Twilight groaned, sank deeper into the mattress. Her body was still shaking. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. The only time Celestia had left her side had been to fetch her personal medics who had been sworn to secrecy about her condition. If it got out that she'd gotten sick after taking the warlock potion, then that would make it look as if the earls had been right in their accusations.

Celestia patted her head with a wet cloth. Twilight adjusted her head on the pillow. When she could think, when her mind wasn't awash in awareness of her body's pains, she contemplated the idea that maybe the earls had been right. She had experimented with dark magic, her soul had been a conduit for demonic energies.Otherwise, the potion wouldn't be having this effect. Sweat pooled on the skin beneath her fur, her fur was matted and clumped together, her mane a disaster that would have sent Rarity into a fit. The shivering had been going on for she knew not how long. Time was slipping away from her. It could have been minutes since the test had been taken, or hours or centuries.

The room swam before her, refusing to stay still. Her stomach churned like the depths of a storm-lashed sea. It wasn't entirely the potion's fault. She was unworthy, that was the truth of the matter, that's why she was feeling this. When? When had this sense of unworthiness first struck her? Was it when she saw the fear in her parent's eyes after her foalhood tantrums had nearly destroyed rooms so they'd had to put an inhibitor ring on her horn?

And they hadn't meant to, bless them. They'd wanted to be safe. They'd wanted to keep her safe from the nearly boundless wellspring of mystic powers she could draw on, powers no other Unicorn seemed to possess, at least not to the degree she did.

One half of her horn was blazing like fire, the other was frozen like ice. Celestia touched her cheek. Twilight coughed. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Twilight tried to lift up, found that she couldn't. "It was all for nothing...you went to the edge of the world for me...and it was all for nothing...I'm afraid I'm going to die. The potion's killed me."

Her body was divided between dancing flames and shards of frost. Celestia grabbed her face between her forehooves. "Don't say that. You are not going to die, Twilight. I have the best doctors in the world, I can bring in doctors from other worlds. I will save you."

She planted a kiss on Twilight's forehead.

"Am I a warlock?" A series of rattling coughs shook Twilight's body. "Is that why this potion is doing this to me?"

Celestia rubbed circles in her chest. The tang of menthol stung Twilight's nostrils and suddenly she could breathe again, the powerful herb clearing her nasal passages. "Do you wish to cause massive harm and destruction? To bind living things to your will, enslave nations?"

Twilight choked back a sob of agony. "What about the want it need it spell? That was Cadence's love spell and I twisted it."

Celestia lathered Twilight's chest with the lotion, white splashed against purple. Her hooves worked deep into the skin beneath. "Your own mind was twisted by that demon Discord. Did not your friend Fluttershy give in to cruelty?"

"Y-yes."

"Your friend Pinkie suffered from nightmares and depression after the attack so my sister told me. One incident does not erase a lifetime of devotion to the Light. You saved my realm more than once from the powers of Darkness. You are an enemy of Darkness, not its servant."

"Wasn't it Neightsche who said he who fights monsters must take care less he become a monster?"

Celestia's feathers caressed Twilight's side's. "Neightsche died in a mental institution. Why don't you take what he said with a grain of salt?"

Twilight giggled. "Alright, alright. His epistemology was suspect."

Celestia tickled her wings along Twilight's rib cage, delighted in the squeaks such affection evoked. "Listen, dear Twilight, you are not evil. You can not give in to despair. Take it from someone who knows."

Twilight lifted up, traced Celestia's lips with her own. "Why is it affecting me like this?" She asked once she put her head on the pillow.

"I don't know and we won't know till the doctor's come back." She settled herself next to Twilight. "I can tell you it's not because you are a warlock. Something decidedly odd is going on. The doctors did an ordinary scan and couldn't detect what the poison was."

"A poison that couldn't be detected by a scan?" She forced herself up, doubling over from a renewed fit of trembling. "It must have...must have dissolved." She tried to access her magic, found her core inaccessible. "Only explanation."

Celestia saw her trying to get the pillow with her hooves, took it in her aura and pulled it up for her. "If it's dissolving inside of you, that is most serious. You would already be dead."

"The potion you gave me must be counteracting it."

Celestia swept her wings around Twilight, tugged her down onto the sheets. "You must rest. Do not strain yourself."

Twilight nodded against Celestia's fur. "This is nice. Can we stay like this?"

"For as long as you wish."

Twilight closed the remaining distance between them. Celestia started to sing a sweet tune into Twilight's ear, a lullabye at the volume of a whisper. Twilight sighed in contentment. With each note, she felt herself relax. Her body was still racked with pain, but the music put her at ease.

Celestia closed the song with a brush of lips against Twilight's ear. Twilight turned to reciprocate and it was at this moment that Raven walked in on them. She hurried to shuffle out, but Celestia broke away from the kiss. "Yes, Raven?"

"A petitioner is here, Your Highness."

Celestia glanced down at Twilight. Twilight pressed her hooves against her chest. "You should go."

"I know."

Celestia lingered. Twilight stroked her ever-flowing mane. "Really, Celestia. I'll be fine."

Celestia kissed her horn. "I'll be back shortly."

...
Dr. Unsicker stared at the chart he had spread out before him on the white table. He was in his office which was austerely decorated. Only a picture of his wife and two sons brought a hint that the healer had a life outside of being the castle physician. The brown Earth Pony rolled his shoulders, stood from the chair in the hope that a change in position would knock his mind into gear.

He sat back down in the brown chair, cast a disdainful glance at the degree on his wall. Canterlot University, first in his class. He had cured everything from the Guard's broken hooves to Alicorn Flu, a particularly virulent ailment that had lain dormant for one-thousand years until Luna had returned and unintentionally revived the ancient pathogen. He considered his actions in developing a vaccine which he'd administered to Celestia and Cadence to have gone a long way to preserving the stability of the empire.

Perhaps, it'd given him an inflated ego. He lifted the chart up. He didn't understand. In his twenty years there was not an illness he had not at least encountered, not a poison he didn't have at least a cursory understanding of. When Celestia had come to him with the alarming news that Twilight (a former patient of his) was ill, the first thing he had done was order a toxicology report. They'd had to go to the Princess's chambers to do it. No one could know she was ill, Celestia insisted. The toxocology report had been analyzed.

Dr. Unsicker was not an expert in magic, but he had his tribe's affinity for the plants of the earth. The warlock potion was a thing of brilliance, a masterful example of Earth Pony magic. It was made up of plants whose affinity was for the Light. A normal Pony would not be affected. A dark mage would grow ill. A warlock would be killed instantly.

He refused to believe that the Bearer of Magic, the Element of Friendship itself, was a dark mage. It was inconsistent with everything he knew about Twilight. One who stumbled was not lost forever. A dark mage was one who fell and was forever lost, not one who returned to Light and fought for it against all the powers of the Darkness.

The potion itself contained an oddity. He picked up a tack and drove it through the chart, nailing it to a wooden board. He found that one often had to look at things from a different angle, literally in some cases.

"Alright. Alright. What do we have here? Dittany, Tirek's snare, mandrake root...everything looks good so far...what is that? Wait...that's not a plant."

He approached the board. It was a strand of DNA, a double helix pattern, unmistakable as the matrix of life. The diagnostic chart broke down the chemical structure of each element of the potion. Like all Equestrian doctors, he had been trained to recognize chemical structures.

His first thought was that it was Alicorn DNA. That wouldn't make sense. He stared at. It held some resemblance to the DNA of a snake, but no snake he had ever encountered. It had some similarity to an Alicorn's DNA, but it was different on a molecular level.

Alicorn DNA was like no other known DNA pattern. This was almost like Celestia's. A relative, same species. Born Alicorn, not an ascended one. A common ancestor. The story of a race unfolded before him as he studied the pattern. Haplogroups spoke of common descent, a starborn species, children of the Cosmos.

He placed his hoof to the chart. What was this DNA, unmistakably serpentine, unmistakably Alicorn, unmistakably one of Celestia's kin, doing in a potion intended to find warlock's? Ingesting this would have all kinds of unknown effects. It would make a Pony incredibly sick. A Pony's body would reject it.

The fact that Twilight wasn't dead could only be attributed to the antidote. He had taken one look at that chemical analysis and decided that looking at it any further would require him to either descend into utter madness or renounce every field of science and start from the beginning.

Working with Alicorns made every day feel like that in fact. He started to pace. "This warlock potion was poisoned. That is what I can start with. The earls didn't intend to test her for guilt or innocence. They intended to kill her."

"Would you go on a witness stand and testify as such?"

Dr. Unsicker looked up. Princess Luna had strode into the room, took one glance at the baffling chart and understood in a way that he could never hope to do. Her lips twisted in rage. Dr. Unsicker took several steps back. "I would do so, Your Highness."

"Legally, of course, it would be impossible to determine who specifically poisoned it. Both earls will blame the sorcerer and bribery will do the rest."

"Are you really so cynical, Your Highness?"

"Yes. However, there is one who shall pay. Jormungandr, what game is this?"

The name made him shudder although he knew not why. It was familiar. "Jormungandr? The Great Serpent, God of the Dragons?"

"The very same. He has a strong dislike for mortals, Twilight specifically, considering her a thief. He must be bound, for her safety. I must...inform my sister that she might go to the Celestial Realms to bring the charges."

Dr. Unsicker almost asked why she didn't go herself, but decided not to. "So, this is Jormungandr's DNA?"

"Indeed. It is his blood which is dangerously acidic. It is a wonder that Twilight's organs aren't burning from the inside."

"She was complaining about feeling an extreme heat."

"That would do it. Cold too I imagine, from the antidote."

"She was indeed, Princess."

"I once studied the healing arts myself, but I grew more interested in ailments of the mind. I must be off. Here's a hint, Doctor. Anti-venom, such as appropriate for fighting the effects of the cobra."

Dr. Unsicker nodded, dipping his head. "We always keep stocked up on that. Thank you."

"Such is not needed. Twilight Sparkle is my friend."

With that, Luna turned and left. Dr. Unsicker rushed out behind her.

...
Twilight stared up at the ceiling, shivering with cold, sweating with heat, fire coursing through her blood. She turned on her side, wishing Celestia was here.

No. Celestia had a duty. She couldn't always be there. No matter how much Twilight wished for that to be true. Her vision was too blurry to let her read. The blurriness bothered her. She had been going over different poisons in her head, there being precious little else to do. There were plenty of poisons that affected the eyes. None of them were good.

That thought made her laugh. Poisons were not good by definition. She groaned, pulled the sheets over herself. The door slid open, the sound of it scraping over the stone of the floor. Twilight adjusted herself on the bed. Vision blurry or not, she recognized Celestia. The solar princess laid next to her. A glimmer of light caught the amethyst, stylized sun necklace. "Are you feeling better, Twilight?"

Twilight played with the necklace. "You almost never wear this. It matches your eyes."

Celestia nuzzled her. "Yes, I decided to wear it to court today, just to give me strength. When I wear it, it's like I feel my mother is with me. I know that sounds foalish, but..."

Twilight interlaced her foreleg with Celestia's. "It's not foalish. It's sweet."

"Thank you, Twilight." Celestia's lifted Twilight's hoof to her lips, gave it a soft kiss. "Twilight, there's something we need to talk about."

"What?"

The door slammed open, Luna marched in, the picture of imperial power one-thousand years ago, a vision from a bygone age with her wings spread wide and chest puffed out. A far more modern doctor followed in her wake. "Sister, Twilight! We hath found the cure."

Celestia stood up from off the bed. "Then, by all means, administer it at once."

Dr. Unsicker hastened to obey the order, pulling out a vial. He placed it to Twilight's lips and Twilight drank it. Her eyes widened as memories of a family camping trip gone wrong came back to her. "This is antivenom." She sat up on the bed. "What's going on?"

"Anti-venom?" For a flicker of a second, Twilight could have sworn Celestia's eyes glowed red like the deepest flames of Tartarus. The vision passed. "Please tell me that what I think's going on isn't going on."

"That depends. What do you think is going on?"

Celestia whirled around to face Luna. "If it's true, I'm going to kill him."

Twilight wasn't imagining it. Her eyes were glowing and her voice had deepened. Luna reached up one trembling hoof and pressed it to Celestia's face. "Peace."

There was no peace. Celestia's mane blazed like fire. "It's Jormungandr, isn't it? That bastard did this?"

"I'm afraid so."

Celestia struck the ground. The floor cracked.

"Please, calm yourself."

Black tendrils of shadow shot out from Celestia's wings, covered them.

"Celestia!" Luna shouted. "Come back to me!"

There was a brief struggle on Celestia's face. The tendrils receded. Her eyes and mane returned to normal and her legs gave out from under her. Luna caught her before Twilight could. "Please leave, Doctor. Twilight, return to your sick bed. You are not strong enough yet to move."

"What just happened to Celestia?"

"A fit of temper, nothing more."

"That looked like Nightma-"

"I know what it looked like. What you saw shall not leave this room."

Twilight hesitantly agreed before rushing to Celestia and helping her up.

"I'm fine, both of you."

"You don't look fine."

"Return to your bed, Twilight Sparkle."

"I'm fine."

"I've met Donkeys who were less stubborn. You two are perfect for each other."

"We know," both responded, grinning at the Night Princess who murmured a curse in a long-lost Equestrian dialect.

"Luna! Say that again and I'll wash your mouth out!"

Luna rolled her eyes. "May I just say you have never defeated me in combat? Indeed, it was Jormungandr's poison. Our enemies have joined together."

She lifted Twilight in her magic and deposited her in the bed. Twilight protested until Celestia placed the blankets over her in her own golden magic. "I will open an investigation into Earl Grey and Earl Shimmer, but it might be difficult to build a case."

Luna sat on the edge of the bed. Celestia reclined by Twilight's side. "Nopony saw the earls poison the potion and it is very difficult-by design-to prove a felony."

"Of course and that design makes sense. Too many innocents were exiled before we designed the current system."

"However, a case against Jormungandr will be much easier to build. We shall go-"

"You shall go."

"We shall go and bring the case against him."

Luna shuffled her leg. "I'm not ready."

"Yes, you are. The case will be stronger if we put up a united front."

"I understand."

Celestia touched Luna's shoulder. "Let us discuss it in more detail later."

"Very well."

"How did you and the good doctor discover the cure anyway?"

"He ran a chemical analysis and I recognized the blood pattern-DNA mortals call it-as Jormungandr."

"I see. I still want to kill him."

Luna pressed her withers. "As do I, but I also know where such things lead."

Twilight's ear flicked. "The Nightmare almost took you, didn't it? Just then?"

Luna and Celestia shared a look, a private conversation taking place between them.

Luna shook her head. "Some thing our subjects should not know, but you have figured it out I see."

Celestia said something lightning quick in what sounded like first century Unicornian. Luna said something back. Celestia nipped Twilight's ear. "You're very clever, Twilight. You've never been an ordinary Unicorn, you know that?"

"If you don't want to tell me..."

"No, Twilight, I do. I need to. Good and evil lives in all of us, including Alicorns. When destructive emotions overtake an Alicorn, a Nightmare can be born. Seeing you in the position you were in made me almost give in. That would have been very bad."

"That's why you act so calm sometimes isn't it? And I thought you didn't care. I'm sorry."

Celestia soothed her with a kiss. "It's alright."

Twilight returned the kiss. Luna politely excused herself. Twilight drew back. "There was something you were going to ask me wasn't there?"

Celestia stammered. "Well, yes." She raised Twilight's hoof to her lips, pressed her lips to it. "Twilight, I love you. More than words can express. There are going to be a lot of things we'll have to work out. But, will you do me the honor of making me your wife?"

Author's Notes:

TOOK YA LONG ENOUGH, CELLY.