Twilight has made a blunder. She will never work with a virus while Discord is visiting again.
When Twilight was working on a new strain of the pony flu, to make a spell to cure all flu. When she got interrupted by one bored spirit of chaos! But when Discord accidentally sent the virus to earth, what can stop this virus from turning the human population into quadrupeds!
Edited by DonnEStarside, and free online grammar checkers.
She was working on a spell designed to cure the flu, which she did get done, but now she was trying to make one for all future flu’s as well.
All her friends, sans Fluttershy, have come to check on her, and every time Twilight told them she was fine and that there was nothing to worry about.
“Achoo!” Unfortunately working in close proximity to the flu without proper safety will get you sick.
“Eep!” And scare a sneaky Flutters.
Twilight looked over to the sound of a startled Fluttershy. “Oh, hey Fluttershy. Are you here to check on me too?” She asked.
“Her and I actually.” Said Discord appearing behind Fluttershy.
Twilight didn’t expect this. But expecting Discord is like getting a tortoise to win a race… Getting first place in a race, so Tank does not count!
But Twilight has ways of dealing with him. “What do you want Discord?”
“Your compassion.”
Twi looked at him like he just told the most obvious lie ever.
“Alright you got me. I’ve been bored lately and sometimes its best to see my favorite princess!”
Twilight looked over to Fluttershy and she spoke. “It’s true. Discord needs something to do and when I told him you were working on that flu cure he asked to come with me to see you.”
Twilight was wondering what Discord would want to do with her involving the flu. “What do you want to see me about involving the flu?”
“Fluttershy said that you’re trying to make a curing spell for all future flu’s, and to that I ask; how’s your time trying to make a cure for randomness?”
At first Twi was speechless, then started to giggle. When finished she said. “Discord, everything has a pattern. For instance, yours is that you will never do the same thing twice. I just have to find it and then the flu will be gone for good this time.”
“And have you found this pattern?”
Twilight had not found this pattern. She thought she had at the end of the first day… But then got it knocked down by Rarity who noted that what she was seeing was a typo in records. Then on the end of the second day she thought she had found it… Only for Pinkie to note that she has gotten the flu even when not on a sugar rush. She was stumped and afraid to admit it, especially to Discord after he just said its random!
“It’s… Ok you got me. I have no idea what the pattern is. But I know there’s a pattern, there just has to be!”
“Au contraire ma petite princesse, to find the pattern you need to see the pattern in action.”
With a snap of his fingers the test tube carrying the virus vanished in a flash of light.
Twilight had a look of shock and anger. “Where did you send it?”
Discord summoned a 1980’s style television showing a crowded ponyville market to find no illness to be found.
Discord stared at the screen confused. “Thats not right.”
Twilight was now worried. “Discord, where did you send that tube?”
“In all honesty I have no idea where it went, it was supposed to land in the marketplace where the damage would be minimal… But its not there.”
Twilight was actually pretty calm compared to Discord who was in a panic. “It’s ok Discord. No matter where it shows up we’ve got the cure, so I’ll just send the spell out to where it was sent.”
“You don't understand Twilight. If I can’t find it, it’s no longer on this planet!”
That turned Twilights smug look upside down. “If it’s not here, then where is it?”
“I have no idea. But it can’t be just anywhere, it has to be somewhere thats not here and not deadly.” He said. “I never let anything die while I’m around. Even by accident!”
Twilight was perplexed by this. “But the flu isn’t a living thing, its a curse.”
“And who casted a curse that is called the flu? Curse’s only last till the death of the caster, and the flu has been around for a thousand years longer than I.”
“Then what is it?”
“A tiny creature that uses your body as a way to make more of itself. What your spell does is not lifting a curse but stopping the creatures from reproducing.”
That got the gears turning. “If the flu is a living thing, then why does it keep coming back?”
“You will have to find that out yourself. I am not going to give all the facts.”
Then Twilight had an idea. “What do you think Fluttershy?”
There was no answer, as Fluttershy was not here. Realizing that she probably timidly excused herself and left while she and Discord were arguing.
The last two beings in the lab were now looking at eachother. “I guess we should try to find this disease before Fluttershy comes back and yells at us for possibly harming a living thing.” Said Twilight.
“Agreed!” Said Discord, worried about what’s to come if they fail.
I was playing Pandemic II as a boredom killer. set difficulty to realistic, set race to virus, and actually won by dumb luck.
After that I went into the kitchen to celebrate. I placed a glass on the counter…
*Glass shattering*
I look back from my place at the fridge to see my cat on the counter where the glass should have been and a lot of broken glass on the floor… And some odd substance.
I knew I did not put anything in the glass as that was why I was over at the fridge.
I got some of the substance on my finger, to give it a taste.
“Bleh! that tastes disgusting!”
I went to the bathroom to wash it out.
After Increasing my water bill by two hundred percent. I get a call from my doctor on a blood test I had a few days ago.
“Hey Allen. Hows it going down there.”
“Ehh… Nothing much, just some weird substance appeared in my kitchen. Tasted like blood and potato juice now that I think about it.”
“Huh… Blood and potato juice are used to grow bacteria colonies, we might want to take a look at that.”
“So I probably shouldn’t put any in my mouth?”
“Not until we know what it is. I got some friends who are biologist, they may be able to help.”
“Alright… So what are the results of the test.”
“Healthy! You have scored negative for diabetes.”
“Thanks Derick!”
A few minutes later the biologists Derick were talking about came to see this substance. I showed it to them and they started looking at it through a microscope.
“Where did you get this?” Asked one of the biologist.
“I have no idea. The stuff just appeared when my cat knocked over an empty glass.”
“Not all of this glass is a glass cup. these glass shards are of a test tube. And from my understanding of physics. This tube fell like the table it was sitting on disappeared .”
“What does that mean?” I said.
“Either you’re lying and dropped this yourself, or you’re telling the truth. In which case this may be our first possible way to prove whether or not there are parallel universe’s.”
Its at this moment I realized that the biologist were all wearing face masks. which made me notice I was not.
“Can we take some of this for further analysis.”
“Take all of it! I don’t need it.”
When they left with the entire substance, I was relieved.
Yesterday was uneventful. The biologist said it will take some time to find out what it was that ended up in my kitchen. Only saying all the petri dishes showed negative for any bacteria, and that there is an as of now unknown preservative in the mix.
I cleaned up the glass and what little substance was left after the call. Nothing much happened after that.
“Achoo!” Beside catching the flu.
The odd thing about that is, I was sure I got vaccinated for the flu last year.
But catching the flu will not stop me from visiting the hospital and my friend Derick. I know for certain he is vaccinated and the flu shouldn’t spread through the hospital.
Derick and I were high school friends, and stayed in touch even after he went to college. Where he got a PHD in medicine, and a membership of the CDC.
While I got out of the educational system with three programming languages under my belt, and a basic understanding of Newtonian physics.
While some say I got the better deal then Derick. I haven't been able to use these talents much compared to him.
Of course, I don’t need to go all the way to Atlanta to visit him as he is only at the CDC when a pandemic happens. I just got to visit him at the Dallas hospital.
Upon entering the waiting room to the lab. *Cough!* I let one cough out before covering my mouth.
I was able to request a face mask after that and went to visit my old friend.
Upon entering his office I found him on his own, like every time I came to visit.
“Hey Derick.”
“Hey Allen… What’s with the mask?”
“Got a case of the flu. Decided this is the best way to keep it away from anyone else.”
“Good idea, but some may still catch it regardless. Unless they're vaccinated. Speaking of which I’m pretty sure you’re vaccinated, and that you never go out, so this unorthodox.”
“What could it mean?”
“It may be a never before seen strain that is not in the seasonal flu vaccine. Come with me, lets do a test.”
We went a few halls over to the lab to do some tests for the disease I had obtained.
First Derick put on a face mask and asked me to cough into a petri dish. After that, he started asking me questions.
“When did symptoms start?”
“Yesterday, around noon.”
“What symptoms are there?”
“Just the usual symptoms of the flu.”
“I think we should keep an eye on you for the time being, there are many non flu disease’s that show flu like symptoms.”
Just two day’s ago, almost one percent of the DFW area had been infected by my mystery disease.
But, luckily the biologist had got a hold on me, on the substance. It's the source of the virus.
Then Derick got a hold of me saying he’s going to Atlanta to inform the CDC about this virus and before he left I told him what the biologist had told me, and it was problematic for sure, but that's not what worries me.
Derick said that if this virus did come from that tube, then it may not be something we can fight, or at least not easily.
So today is my first day in a self admitted quarantine, too bad this is not going to be an easy thing with what’s about to happen.
I was working on one of my jobs(a bug fix.) When it happened.
It felt weird, not really painful, not really enjoyable either.
But what it felt like was my hearing suddenly blacked out and then it felt like water running up my head.
When my hearing came back, it was much clearer. But coming from the wrong point on my head.
When I felt for where my ears should have been. I found just a flat area of my head like I never had ears in the first place.
I ran to the bathroom to find out where my ears are…
What I saw made me blink, and then again. I could not believe what I was seeing.
The ears on the side of my head were gone, and on the top of my head were cat-like ears, but unlike the ones on my cat, these were a bright orange.
I leapt towards my phone. Only one person knew about my self quarantine. So only Derick could come to see this possible symptom of the virus.
“Allen… Is anything wrong? You don’t normally call me when I’m at Atlanta unless it’s important.”
“I think I’ve found a possible new symptom of the disease.”
“... Tell me… Is it lethal?”
“Non-lethal but very visible.”
“I’m coming over.”
When he got here he knocked on the door, I looked through the peephole to make sure it was him, and to make sure he was wearing a face mask. Both of which were a yes, so I let him in.
“So whats this new symptom?”
“You're looking at it.” I said, holding my hair up in such a way it shows where my ears were, as well as where my ears are now.
“What the fck!”
“I know, Its wierd.”
“What are they?”
“No idea! They look like cat ears don’t they?”
“They are orange. They are very unnaturally colored.” He said. “Whatever they are, lets keep an eye on this.”
“So you’re staying with me?”
“No, we’re going to Atlanta.”
“But I can’t leave here! Not without infecting the rest of the city!”
“Then lets do a check up system, call me if another change happens.”
“Alright.”
January 13 2015
7:10:00:00 since first infection
Atlanta, Georgia
Once I was back in Atlanta I immediately went to the CDC to inform them of this new development, bringing pictures along so they will believe me.
“If you told me this with or without proof I would probably have laughed at you. Would say you fell a prank, but this is clearly no prank, according to your report on the patient.”
“Not only that, he is the index case of this disease.”
“Well then he’s doing our job for us then. But we still need to do an official isolation.”
“That should be easy just leave him be and mark his house as isolated.”
“It’s not that simple. You see we need to make sure he does not come out. That's why we will be locking it down as well.”
“You can’t be kidding me! He already is staying indoors!”
“We can’t give privileges in this sort of work Mr. Kenderson. If we give Mr. Woods more freedom for obedience than others who don’t deserve, it may ask for it.”
To say I was angry would be an understatement. I was downright furious! But I can’t overrule the second in command. So I had to go with it.
“In other news the disease has had an outbreak spreading to the area's around the DFW area."
“This fire is still small, think we can stop this thing before it gets any worse?”
“Not everyone went to the hospital when their symptoms showed they were spreading an epidemic. There may be some of the disease moving around that we don’t know about.”
I knew where he was going with this, if there are those who will travel even when showing signs of a disease. We may have a bigger problem on our hands.
I was working on a personal project (a web page formatting) when I heard a noise from the front of my house.
When it happened, I noticed that my ears turned to the noise, which surprised me.
When I came to the window to see what’s happening, I noticed that there were police at my door setting up yellow tape.
I realized this meant that my self induced quarantine just became official. And now I can’t go outside even if I wanted to.
But that’s beside the point when I felt a sudden pain at the end of my spine griped me.
Looking down at my pelvis region I find a slight bulge in the back of my pants.
Removing them, I find that I have grown a tail, a blue with red highlights horse tail at that.
Upon finding a tail on my behind I took my phone out and gave Derick a call.
“Derick, I have a tail!”
“That sounds unbelievable... But so would being told someone grew orange cat ears. Speaking of which, can you take a picture and show me?”
I quickly took a picture and texted it to him.
“... Its a horse tail.”
“Makes you wonder what I’m changing into.”
“Maybe you are turning into a candy colored pony from a magical land.”
There was silence on both ends for a time, and then.
“Nah!” We both said at the same time.
“Anyway,” I said. “lets work with the assumption that I’m turning into something we’ve never seen before, alright.”
“Alright.”
“Anyway, What’s been happening over on your side.”
“Practically nothing. The disease has barely gotten out of the DFW area.”
“Sounds great! Lets hope it stays that way.”
“Don’t jinx it!”
After that we said our goodbyes and hung up, so then I went into my kitchen to get a knife to cut a slit in my pants for my tail, putting my pants back on, making sure my tail slips through the slit.
After that a sudden urge swept over me like an instinct had been awakened in me, and I felt like the walls were closing in on me, and I wanted out.
Luckily the last person to own this house was paranoid to the max, he was afraid of everything, to the point he dug a who knows how long tunnel in a closet, but I only found it yesterday thanks to my new ears which could hear the echoes in the tunnel.
In fact, he was the reason I bought the house in the first place, as It came with his entire computer build and super secure firewall he designed himself, after reverse engineering it, I created my own version that was stronger than his and sold it to a security company for a very small fortune, the keywords are very small.
I grabbed a few things before I left, a pocket knife for if I have to cut up my clothes, some more, a flashlight since the tunnel is dark, and a backpack full of food since I have no idea what's on the other side.
Then I went into my bedroom closet and pulled up the carpet from a loose corner, revealing the floor boards, lifting them up I opened the passageway and hopped in.
January 14 2015
8:00:00:00 Since last infection
Atlanta, Georgia
Three hours ago I got a call from Allen, and now I have been informed he has disappeared from his home.
There literally is no trace of him in his house, or the city for that matter.
Besides the obvious problem, it’s also a minor setback in researching this disease, for now I have to wait for other patients to start showing these higher symptoms before I can study them.
I’m also worried as a friend, if he was missing it may be due to another symptom, possibly a mental condition.
But for now, since there is nothing we can do about it at the moment, I’m going to focus on stopping this epidemic before it becomes a pandemic.
With a few isolations and quarantines we were able to slow this thing down.
Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t slow it down outside of Dallas, for it was too small and too little reason for them to be isolated. While we said to do it the local authorities just didn’t see any reason for it.
Other than that nothing was happening, but we were told we could work on our own projects as long as it’ll help with stopping this disease.
As such I asked for the data and the original substance from the biologist. I just got them today so I can start analyzing the virus inside so we can try to make a vaccine out of it.
I took the substance to the STM for analysis. Preparing the substance so that it can be seen by the microscope, and I watched as the picture formed before me.
And what I saw made me speechless, and to this day I still can’t describe exactly what I saw.
The STM allows me to see what proteins are on the virus's surface, but these proteins are something I have never seen before, or since. It has Hemagglutinin, the H in the flu, but it has a number of other antigen proteins in the mix that I've never seen. As such I’m going to tie these all together under a single name for now, and that name is Pestis Incognitus.
and with that I have sent them this data as well as a suggestion of the name…
The past week had been hard for Twilight and Discord, first the accident, then Fluttershy giving them both the stare, and now they were trying and failing to find that tube.
“Are you sure this will work?” Asked Discord.
“Unless you’ve teleported anything else between then and now, yes!”
Discord was standing in the middle of a ritual circle designed to track where his magic has teleported to last.
“Ready, Discord?”
“Ready, number one!” Discord said in an oddly deeper voice.
After that Twilights horn sparked to life, and so did the circle which started to flow into Discord as he started shaking as he detected a magical disturbance as his magic was pulled out of him, to the last place he teleported to, then back to him.
When the spell was finished a circle of Twilights magic was formed, Twilight awoke from her trance to see what's on the other side.
“It looks like a house from the human world.” Said Twilight.
“Not exactly, for you, see Twilight, this portal is giving me a different vibe than Starswirl’s magic mirror.” Said Discord.
“Well what matters is that we should get over there so we can tell somepony on the other side what that vile i-”
But before Twilight could trot through the portal Discord stopped and said. “Another thing is, that portal is very unstable, if you go through it will collapse and you won’t be coming back to Equestria for a long time!”
“Well then how do we stabilize it?”
“I remember Starswirl having Sunbutt and Lulu use the Elements of harmony on his portal to stabilize it.”
That hit Twilight hard. “But the elements were returned to the tree.”
Discord frowned and looked toward the portal. “There is one other way to stabilize a portal.” He said. “If we can get somepony from the other side to help stabilize the portal, then you could just cast a powerful spell into the portal and simply rebound it back and forth like a tennis ball till it stabilizes the portal.”
Twilight thought that he just wanted to play tennis with the locals, but she decided to play along for fear of him snapping his talons and collapsing the portal. “How do we get someponies help if we can’t use the portal?”
“Au contraire ma petite princesse, while we cannot go through ourselves, we can send magic and objects through.” He said, summoning a scroll that Twilight would use to massage princess Celestia.
Twilight then got the idea. “But we can’t send letters to no address, nor could we use Spike!”
“I’m way ahead of you. We will just send it to the most magical pony in that world.”
Gears were starting to turn. “But if it's anything like Canterlot high then there will be no magic.”
“Which will make our new interdimensional pen pal, even more special!”
The light bulb finally lit up. “Discord you’re a genius!”
As soon as she said that the light bulb went out. Then Discord unscrewed it from its socket and looked at it through a magnifying glass. “Hmm… It appears that thought was too much for even your inspiration bulb.”
Twilight couldn’t understand what Discord just removed from her head, but she did notice an odd blankness where her imagination was.
Discord looked towards her. “Oh… One moment Twilight I need to borrow a bulb from Rarity… Or Pinkie…” He was gone a little bit later.
When he returned, he had a light bulb in his talons that he screwed into Twilights head, and then gave her a long list, even for her standards. “Since that bulb is borrowed I need you to read that entire list of things not to think, so you don’t burn out that bulb.”
Twilight looked at the first thing on the list: Don’t divide by zero.
“How long till I can think freely again?”
“When your new bulb comes in the mail.”
Twilight knew how unreliable ponyville postal service is so She is expecting big problems ahead if this thing Discord ordered doesn’t come intact, but that’s when I realized something. “Discord why don’t you make it yourself instead of possibly sending it to us through Derpy?”
“Oh, well you have no sense of humor my dear princess, very well.” And with a snap a light bulb appeared in front of him. He unscrewed the one in at the moment and replaced it with the one he just created. Snapping away the one he just took out.
“Anyway lets get that letter sent.”
And so they started working on a letter to whomever finds it. Adding a tracking spell that will lead them to the portal.
After It was finished, they used magic to send it to the most magical being and hoped for the best.
I don’t know how long I was in that tunnel for, but I knew that I was close now, I could feel it.
Why did I think that? Probably the light at the end of the tunnel, and if I know anything that either means I’m about to reach the surface, or I’m dead and I don’t want to be going into that light.
I’m going to assume it's the former, as there is nothing in this tunnel that could possibly kill me.
Upon reaching the light I pushed open the wooden doors that held the outside world away from me to open up to the outside world.
"Freedom!" I said at the top of my lungs.
Looking around, I came to find I was in a clearing in what looked like a forest, and there was some sort of large shack.
This is where the paranoid man's been hiding all this time, or he was, but it’s clear that the shack has been abandoned as long as I’ve owned my house. There is rot everywhere.
I look up to see that the sun is barely over the horizon from my vantage point in this area.
“Was I really walking through that tunnel all night?” I said to myself.
I had no time to ponder that when I felt an itch on my back. I went to scratch it moving my hand through my feathers to… Wait feathers?
I took my hand out of my shirt and took off said shirt to reveal to my eyes, just barely in my vision, a pair of wings the same color as my ears.
I then started digging through my pockets for my cell phone, but it was not there.
“Crud, I left my phone back at the house.” Looking back toward the tunnel, I felt that same instinct from before making me fear it, so I looked away to focus on other things.
First off, I need shelter, but that shack looks like it’s just waiting for a reason to completely collapse.
Second, I am going to need food, but this looks like a forest, and unless I was a squirrel or a deer, I can’t live off the forest much.
Third, I need to know why a green flame flew in front of me and turned into a scroll with a wax seal. No idea what the six point star on the seal means.
Picking it up from the ground I removed the wax seal and opened it.
To whomever gets this letter.
I would like to express my humble apologies on behalf of my friend who accidently sent a vial of disease to your world.
Well it wasn't my fault that something interfered with my magic.
As I was saying, we need your help on stabilizing the portal between our worlds. Without it, we cannot help in any way.
Just follow the magic compass picture underneath this letter, before Twilight tries to fix this by traveling back in time and destroying the space time continuum by causing a paradox.
Yours sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Yours chaotically, Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony.
After that there was a very detailed picture of a compass that was pointing back the way I came. Looking back, I felt that instinct hit me again, But not as powerful as it was before.
Looking back at the letter I found myself wondering what this meant. Who were these two that seem to be fighting over the pen? Could their vial of disease be the tube that fell onto my kitchen floor? And why does this Discord fellow remind me of John De Lancie?
I also wondered what this all meant, but couldn't come to any real answers, but the fact was that the compass pointed back the way I came, and I need to let that urge die down first.
I decided to give these wings a try, so I tried moving them first to find them responding quite well to my commands, so I tried flying.
The first problem I found was while I can control these things very well, I have no idea how to fly like a bird.
The second problem I found was that I am very heavy for someone who is bare bones, granted I have been doing well to try to stay healthy, but I’m still not much more than bones.
Third...I think one sprained ankle is enough reason to stop.
But I found the pain subsiding faster than It should have, like my body is now better at healing than it was before.
With that in mind, I went to start making a shelter, this could take a while.
January 15 2015
9:00:00:00 since first infection
Atlanta, Georgia
I was working on deciphering what Pestis Incognitus had to do with the transformation of some of my new patients we obtained from isolation in Dallas, as I’ve finally have new subjects who were showing the higher symptoms, even if just the ears.
Of course I had to make room for them, but that was taken care of by giving each one a room filling thirteen rooms in total.
After that was all said and done, I found myself looking at my PC to find a massage from a higher up
To: Doctor Darrick Kenderson
From: Tom Frieden, CDC director
Subject: In regards to Pestis Incognitus and name suggestion H1P1.
This is astonishing findings on the mysteries of the now named H1P1, yet we need more information on Pestis Incognitus, so we will be pushing all funding available for finding out the extent of its capabilities. We hope you can lead the research on these mystery antigens.
I now felt even more motivated to start testing, since now almost all of the CDC’s resources were being directed to my research. I’d be able to basically do anything as long as it furthered my research in some way.
And so I had them hire the best chemist, physicians, and biologist in America to help me find out the chemical makeup of the Pestis Incognitus antigens.
But that is just a coverup for my real plans, for which I will use this funding to start experimenting with the virus.
I hop into the elevator and head to the floor marked B66, where my lab is situated, once there I made my way through past the infected tissue samples to where I’m keeping the patients, or should I say test subject’s.
The thirteen test subjects were in a big, airtight, climate controlled room with airlocks at each entrance and exit, no matter how small they are.
After sending a few food trays into the food tray airlock for them, I started to work on getting a few more ‘pets’.
At the moment all I have is a few lab rats that I leave in a little cubby where I expose them to the disease, but with my new funding I can get birds and swine to see what it infects.
I got started ordering everything from the parakeet to red tailed hawk, as well as a pig for animal testing.
After that I started to work on my tissue samples as I thought about where I’m going to put all these animals, so I decided to order some more fiberglass for the animal testing lab.
I’ve found out through living tissue samples why the virus causes transformation in humans.
First, the virus can’t kill cells, nor can the immune system kill it, but the immune system tries its hardest and starts doing what it does when there’s an infection, it tries to get it out.
Second, due to these things the virus is forced into specific places that cause it to start changing its environment, causing the transformation, and the reason symptoms die down a little after the changes start.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of living tissue samples I can’t use them to predict the transformation, thus why I need living test subjects.
With their help I will be the name that people will think of when they think of whom stopped this pandemic.
You know, being woken up before sunrise by an odd feeling in my hands and feet is never a good sign, but I can’t seem to get my flashlight out of my pocket, so without light I can’t tell what is happening beside my fingers going numb, so I waited.
When the sun finally came up I could finally see what happened to see… My hands are gone.
Where my hands and feet where, there are hooves like a horse’s, and now I have a good idea of what creature I’m becoming.
“I’m turning into a pegasus.”
I’m turning into a mythical creature, what could be worse, probably turning into an inanimate object.
But onto the task at hand… Or hoof now, yeah I’m never going to get used to this.
I get up onto my own two feet… My own two hindlegs?.. Yeah I’m definitely never going to get used to this.
First thing I noticed as I started walking around is that I’m not as balanced on two hooves as I was on two feet, but my tail seems to be moving in a way that keeps my balance just a little.
Second, I found it suddenly awkward to walk like a biped, like I’m not supposed to walk like that.
Third, I think if I’m going to be tripping anymore than three times, and am going to be a quadruped, I’ll probably want to start working on it now.
I found myself able to walk on fours more easily than walking on twos, so I started getting used to it faster than I thought I would.
Of course, my body at the moment isn't built for that, so I found while nicer on my changing psyche, not so nice on my current body, so I will stay walking on two legs for now.
“Now then to find out where the heck I am.” But still, just forest as far as the eye can see.
“If only I could use these wings.” But after another sprain, I knew I was still too heavy.
I can’t climb a tree, with or without hooves, nor can I get on the roof of mr. paranoid’s house, there’s just way too much rot for the entire building to seem stable. Yeah I know that’s not his name but I’m pretty sure that John Smith is a false name.
So with no idea where I am, I decided to see just how fragile that shack really is.
I walk up to it and give a nice strong kick… It collapsed like a domino setup!
“Uhh… Wow I guess I don’t know my own strength!”
I don’t know the half of it.
January 16 2015
10:00:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
Forty one, that's how many scientists the CDC hired for this task.
In total there are forty two men and women in this main lab, forty three if you include the jar with Einstein's brain in it. (No I don’t know how they got it, or why.)
What I do know is that we have narrowed down the possible proteins that any Pestis Incognitus antigen could be to zero! Literally no protein matches these antigens I have labeled as Pestis Incognitus.
This means we have discovered a whole forty two new natural proteins today, but I had to excuse myself from the lab to start work on the animal testing lab.
I went to the first floor, got the fiberglass, went to the floor marked B66, and spent an hour putting together the panels so they close off an entire area of the lab and sealing it to make it airtight.
After that I placed square cages along the walls of the lab for my new pets and some tools for testing if they contracted H1P1.
After that I went and put some food in the tray airlock for the human test subjects, looking at their new tails.
I knew that the tails were next so now I’m just waiting for the next change to come so I can see what they are changing into.
But at the moment my animals aren’t supposed to get here until tomorrow, and my research is at a standstill on both sides of the elevator, since I only get to name one antigen.
But with a little work my research down here will be talked about from here to Hong Kong.
I woke up like I would any morning except I’m stuck in a forest, and feeling a lot more hair on my legs.
With that in mind I took off my pants (don’t ask me how I did with hooves, even I don’t know) to see… Fur, and lots of it.
Orange fur to be exact, but besides that I can’t get my pants back on.
“Come on!... Wait what happened to my voice!” I said in a oddly higher pitch.
Looking down I noticed a distinct lack of bulge in… That area.
They say curiosity killed the cat, well in that case… Geronimo!
Taking off the underpants I find…
From the depths of my mind, I hoist up my inner Vader to say. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
And with that, the final standing pillar in mr. paranoids shack fell, yes I know it’s not his real name but the neighbors couldn’t tell me anything about him besides he’s a doctor, but I heard he lived with someone, maybe I could ask around for Rose Tyler.
Anyway without much else to do, I decide to start work on preparing for travel, Getting the letter and storing it somewhere safe, where it won’t fall out, and taking a look at my new legs.
I noticed that I have a pair of hocks, like a horse, and my legs are much smaller, it’s also harder to stand up straight now, not to mention painful, so I started walking on fours.
Now with nothing but the letter and the shirt on my back I went off to find civilization.
January 17 2015
11:00:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
After telling the other scientist that we shouldn’t name any Pestis Incognitus yet, since we have no idea what they could do inside, or outside virology, I went back to floor B66.
To find chaos.
First, all my test subjects no longer have a order in which their changes follow, each one has a different change upon them.
One has wings, another has hooves, one of them has genderswapped!
Its a mess, but that's nothing compared to the animal testing lab where the animals seem to have become sapient, opening the doors and using the elevator and escaping into Atlanta, all while I was upstairs!
And worst of all the management is looking at the open door to the animal testing lab.
“Is this your lab?” Asked a higher up who looked unhappy about hiding all this under their noses.
“Uhh… Yes.” I said, worried.
The Higher up smiled. “Alright I’ll let this slide as long as these patients are given proper food and are treated properly, alright.”
“*Sigh*... Alright.”
“Now I suggest if you’re going to do any more animal testing with this virus to treat them like patients, alright.”
“Ugh… Alright.”
“Good, now we have some things to do since your animals escaped from your lab and into the city and will possibly spread H1P1.”
After they left I found myself entering the animal testing lab and looking at what happened.
A red tailed hawk had opened his cage and then opened the others as well, then they opened the main door and escaped through the elevator.
I was trotting through the forest when I found a good place to stop and hit the hay, no I don’t know why my my mind is saying trot instead of trot… I mean w-wa-lk!
So after getting the shelter built I started to feel another change coming about, and a doozy of one too, like all my organs were being rearranged as I saw fur grow from my waist to my head and forelegs making me completely covered in hair I saw in front of my eyes my face expanding into a muzzle and my wings move from my back to where you expect them to be on a pegusus.
After the changing stopped I looked at myself and frowned, going over to a nearby pond I saw myself, my brown eyes had changed to a light blue, my body was covered in orange fur, my hair was now a dark blue mane with red highlights.
Then an odd thought came over me. What’s my name?
At first I thought that question would be silly, my name is… What, is my name anyway?
I was flying, it took a while to figure it out but now I’m flying.
And with my new found flight I took to the skies to see just where I am, to see that the forest I’ve been in was actually very small and that it is really close to Atlanta if I were to fly there.
So I decided to give my old friend Derrick a visit, and I need it at the moment as I really could use some comforting after all this.
So with just a makeshift belt made out of vines and on it the letter from the pen fighting pair, I set off for Atlanta.
January 17 2015
12:00:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
*Cough* *cough* “Ugh…” I’ve been infected.
After learning this unfortunate fact, I cannibalized the animal testing lab into an airlock at the only door into my lab and locked the door made by the airlock so it is locked on the inside, after that I started working from here and experimenting on myself a bit.
“I can still be the name people think of when they think of whom stopped this pandemic. *Cough* *Cough*... Ugh…”
I can still do this, what animals remain are a few rabbits that seem to have not been infected yet, if I get the virus used to infecting them, maybe I can produce a vaccine for the virus.
But after an hour and multiple different ways of infecting them, nothing seemed to work, for now.
Just then, a knock was heard from the door, it was a bit low but I didn’t care. “Leave if you don’t want to be infected!”
“But I’m already infected.” A strangely familiar feminine voice called out.
January 17 2015
12:01:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
It took an hour flight to go from that forest to Atlanta, but it wasn’t very interesting besides finding out I can stand on clouds, which is awesome.
Anyway, after a long flight I finally made it to Atlanta, and found the CDC a little bit after.
But I stopped myself from just going in, they won’t just let me in they will probably lock me up if they saw me, so I decided to sneak my way to Derrick.
Too bad I don’t have the mission impossible theme.
But I’m working without it! I snuck my way through the front door and sticked to the ceiling, from there I got to the elevator and climbed into the next empty one going down and took it to where Derrick told me his lab was.
“B66.” I said as I looked for it.
Once there I find myself looking out a long straight corridor with doors on either side.
After flying through it a bit I found what I was looking for, Dr. Derrick Kenderson’s personal lab.
I decided to knock first so I landed and gave it a knock.
“Leave if you don’t want to be infected!” said Derrick from the other side.
“But I’m already infected.” I said, knowing he wouldn’t recognize me by my new voice.
“... The doors unlocked.”
So I opened it by sliding my hoof down onto the handle till it clicked open and I found myself in a fiberglass built airlock.
“Who are you?”
January 17 2015
12:01:00:00
Atlanta, Geogia
“Who are you?” is what I decided to ask, I had a suspicion but I wanted to make sure.
“Patient Zero.” She said with uncertainty.
I knew better, I could tell that she is the same bright orange as Allen’s ears were, and her tail is just like Allen’s. This was Allen, without a doubt.
So I let her in, it seemed she has suffered some kind of amnesia, and after talking with her it seems to be just her name, which is odd, but I decided not to remind her of her name as explaining someone's life after they have suffered amnesia is never a good idea.
“How long have you been like this?”
“Since last night.”
I started doing a sort of part two to our last question session, just I asked about what changes happened and when, and got a good idea on the specifics.
So I took a blood test on her and found something interesting.
The white blood cells in her blood were actually fighting off the virus.
This meant that this virus is helping the body fight it off, meaning that this entire transformation is unintentional on the viruses part.
At first I thought I could use a changed person’s blood to cure a person before I noticed that they also have Pestis Incognitus, meaning if Pestis has anything to do with the transformation, then I can’t just give blood transfusions to people in the early stages without speeding it up.
So we just had small talk for a while as I did more experiments on Zero and started documenting my finds.
After a while I sent this to the Higher ups
From: Dr. Derrick Kenderson To: [Classified] So I think I understand this virus now This virus at first glance seems related to swine flu(H1N1), but upon further analysis is slightly different.
as you know, It has been dubbed for now as H1P1
But let's talk about what we do know about it.
First, while not related to it, it behaves an awful lot like the swine flu. To the point of infecting the same set of species (Birds, pigs, and humans).
It even has the same set of symptom (at least in the early stage’s) as H1N1.
But the comparison stops there while it does have the same incubation period (1 to 3 days). It runs in a set of three stage’s.
Stage 1 is flu like and lasts a week and was one of the first signs that this was more than just a simple case of Influenza A, but it was the next stage that got us wondering what this thing is.
Stage 2 is where your body goes through a change that gives the virus its name. Here is the complete document on this stage. The entire stage lasts for 6 days and each change is 21 hours apart. (Except the last stage, for some reason.)
First your ears remold and reposition themselves into cat like ears on the top of your head, patients with the disease state they have much better hearing than they did before.
Next you’re given a tail, that at first glance would be equine in nature, but upon further examination has a cat like tail in the center allowing for more control over the tail.
Due to the disease mutating (the generally accepted theory is that the virus did a antigenic shift with another flu virus), the rest of this stage is completely impossible to say exactly, but we got on good authority by Patient Zero that what you are about to read are the original steps to this stage.
After the tail comes the wings, although it seems this is not the case for all. For some (like Patient Zero) its wings, for others its a horn, and some don’t get anything (But some test have shown higher strength, land speed, and stamina in these patients).
After that comes the change of hands and feet into hooves. Thanks to the previously mentioned tail, there is no balance problem.
Then comes the fur from ex-feet up to the waist, and the skeletal structure of this area is also changed. also sometimes at this step male’s may experience a gender swap. The reason is being looked into. As of writing this there are more female patients than males.
After that is the fur from waist to head. This step also comes with a full conversion of the head.
And finally the last change unknown to Patient Zero, but known to us. The change of the immune system. This makes us think the change is unintentional as it makes the immune system able to see and take care of the virus, thus bringing us to stage 3.
Stage 3 is like stage 1 but more like H1N1, and less like stage 1. The time between stage 2 and “recovery” is a day and a half.
After all, 3 stages have taken their course patients' status are set to “Recovered”, but they are still changed, and can still get H1P1, But are immune to all other viruses.
This concludes our documentation of the pony flu(H1P1).
Signed Doctor Derick Kenderson
Special thanks to Allen J Woods (Patient Zero)
After sending it I went to do some things with my old friend while I still have fingers to put behind her ears.
“Yeah…” Twilight said, starting to doubt this plan.
“If only we could communicate with our new friend.”
“Wait, thats it!” And with that, Twilight out of the room and came back with a book.
“Now my dearest princess, clearly this is no time to be reading.”
“This isn’t just any ordinary book Discord, it’s a book that allows me to communicate with Sunset Shimmer, and if I could copy the spell from here into an empty journal, then link it to a journal here, then we can communicate using the book.”
But before she could put said action into place, Discord snatched the book out of her magic grasp. “Now Twilight, don’t be impatient, if you send any more magic tricks, you may end up confusing them. I’m quite sure that the letter we sent is more than enough to keep them on the right path.”
“But-” But Twilight was cut off by Discord.
“If what I think is happening, is happening, then we should be perfectly fine.”
This was the second time Discord has stopped her from using a shortcut of sorts in the week following the sending of the letter, the first was Discord forcibly wiping her mind of the time travel spell.
For once it was Twilight who was being uncooperative and impatient.
She wanted this fixed now, she has the ability to easily fix this entire problem, but Discord is telling her to trust these new friends… This is really unorthodox!
After realizing this Twilight thought she was going insane, but kept it together, there are more important things to be concerned about than Discord being the one to remember friendship.
“I guess this means you want to wait it out then?”
“Why yes actually.” He said as he summoned ten chocolate sundaes.
January 18 2015
12:18:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
After Derrick went to bed, I found myself unable to sleep, so I decided to explore past an open vent cover and see what there is to see.
In the span of a night I actually mapped the entire ventilation I have access to, which was odd because before I never had this good a memory, did the change give me a new name and a photographic memory?
Anyway, I found myself feeling confined again so I decided to leave, but not before leaving a letter.
Unfortunately, my hoof writing is now terrible and I found it hard to hold the pen in anything but my mouth, but that’s ok since I found I’m just bad again, not terrible like I was long, long ago.
But I was able to make it readable, so that's good. The reason for the letter is because Derrick is still asleep, which is what I expect from the kid who slept through class and bell because he was used to waking up at noon.
After a while I found the vent cover I was looking for, one that was looking toward the vast open sky, and after bucking the vent off I went flying away from the sunrise.
I decided to follow the letter from the pen fighting pair, so I landed on a cloud, to find out which way to go to find them.
"The needles pointing West." I said as looked at the letter.
After two and a half hour flight I found myself back home, literally, the compass lead me back to my house,yellow police tape and all.
Unfortunately, I left the house locked when I left and I didn't take my keys with me when I left and even if I did, I can't hold them anymore so how am I supposed to get in?
I could try the window, but that would set off the alarm, or I could try to find Mr. Paranoids shack, yes I know that’s not his real name but I haven't found miss Rose Tyler, I heard from someone she disappeared with a bunch of ghost in London, before this I would have said that they were mad to say such a thing, but now I’m a candy colored pegasus, I think I will believe anything now.
I decided to not do this until I remember where the key is, and I’ve finally recovered so I decided to explore the world.
It will be a long trip, but I’ll make the most of it.
January 18 2015
13:00:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
When I woke up I found no Allen in the vicinity, like she left in the middle of the night.
Wondering where she went, I looked around for her until I found the note, the handwriting is terrible, but she has hooves, what do you expect, at the very least it was readable.
Dear Derrick
While I’d love to stay I can’t help but feel confined, so I’m leaving through the vents to find out where the letter I got will take me, don’t worry I will be back soon.
Signed Patient Zero
Looking it over I found myself uncertain about something. “When did Allen start hating small spaces?”
Whatever happened, I got to get this fever down before I can think about it much.
After a nice long time in Canada, and finding it a bit boring with it just being hockey and maple trees. I decided to head back home and try to get back in my house, I think I remember where I left the spare key.
After reaching the house I lifted up the doormat to find the spare key under it, while I was told not to put the spare key under the door mat, but I left it there because I knew something like this would happen and I would be locked out of my own house.
With spare key in mouth, I opened the door and went in.
As soon as I entered I heard arguing. “-no Discord, I’m telling the Princess Celestia and that's final!”
“What has she ever done besides tell you where to go!”
And it kept getting more petty from there, as I slowly made my way to the kitchen where it was coming from.
Then I saw it, a swirling vortex of violet in the middle of my kitchen right above where the tube full of H1P1 fell… And inside are two blockheads arguing over something about a princess.
“Um… I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
They stopped arguing and looked in my direction, then the freak of nature got a wide grin. “See my dear Twilight, I told you we would be found eventually.”
“But it’s a pony, what kind of world is this?” Said Twilight I presume.
“Actually I wasn’t always like this, I guess you could say a tube full of disease actually did this.”
That got them both wide eyed. “If we caused this.” Said Twilight.
“Then we need to fix this.” Said presumably Discord.
“But first the portal.” Twilight said.
“Ms… Uh, what is your name?”
“Zero, Patient Zero.” I said proudly.
While Twilight seemed ok with this answer, Discord seemed confused by it. “Are you certain that's your birth name?”
I didn't know what he meant by that, then I remembered the odd question. “I don’t remember, it disappeared from my mind when this entire transformation finished.”
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do after we get the portal stabilized, speaking of which, that’s the reason we sent out the letter.”
After he said that he snapped his talons and suddenly I am garbed in a baseball cap, a soccer tee and in my mouth is a tennis racket, and none of it fits.
“Alright, now Twilight I need you to cast the stabilization spell I taught you.”
“Right!” Said Twilight as she cast the spell.
Then it went towards me and I instinctively ricochet it back through with the racket, Discord then swung his at the spell and sent it back through and it continued like this until it exploded in the portal.
After the rainbow light faded, I saw that there was now a solid crystal border around the portal and it was on the ground instead of floating in the air.
“I don’t think we introduced ourselves, my name is Twilight Sparkle,” She looked toward Discord with an unamused look. “and this is Discord, the reason this all happened.”
Looking toward the freak of nature I see he’s wearing glasses now, like he was blinded by the light, he even had a cane.
Twilight was unamused. “Drop the act, I know you can’t really go blind.”
He snapped his fingers and the cane disappeared, but not the glasses.
“And return Rainbows glasses!”
“Ugh… Very well.” *Snap*
After that there was one question left in my mind. “Why are you with a Q?”
“A what?” Asked Twilight.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I was unconvinced but it seemed genuine from both, so for now, I’ll let it slide.
So then I got to explaining what I know so far, and asking if they can return me back to being human.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know why this happens, but I do know somepony who could help.” She said looking toward Discord.
“Unfortunately, I Pinkie promised Fluttershy to never under any circumstance change a pony’s species.”
“Forever!” Said the pink pony on the other side of the portal.
“Is that a common occurrence?”
“More than you can think.” Said Twilight.
After a while we started trying a different route.
“What if you two try and work it out with my friend Derrick, he kinda got the flu as well, but he understands it better, I can show you the way, it’s a two and a half hour flight from here to there.”
“Alright.” Said Twilight.
After that I started showing them the way.
April 12 2015
98:02:32:00
Atlanta, Georgia
I can’t work anything!
Without hands, I can’t use any of my important equipment, hindering my ability to research Pestis.
Then I heard something from the vents I look up to see Allen coming out along with a purple winged unicorn.
“And here is Derrick, the one I told you about.”
I looked over at my old friend and said. “Zero, who is that, if she’s infected I’d like her awa-” I was cut off by the sound of something coming through the vents.
“What is with some people making their ventilation unfit to fit a draconequus!”
“Discord, you can shrink.” Said the purple unicorn.
“You need to understand Twilight, I’m still getting used to this world, and I don’t want to mess with the chaos these fine humans have made for themselves.” He said as he came out of the vent revealing something that looks like mother nature just said screw it, and mix n matched a bunch of animal parts together.
After the initial shock of seeing such a creature I decided to ask Allen a question. “Who are these two?”
Allen then said. “You remember that letter I showed you, the one you said is impossible and never should have worked, well they came from the place that the letter lead to.”
I remembered that, I looked it over and never could figure out how it worked beside the fact that the ink slid across the paper somehow. I never could find out how it worked entirely.
After that we started making small talk, which ended with me saying.
“Magic, ruled by princesses, only known queen is evil. Either this is the most peaceful world, it's a Disney movie, or both.”
“Whats a Disney movie?”
“Please note that Disney is a trademark of Disney.” Said Discord to a random direction.
we didn't very well explain what it is, but neither of us cared for Disney besides Frozen, which we have gotten sick of.
But something came up when Allen said she heard that there was a summit happening at the UN in order to deal with this problem.
“If your leaders are hosting a summit I think I should go as well, I can at least try to help.” Said Twilight.
“Hold up, you can’t go to a UN summit, not without first doing something to prove you're not an infected and come in peace in some way.”
“That's good to know, I think I got the best way there is to prove I’m not like anypony else.” She said looking toward Discord like a predator to her pray.
“Now if you excuse me, I need to work out how to use my equipment with hooves.”
“Here let me help.” Said Twilight levitating the equipment I was trying to work with into place and adjusting them perfectly.
“... Can you explain to me how to do that?”
“Sure it’s easy.”
Two hours of levitation training later. Said the time card.
So now I can barely lift my tools, which is better than not being able to lift them at all, but still.
“So I suggest you try to get on national television and explain that it was your fault that this all happened and that it was an accident,” I said. “otherwise, kiss your chance to fix this at a political level good as gone.”
“Right!” they both said before teleporting out.
“Maybe we should have explained some more things to them.” Said Allen.
“So you know that you’re about to enter our capital to get on national television, and that if you do then you may end up getting swept up in our politics, right?”
Twilight and I were sitting on a cloud we found outside the capital to talk about how to go about this. Discord just sat on the golden chariot he made halfway through the trip and latched it to our backs.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve been stuck in enough meetings to know how to get out of them fast, and how to avoid being stuck in one in the first place.”
I looked toward Discord. “Can I keep this one? I have a feeling he will cause trouble if we let him in the capital.”
“Don’t worry I know how to keep him on a leash.” We both looked toward Discord removing a collar that wasn’t there before.
He looked towards us and didn’t seem very happy. “Oh, do you think you can keep me under control without dear old Fluttershy,” He said. “well I’m going to explore this world of yours Zero, and nothing will stop me.” He said, snapping his talons and teleporting away.
After that I looked to Twilight and said. “I think it’s best if I find him, any ideas where he went?”
“He probably went somewhere with a lot of chaos or disharmony, know any places that fit those descriptions?”
“If anything, that description pretty much sums up our race. We are savages at heart, even if there are a few ponies who understand true compassion we still are hard bent on killing each other, so he probably went to a war zone.”
"Except he hates death more than anything saying it’s no fun.”
“Hmm… I think I know how to find him then, Just go down there and do what I told you to, I’m going to find him.”
“Alright… Be careful, he gets a little dangerous when he’s having fun.”
“Don’t worry, I know about someone a lot like him… In more ways than one.”
After that we parted ways, Twilight went down to Washington while I went to find Discord.
“Now if I were a bored spirit of chaos where would I go… Of course the internet.”
The problem now was finding him, there are so many terminals he could be at.
“I guess the best place to start would be my house.”
After three and a half hours I made it back to my house to find my computer on but no Discord.
Looking at the computer I find the browser is open to the last page I was at before this entire thing, Pandemic II.
“I guess one game won’t hurt.” Man am I addicted.
I found if I use both my hooves I can use the mouse without too much trouble.
I found myself failing like usual, but there was somepony watching after a while.
“I think I finally understand what happened Three months ago.”
I looked behind me to see Discord right there.
“When I got here I powered this machine on and opened the browser to see what was on this thing, to find this.” He said.
“This game is entirely random, You're lucky if you win one game, yet you somehow won a game just as I teleported the tube, a logical improbability, but somehow it happened and since this game is chaotic in nature, it called for more chaos from me and since I cast a teleportation spell just as it happened this effect of pulling chaos from me caused the destination to change from the Ponyville marketplace to here.”
I didn’t understand how this fun game and Discord were connected, but I knew I could try to figure it out through all the complexity, my win plus teleportation spell equals the hooves I have now.
“So how did you come to this conclusion?”
“He smiled. “I played three games and won twice.”
I didn't believe him at first until I saw the Leaderboard and found tied for first place with seventy million points is Discorditus and everyonelovesDiscord.
“How…”
“The first game I played I learned just how much chaos runned this game, after that I merely used my magic to manipulate the game board so that nothing got in my way as I beat this wonderfully chaotic little game.”
He cheated at one of the greatest games of all time, I feel like bucking his face in but I got other things to worry about. Don’t want an angry god to be one of them.
April 13 2015
99:00:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
After gaining the ability to use my horn I begun see what’s been happening outside using the computer, and what I found shocked me.
“Infection spreads to the entire US, plus Canada and Mexico. Reports of infection all over the world and a epidemic in London.”
I quickly decided to give the director a call as well as the WHO. What’s been happening?
One thing I did know was that Madagascar has shut down all ways into its country and is the only country that Isn’t infected.
“I probably shouldn’t tell Allen this, he will probably rage at their port closing.” Even outside the game she will turn anyone upside down if you even mention that country shutting down it’s seaports.
But now I have a lot of work to do if I’m to help find a cure, as the every land mass except Madagascar and a few islands in the Caribbean and Hawaii are infected.
Discord and I were sitting on the couch and waiting for the breaking news to come, we know it will happen, we just need to wait.
“Breaking news, live from the white house.”
The news was on and the woman reporter was in front of the white house, but at the moment it appeared the action was the paper, so she was making a report while Twilight was being bombarded by questions from the newspaper.
“This just in, someone is claiming responsibility for the pony flu, a mysterious disease that transforms the infected into small horses, according to the World Health Organization almost every land mass has been infected with only one country taking a stand, Madagascar.”
The next thing I know I’m holding Discord upside down while twitching my eye. When I realized I’m somehow holding Discords legs with my hooves, he fell.
“We are now heading to meet the one claiming responsibility for the pony flu.”
“Hello everypony, I’m princess Twilight Sparkle, and I’m here to apologize on behalf of a friend for what happened three months ago. You see, magic is real where I come from and this was a magic mishap. A friend of mine accidently teleported a vial of disease to this world and that’s what happened three months ago.”
“But don’t threat, I’ve got a way to cure the flu, so I will try to help in anyway I can.”
“This is Diana, reporting for CBS news, signing out.”
“And now for the sports news…” We both pressed the power button at the very same time.
I had one thing on my mind. “Is this cure tested?”
“I think Twilight cast the spell on herself, but I’m not quite sure.”
Now I’m unsure about where Twilight will end up, reaching national television would end her up in US politics, but saying she has a cure will throw her right back into the CDC.
“Welp, whatever happens, can’t do anything about it, so might as well do something to pass the time, got a few board games that are as hard if not harder than Pandemic II.”
“I control every chaotic force, even these simple games are inside my control, I do enjoy these games but I can’t help but bend the rules in my favor.”
So I decided to skip Yahtzee and go for a skill based game, Jenga.
April 14 2015
100:05:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
After gaining the power of telekinesis, I started working on getting my research back on track.
"Let's see, if I start testing the properties of Pestis I can find out how to get around it's mysterious abilities."
That was when I got a knock on the door. "Dr Kenderson, you got a guest who claims to have a cure for H1P1."
I asked them to bring him or her in, to see it's Twilight.
“How did you get back here?”
“I just said I had a cure.”
I understood completely. “If so lets get to work, first off. Is this cure tested?”
“Yes, I cast the spell on myself, so I know it works and I know it’s safe.”
“Hmm… We shall see.” I went to the computer and ordered up some test subjects from each stage of the disease.
“What are you doing? Isn’t using the spell on myself good enough?”
“If you were human, yes, but since you’re not exactly human we need to try it out on some infected humans in each stage of development. How does this cure work?”
“In all honesty, I’m not quite sure, I don’t know much about what causes the disease since Discord told me it’s a bunch of tiny creatures flying around.”
“I guess I’ll just have to teach you virology then.”
After an hour or so we got through the basics and Twilight had learned enough to explain how the cure works.
“Alright, so the cure works by inhibiting the virus's ability to enter host cells, thus making them unable to reproduce.”
This was actually pretty good, but there's only one way to test it. “Cast your spell at subject A.”
“Right!” And so she did, subject A was in stage one, and when the spell was cast, subject A rapidly started speeding through the transformation rather quickly.
“Stop the test!” I said, Twilight stopped. “Look at this, the spell seems to be speeding the change up, not slowing it down.”
“Hmm… maybe it has more to do with what you lack then what we have.”
“Well there’s Pestis.”
“There’s what?”
“Pestis Incognitus, a collection of antigens from H1P1 that are not on any cell on this planet.”
“Hmm… I don’t know, it could mean anything.”
“That’s why we are doing these tests, if we don’t we’ll never be able to explain it. and if we can’t explain it, we can’t really say it’s true.”
Twilight seemed a bit confused at what I said. “Are you saying with science you can explain every phenomenon?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Lets just say I got something I need to get back to when this is over.”
“Alright, anyway can you cast the spell on this tissue sample, I want to see the effects of it on Pestis.”
“All right.” And so she cast it.
What I saw made me realize something, the magic was flowing through the Pestis Incognitus antigens in a way that showed that there could be negative side effects if the magic went in any other way.
So I decided to do a test, grabbing a few bacteria samples I placed a small amount on a petri dish and labeled it control, then set some more on another petri dish and labeled it magic influenced.
“Cast the spell on the petri dish that’s not labeled control.”
After that I put both dishes in the incubator and prepped another experiment.
This time I got some tissue samples out of the freezer and labeled them the same as before, but this time its a DNA test.
Before the spell was cast I sequenced the genome of the sample before giving it to Twilight and having her cast the spell.
Afterwards, I sequenced it again and found that one chromosome was completely swapped out, a Y chromosome.
Other than that the DNA was only slightly changed, but the changes that happened could possibly change the very shape of the body.
“Alright, from the information I got, I think I’m ready to make a hypothesis.”
“Pestis Incognitus are not antigens, there receptors that allow the magical energy in without causing damage to the cell or virus it’s connected to.”
“But because our cells don’t have these receptors, the magic gets in wrong and causes mutations that result in the transformation.”
“The only question now is, why does it change us into your kind?”
“I think it’s time for me to give you a lesson in magic.” Said Twilight.
Twilight then taught me how magic works, and that it is a force of order, which is quite the opposite to anything in the laws of physics as I know it, since any form of energy in a thermodynamics module is a force of entropy.
“so the reason we change into your kind is because the magic decided to?”
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think you understand, when a pony is manipulating magic they channel natural magic in the air through wings, horn or otherwise, but when natural magic is effecting something, the environment around you is what determines the result.”
I pondered on that for a moment then went to the computer and ordered up a list known forms infected could be in.
“Lets see, griffons in California, ponies that shine like crystals up north in Canada and Alaska. It appears that it does.”
“So, griffons in California, what’s it like in over there?” Asked Twilight.
“It’s a desert.”
“Oh, and Canada and Alaska must be pretty far up north to get crystal ponies, since they're used to cold temperatures.”
“They are, half of each is right in the arctic circle.”
After that we started discussing how we can cure this disease, magics off the table, vaccination is impossible if the virus is unkillable by the immune system, all that leaves is to stop people from being infected in the first place, which we are trying, but there has to be another way.
“That's it!” I said.
“What is?” Asked Twilight.
“H1P1 is very similar to a disease on earth called H1N1, if we were to mix the two we may possibly be able to make a vaccine of sorts.”
“But what if it makes it worse?”
“Don’t worry, we have procedures to make sure these things don’t become problems. What’s the worse that could happen?”
Twilight was not amused. “You do realize what you did right?”
It took a few seconds for me to realize what I did. “Crap…”
I don’t know what to say... I think I’ve finally gone mad.
After our game of Jenga Discord asked about my kind’s current situation and then I told him about the war in Iran, Afterwards he teleported away, with me hot on his tail.
When I found him in the skies above Iran I also found some very weird form of anarchy.
The grass is blue, the sky is green, the clouds are made out of gravel and literally rain cats and dogs!
I’m not sure how this is supposed to help, unless his way of helping is driving everypony mad to the point of not caring about war.
But it appears it’s just making it worse as Iran was already filled with dementia, but I’m uncertain about if it’s possible to make an already demented country even more demented than this one.
"Explain how this is supposed to help?" I asked.
"A little chaos goes a long way, don't you think?"
I was not amused. "Explain how bringing more madness will make these ponies listen to reason?"
"To do what you suggest would be reforming them, and Twilight has already learned my opinion on using magic to do that."
I knew that you don't anger the trickster god, unless you want to die, so I did not reply and simply went to tell Twilight about this.
It took an hour, but I made it back to Atlanta and plopped myself out of the air vents, right on top of Derrick.
“Ow.” We both said simultaneously.
“What’s gotten you here in a hurry?”
“Discord is turning an entire country upside down!”
As soon as Twilight heard the words Discord and upside down, she immediately summoned a quill and some parchment wrote something down and then teleported it away. “Go to the portal and pick up my friend Fluttershy and bring her to Discord.”
I nodded. “Right!”
And so I was off.
April 15 2015
101:01:03:00
Atlanta, Georgia
After Allen left I had a question for Twilight. “Who’s this Fluttershy?”
“One of my friends who is also the only one who can put a leash on the spirit of chaos.”
Afterwards she gave a short description of her friend and some stories about her.
“So she tamed Discord with a few harsh words?”
“Seems like it.”
After that we decided to start work again on the cure.
“Do you have some spell that can change one's species?”
Twilight shook her head. “I’d have to figure out how to do it without them transforming again, even if I did make such a spell, it would only let them be human for about three hours before the magic wears off, transformation spells aren't permanent.”
“Is there anyway to extend that time?”
“Yes but only by ten hours, to get anymore would require more magic than even legendary unicorns like Starswirl have.” She said. “Plus the more magic we put into the spell the harder it is to make it work without them returning to the form of a pony.”
“Hmm… What about modifying the spell so that our cells have Pestis.”
“Now thats something that I don’t think I can do without having a good enough understanding of cells and everything else, as it stands, I don’t understand it enough to make the spell, and you don’t have the understanding of magic to modify spellcraft.”
As it stands, neither of us can do it… “Unless we work together.”
“What do you-”
“Think about it, with my biology and your magic, we can create the cure spell.”
“But it still will only last for twelve hours at best!”
That day I was laying on a cloud, Fluttershy had given me the job to keep an eye on Discord, but he had done literally nothing that day, stiff as a statue, hasn't moved a micron since Fluttershy scolded him yesterday.
So there I was, laying there, clouds are surprisingly comfortable, when I heard a scream, looking over the edge I saw a red Pegasus being chased into an alley by a pair humans with pistols.
I got curious and decided to see what's happening, I learned during my time traveling that people never look up, so using that knowledge, I was able to listen in without being seen.
"You and your kind got Joe sick as a horse, the president may say you're still US citizens, but I ain't giving you that luxury, you oversized flea bag!" One of the men said as he raised his gun, moving into action, I swooped down and knocked the gun from his hand, the other man, witnessing what happened, raised his gun to fire at me before being knocked to the ground by the pink mare.
After disposing of their guns, which meant putting myself between the men and the firearms, the two men got up and ran off, saying they're not getting infected today or something like that, I wasn't listening as I looked towards the mare. "Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, thanks to you, I'm Julie, thanks for saving me, I've only been this way for two days, so I haven't learned to fly yet." She said, I raised an eyebrow at that. ‘It took me an entire morning to figure that out, why is she having trouble?’ I pondered on that, thinking why this is the case, remembering the fact that I seemed much more used to trotting on fours than Derrick did, even Julie, here's gallop was a bit unbalanced, I started to realize that I seamed special, but why?
I took a moment to think what this meant, then I realized something, I can fly and she can't, maybe I could fix that. I smiled. "Want me to teach you?" I asked.
She seemed surprised by my question, but nodded her head, I had the feeling this was going to be a long afternoon.
April 16 2015
102:00:00:00
Atlanta, Georgia
In a flash of pink, Twilight had returned with a phenomenal amount of books, when I suggested the idea of working together we decided to that the first thing is to pool our respective knowledge in one place. “Alright, I brought everything from theoretical magics to advanced mana manipulation.” Twilight said.
"Great, you work on your side of the cure, I'll start working on my side." I said.
The cure came in two parts, Twilight's part was a spell that transformed the target into a form defined by DNA, while my part was scanning both pony DNA as well as DNA obtained from H1P1 for a common gene, hopefully obtaining the gene for producing Pestis.
Well, I say that, but the other lab had already delivered three different genes that were identical in both sequences, so all I had to do was to test them.
I inserted each gene into a bacteria cell that was isolated with only food on the petri dish with it, now I just have to wait.
Twilight's work was a bit more complicated and would require both of us to complete, but she would be doing most of the work.
Of course it's going to take a while before this gets done, so until then, let's just hope nothing too major happens.
April 16 2015
102:04:00:00
Dallas, Texas
It took a few hours, but I was able to teach Julie how to fly. "This, is so. Awesome!" Julie said, soaring through the sky performing (or at least trying to) aerial maneuvers while I watched to make sure she didn't become a living... Formerly living pancake.
Eventually, Julie and I settled down on a cloud. “It’s so amazing, like for the first time in my life I’m truly free.” She said, and I could only agree with her, like the first moment you feel the wind in your mane brings about a feeling more powerful than anything I could do with hands.
We basically made small talk from there until Julie said something that caught my interest.
She sighed. "You know, what happened back there wasn't an isolated incident, humans are attacking people like us all over, and very few of us can fight back." She said.
I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew that something had to be done.
"I have an idea, let's build a bunch of safe places for everypony." I said.
She looked at me and said. "What do you mean by that?" She asked.
I said it simply. "We're going to build hidden settlements." I then got back in the air. "Come on, I think I know a good place for one of these." I told her.
I then went South East at top speed with Julie not far behind.(but still a ways behind.)
Unbeknownst to either of us was the flash of light from behind me.
ck!”