Sins of Harmony
Volume 2: Enemies Unbound
Chapter 54: Manehatten Siege II, Biodrones.
21st June, 1006 ANM
Early Evening
Manehatten, Karabair district
City Hall
The flooding was just beginning to retreat in the city, but it would still be at least another 2 hours. Underground sections such as tunnels, subway trains and countless building sub levels across the Manehatten waterfront areas meant draining of the city was delayed.
At city hall, the organisation of relief efforts was underway. On emergency broadcast systems and loudspeakers, warnings were issued to not engage the strange creatures searching the city blocks systematically, but to head for areas they've already searched if they can't get further inland.
Worse yet, half of the major bridges in the city had been destroyed at the centre, enough to not fully collapse them, but enough to cut off travel routes. As it was, boats were the better transport method, with the bridges being out, and the subways all but submerged.
Some semblance of order had been established, but the creatures still searched. Worse, they'd been seen leaving a drone behind in areas already searched, meaning in time they'd have every area flooded under watch.
Worse, even if the lone drones were taken out before they could defend, another simply moved in to take its place, hiding better but still acting as a sentry.
For the police, and the stationed garrison, it was a never-ending infestation of sorts. What they didn't know was that these drones weren't meant as fighters, but searchers, general purpose.
The 'soldier' drones, and some experiments, were yet to come.
At city hall, the place was surprisingly quiet, as only those organising rescue/creature control from a distance were in the building.
After an hour, the pattern of avoiding the creatures while they searched, lest they attack, having been established, Celestia's associates had met up with her in city hall, where Shining Armour and Cadance had worked wonders with the mayor in getting relief efforts underway before the flooding even began to recede in places of the city.
Discord would be the last to arrive:
"Where's Varkan?" Luna asked.
"He called city hall actually, 5 minutes. He's still watching the drones, in case they begin moving out of the flooded areas." Ohmen stood nearby, tired from all the ponies he'd rescued from the water, alive or dead, and the dozen or so drones he'd been forced to destroy.
Discord, having recently arrived, said offhandedly: "Well, they aren't going beyond the water so far, but at this rate they'll be done searching the flooded areas before the water begins to recede."
Celestia was sat in a chair nearby, the Mayor nearby, half listening in. He was a portly stallion, but had a very sharp mind beneath his more overweight brown and black spotted body.
"How many dead?" Twilight was the one to ask the dreaded question.
Exhaling as he remembered, the mayor talked over them as one of his aides rushed in to hand him more reports from across the city: "Hard to tell. Maybe a few hundred, but we estimate no more than 1,000. The waves hitting the harbour walls gave everyone a minute or so warning."
"Of course, we have no idea how many it will be when we combine the tsunami flooding and these, things." The mayor scowled as he had seen pictures of those strange, shapeshifting creatures.
Starswirl was sat nearby, taking the weight off his leg, as he muttered aloud: "No idea what they're looking for, and I think its unwise for any large scale magic on them. They'll just break free or recover like in Canterlot."
"Destroying their body seemed to do it." Luna commented darkly. Her attack on one of the Canterlot drones had stopped it, true.
"I'm all for that too." Spike added, as these drones gave him a good practice. He secretly wondered if that dog, Garnet, that killed those 3 was in the city still.
"Well it doesn't make much difference if they're here or not. The flooding's slowed the city at ground level to a near stop, and we still have those, big things out in the bay that are ripping apart the bridges." Shining Armour pointed out.
"Well I've had a flyover, they seem to leave the boats and ships alone, but they're deep down, beneath even some of the bigger ships." Flash commented.
Thinking, Celestia asked the mayor: "How deep is the Henson river roughly?"
"Hmm, in the areas where the bridges are broken, the middle? Usually 100 feet deep or more."
Celestia issued the order, while a few officials ran inside the city hall right as she finished: "I suggest getting a look at whatever's destroying the bridges, see what we're up against."
"Divers then, I-"
"Mr. Mayor, we've got a situation at Baroque General Hospital!" The police deputy pony had yelled as he haphazardly bowed to the royal presence here.
"Baroque?" Spike stood up suddenly, while Twilight was similarly worried. Let alone it being a large medical facility, but that was where the bodies of their 3 friends were being held.
Nodding, the police pony replied: "All power's been lost, even the backup power. Reports say there may be a creature presence there."
Looking around, Twilight said: "We'll go. Anyone else?"
"Me." Spike growled, but Razak then stood up, commenting:
"Ah, you should take me too. Who knows how many there may be if they're there."
Not wanting to take chances, Luna ordered: "You should take two of my guards, and anyone else you wish."
Twilight looked to Flash, asking him: "Flash?"
"No need to ask Princess."
Suppressing a smile, Twilight looked at the police pony who arrived, ordering: "Anyone you have ready to go there comes with us."
Starswirl pulled Discord, Celestia and Luna aside, as he asked them lowly: "I want to try something in a few hours, that may immobilise the Entity creatures. Their energy inside their rock forms makes it easy for me to distinguish them from other creatures."
Starswirl explained the idea quickly, but really all he asked was for a magical boost, to spread it city wide, and to leave the actual spell to him.
The old Unicorn had come up with impressive spells on the fly before in the Unicorn civil war a millennia ago, and he could do it again.
After telling them this, Luna wondered aloud: "It might work, if we focus enough magic into it."
Looking about, the night princess then commented: "Strange, something this big, and with Starswirl, its odd that Varkan isn't here."
"He's been gone a long time." Celestia noticed.
Discord too was concerned. Even his misgivings with him couldn't stop him from wondering where he'd gone.
"He won't have drowned, he can fly well enough with his fixed wings." Discord said.
"Its what else could happen to him, or anyone in the city, that concerns me." Luna said.
Shining Armour and Cadance meanwhile, had confronted the Hephaestus members concerning a different matter:
"Look, something needs to be done with, whatever those things in the river are. I'm asking if you two might come with us to the Breton Gate Bridge. It hasn't been hit yet, but its sure to be with how big of a roadway it is."
Shining Armour made the case to Ohmen Magnes, Lucius and Caarim, but the latter commented: "I think I'll be not much use there. I'd best stay behind, help coordinate."
Ohmen backed up the telepath cobra's case: "Yes. Caarim can't read those creature's minds, so he can't control them or anything. Hes better here."
"Alright, but you two can come?" Cadance asked, a hopeful smile on her face: "That bridge can help get people to safety, or helpful groups inside the affected areas."
"Whenever you're ready." Ohmen commented, the Unicorn disguised mutate ready. He was much more comfortable helping these two, or ponies in general, than he would have been over a year ago.
Lucius had some reservations, but the Sombra clone said flatly: "Sure. But what about those 2 big things in the river attacking the bridges?"
"We've heard divers are trying to get a look at them. But if you two are there, you could help ward it off the bridge." Shining Armour argued.
"Well, as I said, when you're ready." Ohmen finished.
10 minutes later
Orlov Boulavard
An ambulance and a firetruck screamed in front of them, heading in the direction of a flooded district half a mile down the road. Waiting in the truck, them all disguised as a makeshift group of workers fleeing by a pony drawn chariot, Garnet looked out from the back of the chariot.
The warehouse had only been slightly flooded, and the equipment was undamaged. But the creatures were only half a mile away now. Luckily, they were out of the flood area.
As they crossed the road, Garnet noticed something:
"Stop the carriage!"
Immediately, the carriage stopped, as Garnet pointed out something on the road.
A gutter at the side of the road was overflown with water, and Garnet decided to quickly leap out the carriage, running over to it quickly.
"What are you-" One of the gang ponies called, before a hoof to his shoulder shut him up.
Dipping a paw in the overflown water, smelling it, then licking it, Garnet spat it out as Tyree took over his mind, yelling back:
"Saltwater! For all we know they could be using the sewers and flooded subways to swim unseen in the city!"
Running back, Garnet yelled: "Get us to the safehouse!"
The convoy of carriages drove off, while the others wondered what exactly these things were, and if they were swimming through the tunnels as they could be.
Garnet and Tyree thought the same, that the Entity could do much more than it had revealed so far.
Sunset
Manehatten, Karabair district
City Hall
"Sister, its getting late." Luna pointed out.
Looking out a window, Celestia snorted in aggravation. Turning to the mayor, she commented:
"Excuse me, but the sun must be set."
"At least something remains normal today." The mayor said, almost in relief.
Trotting out, with others watching as the two sisters found a suitable place, Celestia first focused on lowering the sun, having stopped above the horizon as it would without her.
As soon as it dipped below the horizon, Luna focused, and the moon rose, a half moon tonight.
As soon as they finished, they saw some faint glows amidst the city lights in the distance, as some unseen fires had arisen where a heavy batch of fighting the creatures had taken place.
"Why here?" Celestia whispered.
The sirens and lack of any other city activity noises set the mood for the rest of the night.
Manehatten, Baroque General Hospital.
The sun set and the moon rose as the carriages of police ponies had formed a small squad at the hospital's front entrance. As Twilight, Flash, Spike and Razak had arrived, along with two of Luna's guards. They were familiar faces, as Aurorak and Dusk Hooves had been with them along the Oceanic Alliance ventures earlier this year, when Varkan and Hephaestus were falsely implicated for the first tsunami.
How clear it was that they weren't to blame for it now, as the Entity had shown its powers in that respect, though this time on a smaller, more precise level.
"Any movements?" Dusk Shine, the more senior of the two night guards asked. The police commander, a hardened grey pegasus mare, shook her head, her voice like smooth steel replying:
"Nothing. No lights, no power, but we got everyone out that we could."
"Anyone missing?" Razak asked.
"12, all on the upper floors. 5 patients, 7 staff."
"And any sightings?"
"Everyone who got out only heard fighting on the upper levels, strange noises, like shrieks of some kind."
WWWEEAAARRRGGGH!
An eerie shriek echoed from inside the hospital's 4th floor, but as they shone the light up they saw nothing.
Breathing a little deeper, Flash steeled himself: "Right, we have to go in."
The quarter of the police there armed themselves, or readied their magic.
"Stay together, keep wherever you are lighted, and watch out for blind spots." Dusk Shine shouted, as he fleshed his wings in preparation for a tense situation.
The group wandered in, Razak leading on, cracking his neck in anticipation. The Dragon clone was the most physically capable among them.
Going in last, Flash momentarily stopped Twilight, asking: "Is it worth me asking you not to go in?"
"Nope."
She walked past, as Spike walked after her. Rolling his eyes, Flash ran into the hospital front entrance with her, muttering loudly:
"Why did I have to love such a stubborn Princess?"
Inside, the group of police ponies, Dusk Shine, Aurorak, Spike, Razak, Flash Sentry and Twilight Sparkle began to head through the waiting rooms, lighting the way with illuminated horns or bursts of fire breath from wither Spike or Razak at times.
The first floor would be deserted, but there wasn't much in the way of patients on this level anyway.
5 minutes later
"Hey! Help me get these doors open!"
As Aurorak and a police pony struggled with the elevator doors, Spike impatiently came up and moved them aside.
CRASH!
He ripped his claws into the doors and ripped them apart very bluntly, panting hard as he back off.
"You okay Spike?" Twilight asked, worried about him.
"Yeah, just, everything today that happened, and then how scary this place is" Spike was on edge, he'd been since he'd heard Rarity and the others had been killed.
"Hey, we'll get them out of here." Twilight said.
Walking up, Flash gave a passing friendly pat on Spike's wings as he called ahead:
"Elevator's out, why are we checking?"
Aurorak shone his horn down the elevator shaft, then up again.
"That's why."
Peering down, Flash saw what Aurorak's blue light illuminated. A hole, excavated, pierced the bottom of the elevator shaft. Water was faintly seen reflecting further down the hole, in line with the sea level flooding.
"Well we know how they got in now." Flash commented.
SNAP!
A sudden cable snap from above echoed, and Aurorak pulled Flash inside as a rumbling came from the top of the shaft.
The runaway Elevator ran past, crashing into the bottom of the shaft, leaving only the top half of the door frame open to the dark shaft. A dust cloud rose with the massive crash, but the silence returned.
Outside, a shout called out what happened. A police pony radioed to say an Elevator came loose.
Turning, Razak summed up: "Okay, its clear. Those things got in here, and I think they're on the upper levels."
"And they're using tunnels with water in them to move. The subways, and sewer lines, they could be all over the city with the flooding the tsunami caused! Those places will be submerged for days!" A police pony pieced the puzzle together.
Peering up into the dark elevator shaft, Razak called out: "There's open doors above, so I suggest we take the stairwells in case they decide to go out the way they came in. But I say we leave, those patients and docs might not be alive against a few of those creatures."
"If they didn't fight back, they may still be alive." Twilight said, outraged at the thought of abandoning them.
WWWEEAAARRRGGGH!
Another shriek, coming from one of the upper levels. Echoing inside the building it seemed to ripple down their spines.
Looking towards the nearest stairwell door, Twilight expanded the glow of her horn light, a slight tremble in her voice:
"Come on, we have to go find them."
The group was heading through the second floor not a minute later, not letting a single corner go unlit.
5 minutes later
As they passed through the second floor and finished searching, in vain, 2 more similar shrieks had sounded. But the echoes and muffling from the floors meant it was hard to tell where. In the least, they weren't on the second floor.
On the third floor, the place was more in shambles, as the people had fled in a panic.
It had become clear by now that the creatures had started from the top floor, working down.
Up ahead, a clatter of some falling debris inside a room echoed, and then it sounded:
WWWEEAAARRRGGGH!
This time it was clear, the creature making that noise was on the same floor as them.
Heart stopping, Twilight looked around for cover, and realised with a morbid thought where they were now.
"This is the morgue." She said aloud. Looking around, she saw a place she knew held their bodies, but right now it was a good place to hide near.
"There!"
The police, guards, 2 dragons and the Princess all ducked into the morgue waiting room, but as they began to extinguish their horn lights or fires to wait out the creature, something felt wrong about the floor.
Shining a light down, there was more than abandoned papers or cloths on the floor. There were small flecks of some black stuff, with red flecks.
Up ahead, unnoticed in their panic, Twilight saw something horrid:
"The body vaults!"
The glass and doors where some bodies were held had been smashed open, and some doors clearly opened in a rush.
Around them, and across the floor, the black flecks remained.
Sniffing the ground, Razak deduced it:
"Skin, and fur. Decayed."
THUD
Something hit the ground in the distance, moving just around the corner.
"Get ready." Flash whispered.
Something moved in the hallway, and they all guessed it was what was making the noise.
"Hide!" Spike harshly whispered, and he ducked inside the corner he could.
Razak leapt into a nearby body room with some police ponies, while the others hid in similar body display rooms. As he hid, he noticed something familiar in the dark light.
He saw the three bags in the room, and he muttered:
"Great, this room. Well, they'll be quiet."
More shuffling in the hallways, until a police pony whispered out:
"Hey, the black stuff is all over the floor here!"
Looking down, feeling around in the dark, Razak felt the black flecks, stained with some dried up blood by the smell of it.
Feeling around in the dark, he felt the edge of the body bag, taking his hand off Applejack's bodybag out of respect from blindly grabbing it.
The bag caught on his claw, but it fell off the table effortlessly.
Razak's breath stopped as he heard no body thumping to the floor with the bag.
Outside, the shuffling thing, and whatever larger thing had come inside, met where they'd been standing.
Breath hitching quietly, Spike kept quiet as he saw Twilight, barely a still silhouette alongside Flash, on the opposite side of the corridor alcove to his.
In the middle, he saw a faint shape pass them by, an urchin drone, glowing at the joints like all the others.
Alongside it, a darker shape of smaller form followed, this one smelling like the black flecks of flesh on it.
WARALAKAK!
Sensing the presence of others on its left and right, the Drone blared a loud screech, different with a lower pitch yet similar to the horrific noises heard earlier, this one sounding like a demented clicking roar.
Its glowing segments flared brightly, illuminating the corridor in a bright white/blue light, but beside it, stood something that issued a similar screech.
The burnt flesh and skin had been dropping off, visibly slowly re-growing new skin replacing it, though the fur not yet. Still, along her bald spine was a series of rocky lumps, glowing in their nodes like the Entity drones.
Pinkie Pie threw her head back, and a similar screech sent everyone's hands/hooves to their ears as those who knew her gaped in complete shock.
WWWEEAAARRRGGGH!
Twilight stared on, horrified at the sight of Pinkie, visibly repairing her burns, but clearly not herself with those implants. Elsewhere though, more shrieks sounded similar to Pinkie's.
Before they could blink, faster than she'd ever run, Pinkie ran out of the corridor, and in the distance, had began tearing down the corridor where they'd come.
The Entity drone urchin turned to Twilight, sensing the magic wielding potential she had as a threat.
A rush of anger came, as Twilight fired a massive energy pulse, the drone flying backwards all of a sudden before it could even begin to move to attack or flee as it intended.
Spike was equally enraged, as he grabbed the being before it hit the wall where he hid and ripped its tendrils off in rapid succession, tearing its segmented body apart.
Panting, Spike stomped out, as all the others came out:
"They're gone! The bodybags, they're empty!"
Razak's voice yelled, and sure enough, the other police ponies had lit up the room they'd hid inside. The three body bags Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity had been in were empty, ripped open down the middle.
A quick search throughout the morgue revealed that at least a dozen or so other bodies had 'walked' off all of a sudden.
As they searched the morgue, Flash noticed that Spike was on edge, while Twilight was strangely quiet.
"Twilight?" Flash asked carefully.
The Princess was quietly illuminating the floor, staring at the flecks of what was now clearly fragments of the burnt skin and fur dropping off her 3 dead friends' bodies. She saw their bodies being repaired, but they weren't in control.
"They're, they can't be alive. That wasn't Pinkie, it, it can't have been.."
Looking around in the dim corridor, Flash saw Spike sitting off on his own against a wall, mumbling under his breath:
"Where is she? What is she?"
Growling to himself, Flash saw that Spike and Twilight were overwhelmed right now.
"HEY! We got a live one up here!"
A sudden shout from up ahead in the corridors, snapped Twilight and Spike out of their dazes, as all ran to the noise of Dusk Light's shouts.
Just outside of the morgue, in one of the storage closets, the police ponies had found a cowering janitor, who'd hidden when he'd been cut off from the elevator by the creatures.
The burly dark brown earth pony was shaking, but he tried to compose himself as they asked quietly:
"Look, they're gone. Just, what happened here?" Aurorak asked, his horn illuminating the corridor.
"There was a loud yelling, from the morgue. Then, those shrieks, and some screaming with it. I saw them, the bodies, walking, shrieking.."
Trembling like the Janitor, though herself in anger, Twilight yelled at the janitor:
"WHAT HAPPENED THEN!?"
"NO, please don't!" The pony cowered back into the closet, as Flash pulled Twilight away to calm her:
"Twilight, he's not-"
"I don't care! My friends are out there, dead and not even with the dignity of being at rest!"
She strode off to the other police ponies keeping guard, needing some air.
The janitor calmed down as he explained further, but Razak nearby shushed them as he heard a faint shriek from a floor below:
"Listen. They're below us now."
"Yeah, after the morgue bodies came to life, scaring everyone out, those, other things, came out the Elevator shafts. They started on the top floor, then worked their way down." The Janitor recalled, calming down a bit.
Hearing this, a police pony radioed in: "Chief, they're working DOWN the floors, be ready if they attack out the ground floor!"
Turning back, the police pony then asked: "Hey, there was a second dragon here, right?"
Razak whirled around, and a few shouts came from the other police ponies with a purple flash.
"Twilight!"
She had teleported out, and Spike had clearly run off too.
Roaring in anger, Razak cursed his brother out as he ran out the building: "They're going after them, I'll follow them!"
The dragon ran down the corridor, the running dragon having his brother's scent already. Leaping out a large broken window, Razak took off into the city rooftop skies, his brother flying about 200 metres ahead already.
Inside the hospital, Flash took charge: "Let's keep searching for survivors."
20 minutes passed, with no more creature encounters. The police on the ground entrance never met the creatures, they'd left the building through the elevator shaft hole.
But they'd noticed the frantic exit of the two dragons.
But the Entity's machinations had revealed sinister capabilities, and what would have been a miracle was in fact a nightmare. Such was that Twilight and Spike now madly pursued one of their reanimated friends in hopes of finding her and the others, and finding out whether it truly was them or some sick creation of this Entity.
But the reanimating of sentient corpses was but one variation of a new method of asset creation the Entity had brought to the table here.
As for the three, the question remained as to why it was repairing the damage to their bodies, if Pinkie's reanimated body was to be an example of all 3.
This question however, wasn't at the forefront of Spike and Twilight's minds, as it was buried beneath shared clouds of outrage.
All the while, the Entity continued its search and siege of Manehatten, and it was clear now that it could go beyond the flooded areas. The floods brought the city to a standstill, along with it destroying the bridges as it hadn't yet finished.
Beneath the sunset coloured city, the city was growing dark as power outages drowned the usual lights, and the water drained very slowly from the waterfront areas.
The city was at the Entity's mercy, but it seemed to lack such mercy, or morality in its methods.
Sometimes the most terrible fate a character can suffer isn't necessarily their death.
The complicated mentality of the Entity, its recent emotional confusion with getting all 6 elements and their associated emotional 'fuels', and its callous experimentation in its capabilities manifest into these 3 [though only one actually seen thus far] 'resurrections'.
Also, Biodrones are small entity drones [the spine nodes on Pinkie's back], that control the body and influence its actions/organic processes with a variety of magical and non-magical methods. The term Biodrone means an Entity drone operating with an 'organic shell/armour'. In actual fact, the Biodrones are more physically resilient than the drones seen so far, until later, specialised, high energy usage rock body drones come in.
As usual, please review/critique as one would.
