“No, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash says exasperatedly, holding a fork in one wing and butter knife in the other. “You have to keep your focus on where you’re cutting, not on your wings. ‘Eye on the prize’!” She demonstrates on her third helping of pancakes, the blueberry and whipped cream smiles disappearing into her ravenous maw.
“It’s hard!” Twilight Sparkle shouts, fumbling with her own knife. Her horn lights, only for Rainbow Dash to clobber it with a hoof. Twilight Sparkle winces, the dull knife clattering to the floor as hooves hastily slide away. “Ow!”
“No magic!” Rainbow Dash bends down and picks up the knife with a hoof. She flicks a napkin across the dull blade, then offers it back. “If Scootaloo can get the hang of this, then you can put those oversized monsters to work! You got this!”
“Okay, okay! Just let me go at my own pace!” Twilight Sparkle carefully takes the knife from Rainbow and delicately places the edge on her half-eaten stack of pancakes. By the time she is done with her cut Rainbow Dash is already finished with her plate and waving at their server. The white unicorn - who seems like the only member of the kitchen staff not flustered with the dozen or so extra ponies having a rollicking good time - replaces Rainbow’s empty plate with a bowl of apples, oranges, and pears before returning to the kitchen. Must be their infectious good attitude or something.
Well, except for Cadance.
“Twilight!” the pink alicorn exclaims for perhaps the third time in as many minutes.
Cadance takes the cake, if Celestia hadn’t called dibs already.
Twilight Sparkle grins, her utensils forgotten as she spins around to face her old foalsitter. They both chant, louder than the previous two times and their hoof movements exaggerated to the point of silliness, “Sunshine, Sunshine, Ladybugs Awake! Clap your Hooves and Do a little Shake!”
They end up with their rumps firmly pressed against each other, rubbing with salacious grins on their muzzles. “You know,” Twilight Sparkle says with a twinkle in her eye, “you don’t have to do that every time we go without seeing each other for thirty seconds.”
“You’re right.” Cadance sighs, so dejectedly that Twilight Sparkle almost recants her remarks. Then she smirks. “We don’t have to. We get to.”
Rainbow Dash gags, bringing her hoof to her mouth for emphasis.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it,” Twilight Sparkle admits, nuzzling the Princess of Love and pointedly ignoring Rainbow.
“Me, neither,” Cadance agrees. She rubs shoulders with the lavender alicorn as Twilight Sparkle returns to her seat, twisting her head and practically shoving herself in between Twilight Sparkle and the table. Light purple eyes stare up into Twilight Sparkle’s, a disappointed frown on her muzzle.
“I can’t believe you didn’t wait for me!” A pink hoof pokes Twilight Sparkle in the barrel, Cadance sniffling pitifully. “Or Celestia! That’s twice we didn’t get to watch!”
“I told you I’d show you what I learned,” Twilight Sparkle replies for perhaps the third time, “but it’s going to have to wait until after we’re done eating.” She growls at her fork as it slips, picking it back up with a wing. “And it’s not like I can tell them when or where they’re going to, you know. Get busy.”
“And we had no idea you were learning so much!” exclaims Twilight Velvet, grinning happily as she starts on her second plate. “Our precious little filly, all grown up! I can’t believe you’re planning on starting a family so quickly!”
“Well, from what Celestia tells me,” Twilight Sparkle says, nodding towards the white alicorn who returns a pleasant smile from her conversation with Doug and Luna, “my growth as an alicorn shouldn't be inhibited by getting pregnant. And, if I go into heat first and it takes, it’ll be a huge relief for Celestia and Luna. There’s still a bit of a question as to whether or not it will work with them. And, along with that, whether they should join the herd before or after they make the attempt.”
The pink alicorn whines from underneath Twilight Sparkle, desperately nuzzling into the side of her neck.
“Yes, Cadance, I can tell your heat started,” Twilight Sparkle growls through clenched teeth. “You don’t need to keep reminding me! Or Shining Armor! Or, worse, Doug! You don’t know that he won’t take you up on one of your countless offers!”
“Please, Sparkle, give us stallions a little credit.” Night Light smirks as he loads his pancakes up with extra butter. Twilight Sparkle’s sire glances to her dam, exchanging knowing looks.
“Puh-lease, Doug’s just lucky we’re not all pouncing on him the same night. Not that he’d say ‘no’, but he might have trouble walking afterwards.” Twilight Sparkle sighs, poking at her food with a fork while trying not to stare at her mentor making goo-goo eyes at her stallion. “I still can’t believe that Princess Celestia, the Princess herself, is going to try to have a foal. With my stallion! And she wants me to watch!”
“It’s okay,” Cadance replies reassuringly, “the reality of it all will hit you soon enough, and you’ll freak out or something like you’re about to fail a test or something.”
“Hey!” Twilight Sparkle exclaims, glaring at Cadance. “Tests are serious business!”
“And then,” Cadance continues, ignoring Twilight Sparkle’s glare, “once you realize that everything is fine, things will go back to normal.” She raises a hoof, gently stroking Twilight Sparkle’s barrel. “She wants you to watch so you can have the timing down if you need to perform the spell.” Cadance twists the rest of her body, back now fully against the floor, her legs kicking at the air. “You never know when me and Shiny’ll want to have a second one!” Her eyes light up. “Ooh! Or, if it turns out you're better at the spell than Celestia? You could be the one to help us!”
“Okay, I’ve officially replaced my ‘worst nightmare fantasy’ with having to watch your belly after my brother has done… what stallions do to their mares.” Twilight Sparkle sticks her tongue out at her old foalsitter before filling her mouth with another too-large bite of pancake. She really needs to focus on her wings more when she does this. Except her mouth manages the heavy load with aplomb, her increased size surprising her yet again. She can’t wait until she isn’t stumbling over her own hooves any more. Maybe she can just teleport everywhere until that happens?
“Well, it’ll need to wait until we know the spell works, and after we’re married.” Cadance’s eyes light up. “We need to plan a wedding!” She rolls over, turning to Velvet and Night Light, her smile a cross between ecstatic and apologetic. “Now, I know this is a little sudden, and unexpected.”
Night Light rolls his eyes as Velvet fondly smile. “Please. You two are about as subtle as Twilight practicing her sonic spells.”
“Hey! Just because I wasn’t able to replicate multiple instruments playing simultaneously doesn’t mean that it’s impossible! Getting the harmonics right is really hard!” Twilight Sparkle crossly folds a foreleg in front of her barrel. “And, I was five!”
“And that you wanted to experiment with them at five in the morning didn’t make that cacophony any more palatable!” Night Light groans, rubbing his ear.
Twilight Sparkle gasps, looking offended. “You said you loved how I sounded!”
“Of course I did!” Night Light scoffs, “What, did you want me to tell my filly, my very impressionable little filly, that she was wasting her time on a path that others had trod for years to no avail? Of course not! You learned that lesson all on your own, especially after I got that book on coherent frequencies and their relationship to spellcrafting.”
“That’s why you got me that book? You said it was way above my level!”
“Well, that’s before I realized what levels you were capable of performing at!” Night Light shakes his head, then sighs as he realizes the rest of the table has gone quiet and is mostly just watching him. “Well, you’ll get to learn all about that soon enough, I guess. And, with any luck, you’ll be just as afraid of disappointing them as I was afraid of disappointing you.” He smiles fondly at his little filly, all grown up.
“I was never disappointed,” Twilight Sparkle says softly. “I mean, maybe you could have let up every now and then, but…”
“Oh, no, I don’t think I could have done that." Night Light shakes his head, Velvet joining him. "If we hadn’t helped push you to your full potential? Who knows! I might not be celebrating my little princess actually becoming a Princess!”
“And speaking of little Princesses,” Cadance says with a big smile, eagerly awaiting Velvet’s response.
“Of course you can marry our Shiny,” Velvet says with an equally broad smile, nuzzling Cadance. Off to the side, Night Light wipes a tear from his eye.
“Oh, thank you so much!” Cadance exclaims, prancing back to Twilight Sparkle.
She pulls out a bright pink book from somewhere - maybe hidden under her wing the entire time? - and plops it down on the table with a loud *boom*. Glassware, plates and silverware clatter as they bounce into the air. Cadance opens the book, pointing to the first image: a haphazard crayon drawing of a pink alicorn - horn added almost as an afterthought - and a faceless white unicorn with a flowing blue mane and tail. “Now, this may come as no surprise, but I’ve been preparing for this eventuality.”
Twilight Sparkle stares at the adorable drawing, unable to suppress her smirk. “I didn’t realize you met Shining Armor when you were a filly!”
“I, um,” Cadance mumbles, hastily turning to the next page. “I didn’t. I’ve spent years on this book, ever since I met Shiny, detailing exactly how I wanted my wedding to go. And,” she flips through one, two, then twenty pages, barely making a dent in the massive tome, “I even have a spot for how I want your herd to help out!”
“You should add in there that I can perform a Sonic Rainboom!” Rainbow Dash says, polishing off her sixth plate and looking around for their server, growing a little impatient before she grabs at an unattended pineapple.
“Already done!” Cadance flourishes the book in Rainbow’s direction, a beautiful rainbow trailing a cerulean pegasus atop a rough Canterlot Castle garden. She places the book back on the table, tracing a hoof along the edge. “I’ve made so many revisions to this. Some choices I’ve gone back and forth on over and over, and I still don’t know if it’s the right call!”
“Can I see that?” Rarity says as she swaps sides on the table, joining Twilight Sparkle in paging through all the aspects of the wedding. She smiles knowingly, pointing at a section with at least a dozen instructions for how the petals are to be thrown from the baskets by the flowerfillies. “You really went into detail here, didn’t you?”
“You can never be too sure!” Cadance smiles, glancing towards the bathroom door. “Please excuse me, I’ll let you two flip through that. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be waiting!” Twilight Sparkle grins, then returns to the book.
A few minutes later and the pink alicorn returns, strutting back to the table. She scans around the room, a questioning look at Twilight Sparkle as the lavender alicorn practically leaps away from the table.
“Sunshine, Sunshine-” Twilight starts, though she stops at Cadance’s perplexed gaze. “Cadance? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” the pink alicorn hotly says, though her mouth briefly forms a smile. Her voice shakes with worry as she finds Shining Armor. “Shiny?”
“Yeah, Cady?” Shining Armor says, pulling himself away from the three way applesauce eating match going on between himself, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. He frowns at her pained expression. “Something wrong?”
Cadance pulls out a sealed letter, a brief glance at Doug. “It’s-”
The doors to the cantina burst open, a blue maned pegasus guard flying like death itself is chasing him. “Celestia!” He spots the rest of the ponies eating, though his orange face can hardly get any more ashen. “Princesses! I come bearing terrible news!”
“What is it, Flash Sentry?” Celestia demands, standing up. Her body ripples with power as she casts a long glance at Cadance. Everypony else focuses on Flash Sentry as he tries to catch his breath.
“A threat has been made against Equestria!” Flash Sentry says, then pauses to catch his breath.
“A threat?” nearly everypony in the room says, either to themselves or the ponies closest to them. Celestia stands tall, Luna joining her.
“It’s,” Flash stammers, as if having difficulty believing the truth himself. “The Crystal Empire! It’s returned!”