Containment Protocol: Equestria

Chapter 1. Spread

...Prayers Of The Refugee are Rarely Answered - Starlight Glimmer

When it happened, no pony had a clue it had even started. The fall happened so fast that there was barely any time to react. Celestia and Luna did the best they could, but even if they hadn't it, was no fault to them or anypony else for that matter. It still seemed like such a long time ago. Such a long long time ago.

It all started with just a couple of Earth ponies with slight headaches and mood swings. The doctors told them to take medication and that they'd be fine in a couple of days. Days turned into weeks, a couple of ponies turned into dozens, dozens into hundreds. Headaches turned to migraines, mood swings turned to rage. One by one, the ponies began going crazy over the pain, or so we thought. It was thought at first that it must be some sort of head cold or severe allergies. As time passed, nothing seemed out of the ordinary other than the headaches. That was until the first attack. A unicorn walked out of the Medical Center in the Crystal Empire and began attacking a passerby. The news didn't reach Canterlot until the next day but by then, it started happening everywhere. Dodge Junction, Baltimare, Filly Delphia, Manephis, Detrot, Ponyville, and Canterlot even had their own series of attacks.

Celestia and Luna began giving curfew orders in mid-spring to try to slow the spread of this now-called Mystery Magical Virus. By the time curfews were in full effect it seemed like the entire nation of Equestria was feeling the effects of this new virus. All three races of ponies were getting infected. Earth, Pegasi, and Unicorns, no pony seemed to be safe. The Wonderbolts were employed to carry large metal containers of sorts and began releasing an unknown gas around Equestria as fast as possible in hopes of whatever was in it could slow the rapidly spreading virus. Unfortunately, it did the exact opposite and sped up the process. Ponies were losing their minds even quicker than usual.

It was discovered that the infection was primarily spread and transmitted by the magical energy of unicorns. Pegasi were getting infected by flying behind other pegasi or coming in contact with the residual magical energy from their flight, Earth ponies were getting infected by the traditional spreading of germs and other contaminates left behind. The Medical Centers had been taken over by the Equestrian Military and shut down for research purposes leaving the sick nowhere to go.

The infection began showing itself in those who had been sick for a few days with dark black circles appearing around their eyes, and they acted as if they were in a violent trance. Some attacked anything that moved and spoke in slurred intelligible broken words. While Pegasi and Earth ponies mostly bit to attack, Unicorns used Magic. The friends we knew and loved were no longer the ponies we knew. They were as they said, a monster.

The first death was reported just outside Baltimare from a pony getting beaten to death by an infected one. Panic spread like wildfire and no pony trusted each other after that. In the summer of that same year, almost all at once, every single infected began attacking ponies in masses for no apparent reason. The Solution, to exile all infected ponies to the outskirts of each significant city and raise a huge magical dome shield around the city powered by the strongest unicorns taking shifts so the previous wouldn't get overworked, and then from within the city, build a wall as a secondary security measure. Ponies from all around disagreed and demanded a less cruel way to deal with the infected.

The canterlot guard began developing weapons that were connected to a harness and fired by kicking a lever with their hind legs. They called them Rifles and assault weapons. Their purpose, to kill anypony who tried breaking into the city, especially if they were infected. If the infection was spotted, it was kill on sight. This level of violence was never seen before in Equestrian history. It was, to say the least, a nightmare. Never had blood been shed on Equestrian soil and now some places were covered in it and the most terrifying thing, the Princesses ordered it.

For a while, the shields held since there weren't many if any break-ins, but a great number of infected ponies had to be put down. It seemed like things were ok until supplies began to run low. We had to find a way to travel to other cities safely without the risk of infection. The majority of ponies were still healthy but there were still a couple hundred outside the walls who were infected. Celestia and Luna devised a way to go from city to city without having to walk by sing the rail network around Equestria. Modified trains were used to and from place to place, using small holes in the shield to let the trains roll through. The engines were now more advanced, had more power and could go faster. Only days went by before we heard of the first derailments. No survivors, no bodies and no ponies were found at the wreckage sites. Only piled up heaps of twisted metal and cargo.

The first city to completely crumble was Manehatten, a horde of infected pegasi and unicorns had beaten against the shield so hard it became weak, allowing the unicorns to magically shatter the dome, flooding the city and infecting every last pony they came in contact with relentless force. It's said the shield came down so quickly that it caused a shockwave that broke most of the windows in the downtown district. One after another, the Shields came down with the same outcome. Many ponies in the areas affected escaped and spread out across Equestria with the last being Cloudsdale which lost contact with Canterlot for days before being deemed a lost cause. Gunfire and magical energy could be heard all around for as far as it could echo.

Canterlot was the hardest hit. All throughout Equestria, smoke from burning buildings could be seen but once Canterlot's shield came down, it was over. Like fireworks show on the ground, smoke and fires lit up in the city... Equestria had fallen... It took thousands of years to build Equestria up to what it was and only 22 days for it to fall with the worst still to be seen in the coming days. I don't think any of us could have seen it coming.

The first thing to go was the electricity. Power all across the nation failed a couple of days after Canterlot fell, leaving the nation in a permanent state of darkness during the night and the streets empty during the day. Towns and cities were left abandoned with broken glass from windows littered the streets. Dinner still sat on plates inside some homes from ponies ready to eat when the shields came down. Stores still had displays up and toys still sat in playgrounds and sandboxes never to be played with again.

Trains mostly stopped running with some of them abandoned on the tracks still full of coal and water. Other train cars had been ripped open deprived of food, water and supplies. A select few ponies used these empty cars to take shelter. With not mny ponies left knowing how to operate the engines, there were very few trains left where the stopped never to be moved again.

Farms were left in complete ruin and the livestock were left to die. This was especially evident at Sweet Apple Acres where not another apple will ever be harvested anymore from its now bare trees along with the missing apple family.

Canterlot soon began falling apart with buildings beginning to shift and crumble. The once great waterfall had now overflown weakening the mountain side slowly leading to a section of it to collapse. This caused the dam underneath to fail, sending a rush of water right through ponyville and flooding the blood-soaked streets.

Strange, garbled radio transmissions played on some radios left behind by the equestrian military. one even just rattle off randomly seeming numbers followed by music.

Cloudsdale, the last of the Cities, began crumbling when a large explosion went off at the weather factory. With nopony to monitor and maintain safe pressures inside some of the automated cloud production tanks, it became too much, and they exploded, sending large pieces of enchanted steel and other materials to fall onto the cities below.

The psychological effects on some took its toll when they couldn't handle the stress anymore and took their own life. Other ponies took to some settlements which were somewhat protected from the infection of the ponies wandering the Equestrian lands. Rumors of slave traders began popping up from ponies traveling for goods. The weapons once used to protect Canterlot were found, copied and sold across settlements, and now nearly everypony is armed.

Vanhoover is the only still fully functioning city in Equestria and the one with the most supplies, but you've got to be somepony special to live in the walls of that city but of course, all of this is hearsay, and you can believe what you'd like.

10 YEARS LATER....