Shining Armor exited Ruby Quivers office hungry for answers. He needed to figure out what was causing so much damage and panic in the northern section of the West District, and he needed to do it fast. “Guards! Those of you who are able-bodied need to suit-up and come with me! We’re gonna try to get to the heart of this panic, and figure out what’s going on!”
On of the guards spat out some blood on the floor and glared at Shining. “I’ll tell ya what’s going on. Everypony’s going nuts trying to get out of here, and beating up anypony that gets in their way. Whatever’s in the center of that stampede of jerks can stay hidden for all I care. Those basket-cases deserve their comeuppance for acting so selfish.”
“That’s exactly why we need to figure out what’s in the center! Normal ponies don’t act like this! Whatever’s traumatizing them is bad, and we need to put a stop to it!” Shining grabbed a spear and sheathed shortsword from a weapon locker, and then headed for the door. “So if anypony here wants to do their duty to the empire and help placate the populus, come with me!”
After much grumbling and shuffling, about 12 or so guards walked to the front and prepared to move out.
Shining Armor smiled. It was good to see that there will still some brave individuals in his forces. “Let’s move out! We’ve got a boogeymare to find! HOO-RAH!”
The guards energetically reciprocated Shining’s battle cry. “HOO-RAH!”
Pouring out onto the street Shining and his squad immediately noticed something, or rather, smelled it. Smoke. Something was burning. Looking up north, Shining saw smoke rising up from the area, but no flames. Yet.
Okay. New objective. Stop the flames from destroying the Empire! Shining turned to his squad. “Anyone here know the hydrodirect spell? Looks like we’re gonna need it!”
One guard piped up. “I was a firefighter before entering the guard! I know the spell!”
“Excellent! Our primary goal is now to put out those fires, and then solve this mystery! Let’s move out!” Shining Armor readied his spear and charged out onto the streets, making a beeline North. His squad followed suit, also readying their weapons for potential combat.
Drawing closer and closer to the fires and screams emanating from the north, Shining noticed that the amount of ponies crowding the street and panicking was thinning, and the pungent smell of blood and smoke filled the air.
Now Shining was scared. Ruby was right. This wasn’t unrest. This was murder. Whatever had been here had killed a lot of ponies, but something was wrong. Something was off. There was blood everywhere, but no bodies. This deeply disturbed Shining, but also piqued his morbid curiosity. “Alright guards. There’s evidence of dead ponies in the area. Ready your weapons and move out.”
It was now obvious from their faces that each of Shining's squad members were also petrified of the atmosphere. They were quivering in their boots, and definitely re-thinking their decision to go with Shining Armor.
Moving deeper into the haze and smoke, strange chittering sounds became audible from farther down the street. They were soft and rhythmic, and turned the eyes of Shining's squad into the size of pie plates. Despite every bone in Shining Armor’s body screaming at him to run away as fast as he could, he pressed on and tried to find the sources of smoke.
After only a little more walking, Shining finally spotted the interior of a storefront being consumed by flames. “We got a fire here! Help me put it out!” Shining yelled over the sounds of the flames as he rushed over to a fire hydrant with the member of his squad who knew the hydrodirect spell. After Shining unscrewed one of the hydrants nozzles, his squad-mate cast the spell and got to work. Spraying the water all over the shop, and dousing most of the fire, the torrent of water was able to quickly quench the flames.
However, once the noise of the water and fire died down, the chittering sounds that had sounded far away were now louder, and presumably closer. Then the chittering became clicking, and then hissing. Terrified, the entire squad banded together in a protective circle.
One of the guards spoke up. “You wanted to find this thing? Looks like it’s takin’ the party to us.”
Then out of nowhere, a giant glob of dark goop fell out of the air and landed just short of one of the guards. The guard, Amethyst Mace, yelped in terror and fired a bolt of magic up into the darkness from which the goo came. The following magical explosion revealed nothing but the silhouette of something moving across the rooftops.
“Belgh!” Amethyst exclaimed. “Sweet Celestia this stuff is gross! It’s all over me!” He wiped his face. “It’s even in my eyes! Disgusting!”
Shining did a quick check of his surroundings, and then faced him. “You can do a clean-up later, wipe it off and let’s keep moving so we don’t end up getting eaten by this thing.”
Brandishing their spears, and putting on brave faces, the squad headed deeper into the West District.
The farther and farther they walked, the creepier it got. The buildings and streets were abandoned and cast in shadow, with the smoke-blurred twilight being the only lightsource. Even more blood was apparent in the area, but never solid proof of murder. It wasn’t until they got to a farmer’s market and put out a few more fires that they heard any substantial sounds. It was a faint groaning, seemingly emanating from one of the stalls.
Curious, but wary, Shining stepped to the front of his squad, short sword drawn. He motioned for his squad to hold position, and began to slowly creep towards the stall where the noise was coming from. As he drew closer, he saw that the sounds were coming from a stallion laying on the ground.
Shining approached the groaning stallion with caution. “Sir? Are you okay? What happened here?”
The stallion rolled over to reveal that he was missing his left hoof and several chunks of torso. “So much death… the creatures… everywhere… spared me… no clue how or why… ”
“They? Plural? What were they? What did they do to you?” Shining said as his panic only grew. Now it was a certainty that ponies were dead, and not just a possibility.
The stallion's eyes widened. “Terrifying black creatures, moved like lightning… they ate everyone… took some of my flesh too… They’re out to feed… and nothing’s gonna stop them… It hurts so bad… Please help me…”
Shining began to shake in fear. “Feed? They ate the civilians? What?”
The stallion motioned with his remaining hoof. “Go… Get out while you can. Others tried. Others failed. Even you’ll be powerless to stop them.” The stallion began breaking out into violent coughing fits. “AGH! Hurry! Get away! They’ve already heard me! Go!” The stallion continued to cough violently as Shining ran away from him and back to his squad.
He motioned to the guards. “We need to find cover now! That thing is coming this way if that stallion is to be believed! Hide, and be quiet!”
After the rest of his squad scattered like roaches, Shining found an abandoned stall to hide behind. After it got quiet, the haunting chittering and clicking became noisier again, along with the coughing of the stallion.
Trying to resist was impossible, and Shining gave into his curiosity. He peeked through a hole in the stand’s base to view the stallion’s immobile body. He was still laying there, but his body was now convulsing in pain as he coughed and groaned even more. Suddenly, three dark shadows jumped off the rooftops and near the stallion's body.
Shining had to stop himself from vomiting then and there. They were the rotting corpses of ponies, with slick black tentacles growing out of them which suspended them in the air. They dripped blood and goo, and made sickening hissing and grunting noises as they slowly approached the incapacitated stallion.
“No! Please! I want to live! Dear Celestia no!” The stallion wept for mercy as the faceless beasts shambled closer, rumbling hungrily. Razor-teeth bared.
But his cries fell on deaf ears, and to Shining’s horror, the creatures lunged at the stallion and began eating him alive. His screams cut the air like a knife, and the sounds of brutal slaughter followed. Slowly however, the activity around the stallion’s body stopped, and all but one of the creatures moved on. The one that stayed spit on the stallion’s dead body, and then leaped back up into the shadows.
Just as soon as Shining was about to give the all clear, and begin the preparations for the stallion’s impromptu burial, his body began to twitch and writhe on the ground. After a sickening crunch rang out, a bloodcurdling screech filled the air, and the stallion rose from the ground.
His missing hoof now had a tentacle growing out of it, as well as numerous others appearing out of his missing chunks of flesh. After licking it's bladed teeth, the stallion leapt onto the roof and into the shadows to find it’s brothers.
It all made sense now. The lack of bodies, but the blood, the silence, the figures. This wasn’t a single entity, it was some kind of disease spreading and turning its victims into ruthless predators that infected others via their spit. Spit…
Oh sweet Celestia. Amethyst.
Shining popped up and gave the all clear for the squad to re-group at one of the abandoned houses. As soon as they re-convened, the looks of terror were obvious.
One guards piped up. “We heard sounds… What in the name of the Crystal Princesses preened feathers was that?”
Shining gagged, and clutched his spear tightly for support. “The stallion I found laying on the ground was eaten alive. By those things. Then they turned him into one of them, and he scuttled away.”
Another guard made a puzzled face. “Wait, turned? Like they infected him or something? Did they bite him?”
Shining was terrified of what would follow, but he had to tell the truth. “They… they… they spit on him.”
Immediately, all heads in the room turned to Amethyst. He spoke. “Why’s everyone looking at… oh no. Oh no. Everyone hold on! It might not happen! I’m living! That stallion was dead when he was infected!”
Shining wore a grim expression. “Amethyst, we have to take any chance you could become one of those things as an absolute certainty. Either we’ll do the deed, or you can do it yourself. We’ll make it painless.”
“You can’t be serious! I might not be infected! I could be fine! Don’t do this!” Amethyst sputtered as Shining and the rest of the squad approached him. “No! You can’t do this! You’re all crazy!” Amethyst looked around frantically, and spotted a hole in the closing circle of guards. He bolted for the opening, only to be tackled by several of them.
“NO! LET ME GO! I WANT TO BE FREE! FREE TO LIVE! FREE TO FEED!” Amethyst began flailing violently underneath the bodies of the guards, and his screams turned to shrill hissing as his eyes glazed over and his tongue lengthened. After unleashing a demonic screech, the tendrils began bursting from his body and whipping away the numerous guards on top of them.
“ARAGHHH! FEED! KILL!” the monster that used to be Amethyst shouted.
Just as it was about to lunge at the terrified guards in front of it, a massive spear protruded from its head. After was pulled out, the monster let out an ear-splitting shriek, and began melting into black goo until Amethysts goo-covered and hole-ridden body was all that remained.
Shining stepped out from the shadows behind his body, clutching his now black and bloody spear. “We did what we had to do. Amethyst was a warrior in life, and a warrior in death. His sacrifice so that we could learn of the dangers here will not be forgotten. For now, we need to get out of here. It looks like everyone who was once here has been infected, and is moving elsewhere. We need to contain these beasts and quarantine the empire. Once we’re out of the West District, you’re all released to begin spreading the warning. Tell them you have my orders.”
The guards saluted him. “Yes sir!” They said in unison.
With their orders assigned, the Shining and his squad began to head back to civilization.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Cadence was jutted awake by the prodding of a nurse. “Ehrm… Dinner will be ready in a minute hon… Let me just put the baby to rest... “
The nurse poked Cadence again, and spoke. “Your highness? Wake up!”
Cadence shifted in her bed, and sat up. Her casts were gone, but she was still hooked up to some medical equipment. “Wha? Oh! I must have fallen asleep. What do you need?”
The nurse looked frightened. “We have to move you and your hospital bed back to the Castle.”
Cadence put on a puzzled face. “That sounds like good news! Why do you look so worried?”
The nurse smiled sheepishly. “It’s because the reason we’re moving you is due to the civil unrest in the West District is reportedly getting worse, and might begin causing chaos here in the North District! We need to move you back to secure grounds for your protection.”
Cadence was now the one who looked worried. “Oh my! I hope Shiny is ok! He went to the West District to investigate the disturbances.” Cadence shrugged. “Nothing my soldier can’t handle! But if moving me makes us safer, then go right ahead! I have no objections.”
The nurse bowed respectfully. “Thank you your highness. We’ll begin moving your bed in just a few minutes.”
After the nurse left the room, Cadence slumped down on her bed and wondered about the civil unrest situation. She knew when something was off, and whatever prompted her moving would need to be a lot more than “civil unrest” to cause action. Something wasn’t right, and Cadence needed to figure out what was really happening before something actually bad happened.
Suddenly, a royal guardspony burst into the room. “Your highness! The transport is ready! Are you ready to be moved?”
Cadence nodded. “Indeed. Why aren’t the nurses moving me?”
The guard signaled for his other soldiers to enter, and they began prepping all of her equipment and bed for travel. “Well, erm… we thought it would be safer if we oversaw the transfer.”
Cadence had had enough of this deception and lying. “I want the truth. That’s a royal order.”
The guard picked up Cadences bed, and swallowed nervously as he began moving. “You’ve got a keen eye your highness. The truth is that whatever is happening in the West District is still unknown, but reports have indicated it could become a national emergency. Your husband and his men should be returning shortly with preliminary scouting details, and we will know more with time.”
“Thank you for your honesty. I hope all is well, and this scuffle is over soon.” Cadence said as she was loaded into a covered medical carriage. “Let us move!”
“Can do!” The puller of the carriage said.
With that the carriage was off, with one princess and five guards in tow. As Cadence looked out the window of the carriage, she saw distant smoke on the horizon, wafting up into the sky in thick black plumes. One of the guards took notice as well. “The people grow nervous. Already strange rumors flying around about dark monsters stalking the burned houses. Fire crews are doing the best they can right now.”
Cadence nodded grimly. “I wish them the best. This day only gets crazier.”
The guard grinned. “Don’t worry your highness. It’ll get better. The storm will pass.”
Suddenly, the guard whirled over to the left window of the carriage to see three figures running along the rooftops beside them. He turned to his comrades. “We got hostiles tracking the carriage at 3 o’clock, confirm more at 9 o’clock?
The guard on the right side spoke up. “Confirm another three hostiles at 9 o’clock. Prepare to engage.”
As soon as the Guards drew their shortswords, a sickening scream and crunch was heard from the front of the carriage, and the world seemed to move in slow motion around Cadence as the carriage was flung on its side and the roof was busted open. She was thrown out of her bed, and heard bloodthirsty screeches and roars mixed with the yelling and screaming of guards as her vision faded away, and the sounds of terrified bystanders filled the air. The last thing she registered was her body being hefted onto the back of something, and it moving as she blacked out.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
It had been 5 minutes since Shining had exited the West District and broken up with his fellow guards. Things had only gotten worse since then. What was once the busy street Shining had galloped through to get to the danger was now another victim of it. Abandoned, smeared with the blood and possessions of once good ponies. However, Shining wasn’t far from the action, as he had slowly gotten closer to the sounds of death and destruction emanating from the center of the West District.
It was slow due to the fact Shining had to remain incredibly alert at all times. Every block he inched up was a fresh new mystery of potential danger, and one he had to brave alone if he wished to get any closer to saving lives.
But he was almost there. He could taste it. His anger mixed with the sounds of agony coming just blocks ahead of him finally took their toll, and Shining snapped. Drawing his skysteel shortsword and unleashing a primal bellow, he charged ahead at full speed, and exploded onto the scene.
The monsters were everywhere, dozens of them climbing rooftops, chasing down civilians, and eating the unlucky ones. They were all preoccupied with their mindless destruction until Shining stomped his hooves in the street.
“HEY UGLIES! YOU WANT A REAL CHALLENGE? BRING IT ON!” He yelled before leaping into the air and landing on top of one of the beasts.
He whipped his sword across its neck, and then drove it straight into the thing’s chest just to be sure. It was on now. With one of their own murdered. The other creatures re-focused on the actual threat and moved in to kill. From there, Shining was a blur of motion, slicing, shielding, zapping, and disemboweling. He hefted entire beasts like they were feathers and swung them around like maces. He shredded through them endlessly, 10, 20, 30, 40. They were like popcorn. Weak, endless, and immensely satisfying.
However, what was supposed to be a heroic intervention had become an exercise in survival. The more beasts he killed, the more flooded in from every crack and crevice. One creature died, and four took its place. Shining was wearing thin, but the creatures weren’t. They were an endless horde, throwing themselves at him endlessly. Shining finally realized that he had only wasted more time, and he had probably already killed the now-infected ponies he came to save. Desperate for a way out, Shining summoned as much mana as he could into one massive concentration, and then jettisoned it at the horde of beasts. Once it left his horn, he flung up the toughest shield he could muster, and watched as his field of view was consumed in pure white light.
Once the shock wave dissipated, Shining lowered his shield, and galloped as fast as he could toward the castle. It would be the only place with enough reinforcements to have stopped the advance of the creatures. He was determined to make the castle a safe-haven. The one place desperate ponies could come to seek refuge. He only hoped it still stood, or else he had just delivered an all-u-can-eat buffet to the growing horde of beasts.
As he ran onward however, his mind drifted, and soon focused on a terrifying thought. Family. Where could Cadence and Flurry Heart be? Could they have been… ?
Shining shook the terrifying thought from his mind. He needed to make sure his family could have somewhere safe to go before he rescued them, and not just wander through the growing death-trap of an empire after he found them.
Sunburst was smart. He could survive. Besides, he was usually at the castle anyhow when caring for Flurry Heart. What’s to say he wasn’t there right now? Shining breathed a sigh of momentary relief. Cadence was secure at the hospital in the area close to the castle, and Sunburst was probably already there.
Comforted, and now even more emboldened to stop his empire from crumbling around him, Shining galloped on through the streets, warning everyone he could and gathering those willing to fight with him. The more able hooves he had, the faster everyone could fight off the beasts. He just hoped the castle wouldn’t be taken from him too.