//------------------------------//
// The Day After 
// Story: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Unofficially Off-Record Pre-Prelude 
// by The Warrior Of Darkness 
//------------------------------//

The day after was great, the sun shining, the birds singing... and Celestia was dreading Day Court as much as she always did.

Celestia rubbed her head, in thought of the current situation in front of her while she sat at her throne, as the nobles of Canterlot started their daily bickering about laws and whatnot. They argued onward about offers that would increase the state of Equestria and building of a new city being worked on, the city that would is knows as Manehattan. She watched on, her eyes focused on the window leading outside, her mind on other events, such as the colt that was currently being treated in the medical wing of the castle, she recalled the look on Doctor Heartwind's face as she brought him to him. He had saw to it that the child would be looked after, and after a series of tests were run it was determined that while his mind suffered no "visible" psychological trauma, he had discovered small incisions all around the small alicorn. 

After this revelation was made, it was determined that the facility would need to be looked at further, and Celestia had called on one of her captain; Captain Cross Skies, would look into it. That had been an hour ago since the order had been given out, and his company had not returned. Normally, she would fret about this, but she felt that the time had not been long enough for her to worry about her captain yet, the building in the Everfree must be hard to locate, considering that the only magical energy they could have used to locate it, was in the Castle. Looking back down and tuning back into the nobles' conversation she noticed that the conversation began to shift back to her, likely rapping up so she could give the final say, and then they leave... finally. Don't get her wrong, she loves her ponies, she just hates dealing with the nobles.

"But Manehattan would be a grand city, to show off the achievements of the nobility! We cannot allow simple commoners to be apart of it!" A small, dark lilac unicorn said, looking towards the other unicorn in the room. 

'Midnight Swallow' Celestia thought. 'Midnight Swallow is a unicorn of high nobility in Canterlot, but unfortunately because of it he cannot comprehend the other houses of nobility and non-nobility alike.' She thought. Fixing her look on the other noble in the room Celestia realized that these two were keeping her from more serious matters other than the city she began to make her decision clear to them by speaking up:

"Midnight Swallow, Steel Gust. This conversation has carried on for far too long, the decision is clear that you cannot work together in the building of Manehattan, so I will decide for you"  She started. "Rather than limit the city to only nobility, I suggest you to build a city that will become a beacon of unity beyond just nobility, but rather unity of ALL ponies."

Celestia finished, with the two nobles letting her words sink in, before bowing and leaving, being escorted out by guards back to their respective homes. As the throne doors closed, she immediately jumped off the throne, well not literally but her energy seemed to be directed elsewhere as she walked with brisk movement directed towards the medical facility, paying no mind to the guards as they fell in line around and behind her as she moved to her destination. 

Finally arriving there she opened the door to a flustered Heartwind who instantly bowed down in front of the Solar Princess.

"P-Princess Celestia, I was just about to come get you, the colt you brought back from the Everfree has finally awakened" He said in a fluster, obviously trying to get his thoughts under control.

"It's Alright. You said he's awake?" She asked. "How is he? Is he ok? You said that he had incisions on him, does that mean that-". Celestia paused herself, falling back in line to her usual mask that she showed in front of her ponies. As she did that, Heartwind took the time to explain:

"He seems to be better now that he has been seen medically, when you brought him in, his magic was all over the place. We had to use a inhibitor to temporarily disable his magic. It's much better now and to be honest, he seems much healthier. From the tests that have just finished we figured out that he gave off magic much like you Princess". Heartwind said as he finished up, looking back at her to see the slightest face of shock that soon turned back into a mask.

"So you say his magic is much like mine, does that explain the Cutie Mark, as I recall it looked like an eclipse of the Sun and the Moon. Celestia said the gentle, motherly tone of voice as she and Heartwind continued down to the section that the alicorn was in. Heartwind kept pace with her but it was evident that he was excited:

"Well not exactly your Highness, we don't have a clue about that but his magic is very strong, and it keeps growing, it's relatively small, but it still is going up from what we can sense from him. His body doesn't seem to be able to take this growth though, so it seems like it caps out at a certain level." He stated as they reached the room, opening to find the young alicorn upright staring at the ceiling. "He's been very quiet since he awoke, however, his eyes are the most peculiar thing that we haven't been able to figure out".

Celestia looked towards the doctor, waiting for an explanation, however she found herself looking towards the colt; his eyes looking back at her; grey, blind eyes looking back at her. Despite this, it seemed that he could still see following the look of her waving mane. As she turned at slowly crept forward towards him Heartwind explained the case of his eyes:

"It would seem like he's blind but they respond to light just the same, it's as if the look themselves seem like they're blind but instead they function perfectly. That's the only other part that we've been unable to determine other than the cutie mark. As he said that her eyes shifted towards the colt's exposed flank, the mark just barely showing out from under the covers of the bed.

"While we haven't found anything about those, the fact remains, he hasn't talked at all since he woke. I was hoping that maybe if you spoke to him, he might speak. Heartwind said, facing the Princess of the Sun as she looked back towards him and back towards the colt, contemplating speaking to the young child. After a moment, her heart gave in as she looked towards him, and started to speak, she began with a simple question, the one she wanted answered since she had seen him:

"Do you know your name?" She said, keeping her voice low as to not startle the colt. She inspected his face to see signs of recognition, not noticing anything she began to look towards Heartwind, who was focused on the colt, not noticing that she had turned to address him. When she noticed this, she turned back to see the colt's muzzle opened to speak, when he did, his voice carried into the wind with the tones of what could be described as bliss, as if the oceans themselves had decided to bring upon gentle waves. 

"My name is Skye" The newly named colt Skye said, his voice unwavering as he looked back at Celestia, his gaze meeting hers.