Part 3: The Cause

“Twilight?… Twilight, no! Why!? Why, why, why, Celestia, why!?” Rainbow Dash shouted, completely unable to control her sadness at the passing of one of her closest friends. The others fared no better. Fluttershy had curled up into a ball and sobbed quietly. Pinkie Pie’s mane and tail had gone completely straight as she sat back on her haunches and allowed a stream of tears to run down her cheeks, frowning. Applejack tilted her hat over her eyes and bit her lip as she had attempted to choke back her tears.

“Say it ain’t so…” Applejack whispered to herself.

Rarity could only stare at the now-lifeless Twilight Sparkle in total disbelief, unable to avert her gaze from the lifeless body that used to belong to her dear friend. She then lowered her head and began to cry quietly.

“S-Spike… How *sniff* did she get sick?” Rarity asked, her voice quaking with sorrow as she attempted to take control of herself.

Spike, finally, but barely able to hold back his tears, lifted his head and looked into the air, took a deep breath, and sighed before replying with, “You all might want to sit down. This is a long story.”

“It’s quite alright, dear Spike… We have all the time we need,” Rarity shakily said to the dragon.

“Alright… Here goes…” Spike hesitantly started. “Twilight and I were going to Zecora’s place for a visit, seeing as no one really sees her on a consistent basis, save for maybe Apple Bloom. We were on our way there, when we… *sniff* came across this plant in the Everfree Forest that neither of us had seen before. It… looked kinda like that flower Apple Bloom had to eat to cure herself of the Cutie Pox… I can’t remember the name of it, though…”

“As far’s I recall, it didn’t really have a name,” Applejack chimed in. “But please, continue.”

“Right,” Spike agreed. “So anyway, it looked like that truth-telling plant, but there was something weird about it… The petals were colored black in the center, and purple on the outer ones. That, and there was this creepy look to it… Like it was wilting, but the head pointed upwards towards us... Anyway, we saw it, and decided to get a closer look… But when we did, it sprayed this nasty green powder stuff at us.”

Everypony’s eyes widened at that detail.

“So that must be what got her sick in the first place…” said Rainbow Dash.

“Most likely… but if that’s the case, then why haven’t I been affected by it?” Spike asked, now wondering about the strange coincidence.

“P-Please go on… I-If you don’t mind, that is…” Fluttershy whispered quakily.

“Oh, right. Where was I… Oh yeah; we got sprayed by the plant and started coughing a lot. I managed to catch my breath in a couple of seconds, but Twilight was still coughing for a good minute.When she stopped, she seemed totally out of breath. I asked if she was okay, but she just said, ‘Yes, I’m fine... I think. Let’s get to Zecora’s now.’ We made it there, but Twilight was still breathing like she’d just run a marathon. That and she was starting to sweat a lot. I asked her again if she was okay, but she insisted that she was going to be fine, but wanted to check with Zecora to make sure. When Zecora let us in, she noticed right away that Twilight seemed to be in bad shape. She said, ‘Spike, my boy, what is wrong with her? Have you any idea of what is the matter?’ I told her about how we had run into the weird plant earlier and that it sprayed us with this green powder stuff, and that Twilight had been unusually tired ever since.”

“Zecora should have known how to get rid of it, right? I mean… She should know the Everfree Forest like the back of her hoof… Shouldn’t she?” Pinkie asked in an uncharacteristically melancholy tone.

“That’s the thing, though, Pinkie…” Spike began to reply, fighting back a new wave of tears. “She had no idea what kind of flower it was, even when we brought her out to see it. All she could say was, ‘I am sorry, but now, I have no cure. For now, Twilight will have to endure. I will take this plant and then make sure, that Twilight Sparkle is saved from this spore.’

“Spike! Are you inside? And what happened? Has Twilight Sparkle died?” a voice from outside the tree-home asked rather loudly, but the concern in the speaker was evident.

“Speak of the devil…” Spike muttered, getting up and walking downstairs to invite the voice’s owner in.

“It saddens me that I am much too late… This is such a cruel act of fate…” Zecora glumly said.

“It’s… Okay. There’s no need to make yourself feel worse than everyone else is feeling right now…” Spike replied, rubbing Zecora’s back with one claw.

“Just today, I had found a cure, one that would have made Twilight’s body pure...” Zecora began to weep.

“That reminds me… Why haven’t I been affected by that flower’s poison? I breathed in just as much as she did, yet nothing happened to me.”

“You are a dragon, so to breathe fire, you are able. This is what kept your body stable.”

“Wait… so, because I can breathe fire, the poison wasn’t able to take hold inside of me due to not being able to find a place to settle?”

“That is correct, reptilian spawn. The poison in you was instantly gone.”

The room fell silent for a bit as Spike began to stare at the ground, thinking about many different possibilities of the situation. Rainbow Dash and the others came down to see Spike deep in thought as Zecora had hung her head low.

“So… what do we do now? With Twilight, I mean…” Flutttershy spoke uneasily, breaking the eerie silence.

“Well, first thing’s first: We have to take her body to the hospital so they can take care of it. Then, we have to find a way to let the Princess know…” Rarity answered, choking back more tears as she spoke.

“You guys tend to Twilight… I’ll write Celestia a letter delivering the bad news…” Spike somberly stated....

Next Chapter: The Aftermath Estimated time remaining: 58 Minutes