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Luna’s S.T.A.R.S are Set Free to Shine.5,349 words
Is Anypony Home?5,932 words
It’s Really Not Valentine’s Day5,103 words

It’s Really Not Valentine’s Day

Chapter 3

It’s really not Valentine’s Day

July 24, 1998

Valentine watched her Captain and Berry head up stairs and disappear behind doors, sad that their hug -which Valentine felt was sorely needed- lasted such a short time. Though also slightly glad as four soaking wet ponies huging wasn't exactly making any of them dryer. With a deep breath she wiped the few tears she had let escape from her eyes away and headed off toward the nearest door; sparing only a moment to give Red a little wave before heading through. As soon as the door was closed she lifted her injured leg and did her best to suppress a pained sound. Part way through her team’s hug her leg started hurting like crazy, and while the injury wasn't serious she suspected the strenuous running she just finished doing hadn’t been a boon for her leg.

Doing her best to avoid looking out the windows that lined the hall -not wanting to see those rabid dogs again- she slowly made her way towards the nearest door, hoping she might be able to get some ice from the room that laid beyond. As luck would have it, and to her extreme delight, the room turned out to be some sort of bar area. The room was large but there wasn't much in it so she was able to quickly determine there were no threats and head over to the fridge positioned behind the bar. She opened the freezer and found a few trays of ice. Locating a stainless steel bucket she place her hurt leg into it and poured ice around it.“Ahhhhhhh…” she said aloud, the coolness of the ice doing wonders for the throbbing pain in her ankle.

Only briefly enjoying the respite from her pain, Valentine looked around her surroundings a bit closer, now taking in actual details of the room instead of just looking for threats. The room was decently sized though oddly sparse in terms of furniture. There were bar stools along the bar but other than those the only other seat in the room was a bench in front of a large grand piano.the edges of the room had various ornate cabinets, each with its own specialized inner lighting and each boasting an intriguing assortment of antiques. The walls also had an assortment of neatly positioned paintings of various sizes, and all were pictures of differing anatomies of many kinds of creatures, including ponies and changelings. Who ever owned the mansion had some peculiar tastes to say the least.

Carefully dragging her ice bucket along the floor Valentine made her way around the room, checking all the cabinets for anything potentially helpful. The vast majority of it was rather old medical equipment, and small skeletal dioramas of various small animals. The whole feel of the room made Valentine imagine the house was for a group of doctors or scientists to gather around and talk about stuff she’d never understand while sipping from a glass filled with some kind of fancy wine.

Stopping in front of the piano the S.T.A.R.S memeber couldn’t resist tapping a key or two. She was greeted with several lovely sounds that indicated the piano was not only in tune but also well taken care of. Having loved playing the piano since she was a little filly Val took a moment to admire the antique instrument. It was beautifully crafted, its wood and gold accents all polished to a brilliant shine. She traced a hoof along one of the wood edges and smiled a little to herself, suddenly looking forward to the idea of getting home after all this mess and losing herself on the piano for a few hours.

Her brief reprieve from the hell she was in was broken by the sound of Red Field’s scream as it echoed down the hall and into the room. Valentine grabbed and clicked on her radio. “Red! Red Field! Is everything okay?!”

There was only a very short pause before a response was given. “Y-yeah Val… everything is super. Grandfather clock went off and scared the fur off my backside is all.”

“Copy” Val clicked her radio off and sighed in relief, glad that her teammate wasn’t in trouble. She wanted to say more but was worried she would draw the attention of Berry who would most likely-

Her thought was cut short as Berry’s hearty laughter filled the small room. Valentine groaned and hoped her obnoxious friend would leave Red alone. “Oh by Luna’s wings that’s hilarious. Bit too busy right now, but I am so making fun of you for that later. I can squeeze a lot of ridicule out of this,” said Berry, her amusement at the situation clear in her voice despite it being distorted slightly by the radio’s crackling. Luckily Red decided to not give Berry the satisfaction of a response and the chatter died down.

Deciding she had spent enough time in her current location, Valentine gingerly slid her hoof out of what was now slightly cold water and exited back into the hall to continue her search. She checked a few rooms but didn’t find anything of interest until she entered what appeared to be a guest bedroom. Unlike every other room she had checked before this one, all of which were elegant but rather sparse when it came to any personal touches, this room had a few suitcases on the floor and a picture in a nice frame that wasn’t of some creepy medical diagram. Making her way over to it Valentine lifted the picture and looked at what appeared to be two ponies on their wedding day. It was a lovely picture and gave Val a bit of hope that maybe this mansion wasn’t totally abandoned. Putting the frame down carefully she began to search through the room and then the suitcases; doing her best to be both thorough and quick. There was various papers and writing implements in a desk drawer and some clothes in a closet, but there wasn’t anything that could be of use. The only things of note were a briefcase under the bed and two lab coats hanging from a hook on the back of the door. The briefcase had a combination lock and couldn’t be opened so Valentine left it where it was.

While she had been searching the room Red Field contacted the group a few times with various bits of helpful information, but as she was about to leave the room Red Field contacted the rest of the group again, this time with some rather distressing news. Apparently he had found a member of Bravo team, Riches, dead. Without waiting to hear what Silent Shade had to say Valentine rushed back to the foyer. She burst into the room and quickly looked around to discover she was the first to arrive. She made to radio and ask everyone's progress but stopped as she heard several gun shots. Valentine’s gut reaction was to rush to the aid of who ever had fired the shots but she couldn’t be sure where they came from. With great restraint she stayed where she was and waited for someone to report the shots; she didn’t wait long.

The slightly panicked voice of Red came through the radio. “Two shots fired by me. Careful on the first floor near windows. Those dogs are able to smash through.” Everyone voiced their understanding of the danger and things became quiet for a moment. Valentine turned and looked up to the second floor in response to the sound of a door opening and found Silent Shade had made it back. He quickly joined her on the ground floor and looked to be about to say something when Red Field once again radioed in ““W-we got a problem…”

******************************

“Ah!” Valentine recoiled from the table she just bumped into with her injured leg and held her leg close to her body “Ahhhhhhhsssssstill sore,” she said aloud. The relief she had received from the ice had long since worn off and now every little bump hurt considerably. And with her mind as distracted as it currently was, bumping into things with her injured leg had quickly become annoyingly common place.

She was not okay with leaving Red alone, separated from the group by a labyrinthian house and rabid dogs. She had argued with the Captain but he had stayed firm on his decision to let Red handle himself, as attempting to get to him directly would force them to fight the rapid animals. A fight Silent Shade declared would be a ‘waste’ of resources being that there was no real need to fight them. To make matters worse, because she was still on the first floor she had to contend with the possibility of more rapid dogs entering the house on her side and attacking her. Overall, her initial excitement at finally being on their first real mission had subsided quite a bit since first landing in the Arklay Mountains.

Continuing to search the room, she found that once again there was nothing that could be of any help. However she was starting to find more and more signs that the house had - at least until very recently- been occupied. Several of the rooms she searched had suitcases in them, and a few rooms had desks covered in files and papers. Though she didn’t want to waste any time Valentine would still take a few seconds to skim the papers to see what they were about. Most seemed to be related to medical treatments or Biological studies. Nothing overly interesting or helpful in anyway, though it all went a long way to helping Valentine creating a conspiracy theory that the mansion was the hub of secret medical experiments. She snickered a bit at that thought. “Probably just a get away for doctors to come discuss how much money they make,” she said aloud to herself.

Exiting another room which once again had nothing helpful inside, Valentine lowered her leg back to the ground and continued searching.Being mindful to hug the wall as much as she could to stay as far away from the windows as possible. Hoping that the dogs outside couldn’t see her if she wasn’t close to the transparent and shatterable barrier that separated them from her. She however hoped in vain as when she entered this particular section of the house she discovered all the windows had large cracks along their bottom halves, a clear sign the dogs were trying to get into the house even if there was no one present in the area.

Feeling slightly frustrated Valentien started making her way further down the hall to where she hopped she would find more doors and something to help her and her team. Before she could take more than a few steps she stopped suddenly and perked up her ears, swiveling them around in various directions. With her booted hooves no longer loudly clacking on the floor she could clearly make out a disturbing squelching sound, like the that of a hoof sinking into a deep puddle of mud and then being quickly pulled out. Cautiously, Valentine turned around and began heading towards the discomforting sounds, flicking her gun out on the way. Not too far from where she first entered the hall was a small open area; nestled into the corner was a large couch with velvet pillows and an ornate coffee table. In front of the table kneeling on the ground, hunched over something, was a blue coated stallion. The squelching noises were definitely coming from him and being closer to the source of the sound only made it more unpleasant.

Valentine took a deep breath and spoke loud and clear “Put your hooves on your head and don’t make any sudden movements.” The stallion didn’t make any sudden movement but neither did he respond to her order to put his hooves on his head. She tried again. “This if Officer Valentine with the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad, you are to put your hooves on your head.” This time, the stallion seemed to hear her, and slowly turned his head. Valentine’s cool demeanor broke and she baked away, screaming. A large chunk of the stallions face had been torn off revealing bleeding muscles and tendons. He was also missing his eye on that side of the face and a dark cavern replaced it. The stallion opened its mouth wide, barring bloodied teeth at the frightened mare. A cross between a groan and a creaking door echoed from the mutilated stallion’s vocal cords as he stood up on unsteady hooves, saliva and blood dripping from his open maw. “S-sir if you are in need of...of some kind of medical aid I-” Valentine cut herself off as she caught a glimpse at what the stallion had been hunched over. Laying in a crumpled mess on the floor in a pool of blood was the corpse of a pony who appeared to be part way through being eaten. Valentine looked back to the bloodied teeth of the stallion and the visceral liquid that oozed from his mouth and realized what the stallion had been doing before she interrupted him. “ … sweet Celestia…” Before the horror of the situation could truly sink in the stallion lunged at her. Taken off guard Valentine fell backwards to avoid the lung and managed to fire off four shots, three of them hitting their mark the fourth breaking some glass somewhere. The stallion fell to the ground in a limp heap, his limbs splayed out on awkward angles.

Quickly getting to her hooves Valentine proceed to inspect the stallion from what she felt was a safe distance, confirming three bullet wounds now sat comfortably in the stallions chest. Taking only a brief moment to compose herself Valentine activated her radio and made contact with the rest of the group. “I found two ponies. One was dead and was in the process of being… eaten by the other pony. I was forced to put that pony down.”

Silent Shade answered back immediately, “Do you believe the pony you put down was infected?”

“I think it’s fairly clear sir… taking the… cannibalization out of the picture, the stallion was missing half his face and was not bothered by it at all and his actions were very animalistic in nature.” Upon revealing the state of the stallions face Valentine heard both Red Field and Berry swear under their breath in surprise. Silent Shade was, as always, unphased.

“Alright everyone. We may have to deal with more infected ponies in the house. If they’re at the same stage as the stallion Valentine put down then they are too far gone to help. If you come across a pony and confirm they are rapid, put them down immediately.” Even through the radio it was clear no pony was comfortable with their captains order, but one by one they all confirmed their understanding as they realized there was no other option.

Valentine was the last to confirm her understanding. “ … understood s-AH!” She screamed out in pain as something clamped down on her back leg. She quickly looked to see the stallion she thought she had killed was biting her hind leg, the thick leather of her boots the only thing keeping him from actually taking a chunk out. Not able to shoot the stallion from her current position she kicked with her leg until it was free from the other ponies jaws and backed away. With a pained and frustrated groan that didn’t sound like a pony or any animal for that matter, the stallion once again stood up. Valentine could clearly see the three wounds she had made, including the one that should have been a direct hit with the targets heart. Perhaps the bullet had been deflected by a rib bone, or maybe the damage to the heart wasn’t enough to fully put the stallion down. Regardless of the reason it was quite clear this pony was not dead, and still quite hungry. Now in a more preferable situation Valentine easily put two bullets into the stallion’s head. The rapid pony once again fell to the ground, letting out a low growling hiss that for a moment made Valentien think it still wasn’t dead. The hissing stopped fairly quickly, but just to be safe Valentine continued to watch the body, keeping her gun trained on it. She waited a full minute, ignoring the pleas coming through the radio for her to confirm her safety, before she finally felt the stallion was -this time- dead. As she was about to answer her team mates cries she jumped into the air in shock as something brushed against her back. With a quick turn Valentine found herself face to face with some curtains that were being gently tousled by some wind. Letting out the breath she had been holding she activated her radio “Sorry about that. I’m fine. The rapid stallion wasn’t dead. Somehow managed to keep going with three bullets in it’s chest… it’s down for sure this time… make sure you use head shots everyone. Seems like these rapid ponies can somehow take more damage than normal.” There was silence for a brief moment before everyone voiced their understanding and happiness their fellow STARS memeber was unharmed.

With the threat neutralized Valentine felt safe enough to reload her gun and start looking around for something to cover the bodies with. She quickly decided the drapes would be perfect and after pulling them down used them to cover the bodies. She wanted to wrap them both as was traditional, but their current state made wrapping them a difficult option. And if she was being totally honest with herself, Valentine had no interest in touching the partially eaten pony. So instead she simply spread the current out to cover them both. That done she bowed her head and made a small prayer to the princesses to watch over the two ponies before her. Part way through her prayer she stopped as something she had overlooked rocketed to the forefront of her mind. She had just covered the bodies with drapes, drapes that had a moment before been blowing in the wind. As this realization hit her she could feel a gentle breeze caress her face as it brushed past her. Slowly, Valentine turned around to find herself staring at a window, a window with a hoof sized hole in it from where one of her stray bullets had gone through. The hole in the window however only held her attention for a brief moment as she found herself more interested in several sets of glowing orbs she could see in the darkness through the hole “ … oh no…”

She immediately turned and ran as fast as she could,stumbling over the body of the stallion. Her legs picked up more speed as she heard the crash of glass and the many howls and growls of her ravenous pursuers. Valentine ran down the hall, desperately trying to remember which of the doors along it were unlocked, but in her panicked state found the information was not coming to her. Too afraid that if she got it wrong it would lead to a very painful death she kept running, praying that the hall would lead her somewhere safe. For a moment her hopes of safety were dashed as the end of the hall came into view and it appeared to be a dead end, a large painting of a elderly and stern stallion hanging on the wall that was about to be the cause of her death. However she quickly noticed that it did not end, but that it veered to the left, and so when the turn came she threw herself around the corner as fast as she could and found herself stumbling up a set of stairs.

Risking a glance back she saw six bloodied and ravenous dogs at the bottom of the stairs trying to all get up them and at her all at once. Their animalistic and uncoordinated attempts to get her resulted in them tripping over one another making their climbing of the stairs take that much longer. Valentine continued up the steps, taking advantage of the rapid beast’s slower ascent, and immediately turned, finding herself in another long hall lined with doors. Deciding at this point it would be a good idea to risk a door, Valentine charged at the first one she saw. The handle turned unimpeded and the tired mare quickly entered the room beyond, slamming the door closed behind her. Dropping to the ground, Valentine took in large gulps of air, in between each breath she thanked each of the princesses in turn.

The sound of growling and scratching could clearly be heard through the door as the beasts on the other side continued their pursuit of their prey. Valentine ignored them and simply took her time to catch her breath and calm down. Once she was in a better state she took the time to examine the room she was in and was surprised to find it was a small stone room with nothing in it other than another door on the opposite wall and some light fixtures. Unfamiliar with the ways of nobles or the vastly wealthy, she couldn’t begin to guess what purpose a room like this would serve.

While she had a moment Valentine took the time to radio the rest of her team, informing them more dogs had entered the house and had access to the second floor. Her team expressed understanding and Silent Shade once again reminded them to be weary of ravenous ponies as he had come across two in a bathroom and was forced to put both down. Valentine was saddened to hear more ponies had fallen victim to the terrible affliction but tried her best to take solace in the fact theirs deaths at least brought them peace. It brought her little comfort.

The dogs continued their assault on the door so Valentine decided she might as well see where the other door leads. Gun at the ready she slowly opened the door just enough to see into the room slightly. It appeared to be a study and was seemingly empty, so she pushed the door all the way open in one quick motion and looked over the whole room; her gun following her line of sight, ready to fire if she had to. The study was completely devoid of any threats so Valentine flicked her gun away and started searching for anything of use. Her search yielded some shotgun shells and a matching shotgun, which she removed off some hooks on the wall. With some fiddling she managed to rig the older model firearm to her modern combat saddle. The set up wasn’t that great as the barrel was a bit too long for her liking and with the manner she was forced to hook everything in she’d have to take the gun completely off the saddle to reload it. Still, it was good to have some heavier power with her that she could use on the dogs. Her plan was to swing the door open and unload all five shots into the animals. At close range the spread of the shells guaranteed she’d hit more than one and with enough force to put it down for good.

The saddle was designed so that if you brought one of your forehooves up to your body and pulled back sharply, a series of taunt cords would pull the trigger of the gun and fire it. Valentine never liked saddle mounted guns as she felt her ability to aim was severely hampered. Even more so with this particular set up. All modern guns meant for use with a combat saddle came with a laser point to assist in aiming, as trying to aim with a gun strapped to the side of your body was extremely difficult to do with any level of skill. Being an older model the shotgun Valentine was currently using featured no laser point. However Berry had gone over how to aim a weapon without a laser point; all saddle mounted guns are on a slight angle, so, so long as you put whatever you want to shoot in line with your chest you’re almost guaranteed a hit. It’s not a very accurate method but with something like a shotgun the spread of the shells would increase the odds of actually hitting anything.

Taking a deep breath Valentine prepared herself to deal with the dogs. “Come on girl, time to kick some flank,” she said aloud to herself. Confidently she headed back into the small stone room and grabbed hold of the handle of the door out. With one last deep breath she turned the handle and pulled, ready to fire. Only the door didn’t swing open no matter how hard she pulled. The handle turned but the door didn’t budge for some reason.

*Slam!*

Valentine jumped slightly and turned around to see the other door had closed on its own. Attempting to open that door led to the same problem, the handle would turn but the door couldn’t be pulled open. “...what in tartarus is going on?” she questioned, however the only answer she received was a loud scraping sound. A sound she quickly discovered was caused by the slowly descending ceiling. Slightly in panic but still focused Valentien pointed her chest at the door back to the study and fired all five rounds of the shotgun into the door. She began to panic more though as the hole she had expected to appear in the wood was replaced with the glint of metal. These doors were reinforced to stop anyone from breaking them down.

The walls floor and ceiling were all stone, the doors were metal, and no one knew she was in this room other than six hungry dogs. With nothing more she could do, Valentien began to scream as loud as she could for help.

*********************************************

“ouch!” the purple pony on the viewing orb exclaimed before putting her wounded hoof in her mouth. Genome had been watching all four ponies since they entered the mansion, using enchanted statues and paintings around the house to see where the intruders were and what they were doing. He had tuned into the current painting he was looking at in time to see the purple mare -he thinks one of them called her Berry Punch- reach her hoof into a roaring fire to try and pull out a key. Genome watched her in confusion, wondering if she thought the fire was a trick or if she felt she could could pull the key out quick enough to avoid being burned. He was actually impressed she noticed the key at all as it wasn’t in plain sight and most ponies wouldn't think to look for keys in a fire. It was hidden there in case something happened to both of the lead scientists. The only way into the main lab was through a door locked with a retinal scan that would only open for the two leads, but you could bypass the scan using the key. A key that Genome himself was in need of. He desperately needed to get into the main lab but had been unable to make it safely through the house and was forced to hide in a security station.

The mare he was watching pulled a flask out of a pouch and took a few swigs of the contents inside before sitting in front of the fire and staring at it intently. It was obvious she wanted the key, even though she had no way of knowing what the key opened. Genome wasn’t worried about her getting it, the fire was gas fed and could only be shut off my pulling out the correct books on a nearby bookshelf.

As he thought of the solution the mare on screen turned her head to the bookshelf and walked over to it. For a moment Genome worried that she had figured it out somehow, even entertaining the idea that she had read his mind. His worries quickly went away though as she walked back to the fire and once again went back to staring at it. Genome chuckled and couldn’t help but feel a little smug; there was no way she was getting that key out. His smugness was quickly replaced by confusion as the mare on screen was once again doing something that defied logic. She had turned around and was holding her tail back, effectively presenting herself to the fire. All four ponies had been soaked to the bone from the rain so perhaps she was just trying to dry herself off and was holding her tail so it wouldn't catch fire. This, however, was not the case he quickly discovered as the fire started to flicker and eventually go out. The purple mare then kicked the top most fake log away, snatched up the key, wiped it on a fancy chair that was nearby and left the room, her face home to a proud smile.

“She… pissed the fire out…” he said, disbelievingly. “That is… actually a really reasonable way to deal with that problem… whole book combination thing seems dumb in hindsight now… “ It was clear this mare was much more capable then he gave her credit for. He could use her to help him accomplish his mission, all he had to do was figure out a way to get her under his control. Genome knew that there was a records room hidden on the third floor that had information on just about every pony in the nearby Raccoon City. He might be able to get some leverage on Berry Punch if he could get to the room.

Genome began cycling through all the paintings and statues to see if he could make it to the records room without running into any of the STARS member or any infected. With the help of the enchanted objects and a map he had of the whole mansion he was able to plot out a route. It would take him longer than he’d like as he had to double back a few times to stay in safe zones but it shouldn’t cause him too many problems.

If he had any hope of getting the samples he needed he was going to have to get help from these STARS members. Whether they wanted to give it willingly or not.

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