What's In the Box, Miss Sparkle?

Ponyville Biological Research

"Your attention please, your attention please. An emergency has been reported in the building, please vacate immediately to your designated emergency zone and listen for announcements over the public address system."

The dull mare's voice over the intercom brought Twilight back to consciousness. She looked up at the arrows pointing to the exits on the ceiling, proving that there was indeed an emergency. As the mare got up, she noticed her hooves were bloody, but she ignored this. Twilight stood up, and noticed the lack of other ponies in the building. They probably evacuated already, and left her behind. She looked out of the window behind her, and saw the reason that everypony evacuated. A large storm swirled above a foundry nearby, in the industrial district. Not wanting to be caught in it, she rushed, and grabbed a pair of saddlebags on the floor next to one of the desks, and placed it on top. Twilight grabbed several items, including an experimental weapon, and placed them all into the bags. Finally, she levitated over a small PDA, and a Heads-Up VIZR, and synced them together. While that was happening, she quickly rushed over to a large machine, and opened the top, not taking her eyes off of the storm outside.

"Please still be here! Nopony else knows the code!" She muttered.

She looked back at the container, glad that it was there. Inside was a small black box, with a red circle on one of its faces. She input a code on a small keypad on the machine holding it.

"Four, nine, three, one, eight, five, seven." She said aloud, as she typed it in. A small 'ding' was heard, and a light flashed green. Two clamps holding the box disengaged, and she picked it up in her magic. Looking out the window, she noticed a blue light coming from the center of the storm. The cube began to pulse with red energy, and Twilight knew what to do. Without a second thought, she brought the cube in front of the window, and waved it slightly. It began to morph and bend, engulfing itself in a red light. The storm began to shrink, but not disappear. Twilight quickly placed the box into her saddlebags, and put them on her back. the VIZR was finished syncing, which she put on her face. She found a respirator nearby, and placed it over her muzzle. She was ready to go outside. Walking towards the door, she was worried about what might have happened to everypony outside. That wasn't a normal storm. That was a Singularity Storm. Without proper Hazard gear, you would be dead within minutes. She opened the door, and moved towards the entrance to the workplace, when the lights suddenly cut out. The power plant was probably damaged. Or worse.

Twilight pulled a glowstick out of her saddlebags, and used its light to guide her down the hallway. She opened the door, squinting at the bright sunlight. Her first instinct was to find a cellular phone. Luckily, they had recently become very popular. She noticed the distinct lack of ponies around. Even corpses.

"Where is everypony?"

Only her own echoing voice met her ears. She wandered for several more minutes, finding nothing of importance. Finally, she found a bag dropped by an unfortunate pony. Looking through it, she took out several items useless to her. Finally, she found a phone inside. Out of charge. Dropping it, she kept looking for one that had a full battery. She found several more, all out of charge. Frustrated, she threw the last one on the ground, breaking it. She noticed a cart nearby, similar to the one Trixie used. Rushing over to it, she opened the door, which bore Trixie's cutie mark, confirming that the cart was indeed the showmare's. There was a phone on a table, next to a small picture of Trixie with a stallion and a small foal. Her family, probably. Despite what happened oh-so-long ago, Twilight hoped they got out of Ponyvile safely. Picking up the phone, she found that it was fully charged. Great, now all she had to do was-

"Sector is secure. Investigating caravan now."

The deep, vocoded voice frightened Twilight. She saw a pony through the door with a white HAZMAT suit, carrying a rifle. They were quickly approaching her. Quickly, Twilight hid behind the small table as the pony entered the trailer. Twilight looked around, as the pony had yet to see her, and realized that she took a weapon with her. It had the appearance of a black half-circle, with bracers to connect to her hoof. She strapped it on, but it made a clicking sound. The specifications of it ran across the side of her heads-up display, but she ignored this. She stood up, and pointed it at the strange pony.

"Contact! Contact!" They yelled, but it was too late.

A loud buzzing noise was produced from Twilight's weapon, directed at her target. They dropped to the ground, holding their ears. Twilight ran out of the trailer, trying to escape. She pointed it at another, and they started vomiting, which leaked through their helmet. She ran, momentarily looking behind her. There were now a lot more ponies following her. She continued to run, making a sharp turn around a corner. All of the sudden, a loud, rapid thumping noise rang throughout the air, and before she could wonder what it was, two missiles shot past her, blowing up parts of the cobblestone pathway. An attack helicopter flew over her, and turned for another round. It flew around, which only made Twilight run faster. The grey craft launched another missile, which hit the building next to her, showering the mare in debris. Its machine gun tore up the streets in front of her, in an attempt to slow her down. Before it could gun her down, she took a sharp left, and ran in between several houses. Looking back, the helicopter flew away, but the ponies were once again right behind her. One of them shot their rifle, and a single bullet hit Twilight in the arm, slowing her down. Scrambling to escape, she noticed the door to a nearby house was open. She quickly ran inside, and locked the door behind her. Running inside, she found a stairway leading to a basement. Not thinking about the fact that she would be cornered, she ran down.

"Grenade!" One of the ponies outside yelled.

In a moment's notice, the floor above Twilight exploded. She noticed a stairway leading outside, and didn't waste a notice running up. Right after she got out, the floor collapsed. If she was still inside for even a second longer, she would have been crushed. Twilight walked in the small alley between houses, saddened that this was the new Ponyville. Everypony she knew probably evacuated. Or worse, was dead. She ran back into the street, and ran as fast as her injured form could handle, but tripped. Recovering quickly, she noticed that the battery cell of her weapon was dead. She was defenseless. Unstrapping it with her magic, she threw it back, which hit one of the ponies in the head. It loosened their helmet, which quickly fell off. Underneath wasn't a pony. It was a changeling. Without reattaching their helmet, they continued with the others, and chased Twilight. She continued to run, until she tripped once more, and couldn't recover quick enough. The five pursuers all raised their rifles, and the unmasked changeling took Twilight's saddlebags, while holding her at gunpoint. They searched through them, and removed the box from earlier.

"Don't open that!" Twilight yelled, but it was no use.

The changeling tried to open it, but before they could, a loud noise emanated from the Singularity. The changeling desperately tried to reattach his helmet, but an ear-splitting sound stopped them all. Clutching their ears, they fell to the ground. Twilight gazed at the Singularity, knowing what was about to happen. Explosions rang out across the town, and Twilight closed her eyes. The changelings around her were screaming, but she did nothing. There was no need.