Diamond's Evil Journey 2: Outbreak

Leon and Diamond continued down the streets of Manehattan, their encounters with the infected being few and far between. Leon glanced around at the empty streets ahead “How close are we to this lab?” he asked.

“We still have a good amount of distance to cover.” Diamond answered.

Leon nodded “We should try to pick up the pace. Who knows when t-” he was cut off when he heard metal banging from a nearby alley. He took his handgun out and eyed the alley “What was that?” he wondered.

Diamond started making her way towards it “Whatever it is, we should check it out.” she said. They entered the alley to see nothing but a single metal trashcan. She gestured for Leon to open it as she pointed her revolver at it in preparation.

Leon grabbed a hold of the lid before throwing it off and pointing his handgun at whatever was in there.

“Please don't hurt me!” screamed a filly's voice, filled with fear.

Diamond's eyes widened as she recognized the voice “Silvy?” she asked.

Silver blinked a few times when she saw that a infected pony hadn't found her “DT? And...Leon?” she asked. Leon grabbed the filly and pulled her out of the trashcan and let her onto the ground.

Diamond looked over her friend for injuries. Her normally braided mane was unbraided and messy and the right lens of her glasses were cracked. Thankfully there were no obvious injuries. Silver wrapped Diamond up in a tight hug “Thank Celestia you're here! W-what's going on here?” she questioned.

Diamond tried to think of a way to explain it “Somepony stole the sample of Las Plagas. That's what's infecting Manehattan. Me and Leon are trying to find out who's behind it all. Now tell me what happened to you?” she asked.

Silver's eyes once again filled with fear as she recalled the events “When me and my parents arrived, the city seemed kinda empty but we ignored that back then. He made it to the hotel fine but after my dad took me out to see a play, it started to happen. Those monsters started appearing. My dad kept me safe for a while and we hid away. Then this scientist came and tried to foalnap us. My dad distracted him long enough for me to get away but I haven't seen him since. I hope he got away too.” she said.

She then gasped “Wait, did you two see either of my parents? I don't know where my dad went but my mom should still be at the hotel.” she said.

Diamond and Leon both looked at each other sadly, trying to decide how to break the news to her. Diamond decided to start with the good news “We ran into your mom earlier. I sent a guard to take her to fillydelphia where she'll be safe.” she said.

Silver breathed a sigh of relief “Good. And what about my dad? Did you find him too?” she asked.

Leon knelt down to her “We found your dad but...it was too late for him. He was infected already. I'm sorry.” he said grimly.

Silver's eyes widened and tears started streaming down her face “N-no. There has to be something you can do for him.” she said desperately.

Diamond shook her head sadly “Once Las Plagas progresses to that stage, it's over. We can't help him, I'm so sorry Silvy.” she said.

Silver hung her head “Di...did you kill him?” she asked.

Leon stood up “No, he escaped.” he said.

“Please do something for me. Please kill him. I don't want him to continue suffering.” she said in a low tone.

Diamond seemed shocked but Leon just gave an understanding nod “Of course, we'll put him out of his misery next time we see him. But that's for later, for now our main objective is getting you to safety.” he said.

Diamond recovered from her shock “We still need to get to the lab too.” she thought for a second “I'll contact my team and see if any of them can meet us by the lab.” she said. She then pressed her earpiece “Hello, can somepony meet me and Leon at Dr. Halogen's old lab? We have a survivor with us.” she said.

After a few seconds, a voice came through “Captain Glaive here, I can be there in a bit. Can I get a ETA?” he asked.

Diamond thought for a few seconds “Fifteen minutes.” she said.

“Alright, I'll be there.” he said.

Diamond turned back to Silver “Can you walk?” she asked.

She nodded “Yes, I'm not hurt at all.” she said. With that they set off back toward Dr. Halogen's abandoned lab.

After about ten minutes of walking, Silver Spoon started to slow down “Uh, can we slow down a bit? My legs are getting tired.” she said.

Diamond looked back at her with sympathy “Sorry but the sooner we get to the lab, the sooner I can know you're safe. You can rest in a bit.” she said.

Leon let out a short chuckle “She reminds me of how you acted when we first met.” he said.

Diamond giggled “No, she's a lot more pleasant than I was.” she said.

Suddenly Silver ran ahead of them to hide from something “Behind us! They're coming!” she warned.

They turned to see two infected unicorns charging towards them while three infected pegasi flew above them.

Diamond scoffed in annoyance “I'll take the unicorns this time.” she said.

Leon nodded before turning to Silver “Stay close to me.” he ordered. She quickly complied and hid behind his leg.

Diamond ran towards the unicorns and dodged two beams of magic easily. She fired a few shots from her handgun and unsurprisingly they were blocked by magic. She got between them and stood still waiting for them to attack again. She quickly got what she wanted when they both fired their magic at her. She rolled forward to dodge them, causing the beams to hit the other unicorn. They were sent to the floor by the impact.

They slowly started to get to their hooves. Diamond took her rifle out and shot one through the head. She turned to the other one as it tried to shoot another beam. After a few seconds nothing came out. Diamond snickered as she pointed out the unicorn's broken horn “Want to run away now that you're useless without your horn?” she asked in amusement.

The unicorn charged her in an attempt to skewer the filly with what was left of it's horn. Diamond sidestepped the attack and jabbed her knife into the pony's throat to finish it. She walked over to it's corpse “Bad choice.” she said before taking her knife back.

Leon aimed up at the pegasi with his rifle as they circled him. He fired and hit one of them through the head, causing it to come crashing to the ground. The other two immediately dove down towards him with their blade-like fore legs at the ready. He ducked under one swing and fired two handgun bullets into the retreating pegasi's back. The other came from in front and tried to spear him through the chest.

He grabbed it's leg and threw it to the ground before stomping it's head in. The injured pegasus came around again for another dive at Leon. He slipped between the pony's blades and stabbed his knife into it's chest before letting it fall limply behind him.

Silver glanced around nervously “Was that all of them?” she wondered as Diamond returned to them.

Before either Leon or Diamond could answer, they hear a voice above them “Not quite.” it said.

The looked up to see Dr. Halogen hovering above them. Diamond stepped in front of Silver protectively “You again. I guess that saves us the trouble of finding you.” she said.

Dr. Halogen laughed “You were trying to find me? I assume you did it to deliver that little runaway to me to get on my good side.” he said while eyeing Silver Spoon.

Silver shied deeper behind Diamond. Leon took his handgun out “If you think I'm gonna hand a kid over to a creep like you, you're dead wrong.” he said.

Dr. Halogen smirked “Unfortunately you don't have much of a choice.” from behind a nearby building, a group of twenty infected ponies arrived “You're outnumbered. Just give me that filly and I'll make my experiments on you relatively painless.” he said.

Diamond shook her head “As tempting as that offer is, I think I'd rather just kill you along with your pets.” she said before taking her handgun out and firing at him.

The bullets stopped right before reaching their target and fell to the floor. Just then, the monster that used to be Wooden Spoon flew to his master's side. Dr. Halogen's smile widened “It seems that the situation only seems to be worsening for you.” he said.

Silver stared up at the false alicorn as tears threatened to fall “Dad? Is that you?” she asked as she took a few steps toward them.

Leon stuck a leg out to block her path “That thing is not your dad, not anymore. It's nothing but an empty husk being manipulated.” he said.

Dr. Halogen turned to the alicorn “Collect your daughter for me please.” he requested.

“Not happening!” Diamond shouted. She and Leon got in front of Silver protectively. They glanced at the army of infected behind Halogen “We have to find a way out of here. We don't stand a chance against that many plus the alicorn.” she whispered to Leon.

Before either of them had time to come up with a plan, Wooden Spoon threw them a few feet away from Silver. He then started levitating her up towards him. She started flailing in an attempt to escape to no avail. Diamond got to her hooves and tried to run towards them. She was stopped by the alicorn's magic and could do nothing but watch as Dr. Halogen took her best friend in his hooves “Let her go!” she shouted.

He ignored her and turned to Wooden Spoon “Finish them. Once I'm done with the filly, I'll come back for the remains. Try to keep them intact, I could use their bodies to attempt making a human-pony hybrid. I could try to animate it with Las Plagas.” he let out a laugh “Just imagine what I could learn from that.” he said before flying off with Silver.

Diamond growled as she watched them go “No! Damn it!” she yelled.

Leon got her attention “We have to focus up. We should create a distraction and go after them.” he said.

Diamond nodded and narrowed her eyes at the alicorn and the army behind it “If we just run away, Wooden Spoon will just catch up. Maybe we should just take him out now.” she said.

Leon shook his head “We're not winning this fight without help.” he said. Suddenly a few bullets rained down from the sky. Two caught Wooden Spoon off guard and sunk themselves into his back while the others missed.

Leon and Diamond turned around just in time to see Time Step land. Behind him landed a large group of night guards. He looked down at Diamond and saluted “I d-did it. I brought the reinforcements ma'am.” he said with a smile.

She smiled back “Great timing! Time Step, you're with me and Leon. We're gonna take out the fake alicorn in front.” she said. She then turned to the rest of the guards “The rest of you will take out the rest the infected in the area. Keep them off of the three of us so we can focus.” she commanded.

A chorus of “Yes ma'am!” rang out from the guards. It made Diamond happy that they were ready to follow her orders without question. The guards took to the sky and they quickly engaged the infected.

With the common infected being kept busy, Time Step gulped while staring down the alicorn “So d-do we have a plan for this?” he asked.

Leon's gaze came to the alicorn's horn “It's magic is too powerful to take head on. We have to take the horn out first.” he said.

Diamond nodded “It seems very aware of it's surroundings but it can be caught off guard. Me and Leon will distract it. Time Step, after some time hit it's horn as hard as you can. Try to break it.” she said.

Time Step gave a unsure nod before taking flight to give the two some room. They both took out their knives and stared down the alicorn as he did the same. Leon glanced to Diamond “What's your plan for not dying in the meantime?” he questioned.

She gave a smirk “I thought that we'd wing that part.” she said before charging forward. Leon chuckled before following after.

The alicorn flew forward with it's sharp wings aimed at the two. Diamond performed a forward somersault over one wing while Leon slid underneath the other. Diamond whipped around to throw her knife toward his backside.

It quickly turned and slapped the knife out of the air with a wing. Leon came up to it and threw three slashes at it, all of which it was nimbly able to evade. It then turned in an attempt to deliver a buck but Leon backed away in time to avoid it.

Diamond picked her knife as the alicorn turned to her and shot a barrage of magic blasts at her. She leaped with a sideways roll to fit between two blasts while throwing her knife again. The knife was magically redirected to Leon who barely caught it by the handle. He then tossed it back to Diamond who caught it easily.

Leon then dodged a magic blast before swinging his knife towards the alicorn's neck. It caught Leon's wrist with it's mandibles and started biting into him. Leon grunted in pain as the mandibles dug into his wrist.

“Leon!” Diamond called while running to his aid. The alicorn noticed this and tossed Leon at her to knock them both to the floor. Before either of them could recover, Diamond felt all four of her legs beings levitated separately. She was raised in the air before she felt her limbs being pulled in different directions. She screamed out at the pain as she tried desperately to escape.

Leon pulled out his shotgun and fired at the alicorn. The bullets were easily blocked by a magical barrier. The alicorn prepared to give the filly's limbs one final pull but was stopped when a spear connected with it's horn. The spear cracked the base of the horn, causing the alicorn to wail in pain. Time Step gave a relieved sigh before he was knocked away with a buck from the angry alicorn. Diamond fell back onto the hooves and Leon ran in towards the distracted alicorn. He threw a kick aimed at the crack in it's horn to shatter the horn completely.

It backed away from them as it held it's fore hooves against the bleeding hole that used to house it's horn. It looked back up at it's three opponents facing him. Leon took his handgun out “Where did all that confidence go? Did it shatter along with your horn?” he taunted.

Time Step back away slightly “Sh-should you be making it mad?” he asked in fear.

Diamond glared at the alicorn “It should be more worried about pissing me off.” she said. She then charged forward with her handgun ready. She fired a few shots that were dodged by the now pegasus taking off into the air. It dove down towards diamond with it's mandibles open wide. She jumped back just in time for it to miss her and crash into the ground.

While it was down, she stomped on it's wing before she sliced off a chunk of flesh at the base of it's wing. She then grabbed hold of the wing and tore it off with a sickening rip. It shot up from the floor and stumbled away from Diamond with blood seeping from it's new wound.

It wasn't paying attention to where it was going causing it to bump into Leon. He took the chance to grab it's remaining wing and rip that one off.

Diamond smirked in satisfaction as the now earth pony wailed in agony “No more tricks for you.” she said. With his best war cry, Time Step drove his spear through the infected pony's side. It knocked him to the floor with a hoof causing him to leave the spear inside the pony.

Leon grabbed hold of the spear to rip it out. He then jammed it into the side of it's neck. It weakly wrapped it's fore hooves around the spear in a futile attempt to live. After a few seconds it fell lifelessly to the floor. Time Step walked up behind Leon while holding his aching muzzle. Leon removed the spear from the corpse and held it out to him “Here's your spear back.” he said.

Time Step gave an embarrassed thank you before taking his weapon back. Diamond lost her smile as she remembered who this pony used to be. She closed her eyes and hung her head “We did it Silvy, he's resting now.” she said in a voice that was barely audible.

She then turned to where the other guards engaged the infected horde. She was relieved to see that infected bodies decorated the area while the majority of the guards were still standing. Some of them stared her way in awe, she guessed that they had seen some of the fight. She walked up to the nearest guard and snapped him out of his awe “Any casualties?” she asked.

He cleared his throat before speaking “Only two casualties. Five wounded. The rest of us are fine besides a few minor injuries.” he reported.

Diamond nodded “Have your fastest fliers take the wounded to Fillydelphia for treatment. I want the rest of you to clean of the rest of the infected left in the city.” she turned to Time Step “You too.” she commanded.

Time Step and the other guard both saluted before joining the others. Leon walked up beside Diamond “We should get moving. No doubt, Dr. Halogen brought Silver Spoon to his lab. If we hurry we can save her before it's too late.” he said.

Diamond nodded with determination “Right, and maybe we can learn more about who's behind this.” she said before the two of them took off running in the direction of the lab.