Pontagion

by YADAMAN

Prologue

Date 00:00:09 – 05:45; Canterlot Castle

The room was dark, with the exception of a lone candle in the corner. The curtains were pulled together – preventing even the slightest crack of dawn to seep in. Within its chamber, lied a small desk with an analog clock on top, a bed and scattered paper all across the floor. Along its walls, was a closet, a door, a mirror and even more detailed paper hastily taped to its surface. Its contents contained all sorts of information. Most of which were pictures of what appeared to be dead bodies – a lot of them. To just anypony, this looked like some sort of crime scene investigation, and in a way, it is. The sheets of the bed rustled and a figure slowly awoke from its slumber, kind of like a zombie rising from its grave.

“It’s that time again…” the tan-colored pony woke up, looking at his clock on the desk with his back aching. He was newly drafted after the outbreak of an unknown virus and thus was sent to live in this dorm, with a very uncomfortable bed to sleep on. His role was simple – patrol the halls of his post, the capital of Equestria, and gather intel from supposedly infected towns. For what purpose? In order to find some sort of cure for this new biological threat. To his expectation, his job took countless hours of his time and nothing particularly eventful happened for the past week.

However, today was different.

He appeared in front of his dingy mirror and stared at his reflection for a solid ten seconds then slowly trotted to his right, avoiding the scattered paper on the floor. The creaking sound of the rolling closet door filled his room. It wasn’t loud, just irritating.

After raggedly putting on his uniform, he walked to his dorm’s entranceway. The door was reinforced with heavy steel and it wasn’t pretty to look at. Yet, this was the only way to ensure security… and of course along with the spread of the new disease.

“Disease,” the tan-colored pony thought to himself. The new virus was still at large, and along with its mysterious-ity, came its numbers of causalities. It was able to kill off over 3000 ponies within the first week, but this ‘week’ was subjective. Nopony knows exactly when it started, with the exceptions of a few pony scientists, including this light brown-ish pony, with approximate dates in mind. Hypotheses if you will.

With that out of the way, the halls of the castle were immensely huge, however it was a standstill. Decorated with intricate wallpaper, it was a sight to see. Small glistening sorts of light scattered in neat, yet sophisticated sections through the stained glass – another marvel of Canterlot Castle. Even though it was rather beautiful, nopony cared much for it after the virus outbreak.

The tan-colored pony trotted to his daily post, ready for another day in this whole ordeal.

He was paired up with another officer – a blue-haired colored stallion that worked at Canterlot for years now. He was a lady’s man, even though he doesn’t go off and flirt with any mare he sees, he wasn’t that kind of pony. He was in fact a very nice guy. Besides, he was interested in this one mare…

Their relationship was not the best, however, yet still professional. They did their day job which was…patrolling the halls. As easy as that sounds, the new recruit was actually promoted to a higher rank than most other newbies – a general. Rather odd for patrolling a simple route. Perhaps due to his aid in cases prior to the outbreak. He saved probably hundreds of ponies’ lives, despite his modest disposition. It was this reason that he was working at a private facility as well as the capital of Equestria.

Undeterred by their not-so-great companionship, these two ponies had interesting conversations. In fact, today, both of them will break their silence…

Date 00:00:09 – 06:08

“Any word on the residents of Ponyville?” the tan-colored pony asked, his words echoing in the castle halls.

“Not yet, sir,” the blue-haired pony replied. “It seems that those that attended don’t have the desire to cooperate.”

With a slight snicker, the tan–colored pony asked, “Are you proposing that Princess Twilight might have something to do with this?”

“What!? N-NO! Not at all! I’m just s-stating the facts here.” The blue-haired pony quickly snapped back.

“Allright, allright. Just messing with ya, Flash. Everypony knows that you got this thing with the princess. Anyway, what did your so-called facts say?”

Offended for bringing up his crush, Flash raised an eyebrow, but continued on, “For starters, the scouts came back detailing all those whom were present during the Crystal Empire’s 4th Re-annual Crystal Faire. They said all of the Princesses have attended, along with their friends and close relatives, not to mention the guests. Almost all of Ponyville came to the event, actually. And look, Whooves, I’m just… trying to cover all of our bases here, even if they seem rather far ‘fetched. I’m not saying anything here like that.”

Whooves rolled his eyes. “I suppose. Yet something still troubles me, how could had Shining Armor succumb so easily to the disease? Reports indicated that the suspected town that the virus originated from was Ponyille. He was infected just hours after the proceedings.”

“Not sure. Perhaps there must be a connection of some kind.”

“What do you mean?” Whooves raised his voice slightly, perhaps due to a sudden arousal of interest.

“Well, it’s simple. What if the disease came from somewhere BESIDES Ponyville? Maybe from here, the capital of Equestria. Many ponies travel from here to there, including Princess Twilight. The only logical explanation is that Canterlot was the primary center of the spread of the disease. That would explain how the virus spread quite rapidly from many different locations, not just Ponyville. I mean, not to like you know, frighten everypony but we may need to evacuate if that’s the case.”

“I see your point. But what is still at large is the exact identification of this disease, not necessarily how it started.”

Shaking his head, Flash asked, “Really? Not one pony figured out what possible symptoms relate from one infected to the next?” Flash was quite surprised with Doctor Whooves’s comment, he worked with top scientists all over Equestria for pony’s sake! It didn’t make sense that they still have no idea what they are working with.

“That’s the problem. The disease is apparently ancient, yet still new – it acts differently than it did from what it was supposed to do when it first came to existence. Not only that, many physicians come to the same conclusion that the virus affects ponies in different ways. So they are saying that not one will exhibit the same symptoms from the next,” Whooves’s mouth twitched with that last statement. “Essentially, we have nothing at this point as it stands.”

Flash quickly responded, “We obtained all the bodies that were presumably infected with the disease, and ponies that are infected with an unknown virus presently, surely the autopsies must be ab-“

“Have you even considered that we could potentially be facing more than one epidemic?” Whooves quickly ejected.

Flashed looked through his mind to come up with some kind of answer, none came up, “I uh... no I have not.”

“That is what I thought.”

“So what are we looking for then, hmm?” Flash’s mood was becoming annoyed.

“Clues,” Whooves said bluntly.

“Clues? For what? The ponies that have the virus? Where it started? What the disease is? If there is a cure?” obviously this conversation was getting to Flash.

Out of all of all the ponies in Equestria, he had to be paired up with a new recruit that not only exceeded his rank, but was a scientist and part investigator. Not really the best combination for what you would call a normal conversationalist pony. Then again Whooves was older than Flash, so he still needed to give respect to the stallion despite his protest. Who knows? He might learn a thing or two from him.

“None of the above. Clues to find out who started this disease.”

Confused, Flash stopped in the hallway, “Wait, let me get this straight. You think that somepony artificially made this virus?”

Whooves followed suit, “It is only a theory, but if ponies were infected at Canterlot, Ponyville and the Crystal Empire at the same time, don’t you think that it is more than a coincidence? Perhaps it was done maliciously?”

“But there is no solid evidence that the disease occurred in multiple areas at the same time. Wait, hold on. If somepony did release this virus, isn’t that a form of chemical warfare? I thought Starwhirl the Bearded banned that ever since the end of the Chronicle Battles! ”

“Doesn’t mean somepony is going to follow ‘rules’ that were made generations ago, huh?”

“…” Flash swallowed.

“To be honest, Twilight could be a suspect at this point,” Flash gasped with that remark. To reassure his younger fellow comrade in arms, Whooves went on, “Just like any other pony.”

They both sighed, then resumed making their rounds, their day has only just begun after all. As they turned for the next hallway, Whooves broke the silence once again, “Let’s face reality: a new era has been born. Things are changing. It is everypony for themselves now. Food is becoming scarce. Outside countries are refusing to aid in the efforts to put an end to whatever … this is. As of today, Equestria is a bio-hazard zone. Nopony goes in, nopony comes out. We are all on our own. The only one that seems to be pulling everypony’s weight together in this time of need, is Celestia.”

“But...” Flash stared at the floor as they slowly trotted by, his tongue became numb, having trouble asking the next terrifying words that he didn’t want to believe was true, “but isn’t she infected too?”

Whooves felt tension rise in the air in the castle, as if somepony was watching them, listening to their conversation, “Yes,” the feeling was gone, “she is.”

Author's Note:

In case you are wondering, the date is read from Year:Month:Day. So if it is 01:09:03 it is the first year, ninth month and third day from the initial start of the virus outbreak, not necessarily the actual year's month and date that we use as a calendar.

I probably should change that but at least I made it a bit clearer, as my proof-reader told me to do.

Anyway, the next chapter will be released on December 4th, a week when I post this. (Future chapters will actually include the Main Six characters, not just be mentioned)