> My Little Pony: Friends Are Forever > by FireflyLake > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Royal Announcements > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everypony gathered around the palace in Canterlot. Whispers could be heard amongst the giant crowd. Just a few months ago they had all come here for the royal wedding of Princess Celestia and Discord. There was much controversy over it. Not many trusted him especially after the incident with Tirek and again at the Gala. They only supported it because they knew their Princess loved him and Fluttershy had been trying to get everypony to see that he was both reformed and greatly sorry as well as regretful over what had happened. Inside the palace Spike and the girls along with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor made their way to the throne room. The wide doors opened and closed behind them, allowing only them to see their rulers. Princess Luna sat high on her throne next to her guard Dream Shield. They bowed before her, but she raised a hoof not wanting them to. "Please, that is not necessary." She lowered her hoof as they rose. "We are friends and family. There is no need to be so formal." Getting up she gave them a small smile. Twilight stepped forward and asked the question they all wanted to know. "Princess Luna, why are we here? We all received a letter saying that it was of the utmost importance." The purple pony looked curiously at her Princess as she used her magic, showing her the letter. Luna opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by her elder sister. "No Lulu. Let me, I want to be the one to say it." Princess Celestia walked in with Discord who seemed concerned. With all of them looking to her eager to hear the news she cleared her throat. "Actually there are a few things I called you all here for. I have good news and bad news. But before I share it with you," she nodded to Luna. A light blue veil of magic formed around Luna's horn. All the doors and windows in the room were shut tight and made sound proof. Everypony was starting to get nervous about the news they were about to hear. How bad was it? What could it be? So many thoughts began to race through their heads. Celestia looked to Discord as he nodded for her to continue. "Well let's start with the good news. I'm pregnant!" Celestia smiled at them while Discord blushed. "Part of the reason I asked you here was to see if you could help me with our foal. I know many will reject it, that's why I'd like for you to help. I'll also be much weaker and need assistance, protecting Equestria and looking after its people." She stopped talking and gave them all a moment to let it sink in. Pinkie Pie was the first one to react. She jumped in the air ecstatic about the news. "YIPPEE! THIS IS SO CRAZY! THERE'S GOING TO BE A NEW LITTLE FOAL IN THE WORLD!" She was literally bouncing off the walls with excitement as she rambled on about planning a foal shower. As for the rest of them they ran over giving her a hug in the excitement. Fluttershy offered a hug to Discord too knowing he probably felt a little left out. The happiness was not yet over as Luna stepped forward announcing her engagement to Dream Shield. There was much excitement and commotion going on. Twilight came forth and offered a serious, but happy look. "I think I speak for all of us, not only as the Princess of Friendship, but as a friend when I say we're glad to help!" The others nodded and stamped their hooves in agreement. "There's a lot to do, but I'm sure we'll be able to pull it off." She gave a confident smile as she recalled all the other events they've pulled off under very tricky circumstances. Princesses Luna and Celestia were pleased by this, but stopped smiling. Their happy moment could not last, for with their good news also came bad. Composing themselves everypony now looked to them, unsure of what was to come next. Discord cleared his throat as he gave them a serious look as well. "Being the spirit of chaos and disharmony I can tell when the balance shifts." He recalled when Twilight was given all the alicorn magic so that they would understand. "Let me tell you, this was a big shift, worse than anything I've felt before. I'm all up for a little chaotic fun and all, but this feels far dark beyond my likings and very malicious. It's a huge concern considering Celestia's... errr... condition." Discord was clearly uneasy about the condition of his wife and unsure about how to go about it. Rainbowdash just rolled her eyes. "Pfft! Is that all? Whatever it is we can take it! Besides it's probably not even that bad. Lover boy over here is probably feeling a minor change and is over reacting because she's pregnant now." She playfully mocked the draconequus. It was more so just to keep herself and the others from freaking out. Celestia stepped in, nuzzling Discord to ease him. "That's not all. We've received word of ponies north of here having the love sucked out of them. We suspect Chrysalis is back. More than that there has been sightings of a mysterious fog engulfing the land and leaving it in ruins as is passes through. We've sent ponies out to go check on it, but we haven't heard back from them. We cannot let word of this reach the ponies here, it would be utter chaos. I'm sorry to ask this of you, but above everything else I need you to look into this for me. You need to do so in secret, we must consider the lives of our fellow ponies. Not a word of this leaves this room. The only ones who know are the royal guard and you." Cadance and Shining looked at each other in horror remembering how Chrysalis almost kept them apart. As for the girls they were a mixture of both scared and angry that somepony was threatening their very way of life. Spike tried his best to look angry like Rainbowdash, but it was clear that he was very much so scared. Not long after they left the throne room were the announcements made of Luna's engagement and Celestia's pregnancy. While everypony cheered they found it hard to manage a smile knowing the dangers that lurked just around the corner. > Twilight the Organizer > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Twilight flew home all she could do was worry. All they had were speculations, no one knew what they were up against. The princesses put their trust in her and her friends once again, but this time the stakes were higher. There was a royal wedding and pregnant princess they had to protect along with all of equestria. They needed a plan if they wanted to keep everypony safe. Reaching her castle in Ponyville she slowed down and flew in with a smooth landing. She was being extra quiet as she walked through the castle. She trotted down the halls to a spare room. Calmly she lightly knocked on the door. The door opened up to a bright blue eyed mare. Her coat was light and her hair was purple with white stripes. "Mom we need to-" Twilight was cut off by two little ponies. All of a sudden she was on her back and everything was spinning. "Shouldn't you two be asleep?" She could have sworn that she was seeing stars. "But Auntiiiieeee! We're not tired!" Her niece and nephew said in unison. The older one was a unicorn named Shining Night in honor of his father and grandfather. He looked like a small Shining Armor except his mane was more rounded with a yellow strip, where his father has a light blue one. The other one was a pegasus called Amora Belle. She had a lighter pink coat than her mother's with the same loving, purple eyes. Her main was pink with purple locs mixed in. Twilight got up giving them a hug. Cadance and Shining had dropped them off at the castle earlier when they arrived. Her mother and father stayed behind to watch them while they went off to the castle in a hurry. "Now settle down you guys. Your parents will be here shortly with uncles Flash and Spike. I want to give them a good report. Can you tell me what the rules are again?" She smiled kindly at her niece and nephew. They stood straight and tall before reciting the rules. "Don't run in the halls, you could get hurt and break something. Don't be too loud because Cosmic is sleeping. Always listen to your elders, they know what's best." They beamed with a sense of pride as they recalled the rules. After an approving nod they ran along. "They're so precious aren't they? Now what is it you wanted to say dear?" Her mother turned to her after a small giggle. Twilight cleared her throat before continuing. "Well first off how was Cosmic for you? No trouble I hope." Cosmic was her son. He was a light purple unicorn with blue eyes and a blue mane. She walked over to him giving the sleeping foal a gentle nuzzle. Twilight Velvet smiled at the scene before her. "He was no trouble at all. His magic is getting stronger though. He turned his rattle into a bottle! Your father was so frightened, he thought he was going to be turned into a plant again!" She chuckled at the thought of it actually happening. "That's insane. He's only a foal. I was a bit older when that happened. I also had been studying spells and had a jolt of magic when that happened, I couldn't control that." She looked around the room to see her dad passed out on the floor and covered in toys. Using her magic she cleaned up the mess and put her father in bed. "Well I guess our news can wait until later once everypony else is home." Once everypony had returned the adults gathered in the main room. Twilight explained to them how Luna was getting married and Celestia was pregnant. There was much to be done and she couldn't let her parents know the truth, even though she really wanted to. She put her parents in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly, giving them checklists of what needs to be done. Once they went to bed it was left to Twilight, Flash, Cadance, Shining Armor and Spike to figure out what to do. Twilight had Spike get a few letters ready with instructions for the others. "Now then, let's begin. First of all we need to give the appearance that everything is fine. This being said we'll have Rarity and Pinkie Pie fully focused on the wedding and foal shower party. Fluttershy should be the one to keep an eye on Celestia. Not only do her abilities as being the pony representing kindness give her a better ground of understanding towards others, but she's also closer to Discord than we are and can get him to focus on the tasks at hand. As for Rainbow Dash and Applejack, let's have them focus half their energy on the wedding and in their spare time look into what's been going on. Maybe Rainbow Dash and the Wonder Bolts can take a look around the bordering lands and report back to us what they see from the sky." She was hard at work finding ways to keep things under control and safe. Originally she was going to have Flash help guard Celestia, but he said he couldn't. "What do you mean you can't?" Twilight was clearly taken aback by this. Flash looked at her apologetically. "I thought you knew already." By the look on her face he knew he was wrong. "I'm part of the group being sent over to investigate. Somepony has to go out there and find out what happened to the others." He was a top ranking guard and after being trained by Shining himself he thought he was ready for anything, but not what came after. "NO!" Twilight nearly screamed, luckily nopony woke up. "That's too dangerous! There's a reason the others didn't come back! This is why I'm sending out an aerial team. Who gave you your orders?!" She fumed as tears threatened to fall from her eyes. He looked down then back at her. Taking a deep breath he looked her in the eyes. "It comes from Princess Celestia. She knows I can do this. I hope you do too." He shut his eyes expecting her to scream, but instead she was frozen in place. "Twilight?" She stared blankly before continuing. "Shining Armor. I want you to take Cadance back to the Crystal Empire and see if you can figure anything out. Cadance should be able to keep things well hidden while you snoop around. Dad can watch the kids and I'll be doing research of my own. Spike please get these orders out to everypony. Don't let anything interfere." Spike nodded and ran off while Twilight walked like a zombie to the nursery. In the nursery Twilight was holding a tired Cosmic close to her. Flash walked in and stood in front of her, admiring their little miracle. Twilight's eyes watered and Cosmic almost started to cry. Instead he mustered up all the magic he could to float a tissue to his mother. Twilight smiled, proud of her son for how advanced he was and also happy that he tried to cheer her up. "I know I can't do anything about it so I'll only ask when you have to leave." She didn't bother to look at him, she kept her eyes on their son. "We leave in three days, we need time to get things ready. You know if I had a choice I'd choose to stay with you Twi." He nuzzled her neck and gave her a kiss. More tears started to form in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to lose you. After all we have been through. Everything seemed so perfect, but now we have another threat we need to fight off. I can't lose all that we've finally gained." Tears fell, following the same path as the ones before them. Flash put a hoof around her and pulled her close. "I know, I don't want to lose you either. I love you two so much." > Pinkie the Party Pony > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinkie was hopping through Ponyville, a smile plastered on her face. She had parties to plan and no danger was going to stop her! Still hopping in that strange way she always had, she made her way into Sugarcube Corner. She hopped by a room where a young colt and filly played with a foal. Pinkie stopped mid bounce and backed up, peeking her head around the corner. The filly was a yellow unicorn with blue eyes and a curly orange mane. On her flank there was a cutie mark of a pink cupcake with pumpkin sprinkles. The colt was a pegasus and lighter in color. His eyes were brown, matching his mane that was styled with a slight curl going up and then back. His cutie mark was of dough and a rolling pin. On the back of the colt was a young foal. She was a bubblegum pink earth pony with a curly, reddish-brown mane pulled into a ponytail and green eyes. The two were flying around the room while the filly used her magic to levitate stuffed animals that followed them. Pinkie watched silently, her smile growing even bigger than before. They were startled when they heard the click clacking of hooves coming down stairs and stopped abruptly, sending the pink foal flying of his back. Pinkie's eyes widened as she jumped and caught the young one in her arms. Nearly falling over she was steadied by the twin rascals that nearly gave her a heart attack. "Pound Cake! Pumpkin Cake! You need to be careful! Confetti could have gotten hurt very badly." Pinkie scolded them, her heart beating fast still. Staring down at the obviously guilty and repentant twins she sighed. "Confetti can't fly like you or use magic so be careful when you play with her." She smiled putting Confetti down to play with them some more. They beamed excitedly as they were able to play with their friend again. The three of them gave her a quick hug before running upstairs pass Mrs. Cake to the spare bedroom. Poor Mrs. Cake took quite the spin, but luckily did not fall as she had the railing to help balance her. Pinkie Pie giggled as she went over and helped the mare. "Goodness! When did they get so energetic? Sometimes I wish they would grow up faster so that they would be more still, but somehow I doubt that'll be the case with them." Mrs. Cake laughed as she walked to the kitchen and opened the oven. Upon smelling the cake she was baking Pinkie followed her into the kitchen. "The smells great Mrs. Cake! Mind if I try?" Pinkie licked her lips as she took in the sight of the lovely cake. Mrs. Cake moved it out of her reach and gave her a scolding look. "Pinkamena Diane Pie Sandwich! You should know better by now! Aren't you pregnant with your second foal? You should be eating healthier things, not cakes that we bake for our customers. I know you're a full grown mare now, but I swear you're still the same filly I met years ago." Pinkie was four months pregnant with her second foal, but that hadn't stopped her from having sweets and throwing parties the first time she was, so she wasn't going to let that stop her now. For today however she agreed as she had other things to worry about and discuss with her bosses. After telling the Cakes about Luna's wedding coming up and Celestia's baby shower she took Confetti and headed home. She moved out of Sugarcube Corner a bit before she got married to Cheese Sandwich. She stayed in Ponyville though, buying a house with him for them to raise a family together. As the sun began to set she got a strange tingling sensation in her tail and her ears twitched. She could sense that something was wrong with her friends. "Oh dear. Hmmm." Lost in thought and talking to herself she walked straight into her front door. "Ow!" Pinkie Pie rubbed her face furiously. "That hurt." She whimpered slightly, but walked in. Putting Confetti down for her nap she walked into the living room where Cheese was waiting for her. "Pinkie! Your friend spike dropped a letter off for you a while ago. It's on the counter." He pointed a hoof in the direction of their kitchen. Pinkie just giggled. "It's probably just Twilight telling me to focus on planning the parties and not to worry! Of course I was already going to focus on the parties so I don't know why she needs to send me a letter to remind me, then again she does like making lists and being organized. That's Twilight for you! Oh the anniversary of her rulership is coming up! I need to plan a party for that too! Cheese!" Pinkie exclaimed making the stallion jump a bit. "You're helping me plan the parties this time. We're going big!" She gave a devious smile and rubbed her hooves together. > Applejack the Farmer > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was around midday when Applejack reached the farm. So many things were going through her mind. From the wedding, pregnancy and danger to how she will be able to keep secrets from her family, help out the princesses with her friends and work. If there is one thing she won't do it is lie. She can not bare to lie to another pony ever again after what nearly happened to Granny Smith. Some how she was going to have to keep it a secret from them without lying. She made her way up to the fields spotting a familiar filly. A red mane and pink bow blurred together as the pony trotted her way over to Applejack. Excitement filled her red and orange eyes as she asked what happened at canterlot. Sweat formed on Applejack's forehead as she searched for the right words. "Princess Luna's gettin' married and Princess Celestia is havin' a foal. At least Ah think it's a foal." She wasn't too sure on that last part as nopony had ever mated with a draconequus before. Distorted images of what it might look like filled her head making her shiver. "Really? Hey Sis, ya think Ah can help with the weddin' this time?" She looked up at her big sister with pleading and excited eyes. She gave a chuckle before raising a hoof to mess with Applebloom's mane. "Ah reckon it'll be okay. Ya sure ya up to it this time?" Applejack recalled the last wedding she wanted to help with. Applebloom was still a young filly and had just gotten her cutie mark the day before with her friends. She was too excited to focus on helping. "It's going to be a big one n' with everything go'n on we're go'n to need every hoof available." Applebloom blushed in embarrassment at her childish excitement, but shook it off confident that she could help out this time. "Ah was a foal then! Ah'm pretty much all grown now! Ah promise Ah'll help out this time!" She smiled as she tried to give a serious look. She was a teenager now, not a silly little filly. Though she knew she wasn't a full grown mare yet, she wanted a chance to prove herself to her sister. Applejack said she could help out this time making her eyes light up in excitement. Her voice also excited Applejack's ears as they made their way to the back of the farm. A small, light orange filly with a brown mane similar to Applejack's was following two older stallions as they were bucking trees and collecting apples. The two stallions looked over, each waving a hoof. Applebloom trotted over giving them the news and exciting everypony. It took some of the pressure off of Applejack seeing how nopony asked if there was anything else. She hated lying, but she reasoned that due to the circumstances it was okay not to tell the whole truth. "Hey big brother, how's it go'n?" She looked up at Big Macintosh trying to cover his ears as Applebloom was loud with excitement. "Applebloom, why don't ya take Apple Frosting inside n' give her a bath for me?" Without a second thought Applebloom had the young filly on her back as she carried her inside and continued on with her rant. The three remaining ponies chuckled at the sight. Applebloom hadn't been this happy in quite a while. After Granny Smith had a stroke and was put in the hospital she had been very worried and started doing a lot more around the farm. She hadn't taken a break in a long time. After it started getting late Big Macintosh left the farm to go back to his new home and family. The only ones left outside were Caramel and Applejack. She gave him a kiss and nuzzled up to him before they started heading in. A lot had changed in a few years for the Apple family. After Big Mac got married he moved out but, would still come back to work on the farm. When Granny Smith had her stroke the hospital told them it would be best to keep her there until she got her strength back. Caramel started to come around to help them take care of things after that. Soon after he married Applejack and moved in. The couple moved into Big Mac's old room while Applebloom moved into Applejack's. Applebloom's old room ended up being used as a nursery for their daughter, Apple Frosting. As for Granny Smith's room it was being used a guest room until she got better. Caramel was making supper when they heard a loud knocking sound on the door. Applejack answered the door seeing a panting, teenage Spike. He held up a letter for her saying it was from Twilight and then ran off to go find the others. She opened it up and read it, being startled by her sister. "What ya got there Sis?" She tried to peek at the letter, but failed. Applejack got nervous and put the letter away. "It's a letter from Twilight." She was hoping the questions would stop there, but they didn't. she kept asking questions wanting to know what was in its contents. She thought for a moment before continuing to speak. "She's givin' me instructions on how to help out with the Princesses." She wasn't lying, it was the truth. The instructions were to help them and to get more information on the imposing threat. Applebloom got wide-eyed with a big smile on her face. "Is there anything Ah can help with?" Her eyes seemed to have gotten even bigger with anticipation. She thought it over looking at the letter. An idea popped into her head. "Sure! Wanna help me make some of the desserts for the weddin'?" Her sister agreed, happy to help. Once she left Applejack eased up. "Oh Celestia this is going to be a challenge." She shook her head at the chaos that was bound to happen before joining her family.