Twilight screamed terrified as her eyes shot open. As quickly as she could she tried to back away, only for her legs to get tangled in something. With blurred eyesight she managed to recognize the item as a blanket, and on instinct she hid under it, just like a four year old filly, shaking in fear like a leaf in autumn.
She panted for a few agonizing moments, her lungs burning and threatening to burst out of her chest. Her quick, ragged breathing served only to aggravate her throat, which felt like if she downed a bottle of vinegar in one go. Her nose was assaulted by the mixed smells of her own perspiration as well as her salty tears. Only now did Twilight notice, that she was crying.
She didn’t know how long she was lying there, before she managed to calm her nerves and gather the courage to look around. She slowly raised her head from the comfort of the blanket and took stock of the room. It was shrouded in complete darkness, shadows looming all around her. She almost missed a candle standing on a nightstand, barely a meter away from her.
She tried to levitate it to her, but for some reason it was incredibly difficult. The candle seemed far heavier than it should be. It felt almost like trying to lift Tom. Once she managed to bring it to her, she summoned a small flame and finally light spread across the room.
Twilight raised from her bed sluggishly, each step taking a huge effort to make. She slowly marched towards the bathroom with the candle in her mouth. Once there, she looked herself in the mirror.
She almost backed up once she saw how she looked. Twilight’s eyes were completely bloodshot. She could barely make out the lavender in her eyes, they were covered in red lines, giving her the appearance of somepony that didn’t sleep in months, further stressed by the bags under her eyes. There were also tear stains on her cheeks, leaving traces of salt on her coat.
Twilight washed her face several times with cold water, trying to wake herself up. She was still shaking from head to hoof, and she had problems even with things as simple as standing.
She looked in the mirror again. She still looked absolutely horrid, but at least it was possible look at her and not scream in terror. Closing her eyes, Twilight tried to recall that...
Dream? She hardly remembered anything from it. Twilight knew only that it was something really dreadful, something that made her literally jump out her bed. The last truly terrifying nightmare she had was just before her entrance exam to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but that was years ago. And in hindsight, it wasn’t even that terrifying to begin with. Actually, now she thought of it more as a really bizarre, if not downright hilarious at times dream. Back then however it scared the living daylight out of her.
She washed her face again. No matter how much she tried, she was still shaking, even though she didn’t remember what frightened her so much to begin with.
After a few more minutes Twilight deemed herself presentable and decided to get out of her room. Opening the door with her magic proved to be much easier than lifting that candle, but it was still much too taxing for her liking. Just what happened to her magic?
Shaking her head slightly, Twilight took a look outside the window. The sun was slowly rising over the horizon, giving enough light for her to see that the several days-long blizzard had subsided. The sky was still overcast, but it stopped snowing and it seemed that the wind ceased blowing as well. She spotted several ponies trotting through the snow-covered streets of Flankfurt. It was probably the most beautiful weather since her arrival.
“Flankfurt must look really beautiful during summer.” she mused, admiring the old, wooden structures of the city, for the first time not blocked from her sight by the raging snowstorm.
Twilight went down the staircase and towards the exit when suddenly she almost bumped into Hansen.
“Oh, good morning miss!” Hansen greeted energetically as he turned to face her. “What can... I...” his eyes went wide. After a moment of silently staring at her he asked: “You didn’t sleep well, did you?”
Twilight blinked slowly, having difficulties keeping her eyes open. Her eyelids felt so heavy...
“Well... yea.” she admitted and yawned.
Hansen rubbed his head. “You know, we prepared all the equipment to start the experiment on the mercury mixture...”
Twilight almost facehooved at that. “Sweet Celestia, I completely forgot!” she thought
“...and you know, we would really appreciate the help...”
Horse feathers, even now I can’t stop shaking. In this state I’m useless in a lab...
“Dostoyevsky have just run to the warehouse to gather the rest of the equipment we need to...”
“I need a break.” Twilight interrupted him. “This was probably worst night ever. Can you manage without me for some time?”
Hansen didn’t look too surprised at her request.
“You really don’t look too good, you know. If it will help you, take the day off.”
Twilight sighed. “Thanks. I’ll try to be back as soon as possible.”
Having said that, Twilight left through the doors of the leprosarium and out on the streets of Flankfurt. She was positively surprised by the city. Without the snowstorm to hinder her sight and without the howling winds lashing at her face, Flankfurt really was a gem of the North.
With the weather improvement, the ponies started filling the streets again. There wasn’t a lot of them, but it still warmed her heart to know that the city was living at all. There were times that she thought that the only living beings in the entire town were the ones dying in the hospital.
“I should go on a walk, stretch my legs a bit.” Twilight thought, choosing a direction at random. “Maybe I can get my head out of the gloom that way. And who knows, maybe I’ll find the city library.”
As Twilight didn’t have any particular direction in mind, she simply wandered the streets, choosing those with the nicest looking buildings over any other. After a few minutes she noticed, that the amount of ponies on the streets was steadily increasing. She was unmistakably heading towards the city center.
Twilight took another turn and quite unexpectedly marched right into a large square. It was clear that it was the center of town; the buildings surrounding the square were built in a much more elegant fashion, as well as freshly painted. It was quite possible, that a large number of the town nobility lived here. The square itself was occupied by a sizable crowd of ponies, huddled up into small groups and talking in hushed tones. Twilight noted that this time they weren’t actually cautious of getting infected, a sight that took her completely by surprise. She was half expecting them to keep to themselves and avoid large gatherings in fear of the lepra, but here they were, seemingly not worrying about it in the slightest. Only question is, what could possibly make them forget about the plague?
She tried to get into the middle of the crowd to check what was actually going on, but she couldn’t get even half way in. There were simply too many ponies, and most of them were too muscular or simply too heavy for her to push her way in. For a moment she thought about giving it a rest, but then she came up with an idea.
Twilight took a deep breath and prepared herself.
“Excuse me, I’m a doctor.” she said loud enough for everypony to hear. “Doctor passing through. A little space for a physician.”
Her little white lie worked as ponies moved out of her way, giving her a wide berth. Twilight suspected, that they did that more out of fear of the lepra than out of helpfulness, but in the end it didn’t matter as long as she reached her goal.
The gathered ponies stood in front of a platform, occupied by a single unicorn mare. She was surprisingly massive, with a brown coat and a light pink mane. Her voice was powerful, yet the sheer size of the square coupled with the hum the crowd was generating made her voice barely hearable.
“...mayor of Manehattan declined our request for help, same with Fillydelphia and Canterlot itself.” she spoke. “Equestrian Commission came to the decision, that they cannot risk sending us any more help until the winter snowstorms subside. The weather effectively cut off our supply lines and until the spring thaw, all land mass transportation in and out of our city is indifferently postponed.”
“We have also received word concerning the food supplies sent to us by the government of Los Pegasus. Captain Tidehunter and his fleet of ten trading vessels is unable to reach us due to storms blocking every port north of Manehattan. It is highly unlikely that he will manage to reach us until spring.”
The crowd fell silent. The spokesmare trembled, fearing the reaction her next words would bring.
“In light of these events, the ruling Council of Captains has decided to decrease the amount of food given out per citizen. From here on out, hot meals will be given out only once per week, and daily bread rations will be decreased from two pounds to one pound per citizen. This shall last for about a month or month and half, unless the promised supplies reach us earlier.”
For a short moment total silence reigned supreme over the city square. That didn’t last long however, and mere moments later the citizens of Flankfurt began showing their displeasure.
“Are you crazy!?”
“I have fillies to feed for Celestia’s sake!
“It’s impossible!”
“Give us food!”
“No, this can’t be true!”
“With all due respect ma’am, are you high!?”
“The poor ones suffer while the those rich pricks are eating daisies! Daisies!”
“Arrogant bourgeoisie!”
“Give us their food!”
At this point it was clear, that this that this would not end well. The crowd began shouting insults and threats directed at the local nobility, fury in every syllable they intoned. Twilight, not wanting to test her luck decided it was high time she got out of there. She turned back and with the same “I’m a doctor, let me pass, I’m a doctor, sorry” strategy she started making her way out of both the crowd and the square. From the corner of her eye Twilight noticed the poor spokesmare turning tail and bolting towards a nearby building, the town hall if she had to guess by the clock tower, and disappearing inside it.
“Give us their food!”
“You arrogant bastards!”
“Down with tyranny!”
“Down with tyranny!”
“Down with tyranny!”
She quickly went down an alley, just to get further from the mass of furious ponies. The day was supposed to be good one, but now... now it became almost as grim as all previous ones. Twilight trotted slowly, turning into yet another alley. The screams of the furious crowd were slowly fading away with each step she took.
“Even if the leprosy won’t kill us, the city is doomed anyway?” she asked herself grimly. “Famine, or maybe revolution? Slowly fading away due to the inevitable rot, or maybe the violence that will sweep away this city? Or will freeze to death.” She added, noticing that it began snowing softly, shivering despite the worm cloak she had as a frosty gust of wind blew in her face. “I miss home, my family, my friends... why didn’t I ask them to come with me? Why did I have to take the Princess’ word to the letter?...”
The thought of her friends made her eyes water a bit. She gulped down a sob.
“I didn’t even write them a letter... maybe they are all worrying about me? Sweet Celestia, I should definitely do something about this...
Twilight took another turn, her mind still weighed down with concerns.
“Why am I here? I’m barely making any difference. I’m not a doctor, and no matter how much I try, I simply cannot save the city from something that does not depend from me. I cannot stop the weather, because I can’t affect it in any way. I cannot stop the leprosy, because for now, there is no cure for it. I cannot stop the famine, because it’s the result of the weather conditions and bad decisions of the government. I’m completely useless...”
Twilight trotted slowly, marching into the less-populated areas of town. Her hooves were sinking deep into the puffy white snow.
She walked into the another alley, but this time something caught her eye. One of the buildings was much older than the others. It was like if a single building from Mareggen was somehow transported to one of the modern Flankfurt districts. It was a big structure, built out of dark wood. It had clear marks of its gothic descent with two columns right in front of the magnificent, old-fashioned oaken doors. There was a simple plate nailed to one of those with but two words written on it.
“Flankfurt Library”