Retexo

by Xz Hacker

Chapter Four: “Epidemic”

Chapter Four: “Epidemic”

Three days passed, and no word had come about Dr. Aden's potential whereabouts. During that time the combined efforts of Twilight and Dr. Patella led to the creation of Retexo one, or R1, a compound designed to neutralize the contagious C2. R1 was administered to all three of Dr. Aden's victims in Fillydelphia, however the physical alterations were irreversible. Shortly thereafter Twilight, Dr. Patella, and Applejack returned to Canterlot.

After three weeks Dr. Patella returned to her normal practice, and Twilight kept studying virology, having found a legitimate interest in it. Applejack still couldn't stop thinking about Dr. Aden and where he could be. Applejack was on the castle's roof again one evening when Pinkie Pie crept up on her. “Hey AJ whatcha doing?”

Applejack nearly jumped off the roof, her wings halfway outstretched ready to attempt to fly away. When she saw it was just Pinkie Pie she settled back down, “jeez Pinkie, you liked ta scared me right off the roof.”

“Oopsie, sorry AJ, still though, watcha doin?”

“Nothing really, just siting up here enjoying the view.”

By this time word had gotten around to all her friends about what was happening, Pinkie Pie being no exception, and seeing the look on Applejack's face Pinkie Pie knew Applejack was thinking about it, “it's not your fault you know.”

Applejack turned to look at her, “but it is, if I didn't let myself get hurt when we were fightin Discord none of this woulda ever happened.”

“What if I had gotten hurt, or Rainbow Dash, what if we needed healing, would it be our fault?”

Applejack looked back at the sky, “I know what your trying to say Pinkie, its just hard to think about, somepony could be getting hurt right now because of me.”

“Then help everyone you can until you can fix this problem.”

“What can I do?”

“Your an alicorn,” Pinkie Pie stood up and gave Applejack a hug, “I'm sure you can think of something.”

Pinkie Pie left Applejack alone on the roof once more. After a few minutes Twilight teleported beside her, “AJ it's time to go, they think they've found Aden. It seems he made his way to Los Pegasus. The guards are waiting for us before they begin the raid on his compound.”

Applejack nodded, “we don't have time to loose, where is Patella?”

“At her office why...”

Applejack didn't wait for Twilight to finish, she grabbed her and teleported to Dr. Patella's office. Dr. Patella was shocked for a second, but Applejack gave her no time to think. She grabbed her as well and teleported the three of them to Celestia's throne room, “Celestia, ah've never been to Los Pegasus, can ya get us there?”

Celestia didn't hesitate, “of course.” She walked over, touched Applejack's shoulder, and they all three found themselves in the busy and bright streets of Los Pegasus.

Dr. Patella yelled, “what's going on?!”

Twilight turned to her, “we found Dr. Aden, his facility is here in Los Pegasus.”

“That's half way across Equestria!”

Applejack was ignoring their conversation, “Twilight where is his compound?”

Twilight pulled out a piece of paper and gave the address, they all ran towards the building. Once they got there, they found several royal guards waiting for them.

Twilight walked right up to the commanding officer, “are you sure Dr. Aden is in there?”

“We were following up on several missing persons reports. During a stakeout one of my boys noticed your Dr. Aden, and recognized him from his description in the all point bulletin out on him.”

“Right, we will follow you in. Don't touch any of the equipment or anything suspicious looking, your job is to apprehend Dr. Aden, is that clear?”

The guard made a quick wave to his seven men that were with him, “men we are under strict orders to avoid tampering with any equipment or anything else we find inside, we are only to do what is necessary to apprehend Dr. Aden, is that clear?”

All the other guards said “yes sir” simultaneously.

They all approached the main door to the building and prepared to breach it. The commanding officer looked around at his men, “on three, ready, one, two, THREE!”

They busted down the door and they all stormed in at once. Dr. Aden was no more than fifteen feet away from the door, and as soon as they came in, he bolted into another room. “Alpha team, after him!” Four of his seven men took off chasing him, the other three stayed behind to secure the room for Twilight, Applejack, and Dr. Patella.

The room they were in was full of equipment. The tables were filled with multiple batches of Commutatus variants in air tight capsules. There were also several doors with viewing plates which also seemed to be air tight. Twilight noticed a small notebook and walked over and began reading it.

One of the guards walked over and peered into one of the doors. Twilight beckoned Dr. Patella and Applejack over to the table were she was reading. “It seems that Dr. Aden has been working on Commutatus quite heavily, it seems that its been taken to the sixth generation already. This journal actual keeps, well, disturbing amounts of detail on his trial and error with the virus.”

Dr. Patella peered at the book, “yes but will any of it help us reverse engineer the current version, that should be our top priority.”

While they were speaking, the guard that had been peering into one of the air tight rooms realized that there was a pony inside. He began to open the door to let the captive out. When Twilight heard the airlock depressurize she yelled, “NO WAIT!”

It was to late, from inside the room stepped out a deformed looking alicorn, with a small horn, and wings that dwarfed Applejack's. The pony slowly walked towards the guard that had let her out, and reached out and touched him. He fell on the ground writhing in pain. Twilight grabbed the journal, Applejack, and Dr. Patella and teleported them outside the building. She began to talk frantically, “we need to get out of hear RIGHT NOW!”

Applejack looked confused, “what about Dr. Aden?”

“He doesn't matter as much as getting out of the city immediately, we need to get back to Celestia, we need to quarantine the city.”

Dr. Patella looked livid, “you don't mean that C6 is...”

Twilight finished her statement for her, “it's highly contagious by mere touch, it causes mutations in minutes, and is highly unstable. Worse yet, it tends to cause brain damage.”

Just then the guards that had been with them in the room began running out of the building yelling, as both the alicorn released from the air tight room and the guard she had touched, who now seemed to have grown small wings and had his horn enlarged significantly, came slowly walking out behind them.

Twilight turned to look at them for a moment then yelled, “Applejack, get us out of here!”

Applejack grabbed them both and teleported them back to the roof of the castle in Canterlot, then to the throne room in front of Celestia, where Twilight began at an unbelievable pace, “Princess we need to quarantine Los Pegasus immediately. Commutatus six has been released and its is unbelievably contagious. We must stop the spread before it becomes a pandemic.”

Celestia blinked then said, “I'll fetch your brother, hes the only one who can do this.”

Twilight stared for a moment, “your going to magically seal off the whole city? I meant...”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Yes”

“Then having your brother seal the city is the only way to protect my subjects.”

Celestia then teleported off to get Shining Armour. Once she found him, she quickly explained to him the situation, and teleported him to the outskirts of Los Pegasus, where he began to seal the entire city in.

Back at Canterlot, Twilight was still trying to get her head around what was happening, “she's going to use my brother to quarantine the entire city. There gonna seal off an entire city like...”

Twilight trailed off for a moment, and Applejack finished the thought, “like a giant tomb.”

Comments

[BenRG]

Oh... horseapples. This is what I was worried about. C6 is a Zombie Apocalypse Virus. I'm serious; it turns ordinary ponies into dangerous, mentally-unstable virus-carriers whose likely primary purpose is to spread the infection further. That's the scientific definition of a ZAV.

This is a Jericho Trumpet scenario here; I think, that Celestia and Luna might need to seriously consider sterilising the Las Pegasus area with either a stellar core fragment or a mid-size meteor.

[Lancerlot]

Right at the moment, burning the lab might be enough.

[KvAT]

Back at Canterlot, Twilight was still trying to get her head around what was happening, “she's going to use my brother to quarantine the entire city. There gonna seal off an entire city like...”

Twilight trailed off for a moment, and Applejack finished the thought, “like a giant tomb.”

Slightly reminds me of Dying Light