//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: What the Hey-Hey Happened?! // Story: The Banana Incident // by TasteTheSun //------------------------------// Twilight dove to the lower levels of the palace to the labs while pondering about Luna's situation. Her thoughts came to a halt when she reached the lab. When she opened the door, her jaw dropped. The lab was a mess. A strange liquid dripped down from the walls. Not only that, but the room was filled with a strange yellow gas. With just one inhale Twilight felt lightheaded and her chest hurting. She quickly closed the door and galloped towards a window and took deep breaths of fresh air. Slowly, she started feeling better. After alleviating herself, she went to a nearby closet and took out a hazmat suit. She threw it on and once again entered the lab well protected. Looking around, she saw that the lab was a mess. She wondered what happened here. Then she saw it. The one thing she worked on for so long was now in a pile of broken glass dripping off of the table. Twilight's heart broke. She felt like crying right there and now. She also felt her head feel light. She quickly got out of the lab, went to the decontamination room to get a good spraying, then took her suit off and took in breaths of fresh air. She could not believe what had become of her experiment. How will she explain to the scientists? How will she explain to the Princess that her potion was an utter failure? How will she cure Princess Luna? It didn't matter. She failed, and there was nothing she could do about. She might as well give up being the Princess of Friendship, or even being a princess at all. Once she tells Princess Celestia, she will have her de-alicorned and sent to magic kindergarten. No, she didn't even deserve being there. Why, she might even remove her horn as well. And to top it all off, she'll end up living as a ho-bo wearing a fake gray beard at a train yard, with ponies making fun of her and telling their fillies and colts how she use to be a princess just to mock her, that is, if she doesn't get banished and then thrown in a dungeon at the place she's banished to. With her head hanging low, she slowly approached the door to place a note to the other scientists to quarantine the lab. Then something occurred to her. She wondered why her head would feel dizzy and her chest would hurt, just like Princess Luna, and why is there a yellow cloud in the lab. She knew she shouldn't give up now. She knew she was on to something. ••• Celestia and Luna waited patiently in the doctor's office. Luna’s head dangled trying to stay balanced from being really dizzy. She snacked on the banana Celestia had given her. As she ate her snack; she gazed at a certain spot in the room. She frantically tapped Celestia's side to get her attention. "Hey Tia... why is there... a cow in here," she said happily in between breaths. Celestia didn't understand what she was talking about. "What cow? There's no cow in here," she replied. "Sure there is... I can see it with my own eyes... and I can see a cow right in front of me... I can almost touch it...,"she said as she extended her leg to pet the figment cow, only to fall down on the ground laughing. At last, the doctor came in and was shocked when he saw Princess Luna. "Um... g-good morning Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," he greeted. "Banana," Luna corrected him. "Okay uh orange?" he replied confusedly. "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice Doctor Right Aid," Celestia said. Right Aid snapped out of his gaze towards Luna and turned his attention towards Celestia. "Right, now what seems to be the problem, besides the color change?" he asked. "Well from what Princess Twilight had informed me, she was in perfect health last night, then when she arrived here this morning, she found her like this. She said she was experiencing the following symptoms such as dizziness, tight chest, heartburn, disorientation, loss of balance, and even memory loss. Neither of us could figure out what caused this to happen, which is why I've brought her here, though I had to make sure any pony didn’t see her. Doctor Right Aid frantically wrote down everything the Princess said. "Interesting! I have never encountered such an illness quite like this. This might be a new disease!" he exclaimed. Celestia was thrown back at the realization. What if this was a new disease! Could it be contagious? What would she do if she contracted the disease? “But still, I would hate to jump to any conclusions, I will run a few tests to make sure this isn't in fact a new disease," he informed them. "Now, I need you to help me get Princess Luna to sit up on this bed here," he instructed while eyeing the princess on the floor rubbing her chest. Celestia nodded. She used her magic to levitate Princess Luna up on the bed. At first she found excitement at the thought of herself flying. When she was situated on the paper of the bed, she twitched before she felt an impeding doom coming to her. "Oh no! I'm too high up! Help, me! I'm gunna fall!" she cried while panting heavily and clenching her chest tightly. Celestia held her face in her hooves to reassure her. "Calm down, you're not going to fall, and if you do, I'll be right here to catch you. You have nothing to worry about," she said softly. Luna slowly nodded as she began to calm down. The doctor went to his medical bag and took out a cotton ball and a bottle of disinfectant alcohol. He soaked the cotton ball and rubbed it above Luna's hoof. He then took out a small needle. Celestia clenched her sister's hoof as she held the other in her magic for Right Aid. He pricked the needle on Luna's hoof. She in turn gave out a loud yell. The doctor collected the drops of blood that was dripping out. He finally attached a bandage with smiley faces on it where he inserted the needle. Celestia released her magical grip on her hoof. Luna rubbed her hoof before bursting into tears. Celestia levitated her off the bed and went to give her a hug. "There, there, it’s all right, it's all over now," she cooed. "He... he stung me," Luna cried as she buried herself into Celestia's fur. "Oh don't cry. Will you feel better if I gave you another banana?" she asked "Uh-huh," Luna said in between sobs. Celestia made another banana appear with her magic. She released Luna and handed her the fruit. Luna smiled as she grabbed it with her hoofs, peeled it, and took a bite out of it. She closed her eyes and savored the sweet flavors of it while fighting back her heartburn. When she opened them, her eyes went wide. "How did we... end up in... the middle of a desert?" she asked confusedly as she began to twitch again. "Ok... I'm going to go run some tests. I'll inform you when I find out what's wrong. Oh, and by the way, I'm no psychiatrist, but I believe it is important to inform you that your sister may seem to also be suffering from severe hallucination and feeling impending doom, but this is just a speculation, but please let me know if she does in fact experience these symptoms." Celestia nodded and led Luna out of the doctor's office. ••• Twilight entered the lab once again and quickly took samples of the potion that was splattered all over the walls. After getting as many samples as she could, she quickly fled the lab and sanitized herself really well. With her samples ready for examining, she needed to find a place to do it. Thankfully the palace has more than one lab station. ••• All of the castle staff was gathered in the throne room. All were wondering what was going on. They all fell silent when they saw Celestia approach her throne "Thank you all for coming here for this emergency meeting. Now you must all be wondering why I've brought you here, and I just want to tell you that it has come to my attention that Princess Luna is quite ill and well not be performing her royal duties until further notice." Every pony in the room began to worry at the thought of they're beloved Princess of the Night being ill. "Now just to make sure we know what exactly we are dealing with, I would like to show you something." Celestia informed before turning to a door at the far side. "Banana, could you come out here please?" she called out. The door burst open and Luna came in while sliding on the marble floor like an ice skater. She even tried to land a twirl, only to fail and fall down. She continued sliding on her stomach until stopping a few feet in front of the crowd laughing the entire time. Every pony stood there in silence watching the princess make a complete fool of herself. One pony though broke the silence a few seconds later. "Seriously? Are you expecting us to believe this? This has to be a joke." Every pony turned to see who had made the offending comment. It revealed to have been Prince Blueblood. A spark of anger ignited deep within the Princess. "A joke? You call being dizzy and having chest pains a joke?" "Oh come on. It’s obvious this is a joke. What kind of a sick person would act like a fumbling idiot?" That was the last straw. Out of pure anger, Celestia ordered the guards to escort Prince Blueblood out of the throne room. This however angered Blueblood even more. "Again with this? You will be hearing from my attorneys. You will rue this day! You'll-" He was cut off when the doors closed behind him. Celestia took a moment to calm her nerves. "As for the rest of you, do not say a word of this to anyone, especially to the press. If you do, you will be in serious trouble. Do I make myself clear?" Every pony agreed before they were all dismissed. Celestia then led Luna out of the throne room towards her bedchambers. Two guards behind them followed them. When they reached the door to her chambers, she told Luna to get in bed and to get some sleep. She nodded before she stumbled towards her bed. Celestia closed the door behind her and locked it from the outside. She then went to address to the two guards that were with her. "I want you to stand guard in front of Princess Luna's bed chamber. Do not let any pony in nor out except for Princess Twilight and I. Do you understand?" The two guards replied with a salute before getting to position in front of the door. "Oh, and one more thing: no matter what you hear, do NOT open this door." The guards nodded. Celestia smiled with relief, feeling confident that her sister would be safe and sound asleep in her chambers. Hopefully she would find out what was wrong with her sister and how to cure her. She held on to that sliver of hope that they could fix all of this. ••• Questions, Comments, Complements, Any errors are accepted, always room for improvement! Be sure to like follow me both here and Twitter(@Pony3T)