//------------------------------// // Sick Day // Story: Daienu // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Sick Day Yaazi sat down in front of Dinky's TV, playing video games with her. However, her face was locked in a rather fierce frown. Normally, a filly her age would be happy to be able to spend a Saturday with their best friend doing whatever came to mind as something fun to do. However, Yaazi wasn't exactly a normal filly, and her preferences for spending time weren't what you might consider normal. The one thing she really wanted to do today - the thing she'd been looking forward to all week - was denied her, and that made her rather vicious with the poor timberwolves in the video game. As the last batch was blasted to smithereens by a blast from her rail cannon, she dropped the controller with a growl. Dinky looked over. "Alright, Yaazi, what's eating you?" Yaazi stood up and stomped over to the snack table they'd set up, grabbing a muffin. "I want to spend time with Daddy!" she said, a growl in her voice. Dinky looked hurt. "D-don't you like spending time with me?" she asked. Yaazi hastened to assure her friend. "Of course I do, Dinky. You're my best friend, and I love spending time with you. It's just...ever since I started attending school, I haven't been spending as much time with Daddy as I used to, and I missed it. Daddy promised I could spend today with him to make up for it, but when I went to go be with him, Mommy said I was spending the day here! Why can't I be with Daddy?" Yaazi shifted to her unicorn form because, even though she was often glad of the lack of tear ducts in public, in private it felt good to cry sometimes. Walking up, Dinky hugged Yaazi. "There there, Yaazi, I know you're upset. Daddy told me it was because Twow's sick today, and he doesn't want you getting what he has." "B-but Mommy gets to be with him," Yaazi wept, tears streaming down her face. "Human germs don't affect ponies, according to Mommy," Dinky said wisely. "Then how can they affect me?" Yaazi asked, crying. Dinky frowned. "I heard Mommy and Daddy talking about it, but I didn't understand all of it. From what I heard, you feeding on Twow's emotions has altered your magical aura to be partially human, making you susceptible to human illnesses. However, your pony/changeling physiology lacks the inborn human resistances to such illnesses, meaning that even the human common cold could prove seriously debilitating, if not lethal, to you." Dinky tilted her head, somewhat confused. "Daddy mentioned some fictional work of the humans as an example when telling Twow all this. 'War of the Worlds', I think he called it." Yaazi sighed. "Which is why Daddy would back Mommy in having me be somewhere else today, so I couldn't get sick. It's just..." Sniffling, she wiped her eyes. "How can I sit here and have fun, knowing my Daddy is down in his lab, suffering from illness, and I can't be there for him?" Dinky hugged her friend again. "I know, Yaazi. But what can you do? It's not like there's a way for you to be in there with him without risking getting sick." Yaazi started to nod, but her head froze. Remembering something from one of the games they'd played, she began to grin. "Maybe there is." As her mind continued along this train of thought, her grin widened. "And I think I know just where to get it. You up for an adventure, Dinky?" Dinky nodded. "Always!" ------------ Twow lay back on his bed in the lab, feeling rather wan. Once the danger to Yaazi from his illness had been made clear, he had initiated several steps to prevent any possibility of her catching it. First, he had agreed with Fluttershy to have Yaazi spend the day at Derpy's with Dinky. Second, he had completely sterilized the lab. (Fluttershy had to convince him that doing so with fire while underground wouldn't be the best of ideas, so they got Twilight to do so with a spell.) Third, Luna had arrived and placed a powerful energy field across all possible entrances to the lab. While ponies and other sentient life could pass through easily, the fields would eradicate any microscopic organism - be it bacterial, viral, or magical in nature - that came into contact with it. Luna assured Twow that each field had the same amount of magic in it that she normally used to raise the moon, so there was no danger whatsoever of spell failure. With these precautions in place, Twow felt convinced that Yaazi was safe from his illness, even if it didn't leave him feeling very well. He was brought to full awareness as he heard a strange sound approaching across the lab. Flop, flop, flop, flop It sounded like plastic against metal, flopping around loosely. He pushed himself into a sitting position, staring out to see what was approaching. A small figure, roughly pony shaped, approached. It was all yellow, with long, flopping limbs, a heavily wrinkled body, and a strangely oversized head. It approached him, the floppy limbs making the noise as they impacted the ground. The face seemed made of glass, and the mouth was machine like. Then, as his vision cleared a bit more, a voice issued from the mouth, confirming what he was seeing. "Hi Daddy!" Twow blinked. "Yaazi! You're supposed to be spending the day at Derpy's!" "I am. Your lab is in her basement, after all." Twow struggled with his words. "You can't be in here! You might get sick." "Taken care of," Yaazi said proudly, waving the plastic sleeve that extended well beyond the tip of her hoof. "Hazmat suit. No sickness is getting in to me like this." Twow stared at her, now recognizing what she was wearing. "Where did you get a hazmat suit anyway?" "From Twilight." "Twilight let you use her hazmat suit?" Yaazi gulped audibly. "Umm...not exactly..." "YAAZI!" the shout came from the doorway, as Twilight came stomping in, a fierce scowl on her face. "Just what do you think you're doing with my hazmat suit?" Yaazi turned to face Twilight, falling down onto her rear as she tripped over the long sleeves of the suit. Her eyes barely peeking out over the edge of the faceplate, she whimpered, "I j-just wanted t-to take c-care of my D-d-daddy..." Her eyes shimmered slightly as though with unshed tears. Twilight struggled - in vain - to maintain her scowl. Seeing Twow clutching at his heart, she lifted Yaazi in her telekinesis. "Well, you're not helping him much straining his heart like that. Come on, if you're that determined, at least let me get you a suit in your size. And next time, ask before you take it, please?" Twow leaned back. He'd have to have a talk with Yaazi about that. She really shouldn't be taking other people's things without permission. Or at least, he thought, his illness befuddled mind shifting back to the RPGs he'd been playing with her recently, she should do better at not getting caught. ------------ Fluttershy came back into the lab with the supplies she'd gone out to get. "I'm back, Twow," she said quietly, but loud enough to be heard. "I've got everything I need. I'll have you up and about in no time." As she walked into his bedroom, she paused. A yellow clad figure of childish proportions stood before Twow's bed, holding a bowl of soup and a spoon in a green telekinetic grip. "Yaazi, I can feed myself," Twow was saying as the spoon levitated to his mouth. "You need to take it easy, Daddy," Yaazi said, her voice distorted slightly by the hazmat suit. "Now open wide and say, 'ah'." Smiling, Twow rolled his eyes at Fluttershy over Yaazi's shoulder and opened his mouth so Yaazi could spoon feed him. Fluttershy did her best to hold back a high pitched squeal.