Epidemic

by UnknownSubject

Evolution

-Ponyville; Hospital-

“Nurse RedHeart,” Twilight said calmly, “Has there been any other ponies with this ‘unknown virus’?” The nurse held her chin with her hoof as she began to think.

“Well. We have been getting a decent amount of ponies coming in with this virus, but the virus is mostly harmless. Nothing that can actually hurt anypony.” RedHeart explained. Twilight thought about the book, and of the contents. There’s no way there’s a connection.

Suddenly, Spike began to groan. Nurse RedHeart and Twilight backed away, and he held his stomach in pain.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked the nurse. The nurse looked at her clipboard, and back at the dragon.

“I-I don’t know. His results showed nothing of stomach infections.” Nurse RedHeart said. Then, an unbelievably believable scene occurred.
Spike belched out a letter. Twilight and RedHeart let out a sigh of relief. Twilight levitated the letter up to her and read it silently.

[Dear Twilight Sparkle, Celius is nothing to worry about. The virus plague had been eradicated thousands of years ago.] Twilight sighed in relief once more, happy to hear the good news, and kept reading. [Although it almost wiped out most of our species, we were able to find a cure, and stop the devastating plague from spreading further.] Twilight smiled at the good news, though the next thing she read almost threw her into a fit of panic. [However, it is possible that the virus may not be 100% gone, and the cure can take extensive amounts of time and effort to put together. Let us hope that the plague never returns to our peaceful country. Your humble teacher, Princess Celestia]

Twilight started hyperventilating slowly. Could Spikes illness be Celius? Nurse RedHeart looked at Twilight with growing concern.

“Is something wrong, Twilight?” RedHeart asked with a worried expression.

“Yes! Yes.” Twilight snapped back into reality. “A-Are we finished?”

“Yes. Like I said before, we don’t know exactly what Spike has.” RedHeart re explained as she walked them towards the door.

“Well thank you for your help anyway.” Twilight departed and she heads home. “Come on Spike let’s go.” Twilight waved goodbye one last time at nurse RedHeart.

-Ponyville; Twilight’s Residence-

After a good amount of walking, (and a bunch of annoying coughing) Twilight and Spike found themselves at the library. Twilight immediately sat down in front of the new book, and flipped over to the symptoms page.

The second symptom on the list was ‘nausea’. Twilight decided to keep a close eye on Spike to see if he showed any sign of nausea. Then she heard a knock on the door. Departing from the book, she went to go see who it was. Surprisingly, it was an orange earth pony wearing a cowboy hat.

“Oh Hello, AppleJack. What a surprise, how can I-” Twilight was interrupted when the cowpony started coughing.

“Hey there Twi. Ah was wondering if you were carrying some cough medicine. I went to Fluttershy’s house, but she ain’t got any.” AppleJack said. Twilight backed up from the door, afraid she might catch the potential Celius. AppleJack noticed Twilight’s sudden movements.

“Don’t worry Twi. It’s only a cold *cough cough*, Ah think.” AppleJack assured the nervous-looking Twilight.

“I’m sure it is. Wait here while I go get your medicine.” Twilight closed the door and zips to the medicine drawer upstairs in her bathroom. Grabbing some cough syrup, she quickly returned back down and opened the door to reveal a waiting AppleJack.

“Here you go AppleJack,” Twilight gave her the bottle with a smile. “A couple spoonfuls of this and you should be feeling much better.” AppleJack looked at the bottle labeled ‘Doctor Hooves Cough Syrup’ and smiled gratefully.

“Thank you kindly, Twilight,” AppleJack said before coughing once more. Twilight backed away again, fearing the potential plague. AppleJack turned and left. Twilight closed the door, and went back to her book. Ignoring the repetitive coughs upstairs, she sat down and continued reading.

Twilight flipped back a page, to the cure. The ingredients for the blue liquid were mostly plants, some of which can be found in the Everfree, while others were on the far side of mountains on the other side of the country. Twilight considered sending a letter to Celestia about the mysterious illness going around Ponyville, and it’s connection with the book, but she didn’t want to disturb Spikes rest, given his condition.
Twilight decided to study the virus herself. She slowly, and smoothly walked up to her room, and peeked inside. Spike was laying down in his small bed, coughing. There was no change to what she had seen before.

Twilight went downstairs, grabbed a saddlebag, and headed towards the hospitals. If she was going to study the virus, she would need every piece of information she could, starting with the one place lots of diseases are found.

-Ponyville; Hospital-

Upon arrival, she met up with Nurse RedHeart.

“Nurse RedHeart.” Twilight begins. “I need a bit of Spikes blood samples."

Nurse RedHeart looked up at Twilight a bit taken back.

"Why?," the nurse asks Twilight, concerned.

"The virus you found in Spike needs to be studied. I’m going to need some samples to take a look at the cells.” Twilight explained. RedHeart simply nodded and went into a cabinet behind her. She levitated a container filled with the red liquid, and gave it to Twilight. Twilight took the container and put it in her bag.

“Thank you, and have a nice day.” Twilight said before heading out the door, and back to the library. On her way back she saw more ponies coughing, but they didn’t seem to care or notice at all. She made sure to keep a five meter radius between her and any coughing ponies.

-Ponyville; Twilight’s Residence-

Twilight arrived at the library, and placed the container next to the book. She silently crept up to her room. Spike was still there, snoozing silently. She snuck in and quietly took a microscope from a box under her desk.

Twilight went back downstairs and put the microscope next to the small container. She slid the drawer open, and pulled out a small syringe along with two small plastic sheets. She opened the container and dipped the needle of the syringe into it and sucked up some of the blood. Then, she carefully dripped a tiny amount of the blood onto one plastic sheet, and put the other sheet on top. She slid the two plastic sheets with the blood under the scope of said microscope. She took a peek into the microscope.

The cells were tiny, and far apart. Some of the cells were not even noticeable, and the ones that were noticeable blended in with the blood cells. The virus cells were blackish, and moved very slowly.

Suddenly, there was a groan upstairs. Twilight’s ear perked up, and she got off the microscope. She hurried upstairs to her room, and saw Spike holding his stomach.
“Spike? Is everything alright?” Twilight asked, hoping for something small.

“I just feel like throwing up. You were right Twilight, I do feel sick.” Spike said, still holding his stomach even tighter.

“Well get some sleep. It’ll be over soon.” Twilight assured Spike. Spike rolled over and threw a blanket over him, still groaning in disgust.

Twilight went back downstairs, and looked back into the microscope. Only this time, something was different. The cells grew. Not in a large way, but in a very small noticeable way. Twilight looked over to the book, it was still on the ‘symptoms’ page. The second one on the list was ‘nausea’ and that has already occurred in Spike.

Twilight began to panic and hyperventilate as she put the puzzle pieces together. What she assumed was true, and no other pony has noticed it.

Celius has returned, and is evolving...
Fast.

Comments

[PhoelynFabulous]

I like it so far! Keep on writing!

Oh, and I thought I would point this out: "After a good amount of walking, (and a bunch of annoying coughing) Rwilight and Spike"...

Rwilight? Is that a new character?

[Krysnha]

Well going well it is going to continue or it is dead