For the next eleven months, Celestia had to add frequent checkups to her already busy schedule. She was asked, by everypony, to rest and be careful. And she did, and she was, though it pained her. Star Swirl, meanwhile, did some research into the matter of alicorn lifespans, and could find no sign of natural aging in the sisters beyond the process of sexual development in her or her sister. Celestia felt, in retrospect, rather silly to have worried about it so much.
When the time came for her child to be born, the foal was stuck in a breach position, and Star Swirl had to summon a surgeon to cut it out of Celestia’s belly. When the nurse held it up, screaming and covered in gore, it looked like a little goblin, and Celestia was sure she’d made a terrible mistake in carrying it to term. But then they washed it and brought it back for her to hold. Clean and wrapped in its tiny blanket, it was a little miracle — a beautiful white unicorn mare, with a face that reminded her of her mother’s. She kissed it on the nose, and suddenly she understood everything.
“No wings,” observed Luna.
“Probably for the best,” said Star Swirl. “An alicorn foal would probably be difficult to handle.”
“My subjects are my children, too, aren’t they?” said Celestia.
“What?” said Luna, setting down her coffee.
“It’s the painkillers talking,” said Star Swirl.
Luna nodded, and started drinking her coffee again.
“They are mine to protect. And I love them. All of them. So much.”
“Especially the stallions,” said Luna dryly.
Celestia had nothing to stay to that. Her little foal had, in fact, had rather a bumpy ride inside her belly. She had probably been in a breach position because she had wanted to get away from all the pounding. “That is why I’m going to have as many children I possibly can.”
Star Swirl made a choking noise. Luna spat out a mouthful of coffee.
“If alicorns live as long as Star Swirl thinks we do, I’m going to need a reminder of the importance of my duty from time to time. And what better reminder than looking out over my assembled subjects, and seeing hundreds of white unicorns amongst them?”
“Hundreds?” said Star Swirl weakly.
The nameless little foal had worked her hoof out of her swaddling, and begun gnawing toothlessly on it. Oh. She had a smart one. “We’ll need to start a school for them, of course. ‘Celestia and Star Swirl’s School for Gifted Unicorns’. Because of course all of my babies will be gifted, won’t they, little one? Yes they will, yes they will. Who’s a smart foal?”
The foal stared at her blankly, and mashed its hoof into its nose.
“But… who will you take for a husband?” stammered Star Swirl.
“Please not the janitor. Please, please not the janitor,” said Luna.
Celestia laughed. “What do I need a husband for? To create legitimate heirs to our presumably immortal reign? Can you imagine the trouble that would cause?”
Star Swirl and Luna raised such a fuss that the nurse made them leave the room, leaving Celestia alone with her child. The sunlight moved across them both as the morning went on, and sparkled in Celestia’s first foal’s flawless ultramarine eyes.