The hospital’s first floor was completely deserted. No Xenomorphs. No humans. No bodies. It was ominously quiet. I looked around for a moment. The first floor was just a giant waiting area for patients. There were a few rows of seats and a pharmacy to the side. It looked like a normal hospital enclosed in boring white walls. Surprisingly, there weren’t even any bloodstains or broken windows.

“What the hell?” Octavia asked. “Where is everyone?”

“Do ya think we’re too late?” AJ asked.

“No,” I said. “There’s no broken glass or bodies or anything.”

“Let’s look around. Stay together,” Octavia said. AJ, Octavia, and I walked around looking for any traces of other survivors or even Xenomorphs. The hospital wasn’t very big and only had about five floors from what I remembered, so finding survivors wouldn’t be too difficult. The only problem would be the demons that must still be around somewhere. I stepped a few feet forward.

The ambient silence of the hospital made me feel nervous. Every sound I made only amplified tenfold. I could hear every one of my footsteps echo through the halls. Knowing that something was lurking around hearing my footsteps was unnerving, but worse still was the fact that we couldn’t hear them in return. The silence could’ve also meant that the area was clear, but I knew way better than to lower my guard. Octavia moved her hand in front of us to block our way. She pointed to a door on our left. Applejack and I followed her through the door and into a hallway. I could see a stairway at the end of the hall.

“Wait,” I said. “What’s our plan?”

“Well, I think we already know that splitting up is out of the question.” Octavia said. “Let’s just get to the top and search the building starting from the top floor. We can take a quick look at the other floors when we pass them.”

“Okay then,” Applejack said. “You lead the way.” Octavia guided AJ and me through the stairway. At first glance, the other floors were just as untouched as the first floor was. I could tell that Applejack and Octavia were beginning to feel uneasy. I couldn’t come up with a scenario that explained anything. If the survivors were dead, wouldn’t there still be any trace of them?

We finally arrived at the entrance of the fifth floor. The stairway led to into the middle of a long hallway with many rooms on both sides. The left side of the hall ended abruptly, while the right side ended with a set of double doors. We walked to the left side of the hall and checked every room we passed. Each room was as empty as the last. They were just normal empty patient rooms. We finished searching the left side of the hall and went onto search the other side. It looked the same at first, with one exception of the double doors at the end.

We walked through the hall inspecting every room as we went on just as before. Once we were done, we walked through the double doors and ended up in a rather large room. The room itself looked like it belonged in a hotel instead of a hospital. It looked like a lobby with a huge overview of Canterlot. It was full of comfortable looking chairs and even had a front desk facing the window. I looked at the front desk and saw another set of stairs leading up into another floor within the fifth floor. Octavia led the way to the stairs. Applejack followed next to Octavia while I stayed a few feet behind. The stairs themselves were made of metal and went into a metal balcony just above the fifth floor. It ran together with another hallway which led to a door at the end of it. We cautiously walked towards the door. Each step on the metal balcony creacked louder than the last. One particular platform appeared less stable then the rest. It screeched loudly as Octavia passed by it. Applejack passed by it as well, but she wasn’t as heavy as Octavia so the sound wasn’t as loud. The platform seemed to howl as I stepped on it.

“Wait,” Octavia whispered. “Did you girls hear that?”

“What?” I asked.

“It sounds like someone walking.” Applejack and I silently listened for anything other than the constant squeaking of the platform, but we didn’t hear anything. “I guess I was wrong.” Applejack, Octavia, and I were about to move forward when we suddenly heard a loud cringing noise. A split second later the platform wobbled around and before I could jump to the next one, it came down. I hit the floor with a loud crashing sound. I stirred around on the ground for a moment. “Oops,” Octavia said. “Sorry about that. I didn’t know the balcony would break.”

“Are ya alright ?” Applejack asked.

I slowly get to my feet. “I’m a little beaten-up, but I’ll live.” I replied.

Octavia looked at the balcony for a moment. She turned to me. “I doubt you’ll be able to get up here this way.”

“So what am I supposed to do then?” I asked with a little irritation in my voice. “Just wait until you get back?”

“Check the bottom half of this floor, maybe there’s another stairway you can use.”

I hesitated for a moment. I really didn’t want to go off alone, but I didn’t want to be useless either. “Fine,” I said hesitantly.

I walked through the hallway leading away from the room. I checked the door to see if it was locked. It wasn’t. I opened the door and prepared to go through it.

“Do you have a watch?” Octavia asked.

“No,” I said.

Octavia threw what looked like an Apple Watch to the ground near me. “Now you do,” she said. “Meet me back here in thirty minutes.”

“Okay,” I said. I picked up the watch in silence. I could hear the sound of the door above me open and close. I looked back towards the balcony where Applejack and Octavia had been. They left without saying a thing. I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to the open door and stepped through.

I entered another room. It was too dark to see, so I stumbled around until I found a light switch. I turned on the lights and took in my surroundings. “Oh my God,” I whispered to myself. The room looked like it’s just seen a war. The floor was riddled with the bodies of the outpost’s past occupants. The was even a body engrained into the wall. I looked over one of the bodies. She was a young woman with a slightly bloody green shirt and jean skirt. Her face was a creamy yellow. Crouching down towards the floor, I brushed her red hair away from here eyes. I lifted her sweater to see her bite mark, but instead I saw what looked like a stab wound. My eyes narrowed. I picked myself from the floor, not sure what to make of the stab wound. I also couldn’t believe to see Applebloome here, dead. I hope Applejack doesn’t see this. I walked around and examined the the rest of the bodies. None of them looked like they had been bitten. I hadn’t seen anything like this in any other part of Canterlot. I wasn’t sure what could have caused this. It didn’t look like the Xenomorphs had anything to do with this. Every body’s fatal wound or wounds were way too clean and too tame to belong to them. The thought that something other than the Xenomorphs and wolves were killing people were disturbing, but all too real, possibility. Thump. I could hear an odd sound in the distance. I wasn’t sure where to go next, but I knew that I couldn’t stay here. There was still a chance that these people could be infected. I went through another hallway towards the end of the room. Luckily, it also had a stairway that led to the subfloor that Applejack and Octavia were in. I ran up the stairs and slightly opened the first door I reached. I slowly looked in the room for any movement.

The sound of foot steps in the distance broke my concentration. I held still and made no sounds in hopes that I could get an idea of where the sound was coming from. The sound was fading and after awhile, it was completely gone. I gave a low sigh of relief and pushed on. I fully opened the door and stepped through it. It was too dark to tell what kind of room I was in, but I could see enough to get around. I walked around in hope of seeing a light switch near me. As I fumbled around the room, I noticed a lining of light in the shape of a door. ”Well at least there’s light,” I thought to myself. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for at this point. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to find it. Whatever attacked those people back in that other room wasn’t a demon I had seen before. It wasn’t another animal roaming around the streets. It was smart. Whatever it was, I had a strong feeling that it would find me way before I found it.

I walked up to the light-lined door and turned the doorknob. I didn’t make a sound as I walked in. There were desks overflowing with medical papers all around me as well as office rooms on the sides of the room. It looked like I was in some kind of secret office room.

A door on the side opened, and Applejack and Octavia walked through. “Sunset are ya alright?” Applejack asked. I nodded. “Did ya find anythin’?”

I walked forward to my friends. “Yeah,” I said hesitantly. “I found something pretty bad. Tell me what you found first.”

“We haven’t found anything so far.” Octavia said. “What about you? What did you find that’s so bad?”

“I found the people that lived here, but they’re all dead now.” I paused for a moment to think. “The weird part is that they don't look like they’d been attacked by a Xenomorph. It looked like they were stabbed to death and not by the Xenomorph’s bladed tails.”

”What do you mean?” Octavia asked. “You think there’s something else here?”

“I have no idea, but I don’t think we should stick around to find out.”

“So were just gonna leave that girl here ta die?” AJ asked. I had completely forgotten about the lady’s distress call and from the look on Octavia’s face, so did she.

“AJ’s right,” I said. “We can’t just leave her in danger. We need to look for her.”

Octavia didn’t look happy with that idea. “We shouldn’t risk losing our supplies looking for just one girl.”

“Look no further,” said a rather familiar voice from across the room. It was the exact same woman’s voice that called us to the hospital in the first place. She was wearing a yellow shirt and jean shorts under a white lab coat. She had long pink hair and had an apathetic expression on her face. “Thank you so much for coming. I was beginning to think no one would come.”

“Well we aim to please,” Octavia said. “Is there anyone else?”

“Just the four of us now.” Her emotionless expression never waned. There was clearly something wrong here. I also sensed that this woman looked very familiar, but I just didn’t know who she was. She didn’t seem hurt or shaken. Either she was away when the other inhabitants were killed, or she had somehow been involved with this.

“What’s going on here?” I asked. “Who are you?”

“What happened to everyone here?” Octavia asked.

“They’re all dead,” she said.

“We know that,” I said. “But what we want to know is what killed them?”

“Simple. I did.”

“What?! Why?!” I knew that she was suspicious, but I hadn’t considered that she actively and willingly killed all those people, including Applebloome, Lyra, and Bon-Bon. She didn’t seem like she had the strength to overpower all of them, much less embed one to a wall.

“I needed them for my experiments. I wanted to see if they could handle a crude version of the virus. I killed them to see if they would reanimate as the others did. Unfortunately I used up all of my test subjects. Not even the ones already infected want to come near me, but I don’t have to worry about a thing now that you’re all here.”

“What the fuck is wrong with her?” Applejack said under her breath. “How can she be so cruel?”

“I need new test subjects now,” she said. “And that’s why you’re all here.” She pointed towards us. She began to walk towards me. Bang! Octavia had taken aim and shot at her, but she somehow managed to escape the blast.

“Shoot her damn it,” Octavia commanded. Applejack and I both raised our guns and began blasting away in hopes of hitting her. Bang-Bang-Bang! She was faster than she seemed. She was able to dodge Applejack’s bullets with realative ease. I angled both of my berettas so that if she moved to one side to dodge a bullet she would be hit by the other. She ran up to Octavia, grabbed her by her shirt and flung her across the room. She then turned her attention back to me. I continued shooting her as she ran forward. Bang-Bang-Bang! I heard the sound of at least four bullets making contact with her body. Bang-Bang-Bang! I wasn’t going to stop shooting until she was dead and the closer she got the easier it was to shoot her. I think she realized it too, because she changed directions and sprinted towards Applejack.

“No!” I shouted out. Bang-Bang-Bang-Click-Click-Click. Both of my guns were now out of ammo. I quickly ejected the clips and reached for new ones to load in. I loaded my guns and raised them to continue fighting. I aimed forward but I was too late. She was now holding Applejack with a military knife to her throat.

“Put your guns down or she dies,” the familiar woman commanded.

“What do you think you’re planning on doing?” Octavia asked. She slowly limped back into my view.

“I told you,” she said with irritation finally breaking her emotionless face. “I want to experiment.”

“Where are you bitch?” I asked. “How the hell do you move so fast?”

She looked at me with anger in her eyes. “You hit me,” she said bitterly. “I’m gonna enjoy experimenting on you first.”

“Like hell you are. Your not going to get your hands on any of us.”

She paused for a moment and then smiled as if she had an idea. “I’ll make you a deal. Let’s make a trade.”

“She’s fucking insane,” I heard Octavia say. “One moment she wants to kill us all and now she wants to barter.” Octavia was right. She was jus out of her mind.

“What do you mean?” I asked her. “What do you want with me?”

“If you stay here, I’ll let the others go free. If not—“ she moved her knife from one side of Applejack’s neck to the other and smiled again, “then I’ll kill all of you and look for new test subjects.”

“What kind of experiments do you have in mind?” I asked. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Does it really matter?” she asked. I didn’t react. She smiled again. “Well, the chance is pretty high, but it’s absolute if you refuse my deal.”

I already knew what my answer was at this point. “Fine,” I said. “It’s a deal.” I didn’t even want to think about it. I didn’t want my friends to die if I could stop it.

“What?! No, you can’t do that Sunset,” Applejack said.

“Relax sweetheart,” said the mysteriously familiar woman. “She might live; she might even come out better for it.”

“Okay,” I said defeated. “Now let them go,” She threw Applejack to the floor in Octavia’s direction. Applejack got up and helped Octavia move across the room. “Don’t worry girls,” I said.

“Sunset this is stupid,” Applejack replied. “We can take her.”

“You didn’t see what she did to the people who were here before,” I replied. I could see the worry spread across AJ’s face, and I instantly regretted saying anything. “I’m sure I’ll be fine though.” We both knew I wouldn’t be fine, but denying the truth made it easier to accept.

“You better be sugarcube.” Applejack finally said.

“Good luck,” Octavia said awkwardly. She didn’t seem to know what to say. They walked out of the room through the same door I entered through. I heard the clanking of metal in the distance and then it was silent. I was now alone with the familiar lady. She didn’t look like a demon, but she played the part well.

“So, what are you gonna do with me?” I asked. She smiled again and walked towards me.

“Are you afraid?” she asked mockingly. “You’re most likely gonna die today. Doesn’t that scare you?”

“Let’s just get this over with,” I said irritably. She stepped even closer to me.

“Fine, you won’t last long anyway; there isn’t really any point in humoring you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. She pulled out a vial of red fluid out of her lab coat. She speared the vial into my upper body. The vial had small needles on the end broke through the skin of the center of my chest. I grunted in pain and backed away from her. I took a few steps back then tripped on something on the floor. It felt as if acid was shot into my body. I felt it run through my veins and spread beyond them. I cringed in agony. I wanted to claw out all of the substance from inside me. It spread like wildfire through my chest and into every part of my being. The pain was agonizing. It overpowered me and began forcing itself to corrupt my other senses. It was as if the entire world around me was fading away.

The lady walked closer to me. “How do you feel?” she asked. I couldn’t answer; it was as if I had forgotten how to talk. The pain wouldn’t let me form words. It took all the strength I had to focus on her words. The woman tried to talk to me, but I couldn’t hear anything. She looked amused. “Looks like your not gonna survive after all. Well at least I had something to entertain myself. Now let’s see if I can find out where that pony and cowgirl just left.” She walked out of the room and left me to die.

---

I walked around in the darkness for what seemed like years unable to find my way. I still hurt. I still felt the substance burning it’s way through my body like molten lava burning through my flesh. The room was still spinning and no matter how far I tried to focus, my drunken dizziness persisted. I wasn’t hungry or tired, I just hurt. I clawed at my chest in vain, still attempting to claw out the red and black liquid out. I heard a loud buzzing sound everywhere I went and saw blurry red figures all around me. I was in absolute pain. I was in total agony. ”Was this what it was like to be one of them?” I asked myself in the small moments of lucidity. ”Am I a Xenomorph now?” The thought alone filled me with dread, but it was always flushed away with every wave of agony. I must have been all alone for years. It had to ave been years. I started to walk again to try and find help, but I saw only the same red motionless figures. They wouldn’t move. They were bigger and stronger than I was. I fell back down to the floor whenever I tried to resist the urge their pull. I felt so hot. I knew it was almost time to die. I could feel it creeping around me. Iooked up to the ceiling. I could feel the fiery pain begin to leave my bod for an unknown reason. In fact, everything began to fade away. I closed my eyes in hopes that when I open the I would be in a better place. My exhaustion finally overwhelmed me. I let out a deep breath and then fell asleep and back into a world in which I felt no pain.

Just as I was about to transcend I suddenly felt the warmth and motherly nature of Princesses Celestia and Luna guiding me back to the world of the living. They didn’t say anything to me but I felt warm again and felt like everything was now returning to me.

I slowly opened my eyes again. I had forgotten where I was. I looked around as my memories slowly began to return to me along with my memories of my past struggles with myself, The Battle of the Bands, The Friendship Games, and Gloriosa’s reformation. That crazy lady who I had half and half doubts that the woman who infected me was Gloriosa Daisy with something, but somehow I was still alive. I pushed myself off the floor and began to stagger around trying to compose myself. I walked back to the first floor of the hospital. I walked to the main entrance of the hospital. I took a deep breath and walked forward. I still had my berettas with me, so I was pretty sure I could make it past the police blockade, find a car, and return back to Octavia, Applejack, and Twilight.

A buzzing sound broke my concentration. It was coming from the hospital’s front desk. I ran towards the noise and saw a fax machine spitting something out. I didn’t think it was important. I walked back to the entrance and mentally prepared myself to go outside. A sudden burst of thoughts came to mind. ”How did someone manage to send a fax through? Wasn’t there some kind of problem with sending information? And why would anyone send a fax to a dead outpost?” The other outposts must have known that the hospital was gone by now. I ran back to the fax machine nd pulled out the freshly printed paper.

You are not corrupred like the others. I can help you get through the Black Plaguelands. Go to the police station and I will send you another message. You can stop the X.X.X. Plague from spreading.

I didn’t know what to make of the message, or what it meant for me. It might just be that crazy woman trying to finish off what she started. I sighed. It didn’t really matter if it was her or not. I knew I was going regardless. I needed to make sure that my friends were still alive. I ran to the entrance again. I readied one of my guns and stepped back outside. I stepped into the nightmarish world I was slowly getting accustomed to.

Next Chapter: Chapter 6: Canterlot’s Corruption Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 41 Minutes