My Little Diseases

2 months have passed… 2 months of testing, stress, struggle, and many failures. But, Twilight finally managed to get the vaccination made for all the alicorns out there, to keep them safe from the Unseen Blight, especially now she had accidentally unearthed its infection.

Twilight’s front legs and flank were now covered in scars, as Twilight needed more and more of her blood to test the vaccination prototypes. Seeing as she was cured through a horn transplant, and not through antibodies. So she was still very susceptible to the infection happening again.

The scars spread down the entire back side of her front legs, some deeper and fresher than others, while some were in the process of healing, but the scars would remain. More scars covered her flanks, causing her cutie mark to warp and become obscured by the amount of slashes that riddled her skin.

Pinkie Pie had stood by the entire time, making sure to patch up the cuts each time a new one was made, and helping Twilight with testing. The pair worked many sleepless nights, trying to make the vaccination for the unseen blight perfect, testing the vaccination on various small animals, monitoring any side effects, and changing the medicine accordingly.

Now the vaccination has been perfected. A white liquid that sat perfectly within a syringe. Twilight administered the vaccination to herself while sending 4 copies of the vaccination to princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Flurry Heart.

“I'm so proud of you Twilight,” Pinkie said softly, nuzzling against the purple alicorn.
“You managed to find a cure for an infection that was buried and hidden away for many moons. With a breakthrough like that, you could find a cure for so many other things!”

Twilight lifted her head in thought, Pinkie had an excellent point. She could find the cure to current infections and illnesses before they became a major problem. Twilight’s white horn lit up, the black magic enveloping a nearby notepad and quill; bringing it closer to her.

She began frantically scribbling notes down and smiling wide.
“What if we start completely from scratch?!” Twilight said excitedly, causing Pinkie to tilt her head in confusion.

“We can create illnesses and see if we can cure them before they become fatal. So if anything similar develops naturally, Ponyville will already have the antibodies for it!”
Twilight hugged Pinkie tightly and kissed her cheek, before galloping across the lab to some small crates where a few bunnies, birds, and ferrets were kept; all in their separate little cages, well-fed and hydrated. Taking out one of the bunnies and looking it over, the purple alicorn then turned to Pinkie again, cradling the bunny in her hoof.
“We can start with this one! We’ll make Ponyville the healthiest town in Equestria!”

“Uh… Twilight I think that’s a step too far. You’ve made amazing things and saved so many lives, you don't need to go this far…Ponyville is healthy enough with all the cures we’ve found. I don't think you need to make illnesses and viruses, just in case they pop up naturally.”
Pinkie said, rubbing the back of her neck, but Twilight raised an eyebrow at her.

“It's better to be safe than sorry Pinkie. Besides, at least we’ll be prepared if we plan! It's all about planning!” Twilight then hurried over to her lab desk, placing the bunny in a glass container, and placed the lid on top; making sure all the air holes were fully open.

“Don't worry Pinkie, if we work together like we have for these last few months, then we’ll be able to have more breakthroughs together. Sure it’ll take a lot more time than the unseen Blight vaccination because we’ll need to MAKE the infection first. But I think we both have the potential to make something amazing!”

Twilight exclaimed, her eyes wide, her smile playing her face with excitement, her wings ruffling at her side. Pinkie couldn't help but chuckle at Twilight’s excitement, it was refreshing to see her smile after all the stress of working on the Unseen Blight.

After finally settling down, Twilight looked at the glass container, holding the rabbit that she grabbed earlier.
“Well… I guess I can't stop you when it comes to these experiments.” Pinkie says. Her ears fold back as she speaks.

Soon enough, the pair started gathering materials from naturally occurring sources. This included plants from the Everfree forest, plants and foliage around Ponyville, and anything else they could find around the edge of town that could cause some kind of illness on its own.

Once their supplies were well stocked, they began working on combining the plants, foliage, and spores together which caused negative effects on their own, and attempted to make their own infections.

After 3 months of consistent research, experimenting, and refilling supplies. They managed to make 3 different infections

As the final, hoof-made infection was injected into an animal test subject, Pinkie left the room to grab more syringes, as well as test tubes to allow more of the infection to grow, while Twilight began monitoring the symptoms of each infection and noting them down, making sure to keep acute detail on everything.

As Twilight wrote these notes, her ear twitched, hearing Rarity’s voice echo in the room again. It began with soft laughter. The occasional whisper, before beginning to speak more clearly, almost as if Rarity was standing right beside her.

“Come now Twilight… Do you really think you can predict the future when it comes to infections? You really think you and Pinkie Pie can prevent your town from getting sick?”
Rarity snarked into the alicorn’s ear. Causing Twilight to flinch away from the voice, her ears folding back as she sharply turned to look at where Rarity’s voice was coming from, her horn lighting up defensively.

Only to be greeted with no sign of anypony in the room. Only for the voice to appear behind Twilight again, continuing from where it left off.

“Sounds like many big promises to yourself… That you’ll never achieve. And what will Pinkie Pie think if you fail? Or the rest of your friends…?”
The voice ended with a soft chuckle as Twilight whipped around, grabbing the nearest object she could in her teeth, which was a thick book.

Without even thinking, she threw it in the direction of the voice, a loud thud echoing through the room as it smacked against the wall.
Twilight snarled and her ears folded back, shouting into the room.

“I CAN, AND WILL SUCCEED!”
Twilight yelled, only for Rarity’s voice to cackle at her remark. Twilight looking around the room again, her wings spreading wide.

“LAUGH ALL YOU WANT! I’LL SHOW YOU THAT I CAN SAVE MY KINGDOM FROM SICKNESS!”
Twilight yelled once more, her voice bouncing off of the walls and causing the animals in containment to cower against the corners of their enclosures.

“Twilight?”
A voice called out from behind her, and Twilight turned around again, looking toward the exit, her horn lighting up, picking up another book.

“WHAT?!”
Twilight shouted, only to be greeted with Pinkie standing there, holding a basket with medical and science supples inside. Her ears folded back, looking a bit nervous.
Twilight’s horn suddenly dimmed, dropping the book as she realised what just happened.

“Oh… Pinkie… Im sorry, im just uh… Getting a bit worried that things wont go well. This is a WHOLE new can of worms we’ve got ourselves involved in. It could spread like wild fire if any of these animals escaped…”
Twilight explained with a sigh.

Pinkie slowly walked into the room, putting the basket down and going to stand beside Twilight, gently nuzzling against her.
“Look… I’m sure this kind of thing is scary. And it isnt too late to back out. At most, we’ll lose a few bunnies. Nothing else. You can go back to being Princess, being Celestia’s student and return to some kind of normal life.”

Twilight paused for a moment, slowly looking around the lab, at the equipment, the bunnies and ferrets they gathered, and the ones that were currently undergoing testing of the 3 infections.
She stood there in silence, her head slowly rotating as she looked around the room, at the cells, the equipment, the mathematics behind it all. Before slowly shaking her head and looking at Pinkie.

“No… We’re too deep into this to back out now. Those 3 bunnies are infected, so we cant release them without causing risk to everypony outside, or the natural wildlife… We need to find a cure for these 3 diseases at least before we can even think about stopping. I have symptoms noted down. But the animals are getting infected too fast. Its only been a few days and I’ve already gone through 6 bunnies.”

As Twilight says this, a Bunny in the clear containers coughs up a black bile and goes limp in the box, catching the attention of the couple as they looked at it for a moment in silence. Before Twilight gave a sigh.
“Make that 7…”

Pinkie put on her gloves and mask before walking over to the box the bunny had just passed away in, and was about to dispose of it, before the door of the castle rattled with knocking.
“That’s odd, are we expecting anyone?”

Twilight asked, to which Pinkie responded by shaking her head.
“You go and answer the door my love, i’ll handle things down here.”

Twilight says quickly before grabbing the dirty syringes she used on the bunnies, with her magic, while Pinkie went upstairs.
As Pinkie approached the door, she lowered her mask and let it rest under her chin, before opening the crystal door, only to be greeted with

“Fluttershy?” Pinkie spoke curiously, tilting her head, her dark ringed eyes locking with the pegasus.
“Is everything alright? We werent expecting you. Did the map call you here?”
Pinkie asked, quickly looking at Fluttershy’s flank to see if her cutiemark was flashing, but the yellow pegasus simply shook her head.

“No no, Im here looking for Angel Bunny, I cant seem to find him, and you know who he likes to run off.”
Fluttershy quickly explains, smiling softly to her pink friend. “Have you seen him?”

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin in thought.
“Hmm… I havent seen him around here, but you’re welcome to come in and see if he’s run in here without us seeing. He is rather slippery after all.”
Pinkie moves aside, allowing Fluttershy into the castle and closing the door…