The Drone Epidemic!

While walking down the road, Kurojyaku and Muffins asked Princess Celestia about Canterlot, and everything that they wanted to know. Although Twilight wanted to stop them from asking their constant questions, she did not as she saw the patient and kind Princess answer their questions clearly and politely, even though some questions were quite unfit for the occasion.

They soon reached the library, which was unfortunately not as well guarded as the castle’s, leading to an infestation of ponydrones. “Squeak… pant… moan… mmmmppppphh…..mmmmmmfffff…”

The four heard it all and decided that they had to do something about it. Immediately, they locked the door to prevent any more ponydrones from entering, and they started combing the shelves of the huge library.

A portion of the books were overlaps of the books in the castle library that Princess Celestia and Twilight had already checked out, so they first eliminated those books. Still, the books were many, and they knew that they were going to take a long time, so they chatted.

“So, you two are Kurojyaku and Derpy?”

“Muffins!”

“Oh, sorry, Muffins. To be honest, I have never heard of Kurojyaku before, are you new?”

“No, Kurojyaku is just a nickname.”

“I see. Well, do you two know magic?”

“No.” “Yes.”

“Alright then.”

“So, what do you guys call the yellow ponies?”

“Ponies of species X.” “Antiponies.” “Ponybees.”

“Hmm, different names.”

“So, you just call them yellow ponies?” asked Muffins.

“Yes. It seems cumbersome and inappropriate to name them when I do not even have a single clue of their biology or where they come from.”

“But don’t you know where they come from? You told me you almost witnessed a guard turning into a yellow pony, didn’t you?” asked Twilight.

“Well, assuming the yellow ponies are caused by a plague, we do not know the origin of the plague, and we do not know patient zero. Although, with current information from you three, abductive reasoning gives the idea that patient zero is from Ponyville, if other regions of Equestria are neglected.”

“I wonder how much of Equestria is affected…”

After a while, Muffins asked, “How many more books do you think this will take?”

“I don’t know. The problem with solving the yellow ponies is that they are not organic, or natural. I can easily deal with the elements, or soils, grass, water, ice, et cetera, but not with rubber ponies.”

“Rubber ponies… They’re made of rubber… Do we even have any spells related to rubber?”

“Well… Not usually. We have spells of rubber for inanimate objects, but not for animate rubber objects.”

“Ah, I’ve found it! Rubber ponies!” Kurojyaku exclaimed.

“Really?” asked Twilight.

He took a good look at the book cover, and indeed, there was a rubber pony on it, but the rubber pony was different from a ponydrone; the rubber pony was just an inanimate rubber ponydoll, used by normal ponies for, well, pleasure.

“Sorry, this isn’t it,” Kurojyaku said as he tossed the book aside.

“Hmm…” Twilight looked at the book. “Why don’t we capture an antipony and test spells on it?”

“Sure.”

With great trouble, they found a metal cage used to keep dogs, and Twilight enlarged it to be able to fit a ponydrone. Then, the four of them went to get a ponydrone, which turned out to be easier than they thought, as they easily led (read: kicked) a ponydrone who was a former librarian towards and into the cage. With the test subject captured and ready, they started testing their spells on the subject.

With the first spell, the ponydrone’s valves sealed up, and a circular hole grew at the front of its muzzle. Under its tail a similar hole grew, and the ponydrone suddenly fell on all fours, its legs perpendicular to the ground. The glow in its eyes slowly faded as it turned inanimate.

“It’s a sexdoll!” said Twilight. “This is rubber, but…”

“At least we got its mouth to open, sort of…”

“Next spell!”

“Hold on, how do we return it back to a normal yellow pony?”

“There’s a reverse spell in this book.”

So, with the reverse spell, the ponydrone doll returned back to a normal ponydrone.

“What spell should we try next?”

“I think we need something that can make them look more normal, I guess.”

“Ah, how about this mirror spell?”

“A mirror spell? What for?”

“Seeing through its deepest desires.”

“Well, we don’t need that spell.”

They continued searching and eventually stumbled on a talking spell, where an inanimate object could gain a mouth and a voice to speak.

“Ooh, this feels so nice!” a squeaky, high-pitched voice was heard suddenly.

The four ponies looked at each other in the atmosphere of awkwardness.

“Mmmmmpppppphhhhh!”

“Hello!” said Twilight to the ponydrone.

“Hello? Wait, I can talk!”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m… rubbing this circular object.”

“Alright then. What are you?”

“I’m a pony. Just like you.”

“Are you sure? Just look at yourself,” Princess Celestia said as she conjured up a mirror.

The talking ponydrone looked in the mirror and saw itself. “So?”

“You’re different from us. Just compare yourself to us.”

A moment of silence followed as the only sounds heard were squeaks as the ponydrone turned around, examining itself, then saying, “So, you’re not ponies.”

A brief moment of silence was there once more but soon broken, “No, we’re different types of ponies.”

“And why should that matter to me then? We should accept each other’s differences, right?"

“Yes, but ponies of our kind seem to be assimilating into your kind.”

“What a wonderful thing! Do you not want to be like us, all yellow and black, the colors of perfection? Not to mention, our perfect rubbery bodies that are virtually indestructible. We’re practically immortal!”

“Immortal?” asked Princess Celestia.

“What are you thinking of?”

“I believe no such thing exists!”

“Immortality does.”

“Alright then, why don’t you turn me into your kind and see?”

“No!”

“No? Why not?”

“Why should I transform you?”

“Hmm… Alright then.”

“Do you want to become like us then?”

“Me? No way!”

“Alright then.”

Suddenly, Kurojyaku, who had left in the middle of the conversation to search other parts of the library, had come back, tired and panting, “I think I might have found it! A solution!”

“What solution?”

“Well, to be honest, it’s not really a definite solution, but more of a suggestion. I hypothesize that the spell for the antiponies exist but are just hidden in the restricted section of the library.”

“Sounds promising. Alright, let’s go!”

“But I thought…”

“I have a way.”

After some time, the four of them arrived in the restricted section, along with the talking ponydrone.

“I’m here…” the ponydrone started saying. “Please save me…”

“What’s going on with it?”

“I think… it’s connecting…”

The ponydrone ran free towards the inside of the restricted section, and the four followed it, finding another ponydrone, locked up in a cage of magic.

“Blah…blah…blah…” read Princess Celestia of some ancient words on a plaque. “It seems that this event occurred before a long time ago, and this is one of the last ponydrones from that event.”

“Why didn’t they restore it back?”

“I have no idea. But it seems that they can connect with each other.”

“Please, free me!”

“Hmm… Is there any spell that can cure them?”

“Yes, there is.”

“It’s written here.”

Princess Celestia read the spell, and the two ponydrones started turning back into ponies.

“Wow! Where was I? What happened to me? What am I doing here?”

“It worked!”

“You’re…” Kurojyaku and Muffins explained the situation to them as Princess Celestia taught Twilight what the spell was and set off to cure everypony who had been transformed.

First, they flew around Canterlot, and found everypony who had been transformed, then turning them back to normal. But that was not enough, as Princess Celestia explained, “I think there’s more ponydrones, but we’ll have to check at the library to be sure.”

At the library, they found the ponydrone, now a pony, still stuck in the cage. “How can we free it?” asked Muffins.

“I’m afraid you cannot,” said Princess Celestia. “Only we can. The pony will only be free once all the yellow ponies are turned back into normal ponies.”

“How many more yellow ponies are there?”

“We’re not sure, actually.”

“Hey, how about the spell of magic spread? We could encapsulate the magic in a crystal and shine it all over town.”

“Okay.”

The two did so, and with the power of the sun, every ponydrone that was touched by the rays refracted by the crystal started to turn back into normal ponies. However, the method was not complete as there were still quite a number of ponydrones left. Nevertheless, with the help of the royal guards who were now rejuvenated, the two of them traveled around the whole of Equestria on the flying chariot, trying to get everyone recovered.

To be continued...