April 14 2015
100:00:00:00
Dallas, Texas
Discord and I were sitting on the couch and waiting for the breaking news to come, we know it will happen, we just need to wait.
“Breaking news, live from the white house.”
The news was on and the woman reporter was in front of the white house, but at the moment it appeared the action was the paper, so she was making a report while Twilight was being bombarded by questions from the newspaper.
“This just in, someone is claiming responsibility for the pony flu, a mysterious disease that transforms the infected into small horses, according to the World Health Organization almost every land mass has been infected with only one country taking a stand, Madagascar.”
The next thing I know I’m holding Discord upside down while twitching my eye. When I realized I’m somehow holding Discords legs with my hooves, he fell.
“We are now heading to meet the one claiming responsibility for the pony flu.”
“Hello everypony, I’m princess Twilight Sparkle, and I’m here to apologize on behalf of a friend for what happened three months ago. You see, magic is real where I come from and this was a magic mishap. A friend of mine accidently teleported a vial of disease to this world and that’s what happened three months ago.”
“But don’t threat, I’ve got a way to cure the flu, so I will try to help in anyway I can.”
“This is Diana, reporting for CBS news, signing out.”
“And now for the sports news…” We both pressed the power button at the very same time.
I had one thing on my mind. “Is this cure tested?”
“I think Twilight cast the spell on herself, but I’m not quite sure.”
Now I’m unsure about where Twilight will end up, reaching national television would end her up in US politics, but saying she has a cure will throw her right back into the CDC.
“Welp, whatever happens, can’t do anything about it, so might as well do something to pass the time, got a few board games that are as hard if not harder than Pandemic II.”
“I control every chaotic force, even these simple games are inside my control, I do enjoy these games but I can’t help but bend the rules in my favor.”
So I decided to skip Yahtzee and go for a skill based game, Jenga.
April 14 2015
100:05:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
After gaining the power of telekinesis, I started working on getting my research back on track.
"Let's see, if I start testing the properties of Pestis I can find out how to get around it's mysterious abilities."
That was when I got a knock on the door. "Dr Kenderson, you got a guest who claims to have a cure for H1P1."
I asked them to bring him or her in, to see it's Twilight.
“How did you get back here?”
“I just said I had a cure.”
I understood completely. “If so lets get to work, first off. Is this cure tested?”
“Yes, I cast the spell on myself, so I know it works and I know it’s safe.”
“Hmm… We shall see.” I went to the computer and ordered up some test subjects from each stage of the disease.
“What are you doing? Isn’t using the spell on myself good enough?”
“If you were human, yes, but since you’re not exactly human we need to try it out on some infected humans in each stage of development. How does this cure work?”
“In all honesty, I’m not quite sure, I don’t know much about what causes the disease since Discord told me it’s a bunch of tiny creatures flying around.”
“I guess I’ll just have to teach you virology then.”
After an hour or so we got through the basics and Twilight had learned enough to explain how the cure works.
“Alright, so the cure works by inhibiting the virus's ability to enter host cells, thus making them unable to reproduce.”
This was actually pretty good, but there's only one way to test it. “Cast your spell at subject A.”
“Right!” And so she did, subject A was in stage one, and when the spell was cast, subject A rapidly started speeding through the transformation rather quickly.
“Stop the test!” I said, Twilight stopped. “Look at this, the spell seems to be speeding the change up, not slowing it down.”
“Hmm… maybe it has more to do with what you lack then what we have.”
“Well there’s Pestis.”
“There’s what?”
“Pestis Incognitus, a collection of antigens from H1P1 that are not on any cell on this planet.”
“Hmm… I don’t know, it could mean anything.”
“That’s why we are doing these tests, if we don’t we’ll never be able to explain it. and if we can’t explain it, we can’t really say it’s true.”
Twilight seemed a bit confused at what I said. “Are you saying with science you can explain every phenomenon?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Lets just say I got something I need to get back to when this is over.”
“Alright, anyway can you cast the spell on this tissue sample, I want to see the effects of it on Pestis.”
“All right.” And so she cast it.
What I saw made me realize something, the magic was flowing through the Pestis Incognitus antigens in a way that showed that there could be negative side effects if the magic went in any other way.
So I decided to do a test, grabbing a few bacteria samples I placed a small amount on a petri dish and labeled it control, then set some more on another petri dish and labeled it magic influenced.
“Cast the spell on the petri dish that’s not labeled control.”
After that I put both dishes in the incubator and prepped another experiment.
This time I got some tissue samples out of the freezer and labeled them the same as before, but this time its a DNA test.
Before the spell was cast I sequenced the genome of the sample before giving it to Twilight and having her cast the spell.
Afterwards, I sequenced it again and found that one chromosome was completely swapped out, a Y chromosome.
Other than that the DNA was only slightly changed, but the changes that happened could possibly change the very shape of the body.
“Alright, from the information I got, I think I’m ready to make a hypothesis.”
“Pestis Incognitus are not antigens, there receptors that allow the magical energy in without causing damage to the cell or virus it’s connected to.”
“But because our cells don’t have these receptors, the magic gets in wrong and causes mutations that result in the transformation.”
“The only question now is, why does it change us into your kind?”
“I think it’s time for me to give you a lesson in magic.” Said Twilight.
Twilight then taught me how magic works, and that it is a force of order, which is quite the opposite to anything in the laws of physics as I know it, since any form of energy in a thermodynamics module is a force of entropy.
“so the reason we change into your kind is because the magic decided to?”
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think you understand, when a pony is manipulating magic they channel natural magic in the air through wings, horn or otherwise, but when natural magic is effecting something, the environment around you is what determines the result.”
I pondered on that for a moment then went to the computer and ordered up a list known forms infected could be in.
“Lets see, griffons in California, ponies that shine like crystals up north in Canada and Alaska. It appears that it does.”
“So, griffons in California, what’s it like in over there?” Asked Twilight.
“It’s a desert.”
“Oh, and Canada and Alaska must be pretty far up north to get crystal ponies, since they're used to cold temperatures.”
“They are, half of each is right in the arctic circle.”
After that we started discussing how we can cure this disease, magics off the table, vaccination is impossible if the virus is unkillable by the immune system, all that leaves is to stop people from being infected in the first place, which we are trying, but there has to be another way.
“That's it!” I said.
“What is?” Asked Twilight.
“H1P1 is very similar to a disease on earth called H1N1, if we were to mix the two we may possibly be able to make a vaccine of sorts.”
“But what if it makes it worse?”
“Don’t worry, we have procedures to make sure these things don’t become problems. What’s the worse that could happen?”
Twilight was not amused. “You do realize what you did right?”
It took a few seconds for me to realize what I did. “Crap…”
Now we don’t have fate on our side.