Five days post infection...
"I'll say it again, this is a terrible idea," Discord repeated, peering down the hole. The group had returned to the Ponyville Day Spa, or specifically, the massive pit that had been dug straight through it. He had vivaciously acted as bait for the smaller amount of zomponies standing guard outside this time, but balked at, as he viewed it, the idiocy of Applejack's plan.
"Well, then thank your lucky stars you ain't coming," remarked Applejack in response to Discord, fastening the rope tied around her waist.
"Besides, we don't exactly have a wealth of options right now," Rainbow Dash added, who was tied up similarly.
Discord kicked at some rocks, which idly crumbled into the darkness below. "But certainly there are better ideas than blindly leaping down a pit that goes who know where," he shrugged, "You know, such as outing the problem itself." Both ponies glared at him in silence, which the draconequus repudiated with a scoff, "It's not my fault you if both of you refuse to simply eliminate the infestation, which would be the easiest solution. I would have done it by now and I am certain she would have as well."
Discord jolted a thumb at Sweetie Belle, who had been taken along. The filly didn't respond, remaining still as she sat on the ground next to Tank, who was vainly attempting to brighten her spirits with affectionate nuzzles.
"It's not a discussion Discord," replied Applejack, consciously ignoring all of his statements, "Just keep Sweetie safe while we're gone. Try to get as far away from Ponyville as possible."
"And don't do anything else stupid," Rainbow chimed in as she shut her saddlebag. Both her and Applejack had packed supplies for their voyage, sparkle-lights, some food, lots of rope, and anything Applejack assumed they would need.
Discord gasped in mock offense, "Stupid? Why Rainbow Dash, this is a serious situation, and I shall be taking it as seriously as if it were my wedding!" He paused, leaning down to pat Applejack on the head, "Don't you worry a thing, I have selected the safest place in Equestria as a hiding place. A place where none of those zombies will ever find us!"
"Alright," Applejack said reluctantly before turning to Rainbow, "Come on Rainbow, let's move." With a burst of movement, Applejack bounded over the edge of the pit. The rope around her waist was securely fastened to a pipe on the wall, allowing Applejack to slowly move down the sides of the chasm with her maintaining a firm grip on the unwinding rope. Rainbow Dash nodded and did the same, though with less restraint. She spread her wings, slowing her quick descent into the steamy darkness below.
Discord leaned his serpentine body to watch the duo's descent into the chasm. "Oh well," he said, wistfully stroking his beard, "Those two are as good as gone now."
Spike felt like a babysitter having to watch over a schoolhouse worth of foals, but as the oldest one there, he had a responsibility to take care of the ponies, regardless of whatever happened. The Cakes and other zomponies had left long ago when they finished the "disinfection" process with the foals, leaving only the two pegasi who, even now, silently watched them, unseen in the canopies above.
The young ponies had begun waking up the previous night. Most of them were disoriented, many of them distressed, and all of them confused. Not including Apple Bloom, it seemed like all the ponies had previously been infested by one of those horrible grubs, though none of them could plainly recall anything beyond vague recollections.
Right now, Spike and Apple Bloom were helping Scootaloo, the most recent filly to reawaken. They supported her as she clambered up from the ground and loudly coughed, the last remaining globs of rainbow discharging from her lungs. The pegasus tiredly looked around as she blinked.
"Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom leaned into her friend, who's eyelids lifted in surprise.
"Apple Bloom? Why are you here? Wait, where are we?"
"You can talk!" Apple Bloom exclaimed while excitedly hugging her fellow cutie mark crusader. Spike sighed contentedly, at least Scootaloo was able to talk. Three of the other ponies refused to, or were unable to, speak. The dragon suspected it could be a result of mental trauma.
"Scootaloo," Spike began, "a lot has happened, and I'm not sure how much you're aware of, but I need to ask you this." Scootaloo turned her head to face him, already wide-eyed and fully awake. "Please tell me, do you remember anything from the last few days?"
Spike prepared his mental notetaking for another response. He had asked the same thing with the other foals with less than clear results. He would have written down if had some parchment, but of course, he didn't have any on hand.
Scootaloo coughed once more, and rubbed the back of her head, "I don't what happened. See, I was home sick with a flu or something at my aunts' and then- then everything got all blurry. All I remember after that was a rainbow, it was swirly and shiny and the voice. There was a voice."
Spike broke from his concentration, "A voice?"
Scootaloo looked up, staring right through him, "It was soft, nice. It- she- they told me I was special; they were going to give me a gift if I did a thing."
"What did it want you to do?"
"I don't remember, the only I remember after that is that the voice got angry. It began to scream at me." Scootaloo shuddered and looked down.
"What about the treehouse?" Apple Bloom impatiently interjected, "Do you remember anything about the treehouse?"
Scootaloo raised her head again, "What happened at the treehouse?"
Apple Bloom grimaced, she had previously encountered the infected Scootaloo at the cutie mark crusader's treehouse, where she had attacked Apple Bloom. And Scootaloo apparently had no recollection of the event. "You were there! You attacked me!"
"Don't lay into her like Apple Bloom," Spike calmly said, "We shouldn't pry into things like that so early. She's been through a lot. We all have."
Knowing he was right, Apple Bloom nodded and flopped on the ground besides Scootaloo. Spike smiled and left, running off to assist some other bawling foal. So, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sat in silence.
Scootaloo was the first to open up again. "I am glad you're okay," she said, smiling at her friend, "At least one of us didn't get-" she hesitated, "infected."
"Me too," Apple Bloom said, "I mean, if you're okay now. Cause, no offense, you were in a truly awful state at the treehouse."
"Yeah," Scootaloo commented jokingly, "I bet I looked gnarly." The two exchanged a little giggle before Scootaloo began again, "What about Sweetie? Do you know what happened to her?"
Apple Bloom shook her head. Spike had off-handedly mentioned that Sweetie Belle was with the group at the castle, but she had no idea what happened to the rest of them there.
"I bet she's still out there," Scootaloo said, absentmindedly brushing her hoof through the grass, "We cutie mark crusaders don't give up easily."
"Yeah," Apple Bloom agreed. She had a hint of sadness in her voice, something Scootaloo failed to notice.
"I bet that any second now she and Rarity, or your big sister, or even Twilight is gonna barge right in here and save us!" Scootaloo stood up flapping her tiny wings excitedly, "Heck, I bet we could find a way out of here, there's only what, two guards? I bet we can overwhelm them!"
"It ain't going to be that easy," Apple Bloom said flatly. "I've seen what they can do; those bug things, they don't like fillies, but they put us here for a reason. If we try to break out and they catch us, who know what they will do to us."
Scootaloo didn't answer at first, stopping in place as she absorbed what Apple Bloom said, before happily wrapping a hoof around Apple Bloom, "But things are different now! Now that we're back together, nothing can go wrong."
As if on cue for irony, the trees overhead began to rustle. The infected pegasi stuck their heads out and swiftly descended the trees like they did before. Apple Bloom gasped and pulled Scootaloo down. Most of other foals in the pen did the same, the rest retreating to the corner with Spike.
At one edge of the hot springs clearing, not the waterfall, but the other side closest to the pen, emerged a single zompony from the bushes of the Everfree. The zompony approached the pen, ignoring the cries of the fillies and colts. It was Rarity.
She was dirtier than ever before. The curls in her mane were all but gone, now stained and flat, sticking to her coat. Her makeup was completely gone, being replaced by dark bags accentuated by a rainbow-colored crust around her lips. The unicorn walked right up to the stone barrier of the pen and stopped. She tilted her head up, scanning across the various ponies inside with her white eyes. Rarity stopped at the end, her gaze coming to a stop. Right on Apple Bloom.
Without a hint of emotion, her horn sputtered to life with her dark gray magic that quickly enclosed Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom yelped as she began to lift into the air.
"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo cried as she grabbed hold of Apple Bloom's hooves. So did Spike, who ran over to help. Soon, other foals followed suite, but it was too late. The infected Rarity snarled and grimaced as she concentrated harder, jerking Apple Bloom away from the hooves trying to save her.
Without another noise, Rarity turned heel and walked away, back into the Everfree forest with Apple Bloom in tow. The filly continued to pointlessly struggle and flail her limbs mid-air as she was magically dragged out of sight.
After a long, slow descent, Applejack's hooves made contact with the bottom. Rainbow landed a second later, kicking up a cloud of the ashy black dirt beneath her hooves. Looking around, Applejack saw that the day spa's chasm ended with a small pool where the heated water from above had collected. The walls were disjointed, having been haphazardly dug, exposing some of Equestria's naturally forming gemstones to the air. The gemstones sparkled against the thin mist from the heated pool, mixing with the patches of rainbow on the walls. Several large holes had been dug into the chamber, each opening to more tunnels that led elsewhere.
"Which way AJ?" Rainbow Dash asked, taking a step forward.
Applejack brushed her hoof in the dirt and squinted around, "That way," she pointed her hoof to a larger tunnel before motioning to the dirt floor, "See these here markings in the dirt?" She pointed to circular indentations on the ground that ran in lines, "These are from those varmits, their spittup and all. There's more of them leading into that tunnel, which should mean it's of more importance."
Rainbow nodded, "Cool, so- how far do we go?"
"As far we as need to."
Applejack led the way into the passage. The tunnels were nearly pitch black, so she pulled out her sparkle-light. The light was weak, likely due to it slowly losing its magic, and barely illuminated the darkness in front of it.
The trickling water of the spa faded behind them as both ponies trekked into the tunnel. The tunnel's sides were jagged, like a termite burrow through wood. The sparkle-light was the only light source aside from the occasional gemstone poking from the rock walls. Its meager light revealed deep claw marks that ran along the length of the tunnel. Rainbow sighed, she couldn't see her hoof in front of her face, this would be the perfect place for a surprise zombie attack.
The further they walked, the more disorienting the tunnel became as the walls began to stretch out, widening the girth of the passage. The sides became pock-marked with the smaller holes of other tunnels intersecting with it. Most importantly, the faint sounds of zomponies could be heard emanating from further down. Mostly miscellaneous moans with the occasional sound that could be almost described as pony-like.
Rainbow twisted her sparkle-light around, looking behind her. Nothing could be seen. The tunnel seemed endless. She groaned and turned her light to Applejack, who was holding her light in her mouth. The orange earth pony looked dead ahead, focused in on her goal.
The two continued walking forward, coming across a large intersection of three tunnels. Upon entering, Rainbow gasped and was quick to pull Applejack down. Crouching behind a rocky outcropping, the duo saw that the intersection was full of ponies.
A herd of over a hundred zomponies was gathered into the center, filing in from a smaller tunnel. Just about everyone from Ponyville was present, white-eyed and drooling, bumping into one another, and aimlessly looking about. Luckily, the tunnels were dark, and the infected ponies didn't seem to have night vision, leaving them just as blind as Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow gulped, "Welp, we're done for." She turned to Applejack, who had, curiously, pulled out a brown bottle. Rainbow licked her lips when she noticed the label, "Is that some of your family's apple cider?"
Applejack didn't look over, instead stuffing a rag into the bottle, "Yep."
Rainbow hesitated before asking, "Can I have some?"
This made Applejack look over, "I didn't bring the cider for drinking Rainbow, it's for somethin' else."
"No offense, but I don't think the zomponies drink. And I know they won't accept a gift."
Applejack rolled her eyes, "Not like that Dash, I'm making some molotovs." She paused as she handed the bottle to Rainbow while pulling out some flint and steel from her saddlebag, "If I light these rags and toss the bottle, it'll create a big ol' flame. "
Rainbow Dash curiously looked at the bottles, "Fire in a bottle, that's awesome."
Applejack nodded, "Yeah, and I reckon if those zomponies are weak to anything, its fire."
"Then you'd better get those molotovs ready Applejack," Rainbow stated with an uncertain expression, "Cause we got some zombies to light up!"
Three ponies walked down the empty streets of Ponyville. At this point, they were likely the last ponies in the entire town. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had managed to escape the castle the previous day. The rest of the zomponies had filed out of through the castle's subterranean level, traveling elsewhere to Canterlot and other places. The remainder of the zombies had traveled into their tunnels.
So that left the single group of infected ponies on the hunt. With their minds foggy and their intuition shattered, this was no group of friends, rather a pack of hunters pursuing their prey. Twilight Sparkle, newly infected, had easily become the leader of the pack. Rarity, another member of the group, was absent at the moment, having been sent to the Everfree to retrieve a bargaining chip.
They had just returned from their thorough ransacking of Sugarcube Corner. They had found evidence of their prey's occupation there earlier, as well as proof of the draconequus' and filly's residence as well, though those two were of no importance to them. Twilight growled, releasing a dripping of rainbow.
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie raised their heads to attention, the former lifting her head out of a trash can. The alicorn, with her poising of prominence, motioned, or more so mentally commanded, the other two to follow her, which they did like obedient lapdogs.
The infection and its parasites affected ponies in different ways; and nowhere was this more evident than with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Maybe it was because of her connection to the elements of harmony, but Pinkie Pie seemed to have shifted to being practically unchanged after being released from the castle. The pink pony bubbly bounced about, curiously observing her surroundings and even painting crude rainbow pictures onto walls using her multi-colored goo. Fluttershy on the other hand was the polar opposite, having lost almost all vestiges of her ponyness. More feral and animalistic, she frequently attacked Pinkie and continuously searched for food, often devouring whatever she could get her hooves on.
Twilight herself was more on the Pinkie side of the spectrum, retaining something that could almost be called a personality. She turned and flared out her wings, indicating that she had reached her destination. The Ponyville Day Spa. She knew about her and Rainbow's visit earlier. She also knew that Rainbow and Applejack would most definitely go down there as a last-ditch effort to find out the source of the infection. She also knew that the two ponies were dangerous and would most likely make it through the tunnels, past any ponies standing guard, and to the source. That's why she had planned a trap, a trap that involved a bit of emotional distress. Of course, they would need to get to the source before the enemy, which would require some help.
Inside the spa, the ponies walked through the wrecked lobby and straight to their shaft. Pinkie Pie was of course the first one to jump in, arcing through the air before plunging into the darkness below. At the bottom, the warm pool erupted in a splash as Pinkie landed with a cannonball. Rocks crumbled down as Fluttershy made her way down, crawling down the shaft's walls like a six-limbed spider. Twilight took things more carefully, spreading her wings and gliding to the bottom.
When her hooves touched the dirt, Twilight's whole body shuddered as the moistness of the warm mist touched her skin. It felt good. The shaft and its water pit had been chosen because its close proximity below the spa, a nice source of hot water, at least for the time being. As such, the hot water pool was hot, wet, and deep. In other words, the perfect place for breeding.
Clambering to the edge of the pool, Pinkie shook out her poofy mane. She paused, as if remembering something, before turning around and preemptively releasing a splurge of rainbow from her mouth into the water. Unlike immediately evaporating like the goo, or sticking and staying like the rainbow webbing, the rainbow vomit swirled in the water, dissipating before being sucked down into the depths.
Twilight walked up to the water's edge and looked down into the inky abyss of the pool. This was the correct location; she could feel the presence at the bottom. She began, pawing a hoof at the water's edge. Slow at first, then more aggressive, Twilight dug her hoof into the ground, creating a dent in the floor.
After a few minutes of silence, the water began to bubble. Slowly but surely, a large form emerged from the water. The creature's black shell was balanced on top of a pulsing sack, much like the grubs, but this was much larger, much fatter. Water dripped from its bloated body which rose from the pool using two talons, long and black. A fatty crest rose over its head, covering its face, rendering it completely blind. However, it could still see. Its multitude of small black legs twitched like a cockroach, idly grasping the air, sensitive to vibrations.
It was a queen, the creatures that had dug the tunnels and birthed the grubs. Normally the queens were idle, resting in the warm waters of their pools, creating new grubs, and unconsciously feasting on the remains of failed grubs. But this one had been awoken, the vibrations from the surface disturbing its slumber.
The queen chittered, its punctured pentagonal mouth twitching open, revealing an inverted cone-shaped mouth lined with wriggling talons. A deep voice rang out in every zompony's head.
"Ah, I see the alicorn has disturbed me."
Twilight was unable to respond, her infected mind at odds with her natural instinct, however she didn't need to say anything. The queen already knew.
"It shall be done, for the good of the hive. The herd. The family. The puppets."