Warning: This story contains mentions of death, gore, mental illness, and abuse. Reader Discretion Advised.

It was almost sunset. Sunburst knew it to be so because the sun had reached the treeline along the town's outskirts. It wouldn't be long now before Twilight lowered the sun and he knew that they were expected back at camp before then. Why Starlight insisted on exploring now was a mystery to him, but he refused to let her go alone. Not since she'd lost Trixie.

"Why are we here again?" He asks her, leaning in so he doesnt have to speak any louder. He had no real reason to whisper, the area had been cleared a few days ago, but he couldnt shake the habit. Celestia forbid the guards had missed one. With their luck, they'd walk right into it.

"I'm looking for something," Starlight replies, "Someone back in New Hayven said her brother had notes on the infection that he entrusted her with. They got left behind and she says they might be helpful."

Sunburst is surprised at being told this after they'd left the camp. The doctors and scientists, him included, had been making notes and experimenting since the beginning. Could there be something in these notes worth risking himself over? Doubtful. Unless they contained a cure, there wasnt much they didn't already know. He starts to ask Starlight why she wants them, but she halts suddenly and he runs into her flank.

"Pay attention," she hisses quietly, "spacing out isnt helping. Look, we're here." She points her hoof, and Sunburst is unimpressed by the destroyed remains of a cafe.

Its an unremarkable building, for the most part, overtaken partially by the unkempt plants that once decorated it. What he assumes was once artfully grown ivy is now a thick, clumpy curtain stretching around different parts of the walls and windows. As the two part the vines hanging over the opening where a door should have been, they're met by a mixture of rotten food and floral smells. Like the outside, the innards of the cafe are overtaken by different flowering plants. The whole place is trashed, like most of the places left behind always were.

It saddens Sunburst as he glances at a broken photo by his feet. He recognizes one of the ponies, a filly the color of butter cookies. He'd met her a hoof full of times, but had hardly spoken more than two or three words to her. She seemed quite sullen in person, but her smile in the photo is almost blinding. The other two ponies, a pale blue stallion in a doctor's coat and a black stallion in a hat that made Sunburst think of Rarity, he had never seen before. He gently levitates the photo out of the broken glass shards and offers it to Starlight, who'd been rummaging behind the coffee counter.

"Is this the doctor in question?" he asks, "he doesn't seem like the 'experimental' type. Are you sure his notes are worth retrieving?"

"Yes," Starlight says, making a face as she shakes whatever she'd just stepped in off her hoof. "There's nothing but old food and coffee beans down here. lets look upstairs."

She offers no explanation as to why these notes are so important. Sunburst has a feeling she's simply grasping at straws, wanting something to keep her busy now that Trixie wasn't around to keep her sane. He follows her up the stairs behind the counter, finding the upper floor partially sealed off by furniture and wood. Its easy enough for them to move and its not long before they're inside and looking through the various bookshelves and drawers until Sunburst finds one that's locked.

"I think they might be in here," he says, "its locked."

"Good job, Sunburst," Starlight praises as she joins him at the desk. He starts to think about if there's a key left somewhere nearby, but before he can ask, Starlight sticks the tip of her horn to the edge of the lock and uses her magic until they hear a distinct 'click' and she smirks at him.

"Trixie teach you that?"

"Yeah."

Inside the locked drawer, they find several journals and document folders imprinted with the symbol of the local hospital. Starlight carefully begins loading them all into her bag, but something among the rest of the journals catches Sunburst's attention. A thick, well loved leather journal levitates by, but instead of a medical insignia the outer cover is carefully ingraved with flowers and vines.

"What's that?" he asks. Starlight pauses, noticing the book herself, and sets it aside.

"Looks like a personal diary," Starlight comments. She returns to putting their quarry neatly in her bag, but Sunburst finds himself staring at the book. Was it the filly's? Should they leave it behind? Or would she want it back?

He wasn't usually the type of pony to invade others' privacy, but his curiosity had been peaked. He takes the book and opens the cover page. If nothing else, he'd at least find the name written within and try ro return it. What he finds instead, however, is a letter:

"My dearest Sugar Bean,

I wish you the happiest 8th birthday any filly could have. It may not seem like much, but this diary is my gift to you. If you ever find yourself in times of doubt, put your feelings on these pages. You are an exceptional little filly and your brothers and I love you very much.

All my love,

Your daddy, Onyx Gleam"

"Oh, her name is Sugar Bean," Sunburst murmurs, commiting the name to memory this time. He turns the page and finds himself chuckling at the sloppy writing of a young pony that follows. As he starts to flip through the pages, he gets a peek into her past and the ramblings that come with being a foal. He finds himself captured by the stories, sitting beside Starlight as he reaches the pages leading into her teenage years. As she gets older, the entries are a bit sparser, but just after the entry where she celebrates opening her cafe she returns to writing daily. Pages have been added to the diary, most glued in, and at one point the book must have been completely rebound to add even more. That, he discovers, is why the book seemed thicker and more worn than a normal diary.

Then he gets to the entries from a little over a year ago. He reads an entry a few days before the first infected pony had been reported and gasps. "Starlight," he beckons, "come read at this." She joins him in staring at the pages, eyebrows raised at his alarm. Then she reads the entry in question.

"Spring Equinox, March 18th,1253 C.R.*

Pigeon Feathers told me that Flower Gust isn't feeling well after her trip to Ponyville to visit her cousin, Fluttershy. He passed her on her way home from the train station. I wouldn't normally be too concerned, but there's been a terrible flu going around lately and I fear her baby may be at risk. I raised my concerns with Opal Clouds and he promised to check on her on my behalf. I hope she and the baby will be okay. I'm sure its only a little fatigue

In other news, Red is excited for his first show in Fillydelphia and has asked if I'd like to go. I talked it over with Punk and Plum Wine, who both were happy to watch the cafe for me so that we could make a weekend trip of it. I can't wait! We leave on Friday afternoon. I might pack early. ~SB"

"Flower Gust?" Starlight murmurs, rubbing her chin, "that was the name of the first infected pony reported on this side of Equestria. So she got it from Fluttershy, just like Zephyr Breeze did before he returned to Cloudsdale."

"That only confirms what we already know," Sunburst points out.

"Yes, but its good to have it in a completely untouched record. What else has she written?"

"Only one way to find out."

*CR: Celestia's Reign