Crystal Blood Part 7: Escape from Manehattan Part 1

Manehattan, Equestria, Day 1

Rarity

“How long has it been?” Applejack moaned while surrounded by mountains of threads and ribbons.

Rarity did not answer. She was too preoccupied on the radio in front of her to hear Applejack.

The standard news and entertainment channels had gone quiet hours ago. But not before dispensing some valuable information.

About thirty minutes into the incident the news began reporting on the breaking situation. A young stallion’s voice suddenly shifted from talking about Equestrian military spending to talk of riots in downtown Manehattan.

A sphere, roughly a mile and a half in diameter had been declared a no go zone by the Manehattan Police Department.

The island that Manehatten was situated on was only fourteen miles across at most

The charming and calm voice of the stallion explained how the Wonderbolts and newly formed Home Guard was being dispatched to the area, but that would take time.

Until that happened, the police and firefighters were being sent into the area to deal with the chaos, while going block to block evacuating civilians and taking the injured to Manehattan General for treatment.

Rarity could not forget the station's final message.

The stallion had been reporting on a secondary riot breaking out at the hospital when something shattered in the background.

The stallion went silent, along with the entirety of everyone else who was on air or listening live at home.

Then a secretary screamed out, her painful shrieks were so powerful they almost broke the radio.

The audio slowly became corrupted by static as the stallion shouted. “Sweet Celestia! They’re in the building! Manehattan! Listen to me-The Manehattan Broadcasting Association will continue to broadcast just-shit-just in a different location! Stay safe, stay inside, stay alive…”

Rarity could hear some sort of machine slide and fall off a desk before the entire audio program was engulfed in a storm of static.

A few independent stations tried to make statements but their buildings were also soon breached by the intruders or police who forced them to evacuate.

Since then, Rarity had been glued to the airwaves while hoping for a signal through the noise.

That had been almost twelve hours ago.

The power had gone out six hours ago, forcing Rarity to switch to a smaller battery powered radio, but not much had changed.

“Rarity!” Applejack cried.

Rarity tensed up and jumped into the corner. “Don’t be so loud! Those ponies might hear you…” her force was firm yet as quiet as a mouse.

“That was the point-you’ve been ignoring me for the past hour so you can wait for that little boy friend of yours to speak again,” Applejack shouted.

“He’s not my boyfriend! I have no idea where you came up with that ridiculous idea. He’s the only person who’s been keeping us up to date on what’s happening out there,” Rarity replied.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying…you’ve been making goo goo eyes at that box for the entire day. Just accept that he’s probably been evacuated with the rest of the snobs in this city.”

“But he said he would get back on the air later,” Rarity whined.

“He also said we were supposed to be rescued, but that hasn’t happened yet either. Face it Rarity, we’re all alone,” Applejack’s facial expression sank. She lowered her head and looked at the darkened stains on her orange hooves.

After the fighting earlier in the day Applejack had gone into the bathroom to dispose of the stallion's forearm and to clean off the blood.

She wasn’t able to get all of it off.

“We’re not alone, they’re coming for us, I know they are,” Rarity whispered as she turned back to the radio static.

“Ah geez…turn that dang bucket of bolts off! You're driving me as crazy as a rat in a sticky trap!” Applejack roared and slammed her hoof onto the desk where the radio was stationed.

The radio bounced off the desk and would have slammed into the ground if Rarity did not catch it at the last second.

“What has gotten your bow in a twist?” Rarity snarled as she stabbed her snout into Applejack’s.

“You may have driven yourself batty with that radio but I’m not letting you bring me down with you. I haven’t been able to think straight for the past twelve hours! It’s all static!” Applejack shouted as she tried to get ahold of the device.

Rarity held it tightly to her chest. “No! Get back and stop being a ruffian!”

The mares climbed on top of each while reaching for the device. They kicked and each attempted to break each other's grasp.

They showed no signs of stopping until a body threw itself against the metal gates at the front of the boutique. A massive clanged echoed through the shop.

“Oh my! They can probably hear us outside, quiet down…” Rarity whispered only for the knocking to continue.

“RARITY?!” A voice shouted from outside.

Rarity gasped. “Coco? Is that you?”

“Rarity! Yes! It’s me you need to let me in! Those things are coming for me!” the little pony screamed as a low growl rumbled from off in the distance.

Rarity immediately began unlocking the gates as Applejack shouted behind her. “Wait, Rarity, those other ponies might be able to get in.”

“Well I’m not just going to leave my friend out in the open!” Rarity snapped as she threw the gates open as Coco Pommel bursted through the opening like flood water through a levee.

A monstrous scream echoed from the streets. Rarity looked up to see a pegasus that looked like it had a bucket of blood dropped on its head rushing towards the doors.

Rarity’s face tensed into a fearful frown. She slammed the gate shut and locked the door right as the pegasus slammed into the fencing, leaving a hoof sized dent.

Rarity and Coco jumped back and hid behind a table as the pegasus tried and failed for what felt like hours.

Applejack stood at the side of the door while primed to strike the intruder if it got through the defenses.

Soon the beast lost interest and moved on with a low growl.

Rarity gasped. “Oh my, that sure was something! I’m just glad you're alright…” Rarity turned to Coco.

Coco did not respond. Her face was gray and her eyes were woozy. Coco’s eyes closed as she took a nose dive into the floor.

Rarity screamed and shocked Coco back onto her flank.

Applejack tensed up and pushed Rarity away from the gasping Coco.

“Rarity…I’m not feeling so good…” Coco’s head leaned forward, revealing a large bite mark on the back of her neck. Dried blood covered the wound like a nauseating syrup coating. Her mouth was slobbering and spitting with each raspy breath.

Rarity covered the wound with a piece of thread. “What in tartarus happened here?” Rarity cried.

“My neighbor was attacked by some of those ponies. She started feeling sick so we decided to try to get to the hospital. By the time we got there-it was completely overrun. We tried to make it back home, but…but…she became cursed, just like the other ponies. She attacked me and got my neck. The boutique was closer than my apartment so I came here…” Coco sobbed with a choking voice. Her eyes were red and had trouble staying open.

Rarity could not speak, she did not know what to say. “Woah, you need medical assistance! We have some in the bathroom with a trough of water if you need it.”

Coco’s face turned green as she gagged. “Thank you, I’m going to need it…” Coco wobbled in the direction of the bathroom.

“I’ll go with you-” Rarity offered as Applejack grabbed her. “What are you doing?”

“Stay with me for a little bit, I need to talk to you, Rarity,” Applejack asked with a disturbed expression.

“What is it?” Rarity quietly asked with confused expression.

Applejack watched as Coco went into the bathroom and shut the door. “We can’t let Coco stay here…”

Rarity’s jaw hit the floor. “What?”

“You heard me…she’s a risk to all of us both. I’m not saying we need to throw her out into the street, but we can’t be having her in the show room with us,” Applejack urged.

“Applejack! You’ve said some ridiculous things recently but this takes the cake! Coco is not like those other ponies, why should I isolate her?” Rarity moaned with anger.

Applejack grabbed Rarity by the shoulder and shook her. “You're the only ridiculous pony here! Remember that taxi stallion who attacked us when we tried to help him?”

“I can’t get it out of my mind…” Rarity whimpered as she hung her head.

“Well, you should know that he was a perfectly normal pony before he was bit. Then he died and came back. And remember what Coco said about her neighbor? She got bit too, then she lost her marbles and bit Coco. That’s not even mentioning all those other creatures we saw with bite marks, scratches, and massive wounds…” Applejack paused and looked down at Rarity while waiting for her to respond.

“This doesn’t make any sense. One moment a pony is perfectly fine, the next they are going insane over a bite,” Rarity grasped at the situation with a heavy heart.

Applejack embraced Rarity. “Sugarcube, I’m no expert in this stuff-I don;t think anypony is-but I can recognise a pattern. I mean, call it what you will: Curse, insanity, accident. I reckon there's some sort of correlation between whatever this is and those wounds.”

“Damn, she’s probably right.” Rarity thought to herself. She did not want it to be true. If it was then Coco was in danger. “I understand, I’ll go talk to Coco and find her a place to rest in one of the other rooms.”

“Good choice,” Applejack smiled. “This will only be for a little while, just until we figure out what’s going on out there,” Applejack replied with a hug.

Rarity wore a weak smile and turned towards the bathrooms. She gasped and hopped back as she did.

There before the two mares stood Coco Pommel. Her clothes had been torn and blood ran down her neck into her knees.

“Coco, darling!” Rarity shouted as she ran towards her assistant.

Applejack’s jaw clenched down on her tail and dragged the unicorn back.

Rarity was taken aback by the act. “AJ! Let go of me! She’s hurt.”

“She’s worse than hurt-I don’t believe she’s breathing!” Applejack warned Rarity as she defended her friend.

Coco looked up. Her eyes were empty of emotions and completely bloodshot.

A bloody slobber ran down her chin that only seemed to salivate more as the pony looked at Rarity and ground her teeth.

“Co…Coco?” Rarity whimpered. Her heart felt like it was going to pop.

Coco stumbled forward like a newer born deer. She seemed to be getting the hang of the surroundings. She was not breathing, the only air that escaped from her lungs was from a pained wheeze.

Rarity ignited her horn. “Coco, stay back.”

Tears formed within Rarity’s eyes. She could not control them.

Soon her vision became blurred from the tears. “Don’t make me do this…” she prayed to herself.

Coco did not seem to even recognize Rarity’s voice, let alone heed the warning. She growled and lowered her head and shoulder like a cat preparing to pounce.

“Rarity?” Applejack muttered. “You got the magic here…do something…”

Rarity began to whimper and gasp like she had inhaled smoke. Her eyes were glazed in tears, turning all of her surroundings into colorful blobs. She watched as the mayonnaise colored pony suddenly snapped into action and attempted to overrun the mares.

Applejack turned and prepared to buck Coco in the head.

Rarity shrieked and randomly fired a bolt of magic into the room. Her aim was off, disastrously off.

The lazer like bolt breezed past Coco’s neck and hit a full body mirror on the opposite side of the boutique. The magic flew back past Coco’s neck and almost took off Rarity's own head before it hit the metal security gate with a rattling explosion.

Rarity gasped and ducked down into a protective ball as Coco was inches away from ripping her face off. Rarity readied a protection spell, but she would not need it.

Applejack's legs sprung out like tensioned springs and hit Coco right in the snout.

The young pony’s snout cracked into dozens of large and small pieces that rocketed back into her skull. Coco instantly dropped to her knees and keeled over just short of Rarity.

Rarity fell next to her. “Coco! Wake up!” He cried.

“She’s dead!” Applejack shouted with a shiver in her voice. “Now get on your hooves, we’re leaving!”

Rarity looked back up at Applejack.

The orange mare looked completely terrified and started pacing.

“Leave? Why?” Rarity shot out.

Applejack pointed to the front door. “Because ya blew the front gate open! That’s why!”

The gate had a filly sized hole where the locking mechanism used to be.

“Now come on…that blast probably alerted the whole darn neighborhood that the grub’s here…” Applejack made her way to the front door and through the gate open. She stuck her head in the street and made sure the area was clear.

A faint barbarian’s cry echoed from off in the distance before suddenly sounding closer.

“But where?” Rarity gasped.

“That’s what I’m thinking about-“ Applejack paced into the streets. She seemed to survey the street around her. “I recognize this area. I think I have an idea.”

“Who are we going to? And why can’t we just hide in the bathrooms?” Rarity whimpered.

“Rarity! We had no time to argue. Those things could be anywhere…wait a minute…shit-they’re already here!” Applejack screamed.

Rarity stepped out into the street as a terrifying shriek penetrated her eardrums. Down the road at least five blood soaked earth ponies stumbled around.

“Run!” Applejack screamed as she followed her own advice.

Rarity tailed Applejack as the monsters realized she was there and began to do the same. The bodies followed each other like train cars.

Applejack quickly swung around street corners as Rarity tried to keep up.

The advancing creatures shrieked like sirens.

“Where is she taking me?” Rarity panicked as she slipped down the trash covered streets.

Taxi carts had been flipped over in the streets while supply carts full of goods were left abandoned with their cargo perfectly preserved and unlooted.

The street was also filled with the sights and smells of dozens of corpses. Some of them were still, others were not.

The echoing shrieks alerted every single crazy pony within a block that Applejack and Rarity were here.

Soon the numbers of the creature grew. Ponies slid out from under carts to snip at Rarity’s hooves of jumping through the windows of storefronts. Within seconds, a swarm of dozens of ponies ran from the shadows and grouped up into one massive herd.

“We have to get out of here!” Rarity shouted as she raised her shield, knocking down a mare that tried to fly into her.

“I know! Were almost there! Just come this way!” Applejack shouted as she ducked into an alleyway with a large cart full of barrels parked next to it.

Applejack waited until Rarity crossed the threshold into the valley before kicking out the wheels to the cart.

Barrels flew to the ground like a massive wave. They rammed the incoming creatures in a cacophony of pounding flesh and snapping bones.

The creatures were washed away and Applejack pushed Rarity through the side doors of a large apartment complex.

“This is it…” Applejack panted as she locked and barricaded the doors behind her.

Rarity recognized the complex, many wealthy Manehattan citizens lived there. “Why are you bringing us here, Applejack?”

The pair maneuvered their way through a staff hallway into the main lobby of the apartment complex.

“Remember my Aunt and Uncle-the Orange’s? I don’t know if I’ve actually introduced them, but I’ve sure told you about them-”

“Oh! Yes! You lived with them when you moved to Manehattan as a filly. Yes?”

“You bet…but something tells me they ain’t here…” Applejack went quiet as she scanned the lobby.

The expensive chairs had been torn open leaving trails of stuffing across the floor. Half-eaten foods and spilled, crushed cups of tea were left out on tables. Trails of bloody footprints led their way to the front desk.

The front desk looked like it had been closed for some time.

A massive metallic cage had been pulled over the desk with a closed sign draped over it. The cage itself dripped blood from its many bars.

In the center of the structure, two of the bars appeared to have been forcibly and violently pried open and lubricated with large quantities of blood.

“What happened here?” Rarity asked as she approached the gate.

“Same thing as what happened in the rest of the city. Those things got in,” Applejack approached an elevator and tried to get it operational but it was no use, the power in the building was completely out.

Rarity watched as Applejack fiddled and looked for a path.

“You could give me a hoof,” Applejack snarled as she fiddled around for a door handle.

“Sure thing,” Rarity replied as her ears perked up. The familiar sound of radio static filled her mind. She turned back to the front desk and saw a battery powered radio propped up on the gate.

Her eyes glimmered.

Rarity trotted away from Applejack and listened in as her heart fluttered.

“Ponies of Manehat—. This i—. Is anyone—” the voice of a stallion fought through the radio static.

Rarity recognized the stallion as the news anchor from earlier. Without hesitation, Rarity slammed her body against the hole in the gate and attempted to grab the device. A metallic rattled echoed through the lobby.

“What in tarnation are you doing?!” Applejack cried.

“This radio is still operational! I think that somepony is trying to reach us!” Rarity smiled with a new found energy.

Applejack snarled and grabbed onto Rarity’s behind. “Get out of there! You’re covered in blood like how a hog’s covered in mud!”

“No! Applejack! This could be important!” Rarity cried.

Applejack slammed her hoof into the ground, cracking the marble floor. “Now I’ve had it up to here with your delusions! I’m done with this fancy tech of yours.”

Rarity attempted to escape as she continued to reach for the radio.

As she did, a sudden crackle caught her attention.

The faint, wheezing coughs of a dying pony echoed from underneath the desk.

Applejack gave Rarity one last tough as she pulled the mare from her predicament right as one of the creatures, a deathly looking unicorn, lunged from underneath the desk like a breaching shark.

The bloody pony wore a bellboy uniform that had been torn open along with its stomach. It snapped up at the space in which Rarity had once occupied as Applejack and Rarity screamed in terror and fell back.

The pony snarled and started to pound its way through the bars.

It pushed its mangled and thinly muscled body through the open and fell onto the ground with the consistency of a slime. It raised its head and pointed the tip of its horn directly at Rarity’s face.

With a few sparks of magical energy, a blood red crystal formed above the stallion's head and flew across the air like an arrow.

Rarity activated her shield, shattering the crystal into dozens of smaller pieces that ricocheted into all around.

Shard tore through wall paper, knocked over expensive decorations, and some hit the glass front doors to the apartment building, sending them crumbling into a clear dust below.

The creatures from the streets howled at the noise and could be heard stampeding towards the building at such a volume even a deaf pony could hear it.

“Get your rump moving!” Applejack cried as she ran away with Rarity shielding her retreat.

The mare’s ran through and around the bloody puddles and destruction in the darkness of the apartment. The only light came from Rarity’s horn.

Rarity’s eyes scanned the entire hallway until she stumbled upon a staircase opening. “Their;s our chance!” she announced while out of breath.

“I see ‘em!” Applejack exclaimed as she led the charge up the stairs as a groaning roared distorted as it echoed up the long stairwell.

Rarity climbed up more stairs as she counted. She felt like she was paddling through the open ocean with no island in sight. “How much longer, AJ?” Rarity cried.

Applejack got to the top of a floor before kicking over an expensive table and sending it falling into the path of the oncoming monsters. Her face winced in worry. “Uhm…my relatives live near the top of the building, just give me one more flight of stairs. Can you do that for me?”

Rarity nodded as the creatures turned the corner to the staircase and immediately tripped into a large, tangled, pile. Rarity pushed onward as the creatures grew closer, only for them to soon fall back into the well placed obstacles that Applejack kicked down the stairs.

The sounds of groaning, hooves pounding, and bodies falling rose through the stairwell like smoke.

Rarity rounded a corner onto the next floor, then the next, and the next.

Applejack continued to parrot her pleas to Rarity. “Just give me one more flight of stairs…we’re almost home free…”

Rarity felt her legs begin to go limp. She could not go on for much longer, and Applejack’s worried expression told Rarity that she could tell.

Applejack’s face suddenly brightened as she looked upwards at the next floor. “Hang on!” she screamed at Rarity.

“Wait, what?” Rarity only had time to breath before Applejack threw her upward towards the next floor. Rarity hit the ground hard as Applejack then charged and pushed Rarity down the floor’s hallway and behind a wall. Rarity felt her insides be smacked around by the force of Applejack’s directioning. Her heart pounded against her chest, beating it like an egg.

Applejack leaned Rarity and herself up behind the wall and smacked her hoof over Rarity's mouth. “Not a peep…they'll hear us…” she whispered before holding her own breath.

Rarity tried to breath but Applejack’s hoof was firm.

While Rarity could not see them, the creatures rushed up the stairs like a roaring river.

They rose with the force of lightning, for their loud and power rumblings soon vanished and were left only with an echo of their former presence.

Applejack released Rarity who gagged and fell to her knees.

“What the hell was that for?” Rarity whined as Applejack nudged her down the hallway.

“Don’t complain about it. I treated you a lot better than those creatures would if they heard you gasping for air!”

Rarity nodded in reluctant agreement before rushing with Applejack down the hallway. They stopped at a welcome rug with an image of an orange on the front.

“This is the Orange’s apartment! They always have a spare key under this rug in case they forget their main one,” Applejack explained as Rarity manipulated her magical aura in order to lift the rug off the ground.

Applejack gasped as no spare key revealed itself. “Impossible, there should be one here!”

Rarity flipped the mate around in the air. “There doesn’t appear to be one, darling. I’m sorry.”

Applejack knocked on the door yet no one replied. She winced in fear. A cold sweat ran down her face. “Hello?! Aunt Orange?! Uncle Orange?! Is any pony home?”

“AJ, they might hear us-” Rarity exclaimed as a mare in a large and poofy pink dress with red polka dots stumbled down the stairs. It did not take a second look to realize the polka dots were blood stains and exposed wounds.

The bloody cover mare scream and charge Rarity and Applejack.

Rarity tossed the welcome mat into the air where it landed directly in front of the charging lunatic.

The mare slipped on the mat, it attempted to get back up right only for it to stomp on its dress and slam its head straight through a door near the front of the hall.

Rarity readied her horn.

Applejack flexed and prepared to attack.

More and more creatures began to rush down the hallway.

“Is this it?” Rarity realized in complete fear. Her eyes watered as Applejack stood at her side and noticed the pain.

“We’ll be alright, we're friends, we can make it through this together,” Applejack shouted and adjusted her hat. “Just stay by my side,”

Rarity gulped.

The walls of gnashing teeth closed in on her as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Before she could open them, a strong grasp latched onto her tail and pulled her backwards. Rarity threw open her eyes as saw herself being thrown through the open door of the Orange’s apartment.

“Rarity!” Applejack shouted as she jumped after her, landing directly into the apartment.

The door slammed shut behind them. Multiple bolt locks slammed shut as a bar fell over the door.

The creatures slammed onto the door outside but were unable to break the barricades.

Rarity and Applejack embraced.

“We’re alive! We’re alive!” Rarity cried into Applejack’s chest.

“It ain’t over yet, sugarcube,” Applejack let go of Rarity, who looked up to see two stallions and a mare looking down at them. “You’re not my family…” she whispered as the tough looking ponies looked down at them.

Rarity looked at them up and down. They held knives and batons in their mouths and clenched them tightly while eyeing each other.

Dried blood coated the weapons as they slowly approached.

Rarity did not know where the blood came from. She felt more scared of the pony than the creature outside.

Applejack shielded Rarity’s body with her own. She whispered into Rarity’s ear, “I don’t trust these ponies…”

Rarity locked eyes with one of the stallions who’s eyes pierced her like daggers.

“Are you infected?” the stallion snarled.

Rarity was too terrified to speak. “What does he mean by infected?” Her words became stuck in her throat.

“Answer me!” the stallion shouted. “Yes or no!”

Rarity twirled the question in her mind. “What do I say?”

The stallion was ready to strike and Rarity was a sitting duck.

Rarity waited for a miracle.

Author's Note

Applejack and Rarity have escaped the boutique and found shelter. Yet, are they truly safe? Is help actually on the way? Find out in two weeks with "Escape from Manehattan Part 2."

As the title suggests, this is one chapter split into two parts due to the length of the chapter. I am trying to write good stories that are high quality and still able to come out at a reasonable time.

Thanks for reading as it is always loved!