Pure Rage

"It's been a few weeks since we last heard from the Griffon Kingdom. We are unsure of what has happened to them, but we intend to find out. We've been repeatedly attempting to raise contact, but all attempts have ended in failure." Princess Celestia had called members of a scouting unit of the Royal Guard, consisting of 10 ponies, to discuss plans. "I need you to travel there and find out what happened to them. Sweep in, collect data, and report back."

"So... what do you think happened?" One of the guards asked his squadmates.

"I think that they may be shutting down the borders. That last train still hasn't arrived yet. Maybe they canceled it?"

"Well, we'll find out soon enough. Let's get a move on."

The team deployed and took to the skies, observing the scenery below them. It was a real sight, seeing towns in the distance, as well as small patches of trees. Small rivers, and even animals going about their lives. Of course, not your average pegasi would be able to spot details, but it was these pony's jobs. Not only were they trained, but their gear helped out too. The scouts themselves had a light weight version of the royal guard armor. It looked pretty similar, but wasn't as thick, and provided more mobility. They were also equipped with goggles that improved vision slightly, and they had an arsenal of a simple armor implanted spear, which could recede under a wing. There would be a lot of flying from here to the Griffon Kingdom.

The scout unit was nearing the border. They crossed the wall, and quickly dived into clouds, as not to seem suspicious. They moved the clouds swiftly to a settlement they saw. It was a large town, with some mills here and there. The city had a tall brick wall on its outskirts... but something that had the unit worried... was that there was absolutely nothing on the streets. It was dead silent...

"Where is every... eh.. griffon?" Asked one of the units, poking his head out of the cloud to get a better view. The rest of the team also stuck their heads out, considering nothing was there to see them.

"Let's go a bit lower, so we can get a better view". The commander said, and the team descended, leaving the clouds behind.

They landed in the streets, scanning the area. It looked like a storm had swept through. Trash lay everywhere, and some shop windows were shattered, and houses were boarded up, or the door had been broken down. Inside of the houses, which would usually be lit up, were dark rooms that, as far as they could see, were ransacked. The odd gas torches that the griffons used looked as if they had had been burned out for a while. Another thing they noticed, was that not a single peep could be heard. No birds, or animals. It's as if everything just up and left the entire area.

"Alright, I need you three to look into some of these buildings in the residential area, and you 3 to go to the capital building, and check the hospital to see if you can find any kind of data on what may have happened. The rest of you, come with me. We'll see if we can find anything that could tell us where they all went." The commander was feeling uneasy about the whole situation, so he planned to leave soon.

The three assigned to the residential picked their first house. It was two stories, with a balcony entrance. Unlike houses in Equestria, Griffons had their entrances on the second floor, that way any rabid creature that wandered into the city wouldn't break into anybody's house. They all flew up to the entrance. Peering into the window to see if it was safe, they decided it was alright to enter.

The building looked relatively well kept, apart from a knocked over table, and lots of dust. After they searched the living room, which was upstairs, they dispersed to check rooms and cover the house faster.

One guard found a bedroom. He opened the door to reveal a child's room. Obvious from the toy chest in the corner and the small bed. The room was empty, and looked as if it hadn't been touched. One thing that was obvious though, was that the door had a splintered dent in it, not visible from the other side. He also noticed that the window was gone, having been shattered, with shards of glass on the floor underneath it. The thing that was off, however, was that there seemed to be some small red splotches. He barely noticed them at first. Taking a closer look, it seemed to be dried out blood. Gazing out of the window and onto the street below, he saw a few more shards, and little droplets that faded further down the street. He walked into the hallway, ready to report what he found.

The other guard was checking the kitchen, which was pretty normal looking, apart from there being a knocked over knife rack, as if someone desperately tried to grab for one. They also had what appeared to be a blood trail, leading up and out into the hallway. Following it, he walked through the door, and stopped, not wanting to follow it any further alone. He looked to his right to see his squad mate, sitting by the room door.

"Hey, guys, come see this! Hurry up!"

The last guard was looking through the bathroom, finding the tub filled with water. It was a trick he learned once, seeing how in the event of disaster, it would be a good idea to fill the tub to have a good amount of water available. "Someone was expecting a disaster..." He left the room quickly though, off to see what his squad member wanted.

The three of them stood out in the hallway, staring at the blood trail that led down into the basement. The blood trail had been droplets at first, but nearing the stairs turned into streaks, implying that the owner fell down the stairs. It wasn't hard to see, but the trail didn't stop at the bottom. They decided to descend together, and investigate what happened.

As they entered the bottom room, they found it was a somewhat simple storage basement. The smell was atrocious, and it was too dark to see very far. Luckily, each one of them carried a special magic flare, that was usually used as a distress beacon, but could serve as a light source. They lit one, and it was bright enough to view the entire room.

"What the.... jeeze" Was all one of the guards could mutter, as the other two were speechless. He took off his goggles as to not have to see it in such a detailed image. There was a dead griffon in the corner of the room, decayed, and somewhat skeletal. It's bones looked broken in some places, and the wing was bent to a painful looking angle, and there was old, dry blood next to it, confirming it to be the source of the trail. It looked like it was there for quite a long time. They all suddenly got tense, and cautious. Their minds raced with thoughts on how the griffon had met it's end, and also made them wonder if the same fate bestowed the rest of the town.

The most off putting thing to them, however, was the rats.... The dead rats, surrounding the body. It's not uncommon for rodents to feed off remains, but they were all dead... They had all looked as if they killed each other. The guards approached it, to see what may be causing the rats to die.

"We need to get out of this place and tell the commander what we found."

Just as they turned around, they heard scurrying. They turned around to see two rats exit from a box, and approach the body. The other rat was examining the bodies of the others. One rat bit the remains of the griffon, trying to feed.

"Ugh, I don't think my stomach can take this", a guard said, and turned to walk back upstairs.

"But he's not eating it.. he just bit it... and stopped..."

The rat fell on it's back, not shortly after biting the body, and began having strange muscle spasms. It was as if the thing was having a seizure. It started bleeding from it's eyes, and it's nose. It soon got up, as if nothing had happened. The other rat ran up the stairs, being frightened at the site of the death of another one of it's species, seeming to have identified the cause of death of the others. What confused the guards, however, was that the rat was very much alive, as it had extremely rapid breathing, for a rat...

"What's wrong with it?" One of the guards asked, worried about it's condition, and if it could be linked with the griffon.

"I don't know, let's just get out of here already."

The guards turned to walk up the stairs, but the rat followed them. The rat opened it's jaws wide, and sunk its teeth into the guard's hind leg.

"Ow! The thing bit me!" The scout shouted, and kicked it with his hind leg. The rat flew back, dead.

"You might want to get that checked, you know. Rats can carry a lot of bacterial infections."

"Yeah, I know, but I...." The guard was interrupted by something that was building up in his throat. He suddenly stiffened his posture, lurched forward, and heaved out blood all over the floor. He also started bleeding from his nose, and the corners of his eyes.

"Woah! Are you okay?" The other two were starting to panic a little, and were concerned for their fellow pegasus.

The only thing he could do was mouth a few gargles and crackles. Breathing heavily, he suddenly fell to the ground, and started shaking violently, letting loose a scream that caused the others to become extremely uneasy. The whites in his eyes became extremely bloodshot, and red flooded them, having blood vessels in his eyes burst. He stopped his spastic movements, and got up. He turned and looked at the guards.

Another rat emerged between the two guards and the one who was bitten. The bitten guard suddenly leaped forward at a fast speed, grabbing the rat in his mouth, and squeezing it in his jaws. It's bones snapped and it's organs were crushed, killing it. The other two guards quickly ran up the stairs, scared that they may be attacked. The infected guard followed closely behind. Just as they took off through the door and off the balcony into the skies, the infected gripped the one of their tails with his teeth, grabbing the back legs of the guard with it's front. The guard wasn't trained to carry another pony, and soon they started sinking towards the ground below. He started kicking and flapping harder, but couldn't get higher, and he was starting to exhaust himself. The other guard didn't notice, and swiftly flew to the area where his commander was.

As the guard touched down with the infected, he tried bucking the infected off of him. He hit it in the face, but it just took it like a sack of grain, and leaped back over the him. The guard grabbed his attacker's arm, and swung him over onto the ground, being trained for close quarter combat. The infected got back up though, and tackled the guard onto the ground, and started slamming his hooves into the guard's face. The guard managed to block one of the punches, and spun over to pin the infected down. He finally had it down, but he didn't expect it to spew blood in his face. He quickly backed off the infected and rubbed at his eyes, finding himself blinded. He swung his hooves in the air, trying to fend off his attacker, only his attacker wasn't attacking anymore. He calmed himself down, realizing his attacker was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief, only for it to end with coughing up blood, before he found himself on the ground, with his limbs flailing.

"Commander! We have to leave now! I found out what happened to the griffons, and why they're all dead!" The guard was hyperventilating.

"Wait... they all died?"

"More than likely!"

"Where's the rest of your team?"

"One of them went insane! One second he was fine, the second, trying to murder us! It started... it was that rat... It infected him... it was sick, with some kind of disease... a disease of madness, it made him go mad... I think he got the other guy."  The guard started to calm down, after explaining what had happened.

"Alright, you two, I want you to go to the hospital, and the capital building and get the rest of the troops to here, we're leaving. We have what we came for, and stay together! Don't leave each other's sight. remember, stay airborne, if the 'infected' take to the sky, do evasive strategies, and work together... just like training." With the commander's orders, they were off to regroup their unit.

"The rest of us, wait here. If the others do not return within an hour, we're leaving."

The commander heard the other guards pestering the surviving guard with questions about what he saw, but in the distance, he heard some odd noises. He looked out and saw the two guards, who were flying quickly to get to their destination. He felt safe, hearing the noises from the right, but at the same time unsafe, as whatever was making that noise was heading in their direction, and the noise sounded oddly like the clopping of hooves. The noises started to get closer. They were definitely ponies.

"Everybody, shut up and hit the dirt. Drop down really low, as low as you can." The commander whispered quietly.  As he said that, he saw a bloodied pony, in a royal scout uniform, galloping at a unusual speed, with it's wings splayed for added speed. Shortly after, he saw another one, running in the same direction, with a red face, and he recognized who both were, or who both use to be. They were going left from where he was looking, following the team he had sent to regroup the others. As soon as they were gone, the group started talking about what they saw.

"Did you see that? It's contagious!"

"Keep your voice down. Do you want them coming back?"

"Is this what happened to the griffons?"

"We need to get out of here!"

All the guards were in a state of shock, amazement, or terror. The commander was speechless, and didn't know if he wanted to take what he had to leave the town, or wait for the rest of the group. Now having some idea of what he was dealing with, and what may have happened to the griffons, he tried to make a plan.

"Okay, team, I know what we're dealing with looks bad, but we'll make it. We'll take to the skies, and try to get to our other teams before the infected do. If we can get the search parties out of those buildings fast enough, there won't be any risk of spreading the disease, as these infected will most likely die out like the griffons in this town did. Let's go!"

With that, they took to the skies, and sped as fast as they could to the hospital.

Once they arrived at the hospital, they quickly burst open the doors and called out for their comrades to regroup as soon as possible. The hospital looked like it was the location of an extremely chaotic event. Gurneys were scattered around, and many of the doors were broken off their hinges. The commander called out to anything that may be inside, and within a few seconds, three guards came down, one having a gauze wrapped wing, implying he hurt it. They also had lots of written files.

"Oh no... this isn't good.... This is terrible." The commander was now panicked, seeing as one of the scouts could not fly...

"What's wrong, commander?" Asked one of the guards.

"Him. He can't fly. What are those files?"

"These files are case files from an extreme influx of patients a few days before we lost contact. Why is he not being able to fly a bad thing? What did you find?"

"Look... I wish I had time to explain, but we need to leave now. We have what we need to know, but him not being able to fly might be the very death of him. Something bad happened here, and it's still in motion. We need to get to the others, and get out."

The guards were confused, but obeyed.

They had to carry their injured teammate with two others, and had to go a bit slower as not to drop him. They soon found themselves upon the capital building, and it was pretty big. As they all went through the door, they found it opened 3 feet before hitting something. They all stepped inside, and saw a guard there tending to his other guard mate.

"Where's the other?" The commander asked.

"He's... somewhere. We don't know where he went."

"So what happened in this place?"

"From the looks of it, it was a place of last resort. The door was barricaded and there were shelves and locked doors everywhere. The building also seems to be collapsing in random areas."

"Well, I can't afford to lose anyone else. We need to leave now. We can't carry any more wounded ourselves. We can take the train."

The group of surviving guards had to take it on foot to the train station, that was, lucky for them, opposite of where the hospital was, so chances of encountering the infected were pretty low. As for the other team they sent out, they would signal them with flares once they got to the train station.

The walk to the train station was... disturbing. As they neared the train station, they found something not many of them had seen on the trip so far.... Bodies. Lots of bodies. It was as if the griffons were so desperate to escape, but it was in vain. Lots of the bodies had broken wings... It worried the injured guards. What if these griffons died because of their wing injuries? What if this gets to Equestria? What of the earth ponies and unicorns?

They powered up the train with coal, and readied it for departure. They shot their flare into the sky, to signal the guard team that was now, hopefully, waiting for it at a high altitude.

The two guards who had been searching through the hospital had gotten there, and walked inside.

"Hello?! Is anybody here?!" One of the guards had shouted, hoping to get an answer. He got no reply. The two guards walked further into the hospital, to find their team. They had stopped dead in their tracks as they heard a bang at the door.

They both looked behind them, to see the door shaking after multiple thuds struck it. It wasn't long until the weathered door gave out from the headbutting infected. The guards quickly rushed to the hall door, and shut it. They both started shoving tables, stools, and shelves against the door, hoping it would hold. They could see the two crazed infected trying to bang the door down.

"How do we get out now!? We're trapped!" One of the guards said to the other.

"I don't know how we get out. Maybe there's a window somewhere?"

"That door won't hold forever, let's not waste time!" The guards started retreating further into the hospital, trying to put distance from the doors, in case they did break. They couldn't hear the thumping anymore, but didn't assume that they stopped trying. They hurriedly checked every door, but the majority of them were locked, due to a lock down that had been placed.

They suddenly heard some clattering from the other side of the building, and started trying locks faster and faster. One of the guards reached for the handle, and it fell off. It would have been funny to him, but not in this situation. He pushed the door open swiftly, and found a window there.

"Hey... come here, there's a window." He whispered to his partner.

"We're gonna have to make some noise to break it."

The guards decided that they would break the window to get out. The guard leaned on his front legs, reared his back, and kicked the window enough to shatter it to the frame. The shards hit the floor, creating an echo through the building.

The infected could be heard right around the corner.

"Hurry! Get through!"

The guards had underestimated the speed of the infected, and the two bloodied ponies charged into the room. They both attacked one of the guards at the same time. He had punched the first infected away, but didn't expect the hard buck to the side from the other. He fell on the ground, losing balance from standing on his hind legs. The two infected started to trample him, intent on killing him.

The other guard grabbed his partner's arm in a grip, and tried dragging him away from the infected ponies. The guard in the middle started to cough blood from having his ribs crushed from the force of the infected trampling his body. The infected pulled harder, and he was losing grip. The other guard realized he couldn't win this, and flew through the window, seeing a bright light in the distance. Knowing what it was, he went to it, but worried if it was a distress call, rather than a rally, which he had hoped for. He sped to the source, wanting to leave as quick as possible.

The commander didn't have to wait long to see the scout speeding towards them. He landed ungracefully, and was shaking from fear.

"Where's your partner?" The commander asked.

"I... He's gone... They got him."

"They infected him?"

"No... They just killed him. Didn't bother to spread it..."

"Okay, well, let's just get this train running. I can't afford to lose everypony." With that, they boarded the train, and it started moving. It was already scheduled to Canterlot, but never made it, for obvious reasons. They were unaware of the few animals dwelling on board, though...