Epidemic

A door creaks open.

"Honey? *cough cough* Honey, are you feeling better?" Dr. Whooves calls out to his wife. All he gets in response is a fit of coughing, a sniffle, and a shuffle in her bed.

Dr. Whooves walks in and closes the door behind him, locking it. He walks over to her, and sits in a chair next to her. He takes her hoof, and gently carresses it in his own.

"Don't worry about a thing, I'm sure we can get rid of it." Dr. Whooves says. Ditzy smiles weakly, and closes her eyes to get some rest.

-Canterlot; Laboratory-

Labor stares at the rat. Bored. Even amidst an epidemic, this doctor is... Bored.

"I'm bored," He says. Twilight's ears perk up, and she looks over to him.

"Bored? Labor?" Twilight asks, obviously confused.

"Yes, Tvilight. I'm bored. B-O-R-E-D. Bored." Labor puts his head down. "I sent for more ingredients before I fell asleep. Vhy aren't zhey here yet?"

"Maybe they are still looking for them." Twilight points out, focusing her attention at the rat once more. Labor lifts and drops his hoof on the desk.

"Typical royal guard. If you vant to do somezhing, don't have zhem do it." Labor gets up, and heads for the door.

Twilight watches him, as he heads out. "Where are you going, Labor? To get some ingredients?" She asks the doctor.

"No, I'm going to my room, to sleep. Labor exits the room, leaving a puzzled Twilight in the room. Such interesting behavior from such an interesting character.

She pokes her was out the door to watch Labor leave, but to her surprise, he's already gone. Stumped, she steps out, and looks up and down the hall. To no avail, she gives up, sighs, and returns back into the lab.

-Ponyville; Rainbow Dash's residence-

A whistle. That's all you can hear when you're in this side of the field. Just a whistle. A fine whistle it is as well, for it is the happy tune of "Giggle at the Ghosties!"

This place is a not exactly the "sight for sore eyes." There is over-turned furniture everywhere, the smell of rotting food in the air, and the whole places looks like an earthquake hit it. And the earthquake was followed by a tornado. And the tornado was followed by uh... A uh... A hurricane!

And in the corner of this mess, is Rainbow Dash, curled up into a little ball. Whistling the happy tune Pinkie Pie once sang in the forest.

Trembling in fear, her eyes wide and bloodshot red, sweating and twitching.

Why, this isn't Rainbow Dash at all! Rainbow Dash isn't cowardice and fearful. She's brave! Courageous! Fearless to the tenth degree!

It's hard to imagine she would be curled up, crying in the corner of the room, wouldn't it?

She stops whistling. "It's going to be okay, Dash. You're friends will get you out of this mess. You're friends will do something... Right? They always do... There're your friends... They always help you..." She starts whistling the same tune again.

It's okay, Rainbow Dash, this'll all be over soon. Maybe. In one way or another.

Either way, this is one ghostie you aren't giggling at, my dear.

-Ponyville; Derpy's Residence-

Little Dinky knocks at the door.

"Daddy? Mommy? Is everything alright in there?"

"Yes, yes, sweetie. Go and play with your toys." Dr. Whooves calls out.

"But I wanna play with you guys!" Dinky complains, setting her little rump down on the ground.

"You can't be in here with mommy and me, okay?"

"Why not?" Dinky asks, "Is it because mommy has the flu?"

"Yes, it's because mommy has the flu, and we can't have you sick."

"Then I wanna play with you!" Dinky calls out, straightening her posture.

On the other side of the door, Dr. Whooves fishes for a response, but finds none.

"Hello?"

"I can't come out to play, sweetie." Dr. Whooves calls out. Dinky frowns, and hangs her head. She looks down at the picture she drew for them.

A happy little picture of all three of them, standing in a flower field, in a bright and sunny day, looking happy, and worry-free. She looked up at the the door.

"But... But I-"

"Daddy can't come out right now, and neither can mommy. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to play on your own." Dr. Whooves was serious, and Dinky knew it.

Dinky looked at the drawing once more. Her dad had never rejected her the way hedid just now. She knew he was probably right, and she shouldn't be going in with them anyway. But she just couldn't help but feel just a little heartbroken inside. "Okay..." Dinky takes her drawing, and sadly walks to her room with her was hanging low.

-Canterlot; Labor's residence-

Labor lays down on his bed, in his room, in the lab. Staring up at the ceiling with his eyes closed. He is relaxed. It sure is quiet.

Until somepony decides to knock on the door.

"Yes?" Labor calls out, hoping it wasn't anything that would disturb his rest. Twilight then opens the door.

"Hello... I just wanted to tell you that a new batch of ingredients arrived." Twilight says.

"Vundabar, I'll get to vork tomorrow." Labor points out, "Zhank you, you can leave now."

"Uhm... I don't mean to sound rude, or anything, Labor, it's just... I don't think we're allowed to just... Wander off and have breaks whenever we want to." Twilight says, now fully opening the door.

"Write a complaint to Celestia." Labor says. Twilight stands there, taken back by his remark.

"The lives of thousands depend on this, Labor." Twilight says more assertively. "Perhaps even the both of ours."

Labor yawns, and stretches. "Zhen I suppose you should get to vork."

"I... I don't know how to mix the ingredients together." Twilight points out. "At least... Not as perfectly as they ought to be."

"Zhen I guess you'll have to vait for tomorrow, von't you?" Labor says, twisting his body to face away from her.

"Labor, please, I'm just asking for you to-"

(Viewer discretion is advised)

"I'm not getting up until tomorrow. You're vaiting, or you're doing it yourself. If you're not doing it yourself, f*ck off." Labor concludes.

Wow. Did not see that coming. Twilight's eyes widen a bit. It would be best not to irritate this doctor. Especially with a history like his.

"A-Alright then. Sorry to have bothered you." Twilight backs out, and closes the door.

Twilight takes a deep breath before walking back to the lab.

-Next Day; Canterlot; Laboratory-

Twilight nervously studies the rat, while at the same time keeping an eye on Labor.

Labor notices this behavior. "... Vhat?"

"Huh? Oh nothing, I'm sorry." Twilight re-focuses on the rat.

Two royal guards come in, and drop a sack of ingredients, before leaving. Labor walks to them, levitates them onto a desk, then walks to Twilight. "Anyzhing new?"

"No, nothing." Twilight maintains a distance.

"Vhat's zhe matter? You act like if I'm going to bite you." Labor points out. "Is zhis about yesterday?"

Twilight becomes uncomfortable with the subject they are about to traverse.

"Well, I'm just not used to ...You know..." Twilight avoids looking his way. "You...?"

Labor raises an eyebrow. "You're not used to me."

"You're unique. Not that it's a bad thing, just that you... How do I put this... You have a scary personality." Twilight says.

"A scary personality." Labor repeats.

"I've heard from Dr. Whooves that you don't have a good history." Twilight says.

Labor stares at her. "Vhat, zhe butchering other ponies for my evil experiments?"

Twilight says nothing, but reluctantly nods. Labor stares at her again, chuckling a bit.

"Zhat's behind me, Tvilight. Do you really zhink I vould be doing zhat again?" Labor asks. Twilight fears answering. "And you assume I'm some sort of angry, sociopath, who is just dying to kill you?"

Again, Twilight fears her own answer.

"Vell, no. I like you, Tvilight. You're smart, and gullible." Labor says. "You vould be zhe last pony I vould vant to murder." Twilight is relieved to hear that.

"Now, back to vork, yes?"

"Yes, sir!" Twilight, now happy with her perspective of Labor, gladly walks to her book.

Labor examines a rat, then looks over to the sack of fresh ingredients brought in. He walks over to the ingredients, and starts picking them out. He checks out the list he has on a clipboard of the ingredients he needs.

Twilight re-reads the disease book she carries around, to make sure they aren't a missing anything. The ingredients for the cure must be precise, otherwise, they might as well kiss all of everything goodbye.

"Are all the ingredients here yet?" Twilight asks.

"Nien. Ve are still missing a lot. I'll start on mixing zhese in." And so he does. Twilight, meanwhile, closes the book, and goes to study the rat. To her surprise, the rat... Is dead. Twilight's eyes widen in horror.

"Uhm... Labor, I think you should have a look at this..." Twilight fearfully calls out. Labor sets the clipboard down, and goes to the rat.

"My my, it's dead. It looks like zhe virus is becoming lethal." Labor levitates a drawer open and pulls out his recorder. "Celius update. Zhe virus has now reached a minimal lethality rate. Anypony hosting zhe virus is now at potential of death."

Twilight's worries begins to grow more and more. This virus now has the capability to kill.

"Ve'll need more subjects. Get more vials of blood from already-infected ponies, and inject more rats." Labor commands, and quickly jogs towards the ingredients.

"Yes... Y-yes sir!" Twilight shakes the fear, and quickly runs out of the room.

Celius is now lethal. Let the carnage begin.