Argyle and Caela
A story by OneLonelyPickle
The moon above Maretime Bay hovered like a huge, pale spectre observing the coastline below. A crisp white-yellow light bathed the landscape of the Earth Pony town. Its thick rays bounced off the side of the lighthouse home of one Argyle Starshine.
Argyle leaned over the roof gallery railing, watching the moon cast shadows over the town which was a short trot down the road away. Behind him, within the glass-walled lantern room, all of his most prized possessions sat. Relics of a long-forgotten era. Artifacts lost in time but for the curious nature of one stallion Tartarus-bent on exploring every corner of Equestria and turning over every stone to learn all the stories, tales, legends, and myths that he could in one lifetime.
He wasn’t alone.
“It’s nice out tonight,” called a feminine voice behind him. Argyle smiled and closed his eyes. He prepared himself to turn back around, to look into those gorgeous eyes again. Her eyes. He’d been smitten ever since foalschool. Argyle didn’t even know it was possible to love anything more than Equestrian history.
Argyle inhaled sharply and turned around. He wasn’t prepared for what he saw. He never was. He found himself unable to exhale, unable to blink, unable to perceive the sound of the waves battering the rock walls of the Bay.
Caela Fullbright was Argyle’s angel come to Equestria. The features he first admired before any other of his wife were the two piercing eyes of deep emerald. Argyle remembered when he saw them so many years ago for the first time, and even to the day twenty years later, it had the same effect.
Her mane was hot orange streaks of long hair set against a vast sheet of twinkling violet, like flowing lines of precious silk.
In the middle of her cute mare face was a perfectly rounded nose set into a golden coat of immaculate fur. The perfection was in the imperfections, Argyle surmised. There was a patch of off-yellow on Caela’s neck, out of sight unless you were to nuzzle her at the right spot on her left. Argyle took the opportunity to do it whenever he could, including at that time under the bright full moon.
He leaned in and hummed happily as he brought his head against the neck of his wife. Caela cooed. The warm half-embrace created something like a fire between them, keeping them warm and cozy. Argyle kissed his wife on the cheek and watched her waddle to the side. The reason for the waddling caught his eye and he smiled wide.
“H-hey,” Caela said, quietly and unsure. Argyle’s face shot up to her blushing face and she continued with a bite of her lip, “I know I’m fat right now… no need to stare.”
But Argyle shook his head and stumbled forward to embrace his wife.
“F-fat?! No. No, sweetums! You’re not fat! You’re… you’re…” Argyle struggled to find the words, holding his wife’s head to his chest. The mulberry scent of her mane numbed his thoughts and he just blurted out a response.
“Pregnant. Pregnant! Caela, dear, you’re just pregnant!”
Caela separated from her husband and looked him up and down.
“Right… right…” she said with sad eyes and a sniffle. “That’s true, I am pregnant. But…” Caela leaned to the side and looked under Argyle’s chest at his pudgy belly. Argyle rose a single eyebrow. “If I’m pregnant, what are you?”
Argyle shook his head in shock. “W-what?!” he cried. “A-are you saying I’m getting chubby?!” He tried his best to look at his belly, turning every which way like a dog chasing its tail.
Caela erupted into laughter. She held a hoof to her chest and threw her head up in complete mirth. Argyle knew better than to walk into his wife’s jest, but he could never help it. The thought of her disliking his weight…
He smiled when he saw her large belly jiggle. He trotted up and poked the pregnant belly and tickled it.
“Don’t worry, little Luna. You’ll be out of that big laughter pot soon enough.”
Caela spoke mid-laugh.
“Oh… Luna… haha… interesting name…”
Argyle admired the glow of his wife’s face under the moonlight. Her golden features intrigued his every sense. The smell of her coat was akin to a ripe orange, something like the ones from Oscar Orange in the northern pastures. The curve of her nose, from her forehead to the tip of her snout, reminded him of a marble statue of a beautiful mare from the old Canterlot garden. And the feel of her coat when Argyle ran his hoof gently through it… words always failed him.
He returned to the moment.
“Yes, Luna. You know, just like Princess Luna! I think our little filly’s going to look like me, and Luna had a dark blue coat, right?”
Caela opened her mouth to protest, but Argyle walked back up to the gallery railing and hung his front hooves over. He looked up to the moon with a huge grin and continued.
“Do you remember those stained-glass windows? With Princess Luna and Princess Celestia on them? I mean, wow. Just… wow… to think they survived all this time…”
Argyle became lost in his thoughts. The purple shade of the night sky surrounding the bright ball of light that was the moon covered his visions. Caela waddled to her husband’s side and struggled to get her own front hooves over the railing. Argyle heard her grunt and was instantly broken from his nostalgic spell.
“C-Caela!” he cried, issuing forth every ounce of his strength to nudge his wife’s hooves up onto the railing. Caela caught her breath alongside her frightened husband.
“I’m so sorry! You needed my help an—”
Caela just laughed. Argyle blushed.
“R-right… I get a bit carried away when it comes to you, you know that.”
Argyle interrupted his wife’s laughter to turn her head towards his with his hoof. Their eyes met.
“It’s only because I love you so much, Caela.”
Caela’s mouth became a tiny O and the gold of her coat against her cheeks turned a scarlet red. She looked away.
“Y-You’re such a geek with that stuff, jeez,” she said with a giddy schoolfilly giggle at the end. Argyle added his own foalish giggle. They both looked up to the moon.
“Yeah,” Caela began, cheeks aglow, “I do remember the stained-glass windows.” She breathed in deep and exhaled happily. “And I remember the throne. That would have been Princess Twilight’s throne, right?”
Argyle nodded and hummed in agreement.
“That’s what we figured, wasn’t it? But the history’s not complete. We need to go back sometime – and there’s the issue of that statue missing from the grounds where the garden used to be. A-according to the garden layout from that scroll, the—"
Argyle stopped mid-sentence. There was an awkward silence, only interrupted by the odd rush of cool summer air that tussled Caela’s mane.
“Listen…” Argyle started, but Caela cut him off.
“Argyle, our child is going to be a big responsibility.”
Argyle sucked in his lips and stared at his hooftips hanging over the gallery railing. One of them caught a gleam from the moonlight.
“I know, sweetums… I know…” Argyle replied quietly, and his voice became steadily louder as he continued, “But, don’t we have a responsibility to the ponies of Equestria? Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi are so wrapped up in how much they think every other tribe is trying to eat them or capture them that they don’t understand what’s happening!”
By the end of it, Argyle was staring at his wife and panting. Caela’s eyebrows curved down. Argyle held his breath when he saw the slanted line of his wife’s concerned mouth. He closed his eyes and exhaled.
“…okay, we don’t even understand what’s happening, if anything is happening. I know, I get wrapped up…”
Caela put her hoof on her husband’s shoulder and he opened his eyes slowly. She smiled at him.
“Darling, we’re just a couple of historians. We spent twelve years studying old ruins, collecting artifacts, digging holes so big that the ancient Ursa Majors could fit inside…” Argyle frowned. His wife’s smile became wider, but more unsure. She meant to continue, but faltered momentarily, her mouth ajar. Argyle opened his mouth.
Caela continued.
“M-maybe there is no great mystery. Maybe this is just how things... turned out. Let's focus... on our new family.”
Argyle’s mouth was still open. Caela turned away and stared out into Maretime Bay.
“I-I…” Argyle couldn’t find the right words. He brought a hoof up, slowly, to feel the texture of his wooden medallion. The symbol on it, and the symbols of the princess of olden times, were strikingly similar. Even before Princess Twilight, the history he read spoke of such a symbol. He gripped the medallion tight against his chest and resolved himself.
“I’m not going to run off and leave you alone, Caela, but I’m not about to give up on our dream of uncovering the true history of Equestria!”
Caela continued to look away, but the telltale sign of her raised cheeks was present. Argyle hopped down from the railing and started to walk around and talk aloud.
“We have a duty – an obligation — to our fellow ponies to learn the secrets of the past! To find out what has been missing in Equestria that has kept the three pony tribes separated for so long! Sweetums, nopony else can do it! I know it!”
A strange sound emerged from the front of Argyle’s wife. He cocked his head.
“C-caela?”
Caela hopped down from the railing and half-turned around. Argyle saw a wide smirk on her face, and she fought back laughter. She looked at him with a sideways glance of deep emerald that made Argyle forget about everything else.
“You’re my favorite stallion in the whole of Equestria,” Caela said, turning fully towards her husband and getting right into his face. They were snout to snout. Argyle was lost in his wife’s eyes while she searched his own.
Caela continued, her hot breath against Argyle’s clean-shaven muzzle.
“The only thing that can get you to talk like that when you’re around me is history. Otherwise, you’re just a big” — Caela rubbed her snout against her husband’s and spoke in a silly voice — “Puddy tat!” Caela lost herself in laughter again while Argyle struggled to produce a sound.
Suddenly, he wrapped a hoof around his wife and squeezed tight. Caela stopped laughing.
“No matter what,” Argyle said quietly. “I don’t want to ever be apart from you. No matter what.”
Caela returned the embrace. One could almost see the warmth emanate from the hugging couple. Caela kissed her husband’s neck and nuzzled it affectionately.
“Me neither,” was the whisper of Caela’s reply.
* * *
A soft breeze caused a wave in the sheer white curtains of Argyle and Caela’s round bedroom window. Argyle rested his head on Caela’s upper chest. He lightly brought his hoof back and forth on the rising and falling pregnant belly just visible in the moonlight. Caela had one hoof playing with her husband’s mane and the other draped over his upper body.
Caela breathed in… and then out.
Her belly came up… then went down.
Argyle basked in the scent of orange. He closed his eyes and smiled a wide, close-mouthed smile. He heard his wife’s breathing and his own, with Caela’s being more strained. Their gold and mulberry-dyed comforter was bunched up near the hoof of the bed. Argyle sighed out happily.
“Starswirl.”
Argyle’s ear twitched. He was so out of it that he barely registered that his wife had spoken in the dark.
“Huh?” he asked. Caela chuckled and kissed her husband on the back of his head.
“The name I choose. Starswirl.”
Argyle frowned.
“Starswirl, huh? So, you think she’s gonna be a he?”
Caela shifted and jabbed her husband in the back.
“I know so. I’m his mom; moms just know.”
Argyle shuffled himself back and sat up. He playfully smirked at his wife.
“Is that so? Well, I know that she is going to be a filly. Are we agreed that it will be Luna if it’s a filly and she has my color?”
Caela rolled her eyes and laughed.
“I suppose so, but Starswirl is a colt. I can feel it. What if she has my colors?”
Argyle scrunched up his mouth into a quizzical expression. He brought up a hoof to rub his chin.
“Hmm… I suppose it would be Celestia, then. She’s going to be our little princess, after all.”
Caela’s upper lip cringed with disgust.
“Ummm. No. Nothing against the Princess, but that one is too… hoity toity. She’d get teased.”
Argyle whinnied and looked sideways at the wall.
“Fine,” he grumbled. He blinked rapidly and his ear twitched.
“Now wait: what about Sunny?”
His face lit up and he clopped his hooves together.
“Hey sweetums?! Sunny is good, right?!” Caela did not look convinced. Argyle continued, waving his hooves about. “It’s still a reference to the princess — nopony but us will get it, but that’s fine — and it won’t sound too fancy! It’s even a good colt’s name, too!”
Caela opened her mouth and Argyle leaned in closer, smile still wide. Suddenly Caela turned to her side and closed her eyes. Argyle blinked.
“Ask me tomorrow,” Caela said with a yawn. Argyle’s smile disappeared and his open mouth twitched.
“W-wait, that’s it? ‘Tell me tomorrow’?!” he cried. Caela bit her lip to supress her building smile. Argyle’s tangent continued. “But sweetums, t-this is an important part of our role as parents! To choose the perfect name for our perfect little foal! If we go to sleep without deciding now, maybe we’ll forget the names we chose!”
Caela made a throaty, strained chuckle. Argyle’s eyebrows curved down.
“Oh come on…” he said in defeat as his wife started to laugh wildly. Argyle couldn’t stay too mad on account of getting to watch his beautiful wife do the thing he loved to watch the most, but her trickery would not go unpunished. He playfully gritted his teeth and brought his hooves against Caela’s upper chest and belly to tickle her.
“Think that’s funny, sweetums?” he said through his gritted teeth. His “punishment” only served to launch Caela into an even more hysterical fit of giggles, to the point that tears popped out of the corners of her eyes. Argyle couldn’t hold his own laughter back, and before long both ponies were wrapped up into a mess of hooves and nuzzles and tickling.
Minutes later, the fun came to an abrupt stop.
“Argggghhhh…” Caela moaned and brought a shaky hoof to her side. Argyle vibrated with worry.
“Sweetums!” he cried, scanning the area where her hoof laid with an x-ray-like focus. Caela closed her eyes and braced herself. Her body shook.
“I-It’s… nothing…” Caela forced a smile. Argyle was so worked up he was sweating bullets down from his forehead and the back of his mane. “Just… pregnancy pains, that’s all.”
Argyle forced his lips together into a tight line and he shook his head.
“No,” Argyle lamented, “It started back when we left those ruins from the south. The Fortress of Talacon, remember?” He leaned closer to his wife and she winced. He brought the back side of his hoof to her forehead and gasped as he felt its heat. “We need to see a doctor! It’s the curse, I know it — but Doctor Kent can help, even if a little!”
Caela shook her head.
“No! No doctors — Argyle, it’s nothing. That ‘curse’ was just make-believe warning for explorers.” Somehow, she managed a smile and a laugh, though her sweaty, glistening face gave her true feelings away. “You’re overreacting, as always.”
Argyle’s eyes darted about. "And you don't give enough respect to what history tells us!" he cried, his voice dripping with concern. His expression softened and Caela thought he looked like somepony watching a dead mare walking. She booped his snout.
“Hey,” she said quietly. Argyle locked eyes with his wife. Bright emeralds and sad amethyst.
“I’ll be fine. And so will you.” Caela exhaled and closed her eyes. “The pain’s already gone. The pregnancy pain.” Caela paused.
"But, if you're that worried, darling..." She opened one eye. "We'll go see Doctor Kent tomorrow, okay?"
One side of Argyle's mouth drew up into a smile and he nodded. Caela nodded as well. She patted the bed beside her. “Lay down with me.”
Argyle swallowed and breathed out shakily. He tentatively laid down next to his wife and centered his head on his pillow. The pony couple stared up at the ceiling, partially lit up from the moonlight streaming in from the window.
Argyle found his wife's hoof and placed his gingerly on top. Caela shimmied herself over until she was pressed up against her husband. Argyle faced his wife, whose twinkling emerald eyes and tiny smile made Argyle’s heart beat five thousand times a second in his chest.
“Darling,” Caela said, cheeks hot. “I love you so much.”
Argyle’s own cheeks burned and he couldn’t help but smile.
“I love you too, sweetums. So very, very much. You will never know just how much.”
Caela shuffled even closer and laid her head between Argyle’s pillow and the crook of his neck. She sighed happily. Argyle rested head over his wife’s, not putting its full weight to bear on her, and he closed his eyes while feeling her heartbeat through her cheek and the warmth of their bodies touching.
Caela finally replied, sleepily.
“I do know... Argyle. I do...”
Before drifting off, Argyle let his tired thoughts come out with a yawn.
“How about… when Sunny is older, all three of us go exploring.”
Caela mumbled something. Argyle kissed his wife’s cheek and finished with a sleepy drawl.
“A family… we’ll find the secrets… to restore Equestria… as a family…”