Melt
Celestia carried herself with elegance and grace. So much so, in fact, that her golden shoes touched the stone flooring with utter gentleness, soft and delicate as a trail of kisses. The rough and beaten workway would have been flattered, for it was everything the smooth, shining marble of Canterlot was not. There, in equal quiet and majesty, the princess of the sun might appear over some noble or other’s shoulder. She always enjoyed that light teasing and embarrassment in the court, more than anypony within the Capitol realized, though many had been subject to the alicorn’s coy humour at some time or another. Here, there would only ever be sweat and iron, and what ponies worked here held more than enough of Celestia’s respect to safeguard them from her private jokes.
“Hi, Princess,” came a wan little voice, muffled by the furnace door of the nearest smelter. Celestia paused mid-step, then smiled to herself. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t just any pony, that was certain. In the years since first being instated as a pupil of the throne she had gone onwards and upwards in proving her virtue and worth, making for herself a dear place in the princess’ heart.
“Yes, it’s me. Hello, Twilight.”
“It’s really nice...that you’re here.” It was not the usual voice the unicorn addressed her with. Not the unselfconscious, innocent delight and adoration of Twilight’s voracious curiosity, nor the sheer panic when that very same curiosity, or her own imaginings, conjured something particularly upsetting.
Rather, this was the voice that croaked and groaned, miserable enough to get the week off from school and not even enjoy it, though being Twilight Sparkle, fell a little short. She had never enjoyed missing out on learning for anything, as Celestia well knew.
It hadn’t been the first time the princess of Equestria had nursed her student through an illness, though it had been years since the last time, when a brief but eventful pox had rolled through Her School For Gifted Unicorns. Whereas other fillies and colts had gone home to recover or had been stationed with nurses, the filly Twilight had bemoaned her unfair and cruel fate, quite poetically, from the most sumptuous bed in all Equestria.
Growing up had made Twilight no less endearing to the princess, though this time she had found herself an even more unlikely bed to curl up and shiver in. The blackened glass of the furnace door cast flickering red lights, bowing down at Celestia’s gold-clad hooves. With her magic, she opened the hatch wide, bathing herself in the radiance of yellows and reds, and heat that made the air shimmer and dance. Flames leapt up where fresh oxygen rushed in, turning Twilight to a dark, obscure lump at the core of the oven.
Sparks crackled and spat out into the foundry, now empty of all other ponies. Some bounced harmlessly against the alicorn before fading to flecks of ash. Celestia paid them no mind, and poked her head into the growling inferno.
“You’re letting the cold in,” Twilight complained. She shivered. Fever sweat trickled down her brow and sides. Whenever a drip fell from the unicorn, the water remembered itself and exploded with tiny, vigorous spats into ultraheated steam.
At Celestia’s beckoning the bed of coals brightened all the more, until they were less like coal and more like shovefuls dug straight out of the sun itself. “Feel better?” the princess asked.
“A bit, thanks.” The unicorn nestled down deeper into the blazing coals. “I still feel really woozy. I think breakfast caught fire in my mouth,” she said apologetically. She mumbled something that might have been words. “I’m really glad you’re here. Thank you.”
The innocent sincerity touched Celestia, as it always did. “Of course, Twilight. Spike sent word to me as soon he knew to. You were quick to figure it out.”
The sick pony made an aimless, sweeping gesture with her hoof. “The first hundred degrees I went above normal were a bit of a clue. Salamanderitus!” she suddenly exclaimed, knocking glowing coals about the place.
One lump bounced off Celestia’s forehead for comedic effect. Other than making her blink, it did nothing, and she magicked it back into the furnace, lest she make more a mess of the foundry than necessary. The working ponies had been very understanding of the situation, even if they didn’t actually understand the situation.
“Salamanderitus!” the unicorn cried out again. “Salamannnnnderrrrriiiiiiitus!” Celestia feared her student slipping into a moment of delirium, but Twilight had other notions. “I’m sorry,” Twilight said sullenly. “Is Spike ok? I hope I got away from him quick enough.” She groaned and turned over.
Celestia poked her head further into the furnace, until her muzzle was inches from Twilight’s frayed and wiry mane. She’d only stopped because the size of the door didn’t permit her any further.
“He is. He’d have symptoms by now if he’d caught it too. Best to keep him out of the library until you’re feeling better and it can be disinfected.”
Twilight nodded. “I hope he’s not worried...” she worried aloud.
“Only as much as you are,” Celestia said warmly.
“How do I even catch a dragon disease anyway? I’ve never heard of it happening, or read of it, or even read a story about it! Even for you, Princess, this has to be a first.”
Celestia used her magic to pile more of the coals up against her little student. “Indeed, it is. I’ve never heard of it, let alone seen it happen.”
Twilight gave a throaty chuckle, which quickly descended into a cough. “It shouldn’t even be possible. It’s too terrible to be allowed. I’m all achey and dizzy and shakey...and that’s not even a real adjective! Or is it an adverb?” Twilight grumbled and kicked some of her improvised bed at the furnace’s interior, where it clanged with a dull, heavy echo. “...I’m cold now,” she intoned quietly. “I’m sorry, princess.”
“Don’t think anything of it, Twilight. You’re not well.”
“I know. I’m trying to think straight, but I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
“If you’d rather sleep, I could—”
“No! Please, stay?” Twilight scrambled and scooped her way through the burning until she was more or less under Celestia’s chin. Her wide, wobbling eyes pleaded wantonly. She shivered, then buried her head in the burning coals as if they were pillows. The heap of coals mumbled something incoherent, but nonetheless explicit.
“Twilight. My dear Twilight. It’s alright.”
“I think it’s my high magic quotient,” the coals said irritably. “Anypony else would be immune, because dragons are really magical too, so any flu that targeted them would have to be adapted specifically for that. The Salamanderitus thinks I’m a dragon, so now my body thinks it is one too, and is fighting it that way. My magic is tricking itself.” A horn sprouted from the inferno, sizzled with a few dud purple fizzles, then uprooted itself to reveal a most self-piteous and mopey Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia paused, then looked to her student. “That was surprisingly succinct.”
“Well, I am sick, but that doesn’t mean—” Twilight sneezed. The thick, viscous kind of sneeze perpetrated by only the true mucous exporter. Right in Celestia’s face. Or would have, except that not even ash made it across the intervening space, and for this the alicorn was infinitely grateful. Twilight looked more sheepish than an actual sheep.
“I was considering much along those lines as well.”
It might have just been the fever, but Twilight’s eyes took on a particular shine. “You mean it?”
“I do.”
“I think like you do? I always,—I mean, I wondered and maybe, maybe I hoped that...I’m glad.” Her head and eyelids sank respectively. “Princess?”
For all the truth of having her head more or less literally face-first in an inferno, Celestia felt a sudden chill all the same. “Yes?”
“I know...I know I’m not really thinking straight, and I’m kind of scared and everything’s still a bit dreamy, but...but...
“I love you.”
Celestia drew a gasp, like she hadn’t done in a long, long time. Suddenly her poise and calm were fleeting things before her.
“I love you. You’re like a mother to me, and I already have a mom. And...and...and usually I’m so worried about one thing or another, or thinking things through so much, but...but, I can barely hear myself think right now. I’m just babbling, but it’s nice for once not thinking and just saying.”
“Twilight.”
Twilight found the strength to dredge her head up from the blaze. “I love you, and I don’t say that enough and maybe nopony says it enough even though we mean to, and especially not enough to you because you’re so much, so wonderful and amazing, and for everything I’ve done and been and learned...Everything I’ve learned, and I find out there’s two more things I didn’t know and-”
“Twilight.”
“...and how much you’ve done for me, because maybe a tower full of books is what I used to think was the biggest gift to me you ever gave, but I’m just a silly, sick pony and when I’m better I’m going to be so embarrassed but I want to say it anyway, because it wasn’t the tower or the books or Canterlot that means so much; it’s everytime you make me smile, or inspire me, or challenge me to grow, and I realize now that you’ve been treating me my whole life as Twilight Sparkle, not just a unicorn to put in a tower of books and I love you for everything and why am I crying and smiling at the same time?”
Exhausted, Twilight dropped softly to her bed of coals. The occasional tear went up with an explosive sizzle. “And now I’m scared,” she whispered. “Because right now I feel like I’m in a warm, lumpy bed, and I keep forgetting that I’m inside a furnace just to stay warm. By all rights I shouldn’t be in here, ever, and I don’t know what’ll happen once I’m through the fever and—”
“Twilight Sparkle” Celestia said, being firm yet gentle with her tone. “It’ll be ok. I’m here, and I won’t leave you. I won’t let anything happen.”
“But how—”
“Don’t concern yourself with that. You just get some rest. I’ll be right here.” Twilight sniffled and shivered. With her magic, Celestia piled up the embers against her faithful student, doing what she could to make it comfortable for her. “Just sleep now.”
“I think...” she mumbled as her eyes drooped. “I think I can, now. I’m not so afraid with you here. I’m glad I said what I said.”
“Sleep, Twilight. I’ll watch over you.”
“I love you...” Twilight murmured as she sank softly into sleep.
For a time, Celestia ran everything Twilight had said through her thoughts and feelings, trying to make absolute sense of it all—a challenge for anypony, even one old and wise as her.
After a little while, and in the privacy of the utterly vacated foundry, Celestia smiled. Occasionally a droplet of water flashed into steam.
“I love you too,” Celestia whispered to the sleeping filly before her. Celestia listened to Twilight’s breathing and, in the empty iron works and the glow of the furnace, felt herself richer than all the marble towers.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Moabite · 1.6k words · 1,450 19 · 21k views
- Pale Horse · 3.1k words · 2,082 25 · 24k views
- Sunchaser · 13k words · 2,081 28 · 21k views
- PoweredByTea · 3.5k words · 982 10 · 10k views
- Karrakaz · 161k words · 1,731 35 · 27k views
- SPark · 7.1k words · 1,853 29 · 22k views
- Mourning Zephyr · 4.7k words · 2,125 26 · 25k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.313 seconds
Total duration
1,065 users online
1,936,978 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
AWWWWWWWWWWW!!
Nicely done, for how much I like Twilestia as a paring I always love the mother/daughter relationship between them as well. You did good.
THIS SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME, RUN AWAY FOR YOUR OWN GOOD. SYMTOMS OF READING INCLUDE: PROBLEMS OF THE HEART, UNKNOWN CAUSE OF DIABETES AND UNCONTROLLABLE 'DAWING'. IT IS RECOMMENDED TO GTFO, FOR YOUR OWN GOOD! IT IS TOO LATE FOR ME.
This was very cute
Even though Twilight in a furnace is...really something else
Would it be okay for you if I added your story into my "Momlestia" group?
2268224 Okay, you're channeling Twilight, 'cause you sound delerious.
So here's hoping Salamanderitis has a long 'cool down' period, or Twilight's fever will break, then POOF!
This is to me the best illustration of Twilestia that doesn't involve shipping, just sheer adoration of a student for her teacher. And the reciprocation on a similar level.
I like the desease. Could I borrow it for a fic if I ever find a use for it?
Also, could you give a complete discription of the symptoms here in the comments?
sequel, sequel!!, maybe just anoother short 1 shot of her getting over the flu, which means being in there very dangerous, and celestia have tonget her out in a hurry, could also have twi remember what she said and have a nice panic attack xD
very sweet momlestia, having to stay warm in a furnace .... lol makes an interesting picture
Amazing.
2268418
Sure, and I'm glad you like the story. In mythology, the salamander crawls it's way to the heart of volcanoes, because it's body is so cold and icy that only the utter heat it finds there is enough to warm it up. The disease, for a dragon, is little more than an ordinary flu, which like most flu's causes the body to react by producing a fever.
This gets a bit complicated in a species that uses lava as a hot tub, so to go even hotter than that to burn out the fever is something peculiar indeed.
Twilight's case is unique, indeed, she could very well be the only pony with enough inherent magic to facilitate the disease, most ponies would be immune by default, though circumstantial infection could well be possible. While she has it, her body is magically convincing itself and everything around it that it's actually a dragon, hence, the absurd heat of the furnace is not fatal, or even particularily bothersome. (I took liberties with Celestia being more or less fireproof, which makes the story work.)
The symptoms are essentially the same as a regular flu, except that the subject goes up hundreds of degrees rather than a regular fever. They feel they like any other fever, except their bed catches fire under them, breakfast burns on their tongues (not harmfully, but it's inedible and tastes bad), and they become a nuiscance and hazard because of the unnatural raise in temperature.
The big danger Salamanderitus is actually after the fever breaks, when the pony is still hundreds of degrees above normal, but is no longer being a faux-dragon and so loses their immunity to heat. A competent unicorn is needed to magically protect the victim from harm while allowing them to cool naturally, or, if skilled enough, to siphon off the excess heat with an appropriate heat sink. Celestia takes on this role when she stays up with Twilight. You are absolutely free to use the disease if you like.
I see no liberties in stating that Celestia is fireproof , she is after all the ponyfication of the sun .
2268517 I like that you are turning to old myths for inspiration. It is always good when authors do that. Here is a bit of Salamander trivia for you. The myths about salamanders problably started when farmers would grab a rotting log for the fireplace, with a real salamander inside. the salamander would flee the fire. Innitially, they thought that salamanders were creatures of ice, not fire. The myths said that the beasts could put out any fire. Eventually they evolved into the salamander myths of today, where occasionally they are born in a fire and they love sources of heat like volcanoes
Oh my god this is so cute :3
That was cute, I'll give you that.
That's so sweet... awwww.
I've been reading a lot of fimfiction lately where Celestia is "the bad guy". This was such a nice change
This was absolutely adorable, fantastic work
. And indeed as was already said by another, quite the interesting illness Twilight's come down with here. If anything though, it's lucky it was her that caught it, not many other ponies would be bright enough to self-diagnose that quickly 
.
The mental image of Twilight sleeping peacefully under a pile of coals in a roaring furnace while Celestia looks on is just so very adorable that words are not adequate. It would almost certainly inspire me to draw it myself, if I were capable of drawing. And your fictional disease is quite inspired, as well.
I spotted only two spelling errors myself; 'shovefluls' instead of shovelfuls, and 'shakey' isn't a word but shaky is. Otherwise, great work!
2268332 the operative part of those two sentences being the four words in front of the comma
Brilliant story, really made me smile. Quick question, where is the cover picture from? I have seen it before and I just can't remember
Very sweet, and delightfully inventive!
Well, it's a good thing I didn't want to keep living today.
Too much cute for my heart to handle.
This was amazing.
A lovely and very clever story.
Can Twilight's ability to set herself aflame when angry be tied back to this?
This is actually 120% more awesome! I'm hoping there's more to this story at some point, but even so it's a fantastic stand-alone fic.
2269339 Sometimes you have to over-explain for the childrens' sake.
2269472 A friend actually found it for, after a fruitless search on my part. It's a'friggin'd'aww'able, isn't it just?
The original I used is found here http://mamandil.deviantart.com/art/Tiny-Twi-has-a-cold-334418210
just.....just...
D'AAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
img31.imageshack.us/img31/9363/hnnnng.jpg
I'm crying now.
Thanks a lot.
2268517 Huh. Twilight is the only unicorn (operative word here) who's magical enough to catch this disease? What about Celestia then? The only explanation for why this doesn't affect her that I can think of is that, being a millennia-old goddess, even dragon diseases can't get to her.
Other than that, short, sweet and to the point. I like.
2294522
Thousands of years just means she's had a lot of time to become immune. Who knows? Maybe she's really a walking, disease-ridden time bomb, keeping her own immune system up at peak efficiency so she can keep dormant, ancient viruses contained inside her as she seeks a cure.
... Damn, that sounds like it'd be a good continuation to a story like this.
Absolutely adorable. And anyone who's ever had a bad fever can easily sympathize with Twilight. And even though she's miserable it's still funny when she's got her head stuffed under a pile of burning coals.
Cute... Faved, upvoted, etc. You deserve it, my fellow writer.
This was a very touching story. I really liked the disease and the furnace bit.
You know, this is an utterly pedestrian, typical wishy washy plot about feelings for the sake of feelings with the flimsiest pretext possible... and yet I love it anyway, because the skilled execution makes the tiredness of the premise almost irrelevant.
The disease of choice was perhaps the one note of genuine originality in the piece, but it was fabulously done. I wish I'd thought of it first! The area of dragon-pony cross-species diseases is certainly a plausibly unexplored idea for Twi and Spike, and the imagery involved in Twilight's chosen bed, coupled with the implied danger once she feels better, is just incredibly appropriate and unique. You even tied it in to the scene small cute ways, like the sneeze, that simply wouldn't have worked with a normal flu.
Grats on taking a worn out old idea and making it new again, for a few fleeting minutes.
HHHHHHHNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG.
2320607 I have to agree with what you said there, in generalities at least. It really is a rather simple story, without complexity or depth beyond what is immediately apparant. Truth be told, the original idea was a fair bit different, but always the disease was the core idea I wanted to write about. It's just such great image, I find. Everything else in the story just faciliates that, as well as being pretty darn a'daww'able, if I may say so myself
2320607
Proof that a "well worn" plot (The Unsolicited Confession of Love) doesn't need to come off as totally cliche. I've ready many stories of Twilight confessing her love of Celestia, but can't help feeling this is a much more realistic and honest take. Of course the image of Twilight having to stay in a furnace because she catches a draconian disease is kind of awesome. So seems being so magically powerful that your nearly indestructible and destine to ascend to near godhood DOES have down sides.
Well this is a cute and neat idea presented in a simple adorable package. Yeah, I can dig it.
Dat cover art.... 10/10 dawwww.
Brilliantly told; very realistic and heartfelt.
Insta-like/fav.
This is so well done and believable and it's exactly the kind of incident that would explain further the love and understanding implicit in their relationship, however formal that relationship is.
Genuine ad'awwwableness!
Hello feels, been a while........good to see you again.
Very nice work, good to see a story like this every once in a while.
D'awwww. Would love to see more
Adorable~
Bam. Favorited.
i am so fucking confused. how the hell is she IN a furnace? I get she has a disease, but....what?
2427494
It's a draconic disease. So yes, while part of it is that her body can go to extremely high temperatures, the downside is that it has to go to these temperatures to get over the sickness.
Or, my prefferred explanation in all things: Magic Ain't Gotta Explain Zip
D'awwwwwwwwwww....
but you get the jist. Well done.
More than the fuzzees this gave me you are also a fantastic writer. You know when 'said the pile of coals' makes utter sense, that talent was employed.
Just an example of the hallmarks of good writers, showing/telling andn all that jazz,
I need to take notes...
What a sweet, sweet warm story and a very clever (if kind of alarming) premise!
We've probably all been there, being terribly sick and not only inclined but practically forced by the draining energy of illness to cut through all of our usual self-restraints and just say what we feel in the moment (not always a good thing), and you really brought that out well. The only difficulty I had with this story was Celestia's confusion and delay in response to Twilight's revelation (she is, after all, immortal and has all of the experience that a very long life entails), but it's still plausible and I do understand why you wrote it that way.
Your dialog and prose are excellent and well-placed, and the story is also, for me, in general very well written and I was very moved by it. This is an instant favorite for me. Very nicely done.
Salamanderitis..........Salamandastron?
> “I still feel really woozy. I think breakfast caught fire in my mouth.”
Best line.