The beast screamed.

The little dragon rapidly and fearfully drew in another deep breath and case it out with as much strength as he could, and another wave of magical thermal energy erupted from his mouth and engulfed his attacker in another flood of dragon fire.
The horrific screeching and howling that emanated from its throat pierced the air and the poor dragon’s ears again, but it could not advance any closer and instead collapsed onto the ground and thrashed and convulsed as it tried to smother the flames currently burning away at its haggard shape.

Spike did not wait to see if it succeeded.
He simply dodged past it and sprinted off down the street again as fast as he could push himself to, dashing into any shadows he could and desperately panting as deeply as possible to catch his breath ASAP while he kept his wide eyes darting everywhere to avoid the possibility of missing anymore of those THINGS that might be trying to sneak up on him.

All around him, the young but surprisingly strong dragon could hear far-off and nearby sounds that came from the same kind of creature that had just attacked him. Glass was shattered in nearly every building’s window, and several doors were broken down.
One he could even see just a few yards from his current position in the street, broken in several large pieces.
And on more than one wall of any building around at all, he could see dark reddish-brown stains.

He ducked down again behind a small barrel as the shadow of another pony fled past him in terror, escaping seemingly into another alleyway, before the tall gaunt form of another terrifying beast sped past as well and dashed down the same alley, it’s guttural cries echoing in the street.

“Why? Why is this happening? HOW is this happening!? Where did it even come from?!?”
Poor Spike breathed out in his fearful and confused voice as memories of the horrid things he had just been witness to both tonight and much earlier suddenly flashed through his mind.

But as soon as he did so, the young dragon covered his mouth with one hand/paw and ducked down behind the nearest tree, his immediate location being on the outskirts of Ponyville.
Because around the corner of one of the last shops a pony could enter before leaving the town completely, a horrid creature suddenly LANDED on the ground with a shockwave, cracking the ground beneath its hooves as it immediately sniffed the air and turned its horribly mutated head towards Spike’s direction.

The latter didn’t need to wait and get jump-scared in order to already realize that his new foe could tell where he was.
He jumped up and dashed from the tree, narrowly avoiding the two front legs/arms as they hugged around the tree and viciously slashed the spot where he had just been, normal pony hooves replaced with claw-like ones instead.

He sped down between the two former sweet shops to his right and turned right, slowing his pace just a bit dangerously as he prepared his inner fire for another blast for WHEN the monstrous creature would catch up to him.
If only he could get back to the Castle of Friendship eventually, or just the Golden Oak Library for now… he needed to find Twilight!

He narrowly avoided getting bitten in two by a pair frightfully large jaws as the pursuing creature darted at him suddenly from the side as he rolled past the last building near to himself, and he finally got a good look at his foe.

It was a Pegasus, a grayish one.
Its tattered mane was a pale yellow color along with its tail, and its wings were tattered and partially de-feathered, blood being visible on both the appendages.
Its body was horridly thin and the skin looked twisted and stretched out, while its eyes were burning within its hollowed sockets, with the head being disgustingly long and the jaws now large enough to hold a creature like Spike within them and still have room for more.
And on each hip, looking quite as withered and sickly as the rest of its, or rather HER, body… were seven bubbles.

Spike groaned internally as he realized who this poor monstrous creature was, his fire breath still more or less ready for usage at least.
The deformed, mutated mailmare let out a howling screech as she opened her unnaturally wide jaws filled with rows of sharp flesh-tearing fangs and prepared to lunge at him again.

But just as she was about to spring forward and Spike was THIS CLOSE to blasting again… a bright blur from out of nowhere suddenly slammed into the creature and a trail of bluish white lightning was suddenly right in front of the young dragon, followed by a point-blank thunderclap which sent him flying!
The little dragon skidded and bounced along the ground for several seconds before he lay still, his head spinning and his ears ringing from the audio overload.
But his adrenaline and sense of alarm quickly kicked in again and he managed to pull himself to his feet and look around with rapidly clearing eyes, bright flashes in the sky causing him to look up and around his current location.

Several lightning bolts were striking the ground and buildings, and a number of the nearby shrieks of monsters were suddenly silenced.
It was as if the very sky itself had come alive and was striking down the horrors in these dark, blood-stained streets.

He slowly crept through the few dozen yards of open grass around the city itself, his sharp eyes seeing what looked like electric bolts speeding back and forth across the clouds and seemingly summoning more lightning.
The flashing was so intense and consistent it was resembling daylight more and more as the storm picked up in power, and the wind was suddenly appearing and now already getting strong.
Whatever this mysterious entity was, it seemed to be helping him escape, but Spike honestly didn’t want to get its attention. How could he be sure that it wasn’t just another unknown creature that was simply removing the competition or something?

Making his way past another former cake shop, the slowly crawled on all fours to in the direction of his current destination. He could not try to escape out into the open, Twilight’s letter had told him that she’d warded off the Library to anything not a pony or griffen or Spike himself, and that would be the only safe spot he could stay at for the time being.
He has almost died more times than he could count at this point, and he didn’t want to take his chances if another ridiculously strong entity like the mysterious lightning beast showed up.

As he made his way steadily closer and closer to the Gold Oaks Library, he passed by what looked several spots where lightning had struck judging by the black burn marks on the ground and several walls… but the bodies of the presumably dead creatures were nowhere to be seen.

Good grief. Is that weird storm thing actually transporting them somewhere else? Is this some sort of freaky hunting activity, or are the Wonderbolts turning into the “Thunderbolts”?*

Speaking of which, Spike was also sure he’d not seen or heard ANYTHING about the famed Pegasi athletes and part-time defenders of Equestria.
Since this nightmare has first started, all he’d done was try to hide and fight only when necessary.

(Flashback to when this first started, “one day” ago at most…)

He’d been trying to make a last-moment delivery to Rarity when he suddenly had heard a sudden cry of panic and pain mixed with the breaking of glass.
Dropping the bag down, he had run around the corner of the building and saw the horrendous sight of an extremely large and SCRAWNY pony-like creature with its bones visible in its withered skin and with horribly disproportionate limbs, head, and jaws biting a screaming Unicorn mare who was a turquoise-green color and who had just been pulled down from the shattered window she had evidently been trying to climb through in horror to escape before it had caught her, her left leg already dark with her own blood as those horrid jaws ripped into her.

“What th-Lyra, no! Hey you, stop it!”
Spike shouted, shocked and disgusted by what he was seeing.

The young dragon felt his instincts take over and he immediately summoned forth his dragon fire, charging forward blindly and letting loose a hasty burst of flames at the mutated abomination at point-blank range.
His blast hit it dead-on, but the beast was in too much of a crazed feeding frenzy to withdraw from it’s prey, it’s terrible massive jaws and dozens of vicious fangs only hesitating for a moment before crunching again into the tender bloodied flesh of the poor agonized Lyra, who could only scream and scream as tears poured down her face and her horn blasted beams of tragically unfocused magic as her pain was too great to properly focus the spell.
The sound of her skin and muscle tissue being tore from her body and the crunch of leg bones were the kind of sickening and terrible sounds that would never leave Spike’s memory.

“I said bucking STOP!”

Now consumed by desperation and growing primal rage, the little dragon hurled himself upon the savage monster, his own fangs and claws tearing into the deformed face.
Even as the monster successfully ripped the entirety of the pony’s left leg from its proper place, blood spurting from the severed veins and the screaming mare being driven nearly to madness and immediate unconsciousness from the agony, Spike fiercely clawed his way atop the base of it’s head and sucked in his breathe in furious focus with even more fierce intent as his eyes blazed, then he savagely clawed and bit at the base of the skull, a dark instinct suddenly telling him what to do and how to do it.

The mutant-zombie-monster snapped its jaws and thrashed around now even as it soon swallowed the leg before diving down to to finish the job of devouring Lyra entirely, but suddenly it’s head was completely engulfed and erupting in green flames, Spike biting furiously down onto the place he chose and unleashing his power.
Dragon fire quickly poured from the eyeholes and nostrils of the beast, and its mouth even burst forth with fire as there was a brief and terrible scream of torment and some thrashing before the body of the creature simply collapsed to the ground, now truly lifeless as it’s head burnt and the flesh began to more or less flake away or outright melt.

Quickly getting off the body of his dead foe, pushing away the feelings he was starting to feel from having actually taken a life, Spike was instantly concerned and confused as he approached the badly mauled body of Lyra, the mare letting out small sobs as she struggled to breathe and cling to her alertness, even as her body paled and the loss of her leg and so much blood making her shudder increasingly.

Spike did not have any real experience when it came to dealing with, and fixing, wounds in a physical way that doesn’t require Magic and he was lost at what he could do.
So instead, he simply walked up to her and sat down near to her face, gently patting her head and holding one of her hooves as she continued to shake slightly and mutter, providing what comfort he could to one of his dying friends.
The shock was still here, so he wasn’t freaking out as much as he probably would soon enough.

“I’m sorry, Bon Bon. Please don’t… don’t leave me, love…”

Lyra’s broken voice managed to force out as blood trickled from her open mouth.

“I’m so, so sorry…”

And then, as she say there crying and whispering all these heartbreaking words to herself, Lyra went still.
Then Spike suddenly had to recoil and fast… because the formerly dying and lifeless mare suddenly began to contort and grow larger. Her limbs extended , violently so, and her head and neck stretched sickeningly, her torso growing and bleeding even as skin was stretched to its limits, all the while her body was making these awful cracking and ripping sounds like she was being torn apart and fitted back together!

“Oh Celestia, no..!”
Spike cried out as he turned and fled in terror with tears stinging his eyes, Lyra mutating in seconds into the same type of disgusting monster that had nearly eaten her alive.

The newly-born undead mutant raised she horrific body and looked with her hollowed eyes and ghastly head to the ground at its claw-like hooves, the Unicorn horn that was once perfectly formed and beautiful was now long and brutally curved like a cruel sword, sparking and crackling with magic barely that could barely be restrained. Those brightly burning eyes slowly looked up, and a frightful sniffing sound was heard.

“Bon… Bon Bon.”

A voice gurgled from that gaunt throat as her head was raised to look to the pale light of the stars above, her jaws opening wider.

Then she screamed.

(Presently…)

It had been shortly after that traumatizing experience with Lyra that Spike soon had seen and heard of other similar attacks and grisly transformations all over Ponyville and apparently was happening across Equestria itself at an alarming rate.
He had no idea what was happening, but had also noticed that that the Sun was not rising either, leaving the world in perpetual darkness.

Then, he had recieved a magic letter from Twilight, telling him to meet her if possible in the Golden Oaks Library and that she’d try to gather the Mane Six there as well if she could manage to contact them.
They’d discuss the best on what to do there, or anywhere they could after gathering and putting their minds together.

And that was how he was here now, having managed to survive by himself so far with little help as other Equestrians were, understandably, trying to look after themselves and the other ponies and creatures dear to them, thus not being able to fully help him out that much. But anyway…

Alternating between crawling sneakily through the shadows and running for very short distances, Spike finally got in sight of the massive library, the several enormous trees making up the main body of the structure itself dominating the view of the night sky quite easily as the great flora was taller than virtually anything else in the city.
He needed to get to the doors and through them no matter what. He’d be safe in there and could figure out what to do next, ESPECIALLY if Twilight was holed up in there safely!
But as he did so, he could feel that the mighty flashes of power were seemingly starting to gather more strongly in the direction he was headed, as if the unknown storm entity was aware of him and his plan.
He could only hoe that it was a mere coincidence.

Spike snuck as close as he could. He had into one chance at this.
“Ok Spike,” he whispered aloud, “Here you go, to the Library. Everything you got, into this one sprint.”

He breathed in and out several times, prepping himself for what he was about to do.
And then he leapt out and sprinted as fast as he could ever remember running. He crossed the open ground at a speed that would leave most any pony quite impressed, and reached the doors!
He forced them open with every ounce of strength he could gather into his small arms and flung himself inside, gasping and falling to the floor just as an explosion of electrical energy struck the ground practically where he’d been standing less than a second before.
Laying there and breathing heavily for a couple of moments with his back facing the open door, Spike slowly got to his hands and knees.
He was safe, he could still feel the magical wards active, meaning they would keep out those horrid things.

The young dragon finally realized that he’d probably be better off over if he closed the doors, albeit leave them unlocked for potentially other ponies who might seek refuge here. In his rush to avoid death(or worse), he had practically shoved them WIDE OPEN, so he got to his feet and turned around… and he couldn’t help his shocked gasp as he saw what and WHO was standing there in the entrance of the doorway, watching him.

It had not been a bolt of lightning that struck the ground just as he had managed to get inside the safety of the library. It was a pony… or rather it HAD been a pony.

The body was a sort of… light blue color, and its wild mane was of all the colors of the rainbow, but more jaded to a degree.
It’s limbs and body were quite thin(and disturbingly long, in the case of the legs) like it was with all the other monsters out there, and it’s eyes were a pinkish strawberry hue, only lacking any discerning features like a normal pony would have.

The eyes… dear Celestia, there were no longer just two eyes. Instead, now there were FOUR of them peering at him with that terrible gaze.
Along with the original pair was now another set of them that were just a bit higher up on the head, and the fact that this monster’s head was thinner and now more streamlined compared to how a normal pony’s head was(and the eyes were now smaller) somehow allowed for this to be without the head looking like it was too crowded with eyes.

And the eyes themselves weren’t even like normal anymore, anyway.
Instead, they were shining brightly like lamps of pinkish fire burning within… along with the same supernatural light burning from its gaping maw, the corners turned upwards in a sort of monstrous expression of bestial joy as the jaws hung wide open and allowed the same horrifying spectral light to emanate outward, while dozens of dark and sharp needle-knife-like fangs were clearly visible.
It wasn’t just from the throat, it was like the inside of the mouth itself was burning brightly with a haunting, unnatural light, both fully visible in the open space and small bits of it peering between the fangs themselves.

Due to the doors being wide open, Spike could also see the powerful and frightening wings of the pegasus as well as its frontal body and face.
The main part of each wing itself had… glowing veins?
The wings each had numerous marks on them that looked like blood veins, like how they were pictured in medical books on Pegasi anatomy.
But each of these apparent “veins” were glowing with some kind of spectral energy, shining like metal rods that had been in the fire of a smithy’s forge for a good long while, and they were either bright blue or bright pink in color. And they seemed to be growing brighter or fading darker every moment.

And the wings themselves overall?
They were noticeably bigger than they had been, not just bigger because the Pegasus herself had grown, but larger even in comparison to her current size.
They were legitimately large, but weren’t like how they had been before the infection either. Now the feathers looked almost SHARP, like thin and shifting blades that were shaped like feathers, and there were more of them then there had been previously before this ghastly mutation-virus-curse had taken hold.
And along each feather, small sparks of electrical activity could be seen, with the currents running up along the length of the wings themselves and sparking off the edges, bright traces of raw power that crackled and flashed and writhed off at the tips of the feathers and into the air.

The creature that was standing there in front of the doorway and looking at him… she had once been the most devoted pony in the entire world, as far as Spike had known.
She was the fastest one, always up for a new adventure, joyful of life and friendship.
She had set a record for flight that none except an Alicorn Princess had been able to even remotely match, and had been responsible for those who had ultimately become the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony getting their Cutie Marks.

She had been the one and only Rainbow Dash!

And now here she was, one of the greatest heroes Equestria and perhaps the entire world had EVER known, trapped outside of her dear friend’s Library and home by a magical barrier, because she had somehow been infected with some cursed disease that had twisted and warped her into a horrific, demonic entity, staring at him with two pairs of monstrous burning eyes.
Spike could have cried right here and now at the sheer tragic injustice of it all, had things not been so dire.

Instead, he simply spoke with a pained and heavy tone of voice as he sat on the floor, all thoughts of shutting them momentarily forgotten.
She wouldn’t be able to understand him, but maybe he could talk just a bit while she, or rather the demon she had become, would stay there and stare at him for a period before getting fed up and vanishing back into the storm she had created and go elsewhere.

“Rainbow Dash…” he sighed.

“Yes?”
A raspy reply, and it echoed with the voice of his friend.

Spike nearly jumped out of his skin, and stared with wide eyes at the creature still standing outside of the doorway… and her head had titled to one side, as if amused by his reaction.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note

Note: both the non-infected and infected characters are heavily based/modeled after the appearances shown in The Immortality Virus and The Versepetilio Virus, two different TikTok AU’s.
Look them up on YouTube, the art for the infected Immortality Virus monsters and the non-infected Versepetilio characters overall there are perhaps my FAV of them all!

And yes, this IS basically my own take on the “Infection AU” trend and all, but I wanted to do… something a little different compared to how many I’ve seen intend to be, so… just bear with me, ok? Let’s see where this takes us!