Chapter 1
[Emergency Radio Alarm]
The following message is a statement issued by the CDC.
An unidentified virus is rapidly spreading across the country. This virus has a 100% mortality rate. Those infected with the virus will die and seemingly "reanimate" into a mindless state. The infected will seek to bite, infect, and even eat those who are not infected.
Be advised. Stay away from those who have become infected or those who have come into contact with the infected. Report any sightings of infected individuals or those who have been bitten by the infected. Any who have been bitten should report to the nearest hospital for quarantine.
Stay in your homes. Stock up enough food and water to last one to two weeks.
There were several students who showed up at school feeling fine when they first got there, but then started feeling sick after a few hours. One student, Timber Spruce, showed up with a bloody bandage on his lower left arm. Said that his sister Gloriosa got real sick and bit him on the arm. Miss Cheerilee was attempting to teach her freshman class feeling like she was fighting the worst flu imaginable.
Canterlot High School
Spike Drake was standing at the end of the hallway on the second floor of the school, looking out the large window at the city beyond the school gate.
He was a tall and skinny young man with spiky bright green hair and green eyes. He wore a purple jacket, a white T-shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a pair of black sneakers.
Spike was in a really foul and depressed mood. Not only did his girlfriend Twilight Sparkle break up with him, but she's now dating his best friend Flash Sentry. That's what Spike called "rubbing salt in the wound". To some small degree, Spike resents Flash for that.
Both Spike and Twilight had known each other since childhood. He remembered one day when they were kids that they made a naïve promise to marry each other in the future. They promised to be there for each other forever.
"Hey, Spike! Let's get married when we grow up okay?"
"Y-you're serious?"
"Yeah. Let's promise to stay together forever!"
But one day, Twilight came up to Spike and straight up told him that she wanted to break up with him. Spike was, needless to say, shocked. When he asked her why she wanted to break up, she simply said that if he's asking her why, then he'd never understand why.
As Spike was still reeling from the pain of the breakup and shitty excuse why, he was walking down the street a few weeks later and saw Twilight pressing herself into Flash Sentry's side with a smile on her face. Now that's just cruel, the way Spike saw it.
"'Stay together forever', huh? Yeah right", Spike mumbled to himself.
"There you are!", a familiar voice called out from behind him.
Spike looked behind him and beheld the sight of Starlight Glimmer walking down the hallway towards him. She had a slight scowl on her otherwise beautiful face. She had her purple hair with green streaks tied into twin-tails. She wore a white button-up shirt and a green short skirt with knee-high socks and red sneakers. Spike could tell from looking at her that she could attract any male in the school if it wasn't for her usual confrontational personality and stuck-up attitude. She's been labeled as a genius and for some reason had the need to let everyone she spoke to know it. She had the body of a swimsuit model and Spike has glanced at her from time to time. If Spike could categorize her, she'd be labeled as a "tsundere".
Starlight walked right up to Spike with her hands on her hips. She looked at Spike with the same scowling face she looked at everybody with.
"Skipping class because your little girlfriend dumped you?" she asked in her usual hard voice.
"Why are you out here is what I'd like to know" he asked in retort.
"I don't need to be in class because I'm a genius. Besides, I knew you'd be looking out this window, stupid"
"Why do you always feel the need to diss me like that, Starlight?"
"Because one thing I hate is stupid people. I mean, you're pretty stupid. But at least you know you are. I keep thinking if I keep calling you 'stupid', you'll actually put in the effort to be less stupid"
As she leaned forward to put on the "stern mother" look, Spike could see the depth of her cleavage. He could also make out the rim of her bra. Apparently, she was a fan of frilly and lacey pink.
Spike forced himself to look away out of genuine respect for one of his oldest friends. Spike and Starlight had been friends since childhood and lived in the same neighborhood. Spike knows Starlight better than anyone, so in her own way, Starlight is genuinely concerned about Spike's emotional and academic well-being.
"I know you care about my situation, Starlight. But still, this entire situation feels like a giant fucking kick in the balls" Spike said silently.
Starlight just clicked her tongue in response. "Stupid. Fine, just mope here in your little pity corner".
The teenage genius left Spike to his thoughts.
After a few more minutes of brooding, Spike saw something that seemed interesting.
A man was walking up to the front gate to the school with a lumbering, limping gait. He was a middle-aged man with a average build and was dressed like an average salaryman. His hair was messy from what some form of exertion. Even from his vantage point, Spike could tell that the man's skin was deathly pale. Something about this guy felt... wrong to Spike.
The man walked up to the front gate and pressed his whole body against the gate. He put his arms through the bars of the gate and seemed to be mindlessly reaching for something.
"What the fuck is he reaching for? Is he drunk or high on some shit" Spike said to himself.
After a few more seconds of the weird man just banging and reaching through the gate, the campus guard Gleaming Shield and the gym teacher Iron Will walked up to the gate to confront the stranger.
"Hey there!", Gleaming called out the stranger, "this is a private school campus. You can't be here!"
Surprisingly, the stranger stopped banging for a few seconds before banging on the gate again even more ferociously. Gleaming took an involuntary step back from this man. He could tell that something about this man was terribly wrong.
Iron Will was a different story. This guy was known for being a muscle-headed dumbass. He probably took the stranger's aggression as an invitation to fight. He walked up to the stranger with a cocky smile and flexing his muscular arms.
"Don't you worry about a thing, Gleaming! I've got this", the musclebound idiot said while walking up to the gate to confront the stranger.
Before Gleaming could say anything, Iron put his arm through the bars of the gate and grabbed the stranger by the collar of his shirt and slammed the guy against the bars.
"Now, tell us why you're here!" Iron shouted at the stranger.
The man's only response was a low groaning sound. Next, the man grabbed Iron's arm and sank his teeth into the wrist, spraying arterial blood in the process.
Iron screamed in shock and pain in response. He fell to the ground and began seizing on the ground for a few minutes. Then, finally, he stopped moving entirely.
Now, Spike was watching all of this from the window, shocked as hell. Gleaming was too shocked to move or react to anything. Mentally snapping himself out of it, Gleaming ran to Iron Will's prone form to check on him. Iron wasn't moving. He didn't even seem to be breathing!
Once a few minutes have passed, Iron's hand started twitching! Then, his eyes opened. But his eyes were different. They were gray and cloudy with his pupils constricted and rolled up into his head.
But Gleaming didn't seem to notice.
"Oh, Iron. You're okay! I was worried there for a--" Gleaming said before he was cut off by Iron grabbing his shirt and lunging for the guard's neck!
Iron sank his teeth deep into Gleaming's neck and tore out a large chunk of flesh. Gleaming shrieked in pain and tried to get away, but Iron's grip was too strong. Iron pinned Gleaming to the ground and started to literally eat Gleaming alive.
Spike was on the verge of pissing his pants.
"What the fuck's going on?!" he shouted to himself.