Containment Protocol: Equestria

Chapter 6: A Vast Emptiness

“MMV came fast and silent. Nopony knew they even had it until the headaches set in.” - Nurse Redheart.

Lifting my body up off the rooftop, I tried turning my sight to the New Buckingham walls but the overwhelming feeling of weight caused me to stumble and fall back to the dust and debris. The adrenaline must’ve been wearing off making me feel heavy and weak. My forehead and side of my face burned as if I had just held it to a hot stove. My wing felt numb, maybe even broken. The sound coming from behind me was unbearable; explosions, rifle fire, alarms, and screaming… Oh Luna, the screaming. I just turned my head and looked at Sugarkake whose face was buried in her hooves, her sobbing turning into a quiet whimper. Hearing her like this broke my heart and I didn’t know how to make any of this any better for her.

I slowly slid my body around to view the gut-wrenching sight of the city. The lights were flickering randomly and smoke bellowed up from somewhere, beginning to spill over the wall like some twisted waterfall. The buildings, especially the taller ones, all had broken windows while some other floors had smoke beginning to seep out. Reflections of fires flickered and danced in the only windows left. It looked like hell. We weren’t prepared for this at all. We didn’t even think this would ever happen.

I managed to slide my body to Sugarkake and nuzzle up to her just as a large explosion erupted, casting a bright light over everything. The sound alone made everything around us shake and vibrate causing the buildings all around us to groan and creak. Small pieces of debris fell on us like raining sand particles. Sugar reached her hoof out and wrapped it around my neck pulling me closer., Her body was still trembling and she had a slight occasional hic to her breathing. I just laid there, holding her until the sun finally broke over the horizon. At least most infected ponies are inactive during daytime.

“What are we going to do Wynter? What do we do? Where do we go from here?”

I wish I had that answer, I really did. I had no plan or course of direction. I didn’t have any idea what to do. How could any pony know when this was gonna happen or even if it was gonna happen? The truth was… I was scared to death and the only thing I knew was we needed to move and get far away from New Buckingham, or what was left of it.

“Okay, the first thing we need to do is find out where we can go vs. where we go.” I let Sugar lay as is, right on me with her head pressed against mine. I tried moving my wing but got no response from it. Just a stronger tingling sensation. “What's more, I think my wing might be broken.” I felt Sugar tense up and without looking at me, reached her hoof over me. She moved it up and down my wing until she hit a spot right under the joint. Her head raised slowly with fear in her eyes. She never looked directly into my eyes but she did find something judging from her reaction.

I tried turning my head to see what she found but she pushed my head back in the other direction with enough force to pop my neck several times. That feeling came back to my neck all at once causing me to groan but, all in all, it felt wonderful.

“Don’t look at this... Just don't look.”

I was confused., Don't look at what? It didn’t hurt so how bad could it be? My wing was still there and I could feel that. It’s just numb is all. Sugar moved over my body, and I just stared at the now pale blue sky and slightly red horizon. I just let out a soft chuckle.

“What did they say about red Sky Sugar?” I blinked a couple of times and sighed. I knew this wasn’t a time for any jokes but I really needed to get my mind off of the breach and smoke-filled sky out of my sight. I felt a bit of pain start to radiate from my wing then suddenly, a wet SHLICK sound, and all the feeling returned at once.

“FFFUCK ME RUNNING! SON OF A BITCH!”

I didn’t even have any time to react. I just laid there screaming for a few seconds before I was rolled to my side and felt my back snap and pop. The feeling took my breath from me. I just laid there wide-eyed and mouth wide open gasping for air. My eyes began to roll back. It was so hard to breathe. I heard Suger say something but I couldn’t make out what it was. My mind just went blank. I just kept repeating in my mind ‘I’m gonna die here.’ I felt another crack in my chest and a bolt of lightning go through my back until my vision blurred.

In a flash, I was back in the New Buckingham Medical Ward in a hospital bed with an IV in my front foreleg. I looked down and saw that I had a bluish gown on and some type of wires leading to a machine. I tried moving my body but I couldn’t. In fact, I couldn't feel anything at all. I recognized the room but didn’t know from when.

“If you want to keep your position and your pay here, you’ll meet me at my apartment tonight. Not tomorrow, tonight.” I heard a Stallion’s voice behind a curtain before it was pulled back swiftly until a very familiar voice began talking to me.

“Hey there hon, My name is Nurse Sugarkake and I will be taking care of you while you are here today. Let's raise you up a little so we can get a look at you.” The head of my bed was raised up to meet a younger-looking Sugarkake. Her colors were exactly the same and nothing had changed except for her looking more tired back then. That's where I knew this from...

“Your chart says your name is Glitterball, Heh, you look more like a Wintery type of pony to me. You live in Building number 4, room 1012? What do ya know? You are just right down the hall from me and this says you have the same blood type as me. It’s clear that you are a pegasus so I’ll put in the records that you hold pegasus magic. They should’ve had that in your records already.”

I could only stare at her as she looked me in the eyes and examined me from head to tail.As she was scribbled on her clipboard, a unicorn stallion walked up to her and laid a few papers on the foot of my bed.

“I'm serious. You want this position,and you will...”

“Let me make this clear. I’m not fucking you or any other stallion in this city.” Sugarkake said quietly through gritted teeth. "I've already put in for a transfer for security anyways so enjoy your time in lockup.”

The stallion left, but not before slinging the curtain open and knocking over a small table of utensils over in the process. Sugar just shook her head and rolled her eyes as she turned back to me. “I'm sorry about that sugar cube. You look hungry. Is there anything I can get you?”

I just slowly blinked as I lay on a bed inside of a room I didn’t recognize. Turning my head around the room, I noticed the paint on the walls were peeling off and that the light fixtures were broken. The only dresser in the room was missing its drawers, the windows were smashed , swaying the curtains in the breeze. I smelt of mildew and a touch of rotting wood but that didn’t matter right now. In front of the window was Sugar staring blankly out of it. Did she drag me in here?

“I almost forgot you were a nurse when we first met,” I said weakly just to get her attention. She looked at me with tears in her eyes, rushing to the bedside and sitting on the floor with her head hung lowhe was shaking again, and this time her rifle clinked as tears fell from her eyes.

“Dont you ever fucking do that to me again. I thought you were gonna die on me and this time you were hurt badly. I had to pull a piece of glass that was lodged through your side and into your wing, reset your wing again and I did my best to put your back into place again. If I didn’t, you could’ve died. I– I did my best. You were hurt and I did my best.” Her words turned more into a hiccuping cry again. My heart dropped and I felt terrible, but I just knew we needed out of the city. It wasn't even morning yet.

I didn’t know what to do for her. I moved on impulse, although it hurt like a bitch to move. I just closed my eyes, held my breath, and moved. When I opened my eyes, my lips were wrapped around hers and she didn’t look like she was completely shocked. I slowly moved back a bit, breaking the kiss. My heart was racing and I was so nervous that I felt sick.

“S-sorry,” was all I could muster up.

What the hell did I just do? How's she gonna react? Oh Celestia, tell me I didn't just mess up. My mind was running rampant. My heart felt like it was gonna explode out of my chest. I know this isn't the time or place for it but I just acted on it and now I'm freaking out!

"WynterBreeze!"

My heart sank looking up into her bright pink eyes.

"Y-yeah Sugar?”

Here we go… She’s gonna lay into me like she never has before. I just know it.

"You put yourself in danger and almost fell to the ground from over 600 feet. I had us fly over the wall, almost got hit by magical energy and we crash landed onto a rooftop because you said it would save both of our lives."

My stomach was in a tightly woven knot. I knew she was mad as hell at me. I had almost gotten both of us killed multiple times in just the course of an hour, all because I was panicking and trying to get out of the city.

"And it did." She says nuzzling me softly. "You could've left me behind any moment and you didn't."

"I couldn't just leave you behind in all that, are you..."

"I love you, Wynter."

My heart skipped several beats when I heard her say that. My face must’ve turned bright red because it felt like it was burning up. She finally said it. My mind was going through multiple emotions and I knew my face matched each one of them. Even in these tragic times, she still found it in herself to feel love and express it. I sighed with a smile on my face.

“Love you too, Sugar.”

“Oh I almost forgot, you need another dose.”

Sugar walked over to the hoof of the bed and began digging around in what I assumed to be saddlebags before rushing back. She held a syringe with a long needle attached to it in her mouth and before explaining anything, she aimed right at the spot she sewed up where I’d been impaled by the glass.

“This is going to hurt… a lot.”

“Wait! How bad? Because I dunno how much more pain I can take y’know.”

“A lot”

And with that, she stabbed the needle into the wing joint, piercing it deep into my side. I winced at the needle but it wasn't as bad as Sugar made it out to be. I glanced at her in confusion, wondering what was so bad about it but all she did was mouth the words, “I'm sorry,” and began pushing the plunger down slowly. I felt the burning sensation begin in my side and not before long, it was ripping through my entire body like she had injected me with acid. I felt my entire body flare up but she wasn't close to being done. I gritted my teeth and clamped my eyes shut trying not to move. Every heartbeat was as painful as it could be. My heart sped up so fast I could see my eyes pulsing. When she was done, she pulled the needle out and held my hooves down.

“Just stay with me now Wynter. You have to push the pain to the back of your mind. C’mon, you can do this.”

–

I tried my best to not let it get the best of me but I was close to hyperventilating. When the injection hit, my back arched against her holding me down. My body began to pop and my bones felt like they were shifting around. Tears flowed uncontrollably from my eyes and saliva ran from my mouth as I grinded my teeth. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I gave in, letting my body tense up and let out a scream. Sugar threw herself on top of me and wrapped me in a tight hug. I could only muffle a scream into her shoulder. My hind legs involuntarily kicked and it felt like I was slowly dying. Sugar moved quickly and jammed something into my mouth, yelling at me to swallow it. I didn’t care what it was. I just choked it down.

It took a while, but whatever she gave me eased off the pain so much it felt like I hadn’t been injured at all. My heart rate returned back to normal and I could catch my breath again, though I was still panting. My eyes still ran with tears and my throat was a little sore but that all comes with screaming I guess. I felt wonderful. Absolutely no pain and I even had some energy. Sugar moved and climbed off my body. I noticed she had tears in her eyes but she had a soft smile.

“I'm so sorry you had to experience that. I gave you the first dose while you were conscious but there’s no more though. I took them when I left the medical center.”

“What did you give me? And what did that stuff do?”

“Its nickname is Hyperheal but I can't pronounce its actual name. It hurts the way it does because it’s shifting your body back to the way it should be. It’s essentially just a magic spell in a syringe and the capsule I forced down your throat was medication to block out any and all pain you could possibly feel. You only get two of those a day. It also keeps you from feeling any pain for a short time but It has its risks though.

I just chuckled and leaned up. “Well you used to be a doctor so I believe you. I do feel like a new pony though.”

It wasn't long before she had me lying in different positions to check where I was wounded and having me stretch my wings out one at a time. She even made me lift things with them to make sure everything was okay with me. I gave myself a look-over and noticed the wounds had already closed for the most part with my back and wing still being bruised pretty badly but that was fading fast. Whatever Hyperheal was, it did an amazing job at healing but I wouldn’t put my worst enemy through that kind of pain. At one point, she brushed my mane back to check my head and I just pecked a kiss on the tip of her nose. She just gave me a playfully annoyed look. Everything seemed good. Maybe the end of the world wasn’t all bad after all.

“Do you think you’ll be able to glide to the ground before the medication starts wearing off? You only have about six hours from taking it and it’s already been two.” I simply nodded and crawled from the bed to strap my rifle to my body. Sugarkake had already gotten my saddlebags and was now carrying her and my saddlebags along with her rifle.

I walked to the window, spread my wings and jumped out, letting myself glide to the road below. Once my hooves hit the pavement, I stumbled a bit and fell flat on my face. I guess the meds don’t do anything for strength but at least I wasn't hurting at the moment. I heard Sugarkake’s hooves hit the pavement and then walk up beside me.

“Okay, now where to?”

“I think… I think we have to find out why that train was sent to New Buckingham. Who sent it, and how did they get so many infected ponies in those rail cars? In addition to that, there are a lot of unanswered things I've been wondering about like; what actually happened all those years ago, why that recording on the radio spits out all those lies, and what is this MMV anyway? We were never told any of that.”

Sugarkake placed her hoof on her head, rubbing it slightly. “OK ok enough. We’ll just tackle one thing at a time here. If you want to know where the train came from, it was Fillydelphia.”

I didn’t give her much of a chance to say anything else. I cut her off and turned to look at the smoldering city behind me in the distance. “Then we’ll start there, we are going to Fillydelphia.”

“Wait a minute there filly. You want to go to Fillydelphia? Ponies stay away from that city, not seek it out. Not only is it a day and a half away from us but you can’t fly. So it's like 3 days to get there on hooves.”

I hadn't thought about that. It's true. I can’t get there by air but maybe we could make it there by walking. I had to think about how we could do this but at the same time, not make it clear to Sugarkake that I had no idea what I was doing.

“We could always use the rails. Just follow them to where we are going.”

“Okay, do you know which rails to follow Wynter? Just face it. We never got the chance to leave those walls and out here, we are completely and utterly lost. Not even I know where we are going.”

“I'm pretty sure we can find our way… That train came from the north so we just follow the roads heading north. And I'm pretty sure we will find signs pointing us in the right direction.”

I gestured my head to Sugar and began walking down the road.

“What did you mean by the radio man lying? I mean we always had at least one radio on in the Med Bay so I’ve heard the recording before. And we’ve got a long walk ahead of us so we have a while to talk.” Sugarkake asks as she catches up to me.

“You have got to be kidding Sugar. The virus started with headaches, the trains stopped running, and it only took 22 days for Equestria to crumble? The virus being transmitted by magic only? I’ve been out here enough to know that it’s every bit more Biological than magical. Ponies don't just get insane over a headache Sugar Cake. And that whole bit about the war going down in Canterlot? I used to live in Cloudsdale, remember? I could see what went down on the ground below and it took a full three months to evacuate Cloudsdale. My mother got infected right before my father loaded me onto a train for New Buckingham, which was six months into the outbreak. You do the math.”

“Okay, so most of it was exaggerated...”

I spun around quickly to meet her eyes. “Exaggerated my ass. They fucking lied to us Sugarkake. They lied.”

I turned back around and continued walking up the empty streets. The decaying old concrete buildings of Baltimare weren’t very inviting. Vegetation and vines grew up the sides of the cracked walls, and broken windows allowed curtains to wave in and out of the gaping holes. The street lights had either fallen over or been bent, and the power lines lay on the streets like sleeping snakes. I looked up at a building that used to be under construction when the city got hit with the virus. It looked like a bomb had hit it.

I looked at Sugarkake who was now walking a few paces behind me. Her pink eyes were just looking everywhere taking everything in. I felt horrible for her, she had never been out in this kind of destruction before but I was numb to it all. I was used to seeing so many decaying buildings.

“Why all of the broken windows?” Sugar asks, breaking the silence.

“What windows the infected didn’t break, the weather did. Glass doesn’t stand up to much. Especially with no Pegasi to control the weather and the automated systems having no power to run, the weather just does whatever with no way to control or predict it.”

I turned to walk down one of the main streets of Baltimare while still preoccupied with the crumbling buildings around me. I was looking for any indication of where to go if I was even going in the right direction. I saw a small window that looked like it had a map behind it but due to the years of built-up dust, I couldn’t really see. Sugar gasped, making me jump. I turned to see what was wrong and her eyes were fixed looking up in fear. Her legs were shaking and I could see her trembling at whatever she was looking at. I turned to see three ponies hanging from one of the power lines between buildings. One was a pegasus his wings laid limp at the sides. I recognized him as CloudFlare. We went to flight school together. My stomach sank and I just walked over to Sugar. I turned her around and just got us walking in the other direction

“Just… Don't say anything.”

“B–ut b– but.”

“Not a word.”

As I moved with Sugarkake, all I could do was silently pray for these ponies and hope Celestia and Luna were with them. It remained clear for the most part with the occasional barricade here and there as we progressed through the city. It was pretty uneventful until we reached a big sign reading ‘NOW LEAVING BALTIMARE… FILLYDELPHIA,’ and the distance was scraped and rusted over.

“Looks like we are going in the right direction.” I turned back at Sugarkake who looked like a broken pony at this point. Her eyes were bloodshot and began forming dark lines under them. This might be a bit much for her being out here in the shit but still, where else did she have to go. I walked back to her and grabbed my saddlebags off of her back and put them back on. Seeing those ponies might have changed her for good, It’s not every day ou see ponies hanging from power lines or anywhere for that matter.

As we got to the outskirts of Baltimare, it was becoming more and more clear what had happened here. Bullet holes in the concrete of the buildings, huge chunks from the buildings missing, rubble everywhere we looked. The tallest buildings were creaking and groaning, threatening to collapse on top of us at any moment.

“Wynter, who is the Syndicate?”

I turned to ask Sugar what she was talking about and I saw her pointing up at a banner blowing in the breeze attached to a couple of pieces of exposed rebar. ‘Beware of Syndicate,’ It read. Not much more to go off of than just a name
“Most likely one of those radical groups who thinks their shit doesn't stink and that they’re better than everypony else, Flicker and I ran into a group a few miles west of New Buckingham. They called themselves the River. A bunch of mumbo jumbo bullshit about how they are gonna revive the wastelands and bring everything back to normal and blah blah blah. Don’t listen to it. It's just nonsense.”

Sugar just sighed and began walking up the road. It seemed like endless hours of walking through more and more destroyed buildings, almost as if Baltimare had no end in sight. We stopped a few times to fill Sugar’s canteen since I foolishly left mine behind. The crunching of broken glass and busted concrete was beginning to really get old but it helped keep things going completely silent. I told Sugar a few times if she wanted to stretch her wings. she could fly around a few times. I was perfectly Okay with walking. My side was starting to ache but had not quite at the painful stage yet, though I wasn’t about to tell Sugar that.

I started to regret my decision to come all the way out here until we rounded a corner and the buildings just abruptly ended. On one side of us was never-ending water no matter which way we looked. It was just a vast nothing except just water and more water. Even where it looked like boat docks had collapsed into the sea. I had never seen it myself but I’ve seen pictures of it in books. And the other side of the road were just trees as far as the eye could see down the road.

“Greaaat… Water, trees, and vast fucking nothing.” I just leaned against the rusted railing on the edge of the walkway where the water met the concrete, looking up at the sky and realizing the sun was beginning to go down. We only had a few hours of sunlight left.

“We need to find shelter to hunker down for the night,” I told Sugarkake as she admired the sunset over the water. “Sugar! C’mon!”

She turned to follow me up the road a bit to find one of the abandoned buildings we could take shelter in. We finally found an old hotel about 5 floors high. As we entered the building, I tried pushing back images of ponies dying inside a building the best I could and just pressed onto the escalators. We found ourselves middle of the main lobby but the creaking building wasn’t the best place to take shelter. It will have to do for the night.

We approached an open door and entered the room quietly checking every dark corner there was. The fridge was on its side and open, cupboards were in pieces, and dressers were broken up with the drawers thrown everywhere. But to our liking, it still had a window intact and the bed was still there.

I slid my saddle bags off and laid them on the floor at the end of the bed. Unbuckling my rifle harness, and leaning it against the wall at the head of the bed, It felt wonderful to take the thing off for a while. Sugarkake had already stripped herself of the rifle, saddlebags, and security clothing. We tried not to think about what the bed had on it as we lay down and closed our eyes. Pretty soon, the room was pitch black and the sounds of the infected ponies roaming the streets became deafening, especially those who couldn’t stop….screaming.