Chapter 10
Doctor Ray sat in the research department of the medical wing, hunched over microscope. For all intensive purposes he could not believe his eyes! He had been working for hours examining Raven’s blood to get rid of her heartworm. At first, he was sorely disappointed to see that the medication had failed. So, he tried a test with a much higher dose, and what he found shocked him!
“Doctor Cross!” he yelled from his seat, not removing his eyes from the scope. “Come in here please!”
Several seconds later, Red Cross walked in. “Yes?”
Doctor removed himself from his microscope and spun around in his seat. “You won't believe what I have found!” he said with this air of astonishment and wonder. He waited patiently for Cross to reply.
“...What?”
He spun in his chair and put his eye to the microscope once again. “So, I ran some tests on Raven's blood okay? To look and see if her medication removed her heartworm.”
Cross nodded. “And what are the results?”
Ray pointed to the right. Nearby, several test tubes full of Raven’s blood sat in holders next to different vials of medication and other diseases. “I have been running tests nonstop since you dropped it off.” The stallion removed himself from the microscope and turned around to face Cross and slapped both his hands on his knees. “So, I checked her blood for heartworm, right?”
“Right.”
Ray leaned forward, deciding to rest his arms on his knees instead in a more relaxed position. “It was the same as when we started.” At Ray’s words, Cross deflated. She knew that Raven’s already severe infection would eventually lead to her death. “But!”
Cross perked up.
Ray smiled, almost knowing something amazing. “So, I upped her dosage and let the tube percolate… and what I came back to disturbed me. So, I decided to watch the medication do its work. And what I found was dumbfounding!”
Ray leaned back in his seat, lazily placing both hands in his lap. “I decided to run a test. I upped the dosage to a lethal level to see if that would kill the worms…”
Cross’ eyes widened. “Why would you do that!?”
“To kill the worms!” Ray shouted. “I needed to see if the worms were killable!” Ray calmed in his explanation. “I administered the medication the first time and walked away… and when I came back, her blood had seemed to separate. I thought I had a bad test and did it again with a smaller amount and a Petri dish.”
Doctor Ray paused, remembering what he witnesses. “When I came back, I saw her blood on one half of the dish and what appeared to be the medication on the other.”
That made zero sense. It was like adding a type of oil to water. The difference in viscosity and density and how they attract or separate. But no pony has ever heard if blood and medication separating!?
“I decided to run some more tests,” Doctor Ray continued, knocking Cross from her bout of confusion. “Under supervision this time! And here's what I found!” he exclaimed with an enthusiastic swipe with a pointed finger.
Standing from his chair, Doctor Ray moved to the side and gestured to the microscope with an open hand. Cross raised an eyebrow before stepping forward and bending over, she placed her eyes against the lenses. Through said lenses, she could see the red coloring of Raven’s blood. Zooming in another click, she could see the red and white blood cells milling about, but just like she had dealt with before, small worms wiggled around in the plasma. “Okay… I see the worms, but what else am I looking for?”
Ray almost squealed like a filly… almost. Reaching over next to the scope, he grabbed a needle and a small glass vial. Poking the needle through the lid, filling the syringe. “This is the common cold virus,” he said, telling Cross what was in the vial. “Now watch what happens when I introduce it to Raven’s blood!”
The stallion leaned forward and placed the small needle above the blood, where Cross could see it. Dropping a few small drops into the plasma, he emptied the tube and stepped back. Cross watched as the disease entered the blood. She waited for the white blood cells to attack the virus.
That didn’t happen…
“What in the world!?” she yelled, completely dumbfounded by what she was witnessing. She watched in complete and utter awe as the worms in the sample made a straight beeline for the virus. It attacked without prejudice. Some of the worms attacked the disease while others seemed to latch on like a leech and push it away. Her jaw hung limp, leaning back she blinked once and rubbed her eyes before going back to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
She continued to watch as the worms pushed the disease to the end of her vision. Once gone, she leaned back and placed her head next to the scope and as close to the sample as possible. She watched as a clear liquid started to form on the right edge of the red colored blood. Over the course of about a minute, the clear liquid grew before it was finally pushed away. Once it was far enough, Raven’s blood slowly created distance between the virus and itself.
“...Ah?”
Doctor Ray swore he heard a guitar string break within Doctor Cross’ mind. The little medical hamster at the front of her brain taking the string to the face, knocking him from his wheel. Shortly afterwards, the wheel collapsed behind him, crushing the poor little guy in debris.
Doctor Ray was visibly shaking with excitement. As Cross continued to have a brain aneurysm, or a stroke… maybe both at the same time? Doctor Ray squealed with excitement. “Do you know what this means!?” he shouted, ignoring Cross’ blank stare. “This could be the cure for all know deadly diseases! Haha!” he cheered to the heavens, throwing his arms up with equal amounts of enthusiasm. “Whatever those worms are they are the cure to saving lives! We have to have more to study!”
The little hamster in Cross’ head pushed the broken and bent wheel from atop his little form, allowing Cross to shake her head. “Wait… what did you say?”
“We need more to study!” Doctor Ray declared.
“But what if this is deadly to ponies?” Cross immediately questioned. The smile on Ray’s face faded almost immediately. He was so absorbed by his findings that he failed to think about how this would react to ponies, since Raven is a completely unknown species. “What if this is actually killing her?” Cross continued. “We don’t even know what this is!?” she shouted, holding both hands out towards the sample in front of herself. “Or where it came from, what it came from! Is it contagious? Genetic? From space!?”
Now that last one was a bunch of manure. That one actually got Ray to roll his eyes. “Equis is the only planet with sentient life Doctor Cross. Besides, nothing can survive in space. How could a microorganism survive entry into the atmosphere anyway? Falling that far, that fast, while on fire? Please, now you are the crazy one!” he explained to the mare.
And he did have a good point.
The Space part, Cross wasn’t crazy.
…
She wasn’t!!!
The mare closed her eyes, sighed and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “Ray…” she said softly, a mother like tone coming from her. Like she wasn’t mad, just trying to explain why this was a bad idea. “If we can find another sample that isn’t Raven’s blood, we could be on a massive medical breakthrough. I suggest we continue research, see if we can isolate the worms and replicate them if possible. Then… see how the worms react to the blood of a pony…”
Ray let the words sink it. “...You’re right,” he admitted, his ears pinning while he turned his gaze to the floor. He turned to face the microscope. “We have no idea what this is and we have no idea how it is transmitted or how dangerous it might be.” He sighed and turned back to Cross, looking her in the eye. “I’ll go to Celestia and see if we can start a research team to try and track down the disease. But if it transmits like other worm like parasites, it’s probably through insects or by digestion. I’ll contact every hospital around the country to look out for this disease.”
The room went silent as the pair stood there, unsure what to do.
“Yes… well…” Cross started, unsure of what to say. “Not heartworm… yes?”
Ray shook his head. “Not that I can say.”
“Is it deadly?”
He winced. “...Maybe? It isn’t attacking her blood cells and her organs seemed healthy. It isn't affecting her mana pool either. So, her magic is good. Or at least from what I understood from the report.” The stallion smiled. “I do believe she’s good for now. She can stop taking her heartworm medication. But I wish to monitor her over the next several months. Possibly see where this goes?” he placed both his hands in his coat pockets with a shrug.
***
Celestia sat at her desk with her chin resting on her intertwined fingers. The sun had been set and her day was done. Raven was in bed, replacing the blood she lost earlier in the day. Her mother was still disappointed in her, but what could she do? Celestia decided to place the thoughts aside and focus her attention elsewhere. Floating in front of her, in her golden aura illuminating the darkened room, was the strange weapon she had taken from her daughter.
She had been examining the thing as much as she could. Feeling around with her aura, she disassembled the weapon for probably the tenth or eleventh time since she first took it. All the parts were the same as when she first took it apart. The small weapon housed over 50 moving parts. All of them somehow jammed into its lower and upper halves. Her eyes darted from one part to another, taking in their shape, theorizing their use.
She reassembled the weapon rapidly before grabbing the handle with her hand. It was so sophisticated that it put the best crossbow makers to shame. Lightweight, well balanced, no arrows, but in theory -from what she was told by Ray- might have the same range. As she turned the weapon in her hand, she held up one of the brass cartridges and disassembled it. It, like the rest in the little cartridge holder, contained a little copper projectile, some type of black powder, the brass case, and a little insert that fits in the bottom of the case.
She wanted to test it, but was yet to have the time to do so. Reassembling the cartridge, she placed it with the others in the spring-loaded holder. She turned the weapon so she could see the opening in the handle and grabbed the holder from her aura with her hand and slid it into the opening with a click. Once the cartridge holder was secure, she pulled on the top half like she learned. It went back with her hand while she slowly watched part of the internal workings move. Once she was all the way back, she slowly let the spring in the weapon take her hand forward, watching as it loaded one of the tiny brass cartridges. Once the upper half was all the way forward, she released her hand and watched as it did nothing.
“Huh…”
Less than exciting. Don’t know what she was expecting, honestly. She grabbed the back again and pulled hard against the spring, it clicked like usual and she watched as the loaded cartridge was pulled back before being ejected out rapidly. Celestia’s head snapped to the right as she watched it sail through the air. Her horn ignited and she grabbed it with her magic before it hit the floor and placed it back on her desk and released the weapons back. It went through the same motions yet again.
She really needed to test this thing.
Celestia held the weapon up and lined up the rear and front sights. That wasn’t hard to figure out. When she held the first crossbow prototype, that was one of the first things she noticed was, ‘How do you aim this thing?’
A light knocking on her door caused her to lift her head. “Come in?”
Doctor Cross stepped in a second later as Celestia placed the weapon on her desk, the multiple cartridges placed back in their holder and laid flat next to the weapon. The medical mare stepped up to the desk a moment later and took a quick bow before she held up the clipboard she was holding to read.
“Red, a pleasure as always,” Celestia greeted with a smile.
“And to you too, Celestia,” Red replied with a smile, using a more casual tone. “I have Raven’s results. I have good news, bad news, and interesting news. Which do you want first?”
Celestia went blank, both in face and mind. “Uh… none of the above?” she quickly shook her head, regaining her thoughts. Her mood changed from her earlier interest and study to a more somber one. She was dreading this. “Is the interesting news bad?”
Cross ‘s face morphed into one of uncertainty as she shook her head back and forth in thought. “Mhm… yes and no.”
“Bad news first, good news next, interesting news last,” Celestia requested.
“Okay,” Cross took a deep breath to prepare herself before looking down at her clipboard, which was covered in notes, calculations, and results. “Bad news is we found a very interesting… issue… within Raven’s blood. We are yet to determine what it is though. Good news is that Raven does not have heartworm!”
Celestia let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. But the bad news was still lingering. “What do you mean by ‘issue’?”
Cross took a breath ready to explain before she hesitated, trying to find a way to best word this. “Ah… Doctor Ray’s initial assumption of heartworm was incorrect, which leads to the interesting news. What we assumed to be heartworm is indeed not heartworm, like I said. But we cannot seem to determine what it is exactly. We ran tests and all of them came back with different results.”
Cross had Celestia’s full attention at this point.
So, Cross continued. “Ray tested higher doses of heartworm medication. But when he returned, Raven’s blood and the medication became diluted. So, we thought it was a bad test, tried again, walked away… same results.”
“Well bad tests happen all the time,” Celestia added.
“But Ray placed her blood and the medication in a Petri dish and came back to find her blood, un-clotted on one side of the dish and the medication on the other!”
Celestia reeled back in her chair. Never once in all her years of study had she heard of such a thing!
“Intrigued, we tested her blood to see how it would react with diseases!” Cross smiled, not out of joy, but the sheer remarkability of what she had witnessed in that lab. Her mouth moved but no words came as she glanced towards the wall in disbelief. “We tested her blood with AIDS…”
She trailed off leaving Celestia with a cliffhanger. “...And.”
“AIDS,” Cross repeated in a tone of disbelief. She dropped her clipboard, letting it clatter on the ground, papers coming loose and flying in all directions. She reached across the desk and forcefully grabbed Celestia by the collar of her dress, manic, crazed look in Cross’ eyes as her mane started to fray. “AIDS for fucks sake! AAAAIIII-”
Smack
Cross’ expression went blank as she stared at the mare who was mere inches from her face. “Thank you…” her attention moved down to her hands, still holding Celestia’s dress in her grip. She quickly released the mare and stepped back with a blush, hiding her hands behind her back while avoiding eye contact. “I am so… so sorry…”
Celestia rubbed her stinging palm. She would never lift a hand to harm her subjects, but this was a case where it was necessary. Once the pain was gone, she adjusted her dress. Once that was set, she looked up at the doctor with a smile. There was no ill intent behind the slap, just a way to successfully knock Cross from her seeming bought of ‘insanity’.
“It’s quite alright,” Celestia dismissed.
Doctor Cross coughed awkwardly into one of her hands. “Yes… well…” The mare glanced down at the floor at the papers strung out in every direction. She immediately dropped to her knees and started to haphazardly gather up her notes. “T-The diagnosis is that Raven does indeed not have heartworm like we assumed!” The mare rose back up and did her best to straighten the papers in her arms. “What we do know is that it is a type of parasitic worm, bit one that appears to live side-by-side with Raven’s blood. We intent to run some tests and Ray wants to talk to you about finding wild samples.”
The mare finished once she seemed satisfied with how organized her papers were. “So… what of Raven and her health?” Celestia asked the mare. “I am still concerned that she seems to have a parasite of unknown origin.”
“Ray and I agreed that we will continue to monitor her for the rest of her life,” Cross explained. “We’ll start out with a six month check up on her basic health. If nothing changes, we’ll move to a yearly visit. If her health deteriorates, we will have to figure out something to kill the worms in her blood… which will be almost impossible without a known cure.”
That was concerning. That was very concerning. If this parasite became dangerous all of the sudden, it could easily turn and attack Raven’s organs or even her immune system. “Okay… let’s do that then,” Celestia agreed. “We can set a date tomorrow if that’s alright?”
Cross glanced to the ceiling in thought. “That should work,” she said before looking back at the princess. “Thank you again, Princess,” Cross thanked as she took a deep bow. “And please forgive me of my actions?” she nervously asked as she rose to standing. Last thing she needed was to be rejected and forced back to medical kindergarten...
Wait... that's not a thing... right?
Celestia waved it off with a hand. “As my father loved to put it oh so many years ago,” she paused for dramatic effect. “Shit happens!”
Cross snorted a laugh at that. “Of course!” she giggled before she regained her composure rather quickly. “Thanks’ again Celestia, enjoy the rest of your night!” With that, she headed for the door.
“Good night Cross,” Celestia waved goodbye. Once Cross was out the door, the solar mare glanced at the weapon on her desk.
Cross for her part sighed upon exiting the princess’ study. Finally, she could go home, relax and get off her hooves. The mare glanced at the two guards that stood at attention, neither of them moving. The real question was how could they do that for hours on end? Do nothing but stare at the wall all day and all night. Had to be pretty boring? Eh, at least the medical field was an exciting one, and one Cross wouldn't trade for anything!
Pop!
Cross flinched and immediately turned to face the door while both guards snapped to arms and faced the door themselves. It was a very loud and muffled *pop* that came through the door. What happened in there!? Horrified thoughts went through all three of their heads at the possible horrors that that sound could be from!
“I didn’t do it!” came the semi-muffled response of the princess from the other side of the door. That’s what she gets for playing with guns! Temporary deafness and 1 confirmed kill…
That mirror didn’t know what hit it…