The Crimson Rage

by Time Shield

Chapter 6: "The Cascade"

The group emerged from the Everfree Forest, travelled along the road leading into Ponyville and slowing their pace slightly so they could take better note of their surroundings. Rainbow Dash in particular kept her front hooves near her bags, ready to pull out vials of the cure at the slightest sign of trouble. If any of the infected ponies were to get the drop on them, all of their efforts up to now could prove to be useless. Of all of them, only Zecora seemed to have a calm composure, but Twilight Sparkle could tell she was still aware of everything going on around her.
“So, just going over the plan once more,” Rainbow called down to Twilight, “we’ll try and make it to the center of town. You’re going to release as much of the cure as you can, and then I whip up a wind to keep it from drifting away.”
Twilight nodded, still watching the road for signs of danger. She explained, “We have to do this from the middle of town if we want any hope of getting enough coverage with it.”
“Got it!” Rainbow said.
As they continued towards town, it was gradually getting much darker. The sun had disappeared completely over the horizon, and soon it was only the light of the moon that was keeping the way visible. Still, it seemed darker than usual, and it became apparent as they got closer to town that this was because the town itself had very few lights. Usually there were some street lamps that helped show the way; without them, it just didn’t seem like the same Ponyville they’ve known.
“Anypony else feelin’ a little, uh… edgey here?” Applejack asked. “It feels like we’re bein’ watched…”
“Can’t be,” Twilight told her. “From my experience, if they see you, they don’t watch; they just rush you.”
Applejack pulled her hat down slightly as she walked and said, “Y-you ain’t exactly fillin’ me with confidence, Twi.”
“The brave are those who still have fear, but have courage enough to persevere,” Zecora pointed out.
Sighing, Applejack said, “Yeah, that’s true enough. I shouldn’t be frettin’ so much. We’ve got the cure, after all…”
“Shhh!” Rainbow hushed abruptly. The others looked up at her to see that she had already removed two vials from her bags. She hissed quietly at them, “Listen…” They stopped and listened carefully, and they began to hear the low sounds of growling getting closer. There was an echo, so it was difficult to tell which direction it was coming from. Twilight immediately pulled two vials out of her bags using her magic, levitating them at her sides as she tried to listen more intently. Zecora followed suit, reaching back and pulling a vial out and holding it in her teeth.
“Which way is it?” Twilight said, glancing around worriedly. “I can’t tell…”
Applejack lowered her head and pressed her ear against the ground to listen. After a second, her eyes widened, and she whispered, “Tarnation…!” Lifting her head, she shouted loudly to the others, “They’re comin’ from everywhere!”
Sure enough, infected ponies became visible in the moonlight, charging in from all directions. Twilight immediately used her magic to fling her two vials at the ground just in front of the closest ponies. The silver smoke erupted just as it had before. Zecora and Applejack quickly did the same, each striking down a vial. Up above, with a much better view of the area, Rainbow tossed her own two vials down at any that didn’t look like they were caught in the initial clouds. The infected ponies had ceased charging and stumbled more slowly out of the clouds, coughing from being in them.
The clouds dissipated within seconds. One of the nearest ponies affected by it opened his eyes and blinked, no longer showing signs of the Crimson Rage. He shook his head and muttered, “Ughh… wh-where…” Other ponies looked similarly disoriented, and appeared to be free of the disease as well.
“Yes!” Rainbow exclaimed. “It’s working!”
Twilight smiled up at Rainbow, but then her expression changed as she called out to her, “Pegasi! Behind you!” Rainbow turned around and noticed several infected pegasi coming up over the treetops, snarling as they approached quickly. They could fly much faster than the ponies on the ground could run, so it didn’t give Rainbow much time to react. She spun around to face them and flew upwards to dodge, quickly pulling two more vials out in the same motion and throwing them at the two pegasi she just dodged. They struck directly and created clouds of the cure around them. The two pegasi caught by this coughed as the cure moved through their system, but the other pegasi had been missed, and began to approach.
Twilight quickly used her magic to levitate more vials out of her bag, but sent them straight upwards, stopping in the remaining pegasi’s paths. Exerting slightly, she gripped it more tightly with her magic, causing the fragile glass to shatter and release the clouds. Now in their way, they plunged through the clouds, wheezing as they reached the other side.
There were more behind, and some of them changed their angles, diving towards the ground. Twilight, Zecora and Applejack readied themselves for the attack, but then suddenly realized the pegasi had other targets: the ponies on the ground that had just been cured. “Look out!” Applejack shouted towards them, but they were still too disoriented from their recovery and were tackled by the pegasi.
Using her magic, Twilight pulled several vials out and launched them towards the groups of struggling ponies in rapid succession. She could see just before impact that the ponies had been bitten again, their eyes showing the Crimson Rage returning. Once the cloud from her shots billowed forth, she couldn’t see them anymore, but the coughing told her it was working. However, as soon as the cloud dissipated, more infected ponies arrived from the road and swarmed them again.
“This isn’t working!” Twilight called out to the others, backing up from the group. “They’re re-infecting each other too fast! We can’t keep using the cure over and over on them, or there won’t be enough for the rest of Ponyville!”
“Then we’ve gotta get there fast, and get that plan o’ yours into full swing,” Applejack said. She noticed a pegasus flying out from commotion and taking to the air again, heading for Rainbow, but she was distracted throwing vials at the ponies that were already in the air. She shouted out, “Dash, look out!”
“Huh?” Rainbow said, looking back over her shoulder. Before she could dodge, the pegasus slammed into her back, causing her to drop the bags containing the vials. Thinking quickly, Twilight cast another levitation spell and caught the bags just before they smashed against the ground. Rainbow spiraled out of control from the hit for a moment before recovering, but winced as she flexed her wing; it had been hurt from the impact.
More pegasi surrounded her, and she didn’t have any choice but to try and escape. Clenching her teeth, she flew quickly off in the direction of Ponyville. Twilight tried to shout out, “Not that way! This way!” but Rainbow was out of earshot before she could do it. She fretted, “No! She should’ve stayed with us! We need her for the plan!”
“At least she’s headin’ in the right direction, which is where we should be goin’!” Applejack told her, starting to run towards Ponyville as well. The other two followed close behind.
“But if she gets caught,” Twilight said, “then we can’t spread the cure!”
Zecora said, “She may not escape, I do agree… It’s best if we have a plan B.” Twilight realized Zecora was right and started thinking furiously, trying to come up with another way that the cure could be spread across an entire town. Hitting everypony at once is the only way they can be assured that the infection won’t just start right up again. There has to be something we can do, Twilight thought, some other way… think, think…

Rainbow Dash had distanced herself quickly from the others, trying as hard as she could to keep ahead of the pegasi that were chasing her. Her injured wing didn’t help, but as she flexed it during the flight, she could tell it wasn’t too bad. It was just pulled a bit, nothing that won’t go away in a few minutes. The problem was, it was slowing her down, and she was afraid she wouldn’t have a few minutes at this rate.
Reaching a stand of trees, she quickly darted between them and tried to shake the pursuers off her tail, but they were relentless, and getting closer with each passing second. “Can’t… let them… catch me….!” Rainbow grunted, trying her hardest to get back up to her full speed and ignoring the pain in her wing.
She turned another bend and ducked behind a particularly large tree. Taking a gamble that they would expect her to keep going, she rounded the trunk and came to a stop out of sight. Nervously she waited, but didn’t have long to wait; she could hear the rustle of leaves as the pegasi darted past the tree. Yes! she thought. I did it!
After waiting a few more seconds to make sure they had all gone away, she carefully turned and started getting ready to fly back to meet up with the others again. As soon as she turned, she froze in her tracks, as there was still one more infected pegasus nearby, glaring at her. Even in the moonlight, she recognized her instantly.
“Fluttershy, wait…!” Rainbow tried to say, but in the next moment she was pinned against the tree. Fluttershy snapped at her angrily, and she tried to do everything she could to keep her away. “It’s me, Fluttershy, it’s me!” she shouted, desperately trying to get through to her. Pulling her legs up to her chest, she braced them against Fluttershy and prepared to kick; just as she did, she felt a bite in her foreleg and cried out even as the kick pushed them apart.

Freed, Rainbow slid down the tree trunk and looked in terror at the bite on her leg. “No no no no no no no…” she repeated, and as seconds passed, she felt the heat spreading from the bite, flowing through her foreleg like her blood was on fire. Her vision became blurry and started to redden.
Clenching her eyes shut, her mind screamed at herself. No! she thought. You can’t let it take you over! You’re the Element of Loyalty, for pony’s sake! There’s no way you can be turned against your friends! You can do this… resist it… resist it! She gripped the sides of her head with her hooves, clenching her teeth and yelling at the top of her lungs, pushing everything she had into keeping her mind intact.
As her scream lost strength and faded, her hooves trembled and came down from her head; she panted, trying to catch her breath. Her breathing became rougher, more pained, and her brow furrowed tightly as she struggled to open her eyes. When she finally got them open, she cast her reddened, bloodshot stare up towards the sky and let out a loud, primal howl of fury…

Twilight Sparkle and the others continued to gallop towards Ponyville. They were almost to town and had thus far outpaced the infected ponies that were after them, but it wouldn’t be long before they reached the edge of town, at which point they would be caught between two groups of infected. She spoke up as they drew near, “Okay, “I’ve thought of a backup plan, but I don’t know if it’ll work…”
Applejack ran alongside her and said, “I knew you’d find a way. What is it?”
“Well,” Twilight explained, “the problem with the cure is that without some kind of force holding the gas together, it scatters until it disappears into the air. Since we might have lost our way to hold it so it can be moved around, our only other option is to get all the infected ponies together.”
“So instead of holdin’ the gas in one place,” Applejack said, understanding, “we just have to hold everypony else in one place.”
Zecora nodded, “A risky move for us to make, but one we’ll surely need to take. May I suggest it would be wise to use Town Hall due to its size?”
“Perfect!” Twilight agreed. “Now we just need to find a way to lure them there.”
“I don’t think that’ll be hard,” Applejack said, glancing back over her shoulder at the group of infected ponies following them in the distance. “We just need to make a lotta noise, and… I-I guess hold out ‘till they all get there. How are we even gonna do that?”
Twilight shook her head, “I don’t know… Honestly, I’m just making this up as I go. Best case scenario, Rainbow Dash meets us there and we’re fine with the original plan. Worst case, we’ll just have to do our best and hope it’s enough.”
As they entered town, the infected ponies on the street started glancing around in their direction. They growled and joined the chase; thankfully there didn’t seem to be many of them along the street they were travelling, and what few there were, they could run past before drawing their attention. Some of them came close to reaching them from the sides, but Applejack and Zecora responded by quickly dropping vials of the cure to cover their path. It cured the few ponies that passed through it, but unfortunately, as before they were re-infected seconds later by the rest.
There was still no sign of Rainbow as they reached the large structure of Town Hall. Since there had been large gatherings here in the past, it was certainly large enough to hold everypony in town. As they ran up to the front door, Twilight noticed the front doors were broken off their hinges, which was an unexpected factor; it would make it difficult to keep the infected ponies contained here.
Once inside, they headed for the upper balcony. Aside from flying, which would still be a problem with the pegasi, there was only one stairway up to the balcony, so it would be at least a little easier to defend from it. They made to the base of the stairs that led to the upper level and had only climbed a few steps when they were startled by a shape in the shadows at the top of the stairs. It pounced towards them, and mid-pounce, Twilight could see that it was the mayor of Ponyville.
Zecora abruptly nudged Twilight to the side, causing the mayor to miss her and strike the zebra instead. They both tumbled down to the base of the stairs; before Zecora could get back up, the other ponies from outside closed in. In shock, Twilight and Applejack were about to go and help her, but instead, Zecora pulled the bags from her back and threw those in their direction, shouting with desperation, “Do not come down; just save the town!”
Applejack exclaimed, “Zecora!”
Twilight caught the bags with her magic and said, “No time! We’ve got to get the plan going like she said!” The two of them reluctantly pressed onward, running up the stairs as a growl from Zecora marked her infection.
“This ain’t gonna work!” Applejack said, the truth of the situation dawning on her. “It just ain’t! There’s no way the two of us alone can hold off the whole town…”
“We have to try!” Twilight insisted.
They reached the top balcony, and Applejack immediately turned around, tossing some vials down to create a barrier, preventing them from approaching. What it mostly did was cure a few ponies and give the two of them momentary distraction as the crowd went for the newly cured ones instead. Twilight put all the bags down on the balcony, six bags in total combined from hers, Rainbow’s and Zecora’s. Applejack added hers to the stack and said, “So? Set it all off!”
“We don’t have everypony here yet,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “The building’s barely filling up down there. We only get one shot at this, and if we don’t get everypony…”
“If we don’t do it now, we won’t get a chance at all!” Applejack argued.
Before Twilight could reply, a blur flew in from below, striking Applejack and tumbling her to the ground. Twilight recognized it as Rainbow Dash and gasped as Applejack was pinned and immediately bitten by her. “No!!” Twilight yelled, trying to levitate another vial to strike them. As she did, another pegasus grabbed her from behind; the action caused her to accidentally throw the vial in the wrong direction, and it passed through an open window, falling into the bushes outside.
She tried to get free and prepared to teleport, when a pair of teeth bit down on her shoulder, disrupting her concentration and causing her to cry out. The moment this happened, she knew it would be over in seconds; after that, there would be no pony left who knew anything about the cure. With her final moments, she reached out with her magic, trying to pick up the bags so she could drop them and set it off. Please, she thought, please… don’t let it end this way... I can still… do it… Her vision grew fuzzy, and she just couldn’t focus her magic, the levitation spell sputtering and failing. The growls of the other infected ponies filled her ears, and her last rational thought before the Crimson Rage took over was the realization that it wasn’t just Ponyville, but all of Equestria that was now doomed…