The Guest

by wille179

Innocence

Beth panted as exhaustion racked her body. Any minute now, the child felt like she would collapse into unconsciousness. At the same time though, her wide grin of triumph barely scratched the surface of her true elation. Beside her, Sweetie Belle, her friend, and Twilight Sparkle, her teacher, clapped their hooves together, applauding Beth’s effort.

After all, it wasn’t every day that your eleven-year-old human girl levitated a broom.

“Oh, I’m so proud of you, Beth!” Twilight exclaimed. Beth smiled, too tired to voice her reply, and wobbled on her feet. Seeing her student’s exhaustion starting to take hold, Twilight rushed over and caught the girl as she fell. “Don’t worry, I got you,” Twilight said as Beth rested her weight against the lavender mare.

The human girl gave a little cough, her lungs tired from greedily gulping down air. Twilight blinked and wiped the droplets of human spittle from her muzzle with her hoof. “Oh... sorry about that... Ms. Twilight.”

“Don’t worry about it,” the alicorn replied. “I’m just worried about you. That looked like it took a lot out of you.”

Beth, after sitting down on the Golden Oaks Library floor, dismissed Twilight’s concern with a wave of her tiny hand. “It’s all good... I’m fine... Just let me catch my breath.”

“Well, that’s good.” Twilight nodded as she spoke, and then turned towards the kitchen. “I’m going to go help Spike make icecream sundaes for us all. Why don’t you and Sweetie Bell review the next lesson’s notes while you wait?”

“Icecream? SWEET!” The human and filly duo cheered.

---

Twilight wandered almost aimlessly down the streets of Ponyville with only a vague goal in mind. That goal was roughly ‘find Pinkie Pie,’ though considering it was the confectioner’s day off, Twilight had no real idea where to look.

As she walked, Twilight’s muscles gave an involuntary and almost unnoticeable shudder. She continued to trudge along the path regardless of the general feeling of malaise that had descended upon her in the past few days. Judging by the bags under her eyes and the distinct lack of coffee in her apartment, Twilight figured that she had had one too many late nights of studying interspersed with comforting the homesick human child that she was now raising.

And so she had set out to locate her party pony friend. If anypony could energize Twilight (and provide childcare advice at the same time), it would be Pinkie Pie. Now all she had to do was find-

“WATCH OUT!” A voice screamed out in warning. Before she could react, Twilight’s target plowed into her at a full gallop. The duo rapidly tumbled across the ground, merely a writhing pink and purple mass to onlookers, before coming to a stop, albeit with Pinkie’s lips firmly planted on Twilight's own.

They each blinked in surprise, which rapidly morphed into embarrassment as they tried to untangle themselves from one another. “Aww... That was my first kiss!” Pinkie petulantly whined. “I was saving that for my future coltfriend!”

“Bleh, I’m sorry, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “That was a bit of a surprise for me, too.”

“Meh, it’s no big deal.”

Twilight sighed in relief. “Anyway, you’re just the mare I needed to see.”

Pulling out a plastic stethoscope from her saddle bags, Pinkie asked, “Now what can Doctor Pie do for you today, Ms. Sparkle?”

Twilight giggled. “Do you have any of those coffee cupcakes on you? I could use the wakeup. And some company, if you have the time.”

“Of course, Twilight, I’d do anything for a good friend like you!”

---

“Prince Armor, Princess Cadance, I know that you are family, but I am afraid that I cannot let you go in there.” A hazmat suit-garbed Nurse Redheart, despite her small stature compared to the muscular unicorn and tall alicorn, firmly blocked their path into the east wing of the hospital.

“I don’t bucking CARE!” Shining Armor roared, stamping his hoof against the ground for emphasis. “That’s my sister and her friends in there! I’ve got to see them!”

“Your highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle is in the ICU with one of the most contagious diseases ever seen by pony kind! We’ve had to operate twice to keep her lungs from collapsing from the fluid buildup! You are NOT going in there!” Nurse Redheart yelled back.

Shining Armor growled and bowed his head, looking as if he was ready to skewer the mare who dared to keep him from his L.S.B.F.F. A pink hoof moved into his path, blocking him.

“Shiny, please calm down. Nurse, would it be alright if we went in with my health bubble spell active?”

Redheart shook her head dismissively. “No can-do, Princess Cadance. Whatever this thing is, it punches through any magic we throw at it. Only conventional hazmat suits can withstand this thing, and we barely have enough for the emergency staff as is. And with Rarity and Clean Room both ill, there are no ponies in Ponyville qualified to make them.”

Shining Armor’s frown deepened. “Couldn’t you call Canterlot to get more of them?”

“Already tried. It’s the same story in almost every pony inhabited city on the planet. With the exception of the Crystal Empire, which closed off its borders, as you know, every single city is sick with the pandemic,” Redheart replied. “And you’re standing in ground zero.”

“Shining,” Princess Cadance said soothingly, “perhaps we should return home before we-”

“Nope!” Redheart forcefully interjected. “Ponyville is in quarantine. Nopony leaves until this thing is cured, or we’re all dead.”

Several ponies in the nearby waiting room, who had been listening in, gasped. Throughout the room, mares burst out into tears while stallions, barely restraining their own, gently comforted them. Foals screamed and wailed, desperate to see their parents, brothers, sisters, friends, and classmates once more.

In the back of the waiting room, the one lone human cried into her hands at the thought of losing the mare that was quickly becoming like a mother figure for her. The thought that the only family Beth had on this alien world could die at any moment drove her to the brink of despair.

Every few minutes, her sobbing was punctuated by a slight cough.

Author's Note:

I've never understood why this was never explored before...

One-shot.

Comments

[Lars]

Good Awesome fic here.

Now go write more of Twilight's Secret.
(No, I will never stop nagging you about that.)

Edit: It's occurred to me that this image is quite appropriate for that moment when you realize you're trapped in the quarantine zone with a horrifically lethal, ultra-contagious, and absolutely incurable disease.
global3.memecdn.com/well-we-amp-039-re-fucked_o_2166763.jpg

[wille179]

4313725
If I ever get my inspiration back for that one... I wouldn't want it to suck because I forced it. I promise that I'll try some more this weekend, though.

[WiseFireCracker]

Another good reason to never have the human protagonist develop magic.

[Clay]

I am both proud and somewhat saddened to say that my record of not crying because of anything I have read or seen on a screen still stands. Very well done nonetheless.

[Shpoople96]

4313991
This has nothing to do with her magic, It's all about the infectious diseases Humans carry, but are immune to.

4314135
This isn't that sad, Those Thai commercials are a lot sadder...

[wille179]

4314216
Actually, it's implied that the now magical disease can penitrate magical defenses and act as a super pathogen, sort of like when you cross human flu and avian flu to get something of pandemic causing proportions. Magic and germs don't mix well.

[Shpoople96]

4314670
Oh, I missed that part...

[Dimiein]

Damn that was way more brutal than I thought it would be. Well done sir!

[Ron Jeremy Pony]

That's actually not a bad idea. More than Likely the ponies don't anti-bacterial medicine that would work on human bacteria. I guess the reaper assigned to the ponies is going to be a busy little bee.

[wille179]

4317594
It's not that they don't have a way to treat it (Cadance's magic health bubble proves that healing magic exists), It's that ponies have absolutely no immunity to anything a human carries. Even the common cold to us could be fatal to them.

Look at the sickness that came with the Europeans to the Native Americans when the former started exploring. Look at how the aliens were defeated in War of the Worlds...

Even modern plagues could spread faster than our ability to quarantine them.

[ThePinkShadow]

I like this idea, I mean if you really think about it we humans have evolved for many centuries without any magic in our enviroment what so ever so it would stand to reason that if the ponies were infected with one of the illnesses us as a species have gained major resistance to then their magics not going to be able to pinpoint or even touch even the most simple sickness due to as we evolve the sicknesses we contracted also evolved with us to try and overcome our medicines and vacines we created... in other words to a creature, no an entire SPECIES that have no resistantce or vacination for something as simple as a stomache bug from our world thats been adapting to the treatments we developed and becoming strong enough to effect us even with treatment at times... will spell the complete extinction of all life on equestria because humans are adaptable but so are to germs and bacterias we live with, whos to say the illness we pass to the ponies isn't gonna mutate based on the new MAGICAL biology its been introduced to? for all we know it could even gain properties based on some of the ponies illnesses or even a sort of magical side effect due to the new organisims and enviorment its breeding in... I fear to know what sort of plauge this can create

[Krysnha]

Intresting, and honestly, i think i only see two fiction with te idea, but yours is the best simple but with the correct direction thanks for sharing

[lazyreader19]

Shit, that really earned it's dark tag

[wille179]

5530522
The point.
reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/oh-please.gif

[lazyreader19]

5530561
I know, I know. Still surprised me a bit.
I'm a bit new to you

[an1979]

Hell, that was dark(ish).
Not everyday you doom whole species with one cough.

Small typo:

With the exception of the Crystal Empire, which closed off it’s borders,

its borders

[wille179]

5553270
Ho.. lee.. sh-t. I forgot about this comment and left a typo for 34 f-ing weeks (since you posted that comment). It's been there since April of last year!

[an1979]

6451941
Some kittens died somewhere due that, I'm sure ;P

[Northwest Brony]

I've stumbled on some dark fics, but unlike them, I just can't shrug this one off.

[Architect Ironturtle]

Two reasons:

1. It's depressing.

2. There's no guarantee that earth DNA is compatible with Equus DNA. Shuffle what each set of three codons does and any virus that tried to invade an alien cell would only be able to make gibberish. However, that doesn't apply to bacteria so the main reason is the first one.

[fanreader999999]

Because its not as smart of an idea as you think.

[tsaukpaetra]

2020 is calling. Who wants to bet it was a bat pony they were talking about?

[KvAT]

Yes, this is 2020 speaking

[PrinceOfDarkness]

4314670
Yeah....

About that.....

2020.....