Xenophilia: The Blank Plague

Chapters

The Blank Plague: Original
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Sequel!
Addition: Artwork

The Blank Plague: Original

The Blank Plague

Everything was grey. Dull, listless, as though moondust had settled across Ponyville. Lero couldn't keep his bearings. One minute he was approaching a dreary-looking Sugarcube Corner, the next he was outside town hall. He couldn't tell any ponies apart; they were grey too, and if they still had cutie marks, their grey shades matched their coats and he couldn't make them out. He could make out horns and wings, but nothing more. The ponies who wandered around were as uninspired as their palettes, vaguely drifting from place to place without sign of intent. Finally, he spotted a mane he recognized. Barely. A series of gradations of grey had taken the place of the vibrant colors he loved so much.

"Rainbow!" Lero cried out, and surged through the crowd. She gave him a focus point, something to aim toward; Ponyville seemed to careen around him, but he drew closer to her and swept the now-desaturated pony into his arms. "Rainbow Dash!"

She looked dully into his eyes. "What's a rainbow?" And he couldn't hold her; she slipped away bonelessly, not trying to escape, simply wandering off in disinterest. Lero sank to his knees, eyes wide.

A thundering voice intruded on his shock. "Our apologies for intruding on thy dream, Bellerophon of Ponyville. We fear Our presence has caused this foreboding display."

He turned. A dark-coated alicorn stood there, her hair drifting to the side though no wind moved in the air. He could not muster the energy to say more than, "Princess Luna."

She bowed her head lightly in acknowledgement. Her voice was a roar from all around. "Thou must gather thyself, Bellerophon of Ponyville. This is but a nightmare; thy beloveds are safe. For now. But We must speak with thou, and thou must listen and remember. There is danger in Equestria, and thou and We alone are beyond its reach. And We are not certain of Ourself in that." She gestured around at the grey town with a wing. "This is a warning, Bellerophon of Ponyville. A plague has come to Equestria. It sinks itself into the very magic of those it afflicts. Unicorns fall most easily, and the other magic-strong. Pegasi and griffins and other denizens of the air next. In the end, even earth ponies, minotaurs, and even some of the beasts of the field yield to it."

Lero pushed himself to his feet. The colorless Ponyville seemed to lose distinction around him; he was hazily aware of being somewhere in Ponyville, but not any place in particular. Only Luna's presence was precise. He took a long, deep breath, then another, trying to settle himself. His chest hurt; seeing Rainbow Dash slip away from him like that struck him deeply. "It's only a dream," he muttered to himself, and added another breath. "So... is there a cure?" he asked, when he felt sure of his voice.

Luna's long horn swayed as she shook her head. "Alas, there is not. We have secluded Ourself from all contact in hopes of avoiding this plague, but Our Sister has no such option. She remains with her court, and thus it is all but certain she has already been infected, if not yet stricken. All is not lost. We can raise the sun and the moon as did Our Sister for Our thousand years of exile. The mages of Canterlot have suggested that the plague will break of its own; when a victim's magic has been drained to the last dregs, then the plague dies within them, and they begin to recover. Those with the most easily-accessed magical potential last, those with the most innate magics first."

Lero's eyes widened. "Twilight! I have to warn her!" He turned - but Ponyville had washed out entirely; he stood in a field of gray without so much as a distinct building in view, merely vague suggestions of generic structures.

Luna's wings flared. "Twilight Sparkle is Our friend as well, Bellerophon, yet We speak not of her peril alone!" she snapped.

Lero stopped and turned back to her. There was that note in her voice... "You're really afraid, aren't you?"

She glared at him, and opened her mouth... and then stopped and lifted a hoof to her chest, then moved it out and to the side while exhaling. Her voice was softer when she spoke again. "Th... You are right. Lero. I am sorry. I revert to mine older habits at times. But it is no less true. Twilight Sparkle and every pony in Ponyville will have a terrible time, just as every pony across Equestria - and every other inhabitant. It has already struck Fillydelphia's unicorns, and pegasi there have begun to lose their strength as well. The afflicted are weakened slowly, then wander in a fog, unknowing of themselves, paying no heed to anything else. Their very cutie marks, those who have them, fade as their colors do. In the end, they lose even the power of speech, left as though dumb animals, every drop of magic in their bodies consumed. It takes longer for those with more magic, both the loss and the recovery afterward."

"Then it's going to hit Twilight worse than *anyone*," Lero said. "But if anyone can find a cure, she can. Let me wake up so I can tell her and get her started." His chest wasn't hurting anymore; even though he knew he was dreaming, his heart was racing instead, needing to run to tell his herd what was going on.

"Thou dost... Ahem. You do not need to do that, Lero. I am not limited to a single dream at a time, when I choose to be. I am spreading the warning across Equestria to prepare. The Blank Plague does not strike all at the same time, nor does it take as long to recover for all. Those who yet have strength must tend to those who have succumbed, and be tended themselves when their turn comes. But there are exceptions."

"Exceptions?" Lero asked cautiously. "Some ponies might... never recover?

Luna shook her head. Then paused and nodded. "There will be death, Lero. The very weak, those very sick with other maladies already, the very old, some ponies will not be able to tolerate being weakened further. But your friends are strong and healthy; I think they will recover quickly. The exceptions I speak of are three in number. We three. The magics of the sun, the moon, and of love are boundless, or as close to boundless as it matters. I have not the strength to spend all my life alone, raising both the sun and the moon, unable to meet another pony for fear of contracting this plague. I know this of myself. I have not the strength to live like that. But before I may risk myself, I must know that Celestia has recovered. But while she suffers from the plague, any pony who nears her will almost certainly be exposed to her sickness - and if the plague draws from the power of the sun, it may well be strong enough to overcome even a pony who has gained immunity to the normal plague."

Lero put his hand over his face. His thumb pressed to the right of his right eye, his fingers left of his left eye. "So you need the only completely magic-free person in Equestria to nurse the living fury of the sun until she recovers enough to take her job back - and then to tend to you while you go through the same thing?"

Luna nodded. "We are... I am not looking forward to it," she confessed. "But Cadence and Shining Armor are already en route to Canterlot, that you may tend to her as well. I am sorry, Lero. I know the thought of leaving your beloveds behind to do your duty is painful. But you must. You are the only one who can do this."

Lero shook his head. "If I'm going to Canterlot, I'm taking everyone with me. I am not going to leave Rainbow Dash to wander alone in the streets like that. Or anyone else."

Luna regarded him for a long moment. "Dost thou not think that their other friends will tend to them? Applejack and Pinkie Pie are earth ponies; it will not hit them for some time, and they will recover soonest. At least one of the Bearers of the Elements will likely be able to watch the rest. If the Elements themselves do not protect them."

Lero shook his head again. "I won't leave them."

Luna's horn quivered as she looked at him. "I am... unused to being refused. I could give you a royal command. But I have read Twilight's reports, what you have told her of your history. An Amareican, whose people rebelled against your world's mightiest rulers over nothing more than a tax on tea. I hesitate to think what you would do for outright love."

Lero tried not to be sidetracked. "It wasn't that simple. But I will not leave them."

Luna nodded again and turned. "Bring them on the first train to Canterlot, then. You are needed."

***

The train was waiting for Lero and his herd in the morning. Lyra awoke first and was halfway done packing for everyone by the time Lero's eyes opened; Twilight roused herself next, and it took the other three to get Rainbow Dash onto her hooves. A trio of pegasi in the armor of the Royal Guard were hovering outside when they opened the door; the three did not so much as introduce themselves before they set to loudly clearing a path for Lero to the station.

Luna's dream-warning to everyone else had been suffused with her usual level of tact, Lero saw. Ponies were looking at him being escorted by the Royal Guard, and he could already hear the panic growing behind the increasingly-wild rumors that were springing up on the spot.

"It came with him!"

"No, he's immune, they're going to make a cure from him!"

"It's gonna turn us all into humans!"

"It's gonna turn us all into horses!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"Cookies make everything better!"

"Oh, hi, Pinkie!"

Lero didn't think it was physically possible for her to have distributed baked goods that fast, but suddenly everyone in sight was munching on a gingersnap. Lero looked down. The hand that wasn't holding a suitcase had a cookie in it. He tried a bite. He gave serious consideration to turning around, sitting down in Sugarcube Corner, and never leaving again. He kept walking. And chewing.

"Hi, Lyra! Are you and Lero and Twilight and Rainbow Dash going to go get the super-secret SEVENTH Element of Harmony that can only be wielded by a human?" Pinkie cheerfully inquired.

Lyra didn't bat an eye. "If we were, could I tell you?"

Pinkie huhed. "Probably not. Then it'd be a secret and you can't tell secrets so you'd have to tell me something else except then you'd be lying so you wouldn't tell me something else so you'd just try to insinuate it and hint at it like you just did so that's totally what you're doing! Can I come?"

Rainbow Dash yawned and rubbed her face with a hoof. "Pinkie, it is waaay too early in the morning to be this perky, even for you. You got the dream from Princess Luna same as everyone else, didn't you?"

Pinkie bounced in place. "Of course I did, silly! But she didn't say anything about Lero going anywhere on a super-secret spy mission with a whole train to himself and Royal Guards all around and huh I feel funny."

Pinkie stopped bouncing in place. Her eyes blinked several times and her head tilted to the side. "Whaaa... When did everything get so... flat?" She reached out a hoof and waggled it vaguely around. "Hey... Why can't I reach outward? Where'd it go?" Her cutie mark began to ripple on her flank, and her colors began to fade. Twilight gaped, aghast.

The Royal Guards grabbed Lero and raced for the train as fast as their wings could carry them. Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight and Lyra each in one foreleg and raced after the guards.

***

"I guess it makes sense. Pinkie must have a ton of magic to do all the things she does." Twilight was slumped on her side in a bunk; Lero was sitting in a too-low chair. Lyra was keeping Rainbow Dash occupied by showing her how to do constrained-space calisthenics, isometric stretches and exercises in the front of the car.

Lero could reach across the car's width easily. He did, running his hand down Twilight's mane. "How're you feeling?"

Twilight gave a shudder. "I think I can feel it. I feel tired, and my horn feels empty. But maybe Luna was wrong. I do have more magic than a normal pony, a lot more, so maybe it has to go through a lot more before it'll start affecting me. Maybe the Princesses will all be okay already when we get there." She closed her eyes. "It's the scientific hypothesis. Test that first. Makes sense. Pick the best idea and it happens."

Lero felt a sort of reverse-tingle across his fingers as her mane dulled. Tears ran down his cheeks as she trailed off, her eyes losing focus. He brushed at her ears, but she gave no indication she noticed. He stood. "She's caught it," he told the other two mares. "She's... down." Then he dropped to his knees.

Lyra nodded. "Rainbow Dash has a lot of magic in her, too." The grey striations in the other mare's mane were even harder to see than in Lero's dream. Her sleek, muscled flanks were untouched, aside from the loss of color. She was simply standing in place, swaying with the train's motion. Lyra leaned against Lero's side. "I never thought I'd be particularly glad to be a weak caster," she commented. Lero could hear the strain in her voice as she fought to keep herself level in the presence of such an unbearable omen of her own fate.

Lero hugged her and pressed his face against her neck as he cried. Lyra cried back against him. Then Lero jerked back and gasped. "The engineers! What if they come down with it?"

Lyra opened the door at the front end of the car. "You'd better be at the brakes if they do."

***

Lyra was still aqua when they arrived. The engineers were still on their hooves as well. Lero had to drape Rainbow Dash across his back and pick up Twilight to get them off the train. The Royal Guards kept their distance, but cleared the path to the palace. One of them bawled orders at the others, and two pegasi flew off, then eight returned with a chariot. Their helmets didn't cover their nervous expressions, but they didn't bolt when Lero climbed in and set down the two greyed ponies. They didn't dare take to the air, though, not if one of them might lose their magic on the way.

None did; Lyra was still moving steadily when they reached the palace. She pulled Lero down and kissed him firmly. "I'll watch over Twilight and Rainbow," she told him. "You have to go make sure the sun continues to fall."

Lero sometimes thought he should try to learn more about the Still Way's philosophies, if only to understand Lyra's references to falling. She'd loved his description of how the sun and moon worked on his world, his half-remembered high school science classes and the explanations about the moon falling so fast around the Earth that it always fell sideways, never down. He kissed her for now, and held her tightly for a moment, then went with the guards.

Celestia was not grey; the sun upon her flank was as brightly golden as it had ever been. But her hair and mane were a listless pink and her wings were at her sides. A half-finished bowl of soup was on a small, portable table in front of her, and her head was on a pillow at the side of a long divan. The guards fell back as Lero approached. He felt obscenely cheered that her hair had gone first. He couldn't blame her for it, but he just really, really, really, really hated her mane. Even after her spell had eased him of his outright terror in her presence, he couldn't keep from being tense, couldn't keep from remembering that first meeting. He tried to push it aside for the moment.

"Lero," she said. Or mostly said. "Lewo," it came out, and he noticed the pile of handkerchiefs stacked next to the bowl. "Thag gyu bor cubbig." She gestured tiredly with a hoof over toward one wall. A grey pony was slowly meandering between two pillars. "Dudibul Serbice was the lasd pony do ged near, and loog whud habbened do him."

There was a loud sniffle from the other end of the hall as a door closed. "Auntie Celestia? I think I'm starting to come down with it now..."

***

It was a long eight weeks before the disease finally ran its course. Lero ran himself ragged tending to both alicorns along with Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Lyra. The aqua-hued unicorn didn't lose her colors until almost a week after reaching the palace, and was back to herself within two weeks. Rainbow Dash was mindlessly gnawing at grass for almost four days before she started to recover, and wasn't back in the air for five weeks. Twilight Sparkle couldn't speak a word for almost ten days, and hadn't the strength to get out of bed until after even Celestia had recovered. Then Luna came back, and it was another eight weeks of Lero tending to her.

He rather liked the stained-glass window he got out of it.

Author's Note

This was originally created as a Shotglass One-Shot, and then The Quiet Man thought it would fit nicely into the Further Tales chronology. You can see this chapter there as well.

The following chapters come between "I think I'm starting to come down with it now..." and "It was a long eight weeks before the disease finally ran its course." The comments on the original posting were of the 'the ending feels rushed' and 'I want to see more' variety, so I went ahead and wrote the rest. Or the rest of the interesting parts, anyhow. If anyone wants to write six thousand pages of Lero sitting around watching nothing happen in between these parts, free country.

Chapter 2

The Blank Plague: Part 2

There was a loud sniffle from the other end of the hall as a door closed. "Auntie Celestia? I think I'm starting to come down with it now..."

Lero looked away from the stricken monarch. An impeccably-coiffed white stallion was standing in front of the doors, a wheeled trolley with a silver platter on top of it by his side. Lero didn't recognize him, but he'd called Celestia 'Auntie,' so that narrowed it down. And Rarity was really a good raconteur when she wanted to be, and the Gala had turned into one of her best anecdotes. So Lero thought he was safe in assuming this was none other than the infamous Prince Blueblood.

He was currently staring at Lero in open, aghast horror. "Auntie! Not another one! I know you feel simply wretched, but you can't keep summoning servants. We're already running out of them. Are you really down to... whatever this is? I shall do my royal duty and tend to you, but I *am* only one unicorn, marvellous as I am."

Celestia lifted her head and let out a groan that Lero was surprised to hear; judging by Blueblood's expression, it was not a sound he expected to hear from the gleaming alicorn either. She made a clear effort to speak more steadily. It was a partial success. "Nebbew, blease. I abbreciate your ebborts, I truly do, but I do not need a rumor starding that I am calling serbants to by side do be infected. Dutibul Serbant came dhis mordig, on his own, and poor Clean Sweeb neber god the word to stay out of dhis chamber. Lero is a human, from anodher world endirely, and is ibbune to the plague. Dherefore, he has agreed do wadch ober me while no pony can ged close."

Blueblood's mouth drew into a sharp frown, and a petulant plaintive tone entered his voice. "But Auntie! How can I do my Royal Duty," and this time Lero could hear the capitalization, "if you let some... alien thing do it instead! I'm capable of so much more than just organizing the Gala. Let me prove it to you."

Lero was frankly surprised. The whine, yes, and the rudeness, and the superiority complex, and the appearance, those were all just what he'd expected from Rarity's descriptions. But this Prince Blueblood was trying to help, and moreover was risking himself to do so. "Maybe he had a change of heart since taking a cake in the face?" Lero mused. "Or maybe Rarity caught him at his worst?"

Celestia let her head drop back down again. "Blueblood. Nebbew. Canderlod needs somepony do be visibly in charge durig dhe day. Luna cannod stand in frond of dhem herself, so somepony else has do be dhe symbol of leadership. You know as well as I do that you don'd know addythig about managig an ebidemig, so I egspegd you do led the professionals do dheir jobs. Bud you can magge a show ob beig id charge."

Blueblood had looked excited for a moment when Celestia started talking about needing someone to be in charge. But his face fell as she continued and made her expectations clear. He nodded his head glumly. "Of course, auntie. I can be a very good figurehead. No one can take the spotlight like I can." He gave the trolley a push with a hoof, sending it rolling over the floor toward Lero, opened the door behind him with his magic, and backed out of the room.

Celestia sighed and closed her eyes. Lero was starting to get used to her stuffy-nosed voice now, all her usual melodious tones flattened. "He's not a bad pony. Vain and self-centered, and often foolish, but it took the Elements of Harmony to make him realize he was those things. He's tried hard, for him, to improve. And he does love me."

Equine body language was still not Lero's greatest fluency, but tones of voice were every bit as clear as human ones. The last sentence she spoke was soaked in disappointment, and he knew exactly who it was aimed at. "Princess," he said, then trailed off.

She pushed her eyes open, but did not lift her head. "I am sorry, Lero. You are being a great help in this terrible time. I cannot harm my little ponies with my illness. Anything you need to do to keep them safe, do. Your orders have my authority in this. I will do what I can, while I can, to help you."

Lero had to blink. Going from 'volunteer nurse' to 'full authority of the throne' had not been in his plans. He shoved those thoughts down to concentrate on something more practical. "Ah, in that case, Princess, can you tell me about, well, your body? What do I need to do to take care of you?"

She made a laugh that for a moment captured her usual tones. Then coughed and it broke. "In the most important ways, no different than any of my ponies. I eat, I drink, I sleep. I preen." She weakly lifted a wing, then let it fall back to her side. "Rainbow Dash has told you how personal a task that is." She gave him a weak smile. "You will have pegasi buying you drinks the rest of your life for that story, when this is done. Beyond the same things any pony does, I simply don't know. I have not been sick like this. Alicorns do not get sick like this. You will have to do your best. I know you will." Her smile grew stronger. "If you would not, Twilight would not have given her heart to you."

Lero sharply shuddered at the reminder of Twilight, remembering her graying under his fingers, remembering Rainbow Dash so distant and apathetic, that glorious wild spray of color turned ashen. Celestia closed her eyes again. "She has already succumbed, hasn't she?" the princess asked softly.

Lero nodded. Then said, "Yes."

Celestia sighed softly again. "A plague that devours magic. Of course the bearer of the Element of Magic would be quickly affected. And yet you still are here to watch over a pony you fear. I have promised before and promise again, Lero, I will not hurt you. But it is not enough, is it?"

Lero couldn't deny it.

A knocking came from the door, and then it opened again. A slender pink alicorn stood there, surrounded by a pink bubble, with a concerned-looking stallion behind her. The newly arrived alicorn lifted her hoof to her mouth and coughed. "Auntie Celestia? I think I came down with it on the train. Shiny, please, you have to stay back!"

Lero wasn't particularly well-informed about Equestrian politics, but he could recognize Princess Cadence on sight, and Twilight's brother had that familiar star on his flank. He realized belatedly that he had no idea whether he was supposed to be following some sort of royal protocol in the palace, but Twilight said that Princess Cadence was friendly and forgiving, and her brother was technically his brother-in-law now, right? And so far he hadn't heard anything about rules. Mostly he wasn't sure for a moment whether to bow, wave, or something else. Twilight had recited that silly rhyme, but he wasn't about to go mooning a... foreign princess? He wasn't sure whether the Crystal Empire was part of Equestria or not. He settled for waving.

Celestia pushed herself slowly to a sitting position, though she had to flare her wings to settle herself; Lero was impressed by her wingspan, but he felt a surge of panic stab him at the sight of that long, sharp, sharp horn rising into the air. The surge vanished after just a moment, but he kept looking back at her horn. She bowed her head politely to the pink alicorn. "Hello, Cadence. Have you met Lero? He will be nursing us through this."

Cadence wasn't as imposing as Celestia; her horn was long and sharp, but no match for Celestia's spear. And Lero found himself smiling when she looked at him. She smiled back, an open and honest happiness on her face despite the circumstances.

"We haven't met before, but Twilight's written us so much about you, Lero. I hope when this is all over you'll bring your herd to the Empire and let us show you around," she said.

Shining Armor was still stuck behind her in the hall, her pink bubble blocking the entire doorway. "Nice to meet you, Lero!" he called out. "Luna said you're immune?"

Lero nodded. "We hope. The plague attacks magic and I don't have any."

He could see Shining Armor's sympathetic expression through the layers of pink forcefield. "I'm sorry to hear it, but at least it's useful now, right?" Lero nodded again rather than go into explanations.

Cadence moved forward, coming into the room. Shining Armor started to follow her, but she frowned at him and waggled a hoof to stay back; the red-shirted unicorn trotted in place in frustration, but stayed in the door. Cadence let her bubble drop and hurried to nuzzle Celestia. Lero couldn't keep from smiling, and almost wanted to join in. Then Celestia's head moved just a fraction and his eyes returned to that sharp horn.

"Oh. Right. Princess of Love. She must have an Aura of Smooth on all the time." For a single solitary heartbeat he pictured her driving a red convertible, wearing gold chains and dark sunglasses. Then the pink alicorn in his mind's eyes was replaced by a cyan pegasus, and his mood regressed.

"I'll let you two catch up," he suggested. "I need to go check on Twilight and Rainbow Dash."

"Oh, they came with you?" Cadence brightly asked. "Why aren't they... OH. Oh. Oh." Shining Armor's eyes went wide.

Lero bowed his head. "On the way here."

Shining Armor winced. "Cadie, will you be all right? I need to go with Lero."

Cadence gestured with a wing. "Go ahead. Don't catch it yourself, though! We don't know how it spreads."

Celestia slumped in her seat, then lay back down and blew her nose. "I will be here when you return."

Shining Armor was just about prancing in place in the hall, frustration etched onto his face. Lero could sympathize. At least being magicless meant he could do something to help. All Shining Armor could do would be get sick. Lero stopped before reaching him. "Wait. I'm not a doctor, but shouldn't I be doing something to keep from spreading this?"

Twilight's brother tilted his head. "Search me. The Guard doesn't have much experience with plagues. What do you have in mind?"

Lero rubbed his chin. "If it's anything like diseases on my world, then it could be on my clothes and skin. So we should have a shower set up, and I'd have to go through it every time I leave the princesses, and changes of clothes." He held up a hand. "And yes, clothes. You can clean clothes much more harshly than skin. Or fur, for that matter. So I guess the first order of business is to get a portable shower and something else for me to put on."

Celestia sneezed. "There is a bathroom in the hall outside. There have been enough incidents over the years to make having a shower by the throne rooms useful. As for clothes, there might be something suited for a minotaur you could wear."

Shining Armor bowed his head. "I'll tell the servants. Lero, you only need clothes when you're in with the Princesses, don't you? You won't bring anything in to them."

Lero cleared his throat. "Culture thing. I'd really rather have them."

Cadence looked just a trifle disappointed. And curious. Shining Amor shrugged. "All right. I'll see what I can do. But then we're going to Twiley."

"Of course," Lero agreed. Shining Armor backed out of the doorway and let Lero into the hall from a distance.

***

The bathroom door was discreetly placed just outside the throne room's entrance, and the shower inside was large and well-appointed, big enough for a dozen diplomats to hose down at once. The palace's clothing stores were not so well-stocked. At least in one vital regard. Fortunately, Lero was able to improvise.

"Nice towel."

Lero sighed. "Turns out minotaurs don't wear pants either. Neither does anything else that Equestria has diplomatic relations with."

Lyra nuzzled his side, as he'd returned to their suite. "If it's any consolation, you look cute in a skirt."

"I've decided it's a kilt." Lero ran his hands against the side of Lyra's muzzle. He could feel her trembling. "Hey." He knelt down and pulled her against his chest. "It'll be okay. Everyone's going to get through this. I'm still here. I'll take care of everyone."

Lyra pressed her face against him. "I'm sorry, Lero. I'm sorry. I'm having more trouble than I thought." She took a long breath and let it out. "Don't tell Rainbow Dash this, but the Still Way isn't perfect. 'Let the world unfold and wait for the moment' is good advice, but I'm a Grandmaster, not a hermit. They're my herdmates and I can't do anything for them and I'm scared, Lero. I know it'll pass, I'm not going to do anything rash, but... right now I'm scared."

He hugged her, pulling her into his arms, holding her against himself. He brushed her mane with his fingers, avoiding tender spots. "It'll be all right," he told her. "I'm here. It won't be fun, but you'll all get through this, and I'll be taking care of you the whole time. Luna said everyone's young and strong and will recover."

"Luna also said it would hit slowly," Lyra said. "You saw what happened to Pinkie. I was looking at Rainbow Dash when she caught it. They didn't weaken while their magic drained. They went from normal to grayed like chalk in the rain. Lero, they're all exceptionally strong, magically. Twilight's magic, Dash's speed and strength, Pinkie's... Pinkieness. And then they're Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, too. If they're not having a normal reaction, there's no moment I can wait for that I can do anything. They're my herdmates, Lero, I love them!"

She was shaking again. Lero held her. "I love them. I love you too," he told her, lips against her ear. "It's going to be all right. It's going to be. They're going to recover." He did not let himself think of any other possibility. They're going to be all right. Luna said so. He hadn't had time to think anything else. They're going to be all right. Luna said so. He hadn't thought about the specific progression Luna had described. They're going to be all right. Luna said so. He'd been distracted by Celestia's presence. I have promised before and promise again, Lero, I will not hurt you. But it is not enough, is it?

The door to the other bedroom in their suite opened. Twilight's bedroom had been expanded some time ago, when Celestia first heard that her student was in a herd. The beds were long enough for Lero, even. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were in the other room. Shining Armor had gone in to see his sister. He came out now, head low.

"She didn't know who I am," he said. "I couldn't even see her cutie mark. It's just... gray."

Lyra pulled her head from Lero's chest. He let her go. She was putting on her Serene Grandmaster face again now that someone else was in the room. "Is she all right otherwise?" he asked.

"She wasn't complaining about anything," Shining Armor said, lifting his head gradually back up. "And when I asked she said she felt fine. She wouldn't say anything unless I asked her first, though. Even when I asked her about Starswirl the Bearded, she just said, 'Who?' She never gives up on a chance to lecture about him. She's really sick."

Lero stood. "I need to see them." He put a hand on the white unicorn's back in passing, and Shining Armor leaned against his hip. Lero paused there. The memory of being in Cadence's presence just for a few minutes came to mind, and he ran his hand along Shining Armor's back. Living right next to her, with that kind of constant presence, and then being unable to touch her... no wonder he needed physical contact. Lero nodded his head at Lyra. She got the message and came over to nuzzle her herdmate's brother gently. Lero drew his hand back and slipped into the other room.

One had wings. One had a horn. Other than those cues, he would have been hard-pressed to identify his mares at first glance. He couldn't see the stripes in Rainbow Dash's mane or in Twilight's. He knelt down and opened his arms. Neither one moved at all. He had to move over and pull them both against him. They didn't resist, but neither did they help. It was like hugging Rarity's ponyquins. Lero pressed his head between Rainbow Dash's ears. "I love you," he said.

The words ran down her mane like paint. A very faint, watery paint, but the colors of her hair shone for him. And then they faded again. His heart felt like it was about to burst. He hugged them both again, hard. "I know you're in there. Even if you can't hear me right now," he told his stricken mares. "I love you. I'm going to take care of you, and you're going to be all right. No matter what."

***

A knock on the door came before dawn. Lero reluctantly untangled himself from Lyra's legs, partially hindered by her waking up and hugging him all over again. She was back to herself while Lero got dressed in shirt and towel. She attributed the improvement to getting Lero to herself for the night. Then she went back to sleep.

Celestia and Cadence were already awake when Lero reached the throne room that had been converted into their quarantine facility. He brought with him a wheeled trolley with a fresh stack of boxes of tissues, two covered trays, and a large pitcher of water. Celestia was looking out the window at the horizon, her head resting on the divan's pillow. Cadence was sitting up, a blanket wrapped around herself. They both had a small pile of tissues already by their sides.

"Watch with me," Celestia said quietly. Her voice was raspy, and she did not move her head. "It has been more than a thousand years since the sun rose by any command but mine."

Two bright shooting stars rose up from the horizon at the same time. They left long bright trails behind them, two lines making an acute angle. They collided, and a bright flash came from the junction. For a lingering moment, the outline of a unicorn's horn flashing with magic was in the sky, and then the sun peeked into view. Bands of blue, green, purple and pink rose with the glowing orb as it lifted, higher and higher. Lero had to look away as a bolt of fear ran down his spine at the sight of Celestia's mane rendered across the sky.

Celestia watched her sister's tribute, then closed her eyes. "Beautiful, Luna," she whispered. "You always made beautiful sunrises."

Lero looked back at the sky. The colors had faded, and the sun was floating serenely in place by itself.

"Auntie Luda used do raise dhe sud?" Princess Cadence asked, then blew her nose again.

Celestia was still looking out the window, but she smiled. "Even for us, there was a beginning. We raised the sun and the moon together for a time, before either of us was strong enough to move them on our own. And we both tried each. We did not know how long it would be, then."

Lero brought the trolley closer. He set Cadence's breakfast tray on the table by her side, along with a stack of fresh tissues. She promptly made use of the top one. "Dhank you, Wero. Ugh, I sound horrible."

Lero pushed back a brief impulse to kiss her on the head and assure her she sounded fine. Princess of Love, he reminded himself firmly. He also resisted the subsequent impulse to break out a line he'd thought of the previous winter, when Rainbow Dash caught a cold. "You sound a little hoarse" just didn't quite translate culturally, not without someone he was close enough to to fire a 'monkey' joke back at him. Or maybe a... a thought hit him. He'd told Spike he looked like he was draggin' when Spike caught the same cold a week later. Then he'd had to write a letter to Princess Celestia and send it via pegasus post asking her to send his shoes back and promising not to tease Spike while he was sick anymore. Had Twilight told Spike they were going? Had she left him a letter? He hadn't seen the little dragon yesterday morning, but he often slept in his old basket in the library. Lero made a mental note to send word to have someone check on him. He'd win major Spike-gratitude if he talked Rarity into letting him stay at the Carousel Boutique for the duration.

Cadence lifted the silver cover from her tray and tried to inhale the scent of the syrup-drenched pancakes waiting underneath, only to snort in a highly unprincessly manner instead. Lero had to laugh and comment, "I admit, that did sound horrible." She laughed, and her horn glowed to pick up her fork.

Lero brought the other tray over to Celestia. She still did not lift her head. "Princess?" he asked her. "You should try to keep your strength up." He set his hand on her neck, then jerked it back. She was hot, but dry; her fur felt like cloth fresh from a dryer.

"You will have to put it in front of me," she admitted. "I can't sit up."

He brought the cart around, but instead of putting the tray under her face like a feedbag, he picked up the fork himself and sat at the end of the divan. He took small portions and brought them to her lips for her. "You're hot, Princess," he told her. "I can barely touch you. Is that something you're doing?"

She chewed slowly, as though every bite tired her more. She took her time responding. "Not deliberately. I feel hot. In an unfamiliar way." Another bite. "I have no way of knowing if it is helping or hurting me." And another.

Lero let her concentrate on eating rather than keep asking questions. Her breakfast was barely a third finished when she said, "Enough." He put the tray back on the trolley and took a handkerchief. He poured water on it from the pitcher, then laid the cool, soaked cloth against Celestia's neck. "Does that feel better?" he asked.

"It does," she said. Her eyes closed again. "Please, continue." He prepared another handkerchief, and carefully put it on her forehead. His thumb brushed her horn and he shivered. She felt it.

"Why do you fear me?" she asked him, eyes still shut. "I am not used to being feared."

"I don't know, Princess," he told her while he worked to cool her. "I was terrified of your mane at first. Then you changed it, but I was still afraid. Then you cast your spell, and I felt better, but not entirely. Enough I could talk with you."

"You do not think like a pony, Lero," she told him. "A pony would have accepted my apology and believed it, and that would have been the end of the matter. Or any other Equestrian, pony or not. And that spell would have eased any lingering fears. Had I cast that spell on Fluttershy to ease her fear of heights, she could have joined the Ponyville weather team. Why do you fear me?"

Lero laid another cloth on her side. He checked the first. It was warm already. He took a moment to think before he answered. "You only get one first impression, Princess," he told her. "It's hard to overcome that, sometimes."

"Dhe spell mighd be counderproducdive, dhen," Cadence suggested. "Maging Wero nod hab hids nadural reagtions, so he can'd ged ober dhem?"

Celestia let out a breath. "It will soon enough cease to be an issue, then. The spell will fade as I do."

Cadence gasped. Lero's head whipped around. Celestia made a weak chuckle. "Not like that, my little... rmm. Habit. Not like that. I expect to wake again." Her voice quieted. "But I can feel myself weakening. The sun will restore me. I know it will. But my body is a pony's body, and spells cast by my magic must be sustained by that body."

Neither Lero nor Cadence had anything comforting to say.

Celestia lost consciousness soon after that. Cadence laid down to rest as well, so Lero left, showered, took a new towel and shirt, and gave the servants some new instructions. He'd need more than wet cloths to keep the ruler of the sun cool, and he wanted to make sure they were being careful to wash everything he wore while in the chamber with the alicorns. Plus he wanted his pants back.

Writing a letter took longer than Lero had expected. He ended up having to ask Lyra to do the actual quillwork for him. Somehow tonight he didn't think he could've written a clean letter with a ballpoint pen, let alone a quill and ink.

Dear Rarity,

I hope this letter reaches you in good health. I'm sure you've seen how Pinkie reacted to the Blank Plague. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash both are showing the same symptoms as Pinkie, and Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence are having an entirely different set. I believe I'm going to be very busy. Even if they can't recognize me, I'm going to take care of my girls, and I'm the only one who can take care of the Princesses. I don't know what instructions Twilight left with Spike, but would you please look after him until we get back?

Thank you,
Lero (and Lyra!)

A similar letter went to Fluttershy, on the chance that Rarity was already ill as well. After some deliberation, Lero and Lyra added a third one to Spike himself.

Dear Spike,

If Rarity or Fluttershy is still healthy, please stay with them. I know you're perfectly capable of looking after the library by yourself, but with this plague going around, it's important for everypony to have somepony with them. Twilight and Rainbow have already come down with it like Pinkie did, and the castle is already so chaotic they've had to go to Prince Blueblood for a public presence. Please, stay in Ponyville with Rarity or Fluttershy. Luna already told everypony that this hits unicorns harder, and Canterlot is a unicorn city. This could be hectic, and it's better to not get caught up in it if you can.

See you soon,
Lero and Lyra

Lyra wrapped the letters up into scrolls. "I'll get these in the mail. The train is still running," she said. "Unless you know how to send things to Spike?"

Lero shook his head. "I didn't ask, and now Celestia doesn't seem to be in much shape to answer."

"Oh," said Lyra quietly. And left to send the letters.

Lero had little luck with his gray mares. Nothing brought color to their manes, nor any but distant disinterest to their voices. And then he had to return to watching over the Princesses.

***

Lero was back in the throne room the next morning. Celestia didn't so much as respond when he asked how she was doing. Cadence was laid out on her divan, moaning steadily, one hoof against her head. Lero came equipped with cold compresses and bottles with straws. He couldn't get Celestia to eat, but she did manage to feebly drink from the straw when he set it in her mouth. Her eyes opened, but didn't focus.

"Hwahr," she mumbled.

Lero leaned in closer. "What?"

"Hwahr," she mumbled again.

Lero looked over to Cadence. The other alicorn looked blearily back at him. "I dhink dhat was Old High Equesdrian. 'Wader.'"

He nodded, and held the bottle a little higher, letting gravity help feed the cool water down into Celestia's mouth. Then he froze as he heard a fluid sound.

Cadence made a small choked sound somewhere between a rueful laugh, a cough, and a mortified whimper. "I gueds id was a euphebism. Don'd dell. Bad for dhe mysdique." She slumped back against her divan then, and let out a fresh groan. "Promids, Wero."

Lero closed his eyes. Well. Not the first time he'd dealt with a plumbing issue. "I promise. And I'll be right back. With a mop."

Acquiring the necessary equipment was an exceedingly delicate task, requiring the utmost discretion. And to Lero's complete amazement, there wasn't so much as a rumor anywhere in his hearing on the topic. He had time to wonder if perhaps Princess Celestia had been encouraging the evolution of gossip-proof ponies for castle servants.

It was the high point of the day. One miserable pink alicorn and one increasingly-hot sun-powered unconscious alicorn needed lots of attention. Coming back to the apartment and finding Rainbow Dash entirely failing to so much as notice him unless he physically picked her up didn't help.

***

Lero had already gone through a small cartload of cold compresses by noon the next day. Cadence was barely awake enough to mumble; Lero had to lean in close to hear her. She wasn't heating up like Celestia was, though. One compress on her forehead, set against her horn, was all she needed. Trying to keep the Day Princess cooled was an endless challenge. She grew hotter as the morning progressed, and the cold compresses heated faster and faster.

Lero had retrieved a fresh cartload and bowls of soup for the two alicorns, with straws. Cadence managed to sip a little of hers. Celestia's lips did not close on hers, and one abortive attempt at using the straw to siphon water into Celestia's mouth ended quickly with a coughing fit from the unconscious princess. The door slammed open. Lero jerked around, dropping the bowl.

"Cadie!" wailed Shining Armor, turning, his hoofprints in the door. "I can't leave you like this!" His shield was around himself, a purplish-pink bubble of magical energy.

It dissolved as he came near. Lero was too surprised to even shout, watching. The outer edge of his shield fizzed as the white unicorn charged forward. A hole developed, then six, then they grew, as though the mere presence of the alicorns was devouring his spell like acid.

"Cadence," he breathed, and bent his head to kiss her, eyes streaming.

One kiss, and then another gray unicorn stood blankly in Canterlot, wet trails drying on the fur of his cheeks.

A tiny sound came from Cadence's throat. A tear spilled. She closed her eyes. Lero couldn't wake her again.

Twilight's hooves rattled unevenly on the floor of the apartment that evening when Lero was able to return. Lyra had moved all of the furniture out of the second room so the staggering mare wouldn't hurt herself colliding with them. The gray pegasus was still steady on her feet.

Lero held Lyra very tight that night.

***

The room was dark when Lero woke up. He ran his hand along the warm, softly moving form against his side, along her fur, up to her neck, back down her side, against her feathers, down to her flank. It occurred to him that something was amiss. The mare nuzzled him, and said, "Sorry, Lero. Only a dream." He felt a lump in his throat at that voice. It'd only been a few days, but he missed hearing her already.

Another warm shape pressed against him from the other side. "Princess Luna has to spend most of her time awake during the day now. Equestria needs her to manage the waking world, so she can't stay up through the night to visit dreams very often," Twilight told him.

"But she's making sure you get to have us with you in your sleep, 'cause she's awesome like that," Dash added. "And because she doesn't want you to be alone." Her cyan coat wavered and darkened a few shades for a moment as she said, "Nopony should have to be alone." Then it reasserted its usual bright hue.

He didn't remember the rest of the dream.

***

The moon was still up when Lero awoke. He carefully disentangled himself from Lyra. He suspected she was fully aware of every effort he made to keep from waking her up, but she didn't open her eyes, so either she slept through it or was letting him pretend he did. He dressed as quietly as he could anyhow. He'd sent to Rarity, Fluttershy, Bon-Bon, and Mayor Mare, asking anyone who got the letter to have his pants shipped to the castle. So far they hadn't arrived. He did have a few pairs that someone had found the previous day anyhow. He thought he should have remembered Rarity talking about Fancy Pants sooner. Of course a pony with a name like that would have something he could fit into.

The corridors were quiet that early in the morning. Lero was able to pick up his cart and load it with water, cloths, and two bowls of oatmeal. The only places active were the kitchen and the laundry. The kitchen staff was starting to come down with the plague, and the undersized laundry facility was being frantically expanded by a construction team to deal with an expected explosion in the amount of washing to be done. Lero's point about clothes being easier to wash than bodies had apparently been taken to heart by the staff.

Neither princess was awake when Lero entered. He hadn't thought they would be. They were limp atop their divans, heads laid atop the low cushions at the end. Celestia's body was too hot for him to touch for more than a moment, but at least the cool cloths didn't steam when they laid atop her. Cadence wasn't heating up the same way at all. Lero was relieved to know he wouldn't be between two flaming equine bodies, at least.

A rasp made him turn around. Celestia's eyes were opened, fixed on the window. She struggled to lift her head, her horn shaking. Lero avoided looking at the quivering tip; he rushed for the cart instead and grabbed the pitcher of cool water along with a straw. He brought both to the end of Celestia's divan and held the end of the straw up for her. "Drink. Please," he told her.

Her lips closed on the straw, and Lero was surprised at how quickly she drained the pitcher. A feeble golden glow began to form around her horn.

"Rest, Princess," he told her quickly. "Luna is taking care of the sun while you're sick. Just rest."

Her horn dimmed and her eyes turned to him. "Luna?" she asked. Despite drinking all the water Lero had with him, her voice sounded raspy. "Luna hath returned? Hath Our plight freed her of her madness? Our sister?"

Lero felt his throat close up. Hallucinating? Losing memories? He did not want to have to tell Luna that her sister's mind was damaged. He didn't want to have to be within horn's reach of a blazing-hot horse who might decide at any moment that he was a threat to be attacked.

He stayed anyway. "Yes," he told her. "Luna is safe and taking care of everything."

Her eyes lost focus. When they came back, she whispered, "That valiant little filly... Doth... doth thou think Our sister can do it, Clover? She is so young, so young... Thou thinketh she can hold the tribes alone?"

Lero had no clue what long-dead advisor she thought he was. But calling Luna a 'valiant little filly' made the response easy. "Of course, Princess."

"Remind Our sister... remind her not to let the moon shine too bright. It always is the prouder..."

He really hoped she was being metaphorical or making some culture reference. The idea that the sun and moon might have personalities of their own apart from the alicorn princesses was a little too unsettling, and he wasn't so very settled at the moment as it was. "Of course, Princess."

She gasped, staring at him with a fevered gaze. The weak golden glow formed around her horn again, then broke. She coughed, a dry sound. "You. Of course it would be you. Trickery and betrayal, always your weapons close by." She gasped for air, then panted and continued. "I do not know how you escaped the thorns of the Everfree, how you have struck me down, but my sister will find you and avenge me."

Lero backed away. Even if her magic was being swallowed up by the Blank Plague, even if she was exhausted, he didn't want to find out what kind of damage she could do. "Celestia, you're ill," he said cautiously.

Hate was in her red-rimmed eyes as she stared at him. "I swore oaths long ago even as you or I count them that your kind would never walk this world again, sidhe," she ground out. "If I... If I..." Her head wavered, and then her eyes closed.

Lero waited a moment, then quietly said, "Celestia?"

There was no response. He tried louder. "Celestia?"

Still no response. He didn't want to discount the possibility she might be trying to lure him closer. He went to get more water instead.

***

More ponies fell ill in the castle as the day passed. The kitchens reduced their menu further as ponies without experience or talent in cooking were pressed into service; oatmeal and toast were the main options. Lero had to invoke Celestia's authority directly to get a guard detailed to bringing him water; the Solar Princess' body was growing hotter and hotter no matter what he did. She roused again at sunset, but barely enough to drink some water before she sank back into unconsciousness. Cadence didn't awaken at all. By the time he returned to Twilight's apartment, he was beat. Lyra wasn't in much better shape. Neither of them had energy to do much more than check on their stricken herdmates and fall into bed together.

Lero's hand ran along Lyra's mane. Sunrise would come all too soon, and he'd need to be there to get some water and food into the princess if he could. He was exhausted, but he had another mare he wasn't going to abandon. Everyone needed some care. And at least he didn't have to be on his feet to provide emotional care.

"They activated my commission today," Lyra told him, her head against his chest. "They need every guardpony they can get patrolling the streets."

"They had you outside the castle?" Lero asked. "Are people..." He floundered for a way to put it. "I mean... is it dangerous?"

"No more than staying inside," she said. "It's more rounding up the new victims and putting on a display, showing that we're still there, keeping anypony from panicking." She stretched against his side. "My regular exercise routine isn't designed for all-day marching."

"As long as it's just marching up and down the square."

"Human joke?"

"Human joke."

***

The morning indeed came much sooner than Lero wanted. Lyra got up with him. They checked on Twilight and Rainbow, then he helped her don the borrowed set of armor she'd been issued; nobody was going to take the time to find and retrieve her own stored kit.

"That's a good look on you," he told her, adjusting the helmet on her head.

"Stallions love a mare in uniform," she agreed, and nuzzled his side.

"You should bring yours back to Ponyville," Lero suggested. He gave her as strong a smile as he could manage, given the hour and the lack of caffeine. "We might find some unofficial uses for it."

She gave him a small smile back. "I thought you already had a designated heroine."

He knelt down to hug her. "The plot's adaptable."

She nuzzled his cheek, but shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, Lero, but we both know Rainbow Dash is only straight for Twilight. It'd get awkward."

Lero ran his fingers through her mane, where it poked out through the back of the helmet. "She wasn't straight for Twilight when we started. And I don't want anyone feeling left out. Maybe if we started with you, me, and Twilight, and Rainbow Dash stayed in the audience until she got comfortable?"

Lyra smiled weakly at him. "I love you, Lero. And I appreciate the effort. But I think I'd better think about Guard duties today. Even inner peace only goes so far."

They hugged tightly, and then set out to their separate tasks.

***

Celestia's eyes opened just before the sunrise again. Her head moved slightly, but no glow formed around her horn this time. Lero avoided looking out the window. Luna was making spectacular sunrises, but the tributes to her sister were too... familiar for him to enjoy. He kept his back to the window and lifted a straw to Celestia's lips instead. She drank, again thirstily, again swallowing an entire pitcher.

"Thou has destroyed them, human?" her voice rasped. "Thy blood and iron and will against their power?"

Lero stiffened. It wasn't Old High Equestrian, but archaic enough. And she still recognized him as a human. He wasn't entirely sure he liked the implications of that. Or what it might have said about that first meeting. "Destroyed who?" he asked.

"Thy tormentors, human. They who took the magic from thy blood and replaced it with iron, bound you to the death-metal." She made a small, pained sound, and her body shuddered. "Or art thou their creature, holding me thus bound?" Then she quivered her head. "No. This is not thy gift. I yet live. Thou slayest immortals for their game, not magic."

"Slay immortals?" The question rolled out of Lero. He brought her another pitcher of water, and she drained it dry before she responded.

"Hast thou forgotten, human? Thy magic, taken, thy iron blood granted that thy kind should bring new spice to their foul games. True death reintroduced as possibility, iron in the hands of thy kind. Little enough threat to such as they, but more than any other they permit in their realms." Her head dragged against the cushion of the divan as she managed a sickly smile at him. "In sooth, such might be kinder than whatever they have done to me this day."

Her head sagged and her eyes lost focus. Lero couldn't tell if she was babbling or speaking some ancient language again until her eyes widened once more and stared at him.

"A... a human? No, this cannot..." Her body shook. "Stay thy hand, I beg of thee! I am not thy enemy!" She broke into a coughing fit, prolonged by her efforts to keep talking through it. "Slay me not!"

Lero took a step back, his leg bumping against the cart. Of all the ponies he'd never expected to see in a fit of panic, and that was a small number indeed, Celestia was at the top of the list. He found a fresh cloth under his hand and turned to soak it.

"What dost thou?" she groaned at him. "Thou must believe me! I guard my folk from theirs, I prey not upon yours! My little ponies would be destroyed without protection!"

Lero brought the wet cloth back and, after a deep breath and a clenching of his teeth, laid it on her forehead, around the base of her horn. Her head moved toward him, but weakly and slowly, and he guided her horn away from himself. Her body was too hot to touch; he had to deflect that sharp length with the wet cloth.

She just tried to kill me, he thought to himself. And said, "I am not going to hurt you."

The relief in her eyes was plain to see, and then he watched her really focus on him. She blinked twice, then said softly, "Thank you, Lero." And then she passed out again.

Something made him turn. Cadence was smiling at him. Lero hurried to bring her another pitcher. She drank far more sparingly than Celestia, and when Lero touched her, she wasn't nearly so hot. Feverish, yes. But not burning. She passed out again much more quickly, and without a word spoken.

***

Lyra was already in bed when Lero came back after sundown. She was slow to rise in the morning, too. He had to help her get her armor on, and the weight made her sag.

"Lyra," Lero began.

"I know, Lero," she replied quietly. "Weak caster doesn't mean not a unicorn. Canterlot's full of weak casters. Most unicorns are. And it's hitting all over the city."

Lero sat on the edge of the bed and put his head in his hands. He wasn't crying. He was too tired. "Lyra," he said again. "I'll take care of you."

She pulled herself up next to him and pushed her way across his lap, making him shift his posture and put his hands on her side instead. "I know you will. But not for a few days yet."

"What?" he asked.

She snorted slightly. "You've been too busy to see, but almost nopony else has done that sudden gray surge. They gave me the primer on the plague before I went out on patrol. Exceptionally strong unicorns - and, as Pinkie and Rainbow Dash prove, exceptionally strong anypony else - get hit like that. Some professors of magic in Fillydelphia showed those signs. Normal ponies, though? It's like Luna said. Weakening, then graying out." She touched her hoof atop his knee. "Most ponies stop talking entirely and lose interest in anything but eating or sleeping. Then they start to recover."

Lero sighed softly. "Then at least Twilight's almost through the worst of it."

Lyra brushed his knee again. "I hope so."

***

The next week was one of the worst weeks of Lero's life. That he could recall, at least. He was already exhausted at the start of the week, and Lyra's condition degraded steadily. She was off the duty roster by Wednesday, and her green was muted by Friday. Celestia stopped waking up even at dawn, and Cadence didn't open her eyes again. Lero had to consult with the palace physicians to find a way to keep them fed and hydrated.

Lero suspected neither princess would be terribly thrilled with the solution he ended up using. Neither he nor the doctors was comfortable with the idea of him trying to stick a needle into Princess Celestia for a saline bag, even if they could keep the bag from boiling in her proximity. The usual solution, magic, was of course impossible. They did have feeding tubes, but only pony-sized ones. Even Canterlot General Hospital simply didn't have any equipment scaled properly for the Princesses.

Fortunately, the Canterlot Zoo did. The head of the zoo, Wild Wonder, made Lero Pinkie Promise, swear on Celestia's name, and sign in writing that he would never under any circumstances up to and including banishment to the moon let any of the princesses know that they had shared a piece of veterinary equipment with the zoo's horse exhibit. She also refused to say where she had learned about Pinkie Promises.

Lero wasn't really sure what to think about the fact that at one point during that conversation, a certain already-gray mailmare had stuck her head through the window to cheerfully chirp, "Forever!' at them. He'd kind of gotten used to Pinkie Pie appearing and yelling that when the subject of secrets came up, but Derpy missed her cue and came in three minutes late. In the end he took Twilight's advice and just didn't think about it at all.

There was some hopeful news. Dutiful Servant had recovered in just two weeks, the same as any other average unicorn, so catching the plague from the Princesses wasn't worse than catching it any other way. This alone brought a wave of relief to the ponies of the castle. As much as they loved Celestia, Lero was sure that if there had been any safe place to run to, half of the staff would have fled long ago. He carefully did not mention to anyone his observations on pony tendencies to flee in panic.

Twilight. Lero couldn't watch over her and take care of the alicorns at the same time. Not when she was starting to try to eat the rugs. Not when Lyra finally grayed out too. The following Monday, he reluctantly had to consign his mares to the Guard just so someone could watch over them, along with the rest of the palace's patients. Some earth pony Guards had constructed a large corral out in the gardens with a canopy over one end, and every grayed pony from the castle was there. Sharp pangs of guilt jabbed at Lero's chest when he guided the three in. He'd had to carry Twilight most of the way. Rainbow Dash's wings were furled to her sides and didn't so much as flutter. Lyra just stumbled along, her usual grace vanished.

"Names?" the guard at the edge of the corral asked. They'd taken Lero's advice about clothing. Instead of armor, the guards keeping the gray ponies contained were wearing robes with hoods and leggings - as close as he'd seen any pony wearing to a full outfit, save for Pinkie's pressure suit that one time.

"Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash. Lyra Heartstrings," Lero told him.

"Twi... Where?" The guard leaned forward, looking over her clipboard. "You didn't let her get too close to the Princesses, did you? Everypony knows how she..."

"She caught it before we got to Canterlot," Lero interrupted, and set Twilight down. She unsteadily began to clomp her way into the corral. "This is Twilight."

"Little filly's all grown up," the guardpony said, and sat back on her stool. "Don't worry, Mister Lero. I was in Shining Armor's company for a while. I knew Twily when she was still carrying Smartypants around everywhere she went. And..." She sighed softly. "That makes the pegasus Rainbow Dash, and your other mare is Harpstrings, did you say?"

"Heartstrings," Lero corrected her. "Lyra Heartstrings." He had to nudge Rainbow Dash's rear to get her to take the few steps forward to get into the corral. Seeing her so... so inert made him want to drop to the ground right there. But that wouldn't help her.

"Heartstrings. Okay. I'll keep an eye on them." The mare shook her head. "From rainboom to cloudy day," she muttered, writing on the clipboard. She had a clamp attached to the side of her hood to hold the quill.

Lero realized he'd lost track of one of his mares already. He scanned the slowly mingling crowd of pony bodies, but he couldn't tell one unicorn from another, other than picking out gender. "Twilight?" he called, and swallowed. "Do you see where she went?"

The guard turned to look, then pointed. A unicorn was stumbling around. Several others were doing the same. Lero looked harder.

A surge of despair slammed through him. He hoped he was even looking at Twilight at all. "I... I can't tell."

The guardmare gave him an odd look. "You can't tell your own mare apart in a crowd?"

Lero sighed and sank down. A controlled fall, really. His legs didn't want to keep supporting him at the moment. "Between manes, coats, cutie marks, and voices, there are usually plenty of obvious features. I don't have a pony's eye for flanks and things." He pointed to Rainbow Dash. "There aren't many pegasi who stay in that kind of shape. I could tell Rainbow Dash anywhere."

"Yeah, she's gotta be the skinniest mare I've seen," the guard agreed. "Eep!"

Lero was a little too tired to keep an angry look from his eyes. "We prefer 'sleek.'"

"Sure, sure," the guardpony hastily agreed. "Sleek. Sure. I didn't mean anything by it! Everypony who goes through Basic Training ends up, uh, sleeker than when they went in, and everypony knows about those Sonic Rainbooms, so no wonder she's not carrying any extra weight at all, right?" She swallowed and gave him a particularly hopeful smile. "Hero of Equestria and all that, on the windows and everything, got to have a lot of other things going for her than flanks."

She gulped at the sour look she won with her last comment and checked her flank to make sure the anti-contamination robe was covering her sides completely.. "Uh... You're sure you can't tell ponies apart other than color and cutie marks, right?"

***

If the next week was an improvement, it was only due to numbness. With all three of his loves gone, Twilight's suite was large and lonely. Celestia and Cadence were both unconscious. Getting the feeding tube into Cadence's mouth and getting her head pulled into the right position to use it was physically demanding enough; she wasn't too much larger than a regular pony, but moving her limp form around was taxing.

Celestia was another matter entirely. She was simply too massive for Lero to move around that much, and her temperature had continued to rise. He had to get hold of a block and tackle to get her off of the couch, and found bricks to rest her head on. The divan was scorched where she'd been laying. Lero didn't want to know whether Celestia could set a fire hot enough to burn herself, so bricks and the marble floor it was. There was no question of getting a feeding tube down her throat after that. He had to put on a heavy blacksmith's apron and soak it just to get within four feet of her, and when he tried to spray her with a hose the water flashed into steam while it was still inches from her body.

Lero really, really, really hoped she wasn't going to unconsciously channel the entire sun into Canterlot. He couldn't think of what he could do about it, though. It was on his third day with the hose that an idea came to mind, and he blamed the tiredness for not thinking of it sooner. It turned out that a guardpony named Solid Stalwart was receiving Princess Luna's orders at the palace. He was happy to pass along Lero's request for an audience.

That would be overnight, of course. Fortunately, an interruption came to take up some time in the afternoon.

Dear Bellerophon and Lyra,

Of course I'm taking care of dear little Spikey-Wikey! I fear he did come down with this horrible plague just two days after you left, but he was so very brave, trying to keep the library open all by himself. Fortunately, Fluttershy and I were checking in on him, and when Fluttershy heard him coughing she brought him straight to me. Do you by any chance happen to know how dragons are supposed to respond? We looked in the library, but we simply couldn't find a thing, even with Spikey-Wikey helping look. He hasn't lost his color at all, unlike the ponies who've caught it, but he's been dreadfully miserable, coughing and groaning and barely able to get out of bed. Why, he's so awfully weak that he couldn't even do more than gnaw on a bowl of rubies I brought him. He's been such a little trooper, though, and he's even taught Sweetie Bell how to make remarkably good daisy sandwiches. She hasn't set the kitchen on fire even once since then, at least not while making daisy sandwiches.

I'm afraid the rest of the news from Ponyville isn't quite so pleasant. We could really use Twilight's talents with organization, as Mayor Mare has declared a state of emergency. The spa's been closed ever since! The market as well, which would be terribly inconvenient, but the Mayor has arranged deliveries of vital supplies for everypony on credit, and Derpy has been such a civic treasure, bravely keeping the mails going all on her own, though perhaps a tiny smidgen delayed. Carrot Top and her herd have had to take over running Sweet Apple Acres, if you can believe it, because Applejack, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, and even Applebloom have all fallen ill.

Lero, darling, I know it's nothing next to an entire world of totally wild weather, but I do believe I have some appreciation for what the skies must have been like for you when you were a colt. The weather teams have been hit so hard they're only managing emergency requests right now, rains for firefighting and the like. I know Rainbow Dash prefers to hear her athletic talents praised, and far too many ponies, myself admittedly included, fail to give her proper credit for Ponyville's well-kept schedules, but I do believe that the entire town has learned its lesson about taking the weather for granted!

So far, Fluttershy is healthy, which really does make sense, considering how little contact she has with most other ponies on a regular basis as it was even before this entire matter. She's been very brave, coming by to check on me every now and then. And... well, you know of course I would simply be the LAST pony to be dramatic, but I fear I may be in need of her care before long. I've developed somewhat of a cough myself. A ladylike one, of course. It was really the most touching thing. When dear little Spike heard me, he barely had the strength to get out of bed, but he came right over to me and promised me right on the spot that he'd take care of me just like I was taking care of him, no matter how sick either of us got. And perhaps we both were under some degree of stress, because we were hugging and crying for really a rather long time after that. He fell asleep and I tucked him in. He really is a noble dragon, in the cutest possible way."

Dear guys,

Rarity didn't finish her letter. I'm going to take care of her. No matter what. I feel worse than anything I've ever felt before but I've been sick for days and I haven't turned gray or forgotten anypony, so I'm going to make sure she's okay. I'm going to make sure everypony is okay. So you make sure Twilight and Celestia and everypony else up in Canterlot is okay too, okay? There are a lot of jerks there but some of them are okay and I have friends there too, so, okay, make sure they're okay, okay?

I think I think I think I'm tired and not making much sense now. But I'm going to be okay and I'll make sure everypony is okay.

After a nap.

Spike

***

The Earth hung high in the sky, above the sharp gray hills and craters. The spacesuit was surprisingly comfortable as Lero sat back on the couch next to the Eagle. The dark blue alicorn next to him was looking quietly up at that beautiful blue marble.

"How dost thou know this?" she asked softly. "This is thy dream, not mine own. How dost thou know of my kingdom so well?"

Lero heard a snippet of music play. He took off his helmet to hear it better. He hadn't heard recorded music in ages, just a capella singing and every once in a while some live instruments. He sang along, just a little. "If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon..."

Luna slowly turned to look at him instead of the bright blue world overhead. "Then... thy world, too, sent its exiles..."

Lero shook his head. The music had stopped anyhow. He knew he was dreaming, but it was still hard to concentrate. "Heroes. Explorers. The greatest journey any human ever took." He reached back to pat the leg of the lunar lander. "Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. We come in peace for all mankind."

Luna turned to look over her shoulder at the craft. "So frail," she murmured. "And yet." She looked back up at the rising Earth. "Thy people have no magic, and yet. You flew higher than a pegasus, braved the airless void, in the name of peace for a warring people. I think thou art indeed the one who would dare to tend the sun."

The sun, off in the distance, abruptly sprouted a frowny face with a thermometer in its mouth. Luna stared, and then promptly burst out laughing. "Bellerophon Michaelides, if thou hadst not already gained my deepest thanks for tending to Celestia in her time of need, thou wouldst have earned it now for that image!"

Lero laughed and leaned back in the couch. "Glad to be of service, Princess," he told her.

Her laughter lingered much longer than Lero's, and echoed across the vacuum. At last, she wiped her eye with a hoof and smiled at Lero. "Thank you, Bellerophon." She took a deep breath and nodded once. "Lero. I have been much in need of laughter. I am not as strong as once I was, and to raise the sun and moon alike, and to guide all Equestria in dreams, and yes, to watch and fret, have all taken their toll." She shook her head. "My respect for my sister grows each day, to remember she did this duty for a thousand years alone. But you requested this audience, not I. What dost... do you need, Lero?"

Lero felt everything come into clearer focus. Purpose. Ah, yes. The dream was getting to the point. He felt the cold of the vacuum on his face and decided to be glad Luna wasn't letting the dream get too realistic. "Celestia keeps getting hotter," he said. "If this keeps up, she might melt the palace right off of the mountain. Or worse. Is there anything you can do?"

Luna frowned. "I cannot interfere with my sister's bond to the sun," she said quietly. "I know not if I have the power, and I know for certain that even did I have the power, it would be a very, very unwise thing to attempt. Do not under any circumstances permit anypony to try."

"That's not what I meant," Lero hurriedly explained. "I was thinking more like sending her to the moon? Or at least someplace outside of a major city? Not right now, but if she started getting dangerously hot?"

Luna relaxed and lifted her head again. "That, too, I cannot do," she said. "Not because it is unwise, though it might be that as well, but because it is impossible. Her body is ravaged by a magic-devouring plague, and she is drawing on the power of the sun to fight it. A simple teleport spell would be consumed before taking action, no matter how powerful."

Lero slumped. "Oh. Is there anything we can do that might help?"

Luna nodded, eyes fixed on the bright Earth overhead. "Indeed there is. I shall inform the Guard to prepare evacuation plans for Canterlot. Removing Cadence from the palace shall be your duty, as none other can accomplish the task. My sister has already given you a viceroy's authority for anything you find needful in caring for her, and I add to that. If you command Equestria's capital be abandoned, it shall be done."

Lero let out a breath. "So. No pressure."

Luna's horn glowed, and Lero's helmet lowered back down onto his head. "Of course. We are, after all, on the moon."

Lero woke up laughing.

***

The apron was heavy when it was soaked, but Lero was in better spirits than he'd felt in weeks. The laughter had stayed with him all morning, an echo in the back of his head, like Pinkie Pie's spirit was bouncing on his shoulder. He'd actually checked in a mirror. With Pinkie, he could never be perfectly sure. And the guards at the corral had confirmed that Lyra had already wandered over to the tables and taken a few bites of a salad instead of continuing to crop the grass. Even the water hissing into steam, he thought, was getting closer to Celestia than the previous day. He had no idea if it was doing any good at all, since it wasn't actually reaching her, but it felt like he was doing something.

When the tank emptied, he got a cool, wet cloth and turned to Cadence. She was still feverish, but nothing worse than that. The horse-feeding tube was still working well to keep her hydrated, too, and she didn't seem to be in any actual distress that he could identify. She wasn't moving much, but she was breathing steadily. He decided to try to roll her again today, just in case alicorns could develop bed sores. With the near-total lack of medical information on their rulers, the doctors had given him basic pony care tips and asked him to write reports.

Doctor Fresh Discovery had been less than amused to read "Celestia goes into heat when she's sick." Lero blamed it on having been very tired that day.

He knelt down to get his arms under Cadence's side, and was surprised to feel her legs move, wrapping around him in a hug, pulling him close. His breath caught in his throat for a moment.

He wasn't in the throne room. He was home. With Rainbow Dash. With Twilight. With Lyra. Laughing together. Around the table. In bed. Wandering around Ponyville. He felt Twilight's tear under his fingers as he wiped her cheek. He laughed up to Lyra as she somehow twisted herself out of his grip and pinned him again. He called out, "Ready!" to Rainbow Dash and let go of her neck and spread his arms and leaned backward and off of her, and for just a few seconds as she dove next to him they were flying together side by side before she swooped under him and caught him. He felt the most powerful unicorn in Equestria's flanks heaving under his hands as her heat conquered even that brilliant mind. He felt Rainbow Dash's breath coming fast against his cheek, her body quivering in the ropes. He felt the tingle of Lyra's magic and heard her chuckle, something about the 'most secret techniques of the Still Way.'

He felt like his pants were too tight. He snapped back to the moment, and his cheeks grew hot. Oh. OH. Apparently a fever was not her only reaction. Celestia ruled the sun. She got hot. And Cadence was Princess of Love.

Getting her repositioned, watered, and fed was an extremely interesting experience. When he left the throne room, he took a very, very cold shower. It helped some.

Lunch was unusual, too. He usually ate at a table by himself. None of the ponies wanted to get too close, either because they were afraid he might be carrying a super-charged plague from the Princesses or because they didn't want to eat with the freak. Today they seemed to be in a much more sociable mood. He'd hardly sat down when a trio of mares settled in next to him, and then a pair of Guard stallions with their helmets off were joining the table as well.

Lunch was oatmeal. Again. At least there weren't any crunchy burned bits in it anymore, now that the replacements were learning how to make the big batches the castle went through. And at least it wasn't hay fries.

One of the stallions was leaning forward, eyeing Lero as he put the spoon in his mouth. One of the mares sighed and leaned in against his side. He put the spoon back down and swallowed the bite of mush. "... Can I help you?"

The mare on his other side tittered. "Oh! So dreadfully sorry, M'sieur Bellerophon! We just felt so terrible about how we've mistreated you!"

The mare leaning on him nodded her head. Or possibly nuzzled his side. Or both. "Oh, oui! You have been so brave, so noble, the lonely stallion caring for the Princesses themselves in their time of need!" She gave a rapturous sigh.

One of the two stallions blushed, but nodded his head. "You're doing good work, sir," he said in a deep, gravelly voice. "This here's something we can't rightly protect the Princesses from, but you're in there on the front lines buckin' away every day. We oughtta be celebratin' you, not makin' you sit by yerself!"

Lero had to blink. "Um. Member of the Apple family?"

The stallion saluted. "Sergeant Rotten Apple, sir!" He dropped his hoof and cleared his throat. "Not to worry, bit of a wild weed when Ah was a colt, but th' Guard straightened me right out! Ah'd do anythin' to help keep Equestria safe. An' the Princesses." His voice dropped several decibels and took on a husky note. "Anythin'."

The other guard stallion nodded his head firmly. "Ayup."

The three mares sighed again and all leaned in. Lero felt like an apple in a cider press. Just thinking that made him think he was definitely acclimatizing to Equestria.

"Uh. Thank you? If I need anything I'll be sure to ask."

A hoof reached over from the third mare, brushing on his bicep. "Oh! So dashing zis one is, taking all ze troubles of ze Princesses onto his... exotic... broad... strong shouldairs..."

Something clicked in Lero's mind and he scrambled to his feet. "Sorry I really have to go check on my HERD now," he spluttered, and raced for the door.

Apparently Cadence's love was clingy.

Three maids and two guards leaned together and sighed wistfully as they watched him flee.

"Zat is really a nice flank..."

"Ayup."

***

It helped, oddly. Twilight Sparkle's suite was still lonely with all three of his mares sick, but suddenly when Lero walked through the halls, the palace ponies would just happen to wander close, to nuzzle at his side in passing or just give him a smile. It was almost like a little slice of friendly Ponyville had showed up in the stuck-up halls of Canterlot.

Assuming a certain pony from Rainbow Dash's weather team had come along for the ride. And brought a few dozen clones. Who were all moderately tipsy. He hadn't heard that many veiled and not-so-veiled innuendos since reading that trashy romance novel Twilight had given him to try to show him what pony courtships were like. He'd been halfway through before she glanced at it and started up an exhaustive research project cataloguing all the ways it was historically and psychologically inaccurate.

Still, lewd offers aside, friendly greetings were a nice change of pace. It helped him get through the next few days. He could keep track of Lyra's progress, even if Rainbow Dash and Twilight were still mindlessly chomping on the lawn. It took three more days, but finally her gray coat developed a greenish tinge, and she noticed her surroundings enough to ask the guard where she was... though she showed little interest in the answer. That show of initiative was enough. With unicorns still falling ill across Canterlot, ponies on the mend were getting returned to their families as fast as the doctors could sign them out. The ones who had families to watch over them, at least. So Lero took her home. For the 'Twilight Sparkle's suite' definition of home.

She looked dully around the apartment and then... just stood there. It was the stillness of apathy, not the Still Way. Lero could tell. He thought he could tell. He decided he could tell. He picked her up and sat on the couch, holding her across his lap.

Her color improved almost immediately. He could see the aqua of her coat deepening around the spaces where he rested his hands. Lero bent down to softly speak into her ear.

"I love you, Lyra."

The words ran down her mane like a rolling wave reaching the beach. For the first time in over a week, she looked up at him.

"Love you too, Fingers," she whispered.

He held her very close that night. The next day, Lero found that Rainbow Dash had quit eating grass. The next night, Lyra was recovered enough to feel Cadence's effects on him. Very gently, they made love.

Chapter 3

The Blank Plague: Part 3

Lyra went out to the paddock the next day, while Lero watched over the Princesses. Rainbow Dash was still there. She wasn't talking, she wasn't moving more than stumbling a few steps every now and then, but at least she didn't have her head down on the lawn anymore. Twilight's head was down, but she didn't seem to be eating, just exhausted. The guard that day was a white pegasus mare, not wearing a protective robe. Given the position, it could only mean she'd already been through the plague and so as far as anypony could tell wouldn't catch it again.

The guard saluted her. Lyra saluted back. Reservist she might be, on medical leave while she recovered she might be, still feeling honestly awful she might be, but she was entirely aware that at the moment she was the viceroy's mare. Even if Lero didn't think about his rank in those terms. Which was just another one of those things she loved so much about him. All the authority of the crown, the fate of Canterlot directly in his hands, and he didn't so much as order room service.

Even dulled, Rainbow Dash stood out. Sick for weeks, eating poorly, and she still had a physique any ancient pegasus city would have swooned for. Maybe not the most fashionable look for the modern day, but any half-trained Guardpony or martial artist could take one look and know just what kind of dedication and determination those sleek flanks represented.

The guard at the paddock was evidently at least half-trained. But far from professional. She nodded her head toward the gray pegasus. "We're keeping an eye on Rainbow Dash for you, ma'am," she said. "And Twilight Sparkle. They're eating and drinking enough, and the nights are warm. They're taking this harder than anypony I've seen, but they're strong. They'll recover just fine."

Lyra nodded her head. It made her feel briefly dizzy. Stillness. Great need of stillness. "Thank you, soldier," she said simply.

The armored pegasus cleared her throat. "Uh... Ma'am? I hope you don't mind my asking, but I really don't understand. Your, uh, stallion."

"He's not from Equestria," Lyra said. She'd been expecting the question. "No magic, so he's immune to the plague. He couldn't possibly have brought it."

The Guardmare shook her head. "No, ma'am. Or... sort of, ma'am. I mean..." She sighed. "Ma'am, permission to speak freely?"

Lyra lifted her head. Slowly this time. Even breathing. "Granted."

The pegasus' wings twitched anxiously. "I'm from a pretty traditional Cloudsdale family, ma'am. So please forgive me. But... how can you take a thing like that for a stallion? I know he's working his nonexistent tail off for the Princesses and they say he's very nice and everything, and I'm sure he'd be a great friend and all, but how can a pony love something like that?"

Lyra did not buck her. A Grandmaster of the Still Way does not buck another pony like an irritated farmhand. She did not cast a spell on her. A sensible pony in the middle of Canterlot does not assault a royal guard. Even when she's a guard herself. Or the viceroy's mare. She gestured at the gray ponies with a hoof. "Those are ponies," she said. "Thoughtless, voiceless, friendless, doing nothing but sate pure physical needs. Take away magic, and we go from being magical talking ponies to being... that."

"That's a strange way to put it," the guard said, recoiling slightly from the aqua mare's calm tones, feeling her fur shiver for some reason. "Of course everypony has magic and talks."

"Except them," she said. "Without magic, we're... animals. Like ponies in Lero's world. His world doesn't have any magic. He doesn't have any magic. But he still thinks. He talks. He loves. He doesn't have songs to share with anypony else. His world doesn't have a princess to guard their dreams. They don't even have four legs to stand on."

"So you feel sorry for them?" the guard asked. "That's nice of you, but that's not what herding is for." She resolutely ignored the rest of her statement. Her memory of having the plague was hazy at best. Feeling sick for a few days, being downright in a daze for a little while, then weak until she recovered. It wasn't all that bad.

She gazed across the paddock. "Sorry? Oh no. I admire them. They took two legs and learned to fall so well he can outwalk any but the strongest Earth Ponies. They took a world without love and they invented it. They took hunters and meat-eaters and they made somepony who plays with fillies and teaches them friendship lessons." She turned to her. She hadn't bothered to get her name. "But in the end, it's not admiration. I love the kindest, gentlest, most understanding, most interesting stallion in Equestria. No matter how many legs he walks on."

The guard backed away sharply from her, wings flaring at her sides, instinct telling her to get in the air, get away now. She held her ground. Still trained. Lyra looked calmly at her; her eyes were peaceful, friendly even, but the Guard's heart thudded in her chest.

"I'll just guard over there," she said, and hurried off to the other side of the paddock.

***

Lero was encouraged by Celestia's progress, inside. The water was definitely reaching her, and even staying liquid against her side, albeit sizzling, before rising up as steam. He couldn't get close enough to get the feeding tube into her mouth yet, but she didn't seem to be in any trouble. None he could see, at least. Her lips weren't cracked and she wasn't thinning, so all the heat wasn't coming from her body consuming its own resources. He tried very hard not to think about having an unconscious pony channeling the power of the sun a few feet away from him.

He didn't do so well at that. "Living H-bomb in front of me, and all I can think about is being glad her hair's not waving at me," he muttered to himself. "Small favors, I guess." The tank was almost empty, and whether all that water was helping at all was still just a guess based on her saying it 'felt good' way back when, but it was the best idea he had. And he thought it was helping him, too.

She was still incredibly dangerous, of course. And maybe it'd all come rushing back the moment her hair went wavy again. But for now she was just a pony who needed help. It reminded him of Fluttershy, when he was the dangerous monster who needed help.

He knew her better now, of course. They didn't have too much in common, except for Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. But that was enough to mean they saw each other reasonably often. She hadn't been afraid that day she found him there in the Everfree. He'd woken up, hurt, tired, barely able to move, and there she was, a yellow face looking down at him. She hadn't been afraid at all. There was nothing but concern in those big eyes. She'd bandaged him up right there, and then flown off to get help faster than he'd ever seen her fly since.

He'd been one of her 'animal friends' ever since, he thought. She was never as shy around him as she was with any of the ponies. Even the other Element-Bearers made her withdraw into her shell at least a little. She was always happy to talk with him, though. If Rainbow Dash ever figured that out he'd be teased for the rest of his life.

But. She'd seen him, hurt and alone, and she'd cared about him and not been afraid. And now it was his turn to help.

"I guess I'm not going to be wearing any butterfly necklaces anytime soon," he thought to himself. Less afraid, yes, seeing her like this. And if anything, he respected her more than ever, seeing first-hand what kind of power she had to draw on and how skittish her palace ponies were. It still didn't quite add up to liking her. But he kept trying. Princess or not, sun-goddess or not, built way more like a horse than any pony or not, she was an important part of Twilight Sparkle's life, and he wasn't going to let his own irrational feelings hurt Twilight by making his mare think she had to choose between them.

Taking care of Princess Cadence was a snap, comparatively, both physically and mentally. He could get close enough to touch her, and it certainly wasn't unpleasant to feel his love for his girls surging when he did. Just for them; her magic, thankfully, wasn't giving him fantasies about anyone else. And he was getting used to the cold showers. And there was certainly something soothing about preening her feathers; they were larger and longer than even Rainbow Dash's primaries, and he was positive he could see her start just the ghost of a smile when he was finished.

The door slammed open, distracting Lero just as he was about to start the process of shifting Cadence on the bed to keep her from getting bed sores. If she could get bed sores. It probably didn't hurt to try, at least.

In any case, Lero looked up. A white unicorn stallion was leaning against the doorframe. Lero couldn't see his cutie mark, but that streaked blue mane was distinctive enough. "Shining Armor?" he asked. "You know you can't come in here. They're still..."

Shining Armor cut him off. "I have to see my wife," he rasped. "I'm over it now, so I can see her. Cadie!"

He stumbled forward. Most of his body was still gray, and much of his mane. His face and chest were white, though, where Lero had first seen him. "I'm here, Cadie," he groaned out. His hooves thumped unevenly against the floor. Lero stood up to try to hold him back.

"Careful, Shining." Lero knelt down and wrapped his arms around Shining Armor's neck, trying to halt his progress. "It's a lot stronger for alicorns. You might catch it again, or get something else. They're getting better, I promise."

Shining Armor's nostrils were flaring as he leaned against Lero. His muscles were shaking and he felt feverish under Lero's hands, but he started to relax. "I can feel her," he said, like a man finding an oasis in a desert. "I can feel her."

His horn sparked. It was only for a moment, and the force field he created wouldn't have passed muster for a raw recruit into the Shield Brigade, but it was enough to knock Lero backwards. Shining Armor tottered forward as fast as his gray and nearly numb legs would carry him while Lero got to his feet.

"Cadie," Shining Armor groaned. He lowered his head to kiss her.

The grayness overtook him before he got within a foot of her. Her eyes stayed shut. Lero winced, then went to go guide the again-plagued Captain of the Guard back to the door.

***

There were fortunately few other relapses in Canterlot, the doctors told him, almost all among ponies still in their gray phase; only Shining Armor seemed to have come down with a whole new round of the plague. Lero's role tending to Celestia and Cadence remained resolutely solo. He dreamed that night.

The sky was blue and the grass was green. A brighter blue and a stronger green than even Ponyville's colorful hues had ever matched. Lero was sitting in soft grasses on a hillside next to Princess Luna. She was smaller, smaller even than a regular pony, and wore only her crown, which had sized itself to fit her. A dozen foals laughed on a field below, running happily about, bouncing a ball between them in some game whose rules only they could fathom. Luna was leaning against his side, tears running down her face.

Lero set his hand on the back of her head and gently ran his fingers through her mane.

She trembled. Her voice was quiet but steady when she spoke. "This is their last dream."

Lero let her talk.

"Those little colts, those beautiful fillies... They will never wake again. And I cannot help them. All I can do is give them one last bright, sunny day, to play together and make friends. They can share their end together and never know."

She sobbed. Lero brushed her mane and let her. She kept her head up, though, not turning away from the foals below.

"If I can do nothing else for them, I will be here. I will watch their dream with them and know their lives ended in innocent joy. But it hurts, Lero. I must be strong for my ponies. I can not let my court see my weakness. I must be strong."

He wiped her cheek. More tears ran over his fingers.

"You stand watch over my sister in her weakness, Lero. You will watch over me in mine, and so I can let you see my weakness now. I pray you, Lero, please, be with me tonight. My sister recovers, and sweet Cadence. And then it will be my turn to succumb, perhaps to dream of youth and freedom. But I will awaken when it ends, and take up my duties once more. My sister will have no cause to weep for me. But there are so many..."

He heard the music start. It was beautiful. He hoped that it was as beautiful when his girls heard it. He knew with dream-certainty that he had no role in it, that he only needed to listen. So he did.

Luna pulled away and wiped a wing over her face, clearing away her tears. She stood, and spread her wings, walking slowly down the hill toward the foals.

"Come, little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment," she sang to them. The fillies and colts looked up in surprise, and then laughed and ran to her. He saw her wings shake, but her voice betrayed nothing but a willing, loving offer. "Come, little children, the time's come to play, here in my garden of Shadows..."

The sky stayed a brilliant blue, but the yellow-circle sun faded, turning to a silver circle in the sky. The shadows grew long and welcoming; they wrapped around Lero like a blanket, cool and comforting. Luna herself grew larger, approaching her normal size. The foals' little legs churned as they galloped toward her, and the song filled the world.

Follow, sweet children, I'll show thee the way,
through all the pain and the sorrows...
Weep not, poor children, for life is this way,
murdering beauty and passions.

Hush now, dear children, it must be this way,
to weary of life and deceptions.
Rest now, my children, for soon we'll away,
into the calm and the Quiet...

The foals laughed with joy as they went to her, bounding alongside their new-found lifelong friends. If there was sorrow in her words, it did not pierce their innocence. One by one they came to her side, and smiled at her, and she found a smile for each of them, and a tear. And one by one they lay down on the dream-soft grasses and closed their eyes.

There were no more foals awake on the field when she finished the song to the unmoving forms.

"Come, little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment," she promised them, standing tall between them, wings spread as though to guard them against some unseen force. "Come, little children, the time's come to play, here in my garden of Shadows..."

They faded. Lero and Luna were alone in the field.

Luna fell to her side, sobbing. Lero ran to her. He held her as she mourned.

It was not so very long before another foal walked out onto the field, and the skies turned to sunshine again. Luna's body was shaking against Lero as she climbed back to her hooves to look out on the filly, who began to happily bounce a ball into the air.

"The old, the young, and the infirm, Lero," she said, voice thick. "I cannot defend them. Modern healing can only do so much. I have not even time to mourn them as they ought be mourned. I can only give them one last dream. And then more come here."

She wouldn't turn away from watching the last moments of her little ponies' dreams. So Lero turned to hug her instead. She had shrunk again, hardly older than a filly herself now.

The music didn't start for him. But he was dreaming and he knew he was dreaming, so he started the music instead.

"When your day is long, and the night,
the night is yours alone,
you're sure you've had enough
of this life, well hang on.
Don't let yourself go.
'Cause everybody cries.
Everybody hurts, sometimes..."

It was a very long dream.

She was still there when he had to go. When he woke up, he knew the names of every pony he had seen that night.

***

Two days later, meeting at lunch, Lyra brought back word from the corral. Rainbow Dash had stumbled her way to the guard and demanded to be let out. She apparently was under the impression she was in a drunk tank, because she kept swearing she hadn't had that much cider, but it was enough to qualify her for 'on the mend' status and a release from the pen.

They went down together to retrieve her. The sense of melancholy that had been clinging to him since the dream vanished as his heart soared. Rainbow Dash's head lifted. Her eyes focused on him, and a look of confusion crossed her face, and then the dull-blue pegasus lit up.

"Lero!" she rasped, and bolted for him.

Or tried to. Her wings were cramped and poorly tended, stiff from lack of use and weak from illness. She barely got her forehooves off the ground, and a groan of discomfort poured out from her throat. Dropping back down, she tried to gallop for him instead, but her legs were clumsy, weak. Lero met her more than halfway there.

His arms wrapped around her neck, and color ran down her mane like a crayola waterfall washing away the gray. She clung to him as tightly as her muscles would allow; he held her much more firmly. Lyra joined in, wrapping her forelegs around them both.

Rainbow Dash was surprised to feel her aqua herdmate's hug. Not that she didn't like Lyra, but, well, Lero was always their connection. And practice. She couldn't remember the last time she and Lyra had hugged each other instead of both hugging their stallion. It felt good. She'd have to think about that later. Too busy reunioning now.

Lero kissed her. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes. Had he always been so strong? Or... was she really, really weak? She hated the idea of it, but, well, right at the moment she felt like Fluttershy could probably pin her with one hoof. Not awesome. The kiss was, though.

"How are you feeling, Rainbow?" Lero asked, when he broke the kiss. He could feel her heart racing from just that short stumbling rush.

"Well... Normally you'd never hear me say this, but not awesome at all," she admitted. "I mean, you just outraced me. That is serious levels of bad."

He laughed - and Rainbow Dash let out a squeak of surprise as he picked her up and settled her onto his back, her forelegs over his shoulders. His hands reached down and back, supporting her rump, and he bent forward to let her rest against his back.

"You better..." the blue pegasus started, then broke off as she started coughing. Several very unpleasant hacks later, she groaned. "I think I could use a nap. Maybe twenty."

"As much rest as you need," Lero promised. Then he let go of her rear with one hand just long enough to wave at the corral. "We'll be back for you soon, Twilight!" he called out, and then turned with his two herdmates to get to their temporary home.

Rainbow Dash tried to stretch out her wings while he walked. Maybe he was faster than she was right at the moment, but get her wings working and she'd be flying circles around him in no time. It was slow going, though. She had to concentrate more than she liked on just hanging onto Lero, and her wings were seriously sore. She had to flex them bit by bit, getting the muscles to respond right. She worked up a sweat just from that while he walked, and her head was resting against his. She didn't think she'd ever felt so...

... weak.

Lero settled her down atop the bed, belly-down, letting her wings lay at her sides instead of under her. Being flat was more of a relief than she liked. He ran his hand along her jawline. She tried to say something, but her tongue felt too heavy. Then her eyelids started catching way too much gravity too, and they drooped down.

When she woke up, she felt at least twenty percent better. Still way too weak and sore, but not crashing on the spot. Her wings were feeling better too. Without opening her eyes, she could feel her feathers being gently nudged into order, and her wings had definitely unkinked some.

"That feels good, Lero," she mumbled.

"Will I do?" asked a different voice. Lyra's.

Dash knew she was definitely sick when surprise didn't get her enough energy to move at that. "Lyra?" she asked.

The touches against her wings stopped, and a hoof touched her side. "I'll stop if you want me to," her herdmate told her. "Your wings were a worse mess than Scootaloo's."

Dash laid there. She felt stupid. Not like being sick was making her stupid. Like she'd been stupid for a while. Very uncool. But she didn't have to keep being stupid. "You can help me preen anytime, Lyra," she said. Still not opening her eyes, though. "We're herding together, aren't we? I shouldn't keep that kind of stuff from you."

Lyra wasn't using her magic. Rainbow Dash knew how precise Lyra's magic could be. She was doing it the pegasus way, nudging each feather into place with lips and tongue.

"You don't need to do anything you're uncomfortable with," Lyra said quietly. "You know I've learned patience."

"I learn stuff too," Dash said back. "Like..." She sighed. "Like when you hugged me and I totally realized it was completely lame of me to not be doing our relationship right. Twi and I have done a lot of stuff together with the Elements and all, but that just means I've gotta work harder to connect more with you."

"Oh?" Lyra asked.

"Yeah," Dash answered. "I mean... ow, pull that one, it's cracked, I can feel it. Yeah, just, just like that... ah, that's better. Thanks." She took several deep breaths. Stupid being sick. Just talking was making her tired? Really? "So, anyway... Yeah. If I do something I should do it awesome, and I haven't been. So, I mean, I'm still bent and all, so I'm not gonna ask you to jump into bed with me, but I wouldn't ask Twi that either."

"Besides, I'm in bed with you right now," Lyra pointed out, gently teasing. The cracked feather went on the nightstand by the bed.

"Waaaay too out of it for puns," the pegasus groaned. "But, look. I know I started being a lot more comfortable doing romantic stuff with Twi after she played with Lero and me, and I love her a lot, but I still wouldn't want to sleep with her without Lero. I'm, y'know, physical."

"I may have noticed that," Lyra deadpanned.

"You are totally keeping me from getting deep here," Dash grumbled. "And doing it on purpose and it's working. So unfair. Anyway. Yeah. Physical." She took a deep breath. Then coughed hard. When she could breathe steadily again, she resumed. "So... Listen, it's gonna be hard for me, I'm not gonna deny it, but when I'm better I want to..." She took another deep breath. "Court you. And maybe try stuff with Lero together. We've got the best herd in Equestria and I'm not gonna let anything mess it up, and definitely not me. So if I have to push my boundaries some, well, you're worth it."

Lyra's head moved up, and pressed her lips to Rainbow Dash's cheek. "Loyal, brave, and cute. How can I say no?"

Those blue cheeks turned red. "Loyal, brave, and cool, sure. But you know I'm never gonna be cute, Lyra."

Lyra nuzzled her cheek. "You pick your definition of cute, I'll stick with mine. Lero agrees with me. You can deny it if you want. I'll wait."

"Nopony ever waits for Rainbow Dash."

"Then I'll be the first."

***

Lero wasn't back until after sunset. The stars were bright that night. Rainbow Dash had slept off and on all afternoon, but she was awake when Lero returned. He didn't say a thing; he slid onto the edge of the bed and pulled her against his chest. Somehow, coming back to find her weak in bed hit him harder than carrying her to the room in the first place did. She rested her head against his shoulder.

"Don't get too used to this," she mumbled. "I'll be back in the air in no time, and then I'll totally have the strength to be hugging you back."

He laughed and nuzzled her cheek. "I'll hold you to that. In the meantime, I bet we can borrow a scooter from a certain fan of yours. You can ask her to teach you some tricks."

Lyra grinned. Rainbow Dash groaned. "I will have such total vengeance on you just for thinking about that," she promised. But didn't lift her head from his shoulder.

"Not total vengeance," Lero countered. "Princess Celestia wouldn't like that. And she opened her eyes today at sundown."

"She woke up?" Lyra inquired.

"Not all the way," Lero said. He shifted his grip, hugging Lyra to his side, keeping one arm around Rainbow Dash's barrel. "But she opened her eyes and looked around, and she cooled off a lot for a few minutes. I'm going to try to get her to drink some water at sunrise."

"You've gotta get up at sunrise?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I guess Princess Celestia does it every day. But she's the Princess." She nuzzled back at Lero. "I oughta keep my stallion on better hours."

Lero smiled and adjusted her position so he could kiss her. "It's a temp job. Overtime's where the real bits are."

Lyra leaned in, and Dash found herself pressing back against the other mare. It felt kinda nice.

"Think Cadence might let you keep visiting afterward?" Lyra asked.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" a confused pegasus asked. "Why would you be visiting Cadence?"

"She's here too," Lero explained. "You were already out when she arrived."

Rainbow Dash thought about shaking her head and decided to just stick with saying it. "Nah, I could guess that. Why visit her after?"

Lyra nuzzled her herdmate's chest. "It's cozy, isn't it? Lero spends all day sitting in a big room stuffed with the most potent love magic in Equestria, and we get to snuggle up to him after."

The cyan pegasus pushed with weak hooves at Lero's chest. "Whoa, whoa, whoa..." She interrupted herself with coughing again. Her chest hurt, but she wheezed out, "We're all soaking up love magic?"

"We all loved each other before we got on the train," he reminded her. "So all it's really doing for us is helping make things more comfortable."

"Well..." Rainbow Dash muttered, her legs tiring, letting her slump back against Lero's chest. "I don't like the idea of somepony messing with my head."

She felt Lyra becoming very still at her side, and Dash wanted to facehoof. "I'm not taking back a single word I said all day, Lyra. Nothing to do with this. I am gonna be so romantic with you Rarity's gonna call me overboard. But I don't like getting my head messed with."

"I'll wait until nopony's messing with your head, then," Lyra said calmly.

Lero looked between the two of them. "Did I miss something?"

Dash sighed. "I had this big realization when I woke up and Lyra was preening my feathers that I was being less than awesome as a herdmate to her. So I said I'm gonna fix that and stuff. And I am."

"I wasn't here when that happened," Lero mentioned.

Lyra relaxed against Rainbow Dash's side. Dash let out a sigh of relief of her own. "So I wasn't getting love-woogied into anything, see? Too tired to move so all that coolness that would usually be going into flying and practice had to go into thinking instead."

Lyra laughed and nuzzled Rainbow Dash's chest again. "Come meditate with me sometime. We'll have you out-thinking Twilight if you regularly put that coolness to use in your brain."

Rainbow Dash yawned, eyelids drooping again. "No way. My head would explode from concentrated mega-awesome-amazingness if I didn't let it all out all the time."

She was smiling as she fell asleep, though.

***

Celestia was notably cooler the next morning. Lero could get close without needing the blacksmith's apron. The water still steamed and sizzled when it hit her side, but the beads jumped as though they were on a skillet, not the middle of a roaring fire. Not cool enough to touch, and he didn't think he could get the feeding tube into her throat without being burned, but compared to the state she'd been in for the last couple of weeks it was downright comfortable.

Her eyes opened just before sunrise. Lero had a pitcher and a straw ready.

"Princess Celestia?" he asked softly, kneeling down. "Can you hear me?"

She didn't respond. Her eyes fixed on the window and the horizon beyond it. Lero risked a fingertip, then his hand, touching the side of her neck. She felt feverish now, but not burning. He lifted the straw to her lips, but she didn't open her mouth.

The edge of the sun peeked above the horizon. Her eyes closed and Lero had to jerk his hand away to keep from getting burned.

***

Rainbow Dash was still in bed when Lero returned. Lyra was sitting next to her, a thick scroll in front of her face, reading out loud.

"Daring stared at the pink unicorn in front of her. 'Say again?' she asked numbly. 'Celestia,' the unicorn repeated with a smile. 'I'm on the solar team. Is there a problem?'" the aqua unicorn read.

"Oh, no way," muttered Rainbow Dash. "Daring gets chucked back in time and one of the first ponies she meets is Princess Celestia before she was even an alicorn? That's just so lame."

"Hello, girls!" Lero called out, and hastened over to give first Lyra, then Rainbow Dash a kiss. "What's that you're reading?"

Rainbow Dash coughed. It wasn't one of the chest-wracking coughs from yesterday, but a 'not saying a thing' cough.

Lyra just laughed. "An official Canterlot secret." She waggled the scroll in the air. "According to palace legend, this is a Daring Do fanfic written by Princess Celestia herself. I heard about it this morning and was able to acquire a copy. Daring Do and the Time-Strewn Tangle."

Lero coughed. He tried and failed to picture Celestia writing a fanfic. Somehow, despite knowing perfectly well that of course she'd use a quill like any of the other ponies, he kept picturing her dipping her horn into an inkwell and wiggling her head to scribble on a scroll pinned to the wall. While wearing a home-made Daring Do costume. He couldn't decide whether Luna would laugh herself sick at the idea or jump to her sister's defense. He hoped he wouldn't dream about that image.

"Yeah, there's no way it's hers," Rainbow Dash said confidently, if without much volume. "This is Princess Celestia we're talking about."

"You don't think Princess Celestia would be good at writing?" Lyra inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"She'd be awesome at it, she's the princess," Rainbow Dash retorted. "Way better than this. But I was meaning if she'd written it and didn't want anypony to know about it, she's got the royal vaults and probably a gazillion other places to hide it."

"Rainbow's been sitting still too long," Lero told Lyra gravely. "I think she's suffering a buildup of mega-awesome-amazingness in the brain."

Lyra stifled a giggle. Rainbow Dash managed to lift her head and stuck out her tongue at Lero. "Just as soon as I can stand up, I am gonna mega-awesome-amazing you like you've never been mega-awesome-amazinged before."

"Can I watch?" Lyra asked.

Rainbow Dash's cheeks flushed. But then she swallowed and nodded her head. "Yeah. If you can keep up, I mean. Things are gonna be so far into incredible you're gonna have to switch from the Still Way to the Galloping Way just to... to... blah, that is totally not working."

"I got the gist of it," Lyra said, and leaned over to nuzzle her herdmate's cheek.

***

By the end of the week, Celestia's temperature had finally receded back to merely feverish all day long, and Lero was able to get food and water into her again. The kitchens had almost completely recovered as well, and the menu expanded back to its usual wide variety, and Lero found that soup was far easier to get through the feeding tube than oatmeal. She opened her eyes at sunrise and sunset, but had yet to respond to Lero. He was able to shift her position on the scorch-marked floor, though he made sure she always faced the sunrise. He tended to her wings, too; life with Rainbow Dash had long since ingrained in him the importance of proper preening. Cadence was still out, but the waves of love had died off. Lero didn't terribly miss the propositions in the hallways, though the number of hugs dropped off. Not all of them, though. The magic was gone, but friendships and good feelings stayed.

Rainbow Dash took three days before she could stand, and just walking across the room left her slumped in a chair panting. It was two more after that before she could stay upright for any length of time. Only Daring Do and the Time-Strewn Tangle kept her from turning irritable; it took Lyra all five days to finish reading it. Most of it. Rainbow Dash stopped her at the climactic scene, where Daring Do had to face Discord himself to get to the last shard of shattered time that would restore Celestia's destiny.

"Daring screamed as Discord's touch drove into her. Like a dagger of pure ice, his power struck at her very spirit, leaving his mark on the deepest core of herself, cutting away... well, her Daring. He laughed down at her as her coat paled. 'No so much of a hero now, are you?' he taunted her. Daring Do looked up. She felt the fear coursing through her, felt him trying to control her, and forced herself to spit out, 'Enough of one,'" Lyra read.

"Stop," said Dash with a shudder. "Just... Sorry, Lyra. But... no way that's the Princess' writing. That's... not what it's like at all."

"It's just a story," Lyra said quietly.

"It just got a little too personal," Dash said back, and sat on the edge of the bed. "That big blast of Harmony fixed everything, and it even got the six of us over having our heads messed with, but I still remember. Getting Discorded is totally not like that. It's not a bolt of ice into you. You don't feel him doing it. You don't want to fight it. You don't know there's anything to fight. You just change who you are, right then and there. It took Twilight's magic to fix us up, and friendship. One pony, even a pony as awesome as Daring Do, just... couldn't. Not alone."

Lyra nodded and rolled up the scroll.

***

There was a letter waiting when Lero came back that evening.

Dear Bellerophon, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Lyra,

I do hope you've all recuperated by now. Ponyville seems to have weathered the worst of this dreadful disease without too much ill effect. Thank Celestia Ponyville has such a large earth pony population; with the notable exceptions of Applejack and Big Macintosh, it's only been a week or two each that our brave yeomanry are taken from their work. Even Applejack and Big Macintosh are recovering, and please don't let them know I told you this, but they are positively darling when they're insisting they can go tend to their trees when they're wobbling on their hooves like newborn foals. Honestly, I had to challenge Applejack to a physical competition before she would let me put her back to bed! She didn't actually take me up on it, which rather disappointed me, because when else in the world would I possibly be able to go hoof to hoof with Applejack and win? But she let me put her back to bed, and promised she wouldn't do any farm work of any kind until she was really and truly well again.

I myself am well on the path to recovery, though I dare say I shall not begrudge myself another day or two of rest. The walk to Sweet Apple Acres was taxing, I admit, but I couldn't bear to leave the Apples untended. Fluttershy finally caught sick herself, and her adorable little animal friends seem to be suffering from it as well. That rapscallion bunny of hers tried to take advantage of the situation, but he fell ill himself. Zecora has temporarily relocated into town and is taking care of Fluttershy. She said, and I shall try to capture her words as she so charmingly put them, 'Wandering the Everfree is never a safe place to be. Wandering lost in a haze, I fear I would not last two days. When I one day catch this curse, I too will need a tending nurse.'

Dear Spikey-wikey... oh, he has been the very noblest of dragons. The poor darling can barely stand, and yet he has taken it upon himself to fill Twilight's place as town organizer. He really is quite good with lists, even when he's feeling so absolutely wretched. Mayor Mare has been looking after him during the day, and when he comes home to Carousel Boutique in the evenings he's often still trying to do more work. His dedication is beyond compare. Twilight, you really choose better than you knew when you declared him the new Rainbow Dash. I heard him mumbling one night, and it just made my heart melt. He was talking to the plague itself, and do you know what he told it? He said, 'Do anything you want to me, but I'm not going to let you hurt my ponies.' I do believe he's found a safe and altogether dashing outlet for his hoarding instinct. We're all his treasures. With that said, I really do hope that he recovers soon. He's not a pony, and I spent one entire afternoon searching through the library for anything about dragon medicine, but everything I could find simply said 'Dragons don't get sick.' He's never lost his memory, but I don't think he has the strength to even chew gems. I gave him a sapphire last night and it was still intact in the morning.

Pinkie Pie seems to be recuperating, but very slowly. As Celestia is my witness, and if she is in fact reading this then yes, please, I do mean it with all my heart, I will never bemoan her ceaseless frivolity again. Without Pinkie and her endless parties and wonderful laughter, Ponyville is just not the happy and optimistic place I know. It goes against so very many of my design principles, but I have been personally preparing a 'Pinkie Got Better' party for her doing my best to follow Pinkie's own inimitable style. Streamers and balloons it is, with the largest, most garish cake the Cakes can fit through their door. I even attempted to borrow her Party Cannon for the effort, but the very first page of the user manual informed me that I apparently lack some seven different licenses needed to operate the device. I think I shall have to think quite a lot about what it means for Ponyville that Pinkie is a licensed pyrotechnician.

I have one final story from about town to share before I send this to you, and to the best of my knowledge it is unique in all of Equestria. Just like every pony in town, Derpy Hooves caught the plague herself, just the other day. She carried on with her mail route until she lacked the strength to continue, and then began to wander through the center of town. Her coat didn't show the effects to any great degree, but her mane and expression were quite telling. But then Dinky ran up to her crying, "Momma! Momma!" and clung to her for dear life. A heartbreaking scene, but one all too many foals have displayed in the last few weeks when their parents succumbed. But only dear Derpy responded to that by returning the hug and restoring her proper coloration. I think that I will never again hear the word 'Muffin' said with such fierceness, determination, and purpose. We are all, I think, no little bit in awe. If ever the Element of Motherhood is found, I have little doubt that Derpy Hooves will be its bearer.

Your friend,
Rarity

***

Lero had once again repositioned Celestia and was restoring order to her wings several when he heard something. A distinct groan from the alicorn whose feathers he was aligning.

"Princess?" he asked cautiously. If she decided he was an enemy again, he didn't want to be too close, just in case she had a sudden surge of strength.

"Lero," she rasped back. Her voice was completely shot, either from the feeding tube or simply from weeks without water. He hurried to her with a pitcher, and she sipped at it. Her voice was still scratchy afterward. "Thank you. I have not felt this bad in... ever." The effort seemed to exhaust her, and she did not raise her head from the bricks she was still laid atop. Lero guiltily made a note to get her back onto the divan as soon as he could.

"You're going to be okay, Princess," he told her, and hoped he wasn't lying. She'd recognized him and she wasn't talking in Old High Equestrian, so he hoped that meant she hadn't hurt her brain with all that heat.

"Me too?" mumbled a voice behind him. Lero turned, and Cadence's eyes were open too. She smiled feebly at him, then coughed. Her face screwed up into a wince. "My throat... haven't felt this scratchy since... since..." She coughed again, then groaned. "Can't even come up with a good filthy joke. I must be sick."

Lero blinked. It took him a moment. "... Twilight never mentioned..."

Cadence and Celestia both let out pained laughs together. Cadence rasped, "Twilight would melt into a small embarrassed puddle if she heard me tell one of those. Innocent little filly. Sex is part of love, having fun with sex is part of love."

That speech seemed to take everything the pink alicorn had left, and she closed her eyes again. Celestia joined her a moment later.

Lero's eyes glanced at the bottom shelf of the trolley. He made a mental note to stop bringing the tube. For the moment, he took the brushes from the middle shelf. He'd taken care of their wings, and he'd brushed their coats down after washing the princesses, but he hadn't done much with their manes or tails. Now that they were waking up, he supposed he should work on that. Their hair was in surprisingly good shape for going weeks unbrushed.

He started with Cadence. The yellow, pink and purple of her mane made him feel like he was brushing Twilight and Fluttershy at the same time, but the texture was even finer, softer and silkier.

Phenomenal cosmic powers, enormous living spaces, and super-hair. Seems almost unfair to get that too, he thought to himself. It was helpful, though. He was no hairdresser, but he got her hair back more or less the way it was when she came into the throne room in the first place. It wasn't too tricky to pull most of it to one side and sweep her bangs across.

Celestia's mane defeated him. It was no more tangled nor any less soft than Cadence's mane. The defeat came from himself. He had to force himself to touch that pink hair with the brush for one stroke. By the third stroke his hands were shaking so badly he couldn't hold the brush, and he had to step away, turn around, and take very deep breaths.

When he turned around again, Celestia's eyes had slitted open. She breathed out, "I'm sorry," and then her eyes closed again.

Lero felt like a complete heel.

***

Lero brought the news of the double awakening back to the suite that evening. Cadence hadn't woken again, but Celestia did at sunrise, long enough to drink a little soup. Rainbow Dash tried to fly up to hug him, and her forehooves lifted off the ground - but Lyra walked over and physically put a hoof on Rainbow's back.

The aqua unicorn sternly informed her alpha mare, "I know you're frustrated, and I'm not going to waste anypony's time telling you Still Way philosophy on patience again. I'm just going to tie you up and not in the Daring Do way if you try to fly again before you've recovered."

Rainbow Dash let out a long-suffering sigh, but folded her wings and walked to Lero to hug him instead. "Fiiiine. Earth pony Rainbow Dash, here I am. But seriously, that's great news, Lero. If the Princesses are recovering, it won't be long before we can get back to Ponyville and I can start fixing the weather. The skies are probably a mess."

Lyra came over to join them. "I have some good news too. Twilight ate a daisy sandwich from the table today instead of sticking her face into the grass again. I think she might finally be snapping out of it."

Lero knuckled behind Lyra's ear. "Finally!"

Rainbow Dash poked gently at Lero's side with a hoof. "The plague eats magic. She's the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, and she doesn't get enough exercise, and she's got the Element of Magic. Of course she's gonna take forever to get over it."

Lero kissed her forehead. "Of all the ponies in Equestria, I think you are the very least allowed to criticize anyone else at all for showing signs of impatience."

Dash hmmphed. "I'll always stick up for Twilight. Even if you're right."

Lero smiled and kissed her again. "How about sticking up for Princess Luna?"

Dash blinked. "Huh? Luna? What's that got to do with anything?"

Lyra smiled inscrutably. Lero ran a hand along Rainbow's neck, stopping well short of the upper back. "You wanted to get back to Ponyville, but once Celestia's recovered, I have to stay and take care of Princess Luna next. She's probably going to be just as contagious as Celestia and Cadence."

Dash groaned and leaned into Lero. "Oh, buck me. Two more months? There won't even be a sky left, it's just going to be one big fogbank from the ground to Cloudsdale at that point. Can't Luna come to Ponyville to be looked after?"

Lero stroked her mane again. "Shining Armor caught it twice off of Cadence, so alicorns are contagious even if you've already had it. And I don't want to have to explain to Rarity or Applejack why their sisters went gray again."

Rainbow Dash groaned again. "Cutie Mark Crusaders Quarantine Breakers, yeah. I'm surprised those three don't have Discord for cutie marks at this point."

Back in Ponyville, three excited fillies squealed at the same time, and a prank for the ages began. After it was over, everypony admitted that it was indeed hilarious and just what a Pinkie-less town needed to raise some smiles. But that's a different story.

"Heaven forfend," Lero said.

"I don't wanna go back without you, but I can't ditch Ponyville or the weather team," Rainbow Dash glumly said. "This sucks."

Lero kissed her a third time. "It'll only be a couple of months, and you won't be sick this time. You can take the train up. Or fly direct."

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and stretched them - but with a look at Lyra, put them back at her sides. "I guess that would be a good way to do some endurance training and rebuild after all this. Bleah. Distance flights are boring. Give me sprints any day."

"Twilight could race you," Lyra suggested. "It's a little longer than the Running of the Leaves, but she could give you a head start."

Dash rolled her eyes. "Nopony is ever gonna let me and AJ forget that, are they?"

***

Life in Canterlot continued to improve. The plague was finally dying out in the city as fewer and fewer potential sufferers were left who hadn't been infected. Cadence and Celestia were awake for longer and longer periods each day, and regained enough strength to shift positions on their own. He urged soup and water on them as often as he could, and their voices soon recovered. Wild Wonder promised to personally buck Lero to the moon if he ever let the princesses know where he'd gotten that feeding tube.

Shining Armor took to having Lero bring letters in for Cadence from him; the guards themselves wouldn't let the white stallion get to the throne room anymore. He wasn't captain anymore, after all, and he'd already gone charging in twice. So he wrote letters. Several of them a day.

Sending letters the other way was more problematic. Cadence couldn't hold a quill in her magic long enough or steadily enough to write, and a mouth-pen was obviously too much of a contagion risk. She also declined to dictate her love letters to her husband, so limited her communications to what Lero could repeat verbally for her.

Most of the letters Shining Armor sent wrought a happy sigh, an 'awwww,' or just a warm smile from the pink princess. One brought a distinct flush to her cheeks.

Lero couldn't resist. "Do you need help reading that one, Cadence?" he asked innocently.

She gave him the most princessly sniff he'd ever seen, better even than Blueblood's. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, and her horn and the letter glowed briefly. The letter curled back up into its scroll, and she gave Lero a slightly-too-wide smile.

"Go ahead and try, Lero," she said sweetly. "I hope you don't mind the Want-It-Need-It spell I just attached. It'll cast itself on anyone but me who reads it. You'd get used to being mobbed by lustful ponies every time you walk down the street in no time."

Then she passed out with great dignity, the spell too much for her.

***

"Lero!" came a shout as soon as he opened the door to Twilight's suite. Visions of a stuffed tiger pouncing came to his mind, and he wasn't far off. Rainbow Dash charged, reared up, and flung her forelegs around his waist. It was a charge in slow-motion, though, reminding Lero just how much further his mare had to go in recovery.

"Get these stupid ropes off of me!" she demanded. Lero blinked and looked down. Sure enough, Rainbow Dash's wings were tightly tied to her sides by several loops of rope.

Lyra waved a hoof from the seat next to the bed. "I warned her," she said serenely.

Lero looked down at the frustrated cyan pony. "She warned you," he said.

"Aaaargh!" She threw her hooves up and turned around, stomping back across the floor.

Lyra tilted her head. "Good form on that," she noted.

Rainbow Dash whirled to her. "Good form on what?"

Lyra gestured at the floor. "Shattered Stone. I'd say that was brown-belt form at least. Not bad for a style you don't train in."

Rainbow Dash looked down. The floor was fine. She looked back up to Lyra and snorted. "Very funny."

Lyra smiled at her. "I'm serious. I don't have the muscle for Rolling Earth, let alone Shattered Stone, but you were doing picture-perfect Breaker Stomps."

Rainbow Dash just looked at her. Then facehoofed. "Oh no. You do not get to tease me that I'm turning into an earth pony when you tied my wings up in the first place. So not cool."

Lyra shook her head. "I'm not joking. I know what Shattered Stone looks like, even if I can't do it, and you were doing it right. If you were at full strength, you might have actually cracked the floor."

Rainbow Dash scowled at her. Lyra smiled. "Would you like me to get a second opinion? There's a Shattered Stone grandmaster who lives in Canterlot, and he'd be very impressed at a pegasus pulling off a Breaker Stomp."

Rainbow Dash glowered. "What are you trying to do?" she asked.

Lyra beamed. "Distract you, mostly."

Rainbow Dash facehoofed again and rolled onto the bed. "Since when does the Still Way include conversations?"

"When you hit third rank black belt," Lyra said.

Rainbow Dash seriously considered whether she could facehoof hard enough to just knock herself out for the night. She'd call it Shredded Dignity Style.

***

The guards closed the outdoor corral the next week. Aside from Twilight Sparkle, there were only a half-dozen patients left, and plenty of ponies available to take care of them individually. She was still listless, but at least responding to questions. Lero hugged her to his chest and carried her on his back to the room. He swore he could see hints of purple in her coat.

Celestia and Cadence were wobbly as foals, but they were able to stand for the first time in over a month. Briefly, at least, but long enough to relieve Lero of a duty all three of them were perfectly glad to never mention again. Magic was still taxing for them both. Cadence had to teach Celestia how to eat without magic; Cadence had been a pegasus before her ascension, but Celestia had never had to go without the use of her horn.

"Why don't you give it a try, Lero?" Cadence asked brightly, munching on a slice of apple. "It's a useful skill to have."

"I'm not sure when I'd find a need for it," Lero demurred. "And I don't have the face for it."

Celestia laughed gently. "I didn't need to know it until now, Lero, but I'm learning."

Cadence nodded. "Who knows when you might find yourself having to eat with your arms tied to your sides?" she suggested. Then smiled. Lero opened his mouth. Cadence said, "Princess of Love." Lero closed his mouth.

Celestia lowered her head back to her salad to hide her smile.

Lero cleared his throat. "Anyway. It's not exactly human manners to eat that way. Wrong facial structure. Extended nose and chin."

Cadence waved a hoof. "You're the only human in Equestria. Anything you do is automatically human manners. Give it a try."

"Think of it as a challenge," Celestia suggested.

Lero sighed. "I'm going to have to do this, aren't I?"

"That does seem to be the case," Celestia agreed.

Lero set down the third salad the kitchen had supplied. Since 'mixed greens' in Equestrian terms included a large variety of human-inedibles, he'd ended up with a 'Chaser salad' instead. It was definitely heavy on the anchovies, but he knew he could eat the lettuce. Lero carefully bent down and caught the edge of the top leaf with his teeth, then lifted it and worked his jaw and tongue to pull it into his mouth.

Cadence clopped her hooves together. "See, auntie? He got it first time. It's not so hard."

Celestia laughed. "Lero is far more adaptable than I am in many ways. I'm sure I can find a friendship lesson to send to Twilight in this. In the meantime, Lero, would you please assist me with a napkin?"

"Am I allowed to use my hands?" asked Lero. "And remember, I still have permission from Luna to give the Abandon Canterlot order."

Cadence paused, then laughed. "You beat me to it. All right, you can use your hands. You would have been so cute giving Celestia napkin-nuzzles."

Celestia gave Cadence an amused look. "I think our teacher is letting power go to her head. Shall I bring out the Magic Kindergarten photo album? I have it safely stored in the vaults, but I think with some assistance I could walk that far."

Cadence giggled. "Truce, truce!"

Celestia lifted her chin while Lero got the dressing off of her muzzle. "In the interests of peace between the Crystal Empire and the rest of Equestria, I gladly accept."

A roil of green fire flashed in the air above Celestia's head and turned into a scroll. Lero dropped the napkin and caught it before it could land in her salad. He looked at the outside, then showed it to Celestia. "It's for you."

Celestia lifted her head. "Please, Lero, read it. I am not yet certain I could hold it steady."

Lero nodded and opened the scroll.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Over the last two moons, we learned a lot of lessons. We learned that nopony can do it all on her own. We learned that sometimes everypony has to do more than their share. We learned that all of us are stronger than each of us. We learned how to buck trees and how to weed carrots, how to fight fires and how to cut red tape. We learned that not every problem can be solved by magic, and not every problem can be solved without magic. We learned that we are Ponyville, and that's a lesson we're not going to forget.

Signed,
Ponyville

P.S. We also learned that under no circumstances should the Cutie Mark Crusaders be allowed to operate a Party Cannon, and for the safety of all Equestria we ask that this be made a Royal Command instead of a town ordinance.

Signed,
Rarity

P.P.S We also also learned that anypony ordering in excess of three tons of tapioca, six conifers, and a goldfish should be arrested immediately, and please, please, please do not ask why.

Signed,
Mayor Mare

Celestia blinked, then laughed aloud. "Oh, dear! I had forgotten that one."

Lero and Cadence looked at each other. Celestia raised a hoof. "In this case, 'please do not ask why' is excellent advice."

***

The two alicorns continued to improve markedly. The next day, Celestia had regained enough magical strength and control to reclaim knife and fork and to repair the pink lengths of her mane and tail, and both were able to walk about the throne room steadily. The following morning, Lero was watching the sun rise with Celestia and Cadence. The golden orb crested the horizon, and Celestia let out a warm, satisfied sigh.

Lero turned and dropped to his knees. His mind went blank.

The next thing he knew he was out in the hallway, facing away from the throne room. The door pulled almost shut behind him. The Lady's... no, the Princess' voice called to him. "I am so greatly sorry, Lero! Please, take today off. I did not mean to surprise you like that."

Mind still awhirl, he staggered to his feet and walked into the shower.

***

He was still shaken when he got back to the suite. Lyra was sitting in a chair, meditating; Rainbow Dash was sprawled over the bed reading. Lero could see the title from the door. 'Boomers: Hurricane and Rainbow, A Comparison.' Twilight Sparkle was a gray lump leaning against a wall.

Twilight was the first to raise her head when the door opened. Her eyes slowly focused, and her mouth opened. "Le... ro?" She blinked twice, then croaked, "Lero?" Purple raced down her body and she cried out, "Lero!" She tried to run for her still-shocked stallion, but the moment she pulled away from the wall her legs gave out under her. "Lero," she gasped out on her side, and concentrated. A single spark leaked from the tip of her horn. "What?"

Lyra's eyes opened and Rainbow Dash looked up. Rainbow Dash dropped her book, and then the room filled with a loud SNAP as her wings burst the ropes binding them to her sides. She bolted to him in the air and stopped in front of him, her forehooves on his shoulders. "Lero! Lero, what's wrong?" she demanded.

Lyra got to her hooves and walked to the door. Twilight was too busy trying to figure out why her magic hadn't worked, Lero was still half-stunned, and Rainbow Dash was looking the wrong way to see the way she moved, hooves sliding a fraction of an inch above the floor instead of stepping normally. If Lero had known what he was seeing, he would have hurried to tell her no one needed to die right now. Rainbow Dash might not have, not until she knew what had her stallion in such a state. The Serpent Slide was not a sight for tournaments.

Fortunately, there was no sign in the hallway of any trouble. Lero shook his head sharply and sat down right there in the doorway, then let out a gasp. "Gyuh! Ah! Whoa." He leaned forward, taking deep breaths, and put his hand to his head. "Sorry, sorry. Sorry, girls. It's all right. The, uh... the sunrise was a 'mane event.'"

The tension dropped sharply. Lyra didn't move, but the intensity of her stillness receded. Rainbow Dash hugged Lero hard. Twilight groaned loudly as how incredibly awful she felt caught up to her.

Lero's arms wrapped around his mare, and he felt the warmth of her, felt the racing of her heart, saw the bright defiant colors of her mane. He found his equilibrium, and he held her close until his heart had slowed.

***

Three days later, Celestia raised the sun. Twilight was too miserably ill to get out of bed, and Lero couldn't return to the throne room. Prince Blueblood had resumed the duty of delivering food and water to the alicorns, and word from the guards had it that the notoriously self-centered prince had risen to the occasion during the plague, rallying and calming the ponies of Canterlot for weeks.

Lero held Twilight in his arms to watch the sunrise, with Rainbow Dash and Lyra at his sides. The sun's edge peeked into view, but no golds and oranges came with it. Ink-black night surrounded the sun, stars twinkling all around it as though laughing at a shared joke with it. The darkness rose even as the light did, until the sun's disc had completely come into view. For a heartbeat, the sun and the stars shone together at the edge of the sky. Then the stars gracefully dimmed, and the sun rose amidst a spray of color.

"I think she's feeling better now," Lyra said.

"Lucky her," groaned Twilight.

***

Princess Cadence and Shining Armor left that day on the afternoon train toward the Crystal Empire. They stopped by the suite to give Lero their thanks and to say goodbye to Twilight. The lavender unicorn could barely find the strength to lift a hoof, but they both bent to nuzzle her, and Cadence did a variation on their usual greeting: "Sunshine, sunshine, dragonflies a-flit, get well soon and come visit!"

Princess Luna arrived in the evening, and came to visit as well. Lero was surprised by how worn she looked.

She gave them all a tired smile. "I am not so strong as my sister, it would seem," she said. "A mere few weeks in charge of the day and the night together and I think I have begun to look forward to being laid insensate across a couch."

"Don't be," groaned Twilight.

Luna laughed softly and crossed the room to gently run a hoof down Twilight's side. "I am sure I will have a different opinion soon enough. The moon is my domain, and I reserve the right to be changeable."

Twilight managed a very weak smile at her. "Luna e mobile, qual piuma al vento..." she croaked out.

Luna patted her again. "I may well be, at that. But I think the opera is not in your future, Twilight Sparkle."

"Just as well," Twilight said. "That's the only bit I know from Rigoletrot."

"Does anypony want to explain that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's probably better not to," Lyra judged.

"Fiiiine," Dash grumped.

Luna turned to Lero. "Lero. You are willing to tend to me as you did my sister, while I am indisposed?"

Lero smiled. "Of course I will. No one should have to be alone."

Alicorns had earth pony strength, Lero was reminded a moment later. And Luna was a hugger.

Rainbow Dash frowned for a moment, but Lyra reared up onto her hind legs to give Dash a hoof-pat on the hip. "You too, Dash," she said. "I'm going back to Ponyville with you."

"But Lero's staying here," the multicolored pegasus pointed out.

"So is Twilight, and she knows everypony in the castle," Lyra said pleasantly. "They'll be just fine. I'm not leaving my herdmate to wander off by alone."

Rainbow Dash was a pretty good hugger herself.

Sequel!

Since requests and inspiration both struck, I went ahead and continued on to the tale of Luna's illness. But I like where this one ended too, so I made it a separate story instead of new chapters here.

Xenophilia: Plague's End

Addition: Artwork

So does it still count as 'fan art' if I got some someone to draw it myself? Probably not. But if I do get any fan art and anyone tells me about it, I'll add it here too.

Inspired by comments by Minecraftian Equine regarding a still-recovering Rainbow Dash in a Hobbes suit!
Go check out the artist at http://inkwellsartworks.tumblr.com. This is the same artist who did the cover art for Advanced, as well as my icons. Versatile and affordable!

And then, later, the cover for Plague's End, also from Inkwell Tailbrush!

And one more! What exactly was Lero picturing? This! Once again, Inkwell Tailbrush!