No one truly knew how it began or even when. What they did know is when equestrias day of judgment came, it came swiftly and bloodily. What started as isolated reports of violent attacks in the rural village of Ponyville, soon developed into something, far more sinister.
Reports claimed ponies were attacked in the street, with even more disturbing accounts of biting, and other such feral behaviour. Rumours began to circulate that the police had discovered bodies where victims had suffered extensive mauling.
Soon, similar cases began to file in from other towns and cities: Manehatten, Fillydelphia, Appleoosa even Canterlot itself was effected. It wasn't long before more worrying information began to raise its head. Bite victims began to develop fever like symptoms within eighteen hours of the attack, soon hospitals became increasingly crowded, with more and more cases of illness surfacing everyday. Doctors who examined the patients all stated in their medical reports, that every case was a bite victim.
Nine hours after the first symptoms developed patients began showing signs of delirium, and extensive necrosis around the injury. A public announcement was made, urging those that had suffered bites to seek medical help immediately, and that any pony who exhibited strange or violent behaviour be reported to the police. It wasn't long before the police were overwhelmed by calls.
Then it happened, mass panic began to spread rapidly through the land, as new reports came in of the victims dying, only to seemingly rise from the dead and begin attacking the living.
Seeing no other alternative, princess Celestia declared a state of national emergency, and the equestrian guard was mobilized to deal with the situation. But it wasn't enough, equestria had not seen a war in over a millennium and found its military forces sorely lacking. Society rapidly devolved into to a state of anarchy, everypony looking to their own, and the military found themselves on the back hoof, mass hysteria took hold.
As the level of panic rose so did the death toll, and Celestia made drastic plans to save as many ponies as she could. What remained of the equestrian guard received orders to commence evacuation of every major town and city, with priority orders to ensure the element bearers survived. Checkpoints were set up, and a strict screening process enforced, only those ponies who were free any possible infection were allowed to pass.
Those found to have been bitten were quickly secured in makeshift labs, where doctors fought desperately to analyse this deadly new disease. They were losing. Horrendously it had claimed over two thirds of the population within a week of the first reported case. One by one check points were overrun by infected until only one remained, Ponyville.
*************
Checkpoint alpha was on the verge of collapse, the infected were secured behind the hastily erected barricades, but the strain was becoming increasingly more evident with every minute that passed. When the orders to evacuate had been received, Ponyvilles town square was the only place with suitable space, and had therefore been rapidly converted into a makeshift landing zone for the evacuation choppers. Ponies were huddled together in tense groups awaiting screening, while nearby a simple medical tent had been set up to deal with those found to be infected.
Scootaloo stood closely to Rainbow dash, not daring to venture too far in case she lost sight of the one remaining anchor she had in the chaotic maelstrom her life had now become.
Two weeks ago, she had been a happy normal filly playing with her crusader friends: Apple bloom and Sweetie bell trying her best to discover her cutie mark, now life as she had known it had been turned upside down.
She flinched as she felt a hoof ruffle her mane, looking up she saw Dash giving her a reassuring smile.
"You doing ok squirt?" she asked.
"I guess so," scoot replied in a shaky voice"I just wish you'd tell me what's happening."
Dash sighed quietly, "I wish I could tell you scoots, but something's I think are better left unknown for now."
The truth was, she wasn't entirely sure what was happening herself, the information she had gleaned off some of the other guards made it sound like something out of a horror movie. Talk of ponies rising from the dead to attack the living just seemed so surreal, and yet there it was before her, on the other side of a rapidly crumbling barrier.
"The next evac chopper should be ready to leave soon and I want you on it, do you understand me?" she asked in a serious tone.
"But what about you?" Scoots asked with traces of panic in her voice "I'm not leaving without you."
"I can't leave yet Scoots and you know I cant," Dash replied firmly "I'm the bearer of the element of loyalty, and I wont leave until I see every last one of these ponies make it out of here safely."
When the order had come through to evacuate the town she had been approached by the military, they told her she was a top priority target, and was to be moved to a secure location with immediate effect. Being the bearer of loyalty she had flatly refused to cooperate with the request, the idea of being taken to safety while other ponies and their families had to wait in the danger zone appalled her. She instead used her rank as a Wonderbolt reserve to join in with the evacuation operation, stating that if they wanted to stop her they would have to take her by force.
Dash's attention was suddenly caught by a hissing in her ear.
"Rainbow dash," Spitfires voice crackled over the radio channel "Iv had reports from the barrier, its not going to hold much longer, therefore I'm ordering you to board that chopper when it departs."
"Captain with all-" Dash started to protest, but was quickly silenced by spitfires angry retort.
"I don't give a damn if you feel responsible for these ponies safety Dash, your an element bearer and that makes you too valuable to loose." Spitfire yelled down the radio "Iv let you play soldier long enough, that barrier is about to buckle and I'll be damned if I have to tell Celestia we lost another bearer when it does"
Dash felt her insides freeze.
"What do you mean lost another bearer?" she asked fearing the answer.
She heard Spitfire curse under her breath.
"I didn't want to have to tell you this till the evac was complete, but we lost pinkie while on route to your position."
Scootaloo looked on in fear as she saw the colour drain out of Dashes face.
"What's wrong?" she asked
Dash shoulders slumped for a moment, before scoots heard her take a deep breath.
"Acknowledged captain." Was all she said before she cut the link and turned to look at scootaloo, a look of grim determination was written on her face.
"Captain spitfire has ordered me onto that chopper when it leaves, so I'm going to make sure your right there with me." She said as she started toward the chopper.
Scootaloo could have sworn she heard dash mutter something under her breath as she passed by, but it was drowned out by the sudden sound of splintering wood and screeching metal coming from the barrier, followed closely by the sound of screaming from the back of the line.
"THEY'VE BROKEN THROUGH!" Dash heard one of the guards yell over the radio, before he was cut off by a series of horrendous screams.
Chaos suddenly erupted all around her, ponies began to surge forward toward the waiting chopper, not caring who or what they trampled over on the way. The chopper was suddenly swamped as ponies tried desperately to get in, the pilots seeing this, had no choice but to take off to avoid being weighed down by the rolling tide of ponies seeking any means to escape. This was no longer an ordered evacuation, it was a stampede, it was everypony for themselves, rational though all but driven out by the pure instinct to survive.
"They're leaving without us." Scoots cried as she watched the chopper begin to lift from the platform.
"Not if I can help it." Dash replied with steel in her voice, she quickly scooped scoots under her arms and flew up to avoid the crush of ponies below. She watched in horror as she saw ponies climbing over each other in order to reach the now hovering chopper, several had managed to grab the landing struts, and were now acting as living anchors as other ponies used them as a means to climb aboard.
After several moments the chopper began to list dangerously to one side, as more and more ponies scrambled up the living ladder. Dash could see the look of panic on the pilots faces through the windscreen, as they fought desperately with the controls.
"They're going to crash!" Scoots cried as she saw the chopper list toward one of the nearby buildings. With a sound of tortured metal and snapping wood the tail rotter clipped the roof of a nearby house sending the chopper into a spin, the pilot wrestled with the controls but it was a loosing battle.
Time seemed to move in slow motion as the pair of them watched the chopper spin rapidly towards the evac tents below, the ponies that were hanging on were thrown in all directions by the G forces, some smashing through windows of nearby houses while others were merely flung to the ground with sickening crunches.
"DASH LOOK OUT!" scootaloo screamed as she saw the chopper hit the ground, a large piece of the main rotor had snapped off and was rapidly spinning towards them. Dash saw it to late.
With a sickening snap, the blade smashed into dashes left side sending her reeling with the force of the impact, Dash instantly blacked out from shock, and scootaloo felt her world spin as they both plummeted to the ground. Whether Dash regained enough conciseness to steer them, or just by pure luck they landed on a the bed the doctors had been using to move infected patients.
The impact bounced them off the bed and into a nearby medical table, scattering the contents everywhere, before they came to a ungraceful halt in the dirt.
Scootaloo slowly raised her head, her vision swimming from the rough landing, looking around she noticed Dash lying prone close by. Picking herself up from the ground she gave a small cry of pain and looked down to see her right leg turning an angry shade of purple.
Limping over to where Dash had fallen she noticed to her horror, a small pool of blood forming around Dashes left side as well as something sticking out from under her wing.
Carefully she lifted Dashes wing to find that a piece of the rotor blade had embedded itself in her torso, just below her main wing joint, she had no idea how deep it went, but from the steady stream of blood seeping from the edges she knew it must be bad. Staring at the shard Scoot began to hyperventilate, what could she do? Was Dash going to die? Was she going to die?
Around her all was chaos, the ponies that had been lucky enough to have survived the choppers destruction ran in all directions in a bid to escape, some tried to hide or fight back, while others just sat there their faces blank and minds broken by the knowledge that they were going to die, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
In the distance she could see the unmistakable shapes of infected ponies slowly shuffling their way across the checkpoint. Most had stopped briefly to feast on those unfortunate ponies that had been near the barricade when it had collapsed. Being so close, they had little chance of escaping the horde. Those infected not involved in the feast, were slowly shuffling their way across the town square searching for fresh victims.
Fire from the crashed chopper blazed, sending up great clouds of thick oily smoke that blotted out the sun and turned the sky into an artificial night.
A faint crackle from nearby suddenly snapped her from her daze, and she looked around to find Dashes communicator lying close by, the sound of a females voice was coming from it in desperate sounding tones.
"Dash this is Spitefire, report! Are you ok?"
Quickly scrabbling towards to the device she lifted it to her ear like she had seen Dash do before.
"H-hello?" she cried in desperation.
"Hello? Who is this?" Came the response "where's Rainbow dash?"
"My names Scootaloo, Dash is here with me but she's hurt," she replied in a trembling voice "she's bleeding and wont wake up, I don't know what to do, please help."
Scoot heard spitfire curse loudly and begin yelling orders to ponies on her end.
"Okay listen to me Scootaloo, is Dash breathing?"
Scoots quickly looked at Dash and noticed the slight rise and fall of her chest, however it was unsteady and seemed laboured.
"I think she is but it looks raggedy," she replied. " She was hit by a piece of metal and part of it is stuck in her, she's bleeding a lot."
"Scoots listen carefully, where is the piece of metal?" Spitfires voice was steady, but Scootaloo could pick up the nervousness hidden just below the surface.
"Its in her side just below her left wing," She replied "Please you've got to help her, those monsters are getting closer."
At that moment she heard a faint groan coming from Dash and looked to see her eyes slowly flickering open, they stared ahead glazed for a moment, before slowly coming to focus on Scootaloo. With a grunt she slowly raised her head to look down at her side before collapsing into a coughing fit, her breath came in short ragged gasps and blood flecked around her mouth.
"Hey squirt" she said in a pained voice.
"Dash!" Scootaloo cried with a mixture of joy and fear "Spitfire shes woken up."
She heard a faint sigh of relief coming from the other end.
"That's great kid, listen I need you to put her on for me."
Scootaloo quickly passed the communicator to Dash and pressed it to her ear.
"Dash what's your location? I'm over the danger zone but I cant see a damn thing down there, the smoke from the fires to thick."
Dash quickly looked around her, noticing the bed that they had crashed into as well as the scattered medical equipment. She also noticed with alarm that some of the infected had taken an interest in the tent, and were even now closing in on their position.
"We're in the medical facility close to where the chopper went down, but the infected are close by we need to move."
Saying that Dash slowly tried to stand before once more collapsing with a cry of pain.
"Scoot listen to me," Dashes voice was shaky and her breathing came in wheezing gulps "I need you to be brave for a moment, I need you to pull out that piece of metal."
Scoots eye went wide, what if she messed up? She could kill the closest thing to a sister she had ever had.
"I d-don't know if I can," she cried "what if I do it wrong? I could hurt you more."
"Squirt please I need you to do this," Dash said in a calm voice "I cant walk with this thing sticking in me and if we don't move soon those monsters are going to find us."
Spitfires voice crackled over the communicator again.
"Dash listen, that area is crawling with infected you have to get moving now. I cant get to your position due to the fire, but if you can make it to the town hall balcony I can pick you up from there."
"Understood captain," Dash said with a wince "Okay Scoot you hear that? Spitfire is going to pick us up at the town hall so I need you to be brave and pull."
Scootaloo took a deep breath and calmed herself as best she could, she could do this and when she did Dash could walk again. Then they could go to the town hall where spitfire was waiting to take them to safety.
"Okay Dash," she said with as much determination as she could muster "what do I do?"
Dash pointed to the scattered medical equipment lying around them.
"Get some bandages ready, then when I say go take the piece of metal and pull as quickly as you can, then cover the hole with the bandages, understand?"
Scootaloo nodded her understanding, and following Dashes instructions gathered as many bandages as she could find before awaiting Dashes command to pull.
Dash lay there mentally bracing herself, this was going to suck so bad she thought to herself, but what choice did she have? She couldn't just lie here and let scoot and herself be eaten by those things, she had made a promise to get Scoots to safety and if doing so meant she would have to feel more pain then so be it. Sucking in a ragged breath she gave the word.
What followed was an explosion of agony that left dark spots across her vision, her left side felt like it was bathing in fire, and she couldn't help but release a scream of agony. Scootaloo spat out the long sliver of metal and quickly wrapped the bandages around the hole left behind. To her relief, she saw that the shard was a smooth piece, with no ragged edges that could have caused more damage on the way out.
Dash awoke to being shaken and the sound of Scootaloos panicked voice calling her name, she must have blacked out briefly from the pain. Looking around she saw the reason for Scoots panic, several infected were closing in. Having heard her scream, they had become aware of the twos location and were even now making their way towards them.
"Dash!" Scootaloo cried "Please Dash we have to go, they're coming."
Driven by a sudden surge of adrenalin, brought on by the prospect of being eaten alive Dash heaved herself unsteadily to her hooves with a grunt of pain. Gathering her bearings she spied the entrance to the town hall not far from there currently position.
"Okay stay close to me and move as quietly as possible" she instructed.
She knew that last instruction was somewhat obsolete considering the noise she had made just a few moments before, but she didn't like the idea of attracting the attention of anymore than they already had done. Pressing her communicator she informed spitfire that they were on route to the town hall balcony.
"Il be there as soon as I can Dash," came the reply "Just hold on a little longer."
Scootaloo looked at Dash with increasing unease. The bleeding from the wound in her side showed no sign of stopping, already the bandages were deep crimson, with blood visibly dripping down her side, she also looked increasingly pale, and on more than one occasion almost lost her footing and fell flat on her face.
By the time they reached the town hall entrance Dash was leaning on her for support, her breath laboured and wet sounding, Scootaloo quickly closed the door behind them as the entered, making sure to lock the bolts.
"Dash are you sure you don't want to rest?" Scootaloo asked nervously.
To her credit Dash gave a slight wheezy chuckle.
"It'll take more than this scrape to take me down Squirt, I'll be fine."
After several minute's of labourers stair climbing, they made it to the top floor and began making their way toward the bay windows that would let them onto the balcony. Relief flooded them both when they saw spitfire land outside and began making her way to them.
"See squirt I told ya id get you to safety" croaked Dash with a weary grin "Spitfire can take us to the evac point where we'll be sa-"
From a side door unseen by either of them an infected lunged out and tackled Dash, bearing her to the ground with its weight. Dash desperately fought to keep the creature at bay as Spitefire rushed up and brought her wing blade around in a brutal arc that saw it take the infected head clean off its shoulders, the body went into spasms before falling off to lie twitching next to Dash.
Dash lay there panting, her side was agony and her strength was gone, she felt incredibly weak and she shivered involuntarily with a numbing cold. The feeling of dread came over her when she saw the other two looking down at her, Scoot was staring at her with tears in her eyes while spitfires face was grim.
"NO! NO! NO!" cried Scootaloo her voice filled with grief.
Dash looked down to where they were looking and her worst fear was confirmed. On her left hoof ,just above the fetlock was the unmistakable shape of a bite mark.
"Dash, I'm so sorry" Spitfire said her voice choking as she tried to hold back tears.
"No," replied Dash with a sob "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Squirt, I failed to keep my promise."
Scootaloo ran up and wrapped her fore hooves around Dashes neck as she broke down into tears, Dash pulled her in closer and returned the hug.
"No Dash please you cant leave me like this," She cried "Spitfire can take us to the safe zone, they can help you."
"I'm sorry Squirt I cant," Dash wheezed "but listen to me."
Releasing her from the hug, she reached around her neck and removed her dog tags. When she had joined in the evacuation, spitfire had given them to her so she could be identified as a member of the guard force and not just another evacuee.
"Here I want you to have these," she said as she placed them around Scoots neck "I want you to do one thing for me."
Scootaloo moved back slightly to look Dash in the eyes. Dash gently brushed the filly's purple mane out of her eyes, and gave her the most reassuring smile she could muster.
"I want you to live," she said softly "I want you to live for both of us, I know you'll grow up to be a strong flyer one day."
Scootaloo sniffled as she looked down at the tags before returning to hug Dash again.
"I l-love you," She whispered "you were the big sister I never had."
Dash closed her eyes as tears flowed freely.
"I know scoots," she replied softly "I love you too, but I'll still be with you, here."
She pointed to Scootaloos chest.
"As long as you remember me I'll never be truly gone"
Dash looked over to spitfire whose face was streaked with tears.
"Take care of her for me."
Spitfire merely nodded, before approaching Scootaloo.
"Come on kid its time, we need to go before any more of those thing show up."
Scootaloo slowly pulled away from the hug, her eyes were red and puffy from crying.
"I promise I'll never forget you," she choked "and I promise to live for both of us, I'll make you proud."
"I know you will Scoots," Dash replied with a weary sigh, she could feel herself getting sleepy. "Goodbye."
Scootaloo climbed up onto Spitfires back and held on tight as she began to make her way towards the balcony; midway, the Wonderbolt captain stopped and turned to face Dash, before giving her a respectful salute.
"It's been an honour to have you as one of my team and as a friend Dash, you have my word that I'll take care of her no matter what"
From below came the sound of splintering wood as the infected-through weight of numbers-tore the doors from their hinges. Spitfire quickly ran to balcony and after sparing one last look at Dash took flight.
Feeling Spitfire take off, Scootaloo felt a fresh wave of sorrow hit her as she watched the town hall start to recede into the distance. She would never see her again, after so many years she was gone. Her best friend, the closet thing she had ever had to a sister, the one that she had looked up to. It was unfair why did this have to happen to her? Why couldn't Spitfire have prevented it? Why hadn't she prevented it? All those questions and emotions swirled around in her mind until all she could do was release her pain and sorrow in one pure primal cry of anguish.
"DAAAAAAAAAASH!"
