The next day, I snapped awake startled by the horrendous ringing of the alarm clock and covered my head with the pillow. It didn’t help; the ringing was still drilling through my brain! I groaned and flung the pillow at the clock, which fell down onto the floor, but gravity hadn’t been enough to destroy it. The noise was even worse now for some reason! Why couldn’t the pillow have landed on top of the clock?
And why was the thing even ringing in the first place? It was still dark outside!
As if that wasn’t enough, a muffled banging sounded from one of my walls, followed by what sounded like a clearly displeased shout: “Will you shut that thing already?!”
Yes, okay, I’m trying to!
Groping around in the dark, I found the clock again and, fumbling frantically, somehow managed to put an end to the noise from Tartarus. A muffled ‘Finally!’ sounded from beyond the wall, and I sat down on the floor, trying to figure out what had happened. Was there an important event I couldn’t afford to miss? But why set an alarm so early? It wasn’t even dawn yet-
Of course! I’d set the clock this early so I could get to the snowy outskirts before the ponies started arriving and messing with the scenery!
I put on my coat and shoved a sketchbook and a few pencils in the pockets, then opened the window and flew out. The city itself was a little too warm to be dressed like this, but that would change closer to the snowy outskirts. Sunburst had directed a telescope towards the clouds last night upon our return and reported a blizzard breaking through the protective barrier, so I was pretty sure this wouldn’t be a wasted trip… assuming I could stay awake.
But by the time I got there, I found that the cold and the effort of flying had cleared my head of the drowsiness. The dawn was yet to come, but the fresh snow glistened magically under the moonlight, and I was instantly glad that I’d sacrificed a few hours of sleep in exchange for an opportunity to marvel at this unworldly landscape!
Still airborne to preserve the smoothness of the snow, I took out my sketchbook and pencil and began drawing. The movement of my wings and the occasional gusts of wind disturbed the paper, but I wasn’t letting that stop me! When I got back to the castle, I would use these sketches for reference while painting the landscape!
Every now and then, I took a moment to take my eyes off the paper and simply enjoy the scenery. I wanted to preserve as much of it as possible in my memory as well as on paper! I sketched on under the moonlight, focusing on a dozen of different motifs, and when the first rays of dawn finally broke through the storm clouds, I flew higher up where the clouds wouldn’t obscure the rising sun as much, and simply basked in the warm light before making a few more sketches and returning to the castle.
Someone’s prodding roused me from my nap a couple of hours later.
“Rise and shine, buddy,” they cooed. “Flurry is waiting for you!”
“Mmh.”
“You’ll be late!”
“Five more minutes, Pharynx…”
“I’m not Pharynx,” he chuckled, prodding me harder. “Seriously, wake up!”
I finally cracked one eye open and rubbed the other.
“Why so early?”
“It was early when you flew out your window,” Sunburst stated. “It’s after breakfast now.”
Oh. I must have fallen asleep again after returning from my adventure!
“How did you know I flew out?”
“Your alarm clock is the loudest thing in the world. I thought at first it was the firefighters’ bell, but nothing in the city was burning as far as I could see, and then I saw you fly into the distance. Nice sketches, by the way.”
“You took a look at them?”
“Of course! I had to take them out of your pocket so they wouldn’t get all wrinkled up!”
“Huh?”
“You do need to wake up, Thorax. You’re still wearing your coat.”
“I am?” I was. “Huh. I must have passed out immediately upon returning...”
“Will you be awake enough to foalsit Flurry? It’s your turn today, in case you forgot.”
“I think so…” I finally dragged myself out of bed and undressed. “Is she in her room?”
“Yes, and Cadance is waiting for you to take over.”
That kicked some speed into me, and soon I was in Flurry’s room, taking over for Cadance as the filly’s bouncy-ball opponent. There were magical bubbles around everything that looked fragile, so that at least was one worry off my mind! Cadance had assured me before leaving that hey would last till evening, but in case something happened to one of them or I needed to get to something that was enclosed in one, all I had to do was find a unicorn and ask for assistance.
Flurry kicked the ball to me and I returned it, then she returned it to me, then I gave it back. For a few minutes, such a simple game satisfied her, but eventually she added a twist to it: the ball now had to hit at least one magical bubble before reaching me. I was still happy with returning the ball straight to her and kept doing so, and she didn’t seem to mind. The bubbles were proving themselves as sturdy as Cadance had claimed - much to my relief - but I still didn’t want to test them more than absolutely necessary! Flurry, on the other hoof, was getting increasingly more invested in the game: she’d started out sitting on the floor, then stood up after a few minutes, flew up eventually, until she was chasing the bouncy ball around almost all by herself, only sometimes letting it come to me! It couldn’t last forever, though; I was beginning to ask myself what the next phase would turn out to be when the ball bounced off in an unexpected direction and she crashed into a cupboard trying to follow it! And as if that wasn’t enough, the plushies on top of the cupboard toppled down on her and knocked her onto the ground!
“Oh no!” I exclaimed, springing up on my hooves and rushing to her side. “Flurry, are you alright?”
Her eyes were rolling for a moment, but soon she blinked them into order and stood up on wobbly legs. She coughed a couple of times and babbled something.
“Oh, thank goodness! You are alright, aren’t you? You got me worried there for a moment!”
She babbled some more, then strode through the pile of plushies and grabbed a coloring book and some crayons.
“You’re right,” I said. “That’s much safer!”
I watched her color for a while, then realized I was getting sleepy again and decided to do something to keep myself from dozing off. I didn’t want to find out what she’d come up with this time if she saw me sleeping on duty! I got up and started picking up the plushies and putting them back onto the cupboard. She sneezed once or twice as I was doing it.
“Oh, sorry,” I said. “I’m kicking up dust now, aren’t I? The place looks clean, but hey, what do I know? Do you want me to open the window? Would that help?”
She didn’t respond. I went to it anyway but remembered a bubble was in the way.
Find a unicorn, Cadance had said. But I couldn’t leave Flurry unattended while looking for one who wasn’t already busy doing something more important than sitting at the ready on the off-chance that an awkward changeling would come asking for help!
I put the remaining plushies back onto the cupboard. Flurry coughed again. I waited for her to finish coloring the page - it was almost done - and then picked her up to place her on my back while looking for available unicorns. I didn’t get around to actually placing her on my back; she was unusually warm to the touch, and when I took a closer look at her, she was kind of pale and her love aura was weaker than usual!
“Flurry?” I said gently. “Are you okay?”
She babbled something half-heartedly.
Okay, Thorax, forget the window! You need to find Cadance!
But where to look for her?
Throne room, an obvious answer popped up in my mind. But what if she wasn’t there? The throne room couldn’t be the only place she could conduct her royal duties!
Listen to yourself! If she isn’t there, somepony will know where to find her!
But my freakout had been unfounded; Cadance was in the throne room alright, and it occurred to me too late that my barging in there could have interrupted an audience and possibly caused a major incident if somepony unaware of my existence were there to see me undisguised! But only Cadance and a few guards and assistants were there - all of which I’d seen in passing a few times already - and the Princess was engrossed in paperwork.
“Princess Cadance!” I panted, skidding to a halt in front of her. Flurry was holding on to my wings, but only just barely, and my frantic movement nearly toppled her over!
“Thorax? What’s wrong? Has something happened to Flurry?”
“I think she’s getting sick, Princess!”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s been coughing and sneezing and I think she has a fever.”
“That’s impossible! I cast a spell on her to keep her from catching diseases! I remember refreshing the spell just the other day! It should hold for another-”
But a salvo of coughing and sniffing interrupted her protests and quenched her disbelief; her aura of love went murky and she flew over to us while levitating the moaning Flurry off my back.
“You’re right, she is burning! But how? The spell should have kept you nice and healthy, my poor filly! Let’s get you to bed right away! Gleaming Quill?”
“Yes, Your Highness!” one of the assistants spoke up.
“How soon are we expecting the Maretonian ambassador?”
“In about twenty minutes, Princess.”
“Good, that should be enough time,” she said with relief. “Can you find something to entertain him with if he shows up early?”
“Of course. Don’t you worry, Princess! Everything will turn out fine!”
“I hope so,” she mused. “Come on, Thorax, let’s go!”
Soon we were back in Flurry’s room. Cadance had found some potions to give to her, and the filly had gulped them down with a grimace and an exclamation that probably amounted to a yuck, but she hadn’t made a fuss otherwise, and now she was in her bed with Cadance casting more spells on her and murmuring soothing phrases. I stood in a corner, fidgeting nervously, unsure what I was supposed to do.
“There, that should do it for now,” Cadance said eventually and turned to me. “Can you keep an eye on her a little longer? She’ll probably still be coughing and sneezing, but not as much, and her fever shouldn’t return for a few hours, but she’s going to be weak regardless.”
“Didn’t you heal her?”
“No, there aren’t any known spells that can do that. I can keep her magically protected from germs, but if the spell is undone or allowed to fade, restoring it won’t help if she’s gotten infected already. The spell and medicine I used now will only alleviate the symptoms temporarily. It’s the best anypony can do!”
“Is there at least a way to know how soon she’ll recover?”
“Not too long, don’t worry. These things usually last about a week-”
“How is she?” Shining burst into the room suddenly, startling both me and Cadance and almost waking up the poor filly who had only just managed to fall asleep.
“I’ve given her medicine so she should be more or less okay for a few hours,” Cadance replied. “How did you find out this quickly?”
“The guards told me.” He approached the bed and caressed the sleeping filly. “I wonder when she removed your spell…”
“We both know that’s impossible to guess, dear! She uses magic all the time!”
“And I hope that’s all there is to it.”
“What do you mean?” I interjected.
“I hope she’s the one who undid the spell,” he explained. “Or that somepony else did by accident. But if I find out that someone sabotaged my daughter…”
Was he implying what I thought he was implying?
“If someone did, it wasn’t me!” I blurted out. “I swear!”
He shot me a look and I retreated all the way to the wall.
“Uh…” What had I been thinking? Now he was going to be sure I had something to do with it!
“What do you know about this?!”
“Nothing! I didn’t even know the spell existed!”
“Shining, listen to yourself!” Cadance interjected. “It’s probably just a common cold! How would anypony benefit from our daughter catching a cold?”
“They could have just been testing-” He stopped talking abruptly and sighed. “You’re right, Cady. I’m overthinking things again. And Thorax, I’m sorry if I scared you. I didn’t really mean it!”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I understand you’re worried!”
“Well, we’ve done what we could,” Cadance said. “And she isn’t in any real danger; we’re just overreacting a little because this is the first time she’s ever been sick! Thorax, you can handle things from now on, can’t you?”
“I’ll do my best! Hmmm… if she’s sleeping, I guess I can write letters to Ponyville while watching her. I forgot to do it yesterday!”
“Didn’t anypony tell you?” Shining asked. “The railways are closed due to the storm. The mail that arrived yesterday was the last to come until the weather clears, and nothing is going away, either. I mean, you can write if you want, but maybe your friends would like to read about everything that’ll have happened until things are normal again.”
“You’re right,” I sighed. “The letters can wait, and I might as well start making notes on what I want to write to them.”
“Do what you want, but try not to leave Flurry’s side when she’s awake, please?” Cadance asked.
“Don’t worry, Princess!”
“Thanks! I must get back to my duties now.”
“Yeah, me too,” Shining agreed. They were almost out the door when Cadance stopped in her tracks.
“Almost forgot!” She hit me with a spell; I flinched but didn’t feel anything beyond the slight tingling of magic. “This should keep you protected so Flurry doesn’t infect you, if it isn’t too late for that already.”
The spells and medicine hadn’t helped much.
A couple of days down the line, Flurry’s cough was getting stronger and more persistent, and her fever rarely dropped. Cadance had taken her to a doctor and he’d confirmed this was the crystal flu and recommended the same spells and potions that she’d previously been trying to help Flurry with to little avail, but apparently there wasn’t any other treatment known to work. Not that this was much good, either; any slight alleviation of Flurry’s symptoms lasted much shorter than expected, and the harder Cadance tried, the worse it got!
In a desire to make things easier for everypony, I’d decided to put painting on hold for now and made myself available to Flurry and her parents at all times. This hadn’t been entirely necessary yet, as Ruby and Sunburst were there too to take turns in caring for her, but I still felt like I had to do something more to help! Not even everypony’s insistence that things were still as much under control as possible had dissuaded me!
Even now, they were still telling me there was nothing to worry about, but whether they were doing it for my sake, to keep me from going into another fit of panic, or for their own, to convince themselves their fears were unfounded, I couldn’t tell; but worried they were, and it showed painfully obvious in their love auras! It wasn’t without reason: the first night had been mostly calm, but the next couple of days and nights were much worse, and none of us had gotten a decent enough sleep, as Flurry’s relentless coughing had reverberated throughout the castle!
This must have been what my screaming used to be like for the others, I’d realized with a good measure of guilt. If they’d had to endure it for so many nights, there was no end to the apologies I owed them!
For whatever it was worth, Flurry’s predicament had drained her of the energy to push the limits of her creativity with pranks and other antics and our endurance to tackle them, and I was ashamed to think even for a moment that it was a good thing. Her liveliness in health had challenged us, yes, but her sickness was quickly proving to be just as challenging if not more! Today was my turn to watch her, and though I was extremely exhausted after a sleepless night, her ongoing coughing and sneezing was keeping me from dozing off better than anything ever!
With spells and potions failing, we were left with little choice but to resort to the more mundane strategies, such as warm tea to ease the cough and wet cloths to rein in the fever. It was sort of working for now, though I was beginning to ask myself how long it would last. The first batch of wet cloths seemed to me to have lasted much longer than the umpteenth one that I was just taking off Flurry’s forehead and putting a fresh one in its place. If I was right, we could run out of options pretty soon!
And her parents couldn’t hide their concern anymore.
“Please tell me she’s getting better,” Cadance begged from behind me as I sat at Flurry’s bedside, racking my brain for any ideas on what to try next.
I turned around. Cadance and Shining were both there again, probably for the fiftieth time today, and though they’d made an effort to look presentable for their subjects and the dignitaries arriving for audiences from all over the world, nothing could hide the bags under their eyes anymore, and all the usual energy in their movement and mannerisms had evaporated by now.
“I’m sorry, still nothing definite,” I said with some hesitation.
“Don’t sugarcoat it, Thorax,” Shining said. “We want to know. She’s still getting worse, isn’t she?”
I hung my head, and Flurry’s profuse coughing answered in my stead. Cadance came closer and fumbled around her; it looked like she was torn between the urge to hug her daughter and the desire to let her rest. Eventually she found some middle ground in the form of a light kiss and the gentle stroking of her mane.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I’ve tried everything you told me to try! It’s no use! Well, not longer than a few minutes at a time, but how much longer can we keep it up like this?”
“I wish I knew… do you have any ideas of your own?”
“Have you talked to the doctor again? That’s the only thing I can think of.”
“Yes, and he told me crystal flu tends to act like this but that there shouldn’t be any lasting consequences, no matter how bad the symptoms look like at times. He should know; he’s been treating crystal ponies all his life! I’m still trying to believe the… the…” she trailed off and fixed her eyes upon Flurry.
Shining put his foreleg around her. “There has to be something we haven’t tried yet, something we haven’t thought of!” he exclaimed. “But what?”
Well, there was one more thing I could think of, but would it work on ponies? As far as I knew, it had only ever been used on changelings! And even if it could work, would Shining allow it? He most certainly wouldn’t want me experimenting on his own daughter! Not unless he was really, really desperate, and he’d probably need a good deal of convincing even then!
Well, he was desperate… but was he desperate enough? I didn’t want him to start seeing ulterior motives in my suggestions, but what if I missed the chance to attempt one last approach and then it became too late?
Should I discuss it with just Cadance at first?
No, Thorax, if you’re going to make that suggestion, better make it to both of them! Shining might only see it as the proof of you pulling something if you keep him out of it, and after all, it is about his daughter! He should have a say in what happens with his filly even if the decision isn’t to your liking!
But what if they both decided I was pulling tricks now? What if they started thinking I’d been buttering up to them until now so I could suggest something benign on the face of it that would actually allow me to take their daughter away from them?
But what if Flurry paid the price for my indecision?
I took a deep breath and decided to speak up, come what may.
“There might be someth-” My throat suddenly got impossibly itchy and I broke into a coughing fit.
“Are you alright?” Cadance asked.
“I think so… well, maybe a little tired, but yes…”
She touched my forehead.
“No you’re not! You’re burning! You must have caught the crystal flu yourself!”
“But you cast that spell on me…”
“Yes, but you could have already been infected by then! Don’t you remember me saying the spell wouldn’t work if that were the case?”
“Why didn’t I get sick sooner, then?”
“The symptoms don’t show right away, and you could have developed them gradually. You said you were feeling tired, but maybe that isn’t entirely the result of not getting enough sleep over the past couple of nights.”
“Should I go see a doctor?” Another coughing fit. “Or should I keep away from ponies?”
“We won’t stop you if you want a doctor, but crystal flu has been around for as long as crystal ponies have existed, and most of them have already had it and become immune, so don’t worry about putting them in danger.”
I nodded. The doctor might be a good idea, but could I leave Flurry all by herself?
Cadance read my mind. “Go on, you can’t foalsit while you’re sick anyway. We’ll get Sunburst to take over for you.”
I thanked her and turned to leave, but started coughing again almost immediately, this time so hard that I ran out of breath and got dizzy.
“Before you go, Thorax,” Shining said, “you were trying to say something a minute ago. What was it?”
“Oh. I was going to suggest something to try to help Flurry, but it’s pretty unconventional and may not even work, and now I’m not sure it’s even feasible.”
“We’re clutching at straws by now. Go on.”
“I’m also not really sure you’ll agree to it,” I rasped.
“Why wouldn’t we agree to something that could help Flurry? What are you talking about?”
“A healing cocoon.”
He winced at this and an ice-hot surge shot through his love aura, but he reined it in. Cadance drew in a breath and glanced at her daughter.
I coughed some more, now feeling so weak that I had to sit down. “But now I think I might be needing one myself,” I moaned.
“Cocoon yourself if you want,” Shining retorted, “but I’m not letting Flurry get put in one of those things, not ever, and I don’t care how good your intentions might be!”
“I’m afraid I have to agree this time,” Cadance sighed. “Normally I’d do anything to help Flurry, but this… the idea is a little too much even for me. Not to mention that our subjects might get all kinds of wrong ideas if they see her cocooned up! It could only make things worse!”
“I understand. But even if you’d agreed, I can’t-” I broke into a coughing fit again, and they waited patiently until I caught a break. “-I can’t promise it would work on a pony, and I don’t think I’m strong enough to build two cocoons by now anyway.” I got up shakily. “I guess I’ll be in my room.”
“How soon can we expect you back?”
“I’m not sure. A few days at the very least. The cocoon will-” I coughed some more. “-open on its own when I recover, but you can release me sooner in case of emergencies without putting me in danger. I just won’t have recovered completely if you do and will have to go through the rest at a slower rate.”
“Need help?”
“No, I’d rather build the cocoon by myself. I’m pretty sure you’d be disgusted by how it goes.”
“We’ll be checking on you regardless. Get well soon!”
“Thank you!”
They both hugged me and I left. Once in my room, I got up on the ceiling and started hacking up resinous slime and molding it into a cocoon. It was tedious in my current state and I had to stop every so often to cough and gasp for breath; by the end, I was wheezing and my head was spinning so hard that I wouldn’t have been surprised if I fell off the ceiling! Filling the cocoon with healing slime drained me even more, but I hoped it would be worth the effort. I waited for another fit of violent coughing to pass, then got in the cocoon and closed it.
As I was surrendering myself to the sleep-inducing effects of the healing slime, I caught a glimpse of Cadance and Sunburst coming into my room. Before unconsciousness overtook me completely, I saw Cadance fly up to me, put a hoof on the cocoon’s outer surface, and heard her say something muffled by the slime that sounded like ‘sleep well, Thorax, and know we’ll be watching over you’.
I let myself slip into darkness.
A peculiar shifting stirred the void. I became aware of light attacking my eyes, something sticky surged over me, and gravity pulled me back into reality. A startled yelp from somewhere above - or was it below? - found its way to my ears, and suddenly I was floating again.
I rubbed my eyes and squinted at where the yelp had come from. The room was upside-down and Sunburst was standing on the ceiling, next to a sickly-green blob, and his horn was lit up.
“Whoa, you startled me,” he said, levitating me to himself and turning me what I realized now was right-side-up. Also, the room hadn’t really been upside-down, heh... “I didn’ think healing cocoons really open just like that, and I certainly wasn’t expecting one to explode while I’m standing underneath checking up on you!”
“Well, they do, and it’s a heck of a wake-up if you’re high up enough. How long has it been?”
“Five days. Welcome back! We missed you!”
“Thanks. How’s Flurry?”
“She recovered two days ago and is getting impatient for her favorite changeling.” He chuckled. “I have no idea how we managed to keep her from finding your cocoon, because she would have certainly blasted it open!”
“How do you know it’s me she wants?”
“She keeps pawing at photos of you and doodling you everywhere and throwing tantrums with the phoenix you bought her. We usually manage to distract her with something, but not for long.”
“Then I have to see her right away!”
“Not so fast. She’s taking a nap.”
“Oh. Okay then, I’ll find her later! What time is it?”
“Just after four in the afternoon. She should be up in about an hour. Anyway, I’ve been studying the spell Cadance used on you and it turns out it doesn’t work on changelings, so you weren’t really protected from getting sick like we all thought you were. And I’m sorry about it; I should have realized it sooner!”
“It’s alright, Sunburst. What could you have done?”
“It only took me an hour or two to come up with a variation of that spell that should work on changelings. Had I noticed it right away, Cadance might have still used it before it was too late to make a difference!”
“But we don’t know when either Flurry or me got infected! It could have been at the same time and changelings might simply need more time to start showing symptoms!”
“Actually, I have a theory that she picked it up from Ruby and transmitted it to you. Remember Ruby was sick recently? It was crystal flu. Remaining infectious for a short time after recovery from that is not unheard of but almost never happens, and you’ve hardly been around Ruby at all. Even if you did catch it from her, I’m pretty sure you’d have gotten sick sooner, and the doctor is inclined to agree even though he’s never treated a changeling.”
“Makes sense when you put it that way… So what should I do now?”
“Cadance has been waiting to cast the updated spell on you. She wanted to do it while you were in the cocoon, but I told her to wait because I wasn’t sure how the spell would behave with the cocoon in the picture. I’ll need to do more research on it. Do you still need it? I’d like to take it for studying if you don’t mind.”
“Sure. I guess I’ll go find Cadance then.” I got up and started towards the door.
“Uh, Thorax?”
“Yes?”
“You might want to take a bath first.”