Burn Brighter

It's been four weeks since Princess Luna left the stranger she and her sister saved in the Hospital. Two weeks of hearing nothing was starting to get troubling. Various thoughts and questions were running through Princess Celestia's mind all that time. She wasn't really paying attention to anything else besides these thoughts. This current morning made no difference. She just sat down at the kitchen table dazed, just staring into her morning tea. That's when a guard came into the kitchen, interrupting her deep thinking.

“Excuse me Princess Celestia, a letter from the Hospital came in for you.” He said while showing her the unopened letter, setting it down and sliding it across the table to her.

“Thank you. You're dismissed.” The guard bowed and left the kitchen. Celestia opened the letter, and found it only contained two small words. “She's awake” Celestia said out loud. “Should I go by myself or bring Luna along as well? No, I will let Lulu rest. This should be good though.” Celestia looked up and around the kitchen, upon seeing nobody, she said to herself “I really need to stop talking to myself.” She finished the rest of her tea and headed out of the kitchen. She informed the staff on their duties for the day while she was out attending to personal matters. Of course the staff would do what needed to be done and more to keep things moving along until the princess returned.

Celestia went back to her room, to ensure she was properly dressed for the occasion. Choosing a more casual outfit, a light blue shirt with matching pants and black flat shoes Celestia took satisfaction with how she looked in the mirror. That didn't stop her from taking a spin and stopping suddenly.
“Hehe ok time to go.” Celestia giggled, walking out onto her balcony with a smile on her face. With a small running start, she unfurreled her wings and took off into the sky, flying across the city towards the Hospital.

About twenty minutes later Celestia arrived at Hospital’s front door. Taking a few steps inside she was genuinely surprised at how less than busy it seemed. There were only a few people seated in various locations around the room, waiting to be seen by a doctor. But that didn't stop the doctors who were available from working as diligently and with all the speed they could muster. But then came the very same doctor who’s duty it was to tend to the stranger from two weeks ago. She came running at Celestia, wholly excited and only stopped a few paces in front of her. Doctor Lily had a big smile plastered on her face that wasn't going to vanish anytime soon. Without a word, she took the Princess by the hand and led her to somewhere deep in the hospital, although Celestia had a good guess as to where.

“Good morning to you too, Doctor Lily. I see you are very happy this morning. May I ask why?”

“It's one of those days where you just wake up happy, you know? So about our guest. She's healthy, all the tests we’ve run have come up negative for any serious injury. We haven't been able to get anything really important outta her. Her name is Ariel Kindle and her height is five-three. She's apart of a race called ‘Humans’ I tried asking her about that but to no avail. Hair is black and skin color is light brown. Oh, another strange thing is she has no eye color. We have a interesting and strong girl here in my opinion.” They stopped walking when they got to Ariel’s door. Celestia looked at Doctor Lily with a question at the ready. She still had that smile goofy on her face and it was more than a little intoxicating.

“Quick questions, has she shown any freak out reactions to all of this? How long has she actually been awake for?” Celestia asked, peeking through the rectangular window into the room. The doctor put a finger to her cheek and thought about it. Celestia noticed she was bouncing up and down while attempting to stand still. It seemed the excitement was not contained solely within her big smile.

“No not at all and only just today she's managed to stay awake long enough for us to ask some questions. Which is strange now that I think about it. However, I can't help but be extremely excited about what she has to offer us. Just, I've never seen a person with colorless eyes before, what could it mean?!” The doctor was understandably excited about this whole thing.

“I'll try to get the answer for you, Doc.” Celestia giggled while grabbing the door handle and walking inside Ariel’s room.

It was a standard hospital room with all the equipment one would expect to have. The patient however was currently sleeping. Celestia wasn't surprised at all. She grabbed a chair, pulled it up next to Ariel and waited patiently. The flame mark on the top of Ariel's right hand caught Celestia's eye. With some hesitation, the princess carefully lifted Ariel's hand with her magic and examined the mark.

*Just like Luna said it's almost like my cutie mark. Does she have a connection to the sun just like me? Why is it black and feels lifeless?* The princess turned the hand over and saw three, small healed cuts. She looked on Ariel's arm and saw more healed injuries on there too. *How much has this girl been through? Does she have more of these around her body? Her face is perfectly smooth though!*

The princess wasn't expecting Ariel to unknowingly snatch her hand back and giggle to herself. The giggling turned into straight-up laughter.

“Hahaha! That idiot got into the ring right started five other fights! Oh man that was funny as hell! I honestly wish I was there to fight someone myself!” Ariel opened up her eyes and saw a wall. She wasn't expecting to wake herself up like that. “I really hope nobody heard that.” Ariel pushed herself up eyes closed and yawned. She opened up her eyes and noticed a shadow on her covered legs. Looking to her left, and seeing the princess trying not to laugh hysterically didn't help at all. “How much did you hear?” Ariel said with a salty voice.

That pushed the princess over the edge. She fell backwards onto the floor laughing hysterically. Ariel sighed and pinched her forehead. Embarrassing herself was not apart of what she thought this early afternoon was going to be. She watched as Celestia picked herself up tiring to be professional as possible as she wiped the comedy tears from her eyes.

“I'm-I'm so sorry about that. I wasn't expecting you to just laugh yourself awake like that. To answer your question, I heard all of it.” Celestia smiled and Ariel groaned with annoyance at herself. So much so that she threw herself back onto her hospital bed and covered her eyes with her left hand.

“Ughh. On the bright side I had a good night sleep I guess-” Ariel rolled around facing Celestia. She didn't think anything of the clothes Celestia was wearing. But she didn't notice the crown until now. “I'm guessing you're royalty by that crown you're wearing.”

Celestia nodded, “you're correct. My name is Princess Celestia. My sister, Princess Luna and I rescued you two weeks ago.”

Ariel raised a eyebrow in confusion, “rescued me? I don't-” A sudden rush of flashback hit Ariel's mind. She remembered calling for help and for some reason a giant dog. “Oh right, where did you find me again?” Celestia looked away from Ariel nervously.

“Um, are you sure you want to talk about this?”

“Where. Did. You. Find. Me?” Ariel said seriously. Celestia sighed and faced Ariel with a blank expression.

“We found you next to Cerberus and took you here. It's been four weeks since that night.”

“Oh, that's it? I thought it would be worse. I roughly remember my soul being detached from my body. Doesn't matter now since I'm clearly alive!”- Ariel suddenly jumped up and stood on the bed. Stretching felt good and she threw three punches to small shock of the princess sitting right next to her - “Give me twenty and I'll be right with you.”

“Take your time. I have all day.”

After exactly twenty minutes Ariel came out refreshed and dressed in a hospital gown. She sat down on her bed, legs crossed and ready for questioning.

“Ok, so why are you here, princess?” Ariel asked. Celestia noticed the confidence in Ariel's voice. It was surprising to say the least.

“Well a mysterious creature just washed-up on my homeland for some mysterious reason. I think that's a good enough reason to come here.” Ariel tilted her head in response to that.

“Mysterious creature you say? This mysterious creature is a human.” Ariel said with her marked hand proudly over her chest.

Celestia nodded and pointed- “Human? Well I can certainly say I never seen one of your kind before. Which begs several questions on my end.”

Ariel giggled, “Well I'm honestly honored to be the first human to meet you, Princess. However, the who-what-when-where and why shall remain shrouded in mystery until we figure that out. This mystery won't keep me down or out!” Ariel said with a raised fist and confident smile.

Celestia sighed, “You know, I worry about people who just wake up from comas and act like nothing happened. Are you ok?” She watched Ariel laugh again in response. *Dear me this girl is a odd one.* She thought to herself.

“Y-yea I know that I'm not putting on the normal reaction you would expect-” Ariel said as she wiped a tear from her eye. “However I'm not dead so that has to count for something right?” Celestia nodded in agreement.

“Well if you're pretending to be this carefree for your own sanity then by all means you do you.” Ariel nodded, laying back down on her bed and covering her eyes with one arm while the other hung off the edge. Celestia looked at Ariel's cutie mark again in wonder but chose not to ask about it.

“I'm not pretending. I'm just happy to be alive. I don't like to spend time remembering my half death. Besides I have a opportunity to become an Ally to a princess. I can't pass that opportunity up. If you don't mind me asking; what's your end goal here?”

Celestia quietly activated a spell that let her see the rest of Ariel's body. As she thought the healed scars were all over her body. Celestia went wide-eyed and stopped herself from giving herself away.

“Make sure you're not a threat to anyone. I'm glad to confirm you're not. Although I have a feeling you are very confident in your abilities whatever they may be.”

“OH a poor helpless girl washes up upon your shore and the first thing you wanna do when she wakes up is make sure she's isn't going to be a threat. That's.. Actually kinda smart when I think about it. And how right right you are, Princess. Take this for example.” Ariel got up from her bed and quickly sat on Celestia's lap. Celestia was impressed and surprised at the same time. Ariel wrapped her arms around Celestia's head and pushed her head into her chest. The princess wasn't sure where this was going. “I'm only going to say this once so you better listen to me and my heart. I'm not a monster-I'm just a young woman who's lost somethings very close to her and is determined to get those things returned to her. Also you smell fresh strawberries.”

Ariel didn't notice Celestia had her horn glowing the whole time during that short but sweet speech. Thanks to the spell Celestia knew Ariel wasn't lying and decided to help her even though she already decided that long before she even walked into this hospital.

“Thank you for the compliment. Now if you would kindly get off me.” Celestia asked firmly, but not unkindly.

“Aww what's wrong don't like kinda small tits? I don't bite, princess” Ariel said with a soft evil grin. She got magicly lifted up from Celestia and put back down on her bed.

“Don't ruin this.” Celestia said while standing up and dusting herself off. She walked towards the door but before she opened it she had one more thing to say, “I'll try my best to help you, Ariel. My guards will come by later to pick you up. We can discuss the details later when you are at the castle. Please try your best not make me regret this decision” Celestia said in all seriousness. With that Celestia left Ariel alone with her thoughts.

“I'll try my best. No promises though.” Ariel said. She went back to lying down on the bed letting various thoughts run around in her head. *I wonder how fun this new adventure will turn out* She thought to herself smiling.

Celestia started walk away from Ariel's room only to be greeted by doctor lily who eagerly wanted answers.

“So, Princess Celestia what did she tell you? What did you figure out? Is she friend or foe!?”
Celestia turned around and place one finger on the doctor's lips which quite her down. Doctor lily followed Celestia without speaking a word. The two reached the rooftop of hospital building.

“Well, Doctor what I can is; Ariel kindle is a very confident female to almost a fault. There's definitely an air of mystery surrounding her and on top of that I think she's going to be very interesting to have around.” Celestia said while taking a steps away from doctor lily.

Doctor lily was excited to hear this. A small part of her wanted to skip this and go straight to Ariel for a conversation. She was curtain Celestia could hear her feet tapping the ground at a rapid pace.

“Hehe, that's very.. Interesting stuff. Should I try to get a little more information outta her before you return!?”

Celestia unfurled her wings again ready to take off. Facing doctor lily and seeing her all excited did put a smile on her face.

“My guards will come by to pick her up later. I know you're excited and all but please go easy on the poor thing she just woke up you know.” With that Celestia left the doctor alone flying off to the castle.

“Yes ma'am!” Doctor lily said. In a hurry she'd went back downstairs to see Ariel.

A few minutes later Ariel hears the door open and a person come in. She was still lying down not paying attention to anything.

“Hello, Ariel.” Ariel recognized the voice.

“Hi, Doctor let me guess. You got some questions for me correct?” Ariel sat up and saw Doctor lily just sitting on the same chair Celestia sat in but with a smile that made Ariel kinda uncomfortable.

“I just want to know a few things about you? Five questions and I'm outta here ok?” Ariel raised a eyebrow.

“Ok shoot” Ariel said in response.