The Grass Ain't Always Greener

Week One of the Outbreak in Canterlot

It seemed to be a day like any other. Birds were singing, decorative flowers were blooming, the sun was shining, and as far as most normal ponies were concerned all was right in the world save for some disturbing rumors that had drifted in with tourists from other towns. Although there was nothing in the newspapers about it, apparently some new illness out in the boonies had swept across an entire town and the place had been quarantined a few days ago. No one and no thing was allowed in or out without express permission from The Crown. The story went that somepony had gotten infected with a mutated strain of rabies while caring for some sick animals and had attacked her neighbors who then also got sick and went on to attack other ponies. While this was mildly concerning to the locals if true, this was the city of Canterlot! Surely no such affliction would make its way here. Even if it did then it would quickly be contained and treated! Equestria had suffered far worse things since its founding than illnesses and had come out little worse for wear. Besides, everypony that talked about it all said the same thing: that it was contained and no one was allowed in or out.

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Vinyl Scratch levitated her and Octavia Melody's suitcases from the hotel trolley into their room. Their train had left Ponyville over a week ago, but it had needed to reroute for some repair work and had only just arrived in Canterlot today.

"Thanks, dude. We'll take it from here." Vinyl tossed the attendant a few bits before walking into their room and shutting it behind her. Octavia was in the bathroom replacing the bandages on her right foreleg. They'd been planning this trip to Canterlot to visit old friends and family for the last few months and now here they finally were! First they'd get something to eat at a diner and then they'd head to Octavia's parent's place. The two were expected to show up in about an hour and a half so they'd have to delay putting their stuff in the drawers until later.

Although Octavia was typically considered a high-class mare both by how she carried herself and how she spoke her family were actually from Lower Canterlot or Commoner Canterlot as those of "noble" descent sometimes called it. The reverse was the case for Vinyl Scratch. Her parents had tried to get her to be a prim-and-proper lady (or stuck up if you asked Vinyl herself about it) but eventually gave up after Vinyl gained her cutie mark in a school music club playing with a DJ rig. Their relationship was strained for several years after that until she made it big in the music industry. Once that happened they just accepted that the two of them were, so to speak, squares that raised a triangle. Sure, Vinyl could fit into the same hole, but she wasn't really meant to. After that they were just glad that she would be able to support herself even if they didn't necessarily approve of how she did it.

"Tavi, you just about done in there? We need to head out soon." Vinyl pushed open the bathroom door to see Octavia put the roll of bandage gauze back on the sink and swallow some pain pills with water. Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "Tavi, if your leg still hurts that much we can always head to a local doctor's place first and get you some real meds, you know. I'm sure your folks won't mind. Heck, they'll probably yell at me for not taking you there first!" Octavia rolled her eyes and set her hoofs down on the floor again.

"I'm a grown mare, Vinyl. My leg is still a bit sore, but Nurse Redheart said that it would continue to be for at least another few days. It's not very often that a dazed and grouchy little filly decides to chomp onto your leg like you're made of chocolate. Considering that she bit hard enough to draw blood and take a small chunk out of me I'm just glad Redheart didn't insist that we cancel our trip and stay home." Vinyl Scratch gave her an ocular once-over and noted the bags under her eyes and the way she actively avoided putting any real weight on her injured leg as if it hurt a lot more than she claimed. She gave Octavia an unsure look which Octavia countered with a reassuring smile. "Really, I'm fine. It hurts but that's it. Once the painkillers kick in it won't be a problem." Still looking unsure, Vinyl nodded.

"If you say so, Tavi."

Vinyl was right: Octavia's parents did yell at her. They did it so loudly that the neighbors had come by and knocked on their door to see what all the commotion was about. That led to explaining the situation a second time and leading up to Octavia unwrapping her injury to show them. The sight of it brought up the subject of the rumors that had spread faster than any contagion, including a newer piece of information that said it was taking place in the town that Celestia's student had moved to. Both Octavia and Vinyl glanced at one another and recalled a number of hard to believe stories they'd heard before they'd left such as several ponies claiming to have seen a glimpse of Fluttershy roaming around town despite her having sadly been killed by a Hydra not too long ago. Then there was the hoof-full number of patients they'd seen waiting in the lobby of the Ponyville General Hospital with similar wounds to Octavia's own though with differing levels of severity.

It was pretty regular to have something weird occurring in Ponyville every few weeks. From random monsters coming out of the Everfree Forest to the yearly unique-to-Ponyville Zap Apple harvest to mysterious super heroes that appeared from nowhere and later vanished just as quickly never to be seen again. Those were the 'normal' weird things that happened there. In a way it was reassuring that they happened so regularly. Once in a blue moon though, something particularly nasty happened. Last time it had been Trixie taking over the town using a power-boosting magical artifact. Most of the other major things such as the return of Discord they'd not been around for due to their work schedules being so irregular compared to that of other ponies. Was this new sickness their little town's latest dose of misery? Still, rumors were only just that. There was a pretty easy way to find out if there was any truth to the story, and that was to head down to the train station tomorrow and ask for a ticket back to Ponyville. If they were denied, then they could start feeling worried.

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It was close to midnight and while the main streets of Canterlot were still fairly active with night clubs and a few stores that never closed save for on holidays the back-alleys and residential areas were fairly silent. While some ponies had started staying up later with the return of Princess Luna most of them had gone to bed three or four hours ago. The occasional group of police ponies patrolled the streets to see if anyone or anypony had wandered away from a club and passed out on a sidewalk bench or to prevent the occasional hoodlum from making mischief when they thought no one was looking. The city being silent was usually a soothing thing after all the excitement and noise of the previous day.

Above the city however, though it was still silent not all was well. On a cobbled together patch of clouds a trio of sleeping Pegasai that had fled from Ponyville before it was quarantined twitched with bad dreams and one of them also with a very high fever. One of them was a blue-gray mare named Flitter, the second a dark gray Stallion named Thunderlane, and lastly his little brother Rumble whom was a light gray Pegasus colt with a mane that was two tones of darker gray. Rumble had been mauled and partially crippled by a crazed-with-sickness pony while he was getting his teeth examined by the local dentist. It had barged into Colgate's office while she was comparing some photographs she'd taken of his teeth the last time he'd been in with today's. Before she even had time to react it was upon her. Rumble heard a crash from her office and yelled, asking if she was alright.

Thunderlane had been outside on his way back from getting some tea for him and his kid-brother when he heard Rumble scream from inside the building. Dropping the tea he galloped inside to see what looked like a corpse of all things gnawing on one of his little brother's wings and Rumble screaming in agony. Not wasting any time Thunderlane charged and kicked the thing with all his strength. Thunderlane was no Earth Pony but was still pretty fit, and the creature was sent flying into the wall where it slumped to the floor. Thunderlane ran to Rumble's side and picked him up. As he started reassuring Rumble that he'd take him somewhere to get patched up he heard a dragging sound coming from Colgate's office and looked to see with shock and horror the once-pretty mare with her throat ripped out and gore trailing down her neck and chest standing in the doorway and twitching. What once was Colgate locked dull eyes with Thunderlane and made a gurgling growl as it started clumsily shuffling towards them. One of her legs seemed to not be working right and scraped the floor as she stepped.

"What in the sun's light?!" he exclaimed. Rumble weakly tapped Thunderlane's back and whimpered.

"Bro, the one you kicked is getting back up!" Thunderlane's head jerked towards it to see that it was indeed doing so even with two broken ribs pointing out from its barrel. It made a snarling sound like some kind of wild animal as it craned its head to look their way. The eyes on this thing were as white as the moon. The teeth were worse to look at though, being drenched in the blood of both Colgate and now his little brother.

"This is a nightmare!" he panic-whispered, but grit his teeth and shoved a small table in Colgate's direction to knock her back from them and quickly raced back out of the dentist's office and into the street. He started heading for the PGH, but a shrieking scream to his left drew his attention to several more of those walking corpses surrounding and tearing away at the flesh of a mare he'd met in passing named Cloudchaser whom had just stepped out of the Flower Sister's home. More screaming was coming from inside the house, too. Whether it was in reaction to what was going on outside or if more of those things were in there, who could say? Thunderlane froze mid-step and watched like a deer frozen in headlights and breathless as Cloudchaser seemed to sink within them and melt into a red expanding puddle of blood and gore. Several moments later her screaming finally stopped with a strangled gurgle, though the sounds of feeding and flesh tearing and bones breaking didn't.

Thunderlane's hoofs felt warm and wet. Glancing down he realized what he'd done and having snapped out of his trance he turned away from the display to see Flitter standing next to him with one leg extended towards the mob with her mouth open and tears pouring from her eyes. Gone. Her sister was gone and she'd just watched it happen, unable to so much as twitch a wing to help because she was so shocked and afraid. Seeing her in the same boat he'd been in moments before Thunderlane reached out a hoof and gently placed it on her back. Flitter's head jerked to look at him and she saw his little brother on his back, minus part of a wing.

"We have to go. Get far away from here. Away from..." He fought the urge to look at them. "I'm leaving. Come on." In a grief-stricken daze, Flitter followed. After they'd left Thunderlane glanced back at his hometown to see several flashes of light on the ground and a few dozen ponies in royal guard armor spreading out and engaging the dead roaming their streets. None of those guards seemed to notice the fleeing trio.

They left the area and flew all day nonstop to arrive in Canterlot shortly before ten at night. Thunderlane had wanted to take his little brother to a hospital as soon as they arrived but by the time they stopped for a breather the pair of adults were so exhausted from the trip and from fear that they just grabbed a few clouds, smooshed them together and passed out a few seconds later. Rumble had already fallen asleep long before the sun had set, and his temperature had only gone up and up as they traveled. Now in the silence of the early morning hours, Rumble's dulled eyes snapped open and he took a slow shaky breath and exhaled it as a soft groan before standing up and taking a step forward off of his brother's back and tumbling down through the clouds they'd slept on.

Below them in a cobblestone back alley a yellow Earth Pony with a brown mane and tail named Donut Joe opened his shop's back door carrying out a bag of trash to the city block's dumpster. He'd already said good night to the last of his regulars and finally closed up shop. Tomorrow he'd take the time to deep-clean everything from the equipment to the store itself with his two recent hires before opening back up again on the day after. He did that at least once every season to make sure that no mold had any real opportunity to collect in the corners or under the machinery. Really he'd prefer to do it more often if he could what with the random health inspections that had started up after a pasta restaurant down the road was discovered to have mice literally cooking in the kitchen. It had caused a scandal at first, but after a cooking contest was sponsored by the owner and the mice won over the other contestants all that came of it was that cleanliness standards had been increased across town since mice could get under equipment that ponies couldn't and see where filth was collecting.

Donut Joe raised the lid to the dumpster and tossed the garbage bag in then headed back to the door and took out his keys to finish locking up before going home. As he was about to leave the alleyway he heard a sudden loud crash behind him and a soft thud coming from the dumpster. It startled him so much that he whinnied like a scared little filly. For several seconds it was quiet other than him trying to settle his breathing, but then the sound of something stirring and short ragged breaths came from whatever had bounced off the dumpster onto the ground.

It was dark in that alley. There was a light mount above him, but the glowstone in it had fizzled out a few years ago and he'd just never bothered to replace it.

"Hello?" No response other than the lump seemed to still be gasping and trying to stand up. Maybe it'd had the wind knocked out of 'em from that 'landing'. Is that a foal? What are they doing up this late at night? "Are you alright?" Donut Joe approached them and knelt down. It was a foal. Specifically, it was a colt. "You took quite a fall there, little buddy. What are you doing out here so la-?!" the colt had finished standing up and turned to face and snarl at him. One of his wings was partially missing and his eyes seemed strangely unfocused. One of his back legs was also very obviously broken and even twisted a bit from the fall yet instead of his face being contorted with pain and tears instead he only looked aggressive. Alarm bells began to ring in Donut Joe's head but just as he started to step back the little colt lunged and sank his sharp foal teeth into one of Donut Joe's legs. "Aaaah!" he screamed. The colt's mouth began to gnaw where he bit and on instinct Donut Joe whipped his leg around until the colt was flung away into the deeper dark of the alleyway, leaving an embedded tooth behind. Donut Joe whipped his keys back out and got inside his shop, locking it again behind him. What the heck was that all about?! That kid just attacked him! He glanced down at his bleeding leg where the tooth was still embedded and pulled it out before walking into the store's restroom to get it cleaned it up. It didn't look too bad but it might get that way if he let it get infected.

Back up in the sky Thunderlane bolted awake at the sound of Donut Joe screaming and for a few seconds he writhed around on his cloudy cot thinking he was still in his dream. After a few seconds he remembered where he was and heard the sound of the door slam beneath them. Now calm again he breathed a sigh of relief and took stock of his surroundings. Lumpy-but-still-soft-clouds? Check. Flitter? Check. What a sound sleeper she is! Rumble? Rumble?! Rumble was gone! Briefly Thunderlane debated waking Flitter but in the end chose to let her sleep. She had endured far worse than the two of them had. If she could have any peace at all she deserved it.

Thunderlane dove straight down through the clouds. He recalled the door slamming and after reaching the ground he looked around for one. When he found it knocked on it but instead of it opening a stallion's voice yelled back that they were closed for the night and would be closed tomorrow, too.

"Come back in a few days."

"I'm not looking for whatever you're selling, I'm looking for my little brother! He has a light gray coat and darker gray-" but whoever was in the building interrupted him.

"If you're referring to that crazy colt that attacked me a few minutes ago he should still be in the alleyway! I shook him off my leg after he decided I looked like a chew toy! I don't know what he's on but one of his legs were disfigured in his fall and he was missing part of a wing yet he moved like he didn't feel any of it! I tried being nice and it literally came back to bite me. Look for him on your own!" Thunderlane didn't like the sound of any of that. He remembered that Rumble had complained about feeling funny before he'd fallen asleep on his back....and what that pony said about him...was his brother....did he turn into one of those-? No, that can't be! He's probably just a bit delirious. Exhausted or not I should have taken him to a hospital as soon as we got here. He glanced up again to where Flitter was still asleep. This time he decided to go ahead and wake her and gave her a quick summary of what just happened.

"Go find some police or guards and tell them what's going on. Canterlot is too big a place for us to search everywhere on our own and Rumble is sick. We need to find him as soon as possible!"

"What about-" she involuntarily yawned. "what about you?"

"I'm going to start searching for him now. He can't have gotten far!"