Plagues of Equestria

Rainbow and Twilight gently landed outside the front door of Ponyville General, looking up with great unease as they saw the state the building was in. Windows boarded up on the lower floors, shattered on the higher ones, blood stained shards of glass on the ground, hoofprints followed by the trail of something being dragged across the ground, and one of the doors was knocked completely off the hinges, and now lay flat on the hospital floor. Twilight stared in a horrible combination of awe and fear, her lip quivering as she assessed the damage, and letting her mind run. Could this have been because of me? Because of Celestia? I'm supposed to lead you and yet I've caused a plague, I'm so sorry, my faithful subjects.

"Hey, Equestria to Sparkle. You good?" Rainbow Dash's concerned comment helped snap Twilight out of it. What's done is done, what matters more is that she helps her subjects, her friends, her family.

"Yeah, sorry. Just... look at this place!" using her wing to gesture at the broken windows, she slowly steps towards the doorway. "Starlight and Sunburst are at the castle," Twilight announced, "they're part of a dedicated research team, so if we find anything we'll have to send it to them." She walked a bit up the stairs, not yet ready to go inside. "Remember, go slow. We don't wanna scare anypony...or anything." Her voice softened at her addendum, but she took a breath and walked inside, Rainbow Dash following close behind.

The minute they crossed the threshold, the smell of blood and sick filled their noses, assaulting their senses. Rainbow Dash struggled to hold in her stomach contents, until a sudden pleasant smell entered her nose. Puzzled, she looked over at Twilight, who's horn was slightly glowing. "There, this should help. Smell spell." Rainbow Dash snickered quietly, and on any other day Twilight would've been so proud of her joke, but right now she was focused on making the most out of this expedition. Glancing around the narrow hallway, she instantly noticed a sign above a heavy metal door. Records. She trotted over and tried to open the door with her magic, yet all of her effort was fruitless. Locked. She moved to another door and tried to get in, but it was barricaded from the other side. Frustrated, she tried another door, and with little effort it slowly creaked open.

Twilight slowly trotted in, Rainbow Dash close behind as they scanned the sight before them. What was once a patient's room was torn up completely; drapes torn and scattered across the floor, furniture smashed and flipped, and a long trail of a deep, dark red liquid leading from the bed to the window.

The light flickered slowly to life, startling the two ponies, but allowing them to see more details of the carnage. The bed was surrounded by loose fur, entire chunks of mane, and a small white object that neither could identify from that distance, yet the size and other organic material lead them to believe it was a tooth. Neither went to confirm. Rainbow Dash turned to the behind them, the light causing a big red stain on the wall to shimmer, and for it to finally be legible.

Celestia has abandoned us

The words leaked and crept down the wall, forming a thick, red pool of blood. Twilight had noticed it as well, but did her best to save the gawking for when this all blew over. She began to rummage around the room, desperate to find some clues as to what had happened here, what could have possibly caused all this commotion. Finally, she found a small clipboard with a few pages of paper, speckles of blood splattered across the topmost page. Twilight turned to Dash and began to read aloud;

"Name: Rare Find
Sex: Stallion
Species: Unicorn

"Came in this morning complaining of intense fatigue, insomnia, and a lack of control over his magic. We did a check-up and found some minor irritation throughout the mouth and some in the back of his throat. We'll need to run some more tests, but this is the fifth pony to come in with these symptoms today. We're enacting a quarantine zone to study this infection and ensure the safety of hospital staff and patients. Until further notice, infected ponies may not have visitors."

She nervously turned the page.

"We've managed to get a decent understanding about this infection, we know that it comes from the fog that mysteriously engulfed Ponyville and seems to only transmit through inhalation. Snowheart and I are beginning the distribution of masks to everypony in town, hoping this slows infection rates even by a fraction of a percent, but it's still advised to avoid going anywhere near it.

Symptoms seem to be worsening, Mr. Find has requested that his light stays off, as it causes 'a searing pain like the sun is being held straight to his eyes.' We dimmed it, and he begrudgingly accepted the compromise, still complaining about the pain. He seems more irritable, but he has been awake for nearly 27 hours at this point, so I don't blame him. The amount of infected patience has increased exponentially, we hardly have enough room for any of them, but we're doing what we can. We're upping the minimum antibiotic dosage, it's a temporary solution but it's better than nothing.

Hour 28, Rare seems to be in even worse condition than before; he's developed a nervous habit of chewing on his lips, however it's now at the point where they're gone completely, giving a clear view of his bloodied teeth and gums. Aggression has increased exponentially and he's had to be restrained. As we left he kept screaming like a wild animal, complaining about hunger, screaming about "the Haze", and the burning agony in his eyes. The lights were completely off, the only light getting in was from the moon outside. I'm making myself a coffee, we need to make some kind of treatment before these ponies rip themselves apart."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked at eachother, the slow horror creeping up their spines as the story unfolded before them. Shakily, Twilight turned the page.

"Time of Death: 2:19 A.M. Cause of death: unknown complications from the infection. I'll send him down for an autopsy report after the other deceased are examined. Every single pony who has come in here with the infection has died within two days, this is an outright endemic. We have to put as many resources into a cure as possible, this can not spread any further."

Twilight turned to the last page on the clipboard.

"I wish I had the words to explain what happened, I truly, truly can't explain it. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I wouldn't have believed it. The deceased ponies came back to life, almost all at once, and began to roam the halls. Most of our staff were astonished, it simply couldn't have been true, and in a sense it wasn't. They were moving, but they weren't alive, they walked as if their muscles were being forced to move, and they snarled like rabid dogs. Snowheart approached Ms. Berry, trying to provide care, but was met with a vicious, cannibalistic attack. I was able to escape and hide in the security room, checking the cameras and waiting until I could safely leave.

It was hours before I walked back out, but it felt like days. The halls were completely empty, except for the remains of my fellow staff. Poor Snowheart's face was unrecognizable as a pony at all, all that remained was bone, chunks of viscera, and her eyeball. She's walking the halls now, despite no creature being able to survive such a vicious attack as that. I plan on leaving as soon as possible and trying to make my way to Canterlot, this is beyond anything ponykind can manage on their own, we need the princesses. Celestia save us all.

Signed, Nurse Redheart"

The two ponies sat in stunned silence at what they had just read. Surely it can't be true, right? Ponies coming back from the dead? Eating eachother alive? All because of this mysterious Haze that just appeared suddenly? Twilight's mind was racing with questions about how this was all possible, and her place among it all. At the very front of her mind was figuring out a way to prevent anypony else from getting infected. She hastily handed Rainbow Dash the clipboard with all of the pages, determination burning in her eyes. "Fly this back to Canterlot as fast as you can, Starlight and Sunburst need this information. If you see Nurse Redheart, make sure she's not infected, and bring her to the castle." Dash sternly nodded and bolted off towards the Castle, going fast enough to cause a sonic boom.

Twilight watched on hopefully as her companion made her way to the castle, but her hope was short lived. Something shifted behind her, knocking over some debris. The princess whipped around to look down the cavernous hallway, scanning it for any signs of movement. Several seconds passed, but every one of them felt like eons as Twilight's focus remained unbroken. Slowly, a pony limped out of one of the rooms, their useless hind leg dragging awkwardly behind them. Twilight, still cautious, began to approach, worried that the pony had been injured, only for that worry to turn to abject horror as the leg disconnected from the rest of the body, a few strands of bloody sinew keeping it just barely attached. It turned to look at her, it's blank eyes piercing the dark hallway.

She lunged back out the doorway, using her magic to pick up the broken door and put it back on the hinges, then using various pieces of debris around the entryway to barricade it. She breathed a shaky sigh of relief, before hearing hoofsteps nearby. She spun around and saw another pony slowly shamble out of an alleyway. Then another, and another. Before long, tens of infected ponies were surrounding her location, growling and gurgling as they closed in. Twilight stared at the faces of former friends around her, ponies who she fought so hard to save. She felt stunned for a moment, shaking, and quietly crying. She bowed her head solemnly.

"I'm so sorry, I've failed you. But I promise I'll make this right."

With that declaration, a bright purple flash emanated from her horn, and she was gone, leaving the horde to try and track her scent, to no use. Absent-mindedly, they dispersed, scattering in all different directions to hunt down the source of the noises they heard.

With a shine of light, Twilight appeared in the throne room before the two princesses, who looked on with great worry. "Twilight, are you alright?" Luna asked, approaching her cautiously. Twilight gestured her away with her wing as she caught her breath, wiping the tears from her face. She took a deep breath and did her best to seem collected.

"This has escalated beyond anything we've ever faced. We need all the help we can possibly get to evacuate all major cities." She trotted over to the door leading to the lab, where Sunburst and Starlight were studying a small sample of the Haze. Twilight glanced back over her shoulder towards the princesses.

"We fucked up." was all she said as she slammed the door.