The original outbreak.

by Apple-Bloom

Chapter 2: A rift in time.

I stared at Silver Spoon as she sniffled then formed a weak smile.

She then stepped over to Scootalo, Sweetie Belle, and I, and muttered,"Thank you." Immediately after she said that, we began searching through the mysterious woods, but our search screeched to a halt as a thick mysterious fog rolled in making it nearly impossible to see.

"Darn it!" I exclaimed, trying to make out the shapes of Sweetie Belle, Scootalo, and Silver Spoon through the fog.

"We have to keep searching!" Yelled Silver Spoon, though she was not so far away,"I need to find my father."

Suddenly, there was the deep rumble of a growl that shook the ground around us.

"What was that?" Sweetie Belle asked, fearfully.

"A timber wolf." I answered, remembering the sound from the last zap apple harvest,"RUN! GET BACK TO PONYVILLE IF WE CAN!" As I spoke, the other fillies and I began running hard, our legs pushing us into a desperate sprint as the predator pursued us, and suddenly we reached a clearing.

The air was not moist in the clearing as it was outside of the clearing, and there was a bright blue glow in the center that split the fog allowing us to see, and as quickly as we gained our sight, Silver Spoon rushed towards the light, a moth to a flame as the timber wolf stepped into the clearing then whimpered and backed away like a small puppy confronted with a tiger.

Quickly after, Scootalo, Sweetie Belle, and I ran over to her, and tried to pull her back as she quickly reached out and touched the mysterious orb of light with a single hoof.

There was a blue and white flash of blinding light, and then blackness. No sight. No sound. No feeling.

Then, I opened my eyes, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo lay to my right, and on my left was Silver Spoon. The timber wolf was not in sight. A grey unicorn who boasted a white mane and beard dressed in blue starred robes designed with suns and moons across it and a pointy hat, also boasting a sun and moon design stood above us, his horn, which pointed out from under the hat was the only source of light, as it glowed with magical yellow light.

I looked up into the night sky through a small window in the small room that I lay in to see a single star shimmering like a single piece of gold among a sea of obsidian, but then I noticed that I was not in the Everfree Forest clearing.

"Looks like you've woken up." Grumbled the unicorn.

I stared up at him,"Who are you, where have you taken us."

"I found you lying in the middle of the forest, and there is no town for days of travel, just some shelters like this one, so what where you fillies doing in the Everfree, unarmed, and well, ASLEEP!"

"You said no town for days," I began,"What about Ponyville."

"Ponyville," he grumbled,"Sounds like a load of made up stories, who are you really?"

"Who are you?" I then asked him.

"Well," he said,"I am Star Swirl, though most know me as Star Swirl the Bearded, I raise the sun and moon."

"I'm Apple Bloom, to my right is Sweetie Belle, and to her right is Scootaloo, and to my left is Silver Spoon, but from everything I heard, you are long dead."

"Time travel is not impossible," smiled Star Swirl,"I have achieved it myself."

"What year is it?" asked Scootalo, pushing herself off the floor, I quickly followed suit realizing that I had just been lying down while having a likely important conversation with a very important unicorn in the history of Equestria, a unicorn so important that even Twilight Sparkle studied him.

"It is the night before Hearth's Warming Eve, year three of the paleopony period."

"The night before Hearth's Warming Eve," I mumbled,"No, no, something terrible is about to happen."

"Terrible," grumbled Star Swirl,"Tonight is a great night, Platinum Hooves has been discovered as the first pony to have gained two cutie marks in recorded history, and his second Cute-ceañera on Hearth's Warming Eve will be a historic day, though I have sensed a danger in that colt, and you are from the future, so why will he turn evil, or likely worse?"

"If I explain," I began,"Could it set the future into a dangerous spin, leading us to our doom?"

"You are a clever filly, for an earth pony," laughed the unicorn,"No offense."

"None taken," I grumbled,"Now should I, or should I not tell you?"

"Time is a river," the unicorn laughed, while it's course can be changed, it tends to keep small things, like saving a possibly important life from causing the complete change in a language, though it could cause the fall of an empire.

"Ok," I said,"How about saving countless of lives from a deadly disease."

"Disease," Star Swirl stared down into my eyes,"The trots epidemic of this year just ended days ago, what else could happen?"

"Something much worse."

"How bad?" The unicorn mumbled, suddenly worried,"I'm surprised I don't know of this."

"In what way would you want to die?" I asked the unicorn, he was taken aback by the question.

"Happily, resting in bed," he said,"Why?"

"Imagine the exact opposite," I said,"A disease creating cutie marks all over a pony's body and forcing them to do every insane task caused by it, until they drop dead from exhaustion, just like that."

"How would we fight it?"

"Do you know any zebras?" I asked.

"Little filly," he chuckled,"In my travels I have slain dragons, and created hundreds of spells, but zebras just don't spend time with ponies, and the other way around," he stopped laughing,"Wait, you're being serious."

"I know a zebra who has the seeds to the flower that cures the disease, but she lives in the future."

"Does this disease ever go away, from what you know about our time?"

"Cutie Pox," I mumbled,"Will simply disappear as mysteriously as it appeared."

"How do you know so much of it?"

Scootaloo smirked then nudged the still sleeping Sweetie Belle to wakeness,"This is going to be good."

I grumbled,"I had it once."

"I thought you said, not only that it killed ponies, but that it mysteriously disappeared!"

"I did," I mumbled,"I was cured, and it came back into me because I ate a flower that was supposed to give me my heart's desire, which was, at the time, a cutie mark."

"Be careful what you wish for I guess."

"No kidding."

"We have to warn all of the other ponies going to the Cute-ceañera though, and make sure to keep everypony alive."

"I hope it's possible."

"I do too, but we must try."

We woke up Silver Spoon, and stepped out of the door into the cold winter night, filling her in as we walked.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Canterlot," said Star Swirl, we must find a carriage to Canterlot."

Comments

[Theresa]

It's a pity this wasn't finished because it really good.