(Before I even start this fic I want to inform you I am on a tablet so everything might look a little weird and since it's my first fic it may start out bumpy, so with that let's get started)
- 48 Hours before worldwide infection -
I looked at the burning candle next to the bottle of wine. I sighed. I looked at the clock, 11:00, "she's not coming." I said flatly. Frowning I turned my attention back to the dancing flame, it was so full of life and hope. As if wanting to grow larger, as if it wanted to burn my apartment to the ground and then some. I barely focused on the flame, my horn began glow as i conjured a green bubble around the flame, watching it die and the smoke getting trapped in the bubble.
I released the smoke from it's prison and watched it rise up to only be swept away by a fresh wind from a nearby open window, a smile tricked it's way on my lips, then just as quickly as it came, it reverted back into it's everlasting frown. I slid my rump off the mahogany chair, landing with a soft *clop* as my hooves landed on the tiled floor. I rose a forehoof to my glasses pushing them up the small bridge of my nose to my maroon eyes.
I trotted over to the window opposite of the one the smoke escaped from. The window loomed over this small portion of Manehattan, I sighed once again as I heard the laughs of foals. The noise echoed throughout Manhattan's many dark alleys, penetrating my ears, they were so.... so carefree not even worrying about the dangers of Princess Luna's beautiful night.
I closed the window and slowly flipped it's latches to lock the window in it's place, I quickly checked the other window and door to make sure they were also locked, once I was satisfied with my security I walked past the kitchen and looked at the wine bottle i left on my counter, it sounds crazy but I swear on my grave that it beckoned for me, for me to drink it's luscious, corrupt liquid I tried to resist the temptation but I couldn't, my legs moved on there own. My legs slowly arrived at their destination, the wine bottle beckoned louder for me to drink it, I sighed and levitated it and one of the two wine glasses i had set out for me and my date, I looked deeply at the wine glass, it's elegance shining in the moonlight... I threw it at a nearby wall watching it shatter into bits... I quickly uncorked the bottle and brought it to my dry lips, I slowly lifted the bottle letting the liquid trickle into my mouth. I separated from the bottle for a second and quickly brought it back to my waiting lips and lifted it at a different angle than before, letting more of the fluid flow into my mouth, I lifted the bottle again, it flooded my mouth and I enjoyed every bit of it.
I parted with the bottle after the liquid made it way into my stomach, I could never hold my liquor but we all have urges... right? My vision blurred as I dropped the bottle it crashed to the tiled floor and it's deep red-violet liquid splashed and moved on the white floor, "oops~" I said drunkenly.
My home phone rang, I stumbled over to and tapped the speaker button, "h-hic-hi there~" I said drunkenly.
"... You alright?" The voice omitted through the speakers, even in my drunken state I recognized the voice, the one i waited for, the one that never came.
"Ooh... it's you-hic-"
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"It means that your a bitch who stood me up." I snickered.
"So I was a lil late, so what?"
"A LIL LATE?! Try th-hic-three fucking hours late, you...you...-hic- you bitch."
I heard her sniffle, " well fine then, fuck you!"
"No fuck you!"
"Fuck you!"
"You!"
"You!"
"YOU!!"
I heard her slam the phone down, which led to a soft click, "no one likes you anyway." I mumbled. I stumbled to my single bed and flopped onto it letting the comfortable blanket soothe my green coated body and rested my head onto the pillow, I sighed and let my eyelid slowly block my blurred vision.
I bucked the door off it's hinges and watched it fly into the room then instantly felt a cold metal muzzle press against my temple, my eyes flicked to my left and saw the gun, a Mossberg 500 shotgun, magazine size 8 shells, weight... medium, spread..... large. My eyes looked past the gun to the pony holding the beast, he had a dark coat and a messy brick red mane, he wore a flak jacket and a crude bandolier with different colored shells in each loop.
"You move and your brain will meet my wall, you understand."
"The arms dealer I suppose?"
"Who's asking?"
"Me asshole."
He cocked the grip of the Mossberg, "wrong answer."
I kicked the gun out of his hooves and watched it fly up and over the arms dealer. I felt a hoof strike my cheek, I stumbled back, regaining balance I charged at him, horn first.
It went through the jacket and into his chest, I pulled my horn out and watched the dark red blood trickle out, more and more, as he bled out I watched his face twist in agony.
"But?"
He paused for a moment to cough up some blood.
“But who are you?”
"My name is Herb, Herb Green.
He opened his mouth, but not a sound came.
He opened his mouth again, "BEEB BEEB BEEB BEEB
I awoke to the sound of the most dreadful thing to ever exist a goddamn alarm clock on full volume. I swatted at it with my hoof but it wouldn't stop til I up and smacked it so hard it fell out of the wall socket.
End of chapter 1.
Chapter 2 revised and shortend
-Dawn of the final day. 24 hours left-
He opened his mouth, “BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!”
I awoke to the sound of the most dreadful thing to ever exist. A FUCKING GODDAMN ALARM CLOCK ON FULL FUCKING VOLUME.... So i guess it was just a dream. It... it felt so real, the cold metal of the gun on my head, the sound and feeling of my hooves connecting with his body. It just felt all so real. If it were to ever come to it I don't think i could ever actually kill another pony.
I turned around and noticed my black bedside alarm clock their lying there on the floor, its thin but blocky number flashing a red 12:00.
The flashing started to annoy me so I picked it up and walked over to my bedside table which also happened to support a glass lamp that by some miracle didn't get sent flying and shatter when i hit my alarm clock, which i guess is a blessing because I still have glass to be cleaned up in my kitchen from last night.......Last night. It was a blur but i could still remember it..... Her.... Her not showing. I felt a little depressed by the statement, so i turned my attention back to my clock. I plugged it back in and with a surprize that jolted me a little it started to beep again. I immediately hit the alarm off button. Then quietly said “you piss me off sometimes.” I walked out of my room and looked at the clock in the den. 1:07 pm. I trotted back to my room and reset the clock then walked to my kitchen, levitated a broom and swept the glass up.
"Well I've got nothin' to do." I said to myself half expecting something to come up, of course nothing did. I trotted to the bathroom, opening the door I was greeted with the reflection of 22 year-old green unicorn stallion with a black and green mane parted at the horn. The thing that stuck out the most was my mane. It was messy, pointing every way you could think and i thought it would take almost two hoof fulls of mane gel to get it that way. I took out a brush,turned on the water and levitated it under the water then removed it and started to fix my hair. Normally I would have worn my blue beanie which I keep on the shelf in my closet but i thought a change would be necessary for the end of the world. Little did I know that thought would come back to haunt me.After I had gotten my mane socially acceptable I trotted back to the den and turned on my t.v. then flipped through the the channels until I settled on Everypony Loves Derpy™.
-Dawn of the final day 4 hours left-
I woke up hours later and looked at the t.v.... 8:00 pm. Again I flipped through I stopped at channel 7,Equestrian news. I had stopped because, plastered on the t.v. was the name of the report “Quarantine In Equestria.” The news mare was a tall, purple coated, pegasus with a blond mane. Her voice was rushed and panicked,” I’m here reporting from L-los Pegasus. There's been reports of a w-weird sickness traveling throughout the city of L-los Pegasus. Some of the symptoms of this ill-illness includes: fever, coughing, bloodshot/bloody eyes, skin ul-lcers, live skin decomp-osition, and death. This is becoming a pand-demic rapidly. The illness is spreading like a wild fire, Princess’ Celestia and Luna have ordered that L-los Pegasus be quar-rantined from the rest of E-equestria while she has the best doctors in the land researching the sickness and trying to find a cure. We will keep you updated as things develop. This is Breezy Pen from channel 7 news coming to you live from the now quarantined L-los Pegasus."
End of chapter 2
-ID World Wide Infection Day-
I shut off the newscast and looked at the clock. The thin red block numbers read 12:00 a.m. It was Wednesday,June Twenty-Third. Its not like the date could be forgotten. A few hours after that, reports started flooding in from all over Equestria. Appaloosa, Ponyville, even Hoofington. But that was just the start, within minutes every place except for Cloudsdale and Manehattan was quarantined. I don't know how but I managed to be in one of the only two places left “uninfected” in Equestria, but knowing this did nothing to make me feel better.
-One week later-
About one week ago it had been announced that a plague was sweeping through Equestria. Thats right a god damn plague. Since then it started to calm a little bit. The doctors had announced they found a cure,it was mandatory that everypony got the shot, and it worked......for a while. Within a week Equestria was released from its world wide quarantine, everything seemed fine life returned to normal. Well as normal as it could be with over 3,000 of Equestria’s inhabitants dead. The next few days were relatively normal, wake up, shower, go to work, come home. Rinse, wash, and repeat. “See.... normal,” The next day I woke up, but something had struck me odd. I stood there, my eyes glued to the screen. It was channel 7 news and again it was Breezy Pen. This time she was calm and collective, which should not have been for the story she was presenting. “Murder and Mutilation.”
I couldn't believe my eyes. “ A murder? In Equestria? There hasn't been a murder here in at least 200 years. The princess has been able to keep peace for this long, I wonder what happened.” I looked back at the screen, Breezy was talking. “ This is Breezy Pen of channel 7 news reporting from Hoofington. According to the report we were able to ascertain, today at approximately 2:47 p.m. a pegasus by the name of Mello Note was murdered. According to the autopsie, the pegasus’ chest was ripped open and some of his organs were missing, the report also shows that there were claw marks on the body, leading some of the guards to think the culprit is a manticore that was seen roaming around two days ago. We will keep you updated as new developments become available. This is Breezy Pen reporting for Channel 7 News.”
“A-A manticore.” I said to myself confused. “The only way a manticore would be in Hoofington is if someone had it as a pet, but still having a pet manticore has been against the law since..... since the accident.” Just thinking about it sent shivers down my spine. That was three years ago. No need to think of it now.
“Mello Note ehhh? Why does that name sound so familiar. OH, now I remember he used to work at that club downtown, ah EQuine that was the club, with what's her name. Fuck I can’t remember. Anyways I might go down there and see what's up, its not like I have anything else to do.”
“I looked at the clock, it read 8:00. EQuine must be open by now.” I thought to myself. I headed outside and locked my door then started towards EQuine. As I made my way to the club I heard hoofsteps behind me. I saw a single mare under the streetlight about 30 yards away, even though she was bathed in light I couldn't make her out I could only tell she was a mare by her size. “Hello!” I shouted neighborly, turned and continued to walk, about a quarter mile later I still heard hoofsteps. I turned back around this time, she was about 20 yards away now, I could make her out a little better this time. She was an Earth pony with a red mane and pink coat. Again I called out “Hello” but again she did not respond. I had an uneasy feeling. I started to walk towards her. There was a faint metallic smell in the air. As I got closer to her I noticed her coat and mane looked matted and wet. Before I realized it, I was five feet in front of her and mane wasn’t red, it was purple, and her coat, it wasn’t pink no it was white. Then it hit me, the reason her mane and coat looked wet and matted was because it was covered in blood! I stepped back, admittedly it was partly from fear but also worry and shock. “Are you okay miss.” I said. I heard a faint moan “Help me”. She fainted.
“Miss, Miss, MISS!” I yelled as I ran towards her. “Miss are you okay” I checked her pulse, it was faint and fading quick. She needed help and if i didn't find any she would die. Just then i notice a giant gash along her back. She’s gonna bleed out. “Miss I’ll find help”. Suddenly there was a faint growl. I looked up, it was dark i couldn’t see anything. “Who’s there” I shouted. My question was returned by another growl. I got up. There was another growl, and another. The growls were getting louder.Then I saw a faint shadow start to emerge from the shadow of a nearby vegetable stand. The shadow walked closer. Walked? No that wasn’t walking nor was it trotting, it was limping. As the shadow neared me I noticed it was Star Winter,a friend of mine and the owner of the stand, but something was wrong. Star had been missing for more than a week now. I hadn't stepped one hoof near him before I realized he had no tail, that wasn’t all. One eye was completely white while the other was as black as Luna’s night.
“St-Star what happened to you? “GRRRR AAAA” he answered with a fierceness. Suddenly he lunged at me, and luckily he missed. “Holy shit man what the fuck!” I yelled as I lept to the left. “You fucking scared me. “RRRR AAAA” he lunged again. This time I galloped, I galloped as fast as I could. Eventually I looked back, I shouldn’t have but I did. What I saw was terrifying, when I looked back I could see Star, he was standing over the mare that fainted but he wasn't just looking at her, but at first I couldn’t tell what he was doing. Not until he looked up, when he looked up. ehhhh. When he looked up he had something hanging from his mouth, something-something so disgusting. The thing hanging from his mouth......was pony meat.