A Rising Current

by OnTheMoon

Interlude 1: Celestia

“You’re sure,” Celestia said, somewhere between a question and a statement. Her hooves clicked against the tile flooring, her long legs making it difficult for the stallion beside her to keep up.

“Absolutely.” The two turned a corner, Red Letter almost running into a wall. He corrected his course, glancing nervously at the Princess to see if she had noticed. The red unicorn was a fairly recent addition to her royal staff, trained for the utmost precision in organization and research, but still unsure of himself in the presence of royalty. Such was always the case with new ponies. Celestia continued to stare straight ahead. Coughing, Red Letter continued. “The Court’s own physician scanned the foal personally. She said she had never seen a magical signature like this except in Your Highness.”

“The foal’s parents. Who are they?”

Red Letter stared at the clipboard he was levitating along with them. He flipped over a few pages, tensing at the terse tone of the Princess’s voice. “The girl’s father is Oakleaf Ironhoof, and her mother, um, Lady Ray, of the Embermanes.”

Celestia noticed the struggle Red Letter was having in matching her strides, so she slowed to a more manageable pace. “What is the girl’s relation to me?” she asked.

“The father is not of the aristocracy, but the Embermanes are the Baronets of the Sunshine Ward.”

“Of course. And, to me…”

“They are from the seventh branch of the Sun. The foal is your,” Red Letter flipped another page, “granddaughter unto the fifty-fourth generation.”

“Are there any others in her line?”

“None, your Highness.”

They were nearing the room. Canterlot’s hospital was a maze of hallways and waiting areas, but they had reached the maternity ward. Red Letter read over his notes and pointed to the left. Celestia strode forward, not sparing a backwards glance at the bundle of doctors and nurses that were watching flabbergast as the Princess of Equestria cantered through their workplace. If this was true, if the child was an alicorn, everything would change.

The door to the room was slightly ajar. Celestia pushed it open the rest of the way and peeked her head in. Lady Ray was sitting up in the bed, coat and pink hair in complete disarray. At her side was a blue unicorn who had to be Oakleaf. The lights were off and the curtains were drawn on the small room, and the two ponies squinted at the sudden intruder.

“May I come in?” Celestia said quietly.

Oakleaf nodded cautiously. As the Princess entered the room, he recognized her and gasped audibly. Bowing low, he said, “Your Highness, my wife and I are honored by your presence.”

At his words, Lady Ray raised her head. She did not seem at all surprised to see the Princess of all Equestria at the foot of her hospital bed. “Princess Celestia. Have you come to see my daughter?” She held a small bundle aloft.

Her breath catching in her throat, Celestia walked slowly to the side of the prostrate mare and sat. Her hooves trembled, but she halted them with a thought. She had to be strong. She had to. “Yes, thank you.” Celestia stretched out a hoof and accepted the foal. She was light, a few pounds at most, and as Celestia stared at her, a feeling of great warmth came over the Princess. The baby’s eyes were closed, her face a serene form of peace and tranquility. Three colors of hair, purple, yellow, and pink, parted around a small stub of a horn in the center of the foal’s forehead. Moving gently as she breathed in and out, tiny wings fluttered against Celestia’s hoof. It was true. The seventh alicorn born to this world, Celestia thought. My sister saw truly.

The foal awoke and began to cry, a piercing noise that hardly seemed possible from such a tiny body. Celestia quickly returned her to her mother. Lady Ray took the child and rocked it back and forth until the crying subsided, and then smiled at the Princess.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Lady Ray said.

“She is. Have you decided on a name yet?” Celestia asked.

Lady Ray nodded. “My husband named her.” Oakleaf grinned sheepishly, looking anywhere but at the Princess. “Cadance.”

Celestia smiled and said, “Of course. My Love, Cadance.” The smile felt tight on her face, stretched too thin, too far. The Princess rose to her feet and ruffled her wings, stretching. “I will be seeing much more of you, Lady Ray and Sir Oakleaf, and your daughter Cadance. I’ll take my leave now.” She turned and walked through the door, leaving Oakleaf with a look of stupefied astonishment on his face.

“Red Letter,” Celestia called when she had exited the room and shut the door behind her.

“Yes, your highness?” said the red stallion, who had remained in the hallway while Celestia saw the child.

“I want Lady Ray and Oakleaf raised to the title of Duchess and Duke. Cadance is a Princess, and she is to be given all the trappings associated with that title.” Red Letter nodded, scribbling a note on the hovering clipboard.

Several ponies - doctors, nurses, patients - had gathered at the end of the hallway and were watching her, whispering behind their hooves. No doubt they all had seen or heard of the miraculous alicorn child, and Celestia’s presence would only confirm their suspicions. The muttering intensified as she drew nearer, and then the ponies scattered before her. Afraid of being caught with gossip on their lips, no doubt. Why wouldn’t they gossip? An alicorn child? Something is happening. She cursed herself for thinking it, but knew it was true. The air in the hospital grew denser, the smell of disinfectant stinging her nose. “Red Letter, find your way back to the palace. I will meet you there.”

“My Princess?” Her assistant stopped and turned to her, confusion writ large across his face.

The hallway was pressing in on her. Her wings flared, the tips brushing against the walls. She had to get out. Concentrating, she forced out, “Just, go!” And she was gone, disappeared in a flash of gold light.

Celestia reappeared in a blaze of light several hundred feet above the ground. She flapped her wings once, twice, regaining her balance and composure. The air was clean up here, the sounds and smells of the hospital nothing but a memory and perhaps the faintest trace of baby powder on her fur. Breathing in the emptiness of the sky, Celestia searched about for a cloud, and, finding one, settled upon it.

Cadance. The seventh alicorn of the seventh line. It was exactly as Luna had said, almost two thousand years ago. And if one prophecy were true, why not the rest? For a brief moment, Celestia allowed herself to hope. She would see her sister again, see Luna brought back to her! No. One event follows the last. The birth of Cadance was the first step in the series, the first domino that would-

No, she thought. I will deal with that crisis when it arises. Now, I must prepare. The one-thousand year anniversary of the fall of Nightmare Moon was still thirty years away, a blink of an eye for an immortal being. She’d been lax, hoping against hope that the future her sister saw would not come to pass, not preparing for the inevitable because to do so would be to accept its inevitability. But it was here.

With a thought, Celestia dissipated the cloud beneath her, allowing herself to fall in a dive towards the ground. She spread her wings, letting the air catch her and push her back into the sky. Angling herself north, Celestia steered towards the castle. There was much work to be done.

Comments

[Ekevoo]

The order of the story is really dishorienting, and I can't make out what the actual protagonist(s) is(are) going to be. But really well written, nice description, quite immersive. It's rather rare for ghost stories to make me actually afraid, but you managed that, and it felt worth it. Please continue, but try to make it clearer which characters are more important than others. For example, Sweetie Belle starts sounding really important to the plot, but it could've been simply anypony. In that same chapter, the fact that it's years later is completely irrelevant most of the time and very vaguely relevant at some very few points. Also, isn't Cadance official name something Italian sounding?