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// Nothing to be afraid of 
// Story: The plague 
// by TwiwnB 
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When she woke up again, Lula got struck by the huge silence reigning in the room. She moved and the bed creaked a bit, then the silence came back again in its impressive hegemony.
During a long time, Lula decided to stay in bed, to wait and see if Fluttershy would come again. But as time passed and nothing was happening, she decided to get up and go look around a bit, as she had been invited to anyway.

She got up, almost fell as she was still weak, but recovered very quickly and estimated that she would be able to walk for a while. So she went out of her room and began to explore the house.

There was a kitchen, full of all sorts of foods, which was quite impressive, a big bathroom, a lot of empty cages and bowls all around. The living room was very pleasantly arranged with some cat trees that seemed to have been scrapped by panthers or a bear, but everywhere the same silence and quietness was dominating. There was no trace of Fluttershy.

Lula went up and saw the three doors. Two were opened, leading to a room, which was probably Fluttershy’s and another bathroom, way smaller than the first one. And finally, there was the third room in which Rainbow Dash was sleeping.
Still, she was probably awake after all that time. Or maybe she had already left the house. There was no way of knowing. Whichever it might have been, Lula was decided not to upset her hostess and to leave that room alone.
And then she heard it:

“Fluttershy! Please, it hurts!”

The voice was coming from the third room. It was faint, but still there. Or maybe not.

“Fluttershy!” said the voice, before adding: “Help me. Please help me, it hurts so much.”

Lula felt a quiver run through her spine. That voice wasn’t happy. It was the opposite of happiness. In fact she had heard those intonations of violent pain a lot of times since the plague had appeared.
Lula instinctively put her hoof in front of her nostrils and went back a few steps to protect herself. Her mind was reassessing the situation as fast as it was able to, but it was all too surreal. And the consequences she was foreseeing were too horrible to accept.

“Lula, is that you?” asked Fluttershy’s voice from downstairs.

The unicorn took the opportunity to flee the floor and go down to her new friend.

“I was looking around, but I didn’t go into the third room, I swear!”

Fluttershy laughed. She was finding very cute how close Lula was reacting to a little child.

“Don’t worry.” She told her. “I told you you’re here at home.”

Lula began to relax. Still, the tone of the voice, and the seriousness of the situation were making her uneasy.

“I heard your friend’s voice through the door.” She told Fluttershy.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash is awake? What did she say?”

“She asked for help.” Lula explained. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know she had been struck by the plague. All my condolences.”

It had become the norm to accept the death of one struck by the illness before he or she would have passed out. But to her upmost surprise, Fluttershy began to laugh like it was all a big funny joke.

“Rainbow Dash isn’t going to die.” The Pegasus explained. “She has just eaten some berries she shouldn’t have, and now she is complaining about it. But the stomachache is going to pass. That is why she needs to stay as quiet as possible.”

It was a relief, but still a surprising one. Lula was certain she had recognized the marks of the dying ponies in the voice’s tone. Or maybe she was just too used to hear those dying voices everywhere.

“Come now, you should be in bed too.” Fluttershy told her. “You may feel strong, but you still need some rest too.”

Lula accepted to lie back in her bed, drank the medicine Fluttershy gave her and soon closed her eyes.

“You’ll see, you’ll feel way better when you wake up again. I won’t be far away, I just need to find my little friends. I guess they are feeling a bit shy about you, but soon they will accept you as a friend too.”

Lula didn’t hear the rest of what Fluttershy was saying, as the medicine was making its effect and she fell into a deep restorative sleep.