//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Perilous Gestation of Swans // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Dinner. Celestia made the reasonable assumption that sitting down to dinner together made them very much like any other family, just with a nicer table and silverware. Oh, and they ate together in a castle too, but it wasn’t that far fetched to assume that it wasn’t that different from an average family. Cadance and Shining Armor were here, with little Flurry in a chair like a big filly, though she needed a booster seat. Luna was present, sitting at the other end of the table, though she was rather sleepy looking, and Gosling was sitting just to Celestia’s right. Sighing, Celestia wished others were present, but if wishes were fishes, they would all be griffons. The hors d'oeuvres were coming out, and Celestia was eager to see them, so eager in fact that she craned her neck in very much the same manner as an over-excited foal. Flurry too, was wiggling about in her chair, and drumming her hooves against the edge of the table. Gosling was wrapped up in his cloak, though he had taken his hood down at the table. A tray of delicious looking canapés was set down upon the table, and Celestia sighed with contentment. As far as hors d'oeuvres went, these were perfectly suitable, but she prefered the nights when the hors d'oeuvres doubled as mini-desserts. It was difficult, eating for four and trying to be princessly. It was all she could do not to devour the entire tray of canapés and she waited for others to get some first, all while staring with longing at the tray just a few yards away from her. When the others had served themselves, Celestia lifted the entirety of the tray, levitated it over to where she sat, paying no mind to the stares of others, she set it down, and she began eating, thankful that it was good manners to stuff the entire canapé in, whole. Little Flurry stared at her plate, looking both curious and disgusted, trying to figure out what this weird new food was. She reached out one dainty, tiny hoof, prodded the edge of her plate, and gave her mother an incredulous look. “Brains?” “How would you know what brains look like?” Cadance asked, with a note of exasperation in her voice. “Daddy’s comic books?” Flurry did her best to look innocent. Cadance made a sound and she glanced over at her husband. Luna began snickering. Shining Armor gave his wife a sheepish grin, revealing a row of perfect teeth. Flurry didn’t take her eyes off of her plate. Celestia found herself grinning, even though she was eating. Alas, poor Gosling, he stared at his food and did nothing. “Flurry, those are sulfur shelf mushrooms… laetiporus gilbertsonii. Ponies call them tree brains. When they are young and tender, they are delicious when sautéd in butter and a little garlic.” Cadance looked tired, and her explanation lacked enthusiasm for the subject matter. It also did nothing to reassure Flurry, who continued to stare at her plate, much to her mother’s dismay. “Cadance, dear, were you able to get some rest?” Celestia asked after she swallowed her food. Lifting her head, Flurry’s ears stood up. “Mommy and Daddy wrestled and jumped on the bed,” she announced in a squeaky voice. Then she looked at her father and her face became as stern as a foal’s face could be. “Daddy was rough, Mommy was crying.” A shade of pink, never before seen in nature or this plane of existence, manifested upon Cadance’s face. Celestia could see Cadance’s panic in the way she stared, pleading, begging with her eyes, but there was no way that this could be left alone. Luna was chortling, so much so that Celestia feared that her sister might choke. “Shining Armor, what do you have to say for yourself?” Celestia asked, playing it straight, and she delighted in Cadance’s mortified expression. Shining squirmed in his seat, just like he did when he was a little colt. Not much had changed over the years, even though everything had changed. It seemed as though it was mere moments ago that Cadance and Shining Armor were both still foals, and she was lecturing them about snogging. Too much snogging led to chapped lips, and chapped lips were distracting in class. The white alicorn sighed while cramming in multiple canapés at once and began chewing. Flurry Heart stared at her father and Shining Armor stared at his daughter. Cadance hovered somewhere near the point of spontaneous combustion, and Luna was dangerously close to choking. Celestia’s most firm conviction held true—foals made everything better, and she couldn’t wait to have her own. It had been far too long. Chaos such as this was delightful. “Mistah Goose, you wrestle Luna?” Flurry asked, giving Gosling an innocent, wide-eyed stare. “Hold her down and make her cry?” A stream of crumbs and half-chewed food shot from Luna’s mouth, she coughed, and then she sputtered. The clouds that cast a pall over Gosling dissolved, and he began chuckling, shaking beneath his heavy cloak. Cadance covered her face with both front hooves, and Shining Armor was glad the attention was no longer focused upon him. The first course had gone well. Soup. At the moment, Celestia wanted to take the entire soup tureen and drink it dry. She was already feeling panicky, the soup bowls were too dainty, too small, it would be gone too soon and she would expire from starvation. Honestly, who thought a soup bowl that held a half a cup of soup was a good idea? When the soup was ladled into her bowl, all of her muscles tensed, and when the single crouton was added, Celestia wanted to cry. She could eat a kitchen full of croutons right now, she wanted to eat, not sample. But she couldn’t cause a scene, not now, not after the table had started to quiet down. “What is this?” Luna asked, eyeing her bowl. “It appears to be a bowl of poorly balanced humours.” The unicorn server paused and one eyebrow raised. “Majesty, this is cream of cheese soup, with garlic. Tonight’s cheese is the finest Parlobarrony white, and it has been smoked to perfection. The garlic has been smoked as well, and the flavours involved compliment one another to the highest degree.” “We shall take your word for it,” Luna replied, giving her floating crouton a dubious stare. Turning, Celestia looked at Gosling, and she could see his distress. With no dextrous primaries, he had no means to hold a spoon. Feeling bad for him, she asked, “Gosling, do you want some help?” Right away, she regretted it, and she noticed for the first time the tension in the room. “I’m not a foal,” Gosling replied, and he stared down at his soup with a fierce, intense glare. After a moment, he looked up. “Where is my mother, anyhow?” “She was worn out from looking after Flurry while I recovered.” Cadance lifted her head and looked at Gosling, her eyes both kind and worried. “She’s still pretty upset, Gosling, and she wanted some peace and quiet.” “Yeah, I get it.” Hunching over, Gosling ducked his head down until his snoot was inches from his soup bowl, and he began to blow on it to cool it off. The conversation needed a little careful herding to get it back to comfortable, if not happier territory, and Celestia took it upon herself to do so. “Well, the morning got off to a rough start, the afternoon was a little bumpy, but was everypony productive with what was left of the day?” Nopony answered. The laughter from earlier seemed gone, and the mood had shifted. Celestia eyed her niece, Flurry, hoping the foal would cause some sort of mayhem, but Flurry looked half-awake at the moment, and on the verge of nodding off in her chair. Looking around, she saw Gosling lapping up his soup, which made her sigh. She didn’t mind him doing it, but why did he have to look so sad? It was awful. Cadance, holding two spoons, was feeding both herself and Flurry, with the little filly too tired to fuss or resist. Shining Armor was stabbing his crouton, trying to break it in half, but really all he managed to do was make his soup slosh in his bowl. Luna, who might not have cared for how it looked, must have liked how it tasted, because her soup was already gone. “Luna, I must ask you something.” Celestia turned to face her sister, and she looked into Luna’s eyes. “Tell me, Luna, why didn’t you give up little Moon Rose to the nurses and doctors? Why did you have to scare them so?” For a brief second, Luna looked guilty, her ears sagged, but then she recoiled in anger. “We have Our reasons!” “And that is what I am trying to discover,” Celestia said in a calm voice, trying to diffuse her sister’s choleric defiance. Sensing that her professional help might be needed, Cadance interjected herself between the two sisters. “Total honesty is good. It helps when we understand each other’s motivations and gives us both understanding and insight into each other’s inner workings.” “Cadance, please, I don’t think now is the time,” Shining Armor said as he gripped his wife’s fetlock with his own. Now, Luna turned her ire upon Shining Armor. She glared at him with a fierce expression, her eyes narrowed, and both ears angled forwards over her face. “We find no fault with Cadance, Shining Armor, indeed, We find her help quite valuable. It is how We have been made better. Leave her be!” “I didn’t mean anything by…” Shining Armor’s words lapsed into silence beneath Luna’s withering glare. “Cadance has restored us to reason,” Luna continued, and she gestured at Gosling. “We have a friend… a very close friend. A friend who has saved Us. For this, We are most grateful.” Sucking in a deep breath, Luna turned to face her sister. “We wish that thou would trust Us, for We mean well. We could not let Moon Rose go alone. We had to remain close in the event that she might have gated in something else when the doctors made her sleep.” Luna’s reasoning was sound, solid even, and Celestia found herself nodding. “You did right, sister, in keeping Moon Rose close. I didn’t mean to make you feel that I didn’t trust you, I just wanted to know your thoughts. I’m sorry.” “We are sorry too, for Our outburst.” Lifting a napkin, Luna wiped her nose, though it was clean, and then she wiped her eyes. “It has been a long, difficult road out of Tartarus for Us. We want to be well, but it seems everypony is so suspicious of Us and Our motivations. It weighs heavily upon our spirit.” Flurry Heart snorted as she snapped awake, startled, and soup ran down her fuzzy pink chin. Cadance didn’t skip a beat, she grabbed a napkin and went to work, still feeding herself. Shining Armor was looking at Luna, studying her, and Gosling had almost finished his soup. Celestia, a connoisseur of tension, could feel that some of it had dissipated, and her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of silverware clinking against fine porcelain. Yep, they were a family, a completely normal family, with completely normal problems. Tonight’s entrée was a fine vegetable lasagna, served with eggplant cutlets. Celestia couldn’t help but feel that her portion of lasagna was the size of a postage stamp, and a feeling of growing frustration welled up inside of her. She was starving and these tiny, dainty portions threatened to be her undoing. Before she could even realise it, everything boiled over. Everything. The Moon Rose incident. Gosling losing his feathers. The pressures of ruling a country that teetered upon the brink of utter anarchy. Celestia looked down at her half finished plate of food and the edges of her vision grew red from fury. “I NEED FOOD, DAMNIT! I AM A PREGNANT MARE WHO MOVES THE SUN AND KEEPS THE CELESTIAL BODIES IN MOTION! I DEMAND SUSTENANCE IN MEANINGFUL PORTIONS! SERVANTS, BRING ME A PROPER MEAL AT ONCE, THIS INSTANT, OR FACE BANISHMENT INTO THE RAT-INFESTED CELLARS!” Gosling, unphased by Celestia’s outburst—though perhaps a bit deafened by the Royal Canterlot Voice—looked his wife in the eye with a wry, thoughtful expression. “Is yous going all Nightmare Noon on us, Sweetums? Do yous need a timeout?” No sooner had the words left Gosling’s mouth, when Luna choked, coughed, and horked up a half-chewed bite of eggplant cutlet. She then exploded with laughter, whooping and wheezing, still coughing, and she banged on the table with her front hooves as she fought to keep breathing. Flurry Heart, terrified, blinked many times and looked around, trying to make sense of the situation. Shining Armor got up, hurried around the table, and began beating Luna on the back, trying to clear her airway, because she sounded as though she was going to choke to death in between peals of laughter. Cadance looked absolutely stunned and her eyes were as wide as supper plates. “You…” Celestia’s eyes narrowed and she looked down at the somewhat smaller pegasus who was her mate. “You… you did this to me. You and your pretty birdy antics caused this to happen.” Even as she said the words, she knew she wasn’t being reasonable, but she just couldn’t be bothered to care. Pushing her chair back, she then rose from where she was sitting, gave herself a shake, did her best to look majestic, and snorted while throwing her head back. “I am leaving to sack the kitchens.” She spat the words out, revelling in her own anger. “And then later, Gosling, I am coming for you!” With nothing left to say, she stormed out of the room, her stomach growling, off in search of a proper meal. Still wheezing, Luna looked at Gosling with panicked eyes. “Thou art a dead little pony. Alas, We shall miss thee, brave pegasus!”