“Just keep pushing, dear,” Luna whispered softly as I screamed my lungs out, pain unimaginable wreaking havoc on my body. “Almost there...”
“Fuck you, Luna,” I growled, panting erratically. Flipping flying penguins... “I’ll fucking kill you! You did this to me... ngh!”
Another wave of unbearable pain ran through me as I cursed these damn contractions. This? This was worse than being run through by a sword! It hurt so damn much, I had no idea how other mares could ever want to go through this more than once. It was maddening. Absolutely. Fucking. Maddening.
Tunnel vision couldn’t even begin to describe how focused I was on getting those two damn leeches out of my body! Oh dear God, if you are listening on your throne of clouds or whatever you actually sit on with your angel waifus fanning you with palm leaves while drinking martinis, and if you aren’t shaking your head in shame at all the things I have done in my way too fucking long life, please, damnit... please let this pain end. I beg you.
Yes, damnit! I’m praying to you, you prick! Answer me! Give me just this small reprieve, please... just this once...
Another wave of agony hit me and I cursed Luna for being a sexy, horny bitch again, howling in pain as I did my best to kill her with my stare alone. The magical stare variant. I don’t care if she will have nightmares for decades, she deserves it for doing this to me. She deserves so much worse for doing this to me, damnit. I’m gonna rip her wings out and feed them to her and I’ll do it each and every time they regrow until she knows the pain I’m in.
The nice thing about this? I have to press out two of them! Haah. What a joy, isn’t it? We have been at this since around two or three hours in the middle of the night (it was a bit hard to remember with all this damn pain and tiredness and pain). Fuck. It was already nearing the end of the day (which just made me really, really happy... not) and I just barely had the focus left to answer my sun’s call as I cried out once more. A moment later, I heard the cry of a little foal and I laughed exhaustedly, happy that at least one of them was finally out.
They really made me work for it, didn’t they?
Celestia’s tall form entered my field of vision right as I felt another contraction try its best to kill me from the inside out. In her arms was a little bundle, her eyes finding mine as they sparkled just like I remember my twin’s eyes did at the time of sunset. “You have a filly, sister.”
“I have a daughter...” I smiled tiredly as she presented us with the tiny little bundle. A small, yellow-orange snout poked out of it curiously while cyan-ish, turquoise, slitted eyes stared at everything and anything around her. She definitely got those eyes from Luna and her mane was very reminiscent of my own when a solar flare moved through it. “Hey there, my little Sun. I’m your mommy, Summer, and this... is your other mommy, Luna, that I will kill as soon as I’m done with your sibling. I'mma stab her with her own horn! Yes, I will!” The little foal giggled at me and I made a few more foal noises, smiling brightly.
“Ha ha, Summer,” Luna grumbled, stroking my tangled and sweat-soaked hair softly despite how cheery I made that threat sound. I was surprised she was even able to stand being near me with the heavy amount of killing intent that was currently directed at her and her alone, to be honest. “She is beautiful. A veritable sunset.”
“She kinda looks a bit like Yang does as a pony, Mom,” Cadance commented before making a funny face to prompt the filly in my arms to giggle back at her. “What are you going to name her?”
A good question. To be honest, there really was only one answer I could give. “What do you think of Summer Sunset?” I proposed with a tired smile. Luna was right about the sunset part, her mane and coat did give off that impression. My daughter was the ponification of the evening sky, tinting the sky a fiery red and orange once the sun neared the horizon. “The Red Sun certainly sings high praises to have another named after her.”
“I would have thought of Sunset Shimmer, but that works, too,” my daughter nodded, smiling as my little filly took Cadance’s hoof into her mouth. I’d have to nurse her pretty soon if that suckling was any indication, my daughter trying to futilely suck out food from Cadance’s hoof.
I would have smiled at the cute sight, but my focus was gradually stolen away again as I was painfully reminded that I did have another foal wanting to come out, and this one it seemed, wanted to come out right now so they could be reunited with their sibling. Something that I was all too happy to get over with.
And so, the whole routine of pushing and screaming (and threatening Luna with a most painful death) began anew. Before long, my agonized screams were replaced by the tiny wails of my second-born child once the night replaced the last vestiges of the day and I felt relief flood me like a drug. I was finally through with giving birth to these two troublemakers. The afterbirth didn’t take long at all in comparison to what I had to go through with these little bundles of joy and I felt so very tired as I could, at last, rest easy.
Sunset's sister soon joined me in my exhausted arms and I couldn't help but coo silently at her. Tiny little violet eyes gazed back at me, her equally tiny lavender hoof currently functioning as a pacifier. My tired smile turned a lot more gentle at that. “Aren’t you a quiet one? Well, Luna... you wanted to name one after yourself, what are you going to call her?”
My sister hummed. “That is a tricky question, sister,” Luna told me with a loving smile as she settled in next to me, taking the little filly into her own arms. “My name won’t do, it has to be a variation of that... or something similar. Maybe... no, even something with 'Moon' in it sounds off to me. Her coat color makes this a bit difficult...”
“How about something with Star instead?” I asked, giving her a tired nuzzle. “You wanted to honor your niece, didn’t you?”
“Are you sure?” Luna asked me, biting her lip. “September said that the machine that... that killed her... could have erased her. It affected her very soul... if she survived that, I doubt she would even remember what her past life was like.”
“He also said that, if their souls survived, they would most likely be our foals because of that old reincarnation spell,” I whispered, looking at the filly in her arms and little Sunset in mine. It felt... a little weird if that was indeed the case. Sunset could either be... my brother of a past life or the nephew I barely remember I had. Whatever happened to the other, I couldn’t fathom to guess. Nor did I want to find out what happened to lost souls in the Shadowlands. “The machine worked like a soul-magnet, only instead of us being pulled back to Earth... they had been pushed away from Earth and towards us due to that spell.”
“I’d like to give her a name with Lunar in it to honor our mother as well, but... while Lunar Star would sound nice, it isn’t really doing her enough justice," she sighed, frowning with frustration before gently resting her head against mine. "Maybe it is time we break that tradition and name her after something else.” Her eyes looked uncertain, but I could also see a certain resolve in them as she resigned herself to go against Mother's name and choose something new.
“Are you sure, Lulu?” I asked her, receiving a nod from her in return almost immediately.
“Yes. I’m sure Mom would have told us that we should go with what feels right instead of tradition. Besides, you are right. She looks more like... Hmm. I have an idea. Her birth was heralded by the brightest star in the sky as day turned to night, so why not Twilight Star, instead?” Luna decided, smiling proudly. I had to give it to her, it did sound perfect. Our little sparkling Star and shimmering Sunset. Two very wonderful fillies. “If she was her... I would want her to have a piece of herself she could remember her old life by. Besides, we could still give her a middle name if we really wanted to, even though it would only be on paper.”
“I think it is a cute name, Mother,” Cadance nodded, using her magic to teleport to the other side of the bed Luna and I were lying on (without ripping a hole in the universe, thankfully). Twilight Star looked on with a quiet sparkling fascination in her slitted eyes as Cadance suddenly appeared next to her and Luna, a smile tugging at the corners of her tiny muzzle. “And I just know my sister is going to love it. Eee! I can't believe how adorable they are! It's no wonder Mom didn't want me to grow up, I'm having a heart attack just looking at them!”
My sister chuckled at the enthusiasm of our eldest. My Rose Petal was right, in her own way. I would argue that she was considerably worse, though. She still holds the title of Mistress of Cute, and I imagine it won't change for a very long time. Not until she is old enough to become a mother, herself.
Now that's a thought I never imagined I would have. Cadance might want to become a mom at some point, too. I would be a granny then, and... while the thought of being a grandmother does sound nice, it felt kind of weird, to be honest. I don't even look the part!
Of all the things to be worried about and that's the thing you focus on, Summer? Wow. I guess Twilight showing remarkable intelligence in her behavior was nothing in comparison to your fantasies of seeing your daughter become a mom, too, huh?
Speaking of which, I had next to no doubt about our little hunch now after I saw that look in the eyes of my little filly. Her eyes held a stunning amount of intelligence in them, a curiosity to learn the mysteries of the universe that I seldom saw so strongly in mortal eyes. Whether or not that actually meant she was Tabetha in her previous life remained to be seen, though. But... then again, I feared we would never truly get our answer to that question. Not if her memories were truly as broken as we feared.
There was a reason why I distrusted technology that meddles with souls so much. A machine could never have the capability to safely interface with a soul without leaving... traces... behind. It was incapable of doing so without causing adverse effects or outright damaging the integrity of a pony’s soul. While I distrusted any type of spell meant for interacting with souls to be completely safe... I could at least say they were far gentler and wouldn’t so easily damage the soul beyond repair without the express intent to do something of that nature in the first place.
If little Twilight Star has even a tiny little piece of Tabetha’s brilliance left in her, I feared she would never rest until she figured out magic on its fundamental level. What that would mean for her and Equestria... I dearly hope it won’t draw the wrong kind of attention. I would have to make sure to teach her restraint to prevent her from following a dangerous path that was all too tempting to be followed. Both her and Sunset, to be honest.
I’d rather not find them within the restricted section of the Royal Archives looking through tomes of advanced magic without any supervision. Sun forbid they get curious about the few grimoires we kept there that contained dark magic spells that were... somewhat safe to use. At least they wouldn’t accidentally stumble upon the extremely dark and forbidden arcane knowledge that was locked away in the Canterlot Royal Vaults. Most of the things we had gathering dust in there could destroy entire landmasses just by uttering the words contained within the grimoires holding those foul spells (provided one could provide the necessary mana without draining one’s own life force in the process... and even that might not be enough).
I knew Tabetha had a thirst for knowledge that bordered on insanity even when she had only been a little child and my brother... well, he could be just as thirsty for knowledge if only for different reasons. I couldn’t be certain whether or not he ended up here with Tabetha and I shudder to think what that might mean.
I will have to carefully monitor Sunset’s development, make sure she would grow up less... 'power-hungry' than Tobias had been on Earth. I didn’t want her... him? Oh dear, that might also become a difficult topic, now that I think about it. I don’t want Sunset to end up being corrupted by dark magic.
Tabetha’s 'experiment' might have caused far more than memory loss. What that might mean for Twilight and Sunset... it could be far worse than losing their previous sense of self. I know for certain Tobias hadn’t been transgender... or if he was, Tobias must have seriously been determined to keep it a secret from us. As much as I doubted it... I could not entirely dismiss that possibility. Whether or not that was the case, it might affect Sunset in some way (provided Tobias did end up as my daughter now).
Their souls would heal, that much I could say with confidence. But 'healing' and 'returning to what they previously were' are two different things. Some traits of their old selves would bleed through simply due to the nature of their souls, but other traits will have to develop completely from scratch. Life experience and their social environment are likely going to change who they are on a fundamental level, but... whether or not that would also apply to their gender identities remains to be seen. I had no spell that could tell me whether their souls were ‘in tune’ with their physical bodies.
It would be for the best to simply... treat them like entirely new beings, as much as it pained me to think that Tabetha (and Tobias, he is... was still my brother despite all of his faults) ceased to exist in the form that I knew them as. Their former selves were gone, sadly. I... I have to a-accept th-that that possibility was the m-most likely case, even though I felt like weeping in despair.
It wasn’t fair, to... to either of them. A treacherous voice in the back of my mind wondered whether or not this would have happened had I not been so insistent with Magic about letting my daughters die a natural death. I had been far too optimistic, thinking they would grow old and live a happy life before being reunited with me and my sisters.
Alas, thinking like that didn’t do me (or them) any good. It was either this, as painful as it was to admit it to myself, or... I would have caused their deaths myself by allowing Magic to do the same thing to them that she did to my sisters and me.
There was one small hopeful thought that took my mind off of these dark musings. With Sunset and Twilight here, presumably the reincarnated vessels of those dear to my heart, I could take solace in the thought that their souls weren’t completely destroyed. That was at least something to be glad about, right?
Twilight’s and Sunset’s souls, as I focused my senses, trying to find that sensation that I had become somewhat familiar with on Remnant, I could feel... well, I couldn’t really say. In the end, I was all but certain that we would have to resort to magic to find our answers to whether or not their souls were completely intact. But... seeing that they didn’t show any signs of discomfort or... well... 'soul fragmentation', I felt mildly reassured that my fears were (hopefully) completely unfounded.
I’d still like to know for certain, though. I’d like to believe any and all signs they might show of a greater intelligence that belied their age would mean that they were indeed Tabetha and (maybe) Tobias and that their souls weren’t shredded to pieces.
There was one part within me that wanted Tobias to be the one to have survived that ordeal instead of my nephew, clinging on to this selfish hope despite how wrong it was of me, and then, there was the other half of myself that was disgusted that I thought like this... it felt like I was tearing myself in two over this.
Perhaps it really was for the best to just forget the whole reincarnation thing and assume my sweet, little fillies were just that. Little fillies that shouldn’t have to carry such heavy burdens, such scars... such pain. Even if they truly are Tabetha and Tobias (I refuse to believe that Tobias was the one that didn’t 'survive' what that machine did to them)... they would still be my daughters. Or whatever else they end up being. I will be there for them and make sure they grow up happy and loved. Never shall I be anything less than the best mother they could wish for.
I swear on my magic. Nothing short of dying will keep me from upholding this vow and I have no intention whatsoever to let September’s words keep me away from that promise.
Time travel be damned, I don’t care if my fate is set in stone. If I have to, I will cheat death in some way. I will cheat as I have never done before, do the unthinkable, and live against all odds while saving Tia from her nightmare at the same time. I will cheat the universe and be there for my daughters, for my wives, for everypony that depends on me. I won’t fail.
I can’t afford to fail.
The hope within me shall be my guiding light to bring about that very future I so desire. Nay! The future that I want and need! I am the Guardian of Ponykind, I will not let anything less than that happen. Tia deserves nothing less than a warm welcome back home, not a funeral for her beloved. My daughters deserve nothing less than the kind and generous mother I can be for them, not a damn funeral as they mourn the death of one of their parents so early on in their lives. My Moon deserves nothing less than the lover that gave birth to two wonderful foals, not a funeral where she is made to mourn the death of the mother of her children. My horny succubus changeling wife deserves nothing less than my submissive self to molest, not a funeral where she will never see her Sunflower smile back at her again...
Speaking of my horny succubus bug...
“Cadance? Could you wake Liz?” I asked her, motioning to said pony on the chair in the corner, quietly snoring away. The sight of that idiotic and lovable, quite huggable, and very much adorable changeling queen was definitely going to be put into a memory ball at the earliest convenience. Not to mention... “I am quite frankly surprised she slept through my enraged screaming.”
Perfect material to tease her with later, I thought mischievously. I won’t ever let her live this down, and what better way was there to do that than to recount how she slept through Twilight’s and Sunset’s birth when they grew up? I’m sure they will just love to hear all about that.
My daughter giggled. “Sure thing, Mom,” Cadance replied before she skipped over to Liz, trying to ruse her from slumber. Celestia snickered beside me, finding it as humorous as Luna and I did that it took our Rose Petal more than a headache to wake up the slumbering queen and/or princess. My poor, exhausted wife had been running the nation on her own while I was kept prisoner... I mean, ‘patient’... here in the medical ward of the castle. “Come on, Mother. Wake up! Mom wants to introduce you to somepony...”
Chrysalis let out a startled snort before looking around her. She rubbed her bleary eyes, quickly noticing that she was the center of attention. A groggy smirk appeared on her lips. “Is the oven finally done baking?” Liz asked and was promptly met by a flying pillow sent by yours truly. “Uff. I... oh, hey, look at that! You haven’t ripped Luna’s head off and shoved it up her snatch, after all.”
“Keep talking like that in front of our fillies and I will do that to you and watch as your head slowly regrows as you give ‘birth’ to your old one,” I threatened her, smiling sweetly all the while. I wasn’t in the mood for snarky comments right now.
Liz winced, rubbing the back of her head with a black, long-furred foreleg. Her mane turned a little blue before going back to the vivid green of her usual self. “Right, post-pregnant mare in a foul mood. Got it.”
I huffed. “Just come here, you stupid bug,” I told her and was met with a pout as she did as I demanded of her. “This here is Summer Sunset and her sister is Twilight Star. What do you think?”
“That they will conquer the world by virtue of being the cutest living beings to have ever lived?” she replied with a grin and I snorted. That title belongs to Cadance, but eh... fair enough. “I’m confused, though. Didn’t you say you wanted to name one after Luna?”
I glanced over at my sister and she shrugged back at Liz. “Twilight works better,” she explained before holding out our little Star at her. The foal babbled nonsensical words at her, trying to reach out with her tiny hooves toward our wife. “Besides... does she look like a Luna to you?”
“Hmm. You might have a point there, Lulu,” Liz agreed, nodding her head thoughtfully as she carefully took Twilight from her arms, giving the little filly a nuzzle with a serene smile. “So, instead of naming Twilight after Luna, you gave Sunset Summer’s name instead?”
I raised a brow. “What?” I asked, innocently. “You didn’t think we would give her your name, did you?”
“Pfft,” Liz snorted, giggling. “She would have to be a bit more buggy to inherit my magnificent name. And both of you know I won’t produce an heir anytime soon, after... well, you know.”
“The last one tried to overthrow you?” I dryly supplied with a sigh. “I’d rather not think about Ocellus, dear.”
“Who is Ocellus?” Cadance asked, watching me and Liz with fidgeting wings.
“Sort of your sister?” Liz said, looking over towards me nervously. “I mean... the royal jelly was made from Summer’s love, so that makes her the father?”
“Can’t you just say ‘other parent’? You’re the gender-fluid changeling here,” I groused, getting her to roll her eyes back at me. I carefully accepted Twilight back from her as Liz noticed the little filly getting a bit antsy in her arms. Sunset was also squirming around a bit too much, so I took that as the cue that they didn’t like the feeling of an empty stomach.
While I provided the two newborns with their very first meal since they couldn’t passively leech food from me anymore, watching them suckle greedily from my teats with a warm smile on my muzzle, Liz fidgeted nervously next to me as she searched for words to best describe what happened with the estranged heir of the Canterlot Changeling Hive (the only hive, considering she was the sole mature queen in existence, as far as we knew). “Ocellus was under the assumption that I was withholding her growth into a queen from her on purpose, so... she just left.”
“Did you?” Cadance asked, a conflicted expression on her muzzle.
“No..." she began before grimacing. "...maybe a little bit..."—my wife sighed—" to be honest, it's complicated,” Liz admitted, her ears splaying back against her head. “She wasn’t ready and we barely started living within the newly constructed hive back then. The workers in the hive were still hard at work trying to make sure the tunnels wouldn’t collapse on our heads and... she started to get increasingly more restless because we couldn’t spare enough drones and workers for her to start her own hive.
“She started to think I wasn’t doing my duty to the changeling race correctly, basically staying here in the castle instead of the hive where I ‘belonged’ according to her. So, she started to try and incite a rebellion against me, stating that she would make a better queen for the hive than I did and I told her that she barely knew anything about what it means to rule.
“Of course, all she saw was an absentee queen, instead. One that rather frolicked with ‘food’ instead of leading the hive into a golden age, growing it larger than what we actually had room for."—my wife sneered, wings buzzing angrily for a second before she calmed herself down lest Sunset and Twilight started to notice her mood—" I told her I wouldn’t let her start her own hive if that was what she wanted to do and then she left, saying she would find a way to mature into a queen by herself and prove me wrong.”
That was the last time Liz tried to make an heir to the throne of the hive (after numerous trial and error approaches to produce a changeling princess, Ocellus was the first one to develop the correct... biological traits, so to speak), ensuring the changeling race wouldn’t die out if something were to happen to her. Ocellus saw everything she did as not enough and it left my wife thinking that very same thing for far longer than Luna and I cared to admit. It took us a year just to assure her she was doing everything she could to care for her hive, even if that meant not being directly in the hive.
It wasn’t like she was away in a different country. It honestly puzzled me why Ocellus thought the way she did. Perhaps she just thought Chrysalis was squandering her position as queen in favor of being a Princess of Equestria. The hive meant everything to Ocellus and I could understand that she wanted to be the one to lead it or start her own hive. She simply was... too impatient.
She refused to live with ponies because that was what Liz did and everything that my wife did was ‘wrong’ while everything she would do (if she were to be queen instead) would have been ‘right’. She was no doubt quickly proven wrong of that notion as she left with the few dissenters that believed her ‘changelings are superior’ propaganda. Ocellus only managed to convince about a dozen workers and a few drones to leave with her. Most 'lings are fanatically loyal to their queen, so traitors were few and far between.
“We never heard from her again,” Liz muttered, frowning darkly as she sat down next to the window overlooking the countryside around Canterlot.
The loss of Ocellus was one of those topics that got her as sad (and furious) as the loss of a larva. While my wife usually was indifferent towards her offspring, I could tell that Ocellus’ betrayal hurt her a lot. She wanted her to be the daughter she could be proud of, the one that could help her rule the Equestrian hive and eventually form her own, only to lose her in the end to a mentality that Liz sought to get rid of in her hive after accepting the friendship and love that we offered her into her heart, abandoning the old ways of taking love by force.
“The truth is... I don't know how and when a changeling queen starts producing fertile eggs. I'm basically working on pure conjecture. It was a miracle we even figured out how to rear another changeling queen.
"I don't really talk about this much, but... my birth wasn't exactly 'normal. Summer and Luna had a hard time accepting my unusual story..."—Liz ignored the eye-roll that she earned herself from us, making it out like we ever doubted her (at least, I didn't, there were weirder things like breezies, after all)—" and I can't really blame them. It's hard to believe a tree can give birth to a race of sex-starved pony bugs..."—Cadance blinked, surprised, and Liz chuckled with her typical, seductive voice—" I know, I know. But it is true, believe it or not. I won't go into much detail, but the tree essentially dragged my soul into a suitable body it created with different species as a template.
"Among those was a skeleton of a unicorn, which might have been my previous incarnation, now that I think about it... but I digress. The point of this is that I was born completely clueless about the world around me. It also didn't help that I was basically born as an already mature changeling queen on her first cycle."
Cadance blushed brightly at that. "Oh..."
"'Oh' doesn't even begin to describe it," Chrysalis commented, a lecherous grin spreading on her muzzle. "It made getting sustenance a lot easier since most ponies get very 'willing' to spend a night with a mare when my pheromones are involved."
Cadance blinked before looking horrified. "Wait, what?! You basically roofied unsuspecting ponies into having sex with you because you were hungry?!"
My wife gave me a confused look and I translated the meaning for her since those drugs aren't a thing here on Equis (thank the twin suns). Then she snorted. "No, I didn't rape them if that's what you are worried about. My pheromones only work on those that aren't in love with another pony than the disguise I'm using. And they can't 'brainwash' somepony into having sex with me... unless they are madly in love with me, to begin with. Summer has it pretty bad for me,"—I let out a 'Hey!', but Chrysalis ignored me like the smug bitch that she is—" so she goes gaga whenever I'm close to laying eggs. Lulu has developed somewhat of an immunity to it only because of her alicorn domain involving the Dream Realm and a basic resistance to mind-altering substances."
"So... what happened to Ocellus?"
Liz sighed. "I’m unsure whether or not she still lives," she replied with a frown. "If she does, she's probably out there in the wilderness, somewhere. It was my own fault for not being there for her while I was trying to integrate changelings into pony society with Summer and Luna.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Cadance said, her expression reflecting an inner pain of sympathy. “I’m sure we would have gotten along...”
“Don't think too much about it, Cadance,” Luna told her, laughing silently as she watched Twilight try to steal Sunset’s spot by my teats. “It was a long time ago and if she still lives, it would be better for you to be cautious around her.”
Cadance frowned. “Why would you say that?” she asked, raising a confused brow. “She is family, is she not?”
“A traitor, that is what she is,” Liz snarled, earning herself a glare from me as I saw her mane turn a deep blood red. “She would rather see Equestria burn than return home. You didn’t see the look in her eyes...”
“She is still family,” I sighed. I’m unsure if that is what Ocellus thought of us, but... I'd like to think she might have changed her mind if only we had tried harder. She seemed to have been pretty determined to see us as anything but that, though. Sometimes, it even seemed like she was disgusted at her own heritage and that Liz would ‘debase’ herself with loving ponies instead of treating us like cattle. “But even I doubt that she has learned her lesson since she has been gone. She would have come home, otherwise.”
“Perhaps a change in topic is in order,” Celestia said, cutting off any and all words Liz or Cadance could have exchanged on what we should do should Ocellus return one day. While I would love nothing more than to see her return home to reconcile with us, I wasn’t too optimistic that that would happen. Liz was probably right with Ocellus remaining a traitor to Equestria and we would have to treat her as such if it comes down to a confrontation between us and her in the end. “There are friends waiting to see the little ones, are there not?”
Thank the twin suns for Celestia being here. I very much doubted the argument between Liz and Cadance was over, but that could wait. Hopefully for a long time and without me being there. I detest seeing my loved ones fight over things like these. “Yes,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief, grateful for the change in topic. “I guess we have let them wait long enough, haven’t we? Due in no small part to the reluctance of two little fillies to leave the warm embrace of their mother...”
“I still remember the time when I was in our mother’s womb,” Luna said, leaning her head against mine with a little nuzzle. “I can’t fault them for wanting to stay for as long as they could.”
The memory I had of that time was a little bit fuzzy, but I could still remember the sound of her heartbeat, almost like a drum. “I remember you wailing to the heavens to have left the safety of our mother, Lulu,” I teased, giggling as my sister pouted back at me. My honorary sister and best friend snickered while Liz turned to leave in order to bring our friends back to our room so they could meet the two newborns. Professor Doctor Cold Hooves almost ran into her as she opened the door, quietly offering his apologies as he levitated his medical bag in after himself. Celestia joined my wife on her quest to find the rest of our extended family while also giving the doctor a wide berth (he still wanted to study her, even though he knew she was royalty and older than I am).
The eccentric stallion waited almost impatiently to run his tests as I burped Sunset while Luna struggled to do the same for Twilight, who most definitely didn’t like to be taken away from her feast. It reminded me of what Tia was like as a foal. She also never got enough food and never seemed to be satisfied with what she got.
My little Sun soldiered her way through the more uncomfortable tests the big, bad, evil doctor had in store for her with only a minimal amount of fidgeting and squirming. The pouty glare she sent towards him for taking a few droplets of her blood was so very cute, I swear my heart skipped a beat at the sight.
“As suspected,” he muttered to himself as he scanned the sample with his magic. “A high affinity for heat-based magic, low affinity for defensive magic in contrast to almost destructive potential for combat magic, and accelerated mana regeneration with a chance for unstable control..." I frowned. I pretty much already expected that that would be the case due to the massive risk incest was on their magical core. Our doctor continued on unhindered by my disappointment that the rituals we performed couldn't have entirely negated the risks. "Her thestral typical shadow magic affinity is below average while she has a high affinity for... blood-based magic...”
That was a lot to take in, I have to say. It sounds like my little Sun is going to be predestined to become a glass cannon due to her destructive potential for combat magic with low defensive capability. She seems to follow in my hoofsteps in that regard and it concerns me greatly. I would have to teach her the importance of not damaging her surroundings by accident. While I would prefer not having to teach her anything along those lines, I knew that not teaching her how to make use of her gifts would only end up in a disaster (quite literally if she loses control of her magic on accident). And it could quite possibly earn me her resentment, treating her like she was made out of glass.
The blood magic affinity caused me perhaps the most concern. A high affinity for blood-based magic could lead to her developing cruel tendencies against those that earned her ire. I knew all too well what that was like as Fallen Star, and that made it all the more important for me to teach her restraint and compassion.
Professor Doctor Cold Hooves carried out his tests on Twilight next, getting the little filly to wail quite loudly for the first time. Luna tried to keep her calm and still to the best of her ability in order to help him out, but it was a futile effort on her part. Of course, with Twilight crying so loudly, Sunset began to whimper as well. It was almost like it hurt Sunset more to see her sister in pain than to endure that pain herself.
If anything, I knew how to teach her to be compassionate to other ponies by appealing to her conscience about what her sister would think of her if she let her impulses get the better of her. Impulses that could be all too easy to fall for, consciously or not. While I didn’t lash out all too often (at least not anymore), having tempered my temperament over centuries, sometimes I still got overwhelmed by these involuntary urges. Numerous training dummies were a testament to that, never having survived my destructive wrath.
“Hmm...” Professor Cold Hooves hummed as he scanned the sample from Twilight, throwing me out of my thoughts. Said filly was currently being comforted by my sister as well as Sunset, my little Sun hugging her as if her life depended on it. “High heat-based magic affinity like her sister, a strong connection to the magical arts in general, the same affinity for thestral tribal magic as her sibling, a slightly higher than average affinity for combat magic and a marginally greater affinity for defensive magic, by the twin suns... a high affinity for arcane magic?! She could very well be a prodigy among prodigies! If properly nurtured, she could become an archmage by the time she earns her Cutie Mark! Although... she has an even worse tendency to develop unstable control over her mana. That might become a problem...”
An unstable control over magic with those affinities could become very deadly if she ever starts to surge (and not just for herself). Oh, my little Star... what will we do with you? Learning control is going to take years (if not decades). One of us will have to constantly stay at your side to ensure nothing is going to happen to you that could hurt you or those around you... which means that there’s going to be next to no chance for you to make any friends aside from your own twin.
I can already tell that teaching my fillies magic won’t be an easy task, by far. And getting tutors for them was pretty much not an option, as well. Not only because I have no doubt that they will quickly outpace that which they could teach them, but also because my fillies were for all intents and purposes ticking time bombs. With the sheer potential both of them hold, nopony will be able to rein in their magic should the worst case happen. Aside from us, that is.
They truly were troublemakers, weren’t they? Cadance would be the only pony I could trust to look after them when we have to leave them alone for little periods at a time. While I would like to be a ‘stay-at-home Mom’ for them, I knew I couldn’t leave Luna and Liz to run the nation on their own for two decades (the bare minimum time required to teach such gifted foals). My little petal was barely ready to start holding court on her own, I couldn’t ask her to take over all of my duties so I could look after Twilight and Sunset, instead.
Although... she did say she wanted to foalsit as a mini-job for quite some time now...
It would cut into the time that she could spend with her own friends from school (both schools, I suppose, what with her having the tendency to go gallivanting over to Remnant whenever she felt like it), but that's something my Rose Petal will be able to survive with little difficulty. Whether or not she would survive foalsitting Sunset and Twilight was another thing entirely.
For once, I was glad she was so dedicated to learning defensive magic that nothing short of Ruby’s scythe or the magic of my wives and I could break through her barriers. She could at least contain their surges for long enough until one of us would get there in order to help defuse any of the dangerous situations that would most certainly arise. Just in case, it might be a good idea to teach her how to channel another pony's surge through herself and relieve them of the magic pressure. I'd rather not arrive too late...
A knock at the door drew our attention away from the quietly muttering doctor and our newborn foals to the group of visitors that slowly poked their heads through the open door, Chrysalis and Celestia stood in the back of the small group, holding the more energetic members of our extended family back from barging in.
First to come in was a rather tall stallion with a shimmering, blonde mane and pearly white fur. At his side were a pair of rather impressive wings and his flanks bore a curled-up dragon in the form of a flaming heart. Taiyang shot me a smile as he saw the little fillies nestled in between Luna and me, thankfully having calmed down from the evil machinations of the wicked doctor (if she could speak, I’m sure Twilight would have given him quite the tantrum for ‘stealing’ her blood).
Following Taiyang, Ruby and Yang were almost instantly at the bed, trying to gain the best angle to watch the two, sleepy girls cuddling with each other. Ruby’s mane was a bit longer than the last time she had been here with Cadance, but still far shorter than that of her marefriend (also now dyed in a rose-red color that made her look eerily like Amore in pink).
Yang’s yellow-painted prosthetic arm almost blended in with the light yellowish-orange coat, and I could tell she still wasn’t entirely comfortable with the replacement on this side of the mirror. Her mane was as wild and voluminous as ever and almost dragged on the ground due to its sheer length, the usually vivid blonde hair now a vivid red not unlike that of my newborn daughter. The lilac eyes that stared back at me had thankfully regained their liveliness since the battle of Beacon Academy.
September’s son silently sat down next to the door. His almost black eyes stared unblinkingly at us, and after him, one last stallion entered the room. Ozpin kept him company while everypony else was eager to meet the two newborn fillies, patiently waiting for the excitement to die down.
The little colt has yet to speak a single word since he has been left here, causing me a little bit of worry that he would never do so. His vocal cords were perfectly healthy as far as Doctor Cold Hooves could tell. And yet, without being very expressive, I could always tell what he was feeling.
As I gave the colt a small encouraging smile, I was suddenly reminded of the bracelet he gave me a while ago. The colors of that bracelet matched both of my daughters’ colors perfectly. Somehow, in some way, September’s son knew them before they were even born without having ever met them.
He truly was a remarkable foal, capable of things not even his own father could comprehend. I could see why he was so important to him, even if he did not know the exact specifics as to why that was. It was a shame that he barely even registered that familial bond with his own son, otherwise I’m sure he wouldn’t have left him here on his own.
I don’t know what would have led humans to evolve into the beings that would later become September’s kind, but it was a sad thought indeed that they would forsake emotions for intelligence, never to truly appreciate the concept of a family bond. It was understandable that September was so fearful his own kind would hunt down his son for being able to feel emotions on an even deeper level than what humanity and ponykind alike could comprehend.
Maybe someday my wives and I would see ponies evolve to such a degree as well. Being able to communicate with emotions and thoughts like what we were capable of with our suns and moon... I’d like that very much. It would make everypony become even closer to each other, I'm sure. Eventually, they might even surpass what alicorns are capable of, if only to a smaller degree.
Alas, such an evolutionary step might take a very long time with ponykind. Ponies have existed for millennia and we are only now starting to catch up with some of the technology I was familiar with on Earth while still far behind in a lot of different areas (as much as I would like to just 'copy' everything from Earth... I sadly lacked the necessary knowledge to do so). Humanity had a clear advantage over us. They adapted miraculously fast to new things and I’m slightly ashamed to say that the same couldn’t be said for ponykind.
Perhaps that was only one part of the answer, though. With immortal rulers, it was almost a given we would start to stagnate at some point. As much as I would like to think the purpose of an immortal being was to shape the future for the better, it was all too easy to simply want things to stay as they are. Sometimes I even wish things would go back to how they were. To be a bit more simple, really.
But things have to move on eventually, making way for newer and better things. That also sadly means leaving behind friends to old age. It was no wonder we seldomly made friends, Celestia having been the last one we truly allowed us to have.
Well, she was actually not the last one. Ozpin and Tai were here, now, too. The former of which was almost as tall as Luna and I are. Liz was perhaps a hoof taller than him and she was only slightly taller than my sister and I.
Ozpin's brownish eyes almost seemed to have a golden glow to them as he set his cane against the chair Liz had previously slept in. He adjusted his glasses with the green glow of his magic. “I take it they are perfectly healthy, then?”
“Nothing ever is,” Professor Doctor Cold Hooves muttered gruffly as he packed his things up neatly in his bag. “But yes, they are as ‘healthy’ as any other newborn."
“That’s good to hear,” Ozpin nodded, moving aside for the doctor as he was about to leave, and my eyes were drawn to the mechanical wing at his left side and the prosthetic for his hindleg as they let out a quiet whirring sound, the servos in them working almost without a single noise. “I would have done more for you if I could have, Summer. I’m glad it worked out for you and both of your... foals was the correct term here, right? I mean no offense if the terminology is not the correct one.”
"Foal is perfectly fine," Luna mentioned and I gave him a nod, unsure whether to smile or give his lost limbs a regretful gaze in mourning. He still put the well-being of others before his own after all this time, and while it was admirable of him, it still concerned me. His current life was nearing its end, which just made his condition more painful for me to see. Ozpin shouldn’t have to deal with a lost limb (or limbs, rather, as was the case in this reality). Not when they were about to rid their world of the darkest stain it has possibly ever seen (aside from the ones that created said stain, that is).
He had already lost one of his legs in the battle against the infiltrator, just like Yang had lost her arm (the only difference was that his appendage had to be amputated after the wound got worse while the doctors on Remnant tried to save it), what more would he have to give when they finally confront the one behind the events at Beacon? Salem wouldn’t simply give up and walk through the door to a different universe because they asked her nicely.
Even if I stand a chance against Salem, I would still hesitate to come to Ozpin’s aid. Things would have been different if I hadn’t gotten pregnant with Sunset and Twilight. As things stand... we could only give him a key like we had given one to September, enchanted to open a portal to a similarly desolate wasteland world that my sisters and I had gotten a small glimpse of in our youth as we tested out the prototype mirror.
Ozpin was powerful in his own right, and with Ruby and Pyrrha, I’m sure he won’t even need my assistance in the coming fight. While his appearance here in Equestria suggested him to be just as powerful as the young guardians, it was only in appearance.
Ozpin wasn’t truly an alicorn in the strictest sense. He didn’t have the ‘sorta’ immortality we had. The Brother Gods had cursed him to reincarnate for eternity and that meant he would still grow old like any other mortal (physically, that is). The only way to change that was to have him go through his own Trial of Ascension. A thing I am unsure of how I could make it happen for him as well. The battle underneath Beacon should have been more than enough to trigger it for him, too, but… evidently, it did not. Whether that was because of the fact that his soul was too fractured or some other reason, I can't tell for certain.
I wanted to help him somehow cure his condition because, quite frankly, it disgusted me what those idiotic 'Gods' did to him. He didn’t deserve this ‘half-life’ for keeping Remnant safe-ish for so long. I didn’t even understand why they would have him reincarnate instead of staying young like his adversary. It was needlessly cruel on him.
“How are you feeling?” Ozpin asked, shifting on his haunches as I gave him a stare. He chuckled as he watched my brow wander up slowly, daring him to say anything about how everything would only get better from here on out. “You will do wonderfully with them, dear. You did fine with Ruby and Cadance, so why would it be any different with them?”
I was unsure whether he had been a parent before, but especially after having given birth, things would only get more hectic. I’d be surprised if I get one restful night within the next few months, to be honest. Definitely not with Twilight. While she seemed to be the quieter one of them both, she had most certainly the louder pair of lungs on her. I wasn’t about to let the maids deal with them instead, though. I didn’t want to miss a single moment in their lives in case... in case I fail at my self-appointed task. I only have those twenty-odd years with them, after all.
Thinking like that would only lead to heartache and might clue them in that I knew something that they were unaware of. Luna had already decided to let me live in favor of our sister, but I still held out hope that somehow, due to some kind of miraculous turn of events, everything would turn out how I wanted it to. Telling Sunset and Twilight (once they were old enough to understand, that is) that I might only have a limited amount of time with them... I can’t do that to them.
Before I could get lost even deeper in those thoughts, Ozpin gave a polite cough. “Something on your mind?” he asked me, and once more, my eyes traveled to the little fillies in between Luna and myself. My sister gave me her own concerned gaze as mine turned mournful.
“Platinum,” I answered, my voice barely above a whisper. “I might not survive, depending on how our confrontation with her goes.”
Silence fell over the room, the weight of my sentence settling heavily over everypony's minds. “What do you mean, Mom?” Cadance whispered fearfully while Ruby draped a wing over her back as both of their eyes met for a moment. “You said the prophecy...”
“I know,” I muttered, my hair flickering a little bit as my anger caused it to ignite. I sighed, calming myself lest I frightened my daughters. “I know. It said only with the true touch of harmony would the lost sister be reunited with her family, her sisters... with us. As in plural, not... not only one sister. But... September said one of us would have to die. He observes time in a way we cannot even begin to comprehend, he can see every possible timeline, and in each one of them, either Platinum dies with Tia or I die, freeing Tia.”
“Why am I only hearing of this now, Mom?!” Cadance started, her voice hissing angrily in a whispered shout. Ruby, too, gave me a horrified look, too shocked to calm Cadance down. Even then... I think she would have given me her own few choice words. As would have Tai, assuming he would get over the news anytime soon. His eyes looked notably more hollow, probably painfully reminded that his Summer was still missing or quite possibly dead. We never really found out what happened to her. Not for a lack of trying. “Would you have told me if this conversation had never come up?!”
“I... I would have,” I said, biting my lip. “...eventually.”
“Mom!” Cadance growled, her eyelid twitching. “I can’t fucking believe you! Your brain really must have turned to dust if you thought it a good idea to withhold that information from me! Are you even going to tell my sisters about this when they get older?!”
“Do you think that would be a good idea?” I asked, meeting her eyes with hesitation. For a moment, I could have sworn they fluctuated between her normally light purple color and a silvery gray. They had sharp slits in them and brimmed with cold, steely resolve. I had hoped she wouldn’t develop... that. Not with how pure she was. A lot has changed since she had been but a little filly riding on my back, hasn’t it?
Remnant had played a big part in that change, I suppose. She was bereft of the idea that her life would stay peaceful, much like what Azeroth had done to my sisters and me. It happened a lot earlier to her than it did for us, though. And I feared it would only get worse from here on out. After all... hardship always found us, in one way or another. It would do so for her, as well, I'm certain.
“So...” she muttered, trying to suppress the snarl that threatened to appear on her muzzle. “It’s either you or her..?”
“Petal...” I began, but she cut me off with a fierce glare.
“Don’t you fucking dare to ‘petal’ me right now, Mom,” she snorted. Oh, dear. She must be really mad. She didn't even bother to hide her crude words behind cute animals. “You’re going to survive, do you understand me? You are more important than her. I don’t want to lose you... I need you. They. Need. You.”
I sighed. “I have no intention to die, Cadance,” I told her, smiling ruefully. “I promise, I won’t die.”
If only I meant that. If only I didn’t have to lie. I will try everything in my power to stay alive, but if it truly comes down to it... if the only option was to die instead of Tia... if it was the only way to purge Platinum from her... I don’t know if I was able to choose between her and me.
As much as I wanted to cheat death, I still have to think of that possibility. That damn possibility I so desperately wanted to hide away from but couldn’t. I might have to die and there would be no changing that. Only sheer luck could give me that last ray of hope. Alas, I couldn’t count on that.
Hope... I had lost it so many times and still found my way back into believing that it existed. Maybe that was all that I needed for me to do the impossible. I want to prove September wrong. No... I wanted to prove the damn universe wrong and change destiny to my own desires. Nothing can ever truly be set in stone, can it? I mean, if it were... life would be meaningless.
Destiny can’t be the ‘be-all and end-all’ of everything. There must be a way to influence it somehow. Even if the universe (or what have you) decides to fight me, and in doing so will try to take everything away from me that I know and love... I will find a way to make it happen. There must be something I can try and do. Anything.
I always viewed destiny like it was the end of the road, a place where you were supposed to end up after enduring every hardship life could throw at you. But perhaps it didn’t have to be. Perhaps there was something about that that could be influenced by somepony’s own choices. That's what I had told Cadance in the Realm of Ascension, and it's what I had told Ruby and Pyrrha as they ascended. I told them that their fate was their own, that they could choose to follow the path of a higher being or live out the rest of their life peacefully (relatively speaking, of course).
And what was fate but another word for destiny?
That would make my previous beliefs of what destiny was wrong. Destiny doesn’t have to be the end of the road if you had the choice to accept whether or not you wanted it to be the end of the road. With enough dedication (and a stroke of genius or two), there might be a way for me to achieve my own goals. I could bring Tia back just like I planned on doing without having to say goodbye to either my wives or my daughters.
Assuming that I could change fate like that, then there must be a way for the prophecy to come true word for word. It never foretold the death of one of us explicitly, so why would one of us have to die? Did September lie? What reason could he have to do that?
Or... he didn’t lie. I went about it completely wrong, didn’t I? In both possible futures, he said one of us would die, but that’s it, isn’t it? He did not say that one of us would stay dead for good. I just assumed that's what he meant because that is what all mortals meant when they say ‘somepony has died’. September wasn’t a ‘normal’ mortal, not entirely. For him, something like ‘dying’ didn’t necessarily have to mean ‘cease to exist’.
Temporary death was still dying, wasn’t it? September tends to speak in a factual way, something that was probably a trait of his kind. He also kind of tends to speak in what 'feels' like riddles, he might have intentionally left out what he saw past the point of either me dying or killing Platinum with Tia.
For once, I felt like the stars were shining more brightly. The very future didn’t look so bleak anymore and I felt hope flare up within me like it never had before. I felt hope that my plan to free my twin would work out perfectly. And for once... I knew with perfect clarity that it would work. There was no other way it could end up any differently than that. Platinum couldn’t possibly foresee the Elements working in perfect harmony as I distract her long enough for them to cleanse Tia from her wretched influence. Now, with September’s words in mind... I knew my distraction would, without a doubt, work.
Platinum won’t see her defeat coming, gloating over my dead body like the self-absorbed mare that she is and always will be. She doesn’t even know alicorns don’t truly die without destroying the connection to the very thing that keeps them alive. In all of those centuries that she has been on the moon, she plotted her revenge thinking that once we die, we stay dead.
Only Luna ever saw me revive, not Tia. My twin only knows that we are very hard to kill, requiring a being equally or more powerful than us to truly kill us. I felt almost stupid for not realizing this sooner. Platinum couldn’t possibly know what would happen once our mortal shell was ‘slain’. She couldn’t extract that knowledge from Tia because my twin doesn’t have that knowledge.
Platinum would be a lot more cocky, feeling like she’s actually invincible (more so than she already thinks she is), if she knew how hard it was to truly kill an alicorn. She never even seemed to be aware of the fact that death wouldn’t mean ‘cease to exist’ for us. Evidently, she never suffocated on the moon, whether that was because our moon had a breathable atmosphere or she instinctively used magic to substitute oxygen with mana. Nothing short of committing ‘suicide’ would grant her that knowledge, and that's something Princess Bitchface would never do. That much I am certain of.
She never once died. She didn’t know.
She. Didn’t. Know.
It was almost laughable how easy it would be to defeat her. Actually, I was laughing because of how ridiculously easy it is going to be to trick her into a false sense of security. The gamble to distract her would only work once, though. So we have to make sure that we get it done right the first time around. We won’t get a second shot at this again. Not one that was this easy.
And everything would depend on restoring the Elements of Harmony to their former glory. Without the Elements in working condition, we don’t even need to bother with trying to execute our plan. But... thinking about it? If September left his son here because it was safer here for him than it was on Earth... then didn’t that mean that everything would work out exactly as it was foretold in the prophecy? Why else would he leave him here?
That could only mean one thing, and that is that the Elements of Harmony were about to return. I know it.
“Is she... always like that?” Weiss asked, sounding concerned as I had my little moment, laughing like a lunatic. Yang shook her head next to Ruby while Cadance groaned.
“You have no idea,” Liz commented snarkily, letting out a surprised yelp as I snagged her up in my hooves, squeezing the living daylights out of her. “A-air!”
The stars were truly shining brightly on this fateful day. Every puzzle piece finally fit together and I saw the complete picture for the first time. I never could figure out the foolproof plan I needed to save Tia for sure from her nightmare, but... now I knew. I knew, I knew, I knew!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Ah ha ha hah! I knew! I’m a genius!
Destiny was mine to command!
Nothing could go wrong!
“Summer... p-please,” Liz croaked, hitting me weakly. I let my wife go before I caused her to lose consciousness, sheepishly giggling nervously in embarrassment. Right, my bad. I can't just suffocate my fluffy changeling queen, duh. “S-so... what was that about?”
“I know what to do, Liz! I know what to do! Eee!” I squealed again, almost waking up my slumbering foals in the process. That they slept through my bout of mad laughter was already a miracle and I had no intention to deny them their rest. Something I could really use myself, I was basically running on fumes at the moment.
“Mom, you’re being cryptic again,” Cadance sighed, giving me an exasperated look. “What did you figure out?”
“The prophecy! The secrets to the universe! The perfect recipe for cookies!” I smiled, patting her on the head as I leaned over the edge of the bed with joy. “You have no idea how elated I am right now. We need to celebrate..."—I stopped myself before I jumped out of bed and drove Kibitz insane with my giddy rush of euphoria—" not tonight, though. Soon, maybe even tomorrow.”
“Moooom...”
“Yes, yes,” I rolled my eyes. “Let me have my fun while I still feel so energetic despite having just given birth.”
Luna huffed. “Sister, just spit it out already,” she said, as fed up with me as the rest of our friends and family were.
“I know how to defeat Platinum without having to die or sacrifice Tia!” I stated, matter-of-factly. I took the skeptical glance from my beautiful wife as my cue to explain further and I did so with glee. I told them everything. Every part of my plan and what it would mean for the defeat of our greatest enemy.
Nothing could go wrong! Eee! I feel like I’m on drugs right now, the sheer amount of joy flooding my system was too much for me. But I don’t care! Ah hah hah ha! It feels so good to be so happy again, to feel like I don’t have to worry about the future! To have no doubts about everything that could possibly go wrong and drag me down!
And you know what the best thing about this is? I won’t have to leave my daughters! Eee! I could be there for them, and help them through everything that might come up in the future. Cadance won’t have to face the return of the Crystal Empire alone. My little fillies might ascend with my help! Yes, yes, yes!
They won’t have to attend my own funeral! I won’t leave them!
Everything's just perfect~.