Resistance: The Equestrian War Effort

Several hours later, I woke to the sound of frantic hoofsteps. Shooting upright, I scanned the area around me.

"Fidelis? Rip Corde? Anypony?"  Silence answered me.

I slipped off of the couch, and armed myself with a tracer rifle.

Progressively, I made my way around the library. I had investigated for an hour before I decided to give up. That was until I heard faint whispers from behind a bookshelf.

I turned the corner to find a hairless pony strangling Rip Corde.

"Can't you hear them? They are calling to us. Isn't it beautiful?"

The hairless pony, covered in a sickly grey flesh, turned around, and stared at me with sunken, yellow eyes.

"Absolutely beautiful."

Rip Corde's voice awakened me from my horrified stupor. "Shoot it!"

Obediently, I opened fire upon the hairless pony. Crimson liquid painted the bookshelves, soaking their contents through the cover.

I stood completely still, watching as Rip Corde threw the lifeless body off of her, rising to her hooves.

"Who was that?" I choked out, barely audible.

"I dunno! The thing jumped me while I was sleeping!"

I turned my eyes to the deceased pony. Yellow pustules oozed from several spots on his body.

"The heck's goin' on here?" BlackJack's groggy voice sounded from across the building.

"Get Fiddie up. He may wanna have a look at this..."

An hour of autopsying later, Fidelis came to a conclusion.

"I have absolutely no Idea what this thing is."

Rip Corde rolled her eyes.

Fidelis let out an exasperated sigh."I'm sorry! The outside appears to be pony... More or less, but I swear I've never seen a body layout like this fella's. He's got a heart the size of a cantaloupe, and... well, the heart was the only thing I was able to identify. I have absolutely no idea what this thing is. Whatever it is, it's not a pony, that's for sure. At least, it's not anymore..."

"What do you mean,  'Not anymore'?" I questioned.

"Well, I noticed strange mutations all along the heart. Several more aortic valves, a few extra ventricles, and such. I think that  this creature went through a near-instant macro adaptation. He had to have, I mean, these things only showed up about a week ago."

"I wonder who the poor guy was..." BlackJack thought aloud.

Everypony stared at the corpse, saying nothing. Everypony except Deadeye... He wasn't in the room with us.

Then, a horrible, absolutely un-godly thought popped into my head. I swallowed hard, my eyes quickly darted back and forth between everypony around me.

I nearly fainted as Rip Corde asked, "Hey, anypony seen Deadeye?"

"No! At least, I don't think it was him. Aw, crap! I've never seen him without his armor on!" BlackJack answered me, worry dominant in his voice.

Rip Corde took over. "He's gotta be around here somewhere... Ugh! Why do there have to be so many freakin' bookshelves?"

Frantically, we searched for Deadeye. We nearly overturned every bookshelf looking for him, but as more and more of the Library had been searched, everypony's hope started to fade.

Rip Corde whined beside me. "No... C'mon, please, not Deadeye..."

I turned to her. "I'm gonna check outside!" Biting her lip, she acknowledged me with a nod.

I galloped out of the Library. "Deadeye! You out here?"

I searched far and wide, looking for any trace of our missing member.

Around half an hour later, I started to lose hope. That was until a strange-smelling smoke caught my attention.

I followed the smell to it's location, where I found a young, emerald-green stallion with a cigarette protruding from his mouth. Large headphones rested above his long, cerulean mane. Death Metal blasted from their location.

Half-hopeful, Half-terrified, I spoke up. "Deadeye?"

He jumped slightly, and turned his head toward me.

"Vita!" He spat the flaming tube from his mouth, and slid a plastic bag containing a potash-like material into a saddlebag.

He leapt in front of me. "What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Rip Corde was attacked by...Well, It was a pony, but it wasn't... Look, we thought it was you, but..." I stared at Deadeye, too distracted by his appearance to explain.

Quickly, Deadeye cut me off. "Uh, wait! We should probably be getting back!"

I studied Deadeye...He was young... Very young. Probably not much older than me. He had two years on me, at most!

He slipped back into his armor, keeping the saddlebag as close to his side, and as far away from me, as possible.

"So, uh... Cannabis?" I questioned.

"No! No, that stuff's terrible for you," he hastily shot back.

"Yeah, well tobacco's not that great for ya either, pal..." I said under my breath.

"What was that?" Deadeye's tone was threatening, almost intimidating.

He forced me against the wall of a building, holding me in place. "Look, this is none 'a your business. Just look after yourself, and keep your mouth shut. I swear, if you tell anypony about today, I'll kill you where you stand."

"Whatever, jackass." It probably wasn't the wisest way to word my response, but my answer quelled my immediate anger, at least.

Looks like I wasn't the only liar in the group.

Rip Corde slapped Deadeye on the back of his head. "Geez, you scared the buck out of us!"

The rest of the group welcomed us with open hooves.

"Sorry, I had some stuff to take care of. Calm down, I'm not dead, right?"

I felt my anger burn against Deadeye.

Not yet, anyway.