• Published 24th Nov 2011
  • 4,471 Views, 53 Comments

MLP Laboratories- The Outbreak - NeuPferdfurt



Twilight is going to discover what her world really is. And how to fight her way out.

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The arena

Twilight Sparkle wasn’t crying when she woke up, and that could probably considered progress. She thought she could still feel the needle of the syringe though, hear the echo of Celestia’s voice...
The dream had already started to fade. If it had really been a dream.

The unicorn filly had suffered from this kind of nightmares ever since the incident with the dentist so many days ago... if not weeks, perhaps even months. Inside this megastructure, this ever-changing, ever-expanding labyrinth, it was difficult to tell how much time had really passed. Every sector had its own day and night cycles. Not to mention the mind-tricks Celestia was playing on them.

-

Rainbow Dash was growing impatient.
"Come on, Twilight! What is taking you so long."

Twilight Sparkle was looking at the screen Spike was holding up for her. They had harvested it from one of the machines and were using it to display the map they needed to navigate through the megastructure.

The laboratories were a confusing labyrinth of tunnels and pipes. They hadn't been able to find anything that looked like an exit, but at least the command centre was easy to spot. That's where they were headed right now- if the road Twilight had chosen was correct. It was a little like the survival-horror version of this foals' game where you were supposed to trace the way out of a drawing book labyrinth with a crayon. Only that it wasn't in 2D. It was more like... what? 5D or something. And the structure was changing all the time, so if we stick to the metaphor with the paper labyrinth and the crayon we should also throw in a game of professional chess for good measure.

But it were these two tunnels in front of them that managed to make Twilight's brain itch. When she had determined the path to follow, she had decided to take the tunnel to the right. It looked faster and less risky than the other tunnel, which would lead them straight through some very suspicious and confusing structures. There was no good reason to go left.

Except for one thing.

"We didn't go that way the last time", Twilight said.

"Is everything alright, sugar cube?", Applejack asked.

"Besides nothing, that is", Rainbow Dash added. She was awfully upset ever since her wings had started melting.

The body melt was rampant among the ponies. Without the stabilizing plasmid that maintained their organisms, they were doomed. They had been able to discover small supplies of this drug along the way, but not nearly enough to turn things around.

“Buhuhuhuhu... Just look at me... This is terrible...”, Rarity cried, holding parts of her mane that had just fallen off her head in her front hooves.

“There, there, Rarity. It ain’t so bad. You know, it’s much more advanced in me, and look at me go!” Pinkie Pie plucked off her own ears and put them on her flank, where they instantly fused back to her flesh.
“Ta-dah!!! Now I’ve got ears on my rump! Pretty cool, eh? Think of the possibilities!”
She was wriggling her behind to show just how much fun she was having.

Rarity was crying even harder.

Twilight didn't listen to any of this. These two tunnel entries... She got one of those awful deja-vu feelings again.

Left or right? A or B? The lady or the tiger? It was like some sort of horrible game, and a bitter part of Twilight suspected this had been Celestia's plan all along.

It wasn't the whole story, she thought, and we won't get out until we got every piece of the puzzle.

Of course she had no idea why she was thinking that. Could one have memories of the future? That probably fell in Pinkie Pie's area of expertise, but somehow Twilight was afraid to ask.

Arrrgh! The headache.

She could SEE her friends and herself walk through the one on the right. As if it had already happened. Every fiber of her brain begged her to follow ghost-Twilight along a path that seemed to be predetermined.

Twilight noticed that she was slowly counting to ten in her head. Then she heard a distant, high-pitched scream coming out of the left tunnel. Right on schedule. What shedule?

"That sounded... painful", Spike said.

This is the point where I'm supposed to decide to go right, she thought. Except this time, I won't. Because we've got some unfinished business.

"Listen up, everyone! We'll take the left tunnel..."

"Geez, I hope it's the right one!", Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

Almost against her will, Twilight was smiling. Pinkie's crude puns even in the face of danger were as much a blessing as they were a curse.
"I hope so too, Pinkie..."

-

"You heard that cry too, didn't you?", Rarity asked her.

Twilight didn't reply.

"Is this another rescue mission? Don't get me wrong, I too want to save as many creatures as possible... but it has been so many days... Well, there is no way to tell how much time has passed, but you get what I mean... If we don't hurry, we won't be able to save anyone. We must find a way out of this labyrinth, or it will be too late for those we have already rescued. Haven't we suffered enough, Twilight?"

Rarity wasn't actually criticizing her. If there was anything in the white unicorn's voice, it was resignation. Twilight gulped. She didn't dare to reply, because Rarity wouldn't like the answer.

Rarity nodded. "I cannot say I understand your reasoning, Twilight Sparkle, but I believe in you. We all do. You will lead us out of this nightmare, I'm sure of it."

And even if you don't, her eyes were saying, you are all we have. If you lead us straight into the darkness, that will be fine, too. I just hope it won't hurt as much as I can imagine.

It was a painful look. Twilight received it almost every time now when her friends were talking to her. It didn't make her task any easier.

Every step walking through this tunnel was like stepping off the edge of a cliff. The feeling of wrongness was almost overwhelming- this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Except, of course, that if things did go the way they were supposed to, they were all doomed. That strange intuition, that desperate hope was all that kept Twilight going.

-

"I guess this is better than crawling through pipes all the time", Rarity said as they walked into the incredibly large, circular room at the end of the tunnel. "What do you suppose is the purpose of this place?"

Twilight sighed. "Testing. With Celestia, it's always testing."

Instinctively, the fillies were closing ranks and eyeing the cameras with suspicion.

"...Uhm... maybe she isn't home?", Fluttershy suggested. The others didn't even bother to reply to that.

"I think I can see the exit at the other side. Let's get the hay out of here", Applejack said, "and fast. I feel like a turkey on a plate."

Celestia sealed the exits when the ponies and their companions had arrived at the centre of the arena.

-

"Welcome, my little monstrosities", Celestia said, "How nice of you to walk right into my favorite testing area. Oh, you're going to love this one. You're all about fighting without rules, aren't you? You have come to the right place."

"What's the gig, Princess?", Twilight asked, "Let's get this over with."

"Aehm, Twilight... you didn't bring us here on purpose, did you...? Naaah. Twilight?"

"You see, my ungrateful children, gene crafting is an art of the highest precision. Except sometimes, it can be beneficial to mix things up a little. Allow the chaos to play its part. This is what the arena is for. There are no rules. There is no purpose. I just watch it spin and collect what's left- if there even is anything left."

This was followed by a buzzer, and all around the place, syringes were dropping out of the ceiling.

Then, for a few brief moment, portals opened up on the white tiles that covered the walls of this place, and masses of ponies came crawling out of them. They were pitiful, scrawny creatures, shaking and slobbering.

"These fellas don't look so good", Applejack pointed out. One of the colts was looking at her and licking his lips. "I reckon they don't think the same about us."

It was sickening to watch these miserable creatures move about. Whenever they got close to a syringe, they picked it up and plunged it right into their own flesh. Soon, they were fighting over them. And then there was blood. And some more blood.

"Oh yeah. I think I can see where this is going."

As much as she would have liked to, Twilight couldn't look away as one of the ponies was biting a huge chunk of flesh out of one of his opponents.

Several of the arena ponies had started mutating. The cannibalistic frenzy was spreading. Some of them got sharp teeth, others just grew bigger muscles or longer legs. All of them were going completely bonkers for the flesh of their brethren. The air was filled with shrieks of terror, greed and pain.

Several mutants had made an uneasy truce to form a pack and surround Twilight and her group.

"No problem. We can deal with that. That's just a bunch of cannibals. Peace of cake. No, Pinkie, don't offer them cake."

"Yeah. They look more like they'd like a slice of Pie."

"Well, they're not gonna get any!", Rainbow Dash declared and sent the closest cannibal flying through the air with a kick of her legs. Then she roasted him with her tasers for good measure.

Twilight nodded. "Good thing we put on our gear before we came here. Try to reason with them if you see a chance... I wouldn't count on it."

Applejack was shaking her head. “I don’t get it. They are PONIES, just like us! Putting aside for a moment that they are braindead or something, how can they eat flesh?”

“Well... Actually, your guts are pretty versatile”, Spike explained, “I guess you could eat pretty much everything you want. It was just cheaper to raise you on a veggie-diet... plus the occasional dose of MBM.”

“Yeah, there is still no way I’m eating meat... Wait a gosh darn second, did you say ‘ MBM‘ as in... ‘Meat and Bone Meal’ ?”

“Ahem... Let’s just say, these meat grinders in Ponyville were already in place before the blackout.”

-

"You want a piece of me?", Rainbow Dash shouted -a rather silly question given the circumstances - as she circled over the mutants, dropping down like a falcon whenever she was ready for another kill.

But then she plummeted down for good. One of her wings had almost come off. The body melt wouldn't rest before it had destroyed its victims for good.

Rainbow was cursing and trying to get back on her feet, but cannibals were closing in from all sides. She could already feel their teeth on her skin. She managed to kick one of them away, and then another, but there were just too many of them.

She had already decided that this was the part where she was going down with a fight, but then all the weight and the stink was lifted from her, almost as if by magic. She looked up and saw Applejack standing above her with smoking gun barrels.

"Don't worry", The workhorse whispered, "I've got your back. I'll protect you. I promise."

Like a knight in shining armor. What did that make Rainbow? A damsel in distress? The pegasus turned away, blushing. There was no time for this kind of nonsense, but why did these pictures keep popping into her mind? They were embarrassing, infuriating, sweet and bitter all at once.

"Maybe you should rest. Don't worry, I think can hold them off on my own for a while."

Now that blew Rainbow Dash's mind. She couldn't even come up with a curse big enough to express her disbelief and frustration. Instead she produced a complex nasal sound- otherwise her head might have exploded.

"Gesundheit, sugar cube."

-

Whenever the fillies were done slaying one especially powerful mutant, another one had the time to mutate into similar proportions. The body melt wasn't helping. If it hadn't been for Applejack and her exoskeleton, they would have been overrun already.

The corpses had already started piling up, and yet there was no end in sight.

"Twilight!!" Spike came running towards his master with a green syringe. "These things must also contain stabilizers for the mutants. If we use them, it might stop the body melt."

"And turn us into monsters as well? You do realize that’s exactly what Celestia wants."

“That is exactly what I want”, the computer said.

"Some of them don't even cause that much change... Don't you think we should take a chance?"

Rainbow Dash watched Applejack blow a fanged stallion's head off. Applejack would soon run out of ammo -Rarity had neither the time nor the resources to produce it in sufficient quantities- and Rainbow's own tasers had already run out of juice a while earlier.

Knight in shining armor my flank. I'll show her.

"I know I'M going to take that chance." She grabbed the syringe out of Spike's hands before he could react.

"Rainbow, wait!"

“No, Rainbow Dash, don’t wait. This is an excellent idea. Oh my...”

“Rainbow... No... You can’t...”, Applejack cried out.

But she already had. Her body was literally covered in empty syringes.

“This can’t be good”, Spike said.

Rainbow’s limbs started shaking at an alarming rate.

Applejack turned to Twilight, increasingly worried.
“What’s happening to her?!”

“Her body is trying to mutate, just like the cannibals...”

“ARRRGH!”

Rainbow was making gymnastics of pain. She uttered occasional screams of agony, but the silent grimaces were the worst. They expressed physical and mental suffering far beyond the capacity of the vocal cords.

“Is there no way to stop it?!”
Applejack was trying to hold Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus kicked herself free.

“I don’t think so”, Spike said, “We have to wait and see... cross our fingers... Oh. Sorry. I tend to forget you don’t...”

“Well, Rainbow DOES... now.”

“... no way...”

Rainbow’s physical appearance had started to change dramatically. The bones in her wings made nightmarish, cracking noises as they were climbing the evolutionary ladder backwards, turning into powerful arms, with hands and claws.

Rainbow was jumping on her feet, just to drop back on the floor again. You could now see how new muscles and structures were devouring the old pegasus organism. She was turning into a skinny, twisted creature.

Still transforming, she sniffed the air and discovered a puddle of blood and flesh not far from her.

“Oh no... please, no...”

They shrieked. Rainbow had started consuming the corpses.

“She needs the protein...”

“Oh Rainbow... I’m so sorry... If only I had...”

But her metamorphosis continued. The basic body plan which had been established by the previous changes was now “inflated” as the bones stretched and the muscles expanded. Rainbow was turning into a blue, centauroid giant.

Applejack was on the verge of tears.
“Oh Rainbow... Why did this have to happen to you... It’s so horrible... It’s my fault... Even though- check out that udder. I guess every cloud has a silver lining. My word, is it getting hot in here?”

“Applejack?”

“S-Sorry... Kinda hard to concentrate.”

The blue monster let out a roar that was shaking the entire arena. Her mighty claws dived into the crowd of mutants, producing splashes and fountains of blood and flesh.

“Yay, Rainbow Dash! You go kid! Buck them up! Buck them GOOD! You know you want to”, Celestia cheered.

The cannibals’ sense of self-preservation had been mostly brainwashed out of them, yet even they started to flee from the giant’s wrath. To no avail. Rainbow had become a merciless predator.

And the worst part was: she wasn’t all that picky when it came to her prey.

“Hey! Watch it!”
Pinkie managed to dodge Rainbow’s punch not a second too soon.

“What a delicious irony... It will be the Element of Loyalty that will end up destroying you all”, Celestia mused.

The monster was wallowing in lakes of gore, her cries rattling the bones of her friends and enemies alike.

-

Rainbow Dash was lost in the desert.
Nothing but rocks, sand and bleached bones as far as the eye could see. The sky was white, as if it was made of paper. A blank page.

“Great. Where am I now?”

The din of the battle - the slaughter - was still reaching her ears, but it was faint and distant. She knew that somewhere out there, she was a monster, doing unspeakable things. But in here- wherever this was - it was calm, and she was a pegasus filly again. That was nice. She didn’t think it would last much longer.

-“Hey there, sugar cube! over here!”

A familiar voice. Rainbow was looking around.
She discovered a pony-skull with a beautiful blond scalp still attached to it.
It was even wearing a cowboy-hat.

“...Applejack? Is that you? Are you... dead in this hallucination?”

“This is your inner sanctum, Rainbow. I can’t live here. But I might still be able to help you.”

“Oookay. That’s not strange... I thought you were with Twilight and Spike and the others... If I listen closely, I can even hear you yelling out there... screaming...”

“Rainbow, I’m the part of Applejack that’s always with you. We leave an imprint in the souls of everyone we meet, didn’t you know that? That goes especially for friends... And loved ones.”

Rainbow Dash was blushing.
“Great. So I have a little Applejack living in my brainguts. Or bleaching, in your case.”

“Very funny. Listen, we don’t have much time. Do you know why you are here?”

“I...”

“Your soul is dying, Rainbow. The sky is already gone. Soon, the monster will have forgotten you completely.”

“But what can I do? It’s so strong! Ouw... it was a bad idea, wasn’t it?”

“You need to remember, Rainbow. Remember who you are. I wish I could help you with this, but I’m too weak. You need your spirit animal to guide you, sugar cube.”

“But what...?”

“Oh, you know what it is. Come on, you need to remember at least that much.”

Rainbow Dash nodded, though she wasn’t sure Applejack’s empty eye sockets could really appreciate it.

“Where can I find him?”

“I dunno. You better start looking.”

-

“I don’t want to hurt her!”, Applejack said, barely escaping Rainbow’s claws.

Twilight agreed. “We have to tie her down or something.”

“Good luck with that”, Spike said.

The giant monster was truly unstoppable. Soon she would run out of cannibals, and then she would have to turn all of her murderous attention elsewhere.

Twilight and Rarity had already tried to restrain her with spells, but Rainbow’s rage seemed to produce a magical aura of its own, neutralizing the unicorns’ efforts.

Then the last cannibal was torn to shreds. The arena fell silent.
The giant was sniffing the air. Slowly, she was turning around, facing those who had gathered at the other side of the arena to escape her wrath.

-

“I don’t even know which direction to go! Everything looks the same!”, Rainbow Dash complained. She had tied Applejack’s skull to her back like a rucksack.

“I don’t think there are directions down here”, the skull said.

“That makes sense. This isn’t a real place after all. If I want to find him, I need to look for him in a different way...”

Rainbow’s frown dissipated. “Of course! This is all in my head! I have to THINK my way out of this!”

“Oh brony. We’re doomed.”

“Shh! I need to concentrate...”

She was closing her eyes. Grinding her teeth.

“You got anything, sugar cube?”

Rainbow was making angry noises and started jumping up and down.

“This isn’t working! ARRGH! I’ve had it!”

So she started digging.

-

“It’s no use! There is no way we can restrain her!”, Twilight said after yet another attempt had to be aborted.

“I can see it now... a new brand of bio-engineered super-soldiers. We could call them ‘Rainbow Warriors’. This is going better than I thought.”

It became increasingly difficult to dodge the monster’s attacks. Several of their group were already badly injured. They were like bunnies trapped in a barrel with an enraged wolverine. And they were getting tired. The monster wasn’t.

Twilight started to consider the unthinkable.

No! There has to be another way!

Her eyes fell on Spike. Maybe, just maybe...
“Spike? How is your fire doing today?”

“Regular, I guess...”, the little dragon said, “but I don’t see how...”

“I have a plan. I need you to remember that I love you, but this might be our only chance. Cross these little fingers of yours.”

“What are you even...”

Before he could finish the question, Twilight levitated him up into the air, aimed... and fired him right into Rainbow’s open maw as she was uttering another scream.

She gulped, sending a little bulge down her throat. For a moment, the giant displayed a delightful expression of utter confusion. Then she started holding her bloated stomach, all murderous rampage forgotten.

“What was THAT?”, Applejack exclaimed.

“Giving her a little bellyache.”

“Will little Spike be okay?”, Rarity wondered.

“We’ve seen him bathing in molten rock. He’ll be fine. I think.”

The giant was going down on her knees.

“...You think now we can...?”

Fluttershy was interrupted by a thunderous belch that sent a slime-coated Spike flying right back into Twilight’s face.

“S-so dark... s-so dark in there...”

-

“I just felt something”, Rainbow Dash said. The hole she had been digging was already a dozen meters deep. And now the ground was getting moist.

“We’re almost there!”, Applejack’s skull said, “Good work, Rainbow Dash! We'll have to make you a honorary earth pony. Remind me to call on you next time I need someone to dig me a well.”

Something was moving underneath Rainbow's hooves.

“I don’t think this is water... In fact, it looks like...”

Giant black tentacles burst out of the sand, catapulting her out of the hole.

Rainbow Dash gazed upon the monstrosity towering in front of her. It was a mass of vile, slimy flesh.

“Great. How is that going to help us?”

“Look, sugar cube. Up there.”

In one of its tentacles, the monster was holding what looked like the shell of a tortoise.

“Get your suckers off him, you stinking brainworm!”

Rainbow was trying to lift off, but her wings weren’t able to get her into the air. Because there was no air.

“Hold on, buddy, I’m coming for you!”

She started climbing the monster as if it was a giant beanstalk from a fairy tale. A screeching, slobbering, wriggling beanstalk that didn’t want to be climbed on.

She was trying to pull the shell free from the monster’s grip. To no avail.
“Applejack, he’s stuck!”, she cried.

“Then try something else!”, The skull said.

The shell might as well have been empty. Maybe it was. Maybe it was too late.

“Tank!”, Rainbow Dash was shaking the shell, “Tank, you’ve got to help me! Say something!”

Rainbow was staring into the black opening where Tank’s head was supposed to be, tears running down her face.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t want to forget you... I need you...”

And as she was staring into the darkness, she felt that she was being pulled inside.

-

Rainbow Dash was riding through a night full of stars. She was sitting on the back of a tortoise that had powerful wings where his legs should be. The tortoise was the size of a regular asteroid, and they were travelling at an incredible speed. The plates that made up his shell were glowing in all colors of the rainbow.

Far away in the distance, they could see a white spec that was increasing in size. A white hole.

“GO TANK, GO! That’s right, boy, take us home!!”
She couldn’t see his face, but she knew he could hear her.

Never before had Rainbow felt so euphoric.

-

“Look!”

The blue monster had curled up into a ball, and now, it started shrinking. Her body was draining liquids through every orifice available. The powerful arms turned back into wings.

The ponies approached her, carefully. Twilight used her magic to unfold the pegasus’ wings.

The first thing Rainbow saw was Applejack’s face. She blinked.

“Hey there, sleepy head”, the workhorse said.

“Hey.”

“Looks like you found a way out of there all by yourself.”

She put a little kiss on her friend’s nose. “Not that I ever doubted you.”

Celestia, however, was not amused.
“Fine! Have it your way! I’ll just send out another wave of mutants.”