Chapter 1
THE RED
1- Release
SLIDE KEYCARD TO UNLOCK
"Welcome, Doctor Blue Streak. Continue into biological suit containment."
The doctor slips into his suit, and walks up to the door hatch.
CAUTION
ONCE THROUGH DOOR NO EXIT OR HELP IF CONTAMINATION
He takes a deep breath, eyeing the sign, trying to contain his excitement, and turns the hatch.
FWOOSH
The metal detector under the door tingle his hooves with static electricity. The lights clicked on automatically, noticing his presence in the room. Looking around, he sees his prize. A silver canister about three feet long and two feet in diameter, labeled with R-486 in red on the side. Picking it up, he sighs. His job serving his master was important, but now he wondered: is it this really worth it?
No time to discuss, Blue thinks to himself, clearing his thoughts. I have a job to do.
He let his guise fall to the bottom of his chin, revealing a Changeling's head. In a quick flash of green light, all eight camera's in the room were out of commission. He walks over to his target, and in another flash of green light, the canister rests snugly on his back. Carrying it to the door, he uses his magic to pull the lever, and waits through the mandatory contamination check. Walking through the last door, an alarm begins to ring. No doubt for the canister hes carrying. Blue Streak walks over to his suit locker, setting the canister on the ground softly. He then removes the white contamination suit, and places it in the decontamination bin. Carrying the canister, he heads to his office. He opens the door, and walks inside. The brown suitcase near his desk is his target. Opening it, he puts the canister into a pre-made foam slot, and closes it, locking it with a code.
Walking out into the hallway, and with alarms blaring, three guards run up to him, weapons drawn. He shoots them with green magic, and they fall to the ground. This is going to be difficult, He thought. He continued walking forward, reaching a large green door, turning left when he was within reach. He had to go out the back, and quick. His running soon became loud in the tiled hallways, drawing the attention of everyone.
BRRRRRRRRNNNNNNGGGGG At some point during the run, somepony had pulled a lever, causing an alarm to be sound. Lights began to flash along the wall, and an evacuation notice began talking over the loudspeakers. He continued running, only another hallway to go. He turned right, and ran straight into his worst nightmare. The Royal Guards.
Luckily for Blue Streak, they had their backs turned on him, but the door he needed to get to, in their view. He put his spell back up, turning back into the full Dr. Timr. "H-hello? May I g-get through?" He asked in a small, and as scared voice as he could get. The guards turned around at the sudden noise.
"Yes, right away! Come!" The oldest guard with a white mustachio barked. "There is something going dangerously wrong here- we need to help evacuate!"
"Oh thank you thank you!" the doctor changeling. He walked towards the door, the ponies parting as he headed through.
The sun outside was bright, brighter than even Celestia herself. She's not very bright though Blue snickered, grinning. He trotted outside to his left along a cobblestone path, heading for the main bridge that would head over the river and into Canterlot. The river roared below as he left the building grounds, crossing over the bridge. Canterlot's streets were a mess in this side of town, and it made him disgusted to walk in them. But he faired on. He was only two miles from his objective, The Royal Plaza Fountain. To get there, he had to walk along crowded streets with ponies milling about, and hope to dear hive-mother, that some stupid pony wouldn't accidentally bump into the suitcase, and kill him before he was ready. The attention it could arise could foil their whole plan- and lose the war that hasn't even begun.
He looks up, and smiles at the green sign. "Royal Plaza" is displayed in big, bright yellow letters. He stops at a cart on the corner of the plaza street and looks at the items. Roses. His least favorite, but everyone's favorite.He picks four of the worst looking and places them on the counter, hoping to indeed make an impression.
"That'll be 4 bits, good sir." The cart man asks.
"Sure." His blue hooves slide the money over, and he walks away from the cart with the flowers in his mouth. The scent made him cringe. It was too sweet, too nice. He hated that. He hated happy, nice, and enjoyable things. He'd rather read about village pillaging and the murder of innocent foals, but that would probably not look good in this form.
He walked along the cobbled street, the civilians walking around, doing their normal business. Drinking a coffee, talking to their special somepony, or writing an article for the newspaper. He looked away, and focused on his job at hand.Am I becoming too pony?Then he heard it, the everlasting sound of water falling into water, a fountain.He looked up, and the sun glinted off the water into his eyes. Above the fountain stood a marble representation of Celestia meeting her sister after a thousand years of banishment. Celestia's details were ground to perfection, and her wing draped across Luna's body so perfectly, it seemed to be almost real.
Blue Streak walked over to the fountain, and set the suitcase on the ground. He dropped the roses into the fountain, a final tribute to his leader, his adviser, and his enemy. Looking over, he grabs the suitcase in his mouth, and uses his hooves to punch in the combination. It clicks, and he flips it open. Inside is the canister, a white trigger, and a dark black box. Taking out the box, he flips up the cover, revealing four switches. I sure hope White Star got to placing those deliveries for me. His hoof slides across the switches.
The city rocks, and a deafening boom is heard. For a moment, everything is pristine, taken aback in shock. Nobody had ever thought anyone would attack inside Canterlot, especially after the first failed attempt. Sometimes though, ponies know nothing. The moment ends, and the chaos begins. Discord would be proud Reid thinks. Smoke begins to fill the air, the packages doing their job exactly. Ponies begin to scream, and bells begin to ring. He puts the cover back onto the box, and slides it back into the suitcase. A crowd is beginning to form out in the open, and around the fountain.
Perfect.
Ponies of all sizes, races, and age come running into the plaza from left and right. With it filling this quickly, he has little time. More screaming begins, and the Royal Guard enter the plaza. Blue's time has run out, he grabs the white trigger in his mouth, and bites down.
4/16/2017, Tuesday, 3:54 PM
Biological Agent R-486 is released into the Main Canterlot Plaza
One thousand and fourty-eight are infected
"PRINCESS! WE MUST GET YOU OUT OF THE CITY AT ONCE! BOMBS HAVE EXPLODED WITHIN!" A yellow plated guard yelled, bursting into Celestia's study.
Celestia looked over, her eyes solemn. "I know, I heard it. Get my sister, she may have not heard it. We leave to Ponyville at once." She stood, and gathered her belongings. "Twilight Sparkle may be of help to us."
"At once, your highness." The stallion answered.
A quill, ink, and some paper floated in a golden embrace to the bags. She slips on the saddlebags, and began walking to the chariot that awaited them outside. Upon the stairway, Luna showed her dark face. "Sister, it has happened. They have finally attacked. I will stay and general the army." She turned, without waiting for her sister's opinion. Celestia walked on, out onto the windy chariot lane. The sky was dark with smoke, and screams could be heard from across the city. A tear slid down her porcelain cheek.How could this happen..again?
She sat down in her chariot, and began to compose a letter to her protege....My dearest friend Twilight, I have some terrible news... Canterlot was bombed today. Who did it is still unknown, though we do have suspects in mind. What we do know is that the casualties could be enormous, and that this is most definitely an act of war. Luna will stay there and control all operations of rescue. At this moment though, I am headed to Ponyville. As Princesses of Equestria, we must plan.
- Princess Celestia
A single spell later, and the letter burst into flame, and disappeared.
4/17/2017, Wednesday, 6:46 AM
Ponyville Library
"..But Princess, if the explosions were caused by someone on the outside, then would't that group be attacking us or claiming responsibility? I think that this whole thing, was an inside job. I mean, all the evidence lines up, and it being an outside attack like your advisers told me, is just wrong." Twilight proposed to Celestia. "Princess..?" Celestia stared into the black cloud that was her once safe city, not noticing Twilight's constant questioning. Twilight took notice of this behavior, and just sat looking at the cloud with her mentor. Even a town away, the pain could still be felt.
Finally, the silence broke, "Twilight, my dear, we are heading to Canterlot, to find out what exactly is going on. My sister has not contacted me, and I'm worried. I know not of what has occurred, and I do not enjoy the feeling of such." The sun goddess answered.
The ride on the princesses chariot was quick, and the city was withing their sight in minutes.
As they grew closer to their objective, smoke started to cloud their eyes. The heat from the fires made just flying above the city a furnace. Twilight coughed, and put up a shield to protect her lungs. Celestia followed her moves, and watched the ground below.
A crowd was running down a street parallel to her chariot. They were running from.. something. Celestia couldn't tell- it was too far away for her to see. "Twilight, look at this with me- what are they running from?" She perplexed.
While Twilight was searching for the perpetrators, she noticed a group of two unicorns, a small blue filly, and a grey colt, running along side a brown and black earth mare. The mare had a streak of red on her neck, but the others where unharmed. The Princess sighed, and looked at the city collapsing beneath her.
"I can't tell princess, it's too far away for me to see aswell." Twilight answered glumly.
The Princess coughed, and spoke, "You can see it all Twilight, smoke, fire, collapsed buildings, but you can not see what is making these ponies run. It makes me worried." The mare of brown and black had turned back, and stopped.
"Twilight, look." Celestia motioned towards the mare. It was as if she was being hurt.. from inside. The blue filly turned, and ran back to her, taking her mane in her mouth, and pulling her towards the crowd, but she just stood there. The filly tried again, and she just stood there, rooted to the spot. She tried once again with all her effort and this time she knocked her front leg away, and kicked her down onto the ground. The fear on the filly's face was apparent. The mare stood over her and started beating the small pony. But as soon as the attacking stopped, something else happened and..Celestia couldn't believe her eyes. The brown and black mare was biting the blue unicorn filly.
Celestia felt her stomach begin to turn. The mare was just.. beating the small pony with her hooves and biting her neck and face. The two ponies in the chariot felt their insides drop. They both started heaving at this disgusting act of what could only be called insane.
A red pool formed around the filly, and the mare backed off, running into an alleyway where it disappeared. Celestia stared after it. Twilight started crying. Fear slid across the princesses face. She stumbled backwards, and fell onto her flank. She continued to watch as suddenly the filly slowly moved its head, then its legs, and stood up on all fours and staggered towards the same alleyway the mare went into.
Twilight began to scream and cry, "CELESTIA W-W-WHAT IS T-T-THIS?!" while reeling backwards. Rips had begun to form on the filly's chest during the beating, and they began to get bigger as she tripped over cracks in the road towards the alley. Celestia watched as the rips grew longer and wider. Blood was beginning to stream from them. Suddenly, the filly's intestines fell out onto the cobbled ground. The foal fell, and laid there, never to move again. Celestia went queasy and threw up over the side of the chariot. Twilight screamed, and passed out.
"Guards!" Celestia yelled out dryly, "We must go down! They need our help!"
The wind blew at her white fur, entangling her tricolor mane. REEEEEEEEK the chariot went, straining under the speed and force the guards were flying with. The sky was darker here, smoke clouded above and blocked most of the sunlight. Screams were louder, fire burned hotter. This is Hell on Equestria, Celestia thought. They flew on. When they got to about two-hundred meters from the street, a squad of fully armored pegasi flew in front of them, and forced them to stop.
"YOU CANNOT PROCEED WITHOUT CLEARANCE!" Yelled a black and green pegasus, with a red cut on his hip..no, that wasn't a cut, that was a bite-mark. Oh god.. what is this?! The Princess screamed in her mind.
"WE ARE THE GUARDS WITH PRINCESS CELESTIA AND HER PRODIGY TWILIGHT SPARKLE. THEY ARE IN THIS CHARIOT, IF YOU CANNOT TELL." Her Royal Guards responded.
"YOU CAN NOT, I REPEAT, CAN NOT PROCEED WITHOUT CLEARANCE. CELESTIA AND HER PRODIGY NEED TO BE TAKEN SOMEWHERE SAFE. WE DO NOT.. WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS IS." He finalized, his voice wavering on the last remark. The pegasi raised their wings and legs into an attack stance.
"GUARDS." Celestia roared "Do not get into any struggles with our own, if they say there is something they do not know about, then we should heed their warning. Please, proceed back to where we will meet Luna."