The light orange mare was trotting to the edge of her farm, the light spring breeze caressing her straw-blonde mane. Applejack stood beside the mailbox and took out the newspaper, carrying it in her mouth back the farmhouse.
She walked into the farmhouse, and heard Applebloom whining and Granny Smith chiding her. Applejack plunked the roll of papers on the table where her family was eating breakfast. Granny Smith smiled at Applejack, her tight bun of white hair trembling. “Oh, darling, did you check that fancy smancy new pipe system?”
“I’ll get right on that, ma.” Applejack replied cheerily. “I’m glad we got that irrigation network, it was working mighty fine yesterday.”
Granny Smith laughed. “I knew that contraption would do us good. This is going to be a fine harvest season.”
Applebloom was smearing jam on her toast as well as all over the table. “Does that mean we’ll get more money now?”
“Eeyup,” said Big Mac, his mouth full of toast.
Winona bounded through the door yapping. Applejack smiled, pouring herself some juice and reading the newspaper. There was a picture of Filthy Rich waving on the front page with the headlines, “New Chemical Plant Now Hiring. New Jobs Expected to Stimulate Economy.” Applejack pushed the newspaper out into the center of the table. “Filthy Rich is opening a factory right here in Ponyville.”
Granny Smith nodded. “Oh, yes. Though that’s old news, the building has been up and running for a few weeks now. It’s about time they’re hiring.”
Applejack continued reading the article. “Oh, it also mentions Filthy Rich’s oil drilling operations in the Badlands. Apparently he struck it rich.”
Applebloom giggled. “Can we call him Filthy Richer now?”
“Eeeyup,” Big Mac agreed. Everyone laughed. Applejack helped pick up the dishes and cleaned up the table.
Applejack smiled. Maybe she could work there for some extra money. All those new jobs would make everypony so happy. Filthy Rich brings prosperity wherever he goes.
She trotted outside, admiring the design of the irrigation system. The corn stalks stretched high up, almost ready to harvest. Never had she seen the crops so bright and full, she marveled.
“Applejack!” she heard a soft voice call out for her. She turned around and saw Fluttershy running down towards her, tears in her eyes.
“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” she asked Fluttershy, very concerned.
She sobbed, tears running down her eyes. “I don’t know what to do,” she screamed. “They’re in so much pain!”
“Whoa, slow down there, Fluttershy,” she said in her country drawl. Fluttershy calmed down, still sobbing. “Now, who exactly is in so much pain?”
“The animals!” she cried. “I don’t know what happened, they were all fine the night before, but now…” Fluttershy broke down.
Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder. “Easy there, Fluttershy. C’mon let’s go see those animals.”
Fluttershy looked up at her, her eyes hopeful. “Oh, thank you. Thank you.”
“Now, now,” she said. “I’m not an expert with animals like you are, but as a farmpony, I still know my stuff.”
They went to Fluttershy’s house, and as soon as Applejack stepped on her property, she could immediately tell that there was something wrong here. All of Fluttershy’s plants were withering, even the grass was withering. The critters that usually frolicked about in her yard were nowhere to be seen. Not even the birds were singing. The silence was eerie.
Fluttershy led her inside, and Applejack gasped. She had set up an infirmary inside her house, and every makeshift bed was filled with a sick animal. Applejack leaned down, looking at a squirrel. The little brown squirrel looked up at Applejack weakly, streaks of dried black ooze ran down the squirrel’s mouth and down its tiny neck. Applejack moved back, surprised. She looked back at Fluttershy, who was flitting about, making sure her animals were comfortable as possible. “Nothing like this has ever happened before!” Fluttershy cried desperately, wiping away black ooze from a chicken’s mouth.
Applejack looked around. “Sugarcube, we’ve got to get these animals quarantined. They’re obviously very sick, and whatever they’re sick with is probably very contagious if they all caught it in one night.”
Fluttershy looked around panicked. “They need to get to a hospital!” She grabbed her mane, “I should have noticed the symptoms! The animals weren’t as energetic as they usually are during the spring, the birds were refusing to eat, and oh my goodness!” Fluttershy ran over to Angel, who was appearing to have a seizure. “Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy faced Applejack. “What do I do!?”
Angel’s seizure ended, and he became very still, black ooze bubbling from his mouth. Applejack thought for a solution. “We can’t risk the disease spreading to the other animals in the hospital. Let’s get Twilight to help us, she’s smart, she’ll know what to do.”
She prayed that Twilight could help, for Applejack had no clue what to do. Applejack looked at Fluttershy, putting her hoof on her shoulder. “Fluttershy, you can fly to Twilight’s faster than I can run there. I’ll take care of the animals, and you bring her here.”
Fluttershy sniffed. “I’m so scared, Applejack. What if when I’m gone…” she looked at all the sick animals around.
Applejack sighed. “I’ll do my best to take care of them, now hurry! Fetch Twilight!”
Fluttershy nodded, wiping her tears and spreading her wings. She flew out, and Applejack tended to the animals. She wiped off the black ooze from their mouths, and it felt viscous and gooey on her hoof. “What in tarnation is this stuff?”
An hour passed, when Twilight came charging through the door with Fluttershy. “Oh, dear!” Twilight cried out. “It’s an epidemic!”
Fluttershy walked in with a bucket of water, her eyes red from the tears. She began trickling water down the beaks of her chickens, “Please drink, little guys. It’ll keep the fever down.”
Twilight looked around, overwhelmed. She sat down near a sick kitten, observing it. “Fluttershy, can you tell me if anything out of the ordinary happened between before the onset of the symptoms?”
“Well, Angel wandered away from home.” Fluttershy touched noses with Angel. “I found him in the Everfree Forest, and when I brought him home, he had thrown up the same black ooze. But I thought he had been feeling better, but…” Fluttershy sobbed. “Is this my fault!?”
Twilight nodded. “It’s not your fault, Fluttershy. You didn’t know.” Twilight walked through the crowded aisles of the infirmary. “Epidemics happen all the time…” she looked closely at a sick kitten, pulling out a notepad and quill. “Symptoms appear to be a high fever, profuse sweating, vomiting…” Twilight gathered some of the black ooze from the kitten’s mouth. “They are all spitting up this stuff.” Twilight’s horn began to glow, and the black ooze began to glow as well. The light faded, and Twilight gasped. “This ooze is dead tissue.” Twilight nodded her head. “This is very serious, something is eating them from the inside out. Angel probably picked up some kind of monster virus from the Everfree Forest and infected all your other animals when you brought him back home.”
Applejack looked around uncertainly. “I don’t know much about viruses or any of that, but I have never seen sickness like this before.”
Twilight nodded, wiping off the black ooze from her hooves. She gasped, and looked at the ooze remaining on her hoof. “There’s some kind of crystalline fragments in the ooze!” She wiped the remnants off on the ground. “I’m going to go back to the library and look through my books for diseases with symptoms like this.” Twilight made for the door. “Whatever this is, it’s exotic and very contagious. You can’t let any of the animals leave.”
Applejack stared at her. “Twilight, what do we do in the meantime?”
Twilight sighed. “Just hang in there. Once I’ve got the disease identified, I can make medicine for it.”
Fluttershy began crying again, seeing that Angel was having another seizure. “Oh, please hurry, Twilight! I don’t know how much longer they’re going to last!”
Twilight nodded and galloped out of the door. Applejack stood beside Fluttershy, consoling her. “Don’t you worry now, Fluttershy. Twilight has always come through for us. I’ll help you through this in the meantime.”
“Oh, thank you, Applejack!” Fluttershy hugged her, and Applejack wrapped her hooves around her. “Thank you so much.”