Medical Wing, Canterlot Castle
“Do you need anything else, your majesty? Lemonade? Cake? ...Candy? Anything? You were down there for a long time, you’re allowed to want something!”
Cadence just shook her head, saying, “No private, I am fine. The glass of water and the food from when you first brought me here were fine.”
“But-”
“Actually private, it would is best if the Princess doesn’t have any sweets for her first few days back,” Heart Savior interrupted. “Since Princess Cadence was in the tunnels for a significant period of time without food, her body might not have the best reaction to a sudden influx of nutrients and food.” He held his ever faithful clipboard in his magic as he approached the two. “Princess Cadence may be an alicorn, but we don’t know how a sudden increase will affect her body. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be known as the doctor who got the Princess sick. So, for now, we’re going to stick to a treatment that we know works.”
The private looked down and returned to the doorway, muttering, “Yes doctor, I understand.”
Cadence giggled at the downcast guard and then looked back over at Heart Savior. “He’s going to be ok, right?”
The Doctor justed waved in the guard’s general direction “He’ll be fine, give him a couple hours and he’ll bounce right back to his normal peppy self. Now, for the reason that I originally came here. Princess Celestia and Sans the Skeleton- he’s the one who defeated Chrysalis- are coming to visit. I want to make sure you are feeling up to the visit.”
Cadence perked up at this and nodded. “Yes, it would be nice to see Auntie Celestia again,” she told him, “I was planning on seeing her, but then the whole changeling invasion happened.”
“good to hear you’re feeling alright then,” an unfamiliar voice said. “we were worried you’d ended up royally sick or somethin’.”
Cadence looked up towards the doorway and smiled at the large white alicorn walking in. “Auntie! How are you?” She also noted the small statured skeleton leaning on the wall towards the entrance of the room, and offered him a courteous nod. “And you must be Sans. I must say, you are shorter than I expected.”
Sans pushed himself off of the wall and walked up to the bed, “yup, I’m short. helps a lot, people set their expectations lower. and you're the real cadence, nice to finally meet you.” He offered his hand. “stick ‘em here.”
Cadence held out her hoof to shake his hand. When she did, a large farting sound filled the room. For a few seconds after, the room was silent save for Sans’ chuckles. “ahh, the good old whoopie cushion in the hand trick, gets em every time. didn’t bring any with me here, remind me to say thanks to the pink one later.” Beat. “the other pink one, I mean.”
“I will, Sans.” Celestia turned her attention over to her niece, smiling. “Now, Cadence, how are you?”
“I'm good Auntie, just a bit hungry and sore from all of the time spent down in the tunnels,” Cadence answered honestly.
“I am sure you will be happy to know that we have captured your imposter and several of her followers. They are currently being held in the dungeon awaiting trial for their actions.”
“Auntie, I would like to speak with Chrysalis after Shiny and I finally do our wedding,” Cadence told Celestia. Holding up a hoof to ward off questions, she continued. “As much as she came down into the tunnels I never truly was able to talk to her about why she did what she did. If I could speak with her, I may be able to understand why, and we may be able to come to a consensus.”
“Of c-”
“Um, Princess Celestia?”
Everypony in the room (and Sans) turned their heads to see who had come in. Masking her annoyance at being interrupted again, she pleasantly asked, “Yes, private?”
“We have a problem. One of the maids says that things are happening in Sans’ room. Something about a scarf attacking her when she opened the armoire, I couldn’t catch all the details.”
“wait, was the scarf red?”
The guard shrugged, causing his armor to clank. “I don't know, she ran out of the room screaming and I was told to tell the Princess what was going on.”
Before the guard could continue his story, Sans interrupted him. “I’m gonna go see someone. meet you at my room, k?”
The guard attempted to intercept him only to be held back by Celestia's hoof. “Private, Sans knows what he is doing, he will be fine. I trust him.”
Sans walked out of the room, the private following after. Ignoring the cry of confusion coming from the guard at the sudden lack of a Sans outside, Celestia turned back to Candace with a straight face. “I’m sorry to cut this meeting short my niece, but this is could be a severe breach. If an angry spirit is attacking ponies in my kingdom, I will defend them however I can.”
“It's ok Auntie, I know this is important!” Cadence thought for a moment, before getting an idea. “Auntie, do you think you can send Twilight up to my room? I heard that she and some of her friends had come for the wedding, and I would like to talk with them.”
Celestia agreed and quickly trotted out of the room, leaving Candace alone with her thoughts. 'Well, Celestia. I had a feeling it was only a matter of time.’ She mentally sighed, frustrated. 'Of course, I might be wrong on this assumption. But somehow, I don’t think I am. Now if only you didn't try to hide it from everypony, even yourself. If you keep this up, everypony- everyone- will see you as Princess Celestia of Equestria, and nothing more.’ Candace's eyes glinted mischievously as plans started to swirl through her head. If Celestia wouldn’t recognize her own feelings she would make her.
Alphys’ Room, Canterlot Castle
Sans teleported into the room and spun around, looking for his prey. Both of them, to be precise. Once spotted, he teleported over to one and picked it up in its pot, also putting his hand on the other’s lab coat. Surprising both the Flower and Alphys, who in turn gave a squeak, Sans teleported holding onto both of them.
Sans and Alphys landed on the floor right outside of Sans’ room, the skeleton’s breathing having slightly intensified. Alphys pushed herself to her feet and tried to recapture the balance she lost from the sudden arrival of Sans and their subsequent teleportation.
“Sans,” she questioned angrily as she adjusted her glasses, “how many times have I told you to not to do that?!”
Sans set Flowey’s pot on the ground as the flower still attempted to get over his disorientation. “four times, seven if you count just teleporting behind you. listen, I know you might be mad at me for bringing you here so suddenly, but if what I think is going on is actually going on, you two by far have the most experience in this field. now all we have to do is wait for celestia.”
“Three in a row…” Flowey complained. “You could have at LEAST given us warning, or just walked over to us that second time… Trashbag...”
Sans’ retort died in his mouth as all three turned their heads towards the sound of galloping. Celestia rapidly approached with three guards in tow, Earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus, respectively. Sans gestured towards the doorway with his head, “if what I think is going on in there is actually happening, we won't need guards. I appreciate the sentiment though.”
Sans then opened the door slowly, peeking inside as he did so. His eyes fell on the trash tornado first, which seemed to have an extra sock in it. The next thing he noticed was the curtains were open, exposing the windows. The third thing was the red scarf floating gently beside window surrounding it. More specifically, the first thing he noticed was the red figure surrounding the scarf. The large ghostly figure turned around at the sound of the door opening, its face noticeably brightening in recognition upon seeing the face from the door.
Alphys fell over, the guards scrambled for their weapons and Flowey was slowly muttering “what,” but Sans heard none of those. The only thing he heard was a word, coming out of his own mouth unconsciously.
“bro…”