This is my wife's story.
The Blight is a mysterious disease that lurks in the darkest corners of Equestria. Those it infects crave mayhem and will go to any length to spread mindless destruction.
The only cure is death, and the Pale Mare is bad medicine.
This story closely follows the events of canon, though few canon characters will appear.
Characters not tagged for spoiler reasons.
References and influences include Skyrim, Michael Crichton, Stephen King, and Piers Anthony.
Prereading by writer
Chapters (29)
About time this came out! Let's take a look shall we?
This actually looks really damn interesting and a neat concept to a fanfiction. I'll be sure to watch this.
The main character alone has my attention, a hybrid no less, haven't seen many of those on this site.
Hopefully some exposition on this disease comes in soon, otherwise I would have to guess you took the Dark Brotherhood influence.
Props to your wife, TNaB. This looks super interesting.
Interesting so far ... am I correct in thinking that Pale is Chrysalis and Shining's child?
Your wife does good work. I am very, very interested to see where this goes.
8117316 No, we're not on quite that timeline.
This is an interesting start. I shall need to see more.
The title instantly made me think of this
No mailbox? But ... how do they get packages from Amazon?
Well, they certainly don't act like they're murdering ponies.
Then Nightmare Moon came back, and nopony noticed until the rotting corpse started to really smell.
Still waiting to learn more about this disease
I take it the parasite requires a warm body to develop and grow?
If I went by just the names, I'd swear I was reading a Simon R Green book.
Not with the information shown so far.
Yeah, that might have been a bit much for a first mission.
This is making me really wonder ... how'd the stallion catch the blight? If it's only spread by other infected ponies, and those ponies all die shortly after it spreads, then the infected victims shouldn't be showing up in such easily-isolated locations, but rather in groups in highly populated areas.
8126701
Well, they're within walking distance of a town. Plus, we have several other assassins working elsewhere. But yes, there is a plan in place and we'll see more details later on.
8127679
Will it be explained how such a disease is still abounding seemingly without any official attempts to eradicate it?
8127806 No, just painful pony over-thinking
8127868
My pillow ninja shall be watching
Oh, this is going to turn out delightful.
I'm left kind of hoping that the books she "researched" are trashy romance novels bearing absolutely no resemblance to reality.
He defeathers infected griffins and pegasi and sleeps on it? Totally metal.
What if he blooms before the poison can take hold?
Defenestration. Unless they're pegasi.
*snerk* And now, the entire operation comes crashing down, because of one horny stallion looking to score.
"But make sure you wink, first." "Why?" "I don't know, it's tradition. Wink wink, nudge nudge." "Uh, ok then."
8133188
Just wait.
8133667 Wait, they're going to defenstrate pegasi too? Tell me they're at least bright enough to apply duct tape to the wings, first.
This is VERY interesting. The mysterious going's on of Equestria, bumps in the night.
I can't wait for the next update, this is great. You've been feeding us little tidbits of the Blight, and I really want to know the bigger picture.
This sounds as though the Blight is actually some kind of self-replicating curse, rather than a disease.
How old is Ahuizotl?
But if there weren't problems, this would be a very boring story.
I don't know why she didn't just trickle some of the poison cider into the old biddy's mouth and poison her. It would be fitting ... and the authorities are already going to question why the cider was poisoned.
8144733 Why would they test the cider if it looked like she slipped and fell?
8144772 Perhaps I misread, but I thought the package of rat poison was still out on the counter?
This is extremely important and worth every bit they paid for the property.
Double capital
If he's alone (or nearly alone) in a jail cell, this would seem a rather optimal solution. He can't get out and infect a crowd, so bribe a guard to keep him locked up until he blooms.
Also seems like the perfect place to stage an accidental death.
Well, emptying a safe full of bits will do that. And for added dodge, plant some of the bondpony's papers at Valley's house before you leave town.
I was expecting additional alliteration after the opening words.
Called it!
Given this is a griffin, I can't help but picture these as kitty pinup posters.
My paranoia is pinging. For starters, how does this featherhead know about the target and the blight?
I kind of hope so. If only because the two of them dancing around each other like this on the first date would be hilarious.
Yes, well, we knew that much already.
8155965 It was less calling it and more "Hey, that's a good line."
8155996 Potato, potato. ... that doesn't work so well in text.
Brutal.
Ouch... that was pretty sad.
Ah, the joys of fictional universes. Las Vegas is warm, or comfortable, but rarely both. Nothing like being outside at midnight when it's still 100F.
Somebody page Ezio, he needs to give Pale lessons.
Nobody ever does, really. You should have gone with Plinko.
Yes, it refused his spell to transform into vodka.
Is this a witness she's going to have to murderize?
And now I'm left wondering how many security cameras/spells Las Pegasus has. Because once they find him dead over the side, it'll only take one question to the desk clerk or the floor manager, and they'll be looking for Pale.
Or find her on security footage entering his room an hour after time of death.
Fun fact, the real Vegas is more like 10% casinos.
Well, that's not a nice way to describe a good chunk of the fandom.
Not even a happy ending first? You are one cold-hearted halfbugpony.
I can't tell if the thought here is "They would be twice as interested," or "They would run screaming for the hills."
Isn't there only one of those?
Maybe you should kidnap her for interrogation.
How else will you make sergeant?
Double quote marks at the end.
That's so
neckheartbreaking.Ohh, bloodshed! And not simply pointless bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed but having an actual plot and storyline! Must be my lucky day.
Well, that's not good.
Starting with Pale, I imagine.
Hmm ... seems like she's a Typhoid Mary, except a knowing one - someone infected, who can spread it via the cough without dying afterwards like a normal twitcher. Also, gives her a great chance to screw with Pale's group by throwing out confusing, pattern-breaking infections.
Ooh, hadn't thought of that angle. Also possible though.
I do not envy whatever policepony ends up investigating this. I'd tell them to call
DetectiveCaptain Hard Boiled of the Detrot PD for help, but that might bring more problems than it solves.8173028
"Why are all these ponies burning to death?!"
8174064 "What happened to him?" "He was hung, stabbed, shot, poisoned, thrown out of a building, drowned, and then set on fire." "Wow. They really didn't like him much." "Nope. Discord has that effect on people." "I'm perfectly fine, and I can hear everything you're saying."
Oh damn.
Now it's being passed by kissing? That ... doesn't quite add up.
So either changelings are much more pony than bug, or this is another data point in favor of a targeted curse and not a disease.
Oh damnit, not today. C'mon, Pale, you should bring her back with you, since you have somepony who's only 1 day into the infection, you should at least try and see if there's a cure. And if not, you won't have to worry about staging her death.
That's ... not what I was expecting. I suppose it was an attempt to be kind?
Changelings don't change back when they die? ... Would it be detectable in an autopsy?
Well of course you are, you only named them five minutes ago.
This leads me to wonder if the Princesses (well, Tia anyway) already know. Twi shouldn't, nor do I see any reason Cadence would. Luna seems most likely to know, by virtue of her dreamwalking.
If they had an infected pegasus, could they seed rainclouds with it?
Because there was a non-lethal option, or because the wrong griffon was well-connected?
They haven't heard of a Ouiji board? Or even Morse code? If he can move the parasprite, then it shouldn't be too difficult to set up an alphabet-style board that he can use to tap out words.
This seems like foreshadowing of one of the Princesses getting infected.
Damn, that's kind of mean.
Cry havoc, and let slip the kittybirds of war?
From just the description sounds similar to dark souls and its undead curse heh.
8181114
The Blight doesn't last long outside a body. But by all means, keep thinking up ways to kill everyone.
Which is a limited, slow form of communication compared to voice, particularly when filtered through parasprite.
I'm going to use this. Not in this story, but somewhere.
8182069 blood transfusions, if the blight does not last long outside the body then with it being passed through body fluids then a pack of blood in a freezer would surely make the disease dormant until the body of the recipient warms and activates it?
8182507 Those are some good points and I think I will add a bit about bad guys at blood drives
8182069
Ok!
It is (and would probably devolve into chat-speak) but it's still better than playing charades.
8182507
I like the way you think. But not all diseases go dormant in the cold, just most of them. And that still depends on whether this is actually a virus/bacteria, or a self-replicating curse.
8183390 A curse would surely be detected for it's magical traces like all curse do. For a virus or bacteria it is viable to say that they might be preserve through freezing, in a carrier fluid such as blood, however if the disease had yet to mutate to a form which ables it to live or hibernate in cold temperature the disease will be less infectious.
I'm not sure about this informations I'm spouting out right now, they're kind of a stuck knowledge, and it's midnight.
Oh, and thanks for the compliment, I guess?
8183537 How do we know that every curse is easily detectable? For that matter, their group doesn't seem to have a whole lot of unicorns.
I'm suddenly reminded of the damned Butcher in Diablo 1.
Zecora joining Pale? This sounds interesting.
Why is this guy out here? If twitcher behavior is to find a crowd and cough their lungs out, then heading to the middle of the forsaken wilderness makes absolutely no sense. How sure are they that he was a twitcher?
8184212 As noted, the guy was within stumbling distance of Ponyville.
I like the relationship between Pale and Coin. They might not be intimate as the tags suggests so I assume they are on the close sister's kind of side.
For torture no one who would still like to live will be able to holdout long. There is a method where you induce pleasure to the victim when they break from the pain it activates the pony's natural instincts to be attach to this positive feelings and thus it'll make the pony more cooperative in interrogation.
Did your wife make the picture too?
8191508 Nah, she only does traditional art.