I love your MLP infection AU! Genuine question, how would Starlight’s cutie mark removal spell/the Staff of Sameness factor into the AU? Since the infection is centered on Cutie Marks, could that be a cure/temporary solution of sorts? Or could the infection still latch onto the replacement cutie mark and cause the illness or even mutate it?
Starlight’s staff was given its power by Starlight herself, so she could most likely find another staff to cast her magic onto.
The only problem is that, if she ever gets infected, there are only two options: either she write down the spell so someone with powerful magic could replicate it, or the spell can’t be done at all.
And even if the spell can be done, it has its own issues.
For one, that would require taking away the personality and destiny of a pony. If no other solution ever comes, this could mean a pony living the rest of their life completely numb and colorless.
But that is the best case scenario.
While it is rare, a neutral cutie mark can mutate. This usually only happens if a person is already infected before the procedure, but it can also occur in ponies that have really strong magic or talents. This causes a subset of the Meanie Mark Virus, where a pony slowly loses color, distinguishing features, and, finally, all physical proof that they are a pony —this is known colloquially as “bleaching”. They do not die, and they aren’t aggressive, but they simply wander the landscape, looking for their lost cutie mark. These are known as Bleaches. Luckily, it is not contagious.
Another issue is how difficult removing a cutie mark of an already infected pony is. You can physically see black tendrils cling to the cutie mark, which leads to a magical tug of war that is not only excruciating, but can lead to the contamination of others. Powerful ponies, such as alicorns, the Mane Six, and anyone with great physical or magical strength, have an especially hard time removing infected marks. The pain can be so great in these cases that it can cause lasting trauma, damage to magic, chronic pain, and, in some cases, death.
The last problem is with the storage of these cutie marks. Would the virus fizzle out, like a flame without oxygen, or would it keep feeding in the magic of the cutie mark? What would happen if the marks happened to get out, even far into the future? If an infected mark has nowhere to return to (the pony that owned it died, for example), what would it do? Could another epidemic erupt if the case was uncovered hundreds of years into the future?
This could work, at least as a temporary solution, but it would require careful study and great caution.
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saw everypony drawing their own takes on the mlp infection au so I decided to make one too!
this is a joke I'm not trying to make fun of the au if you couldn't tell
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MLP HORSE INFECTION pt 8
Twilight works to come up with a cure but her experiments have only been failures, with frightening side effects on her test subjects....
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