The Rainbow Plague

by Prixy05

Rating: teen
Tags: Discord, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Horror
Length: 30538

A strange infection has swept Equestria. What is it and how can Rainbow Dash and her friends stop it?

A mysterious plague has swept through Equestria, turning its population into magical zombies. With magic having suddenly vanished as well, it is up to a group of survivors, including Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, to discover the infection's origin and find a way to put an end to the nightmare.

Published 2022-12-13 16:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-04-23 22:31:06 UTC

Chapter 1

Three days post infection...

"Crap crap crap crap!"

Rainbow Dash stuffed up a cloud in another hole that had appeared in the ceiling, sealing the water that dripped inside. Two days. Two days since she had sealed herself in her airborne home and the structure was already deteriorating. Of course, the rain outside wasn't helping, but Rainbow knew this was wrong, pegasi cloud structures don't just fall apart on their own.

Water was dripping around various parts of the room, and bits of the wall was already flaking off. Rainbow didn't know how much longer her house would last.

Her pet tortoise, Tank, extended his head to her expectingly, shivering as a drop of water splashed on his forehead.

"I know I know Tank," Rainbow said exasperatedly, "Quit trying to guilt trip me, it'll only be a few more days."

A few more days.

'Till what?' Tank seemed to ask with his beady eyes, 'Help arrives? You go outside? You save your friends?'

Rainbow sighed and leaned back on a cloudy chair, "I want to save them! But it's just that- Pinkie Pie! I couldn't bear if it got the others too!" She rubbed the tears welling up in her eyes, "It's just all my fault! What if I lose them? What if I lose everypony I care about!"

Tank slowly blinked and placed his head upon her leg, 'Its always better to accept the truth than hide from it', he seemed to say.

"I know but- it's just different this time. Maybe when the rain stops."

She looked out of the cracks in a nearby shuttered window. Through the sheets of rain, she could see Ponyville in the distance, silhouetted against the darkness and quieter than ever before.

Ponyville was indeed quiet. In fact, not a pony could be seen in the streets of the town. Maybe due to the rain, or maybe due to something else.

A single pony dashed through the market, sprinting between the rain-soaked stands. The pony stopped at the apple stand, it was of course empty, so she went next door to the pear stand. Ducking under the cover of the fabric top, Applejack grunted and shook the water off of her hat.

She sniffed the squishy pears still on display and gagged, "A bit tart, but these'll do."

Applejack opened her saddlebag and grabbed as many pears as she could carry. She had made the point of collecting perishable food first, things like honey could wait till later, if not scavenged by another pony first. Satisfied with her reaping, Applejack nodded and exited out to the rain.

But then, she heard something. Her ears perked up as she heard a noise, some kind of whining or buzzing from, overhead?

She looked up to see a pegasus fast approaching in the air. Applejack jumped back as this pegasus crashed into the market, creating a spray of mud. Applejack gasped; it was Rainbow Dash!

The rainbow-maned pegasi, wet and splattered with mud all over, frantically looked around. Suddenly Rainbow grabbed Applejack and brought her close, "You didn't eat any cookies recently, did you?"

Applejack scrunched her snout in confusion, "Wha- cookies?"

"Yeah cookies! Rainbow-colored, tastes like blue raspberry!"

"Uh Rainbow," she gently pushed Rainbow Dash aside, "What in tarnation are ya talkin' about?"

Rainbow planted her face in the mud and looked up in sorrow, "I'm so so so sorry! It's all my fault!"

Taken aback, Applejack shook her head in confusion, "What in the hay are you talkin' 'bout? You mean you caused this?" She motioned a hoof to the empty town behind her.

Teary-eyed, Rainbow sniffed, "I didn't mean any harm! Honest! It was just a little prank but then Pinkie got sick but instead of helping I hid away then Tank convinced me to go out and-"

Applejack held up a hoof, "Wait, Tank convinced you?"

Rainbow sighed, "Okay, I talked to Tank and convinced myself to come out, but I'm here now! Maybe we can find a cure or stop this or something!"

Applejack furrowed her brow, "You sayin' you caused all this?"

Rainbow sadly nodded.

"From a prank?"

She nodded again.

"Y'know, I would be angry at you Rainbow, but honestly? I'm just happy to see you."

"You are?"

"You're the first friend I've seen since this all started, and I'm just relieved that at least some of us are okay. Anyhow, we can shift responsibility later, we got other things to do."

"We do?"

"Yep, me an' the other Apples are holdin' out at the farm. Maybe we can make room for ya."

Rainbow didn't answer, instead turning and walking through the mud to the middle of the market.

Applejack tilted her head, "Rainbow?"

Rainbow didn't look back, instead pointing a hoof to the sky. She was pointing at a light that shone faintly above Ponyville, the first sign of life in town, the Castle of Friendship.

The duo crept carefully through the muddy streets of Ponyville keeping to the alleys to avoid attention. Rainbow had volunteered to simply fly up to the castle, but her wings had become too heavy with rain for her to be able to fly properly through the weather.

Both of the ponies were confused. Applejack had internal turmoil due to the fact that the cause of all this was apparently one of Rainbow's pranks gone wrong. Meanwhile Rainbow was just confused all around by the situation. Like why was it raining so hard? Where was everypony? What exactly had happened when she was boarded up in her house?

There were no answers for now, as the streets were just as empty throughout the rest of Ponyville as it was in the market. In fact, Applejack had been the only living thing Rainbow had seen since she left.

"Here we are," Applejack whispered as they arrived at the front door of the crystalline castle, "you best be prepared, who knows what inside."

Rainbow Dash didn't answer, instead staring at the gate. She walked and pressed a single hoof on the door. Surprisingly, the door wasn't locked or sealed, and slowly slid open.

"Huh," Rainbow stated before trotting inside.

Applejack pondered, why was the door unlocked? Unless they wanted them to come in; "Rainbow! Stop!" She held out a hoof, but it was too late.

With a snap, Rainbow yelped as a net rose beneath her hooves, wrapping her up and hoisting her into the air. "Agh! Get me outta here!"

"I'm a coming Rainbow!"

Applejack ran inside but stopped when she heard hoofsteps approaching. She turned to see a familiar face exit enter in from the shadows. A certain purple alicorn.

Applejack sighed with relief, "Twilight!"

Twilight glanced between the two ponies with joy, "Applejack! Rainbow Dash! I'm so happy to see you!"

A few minutes later, the trio had gathered in the library of the castle. The castle's natural luminescence was seemingly gone, instead the place was basked in the soft glow of candles that were placed about. Twilight had given the two soaked ponies blankets to warm up after she had cut down Rainbow from her trap.

"I've been in here since it started," Twilight continued, "I haven't left, mostly due to the rain, but still, I'm so happy to see that you two are okay! Did you see any of the others?"

Applejack sadly shook her head, "Sorry sugarcube, I've seen hardly anypony else in days."

"You two are literally the only ponies I've seen," Rainbow added.

Twilight sadly sighed, "Oh well, right now, we need a plan, and we need find out what happened."

Rainbow made a pained grimace as Applejack hung her head. "Uh, Rainbow thinks she knows what happened." Twilight turned to her with an expression of curiosity.

With much reluctance, Rainbow admitted her previous experiences, explaining to Twilight what she had had told Applejack earlier. Rainbow hid her face behind her wings and looked up at Twilight, who looked at her with a blank expression.

After a minute of silence, Twilight cleared her throat and tapped a hoof on her chin. "While your experiences are very interesting, I must say Rainbow, I don't believe that this is your fault."

Applejack and Rainbow gasped.

"It simply doesn't make sense! How could one prank gone wrong, turn into a pandemic that has swept across Equestria and has apparently disabled magic?"

Applejack gasped, "Across all of Equestria?"

Rainbow did a double take, "What do you mean disabled magic?"

Twilight sighed and stood up, "Come on, I have something to show you." The other two exchanged glances and stood when the door to the library opened.

In walked another familiar face. Spike, the little purple dragon, jaunted in as he took a bite out of a rainbow colored cookie in his claw. A look of horror crossed Rainbow's face as she yelled in terror, leaping over and smacking the rainbow cookie out his claw.

"Aww," Spike whined as his cookie was crushed underhoof, "that was my cookie."

Rainbow stared at Spike as she pointed to the remains of the cookie, "Where the heck did you get that?"

"Wait Rainbow," Twilight said sadly, "there's something else that you need to see, something important," she turned to Spike who was still staring sadly at his cookie, "Spike, prep the safety precautions." Snapping to attention, Spike gave a salute and ran out of the room.

The three ponies walked through the dim halls of the castle as they approached the meeting chamber. "I thought you said you haven't left the castle," Rainbow stated accusingly.

"I haven't," Twilight answered, "But Spike has. He experienced the initial outbreak firsthoof, and came back with some, stuff."

"You mean the cookies," Rainbow said.

Twilight nodded, "They've been our- Spike's primary food supply. That's the first reason why I don't think you started this. He's been eating those cookies for two days and has experienced nothing but indigestion. But you see, on the first day, he also came back with, somepony else."

Applejack's eyes widened, "You don't mean?"

Twilight sadly nodded as she pushed open the door to the meeting room. The meeting was bathed in the orange light of candle glow. The windows were covered, and extra padding had been applied across the room. Tables had been set up and were covered with papers, charts, notes, and graphs. Other bits of "Twilighting" were scattered about the room, with many papers gathered around a large object covered with cloth in the center of the roundtable.

Twilight shut the door behind her and silently nodded to Spike in the corner, who pulled a rope that lifted the cloth off the central object. Applejack and Rainbow gasped as the cloth lifted to reveal a large cage, with a pony occupant. The pony blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light and snarled when she noticed Twilight.

Tears welled up in Rainbow's eyes, as she cried out, "Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie Pie looked largely like usual with her pastel pink coat, and large, frizzy pink mane, but she was clearly not well. Her eyes were glazed over, the pupils non-existent. Several bruises ran along her disheveled fur, likely from ramming against the sides of the cage previously. Most notably, was the luminescent rainbow ooze dripping from her mouth. The dried powder from Rainbow's cookies was around her mouth, but the stuff that ran up from inside dripped down into a puddle that rapidly evaporated.

Pinkie's hoof clutched a bar of the cage as she reached out with another. She grunted, not a low guttural sound, but a sound that was high-pitched like the pony's regular voice.

"She's the primary reason I don't believe you're the cause Rainbow," Twilight said over Pinkie's deceptively normal vocalizations, "If she was patient zero like you describe, there was no way this infection could have spread beyond Sugarcube Corner, as Spike brought her over early enough that she hadn't yet left."

"Twilight!" Rainbow turned angrily to the alicorn, "How could you do this? Pinkie's your friend! You can't just lock her up in a cage like this!"

Applejack pulled her back, "Rainbow, calm down!"

Twilight spread her wings, causing both ponies to stop, "She's right Applejack, in any other circumstance, this would have been a terrible thing to do, but we simply don't know enough about the infection to know whether or not that's even still Pinkie."

Rainbow Dash scoffed, "What? You're Twilight Sparkle! You can figure out anything!"

Twilight sighed, "I wish I could say that, but for the moment, the nature of this infection is a complete mystery to me. There's nothing remotely similar in any of my books, and the only way to figure out anything without my magic would be through- dissection. For now, the only way I can find out anything is through close-up examination."

"About that," Applejack interjected, "What happened to the magic?"

Twilight pulled out a large chart with scribblings about magic, "I don't know how or why, but magic in Equestria, at least for us ponies, is diminishing," Twilight turned to Rainbow, "Rainbow, was your house deteriorating before you left?"

Rainbow shrugged, "I guess, but I'm sure it's just from the rain."

"No! It's because pegasi magic is diminished, meaning your cloud constructions will start falling apart. And yes, that does mean Cloudsdale as well. But beyond that, me and my castle have lost most of our magic as well, I can't do anything beyond simple levitation spells and I'm certain that's true with unicorns as well."

"Didn't you also say that the illness's spread 'cross Equestria? Wouldn't Celestia or Luna done somethin' about it?"

"We don't know," said Spike solemnly, suddenly entering into the discussion. He walked forward carrying a handful of scrolls that he placed at Applejack's hooves. "Celestia said something was happening and that it was all across Equestria!"

"They were sent hourly at first," Twilight stated, looking at the scrolls, "but the last one was sent yesterday. If she doesn't contact us soon, I'm afraid Celestia may be, compromised."

"So, what the hay do we do?" Rainbow exclaimed, "Apparently I didn't cause this, so we don't know how this started, it's across all of Equestria, our friends are dead or sick or whatever they are, and we don't have magic! How are we supposed to stop this and save everypony?"

"I'm not sure," Twilight said, quietly looking at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie was quieter now but was still reaching at Twilight through the bars. "But first things first, we need to look for other survivors."

Chapter 2

Four days post infection...

After everybody had rested for the night, they woke up to see that the rain had finally let up and the sun had risen. Whether due to Celestia or something else was unknown. The three ponies stood by the front door of the Castle of Friendship.

"Right girls," Twilight stated, gathering the others in a huddle, "First things first, we go out and see if there's any other survivors in Ponyville." She pointed to Applejack and repeated the plan they made the previous night, "Applejack, because you have experience surviving already, you go out by yourself. First you go to Sweet Apple Acres to show that you're okay to your family, then you go to the Carousel Boutique to see if Rarity's there." She turned Rainbow, "Rainbow, you and I will go to Fluttershy's cottage to see if she's there, then we'll go to the Ponyville Town Hall to scout out the rest of the town." Finally, she turned to Spike, who was decked out in a makeshift armor of pots and pillows, "Spike, you remain here and secure the castle, be sure to keep an eye out for anypony else. And the remember everypony, if you spot anypony who is infected, do not engage them."

The others nodded and grabbed their gear, or at least what Twilight could gather in short notice with what she had in the castle. A bit of food, including some of Spike's surplus rainbow cookies, which Rainbow Dash refused to take, some water, some ragged bandages, and some enchanted items, though their capabilities were severely diminished.

The ponies hugged each other and made their goodbyes as they departed, splitting off on their separate paths.

Applejack had experience with survival, so her trek to Sweet Apple Acres was relatively simple in nature. Keeping to the more isolated segments of the town, Applejack dashed between houses, avoiding the main road. The streets were still wet and muddy from the rain, which made quick movement difficult, but luckily, they seemed to be as empty as the previous day.

Applejack only spotted one infected pony; a light olive earth pony named Junebug who was aimlessly wandering in front of some storefronts on an opposite street. She was easy to avoid, giving Applejack easy access to the road out of town.

As Applejack approached Sweet Apple Acres, she took note of the damage done earlier. Several of the apple trees leaned at askew angles, the soil beneath their roots having been swept away by the torrents of rain. Sweet Apple Acres in general was dirtier than usual, with puddles and mud everywhere. Thankfully, the wooden barricades she and her family had set up had held, providing protection for the farm.

Applejack ran up to the farmhouse and knocked on the door. A large red stallion answered, warily opening the door, and gasped when he saw Applejack.

Applejack patted him on the back, "Yep, I'm here Big Mac, you can stop worryin' about me."

"Applejack! You're okay!" Apple Bloom yelled excitedly, the yellow filly running up to the door and embracing Applejack, "I was so worried! What happened?"

"Sorry I didn't come back last night y'all," Applejack apologized, "Things got a bit, complicated."

"What in the hayseed happened out there youngin'?" Responded a third voice. Granny Smith, the wrinkled, pale green, mare, waddled up and began to inspect Applejack, "You get attacked? Ya get bit?"

"Hoofness no Granny!" Applejack chuckled, "Nothin' like that! I found some friends, some fellow survivors."

Apple Bloom looked up curiously, "Who'dya find?"

"Rainbow, Twilight, and Spike. They're all at the Castle of Friendship," Applejack paused, before remembering, "Oh! 'fore I forget, here's some extra food I found."

She took out the pears she gotten the previous day, and some extra food Twilight had given her. The Apples had to scavenge their food for the meantime, for their food supplies were low when the infection started, and the apples trees had yet to ripen.

"So Big Mac," Applejack asked as she finished unpacking her food supplies, "Did the farm hold while I was gone?"

Big McIntosh nodded, "Eeyup."

"Any attacks?"

"Eeyup."

"Any damage?"

He shook his head, "Nope."

"Same pony?"

"Eeyup." Most attacking ponies were a one-and-done thing, but one infected pegasus had attempted to attack the farm repeatedly, attacking at least once per day. Though persistent, she was rather inept, and easily repelled by Big Mac.

Applejack lightly laughed, then sadly sighed as she hoisted her saddlebag once again. "Sorry ya'll, but I'm afraid I have to make my leave."

"Your leaving?" Apple Bloom cried, "But you just got here!"

Applejack pat Apple Bloom on the head, "I know sugarcube, and I'm sorry, but now that we know there's other survivors, it's my, our priority to go out and find anypony else who could still be out there."

"Maybe I could go with ya?"

Applejack softly smiled, but shook her head, "Sorry Apple Bloom, but I need you to stay here so you can be safe. It's dangerous out there, and I don't think I could stand losin' any of y'all."

"Oh," Apple Bloom sniffed, "I understand. You'll come back soon, won't you?"

"I'll come back as soon as I can, I promise."

Applejack straightened up and adjusted her hat. With another hug from Apple Bloom, and a nod to Granny and Big Mac, she turned tail and left the farmhouse.

Twilight's and Rainbow's travel to Fluttershy's cottage was steady, but slow. Rainbow Dash was peeved off at her inability to scout ahead, being unable to maintain anything above a hover off the ground. Meanwhile, Twilight took constant note of her surroundings, leading to her getting her hooves stuck in the mud more than once.

However, once at the edges of town, the going was much easier, with mud having lessened and path being clearer. Rainbow looked over to Twilight, who was staring down at her parchment, and spoke up, breaking the silence.

"So, Twilight, what exactly do we do if Flutter's not there?"

Twilight didn't look up, "I guess we look somewhere else."

Rainbow shook her head, "Not that, I mean if she's not there, you know, gone."

Twilight stopped walking and looked up. She let out a sad sigh, "Then we leave her."

"Can't we take her back? You know, like what you did with, Pinkie?"

Twilight shrugged, "I suppose we could, but if Fluttershy's still in there, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect her to remain there." Rainbow Dash hmphed and turned away, leaving Twilight to resume walking.

As the duo approached the cottage, Twilight noticed that it looked remarkably normal. The place seemed to have been unimpacted by the rain nor sick ponies. That might be a good sign.

Walking up the steps, Twilight was the first to step forward and knock on the front door. After a moment, somebody suddenly answered. A gray-furred head poked out, blinking at the ponies with his mismatched beady, red pupils.

Twilight blinked, Discord. She had completely forgotten to factor the Lord of Chaos in this.

"Oh! Princess Twilight Sparkle!" Discord chirped, clapping a paw and talon together, "What a pleasure it is to see you! Oh, and is that Rainbow Dash with you as well?"

Twilight gave the draconequus a paltry smile, "Uh, hello Discord! By chance is Fluttershy home?"

"Is Fluttershy home?" Discord stroked his beard, "Certainly Princess! She is right inside!"

"Right, would you say Fluttershy is sick perchance?"

Discord laughed, "Sick? A bit under the weather perhaps, but not sick, certainly not! Why, me and her were just having our weekly tea before you knocked."

"But it's Thursday," Rainbow Dash interjected, but she was ignored.

"Come in! Come in!" Discord said as he snaked inside with his serpentine body, waving the ponies inside.

Twilight and Rainbow exchanged glances, and reluctantly followed Discord inside.

For the first hour, Spike had patrolled the front hall of the castle, occasionally checking the traps and twanging the tripwires, but the young dragon had gotten bored quickly and leaned against a crystalline wall for a break. Spike blew a raspberry and twiddled his thumbs, who knew that the zombie apocalypse would be so boring?

Though the first day was certainly exciting, and traumatizing, he had done basically nothing since; merely patrolling the halls and assisting Twilight with her "research". The research had done little to nothing, mostly due to Twilight's unconscious resistance to testing on who was one of her best friends. He wasn't even sure if the traps were needed; nopony had attempted to break in or shown any interest in the castle so far.

Spike sighed and straightened up, sure it was boring, but he had a duty to attend to. And there was the possibility that any of the others could get sick as well.

He grabbed the fireplace poker he had been using as a weapon and walked down the hall while he thought to himself. Maybe he could do something else, like checking on Pinkie Pie. It would certainly be more interesting.

A minute later, the door to the meeting room creaked open and Spike poked his head in. The room was darkened, the cage still covered. Spike adjusted the pot on his head and tiptoed up to the central table. He turned his head to the cage and heard something.

Light breathing. Was Pinkie asleep?

Spike wasn't sure if the zomponies slept, he certainly hadn't seen any of them sleep. Just to be cautious, he climbed up onto the table and slowly and silently lifted the cover a smidge to look inside.

Immediately in response Pinkie leapt at the bars, causing Spike to yelp and jump back in fear. He tumbled backwards off the table and landed on his tail. Behind the cloth cover, Pinkie finished reaching through the bars and giggled quietly, retreating to her corner of the cage.

Dumfounded, Spike stood up and wiped the rainbow goo that had been spat onto his chest, did Pinkie just trick him?

However, he had little time to reflect on this when the tell-tale sound of a snap echoed in from the front hall. It was one of the traps! Somepony, or some thing had gotten inside.

Apple Bloom gazed longingly out of her bedroom window. Her room was where she spent most of her time, as the others refused to let her go outside. Applejack had left earlier, leaving Big Mac to continue protecting the farm, Granny to store the goods, and Apple Bloom to just stay inside and stay safe.

Apple Bloom wasn't exactly sure what was happening outside, Applejack didn't elaborate on stuff beyond vague phrases about a "sickness" and "zomponies" while Big Mac said little to nothing, per usual with him. Granny Smith hadn't gone outside either, but the old mare was content with holding out, relegating plenty of stories to Apple Bloom of similar events in the past.

Apple Bloom sighed and flopped back onto her bed. Her gaze flicked over to her cutie mark. She and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders had got their matching marks not too long ago. She wondered where they were. Was Sweetie Belle at the Carousel Boutique? Was Scootaloo at the treehouse? Were they sick as well?

This lack of answers frustrated the filly. Apple Bloom wanted to help, but nopony else let her do anything! She had gotten her cutie mark, performed at the Equestria Games, and had gotten out of plenty of crazy situations, many of which were admittedly her fault, but besides that, she was perfectly capable of going outside!

Apple Bloom's train of thought was interrupted by a thumping sound outside. She ran up and peered through the window to see that the sick pegasi attacker had returned yet again.

The gray coated pegasus was maintaining a low hover over the ground, repeatedly ramming herself into the side of the barn, leaving rainbow-colored splatters of goo on the side. Apple Bloom twisted her head to see Big Mac sternly march over to the barn. The pegasus stopped her ramming and turned to give the red stallion approaching her a hungry stare. With a silent snarl, the pegasus swooped at Big Mac, who caught the pony's open maw with a broom handle. Ignoring the flying rainbow spit, Big Mac turned the pegasus and gave her a hearty kick to the stomach. The infected pony somersaulted into the air, landing in the mud with a splat. With one more look back, the cross-eyed zompony retreated up the hill into the apple orchards.

Apple Bloom smirked, that specific pegasus had attacked four times already, each time playing out largely the same as before. Her smile quickly faded as her feeling of sadness onset again. She could be out there doing what Big Mac was doing, it didn't seem too hard. After all, if that ditzy pegasus was representative of the average zompony out there, they would be a hitch to handle.

Yes! That was exactly what she could do! She was old enough; she had gotten into worse situations. Apple Bloom resolved to herself, that she would go outside to save everypony or die trying!

"Dearest Fluttershy! We have some more guests!"

Discord jaunted into the main cottage, where a large table covered with an mismatched assortment of teacups and teapots lay assembled over the pink tablecloth. The scene was remarkably normal for a tea party with Discord, who was chaos incarnate. However, as Twilight and Rainbow immediately noticed, something was very wrong with the tea party.

Various cloth puppets resembling different ponies and creatures sat at each of the table's chairs, but at the head of the table was the pegasus herself, Fluttershy. Unfortunately, Fluttershy was very much not herself. The yellow pegasus was bound to her chair by various ropes. She looked around angrily with her glazed, white eyes, and snapped at the air, rainbow drool flying out of her mouth and sticking to the tablecloth.

"Discord!" Twilight yelled out, "What happened here?"

"Why I already told you Princess," Discord replied bemusedly, "Fluttershy and I are having our weekly tea meet, but I suppose I should explain the other 'guests'. Shouldn't I Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy snapped her jaw in the direction of the ponies in response.

"You see, I would have summoned some extra guests myself," Discord pompously stated, "But my chaos magic is very off-kilter today." As an example, he snapped his fingers. A small yellow spark fizzled out from his claw as a crude smiley face appeared on the wall behind him. "So instead I had to get a little creative," he wiggled his fingers before swerving to the purple puppet next to him, "See Twilight? This one's supposed to be you!"

His red tail crept up behind the puppet, taking control of it. "Hi! I'm Twilight Sparkle!" The puppet said in a perfect recreation of Twilight's voice, "I love books and friendship! Yay!"

Fluttershy reacted violently, thrashing about in her bindings as she bit the air in the puppet's direction.

"See?" Discord motioned to her, "Fluttershy oh so dearly loves the puppets!"

Rainbow Dash bolted up, "Enough!" She pointed a hoof at Fluttershy, "That's not Fluttershy! Well, she is, but she's sick! I don't know or care what you're playing at Discord, but things aren't fine!" Rainbow finished her outburst, and turned to the door, "Come on Twilight, there's nothing of worth here, let's leave Discord and his creepy 'tea party' alone."

Twilight held up a hoof, "Wait Rainbow! We can't just leave him."

"Why not?" Rainbow snapped, "I don't even think he can get sick! Why not just leave him to play pretend?"

"Because Rainbow," Twilight sighed, "because he's Fluttershy's friend, he's our friend. Discord seems to be in some kind of denial about this, and Fluttershy would have wanted us to help him." Rainbow grumbled and turned around but didn't say anything else.

Twilight turned around to Discord, who had been watching silently with his ears drooped, "Discord? I need you to be completely honest, are you aware about Fluttershy's condition?"

With a sad sigh, Discord collapsed his noodle-shaped body onto the nearby couch, "Perhaps I am Princess, what about it?"

"No more of your misdirections Discord!" Rainbow demanded accusingly, "Did you cause this?"

Discord scoffed, "What? That whole 'zompony' thing? Please! The Lord of Chaos would never stoop to an apocalypse so cliché!"

"So, you don't know anything about this or Fluttershy?" Twilight asked reassuringly.

"Look at her!" Discord cried, pointing at the growling pegasus, "You think I would ever do something like that? Frankly I would be offended if it wasn't so upsetting!" He blew his nose into his tail.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Look Discord, you wanna come with us or not?"

Discord shrugged, "I suppose I should." He waved off the ponies, "Go on without me! I need to- make my peace," he said with sudden sincerity.

Twilight nodded and left, followed by Rainbow. Once outside, Rainbow turned to Twilight, "I don't trust him, he's probably doing one of his 'Discordy' things."

"I know Discord can be frustrating," Twilight responded, "But he's reformed, and I know, deep down, he really cares, not just about Fluttershy, but about us as well."

"Yeah, right," Rainbow commented half-heartedly as she fluttered her wings and flew away without looking back.

Spike grabbed his weapon and scampered to the front hall. The front door was ajar, and the tripwire had been tripped, but to his horror the net was empty and hanging limply in the air.

He slammed the door shut and nervously looked about. If the trap was empty, that meant whoever entered inside was still in the castle! His eyes snapped to the right as banging noise echoed from down the hall.

Claws shaking, Spike lifted the fire poker and proceeded down the hall. The halls of the castle were unnaturally dark for it being the middle of the day, the windows casting long shadows on its crystal walls.

Another noise. This time from around the corner. Spike gulped and clutched his weapon to his chest as he walked around the corner and- nothing. The hall simply ended at a small outcropping. The only other way forward was doorway. Spike froze when he saw what it was. The entrance to the tunnels.

When the castle first magically appeared, Twilight had found a network of tunnels underneath the castle. Unfortunately, Twilight was the only pony who knew the exact layout down there, precisely the reason why the entrance was normally sealed. But now, whoever was in the castle had somehow gotten down there.

Spike looked down the dimly lit stairs; maybe he should wait back and wait for the others. No! He had a job, and he needed to keep everypony else safe. After all, he was pretty sure as a non-pony, he was immune to the illness.

Spike tore off the pillows he was wearing and bundled a bunch of the cloth. With a little breath of fire, Spike had made himself a makeshift torch. And with nothing but the torch, a fire poker, and a pot, Spike entered the doorway into the darkness.

Chapter 3

The Carousel Boutique was on the other side of town from Sweet Apple Acres, but Applejack was able to make her way to it with no problem. The boutique was her next destination for checking for survivors, and Applejack hoped that Rarity had somehow held out.

She knocked on the door and waited.

No response, so she opened the door. It only opened a crack before getting stuck on a chair that had been placed to jam the door. That was a good sign. Nevertheless, a single powerful buck from Applejacks hind legs was enough to splinter the door in two, allowing easy access inside.

"Hello?" Applejack called out, "Anypony home?"

There was no answer.

Applejack looked around. The boutique's inside was a mess. Sewing supplies lay strewn about and just about everything was in shambles compared to the organized refinery typical of Rarity's craft. Somepony had clearly been in there, but whether or not they still were, was the question.

Trotting upstairs, Applejack saw that the bedroom door was open. Concerningly, emanating from inside were muffled sobs. Poking her head inside, Applejack repeated her question, "Anypony in here? Rarity? I'm here to help."

The crying was coming from the corner and softened when Applejack finished her sentence. "Applejack? Is that you?"

Applejack walked over to the bed to see a small unicorn filly curled up in the corner of the room. It was Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister. Tearmarks ran down her cheeks, and her fur was messy and uncombed. In her hooves was a yardstick, taken from her sister's supplies.

"Yep! It's me," Applejack held out a hoof to the filly, "Come on up, I ain't gonna hurt ya!"

"Oh Applejack!" sniffled Sweetie, "I thought you were one of them! I thought I was gonna get eaten!"

"Now why would you think a thing like that?"

"Well, I hid up here when I heard somepony break down the front door."

"Oh," Applejack said, embarrassed, "Sorry 'bout that! I guess that there might have been a smidge scary for a filly."

The faintest shadow of a smile tickled the edges of Sweetie Belle's mouth. Hoping to alleviate the situation, Applejack posed the unicorn a question. "Say, you happen to know where Rarity is?"

This only made Sweetie Belle's eyes well up with tears and begin quietly crying again. She shakily lifted a hoof and pointed through the doorway to the door to the boutique's workroom. Furniture had been hastily placed against the door. This was all Applejack needed to see for the realization to hit her.

Applejack sat down next to Sweetie. "Sorry sugarcube," she stammered, "I- I didn't know."

"When my parents attacked me-" Sweetie stifled through her tears, "I came here. I thought that Rarity could help me, but she got all tired and then- then she," she broke down in tears yet again.

Applejack held Sweetie close, "I'm sorry for your loss, we've all lost somepony close during this. I'll do whatever I can to help ya."

Sweetie sniffed, "You got any food? I haven't anything to eat in days. I tried to cook some stuff, but-" her stomach made a little gurgle as her gaze shifted to some plates and bowls haphazardly placed on the floor, topped with the blackened remains of what could barely be called food.

"Of course." Applejack opened her saddlebag, and pulled out some pears and a rainbow cookie, which Sweetie then heartily devoured.

Standing up, Applejack adjusted her hat, "How 'bout I take ya back with me to the Castle of Friendship? It'll be safer there for you."

"I think I'd like that," Sweetie whispered, slowly standing up.

And with a little help, Applejack led the little survivor out of the boutique and into Ponyville.

Meanwhile...

In the darkened workroom of the Carousel Boutique, a lone unicorn sniffed the air. The room was dim, the curtains having been drawn and it was even more of a mess than usual, with much of the work supplies having purposely been tossed about and destroyed.

Rarity walked about, scanning the room with her nearly blind eyes. Her makeup was smeared, her mane a mess, and her carefully pedicured hooves had been worn down from clawing at the door. The technicolor drool dripping from her jaw stained her previously pristine fur.

She raised her snout again and sniffed the air. Yes, it was something enticing. And it had just left the boutique.

Rarity grunted and pawed at the ground. She wanted out and had to find a way out. It was only a second until her head snapped to attention, catching the glimpse of a sliver of light poking through the drapes. With no hesitation, Rarity used her horn to rip the drapery off the wall, unveiling the window.

With no noise except for heavy breathing, the tip of her horn sparked with light until the latch of the window began to faintly glow and slowly open itself.

Like basically everywhere else they had been, the Ponyville Town Hall was dark and empty of life. Twilight and Rainbow had just arrived there and walked through the empty main hall. Trash and papers were scattered on the floor, and one of the elaborate banners that typically hung in the rafters had been torn off and clumped on the ground. Twilight winced at the sight.

"Remember, we have to go up and scout out the rest of Ponyville."

"Yeah yeah, Let's just get this over with," Rainbow muttered, fluttering on ahead to the staircase to the roof. Rainbow was still grumpy; from a combination of factors, Twilight presumed. Their meeting with Discord earlier had soured the pegasi's mood, but her inability to generate enough for any large-scale flying was definitely also a contribution. There was also the fact that Rainbow likely still blamed herself for the outbreak, despite Twilight thinking the contrary.

Trotting up the town hall's staircase to the roof, the place, of course, lacked any lighting, leaving Twilight to pull out an enchanted rod the made a small light to illuminate the way up.

Rainbow paused her ascent, "What? You can't even use an illumination spell?"

"Nope," Twilight responded matter-of-factly, "Remember, my magic has been entirely limited to levitation spells."

Rainbow didn't answer back, instead turning to continue up.

Rainbow turned ahead. "Crap!"

Twilight ran up to see that the trapdoor that led out onto the roof was locked with a large, metal padlock.

"Of course, it's locked!" Rainbow whined, "If only I could fly!"

Twilight held up a hoof, "Wait a second, I think I can pick the lock." She wasn't super skilled in lock-picking, but she had read a book or two on the subject, and luckily, she had prepared for just such a situation. Digging through her saddlebags, Twilight pulled out her lockpicking tools and began to fiddle with the lock.

Three minutes later, Twilight was still at it, murmuring to herself, "This should- no. No. That's not it-"

Rainbow had spread her body out on the stairs, bored out her mind, "I thought you could pick the lock," she groaned.

"I said I thought I could pick it," Twilight said, breaking her concentration, "There's a difference you know." She tapped a hoof on her chin, "If only we knew the combination, maybe Mayor Mare had it written down somewhere."

"The combination's six-three-five-two-four-eight," said a third voice.

"Thanks!" Twilight turned to the lock before stopping, "Wait-"

Rainbow and Twilight yelped in alarm and jumped back when they took notice of the dead-eyed pony head that appeared between them.

The pony flailed their hooves, "Why it's only me, Fluttershy!"

"What the?" Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at 'Fluttershy' before noticing something lurking behind the pony. "Oh of course," Rainbow muttered when she realized, "Discord."

"Hello!" Discord said, leaning his head into Twilight's light, "I finally made it here!" The two ponies stared at him in silence. "Didn't I tell you I'd meet you at the town hall?"

"No you didn't," Twilight answered flatly.

"Well, I am here now!" Discord stated astutely, "You see, I had to gather up all my little friends." He motioned a thumb to the large bulging sack on his back. "They're just so- entertaining."

"Great," Rainbow answered sarcastically, "you brought your puppets."

"They really are," Discord jovially responded, making the Fluttershy puppet on his tail wave to the ponies.

"Look at me! I'm so quiet and cute!" Puppet Fluttershy said.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, "So are puppets going to be your whole thing until you get your magic back?"

Discord nodded absent-mindedly. Both of the creatures turned when light flooded into the staircase. Twilight had opened the trapdoor while they were both conversing. "So how exactly did you know the combination for the lock?" Twilight asked as Discord climbed out onto the roof, his large sack of puppets in tow.

"Oh, I know every Ponyvillians' passwords," he said casually, as if it were the most normal thing ever, "so why are we up here?"

"We're supposed to be scouting out the rest of Ponyville," Rainbow snarkily replied.

"Can't you just fly?" Rainbow didn't get the chance to answer before Discord snapped his paw in fake-surprise, "Oh that's right! No magic! Who knew pegasus flight was magical?"

Rainbow grumbled before turning and joining Twilight at the railing. "Hmm," Twilight pondered as Rainbow joined her, "You notice that?"

Rainbow tilted her head as she looked down over the town, "What? I don't see anything."

"That's exactly it! I don't see any infected activity."

The streets below were empty, not a single zompony could be seen except for one pink-maned pegasus crawling on a rooftop. "Come to think of it," Rainbow added, "Including Pink and Flutters, I've seen only like, three zombies since this whole thing started!"

Twilight turned around and began to pace, "Could they all be indoors? Are they scared of the sun? Did they migrate? What could it mean?"

"I can see a couple 'zombies' over there," Discord said flatly as he leaned on the railing next to Rainbow.

Rainbow looked at him confused, "What? Where?"

In response, Discord calmly popped off his antler and twisted an end. "Over there," he repeated, holding it up to Rainbow's eye. Looking through Discord's strange antler telescope, Rainbow saw that he was right. Roughly a dozen zomponies were gathered around the front entrance of the Day Spa, with at least two more approaching from nearby.

Rainbow turned and yelled out to Twilight, "Twilight! We got a large group of them at the spa!"

Twilight broke out of her thinking and spread her wings, "Then we should go and investigate it," Twilight straightened herself up and turned to the trapdoor before pausing, "Without antagonizing the sick," she added.

"Oh, what joy!" Discord whooped while wrapping Rainbow in a hug, "Three best friends on an adventure!"

Spike tread each step down carefully. He looked around, his torch provided meager illumination that hardly reached five feet, and the only thing beyond was darkness and the silhouettes of pillars.

Spike cupped his claw and yelled out, "Anypony down here?"

Immediately he lowered voice, realizing that yelling out would attract the attention of the Castle of Friendship's intruder, if they were a zompony.

Something scampered behind him, causing Spike to twist around. He squinted to see a vaguely equine shape turn a corner ahead. So Spike gave chase. Faster he ran, with the clopping of hooves and the shadow of the pony growing ever closer. Around another corner, then another, and then a dead end.

Spike skid to a halt, his torch illuminating a rotund unicorn with his back against the wall. He wore a dirty purple suit and had clearly been through some things.

"Okay okay! I give up," he yammered. He pulled out two small wooden ponies and tossed them to Spike's feet, "Take them! They're all I have!"

Spike raised his claw, "Woah woah woah! What?"

"Stinky and Winky! They're all I have left! Those brutes took everything else."

A look of remembrance flashed across his face as Spike recognized this pony, "Wait, I know you! You're that puppet guy!"

The puppeteer backed down and gave a small bow, "Claudey Coals! Puppeteer and entertainer extraordinaire! Do I know you?"

Spike had previously encountered the unicorn a while back during a whole Rarity-dark magic thing. He recalled this pony being especially rude. "Never mind that," Spike waved it off, "Just what in Equestria are you doing down here?"

"Well, I was performing one of my spectacular shows, but the crowd went crazy and attacked me!" Claude began, "They destroyed my cart and I fled to nearest town, only to find that it full of those rainbow brutes as well! But then, I saw this here castle and thought 'why not hide here?', so I entered. But then that trap of yours went off and you chased me down here!"

Spike raised a scaly brow, "I don't trust you, but I guess any other pony is welcome here." Claude gave a little hop of joy and gathered up his puppets. "But you should've just knocked and saved me the trouble." Spike sighed, all that chasing and fear for a random guy. He was almost disappointed.

Spike turned and looked around, "Hmm," he muttered, not knowing which way to go, "I think we go- this way!"

So, Spike and Claude walked down the dark tunnels, unaware that they were being watched by a pair of eyes in the darkness.

At the end of the day, sneaking past Granny Smith wasn't an especially difficult task. That mare was asleep for nearly half the day. It was a bit trickier to get past Big Mac, but it was just a matter of patience with him. So all in all, Apple Bloom had little difficulty sneaking out of the farmhouse.

Now she trotted along the apple orchards, in the direction of the Cutie Mark Crusader treehouse. She looked up, the sun was still overhead, and that meant Celestia must have still been around. In fact, for Apple Bloom, things didn't seem so bad out there. There wasn't any zomponies, or really anypony out and about.

In a short while, the treehouse came into sight. It looked untouched, exactly like how Apple Bloom had last left it.

She climbed the ladder and entered inside. For an apparent apocalypse, things were normal. The framed pictures were still up. The furniture was still in its proper places. Even the paper lists were still where they had been left.

However, Apple Bloom was dissatisfied, there was no sign of any of the crusaders. She would have to make a plan for moving forward, possibly a search plan in main Ponyville. "Right Apple Bloom," she said to herself, "What would be the best way to save everypony?"

She was unable to answer herself as she heard rustling in the bushes outside. Apple Bloom walked over to the window to see a pony creep out of the bushes. It was the yellow-maned gray pegasus from the farm. The cross-eyed zompony tilted her head in curiosity, a strand of rainbow dripping from her mouth.

With a flap of her wings, the pegasus dashed for the ladder and began to disjointedly ascend. Apple Bloom screamed in alarm and dashed out, kicking the top of the ladder off the deck. The ladder fell with the pegasus still on top, flattening her on the ground.

Apple Bloom watched with happiness as the ditzy zompony crawled out from under the ladder and began to scamper away. But to Apple Bloom's confusion and dread, the pegasus, rather than fleeing like during all of her other attacks, instead began to paw at the ground.

A thump emanated from overhead, catching Apple Bloom's attention. She looked up to see that another pegasus had approached the treehouse, this time landing on the roof.

Her worst fears realized; Apple Bloom realized recognized the pony. The filly had an orange coat, and a dark cerise mane. And her stunted wings and shield-shaped cutie mark were unmistakable.

"Scootaloo?"

The pegasi yearling's ears twitched and she craned her head backwards, revealing her white eyes and the bright spit dripping from her mouth.

Tears forming in her eyes, Apple Bloom slowly backed away from her sick friend until Scootaloo jumped down. The diseased Scootaloo examined Apple Bloom for a few seconds, a look of recognition nearly flickering in her eyes. This was gone as soon as it appeared as the ill filly hissed and pounced. Apple Bloom jumped back from the attack, and with a shriek she stumbled and fell off the deck of the treehouse into the bushes below.

Breathing heavily, Apple Bloom stumbled out of the bushes. She looked up to see Scootaloo glaring down at here from above, her teeth bared. Apple Bloom rolled on the ground, then got up and ran away as fast as her hooves could carry her. Tears stinging her eyes, Apple Bloom swerved around the derpy zompony, who was still pawing the ground. Apple Bloom ignored the rumbling beneath her hooves, or at least until the ground began to shake.

Suddenly, a beige hoof erupted from the ground, taking hold of Apple Bloom's hind leg. A head followed, emerging from the dirt and attempting to bite Apple Bloom's hoof. Apple Bloom screamed and bucked the zompony in the snout, making her relinquish her hold on her hind leg.

Apple Bloom panted as she ran away from the dirty zompony, but the rumbling underneath her hooves followed. Her head twisted to the right to see more hooves stick out from the ground. Apple Bloom jumped away as the ground beneath her shuddered and a whole pegasus emerged, flexing his wings with a twitch. More and more dirty ponies erupted underground, and now they were getting on their hooves.

In a panic, Apple Bloom galloped as fast her body could take her. Within a minute, the Sweet Apple Acres farm was in sight. Apple Bloom looked to see Big Mac, still standing as a sentinel in front of the farmhouse.

"Big Mac! Big Mac!" she cried out.

Big Mac's head turned, "Apple Bloom?" Whatever anger he might have had at her leaving immediately vanished when confronted with the hysterical filly.

"Big Mac! Out in the orchard! There's-"

Apple Bloom was cut short as one of the wooden barricades shuddered. Big Mac turned to it, just to see the derpy pegasus pony stumble out from behind the barricade. He chuckled softly to himself, her? Again?

But something was different this time. The pegasi shook her head and stood in place, staring at Big Mac. It almost seemed like she was grinning. It wasn't long till he learned why.

He looked around in alarm as zomponies appeared from behind the apple trees all around them. There were at least a hundred ponies, all surrounding the farmhouse. The ground cracked as hooves emerged, snatching all four of Big Mac's legs. He stomped with all the power he could, but more and more emerged, soon with entire ponies crawling out from beneath him.

With a firm look, Big Mac turned to Apple Bloom, "Apple Bloom! Get outta here! Now!"

Apple Bloom did as he said as all the zomponies surged forward as one. The pegasi, having lost most of their flight capabilities, leapt from the trees. The unicorns' flickering magic tossed aside the barricades and fences while the earth ponies simply broke them down. Apple Bloom ran down the path to central Ponyville, jumping aside to avoid a snarling unicorn that jumped at her.

She looked back only once to see Big Mac get entirely covered by zombies and collapse, while the rest of the farm was swarmed.

Chapter 4

Outside the Ponyville Day Spa, a dozen ponies had gathered in a group. Most of them simply stood still, their rainbow drool congealing at their hooves. Two of the zomponies were fighting, snapping and hissing at each other.

Twilight winced at the sight. This group was her first real exposure to the infected, Pinkie Pie notwithstanding. It painful for her to see her fellow Ponyvillians reduced to that.

"What do you think they're doing?" Rainbow Dash quietly whispered. She was huddled next to Twilight in the abandoned shop they had taken roost in. Looking forward, Rainbow squinted, "You think they're trying to break in?"

"I don't think so," Twilight answered, "They would have broken down the door by now."

"Perhaps they're guarding it," Discord suggested.

Twilight turned to the draconequus behind her, his cartoonishly oversized sack looming behind him, "What in Equestria would some infected ponies be guarding? I don't even think they're capable of common sense let alone the ability to formulate strategy."

Rainbow stood up, "We should go inside."

"No Rainbow," Twilight sternly replied, "There's just too many out there, we should go and regroup at the castle."

"Ah, but you see Princess," Discord interjected, leaning in between the two ponies, "There may be too many of them for you, but not for the Spirit of Chaos."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "What? You wanna be a decoy?"

"Precisely Rainbow Dash," Discord said enthusiastically, booping the pegasus's snout with his claw, "I shall go out and distract that horde of mongrels, and you two can mozey right in." Twilight vocally disapproved but was promptly ignored as Discord left their hiding place. He twisted around one more time, "Just make sure my goods aren't damaged!"

Discord stepped onto the street and approached the entrance to the spa. This immediately got the attention of the zomponies, who all turned up in unison to stare at the advancing draconequus.

"My my," Discord remarked with mock surprise, "It is easy to get the attention of the brain-dead." One of the group, a pink pony named Bella Brella, stepped forward, her teeth bared while dribbling rainbow ooze. "Yes! That's it! Come on forward! Target me!" Discord paused, "Hmm, this distraction could use a bit more chaos."

He grinned and snapped his fingers, causing a firework to appear mid-air. The firework ignited and promptly plopped onto the ground before shuddering and stopping with a pop. Discord frowned, unimpressed, "I see my magic is as underwhelming as usual."

The zomponies disagreed, the firework shifting their confusion to anger. Bella Brella howled with fury and pounced at Discord, who quickly noodled his way through the pony's hooves. The rest of the group followed suit, charging in Discord's direction. Discord laughed maniacally as he jumped and swerved through the mound of gnashing jaws and flying spittle before he dashed down the street, going as fast as his stumpy legs could carry him.

Rainbow and Twilight watched as Discord and the mob of zomponies turned the corner and vanished out of sight. Once the coast was clear, Twilight motioned her hoof, and the pair quickly crept across the street through the mud.

"Don't forget Discord's 'goods'," Twilight reminded, carefully stepping around the thick puddle of brightly colored drippings that had gathered in front of the door.

Rainbow sighed, but heeded the instructions, turning to lift the oversized sack onto her back. "Maybe we should go help Discord," Rainbow grunted.

Twilight waved her off, "I'm sure he can handle it, now come on, get inside. I want to see what's going on inside here." The alicorn pressed a hoof to the door, which surprisingly, opened effortlessly.

"Careful Twilight," Rainbow said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "The last time I found a door unlocked, I ended up in a net! You know, the one you set." Twilight smirked but didn't respond, instead moving into the spa.

The day spa was, as expected, a complete mess. Most of the furniture had been shoved aside, and hoof prints marked the walls and doorways. The lighting was all gone, but interestingly, rainbow slime had been applied to various points on the walls and ceiling, providing a soft, multicolored glow to the room.

"Wow," commented Rainbow as she heaved the bag through the doorway, "nice decor. Rarity would go crazy at this."

Twilight rolled her eyes and pulled out two rods. These rods had crystals attached to their ends and were magically enchanted to give off light. These sparkle-lights, as Twilight nicknamed them, made good replacements for her illumination spell.

"Enough joking," she said, straining as she magically lifted a sparkle-light into Rainbow's free hoof, "let's see if we can find anything."

The light flickered on, illuminating the mess of the room. Twilight scanned her light across the room. The dirty hoofprints seem to indicate many ponies moving out of the room.

Rainbow did the same, carrying the bag and the light through a doorway into the hallway. Unfortunately, the hallway had nothing of note either. She sighed to herself, but then she heard something. Her ears perked up, catching the sound of trickling water.

She slowly strode down the hall, the sound growing louder. What was it? Leftover drippings from the previous night's rain? Rainbow turned into a doorway and instantly found her answer.

"Uh Twilight? You might want to take a look at this."

Soon later, Twilight had entered next to Rainbow. Her jaw dropped.

Right in the middle of the day spa, some kind of round chasm had opened. The floor and at least one wall had been cracked apart, leaning into the pit which was the size of a house. The pipes of the spa stuck out from sides of the pit where it intersected with the lower levels of the building. The pipes still had flowing water, which trickled out and down into the darkness below, creating a gentle steam that rose up.

Twilight turned her sparkle-light down into the pit. Whatever it was, the pit lacked a visible bottom, the beam of her light diffusing into the darkness.

Rainbow turned to Twilight, "You think the rain opened a sinkhole or something?"

"No," Twilight said immediately. She narrowed her eyes as she examined the pit. "Look at that," she directed her light to the sides of pit, revealing deep claw marks that ran along the edges, "I think something made this."

"Hm, maybe- no. What if?" Twilight continued to mutter to herself as she paced back and forth. She had just entered into the front hall of the Castle of Friendship, having entered into a deep state of thinking after leaving the Ponyville Spa. The alicorn had speed-walked back to the castle after the discovery of the pit in the spa, unintentionally leaving Rainbow Dash behind.

"Yeah, thanks for the help," Rainbow said sarcastically as she groggily pulled Discord's bag through the door. She heaved one more time, lifting the sack and tossing it into the corner where it landed with a thud.

"Huh?" Twilight snapped out of her thinking state and looked up, "You're welcome?"

"Whatever," Rainbow said as she stretched her back, "I'm gonna see if anypony else is back."

"Yes yes," Twilight spluttered in response, "we should do that!"

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "Okay Twi, what's going on?"

"Oh nothing! Just preoccupied, that's all! Got a lot to think about you know!"

"Sure."

Rainbow Dash knew Twilight was lying, but she knew Twilight was just "Twilighting" things out, and it would be best to give her space. Instead, after closing and locking the front door, Rainbow walked down the hall to the meeting room. She walked into the room to see, Discord.

He was leaning back on Twilight's chair, absentmindedly examining a claw. Of course, he wasn't alone. The sounds of the infected Pinkie could be heard, albeit muffled, inside the covered cage. Applejack had returned, sitting in one corner of the room with a new face, Sweetie Belle, who was busy eating some of the accursed rainbow cookies. Another new face, some pudgy unicorn Rainbow didn't recognize, stood elsewhere. Spike stood by the doorway, keeping an eye on everyone else.

"Did you protect my goods?" Discord asked without looking up.

"Yeah yeah, I did," Rainbow replied, "Your stupid bag, which is extremely heavy for some puppets I might add, is in the front hall."

"Good," Discord answered flatly, "It was getting oh so boring around here." Without another word, the draconequus straightened up and left, brushing aside Rainbow.

Applejack walked up bearing a sad expression, "So I take it you didn't find Fluttershy and found him didn't ya?"

Rainbow nodded, "Yeah, same with Rarity?"

Applejack glanced back towards Sweetie Belle, "Yep."

All heads turned as the doors opened. Twilight walked in, "So I see Discord made his way here." She turned to Applejack "So how'd it go out there? Me and Rainbow found that Fluttershy is, impaired and something, interesting at the spa."

"My folks at the farm are fine for the time being, but it seems that Rarity's sick as well, but I did find Sweetie Belle. The poor filly was hungrier than a hound!"

"Okay," Twilight turned to Spike, "So Spike, might I ask who he is?"

In response, the unicorn hopped and walked over, giving a little bow, "I am Claudey Coals! Puppeteer and entertainer-"

He shushed as Spike put a claw to his lips, "His name's Claude, he broke in and I found him in the tunnels."

Twilight did a double take, "Wait, you went into the castle tunnels? Alone?"

"Why the heck would you do that?" Rainbow yelled, "Have you never read a zombie story before?"

Spike shrugged, "I'm more of a Power Ponies kinda fella."

Twilight flapped her wings, getting the attention of everyone else, "Regardless of some bad choices," she announced, "I'm glad to see that you're all okay, and that we have some new faces. It's time we have a meeting and make our plan."

It took a few hours, but by sunset, Twilight had finished her preparations. During the meantime, the other survivors of the group middled around the castle. Spike and Applejack took turns keeping watch for any infected ponies outside. Discord bonded with Claude with his sudden love of puppets, of which Sweetie Belle found endlessly entertaining, mainly due to Discord's ability to immaculately imitate other pony's voices. Rainbow, however, simply sulked in the study. As if Equestria itself had a bone to pick with her, she was stuck in a castle with two creatures obsessed with puppets. Never minding some more personal inner turmoils.

Nevertheless, by the time the group had assembled in the meeting room once again, dusk had fallen, regardless of it's unknown causes. Twilight had taken the time assemble a chalkboard with various illustrations.

"Good," Twilight said to the assembled group, "Now that we're all here, I would like to take the time to discuss current events." The group was all sitting in front of the roundtable, some of them, Rainbow mostly, trying desperately to ignore the shallow breathing coming from inside the muffled cage.

"Thanks to our experiences from today and personal recollections from other sources, I have been able to deduce some more information about the nature of this infection." Twilight paused, the candlelight making her look much more serious, "However, I still do not have the required information to come to a solid conclusion, which is why I have you all gathered here."

Applejack raised a hoof, "Gathered us for what exactly?"

"Hypothesis, educated guesses, shots in the dark! Anything!" Twilight clapped her hooves together for emphasis.

A moment of silence passed before Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up, "How do we know he didn't cause this?" she asked, acknowledging Discord.

He scoffed indignantly, "This again? I have already said it once and I will say it again! This kind of trouble is too much for me! It's too prolonged! The trouble I cause is best in short bursts! The kind that can be solved in thirty minutes or maybe a two-parter!"

"Right, maybe Sweetie's onto somethin'," Applejack stated, "Do we know anypony who could've caused this?"

"Maybe Queen Chrysalis?" Spike suggested, "We haven't seen her since the whole wedding thing."

Twilight shook her head, "Unlikely, a plague doesn't seem to fit her, and besides, there's no evidence of changeling magic involved in this."

Rainbow spoke up next, "How about Starlight? Maybe another one of her spell thing's went bad."

Twilight furrowed her brow, despite Starlight's whereabouts being unknown, Twilight trusted her, even despite previous incidents. "No, that's not it at all." She turned back to the board, jotting down some more scribblings. "I'm not even sure if the disease originated in Ponyville."

Claude butted in, "Okay miss smarty hooves, why'd you ask for us if you're just going to say no to everything? In fact, why are we even bothering with this? Who cares why this started when we can just go out and-" he slid a hoof across his throat while making a squelching sound.

Rainbow stood up, "We are not going to off anypony! They may be sick, but they're our friends!"

"They ain't my friends," Claude calmly stated, leaning back in his chair, "Besides, survival of the fittest and all that."

A silence fell over the group as everyone else glared at him in silence. The only sound came from the cage, where Pinkie rustled quietly against the covered bars.

"So anyhow," Discord warmly interjected, "how about we get back to the point? I didn't get bitten for nothing you know."

This statement got everyone's attention. "Wait," Applejack stared at him, "you got bitten?"

"Oh yes, didn't I tell you? Those zombies back there chewed me all over," he held up his claw, which was covered in small bite marks, making it look like a used pencil. "To be frank," he held a puppet with nametag that read 'Frank'.

"I thought the disease was transmitted through bites," said the puppet in a high-pitched voice, "but turns out it ain't."

Discord turned to the puppet, "So how is it transmitted Frank?"

"Beats me! They lost interest faster than Pinkie Pie watching paint dry!"

Discord chuckled at the puppet's metaphor, "Oh Frank! You and your callbacks!" He paused, looking back to Twilight. He chuckled again, putting the puppet away, "As Frank said, it is unknown to me how the disease spreads, whether I am not of interest or I am immune is of no interest to me."

"Well," Twilight sighed, "That would have been good to know earlier."

"Well, I told you now Princess, isn't that enough?"

"I guess, your information is useful, it's nearly enough to tie out my working theory."

"Which is?" Applejack stood up; she had a tired expression on her face, "I'm a might tired of all this secrecy Twilight, if you know somethin', you best speak it out."

"It's just that-" she paused and rubbed the back of her head, "I- I can't. Just not enough information, I just need some answers."

"We all want answers Twilight, that doesn't mean you should keep secrets."

Twilight sighed once more, "Fine, you want to know the truth? The only thing I'm sure of is that infected are underground and likely underneath our hooves as we speak!"

In the tunnels underneath the Castle of Friendship, a faint light was cast against the crystalline wall. Twilight had been quick to seal off the tunnels again once she learned of Spike's and Claude's escapades. But what she was unaware of was that there was another pony down there as well.

Starlight Glimmer was relatively a newcomer to the castle, having been befriended by Twilight after her failed attempts with changing the past. She had struggled to fit in with the others at first but had quickly begun to find her place in Ponyville.

Of course, all of this was a distant memory now, blurring together as a homogeneous mass within Starlight's mind. Now, Starlight's horn, dented and dirty, softly glowed as she tacked against the wall again. This was the weak point of the castle's foundations, one that could be broken.

And breaking it was, as the Starlight had been chipping away at the wall for days. For she knew that the only way into the castle was from underneath, as that was the way they had to spread. Underneath, like a malignant tumor. Starlight breathed softly, the breath catching on the web of rainbow that stretched from the roof of her mouth. Nearly there. Her horn powered up again, and she wacked the wall again.

With a small clink, the first crack formed. Starlight paused, then hit the wall again with increased fervor. Again and again as the crack splintered and grew. Small miniscule crystals began to fall off as the zompony aggressively hit her horn against the wall.

This was her task after all. A task that had taken root in her mind, ignoring all other impulses and the voice of the pony that silently screamed inside.

Chapter 5

Five days post infection...

"C'mon Rainbow! We can't be out here all day! It just ain't safe!" Applejack tapped her hoof on the ground. She had been waiting for ten minutes already.

They had arrived at the Rainbow's house, or at least the remains of it, earlier. Because of the diminished magic, the airborne house had fallen to the ground, it's cloud-based structure collapsing in on itself. Rainbow Dash almost seemed to not mind the loss of her dwelling, though Applejack assumed it was more of the pegasi's denial in action.

Rainbow's hoof popped up from an errant cloud pile, "Wait! I almost got him!" She rummaged through the piles a bit more, then suddenly jumped out, "Gotcha!" In her hooves was a green tortoise, Tank, who looked up at her warmly. "See AJ? I knew he'd still be here! Didn't I Tank?" She affectionately nuzzled the tortoise's head.

Applejack chuckled, "That's great 'n all Rainbow, but we gotta get to the farm then hoof it back to the castle!"

"Yeah yeah, I know, 'imminent danger' or whatever." Rainbow hopped down, balancing Tank on her back.

The duo had left earlier in the morning, mainly for Applejack to check on her family at Sweet Apple Acres, but due to Rainbow's insistence, they had taken a detour for the retrieval of Tank. Luckily, the farm was nearby Rainbow's house, meaning they could quickly proceed to the farm.

A few minutes later, Sweet Apple Acres came into sight. Applejack picked up her pace, for she was eagerly awaiting the return to her family. Even after the events of the previous night, which had shaken up everypony, Applejack was certain that they would still be there. After all, even if the zomponies were wriggling through the ground like earthworms, from Applejack's own experiences, they were uncoordinated and random; hardly a threat that could take down a member of the Apple family.

Applejack stopped, normally at this point in the farm, she would have to step around the wooden barricades that had been set up. But now, the barricade lay flat on the ground. Could have just been the wind, right? But this was not so. Her eyes widened with horror when she looked to the right, the next barricade was tilted at an angle, completely splintered down the middle. Without a moment of hesitation, the orange earth pony set off on a gallop ahead to the farm.

Rainbow trotted after her, "Wait Applejack! Wait up!"

The Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse was in rough shape. The windows were shattered, walls broken in, and that awful rainbow goo was splattered onto its sides. It had clearly been the target of a deliberate attack.

"No no no! They just gotta be in here!" Applejack frantically searched through the remains of the farmhouse.

Rainbow Dash entered through the splintered doorway soon after and watched as the earth pony flipped over a whole shelf. "Applejack."

Breathing heavily, Applejack sat on the ground, "They're gone," she took off her hat, "They're gone and it's all my fault."

Rainbow placed a hoof on her shoulder, "It's not your fault," she said, trying to be reassuring, "there's nothing you could have done."

"But there was something dangit!" Applejack snapped back, "I could have gone back earlier! Or never have left at all! I just- I just promised to protect them, Rainbow. Granny, Big Mac," she paused, "Apple Bloom. But now, now they're all gone."

The two sat in silence for a long while.

As the sun overhead shone through the holes in the walls, the light bounced off a single tear that rolled down Applejack's cheek. Applejack, the pony who almost never cried. Rainbow looked at her sadly, "Let's get up, we should head back to the castle."

With reluctance, Applejack nodded and stood up. "Yeah, I guess you're right." The pony slowly walked out, her body slouching with sadness, but her eyes burned with a fierce determination. With fury. She would make them pay for what they did.

Nary a creature had slept at the Castle of Friendship the previous night, but currently, things were just quiet enough that some of the survivors were taking a break. Twilight had locked herself in the meeting room, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack had left earlier for a quick outing to the apple orchards.

With his main sources of amusement unavailable, Discord, who was feeling bored, was forced to find his own means of entertainment. This ended up being more puppet-based antics with Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle drummed her hooves on the ground, "So you can imitate anypony you want?"

"Of course I can," Discord replied proudly, "Just one of the many perks of being a spirit based on an abstract concept. Of course, it's not as good as full-on impersonation, but it is one of the things I can still do with my limited chaos magic."

Sweetie Belle turned to look at Discord's oversized and lumpy brown bag, which had been placed against the wall. "Can you do Applejack?"

"Ha! Do pigs fly?" Discord paused, normally he would summon a flying pig for effect, "I mean yes. Yes they do."

The draconequus cracked his knuckles and cleared his throat, closing his eyes as he prepared himself. "Howdy y'all!" he said in a perfect imitation of Applejack's voice, "I'm Applejack! Boy howdy do I love apples! Apples apples apples!"

He paused, "Was that good enough for you?" he asked in his regular voice. He opened an eye, to see Sweetie Belle opening his sack.

"Don't touch that bag!" he yelled; his voice suddenly dripping with venom as his claw slapped away the filly's hooves.

The unicorn filly stumbled backwards, landing on her rump. She looked up at Discord with those big eyes, "What? I only wanted to see what puppets you have!"

"Hmph," Discord sniveled, all warmth gone from his voice, "that bag is my property. And I don't want any pony touching it."

Claude walked past Sweetie Belle and Discord, who ignored him. He grumbled to himself. The two were playing puppets again or something, not that he cared. Who cares about puppets, when your well-being is at stake?

He had tried to convince the group the previous night, tossed out a few ideas and suggestions, but they, especially that Twilight, had refused! Despite the apparent "princess's" wishes, Claude had decided to take matters into his own hooves.

He toddled through the front hall, and down the corridor he had ran down when he first entered the castle. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he struggled to maintain his limited magic on the shovel floating next to him. Oh yes, he knew if the zomponies were "beneath" them, they just had to be in the tunnels. The tunnels Twilight refused to open again. But Claude planned to, he planned to open those the tunnels, go down, and take care of the problem once and for all.

He stopped in front of the familiar entrance. Sure enough, it had been closed again, but without her advanced spells, all Twilight could do was move the entrance back in place. Something that could be easily undone.

Claude stopped and sighed, then jammed the shovel into the crack of the door. He grunted, straining as hard as he could as the shovel began to bend. With groan, the door creaked, and cracked open. He laughed to himself, and playfully kicked the door open. He took a step forward then stopped.

A pair of pure white eyes stared back at him. A pony, a purple unicorn with a dark purple mane, stood still at the top of the stairs. Quick to regain his composure, Claude yelled and swung the shovel at the zomponies head. Instead, the shovel harmlessly clattered to the ground, as the magic from his horn flickered and vanished.

A single drop of rainbow dripped from the unicorn's mouth as she tilted her head. Behind her, more pairs of eyes appeared in the darkness.

In the meeting room of the castle, the central cage was still covered. Twilight was in her deep state of thought, jotting down different things with chalk and ink. Spike was there as well, taking a much-needed nap against the wall. Suddenly, a scream echoed through the castle. Twilight twisted her head and Spike jolted awake.

"Oh no, was that-" Twilight began, before dropping everything she was doing. Spike was also quick to react, grabbing his fire poker and dashing out the room. Twilight began to follow him, before suddenly jerking to a stop. She heard something, a voice, from the cage.

"Twilight?"

Twilight turned, her eyes filling with confusion and sadness, "Pinkie Pie?"

"What's going on?" Spike hurriedly asked as he ran up to Discord and Sweetie Belle.

"Who knows?" Discord replied snidely, picking up the puppets scattered about. The scream from down the hall had startled both of them, causing Discord to knock over his bag and scatter his puppets everywhere.

"I know!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle. She pointed a hoof down the hall, "That!"

Into the front hall walked Starlight Glimmer, her mane messy and a rainbow trail of drippings following her. Her horn was dented and dirty and flickered violently with pulsing magic. Magic that suspended Claude mid-air above them, who flailed his limbs about, like a marionette tangled in its strings.

Spike gasped, "Starlight?" He could swear Starlight almost smiled in response before the unicorn let out a sudden burst of magic, flinging him off his feet. The dragon skidded and rolled on the ground before colliding with a pillar. He grunted as he stood up again, "I don't want to hurt you, but I can't let you do this!" He inhaled deeply and jumped forward. A plume of green flames poured out of his mouth, causing the zomponies to back away.

However, this defense was short-lived as Spike was suddenly pounced on from the side. The dragon and his attacker rolled on the ground until Spike found himself pinned on the ground and gasped as he stared up at the snarling jowls of his attacker, Rarity.

During the commotion, attention had been turned away from Discord's puppet bag. Having been knocked over, the bag lay open, exposing its insides to the loud noises outside. Noises that attracted the attention of someone inside.

The cloth began to rustle as a pegasus shimmied her way out of the bag and rolled onto the floor. Fluttershy, her wings, hooves bound, and her mouth gagged, was angrier than ever. Discord had taken her with him the day prior, refusing to part with his favorite pony.

Her limbs straining, Fluttershy snapped to attention, looking hungrily at Sweetie Belle, who's back was turned. The yellow pegasi's hunger had already ballooned since first entering the castle, but now, the magic and noise made her voracious. Fluttershy viciously gnawed at the spit-soaked rag tied around her muzzle. Her wings flexed, the feathers bending as they buckled the rags keeping her bound.

Then, after the previous hours of non-stop aggression, the frayed ropes snapped, falling limply to the floor. Fluttershy shuddered as she stretched out her limbs once again, free. Free to go and pursue her prey.

Meanwhile...

Twilight quickly tore the cover off the cage. She looked inside, staring at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie looked back, not with the dead-eyed stare like before, but with her normal, bright eyes. No rainbow dribbled from her mouth, in fact, the pony almost looked happy for a moment.

Pinkie Pie didn't say anything at first, only turning her head to look at Twilight with her big blue eyes. Eyes that held an expression of indiscriminate sadness, "Why am I in here Twilight?" The question hit Twilight like a hammer. "Did I do something wrong?" Pinkie asked, her poofy mane deflating.

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight sputtered, stepping closer to the cage, "I- I thought you were sick!"

"What?" Pinkie tilted her head like a curious puppy.

"You!" Twilight said, "And Fluttershy, and Rarity, and almost everypony else! You were sick, I didn't know what to do."

"I don't feel sick," Pinkie stated, "Can I go out?" Twilight didn't answer, instead deeply sighing as she looked down. This was enough for Pinkie to see what Twilight was going to say. "Why not?" Pinkie asked, "Aren't I your friend?"

"I can't let you out this early!" Twilight yelled out, tears beginning to well up in her eyes, "Not without knowing if you're still sick."

"Twilight! Please," Pinkie stared at her, her lower lip quivering, "I don't wanna be in here anymore! It's so cold." She sniffled, her mane deflating even more.

"I just can't," Twilight quietly sighed.

Pinkie Pie sniffed and lowered her head and began to softly weep, her hooves clutching the cold, metal bars of the cage. This was enough to break the alicorn. "I'm sorry Pinkie! Don't cry," exclaimed Twilight, who was now crying as well, "I'll let you out! I'm sorry." With a burst of concentration, Twilight lifted the cage with her magic, allowing the pink pony inside to crawl out. Overhead, the crystal walls of the castle flickered, like a lightbulb losing power.

"I never meant to hurt you! Please forgive me."

"Stand back Sweetie Belle!" Discord chortled, his claws outstretched, "I shall handle these intruders!" He snapped his fingers, causing a baguette to appear mid-air. Not the weaponry he wanted, but it more useful than his magical flops previously.

With a pathetic war-cry, the draconequus charged, running face-to-hoof at the nearest zompony, who, unfortunately, happened to be Bulk Biceps. With a single swipe, Discord was sent careening through the air and cratered face-first into a pillar.

As he peeled off the wall and groggily stood up, Discord made a weary proclamation, "Note to self, do not charge the largest zombie first."

A scream to his right made him snap back to attention. Discord curved his neck to see that Fluttershy had somehow escaped his bag! The pegasus had pounced on Sweetie Belle and sunk her teeth into the filly's ear. Discord ran to the rescue, quickly using his tail to wrap around and incapacitate the pegasus, suspending her upside-down mid-air.

"Now Fluttershy," Discord tsked, "You were not supposed to come out so early!" Fluttershy merely snapped at him in response. From a combination of Discord and her surroundings, Fluttershy had become much more aggressive than the other infected. Around them, the walls of the castle flickered as Discord turned to see Starlight and the zombies advancing. Certainly, things seemed lost.

Suddenly, a loud yell rang out through the front hall as a hoof swept out, connecting Starlight right in the forehead. The sick unicorn flew back, her horn cracking and breaking in two, shattering the unicorn's horn and magic. The magic overhead dissipated, leaving Claude to scream as he fell into the mob of zomponies beneath him.

The top half of Starlight's horn rolled on the ground, coming to a rest at the hoof of a pony. It was Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Tank, who had arrived back from Sweet Apple Acres! With a look of fury, Applejack galloped at the zomponies. She didn't hold back, kicking out her legs and hooves as she fought back the zombies.

Meanwhile, Rainbow dashed to the aide of the others. "Come on guys! We need to get outta here!" Her expression soured upon noticing the infected Fluttershy caught in Discord's tail. "Is that Fluttershy?"

Discord nervously chuckled, "Well, the funny thing is-"

Rainbow angrily waved him off, "Not the time! Get Sweetie Belle to somewhere safe!" She motioned a hoof to the sobbing unicorn on the ground.

Next, Rainbow yelled out to Spike. "Spike! We gotta go! The castle's a lost cause!"

Spike turned to her wearily, he had been, reluctantly, fighting off Rarity the whole while. "Right behind you! Let me just get Twilight first!" He shot out another burst of flame, driving back Rarity once more, before he dashed off to the meeting room.

There was only one more pony Rainbow needed to save, "Applejack!"

Applejack didn't respond, ignoring Rainbow as she bucked a hoof right into the snout of a zompony, whose nose crunched as it bended backwards. She kicked out again, wiping Bulk Bicep's hooves from beneath him. The oversized pegasus fell to the ground with a loud thump. But Applejack didn't stop. She kicked at him, again and again. She kicked until hooves grabbed her from behind and dragged her back.

"Applejack! Stop!" Rainbow yelled, "You can't hurt them!"

"Why not?" Applejack barked, "These aren't ponies, they're monsters! And a monster should be put down!" She jerked in Rainbow's arms, but her grip was firm enough that Rainbow was able to drag Applejack to the castle door.

"You're just upset," Rainbow said sternly, trying to escape the castle as more zomponies poured up from the tunnels, "I know how you feel, but hurting others isn't going to make it better!"

Applejack froze, then sighed as she stopped thrashing. "I get ya, but-"

Rainbow hushed her, "How about we wait until we're not in moral peril?"

Applejack softly smiled, "Yep, that would be preferable."

Applejack relaxed again as Rainbow let go of her and stood up. The duo of ponies, leaving the door open for Spike and Twilight, ran away into Ponyville, leaving behind the mob of zomponies who stood at the door and watched.

"I'm sorry," Twilight sobbed again, having curled up against the wall, "I never meant this! I didn't know!"

"No Twilight, I'm sorry." Twilight looked up, her eyes focusing on Pinkie standing before her. Pinkie stood still, frowning slightly, her eyes filled with remorse.

"Wha- what?"

Pinkie sniffed, "I'm sorry. Sorry for-" but she never finished the sentence, her words getting caught in her throat as the pink pony began to cough. Violently.

Taken aback, Twilight stood up, only then noticing the two other ponies that had entered the meeting room. A unicorn and a pegasus.

Twilight began to breathe heavily, "Rarity? Fluttershy?"

The walls flickered ever-so-slightly, darkening the room a bit more. Fluttershy and Rarity stood at either side of Pinkie, who's coughs turned to gags as the brightly colored ooze began to seep from her throat once more. Fluttershy and Rarity stood at attention, staring at Twilight with those white eyes, ignoring Pinkie as she began to cry loudly, not from pain, but from grief.

The gagging and crying stopped as quickly as it started. Pinkie Pie twisted her neck up to stare at the alicorn. She blinked once, revealing the pure whiteness that Twilight had come to dread. Then Pinkie pounced. Twilight tried to charge up a spell, any spell, with her horn, but it flickered and extinguished immediately. In an instant, Pinkie Pie knocked Twilight to the ground.

Twilight, her back and wings spread on the floor, looked up in horror as the three infected ponies walked up to her. Rarity and Fluttershy moved first, each violently clutching a hoof and a wing and pinning them to the ground. Tears stinging her eyes, Twilight tried to free herself, but it was no use.

Pinkie Pie stepped over her, looking down on the fallen alicorn. Rainbow ooze poured from all three of their mouths and dripped toward their prisoner's face. Twilight wailed and twisted her head, but it was too much, she could only grimace as the hot and sticky bioluminescent slime dripped onto her fur and slowly slid into her mouth.

She convulsed as the rainbow made its way down her throat, but suddenly Twilight could hear voices. New voices. Voices she couldn't recognize.

A deeper voice spoke first, a voice that felt familiar yet was completely unknown, 'Oh, you ponies. So easy to manipulate, so easy to control.'

A shrill chorus of voices joined.

'To control. To pull. Our puppet.'

'Your emotions made you weak,' the deeper voice continued, 'Much easier than the other princesses, but don't worry, we can fix you.'

'We can. We shall. We will.'

Pinkie Pie gagged once more; her head recoiled as the stream of rainbow came out thicker than ever before. Twilight shook her head and cried as Pinkie shuddered and her neck bulged unnaturally. A long, thin, sinewy leg appeared, delicately grasping the side of Pinkie's mouth. Three more legs appeared, and eventually, a small head. An undersized head with six glassy eyes and a set of buzzing mandibles poked out. The head was connected to a bulbous, fleshy sack, pulsing with rainbow-colored light and bulging veins. The bug chittered once and began to crawl out onto the pony's tongue.

The shrill voices began again, disjointedly chanting as Pinkie Pie jerked yet again, her head twisting as the bug began to slowly lower itself to Twilight from a single strand of rainbow goo. Twilight shuddered, trying to keep her mouth closed, but the creature latched onto her lips with its claws and pried them open. With a sudden burst of speed, the creature leapt at her face, and crawled into her throat.

Twilight sputtered and gagged, her body violently shaking as it was held down by the emotionless shells of her former friends. Her eyes rolled back as she screamed, the voices in her head growing louder and louder as they blended together as a mass of incoherent crying and screaming when suddenly, everything stopped, and faded to darkness.

Chapter 6

Spike woke up on the ground, or more specifically, the dirt. He blinked and squinted. He was laying on his back, looking straight up to the sunset tinted sky overhead. Around him were the green tops of trees with their little leaves sticking out, creating a natural border around the clearing.

He grunted as he stood up, wiping away specks of rainbow goo encrusted around his mouth. The last thing he remembered was the attack in the Castle of Friendship. He had begun running to meeting room to get Twilight. Everything after became blurry, a persistent fog that encroached in his mind.

"What happened? Where am I?" Spike groggily questioned to no one in particular. His voice sounded raspy, he swallowed, biding the pain in his throat while looking around, examining his surroundings. He seemed to be in Everfree Forest, the surrounding darkness of the trees and hanging vines being a tell-tale sign. But it wasn't a location he recognized.

There was a large pool connected to a wide, sparkling waterfall as well as a multitude of smaller, bubbling pools. Steam rose and coalesced above the pools, indicating their warmth and bringing an atmosphere of moistness to the clearing. It was the Everfree hot springs, a place he had heard Zecora mention once or twice before, but never actually seen himself.

A yawning sound from behind made Spike spin around with the realization that he wasn't alone. In fact, far from it. The Cake Twins lay on the ground right behind him, sleeping peacefully in the grass. Curled up with one another, the two infants seemed completely fine and disinterested with the situation.

Spike gasped, in the shadows of the trees further back were more ponies. Featherweight, Twist, Shady Daze, all the fillies and colts Spike could recognize were grouped together, fast asleep on the ground.

"Don't bother with 'em," said a voice, "I already tried waking them up. They're out cold."

Spike turned his attention to the singular filly who was speaking to him, "Apple Bloom? What are you doing here?"

"It's nice to see you too Spike," she faintly smiled in response before sighing, "and it's a long story."

"Why aren't you at Sweet Apple Acres? Applejack's going be worried sick!"

"Sweet Apple Acres is gone," Apple Bloom responded coldly, "I was the only pony who made it out." Spike's fins drooped as Apple Bloom began to tear up. "I was gonna go to the castle, but some pegasi were chasing me and-" she stopped as Spike pulled her into a hug. It seemed like everybody need a nice hug nowadays.

"I'm sorry for your loss," said Spike, "I really am. I wish we could've helped, but- things weren't going too great on our end either."

"What happened?"

"Starlight got infected and let in a whole bunch of zomponies. The others got out, but Twilight, I'm not sure."

"So how did you get here?"

Spike shrugged, "I don't know, I think I blacked out or something." He coughed, the aching in his throat getting to him.

"Well, I was tossed in here after I got captured," said Apple Bloom, "by Zecora." Spike thought to himself, so zebras weren't immune to the disease, that was some interesting information. At the very least she wasn't left out, not like the last time Ponyville got sick.

"What about them?" asked Spike, motioning to the other foals near them.

"No idea, they were already there when I got here."

Spike caressed his throat to ease the pain while he pondered. Already there? Were they imprisoned? Immediately the stones around him made sense. They weren't random nor natural, instead making up crudely constructed barrier for him and the ponies, a fence of sorts, a pen. There didn't seem to be any guards, at least not until the leaves overhead began to rustle.

A zompony pegasus stuck her head out from branches, turning her eyes to stare at the hot springs. Another pegasus emerged and did the same, swiftly climbing the down large Everfree tree using her wings as a third set of limbs to grasp the wood. With an unspoken agreement, both Apple Bloom and Spike simultaneously flopped onto the ground, pretending they were unconscious like their fellow co-inhabitors.

Spike opened a single eye while his snout touched the dirt. Both of the pegasi sentries stood at attention, their backs turned to the pen, facing a small parade of zomponies that rounded around the large boulders gracing the edges of the waterfall. Mr and Mrs Cake led the procession, stumping forward, their jaws slack with the rainbow dripping out, creating a bioluminescent carpet for the unicorns that followed. The unicorns walked in single file, each of their horns faintly glowing, suspending an object mid-air a good ten feet above their heads.

Spike then observed the floating objects and realized it wasn't what they were floating, but who. The floating things were ponies, a line of infected foals floating slowly toward the pen. Spike knew these ponies as well, Diamond Tiara, Snips, but the first one was the most notable, and distressing, and he could tell from Apple Bloom's muffled gasp that she saw them as well.

The infected Scootaloo hovered suspended by magic mid-air and was the first of the sick fillies in the line that approached nearer and nearer. Scootaloo had all the tell-tale marks of the infection, but her limbs violently twitched and her whole body shuddered as if she was pain. The line of zomponies lurched to halt as the Cakes reached the edge of the pen.

Spike clenched his jaw as the zomponies began to line up around the pen, but their attention was turned elsewhere. All the infected adults had turned their gaze skyward towards Scootaloo, who uncontrollably spasmed in a manner more aggressive than even the other magically suspended foals.

Everyone watched in silence as Scootaloo's stomach began to bulge outward as she loudly gagged. The bulge began to move upwards as her jaw hinged open. Scootaloo's eyes clamped shut as she retched forward, regurgitating a large spray of the rainbow goo that poured downward and splattered on the ground. As the pegasi finished heaving, the unicorn suspending Scootaloo let go and tossed her into the pen, where the little yearling rolled onto the ground and remained still.

The unicorn and the Cakes stumbled forward to the technicolor vomit spread on the ground. In the middle was a bug of some kind that resembled an oversized maggot. Its four, thin legs were curled up in the air, and it displayed no movement except for the stray bits of rainbow that dripped from it creases.

Like a hawk on the move, the Cakes leapt into action, Mr. Cake moving first and stomping a hoof into the grub's abdomen. Spike shuddered and turned away as a squelching sound echoed out. Mr. Cake's hoof punctured the waxy flesh like a rotten pumpkin, getting covered in a layer of rainbow slime and stringy bits of green. Mrs. Cake was next, crushing the creature's head which crunched like a leaf underhoof. Again and again the zomponies stomped on the grub, until it was completely shattered into the ground. Then, they leaned down, and began to eat the grub's innards. Slowly and methodically, the Cakes ate every bit of the creature's body, while Scootaloo's unicorn carrier licked up the rainbow vomit.

When the bug's body had been completely devoured, the trio of zomponies marched away to the hot springs where they proceeded to bend their heads towards the warm waters and regurgitate the bits and slime of the grub into the springs.

With the process complete, the unicorn left, turning and marching away to where she had emerged. The next unicorn stepped forward. Diamond Tiara overhead began to loudly gag. Spike grimaced and buried his face in the dirt as the arduous process began once more.

The sun had set as another day in Ponyville ended. Rainbow Dash pressed her muzzle against the window, gazing downwards on the streets. She was checking to see if they were followed but of course the streets of Ponyville were empty, just like the other nine times she had checked previously. In fact, none of them in the group had seen anybody, infected or not, leave the castle.

Rainbow frowned, she knew that they should be moving, preferably out of Ponyville, but they still had to wait. They had to wait for Twilight and Spike. If they made it, and she knew they did, they would come here, to Sugarcube Corner, the group's meeting place even before the outbreak.

Sugarcube Corner was, like everywhere else, dirty and dark, but it had gone untouched for a majority of the time. It seemed that the Cakes including the twins, had left early on, and they all knew what happened with Pinkie. They had holed up in the upper floor of the bakery, both as a way to avoid the "burrowing" zomponies and a way to get a good lookout over Ponyville. The group was huddled in the darkness, none of them daring to create a light, leaving them all in low spirits in the darkness.

Applejack leaned against the wall, looking out the window, cold as stone. She was tired of all the hiding and planning, and now that they had lost Twilight, the closest pony they had to a leader, things looked grimmer than ever.

Discord lay curled up like a snake, scowling at Rainbow Dash. It was outrageous. She had slapped him! Called him an idiot! For what? Caring about Fluttershy, bringing her to somewhere safe? And he had only been able to save one of his puppets too! Now how was he supposed to entertain himself without puppets or chaos magic?

Last was Sweetie Belle. The poor filly lay fast asleep on the swirled carpet next to Tank the tortoise. Even in sleep, she unconsciously clutched the ear that had a bite taken out of it earlier. Rainbow Dash continued to pace back and forth. Without her flight or speed, she was continuously on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

"Face it sugarcube," Applejack suddenly said, breaking the silence, "Twilight ain't coming back."

"You don't know that!" Rainbow answered defensively, "She's an alicorn! If anypony could make it out, it would be her!"

Discord spoke up next, "If Princess Twilight were still around, she would have arrived by now. After all, Twilight Sparkle is many things, but she is not tardy."

"Shut it!" Rainbow snapped, "You don't get to say anything after the crap you pulled in the castle!"

"You're still riled up about that?" Discord snorted derisively, "Tell me, was hiding an infected pony in the castle any worse than what that Claude pony did?"

"The difference is that Claude is getting his brains eaten or something while you are here being all Discordy."

"Discordy?"

"Enough!" Applejack stomped her hoof down, disturbing the sleeping Sweetie, "Stop with yer yapping!" Normally Applejack was the calm voice of reason, but she had been uncharacteristically cold since leaving the farm. She pointed a hoof at Discord, "You need to shut your trap!" she pointed at Rainbow, "and you need to accept the truth. Twilight's gone!"

"She's not gone!" Rainbow cried out, "And even if she was. We can fix it! We can find a cure!"

"What cure?" Applejack asked, "We don't know squat and we've already lost half our numbers in two days! There's nothin' we can do to help them!"

"Then what do suggest we do? Kill them?"

Applejack shook her head, "Not so drastic Rainbow! No, I say we take them out at the source." Rainbow looked at her blankly.

Applejack let out a heavy sigh, "Look, I'm sorry for snapping out at ya Rainbow, I just need to time to cool off," she yawned and leaned back against the wall, tipping her hat over her eyes, "As for the plan, just wait 'til tomorrow, Dash."

Gray. A gray expanse of nothingness. That's what Twilight Sparkle found herself in. Actually, it wasn't entirely gray. Blobs of darkness could be seen, unclear and indistinct, like shadows on the horizon.

"Hello? Anypony there?" Twilight flapped her wings and looked around. Still nothing.

She didn't know what this place was, why she was here, how she had gotten here.

"C'mon Twilight," she reassured to herself, "You're the Princess of Friendship, you can figure this out." She tried to remember why she was there. She could recall some previous situations, but nothing specific. It was like an oil had seeped into her mind, contaminating her memories. Her hoof clapped her forehead as she struggled to remember things, anything. Some faces appeared, friends, family even, but they blurred together, their features warping until they were indistinguishable silhouettes.

A mist had fallen in Twilight's mind. Locations vanished, ponies vanished, her whole life vanished; shrouded until it was nothing but the gray. The gray that was all she knew, all that surrounded her.

Gray. A gray expanse of nothingness. That's what the purple alicorn found herself in. The alicorn who had forgotten her own name, who stumbled aimlessly through the gray webs of her mind.

Canterlot Castle was a venerable, and literal, hive of activity. The infected ponies hadn't needed the typical digging and burrowing they used elsewhere, as the tunnels underneath Canterlot were more than sufficient enough. Yes, the zomponies, those creatures, had burrowed quite comfortably into the heart of Equestria. Celestia could only assume it was the same elsewhere.

The elder of the two sisters was still splayed against her throne, caught in the hot hues of the creatures' webs. Webs that had pinned the alicorn to the chair for days now. Her limbs tired, her body aching, Celestia wished it could all end. That somepony out there could stop this, Twilight most likely, she usually handled situations like this.

Various ponies, most of whom were former guards, gurgled as they roamed about the throne room. Some of them stacked those awful, bloated grubs of theirs against the pillars. Some more belched the bright rainbow ooze that had thoroughly seeped into the floor and walls.

Celestia was more tired than usual, besides the usual pattern of the bugs trying to infect her, she had just finished lowering the sun, and presumed Luna had raised the moon as well. Despite the bugs, those things, being living magical siphons of some sort, they had somehow let her continue to raise the sun every day, or at least until the hive could add her to their ranks.

The transfer of infection was a harrowing process during which a zompony would try to vomit a bug that would proceed to crawl down her throat. A bug that her powerful alicorn magic, no matter how subdued, would profusely reject. Celestia shuddered thinking about how many of those bloated rainbow grubs she had to cough up every day. But it would get grosser, for whenever the grub died, the zomponies would stomp it into a pulp and eat it, for why, she had no idea.

But what more was, she could hear them. It began on the first day, after the surprise attack, when she was first forced to ingest the rainbow goo. Celestia began to hear the ponies, or bugs, or whoever chittering amongst themselves. It was always unclear, like background noise, until a grubpony would walk up to her specifically.

This time a guard who went by the name of Flash Sentry walked up to her. His helmet was crooked, and his gold armor had multi-colored stains on it. He looked up at her with his blank, white eyes. His mouth didn't move, instead one high-pitched voice in her mind rose up against the constant indistinct buzzing of the others.

'Despite you and the other princesses' difficulty, we have added another valuable being for our cause.'

Celestia could only assume by the other princesses he meant Luna. On the first night after being captured by the hive, Luna had come to her in her dreams. Luna didn't say much, just that the infection was locking her out of infected ponies' dreams, that or the zomponies didn't sleep. Celestia assumed the latter, having not seen a single grubpony sleep or eat. Maybe they lived off emotions like changelings?

Flash Sentry grunted and began to wobble as the rainbow poured out, a sign that another infection attempt was about to occur.

'But you needn't worry about it,' the voice continued, 'Once you're fixed, you won't need to worry about anything.'

In the gray expanse of her mind, a solitary alicorn walked alone. She couldn't remember who she was, not even her name. Lost and confused she wandered alone, occasionally stumbling into something unseen. At least, until the voice spoke. A voice whispery and harsh, that somehow brought her solace.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle," the voice said, "What a pleasure it is to finally meet you."

The alicorn tilted her head in curiosity, "So, am I Twilight?"

"Of course," the voice replied.

The alicorn blinked, yes, that was her name. Twilight Sparkle.

Her head shot up, "Oh! I have a question!"

"Proceed."

"What is this place?"

"Why Twilight, this is the Castle of Friendship."

The Castle of Friendship. Like a shroud being lifted, something unlocked in Twilight's mind as her surroundings became clearer. The dark shadows became more defined as the gray seemed to shrink until the blurry outline of walls and pillars became identifiable.

"Come with me," the voice stated as it seemed to drift away. Twilight followed, not out of want, but out of need. She felt inclined to follow the voice. "See Twilight," the voice said as a pulsing sound, a heartbeat, began to rattle into Twilight's ears, "You are new. A new member of our family. A family made of many others, others that includes me and elements."

"The elements?"

"Yes Twilight, the elements, because you- are special. You are an element." Out of the gray stepped three other ponies, ponies that Twilight could swear she recognized. They all looked at each other in silence. "That is why you and me, we have a task. A special task. A task that will be shared between you and your closest members of the family."

A string was pulled in Twilight's mind and suddenly she realized she knew these ponies. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity, her sisters, her family. Her fellow elements.

"Our task is special, because we are the only ones who possess the knowledge we do. The knowledge you have."

"So what is our special task?" Twilight asked, looking up to the non-existent owner of the voice.

"There is threat, a threat to our family," the voice began, "A threat that you and the elements know much about. A threat that we must eliminate."

Twilight remembered. Yes, she had always known, known about these threats and her task. Her special task that required the intimate knowledge that only she possessed. Two ponies, Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Two ponies that needed to be hunted down. She looked around as the gray began to vanish, being replaced by the colorful hues of a rainbow.

Chapter 7

Five days post infection...

"I'll say it again, this is a terrible idea," Discord repeated, peering down the hole. The group had returned to the Ponyville Day Spa, or specifically, the massive pit that had been dug straight through it. He had vivaciously acted as bait for the smaller amount of zomponies standing guard outside this time, but balked at, as he viewed it, the idiocy of Applejack's plan.

"Well, then thank your lucky stars you ain't coming," remarked Applejack in response to Discord, fastening the rope tied around her waist.

"Besides, we don't exactly have a wealth of options right now," Rainbow Dash added, who was tied up similarly.

Discord kicked at some rocks, which idly crumbled into the darkness below. "But certainly there are better ideas than blindly leaping down a pit that goes who know where," he shrugged, "You know, such as outing the problem itself." Both ponies glared at him in silence, which the draconequus repudiated with a scoff, "It's not my fault you if both of you refuse to simply eliminate the infestation, which would be the easiest solution. I would have done it by now and I am certain she would have as well."

Discord jolted a thumb at Sweetie Belle, who had been taken along. The filly didn't respond, remaining still as she sat on the ground next to Tank, who was vainly attempting to brighten her spirits with affectionate nuzzles.

"It's not a discussion Discord," replied Applejack, consciously ignoring all of his statements, "Just keep Sweetie safe while we're gone. Try to get as far away from Ponyville as possible."

"And don't do anything else stupid," Rainbow chimed in as she shut her saddlebag. Both her and Applejack had packed supplies for their voyage, sparkle-lights, some food, lots of rope, and anything Applejack assumed they would need.

Discord gasped in mock offense, "Stupid? Why Rainbow Dash, this is a serious situation, and I shall be taking it as seriously as if it were my wedding!" He paused, leaning down to pat Applejack on the head, "Don't you worry a thing, I have selected the safest place in Equestria as a hiding place. A place where none of those zombies will ever find us!"

"Alright," Applejack said reluctantly before turning to Rainbow, "Come on Rainbow, let's move." With a burst of movement, Applejack bounded over the edge of the pit. The rope around her waist was securely fastened to a pipe on the wall, allowing Applejack to slowly move down the sides of the chasm with her maintaining a firm grip on the unwinding rope. Rainbow Dash nodded and did the same, though with less restraint. She spread her wings, slowing her quick descent into the steamy darkness below.

Discord leaned his serpentine body to watch the duo's descent into the chasm. "Oh well," he said, wistfully stroking his beard, "Those two are as good as gone now."

Spike felt like a babysitter having to watch over a schoolhouse worth of foals, but as the oldest one there, he had a responsibility to take care of the ponies, regardless of whatever happened. The Cakes and other zomponies had left long ago when they finished the "disinfection" process with the foals, leaving only the two pegasi who, even now, silently watched them, unseen in the canopies above.

The young ponies had begun waking up the previous night. Most of them were disoriented, many of them distressed, and all of them confused. Not including Apple Bloom, it seemed like all the ponies had previously been infested by one of those horrible grubs, though none of them could plainly recall anything beyond vague recollections.

Right now, Spike and Apple Bloom were helping Scootaloo, the most recent filly to reawaken. They supported her as she clambered up from the ground and loudly coughed, the last remaining globs of rainbow discharging from her lungs. The pegasus tiredly looked around as she blinked.

"Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom leaned into her friend, who's eyelids lifted in surprise.

"Apple Bloom? Why are you here? Wait, where are we?"

"You can talk!" Apple Bloom exclaimed while excitedly hugging her fellow cutie mark crusader. Spike sighed contentedly, at least Scootaloo was able to talk. Three of the other ponies refused to, or were unable to, speak. The dragon suspected it could be a result of mental trauma.

"Scootaloo," Spike began, "a lot has happened, and I'm not sure how much you're aware of, but I need to ask you this." Scootaloo turned her head to face him, already wide-eyed and fully awake. "Please tell me, do you remember anything from the last few days?"

Spike prepared his mental notetaking for another response. He had asked the same thing with the other foals with less than clear results. He would have written down if had some parchment, but of course, he didn't have any on hand.

Scootaloo coughed once more, and rubbed the back of her head, "I don't what happened. See, I was home sick with a flu or something at my aunts' and then- then everything got all blurry. All I remember after that was a rainbow, it was swirly and shiny and the voice. There was a voice."

Spike broke from his concentration, "A voice?"

Scootaloo looked up, staring right through him, "It was soft, nice. It- she- they told me I was special; they were going to give me a gift if I did a thing."

"What did it want you to do?"

"I don't remember, the only I remember after that is that the voice got angry. It began to scream at me." Scootaloo shuddered and looked down.

"What about the treehouse?" Apple Bloom impatiently interjected, "Do you remember anything about the treehouse?"

Scootaloo raised her head again, "What happened at the treehouse?"

Apple Bloom grimaced, she had previously encountered the infected Scootaloo at the cutie mark crusader's treehouse, where she had attacked Apple Bloom. And Scootaloo apparently had no recollection of the event. "You were there! You attacked me!"

"Don't lay into her like Apple Bloom," Spike calmly said, "We shouldn't pry into things like that so early. She's been through a lot. We all have."

Knowing he was right, Apple Bloom nodded and flopped on the ground besides Scootaloo. Spike smiled and left, running off to assist some other bawling foal. So, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sat in silence.

Scootaloo was the first to open up again. "I am glad you're okay," she said, smiling at her friend, "At least one of us didn't get-" she hesitated, "infected."

"Me too," Apple Bloom said, "I mean, if you're okay now. Cause, no offense, you were in a truly awful state at the treehouse."

"Yeah," Scootaloo commented jokingly, "I bet I looked gnarly." The two exchanged a little giggle before Scootaloo began again, "What about Sweetie? Do you know what happened to her?"

Apple Bloom shook her head. Spike had off-handedly mentioned that Sweetie Belle was with the group at the castle, but she had no idea what happened to the rest of them there.

"I bet she's still out there," Scootaloo said, absentmindedly brushing her hoof through the grass, "We cutie mark crusaders don't give up easily."

"Yeah," Apple Bloom agreed. She had a hint of sadness in her voice, something Scootaloo failed to notice.

"I bet that any second now she and Rarity, or your big sister, or even Twilight is gonna barge right in here and save us!" Scootaloo stood up flapping her tiny wings excitedly, "Heck, I bet we could find a way out of here, there's only what, two guards? I bet we can overwhelm them!"

"It ain't going to be that easy," Apple Bloom said flatly. "I've seen what they can do; those bug things, they don't like fillies, but they put us here for a reason. If we try to break out and they catch us, who know what they will do to us."

Scootaloo didn't answer at first, stopping in place as she absorbed what Apple Bloom said, before happily wrapping a hoof around Apple Bloom, "But things are different now! Now that we're back together, nothing can go wrong."

As if on cue for irony, the trees overhead began to rustle. The infected pegasi stuck their heads out and swiftly descended the trees like they did before. Apple Bloom gasped and pulled Scootaloo down. Most of other foals in the pen did the same, the rest retreating to the corner with Spike.

At one edge of the hot springs clearing, not the waterfall, but the other side closest to the pen, emerged a single zompony from the bushes of the Everfree. The zompony approached the pen, ignoring the cries of the fillies and colts. It was Rarity.

She was dirtier than ever before. The curls in her mane were all but gone, now stained and flat, sticking to her coat. Her makeup was completely gone, being replaced by dark bags accentuated by a rainbow-colored crust around her lips. The unicorn walked right up to the stone barrier of the pen and stopped. She tilted her head up, scanning across the various ponies inside with her white eyes. Rarity stopped at the end, her gaze coming to a stop. Right on Apple Bloom.

Without a hint of emotion, her horn sputtered to life with her dark gray magic that quickly enclosed Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom yelped as she began to lift into the air.

"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo cried as she grabbed hold of Apple Bloom's hooves. So did Spike, who ran over to help. Soon, other foals followed suite, but it was too late. The infected Rarity snarled and grimaced as she concentrated harder, jerking Apple Bloom away from the hooves trying to save her.

Without another noise, Rarity turned heel and walked away, back into the Everfree forest with Apple Bloom in tow. The filly continued to pointlessly struggle and flail her limbs mid-air as she was magically dragged out of sight.

After a long, slow descent, Applejack's hooves made contact with the bottom. Rainbow landed a second later, kicking up a cloud of the ashy black dirt beneath her hooves. Looking around, Applejack saw that the day spa's chasm ended with a small pool where the heated water from above had collected. The walls were disjointed, having been haphazardly dug, exposing some of Equestria's naturally forming gemstones to the air. The gemstones sparkled against the thin mist from the heated pool, mixing with the patches of rainbow on the walls. Several large holes had been dug into the chamber, each opening to more tunnels that led elsewhere.

"Which way AJ?" Rainbow Dash asked, taking a step forward.

Applejack brushed her hoof in the dirt and squinted around, "That way," she pointed her hoof to a larger tunnel before motioning to the dirt floor, "See these here markings in the dirt?" She pointed to circular indentations on the ground that ran in lines, "These are from those varmits, their spittup and all. There's more of them leading into that tunnel, which should mean it's of more importance."

Rainbow nodded, "Cool, so- how far do we go?"

"As far we as need to."

Applejack led the way into the passage. The tunnels were nearly pitch black, so she pulled out her sparkle-light. The light was weak, likely due to it slowly losing its magic, and barely illuminated the darkness in front of it.

The trickling water of the spa faded behind them as both ponies trekked into the tunnel. The tunnel's sides were jagged, like a termite burrow through wood. The sparkle-light was the only light source aside from the occasional gemstone poking from the rock walls. Its meager light revealed deep claw marks that ran along the length of the tunnel. Rainbow sighed, she couldn't see her hoof in front of her face, this would be the perfect place for a surprise zombie attack.

The further they walked, the more disorienting the tunnel became as the walls began to stretch out, widening the girth of the passage. The sides became pock-marked with the smaller holes of other tunnels intersecting with it. Most importantly, the faint sounds of zomponies could be heard emanating from further down. Mostly miscellaneous moans with the occasional sound that could be almost described as pony-like.

Rainbow twisted her sparkle-light around, looking behind her. Nothing could be seen. The tunnel seemed endless. She groaned and turned her light to Applejack, who was holding her light in her mouth. The orange earth pony looked dead ahead, focused in on her goal.

The two continued walking forward, coming across a large intersection of three tunnels. Upon entering, Rainbow gasped and was quick to pull Applejack down. Crouching behind a rocky outcropping, the duo saw that the intersection was full of ponies.

A herd of over a hundred zomponies was gathered into the center, filing in from a smaller tunnel. Just about everyone from Ponyville was present, white-eyed and drooling, bumping into one another, and aimlessly looking about. Luckily, the tunnels were dark, and the infected ponies didn't seem to have night vision, leaving them just as blind as Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow gulped, "Welp, we're done for." She turned to Applejack, who had, curiously, pulled out a brown bottle. Rainbow licked her lips when she noticed the label, "Is that some of your family's apple cider?"

Applejack didn't look over, instead stuffing a rag into the bottle, "Yep."

Rainbow hesitated before asking, "Can I have some?"

This made Applejack look over, "I didn't bring the cider for drinking Rainbow, it's for somethin' else."

"No offense, but I don't think the zomponies drink. And I know they won't accept a gift."

Applejack rolled her eyes, "Not like that Dash, I'm making some molotovs." She paused as she handed the bottle to Rainbow while pulling out some flint and steel from her saddlebag, "If I light these rags and toss the bottle, it'll create a big ol' flame. "

Rainbow Dash curiously looked at the bottles, "Fire in a bottle, that's awesome."

Applejack nodded, "Yeah, and I reckon if those zomponies are weak to anything, its fire."

"Then you'd better get those molotovs ready Applejack," Rainbow stated with an uncertain expression, "Cause we got some zombies to light up!"

Three ponies walked down the empty streets of Ponyville. At this point, they were likely the last ponies in the entire town. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had managed to escape the castle the previous day. The rest of the zomponies had filed out of through the castle's subterranean level, traveling elsewhere to Canterlot and other places. The remainder of the zombies had traveled into their tunnels.

So that left the single group of infected ponies on the hunt. With their minds foggy and their intuition shattered, this was no group of friends, rather a pack of hunters pursuing their prey. Twilight Sparkle, newly infected, had easily become the leader of the pack. Rarity, another member of the group, was absent at the moment, having been sent to the Everfree to retrieve a bargaining chip.

They had just returned from their thorough ransacking of Sugarcube Corner. They had found evidence of their prey's occupation there earlier, as well as proof of the draconequus' and filly's residence as well, though those two were of no importance to them. Twilight growled, releasing a dripping of rainbow.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie raised their heads to attention, the former lifting her head out of a trash can. The alicorn, with her poising of prominence, motioned, or more so mentally commanded, the other two to follow her, which they did like obedient lapdogs.

The infection and its parasites affected ponies in different ways; and nowhere was this more evident than with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Maybe it was because of her connection to the elements of harmony, but Pinkie Pie seemed to have shifted to being practically unchanged after being released from the castle. The pink pony bubbly bounced about, curiously observing her surroundings and even painting crude rainbow pictures onto walls using her multi-colored goo. Fluttershy on the other hand was the polar opposite, having lost almost all vestiges of her ponyness. More feral and animalistic, she frequently attacked Pinkie and continuously searched for food, often devouring whatever she could get her hooves on.

Twilight herself was more on the Pinkie side of the spectrum, retaining something that could almost be called a personality. She turned and flared out her wings, indicating that she had reached her destination. The Ponyville Day Spa. She knew about her and Rainbow's visit earlier. She also knew that Rainbow and Applejack would most definitely go down there as a last-ditch effort to find out the source of the infection. She also knew that the two ponies were dangerous and would most likely make it through the tunnels, past any ponies standing guard, and to the source. That's why she had planned a trap, a trap that involved a bit of emotional distress. Of course, they would need to get to the source before the enemy, which would require some help.

Inside the spa, the ponies walked through the wrecked lobby and straight to their shaft. Pinkie Pie was of course the first one to jump in, arcing through the air before plunging into the darkness below. At the bottom, the warm pool erupted in a splash as Pinkie landed with a cannonball. Rocks crumbled down as Fluttershy made her way down, crawling down the shaft's walls like a six-limbed spider. Twilight took things more carefully, spreading her wings and gliding to the bottom.

When her hooves touched the dirt, Twilight's whole body shuddered as the moistness of the warm mist touched her skin. It felt good. The shaft and its water pit had been chosen because its close proximity below the spa, a nice source of hot water, at least for the time being. As such, the hot water pool was hot, wet, and deep. In other words, the perfect place for breeding.

Clambering to the edge of the pool, Pinkie shook out her poofy mane. She paused, as if remembering something, before turning around and preemptively releasing a splurge of rainbow from her mouth into the water. Unlike immediately evaporating like the goo, or sticking and staying like the rainbow webbing, the rainbow vomit swirled in the water, dissipating before being sucked down into the depths.

Twilight walked up to the water's edge and looked down into the inky abyss of the pool. This was the correct location; she could feel the presence at the bottom. She began, pawing a hoof at the water's edge. Slow at first, then more aggressive, Twilight dug her hoof into the ground, creating a dent in the floor.

After a few minutes of silence, the water began to bubble. Slowly but surely, a large form emerged from the water. The creature's black shell was balanced on top of a pulsing sack, much like the grubs, but this was much larger, much fatter. Water dripped from its bloated body which rose from the pool using two talons, long and black. A fatty crest rose over its head, covering its face, rendering it completely blind. However, it could still see. Its multitude of small black legs twitched like a cockroach, idly grasping the air, sensitive to vibrations.

It was a queen, the creatures that had dug the tunnels and birthed the grubs. Normally the queens were idle, resting in the warm waters of their pools, creating new grubs, and unconsciously feasting on the remains of failed grubs. But this one had been awoken, the vibrations from the surface disturbing its slumber.

The queen chittered, its punctured pentagonal mouth twitching open, revealing an inverted cone-shaped mouth lined with wriggling talons. A deep voice rang out in every zompony's head.

"Ah, I see the alicorn has disturbed me."

Twilight was unable to respond, her infected mind at odds with her natural instinct, however she didn't need to say anything. The queen already knew.

"It shall be done, for the good of the hive. The herd. The family. The puppets."

Chapter 8

One day ago...

Fluttershy twisted her head as she shuddered in fear. She was still unable to move, the shadows around her binding her in place. The pegasus had been stuck in place for a long time now, her limbs stuck to her sides, not as if they would be any use if they were free, for her mind was fuzzy, things were unclear, and the voice, or whatever it was, was not any more understandable. It seemed to swirl around her, coming from all directions, from the rainbows that swirled around. Fluctuating patterns of light that filled her sight.

"Aren't you angry Fluttershy?" the voice snapped, "that your friends betrayed you? Betrayed the herd? Turned their backs on you?"

What the voice spoke of was unclear. Fluttershy, at least that's what the voiced called her, could remember some other faces. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Discord, but she wasn't angry at them. Distant memories of them replayed in her mind over and over.

"I don't why I should be angry at them!" Fluttershy whimpered up to the voice, "I don't why you're angry at me!"

"I have made it clear you coward," the voice hissed into her ear, "But no matter what you know, what I give you, you refuse to lash out."

That wasn't exactly true, emotions, aggressive ones at that, had flowed through Fluttershy before, but despite her lack of knowledge about whatever was happening, she felt that she could still give forgiveness. Forgiveness for her friends.

The voice spoke up again, bitter in tone with a hint of sympathy, "Your emotions make you pathetic, too difficult to deal with. I'm afraid I will have to take matters into my own claws."

As if in response to the voice, Fluttershy was suddenly jerked to the right, landing on her side on the ground.

"Thankfully for the herd, this is just the opportune moment for this," the voice said, ignoring Fluttershy's cry of pain, "You will be less useful than expected, but it would still be preferable to your current state."

A sudden jolt of pain went through Fluttershy's head. It felt like a needle had pierced through her brain. She cried at the sudden pain, clutching her hooves to her skull. Her hooves. She stared at the shaking limbs in astonishment; her hooves were finally free! With a bit of strain, her wings became loose as well, freely flapping once more.

However, whatever joy Fluttershy might have felt was short-lived as another burst of searing pain spread through her skull. She collapsed on the ground, her limbs shuddering as the light around her brightened. The rainbows swirled more violently than ever before, accompanied by a buzzing sound that became louder and louder.

Slowly but surely, Fluttershy lost feeling in her body. "You're a failure, an expected failure, but a failure nonetheless," the voice spat as her vision faded, "Neither of us are going to like it, but I must take complete control, for the good the herd."

In an instant, Fluttershy blacked out, becoming immobile once more, trapped within her own mind.

Now...

Like a dolphin through the waves, the insectoid queen swept through the earth of Equestria. It curved its body, its large claws rapidly displacing the dirt behind it. As it slid through the ground in a surprisingly smooth manner, it was almost graceful in a way, having been nearly inanimate before in its small pool of water.

Of course, Fluttershy didn't care. Her clouded mind made her barely capable of taking in her surroundings. Instead, the pegasus clutched her hooves onto the queen's back, riding along as the queen dug a tunnel to their destination much like it had done weeks prior. Fluttershy grunted, the rainbow dripping from her mouth on the black shell of the queen, hungrily eyeing the other ponies riding along with her.

Of course, Twilight was there, standing still, looking straight ahead, her form unchanging except for the twitching of her ears. Pinkie Pie was there as well, sinking her hooves in the fleshy abdomen of the queen as she excitedly watched the tunnels walls and exposed gems flash by. Lastly was Rarity, who had regrouped with them prior to departure. She stood still much like Twilight, but her expression was strained, and her horn flickered as her limited magic struggled to keep her bounty hoisted up in the air. This bounty was Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom had been shocked plenty of times that day. The zomponies, or bugs, or whatever they were had gotten to Twilight, who seemed to be a leader of some sort. That was soon followed by the sight of the queen, a large, bloated creature who dwarfed the ponies in size. And now they were riding it.

The filly had uselessly struggled in the infected Rarity's magic for what seemed like hours now. She stopped shouting a while ago, her voice having gone hoarse. Now, despite her terror with the situation, she had more or less been resigned to her fate, whatever the zomponies had planned with her.

She glanced down again, her eyes meeting the glassy glaze of Fluttershy once more. She winced and clenched her eyes shut. Fluttershy had been staring at her the entire trip, looking like a rabid dog with chunks of her pink mane having been pulled out and the rainbow goo being smeared across her snout. Fluttershy expectedly didn't react to the filly other than quick lick on the lips.

Apple Bloom wasn't the only one who was giving attention to Fluttershy, for a certain pink pony had turned her interest to the pegasus as well. Pinkie Pie had stopped watching the tunnel walls and instead turned her attention to Fluttershy. The fellow zompony piqued her interest.

She tilted her head in an inquisitive motion. The voice in her head said that Fluttershy was a fellow playmate of hers, another member of the group, but it didn't feel right. She didn't look right, she seemed broken.

'Of course not Pinkie Pie, there's nothing wrong with her,' the voice in her head seemed to say, 'You seem to be getting more and more distracted, distracted from us, our cause.'

Pinkie vigorously shook her head in denial. She was a valuable member of the party, at least she thought she was. Ever since she had helped Twilight join, things had begun to become odd. Certain things became clear, other's uncertain, but the voice had ignored any of this, continuing to egg her on.

'Your playmate Fluttershy is fine Pinkie Pie,' the voice said, 'Leave her alone.'

But, for the first time, Pinkie Pie didn't listen, she ignored the voice. Instead, the pink pony stepped a hoof forward, a hoof towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy reacted accordingly, snapping her head away from Apple Bloom and twisting towards Pinkie Pie, her mouth contorted in a snarl.

Pinkie moaned, one of her hooves spasming as it slowly reached up. Her eyes twitched, the rainbow spurted out in gurgles, but Pinkie continued. Continued until the hoof had been reached out and placed upon one of Fluttershy's own. Fluttershy stopped, her white eyes widening as she looked up into Pinkie's gaze.

Apple Bloom watched in intrigue as both of the infected former friends stood still. Even in the darkness of the rapidly burrowed tunnel, Apple Bloom could see their ears twitch, their bodies slightly shiver.

Suddenly, Fluttershy pounced; snarling as she leapt upon Pinkie Pie. Pinkie seemed to yelp in fear as the two ponies rolled along the fleshy sack of the queen. She fought back, bucking Fluttershy in the stomach, releasing a splurge of rainbow that covered Pinkie's face. Fluttershy growled and rammed a hoof into Pinkie's snout. She furiously flapped her wings, clutching Pinkie Pie as both of the infected ponies tussled and bounced off the queen's abdomen and rolling off into the darkness of the tunnel beyond.

Sweetie Belle blinked her eyes open to the view of tree canopies. Had she blacked out again? For she had passed out several times previously, mostly due to the pain of her ear wound. However, this time Sweetie noticed that she had been draped over a brown furry thing. A shoulder. She turned her head to the draconequus that was carrying her.

"Discord? What are you doing?"

Discord craned his head to look directly at the filly while he continued to jaunt forward, "Well look who finally decided to speak up, and for your information, I'm carrying you." A moment of silence passed, "Sorry, I have no experience with young ponies, I have zero ideas on how to care for you."

Sweetie smiled slightly, "I can walk Discord, you don't need to sling me over your back like a sack."

Discord obliged, placing the unicorn on the ground before placing a turtle on her back, "You can take Tank as well," he said, patting Tank on the head.

"So where are we?" asked Sweetie Belle as the two resumed their surprisingly peaceful walk through the forest.

Discord didn't even need to look down, "The Everfree."

"The Everfree forest?"

Discord sniffed, "Yes, that is what I said, the Everfree forest."

"Why would go here? You told Applejack you'd take me to the safest place in Equestria!"

"I did," Discord replied flatly, "At least, the nearest place I can go without teleportation. And I cannot be bothered with walking to Canterlot or that Tree of Harmony. And here it is." He stopped as he neared the tree line. The tree line that ended in a large open area. Rocks could be seen scattered around a large blue pool that was connected to a waterfall. Steam filled the area, giving it a serene feel. "Ah, the Everfree hot springs. I used to come here all the time when I was ruled my kingdom of chaos! So nice and warm, especially when it's filled with hot chocolate and beans!"

Sweetie Belle looked around the springs with astonishment. The place really was nice to look at. That is until she saw something in the distance. Some kind of array of rocks on the other side of the springs, and there was ponies inside.

Sweetie looked up at Discord, "You said this was the safest place in Equestria."

Discord shrugged, "Fine, that was an exaggeration, but no one else in Equestria knows about this place! I mean, you would have to live in the Everfree to know about it!"

"You mean like Zecora?"

Discord froze, coming to his realization. He opened an eye and looked out into the clearing, seeing a familiar striped zebra accompanied by two pegasus staring right at him. All three equines drooled rainbow. "Oh poo," he muttered.

Crouched behind a convenient rock and with the horde of zomponies sniffing at her hooves, Applejack reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a flint and steel, just the right tools needed for her molotovs. She held one in her mouth as the earth pony began to click the two tools together, creating small sparks that glowed in the darkness of the tunnel.

Rainbow Dash sat next to her, holding another one of the molotovs. She looked down at it with an uncertain expression. Was she really going to do this?

"You ready to do this Rainbow?" asked Applejack. Her molotov had been lit, a small flame flickered on its end, casting an orange light. Rainbow silently nodded in response.

Applejack jerked her body, pressing her back against the rock and giving a deep breath. With just about every other pony of Ponyville blocking their path, this was their only opportunity for escape. And it had to be done now for the light of the flame had attracted the attention of at least one of the zomponies.

The infected Cheerilee shuffled up to the rock and craned her head to examine it. Suddenly, Applejack leapt out from behind the rock.

"Eat this ya drooling varmits!" she screamed as she threw the lit bottle full force at Cheerilee's hooves. The infected earth pony hissed and recoiled from the flames as the dark pink fur around her hooves were lit ablaze. The other zomponies followed suite, yelping and backing away as the orange flames spread across the ground.

Applejack jumped up, "Now's our chance! Let's go!" Quickly she galloped, pressing through the flames and down the tunnel. Rainbow soon followed, flapping her wings with all her might as she hovered over the fire.

As they watched their prey flee down the tunnel, the Ponyville zomponies howled with anger as several began to pursue the duo. Most were held back by the flames, but multiple pegasi leaped over the fire while some other ponies bared the brunt, pushing their bodies through the flames.

Rainbow looked back as she ran, "They're still coming!"

"Toss yer flames!" Applejack yelled.

Rainbow listened, tossing her lit molotov behind her. The glass shattered, spreading another blaze of flame. Most of the pursuing zomponies halted in place, pressing their hooves into the ground as they skid to a halt. Only a few pegasi pressed forward, unrelenting in their assault.

Rainbow and Applejack continued to gallop forward as the tunnel curved. Both of the ponies stopped caught their breath as they looked behind them, the flames and zomponies were gone from sight. "We made it!" Rainbow exclaimed with bewilderment before she looked up, "oh wait." From the ceiling shone three sets of glowing eyes, three infected pegasi that had followed them.

Immediately the zomponies attacked, pouncing at Rainbow. An orange blur flew past as Applejack kicked away two of the pegasi, who rolled on the ground and quickly regained their footing. One snarled and bounded forward, but Applejack was prepared. She quickly dodged the attacking zompony and kicked her in the rear, catapulting the pegasus into the stone wall. The second zompony gargled and spit out a splurge of rainbow goo at Applejack's face, which she swiftly blocked with her hat. The orange earth pony bucked the pegasus in the stomach in response, making the zompony discharge multicolored spit as she was knocked away.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was pinned to the ground by the third pegasus. The cross-eyed zompony growled as Rainbow strained to hold her back. Rainbow clenched her mouth shut as rainbow spittle dripped down onto her face. In a swift motion, she kicked up a leg into the pony's stomach, knocking off the attacker. Slowly, Rainbow stood up and looked at her aggressor, who stared at her angrily. With one final attack, Rainbow breathed out and gave the pegasus a blow in the snout with her hoof. The white eyes of the zompony vanished as she was knocked unconscious and into the dirt.

Rainbow shook her hooves as she wiped the rainbow off her face, "That was Derpy." She turned her head as Applejack walked up, "And those other two pegasi, those were Cloud Kicker and Cloudchaser."

Applejack looked at her as she shook the goo off her hat, "I know Rainbow, all of those zombies back there were ponies we knew."

Rainbow sighed, "I know, but it still doesn't feel right."

"Thats exactly why we have to get to the end of this here tunnel. To find the cause and save everypony. Now come on, we have to hoof in case we're being followed."

"Yeah," Rainbow before turning away from the site of the skirmish "I just hope we didn't hurt anypony."

Applejack didn't answer, instead turning and continuing down the tunnel, leading the way to an end unseen.

Pinkie Pie shook her head, dizzily looking around the brilliantly colored expanse. That was one nasty fall, but that's what happens when you're attacked by Fluttershy. Though this Fluttershy was wrong. Pinkie was certain of that.

Though many things were unclear, memories had been flooding back into her head since leaving the castle of friendship. Almost like the whole thing with Twilight had somehow unlocked her mind. The voice, that cold, high-pitched thing, claimed no such thing, but even Pinkie could sense the increasingly detectable tone of desperation in its voice.

Almost like on cue the voice interrupted Pinkie's thought, "Look what you've done Pinkie Pie, you've lashed out, misbehaved, and now one of your playmates is hurt." The voice was speaking of Fluttershy. Though the area was small, and the shadows were numerous, Pinkie could clearly see Fluttershy's body, sprawled unconscious on the ground. However, Pinkie didn't listen to the voice, in fact, she almost doubted it.

"I don't believe you," Pinkie said after a moment of silence, "I was there you know, and I didn't lash out. It was probably an accident or something!"

"It was your fault," the voice answered coldly, "and you've led her, led us astray, away from our goal, our targets."

Yes, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Pinkie remembered them. The two ponies that were her group's targets, but what if they weren't?

"Are you sure they're our targets? Because some of my memories say otherwise." She bounced in place as she continued to talk, "But it's probably just me, you said. Because I almost second-guessed you for second. Like with Twilight in the castle. Things almost made sense there. But then you did something."

"I didn't do anything," the voice stated, "I am merely here to help guide you for the betterment of all of us."

Pinkie Pie laughed, "It's funny really. How do I know that you didn't lie about that too? How do I know that you lied about everything?" She spread her hooves to sky, "How do I know that all this is real? What if you're lying about that? Huh?"

The voice didn't answer at first. Instead, a searing pain suddenly ran through Pinkie's skull. "I'm afraid you've misbehaved far too much," said the voice, "Neither of us are going to like it, but I must take complete control, for the good of all of us."

Pinkie grimaced, but she didn't back down, stamping her hoof on the ground. "No!" she yelled, "I won't let you do this!" She shuddered as more pain ran through her body, but she still stood firm blinking away the tears that stung her eyes.

The voice made a sound, like it was trying to imitate a laugh, "It's pitiful how you're attempting to resist."

Pinkie ignored it, looking around for a way to escape as the violently shifting rainbows filled her vision.

Meanwhile...

Fluttershy coughed up some rainbow as she blinked her white eyes open. She looked around and sniffed the air, she was in the middle of the tunnel. A dark, dirty place, with nothing of interest, except for one thing, one pony.

In the middle of the tunnel was Pinkie Pie, but she was behaving oddly. Her body spasmed on the ground like she was having a fit. Her ears twitched, her eyelids drooped, and bright spit spluttered out from her mouth.

This piqued the interest of Fluttershy, who had long redirected the singular goal in her mind. The infected pegasus stood up, flexed her wings, and growled at the pink pony.

But Pinkie Pie didn't react to the aggression, instead she began to roll around on the ground. Fluttershy watched with confusion as Pinkie, her own body fighting with itself, rolled on the ground until she collided with the wall. Then, her own limbs recoiling with distress, Pinkie grabbed a large loose rock and picked it up.

With a loud shout of fury, Pinkie jammed the rock into her stomach, making Fluttershy jump back with surprise. Again and again, Pinkie hit her stomach, pressing harder each time. A waterfall of rainbow poured from her mouth with each hit until a large bulge was caught in the pony's throat. Pinkie yelled with pain as she squeezed her throat, pressing out the bulge further and further up until, with a repulsive hack, she launched the oversized grub out of her mouth. The thing bounced on the ground, leaving a splatter of rainbow while it's four limbs helplessly waved in the air.

Pinkie coughed and gagged as everything suddenly became clearer. The fog seemed to suddenly lift from her mind as her memories of her life and the past several days mixed together. But even though she was shocked and confused, Pinkie Pie had no time to sit and recover. Instead, the party pony shook her head and leapt up, tackling the nearby Fluttershy, who had been watching with confusion the entire while.

Pinkie wrapped her hooves around the pegasus in a great big hug, "Don't you worry Flutterbutter! Lemme save you real quick!"

The feral Fluttershy clawed at Pinkie, snapping and howling with anger, but Pinkie didn't mind. She smiled brightly as she hugged her infected friend tighter and tighter until, with a sudden burst of applied pressure to Fluttershy's stomach, Pinkie Pie promptly propelled the plump pest out of the pony's paunch. The bloated grub squealed as it flew through the air and collided with the wall before rolling down into the dirt.

Fluttershy gasped for air as she spit out the rainbow slime and fell limply into Pinkie's hooves. Pinkie immediately embraced her friend with an actual hug as Fluttershy coughed, "Ugh, I feel terrible, what happened?"

Pinkie looked at her friend in confusion, "Don't you remember what happened? It was crazy!"

Fluttershy sat on the ground, brushing aside her dirty mane that hung in front of her eyes, "No, not a thing. Last thing I remember was being at home. And now we're in this- tunnel."

"Well, I remember everything!" Pinkie excitedly exclaimed, tapping a hoof on her head, "See, when you're a party planner like me, you gotta remember all the little things! And so, that's what I do, even when I'm a zompony!"

Taken aback, Fluttershy looked at Pinkie with alarm, "A zompony?"

"Well not technically a zompony, but I was infected by one of those things." She motioned to one of the grubs, who were still quietly squealing and stuck upside down, "And wow! It was super-duper messy! That rainbow stuff got everywhere!"

Fluttershy poked a hoof into the grub's fleshy abdomen, shuddering with disgust, "So what happened? Was I- sick?"

"Oh yeah! You were super sick!" said Pinkie, "It's a long story though. There was Twilight and AJ and Rainbow and Discord and this one guy named Claude and we were heading to Rainbow Falls before I somehow got unsick and saved you!"

"Rainbow Falls?"

"It's where the whole thing started. We were heading there to set a trap for Rainbow Dash and Applejack."

Fluttershy jumped up, all the signs of her weariness disappearing in an instant, "A trap? Well, what are we waiting for? We have to go save them!"

"Not so fast Fluttershy," Pinkie said with genuine concern, "I know that this whole thing was rough on you. It was rough on me too! I don't want you to get hurt."

"Nonsense Pinkie Pie! Our best friends need help!" Fluttershy stated with an affirmative hoof stomp, "And I feel great! I feel good enough that I can end this whole thing today! Or tonight."

"Well okay!" Pinkie chirped in response, hopping up into the air, "Let's do this!"

And with that, both ponies trotted down the tunnel in the direction of Rainbow Falls, leaving the two grubs to fruitlessly grasp the air in the darkness.

Chapter 9

It had been hours since Apple Bloom was taken, and the captors at the Everfree hot springs were planning their escape.

"Okay, here's the general idea" Spike announced to the groups of foals, scratching his plan in the dirt with a stick, "As far as I'm aware, there's only two guards. So, we have to get over the barrier and lure down the guards-"

"Then we jump them!" Scootaloo butted in.

This incited excited cheers from the ponies, prompting Spike to hurriedly hush them. "But we do it quickly and quietly," he said sternly, "we don't want them to call reinforcements. But if we take care of the guards and get out of here without attracting attention, I think we can escape."

"And rescue Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo added. Again the ponies cheered, more quietly this time. Spike smiled, it wasn't much of a plan, but it was enough. Enough to get the foals out of the Everfree forest, away from the infected, and to somewhere safe.

Overhead, the rustling of leaves alerted the group that their guards were coming down once. The ponies hastily hushed themselves as the two pegasi guards leapt down from the trees, their chuffed hooves landing in the dirt.

Then, the pegasi left the pen, walking towards the hot springs. With a look of confusion, Spike walked up to the makeshift wall of the pen, looking over to see the guards pause in the middle of the clearing.

They were joined by the infected Zecora, who passed through earlier, but now, all three of the zomponies interest seemed to be focused on the hot springs. Spike squinted, observing a figure standing at the top of the springs.

“Yes, it is I, Discord ex machina!” the draconequus proudly called out to the colts, “Here to save the day! Or at least provide a distraction.” Discord playfully knocked on the shell of Tank, whom he was wearing as a helmet, as he finished his remark.

“Now, time to take a handle on you zombie ponies!” Discord proclaimed, snapping his claw for effect. His limited chaos magic fizzled out, merely summoning a soggy tuna fish sandwich which flopped onto the ground. Discord shrugged, “Hmph, I expected that, but nonetheless.”

He picked up the sandwich and threw it, where it slapped the infected Zecora in the face. The pegasi gave an angry snarl in response and charged at the draconequus.

Spike watched as the zomponies and zomzebra attacked Discord, not noticing part of the stone barrier sparkle with magic. Sweetie Belle grunted as she strained from magic use. Sparks flickered off the tip of her horn as she attempted to pry down the barrier.

“Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo cheered upon noticing her friend, “I knew you were okay!”

“Glad to see you Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle said through her concentration, “But could I have a little help here?”

Scootaloo blinked as she realized what Sweetie Belle was doing, “Oh, oh yeah!” She motioned a hoof to Spike and the rest of the colts as they worked to pry down one of the sides of the barrier.

“Come on!” Spike called out to the crowd of fillies and foals, “Let’s hoof it out of here!” He waved at the young ponies as he led them across the clearing.

Discord looked up to see Sweetie Belle, Spike, and a whole crowd of colts dashing across the hot springs. “I guess we aren’t staying here,” he commented as the escapees ran into the forest in the direction of Ponyville. “And I guess I should follow them, maybe point them in the right direction,” he sighed, “It would be more interesting than you three,” he said to the pegasus who was gnawing on his tail.

Deciding to leave, Discord nonchalantly stuck out a leg, tripping the other pegasus and Zecora in a comedic fashion into the waters of the spring. He leisurely sauntered his way across the clearing, his tail dragging the infected pegasus along with him into the shadowed glades of the Everfree.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack continued through the darkness of the tunnel. Both were becoming bored of their ongoing trek, but they still had to reach the end of the tunnel. But eventually, both ponies became aware of something, a noise, faint at first, then louder, began to echo down the tunnel.

Applejack shut off her sparkle-light and squinted down the tunnel. She could see light, a light that seemed to shimmer in a multitude of colors.

She waved a hoof to Rainbow Dash, “Hey Rainbow! I think we’ve reached somethin’ over here!”

Rainbow Dash quickly ran up to Applejack. In unison, the two ponies crept forward until they reached what seemed to be the exit of the tunnel. It opened up into a large underground chamber. A multitude of other holes, leading to other tunnels, pocketed the walls.

Rainbow Dash gasped as she swept her gaze across the room, “Are we under- Rainbow Falls?”

The bright-colored rainbows that flowed from the clouds and rivers of the town on the surface dripped from the ceiling of the chamber. Multiple waterfalls flowed from one wall, creating a kaleidoscope of color that gathered in a large pool. These liquid rainbows created a venerable lightshow of color that sparkled on the exposed crystals of the chamber walls.

“I guess we are-” Applejack began, before suddenly stopping mid-sentence as her view met something else, “What in the hay are those things?”

Basking in the rainbow pool were a trio of black-shelled, hulking creatures. Queens of the zomponies, who had taken rest to ferment in the pools of their birth. The slick and slimy talons of the queens twitched erratically in the air, twisting towards the multitude of ponies gathered throughout the chamber. Dozens of infected zomponies lurked throughout the chamber, several belching out rainbow goo into piles while others carried what looked like oversized maggots.

“Bugs?” sputtered Rainbow, staring at the grubs and queens in disgust, “This whole time, it's been bugs?”

The whole atmosphere of the chamber shifted as all the ponies suddenly stopped moving. One of the queens in the pool, the largest of the three, gave a low grumble as she slowly shifted her fatty crest covered head; right in the direction of Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

Applejack adjusted her hooves in the dirt, “Hayseeds, I think they know we’re here!”

A sound behind her made Rainbow Dash spin around. Spin around right into the muzzle of several zomponies that snuck up behind her. “Yeah, they definitely know we’re here!” She kicked the nearest zompony in the stomach using the distraction to push Applejack out of the way of another one.

Kicking back their surprise attackers, the duo leapt over their hiding place and rolled into the central chamber. The two ponies had scarcely a moment to stand up before they were surrounded by their assailants. Staring at the dozens of blank eyes that lifelessly stared back, Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth, preparing for the worst.

But the zomponies didn’t attack, they simply stood still, silently staring at both of them.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still as well, standing in the dirt in their combat-ready stances. They exchanged glances as a moment of silence passed.

Until the silence was broken by the largest of the queens, who gave out another low rumble. Several of the ponies in the crowd parted, making way for another one to enter and approach the duo of uninfected friends. They both watched in horror as a familiar purple alicorn walked up to them, confirming their worst fears. Twilight Sparkle approached them, the white eyes, rainbow drool, and dirty mane were signs of her infestation, but she didn’t drag her hooves like the other zomponies. She trotted with purpose.

Twilight stopped in front of the duo, who stared at her with a mix of both anger and sadness.

“What do you want?” Rainbow demanded to the alicorn, “You want to take us too? Well come and take me,” she flexed her wings at Twilight as a show of aggression.
Twilight didn’t answer at first, instead her ears twitched erratically. She blinked once as her eyes regained a faint shade of their purple hue. “Rainbow Rainbow Rainbow,” the infected Twilight began, “So feisty, even when completely surrounded.” She talked in Twilight’s voice, but clearly something else was talking. The infected Twilight had a whisper-like mocking tone to her voice.

“But I know, we all know, that none of us can take either one of you down ourselves,” Twilight continued, “Yes we can just overwhelm you, but I, and Twilight herself, prefer a less aggressive approach.” Twilight pawed her hoof in the dirt, using her wings to motion another pony into the circle. Applejack and Rainbow watched as another familiar face entered.

Rarity, looking horribly disheveled in her infected state, trotted up to the pair while keeping her distance like Twilight. Her horn flickered erratically with magic as the unicorn suspended something above her head.

Applejack needed only a second to recognize the filly.

“Apple Bloom!” exclaimed Applejack with both relief and anguish. Apple Bloom stared down in terror. She tried to answer her older sister, but her cries were quickly hushed by Rarity’s magic. Applejack quickly turned her attention back to Twilight, narrowing her eyes at the infested alicorn with a look of fury. “What do want with her?” Applejack grumbled; her eyes filled with flames of anger.

Twilight’s head twitched, as if she were having a mental debate with herself, if only for a moment. “A simple exchange,” she said, “You two let us fix you, or we kill the filly.”

“You don’t lay a hoof on her!” snarled Applejack.

The infected Twilight seemed to nearly smirk at the earth pony’s anger, “Then turn yourself in, and we let her go. Don’t, and we kill her, overwhelm you, and take over anyways. We win either way,” she paused, “I just hope, for Twilight’s sake, you choose the more peaceful option.”

“What the heck do we do?” Rainbow frantically whispered.

Then, through miraculous luck, a voice called out from above. “Yoohoo! You down there!” Everyone looked up to see the surprising sight of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, both somehow completely uninfected, looking down at them from a rocky ledge. Pinkie enthusiastically waved at the mob below, “What’s going on? Is there a party happening here or something?”

“Pinkie Pie? Why are you here?” Rainbow called up to her friends, “And how in Equestria did you cure yourself?”

“We’re here to save you!” Fluttershy yelled as loudly as she could, “From the trap here I mean,” She gripped the edge of the ledge and peered down, “Though I think we’re too late for that,” she had become more nervous at the sight of a horde of zomponies gathered below.

The largest queen grumbled plummeting the chamber into chaos. A multitude of infected pegasi leaped out of the crowd and began scaling the chamber walls towards the intruders, The rest of the zomponies shuffled amongst themselves, filling in the gaps left by the pegasi. Applejack decided to take the opportunity to strike back at the grubs.

“Sorry Twi,” she said solemnly to her infected, drawing Twilight’s attention. The infected Twilight howled with anger as Applejack struck her firmly in the snout with her hoof. With no hesitation, Applejack rammed her body into the infected alicorn, throwing the purple pony straight at the infected Rarity. The two collided, immediately disrupting the magic and making Apple Bloom fall down.

Applejack quickly caught her sister, balancing the filly on her back as she began to fight the remainder of the horde, who were no longer distracted. Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to begin fighting back as well, as she began to flap her wings and buck her hooves at the distracted zomponies. The three queens in the pool began to aggressively shake back and forth as Pinkie Pie used an oversized butterfly net to fling pegasus zomponies into the rainbow waters. Fluttershy did the best she could as well, fearfully flying away from the pursuing pack of ponies.

However, there were too many of them. The zomponies were too numerous for the friends to handle. They would surely be overwhelmed.

“We can’t hold them off forever!” Applejack yelled as she kicked away an attacking unicorn, “We need a plan! Now!”

Looking around, Rainbow Dash noticed the queens, who all seemed agitated, particularly the largest one. “I have an idea,” Rainbow yelled with conviction. She didn’t have time to tell Applejack, but the earth pony still nodded. “Boost me!” Rainbow yelled, spreading her four legs. With no hesitation, Applejack ran up and bucked Rainbow, boosting the pegasus high into the air.

Rainbow began to flap her wings as hard as she could, positioning her body to fly directly into the rainbow falls above the queens. As her body slammed against the hard stone, Rainbow clutched the wall, fighting against the multicolored current. She looked down, making sure she had attracted the ire of the queens. They stared up at her, their pentagonal mouths hissing at her.

Rainbow let out one last breath of air before she threw herself off the wall. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Apple Bloom and Applejack could only watch in horror as Rainbow Dash flung herself into the gaping maw of the largest queen. Mere moments passed until the ponies were pinned down by the infected horde.

The belly of the queen wasn’t what Rainbow expected, she didn’t know what she expected, but she didn’t expect to find herself in a warm, swirling, rainbow-hued void of color. Her hooves pawed the air, there didn’t seem to be ground, there didn’t even seem to be walls.

But as Rainbow blinked her eyes, she noticed something. A rhythmic thump resounded through her ears, and it grew louder and louder. The rainbow filled her eyes, the thump, the heartbeat filled her skull.

And Rainbow realized she could see, she could see everything. She could see the queens, the hive, everyone that they took control of. Like little spots, an interconnected web of rainbow that spread across all of Equestria.

Every spot, every individual pony, a part of the rainbow, each connected by a string to a queen, to the queen. Rainbow understood; the queen, she was the largest, the original iris grub. The one connected all the strings between every hive, every pony. The puppetmaster of it all. The heart of the hive.

That’s what she needed to do, to cut off the strings. Strangle the puppeteer. Stop the heartbeat.

But how?

But then, Rainbow heard the voice. Not like the many voices of the hive, the high-pitched little things that chattered amongst themselves, not even the voice of the queen, who calls and mockings came out as white noise in her ears. No, she heard the voice of something else. She didn’t know who, but she listened.

Rainbow listened to the voice, floating through the rainbows that matched the pallet of her mane. She followed until she found them, the rest of her friends.

Of course! They were all in one place, albeit some of them infected. She could see the six of them together in that chamber, each of them shining with their own color. Their own element of harmony.

The elements of harmony! That's what Rainbow could use! She didn’t know how or why, but the voice did, and so she listened. She felt something inside her echo out from within. She felt it in her friends as well.

Rainbow had to do this, she couldn’t let her friends down. She couldn’t- no, she wouldn’t let anyone down. She would never leave her friends behind. And so, Rainbow followed the voice. She followed it until the voices of the hive faded away and the heartbeat stopped.

All seemed to be lost in the cave underneath Rainbow Falls. The ponies had been overwhelmed and pinned to the ground by the zomponies. The queens gave a satisfied hum in the pool, watching the sight of their soon-to-be-turned captives struggle in the hooves of the horde.

Applejack blinked back tears that stung her eyes. Rainbow was gone. She had failed, failed Apple Bloom, failed her friends, failed Rainbow Dash. The pony above her didn’t care. Instead, his throat bulged, and a grub crawled out of his mouth. The grub turned its head in curiosity, staring down at Applejack with its four, glassy eyes.

But before it could enter the orange earth pony, a rumble from the rainbow pool turned its interest to the queen. The largest of the queens made a guttural moan as its bloated body began to glow from within.

In an instant, the fatty sack popped open, spilling out a splurge of rainbow goo across the chamber. The other queen’s quickly followed suit as all the zomponies began to whine with pain.

Applejack looked up with confusion as the grub meant for her began to twitch erratically, its head twisting unnaturally. She clenched her eyes shut as the grub then projectile vomited out the entire contents of its body, covering the pony with a thick layer of rainbow.

Applejack watched with delight as she stood up and observed as this spread throughout the rest of the zomponies as the ponies ejected their parasites. Every grub, in every pony, was soon vomited out, emitting high-pitched squeals before they curled up and died on the spot.

Calls of confusion and moans of tiredness began to emanate from the mob as the uninfected ponies began to stand up and take in their surroundings. Applejack hugged her sister with joy, it was over, the rainbow plague was gone!

Amongst the crowd, Twilight Sparkle shook her head in confusion as her memories came flooding back. She looked down, staring at the repulsive maggot that had resided in her body. The thing was dead now, its legs lifelessly curled up in the air. The grubs were of no threat anymore, but just in case, Twilight stomped a hoof down on the grub's head, giving out a satisfying crunch.

Chapter 10

Two weeks post infection...

“Keep still, this should only take a second,” Doctor Horse said reassuringly to his patient. Lyra didn’t answer, but kept her head still and her mouth open. She gagged as the doctor used his magic to carefully lower the pliers down her throat. She shuddered as he suddenly applied pressure. Doctor Horse nodded as he removed the pliers, “And there we go!”

“Thanks doc,” Lyra responded with a hoarse voice, giving an uneasy eye to the thing the doctor had removed from her throat. In the plier’s grasp was a single, long, sinewy leg of an iris grub, as they had come to be commonly called. Lyra had been infected by a grub much like the rest of Ponyville, and when she had forcefully vomited out the creature, one of its legs had gotten caught in her throat.

The doctor waved his patient out before quickly disposing of the insect leg into a small baggy. Lyra’s problem was unfortunately a common one. In fact, in the week since the end of the infection, the Ponyville Hospital had become swamped with patients, many suffering from clogged throats, errant goo splurges, and just plain old mental stress.

But for now, Doctor Horse had another patient to check up on.

Entering into another hospital suite, the doctor trotted up to the room’s sole patient. Rainbow Dash, the pegasus who had saved them all, remained still in her hospital bed. Sitting down, Doctor Horse began his routine checkups on her. As usual, she remained stable in her condition. While doing so, he glanced up, his eyes meeting the tired, but focused gaze of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

She had practically never left the side of the pegasus, and remained within hoofreach of Rainbow for nearly a week. Rainbow’s other friends had frequently visited of course, but the princess seemed particularly intent on remaining with Rainbow. Finishing his checkup, the doctor slowly stood up, he looked at the princess, trying to keep a neutral face, "Physically, she remains completely healthy, but in terms of her mental state, there’s only marginal improvement.” The same thing he had said every other day, with every other checkup. Twilight didn’t answer him, simply giving the doctor a nod as he left her alone with Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash had been the focus of Twilight’s attention since the whole thing ended. Like most others of the infected, she wasn’t sure what had happened near the end, with only a few distant and unclear memories. She did, however, remember rushing Rainbow to the hospital after the initial cleanup began. Rainbow, whatever she did in that cave, had saved everyone, and put herself in a coma while doing so. She had sacrificed herself for all of Equestria. To stop the rainbow plague.

Though the plague and its grubs were gone in reality, they had firmly cemented themselves in Twilight’s mind. Everyone else treated the plague and its defeat just like any of the other things that threatened to destroy Equestria, most of them wanting to put the whole affair behind them. And indeed they did; immediately after traveling back to Ponyville, the ponies were greeted by Celestia, who had escaped from her grub-induced imprisonment in Canterlot. She gave a speech, the crowd cheered, Pinkie Pie somehow put together a party to celebrate their victory, and they quickly cleaned up the damage that had been done. Even Discord, having gotten his magic back, threw in a helping claw.

However, the whole thing felt- off to Twilight. The amount of questions about the grubs and queens were numerous, and would likely remain unanswered. But for now, Twilight just hoped her friends were okay.

Suddenly, the door to the room creaked, causing Twilight to crane her head towards the entrance, expecting Doctor Horse to enter. Instead, Applejack poked her hat-wearing head in. She was followed by the rest of her friends.

They had all been busy doing various things outside. Making sure friends and family were okay, fixing up the damage, but they had each found time to visit Twilight and Rainbow.

“Hey Twilight,” said Applejack, “Just to let ya know, I finished fixing up Rainbow’s place. Is she holding up well?”

Twilight sighed, looking down at her unconscious friend, “She hasn’t gotten worse, but it doesn’t seem like she’s improved either.”

“Well, just let us know if you, or Rainbow need anything.”

“Speaking of needing anything,” said a voice from behind the door, “I got a heck of a bunch of things for you, Twilight!”

The door opened, and in toddled Spike, carrying a large stack of papers. “I got your mail for you just like you asked Twilight!” He said from behind the stack, “You’ve got messages from Celestia, Cadence, Shining Armor, heck! Pretty much everypony!”

“Thanks Spike,” Twilight responded, giving a wiry smile as she used her magic to lift the stack and place it beside her, “Answering all of these is the least I can do while I’m here.”

“Well, I hope you’re not here for much longer,” Fluttershy added timidly, “I mean- I hope Rainbow gets better soon.”

“When she gets better, I’m going to throw her the biggest ‘You Saved Equestria’ party ever!” Pinkie Pie excitedly interjected.

“Indeed,” Rarity agreed, “When she gets better, things can finally get back to normal and we can put this whole thing behind us! Celestia knows I want to forget having destroyed a whole selection of dresses in my stupor.”

“I don’t even want to think about what I did as a zompony!” Fluttershy exclaimed. A moment of silence passed between the ponies, all of them, with the exception of Applejack, silently reminiscing on the events the week prior.

”Anyways,” Twilight stated after clearing her throat, “I can’t thank you all enough for all the help you’ve been and really, just being friends I can rely on.” Her cheeks flushed with red a bit as she looked out towards the soft smiles of her friends before she turned her eyes back down to Rainbow, “I just wish Rainbow Dash was her with us right now.” She gave a sad sigh before wiping her snout and looking back up at her friends.

“Well, I guess we’ll be leaving now, other jobs to do an’ all,” Applejack said, giving a nod to Rainbow and Twilight. She turned tail towards the door and began to leave as the others followed suit, before they were stopped dead in their tracks by a voice.

“Leaving so soon?”

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight twisted back down to the hospital bed, her face filling with an expression of joy as she saw Rainbow Dash’s eyes flicker squint open.

Rainbow coughed, “Yeah, it’s me.” Almost immediately, the rest of the ponies spun around and gave a happy cheer, running back to the bed and embracing their friend with a group hug. Though she was tired, Rainbow gave them a wiry smile, “Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m fine! Just passed out for a bit back there.”

“A bit!” Applejack playfully patted the pegasus’ shoulder, “You were out for a week sugarcube!”

“A week?” Rainbow nearly jumped out of her bed, “I was out for a week? What even happened? Where are the zomponies?”

Twilight tilted her head in puzzlement, “You mean you don’t remember what happened?”

“Nope! Last thing I recall is my super cool move of flying into one of the queens.”

“Hmph, I guess none of us knows what exactly happened down there,” Twilight furrowed her brow for only a moment before grinning again, “But that’s another thing for another time. Right now, I’m just happy you’re okay!”

The ponies moved in for another group hug, this one Rainbow heartily accepted, “Yeah me too. I’m glad we’re all back together again, and this time none of us are zomponies!”

Fluttershy giggled, “Yeah, no zompony, bug, or monster will ever separate these best friends ever again!”

The flow of rainbow waterfalls created a constant ambient sound that dulled out the other noises of the cavernous chamber. Created long ago by flowing waters underneath Rainbow Falls, these caves had been the original resting place for the original queens of the iris grubs. But now, they were empty. The grubs, rainbow goo, and queens had been cleaned out several days prior. The queen's tunnels that had dug underneath Equestria had been sealed, and royal guards had been posted in these caves, to make sure there weren't any straggler iris grubs.

And there weren’t. The caves had been peaceful in the week since the end of the infection, which prompted most of the royal guards to move elsewhere as the days continued on. Only a single guard was left, a lone pegasus stationed to guard the almost tranquil stony grotto underneath Rainbow Falls.

But in the darkness of one of the tunnels, something stirred. Out of the tunnel waddled two iris grubs, using their lengthy limbs to drag their bloated bodies into the chamber. They were skinnier now, having lost weight after being disconnected from their hosts. The two bugs mindlessly chittered to one another, being no more intelligent than any other bug, as their intelligence was dependent on their connection to the pony and the hive.

This particular duo of grubs were spared from the collapse of hivemind, having been ejected and abandoned in the tunnels previously by their hosts, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. They had spent the last week slowly making their way to the chamber, seeking their calling.

The two iris grubs landed on the ground with a plop, crawling past a rocky outcropping, crawling over the hooves of the royal guard. The lone guard had been stationed there, but he was unconscious now and no threat to the grubs.

And so the grubs ignored the guard, giving out a high pitched chitter as they met the hooves of another pony. The grubs clinged onto the dark-colored hoof of the pony, who raised the pests to examine them.

The pony smiled underneath their dark purple cloak and hood.

Yes, the iris grubs had failed, and these two grubs were near worthless now, but the rainbow plague had been a very educational experience. For the iris grub had been created in another time, a time without the elements of harmony or the princesses, and they were unable to adapt, and fell because of it.

“I guess I shall save you two for later,” the cloaked pony presumed with a chuckle, placing the grubs upon their back. And without another word, the pony and the grubs turned, proceeding into the darkness of a tunnel, leaving the chamber of rainbows.