Lightning stared into her own eyes. And her reflection smiled back.
No. Not her reflection. Herself. A copy. A clone. A whole different version of herself.
Lightning hesitated. And that's all the opening that faux-Lightning needed to shove her pistol aside and tackle her to the ground.
Lightning hit the ground with a gasp as the air was driven out of her lungs, and two strong hooves pinned her shoulders down as faux-Lightning grinned down at her.
"I've never seen a pony more eager to run head-first into traps. You'd think you would've learned your lesson the first time!" faux-Lightning crowed triumphantly. "We can smell you Division agents coming from a mile away. Your emotions are rancid: pride, ego, selfishness. Not good for eating in the slightest, but perfect for figuring out exactly where you are."
Lightning only growled in response as she tried to squirm out of the pin, but her clone was just as strong as she was. She delivered a kick right up into faux-Lightning's stomach, but instead of meeting soft flesh, she thumped against hard changeling carapace to no avail. She tried again, harder this time, but all she accomplished was bringing a laugh out of the clone above her.
In her periphery, she could see or hear each of her teammates being taken down by their own copies as they came through the apartment door. There were a few shouts and a few gunshots that bounced harmlessly off chitin as they all struggled for control. Sour Sweet's markspony rifle was the only hope they had of killing these things… but how was she supposed to do that when she couldn't tell friend from foe?
First things first, she needed to get the changeling off her. Faux-Lightning's eyes changed from gold to green as she opened her mouth to cast a freezing spell over Lightning, but Lightning was anticipating it this time. She averted her own gaze while delivering an uppercut to her clone's chin to stop the incantation, and faux-Lightning winced with a hiss. While the changeling was stunned, Lightning grabbed her second flashbang from her tool belt and hastily stuffed the grenade into her clone's open muzzle, taking her by surprise and making her stumble back with a yelp. Then, it exploded before Lightning had a chance to look away, and her whole world was filled with nothing but whiteness.
Lightning groaned and stumbled back as best she could in her blind state. She couldn't hear anything but the ringing in her ears. If any of the bugs had avoided being hit by the flash, there was nothing she could do to fight back. She was a goner.
But the end didn't come. Her vision slowly came back into focus, the ringing slowly faded away, and Lightning forced herself up onto all fours with a gasp. Around her, the other occupants of the room were doing the same, rubbing their eyes and looking around in sharp pain. However, Lightning was still seeing double, and it wasn't due to the aftereffects of the flash. There were two of each of the Shadowbolts in her team in the room, all looking around in confusion.
"Woah…" one of the Sugarcoats said aloud. "This is weird."
"Way to state the obvious," one of the Lemons replied with a groan.
Lightning stayed quiet as her eyes scanned the group of ponies. There had to be a way of telling the real ponies from the changelings. Some flaw in the disguise, some oversight… but the harder she looked, the more confused she became. The changelings had even managed to duplicate their Shadowbolt flight suits and their orange watches, along with the HUD goggles across their eyes. They could replicate clothing, but what was something they couldn't replicate?
Her thoughts were interrupted by one of the Sour Sweet's voices. "Well, I know I'm the real thing, so…"
Sour 1 immediately turned and raised her markspony rifle, blowing a hole through Sour 2's head and releasing green residue out the other side. Sour 2 collapsed without a sound, and her form flickered briefly before fading back to the black exoskeleton of a changeling.
All hell broke loose once again. Lightning felt faux-Lightning slam into her side and drive her to the ground once again. This time, her clone tried to press an immobilizing taser to her neck, and Lightning blocked the jab by grabbing hold of her wrist. The weapon crackled with dangerous electricity inches from her fur as the two mares struggled for control.
The weapon… It wasn't Lightning's pistol. That was something the changeling hadn't been able to replicate. Lightning spared a glance away at the rest of the group as they all wrestled for control. Only one Lemon had a submachine gun, only one Gridlock had an LMG, only one Sugarcoat had an assault rifle… and there was only one Sour left standing, of course.
"And to be honest… He could have killed us at any time. Why didn't he?"
"He didn't kill that civilian either. Maybe he intended to bring us with him."
"To turn us into changeling food? No thanks."
It all clicked in her head at once.
"Sour!" Lightning cried out over the commlink. "The changelings only have non-lethals!"
Faux-Lightning's head jerked up in shock and fear as she overheard the message and realized her mistake. She then tried to quickly steal the pistol out of Lightning's grasp, but before she could, a markspony bullet slammed into her side and knocked her off Lightning with a yelp. Once the green blood splashing from her entry wound was visible, a second bullet finished her off with a shot between the eyes.
Lightning climbed back to her hooves and looked around to see Sour had hidden herself in the corner of the apartment amidst all the chaos. She now aimed down the scope at the other three Shadowbolts as they wrestled with their clones, waiting for a clean shot.
"Good call, Lightning," Sour said.
Lightning nodded. "Good shots. Keep it to body shots until it's confirmed that it's a changeling. Let's not accidentally decapitate one of our squadmates."
Seemingly realizing their strategy was no longer working, the changelings switched tactics. Moving in unison as if they were communicating telepathically, the three remaining clones threw their counterparts off in a feat of raw strength that slammed them against the far wall of the apartment with a thud. Faux-Lemon and faux-Sugarcoat then turned and activated their horns with a sickly green hue, and Sour's rifle was suddenly yanked out of her grasp.
"Shit!" Sour cried out as she leapt after it, grabbing hold before it flew out of reach. She held on with all her might to prevent the rifle from being stolen, and her body slowly slid across the apartment floor from the combined strength of two magic auras. Lightning quickly jumped in to help, and the four played tug-of-war with the markspony rifle in the middle of the room.
"Do not let go. We cannot fight these things without this gun," Lightning hissed.
"Wasn't… planning on it!..." Sour growled under her breath.
Sour struggled to squeeze the trigger while pulling with all her might, and finally managed to fire a shot off blindly at the two changelings. The clones flinched as the bullet whizzed by, weakening their grip and allowing Sour and Lightning to yank it back completely. Lightning then leapt at the two clones before they could reestablish the magical grasp. She gave faux-Lemon a big right hook to the horn, slamming into the curved changeling horn underneath the disguise and driving her back with a hiss. Faux-Sugarcoat jumped onto her back from behind before she could pivot, and Lightning began bucking like a bronco in an attempt to throw her off.
The sharp report of Sour's rifle followed the whizzing of a bullet over Lightning's head, and she glanced over to see that faux-Lemon had closed the gap on Sour before she could get off a clean shot. The two now wrestled for control over the weapon, and Sour was struggling against the changeling's strength. The distraction caught Lightning's attention long enough for faux-Sugarcoat to gain control atop her back, and the changeling grappled her down to the ground to pin her helplessly. Lightning squirmed and yelped as her muzzle was ground into the hardwood floor, and she felt the changelings steal her pistol out of its holster before flashing green.
The hoof on her head relented, and Lightning turned partially to see that the faux-Sugarcoat had changed into a copy of Lightning, only this time with her gun equipped instead of a non-lethal. Lightning flinched as she anticipated the bullet she thought would come… but her fake counterpart didn't fire. Instead, Lightning watched as the disguised changeling galloped over to Sour and helped throw faux-Lemon off her.
As the new faux-Lightning pretended to pin faux-Lemon to the floor, she gestured over to the real Lightning with her confiscated pistol. "Take her out, quick! Before she changes again!"
Lightning froze as she watched Sour shift the aim of her rifle towards her. She stared down the barrel for a moment that stretched on forever as she desperately thought of something to do, something to say, that would convince her not to fire. Nothing came to her.
"D-Don't shoot!" Lightning stammered as she threw up her hooves. "I'm the real Light—"
A markspony bullet tore through her foreleg and nicked against bone before ripping through the other side, leaving a hole through her limb in its wake.
Lightning collapsed with a scream as her world turned red. Her crimson blood splashed against the floor, and that was enough to deter Sour from firing the finishing shot. Instead, she spun to aim at the two changelings, but faux-Lightning had closed the sentence in a split second. Wings churning, the changeling barreled into Sour and bowled her over. Sour somehow kept hold of her rifle, but soon faux-Lemon joined faux-Lightning in pinning her down.
Lightning tried putting weight on her shattered foreleg, but the pain immediately made her crash back down with another scream. She'd been injured many times in basic training, she knew how to manage pain… but a markspony bullet wound was a whole different beast. She could use her wings to get around and fight without her foreleg, but that meant infection, so that was out of the picture. Instead, her watery eyes turned to the other three Shadowbolts, who had the last changeling surrounded. The changeling had Gridlock's form, however, and its larger frame was enough to keep the three ponies at arm's length as they looked for a way to break through its exoskeleton.
"Lemon! Sugarcoat! Gridlock!" Lightning gasped over the commlink. "Sour needs help!"
"Go. I can keep this one at bay myself," Gridlock told the other two.
As Gridlock faced off against his counterpart, Lemon and Sugarcoat disengaged and galloped to Sour's aid. Sugarcoat raised her assault rifle and fired a few accurate shots into the changelings' sides, and the impact dislodged them from Sour slightly as they hissed from the blow. Lemon then galloped in with a lowered shoulder and plowed into the two changelings like a hoofball player, knocking herself and the clones away from Sour. Once freed from their grasp, Sour rolled away and scrambled back to her hooves, quickly putting a bullet through faux-Lightning's head as she tried to recover.
However, the two Lemons had become entangled as they fell away from Sour, and they were now indistinguishable as they wrestled for control over her submachine gun. Sour kept her rifle trained on the two mares as they rolled over and over each other, waiting for an opening.
"Can anyone tell which is which?" Sour asked over the commlink.
Lightning squinted through her blurry eyes at the intertwined mares. Like the other changelings, it had faithfully copied the jumpsuit, the watch, the goggles… it even recreated Lemon's explosive saddlebags. But they hadn't been able to recreate weapons. And as she looked closer, she noticed that only one of the saddlebags swayed with apparent weight. The other was empty, and only for show.
"Only one has explosives," Lightning deduced.
Sour nodded and took aim, and the next time the changeling had rolled on top, she sent a bullet into its hind leg and made it crumple backwards with a yelp. It desperately tried to scramble away on three limbs, but the leaking hemolymph sealed her fate with a bullet to the back of the head.
One more. Lightning winced in pain and shifted her attention over to Gridlock, only to see that the changeling had won the battle. Faux-Gridlock now held Gridlock as a pony shield, and the two large batponies stumbled backwards on their hind hooves towards the hallway leading further into the apartment.
"Stay back," faux-Gridlock snarled as he pressed a taser close to Gridlock's exposed neck.
"Not the best plan, threatening him with a nonlethal weapon," Lemon remarked snidely as the three mobile Shadowbolts crept closer.
"Perhaps. Until I shock him so long his heart stops. Or I snap his neck once he goes limp," faux-Gridlock retorted.
Sour aimed down her sights as she tried to find a good angle, but the changeling smartly kept its head hidden behind Gridlock to prevent a clean shot. The narrow hallway it backed itself up in also negated their numbers advantage and any opportunity for flanking.
"You're dead the second you do that. You know that, right?" Lemon said back. "Let him go and come quietly. We'll take you into custody, but we'll let you live."
"Custody?" faux-Gridlock laughed. "I would starve to death in a week under your control. There's certainly no love or any filling emotion to be found amongst you. I'd rather take my chances."
"You've got no chance, buddy. Surrender," Lemon insisted.
Lightning once again tried to stand, but any movement sent fresh pain shooting through her that made her collapse back down with a whimper. Once her vision refocused, she saw that the changeling was backing up closer and closer to the hallway window… potentially an escape route. The Shadowbolts crept closer while maintaining a safe distance, but if the changeling made it outside, there was no following it.
Suddenly, Gridlock's voice whispered into the commlink, low enough for only them to hear. "Shoot through me."
Sour's eyes widened, but Gridlock gave her a small nod of insistence. Sour then aimed and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through the side of his gut and into the changeling behind him.
Both batpony stallions let out simultaneous groans that were eerie in their similarity. Gridlock doubled over and collapsed to the ground as faux-Gridlock lost his grip, leaving his whole body exposed as he clutched at his side. Sour wasted no time sending a final bullet into his forehead.
The apartment fell into eerie silence for a few moments as the Shadowbolts caught their breaths. Five changeling corpses littered the living room floor, and green hemolymph mixed with red blood as it passively coalesced across the tiled floor.
Then, Sugarcoat leapt into action. "Bring Gridlock over to Lightning so I can treat them both. Hurry."
Lemon and Sour both grabbed hold of Gridlock and dragged the stallion across the floor to where Lightning was lying prone. He made a few pained noises, but he kept his outbursts mostly suppressed.
Sugarcoat examined Gridlock first, looking over the bullet hole punched through the area just above his hip. "Looks like it went through the adipose tissue only. No internal organ damage. Hell of a shot, Sour."
Sour nodded. "He was brave as hell to take that bullet. I couldn't put it somewhere that would hurt too bad."
"It… needed to… be done," Gridlock gasped out.
"Save your breath," Sugarcoat insisted. "Can you walk or move with your injury?"
Gridlock shifted his body, but his face contorted with pain immediately. "No pain-free range of motion… in the hip."
Sugarcoat frowned. "We might have to bring out the big guns, then. Hold tight."
Sugarcoat then shifted her attention to Lightning, and she winced at the sight of her mangled foreleg. "That's a nasty one, Lightning. I might need to pull out the Support Station for both you and Gridlock."
"I can deal with the cancer from the regrowth after we save the city," Lightning winced. "Do it."
Sugarcoat nodded before grabbing a small white box from her tool belt and setting it on the ground between Lightning and Gridlock. Pressing a small button on the top made it rapidly unfold and expand into a larger device, cubical in shape and humming with a soft green light. Pulses of green energy filled the immediate perimeter surrounding it, washing over both Lightning and Gridlock and prompting their internal magic to speed up the natural healing process. Lightning watched through the bullet hole as her shattered bone rearranged and regrew the splintered portions, then as the muscle and flesh grew back in to slowly fill in the hole.
"You couldn't have given me the same courtesy that you gave Gridlock, Sour?" Lightning grumbled under her breath.
Sour shrugged as she casually reloaded her rifle. "Didn't have the time to line up a clean shot. Consider us even for you leaving me to die in the flood."
"So that's what that was? Revenge?" Lightning asked.
"If it was really revenge, I would've put it through your skull and taken my chances that you were a changeling. Really, I showed a lot of restraint," Sour said.
Lightning laughed. "Restraint? You sound like you want us to pat you on the back for not killing your own squadmates. Like you deserve an award for it."
"As if throwing your squadmates under the wagon to save your own ass is any better," Sour retorted.
"Cut it out," Gridlock groaned. "I'm in too much pain to deal with your bickering."
Lightning and Sour glared at each other, but the argument stopped there. Instead, the group of Shadowbolts went back to looking over the chaos and destruction from the fight,
"That was insane…" Lemon reflected with a whistle. "Five drones KIA without a single friendly death. Unheard of numbers. Do you know how many book deals we'll be able to get after this? We'll be national celebrities!"
"We need to bring the princesses back safely for that to happen," Sugarcoat pointed out.
Lemon froze and her eyes widened. "Right. The princesses."
She sprang up and trotted down the hallway, past the dead changeling, to search the other rooms beyond. The other Shadowbolts waited in silence with bated breaths.
"They have to be here. Right?" Sour said.
"If they aren't, they're probably gone for good," Lightning replied.
However, Lemon's voice quickly assuaged those fears. "Here! In the bedroom!"
Lightning forced herself up onto her three good legs and hobbled herself down the hallway. The hole in her foreleg hadn't filled in all the way, and it was still ugly and red, but the pain was moderate enough to move and that was good enough for her. "Sugarcoat. Sour. Come with me."
With the other two Shadowbolts in tow, Lightning reached the apartment's bedroom and slid next to Lemon. There, sitting on the bed, were the two biggest ponies Lightning had ever seen. Taller than even Gridlock. They both had both horns and wings, and their manes flowed like water. One was white and the color of light refracting through water; the other was blue and held the constellations in her hair.
Celestia and Luna. Lightning hadn't seen the two princesses in a very long time. Not since she had been recruited to the Division in the first place.
"Sister? Who is it?" Luna asked, her eyes unseeing.
Celestia blinked, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "It's… the Shadowbolts, Luna. They're here to rescue us."
However, Lightning wasn't ready for the reunion to get sentimental just yet. "Give them the test, Sugarcoat. Sour, keep an eye on them."
As Celestia recoiled in confusion, Sugarcoat fetched a needle from a medkit and advanced slowly under the watch of Sour's rifle barrel.
"Your hooves, please," Sugarcoat ordered.
"What's this for?" Celestia asked.
"Do as she says," Lightning insisted.
Celestia hesitated before holding out a forehoof. Luna did the same, though her lack of vision meant her hoof was pointed off to the side. Celestia reached over and moved her sister's hoof over tenderly next to hers before offering the underside. Sugarcoat gently pricked the frogs with the tip of the needle, and after a tense second, blood started to bubble up from the pierced flesh.
"They're real," Sugarcoat confirmed.
Lightning exhaled a sigh of relief before turning on her commlink. "Agent Lightning to Command. The VIPs are secured."
"Manehattan, Manehattan. It's your host, Suri Polomare. Welcome back to another episode of Wouldn't You Know It.
"I know that I promised last time that I would do some more digging on these new, strange soldiers walking through our streets. And I have, trust me. But while I was doing that, I uncovered something else big, and I feel like I need to break this to all of you first. So, strap yourselves in, my loyal listeners.
"Now, like I said, I'm sure this communication blackout is getting everyone antsy, me included. We have no idea what the world is like on the other side of the river. Who even knows if the world is still turning? Well, I don't want to brag, but I have a few 'contacts' in the EUP. I was able to prod them for some outside information, and I'm transmitting this information to all of you as a public service. I know, you're welcome. And to think someone told me generosity wasn't my greatest trait!
"I'm sure everyone's heard of Tartarus. The prison that holds the worst, most dangerous creatures Equestria has to offer. The one guarded by a three-headed dog. The one with security issues that have allowed creatures like Tirek to escape over the years. Well, I'm hearing rumors from the outside that this has happened again. The government is trying to keep this quiet because they don't want any more panic… but someone's broken out. And they believe they've somehow made their way into Manehattan.
"Immediately, that brings to mind several pressing questions. Who escaped? My first thought is Tirek again, but why would he come to Manehattan? He feeds on magic, and the magic is contaminated here. It would be a death sentence for him. So, we can cross him off the list. The miscellaneous non-sentient creatures wouldn't care or have the ability to slip through the quarantine. But the newest prisoner? A certain queen with the ability to change forms that could help her slip through checkpoints undetected? Now that's a real possibility. And she's most likely got a few drones with her to really help her do some damage.
"Another question is why this escapee would want to come to Manehattan. The air is contaminated, the city is closed off. Why would you leave one prison to go to another? Now, I'm not crazy, so I can't speak for what a crazy creature would or would not do. But you'd have to be extremely batshit insane to willingly come here while all this is going on. But maybe they're looking for something. Looking for someone. Maybe they want to claim Manehattan for themselves, form the Independent City-State of Manehattan. I don't know. Maybe I'll ask when I see them.
"But I think the most important question is this: if some dangerous creature can so easily infiltrate their way through quarantine into the city… How effective is this quarantine, really? How do we know that there aren't infected ponies slipping out every single day to infect the rest of Equestria? And if that's the case, are we rotting our lives away in this doomed city for no reason? Now that's something to think about, fillies and gentlecolts. Think about that for me.
"The bottom line is this: there's a new faction in town. They're dangerous, and they're looking for new victims. Everyone listening needs to keep an eye out and keep themselves safe. Now more than ever.
"Be smart, everypony. Be smart."
Saddle Row: the cultural center of Manehattan. The city's main exports were fashion and art, and Saddle Row was where all of it originated. A street lined with the most fashionable boutiques in Equestria, drawing thousands of visitors every week to see the best of what the city had to offer. Of course, that same street was where the first cases began to pop up, and that much travel ensured the virus spread like wildfire. Ground Zero was where they were headed now.
Rainy and Agrippa didn't know the maneway tunnels as well as Aerion, so they made the journey above ground instead. Agrippa still held the pistol that Rainy gave her in Madisoat Mare Garden, but Rainy did most of the work in making sure they didn't run into any enemies. Her rifle swept the tall buildings surrounding them before glancing over to the quiet blue mare next to her.
"So… Ground Zero. What are we looking for there?" Rainy asked to break the silence.
"What, you can't walk in silence, Rainy?" Agrippa asked back.
Rainy winced. "I just want to know the game plan, doctor."
Agrippa calmed herself with a sigh. "Well, if Saddle Row is the release point for the virus, then the area will have samples of the virus in its original form. If we can find out what the unmutated pathogen looked like and compare it to its current form, we can better see what it's made of. How it works. How it's evolving. And if we can figure that out, we can figure out how to cure it. Make sense?"
"Makes sense," Rainy echoed. "How exactly are we gonna find these unmutated strains?"
"If it was spread in boutiques, then it was most likely spread using the most effective vector of transmission. What gets passed around in a store more than anything, Agent?" Agrippa asked.
Rainy pondered for a brief second. "...Bits."
"Exactly," Agrippa said. "Throw a few contaminated coins in the circulation, and half the city has been exposed to it before you know it. We'll start by scanning every single bit register in the neighborhood and seeing if any of the originals are still around."
"That sounds like a plan," Rainy said.
"Glad I have your seal of approval, Rainy," Agrippa snorted.
The conversation died down as the echoes of faint voices reached them. Rainy and Agrippa glanced at each other before quickly hurrying to press against the wall of the nearest skyscraper for cover. On the street over, hoofsteps and idle conversation continued to grow closer and closer… before beginning to fade off as they continued further on. Rainy couldn't tell if they were rioters, Freelancers, Shadowbolts, or simply a group of civilians. Or even changelings, if Suri Polomare was to be believed. At this point, it didn't really matter. Everyone in the city was out to get her at this point; she had no allies to feel safe around besides Agrippa and Aerion.
At least she was a bit harder to recognize without her Shadowbolt flight suit on. Her white fur blended in nicely with the snow, and from a distance one might mistake her for being a random pegasus just going about her day. She felt naked without it on, but she had to admit it was for the best.
As they continued their journey, something flashed into Rainy's mind. "You say 'release' and 'spread' like this wasn't a natural occurrence."
"That's because it wasn't," Agrippa replied. "You think viruses randomly pop up on bits in the middle of the busiest shopping corridor in Equestria? During the busiest shopping period of the year? No, this was purposeful. Someone wanted to spread this."
"Why? Why would someone do that?" Rainy asked.
Agrippa shrugged her shoulders. "Because they wanted to kill a bunch of ponies, maybe. I don't know. Have you been living under a rock or something, Rainy? First you don't know that the virus is transmitted by magic, and now you're telling me you didn't know this was purposefully spread? We had both those things figured out weeks ago."
"Basically, yeah. When the Shadowbolts activated me, they stuck all the agents not chosen for the first wave in quarantine. I was basically locked in a room with no contact with anyone for weeks. Couldn't have us getting sick before we deployed," Rainy said.
Agrippa blinked. "Wow. They didn't even let you read the newspaper?"
"That's the thing. They did. There was barely any mention of anything going on in Manehattan. And there definitely wasn't anything about magic," Rainy said.
"What? Are you serious?" Agrippa exclaimed. "Why would they do that? Do they not know how many lives they'd save if they got the word out to the rest of Equestria?"
"Well, the virus isn't in the rest of Equestria. They probably don't want there to be any nationwide panic if it's not necessary," Rainy said.
"Well, then they're more foolish than I thought. It's only a matter of time until quarantine is broken, I can promise you that. This isn't sustainable. And wouldn't you want your population to be prepared for the inevitable?"
"Or you put the word out, and the country burns itself down in fear before the virus even reaches them. It's not that simple, Agrippa."
"And here I thought we're gone rogue. Yet you're still defending them!"
"I'm not rogue. I'm just… on my own side."
Agrippa rolled her eyes. "If that's how you want to put it."
"It is," Rainy insisted.
She didn't know how to put it, but even after all that happened, she still didn't feel "rogue." She was no longer a loyal member of the Shadowbolts, that was for sure. But at the same time, she wasn't a member of the First Wave rogue agents. They were both abandoned by their superiors, sure, but Rainy wasn't out for revenge like they were. She simply wanted to find a cure for this virus and do some good for the city. She hadn't completely turned her back on Equestria like the First Wave.
She was on her own team. And that suited her just fine. Shadowbolts were trained to work independently, after all.
"Y'know, I never got the story of how you ended up becoming the top virologist in Manehattan," Rainy said.
"Well, after you gave me your ring back and left me, I couldn't live in Ponyville any longer. Too many painful memories. I ended up bouncing between cities, between hospitals, for a few years," Agrippa started.
Rainy winced. "I'm sorry, Agrippa—"
"Save it," Agrippa hissed. "I ended up here in Manehattan, at a prestigious virology clinic. We were treating and researching cures for pony pox, feather flu, poison joke, swamp fever, you name it. But nothing compared to when the Bit Flu came around. A few days after onset, we were already overwhelmed with patients. By the end of the week, we had dying ponies lining the hallways and the sidewalk outside, desperate for a sickbed. My colleagues and I worked ourselves ragged… and then my colleagues started falling ill too. All the unicorns had been using healing magic all week, all the pegasi had been flying around to treat patients faster, all the earth ponies just fell sick for being who they are… Half the hospital staff was dead by the end of the month. Only by sheer dumb fucking luck did I avoid using my wings and not get infected myself. I still feel guilty about it now."
"I'm so sorry," Rainy whispered solemnly.
"Then the EUP came, and I was the best virologist still alive in the city, so I got assigned the job of saving ponykind. No pressure, right?" Agrippa said with an exasperated, joyless laugh. "That's a lot of weight on a mare's shoulders."
"They picked the best mare for the job. I know that much," Rainy reassured.
"Don't pretend you still know me, Rainy. Time has turned us into two different ponies. You know it's not the same as it was," Agrippa replied.
Rainy frowned as the response stumped her. Agrippa looked, sounded, felt like the same mare she always knew. The mare she used to love. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine that they were on one of their morning walks in Ponyville together. Were things really so different?
But then she opened her eyes, and reality struck her in the face. Agrippa may look the same, but the look in her dark blue eyes showed that she had changed. From the passage of time, from the hurt of Rainy's betrayal, from all the life experiences she had lived without her. There was a different mare behind those eyes, and the affection had changed to pain and disgust.
"You're right. Sorry," Rainy said softly.
Agrippa sighed. "You're fine. Just keep helping me with this research and we'll find out if you're right."
One more thought popped into Rainy's head. "If you're the top virologist, and you ran off with me… aren't you scared that the Crown will charge you with treason as well? And shouldn't getting you back be their top priority?"
"Oh, absolutely," Agrippa replied. "Unless they try to replace me. But if they find us, I'm definitely telling them that you foalnapped me against my will. Just a head's up."
"Fair enough," Rainy said.
By that point, Saddle Row was in view. Well, the perimeter of it, at least. Ground zero was a quarantine zone, so it had been barricaded off by concrete blockades and wedged-together carriages to dissuade ponies from entering. Much like a mini Dark Zone. Except those walls were meant to keep ponies trapped inside, not stop them from entering.
Spray painted onto the carriages was a simple message: TURN BACK OR YOU'LL BE NEXT.
"Any way through?" Rainy asked.
"Not that I know of," Agrippa answered. "We'll have to climb over."
Agrippa tucked her pistol into the pocket of her lab coat and trotted closer, with Rainy close behind. The spaces between and underneath the carriages had been filled in to prevent anyone from squeezing past them, so the only way through was up. The smaller blue mare frowned at the top of the carriage just out of reach.
"Little help?" Agrippa asked.
Rainy tilted her head in thought before trotting to the side of the carriage. She crouched down at the base to form a step stool, and Agrippa climbed onto her back before hoisting herself on top of the carriage proper. She then offered a hoof down to Rainy to help pull her on top with her. The two caught their breath for a moment at the top before Rainy slid down the other side, hooves clopping on the pavement when she landed.
In front of them, Saddle Row itself opened up in all its glory. The buildings were all much smaller than the towering skyscrapers that surrounded them, so the street felt like a meadow of tall grass in the middle of a redwood forest. The street itself was lined with store after store, each plastered with billboards and signs and displays desperate to attract customers. The sight would be even more impressive if the giant neon signage atop each store was active, but the city's power remained off. There weren't as many carriages littering the street as the rest of Manehattan; maybe they had been towed to use in the barricades. However, there was a surplus of medical and scientific equipment scattered around, along with medical wagons.
Agrippa pulled out her virus scanner and winced at the number that popped up on the display. "Yep, we're at ground zero, alright…"
"Should we have brought PPE? Masks?" Rainy asked.
Agrippa shook her head. "No, this isn't a virus you can contract through traditional means. Touch infected surfaces, breathe it in, lick it if you want to. The only way it'll infect you is if it gets into your magic stream, and the only way to do that is use magic."
"That makes things easy," Rainy said as she held her rifle at the ready. "Where to first?"
"Well, the first store on our end sounds like a good start. Then we'll go all the way down the block if we need to. We're not leaving here without usable samples—"
Rainy stuck out a hoof to cut Agrippa off as another voice caught her ear. A faint one on the wind, but a voice nonetheless. She flicked her ear and angled it around to find the source of the noise, and her search directed her further down the street. The ping of contacts on her motion sensor confirmed her suspicions.
"There's someone else here," Rainy whispered.
"How? Who's stupid enough to hang out in a quarantine zone?" Agrippa hissed back.
Rainy simply motioned for her to stay low, and she slowly crept up behind the nearest medical wagon to get closer to the noise. Now that her and Agrippa were quiet, the other voices were audible enough to be discernible. However, it quickly became clear that these were not from idle conversation; these were cries of panic.
"Let us go! Stop! We're just scavenging for food!" a mare screamed between grunts of exertion.
"In a quarantine zone? Nice try," a gruff stallion replied.
"It was my idea for us to look here, not hers," a second stallion pleaded. "You can take me if you need to, but let her go. Please."
The first stallion grunted. "No chance. Both of you need to be purified for the good of the city."
Purified? Rainy exchanged a wordless glance with Agrippa before she slowly peeked out from behind the large wagon wheel she hid behind. Further down the snow-covered street, a tall, bulky stallion dragged an earth pony mare and a unicorn stallion along by their tails as they clawed at the pavement with their hooves. He was taking them to a group of about two dozen ponies waiting patiently for him outside one of the stores.
At first glance, Rainy could've dismissed them as simple looters. However, closer inspection revealed that they were more organized than a rioter gang. All of them wore matching clothing, or a crude attempt at a uniform, the same crimson red color as blood. Instead of guns or blunt weapons wielded by rioters, these ponies all held blades, from knives to machetes to hacksaws. Oddly enough, there were no wings or horns present on any of them; they were all earth ponies. It was a rare sight to see an earth pony in the city these days, given their predisposition to the virus. How could there be this many still alive in one spot, all working together? Were they all immune?
"Rainy, what are you waiting for?" Agrippa whispered. "We need to help them!"
"There's too many to fight. Especially with you here. I'm not going to put you in unnecessary danger," Rainy hissed back.
The large stallion tossed the two ponies onto the ground before the group. "Found these two snooping around in the alleys, Firecracker."
A green and orange mare Rainy assumed was Firecracker stepped forward to regard the two captured ponies. She wore the same crimson garb as the rest of the group, but the way she carried herself and the way the others backed off to give her the spotlight showed that she was undoubtedly in charge. Strapped to her foreleg was some kind of kitchen knife that looked like it was stolen straight out of a restaurant, and droplets of dried blood clung to the steel blade. Her cutie mark was a burning flame.
Firecracker looked over the two captured ponies with a little tut of disapproval. "Scavenging for food in a retail district. Either you're stupid, or you're lying. Which is it?"
"W-Well, every store and restaurant in the city has been picked clean several times over already," the captured unicorn stallion explained. "So, I thought that we should try looking where ponies haven't looked. Break room food, hidden storage, vending machines, anything. That was my idea. Honest."
"Stupidity it is," Firecracker said. "Better than malicious intent, but not by much. Coming into a virus hotspot like this is not only suicidal to yourself, but carelessly putting your fellow ponies at risk. Accidentally cast one spell out of habit, and you're bringing a concentrated amount of the poison out to the rest of the city and spreading it wherever you go. Not to mention bringing your earth pony friend with you, who will soak up the disease like a sponge. Because of selfish ponies like you two, the city becomes more uninhabitable by the day as the virus grows more numerous. It's up to us to stop the progression."
"You're all here too, aren't you? How's that for hypocrisy?" the earth pony mare snarled.
Firecracker tilted her head. "We all already ensured that we would never contract the virus. And we're going to make sure that you can't as well."
Rainy recoiled in confusion. Ensured they would never contract the virus? What is she talking about? The only way to become infected is to use magic, right? And if they're all earth ponies, then—
Rainy blinked and took a closer look. Where she had previously seen an absence of horns and wings, she now saw irregularities. Firecracker's mane flowed strangely around the middle of her forehead, as if something underneath her bangs was interrupting its growth. Several of her followers had the same irregular mane pattern… right where a horn would sprout out on the head. The others had strange bumps in their clothing along their back, right where a pegasus's wings would attach to their body.
They weren't earth ponies. They were all unicorns and pegasi that had removed their ability to use magic. They had cut off their own limbs.
"W-What are you saying?" the unicorn stallion stammered.
"We are the Purifiers. We are the ones that will stop the progression. And we will do it by making sure no one contracts the virus again," Firecracker said with a cold stare before turning to the spectators. "Kill the earth pony. Purify the unicorn."
The two ponies' words of stunned protest quickly turned to yelps of terror as the crowd descended on them, slamming them to the snow-covered street and holding them there helplessly. As Firecracker watched on, one of the Purifiers advanced forward with an unsheathed knife.
"I'm immune! I swear I'm immune! I'm not infected! Test me, please!" the mare screamed as she was squirmed under several strong hooves.
"The idea of 'immunity' is bogus," Firecracker scoffed. "A fairy tale sold to you by the EUP to keep you hopeful of a way out. All earth ponies are ticking time bombs when it comes to the virus. All it means is that you haven't been infected yet, and that's not a chance we can take."
"Let her go!" the stallion yelled. "Celestia-dammit, please, don't do this! She was just following me! Kill me instead!"
None of their struggles or words dissuaded the mob or delayed their fate. The knife-wielding purifier took a hoof full of the mare's mane and forced her head to tilt back, exposing her throat. He then sliced through it with one fluid cut. Her blood spilled across the snow as her eyes widened in shock and pain, and she choked on her own blood briefly before she fell back against the pavement, limp.
The stallion was sobbing by this point, but Firecracker regarded him with emotionless eyes. "Consider yourself lucky. Count your blessings that you were born with a horn. The virus affects us differently, and you only need to lose it to survive… not your life."
"W-Wha…" the stallion blubbered out in shock, but he quickly snapped back to reality when a hacksaw pressed to the base of his horn.
The stallion's horrific screams of pain filled the air along with the rough back-and-forth sawing of the serrated blade on keratin. Agrippa curled up against the wagon with her hooves on her ears, whimpering under her breath, but Rainy couldn't look away. Instead, all she could think about was the mare in the subway tunnel with the severed horn, and the massacred settlement of murdered earth ponies and amputated appendages. Was that the Purifiers' handiwork too? How many innocent ponies had they mangled and murdered already?
At long last, the severed horn fell to the ground, glinting with crimson blood the same color as the Purifiers' clothes. They released the mutilated stallion and rose up, but he was too catatonic to move. He curled up and whimpered, too deep in shock to even cry.
Firecracker walked over to stand over him. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you. Maybe one day you'll understand why I had to do it. Perhaps you'll even join us once you see the wisdom of what we're doing, like so many of my followers have."
She then turned to the Purifiers. "Keep searching. Bring any survivors to me. The future of this city depends on us. Spare no one."
The group of ponies dispersed and moved on, leaving only the crippled, whimpering stallion behind, holding the slaughtered mare's body in his hooves in a pool of blood.