Infestation!
Fancy Pants trotted his way through the jungle, hacking and slashing his way though the undergrowth with his levitated machete. The unicorn swatted mosquitoes away with his tail, and kept his head low to block the burning light of the sun out of his eyes. It was far too hot and far too humid for his liking, but that had never stopped this bold and determined unicorn when the chips were down!
Taking off his pith helmet, the white unicorn wiped the sweat off his brow, and checked his map again. The airship that had brought him here had dropped him at the coast, and he had trudged his way though miles and miles of uncivilized wilderness. His target lay somewhere ahead, and the unicorn adventurer prayed he made it to his goal, before something far more threatening did!
It had been a plea for help that had brought Fancy Pants here... a request from the highest pony in the land. It had only been four day ago, when he had received a letter from none other than Princess Celestia herself. The Alicorn told him that the royal nephew and niece, Prince Blueblood and Princess Rosaline, had disappeared while on safari in these dangerous lands. And the Solar Princess, had turned to the most famous and influential hero in Canterlot to bring them back, alive and unharmed. With Fleur busy at a photo shoot in Trottingham, it fell to Fancy to make this tiring journey alone.
As he made his way into the deep jungle, Fancy came to a clearing at the crest of a hill. "I say..." He gasped under his breath, as the magnificent sight of the jungle floor stretched out before him. In the distance, Fancy could see the towering forms of Ancient step pyramids towering over the treeline. Relics of the ancient Penna civilization, many a pony came to the southern continent to either explore them, or simply marvel at their awe-inspiring beauty. Fancy hazarded a guess that the two royals had come down here for the latter, and had run into some unforeseen trouble.
"H-help! Help me!"
As he descended into the valley, Fancy swore he could hear some stallion crying out in pain. Increasing his speed to a gallop, he raced down the hill, to find a brown earth pony collapsed on the ground before him. Blood was seeping out of the wounded equine's mouth, and his eyes were wide in sheer terror. Fancy guessed he was from The royal siblings entourage, and the shape he was in did not bode well of their safety.
"Don't worry, my good fellow, I got you!" Fancy lifted the stallion's head, and levitated his canteen up so the earth pony could drink.
"I say, what happened here?" Fancy asked the wounded pony, after he had drank his fill. "Where are the prince and Princess?"
"B-blueblood ignored the warning on the inscription.... o-opened a sealed door in the pyramid." The wounded Pony stuttered out. "An evil wind blew across all the ponies in our group... there were shrieks... and blood..." The stallion's eyes went wide in stark terror. "T-the fakies...THE FAKIES!"
"I say, just rest old boy... I'll be back for you." Fancy trotted forward... convinced that the Stallion behind him was delirious, due to some form of shock. The entourage had probably attacked by some Jaguar or Puma, and this stallion had gotten away wounded. He had to find the prince and princess, before something terrible happened to them.
"What no-NO!" The stallion pleaded, as Fancy started to trot off. "Don't leave me here alone! Don't leave me here- ARGHAAAH!"
Fancy spun around, to find the stallion's severed head landing at his feet.
"BY THE HORSEMASTER!" Fancy yelled in shock. Suddenly, the white unicorn found himself surrounded by nine ponies that emerged from the jungle... but these weren’t ordinary ponies. Their coats and flesh were cracked and peeling, as if it was poorly applied paint. Their hooves were chipped, ad their manes were half torn out. They stared at Fancy with a burning look of pure rage.
"Hm, so you must be these 'fakies' he was talking about." The unicorn muttered. To Fancy's horror, two of the fakies in the background were tearing the dead stallion's body to pieces and devouring it.
"Cannibals!" Fancy yelled in disgust, before taking off in a gallop towards the pyramid. The Fakies charged after him, quickly closing the distance between them, and nipping at the unicorn's tail. Spinning around, he hit them with a flash spell that blinded them, and dashed up the steps and into the open entrance on the building's side. Shaking of their daze, the creatures ran after him, but stopped just at the pyramid's entrance, staring in at Fancy, and snarling.
"I say, they can't enter the Pyramid for some reason!" The white unicorn yelled in realization.
"Exactly.. which is how we know your not one of them." A mare's voice said behind him.
Fancy spun around, to find a pink unicorn mare, and a white unicorn stallion hiding in the opening behind him. The stallion was cowering back against a wall, while the mare looked frightened and concerned, but mentally competent. Both were wearing torn safari gear.
"Princess Rosalyn Majesty! Prince Blueblood Majesty! You're alive!" Fancy Pants whinnied in surprise. "I was afraid those cannibals had devoured you!"
"And you're Sir Fancy Pants. I recognize you from your appearances at court." Rosalyn replied. "I'm guessing that Aunt Celestia sent you to rescue us?"
"Yes, that's correct." Fancy replied, nodding. "Did those creatures out there devour your entourage?"
"Those creatures were our entourage." Rosalyn growled, glaring back at her brother. "Bluebrain here ignored an inscription left by the ancient Penna, warning of a quarantined virus in the pyramid’s inner vault. It apparently turns ponies into fakies."
"Those monsters are going to get us!" The quivering Blueblood whined. "They're gonna eat us all up! WE'RE DOOMED!"
"We call them fakies, because they're nothing but pale imitations of ponies now." Rosalyn shook her mane. "I think the gate has a protection spell that keeps the infected out of the pyramid."
Fancy looked the two of them over. These two were not actually related to Princess Celestia- rather, they were the descendants of the old Unicorn royal line, adopted into the current royal family as a courtesy to the old unicorn loyalists at court (and to prevent the nationalists from using them as figureheads to rally around, for unicorn independence). The fact that one unicorn war hero had been sent to rescue them, instead of an entire battalion, was a telling sign as to how much they were actually valued.
"We're going to have to fight our way out of here, Princess." Fancy told her. "We'll have to disintegrate as many as we can while we run!"
"Should we really kill them though?" Rosalyn asked. "They are ponies, after all!"
"My dear princess." Fancy replied, shaking his mane. "Those creatures are no longer ponies."
Rosalyn nodded, then trotted over to her brother. "Come on, Blueblood! Let's go! We are going to have to make a run for it!"
"But it's beneath my royal station to run!" Blueblood whined.
"Little brother, if you don't run.. when we get back I'll tell everypony at court you sleep with your stuffed-"
"Okay! Let's go..." Blueblood whined.
The three of them suddenly burst out of the doorway, and broke into a gallop. The fakies were hot on their hooves, as Fancy Pants and Rosalyn hit them with magic blasts left and right. After disintegrating several that were blocking their path, the three unicorns charged straight up the hill.
"Keep moving!" Rosalyn shrieked. One of them managed to catch up to Blueblood, who was lagging behind.
"Help me!" Blueblood shrieked. Fancy immediately jumped back, and hind-kicked two of the fakies, sending them tumbling back down the hill. As three more rushed them from the front, the princess hit them with a jet stream of fire, destroying the three fakies on the spot.
"Good show, your highness!" Fancy yelled to her.
"Less talk, more running!": She snorted back. The three of them continued up the hill, where they saw a large shape moving down from the clouds.
"Look princess! There's our ride!" Fancy yelled, pointing his horn up to an approaching airship. "And I think they see us!"
The airship moved in closer, and the earth pony in the gondola motioned for them to jump aboard.
"We're going to have to jump for it!" She yelled back.
"I'll never make it!" The prince cried.
"NOW!" Fancy roared. The three of them leapt high over the drooling fakies, and Fancy and the Princess used their levitation magic to carry them safely up into the gondola. Blueblood slid across the inside, hitting the opposite wall with a loud SMACK!
"I say, princess! You are quite a capable fighter, for a delicate court flower!" Fancy yelled back to her, as he pulled himself back up.
"Thank you, good sir!" She whinnied back, standing up. “I actually hate being at court functions like the gala! But Celestia insists we attend!"
"You might like the gala, if you tried!" Blueblood exclaimed, pulling himself back up to his hooves. Rosalyn just scowled at him.
"Those, poor ponies." Fancy looked back down at the contaminated ponies below. "I'll send word to the unicorn battle corps to come back here, and put these creatures down." He shook his mane. "And let us pray we have seen the last of these 'Fakies'!"