//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: The Rainbow Plague 
// by Prixy05 
//------------------------------//

Outside the Ponyville Day Spa, a dozen ponies had gathered in a group. Most of them simply stood still, their rainbow drool congealing at their hooves. Two of the zomponies were fighting, snapping and hissing at each other.

Twilight winced at the sight. This group was her first real exposure to the infected, Pinkie Pie notwithstanding. It painful for her to see her fellow Ponyvillians reduced to that.

"What do you think they're doing?" Rainbow Dash quietly whispered. She was huddled next to Twilight in the abandoned shop they had taken roost in. Looking forward, Rainbow squinted, "You think they're trying to break in?"

"I don't think so," Twilight answered, "They would have broken down the door by now."

"Perhaps they're guarding it," Discord suggested.

Twilight turned to the draconequus behind her, his cartoonishly oversized sack looming behind him, "What in Equestria would some infected ponies be guarding? I don't even think they're capable of common sense let alone the ability to formulate strategy."

Rainbow stood up, "We should go inside."

"No Rainbow," Twilight sternly replied, "There's just too many out there, we should go and regroup at the castle."

"Ah, but you see Princess," Discord interjected, leaning in between the two ponies, "There may be too many of them for you, but not for the Spirit of Chaos."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "What? You wanna be a decoy?"

"Precisely Rainbow Dash," Discord said enthusiastically, booping the pegasus's snout with his claw, "I shall go out and distract that horde of mongrels, and you two can mozey right in." Twilight vocally disapproved but was promptly ignored as Discord left their hiding place. He twisted around one more time, "Just make sure my goods aren't damaged!"

Discord stepped onto the street and approached the entrance to the spa. This immediately got the attention of the zomponies, who all turned up in unison to stare at the advancing draconequus.

"My my," Discord remarked with mock surprise, "It is easy to get the attention of the brain-dead." One of the group, a pink pony named Bella Brella, stepped forward, her teeth bared while dribbling rainbow ooze. "Yes! That's it! Come on forward! Target me!" Discord paused, "Hmm, this distraction could use a bit more chaos."

He grinned and snapped his fingers, causing a firework to appear mid-air. The firework ignited and promptly plopped onto the ground before shuddering and stopping with a pop. Discord frowned, unimpressed, "I see my magic is as underwhelming as usual."

The zomponies disagreed, the firework shifting their confusion to anger. Bella Brella howled with fury and pounced at Discord, who quickly noodled his way through the pony's hooves. The rest of the group followed suit, charging in Discord's direction. Discord laughed maniacally as he jumped and swerved through the mound of gnashing jaws and flying spittle before he dashed down the street, going as fast as his stumpy legs could carry him.

Rainbow and Twilight watched as Discord and the mob of zomponies turned the corner and vanished out of sight. Once the coast was clear, Twilight motioned her hoof, and the pair quickly crept across the street through the mud.

"Don't forget Discord's 'goods'," Twilight reminded, carefully stepping around the thick puddle of brightly colored drippings that had gathered in front of the door.

Rainbow sighed, but heeded the instructions, turning to lift the oversized sack onto her back. "Maybe we should go help Discord," Rainbow grunted.

Twilight waved her off, "I'm sure he can handle it, now come on, get inside. I want to see what's going on inside here." The alicorn pressed a hoof to the door, which surprisingly, opened effortlessly.

"Careful Twilight," Rainbow said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "The last time I found a door unlocked, I ended up in a net! You know, the one you set." Twilight smirked but didn't respond, instead moving into the spa.

The day spa was, as expected, a complete mess. Most of the furniture had been shoved aside, and hoof prints marked the walls and doorways. The lighting was all gone, but interestingly, rainbow slime had been applied to various points on the walls and ceiling, providing a soft, multicolored glow to the room.

"Wow," commented Rainbow as she heaved the bag through the doorway, "nice decor. Rarity would go crazy at this."

Twilight rolled her eyes and pulled out two rods. These rods had crystals attached to their ends and were magically enchanted to give off light. These sparkle-lights, as Twilight nicknamed them, made good replacements for her illumination spell.

"Enough joking," she said, straining as she magically lifted a sparkle-light into Rainbow's free hoof, "let's see if we can find anything."

The light flickered on, illuminating the mess of the room. Twilight scanned her light across the room. The dirty hoofprints seem to indicate many ponies moving out of the room.

Rainbow did the same, carrying the bag and the light through a doorway into the hallway. Unfortunately, the hallway had nothing of note either. She sighed to herself, but then she heard something. Her ears perked up, catching the sound of trickling water.

She slowly strode down the hall, the sound growing louder. What was it? Leftover drippings from the previous night's rain? Rainbow turned into a doorway and instantly found her answer.

"Uh Twilight? You might want to take a look at this."

Soon later, Twilight had entered next to Rainbow. Her jaw dropped.

Right in the middle of the day spa, some kind of round chasm had opened. The floor and at least one wall had been cracked apart, leaning into the pit which was the size of a house. The pipes of the spa stuck out from sides of the pit where it intersected with the lower levels of the building. The pipes still had flowing water, which trickled out and down into the darkness below, creating a gentle steam that rose up.

Twilight turned her sparkle-light down into the pit. Whatever it was, the pit lacked a visible bottom, the beam of her light diffusing into the darkness.

Rainbow turned to Twilight, "You think the rain opened a sinkhole or something?"

"No," Twilight said immediately. She narrowed her eyes as she examined the pit. "Look at that," she directed her light to the sides of pit, revealing deep claw marks that ran along the edges, "I think something made this."





"Hm, maybe- no. What if?" Twilight continued to mutter to herself as she paced back and forth. She had just entered into the front hall of the Castle of Friendship, having entered into a deep state of thinking after leaving the Ponyville Spa. The alicorn had speed-walked back to the castle after the discovery of the pit in the spa, unintentionally leaving Rainbow Dash behind.

"Yeah, thanks for the help," Rainbow said sarcastically as she groggily pulled Discord's bag through the door. She heaved one more time, lifting the sack and tossing it into the corner where it landed with a thud.

"Huh?" Twilight snapped out of her thinking state and looked up, "You're welcome?"

"Whatever," Rainbow said as she stretched her back, "I'm gonna see if anypony else is back."

"Yes yes," Twilight spluttered in response, "we should do that!"

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "Okay Twi, what's going on?"

"Oh nothing! Just preoccupied, that's all! Got a lot to think about you know!"

"Sure."

Rainbow Dash knew Twilight was lying, but she knew Twilight was just "Twilighting" things out, and it would be best to give her space. Instead, after closing and locking the front door, Rainbow walked down the hall to the meeting room. She walked into the room to see, Discord.

He was leaning back on Twilight's chair, absentmindedly examining a claw. Of course, he wasn't alone. The sounds of the infected Pinkie could be heard, albeit muffled, inside the covered cage. Applejack had returned, sitting in one corner of the room with a new face, Sweetie Belle, who was busy eating some of the accursed rainbow cookies. Another new face, some pudgy unicorn Rainbow didn't recognize, stood elsewhere. Spike stood by the doorway, keeping an eye on everyone else.

"Did you protect my goods?" Discord asked without looking up.

"Yeah yeah, I did," Rainbow replied, "Your stupid bag, which is extremely heavy for some puppets I might add, is in the front hall."

"Good," Discord answered flatly, "It was getting oh so boring around here." Without another word, the draconequus straightened up and left, brushing aside Rainbow.

Applejack walked up bearing a sad expression, "So I take it you didn't find Fluttershy and found him didn't ya?"

Rainbow nodded, "Yeah, same with Rarity?"

Applejack glanced back towards Sweetie Belle, "Yep."

All heads turned as the doors opened. Twilight walked in, "So I see Discord made his way here." She turned to Applejack "So how'd it go out there? Me and Rainbow found that Fluttershy is, impaired and something, interesting at the spa."

"My folks at the farm are fine for the time being, but it seems that Rarity's sick as well, but I did find Sweetie Belle. The poor filly was hungrier than a hound!"

"Okay," Twilight turned to Spike, "So Spike, might I ask who he is?"

In response, the unicorn hopped and walked over, giving a little bow, "I am Claudey Coals! Puppeteer and entertainer-"

He shushed as Spike put a claw to his lips, "His name's Claude, he broke in and I found him in the tunnels."

Twilight did a double take, "Wait, you went into the castle tunnels? Alone?"

"Why the heck would you do that?" Rainbow yelled, "Have you never read a zombie story before?"

Spike shrugged, "I'm more of a Power Ponies kinda fella."

Twilight flapped her wings, getting the attention of everyone else, "Regardless of some bad choices," she announced, "I'm glad to see that you're all okay, and that we have some new faces. It's time we have a meeting and make our plan."





It took a few hours, but by sunset, Twilight had finished her preparations. During the meantime, the other survivors of the group middled around the castle. Spike and Applejack took turns keeping watch for any infected ponies outside. Discord bonded with Claude with his sudden love of puppets, of which Sweetie Belle found endlessly entertaining, mainly due to Discord's ability to immaculately imitate other pony's voices. Rainbow, however, simply sulked in the study. As if Equestria itself had a bone to pick with her, she was stuck in a castle with two creatures obsessed with puppets. Never minding some more personal inner turmoils.

Nevertheless, by the time the group had assembled in the meeting room once again, dusk had fallen, regardless of it's unknown causes. Twilight had taken the time assemble a chalkboard with various illustrations.

"Good," Twilight said to the assembled group, "Now that we're all here, I would like to take the time to discuss current events." The group was all sitting in front of the roundtable, some of them, Rainbow mostly, trying desperately to ignore the shallow breathing coming from inside the muffled cage.

"Thanks to our experiences from today and personal recollections from other sources, I have been able to deduce some more information about the nature of this infection." Twilight paused, the candlelight making her look much more serious, "However, I still do not have the required information to come to a solid conclusion, which is why I have you all gathered here."

Applejack raised a hoof, "Gathered us for what exactly?"

"Hypothesis, educated guesses, shots in the dark! Anything!" Twilight clapped her hooves together for emphasis. 

A moment of silence passed before Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up, "How do we know he didn't cause this?" she asked, acknowledging Discord.

He scoffed indignantly, "This again? I have already said it once and I will say it again! This kind of trouble is too much for me! It's too prolonged! The trouble I cause is best in short bursts! The kind that can be solved in thirty minutes or maybe a two-parter!"

"Right, maybe Sweetie's onto somethin'," Applejack stated, "Do we know anypony who could've caused this?"

"Maybe Queen Chrysalis?" Spike suggested, "We haven't seen her since the whole wedding thing."

Twilight shook her head, "Unlikely, a plague doesn't seem to fit her, and besides, there's no evidence of changeling magic involved in this."

Rainbow spoke up next, "How about Starlight? Maybe another one of her spell thing's went bad."

Twilight furrowed her brow, despite Starlight's whereabouts being unknown, Twilight trusted her, even despite previous incidents. "No, that's not it at all." She turned back to the board, jotting down some more scribblings. "I'm not even sure if the disease originated in Ponyville."

Claude butted in, "Okay miss smarty hooves, why'd you ask for us if you're just going to say no to everything? In fact, why are we even bothering with this? Who cares why this started when we can just go out and-" he slid a hoof across his throat while making a squelching sound.

Rainbow stood up, "We are not going to off anypony! They may be sick, but they're our friends!"

"They ain't my friends," Claude calmly stated, leaning back in his chair, "Besides, survival of the fittest and all that."

A silence fell over the group as everyone else glared at him in silence. The only sound came from the cage, where Pinkie rustled quietly against the covered bars.

"So anyhow," Discord warmly interjected, "how about we get back to the point? I didn't get bitten for nothing you know."

This statement got everyone's attention. "Wait," Applejack stared at him, "you got bitten?"

"Oh yes, didn't I tell you? Those zombies back there chewed me all over," he held up his claw, which was covered in small bite marks, making it look like a used pencil. "To be frank," he held a puppet with nametag that read 'Frank'. 

"I thought the disease was transmitted through bites," said the puppet in a high-pitched voice, "but turns out it ain't."

Discord turned to the puppet, "So how is it transmitted Frank?"

"Beats me! They lost interest faster than Pinkie Pie watching paint dry!"

Discord chuckled at the puppet's metaphor, "Oh Frank! You and your callbacks!" He paused, looking back to Twilight. He chuckled again, putting the puppet away, "As Frank said, it is unknown to me how the disease spreads, whether I am not of interest or I am immune is of no interest to me."

"Well," Twilight sighed, "That would have been good to know earlier."

"Well, I told you now Princess, isn't that enough?"

"I guess, your information is useful, it's nearly enough to tie out my working theory."

"Which is?" Applejack stood up; she had a tired expression on her face, "I'm a might tired of all this secrecy Twilight, if you know somethin', you best speak it out."

"It's just that-" she paused and rubbed the back of her head, "I- I can't. Just not enough information, I just need some answers."

"We all want answers Twilight, that doesn't mean you should keep secrets."

Twilight sighed once more, "Fine, you want to know the truth? The only thing I'm sure of is that infected are underground and likely underneath our hooves as we speak!"





In the tunnels underneath the Castle of Friendship, a faint light was cast against the crystalline wall. Twilight had been quick to seal off the tunnels again once she learned of Spike's and Claude's escapades. But what she was unaware of was that there was another pony down there as well.

Starlight Glimmer was relatively a newcomer to the castle, having been befriended by Twilight after her failed attempts with changing the past. She had struggled to fit in with the others at first but had quickly begun to find her place in Ponyville.

Of course, all of this was a distant memory now, blurring together as a homogeneous mass within Starlight's mind. Now, Starlight's horn, dented and dirty, softly glowed as she tacked against the wall again. This was the weak point of the castle's foundations, one that could be broken.

And breaking it was, as the Starlight had been chipping away at the wall for days. For she knew that the only way into the castle was from underneath, as that was the way they had to spread. Underneath, like a malignant tumor. Starlight breathed softly, the breath catching on the web of rainbow that stretched from the roof of her mouth. Nearly there. Her horn powered up again, and she wacked the wall again.

With a small clink, the first crack formed. Starlight paused, then hit the wall again with increased fervor. Again and again as the crack splintered and grew. Small miniscule crystals began to fall off as the zompony aggressively hit her horn against the wall.

This was her task after all.  A task that had taken root in her mind, ignoring all other impulses and the voice of the pony that silently screamed inside.