Ancient Infection

Spike stuck to the shadows, sneaking past Pinkie Pie, and walking further down the corridor. There was a sound to accompany the sound of the voices, the moans. As he stepped closer, he saw...her. Her head was long, one of her wings was missing, and her horn was broken off. Her front portion was larger than her back portion, which was normal size. Her large hooves had turned red, inflamed, and had multiple bite wounds. Her remaining wing had several bite marks, as well as part of it hanging on by a single strand of flesh. Her enlarged head was looking sad, while a second smaller head namely caught his attention. The second head looked like a foal's head, its horn broken off, her large eyes were looking around as if seeing everything for the first time. That was when the pieces fell into place in Spike's mind. Princess Cadence was pregnant! How could this have happened to her? She should have been protected for Twilight's sake, for Shining Armor's sake. But she wasn't, no pony knew except her and possibly Shining.

"She was pregnant..." A voice came from behind Spike.

He turned around as tears streamed down his face.

"Pinkie? You knew?" He asked, seeing the pink pony, her hair was still curly but not as poofy as it would normally be.

"I knew after it had happened. I wish we'd knew before all of this happened. Maybe Twilight would have stayed for their visit, we wouldn't have gone to Canterlot, and none of this would have happened." Pinkie's voice was monotoned, as if she wasn't talking to him specifically.

"Are you okay, Pinkie?" Spike asked, his voice was soft, concerned for her.

"I...no, I'm not, Spike, I lost my found family, and now I am losing my friends, one by one." Pinkie confessed; tears were streaming down her pink cheeks.

Spike's eyes soften, and he gave her a gentle hug, not knowing if it was actually safe to hug her or not. Still, she needed a hug, badly. He couldn't think of how it would feel if he lost Twilight, or Shining, or even worse, Celestia. The only family members he had known in his whole life. He let her cry as he hugged her, she gave a soft sniffle.

"I don't think Twilight knows..." Pinkie stated softly, her ears were drooping as Spike blinked at her.

"We should tell her, so she'd know too." Spike stated, then saw Pinkie’s expression “I’ll tell her, so you don’t have to. I know it will be difficult for you to tell her.”

“Thank you, Spike.” Pinkie gave him a weak smile, as she hugged him tightly.

With that, the pink party pony let go of the baby dragon, and started to walk away, and out of the dungeon. Spike headed back to Twilight, noticing she was getting frustrated by the squirming tiny monster. She growled for him to stay still, but he didn’t listen, continuing to squirm on the table where he was strapped down. Spike cleared his throat, getting Twilight’s attention.

“What is it?” She asked, not turning around to look at him.

“T-Twilight? It’s about Cadence…” Spike began.

“I already know, Spike.” Twilight cut him off.

His green eyes widen “Y-you do? How?”

“She has a second head on her, a foal’s head. If you’d look closely, you’d see a mixture of both her and my brother’s hair. I was going to be an auntie…” Twilight’s voice trailed off.

“I’m sorry, Twilight…” Spike’s voice was soft, sad.

Twilight took a deep breath and injected the squirming monstrous brat. He was still for a moment, then he began to writhe, Pound Cake began to shriek in pain, as his body swelled, before popping. Spraying not only blood, but black goo, flesh, bone, and intestine. Luckily for the pair, Twilight engulf both of them in a health bubble and shield. After the poor foal popped, Twilight let out a roar of frustration, stamping her hoof harshly on the ground, causing it to crack and dent. The lavender alicorn began to pace in anger.

“Why didn’t it work? Not even a little! I need more samples, but I’ll need it…” Twilight began then sighed, turning to her assistant “Spike, gather everyone into the map room. I need to talk to them and tell them that it’s important.”

He nodded before hurrying out, and running upstairs as fast as he could. Terrified to what he had saw, what he had smelt. He couldn’t believe that Twilight was cold about the foal’s death. He might’ve turned, but the baby Cake could have still been in there, somewhere. Maybe? He couldn’t really tell. He didn’t know what these creatures were pre-say, but they were certainly dangerous.
He gathered up the rest of the surviving group. The Apple family reluctantly following suit, clearly still mourning the loss of the youngest Apple. Applejack still clung to the hope of her not being infected like the Cakes, Fluttershy, and the others. Maybe a cure could be found? Maybe Twilight was their only hope, maybe...Applejack shook her head, right now she had to focus on this meeting. Once everyone was in the map room, Twilight finally spoke.

"I need samples in order to figure out what this is, and to help find a cure." Her voice was monotone, as she was a princess speaking with her subjects and not her friends.

"Samples?" Rarity asked, "What kind of samples, and from whom?"

"The original first two infected, Princess Luna and Fluttershy. If it came from Fluttershy, that would be more preferable. Nevertheless however, I need those samples." Twilight stated firmly.

"What about the Cake family? Couldn't you take some samples from them?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking rather uneasy.

"I tried, and I tried to make a cure, or something of that sort, unfortunately the results...." The alicorn's voice trailed off, falling silent.

"Pound Cake had blown up from one of the tests." Spike bluntly stated.

Almost everyone gasped at the reviel.

"Which is why we need samples from the original, I have tried every which way possible from the Cakes, but it's no use. I need them. We need a plan. Any ideas?" Twilight asked, looking around the room a little bit.

She did not notice that Pinkie's hair had fully deflated, her eye twitched, and a large, unnerving smile grew.