Hey guys, I just thought I'd tell you what I've been telling my watchers on Deviantart. During the summer, I expect to write several stories and catch up on others. I just haven't been too lucky on the weekends in my attempts to write, but after May 24th I'm free. Now, the stories I plan to write over the summer are "The Twilight's of Spike's Heart II", "Stranded", and "Flu Season". I'm particularly interested in the story "Flu Season" because of the recent outbreaks of H7N9 in China as well as the person-to-person H5N1 studies peaking my interests. I've always had an excellent understanding of virology, especially in influenza, so I'd like to apply that to my stories. However, the goal of this story is different than others. "Flu Season" is going to be a entirely accurate depiction of an Avian Flu pandemic that could easily happen in our world today. I not only want to entertain you, but also educate you as well. So this story will have authors notes where I describe in depth the similarities between the "Black Flu" described in my story, and the H5N1 virus. I assure you that everything I am going to write will be as true as possible and backed up by years of research of avian flu.
Now if you're one of those people who think that there is no threat from avian flu and that this was a 2006 worry, let me put that misunderstanding to rest. In 2011 two labs conducted studies to see what gees needed to be mutated in H5N1 in order to spark a pandemic. They found that only 10 needed to be tweaked, however most of these mutations occurred in the host. Now that may sound like a large number of time this virus must mutate, but you should know that we've found several strains of this virus with 7/10 mutations complete. So in reality, we're only three mutations away from a pandemic, not ten. Yet, for all we know, there could be a virus in the intestine of a chicken right now just one mutation away from person-to-person transmission.
Now, enough about H5N1, let me talk about the story. In Flu Season, Twilight and Spike try desperately to survive and help as many as possible through the pandemic. But the pair quickly realizes that they need to put their own well being first. So they decide to leave their new home in the Crystal Empire and live with Fluttershy, back in Ponyville, until the pandemic ends.
Also there will be a good bit of TwiSpike shipping. As expected. And this isn't a re-write or spin-off of The Manhattan Virus.
And if you'd like to know more about H5N1 please leave me comments. I will be more than happy to answer them and supply you with links to the information. H5N1 should not be taken lightly, so please ask questions.