"Why are we out here again? You know our sisters told us we're not allowed to go into the Everfree Forest," A small white unicorn filly, Sweetie Belle, asked, as they walked through the dark Everfree Forest.
"Relax. We're not going to be in here for long. And we won't go that far." A small orange pegasus filly, Scootaloo, answered.
"Yeah. We're just looking for something we could get our cutie marks in. Like Timberwolf tamers!" A small yellow earth pony filly, Applebloom added.
"Or dungeon finders! Just imagine it! We'll find a dungeon, and we could explore it, finding all kinds of awesome loot!" Scootaloo said, daydreaming.
"But won't that be dangerous?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Pfft, it would be an abandoned dungeon, obviously. Why would someone have a still-in-use dungeon in the Everfree Forest?! Besides, any kind of danger would be worth it if we get our cutie marks!" Scootaloo said, jumping up, and fluttering her wings, before falling back down.
The two fillies kept on talking, and they didn't notice their other friend's muscles tighten when she heard a familiar sound. "Uh, girls?" Applebloom called out.
"But our sisters will soon figure out that we're in the Everfree!" Sweetie Belle replied, oblivious to her friend's warnings. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be punished by Rarity again." She shivered in fear.
"Girls." Applebloom called out again, this time slightly louder.
"Don't worry." Scootaloo responded. "We'll be in and out. Just imagine how glad everypony would be if we brought back enough ancient treasures, that we'd make Diamond Tiara look poor in comparison!" She smiled, imagining showing up the three fillies' biggest rivals.
"GIRLS!" Applebloom yelled, getting the attention of both of her friends. "I think we might get our cutie marks in being chased by timberwolves."
Scootaloo lat out a small laugh. "Please Applebloom, there aren't any timberwolves nearby." Right after she said that, the timberwolves charged at them, and the three fillies screamed, running deeper into the forest.
After being chased for about an hour, the three fillies lost the wolves, and they slowly walked forward, tired, hungry, dirty, and scared. "I told you we shouldn't have gone into the Everfree Forest!" Sweetie Belle yelled. "Now we're lost!"
"Well, we wouldn't have gotten lost, if you didn't stop us from entering the forest in the first place!" Scootaloo retorted.
"You were the one who dragged us into this mess!" Sweetie Belle replied, having a signature voice break. They kept on walking forward as they were arguing, until they walked through a bush.
"Well maybe you should have used some of that fancy magic of yours to fight off the timberwolves!" Scootaloo yelled, voice getting even louder.
"WELL MAYBE...!" Both fillies were cut off when their friend moaned in pain, and fell to the side, grasping at her stomach. "Applebloom, what's wrong?!"
"I don't feel too good. Everything feels dizzy." Applebloom moaned, and suddenly there was a strange bipedal creature right next to her, moving her hooves off of her belly.
"You say you have nausea?" The strange creature asked, as it looked at an inch long cut on her belly. The normally crimson colored blood was surrounded with yellow puss, coming out of an infected wound. "Do you have any other symptoms? Headaches? Leg cramps? Lung or other organ pains?"
All three fillies were surprised at this newcomer. "Hey! What are you doing to my friend?!" Scootaloo yelled out, puffing up her chest, trying to instinctively appear threatening.
But to her surprise, the creature looked over it's shoulder. "Do you want your friend to die? She's got a lethal infection. Probably got cut by a poisonous plant. What were you three thinking? Coming out into a dangerous forest! You know what kind of dangerous creatures live in this forest?!" Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle backed off in surprise.
I don't know why I said that. I just felt my instincts take over, and my desire to protect and heal others brought up some anger. I heard the small filly moan, and I quickly looked back. Her complexion was getting more and more worse, turning green. "I need to identify the plant, if I can, I can cure her. If not, she'll die." I said, gritting my teeth.
"Why don't we quickly bring her to a doctor?" The white one said behind me, still a little scared of me, but also worried for her friend.
I shook my head. "Not enough time. From what I can tell, this is a fast acting poison. The kinds of plants that can create such a poison are rare around these parts. I might be able to cure her if we get to my place. It's nearby." I gently pick up the little filly, and started running back to my cave. "Are you two coming? I'm sure it'll help your friend's condition." The two fillies and the fox quickly followed me, as I led them back to my cave.
We quickly got there, and I rushed in, putting her on the table, and putting my hand against her, feeling for the disease. I may not know what it is, but I still have the ability to alter it. I lessened the severity of it, buying me some time, and I quickly caused a skin lesion to form, allowing me to draw some blood, into another makeshift vial.
I closed off the lesion, and looked at the blood. My eyes slightly burned, as I looked at it, examining it, and seeing it at a molecular level like I'm newly able to. I tracked down the things killing her, and my eyes widened, at what kind of disease it was. Quickly placing the vial down for examination later, I got back to the filly, and lessened the effects that have gotten worse when I was examining her. "I know you're in pain, but you need to work with me here, little one. What kinds of pains are you feeling?"
The little filly moaned, before speaking. "Well, my tummy hurts, and my throat burns. I feel like I can't use my legs, and my insides hurt, and I have trouble breathing. And my face is stinging and watering." She coughed, coughing up some blood
"Nausea, vomiting, small time paralysis, sweating, hyper sensitivity, internal haemorrhaging, fever, necrosis, systematic infection, who would create such a thing? It's like it's soul purpose is to cause as much pain as possible before death." I muttered to myself. "Gah! These are hard to work with! Diseases created by others?! How do I name it?!"
Hearing another cough of blood, and wheeze of pain, brought me back to the real world. I turned back to the filly, putting my hands on her, before they glowed red. "I'm not sure what kind of toll this will have on me, but I won't let a little girl die!" My hands glowed with such intensity, but I didn't look away, as I pulled the disease out of her, and into me, where it was quickly destroyed, due to my ability to not be able to get sick by any disease other than one I created for myself.
The light faded, and the little filly started turning back to her normal look, and I sighed, placing a hand on her side, feeling for anything else, before I grabbed some makeshift needle and thread, and stitch up the wound. Seeing as it could still be infected, I held out my hand in front of me, and blew my breath into it, creating a bacteria to help me. I put it against the wound, and let it quickly go through the body, and mutated it only for helping her. The wound quickly closed as much as it could, leaving a small newly healed scar, and all the swelling went down.
The filly was soon asleep, and I stumbled out into the waiting area I made, so others don't interrupt my work. I grabbed onto a wall, trying to keep myself awake, as I looked at the other worried fillies. "Don't worry. She's fine. She'll be right as rain after a small nap. Took a lot of energy out of me. Now, you three better be careful next time, or maybe all of you will be in serious trouble next." Right after I said that, I fell down, impacting the ground with a thud, as I passed out.
(One month ago)
"Oh god. Where am I?" I panicked, running around the small clearing I was in. "Someone?! Anyone?! HELP!" I yelled as loudly as I could. I fell down on my butt, panting. "Someone, please help." I moaned, before falling on my back. I mysteriously appeared here, and now I'm trapped in the middle of a forest, with no idea where I am. Yeah, I've done some field research, so I know my way around the poisons of the forest, but nothing here looks familiar! The berries look like poisonous berries, but at the same time look better than I've ever seen!
I felt a small tugging sensation on my skull, and ignored it, having felt like my mind was vibrating ever since I appeared here. What I didn't ignore, was the growling of a very loud lion from behind me. I shot up, and turned around, feeling some weird pains in my body that weren't there a minute ago. A huge lion bursts from the trees, and roars at me, making me be frozen in fear, and the tugging sensation increased dramatically. At this point in time, I noticed two wings sticking from it's back, along with a scorpion tail. Now, I'm no zoologist, but I know for sure that no breed of lions like that exist.
My muscles seized for a second, and my reaction time seemed to speed up, as I rolled out of the way of the attacking tail. 'What the hell? How did I do that?' The 'lion' looked surprised, before taking a swipe at me with his big paws, but I jumped back, narrowly getting my shirt and sweater shredded. 'Wait a second, I remember now. This creature was something from Greek Mythology. A chimera? No, a Manticore!' The Manticore was about to attack again, before it moaned, and fell on it's side, and I noticed that it looked like it was sick. It was showing signs similar to how a lion reacts when it's sick. Feeling the tugging sensation start pulling me towards the Manticore, I slowly walked up to it, hands in a peaceful position.
When I got in front of it, I put my hand out. "Listen. I don't want to hurt you or anything. You're sick, and I want to help. I'm a doctor." The Manticore stared deeply into my eyes, and I could have sworn I saw some intelligence behind those eyes, as if it was smarter than it looks. The Manticore looked away, and I took that as a cue to help it. I patted across it's fur, and felt some movement from under the skin. 'A parasite? But it's missing some symptoms if that's the case. What was that I just felt?'
'Virus...' A faint voice echoed across my mind, and I blinked in surprise. 'Yeah, it shows symptoms of being a virus. But how can I help it?' Right then and there, my hands glowed red, and a similar glow was coming from all of the Manticore's body. Suddenly the redness merged together into a small ball of red inside the Manticore, before flying out of it's mouth, and into my hands. "What the hell?" I asked, not sure what this red ball of... something was. It quickly disappeared into my hands, which caused my body to glow red, and I started freaking out, thinking I would get sick. 'More. Need more. Must have more.' 'Okay, nope on that front. I'd prefer to be normal, than having some weird... red powers.'
I was shaken from my thoughts, as I was picked up by the Manticore, who was looking much healthier. I thought I was going to die, but instead, was given ferocious licks, covering me in slobber. It then set me down, and acted akin to a cat, purring and everything. "Wait, you're not sick anymore. It's like I just removed the virus from your... body... well ****!"
(present time)
"Should we wake it?" A voice rang out, as I slowly returned to my senses.
"But what if it's a monster, and tries to eat us?!" Another, squeakier voice rang out.
"Why would it do that? It just saved my life!" A cowgirl like voice replied.
Deciding to open my eyes, I sat up, and shook my head to clear the blurriness. When I could see properly again, I saw the three little fillies from earlier. "Oh, you're still here?" I yawned, noticing them flinching. "Sorry about passing out like that. It took a lot of energy to get rid of that... disease." 'Can't tell them what it really was. They're too young to know.'
"Thank you for saving me." The small yellow and red one said, nodding.
I smiled. "You're welcome. I like to help everyone I can." I slowly stood up.
"But how did you help her if you're not a doctor?" The white one asked.
I let out a small laugh. "I am a doctor."
She tilted her head. "But where's your white coat? And why aren't you a pony?"
"I'm not that kind of doctor. I'm an epidemiologist. That means I'm a doctor who tries to study and cure diseases. My name's John, what's yours?"
"I'm Scootaloo!" The orange and purple one said, jumping in place, and fluttering some wings behind her. 'Some kind of pegasus?'
"I'm Sweetie Belle!" The white unicorn squeaked. 'Unicorns too?'
"And I'm Applebloom!" The yellow and red one I saved earlier said, jumping in between her friends. "And together, we are..."
"THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" They shouted, and I clutched my ears in pain. But I quickly stopped when I noticed Applebloom cringe in pain.
"Careful Applebloom. You have a fresh scar, and you don't want to open it, do you? I recommend no strenuous tasks for about a week, doctor's orders. You nearly died, and you wouldn't want your friends and family to lose you over another infection." I said, sternly.
Applebloom looked at the ground, pawing it. "I guess not." She suddenly flinched, and looked up at me with wide eyes. "Maybe you can help us some more! Can you teach us how to be... eckadermagists?" The other two looked at me with puppy dog eyes as well.
I chuckled. "Maybe. But what I did to save you, can't be passed on. I somehow gained the ability to control diseases. You're lucky I was able to even create some, or else your cut would be infected. I had to create a disease that actually helps you instead of hurting you. It's still in your system, and will leave once a week has passed." A thought occurred to me. "Wait, shouldn't you be getting back to your families? Won't they be worried about you? I mean I did bring you in, about an hour ago." I looked at the sun's light, which was about in the middle of the sky.
The three fillies started to panic. "Ah! How did we forget?! We're going to be flayed alive by our sisters!" They screamed, as they were about to leave, but I stopped them.
"Wait!" I tell them, and they stop on a dime, and look at me curiously. I look to the fox who's been waiting here since he came back with us. "Can you go with them, and make sure they stay safe? You can come back here when you're done, and I'll get you something nice to eat." The fox smiled, and nodded, before going up to the fillies. "The fox here will escort you out, and keep you safe. Oh, and visit if you have a chance to! Just be careful, and I'll tell the animals to avoid you." I said, waving, as they walked off.
"We'll try to visit, but our sisters might not let us!" They quickly left my vision, and I sighed, before walking over to a small bowl of dirt water, and reached my hand in, before pulling it out, and wiping the blood and sweat off my face. Being immune to everything really takes a load off your shoulders while surviving. Once my face was cleaner, I walked over to my working area, and picked up the vial filled with the blood of Applebloom.
"Now, who in this world would and could create a bio-weapon? And how and why did they administer it to the fillies?"
"There you are! You had us worried sick!" Rarity, older sister of Sweetie Belle, said, as she ran up, and embraced her younger sister. Then, Rarity regained her angry look. "You've been missing for three hours! We were just about to come in and save you! We've told you countless times not to go into the Everfree!"
"Yeah! It's dangerous in there! You could have gotten yourselves killed!" Rainbow Dash yelled at the three fillies, and they squirmed, not liking being 'talked to' about their actions, and fearing the punishment. Unfortunately, by squirming, Applebloom felt a sharp pain go through her body, caused by the recent cut.
Both adults noticed this, and looked at Applebloom. "Applebloom, sweetie, are you okay?"
Applebloom held back the pain, and tried to smile. "Me? Yes. I'm very much okay. Nothing wrong with me at all." Rainbow Dash gently pushed her over, and both mares saw the cut along her stomach.
"Applebloom! What happened?!" Rarity exclaimed.
All three fillies sighed, before looking at each other, and nodding. "Well, we were walking into the forest, hoping to find a rad dungeon or something to get our cutie marks in!" Scootaloo started.
"But we were quickly chased by Timberwolves, and lost them after maybe half an hour. But by that time, we didn't know the way back, and Applebloom was cut by some kind of poisonous plant!" Sweetie Belle continued.
"We were found by a strange creature in the forest. It spoke Equestrian just like us, and walked on two legs, without a tail! It wore clothes too, but they were all tattered. It grabbed me, and brought me to it's house in a cave, where it was able to heal me from what it said was a very dangerous disease! He was able to cure me like it was nothing! And then he told us he was some kind of doctor who cures diseases. After he healed me, he had his fox show us the way back!" Applebloom finished.
Both mares looked at each other, not believing this story. "Girls, are you sure this is the truth?" Rainbow Dash asked.
All three fillies nodded. "It's the honest truth! I swear!" Applebloom said, putting her hoof on her chest, before getting back to all fours, as the pain kicked in again.
Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity sighed. "Why don't you three get back to your homes? We'll give you your punishment in a bit." Rarity spoke up, making a shooing motion with her hoof. The three fillies looked nervous, before walking back to Ponyville.
"Why would they lie? I mean seriously? A two-legged creature that can speak Equestrian? We've been in the Everfree several times! We've never seen anything like that!" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Maybe they aren't lying? Applebloom did have a scar on her." Rarity suggested.
"Ugh! What do we do?! I wish Applejack was here, then she would be able to tell if they were lying or not." Rainbow moaned.
"Maybe we could go by Twilight's check to see if she knows anything about a creature the fillies described. If she doesn't, then we know they were lying." Rarity asked, and both mares agreed on it, before heading to their friend's house castle.