//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Dead Or Alive... Actually, Just Dead // Story: The Pony Lisa // by Hi World //------------------------------// >Luna 1503 hours Luna had her orders: “Find out what thy hay is going on” was at the bottom of the to-do list. “Get to the Bridge” was at the top, but at this rate, she wasn’t likely to complete the first without knowing the last. “So, great and powerful Trixie, what exactly are we looking at?” They hadn't left the rec room, and Luna gestured with her hoof towards the body or bodies that spilled out of the cupboard. Whatever came out of Trixie’s mouth would come out sideways, but she could make it honest. Belittlingly, Trixie enlightened, “Well, Griffins get sick too, in case you havn’t noticed.” “We are noticing right now, are we not?” “Yes, well, how you found me without coming across any of these things is beyond Trixie.” “That is because we did not enter this room before we found thou.” She knew what Trixie meant, but her frustrated groan and reddening face made Luna feel a little warm inside. “Nng! Not these specific bodies!” Luna kept a blank face; something Celestia did around her a lot. Applejack took a step in. “Hey! Remember who yer talkin’ to, Trixie!” “Oh be quiet, hayseed,” Trixie snapped back at her. She then continued her lesson as AJ gave her the evils. “Moving on, we noticed this sickness in some of the Griffins. Any prisoners displaying the symptoms were quarantined. We took every precaution against it.” Looking down, she repeated, “Every precaution.” Taking a pause, her dull purple eyes were now glued to the pile of body parts. Next to the cupboard in which the muddle laid, stood a potted plant. Clean, no blood splatters on its leaves or stalks. It gave Luna the shivers; the thought of someone chucking dismembered Ponies and Griffins into the cubby, then doing a spot of gardening. Trixie continued explaining. “We did some tests. It’s an alien virus. Anypony infected became aggressive. Savage. Not to mention ugly.” Taking a step back, Applejack covered her muzzle with her brown cowboy hat and coughed. “What in tar nation?! We’ve been breathin’ around this thing!?” Laughing, Trixie gave AJ the stare that the high society Unicorns of Canterlot reserved for rural Earth Ponies. “It doesn’t work like that.” “Did it jump from Griffins to Ponies?” Luna interrogated pryingly. Pinkie Pie became excited and pointed a hoof across the room. “Can it jump from here to that table?!” With that, she launched into the air with a “Weeeeeee” and crashed down on top of a table at the far end of the room, catapulting an empty tankard onto Derpy’s head as Lyra and Zecora spectated. The rookie Pegasus derped and flopped over. “Pinkie!” Yelled Applejack. “Oops, sorry,” the pink one apologised with a sheepish grin. “Enough!” These soldiers were getting on Luna’s nerves. At least she had Zecora to restore some normality, even if she couldn’t stop rhyming. The Zebra came to Derpy’s aid, murmuring something that made Derpy chortle. Back to Trixie, Luna reiterated, “Trixie, did thy virus jump from Griffin to Pony? Yes or no?” A dull boom reverberated through the floor and walls. The cider in some of the tankards rippled. Grenade? Trixie had looked alert, but she soon relaxed and answered her question: “... It did.” >Rarity 1507 hours Twilight! Stop that at once! You’re scaring me! “Twi… Twi…” the words got stuck in her throat. Twilight, or more accurately, the thing that stared out from behind Twilight’s white, bulging eyes, rose up with a howl that Twilight, or any Pony for that matter, couldn’t make. Bubbling green-gold foam rapidly spewed out of her wound and overlapped it like bio-foam, solidifying. As what used to be Twilight snarled and gibbered, she - no, not she. It. It opened its jaws to the point of dislocation, drooling with blood and olive green gloop. It sprang out at Fluttershy. The Pegasus cried and screamed, “Aaaahh! Hnng! Help!” The thing that was once Twilight embraced Fluttershy, and Rarity did not want to risk hitting Fluttershy. Twilight, how could you? Blood ran down Fluttershy’s face were Twilight was biting her. Biting her! Eating her alive! Even as Big Mac fired point blank into the side of the creature, Twilight’s front, right leg began rippling like liquid. Something beneath her skin writhing, transforming, bursting from her wrist in an explosion of red and green blood. That hoof, that hand, that infernal claw, soared up like a magic bean stalk, the purple hoof still clinging on underneath. Having spent a whole magazine with full automatic fire, Big Mac resorted to bucking the alien with both mighty hooves. The skin on Fluttershy’s face stretched as she sobbed in excruciation; the monsters projections within Twilight’s mouth were stapled to her cheek. Another brutal buck from the huge Stallion sent the Twilight creature flying back into the water. There was an audible tearing as a scrap of Fluttershy’s flesh remained clamped in the thing’s jaws. With Fluttershy screaming the whole place down, Big Mac reloading, Twilight flailing and thrashing in the water, and the ravenous platoon of nightmares pushing against the makeshift barricade, Rarity snapped herself out of the trance that had engulfed her and nailed her possessed friend with bursts from her Battle Rifle. The ex-Twilight made an ill noise that unfortunately sounded like a warped neigh, and dropped into the water like a rag doll. Another cur eliminated, and Rarity wasn't sure she even knew herself anymore. That cur was her friend... and she killed her... and for what? To survive? To save Fluttershy? Because Twilight would've killed her? Closing her eyes, she waited to wake up from what had to be a bad dream. Opening her eyes, she- A deafening roar pummelled Rarity's ears as the repurposed friend she thought she'd just ended rose back up from the water. Twilight, who was still in there somewhere, screamed in pain and fear as she was forced into a leap. A leap so impossibly high, Twilight's ruptured horn almost hit the ceiling. Big Mac shot Twilight’s head and one of her legs clean off in mid leap, causing the brute to flop and land with a splash. Dead... again... for now. SSCRRREEEEEEEE…!! The mass of mutants bellowed from the other side of the shifting metal. Big Mac glanced at her; we need to move. Fluttershy traded screaming for crying, hyperventilating unevenly, inhaling deeply and exhaling vocally, interrupted by a variety of coughs, gags, sniffs and groans. “Ah… R… Rarity…” she squeaked with all the volume of a mouse, voice containing upward worry. “My… my face…” sniff, “… it hurts.” Turned into a dog whistle at “hurts,” she continued to bury her blood soaked face in her hooves and mane. Rarity’s brain had departed; she just resumed hotwiring the door controls like a robot, aware of Fluttershy, aware of the angry mob behind them. “I know darling. I know,” lacking all emotion, her tone was vacant, even as she tried to hum the tune she hummed the first time she hotwired a hatch on this ship. It came out trembling and dotted with heart stopping thuds from behind. At last! The lock clacked off and the door scraped open, allowing water to flow inside. “Got it,” she exclaimed with muted celebration, not sounding celebratory at all. Creeping through, the other two followed close behind her, Fluttershy still suffering from shock. “Seal it shut,” she ordered, knowing Big Mac would do it anyways. With a deep bang, the door sealed shut, filling the tiny room with darkness. Fluttershy’s uncontrollable hyperventilating and whimpers dominated the silence of the pitch black room. “Darn it, where’s my flash light?” Rarity announced to thick air as she fumbled with her rifle. No need; a blinding white light panel on the ceiling buzzed on, illuminating the whole room. A Griffin stood before them on hind legs and open wings, looking down at her. Cricket bat in one talon.