Outbreak

Chapter XIV

Medical Facility: Chitin 10-B

Twilight Sparkle and her partner, Dr. Seymour, had waited in a large, dark-green medical tent for the past forty-five minutes. Each underwent a battery of tests, blood samples, urine tests, horn shavings, and skin cell scrapings for the entire time. Now that the tests had finally been completed, and the two magical pony ambassadors had been poked and prodded to their wit's end, each sat in separate sections of the tent in order to avoid any accidental exposure of a sexual manner.

"...Um, is this really... necessary?" Seymour asked, fumbling with his magic to pull a small, blue medical gown over his flanks.

"Relax, unicorn." the changeling female in attendance commanded. "Are you not nude most of the time?"

"Well, yeah." Seymour reasoned, blushing a bright tomato red. "But something about wearing clothes like this just makes me feel a little more... self-conscious, you know?"

"Oh, I see."

Seymour was soon instructed to remove his garment from a soldier returning with his test results. Doing so, the now naked white unicorn sat upon his haunches upon a spinning observation stool.

"Mr. Doctor Seymour?" the soldier questioned.

"'Doctor' is not my name- it is a title." Seymour mumbled, crossing his forelegs. "So, can I go in now or what?"

"Yes, your tests have all come back clean." the soldier spoke. "You may pass through security."

"About damn time!" Seymour exclaimed. "I must have lost a liter of pee to you all, I've been poked with some of the most creepy-looking instruments I've ever seen, and my shoulder is still hurting from the blood tests you gave me..."

"Quiet, you foalish unicorn!" the soldier barked, causing Seymour to shrink back with a subtle *meep* sound. "Aye-yie-yie... I've never seen a grown male squeal like you have at the sight of a simple needle."

"Hey, lay off him would you?!" commanded a feminine voice from several feet in the opposite direction.

The guard stepped aside as Twilight finished her statement, trotting over to her partner.

"Well, nice to see the cavalry has arrived." Seymour joked, regaining his composure. "So, they give you the rubber glove treatment yet- wait, that probably wasn't appropriate... sorry."

"Keep talking like that and I'll raise your voice a few octaves, if you're not careful." groaned Twilight.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Seymour apologized. "Probably should have thought that one through..."

"Hey, it's fine." Twilight calmed. "...You don't like needles, I assume?"

"Nope. Hate them. Despise them. Loathe them." Seymour growled at the mere mention of his mortal enemy. "Just the itching, burning poke when they put it in your vein, piercing the tightly tensioned wall... it just makes me shiver whenever I think about it."

"That's oddly descriptive... I must admit."

"Are you two going to go into that hospital or not?" the soldier asked, irritated at the current small talk. "We have more and more cases coming in and being rejected from our overrun hospital, and you two are our only lead into what might have caused this!"

"Yeah, yeah... just show us to out protective garments and we'll head on in." Seymour grumbled.

"Hey, Seymour." called Twilight, tossing Seymour his trademark clack leather jacket. "Your jacket."

Seymour had anticipated the jacket's landing and moved to grab his favorite article of clothing. The white stallion was surprised, however, when his jacket was caught in mid-air by a bright-green field of changeling magic.

"No outside clothing permitted." explained the soldier, placing the wadded-up jacket into a resealable plastic bag. "We must prevent any and all unintentional contact with the virus. Clothing will be held in quarantine until you are determined safe to leave the building."

"Hey, that's my jacket!" Seymour complained, waving his hooves furiously in the air. "My dad gave me that more than six years ago!"

"No exceptions." the soldier panned, now growing irritated with Seymour himself.

"Seymour, please." groaned Twilight. "Let's just go and get ready. We've wasted enough time already."

Twilight Sparkle motioned for her partner to join her as she exited the green medical tent for the nearby preparation area. She could have sworn that she heard a soft whine from behind her as she left.

"...But, I love my jacket..."

The inside of Chitin Medical Facility 10-B held an even more ghastly sight than the outside of the hospital could ever hope to accomplish- five floors of the building had always been dedicated to the care of those sick with infectious diseases, holding enough rooms and treatment areas to hold more than two-thousand changelings in total. Unfortunately, the entire section of infectious disease control floors had been overrun to the point of there being absolutely no room left for the still-incoming sick. In the middle of the lowest floor hallway stood Twilight Sparkle and Dr. Seymour, each clad in thin, yellow biohazard suits which left no trace of skin below the neck visible.

"My word..." Twilight Sparkle spoke through her plastic face visor and white pullover mask. "There's just so many of them."

As Twilight and Seymour treaded carefully through the hallway of the lowest of the five floors, it became apparent that the building was indeed over-capacity. The single section of hallway they traveled through was lined with more than thirty or forty portable hospital beds. Simple stretchers occupied with less-fortunate changelings lined the walls and doorways, testifying the whole overloading problem. And once the stretchers ran out, many were laid on thin bedsheets upon the cold, hard floor.

"How could someone have done this to them?" mumbled Seymour, narrowly avoiding a begging changeling's outstretched hoof.

The two listened to the somber chorus of weak coughs, shivers, and whines of pain and discomfort- each one of the many changelings could clearly be observed as they suffered through what would likely be their own swiftly-approaching deaths.

"...I just don't know..." Twilight muttered back. "I've never seen anything like this in my life, it's horrifying."

"I really don't feel so hot right now with all of this... scenery, let's just meet up with that doctor they set us up with." suggested the white professor. "They said she's near here in a medical ward."

"Right, let's go see her."

Near the entrance to the hallway's main stairwell stood a rather odd looking changeling covered in a heavy biohazard suit- she was slightly taller than those around her, and her eyes glowed a shade of blue rather than neon green. Her head had also sported a small tuft of blue hair, smooth and silky. Nearby stood two similarly dressed workers, each explaining something to her that the two Equestrians could just make out from their distance.

"...Where are the supplies promised?" the taller female asked. "We are over capacity, and if we do not figure out how to house the incoming sick soon, I fear the changelings outside may begin to riot."

"We're trying ma'am..." one of the other two changelings explained. "But we are experiencing greater delays than we expected at first. We have no idea when we will get those shipments."

"Damn..."

Both changelings went about their business, leaving the taller female to herself.

"Excuse us, but are you Dr. Thrax?" asked Twilight as she and her partner approached.

"...Thank the queen you two have arrived." sighed the doctor. "Dr. Thrax at your service, my lady."

"O-Oh, thank you." Twilight blushed. "But you can just call me Twilight. This is my partner, Dr. Seymour- we've been asked to find you here."

"A pleasure to meet you." Seymour greeted. "So now that we're all together, how can we help you out?"

"Well, if you would come with me, it would be great if we could just skip all of the greetings and get started." suggested Thrax, pointing to the stairwell. "We need to go to the 7th floor, that's where my office is. We can try to figure this mess out there."

"Alright." Seymour agreed. "Lead the way."

The trio of Dr. Thrax, Twilight, and Seymour made their way uo the staircase to the next floor, each discussing the matter of the outbreak. Thrax was first to speak with an advanced apology.

"I apologize in advance if we changelings seem a little on edge." she explained. "But with all of the sick coming in, it's hard to deal with 14,000 infected patients. We're stretched thin as is, and we have no room for any more trouble."

"Wait, 14,000?!" Twilight exclaimed. "But this morning, Changeling News Network said there were only 6,000 sick! How did 8,000 more just appear in a few hours?"

"...Another attack, maybe?" guessed Seymour, giving his shoulders a little shrug. "If they knew about the chaos the second outbreak caused, it wouldn't surprise me if they went ahead with a third attack."

"That seems about right." agreed Thrax, shaking her head slowly. "We don't have the supplies or the staffing to keep up with the sick..."

"...So that's why you closed the hospital." sighed Twilight.

"Yes."

Thrax opened a large, black door leading into the next floor's hallway. Once again, the wailing and moaning of the sick filled the air.

"You two should just do what you came here to do, then get the hell out of the kingdom." Thrax warned, deep concern in her voice. "This kingdom is no place for soft-shelled ponies- there's nothing here you should throw your life away for."

"But, what about you?" inquired Twilight. "We can get you some help, if you are in such a bad situation. Why do you want us to just leave when the whole kingdom could be in trouble?"

"Because, you two have never dealt with this sort of disaster. Equestria is a land mired in happiness, prosperity, and an abundance of resources." the doctor lectured. "You have never had to deal with death before, and have likely not seen it with your own eyes, correct?"

"How do you know that for sure?" questioned Twilight.

"I can read your stunned silence and facial cues- you two are terrified right now." Thrax answered, a small smile creeping onto her face. "That doesn't come naturally to a seasoned veteran in the medical field. A calm mind is needed to deal with the sort of problems that they don't publicize in Equestria. But rest assured, they do happen even when you can't see them."

"...I guess I've never thought of it that way, sorry." Twilight apologized, gazing around the hallway- several glass windows showing up on her right.

"The changelings here are only in the beginning stages." continued Thrax, whispering low enough to stay out of her patients' earshot.

"By tomorrow, the bleeding will begin, and they will all likely die soon after."

"Uh-huh..." Seymour murmured, growing increasingly disturbed as the trio walked down the hallway.

Twilight could see her partner was visibly distraught by the hallway's gruesome scenery. She herself felt pangs of paranoia with the hallway being eerily similar to the one in her recent nightmares.

"...Hey, Seymour..." she called. "Are you doing okay over there?"

"I'm just feeling... kinda..." Seymour stammered, glancing through a nearby window- instantly becoming terrified beyond all rational thought at what laid inside. "...Kinda... oh my...!"

Changeling larva, helpless, innocent babies, lay in the room numbering in the dozens. Many shivered uncontrollably, while others cried miserably for their caretakers, but none came to their aid. Instead, the several nursery attendants in the room lay on the floor, most just shaking and coughing, while one thrashed about in a violent, mouth-frothing seizure- a more advance symptom of Zebire Hemorrhagic Fever.

Seymour, at a loss for words, gazed into the cute, but badly bloodshot eyes of one particular larval specimen. The changeling baby returned the most pitiful of teary-eyed faces, softly crying as it made eye contact. The tiny, caterpillar-like creature coughed once, it's infant lungs struggling for oxygen as it wailed.

"Haaa...! H-Haaaa!" gasped Seymour, reeling back from the window, threatening to fall back upon his ass. "H-Haaaaa!!!"

"Seymour?!" shouted Twilight from a few feet away.

Seymour said nothing in response. Instead, the grown stallion began to wretch uncontrollably, clutching his plastic visor with this front hooves.

"He's losing it!" Dr. Thrax shouted, alerting two nearby caretakers to assist in the situation. "HE'S LOSING IT!"

"Sir, do not remove your mask!" ordered one of the summoned caretakers.

"We need backup here! Code Blue!" spoke the other into her handheld radio. "Code Blue- One of the ambassadors is threatening to break quarantine!"

"Seymour, please don't-"

"Sir, DO NOT REMOVE YOUR-"

*BLEAAAACH*

Within moments, Seymour had ripped his visor and face mask off his body and violently thrown the contents of his stomach onto the floor. He kneeled over near a wall, continuing to vomit and wretch as Dr. Thrax shook her head.

"God dammit!" she shouted. "He's exposed! Put him in the isolation chamber, NOW!"

"Dr. Thrax, I'm so, so sorry!" Twilight apologized, rushing over to help her partner up.

"You shouldn't have brought him here in the first place!" Thrax berated, causing Twilight to turn around and look her in the eye. "Brilliant, just brilliant! You bring a completely inexperienced fool into the worst disease outbreak in recorded history, and now he's put the whole crew at risk of infection! What do you have to say in excuse? Huh?"

"Excuse me? I didn't choose him for this mission!" Twilight snapped back.

"He was assigned to you?" Thrax questioned. "Great, just great! What do you ponies think we're worth, sending a complete imbecile to help us out?"

"And just so you know, I don't have any experience here either. I've only been a princess for about a year, and I've never seen anything like this! Leave him alone, will you?"

Thrax said nothing and shook her head in disdain.

"...Amazing." Thrax grumbled, quickly turning to exit the hallway. "While my associates go and take care of 'pukey' over there, I'm going to actually get some work done. Ciao, princess."

And with that huff, she disappeared around a nearby corner. Once she had done so, Dr. Seymour was carried off to the isolation and observatory ward by the two previously summoned changeling nurses. This left Twilight Sparkle alone in the hallway, save for the other several sick and suffering changeling citizens.

...Wow, what a bitch.

Finally away from the sick and dying on the upper floors, and after an intense head-to-hoof scrubbing and sanitizing by biohazard workers, Twilight Sparkle had descended to the second floor lounge. She appeared upset as she beat her hoof against a vending machine, irritated that it had not taken her golden Bit as an acceptable payment method.

"Come on..." she groaned. "Here I thought the Bit was the universal currency, and they don't even have vendors in this Celestia-forsaken kingdom that read them!"

Giving the machine a quick (but rational and well-held-back) kick with her hind leg, the alicorn muttered something incoherent under her breath and hung her head in defeat.

"...Having some trouble, are we?"

Twilight knew that voice which called out to her from across the room. Turning to face her intruder, she found that it was none other than Dr. Thrax who walked toward the machine with a small copper coin.

"...What do you want?" Twilight grumbled. "Come to pick on us 'soft-shelled' ponies again?"

"Well, not quite." Thrax sighed. "Let me get that for you."

Dr. Thrax leveled her blue eyes with the selection Twilight had chosen, inserted her coin into the machine, and out popped a small bag of peanuts.

"...Thanks, I guess." huffed Twilight, still angry with the doctor's previous scolding words. "So if you're not here to make my life more difficult, then what are you here for?"

Thrax sunk her head.

"I wanted to apologize for my words earlier." she explained, looking back up to Twilight. "I was strained to my wit's end, but that wasn't any excuse for me to fly off the handle like I did-especially not to an ambassador team sent to help us out. I'm sorry for the way I acted, truly."

Twilight loosened her scowl just a bit, popping a peanut into her mouth with her magic.

"...Well, I guess that I understand." she offered. "But I don't think I should be the one you're apologizing to- I think you should tell that to Dr. Seymour instead."

"That's the odd thing." Dr. Thrax countered. "I already spoke to him in isolation, but he insists that he doesn't remember me saying anything about him."

"He's probably still in shock from earlier." surmised Twilight. "I didn't exactly see for myself what got him so upset, but I'm guessing I probably would have reacted just as badly."

"That's another reason I came to see you again." interjected the changeling doctor. "I believe he may open back up a bit if you were to talk to him instead of me. He might be nervous about all of this medical business, and a good friend might help him regain his sense of security."

Twilight smiled softly at Dr. Thrax.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I just met him yesterday." she explained. "But sure, I'll go and talk to him if it might make him feel better. Do you know where he is?"

"Yes, the observation chamber isn't far." Thrax spoke. "Just follow me down to the first floor."

"Okay then, lead the way."

Just about a minute down the hallway, Twilight couldn't help but notice how much of a difference there seemed to be in the atmosphere than what she had seen above. Down on the second floor, the hospital seemed rather normal- changeling doctors and nurses conversed in the hallway, a couple of non-infected patients were wheeled about the halls, and there was a stark absence of any coughing, groaning, or crying. Business as usual for the untrained, inexperienced, or absent-for-this-day-in-particular eye.

"...Wow, if I hadn't known what I was getting into today, I'd assume that the hospital wasn't having any sort of a problem today." Twilight spoke. "Sure is a different mood than the one upstairs, isn't it?"

"Ignorance must be bliss to those working here in the less-needy floors." Thrax chuckled grimly. "But rest assured, every changeling here knows what's going on. It must be such a relief to not be responsible for infectious illness when something like today rolls around."

"I bet." replied Twilight. "Word tends to go around fast when an outbreak of this magnitude occurs."

The two passed by an occupied hospital room on their way to the ward. Twilight, however, couldn't help but notice the door was cracked, and what appeared to be Equestrian music was playing inside.

"There a pony in there? I know Equestrian songs when I hear them." asked Twilight.

"Yeah, he just came in last night. He's supposed to be released soon, though." Thrax answered. "I think it was a... Flash something-or-other."

"Wait, is he a pegasus? Orange, blue hair, shield Cutie Mark?!" demanded the alicorn.

"Yeah, why?" answered Thrax nonchalantly.

"Oh my goodness, Flash Sentry is here?! What happened to him?!" Twilight frantically exclaimed. "I-Is he hurt?!"

"Calm down!" commanded the doctor. "It was just a minor traffic collision. Just a couple of injuries is all... jeez. You know him or something?"

Twilight peered through the cracked doorway as quietly as she could, her eyes meeting what was indeed Flash Sentry laying covered to his chest upon a hospital bed. His right front leg had been bound in a sling, revealing the outline of a rough cast inside. His face had been patched up by a couple of band-aids. The injured stallion calmly listened to the radio nearby him.

"Hey, HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!" Thrax exclaimed. "What do you think you're doing?! That's doctor-patient confidentiality protocol you're breaking!"

"I just want to go in and speak with him." Twilight explained. "I promise, it's just about personal stuff."

"Why? Dr. Seymour is just down the stairs from us."

Twilight shook her head.

"It won't take long."

Flash Sentry reclined lazily upon his bed, looking toward the radio on a nearby table. He had thought about what his squad mate had told him the night before, but still struggled to come to terms with the words Twilight Sparkle had left him with before he went on his separate way.

His silent reminiscing was interrupted as he heard the door creak open.

"...Flash?" a familiar voice gently called.

He knew that voice- it was the voice of Twilight Sparkle, the mystical mare which had captured his heart so many months ago. Whipping his head around, he mustered the most eloquent and level-headed response he could think of.

"T-Twilight?!" he sputtered. "I-I, H-Hey, it's you! Um, how are you today...?"

"Flash, it's alright." Twilight calmed, trotting up to his bed to meet his gaze. "Don't strain yourself, you need to just relax."

"...Sorry, it's just that I didn't expect to see you here." Flash explained. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Well, the princess and Queen Chrysalis sent me to investigate something in the kingdom." Twilight answered.

"Is it the viral outbreak?" asked Flash Sentry.

"...How did you know that?" Twilight countered, raising an eyebrow.

Flash shook his head.

"They sent me here too, my whole squad." he spoke. "We were tasked with finding any information on the outbreak by going door-to-door and asking questions."

"I see..." Twilight sighed. "...What happened to you?"

"Oh, that..." Flash spoke, blushing in embarrassment. "...I had a little too much to drink last night with one of my squad mates, then I tried to wander back to the hotel by myself. Not really the best idea with all of these motorized contraptions riding around... hehe... hum."

Twilight felt more guilt at that moment than she ever had before. She couldn't shake the feeling that Flash Sentry, one of her best, most influential friends, had gone out the night prior to drink off the pain she had inflicted upon him. On top of that, now he was hurt, and it was all her fault.

"Oh, Flash..." Twilight sighed, beginning to form tears in her eyes. "I never meant to-"

"Twilight, it's not your fault." Flash interrupted. "I... should have handled the whole thing from yesterday better. I'm the one who tried to wander home drunk without anypony to help me. I was just being stupid..."

"But, I never meant to hurt you like that yesterday." Twilight continued. "I just wanted to tell you how I felt- I never wanted you to get this upset over my... stupid insecurities!"

"Whoa, Whoa now..." Flash again interrupted. "Twilight, I should have handled it better. It was really my fault to begin with, and I'm sorry to have worried you so much. But you need to stop blaming yourself."

"...Flash, I'm so sorry about everything that happened yesterday. I just wanted to make sure that I could tell you and keep our friendship intact. But, now I don't know if you can even forgive me for causing this to happen."

Twilight held out her hoof and connected it to Flash's uninjured one, giving a firm squeeze. Flash responded in much an expected way- a sudden, short intake of breath and widening eyes.

"...T-Twilight, I promise we can still be friends... but I just though we could be something more, you know?" Flash explained.

"Flash, you don't need me to be happy- you're an amazing stallion and I'm glad to even be able to call you a friend." Twilight smiled down at him. "And I'm sure that you'll find somepony special one day, somepony even better than me."

Twilight leaned her neck in, close her eyes, and planted a gentle kiss upon Flash's forehead, causing a huge, tomato-red blush to appear on the stallion's face.

Retreating back, Twilight spoke one last time to the shell-shocked stallion.

"...Get better, okay?" she instructed, caressing his cheek with a hoof.

Using her magic, Twilight pulled the thick, white covers over the remainder of Flash's body, resting them just beneath his chin, and tucked the stallion in ever so gently, ever so warmly, ever so tightly before turning to leave the room.

"T-Twilight?" stammered Flash.

"Mmm?"

"...Does... did that mean..."

Twilight sighed, gently opening the door into the hallway.

"...No Flash... It doesn't." she said. "...My mind is made up. I'm sorry."

"...I understand."