Chapter Eleven: And Thus We Venture and... Collapsed?

Prince Rising gave another sneeze followed by a series of coughs.

He was brought another tissue to his nose courtesy of Princess Luna, which he took with his hooves and as best as he could, and tried to clear his blocked nose before trying to collect whatever he coughed up and spat into the tissue. Giving a grunt of annoyance, he let the tissue be taken away, wadded up and into a nearby trash can as Princess Celestia asked Hibiscus Stem, who was the Royal Doctor in Canterlot Castle, “What’s happened to him? He was fine only hours ago at the ceremony.”

The pony could only shrug and shake her head in confusion, “I wouldn’t understand either, Your Highness. As it stands, he’s establishing a fever with several other symptoms I’ve not seen in one illness.” She looked down at her gathered notes and reports and listed them off, “The fever I’ve already mentioned and all it’s accompanying symptoms, but for one reason or another, it seems he’s catching almost anything that is related to other illnesses, the pox, as you can see on him, the inflammation around his mouth and nose, pony flu … honestly, he’s even caught what seems to be a lichen infection!”

“It’s called, ‘our immune system being weakened.’” Rising hoarsely muttered, loud enough to get everypony’s attention, “We already expected we caught a flu, but—” he drifted off into another series of coughing and shifted around to try and scratch at his back.

This only gave him looks of bewilderment as Princess Celestia asked, “What do you mean?” She fell silent for a moment before furrowing her eyebrows, “You knew you caught a flu before the coronation and yet you didn’t tell us?”

Now it was Rising who gave a look of bewilderment, “Do you ponies not know what an immune system is?”

Hibiscus thought about it and mentally dug through her memory and training before shaking her head, “I don’t believe there was any records or books about this system.''

And now Rising looked at her annoyed, “You ponies can recognize a series of flus, infections and diseases and have ways of curing them, yet you have no idea what the immune system is?” He quickly went back to a coughing fit as his throat was irritated by bacteria-infested mucus.

«««✧✦✧»»»

The celebration that followed the coronation of the newly crowned Prince Rising Dawn, something that remained an uncomfortable change of pace, was almost exceedingly exuberant.

Soon after he left the balcony and entered the large dining hall of Canterlot Castle, Rising was informed by both Princesses that this would be a ‘meet-and-greet’ sort of party, where the nobility and prominent middle-classed ponies would attend to personally see him up close and speak to him.

Of course, the first ponies he aimed and figuratively hunted down were six specific mares.

“Rising!” Twilight was the first to call before she stumbled over herself and self corrected as her friends gathered around her, “Prince Rising. Congratulations!”

The stallion raised an eyebrow in bewilderment and asked, “Congratulations? For what? We don’t recall really doing anything other than being the center of attention with a series of events.”

The academic mare sputtered a little before mumbling an apology while Applejack gave a friendly nudge to her friend, “Ah told ya.”

The farmer turned her attention to Rising and said, “But best a’ luck to ya, Risin’. Ah don’ have much ta say abou’ all them fancy ponies, but it certainly ain’t a thing Ah wanted to be included in.”

Rising was about to answer her when he was interrupted by the sight of two noblesponies walking towards him.

They disregarded Applejack and barely gave Twilight a look before one of them introduced himself with a bow, “Your Highness, Prince Rising Dawn. It is an honor to meet and speak to you, my name is Lord Amadeus Blueblood, er, Prince Blueblood’s father if you will.” He gestured to the mare next to him, “This is my wife, Alura Blueblood.”

Said mare gave a polite bow, “Your Highness.”

Rising gave a polite bow in return as he said, “Your son did not communicate aught about you, Lord Blueblood. When we heard of his relation to the Princesses and how he maintained his stay here in the castle, we admit we had some thoughts as to his parents.”

The noblestallion gave a short chuckle, “Our son had been adamant on leaving our mansion. An adventurous burst of wanting a little more of the world rather than the boundaries of our acres.”

“A burst indeed.” Rising commented with a small, wry smile, “If he could only go so far as his aunts.”

The two Bluebloods shared a polite laugh before Amadeus replied, “Indeed. At first I thought he would reach as far as Manehatten, but then I realized not soon after he could barely stomach our trip to Los Pegasus.”

Rising gave a polite chuckle before his body interrupted with a sneeze and accompanying cough, which prompted Applejack to ask, “Y’all right there, Prince Risin’?”

A sniff and another set of coughs answered her before he said, “Probably not.” He attempted to clear his throat. He turned to the Bluebloods and apologized, “We’re afraid you’ll have to excuse us. While we’d love to share experiences, we’d rather not share whatever’s affecting us.”

Amadeus waved a hoof, “Of course, Prince Rising. Though I’m surprised that allergy season is so soon. Perhaps I will have to ask a servant about it. That said, I do hope we discuss more often.” With that the two gave a polite bow of their heads and trotted off.

’And already we have someone trying to influence us,’ One voice dryly commented, ’aside from the Princesses. A while it has been since we’ve been the spying eye-light in the candle.’

Rising considered trying to find if the castle had anything to reduce his coughing, and was about to find Celestria when he gave a terrible series of coughs that almost sounded as if he was about to hurl on the spot.

In fact, the man turned stallion almost thought he was about to as another series of dry heaves came and started gaining worried attention from the attending ponies as he felt a familiar wing wrap around his barrel.

Within the Tower of Eternity, the Legions quickly started assessing what was happening. If the sneezing was the first symptom before the coughs, that would’ve narrowed things plenty to assume influenza, or a similar type of infection.

’Infection.’ One voice repeated before an idiotically obvious and clear danger reverberated through the Legion. They were still new to this land and age. Rising was as exposed to every sickness on the planet as much as an ignorant tourist.

And they’ve gallivanted about inside a castle without even a thought of it.

Rising had just reached past a doorway before giving a terrible sneeze, “We’re sick.” He rasped, barely recognizing an answer.

«««✧✦✧»»»

The stallion finished his series of coughing just in time to comically show like he was about to hurl, which felt and tasted horrible no matter how anyone in the room would’ve commented.

Luna was quick to levitate the bucket to him just in time for Rising to grab it and hurl his dinner from coughing too hard and too frequently.

The mares winced in sympathy before Rising moved his head away and said softly, as to prevent the stench from his mouth from wafting over, “Once we recover enough, Doctor Hibiscus, discussing health and wellness will be the first topic between us. We recommend getting paper and quill for documenting it.”

Hibiscus blinked at the stallion before giving a slow nod, “Maybe. That will depend upon what else is affecting you and how quickly you recover from it all.”

Rising guzzled water down before giving his answer, “If we start and keep up with soup, broth, tea or water, a bit of coconut water and with a few oranges, we’d maybe estimate at least a week.”

This gave a recognizable and skeptical eyebrow from the mares as Princess Celestia asked, “And how exactly would you know how to estimate that? Some of my students that went on to become doctors and nurses would’ve estimated longer than placing such optimism like that, Rising.”

The stallion gave the princess a dull look, “This isn’t our first illness, let alone the first time we’ve diagnosed one, and it won’t be our last either. Also we recall informing both you and Princess Luna that many of us had previously held occupations, practices and hobbies. That includes jobs and tasks such as medical personnel.” He rested his head against the raised pillows as he continued, “Though to be honest, some of that was more focused upon human-physiology and well-being, not equine pathology … Still,” He finished, “ while we won’t say we’re the dedicated experts on the final say, we do have some idea of what we’re saying and doing.”

Doctor Hibiscus gave a small noise, “At least you have some sense, decency and humility, more than some of the mares I’ve tended to who wanted to ignore their well-being. I can’t tell you how often I had to drag Princess Celestia’s students out of the schools and to their rooms whenever flu season arrived.”

Rising gave a hearty laugh, despite how stuffed his nose quickly became, “Bloody stubborn-headed idiots. A shame our society looked down on professionals slapping sense and insults on their patients when they were ignoring clear advice and ended up watching their patients either return worse than before or getting a call that they’ve ended up in the E.R.”

Hibiscus gave an eye rolling groan, “I’m constantly expecting the latter each and every day.”

«««✧✦✧»»»

In the purest sense of honesty, Celestia thought, this was expected.

She was back on her throne, alongside her sister in front of a continuously growing crowd of nobleponies and journalists, all desperate to hear and find out just what happened to Rising so soon after the Coronation.

Twilight and her friends had been the harbingers to approach and pile questions on her before the crowds began to appear. As far as she could tell, the mares were still with Rising and likely worrying and fretting in trying to help him recover sooner.

Luna’s patience finally ran out with hearing too many voices and questions and no time in answering them as she demanded in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “SILENCE!”

The crowd within the throne room obeyed as the echoes of her command bounced and faded before Celestia cleared her throat and stated, “If we could begin in an orderly fashion, who among you wishes to go first?”

Many of the ponies quickly bustled and shoved around before one pony, a dressed up mare with a notepad and pencil in hoof and teeth asked, “Your Majesties, what happened to the newly crowned Prince Rising during the Royal Banquet?”

‘At least somepony started with an easy question,’ Princess Celestia thought as she answered, “Prince Rising had unfortunately fallen ill due to catching multiple illnesses, while safety and cleanliness was performed and exercised, Rising did not have any sufficient resistance against them. From what our Royal Doctor had reported, Prince Rising had taken ill to Pony pox and flu, Feather Flu, fevers, and among the worst of them being a lichen infection.”

Any semblance of order between the nobleponies and journalists were lost as they recoiled and reacted to the news and sheer amount of illnesses that their new Prince had caught as some number of ponies began asking and demanding why and how the stallion had caught them.

It wasn’t long before the nobles were accused and demanded their personal records of health, along with those who had attended the banquet; With the nobles being quick to become defensive against the journalists, Celestia quickly put a stop before anything drastic would’ve occurred, “I will not have misconduct and accusations happen here, cease your accusations and panic, and calm yourselves!”

While it settled the ponies down, she couldn’t stop them from glaring at each other and their grumbles as she continued, “Now, Prince Rising is under the best care that Equestria can provide for. With the doctors that are assigned to help him recover, I can say with little doubt that Prince Rising will return to us in good health within a month.”

Again, she was met with a wall of questions before another glare from Luna made them fall silent and the press conference began again, but in a more orderly manner.

«««𝔗𝔬𝔬-𝔐𝔞𝔫𝔶-𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰𝔨𝔦𝔭𝔰»»»

“Isn’t there supposed to be a minimal safe distance from someone as ill as us?” Rising commented dryly as Twilight continued to work and worry over him while Fluttershy did her best in either re-soaking the wet hoof towel on his forehead, “On top of that, hadn’t the nurses and doctors already established what to do?”

Twilight didn’t pay any mind to what the stallion said as she kept flipping her eyes between a medical book in her magical grip and over to Rising as Fluttershy gave a sheepish grin at him.

Both Spike and Applejack were quick to give their dull looks of ‘I told you so’ at the aforementioned mares. Rarity tutted, “I may have to agree with you somewhat, Prince Rising. As much as one can trust and believe that the medical professionals know what they’re doing, these two do care enough about you to worry about your health and wellbeing.”

“Regardless … .” Rising grumbled as Twilight summoned what clearly seemed to be a table meant to create potions and tonics alongside several herbs and an assortment of ingredients.

Before she started working on mashing one pair of ginger roots, Rising reached over with his hoof and, with a grip which he nor the Legion could quite understand was possible with hooves, grabbed her tail and gave a gentle yank to demand her attention.

This rewarded him an embarrassed yell from Twilight as she spun on her hooves and with a blush on her face glared at him, her tail and one rear leg tucking tighter to herself. Rarity gave a condescending scoff at Rising’s action, despite that she herself had considered trying her hoof in bringing the intently focused mare back to reality.

Rising interrupted her before she could scold or yell at him, giving her an equal and unamused glare in return, “You’ve been ignoring every other attempt we’ve tried at getting your attention, Twilight.”

“As rude and boorish as that was, he has a point, darling.” Rarity commented.

“More to the point, however. You do not need to add your own input on our condition, nor should you be trying to fix us when we will return to full health before the month is over, Twilight.” Rising stated tiredly, more out of repeating himself than loss of strength.

The unicorn gave another glare at Rising before complaining, “But what if the doctors missed something? I could probably get Zecora or maybe even a potion or two that’ll—”

“Only complicate things more than they need to, Twilight.” Rising interjected, “Do you understand the phrase, ‘Too many cooks spoil the stew’?” He got a reluctant nod from her before finishing, “We’ve already spoken with the doctor and her staff, and we’ve already established an effective method. Your input and concern are well appreciated, Twilight. But leave it to the professionals who do this kind of thing for a living.”

Twilight started to argue further, however her rebuttal came out as a whine, “But!”

“Whining doesn’t suit you, Twilight.” Rising commented as he adjusted back to a more comfortable position after he had rolled on his wing and gave a slight grimace when Fluttershy removed the hoof towel to rinse and keep it cold on his forehead.

The unicorn mare then protested softly, her hoof pawing the ground, “I just want to help.”

Rising gave a silent sigh as he gave a glance at the rather silent audience of four mares, who seemed content to watch the back and forth exchange between the two, “We know that feeling, Twilight. We really do. However if you could but step back and consider what has been done and what the problem itself is, you’ll find that the answer had been simple and already answered: We have fallen ill due to our lack of resistances against your civilization’s number of illnesses and diseases that you and every other pony and creature have resistances against. Were it any other human or another being in our place, they would surely not survive it and your worry would’ve had very good grounds. It’s by what we are, who we are, and whom we’ve served that keeps us away from death’s door entirely. Yes, you might see us suffer and we’re not going to lie, getting sick sucks and there’s not a moment that we’d rather not suffer from this illness at all. But we would rather endure this and know we will recover within a scant few days, than hold a prayer that we survive the next hour as you rush and panic and experiment upon us in trying to save us.”

“I’d rather not for you to suffer at all ... .” Twilight muttered audibly, still shuffling her hoof.

The room fell into silence for a moment before Rarity tilted her head in thought and remembered, “I think this is a good time to come back to what we promised to talk about the day before yesterday?”

Rising looked over at the mare and asked, “You had one question about something before you all had to leave quickly, didn’t you?”

Rarity took a moment to recall what she had, “Hm, I believe I did start with an easy question about how your kind dressed and what fashions they had.”

Rising gave an expression of shutting his eyes, turning his head and pursing his lips and exhaling through them, “Easiest and most complex answer to really give, Rarity. We can give a relative understanding where fashion started and what it was like when it ended, but you’ll have to understand that you’re asking for a list of fashions that occurred for more than several thousand years in thousand different places.”

Rarity drifted closer with apt attention as Rising paused before beginning his story, starting off with clothes that started from plants, animal skins and bone before turning to looms, linen, cotton, silk and wool.

As he continued on, doing his best in describing and giving a verbal image of what he tried to describe, Applejack looked over at Twilight and could tell that her persistence in helping the stallion over his illness was eating at the mare. She trotted over and gave a poke to her shoulder, “S’m’thin’ wrong, suga’cube?”

Twilight seemed to snap out of her thoughts to look at her friend before waving a hoof, “It’s nothing, AJ. I mean if Prince Rising’s health is due to return after a bit, what’s the least I should worry about?” She gave an awkward laugh that did not sound convincing in the slightest.

Even Rainbow nearby looked over and commented, “Oookay.”

Pinkie, on the other hand, zipped up past Fluttershy refreshing the hoof towel and nearly tripping her over onto the bucket and on the ground as she quickly asked, “Were there any parties?! Big parties, surprise parties, Huuuumongus humongous parties?!”

The ponies in the room merely stared at Pinkie with wide eyes as Rising commented, “Of a sorts. Some you’d recognize like birthdays or holidays, others not as much.”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say to the pink pony as she started getting excited and demanded what sort of parties she didn’t know about as Applejack returned her attention to Twilight, “Ya know ya can talk t’ us, right?”

Twilight looked at Applejack for a moment in silence before nodding, “Yeah, I know, AJ.”

“Pinkamena Diane Pie! Darling, let the poor Prince breathe!” Rarity’s voice nabbed the two mares’ attention as they turned back to see Pinkie nose to nose with Rising, who had already placed a hoof against her chest to gain some distance from her.

“But. But parties!” Pinkie protested, giving Rarity doleful eyes before Rising placed a hoof against Pinkie’s cheek and gently but firmly pushed her off of him and the bed.

The alabaster unicorn put a hoof to her muzzle for a second of thought before she gave an “ah” and suggested, “How about you go and plan out a party for when the Prince recovers, Darling? I’m certain he would appreciate something like that.”

Pinkie recoiled before giving a dramatic gasp, “And I didn’t make the “Happy Waking Up” party! I-GOTTA-GO!” And with that she bolted to the door, barely pausing to open it and vanished around it.

Rarity gave a sigh of relief, “I swear, she’s a good mare but honestly her energy is far too much for any one pony to handle. I’ve no idea how she does it.”

She then returned her attention to Rising and said, “So as we were discussing; Was there anything new for your kind’s fillies and colts during that era? I imagine it must’ve changed as much as the adults did.”

Rising gave a chuckle, both out of Rarity’s method of turning Pinkie Pie away and not swarming him as well as her asking about the fashion change, “The first ten years of the nineteen hundreds didn’t see much or anything extensively noticeable for children, girls would see light colors and stiff, starched clothing. But other than that, they still were given miniature-sized adult clothing. Although then came a highly rising complaint about how difficult and impractical it was to wash and maintain the whiteness of the garments. It was an increasingly rare sight to see pure white clothing and limited heavily by those who had both money and time to dedicate to it, and even then such clothing gave an insight of their parents wealth and class.”

Rarity felt a slight chill of apprehension, whether that was out of what fashion might’ve devolved to or some other reason, she couldn’t tell, “Dare I ask what happened after those ten years?”

“Well things started to split down the middle between two periods: Before the war and after the war.” Rising answered, immediately getting wide eyes from the mares as he continued, “At the start was a rise in oriental themed clothing amongst women, as well as the last and final sight of the corsets in replacement for what was called “lampshade tunics”. As for men, the three-piece lounge suits still reigned while more casual alternatives started to appear, noted more by their leggings reaching to the ankles and the cuffs turned up. And as for children, this was the point when simplicity took a startlingly dominant—”

“Wait wait wait!” Twilight waved her hooves to interrupt the stallion as she asked with concern and hesitation, “What was that about a war?”

Rising looked over at the mares, noting Fluttershy’s wide-eyed and scared expression while Applejack and Rarity were both silent with worried stares, and Rainbow Dash wasn’t flying in the air anymore as she was teetering on either wanting to ask about the war or not wanting to ask.

“These ponies are truly that adverse against the vast majority of violence outside of beating someone to unconsciousness...” One of the Legion commented.

“Indeed, there was a war during the 1900s.” Rising explained, being careful not to scare them with the knowledge that there had been two and the fact they were labeled “World Wars.”

Besides, some of the best kept secrets are the ones no one ever asked.

The room fell quiet again before Twilight tentatively asked, “D-did … how long did it last?”

“Four years, three months and fourteen days.” Rising recited, remembering during the days that it winded down and countries had started to back off and lick their own wounds, Germany in particular.

It still brought the feelings down on the ponies as Rainbow Dash nearly demanded in shocked exasperation, “Why?!”

Rising gave a snort before Fluttershy quickly remembered about the now warm and drying cloth on his head. After she fixed this, he answered, “The first and foremost cause was because of an assassination of an archduke from a country visiting a different country, which caused politics and alliances to come into play in a rather messy bout because said alliances were separated by several different countries. Another cause for said war was due to how many of these countries did not like each other at all, and due to the massive increase of technology including military resources, everyone was incredibly eager.”

Twilight’s expression seemed to grow in horror as she recalled, “There was once an assassination and war with Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom a millennia ago.”

“Did it end with the Griffon Kingdom in shambles both economically and in social disorder?” Rising asked, his and the Legion’s interest quickly piqued.

That brought Twilight’s interest and curiosity up as well as she said, her panic and terror forgotten, “Actually, yes! They’re entering a recovering phase and haven’t found any form of unity yet, but they had a massive decline in economy from the end of the war till today.” She gently tilted her head in confusion, “How did you guess?”

“Similar effect happened to the country that had been waging the war almost by itself, though it found it’s unity … to its own misfortune and discord, however … .” Rising drifted off before continuing to a different topic, “Curious, both this Griffon Kingdom and Germany had a similar aftermath from a war they were mostly involved in, we wonder what else is mirrored so closely with human and equine history … .” The colors of his iris’ began to swirl and dance once more as he took in what was said.

“I’d love to go over history and check that out, Prince Rising!” Twilight excitedly jumped up before being slightly startled with Rising giving a nasty set of coughing, shirking back as if she feared catching any splash from him, “Err, maybe after you’re feeling better.”

Rising gave a muttering agreement as he settled down and was quick to guzzle down some water that he was able to reach. In his case, a bucket of water with a ladle in it.

That some quickly turned to nearly dumping all the water on him to quench his thirst as he set the wooden bucket on the bed and asked, “Perhaps we could ask you instead, let you talk while we rest and recover. We never learned much about you, or the Princesses outside of simple meetings, more so with those two mares.”

The five mares looked at each other before giving various agreements, seeing no harm and agreeing that Rising did have a point in that.

Twilight decided she was the first up as she began to talk about herself and some of what she had interests in, mostly revolving around reading and collecting books, and her current job at Ponyville, and how she came to live there after rescuing Princess Luna from her Nightmare self.

“We had heard about “Nightmare Moon”.” Rising commented, attempting to speak simply to not trigger a cough, “She seemed more a demonic possession than Princess Luna’s indulgence into her emotions. Perhaps you could describe her? Attitude, behavior?”

Now that Twilight and the other mares had time to think and consider what they saw and thought of Princess Luna during their time facing her as Nightmare Moon, out of all the scaring myths, legends and bedtime stories to get fillies and colts to be good, including Nightmare Night … .

Rainbow Dash was the first to answer, “She … really reminded me of a lot of those boring villains I listened to back in pegasus elementary … .”

Rarity gave a nod, jogging her memory a bit as she considered the whole showdown, “She did exert quite the overconfidence, and she seemed to love repeating herself about ‘The night lasting forever’.” Both Applejack and Fluttershy nodded in agreement with what they recalled.

This sent Rising and the Legion for a loop. Here were five of six mares who’d faced and fought against Nightmare Moon, despite that they knew she was almost like a demon incarnate by legend and history. And out of the words from both Princesses, Nightmare Moon was described and supposed to be just as equally demon incarnate, uncaring and demanding total obedience and worship out of the world. To hear next that her attitude and behavior was little more than a cookie-cutter, over-the-top villain, who was overdramatic and arrogant to a fault born out of a buildup of envy, jealousy and neglect … .

Perhaps Luna had suffered while being this Nightmare and Celestia had been uncontested at a level such as her own sister becoming inane and falling into a completely different personality, as well as the pain of fighting her own sister? Questions upon questions.

Considering Prince Rising’s deep contemplation and confused expression, Twilight risked a question, “Nightmare Moon ... doesn’t seem all that terrible to you, does she?”

After a few seconds and a quick look from Rising, snapping himself out of his thoughts, he nodded, “No ... and it’s confusing with your accounts and the Princesses’ accounts on this Nightmare. It's curious ... .”

“Well it’s of little matter,” Rarity chimed in, “The dreadful, albeit rather well designed and fashionable form that Princess Luna had been was needing to be stopped, and we successfully did so. Though, one of us was being a student of Princess Celestia while the rest of us mares were little more than civilians.”

Getting a few looks from her friends sans Rising, Rarity took the opportunity to introduce herself and her profession. Adding how she first found her talent in fashion before she became apprenticed to a seamstress in Canterlot before she opened her boutique in Ponyville.

Rising gave another quick cough before saying, “And what exactly encouraged you to open shop there?”

“Oh my family, mostly. They’re not entirely thrilled about the high life of Canterlot,” Rarity said slightly airily, “and with my parents preferring to be the adventurous sort, I’ve been splitting my attention to both my business and my young sister.”

“Ah thought it was about ‘helpin’ Ponyville find fashion’ since Ah recall ya’ll sayin’ we were “behin’ the times”.” Applejack said.

“Hush, darling. You of all mares have the least to say when it comes to fashion.” Rarity argued halfheartedly.

“What of you, Applejack?” Rising asked, “We doubt your life was nothing but—” He immediately was cut off with a series of hacking and coughing, his hoof quickly reaching for the trashcan before spitting up what his throat had collected, much to the disgust from the mares around him.

“I see your health hasn’t gotten any better,” A familiar voice called from the doorway as Princess Celestia trotted in, “And you still claim you’ll return to better status within the week?”

Rising gave a small sour look, more out of recoil from the small ordeal while the five mares gave a bow to their princess, “Definitely. Is the Day Court over already? Only felt two hours since you left.”

“The Day Court is on hold for now, since I wanted to come visit and see how you were doing.” The alicorn mare answered as she inspected disdainfully at the trashcan and empty bucket of water. With a bit of magic, she incinerated the contents and refilled the bucket, which Rising quickly took as a sign to start gulping more water down.

The stallion kept silent for a moment and tried to look behind Celestia and at the door before asking, setting the bucket down on the bed and letting it be taken by Fluttershy, “And Princess Luna? Since she visited us before you left for your duties, it's curious she’s not here.”

“She elected to retire until the evening, saying she was losing focus and energy and needed both when her lessons and nightly duties came.” Celestia gave a quick look around before asking, “Where is Pinkie Pie? I recall her being here when I left.”

“She’s off making Rise a party when he gets out of bed.” Rainbow Dash answered, making the Princess give a small giggle, “Knowing her, it might be held over at Ponyville, trying to get Rise over there.”

“Might need to inform her that leaving Canterlot is temporarily off the table, then.” Rising said as he closed his eyes from the cool cloth placed over his forehead.

Rainbow only gave a shrug, flying a few feet up, “Ain’t stoppin’ her. She likely will just have it on hold till you visit.”

That only rewarded her with a flat grunt, getting giggles from the mares. The room fell into thoughtful silence for a few seconds before Rising returned to the question he had before, “So Applejack, that story we asked?”

It took a moment before the farm mare remembered, “Well shucks. ‘S much as Ah’d like to say Ah was just born an’ raised on the Apple Farm, tah be honest Ah wasn’t always. Bout after Ah reached about ten ‘r so, Ah went off on mah own to Manehatten tah stay with mah aunt ‘n uncle an’ tried to see if Ah could try an’ live big.”

That got Rarity’s attention as she exclaimed, “You went and lived in Manehatten?”

With that and a smile from Applejack, the farm mare cleared her throat and spoke without even a hint of her drawl, “Indeed I did, Miss Rarity Belle. It was not an easy life and I had stayed with Aunt and Uncle Orange for quite some time. They even helped me try to become what they termed as ‘ true Manhattenite with proper Equish before I saw a rainbow-colored explosion coming from Ponyville’s direction. Taking it as a sign, I returned to the Apple Farm, as that was where I truly felt where I belonged, considering that I missed my grandmother and my big brother quite terribly. I even earned my Cutie Mark soon afterwards.”

The sheer change of accent and dialect gained Applejack a lot of wide eyes and raised eyebrows, including Rising.

Before Rising could ask or comment on her story, Rarity sputtered and exclaimed, “Wait a second! You saw the rainbow explosion? That was responsible for me finding all those gems, gaining my Cutie Mark afterwards at the Ponyville’s school play and I never learned what caused it!”

Twilight took that moment to chime in, “Wait, an explosion was what caused me to have a magical surge just as I was failing the entrance exam into Princess Celestia’s school! It’s what caused me to gain a Cutie Mark after Princess Celestia helped me calm down.”

Fluttershy decided now was the time to mutter in and just audibly said, “I heard an explosion and saw the rainbow, it helped me get my Cutie Mark by helping and communicate to all the animals that were scared by it.”

“Wait, Ponyville and rainbow explosion?” Rainbow asked, “Ehh, how long ago maybe?” She quickly gave a sheepish grin as the mares turned to look at her.

Celestia was the one to answer, though from her smile Rising could tell she probably already knew, “It would be ten years ago when I heard and saw that ring, and it happened at Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash, would you happen to be involved with that?”

Rainbow’s grin didn’t fade away as she scratched the back of her head, her cheeks blushing, “I... might’ve had something to do with a race when I was a filly and ended up causing a Sonic Rainboom and got a Cutie Mark out of it.”

The four mares sans Celestia stared at Rainbow before trotting up to her for a group hug, with Applejack saying, “Et was you all along, ya squirrely pegasus! Ah’d never find mah home without ya Rainboom!”

The four mares continued talking about how much they owed Rainbow Dash for her actions as Celestia trotted closer and studied Rising’s expression, paying more attention to his eyes as they changed colors at an almost dizzying speed.

“You seem contemplative, Rising,” She commented, getting his attention with a flick of his eyes and ears towards her, “A bit for your thoughts?”

He seemed content to be silent as the stallion continued watching the five mares laugh and smile before replying, “We heard that explosion and I saw that rainbow ring within the Eternal Fields.”

Celestia blinked in surprise as she waited for him to continue, noticing that his reply had gained the attention of Twilight and her friends, “Whether it was the explosion itself or some other aspect, I was the first to awaken in those Fields not moments afterwards. I stared at the open sky and saw the passing ring race through the skies above, painting and leaving behind a rainbow mark that still remains to this day on the Tower of Eternity. Once I had awakened the others, we debated much and long about what caused that explosion, and what that ring was … .”

Rising stared at the dogpiled and wide-eyed Rainbow with what Celestia could honestly describe was a mixed mask of expressions as he finished, “Now we know it was you who caused that, and you were the one that awakened us.”

The pegasus squirmed underneath the pile of her friends as she comprehended just how far reaching her stunt had affected, “I … wow, I … really? You kinda … don’t seem as happy as the rest of us are, though.”

Rising gave an amused grin at her, “We’re a bit more contemplative than expressive when learning, Rainbow. Especially since a certain Pegasus was responsible for waking us up in that fashion. There are better methods than explosions, you know.”

He gave a frown as he pondered on how the pegasus’ actions ten years ago had such an effect on her friends that are currently dogpiling and giggling around the mare, including Rising and the entire Legion.

“WAAAAIT!!” A familiar voice cried in panic, snapping everypony’s attention as Pinkie Pie ran around the door and exclaimed, “Did somepony mention a rainbow explosion?!”

Perplexed, the mares and stallion looking at the pink pony gave a nod with Twilight replying, “Rainbow was the one who caused it and helped us all get our Cutie Marks.”

Apparently this didn’t cheer up the usually happy and eccentric pony as Pinkie complained, “But-but-but, I wasn’t ready for this yet! We were supposed to talk about this ten episodes later! I had plans and songs, and-and-and I had this whole thing, charts and pictures! We were gonna talk with Scootaloo and her friends and I was gonna talk about how I got my Cutie Mark from that rainboom and—” She rambled a little more before giving a low groan of frustrated despair as she fell on her back, “Just, the one time, and awh. Geez. T-the one time I get it all.” She muttered in spoiled unhappiness, “Ya’know, just forget it.”

Pinkie looked as if she was about to drudge off before Twilight and Rarity picked up the pony and brought her over as Rainbow asked, “Did my Sonic Rainboom help you find yours too?”

The party pony gave a sniff as she drawled lamely, “Yeaah, I was born and raised at a Rock Farm, it's just off the San Palomino Desert, South-East of Los Pegasus. It was a really boring place and then the Rainboom cleared out all the clouds and poofy’d my hair and made me learn to smile and … .” She drifted off after that, still unhappy her future planning had been wasted before she was dragged into a group hug from her five friends.

Rising was still contemplative as the six mares giggled and held their embrace. It was a remarkably unusual event to have seven lives … well, Rising and Legion would rather count themselves as just one life to avoid unnecessary math. But still, seven lives that were affected by a single event such as this ‘Sonic Rainboom’; And later on six of those lives would become these ‘Element Bearers of Harmony’.

As for Princess Celestia, she simply kept smiling at the group of mares as they continued to talk, hug and laugh. Even if Twilight hadn’t been destined to be the Bearer of Magic, Celestia would have still been happy for her to have these five as very close friends.

Though she did wonder if Twilight would remember some of the friends she used to have and left around here in Canterlot. Normally it wasn’t her place to pry into her student’s life despite having planned out her involvement with Nightmare Moon, but she used to have a small group of friends that at least she kept in contact with.

Celestia was snapped out of her thoughts, as was the heartwarming scene from the six Element Bearers by Rising giving a nasty series of coughs, which prompted Fluttershy to hurry over and replace the now dry hoof towel over the stallion’s head and Celestia calling one guard to bring in another bowl of soup; adding for the chef to put thyme and mint in it.

Author's Note

Yep. That's right its a real "New Chapter"!
It'll take me death itself to really stop me from continuing this, and even then I'll prolly get someone else to take over and see it through.
But gliding past that one, I really do apologize for making you all wait this long! Having both writer's block, distractions and procrastination really kills time and progress, especially when you start noticing how fast time itself is speeding along. There's been a few days I thought it was yesterday or tomorrow, and other times I thought it was still early afternoon but instead its either 3pm or later, and then add on that I have a really messed up sleeping schedule that I'm trying to fix...
Rarely anything's pretty in life, summed to say.

Anyway! A small break before I start planning out and typing down the next chapter! Hopefully you all enjoy this chapter, aaaand greatly expecting next chapter DOES NOT take this long... a few head-sized holes in the wall here and there.