Rainbow Dash had been inconsolable since her release from hospital and didn’t want to see anypony. She was an active pegasus for whom flying had always been as essential as food or water, and some adjustment would be needed now that wasn’t possible. As a result, she was resentful, irascible and downright rude.
Slowly, patiently and over many months, the Princess of the Night set about wearing down her marefriend’s outer hostility. She used her special privilege of dream walking to check up on her discretely and learn any particular likes she could exploit in the waking world. There had been precious few positive thoughts; mostly she had been dogged by nightmares surrounding her own insecurity and Luna had found a very scared filly trying to come to grips with what her future role would be. However, there was one beacon of hope and only one she had managed to discover that could come anywhere close to never being able to fly again, but she knew she could only broach it when the time was right.
“Rainbow Dash” she coaxed “You are just as special to me now as ever you were before. I hope I am still special to you too?”
“You know it” replied Rainbow half-heartedly “But I can’t do anything I used to do.”
“That is not true” said Luna mischievously holding her lover down and tickling her mercilessly as their bedchamber echoed to the sound of laughter once more.
For a moment, Rainbow forgot about her worries and then the moment stretched out a little longer, and longer again as the two of them found gratification with each other that both had missed for so long. Relaxing in the afterglow, Luna ran a forehoof gently over her marefriend’s tummy:
“Rainbow Dash, whilst we have agreed that there shall be no Royal Wedding, would you want to consider another way in which we could cement our relationship?”
The cyan mare propped herself up on one foreleg, eyeing her quizzically.
“A foal” said Luna, eyes brimming with happiness.
“You did what, Luna?” asked Celestia thinking she hadn’t heard correctly.
“It is a perfect solution, Sister” bubbled Luna “It gives Rainbow Dash new purpose in life and us a tangible culmination of our love.”
“Look Luna, when a mare loves a stallion …”
Luna fixed her with a patronising glare.
“You know the spell” she retorted curtly.
“Now hold on” said the Sun Princess “You haven’t mentioned this to her without talking to me first have you?”
“Sister!” admonished Luna “You have done it for others before, why not for us?”
Celestia noticed that Luna had evaded the question
“You’ve promised her, haven’t you?” observed the elder sister.
She continued in her lecture mode “Helping infertile couples is one thing; the elements of male and female are already there, but the chemistry just needs a slight nudge. Even then, the process is not without risk. Look at what happened when I helped the Cakes; they’re both earth ponies but with one unicorn and one pegasus. It can only be more difficult with two partners of the same gender - it may not even be physically possible.”
Luna was crestfallen.
“Not possible?” Luna’s mouth went dry. The thought of their shared love producing a foal was the only thing that had picked her marefriend up from her maudlin depression since the accident; but what if she had to go back to her now and tell her it couldn’t happen? She was mortified.
“Please Sister” she faltered “Please can you try?”
Celestia could see the desperation in her sister’s eyes and also knew the state that Rainbow was in. She also realised that Luna was the only one who could lift her out of depression and restore her self-belief. Clearly Luna would never have embarked on this course if she thought there could be any other way, so she must assume that this really was her marefriend’s last hope. In fact Rainbow was not just Luna’s partner, but by default, Celestia’s own sister-in-law. Who was she to deny her without at least trying?
“Lulu darling, I will look into it. But I want you to think hard about stallions that may harbour feelings for either of you.”
“Oh thank you, sister!” croaked Luna, her emotion getting the best of her as she fought to hold back her tears of gratitude.
Luna returned to her marefriend with an unexpected spring in her step and opened the door into their bedchamber. It was a warm evening and her opening the door caused a slight draught to rustle the curtains that framed the balcony. Rainbow looked up upon her return before the shimmering curtains briefly caught her eye. While her natural instinct was still wishing to be outside flying in the fading evening light, for once she didn’t whine about her frustration but returned her gaze quickly to the blue alicorn.
Rainbow pricked her ears up, tilting her head slightly to one side.
“Did she say yes?” she queried, unusually buoyant “Please say she did, please say so!”
“She said she would look into it for us, but …” began Luna before she was smothered with cyan kisses. She wouldn’t be able to backtrack now; she was trapped in a web of hopes that she had spun for all the best reasons, but now seemed impossible to fulfil.
Luna tried to probe Rainbow’s interest in stallions, but it soon emerged that for all her bravado, she had only ever viewed them as rivals to be bettered in physical contest. Luna’s heart sank; Rainbow had never even had an actual coltfriend. The blue alicorn was little better equipped either, not having had a physical relationship with a stallion since before being banished to the moon a thousand years ago. She would have to go back to her sister empty hooved.
Celestia meanwhile was pouring whatever spare time she could create into finding a possible solution to the problem and had called upon both Princess Cadence and Twilight Sparkle for their contributions with love magic and arcane research respectively, allocating them a week before they should meet up and discuss options. Both were keen to help, but neither seemed overly positive about finding the kind of answer that the Sun Princess wanted to hear.
Once the week had passed, the four Princesses of Equestria met up as arranged. Celestia sat at the head of the table looking regal; to her side Luna was morose, while Cadence made a pretence of looking cheerful and Twilight wore an artificially happy smile. The Sun Princess started by outlining the risks not only to Rainbow and Luna if they couldn’t find a way to deliver the couple of a foal, but also the longer term implications for the dark realm if Luna was unable to perform her duties.
Celestia nominated Cadence to start the discussion by sharing what she could. She prepared to speak by flicking her mane back with a forehoof and smiling sweetly:
“As Princess of Love, I am well versed with relationships between ponies. I specialise in drawing ponies together so that they can experience mutually enjoyable and supportive relationships. I don’t do biology, but it seems to me that if you want a foal, somewhere along the line you’re going to need a stallion. Twilight knows more about the science side than I ever will, so I have to defer to her knowledge for this one.”
Luna propped her elbows on the table and rested her face on her forehooves.
Twilight hadn’t lost her nervous expression, but chipped in as she had been cued:
“I have studied all the scientific works I could find, looking at dominant and recessive genes and how chromosomes work, but I have to agree with Cadence; I don’t think it’s possible to make a foal without a mare and a stallion. Sorry …”
Luna allowed her face to slide forward and closed her forehooves over her head.
“It’s down to me then” said Celestia “I really wish that one of you had been able to find something that could help, but am not surprised you couldn’t.”
She paused and then continued with evident apprehension:
“I found an old tome of ancient workings locked within the deepest recesses of the Royal Library a few days ago. It is an artefact dating from before the time of the three tribes and I handed it to a team of scholars to translate the writings from their extinct language into a form we can understand today.”
Luna raised her head up, her puffy red eyes actually starting to show a flicker of hope as her sister continued.
“Apparently, the stallions of this previous culture succumbed to an unknown disease and their civilisation was threatened with extinction within a generation, so the greatest minds of the time appear to have come up with a solution. There are many problems with this, one of the most pressing being that we don’t know the risks. They were desperate, so would have taken any risks as being acceptable. Secondly, we don’t know what the long term effects may be because the book ends at this point and I have not been able to find another volume. Thirdly, we don’t know if their race died out anyway.”
All ponies around the table wore concerned expressions at this news.
“I will lay my cards out” Celestia continued “I believe this could be very risky and have strong reservations about experimenting with Luna because there are too many unknowns and consider that too much could go wrong. However, on the other hoof, I would be remiss if I did not at least share this discovery with you and propose you decide whether we should try it or not. I propose we all have a vote and we must agree to be bound by the group decision with no recrimination against anypony.”
They all nodded slowly in agreement.
“Cadence … ?” Celestia prompted.
“I believe in love” answered Cadence “Luna and Rainbow are unhappy and this is already affecting Luna’s work with no prospect of improvement in sight. It’s a very difficult call, but on balance I believe they should try.”
“It’s way too risky” chipped in Twilight “I can’t condone it. Unproven science has got to be tested and evaluated in trials before we consider using it on ponies. Definitely no.”
“Luna?” asked Celestia.
Luna couldn’t answer, a lump had risen in her throat and she desperately wanted to cry, but held herself back for the sake of decorum and just nodded.
“Oh great” said Celestia “Two ‘for’ and one ‘against’. I have the casting vote; if I abstain, we go ahead and if I disapprove we reach a stalemate.”
The white alicorn buried her face in her forehooves. This was without doubt one of the hardest decisions of her life. While she was weighing up the pros and cons, Cadence and Twilight saw tears dripping onto the table from the most powerful pony in all of Equestria. They both felt utterly dreadful and fully appreciated the gravity of her ultimate decision, but equally both stuck to their opinions. They also both knew that her decision would be final, and neither wanted her job right now.
Celestia raised her head and surreptitiously wiped her eyes, but was betrayed by the puddles left behind on the table. She turned to her sister who along with the others was waiting for her decision.
“Luna” she said trying her best to maintain her composure “Is this what you truly want more than anything else?”
Luna nodded in affirmation.
Celestia rose “So be it.”