A pair tired eyes opened slowly in the darkened room. The eye squinted in the darkness, trying to locate everyone in the room.
A small puddle of acidic spit was on the floor around the sleeping owner of said spit and a dark grey unicorn stallion with a slight crack in the lower part of his horn. Normally this would make it useless, but the owner of the eyes knew that the unicorn was not crippled there; the constant cloud that followed him while awake proved that. The owner of the spit, a unicorn mare, seemed to be mumbling something in her sleep and shifted slightly.
Not too far from them there was a gigantic dull pink stallion with a white Pegasus mare close to his forelegs. The mare started to cry softly which caused the stallion to move his arms closer to the mare in a tired attempt to get her to stop crying. After a moment the crying became sniffles and eventually silence again.
Sleeping on a table was a young dark blue stallion with a bandage around his eyes that should be replaced. The stallion continued to sleep softly without any interruptions.
A young electric blue colt giggled slightly in his sleep, causing the olive green Pegasus mare with a gigantic right foreleg and a critically deformed left foreleg to mutter something in her sleep to get the colt to be quiet.
A fat mahogany unicorn was sleeping with his head on one of the tables with papers scattered around him.
Finally, scattered around the room there were six ponies, two unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies sleeping more or less soundly. One of them, the purple one, had a dull white metal sphere with the words ‘WHEATLEY’ nearby with its single, metal eye closed, presumably to conserve power instead of sleeping.
Screamer smiled as he quietly unlocked the door and entered the room. His head was pounding intensely but he ignored the pain. From what he understands, he was going through what Hunter had yesterday: a mild fever, a hard hitting headache and overall tiredness. It wasn’t anything Screamer was unfamiliar with, but still an annoyance nonetheless. He sighed, after an entire day of maniacal drawing and speaking, Screamer was finally back to normal.
Well, as normal as a human forcibly transformed into a pony with gored forelegs and a highly dangerous (but thankfully not contagious) disease that expanded his lungs to make him scream as loud an earthly possible.
Still, Screamer sighed, he himself had read over his work and frankly, it scared him.
It scared him a lot.
Although he couldn’t stand his fellow infected, Screamer found it hard to imagine living without them (Smoker being the only exception).
Mumbling to himself, Screamer walked over to a booth and closed his eyes, trying to leave the day and the pain behind him.
*********************************************************************************
Screamer slowly drifted into the waking world to the sounds of crying. Grunting quietly, he opened one of his eyes and heard some harsh whispers.
“…Stay back. Tank has this under control.”
“Why is she crying?”
“She has another migraine, it’ll pass eventually. Now, give her some space, this could get ugly.”
Screamer groaned quietly, his head hurt like hell and he could barely move. Still, he managed to get himself into an upright position and waited for the world to stop spinning. He could vaguely hear a door closing amidst the other noises in the room. Like the crying, for example.
“Wuzgoinon?” he slurred.
Spitter walked over to Screamer and sighed, “Witch is having another migraine and by how disoriented you seem to be, you might be having one too.”
Screamer squinted at Spitter, as she only seemed to be a yellowish green blur to him. Screamer sighed again as he saw a charcoal grey blur, presumably Smoker, walking towards him.
“So, you got out of the room, huh?”
Screamer tried to chuckle, but instead wheezed slightly, “Door wasn’t locked. Could have gotten out whenever.” His voice was raspy; much like Witch’s when she first started speaking.
Unknown to Screamer, Smoker glared at Hunter, who was still sleeping on the table, for not locking the door. His blindness wasn’t an excuse, if he can navigate by himself through a thunderstorm, then he can lock a damn door.
Smoker sighed, “How are you doing?”
Screamer snorted, “Why’d you care?”
“I don’t. I just want to know if you can move. You know the rule,” said Smoker.
Screamer rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, who falls behind is left behind, geez.”
The two stared at each other briefly, before Smoker walked over to the table Hunter was on and shoved him off.
“Get up.”
Hunter groaned painfully as he got to his hooves, “What the hell?” he asked tiredly.
“Do you want to deal with Witch?” asked Smoker.
That sentence alone snapped Hunter awake, “I’m up, I’m up.”
“Good, today I’m going to try to find a way back,” said Smoker.
Hunter yawned and scratched behind his left ear, “Why do you want to leave? This is the most peace we’ve gotten in, well, forever.”
“This ‘peace’ isn’t going to last forever. Screamer proved it yesterday.”
Hunter shrugged, “Screamer’s predictions could be months from now. He’s never given us an exact time.”
“Exactly, it could start today for all we know,” Smoker stopped and turned to Boomer, “Hey Boomer, what was the first drawing after the portal?”
“Ah, that. I believe it involves something with Witch,” said Boomer, looking through his notes again.
Tank growled from across the room, “Whatever it is, I will handle it.”
Boomer shrugged, “Whatever you say, big guy.”
Hunter noticed for the first time that some voices were absent from the room, “Hey, are we missing anyone?”
Spitter walked over to him, “Yeah, Charger and Jockey went with Twilight and them for some apparent reason. I think they took that Wheatley thing with them.”
Hunter nodded, and turned his head to Witch. Slowly, he walked over to her and Tank.
“How is she doing? Better than last time? Or worse?”
Tank sighed, “Worse, it is day time, she will start moving around soon. I think it would be wise to give a warning.”
Hunter nodded, although it was more difficult to anger Witch when she was moving with her migraine, which arguably made her more dangerous because she didn’t need to get up. That and she possessed wings now.
“Well, I hope she’s doing better later,” said Hunter.
Tank nodded, “As do I, Hunter. How others will react to Witch’s violent nature, it worries me what they will try to do.”
“They don’t seem so bad,” said Hunter.
Tank shook his head, “No, they stared. They had the all too familiar look of fear in their eyes when we first arrived. These ponies have no idea what we could do, and that scares them.”
Hunter sighed, “Well, I guess we’ll have to convince them what we’re not dangerous.”
Tank chuckled softly, “No Hunter, you are wrong. We are killers, cannibals and infected. Dangerous is the literal meaning of us.”
*************************************************************************************
Jockey was less that amused.
If Jockey had bothered to mention this, he expected to be asked, ‘what’s wrong, Jockey?’
And he’d reply, ‘Well, for starters my oldest friend in memory just had a relapse in mental health, I’m sick with a bio-hazardous disease and I’m soaking wet.’
Another bucket of soapy warm water fell on top of Jockey, making his slight frown deepen. Of course, his damaged facial muscles made frowning difficult, but the ponyfication lessened some of the effects of the virus and even partially healed them. Still, Jockey did find some disadvantages with being a pony.
One was Charger having wings. Sometimes he just wanted to jump at someone, ever had that feeling? Well, he had it nearly all the time.
Jockey made an unhappy cackling sound to express his displeasure with Charger and Rainbow dash, who were dumping the water on him to ‘clean him’ and Twilight was holding him in place with her magic. She had just told Wheatley to check with Tank on how Witch was doing.
A literal puddle of grime and dirt surrounded Jockey as he was bombarded with water.
“Geez, when was the last time he had a bath?” asked Rainbow dash.
Charger shrugged, “The last time any of us had a bath.”
“When was that?”
“About three weeks ago. For why dirtier than you’d expect, we kinda spent most of the time hanging around back alleys and forests.”
Rainbow dash’s jaw dropped and Charger chuckled slightly. The two were less harsh to each other since the disturbing viewing of Screamer’s prophecy. The main thing that led to each other being less harsh was Charger quietly apologizing to her and everypony else for seemingly dragging them into what might possibly be a living hell. Another thing was comforting her slightly when the realisation of one of the crossed out pictured meant. Although it involved two different people, it was disturbingly similar to when Jockey nearly killed Screamer when he mistook him for a non-infected and tried to drag him into a very angry Witch.
Charger shook her head, ‘It’s not going to happen. None of them are going to die,’ Charger thought.
‘But one of us are,’ said the darker, infected part of her mind.
Charger frowned, ever since arrival, her and the other infected had noticed that they were no longer primarily driven by primal instincts made by the infection. For the first time in what felt like a life time, they could truly think for themselves. It was… interesting for the first couple of hours but they all eventually adjusted.
She looked down at Jockey, who she and Rainbow dash were still dumping water on, and watched him sigh in defeat. After about four more buckets, Jockey had officially been declared ‘more or less clean’.
Rainbow dash tried to clean him off with some sort of tornado like thing, only for Jockey to end up looking like a gigantic blue puff ball.
Charger and Twilight held back snickers while Rainbow dash was laughing uproariously. Jockey, however, gave Charger a pleading look.
Charger recognised that look and flat out told him, “No.”
Jockey responded in a number of short cackles and the occasional hoof gesture. Charger had recognised it and responded with a damaged attempt at English, as it was near incomprehensible and threatening Jockey with her gigantic right foreleg.
Twilight and Rainbow dash looked at the two infected, who seemed to be arguing. Jockey cackled another time which made Charger respond with an eerily hollow yell that seemed to frighten Jockey, as he stopped responding after that. The two infected stared at each other for a moment before Jockey sighed in defeat.
“What was that all about?” asked Rainbow dash.
Charger sighed, “Let’s just say Jockey isn’t too happy about being a puff ball. Also, I suggest you keep your ears open for a few days.”
“Why?”
“You don’t want to know,” replied Charger.
Rainbow dash looked at Charger and then at Jockey before a strange electrical sound filled the air. The two turned to see Twilight taking with Wheatley, who had a frantic tone in his voice.
“They said that now she’s wandering around the streets,” said Wheatley, “honestly, how hard is it to control someone with a migraine anyway?”
Charger immediately assumed they were talking about Witch, and spoke up, “Have you ever seen Witch with a migraine? It’s not too fun.”
Wheatley rolled his eye, somehow, “Why can’t you just lock her in a room until she feels better?”
Charger gave him a sarcastic laugh, “That is one of the most moronic idea’s I’ve ever heard for dealing with Witch.”
Wheatley’s eye narrowed, “I am not a moron.”
Charger rolled her eyes and turned to Jockey, “Come on, Jockey, we better see how they’re handling Witch.”
Jockey cackled again and bounded off after Charger. Twilight turned to Rainbow dash, “Do you think we should go and see if they need help too?”
Rainbow dash shrugged, “I guess so. If Witch is really as fast as they say she is then they probably need somepony like me to catch her.”
*************************************************************************************
The loud, pained cries from Witch echoed throughout Ponyville the closer Twilight, Rainbow dash and Wheatley got closer to where she and the other infected were. Amidst the crying Smoker could be heard yelling at someone.
“Do you want her to kill someone right now?”
Another voice yelled at him in response, “I’ll remember this when you finally loose it, Smokey.”
There was an annoyed sigh as Twilight, Rainbow dash and Wheatley turned a corner to see Smoker and Screamer arguing while Tank, Spitter and Charger were trying to keep ponies away from Witch, who was hovering slowly with her forelegs around her head in pain. Hunter was shaking his head when he noticed them.
“Uh, hi,” he said to Twilight, “So, uh, she started wandering.”
Twilight glanced at Witch, then back at Hunter, “I can see that.”
Hunter shrugged, “Well, I cant. Now, Smoker needs someone who can try to persuade Witch into wandering on the ground where Tank can keep a closer eye on her. Know anyone who might be able to do that?”
Twilight frowned slightly, the best choice would probably be Fluttershy, but she was busy taking care of her animals across town. Then there was that other option, but Twilight didn’t think now would be the best time to use it. So that left Rainbow dash to be the one to get Witch out of the skies. Twilight sighed; this was ether going to end well, or very badly.
“Hey Rainbow dash,” said Twilight.
“Yeah?” said Rainbow dash as she was heeding Charger’s advice about Jockey.
“Think you can convince Witch to walk? Everyone thinks that she probably would be safer on the ground.”
Rainbow dash nodded, “Alright, I guess I can try,” she said as she flew over to Witch.
Hunter called after her, “Whatever you do, do NOT touch her.”
As Rainbow dash flew over to Witch, she heard a faint cackling coming from somewhere around her. She looked around briefly before dismissing it. That’s when Jockey leaped from his hiding place.
Rainbow dash felt Jockey land on her back and began trying to drag her towards Witch at an alarming speed while obscuring her vision. Rainbow dash yelled at him to get off her in vain.
“Get off, get off, get off!”
Charger heard this from the ground and looked around for Jockey, when she fainted to find him; she looked up and saw him and Rainbow dash getting dangerously close to Witch. Charger’s pupils shrunk as she literally jump a foot in the air and flew as fast as she could to try to get them away from Witch, who had a look of pure anger on her face.
“JOCKEY!” yelled Charger as she suddenly flew at a surprisingly fast speed, “GET OFF HER!”
For the first time he could remember, Jockey actually looked frightened, the rage of Charger was nearly rivaled by Witch’s at times. The main thing Charger had than made is not as bad was self-control. Jockey then leaped off Rainbow dash, which caused her to stumble forwards…
…And crash right into a very angry Witch. Witch screamed painfully loud as Rainbow dash got hold of her bearings, only to see Witch flying incredibly fast towards her. Rainbow dash would never forget the way Witch’s eyes literally glowed red as she dived towards the ground with Witch in close pursuit.
Tank yelled at Rainbow dash, “Direct Witch to me. I can stop her.”
Witch screamed again as she picked up speed and Rainbow dash turned downwards towards Tank.
Twilight stared at Witch’s rage before muttering, “I don’t think he can stop her.”
Hunter shook his head, “No, Tank can defiantly stop Witch.”
Wheatley (somehow) nodded in agreement, “I have to agree with you there, mate. I don’t think anything could get past him.”
Twilight still looked at Rainbow dash worriedly as Witch had almost caught up to her. Twilight also looked at Tank, who was waiting for Rainbow dash to pass him so he could grab Witch and allow Rainbow dash to get away. Witch screamed a final time as she actually caught up to Rainbow dash. Panicking for her friend, Twilight tried to use her magic to immobilise Witch. Smoker looked at Twilight as her horn glowed purple.
“What are you doing?!” asked Smoker.
“I can’t let Witch hurt Rainbow dash,” said Twilight as she prepared to fire a spell at Witch to stop her.
“But Tank can stop her, their literally meters away,” said Wheatley.
“I don’t think they can make it!” said Twilight.
“Yes they can! Just look their almost-.”
Wheatley was cut off as Twilight shot a beam of purple magic at Witch and enveloped her in a large, purple sphere. Spitter stared at her.
“What did you do to her?!”
Twilight sighed, “I used an immobilisation spell on her. She’ll be fine once it wears off.”
Just as she said that, the purple sphere that surrounded Witch faded leaving behind something utterly terrifying.
A white bipedal creature about five and a half feet tall stood on the ground. On each hand it had five finger like claws at least twelve inches long. It also had some shredded clothing on it, which may have been torn by the creature itself. Then there were the wings, which gave it a slightly angelic look. And finally, there were the eyes. It’s glowing red eyes that made everyone who saw then shiver.
“What the hell is that?!” asked Wheatley.
“That,” said Spitter, “That is Witch.”
Just as Spitter said that, the creature that was now Witch screamed as loud as she possibly could and charged towards the one who made her look like this.