"Princess Celestia Gets Shingles"

By TwilightSparkle3562

Chapter 1

"From Out of Nowhere"

It seemed like came without warning for Princess Celestia. The eldest of Equestria's four princesses was just starting to get her life back to normal following the events with Lord Tirek. She had been living with the guilt of sending Discord over her youngest equal, Princess Twilight Sparkle, to capture the demonic centaur who had escaped from Tartarus, the prison located at the bottom of Equestria that housed the worst of the worst, the creatures who had tried to conquer Equestria or worse.

But, this enemy that she would face now was not an enemy that walked on four or two legs; it didn't have wings and could fly; it didn't even have magic and it didn't have a horn. It wasn't even a pony, but it was an enemy that lived deep inside of her since she was a filly.

It all started several days after Tirek was returned to Tartarus and Equestria was slowly returning to normal. Celestia rose from her slumber and stood out over a balcony facing out to the east of Canterlot Castle, not far from the Crystal Empire. In the distance, she could also see her sister, Princess Luna, completing her duties as Princess of the Night. Taking in a deep breath, Celestia prepared to activate her magic to raise the sun. Once her magic was activated, the sun rose like a giant ball of fire as it rose over the eastern horizon.

Then, all of a sudden, she felt the first sign of a sharp pain that caused her to scream loudly and alerting the attention of Princess Luna from a mile away. The events with Tirek were still fresh in everypony's mind and Luna thought that her sister was being attacked by an unknown enemy.

"Sister!" she cried and using all her strength to fly, Luna managed to get to her sister, who fell on her knees, moaning and groaning in pain. "Are you all right?! What happened?!"

Luna examined her sister to see what was wrong and what she saw on Celestia's back made her mouth drop open in shock. A large mass of red was found on her lower back, not far from her sun cutie mark.

"Oh, Luna," moaned Celestia, who was trying to get back on her feet. "It hurts! It hurts! Why did this have to happened?!"

"Sister, don't move," replied Luna, firmly, trying to keep Celestia down. "If it is what I think it is, then we have to find some help for you."

"I thought it would never happen, Luna," cried Celestia, tears forming in her eyes from the pain.

"Shh, shh, it's all right, big sister," said Luna, calmly. "I'll try to send some help."

Luna then turned her attention up to the sky and fired a beam from her horn as high as it could reach, then she caused the beam to flicker on and off, almost as if she was trying to send out an SOS, which she was. The beam had caught the attention of Twilight Sparkle, who was still getting adjusted to her new castle.

"What is that?" yawned Twilight. "It's very unusual for a-."

But as soon as Twilight was fully awake, she realized that it wasn't unusual for a beam to just appear out of nowhere. It was coming from Canterlot castle and Twilight could tell that it was coming from Princess Luna.

"Something must be wrong," she thought. "We don't send out flash messages unless if it's important."

Trusting her instincts, Twilight ran from her bedroom down the hall to the balcony of her castle, stopping to pay attention to what she was seeing flashing in the distance. The newly minted Princess of Friendship carefully paid attention to the flash message as she carefully translated it.

"Anypony…please…help…my….sister…, Princess…Celestia…has…fallen…and…she…can't...get…up."

Twilight's heart suddenly sank upon deciphering the message. Almost immediately, she could think back to the flashback of seeing her idol and mentor seemingly dead at the hooves of Princess Luna's alter ego, Nightmare Moon. Without even letting Spike know what was happening, she opened her wings and jumped into the sky, flying as fast as her wings would let her.

Back at Canterlot Castle, Celestia continued to cry out in pain as her back made her not able to move a muscle. The screams that she had made caught the attention of two royal guard ponies, who ran up from their posts when they heard what was going on.

"What is happening, Princess Luna?" one of the guards cried. "Is she all right?"

"Get a doctor at once!" barked Luna, almost using her royal Canterlot voice. "Can't you see my sister is in pain?!"

Doing as they were told, the guardsponies ran down to find a doctor while Twilight landed and ran over to Celestia. Her eyes were filled with worry for Celestia and seeing her lying on her side made Twilight even more worried for Celestia's well-being.

"Princess Celestia, what happened?" cried Twilight in a panicked voice as Celestia let out another sharp cry of pain.

"It hurts, Twilight!" groaned Celestia, struggling to move as Twilight suddenly looked over Celestia's red-colored back. "Look at my back!"

Twilight carefully examined Celestia's back and looked back at Princess Luna, who rubbed Celestia's mane in an effort to calm her down. The princess of the night only gave Twilight a silent and concerned look on her face and Twilight could see that something was terribly wrong with Celestia.

"Here she is!" called a guardspony as several paramedics arrived with a stretcher and first aid. "We're going to help you, your highness! Just stay calm!"

"How could I stay calm?" moaned Celestia as the paramedic ponies carefully placed her on the stretcher. "My back! My back!"

Celestia was carefully placed on her left side as she was lifted into the air by the paramedic ponies.

"We'll take her to Ponyville hospital!" said the Parmedic pony. "Follow us!"

Flanked by the two guardsponies, the paremedics lifted Celestia into the air and flew her to Ponyville hospital, much to Twilight's confusion.

"Why won't they take her to Canterlot hospital?" asked Twilight, worriedly.

"We don't want our subjects to be worried," answered Luna as both princesses took to the sky. "Now come on, we must follow them!"

Twilight then realized that it was best if Cadence was alerted as well. She was not just a fellow princess and her sister-in-law, but Cadence was also Celestia's niece and definitely somepony that would also want to know of the situation as well.

"Should we notify Cadence?" suggested Twilight.

"I will have a guardspony bring her word of what is happening when we arrive at the hospital," replied Luna as they quickly followed the injured Celestia, being carried off to Ponyville hospital, where the silent enemy that had been inside of Celestia would soon be revealed to all that were close to her. Next Chapter: At the Hospital Estimated time remaining: 48 Minutes