After the rumbling stopped for more than a minute, Sunshine hesitantly sat up. Letting out a shuddering breath, he looked around briefly for the glass of water Eris had left him. Spotting it on the table she had brought up, he took it and began to drink when there was a knocking at his door.

"C-Come in." He said clearing his throat.

He was expecting one of his guards or one of his sister's guards, but not his niece. She poked her head in, covering her eyes with a hoof as she entered.

"I hope you're at least decent?" She asked. "Eris, are you here? You better not scare me with anything."

"Cadance?" Sunshine said glancing at his balcony doors. "What are you doing here? Eris told me you were managing the day court."

"Sunshine?" She said uncovering her eyes. "Oh. About that..." She said pawing at the carpet momentarily. "Blueblood showed up. With a group of ponies demanding an alicorn be taken off the throne." She said watching as his eyes widened.

"Blueblood." He said breathing through his nose. "Eris was right, he is trying something. I need to go down there now." He said attempting to get up before a blue aurora pushed him back down. "Not you too." He said frowning at her.

"Yes, me too." She said going up to his bedside. "Eris left me a little note on the throne. If I see you anywhere that wasn't in this bed, than I am to place you back here." She said jabbing the comforter with a hoof.

"For a being that's supposed to be the incarnation of chaos, she's the most orderly nurse I've ever had." He said. "Back to Blueblood though, what are you prepared to do about it?"

"Honestly," she said laying her head on the comforter to pout at him. "I had a better time talking with Sombra and all he could say was crystals. I felt like I was getting talked down to by a porcupine."

"Him and a porcupine have a few things in common." Sunshine said before drinking the rest of the water and watching it fill back up again. "I believe, for the better of the public, that they see their prince now and not in a bed clutching his insides in discomfort every minute. I need Eris here for this, just as moral support with you alongside her."

Grabbing the bell, Sunshine gave it two experimental shakes. No sound came from it, but he trusted her judgement when she gave it to him.

Eris and Furnace

Eris's ears perked up when the sound of a bell tower went off twice in her head. Rubbing her right ear in discomfort, she brought back her jacket and slipped it on while Furnace got his tools.

"Are you ready Furnace?" Eris asked smiling with only a little teeth showing. "My patient seems to be ringing me."

"Yep." He said putting a few pencils in the brown saddlebag he had on his shoulder. "Got everything."

Winking, they both disappeared in a puff of smoke, adding to the burnt atmosphere in the vicinity.

Sunshine's Bedchambers

Standing now, Sunshine looked down at his niece as she stared back up with a disapproving frown. Squaring his shoulders, he stood as straight as he could to confront Eris. He squinted slightly when a bright flash filled the room along with a strong burnt smell, like ashes being freshly spread across the room.

Seeing Eris, smiling, he knew even as he watched her cross her arms, that she wouldn't win this argument, no matter what punishment she gave him. The stallion she was with though, did spare a glance at him from behind a welders mask.

"When you rang the bell, I thought you needed something." Eris said. "You're not running to the bathroom, so why-"

"I'm going to the throne room, and I'm going to confront Blueblood." He said making her snort. "Do not argue with me about this. If I go, I can settle this rush for power right here, but the longer I stay hidden away up here, the better chance he has of taking the throne. I'll conquer my own country before I let him on the throne, do you understand?" He said lacking any of his cheerfulness from earlier as he stared into her eyes.

"I do." She said nodding. "As much as it pains me to say it, you're right. But, you're not going naked, you need your regalia." She said motioning towards Furnace.

"Furnace I believe?" Sunshine said looking at the black hair sticking out from the corners of the mask. "You seem fairly calm. Did Eris tell you about my recent accident?"

"No, she just said that there was this handsome prince she was nursing back to health so she could kiss-ow! That hurt!" He said rubbing his shoulder where Eris had punched him. "I thought you liked jokes."

"Not. Funny." She said turning red in the face.

"You're not denying it." Cadance said smirking as Sunshine smiled. "Eris and Sunshine, sitting in a tree..."

"Enough of that!" Eris said beet red in the face. "Could we all focus on why I brought the blacksmith here?"

"Yes, of course," Sunshine said laughing at Eris's face. "Furnace, how long should these new measurements take?"

"Want a rough estimate or an exact number?" The blacksmith said lifting up his faceplate. "The rough is about... three hours, maybe four to five. Not including the molding, the type of metal you'll prefer, the design, and if you're comfortable in it." He said calmly watching as Sunshine and Eris both had the same frustrated look on their faces.

"Five hours?" He said shaking his head. "I remember it being far less the first time I had it done. Isn't there any faster way we could do this?" He pleaded.

"We could pour liquid metal on you like we did that one private." Furnace said. "He didn't get burned, but now he won't come near me. It's not as if I was the one holding him in place. I was just pouring hot metal over his exposed flesh."

"Eris," Sunshine said looking at her desperately. "I don't suppose you have anything up your sleeve?"

"Well," she said taking the note pad and a pencil from Furnace's saddlebag. "I was thinking... of something... like this." She said after furiously scribbling, smoke rising from the pad after the brief moment it was used. "Here goes nothing."

In a small flash, Sunshine now stood in a new set of crimson regalia. His hoof covers were larger with more details than his previous ones, his chest piece had been thickened around the shoulders to make covers for them also, and stretching to the middle of his neck was a helmet with a part cut down the middle to allow his mane to spill out.

Looking in the mirror, he turned his head side-to-side, smiling he rolled his shoulders and watched in the reflection as the covers rolled with them.

"Not bad," he said. "Good work, Eris." He said making he roll her eyes. "Really, this is really nice, the detail and color match brilliantly."

"Oh, you know I always had an eye for these sorts of things." She said bashfully twirling a lock of her hair. "On a scale from one to ten, how good is it?"

"Ten isn't justified." He said making his niece snort and look away. "Something funny, Cadance?"

"No, no, nothing at all." She said not trying to hide her smile. "Please, continue with these rather blatant flirts. It's adorable."

"Flirts?" Eris said looking at the alicorn in shock. "We are not flirting with each other!" She said jabbing the pencil towards Cadance.

"Not what it sounded like." Furnace mumbled receiving a hit on the back of the head. "Ow! I'm just calling it like I see it. Don't hit me for that." He said looking wounded at the blushing Eris.

"That's denial hitting you." Cadance said dodging the note pad being thrown at her. "I know flirting when I see it, remember that." She said smiling as Eris crossed her arms and turned away.

"Whatever we were doing," Sunshine said pausing briefly to smile before he regained his composure. "We still have a room full of pests to get rid of." He said looking at them all before his gaze stopped on a smiling Eris. "Whatever you're thinking, the answer is no."

"What?" She asked in mock-hurt. "Did you think I was planning some nefarious scheme? I was only planning to entertain our guests with a little... fireworks." She said giggling at the word. "Just in a show of good faith for their intentions."

"You make it sound as if you wanted to tie them to one and set it off." He said. "Eris, if you could take us there as fast as possible."

"Ooh, medical, dining and transportation?" She said tsking at him. "You're racking up quite the bill. I wont put interest on this little service, until the next time you ask." She said winking.

Throne Room Entrance

Appearing suddenly, the three ponies and chimera startled the guards momentarily but they recovered and were approaching when they stopped to stare at Sunshine.

He looked at them from underneath his helmet, just two seemingly glowing orbs like miniature suns with sunspots in them were staring into them. They stood up straighter and returned to their posts, making sure to stare ahead at the wall in front of them.

Sunshine, looking at the twin doors to the throne room, let out a breath he had been holding before he lit his horn and coated the edges with a crimson aurora. Opening the doors swiftly, as if they were paper, he didn't flinch or look away from Blueblood or the sound the doors made hitting the walls. Instead, he calmly stepped inside, not taking his eyes off the unicorn or the four with him who were, as well as Blueblood, looking at each other and the alicorn approaching.

With half the distance between them, Blueblood stepped forward, his brow already coated with beads of sweat as the alicorn's gaze went considerably lower with each step. He was smaller, both metaphorically and physically, but he stood tall and acknowledged the alicorn with a neutral face.

"Prince-"

"Shut up." Sunshine said said passing Blueblood and leaving him speechless.

"Pr-"

"I said," Sunshine interrupted turning to the group of five once he stood at the first step to the throne. "To shut up. To shut up unless you have an excuse good enough to explain why you're attempting to take the throne to Equestria." He said his neutral frown becoming a glare. "Well, answer me if you can speak."

"We," Blueblood said taking in a small breath. "Have come to the throne of Equestria's leaders to... dethrone them on the account of an inability to rule." He said pulling at the collar to his suit jacket.

"Inability to rule?" Sunshine said forcing a smile. "Enlighten me."

"Reports are... sketchy, but reliable." One of the four said, a silver unicorn with close-cropped blue hair. "That a new alicorn is present, which is obviously true."

"Was I talking to you?" Sunshine said taking a step forward. "I believe I was speaking to Blueblood, not one of the pony's he has under his hoof. Blueblood, explain the inabilities in your own words." Sunshine said glaring at the other four unicorns.

"I-I... I can see that Equestria is in need of a stable government." He said taking two steps back when Sunshine took one. "You have undergone some transformation auntie, your sister is still inexperienced in modern politics and the new princess, Twibright-"

"Twilight Sparkle." He growled staring down the alicorn as he took two steps. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, savior to Equestria more times than either me an my sister have and the most knowledgeable pony other than my sister I know. She is nervous at times, but she hasn't burnt the country to the ground. Unlike you would."

"W-What? That's absurd!" He said stepping forward hastily. "Why would I burn the country to ashes? I have every intention to make this nation strong."

"No you don't," Sunshine said narrowing his eyes. "I've seen your type hundreds of thousands of times in my lifetime here. All of them claim to have the best interest for others when it's their greed that drives them. It makes me sick. So much that I sometimes wish that I would let them rule only so they can watch themselves crumble just like the lives around them in their quest for money and power."

"Wait just a second! I-I have the right to usurp the throne from you if you are inable to rule! You made the law yourself!" He said pulling a scroll out from his jacket. "Look for yourself!"

Taking the scroll with as much disinterest as he could show, Sunshine unrolled it and skipped the mian text, instead looking at the signature. Smiling, he rolled it back up and just as he was giving it back to Blueblood, incinerated it in his hoof.

"That law," Sunshine said holding the charred remnant of the signature. "Was Princess Celestia's. Do I look like Princess Celestia to you?" He growled at a red faced Blueblood. "Answer me."

"N-No, but-"

"I may not be the same alicorn you knew, Blueblood, but I am still the co-ruler of this nation. It's laws still apply to Luna and I, and we each follow them to the letter. So, I will ask you, why are you here? To gain followers on your campaign against me? Because if that's true, than you should know about the law against such a thing."

"Law? What law, Blueblood?" A portly pale yellow stallion said looking at Blueblood. "What's he talking about?"

"The law states that if any group or pony attempts to take the throne while both or one ruler is still able," Sunshine said leaning down. "Will be counted as an act of treason against the country and the crown."

"Treason!?" The grey one said glaring at Blueblood. "You told us they were unfit to rule, that this was your time to take the throne. Where's all that dramatic talk now? Out the door along with me."

As he left, the other three followed him, sparing glances at the alicorn as he stared down Blueblood.

"Au-Uncle," Blueblood said losing his calm demeanor. "I only wanted to make sure that Equestria was taken care of if-"

"Do not talk to me about how you would take care of Equestria!" Sunshine yelled causing the windows to shake again. "Everything you say is a lie, every word makes my blood boil. All you do is complain, but now you've finally found the courage to come into my home and try to take it from me? Let me tell you something you miserable disgrace to Canterlot, I have ruled Equestria for over nine-hundred and seventy eight years. All those years, I have been patient with the most notorious, dim-witted, egotistical beings to have walked this plane of existence, but I was patient with all of them... I was patient until you came here, and then every time I hear your name, your voice, even any news about you that patience disintegrates rapidly like a dam breaking."

"I-I'm sorry to-"

"And every time I have heard you talk, it was only about getting rid of the town at the bottom of the mountain. That, Blueblood, is where me family and friends live. I do not like it when my friends of family are threatened, especially if the one threatening them has every intention to fulfill those threats. I want you gone, Blueblood, out of the castle. Because the next time you step into my home, you will be punished for an attempt at treason, and I will allow my sister to devise whatever punishment she deems fit. Understood?"

"Yes. I understand." Blueblood said shaking as he turned to leave only to fall into a crumpled heap.

Staring at the unconscious unicorn, he grunted and turned to go to his throne. The guards by it twitched as he approached and froze once he sat down to stare at the doors where Cadance and Eris were standing.

"It's not polite to stand in an open doorway." He said, his deep voice easily carrying across the room.

Eris and Cadance, quickly making their way past Blueblood who twitched occasionally, stopped at the bottom step to the throne where Sunshine sat staring down at them. Cadance was looking away from him while Eris was looking disapprovingly at him again.

"Is there something you want to say, Eris?" He asked narrowing his eyes as she continued to stare. "I'm not moving from this spot until the day ends."

"You need to learn to control your anger." She said going up to him. "I know you meant to scare him, but he's on the floor unconscious." She said leaning against his shoulder as if she were leaning against a wall. "It was a nice show, but tone down the anger a little bit. From twenty to like an eight."

"Was I really like that?" He asked looking at Eris. "I suppose I could have been less angry, not nice, but just less angry. I doubt when he wakes up he'll think more than thrice about trying this again, so that's a win for us. What do you think Cadance?"

"You may have scarred him?" She said shrugging. "I never knew him personally, but he did seem pretty easy to scare."

"He was always more bark than bite." Sunshine said as he watched a guard take Blueblood out. "He could never hold an argument where his opponent was speaking with their feelings. He lacked the conviction that they always had."

"Well, good riddance." Eris said sticking out her tongue. "I'd say he had more of a silver tongue than I did when I was evil."

"I wouldn't say that." Sunshine said. "He was a politician, not a being wanting to turn the world into their personal play... never mind what I just said, he was worse." He said snorting.

"So," Cadance said. "Isn't it time for your nurse to give you your medicine?"

"Not until Wednesday." Sunshine said grinning until a small tray appeared on his lap with a glass and red straw. "Eris?"

"Lunch time." She said. "A mix of mashed potatoes, broccoli, beets and a side of milk." She said lifting the glass only for a glass of milk to fall out from the bottom.

"Oh, that sounds delicious." He said rolling his eyes. "And to think, I only have to do this for one more day. Bon appetite, I suppose."

"I hope it's not to-oh. Oh, that didn't feel right." Eris said hitting her chest. "That was mildly uncomfortable." She said making a pained face.

"Eris, is everything alright?" Sunshine asked putting down the straw. "Are you feeling ill all of a sudden?"

"No-No, it's just a bit stuffy in here." She said coughing. "If you need me, just ring the bell I gave you. I'm going to go back to Fluttershy's. I'm sure she needs my help."

Before either of them could stop her, she was gone leaving the two alicorns to share a worried look.

"That cough didn't sound healthy." Cadance said. "She just got that pained expression on her face and left."

"I know," he said staring at his food. "Why do I have a feeling it has something to do with our recent changes. I know she'll probably come see me at some time in the future about it."

"How do you know that?" Cadance asked smirking at him.

"Call it a hunch." He said staring out the window. "An educated guess."

Fluttershy's Cottage

Fluttershy was by the stream, throwing worms to the fish as they stuck their mouths up to the surface to catch one. Smiling at the small white rings opening and closing even as she ran out of food for them, she waited patiently for them to leave, letting them figure out there was no more food. Taking the bucket and placing it on her back, she trotted back to the front door where she set the bucket down by the welcome mat. When she opened the door and saw Eris, she stopped and stared for a minute, watching the sickly goddess stand in the living room.

She was sweating, even with the thin shirt she had on, she was wheezing slightly and holding her chest with her paw, she was wobbling a bit and her eyes didn't seem focused on anything but the floor. Hearing a floor board creak, she slowly turned her head and smiled at the pegasus.

"H-Hey, Fluttershy." Eris said. "I just got back. Think-I think I'm going to take a nap. Wake me if you need something." Eris said collapsing onto the couch where she stared lazily at Fluttershy as the pegasus got closer.

"Eris?" Fluttershy said looking at the table by the couch where Angel stood, watching the goddess wheeze. "Y-You look like you're having trouble breathing. Do you want something to drink, maybe tea?"

"S-Some cold water." Eris said. "Don't worry about this. I'm sure it'll pass by tomorrow. J-Just a fluke."

Fluttershy, standing a second longer than she wanted to, went into the kitchen and retrieved the cold water Eris asked for. Watching the spirit slowly drink it and cough, she almost panicked if Eris had sucked in a deep breath and regained some of her color.

"See, I was just hot, that's all." Eris said patting the pegasus on the head. "I just needed something to clear my throat. In fact, I'm sure whatever I have will be gone by tomorrow morning." Next Chapter: Side-effects. Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes