//------------------------------// // 79. Forked Destiny - Part Seven // Story: Letters From a Little Princess Monster // by Georg //------------------------------// Letters From a Little Princess Monster ~ ~ Ω ~ ~ Lord Tirek, Prince of his own lands and prisoner in Tartarus, glowered at the underworld from between the bars of his cage. He had been so close, within sight of escaping from this place and returning to rule over Equestria Then he had been defeated by a unicorn foal. No, not a mere unicorn. A fiend in pony shape, who had somehow wandered into this cursed place, listened to his well-rehearsed plea, and then began to beat him over the head with a tree of all things. Even trying to absorb the magic of the attack did little more than trap him in this infernal powerless form with weak claws and tiny fangs. Then he suffered the indignity of being beaten back across the paths between the other cages in this eternal prison while listening to the derisive laughter of the other fiends and tyrants imprisoned here. When the enchanted chains latched onto his limbs again as she forced the cage door shut, he yowled his vengeance. The unicorn would pay, just like Celestia and Luna would feel his revenge. And his worthless brother Scorpan, and that bearded freak Starswirl, and any other creature who got in his way. If it took him another thousand years, he would escape again, and this time— A glitter of light from the crystals that dimly illuminated Tartarus made a bright spot on the floor of Tirek’s cell, and he thrashed his tail back and forth as he crouched. The Spot was back. First, he would pounce on Spot, wherever it moved. Then, revenge. He crept up on the bright spot, then swatted down with one chained paw to pin it against the floor, only to have Spot move! Tirek darted from one side of the cage to another, pouncing on Spot with a jingling of chains and barking from Dog, who watched alertly from outside the cage in case the prisoner escaped and needed to be chased. ~ ~ >'o'< ~ ~ It had been a full day since Night Light had met his daughter ever so briefly, and the happy smile on his face had not faded in the least. Velvet and his own happiness had been contagious around the house, making the twins unusually active this evening. They both had needed a good brisk chase around the nursery before being tucked in with the story Mo the Indeterminate Particle and His/Her/Their Adventure in Thaumic Acceleration. While his wife was washing dishes, he took the brief silence before bedtime to prop his hooves up and open the castle newsletter. He was enjoying the comfort of his chair, his cup of decaf coffee, and the memory of the way Twilight had turned immediately to him when she had found the saddlebag full of chaos-dimethyl calcite petrification bombs. Just how she had taken them away from the Storm King’s primary lieutenant was a matter of great speculation in the Office of Diplomatic Support Services, and just how Tempest Shadow had vanished out of the castle afterward had the Royal Guard tied in knots. Should she be arrested if she showed up again? Escorted to the Princesses for tea? Asked out for a date? He stifled a chuckle before reading down the staff newsletter. The fourth floor corridor was going to be open next week after the flooring had a chance to dry. A shipment of bananas was late, so the employees should refrain from sneaking any extras out of the cafeteria. The mosaics of buffalo migrations on the Grand Promenade were dropping tiles, and until repairs were to begin, ponies were advised to carry umbrellas in the area. The extensive list of castle staff expecting foals had expanded even more, including the new additions of Graceful Pirotte, Pink Flamingo, Coquette, Bunnykins, and Princess Luna. There was to be a potluck dinner next— The coffee he was swallowing nearly sprayed against the opposite wall. ~ ~ Ω ~ ~ The Day had been busy, but by the time Celestia made it to her bedchambers, she had completed all of the critical elements of her impromptu plan. She had a filtered speaking tube to communicate with her staff, a slot under the door to slide paperwork and meals in and out, and enough books that she had not read to keep her busy for a week. It was a lot like quarantine. Or prison with a view. From the balcony (warded with a powerful descenting spell and a pegasus repelling charm), she could see the Ponyville valley stretching down into the Everfree Forest and all of her beloved Equestria, which gave her a warm feeling (well, a different warm feeling). Closer, she could see down into the beautiful off-limits Royal Gardens, the hedge maze, and the statue of Discord, which appeared to have fallen off its plinth sometime during the day, most likely from suppressed laughter. Given his previous history, Celestia really could not blame Discord for her predicament. She wanted to blame him, but if Discord wanted to laugh at her from being in heat, she would have been on fire instead of only feeling as if she were partially in flames. Still, she jotted a note to the night staff to go put Discord back up on his pedestal and poked it out of the ‘mail slot’ on her door before going to take a long, cold bath. The next few days were certainly going to be the start of interesting times. She wondered how Luna was going to handle being pregnant. ~ ~ Ω ~ ~ Luna had faced many challenges over her many centuries of life. There had been fierce monsters roaring for her blood and living shadows who sought to engulf her. Arrogant griffons and more arrogant royal ponies. Nightmares who prowled the shaded paths of the Dreaming and annoying photographers who seemed to lurk in wait for a single ill-timed sneeze. Pregnancy was new to her, a mixture of wonderful and terrifying. There was a tiny, living, growing creature inside of her. The thought drove away any idea about creating a Tantibus out of dreamstuff for a guardian. She had something far more precious and delicate to watch over, to care for, and to protect. For generations, she had taken care of her little ponies, but never the littlest kind. The very littlest kind. It was one of the reasons she had fairly drafted Laminia into being her close companion, because the bat-winged mare was further along with her pregnancy, and being pregnant-er, she could answer the questions that books could not, such as how much ice cream was really needed to satisfy a ‘eating for two’ craving before it turned into just ‘being a pig.’ Thankfully, the answer was “Please pass me another bowl.” Right now according to the books that Doctor Horsenpfeffer had given to her, the foal was the size of a hamster. Magical interference had prevented the doctor’s clever mechanisms from getting a more accurate reading, but she did print out a fuzzy photo with the colorful lumpy bump showing in her innards, a far cry from the tried and true procedure of having a wise old pony poke at her tummy with a willow branch to determine the placement of the foal. Since Celestia was out of the picture with her hormonal issues, the responsibilities of rulership rested firmly on Luna’s shoulders, but only for a week. And besides, she had Princess Cadenza to assist with any issues, and the trusted staff about the castle who were prepared for any contingency. ~ ~ Ω ~ ~ There was an extra adult alicorn in Cadence’s stomach, and it was trampling all over her internal organs, as well as sitting on her bladder. It was impossible to think, or even get a good night’s sleep, as Shining Armor could attest. Really, it was just a light kick in the ribs. He hardly felt it under the armor he had started to wear to bed. The big chicken. Worse, whenever she closed her eyes, Cadence could feel something, a place that called out to her like a salmon being called back up a stream to spawn. It had been a small itch in the back of her mind that made her sleep restless before she had provided a temporary home for the stellar wisp. Now as darkness covered the land, her mind’s eye could see towers and plains of glittering crystal, a home that the towering castle of Canterlot had never quite fit into her own heart. A place that needed her as much as she needed it. A delusion of insomnia and baby kicks to her liver, most probably. Thankfully, Cadence did not have to help govern, or at least until the foal arrived and had been adored for several weeks. Auntie Celestia was still running the government from her bedroom by way of memos, and Auntie Luna was stalking the halls with Laminia, her bat-winged ‘nurse’ in name only, so this evening should be uneventful. She was just glad Twilight was getting along well in Ponyville. ~ ~ Ω ~ ~ Monster curled up in the library oak in front of the fireplace and arranged her books. Trixie was sound asleep upstairs, Vorel was sleeping curled up around the outside of the tree (since the townsponies had modified the library front door into something more multi-species), and Spike had gone to bed even earlier. She was not alone, though. Scootaloo’s parents were ‘supervising’ the sleepover from the comfy couch on the first floor, curled up around each other and reading books out of the foal care section while giggling to each other every so often. Her young friends lay scattered around the library floor too, each with their Element of Harmony necklace and a new shining gem fitted to them, thanks to Rarity. Both her older friends and her younger friends had been very busy today, and a study party was just what Monster needed to bring it all together. Even if she was the only one of them awake. Opening up the book on cellular biology, Monster began to pick her way down the page. Most of the words made little or no sense, but every time she opened one of her precious books or talked with her friends, she understood a little more, and a little more. Someday soon Discord would escape from his stone prison, and they all needed to be ready. And she would be, with help from her friends. ~ ~ Ω ~ ~ Doctor Horsenpfeffer was up late in the Royal Physician’s Office, but then again, she had been working long hours for the last few months. The Summer Solstice had brought a shock to her schedule with the introduction of Princess Luna into her routine, and a welcome experience, despite Her Highness’ startled reaction to having her immunizations brought up to date. Being turned to stone was not normally in a doctor’s job description, but Celestia had approved double-overtime for her period of petrification, and Princess Luna had apologized reluctantly afterward, so no harm, no foul. Besides, it had been unwise to spring the full collection of needles for a complete immunization routine on a princess who last had been treated by a physician who most probably had a bone through his nose⁽*⁾. (*) True, but to Doctor Bomb Bay’s credit, it was Luna’s fault. She insisted that a proper chirurgeon must look the part. It had only been the first of a long series of mares from the castle staff stopping by the physician’s office with a ‘look’ that Horsenpfeffer had quickly gotten accustomed to, and allowed her to roll straight into the ‘Blessing of new life’ speech that she was starting to think she could recite in her sleep. At first, she had thought the wave of pregnancies was related to some magical effect from Princess Luna’s return, but after her first few changeling patients, she narrowed down the probable cause to some sort of massive changeling emotional burst at around the same time. Apparently they used pheromones to signal their fertile periods, and with so many changelings all ‘signaling’ at the same time, the air around all of them had become saturated with romance and… The doctor considered herself lucky to have been holding tightly to her own regimen of fertility medication on that date, or she would likewise have shown up on the castle employee newsletter ‘expectant mothers’ list. Which reminded her that she needed to wrap up her work for this evening before Lieutenant Quickstrike dropped by the office for their latest date, another unexpected but welcome addition to her schedule. After all, the handsome young pegasus had been so helpful lately. And he was good with foals. ~ ~ Ω ~ ~ The wisp relaxed a little as the night drew onwards and Celestia passed into deep slumber. Over the last day, the surges of hormones through her bloodstream had disguised its delicate exploration of the alicorn’s bodily functions and careful examination of the wealth of her experiences. Beings of cold matter were far more complicated than it had ever expected, and if it were not so desperate, it would never have attempted what it was about to do. There were thousands of the cold matter creatures in this castle, and each of them shed tiny flecks of skin or hair, cells containing the same seeds of creation. The wisp had gathered them one at a time by Celestia’s respiration or where they had landed upon her skin, examined them in great detail, and drew its plans. A little snip from here, a bit there, one precious fertile egg scrutinized from beneath a vigilant spell, chains and links woven together from the templates provided. Each of the tiny fragments was different, but still the same in so many ways. So many possibilities, but to choose incorrectly would result in a body as mismatched as Discord, so the wisp limited its choices to the most common. Strong. Intelligent. Focusing its magic down to the smallest possible size, past proteins and amino acids, down the multitude of phosphates and pentose sugars, to the bare atoms of creation, the wisp began to build. If it had to create an entire body of purely cold matter by itself, it would have given up, but all it needed was one cell. One tiny factory of repeating nucleotides, the starstuff of its solar home mixed with denser molecules and atoms, arranged just so, perfectly in balance. Not just a copy of Celestia’s essence, but something special and different, something unique. One link at a time, one infinitesimal chemical bond at a time, using the extensive knowledge of Celestia’s mind and the focused power of the wisp’s magic to create… A cell. And then there were two. And four. Urged gently along by the wisp, the blastocyst continued to expand against the warm walls of Celestia’s womb. There was no time to allow its body to grow naturally, because interrupting the process would leave the wisp’s essence separated, and if Celestia placed it back into the sun before then, it would certainly die. Ever so slowly, the embryo grew while the wisp faded and Celestia slept. There was not enough strength left in the wisp’s magic to fully form a foal, but the process could be nudged, urged along to a certain point where the wisp would be no more and something else would exist. Something it had never experienced before. Something that would live and breathe and grow in her belly until it became time for the new body to emerge, for him to take his first steps and see the world from new eyes. Something that would have… a name. And a mother. Celestia settled down into her sheets in comfort, giving a pleased sigh. Her heat had cooled from a vicious burning to a strange discomfort, but at least she was able to stretch out on her bed and relax. She nuzzled her pillow and drifted away on dreams of playing with Luna’s foal, and if she would make friends like little Twilight Sparkle. And out in the hedge maze, a certain statue fell off its stone plinth again with a thud.