The Rainbow Plague

by Prixy05

Chapter 1

Three days post infection...

---

"Crap crap crap crap!"

Rainbow Dash stuffed up a cloud in another hole that had appeared in the ceiling, sealing the water that dripped inside. Two days. Two days since she had sealed herself in her airborne home and the structure was already deteriorating. Of course, the rain outside wasn't helping, but Rainbow knew this was wrong, pegasi cloud structures don't just fall apart on their own.

Water was dripping around various parts of the room, and bits of the wall was already flaking off. Rainbow didn't know how much longer her house would last.

Her pet tortoise, Tank, extended his head to her expectingly, shivering as a drop of water splashed on his forehead.

"I know I know Tank," Rainbow said exasperatedly, "Quit trying to guilt trip me, it'll only be a few more days."

A few more days.

'Till what?' Tank seemed to ask with his beady eyes, 'Help arrives? You go outside? You save your friends?'

Rainbow sighed and leaned back on a cloudy chair, "I want to save them! But it's just that- Pinkie Pie! I couldn't bear if it got the others too!" She rubbed the tears welling up in her eyes, "It's just all my fault! What if I lose them? What if I lose everypony I care about!"

Tank slowly blinked and placed his head upon her leg, 'Its always better to accept the truth than hide from it', he seemed to say.

"I know but- it's just different this time. Maybe when the rain stops."

She looked out of the cracks in a nearby shuttered window. Through the sheets of rain, she could see Ponyville in the distance, silhouetted against the darkness and quieter than ever before.

---

Ponyville was indeed quiet. In fact, not a pony could be seen in the streets of the town. Maybe due to the rain, or maybe due to something else.

A single pony dashed through the market, sprinting between the rain-soaked stands. The pony stopped at the apple stand, it was of course empty, so she went next door to the pear stand. Ducking under the cover of the fabric top, Applejack grunted and shook the water off of her hat.

She sniffed the squishy pears still on display and gagged, "A bit tart, but these'll do."

Applejack opened her saddlebag and grabbed as many pears as she could carry. She had made the point of collecting perishable food first, things like honey could wait till later, if not scavenged by another pony first. Satisfied with her reaping, Applejack nodded and exited out to the rain.

But then, she heard something. Her ears perked up as she heard a noise, some kind of whining or buzzing from, overhead?

She looked up to see a pegasus fast approaching in the air. Applejack jumped back as this pegasus crashed into the market, creating a spray of mud. Applejack gasped; it was Rainbow Dash!

The rainbow-maned pegasi, wet and splattered with mud all over, frantically looked around. Suddenly Rainbow grabbed Applejack and brought her close, "You didn't eat any cookies recently, did you?"

Applejack scrunched her snout in confusion, "Wha- cookies?"

"Yeah cookies! Rainbow-colored, tastes like blue raspberry!"

"Uh Rainbow," she gently pushed Rainbow Dash aside, "What in tarnation are ya talkin' about?"

Rainbow planted her face in the mud and looked up in sorrow, "I'm so so so sorry! It's all my fault!"

Taken aback, Applejack shook her head in confusion, "What in the hay are you talkin' 'bout? You mean you caused this?" She motioned a hoof to the empty town behind her.

Teary-eyed, Rainbow sniffed, "I didn't mean any harm! Honest! It was just a little prank but then Pinkie got sick but instead of helping I hid away then Tank convinced me to go out and-"

Applejack held up a hoof, "Wait, Tank convinced you?"

Rainbow sighed, "Okay, I talked to Tank and convinced myself to come out, but I'm here now! Maybe we can find a cure or stop this or something!"

Applejack furrowed her brow, "You sayin' you caused all this?"

Rainbow sadly nodded.

"From a prank?"

She nodded again.

"Y'know, I would be angry at you Rainbow, but honestly? I'm just happy to see you."

"You are?"

"You're the first friend I've seen since this all started, and I'm just relieved that at least some of us are okay. Anyhow, we can shift responsibility later, we got other things to do."

"We do?"

"Yep, me an' the other Apples are holdin' out at the farm. Maybe we can make room for ya."

Rainbow didn't answer, instead turning and walking through the mud to the middle of the market.

Applejack tilted her head, "Rainbow?"

Rainbow didn't look back, instead pointing a hoof to the sky. She was pointing at a light that shone faintly above Ponyville, the first sign of life in town, the Castle of Friendship.

---

The duo crept carefully through the muddy streets of Ponyville keeping to the alleys to avoid attention. Rainbow had volunteered to simply fly up to the castle, but her wings had become too heavy with rain for her to be able to fly properly through the weather.

Both of the ponies were confused. Applejack had internal turmoil due to the fact that the cause of all this was apparently one of Rainbow's pranks gone wrong. Meanwhile Rainbow was just confused all around by the situation. Like why was it raining so hard? Where was everypony? What exactly had happened when she was boarded up in her house?

There were no answers for now, as the streets were just as empty throughout the rest of Ponyville as it was in the market. In fact, Applejack had been the only living thing Rainbow had seen since she left.

"Here we are," Applejack whispered as they arrived at the front door of the crystalline castle, "you best be prepared, who knows what inside."

Rainbow Dash didn't answer, instead staring at the gate. She walked and pressed a single hoof on the door. Surprisingly, the door wasn't locked or sealed, and slowly slid open.

"Huh," Rainbow stated before trotting inside.

Applejack pondered, why was the door unlocked? Unless they wanted them to come in; "Rainbow! Stop!" She held out a hoof, but it was too late.

With a snap, Rainbow yelped as a net rose beneath her hooves, wrapping her up and hoisting her into the air. "Agh! Get me outta here!"

"I'm a coming Rainbow!"

Applejack ran inside but stopped when she heard hoofsteps approaching. She turned to see a familiar face exit enter in from the shadows. A certain purple alicorn.

Applejack sighed with relief, "Twilight!"

Twilight glanced between the two ponies with joy, "Applejack! Rainbow Dash! I'm so happy to see you!"

---

A few minutes later, the trio had gathered in the library of the castle. The castle's natural luminescence was seemingly gone, instead the place was basked in the soft glow of candles that were placed about. Twilight had given the two soaked ponies blankets to warm up after she had cut down Rainbow from her trap.

"I've been in here since it started," Twilight continued, "I haven't left, mostly due to the rain, but still, I'm so happy to see that you two are okay! Did you see any of the others?"

Applejack sadly shook her head, "Sorry sugarcube, I've seen hardly anypony else in days."

"You two are literally the only ponies I've seen," Rainbow added.

Twilight sadly sighed, "Oh well, right now, we need a plan, and we need find out what happened."

Rainbow made a pained grimace as Applejack hung her head. "Uh, Rainbow thinks she knows what happened." Twilight turned to her with an expression of curiosity.

With much reluctance, Rainbow admitted her previous experiences, explaining to Twilight what she had had told Applejack earlier. Rainbow hid her face behind her wings and looked up at Twilight, who looked at her with a blank expression.

After a minute of silence, Twilight cleared her throat and tapped a hoof on her chin. "While your experiences are very interesting, I must say Rainbow, I don't believe that this is your fault."

Applejack and Rainbow gasped.

"It simply doesn't make sense! How could one prank gone wrong, turn into a pandemic that has swept across Equestria and has apparently disabled magic?"

Applejack gasped, "Across all of Equestria?"

Rainbow did a double take, "What do you mean disabled magic?"

Twilight sighed and stood up, "Come on, I have something to show you." The other two exchanged glances and stood when the door to the library opened.

In walked another familiar face. Spike, the little purple dragon, jaunted in as he took a bite out of a rainbow colored cookie in his claw. A look of horror crossed Rainbow's face as she yelled in terror, leaping over and smacking the rainbow cookie out his claw.

"Aww," Spike whined as his cookie was crushed underhoof, "that was my cookie."

Rainbow stared at Spike as she pointed to the remains of the cookie, "Where the heck did you get that?"

"Wait Rainbow," Twilight said sadly, "there's something else that you need to see, something important," she turned to Spike who was still staring sadly at his cookie, "Spike, prep the safety precautions." Snapping to attention, Spike gave a salute and ran out of the room.

---

The three ponies walked through the dim halls of the castle as they approached the meeting chamber. "I thought you said you haven't left the castle," Rainbow stated accusingly.

"I haven't," Twilight answered, "But Spike has. He experienced the initial outbreak firsthoof, and came back with some, stuff."

"You mean the cookies," Rainbow said.

Twilight nodded, "They've been our- Spike's primary food supply. That's the first reason why I don't think you started this. He's been eating those cookies for two days and has experienced nothing but indigestion. But you see, on the first day, he also came back with, somepony else."

Applejack's eyes widened, "You don't mean?"

Twilight sadly nodded as she pushed open the door to the meeting room. The meeting was bathed in the orange light of candle glow. The windows were covered, and extra padding had been applied across the room. Tables had been set up and were covered with papers, charts, notes, and graphs. Other bits of "Twilighting" were scattered about the room, with many papers gathered around a large object covered with cloth in the center of the roundtable.

Twilight shut the door behind her and silently nodded to Spike in the corner, who pulled a rope that lifted the cloth off the central object. Applejack and Rainbow gasped as the cloth lifted to reveal a large cage, with a pony occupant. The pony blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light and snarled when she noticed Twilight.

Tears welled up in Rainbow's eyes, as she cried out, "Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie Pie looked largely like usual with her pastel pink coat, and large, frizzy pink mane, but she was clearly not well. Her eyes were glazed over, the pupils non-existent. Several bruises ran along her disheveled fur, likely from ramming against the sides of the cage previously. Most notably, was the luminescent rainbow ooze dripping from her mouth. The dried powder from Rainbow's cookies was around her mouth, but the stuff that ran up from inside dripped down into a puddle that rapidly evaporated.

Pinkie's hoof clutched a bar of the cage as she reached out with another. She grunted, not a low guttural sound, but a sound that was high-pitched like the pony's regular voice.

"She's the primary reason I don't believe you're the cause Rainbow," Twilight said over Pinkie's deceptively normal vocalizations, "If she was patient zero like you describe, there was no way this infection could have spread beyond Sugarcube Corner, as Spike brought her over early enough that she hadn't yet left."

"Twilight!" Rainbow turned angrily to the alicorn, "How could you do this? Pinkie's your friend! You can't just lock her up in a cage like this!"

Applejack pulled her back, "Rainbow, calm down!"

Twilight spread her wings, causing both ponies to stop, "She's right Applejack, in any other circumstance, this would have been a terrible thing to do, but we simply don't know enough about the infection to know whether or not that's even still Pinkie."

Rainbow Dash scoffed, "What? You're Twilight Sparkle! You can figure out anything!"

Twilight sighed, "I wish I could say that, but for the moment, the nature of this infection is a complete mystery to me. There's nothing remotely similar in any of my books, and the only way to figure out anything without my magic would be through- dissection. For now, the only way I can find out anything is through close-up examination."

"About that," Applejack interjected, "What happened to the magic?"

Twilight pulled out a large chart with scribblings about magic, "I don't know how or why, but magic in Equestria, at least for us ponies, is diminishing," Twilight turned to Rainbow, "Rainbow, was your house deteriorating before you left?"

Rainbow shrugged, "I guess, but I'm sure it's just from the rain."

"No! It's because pegasi magic is diminished, meaning your cloud constructions will start falling apart. And yes, that does mean Cloudsdale as well. But beyond that, me and my castle have lost most of our magic as well, I can't do anything beyond simple levitation spells and I'm certain that's true with unicorns as well."

"Didn't you also say that the illness's spread 'cross Equestria? Wouldn't Celestia or Luna done somethin' about it?"

"We don't know," said Spike solemnly, suddenly entering into the discussion. He walked forward carrying a handful of scrolls that he placed at Applejack's hooves. "Celestia said something was happening and that it was all across Equestria!"

"They were sent hourly at first," Twilight stated, looking at the scrolls, "but the last one was sent yesterday. If she doesn't contact us soon, I'm afraid Celestia may be, compromised."

"So, what the hay do we do?" Rainbow exclaimed, "Apparently I didn't cause this, so we don't know how this started, it's across all of Equestria, our friends are dead or sick or whatever they are, and we don't have magic! How are we supposed to stop this and save everypony?"

"I'm not sure," Twilight said, quietly looking at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie was quieter now but was still reaching at Twilight through the bars. "But first things first, we need to look for other survivors."

Comments

[Mystic Sunrise]

Nope. Still Rainbow's fault. Mostly because without that episode? This wouldn't exist.

[Charlie_K]

Well this is looking interesting so far.

[darklight731]

Well, the zombies don`t seem to be too dangerous, so the lack of magic will be the real problem. Time for some good-ol`fashioned earth pony tech!
Great job word-smith! Cannot wait to see more!

[Puritanical_Frenzy]

11448724
You're a necromancer. Surely you must have a solution?

[darklight731]

11449225
I do not interfere in the business of mortals. I let them suffer and fail on their own. They don`t deserve my help.

[Puritanical_Frenzy]

11449233
Least resentful Dread League member.