Plague

by Cezar

Finished

Drake’s legs quivered beneath the great and now powerless Princess Luna. He could hardly hold her, and if he wasn’t to die from any of the sicknesses, then he would die from getting crushed. He managed to get down to the familiar alleyway, and to just in front of his raggedy old bed, where he threw the limp and just about lifeless body onto it.

It bounced a little, off the springs, by which he saw one was sticking out, by where his back hooves were to be. He then went over, and shoved it back into the bed, where he slipped an old rag over the hole and began to sew it on.

Luna twitched, and shivered all over her body. Drake then got up and went over to her side.

‘I never planned to be checking anypony for ticks, let alone the princess of the moon,’ he thought to himself. He looked behind her ear, and through her mane. He couldn’t find it. He checked around each of her hooves. Where could it be hiding?

He looked for especially dark spots on her, dark enough that a tick wouldn’t be noticed, or at least would blend in. Her cutie mark.

He looked, and sure enough, if you looked close enough, you could make out the shape of a tick. He pulled it off, and smashed it. It sat there, waiting for the next rain storm to sweep it down the drain. Drake looked behind him, and picked up a can of fruit cocktail. He slammed the cap against a metal pipe, which busted a few years back. It opened up a hole, just perfect sized to drain it at the right pace. Too fast, and it would spill, too slow, and it would take for ever.

Luna fudgeted. She slowly opened her eyes to see him walking off, with a can of fruit in his hoof. She was shocked. She tried to sit up, but her ribs still ached. She leaned back and rested her head on the soft pillow. She began to see things. Stuff she knew couldn’t be real. There was a strange looking monkey on somepony’s shoulder, who was on a unicycle, with a weird rainbow effect around him.

She blinked and it all cleared up. She whispered her anti pain spell, and then got up. She looked about her. Bella got up and went and sniffed her. Luna tried not to move, but she had an agenda. She had to get back to the castle. She began to fly off. She saw Drake off in the distance, flying to the castle. She had an idea as to what he was doing, but she had to go there anyway. She should just catch up with him.

(A guard on the outer wall)

“Why do we have to stand guard?” a guard complained. “I’m tired, and got absolutely no sleep last night, with those kids in there playing around so loudly.”

“Shut up, thats just what we were ordered. Deal with it, and maybe when this is all over, you can get a promotion,” another guard said.

“So what’s our orders?” He asked. “I mean the details.”

“Well, we are to keep an eye out for the princess, she went missing a few hours ago, but, beside that, we are to protect the castle. Shoot on sight stuff,” The captain said.

“I bet you that I could shoot the first target that presents itself. With one arrow,” the guard said, pulling back the string to his bow.

“Stop talking like that. What if it’s somepony else? Then you’d be charged with murder. If I were in charge, you would be seized, and shot just for being so irresponsible,” the captain barked.

The guard turned, kind of angry from that random outburst.

(Drake)

Drake flew over the castle, a few guards shouted up to him for him to stop. He didn’t have time. In the time he had been flying, he noticed that he was being followed. He knew who it was, and figured as to why he was being followed. He saw Bella running, barking at him from the streets. she dodged abandoned carts and a carriage, and jumped over trash that littered the area.

He flew faster and faster, in a hurry. He needed to help the pony that Luna had told him about in his dream. He wouldn’t let this one slip, like he did the nurse. He landed on a balcony, and dashed through the hallways. He could only think, ‘ right now, seconds are separating somepony from death.’

He looked in every room. Eventually he came by the med bay. There, Fluttershy was hanging on to her final breaths of life. Drake ran over and saw the tick almost instantly. Due to there not being allot of dark area on fluttershy’s body, it took refuge at the base of her mane. He gently pulled the tick off, and then injected her with the nerve jumping stuff.

Some guards ran into the room and pointed their spears at him.

“Get away from her!” one of them barked.

“Wait, wait, I was just helping her. Look, nothing is...” Drake was interrupted.

“Shut up, and put up your hands!” the guard shouted.

Drake was angry. No pony would ever listen to him, no pony would ever just do what he asked. His whole life, had somepony’s of taken him seriously, his parents would be alive. The thought that they knew better, just irked him. “No...” Drake said, with a harshness in his tone.

He raised his wings to take into flight.

“Don’t move!” the guard shouted at him.

“Make me,” he said, and at that, he swooped his wings down, and took off and out of the room.

“Get him!” The guard shouted.

Fluttershy opened her eyes, and saw daylight. She wasn’t in pain anymore, she was simply drugged up. She lied her head down, and went to sleep.

Luna walked down the hall, to see twenty guards come out of the med bay. She looked in and saw Fluttershy put her head back down. She felt happy. She looked to see what the guards were chasing.

(Drake)

He flew faster and faster. The hallway came to a quick end. The doors slammed open, and the guards standing guard on the other side were flung forward, into the crowd of children.

Scootaloo looked up. She saw the guards chasing him. Sweetie Belle looked up and saw the same thing, and she shook Apple Bloom awake. They all watched as he shot out through a glass window.

Five guards got into the room first, and saw the window shatter. “ He’s getting away!”

The others joined them and took off out the window, piling out onto the balcony. One of them pulled up his bow. “Sir, he’s getting away!”

The captain looked at the figure growing in distance. He closed his eyes, and said, “Take the shot.”

An arrow whistled through the air, gaining on Drake. Scootaloo got onto the window, and saw what happened.

(Drake)

Something hit him, just between his shoulder and his rib cage. Whatever it was, it sent him sprawling to the ground. He felt no pain until he hit the ground around fifty miles an hour. There was a loud crack, and he felt that his wings were broke. He turned his head and saw blood all over the cobble streets. He couldn’t hardly breath.

(Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom)

Scootaloo dashed out of the window, and jumped off the balcony. Though she couldn’t fly, she could slow her descent to slow enough to escape broken bones. She hit the ground hard, and ran over to him as fast as she could.

“Drake,” she shouted.

“Shhhh, shhhh, shhhh,” Drake hushed her, as he tried to get up. The arrow had snapped, and got shoved deeper into his heart. He stumbled as he got up. There was a sudden pain in his side, like a sledge hammer hitting him in his side. He fell back down. “Looks like this is my last one, huh?” he said to his sister.

Scootaloo’s eyes began to tear up. She was fighting them as hard as she could, but it was just too much. “I should have stayed. I should have stayed,” She began.

“There is nothing you could have done to stop this,” Drake said, now fighting crying. He started to breath heavier and heavier. As soon as he finished saying that, the crowd formed around him.

Luna pushed to the front, and saw him. She saw the blood, and the broken arrow shaft. She ran to his side, “What happened.”

“It hurts...” Drake had to breathe. Every breath got harder and harder. He looked at his sister and said, “Keep yourself safe.”

Luna came to his side, and looked down at him. There were no doctors left to help him. They had evacuated before the whole thing started.

She picked him up, and held him in her arms. She could help him, but at the cost of everypony else. She had to decide. She looked at the pain in his face, and she needed to help him. He had saved her life, and Fluttershy’s, and found a cure. He earned it.

She took off at her fastest speed, moving at speeds of mach seven. She broke the sound barrier, three times over, and came closer and closer to the top of the shield.

There was a loud boom as the shield shattered, and fell, dissipating into the air. Luna looked around, and saw the guard post. She took off to it, and landed swiftly, and as smoothly as she could.

“Get a doctor!” She demanded.

Four guards ran to her side, and took the kid.

The looked at eachother, and then one of them spoke up.

“Princess, we can’t help him. You need a surgeon, we can only do simple stuff. That arrow is broken up into fragments, and it’s already punctured his heart. He should have died instantly. We can’t help him.”

Luna looked at Drake.

“The tick, its the tick,” he said.

“Look, don’t you guy’s have a field surgeon?” Luna protested.

Drake shuddered, and shook. “It’s getting cold, I can’t breath...” he took in a deep breath, and exhaled for the final time.

Luna looked down at his face. It went blank, and his body went limp. His wings, which were tense relaxed and settled on the ground. She laid him down, gently.

“He found out what everypony else was too scared to find out, and his reward was an arrow to the heart. It’s not fair.” She looked up at a guard. “He just wanted to help.”

The guard looked down. Soon, the crowd was there and Scootaloo saw him. She pushed past the crowd in front of her, and to her brothers dead body. “Is he...”

“Yes,” Luna answered.

Comments

[SkyBlooder]

...Very Nice but... A very bitter end... :(

[Cezar]

sorry if it ends bitter, but that's the whole point of a tragedy, for a sour ending.

-well, now it's less bitter