Pandemic

Blood seeped off the cot and dripped onto the floor creating an ever growing pool of red beneath AppleJack. She was pale and barely conscious when Twilight, Rarity, and Dash arrived. There were no doctors to attend to her so she was holding her own already soaked bandage against the wound on her flank. She looked badly beaten and bruised all over her body and only one eye would open fully. She looked at the trio as they entered quietly and tried her best to give a feeble reassuring smile. Twilight was shocked. She hadn’t realized that looting had even been going on and now here lied one of her greatest friends dying because someone decided they wanted what she had.

“Tw-……Twi-…….donchu……worry…..’bout me.” AppleJack strained just to say this as she grimaced in pain as speaking agitated her wound.

“Of course I’m going to worry!” said Twilight. “I can’t just not care as you lie here on your deathbed! I worry just as much about you as I do about Pinkie and Fluttershy!” Twilight was exasperated and at the end of her rope. She hated situations that she couldn’t control and this one was starting to spin wildly into chaos.

“Ah…….Ah’ll be fine.” She argued with another gut wrenching searing pain shooting through her. She was growing paler and weaker by the moment and presently she seemed to lose consciousness.

“Move aside!” Twilight said as her horn started to glow. She wouldn’t accept this. The room was sparkled with purple light as Twilight concentrated. AppleJack’s arm suddenly went limp and her bandage fell to the floor revealing a two inch wound that went roughly six inches up into her rib cage. The blood now flowed freely with nothing in its way to stop it. Twilight tried not to look to closely at the ghastly wound as she worked with all her might to save her friend. AppleJack’s  skin started to glow around the wound and the blood flow slowed and then stopped. Twilight was visibly sweating as she used her magic to repair the severed artery and punctured lung and seal the wound. Just as the skin was brought back together and sealed Twilight collapsed.

Twilight awoke in her bed in the Library slightly confused as to what just happened. She sat up and saw Rarity and Rainbow Dash sitting at a table studying the map a few feet away. Dash noticed her first and looked up from her studying.

“Ok Twi my brain is lying in pieces around this room. Please find out what the buck this map says!” Dash said in a tired and Fuck-This-Shit tone. She had bags under her eyes which made Twilight wonder how long she had been out.

“3 days” said Dash seeing Twilights confused and worried look. “We got to the point that we needed to find this cure whether you were able to help or not.”  Rarity had her muzzle almost on the map in a trance and she didn’t look any better than Dash.

“My eyes hurt like I’ve just stuck my entire needle supply into them” Rarity said in her dramatic way. Glad to see one thing hadn’t changed. Twilight got up and walked over to the map calculating how far they must be behind from her three day absence. As she neared the table she saw something over the balcony that caught her attention. It was a whiteboard scribbled with many different markers. She could only make out the larger print which read: INFECTED: 7,329 DEAD: 1,224. Her pupils dilated and her heart stopped. The disease was completely out of control. Beside it she saw a picture frame that was black. There was a picture of a jubilant smiling Pink pony inside it.

“no….” Twilights eyes were instantaneously wet and starting to over flow with tears. She raced down the stairs to see a small memorial below the picture with all manner of flowers and cards. The frame said in scrawling letters: In Memory of Pinkamena Diane Pie She brought joy and love to everyone around her and she will forever be missed and grieved for.

“We buried her yesterday.” Dash said from the top of the balcony. Twilight turned to see the rainbow maned pegasus floating down to her with a grim expression on her face. Whether she was holding back tears or she had just lost the ability to cry Twilight could not be sure of. “She woke for an hour before she died. She let everyone know that all she ever wanted was the love and laughter of her friends and we’d each given her that so she was content and felt fulfilled as she went.” Rainbow said this as she wrapped a wing around Twilight and drew her close. “She wanted you to keep searching for the cure and not worry about her. She thought that where she was going she could create more laughter and happiness and be content there.” Dash rocked back and forth slightly with Twilight as Twilight lowered her head and welcomed the embrace. She felt hopeless and alone, and she had the entire town’s if all of Equestria’s fate resting on her shoulders. Dash continued the embrace for a moment and then let go and started for the door.

“I need to make my rounds around the town. I’ve been coordinating quarantines and helping with mass graves. I will be back in about two hours.” With this Rainbow Dash flew out of the door. There was a thump from upstairs and Twilight looked to see rarity with her face planted firmly on the table.

“Don’t worry Rarity I am coming to help” Twilight said as she retrieved her book and went back upstairs. On her way she noticed that the words on the board were names. She stopped as one caught her eye. Under “INFECTED” was a name written in yellow.

It read: “AppleJack”

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