I do not scare easily, or at least not since I had learned proper combat training under Plasma. But some things... they still... get to me, I suppose? One of them being Princess Celestia. Now I have faced horrible, abominable, and outright ruthless creatures in my life. But... she... terrifies me.
She was thousands of years old, and while nowhere near the levels of Luna she had ended lives before... a lot too if the records and stories are to be believed, as well as imprisoned the aforementioned mare to the moon for a thousand years. On top of all her other achievements and well, she was quite literally a goddess in the flesh.
I never thought that I would've faced her in my life. I had always thought that I would've stayed out in the wasteland that I had called home for my entire life. I was aware upon entering Equestria that I had a chance of encountering her, especially once Nightmare Moon became involved but... I had planned to steer clear of her entirely. Or at least be one face in a crowd of a hundred.
So when the white mare began descending towards me I began freaking out internally. Wishing that I had done things differently, or just stayed away from Equestria entirely. To just go back in time... but I couldn't, and now I had to figure out how to get us out of this mess... and fast.
Princess Celestia touched down as gracefully as I would've expected. "You needn't fear me young stallion, I only wish to help you" she smiled.
"What". Suffice to say that was not what I had expected the first words she would ever speak to me be.
"I have heard from my dear student that you and your mare have helped and even saved her life last night, as well as having helped free my sister. To which I am in a great debt to you for" she continued. Meanwhile Delilah also turned around and began having her own little freakout.
"Huh... wait, does she think that me and Delilah- Are you two okay?" Celestia asked as she interrupted my internal musings.
"I... uh, I... y-yes we are. I-I take it you're Princess C-Celestia right?" I squeaked out. The sun tyrant smiled.
"Indeed I am, now my student has informed me of several things" she began.
"Oh... well I tried, better to just play nice and pray for the best possible outcome I suppose. Wait what does Twilight even know, shouldn't she be referring to Luna in this case-". "First, you both have helped free my sister from the clutches of Nightmare Moon. To which I am most grateful for" she reiterated.
"Secondly, Night Storm, you helped save my student from certain death and the both of you helped in her fight against Nightmare Moon". We both gave a weak smile.
"And third, you both have received grave injuries from your fight with her" she added.
"Now, usually I do not do this. But for your actions last night I would like the both of you to come to Canterlot with me to be treated by my personal doctors and physicians for your injuries" she finished. Me and Delilah looked at each other.
"So that's her plan, lure us into Canterlot with the promise of help. Then detain us in a gilded cage".
"I - thank you for the offer Princess, but we will be fine and need to be going" Delilah interrupted me.
"But I thought I was told you both we're staying for the Summer Sun Celebration?" the goddess replied.
"Buck!".
"Please, you do not need to fear me. I am not angry with you attacking my sister if that is what plagues you so. I only wish to repay the both of you for all that you have done for me. You both are not in any condition to be traveling anytime soon. So please, let me help you. As a thanks to all you have done for me" Celestia said.
"Does... does she not know, but how!? No, she's just playing dumb because she wants to do this sneakily... for whatever reason".
"We do not need your help... princess. Though we appreciate your offer" I replied. Celestia frowned and just before I was certain she would have showed her true colors the other mares appeared in a flash of teleportation, though most notably without Luna.
"Night!" they all yelled.
"Oh great, why now of all times". I thought as Twilight ran up to me.
"Are you okay, Nightmare Moon didn't hit you too hard did she, oh who am I kidding of course she did and it's all my fault and if I didn't suck at combat magic then Nightmare wouldn't have hit you and use me as cannonball and -Twilight!" I raised my voice. This thankfully got her to shut up.
"It is okay, Nightmare Moon is... was an alicorn. Even if you we're a battle mage you wouldn't have stood a chance against her. Alicorns are just too powerful" I consoled. Twilight for her part looked like she wanted to contest my statement with more self-loathing, but decided not to.
"Thanks Night, now I know you probably have this "I don't need a mare thing" going on but the fact of the matter is you're wounded... badly" she began. I chose not to say anything upon glancing down at myself. There was quite a bit of blood on both myself and Delilah.
"You have a broken leg, probably several other broken bones due to your fall, as well as possible internal bleeding, the same for Delilah too" she continued.
"In addition to any other injuries thanks to your fight, so you will be going to Ponyville's hospital to recover and that's that" she finished.
"Twilight- I said was that" she interrupted me.
"But- that was that!" she asserted.
"No! I can't go to Ponyville, we have to get out of... here. That's it! If we go to Ponyville it's us not going to Canterlot!" I thought.
"All right Twilight, I'll go to Ponyville... but!" I said just before she could let out a cheer. "Once me and Delilah have recovered we will be on our way, deal?" I asked.
"Deal" she replied.
"All right, now how are we going to..." Flash "Get to Ponyville?" I asked as Celestia lit her horn and me, Delilah, the mares, and Luna all appeared outside Ponyville's townhall to a crowd of very surprised ponies. Me and Delilah held aloft in Celestia's magic.
"Well then, that works I suppose".
"Make sure that you eat your fruit dear, I'll be back to help change your bandages once you finish okay" Nurse Redheart, a snow white earth pony with a pink mane and tail, told me.
"Yes yes, mother" I rolled my eyes while the mare narrowed hers. "Your injuries are very serious Night Storm, had Princess Celestia not had you brought here you could have succumbed to your internal bleeding, and with your ribs as cracked as they were you are lucky that they did not shatter and pierce your heart or lungs" she admonished me.
"I understand that nurse, I just do not wish to referred to as a foal" I replied and she chuckled.
"Hehe, well if you do not want to refer to me as your mother you could always refer to me as mommy" she smiled.
"Huh?"
"Once you get out of the hospital I wouldn't be opposed to doing something with you" she then rolled her head and puffed up her chest fluff. "If you wanted too" she added.
"Is she... trying to court me?"
"Now remember what I said about your dinner dear, it's getting cold" and with that the nurse trotted out of my room and shut the door behind her.
"Well that was the weirdest attempt at courting I've ever seen" Delilah said from her neighboring bed.
Trying to forget what had just been said to me I looked down at my dinner. A pair of pears (pun unintended) with some tomato soup. After a few test bites I found that it tasted surprisingly well compared to the slop that we had for soup in Ashen. Though what it lacked in taste it made up for in nutrition, and helped remarkably with recovery from injuries which made it popular with our herbalists and physicians.
As I ate I thought back to when me and Delilah arrived back in Ponyville. When Princess Celestia had so unceremoniously teleported us into town the ponies had all but gawked and bowed as quickly as possible. Then when they looked up and saw Princess Luna they cried out that Nightmare Moon had entranced their princess and began to panic.
However Celestia quickly managed to calm them down and explained that thanks to me, Delilah, and the six other mares Nightmare Moon had been defeated, and her sister. Princess Luna had been freed from her clutches.
The ponies then noticed me and Delilah being held aloft by their princesses' magic, our injuries visible for all of them to see. This resulted in quite a lot of looks being thrown at Luna, who began to shrink into the shadow of her older sister.
At the same time Celestia seemed to take notice of this and re-explained that Luna and Nightmare Moon we're not the same pony, and that Luna had been possessed by a madmare. Fortunately for her that seemed to calm the masses. But I could still see the lingering fear in them.
After that Celestia called upon the medical staff of Ponyville General to help both myself and Delilah with our injuries. Many of whom seemed very enthusiastic to help. After that they had all but dragged us off to this hospital where we had been confined to this room together and I had been fawned over by the female medical staff while Delilah had been attended to by two stallions, one a doctor and the other a nurse.
I had also feared that once they began to touch us and begin administering treatment for our injuries our invisible armor would start bringing them to ask difficult questions. Fortunately that didn't happen. As just before Celestia hoofed us off to the physicians I felt our armor being teleported off of us, and my eyes caught Star Fire's in the far back of the crowd before she disappeared back between two buildings and into a dark alleyway.
That was good, it meant that the legion knew what was happening to an extent and that Asteria was not sitting idly by. However it was also apparent that with Nightmare's defeat that they had not been able to secure the elements. How I did not know, they had several hours to comb that castle and locate them. But that did not matter anymore, we had failed, and now we we're in the most precarious position we had ever been in since the founding of Ashen and our great exile from Equestria proper.
Which brought me back to Celestia, and no matter how I thought about it it just didn't make sense. If she knew who we we're then why didn't she just detain or kill us. But she didn't, in fact she acted like we were just two random ponies who had by chance met and decided to help Twilight.
Which supported the idea that Celestia didn't know who we we're, but how! Luna knew who we we're as Nightmare Moon, and I didn't think the Elements could wipe a pony's memory but... they we're known to be extremely powerful artifacts. Plus, with not that much being known about them it stood to consider that as a possibility.
But why, why would they do that then? Was this the universe's way of apologizing after all the bullshit I had to put up with last night or was there some greater plan at work?
More importantly what would my mother think about all these developments. I had never failed her to this great of an extent before. Sure I had let her down but I'd always made up for it, but this... this was nothing short of a catastrophe.
"No, I will... cross that bridge when I come to it. For now I should focus on escaping Ponyville, rendezvousing with the legion, securing the elements if possible, and escaping Equestria... all without alerting said Equestrians to our presence, buck.
But I'm The Flame Prince, I am the Son Of Ashen, and the last of the royal line as well... buck. I need to be more careful in the future. If something happens to me before I can sire an heir Ashen could descend into anarchy, Tartarus the whole kingdom at that.
"I should probably stay away from field duty for a while, at least while in Equestria. If we are discovered at least that gives me a chance to get away".
While I detested the thought of cowering while my subjects fought I knew that in some cases it was better for the commareder to sit and direct from the back. Soldiers existed for a reason after all, and it was their superior's job to guide them, and history had shown that such ponies we're often the target for assassins.
"Alright then, new plan. Recover in Ponyville, rendezvous with the legion, secure the elements if possible, and hightail it back to Ashen. We can always come back in the future anyway, wait for things to die down. Though Luna's return complicates things, buck!
Once me and Delilah finished our food Nurse Redheart trotted back in and retrieved our empty dishes. Thankfully without anymore comments. We we're then told it was lights out and that we would see her or another pony in the morning and she left.
"Sir, about yesterday" Delilah began once we're alone.
"It is fine Delilah, you did a good job and I'm already formulating a plan for our situation. Now keep quiet they could be listening" I replied. She nodded and we both fell asleep, I didn't know what tomorrow would bring but I prayed it would be good.