The Rotting

AS FLUTTERSHY NEARED THE FLOWING FLAP DOORS, she heard voices on the inside of the infirmary tent, hushed down enough she could barely hear them.

"Did you hear?" one of them said, feminine and gentle. "Soul said he saw activity near the town. He thinks some of the ponies are still there!"

"Yeah," another feminine, but gruff voice confirmed. "But, what's taking him so long, anyway? The curious bastard probably went around the architecture again."

"What's so different about Ponyville's architecture, anyway?"

"Exactly! But he does it regardless of the danger." Fluttershy heard a shuffling. "In any case, Light and Resonance caught the disease. They're in the back, right next to the celebrities."

"Shit..." Fluttershy heard something being kicked and a ploomf when it supposedly hit the tent wall. "They were the best operators on the team. Very skilled with magic."

"It's odd, you know..."

"Hm?"

"The majority of the victims... they seem to be all unicorns..."

Fluttershy took in a deep breath. Here goes, she thought as she pulled open the heavy canvas door flap, What she saw at first horrified her. Many ponies, left and right, faces sunken in, eyes cloudy, hooves skin and bone, their rib cages visible through their chest. Their bellies were visibly sunken in under linen sheets, as if they were readying a death bag for them. Fluttershy slapped her hoof to her mouth, keeping a scream and sick back. The smell was putrid, like rotting. This ever reminded her of the abused animals she'd seen in the town before, a helpless look that pierced the soul so easily.

"... Miss, what in the world are you doing here?" addressed the gentle voiced mare. Fluttershy turned to see her, an older mare with a yellow-orange mane, and a deep blue curled coat that reminded her of the sun over the sea. Her eyes were a coral green, filled with newfound concern.

"Er..." The sudden social anxiety struck Fluttershy from behind, the preemptive attack leaving her speechless. There it was, finally out of the curtain.

"You need to get out of here," the other mare said, flipping a drooping black mane over one side of her face, a greenish coat visible under scrubs. She approached Fluttershy. "We don't know how contagious this disease is, or how it spreads. So, get out of here before—"

"Ah-hah!" proclaimed a voice from the back of the infirmary. Running toward them was a pegasus with a salmon coat and a light brown mane pushing back against the air. Between his teeth was a thin stack of paper. "I'bve go'it!"

The black-maned mare turned an eye from Fluttershy. "That was quick, Soul," she admitted, a slight hint of amusement in her voice.

"Indeed," he replied, tracing his hoof down his chest as if pulling a tie. He trotted to a nearby stretcher with a near corpse situated in it, and set the papers down. "We have medical records."

The black-maned mare didn't move an inch. She still glared wide-eyed at Fluttershy, her death gaze pushing her near the door flaps. Fluttershy adverted her gaze, feeling as if she was going to catch fire spontaneously.

"That won't be necessary, Nightmeadow," Soul sighed. "Come over to see and you'll get what I mean." The way he narrowed his eyes at her and responded so quickly gave Fluttershy the notion the two had a history, outside the professional world.

Nightmeadow sighed. "Fine." She shot a fiery eye at Fluttershy. "But. Don't. You. Dare. Move."

Fluttershy nearly sank into the floor, meeping.

Nightmeadow turned sassily to Dr. Soul and his thin papers. "Medical records, eh?" she said, walking toward him with a notable sway in her hips. "... There are barely fifty of them."

Soul nodded. "And how many ponies do we have here?"

The yellow-orange-maned mare crossed her legs. "We have forty-seven..."

Soul pointed at her with one hoof while gently spreading out the medical records with the other. "Precisely. That means there are three missing, among them, Twilight Sparkle."

Fluttershy felt a sob well up in her throat as the stallion said her lost friend's name. The memories flashed over her again, and imagination of her rotting body made her gut twist and churn. Fluttershy tried desperately to get her erratic breathing under control, while trying to keep the sick down once again.

Nightmeadow cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah... but why would you think we'd only have fifty patients?"

Soul waved his hoof dismissively. "I was just getting to that. The reason why I only have fifty records is that the residents of Ponyville are really good at not hurting themselves. Including maternity, these fifty have had a special operation with a unicorn surgeon." Soul took a look at the yellow-orange-maned mare. "Shore, tell me, have you ever been operated on by a unicorn?"

Shore shook her head. "No, I have not."

Soul adverted his gaze to Nightmeadow. "You?"

Nightmeadow mirrored Shore's gesture. "I haven't."

Soul then looked at Fluttershy. "I don't know what the fuck you're doing here, but have you ever been operated on by a unicorn?"

Fluttershy thought back. "No, Dr. Soul," she said, "I have not been."

Soul smiled like a foal on Hearth's Warming. "What are the odds?" He made a gesture as if to slam his hoof on the stretcher, but refrained. "Us three—four, I mean—have not caught the disease. There is a very small percentage of those who did. The fifty have either been unicorns or people gravely injured and operated on by a unicorn surgeon." His smile grew. "Which tells us...?"

It clicked. Fluttershy felt butterflies in her stomach as she said, "... the disease dwells on magic, perhaps?"

Nightmeadow glared at Fluttershy, but Soul pointed at her, nodding. "Give this mare a cookie. The disease can only transfer to magic-affected bodies."

Nightmeadow stomped on the ground. "But what does magic mean to them, then?" Her eyes narrowed, passing glares between the both of them. "If it's for sustenance, why do the ponies here look more or less like cadavers?"

Soul smirked. "Shore, where is the tumor we cut out earlier today?"

Shore nodded. "I'll grab it."

Soul straightened up, a deviant smile pulling on the corners of his lips. "This disease, as Shore and I have figured out, forms tumors in the abdominal area, but we have discovered aberrations in this pattern. Some tumors were found in forelegs, hindlegs, and sometimes in the genital area. But these tumors seem to have spread to the same point: the abdomen, the greatest store of fat on any pony's body." He narrowed his brow. "So, it wouldn't be a far-fetched assumption if they gained sustenance from body fats, thus disproving, obviously, that they're abstemious."

Shore meandered around stretchers and gingerly set a bloody quart jar between the three. Inside was a translucent pink bulge, glowing with a deep blue aura. The bulge nearly eclipsed a thin sheet of flesh, with black fur coating around the bottom. The sight was the final straw on the camel's back for Fluttershy; she lurched forward and heaved, a green, chunky ooze escaping from her mouth and nose. Stomach heaving, nostrils burning, she wiped the remaining bile from her mouth, spitting out the remains of her undigested food.

The doctors seemed unfazed. Soul just nodded. "That pretty much describes this little bit here, eh?" he said. "But, if you were here a couple hours before, this tumor would be a lot smaller. Within that time, it has fully consumed the chunk of flesh in there."

Shore tilted her head. "Why do they need magic, then, if they gain nourishment from consuming nutrients from the pony's body?"

Soul tapped his hoof. "Interesting question. I suppose that the alleged virus needs magic more. Like water, if you will. You may need food. But water you cannot live without. But, Nightmeadow, do you remember what happened yesterday?"

Nightmeadow cocked an eyebrow. "You mean the unicorn, Rarity? Yeah... her magic didn't seem reduced... it actually seemed stronger."

Soul frowned. "Interesting, eh? So, this virus isn't using magic as sustenance. So, why would they need magic to live inside a host?"

There it was again: the click. Fluttershy nearly bounced in her hooves. "They need a place to live."

Soul stared blankly at her. "Come again?"

"They're not using magic for sustenance," Fluttershy echoed, "and it's getting stronger with this virus' presence." She gulped. If Rarity underwent this process... "Sounds a lot like the virus is building a home within magic. It's stronger. It sounds like this virus is much intelligent than you think."

Soul tilted his head, narrowing his eyebrows. "Explain."

Fluttershy explained Twilight's concoction with a bitter taste in her mouth. This was her first time talking to anypony about it, and she figured that she would feel anxiety bite at her. It was like that at the beginning, but as she explained the words naturally slipped out of her mouth like water from a broken dam. She felt lighter, the weight of the burden flowing off of her. When she was done talking, she was near tears, but not really because of the touchy subject. She sighed for relief. "I know it's an odd concept," she said, "but—"

Soul flashed a hoof up. "Oddly, it makes sense. I think we can count on that." He frowned at the ground near Fluttershy's hooves. "Oh, and Shore, if you would, please clean up the vomit near Miss Fluttershy. It's supposed to be a sterile facility, dammit."

Shore sighed, sulking. "Right... our janitor's sort of down, is he?" Fluttershy stepped away from her original position, Nightmeadow glaring at her.

"So, back to the question at hoof," she said, "What is your business here?"

Fluttershy's heart sank. She had completely forgotten about them in the midst of the excitement. "My friends, Rainbow Dash and Rarity should be here. I came here to visit them."

Nightmeadow cocked an eyebrow. "Your friends? They're probably conked out, knowing the number that the disease did on them."

"I don't care." Fluttershy's bottom lip began to quiver. "I just want to see them. Before I..."

"I see..." Nightmeadow took a step forward, her expression relaxing. "You're a part of the six. The friends who are associated with Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Fluttershy gulped. She'd left out that fact as she was explaining, and she dove right into that. "Yes... I promised her that I would try to put an end to this."

The corner of Nightmeadow's lips pulled downward. She didn't look as aggressive as she did before; more like... sympathetic. "I know that you want to honor the dead," she said lightly, "but this disease is all it is; a disease. The only way to stop it is to let it do its work..."

"That isn't exactly true," Soul stated. "That sort of magic that Fluttershy described can be just about anything. The most she can do is to go back and strike the source. A spell is nothing without its caster, anyway."

Fluttershy's gut churned. "What's that supposed to mean..." She was lying. She knew exactly what he meant. But part of her wanted to deny it, to shut it out.

Soul picked up the papers from the linen sheet. "Nothing. Just go visit your friends."

Fluttershy felt like a bee nest was knocked down in her stomach, the raging bees stinging all around. She glanced, horrified at Soul, who's eyes were half-closed, eyebrows knit, frowning deeply. "Right..." she whispered, almost coughing out the word.

Her friends were on the opposite side of the tent, maybe four or five ponies away from the south entrance. There they were, right next to each other, hoof in hoof, an odd gesture to see from Rainbow Dash. They were both awake, sunken eyes and cheeks, a smile curling up on both their lips. Fluttershy could hear Rarity start to sniffle.

"Hey," said Rainbow Dash, her squeaky voice raspy. "Glad you're okay."

Fluttershy lifted her hoof to her mouth, blinking. Tears dribbled down her face. "I'm glad you're still here," she managed.

"Ah..." She nudged Rarity with her inside elbow. "We're fighters. It seems like some of the other patients have just given up though. Cheerilee, almost surprisingly, was among them."

Fluttershy froze. During the delivery of her first child, Cheerilee nearly died during labor. She would usually go on about the unicorn that had saved her from her demise. But tragically, the baby that was born was a miscarriage, and died nearly eighteen hours after birth. "She was really strong..." Fluttershy mumbled in dismay. "Why...?"

Rarity shook her head. "I wouldn't dwell on it," she said, voice hoarse and broken. "Even the happiest ponies can be the saddest on the inside." She cast her eyes around the room. "Say, have you seen Twilight around here? Is she safe?"

Fluttershy hesitated. She didn't know. As much as it pained her that Twilight had the disease and may or may not be dead, she couldn't say that to them. She couldn't say that she was missing. "I... I'm sure she's safe," she lied, upon saying, she became suddenly lightheaded.

Rarity narrowed her eyes skeptically. "All right... I'm glad to hear that."

Fluttershy nodded the tunnel in her vision away. "I will help in any way that I can," she said. "Twilight asked me specifically to end this, so I will."

Rainbow Dash cocked an eyebrow weakly. "Fluttershy...?"

"No you will not!" Rarity snapped, tears finally escaping from her eyes. "It would be suicide if you went there. What if you caught the disease? I do not want another friend—"

"It won't affect me," Fluttershy retorted. "The virus can only live inside those who possess unicorn magic, naturally or surgically. I will be just fine."

"Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash addressed, "what's wrong with you? You're not being yourself..."

A piercing scream filled the air. Fluttershy winced, the scream too short and too sudden for her to cover her ears. Ears ringing, Fluttershy shook the resounding sound out of her head. She then shot her gaze left then right when she realized the southern entrance was open. Behind the flap was a pony, looking as diseased as the forty-seven in the room. The stallion had a red coat and dirty blond mane, scruffed up with dirt clumps and blood. Around his neck was a green yolk, loose enough now that it hung on his neck like a loose choker. In his mouth was Shore, lifeless eyes, blood tracing from the nape of the neck where he was carrying her.

Rarity's jaw dropped. "No way... that cannot be..."

Big Macintosh flung Shore to the side, her limp corpse falling to the ground. His sunken in eyes stared at Fluttershy aggressively, licking the blood from his lips. He charged, mouth agape, breathing erratically like an animal. Fluttershy backed away, screaming as she saw a flash in front of her. Rainbow Dash landed a hook to Big Macintosh's temple with a sickening crunch! His body fell limp, blood spewing from his ears and face, his skull flattened.

Rainbow Dash yelled in pain, holding her right hoof. Blood traced down her foreleg. It was bent and twisted in unnatural ways. Bone stuck out near the hoof, becoming red in the blood gurgling out from under it.

"Nightmeadow! Check Shore! I will get the patient!" Soul skidded as he stopped leaning down near Rainbow Dash, studying the broken bone. "Shit, it punctured the artery. Sho—ah, dammit!" He pointed at Fluttershy. "Put pressure"— He tapped a place on her upper leg— "right here. I need a rope."

Fluttershy complied. She pushed down where Soul suggested, Rainbow Dash yelping in pain. "Big Mac..." she groaned. "... No wonder." She darted her eyes to Fluttershy. "Twilight isn't here, is she?" she asked, voice nearly gone.

Fluttershy cursed under her breath. "No, she isn't."

"She must be still alive then, yes?"

"I don't know! She took the brunt of the disease; she was the one who accidentally created it."

Rainbow Dash shot her eyes around the room. "Then go."

"Rainbo—"

"I don't care! The doctor has the rope. He'll take care of me as well as he did before. You'll just have to trust him. Just go! Undo what the bitch has done!"

"Rain..." Fluttershy bit her lip. I can't leave her behind... she thought. But staying here won't help anypony. She clamped her eyes shut. "I'll do it. I'll go." And, just like that, she felt the late afternoon breeze on her face as she soared toward Ponyville. She took a look back at the acre-long tent, admiring it for the last time.

Anything it takes, Fluttershy thought.