Chapter 2

"At the Hospital"

With Celestia still moaning and crying in pain, the paramedic ponies rolled her into the emergency room at Ponyville hospital. Twilight and Luna were kept in the waiting room by the nurses as they waited anxiously for news. At that moment, Princess Cadence came running into the waiting room with several crystal pony guards trying to catch up.

"Aunt Luna," panted Cadence, trying to catch her breath while hugging Luna tightly. "I saw the message! What happened?"

"She just starting crying out in pain, Princess Cadence," replied Luna, breaking away from Cadence. "It happened this morning while she was raising the sun."

Cadence then used her breathing technique and sat down in a chair to continue calming herself down. Twilight could see the pain and agony on Cadence's face and could only think of what she was going through with Celestia in the condition she was in.

"Something must have happened, Aunt Luna," cried Cadence, sprouting her wings for a moment to stretch them. "First, we deal with Tirek and now this. What else could go wrong for her?"

"I don't know," interjected Twilight. "We've certainly been through a lot these past few days and it seems like we can't catch a break from anything. There must be something we can do, but how?"

Just then, the door of the emergency room opened and the doctor that had treated Rainbow Dash for a broken wing, came out and approached the three worried princesses. He produced a small smile when he saw Twilight, remembering her from Rainbow Dash's accident.

"Well, your highnesses," he said, adjusting his glasses. "I can say this. Princess Celestia does appear to have a very large red rash on her back. We managed to give her some medication to help her rest and reduce the pain."

"But, it wasn't any ordinary rash, doctor," replied Luna. "If it was a normal rash, she wouldn't be screaming like this."

The doctor listened and took in what Luna had just said, before looking back to the emergency room where Celestia had been removed of her shoes and breastplate as well as her tiara and was resting comfortably with several IV's stuck to her body.

"Why does she have IV's attached to her?" asked Cadence nervously, starting to get panicked again.

"We placed some painkillers into her body that required intervenous therapy," replied the doctor. "There is nothing to worry about, Princess Cadence."

Cadence did another of her breathing techniques and realized that what the doctor said was going to help Celestia, not harm her. This brought a relief to both Luna and Twilight, knowing that Celestia was going to be well taken care of.

"Now, if you don't mind," he said. "I have some questions I want to ask you all in private. So if you could please follow me to my office?"

Doing as they were told, the three princesses followed the doctor while the guardsponies kept anypony else from following, although no one in the waiting room had any intention of following them. Once inside the office, the princesses sat down at the doctor's desk as he sat in front of them, placing his hooves on the top.

"So, you all know why you are all here?" he asked. "I have some private questions about Celestia's past that I need to understand about before I give out any diagnosis, if that is all right with you?"

"Sure, doctor," replied Twilight, as the doctor produced a quill and a piece of paper. He then adjusted his glasses once again and began to write on it. "What do you want to know first?"

However, the doctor didn't pay attention to Twilight and instead focused his attention on Princess Luna, being that she was Celestia's younger sister.

"Princess Luna," he asked, ready to take down what he needed to know. "Did your sister have cutie pox when she was a filly by any chance?"

Twilight let out a hushed gasp, thinking back to when Apple Bloom had the cutie pox and that Zecora had to help them find a cure for it. Luna then let out a heavy sigh and looked down at the ground for a moment, before looking back up to the doctor.

"Yes," replied Luna, somberly. "She did have cutie pox as a filly. It took us a while to find a cure, but she eventually recovered."

"Well, I can say this," said the doctor, rising from his desk and walking over to a map of a pony's body. "When ponies have cutie pox, the virus that causes cutie pox becomes dormant in the nervous system and can only be activated again, when the immune system is weakened."

Twilight was surprised to hear this coming from the mouth of a medical professional. When Apple Bloom had the cutie pox, it wasn't because of a virus, but because of a potion that she had used behind Zecora's back.

"But, doctor," said Twilight, raising her foreleg to speak. "One of the ponies in my town had cutie pox, but it wasn't because of a virus."

"Indeed," replied the doctor, listening in carefully. "Well, you see, Twilight, there are two different types of cutie pox: the magic kind and the virus kind. The magic kind is what the pony in your town had and the virus kind is what Princess Celestia has, known as Herpes Zoster or for an easier term, Shingles."

This made all three hearts of the princesses sink upon hearing that word. However, rather than reacting, they listened in to what the doctor had to say.

"Once the virus kind is reactivated, rather than traveling around the body, it instead focuses on one area and stays there," he continued.

The three princesses took in this news very seriously and continued to listen to what the doctor had to say. Almost immediately, they all knew that they were going to be in for a difficult time.

"During this time," continued the doctor. "In addition to the rash, blisters will develop, filled with the virus and after several days, the blisters will break apart and the virus becomes airborne affecting anypony who comes into contact with Celestia."

This caused the princesses to shudder in fright, knowing that their eldest equal was being subjected to a virus and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Cadence, worriedly. "We'll do anything you say, doctor."

"I'm afraid that there is no known cure for the virus," replied the doctor, shaking his head regretfully. "This is one of those viruses that we must let run its course. The only thing you can do is to try and keep Celestia comfortable and this is my orders to you: she cannot, I repeat, she cannot raise and lower the sun until the virus is gone from her system."

At that moment, Nurse Redheart came into the office with a piece of paper that had writings on it. Looking at the paper, the doctor signed the paper and handed it to Luna.

"Pray tell, what is this?" she asked, looking at the paper.

"This is an order to all the staff at Canterlot castle," replied the doctor. "Telling them that in order to attend to Celestia, they must either have their Shingles vaccine or already have had the virus before. This message also goes out to all of Canterlot as well along with the rest of your kingdoms, Princess Cadence and Twilight."

Knowing that there was going to be some tense days ahead, the Princesses took the paper from the doctor and stepped out of his office.

"I have had my vaccination when I was a filly," said Luna. "Is it all right if I see my sister?"

"You can," replied the doctor, looking over towards Twilight and Cadence. "But did you have your shots as well?"

The two princesses nodded that they didn't and the doctor motioned for Nurse Redheart to take Twilight and Cadence to another room to receive the shingles vaccine.

"Princess Celestia is resting comfortably, Princess Luna," said Nurse Redheart. "You can see her now."

Taking a deep sigh of relief, Luna left the office and made her way down to the room where two guardsponies stood outside, not realizing what was going to happen in the distant future… Next Chapter: Feeling Her Pain Estimated time remaining: 42 Minutes