//------------------------------// // Chapter Six - The Nonsense // Story: 2986 Steps // by Verlax //------------------------------// Armauer took the guest from Ponyville out for breakfast. He took her to a local diner, just two streets from hospital. The local was situated in an old, wooden house. Some of the walls were removed, replaced by several crude-looking poles. When Twilight and Hansen entered, the entire hall was filled with ponies, almost to the point of bursting. “I don’t think there are any free tables.” Twilight noted dejectedly. “I wouldn’t worry about that.” Indeed, after a moment ponies began leaving the diner, and after a few minutes half of the room was deserted. They sat at one of free tables. The waitress approached and gave them each a menu. Armauer ordered a northern salad, while Twilight chose cauliflower soup. The waitress bolted out of the room as soon as she got their orders. “Why did they leave so suddenly?” Twilight asked, taken aback by the ponies behaviour. Hansen smiled widely. “Shoot.” Twilight thought for a moment and then she shook her head while shrugging. “Obviously, because they think that we are “unclean”, they ran from us like from the lepers themselves.” Hansen explained jauntily. “Besides, there is nothing to be surprised about.” “The owner of the restaurant won’t call the neighbours for help and try to kick us out of here?” “No, because I’m the owner. This is the only place in Flanfkurt I can freely eat. In other restaurants and taverns indeed, they would force us to leave. The ‘advantages’ of a horrid reputation.” he sighed. “You didn’t achieve major success in terms of treatment...” Twilight came back to the questions she wanted to ask, reffering to their yesterday conversation. “The results of the quinine-arsenic mixing weren’t that encouraging, but that doesn’t mean the next won’t work. I came up with a new recipe. Based on mercury. Chemical composition similar to the medicines used against siphilis...” “A mercury-based mixture can be really dangerous...” The waitress brought two glasses with aniseed. They raised them in a quick toast and took a sip. “Doctor Mouritz from the lepers colony in Moloukai tried to rub ill zebras with an aloe-codeine mixing. He achieved several successes in regards of wound treatment.” Hansen continued the conversation. “Maybe it’s worth trying?” Twilight suggested. “I guess it is, but I have problems with aloe. It’s impossible to converse, and it can’t survive in this climate, even in pots. My friend from Manehattan is trying to obtain the extract responsible for accelerating the healing process from the stalks of this plant. Maybe that will be possible to store?” “And the ergotamine salve?” “I don’t know.” he livened up. “What is needed? Glycerine...” “You need to mix hot glycerine with wax and an ergot fungi extract. The results from Canterlot University were quite encouraging, but still it’s no milestone.” The waitress brought their orders and bolted out of the room. “Yea, they are treating us like the ill ones.” Twilight muttered sadly. “Yup. A normal reaction, nothing to be astonished at. Lepra was recognized as the punishment for sins or a curse of sorts, just recently ponies understood that this is a disease. Now, even my chief knows that...” “By the way, Dostoyevsky looked really ashamed when you mention his earlier beliefs... what was all that about?” she asked. “Well. When he was young he came up with a theory... that this is a family pestilence. He tried twenty times to inculcate leprosy in himself. Because he didn’t succeed, he came to the conclusion, that it was “congenital”. He changed his mind when the government introduced the ‘prevention’ program.” Hansen explained. “Where did Dostoyevsky come from anyway?” she asked suddenly. “Strange accent, thrown in latin words, ‘hetmans’... where is he from?” “From what I’ve heard, it’s called “Commonwealth of Three Nations”. In shortcut. I didn’t try to remember the entire name, it was about twenty words long. Quite big country a long way east of Equestria, and by ‘long’ I mean a really long way.” Hansen answered. “Could you tell me more about that?” she asked, a bit furious that there was an entire country she didn’t even know existed. She decided, that once back home she would have to read up about it. “I’m not the pony you should be asking about this. I guess you need to ask Dostoyevsky himself, he definitely knows more about it than me I need to warn you however: believe only half of what he says. He likes to exaggerate in his stories. I guess” he added silently. “Well, maybe let’s go back to the leprosy thingy.” Twilight changed the topic. “I couldn’t find that in books: how long is the incubation period for leprosy?” “It depends. In our climate, it’s usually five years, however we have several patients who had their first symptoms only two years after infection. The doctors from Moloukai think, that lepra can incubate up to for seven years. I still don’t know how that’s possible...” “Maybe zebras are more resilient?” she suggested. “It’s a hard question to answer. I don’t think so, because the plague brought by Changelings is killing them in hundreds. The lepra just incubate longer in their bodies.” The waitress took their empty plates and quickly left. After a moment, somewhere outside the hall they heard the sound of silica being smashed to pieces. “They are breaking the plates that I used.” Hansen said. “Thanks to this, clients feel a bit safer. Where was I? Oh, yes. Did I mention the ‘prevention’ program? After the last plague comeback, we started to isolate the ill ponies, and we started to examine every pony from their families. We made special laws for each region of Northern Equestria. At first, isolation was a huge success. At first we noted two thousand new infected, but after introducing the government program, the numbers significantly lowered. Twenty years later, it was only one thousand three hundred, in the next twenty years it was only three hundred. But now, five years later, we noted one thousand seven hundred.” Twilight shivered hearing Hansen throwing all those numbers like if they were nothing. “How’s that possible?” “We improved our detection methods. My apprentice, Nilsen, came up with a new test... I guess earlier we just overlooked a lot. At least, I hope we did...” he muttered. “Where did the lepers appear?” “Mainly here, in Flankfurt.” Hansen sighed. “Celestia dammit...” he cursed. “Maybe near the research center the detection is higher?” “Definitely no. We trained one hundred doctors. We have the list of families in which members suffered from lepra in the span of the last seventy years. All of them are examined every year. We also started to examine random ponies from the streets. Of course, our actions aren’t liked by the citizens. Ponies are afraid...” Finally, they stood up and exited the building. An earth pony sailor, who was standing outside, near the entrance, turned his head to face them. “You should find him and kill him.” the sailor said. This was too much for Hansen. “This is bullshit!” he shouted. Next, he started shouting so rapidly and furiously, that she couldn’t understand any of his words. However, Twilight was sure that most of them were vulgar. When he finally calmed down, he turned into another street. Twilight followed him. “I’m sorry.” Hansen said, sighing hard. “I just can’t stand this.” “Who do we need to kill? What do they want?” Twilight asked, still shocked from Hansen’s earlier outburst. “Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense, nonsense...” Armauer started whispering to himself, probably being in even bigger shock than her. “What...” she tried to ask, but was cut by the the unicorn doctor’s answer. “They ‘believe’ that, when Dostoyevsky founded and set up the research center against the leprosy, the demon of this plague came to observe our actions. He is supposedly wandering in the city and infecting ponies. Indeed, one year earlier we noted twenty new plaguebearers. This year, thirty six.” “Did you try to mark them on the city map? Maybe it’s something different?” Twilight suggested. “Like for example food poisoning? Or water? Did you check the wells?” “Most of them we noted in the Mareggen district. Almost all of them in fact.” Hansen corrected himself. “What is that place?” She almost became accustomed to the cold of the North by now, but when a gale of frosty wind blew through the street, she started shaking immediately. Even Rarity’s warmest coat didn’t help much. Hansen was fearing better, but not by much. “We are going there right now.” he smiled grimly. “You will see for yourself."