//------------------------------//
// Train Wreck 
// Story: Strange Flora 
// by Shockhoof 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle swallowed hard. Fear was building up in her throat. She looked around to all the other sick ponies in the room. Could they tell she was sick too? Could they see through her spell? She could feel her strength and resolve to find out what she had contracted quickly draining, but it was too late. She stood up and walked across the room to the nurse pony who had called her name.

“Here.” She coughed lightly. Together the two of them walked back into a small cramped office. Twilight glanced around at all of the medical equipment. While she had never been involved in the medical field she knew what each tool was used for, her books had taught her that much.

“So what seems to be the problem dear?” the pink maned mare asked. Twilight just shook her head. Her horn became sheathed in a glowing purple light. Her illusion was cast aside. Without her spell to hide it, it was very clear just how sick Twilight was. Her coat appeared to be rotting from underneath, instead of a light purple, she was spotted. Each spot went from a dying green on the inside, to her natural purple, hitting a number of uncomfortable colors between. Twilight's hooves had become brittle and were chipping easily. Her eyes bloodshot and losing color.

Redheart's face dropped into a very serious and worried expression. “When did it start?” she asked hesitantly. She turned to the counters behind her and started pulling certain tools out.

“Some time last night. I woke this morning to find them. They've gotten worse throughout the day. At first I thought it was just bruises, but now.” Twilight became quiet.

“Did you do anything different, or have you had any contact with anyone else who is also suffering like this?” Redheart turned back to her patient. She held an otoscope in her mouth, and placed it up to Twilight's ear peering in. 

Twilight's ear twitched uncomfortably. She resisted the urge to pull her head away from the tool touching the inside of her ear. “Yes. Yesterday Rarity and I shared some plant she had recently picked.” She looked down at the floor. “Do you think it could just be an allergic reaction?” She looked up in hope. Redheart just shook her head slowly.

“You... you should lay down.” She waited a moment for Twilight to jump onto the sitting table. “Twilight, I'm only telling you this because you and your friends might be able to help. Ponyville is dying. What ever caused this is, plant, plague, or curse, is killing everypony. From what I know, the splotches on your back are places where your body is dying faster than the rest of you. Technically none of your body is dead yet, but we don't know how long it will take for that to no longer be the case.” Redheart looked to Twilight in hopes that she might jump at the opportunity to once again save Ponyville. She knew that the hope was not only selfish, but also pointless. Twilight was in no condition to go anywhere, let alone search for a cure.

“I'll do it.” Twilight stated with confidence. “I mean, Ponyville needs me right?” she explained weakly, trying to convince herself.





Briar Thorn and Daisy limped in to the hospital. By the time they arrived Daisy was feeling worse than she had that morning. She kept having to shake her head just to stay aware of her surroundings. Briar had supported her weight most of the way and she was beginning to feel guilty. In an attempt to redeem herself she had forced herself to stand on her own for the last few steps, but even that proved too much. 

The room was stuffy, and dead. Despite the rainbow assortment of ponies inside, the room seemed to hold a sickly and pale green tone. A few coughs could be heard on occasion. A filly was crying from the back corner of the room, though most of the room's noise was made of moans sounding like noises that fillies were known to make on Nightmare Night, imitating some forgotten creature of horror.

Daisy took a spot on the floor, and laid down while Briar went to the counter to check them in. He was gone much shorter than she had expected. When he returned his face showed great worry, his ears were flat back against his head. He looked at her briefly, then plopped himself down next to her. His silence worried her. The two sat there awkwardly. Minutes passed, and as the time went the waiting room appeared to fill to capacity.

A purple mare exited the doors leading towards the rest of the hospital. Her horn was glowing brilliantly, showing clear signs that she was using a large amount of magic. She didn't appear to be sick though. Briar nearly jumped from his spot on the ground and walked over to her. Daisy lay her head across her hooves. She watched them talk for a few moments, then Briar returned even more dejected than before.

“She's sick too. The magic is only masking it. I thought for a moment she had learned something,” Briar's voice echoed with the sound of defeat. Silence reigned for several minutes again.

“This is my fault. you know?” the green maned pony spoke for the first time since their arrival. Briar looked at her confused. “It's true. After Rarity gave me the plant, I took it to Aloe and Lotus. I figured that they could make it into a face mask or shampoo or something. I thought that if Rarity had gotten such great results from simply eating it, that if I could apply it to my hair directly, it'd outshine her.” Daisy looked from the ground up to Briar's eyes. Tears had built to the breaking point, and streamed down her face. “It worked great. So Aloe and Lotus made as much as they could, and gave out free samples.” Briar looked around at everypony in the room. The look on his face made it clear he had noticed that nearly everypony there was a mare.

A nurse peaked out of the doorway and shouted, “Is there anypony who isn't sick?” her voice made it clear she didn't expect much of a response. The room went silent, and it was clear that the nurse had everypony's attention. Briar stood and raised a hoof hesitantly, afraid he might be volunteering for something. In the entire room he was the only one to stand. The nurse cleared her throat and spoke again. “Very good, right. Follow me then.”

Still hesitant Briar looked back to Daisy, his concern written all over his face. Daisy shooed him to go, trying to relieve some of his stress. In truth she wanted nothing more than for him to stay, even if it was as silent as the grave between them.





Briar followed the white mare through the double doors, and around several corners. They came to an abrupt stop, nearly causing Briar's downed heard to collide with the pink tale of the pony in front of him. The nurse turned around to him, looked him up and down briefly. She pushed on his head with her hoof, forcing him into a proper posture. She looked into his eyes, her own eyes squinting in suspicion, then turned away again and continued with her hurried walk.

The brown pony followed Nurse Redheart. She seemed to be on a mission. Finally they seemed to have reached their destination. Redheart held a large wooden door open for him, and motioned him into the room. Inside was a large ovular table, around which stood several other ponies. Among them were the easy to spot faces of Apple Jack, Rarity, and Big Mac. There were other faces too, but their names escaped Briar for the moment.

“We'll begin shortly, we're just waiting for a few more arrivals.,” Redheart explained. She poked her head through the doorway, and looked down the hall they had taken to get there.  “Here they are.” She announced as two more ponies entered the room. “One Twilight Sparkle, and one Lyra Heartstrings.”

“And one Spike!” A small purple and green dragon announced from his position on the purple pony's back. 

“Hush Spike, now's not the time.” Twilight scolded the dragon lightly.
It was only then that Briar realized just how uncomfortable he felt around all of these ponies. Three of them had major hands in saving all of Equestria not just once, but twice, not to mention Ponyville countless other times. He tried to shrink back into a corner, away from the table to avoid being noticed.

“Well everypony I bet you're wondering why I've gathered you here.” Twilight looked out towards the eight other ponies in the room.

“Aw well shucks Twilight I was,” Apple jack was cut off.

“Not now Apple Jack.” Twilight hushed her similarly to how she had the dragon. The orange pony seemed more stunned than upset. “I've gathered you because Ponyville needs you. As I'm sure you noticed everypony is sick.” The timing of another coughing fit couldn't have been better, or for that matter worse placed. “We,” she broke again into coughs.

“What Twilight is trying to say is that we need a cure. We know what caused the sickness, but,”

“Thank you Rarity, I can finish though.” Twilight said stubbornly. “We don't know a cure, or anything about the original plant that caused all of this trouble. There is nothing in my books. We need somepony to go see if Zecora knows anything.” 

“Well Big Macintosh here can't on account a' he pulled his hoof again trying to plow. Turns out our east field is where Tom ended up.” Apple Jack shot a glare across the table towards Rarity. “An' I'd go but a stray lightning bolt hit the barn last night. We only just put out the fires, an' somepony has to clean it up.”

“Alright so Apple Jack is out. Anypony else? You're the only ponies in all of Ponyville well enough to go.” Twilight added as additional encouragement.

One of the other ponies in the room decided to speak up. This one was brown, with a bright blonde and spiky mane, an earth pony. “Why don't you go? I don't want to go into the Everfree forest.” Immediately he regretted his words as everypony in the room stared at him in disbelief.

“Alright, I was hoping it wouldn't have to do this.” Twilight rolled her eyes. Her horn finally stopped glowing. The discolored spots she had been hiding with magic faded back into existence. This time though they were accompanied by jagged lines connecting them, like cancerous veins lacing all of the blotches together.  

“Oh dear, you look dreadful darling!” Rarity gasped in shock at Twilight's advanced condition. “I, I mean are you ok?” She tried recover from her outburst. Twilight ignored the remarks and continued.

“As you can see, much like Rarity, I am much to ill to go. And since Coconut over here is out, and Redheart has to stay here at the hospital, we're down to just you three.” Twilight looked at each of the three remaining ponies, Lyra, Briar, and a third Pony. The third pony quickly shook his head as an enthusiastic “no.”

“Out then.” Twilight was running out of patience fast. Coconut and the other pony seemed confused, so Twilight reiterated herself. “OUT!” her shout rang through the room. Briar was taken aback by how much strength she'd been able to muster despite her condition. The two cowards rushed out of the room like a monster was likely to bite into their flanks should they stay any longer.

Briar had realized he couldn't try to pretend he wasn't there any more, and he stood appropriately. With all eyes on him and the sea-foam green pony that had walked to stand next to him, his mind started to race. His hearing cut out. The purple pony was speaking to him. He tried concentrating on her mouth to make out the words, but it was no use. He couldn't hear anything beyond the sirens going off in his head. The sounds of exploding trains seemed to echo in his head as he tried to make out the words. Finally he quieted his mind.

“You got all that?” Twilight asked, her voice getting weaker.

“Easy stuff,” Heartstrings sounded with confidence.

“S...sure.” Briar managed to choke out. During his small panic attack, somepony had strapped him with a heavy saddlebag