Plagues of Equestria

Manehattan, The big city, a city of opportunity, where anypony could make a name for themselves, and where all the successful business ponies can flaunt their status and success. Manehattan was known not only for the glamorous lives that the rich loved to display, but how everypony seemed to fit so flawlessly into the well-oiled machine that fueled the city's bustling economy. Ponies moved in unspoken organization, almost like ants, walking to their jobs and wherever they needed to be that day, perfectly weaving and intertwining in a sort of synchronization. It was this exact rush our hoof traffic that Trim Petals could not stand.

She had come all this way to visit a local greenhouse with rare plants, she wanted to get up close looks at them and possibly help out the staff with taking care of them, but with the rushing rapid of ponies in the streets, she'd be lucky to get halfway there by sundown. She tried to trot her way around it, to call a taxi, and even tried casting a spell to disperse the crowd, but every attempt was fruitless, so she simply hung her head and sighed, electing to just wander the streets while she waits for it to all die down.

Trim was on a park bench eating a cheap hot pretzel, unsure of what else to do to kill the time. That's when a booming voice echoed in the sky above.

"Citizens of Manehattan, you are all in danger!"

Trim looked up towards the source of the sound, and was astounded to see Princess Twilight flying high above the city, calling out in a voice loud enough to shake the earth. "A dangerous fog is approaching from the south, and with it brings a pestilence unlike anything we've ever seen before! I hereby order you all to evacuate the city, it'll be here any minute!"

She could hardly believe what she was hearing, was a plague cloud really coming to Manehattan? What did she mean by "unlike anything we've ever seen before"? How bad could it be? Trim looked at the crowd, and only noticed a few ponies paying her any mind, most still moving along their routes to work and home. She returned her attention to the princess, who again spoke.

"Those who cannot evacuate are advised to retreat to a designated safe-house, please, heed my warning!" Her voice sounded more and more desperate, almost as if she was about to break into tears.

"There she goes again with that doomsday nonsense." The pretzel salespony next to Trim scoffed, rolling his eyes as he gave a pretzel to another customer. "The world ending ain't gonna slow my business down." The unicorn was stunned at the gross display of over-confidence, but she didn't want to stick around to see him proven wrong. She got up and began to make her way towards one of the shining purple beacons in the sky, an indication of one of the safe-houses.

As the yellow door of the sanctuary entered her line of sight, she groaned to herself, noticing her path was completely blocked off by the constant flow of ponies, hardly any space between them all. She turned around to try and find another route, but what she saw made her heart sink. A thick orange cloud off in the distance slowly creeping over to the city, growing larger and larger as it got closer. She wasn't the only one to notice, as suddenly a crowd had formed along the edge of the city, all staring in terror at the incoming fog.

"Oh no." Twilight's royal voice echoed across the sky yet again, "Look to the south, it's too late!"

Trim tossed and turned as she slowly began to awake, her eyelids feeling like they were weighed down by sandbags, she needed a moment to reorient herself. She got up off of the cot, groggily looking around the building she was in, unfamiliar with her surroundings. The room she was in was small and slightly cramped with all the beds mounted on the walls. It's clear this was a place meant for a few dozen ponies, yet there was hardly a sign of any others, other than the messy sheets on a few of the cots.

As Trim trotted to the door, she racked her brain trying to remember what happened or where she was. Last thing she remembered was the fog, then screaming, then trampling. Just as that memory came back, she winced in pain, putting a hoof to her forehead, where dried blood had leaked down from a small wound. Ah, right. she thought to herself, now remembering the crushing pain of a hoof stomping on her head as panicked ponies ran over her, a flash of white, then black. Even if she could remember who's hoof knocked her out, she attempted to mentally excuse it with the immense terror of that plague cloud rushing over the city.

Moving past the splitting headache she could no longer ignore, she slowly left the dormitory and entered the hallway, illuminated by off-yellow lights that occasionally flickered. These safe-houses were hastily made, set up in various vacant buildings and spread out in specific sections of the city, Trim hoped that the other ones were more populated.

Finally, Trim made it to the common area, which had been hastily turned into a cafeteria, and she felt relief wash over her body upon seeing a hoofful of other ponies. They were all scared, tired, and doing their best to stay distant from eachother. She noticed a particularly frightened unicorn, wrapped in a blanket and trembling like a leaf, so she decided to sit down and try to offer him some friendship and a sense of normalcy, maybe even try to get some answers.

"Hey," she greeted the stranger, trying her best to look inviting, "I'm Trim, and you are?"

The stallion looked over, pulling the blanket a bit more around his face as if trying to avoid eye contact. "P-Perfect Pace." he shakily responded with the tone of an injured rabbit. "N-N-Nice to meet y-you." Every word that came out of his muzzle sounded strained, as if he had to fight the shaking to properly speak.

Trim thought carefully about her next words, she wanted so bad to ask a million questions, but his strained speech made it alot harder to get detailed answers. "Do you know how long we've been in here? I kinda just woke up." Her voice was calm, careful, almost as if she was talking to a scared foal. It was effective, as Perfect Pace looked over at her with bloodshot eyes partially covered by his dirty, unkempt blonde hair, a part of his appearance he previously put great effort into.

"I-it's been t-three days." he sniffled and sighed, trying to stay collected and slow the shaking. "T-the fog came a-and...and..." The memory had finally forced out the tears he had been holding in for so long, following the already stained cheeks of the stallion. There was something he clearly didn't want to think about, and as much as Trim wanted answers, she wanted to help out more than anything.

"Interesting. Well, how did I get here?" Trim's next question served the secondary purpose of distracting Perfect Pace from whatever memory was causing his shaking to worsen.

"Princess T-T-Twilight brought you." his voice was more strained than before, as if every word made it harder to speak at all. Still, talking seemed to help distract him from the truth of the situation, so he tried to speak through the shaking. "Y-You were unconscious in the s-streets. She found you, s-said you're unb-b-bitten." The tremors in his voice were getting worse, and it seemed as if his voice was breaking with his resolve. "I-I'm s-so sorry."

Trim's face softened as she put a hoof on the shoulder of the unicorn, trying her best to console him, but her hoof ran over an oddly cold sensation, and a series of divets. Fear overriding her compassion, she pulled the blanket off of him, revealing a large bloody stain down his entire body, all coming from a now-infected bite mark on his shoulder. Trim stepped back, horrified at what she was seeing, and Perfect Pace stepped away from her, his pupils now shrunk to the size of pinpricks as his breathing become more frantic.

"I-I just- I didn't- I needed help!" His frenzied plee for understanding interrupted by several coughs, blood spurting out from his muzzle. "I-I'm sick! This is a place to help the sick right?!" As he began to cause a scene, the other survivor ponies began to watch in terror. Trim sat stunned, slowly shaking her head in disbelief at such an act of selfishness, she stepped back as Perfect Pace jerkily crept towards her. He looked as if the last shreds of sanity were leaving his mind, but still as if he was fearful for his life. "P-Please, t-the doctor ponies said it takes two d-days to spread, I g-got bit this morning, I s-should...should..."

He began to sway slightly, before leaning over to wretch, out coming a thick, red rush of blood from his muzzle. As it stopped, he let out several labored coughs, and the scent of sick began to fill the room. It was too late, he looked up at Trim, his eyes now a milky white that seemed to reflect what little light was in the room, and he pounced onto her.

She was paralyzed with fear, only able to put up her hooves in a futile attempt to defend herself as he attacked her, she couldn't even truly register what was happening as she felt the teeth sinking into her neck. She wanted to scream, as the other ponies in the room had wasted no time doing, she wanted to scream at the pain in her neck as her larynx was pulled out in the jaws of what was once Perfect Pace, scream as the sinew barely keeping it attached to her snapped and he went in for another go at her jugular. Yet, every attempt just sent a gush of blood out of the large hole in her neck, but it was all she could try to do.

As the sensation of warm blood coated her neck, darkening her already green coat, she couldn't help but feel afraid. Then sad. Then nothing at all.