The Manehattan Project

Saddle Row, Day One, 3:45pm.

Things had grown silent inside the boutique at this point, shortly after the cop car was looted. Since the car alarm went off in the street, it began to draw many infected into Saddle Row. Now the street was flooded with infected, but luckily, they didn't know that there was a group hiding in "Rarity for You" yet.

Applejack and Rarity were now sitting near the back of the store with the CMC and Sugar Belle while Swift Justice and Big Mac set up the CB radio taken from the police car. Sweetie Bell Snuggled close to Rarity, while Applebloom and Scootaloo were close to Applejack. Sugar Belle sat near Applejack, looking over at Big Mac by the counter.

"Applejack?" Applebloom whispered, breaking the silence. Applejack looked down at the filly next to her, she could see fear in Appleblooms eyes.

"Yes Sugarcube?" Applejack whispered, petting Appleblooms head.

"I'm scared." Applebloom said with a sniffle. Applejack pulled Applebloom closer into her embrace.

"Me too Sugarcube, but we'll make it, I'm sure of it." Applejack said reassuringly.

"Yeah Applebloom, we'll make it. We just gotta be brave, like Rainbow Dash." Scootaloo piped in. This made Rarity realize something.

"Oh, I hope our friends are okay." Rarity said.

"I'm sure they found a safe place by now, or made it out of the city hopefully." Applejack said.

Before they could carry the conversation any further, the CB radio crackled to life and the boys beckoned them over to the counter. Swift Justice began to tune the radio before grabbing the microphone and speaking into it.

"Hello, this is officer Swift Justice, badge number A234, I'm attempting to reach any other officer, or dispatch, can anypony copy? Over." Swift Justice said. He then waited for a response, but just got white noise. Swift Justice sighed and tuned the radio again before repeating his message into the radio again. This time though, a response came through.

"H....Hello.......thi.........Sta.........ver." A voice crackled through the radio.

"Yes, hello? Do you copy? Over." Swift said.

"Hello, this is Officer Connie Stables, badge number C435, Identify yourself. Over." the voice said, obviously a mare.

"Connie? This is Swift Justice. I'm trapped in Saddle Row with a group of survivors, where are you? Over." Swift said.

"Swift? Thank Celestia you're okay. I'm stuck on Bridle Way. I'm in the Afterglow Theater with a group of 5 other survivors. We've barricaded ourselves in. I've been trying to reach dispatch for the last few hours, but I've been unable to. Over." Connie said.

"I just retrieved a CB radio from a police cruiser, your the first Officer I've talked to since the event at noon. Over." Swift said.

"The radio station was broadcasting for the first hour or so after the event. Apparently,the entire eastern coast of Equestria was affected by this infection, and Canterlot is trying to find a way to solve this problem." Connie started saying, but started to fade out. Swift immediately tried to maintain the signal.

"Connie? Connie, I'm losing you. Over." Swift said as he tried to tune the radio. Suddenly, when he tuned into another signal, a loud blaring noise emitted from the radio. The ponies in the store all covered their ears and cringed at the noise. Swift tried to stop the noise, but couldn't tune away from it. Eventually, he turned the radio off completely, getting the noise to finally stop.

"What was that?!" Sugar Belle asked, still covering her ears. Swift shrugged.

"I have no clue, must've been some kind of interference." Swift said as he looked over the radio. Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass rang throughout the boutique, and all the occupants froze and looked toward the front of the store.

There was a group of infected gathered around the front of the boutique, trying desperately to get in, smashing the windows and attempting to break open the door.

"No!" Sugar Belle cried as she hugged Big Mac. Swift leaped over the counter and took out his gun, now loaded with ammo.

"Help me." Swift said as he looked toward Big Mac, Applejack, and Rarity. Big Mac nodded and left Sugar Belle's side to try to drive the infected back. Rarity grabbed her gun and Applejack grabbed the shotgun.

Big Mac held the front door closed while Swift and Rarity took shots at the infected attempting to break through the barricaded windows. Applejack stayed back a bit and turned to Sugar Belle.

"Watch the girls, and stay behind the counter." Applejack said. Sugar Belle nodded and guided the fillies behind the counter. Applejack turned back to the front where Big Mac was now starting to struggle to keep the door shut. Applejack rushed over and helped him keep the door closed.

Rarity screamed as the window broke completely and Infected began to climb into the boutique. Rarity quickly put down 2 infected before stopping in her tracks from fear.

There, climbing through the window, with dead eyes and blood around her mouth, was Coco Pommel. Rarity took a few steps back, unable to do anything from the shock of seeing her friend like this. Applejack looked over at the broken window and then to Rarity, stepping further away from the window. She then looked over at Swift Justice, who was still occupied by the window. Applejack quickly left the door and ran over to Rarity and used the shotgun to push Coco away.

"Rarity, snap outta it!" Applejack shouted. Rarity gasped as she snapped out of her trance and nodded to Applejack. They both turned to the infected climbing through the window, including Coco. Applejack pumped the shotgun and aimed it at Coco, who was still stumbling towards them.

"I'm sorry Ms. Pommel." Applejack said before pulling the trigger. The kickback knocked her back a little, and the shot blew away most of Coco's head, and her body fell to the ground, lifeless.

Swift Justice then backed away as his window was broken, and Big Mac stumbled back from the door as he was unable to hold it closed, and infected began to climb through the openings.

"We need to get out of here!" Swift shouted.

"The back door, now!" Applejack shouted as she ran behind the counter to get the others. Rarity and Swift tried to hold off the advancing infected as Applejack and Big Mac got the others to the back door.

"Come on!" Applejack shouted as Big Mac, Sugar Belle and the fillies left out the back. Swift Justice and Rarity quickly ran back to the door and were about to leave, but Rarity lingered for a moment.

She looked back into her boutique. It was dark, dirty, and now flooding with infected. And just a few hours ago, it was business as usual. Hopefully one day, she could come back and try again, she thought before shutting the back door.

The group was now in the alley behind the boutique. There was still infected back there, and some from the street were even starting to move into it.

"Where can we go?" Sugar Belle asked. Applejack looked down the alley before spotting a fire escape attached to an apartment building.

"Over there!" Applejack shouted and pointed to the apartment building. The group quickly moved down the alley, occasionally shooting an infected or in Big Mac's case, hitting a few with his crowbar. They managed to make it to the fire escape without anyone getting hurt. But the fire escape was unreachable without the ladder, which was locked in the up position.

"Boost me." Rarity said to Big Mac. Big Mac nodded and allowed Rarity to climb into his back and climb up onto the fire escape. She first tried to unlock the ladder, but there was no time, so she turned to the others below.

"Bring up the girls, quick!" Rarity said referring to the CMC. Big Mac then began to lift the fillies, up. Once they were all on the fire escape, Sugar Belle and Applejack were hoisted up to it. Once they were all up, Swift Justice and Big Mac looked at eachother, then to the infected.

"Up you go!" Big Mac said. Swift nodded and let Big Mac hoist him up to the fire escape. Once on the fire escape, Swift tried to get Big Mac up, but couldn't through a mixture of being too high, and Big Mac's weight. The infected were closing in fast.

"No!" Applejack and Sugar Belle said in unison while Applebloom covered her eyes.

Seeing all of this, Rarity thought fast. She took her gun and aimed it at the lock for the ladder.

"Stand back Swift!" Rarity shouted. Swift moved back and shot the lock, destroying it and dropping the ladder down. Big Mac quickly ascended the ladder and joined the others. The infected finally made it to the bottom of the ladder, but luckily for the survivors, they seemed to be unable to climb.

"Is everypony alright?" Swift asked. Everyone nodded.

"Okay, now lets get inside." Swift Justice said as he began to ascend the fire escape.