After washing Celestia and getting her dry and immaculate, Silver shared his idea of a communal conception. Celestia lifted an ear with obvious intrigue. "How can we be certain you won't simply be the middle point? We've put our energy into Twilight before without her growing heavy with foal."
Silver pointed with a hoof down at the golden bangle, sitting on his haunches. "Once we figure out how to get that on and off without extreme surgery, I think it will be very helpful. It focuses all energy through a specific organ you're familiar with, and that'll help me process it all that much faster. We may need to start the supporting part before I get to the other part, but I think we could do it, together, as the circle Twilight made us into."
Celestia looked interested enough in the idea, giving a slow nod before she looked over Silver's shoulder. He turned in time for Shei to angrily snort at him. "Already discussing replacing my sister?!"
She moved to flee, but Silver wouldn't have it. He seized her in his silver magic, even if it felt like a punch between the hind legs with the abruptness and power required. "Not... so fast. Nothing will replace Aila, ever. She was a precious... individual. That I can't... even start..." Silver sagged, silver magic blinking away as he started crying. "I'm sorry."
Shei looked at him with some confusion as he sat there with his eyes closed and leaking and giving shuddering little breaths. "I... thought you got over her... You don't talk about her, and you stopped crying..."
Celestia wrapped a wing gently over Silver. "He held it in for your sake, Shei. Isn't that right, Silver Stars?"
Silver clenched his teeth before nodding. "There wasn't enough room for two crying people at once, so I stopped. You were more hurt than I was..."
Shei stomped a hoof. "If Aila heard that she'd punch you right in the nose." She drew a shuddering breath before letting it go. "Cry, Silver, my master. Cry. You're allowed to. There's room enough on this accursed boat for us all to cry."
Silver only looked more self-conscious at being ordered to cry, and shuffled a little in place, but Shei looked more and more serious by the moment, and he suddenly burst into a soft laughter. "Shei, you are adorable."
Shei glared at him. "I'm not trying to be adorable!"
Silver threw a leg over her and hugged her close. "And yet you are, and I love that about you. Please don't try to be your sister. Be you. I love you."
Shei went red instantly at those words and recoiled, slipping out of the hug. "A-as a servant, yes?"
Celestia put a hoof in front of Silver, silencing his response. "This big-hearted stallion only has a few settings. If he says he loves you, he means it, and he will fight a dragon if it will keep you safe."
Silver frowned a little. "Not quite the way I'd put it... but yes. I made you pay a terrible price, one I can't ever truly make up for. If you can accept a master that's failed you once, I will never let you go."
Shei looked extremely uncertain, glancing away, then back at Silver. "You will have to face our parents first. They will test your words, and your patience. Of this I have no doubt. For now... I am yours." She curtsied in place, legs bending outwards as she sank before rising up again.
Silver opened his mouth to say something when he was attacked. Shei pressed in and claimed a kiss from him with locked lips and tilted head. Silver melted into the attention with a soft sigh through his nose. The fierce exchange made him feel strangely good everywhere. Shei forgave him, and he didn't even realize how much he needed that fact. Shei drew back and smiled at him a moment before the expression fell a bit. "Let out your tears. Salt the ocean with them. There won't be time for that when we arrive."
As she walked away, Celestia bit one of Silver's ears lightly. "She's not wrong. Do you need time alone?"
Silver snorted softly. "I don't want to sit around crying."
Celestia pulled Silver up with her magic, placing him between her legs as she sat on her haunches, like being in her lap. She hugged him gently. "She's gone." The blunt statement of finality made his tears begin to flow. "We won't get her back. She's paid the final price of our mistake." She rocked him and hugged as he cried, and she didn't let him go. He would cry, even if she had to squeeze them free of his stubborn mind.
Silver eventually was allowed to wander up to the deck of the ship. He felt drained, but faintly better. Passing by a sailor, he stopped, feeling something odd. "Are you alright?"
The sailor stopped and turned to face Silver. "Everything's in order, your majesty."
Silver leaned in a little. "Are you certain?"
She glanced away, then back at Silver. "I'm... I don't agree with what you did, sir."
Silver nodded softly. "Neither do I. I have much yet to learn. You shouldn't feel fear in telling me that."
She nodded slowly. "As you say, m'lord. It is something of a relief to hear those words. Even our enemies deserve more respect than that, sir."
Silver raised a hoof and pat her on the shoulder. "They do. I allowed myself to do something rash. It will not be repeated. If others feel this way, have them come and tell me directly. They work for Celestia, not me, and will face no reprisal for harsh words."
She gave a salute, then scampered off on her duties.
Silver's invitation got two more brave souls to step forward and give him a tongue lashing, and he thanked the both of them for their honesty and sent them away with praise and insistence that he would do nothing like it again in the future. The discussion seemed to break some of the fell miasma that followed the boat. Silver figured word got around to more ponies than the three he talked to personally, and was glad he took the time to set things straight with them, even if he imagined Luna would find the entire thing laughable.
Celestia was not Luna. She approached Silver with a little smile. "What's this I hear? Some of the sailors say you're acting in a 'very unprincelike fashion' and confessing your errors to them? If you keep this up, ponies will think you're a very poor prince of the night."
Silver raised a brow at her. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm acting like a fine solar prince."
Celestia raised a hoof to set it on Silver's nose. "I will defy your expectations then. I think you are acting like a fine prince in general. But that includes denying me when I let my emotions decide things, as rare as that thankfully is."
Silver softly snorted and shook his head. "I won't quickly forget this lesson. Its price was too high."
Celestia clenched her teeth a moment, just long enough for Silver to think he saw something. "Are you hiding something?"
Celestia turned her head aside, lifting her nose. "Nothing you need concern yourself with."
Silver smiled gently. "I'm not Twilight. You won't discourage me that easily."
Celestia prodded Silver where his soreness once was. "Maybe you should learn from her. You can ask as much as you wish."
Silver rose to his hooves and snorted at Celestia. "You're hiding something, out with it."
Celestia shook her head. "It will only bring you more pain, Silver Stars. Let it go."
Silver grunted and flopped onto his haunches. "You know I don't work that way. Tell me or I'll be wondering forever."
Celestia took a slow breath. "Aila confided in me that she thought meeting you was one of the better fortunes of her life, no matter how angry she acted at times."
Silver stomped weakly on the ground. "Her lucky... day..." He sank against the edge of the ship and let out a slow breath. "Thank you, even if it hurt to hear."
Celestia leaned in over Silver's form to nuzzle his cheek. "I'm going to sun before those clouds settle over us." She trotted off towards the center of the ship and left Silver to his feelings.
Silver looked out over the endless waters, and a new thought rudely shoved its way to the forefront. What of his foal, so young as to not even have a gender? Or even a tribe? Silver clenched his teeth, unable to form an instant reaction to it nearly as strongly as Aila's. The child was precious, but he didn't know it yet, and the fact that that made a difference made him angry. He stomped on the deck and became furious with himself for not being more upset about that foal. It was alive, then it wasn't, just the same as its mother. It deserved... something...
Silver pushed away from the rail and found Shei in the dining area, setting the plates and dishes for dinner. "Shei, I have a question for you."
Shei perked an ear. "You sound upset, master. What's wrong?"
Silver sat on his haunches. "What's the traditional thing to do for a dead foal?"
Shei trembled softly. "I... don't know for certain when the foal isn't out of the mother. I..." She sagged. "I suppose you could scribe something about it on her tombstone, together with her... I guess..."
She started crying anew, and Silver's tears joined her as he shuffled awkwardly in place. Thinking of their shared last word did nothing to make him happy in the slightest. "I guess that will have to do... Thank you. I... hate to put this on you, but I'll need your help when we arrive to arrange everything. I want to do this... right by her, the way she'd want it."
Shei suddenly glared at Silver. "Then we wouldn't be going this way!"
Silver recoiled at the outburst. "What do you mean?"
Shei sank a little. "Aila never forgave our family for turning me out like they did, that's why she came with me. The idea of being buried with them... I can't imagine she'd want that. I can't imagine that at all."
She sank to the ground entirely, and Silver sat beside her. "I didn't realize... Then we'll keep her. We'll do whatever it takes. Where would she want to go? Please, tell me."
Shei frowned with thought, running her hooves over the wood fitfully. "Away from them, and away from Anugypt. Just away. Somewhere she could be whatever she wanted to be. Somewhere... she could have her inn, full of happy ponies." Shei's face contorted with fresh sorrow, and Silver couldn't help himself, he joined her in quiet tears together.
An idea crept up on him. "We'll take her back to Equestria, and she can be under a grand place, where ponies come to be happy and free. An inn just the way she would have wanted it."
Shei looked up from the ground at Silver. "I... I think I like that idea... We can name it for her, in her honor. I think she'd approve of that. Not as much as... not dying, but it's what we can do."
It was what they could do, and they found some measure of comfort in the distant plan, and in the shared presence of each other.