Chapter 8: Sick
This is the worst possible thing. There is honestly nothing I hate more than this. Out of anything that could have happened at any time it had to happen now. It’s Monday, a week before high school starts, and I’m here in bed with the week-long flu.
It’s just as well. Cadence got it, Octavia got it, everypony, but me and Celestia got it. I thought that I might have been in the clear, until this morning. I woke up with a stuffy nose and started sneezing. I knew right then, that I too had caught it. Cadence described it to me when she had it. She said it was like having a cold that would never end. All you could really do was count the days.
Day 1
Celestia brought in a doctor to make sure it was the week-long flu.
“Well, there’s no doubt about it,” said Doctor Healthy Heart as he packed up his belongings. “It’s the week-long flu.” One of the benefits of living in a castle is that you always have a doctor on call, so you don’t even have to leave your room. While our usual doctor, Doctor…you know, I always just called him The Doctor. Anyway, he was off traveling with a friend, so he recommended Doctor Healthy Heart to take his place in his absence.
“Is there anything my magic could do?” Celestia asked
“It’s better if you don’t. Illnesses don’t respond well to magic. Any attempt to heal him may just cause more harm than good. I’m sorry, princess, but it’s better to let his body deal with.”
“Thank you doctor, you can go now.” Doctor Healthy Heart left the room with a pat on my head. “I’m sorry, Golden. I wish there was something I could do.” Celestia was sitting next to me petting my head.
“It’s fine mom.” I said, but that’s all I could say with a sore throat.
“Get some sleep. When you wake up, there will be a nice hot bowl of noodle soup.”
It wasn’t hard for me to fall asleep. I was extremely tired, even if all I did was stay in my bed all day. When I woke up, Celestia was in my room looking out the window, gazing at Canterlot. Her horn was glowing that beautiful golden glow. As she continued to look out, the sun started setting, but she didn’t break her gaze. She was wearing her favorite dinner dress, a white upper portion with golden accent and a skirt that matches her mane. I looked to my left and there was a bowl of noodle soup, still fresh and hot, sitting on a trey. I sat up and put the trey on my lap and started eating.
“Good morning,” Celestia said without breaking her gaze at the city, “how are you feeling?”
“A little better. At least my throat isn’t sore anymore.” The weird thing about the week-long flu is that there are completely unpredictable symptoms. You can literally have a headache for one second. The only problem is that when one symptom goes, a different one comes up. In my case, my sore throat was replaced by a mild fever.
Celestia came over and felt my forehead. “You should take a cold bath, it will bring your fever down. I have to go to dinner, but I’ll be back the first chance I get.”
Celestia left my room and I continued eating. When I finished, I took Celestia’s advice and took a cold bath. It was a hot summer day, and coupled with my fever, the cold bath felt nice. It was almost as if I was on fire and I sat on a block of ice.
When I returned, a maid took away my food trey. I went back to bed and almost instantly fell asleep.
Day 2
For the first time in five years, I woke to find Celestia in my bed. Celestia was immune to all illnesses, but I never knew why. At first I thought it was because she was an Alicorn, but then Cadence got sick. She was, as usual, holding me tight. I moved in closer and went back to sleep. When I woke up for the second time, Celestia had left, but Octavia was sitting there getting her cello ready.
“Octavia, what are you doing here?” I caught her somewhat off guard because she jumped a little.
“Well, I heard that you were sick, so I decided to spend the day with you.”
“You don’t have to do that Octavia, go out and enjoy your summer.”
“It’s fine Golden. All four of want to do this. When we were sick, you came to visit us and made each and every one of us feel special and helped us on our way to recovery. It’s the least we can do. Plus I feel really bad.” Octavia was the last one in our group to get the flu. I guess she feels responsible for getting me sick. Octavia is lucky that it was the type of sickness that you could only get once. “Now stay quiet while I play.”
Octavia started playing my favorite classical song, Toccata And Fugue In D Minor. I don’t know if it was just the song being played through the cello or Octavia’s special touch, but she knew I loved it. I was really hoping that my dry mouth wouldn’t change to sneezing or coughing, so I don’t interrupt her. When the song ended, she flawlessly transitioned into another, and another after that one, and then another. When she finished, I gave her a round of applause. She then pulled her chair next to my bed.
“So, how did you like the show?” She asked
“I always tell you the same thing Octavia. It was your best performance to date.” This made her smile as it always does.
“I’m glad at least you liked it. Even if everypony else hates it, I’m just glad that you like it.” We smiled at the same time. “Golden, I have something to tell you something.”
“Alright,” I said with a raspy voice.
"Once I say this, know that you can't un-hear it."
“Octavia, just tell me."
“Okay…” she took in a deep breath “I’ve always liked you as a friend,” Octavia was obviously struggling with saying this, “I feel like I can tell you this in confidence. I…” Octavia took another pause before saying anything else. She really was the master of suspense, “know for a fact that Lightning Arc has a crush on Cadence.”
“How do you know?”
“Let’s just say he doesn’t talk softly.”
We spent the rest of the day talking and talking and talking. When it came close to dinner, Octavia played one last song to put me to sleep.
Day 3
Today’s symptom was sneezing. It woke me up in the middle of the night or early in the morning. Celestia was in my room again gazing out into the city. Her horn was glowing and the sun was coming up.
“Good morning, Golden. How are you today?” All I did was sneeze. “Well, that answers the. I’ll send in some soup.”
When Celestia left, I put on a record and just sat there listening to music. I ate my soup and took a shower shortly after. When I got back into bed, I found a new book that was placed on my night stand. A book called Star Battles. I finished it by noon and it is now my favorite book. When I put it down, there was a knock on my door.
“Hey Golden,” Vinyl said as she walked into the room, “How ya felln’?” All I did was sneeze again. “Ah, the sneezes. I got them too. It felt so good and so bad at the same time.”
“You don’t have to be here, Vinyl.” I sneezed shortly after.
“I know, but I want to…”
“Vinyl!”
“Octavia twisted my arm, but really it’s fine. It’s my way of paying you back from when I was sick. I brought a ball.”
“So I go from a five star performance to a dog toy.”
“Shut up. I thought that you would enjoy some catch.”
“You are…are… achoo …bad at lying.”
“Well I can’t just sit there and talk, it’s so boring.”
Vinyl took a seat in a chair on the other side of the room and we started throwing the ball at each other and talked for a while. Eventually Vinyl put on some music and we tried throwing to the beat.
“Hey Golden, can I tell you something?” She said while still throwing the ball
“You know you can,” I said after sneezing my smallest sneeze ever. Vinyl started to laugh at it and tried to get out what she wanted to say at the same time. She took in a deep breath and finally stopped laughing.
“I think Cadence has a crush on Shining Armor.”
“What makes you think that?”
“The little things. The way she looks at him, how she talks to him, the way she looks when he talks to her.”
I knew she was either hiding something or misreading Cadence’s signals. I asked Cadence once if she liked him and she said no. It was because he was a somewhat of a mare’s stallion. He’s had seven different filly-friends in middle school alone. Cadence always said that she wanted stability in a relationship. She always said that true love isn’t something you give away to the first mare or stallion that gives you the time of day or easily transferred from one pony to another. It’s something that binds two ponies together. It’s something that you are willing to die for.
“Vinyl, remember when I said you’re bad at lying?”
“What? What do you want me to say?”
“Just tell me…me…me…achoo…what’s really going on.”
“There’s nothing going on.” She was starting to look a little uncomfortable and blush a bit.
“Vinyl, please. I promise I won’t tell anypony.”
“Alright, but I swear if you say a word to anypony, the week-long flu will be the least of your worries.”
“I won’t say a word.”
“I mean it, Golden, you can’t say a word to anypony.”
“Not a single word to Shining, not a single word to Cadence, I won’t even say anything to Celestia.”
“Alright. I might have a little crush on Shining Armor.” She tried saying it as fast as she could in hopes that I didn’t hear her, but I did. I acted shocked, but that’s because Octavia was right and now I owe her ten bits. Vinyl went on to tell me how he made her feel about him, which was the real shocking part.
Vinyl had always come off as vary tom-coltish and almost disconnected to her feelings. It was always me, her, and Shining that defended our group when somepony would come make fun of us. Not only that, but Shining has even called her one of the guys before. But now that she’s telling me all of this and showing me everything in her heart, I see her in a different light. She was no longer a filly who acted like a colt. She is a filly that was strong willed.
We talked for the rest of her time here. When she finally left, a maid brought in another bowl of soup and a book called Raiders of the Lost Ship. It introduced one of my favorite book characters of all time, Daring Do. I only made it half way through before I fell asleep.
Day 4
I don’t think I’ll have soup again after this week. The only good thing about having soup every day is that I would have had ever type of soup known to pony. This morning, Celestia herself brought in tomato crème soup.
“Please mom, anything but soup,” I said when I realized what was on the trey. As I talked, it became obvious that I had a stuffy nose today.
“I know,” Celestia said. She sat down on my bed next to me and started petting my head, which soothed me. “Our usual doctor contacted me and told me to feed you only soup. He said that it was an experimental treatment. He’s hoping to reduce the illness by one day. Now please, Golden, eat up and take a shower. I have some things I need to get done, but I promise that I’ll be back before dinner.”
I actually enjoyed today. I immediately knew that Chef Celery Stalk made this soup. Like Octavia, she puts a special little something into everything she makes. I could never figure out what her secret ingredient is, but I don’t complain. She really is the best chef we have.
Shining and Twilight came to visit me today. Shining has always been like a brother to me. He didn’t really like me at first. He thought I was too clingy to Cadence. When we actually got to know each other, we learned that we had a lot more in common. We both liked the same sports team, both ate the same things, the only thing that separated us was how we acted. While I am less likely to get extremely angry, Shining could let his anger out in a flash. We learned that we work well as a team. I would brush off the small verbal attacks and, if they got too far out of hand, Shining would make sure they don’t come back.
“Golden!” Twilight said as she burst into my room. “I missed you! Are you feeling better yet?” Normally I would get mad when somepony would burst into my room like that, but Twilight was just too cute for me to care. Twilight was trying to give me a hug while I was still in my bed.
“Twilight, it’s rude to burst into rooms like that,” Shining said as he too came in.
“It’s fine Shining. How have you two been?” I was trying to give Twilight a hug back, but it ended up being awkward. It wasn’t until I pulled away that I noticed something different about Twilight. “Twilight, what’s that?”
“Oh yeah. I got my cutie mark today!” She went on to tell me how it happened, but I don’t want to bore you with another cutie mark story. All you really have to know is that she also got into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Shining Armor fell asleep during the story. It turns out that he spent the past two days helping Twilight prepare for her entrance exam.
“That’s fantastic Twilight. I’m sure my mom is going to love teaching you.”
“I know, but I’m scared.”
“Why?”
“Because if that boom didn’t happen when it did, I wouldn’t have even got into the regular school. Now, I’m Princess Celestia’s personal student. What if I don’t disappoint her?” It was easy to tell that she was depressed.
“Twilight,” I said in a comforting tone, “I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anypony else. When I first came to Canterlot, I was scared. I thought that I wasn’t good enough to even be near Princess Celestia. Two years later, I struggled with asking Princess Celestia to be my mom. I thought that I still wasn’t worthy of her. But, when I asked, she said yes. Twilight, Princess Celestia doesn’t make big decisions on a whim. Every choice she makes, she’ll have no regrets. I’m sure you’ll do great Twilight.”
Twilight had the biggest smile on her face. She threw her arms around me and thanked me. It turns out that Twilight brought her toys with her so she would have something to do while Shining and I talked. Seeing as how he was asleep, I don’t think we’ll be talking. I decided to actually get out of bed and play with Twilight. I was careful not to get any of my germs on her toys.
Shining finally awoke, but the two of them had to leave. I felt like I really did make a difference today, even if it was just from my bed room. There was something that made Chef Celery Stalk’s signature green onion wanton soup even better than it usually was. I ate my soup, took a shower, finished my Daring Do book, and went to sleep with a big smile.
Day 5
Today was the worst day so far. I woke up this morning with a splitting head ache. Every sound made it worse. A maid came in to give me my soup, and even the sound of the door closing made my head throb.
“Pain killers, please.” The maid nodded and started to leave the room. “Please close the door quietly please.” I said before she left. I’m grateful that she remembered to be quiet when she came back. “Thank you. There’s some bits on that counter over there. Take some for yourself.”
I was always grateful that the maids did so much work for somepony who wasn’t even a real member of the royal family. Giving them a few extra bits here and there, never hurt me and always made them happy. I also noticed that they started working a bit harder or snuck me a little something special. Cadence wondered why they were so nice to me, but I never told her. I thought it was fun watching her get frustrated.
The pain killers helped a little. It no longer hurt when the door opened and closed, but loud noises still killed me. I ate my soup, and started reading The Great Gallopsby, which turned out to be one of my favorite books. It wasn’t that long and Cadence came in by the time I finished.
“Well, look who finally showed up.”
“You know me. Saving the best for last.” She accidently slammed the door behind her.
“Not so loud, please.” I said after taking some more pain killers.
“Headaches?”
“Headaches.”
“Do you remember when I had headaches?”
“Stuffed you full of pain killers? I really can’t think right now.”
“You climbed into bed with me, and told me to start thinking about something else.” She started getting into bed with me. “Then we talked and talked and talked and then you started petting my head. When we were talking, I completely forgot about my headaches. So, that’s what I’m going to do. So, what do you want to talk about?”
“I think you should let your mane down.”
“What?”
“For about ten years, I’ve only seen you with your mane in a ponytail. Even at dinner, your mane is always tied back. Please, Cadence.”
She sighed at first, but she then pulled the mane tie out. At first it was messy, but then she started styling it. It was straight, but curled at one end.
“You know,” she said when she finished styling it, “I like it. I might just keep it. Anyway, what did you and the others talk about?”
“Well, Octavia said that Lightning Arc has a crush on you…”
“Obvious.”
“Vinyl can’t stand still…”
“Already knew that.”
“Oh, and Twilight got her cutie mark.”
“Aweee.”
I retold Twilight’s cutie mark story, and Cadence started to tear up. As her foal sitter, Cadence felt close to Twilight. She always felt like Twilight was the younger sister that she never had. Just like me, everything that Twilight did was just too cute, even getting her cutie mark was cute.
We continued to talk until dinner, but she still had sometime before she had to get ready.
“Alright one last question, Golden, how do you feel about us?”
“What?”
“You heard me. What do you think about us?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well do you see us as friends, family, or…more?”
I’m not going to lie, I have thought about it before. At first, Cadence was one of my closest friends in the world. She was always somepony that I could trust and confide in. Whenever something would go wrong or I would feel down, I know I could always go to her. I was always her shoulder to cry on and she was mine. And there were times when I thought that her and I were meant to be. She’s just seems so perfect on every level and I knew that we would be happy together.
“We’re best friends,” I told her
“So you never thought of us being anything more?”
“Nope.” I’m a liar.
“Alright, well thanks for being honest with me. I have to go get ready for dinner. Feel better.”
I felt so bad that I just lied to Cadence, for the first time. Anything left over from yesterday was now gone. I could barely even eat my soup. I felt so bad that I couldn’t even re-read The Great Gallopsby. I just went to bed and tried to get some sleep.
Day 6
By now ponies should still be sick, but I wasn’t.
“Soup,” the doctor said in his Trottingham accent. The one thing I loved about him is that he didn’t dress like a normal doctor. He usually wore either a brown or blue suit with a brown trench coat. “A mother’s secret for thousands of years. Who would have thought that it would have worked?”
“Thank you doctor,” Celestia smiled with a giant smile.
“No problamo…is something I’m never going to say again. Now if you excuse me, I’m working on a new type of screwdriver.” The Doctor left the room with a spring to his step.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better, Golden.” Celestia said while we hugged.
“Can you do a favor for me, mom?”
“What do you need?”
“Can you please spend the day with me?”
“I thought a colt your age would want to try and get away from their mother.”
“Not me. I spent the past five days talking to my friends, but when I talked to Twilight, she reminded me of something. You’re my mom and I love you and I know you love me. You’ve done so much for me and I want to do something with you. I know you like spending time with me, but I also know that you’re always busy. So, I was hoping that I could follow you around today.”
“You know, Golden, as a mother I shouldn’t say this, but I was hoping that you would still be sick. I finished all my work yesterday, so I could spend all day with you. At first I was disappointed when I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to spend the day with you, but now it looks like we can.”
“So, how about we pretend that I’m still sick.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Celestia said with a smile on her face.
I climbed into bed and she started pet my head to sooth me. She even started softly singing a lullaby. It made me smile and that made her smile. We started talking about random things. I asked her about what it was like being a princess, she asked me about my friends, and so on.
We went to dinner and I found where my friends were sitting. I almost received a standing ovation from my friends. I looked behind the main table to find that the foal table filled with new foals. I started going back in my mind to all the good times the five of us had at that table.
“Thanks guys. I’m glad to be back.”
“A week-long flu done in five days. What’s your secret?” Shining Armor asked when I sat down.
“Soup. Lots and lots of soup. So, what’s on the menu?”
“Clam Chowder,” Octavia said with a bit of a giggle.
“Just my luck.” The five of us had a good laugh and we all knew that it was just the start of the night. It was the best dinner I’ve attended ever since I arrived at the castle. At the end of the night, Cadence and I walked back to our rooms together. I still felt bad about lying to her, but I couldn’t tell her, not yet.
Day 7
By now, most ponies would be back on their hooves today, and feel the way I felt yesterday.
“Who would of thought of soup?” the doctor’s friend, Doctor…I don’t know his name either. He always wears a bow tie, so I’ll just call him Bow Tie Doctor. “Out of everything in the world, magic, flying at high speeds, soup beats them all.”
Anyway, I got ready for school. Cadence and I walked to school together and the five of us met up in front of the school.
“Are you ready?” Cadence asked
“Always,” Vinyl said as she put on her sunglasses
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Octavia said
“It has to be better than soup,” I said and Octavia giggled a bit.
“Let’s do this,” Shining said and the five of us walked into the school.
I think it hit all of us at the same time. We’re now in High School.
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Evolution, dude. You should add ratings for each chapter.
A great chapter. unfortunately I can already tell you that think you are planning on putting golden and Octavia as a couple. If so I am really, really sorry.
3069965
Wait, why are you sorry?
3070311 Because I can see what you plan to do with the characters in the story.
Cursing next chapter? Woot!
Also, where is Blueblood?
Oh god I love the doctor. His parts left me giggling like a little school girl.
I'm almost looking forward to Twilight moving to Ponyville, and then at the next Gala watch Rarity fawn over Golden instead of Blueblood.
Or, just let the Gala go as normal.
So, the whole lying to Cadance is some cheap ploy to keep the Cadance and Shining pairing I'm guessing? Rather weak, and you didn't give much reasoning behind it. Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
Anywho, back to skimming the last of this. Interesting concept, was kinda disappointed in seeing you pull something with such little substance.
The Great Gallopsby....
oh the puns hurt.
DOCTOR WHOOVES THE 11TH heck yeah!!!!
Where was the Star Wars reference??
Such a good chapter... Well that's to be expected by the way your story's going.