie and Spike before turning to watch the train race toward its target. With her binocular back to her eyes, she could see her three friends breaking off their attack on the herd. That was when the flesh mountain erupted. ==================================================================== "What the hay!?" shouted Applejack as she watched in disbelief as the blood-filled sacs on the hive ruptured all at once, releasing hundreds of infected buffaloes to the ground. As a single mass, the new horde of buffaloes formed a solid wall on the track between the speeding train and the towering monster. "There are so many..." said Fluttershy. "You think Twilight's train can get through that?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I don't think so." Applejack turned toward the train. She watched as the train plowed through several dozens buffaloes and knocked them to the side and into the air. True enough, it started to slow before being derailed by the sheer mass of buffaloes. "Rainbow! Clear out dem monsters from the train!" shouted Applejack. "Got it!" Rainbow Dash leaped into the air. Using her tried and true dive-bomb method, she knocked down and stunned a wide swath of buffaloes in the area. Applejack plowed her way through the rest and rammed into the bomb-filled caboose. Without fully understanding why, she found the caboose now glued solidly to the top of her head. Applejack took a quick running start before jumping into a somersault. With a quick snap of her neck, she launched the caboose in a long arch toward the towering monstrosity. "RUN!" she yelled as she galloped away with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash ahead of her. Applejack noted a bright flash behind her seconds before a blast of wind picked them up and threw them to the ground. The howling gust died down shortly after it begun. Applejack pushed herself up and found herself face to face with an excited Twilight Sparkle, who carried Spike on her back and was followed by a bouncing Pinkie Pie and a rather exhausted looking Rarity. "You did it! You did it! It worked!" said Twilight Sparkle, her hooves pointing in the direction behind Applejack. She turned around saw what she meant. The bomb car had blasted away a large chunk of the mountain-sized mass and exposed an interior filled with smaller yellow, blood filled sacs of various sizes. Their size seemed to vary based on how close they're to the center, with the smallest ones at the core and largest one near the surface. All around the damaged mass, infected buffaloes milled around aimlessly as if they don't know what they should be doing. A rumble wail reverberated through the air as the towering mass started to disintegrated. Boulder sized chunk of flesh and clusters of sacs started to break away and crash to the ground, where they began to melt. Then Applejack noticed a squirming shape that was unlike the yellow and red sacs that surrounded it. "Twi, what is that thing?" asked Applejack. Twilight Sparkle already had her binocular up, and her mouth dropped open in shock. ===================================================================== Twilight Sparkle didn't know, exactly, what she was seeing. Near the center of the dissolving mass was a buffalo. Except unlike any other infected buffalo she had seen, this one has a back that looked like a smaller version the flesh mountain they had destroyed. Small yellow sphere dotted its body, and as she watched, some popped out and dropped to the ground. Bundles of white fibers extend from its eyes and spread out all over the mass that enveloped it. Similarly, large veins exited from its underbelly and embedded themselves in the surrounding mass. Some of those veins had tore open and spewed geyser of blood out of the open cavity. "That must be the actual queen..." muttered Twilight Sparkle. As she watched, the queen buffalo started to separate from the mass that once protected it. Its fall slowed by the white fibers and red veins, which tore and snapped one by one. With the fibers and veins that held the structure together breaking, the mountain split apart and collapsed in slow motion. Through it all, the buffalo screamed a tortured scream that chilled Twilight to the bone. Twilight Sparkle had only heard that kind of scream once before, on a late night horror movie about an insane mare who made cupcakes using living ponies. Thankfully, the scream died down to a racking moan when it finally hit the ground amidst the dissolving mass of flesh. "I think we should do something..." said Fluttershy. Like the rest of them, she looked deeply disturbed by the sound the mutated buffalo was making. "... I know it hurt a lot of ponies and buffaloes... but..." "No, you're right." said Twilight Sparkle. "More than likely, it was once just another buffalo... to let it be in so much pain is just... horrible." "I hear you." said Rainbow Dash. "I'll take care of it." Twilight Sparkle watched the pegasus broke into a gallop toward the buffalo queen. Rainbow Dash barely got a few yards away from them before her and the world vanished in a flash of white. ===================================================================== Rainbow Dash groaned as she opened her eyes. The smell of ozone in the air irritated her nose and she could hear nothing due to the ringing in her ear. She pushed herself up with her unsteady hooves and found herself standing in front of a blackened patch of ground. Behind her, she saw her friends were also getting up, dazed but otherwise on harmed. The ringing in her ear started to fade away as she picked up her friends voices. "Just what in tarnation hap..." Applejack stopped abruptly as her eyes widened to the size of saucers. Rainbow Dash followed Applejack's gaze and soon found her answer. There, sailing through the air toward the infected buffalo herd, was the gray alicorn she saw in diamond dog's lair. It landed right next to the dying queen buffalo, which started to struggle and looked as if it was trying to get away from the alicorn. But in its state, it couldn't move much at all. The alicorn turned its wings to yard long claws and drove one wing into the buffalo in front of her. Rainbow Dash could swore she felt a twinge of pain in her when the alicorn lifted the buffalo up with its wing. Rainbow Dash had wondered what would've happened to her in diamond dog's lair if Fluttershy didn't get to her in time. That question was answered when the alicorn effortlessly tossed the buffalo into the air. The queen buffalo twisted and flailed as it flew up and fell. The alicorn gave a upward swipe through the falling buffalo, sending arcs of blood through the air. The buffalo never did hit the ground as black and red tendrils shot out from the alicorn's body and claws. The tendrils tore the buffalo apart in mid-air before assimilating them into the alicorn's body. Once the tendrils had subsided, the alicorn raised its head to the sky and let out a bone-rattling screech. The effect was instantaneous. All the milling buffaloes stopped moving. Then as one, they all turned to face the six ponies and dragon. "Um... girls, I think we got a big problem." said Applejack. Rainbow Dash growled as she pawed the ground. The alicorn locked eyes with Rainbow's and sneered. The herd of infected buffaloes, several hundreds strong, started to move toward them. "Move!" Applejack shouted. The ponies and dragon ran off the track. Rainbow Dash turned around, fully expected to have to face down the herd of buffaloes. To her surprise, the herd thundered past, completely ignoring them. She turned to find the infected alicorn and only managed a glimpse of its retreating form. "Get back here!" Rainbow Dash was about to give chase when a jerk on her tail stopped her. "Hey! What gives?" she turned around. The first thing she noticed was Applejack holding her tail in her mouth, the second thing she noticed was the looks of horror on her friends' faces. "Those things..." Twilight Sparkle pointed to the herd that was thundering past them. "... are heading toward Appleloosa." ==================================================================== Applejack felt sick to her stomach. On any other day, she would've chalked it up to the amount of running she was doing, but not today. As a matter of fact, she was mildly surprised by the sheer speed and distance she had covered without being out of breath, even while carrying the rest of her friends. Pinkie Pie rode on Rainbow Dash, both bore a serious expression on their faces. A worried look was set on Fluttershy, while her passenger, Rarity, looked a bit green from the jostling as they ran. Applejack carried both Twilight Sparkle and Spike, the former of which had been going over her plan to defend the town. The plan was what made her feel sick with unease. Five to ten minutes. That's the amount of time, according to Twilight Sparkle, they would have to get the town ready for the oncoming horde behind them. They would fill the train cars with dirt and use them to form a smaller wall encircling the town interior. Rainbow Dash and her would stay outside said wall and try to take out as many as they could. The rest of the ponies and buffaloes would defend from the walls. But with each stride they made toward Appleloosa, Applejack felt more and more unease with the plan. What if the wall couldn't hold? What if they couldn't set up the defense in time? What if... "... oh no... look!" said Pinkie Pie with her hoof pointing forward. Applejack paid more attention to her front. In that moment, her world came crashing down around her. Appleloosa was devastated. The wall that surrounded the town was torn apart, with just a few short section standing here and there. Bodies of buffaloes and ponies littered the ground. What little buildings were there were gone, all of them reduced to rubble. As they entered the town, the deafening noise of ponies and buffaloes surrounded them. Foals and calves cried over the body of their parents. Guards were yelling, trying to coordinate rescue of those still trapped under the rubble. Injured ponies and buffaloes wailed out in pain while their caretakers desperately tried to save their life. Some ponies and buffaloes simply sat there, their eyes blanked as if in shock. Amidst the chaos, Applejack managed to find a pair of familiar figures, one that of Braeburn, the other of Captain Night Light. "Braeburn!" She yelled out, causing the two of them to turn around. Braeburn looked like he had building fell on top of him. His hat was missing while cuts and bruises covered his body. Captain Night Light didn't look any better. His plate armor had a deep gouge in it, and Applejack could make out some blood seeping out from it. "What happened?" "Those things..." Braeburn pointed to one of the dead infected buffaloes. His eyes had those haunted looks again. "... attacked just a while ago." "We managed to wipe them out... with heavy loses. Right now we're trying to rescue those still trapped under the collapsed buildings." said Night Light. "Captain Night Light! We need some of your unicorn guards! Where are they?" asked Twilight Sparkle. The darkened expression on Night Light's told them the answer before he did. "Most of them are dead, along with more than half of the town ponies and buffaloes, including Chief Thunderhooves... the few that are alive are either severely injured or are busy with the rescue effort... but..." he recomposed himself before continuing. "Why do you need them for?" "We... we need to build a wall..." said Twilight Sparkle, her voice wavering. "There's more of them coming..." "How many?" Night Light asked. Twilight swallowed hard before she choked out. "Hundreds..." A look of resignation washed over the two ponies' faces. "We can't hold the town against that..." stated Captain Night Light. "No! We still can!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "We'll just go out there and... and..." "... and you can't stop them before they destroy the town." said Captain Night Light. His eyes looked toward the horizon, where dust cloud from the approaching horde was visible. "We need to evacuate." "Applejack, do you think you can out-run those things while dragging a carriage?" asked Braeburn. Applejack nodded numbly. "Good, we still got a few carriages left. Go find Apple Fritter, she is in charge of keeping track of the foals and calves. Get them all on the carriage and get out of here." "How about you?" asked Applejack, but she already knew the answer. "We'll buy you some time to get away." said Captain Night Light, to which Braeburn nodded in confirmation. "NO..." Applejack cried out. "... I'm not going to leave you here! Twilight, you got some spell right? Or a plan?" Twilight Sparkle had look of guilt on her face. She took a step back, slowly shaking her head. "No... I... I got nothing... there's... nothing..." "NO! There must be something! Something we can do! Something..." Applejack felt herself drawn into an embrace. "You did your best... we all did..." Braeburn spoke right next to her ear. "But, like a pony once said, sometimes, you can't save every one." he pulled away and looked into her eyes. "This is one of those times." "But... I..." tears of frustration rolled down Applejack's cheek as she sobbed into his chest. "You did all that you could... for that, we're grateful." said Braeburn. "Not all..." Applejack spun around and found herself looking at Fluttershy. Her eyes were shadowed by her mane, but she could swore that she saw something burning in them. Her normally timid yet warm voice was gone, replaced by a harsh and icy tone. "Not... all..." she repeated before turning around and started walking toward the horde of infected buffaloes. ==================================================================== She could still remember them. She remembered seeing the derailed train, and the still bodies that reside within. She remembered the haunted look on Apple Fritter when they first found her. She remembered the feeling of desperation when she thought Applejack was going to die. She remembered the town's cries of mourning when they discovered the fate of their loved ones. She remembered the look on that mare's face right before her head was crushed by a boulder. She remember the cries of her foal, who didn't understand why her mother had to die. She remembered the haunted look on Braeburn face when he told them what happened. Above all, she remembered the guilt. The guilt that she couldn't do more. The guilt that all she could do, was to shed her tears "Y'all did all that you could..." Braeburn's voice echoed in her head as she walked out of town. In front of her, she could see the infected herd. In front of her was the cause of so much suffering. The same monster that was still trying to inflict even more suffering on a town that had already suffered so much. In that moment, her sadness and guilt evaporated, replaced by an all consuming rage. "Not all..." Fluttershy repeated once more. Her mane started to stand on ends and twisted themselves into numerous tendrils. You won't hurt anyone... as one, her mane of tendrils shot into the ground. Because I'm here... her mane plume and arched as they grew at an astounding rate, forming into tendrils which burrowed deeper into the ground. You won't hurt anyone... drops of tears hit the ground beneath her. Cracks started to form in the ground around the tendrils. "Because..." Fluttershy whispered as the cracks started to fan out in front of her. "... I won't let you..." She looked up at the approaching herd with fires burning in her eyes. The ground started to shake as the fissures widened and the earth around them buckled. "... I Won't Let You..." She spoke through gritted teeth. The thunder herd ran over fracturing earth, unconcerned or unaware of the lone, small pegasus in front of them. "I WON'T LET YOU!" Fluttershy screamed, and the ground erupted. ==================================================================== Complete silence descended on the town. Every pony, every buffalo stood completely still as they stared at the massive dust cloud that enveloped the horde of infected buffaloes. Twilight Sparkle stared alongside them, her eyes widen further as the dust started to settle. A forest had grown where the infected buffaloes once were. Except instead of a forest of trees, it was a forest of giant spikes. Hundreds, almost thousands of black spikes rose from the ground reaching hundreds of feet into the air. Almost the entire herd of buffaloes were impaled on those spike, each perfectly motionless. The rest of the infected buffaloes lay on the ground, many in two pieces while others were simply torn to shreds. In front of the carnage stood Fluttershy. Her mane and tendrils were still while her back rose and fell with her breathing. A loud crack cut through the air, followed by several more as one by one, the spikes shattered and collapsed to the ground. As the forest of spires fell, Fluttershy pulled her tendrils out of the ground and limped back toward them with her head low. The tendrils trailed behind her as they slowly split into pink hair, returning her mane to normal. No pony nor buffalo spoke a word when Fluttershy stopped in front of them. She looked up at them with a pair of exhausted eyes. "I won't... let them..." said Fluttershy in a weak voice before she toppled over. ==================================================================== The worst thing about this... disease was the waiting. Rainbow Dash had learned that very quickly as she walked through the hospital tent, looking if there's any pony that needed her help. The gloomy atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme as injured ponies and buffaloes alike waited to see if they're one of the... unlucky ones. The inside of a hospital was not a strange sight for a mare as daring, or death defying, as Rainbow Dash. Even thou untimely death was a rare event in Equestria, her frequent visit to the hospital had given her the unfortunate chance to see ponies passing from accidents or rare illnesses. The worst kind had always been the one that took a long time. She had seen ponies went completely mental from seeing their loved one slowly pass away. This disease, on the other hoof, managed to make it even worse. Because this disease doesn't kill its patient. Instead it painfully turned them into monsters. Once the voice started, it forced the afflicted ones to decide when to take their own life. She had already seen it happened to the buffaloes. One of the nurses, whether buffalo or pony, would fetch one of the guards to a buffalo. The unicorn guards would leave with the buffalo, and return without one. Those with families would spend some last moments with them before leaving. Those with calves, however, were much more difficult. The calves, some too young to fully understand what's happening, would cling to their doomed parent and tried to stop them from leaving. It always took their other parent, or for those without, another buffalo to forcefully separate them. On occasion, the calves would see the guard return without their parents and proceed to wail on the guards with their tiny hooves. In almost all cases, the guards simply stood there and let the calves tire themselves off before their remaining parent, or another buffalo, took them away. "It's going to be us soon..." Rainbow Dash stopped and saw Braeburn standing beside her. The stallion had pieces of bandages covering him, but that was nothing compared to the one lying on the bed he's staring at. Rainbow Dash recognized the pony on the bed as Silverstar, the town sheriff. His eyes were closed, bandages covered his entire body, leaving only his head and hooves exposed. "It always happened to the buffaloes first..." Braeburn continued. "... then us..." Rainbow Dash remained silence while Braeburn turned to her. "Saved my life... bucked me aside before a buffalo got me..." he chuckled a bit. "... bucked me right into a collapsing building, thou..." Both Rainbow Dash and Braeburn jumped a bit when Silverstar coughed and opened his eyes. "You complain too much..." said Sheriff Silverstar. "Sheriff! You're awake!" stated Braeburn. "How are you feeling?" "Like a buffalo ran me over..." he chuckled. "... oh wait, one did!" Rainbow Dash quietly backed away to leave the two alone. When she turned around she almost yelled out in surprise when she suddenly came face-to-face with Twilight Sparkle. "Geez!" said Rainbow Dash. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" "Sorry, I'm trying to get every-pony back to our tent." said Twilight Sparkle in a whisper, and to Rainbow Dash's confusion, the unicorn seemed excited. "Follow me." "What's going on?" asked Rainbow Dash as the two made their way out of the hospital tent. "There may be a cure for this." ==================================================================== "Blood trans... what?" asked Applejack. The six bearer of Harmonies sat in a circle inside a small tend. Although still pale and weak, Fluttershy was finally awake. They were joined by Spike and Night Light. The latter still wore his damaged armor, but the wound underneath had been bandaged. "Blood transfusion, basically you give blood to another pony." said Twilight Sparkle while levitating a scroll bearing the royal seal of Princess Luna. "The university scholars did some test on Applejack's blood, and found that the infection she carried will target and destroy any other infections introduced in it. And since earth pony blood can be transfused to another earth pony..." "Yah saying my blood can cure this thing?" asked Applejack. A look of excitement spread across the tent as Twilight Sparkle raised her hoof to interject. "We don't know yet." said Twilight Sparkle, which dampened the excitement somewhat. "They never tested on whether it can cure an existing infection in another pony. However, Princess Luna said that it may be worth a try." "Let's give it a try then." said Night Light. "How do you plan to do so?" "Easy, we find the first pony that started to hear voices." ==================================================================== The first pony to show symptoms of being infected was a pale-yellow stallion named Lucky Clover. His name, however, was a cruel case of irony. As far as Twilight can see, his injury was just a minor scratch. It was likely that just a few inches further away he would've been unharmed. But as the case may be, he was the first to show the symptom. From the look on his face, Twilight could see that the stallion was still coming to term with the fact that he's infected. Or... maybe he will get lucky with this cure... thought Twilight Sparkle as Lucky Clover lay down on a table. "So, do you understand what we're going to do?" asked Twilight Sparkle. Clover nodded in response. Twilight Sparkle levitated the single syringe filled with Applejack's blood from a nearby tray. She took a glance around the room, where her friends watched nervously. With a deep breath to relax herself, Twilight Sparkle poked the needle into the stallion's flank. Clover drew in a shuddering breath as the content of the syringe entered him. Twilight Sparkle withdrew the empty syringe and returned it to the tray. "I hope this works..." commented Twilight Sparkle as she took her place among her friends. She didn't have to wait long. "It's gone..." muttered Lucky Clover, his voice rising with each word. "The voice! It's gone! It's... *HACK*" The ponies gasped in horror as Lucky Clover fell off the table with a bout of hacking cough. Blood streamed from his mouth as his body convulsed. "What's happening to him?" asked Applejack. Twilight Sparkle didn't know how to answer that. The convulsing stallion was making a gurgling noise that sounded like he was choking while more blood started to seep from his eyes, nose, and ears. "Please... make it stop..." whimpered Fluttershy, her hooves covered her eyes. Before any pony needed to do anything, the stallion stopped shaking went completely still. Captain Night Light made his way to the immobile stallion and lowered his head to Lucky Clover's mouth. After a few seconds he got up, and shook his head. "He's gone." pronounced Night Light. ===================================================================== Twilight Sparkle sat at the corner of the hospital tent. Emotionally, she felt numb. The failure of the cure still weighs on her mind. Twilight Sparkle had tried different treatments on a few more ponies. She tried varying the amount of blood injected, the rate of dosing, and the timing of the applications. But each time, it all ended in the same way. Either the treatments had no effect on the ponies, and they had to kill them, or the treatments themselves killed the ponies. She kept trying, even when her friends started to lose hope. But after she lost the twenty-seventh pony, who died by coughing up her lungs, she too lost hope. Now, in the hospital tent, Twilight Sparkle found herself harboring a profound sense of guilt with each pony that was led, or carried, out. The rational part of her kept telling her that their death wasn't her fault. Nevertheless, the guilt was still there. Twilight Sparkle saw Captain Night Light escorting Applejack, who was carrying Sheriff Silverstar, out when he slipped and fell to the ground. Twilight Sparkle sensed something was wrong when he didn't get up and rushed over. "It looks like I will be joining them too..." said Captain Night Light. Twilight Sparkle exchanged a knowing look with Applejack before helping Night Light up. He leaned against her, his breathing labored. He paused for a moment when a look of confusion spread across his face. "... that was... new..." commented Sheriff Silverstar. "What's happening?" asked Twilight Sparkle. "The voice... it didn't sound like anything they described..." said Night Light. "That's fer shure..." said Sheriff Silverstar. "... its... warm... I could swear I heard dat somewhere... it almost... sounded like..." "Your highness?" finished Captain Night Light as his eyes spaced out. ==================================================================== She could feel them. She could feel the disease slowly took hold of their body and enslaving them. She could feel a dark force that seek to control them, to bend them to its wishes, and to corrupt them. But these are her little ponies, and she won't let anything harm them. With sheer force of will, she reached out to them. She drove away the darkness, and found herself in control. That was when she heard them. Her little ponies were crying, crying out in fear, in pain and in despair. Above all, they were calling for help, for her help. In desperation, she reached out, trying to halt the disease that was consuming them. But she couldn't stop it, she couldn't stop the disease that was hurting them. A disease that was reducing them to mindless monsters. A disease that was enslaving them... for her. She couldn't save them, she realized, but there's something else she could do. She called out to them, and one by one, their cries diminished as they recognized her. With a soothing voice, she re-assured them that all will be alright. With a gentle nudge, she lulled them into a calm and painless sleep. Then, with a heavy heart, she reached out and stilled theirs. "Rest in peace... my little ponies..." said Princess Celestia as two steams of tears ran down her cheek. In the darkened room illuminated only by Princess Celestia's horn, Princess Luna silently watched as her sister wept.