//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirty Nine: Of Apples and Shadows 
// Story: Trixie is Pregnant and It's Twilight's Problem 
// by TheCrimsonDM 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Thirty Nine: Of Apples and Shadows

Written by TheCrimsonDM

Luna wasn’t sure of what to do. It had seemed that Twilight's library had become the place to hang out in lately. She could always come here, find a book to read, drink some coffee and spend time with friends or family as her sister was spending a lot of time here as well. Much to Luna's surprise many of the townsponies came to visit Twilight quite often, from the cute little teacher, to the adorable tiny mayor, to the incredibly teeny sisters of their friends. Each pony that came to visit was small, cute, and friendly. 

Or perhaps she was just very large and imposing looking. 

Luna cared not for self reflection and instead focused on waiting for her loving sister to finally descend the steps. She looked blissful and her body radiated a kind of warmth she hadn't felt since a few months ago when Celestia had accidentally fallen into Luna's bath and they stayed there washing every part of each other’s bodies until... hmm, good as those memories were, she briefly wondered if Celestia was going to be opposed to another bath like that now she was engaged to not one, but two unicorns.

Celestia saw her and beamed. "Dear sister, what brings you here to the Golden Oaks library?"

Luna blinked. "I've been here all day, Celestia. In fact I was enjoying Spike's presence here."

Spike was off in the corner reading a book titled, 'Dark Magic and the Secrets to Unravel Them.' he waved a clawed hand. "Sup, Sunbutt."

Celestia narrowed her eyes. 'What did you call me?"

Luna giggled. "More like what did your precious student call you a few minutes ago? Before you made her scream so loud that the entire neighborhood likely heard it."

Celestia's face went red in a second and she looked away sharply. "I don't know what you are referring too."

Spike did his best, lazy, impersonation of Twilight. "Sit on my face, Sunbutt!"

Celestia gasped. "You heard that!"

Spike laughed. "And you owe me three bits."

Luna grumbled as she summoned forth three golden bit coins and tossed them at Spike who caught them easily enough. She swore that he actually grew a centimeter the moment he touched them. "You are right, she did own up to it."

Celestia let out a sigh. "This is not fair, making bets about my love life."

Luna smiled at her. 'Oh come now, Celly Belly, don't you think I of all ponies would not know more about your love life? Surely Twilight has a ways to go before she catches up to me."

Celestia licked her lips. "Well... I wouldn't mind increasing your knowledge a bit la-" it was then that Celestia seemed to remember that Spike was in the room as her eyes widened and she cleared her throat before looking away. "-increasing your knowledge about how to be tactful later."

Spike shrugged. "Princest, awesome, I don't care. I got money to throw in the pile and a book to read."

Celestia walked to the kitchen. "I'm going to get some coffee seeing as Twilight drank all of her booze already."

Luna decided to follow her. "That is what I said earlier."

Once in the kitchen Celestia sat down, used her golden aura to pour herself a cup of coffee, now lukewarm and took a sip of it. Black. She looked over at Luna. "Did... did he just say he had a pile of gold somewhere?"

Luna nodded. "Well you know dragons. They tend to horde, its how they grow I'll have you know. The growing process for a dragon is more about learning how to maintain and safeguard a horde than it is about physical aging. Some reports suggest that dragons have pre-memories from before they were hatched from an egg."

Celestia took a bigger drink of her coffee. "But he came from a rock. I personally painted his rock."

Luna nodded. "And hence he's a golem... or something. Honestly, Twilight's weird and I don't question her magic too much anymore."

That seemed to be a sentiment both of them shared as they remained quiet for a long moment. Luna figured it was too late in the morning to want to stay awake much longer. Her sleep cycle had been so completely bucked by the past few days. She took a seat poured herself another cup of coffee and listened as the door opened from the front of the library, the familiar jingle told her somepony was here. Or perhaps Spike had left.

Hearing Spike’s voice told her the truth. "Hey, what's up? Oh, you’re looking for her, huh? Yeah she's in the kitchen."

She wondered who could be here. They were obviously looking for Celestia if Spike told them to come to the kitchen, but she wasn't sure who would be doing just that. When she saw a pair of ponies in the hallway she knew she was entirely too wrong. Big Mac and Applejack stood there. Big Mac's eyes met with Luna's and for a brief moment she could tell he held no ill will toward her, unfortunately she had to look away, it was too painful to see the warmth in there. Applejack tilted her hat, "Oh, Princess Celestia, howdy."

Celestia replied. "Howdy."

Applejack gave Big Mac a shove and he stumbled into the kitchen. He spoke quietly, "P-Princess Luna. Ah uh... Ah came to tell you something."

Luna let out a defeated sigh. "I was afraid of this. I went too far didn't I?"

He shook his head. 'N-not at all. Ah uh... what Ah mean to say is that Ah... Ah um... Ah l-like..."

Applejack gave him another shove. "If you don't come out right here and tell her, Ah'm going to personally gild you."

Luna sat up straight. "Don't do that, I need those."

Applejack looked at her. "Oh, what for?"

Luna felt her face burning up. "I um... it's private."

Big Mac swallowed. "Ah like you, Luna."

Luna's heart skipped a beat. Did he just... say he liked her? "S-surely you only mean as a friend, after all I've done, you couldn't have more than that for me."

He shook his head. "No, Ah... Ah think Ah'm in love with you."

Oh no, it was becoming hard to see. What was wrong with her? She opened her mouth to speak but only a squeaking sound came out. She shook her head and closed her eyes. Her entire body was trembling now and she could feel it as hot streams ran down the sides of her face. It took everything she had to speak her next words, words she never thought she'd be confident enough to speak. "I love applepie."

Applejack cleared her throat. "Do you mean you love Big Mac?"

Luna nodded. "That one, I mean that one. Big Mac. I love him."

She felt a soft, warm hoof at the side of her face brushing away some of the tears. She opened her eyes only to stare down into Big Mac's kind, gentle face. He was smiling, his hoof was so soft. This was it, the moment she'd been looking forward to for so long now. Nothing could ruin this, nothing at all.

Celestia smiled. "Great, you fell in love and even better, it's with a stallion who's done incest with his sister before. So he won't judge us for sleeping with each other."

Luna shot her a horrified look and before she could say anything, an apple flew out as hard as a cinderblock and hit Celestia's horn slamming down over it all the way to the base of her head. Applejack stood there with an outstretched leg and looking mad as could be, before blinking and withdrawing her leg and then taking a step back. "Ah uh... Ah'm gay, so me and Big Mac never did, um not that we would if I wasn't."

Celestia plucked the apple off of her head. "I see. My apologies, I was hoping... oh never mind. I hope you forgive my rudeness. Now, I have some frustration to take out on something.  I think Chrysalis needs to be set on fire again."

Okay, so one pony could ruin the moment. But it didn't matter she loved Big Mac and he loved her back. Everything was going to be okay now... so long as Celestia didn't murder her would be step-family.


***


Somewhere in a dusty, dark place, a lone wizard, ex-teacher, and still proud student of Princess Celestia walked among rows of towering ancient books. Shadow Heart's scars covered his entire body, a dark memory of the time he sacrificed everything to try and save his family from an Ursa Major, and although he slew the beast, his family wren already gone. Still he had fond memories of the foal he found and tutored. The one who almost took his place as the next dark protector for Celestia. At least, until Celestia found out and decided that even if they were learning the dark arts to fight the dark arts, it was almost tantamount to treason.

So here he walked in the ancient archive. Deep under Canterlot, so deep it was buried beneath the mines where Celestia's slaves had once worked. Back when she had slaves that was. Just like the mines this place was long forgotten, hidden, and abandoned. Just like all of Celestia's dark secrets that made her feel uncomfortable. He figured he probably belonged here.

He would be forced to stay here too. Until the day he found it. The one book that Celestia had ordered him to find. It was an old tome, one so old that it was before even Celestia and Luna were born. Protected by dark magic, written in virgin blood... which was gross. Bound in pony flesh... even more gross. And sealed by the urine of an ancient pregnant dragon... probably impossible, and even more disgusting than the other two. It was called the Ponynomicron, and it was said to house the very spells that first created ponykind, the world they lived on, and the sun and moon which revolved around it. It also had a nifty spell to make alicorns but that was a moot point.

It just so happened he had found the tome last week and boy did it stink. It was in his satchel at the moment, and he was going to deliver it to the princess later that night. He was actually just exploring the place for fun at the moment. Sure it was dark in here, and smelled like old people, but he was okay with that because it was quiet. This book would help him redeem himself and allow Celestia to give him a new title. Sure she was never going to let him be a teacher again, and he figured that was actually for the best. But, he could redeem himself and perhaps seek out that filly who'd he'd inadvertently ruined her life. 

He never meant to harm her, but Princess Celestia saw to finishing that particular loop. Still he would make amends to her too, assuming her memories weren’t totally screwed from Celestia's memory spells. Well at the very least he could enjoy the time he had left down here, because he never planned to come back. Not now that he had the book Celestia wanted, and the spell to retrieve lost memories.

He was so happy he began singing to himself. "Ooooooohhhhh, I'm a lumberjack and that's okay. I sleep at night and I work all day!"

The book in his satchel added, "He's a lumberjack and he's OOOOOOOOKAAAY!"

In unison they finished. "I sleep all night, and I work all day!"

He laughed. "Oh we have fun, you and me, little cursed disgusting book you."

The book replied. "Honestly, I think I'm just a figment of your imagination for being in these archives and alone for like, ten years, but hey, I won’t tell Celestia if you don't."

"Good idea. she'd probably think I was crazy!"