Day 6
It's over... thought Rainbow Dash as she walked by the rows of funeral pyre, which had burned down to mere smoldering amber. There were no new cases of infection for a few hours, which, according to Braeburn, meant that there would be no new cases of infection.
While the always analytical Twilight Sparkle doubted that it was a spell, whatever it was that Princess Celestia did was a great mercy for the ponies. Instead of agonizing over when and how to take their own lives, they simply waited, surrounded by their friends and families until they fell asleep and passed away.
Unfortunately, the "spell" only worked on ponies, which naturally caused some resentment among the buffaloes. However, after everything the ponies and buffaloes had been through, an overwhelming majority of the buffaloes were at least glad that there will be less suffering for all. The worst that happened was a few heated exchange of words, and even those tend to end quickly when Chief Little Strongheart stepped in.
Yes, Chief Little Strongheart. In Rainbow Dash opinion, any buffalo that managed to outmaneuver her deserved to be a chief in her mind, having great leadership skill and being Chief Thunderhooves' daughter further cemented her place. Plus, it was amusing seeing the young buffalo berated older and much larger buffaloes into submission. Less amusing was the reason why she could be chief at such a young age: There's simply no buffalo left qualified enough to take over chiefdom.
The final count was depressing. Less than one in ten buffaloes, total, survived. Among the ponies, less than one in five. Most of the survivors were foals and calves, which, naturally, meant a lot of orphans. For now, the youngest of which were gathered in a make-shift nursery, cared for by Apple Fritter and some of the older foals and calves, which was where she's going.
The nursery was but a simple tent, just like everything else at the moment. It was hastily erected and plain looking, thou still pretty sturdy thanks to the buffaloes' experiences in raising tents. Rainbow Dash greeted the two pegasus guards at the entrance and walked in, pushing aside the tent flaps as she went. Once inside, she found herself looking through the crowd of foals and calves for her friends. It didn't take her long to find them.
Fluttershy was closest, holding and brushing the mane of a sleep foal who looked like she had just finished crying. Beneath each of her wings were two foals, also asleep at the moment. A bit further in was Pinkie Pie, who was arguing with Rarity on whether a plate-load of cupcakes were a health breakfast for young ponies and buffaloes. Neither of them seems to have noticed that the foals and calves were steadily emptying said plate-load of cupcakes.
"Fluttershy." whispered Rainbow Dash as she walked up to the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy looked up with warm yet sad eyes as she continued to stroke at the foal's back. "It's time to go."
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Applejack stood by the track leading out of the town. One her back carried a pair of saddle bags which were bursting with supplies. Around her were the rest of her friends, each waiting for Twilight Sparkle to finish talking with Captain Quick Draw, Braeburn, and Chief Little Strongheart.
She should be staying... thought Applejack. Its a thought that constantly ran through her mind as they waited. She looked around the town, where scaffolds were being erected, many of which with her help. There's still so much things to do. There were homes that needed building. Walls that needed erecting. Most importantly, crops and apple trees that needed planting. They needed a lot of help, and it just won't be right to leave them right now.
On the other hoof, Twilight Sparkle was right. That... alicorn monster was still out there. As long as that thing was out there, Appleloosa... Equestria... heck, the world won't ever be safe. That thing needed to be stopped, and they're the ones with the best chance to do so.
Still, there's still a chance those monsters might come back. thought Applejack as she watched Twilight Sparkle trotting back to them with Spike on her back. Behind her followed the three individuals she were talking to.
"So, every-pony ready?" asked Twilight Sparkle. The rest of her friends all replied with varying degree of readiness, all except for her.
"... yes... um... well, no." answered Applejack.
"What's wrong?" asked Twilight Sparkle with a puzzled look.
"I'm just worried about the town..." said Applejack. "... what if more of those monster showed up?"
"Princess Luna will be sending more guards." said Twilight Sparkle. "They're also bringing some new weapons that may help."
"Beside, the scouting parties all reported that there were no more monsters in the immediate area." said Quick Draw. "Not that surprising, considered your pegasus friend here... Fluttershy, right?" Fluttershy nodded meekly. "... probably took out most of them."
"Okay... but that mean you'll need more food to..." continued Applejack.
"It's going to be close." interrupted Twilight Sparkle. "But I did an inventory of their food-store. According to my estimate, they will have enough food and supplies to last until they replant the orchard."
"We also know places to forage for additional food." added Little Strongheart.
"So don't worry about us, cousin. Let us worry about our own town and we'll let you worry about that monster." finished Braeburn.
Applejack stopped to think for a moment. Braeburn was right, worrying about the town won't help at this point. They need to focus on tracking down the one responsible.
"Alright, let's go then." said Applejack. "Where to?"
"Pestilence is heading north west..." Twilight Sparkle stopped when she noted the confused look on her friends' face, "... oh right. It's the name the princesses decided on that monster. Easier to refer to later. Anyway, they think that it is headed for Griffin countries."
"Griffin?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Why there?"
"Not sure, but Princess Luna did dig up some record that several meteors land there a few months ago. At the time she didn't think much of it... until recent events. Now that Pestilence is heading there..."
"We should hurry then." said Rainbow Dash with a note of urgency. Twilight Sparkle nodded in agreement.
"We can follow the track. Once we hit the end of it we'll head west. We should reach Applelachian Peaks in two day. Griffin countries will be on the other side."
"Alright, let's go!" with that, the six ponies galloped off. Applejack only made it for a few seconds before a strained voice cried out behind her.
"Hey! Wait for us!" Applejack stopped to notice that only Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were beside her. At a distance behind them, their three remaining friends were struggling to catch up to them.
"... forgot... about... your speed..." said Twilight Sparkle, slightly wheezing. "We need... to stick... together."
"Okay..." said Rainbow Dash before she turned her back to them. "Hop on."
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For a kingdom that had gone through centuries of peace, the war room was an ancient relic, a reminder Equestria's more tumultuous past. It had been forgotten and neglected, left to accumulate dust in a remote corner of the Royal Palace.
Recently, however, the room had undergone a rapid transformation. Cobwebs and dusts were swept away. Lanterns, darkened for centuries, shone once more. New maps were brought in and hung along the wall. The largest was the map of Equestria and surrounding regions, which dominated an entire wall and was now covered in pins and flags of various colors.
"... and here..." said a unicorn stallion as a red pin floated through the air and embedded itself in the map. "... and... that's all." he walked back and joined the rest of his colleague at the long rectangular table that took up much of the room. His head turned and gazed intently at the lone, imposing yet tired figure at the head of the table.
Princess Luna stared at the map of Equestria with foreboding. The red pins that clustered around the maps were cases of reported contacts with infected monsters, be it diamond dogs, bears, manticores, or timberwolves. Many were clustered around confirmed nest sites, marked by red flags.
Twilight Sparkle's reports squared with what the guards were observing. Those nests appeared to control and coordinate the monsters near them. Destroy the nest, and the monsters around it became completely mindless and easy to deal with.
The hard part, of course, was destroying it. The nests seem to be able to recover from damage quickly. Only a single massive blow or a heavy and sustained attack could destroy it. The difficult task was made more so by the fact that unlike the one in Twilight's report, these nests were mostly deep underground. Many guards' lives were lost trying to escort cart-loads of bombs to the nests. A pang of dread washed through Princess Luna when she remembered the stacks of casualty reports waiting on her desk.
However, even with their valiant efforts, the number of nests were growing day by day. At the moment no attack on major settlement had occurred since Ponyville. That was due to the prompt evacuation of the smaller towns and village near the affected areas. However, as these infection spread, they were closing in on major cities, like Manehatten and Fillydelphia, where evacuation was no longer an option. An attack on one of those populated areas was just a matter of time. She turned her attention to the blue pins, which marked the positions of the guards, that formed lines between the cities and the cluster of red pins.
"General Light Brush, how's the guards deployment?" asked Princess Luna, directing her attention to a pegasus stallion in light armor.
"As well as we can hope for, your highness." said Light Brush. "We got enough guards to patrol areas near confirmed sightings and to perform some search and destroy. These... things possesses less threats to airborne pegasi, considering that their ability to strike at them was restricted to chucking large rocks, so most of them are tasked to keep the monsters under control. Unfortunately, the only things that can reliably kill these things and the nests they came from are the fire spears and bombs, and we're running short on those."
"Star Burst?" Princess Luna turned to a mare on the other side of the table, who wore a comically large pair of goggles that covered her eyes.
"We're making them as fast as we can. But do you know how long it takes to train unicorns not to use their magic when they're handling explosives directly?" Star Burst rolled her eyes. "Oh look! Let's use sparkly magic to move stuffs that goes boom when there's a spark! There are tools designed to do that ponies! Hoof tools designed NOT to cause explosions! Stop waving your damn horn around like you're compensating for... um..." her voices trailed off when she noticed the odd looks she's getting from other ponies in the room. Most notably was the bemused look on Luna's face. "As I was saying, we're working as fast as we can. The production should start to ramp-up by tomorrow once the converted factories start up."
"Very well, if there's any resource you need, just ask." said Princess Luna. "Anything else, General?"
Light Brush shook his head.
"Good. Next... Professor Scope, do you have anything for us?" asked Princess Luna.
"Yes and... no." said the unicorn mare with a microscope on her flank. "From the samples we acquired from Twilight Sparkle, we have a preliminary idea on the cause of the proposed... cure's failure." She shuffled a few paper around in front of her before lifting one in front of her. "The... strains that's present within the three wielders of elements, hereby referred to as Element strains, did successfully purge the Pestilence strains. However, the presence of the Pestilence strains appeared to have trigger the Element strains to try to infect the host pony, aggressively. The resulting stress on the host triggered massive organs failures." She put the paper back down with a dejected look on her face. "Unfortunately, that means we're now no closer to the cure than a few days ago..."
Princess Luna shared her sentiment. She had such high hope for the cure. When she got report that a large number of ponies in Appleloosa was infected, she actually felt happy for a moment that Twilight Sparkle would have a chance to test it out on them. A feeling that she felt tremendous guilt over, made worse by the subsequent report of the disastrous results.
"However, we're confident that we'll figure something out." added Scope.
"Okay, any pony got anything to report?" asked Princess Luna as she scanned across the room. After a few moments of silence, she continued. "Thank you all for coming. Meeting is adjourned."
All the ponies stood up and bowed as she got up to leave. Princess Luna left the room and started her way through the winding corridor leading up from the depth of the castle. As was usual for the past few days, Princess Luna felt exhausted. With her sister incapacitated, she had taken over the responsibility of raising and lowering the sun and moon. While her sister had centuries of practice with controlling both, she only had... just four days so far. Her lack of experience in raising the sun meant that she was left tired each morning from wrestling the the unruly sphere of energy into the sky.
To further add to that, she had to hold both the day and night courts. With the current situations, there were no shortage of problem to solve. Some were quite urgent, such as medical supplies to remote mining town cut off due to monster roaming on the road. Thankfully, most of the issues were already worked out by administration ministers and only needed her approval to carry out. However, that meant she had to deal with some... rather blood-pressure raising petitions.
One such petition was from a noble whose name she didn't particularly remember. His demand to drive the refuges, mostly from Ponyville at the moment, away from his vacation properties since they're "driving down property values with their... commonness", was quite memorably in the amount of rage it caused her. It took all her will power to stop herself from frothing at the mouth, but she still managed lower room temperature to near freezing. Fortunately for both of them, the noble took note of the sudden change in climate and high tailed it out of there before Luna could decide on what she should do to him.
How does Tia deal with... them? thought Princess Luna.
"Your highness?" Princess Luna looked up in surprise at the two guards standing beside a door with a sun-motif. She had arrived at her sister's bedroom and had apparently stood there for a while.
Princess Luna stared at the door. In truth, her sister was another reason why she was so exhausted. To prevent a panic, her sister's condition had been kept a secret from almost every-pony else. Excluding herself and the wielder of Harmony, the ponies that knew of Tia's condition numbered in the single digit. Not even Tia's own personal servants knew of her condition. It took a while to convince them that her sister was performing a complex spell to deal with these... monster, and that she must not be disturbed until the crisis was over. Instead, she had effectively moved into Tia's room to take care of her sister.
She slowly nudged opened the door and slipped in quietly. The living room was a mess, stacks of paper and documents scattered on the floor. The only clear spot on the floor was near a corner, in front of a cluttered desk that was her temporary work area. Taking care not to trip over the mess on the floor, she picked her way to the door leading to the bedroom and quietly pushed it open with her hoof.
The room was dimly lit, with illumination provided only by a few rays of sun-light that managed to shone through the closed curtain. The bedroom itself looked the same as ever, with one major exception. A large transparent box of reinforced glass was erected around her sister's bed. A small extension to the side, consisting of two sets of door, provided the only entrance into the otherwise air-tight cube. Its purpose was simple: To isolate its occupant from direct or indirect contact to anything on the out-side, at least until they could fully understand the capability and limit of the disease that had infected its occupant.
Within the sterile cube, lying on her bed, was Princess Celestia. Her coat, illuminated by the morning sun, was dull. The color in her mane looked washed out as it scattered over the blanket covering her back. But what surprised Luna was the missing glow from Celestia's horn.
"Tia?" Princess Luna called out as she walked towards her sister, letting the door click close behind her. She received no response. "Tia?"
Her ears twitched when she picked up the sound of labored breathing. Princess Luna quickly trotted up to the glass. On closer inspection, she notice Celestia was sweating profusely, a look of pain etched in her face.
"Tia!" Luna lit up her horn and raised a protective field around her before teleporting herself into the sealed box.
"Tia!" She tried again, but the only response from her sister was a whimper. Luna yanked the blanket covering her sister away, and gasped in horror at what she found. The infection had spread, forming clusters of blood-red pustule the size of bits. Tendril spread out from them as like spiderweb, covering a large portion of her flank. What made Luna even sicker, was that the horrifying growth pulsed with a heart-beat like rhythm.
"TIA!"
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She was lying on something hard, and her flank felt like they're burning. She struggled to blink the fog away as muffled sounds of fighting echoed around her. With one last effort, she forced her eyes open, and was bewildered by what she saw.
She didn't know how or why, but she was in Manehatten. More precisely, she was in the harbor beside Manehatten. That much Princess Celestia was sure of. There was no where else in Equestria that had this many skyscrapers dominating the horizon.
But this Manehatten wasn't the bustling metropolitan she remembered. The city was burning, its building covered with webs of red masses. In front of that backdrop were groups of guards, all firing their fire-lance and bolts at an unseen target behind her.
Princess Celestia pushed herself to her hooves, fighting against the feeling of nausea as she did so. The ground was strange, bearing symbols that indicates its a runway, used by pegasus who carried heavy load to glide in for landing. Yet Princess Celestia couldn't remember Manehatten having one out at sea. After ensuring that she had solid footing, she turned around to see what her guards were fighting against.
The sight the greeted Princess Celestia rendered her speechless. The pony stood in front of her was nothing she had ever seen before. It was easily twice her size, its body swollen with bulging masses. Two wings rest on top of its misshapen body. One of the wings had transformed into a bulky limb with jagged blades where the feathers should be. The other wing looked tiny in comparison, its feather was simply gone with the wing itself mutated into a stubby blade-like protrusion. A single, twisted and crooked horn extended from its head. Half of its leering face looked like it had melted away, revealing carnivorous fangs.
But what surprise her even more was what's on that "pony's" flank. Even when distorted by the uneven bulges beneath and marred by three open sores, it's a cutie mark that she recognized. It's a stylized sun that looked identical in every-way to hers.
Princess Celestia turned her head and looked to her side. She was stunned to find that her coat had turned black as coal. The feathers in her wings were gone, replaced by rows of slick claws that looked like steel blades. The radiant sun of her cutie-mark was still there, except with one change: The rays that pointed toward her tail had turned red and stretched out, forming a stylized wing by the sun.
What am I? thought Princess Celestia as the mutated alicorn advanced toward her. Is that thing... me?
It's what you will become... a voice echoed in her head. ... if you do nothing...
The monster swung its massive clawed wing down at her. Princess Celestia jumped back, barely missing the claws that embedded itself into the ground. She dropped into her fighting stance, her wings spread out behind her.
That's not me... thought Princess Celestia as she watched the monster trying to free its clawed wing from the ground.
That will not be me! Princess Celestia let out a battle-cry and charged. The monster only managed to catch a momentary look at her before her wing claws sliced into it. Wounds opened up on its body, spraying blood into the air. It pulled out its massive claws and swung it at her, who ducked and let the claws sailed harmlessly over her. With the monster off balance from the wild swing, she spun around and bucked out with her hing-legs. The pair of hooves slammed into the monster, sending it rolling and tumbling along the length of the runway.
"I WON'T BE LIKE YOU!" She bellowed and charged at the mutated alicorn. Then the monster did something peculiar, while leering at her, the monster rose its claw into the air before driving it deep in the ground. Princess Celestia didn't understand why it did that, but if its going to make itself a stationary target for her, she's not going to complain. With her attention completely focused on the monster in front of her, she failed to notice a small bulge in the ground traveling toward her.
Princess Celestia did notice and felt the impact when spikes erupted from the ground beneath her, impaling her and lifting her to the air. They retracted just as quickly as they appeared, dropping her painfully to the ground. She gasped for air as she tried to get back up, only to yell out in pain as a set of claws drove into the ground through her. She looked up, and found the monster's face mere inches away from her. She tried to struggle, but each movement sent renewed pain through her.
"Tia..." came Luna's voice again. With whatever strength she had left, she snapped her head up and drove her horn into the monster's eye socket. It reared back and roared as blood spewed out its ruined eyes. Princess Celestia screamed as the monster's claws, still embedded in the ground, twisted around inside her. After mere seconds, the monster slammed its hooves back down beside her head and let out a guttural growl at her. Its remaining good eye glared at her with a mixture of hate and hunger, before it opened its mouth, lined with razor sharp fangs, and snapped them shut around her neck.
Panic filled Princess Celestia as the monster started thrashing its head with her neck in its mouth. She tensed her neck muscles, trying to fight the monster attempt at tearing her head off. But the pressure was growing stronger by the second as she found breathing getting progressively more difficult.
"Tia... Hang on..."
I... can't... she felt her strength leaving her as her neck started to creak.
I'm... sorry... Her vision started to go dark.
A bright light filled her vision, driving away the darkness. A loud crack followed, accompanied by a searing pain. The fangs left her neck, letting her head fall back to the ground with a thud. The monster looked to be in pain as smoke rose off its back as scent of ozone reached her. It didn't take long for Celestia to guess what happened, and her guess was confirmed seconds later. Bolts of lightning landed on the beast on top of her, each flash blinding her and sending a fresh wave of pain through her. The monster roar grew higher in pitch with each bolts until it's a near continuous screech. Through out all this, she could hear Luna calling out to her.
"Tia! Wake up!"
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"AH!" Celestia woke up screaming. Her hooves kicked against the bed, launching herself into the reinforced glass before meeting the ground in a painful crash.
"TIA!" Celestia scrambled to her hooves, the twitching of her muscle made it difficult to her to keep her footing, but she managed anyway. She saw Luna coming around her bed with panic in her eyes. "The spells!The spells!"
It took her a few moment to figure out what Luna was saying. She quickly lit her horn and recast the collection of spells she was using to keep the infection at bay. Once that's done, she took a moment to collect herself before taking in her surrounding.
She's back in her room, or more precisely in her glass box. Two guards stood just outside the transparent enclosure, both wore a look of shock on their faces. Her bed was covered in scorch marks, and smell of ozone and smoke hung in the air. Among the acrid smell was a distinctive scent of burnt hair and... flesh. Princess Celestia looked at her side, and was taken back by what she found. Large portion of her flank was charred, but even with the extent of her injury, she could make out the red tendrils beneath, which had spread to cover most of her side.
"Luna... what... what happened?"
"You fell asleep!" cried out Luna who looked to be on the verge of tears. "And that... thing started spreading... I couldn't wake you... I didn't know what else to do... I thought it would help if I... I'm sorry..."
"No... you did what you had to... I'm okay now..." said Celestia. Inwardly, she was starting to worry. She had not slept in four days. Never before had she stayed awake this long without taking a short nap in between, let along sustaining multiple spells at the same time. While it was true that there were spells she could, and did, use to try maintain her wakefulness, those came at a cost of weakening her physical body. That meant more power and spells were needed to help her body keep the infection at bay, which further added to her mental exhaustion.
It's a vicious cycle, one that she was in danger of losing control of.
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They must be breaking some sort of speed and endurance records... the thought ran through Twilight Sparkle's mind as she watched the terrain zoomed past. The dried yellow earth had given way to gravels which crunched beneath three sets of hooves. The mountains of Applelachian Peak rose high into the sky in front of them, which looked more imposing and terrify the closer they got.
Outside a few sighting of infected buffaloes, which were quickly dispatched by either Rainbow Dash or Applejack, their travel had been fairly uneventful. Few words were exchanged throughout the journey, although that didn't mean the trip itself was quiet. Not when Pinkie Pie was around.
"Whee!" shouted Pinkie Pie as she slid along the ground on a sled behind Fluttershy. How she managed to bring or find a sled was beyond Twilight, but nevertheless, she did. Pinkie Pie didn't bring a rope, however, opting to wrap Fluttershy's whip manes around her two front hooves as a pair of reins. Twilight could swear that Pinkie Pie was just trying to find an excuse to get their three "gifted" friends to show-off their abilities. She already tried that getting Applejack to cleave a watermelon, again from source unknown, in half by throwing one at her. Said earth pony instead opted to simply duck to avoid the watermelon, to the misfortune of her passenger, Rarity.
Unlike Pinkie Pie, Rarity looked pretty miserable. Her face was green with nausea from being bounced up-and-down for the past hours, and had actually threw up a few times already. Applejack had tried to keep her gallop as smooth as possible, but the uneven terrain made it nearly impossible. Applejack had tried to get the group to slow down, but Rainbow Dash adamant refusal meant that option was not available.
Twilight Sparkle turned her head forward again and stared at the back of Rainbow Dash's head. The pegasus had been silence for almost the entire trip, instead have her attention focused on galloping as fast as she could. Her eyes were fixed directly ahead with a look of determination and a hint of worry.
Twilight Sparkle could guess what the pegasus was worried about. Despite the falling out nearly a year ago, Rainbow Dash and Gilda were still friends once upon a time. As much of a bully as Gilda was, Twilight Sparkle was willing to bet that none of them wanted what happened to the buffaloes and ponies in Appleloosa to happen to the griffins.
A sudden drop in temperature caused Twilight Sparkle to look up. The rising mountains had obscured the sun. From this distance, the mountain range look truly imposing. Their snowy peaks rose high past the cloud and cast their own shadow over them, creating a pattern of stripes over the scattering of clouds.
"Rainbow, we should stop and make camp." said Twilight Sparkle.
"Why?" without any hint of slowing down, Rainbow Dash turned around to look at her. "It's still early."
"Yes, but it's going to take us more then a few hours to find our way through the mountains." answered Twilight. "It will be dangerous if it gets dark while we're on it."
"No we won't." said Rainbow Dash before she turned back. Twilight Sparkle could swear that the pegasus was running faster. "Just hang on tight."
"Rainbow! What are you..." Twilight looked up and saw a sheer cliff approaching rapidly and instinctively tighten her grip on the pegasus. She felt a sharp pain on her back as Spike dug his claw into them.
"Rainbow! Where are you doing?!" came Spike's voice. Twilight Sparkle's eyes went wide as the cliff wall came within yards of her, before she felt a sudden shift in weight and found herself staring at the sky.
"What the hay?" shouted Applejack which caused Rainbow Dash to finally slow to a stop. After gathering her nerves, Twilight Sparkle looked back, or more specifically, down. She found herself a couple dozen feet off the ground, where her friends were staring at them with wide-eyes.
"We can make it over the mountains before the sun-set. The longer we wait, the further ahead that... Pest thing gets." said Rainbow Dash. Applejack walked up to the cliff face and placed her hoof against the cliff. Twilight Sparkle noticed small black tendrils extend out from her hooves and anchored themselves into the wall.
"No no no no no no no no... don't you DARE... AHHH!" came Rarity panicked cry when Applejack took a few step up the cliff, with a terrified unicorn clinging on her back.
"Cool!" said Pinkie Pie as she proceeded to push Fluttershy to the cliff and up on it. Fluttershy found herself glued to the cliff and stared at the black tendrils anchoring her hoof to the rocky wall. Fluttershy pulled one of her hoof away and watched as the tendril receded. She gingerly placed her hoof down again and meeped when tendrils shot out once more and anchored her hoof to the surface.
"Twilight, what do ya think?" asked Applejack. Twilight Sparkle, still clinging on to Rainbow Dash to dear life, levitated her map out and roll it open in front of her.
"Okay... um... assuming we can... um... cut through the mountain in a straight line... accounting for the up and down slopes... I say we will make it to the other side before sun-down." said Twilight Sparkle before she tucked the map back in her saddle pack. "I guess it might be better to try to cover as much ground as we can each day..."
"Alright, dat sounds like a good plan." said Applejack.
"Wait! What if I fall off?!" yelled out Rarity, who looked like she had wrapped herself around Applejack. Rainbow Dash looked thoughtful for a few second before turning to Applejack again.
"AJ, got some ropes?" asked Rainbow Dash.
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Princess Celestia was stable. That's everything the doctors could tell her.
That's... probably the best thing to hear right now... thought Princess Luna as she watched her sister through the reinforced glass enclosure. Celestia was once again sitting with her legs tucked beneath her. A fresh white blanket that covered her entire back, hiding the infected growth on her side. Her mane, a tangled mess of pastel pink, spread over her back and onto the bed like a waterfall. Her eyes were closed in deep concentration while her horn gave off a steady glow. Beside her bed stood a metal stand where a few bags of clear fluid hung. Plastic tubes extended from them and disappeared under the bed-sheet, where they fed the content of the bags directly into her sister bloodstream. Most of those bags were vitamins that help keep her sister healthy, or as healthy as possible given the circumstance. The rest contained drugs with names she had no idea how to even pronounce them, but she was told that the content would help Princess Celestia maintain her focus.
Princess Luna fought the urge to tap on the glass wall separating her from her sister. The rational part of her mind understood that letting Celestia focus on the task at hoof gave her the best chance of beating it. However, seeing the frail state of her sister, the thought that every second may be her last chance of talking to Celestia lingered in her mind.
"Princess Luna?" a voice behind her pulled Princess Luna from her thoughts. She turned around and found Professor Bubble Shake standing just outside the bedroom door.
"Yes professor?" answered Princess Luna.
"There's something you might want to see."
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Princess Luna had never seen the Canterlot Hot Lab before. In the time before her banishment, the concept that disease caused by tiny little living things, instead of curse, was not even considered. In fact, she found herself occasionally refer to them as curses out of habit. According to her study to catch up to modern times, the knowledge of that was apparently quite recent in the history of Equestria. Even more recent was the creation of these "hot labs", which deals with some of the more dangerous of diseases. It was something she only knew through cursory examination, and never did have the chance to visit one.
However, now that she's visiting one, she vowed never to do so again.
"Is all this... really... necessary?" asked Princess Luna as she found her raised right hoof being squeezed into the leg of a rubber suit.
"Of course! No pony enters the lab unless FULLY suited!" said a white unicorn with a cutie-mark of what looked like a sparkling toilet scrubber. "What happen if those things can travel through air? Left front."
"I'm pretty sure these thing..." said Luna as she did as told, "... aren't... what's the word... airborne. If it was, a lot more pony would have been effected by it."
"Just pretty sure, eh? Wanna know what happened to the last pony who said that? Right rear."
"What happened?" asked Luna, lifting the requested appendage to be stuffed.
"Hoof and mouth disease, your highness, hoof and mouth disease. Left rear."
Princess Luna shuddered. She had read about that, which was quite unfortunate for her as she was eating dinner at the time.
"Your highness. Like Squeaky Clean said, this is just a precaution. We don't want your majesty catching this thing." said Professor Scope, who, apparently having done this many time, was suiting up by herself. Beside her was Professor Bubble Shake, who was doing the same.
"Still... HEY!" Luna cried in indignation as she felt her tail being forcefully bunched up and shoved into a bag attached to the rear of the suit. "Can't you be more gentle about that?"
"Sorry, but..." Luna had to suck in her stomach as Squeaky Clean pulled the zipper on the suit shut. "... we just don't have any suit that fit your size."
Are you saying I'm fat? thought Luna. "Are we done yet?"
"Almost." Before Luna could protest, she found herself blindfolded by something rubbery. Her head was forced through the rubber tube which pressed her mane uncomfortably to the back of her neck. After some seconds of muffled protest, her face and snout popped out out of a small opening at the end. She didn't even have the time to register her complaint when Squeaky Clean jammed what looked like a fishing bowl on her head. On closer inspection, Luna could swear that it was an actual fishing bowl. "Done."
Thank Celestia! thought Princess Luna as she looked over herself through the glass bowl. The protective suit appeared to be one continuous piece of silver-coated rubber, which was stretched taut over every inch of her. She tried flexing her wings, but found it impossible due to the tightly fitted suit. Luna looked toward Scope, who had finished donning her suit, and noted with mild envy that her protective gear fit loosely and comfortably around her. She also noted that her partner, Professor Bubble Shake, was staring at her with his mouth slightly agape.
"Professor?" asked Princess Luna. The unicorn stallion didn't seem to notice her inquiry.
"Professor Bubble Shake?" Princess Luna repeated with a more authoritative tone. The stallion in question didn't seems to response. However, the mare beside him did. She shook her head and face-hoofed before giving the enthralled stallion a quick buck to the flank.
"Ow! Hey!" Bubble Shake managed to catch himself before he fell over. "What was that about?"
Scope raised a hoof toward the night princess, drawing the stallion's attention to her. He seems to have remembered what he was doing as his face flushed red.
"Ah... I'm sorry your highness..." Bubble Shake stammered as he tried to avoid the princess' gaze. "I was... um... CHECKING! Yes, just checking your suit, and it is se... crap... sealed! Right! Sealed..."
Princess Luna maintained her indifferent look at the stammering unicorn. Inwardly, however, she found the situation to be quite amusing, and flattering in a way.
"... stallions..." muttered Professor Scope as she rolled her eyes. "Shall we proceed, your highness?"
"We shall." replied Luna. She followed the two professors through a pair of heavy steel door and into a small room. The room itself was also made out of steel, with nozzles lining the floor and walls. On the opposite end of the room was another set of steel doors. A noise of metal grinding behind her caused her to look back. Squeaky Clean's horn was glowing as the metal gate closed behind them with a clang.
"Oh! By the way, did Squeaky Clean warn your highness about the fire?" asked Scope in a tone of alarm.
"What fi... FIRE!" Luna screamed when jets of flame shot out from the nozzles.
====================================================================
"We're very... VERY sorry your highness!" Professor Scope apologized profusely as Luna walked stiffly into the room. The blast of flame lasted mere seconds, and since it was designed to merely sterilize her suit, did not caused her any harm. However, the same could not be said for her dignity, shattered when she screamed like a little foal and tried to gallop back out of the chamber. She didn't succeed in getting out, but she did manage to confirm two things: One, the fishing bowl was made out of a shatter-proof material. Two, an alicorn's horn was tougher than said material and steel.
"Let's just... get down to business." said Luna, trying to move on from the embarrassing spectacle.
"Of course." Bubble Shake and Scope cantered toward a large freezer on the opposite end of the lab. While the two got to work pulling out different trays, Princess Luna took a look around the laboratory. If there's one word to describe the place, it was sterile. The entire room was illuminated by dim blue lights, provided by rows of glowing crystals suspended just under the ceiling. Tables covered in various instruments lined the walls to her left and right. Above them were cabinets, each with a lamp beneath them casting stark white light on the tables.
"Your highness, over here!" Luna turned to Scope, who was standing beside a table with a cluster of petri-dishes on it. She trotted over, and noted that each glass container held a mass of blackened... flesh. In fact, they looked just like the burns she inflicted on her own sister.
"Are all these... from my sister?" asked Luna. To her surprise, both Scope and Bubble Shake shook their head.
"Just this one..." said Scope, pointing to the sample closest to her. "The rests are samples from other infected ponies."
"What happened?" asked Luna.
"We really don't know," answered Bubble Shake, his hoof scratching the bubble dome on his head. "We were doing some experiment this morning when all our pony samples, and only the pony samples, started to... well... burn."
"To be more precise, it was around the time when your highness... um..." Scoped paused, looking as if she's trying to find the right word.
"... attacked Prin..." Bubble Shake, however, was much more straight forward. Scope stopped him with a glare before continuing.
"... when Princess Luna performed an emergency surgery on Princess Celestia with a lightning spell." finished Scope.
Luna blinked in disbelief as she darted her eyes between the samples and the professor.
"You mean to say that... I did this?" both professors nodded.
"The two event occurred, as far as we know, simultaneous." said Bubble Shake. "The damage sustained by all the samples are identical, barring varying degrees of severity. Plus, the Specter's Spell Spectral Scanner confirmed that the residual spell on the samples from Princess Celestia matches the residuals ."
"The Specter... what?" Luna tried to remember if she had come across that word before, but drew a complete blank.
"It means that the spell that you used on Princess Celestia was the same spell that damaged our pony tissue samples." said Scope.
"How is that possible?" asked Luna.
"We're not sure exactly." answered Scope. "The current hypothesis is that the mental link this infection creates between Princess Celestia and infected ponies can conduct magic energy through it. Preliminary report from other labs indicate that the effect may have a range limit, and with more information we may pin down effect of range. Furthermore, with the current samples, we may be able to further analyze whether there are any differences between a direct application of spell versus those conducted through this link. Depending on what we find, we may... um..." Scope stammered as she averted her eyes away from Luna's.
"We may...?" echoed Luna, trying to get Scope to continue.
"Well... not to get our hopes up too much... considering what happened yesterday..." muttered Scope. "... but based on everything we know so far, we suspect that a similar link exist between Pestilence and some of the other infected. Furthermore, it appears that it was attempting to establish such a link with other group of infected."
"That would explain its movements." Luna mused. "It is targeting the infected meteors..."
"It would seem that way. Of course this may be advantageous for us." said Scope.
"How so?" asked Luna. "I do not believe allowing that thing to gain control of all the monster would... oh..."
If it established the same link to all the infected... then...
"If Pestilence do gain control of all the monsters, and the link has the same property, we may have a way to wipe out almost all the infections in a single strike." concluded Scope.
====================================================================
"And... here we are!" said Rainbow Dash as Applejack and Fluttershy stopped behind her. In front of them was the griffin territory: A vast and empty tundra, where only a hardiest of plants survived on its inhospitable surface. The sun hung low on the horizon, casting long shadows over the barren plain. "Told ya we get here before..."
"LAND!" yelled Spike. Twilight Sparkle winced as the dragon's claws were pulled out of her back as he scrambled to get to solid ground. "OH SWEET SWEET LAND!"
Twilight Sparkle undone the rope that was tying her to Rainbow Dash and gingerly slide herself off the pegasus' back. She shared Spike's sentiment. Her own hooves shook beneath her as she tried to remain standing, fighting every urge to just throw up right then and there.
The trip over the mountains had been nothing short of terrifying. They had traveled up, down and sideways on vertical cliffs. Flew over gaps that no normal ponies should be able to jump across. Once or twice, they were even traveling up-side down below some overhang. The latter one was particularly terrifying, since Rainbow Dash and Applejack had to stop to convince Fluttershy to follow them. That left Rarity and her dangling a few thousand feet in the air. Spike reaction was particularly painful, who by instinct, had his claws dug into her for almost the entirety of the trip. The had left behind some very visible and painful claw marks on her back. It might be something of a blessing, considering that the pain may have distracted her from sheer terror of the situation.
"Aw it's not that bad Spikey!" said Pinkie Pie as she practically bounced her way toward Spike, who was kissing the ground itself. "It's actually pretty fun! Beside, I don't hear Rarity complaining!"
One look at Rarity told her why the prim and proper unicorn was completely silent. Her mane and tail was windswept with strands of hair curling up in odd places. As impossible as it seems for a white unicorn, she looked pale. Her eyes had shrunk to a single dot and bulged out like they're about to pop out from their socket. Still clinging to Applejack like her life depends on it, Rarity made no move to undo the rope tying her to the earth pony.
"Rarity, it's over. You can get off now." said Twilight Sparkle. Rarity snapped her head in Twilight's direction and gave a quick shook of her head. Twilight Sparkle noted a look of fear in her eyes. "Why not?"
Rarity didn't respond. Instead, she gave off a whimper and clung more tightly to Applejack.
"Um... can you girls give us some privacy?" said Applejack, who looked extremely nervous. "There had been an... um... accident."
"Accident?!" said Fluttershy, who immediately trotted over in alarm. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"No, everything is just... fine..." said Applejack as she stepped back, trying to keep her distance from them. At the same time, Rarity looked like she tried to nod and shake her head at the same time. Fluttershy froze suddenly and looked down at her hoof. Twilight Sparkle followed her gaze and noted a small puddle below Fluttershy, where Applejack once stood. It was then she noted a faint acrid smell in the air. Twilight slowly looked back up to Rarity, who looked to be on the verge of tear.
"Rarity... did you..." Twilight Sparkle didn't even get to finish before Rarity started bawling.
====================================================================
The sun had gone down, and the barren tundra, illuminated by the moon and stars, gave off a pale blue glow. The only other source of light came from a cave at the base of the Applelachian mountain. A light that soon disappeared as a boulder rolled over to cover the entrance.
From inside the cave, Twilight Sparkle extinguished her horn and took a step back the recently moved boulder, satisfied that the entrance was secured from any outside dangers. Behind her, Applejack idly chewed on a mouthful of straw with a bored expression while Rainbow Dash lounge beside the campfire. Spike had fallen asleep in the corner while being tucked in by Fluttershy.
"JUST GO AWAY!" Rarity's wail echoed from the depth, drawing every pony's attention. "And let me wallow in my all consuming shame!"
Twilight watched as Pinkie Pie emerged out from the darkness. The unicorn couldn't quite wrap her head around Pinkie's outfit. She was wearing diapers on her hip and head while sucking a pacifier like a baby. More inexplicably, she was covered, from head to hoof, in flour.
"No use?" asked Fluttershy as she walked back to the campfire. Pinkie Pie spat out the pacifier shook her head in response.
"No... I mean how's that possible?! That always worked on the Cake babies!" said Pinkie Pie, earning her an incredulous look from the rest of the ponies.
"So now what?" Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight. "You tried reasoning with her. Applejack tried to tell her it's not a problem. Fluttershy made tea for her. Pinkie Pie tried... whatever that was!"
"I guess it's best to leave her be for the night." said Twilight Sparkle. "Hopefully she will feel better in the morning."
"You know what I think?" said Rainbow Dash. "She should face it head-on! It will be like tearing off bandages! Just get it over with quickly and it will be less painful."
"Rainbow, I don't..." before Twilight could finish her sentence, Rainbow Dash had flew off into the depth of the cave.
"Hey! Rarity! Come out from under that rock! It's not that bad that you..."
"... chimicherry or cherrychanga..." Rarity's growl echoed from the darkness.
"Ooh... good question! I don't think we ever found that out..." said Pinkie Pie, who was half-way through removing the diaper from her head. "Ah... the many strange mystery of Dodge Junction..."
"So... ah guess Rarity hasn't forgive Rainbow for ditching her there..." said Applejack.
"Huh?" came Rainbow's confused voice.
"... chimicherry... or... cherryCHANGA!"
"What are you talking ab... OOF!" a streak of rainbow shot out from the depth and slammed into the wall with a loud crash. When the dust cleared, Twilight Sparkle found Rainbow Dash embedded in the cave wall with a broken sewing machine lying on the ground beneath her. "Ow..."
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy rushed over to the Rainbow Dash, who slowly topple out of the pegasus shaped indentation and collapsed on the ground. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah... on second thought..." groaned Rainbow Dash as she was helped to her hooves by Fluttershy. "... tomorrow sounds good."
"Are ya sure yah alright?" asked Applejack. "Yar wing looked funny."
True enough, her left wing was bent at an odd angle. Rainbow Dash saw it too, and didn't seem particularly bothered by it. Twilight cringed when Rainbow stretched her damaged wing out and it straightened out with a loud crack.
I guess once you can recover from having holes drilled through you, a broken wing isn't a problem... I wonder if Rarity knew that when she threw that sewing machine...
"Not a problem anymore." commented Rainbow Dash nonchalantly. "So, Twi, what's the plan tomorrow then?"
"Let's see..." Twilight Sparkle levitated a scroll out of her saddle and unrolled it in front of her. On it was, as far as she knew, the most up-to-date map of the Griffin countries. A long stretch of land that followed the coast, first heading west before curving north, creating a crescent-shaped area. The entire region was like a bowl, a vast flat plain in the middle surrounded by mountains and hills on all side. Settlements dotted the mountain ranges that ran along the coast.
"Okay, so we're here." said Twilight Sparkle as she pointed to the mountains on the eastern tip of the crescent region. "Our best course of action is to head south west a bit and follow the coastal mountains. We will visit the settlement along the way and see if they know anything."
"I hope they're okay..." muttered Fluttershy. All the ponies looked like they shared the same sentiment.
"Well, we'll find out tomorrow." answered Twilight. "Let's all get some rest."
====================================================================
Where... am I? The thought ran through Fluttershy's mind as she found herself standing on the edge of the building. It's not the tallest building in the area, which was quite obvious with the towering sky-scrappers that blocked out most of the skies around her. However, it was still high enough that Fluttershy couldn't help feeling nauseous when she stared at the distance street below her.
Her attention was quickly diverted from how high up she was when sounds of fighting reached her. Further down the street, a pegasus guard was surrounded by a horde of infected ponies and diamond dogs. Judging by the look of things, the guard wasn't doing too well. His armor was torn in places, revealing numerous bleeding wound that left streaks of black against his gray coat. His left wing was broken, bending at an odd angle. The tube launcher beneath it was also smashed beyond recognition. A few still ponies clad in broken armors laid nearby, likely all that remained of his squad.
He was completely alone, up against dozens of infected creatures bearing down on him. Yet he stood his ground, facing the swarm with a look grim determination. Using his only remaining launcher, he let loose bolts after bolts into the horde, cutting down infected ponies and diamond dogs one after another. However, there were simply way too many, and his launcher soon ran out of bolts with a click. He cried out in frustration before ripping off the launchers by the harness. He swung the depleted launchers at a pouncing diamond dog. The metal launcher catching the monster in its face and sent it tumbling to the side of the road.
"BRING IT!" the guard yelled at the monsters around him. Using the clipped-on blade on his only good wings, and fueled by his rage, he cut down the infected beasts like a scythe through a cornfield. Those that his blade missed either had their head bashed in with his steel helmet or trampled to a pulp under his hooves. In less than a minutes, the lone, blood-covered guard stood atop a hill of bodies, glaring around him like daring anyone to challenge him.
"IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?" he yelled, and as if to make his point, he crushed a dead diamond dog's head under his hoof. The street remained silence, save for the sound of his heavy breathing. Seeing as there's no more enemies nearby, the bloodied guard limped to the side of the road before he collapsed.
I need to help him! Fluttershy leaped off the building toward the injured guard. Even with her wings spread out, she only managed to glide a short while before slamming into the ground on all four a few yards away from him. Her landing drew the guard's attention, who eyes were wide with surprise before twisting into one of... hate?
"You!" he growled and pushed himself up. However, his injury was too severe and he collapsed to the ground.
"Please stay still! I'm going to help..." called out Fluttershy, who soon recognized that she wasn't making any sound. Fluttershy jumped when a tendril shot out and lifted the injured guard by the neck.
"Stop! Don't hurt him!" cried out Fluttershy, trying to will herself to release the hold. But it was as if her body had a mind of her own, she couldn't do anything but watch.
"Come on... just kill me already..." the guard choked out as a second tendril came into view. Fluttershy stared in horror as the tendril sharpened itself into a needle spike with blood dripping off the tip.
"Wait! What? No! Don't kill him! DON'T!" Fluttershy watched helplessly as the sharp tendril buried itself into the guard's chest.
====================================================================
Fluttershy woke up in darkness. Her breath came out in shallow pants as her eyes darted left and right. She got up and stumbled around in the dark, trying to figure out where she was when she heard scratching sound behind her.
"Ah!" Fluttershy broke off into a run in panic. She didn't know where she's going, but all she cared was to get away from whatever it was that was making the noise. But no matter which way she ran, the noise followed right behind her.
"Please go away, please go away, please go..." her words were cut-off when she ran head-first into a wall, causing stars to burst out in her eyes. Fluttershy quickly shook them away before backing up against a wall and let out a whimper. She could no longer hear the scratching sound, and as her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she found herself more at ease.
Faint pinpricks of light shone through the rock wall Twilight Sparkle constructed. The light offered just enough illuminations for her to make out her friends sleeping around a long burnt-out campfire. Most importantly, there's no monster anywhere near her, except for a snake-like shape on the ground.
Fluttershy gasped and held her breath as she followed the shape with her eyes. It didn't take long for her to noticed that the shape was connected to the back of her neck. With a gulp, she willed it to returned. Almost immediately, the same scratching sound that spooked her before echoed in the cave as the tendril retract toward her.
Okay... it was just my mane... rope... thingy... Fluttershy breathed out in relief as the tendril retreated back into her mane. She got up and trotted back to the campfire and lay down with her friends. She didn't managed more than a few seconds of shot eyes when a scraping sound caught her attention, causing her to bolt back up.
"Hello? Who's there?" Fluttershy called out, her ears swiveled on her head trying to pin-point the source of the sound. There was no response save for a few more scraping sound.
It's... coming from outside! Fluttershy turned toward the boulder that was blocking the entrance.
"Hello?" Fluttershy called out again. She was met with silence once again, followed by more sounds of scraping. This time, the scraping didn't stop and she could see flickering of moonlight starting to seep through the bottom of the boulder. Gripped with fear, she twisted her mane into a coiled tendril, pointing at the growing hole.
"Girls..." whispered Fluttershy as her mane twisted themselves into a single tendril. "Girls... wake-up... something is trying to get in here..."
Fluttershy glanced around, and noted with a slight twinge of fear, that none of her friends were waking up. The scraping sound grew louder as the hole beneath the boulder grew deeper. She could see a pair of bird like claws digging away at the hole.
A griffin?
"Um... mister... or missus... or miss griffin... if you are a griffin and... well... don't want to eat us... please say something..." whispered Fluttershy. The digging stopped almost immediately. Just when she thought it had given up, a griffin head forced itself through the hole. As far as Fluttershy could tell, it looked like a griffin, but something just seemed wrong about it. Glinting off the moonlight, its eyes were a solid shade of yellow, with a web of blood-red veins crisscrossing them. There were bald spots on its head where the feathers had fallen out, with the rest looked like they're just barely clinging on. What scared her the most, however, was its beak, which appeared to be lined with shark like teeth.
Fluttershy held her breath when the griffin caught her in its eyes. A pair of soul-less eyes that told Fluttershy that whoever this griffin was, he or she was no longer there anymore. The griffin gave off a screech as it started forcing its way through the small hole.
"I'm sorry..." Fluttershy sniffed before lashing out her tendril. The griffin' screech was silenced when the tendril pierced through its head with a squelch. Its deed done, Fluttershy gave the tendril a sharp tug, dislodging it from the corpse as it flew back to her. She sat down, staring at the dead griffin beneath the boulder and wondering how many others met the same fate.
I should wake the girls up... they need to see...
Her thoughts were interrupted when sounds of scraping began anew. Except this time, it sounded like there were more than one, a lot more. Flickering beams of moon-light shone from the rim of the entrance as claws slowly chipped them away. Her eyes widened in fear as she saw the boulder started to shift.
[Added] May 3, 2012
"GIRLS!" Fluttershy screamed out with her eyes focused on the intruding griffins. She counted no less than a dozen of them, all trying to dig around the boulder, which was shifting as the infected griffins tried to pry it out. Fluttershy took aim at the one that almost made it through and launched her whip at it. The griffin happened to be screeching at her, which resulted in the whip entering its mouth and out the back of its head. "WAKE UP!"
"Wha..." Rainbow Dash's eyes flitted open, followed by Applejack's.
"What in tarnation is all this rack... WHOA!"
The two jumped up when Fluttershy buried her whip into another griffin who had managed to force its body half-way through the hole it dug.
"What the... what is happening?" asked Rainbow Dash, her eyes darting between the griffins digging through the boulder. "Are those... griffins?"
"Yes!" yelled Fluttershy, her eyes locked onto another griffin was almost through before she dropped it with her whip. However, there were simply way too many of them. Before she could even retract her whip, two griffins managed to pull themselves all the way through, one from under the boulder while the other from the top. The two let out menacing growls as they advanced on her.
"We got this!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she and Applejack charged at the two griffin with their claws and horns out. The griffins seems to have noticed the two galloping ponies as they shift their attention to them, not that it helped them any. The first griffin tried to took a bite out of Rainbow Dash, only to get a mouthful of razor-sharp claws shortly followed by another set of claws into its neck and back. The second griffin reared up and swiped at Applejack with its bird-like claws. It managed to drew some blood out of the earth-pony, leaving behind three deep gouges. Applejack returned the favor with her blade-like horns and turned the griffin into two halves of a griffin.
"Applejack! You okay?" asked Fluttershy.
"Yeah! It just stings a bit." the three wounds on Applejack's back fused shut quickly as if they weren't there in the first place. "No problem."
"Hey! Anypony! A little help?" yelled out Rainbow Dash. It took Fluttershy a short while to find her, who was buried under several griffins, four to be exact. With a yell of frustration, Rainbow Dash flared her wings out and jumped, sending the griffins hurtling everywhere. On her way down, she smashed her hooves down on the head of one of them before jumping on another and shredded it with vicious swipes. The two remaining griffin flipped themselves up. One didn't have a chance to do anything else when Fluttershy's whip pierced through its neck with enough force to decapitated it. The other, however, got ready to pounce at the preoccupied Rainbow Dash.
"Ah'm coming Rainbow!" cried out Applejack before she lowered her head and charged. The griffin pounced toward Rainbow Dash, and was rammed aside by Applejack. She carried the screeching griffin forward a few more feet before slamming it into the boulder, crushing its torso and killing it. The impact however, turned out to be the additional force needed to dislodge that already loose boulder. The two stories tall boulder started to shift and roll away from the cave entrance.
"Hayseed! I'm sorry!" exclaimed Applejack. Fluttershy quickly shot her whip out toward the boulder and buried it into rolling stone. Using her whip like a rope, she dug her hooves in and pulled. A series of sickening crunches caused her to wince as the boulder roll back, crushing several griffins that tried to used the opening to squeeze through. Fluttershy gave her whip some slack, only to have to pull it taut again as the boulder shifted once more. In the meantime, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were fighting off a small crowd of griffins that managed to make their way through in that short period of time.
"What's going on? What with all the noise?" came Twilight Sparkle's groggy voice. Fluttershy darted her eyes to the formerly sleeping unicorn and saw her getting up with a confused look on her.
"Are we... having a late night party?" asked a sleepy Pinkie Pie, who was rubbing her eyes with her hoof.
"Twilight! We need some help here!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "Griffins are attacking us! Monster ones!"
"Griffins? Where?" yelled back Twilight Sparkle as her ears swiveled left and right, trying to locate the source of the noise, but the echoing in the cave made it impossible. "I can't see a thing!"
"What are you talking about!? They're right here!" replied Rainbow Dash in bewilderment.
How could she not see? It's clear as day... thought Fluttershy as she watched Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie stumbled around...
"OW!"... and smacked their head against each other.
"Oh fer Luna's sake! Just use yer horn Twilight!" shouted Applejack.
"Oh right!" with that Twilight Sparkle's horn flared up. In that moment, Fluttershy wished the unicorn hadn't done that. Her eyes stung from the sudden increase in brightness as her world turned white. She rose her hooves to try to block out the light. The next thing she knew, she felt herself being pulled through the air by her mane.
===================================================================
Twilight Sparkle blinked in surprise when Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy all yelled out in pain the moment she ignited her horn and covered their eyes with their hooves.
"GAH! TURN IT OFF!" cried out Rainbow Dash.
"I'm sorry!" answered Twilight. But before she could extinguish her horn, she saw something that made her heart stop. The boulder was rolling away, and with Fluttershy's whip still attached to it, was pulling the hapless pegasus along for the ride.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight Sparkle ran after the rolling boulder shouting at the top of her lung. Even on a fairly gentle slope, it was gaining momentum rapidly as it rolled and tumbled down. A yellow and pink blur streaked along its surface, accompanied by an intermittent screams from Fluttershy. Twilight Sparkle redoubled her effort to pursuit the boulder, at the same time trying to ignore and avoid the mangled corpses of griffins who was unfortunate enough to be in its path.
"OW!" came Pinkie Pie's yelp behind her. Twilight Sparkle turned around, slowing her gallop to a trot. Pinkie Pie had stopped behind her with her eyes staring at her flank, where a dart with red feather on its end was embedded in one of the balloon of her cutie-mark. Twilight Sparkle heard a quiet whistle followed by a sharp pain in her own flank. Looking down, she found the same kind of dart embedded in her side.
"Uh... oh..." uttered Pinkie Pie as she wobbled on her hooves for a few moments before toppling over. A wave of drowsiness hit Twilight Sparkle like a ton of brick. She felt her hooves giving out from under her as her mind started to shut down. The last thing she felt before her consciousness left her, was the sensation of being hoisted through the air.
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Alright! Finally!
Sorry for the long wait. As I said before, real-life obligation, writer's block and the fact that this section wasn't planned out before hand made for slow progress.
My apology.
WELL THAT...
was amazing :)
i bet, soon, that the trip will just
funnylolz.com/images/1328569033-39805.gif
yeah...that
Bah, evil cliffhanger! Why must you torture us so?
So happy this is back. A bunch of other Prototype crossovers have been attempted, but this one is just leagues ahead.
363740 I concur.
Really great chapter, some humour that doesn't feel out of place and a enjoyable experience to read. Black Rain continues to be Thee best [PROTOTYPE] style story. It doesn't rely on forcing Alex Mercer on us or simply telling the games story with Ponies. Every [PROTOTYPE] story should be taking notes from this one.
This chapter was very enjoyable, more of Celestia's connection to the infected is explained. The Alicorn Mutant/Infected is given a very fitting name. Pestilence is just so fitting, I can't even think of anything that would sound better. Luna is being kept busy I see, and the nobility continue to seem like spoiled brats. Would be nice to hear of some nobles doing something positive, maybe Fancypants organising a militia to deal with infected and Fleur De lis handling emergency housing and refugee camps.
Anyways I continue to track and read this fantastic story, I look forward to the next chapter. As I always do
364280
I think you hit the nail on the head. Black Rain is taking Prototype as a starting point and running off to do its own thing, rather than trying to stick to the game and tell a story that's already been told.
Probably an example more crossovers could emulate in general.
I shit you not, I audibly celebrated when I saw the update, my favorite crossover so far.
By far and away one of my favorite crossovers (second only to Name's Ellis) and the ONLY grimdark story that I will actually tolerate. Keep up the good work.
Awesome, keep it up!
I love this story. I really do. Prototype was one of those games that people thought "Ehh..." but I was like "Dude, this is fucking awesome." It seemed the game creators knew exactly what I liked in a video game. Still tracking this.
This is good. The dark is balance out with the epic. If one of the Mane 6, Spike, Celestia or Luna die, though, I'm out.
Reposted from blog.
Okay, it looks like Chapter 7 may be longer than expected (currently 14k+ words, with about... 20%? more to go). Sorry...
Anyway, in the process of writing Chapter 7, I discovered that a small section near the beginning (about 1k words) might work better if its moved to the end of Chapter 6 (which, on re-reading, felt like a somewhat weak ending).
So I move it.
If you just want to read from the changed part, search for the the word [Added] (with the square bracket, it was a white text so you'll only see it if you highlight it), and start from there.
Thank you for your interest in this story, I hope this small addition will tide you over until I'm done with Chapter 7.