1
Luna waited for Gene Splice to arrive in her small room. She had agreed to stay in isolation, but this time without the use of restraints. Luna paced back and forth, her anxiety growing rapidly. The door to her room opened and in walked a pony wearing what looked like a bio-hazard suite.
"Gene Splice?" Luna asked.
"Yes, Princess it's me." Gene responded.
"What can I do for you?"
"Well, I'm going to need another sample of blood." he stated.
"What?! You've already taken two samples!" Luna shouted.
"Princess, please calm down. The traditional methods of ridding the blood of toxins have been ineffective. I need more samples if I'm going to figure out how to rid you of them." he stated, making his case. Luna nodded and stuck out her leg. Gene Splice lowered a needle to her leg and gathered another sample of Luna's blood. "Thank you Princess." he said, leaving the room again.
Luna lay back down on her bed with a groan. "If this keeps up, he's going to drain me dry." she moaned.
2
"DAMMIT!" Gene Splice shouted, looking at his microscope. He backed away from his microscope and kicked one of the chairs in his lab.
"Calm down Gene." Alpha Bone said, standing a small distance away.
"How can I be calm when one of our Princesses is in isolation with an unknown blood cell, that could possibly be transmitted to us!?" he shouted.
"I know but you need to keep a clear head and stay calm."
Gene Splice calmed down a little bit. "You're right my friend, as always."
"That's right. Would it help if I gathered everypony and they could each study a sample, maybe they can spot something that would help." he suggested.
Gene Splice thought. "You want to bring in an archaeologist, a biologist, namely you, a Microbiologist and a crackpot Xenobiologist, to study blood?" he asked, unimpressed.
"I know this sort of thing is out of our expertise but having a few extra eyes on this could help, you never know."
"I suppose it couldn't hurt. Fine! Go ahead." he said, defeated. Alpha Bone nodded and left to gather the entire team to assist Gene Splice. "I doubt this will work." Gene Splice mumbled, setting up the other samples of Luna's blood he had gathered.
Alpha Bone returned with the whole team behind him. "I got them." he said.
Gene Splice turned to face them all. "As you have all most likely heard, Princess Luna has been contaminated with an unknown blood cell in which every known blood detoxification method has failed to purge. I have asked Alpha Bone to gather you, on his recommendation, to aid me in my research. Any questions?"
A lanky black earth pony with a blue mane and blue eyes raised a hoof. "How can I help? I'm a Microbiologist, I study bacterium not blood cells." he said, concerned.
"Yes you are, but you specialize in all three areas of Microbiology, Petri Dish. Maybe these aren't even blood cells, they could some kind of bacteria." This seemed to satisfy Petri Dish and he went back into the line. "Anyponyelse?" Another pony raised his hoof, this time a red Pegasus with dark brown eyes. Gene Splice had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "Yes, Star Gazer?"
"Could they be some sort of extraterrestrial life?" he asked, somewhat excitedly.
"I doubt it, highly. But I'm not ruling anything out yet." he responded. "I've set up stations for each of you to work at. Let's go." he said, going back to his microscope and letting the others pick their own.
3
Celestia had been wondering between workshops and labs and found all of them to be empty. She had gone through all of the labs except for Gene Splice's. She was hoping that they were all in there. She rounded a corner and opened the door. she stared wide eyed at the sight. Papers were being thrown and lab tables were cluttered with pens and papers. A few of the ponies inside were pacing angrily and others were hitting their heads with hooves or the wall in frustration. The only one who seemed to be enthralled with his microscope was Star Gazer.
"What's going on here?" she asked, concerned.
Gene Splice turned to the source of the voice. "Princess, how are you?" he asked, trying to put on a facade.
"Better than all of you it would seem." she smirked. "What are all of you doing?"
"We're trying to find a way to cleanse Princess Luna of those cells." he stated, tiredly.
"Any luck?"
"NO!" he shouted, catching the Princess off guard. "NONE! I've tested every single blood detoxification method known to pony kind and none of them have worked!" he said, exasperated.
"That's certainly troublesome." Celestia said. "What about possibility of infection?" she asked, more than concerned.
"Zero possibility. I cast a disinfectant spell that should keep us all safe from being infected." he said, calming down.
Turning her head Celestia had focused on Star Gazer. "Has he had any luck?"
"I doubt it." he said flatly. "Princess if I may, I don't think bringing in a Xenobiologist in on this project was a good idea."
"Why is that?" she asked, curious.
"I just don't consider Xenobiology a real science. It's all speculations and rumor. Nothing about it is solid."
"I called Star Gazer to join this because I believe that in this case having him around might be of some use."
Gene Splice conceded. "Alright, I'll trust your judgment Princess."
"Good. Star Gazer, have you had any luck?"
Star Gazer looked up from the microscope and acknowledged the Princess' presence before returning to his microscope again. "Not yet, but this is absolutely amazing!" he said, excitedly. "I have noticed that they are completely independent from the other blood cells. “I just wish I had more knowledge of how blood was comprised and how each cell would interact with the other." he said.
"I don't think that this is going to work, if I couldn't figure this out than I don't think any of us can." Gene Splice stated.
"No kidding." Field Dust piped up.
"I know this is frustrating but there must be away to purge them from Luna." Celestia said, trying to comfort them all.
"What if they're not supposed to be removed?" Star Gazer asked.
"Why would that be?" Gene Splice asked, angrily.
"You said that when they were put into the rat they ate it from the inside out, right?"
"Yeah, and?"
"Why haven't they eaten Princess Luna yet?"
The other looked at each other, stunned at Star Gazer's words. Even the Princess hadn't thought about it.
"I never thought of that." Gene Splice mumbled. "He could be right."
"I am intrigued as well." Celestia said. "I will speak to Luna about this development." Celestia said, turning to leave. "Keep working all of you, I will return shortly." she said leaving the lab.
4
Celestia opened the door to Luna's room and entered, a faint shield spell protecting her from possible contamination. Luna was lying on her bed staring at the reflective crystal ceiling. Upon hearing the door open she sat up and smiled when she saw Celestia.
"Good news?" she asked, hopeful.
"Depends." Celestia responded.
"How so?"
"Do you want the good news or the bad first?"
Luna thought for a minute. "Bad."
"Alright. Well, it seems that the usual means of blood detoxification have all failed." Luna's face quickly became downcast. "Now for the good." she said, causing Luna to perk up. "Star Gazer had thought of something the rest of us had completely missed."
"What?"
"He thinks that these cells are not supposed to be removed."
"Why in the world would he think that?!"
"Do you remember that rat that was eaten from the inside by those cells?" Luna nodded. "If these cells were harmful to you, then why aren't you dead?"
"That's an interesting thought." she said, pondering what this might mean.
"That's what I thought." Celestia said. "I figured that I should come and tell you what we had discovered. Are you holding up alright?" she asked, concerned.
"For the time being, but I'm starting to go stir-crazy being cooped up in here."
"Tell you what, I'll seal off a larger part of the area so you can at least walk around a little."
"That would be nice. Thanks."
"Sure."
5
Star Gazer and the rest had returned to their microscopes and were still trying to determine a way to purge the Princess of the cells or see if they could remain and poise no danger to the rest of ponykind. All of their efforts have been fruitless, other than what was discovered about immune response time. Gene Splice looked up from his microscope and slumped into a chair, with a groan.
"What are we missing? There's got to be something we can use." he mumbled, agitated. Gene Splice placed a clip board and pen on his desk with his magic. "Have any of you found something?" he asked the rest of the group.
"Take a guess!" Field Dust yelled, angrily.
"Guess not." Gene Splice whispered, levitating a clip board to himself and started to scribble notes.
"Gene Splice! I think I found something!" Petri Dish hollered, to the amazement of the rest. Gene Splice shot out of his chair, levitating the clip board and pen, and went trotting over to Petri Dish's area. "What have you found?" he asked, hopeful.
"Their acting very erratically." he stated.
"That's nothing new. We saw that before." he said, disappointing. He placed his clip board and pen down on the table and ceased his levitation of the objects.
"Now they've calmed down, weird." Petri Dish said, surprised.
"What did you say?"
"They calmed down. How did you not hear me? I'm right next to you." he said, bewildered.
"Keep an eye on them, tell me when they act up." Gene Splice ordered, to which Petri Dish just made a noise. Gene Splice activated his magic and channeled it to his horn.
"They're acting up again." Petri Dish stated.
Gene Splice deactivated his horn. "Now?"
"No. They stopped." he said, looking up from the eyepiece.
"Magic?" Gene Splice whispered.
"What?"
"Magic!"
"I don't understand."
"They react to magic!" Gene Splice beamed. This caught the entire group’s attention. "When I was levitating my clipboard over here, the cells were acting up, but when I deactivated it, they calmed down!"
"So, what does that mean?" Alpha bone asked.
"It's too early to tell, but I want try something. I'm going to leave a trace amount of magical energy on one of my needles and put it into one of the samples."
"It looks like we might have a lead then." Star Gazer said.
"We very well might." Gene Splice said, as Celestia returned.
"Did you find something?" she asked wondering why they were so happy.
"I believe we did Princess."
6
Celestia waited anxiously as Gene Splice readied his experiment. He levitated a small needle piece into the air and charged it with the magic. He looked through the microscope and saw that the cells were already in a frenzy.
"Their already going nuts. Let's see what happens when I put the needle closer to the sample." he mumbled, levitating the small point to the slide. The cells began to go into an even greater frenzy. Gene Splice was not yet satisfied and put the needle point directly into the small drop of blood. The cells gathered closer together, no longer in a frenzy. "That's odd." he whispered. The cells began to gather together and change. "What is this?" he mumbled, anxious to see what the cells were doing. They amassed together and formed a small box with a circular barrel. The tip of the amassed cells began to illuminate and shot a small blue beam, incinerating the needle. Gene Splice jumped back. "Criminy!" he bellowed.
"What happened?" Celestia asked, concerned.
"The cells amassed into a cannon of some kind and incinerated the needle tip!"
Celestia was stunned. "That was unexpected." she managed to say, through the initial shock.
"I believe that was part of their immune response. In normal Pony blood, white blood cells will often band together to destroy an invader that a single cell wouldn't be able to handle."
"Interesting." Celestia said,
"Very." was all Gene Splice could say.
"One thing I don't understand though is why haven't they tried to attack Princess Luna from the inside?"
Star gazer came forward. "I read in a comic once that little machines could be tuned to a specific bio-signature and placed into a host without killing them." he stated.
"A comic? A COMIC?!" Gene Splice shouted. "You dolt, these are blood cells not..." he trailed off into thought. "Little machines tuned to a specific bio-signature?"
"Yes." Star Gazer replied, getting over the insult.
"If that's the case then, why Princess Luna?"
"I am unsure of this as well, but I don't want to shirk the idea." Celestia said.
"I agree." Gene Thought for a moment. "Could they be some-kind of mutation?"
"Not likely." Petri Dish said.
"Could she have been born with them?" Alpha Bone asked.
Both Gene Splice and Princess Celestia thought about it for a while. "Princess?" Gene Splice asked.
"When Luna and I were young, she never got sick. Even when the epidemics struck. Me, other the other hoof, got sick from a few of them. If these were the cause of her powerful immune system, then that would explain quite a-bit." Celestia told them.
"But how did they get into her blood in the first place? That's what isn't making sense." Field Dust inputted.
"Yes. I wish we could find out more. For the time being determine if these cells can jump to another host. I want to let Luna out, but until we can be sure that those cells are not contagious I cannot release her." Celestia said, hopeful that the results would come quickly.
7
Luna and Celestia sat in silence as Luna pondered what Celestia had told her of Gene Splice's progress. Celestia had put up a faint shield to protect herself from the cells as a precaution. Celestia began to get nervous. Luna had not said a word since she had finished her report.
"I could have been born with these things in my blood?" she asked, finally speaking. Celestia only nodded her head. "What does this mean?"
"I don't know Luna. There are so many questions, and so few answers. Every time we think we get close to an answer, a new question arises in its place. I'm starting to wonder if we're going to find an answer." she said, sadly.
"I'm sure there is an answer for us somewhere." she said, trying to comfort herself and Celestia. "Celestia, I have a question."
"What is it?"
"Being in here has given me time to think about everything and, I was wondering...When you were researching that cave painting, did you look at any Equestrian legends or myths?" Luna asked.
"Not, that I'm aware of. Why?"
"I thought that maybe one of the old civilizations of Equestria might have had a story that could be about Volos is all."
Celestia thought for a while. "Now that you mention it, it's entirely possible that one of them could of had something. I'll have Field Dust look into it." she leaned in and hugged Luna. "I need to go. Wait five minutes after I leave and I'll of sealed a larger area for you. You can walk around some, and a barrier will mark the end of the quarantine bubble." she said, letting go of Luna.
"Good, I need to stretch my legs and wings a-little." she said, cracking her wing joints.
Celestia left and cast her spell, allowing Luna more freedom while in isolation.
8
Celestia arrived at Gene Splice's lab again. Again she was greeted by the sight of frustrated ponies. She sighed and walked in.
"No luck?" she said, half-smiling.
"No." Gene Splice groaned. "I have no idea how to determine if these things are contagious Princess. At this point, I vote to let Princess Luna out and hope for the best."
"I'm sorry Gene Splice, I have to think about the rest of Equestria and the Crystal Empire. Taking a risk like that is more than reckless." Celestia said, with an authoritative tone.
Gene Splice sighed. "Princess, we just can't determine whether or not these cells can jump around. At this point, as much as it pains me to admit, I believe that Star Gazer may be right, in that these cells are tuned to Princess Luna only and cannot jump between hosts."
"I understand, but you must have some certainty before I feel comfortable letting her out of quarantine." she argued.
"I understand that Princess, but for our sakes and the sake of our sanity, I think we should let her out and, at least, let her wander the base for a couple days. If nopony has been infected in that time then we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the cells are not contagious." he counter-argued.
"Mr. Splice, if I were to do what you suggest, that could potentially destroy all of us."
The others had begun to listen in on the argument between Gene Splice and Princess Celestia.
"I understand, but I can't think of any other possible way to determine a contagion status without live subjects."
Celestia grew very stern and her face showed seriousness not previously unseen. "Gene Splice." she said, scaring him. "I will not risk lives. But, if you persist, I will have no choice than to test your theory on you." she said, coldly.
"M...Me?" Gene Splice stammered.
"I will not risk another pony’s life. If you wish for a test subject then you must be the one to undertake the experiment." she stated, seriously.
"I...I see." Gene Splice stammered. "I will think on the matter." he said, defeated.
Celestia nodded, letting her stern gaze soften. "Are the rest of you in agreement that there is no way to tell if these cells are contagious?" she asked.
"No." Star Gazer spoke up.
"Oh?"
"It's purely assumption of course but I don't think that these cells are contagious based on the fact that they have not killed Princess Luna. If they have been there her entire life then I do not believe that they will hurt her or jump to any of us." he finished.
"I see. What is this assumption based on?" Celestia asked.
"A comic book." he said, nonchalantly. Celestia raised an eyebrow. "I know it sounds dumb, but I've been into this whole extraterrestrial and Sci-Fi thing for a long time Princess." he said, trying to convince the Princess.
"Extraterrestrial, Sci-Fi?" Petri Dish asked, sarcastically. "We are talking about a possible contagion that could wipe out entire civilizations! What makes you think that Comic Books and Science Fiction help us in this situation!?" he yelled, exasperated.
"Calm yourself Petri!" Alpha Bone shouted, making Petri Dish stand down a little bit. "Now, Star Gazer, based upon your observations of this blood cell, why do you think they are not contagious?" he asked, in a calm tone.
Star Gazer thought for a moment. "Well, for starters, I'm going to answer your question with another question. How long have we already had contact with Princess Luna?"
Alpha Bone and the rest were caught off guard by the question. "Well, for quite some time i guess." Alpha answered.
"Exactly, and we're all still alive, yes?" the others all nodded. "Then, based on that, I don't see how they would be contagious if we're all still alive after being around her for however long it has been." he finished.
Celestia thought about Star Gazer's assumption. "That makes sense." she continued thinking. "I suppose that we would already be dead if it were contagious." She continued to ponder the situation. "I have to agree with Star Gazer. We should already be dead if these cells could jump from host to host. That would mean that the research into this cell is concluded."
"Not yet, Princess. We still need to know why and how these cells got into Princess Luna, they are too extreme for her to have been naturally born with them." Gene Splice said, informing the Princess of the need to further look into the issue.
"What are you saying?" Celestia asked. "Do you suspect something?"
"I think that these cells were put into the Princess." Gene Splice said.
"Foul play!?" she asked, shocked. "You think somepony put those things into Luna?"
"I can't think of any other reason why they would be inside of her, other than that they were placed there by a third party." Gene said, trying to get his point across.
"But why, and whom?" she asked, panicked.
"It's only speculation Princess."
Celestia took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. "I understand, get some rest. All of you, you deserve it." Celestia sighed. "I will be in my quarters." she said, leaving the room to return to her own quarters to think.