Rated Teen because that's when we teach kids about reproductive biology. Comments have spoilers, and that's partially my bad. Sorry.
Leading Equestria for a thousand years alone required sacrifices. There are only so many hours in a day, even for the one who governs how many hours there are in a day. A choice to do one thing is a choice not to do a countless number of alternatives. A mortal pony would have to compromise. An ageless alicorn? She could simply wait.
With retirement came the chance to finally chase all those deferred dreams. And if one should prove more difficult than expected, well, there were ponies who could help with that. Plenty of mares had... difficulties with these things, and doctors helped them every day!
Why should she be any different?
I had no idea what to use for cover art. Sorry about that.
Ideas! Clone, Age regression spell, work out a way to make the time travel spell last long enough to harvest viable eggs. Use magic to retrieve them out of sight of earlier Celestia so she does not remember donating them. Would account for the few odd heats she had over the years.
10991614
I kinda figure that Celestia would balk at the risks and ethical implications surrounding those sorts of drastic options. Especially after what Starlight did with a modified time travel spell.
Thanks for reading!
This is very good. A discomfort I could never understand, as I plan to never have children, and can’t see the difference between birth and adoption anyway.
But I still FELT all the feelings here. Every line was as realistic as it was impactful. Hats off to you, this might be the most realistic and heartfelt dialogue I’ve ever seen in a fic. Thank you so much for writing.
10991661
Wow, that really means a lot to read. I'm so glad that you enjoyed it, even when coming from such a different point of view to the characters. Thank you for taking the time to read and provide feedback!
...And I just remembered that I was originally planning to touch on adoption but forgot to work it in along the way. Darn.
One minor error pulled me out of the moment--you've got a "pegasai" in there, a common mistake among those whose Japanese is better than their Greek. Other than that...wow. This may not be entirely new ground, but it's never been quite so--if you'll forgive me--fertile.
10992019
Thank you for the correction! I suppose it's not too surprising that this is ground others have trodden before, but I'm glad that you found it a good execution of the concept. Pardon me while I go track down every other time I've spelled "pegasi" wrong. Thanks for reading!
This was very well done. I'm an adoptive father because my wife and I couldn't have kids so this hit home. Though my adopted child is every bit as much my child in my heart as any bio-kid would have been, when you get the news you can't have your own kids, even though you might know you can adopt, its still crushing, at least for a while.
10992173
Thank you, that really means a lot. I hesitated on publishing this for a long time because I worried about treating the subject respectfully. Insofar as is possible when I'm choosing to write about it via magical pony fanfiction. Thank you for reading, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Ouch, this hits me right in the feels, really hard. Good work but damn. Poor Celly and Lulu, I need to find a good momlestia adoption story to balance out my feels again.
11187006
Thank you, I'm glad you found it moving, though hopefully not too much so. I hope you found a suitably uplifting story to counterbalance it. Thanks for reading!
Poor Celly. :(
What about Luna, though? Is Luna able to have foals?
11211521
I suppose it would depend on if her biological processes kept on going while banished. I could see it going either way, honestly. Thanks for reading!
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Cool. And you're very welcome!
"OPTIONS"?! TELL ME THE OPTIONS NOW!!!!! PLEASE!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭 I NEED BEST PRINCESS TO BE HAPPY
11867364
Had I ever decided to write a follow-up, I'd have probably gone with in vitro fertilization from a donor, since everything else about her was otherwise in perfect health. Maybe Luna (if she didn't have the same thing going on thanks to magic) or Cadance (due to her proven track record of success while being an alicorn). I'd imagined adoption being a thorny issue with the whole "how do you tell a child they did (or didn't) get picked by Celestia?" thing. Oh, and thanks for reading.
11915316
Oh wow, I wasn't expecting you to respond lol. The in vitro fertilization thing makes a lot of sense tbh--I would have loved any one of the Princesses donating eggs so that Celly could have foals. And yeah, that is fair regarding the adoption issue.
You're welcome! I remember this fic destroyed my soul when I first read it. You did a fantastic job.
11915739
Thank you. Out of the stories I've published, this is probably the one I was least confident in writing, let alone posting. It's always nice to see that it had an impact on someone.
And even though I don't have any active stories anymore, I do still appreciate every bit of feedback that comes in, so I'll keep trying to respond. Admittedly, I only think to check for comments rather infrequently so yours kinda sat waiting for a while there.
11915955
Totally fine by me, mate. Have a good one! :)