Starlight awoke with a loud yawn, having heard some faint noises outside. Slowly, begrudgingly, she made her way to the kitchen.
Twilight and Jake were still on their honeymoon, and would be for a few more days, and Sunset had gone with Princess Celestia to Canterlot, so it was just her and Spike... and probably Rarity.
On the inside, Starlight felt very jealous. She still loved Jake, but it felt like he’d been spending less and less time with her, considering she’d been his quote ‘first love’.
It didn’t help that Sunset’s pregnancy was taking even more of his attention than Twilight. Starlight was still honestly surprised that Sunset could get pregnant, and even though she didn’t envy what would happen to Sunset when it came time to deliver the baby, Starlight still wanted the attention.
She finally made it to the kitchen and opened the fridge. There wasn’t much, just some milk, shredded cheese, eggs, and other stuff. Not having much option, Starlight pulled out the eggs and cheese. She didn’t know if Spike was awake or alone and didn’t want to disturb him.
She set a pan on the stove top with her magic and let it preheat. She then cracked the eggs and mixed the yolks in a separate bowl.
“Hey, Starlight,” said Spike, walking into the kitchen. “Need any help?”
Starlight stayed focused. “Nah, I got it.”
Spike yawned. “Alright. Hey, do you hear those noises outside?”
“That’s what woke me up,” Starlight answered. “I was gonna go see what it was after I ate. Want some? There’s more than enough for both of us.”
“Sure,” he replied, sitting down at the table.
Starlight poured the mixed yolk into the pan and let the eggs cook. After a bit, she began stirring, allowing the eggs to harden a bit.
“Cheese?” Spike said, holding up the aforementioned item.
“I figured since Twilight wasn’t here, I’d try it,” Starlight answered, taking the cheese from Spike.
Once the eggs were cooked enough, Starlight turned off the stove, sprinkled some cheese on the eggs, and covered the pan with a lid.
“Coffee?” Spike offered.
Starlight sat down across from him. “Sure, thanks.”
Spike handed her a cup and took a sip of his own. “How’d you sleep?”
“Surprisingly well, considering the chaos of the day before,” Starlight answered, sipping her own coffee. “Sunset still here?”
“No, she went back to Canterlot with Princess Celestia,” Spike replied.
Starlight chuckled. “I swear, with those Cutie Marks, those two have gotta be related somehow.”
Spike laughed as well. “Nope. Sunset claims to know her birth mother, though she did have a few... colorful names to call her.”
“Yeah, I’ve met Stellar Flare,” Starlight agreed. “She’s got the next two hundred years planned out for Sunburst, and that’s not even counting the time Sunburst was still living in Sire’s Hollow.”
Before Spike could say anything more, Rainbow Dash and Rarity came inside the kitchen.
“Hey, guys. What are you talking about?” Rainbow asked.
“Umm, Sunset and Princess Celestia. I didn’t hear the doors open,” Spike said with a confused look on his face.
“We had to come in through the window. There’s not a back door to the castle, and there’s a bunch of ponies out front who want to see Twilight,” Rarity answered.
Starlight and Spike shared a glance before looking out the window. Sure enough, there were a lot of ponies in front of the doors, some of which were yelling, others slamming their hooves against the doors.
“I’ll go see what they want,” Spike said.
“I-I’ll go with you,” Starlight volunteered.
As the two of them walked through the halls, Starlight felt surprisingly lonely. Jake or Twilight was usually here to greet her. Even before Jake arrived, Twilight was always there to make sure she was feeling okay, and while Starlight didn’t like being treated like a filly, she still more than appreciated it.
Now... the castle just felt empty. No Jake, no Twilight, just her.
“Starlight? You okay?” Spike asked, rousing her from her thoughts.
“Yeah, I‘m fine. Just not used to the castle being so... so quiet,” she answered.
“You know you can talk to me about anything right?” Spike reminded.
“I know. Let’s just see what these ponies want,” Starlight said, causing Spike a bit of confusion.
Regardless, Spike shrugged as he and Starlight pulled the doors open. Instantly, dozens of ponies swarmed around them, each demanding to see Twilight and yelling something about something being unacceptable.
It quickly became too much for Starlight, who clenched her eyes shut, cast as strong a voice amplifying spell she could and shouted, “STOP!!!”
All the shouting ponies quickly quieted down and backed off.
“Thank you,” said Starlight. “Now, what are you all doing here?”
When all of them started talking at once, Starlight again yelled, “One at a time!”
A stallion unicorn with a blonde mane and white coat stepped forward. “We wish to see Princess Twilight Sparkle at once. Her recent action of marrying this... foul creature is deemed absolutely unacceptable and must be undone.”
Starlight quickly put two and two together and asked, “Let me guess: you’re all from Canterlot?”
She was met with a chorus of agreement.
This was all too familiar with Starlight. Last time Jake had interacted with ponies from Canterlot, other than Twilight or Sunset of course, things had gone less than well.
“What is it any of your business who Twi-“ Spike started shouting until Starlight cut him off with a spell.
“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to explain to me in very specific detail what your problem is,” Starlight said softly.
The stallion, as well as every other pony there, scoffed. “The problem is, servant, that Princess Twilight is required to marry to an official noble or royal as to seal loyalty or increase royal status of the family she marries into.”
“I am sorry, but what did you just call me?” Starlight asked, her anger rising.
“I called you ‘servant’, because you are living in Princess Twilight’s castle, and you are clearly not Princess Twilight,” the stallion answered condescendingly.
Starlight closed her eyes and let out a little laugh. “Is that so? What might your name be?”
“I,” he began in a similar way to Trixie, “am Prince Blueblood, nephew of Princess Celestia herself.”
“Well then, Prince Blueblood”- Starlight said, her horn lighting up - “Why don’t you get your lazy, condescending, twisted-“
“Why, how dare you speak to me that way?!” Blueblood scoffed.
“No good flank out of this castle before I do it myself!” Starlight finished.
“Oh, when Princess Celestia hears of this-“ Blueblood began before he was lifted into the air and shot out of the castle like a cannonball.
“Anypony else wanna take a shot at Jake?!” Starlight challenged as red smoke began to pour from her horn.
In less than five seconds, the foyer was cleared of any presence aside from Starlight and Spike.
“Mmmmhh!” Spike mumbled.
“Oh, sorry, Spike,” Starlight said, undoing her spell from earlier.
“That was awesome! Prince Blueblood is such a prick, and you... you just shut him right up!” Spike praised.
Starlight couldn’t help but blush. “Thanks, Spike. But something tells me that won’t be the last protest we hear of Twilight and Jake’s marriage.”
Once again, I was woken up by the sun just barely piercing my eye. I simply decided to shift a little and hold Twilight a bit closer.
I still couldn’t believe it. After four years of friendship, and just a few months after finding out how she felt about me, Twilight and I were married!
I was still getting used to Twilight’s human form, but it made no real difference. I loved her all the same. She was still asleep, a large, beautiful smile on her face.
Rarity was not kidding when she said no expense was spared. The limousine first took us to a five-star restaurant, where we ate on the house, and now we were at a five-star hotel. Don’t ask how they afforded that.
In the end though, it didn’t matter. None of it mattered. All that was important was that Twilight and I were together. It took way too long to realize it, but I knew that we belonged together.
There was a light knock at the door that drew my attention. Twilight stirred, but didn’t wake up.
I gave her a kiss on the back of her head and whispered, “Be right back, sweetie.”
I slowly, quietly, got up and put on a shirt and some pants. I looked through the peephole, expecting to see someone with breakfast, but instead, I saw Principal Celestia.
What she was doing here was beyond me, but I opened the door.
“Principal Celestia, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” I said just barely above a whisper.
“Actually,” she replied with a slightly worried look, “I’m not Principal Celestia.”
I was confused, but upon looking a little closer, I realized that she appeared the same age and height as me.
“Princess?!” I asked, my voice raising.
“I am sorry to disturb you so soon into your honeymoon, but there is something that I need to speak to you about,” she replied.
“O-Of course,” I said, closing the door behind me. “Is everything alright in Equestria? Is something wrong with Sunset?”
“Oh no, Sunset’s fine. She’s just going to stay at Canterlot with me for a few days,” she answered. “There... There is something that I must discuss with you.”
“Is it about the baby?”
Celestia shook her head. “No, but it does have to do with Sunset. It’s actually a long story that not even Luna knows about. I need your word that you won’t tell anypony.”
“Of course. Just tell me what’s going on,” I agreed.
Celestia took a deep breath and began, “After I banished Nightmare Moon to the moon, I quickly became very... lonely. Life as the ruler, with everypony looking to you for guidance was very stressful to say the least.”
I nodded, signaling for her to keep going.
“So, any many occasions, I would... change my appearance to that of a normal citizen and try to make friends with those in society. For a while, I was unaware how to act, but quickly began to fit in.
“This went on for a couple hundred years. Friends would come and go, and I would have to occasionally change my name so nopony I interacted with would become suspicious that I didn’t age.
“But one fateful day, I met a stallion. If I remember correctly, his name was... Prism Shine, I believe. He... astounded me, caught my attention more than any other stallion. Then one night, we both got a little tipsy and...”
“The next thing you knew, you were waking up in his apartment,” I finished for her.
She nodded. “Precisely. In a panic, I got away from his house and vowed to never go out in public again.”
“Let me guess; a few weeks later, you started feeling and looking different?” I guessed.
Celestia couldn’t look at me, but said, “That is correct, Jake. I became pregnant.
“I was lost. I couldn’t let the nobles find out; they would have ridiculed and disgraced me, not to mention imprison Prism Shine. All I could do was turn to my most trusted friend. We had met while I was... pretending, and I had let her in on my true identity. That pony was... Twilight Velvet, your mother-in-law.”
“Oh, wow,” I said. “What happened to the baby?”
“Well, I declared illness and left ruling to my most trusted advisors. During that time, Velvet helped me take care of myself and eventually deliver the baby, a beautiful little girl. That was when I had realized... I couldn’t raise her myself. Ruling Equestria would take too much of my time, and the nobles would have the baby disgraced due to not knowing the father.
“Velvet helped find a proper foster home for the child, a mare named Stellar Flare who had just suffered a miscarriage, and I wrongfully thought that would be the end of it.”
“I’m sorry. Giving up a baby can’t be easy,” I sympathized.
But then something occurred to me. Princess Celestia had told me that this had to do with Sunset, but she had yet to actually mention her...
“A-Are you saying that... th-that Sunset i-is-“ I stuttered.
She simply nodded. “Yes, Sunset Shimmer is my biological daughter.”
I leaned back against the door and rubbed my forehead. “I-Is that why she has a sun for a Cutie Mark?”
Celestia actually chuckled a little. “I wouldn’t be surprised. You can only imagine my shock when Sunset came back to Canterlot to enroll in my school. I recognized her by her mane.”
“I... I never would’ve thought. I mean, you two are already so close,” I said.
“Needless to say I was biased when taking her on as my personal student,” she replied. “And when she left, my heart wasn’t just broken, it was shattered. Not only because she left, but because it made me realize that I had failed, as a teacher and a parent. I’d thought that maybe if I had told her or didn’t give her up in the first place, maybe things would’ve been different.”
“Forgive me for asking,” I asked, “but what’s stopping you from telling her now?”
“Call it whatever you wish; fear, regret, maybe even protection but-“ she replied.
I cut her off, “But you’ll never know if you don’t try.”
“Jake, for years, Sunset was too afraid to see me out of fear of what I’d say,” she countered.
“But she did! And look where you are now,” I replied. “Forgive me for saying, but you realize you have to tell her this, right? This isn’t just common gossip or an everyday secret from a friend. This has to do with you being Sunset’s mother.”
Celestia sighed. “Perhaps you’re correct. I just really needed to get this off of my chest, what with the baby coming and all.”
“Well, look on the bright side,” I said, trying to cheer her up. “You’re going to have an actual grandchild.”
It got her to chuckle. “Thank you for letting me share. If you must tell Twilight because she is your wife, I understand, but please let me tell Sunset myself.”
“Of course. In fact, I should probably get back to Twilight and see if she’s awake,” I replied.
“And I should go too before Sunset realizes I’m gone,” Princess Celestia agreed.
With that, I went back inside and got back into bed with Twilight. This new information felt a bit heavy, but it was nothing we couldn’t make it through together.
After all, Twilight and I can make it through anything and everything as long as we are together.