Or: Carpe Cadavera

Drake woke with a start, immediately regretting his involuntary jolt due to the all encompassing pain he felt.

"Ah shit, this hurts..... Wait a minute... Where am I!?"

Looking around, he noted that he was in a metal room with no apparent lightsource, just a pervasive white glow that seemed to come from the walls themselves. Examining himself as the pain faded to a dull throb, he saw that his clothing was still his same costume from Comic-Con, still a prison uniform. But, as he looked further down, he noticed something strange: his feet were bare, and looked exactly like the false-claw-shoe-cover things he had been wearing to the 'Con. And he promptly did as any sane person would do, and flipped out.

"Ah shit! What the fuck is this!? What happened to my feet!? Wait.... What happened to my hands!? What are these, claws!? Oh god oh god oh god, what else happened!?" He felt along his face, not noticing anything different, until he came across his hair and ears, "Holy shit my hair is longer! And green! My ears! Why are they all pointy!? What the fuck is going on here!? Am I dreaming? No, can't be, I can actually feel pain. Oh man this is real! Aah, what am I gonna do!?"

As Drake went about panicking, a single researcher on the other side of the one way mirror turned to his assistant, "Get Head Researcher Sparkle. Tell her that the new anomalous D-Type is awake."

The younger of the pair saluted and ran off with a hasty, "Yes sir!"

Site 34 Staff Break Room

Twilight Sparkle sighed as she prepared herself a cup of tea. She needed to get her mind off of the new anomalous entity before she went insane and tried to study every last aspect of it like she had tried with AEC 1124, The Never Empty Coffee Machine.

In her zeal to understand the mechanics of the machine and it’s cognitohazardous effects she had completely dismantled it, resulting in an accidental decommission. The rebuilt 1124 showed no anomalous properties other than just really good coffee, so it was left in the break room.

Tea prepared, Twilight sat on one of the more comfy couches in the room and tried to relax with a copy of Equestria Science Daily.

“Prin- I mean, Head Researcher Sparkle! The new anomalous D-Type is awake! He appears to be panicking though.”

Twilight groaned as she rubbed her horn; she had just forgotten her obsessive need to understand things, anomalies in particular and then this rookie scientist had gone and ruined her Zen Thing™ right as she’d finally relaxed into her tea and science magazine.

“Noted. Lead the way.” She rose from her reclined position and gave a last, longing look at her favorite piece of scientific literature before swiftly following the rookie scientist down the twisting corridors and into the depths of the facility, straight into the heart of the area labeled “To Be Classified”.

Five miles outside of Site 34, Canterlot Castle; Throne Room.

Princess Celestia shifted uneasily in her ornate throne. Normally it was quite comfortable, much nicer than most of the rest of the chairs in the kingdom, but something today made her distinctly uncomfortable, nevermind the fact that she was in the middle of a very important meeting about the economy or something. The government largely took care of itself anyway; most of what she did these days was just sign paperwork for big things and raise the sun.

Back on track, Celestia normally never shifted like this, only when something big was about to happen; her deranged- now cured- sister’s return from exile on the moon, Discord’s return, the anomalous insect containment breach over at Site 34 a few years back, Tirek, Chrysalis, Sombra, even the birth of her most faithful student.

“Sister? Is something the matter?”

Luna’s quiet whisper broke Celestia from her light Trance of Ominous Foreboding™ and she whispered back, “It’s nothing. Just an odd feeling.”

Turning back to the meeting at hand, Celestia couldn’t help but to take one last glance out the window, in the exact direction of Site 34. Something told her that not even her considerable magic talents would be of use in the coming storm.

Back at Site 34

AEC 12 “The Gremlin” giggled maliciously as it scurried through the maze of cables and machines that made up the Thaumic Generator room in Site 34.

The tiny Euclid class entity didn’t often find escape routes in its cell, but today the researchers had accidentally left a pen inside of its enclosure.

The Gremlin was nothing if not resourceful, and had quickly destroyed its containment unit and escaped deeper into the facility to where it was now.

The most important room in the entire facility, save for the archive room.

The Thaumic Generator room was singlehandedly responsible for converting the mana in the leylines directly beneath Site 34 into usable electricity and magic. Without it, none of the facility would work; no lights, no doors, no containment, nothing.

And the Gremlin knew exactly where it was.

Twitching its massive, scaly ears, the ugly-as-sin, vaguely reptilian being set to work with a malicious giggle, pulling out wires here, scratching out runes there, kicking fragile glass covers, and generally causing hundreds of work hours worth of repairs; all the while giggling and muttering, “Break! Break! Break!” under its breath.

Meanwhile…

Everybody noticed when the lights went out.

Of course, most people weren’t all too concerned, save for those in the containment facilities; most thought that the emergency power would kick in soon enough.

Of course, it only got worse from there. All over the compound, screams were heard as over a hundred different AECs escaped their containment; some fairly harmless, such as AECs 1-6, as well as AEC 77.

Others, well, not so much.

AEC 66: The Ravenous Swarm was one such example.

The AEC itself was nothing more than a tennis ball sized insectoid being, round and with large, green eyes and four rounded wings.

Of course, it possessed the ability to rapidly consume any and all organic matter and use it to asexually reproduce in massive quantities.

The Swarm, and many, many other AECs rampaged through the facilities, killing nigh indiscriminately, though some of the more harmless ones attempted to help.

And as the remaining humans and Safe class AECs were herded into the Containment pens, one unlucky (Or very lucky) researcher found herself knocking loose the door that held the newly found anomalous D-class human.

Unfortunate in that she had been chased to the cell by AEC 45: The Basilisk. Fortunate in that Drake was a kind soul and the thought of any innocent being hurt really pissed him off.

Drake’s attention was held by the sounds of screaming and slaughter as he sat in his darkened cell. He’d long since gotten over his panic at his new features due to the more pressing concern of his current situation.

Of course, this changed once he heard his door getting knocked open and saw a young woman rush in, a massive, sixty foot long, vaguely draconic snake hot on her heels.

Drake felt a massive rush of adrenalin and rage course through his system; adrenalin due to his fear, rage at the thought of an innocent woman being slaughtered while he was still alive to do anything to change that.

And lo, as his mind was lost to the haze, he roared, giving both newcomers pause, before dropping down to all fours and changing in a rush of tearing cloth and eldritch hissing. And when he finished his change, he leapt at the giant snake, ready to rip and tear!

Author's Notes:

Haha, first ever (intentional) cliffhanger.