Manehattan, Day Zero, 11:59am.

The stallion walked down the sidewalk at a brisk pace, moving faster than he usually would on his commute to work. He glanced down at his watch, a minute to noon.

"I'm gonna be late." he muttered to himself as he stopped at a crosswalk next to a few other on-hoof commuters. He began to regret not getting a car, as he watched them all zoom by on the street.

"Maybe I should hail a cab." He thought to himself after seeing a yellow taxi speed by.

Suddenly, from an unknown point in the city, a red aura spread from down the street, passed by the stallion and the others on the crosswalk, and continued down the street and beyond.

The stallion was slightly confused for a second, before looking back at his watch, which now read 12:00 noon.

"What was that?" he heard a pony next to him ask. He then noticed that most of the cars on the road stopped moving, and several ponies were getting out of their cars or honking their horns.

Then, the stallion heard a horrible sound, a splat and a crunch from behind him, he turned with the rest of the crowd and saw a pegasus lying on the sidewalk, a puddle of red forming around their head, from when they fell.

"Sweet Celestia!" one pony cried out, rushing to the aid of the pegasus. Then another pegasus fell on the street, breaking a leg or two and howling in pain. The stallion looked up and saw more and more pegasi plummeting down to the ground, landing on the street, on cars, and some on buildings around him.

The stallion also noticed that some of the unicorns around him were trying to use their magic, but no matter how hard they strained, no magic could be used.

Panic began to set in among the crowd as pegasi continued to fall, and cars continued to stop from traffic.

The stallion felt a bit disoriented as he looked around at the ponies trying to help the fallen pegasi. He looked back over to the one that cracked their head open, he saw a cream colored earth pony mare with a light blue main and tail trying to help them.

"Sir, are you okay, just stay with me." She said to try to save the stallion. The stallion began to inch over to the mare trying to help the pegasus, when the seemingly dead pegasus sat up and bit the mare in the shoulder, making her give out a loud shriek as she tried to shove the pegasus off her.

The stallion finally snapped out of his disorientation and rushed over an kicked the pegasus off of her. The mare fell to the ground, clutching the now furiously bleeding bite wound in her shoulder. The stallion joined her in trying to stop the bleeding. He glanced over to the pegasus and gasped.

The thought to be dead pegasus was now getting back on his hooves, his head was still cracked open, but something was wrong with him, his eyes were sunken in, and looked emotionless, his coat had become darker and he was chewing the chunk of fur and flesh he ripped from the mare's shoulder.

"What's wrong with you?" the stallion shouted at the pegasus. It gave no response other than a groan.

A panic had set in now, and several ponies were now running by, one of whom ran into the pegasus, knocking them both over.

The stallion turned back to the mare, still holding her wound.

"You're going to make it, just hang in their miss...." The stallion started, waiting for her to say her name.

"Pommel, Coco Pommel." The mare sputtered out, as she cried from the pain.

"Somepony get an ambulance, PLEASE!" the stallion shouted, trying to get Coco some help.

He then heard sirens, and saw a MPD police cruiser stop in the middle of the intersection, and two police officers got out and started to try to get the panicking ponies to calm down.

The stallion heard more screams and turned and nearly screamed himself, coming down the street, was what looked like a big group of whatever happened to the pegasus.

The police officers now had their guns out and when one of the weird, dead-eyed ponies started to attack one of the panicking ponies, they opened fire. The bullets didn't do much, until one of them was hit in the head, after that, it fell lifeless to the ground.

The stallion noticed that the horde of the dead-eyed ones was getting closer to where he and Coco were, so he started to drag her off to a side alley that was nearby.

Once in the alley, the stallion then focused back on trying to keeping pressure on Coco's wound. But he started to lose hope when Coco began to shut her eyes.

"Come on, stay with me." the stallion said as Coco slipped from consciousness. The stallion then heard a groan from behind him, he quickly stood up and turned around, and he saw 5 dead-eyed ponies stumbling towards him down the alley. Some of them were earth ponies and unicorns, one was the pegasus that bit Coco, and some were mares and some were stallions, so it wasn't just the pegasi.

"Stay back!" the stallion shouted. They all didn't even flinch, they just kept coming towards him.

As he began to move back he saw Coco begin to stand up, but she was also gone, her fur had darkened, and her eyes were dead, and the bite wound on her shoulder looked like it was festering.

The stallion backed up, fear clouding his mind, knowing that he was most likely about to die. He ten backed all the way up into a wall at the end of the alley. The stallion began to look around for anything to defend himself, and he spotted a pipe.

He picked the pipe off the ground and readied himself. When the pegasus got close, he swung the pipe, hitting it on the side of the head, which knocked it to the ground, where it stopped moving.

The stallion kept swinging, aiming for the heads, which brought down another 2 of them.

After hitting another one, he turned and was knocked over by Coco. He fell onto his back and struggled to keep her from biting him. His struggle was short lived, as when he felt another one bite his leg, he yelped in pain and Coco bit into his neck.

The stallion's screams were drowned out by the screams of ponies all over the city.

The pony looked out the window of the building into the street below, watching as the infected started to flood into the streets and start to infect the other ponies on the street. They then saw an explosion further into the city.

"Has it started?" a voice asked through their radio on their belt. The pony picked it up from their belt and held it to their mouth.

"Yes sir, it has begun just as planned......"

Author's Note

Here it is, the beginning of what I plan on being a very long fic, and hopefully more original than The Discovery, stay tuned for more!