Plague

by Cezar

Evacuation

Drake awoke. He had a sick feeling about him, like an invisible aura about him of sick. He tried to roll over, but couldn’t. His ribs ached, and he coughed. A strange liquid, black, swelled up in his throat, and he spit it out onto the cobble street that he thought of as a floor. It slowly went down a sewer pipe. Drake felt awful. His head throbbed, like his brain was going to explode out of his head.

Bella looked at him and whined. Then she came and snuggled up next to him. At first, it ached his back, and he coughed up some more of the black fluid. But he got used to the feeling of her there on his back. Soon, he was asleep again. Bella after awhile of Drake being asleep, got up and exited out onto the streets. She walked out and into an alleyway.

Drake woke just in time to see her round a corner, and disappear behind it. He was all alone now. The world closed in around him, and he felt like giving into the sickness. The pain of every breath became allot. He could barely bear it. He was dieing. He could feel it. He tried to stay awake, for he feared he would slip away in his sleep if he allowed him to doze off.

He had to get medicine. He tried to get up, but his muscles gave way, and he stumbled, catching himself on the wall of the hospital. He knocked on the back door as hard as he could. His nerves buzzed and he felt like his hoof felt like it was falling off.

No one was answering the door, making it so that Drake had to go all the way around. He began the long walk of pain and torture. One step after another, pain and pain, and more pain. Whatever disease was doing this, was attacking his nerve system. He collapsed onto the ground. The last thing he saw, was a dark figure walking up to him and dropping something at his face. Then his head felt like it was buzzing, and he saw black dots all over the place, and they filled up his eyes, until he couldn’t see, then he left consciousness.

(Luna and Fluttershy)

“Come on children, we have to get you to the train station,” Fluttershy said, while corralling them all into a group.

“We can’t leave, someone’s missing,” Apple bloom said.

“Who’s missing?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“Oh, who was the boy we met yesterday during the...” She asked the other two.

“Ugh, was it Dark?”

“Drake! That was his name Drake.”

“Yea, he was with us yesterday, and no one has seen him since,” Apple bloom said, in a rather worried tone.

“Okay, we’ll go look for him, but you just need to make the train,” Fluttershy comforted.

She went to Princess Luna. “We aren’t moving fast enough, and I just found out that were missing one of them,” She said, gesturing to the group of children.

“That doesn’t fit, well, I will have some guards go look for the child. But we need to get to the station, the evacuation was ordered by the chief head of the Equestrian Disease Center of something or another. My point is that you should get them out. They seemed serious about it. I fear that they would, if it came down to it, not allow anymore people to leave, and escape the nightmare their saving us from,” Luna said.

“What is it that they’re saving us from?” Fluttershy asked.

“We don’t know. There is no known cure, all we know is that if you get it, you only have a one percent chance of living through the first day,” She answered. “ Well, you now know just as much as I know, and honestly if I were you, I wouldn’t tell anyone. No need to cause more panic than is what is already occurring.”

“ Mrs. Fluttershy,” somepony said. Fluttershy backed off and went to attend to the child.

Luna sighed, and looked out over the crowd already forming toward the train station. Some just up and flew out of the city.

(Drake)

He stood himself back up, and turned back to go to his shack house. He thought, ‘If I’m going to die, I’m going to die there. He stumbled, almost falling on his face. He heard somepony.

Up above, a Pegasus was flying, carrying nothing but her purse and a few light items.

Drake had a longing to fly out of there himself, but the pain of just breathing was allot to bear.

She swerved to dodge a pipe, and something fell out of her purse. It plummeted down, landing in a drainage pipe, where it came out the bottom. Drake picked it up. His bones ached as he bent over, and he stumbled as he slipped to the ground. He got back up to his knees. It was painful, but not as much as falling. He crawled to his bed, where he then lied down, for what he thought would be the last time. He examined the object. It was a small pocket mirror. He looked at himself in the mirror. He examined his face. He looked pale. His normal color was a very light tan. His hooves slipped, and the mirror almost fell. He caught it, at the expense of some pain. But he saw something.

(Train station)

Luna and Fluttershy both were walked over to the platform. It was more crowded than normal. Of course, it was expected. Everyone ran about in a large commotion. A large train waited to pick up as many of the people as they could.

Many people were moving to the train, trying to get onto the train.

Fluttershy grouped the group tighter. There was no elbow room. They all were waiting for their escort onto a car.

Luna stood there. Cops in riot armor, and holding riot control equipment. Luna saw somepony out toward the train. He was sick. No one noticed until...

The pony fell to the ground coughing, and gasping for air, like it was painful to breathe.

‘Oh, no...’ Luna thought.

Officers all went and surrounded the people, and started to force them out of the train station. They began to shut the car doors, and order the train to leave.

The crowd exploded into a riot. Ponies frantically ran to the train, trying to get on. The stallions in armor all stood in the way, holding their riot shields ,and Pepper spray in hand. They were all wearing gas masks. They gave some signal, and then tear gas was thrown out into the crowd. But that did little to help the condition of the crowd. Pegasi were flying to the roof’s of the train and the officers had to stop the train.

Luna went to an officer. He didn’t recognize her from behind his shield.

“Get back ma’am, we aren’t allowing anyone else on,” He shouted.

Luna kept a calm face on, and simply said, “Officer, stand down, by order of Princess Luna.”

The officer looked out from behind the shield. “Your majesty!!!” he said. “Sorry, but orders from higher authority have me stopping everyone. I can let you on, but no one else.”

Luna looked puzzled. “What higher authority? There is no higher authority than I, and I have ordered.”

“Not true, by the orders of Celestia herself, If enough of the council vote, it can overrule the princess, and if all of the princesses vote, it can overrule the council,” He stated.

“Tia,” Luna muttered.

The guard saw the group of children close behind the princess. “Ma’am, I’m so sorry. I would if I...”

“No, I know, you're just following orders. I guess I will stay with the children,” she said.

“Your majesty...” Four guards came walking up to her. “We are here to get you to safety.”

“No need, I’m staying,” Luna said clear and sternly.

“Your Majesty, by order of the...”

“I don’t care, I am your rightful ruler, and I said I’m staying with the children,” Luna said. She stood tall, and firm.

The guards backed down on this one. The officer let them in, after they showed him their I.D.’s.

“I’m sorry,” The officer whispered to her as she left.

‘Sorry doesn’t even start. You just sentenced over a dozen children to death. Not to mention the others who aren’t sick.’

(Drake)

Drake examined a dark dot on the side of his hoof, just between the hoof and the skin. It was a strange little thing. He touched it. It wasn’t part of his hoof. He got a closer look. It was a tick. He pulled it off. It stung, and the little critter kept on squirming. He squashed it onto the ground, and blood flowed out of the large pouch.

He sat there, for about an hour or so. The pain slowly dwindled away, until it was unnoticeable for him. He got up, and his head ached, but it was a different kind of ache. Almost like dehydration. He looked at the tick. He picked it up. It was squashed. He needed to look at it closer. He looked at the building next to him. He got an idea. He had to get into the hospital. Bella came back, with a large bucket of water. She looked almost shocked to see him up and about.

He looked at Bella and said, “ We’ve got some work to do.”

(Luna)

The children were taken back to their quarters, where they were supposed to stay. They would be in the city for a while. Fluttershy began to rub her eye.

Luna looked at her and said, “We only have so much food right now. We will need to go and get the food for them within the week.”

“Why? Don’t you have a pantry the size of some ponies houses?” Fluttershy questioned.

“Yes, we do, that is why we are in trouble. Since we have enough food to last this castle, and everyone in it six months, we don’t go shopping all that often. Maybe three times a year. So, right now is around the time that we would need to go shopping again, except, the pony who normally does it, came down with this sickness. So, no one has gone shopping, and we only have enough supplies for maybe two or three days. But then again, we will be most likely the only source of food for some time. So we will get allot of visitors, lots of visitors. All that taken into consideration, only two or three days,” Luna said, in a rather tired tone. “That means that me and you need to go find food, for everypony.”

(Drake)

Drake ran down the hall. He was looking for a room. Anyone who knew anything about hospitals, knew that they had microscopes. The room he was looking for, was one that contained all of the special manifests that recorded the cases they came across. He flew down a hallway and turned to his right.

A nurse stood in the hallway, and looked shocked to see him.

Drake thought quick. “Don’t come any closer, I’m infected with it.” He whispered a quick prayer hoping that it worked. She slipped on a mouth and nose cover. Drake slapped his face.

“You're in too good condition to have it. So, why are you here?” She asked

Drake looked at her, and figured he’d just tell the truth. “Okay, let me rephrase that, I had it, and got over it. I may have found what is causing it. I need something that can get a closer look.”

“Yea right. There is a 100% fatality rate with the disease...” She began.

“Thats just it. It might not be a disease.” Drake began.

Bella came around the corner with books strapped to her. She looked at him asking for a treat. He looked around, and saw nothing to reward her with. He picked up a manifest board, and pulled all of the paper off of it. He then handed her the clipboard. She ran off with it, and did something with it.

“Help me,” Drake said to the nurse.

She looked at him with a fishy look, and then said,” Get out of this hospital, before I call the authorities.” She then began to cough. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to scare the both of them.

Lightning cracked, and the lights flickered. The nurse looked around, and said, “ What’s your theorie, child.”

(Luna)

Luna stood in front of the young fillies and colts. “ We can’t leave. They’ve sealed off the city. Any second now, you won’t be able to fly out of here too. So if you're here, you're stuck. For who knows how long at that.”

The children all got scared looks on their face. Apple bloom walked up to her and said,” We still haven't heard of Drake.”

Luna didn’t hear her. She turned out, and went to the balcony. This was her home, and it would be her prison for the next few days. She didn’t want to wait for much longer to get out. She still had to be there though. She looked up. A giant green orah appeared over the sky, and a large bubble that you couldn’t go through appeared. She took one last glance of the sky, before the shield blocked it up, and made it almost impossible to see.

The shield hardly let in light. It got gloomy. Fast. The only thing that was giving off light, was the street lights.

“Princess, your sister wishes to talk to you,” a guard behind her said.

Luna took off to the edge of the bubble shield. Celestia was there. She looked worried.

“Luna, why didn’t you get onto the train?” Celestia began. “You could catch the sickness, and...”

“Calm down Tia, I know, and I knew what could happen when I made the decision. I wasn’t gonna leave the children,” Luna said.

“I know, but still, you could die. Do you realize that everyone who got this illness...” Celestia quieted. “They died.”

“I know, I won’t catch it though,” Luna said, in an attempt to calm her sister.

“How can you say that?” Celestia asked. A tear slipped out of her eye. “I lost you once, and it was the worst experience of my life. If you get this, you’ll be gone for good. I couldn’t take that.” She said, then she broke into tears, crying.

“Tia, Tia. I know. Think though, what about all of the others. It would be better if they had someone who could lead them through this time. Plus, it could get me more popular with the people. I need that, you’,ve said it yourself,” Luna said.

Celestia nodded her head. Even if she wanted to get her sister out, it was too late. She had stayed and that was that. She couldn’t change that, without endangering the other ponies.

“Okay, but please promise me you’ll stay healthy. Don’t let this take you...” Celestia said.

“I promise,” Luna said.

Celestia turned around and took off flying. Luna turned around to the city. It was getting dark, and it was going to start raining.

(Drake)

“Drake isn’t a, orthodox, name for a Pegasus. Who were your parents?” The nurse asked.

“My dad was the captain of the guard, before Shining armor,” Drake responded. “I want a small sample of your blood.”

The nurse nodded her head and went to go get a needle.

Drake plopped a book onto the table in front of him. The learners picture guide to the basic pony anatomy. Drake opened the book and went straight to the blood section.There were twenty pictures. One of just simple blood, another of blood infused with some blood disease.

The nurse came in with a needle full of blood. She coughed, and sat down. “I’m feeling weaker and weaker every second,” she said.

Drake put a small drop of her blood under a microscope. He looked at the picture of basic blood, and then at the blood under the microscope. “Thats weird, I don’t see any difference. He looked at the tick, and placed it into another microscope. He looked into the microscope. He looked up and around. Then he looked onto the floor. There was another book. A small book about ticks, called Ticks Ticks Ticks, all about Ticks. He looked through it. Nothing. Just stuff about how they behave and where they live.

“I need to go back to the library, and look for another book,” He finally concluded.

Comments

[nightwolf]

anticipating the next bit!!!! this is really good, keep it up!!! can't wait to see what happens!