Celestia stared out the window of her room, the plain, white walls of the hospital only helping to remind herself of her own stupid mistakes.

If that wasn't enough of a reminder though, she could always move slightly, causing the scar across her chest to wrack her body in pain.

Due to her own bodies nature, the medication the doctors had her on was barely enough to stop the scar from hurting constantly, still, it was better than simply lying there in pain, or being dead.

She constantly kept replaying the events through her mind, trying to pinpoint when everything started to go wrong, sure, there was the fact that Nova simply stopped screwing around and got serious, but even before that, they seemed to barely cause him any damage, only inflicting a few scrapes and bruises at best.

Her thoughts were distracted when the door opened, an old unicorn doctor quietly strolled in and took a seat beside her.

Pulling up a small clipboard seemingly out of nowhere, he quickly read over it before addressing her.

"Good morning princess, how are we feeling today?" He asked generically.

"I'd lie and say good, but I feel like you already know the answer to that Dr. Gold" She joked, the two sharing a small laugh.

Celestia had known the good doctor for a good while now, being the head of the Manehatten royal hospital for almost fifty years now, with no signs of slowing down.

"Well, I'll see about getting you a higher dosage of medication, but to be honest with you, I couldn't say for sure if it would even help, judging from what I'm reading here." He explained, clearing his throat before continuing.

"After almost a full night of our best and brightest looking after you, we've been able to detect an anomaly, it seems that whatever blade struck you has left a trace of magic within you, although I assume you yourself had already assumed this much." Dr. Gold said, getting a nod from her.

"Well, here is where it gets annoying, while you were passed out, our unicorn staff, along with Princess Luna herself, attempted to remove said magic from your body, only for it to re-appear from within your own magic." He said, the annoyance in his tone obvious.

"If that wasn't enough, whatever cursed magic has wormed its way into you is also causing the scar to reject even the strongest of healing magic and medicine, I'm sorry to tell you this princess, but unless the original source of the magic is destroyed, I doubt that wound will ever heal." He finished explaining.

Celestia shook her head.
"There's no need to apologize for this my little pony, you were not the one who struck me, and I'm sure you did everything you could." She reassured, causing the old pony to smile lopsidedly.

"Thank you princess, as for other news, your sister was forced to return to Canterlot, though begrudgingly, to calm the populace and keep rumors from spreading, honestly, those nobleponies, you think they would have more important things to do than gossip." He joked, getting a small chuckle from Celestia.

"Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Ah yes, your student, Twilight Sparkle has been made aware of your situation, and is due to arrive in a few hours, along with the other elements of harmony." The doctor explained.

Celestia felt both sad and happy to hear this, sad that she was forcing her student to see her like this, but glad she would get the chance to see her again.

"Princess, my I be blunt with you?" Gold asked, his face blank and unreadable.

Celestia, caught off guard by the sudden change in tone, took a second to recover before answering.

"Of course Doctor, you shouldn't need to ask."

The old unicorn sighed, taking off his glasses before beginning.

"In my long life, I have been blessed to see no war, Equestria itself has been blessed to go almost a thousand years without and true conflict or strife, we truly do live in a peaceful paradise." He began to monologue.

"However, that peace is a double edged sword, with our lands and ponies going so long without any true strife, we have grown complicit and weak, and princess, you are no different." He said, his words cutting like a hot knife through butter.

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off as Gold continued.

"Ponies... no, everything grows stronger from the hardships they endure, and with a thousand years of peace, ponies, and you, have grown weak."

Celestia, a little miffed by these accusations, cut the doctor off before he could continue.

"Surely, you have no forgotten what has happened in recent-" She began, before also being cut off.

"BAH! do you mean the return of Nightmare Moon and Discord? tell me, how were those dealt with again? That's right, a group of young mares wielding ancient, all powerful artifacts that solved everything instantly." He pointed out.

By this point, Celestia was beginning to see where this was going, however the doctor continued.

"Princess, when was the last time you directly involved yourself with the defeat of any of Equestria's enemies?" He simply asked.

With that one question, everything changed in her mind, Celestia and Luna's mistake wasn't made in the battle with Nova, no, the mistake was starting the battle altogether.

Of course she was no match for Nova in her current state, she was a fool for thinking she could simply defeat such a foe after years of either doing nothing, or letting others solve the problem.

*I should have realized this when the elements of harmony failed to defeat Nova, what a fool I am.* She thought.

*It was my own stubborn pride that blinded me to the truth of the situation, oh Lulu, I should have listened to you.* She lamented, thinking back to her sisters words on their guards might compared to the past.

Dr. Gold didn't really expect an answer from his princess, with her sudden silence, he assumed he had gotten his point across, with a small bow, the left the room, leaving Celestia to her harsh reality check.

Author's Note

Summary: you don't do shit for a long time, you become bad at it.
Dr. Gold for best smart pony, dropping the much needed reality bomb onto Celly.
Also, sorry for not updating, or giving a real chapter, but Im kidna working on something else and that has been delayed a bit, worry not, I'm ~~Hoping~~ sure its worth the wait.