//------------------------------//
// Chapter 26: Now and Forever 
// Story: Oathbound 
// by ChronicleStone 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot Hospital
May 1, 1:00 P.M.

“Sky Streak, please open your eyes.”
Sky was vaguely aware of the voice speaking to him, although his body would have been just fine had he chosen to ignore it.  He hadn’t been able to sleep with any peace for almost a week, and just having his eyes closed felt like heaven.
“Sky Streak, please.  You have to wake up.”
Reluctantly, Sky spared a moment to answer the voice.  Look, just a few more minutes, alright?  I think I’ve earned it.
To his surprise, the voice did not acknowledge his statement.  Instead, a second voice broke in, and Sky was suddenly aware that it did not originate from within his head: it was speaking to him from without.  “Sky Streak, you must wake up.  Everyone needs you.”
His eyes were open in a heartbeat, but the faces that greeted him were not the one he had expected.  A tawny-maned, light grey stallion with lines under his eyes stared down at him intently.  Across from him was the worried face of Princess Luna.  
“Ah, you’re awake!” Doc Trotter exclaimed, eyes flashing with regard.  “Quickly, now.  There isn’t much time.”
“Princess Luna,” Sky croaked, blinking in the sudden light.  “Where…where’s Ghost?  What happened?  Where’s Storm Emblem?”
Luna’s face clouded, and Sky wondered what it meant.  But before he could continue, she shook her head.  “Now is not the time to worry about that, Sky Streak.  We have more pressing issues to deal with.”
But Sky wasn’t about to let the issue slide.  “I need to know what happened!  Is everypony alright?”
“You needn’t worry about your foes,” Luna advised, though Sky noticed she was careful to avoid using any names.  “They have no power any longer.”
It wasn’t the answer he had wanted, but he had come to recognize when a conversation was closed, and Luna had slammed the door shut on this one.  He slowly sat up, though every muscle in his body proved to be as unwilling to work as a royal guard at Joe’s Donut Shop during the lunch hour.  He finally managed to reach a sitting position, and he took a moment to observe his surroundings.  The sheer white walls of the hospital room were a stark contrast to the dim lighting of the Magic Vault (and the subsequent darkness of his unconsciousness).  
He looked down at himself and instantly regretted it.  Even behind his light blue fur, nasty bruises on his chest and right flank were visible.  His entire left leg was bandaged all the way down to his hoof, and he could feel a number of bandages wrapped around his wings to keep them stationary.  Sky breathed a sigh of resignation.  This sure feels familiar.
A curtain was spread beside his bed, acting as a fourth wall for his “private” room.  But the expectant gazes of Doc Trotter and Princess Luna indicated to Sky that there was something more behind the curtain.  Something important.  And it was becoming more important by the second.
Sky took a deep breath and braced himself.  “It’s alright, Doc,” he said, though his lip had begun to quiver in anticipation of what he would see.  He had fumbled and fought with it for nearly a week.  And even though he knew that a hundred thousand years wouldn’t be enough to fully prepare him for what was on the other side of that partition, he knew that if he didn’t look, he would regret it forever.  “I’m ready.”
The curtain was drawn back, and Sky beheld at last the sight he feared more than anything in the world.  No enemy, no matter how great or powerful, frightened him as much as this.  Before him, he saw the tragedy-stricken faces of four familiar ponies.  Two were his own parents, and the other two were the parents of the silent white unicorn laying in the bed before them.
Sky’s throat was already raw, and the sting of tears and the tightening of his chest did little to help.  So often, she had accused him of always having something to say…and occasionally for saying too much.  But now, he had nothing to say.  Words would never be able to accurately surmise what he felt.  Only one word would come, and it carried the same pain and heart-wrenching anguish for everypony in the room.
“Lily.”
For the first time, Sky noticed the awkward background noise in the room.  The machines that had been emitting a steady, rhythmic beep when he had been here last now seemed to be carrying a much slower beat.  The machines that had been monitoring Lily’s condition were alive with status updates, though Sky knew without looking at them that they weren’t carrying any good news.
“Sky.”
He looked up and locked gazes with his parents.  Their faces were a troubling mix of beaming pride and utter heartache—which made Sky only feel worse.  It was horrible enough to be here, watching this happen.  To then subject his family to two sets of contrasting emotions…it was a cruel fate.
He rolled over to the edge of his cot and gently placed a hoof on the ground.  Doc Trotter and Luna rushed to his side to help, but Sky held up a hoof.  “It’s alright,” he grunted.  “I can walk.”
It took him a minute, but he managed to get all four legs beneath himself (even though he could only use three of them).  He slowly walked to the edge of Lily’s bed, where the four elder ponies awaited him.
“Oh, honey…” his mother sobbed, pressing her son’s head against her own in a gentle embrace.  “Sweetie…”
“I’m alright, mom,” Sky answered softly, though he wasn’t entirely convinced it was true.  Physically, he was exhausted.  He looked like he had gotten into a fight with a thousand changelings…and, to be fair, he might have preferred that.  But physical pain was no match for the strain on his heart and emotions.  Each face in the room reflected it.  They all knew it.
“This is what you do?” Midnight Sky asked.  “You volunteered for this?  To be a pony punching bag?”
Sky shot his father a “not now” face and pulled away from his mother, who continued to stroke his cheek and chin lovingly.  He turned to Garnet Glint and Turquoise Twist, who did their best to put on brave faces, but there was no hiding the scars of torment they had been subjected to over the past week.  His face went numb.  What do you say to somepony whose child is about to die?  What do you do?  Can you even do anything?
He looked over to Doc Trotter, who was standing against the wall beside Princess Luna.  “How long?” Sky asked.
The doctor turned to Princess Luna, who merely sighed and wiped her eyes.  “I can’t say for certain…” he began.
“Doc.”  Sky could feel a small spark of magic flit through his body as he spoke.  “Let’s not do this.  Be honest with me.”
The stallion flinched for a moment, letting his head drop.  “Fifteen minutes, perhaps.  Maybe half an hour at the most.  Her body is shutting down as we speak.”  He lifted his head just enough to let Sky see his eyes beneath his eyebrows.  “I am truly sorry.”
Fifteen minutes.  Fifteen minutes to say goodbye to a pony that I should have spent the rest of my life with.  He looked to Lily’s parents apologetically, but they merely shook their heads in response.
“The doctor already told us,” Garnet Glint explained in a raspy voice.  “We’ve said our goodbyes.  These last minutes are yours.”
Sky’s jaw dropped.  He was dumbfounded.  “But…but…”
“We’ll be right here,” Turquoise Twist managed between sobs.  “But if there’s one pony in Equestria that deserves to be able to have the last goodbye, it’s you, Sky Streak.”
He was stunned.  She was their daughter.  And even so, they were willing to let him—a pony that had only been with her for a little over a year—take the last few moments of her life to make peace and say his final farewells.  It wasn’t fair…but it was gracious.  And courtesy demanded that he comply.
He made his way to the bedside.  She was beautiful.  A beautiful as he had ever seen her.  White as the snow upon the ground in Polarmino where he had first met her.  Her mane was as green as the brightest emerald, and he knew that behind her eyelids, her irises were a perfect match for that same, vibrant green hue.
He reached up and stroked her mane softly, and he heard both of the mothers in the room begin to cry again.  His heart felt like it was trying to claw its way out of his chest.  He sniffed as his nose began to run, and a quick sting of pain reminded him that he had broken it in the battle.
It’s just one of many broken things in here right now.
He fumbled for words, wondering what to say.  But each second gone was one second less to say something, so he finally began with the only word that would come to mind.  “Lily…”
And in that moment, he saw again the fateful appearance of the Everfree Lily after his battle with Nighthawk.  It had confronted him with his own anger and rage, forcing him to choose to give in to his own darkness or to accept the pain of his circumstances and take to heart the lessons of his friends.  And here again, he could feel the bitterness roiling in his heart; a dark seed of anger that refused to die.  But as he stared into the face of his beloved Lily, Sky knew that the anger had no hold on him any longer.
“Hey,” he said, pulling himself onto two hooves.  “This really isn’t fair, y’know?  I mean, I thought I was supposed to be the one who took too long to wake up.”  He snorted, trying to force himself to laugh.  “But I guess life isn’t fair.  I was the one that was supposed to be in danger.  I was supposed to be the one that would keep you and everypony else safe.  But I couldn’t…and now I’ll remember that I couldn’t forever.”
A loud sob came from the direction of Feather Wisp.  Sky gingerly wiped his nose and continued.  “And I’m really sorry, Lily.  You had to pay for my failure.  That’s not how it’s supposed to be.  But I know…I know that you don’t want me to beat myself up over that.  And I can’t promise that I won’t from time to time.  But you helped teach me that I can’t live in the failures and mistakes of my past.”  He reached over and clasped her hoof between both of his.  “So I’ll keep going.  I’m going into the future.  I wish you could come with me, but…I guess this is the way it has to be.  But I promise that I’ll carry you with me every step of the way.  I will never forget you.  You mean too much to me.”
A soft pattering came to Sky’s ears.  Looking down, he saw the dots of his tears upon the blanket.  “And I’m not supposed to, but I’m going to tell you a secret.”  He cast a quick glance at Princess Luna, who appeared too lost in her own thoughts to notice.  “You were right.  I was on a secret team protecting Equestria from all kinds of danger.  And we don’t have the time for me to explain everything, but they were all like me, Lily: they could all use magic.  Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, all of us.  I would have loved for you to meet them.  They all knew about you.  They counted you as a friend, even though they didn’t actually know you.  And they all mourned when they found out about…well, this.  I know it doesn’t mean much now, but…you deserved to know.  I can’t keep any secrets now.  You deserve to hear it all.”
He looked over yet again to Doc Trotter, who did little but stare back.  He pulled Lily’s hoof to his face, where he kissed it.  “I know you know this, but I can’t help but think that I haven’t said it enough,” Sky said, tears running in earnest.  He coughed, fighting to maintain some sense of composure.  “I love you, Lily.  We may part ways now, but that will never change.  I love you.  Now and forever.”
“How much do you love her?”
The arrival of a new voice caused everypony to jump and turn to the door, where a figure in a cloak and hood stood in the doorway.  A cloth mask covered the pony’s mouth and nose under the hood, but around the eyes, Sky could see a distinct yellow fur and a few wisps of the pony’s teal mane.  A unicorn’s horn poking into the top of the hood only confirmed his suspicions as a long-abandoned emotion dared to trickle into Sky’s wounded heart: hope.
He caught the unicorn’s gaze and held it, trying to beg with his eyes for help in the hour of his greatest despair.  And if there was one pony that could help, it was this one unicorn mare from the Alicorn Guard.
Keeper.
“What would you do,” she asked, her voice raspy and coarse, making it difficult for those who did not know her to determine her gender, and subsequently, her identity, “to save the life of this one?  This one that you love more than your own self?”
“Anything,” Sky said without hesitation, throwing every ounce of conviction he had into each word.  “Without a second thought.  I would gladly have given my life to save her from what happened.  And I would give it just as willingly to save her now.”
Sky saw the wrinkles appear in the corners of Keeper’s eyes that told him she was smiling.  “I do not doubt that,” she answered.
“Who are you?” Turquoise Twist asked, clinging to her husband.
“It is best that my name go unsaid,” she replied, striding into the room.
“Then why are you here?” Feather Wisp asked.  Sky watched his parents when he realized that his father had that “oh-I-get-it” look on his face.  Sky had seen it all too often growing up.  If there was one thing his dad was, it was perceptive.  He caught on fast, and even now, Sky realized that his dad had somehow put the pieces together yet again.
“He’s part of that organization Sky was mentioning,” he answered for Keeper.  “You’re here to give your condolences, perhaps…or is it more than that?”
“It’s she, actually,” Keeper corrected, coming to a stop at the foot of Lily’s bed.  If she had been alarmed at hearing that Sky had spoken openly of the Alicorn Guard, she didn’t show it.  “And I will pay my respects to Lily if it comes to that…but it is my intent to ensure that it does not.”
“What?” Lily’s parents exclaimed in unison.
Keeper looked to Sky.  She rose up on her rear hooves and extended her two other legs.  “May I?”
“Of course,” he answered, watching with nervous anxiety.  Keeper was a phenomenal healer, but…some things were beyond her.  Nopony was all-powerful.  But if anypony could save Lily, it was Keeper.
She set her hooves on Lily’s legs beneath the blanket, and a gentle glow rose from Lily’s body.  But after a moment, Keeper winced, groaned, and removed her hooves.  Taking a second to recover, she sighed.  “Her injuries are more extensive than I feared.  This is beyond me, I am afraid.”
For a few fleeting moments, hope had lived.  But it had vanished so quickly that it was as though it had never even been there at all.  Every face in the room had fallen at Keeper’s words.  “So, that’s it?” Sky asked quietly.
But Keeper eyes glinted as she stared back at him.  “Did I say it was?”
“Um…no?”
“Sky,” Keeper began, and he was keenly aware of how odd it sounded for her to call him by his true name rather than what he went by within the Alicorn Guard.  “Do you recall hearing about the spell I was working on over the last few months?”
Sky’s brain was barely able to cope with the present, much less events that happened weeks ago.  Yet somehow, a flickering memory arose in his mind.  “Well…maybe.  I seem to remember you saying something about a spell that used more magic power than you could summon on your own.”
Keeper nodded.  “That’s the one.”
“What good is a magic spell going to do?” Garnet Glint demanded suddenly.  “If an entire hospital can’t heal our daughter, then what is one unicorn going to do?  No offense intended.”
“None taken,” Keeper replied, “but you have obviously never witnessed my magic.  I could reduce this hospital’s current load by half, but alas, while I rely upon a limited supply of magic, the hospital does not require such a power source.  So it heals as it always has.  I do so only when I am needed.”
“I see,” Garnet Glint replied.  Sky couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.  He had asked an honest question, and while Keeper hadn’t intended to come across harshly, her habit of answering in such a blunt manner often made her seem cold and unfeeling.
“But as I was saying, I do not possess the magic necessary to perform a spell of that magnitude,” she began again.  “However, I believe there may be a way to gather all the magic I need.”
“What is it?” Turquoise Twist blurted.  She was apparently sick of being kept in the dark while her daughter’s life hung in the balance.
“I may be able to use the magic present within your own bodies and add it to my own, which may be enough to power this spell,” Keeper explained.  “However, there is no way to be certain that it will be sufficient.  I only know how to cast the spell, not how much magic it will take for it to work.”
“What about us?” Sky heard his father ask, his wing draped across his wife’s back.  “We’re not like our son; we’re just two typical pegasi.  No magic to speak of.”
Keeper regarded them from under the hood of her cloak.  “Do you care for Lily?  Do you love her like the other ponies here?”
“Yes, of course,” Feather Wisp answered.  “She is as much a part of our family as Sky is, in our eyes.”
Keeper extended a hoof to the two pegasi.  “Then relay that to me.  Let me feel your emotions and love for her.  In many ways, magic is a manifest expression of emotion.  And if I can feel what you feel, it may empower the spell even more.”
“You also have something else to consider,” said another voice from across the room.  Sky turned to find Princess Luna approaching, her face expressionless save for the grave flame flickering in her eyes.  “You said yourself you have never cast this spell before.  If you succeed in casting it now, do you know what will happen?  This is all conjecture.  You have no solid proof that this spell will do what we hope it will.  We are basing everything on blind faith that this will work.”
“You’re right,” Sky answered.  “But at this stage, Princess, what do we have to lose?  Everyone here loves Lily too much to give up on her now.  I love her, and that love compels me to believe, no matter what.”  He turned back to the bed and looked into the still face of his precious Lily.  On either side, he was flanked by her parents, who each placed a hoof onto his shoulders.  “And that goes for all of us.”
“Bravely spoken,” Luna replied as she arrived on Keeper’s right side.  “But even more than that, I can see that you truly believe it, too.”  She paused for a moment, beaming at him.  “Well done, Sky Streak.”
She reached out and took Keeper’s hoof between her own.  “My memories of Lily may be few by comparison to all of you, but I have heard and seen enough to understand just how special she is.  And as a citizen of Equestria, she deserves my love and respect.  So what I have, I offer.”
“Princess Luna…” Turquoise Twist said in a blubbering voice as she began to cry again.
“We’re behind you, Princess,” Midnight Sky said as he and Feather Wisp placed their hooves upon her back.  “We’re all together in this.”
“We certainly are!” Doc Trotter exclaimed, his head popping up from behind Keeper.  “I must say, while I am not acquainted with this young mare, hearing you speak about her has stirred me up!  I feel as though I honestly care for her, even though I have virtually no connection to her!  And I’m quite eager to see a miracle today!”
“Me, too,” Sky agreed.  He linked legs with the teal unicorn before him.  “Well?”
“Ready,” she answered.  Her eyes closed, and everypony followed suit.  When she spoke again, her voice seemed to echo, as though it had taken on a certain ethereal quality.  “Think about Lily.  Think about how much you love her and why you love her.  Then share that with me.  And most importantly…believe.”
Sky’s mind instantly filled with a thousand memories that he had shared with Lily over the past year, each one just as special and precious as the last.  Their journey to the windigoes and their date in Polarmino.  Seeing her when he awoke from his coma in the palace.  Standing together against the Chimera outside Foalumbus and the Summer Sun Celebration.  Their countless dates.  And even the short and simple moments they spent together.  He cherished them all.
How do I put into words what she means to me? Sky thought to himself.  She…she’s everything to me.  She is the fuel that powers me to do what I do.  She’s the purest example of what I strive to make Equestria into.  I can’t envision a future without her in it.  She’s more than just a friend, or even as close as family: she’s become a part of me.
Around him, Sky could feel the magic pressure building in the room as Keeper’s spell took form.  A warm light pressed against his eyelids.  Our lives are connected.  Mingled together.  But even more than that, her life is connected to so many others.  And if she were no longer here, part of all of us would be torn away, leaving us with just memories of her for the rest of our existence, and scars to remember the wounds we took when we lost her.
His body tingled as his magic sprung to life.  So whatever it takes, whatever it costs me, if there is a way to save her, I will give it.  Because she means more to me than anything else I could ask for.
And, as he basked in the comfort of his memories, new images passed before him.  Visions of a much younger Lily: a tiny foal, cradled by her smiling mother.  A young filly, playing out in the grass, rolling in the dirt and wrestling with her father.  A teenager, finally taking the steps into becoming the mare that Sky would one day meet and fall in love with.  What is this?
A trembling upon his shoulders revealed the answer.  He reached up and placed his bandaged hoof upon the outstretched legs of Turquoise Twist and Garnet Glint, who were once again shaking as they wept.  Their memories, he surmised.  These are their memories of Lily.  They’re sharing them with Keeper, and I’m seeing them, too.
Suddenly, his heart steeled with resolve and his magic flared up unexpectedly.  He opened one eye and stared at the unicorn in the bed.  A soft light shone upon her, and the only word Sky could think of to describe her was “angelic.”  Lily, you believed in me and stood by my side until I woke up before, and I’m not leaving this room until you open your eyes!  Do you hear me?  Are you listening?  His eye slammed shut as he forced the tears in his eyes to take form within his thoughts and feelings.  Don’t leave me alone!  I love you!  I need you!
And, for the first time, amidst the turmoil of his own thoughts, he heard a quiet whisper, speaking in the long-abandoned tongue of the alicorns.  It lasted only a second more before falling silent.  Then, a dazzling light filled the room, blinding Sky even behind the cover of his eyelids.  He heard several cries and grunts of surprise as the light grew brighter and brighter.  It seemed that it would never end.
And then it did.
Sky opened his eyes to the same room, and his gaze immediately fell upon Lily.  “Was that supposed to happen?” Midnight Sky asked, rubbing his eyes.
“You ask that as if I have witnessed it before,” Keeper commented, adjusting her hood.
“Regardless of whether it was supposed to happen or not, we can be sure that something did happen,” Princess Luna replied.  “Let us hope that it did what we hoped it would.”
Garnet Glint and Turquoise Twist advanced to the head of the bed, leaning in close.  “Lily?” Turquoise asked softly.  “Sweetheart, it’s us.  Mom and Dad.  Can you hear us?”
No response.
Sky held his breath.  It just had to have worked.  Why would it have been allowed to happen unless it was going to work?
And, in the midst of the silence, Sky noticed something.  The heart monitor that had been beeping so slowly just a minute earlier seemed to have picked up its pace.  Several other sensors seemed much more active, as well.  He stared at them for a moment, then looked at Lily.
I believe.
And, as if in response to Sky’s one last mental push, she coughed.
Doc Trotter was there in a flash, quickly working to remove the ventilator tubes from her mouth.  “I can’t believe it,” he repeated as he worked.
Lily’s mom had fallen to her knees at the sound of the cough, and her head rolled limply from side to side.  Midnight Sky rushed past Sky to help Garnet Glint hold her steady.  “Easy, now,” Midnight said.  “Just breathe.”
Finally, Doc successfully removed the ventilator tubes and stood back in observation.  He gave Garnet Glint a nudge.  “Call to her again,” he urged.
“Lily?  Honey?  It’s…it’s Dad.  Mom’s here, too.  Can you hear us?”
Sky thought he heard a soft sigh, like a kitten’s mewing, though it could have just been his over-hopeful imagination at work.  But in the next moment, there was no doubt.
A pair of bright green eyes peered out from the narrow slits between her eyelids, and a pair of whispered words were spoken: “Mom?  Dad?”
Sky fell back onto his haunches.  Midnight Sky whooped softly, grabbed his wife and twirled her around, laughing the entire time.  Garnet Glint stepped forward to the bed, gently caressing his daughter’s mane, while Turquoise Twist brought her hooves to her mouth in shock.  Doc Trotter smiled from ear to ear.  “Well, I’ll be,” he muttered.  “Miracles do happen, don’t they?”
“They certainly do,” Princess Luna answered.  “Every day.  Today has seen more miracles than most, in fact.  Though none pleases me more than this one.”
Sky looked back at the Princess in curiosity.  I wonder what she meant by that…
And that was when he noticed: Keeper was gone.
He staggered to his hooves.  “Hey, where’d…where’d she go?” he asked.
“Who?” Doc Trotter asked.
“That mare…the one with the healing spell,” Sky answered, wary of saying her name aloud.
“Oh, I…er…hm.  Where did she go?” the doctor asked, looking as confused as Sky.
“She stepped out,” Princess Luna answered, backing away from the bed ever-so-slightly.
Well, why’d she do that?  He turned towards the doorway.  “Excuse me just a moment,” he said.
“But Sky!” his mother called.  “What about—”
“I’ll be right back,” Sky interrupted.  “You guys aren’t going anywhere, are you?”
Feather Wisp looked like she was ready to give a response, but her husband beat her to it.  “Of course not,” he said with a wink.  “But make it quick.”
Sky limped into the hallway and spotted a cloaked pony about halfway down the hall.  “Hey!” he called out.
Keeper paused, turning her head to acknowledge Sky’s voice.  She patiently waited as Sky staggered down the hall to her.  “Where are you going?” he demanded.  “You just saved her life, and now you’re just going to leave?  You should be in there with us!”
“Now is not the time, Blitz,” Keeper said softly.  “And it was not I who saved her life.  I already told you that I did not possess the magic power to cast that spell.  That came from you.  From all of you.”
“But you were the one with the spell!” Sky countered.  “It was all of us.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right about that.  However,” Keeper continued, “I saw the memories and cherished moments you all shared.  The love that you feel for Lily is truly astounding.  It made a miracle happen, just as the love between Princess Cadance and Shining Armor created another miracle not so long ago.  My point is, I do not share those memories.  They are yours.  I was merely able to use them to help save her life.  I would be out of place in that room right now.”
“Perhaps you don’t have any memories like ours,” Sky conceded.  “But you could always make some.  Starting now, even.”
Even behind the cover of her mask, Sky could see a smile.  “Perhaps at a later time, Blitz.  Right now, this time belongs to you.  I believe they are probably expecting you as we speak.”
He looked back over his shoulder towards Lily’s room.  “Yeah,” he mumbled as he turned back to Keeper.
“Then go,” she admonished.  Then, with her eyes lighting in another smile, she added, “I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to get introduced in the days to come.”
“I’m sure you will.”  He turned again and began back down the hallway, but before he took even three steps, he stopped.  “Oh, by the way…”
“Yes?”
“Thanks, Keeper.”
“You’re most welcome, Blitz.  It was my distinct privilege and pleasure to help.”  With that, she walked down the remainder of the hallway, turned the corner, and was gone.
She and Lily would get along fine, I’d wager, Sky mused.  Lily would be fascinated by Keeper’s magic prowess, and Keeper could learn some tact and grace from Lily.  
He proceeded back down the hallway, feeling as high on joy as he had been in months.  And why shouldn’t he?  Not three hours ago, he was prepared to die—to give his life in defense of his country.  The love of his life had been in a coma and was within hours of her own demise.  A horrifying monster had been threatening to cast the entire future into an unending darkness, dragging Princess Luna back into the shadows of her past.  And yet, by no small miracle (or series of miracles), every crisis had been averted, everypony had survived, and the future looked brighter than ever.  They had won.
But at what cost?
He had no word on Ghost, though Luna had told him that he had no power any longer…whatever that meant.  Storm Emblem had vanished completely.  The Alicorn Guard had been exposed, thanks in no small part to Sky’s own actions.  The future may have been bright, but many things were still uncertain.
But those were thoughts for another day.  Right now, it was a time to celebrate and rest in victory.
As he entered the door into Lily’s room, he found every eye focused squarely upon him.  His parents were beaming at him, Lily’s parents were holding each other and smiling amidst their tears, Princess Luna bowed her head in acknowledgement (though she couldn’t hide her own smile), Doc Trotter was stamping in a solo applause…
But none of that mattered.  There, still lying in her bed, but awake at last, Lily’s bright green eyes met his, and Sky’s heart stopped.  He thought he would never see those blessed emerald irises ever again.  And yet, there they were, glistening in the light of the afternoon sun.  He could see the tears welling in the corners of her eyes, and he knew that whatever tears he had left would probably start flowing as well if he didn’t say something.
“Hey,” he managed.  “Nice to see you came back.”
She lowered her eyelids slightly, and Sky’s knees went weak.  “Sorry about that,” she said.  “I guess I just have a thing for dramatic entrances.”  The very sound of her voice made his insides turn to mush.  He could feel the blushing in his cheeks, and the widening smiles of the ponies in the room told him that there was no hiding it, either.  He shrugged and walked to the bedside.
“Let’s face it,” he said, flashing his trademark smug grin, “you wouldn’t have had it any other way.”