In this paper, I numerically investigate the propagation of ultrashort pulses through an extended collection of multilevel systems under the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency. The transparency of a weak probe pulse is induced by a much stronger coupling pulse. In the limit of a weak probe excitation and a large number of excited states, I show that the free-induction decay signal that would naturally follow the excitation pulse is strongly suppressed, and the envelope of the probe pulse suffers a distortion in its temporal profile as the pulse propagates into the medium. This distortion is characterized by a stronger absorption of the leading edge of the pulse than that of its trailing edge. The temporal phase of the pulse, however, remains constant throughout propagation.735