A gust of old smudge reached my nose as I opened the chest. I reached in to pull out an old book. It read, "Diary of Queen Fushcia.". I couldn't believe it. I could have struck gold with finding a cure. Maybe the answer was in there! With time running out, I quickly opened the book and flipped through the pages until I reached a certain entry that seemed to may have an answer.
Entry 658: My little girl Scarlet is all grown up. Just today she became the highest ranked warrior in our beloved kingdom of Yacratisa. It was a beautiful day today. My husband was ther as well.
Entry 659: Well shit. I woke up with a fever today and a cramp in my stomach.
Entry 660: Ok, so apparently the doctors said I had something in my blood that was foreign. I'm an alicorn so I should be ok in a few days.
Entry 661: Five days have passed. I'm not getting any better.
Entry 662: Finally I'm better. But the doctors have no good news. They looked at my blood to see that some of my husband's was in there as well. Could that be the cause of it? I went to ask him today and she didn't say anything. I went back the next day and they made a breakthrough. The same stuff was in my daughter the last time they did a check up. They compared my blood to hers and…dear Yarcratsia I hope I didn't get this from my husband when we consummated.
I started to think there must be a connection between Citrus and the disease Fuschia caught. I continued to read on.
Entry 663: It was from my husband. Dear Yacratsia what have I gotten myself into? Now my daughter has it but she seems perfectly ok. I'm not gonna sleep easily tonight.
Entry 664: Another sleepless night, fuck! More new's from my doctors. They hired a scientist to help them with their work and he had quite the load of facts to tell me. Simply put it, I got the disease from my husband when we mated, and my daughter is in a sense the manifestation of it making her immune. She's basically made up of the stuff. On the other hoof…I hate to say this but, she'll never be able to have a child without it catching my disease.
Entry 665: Should I tell her?
My hooves started shaking in disbelief as I turned the page over to the next entry.
Entry 666: Scarlet's having another of her pubescent moments. I don't want to ruin her life, but…what else can I do? My husband is nowhere to be found. I hope she's ok. I'm at my office right now and I'm stressed out as heck. I don't think I can contain it anymore. I'm gonna head off to bed and tell my daughter tomorrow about this. Hope my husband will be here when this happens.
I flipped over the pages hoping to find something else but there was nothing. I flipped through the next one an it was blank as well as the rest of the pages. I dropped to my knees and barely breathed as I came to the conclusion that entry 666 of Queen Fuschia's diary was the last one she made before her husband, Succubi killed her. II raced as fast as I could back to the infirmary to tell Scarlet. I couldn't believe what I had read in her diary. Oh the horror! The discovery, the murder, Succubi letting us go, it made sense. Succubi let us go so my fiancée would forever bear the pain of not having a child ever again! That fiend! Emotions ran rampant throughout my body as I entered the room with my child in it. I stood ever so still as I saw from afar the figure that was once the smooth beautiful body of citrus. Her skin color was almost completely faded along with her absent smile. I slowly began to walk in. "Scarlet…" I said in a miserable tone. "Yes honey?" She said as she turned to me not expecting any good news, but her face showed that she had the slightest ounce of hope that there would be. It crushed my heart to ruin that hope, but I could not lie as I knew our daughter only had minutes maybe even seconds to live. Nurse Redheart looked at her with a worried face that was unlike her. "There's something you need to see." I said as I slowly handed her the the diary. Scarlet looked at it with wide eyes. "Where…." She stuttered as she grabbed and began to read it. "Where did you find this?!"
"In the attic in the her chest. The key fit the lock. And…" I flipped through her pages to where the calamity started. "Here. This explains it all." She looked through it. As she did, her expression harbored more and more disbelief. She flipped through the pages faster until she reached the last entry. With a look of horror, she dropped the book down and collapsed to her knees and sobbed a tsunami. It broke my heart to see my love this way. She came so far in life and now it looked like shes' back to square one. Her tears really proved that she cared for Citrus, and now there was nothing she could do about it. There was nothing anypony could do about it. Nurse Redheart tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at her hoof repeatedly. I knew what that meant. Time was running out. I slowly walked to my child and held her hoof, tears starting to pour form my eyes. "C…Citrus?" I asked. "Are you there?" There was no response. I held her hoof tighter hoping to get something out of her. I looked down in sorrow in fear I have already heard her last words, until I felt a slight twitch in her grasp. I immediately stood up and looked at her as she slowly opened her eyes. "D...daddy?" She said in a low whispery tone. I placed another hoof on her. "It's me baby. Its me." I said in a desperate tone. Her eyes were barely open as we spoke. She slowly leaned her head up, "Mmm…where's mommy?" She asked. I looked back at her. She was still a sobbing mess. I walked over to Scarlet and helped her up before walking back over to her. "Why am I dying?" She asked. "I…thought I was never gonna…" she said slowly. I nodded my head at that response. All I could say back was. "Its…complicated. You're just…sick. But its really really complicated." She looked away from us and at the ceiling. She blinked as she replied back. "I don't like complicated things." She just started at the ceiling and gave of a weak smile as we kept holding her hoof. Before I knew it, her breathing became more faint and soon I heard none. I looked at her. "Citrus?" I said. "Citrus?" I leaned in and looked at her face that seemed to be lifeless. "Citrus! No no no no! Citrus! Please stay here a little longer! Please wake up!" I kept saying that more and more fantically and hysterically before I stopped dead at a high frequency sound. Her heart rate monitor had gone flat. I stepped back sobbing as the nurse put a stethoscope up to her heart to search for any pulse. But my hopes hit rock bottom as she slowly pulled it off her ears, looked to us with a face full of sadness and shook her head.
Citrus Tulip was dead.
I quickly and without hesitation hugged my wife with all the remaining strength I had left as Scarlet cried more than she ever had before into my shoulder, minutes then hours passed as we both lay on the floor letting the tears flow out creating a sea of nihilism. Nurse Redheart and all the other surrounding doctors took off their hats and bowed their heads in respect, for this was the first time in history that an alicorn died from a disease. It felt like the entire multiverse was collapsing in upon itself as Scarlet and I embraced each other in our darkest moment.
Ponies from all across the multiverse attended the funeral. Lavanda, Jade Sprocket, Vannamelon, Pone Pony, Hoers, Princess Rose, Nightshade, Tio, Varla Streak, Tridashie, Shard, Harley Quinn, Optimus Prime, Master Chief, King Cobra, Celestia, Discord, Luna, Twilight, and the other great rulers joined to pay their respects. Even Merasmus took the day off from being in hell. Her friends from Equestria also joined in to pay their respects. But I'll never forget the look on Plaster Delight's face. He sobbed even more than I did when Citrus died. To him, she was his crush, the love of his life. I felt sorry for the poor guy. Heck, almost evverypony felt sorry for him as the rest of his classmates gave him huge hugs. Never in the history of the multiverse had an alicorn died of a natural cause. So yeah, it was huge. The funeral was held in the same graveyard that Fuschia was buried. Citrus's coffin was engulfed in tulips and other flowers as I did the speech. I spoke many great things about her and what would've been if she was given another chance. The sky itself seemed to cry as droplets of rain started to fall upon us. I let out a big sigh as I finished it. Everypony clapped as the Yacratsian soldiers lined up over the coffin to do a 21 gun salute. They all did so, their riffles echoing into the day before they saluted with their hooves once more and returned to their spots. Citrus's coffin was soon lowered into the ground. I wiped a tear or two from my face as this was the last time I'd ever see her. The well known Crimson Forge, a Pony Town pastor who also helped me set up the funeral looked at me with a face full of sorrow. "I'm sorry for your loss.." He said with a remorseful tone.
"It's not your fault." I responded before the coffin was firmly laid onto the ground. We soon left the rest of the guards to take care of the rest and place the dirt back into the ground where it came. Scarlet and I returned to our castle after we had a lot more of apologies for the loss of our child from others. We barely even spoke to each other for the rest of the day.
I couldn't take it anymore. I woke up feeling more sleepy than ever. It's been a month since Citrus's passing and Scarlet still has night terrors. This is the twenty-fourth time it happened. I sat up looking down on the bed covering my face. Was this really meant to happen to us? No, I swore upon my life I would never have the dreaded d-word happen between us! Never! And yet…continuing our species was seemingly impossible. I shook my head as Scarlet was sleeping with her face buried in the pillow to hide her sadness.. I looked at her. Then, something popped up into my head. A seed that slowly but surely sprouted into a flower. My eyes widened. Was it really possible? And if so, who could do it? I looked at the options and l nodded my head and closed my eyes. According to the diary of Queen Fuschia, if Scarlet were to carry the child, it would be infected, but that only applied to her womb. What if her seed was in me? It may have seemed like an insane idea, but if we wanted to make a family, I would do anything to have a child. Putting my mind to set, I wrote a note telling Scarlet that I would be heading off to see Nightshade. I decided and put my mind head on to what I would do now. I would never allow us to remain family-less and lonely. I would do the impossible. I would make the ultimate sacrifice to my sexuality.
I would become a female.