Twilight Sparkle Goes to the Dark Side of Science

by Brian Jacko

Introducing the New Vaccine

After a very long time of waiting, Twilight sent out multiple letters to her friends saying that it was okay to come outside now. She had the guards bring up cases of syringes for the vaccines that she was about to introduce to Ponyville.

Princess Celestia told the media a while ago that Twilight Sparkle was working on a new type of treatment that would boost a ponies immune system up and save everypony from this deadly new virus.

The Princesses rode in a golden carriage, as two royal guard ponies flew across the sky to the hospital. When they arrived, the entire town or more like, what was left of the towns population, bowed down to Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle, as they walked across a red carpet that the guards had rolled out for them.

For the first time, in such a very long time, the ponies of Ponyville showed respect and hoped that the Princesses might be turning good again with this new idea for some kind of immunity based injection.

The guards carefully walked very closely to the Princesses and had their eyes darting all around the room making sure that nopony would attempt assassination on Princess Celestia for her past corruption.

Twilight and Princess Celestia walked up to the podium. The lavender Princess took out her notes and a spew of propaganda, false statistics, and other medical heresy came out of her mouth when she spoke about this new medical breakthrough called vaccination.

The ponies bought the lies and Twilight Sparkle's friends trusted her because they never had any suspicion or saw any hidden motives or agendas about her in the past. She was the smart one after all, so how could she possibly be wrong about a subject that involved science? Twilight promised everypony that these vaccinations were safe.

Ponies began lining up for their shots and a table with a group of nurses began to inject the ponies. Everything was going according to plan.

Twilight's friends, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were the very last one's in line waiting for their shots. She wanted to tell them not to get the vaccine, because she knew just how deadly these vaccines were just from testing them out on Fluttershy's pets. If anypony ever discovered what was being injected into their blood stream, there would be such an uproar and possibly violence. Twilight Sparkle bit her lower lip as her friends made their way to the table. She had to let them get the vaccines because she could not raise any suspicion about the dangers of the short and long term effects.

There were so many nurses at the long table giving the injections, that all of her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders could get there shots at the same time.

Twilight Sparkle bit her lower lip again hard and said a prayer in her head that nothing would go wrong.

The moment Scootaloo got her band aid on her arm, she jumped out of her seat and ran over to see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. They had a special play date together and couldn't wait to get to their club house. Scootaloo ran for just a moment and then collapsed to the floor.

Fluttershy got up out of her chair and tried to run over to help Scootaloo, but she collapsed to the floor and was shaking violently with convulsions.

The nurses checked Scootaloo's pulse and they pronounced her dead.

Fluttershy was taken away on a stretcher. She would end up never being able to recover from this and would have to be fed through a tube implanted in her stomach for the rest of her life.

Twilight Sparkle began to panic. It wasn't just over the fact that Fluttershy was her friend and had suffered a terrible reaction to the vaccine, or the fact that her scientific work just killed Scootaloo, but more importantly to her, she was more concerned over the truth coming out about her creation of the vaccine and perhaps having other ponies question what exactly is inside these vaccines.

Twilight's friends watched in horror as they took the yellow mare down the hallways. Her friend's then turned to Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom ran to Appejack's side and said, "Why did Scootaloo fall asleep so fast and can't wake up?"

Applejack suddenly covered Apple Bloom's eyes and said, "I'm so sorry Apple Bloom, but I'll have to explain what happened to her later. Ya just better leave right now with Sweetie Belle and go to yer tree house."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle made eye contact with each other. They had no idea what was going on, but they obeyed Applejack's words and left the hospital.

When Applejack watched the two fillies walk out of the building, she turned back to Scootaloo and looked down at the dead filly. She took off her hat and began to cry in it. All of her other friends came close and began to weep over the death of the filly as well.

Suddenly, Applejack looked at Twilight Sparkle and wiped her tears away from her eyes. She became filled with anger. "What in tar-nations did ya give to us, Twilight? How come Scootaloo is dead and Fluttershy is havin' convulsions?"

Twilight Sparkle shifted around uncomfortably. "Well you see Applejack, there are certain ingredients in this vaccine that must be there in order to stimulate a proper immune response and some ponies may have different reactions to what's inside these vaccines due to their genetic make up."

"Ya killed Scootaloo with yer medical treatments and Fluttershy is havin' convulsions! Ya said that yer work would be a break through in medical science and yet we have a dead pony as a result of yer new vaccine."

Twilight Sparkle became angry that Applejack criticized her scientific work and said, "Applejack, this is a huge break through in medical science and if not for this vaccine, Scootaloo and Fluttershy would have died from this viral outbreak that spread across Ponyville."

"Tell me exactly what yer puttin' in these vaccines, Twilight. We have a right to know!" Applejack said.

Twilight became uncomfortable and said, "I choose not to answer that question. You will just have to take my word for it that these vaccines are saving lives from this outbreak."

Rainbow Dash began thinking and said, "How come you nor Princess Celestia got your vaccinations?"

Twilight looked at Princess Celestia with a fearful look in her eyes. She then turned back to them and said, "We do not get vaccinations for safety and efficacy reasons.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Wait a minute, so you're telling me that you're pushing vaccines on everypony else, telling them all that they are safe, yet you won't vaccinate yourselves for safety and efficacy reasons! What exact kind of hypocrisy are we dealing with here?"

Twilight Sparkle became furious that Rainbow Dash had questioned her science and said, "Rainbow, the Princess and I are risking our lives for all of you. We very well could die from being exposed to the outbreak that is killing off all the ponies in Ponyville. You should be thankful that we helped you all. Without this vaccine, you would all be dead. I'm sorry about what happened to Scootaloo and Fluttershy, but this is for the greater good! Do not be so unscientific with your assumptions."

Rarity became confused at what Twilight had just said. "Then why did you send us letters saying that it would be safe to come out again?" The white unicorn asked.

"I-I-I..." Twilight began to stutter. "I have to go right now." Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia hurried out the door quickly before any of the ponies could make any more connections to the corruption behind her inventions. The guards followed them close by, making sure that there would be no attacks on either Princess. She left her friends with so many more questions that they wanted to ask.