//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Luna, Celestia // Story: A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// Princess Luna had been receiving tutoring from her sister on how to raise the sun for about two weeks now, and she had to admit that the more she did it, the better she enjoyed the experience. She could almost raise the sun on her own now; her sister was now only offering encouragement and a few minor tweaks to her performance when she lifted the bright, burning orb. The Princess of the Night happily trotted to her sister’s chambers to perform the sun raising spells so the morning light could shine. It had been strange initially to now have a magical tie to two celestial bodies, as she assumed it had been for her sister in the first days of raising her moon, but she had begun to truly love seeing the timid but beautiful sun rise every day. After finishing her short journey to her sister’s chambers, she politely knocked on one of the doors. There was no reply. Princess Luna waited a little while before knocking again with a bit more force; perhaps Tia was just sleeping heavily. Still there was no answer. “Sister?” she called out, “Are you in there?” She then heard a clattering of something metal falling to the floor, and a small groan. Alarmed and unsure of what she’d find, Princess Luna slammed the door open. Princess Celestia was lying on the floor next to her wooden table. Her mane was a mess, and it was not floating serenely as it normally did, but instead hung across her head and the floor like thick pastel strands of long, wet grass. The tip of her horn was charred black, as if she had burnt it on something. Princess Luna couldn’t think. She didn’t understand. How? How could her sister? No! “Nononononono!” she finally blurted as she rushed to her Celestia’s side. As she now came closer to her sister, she could see that she was still breathing, albeit shallowly. She began to try and scry her sister’s condition with her magic, and as she did, Princess Celestia’s eyes partially opened. “Luna?” she asked with a pained whisper. Princess Luna was overjoyed to hear her voice, “Tia! Oh, thank the stars! What has happened?” “I’m sorry,” the Princess of the Sun said as her voice grew stronger, “I should have told you about this earlier.” “Umbra! Nox!” Princess Luna called out hurriedly. The two bat pony guards dropped from the ceiling outside of Princess Celestia’s chambers, from which they had been monitoring everything unseen. “Find a physician as swiftly as you can! My sister’s life may depend on how much time you take!” Without a word, the two Antrozi warriors quickly flew down the hallway to pursue their mission. Returning her attention to her sister, Princess Luna looked down at her co-ruler with confusion and rising urgency, “What’s happened, Tia? How long has it been going on?” “I think,” Princess Celestia began, before she cried out in pain. “DOCTOR! NOW!” Princess Luna roared out to the corridor as one or two royal guards now stood there in alarm. At her command, they ran like gazelle to find the nearest and best medical practitioner. “I think,” Princess Celestia tried again, “I was poisoned by the Changelings weeks ago. I thought I would be better by now,” and she grimaced through another bout of agony, “but all evidence points to the fact that I’m a fool for thinking I could shrug this off.” Princess Luna slammed a hoof on the floor in anger, “Why didn’t you tell me?! You wasted precious time when we could have been trying to save your life together! Why?” “I wasn’t for sure I was ill until about three weeks ago. I decided that I would plan for Equestria’s future, just in case things turned for the worst.” Princess Luna’s eyes misted over as she began to see what the true nature of her lessons had been. “You taught me how to raise the sun..so I could succeed you?” she asked numbly. “I’m sorry I lied to you,” Princess Celestia replied through both tears of pain and regret, “I just couldn’t face the fact of my suddenly acquired mortality. I was so scared. I still am.” “It is not your time yet!” Princess Luna said angrily, “I’ve seen too many ponies I’ve loved taken from me! I’m not letting you die in my hooves like Orpheus did so long ago! We’re going to fight this, and you’re going to get better!” “The papers,” Princess Celestia tried to point at the table up above with her hoof, “Look at the papers.” Princess Luna looked and hastily snatched up every paper than she could off of the table top with her magic. She began to revolve the several pieces of parchment across her field of vision. The writing and pictures were in her sister’s handwriting, but the text itself was complex in its structure and nature. “What is all this?” she asked. “Transcriptions of some of Starswirl the Bearded’s journal,” the Princess’ breathing quickened, “I allowed him to study me once. Those are all his notes on our biology. I can’t understand the stuff myself, but the journal is,” she gasped as another wave of pain hit her, “encrypted! Encrypted to anyone else who tries to look at it. I hoped it might help in some way.” “I don’t know if I can decipher this,” Princess Luna said in despair as she skimmed the material, “this could take me weeks to even begin to understand the basic concepts!” At that moment, Umbra and Nox returned with a unicorn doctor in tow. The royal guards were not far behind with an earth pony physician. Before the two were even brought into the room, they had been sworn to secrecy by each set of guards on pain of imprisonment for life. As they were brought into the room, the unicorn doctor, named Scalpel, and the earth pony doctor, whose name was Triage, stopped dead in their tracks. “Starswirl’s beard,” Scalpel softly exclaimed as he saw who his patient was to be. Triage simply gawked at Princess Celestia as she lay on the floor, who cried out a little as another blast of agony overtook her. That was enough to get the two doctors to respond. Triage quickly blurted out, “Help us move her onto the bed!” “What sort of symptoms has she shown, your Highness?” Scalpel asked Princess Luna as the unicorns among the guards slowly lifted up the Princess of the Sun back to her bed. Princess Luna shook her head, “I can’t honestly say. She just admitted to me that she has been hiding her condition for over a fortnight. She believed that she was drugged with some kind of venom produced by the Changelings.” Triage pointed to the royal guards, “One of you, get some cool water and a towel; we need to bring down her fever!” A white stallion from out of the group ran to the bathroom suite of the Princess to fetch the requisitioned items. Scalpel sighed in frustration, “If this affliction is of Changeling origin, then only a Changeling could know what the proper antidote would be. Your Majesty, there is no guarantee that anything we try to better Princess Celestia wouldn’t actually make things worse.” Princess Luna nodded, “I realize that this is the case. I can only offer some rudimentary knowledge about mine and my sister’s anatomy to you. First, we need no sleep, food, or drink. Second, if you attempt any internal investigation, you will not find flesh and bone; our innards are made of pure magic. Since none of us in this room has any experience at all in treating an alicorn, I’m going to find someone who may be of help. For now, do what you believe will help to ease Celestia’s pain. Understood?” Scalpel bowed, “Completely, your Highness,” and he then went to aid Triage and the guards at Princess Celestia’s bedside. Princess Luna, though calm in her demeanor now in the presence of the guards and doctors, was absolutely terrified by the situation. Turning on the spot, she looked to Umbra and Nox and murmured, “Remain here,” before she instantly transported herself to hers and her sister’s study suite in the Royal Canterlot Library through dimensional phasing magic. She practically ran to the mantelpiece which held the orb where the Maiden now made her home. If there is anyone who will know the answers to my questions, it will be mother, thought Princess Luna. She opened up the glass container’s latch, the greenish yellow particles flew out, and they slowly began to settle on her body. The room around her began to dissolve away into a grey fog, as the Maiden expressed her consciousness within the Princess’ mind. Even as the figure of the pale, red haired woman appeared to her, Princess Luna rushed up to her, “Please mother! We don’t have much time. Tia is dying, and I need to know anything you can tell me about how to make her better!” The Maiden looked to her daughter, and Princess Luna saw that she had been crying. The Princess’ heart practically stopped then and there, “You knew as well?” The Maiden nodded quietly, as new tears came to her face.