//------------------------------// // Chapter 7. Plans For The Future // Story: Bite-Sized Spike // by ShrunkenBro //------------------------------// Luna cleared her throat and pounded her chest a few times "Thank you Shining. Oh and pardon me for the burp." Shining smiled "Oh its alright princess no need to apologize." Shining replied while trying to get comfortable on the couch. "We assume you are adjusting being back as Captain once again,... Nephew Shining?" Luna gave an awkward smile. "Oh yes I am thank you." Shining nodded nervously. Both Luna and Shining stayed quiet giving an odd silence "You know we've never talked much I mean we both know Celestia well I'm sure everypony knows her and you but I don't think we haven't talked much." "What could we talk about?" Luna shrugged. "Well I'm not sure." Shining scratched his head. "I assume things are going well with your marriage?" Luna asked trying to spark up a conversation with her nephew-in-law. "Oh yes things are going very good,... Um well I suppose I'm in a bit of a small problem." the white stallion leaded back on couch. "Whatever is the problem our niece is not treating you right is she?" "Oh no, no, no. were fine its just well Cadence,... I think she wants us to have children." Shining sunk into the couch looking at Luna with a gloomy face. "Oh why so glum I thought having foals would make you happy?" "It would and it does it's just we have so many duties I mean we run an empire, have to be royal figures for others to look up to not to mention I have to keep my guards in check some of the crystal guards don't take their responsibilities seriously. And if me and Cadence are doing so much how will have time for a foal?" "I see." The dark blue alicorn nodded her head slowly "Well I will not lie I can understand your stress having a foal takes on a great responsibility it's not easy especially when you must have the task of keeping an empire in control." Luna brought a hoof to her chin "Hmm well this is a choice you and Cadence must decide." "I know." Shining slumped letting out a sigh. Luna frowned she may not have known Shining very well but he was still her Nephew and one she rather enjoyed having company with unlike the snob Prince Blue Blood Luna looked over at her grape juice using her magic to levitate a second cup and the bottle pouring some into the cup and bringing it to the sad stallion, Shining jerked his head up seeing the cup floating in front of him he looked up to see a smiling Luna Shining gave a small smile grabbing the glass with his hoof and took a sip "Thank you." "Tis my pleasure." Luna nodded "We enjoy our Nephew Shining's company." “Thank you, Prin-er, Aunt Luna. I suppose I’m less nervous about children than I am about Cadence. She’s not the sort of mare to do anything halfway. She’d want to devote herself to her child, and, well, she’s already stretched herself so thin,” he said, taking a sip of the juice, finding the flavor itself to be pleasant on his tongue, and the temperature was just right, neither too hot not too cold. “Ah, I see. You are afraid that if she is pulled any farther from her center she might snap?” Asked Luna, and Shining, thinking about it a moment, nodded. “Yes, I suppose I am. I mean, I remember what happened during the whole Sombra affair, and then there was the thing with Chrysalis. She’s never said it, but I know how powerful Alicorns are, if she’d been less out of it, the bug wouldn’t have stood a chance against her,” he admits, and it was Luna’s turn to nod, remembering how far she herself slipped in her power when she was not well rested. “True, one of our kind is quite able, when we’re properly prepared,” she admitted, smiling at a memory of her and Celestia’s early days, when they’d accidentally torn a mountain in two fighting over it. “What if the baby is an Alicorn then? That sort of power, without control sounds dangerous,” he told her, gulping down the last of his glass like it were fermented, and making Luna pause, before laughing out loud, a ringing, silvery peal of sound washing over the room. “Um...Princess?” He asked her after she was done, and she held up a hoof, before draining her own glass to wet her throat. “You need not worry about that, Dear Shining. While I may not have been present for it, no Alicorns have been born into this world in more than a thousand years. In fact, only two ever have been, and that was our self and our sister, and that was fate working its will on the world, not some random chance. Even my sisters’ own children are merely normal ponies, without the power we possess,” she told him, and that seemed to relieve him, as she refilled his glass and her own. Shining let out sigh of relief "Well if you say so Princess even if it's an Alicorn I'll still love it and care for it like a good father." Shining took another sip of the juice. Luna gave a smile and nodded her head "If you ever need somepony to talk to we,... I’m always willing to lesion Nephew Shining." "Thank you,... Aunt Luna." Shining gave a pleased smile and took a last sip of his juice "I better get back to my routs see you later." Shining smiled getting up off the couch. "Take care." Luna smiled back and used her magic to open the door of her room Shining nodded his head and proudly walked out of the door with a grin on his muzzle. To Be Continued.