Chapters It was a glorious day for equestria, recent advances in medicine have gotten rid of every disease known to pony kind. Of course, every scientist who helped work on the cures were throwing a party. Why wouldn't they? They worked very hard, and deserved a good party after saving countless amounts of lives. Plus, they even came out with advanced antibiotics. The upside of these antibiotics is that they are cheap. Meaning that if your poor, you can take these antibiotics and slow the disease down a lot more than normal. Even then, the cures only cost a couple bits to make, so you could afford to be cured if you were infected with some form of disease. It took a brilliant team of ponies to crack the DNA strands of these diseases. However, there was one oddball in the scientific team. Her name being Derpy, no pony expected her to actually be smart at something. They all made fun of her because of her eyes, and how she talked, and even how she flied, but none the less, she was brilliant when it came to diseases. Leading the research, she amazed every pony with her works in the disease field. Still, some ponies were skeptical of her skills. She couldn't be that good, she was Derpy! Derpy wasn't good at anything except for delivering mail, even then she wasn't all that good at it, but no, Derpy was the best damn scientist equestria has ever seen. However, the party wasn't just because they have cured all diseases known to pony kind, but because today was Derpy's retirement day. She thought that she had severed her purpose, and just wanted to go and live a normal life. Derpy was filled with excitement, thinking that she had done it by herself. Derpy tended to do this a lot, however her colleges normally gave her a dose of reality. Looking out the window at ponyville, Derpy thought to herself "What am i going to do with my life?" She had no clue what destiny had in store for her, and she liked that.
"Alright every pony! Gather round, i want to make a toast to Derpy!" Exclaimed one of the scientists. All the ponies gathered around him, and he took a couple of seconds to gather his thoughts.
"Derpy, you've really made a difference in the medical field. Even though most of us were laughing at you when you first arrived, you were the most important pony out of all of us. You alone managed to figure out the patterns of mutations in the common cold, and for that, we all thank you." Said the scientist. After the toast was over, the party quickly ended as well. The only two ponies remaining being Derpy and her boss
"Derpy... uh, i just wanted to give you my thanks." Said her boss
"Well... whys that?" Replied Derpy, looking at him confused.
"You've been one of the best researchers in this whole team, THE best in fact. While its true that i didn't want to hire you at first. Im glad I did" Said her boss
"Oh... well um... thanks" Replied Derpy, as she slowly trotted away
"Oh! Derpy!"
"Yes?" She replied
"Live a good life, and I'll see you on the other side." He said back, smiling and waving goodbye to her.
The scientists talked among themselves, what bacterial disease should they use to mold into their own "helper"? Most of the diseases they ruled out due to the lethal symptoms. So many different kinds of bacterial diseases, they didn't know where to start. Lyme disease, Diphtheria, Yersinia pestis. Which one to use, which one should they use. So many of these were deadly, but they could be tampered with so that they help instead of hinder and kill. However, they weren't ready to take that risk. Hours upon hours of thinking, they couldn't think of anything. It was impossible to do what Derpy wanted. Its just not possible.
"What is it?" Replied the boss
"What Derpy wanted to do... it's not possible. It just isn't"
"What?! Do you want to be fired?!"
"No sir! But... its just not possible! There are too many lethal diseases, and we don't want to risk the chance of it mutating and spreading out of control"
"If your so smart you'll figure it out! Just do it damn it!"
"But sir, its not possible!"
"You know what, your right. Its not. I just realized something yelling at you. We aren't needed anymore, every disease in equestria has been cured. We don't need to research diseases anymore."
"But sire... what if"
"No! We aren't needed! Tell your boys to pack up their things. I'm telling our investors that we are shutting down for good"
"Yes sir..."
"What seems to be the problem?" Asked the doctor
"Well, I'm having troubles breathing, and I'm constantly coughing" Replied the patient
"Oh dear, well open your mouth and say ah" The patient did so, and what the doctor found was horrifying, swelled throat.
"Tell me doc, how bad is it"
"Well, I'd have to say uh..." The doctor realized that allergies have been known to cause these kinds of symptoms
"Well?"
"Oh, it seems your just suffering from seasonal allergies. We can prescribe you some allergy medicine, and you'll be fine" Said the doctor
"Alright, thanks doc" The patient wheezed out.
"Right" Replied the doctor as he saw the patient out. Something was off, it was the middle of winter, not ideal for allergies. Could this be some kind of disease? No no, of course not... Perhaps its just pollution, or maybe it really just is allergies. Who knows? The only thing the doctor could even say it would be He should wash his hooves but... It didn't matter. It was clearly just some kind of allergies, or pollution making this colt cough, and the swelling of his throat. After all, every disease in equestria had a cure, which made him more comfortable not washing his hooves.... unfortunately.
Chapter Five
It was an ordinary day for Derpy, everything seemed to be going fine. She was enjoying her retirement. However, she had a feeling like... something was wrong. She quickly passed it off as one of those feelings that every pony gets. She went to go check her mail, and what she found she couldn't believe. They shut the research department down! What? Why would they do that? They were on a bright path to helping ponies live longer, and maybe even achieving her dream. However, they weren't needed anymore. Seeing as they cured every disease known to pony kind. So maybe... it was time to close shop, yes that's it. They closed down because they didn't need to do anymore research. Derpy shrugged it off, and trotted back inside. Unaware of what was to come.
The doctor offices were overflowing with patients showing the same symptoms, coughing and a swollen throat. It seemed to be contagious, extremely contagious. However, it couldn't be contagious because every disease has been cured. So that means that there is no way in hell this could be a disease. The doctors kept giving out allergy pills, hoping that would make the symptoms go away. Sure enough... they didn't. This baffled doctors, It couldn't be a disease because there aren't any diseases still infectious, but... it couldn't be allergies, so many ponies having allergies in the middle of winter. It was unheard of, then again. Pollution rates have been skyrocketing due to the recent boom in industrial needs and advancements. Fossil fuels were being used more and more to power all of the ponies technology. So.. it must be side effects of the pollution. It was the only logical explanation....
The killings have gotten a lot worse, going from about one death every mouth. To about 20 deaths a week. No pony seemed to give a shit! Ponies were dying in front of their eyes, and the doctors kept pinning it on pollution! Symptoms were getting worse. Coughing was still there, however it was very bad. Ranging from hacking to coughing so hard that the pony breaks a rib cage. Swelling has gotten a lot worse. To the point were it inhibits a ponies sight. Mutation rate has increased to virus proportions. Yet here is Derpy, sitting in her basement, looking at some infected blood cells. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what she was looking at. The cells divided about every five seconds. Each one looking different. Which means that.... there wasn't a thing Derpy could do... without the lab. She pounded her hoof against the table
Symptoms have gotten even worse, ponies were dropping like flies now. It was common just to see a pony fall over on the street, dead. Hey, they didn't have to worry though... it wasn't a disease. Symptoms ranging from total organ failure, to seizures, to even causing cancer, and killing ponies through cancer. This was more than an outbreak... it was an epidemic... and only Derpy knew about it... Or so she thought, only one other pony knew about it. He had died the other day, the doctor who was first infected, realized it was a disease once he caught it. So he wrote a journal about it, he put in a box in a hospital. He knew he was going to die, if anyone else live through this... They should at least know what happened... Since almost every pony in equestria was dead.
Final Trimester
She limped through the hospital, her hind leg broken from the disease. She coughed, looking for antibiotics, or anything she could use! The cure to other diseases, allergy medicine, anything! However, she couldn't find a damn thing. When Derpy saw a curious little box, she just had to open it. Could it be? Antibiotics?! No, only a stupid little journal with a note that said, "read me." Derpy shrugged, coughing very badly. She flipped the note, and saw that it explained that it the symptoms weren't causing by pollution, but rather it was a disease, and how the doctor someone managed to gather some data. Derpy opened the book.... but nothing, It didn't say anything about the disease. What kind of disease it was, or if it even had a cure. Nothing, there was. Nothing. Derpy started to tear up, coughing very badly. She could feel all energy leaving her, and she laid down to go to sleep... one last time....
Prologue
After all of this was over, the humans managed to find their way to equestria. They found loads of dead ponies, and took blood samples of the ponies. They found that the disease was a type of Bubonic plague and virus mixture. It had clearly escaped from a lab, however this surprised the humans. Ponies wiped out by something that escaped from a lab. By the looks of things, they didn't have any other diseases. Which means they cured every disease. Then how did this little guy infect and kill all of these ponies? Well, they don't know. This was the only disease. They cured everything else, except for one kind of disease. Some kind of... Frozen disease that feeds on amoeba's, and adapted their symptoms....
Epilogue
She coughed, looking around the building. There must be some antibiotics somewhere! Where could they be? She opened up a cardboard box, hoping to find some antibiotics to slow the disease, but only found a note and a book. The note read, "We don't know what happened, it came out of nowhere. Everything was going right, and then this comes out of nowhere.... what happened? We can't even say anymore, the disease just.... appeared, and it was too late before we could even notice it. If you found this, you are one of the last surviving ponies in all of equestria. So read up on what happened, before you become infected as well." The mare who found the book opened it up, and found some information. However none of it was helpful, no wonder why the ponies of equestria were wiped out by this disease. They didn't know anything about it, and this mare was probably the only pony still alive in all of equestria. However, knowing she was already infected, she started to sob. The last pony in equestria, about to be claimed by the disease.
Derpy trotted on over to her lab station, just to get her things, and to see it one last time. She could fondly remember spending hours on end tampering with the DNA of countless diseases. The happiness she got when she cracked the code, and figured out how to cure the disease. Figuring out the patterns of mutations in certain diseases. All of it, achieved in this very lab. Yes, it was hard for Derpy to let go, but when you retire, you gotta let go. She shed a tear, and muttered "I'm going to miss you." She turned around, and left the building,
"Alright guys! Just because Derpy's gone doesn't mean we're screwed! We can always do what she wanted to do!" Exclaimed the boss.
"What did she always want to do?" Asked one of the scientists.
"She always wanted to figure out how to make one of the diseases actually benefit us, instead of hurt us." He replied.
"How exactly is that possible?" Said a scientist.
"As far as i know, it isn't, but hell. Its worth a shot right?" Said the Boss
"Well i suppose..."
"Then what do we got to lose?!" Exclaimed the boss
"The respect of every pony in equestria, our jobs, everything honestly" The scientist replied
"I'll fire you on the spot, if you don't attempt this" Said the boss
"Hey nothings impossible, i suppose its worth a shot right?" Said the scientist nervously
"Exactly, now go back to work" Said the boss. Every pony in the room went straight back to work. Wondering "what disease could be genetically modified to be beneficial to pony kind?" No one even had a clue. They couldn't use a virus, there was too great a risk that it would mutate, and turn into some kind of killing machine. They weren't going to use a fungus, because no good comes out of fungi diseases. They wouldn't even dare think of using a prion disease to help ponies. Prion's are dangerous even on their own, they don't need help from a team of elite scientists. It wouldn't end well. However, they could use a bacterial disease, to mold the bacteria into their own beneficial disease. They all agreed on it, and got to work. The only question remaining was, what bacterial disease should they use?
Its been a couple of mouths since the disease was "detected." However, the ponies had such a sense of security that they thought it couldn't be a disease. At this point, every pony in ponyville was infected. and it was spreading rapidly. Hosts of the disease had the urge to travel to other places. Only increasing the rate of infection throughout equestria. It just kept getting worse, and worse. Eventually leading to mutation, symptoms varying per pony. Some only experienced sweating and sneezing, and some were found dead the next day. For no apparent reason, and no pony even thought that it was a disease causing all of this. Well, one did. Derpy was worried ever since she read the head title "Allergy rate at all time high!"