Outbreak

Chapter VII

Throwing a Wrench

A short, vibrant fanfare of trumpets filled the foyer of Canterlot’s royal palace. The brass instruments adorned with flags bearing the royal insignia signaled the arrival of Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle- both of which were in attendance to meet with the two unicorns that had been selected to accompany Twilight on her upcoming mission.

“Announcing their highnesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle!” called a dark-brown royal guard pegasus into a brass horn.

Soon after the announcement, a pair of large, red doors swung open, revealing both princesses in question. The two proceeded forward along a wide, red carpet spanning from the foyer’s main podium to the entry doors. Upon arriving at the bottom of the steps, Twilight and Celestia both were surprised to see that a third party member had tagged along- Queen Chrysalis, who gave the two an expression of urgency.

“Chrysalis… State your business here- you seem upset.” Celestia calmly ordered the large, hooved insect.

“My, my, princess… always blunt and to the point.” mocked Chrysalis, still visibly distraught under her scrutinizing guise.

“Queen Chrysalis, just tell us what you want.” Twilight furthered, growing understandably uneasy in the queen’s presence. “I came here to take care of necessary business, and I would not like to be held up.”

“Calm down, little Twilight Sparkle…” Chrysalis responded, not liking the negative attention she was receiving from a pony half her size. “The reason I am here will be explained shortly- for now, you may take care of business as you wish.”

“I will.”

Walking off to the side of Queen Chrysalis, Twilight’s assigned partners came into view- one a grey, hairy-face unicorn in a brown sports coat, the other being the pony she had been briefed on, Dr. Seymour. Both unicorns stood considerably taller than her, but still not as large as the accompanying changeling queen. With a light display of caution, Twilight introduced herself to the white unicorn.

“…Hello, you must be Dr. Seymour.” she greeted. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and I’ve been informed that you will be my partner for the assignment at hand… It’s nice to make your acquaintance.”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle?” Seymour replied as he and Photon took a bow in front of her. “I would never have thought to have a princess as my partner… It’s an honor your highness, truly.”

“Here, here.” Photon added, addressing Twilight’s royal status. “I am honored to be in your presence.”

“O-Oh, thank you… but you two can just call me Twilight… If you would prefer.” Twilight giggled, blushing at the two enamored unicorns. “Anyway, you must be Doctor Photon Surge, right?”

“The lady wishes to be addressed in simple and friendly… I like it!” Photon responded, nodding his head. “The pleasure is all mine… lady Twilight.”

Oh good grief…

“So, we’ll be lending you some help on the upcoming mission?” Seymour surmised. “We’ll give it everything we’ve got, Twilight.”

“I appreciate that greatly, Doctor.”

Chrysalis shook her head at the rather-too-friendly-for-her-tastes display before her. She believed that political meetings and partnerships were to be addressed only as such, that there was business to attend to and meetings should be kept short and on point.

“If it is acceptable to you ponies, I would like to share a vital piece of information to the group- one which may change the overall objective of this mission.” Announced Chrysalis. “We are on a time clock here, aren’t we?”

“Yes, of course…” the more distant sun princess offered. “You say that there is a piece of information which may alter the status of our mission, correct?”

“Yes.” affirmed Chrysalis. “…I do not believe we should discuss the matter in public. Is there any room where the five of us could speak?”

“We have a conference room just up those stairs…” Princess Celestia answered her question. “We can take this matter there. Follow me.”

The group of four ponies and a changeling empress were now seated evenly spaced around a large, marble table. Princess Luna had also been summoned to join the discussion, and promptly took a seat with her elder sister. With all in attendance, the conversation underway continued.

“…So now you are telling us?” Celestia questioned, reasonably annoyed with this delay in communication. “Why did you not explain this to us sooner, before we send two of our best scientific minds AND my own protégé into this situation?”

“I already tried to explain- we did not have sufficient enough information to form a complete story.” Chrysalis defended.

“But, did you not state that you knew that this was a disease outbreak, and that you knew of this for three days?” Questioned Photon.

“We knew of this only when the changelings had already died- I only found this information out myself this morning.” answered the queen. “I assure you that we never expected this to happen- I am as baffled at the coincidence of this outbreak with the wall’s appearance as well!”

“Wait, a wall?” Seymour asked, turning to Photon, who gave a similarly confused look.

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain later…” Twilight interrupted. “Please continue, Queen Chrysalis.”

“Well met.” responded the queen. “We have reason to believe that this will not be the last we will see of this disease, and as such, I would personally request a mission update. I would much rather have a wall we can live with temporarily than have whatever this is ravaging our kingdom.”

“I am afraid we will have to wait until the current mission is decided before changing course.” Celestia explained. “That wall needs to go, and we already have our two selected experts here- the only problem is that we cannot just send our own in now that we know of this outbreak.”

“Wait, you cannot be serious!” Chrysalis barked. “We are in the middle of a crisis far more dangerous than some blockade around the city- if this outbreak spreads, we could be facing a threat to the entire Changeling Kingdom!”

“This crisis could have been addressed if we had that information sooner, Chrysalis!” Celestia retorted. “Now we not only have to find a way to level the wall surrounding Chitin, but our ground information teams are in some sort of biohazard!”

Seymour tried to interject, but with little success.

“E-Excuse me, but I just wanted-”

“Moreover, this means that we have just sent Sergeant Flash Sentry and his squadron, some of our most valuable guards, into the hot zone!” Princess Luna added. “This was to be a simple information-gathering task. Now, thanks to your delay in vital information, we risk our own becoming infected!”

“Princess, if I may-”

“Wait, you sent Flash Sentry into that place?!” Twilight interrupted.

“Well… yes, we did.” Celestia confessed. “Twilight, please try to understand, we didn’t know anything about this…”

“Oh nononono…! We have to send somepony in there to pull him out!” Twilight

“Twilight, we cannot risk sending any more ponies into that city.” calmed the sun goddess. “Even if we were to pull them out, they would risk infecting Equestria… you need to understand that we have to quarantine-”

“Princess, Flash might still not have been exposed! We need to take that chance and bring him back home!” Twilight practically begged. “Please, Flash is my friend, and I can’t let anything happen to him!”

“Twilight, I know you two are strongly attached…” Celestia tried. “But even if we are to believe he has not been exposed, we still need to keep him there in a tight quarantine until he has passed the infectious period.”

“Well quarantine him then!” Twilight reprimanded, causing her mentor to become surprised. “But the least you can do for him is bring him back home, so his friends and family can at least know that he’s okay!”

“EVERYONE!” shouted Seymour, finally grabbing the attention of all others in the room.

“…Doth thou wish to speak, sir Seymour?” Luna grumbled, massaging her ear with a hoof.

“…Look, I’m sorry for the outburst, but I need to ask Chrysalis a few questions that I had earlier about this outbreak.”

“Speak.” Chrysalis commanded. “We haven’t all night.”

“Alright…” Seymour began. “Chrysalis, have we found out anything else about this disease since this afternoon? Surely you must have some of the changelings working on all of the samples you’ve brought over…”

Chrysalis nodded.

“We have, but we still know little about the problem.” she confessed.

“Any information is good information at this point…” Celestia added, wanting to squeeze every last drop out of Chrysalis.

“Well, we have determined that the illness is caused by a virus.”

“A virus?” Photon questioned. “So we cannot beat this monstrosity with medicine?”

“I’m afraid not, if that’s the case.” Seymour explained. “As much as modern medicine has helped us against diseases such as cholera and TB, we still don’t have what it takes to stop a virus… the best we can do is manage the symptoms.”

“Unfortunate, but true.” Chrysalis affirmed. “To be more specific, the virus looks to be tubular in shape- a long strand coiled on itself near the bottom much like a shoelace. On the surface of the virus exist thousands of tiny, hook-like structures which we can safely assume are used for attachment to cells.”

“Hooks, tubular shape… now I know I’ve seen this somewhere… at least something like it.” Seymour muttered, tapping his chin. “Queen Chrysalis, Princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight? I would like to make a suggestion.”

“What do you suggest?” Celestia responded, eager to hear what was on the stallion’s mind.

“We are listening.” Chrysalis added.

Seymour smiled, then went in with his request.

“I would like to adjourn myself from this meeting in order to chase down a suspicion of mine about this virus.” he spoke. “I would just need to head back to my office at the university and look through my notes and my books- I know I’ve seen this somewhere in them while in graduate school.”

“We do not have time to dawdle…” Chrysalis denied, the moon princess joining in.

“We agree, your presence here may be required for a while yet.” added Luna.

“I would not need long, just a few hours… we can resume tonight after I am done.” Seymour negotiated. “I believe I may be able to correlate this virus to what I have seen, and that may be a good bet at the moment.”

Celestia looked up at the stallion, speaking words which would shock the remaining figures of royalty.

“…You are sure that this will be worth the adjournment of this meeting?” she questioned.

“I cannot guarantee anything… but what other way could we find some background on this virus?” Seymour reasoned. “If I find anything, we will at least have another piece of the puzzle.”

“…Alright.” Princess Celestia granted. “You have three hours, then we will attempt to figure this… thing out later tonight.”

“Understood, your highness.” Seymour nodded.

“But Celestia…!” Chrysalis argued. “We do not have time for-”

“We’re making the time.”

All in the room turned to the source of the rebuttal- Twilight Sparkle. Each wore expressions ranging from shock, to surprise, to gratitude.

“Look, as much as this situation is undesirable… I believe that Dr. Seymour may be right.” she spoke. “Besides… I’m willing to throw myself behind any effort that might help to keep Flash Sentry out of harm’s way.”

“…Your highness, thank you.” Seymour thanked.

“This isn’t about us, or my decisions…” Twilight dismissed. “This is about the Changeling Kingdom and about the safety of our own who are working on the problems within.”

Twilight then turned to princesses Celestia and Luna, asking for a favor regarding her friend in very-much-possible peril.

“Princess Celestia… Princess Luna…” she pleaded. “I know that this is a difficult decision to make for the country. But please… for the sake of my friend, please make the right decision.”

“Twilight…”

“Send us to get him out if you must… I’ll do anything to make sure Flash is safe… by the book or not.”

“…Okay.” We will discuss the matter while Seymour’s research is underway.” Celestia gave in. “Until then, Photon, Seymour…”

“We know what we need to do.” Seymour confirmed, his companion nodding his head.

Twilight Sparkle trotted slowly to the pair of unicorns before she would speak again.

“I’ll go with you.” she offered. “You might need another brain in the room… I know my way around any book, great or small. I think I might be able to be of some help.”

“…Thank you… Twilight.” Seymour thanked, calling her by her preferred name. “We could definitely use the offer.”

“Aah, what a team we will make!” Photon chirped, swinging a hoof in front of his torso. “Well Seymour, your highness, the prickly maiden of the textbooks calls- down and down the rabbit hole we go, where it leads, who knows?”

Photon, being slightly more skilled than his partner with more advanced spells due to his upbringing, teleported from the room, leaving behind a confused Twilight and slightly embarrassed Seymour.

“…Is he always like that?” Twilight questioned, cocking an eyebrow as she looked toward the remaining unicorn.

“Most of the time…”