My Little Diseases

Applejack slowly stirred, holding the side of her head, feeling a dried, crusty scar that had formed while she was unconscious. Still fresh and in the process of healing.
She winced in pain as she ran her hoof over the injury.

She attempted to get up, only to cry out in pain and fall to the ground again, a shockwave of pain suddenly shooting through her back legs. Looking back, she saw her back legs were completely broken, and the bone had breached the skin. Dried blood stained her fur and caused it to become slightly mated.

“WHAT IN THE HAY IS GOIN’ ON?!” Applejack cried out into the basement she was being held in. Her voice bounced off of the walls. The basement was empty, the lights showing off the lab-like interior, which was messy and unorganized.
Applejack’s eyes widened as she looked around the basement, seeing the smashed lab equipment, the spilled samples, the scattered papers and notes.

She put a hoof out to the bars that separated her from the rest of the room, then she spotted something wrong with her front leg, looking closely, she saw that small holes had formed under her skin, causing the top layers of skin to become sunken in slightly, creating small craters on her hide.
Her eyes widening as she looks around her cell for something to look at herself with. She soon saw something glimmering on the ground of the cell, it looked like a piece of a broken mirror. Not questioning where it came from, she quickly picked it up, twisting and turning the piece in various directions to look at herself.

She soon saw a much more dense gathering of these small craters around her neck, with a dark red patch on the right side that looked like a fairly wide incision. Presumably where she had been injected with something.

“HELLO?! SOMEPONY?! WHAT’S GOIN’ ON?!” Applejack called out into the basement once more, her eyes filled with tears as she grew afraid of what was going on, with little to no way to defend herself thanks to her broken legs. She army crawled back to the bars at the front of the cell. Then she froze, upon hearing a low groaning sound coming from her left. Looking over, she saw what could be described as a deformed earth pony. Taking a moment to think, she picked up a nearby rock and threw it, landing a fairly accurate hit at a nearby ceiling light, causing it to swing.

What she saw in the neighboring cell shook her to her core. It was Rainbow Dash, but she had gone through a horrific transformation. Her legs had grown elongated, causing the skin to rip and shred due to the change being so rapid. Her muzzle and some small sections around her eyes were covered in various colours, like she had just gone through some sloppy face painting job.

Her wings stumps have healed awkwardly, leaving the stumps with some of the bone still sticking out. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, with her sclera becoming rainbow-coloured.
Her fur and mane colours had become dull, almost as if the colour was fading from her body. And on top of that, her body was covered in what looked like blisters, or boils, each one being a unique colour, ready to burst at any moment.

Before Applejack could react, Rainbow Dash’s malformed body began to slowly walk into a far corner of the cell, almost as if drawn to it. Before awkwardly laying down on her side, enjoying the silence, even if it was forced silence through Applejack’s shock.
Soon enough, the basement was filled with the sound of what could only be described as water balloons popping, as each blister and boil on Rainbow Dash’s body suddenly burst open, spraying blood and puss all over her body, Rainbow Dash’s body growing still as the life, or what was left, slowly drained from her body.

“RAINBOW?!” Applejack called out, but upon getting no response, her ears folded back, tears beginning to stream down her face as she couldn't bring herself to tear her gaze away from the mangled corpse.
That was until the silence was broken by hoof steps entering the basement.

Applejack’s head quickly snapped toward the door, seeing Pinkie standing there with Twilight at her side.

Both of the scientists looked insane. Their pupils were the size of pinpricks, and they both had wide smiles on their faces as they saw Applejack had finally woken up. Their lab coats were disheveled, the sleeves ripped, the main jacket being covered in multiple stains from previous experiments. Twilight’s mane was mangled, matted and neglected, while Pinkie’s mane hung flat, perfectly down the side of her face, along with her tail.

Both scientist’s colours were also dulled down, almost as if they hadn't been washing. Twilight looked almost completely grey, whether that was due to the side effect of being cured of the ‘Unseen Blight’ or not, was hard to tell.

Pinkie’s sunken-in, dark-ringed eyes slowly looked away from Applejack and looked toward Rainbow Dash’s corpse. Her smile faded, looking almost disappointed as she walked over to the door, taking the clipboard that hung on the wall beside the cell door, and looking it over.

“Hm… Seems Subject 2 didn't make it Twilight.” Pinkie said coldly, her tone flat and deadpan as she spoke. Lowering the clipboard she held to look at her lover.

Twilight tore her attention from Applejack, looking at Pinkie.

“We lost ANOTHER test subject?” Twilight responded, her crazed smile falling also, being replaced with a look of anger. Before both scientists’ eyes began to fill with tears of frustration.

“When are we EVER going to succeed in finding a cure to these infections before they ACTUALLY manifest into real pandemics?!” Twilight shouted into the basement, rubbing her hoof against her temple, her head giving a small twitch as she wiped her eyes.

Applejack didn't speak, not wanting their attention to come back to her. Pinkie put down the clipboard and sighed, walking to a nearby set of drawers and grabbing her leg protectors, her face mask, and she tied up her mane into a ponytail.
Before walking to a nearby wall and grabbing an axe that she had recently borrowed from Sweet Apple Acres for another project.
She walked into Rainbow Dash’s cell, before the basement was filled with the sound of bones cracking, flesh being cut into, and the sounds of splashing could be heard, as a large puddle of blood and puss had formed on the ground, that Pinkie had to walk through to grab each piece, as she dismembered Rainbow’s body.
Soon putting them into a thick bag to bury later in the castle gardens.

“Do we have any other patients or is Subject 3 all we have left?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking over at Twilight again with a tilt of her head. Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought before looking over at a 4th cell within the room.

The cell, looking from the outside, was a lot darker than the others, as it went deeper into the wall, shielding the inside from much of the light. But as Twilight ignited her horn, and shone some light through the bars, into the cell, something writhed inside of the cell, making a soft gurgling sound.

Looking at the creature inside, it looked like 2 ponies had been melted together, their skin looking similar in texture to freshly hardened wax. 2 pairs of emerald green eyes looked up at the source of the light, and 8 legs emerged from the strange blob, dragging itself forward toward the bars, one of the legs reaching out, attempting to grab twilight.

Applejack looked on with wide eyes from her own cell at what she saw, her ears folded flat against her head as she watched the scene unfold. She then looked at something that was on the ground beside the creature. It was 2 hats, and some white and blue striped vests.

“Wait…” Applejack mumbled under her breath, before her eyes widened again.
“FLIM?! FLAM?!” Applejack shouted out of shock, causing Twilight to look over her shoulder at Applejack, smirking in a fairly sinister manner.

“Well aren't you quick to connect the dots Subject 3?” Twilight commented, before looking back at the melted pair, chuckling softly.

Pinkie Pie then grabbed the clipboard, looking over the sheets being held within the metal clip.

“Ah… ‘together forever syndrome’... Weren't we going to give this to Mr and Mrs cake?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head again, causing the purple alicorn to chuckle lowly.

Applejack looked horrified, her face paling before she turned away from the scene, retching and bringing up the contents of her stomach in the corner of her own cell, clearly disgusted at what was going on. Flim and Flam groaned loudly in response to Applejack’s reaction. One of the many melted, waxy hooves, reaching through the bars, the limb stretching slightly as it reached out toward Applejack.

Pinkie pie kicked the bars of Flimand FLam’s cell, causing a loud clanging sound to ring out.
“You be quiet Patient 0. You’ll have your meal later today.”

This caused the salesmen to slither back into a dark corner of their cell, the pile slowly melting together into one big pile, groaning lowly as small sections of the blob, reached out and ran along the walls, gathering up dust particles and small bits of stone, bringing it back into themselves.
“I will say…” Twilight began.
“This infection has evolved in so many ways. But I wasn't expecting these 2 to begin filter-feeding off of the walls and floor. We may need to conduct more research on them instead of waiting for them to die… It's obvious they won't be going anywhere any time soon.”

Applejack couldn't think of anything to say in response to all of this, what Twilight was doing, what she HAD done, to her friends, was barbaric… Her friends were dead, by Twilight’s hoof, and now she would be next.

Applejack’s eyes began to fill with tears, looking toward the door, she saw a familiar shape, it was the cutie mark Crusaders! Peeking through the doorway, looking horrified at what they saw, with Sweetie belle on the verge of screaming, though Scootaloo had both front hooves over her mouth in hopes of that being enough to stop her.

Applejack quickly looked over at Twilight and Pinkie Pie, who were deeply immersed in their conversation about their plans for Flim And Flam, to realize that the 3 fillies had witnessed so much.
Applejack quickly waved to get their attention, before silently shooing them away, mimicking writing on paper with her hooves, and pretending to put a crown on her head, hoping the fillies would get the idea.
They gave a nod and slowly backed out of the basement, being as quiet as possible to avoid being seen.

Once they were out of the castle, they sprinted home, Sweetiebelle bursting into tears, and Applebloom looking paler than snow.
“WHAT DO WE DO?!” Scootaloo yelled in panic, and Applebloom quickly turned to her Pegasus friend.

“Did you not see Applejack?! She was trying to tell us to write to someone!”
Applebloom responded, running as fast as her little legs would carry her, until they got back to sweet apple acres.

When the 3 fillies made it to the orchard, their running didn't stop, they began running around the farm, through the trees, and in the direction of the clubhouse in search of spike.

“SPIKE!!” The 3 fillies cried out as they checked every nook and cranny of the farm. Until Sweetie Belle made her way into Applebloom’s house, looking in each room, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
She slowly made her way upstairs, and she saw Spike, standing in Applejack’s room, looking at the wall of evidence Applejack had made, his eyes wide with realization.

“Spike?” Sweetiebelle said softly, causing the baby dragon to flinch in surprise at her voice breaking the heavy silence he was in.

“Oh… hey sweetie belle.” Spike responded, forcing a smile and making her way over to the unicorn filly.
“Spike… There’s something very important I need you to do. Come with me.” Sweetie Belle instructed as she led Spike downstairs into the living room. She then rang the bell that hung over the house’s door, signaling for Applebloom and Scootaloo to come back.

When they came back, Spike saw the terrified looks on their faces properly. Their eyes were red and puffy from crying, their legs shook from how fast and hard they were running, and they were still slightly out of breath.

“What happened…?” Spike asked, looking very concerned for the 3 girls. And what Scootaloo said, only made Spike’s concern grow heavier.

Scootaloo took a step forward, her expression changing to be very serious.
“Spike…. Take a letter…”