Midday in the Heart of Equestria

by Wheller

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Princess Celestia had slipped out of the castle quietly to make her way to Ponyville. She hated to make a big spectacle of the matter, always had. She had neglected to tell any of her guards what she was doing. It wasn’t like she actually needed them to protect her. There wasn’t anypony alive who could actually hurt her. Emerald Sparkle was smart enough to figure out a way, but since she was long dead, Celestia had nothing to fear.

Things had not ended well between Emerald Sparkle and Celestia. Emerald Sparkle and Princess Celestia fought with each other more and more as Queen Gaia’s condition deteriorated.

...

‘Are those really necessary?’ Princess Celestia asked.

Emerald Sparkle nodded in affirmation as she used her magic to pull surgical scrubs over her body. ‘If the Queen is suffering from what I think she is suffering from... then yes. This test will confirm it... I’d recommend you two scrubbing up too if you want to see her’.

Princess Luna and Princess Celestia looked at each other worriedly; Celestia was particularly worried when Emerald levitated a small device up above her head.

‘What is that?’ Celestia asked.

‘This...? It’s a detector, I’m going to use it to see what’s making the queen sick’, Emerald said simply.

Celestia could tell that Emerald was holding something back, but she also knew that Emerald Sparkle loved the Queen as if she was her own mother, and she practically was. Celestia said nothing and watched as Emerald Sparkle opened her mother’s bedroom door. No sooner did she take a single step inside did the detector start beeping and clicking.

‘That can’t be right!’ Emerald Sparkle cried out. ‘Her exposure was for a couple of seconds at the most!’

‘What?! What did it say!?’ Celestia cried out.

‘.1 grays...’ Emerald Sparkle said. She moved closer to the Queen. The device began to tick faster and faster. Emerald waved the device over the queen’s head and took a look at it. Her eyes widened in panic and she ran out of the room and into a makeshift shower area that she and several of her colleagues from the Sunburst project had set up, but Celestia still had no idea what it was for.

Emerald Sparkle pulled on the rung with her teeth and water began to run over her, completely drenching the unicorn mare for a few seconds before it cut off automatically. ‘We need to get everypony off this floor right now!’

Several of Emerald Sparkle’s colleagues, including Oberlander Cromwell leapt into action and began directing castle staff and non-essential Sunburst project personnel down to the lower level.

‘Emerald? What is going on?’ Celestia asked. ‘Tell me the truth’.

Emerald Sparkle frowned and glanced towards the device that she was still carrying. ‘This... is a radiation detector. When I ran it over the queen’s horn... 10 grays, the highest concentration of radiation in the room... it seems that when she uses her magic, its synthesising the radiation and it’s been poisoning her, her unique Alicorn physiology has made her a highly conductive source of radiation... more than our bomb could have ever done’.

‘Is she...’ Princess Luna began, but found herself choking up on her words.

Emerald Sparkle nodded. ‘At that dose? I’m honestly surprised that she hasn’t died already’.

Celestia felt as if the mirror of her mind shattered with that statement. Her mother was dying, and it was Emerald Sparkle’s fault, her and her stupid science had doomed her mother.

‘This is all your fault!’ Celestia screamed as she lashed out with her magic, striking Emerald Sparkle hard and sending her toppling to the floor. ‘She’s been sick for weeks and weeks! And all this time you keep making the bombs that are killing her while you could have done something!’

‘Tia! What are you doing!?’ Princess Luna called out.

Emerald Sparkle clutched her muzzle in a hoof, blood dripping from her nose, and tears dripping from her eyes. ‘How was I supposed to know that her horn would absorb the radiation!? She wasn’t exposed for that long! It wouldn’t have been an issue for anypony else!’

Princess Celestia lashed out again with her magic, sending Emerald Sparkle flying several metres back and hitting her head hard on the back wall of the hallway outside her mother’s room.

‘TIA! STOP!’ Luna called out again, this time, she utilised what was commonly known as the ‘royal Canterlot voice’, a magical technique involving the channelling of magic from a unicorn’s horn to amplify one’s voice. ‘It is a new science! There was no way that she could have known what would happen, and if you do not stop, you will not only kill her, but her unborn child as well!’

Celestia looked over at where Emerald had landed and immediately felt a wave of guilt crash over her. Emerald Sparkle was three months pregnant at this point, and already putting her child at enough risk trying to help the sickly Queen of Equestria. Celestia took a step forward to help her friend up, but Luna stuck a hoof in front of her.

‘I think... you’ve done more than enough’, Luna said coldly as she trotted over to Emerald Sparkle and helped her to her hooves. She walked the injured unicorn to the stair case and the two of them went down it, bound for the Royal Hospital, where both mare and foal could be looked after.

Celestia turned and walked the other way, up the stairs to her own bedroom where she could have some time to think for herself. Luna was right; she had no right to do that to Emerald Sparkle, even if it was her fault.

Her mother was dying. Soon enough, Celestia would take the throne. Her mother had been a proponent of development, a champion of new ideas and thoughts. She actively encouraged developments like the Sunburst Project. If the Sunburst Project had proved anything, it was that such new ideas were dangerous.

She would be putting an end to that.

..

Princess Celestia’s hooves touched down on the outskirts of Ponyville, it was still not yet noon, and as a result, the perfect time to visit Ponyville without causing a lot of commotion. The foals were in the middle of their classes, and everypony else was in the middle of their work day.

There were a few ponies out in the streets, a cyan maned Pegasus with a mailbag fumbling over it and dumping letters and such every couple of metres. Most of the street vendors had closed up shop for their lunch hour. Princess Celestia had picked the best time to show up. She quickly spotted the library door and trotted over to it. She raised a hoof and was about to knock on it when a voice interrupted her.

‘TWILIGHT! FOR LUNA’S SAKE! THE BOOKS ARE STREIGHT!’ shouted a voice from inside.

Celestia then knocked on the door.

The door quickly opened and Celestia looked down to see Twilight Sparkle looking up at her.

‘Pr-Princess Celestia!’ Twilight said. Celestia noticed that her left ear was beginning to twitch, as it often did when her student was nervous.

‘Hello Twilight Sparkle, may I come in?’ Celestia asked.

‘O... of course!’ Twilight said, she stepped aside and allowed the princess entry.

‘Twilight, please, this isn’t a formal visit! Relax, it’s not like I’m... oh hello’, Princess Celestia said as she noticed several of Twilight’s friends in the room. Celestia recognised Rainbow Dash instantly, though the other three she did not know.

‘Hello Your Highness’, Rainbow Dash said.

‘Hello Rainbow Dash’, Princess Celestia said with a smile, and then she looked over at the other three ponies in the room. ‘I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting these other friends of yours Twilight’.

‘Oh... um, that’s Surprise’, Twilight said, pointing to the white coated Pegasus pony that was staring off blankly into space. ‘Then there’s Montana Ulan’.

‘Your Highness’, the grey coated earth pony said, bowing his head respectively.

‘And then that’s Vinyl Scratch’, Twilight said.

‘Yo’, the off white unicorn with the goggles over her eyes said with a cheesy smile.

‘Vinyl... Scratch?’ Celestia asked herself. That name sounded familiar... but from where?

‘That’s me! Vinyl Scratch...’ Vinyl Scratch said nervously. ‘Uh... maybe you recognise it from tax forms? I have to file a lot of them’.

Princess Celestia thought about it for a moment. She couldn’t get over how familiar with was... and then it dawned upon her. After kicking herself for the pun, she remembered that Vinyl Scratch had been a name that Luna had mumbled in her sleep oh so many years ago. She continued to study the unicorn mare for a moment. ‘Where are you from, Vinyl Scratch?’

‘Uh... I’m from Manehattan, Your Highness’, Vinyl Scratch said.

‘Manehattan...’ Princess Celestia repeated.

The tension in the room was broken when the door to the Library burst open and one of Twilight’s other friends, Pinkie Pie plunged through holding a red stick of what looked to be clay covered in a paper casing with a fuse sticking out of it in her mouth.

‘Twilight! Good news! I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, and I was able to stabalise the dyna...’ Pinkie Pie cried out in excitement, but then noticed that Princess Celestia was in the room, causing her to gasp in surprise, dropping the stick to the floor. ‘Is this a bad time?’

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

A very bad time indeed, Pinkie. You're dealing with a monarch with a mind the Cutie Mark Crusaders would regard as being hopelessly simplistic and that Surprise would regard as insane and twisted. Grief, fear and other emotional concerns that must not affect statecraft have condemned her little ponies to misery because she and her family are freaks who are unusually vulnerable to ionising radiation because of the way their powers work.

[Wheller]

66481

Unfortunately, Surprise isn't really having a lot of thoughts right now, she doesn't know who to act like at this point.

Hope to Luna she doesn't start imitating Celestia!

I think that Twilight just failed in making everything seem normal.

[DreadedCandiru2]

66483

Oh, right. I'd forgotten. She's a mimic who behaves like whoever she's with. It'd be even better if she didn't start acting like Legion.

[Fallen Knight]

Would be funny seeing her prancing around with a wingboner most of the time (how Celestia is in the show mostly lol... )

And no pinkie, its not a good time to drop dynamite while in a room full of ponies,including a princess who is suspicious of Luna and Vinyl now,plus the others too probably.

All that is missing is for Celestia to notice Emeralds little machines...

[KaijinZero]

.....the insurance premiums....theyre throgh the roof....

[Wheller]

66796

They would be if Vinyl had any. She's rich and paid for it all out of her saddlebags. Of course, now she's almost broke.

[Fulgor Ignis]

Wow Pinkie, way to test that new dynamite! But not infront of , NOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Twilight: Pinkie how could you?