Survival is Hell: Trottingham

in case you were wondering what I had in mind for ghasts

“Captain! It’s starting!” Twilight heard. She looked at the market square she was watching over and saw a man fall to the ground, vomiting corrosive bile that slowly burned the flagstones.

“Everybody to the shelters!” Twilight yelled with a magically amplified voice. She dashed through the crowd, helping fallen people up or gathering children and handing them off to parents.

“Twilight! They got through!” She heard over the magic radio. It was Celestia’s voice.

“I know, and it’s starting now... they must have had someone sneak in and draw you off...” Twilight said. She trailed off as she heard a low rumbling growl. She recognized that growl, she had spent months of her life avoiding it. She turned to see a single Ghast staring at her from a back alley.

“Alright, they had someone sneak in and infect a lot of people...” Twilight continued.

“Why what’s going on?” Celestia asked frantically. Twilight didn’t respond, but instead sent a flare of magic into the air, where a sphere was floating above the city of Trottingham.

“Already? They really want this place dead.” Starswirl’s voice came over the radio as the sphere began oozing light purple magic. It quickly formed into a small dragon that proceeded to dive into the narrow cobblestone roads of Trottingham, scooping people up by the dozens and quickly depositing them outside of the city limits. He continued this for a while as the inhabitants of the city either rushed to find him, the edge of the city or the nearest shelter.

Twilight cursed as she already saw a green mist slowly seep through the sewer grates scattered around the city. She was glad, however, that she had prepared for this and that the people, while panicked, were organized and they knew where to go.

“Our job here in Trottingham is no longer policing the city alone. I don’t know much yet, so Captain Twilight will explain further.” A royal guard chief said to his men seven months prior to the outbreak. He was addressing the entire Trottingham royal guard.

“Thank you. You are the Royal Guards of Trottingham city. Your job is to protect it and it’s citizens. But in less than a year, there is a high chance Trottingham will fall prey to the same thing Canterlot did nearly three years ago, or maybe even something worse. Even now, there are shelters being built, precautions being taken and training regimes modified. There is something I need all of you to do. Without openly saying anything about it, spread the word that if what I fear may happen does in fact happen, there are a set of procedures that need to be complied with in order to save as many lives as possible.” Twilight started.

She continued explaining how she was going to get as many people to schedule vacations and visits and trips as close to the estimated time as possible in order to get away from the potential threat. Then she explained the shelters. Certain abandoned warehouses in the business district of the city, as well as many underground tunnels and fallout shelters were being dug and modified to accommodate many for extended periods of time.

She then went on about a special rebreather she was developing to be mass produced that would protect people from the harmful effects of any airborne toxin, pathogen or anything else that could be harmful.

The discussion went well into the night as she made sure every single one of them knew what to do, and then she took control of the battalion stationed there and began training them in the art of killing Ghasts.

Twilight’s frown lessened as she saw groups of guards already handing out the rebreathers to everybody, but soon there was a light fog of pollution clinging to everybody's feet and Twilight was forced to send out massive tendrils of magic to specific, predetermined points around the city. As the light pink barrier encompassed the city, she used the magic to send her voice across the city.

“Stay calm and organized, the toxin is in the air and the barrier is stable. Get to a shelter or any large and sturdy building you can find as soon as possible and make sure you get a rebreather from a royal guard as soon as possible, minimal exposure won’t kill you if you get one swiftly.” She called. Her wings extended as she turned towards her own shelter, which was her Biomechanic workshop and warehouse, and launched into the air.

“This way, we have plenty of room left. Come on. No shoving, you have rebreathers so there’s no rush yet.” Twilight called out as she herded people into the warehouse, which was the actual shelter, of her shop.

“Captain.” One of her elite guard said as he kneeled in front of her to report.

“How are we doing?” Twilight asked.

“Better than expected, but worse than we hoped. There are scores of unaccounted for people and there are already ghasts in the center of the town. There’s already looting. I took a closer look at the first man to fall and his body is already beginning to degrade, I estimate three days before he either becomes a Ghast or is turned into a sizzling husk.” Her lieutenant reported.

“What’s the situation at Shelters one, three, four, five and six?” Twilight asked, pushing the button on her headset as she dismissed her lieutenant to continue his work.

“One here, we’re full and routing people to two, five and six.” She heard.

“Three here, we’ve got plenty of room, but the air filters aren’t working correctly so we’ve still got rebreathers.”

“Four here, we heard about that and figured out in the commotion your mechanic wound up here. We’re doing fine and he’s en route.”

“Six here, we’re filling up, but judging from the fact that I can see the end of people we’ve got enough room. If one can send their extras elsewhere we won’t have to waste time rerouting.”

“Roger.”

“Five, report.” Twilight said. Silence.

“S-sorry... um, the captain left to chase down some looters about two minutes ago, I can see him returning now.”

“Sorry about that, damn kids thinking they can steal money off of panicked people... Five here, we’re seeing Looters but they’re keeping away from us for the most part. Not all of them have rebreathers though so they might be forced to stop and survive with us.” Five reported.

“Good, Three what’s the status on that air filter?” Twilight said.

“The mechanic arrived with his apologies and he’s estimated an hour at the most.” He responded.

“Good. What’s the status supply wise? We’ve got everyone safe and sound with some room to spare and our supplies should hold for a month.” Twilight said.

“One here, ours the same but we’re packed kinda tight.” One replied.

“Three here, we’ve got some room to spare and we’re about to send patrols out to gather stragglers and get the guards out and about to safety, we’ll stop buy at one point today and escort anyone we can back to our shelter.” Three said.

“Four here, we’re full here but within reasonable numbers. We’ll last about three weeks, a month if we ration.”

“Five here, we’re catching some stragglers now and we’ve got plenty of room left, our supplies will probably last a month and a half.”

“Six, we’ve got a problem. some of the wealthy citizens are complaining and we’re a bit tight. We have a few injuries and the CEO of ‘swords and arrows’, a local weapon manufacturer, died and his daughter is demanding she see you.” Six said.

“Alright everyone, send any extras to Five, i’m sending some of mine there too. Six, send the girl down as well as anyone injured severely, and if any of the rich folks get out of hand send them over to me and I’ll set them straight. Same goes for the rest of you.” Twilight said.

“Roger.”

“Got it.”

“Sure.”

“Thank heavens.”

“Thank you.”

The five other shelters went silent after that and the only thing left was radio chatter from the different squads patrolling the city for stragglers.

“‘Swords and Arrows’ huh?” Twilight said to herself. She had helped fund that company not too long ago. She was sad the CEO died, for she thought he was a good man. He was the one who weaponized her inventions so they worked without magical intervention.

“Captain, the airlock is working now.” Someone said to her. She nodded and looked towards a flight of metal stairs next to her and climbed them. They circled a bit until she was about twenty feet from the sixty foot roof. There was a door, which she knew led to the second floor of the shop that was where she lived, and a ladder. She climbed up the ladder and used her magic to close a small bulkhead behind her as she reached the middle of the ladder. She pressed a few buttons on a keypad on an identical bulkhead, which was ten feet above the first, and it opened to reveal the roof of the warehouse.

She pulled binoculars from the side of the protrusion that held the bulkhead and looked at five different points. Each one was the five other shelters. The first was near the main entrance to the city, which was one of the two large royal guard barracks in the city. They were small compared to the warehouse though, so they could only hold so many survivors. She saw an elite guard, one of her five Lieutenants, standing on the roof with an identical pair of binoculars. He made an ‘all lies well’ hand signal and she replied with an ‘Affirmative’ signal.

They could have used the radios, but she needed to make sure they could communicate should they break. And besides, she had to turn hers down due to the chatter the patrols were making.

She looked towards the third shelter, which was the only supermarket Trottingham had, and repeated the process with the man standing on that roof. The fourth shelter was an underground bunker and the watch tower on top of it near the opposite side of the city. From the watch tower she repeated the signals to the woman there.

The fifth shelter was a Warehouse in the Warehouse district, Twilight’s warehouse being oddly placed near the center of the city. She had to wait a moment, but soon a man climbed the ladder and they traded signals.

The final shelter was in the wealthy district. It was the largest mansion in the area, which was nearly half the size as her warehouse. She spied a small group of people near her shelter, obviously having come from Six. She saw that the healthy people were struggling to help and/or carry the injured. She quickly jogged to the edge and hopped off the edge and skipped across the nearby rooftops.

“Need some help?” She asked.

“Any would be appreciated.” The guard in charge of this patrol said. She snapped her fingers and the dozen stretchers lifted off of their bearer’s shoulders and floated towards where her shelter’s doors were sliding open.