Multiversal Contagion

by Razalon The Lizardman

Chapter 2

Dr. Mario’s eyes flitted all around him as the alien equines led him through what must’ve been a castle, judging from the elaborate and exquisite architecture. It wasn’t quite like Princess Peach’s castle which was more welcoming and friendly; this was grand and flaunted high stature. Tall pillars etched with elaborate designs supported the structure, set in between many stained glass windows with more abstract designs. The colors were vibrant— blues, purples, and gold dominated the walls while a plush red carpet lined the floor beneath. He caught a glimpse outside one clear window to behold a wide view of a sprawling cityscape outside the castle, populated with several more colorful equines going about their business.

Everything was so strange and alien, he almost forgot why he was here. Seeing all those strange equines outside brought a sharp, horrifying realization to him. This world was very much populated by sapient creatures. That meant the viruses had plenty of opportunities to spread and cause a new epidemic. How well the sickness translated to alien horses, he didn’t know, but it was a chance he could never take as a professional doctor.

He hurried to fall into step alongside the guards, who turned to look at him curiously. “Heya, fellas, think we can speed this up a bit?” Dr. Mario asked with a worried frown. He tugged at his collar in another gesture he hoped would properly translate. “Your whole kind might be in danger.”

The guards continued looking at him blankly. “But… it’s proper protocol to not run with guests,” one of them said.

Dr. Mario slapped a hand to his face. “Mamma mia.”

They continued on in silence, all the while Dr. Mario fidgeted nervously. They led him up a winding staircase and down a couple more hallways, eventually coming to a stop in front of a set of large double doors. One guard stepped forward and knocked on the door. Dr. Mario almost jumped back when, in response, the door was enveloped in a golden nimbus and cracked open. The other guard gestured for Dr. Mario to enter, which he did after a moment of hesitation, not sure what was going to happen, but the urgency of the situation won out in the end.

He came into a room that was more like a hallway than a room. Along either wall were more stained glass windows, these ones depicting specific events at first glance, but whether they were fiction or not he had no way of knowing. At the other end of the room sat a tall golden throne, upon which sat an equally tall equine with a snow-white coat, a free-flowing multi-colored mane, and dressed head to hoof in golden regalia. What really stuck out were the wings folded at their sides as well as the horn protruding from their head; that was certainly different. Another point of interest was the stylized sun picture on their flank. They had their face buried in a scroll levitating in a golden nimbus just like the door.

“Come forward, my little pony,” came a feminine voice from them.

Dr. Mario began approaching the throne, nervous, but quickly threw caution to the wind and broke out into a jog. The equine lifted her face from the scroll in response, looking afraid for a brief second before her face morphed into surprise. Dr. Mario stopped at the base of the steps leading up to the throne just as she started speaking.

“Oh, goodness, my apologies. Clearly, you are not one of my subjects.” She tilted her head. “You came through the Window, did you not?”

“Your world is in danger, Your Highness!” Dr. Mario blurted, ignoring her. “There’s all these viruses that escaped from my world and came into yours and they cause all these weird symptoms and—”

Dr. Mario stopped when he felt his mouth shut of its own accord as another golden nimbus surrounded it. The royal equine’s horn was surrounded with the same colored nimbus, making it clear where all the strange magic had been coming from. She stepped off her throne and began descending the steps, letting the scroll she was holding fall to the ground.

“I hear your concern, visitor from another world,” she said calmly. “But first I must be sure you are who you say you are, and that your intentions truly are noble.” She stepped onto the floor and closed the distance between them as she continued. “My name is Princess Celestia, diarch of Equestria alongside my sister, Princess Luna. I will allow you to speak, and I want you to, calmly, tell me exactly who you are and why you find yourself in this world. Can you do that?”

Dr. Mario nodded his head. The golden nimbus disappeared from around his mouth and he opened it, inhaling a deep, relaxing breath of air before he exhaled and began speaking. He explained everything she wanted to know: where he came from, his occupation, the Primary Virus outbreak back home, how the samples got loose, the dimensional doorway in his workspace, and how he chased the viruses to this world before they ultimately escaped. Princess Celestia listened attentively, her expression gradually morphing into worry as he went on, but especially as he described the kinds of symptoms the viruses were capable of.

“Yes, that is indeed concerning.” She appeared to stare off into space for a few moments before she asked, “These ‘megavitamins’ you speak of— How many more do you have?”

Dr. Mario silently counted on his fingers before replying, “I have about three dozen bottles, but two-thirds of them are reserved for patients back in my world. I’m-a gonna need to reschedule all of their appointments now…” he trailed off.

Celestia stepped past him and opened the double doors with her magic. “Relay these orders to Guard Captain Microburst: Tell him that, until further notice from the Crown, Canterlot is to be quarantined. No trains are to arrive or depart starting now and all roads are to be cordoned off. An alien virus is roaming free somewhere in the city; we must not let it spread to all of Equestria.”

The guards snapped a salute and rushed down the hallway out of sight. Celestia returned to Dr. Mario with a smile. “My guards work quickly; I have faith this virus won’t slip past us.”

Dr. Mario breathed a sigh of relief. “Sono sollevato.”

“Time is of the essence, so I’ll take us back to that supply closet the quick way.” Her horn lit up again. “This will only disorient you for a second, I promise.”

Before Dr. Mario could ask what she meant, there was a bright flash and the ground fell away under his feet. A second later, the light disappeared. He felt dizzy for a moment and nearly stumbled but righted himself. Looking around, he saw they were now back in the same area where he’d tried to stop the viruses from escaping. The supply closet he’d come out of was right next to them, still open with the dimensional doorway plainly visible.

“Before you go to retrieve more of your megavitamins,” Celestia spoke up, “you need to know how to get back home first.”

Dr. Mario nodded his understanding.

“First things first, that white space you came through is called the Singularity; essentially, it is a hub connecting various worlds that was created a little over a year ago. For the sake of urgency, I won’t go into detail about it until after this crisis is resolved. And those ‘dimensional doorways’ are actually called Windows, as I said before. In order to return to your world, you will need to locate a Guide; look for a set of darkly-colored spheres arranged in a cross pattern. Inform them of your desire to return to your world and make sure to identify the name of your home. Do that, and they’ll summon your world’s Window in an instant.”

“Okie Dokie.” Dr. Mario took off in a sprint through the Window. Coming out into the Singularity, he scanned his surroundings for a being matching the description Celestia gave, quickly finding one hovering in the air above him. “I need to get-a back home to New Donk City, please.”

The Guide lifted a sphere ‘arm’ and a Window a short distance away zipped over to him.

“Grazie!” he shouted before practically diving through. He threw open the supply closet door and rushed into his office. He needed to move and wrap up his loose ends quickly.

He opened the drawer containing his megavitamin bottles and pulled them all out. He set aside a third of them and placed them in a plastic bin. He next exited the room and made his way down the hallway to the receptionist’s desk where the New Donker lady currently on duty looked up from her computer at him as he approached.

“I need-a you to reschedule the rest of my appointments today for tomorrow; some urgent business has come up,” he explained.

The receptionist looked surprised for a moment, but smiled and began typing away at her computer to complete his request.

“Grazie,” he said, and hurried back down the hall.

He was positive he could wrap up this mess before tomorrow. This was certainly not how he expected his day to go, but the thrill of adventure was buzzing within him, and he loved it.

---

Dr. Mario gathered up his remaining megavitamin bottles and hurried through the Window, quickly making his way back to the world of Equestria. A different set of equine guards were standing watch at the door to the supply closet when he arrived and they instructed him to follow them back to the throne room. On orders from Celestia, they moved at a much brisker pace than the ones before, much to Dr. Mario’s delight.

They brought him to the throne room and bade him enter. Celestia was standing next to the throne, conversing with another winged, horned equine; this one had a similar flowing mane colored blue, a darker blue coat, a stylized moon against a black backdrop on their flank, and was dressed head to hoof in silver regalia. This other equine turned to him once he entered the room, her eyes filled with interest.

“I got the megavitamins, Celestia,” he said, holding out the plastic bin.

“Thank you, Dr. Mario,” she replied, levitating the bin out of his hands. She studied the contents for a moment before saying, “We will need to be conservative with how we spend these.” She passed four bottles each to the three of them.

Dr. Mario flipped one of the bottles in the air in a playful manner. “We can do it,” he said, voice brimming with confidence.

“You carry yourself more as a warrior than a doctor,” the blue equine remarked; her voice was also feminine. She placed a hoof to her chest. “I am Princess Luna, diarch of Equestria alongside my sister. I hope our mission will be successful.”

“I am confident we can solve this crisis before it gets out of hoof,” Celestia said.

“What’s-a the situation, Princesses?” Dr. Mario asked.

“My guards have erected a forcefield around the city from within the castle and the royal nurses are preparing the hospital wing for an influx of sick patients,” Celestia explained. She grimaced. “The descriptions you gave of the effects of this Primary Virus are… disturbing, to say the least.”

“Indeed, but the viruses take a while to take effect,” Dr. Mario said. “We should be able to—”

There was a crash from beside them, followed by a spray of multi-colored glass showering them and causing them to instinctively cover themselves with their arms/wings. A heavy thud sounded a short distance away from them and they turned to see a green-winged equine lying on the floor, body covered in cuts and wings drooping at their sides.

Panicking, Dr. Mario rushed over to help.

“Wait!”

The winged equine turned to face Dr. Mario and he screeched to a halt. Multi-colored snot ran down their face, dripping onto the floor. Their eyes were red and puffy and it looked like they were having trouble breathing. The most horrifying part, however, was their hoof. Or, rather, the human fingers that were sprouting from the bottom— an effect of the yellow virus, Weird, no doubt.

The equine lunged at him and he quickly dodge-rolled out of the way. They shot straight for the princesses at breakneck speed.

“Watch out!” Dr. Mario called.

Luna’s horn lit up and the equine froze in midair, surrounded by a blue nimbus. Their hooves slapped to their sides as their entire body went rigid. The equine made no negative reaction to being caught. On the contrary, when Dr. Mario came around to join the princesses, a ghost of a smile had crossed their muzzle.

“The viruses must be adapting better to pony biology than humans,” Dr. Mario observed.

“I will inform my guards to erect a second barrier around the castle itself,” Celestia said, and disappeared in a flash of light.

“I must concentrate on maintaining my hold on her,” Luna said, nodding toward the equine in her magical grasp. “Can you administer your megavitamins with her like this?”

Dr. Mario began unscrewing the cap off a bottle. “Open their mouth, please.”

The equine’s mouth opened wide.

Dr. Mario took off the cap and spilled a small handful of megavitamins into his palm— roughly an even distribution of all three colors. He stepped forward and reached his hand up to the equine’s mouth. The fear that they could sneeze snot all over him was justified; in a situation like this, he would prefer to wear a biohazard suit, but he wasn’t even sure that those existed in this world. The equine didn’t struggle or squirm as he tilted the pills into their mouth before it snapped closed.

“Please swallow, little pony,” Luna said. “Take as much time as you need to build up your saliva.”

The ‘pony’s’ mouth began visibly shifting as she followed Luna’s instruction. She stopped a minute later.

“Have you swallowed them all?” Luna asked just as Celestia reappeared in another flash of light.

The pony nodded weakly.

“Good.” Luna turned to Celestia. “We will need to keep her quarantined to be safe.”

“Right,” Celestia said with a nod. “The second barrier is up, but I’m afraid I have some bad news: It seems the Primary Virus has indeed spread rapidly across the city, according to reports from our guards. They are currently preparing some biohazard suits for us.” She turned to Dr. Mario. “We have suits in a smaller size, but they’re made for ponies, not humans, so yours might be hard to move around in.”

Dr. Mario flashed her a thumbs up and smiled. “No worries.”

“Before we do anything else, however,” Luna spoke up, “we should educate you on the different types of ponies as well as what they’re capable of, considering what we just witnessed.”

Dr. Mario nodded his agreement.

“I must say,” Celestia spoke up as a wistful smile crossed her lips, “it’s a shame we couldn’t meet under better circumstances. When this is all over, would you care to chat for a while over tea? I would love to learn about the world you hail from.”

Dr. Mario flashed another thumbs up. “Sì!”