//------------------------------// // 32-In Sickness... // Story: The Life of a Non-Brony // by BronyWriter //------------------------------// "Hey Cheers. How was school today?" I close the front door behind me and smile at the sight of my husband sitting on the couch, Oswald perched behind him. I trot over to him and sit at my usual spot. "Very good, TD. I have a few papers to grade, but nothing that will keep me up all night." "Good." TD runs his hand through my mane, inadvertently straightening out a few knots in it. "I made soup for dinner, I hope that's alright." "You know it is," I say, poking his nose. "Unless it's some kind of pony meat soup that you wanted to try out." "You know it is." The three of us head over to the dining room table, where TD has already set out three bowls. He walks over to the stove and turns it off, peering into the pot of soup. I assume it's vegetable, or something of that nature. He's only made meaty meals a hooffull of times in the two years we've been married. For the both of us, that is. I couldn't stop him from eating his fish. Good heavens, my parents would be mortified if they discovered I've been building up a slow tolerance for meat ever since I've married this man. Speaking of... "Mom and Dad want to come out to visit sometime next week," I say, pointing over to a discarded pile of papers, one of which is a letter from my parents. "I'll be making up the guest bedroom around then." "Sounds good," TD says, putting the pot of soup down in the middle of the table. "Any particular occasion that I've forgotten, or is it just a social call?" "Just a social call," I respond as I set out napkins and spoons. "They want to see how we're doing." I shoot TD a wry smile. "Though if I'd married anyone else, I'd probably be getting questions about when you're going to give me a foal. I can see it in my mother's eyes every time the topic comes up. She wants a grandfoal really badly." TD chuckles and begins filling up the bowls with the soup, taking a moment to nudge Oswald away from his bowl. He can't start until we're all ready, after all. "Well, I guess we might be getting to that point soon enough," he says, setting my bowl down in front of me. "I think we're pretty stable right now, and the universe isn't balanced unless I'm enduring some form of chaos." I roll my eyes as he sits down beside me. "Well, the past few years have been pretty quiet, haven't they? Maybe you just needed me to help you out." "Couldn't be happier about that," TD says, grabbing my hoof. "But you know something's going to come up. After twelve years in this universe, I've figured out the pattern." "You're the kind of man who fights the Magic of Music in a duel out of sheer stubbornness," I reply in my best teacher voice. "If anybody can break the cycle of a chaotic life, it's you." "We'll see. I plan on having a lot of life left. When I reach the end of it in several decades, we'll compare notes to see how I did." I roll my eyes again. "I suppose we'll have to. Until then..." I plunk my spoon into my bowl. "Let's eat. I'm starving." * * * * I wouldn't trade my position as Ponyville's school teacher for anything, short of TD. To see the foals come into my classroom ready and eager to learn, then comparing that to the end of the school year when I get to see what kinds of mares and stallions they're growing into, is one of the greatest joys in my entire life. Having said that, some days are absolutely horrendous. "So he threw up right in the middle of class?" TD says, flinching back slightly. "Dang, that couldn't have been fun." "It's not been fun the past times it's happened, and it wasn't fun today," I groan. I raise my head off of TD's lap and shoot Oswald a glare. "And it's not funny. Don't think I can't see you laughing behind your wing!" TD smirks and scratches Oswald's head feathers. "Ah, you know him. Can't take anything too seriously." "I wish he would sometime," I grumble. "If I had to guess, this is just the first instance of this kind of thing. I've been a teacher long enough to know when Pony Pox is going through town. Given that a sick foal came to school, well, I can see that being a problem in the near future." TD grimaces and changes from running his hand through my mane to scratching my back, something that gets a murmur of content out of me. "You're not going to come down with anything, are you?" I shake my head. "Oh, I doubt it. In my first few years as a teacher, I got sick all of the time. Foals can be little disease carriers when they put their minds to it. After those first couple of years, I started to get an immunity to common diseases. Pony Pox comes through Ponyville every couple of years or so, and I haven't caught it in a while. At worst I'll just be missing a few students for a week or so. They'll probably start getting it in rotation, then once it passes it passes. No real harm done." "Nothing I wouldn't have gone through if I'd become a teacher on Earth," he muses. "Other than maybe the occasional falling bucket or ladder, my job doesn't have that kind of risk, now does it?" I give Oswald another glare to forestall any giggles from him. It's his fault TD bruised a rib when the ladder fell. I swear, TD stumbled upon the one phoenix in Equestria who is neither intelligent, nor graceful. "Well, you're not going to be doing that forever though, are you?" I say, keeping my glare on Oswald. "I mean, it's a nice job and it pays well enough to support the two of us once it's combined with my paycheck. I don't know about you, but I can't see fifty year old TD climbing up that ladder to wash the top windows of town hall." "Neither can I," he admits. "But the time will come when I get a better job. Maybe if we have a foal or two and we need some extra bits to support him or her. One day at a time, though." "Fair enough." "But, until that point, how about dinner?" * * * * "And that should be it for today," I say, shutting my lesson plan folder. "For those of you who made get-well cards for your classmates, please hand them in now." Hoof. Hoof them in. Not hand them in. I've been doing that a lot more lately. Thankfully my students know whom I'm married to and have gotten used to it. The students get out of their seats and get in a single-file line to give me their cards for their sick classmates. Enough of them have gotten it that I'm pretty sure we've reached the end of Pony Pox season, which will be nice. That's fewer students who need to catch up on schoolwork. "Bye, Mrs. Cheerilee," Ruby Shine says, waving at me from the doorway of the schoolhouse. "See you tomorrow!" "Bye," I respond with a smile. With the last of the students gone, I neatly stack the get-well cards and put them in my lesson plan folder, which I then deposit in my saddlebag. I can't wait to get home to be honest. Today was a rather taxing one, and I'm certain that TD will be back from his own job by the time I return. As I make the short journey to our house, I notice a few ponies giving me looks of concern. Odd to be sure as things have been going rather well for the two of us as of late. It's not been a perfect marriage by any stretch, but nothing out of the ordinary, I think. It takes Twilight of all ponies to break the suspense. "Hi, Cheerilee," she says with a pained grin. "So is TD feeling any better than earlier today?" I blink owlishly at her. "Er... what? What do you mean? What happened to TD this morning?" "Uh..." Twilight tilts her head at me. "You mean that nopony told you that he threw up at work today? He really looked quite bad. Rainbow had to help him get home." Twilight grimaces and flattens her ears. "Did Rainbow not tell you afterwards?" I don't stay to hear anything else. By the time it clicks with me that TD is sick, I'm zooming home, papers flying out of my saddlebag behind me. I burst through the front door and slide across the floor of the entryway, nearly hitting the wall. I regain my balance and run towards our bedroom. "TD!" I call out. "TD are you okay?!" My response is a groan of pure misery, and I nearly break the door down in my efforts to get inside. TD is lying on the bed, Oswald perched over him and dripping tears onto his head. TD himself has wrapped himself in a blanket with a bucket next to him. I run over to him and press my hoof on his forehead, flinching back at the heat radiating from it. "TD, what happened?!" I cry. "What do you need me to do?" "Oh, nothing much happened," he croaks. Goodness, it sounds like he's been gargling razor blades. "I just had a bit of a cough this morning then a few hours later, I threw up uh... just about everything I ate in the past few days." He smirks and shakes his head. "So it just figures that the exact moment that my body figured out that it hated just about everything was the one I happened to be standing on top of a ladder leaning against Barnyard Bargains." TD grins when he notices my involuntary flinch. "It was pretty much as awful as you'd imagine. I haven't really been able to get up off of this spot." He takes a deep, pained breath. "If it weren't for Oswald, this could be much worse." "Hang on, TD..." I run into our bathroom and pull open the medicine cabinet. This sounds like a really bad case of the Pony Pox, but I've never heard of it being this bad. I take out an instant thermometer and rush back over to TD, who is back to mere groaning. I press the sensor against his forehead to get his temperature and my eyes widen when the reading comes in. 104.2 "How bad is it, doc?" he croaks. "Can I die now, or do you want to keep me alive for some sick reason?" "TD, I think we need to get you over to a hospital!" I reset the sensor and take his temperature again just to make sure I didn't mess up somehow. 104.3. TD groans in pure misery and rolls up into a ball on our bed. "Cheers, I really need you to kill me now, okay?" He wraps the blanket tighter around himself. "I can't do this anymore. Just let me go." "Just hold on, TD, I'm going to get help!" I run out of our house, looking around for anypony that can help us. Maybe Redheart is around somewhere? Seeing nopony like that, I run straight to the hospital hoping that somepony there can help TD. * * * * "How is he, doctor?" I whimper. "Is he going to be okay?" "We're doing everything that we can, Mrs. Powell, but for right now we'll just have to wait and see how he reacts to the medication." I groan and lean my head on Twilight's shoulder, letting her rub my back for comfort. The rest of her friends dropped everything that they were doing when they heard about what was wrong with TD. "It's just Pony Pox," I groan. "How can Pony Pox hit somebody so hard like that?" "Well if I had to guess, it has something to do with the fact that TD does not originate from Equestria," Dr. Stable says. "He doesn't have the natural immunities to our diseases. I'd say he's been lucky so far to not have this happen before now. My guess is that he hasn't caught it yet because he wasn't in Equestria the last time Pony Pox did its rounds. Among other factors, I imagine. Maybe his human biology has something to do with it." "So then what can we do, doc?" Applejack asks. Dr. Stable takes his glasses off and begins cleaning them against his lab coat. He's stalling for time. "As I said, we'll have to see. I haven't ever seen a case of Pony Pox this bad before and I have no idea how the usual medication will react with his immune system." "Is... is he going to die if he doesn't get well soon?" I whisper. Dr. Stable hesitates, and that's all I need to know. I take a step forward and glare at him. "Doctor, will he die if the medication doesn't work?" The room is silent, all eyes on Dr. Stable. After a few moments, he lowers his head. "Yes. He will. With how his fever has been, I'm surprised that he isn't dead already. I suspect that it has something to do with the phoenix tears." A pair of tears streak down my cheeks, but I manage a watery smile. "Well..." My voice breaks, and I need to clear my throat to continue. "Well, he has always been v-very stubborn like that. I-If a minotaur can't take him down, th-then..." I collapse onto my haunches, breaking down completely. Applejack and Rarity both wrap their forelegs around me as the rest of them stare down at me with various looks of sympathy. "And we can't do anything?!" I wail. "He can't die now! He's too young! W-we were talking about maybe having a foal!" "I'm so sorry," Dr. Stable says. "I wish I knew how to help him, but I've done all that I can do. Even with the help we've given him, we may have just slowed it down. I'm sorry." "Twilight!" I whirl around to face her. "R-remember that healing spell that Princess Celestia used when Princess Luna broke his back?! Maybe that will fix him!" "I can try," Twilight says, materializing a scroll and quill. "Anything will help," Dr. Stable says. "He has days, if that, and he's just going to get worse. The phoenix tears merely bought him time." "Can I see him while we're waiting for Princess Celestia?" I ask. "I'm afraid not," Dr. Stable says with a shake of his head. "He's in quarantine right now. The only beings around him are a few doctors and nurses in hazmat gear and his phoenix. We can't risk a new strain of Pony Pox getting out." "So I can't see him at all?" I ask quietly. "Well..." Dr. Stable sighs and rubs the back of his head. "I suppose you could see him through the observation room, but only you. I warn you though, it's not pretty." "I know that, Doctor," I say through gritted teeth. "I was with him when I brought him in." "I suppose you're right." Dr. Stable looks around at Twilight and her friends. "Alert me when Princess Celestia arrives. If you could all wait here until that time, it's best if just Cheerilee sees him. We can't have too many ponies in the observation room." "We understand, Doc," Applejack says. "Just let us know if we can do anythin'." "Until Princess Celestia gets here, there's nothing to be done." Dr. Stable turns and beckons me to follow, which I do without hesitation. He leads me through the sterile halls of the hospital and I can see various doctors and nurses shooting me looks of sympathy. I suppose I should be appreciative that I have their support, but I can't focus on anything but making TD better. We reach the observation room, and I whimper at the sight of my husband. He's completely unconscious with the only sign of life being a slight rising and falling of his chest and the heart rate monitor beeping every few seconds. An oxygen mask is secured over his mouth and nose and both arms have multiple IVs in them. One of them is connected to a bowl which Oswald is crying into. He's... he's looked better, I suppose. "Why aren't the phoenix tears helping?" I whisper. "They heal anything, don't they? Why aren't they working here?" "My guess is that they heal physical injuries, and do not do much against viruses. I’m also guessing that Oswald's tears are strengthening TD's blood cells, and that's what's keeping him alive. I'm not too sure that it can last forever." "I know," I mutter. "Oswald can't cry forever. I suppose that Princess Celestia will know what to do." "One can only hope." The door behind us opens up and a young nurse walks in, her head low and her ears flat. "Uh, Dr. Stable, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are both here." "Both of them?" Dr. Stable says, an eyebrow quirked. "Yes, Doctor." The nurse motions to the room outside the one we're in. "They're outside right now." Dr. Stable yips and runs over to the door. He doesn't make it all the way before both princesses come in. The doctor and nurse both drop into bows but I stay on my hooves, staring at the two of them without blinking. "Can you help him?" I whisper as they approach the observation window. "You fixed his back at the Gala, so can you save him here?" Princess Celestia stares at TD unblinking. TD would know what she's thinking. Somehow he always does. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna exchange a brief word before turning back to me. "We will do everything that we can, though I warn you that I cannot fix him as I did in the Gala," Princess Celestia says. "That was a physical injury. That spell mended his spine and re-connected dead nerves. I had a specific place to work with. Here, from what I can see, there is a virus attacking every cell in his body. My sister and I will do what we can, as I said, but I cannot merely wave my horn over him and fix him outright." My jaw wobbles and tears began falling down my face. "I can't lose him, Princess Celestia. Not now. Not this soon." Princess Celestia smiles at me and puts a hoof on my shoulder. I flinch back a little. I guess I've never gotten used to royalty being informal with me. "All hope is not lost, dear Cheerilee. I have my student looking for an answer in her library, and I have even asked Applejack to find your zebra friend to see if she can offer any insight. We will not give up. I truly believe that TD will be fine." "Okay," I say with a sniffle. "If you're sure." "I am. If I know your husband as well as I think I do, he'll pull through. He's simply too stubborn to die like this." I half laugh/half sob at the quip. I want to think that they're right, but something is attacking TD right now that he can't just punch and make go away. He's helpless and I can't see him like that. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna encase themselves in health shields and enter the quarantine zone. They ignite their horns and begin working their magic on TD. I lean in hopefully, half expecting to see TD open his eyes and give Celestia that half amused, half annoyed look that he has whenever she helps him out. But he doesn't move. Nothing changes at all. The princesses just keep doing what they're doing and the machines keep beeping. I turn around and trudge out of the room. Princess Celestia did say that Twilight was looking into something. Maybe I should go see her. Maybe she's found something. Maybe Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will fix him. Maybe I'm a widow at thirty three. I put a hoof to my neck and feel the wedding ring around it. I try to think of what TD would do in this situation. Probably walk around the entire planet trying to find some rare plant to help me. I find myself standing outside of the library at some point. I suppose I've been so lost in thought that I didn't notice that I've left the hospital. I sigh and walk into the library. Maybe Twilight has found something. "Oh, hey, Cheerilee." I look over to see Twilight standing next to a bookshelf with Zecora. Twilight has an open book floating in front of her that I suppose she's been leafing through. "How is he doing?" "Not any better," I mutter. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are with him now. They're going to try to help him, but I don't know." "Well, if they can't help him..." Twilight and Zecora walk up to me and Twilight flips the book around so that I can see what she's been reading. "Maybe this can." I peer into the pages of the book, and my eyes widen when I read what Twilight is getting at. "The Neverherb?" I look at Twilight, then back to the book. "I've never heard of it." "It only grows on a specific mountaintop in Zebrica," Twilight says, motioning to Zecora. "But if the book is right, then it will cure almost any ailment." "Well then what are we waiting for?!" I shout. "Let's go get this thing!" "Well hold on," Twilight says, holding up a hoof. "If circumstances were any different, we'd be on a train to Zebrica right now, but there's a slight complication." "Oh, what?" "Well you see, there's this dragon that lives on that specific mountain..."