Pandemic: Of Mares and Madness
Author's Note
Hello, everypony! I hope you guys enjoy this new story! I will have it finished before I submit, that way I need only post the chapters at a rate of 1 or 2 per week. Sooner if the comments section demands it.
Let it be known that the pictures are for visual reference of what the characters look like. As people are going to have pastel hair, I went with anime for references, as they have so many pastel and unusual hair colors, that finding the color you need is easy.
Chapter 1
Jessica Anderson was stalking the halls of Houston High, agitated at the complete shut down of her favorite pastime, soccer. While almost everyone in school had caught ETS, the majority of those that valued education over safety, like herself, had come to school. Unfortunately, that was only about 1 in every 10 people.
“If the clubs are shutdown, why isn't the school…?” She grumbled, trudging through the halls.
“Well unlike some people, we in the school council believe the school should stay open even if there is such a silly thing going around!” Amber, one of the few popular kids to have somehow avoided the outbreak so far, said from behind Jessica. Jess growled and turned around so quickly, that Amber's friend, who was more like a parasitic shadow than a true friend, jumped slightly.
“Now you listen here, you little no-good prissy daughter of a ba-” Jess started, fully prepared to unload one insult after another into the two quote unquote popular kids.
“Hey, Jess!” A good friend of hers shouted, pulling her attention away from the two prima donnas.
“Hmm? Yeah, what do you need, Amy- OH SWEET FUCK! Amy, you have ETS!?” Jessica said, staring at her friends almost sky blue hair.
“Eheheh… Y-yeah… Sorry about that, Jess… I think you might have it too, since… you know…” she replied, rubbing the back of her neck while the other two girls slunk away while the beast was distracted.
Jess sighed and nodded, saying “Yeah, I felt the flu part coming for the past hour… Hey, at least it's speeding up, right? And who knows! Maybe you'll finally get those wings you wanted!”
Amy smiled and twirled a strand of her hair idly, wondering which of the five races she would become, hoping she would be either a pegasus or a nightpony. “Yeah. Maybe I will. But what about you? Are you sure you're going to be ok with being a pony?”
Jessica smiled widely as she replied, saying, “You better believe I am! I mean, being all pastel colored and shit is going to bash on me, but I'll survive. Now if I become a nightpony, that might not be so bad. You hear what those mares and stallions can do yet?”
“Well… The only things I've heard were that they can see clearly at night, and that they are more nocturnal than the others…” Amy said, shuffling her feet a little out of embarrassment.
Jess winced slightly, and scratched her head. “Yeah, that might be a problem… Far as I know, there aren't many nocturnal soccer teams.”
Amy smiled and grabbed Jess by the hand, leading her to their first class. “Well, there's not much point in complaining, since I doubt there would be many pony soccer teams to begin with!”
Jess smiled and rolled her eyes, letting the other girl lead her. But what Jess didn't see, was Amy blushing very, very heavily as she did, all the while mentally screaming at herself for being so direct.
After school was finished they walked to Amy's house to do their homework, chatting along the way. Jess had her bag over one shoulder, gently kicking a soccer ball the coach gave her in order to shut her up about the sports teams, while Amy had her bag in both hands in front of her skirt. The cars came and went, couple homeless folks greeted them, and when one of the kids from their school tried to prank them with a fake mugging, Jess kicked him between the legs and kept going.
Amy looked back at the kid as he picked himself up, and stuck her tongue out at him. She knew it was childish, but she felt he deserved it since she gave her such a scare.
“So! About the homework Professor Jimmy gave us…” Jess started, knowing that Amy was going to ask for help once they got around to it.
Amy, for her part, wilted slightly under the knowing tone. “I um… C-can we take care of his first…?”
Jess smiled and lightly punched Amy on the shoulder as she said, “It's why I brought it up, Amy. You never were much of a public speaker, so I figured you might want a little help with it. That aside for the moment, can I spend the night again? Cassy is making her special brownies tonight, and I don't feel like being there when the cops are called again because she set fire to the complex.”
“Oh, they can't be that bad!” Amy replied, giggling lightly.
“Oh, you have no idea. She makes charcoal out of cereal.”
That thought gave Amy pause as she tried to wrap her head around the thought of making charcoal from cereal, since neither the cereal nor the milk should be anywhere near something hot enough to make that happen.
“I… Your foster mom is scary…” Amy finally said as they walked up to her home. This got a weak smile from Jess.
“Yeah. But my real dad was scarier when he went to my games. I swear, I could hear him clear across the stadium once!” Jess said, chuckling as she recalled the fond memory.
Amy smiled as she saw Jess happy, genuinely happy, for the first time since her parent's accident almost a year ago. It took their lives, but she was left unscathed. Apparently, according to her, an angel descended from heaven and kept her alive long enough for the ambulance to get her to the hospital. Only thing is, if you asked anybody else that was there, she looked as dead as they come as she crawled away from the wreckage. But nobody, surprisingly, knew enough to provide first-aid aside from putting bandages on the cuts and bruises.
As they entered the house, however, Jess began coughing loud and hard, drawing the attention of both of Amy’s parents, who had the pony ears, tail, and hair. The shocking thing was, both of their hairstyles were fluffy, so the only thing setting the two apart in that department was the fast that one was red while the other was hot pink.
Pandemic: Of Mares and Madness
The day after Jess fell ill, Amy had talked her parents into having her stay over while she spoke with Jess’ parents about the symptoms of ETS, and how it spread. She was chased away, being told that “She could take their useless daughter and the fad and shove it up their plot.” Amy returned home, both saddened by this, and happy that Jess was free of the horrible fosters that she had been living with for the past year as she informed Jess of the news.
“Ugh… Typical. I used to believe that bad parents were a joke until I met those two… ACHOO! Ugh… Sorry, Amy…” Jess said, her nose clogged so thoroughly that she had to breathe through her mouth just to get any air.
“It's fine… And yeah. There are people out there that hate kids to a similar degree of those that hate pit bulls,” Amy replied as she wiped herself off, smiling faintly at the freedom Jess now had.
“What, you mean not all chihuahuas are ankle biting rodents?” Jess asked, her voice carrying a faint undertone of a joke, getting Amy to smile faintly.
“They are small, and cute. Unlike you!” She joked back. The two laughed and chatted for a bit before Amy had to leave to get ready for school again.
“Why don't they just close the school? Nobody is going anymore…”
“While that may be true at other places, our school has to keep up appearances…” She replied, getting ready to head out.
“Amy! The school called! It's finally closed until the government finds a cure!” Amy's dad called from the living room.
“Great… Just as I get ETS, the school closes…” Jess said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“Well… At least that just means you don't have to worry about homework or make up work anymore, right?” Amy said, going back to sit with Jess.
Jessica simply smiled and booped Amy, watching her face scrunch up from the act. Amy now had deep purple eyes and the ears, along with the tail. She wouldn't admit it, but she had lost a couple inches as well. Jess already had a couple strands of blue hair in the back of her head already. And since they weren’t glass like, she figured she wasn’t going to be a Crystal pony.
“So… Plans for when we change?” Amy asked, rubbing her nose to make the boop go away.
“Aside from running away from the foster system? Not a whole lot honestly…” Jess replied.
Amy looked up at her ceiling and hummed a little tune as she thought. She thought of the places they could go, the sights they could see, the foods they could eat… And then she stopped humming as she thought about the other side of things. The places that they likely would never be allowed to go. Foods they could never enjoy again.
“You know, the more I think on it, more I realized that we will have to give up alot of stuff, jobs and the like, if we become ponies…”
Jess smiled and snuggled up to Amy, knowing she likely wouldn't catch the flu part again and hugged her as she said, “Yeah, but at least you'll have me to look after you, right?”
Amy smiled back, blushing a little, before carefully returning the hug as she gave a meek affirmative. The cute moment was interrupted by both of their stomachs growling in perfect sync. While it made them both jump briefly, it brought Jess to the realization that she could breathe normally again, and that she didn't feel as sick or sore.
Amy got up first to head to the kitchen while Jess played there for a couple minutes before getting up and throwing a couple air punches her real dad showed her when she was younger. When that didn't exhaust her immediately, she went on to some simple yoga stretches that her real mom showed her just before the crash. Seeing as that exhausted her a little more than usual, she realized that she had already gotten over the flu part and went downstairs in a mild daze.
“Hey Mr. and Mrs.Miller. Hey Amy.” Jess said as she went to sit down next to Amy, still a little dazed by the revelation.
Amy stared at Jess, mouth agape. Mrs.Miller was similarly shocked, but not because of Jess’ sudden recovery. Mrs.Miller was surprised that she had addressed them before Amy. Mr.Miller raised an eyebrow but put it back down when he noticed the streak of blue creeping up the back of her head.
“Morning, Jessi- Jess.” Mr.Miller said back, stopping himself from using her full name on accident. The girl treated her full name like most people treat a family heirloom.
“It's alright Mr.Miller. You guys are more family than the idiots I was living with. I… I would actually prefer that you had been my fosters instead of them,” Jess said, giving him a weak, albeit warm, smile.
“Oh, we would've gladly taken you in, Jessica!” Mrs.Miller said, smiling widely as she pulled her into a hug. Amy joined in on the hug, smiling as well at the trust and love Jessica had placed in them.
She also had to fight back tears of sorrow as her heart shattered. If Jessica viewed her as a sister, then she wouldn't be able to understand Amy's feelings for the other girl.
“I know your secret, Amy,” Jess whispered very quietly in her ear, causing her to jolt slightly and blush heavily as she went about eating. Jess smiled as Mrs. and Mr.Miller both took it as a sign to start eating as well.
After the food was finished, Jess complaining, jokingly, about the lack of meat, the two adults went off to bed, saying they had been feeling more and more tired lately. This left Jess and Amy to take care of the dishes.
“I-I… L-look, Jess, i-it's not what it looks like! I promise!” Amy started, panicking slightly as Jess approached her.
“Oh~? So you don't have a crush on me?” Jess teased her. What happened next was not what Jess had expected. Amy turned so red, that she collapsed and fainted, leaving only Jess to take care of the dishes.