Pandemic

by killingfrenzycreator

Chapter One: The Early Stages

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight slammed the book shut, eyelids sagging with fatigue. She looked over at the clock on her wall; three A.M. Princess Celestia had lent Twilight a book on thermonuclear physics; it really was fascinating, and had kept Twilight up all night. Spike was fast asleep upstairs and snoring. Twilight levitated the book onto a high up shelf and slid it into an open space. Her candle's flame was dying, leaving the room illuminated with a dark, cozy blood orange color. Blowing it out, Twilight waited a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before retiring to her own bed. She didn't want to cast an illumination spell for fear of waking up Spike, and because her magic wasn't very coordinated in her sleepy state of mind.
Once able to spot the staircase in front of her, Twilight trudged up and slid under the covers of her bed, careful not to disturb her number one assistant. Spike was snoozing peacefully on his cot, halfway under the covers. Twilight let her head fall to the comfy pillow, eyes shut, with a happy grin plastered on her face. Life was good.
"Twilight! Twilight, wake up!" Twilight slowly opened her eyes, trying to blink the sleep out of them. Spike stood at the foot of the bed, shaking Twilight's right hind leg. "Applejack and Pinkie Pie are here. Weren't you goin' on a picnic, or something?"
"What time is it?" Twilight groaned, using her magic to return her mane to it's usual style. Spike had run off to talk to the two mares at the front door of the library. Glancing at her alarm clock, Twilight let out a gasp. It was four in the afternoon; she had slept eleven full hours! Leaping out of bed and regaining her balance, Twilight hastily tossed a picnic blanket into her saddlebag, levitated it onto her back, and trotted down the stairs to meet her friends. Applejack looked happy to see her; Pinkie looked happy just to be happy. They both smiled warmly as Twilight entered the ground floor of the tree building.
"Twilight! Had a mite too much sleep, I heard! How ya' been?" Applejack greeted her enthusiastically, extending an orange hoof.
"Oh, Applejack, it hasn't been that long since we last saw each other. Just about a month. How was your trip out to Manehattan?" Twilight responded, shaking Applejack's extended hoof. Ugh. Did she spit on it?
"Jus' happy ta' be with all y'all again. Had a wonderful time visitin' my good aunt an' uncle, but all those ponies up there're jus' a bunch ah' rotten apples. Don' much appreciate the ones who're all stuck up an' the likes. How're the others? Haven't had the pleasure o' gettin' reunited with them yet!"
"They've been doing fine. Rarity landed an article in some fashion magazine, she's attracted quite the amount of customers, from all over Equestria. I've heard that she even has some big fashion show coming up, with a big shot from Fillydelphia. Fluttershy rescued a bunch of baby bunnies from a shelter. Rainbow Dash finally got back from Wonderbolt Training; apparently she's going out to a flight program in six months."
"That's great tah' hear, Twi! The other's are probably waiting for us out in the Ponyville park, so we better get a move on if we don' wanna leave 'em waiting!"
Twilight nodded in agreement, and went to say good bye to Spike, who was twiddling his thumbs while sitting on a chair against the wall. After exchanging farewells, Twilight turned to regroup with her friends and depart. She stopped halfway at the door, when Spike went into a moderate coughing fit, that lasted about forty-five seconds.
"Oh, Spike. Did you get yourself sick again?" Twilight sighed softly and notified the others that she was going to give Spike a dose of cough syrup.
"Okee Dokee Lokee!" Pinkie acknowledged, while Applejack nodded in understanding. Twilight trotted over to her medicine cabinet and used magic to levitate a brown plastic bottle labeled 'Anti Cold and Flu! Fights symptoms for 24 hours!', poured a little bit of the bitter, viscous fluid into the plastic over-cap, and told Spike to open his mouth. He obliged, surprisingly without argument (he hated the foul stuff), and allowed Twilight to dump the medicine into his mouth. However, immediately after, he burst into another coughing fit, although this one was a bit more violent. The forced respiratory explosions caused him to send the mouthful of cough syrup flying in a projectile spit. It splattered all over the floor. Twilight sighed in concern, and when Spike was finally done coughing, she gave him another cap full. He forced it down his throat, resulting in gagging, but soon recovered. Twilight put away the medicine and cleaned up the mess, then departed out the front door.
The trio united with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy at the gate to the park. All were very pleased to be back with Applejack, and Applejack was equally excited. After a few minutes of exchanging greetings, all six ponies headed into the park. They stopped in a flat clearing, relishing how soft the grass was. Twilight levitated out the picnic blanket and laid it down, smoothing out the red and white checkered cloth. Pinkie Pie placed a cake and a tray of cupcakes onto a corner of the blanket. Applejack had brought apple treats; apple pie, apple fritters, apple turnovers, and candy apples. Fluttershy had carrots and a large, leafy salad, and Rainbow Dash brought a bit of hay. Rarity didn't bring any food; she sat adjusting her mane and fussing over an eyeliner streak. She did, however, bring tea. The six ponies dove in, enjoying a nice meal and conversing with each other. Twilight sipped from her cup and set it down.
Somewhere to Twilight's right, somepony coughed. Twilight turned her head to look and saw Big Macintosh, pulling an apple cart into town. He appeared as if he wasn't feeling well. Maybe the flu is going around. Flu season's just around the corner, maybe these are just early cases. Twilight decided upon that to give her mind a rest, but for some reason, she had this feeling in her gut that it wasn't the common flu.
Don't be irrational, Twilight. Shaking her head, she took another sip from the tea and enjoyed the rest of the meal. After the food was done, Rainbow Dash went to do her Pegasus duties. Rarity apparently had a client in less than an hour, and Applejack had to get back into her work at the farm. Fluttershy needed to feed her animals, and Pinkie departed to help at Sugarcube Corner. Twilight was now alone. She decided to just go back to the library and check up on Spike's condition. Packing up the blanket and picking up assorted bits of trash, Twilight turned towards the gate.
Two other ponies tried to move out of the park. One of them burst into a coughing fit, flinging spittle and the germ all over the other pony.
"Hey! Watch where you're coughing!" the healthy pony blurted out, enraged. "Don'cha know how to cover your mouth?"
"Sorry... came without... warning.... some weird sickness..." the sick pony had to pause frequently as he went into more aggressive coughing fits. This time he covered his mouth. Twilight waited until the others were gone, so as not to catch whatever was going around. She rushed home, seeing only one more coughing pony. Opening the door, she saw Spike asleep on the ground, a half empty bottle of cough medicine laying next to him. He coughed occasionally. Twilight closed the door, levitated Spike up to his bed upstairs, and cleaned up the newest mess of sticky cough syrup. Her suspicions were correct; either the influenza had developed drug resistances randomly, or this was brand new. However, it wasn't really hurting anyone, so Twilight went with the idea that it would blow off soon.
Spike woke up a few hours later. He stumbled down the oak staircase and greeted Twilight as she was working on writing something. He walked up to Twilight and peeked over her shoulder, and found that it was a letter.

"Twilight, I don't want to got to the hospital," Spike complained. Twilight shook her head.
"Spike we have to find out what's wrong with you, so we can get a more effective treatment," Twilight stated.
"But Twilight-"
"No means no, Spike. Send this to Princess Celestia for me, please."
Spike sighed, took the letter, and with a gust of green fire, it was gone.