//------------------------------//
// Welcome to the Agency 
// Story: Code 5 
// by Buckshot Gauges 
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Prologue

Ponyville was usually a fairly quiet town; everypony calmly trotting along doing their everyday activities. This usual air of the town made it a startling moment to suddenly hear a loud siren blaring through the area, the sound bouncing off the walls of the many buildings and echoing into the sky. Everypony looked up at the site of a large red and white vehicle blazing through town. The ambulance drove down the middle of the road, the red and white lights flashing. The tires screeched as it swerved around a corner, the rear end fishtailing, heading towards the hospital. This sight especially caught the eye of a purple unicorn know as Twilight.

“What was that all about?” she asked out loud to nopony in general. Sure, many ponies occasionally had to go to the hospital, but it was highly rare to see the EMS being used.

“Caramel,” Big Mac answered behind her suddenly. Twilight jumped at the sudden presence of the red stallion. 

“What?” asked Twilight; confused by Mac’s response.

“Caramel’s in there,” Mac said again, “Ah found him on the edge of the Everfree Forest.”

“What was he doing by the Everfree Forest?”

“Ah dunno, but he didn’t look well. Lying on the ground, moanin’ in pain, very scratched up; like somethin’ attacked him,” the red stallion explained, “He also looked mighty pale, as if something were, how ya’ say, taking over his body.”

“Like an infection?” asked Twilight. Big Mac looked down at her.

“Eeyup,” Mac answered.
5 Months Later
Once again, a siren rang throughout Ponyville, but it wasn’t the ambulance. It was the slow raising and lowering rhythm of the sirens positioned on a tall pole. It wasn’t signaling a dragon attack, not even a tornado, but something much, much worse. The sirens you could hear blaring throughout the town was the signal of Code 5. 
A code developed long ago and soon forgotten as it became less and less believed in; until today, when it was called. Ponies ran for their lives, locking and barricading their doors, and for the first time for many, locking and loading. Ponyville Police Officers barricaded the entrances of the town against the horror that was likely to appear. All was silent and eerie, nothing but the wind blowing a couple stray leaves along the cobblestone. A layer of fog settled, limiting everpony’s vision near to none. 

“I think I hear something,” said one of the police officers to the others. They peeked up from their crouched position behind the wooden barriers. One of the officers radioed over to the group on the other side of town. 

“Anything over there?” he asked. The radio buzzed a bit of static. 

“Nothing, I don’t think anything’s coming,” the other pony’s voice came over the radio. “Wait a minute, I think I….” Screams were suddenly heard and gunshots erupted through the transmitter of the walkie-talkie. The police pony froze in terror and the radio fell out of his hoof. He looked up at his fellow law enforcers with a scared expression. 

“I think we should….” he was cut off by a sudden moan. Suddenly, ragged forms jumped through the mist, landing on the other side of the barricade. They turned around, training their focus on the officers. 

“Oh buck,” the police pony whimpered out. The creatures lunged at them. Gunshots erupted, taking down some zombie ponies, but not stopping them completely. Officers were pushed off balance, dropping to the ground and being dragged away into the fog, their screams being heard before disappearing forever. Others were done away with right then and there, the zombies making a bloody mess with the officer’s bodies. 

“You just try to kill me,” said the police pony. He fired at the creatures, giving all he had with a twelve gauge. The uniformed pony pumped the slide once again, only then to here a faint click. The pony’s face went from one of confidence to one of fear. 

“Uh oh,” he barely squeaked out. He back against the wall of a building, the zombie ponies advancing on him. The creatures lunged at the pony, slamming him against the wall and dragging him to the ground. He screamed as he was brutally attacked, the zombies ripping and tearing away at him; until the officer’s body went pale and motionless. 
Chapter 1: Welcome to the Agency
“Train bringing in new-coming agents will arrive in five minutes!” the pocket-watch cutie marked pony called. Applejack looked up at the clock sticking out from the side of the wall from the platform. It read three o’ clock in the morning. Along with her, there were a couple of other ponies wearing the same navy blue vests which read ZPTF on the back in black lettering. The train that would be arriving was only bringing in the higher ranking agents, which were the ponies that needed to arrive first. At most, the train would only have about ten, maybe twenty ponies on board. Applejack yawned. The ZPTF agency had only recently been established and she wasn’t used to being awake this early. She looked out onto the tracks to see a light become brighter in the distance, meaning the train was about to arrive. 

The whistle blew as the colorful train pulled into the Canterlot station. The doors to the cars opened and ponies began getting off. Adult ponies were disembarking from the cars more towards the rear while fillies and colts were getting off more towards the front. All of the ponies were wearing the Navy blue ZPTF vests and carrying their saddlebags and most of them, adults and foals alike, had some type of firearm visibly on them. Applejack scanned the ponies for a familiar brown colt. She easily found him because, unlike many other brightly colored ponies, he was almost entirely brown, except for his eyes which were a dark blue. The colt known as Lucky Slots was, along with everypony else, wearing the agency vest, carrying his saddlebags which were the same color as his eyes, and had a black carbine assault rifle strapped on his back.

“Hi there, Lucky,” said Applejack, tapping her cousin on the shoulder. The brown colt turned around and smiled sleepily up at her. 
“Hi Applejack, good to see you.” The orange farm pony led him off of the platform and back towards the city of Canterlot. 

“So why did I have to wake up so early to come here?” Lucky asked with a yawn, nearly falling asleep as he walked. 

“Yer’ one of the leaders of FCD so, you needed to arrive first,” said Applejack.

“Still, I had to come here all the way from Las Pegasus,” said Lucky in complaint, “And the many casinos do not do a good job of keeping me awake.”

“Those are still open?” Applejack asked in surprise. She shook her head, pushing the subject out of the way. 	
“Anyways, you’ll be co-leading with a pegasus colt named Jetstream and the military FCD units will be lead by Buckshot Gauges and Lockheed Gunship,” she explained.

“Military FCD?” the brown colt looked up at Applejack.

“They’re the units in the young military programs from before this infection started,” the farm pony clarified, “All of the agents there are either in the Equestria Naval Guard or the Equestria Air Guard.” Lucky nodded in understanding. 

“Anyways, welcome to the agency Lucky.”