I stared at Spike blindly as we ate our lunch. He ordered a hay burger and fries, while I myself divulged in eggplant parmesan. We chatted as we ate, although most of the conversation was lost by me. All I could think about was Twilight.

"Spikey?" I asked. "Have you ever seen Twilight with somepony?"

"Of course. I see her with you and the rest of the girls all the time." said Spike. It was hard sometimes to remember that he was still a baby, and was not guaranteed to grasp a subject like that.

"I meant in a romantic way." I explained. "Has she ever had a girlfriend?" I added quickly, "Or a boyfriend?"

"Um… Oh! She had this one admirer in Canterlot, before we came to Ponyville." said Spike. "A mare named… Brazen Gruff, I think. They worked together on a project for the princess, and Brazen sorta flirted with Twilight."

"Did Twilight notice?" I asked, on the edge of my seat.

"I don't think Twilight even realized she was a mare." sighed Spike. "Twilight was really oblivious to things like that in those days."

"So, Twilight is straight, then?"

"I doubt it. I'm pretty sure she swings both ways." said Spike, finishing off his meal. In that moment, I felt as if I could fly. Nothing else mattered; Twilight liked girls. That's all that mattered. It was irrelevant how I would come out to her. I had a chance, and a chance was all I needed.

"What did Brazen look like?" I asked. I was pushing my food around my plate, my appetite waning.

"She was a punk-type girl. Lots of piercings and those big gauge things in her ears." explained Spike. "Wore tons of black, and she had this huge trench coat that she would wear all the time."

"And Twilight never noticed her?"

"Nope."

"So don't dress like that." I muttered to myself. "That's fine. That was never part of my plan, anyway."

"What was that?" asked Spike.

"Would you look at the time! I truly hate to leave you like this, but I have to go to work!" I said, jumping to my hooves. I left a pile of bits on the table and took Spike's hand in my own. When we were halfway to the library, he coughed out a spiral of green fire, and a scroll fell into his hand. He broke the seal and unrolled it.

"'Coming home early, make sure nopony is at the library." read Spike. "Major emergency. Keep everypony away. Go someplace safe. Signed- Twilight Sparkle.' Hm. That's weird. The letter has tons of sentence fragments, and Twilight's handwriting is terrible. Something must be wrong."

I gripped Spikey's hand even tighter and broke into a full-on sprint. We arrived at the library in half the time we should have, and the tree was still deserted. As we walked in, I took the letter from Spike and inspected it. He was correct, of course, in saying that Twilight was acting strangely. Her handwriting, which was normally elegant and looping, was suddenly jagged and scratchy. It looked as if she was in a hurry when she wrote the letter.

"Why don't you head to the Boutique?" suggested Spike. "I'm sure there's no need to worry."

"Twilight said that there was a major emergency." I said in worry. "I would like to be here to help her."

"Don't tell me you really believe that. Twilight's idea of a 'major emergency' is when they run out of her favorite encyclopedia at the bookstore." said Spike. "One time, she dragged me all the way to Fillydelphia because the shop at Canterlot was out of swallow quills. And then, when she got the quills, she hated them!"

"Even still, I do not feel right leaving her to combat any sort of emergency alone." I said stubbornly. "Do you not recall what happened last time we took Twilight's turmoil for a joke?"

"You mean the time she sent Ponyville into chaos and Celestia had to come down to fix things? Nope, I totally forgot." said Spike sarcastically. "Don't you think we should at least get the girls?"

He had a fair point. If I was only staying to put help Twilight with her emergency, it would only be natural to alert the rest of the group. But, of course, I was not just there to help Twilight. I was there to show her that I was a good friend, and that good friends make good lovers. I was using her emergency to boost myself up and make her fall for me. Some Element of Generosity I am.

"You're right." I said. "I'll get Applejack and Rainbow Dash, if you get Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie."

Spike nodded and took a step for the door. He stopped in mid-step, surrounded by a purple light. He struggled futilely; He was not moving anytime soon. As I went to grab him from his prison, her disappeared into a flash of light, replaced by Twilight.

My love was not in good shape. She seemed sickly and greyish, her eyes were yellowing and jaundiced, and she looked around crazily. Her horn began to glow brightly, and the entire tree house shook. When whatever spell she was casting was done, she collapsed onto the floor, unconscious. I covered my mouth to hold in the scream, then ran for the door. I opened it and stepped out.

PING!

I bounced off a wall of lavender light with a slight headache. I pounded on the purple barrier, barely noticing Spike doing the same on the other side. I pushed and pushed, cast the minimal spells in my repertoire, anything I could think of, all with the same result; The barrier would not budge.

"Rarity!" called Spike. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, darling!" I answered. "Send for Princess Celestia! Tell her that Twilight has fallen ill, then gather the girls."

With a horrified look on his face, Spike ran through the streets, scribbling on a borrowed piece of parchment. I turned my attention to Twilight, who was breathing shallowly on the floor. I surrounded her with the light blue glow of my horn and hefted her into the air. With a bit of effort, I heaved Twilight up the stairs and to her bed. I tucked her in and fell onto my butt in exhaustion. Contrary to the belief of many ignorant Earth Ponies and pegasi (namely Rainbow and Applejack), unicorn levitation is not limitless. In fact, most unicorns could only levitate that which they can lift without aid. Mathematically, a levitation spell is proportional 1.05 times to a unicorn's actual strength. Twilight would've been so proud of me for remembering that.

I stared at Twilight, my beautiful, fantastic Twilight with worry. I'd never seen Twilight sick before; Illness was for lesser ponies than her. Perfect ponies like Twilight never got sick. She'd laugh at that, me calling her perfect. She'd probably deny it, claiming that she was far from perfect. Her humility, of course, made her even more perfect.

"Rarity…" groaned Twilight before falling back into nothingness.

"It's okay, darling." I said. I grabbed her hand and flinched. Her skin was burning, the worst fever I had ever seen. I grit my teeth and clasped her hand in my own, begging anypony who would listen to let her be okay.

It was ten minutes before I heard Princess Celestia call my name. I begrudgingly left Twilight in her bedroom, and hurried down the stairs to the front door. Princess Celestia, surrounded by my friends, stood there, her horn glowing bright yellow and her face displaying a disturbing amount of fear.

"Hello, Princess." I said, looking over my shoulder. I could hear Twilight calling out to me.

"Is she going to be okay?" asked Fluttershy.

"What is even happenin?" asked Applejack.

"Twilight is sick." said Princess Celestia. "Very, very sick. In fact, if it wasn't for Twilight's own quick thinking, I would not be very hopeful for her recovery."

"What do you mean?" asked Rainbow. "Twilight's not gonna let herself die to some cold. Even though she's a nerd, she's still a nerd made of tougher stuff than that."

"Rarity, can you describe Twilight's symptoms?" asked Celestia.

"She seemed very grey, and her eyes are jaundicing. Also, she has a very high temperature. I didn't check properly, but I would guess at one-hundred ten." I reported. I heard a retching sound from the room upstairs. "And she is apparently nauseous." I added.

"I was afraid of this. I'm sorry to say, but Twilight had Horn Bane." said Celestia.

"What does comic books have to do with anything?" asked Pinkie. "And Bane doesn't have a horn. He has Venom."

"Horn Bane is a terribly strange, terribly potent unicorn virus that I thought died off years ago." explained Celestia. "It is unique from any other disease I've ever seen."

"In what way?" I asked.

"It infects one pony (mostly non lethally), interferes with their magic, and uses their body to reproduce more of the virus. These reproductions are many time stronger, and will kill any infected. The virus will kill off any life in the vicinity and be forced to use a dead body as a place of propagation, which leads to a much weaker virus. This virus infects a new unicorn and the process is repeated."

"It kills all who are infected." I repeated. "Am I infected?"

"Well… yes, but that brings me to the next oddity of Horn Bane." said Celestia. "It is classified as a unicorn illness, but it can only infect one unicorn at a time. It is right now tailored to Twilight's body and all reproductions will follow the schematics as if they were in Twilight's body. Your horn already subconsciously defended you from the virus."

"Wait just a second." said Applejack. "Ya'll heard her when she said 'mostly non lethally', right?"

"It is a very rare virus that I've only actually seen once before." said Celestia. "But, the reports of ponies surviving Horn Bane greatly outweigh the reports of ponies dying from it. About four in every five cases end in recovery. Considering that I only know of five cases, I think her odds are quite good."

"The time you saw it, did the pony make it?" asked Rainbow.

"Well… no. But, Starswirl the Bearded was not as resilient as Twilight is. I have no doubt that she will make a full recovery."

"Princess, I cannot leave the library." I said.

"No, I wouldn't expect you to be able to. Twilight knew she was sick, which is why she teleported Spike outside and conjured this barrier." said Celestia. "She knew you'd be immune, and she knew that she had to quarantine the library. When she is all better, she will remove the barrier."

"I know we ain't really supposed to think like this, but what if she don't?" asked Applejack. "What if she don't get better?"

"The longest recorded time for a spell holding it's form after the caster's death was a minute. I give Twilight five as a corpse before her shield disintegrates. But I doubt it will come to that, especially with Rarity by her side."

"Me? What am I to do?" I asked.

"You need to look after her." said the princess. "Give her medicine, feed her, help her in any way you can. The symptoms only get worse, and she will need your help."

"How much worse?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"In the best situation, Twilight will suffer from dementia, temporary blindness, deafness, and paralysis, not to mention rashes, blisters, nausea, fever, stomach ache, and loss of magic, over a seven-day period. Maybe longer."

"And in not the best situation?" asked Pinkie.

"She will suffer all of that and then stop breathing." said Princess Celestia.

"That won't happen. Twilight will fight through it." I said. "I will make sure of it."

"I'm sure she is in capable hands." said Celestia. "Twilight had the foresight and quick-thinking to make this barrier ineffective against non-living entities. That means that I will be able to supply you with food, water, and medication. I do not think I can stress this enough, nor do I think I have to, but you could be the difference between life and death for Twilight."

"Then I shall return to her side at once." I nodded. "Do not worry about her. She is in good hands."

"Do ya need anythin?" asked Applejack.

"Actually, yes. I need somepony to watch the Boutique, and to pick up Sweetie Belle. And, of course, I need a babysitter." I said.

"We'll handle it." said Rainbow Dash. "We'll split the work, right girls?" They all nodded, and I felt at least one weight rise off of my shoulders. I bid the girls and the princess farewell, then turned for the stairs. Twilight was yelling unintelligibly, making pathetic yelps of pain.

After I cleaned her vomit, I grasped her hand in my own, her burning, scorching hand. I couldn't do much more than stare at her. She kept whispering, words I couldn't quite catch. I leaned forward, but still couldn't pick it up. I brought my face even closer, barely three inches between us. What was she saying?

"Shining Armor!" she shouted. I fell onto my butt with a finger in my ear.

"There's no need to shout, my dear." I sighed.