Author's Note

And here's that new story I promised you guys a while ago. Feedback appreciated, thanks for reading!
P.S. Play this while reading.

Infected

Golden Shadow stood outside the compound, listening in on the humans. He was hidden in the dark, just out of range of the flickering torches that lit the cage. He couldn’t see anything, but he heard… Something. It was a strange shuffling, accompanied with low moans and gurgles. Earlier there had been a multitude of piercing screams, which cut off as quickly as they began. He had slunk over to the pen, fully prepared to knock some sense into the humans, when everything went silent. A minute later, the noises started, and here he was now.

“Well, only one way to find out what just hap-” Golden reassured himself, before being interrupted with a deep growl. He peered between the metal fences, immediately coming face-to-face with something. Golden panicked, thrusting a hoof ahead while jumping back. A loud snap was heard, and the creature fell back. “W-what was that?!”

He stepped forward, eyes darting about the shadows, before a pair of claws clamped around his head, and pulled it. He screamed in agony, fire flowing through his nerves, before razor-teeth ripped his throat out. All Golden Shadow managed to do before he died was gurgle, and look into the face of what once was a human…

Lotus Petal trotted home, humming a tuneless tune as she carried a bag of groceries in her mouth. She stopped, seeing a figure that looked like her friend Golden Shadow in the road. But there was something… Off, about him. She shook off her unease, and continued onwards. As she got closer and closer to Golden, her unease turned to anxiety, anxiety to fear, and then fear to outright terror. She slowed with each step, until she was standing right behind him.

“Ummm… Golden? Are you al-” Her words died in her throat, as Golden Shadow turned to face her. His throat was all but gone, tattered rags remaining. His forehead had a massive bite taken out of it, stripping flesh from the bone. His cheeks had rotted in parts, revealing blackened and sharpened teeth in a swollen gumline. And his eyes… His eyes were bloodshot, and the irises had vanished into the pupils. The monster that used to be her friend snarled, before rushing forward with impossible speed. Lotus cried out in terror, turning to run, and felt something sink into her rump. Spurred by the pain, she bucked out, unknowingly stunning the abomination. As soon as the pressure vanished, she bolted.

Her pace was admirable at first, but quickly dwindled to a crawl, then a standstill. Lotus simply stood there, her eyes slowly changing, before she collapsed. Blood leaked from every available orifice, that trickling away as well. Then, the corpse of the earth pony named Lotus Petal stirred, rising unsteadily to its hooves. The brain sparked, a few synapses firing, before that faded out. And yet the body still stood, slowly adjusting, before it shambled off in search of a meal…

Shining Armor shifted uneasily, as a cloud of apprehension gathered about the squad of guards. There had been word of some sort of invasion, with monsters wiping out towns. Rumour had it that they were zomponies, but Shining didn’t share that belief. Zomponies were a myth, and one shouldn’t trust rumours anyway. They spread like weeds. He was shaken from his thoughts as a train came barreling towards the Canterlot station, black smoke pouring from the stack. As it showed no signs of slowing, he and the other unicorns attempted to force the brakes on. At first it appeared to be failing, then sparks began to fly as the locomotive screeched to a halt. The doors to a passenger cart hung halfway open, with some kind of greenish mucus dripping from the floor.

Shining Armor hesitantly strode forward, while signalling the rest of the unit to follow, and be ready for an attack. He cast a simple light spell, and found what looked suspiciously like a large changeling cocoon on the floor. Sickly light emanated from it, and the cocoon looked to be beating eerily similar to a heart. They left the scene, and checked the engine. In there lay an even larger cocoon, with green veins anchoring it to the floor. A broken tube lay near the brake controls, with a viscous fluid pumping out with every pulse of the cocoon. Shining Armor cast a life detection spell, and found what seemed to be multiple ponies inside the shell.

He began to tear away the covering with his magic, pieces of chitin and padding ripping with the sound of wet tissue. Just as he removed what appeared to be the last layer, the cocoon inexplicably burst open in an explosion of flesh and shells. He and his squad were flung against the walls and out of the car, as an abomination stood before them. The creature bore a minor resemblance to the humans, as it had two legs, two feet, two arms, two hands, and a head. That was where the similarities ended. The monstrosity easily stood eight feet tall, and looked to be twelve or thirteen feet in length. Then the sound of bursting pods entered his ears as more of the cocoons shattered, revealing ever more creatures. The one in front of him crouched, seemed to inflate, then rapidly spewed globules of acid, flaming tissue, and shards of bone in a radius. The last thing to run through Shining Armor’s head as a particularly sharp fragment shattered the shield he had hastily erected and came spinning to his skull was “I should have left with Cadance when I had the chance.” Then he thought never more.

On board the Valkyrie class SAS Ianites Blade

A figure dressed in strange body armor stood before a screen displaying the unfolding horror on the planet below. It watched as equines and humans alike were either torn apart by the infected, or turned into more of the undead. It sighed, sorrow expressing itself only for the humans. The figure held no love of the ponies, when it learned that they had enslaved it’s kind, but it felt sympathy for the apocalypse they were going through. It was still fighting a similar battle against the zombies, albeit with much more success.

A voice spoke from the human’s comms, “Talbot, join up with the rest of your squad. We’ve lost contact with a mining colony on Boreas. HVM has already sent a contingent, assist them in any way possible.”

Talbot sighed, “What about Albion? We just discovered it, and even though the primary species used humans as slaves, they’re facing an infection like ours, sir.”

“We’re already sending in troops. We understand your concern, but that planet is of less concern than the survival of our race. Get to it, soldier.”

“Yes, sir.” Talbot then strode away from the console, before sprinting to the hangar where his squad waited. He hefted his Hornet, felt the weight of his HIKS 5300 on his back, and took pride in the speed he was achieving as he rushed to another mission.