//------------------------------// // The Outbreak // Story: Quarantine: Ponyville // by Eclipse //------------------------------// Dear Princess Celestia, I'm well aware i've already sent a letter to you this week, but we had an encounter in the Everfree forest, a rather strange encounter. It wasn't with an animal, no animals came within reach of us that day; but it was a suspicious encounter. We were going to see Zecora, but we'd noticed that she was deeper in the forest than we'd initially thought we'd have to go; going out that far made everypony edgy, and rather uncomfortable. We finally made our way out there when we were suddenly ambushed by something; we think it was Zecora, but she was filled with rage. Her eyes were purely bloodshot, and she had a foam eminating from her lips; she bit Rainbow Dash, but we're having her checked out as this letter is being written, I'm sorry but even I myself am at a loss of words. The encounter left us dumbfounded as we quickly turned flank and, excuse my language, rant the hell out of there. What ever it was that was in there, it was not looking to spread anything but anger and hate to anypony who came in contact with it. Whatever you do, do not go into the Everfree forest; no matter how many troops you would send in; keep them in the castle. Something's very wrong, and until we can figure this out, it's best even you keep your distance. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle Twilight rolled up the parchment and handed it to Spike who did the usual and used his fire to send the message to Celestia as they'd always done. "I really hope she gets this letter soon, there was something extremely unnerving about how Zecora charged at us. It was like she didn't have control of herself; like her brain didn't listen to itself. Her body becoming a massive puppet to itself; her brain not responding to any type of stimulation anypony could give. Girls, something is not right, get Rainbow to the nurse's station; she needs immediate attention and tending to to close up and cleanse that wound of hers." Twilight seemed to not be able to stop talking, taking full charge of the situation, when suddenly a letter snapped back right in front of her eyes. Materializing randomly cutting her off from her train of thought; she was awe-struck that the letter was returned so fast, a full thirty-nine seconds until the letter from Celestia came. Dear Twilight Sparkle, That is strange indeed, but I assure you; you do not want to leave your library. But you do really want to kill Rainbow Dash right now whilst you all can. I'm going to send some troops to occupy Ponyville, you mustn't leave that tree Twilight Sparkle! For the sake of all that us in the castle hold dear to us; you will also kill Rainbow Dash right now, it will spare her the pain of the events to come. Soon enough her brain will pray for death, but her mind will not control her body any longer/ Her only set action would soon be, bite as many ponies as she can. I may sound crazy in this letter, but you don't know what I know about what you've stumbled upon! Heed my warning my faithful student; you must keep to yourselves, and if any of you get bitten, you'll need to kill them immediately. I'm sorry for how i'm reacting to your letter, but if you do not heed my warnings, you will cause an outbreak that nearly killed everypony in all of Equestria many centuries ago. Your Kind Ruler, Princess Celestia. Twilight was taken back by the letter, she looked over at Rainbow Dash, the pony still wracked with pain wondering why in Equestria would their leader suggest they kill their best friend. She may have had her reasons to say that, but if you are a true friend you will never leave your friends behind; no matter the costs of sticking with them may be. Twilight decided to disregard the princesses warning and take Rainbow Dash to the nurse tent; she wasn't going to let her friend die, not today, and not ever! They made up their minds, they were going to take her to get better; it broke Twilight's heart to defy a direct order from Celestia herself, but she onviously underestimated the unbreakable bond between the the six that made them nearly inseperable. They decided it best to sneak around instead; for the guards would see them and most likely try to stop them. "Now in all mah apple buckin' days, Ah've nevah heard a message from Celestia tellin' us to kill somepony! Ah nevah thought I would neither! Just what the hay is going on here anyways?" Applejack said picking up Rainbow Dash and slouching her over her back again; Twilight getting glimpses of the bite marks. Whatever was going on; it could not end prettily. Twilight sighed, "I don't know Applejack; whatever it is, we need to be weary. Something must be very wrong for Celestia to send a message like that; I'd suggest everypony stay close and use major amounts of caution." just then the door opened, two guards came in wielding large spears. All of the girls sat there in awe of the guards; nopony'd ever seen guards like this, an they felt they wouldn't like where this was going. "By decree of Princess Celestia of Equestria; we've come to formally execute Rainbow Dash. Do not resist or you will be considered traitors to the interests of the princess. We are prepared to kill her, and anypony else that may stand directly in our way." they said stepping ever so much closer to them, "Now step aside girls, you'll be relieved once this menace is dead." Fluttershy lunged out and hit one of the guards in the side of the head; knocking the unsuspecting stallion unconscious. Applejack followed suit and took her back legs to the side of the other guard's head; and with a sickening crack the deed was done. Not only did they resist the princess' official decree; they'd now also killed one of her loyal guards, and the other was going to be next. Rarity sighed, "We can't leave the other alive; if we do, when he comes to, he'll get a whole shitstorm of guards after our flanks. If we kill him, we'll at least have more time for helping Rainbow Dash; everypony, what happens this day, may our friendship never changed." Everypony yelled agreed and Applejack again used her back legs to created a sickening and reveberating crack that echoed inside of the library; a reminder of what deed they'd just done. Without further hesitation, the girls ran out of the library, forgetting about caution and running around blindly trying to find the hospital in all of the chaos that surrounded them. Everypony was getting gathered into the town square; though the girls didn't know what was going on, they had a feeling they didn't really want to in the first place. They'd kept running, avoiding the various guards that were stationed in hazmat suits; the large suits hanging loosely on their bodies, partially touching the ground below them. Finally reaching the hospital, they hurried inside; nopony was there except the nurses who'd locked the doors and put up the emergency metal doors that were for any dilemma, or outbreak, that may one day happen. They beat on the hospital doors for a while, to absolutely no prevail; or so it seemed for the moment. Eventually the nurses opened the metal doors, and rushed them inside as if they were doing something any but legal; but with the given chaos, law didn't really matter right now. Nurse Redheart stood in front of them, gesturing the doctors to take Rainbow Dash away and then turned back to the five girls that still stood there. "Girls, I'm sorry, the chaos is by those damned guards. They're corralling everypony into the town square, and we can't be a part of that; we think they're going to starte killing everypony soon. We aren't for sure, but this is the only safe place in all of Ponyville now." she said, her voice slightly grim and raspy; as if she'd seen something, something that would mess anypony up forever. "What in Equestria is going on here? I sent a letter to the princess, and next thing we know everypony is getting thrown into the town square!" Twilight said, starting to pace around slowly. "Ooooh, if only Rainbow Dash were okay; she'd be the bravest out of all of us. We can't afford this right now though; please tell me she'll be okay!" Twilight cried out, her voice echoed in the mostly empty hospital, her eyes tearing up at the events that are unfolding in front of them. Redheart looked at Twilight, "Unfortunately, without knowing what's wrong with her; there's no way we can cure her. The only thing we can do is supress serious infections that may have come from the wounds. But we make no promises that your friend will live; I know it's not the best news to you girls, but there is a more serious underlying reason for the madness here. Maybe Rainbow Dash is the key; if we can find out what's wrong with her, maybe we can find a cure to this chaos." Just then the doctors started yelling, "15ccs of epinephrine!" the doctr pony in the room with Rainbow Dash yelled. "Is that safe?!" one of the nurses yelled at him "You got a better idea? Get me the AED, she's going into cardiac arrest." the doctor replied "She's slipping into septic shock, we need to purge her system... Wait, WHAT THE..." a pained scream came from both the doctor and the two nurses from the room; and from the chaos emerged a Rainbow Dash with blooshot eyes, and foam dripping from her mouth. Rainbow Dash was unresponsive and just charged the girls; sinking her teeth into Rarity's flank getting a bloodcurdling scream that sent them all running faster than they'd ever run before. The cyan pegasus was on their tail, following closely, and absent mindedly; as if she was being controlled by some other force. This was no longer Rainbow Dash as the girls new her, this was a mindless pony with a thirst for blood and an appetite for a little bit of pony meat. The girls managed to get away, but so did Rainbow Dash; thought she ran in a completely different direction, they knew that she was going to go and bite somepony else. "Oh Celestia, what have we done...." Twilight said as she ducked into the ground into tears; what else could possibly go wrong...