Cadance, I’m worried.
There was a pause as Celestia’s eyes lingered upon the final words of her message. Out of the whole communication, these words stood out, and she knew why. These words were eerily similar to the words that, how long had it been? Time was funny after all of these centuries. These words mirrored what she had said to Cadance, the very same words that had set all of these events into motion.
Cadance, I’m lonely.
Baring her heart to Cadance had been the first step towards healing. It was only now that Celestia could look back on everything and begin making the pieces fit. She had been sick, with grief, with heartache, and with Luna’s return, Celestia had found that her confidence had been shaken. She had been stricken.
But now, she had rediscovered her marehood, her long withheld feminine needs. She had reclaimed her equinity. With Cadance’s help, she was now more than a beautiful alabaster statue with a crown mounted upon it. She had reclaimed her sense of self, she was starting to acknowledge her own wants and desires after years of self-deprivation done as punishment. Self-punishment. Self-exile. With Luna gone, she had tried to make her suffering mirror Luna’s. Guilt and grief had consumed her. It had hollowed her out and left her empty, a shell of her former self.
Cadance was making it all better though, because that was what Cadance did. Competent Cadance, Crystal Empress. Green flames ignited around Celestia’s horn, and she inhaled, her expression one of absentminded worry. After a moment, she belched out dragonfire, and her scroll, her message to Cadance, ignited, then vanished in a fiery jade-green conflagration.
With the letter gone, travelling along the aethereal spectrum known as the Infernium, the source of dragonfire and other magical flames, it was now time to go. Her sister and her husband had encountered a powerful darkness elemental, a terrible, dreadful foe that Gosling had apparently somehow talked to death. Tucking her wings against her sides, Celestia’s head bobbed once, her horn flared with golden light, and then, she vanished.
The waiting room was filled with pale yellow and green tiles, with pale green walls, and florescent lighting that could only be described as murky. There were no windows in this small, cramped waiting room, and the furniture, well, the furniture was difficult to describe. Wooden planks with cushions covered in rough looking industrial-grade fabric. Hospital-grade? It was abysmal.
Other than herself, the room’s only other occupants were two stallions, and her sudden appearance had scared them both. They were huddled against one another, shivering, and staring at her, which left Celestia feeling a bit out of place. Oh, and guilty for startling them. Startling little ponies was Luna’s schtick, and Celestia found that she didn’t have the stomach for it.
“I’m really very sorry,” Celestia said, offering an apology. When that didn’t seem to help, she sighed and began to think of what to say so that she might reach them. With her ears drooping, making a conscious effort to not look so intimidating, she tried again. “Look, right now, I’m no different than the two of you. I’m worried about my loved ones… my sister and my husband. Just like you, I’m scared.”
After blinking, she looked down at the two stallions sitting on the hospital-grade waiting room sofa, with its rough hewn-timbers and scratchy looking fabric. One was a unicorn that she thought she might recognise, a student of hers perhaps, and the smaller of the two was a pegasus that looked just a little feminine. Just by looking at them, Celestia could see that the two of them were deeply in love, and it would be stark-raving obvious even to a blind pony.
“You could sit with us,” the pegasus said, and he patted the cushion beside him.
“Why, thank you.” Glad for a chance to break the ice, Celestia sat down beside the pair and then tried to make herself comfortable upon the dreadful furniture.
The pegasus, though the smaller of the two, seemed braver, or at least a bit more social. He turned, while still pressing up against his mate, and said, “My name is Hazy Breeze. This is my husband, Soprano Summer. It’s very nice to meet you.”
“It is a pleasure to meet both of you,” Celestia replied. “You both look very worried.”
“We are!” Hazy Breeze’s face became quite animated as his fear just melted away. “Soprano is beating himself up over this, and says all of this is his fault.”
“How is this his fault?” Celestia asked as she turned to face Hazy so that she might see him better. “This is no one’s fault, these sort of things just happen.”
Taking a deep breath, Hazy filled his lungs in anticipation of telling Celestia everything. “Soprano and I adopted our little Moon and she has some separation anxiety issues. Her parents didn’t want her because her magic was unstable and dangerous.” Reaching out one wing, he placed it upon Celestia and continued, “After we became her parents, we had to make the agonising decision to send her to school or school her at home. We had an opportunity to send her to your school… Soprano nixed the idea and put his hoof down, because he was worried that our little Moon might think we didn’t want her anymore, and he didn’t want to hurt her. So, we kept her at home and did our best to homeschool her. Soprano is a music teacher in Canterlot’s public primary school, so he has some teaching experience.”
“Your reasoning seems sound enough.” While Celestia spoke the words, she saw Soprano’s ears droop with relief, but the worry, fear, and doubt remained in his eyes. “You had no way of knowing that this would happen. There’s no need for blame, little unicorns have magical accidents. Sometimes, big unicorns have magical accidents.” With a gentle smile, she thought back to a time when a big unicorn had themselves a magical accident with a Want-It-Need-It spell and a doll.
Accidents most certainly happened.
“I’m terrified of making mistakes,” Soprano confessed in a low, strained whisper and his gaze fell down to the floor. “There is so much pressure… if I make a mistake, I won’t just be a bad parent, I’ll be a gay bad parent and I—”
“Let me stop you right there.” Celestia, reaching out with her magic, turned Soprano’s head towards her and looked into his eyes. “Canterlot and Ponyville are two remarkably tolerant cities. I have worked very, very hard to cultivate diversity and tolerance in the heart of my empire.”
Soprano Summers gazed into his monarch’s eyes, nodded once, and then in what could only be described as a foalish manner, he responded, “It’s better than most places, but the bigotry is still here. Canterlot is the most political city I’ve ever lived in, and in some ways, the most bigoted. Everything is politicised. If you are a bad parent, you aren’t just a bad parent, anything and everything about you that stands out becomes the cause, the reason.”
“Really?” Hearing this left Celestia feeling troubled, and very much so.
“It’s true,” Hazy said in a breathy, feminine voice that was little more than a shy, hesitant whisper. “Soprano and I have both experienced it for ourselves.”
“I shall have to address this.” Celestia, feeling unsettled, could feel the prickles of anxiety creeping up her neck. “Thank you for telling me this, both of you. I would like to speak with both of you about this later, under better circumstances. This cannot stand.” Irked, the big white alicorn clucked her tongue a few times, and not-so-hidden fires blazed within her eyes.
Hazy pulled his wing away and the little pegasus stared up at the much larger alicorn beside him with unabashed adoration while remaining pressed up against his mate. After a time, he looked away, blinking, and with a sigh, he rested his head against the neck of the unicorn beside him. Together, the three ponies settled in for the long, long wait, each of them hoping to see their loved ones.
The doctor was a bespectacled earth pony mare that looked quite tired. She was wearing a doctor’s coat in a gaudy floral print, and her glasses were connected to her collar with a fine silver chain. A shock of blazing red mane spilled down her muzzle, and she tried blowing it away from her face several times when she entered the waiting room.
“Hi,” the doctor said in perhaps what was the most nasal voice to have ever existed in all recorded history. One ear twitched, rotating as the tendrils of red mane slid back down over her muzzle. “I have good news. Your loved ones are recovering. They’re all in one room because the angry, scary blue one refused to give up the foal or be reasonable.”
Heaving a sigh, Celestia’s head bowed.
“Moon Rose is suffering from some pretty severe frostbite, dehydration, and thaumaturgical fatigue. She’ll be fine with a little love and time. We were able to save her ears, her nose, and everything else.” The doctor took a step forwards and gave the two stallions a reassuring, kind smile.
“And what of the angry blue one and the ever so pretty black one?” Celestia asked as Soprano and Hazy hugged one another.
“The blue one will be fine,” the doctor replied in her claws-on-a-chalkboard nasal whine. “The black one had his face stitched up a bit. He might lose his ears. We don’t know yet. We’ve had to remove all of his feathers from his wings and we had to do extensive debridement to the frozen, dead flesh. He’s having a poor reaction to the medication we gave him to deal with blood clots. We don’t know yet how much damage the cold did to his eyes. We’re having to treat him like a burn victim.”
Taking a deep breath, Celestia tried to keep her heart from exploding through her ribcage and she hoped that Cadance would hurry. Equestria’s few healers were elsewhere, in places where they were needed. Another deep breath was required, then another, and then Celestia felt the soft touch of a wing as it came to rest upon her. Looking down, she saw Hazy smiling up at her, a worried smile that could only be described as maternal.
“Princess Cadance is coming,” Celestia said to the doctor. “She is a powerful healer. Once she arrives, I want her to have full access to Prince Gosling and I want her briefed on everything that is wrong. She is to know everything.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” The doctor bowed her head. “Come with me if you want to see them. Moon is asleep, and so is Prince Gosling. Princess Luna remains awake and is in a foul mood. Be advised.” The doctor made a gesture with her hoof and nodded her head in invitation.
When the two stallions rose from the couch, Celestia followed after them.
With her wings, Celestia pushed both of the stallions into the room, insisting that they go first. They were quiet, shy, and cautious. While Celestia stood in the doorway, she saw her sister’s head raise from her pillow. Luna’s mane was not in its usual, ethereal state, no, it was all loose strands of blue, purple, and silver spilling from her head and neck. This was not a good sign, not at all, and seeing it made Celestia worry.
Once inside the room, she approached the bed, walking just behind Hazy Breeze and Soprano Summers. Gosling’s face wasn’t visible at all, and was covered in white bandages. Seeing it made her heart skip a beat, and she didn’t like what she saw. Tucked between Gosling and Luna was a little filly, and her face too, was covered in white bandages, but her eyes were visible, or would be if they were open.
What was supposed to be a routine run for asset recovery had not been routine at all.
“We have recovered your daughter,” Luna whispered in a voice as silken as velvet. “We now keep her warm and safe. She is a treasure.”
“Thank you,” Hazy whispered back.
“We are very tired, and We are injured. Please forgive Us if We do not rise to greet you.”
Celestia was almost overcome with all of the thoughts in her head. Luna was speaking better, settling into an almost modern pattern. She was worried, terrified, and hoped that Cadance would arrive soon. Hearth’s Warming drew ever-nearer, all of Equestria was in a state of dire peril, she was pregnant, and she was starving.
At the moment, she would gladly go to war for some pickled strawberries.
“Thank you, for saving our little Moon Rose,” Soprano said to Luna in a scratchy, husky whisper. The tall unicorn was trembling, and his gaze kept falling upon his daughter while he tried to focus on Luna. “I’m real sorry that your husband got hurt… I feel bad… I wish… I…” Stammering, the stallion fell silent, not knowing what to say, while his gaze remained on Moon Rose, who was sleeping.
“When he wakes, We shall tell him of your feelings,” Luna replied.
The muffled clatter of hooves filled the room when a nurse entered. A short stocky unicorn mare, she pushed past Celestia, unconcerned about such things as shoving past alicorn royalty, and she began changing intravenous drip bags, of which there were quite a few. While the nurse was working, she looked up at Celestia and raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, can you make some heat or something? Can you do more than just stand there? Some radiant warmth might be nice, but not too much.”
Shocked, startled, Celestia’s mouth fell open, and she heard faint snickering from Luna. Shaking her head, she complied with the nurse’s request, and cast a radiant heat spell. After a few seconds of concentration, her horn throbbed with golden light, which filled the room with a sunny, summery glow. In his medicated slumber, Gosling sighed and Luna’s eyes squinted as she tried to protect herself from the light.
After everything that her sister Luna and her husband Gosling had done, the least that Celestia could do was act as a portable space heater. With the nurse still watching, Celestia moved closer to the bed, spread her wings, and manifested her inner life-giving radiance. She wasn’t a healer, not exactly, but she could exude energies conductive to life when necessary.
“Alas, there is no means for Us to shut the blinds so that We might sleep,” Luna mumbled as she lay her head upon the pillow and closed her eyes. “Keep watch, dear sister, I fear what Moon Rose may gate in with her current state. If anything peculiar begins to happen, wake Us at once and do not hesitate.”
Sweating—from fear, heat, or anxiety, she did not know—Celestia settled in to stand guard, along with two very worried parents. The night, what was left of it, would be a long one. It was just another night of crisis in a long string of nights of crisis, such were the nights that had been plaguing Equestria as of late.