//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: My Little Wendigo: Mutilation is Fun 
// by Gothic_Novel 
//------------------------------//

	"The strange new virus tha' struck Princess Celestia last week, alterin' her body and mind has proven impervious ta both magic and science, and has begun ta spread through Canterlot, causin' feral behavior in the infected. Princess Luna has declared martial law and urges everypony ta stay away from the afflicted. The train tunnel ta Ponyville will be blocked off ta prevent the spread of the con... contag... contagi..." "Um... I think it says contagion, Big Mac." "Right. Thanks."


Rainbow Dash glanced  angrily over her shoulder at the pair, her unwashed mane clinging to her face. "Fluttershy, do you really think this is a good time to teach Big Macintosh to read? We've kind of got bigger problems right now. Besides, we know all of that already." Fluttershy shrank away from her friend, a crimson hue steadily pooling in her cheeks. "Oh. Um... right. Sorry, Rainbow Dash. You're right." The blue pegasus rolled her eyes and turned back to the window. She felt a little bad for snapping at Fluttershy, but with everything that had happened in the past few days, she just didn't have time for patience. Day to day life was now a matter of survival. As she liked to put it, there were two kinds of ponies in this new world. There were alert ponies, and there was freak chow. And there was no way she was ending up freak chow.


Princess Celestia had contracted a peculiar illness a week earlier that was only marked by fever and a slight cough. Over time, however, her condition worsened. Within days, she could no longer stand, and she had become so terribly deformed that she was unrecognizable. On the morning of the fifth day, the transformation was complete. Large claw-like protrusions had burst from her spine and forehead. Her eyes were of an unhallowed pitch, dribbling thick black tears incessantly. Teeth like needles had fallen into several jagged ranks. That morning, they fell into the throat of one of her personal guards. And so the epidemic began. 


Not everypony was a compatible host for the virus. The sad few that found themselves immune became food for those it did find suitable. The illness had three stages. The first was a fever and a light cough. The second was the transition period. The color and iris faded from your eyes, leaving them dull, pearly orbs. The teeth came next, along with the vomiting of blood as your organs adjusted to fit your new diet. Thinking would become a chore. And then came stage three. Stage three infected were referred to as "wendigos". They were stronger, faster, and more agile than the average pony. The only things on their minds were protecting their "queen" and devouring the flesh of everypony they once loved. Our ragtag band of ponies are some of the few to survive the first two days after the outbreak. They had raided several sites for weapons and barricaded themselves in Sugarcube Corner. It wasn't their best idea, but it was all they could do at the time.


Rainbow Dash tapped her hoof against the floor as she scanned the street outside the abandoned bakery, struggling to stay awake. She hadn't slept since everything had started, and despite her arguments otherwise, it was starting to take its toll. After half an hour of paranoid staring at an empty road, she finally decided it was time to rest. "Hey. I'm gonna get some sleep. Will one of you-" Unfortunately, Rainbow's question was cut down before it had fully formed by a loud crash from the seond floor. Unmistakeably, somepony -or something- had just broken through an upstairs window. "What the buck was that?!" she shouted, as she and Big Macintosh raced for the stairs. Fluttershy, squeaking in terror, was content to hide beneath the table.


Big Macintosh reached the top of the stairs first and turned the corner, hooves raised to slam down on the prone figure before him. "Big Mac, wait! Check the eyes!" He froze immediately and did as Rainbow commanded. Coupled with his strength, it was her planning that had kept him alive this long. So he carefully gazed down at the small pony by the window. Her eyes were intact, he found. A little crooked, well, a lot crooked, but they were there. She was greyish-blue in color, with a pale yellow mane. Her cutie mark seemed to be a chain of bubbles. Big Mac didn't know who the little mare was, but he was certain she wasn't a wendigo. He lowered his hooves and breathed a quiet sigh of relief as the pegasus smiled broadly and said, "Hiya, Rainbow Dash!"


Twenty minutes later. Bandaged and plied with enough muffins to feed half the royal guard, Derpy Hooves told the other survivors her story. "I was just delivering the mail like always when I heard this growling, like grrrrrr! So I turned around and there was this really mean pony there and she tried to bite me! So I stuffed a bunch of mail in her mouth and flew home. Dinky said we should put a bunch of stuff in front of the door and everything so nopony could get in. But we ran out of food, so I left to find some and I remembered that Sugarcube Corner had muffins! So I came here but the door was locked! But the sign said open so I wanted to make sure, so I came in through the window. And guess what!" She grinned and gazed at the muffin in her hooves. "I found muffins!" Fluttershy smiled shyly. "But Derpy, um... what about your daughter? Are you sure she's okay?" Derpy frowned in what could only be assumed to be concentration. "Dinky is... okay. Right? Dinky knows what to do to be safe. But... if there's no food..." The trio of survivors jumped as Derpy's head snapped up and her front hooves collided with the table. "I've gotta get back to Dinky!" Rainbow struggled to hold down the panicking mare, who was frantically stuffing muffins into her saddlebag. "Derpy, calm down and listen to me! We need to get out of here anyway. We'll take you home to get Dinky and we'll leave Ponyville. We can hide at Zecora's or something. Just calm down and do what I say, all right?" Derpy looked at her as best she could.  "Okay..." Dash's expression softened slightly. "All right, all right, I got it. Fluttershy, Big Macintosh, get ready. We're moving out."

Ponyville was, for lack of a better term, a ghost town. Signs and carts were kicked over; splashes of crimson trickled eerily down the sides of burnt-out buildings. It was as if, in the face of the oncoming change, all happiness and life had drained from the once pleasant village. Fluttershy recoiled as her friend's voice drew her out of her musings. "Fluttershy! Pay attention! If any of those things creep up on us and you don't see it, we're done for!" "Y-yes, Rainbow! S-sorry..." She readjusted her saddlebag, wary of its contents. The demolition of the train tunnel had never occurred, leaving the explosives ripe for the picking. Rainbow Dash had seized this opportunity and, for some reason, put Fluttershy in control of their new-found ordinance. Being even more afraid of the dynamite than the monsters gave her quite the range.

Big Macintosh's ears perked up as the sound of rapid hoofbeats approached the group from behind. He waited until the last moment and rocketed backward, his back hooves connecting solidly with the jaw of the wendigo. "Problem!" He muttered, spinning around to face his opponent. A light green unicorn swayed uneasily before him. Her horn was broken off halfway up, and her lower jaw had been shattered by the blow. Her eyes looked but saw nothing, two pale, cloudy circles set deep in her face. She was caked in so much dried blood that it was hard to judge how much of it was her own. But as she shook her head violently and lunged at Big Macintosh, it was clear she wasn't a normal pony anymore.

The wendigo's head snapped back as Big Mac's front hoof connected with it, her own forward motion adding to the power of the blow. As she crumpled to the dusty street, he raised himself high into the air and crashed his front hooves down on her chest with a sickening wet crack. What small sense of accomplishment he allowed himself was cut short as the area around them filled with the shrieks and howls of the damned. "Okay... Big problem." "Run!" Rainbow Dash shouted urgently,  breaking into a gallop herself. Despite herself, she couldn't help but think it would have been easier without Big Macintosh, as they would have been able to fly away.

This thought died immediately as Dash rounded the next corner and found herself face to half-face with a sight that sent her stomach into somersaults. Inches away from her was a bright pink pony. Her ratty, straight mane hung halfway down her body. Her lips and cheeks had been chewed away, leaving her with a permanent, jagged smile. But what horrified Rainbow was the monster's cutie mark. A trio of blue and yellow balloons. "P... Pinkie Pie? Is... is that you?" The beast's smile seemed to widen. Then it widened even further.
And fastened itself to Rainbow Dash's face.