At first, no pony really noticed the rather peculiar sickness spreading around Ponyville. It just seemed like a small, simple 24-hour flu. Ponies were taking days off from work, coughing and sneezing. The doctors just told everyone to relax and take it easy, and by the next day, every pony would be fine.
But this wasn’t just a normal flu. It was something much, much bigger.
The main problem in the beginning was that it hit the fillies first. No pony knew where it had started, but soon all three of the Cute Mark Crusaders, along with all their classmates, were staying home ill. Their families got it from the fillies, and it spread more and more, all throughout Ponyville. Pony to pony, any kind of contact; it was a virus, slowly getting worse and worse.
In the beginning it was coughing, sneezing, the simple cold that only made ponies a bit sluggish on their hooves. Nothing big, nothing to get worried about. But then bad fevers, headaches, fatigue, and finally, insanity. The sickness was changing every pony. Almost every pony in Ponyville who wasn’t so sick they couldn’t stand went completely mad. Ponies were passing out just walking down the street, or the crazy ones were attacking others. No pony wanted to get anywhere near each other.
When it got bad, the unicorns of Ponyville immediately tried to cure it using magic. And it worked, but only for a while. The virus bit back again, and this time no medicine or magic of any kind could stop it. Half of Ponyville was stuck in bed, while the other half was forced to take care of them, or running rampant through the streets. Only a handful of ponies hadn’t gotten sick, but everypony knew it was only a matter of time.
Ponyville was slowly and steadily becoming a hot zone.
***
It was overcast outside, but every day seemed to be overcast nowadays in Ponyville. Of course no pegasi would risk disease by going outside to clear the clouds away. Or all of the pegasi could already be infected. No pony knew.
The entire marketplace was completely deserted, which would have been a scary sight before the sickness. It seemed so long ago, the days were the streets were bustling with ponies of every kind, the days where Applejack and her family would be selling apples, fresh from the farm. The days spent laughing and smiling at the silliest things…
Rainbow Dash trudged through the empty marketplace, looking around anxiously. She was one of the few that hadn’t been affected yet. She knew it was dangerous being outside in the open air, where she could catch the disease at any moment, or where one of the crazy ponies could come out of nowhere attack her... But she wasn’t going to let that happen. She was going to get help.
When the disease started up again, right after becoming immune to magic, Twilight Sparkle had sent dozens of letters to Princess Celestia. She had forced Spike to send almost everything in her library, trying to do anything she could to the Princess to get her attention. And yet, not a single word in reply.
Of course ponies had tried to high-tail it out of Ponyville as soon as the disease started. Only a few of them had actually left, fleeing through the Everfree Forest, and no pony from Ponyville heard anything from them after that. They were on their own.
Rainbow Dash stopped in front of town square and immediately stretched her wings and flew up into the air. She was out of practice; she hadn’t been outside at all in so long. She swayed from side to side a bit, getting higher and higher off the ground. She had to beat her wings hard to get up in the air. She probably wouldn’t even be able to do a Sonic Rainboom anymore… But the blue Pegasus put that out of her head. She needed to concentrate.
Rainbow Dash flew straight North to Canterlot, flying as fast and fierce as she could, building up speed and starting to fly straighter. Have to get help, have to find the Princess…
Suddenly, it was as if she had hit a wall. She slammed into something invisible, dropped several feet back down towards the ground. She glided backwards a bit, looking around for whatever she had run into. It felt as if something was pulling her backwards, pulling at her wings and her tail and her pelt. It was like suddenly a fierce wind blew, even though the wind wasn’t blowing at all. Rainbow Dash was pushed backwards a ways. There was no other pegasi around, no pony that could have pulled her backwards or ran into her. Some kind of magic, perhaps?
Rainbow Dash glanced down. She was right above the Everfree Forest. She must’ve turned a little farther east while she was in the air and not realized it. But who would put magic over leaving or entering the forest? Rainbow Dash turned the opposite direction and flew quickly back over Ponyville. Again, at the edge of Ponyville, something pushed her backwards. Something strange was going on here…
Rainbow Dash flew in several different directions, flying fast and far, but no matter what she did, she always found that invisible barrier. Annoyed, she pushed as hard as she could against the invisible wall, beating her wings harder than ever before, pushing her whole weight into it. Nothing. She would have to tell Twilight Sparkle about this!
Rainbow Dash flew back to Ponyville and crash-landed right in front of the library. She would have to learn to fly all over again if they ever cured this sickness… She rushed into the library in a hurry. She was immediately greeted by a rather persistent antibacterial spray can that nearly attacked her, trying to get all the germs off of the Pegasus. “Twilight, cut it out! I have something important to tell you!” The spray can fell to the ground lifelessly.
Twilight Sparkle appeared wearing some kind of gas mask. She took it off, satisfied that Rainbow Dash hadn’t gotten the virus from being out there. After this thing had hit, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were all stuck in the library with Twilight and Spike, hoping the disease would pass over them. Fluttershy had gone missing right before the disease even began, and they hadn’t gotten any word from Applejack, or anypony at the farm. Miraculously, only one of the ponies at Twilight’s library had gotten the virus…
Being stuck in this library, Rainbow Dash had read every book in the Daring Doo series so many times she was actually getting tired of Daring Doo’s adventures. The excitement that used to keep her on the edge of her seat was now just boring and predictable. That was why she decided that she needed to do something, to figure out how to help Ponyville.
“Not now, Rainbow Dash, I was in the middle of something…” She trailed off, heading towards an open book that had been dropped on the ground. “It could be a cure to the… No… Never mind…” She tossed the book aside with an exasperated sigh. Every other pony had already assumed that this was a new, never-before-seen disease, most likely without any cure at all, but Twilight was certain that there must be a cure to it in at least one of her books. Everypony else had long since given up on Twilight Sparkle’s books.
Rainbow Dash frowned. “Twilight, listen! It’s-” Twilight had found another book, and the blue pegasus knew better than to try to talk to her while she was reading. Rainbow Dash waited impatiently until Twilight dropped the book, nearly flinging it across the room, and tried to talk again. “I-”
“Weren’t you going to fly to Canterlot?” Twilight interrupted, glancing at Rainbow Dash.
“That’s the thing, I-”
“If you aren’t going to try and help, don’t go outside! You could catch the virus!” Twilight interrupted, even though no pony really knew how the virus was actually transmitted. They assumed it was something in the air.
“Well I couldn’t-!”
“Don’t tell me you can’t fly anymore! Did you get distracted?!”
“It’s some kind of magic, not me! It wouldn’t let me leave!”
Twilight froze, then turned back to look at Rainbow Dash. She stared at the Pegasus for a moment, as if she were joking. She stood there frozen, and was about to say something when there was a loud yell upstairs. Rainbow Dash and Twilight glanced at each other anxiously before racing up the stairs.
Rainbow Dash surveyed the room, looking for anything out of place. Rarity was sleeping in Twilight’s bed. There Pinkie Pie was, off in the corner, eyes wide and hair long and straight, cradling a rock as if it were a baby, whispering to it softly. She had been one of the first ones to get sick along with the fillies, and probably got the worst of the craziness. No pony had seen her actually talk to anything but inanimate objects since this whole thing started. She had gotten over the virus almost immediately, but the insanity remained. Though it was no longer contagious, Twilight was trying everything she could to turn Pinkie Pie back to… Well, back to her usual craziness.
Spike was standing in the middle of the room, his hands over his mouth and his eyes wide, like he had eaten something he shouldn’t have. Twilight and Rainbow Dash stared at him. Spike suddenly let out a burst of flames from his mouth, and a small, scorched scrap of paper fluttered to the ground. He hiccupped a few times before running forward to see what the note was.
“I knew she would send something!” Twilight shouted, causing Rarity to stir in her sleep, but not quite wake up. Using magic, the unicorn picked the paper off the ground and held it up so she could read it. “I knew the Princess would reply! She probably has her troops coming in right away to…” The smile on Twilight’s face froze, and she faltered. “Wha…” Twilight dropped the paper and raced back down the stairs. The paper fluttered to the ground and landed at Rainbow Dash’s hooves.
It wasn’t a heartfelt letter from the Princess, apologizing for her absence and sending in her guards with the cure.
It wasn’t a recipe for the cure to the disease.
It was just a simple sign with one simple word written on it in blotchy red ink that would change Ponyville forever.
Quarantine.
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When Fluttershy awoke, it was almost completely dark, and at first she didn’t realize where she was. But like every morning, her memory came crashing down on her in a flurry of terror and pain. She waited for her eyes to adjust a bit to the darkness before trying to figure out where she was.
Eventually, she sat up as slow as she could, wincing every time she moved her wings, and checked the damage. Her wing was most definitely broken, bending wrong in several different angles, and there were scratches and bruises all up her legs. How had that happened?
She looked around, trying to figure out where she was. There were looming trees casting menacing shadows over her, but they weren’t like any trees she had ever seen before in the Everfree forest. The canopy was so thick that there was no way that she could tell what time of day it was.
Fluttershy let out a small, hoarse cry as she craned her neck to search for any ponies or animals around nearby. There was an unsettling stillness enveloping the forest, and it was far too quiet. She was completely and utterly alone.
The Pegasus tried her hardest to figure out how she had gotten here. She could remember…. Flying. Flying very fast, faster than she had ever before. She remembered looking back behind her, terrified of whatever was pursuing her… What was it? Even when she tried to think clearly, her mind got so fuzzy when she tried to remember...
Then she had plummeted towards the ground. She could remember that last moment of peril before she crashed, that sickening instant where her wings weren’t functioning right, as if they had just locked to her side. Her legs sprawled out, trying to brace herself for the fall.
Fluttershy called out once more, a bit louder. She was sure now that she wasn’t in the Everfree forest. There weren’t any trees in the Everfree forest that looked like these. In fact, Fluttershy had never seen any trees like these before anywhere. Her heart started beating faster, and the shadows started looking even more menacing and scary.
Where in Equestria was she?
A soft canter echoed from nearby, or was it just Fluttershy’s heart beating so loudly in her ears? She looked around wildly, but if a monster or menace of some sort were approaching her, she wouldn’t put up much of a fight. She would just have to wait for something to happen, or somepony to find her.
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“This can’t be right…”
A gray unicorn with a dark brown mane glanced around, using his magic to hold up a map. A rather annoyed looking blue and purple earth pony stood next to him, tapping one of her hooves against the ground impatiently.
“I told you we were lost! Now look where you got us! Of all the ponies I could’ve been stuck here with, it had to be you! Honestly, I-”
“Well, we are somewhere in the Everfree forest,” the unicorn interrupted in a calm voice. It was obvious that he was used to the mare’s negative attitude. “And judging by these marks here-” He gestured to the map with his hoof. “-We can’t be far from Ponyville!”
The mare sighed huffily. “That’s what you said an hour ago! We’re lost!” The unicorn just rolled his eyes and continued the direction he was going, putting the map into his bag. The mare still followed, muttering contemptuously.
After a while, it became obvious to both ponies that the undergrowth was starting to thin out. They were close, they could feel it.
"See? I told you we weren’t lost!” The stallion said proudly, raising his head high. The earth pony elbowed him playfully, and raced ahead so that he had to run to catch up.
“What the hay do you think you’re doing out here?!” A voice yelled, and both ponies froze, digging their hooves in the ground to stop themselves from running into another pony blocking their path.
