Cotard

Twilight Sparkle, the resident librarian of Ponyville and student of Princess Celestia, haggardly trotted down the stairs towards her basement in Golden Oaks Library. The unicorn was lost in her thoughts, since the last few months were...challenging, to say the least. Twilight still couldn't believe that their lives could change in the blink of an eye. Yet, that's exactly what happened when the mysterious disease that affected their lives began. The pony not only tried her best to survive this dangerous and deadly illness, but she made it her mission to try to understand it and even cure it. It didn't help at all that Twilight believed she knew who her Patient Zero was, and that almost gave her goosebumps. She didn't want to believe it at first, considering her memories were a bit blurry, but now she was at least 80% that she was right, even if she wished with all her might that she was wrong.

At the base of the stairs, Twilight steeled herself before she pushed on the wooden door. She could already hear the huffs and grunts of the pony...no, thing, on the table.

Twilight ignored it for now and walked towards the desk that sat near a corner of the room. She used the magenta light from her horn to illuminate the things that sat on her desk, and it appeared like she was looking for something.

"Ah, there it is", said the unicorn softly as she picked up in her magic a recorder. She then started to turn and walk towards her subject.

Even though she tried to be as professional as she could in this situation, Twilight couldn't stop her legs from shaking. She didn't want to do this. No, she wanted to do this...but not to this pony. Or, "ex pony" considering the state it was in. As she got close to the table, Twilight couldn't help but wince as she took in the creature that would probably aid her in understanding this disease. She hoped. At least that was her reasoning. And the pony was already dead.

The mare prepared herself to press the start button on the recorder, but right before she did, she took a closer look at the undead pony strapped to her table. No matter how detached she pretended to be, Twilight could not ignore the frazzled and thin indigo mane, that even now retained some of it's signature curls, the splotched, rotten and bloodied hide in which you could still spot the alabaster color, and the blue...no, now green eyes instead of blue. Twilight gently started to sob as tears streamed down her face as she looked at the pitiful form of her former friend and former Element of Harmony, the beautiful and generous Rarity.

"A-aagghhh...", Twilight gasped and was brought back to reality when the creature started to vocalize grotesquely. Aside from some grunts, heaves and occasional screaming, those were all the sounds these wretched creatures could make.

"Right. Let's get to business then", stated Twilight with an air of finality as she pressed the button on the recorder.

Day 79, log 21, Supposed Patient Zero

"I have managed to capture one of the infected, and said infected is now strapped to my table and awaiting operations. I have my suspicions to believe that this pony is Patient Zero, the pony that started all this mess. I find it in my duty as the student of Princess Celestia and one of the Elements of Harmony, to perform medical procedures on this undead pony in order to help better understand the disease that spread around Equestria and to aid in the making of a cure."

Twilight said to the recorder, then went to another corner of the room and brought in a tray that contained various medical tools. She inspected them closely and picked up the scalpel. She couldn't help but notice that the creature started writhing and grunting towards her. She ignored it for now and put the scalpel near the creature's chest.

"I am going to cut the skin and subcutaneous soft tissue in a Y pattern, also called the autopsy incision", said the unicorn mare again, and then started doing the procedure. Again, the creature writhed and appeared to snap at her. This time, Twilight couldn't ignore it and had to pause for a bit. "Can it actually feel pain? Or it's just a random response triggered by th-", Twilight's thoughts were interrupted and she gasped in shock as the creature outright shrieked and started to violently thrash on the table.

The unicorn backed away and the scalpel fell to the ground while she also stopped the recorder. She couldn't take her eyes off of the desperate zombie on her table. What was going on? What was actually happening? Twilight saw plenty of them since this whole mess started, and granted, this wasn't her first subject, but none reacted this way. She always thought that they were just empty husks, walking slabs of cold meat, braindead cannibals. They were aggressive and would react to sounds, sometimes Twilight observed that they could focus things and they would only attack living beings. But she was certain that they never reacted to pain stimuli. In the name of science, Twilight really tried hurting them: pouring acid on them, burning them, cut them, but they never reacted. All they wanted to do was devour ponies.

Still trembling, Twilight walked away with her recorder, trying to distract herself for a bit. She also wanted to record her theory in regards to "Patient Zero", so she turned the recorder on again.

"As for my theory: I tend to believe that this creature is Patient Zero because a lot of ponies, me included, noticed suspicious activity and behavior just before this disease started. Everypony knew that the former Element of Generosity was displaying unpleasant traits, one of them being vanity. One of the former unicorn mare's priorities was to keep herself young and beautiful, and it's suspected that she tried to achieve fake immortality using a forbidden spell. Being a famous fashion designer, the mare had acquaintances that it's believed they provided her with said spell. Unfortunately, she wasn't very skilled in magic and the spell backfired."

Twilight closed the recorder again and sighed. She was tired, confused and the headache she developed didn't help at all. All she could do now, was think: "Should she end this experiment now? Should she continue, especially with her suspicion that this was Patient Zero?"

She could still hear the monster moaning and screaming and thrashing, so she decided to approach it and get a better look. As she slowly made her way to the table, Twilight's eyes widened and she started to whimper. She could not believe it.

"A-are those...?", was all the unicorn could mutter when she noticed the undead's eyes.

The rotting carcass's eyes seemed to produce a reddish-black liquid, as if it was crying. A brief memory flashed in Twilight's mind: that of one of her friends crying, and due to her mascara, the tears appearing black. Twilight sobbed softly, although she tried to think logically: "This is not her, it's just a monster! It's not crying, it's just the putrefaction that's affecting the eyes and the tear ducts! It's ridiculous the believe that a-"

"T-Twaaghh"

Twilight's resolve was broken and she fell down to her knees at that moment. The mare sobbed bitterly and all she could think was:

"W-why...why is this happening to me?"