Outbreak

Chapter X

We're Going to Chitin

"Ah, Dr. Seymour... you've arrived." Celestia announced, subtly but effectively shifting the conversation.

"What held you up?" Chrysalis inquired, resting her chin on folded, holed hooves.

"I keep telling them you are always late to party..." grumbled Photon.

"Yeah, yeah..." Seymour sighed. "I'm sorry to be late, I just had to chase an unforeseen rabbit hole... but I may have found something that might help you all out."

"I believe we have covered much of what we needed to learn..." Chrysalis responded, turning her head up to glower at Seymour.

"Your friends here have effectively done your job for you while you were out doing the hive knows what."

"Chrysalis, please..." Twilight calmed. "Look, you'll have to excuse her, she's just having a difficult time with all of-"

"I beg your pardon?!" Chrysalis snapped, glaring at the purple alicorn. "I don't see you dealing with the death of so many of your children! Hold your tongue, prole."

"Um, excuse me?" Twilight retorted. "I believe it was you who came to ask us for help in the first place, so I wouldn't push my luck if I were you."

"Oh goodie, more demands from her highness." Chrysalis scoffed. "Perfect little Twilight! Precious little Twilight! Why don't you just go and solve our problem all by yourself? You seem to know everything there is to know about political crises."

"Listen, you overgrown insect..." Twilight insulted. "Don't think I've forgotten all about last year! If I catch any sort of foul from your end, there will be tartarus to-"

"ENOUGH!" Celestia intervened. "Both of you!"

Both shrank back in their chairs, glaring intently at one another.

"...Alright, Dr. Seymour." Celestia continued. "We need to know everything that you've found out. We are trying to figure out a few things in particular..."

"Lemme guess..." Seymour began. "You are wondering why this illness killed these changelings in only three days, despite the virus being almost identical to Ebola under the microscope?"

"Well, yes actually." Celestia admitted. "I'm unaware if you've heard any of my previous tale, but I have seen this virus thirty years ago in Zebrica. But the Ebola I saw took up to two weeks to do the sort of damage we've seen in just three days, or so the queen here reports."

"It certainly does not make any sense when you put it in those terms..." Seymour replied, sitting down at an open chair. "Especially considering how similar changeling anatomy is compared to that of equines- the organs, tissues, bones, everything that isn't their wings and exoskeleton. The blood vessels the virus seems to go after are very much the same as our own."

"I didn't know that changelings and ponies were so alike." Photon spoke up, rubbing his chin with a grey hoof.

"They are very similar, like Dr. Seymour states." Queen Chrysalis added.

"Another question I have about this whole fiasco deals with the logistics of the outbreak- How did Ebola end up, without any trace, in the Changeling Kingdom thirty years since its last recorded epidemic, more than 2000 kilometers from Zebrica? Tell me you weren't thinking of the same conundrum."

"...We were." Celestia admitted, genuinely surprised at the unicorn's sense or reason and forethought.

"Look, whatever accident may have caused this outbreak so far from its original point of discovery must have some sort of explanation..." Photon cut in.

"I was just getting to that." replied Seymour. "But if you want my opinion on the matter... I don't think there was anything accidental about this whole thing."

"What are you talking about?" questioned Twilight. "Are you saying that someone wanted this outbreak to happen?"

"Well, if you really think about this whole situation, it's easy to see a motive." Seymour reasoned. "It's obvious that many around the world still do not view the changelings with much favor... no offense, Queen Chrysalis."

"Continue." Chrysalis nodded.

"Right. And in their past year, the changelings have had to resort to desperate measures in order to support their country- such as invading Canterlot. But when the movement failed, the kingdom fell into an even worse state." Seymour continued. "It isn't hard to see why some individual or group may have a beef with the current changeling queen."

"So, let me get this straight..." Chrysalis interrupted, patting her hooves together. "What you are suggesting is-"

"...That this outbreak was a deliberate act against the Changeling Kingdom's government." finished the white unicorn. "I mean, look at what's happening here- we have an almost unheard of pathogen with a 100 percent mortality rate, the target of the outbreak was in the capitol city of one of the most untrusted empires in the world, and we are seeing such drastic differences in the span of the virus's life cycle. It's evident to me that we're actually not dealing with the Ebola we've seen before in Zebrica thirty years ago, but something very similar- an altered strain, if you will- a strain copied from the original Zebrican Hemorrhagic Fever virus with a few diabolical additions for incubation and symptomatic periods."

"Wait a moment..." Photon spoke. "The wall around Chitin! Both of these events in the same city at the same time sounds a bit too coincidental..."

"Exactly." Seymour affirmed. "From whom or what, I don't yet know. But I believe that this whole situation in chitin, paired with the erection of that impassible flesh-barrier, may have indeed been an act of war."

"...Are you suggesting that this outbreak is going to continue?" Chrysalis inquired, nervous as to the fate of her kingdom.

"Not just continue." answered the professor. "They'll get worse- we'll see more clusters of infected, higher death tolls, maybe even events outside of Chitin."

"Queen Chrysalis, I've been meaning to ask..." spoke Twilight. "Do you know of any changelings or groups in your kingdom that might have some sort of motive for spreading a disease? Angry work unions? Radical anti-government militia groups?"

"I should say not." answered the queen. "Even through a kingdom of millions, I am able to control each of my changelings through the use of many authoritative pheromones. Any sort of resistance would end in a swift death- one defected changeling can destroy an entire swarm."

"Oh..."

"Well, do you know of any changelings that have ever... flown the coup in recent years?" Celestia asked.

"Well, we did have one event now that I think about it." admitted Chrysalis. "Before I came to power, my mother, queen membrane, had lost a group of a few dozen changelings. But I never learned why that was... she took that secret to her grave. That was about twenty years ago, however."

"Twenty years, huh?"

"There were several beta females in the group, so they may have inducted a new queen for their faction." Chrysalis furthered. "If they had, they would have been able to reproduce. And with the rate of changeling reproduction from a fertile queen..."

"Their ranks could have grown exponentially." Seymour surmised. "We could be dealing with an entire kingdom of hostiles here. If that's the case, we'll be lucky if Chitin lasts very long at all, much less the whole Changeling Kingdom. We need to find that rogue group of changelings, and quickly."

Chrysalis shook her head.

"There lies the problem- we have not heard or seen from the renegade group since they left during my mother's time." she dismissed. "I would be surprised if the group made it past their first winter away from the central hive."

"Why would they not survive?" Twilight asked the bug queen. "Surely you all are a bit more advanced than your typical hive-minded insects, right?"

"Do not flatter us, Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis refuted. "In many ways, we are exactly like lower-order organisms in our behaviors. Allow me to demonstrate..."

Chrysalis, seemingly without warning, snatched a nearby piece of paper and quill- a piece of parchment already containing vital information from the Canterlot Archives. Flipping the paper over, she began to draw a couple of crude symbols on the other side, earning a slight gasp of horror from the present bookworm in the room.

"P-Princess! She's defacing-"

"Let her go, Twilight... just let her go for now." Celestia calmed

Chrysalis had drawn four small cartoonish figures in a straight line down the page. She began her explanation with a large icon of her orby black crown.

"Up here, we have the queen- arguably and agreeably the most important member of any colony." she explained. "The queen is the alpha female of the entire kingdom, and she alone is the only fertile reproducing female in the connected empire. She gets the first pick on all food and substances to keep herself happy and healthy. If she goes, the entire kingdom goes with her if a new queen is not chosen within a couple of weeks."

Soon, she drew a line down an inch or so, and drew the symbol of the male gender.

"Below the queen lay the drones- their sole purpose is to fertilize the queen at her beck and call. Being as such, they are the only fertile males in the colony." Chrysalis continued, drawing another icon and line down the page. Her next piece of art turned out to be a shield with two spears crossed over it.

"Below the drones a considerable ways are the soldiers- all male. Sterile."

"And let me guess, the males here are all single-minded as well?" Photon guessed.

"Correct." Chrysalis affirmed, drawing a very long vertical line down to her next artistic destination. Once finished, she illustrated a crudely drawn hammer. "Finally, way below everyone else, we have the workers- all sterile females. They are the changelings we have seen dead from this viral outbreak- the ones that work in the factories, medical buildings, and in maintenance departments."

"So, unless they have another queen soon after leaving the current one, the new colony will die off?" Twilight surmised.

"You catch on quick, little Sparkle." the queen again affirmed. "So, if any of those renegades lived a full year, they would have formed an entirely new colony in the last twenty years. Other than that, I cannot think of any other political turmoil besides our past run-in with Equestria, whom we are now negotiating peace with."

Dr. Seymour stood from his chair, turning to Celestia and Chrysalis.

"Alright, I think I know what I need to figure something out." he spoke. "Queen Chrysalis, can we even get past the walls from the ground OR from the sea?"

"No, we're completely blockaded." the queen responded. "The only way in is by air."

"I see." Seymour groaned, turning toward the door. "Twilight, lets go. We have work to do."

"Okay." Twilight agreed. With a loud scoot, she exited her chair and joined the professor near the large blue doorway.

"Wait a moment, where are you two going?" the elder princess questioned.

"We're just going to take a little trip overseas to try and find whomever is playing around with lethal viruses..." Seymour chuckled.

"Wait a moment, you are going there?!" Photon asked in concern for his friend's life. "You could get killed!"

"Out of the question, you two." Princess Celestia added. "We can't allow you to go into that city while there is still a risk of infection..."

"Look, the only way we can have a shot at fixing this mess is to find whatever or whomever released that virus into the city before they can strike again." Twilight reasoned. "Besides, Flash Sentry is in danger. I... I have to know if he's alright."

"...You are sure?" the princess asked one more time, beginning to see Twilight's resolve. "If you go there, there may be difficulty getting you out of that quarantine zone for some time."

"Princess Celestia, we've made our decision." confirmed Twilight. "We're going to Chitin."