I just want to make one thing clear: Yes, there is an OC in here. To me, he's basically Thunder Ice, but under a different, but better name. I just think Thunder Ice is a stupid name for a pony, in my opinion. But that doesn't mean I'll get rid of it later on. I'll keep the name, but be using other names for other stories and such. To be honest, I think I made the OC's intro in this story stupid. If you think so, say so in the comments, and I'll try to change it. :D I'm currently working on other stories, too. Almost 5, in fact. I'm even going to work on a 2nd person story. I want to get the hang of those kinds of stories. The reason I'm making an Author's Note up here is so I could give you some information, rather than having you read the whole story down to the Author's Note at the end. This is inspired by The Last of Us, but the story will not be the same. Enjoy.
Night had long since fallen in the still busy town of Ponyville. However, it wasn't as busy as it was during the day. There were still a few ponies still wondering about in the streets, buying a few more goods before the stands close for the night. In the distance, crickets chirped. In the sky, the moon shone upon the land. Couples cuddled together in bed, and families sat on the couch together, watching a film or two before heading off to bed. Children slept soundly as they awaited for school tomorrow. At a distant field, young-aged pony, most likely in her early 20's, bucked a few apple trees before heading in for the night. Tonight, the night was peaceful, silent, and overall, beautiful.
Ponyville Hospital
11:42 pm
In the brightly lit hallways, doctors and nurses made their way to separate rooms, bringing in twice as many patients today than yesterday. Some of them were in for the usual "broken leg" or "flu" stay. But some of them were in for a different reason. It was only just nearly 48 hours ago that a mysterious sickness had begun to infect ponies all across Equestria. First it started with Las Pegasus, then Fillydelphia, then Detrot, then Mexicolt, and so on.
But not long after some observations of infected patients did doctors realize that this was not a bacteria or virus. Instead, it was a fungus, and one that doctors could not identify. Sure, Equestria's had its fair share of fungi and their fungal outbreaks, but no outbreak was as bad as this one. This fungus was moving twice, maybe four times as fast as any other fungus. In just a day in a half since they were infected, about 15% of the patients who got sick lost their eyesight as the fungus spread through their eyes, blocking their cornea and any other part that would allow them to see.
Almost 10% of patients suffered from heart attacks as the fungus blocked arteries in the heart. 5% of them died. And since Equestria's technology wasn't advanced, nor were they prepared, many began to say this would not end anytime soon.
"Alright, we got two more here, let's get them to B-22, stat!" A doctor yelled as they pushed in two extra patients, both of which had numerous tears, cuts, and bites on their bodies. It would be difficult to tell if they would even make it.
"We got a few more here!" A nurse hollered through the halls.
The hallways were filled with doctors and nurses pushing and pulling gurneys to rooms, each doctor and nurse trying to calm their new patients.
"Don't worry, sir, you're going to be fine-"
"We got another!"
"You're going to make it. Don't worry-"
"I need some assistance over here!"
Suddenly, in the crowd of doctors, nurses, and injured, came a blood-curdling scream...
**Flash Residence
Outside Ponyville
11:50 pm**
In the quietness of the living room, on the couch lay a violet-colored alicorn. Princess Twilight Sparkle, the new princess of Equestria. Normally, she would be up at Canterlot, doing what a princess would do. However, Princess Celestia had noticed how much strain being a princess was doing to the poor mare. She temporarily relieved her of her duties and allowed her to take a few weeks off. After all, though Twilight is one of the smartest mares in Equestria, she still is pretty young.
Suddenly, in the darkness of the living room, a lamp was turned on, slowing stirring the violet alicorn awake from her peaceful slumber. In the silence, she created a cute yawn, causing the pony she saw in front of her to smile.
"You're back," She said.
The pony standing in front of her was Lightning Flash, a dear friend of Twilight's who she hadn't seen in quite a while. When she first spotted him for the first time in what felt like years, she was quite happy. Lightning was more surprised to find out that his old friend had become Equestria's new princess, which was the main reason he came to town in the first place. After he came back to Ponyville, he used whatever money he took with him and bought a house just outside Ponyville. That was a month ago.
"Hey," Lightning spoke up after a moment of silence. "What're you doing down here? I thought you'd be in bed."
Hearing Lightning say "bed" made Twilight gasp. "What time is it?"
Since there was no clock in the living room, Lightning looked down to his watch. It read 11:52 pm.
"Almost twelve," the pegasus replied. "Why?"
The alicorn didn't respond to the question, and instead, got up from the couch and headed over to the cabinet that sat next to the stairs. She bent down, as if to reach something from under the cabinet. As she did, Lightning took a moment to admire the decor of his home...as well as the pony who was living with him. He knew very well why she was living with him. She was still mad at the weather team after that.
Lightning looked back to Twilight to see that she was walking towards him, carrying a small box in one hoof as she neared him.
"Here," she spoke up as she handed the box over to him. The pegasus looked at the small box for a moment before looking back up to the violet princess.
"What's this?"
"Happy birthday?" Twilight responded, smiling sheepishly.
Lightning's face showed confusion for a brief moment, before his eyes widened, realizing what today was.
"Oh...Right. Heh."
Twilight's sheepish smile faded to a confused frown.
"You...forgot it was your birthday today?"
"Yeah...Today was extremely busy...More busy than yesterday, that is," the pegasus replied.
"How so?"
"Well...Today, we had, what, over 100 patients taken in? The hospital's literally overcrowded with ponies."
"Why?"
"Well, most of them...You might not believe it...but they had what looked like...bite marks. And they definitely didn't look like any kind of animal bite. Most of the patients I saw told me some crazy stallion or mare attacked them out of nowhere. The first patient I didn't fully believe, but the more patients that told me, the more curious and worried I got. So after the hundredth-something patient, I just...sneaked out. Heh."
"Won't they need you, though?"
"Eh, they've got a ton of doctors and nurses over there. I'm sure they'll be fine without one of them on duty."
"Should I tell the princess about this?" Twilight asked, worry in her voice.
"Why would you want to tell the Princess I snuck out?"
Confusion showed in Twilight's face for a moment. "...I mean about the attacks."
"...Oh." Lightning's face reddened in embarrassment.
"Well, you ARE Princess Twilight Sparkle. You don't have to ask me," Lightning replied, chuckling, earning a giggle from the still worried alicorn. Twilight began walking towards one of the bookcases in the room and pulled out a scroll. She then levitated a quill and some ink to her. She dipped the quill in the ink, and quickly began to write.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
I have been informed by Lightning Flash of some shocking news that you might already know. Lightning had informed me of a strange anomaly occuring within Ponyville. He informed me that over 100 patients had gone into the Ponyville hospital because, as they had told, they were attacked by what Lightning called "crazy ponies." Lightning also informed that the patients had bite marks on them, and that some were even mauled. I'm already beginning to have a terrible feeling about this discovery. I'm not so sure what exactly to do. I was wondering you can hopefully shed some light on the situation, and find out what's going on.
Your student,
Twilight Sparkle"
Once Twilight finished, she rolled the scroll up. She enveloped it within her purple magic, and within a flash, it was gone, on its way to Canterlot. This was a recently learned spell Twilight had discovered. It would allow her to send letters to Princess Celestia without the use of Spike, and no longer would Spike have to burp them out.
Twilight sighed in happiness. In her first days of being a princess, she had to be in Canterlot 24/7, with anything important, meaning she would spend less time with her friends. But Twilight had the sense that she was doing more work in a week than Celestia had done in her 1036 years of rule, Celestia had pointed out once. The workload was so much, both physical and mental, Twilight had even passed out a few times. She may be the new princess, but she was still a young filly.
When Celestia had allowed her to have time to relax back in Ponyville, Twilight was relieved, but mostly glad that she could spend just a little more time with everyone. However, due to the storm that had occurred and burned her house a few weeks back, Twilight needed to stay somewhere. Lightning was happy to take her in, explaining that his house was pretty big and empty for just one pony. However, Spike decided he wanted to stay at Rarity's for a while. Knowing his affection for Rarity, Twilight didn't judge about what the baby dragon did for the first time in a while. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?
Once the letter was sent to Celestia, Twilight yawned once more. She then looked around and noticed that Lightning was no longer in the living room.
"Lightning?" Twilight calls out.
"I'm upstairs, Twi!" Lightning hollered back. Knowing where he was, Twilight started to head upstairs. That was when she heard the sudden sound of water running, which let her know Lightning was getting ready to take a shower. It was usual for her to hear him hopping into the shower, as he has always done whenever he got back from work. Working with the patients is a bit of dirty work, especially after today. Twilight never said anything about it, but she did notice a bit of...blood on Lightning's fur. And she was very sure that it wasn't a hallucination. She could tell between fake and real. The blood didn't bother her much, hence why she didn't talk about it, but she was worried with the information she now knew. She'd have to check him once he got out.
After a few moments, Twilight reached the bedroom. The decor of the bedroom wasn't much. Just the occasional bed, nightstand, lamp, maybe some pictures, and one of those new Equestrian Televisions. The walls of the bedroom were painted with the color grey. It was mostly Lightning's favorite color.
Just a few feet from the bed was a door that Twilight had known led to one of the three bathrooms in the house: Two upstairs, one downstairs. The one Twilight was standing near had steam coming from under the door, meaning Lightning was in the shower. Of course, what other bathroom could he have gone in to take a shower?
Twilight began walking over to the bed, but she was still fairly tired. Being lazy, she decided to teleport over to her side of the bed. She lifted herself up onto the bed and finally laid down, feeling the comfortable, plush softness of the mattress. It was definitely much better than laying down on the couch. Sure, she had fallen asleep a few times before on the couch, and every morning, she'd wake up in the bed, with Lightning by her side. Most of the time, when she's extremely tired, she would let Lightning carry his princess up to the bedroom - in a non-romantic/sexual way.
The alicorn was patiently waiting for Lightning to finish his shower. She wanted to see if something had happened to him, or if it was just some blood. To make time seem to go by a bit faster, the velvet pony levitated a book over to her and began to read. It was the latest addition of the Daring Do series - Daring Do: Return of Unilateralis.
As she suspected it would, time went by fairly fast. After a few minutes, which felt like two minutes, Lightning finally opened the door that led to the bathroom. When he came out, his blue fur was much brighter and cleaner than it was when he first came home.
"Hey," the stallion spoke up as he closed the door behind him and began walking towards the bed. Twilight smiled back at him as he walked over to her. Once he was close enough, Twilight began to take a good look at him. He observed his neck, his forelegs, his hind legs, and his torso. She was too busy looking at him that she didn't hear him chuckle.
"Like something you see?" She did manage to hear that, and it made Twilight's face go deeply red and she began to stammer when speaking.
"N-No! I-I wasn't l-looking a-at you that w-way! I was j-just-"
Hearing how much she stammered, Twilight stopped speaking for a moment, cleared her throat, and waited for the blush to go away, which didn't take very long.
"...Lightning...are you hurt?"
The stallion raised an eyebrow at the question.
"...Nooo...Why?"
"Well...When I saw you when you came home, you had some...blood on you. I wasn't sure if a pony attacked you too or if it was just...a patient. Heehee," she replied nervously.
"Oh. Don't worry about me. I'm fine. It's the patient I'm still worried about. He coughed up some of the blood on me when we took him into the hospital. It looked like he got mauled by an animal or something worse."
"Let me guess...It was a pony?"
"Y-yeah. He managed to tell us that before he lost consciousness." Lightning's face showed concern and worry.
"I don't understand. What could cause ponies to do things like that? That's never happened in Equestria's history before, ever!"
"I don't know, Twi," a worried reply came from the Pegasus, "Maybe we can head to Canterlot tomorrow and talk to Celestia about it. Did she send a letter back yet?"
"No...Not yet."
Worry showed in Twilight's face. Why wasn't the Princess writing back? Did she not get it? Did something happen to the letter? Maybe Celestia was just slumbering and can't read the letter right now. She'll get it when she wakes up in the morning. If she's asleep, that is...
"Well, don't worry about it, Twi. I'm sure she'll write back soon," Lightning replied, smiling at Twilight, which seemed to calm her down a bit.
"Yeah. You're right. She will..."
It didn't make the worry go away, but Twilight didn't dwell on it too much.
She watched as Lightning crawled up onto the bed, getting under the covers until only his head and forelegs were out. It made Twilight giggle a bit. He turned over to his nightstand and lifted his hoof to his lamp. With a click, he turned a small handle, and the light on his side of the bed shut off. Twilight did the same with her lamp on her side of the bed. Once hers was off, the light was engulfed in near total darkness, with only the moonlight shining through the window.
The two ponies laid their heads down into their pillows, looking in each other's direction.
"Goodnight, Twilight," Lightning said.
"Goodnight, Lightning."
Lightning closed his eyes, awaiting the deep sleep that was welcoming him after a long, tiring day. Twilight was about to close her eyes, when she began to have the feeling something was missing a bit. Then it clicked.
"Lightning?" She asked. The pegasus opened his eyes again to see a curious-faced Twilight looking at him.
"Yeah? Something wrong?"
"...What did you think of the gift I gave you?"
Lightning smiled. He took a hoof, placed it onto the covers, and gently pulled them down so his neck was visible. With the moonlight shining through onto the bed, Twilight could see what he was wearing: a necklace that had six little emblems on them. All six resembled the Elements of Harmony, Twilight's element being the largest on the necklace and in front. After a few moments of silence, he spoke.
"I love it."
Lightning got up from his resting spot and crawled over to Twilight. When he was face to face with her, he wrapped his forelegs around her and enveloped her in a warming, fuzzy hug.
Twilight loved his fur. She loved the way it felt. Sometimes, on some nights, she would hug him, thanking him for letting her stay, and she would feel his soft fur against her. This time, he was the one hugging her.
"Thank you, Twilight."
After a moment, Twilight hugged him back, smiling in the warming, friendly embrace.
"You're welcome," she replied, smiling the whole time. Soon enough, they parted from their friendly embrace, and laid their heads back down onto their pillows, looking at each other.
"Good night, Princess."
The alicorn smiled.
"Good night, Prince," Twilight joked. Lightning blushed slightly, and chuckled at the joke.
After the last goodnight was said, the two closed their eyes, finally allowing sleep to take them into paradise after an extremely long day.
...But the night would be far from over...