//------------------------------//
// Sickness - Ultra1437 - Jan. 10, 2015 
// Story: The Sun and Stars: Lightning Round 
// by JKinsley 
//------------------------------//



By Ultra1437



A rough coughing resounded through the district as Twilight made her way through them, on her way to the coughing’s source.  As she rounded the last corner to gaze upon Canterlot’s finest armoring forge, the alicorn checked her tray again.  There normally weren’t guards posted at the door, but the pair currently posted kept peering questioningly at the closed oaken doors.

Trotting up to the doors, she knocked.  “Princess?  It’s Twilight.  I’m back,” she spoke clearly.  The coughing stopped for a few seconds as the doors clicked open.  Taking the initiative, she parted them slightly and strode in.

Stepping past the threshold, she was assaulted with heat.  Immediately, she cast a fire-heat resistance spell on herself and her tray.  Delving deeper into the forge, she reached the forge’s chamber and saw it was blasting at capacity and burning brightly.  She looked about and saw several differing, yet unanimously in-progress, sets of armor, hastily strewn across ponykins.  A rasping cough interrupted her introspection and she gazed inside the hearth.  Her wings ruffled in agitation as she flinched from the cough.

“Welcome back, Twilight.  Did you get it?” Celestia asked, laying inside, with a wing covering something in the middle.  A purple claw reached out from under her wing to a nearby bowl and withdrew several gems before retreating.

“I did!”  Twilight nodded before stepping forward and into the hearth.  She set the tray next to the bowl and laid down next to Celestia’s outstretched wing.  Nuzzling under the feathers, and only purposely tickling Celestia slightly, she stretched her head to see the wing’s occupant, Spike.

He looked a mess, phlegm dripping from his smoking nostrils and bloodshot eyes barely open.  He’d caught a dragon’s version of a cold, where his body lost the ability to produce its own heat to fight the illness.  In dragon culture, they’d spend a week in a volcano and cared for by their immediate family, not unlike with a sick pony.  Having no dragon family, his pony family had to take up those roles and a large enough forge was commandeered to provide the body heat necessary.

“Hey Spike, I got more gems.  Are you feeling any better, or do we need to stoke the fire some more?” Twilight asked, her voice trembling somewhat seeing her son-slash-brother in such a state.

Spike shivered a little and groaned out, “More heat, please.  I feel so cold…”  He curled up against Celestia, his other ‘mother’s’ body, her connection with the sun giving her a far greater body temperature than a normal pony’s and doing wonders to help drive the cold sensation away.

Twilight nodded and retreated from under Celestia’s wing.  She stood and nuzzled Celestia, kissing her nose once before saying, “He’s still cold, I’m gonna stoke the fires some more.”
Celestia nodded once and tightened her wing around Spike slightly.  “Hopefully we’ll have enough fuel in supply.”

Celestia leaned into her fiancée’s nuzzle before responding, “If we don’t, we can put an emergency requisition in from the other forges in the area.”  She shrugged her free wing.  “Failing that, we can always have more shipped in by train.”

Twilight nodded and left the hearth, going around to the bellows in the rear.  Telekinetically, she lifted several hundred pounds of coal and spread it evenly underneath the hearth and pumping the bellows a few times.  The flames underneath surged, licking the grate that Spike and Celestia rested upon.  Celestia let out an audible giggle as one particular flametip tickled her cutie mark.  

The coughing ceased after a short time as Twilight returned and laid down opposite Celestia from Spike, adding her own wing above Celestia’s.  She ducked her head under their wings and noticed that Spike was now sleeping again, more peacefully this time.

She retreated, giving him space, but not before hearing, “Thanks, mom.”

Smiling brightly, she closed a little distance with her son and fiancée, letting her form rest against his as she lay her neck across Celestia’s.  Celestia returned the favor, nuzzling against Twilight’s neck.  Both ponies joined Spike in a restful slumber, inside a blazing forge.