Rot While You Trot

"Oof!" Klem suddenly hit the soft grassy floor of the everfree forest... Thrown into a world he has not seen in years...

"I can walk you know..." When he turned the door was gone, not a pony in sight.

"Using our outdated stealth technology perhaps? Hmm no time to ponder, I need to find a place to stay."

He looked around but all he could see were trees in every direction.

"Well it's safe to say I havn't a clue where I am... Which way do I go...? Hmm, left? Right? Left? Right? Yes right seems like a good choice!"

Trotting off to his right Klem began his search of civilization.

"Maybe if I follow the classic principal of find a stream and follow it till I find a village or perhaps wait till night and let the stars be my guide? Its extremely quiet so I'm sure to hear any noi-AHHHHH!"

Not looking where he was going, Klem fell into a deep ditch and with a loud *CRACK* hit his head on a sharp rock, blood was seeping out of the wound on his head, the impact leaving him unconscious, alone in the everfree forest...

"Urgh..." Klem groaned as he awoke from his concussion and to his surprise found himself in a bed, he shot upright and had a quick scan of his surroundings, the walls looked like wood or at least what you could see of them, the walls seemed to be littered with books all in order of their respective categories.

"I wouldn't be so quick to sit up." said a voice from the corner of the room.

"Who are you?! Where am I?!"

"Hush hush, I'm not going to hurt you." Out from the shadows stepped a purple unicorn with a dark indigo mane with two streaks of colour in it, one pink and one a deep purple.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle and you're in Ponyville."

"Pleased to meet you miss Sparkle I'm..." Before Klem could finish Twilight interrupted

"Professor Lucias Klem, Head of the Biological wing for Unicorp correct?"

"Y-y-yes how did you know that?!"

Twilight held up Klem's identification badge that was attached to his lab coat.

"Oooh... How long have I been out?"

"Well it must have been a heavy concussion, you've been out for a whole week."

"A week?! Wow,,, Hold on, how'd you find me?"

"Well I was out in the forest at a friend's house picking up supplies."

"Supplies? Out in a forest? What kind of supplies?"

"Is that really important? But if you must know, supplies for alchemy, chemistry and so on."

"So a science nut yourself huh?"

Twilight let out a giggle "You could say that, but anyway as I was saying, I was on my way back when I heard somepony scream in distress, I rushed over in the direction I heard the scream and found you lying in a pool of blood."

"Well, I thank you for my rescue miss Sparkle but I wouldn't want to burden you any longer."

"Hold up mister! I have questions for you."

"What kind of questions, may I ask?" Klem said with a curious look on his face.

"Unicorp, the organization that disappeared years ago due to inhumane experimentation on ponies and animals alike and I want to know why I found one of their employees out in the everfree forest."

Klem started to sweat, with an apprehensive look on his face. "Well... You see... We..." He proceeded to tell Twilght the whole story of his expulsion from the facility.

"I'm sorry about your assistant... She sounded wonderful."

"She was... So young and intelligent... It all seems like a waste..."

"I have an assistant to... His name is Spike, you'll meet him eventually but right now he's on an errand for me. But a facility underneath the everfree forest this whole time and no pony noticed..."

"Well I think their using our old stealth tech to hide the entrance"

"Hmm interesting... I know I've asked you a lot of questions and I can understand if you don't want any more thrown at you, but when you speak of your 'boss', by any chance do you mean Solus Mercury? The world class genius?"

"Umm yes why do you ask?"

"I have ALL of his books, from 'Advanced Chemistry:The Easy Way' to 'Biological Genius', I'm a huge fan of his works but the way you describe him kinda makes him seem like..."

"An asshole?"

"Not really how I would have put it myself but yes."

A sudden knock at the door alerted the two of them.

"Ah, It looks as if the girls are here to see how you are."

"Wait what girls?"

Before Klem could get an answer Twilight was already down the stairs answering the door to whoever these guests were, Klem pulled the sheets up to his muzzle and laid back.

He could hear several sets of hooves trotting up the wooden stairs and the flapping of wings.

"Lucias I'd like you to meet my friends!"

Looking round Klem spotted another unicorn as well as two earth ponies like himself and two pegasi hovering over him.

"Meet Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and..." Before Twilight could finish the cyan pegasus with a rainbow coloured mane zoomed in close to Klem, Eyeing up the wound on his head, He pulled his head back as far as he could but she just got closer.

"Whoa! Thats gonna leave one hell of a scar!"

Letting out a sigh Twilight finished her sentence. "...And Rainbow Dash"

"My name is Lucias Klem, its a pleasure to meet you all."

Twilight clapped her hooves together, "Now that introductions are over and done with would you mind explaining to the girls everything you explained to me Lucias?"

"If I must miss Sparkle..." Klem started his explanation of the events for the second time.

However back at the facility things had took a turn for the worst...

All was quiet in the facility except for the occasional groan every now and again... Blood now covered the once grey walls of the corridors and the half eaten corpses of the former guards and scientists littered the floors, the less fortunate ponies lumbered about mindlessly in search of new flesh to feast upon.

Mercury however was safe and sound sat in his office with everything on lock down, he fiddled with a syringe full of the serum that he had so appropriately named 'Ressurection'.

He laughed maniacally to himself "With this serum, I can give equestria immortality... Like that *cough cough* meddling bitch Celestia... Everypony will bow before me and recognize me as their glorious saviour..."

Getting up from his chair, he hobbled over to a metal case on the wall, lifting it to expose a button. "I release you my children... I release you into the world to spread my gift!!!" Hitting the button released the locks of every exit from the facility, the plagued former ponies poured through the doors into the open world their master had presented them with...

"It is time *cough cough* for my ascension..." Mercury pierced his arm with the syringe injecting its entire contents into his body, writhing in agony and screaming he had done the very thing Klem had warned him not to do... Falling to the floor and closing his eyes, his heart stopped, but he had not drawn his last breath...

Back at Twilight's house Klem had just finished his explanation.

Applejack was the first to speak. "So let me get this straight, you were producin' some kinda special brew that would make your sick boss all fine and dandy again, but something went wrong with this concoction and instead of makin' folks better it turns them into some kinda monster?"

"That pretty much sums it up yes..."

Rarity put her hoof to Klem's and said sympathetically "Well I think I speak for us all when I say sorry for the loss of your assistant... She sounded lovely..."

"Heh.. She certainly was..."

The front door suddenly swung open.

Spike had returned home from his errands, "Phew! I'm glad that's over it took me all day to find these supplies... Hey Twilight? Is our guest awake yet?"

Twilight stuck her head over the banister of the stairs. "Spike, where have you been? It's almost nine o'clock! But to answer your question, yes he is awake, everypony is here, come on up!".

Putting down the boxes of items he had acquired for Twilight throughout the day, Spike made his way up the creaky wooden stairs to greet their peculiar guest.

To Klem's surprise Spike was a dragon which he had not expected.

"Hmm, interesting a dragon fitting into a pony culture... This was unheard of when I was last in the open world."

"I'm Spike pleased to meet ya!"

"Hello Spike, my name is Lucias Klem."

"Odd name for a pony..."

Twilight nudged Spike "Spike don't be so rude!"

"Ow! I was just saying!"

Klem let out a small snigger "It's OK Twilight he's just stating his opinion."

"Sometimes opinions hurt pony's feelings so I try to make him keep his opinions to himself."

Fluttershy shuffled closer to the bed. "Umm... Mister Klem... Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead Fluttershy and please call me Lucias"

"Okay... Lucias, Can this umm... Infection get out of the facility by any chance...?"

"I can't say for sure, but with how tightly that place is locked down I doubt that anypony is getting in or out without Mercury's say so."

Pinkie Pie gasped as if she had just got an idea "We should throw a party!!!"

Everypony stared at her with a vexed look on their faces.

Applejack was quick to question her  "Sugarcube, If ya don't mind ma askin', how is this the time to throw a party?"

"Well! Lucias here is getting better! So it could be a get well soon party!!!"

Twilight put her face in her hooves and sighed "Sometimes Pinkie I think yo..."

A sudden bang at the door interrupted her sentence, another bang followed, and another and another.

"That doesn't sound like your average knock, Rainbow Dash can you check out of the window please?"

"Fine, fine..." Dash flew to the window and looked down at the front door.

"It's too dark outside I can't see a thing!"

"Fine, ill go and take a look over the balcony" Twilight trotted to the balcony doors, opened them and stepped outside, looking over the banister she shouted "Is anypony there?" the only reply she got was a low groaning noise.

She lit up the area below with a light spell and the pony below looked up at her, It's mouth covered with blood and its pupils as white as snow...

She backed off into the house with a look of terror on her face and fell to the floor, Everypony rushed to her to check if she was OK.

Rarity held Twilight's hooves in comfort "Twilight dear speak to me! what did you see?! Who is out there?!"

Twilight slowly turned her head to Klem.

"You... You said their eyes were... Lifeless right...?"

Klem looked at the balcony doors still wide open with the wind gushing through. "If you're talking about what I think you're talking about then yes... and if one of them is out there... It's the end...."