Pandemic

Pandemic

Rainbow Dash dodged a hurtling shard of rock as she raced towards her target. Her left wing still seethed with pain from earlier and she was in no condition to fly. But she had to. She couldn’t give up. Not when she was this close. Two more sharpened rocks flew past her at blistering speeds but Dash kept her eyes trained on the urn. She could hear the beasts clearly behind her and felt one snap at her left rear hoof. It was inches away from ripping her limb from limb. The visage at the end of her path continued to break apart the caves stalagmites and send them straight at her. She was within a few hundred yards of her target when she felt something razor sharp pierce her leg.

Pinkie Pie coughed violently. Her normal playful and not quite sane personality had vanished. She lay under four blankets yet her teeth still chattered from time to time. She was almost white with a slightly pink hue to her coat. She had lost consciousness nearly four hours prior.

She was number 97; 97 cases of a mysterious and unidentifiable disease that randomly appeared the day before. Numbers 1 through 13 and number 82 were already dead. Twilight stood at Pinkie’s bedside wearing a protective mask over her muzzle to keep from getting infected. She was leafing through yet another book on mass plagues with no success. Every now and then She would look up at pinkie and study her symptoms and appearance, then she would dive back into the book frantically each time feeling a bit more helpless.

The world seemed to be ending. New cases were constantly being found and with each passing moment less and less of the population of Ponyville dared to go outside. Many families holed up in their homes with what little supplies they could manage to arrange. Others would try to find a spot that was not contaminated yet and hunker down to wait it out. The apocalypse was upon them and it grew worse each second.

“No no no that doesn’t produce a fever……maybe this one?....but it says nothing of coughing!” Twilight muttered to herself as she worked to keep herself sane. One of her best friends was going to die in front of her and none of her precious books could help. Case 100 passed through the door a moment later, a pale and coughing filly with a feather as his cutie mark. Twilight took one look and shook her head. He had little body mass and would pass quickly. His parents were frantically looking for a doctor who was available but to no avail. Twilight went back to her book as a tear rolled down her cheek. She had tried to stay emotionless so that her work would not be affected but it became harder as more cases, and more ponies she knew, entered the clinic. She set the book aside and reached for the next one when she heard a voice from behind her

“Excuse me…miss? Could you please help us….none of the doctors are available….our son….he’s….” the mare’s voice trailed off into a suppressed sob as she tried to keep her eyes level as Twilight turned around. It was the parents of the filly, she couldn’t quite remember the young one’s name. Twilight looked sympathetically at her and then looked at her son who was in a sling around her neck. She tried her hardest to keep the tears back but they welled at the edges of her eyes as she calmly explained to them,

“I’m sorry. No cure or effective treatment has been found yet. I am doing my best to try to find one but this disease doesn’t match any that has ever been reco- “ she stopped mid-sentence and looked closer at the filly. Through his sweat drenched coat that parted in places she could make out a marking on his chest that looked like a bruise. It resembled  a bed of snakes curling over each other. She moved a little closer ignoring the questioning looks of the parents as they followed her gaze. Just as they looked at their sons chest, it disappeared. The filly proceeded to vomit profusely onto the floor most of the contents being bloody and riddled with Ebola like virus pods. He then fell limp in the sling and his erratic breathing slowed and then stopped. His mother stared for a moment in disbelief and then frantically set him down on the ground. She nuzzled him and performed CPR as best she could. The fillies eyes opened with the force of this, lifeless and dull. Blood seeped out of the edge of his mouth to add to the pool on the floor. Twilight stepped away as his mother became more frantic and began screaming and sobbing. She quickly headed out of the clinic and back to her library. This wasn’t a natural sickness. Someone had created it.

Rainbow Dash arrived at the clinic later that day. She brought in on her back a yellow and pink bundle that shook with fever. Dash’s eyes were grim. She hoped to Celestia that Twi had found a cure by now. This disease continued to claim ponies nonstop no matter what precautions were taken. Dash and Fluttershy had been asked to help bring in ponies from cloud homes and in places that were much more accessible via flying. Fluttershy had cried nonstop, her tears rolling down her cheeks as she sniffled at each new case. She had been brave in the face of adversary before but this had proved too much. She couldn’t stand to see so many helpless ponies knocking on deaths door but she continued to help anyway. Until she became infected herself. Dash noticed it while they were bringing in a blue maned pegasus from his home. She had begun to cough lightly. Then noticing it herself she tried to stifle it. Not but a minute later she fell from the sky. Dash had raced after her with the colt still in hand and grabbed Fluttershy much before she hit the ground. Dash had been ready for it. She knew it would come. By the time she had reached the clinic the colt was dead so she left him on a cot beside some of the other more recent casualties that were heading toward the morgue. She saw a filly among them with blood soaking his coat. It was terribly sad but dash remained tearless.

She set Fluttershy on a bed carefully, her pink mane curling over Dash’s back as it fell to cover the yellow mare’s face. Fluttershy looked up at Dash with scared, timid eyes. A drop hit the floor beneath Dash’s face.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, Twi’s been working on a cure for the past two days. I’m sure she has something by now.” Fluttershy’s eyes reflected a glimmer of hope as she opened her mouth to speak. She was already weak enough that only one word escaped her mouth.

“Angel”

Dash understood and nodded at Fluttershy.

“I’ll personally take care of her and your other animals.” Dash said. Fluttershy’s eyes widened at this a little and she shook her head as best she could. Dash laughed once. “on second thought, I’ll have spike take care of them” She said with a smile. Fluttershy smiled back and then fell to sleep. Rainbow Dash turned to leave and nearly jumped through the ceiling when she came nose to nose with a frantic Twilight.

“I’ve found it” she said.