Crystal Blood Part 5: Exodus

Crystal Empire, Day 2

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight ruffled her feathers as a familiar pair of scale hands wrestled the alicorn to wake.

Her eyes sprung open, her face was dry and her hair was a mess. “Spike! I just had the worst nightmare!” she cried while shivering.

Spike played with his hands uncomfortably. “Well…It wasn’t exactly a nightmare.”

Twilight jolted to a stop as the memories of the previous hours rushed back to her. She could see every traumatizing image span across his mind as if it were a picture book.

Spike comforted Twilight as she leaned back against the ballroom wall.

Twilight felt exhausted. She massages her head while simultaneously questioning Spike, “How long was I out?”

“About ten-no-eleven hours.”

Twilight panicked like a student who had overslept their alarm. “That long?! Aren't we supposed to be leaving soon?” Twilight scanned the room and noticed that it was completely vacant.

“That's the reason why I’m waking you up. Everypony is up and getting ready to evacuate, I just wanted to give you some extra rest,” Spike comforted. “I’m sorry that I don't have any breakfast to give you like usual.”

Twilight smiled. “I’m just glad I’m not waking up to the face of one of the infected. It’s good to see a familiar face-speaking of which-where’s Flash and Shining?”

“Shining is organizing the citizens for the evacuation, Flash has essentially been demoted to your brother's secretary, and Flurry is where you’d expect her to be-right next to Shining,” Spike listed as he counted each important pony off on his fingers.

Twilight got onto her hooves. “Then let’s not keep any of them waiting.”

Spike flashed an adventurous smile and escorted Twilight into the hallway.

Hundreds of ponies had lined themselves up against the massive crystal walls in almost complete silence. Filly’s clung to the mains of their mothers and fathers, individual stallions and mares stared off into space with wide eyes that broadcasted their trauma and everything they had lost, elderly ponies were hanging onto the shoulder of stronger ponies who could carry them, much to Twilight’s concern for both parties safety.

High above the floor was the small percentage of pegasus crystal ponies.

The winged creatures shuttled boxes full of fireworks across the castle, their wings casted a constantly cold breeze onto the earth ponies and unicorns that stood below.

“What are they doing with fireworks?” Twilight wondered.

“Some guards found them in storage, Shining suggested that we shot them off towards the north of the city as a distraction in order to escape. They should be firing them off in just a few minutes,” Spike commented as a few guards from Twilight's entourage snuck up on her.

“Your highness, we have been sent to inform you of the status of evacuation,” the lead pony announced. “Shining Armour has requested that you take the back of the formation and use your shield spell to protect the rear. Shining, meanwhile, will be leading the charge out of the city with his remaining royal guards. All other combatants will form a protective barrier around the civilians in the center. Shining wants us to move fast, so you have to keep up and make sure you or anypony else does not fall behind.”

“And when do we leave?” Twilight muttered nervously.

“In about ten minutes. As soon as the last few crates of fireworks are set up and fired, Shining Armor will give a signal to the group when we move out.”

Twilight gulped, then nodded her head and took flight with Spike. The two overlooked the crowd of refugees.

“Are you ready for this?” Spike asked with soft eyes.

Twilight tried to exhale all of her fears, but they stuck inside her like ash trapped in her lungs. “As ready as I’ll ever be, we just need to focus on keeping these ponies safe.”

Spike clenched his fist and nodded in determination.

Suddenly, all of the soldiers in the hallway stood at attention. Shining Armor emerged at the head of the caravan with Flash at his side and a small, locked chest with an air hole on his back where Twilight assumed Flurry Heart was hiding. Shining bobbed his head between the faces of each and everyone of his subjects, as if he was taking an account of each individual face.

“Attention, citizens of the Crystal Empire! We are about to embark on a dangerous, yet necessary mission-”

The entirety of the crowd stood silently. They watched in anticipation as they jittered or looked around to each other nervously.

“This mission will decide the fate of the Crystal Empire and the entirety of the realm, but fear not! For the Empire still has its hope and love!”

Two pegasus guards flew above Shining’s head. They held onto two poles each that connected to a glass chest. The inside of the chest glowed brightly from the light of the Crystal Heart.

The crystal ponies looked on in awe.

“Whenever you get nervous or fearful of the outside, just think of the Heart, of your family, of your neighbor and of your country! I am only asking each and everyone of you one thing-fight your hardest, look out for each other, and remember that if you encounter an infected, no matter how pony-like they are, put…them…down.”

The ponies looked nervous, but ready, like soldiers about ready to storm a landing ground.

Shining turned towards the door, he waited for the pegasi guards to return.

Suddenly, a loud boom and crackle echoed across the castle.

Twilight turned towards one of the windows. They were boarded up, but Twilight could catch glimpses of a splendid rainbow of colors as they fizzled out in the distance.

The pegasi flew down the hallway with empty boxes and landed next to Shining. “All the fireworks have been primed. We have about five minutes until all have gone off.

“That’s five minutes of cover. If we move fast enough, we may be able to make it to the train station by the time they stop. But that means we have to leave-now!” Shining explained as he turned to his subjects. “Everypony! We leave now!”

The guards pushed open the doors.

Shining used to his telekinesis to grab a short sword from an armor stand that had been stripped bare. He raised it above his head and charged.

The others followed suit like a herd of bulls charging.

Twilight and Spike took off down the stairs.

The stairs where covered in a layer of bloody hooves prints, but their were no signs of infected.

Twilight fluttered out of the castle doors and into the glow of a hundred fireworks exploding in the northern end of the city. The rush of the escape filled her veins with adrenaline.

The entire horde of infected had vanished from the premises, leaving only a few mangled dozen bodies scattered across the ground.

Back towards the fireworks, Twilight watched as infected pegasi flew straight into the explosions, igniting their wings in flames and sending them falling to the ground.

Twilight could hear the blooding gurgling and clamoring of a crowd of corpses as they almost seemed to become entranced by the burst of colors overhead, like an annoying cloud of flies driving into a fire.

Crystal ponies penetrated the ruins of the city and towards the train station. Their pace was not as slow as a casual walk in the woods, but it was not a racing pace either.

Twilight doubted that they could make it to the train station in under five minutes, considering that it was about a mile away.

The elderly ponies were essentially being carried through the streets as their legs were not able to keep up with the younger stallions and mares.

Shining spearheaded the group into an abandoned market area. Dozens on dozens of stalls had been set up on a square of perfectly flat and smooth crystal that had been tainted by puddles of blood and corpses.

One of the stalls shook like a rattlesnake threatening to strike.

Right as Twilight noticed the motion, an infected jumped out from under the stall and drove its mouth into the neck of one of the perimeter guards.

His screams echoed across the open city. His neck opened like a foundation-spewing blood across the street.

The civilians flinched before jumping away from the bloody scene.

“Get away!” Twilight screamed as an instinctual pink blast shot from her horn, the energy entered through the ponies eye socket and blasted out of its skull.

Mashed and fried brains sprinkled the ground as the two, now deceased, ponies tumbled over each other.

The preceding guard placed his hoof on his fallen comrades neck. “He’s gone, what do we do?” he cried out to anyone who would hear.

Twilight flew above, her expression was sour and pained, she felt some sort of spectator, sitting back and watching as those below her died. She had not seen what the infected were capable of, but now she knew now.

A stallion pushed those around him forward. “Hurry! Hurry! Keep moving before its too late!”

Twilight kept flying, but with a heavy weight now hung in her heart, only numbed by her adrenaline filled dash through the air.

Picking up the body and dragging it would only slow the group down even more, but it felt wrong to just leave the poor thing on the ground.

Twilight looked back at the body as the ground quickly trotted away.

Her focus was suddenly snatched from her again.

The musical sound of cracking and falling glass sliced through the air as an infected broke through a second story window and jumped into the center of the crowd below.

Twilight was more prepared this time and fired another magical bolt into the infected before it even got close to its target.

Her projectile tore its way through the ponies chest and stomach, blowing its belly open and raining intestines down onto the ground.

Yet, to Twilight horror, the infected pony still continued biting.

The disabled infected dropped head first onto an elderly mare’s back, its teeth disappeared beneath the mare’s wrinkled skin.

The sickening crack of a spinal cord rang over the mare’s screams in pain.

The mare’s hind legs went limp as her attacker ate upwards towards her neck and arteries.

Her poor old heart went out right as a guardstalion thrusted his spear directly into the eyes of the infected.

The entire length of the formation began to panic as civilians weaved around the increasing piles of bodies.

The screams served as a neon sign that pointed directly above the vulnerable ponies. Straggling groups of zombies came through the woodwork to spread their infection and feast.

Twilight kept her head on a swivel, she fired rapidly into crowds of infected as they attempted to advance, keeping most of them at bay.

Still, some infected broke through the formation like a bull rushing through a farm's fence.

Left and right ponies began to fall. For every two or three infected that the guards stabbed down, one would get close enough to take out a guard or a civilian in turn.

Twilight’s magic and Spike’s flames lit up the sky as they brought down an ever increasing horde of infected that trailed the group. The bodies of infected ponies and abandoned civilian corpses began to pile up like a trail of bread crumbs that lead right to the survivors.

The fireworks had finally stopped firing off in the distance. The screams intensified.

The city darkened, glimmers of light arrived in the form of occasional burst of magical energy as unicorns fired into their enemies.

The pink dome was getting closer off in the distance, Twilight heart fluttered. “We're almost there!”

Shining Armor’s horn hummed as a beam of magic rose above the air like a knife.

The magic penetrated the pink dome and made a downwards slice.

The dome was pulled back like a curtain to the train station outside.

A singular pony, the conductor, stood outside his train with a winter coat over his body. “What is this?” he screamed. His request for answers took a backseat as a herd of ponies pushed their way through the dome.

The refugees spilled onto the snow covered ground, some were covered in blood. Most ponies pushed past the conductor and invaded the passenger cars of the train, weaker ponies collapsed to the ground much to the confusion and screams of Twilight’s staff.

Shining pushed his back to the dome wall. His eyes bounced between the heads of his subjects, counting each pony that made it through the barrier.

The other guards pushed their shoulders against each other, locking in place like a barbed wire fence that wrapped around the flanks of the refugees. They lowered their spears in a defensive line that the infected willing subjected themselves to.

Twilight and Spike were still a ways out.

The cut in the dome looked like the finish line at the end of a race, it was wide open and the massive headlight from the train shone brightly, almost as if it was inviting the princess to exit the city.

Twilight felt weightless as she glided towards the exit. “Almost their, we’ll be free in nowtime, just as long as nothing bad happens.” Twilight continued to rain down fire on the mostly earth pony infected.

The remaining citizens of the Empire weaved around both disabled and advancing zombies in a desperate dance with the jaws of death.

One young mare, who looked like they had just grown out of being called a filly, ran at the very end of formation with nothing but a guard behind them.

The raspy shriek tore through the crowd as an infected unicorn with a chewed off ear blasted down its front door with a crystal projectile. It turned its blank canvas eyes to the screaming mare and ignited its horn with a snarl.

A crystal structure formed around its horn before blasting off in the direction of the mare.

She screamed and ducked down, doing a desperate cartwheel and scraping up her leg in the process.

The clueless guard pony’s eyes widen in shock and fear before all life extinguished from his body as the free flying crystal soared over the mare’s body and into his chest. He fell to the ground with a damn gasp.

“Stop!” Twilight ordered in vain as she fired back at the infect, blowing its head straight off its neck.

The young mare screamed as the crystal ponies in front of her ran away without even noticing the female. She laid on the ground like a little guppy that was being surrounded by a school of sharks.

Twilight felt her feelings of weightlessness disappear as she descended to the ground. She covered the young girl with her wing like it was a comfort blanket. Her teeth clenched and her face dropped into a frown. “Can you walk, young one?”

The mare nodded her tear covered face. She slowly raised herself on her trembling legs that bled out onto the ground. She winced like somepony had thrown salt into her opened wounds.

Twilight felt the ground shake she turned back and watched as a massive horde-at least a few hundred ponies strong-rushed down the street, undoubtedly returning from the firework show in the north.

Twilight gasped.

“What is it, your highness?” the mare sobbed as Spike helped pull her up.

“Nothing, just run! I’ll cover you,” Twilight exclaimed as a barrage of crystal projectiles
arched through the air.

Twilight’s aura became visible as she put all her attention into the formation of a street wide shield that absorbed the incoming crystals. She looked back and watched and waited as Spike and the mare got outside the dome before finally relieving herself from holding up the shield.

Twilight turned and with a single, strong flap of her wings rocketed her body down the length of the street.

The shield shattered and crumbled into a pink dust behind her as a wave of large stallions hammered the defenses.

A flock of pegasi zombies took the lead and began to gain on Twilight, they flew as if they could not feel the pain and burning sensation that Twilight felt as she flapped her wings at top speed.

“The princess is coming-and so is that horde! Fall out!” Shining declared as a group of guards exited through the dome. Shining readied himself for battle.

Twilight’s heart began to hammer her chest as she snaked her flight patterns around the trajectory of the incoming crystal projectiles.

“Hurry! Let’s go!” Shining exclaimed, now surrounded by only Flash, his two personal guards, and a graveyard of infected with their heads smashed in.

Twilight’s conductor poked his body into the dome with a worried expression. “What under Celestia’s sun is going on here?”

Shining exploded. “Get out of here you stupid horse! Do you want to die?”

The conductor froze and pucker his lips in shock as Twilight zoomed past him and hit the ground hard against the snowy outside.

“Sweet Celestia! The princess!” the conductor gasped as a reloaded barrage of crystal rained down from the sky.

“I told you to leave!” Shining screamed as he tackled the lanky stallion to the outside as crystals rained down and shattered into dozens of tiny bits of shrapnel that pelted himself and his men. The crystals sounded like popcorn in a pot as it bounced off the stallions’ armor. Shining blasted the domes opening with his horn.

The gap in the shield was almost immediately welded shut as Shining reinforced the shield with an additional spell.

The rapidly advancing pegasi slammed head first into the shield. Their skulls cracked open and splattered all over the inside of the dome like water balloons.

The conductor threw up. “What was that?!”

“Those are what would have torn into your body if you didn’t leave the dome like I told you too! Now go back to the train and to your damn job!” Shining cried as the conductor whimpered.

“Uh-uh, y-yes, sir.” The conductor ran back to the engine as a steady stream of steam arose from the smokestack.

The noise of a dozen sets of hooves began to overpower Shining Armor’s voice as he spouted out orders. “Alright, I want all guards on high alert. I want everypony that exited that city to be checked for bites or scratches. The infection can start from even the smallest cuts-so be vigilant. If you find an obvious bite on a pony-throw them off the train, if you find a small scratch, tie the injured pony down and quarantine them so you can better monitor them for symptoms of infection.”

“What?! You can’t be serious,” Twilight gasped.

Shining did not even look in Twilight’s direction. “The orders of the princess of friendship are not to be taken serious. You are to report to me. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” a singular guard responded.

Flash Sentry stood with his ears drooping.

The second of Shining’s guards appear to be staring off into space.

Shining gave his first guard an affirming nod before stepping towards the other two stallions. “Is that clear?” he repeated.

Flash looked even more nervous as the crystal guards suddenly hoped back into consciousness.

“Ah! Uhm, yeah-yes, sir…” he voice began to trail off as his eyes glazed over.

“Is there a problem?” Shining asked.

Twilight looked at the guard and noticed a stream of blood running down his chest and dripping onto the snow below.

“No, sir. I’m just…a little under the weather-yeah-under the weather,” the guards rambled as Shining tore open the young stallion chest plate and dropped it to the ground.

The ponies gasped as they gazed into the wound on the guard's neck. A crystal from the barrage had logged itself directly into the stallion's neck.

The guard fell like a piece of lumber as Flash rushed to his side. “Oh my…I think his arty has been served, he’s losing consciousness. What do we do?”

Shining froze. He suddenly started grinding his teeth as he stomped his foot. “There’s nothing we can do, even if we stop the bleeding he’s still infected! Damn it!” he cried. “We were so close! He was fine just before we stepped out of the city! This is bullshit!”

Twilight was taken aback by Shining’s outburst. She watched as her brother's breath turned into mist as he exhaled sharply.

His tears began to flow and run down his face like icicles. “Damn it…” he whispered as he ignited his horn.

“What are you doing? He’s still alive!” Twilight shouted as she kicked her brother who failed to budge.

“Twi-we all know that he’s going to die, then he’ll try to kill us. I have to put him down.” Shining softly explained as he looked down at the guard as he weakly coughed on his own blood. Shining readied a magic beam and carefully steadied his horn and neck. “I’ll make this quick.”

Twilight raised a shield over the stallion's dying body. “Please, let him live, he’s not infected yet.”

Shining solemnly looked over at his sister. “Twilight, your making this worse than it needs to be. Don’t you see he’s infected? The virus is already flooring throughout his bloodstream. In this state, even if we heal his wounds, he’ll only last an hour tops! So just get on the train, I don’t want you or Flurry to see this!” Shining untied the chest that Flurry was hiding in the drop it at Twilight's feet. “I gave Flurry sleeping meds, they should wear off in about half an hour. I want you to rest her in a safe and comfortable place.”

“I’m not going to babysit while you're killing that stallion!” Twilight put the chest onto her back and tied it down.

“You don’t have a choice.” Shining nodded to his last remaining guard who pounced onto Twilight.

The stallion wrapped his front limbs around Twilight wing, locking himself onto Twilight while also preventing her from flying away.

“What are you doing?! Get off me!” Twilight cried as the guard pulled Twilight towards the train, bending her wing at an unnatural angle. Twilight sobbed in pain, causing her shield to fall apart.

“Relax, princess, it will all be over soon,” the stallion replied as he dragged Twilight through the snow.

Twilight fought back, she flapped her other wing, just barley bringing herself up off the ground.

The guard recoiled in fear. His face contorted and grimaced as all the muscles in his body acted together to bring her down. His grip began to slip as Twilight’s wing began to sliver away.

“You’re making a mistake! You can't kill him!” Twilight screamed.

“Why not?! If I don’t then he’ll just kill everyone on that train!” Shining yelled back with gnashing teeth. “What do you expect me to do?”

Twilight tried to think of a response, but all of the books that she had read in the Canterlot and Ponyville libraries could not give her a logical response. She only grunted and roared as she fought against the poor guard who tried to hold her down.

“For bucks sake! Get her out of here already!” Shining ordered as he turned back andsteadied himself.

It was then when Twilight suddenly felt a second pony grab onto her other wing and ground her permanently. “Wait a minute-Flash? What is this?”

Twilight watched her lover help arrest her and drag her to the train.

Flash avoided making eye contact. His gaze would dash away each time he looked down at Twilight thought she could still tell that he was on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be seeing this.”

The two stallions dragged Twilight over the train tracks and into the train.

Twilight took one last look at the outside before boarding. She watched as Shining seemed to mouth something to his guard, a single tear ran down his face.

The guard closed his eyes, as if he was drifting off to sleep. He looked peaceful.

A ray of light quickly and effortlessly penetrated the guard's forehead.

The guard’s body bounced due to the impact but almost immediately relaxed and fell back to the ground. He didn’t resist or rile in pain, he just laid there. It was over.

Twilight stopped fighting, it was no use fighting over a corpse. She let herself get dragged to her cabin as a hazy crowd of panicked ponies watched on.

Eventually, the train jolted forwards and began to roar to life as it mechanically pounded the tracks in the direction of Canterlot.

“I’ll take her from here,” Flash offered in a stern, official voice. It was like he was escorting a prisoner away.

Twilight dropped to the ground as Flash shut the cabin door behind them. She started to cry, her shoulder raised off the ground with each sob. Twilight imminently began to think back to Cadance, she could no longer imagine her as her old kind self without seeing the bloodthirsty zombie that stole her body.

Flash turned away from Twilight and hung his head low. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Twilight was still strung out against her floor like a dirty rug. She gently raised her head up. “You don’t need to apologize. There was nothing we could…there was bucking nothing that I could do. That stallion was going to turn no matter what we did.”

Flash looked back at Twilight, just slightly, and eyed her weakly. “You don’t sound like yourself, Twilight.”

Twilight closed her eyes and lowered her head between her hooves, submerging herself in complete darkness. She thought of the stallion that Shining put down. “Well, maybe Shining was right, Maybe friendship can’t solve this problem, maybe I’m just useless and a bucking idiot.”

Twilight could hear Flash slowly trot up to her. She could tell that he was trying to place his hoof on her back to comfort her.

The cabin door was thrown open.

Twilight looked back up as Shining entered the room.

Flash slammed his hoof to the ground and saluted Shining. “Welcome back sir, I was just guarding the princess.”

Shining rolled his eyes. “Stop being a suck up and go help the rest of the guards secure the train.” Shining’s voice sounded tired and disappointed.

Flash gave a salute with an awkward look on his face as she shuffled out of Shining's way and into the civilian train car.

Twilight laid strewn out across the open car. “What do you want?” she whimpered with a hint of aggression in her voice.

“I’m making sure my little sister and daughter are alright,” Shining said softly. He took the chest away from Twilight and opened it. He gently reached into and retrieved a balled up Flurry Heart before placing the little filly on a nearby coach.

Flurry snored softly without a single care in the world.

Twilight couldn’t stop looking at the precious little ball of joy.

“She’s what I do all of this for,” Shining interjected.

Twilight lowered her ears and turned her head from Shining.

Shining growled. “So you’re just going to not talk to me?”

“Please, like you would listen to anything I had to say,” Twilight whispered.

The two did not speak to each other for the next minute.

Shining just eyed Twilight with infuriated eyes.

Twilight could feel the gaze burning into her coat. She shuffled around where she was sitting and trying to avoid her brother's looks but nothing gave her relief. She contemplated talking back but everytime she moved her lips to speak her vocal cords refused to budge.

The cabin door slammed open, breaking the stalemate.

“Spike?” the two ponies exclaimed as the purple dragon ran into the cabin holding a scroll in his hands.

“Sweet Celestia! I’m glad the three of you are alright! I just finished writing this letter to Celestia and Luna explaining our situation. I just need your official signature and I can send it,” Spike piped up.

Twilight immediately swiped the letter from across the room with her horn and began to proofread it.

The wording was quick and sloppily written but still eligible. It described the situation at the Crystal Empire, the infected, and the status of Twilight and the train full of ponies.

Twilight was perfectly fine with the informal tone of the letter, the situation did not afford time for formalities. She just copied her signature onto the document before tossing it back to Spike to be sent.

“Do you think they’ll even get it?” Shining asked, his mouth hung open with a frown.

“We're far enough from the Crystal City, right? Once we get away from those infected ponies my teleportation magic should be back to normal,” Twilight recounted.

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Shining replied. “Two trains with infected ponies on they took off two days ago. They should both be in Manehattan and Canterlot by now, perhaps further. We have to consider the fact that-”

“Shining, I know, but being a pessimist is not going to change anything. But if this letter is able to be sent then that means that Canterlot and Manehatten are fine, then I can teleport myself and the rest of this train to safety. This whole thing will finally be over.”

Shining looked over to Spike. “In that case, go for it,” he locked eyes with Spike who nervously held up the scroll in his hands.

Spike took a deep breath, his cheeks inflated and stretch like little red balloons that were about ready to painfully burst. The dragon exhaled, sending forth a flurry of green flames towards the message.

The flames seemed to almost avoid the paper for a moment as they wrapped themselves around and up the parchment before squeezing in tightly like a python. The fire engulfed the paper, turning it into a gust of ash.

Twilight watched the pile of ash. “Please,” she whispered.

Her heat dropped as the ash flowed through the air and descended to the ground like debris from an explosion. The rest of the message took fire and immediately blackened like burned skin and crumbled to the floor.

Twilight dropped in front of the ash pile and immediately began to try and pick up the pieces with her hooves, but the burnt crisps flew out of her hands with the slightest breeze. She started to cry again with his her chin pressed against the ground.

Spike gasped with his claws inside his mouth.

“Looks like we’re not out of the woods yet,” Shining replied as he tightened his armor. “This is going to be a long ride.”

Twilight looked over to her desk. A photo of herself and her friends sat proudly in the center.

“Please, be alright,” Twilight whispered as she looked over Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Starlight. “Please.”

Author's Note

As Twilight races home, the state of Equestria seems bleaker than ever. Is their anything left back home? Find out next time as Rarity and Applejack take Manehatten right as the first infected crash into the city.

*Chapter Six will hopefully be out next week. However, due me starting university early my writing has slowed and I may have to take a break from writing for a week. I'll post any and all updates necessary.

Thanks for reading. All criticism is allowed and appreciated. :)