Epidemic

by UnknownSubject

The Virus

-Ponyville; Twilight’s Residence-

Twilight was doing what she did best, and that was reading. Only this particular book she was reading, was a book on disease. She found the book on one of her many book shelves, and since she hadn't seen this one before, she decided to give it a try. Until she was interrupted by a certain baby dragon coming down the stairs.

"Hey, Twilight! Whatcha doin?" Asked the curious Spike. Twilight maintained her sights on the book as she gave him her response.

"I found this book, and decided to give it a good read. It's really odd though, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this one before, and I've read every book in the library. More than once, I can assure you that." Twilight explains to Spike.

Twilight flipped the page to find an interesting section of the book. On the left side of the book, there were gruesome pictures of incredibly pale ponies with decaying ones not too far away. On the right, pictures of a DNA strands and arrows marking their genetic makeup. Twilight was very concerned by what she was reading and investigated further. The page containing the DNA was titled 'Celius', and on the bottom right corner there was a microscopic view of what appeared to be the cells of a virus.

Twilight flipped the page, remembering carefully the contents of the previous page. She saw more gruesome images on the left side. The right side, however, contained pictures of a blue shining liquid within a beaker. The right side page was titled 'Cure', and had what appeared to be a list of instructions for the liquid. The instructions demanded ingredients that were very hard, but not impossible, to retrieve.

Out of the blue, Twilight heard Spike give a small but noticeable cough. Twilight turned to him, now concerned for his condition granted by what she had just read.

"Spike? Are you okay?" Twilight asked the Spike.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Spike assured Twilight, "Just a little tickle in my throat."

Twilight worried for the small dragons health, but decided to shrugged off the doubt. It probably was just a tickle in his throat, and nothing more, and so she continued reading the book.

Twilight flipped to the next page, this time the left side of the book was titled 'Symptoms'. As the title would lead you to believe, it had a list of symptoms. On the top of the list, ‘coughing’ was written. Twilight grew nervous, and looked behind her, hoping to find Spike. But alas; Spike wasn't there anymore. He must've went into town.

Twilight returned to the book, and scanned through the list. The symptoms grew in severity and lethality as she went down the list. From 'coughing' to 'pneumonia' to 'coma' and finally 'total organ failure.'

Twilight finally closed the book, and she figured why she hasn't seen this book before. It scared the living daylights out of her, she probably just never wanted to read the book in the first place.

Twilight took a deep breath, and Spike conveniently walked through the door, returning from the four minute, not-a-waste-of-time trip he just had.

"Spike, there you are. I need you to write a letter." Spike somehow pulled out a piece of paper and a quill from the invisible pockets he has, and waited for Twilight to tell him what to write.

"Dear Princess Celestia, I had recently read a book on a virus named 'Celius.' I just wanted to know if the virus is gone, or if it is still roaming around the area. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

"Faithful... Sparkle" Spike repeated as he finished the letter. He rolled up the paper like a scroll and blows fire on it, causing it to disappear into smoke that exits through the window.

"Celius, huh?" Spike asks, hoping to get more information out of this.

"Oh, it's really nothing you should be worrying yourself about Spike." Twilight replied, sparing him the bloodcurdling details within the haunting book.

"Hmm… Ok, if you say so." Spike says rather disappointed. Then he let out another set of coughs. Only this time, it was a bit more violent.
"Spike, are you sure you're okay?" Twilight said, getting closer to examine him clearly.

"Yeah, Twilight, I'm fine. Just a little tickle." Spike reassured her with the same excuse. Twilight didn’t buy it this time, and cautiously places her hoof on his forehead.

"You... don't have a fever." Twilight removed her hoof, carefully examining Spike. After some thought, Twilight reached a conclusion. "Spike, I'm taking you to see the doctor.”

"But I'm fine Twilight. I just-"

"No buts.” Twilight interjected sternly. “This could be the first stages of hay flu." Twilight hoped as she walked toward the door. Spike reluctantly slugs his way out of the library.

-Ponyville; Hospital-

A while after walking, Twilight finds herself at the hospital. She leads Spike into the waiting room, and walks up to a white pony with a pink mane reading a book.

"Good morning Nurse RedHeart." Twilight greeted happily. The white pony looks up at her from her magazine and smiles.

"Hello Twilight! How can I help you?" RedHeart asked with a happy grin spread across her face.

"Spike needs a check up. I think he might be coming down with something." Twilight explained as her smile subtly faded away into worry. Nurse RedHeart looked over to Spike, and curiously raised an eyebrow. The little dragon looked fine, but it could be something undetectable from the outside.

"Of course. I'll appoint Spike in for a checkup. There are a few patients ahead, so you might have to wait a while." The nurse explained to Twilight. Twilight nodded in agreement as she goes to sit next to Spike.

A few moments later, after some patients came out, the nurse came into the waiting room, with a clipboard at hoof.

"Spike!" She called out.

Twilight nudges Spike, and cocked her head over to the nurse. Spike lazily slumped off his seat, and walked over to her. Twilight followed after.

They walked into a room, and the nurse walked in with them. The nurse took a quick look at the patient, and her clipboard.

"Spike. You came to see if you were sick, right?" The nurse questioned.

"Yeah..." Spike replied, as he swung his feet below a big chair.

"Well then, lets get started." The nurse said with glee.

A couple tests, an uncomfortable urine sample, and a quick blood sample later, the nurse returned with a puzzled look plastered on her face as she stared at her clipboard.

"What is it, Ms. RedHeart?" Twilight asked, growing in anticipation.

"Spikes illness, it-" she paused and took a quick look at the clipboard to reassure herself of no mistakes.

"It doesn't exist." She ended her sentence.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, getting a bit paranoid.

"Spikes results are unknown. We don't know what kind of illness he has." The nurse explained, "We found a virus for sure, but we don't know which virus it is. It isn’t Hay Flu. but that’s as much as we can get." Twilight thinks for a second. An unknown pathogen, virus class for certain, and coughing symptom.

At that moment, she had remembered Celius.

Author's Note:

Reboot!

Comments

[Krysnha]

I play the game, it is a very intresting idea of the game and good to mix with the idea of those virus movies, but you are the virus