Unworthy Rescue - Chapter 3

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"... O-Oh, Celestia…! That thing’s eating him alive! ..."

>March 19, 3015<
>Anthroville Park, 7:53 PM<

The seven reached the nearest streetlight and stood, the one haven of light in a slew of sickening darkness.

All were silent, focused on the unmoving, still darkness surrounding them. Their sharp and ragged breaths calmed, and they put their ears to work, too.

Finally, footsteps were heard, as a figure rose from the shadows, appearing into the streetlight.

A single boot stepped firmly into the streetlight. Armored, and golden, just like that of a Royal Guard’s.

“Help!” Fluttershy yelled instantaneously rushing forward for the guard. However, Pinkie Pie, with lightning quick reflexes snatched Fluttershy’s arm back, staring the figure down.

“S-she’s right… He’s…!” Fluttershy gasped, her hands now over her gaping mouth.

The figure finally stepped into full view of the streetlight and what stood before the seven friends appalled them all:

A violent, inhumane twist and blend of human matter and bone somehow standing before them on a bloody lower half. The neck and head of whatever poor soul was struck by this thing was pushed back, and extended, was the head of whatever ravaged the body and took control of it. The skin glowed an unpleasant dull and plague-like green.

It — the creature — gushed and bled mixes of green and crimson, an unsightly, surreal, and intoxicating view.

“W-w-w-what the--...!?” Applejack stammered, watching the lifeform take another step toward the seven.

“I-I don’t want to…!” Fluttershy cried, backing up and falling on her butt, scooching next to the others.

As the creature stared at all of them for another few seconds, it reared its head towards the sky, and let out a menacing, high-pitched screech that was sure to have been heard by all of Anthroville.

“I dunno about you guys!” Applejack began, as she swiftly bent over and picked up a large, sharp piece of debris, slugging her arm back.

“But I sure as heck don’t like that sound it just made!” Applejack yelled, as she beamed the rock at the head of the disfigured lifeform before them.

“Run!” Applejack barked, as she turned the opposite direction, dashing through the dark. All but Fluttershy followed suit, still shocked and off her feet.

Pinkie Pie rushed back, and threw another piece of debris at the lifeform before snatching Fluttershy’s wrist and forcing her up, both dashing madly into the darkness to catch up with the others before the pursuer could recover and ensue.

The seven scrambled through streets and alleyways as snarls and growls of all forms and types surrounded them, and seemingly closed in.

“T-Twi…!” Spike wheezed, running as fast as he could.

“D-don’t think… we’re… outrunning…!” Spike wheezed, his body sweaty and tired.

“They’re going wild over here!”

All of the seven paused briefly, looking beyond the slew of buildings in the complex they were running through.

A human voice had been heard! Moreso, a rather authoritative one!

“Guards!” Twilight shouted with hope. As she did, however, from their right, they heard an unsettlingly close snarl.

Turning, their eyes confirmed their fears — another twisted lifeform stood opposite them. As they backed up one step, the creature stepped two forward.

Worse, they could hear more closing in.

“AAAHHHHH!!!!!” Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs into the sky, knowing not what else to do but alert the others of their position. A gamble to see who was closer — the Guards, or the parasite.

The being before them, being set off by the sudden shriek, dashed forward, directly for Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie, eyes wide, instinctively jumped back, and thankfully, the much larger being crashed into the dense, disabled streetlight Pinkie Pie had been standing beside.

“Quick!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, quickly recovering as all dashed the opposite direction, ignoring the oncoming slew of parasitic cries they heard.

“I think they’re over here!!!”

The seven heard another yell, driving passion into their being. They were just a few more streets down, if anything. There was a chance, they thought!

“G-guys…!” Spike wheezed.

“I-I’m…!” he coughed, slowing down significantly.

“Spike, there’s no time!” Twilight snapped, harshly urging him to speed up.

Dissatisfied with Spike’s lagging, Twilight grabbed his arm, and continued running, pulling him along as best she could.

“Just a little longer, Spike!” Twilight stated.

“We’re over here!!!” Applejack shouted at the top of her lungs, as the cries behind the seven excited even further.

However, as the last of the group was running past one building, a large, bulbous looking creature shot out at Twilight and Spike, sending the two skidding across the cement.

It was not larger than any standing bipedal, but was still considerably large, and looked to be roughly 3 feet in size.

It ‘stood’ and maneuvered on several tentacles it had whipping about beneath it.

“Spike, Twi!” Rainbow Dash yelled, stopping briefly. As both looked up, the creature had chosen it’s prey, and hopped straight toward Spike.

As several of its tentacles wrapped around Spike’s arms, it lifted its body, showing more tentacles looming over Spike.

“G-gahh!” Spike choked and struggled, fighting back the tentacles that shot down and began to strangle his neck.

Before Twilight could even react, all Twilight heard was a small yelp from beneath the bulbous creature, and watched as several of its tentacles slithered and writhed inside of Spike’s body, who reacted violently to the invasion with a disturbing sequence of twitches and gargles.

Twilight picked herself up violently, slightly hunched and holding her stomach as she felt sick, running over to the others as best she could.

“O-Oh, Celestia…! That thing’s eating him alive!” Applejack said in a low, harsh breath, removing her straw hat and holding it to her chest, a mix of a wince and grimace on her face.

“W-we’ve got to…!” Twilight said, taking a single, weak, fear-filled step over to Spike and the creature that was slithering into his body.

One of her arms was slung around her stomach, and the other around her mouth, to keep from throwing up. Her eyes shone, and water grew at the bottom.

Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight’s wrist.

“What can we do?” Rainbow Dash asked, as the six of them watched in a pained silence. Finally, the twisted lifeform that the creature had turned Spike into turned to face the six, twitching erratically.

“This isn’t good. Twi, are you ready to go?” Pinkie Pie asked, standing in front of the five.

From the corner of her eye, Pinkie Pie could see Twilight nodded. However, as she turned back, she realized, that the newly infected Spike was already halfway towards her, with a much less mature-sounding screech.

“I won’t make it in time…!” Pinkie Pie thought to herself, as she just barely turned and raised her arms in defense.

The creature, probably getting used to its host, sloppily bounced over Pinkie Pie’s forearms, but landed agilely behind Pinkie Pie, immediately leaping for the five behind her.

Time seemed to slow down to a near stop for Pinkie Pie, as she felt the creature zoom past on behind her.

She could think a thousand things, but nothing would push her body to react fast enough to stop that thing.

Pinkie Pie had just begun to turn back around again to dash after the creature, when as she finally turned, she saw a majestic flow of multi-colored hair, in what seemed to be ceremonial Royal Guard armor. In her hands was a very segmented rifle that looked handcrafted and seemed to have many parts. The darkness of the streets, as well as the reflection of light from the little that was there, covered her face ominously. All that could be made out in the eerie lighting were two glowing, piercing, and cold magenta beads.

*BOOM!*

In the instant that she appeared, seemingly out of thin air, a single bullet flew past, decimating the creature after Pinkie Pie’s five friends with a small-scale explosion on impact.

“Y-You saved--”

Pinkie Pie cut herself off, being surprised by the direct stare the woman gave her, along with a small smirk.

“Come on now, you know better than that,” the woman stated, now aiming the rifle directly at Pinkie Pie.

She could not help but freeze. Pinkie’s muscles tensed, and she nearly made a split-second decision, feeling her body begin to move forward.

However, just as she began to move even a millimeter…
*BOOM!*

Just through the arch of her hair, the bullet flew above Pinkie’s head, and hit another twisted lifeform to her adjacent side, within the shadow of the buildings.

Before Pinkie Pie could process anything further, the armored woman dashed forward. Although Pinkie Pie could barely see it, she felt as if the woman had been smiling intently at her going on past.

Pinkie turned just in time to watch the woman dice the still-active creature’s body apart with a rather short blade she pulled from her thigh.

“Guards! To me! Let us cleanse the parasite, and rescue the uninfected! Keep these citizens safe!” The woman barked, rushing out into the darkness. Seconds after, a small squadron of golden armored soldiers filtered through.

“W-we’re saved!” Rainbow Dash said with great relief, watching as the squadron rushed past them, making relatively quick work of the parasitic infection.

“... But… our friends, our family -- we’ve already lost so much…” Twilight stated, staring down at the mess that was once her companion, Spike.

Rarity’s boutique and Sweetie Belle, Applejack’s farm and apple family, Pinkie Pie’s work at sugarcube corner, and not to mention the family she worked with there -- the list went on.

“Sorry to break the moment, girls, but I was instructed to bring you to a secure facility for decontamination and possible relocation.”

The girls, broken from their depressed trance of realizing their loss, snapped their attention forward to the voice interrupting them -- a single Royal Guard armed with a rifle and sword on his waist. His gear looked much inferior to that of the hero who had saved them.

“The Princess fears for your safety within this city, despite her being more than able to handle an outbreak of this scale,” he said, quickly bowing on a knee as he finished.

“But, for the sake of not having intelligence fall into the wrong hands, I must ask that you allow me to dull your senses,” the soldier stated.

The girls looked between each other.

Fluttershy was still incredibly paranoid and shaken by anxiety; Rarity was paler than her already incredibly pale complexion; Rainbow Dash seemed to have lost her usual edge and confidence; Twilight was stricken with grief at the loss of her greatest companion; Applejack was much the same as Twilight, grieving for the loss of her farm and family; Pinkie Pie was… oddly unreadable -- she had an incredibly solemn face, the type that a mercenary or important pawn was trained to have -- one that seemed… unphased.

The guard stayed bowed, not worrying one bit of the battle blazing on behind him. The girls all stayed silent for several seconds. Finally, one spoke up.

“Do it. What choice do we have? There’s nothing here for us any longer.” Pinkie Pie stated, stepping forward.

“You guys with me on this?” Pinkie Pie asked. The others looked bewildered, still torn between abandoning their home for safety, or staying in hopes that some of their home remained.

However, the silence caused Pinkie Pie to turn her glance back towards the five, and despite the solemn, unchanged face of Pinkie Pie, there was one sure characteristic of her features that not even she could hide from them.

Her eyes were ever-so-slightly squinted, and shone with a burning, angry glaze. Bury it all she wanted, the rage and grief in her eyes shone like a beacon to the eyes of her companions.

“I’m with you.” Applejack said, being the first to speak up, immediately resonating with the anger she felt.

Soon after, the other four agreed, not wanting to be separated, and wanting to move forward from the tragedy they experienced this night, despite not quite knowing how. But, they knew that something, was better than waiting around for nothing.

“I’m glad you guys came around. Here, take these pills,” the guard began, fishing around inside of his armor, before pulling out in his hand a small capsule.

“Pills? Of what sort?” Twilight asked, her caution and curiosity being slightly aroused.

“The kind that will disable your senses. Your ability to feel, taste, hear, see, and smell. It is imperative that your memory has no chances to recreate any type of path to the quarters where the Princess wants you,” the guard stated.

“Then, we will basically become unconscious?” Twilight asked.

“Heh… not quite. The science behind it is something only a seasoned combatant can physically understand. But, I can hear that the fight is slowing, which means I should already have you all prepped before the Princess comes back and scolds me for my tardiness,” the guard said, looking back nervously.

“Wait, that was THE Princess Celestia? The equally intelligent and powerful princess of the Sun, and ruler of this entire planetary system!?” Twilight shrieked in a bit of a fangirl moment, forgetting for just a brief second, her grief.

“Goodness, you make me sound like a God…”

Twilight shivered with fear, as she felt a hand on her shoulder, and an incredibly ferocious aura behind her.

“Soldier, I thought I said to have this situation wrapped up before we finished.” Princess Celestia stated, walking around Twilight, now standing between the guard and the six girls, who could only watch, feeling inferior to the two veterans before them.

“My apologies, ma’am,” the soldier apologized, swiftly bowing on a single knee before her.

“At ease. The transportation is still enroute. You avoid punishment, this time.” Princess Celestia stated officially.

The soldier breathed a sigh of great relief, as if dodging a bullet.

“Now, get them prepped before I reconsider. Or, perhaps I should, you’re in need of more trai-”

“On it, ma’am!” The guard interrupted fearfully, quickly placing a pill in each of the girls’ hands.

As the girls swallowed the pill, within seconds, they could feel their entire body go numb -- first, they stopped feeling all sensations; there was no heat, no coldness, nothing -- then, went their hearing, followed by their taste and smell. Finally, their vision, despite their eyes remaining open, began to fade to black.

It was impossible to even know whether they were standing, or already being moved. They all simply tried their best to not move a single inch, fearing that they would interrupt the guards’ actions.

“Should’ve asked how long it lasts…” Pinkie Pie thought in disappointment, now realizing that she would have to be alone with her own thoughts for a potentially long time, not knowing when it would end.

Author's Note

Been wayyyy too long since I've updated this. Lot less time nowadays though, still adjusting to an adult life. Oh well, hope y'all enjoyed! R&R to make an author's day!