Last September

Did I tell you that this kid, he had the most innocent stare you could ever imagine? With his maroon red eyes, he could coerce you into murder if he really tried. And if I weren’t as smart as I was I would’ve thought that was exactly why Flamey would let this stranger inside. “I’m glad you came over here, Daed. But, where the hell is your mom? She should’ve come with you, or taken you somewhere you’d be safer.” I looked to Firefang, who was staring straight at the kid with his steel-strong resolve.

That was when Daedalus averted his gaze. “I-I don’t know, but...Flamey, she’s been really sick lately. She’s been really tired all of a sudden, and all she’s been doing is sleeping. And then...when I tried waking her up, she wouldn’t stop screaming…”

That’s when Firefang looked puzzled. I did too, not surprisingly. To be honest I don’t like being woken up either, but I wouldn’t scream if Fang decided to roll me out of bed in the middle of the night. Well, maybe if I were in a bad mood or something, but that's besides the point. I’ve never known this kid until Firefang introduced him, so I don’t know if he’s got an abusive mom like mine or what.

...but if he came alone…

“Screaming?”

Daedalus nodded with a whimper. “I don’t know what she said, but...but she scared me so much, I just ran and hid until this entire thing died down, and now…” The nymph ambled solemnly toward the big window, placing his hoof on the glass and watching the orange light glow bright, whisking toward the skies in a thousand plumes of spark stained smoke. Thank goodness we weren’t outside- the noxious fumes would’ve been enough to kill us.

“Daed, get away from the window,” Firefang hissed, wrapping his hooves around Daedalus’ waist and snatching him away from the open view. “Someone might see you, dammit!”

The younger changeling gasped as Firefang almost tossed him over in my direction. His flank skid on the floor, and he bumped up against the counter sitting next to me. Firefang scampered off in an even bigger panic than before. Daedalus only lamented, burrowing his head into my side.

“Nngh…”

Well, now I’m uncomfortable.

Firefang himself, and everyone who knew me well enough to care knew I didn’t like being touched. No poking, no grabbing, no hugs. Well, that last one I would only accept on occasion.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t make the most of my alone time with him. I’m all about productivity, which means that I take every given moment as an opportunity to help the situation. And how was I going to do that? Well, by talking to the kid.

“Hey.” I bent my foreleg. To my swift discomfort, it had already fallen asleep just being stuck under this kid’s dead weight. But although the prickly sensation cut deep I was determined to get answers. Now, I softly nudged him with my elbow. “Hey,” I repeated. Daedalus lifted his head to look at me. Now, the confusion was apparent just as much as sadness, so maybe this was going to be more difficult than I thought getting good answers out of him. “You said your mom was sick before this, right?”

“M-Mhm…” he nodded with a small sniffle. “She was taking all these Asp-Aspir-Aspir...ain?”

“Aspirin,” I corrected.

“Well, that’s pretty common for someone raising a kid this...kid like. Might be a single mom, possibly in her late thirties or so. But then there’s the screaming...stress?”

“So, she had really bad headaches, or what?”

“Bad headaches...I had to help her into the apartment last week because of them. She said it hurt real bad, like she could barely hear...”

“Last week…?”

So, this was something going on, like, before. Maybe not before, before, like months ago, this was still recent. But seeing as this was set back a week before everypony went batshit crazy, maybe there was an actual reason other than raising a stressful kid.

“Is there anyone else that was like this?” I asked, turning to Daed with a canted brow. I grabbed him by his shoulders and made sure he faced me head on, looking straight into my eyes. As I glared right into his, I felt like I was taken back in time or something. Back to the fire, back to the panic. Back when Firefang was staring into my eyes like this.

I felt just like Firefang.

I pulled Daedalus closer and realized that I was still gripping him tightly. He nodded tentatively, and I almost found myself grinning.

No.

Serious Steel.

“M-My friend...two of them. Icarus and Ink...t-they’re twin brothers…”

I felt like shaking him. Gripping him even tighter, screaming at him. Stick to answering my questions, dammit! But darn, the kid was like, eight. I wasn’t about to get anywhere forcing him to do anything, or else he might cry or something.

“...when I saw them at school, they...they were trying to help each other walk, but they wouldn’t stop tripping over each other or something...i-it was like, every step they took, they were walking on hot bricks…”

I was a little befuddled for a quick second, but then a small smile crossed my lips. I couldn’t help it- I always love a good analogy.

“W-Why are you smiling?”

“That’s besides the point. Look, when’s the last you heard of them?”

“L-Local hospital...I haven’t visited them yet, but-”

“Y’alright, thanks man.”

Quickly, I patted myself down. A small lump in my hoodie told me I had most definitely brought my notepad. With a smile, I managed to find a dull pencil and jotted down this information. Now, I thought I’d definitely figure out what was going on.

__

Note to self: Creatures around this new kid Daedalus have been experiencing really bad headaches. Second hoof account; stumbling, trouble hearing, pounding headaches.

Footnote: Daedalus woke his mom up and she started screaming out of nowhere. Stress? Anxiety?

__

Daedalus pushed forward and coiled his hooves around me. I was a little startled, and ended up ruining my notes with a rough pencil stroke going diagonally off the page.

Crap. Well, I could always erase it.

...you know, now that I thought of it…

“...you said your mom’s been really sick lately, yes?”

He nodded into the now wrinkled wet spot of the fabric on my side. I refrained from rolling my eyes thankfully- I can’t blame him for crying, he was obviously really frightened. I wouldn’t say any different if he was drooling though, I absolutely despise anything spit related.

“What kind of sick? Like, sick in the head, or…?”

“She’s been taking a lot of Halls...the honey flavor...she only takes the cool blue ones when she has dry throat or something but she’s been coughing a lot…sick coughs…”

Just as I thought.

Princess Twilight, on the T.V; how badly she was coughing when she wasn’t at the microphone. Immediately I turned back to my notepad.

__

That’s it. That’s the Autumn Plague, on the news. Headaches, sick coughs, stumbling around. And yet the Princess wasn’t even stumbling or anything, she was just coughing. Like, a lot. I mean, she looked fine on television or something. Then again I don’t know what it’s like to be an alicorn, so maybe they’re just more sturdy than regular ponies…?

__

I heard a thud as I pulled away from the kid. Although I realized he probably fell, I didn’t pay much attention. He shouldn’t have been that close anyhow. Firefang came scrambling around the corner, carrying old tattered tabloids and a bucket of black paint with the handle clenched in his teeth. He sat our rickety supplies down on the counter, then looked at me.

“Look, since you’re the oldest, I want you to help me cover the windows. We’ll paint over them and tape the newspapers together over the glass. That way, no one’ll see us and we don’t gotta be scared of standing in front of the windows.”

I nodded, but still digressed. “Look, Flamey, I think I may have just figured all this out.”

“Steel, we gotta hurry. You can educate me about that later, you ain’t Rein Dawson. Cut the vigilante shit out and help me cover these windows.”

“B-But Flamey, this is critical information!”

“I don’t care! It’s critical we cover these windows before someone sees us and-”

Firefang couldn’t finish; he erupted with a loud hack and collapsed, coughing and gagging like he was about to throw up. Daedalus gasped as he stumbled backwards, back thudding against the store counter. Fang rolled over on his back with another five coughs, sticking close to the floor like he was refusing to move. I furled my brow as I watched him struggle, not exactly knowing what to do but not in quite a rush. I mean, by the looks of it this wasn’t any common cold. Nothing like cough drops could solve something like this.

I’m not going to jump to conclusions, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is exactly what I don’t want it to be.

And never did I think I’d find myself so desperately wanting to be wrong.