Disease

"Alright, everybody we are almost there." Principal Celestia announced as she stood and faces the students. "Me and my sister are excited you are able to come to the Canterlot Laboratory Musuem." The students let out various cheers in excitement at that announcement.

"But everyone will need to stay together, the ground is still partially unstable and crews are still excavating areas separate from the musuem." Vice Principal Luna pointed out.

Rainbow groaned. "We already know this." She whispered to Sunset who rolled her eyes in response.

"Safety is paramount, Ms.Dash." Luna called out as some students snickered. The bus groaned as it came to a stop. Granny Smith unlocked the doors and swung open. Luna and Celestia stepped out first.

"Neat line, ya heard?" Granny Smith called out.

Rainbow grumbled as Applejack elbowed.

"Be nice ta Granny, Dash." She scolded as she stepped off the bus. Rainbow rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Sorry, AJ." She mumbled and ignored the other girls triumphant look. She and the others followed Principal Celestia inside where their tour guides waited for them. Who the guides were, they had no idea but they soon would.

"Hello, are you our guides?" Cheerilee asked the three girls in front of her.

"We are." One announced and all three stepped into the light. The students gasped and glared at the three.

"You three. Again?" Sea Swirl groaned.

"Yes, us three." Aria agreed and glared at her.

"Sunset got us jobs here. She's pretty nice, unlike the rest of you." Adagio snapped and all eyes fell on Sunset.

"Why would you do that?" Rarity asked hotly.

Sunset shrugged.

"Without the pendants, they are three normal high school girls. They need money to survive." Sunset argued. "Besides, they aren't that different from me."

"You didn't try to hypnotize everyone in the school for no reason." Lightning Dust shot back.

Sunset folded her arms across her chest.

"No, I just mind controlled them into being my own teenage army hell bent on conquering Equestria." She replied dryly.

Aria grinned at Sunset.

"You would make a great siren. Ya know, if we weren't reformed and had our pendants and you weren't reformed either." She told the other girl.

Lyra rolled her eyes.

"Aren't you like a million years old?" She asked.

"Yes, so respect your elders." Adagio replied offhandly. Celestia clapped her hands to get their attention. Everyone turned to her and waited for her to start speaking.

"Alright, everyone enough discussions. If the guides are ready, the teachers are too." She said, nodding at Adagio.

"We are. Right this way, and make sure to stay together. We don't want to lose anyone and have to come searching for your miserable selves. Some areas are made of loose concrete so watch your step." Adagio announced.

"That would be like, the worst to lose someone." Sonata agreed.

"Such a pity." Aria rolled her eyes. "Not like there isn't one hundred other students here to take their place."

Adagio pulled open a door and gestured for the students to enter.

"We just got done excavating this area. This class is the first people to enter other than work crews. Be very careful." She warned. The students filed in and she followed them, closing the door behind them softly. Thunderlane jumped at the sound.

"Do you really have to close us in here?" He asked nervously, eyes flicking around him.

Adagio nodded. "So no kid or anyone else stumbles in and gets lost. We have a key, don't worry." She reassured him. She held her lanyard around her neck with a key on it for him to see and he gave a small sigh.

"I'm claustrophobic as hell." He admitted. Adagio nodded.

"Sonata, come back here." She called out and the blue haired ex siren appeared.

"Yeah sis?" She asked grinning.

"Stay back here and talk to..." She glanced at him.

"Thunderlane." He said helpfully.

"Thank you. Stay here with Thunderlane as we go through. He's claustrophobic, you are as well. You can help each other through it till we get out." Adagio explained

Sonata nodded eagerly and clapped her hands, the sound echoing down the hall.

"You got it. This is gonna be so much fun. We can talk about tacos, our favorite taco toppings and taco restaurants." Sonata said enthusiastically, grinning at Thunderlane. He nervously nodded and jumped at a sound of rock falling and grabbed her arm, hiding behind her. Adagio smirked and headed to the front where Aria was giving a lecture.

"This place opened in the 1800's as a small time clinic. After the clinic shut down, it became a lab to make antidotes for viruses. It was abandoned and went off the radar for years. No one knows who it belonged to, but the city of Canterlot somehow possessed it. It sat for about forty years overgrown till someone decided to make it into a museum two years ago. Some people say it's haunted and you can hear screaming, see ghosts and have items disappear. Some people have been slapped or touched on their head." Aria continued her lecture. "My personal favorite is a little girl. You can play hide and seek with her for hours till she gets tired. She was a victim of a malaria, which was a common illness back in her time."

Octavia looked back and forth cautiously.

"Are any of them violent?" She hesitantly asked. Aria nodded and Octavia gulped as Vinyl put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Only one is. He was a old man who got murdered here by a doctor. Someone people say he is still here searching for the doctor to get his revenge. He slaps people who he deems as rude or disrespectful. He's been known to shove or whisper in their ears. He scared a women so bad, she ended up dying from fear in a hospital." Adagio answered. "As long as you respect the ghosts, they respect you and leave you alone. Mostly. Some enjoy playing pranks on you but that's about it." A clanging sound made Mystery Mint jumped and hugged Watermelody who quietly groaned as she walked on, Mystery's legs dragging behind her.

"What was that?" Fluttershy shyly asked.

Aria waved a hand. "Probably a ghost or you're hearing crews adjacent to us. No biggie."

"Where's this lead?" Lyra asked, pointing at a door covered in vines. Aria glanced to her left and stopped.

"Adagio? Have you ever seen this door?" She asked turning to her sister. "We've been here exploring by ourselves but I've seen never this door." Adagio approached and studied it and shook her head.

Sonata patted Thunderlane on the arm.

"Wait right here, I'll be right back I promise." She told him smiling and he nodded. She walked up to her other sisters and stared at the door. Seeing some writing, she brushed a leaf aside and rested her hand against it reading. Sunset had joined them and read something.

"It's Ancient Equestrian, but how?" She wondered aloud.

Adagio quickly read what Sunset had read and her eyes widened.

"She's right. What the hell." She mumbled.

Sunset kept reading on and her eyes widened in horror. She smacked Sonata's hand away.

"What the heck?" Sonata demanded.

"Do you know what you just touched?" Sunset demanded with a frantic tone. "That symbol you just touched is a international symbol in Equestria recognized by over a dozen languages. It basically means don't fucking touch, illness inside." She stared in fear at the door. "We need to get the hell outta here, now."

Adagio quickly nodded.

"Back the way we came." She ordered. Before anyone could move, the door slid open and a black mist came rushing out. It passed over the students harmlessly, but as soon as it hit Sunset and the Dazzlings, they collapsed on the ground coughing.

"Sunset!" Rainbow shouted before kneeling down with Applejack to help her up. The Dazzlings were coughing as Cheerilee and Bon Bon helped them up.

"What the hell was that?" Vinyl said aloud and some students nodded. Watermelody screamed and pointed a shaking finger into the doorway.

"W-what the fuck is that?!" She exclaimed. A skeleton laid behind the door.

"Sunset, what just happened?" Celestia demanded. Sunset coughed and wiped her mouth.

"It's a virus. From Equestria." She explained, coughing again.

"But how did it get here darling?" Rarity asked, standing a bit away.

"Will we get sick?" Mystery nervously asked.

Sunset shook her head and she gave a sigh of relief.

"It only affects Equestrians." She muttered.

"Which is you and the Dazzlings." Pinkie realized as Sunset nodded.

"We need to get you four to Canterlot Hospital for observation." Cheerilee stated, holding up Sonata who coughed. Sunset weakly nodded as she and the Dazzlings were helped out of the hallway.

Celestia slammed the door shut.

"No one go in there." Adagio weakly ordered as she started to fall but got caught by Lightning Dust. An employee quickly nodded and whipped his phone out.

"I'm calling for medics for you four, you look sick." He looked over Sunset and the Dazzlings.

"A door opened, a mist like came out and hit them in the face. They collapsed and started coughing. None of us were affected, it just passed over us. There's also a skeleton behind the door." Luna said helpfully. The employee stared and stepped back cautiously.

"The paramedics are coming. Just stay back, please. I have no idea what the hell just happened or if you guys are sick with whatever they got." He explained.

Celestia nodded and winced as Sunset and the Dazzlings gave out painful sounding coughs.

"So, any ideas on how this virus got here?" Rainbow asked Sunset. She sat in a contained room in the hospitals infectious disease wing. Adagio, Aria and Sonata were in the same room next to her. She gave a nod. She was surprised to find all the students sitting in front of her window.

"I thought they went home." She admitted.

Bon Bon rolled her eyes.

"We want to ensure you get better. We will stay here till you do. Now tell the story." She ordered.

Sunset nodded and took a breath.

"It was created back during the Lunar War where Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia was winning and Nightmare Moon knew it. She was panicking and losing ground quick. Everyday, more and more of her soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. Some even defected. To combat this, she ordered her scientists to make a disease she intended to unleash on Celestia's forces. The lead scientist was named Black Shadow. He successfully made the virus. To test it, she ordered him to unleash it on some of her own soldiers in a confined room. So he did, but it backfired. The soldiers went mad, broke out the room and the virus infected everyone in the laboratory. Nightmare Moon herself got infected." Sunset paused.

"What happened then?" Vinyl urged her on, looking intrigued.

Sunset sighed and continued.

"The virus got out into the public. Over half a million civilians died. Half of Equestria's population." She looked at the students shocked faces.

"How did people not get infected?" Lyra asked. "Vaccine?"

Sunset shook her head.

"There is no vaccine. Nightmare Moon took the only dose with her to the moon when she for banished to ensure all of Celestia's soldiers died. The bodies of the infected were burned and everypony hid indoors. Widespread panic, food shortages. It was a dark time in our history."

"We were there." Adagio's voice came from the next room. "We were supposed to be tested on next, but broke out before they could. We hid ourselves and watched as Equestria was plunged into death. We got banished by Starswirl soon after."

"What are the symptoms?" Mystery Mint asked.

Sunset rubbed her chin in thought.

"First, it's a cough. Then puking blood,
then blood running from the nose and eyes. Seizures follow next. Then screaming till the vocal cords are torn apart. And then death. Most committed suicide before the screaming started." She admitted. The students and her friends gazed at her in horror as she gave a violent cough and some blood sprayed onto the window. She reached out and wiped it away.

"I'm scared." She heard Sonata whimper. "I don't wanna die." She glanced into the window between their rooms and saw Aria stroking Sonata's hair as Adagio paced back and forth.

"You're not gonna die. None of us are." Aria firmly stated. "We will get over this sickness, get back out there to our job, our home and our dogs."

Bon Bon glanced into the other room that housed the sirens.

"Maybe they are normal people after all," she mumbled to Lyra.

"I guess so," the mint green girl agreed.