“Princess, how good to see you!” a nurse greets me as I walk through the corridors of the Royal Canterlot Hospital.

“Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here,” I reply. The nurse walks on and I continue on my journey. I have only two things on my mind: my little Aurora, and Astral Charm. Now I have some free time in my schedule, I need to speak to them both.

Eventually, I track them down. They are sharing a room, which makes things a little easier. Whilst I won't have the privacy that I'd like with Aurora, I won't have to run around after them and have the same conversation twice. I knock on the door twice, then three times, then twice more, and I hear Aurora say, “Princess! Come in, come in!”

I open the door, and Aurora smiles at me. I walk in and close the door behind me before I walk over to her bed. She wraps her forelegs around me and cries, “I missed you, Princess!”

“I’ve told you, Aurora, you can call me Celestia,” I laugh, nuzzling her.

“In private, yes, but don’t forget about Astral.”

I look across the room and gasp. She looks almost exactly the same as the last time I saw her - same deep purple fur, same messy red and blue mane - although she’s wearing a bandage over both of her eyes.

“Princess Celestia, it’s good to - well, I can’t exactly see you right now, but, you know what I mean - it’s good to be back,” she says.

“Astral Charm!” I rush over to her bedside. “I thought you were-”

“I know, Princess. I gave everypony a good scare. The Church of Sunlight saved my life, though.”

“Why didn’t you come back or tell anypony that you were alive?”

“Decided to lay low for a while. Being in the Royal Guard is all good fun, but I needed a break after all of that chaos. I needed to get away from everything and live a relatively quiet life for a few years. Plus I’ve had a - how do I put this? - a heart condition for the last couple of years. I’m sure everypony would’ve told you what happened to me.”

All of a sudden I realise just how much I’ve missed Astral. She has a bit of a dry sense of humour, but she’s an amazing Royal Guard and she is so incredibly loyal. I hate to see her in this state, but despite her wounds she seems to be happy.

“Astral, the Royal Guard is just not the same without you.”

“Thanks, Princess.” Her smile falters. “Downside is, I’m not the only one who escaped from the Battle of Hollow Shades alive three years ago. My brother’s running around causing mayhem still, as he does.”

“...Skywalker, the ex-Lunar Guard?” I ask, a little impressed by the revelation.

She nods. “Him, Princess. In charge of the buckin’ Crystal Guards, he was. Busy leading the attack. But I think between me and Aurora over there, we gave him a bit of Tartarus for you. If he lives, he’ll be confined to bed rest for a month.” She grins at Aurora. “Nice shooting, girl.”

“Bullseye,” Aurora answers.

“Not quite. I already took his eye out, remember?”

“Yes, Astral, you did.” The mare nods. “But I still managed to hit him, and he got your eye as well, so I think the two of you are even, and I’m in the lead for getting his throat.”

I raise an eyebrow, impressed.

“Hey, you wouldn't have actually been able to do that if I hadn't broken his back and almost suffocated him first!”

“But I also had the least injuries out of the three of us.”

“Fair comment." She grins again, showing off her vampire fangs. I had almost forgotten that she was one of them. "Odds on him surviving everything we threw at him?”

“Knowing your family, Astral, it’s fifty-fifty.”

“Well, if he lives, I might get to fight him again. That’ll be fun.”

The two of them share a laugh, and I shake my head at the sight of them. Royal Guard humour. As grim as their job is, they make the most of it.

Once again I am reminded of my younger self, when I first had to fight Grogar and Discord’s forces. War changes ponies, both for better and for worse. In the face of adversity they become tougher and their friendships stronger.

“Is there any other news?” I ask once the laughter dies down.

“A few deaths on both sides,” Astral reports. “The two Umbrum took everypony from the survivors back to the Crystal Empire by the looks of things. Probably in a few months’ time they’ll be trained soldiers for us to sort out. The old Captain of the Royal Guard has his work cut out for him.”

“They were there, at the battle?” I say.

Aurora tells me, “They both know how to fight, to say the least. I ended up trapped in a cage made of crystals and Astral had the-” her voice drops, “the mind control spell used on her.”

“Let the cat out the bag, why don’t you?” Astral grumbles. “But I already told you, Aurora, it wasn’t that bad.” She pauses. “Alright, it was pretty terrifying at the time, but I’m telling you, I’ve survived far worse than that.”

I take a deep breath. “Did you… give in to the spell?”

“Not one of my best moments, but that King Sombra is experienced. Thankfully all he made me do was drop my knife and stay out of the way until he was gone, but Swift’ll be ashamed of me when I get back. Tartarus, he and I are going to have a lot to talk about, really. Oh, and talking of Swift, why wasn’t he fighting this time around? Was he busy elsewhere?”

I turn away from her. Even though she can’t see me, I can’t look at her face. I walk over to Aurora again.

“Princess? Where’s my Thunder and Lightning?”

“He went to the Crystal Empire on an espionage mission,” I tell her. “I haven’t heard anything from him in a few months.”

“...Dammit.” She curses under her breath. “So he could be dead?”

“He could be,” I say, closing my eyes.

“Gah, the stars bucking hate me, don’t they?!” The mare shouts. “I’m cursed, Princess! I cheated death and I felt pretty smug about it at the time, but now I have to go through all of this.”

“I feel your pain.” It slips out by accident.

She hesitates. “Oh, sorry. I can't see you, Princess, so I sort of... forgot about the whole alicorn immortality thing. My bad.”

Aurora’s eyes fill with tears all of a sudden, and I have a vague idea of what she must be thinking right now. She is concerned about me outliving her, and what I will do once she is gone. It is a pain that I have had to experience far too many times, and I am afraid to say that it has become much easier to deal with over time, even though I haven’t ever forgotten the ponies who were the most important to me.

“Aurora, don’t cry,” I say. I lean forwards and kiss her. I’m not sure exactly why, but it feels right.

"It's fine, I-"

I interrupt her with another kiss. "Shh, my little pony. I know what must be troubling you, but it is something that you don't need to worry about for many years yet."

"Aurora, listen to the Princess.” The blinded mare suggests. “She cares enough to completely ignore me and start snogging you as loudly as possible, so maybe she'll find some way of making you live longer. A fountain of youth or a mystical potion. Or maybe she'll say, 'Oh, buck this,' and get her niece to turn you into an Umbrum or something."

"Astral," I say in a warning tone.

“Princess, it was a joke," she laughs. "I'm not about to start supporting dark magic... like my brother did." She mutters, "Sure would be nice to hug him again without wondering if he's about to stick a knife in my back, though."

“Your struggles remind me of some of my own,” I tell her truthfully. “My sister and I quarrelled for quite some time before she turned to dark magic and became Nightmare Moon. For all of those years whilst she was on the moon, I wondered whether she still loved me and whether we would be able to forgive each other when she returned.”

“And did you?”

“Yes,” I lie. Aurora knows otherwise but she remains quiet, thank goodness. I can confide in her and trust her not to share my secrets with others, and know that she won’t judge me.

“Princess?” Astral asks sleepily.

I turn my head to look back at her. “Yes, Astral?”

“How long do you think it will take to win? The war, I mean.”

“It won’t be easy, but I think it will end quite soon, and quite suddenly too. Perhaps before the end of the year.”

“Good. Then all of this will be over and we won’t have to worry about dark magic anymore,” she yawns. “The gods and goddesses of Equis will stop fighting, and everypony else can stop fighting, and I won’t need to fight my bucking brother… and there’ll be harmony again.” She smiles and falls asleep.

“Poor Astral hasn’t been able to stay awake for much longer than an hour since the mind control spell was used on her,” Aurora sighs. “I’m worried for her, Celestia. Sometimes she seems content, almost happy, but there’s always something going on in the background. I don’t ever want to intrude on her privacy, but I can’t help but wonder what it is that’s bothering her and if there’s more I can do to help.”

“Aurora, you are amazing and you have done so much for her already. There is only so much you can do for her, though. Just make sure that she knows that you care.”

“Of course.”

There’s a moment of silence, and as I think I begin to smile conspiratorially, a plan hatching itself in my head, a plan to get Lulu out of my mane for a while and spend some quality time with a pony who loves me. “Did the doctor happen to mention when you might be allowed out?”

“He said something about me possibly being allowed to leave today or tomorrow if it looks like all of my injuries are healing.”

My smile grows wider. “Would you care to perhaps join me for dinner tomorrow night?”

“A romantic dinner with my favourite princess?” she jokes. “Am I ever going to say no?”

“Probably not,” I reply, “and even if you did, I would do everything in my power to convince you to change your mind.”

“What if I said I wouldn’t go unless you turned me into an alicorn?” she wonders, still keeping a smirk on her face.

“Then I would find a way to do so as quickly as possible. You deserve it.”

“Aww, don’t make me blush,” she says, with her cheeks slightly burning.

“No, you really do. There are few ponies who I think I would turn into alicorns, one of them being Twilight Sparkle, and Prince Shining Armour being a second. The reason I would choose them, though, is more because of their importance to Equestria. The reason why I would choose for you to become an alicorn is because of your... importance to me.” I don’t know exactly where all of this is coming from, but it all pours out in a torrent of emotions.

“Aww, please, stop it, Celly,” she giggles.

“Ok, my little pony. But just remember this: I’m proud of you for looking after Astral Charm and for standing up for what you believe in.”

“Thank you,” she says.

I look up at the clock and my face falls. I need to be back in the throne room in a few minutes to speak to the families of the Element Bearers. It isn’t going to be an enjoyable meeting by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to go. I’ll have to come back and talk to Aurora later, or else wait until tomorrow night is here.

“I have to go, Aurora,” I say.

“Oh.”

“I’ll speak to you again shortly, though, and don’t forget how much you mean to me.”

We smile at each other one last time and I teleport back to the castle, ready for whatever the next few painful hours will bring. But afterwards, I have Aurora.

Yes, that’s right, Celestia. Whilst Aurora is here, we have nothing to worry about.

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