Author's Note
If anyone can think of a better title for this, please comment it and I will change the title and credit you in the long description! Also if anyone knows the artist for the cover art, drop a link in the comments! I couldn't find it 
Enjoy the story!
Influenza Is No Fun
Twilight enjoyed hanging out with her Canterlot High friends. On the surface, they seemed almost identical to their pony counterparts, but once you really got to know them, they were entirely unique.
Twilight liked being in the human world. There was so much to learn. From the modern tech all the way to horses, Twilight found something new every time she visited.
This particular weekend, the Princess of Friendship discovered something she would have rather not.
She was curled up in the fetal position on Sunset’s couch, a trash can on the floor in front of her and a cold compress on her forehead. She was sweating buckets yet shivers racked her body constantly.
Influenza was no fun, Twilight decided.
Twilight had been sick in Equestria before, of course. But back home, illness could be cured with a simple spell, or at least the pain could be dulled.
In the human world, all they had was gross ‘cherry flavored’ syrup.
She heard a laugh come from behind her. She rolled her eyes, but regretted it as the action made her dizzy.
“Sucks doesn’t it?” Sunset leaned over the back of the couch, studying Twilight.
“Yeah,” Twilight said. Turns out, that was a mistake too as seconds later she began to start trying to cough her lungs up. She felt Sunset rest a hand on her back, rubbing it gently.
“Where did you even get sick? You’ve only been around us,” Sunset asked once Twilight had calmed down. She sniffed.
“I dunno, and frankly, I don’t care where I got it, I just want it to go away!” Twilight cried. Sunset came around the side of the couch and sat down on the floor in front of Twilight. She faced her, reaching up to gently stroke her hair. Twilight buried her face back down into her knees, letting out a small whimper.
“Is there anything I can do?” She moved her hand from Twilight’s hair to her shoulder, massaging gently.
Twilight just shook her head sadly. Sunset sighed, trying to think of anything she could do to help.
Twilight had woken up quite early that morning, only to promptly throw up on the floor of Sunset’s loft. Sunset had taken her down to the couch to be closer to the bathroom in case she threw up again.
After that had proved ineffective and Twilight had puked all over the back of the couch somehow, the trash can had been brought out. Seriously, Sunset had no idea how she had managed that. After the other Twilight had gotten sick on the carpet just a month prior, Sunset had never been able to get the stain out. She would prefer not to have to buy another tacky rug to cover vomit stains.
“Do you wanna go back to the bed?” Sunset asked. Twilight just nodded.
Sunset pushed herself up, grabbing the trash can and carrying it up to the loft. She set it next to her bed then went back down the stairs to retrieve the sick girl in question.
Carefully sliding her arms under the shivering girl, she picked her up. It was a slight struggle with the amount of blankets wrapped around Twilight, but she managed.
Soon Twilight was curled up again, this time on Sunset’s bed. At least she would be a little bit more comfortable than she was on the couch.
“Need anything else?” Sunset sat next to her, brushing the hair out of Twilight’s face.
Twilight just shrugged.
Sunset climbed over Twilight and laid down behind her. She laid on her back, staring up at the ceiling. After a few minutes she rolled over onto her side and snaked an arm around Twilight. Twilight responded by rolling over and burying her face into Sunset’s chest. It took some effort, but she got there eventually.
Twilight let out a small sniffle, burying her face deep into the fluffy space that was all of the blankets she was wrapped in and Sunset’s robe. At six am on a Sunday, Sunset still hadn’t gotten dressed, not when she essentially tethered to her apartment taking care of the visiting princess. Not that she really minded.
Twilight just felt awful in general. The cold compress on her head was doing little to bring down her fever and her whole body ached. She could feel her stomach churning and she just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
She felt a tear roll down her face. As it soaked into Sunset’s robe the floodgates opened.
Twilight was bawling in a matter of seconds, crying more than she had in a long time. It was all she could do, her throat too sore to talk and her head pounding too much to fall asleep.
Sunset just wrapped her arms around her and held her close. She was no stranger to breaking down into tears when you were sick, it had happened to her a handful of times and she had seen her girlfriend and Fluttershy in particular do it too. She tried her best to soothe Twilight but she wasn’t sure how well it was working.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, shhh, you’re okay,” she soothed, rubbing Twilight’s back with one hand and reaching down to hold one of Twilight’s shaking hands with the other.
Suddenly, Twilight rolled away from Sunset, mumbling “Oh no.” Sunset’s eyes widened as she sat up, reaching over behind twilight to grab the trash can sitting next to the bed. The second her hand touched it however it was too late.
Twilight dry heaved, soon followed by vomit. It went all over herself and the top blanket, even some on the sheets. Sunset was able to catch the last of it with the trash can, but it was still a huge mess.
She let out a small sigh.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Twilight wailed, now covered in her own throw up. It was not pleasant.
“It’s okay Twi. It’s not your fault,” Sunset set the trash can down and pulled away the blankets that were now soiled. She folded them over so the vomit didn’t get anywhere else and helped Twilight out of bed.
“Come on, bathtime. It’s in your hair.” She helped Twilight down the stairs, leading her to the bathroom. Twilight’s knees only gave out twice, which was less than Sunset had expected.
She helped Twilight strip out of the pajamas she had lent her, careful to not get any of the gross sick fluid on the rest of her body. Twilight leaned against the counter while Sunset ran a warm bath.
“C’mere, let’s get this out of your hair before it dries, then you can take a bath.” Sunset pulled down the handheld shower head and called Twilight over. The sick girl crossed the few feet to the bathtub on shaking legs, plopping down on the bathmat. Sunset lifted the sick girl’s hair over the side of the tub, using the showerhead to wash all of the throw up from her hair. She grabbed a washrag and wet it, wiping off her face.
She finished running the bath then helped Twilight into the tub, easing her down into the room temperature water. She didn’t want it to be too hot and bring up her fever, but with the way Twilight’s shivering was still going at full force, she figured cold water would just make her miserable.
Sunset picked up a cup she had grabbed from the kitchen when she took the soiled clothes away and used it to wet Twilight’s hair the rest of the way without having to dunk her under the water.
She took the lemon and berry shampoo from the shelf in the shower and poured a generous amount into her palm. Carefully she began to massage it into Twilight’s hair. Twilight let out a sigh of contentment, leaning back into Sunset’s grip, trusting that the redhead wouldn’t let her collapse.
To Twilight it felt like the comforting massage was over as soon as it started, while in reality Sunset had been combing the tangles out of her hair with her fingers and rubbing the shampoo into every strand of her hair for a solid five minutes. Sunset got to work washing the bubbles out, making sure to help keep Twilight’s head above the water as she used the cup again to wash it all out.
After conditioning Twilight’s hair and helping her wash off the rest of her Sunset set the cup down on the side of the tuba and helped Twilight rest up against the back of it.
“Can you stay here for five minutes and not drown while I go change the sheets?” she asked, only partly joking. Twilight weakly nodded and Sunset gave her one last worried glance before standing up and leaving the bathroom, making sure to keep the door cracked in case something went wrong.
She stripped the bed, taking the sheets to the laundry basket where she put the rest of the sick covered fabrics to be washed. She left the apartment for a minute, taking the basket down the laundry room downstairs. She slid a dollar in quarters in the machine. She rolled her eyes as she looked at the price, it was ridiculous. Normally she wouldn’t leave the clothes there but this was a special circumstance. She really didn’t feel comfortable leaving Twilight alone in her apartment for hours especially when she was still in the bath and probably couldn’t get herself out. It was barely seven am, nobody else was in the laundromat and hers was the only machine running, so she took a chance.
She hightailed it back up to the apartment on the third floor, room 313 to be exact. She opened the room and barely shut it behind her, rushing back to the bathroom. Twilight was still there and safe, her head leaned up against the back wall of the tub as she dozed. As Sunset entered her eyes shot open. Sunset couldn’t tell if Twilight even knew what was going on as she helped her out of the bath and into a clean pair of pajamas. Sunset took a hairdryer to her soaked hair quickly, knowing how terrible it felt to have wet hair while you were as sick as Twilight was.
Soon Twilight was clean and dry and she led her back up to the bed, silently cursing to herself as she had forgotten to change the sheets and the mattress was bare save for the one blanket that had survived.
She grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around Twilight’s shoulders, guiding her over to the corner where there was a railing and letting her sit there.
“Just give me a sec to change the sheets, kay?” Twilight just nodded her head a little. She was clearly exhausted and Sunset went as fast as she could down the stairs and to the closet behind her front door, finding a spare set of sheets and another comforter. She took them back up to the bed and struggled to get the fitted sheet on, but eventually got it. She placed the pillows back on the bed and tossed the comforter on it. Sunset returned to Twilight, picking her up and carrying her back to the bed.
She got her tucked in then left to get her a bottle of water from the kitchen. She considered some crackers, but decided against it. Sunset didn’t think Twilight would be able to handle any food, and she certainly didn’t want to have to clean up a fourth mess before eight am.
Once she got back to Twilight, Sunset sat next to her and slowly helped her drink some of the water. She would pull it away every thirty seconds or so and wait a minute or two to make sure it was staying down before giving Twilight some more water. Soon it was clear Twilight was too tired to continue and Sunset put the cap on the bottle and set it on the side table, climbing into bed next to Twilight and fixing herself under the covers.
She let Twilight curl back into her, the princess almost immediately falling asleep. Sunset glanced over and saw the cold compress sitting on the side table where she had thrown it in the hurry to get Twilight to the bath. She considered placing it back on Twilight’s forehead to keep her fever from rising too much, but Twilight was already passed out with her face buried in between Sunset’s collarbone and shoulder. So she ignored it, tightening her grip on Twilight and grabbing her phone, scrolling through her notifications.
As the events of the morning caught up with her, she threw her phone to the side and settled in to go back to sleep. Twilight let out a small cough but otherwise remained still. Sunset smiled at her before finally drifting off after being up since just past four in the morning.
As tiring as taking care of someone sick could be, Sunset was happy to help in any way she could.
