The Outcast

Pinkie Pie then jumps up and quietly screams, "YAY, WE GET TO BABYSIT AN ALICORN!" while confetti and ribbons shoot out of her mane with the sound of a party favor.

Not knowing what to say for once, she slowly says, "What...just happened?"

Luna looks the alicorn over and sees the state of his wings saying, "We were just saddled with a new responsibility, sister. Look at how bad his wings are."

Celestia then looks at them and sees the bones broken cleanly at the base of each wing, as the right wing has a few odd angles where they shouldn't be, saying, "Sadly, Gold Reel can't fly with broken wings, and it will take awhile for them to hear. Big Mac, could you please tell us what happened to cause such terrible injuries?"

Big Mac then nods saying, "Eeyup Your Majesty. A week ago, I was harvesting apples when I heard a branch snap, so I went to investigate and found a branch on the ground in two places. I then called out to see if anypony was there, but I got no answer, so I went back to work. A bit later, I hear a stack of barrels fall over when I hear a loud snap followed by a loud, painful sounding hiss. After I hear somepony speak, I hurried over to where the barrels were at and saw a pair of large hoofprints. So I assumed they belonged to a stallion then followed after him at a gallop, asking if he was alright, which I never got an answer." He then pauses for a breath and continues, "I followed him over a fallen log and then took a really sharp right turn, which I'm surprised he didn't twist a hoof, pivoting like that. However, I then heard a sickening splitting sound followed by a painful cry, and when I came to a sharp left turn with a Zap Apple tree just ahead, I followed it around and tried to get the pony to stop so I could help him. After that it was a series of winding turns, seeming to have gotten lost in the orchard so I said I could tell he was injured and that I would help him. When I finally saw the stallion, he was racing toward a rise in a muddy area due to a heavy rainfall the day before. When I realized he was heading for the higher ground, I called out that it wasn't safe but it was too late as he already made the jump. Things went from bad, to worse in the blink of an eye after that. When his front hooves cleared the edge, he tried to shift his momentum into a run with them. I first thought he would get away, but when his back hooves hit the soft ground, they went right through it as the ground crumbled away. He then brought his front hooves down in front of him, but must have injured himself again because he threw his head back and cried out in pain. With that motion, the ground under his front hooves started to peel away as his body started falling over backwards, and then tried to regain his balance with his front hooves. They must have been too injured to help because he kept tipping backwards, unable to use his wings as they just hung from his body. He must have seen he was going to cause damage to his horn because he relaxed his back left leg and pushed himself to the side with his other back leg, and he then shifted his head forward. When his body hit the ground, he landed into a muddy spot. The moment his head hit the ground, however, I could tell it landed on a rock from the sound I heard. As I stood there, the guardian called me a dolt and said to not just stand around and to go get Zecora. After that, Zecora and I brought a large wagon to load him onto, which was a battle in itself as you see how he has mud smeared all over. We did finally manage to get him onto the wagon as the guardian boosted my strength temporarily so I could hurry to the barn and prepare a place to lay him on."

Twilight listens to the rest of the story with interest saying, "Wow, I can't believe he was able to make a decision like that in a split-second, and managed to successfully alter his body's trajectory. With a body like his, or even Big Mac's, it would take skill and fast responses to pull it off."

Luna cleans off the wash rag in the trough and starts wiping away the mud saying, "Well, sister, I think we should clean him up as best we can and then take him to the royal medical wing for treatment."

Celestia sighs and nods her head saying, "Yes, I agree with you on that sister. We will have to keep him sedated until his wings fully heal."

Remembering about Gold Reel having a cloak at Rarity's, she says, "Oh, I almost forgot he left something at Rarity's, be right back everypony!" then teleports over to her friend's boutique and knocks on the door to see if she is there.

Rarity is just about to turn the crystal lamp off when she sighs mumbling, "UGH, don't these ponies realize they can return in the morning!" then says in a forced, cheerful tone, "Coming!" and unlocks the door, then opens it saying, "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and..." then gasps once she sees Twilight outside and smiles genuinely saying, "Oh Twilight, what a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you, darling?"

Twilight then smiles lightly, saying, "I'm sorry for coming at a late hour, Rarity. The day of the picnic before we left for Canterlot by train for the wedding, Gold Reel was here and you took his measurements for an outfit to wear. He left his cloak here that day, is still here by chance?"

She blushes lightly in embarrassment and says, "It-it is... What do you need it for?"

She looks at Rarity and says, "Well, I have seen him around Ponyville and I wanted to return it to him."

Rarity then nods and sighs silently saying, "Oh of course, let me go get it for you. Wait right here and I will be right back with it."

Twilight beams a wide smile saying, "Alright, no problem!"

She then turns and heads inside, then goes upstairs to her bedroom to retrieve it. Once inside her room, she moves some pillows aside to grab the cloak. She sighs sadly at having to part with it and brings it up to her nose and breathes in the pleasant smell of vetiver along with the stallion's lingering scent of pine needles and freshly fallen leaves. She then lays it across her back and makes her way downstairs, then puts a smile back on her face as she says, "Sorry for taking so long, I had to move a few things around to get to it." then hands it over to her saying, "Here you go, Twilight." She then says with a wistful smile, "Umm...do you think I can come with you to see him again?"

She then looks at her wistful smile and sighs saying, "I'm sorry Rarity, but he will be heading to Canterlot shortly as the Princesses wanted to speak to him."

As Twilight slowly takes the cloak from her, Rarity hangs her head and sighs saying, "Oh...well I hope that he will come visit us soon, " then picks it back up saying with a hopeful smile, "or perhaps we will have the chance to go visit him!"

Twilight then lays it over her back and says, "I'm sure will definitely see him again, thank you for this. Goodnight Rarity."

She watches her friend then start walking away, then closes the door and releases a sad sigh saying, "I really look forward to when I get to meet that handsome stallion again."

Luna works with her sister and a couple others as they work to clean the mud off Gold Reel's body when she sees a flash accompanied by a brief pop, and looks over to see Twilight has returned with something black on her back and asks, "Is that what he was wearing when he was in Ponyville?"

Twilight then nods and says, "Yes it was, it's so old and tattered... I wonder if he got it from somewhere, or if he made it, or could he have even conjured it?" She then shakes her head of the distracting thought and says, "You should probably take this along when heading back to Canterlot, so he doesn't forget about where he left it." and hands it over to her to take.

She looks at the cloak curiously and chuckles lightly saying, "You're right, it has seen better days..." when a thought occurs to her as she takes it from Twilight and holds it in the light to get a better look at it. As she looks it over closely, she gasps and takes a step back saying, "Sister! This is..." and turns to her sister with wide eyes, saying, "This is my old cloak!"

Celestia looks at her and the cloak for a moment as she then says, "That could only mean..." as a slow smirk makes its way across her mouth.

Luna's face turns crimson from embarrassment as she then turns to look at the alicorn's head and tries to burn holes through it with her embarrassed glare saying, "He had to have tried to open the door when it fell off the hinges, meaning that he definitely saw my entire wardrobe..." and hears her sister start tittering and huffs in irritation.

She then can't help but chuckle at how embarrassed her sister is acting and says with a mirthful tone, "Oh relax sister, it isn't like he caught a lingering scent from it. If anything it is carrying his scent now..." she then watches her sister put the garment under her wing and says, "Did you want him to know your scent, perhaps?"

The younger sister's face turns a deeper crimson as she then says, "Don't act like you haven't been fantasizing about what he might be like when he takes control.." hinting at what she saw in her dreams.

It's her turn to blush as Celestia's face turns a light shade of red as she then coughs saying, "Okay, I'll stop teasing you now." then continues cleaning him with a rag.

Luna returns to cleaning him when her mind remembers the garment they found in its place, letting go of her hold on the dripping rag and allows it to fall onto the floor with a wet plop as she hastily trots around to the stallion's back. She uses her magic to scan his body, hoping that she is wrong about this. When she scans his wings, she gasps and backs up as tears start to appear in her eyes and stammers a little, softly saying as tears trickle down her face saying, "Sister...what we found...they're his...he...can't......fly."

Hearing her sister say that causes her to understand what she is meaning and gasps saying, "Are you certain of this, sister? Not at all?"

Shaking her head, she checks the spell affecting his wings and then looks back up with a sad nod as more tears blaze trails down her face saying, "Never could. I discovered a complex, but powerful spell in place that I don't understand. Do you?"

Celestia hurries over to where her sister is, not noticing when Twilight follows her over at the mention of a spell. She then quickly uses her magic to scan his body and finds the spell her sister located and gasps saying, "You're right, it is very complex. Sadly, even I don't understand it, but it seems to me that somepony stronger than him broke his wings before casting this spell keeping them broken and unable to fly." She notices Twilight standing beside her with a curious look on her face and asks, "Twilight, search for the spell using your magic to scan over his body, see if you can understand any of it at all."

Twilight does as her mentor asks and searches for the spell, finding the spell which has bright, glowing golden tendrils coursing throughout his magical channels going to his feathers to allow him to fly. His wing's also have a heavy, brightly glowing golden band around each of his wings at the base, also noticing a trickle of that same golden light flowing through the blood vessels and his bones. She studies the spell for a bit before sighing saying, "I don't understand the spell at all, but it seems to be keeping his wings broken at the base and reducing the effectiveness of healing magic. Which would explain why they had such a challenging time with having to use potions. Why would anyone do such a cruel thing to a pony's wings?"

She sighs and then says, "I do not know, my faithful student, but we will strive to find out and undo it."

Luna smiles and looks at her sister saying, "It is getting late sister and you need to rest, I can have some nurses clean him up after we get back."

Celestia yawns as she realizes how tired she is and says, "You are right, let's teleport to the throne room. From there you can send one of the thestral guards to get a few nurses and..." then yawns again saying, "I will help you with keeping the staff and guards from saying anything about our new guest at the castle, let's be on our way then." and looks to everypony in the room saying, "Thank you so much for this joyous, startling, yet somber discovery, my little ponies." then looks to her sister and asks with a little smirk, "Are you prepared this time, sister?"

She chuckles and then nods her head saying, "I am this time, sister. Let's get this stallion to the royal medical wing so they can do their best to heal him."

Twilight watches as they both lay a hoof on Gold Reel's body and teleport away, then looks around the barn at everyone saying, "I don't think that we should tell anyone else about the newest alicorn in town, everypony. At least until the princesses say it is alright to."

After everyone heads to their homes, with Zecora returning tomorrow for her cauldron, Applejack heads outside to check on Applebloom and chuckles at seeing her asleep beside several full tubs of apples she brought back saying, "C'mon, let's get you into bed after a light supper.

Feeling someone gently nudging her, she yawns and stretches her body out saying, "Is it morning already?"

Applejack chuckles and says, "Not yet little sis, let's get some food and head off to bed. I'm proud of how much ya got done, Mac and I will handle the rest of the tubs and get the rest of the orchard harvested. So tomorrow, why don't ya go hang out with yer friends for a few hours in the morning?"

After finishing stretching her body out, she feels the feather still hanging from her mane and resting on her rump, causing her to laugh and say, "Hehe this feather is cool!"

As Luna watches her sister head to bed, she waits for her guards to get the nursing staff and somepony to bring her lots of lavender to replace the old flowers that have lost their scent. When the nursing staff arrives, Luna stands between Gold Reel and the doors, saying, "Come here please and I will tell you what is going on." She watches them approach, then casts a privacy barrier saying, "I want you all to take a very special guest to the royal medical wing, but we must ensure absolutely no creature sees what they are. So I need one of you to go get as big a sheet as you can, and another of you to go get the special gurney for if myself, my sister, or Princess Cadance were ever injured and come straight here. I also need three of you to get the healing staff to prepare the wing to treat the patient, there is much to do so hurry on your way." and watches as they all scurry off to do their duties.

Once they return with everything, she nods her head and says, "Now what I am about to reveal to you is to be treated like a national secret, so you are not to discuss it from anyone not assigned to the royal medical staff. She then steps aside and says, "This stallion's name is Gold Reel, and he is an Alicorn like Cadence, Celestia, and myself, my sister and I have just learned of this ourselves, so very little is known about him. Let's get him on the gurney and into royal medical immediately"

After putting him on the gurney and putting a sheet over him, Luna leads the nurses towards the medical wing reserved for royal treatments. Along the way, she grabs a couple day guards come with them to keep unauthorized personnel out, and when they do finally reach the medical wing, she says to the whole royal medical staff, "This guest is to be treated as you would treat one of us as my sister and I have found a new alicorn, we know very little about this stallion, but his name is Gold Reel. For reasons we do not understand, he has a spell that hampers the effectiveness of healing magic. It also prevents him from using his wings at all as they are kept broken at the base by the spell. Regretfully, neither my sister, me, or even Twilight Sparkle understand the incredibly complex spell affecting his wings or even hope to lift it, but we must try. Restore his body as best you can and keep him sedated until I have had a chance to speak to him within his dreams to ensure he does not try to flee and injure himself any more. Place magic null bands on his horn to ensure that if he should somehow wake, that he cannot use his magic. You are to speak to nopony else about this but your fellow royal medical staff members, I shall leave you to begin your work now, my diligent ponies." With that said, she starts to head back to the throne room to begin her daily tasks.

A unicorn stallion then removes the cover and looks the new alicorn over and clears his throat saying, "E-Excuse me, Your Highness, but what are we to do about the state of his feathers? We have no pegasi on staff, therefore we have no knowledge on tending to them."

She berates herself for nearly forgetting about seeing the state of his feathers and sighs saying, "Not to worry, I shall ask for two pegasi to handle it tomorrow. Please do what you can for him in the meantime." She then turns away as he bows and acknowledges her words, then quickly makes her way toward the throne room to start setting out lavender for the sleeping ponies.

Once she gets the flowers put up around the castle, even including the royal medical wing, she then makes herself comfortable in the throne and enters the dream realm to begin her patrol.

I patiently reside in this endless space for how long, I don't know. One thing is different about this time because for the first time, I can feel my worries deep down coming to the surface. I manage to brush them aside for awhile, but they just keep coming back even stronger.

Luna senses another pony having troubles in his sleep and heads towards their door, entering it to find that she is inside a vast emptiness as voices call out from nowhere saying, "You don't remember any of the horrible things you've done in the past because you don't want to remember...that is the mark of a coward unable to face his wrongdoings." Voices all around call the dreamer a coward repeatedly as she tries to locate them and put an end to their torment. She hears a voice in the distance ahead of her ask, "There was one thing I did that was in the right, so you are wrong." She feels relieved that the pony is fighting against the nightmare trying to gain power over him, hearing the voice say in a sinister tone, "Oh, you really think so? What of the foals, huh? Did they deserve what you did to them!" She watches as the area around her changes, transforming into a mountain peak with a familiar alicorn standing at the top of it. Smiling at finding his door, she hurries along to bring this nightmare to an end when things take an ominous turn when the skies turn black as night and the wind begins to rage out of control. Luna struggles to maintain her course when she turns to look to her right, seeing something glint from below and to her right as lightning flashes. She sees an ornate city built from gold and silver, being battered and torn apart by a raging sea as screams and pleas for help rise from the city when she hears the voice speak again, "Because of what you did to them, several mothers and fathers were forced to watch their children drown...in their arms as they swam to shore! My my my...what an evil thing to do to one's parents..." She is forced to land as the wind and rain gets stronger, and races up the mountain on hoof towards Gold Reel when she hears him begin to sob, saying, "I-I didn't mean to..."

When she finally gets near him, she calls out, "Don't listen to his lies, Gold Reel, there had to be a rational reason you did this. Remember everything that you can about this event and understand why it had to be done!"

I then silence my sobs and then close my eyes to concentrate as the voice shouts and curses the stranger, slowly making progress as I begin to recall my journey through the streets and what I have seen.

Luna watches as images form in midair and play out, slowly painting a picture of what this city was actually like when she looks around at her surroundings to find that she knows she is far north of Manehattan, somewhere in the Yaket Range. She then looks upon the city, but does not have a single hint of what its name is and asks, "I do not know that city's name, when has this happened!" Watching the images play out their scenes, she begins to understand how bad things were in this city. Tears come to her eyes as how badly she and her sister failed this city, saying, "My sister and I...we failed our subjects so miserably..."

I then sigh as I keep concentrating and say, "Not to worry, for I feel that this might have happened long, long ago. Perhaps even before Equestria came to be, but I cannot be certain of that due to how little I remember aside from how I punished the evil-ridden city for its numerous, and vile sins. I remember learning that a father laid with his own daughter, then killed her for becoming with foal...which he was the father of the unborn foal. I was so sickened by what I saw here that I used some kind of power I don't remember, to have the sky and sea sense the vileness of this city and unleash their wrath upon it. This is the place of origin for the changeling race...for I used my power to punish every citizen in Saddlelantis, and forever change their bodies so that they could take the time to repent for their vile acts and find salvation one day."

Utterly flabbergasted at hearing that and stutters, saying, "W-W-W-W-W-Wait...YOU CREATED THE CHANGELINGS!?!" She then shakes her head of how surprised she is and says, "So that's why the changeling queen was so terrified of you later..." Remembering the name he said, she then looks at him in awe saying, "Saddlelantis, huh? Now that is a very old legend from way before Equestria, but why are we just now seeing you? Where have you been all this time?"

I shake my head and say, "I'm sorry, my memories are as elusive as it is when you try to grab smoke with your hooves. I sometimes get vague senses of memories as if the smoke is attempting to clear, but it isn't enough. Strangely, I recognize your voice and that other light grey alicorn's, but what are your names?"

Luna then smiles and says, "Let me deal with this nuisance first." then turns her attention onto the angry presence in the dream and casts her magic out to destroy the nightmare saying, "Be gone, shadow."

The shadow screams in frustration, shouting, "NOOOO...!!!" as the spell vaporizes it.

She then sighs in satisfaction saying, "My name is Luna, and I rule alongside my sister Celestia, whose voice you heard when we were at the spa together that one day. We both are also princesses of Equestria. What might your name be, fellow alicorn?"

I then smile and say, "Well, my real name is Galadriel, but I came up with Gold Reel so I could use the spell I learned from a book in an old library to blend in better with the other ponies as I searched for anything that might help me remember."

Luna then narrows her eyes at him threateningly saying, "Speaking of which, you borrowed a cloak from my wardrobe and most likely saw what all was in it. I would suggest you not say anything about it to anypony unless you want to be haunted by horrible nightmares for the rest of your life."

I then shrug my shoulders and say, "I'm sure that every mare has her own tastes, but it was quite an interesting outfit, although it left nothing for the imagination."

She glares daggers at him as she blushes in embarrassment saying, "It was from my teenage years...alright!" She then looks at his cutie mark and asks, "Umm...do you remember what the cutie mark on your flank means?"

I look back at my flank and see a black and white image divided by a wavy grey line down the center and try to think about it, then sigh and shake my head saying, "Unfortunately not, would you be able to tell me how long I have been...whereever this space is?"

Luna nods and says, "Yes, you have been kept asleep for a week after injuring yourself when you failed to complete that jump. Even your friend, the guardian was there helping the others try to heal you. After seeing you attempt to use magic while unconscious, I have asked the healers to keep you asleep and place rings on your horn to prevent you from injuring any of them. So would you please let us tend to your injures and stay here in the castle as a guest? If you agree to remain calm and stay until you are healed, with the sad exception of the magic affecting your wings, I can ask the healers to allow you to wake."

I smile at her and say, "I appreciate what you are offering me, I was worried that I was going to become some kind of prisoner or creature to study. I will choose to stay here until I am fully healed, however, it has been really nice not feeling the constant pain of having broken wings. I would rather be kept asleep throughout the ordeal, if that would be alright. I find myself strangely happy that I'm not the only alicorn in existence, I wonder why that is..."

She then smiles and says, "I wish I could stay and talk with you more, but I have daily duties to tend to. We shall meet again, I'm sure. For it is my duty to protect my fellow subjects in their dreams at night."

Remembering the flashes I got during the wedding, I turn to her and ask, "During the wedding, I saw flashes within my mind of a snowy land suffering from a blizzard and some kind of a blue heart, would you be able to tell me anything about that?"

Understanding flashes across her face as Luna quickly nods and says, "I can, yes. It seems to me that what you are talking about is the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Heart. Unfortunately, they were lost a thousand years ago due to a curse placed by King Sombra just before my sister and I defeated him, turning him into shadow and imprisoning him into the ice of the Frozen North. Why do you want to know?"

I watch her head for a door and say, "I was hoping that I would be able to recover more of my memory if it was still around... Ummm...would you please try to keep other ponies not like you three from finding out anything about me until I tell them myself?"

She nods saying, "I will, my sister and I both hope that the empire will return one day. I shall see what else we can discover about the empire for you, I hope you have peaceful dreams until night comes again. Farewell for now, Galadriel." and exits his dream to go back to patrolling.

After finishing her patrol, Luna heads to the dining room for a quick breakfast saying, "Morning sister. Our guest is settled in nicely, but I have assigned a couple guards to ensure nopony sees him. You might have to create a rotating schedule so they can rest. I have asked the royal medical staff to keep quiet about him, so there's one less thing to worry about..." then picks up a pineapple and takes an exhausted bite out of it and remembers what he said to her last night and half-chuckles saying, "Oh, I did get to speak to him in the Dream Realm." and swallows it after chewing a few times before continuing, "His name is actually Galadriel, he picked Gold Reel so he could walk amongst our subjects with a spell he picked up from the library in our old castle."

Celestia then swallows a bite of pancakes asking, "Oh? What else did you manage to learn about him last night?"

She then takes another bite and chews before swallowing, saying, "I learned a few interesting things, such as he is apparently older than us because I saw him pull up bits and pieces of his memory about an ancient city we heard about in legends and myths...called Saddlelantis."

Hearing that name nearly causes her to spit out her food as she hastily swallows and turns to ask, "Are you pulling my leg?!"

Luna shakes her head and says, "No I am not, I watched him as he had a nightmare about how he destroyed the city with his immense power."

Celestia then sighs and says, "So that lullaby I once heard is about him... What else did you learn?"

She then sighs and says, "Try to hold onto your seat for this, but when he destroyed the city, he punished the citizens by turning them into changelings."

When she hears those words leave her sister's lips, she actually does spit her orange juice across the table as she then coughs, saying, "WHAT?!" then looks around a moment in thought saying, "If he destroyed Saddlelantis, that means he is older than us by at least five hundred years."

Luna then chuckles and sees an opportunity to tease her sister saying, "Oh, are you attracted by stallions old enough to be your father?"

Celestia blushes fiercely at hearing that and stammers, "O-Of course not!" then returns to eating her pancakes and calms herself down asking, "So is that it or is there more?"

She then chuckles and says, "There is definitely more to him, but because he lost much of his memory, he doesn't know much himself." She then takes a sip saying, "Oh, he did say that he remembered seeing flashes of memory regarding a land plagued by snowstorms and saw a blue heart. When he asked me if I knew anything, I told him that it sounded like the Crystal Empire and how it was lost in our fight against Sombra. I asked him why he wanted to know, and he said he was hoping to go there to recover more of his memory."

She looks at her sister and says, "I am hoping it returns soon, sister, those crystal ponies have suffered enough. If something happens up north, we will hear about it from one of our guards stationed up there."

Luna then continues eating her pineapple and says, "Before that, he agreed to remain here at the castle until he healed and asked how long he has been in the dream realm, which I told him it was only a week after failing to complete that jump. I then asked if he wanted me to tell the staff to allow him to wake up, he politely declined as he hasn't been feeling the constant pain from his wings, which was nice for a change. He was happy to discover that he was not the only alicorn anymore."

Celestia then smiles and says, "He isn't the only one, however...he is still the only alicorn stallion."

She then narrows her eyes and says, "Sister...please keep your libido in check, at least, until his body has recovered." She then gets the feeling of having forgot something and finishes her pineapple when she remembers, and says, "OH...right, one of the doctors brought it to my attention that we don't have any pegasi on the royal medical staff. Therefore, they have no knowledge of how to treat the feathers."

She smiles at her sister and pulls out a letter and a quill saying, "Not to worry, sister, I know two ponies who will prove quite able to handle this task."

Luna smirks at her sister saying, "Rainbow and Fluttershy?"

Celestia nods her head and sends the letter off to her faithful student saying, "Mhm."

Sometime in the morning, at Ponyville

Twilight reads the letter Spike received that morning from her mentor, asking her to have Rainbow and Fluttershy head to Canterlot to treat his wings and requesting she only tell them that she desires their assistance at the castle, and to tell them their knowledge of feather treatment is needed, and to have them go the throne room. She then finishes her breakfast and then goes about her task to find two of her friends.

After hearing her name being called, Rainbow swoops down from the sky and lands on the ground outside Fluttershy's cottage and says, "You called my name? What's up Twilight?"

She stands outside Fluttershy's home and knocks on the door saying, "I received a letter from Princess Celestia today, and she has asked for you and Fluttershy's assistance."

Fluttershy opens the door and smiles, seeing Rainbow and Twilight outside saying, "Oh, hello girls, what is going on?"

Rainbow then asks excitedly, "REALLY? HOW COOL! WHERE ARE GOING AND WHEN ARE WE LEAVING!?"

Twilight smiles and says, "Oh I was just telling Rainbow how I got a letter from Princess Celestia, and how she has requested that both you and Rainbow head to the throne room for your knowledge about feather treatment as soon as possible."

The pale cerulean mare then says, "I'll go get my wing kit, be right back!" then zips off to her home to grab it.

Fluttershy then smiles and says, "Oh my, I should get mine as well. I will be right back, Twilight." then heads inside to grab hers.

The two return with their saddlebags on and their wing kits inside them as Rainbow looks to Fluttershy saying, "Let's get going Fluttershy, the princess might have damaged a few feathers!"

The shy pony then gasps and says, "OH GOOD HEAVENS! Let's go right away!" and takes off much faster than she normally would fly.

Celestia is in the throne room, waiting for the two ponies to arrive when the doors open and they hurry into the room and ask her what happened. She giggles and then spreads her wings saying, "There is nothing wrong with these feathers, my little ponies. Your assistance is needed for another's feathers, please follow me."

They follow the princess through the halls as Rainbow asks, "Is it Princess Luna's feathers damaged?"

She giggles again and then says, "Of course not, they are just fine." when she sees the doors to the royal medical wing up ahead and adds, "What you are about to see inside this room is a really big secret we had only recently discovered for ourselves, so very little is known about them. Aside from my sister and I, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Big Macintosh, and Zecora, no pony else is to hear of this. Rarity is the only one of you that does not yet know, but she will learn in due time."

The guards see the approaching princess and say, "It's another beautiful day, isn't it princess?"

Celestia then answers the challenge with, "Moonbeam." which results in the guards opening the doors for her group.

Rainbow gulps as the doors close behind her as a barrier is then erected over it saying, "Woah, talk about high security... just what the hay is going..." when her eyes spot a large, snow-white pony with a flowing, ethereal, black mane and tail on a luxurious medical bed. She then sees a horn on their head and gasps, then jumps up into the air, preparing for a fight asking, "Woah, that changeling is posing as an alicorn!"

She chuckles and says, "Calm down and try to be quiet, this is no changeling...but another alicorn."

Her wings stop flapping as she lands back on the ground with a thud in shock, staring at the strange alicorn and squeaks out, "Wait...there's another alicorn!"

Fluttershy stares in awe at the alicorn and says, "Oh wow..."

Celestia continues walking towards them and says, "Yes there is, there is one fact that makes this even more shocking, which is that...it is a stallion."

Rainbow's jaw drops open as she then says in a quiet tone, "Woah..."

She stops walking and looks back at them over her shoulder saying with a giggle, "Well come on my little ponies, he won't hurt you as he is asleep, and has requested to stay that way until he heals."

Fluttershy hesitantly steps forward until she notices the state of the alicorn's wings and says, "Oh gosh, what happened to their feathers?!"

Celestia leads them up to the alicorn saying, "This is Gold Reel, and we don't know if he damaged his feathers when he tried to make a jump in an area that received rain about a week ago. He isn't able to use his wings due to a complex spell my sister, myself, nor Twilight can understand, keeping them broken at the base which also hinders healing of the rest of the wings."

Rainbow then looks over the wings and says, "Wow...these wings look like they have never gone through a molt in like...ever!"

Fluttershy runs her hoof over the dull, faded black feathers with red tips and sighs saying, "You're right Rainbow, they are so dull and lifeless. Poor Gold Reel's wings might not have ever gone through a molt due to the spell, what should we do?"

She then looks them over and says, "I think we need to remove these old feathers so that if the spell really is stopping his wings from molting, new feathers can start growing in when the spell is finally broken." She then half-chuckles and looks to Fluttershy saying, "Let's get to plucking Shy."

The shy pony then nods and then heads for the right wing as Rainbow heads to the left, saying, "I'm so sorry that we have to do this to your wings, Gold Reel, but it is for your own benefit."

Rainbow then pulls out her wing maintenance kit and sniggers saying, "Yeah, I'm sorry too pal, but you're going to look like a fresh-plucked chicken for a while."

Celestia watches them for a little while as they carefully use special feather tweezers to pluck the feathers out of the skin, then take out antiseptic once an area has been cleared. Having to return to her duties, she sighs and says, "I wish I could stay and watch, but other matters call for my attention. When you are done and ready to head home, just say Sunrise to get the guards to drop the security barrier and let you out."

Fluttershy nods and says, "Thank you for asking us to help Gold Reel, Your Majesty." and returns to carefully plucking the feathers from the stallion's wing.

It takes two hours for them to finish the wings, having to call over a couple unicorns to raise and extend the wings to get all the feathers as Rainbow says, "I can't believe how long this one primary is, it's like as long as my whole body!"

She picks up a much smaller secondary that was in better shape than the others and tucks it into her saddlebag saying, "I know, he was missing one on this side, because I had to use my tweezers to reach inside to extract the tip where the feather broke off."

Rainbow winces at hearing that and says, "Sheesh...luckily, this guy was asleep while you were doing that or he would have felt the pain." She then looks at one of the staff members and says, "Excuse me, could one of you take these piles of old feathers and rags to an incinerator?"

One of the unicorn nurses nods and then uses her magic to pick up the huge piles of debris, then heads towards the chute that leads to the castle's underground incinerator.

Fluttershy then looks at Rainbow and says, "Do you wanna stay for a little while Rainbow?"

She chuckles and says, "Umm....no thanks, being in a hospital gives me the heebie-jeebies. I'll see you later, I'm gonna go talk to Applejack and see what the heck happened."

The shy pony then smiles and says, "Alright then, take care." and waves to her as she heads for the doors. She then heads towards Gold Reel's side and sees him wince and shuffle his head around uncomfortably, then picks up his hoof and caresses it in a soothing manner saying, "There's nothing to worry about Gold Reel, nothing is going to harm you here." Her words seem to calm his shuffling as she then smiles happily and decides to keep him company for awhile.