Unusual Outbreak

by Ajpegasister

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Rainbow Dash, Other, Fluttershy, Comedy, Adventure, Pinkie Pie, Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 4867

The bacteria that causes tuberculosis causes an outbreak in both Equestria and our world while Pinkie Pie is having a month-and-a-half-long slumber party at my house!

While Pinkie Pie and I are having a month-and-a-half-long slumber party, the TB bacteria infects Rarity and a lady at my family's church in northeastern Oklahoma, and then causes a MASSIVE outbreak in both our world and Equestria! Once we hear about what's really happening on the news, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and I go to Oklahoma only to find my entire family infected with the contagious bacteria. Read to find out what happens after that!

Published 2015-02-05 01:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-05-31 22:05:27 UTC

Chapter 1: Worst Last Day Of School Ever

The bell rang. IT WAS MY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR:pinkiehappy:!!! I was so happy to finally be done with sixth grade! I said goodbye to all my friends and excitedly ran home. My mom greeted me and said "How was your last day of school? Did you have fun? Oh, someone's been waiting for you! Or should I say somepony!"

Then I yelled "PINKIE PIE!!!", who was pretty excited to see me too! Of course, when is that silly pony not excited?

She replied "Hey! How've you been? Did you have fun today? Ooh, you look excited! Have you been smiling and laughing a lot like you always promise you'll do?"

"Yes, of course!" I said. "Are you excited to start our month-and-a-half-long slumber party that we've been planning for months and my mom for some reason of which I have no idea approved:rainbowhuh:?! 'Cause I sure am!"

"Well duh, silly! Wanna get a cupcake? I baked plenty before I came here!" We each got one of Pinkie's cupcakes as my mom went downstairs and started eating them. She said "We sure have lots of catching up to do! What's been going on here, besides that it's your last day of school which you just got out of?" I told her that Mary Janes, a lady at my family's church, had been infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. She asked what that was and I explained to her.

I said "A bacteria is a microscopic organi-" and she cut me off to say "No, I know what a bacteria is! I meant the tubercu-thingy you just said the lady at your church has!"

"Oh, right:facehoof:!" I'd told her that before. I explained that "Tuberculosis, often referred to as TB, is a bacterial infection caused by a bacteria! It's tough to kill once you have it, and it's certainly not something you'd wanna get. Some common symptoms are coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath, trouble breathing, chest pain, coughing up blood or mucus (or both), pneumonia, and later it can cause lack of oxygen in blood and organs, organ failure, and gangrene. Oh yeah, and you can die from it."

She said "I bet it can even cause blood failure too:pinkiegasp:!"

Then I replied "That's not a thing, Pinkie Pie. Although I kind of see your point:unsuresweetie:..."

And then she was thinking back "You know, it's kinda weird your church has a lady that goes to it and got tubercu-whatever you said, because Rarity's been sick with sort of a similar lung infection! She's been sneezing and coughing blood, and her doctor found fluid in her lungs which is pneumonia which is one of the symptoms you said that causes the disease your church lady has:rainbowderp:!"

I said "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Probably not:twilightsheepish:!" she replied.

And my last words were "We're going to Ponyville:rainbowdetermined2:!" I conjured up the portal to the Equestrian dimension with a secret recipie she taught me - I've already told you too much about it! But anyway, it only took a few minutes and we were in Ponyville at Fluttershy's cottage! Yeah, sometimes the portal doesn't take us to the exact place we want to go to... But anyway, we were in Fluttershy's living room, which she and her animals heard us crash into.

She ran downstairs with Rainbow Dash (who happened to be visiting at the time) and said "Oh my! What happened?! Where did you come from:twilightoops:?!"

I replied "Howdy, Fluttershy. We were in my dimension and we made the portal to get here. It apparently took us to your living room."

She said "OK. How come you're visiting? I thought your really long slumber party was at your house, not here!"

Pinkie told her that "We came to visit Rarity because we think she has a disease!"

Fluttershy said "Oh, that's terrible! What disease?" I told her and she flipped out! Rainbow asked what it was and I told her, including that a lady at my church contracted it. She decided we should go visit Rarity and take her to the doctor.

I asked where Rarity was and she said "I don't know, but she did leave her house this morning to visit a client somewhere in the other side of town and won't be back 'til about 8:30 tonight... That can't be good:fluttershysad:!" It was barely 3.

Chapter 2: Not Just A Rarity

So the four of us went over to Carousel Boutique, where Sweetie Belle was supposed to be, and we were all shocked to find her comforting a deathly sick Scootaloo. We walked in at the same time as Apple Bloom came from another room. The trio was surprised to see us (especially me), but we told them what we were doing here and Sweetie had an alarming theory. She thought, "Rarity must have contracted it from your church lady when you were both in Oklahoma a week ago visiting your family, even though the lady was only showing signs of a bad cold! She must have passed it on to Scootaloo, because she's been having the exact same symptoms, but the doctor just said to take care of her at home! Of course, her doctor is notorious for being a terrible healthcare professional... But anyway, you need to get to Rarity!" She handed us the directions to the client's house and said "You get Rarity, we'll stay here and take care of Scootaloo!"

Then I said "No, don't stay here. You need help from somepony else, get Twilight and Applejack. And just be lucky you don't have TB yet!" All of us left, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders went to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Applejack agreed that Scootaloo's doctor is a medical moron. After the three fillies arrived at the apple farm and told AJ everything, she was shocked. She agreed they should get Twilight Sparkle, but first they realized they hadn't eaten any lunch yet so they shared a pie Applejack baked earlier. Then they were off to Twilight's castle.

When they got there and told her all the things that happened today, she couldn't have had a weirder reaction:twilightblush:! LOL, Twilight! They took Scootaloo to the hospital, and this is the part where y'all reading get to hear about me again! OK, so now we're back to the part where Pinkie, Fluttershy, Dash, and I are going to the other side of town to meet Rarity. We've been walking for an hour an a half, and it felt like their hooves and my feet were gonna fall off:pinkiesick:! "How much farther?" Rainbow moaned.

I replied "It shouldn't be too bad, Dash! We're almost halfway there! Aw, what's the use?! It's not worth wasting the energy required to talk at this point:ajsleepy:!"

Pinkie Pie said "Even I agree with you:fluttershyouch:!" We were all staring at her in awe:pinkiegasp::rainbowderp: but didn't bother to question it:pinkiecrazy:. We just slowly and painfully walked along, and then we started noticing that the closer we got to Rarity's client's house, there were more and more ponies coughing and sneezing. When we saw Lyra Heartstrings, we said hi and asked her what she was sick with (and FINALLY got a break from walking and standing:pinkiehappy:!!!) but she had no answer. We just told her to visit her doctor and there was probably an outbreak of something, and to spread the news. We knew what was really going on, but we certainly didn't want to scare anypony. We also told Bon Bon, Carrot Top, Dr. Hooves, Vinyl Scratch, Twist, even Derpy:derpytongue2:, and many, many more ponies. When we finally got there at 7:30, we walked into the house only to find her unconscious. We asked the client Rarity had the appointment with (who happened to be Octavia) what happened before we got there, and she told us everything.

"So. I book an appointment to speak with miss Rarity about my new band uniform, right? Well, she comes here coughing up a tornado, and we begin talking, but she couldn't have been more alert and able to talk to and understand me! Well, not so much the talking part, since she kept coughing, but I just assumed she had a particularly bad cold, or pneumonia, or some other disease. Next thing I know, a few hours later, we're discussing the colors of the bowties and then CRASH! Your friend falls on my floor! I tried talking to her but she's either being rude or napping. And just then the four of you come through my door looking more surprised than somepony who got a Nightmare Night present from an idiot stallion in a bunny suit!" She said. We took Rarity out of her house before Octavia could finish saying, "My appointment isn't over for another hour:flutterrage:!!!"

We took Rarity to the hospital and after she woke up, her first question was what the ringing sound coming from my pocket was. I forgot I had my phone, and couldn't believe I hadn't gotten any calls, texts, e-mails, or any other type of notifications since I'd left the house! My mom was calling to tell me to "get your little butt home right now because it's 20 minutes 'til your bedtime, missy:twilightangry2:!" I told Dash and Fluttershy to keep an eye on the infected ponies and then hopped on Pinkie Pie, who went so fast we rode straight through the end of the Equestrian dimension and back to mine! Usually that actually works if we can't bake the portal...

Chapter 3: Not A Good Morning

So, after Pinkie and I raced home (well, not hers!), my mom greeted us and asked "What in the world were you doing there?! You know I'm perfectly fine with you visiting your pony friends, but you can't leave before 7 a.m. and you have to be back here by 8:15 at night! Tell me why you just got back and it's already 8:42!"

I told her "I'm sorry Mom, I just got carried away and lost track of time! You can understand that, right:fluttercry:?!" and she sure didn't look too happy.

"Honey, I do that a lot. Believe me, that's just a natural part of life! So yes, of course I understand! But, I still do have to punish you. I'm sorry, but you two can't go back tomorrow until 11:00 and you've had lunch!" she replied. So, with this in place, the three of us went to bed (and to sleep:raritywink:). Pinkie and I woke up the next morning at - exactly the same time - around 5:50, just in time to catch the news. I poured us cereal and turned the TV to the news channel, and when the news came on, the anchorman immediately started talking about the OK outbreak involving my family. Wait, OK outbreak:applejackconfused:???!!!

He told the few news viewers that "I just got intel from our amazing news team on the tuberculosis outbreak from all the states surrounding Oklahoma! Yes, there's an outbreak from TB in all 6 of the states surrounding Oklahoma, which I probably should have told all of you first! But anyway, the citizens from Oklahoma seem to be getting into an outbreak from tuberculosis too, especially since Mary Janes from Sapulpa which is a town from Oklahoma was the first OK victim from TB. Yes, she was the first person from Oklahoma to die from the bacteria. What's weird was that the outbreak occurred in all 6 states from the OK border before anyone from Oklahoma was ever actually infected! Isn't that from strange-ville! It seems like she's been infecting other people from her church and from her workplace, because other Oklahoma residents from the Sapulpa area are infected from the bacteria from TB! So if you're from northeastern Oklahoma, you better watch out! And now for some news about the ISIS te-" and I turned the TV off in shock:twilightoops:.

Then I said to Pinkie, "Can you believe that news anchor?! I know I sure can't."

"No way! He said the word 'from' 18 TIMES:pinkiegasp:!!!" she replied.

It was 6:11, and when my mom woke up at 6:40, Pinkie Pie and I told her everything we saw on the news. SHE WAS BEING ABSOLUTELY CRAZY AND HYSTERICAL:raritydespair:!!! The first thing she did was go down to her bedroom and start using her phone to get in touch with my family. This was not a good first day of summer at all! Of course, the only thing that could possibly make it any worse, we still couldn't go back to Equestria for another three hours! What were we supposed to do:fluttershbad:?!

We were in my room trying to think of a plan. A plan on how to conquer this. I decided to get on my computer and e-mail all my family in OK just to see how they were doing (because I knew they'd tell me if they were sick), and WAY more of my extended family than I even knew existed was telling me that my aunt Kim was having the typical symptoms of TB:raritycry:! Then I remembered my immediate family's semiannual trip there was coming up really soon (the day after tomorrow, in fact)! So I went down to see what my mom was doing. She said she'd finished calling and texting everyone, so I asked her if we could leave tomorrow morning. She said yes, and I was jumping up and down with excitement! I asked her if Pinkie Pie could come with us, and I was even exciteder (which I know is not a real word:raritywink:) when she said yes! I went up to my room and started packing my suitcase, but I knew this was super serious and not to get too excited. Pinkie Pie told me to make sure she had packed everything, but she really didn't need or bring anything to my house except for her party cannon, which she, quote, "never leaves home without". She also reminded me that both my siblings had slept over at my aunt Lisa's house (she lives in CT!), and that they'd be coming home around noon. It was already 9:30 by then, so I kept that in mind. When we were done, I turned My Little Pony on, and just like that Fluttershy had come flying into my room! She had some bad news for us, and it sure wasn't good:fluttercry:.

She said "Oh, it's terrible! Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom caught it too! Not only that, but Twilight, Big Mac, Cheerilee, and, well, pretty much everypony in Ponyville except me and Rainbow Dash has it! Speaking of which..." and Rainbow comes flying in through the portal. Fluttershy told us that, "It's also spreading to Canterlot and Appleloosa too!"

"We've gotta do something fast, before all of Equestria is infected!" said Rainbow Dash. "If that happens, I certainly won't be as awesome as I am right now! And I'll never get to join the Wonderbolts either!" Pinkie and I both agreed this was really, really bad! But the pegasi freaked even more when they saw what I'd recorded of the news story that was on earlier! But that was over 3 hours ago; I found a map of where TB had spread as of exactly 9:28 a.m., and there were even a few cases in the southern parts of Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa, and Illinois:pinkiecrazy:!

I texted my aunt saying "Bring the little ones back here right now." (we always called them "the little ones" because that's what they are: little!) The rest of my text message said, "There's something serious going on in Oklahoma - you'd know if you saw the news at 6 this morning!" Since she lived in another town, we had to wait a little over 30 minutes for her to get here.

In the meantime, I said to the ponies, "Why don't we research tuberculosis? You know, find out as much as we can about it."

Fluttershy agreed it was a good idea and said "Oh, OK! What's tuberculosis?"

"Really, Fluttershy?! Ya don't know what that is?!" I said.

"No, not a clue. Oh, I, I hope I'm not offending you!" she replied.

I told her "The thing all the ponies have? The contagious disease caused by bacteria?! Oh, and no. Not at all:twilightsmile:!"

She said "Oh, that. Yeah, I know what that is. And I'm so glad! I'd always hate to be rude to anypony!" Of course she would. I pulled up an article online and read it out loud to them. That particular one didn't mention the outbreak, but we found another one specifically about the outbreak in the southern U.S. just as the doorbell rang. I ran down to answer because I knew automatically who it would be, and when my mom answered the door, she explained everything in amazing detail after my bother and sister came upstairs to play the Xbox.

Chapter 4: To Oklahoma It Is!

After my siblings ran upstairs, I told them, "Listen up, kids:rainbowdetermined2:. We're going to tell you a kinda scary story, but you have to promise me not to freak out and completely lose your minds. When I say go, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and I are going to say words about what's been happening with our loved ones and even not-so-loved ones in Oklahoma and Equestria." I looked back at the ponies, just to make sure they understood what to do. "Ready?" I asked. "GO!"

We were all talking at the same time and they thought it was absolutely hilarious! They were laughing their heads off, and we were all saying totally different things:rainbowlaugh:! I probably shouldn't have decided for all of us to talk at the same time, but I guess you can't change even the weirdest events of the past! Although you've probably been curious as to what we've been saying, and we were still going at this after more than ten minutes! So about the talking part...

I was saying " Listen to me! We've made our summer trip to Oklahoma for tomorrow instead of the day after because there's an outbreak of a dangerous bacteria! It's called tuberculosis and it's in Oklahoma from the lady at the church who must have given it to Rarity for her to pass it on to the ponies in Equestria and it's really really really bad! We need all the help we can to stop it so we're going to Oklahoma tomorrow instead of Saturday and they're coming with us!!! Got it:twilightsmile:?!" We were all talking super fast, especially Pinkie Pie (of course:pinkiesmile:).

Her story was "You guys have to come with us to Oklahoma because the tuberculolololosisis bacteria is infecting our world and here and we have to stop it or we'll all be dead because we'll get it and die from it! You should hurry up and pack because your church lady who died infected lots of persons down there and if we don't help them everypony else in this entire world will get it and be infected with it and probably die from it because we didn't stop it! And that church lady of yours infected Rarity and she passed it to all of our pony pals in Ponyville and cities in Equestria that aren't Ponyville and we need you to help us stop it:applejackunsure:!"

Rainbow told them, "I'm super duper awesome, but even I'm afraid because your family in Oklahoma and my family and friends in Ponyville are infected with a bacterial infection called tuberculosis. We all need to help them because we're the only three Ponyville ponies not infected and your whole family is at great risk:ajsleepy:! While we're getting down there we need to think of a plan so we can kick it into serious action and control the outbreak. Of course, don't forget to take little breaks because we don't want to be too stressed out! Also, I need some adoring fans every now and then:duck:!"

Of course, Fluttershy said thing too! She stated "Your sister discovered a dangerous infection that's causing complications for everyone in Oklahoma and Ponyville! When she figured out how serious it was she asked her mom if we could go down there, and she kindly answered yes. We need to go help your poor family in Oklahoma and our pony friends and family in Equestria! When we go down there, we have to be careful not to be infected too, or the whole mission will fail! When we're down there, we need to be smart and think of a way to stop this without causing even more trouble for those infected! Just listen to your sister and be good for us, OK:twilightsmile:?"

After that whole scene, I just told them "So basically, we're leaving for Oklahoma tomorrow morning because of a tuberculosis outbreak that really needs to be taken care of. And not only is it there, but it's in Equestria too! We need a plan to get rid of it, but we have to extra super duper careful not to get infected ourselves! So, if I were you, I'd get packing!" And for some weird reason, they actually listened to me and paid attention to what I was saying! Plus, they got their suitcases out of downstairs closet and took them to their bedrooms when I finally shut up:twilightoops:!

So the next morning, my mom got up at like 4 a.m. took a shower, put makeup on, etc., and woke me and the ponies up around 5:10. She told the four of us something she really couldn't stress enough, that the little kids absolutely could not know at all. Her huge, enormous, gigantic secret to us was "OK, you four, listen to me. This is extremely important, and no matter what, you absolutely cannot tell anyone else! So just remember this for me, because no one else can know!"

Rainbow told her to "Just get to the point already! We don't have all morning, and we still need a little bit of time to work on our plan! Those bright little screens on your fancy talking machines hurt our eyes, so we can't exactly - uh, whaddaya call, you know - type, that's the word! Type in that really big fancy moving machine of yours, and we all know how hard it is to write in one of those! Seriously, I-" and I cut her off to tell her to shush.

So the real secret was, that we aren't supposed to tell you the secret! Ha ha:rainbowlaugh:!!! LOL!!! But seriously, there was a secret and since we really weren't supposed to tell anybody, we can't tell y'all reading! So we got to working on the finishing touches on our super duper serious, detailed, and complicated TB-outbreak-getting-rid-of plan. We couldn't come up with a good name for it, so that's the one we eventually chose. This was super serious business, and we couldn't risk having an even weirder name than that:trixieshiftleft:. When it was time (specifically, the time of 5:45, because we were slightly off-schedule), we woke my siblings up. All the bags were packed in the car, and so were we. Then the time came. My mom put her hands on the steering wheel. The car turned on and started moving down the driveway. YESSSSSSS!!! WE WERE LEAVIN' FOR OKLAHOMA:pinkiehappy:!!!

So my mom started driving and future stepdad (he wasn't in the earlier parts) watching! Yeah, wasn't exactly that exciting. But in the back seat(s), the ponies, my brother, my sister, and I were quietly whispering about the outbreak. Though unfortunately for my brother, we threw a load of stuff about rainbows and butterflies in there for fun!

Chapter 5: You Have Reached Your Destination

So where did we leave off:derpyderp1:? Oh right, we were talking in the back about the outbreak with a bit of rainbows and butterflies on the side! So anyway, we were doing that, but we all realized none of us had eaten anything yet, and the only snacks we had were string cheese, cheese crackers, goldfish (apparently my family really loves cheese!), and pretzels. So we stopped for breakfast, kept driving, stopped occasionally, and eventually got to a hotel in Indiana. The next day we did pretty much the same thing, except at around 9:30 p.m. got to my grandpa's house:pinkiehappy::pinkiehappy::pinkiehappy:! Though you're probably wondering what we were talking about, so I'll tell you.

First off, this next part's gonna be color-coded when we're talking so you'll know who's talking. For example, the first thing I said was, "So, just remember that no matter what happens, you two stick by our sides. Got it?" And they both replied by nodding.

Pinkie Pie continued our conversation. "And if you ever feel like eating cotton candy, I'll have some and you certainly can:twilightsmile:! Especially if it's pink cotton candy, because I have loads of that stuff!" Wait, I thought she didn't even bring anything with her! Lol, she's just Pinkie Pie:pinkiesmile:!

"Can I have some cotton candy, Pinkie Pie?" asked my brother. But of course my mom said no, so we couldn't have any until after breakfast:ajbemused:. But back to the conversation...

"Let's get serious now. Really, when we get there, we'll all have some complicated work to do. We most importantly have to stay cool and calm through the whole operation, otherwise things could go crazy and we could all get infected:fluttershysad:! And I know we wouldn't want that to happen!" We all agreed with Dash, especially me.

"And just make sure that whatever you do, you listen to us and do what we need you to do! Not to sound rude, and we'll obviously take suggestions from you too, but we need you to cooperate or things will go terribly wrong:fluttercry:!"

"Exactly, Fluttershy! This isn't just playing in the backyard and pretending to spy on your neighbor's kids and puppies or something, or drawing rainbows with your little kid friends, this will definitely be one of the biggest missions of your lives! Maybe even THE biggest! And best of all, you guys get to do it with me:raritystarry:! But seriously, you can't mess this up or else eveyone's in big trouble."

Of course she said that with her usual conceitedness:ajbemused:. But my sister (who can never help but make everything even MORE of a drama scene than it normally is:rainbowwild:) finally started giving us her input on the situation. "OK. But can we make rules too like Fluttershy said? I wanna be a part of the leaders! Especially if there are adorable kitties involved!"

"First of all, you clearly weren't listening! Fluttershy said you guys could make suggestions, not rules, and we'll take the good ones, but you really have to understand that you don't know what you're doing as well as we do and you're just gonna have to accept that! And second, we're the leaders because we each know more about all of this separately than you do combined!"

"Wow Pinkie Pie, good explanation! And she's right. We're sorry, but we can't let you control an operation we taught you about. It just wouldn't make any sense! It would be as logical - for the three of us, anyways - as magical talking rainbow butterfly kitten unicorns riding down a magical rainbow and into our world:rainbowhuh:!"

"Fine. But we should stop talking about unicorns and rainbows." Fine, you annoying little freak:trixieshiftleft:! Uh... I mean that in a nice-ish way... Of course I didn't actually say that out loud, but you get the point. That was the end of that conversation though.

But back to where we left off before the talking, we were just at my grandpa's house and finally where we needed to be in Oklahoma:pinkiehappy:! Now what we had to do was fight the infection. When we got there, my grandpa said hi, we watched some TV, and then we all went to bed. I slept on the little sofa bed with the three ponies (they really don't take up much room!) and my sister and future stepdad stayed in two of the recliner chairs that were also in the living room. There's also one bedroom that nobody sleeps in, and my mom and brother slept in the bed there. When we woke up the next day, the ponies and I were discussing the plan with my grandpa.

"So your pony friends in your town got this here disease too?" he asked. We had been telling him exactly that for half an hour! I got kinda mad, but I controlled my anger; Rainbow Dash couldn't do the same.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS:twilightangry2:?!" she yelled. Fluttershy asked her politely to calm down, but of course she ignored it. She just kept raging on and continued to pursue her animosity towards that question.

"CALM DOWN, RAINBOW DASH!!! Stop yelling and be nice, please!" I told her after a while. She still had an obvious mad look on her face, but she actually listened:applejackunsure:? After a really long time, we finally got our point across and he agreed to let us do the work but help if we really, really needed it.