Sick Situation

In the school hall, Silverstream and Smolder were walking side by side. "So, are those pointy parts horns or ears?" the hippogriff asked.

"Well, you see..." Smolder stopped when she saw a sad Yona walking towards them hanging her head. "Yona, you're back. Where's Sandbar?"

"Hospital," the yak replied.

"Yeah, I know that but why isn't he back?"

"Sandbar's sicker than friends thought. Apple ponies sick too."

"You mean the apple family?" Silverstream asked. "Not just Professor Applejack?" Yona nodded.

"I'm going to go see them." Smolder flew out of the school but she was stopped by an invisible force. A transparent pink wall appeared in front of her. The wall was apart of a dome that covered the entire school. "What is this?"

"A forcefield to make sure you don't get out," said a voice, which came from Shining Armor who was standing on the outside of the dome.

"Shining?" Twilight questioned walking towards the edge of the dome.

"I'm sorry, Twilight," Shining said, "But the ponies said this virus is too risky to get out."

"It's nothing personal," Doctor Dose said.

"I know," Twilight said. "What do you know about the virus?"

"Honestly, not much, the ponies that are infected with it are the Apple Family and a young colt name Sandbar."

"He's one of the students and Applejacks one of the teachers. More importantly, my friend."

"I understand, but if it breaks out then Equestria could..." The doctor paused as a certain dragon kept kicking and punching the wall. "Could you stop that?"

"Let me see my friend," Smolder ordered only to be brought back to the ground by Twilight's levitation.

"Smolder, get back to class," the alicorn ordered. The dragon just groaned and walked back inside.

"I can see if I could transport AJ and Sandbar here without contaminating anypony," Shining said.

"If you're going to do that," Doctor Dose said, "I'd recommend that you take a hazmat suit." The Stallion nodded and walked towards one of the tents that were being set up.

Smolder sulked down the hall until she met up with Gallus and Ocellus. "So, do you know how Sandbar's doing?" he asked.

"He's stuck in the hospital and we're stuck in the school," Smolder answered.

"What?"

"They've set up a dome and no one can get in or out."

"That's probably for the best," Ocellus said. "We have no idea what Sandbar has."

"And neither do the doctors."

"Oh, that's just great," Gallus commented.

"Look, hopefully, they'll figure out what's going on," Ocellus said.

"Gallus, Ocellus, Smolder," Fluttershy called, "You're going to be late for your next class."

"Hopefully." The Changeling, griffon, and dragon followed their teacher.

The yellow pegasus looked towards her class. "Now, I know a couple of you are scared of what's going on, and so am I. But you need to stay calm and if you have to let out a scream, do something like this." Fluttershy demonstrated this by pulling out a pillow and screaming into it. "Now, let's start our lesson."

Smolder looked over to the yak, who was still hanging her head. "You okay, Yona?" she asked.

"No," the yak sighed. "Yona can't stop worrying about Sandbar. What if doctor ponies can't fix sickness."

"They'll figure it out," Ocellus said trying to comfort her friend. "Let's just try and focus on class."

"Thank you, Ocellus," Fluttershy said. She wrote on the chalkboard as the class tried their hardest to focus. Yona wasn't focusing at all. She was doodling in her notes of certain pony she knew.

Speaking of which, Sandbar had a load of medical equipment. The doctors and nurses were trying their hardest but the couldn't figure out the problem. "Doc," he groaned, "Please tell me you have something good."

"I'm trying my hardest," the doctor replied.

"Excuse me," Shining Armor said walking in wearing a hazmat suit, "I was wondering if I could take some ponies back to school."

"Shining?" Applejack questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to help put the school in quarantine. Twilight was wondering if I could bring you and a pony named Sandbar."

"That's me," Sandbar said raising his hoof.

"These ponies can't be around others," one of the nurses said.

"That's where my shield spells come in." With his horn glowing, he picked up Applejack in a bubble. He did the same thing with Sandbar. "Have you made any progress?"

"Sadly no," said one of the doctors. "We'll keep trying with the other three. Be careful with those ponies."

"Yes, sir." Shining walked out of the hospital with Applejack and Sandbar floating beside him. While walking back to the school, he came across a blue mare with a red mane, and she was also wearing a green skirt. "Can I help you."

"Yes," the mare said. "I've only been here once and I don't remember my way around."

"Meadowbrook," Applejack said, "We're glad to see ya."

"Same to you but why are you and that colt in a bubble?"

"It's a long story. Follow Shining and we'll explain."

Back at the school, Fluttershy walked over to the student that wasn't paying attention. "Yona," she said startling the yak, "What did I say?"

"Yak sorry," Yona sighed. "Yak can't stop thinking about Sandbar."

"I know you're worried about him still you need to pay attention in class."

"Yona knows. Yona stay after class." Just like that, the bell rang and all the students left, except for Yona.

"I feel sorry for her," Ocellus said to her friends.

"I know," Silverstream said. "I want Sandbar to get better too."

"Actually, I mean..." They then heard a wiring sound. "What was that?"

"It came from outside," Gallus said as he to the school exit. Outside, Shining Armor and Meadowbrook walked through the doom, with the mare now wearing a hazmat suit.

"Sandbar, you're back," Silverstream cheered flying up to the colt.

"Hey, guys," Sandbar said as he limped over to them.

"Easy kid," Shining Armor said.

"My goodness," Meadowbrook gasped.

"I told ya it was bad," Applejack said as she suffered from the same problems.

"Would you like some help?" Gallus asked. The farm pony nodded, so Ocellus helped her out as Gallus helped Sandbar.

"So, how are you feeling?" Silverstream asked.

"My tongue feels like it has a rag wrapped around it," Sandbar explained. "Plus, my neck still itches."

"The doctors said not to scratch," Applejack said stopping herself from doing the same.

"I didn't miss too much, did I?"

"Just Professor Applejack and Fluttershy's class," Ocellus said.

"Wait, who did my class while I was gone?" Applejack asked.

"Spike did his best," Smolder explained.

"I liked it," Gallus said, "It was pretty easy."

"Of course you would like it," Ocellus murmured.

"Well, where's Yona?" Sandbar asked.

"She's right in here." The opened the door to Fluttershy's class where Yona was writing down what she had missed.

The second the yak saw her pony friend she raced towards him. "Sandbar!" she cheered tackling him with Gallus barely getting out of the way.

"Yona, calm down," he said, "I was only gone for an hour."

"Felt like forever."

"It's good to see you Applejack," Fluttershy said to her farm friend. Applejack felt the same but she wanting Fluttershy to look towards a different pony. While it was hard to see through the mask, she could make out it was one of the pillar ponies. "Meadowbrook."

"Greetings Fluttershy," Meadowbrook said. "I wish we could've had a better encounter."

"Wait," Ocellus said, "You're Mage Meadowbrook?" The pillar pony nodded and the changeling squealed in excitement. "It's such an honor to meet you."

"It nice to see so many different creatures not fighting with each other."

"Uh, Professor Fluttershy said you were a sorceress," Gallus said. "You think you could help fix this?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I've heard that modern medicine has come a long way."

"But what about Zecora?" Applejack asked. "Fluttershy managed to help her when she had Swamp Fever when the doctors said there was no known cure."

"She's right," Fluttershy stated. "You could help out."

"Alright," Meadowbrook agreed. "But I need some of the moss from their mouths."

"On it," Smolder said. She opened Sandbar's mouth and used her claw to scrape off some moss.

"Smuder!" Sandbar cried.

"Look, you're sick, and we want you to get better. Now, give me some of the moss." Fluttershy got a small bag for Smolder to put the moss in.

"Could you tell me where Zecora lives?" Meadowbrook asked.

"The Everfree Forest," Fluttershy explained as she handed her the bag of moss. "Her hut is kind of hard to find."

"Don't worry, I'll do my best. Wish me luck." The sorceress walked away and Sandbar glared at Smolder.

"Okay, I got ahead of myself," Smolder said, "Come on, you want to get better."

"I could've used a fork," Sandbar said.

Mage Meadowbrook had to ask a couple of ponies for the directions of Zecora's hut, and though she got a few ponies without answers, she managed to make her way through to the hut. Knocking on the door, a zebra answered.

"Hello, I don't we've seen each other before," Zecora said, "What brings you to my hut door?"

"Hello, I'm assuming you're Zecora," Meadowbrook said with the zebra nodding. "Good, I'm Mage Meadowbrook. Fluttershy told me about you and I was wondering if you could help me." Zecora let the pillar pony in and poured out some tea. "The School of Friendship is under quarantine all because of this virus nopony has ever seen before."

"A sickness I can you from experience is quite a drag, but I can't help but notice something in your bag." Meadowbrook showed Zecora the moss she got from Sandbar and also showed her Mystical Mask.

"This mask helps me from getting sick from viruses like Swamp Fever. I think you would've like one before you got it." Zecora nodded as she sipped her tea with her guest doing the same. "This tea is really good."

"Thank you, I make them with my best, though I don't get that many guests. I would like to know more about you, so care to tell me what you do?"

"I come from Hayseed Swamp and I'm a very good healer. I help make potions for the swamp's villagers. I'm also one of the pillar ponies who assisted Starswirl." Mentioning that name nearly made Zecora spit out her tea. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's alright, that wasn't really a big fright. Hopefully, we can talk some more as we get to work making this cure." The zebra poured some potions into her cauldron and started the fire. "See if you can find a way to get more of this moss if we lose all of it we'll be at a loss."

"It's a good thing I brought my journal. You try and find what you can do with the moss you have, I'll try and get some more." The sorceress pony left to find more moss as the zebra got to work.

Yona and Sandbar were still in Fluttershy's classroom as they still had some work to catch up on. The earth pony was trying his hardest not to scratch his neck but this was getting harder and harder. He could hold it any longer and scratch his neck like crazy when he promptly smacked across the face by Yona.

"Pony said no scratch," Yona said.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it," Sandbar replied. "It's like I'm wearing a wooly scarf that filled with fleas." Yona took off her shawl and tied it around Sandbar's forelegs to prevent him from scratching his neck.

"Try scratching now." Sandbar tried and he managed to reach his neck. "Drat." Yona untied the pony's forehooves as her idea was pretty much useless.

"It was a good try Yona."

"Yaks more brawns than brains. Yaks go with their guts. Like at dance."

"You mean the pony pal dance? I thought you were great there."

"After Yona crashed into punch bowl."

"Okay, so it wasn't flawless but I'm glad you were doing of that for me. I also thought it was fun doing the Yakyakastian stomp." They both chuckled as a mare in a hazmat suit walked in.

"Your teacher says you can leave and have lunch," she said.

"Good, I skipped breakfast." Sandbar and Yona follow the mare to the lunch room where all the other students were at. Some ponies wearing protective gear were severing soup which everyone was having. Sandbar and Yona sat next to their friends, who had already gotten some soup for them.

"It's good to have you back Sandy," Ocellus said. "So, what do you all think of this situation?"

"It's kind of scary," Silverstream admitted. "What's going to happen to us?"

"Don't have a panic attack while their hot soup around us," Gallus said. "Look, I may not be liking some of these medics Principal Twilight said they're trying their hardest and we just need to stay calm."

"I hate the fact that we're stuck in here," Smolder said.

"That's the point," Ocellus said.

"I know how quarantine works but they've got the Apple family in the hospital so I think they should just have all the students that are sick just stay here when school's over and we can do what we want."

"Yeah," Silverstream agreed, "I don't want to get sick too."

"Well it's almost impossible you're not going to get sick," Ocellus said. "Besides, it doesn't look too bad. I mean, look at Sandbar."

Their pony friend took one spoonful of his soup before spitting it out at Smolder. "Thank you," she said obviously annoyed.

"Sorry Smolder," Sandbar apologized. "It was just hot."

"Then go get some ice," Gallus said. Sander walked off to do so while the griffon helped Smolder dry off. When the pony returned, he had a cup filled to the brim with ice, and he poured all of it into his soup. "Whoa. Sandbar, that's way too much ice."

"I said it was hot."

"But soup will lose flavor," Yona said.

"I don't want to burn my tongue off." Sandbar ignored what his friends were and just drank his now cold soup.

"Okay, what's going on?" Smolder asked. "There's no way you could be enjoying that." Again, Sandbar said nothing. Out of anger, the dragon took her friend's soup and breathed fire into it to heat it back up.

"Hey!" Sandbar tried to take his soup back.

"Guys, you're going to spill it," Ocellus cried but they weren't listening. The pony dragon lost their grip and the bowl went flying and splash an unlucky Spike in his face.

"Shoot, sorry Spike," Smolder cried.

"I'm fine," the dragon replied with his voice sounding incredibly hoarse. When Spike picked bowl he limped towards the kitchen to put it away.

"Nice going," Sandbar groaned. The group then heard soon hacking noise coming from the kitchen. Smolder and Twilight looked to check it out and found Spike belching before he threw up in the sink.

"Spike, are you okay?" Twilight asked running up to him.

Spike wiped his mouth before looking at Twilight. "I... Strangely feel better," he replied with his voice sounding better too. "I better go tell the medic ponies." The dragon ran off as the alicorn looked at Smolder and clearly wasn't happy.

"I don't have an excuse," Smolder said putting her claws up. "Just pick my punishment."

Doctor Dose was checking with other sick ponies that had eaten as Spike came running up to him. "Doctor," Spike cried as he ran up to him.

"Weren't you one of the creatures that were sick," the doctor asked.

"Well, yes, but... Follow me." Spike and the doctor in a hazmat suit to the kitchen where Twilight was telling Smolder her punishment. Doctor Dose was shown what Spike had upchucked. Strangely, a large pile of soggy moss was sitting down in the sink.

"What did you eat?" Smolder asked.

"All I had today was some cereal with an apple and the soup they were severing," Spike explained. "Though, I had to cool the soup down. But the next thing I knew, my entire body like it shut down for a second and then I threw up."

"I see," Doctor Dose said as he took notes. "The medics and I will take a look at what the dragon had... Given back. Just carry on."

"Yes, sir," Twilight said. She and the dragons left the kitchen while the doctor got a bag to put the mossy vomit in.

"Spike, wait," Gallus said grabbing the dragon's attention. "Weren't you limping a minute ago?"

"Yeah, he was," Smolder answered.

"I don't understand it myself," Spike said, "But I'm sure that the medics will answer." He walked away but the six students were confused.

"This is weird," Ocellus said. "Spike's just... Okay now?"

"Yeah, that makes no sense," Gallus agreed.

"Okay," Smolder said, "Either we can stand around and question everything or we get out of here and actually try and find the solution."

"Smolder," Ocellus cried, "We could get into trouble."

"It's better than just standing around doing nothing. Besides, I'm already in trouble."

"Smolder," Twilight called from down the hall. The dragon groaned as she walked off to start her punishment.

"Smolder's right," Gallus said as he and his friends walked into the library. "We've saved Equestria before. What's stopping us now?"

"A dome surrounding the school," Ocellus answered flatly. The griffon crossed his arms in frustration but as he flew around the corner he saw a grate. An idea struck his head and he looked around to if anyone besides his friends were around. Once he made sure of that he tried to lift the grate up.

"This would be easier if Smolder was here."

"What Gallus doing?" Yona asked.

"I'm trying to make an escape."

"Gallus, just stop," Ocellus demanded. She pulled the griffon away but Gallus pushed her back.

"Ocellus, look at Sandbar." The colt was riding on Yona's back and he could barely keep his eyes open. "A lot of the school has the same virus he has. Including the teachers."

"But Mage Meadowbrook is trying to help us. We just need to be patient and wait for her and/or the doctors to find a cure."

"They don't know what the virus is. I'm not risking my chances."

"Yona wants to go too," Yona said, "But Yona can't leave Sandbar."

"Plus, we've still got to catch up on our schoolwork," Sandbar added.

"I should also ask what if the teacher notice that we're gone?" Ocellus stated. "Remember the last we ditched school?"

"Again, this is for a good reason," Gallus objected. "Find a cure and save the ponies."

"Do you even know how this even broke out."

"Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Sandbar, what did you and Yona do when you got sick?"

"Well, everything was normal," Sandbar replied, "Until we got back from Sweet Apple Acres. Yona and I thought those apples tasted funny."

"Then that's where we're going."

"Again," Ocellus objected, "What are the teachers say if you're gone?"

"Couldn't you just disguise yourself as one of us?" Silverstream asked.

Ocellus thought for a moment before she changed into Gallus. "Okay guys," she said in Gallus's voice, "Let's do something that will get all of Equestria infected and us in trouble."

The real Gallus didn't say anything and just led Yona over to the grate. The yak pried it open with her horns like a crowbar and the griffon climbed through. "Any creature coming?" he asked.

"I'll go," Silverstream said.

"Yeah, go luck," Ocellus said returning to her normal form not really carrying anymore. Gallus and Silverstream slipped through the hole. Once they were through, Yona put the grate back to cover their tracks.

"Good luck guys," Sandbar called.

"Well, we're doing this," Ocellus said. She walked off to find some to see if that would get her mind off things. "This is not going to work."

Gallus and Silverstream wandered around the cave under the school. "If the spirit of Harmony tests us down here I swear," Gallus said to himself.

"You sure this place can get us out of school?" Silverstream asked.

"It's worth a shot. Besides, we're already here and if go back our teachers will be as mad as Ocellus."

"I wonder how she's doing?"

The changeling in question was grumbling as she sat at a table with her remaining friends. "Sandbar, back me up here," she said, "This plan is as strong as rotting balsa wood."

"It does sound dangerous," Sandbar replied as he sat next to Yona.

"There... You are," said a tired voice which came from Rarity. The generous teacher looked to be having trouble keeping her head up. "You're going to be late for class."

"Students still have free time," Yona said pointing towards the library clock.

"Oh, I must've lost track of time." The mare walked in the wrong direction and into a bookshelf.

The three students looked at each other in confusion. "Professor Rarity, are you okay?" Ocellus asked.

"Just a little light-headed. Have any of you seen Gallus or Silverstream?" The three froze as they didn't know how to answer.

"Gallus won bet," Yona spoke, "Smolder have to do his project."

"Really? I'll see about that." The generous teacher left the library after searching for the exit and race down the hall. It took a little while but she did find the dragon scraping gum from under some desks.

"Why did I chose this for my punishment?" Smolder asked herself. "I mean, it's nice that she gave me a chose."

"Smolder." Rarity's cry made the dragon bump her head on the desk as she was a bit startled. She managed to look at her teacher who wasn't happy. "Where's Gallus?"

"How should I know? I haven't seen him since lunch."

"Your friends said that you were doing his work."

"I lost the bet and... Are you feeling okay?" Rarity seemed to be struggling to keep her eyes open and she suddenly fainted. "Oh, crud. Professor Rarity?" Smolder got on her knees as she looked closely at the mare. "Principle Twilight!"

The alicorn was being checked on by one of the doctors as she saw her dragon student flying up to her. "Smolder, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Professor Rarity just passed out."

"Don't panic," said the doctor pony, "Show me where she is." She did so, and the medic took a look at her.

"Is she okay?" Twilight asked.

"She fine, just unconscious." He looked inside Rarity's mouth to find a mossy tongue. "The virus has spread to her."

"But she was walking just the last time I saw her."

"Maybe she wasn't infected back then. I'll see what the others and I can do." The doctor picked Rarity up and walked away. Twilight left the room and Smolder went back to scraping gum.

Back in the caves, Gallus and Silverstream came across glint of light coming from above them. "I think I found something," the hippogriff said flying up to where the light was.

"Finally," Gallus groaned as he was tired from walking. Silverstream touched the crack from where the light was coming from saw it got bigger. Gallus helped her push up and removed the top part of the cave and found themselves in a building.

"Where are we?" The two crawled out and jumped a bit as the hole fixed itself.

The griffon flew around until he found a window. He looked out could see the quarantined school. "I think we're in Princess Twilight's castle."

"That makes sense, the school is right there."

"Get down." Gallus pulled his friend back from the window before anyone saw them. "Let's find an exit where no creature will see us."

"Right." Because the two hadn't really explored the castle before it would take a while for them to find an exit. Outside, Meadowbrook had put her hazmat suit back and reentered the school to gather more moss. She looked around until she found Fluttershy being checked over.

"Meadowbrook," Fluttershy said. "Have you found a cure yet?"

"Sorry, I'm not sure," she replied. "Zecora is using a small amount of moss to make potions while I get some more. Do you have more?"

"Well," said one of the doctors, "That purple dragon did upchuck some moss."

"You can't just give that stuff away," said another doctor. "She could be some crazy pony trying to spread this into an epidemic."

"She's one of the pillar ponies," Fluttershy stated. "She's worked with Starswirl."

"The bearded?" the doctors asked with Fluttershy nodding.

"I'm only wanting to help," Meadowbrook said.

"Hmm, alright," said one of the doctors. "But we're only giving you twenty percent."

"I can work with that." The medic ponies place a small part of the moss and placed it a small container and sealed it tight to make sure it would open by accident. They placed it in Meadowbrook's bag and she left the school. She was told to keep the hazmat suit to make sure she wouldn't get infected so she kept it on.

She managed to get back to Zecora's hut, where the zebra was quite surprised to see her. "Oh my, I didn't recognize you," Zecora said taking a close look the mare's face. "Come inside, I think I found a clue."

Meadowbrook walked in and she was asked to pore some of the moss she got into the cauldron. She did and it started disintegrating. "Oh my," she gasped.

"If we want this virus to beat, we'll have to turn up the heat. But the heat needed to make this virus break might be too much for the infected to take." Zecora was right, the water in her cauldron was boiling and the moss was still burning away at a slow rate.

"This water has to be nearly three hundred degrees. How will the ponies survive that much heat?"

"I'm not entirely sure, hopefully, I have a potion that helps with the cure. One we might desire, is one that can let you walked the heat of fire." The two looked at different potion recipes to see if they could find the fire potion Zecora was talking about.

Gallus and Silverstream managed to make their way to Sweet Apple Acres. Once there, the could see several quarantine ponies inspecting the orchard. "Great," the griffon groaned, "How are we suppose to be the apples now?"

"Maybe we could distract them," Silverstream suggested.

"How?"

The hippogriff used her necklace to turn herself into a seapony. "Cover my tail and fins with something." Gallus looked around and found some tarps and coved his friend's tail and fins with them.

"Now what?"

"Hide." He did so as Silverstream then started wailing. This grabbed some the ponies attention.

"Ms., are you alright?" one of the ponies asked.

"I don't..." She didn't finish as she faked several coughs while Gallus sneaked towards the orchard.

The pony removed the tarp on Silverstream's forelegs to find they had fins. "What are you?"

"A very sick pony."

"Actually, I've of these things called seaponies," said another medic. The "sick" seapony found her plan wasn't really going to work. Gallus knew he wasn't going to have enough time to pick the apples himself. He found a basket of the fruit and he snatched it and made a break for it.

Just before he could a yard away from the farm he was trapped in a pink bubble, much to his shock. "What are you doing here?" Shining Armor asked walking up to the trapped griffon.

"I can give five reasons why you should let me go," Gallus stated.

Shining took Gallus over to Silverstream, who had the tarps thrown off her. She turned back into a hippogriff knowing they were caught. "How did you escape the school?"

"If we told you wouldn't believe us," Silverstream said. She gave a grin but Shining wasn't buying it.

Later, he brought them back to the school and he had them locked in one of the classrooms to make sure they didn't escape again. Shining saw Spike towards them and he asked what happened. "These two somehow managed to escape the school."

"Seriously?" Spike questioned. "Maybe I should send Cadence a message." The dragon quickly wrote down a message but when he tried using his dragon breath to send it the message just burned to a crisp. "That's... Never happened before."

"How does that work?" Silverstream asked.

"A while back, I had this spell put on me that allows me to send messages through my fire breath. I better tell Twilight what's wrong." Spike ran off to find her as Ocellus, Smolder, Yona, and Sandbar walked to where their friends were.

"I told you it wasn't going to work," Ocellus said.

"Shut up," Gallus replied, "At least I tried something."

"Kid," Shining said, "Leave the work to the professionals."

"Professionals find anything?" Yona asked.

"Well, they did say..." The stallion was interrupted by Sandbar's groaning. Before he could ask what was wrong the colt collapsed onto the ground. His friend immediately got worried as Shining ran off to find a medic.

"Sandbar, can you hear us?" Smolder asked.

"Legs... Weak," Sandbar groaned. "Having... Trouble... Breathing."

"Sandbar, hang in there," Ocellus said. The medical ponies came running up and checked over him. Sandbar struggled to keep his eyes open. The voices of the ponies and his friend were drowned out by the sound of his heartbeat as his eyes slowly closed.