Viral Outbreak 01: Code-name: Dust
Back at the Astral Lord Territory a Lord had finally spotted what had happened "Very......Intriguing" said Xenath.
Ever-free Forest
"Hmm. Looks like I'm in some sort of overgrown forest. Who knows, it could be a jungle." He thought as he took a closer look of his surroundings.
He saw some sort of overgrown path nearby and jumped in the trees climbing (as silently as he can) through the branches. eventually he started to see a town through everything and decided to wait and observe what to do next.
Eventually he saw the 6 hybrids from before, all looking disheveled (most likely from walking through the wild forest.) When they were not paying attention he silently climbed down and took a loose hair from each of them trying to the best of his abilities to not let them know he was there, as they seemed to be very tired. Afterward, he slinked off to a nearby cave where he did his best to hide his heat signature, just in case something was watching.
Inside the cave, he started to look at patterns in the DNA from the hair he gathered and tried to form a disguise from what he found. There were, of course, a few errors. It took almost 4 hours to get the right shape, as well as to find out how the male forms look, without trying to overdo it. When he finished, he was left with a cyan 'fur' color with a short, blue hair and tail, each with red highlights; with a similar looking muscle structure to his human form. He also had jeans, and a blank gray t-shirt on.
“This will do nicely.” he thought. “Now, time to see what kind of information I can gather.”
As he made his way into the town, he was stopped by a pink blur, which then cleared up to be one of the hybrids from the castle.
“Hi! Who are you?! Do you wanna be friends?! I know you’re not my friend cause I'm friends with everyone in the town and I don’t know you, so it only makes sense that you’re new to town! And if you’re new to town, then we’re not friends yet! So do you wanna be my friend?!” she said over excitedly, without breath.
“Sure?” he responded, “Could you get off of me first though?”
“Yep!” she said as she bounded off of him, just staring at him, as if trying to ‘figure him out’.
Now that he got a better look of her, she had curly pink hair and tail, blue eyes, and pink fur. As far as clothes go she had on a pink t-shirt on with a cupcake design on it, along with a set of pink leggings.
“Seems like she enjoys the color pink.” he thought.
“You should meet me at Sugarcube Corner in 2 and a half hours, ok?” she said, jogging him from his thoughts.
“Sure.” he said.
“Pinkie Promise?” she asked.
He tilted his head in a questioning manner, obviously not knowing whatever a “Pinkie Promise” was.
“Okay, it goes like this, repeat after me,’Cross my heart, and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.’ alright?” she said, and with each section of the “promise” she had made an “X” motion over her left pectoral, a flapping motion with her arms, and from nowhere grabbed a cupcake to stick in her closed eye, licking it off afterwards.
“Cross my heart, and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” he repeated.
“See you there!” she said, immediately disappearing and pushing up enough dust to blind him for a little.
“This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?” he thought, face-palming and shaking his head.
Viral Outbreak 01: Code-name: Dust
Xerath, watching this new life he had discovered from his territory, starts muttering. “Hmm... I think I’ll keep this one to myself for a while.”
Ponyville
Wandering around the strange town, he started to notice the pattern that nothing was labeled, everything just had a hanging sign with a picture that someone was just supposed to understand.
“I can’t tell a restaurant from a barber! How is anyone new to the town supposed to be able to do anything?” he thought “If I can just find someone to do some kind of tour. I just need something!”
Being so caught up in his thoughts, he wasn’t paying attention to the hybrid yelling ”LOOK OUT!!!” before he knew it, there was a very tall oak tree slamming into him, and knocking him to the ground. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! Are you hurt?!” said (practically screamed) the hybrid.
“I’ll be fine.” he said, now realising he walked almost completely through the town, ending up on the other side, almost back into the forest. ”I’m pretty tough.”
“I’ll say. The tree must’ve just barely touched your shoulder. Are you sure you’re fine?” she asked, slowly getting on his nerves.
“Yeah.” he stated trying to emphasize being done talking, while trying to wriggle out from under the large oak.
“Alright, well since you got hurt ‘cause of me, let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
Finally freeing himself from under the tree, he started to actually take a good look at her. She had blue fur, magenta eyes, and prismatically rainbow hair and tail “Starting to think they normally just match, though there was nothing keeping them the same in their DNA, so I don’t know why it seems to always match.” She was also wearing magenta cargo shorts, and a ‘graphic-T’ ”That’s what I think it’s called anyway.” of lightning bolts striking a crossed microphone and guitar. As he was recognizing her from the castle, he thought “She seems to be angry with me for-”
“What are you just staring at me for?!” She screamed.
“Right. Talking is a thing.” he took a second to think of the wording he wanted to use.
“I’m actually new around here, so if you could show me around, I would very much appreciate it miss...” he trailed off, hoping to get her name.
“Sure, as long as you don’t call me ‘Miss’, makes me sound old.” she said, leaving him even more frustrated than before.
“Then may I get your name?” he said through gritted teeth, while she was still oblivious to his reactions.
“Rainbow Dash, fastest pony in all Equestria!” she boasted, showing off her wings. “And don’t forget it!”
“Wait........ wings?!” he thought ”Do I have those somewhere?”
“Anyway, on with that tour huh?” she asked, once again shaking him from his thoughts.
“Yeah...” he said, as they started to walk back towards the center of town.
By the time she finished with the “tour” (really just rushing him through connecting names to places) it was just about time for that thing the pink one said to go to.
“Hey, Rainbow, it’s been pretty fun, but I gotta go somewhere. Could you show me to a place called ‘Sugarcube Corner’?” he asked, getting chuckling and walking, instead of a proper response.
“It’s right inside.” she said taking off, and once she got about 10 feet up, she mumbled ”You’ll need it.”
“Wonder what that’s-”
“SURPRISE!!!” he heard, at nearly ears-bleeding volumes.
He reacted without even thinking, jumping and ripping the door of it’s hinges easily and using it as a shield for whatever his instinctual mind thought was there, before realising what had just happened. He peaked around the door, lightly placing it back in it’s frame, (as if that will fix it) opening the broken door, just for it to fall over, and him to step inside. The pink one walks up to him and hands him an envelope with his name on it.
“Umm....sorry about the door.” he apologized “I don’t really do most surprises.”
“That’s alright. I can get it fixed later.” she said, meanwhile he was feeling like he had to run and make another disguise, though he was guessing that was probably just him being embarrassed. As soon as the envelope was opened confetti starts bursting out of it, and no-one was saying a word.
“....” everyone was silent
“Suprise...” Pinkie muttered hoping for him to not overreact to anything.
After reading the card inside, and leaving everyone in an awkward suspense, he finally responded by hugging Pinkie. “This ought to make them trust me a bit more, putting on the abused-as-a-child act once again.”
Pinkie just hugged him back silently as he started to cry, breaking off from the hug as she started introducing them to the new resident. They had been very outgoing and seemed like they were genuinely caring for him, although that could just be because of his small guy act. After the party started to pick up, he silently slipped out, not really being one for staying in a room with a lot of people around for too long.
“Mind if I join you?” said a purple-furred, violet-with-pink-highlights haired “probably linked” unicorn with a button-up blouse and a purple skirt-leggings combo.”Interesting” they were both looking at each other deep in thought trying to get a read on each others’ personality. Before long, they both snapped out of it and shook their heads a bit to clear their thoughts.
“Sure.” he said looking towards the rest of the city in front of him.
“Have you been liking the party so far?” she said as she sat down next to him.
“A little, I enjoy small parties more, but I can blend in well for a time in a large place like this.”
“I can understand that. I’m not super social myself.”
“I never would’ve guessed.” he responded jokingly, getting a chuckle out of her in response.
“Shocking, I know. I moved here thinking I would hate it, and that I would be stuck in my library the whole time. As it turns out, I ended up making some unlikely friends, and now I’m spending all my time with them. Most of the time is Interesting or entertaining, although I do get time to myself to relax.”
”To friends?” He said as he picked up his cup.
“To friends.”
Viral Outbreak 01: Code-name: Dust
"Oh? What are you looking at there Xenath?" said Arnea, an Astral Lady looking over Xenath's shoulder, watching upon the same life.
"Hello Arnea, I'm just doing a few studies on this one's life. Now if you could please go find another shoulder to look over, I would be grateful." Xenath said, waving hand to shoo her away, yet still staring at the virus.
"Nah, This seems more interesting." She responded, his response staying silent.
Outside of Sugarcube Corner
"Friends ~pffft" He said to himself taking sip from his drink, Twilight unconscious beside him with her drugged cup spilt across the grass. "More like hindrances."
"I wonder..." He thought, looking around to see if anyone was near as he put his hand to Twilight's horn studying if their horns were the cause of the magic, and seeing if he could replicate it. "Ah! The answer is yes, wonderful!" he thought as he started to slowly replace some of the bones in his arms with the same material structure in unicorn's horns.
That is, until he was interrupted by another one of the 'Ponies'. This time it was a she that had purple hair, white fur and blouse, as well as staggering crystal blue eyes. Accompanied with her were two others, a cowgirl with jeans, a simple-very used white button up with rolled back sleeves, her hair tied back, emerald green eyes, and blonde with orange fur ;and a shy girl with long pink hair ending in a slight curl, a sky blue skirt, and a blank white t-shirt.
"Oh dear, Twilight fell asleep." The white one said frowning.
"That don't really sound like Twilight." Said the orange one
"It looked like she was drugged to me. That or the punch was spiked." Blue said looking at his cup. "Eh." He sounded while taking another sip.
"That does sound like something Pinkie might do." Muttered the yellow one, as low as a whisper.
"Doesn't bother me, I rarely get tipsy. Although, if this is something Pinkie does normally, I might have to watch out for her." he said, finishing off his drink.
"If what is something I do normally? Ohmygosh Twilight, are you okay? What happened?" Pinkie said.
"Looks like she was drugged then." Blue said looking out into the city.
"Well that's no fun." Pinkie said frowning.
"You girls can go have fun, I'll keep an eye on her." Blue said making a dismissive wave of his hand.
Even though they were looking suspiciously at him, they slowly dispersed away, finally giving him his much needed space. The rest of the night passed without many other events. He made sure to give twilight a stimulant to wake her back up, along with some water. He found her other friends and dropped her onto them, instead. As he was walking through the town, he walked over to an ally and laid down against a wall, drifting to a dreamless sleep.
After waking up 3 hours, 17 minutes, and 5 seconds later, his brain passively counting the seconds that had passed, he got up from the wall and walked out into the road looking at the newly approaching sunrise.
“Today is the day I should find a proper place to sleep.” thought Blue. As he started to walk down the road, he felt a pain suddenly rack his new bones. “What the hell?!” he thought as his bones started to glow through his skin. Using his hunter-vision he tried locating Twilight, who was apparently within a tree.
“Either way, I got this bone structure from her, maybe she knows something.” Blue tried reasoning, desperately hoping she could fix it. Trying to get a running start to his jump so he could glide properly, he tried running only to find himself going far too fast and subsequently tripping over his own feet. Tumbling forwards, he ended up crashing into Twilight’s front door.
Hearing movement within the tree in front of him, he quickly got back up just as the door opened revealing Twilight apparently having just woke up with a headache. “What is it?” she asked, groggily.
“What do you mean ‘What is it?’ I’m glowing! That’s what it is! Is there anything you can do to help?!” Blue asked, panicked and clearly enthralled with pain.
“Oh my Gosh! Come in, take a seat.” Twilight said, rushing him in and instantly casting a diagnostic spell. “Wow. Um. It seems that your bones are like a unicorn’s horn, and your body is just releasing the excess magic that’s not being stored within them. I’ve never seen anything like this!” she exclaimed in excitement over finding something new to study. Her headache disappearing for the moment.
“Twilight? Hey, Twilight, anyone home? Hello?” Blue said trying desperately to get Twilight’s attention. “Twilight!”
“Huh?” Twilight said, snapping out of whatever train of thought she was in. “Oh, right. You should be fine soon, although I would like to run some tests, if that’s ok with you.”
“This actually might help to explain some of my powers if I ever need to.” he thought.
“Sure.” he said, tensing up and squeezing his body in pain, as she started to head downstairs hurriedly in anticipation.
“Great!” he heard as she had disappeared downstairs away from normal view. “Come downstairs! I have some things down here for you to try out!”
As he started to slowly and carefully descend into Twilight’s basement, he recognized a large chemistry set, a few machines he did not recognize, a small handle sticking out of a metal bar, and a chair with something that seems like it is supposed to fit on his head. As soon as Twilight had spotted him at the bottom of the stairs looking around, she turned, grabbed his hand, and lead him over to the chair.
“That looks like a little more than I was expecting.” said Blue, sitting down into the small chair. “I can fit this thing on myself.” he said, slowly putting the large half spherical piece of machinery on his head.
“Alright, let me just get it up and running.” Twilight said flipping some switches and levers, walking over to a computer screen afterwards.
“Starting scan of brain function and bone material.”
“I wonder what she’ll think of my brain function.” thought Blue, sitting still and staring straight ahead with a smirk barely visible on his face.
“What is all this? It’s incredible!” shouted Twilight, staring at the paper, which was falling out of the machine.
“What’s incredible?” Blue asked innocently, pretending not to know quite well what she was talking about.
“Your brain should be melting or stopping or-or SOMETHING! A brain shouldn’t be able to handle all of this.” said Twilight, slowly calming down.
“So, is that good or bad?” Blue asked curious for her opinion.
“Well, it would allow for a lot more, although it could be dangerous, so I want you to check in with me on this every month. Ok?” Twilight said, both sternly and concerned.
“Alright, but you said earlier that you were also scanning my bones. What about those?” Blue asked, genuinely wondering if it could be bad.
“Right!” Twilight exclaimed, looking over to the other scans and examining them for a few minutes before saying questioningly “It seems that your bones are made of the same things a unicorn’s horn is made out of, as I said before. I can’t really say whether that is truly good or bad, though it would mean you have to use more magic.”
“Wait, can I use magic?!” Blue pretended to be excited though since he hasn’t tried yet, he was curious.
“I’m not sure, we can try though. I have some books that can teach you about casting basic spells.”
“Sure.” Blue said, getting up from the chair and taking off the machine. ”Lead the way.”
“It also seems that you're not glowing anymore by the way.”
“Huh, it seems I’m not. I wonder what it was though.” Thought Blue while following her up the stairs.
As they had gotten up the stairs Twilight started looking for books on magic, while Blue started trying to look for books on history and science. When they had met back up at a small, round table made of oak, Twilight had been carrying 3 books while Blue carried about 12.
“What are all those for?” Twilight said genuinely confused.
“I’m not really from around here so I want to brush up on some things.” responded Blue.
“...Molecular Theorem. I’m not sure that’s really-” Twilight said but getting cut off by Blue.
“I majored in Bio-chemistry. I'm quite astute actually”
“Either way, Let's get working.” Twilight said, opening a book of magic for beginners.
"Photographic memory is extremely useful." Blue thought, having finished the books he had picked out for himself. "I do think I’ll need more resources though. I could use those changeling things, after all that hive mind ability could be very useful."
"How goes the reading?" Twilight asked, sitting down at the table with a book of her own and a cup of coffee that she set to her right.
"Just finished with what I had picked out, starting with what you recommended for me now." Blue responded, rapidly flipping through the book about magic for beginners.
“I recommend reading it instead of just flipping through.” Twilight said, with a teasing attitude.
“I have a photographic memory, I only need a glimpse of the page to remember whatever was on it.” Blue said while closing the book and picking up another to flip through.
“I wish I had that, it would make my research so much faster.”
“So would knowing what atoms were.” Blue thought, being wildly surprised by the lack of basic chemical information presented in every book he has read so far.
“Twilight, do you know what molecules are?” Blue asked wondering if chemistry was ever discovered at all.
“Yes, although most people don’t. May I asked where you had heard of them? Currently the theorem of molecules isn’t so popular.” Twilight said, instantly curious.
“As I said, I’m not really from around here. I don’t really feel that I can say where I’ve heard of them just yet.” Blue responded, putting down the last book. “Moving on though, how would I go about casting my first spell?”
“Well-” Twilight tried to say but got interrupted by-
“Me!” said Pinkie Pie. (How did she interrupt me?!)
“Oh, it’s the one who threw me a party I didn’t want.” Blue said, holding out his hand and frustrated by all of the nothing that was happening with whatever magic he had.
“Don’t be rude. She only wanted to help you meet everyone and have a good time.” Twilight said defensively
“I-I’m s-sorry it wasn’t good enough. I swear I will try harder next time!” Pinkie said sadly, at first but then her face turned to that of determination. She then shoved Blue into a chair and bent over in front of him to ask, extremely seriously: “Now, what kind of parties do you like?”
“Not the one you threw me.” Blue said, straight-faced and serious.
“Well, obviously. I mean what about the other parties you’ve had? What did you enjoy about them?” Pinkie asked.
“I’ve never had a party other than that.” Blue said.
“......WHAT?! How could you not have ever had any other party? What about birthday parties? Or a school dance? Or a costume party? Or a housewarming party? Or a welcome party? Or a farewell party? HOW HAVE YOU NEVER HAD A PARTY?!” Pinkie questioned and screamed.
“I’ve constantly been on the move. Never really in the same place twice. Never really got to know anyone.” Blue said without emotion.
Pinkie almost in tears, she had managed to choke out: “ T-Then I’ll h-help you. Y-you’ll never be a-alone ag-gain.”
“Oh please,” Blue responded with contempt “don't pity me. I’ve gotten enough of that from other people.” Then pointing his hand forward and trying to focus his magic again as Pinkie broke down sobbing.
“If you are going to be rude in my library, I need to ask you to leave.” Twilight said with contempt, putting the books back on the shelf and looking away from him.
“Alright.” Blue responded and walked out of the library, leaving Pinkie crying on the floor and assumedly Twilight angry.
“Now where should I go from here?” Blue thought, seeing the light-blue pegasus soaring through the sky. “I wonder if I can get her attention.”