Chapter 1. Saturday: WEEK 1
→ Saturday was Snails' favorite day of the week. Saturdays brought opportunities to have fun with his best friend Snips. Those two would always get into some sort of trouble on that day. They'd play all day until the sun went down, and then it was time for Snails to go home. That was the routine. It ran like clockwork. So when Saturday came, Snails expected to have a fun day at the park with his one and only friend, but was met with a 'no' from his mom.
→ "But why?" Snails asks with a frown on his face. His mother Ladybug walked towards him, her face paler than the fog outside, which was lucky to be used as an excuse–erm…reason–for the young colt to stay inside. "Because it's cloudy. Looks like it's about to rain" the young mare replied. Snails looked towards the window, which was imaging a cloudy sky. Despite the clouds approving his mother's statement, Snails looks back at his mother with a smile and insists, "When it rains, me and Snips play in the puddles all the time!"
→ His mother looked away from him for a split second like she was preparing another excuse to keep her son inside. A silent moment passes, and before his mother can say another word, Snails shrugs it off, "Oh well, I guess I'll wait tomorrow for the sun to come up." Ladybug nodded in agreement with her child as she trotted to the kitchen to make breakfast. Meanwhile, Snails went to the living room to watch TV.
→ Using his magic to pick up the remote, the yellow colt sat down on the couch, turning on the bright screened television and switching through channels, a little mix of boredom, sadness, and a pinch of confusion. 'Why would mom make me stay inside' was a thought that roamed Snails' mind while he was finding a good show to watch. A few moments later, a small green-colored pony trotted down the stairs with sleepy eyes. She tripped over one step and toppled to the ground with a light THUD, which made Snails turn his head around to face the stairs.
→ The green pony groaned, opening her eyes. Ladybug trotted quickly to see the sight of her daughter, Grasshopper, on the ground in pain. Snails looked at his mother, then his sister. The only thing that came out of his mouth was, "You ok Grasshopper?" His mother grabbed the tiny foal with her gloved hoof (as she was cooking and didn't want to contaminate her hooves) and carried her to a chair. She placed Grasshopper on the chair and stood back.
→ The tiny foal looked sickly, with snot flooding from her nose, and red eyes. Her coat was now a light teal. Snails looked worried at his sister, but the mother said, "Don't worry about her Snails. It's just the common cold." However, Snails had a little doubt as he asked, "Did the cold change her coat color?" The young mare looked at Grasshopper, then back at Snails. She then diverted his attention to the TV, turning the TV up loud. Snails switched his sight to the TV and stared at it, blind to the situation at hand. His attention quickly switched back as his sister started to wail, "Everything hurts! My stomach, my head, my EYES… EVERYTHING!" The mom tried to calm the foal in distress, "Don't worry dear. The doctor is coming over to check on you." Snails tried to make sense of it all as he turned down the TV.
→ Ladybug sighed and looked back towards her son, who now had a worried expression for his sister. The older pony knew that her own son wasn't THAT stupid to ignore the moans and groans from his sister. His grades and his outlook might say differently though. Nonetheless, Ladybug sat next to Grasshopper, not knowing what else to do except wait for the doctor.
→ 10 minutes flew by when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Ladybug headed to the door with haste and impatience. She creaks open the door to the sight of Doctor Horse, ponyville's famous doctor. Standing next to him was a pony with brown spiked back hair and blue eyes. Ladybug only expected Doctor Horse to be at the door. Nonetheless, she lets both of the gentlecolts in and offered them to sit down on the couch (not the one Snail's was on, the second one). Snails didn't notice the two colts next to them, due to the fact that he was wearing headphones and didn't even acknowledge their existence.
→ Ladybug raised the headphones off of Snails and motioned to him to say hello. One thing about Snails was that he didn't like doctors. But he pushed himself to utter a greeting, despite not wanting to even look at them. Doctor Horse gave a chuckle as he pushes his glasses up to his nose. The other colt didn't chuckle, which made Snails feel somewhat glad because he never liked times when someone was laughing at him. It made him feel like he was stupid – even though it was technically true.
→ Dr. Horse clears his throat, indicating that it was about to get serious. Snails didn't want to hear what he or anyone doctor says because it had nothing to do with him. But hearing his sister sob made him want to stay anyway. "So.." Dr. Horse says while opening his doctor bag, "Grasshopper's blood work came back and I wanted to share the results with you and Snails.. If he wants to listen that is." he switches his gaze to Snails, who was staring at him this whole time, marking down in his mind of every single move that the older pony was making. "Snails. No staring at ponies. Its impolite" says Ladybug with a stern look in her eye. Even with his mother scolding him for looking, Snails narrowed his eyes at the doctor.
→ Doctor Horse gave another chuckle, this time more nervously. Then the colt next to him suggested, "Maybe its best that you and Mrs. Squirm go to the next room. The results might be hard for Snails to process due to his IQ." Snails' mother and the doctor nodded in agreement and walked off to the kitchen, Ladybug giving Snails a look of discontent for not following her rules.
→ While in the kitchen, Ladybug looked at the doctor after she closed the door and sighs exhaustedly, "I am so sorry about him… I don't know –" "Oh don't worry about it Mrs. Squirm. We both know that Snails is uncomfortable with doctors. Fortunately for him, this conversation isn't about him but about his sister." Doctor Horse uses his magic to give the tired mother a orange envelope. As she grabs it with her magic, the professional colt looked down and then back at Ladybug. The red pony opened the envelope as the yellow colt started to talk about the envelope, "Before you begin to read the report, there are somethings you need to know. There has been an outbreak of a new virus that has been spreading across a few houses in Ponyville. A lot of ponies have been getting sick because of this virus, and even though that Grasshopper has not been around anypony with this virus, that doesn't eliminate the possibility of her getting it." Ladybug stopped mid-opening the envelope and gives the doctor a concerned look.v
→ Meanwhile in the living room, Snails looked towards his sickly sister, sad. He didn't know what was going on with her, nor why there were two colts in his own house. The brown pony with the brown coat was placing small mini heat pads on Grasshopper, assuming it will warm her up. Feeling all of these negative feelings, Snails asked in a cold and harsh voice, "Who are you?" The brown pony looked over to Snails smiled nervously, "Oh! I'm no one you should be concerned about Snails. I'm Doctor Whooves." Great. Another doctor. Dr. Whooves continued, "I'm a scientist that usually works on time travel, but in other cases, I work on explaining the unexplained." Time travel? Unexplained? Snails admits that hes intellectually impaired but even he didn't fall for that bull-hog.
→ Before Snails pushed for more answers, Doctor Horse and Ladybug came back with both faces having different expressions. The colt was smiling then the mare, who frowned, nearly close to crying. Snails patience was wearing thin. He wanted answers. But before he could ask, his little sister was carried by Doctor Horse, who was wearing gloves. He motioned Dr. Whooves to come and Snails stood up on four of his legs and went to grab his sister but was stopped by his mother.
→ "Mom?" Ladybug sniffed and looked back at Snails, "I'm sorry Snails… You can't go with her." "Why not?" Snails asked, quite offended. Ladybug continued to tear up, "She needs to go to a place where she can get better." "Thats such bull-hog!" Snails exclaimed as he trudged to Mr. Horse, but was greeted by a taser to the leg by Doctor Whooves, who immediatley regretted his decision. As Snails fell to the floor with a shriek, the two doctors hurried out the house and closed the door.