Summer Bound

by Windsocks

[ARC II] Chapter Eighteen - The Spoils of War

ARC II - Sun Struck
We're going to ship it, even if it kills us...

---

“Kenneth...” A warm ethereal voice called out to me.

It was almost as if it were a whisper carried along a nonexistent breeze. Time was not relative here in this white void I found myself floating through. How long has it actually been since I found myself fading away from reality, only to be placed here? Just like the voice, I eventually found myself forgetting and moving onto another topic.

“Was this what death felt like?” I questioned myself as I continued to drift off further into the void. My body numbing over as I unfocused my gaze. I was now freely floating, my mind doing nothing to correct my pose. In a way, this was very therapeutic experience, here I could let everything go and not have to worry about the consequences.

“Kenneth...” Once again, the voice echoed around the vast expanse of the void. Was it time to step back to the living world? Was my vacation from the harshness of reality done?

“...Kenneth,” There was a pause in her sentence. I could hear her sniffling as she fought herself to say the next words, “...Please come back, Kenneth.” I hated myself for being the cause of her pain. It was as if I had ascended to heaven only to make the angels cry. I did not belong here, not yet anyway.

The white void started to change colors as my mind moved to wake up. Sounds of beeping machines and hushed whispers could now be heard as I cracked open my eyes. The clean white lights of the hospital room I was in stung my eyes as I attempted to regain my focus. My whole body hurt, I didn’t want to move. The bed I found myself laying down upon was too comfortable to leave, maybe I could rest a bit longer and the pain would go away.

As my vision came to, I saw Celestia resting her head on my mattress as she sat on a cushion beside the bed. She was looking off at something in front of her as she let out a large sigh. Turning her attention back towards me, her eyes locked onto mine.

“Ken?!” came the soft surprised voice of Celestia as she lifted her head. It sounded like she didn’t know whether to believe her own eyes or not. “KEN!” She yelled making up her mind and jumping onto the bed, wrapping me up in a tight embrace.

Nuzzling her muzzle into my neck I whispered, “I’m glad I'm back too, but you’re not really helping me recover.” My breath was ragged from trying to bite back the pain.

“Oh!” Celestia’s face lit up in shock as she quickly stumbled to get off of me. “I’m sorry, I don’t really know what came over me.”

I let a small smile carve its way onto my face, “It’s alright, so how long hav-” was all I was able to say before my eyes took notice of a subtle scar running down Celestia’s right hoof. “- what happened to your hoof?”

Celestia gave me a confused look as she glanced down to her right hoof. “Oh, this? It’s nothing really,” she commented trying to play it off cool. She then moved to hide her right hoof behind her left as she stepped closer to me.

Nevertheless, her efforts were in vain for I got a good look at it when she was speaking. It was a light scar that covered her entire right hoof. It branched out like a tree all around her hoof. If it weren’t for the fact that she got it unwillingly, then I would have admired how cool it looked.

“I-is that from me?” I questioned, the events from before now slowly starting to replay themselves in my mind.

Celestia looked down as she brought her hoof back into view, “Yes, but I knew what would happen if I touched you while you were in your state.” she tried to reason as she put on a small smile. ”It’s as much my fault as it is yours. Now enough of this depressing talk, I’m happy to tell you that River is in custody and everything seems to be back to normal.”

Knowing how stubborn Celestia can be I dropped the scar topic and continued with the other one. “It better be with the amount of work we both put in to fix it,” I commented letting out a small chuckle that turned itself into a small coughing fit.

Summoning a glass of water, she levitated it next to my lips. Giving her a deadpan stare I continued, “I’m not that injured.”

Moving to lift up my arm I felt another jolt of pain run its way across my arm. Cringing from the pain, I let a small groan escape my lips. Celestia all the while continued to look at me with a clear ‘having trouble’ expression etched across her face. Pushing the glass against my lips I gave up and opened my mouth.

The water felt heavenly as it made its way down my dry throat. Just from drinking one sip I could already feel my body start to repair itself. Taking away the cup from my lips I let out a sigh of contempt.

“So, like I was about to say before, how long have I been out?” I questioned as I moved to sit up in bed.

“Two days, you’ve suffered what is known as magic exhaustion. During your battle with River, you used up all the energy in your body. Thankfully you’re not a pony so it didn’t kill you. Instead, it knocked you out for a bit. To be honest, nopony was certain that was even the cause of what happened to you. Till now the doctor was starting to think you had slipped off into a coma.” Celestia lectured.

Letting out a small whistle I continued, “wow, two days. You know I never actually been in a hospital bed that long. You could say I was a rather safe guy back on Earth. Which now that I think about it, you were a human last time I saw you.”

Celestia smirked as she raised an eyebrow, “Like what you saw?”

I was completely caught off guard, usually, I was the one that would pull off these kinds of jokes. It was so out of the left field that I could feel my face start to heat up.

Covering up her chuckles, Celestia continued, “You’re quite cute when you're flustered.”

This, of course, caused the thermostat in the room to break and for me to snatch the water out of her grip and down it. Seeing my desperate actions to cool myself down, Celestia’s chuckles evolving into full out laughter, snorts and all.

Sucking up the last bit of water from the cup; I placed it down on the bedside table and returned my gaze to the mare gasping for breath. “You done?” I questioned her with my arms crossed.

Wiping a small tear from her eyes she nodded, “Yes, I so desperately needed that.” She commented taking another large gulp of air.

“So, what are we going to do now? Sitting here in the hospital’s not really that exciting, and I think it’s safe to assume you have a ton of princess paperwork to do.” I lectured.

Celestia nodded to my statement, “You would be right in that assumption. I have much work to do before the day is done, but before that, I think a cup of coffee is in order!” She exclaimed getting up and lighting up her horn.

Before I could question what she was doing, a small wheelchair popped into existence right next to her. With another wave of her horn, she pushed the chair next to the bed and motioned me to get in it.

“I refuse to have a pony push me around, it’s embarra-” was all I got to say before I dematerialized in my bed and rematerialized in the chair, “-ssing” giving up on that argument I picked up on another, “Why do you need me to come with you, shouldn’t you be the one telling me to rest more.”

It was now Celestia’s time to blush, “It’s been two days Ken and I've been going to the coffee shop alone. For those two days!”

“And that was her excuse? Has she really grown that attached to me?” I questioned myself as she pushed the wheelchair out of the hospital room and into the hallway. Immediately when the nurse saw her taking me out she attempted to stop her. Of course, being the goddess of the sun, Celestia just zapped her with a bolt of golden energy never to be seen again. It sparked the question where do these ponies go when Celestia teleports them. Not to mention that I haven’t seen Twilight Sparkle since the party either.

Bursting through the doors of the hospital ward, Celestia pushed me down the main entrance of the castle. When we breached the doors of the castle I was shocked still as ponies all around started cheering and stomping their hooves. Each one of their smiles carving its way into my memories. Even fillies and colts were running around us laughing and playing. This site, in turn, caused me to turn my expression into one of confusion.

Celestia seemed to pick up on my state as she pushed the wheelchair forwards, “They're thanking you for defeating River and fixing the weather. You’re a Hero to them, Ken.”

Celestia’s words rang through my head, “You’re a Hero to them, Ken.” My smile faded as my mind kept repeating the word ‘Hero’. I didn’t deserve to bear that title. All I did was attempt to solve a problem that was inadvertently my fault. It wasn’t like I ran into a wall of bullets to stop a war; or that I helped wounded people get back to the front lines. Those were the real heroes, I was just a guy that stopped a crazy mare.

“Shouldn’t you be happy? Look at the foals,” Celestia questioned as she let out a little giggle at one of the foals as he tripped over his own hoof. Picking him up with her magic she placed him back on his hooves.

Letting out a sigh I stopped my moping and cracked a small smile, “I guess you're right. No use being Mr.Grumpy pants on a day like today.”

“I couldn't have said it any better myself Mr.Grumpy pants,” Celestia beamed as she continued to push me towards the city or more specifically the coffee bean. Even from here I could smell the pungent smell of the coffee wafting through the door every time somepony opened it. Hell, I didn’t even need to go in to get my daily dose, just smelling it was enough.

“So, this is why you were so persistent on getting me out of the hospital room,” I commented looking at the multiple ponies waving at me with smiles of their own.

Celestia avoided eye contact as she said, “Yeah, sure, that's the reason.”

I was about to question her further when we found ourselves in front of the coffee bean, but two unicorn mares derailed me. One was blue head to hoof, even her eyes were blue. While the other one was red. The strange thing was that I could understand what they were saying completely.

“I told you only posers drink decaf, I mean why drink coffee if it isn’t going to wake you up? That's the most pointless thing I have ever heard.” Commented the blue one.

The red one rolled her eyes, “Maybe someponies just like the taste of coffee. Ever thought of that?”

“Pffft, That's like saying ponies drink alcohol for the taste. You’re a real comedian you know that?” The blue one said as she attempted to not spew her coffee all over the place. When she pulled herself together she looked up and noticed I and Celestia making our way into the coffee bean shop.

“RUBY! LOOK!” The blue mare said stopping the now named Ruby to point at me.

Rolling her eyes once again Ruby turned to the blue mare, “What Sapphire?”

“It’s Kenneth and Celestia!” Sapphire exclaimed as she bolted towards us.

Celestia was about to open the door when Sapphire appeared right next to us, “It’s really you! I’ve been following all of Twilight Sparkles reports on you! And I have to say that the Human’s must be the most intriguing species I have ever encountered.”

“Twilights reports?” I questioned Celestia.

“She must have released her findings to the public. This would also explain how they’re able to speak English.” Celestia lectured.

Just now catching up, Ruby arrived next to Sapphire. Standing next to each other you could tell that the two were related. Nevertheless, from this first encounter, I could make a pretty educated guess that the two budded heads often.

Ruby nodded with her eyes wide open, without second thought she pushed her sisters head into the dirt as she did the same thing. “It’s a pleasure to be in your presence Princess,” Ruby commented causing me to give Celestia a small smirk.

Celestia on the other hoof rolled her eyes, “You may rise, I’m not out on any royal affairs.”

Ruby and Sapphire both got up from the ground. Within seconds Sapphire was back at it with the questions, “Is it true that you have vehicles that allow humans to fly even though you don't have wings?”

I let out a small chuckle, “Yes, that is true. So how do you know English again? I get that Twilight would release her findings, but that would mean you learned my entire language in two days.”

“She released the spell she used as well in her report,” Ruby added in with a smile of her own adorning her muzzle. It would seem that I was the common interest between the two mares.

Once again, I found myself being rather confused, “But that spell is very complex and magic heavy, how were you able to cast it?” I question recalling from before.

Ruby once again stepped in, “We combined our magic together. Even then we had to wait an entire day before we could cast it on the other one.”

It was now Celestia’s turn to be surprised, “You two must be really close in order to combine each other's magic. Only those with a strong bond can intertwine each other's magic.”

Ruby rolled her eyes, “As much as I hate to admit it I and sis are pretty close. Once we read the article Twilight released we both were determined to learn all there's to know about humans. You could call us fanatics if you really wanted to, that's why we were speaking in English rather than Equinish.”

“Interesting, -” Before I could continue the conversation Celestia stepped in.

“While we would love to stay and chat, me and Kenneth here have a long day of paperwork and recovery ahead of us.”

My face contorted into a scowl, “What do you mean ‘we’ when you said paperwork?” I questioned as Celestia pushed us through the door of the coffee bean. Leaving behind a rather confused Ruby and a still smiling Sapphire behind.

“I thought you liked helping me out,” Celestia asked as she pushed me up to the counter.

“No one likes to do paperwork. Even if they say they do, they're a big fat liar,” I retorted causing Celestia to let a small smile grace her lips.

“If you say so, anyways what do you want?” Celestia asked me as she herself perused the chalkboard menu that hung from the ceiling, “I think I’m going to have the latte with an extra shot of espresso.”

“You know those things are bad for you right?” I stated more than asked as I looked over the menu myself.

Celestia rolled her eyes in response, “You can say that about literally anything. Even oxygen is bad for you in a sense that it oxidizes your organs. Which, by the way, is the leading cause of death here in Equestria.”

“Do you always make a habit of blowing my ideas to ridiculous proportions in order to criticize them? Because I’ll have you know there is a large difference from dying naturally in 80 or so years then it is to die by the hands of an espresso 60 years down the line.” I countered.

“Please, like a shot of espresso is going to kill me 20 years earlier,” Celestia commented only to be followed up by the mare at the counter clearing her throat. It would seem that I and Celestia got a bit carried away with our little argument. Nevertheless, I and Celestia made it up by ordering right away. Celestia ordering her latte with a shot of espresso and me opting for another jam filled croissant.

Like all the other times before, I and Celestia sat in our usual spot. Her gaze slowly moving its way over to the cloud covered sky outside. With a small happy sigh and a smile, she commented, “You have no idea how much this helps me get through my work. I feel like a brand-new pony when I walk out these doors.”

With the croissant still in my mouth, I replied, “Are you saying the coffee helps you? Or are you saying our little social interactions help you?” My words all coming out mumbled from the pastry.

“Both, they fit together so perfectly,” Celestia added with a larger smile as she looked towards me from the corner of her eye. Bringing them back to the sky above she continued, “Looks like it’s going to rain.”

Bringing my eyes to bear the same view I nodded, “By the way, I forgot to thank you for saving me. Gotta love the reverse damsel in distress situation we had going on over there. But in all honesty, I didn’t think you were going to come for me at all when River went crazy on me.”

This seemed to slap Celestia across the face as she turned her head to face me, “And why would I not?! You’re my best friend Kenneth, I would never leave a friend like that.”

I watched as the first raindrops started to pat against the window pane, “Because you’re a princess, and to me risking a princess for someone like me seems stupid. I mean nothing would be different if I died, but if you were to parish saving me, Equestria would be in panic.”

“I would be different if you died!” Celestia shouted catching me and the mare at the counter off guard. Seeing my shaken state at her tone, Celestia calmed herself down. “What I mean to say is that Equestria has Luna if I were to one day not wake up. Now let's not go back into that negative frame of mind. Today is a day for celebration, not grief.”

“It wouldn’t be grief because no one died,” I retorted.

Celestia once again rolled her eyes at me as she threw a packet of sugar at my forehead, “I’m pretty sure you can use it in that context too. Either way, you know what I meant.”

Like always a small moment of silence was had as the two of us continued to eat, or drink in Celestia's case our meals away. It wasn’t till the rain started to come down even harder, that my eyes wandered to Celestia's tiara.

“Do you always wear that? I mean I know you take it off to go to bed and stuff, but have you ever gone a full day without wearing it?” I questioned causing Celestia to raise an eyebrow at me.

“Art thou asking a princess to strip her possessions?” Celestia stated in a posh voice as she brought a hoof to her chest.

I rolled my eyes at her shenanigans, “No, I was just asking if you ever take it off for a day.”

“You’re no fun,” Celestia pouted as the two of us got ready to leave. “And to answer your question no, it is a symbol of my princess title that is passed down from generation to generation of alicorns.”

Standing up -or at least Celestia standing up- we made our way towards the door. This was when I made my move. Swiping the tiara from up top her head I held it above her.

“Oh, no fun am I huh?” I teased.

Just like a kid, Celestia instantly went to grab it with her own hooves only for me to raise it higher. The part I didn’t see coming was for her to unfurl her wings and ascend even more. This, of course, caused me to raise it as high as I could and bend back to keep it away from her hooves. Celestia however, was as stubborn as ever as she moved closer to me in an attempt to reach it. This, in turn, caused me to fall over backward with her on top of me. Our faces mere centimeters apart.

Celestia's face started to adorn a nice blush before the owner of the establishment yelled something. This, of course, made her muzzle turn an even darker shade of red. Having enough embarrassment flow through her face, Celestia quickly got off with a defeated huff.

Deciding to play light of the situation, I placed the tiara on my head saying, “The spoils of war” in a heroic tone as we exited the coffee bean.

Comments

[Windsocks]

8428863
Indeed she does, River is a very messed up pony.

8429244
That will be an interesting thing to have happen.

8429582
Thanks for your kind words. Arc II if you read the new chapter is going to be your favorite arc then ;). Of course, I'll add romance when it's one of the titles I put the book under.

8433769
Celestia was holding herself back. She was trying not to have the darkness take her at the end of the chapter. The only reason she was able to keep her cool was when Kenneth entered the fight. If Kenneth didn't intervene then Celestia would have gone apeshit.

[Albioris]

Omg the cuteness is adorable

[FIRE FLASH 3]

8436644
I'm loving the cuteness and the lovin' of this new arc!
You're doing great, keep up the great work!

[Greenhorn]

Does this mean Kenneth's power is stablized and now he can use it like unicorn?

[TheLastManStanding]

I apologize for my ignorance, but might I ask what "ARC" is?

[pahnazd]

8450065
i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/017/204/CaptainAmerica1_zps8c295f96.JPG

[pahnazd]

8451430
Actually you just went a level beyond. Meta in meta. 4th wall break in a 4th wall break. That's like... 16 walls, man.

[annashetty]

I came to see the midnight sun glowing its brilliant blue glow. It was almost as if she had plucked one of Luna's stars out of the night sky and placed it in her mane. photoshop online Putlocker

[pahnazd]

8451966
Deadpool can't be scared for he is the one who made that joke!

[unknowncape7377]

You, good sir earned a like

[theaussiebrony]

Started reading this from the start again I'm just wondering, when he takes her crown is he still in the wheelchair because I thought he would only be taller if he was standing.