Starlight heaved a deep sigh. "Look, I said I'm sorry."
"Trixie heard you." Trixie nodded lightly, but remained perched on her grand pillow. "That doesn't change what you owe her."
Starlight applied a hoof to her face. "I have students to counsel!"
"You have a mare too, it would seem." Trixie smirked viciously at Starlight's discomfort. "And her condition is entirely your fault."
"You were there!" Starlight pointed at Trixie accusingly. "You had a say in the events, I'm pretty sure of that!"
Trixie rolled a hoof slowly and patiently, unlike herself. "Be that as it may, it is the responsibility of the pony involved to help take care of a mare in Trixie's condition. I thought you were a responsible pony. Was I wrong? Was the Great and Powerful Trixie mistaken?!"
Starlight sagged with defeat. "No... Look. Look! We're both adults, right?"
"Correct." Trixie smiled so nicely. "Which is why I called you for help, as a responsible adult."
Starlight set a hoof on Trixie's side. "Look... I was not entirely myself at that time, and we--we-- did things. And now, consequences. We're both on the hook for that." She leaned in closer to her performing friend. "So, work with me here. I want you to be happy and cared for."
"Then why haven't you fetched me that tea?" Trixie's eyes went past Starlight, to where the kitchen lurked beyond her, around a few corners. "And instead argue with me?"
Starlight applied a hoof to her face. "Trixie, I love you, as a friend, not as a boyfriend, nor you as a girlfriend. I'm a mare, you know that, right?"
Trixie rolled her eyes softly. "Whatever you choose to identify yourself as now, what's growing inside Trixie will know you as the one that sired them, because you did. As a responsible adult, please take responsibility and fetch Trixie some tea!"
"The kitchen isn't that far!" Starlight began stomping in that direction despite that. "And you aren't even... You only just found out!" She was lost to sight, grumbling down the hallway. "You're going to be like this the entire time, aren't you?"
"Why would Trixie not expect her foal's father to take care of her in this delicate time?" She batted her lashes even if none could see it. "Any partner of mine would be Great and Powerful of heart, and wouldn't be able to ignore my needs."
Starlight returned in a few minutes with a tea kettle steaming in her grip and a teacup floating beside it. "Here you are, Mom."
Trixie sat up with a raised brow. "Mom?"
"Isn't that what you're becoming?" Starlight set the kettle down and got to pouring gently. "You are becoming a mother. You are a Mom."
"Huh... Mom..." Trixie seemed to be tasting and weighting the word in her mouth. "That is not a title Trixie had before, but... It isn't awful." She crossed a hoof to her chin. "Do you think our little one will be as amazing at magic as their parents?" Her tail began to wag eagerly as her magic took hold of the filled cup, bringing it closer to herself. "Mmm." She sipped from the tea with a pleased expression. "You always were good at that."
"What am I, Spike?" Starlight was smiling, in a bit of a smirk-filled way. "You're welcome though. Feel better?"
"Knowing you're there for me? Quite." Trixie angled her cup at Starlight. "Now, let's be real. We have a foal coming. Us, both of us. This is something we must face... together."
"Together," sighed out Starlight. "Are you really alright with this? Knowing I have... no attraction to you, that way?"
Trixie raised a brow. "It was lovely, but it is not what Trixie needs. What I want is a caring partner, a stage assistant to the grand performance that is life, see?" She tipped her hat forward. "This is a role you already fulfill so well. Why you were surprised I'd allow you to do what you did remains somewhat surprising to Trixie."
"Uh..." She sank slowly to her haunches. "Are you telling me you're an ace?"
"Trixie is an ace! A pro, a wizard!" She flashed a great smile. "She is also Great and Powerful, but you knew this. Thank you for reminding me, never a bad time to do that."
Starlight buried her face in both hooves. "We're literally talking about that time you had lots of sex."
"And you're hetero, and yet we're talking about that time you did things with another mare. Amazing how that works." Trixie did not seem at all ruffled. "We both shared a unique time, together." She sat up on her pillow. "Do you mind if I'm honest?"
That brought Starlight to a frozen halt. It was quite... unusual for Trixie to ask permission for most anything, least of all to say anything. She turned to Trixie, unsure. "What's on your mind?"
"I'm glad it happened." She leaned forward towards Starlight. "You were drifting away. You still might."
"What?"
Trixie held up a hoof. "Hear Trixie out. You are a straight mare, you've already said this, but I am greatly fond of you. Trixie may not care as much about... some of it, but that did not mean I can't feel things, and for you... You made her Great and Powerful heart flutter in her chest."
Starlight sank to her haunches, reeling a little. "I like you too, Trixie."
"Not that way," countered Trixie with complete certainty. "And that's alright. Trixie's romance is one way. Dramatic, just the way she likes it." Trixie smirked softly at her confused friend. "And now at least some shred of that will live on." She set a hoof on her belly. "And tie us together, forever. I will not tug on this new rope, you can walk away, find another, but I will hold it close." She cradled her still slim belly with both hooves then. "Because it means something to me, and who else matters when it comes to that?"
Starlight's mouth moved without words a moment before it came back to her. "Trixie! Just... Trixie... This is a lot." She set a hoof on her head, wobbling as if struck dizzy by what had been said. "I wasn't planning to throw you out."
"But you are a pony, with needs, and dreams, and things change." Trixie rose up in a smooth stretch. "One day, we will wander apart. You have no reason to avoid it. Well, you had no reason. Now you have a little one. You're still free to wander if you want to."
"But... you'd rather I didn't, I imagine?" Starlight sounded so very unsure about everything involved. "You know... I... Sunburst and me have a little thing." She worked her hooves together in a nervous fidget. "We're still working on that, but..."
Trixie thumped her friend right in the center of her chest. "Trixie just said you are free to wander. Trixie would be very upset if a pony told her not to go where she wanted, she won't do the same to you." She leaned in, touching nose to nose. "But wherever you go, you will know that I am thinking warmly of you, and will care for what is both of us dearly."
"You can't do that!" Starlight wailed, throwing up her hooves. "Damn it, Trixie! We're not all you." A little smirk appeared. "As if we'd even try to be that amazing."
Trixie buffed her own chest. "That is quite the high bar I've set. I'd apologize, but then I'd be lying."
Of course Trixie was not ashamed of herself. That was not a natural state of being for Trixie. Starlight let out a strained laugh. "Alright, alright... Look, we're both adults." She wobbled a hoof between herself and Trixie. "This isn't a storybook, and I'm not letting it end dramatically just for laughs."
Trixie raised a brow. "You never were one to let fate take its course, Starlight. What do you have in mind?" She clasped her hooves under her chin with a smile. "Trixie always did like your style. Share."
"First, I'll tell Sunburst exactly what's going on." Starlight clopped the ground beneath her. "Then you two, both of you, are having a chat." Starlight raised a brow. "And that isn't optional."
Trixie burst into sudden new giggles. "You're the best when you get bossy. Still, you know, I am what I am. I don't always follow orders." Rarely, in fact.
"But you will be there for that," ordered Starlight sternly, grunting. "And whatever happens, that child--" She pointed at Trixie's belly. "Will be all of our problem, not just yours. They deserve a community, not a single mother out against the world. You deserve better than that."
"I can't argue that." Trixie deserved many things, that was simple fact. "But what specifically am I deserving right now?"
"Support? Love? A family?" Starlight shrugged helplessly. "It's all strange right now, but I am not letting you just wander off like that. I liked it enough to do it, I get to fix the mess afterwards."
Their eyes were locked on one another for a quiet moment, broken with a soft "boop" as Trixie pressed her hoof against Starlight's nose.
Starlight slapped the pressing hoof. "This is serious!"
"I am completely serious." Trixie sank into a curl on her pillow. "And happy. Now kindly leave. Trixie does not want to be seen right now."
"Seen?" But a little sniffle reached her ears. Trixie was starting to cry, even she able to be overwhelmed in the right situation. "Trixie, if you want to talk, I'm...I'll be downstairs..." Starlight slipped out of the room, willing the door shut behind her. "That didn't work out the way I planned on it."
"But did it work out well?" asked Spike, leaning against a wall not too far away.
Starlight jumped at hearing him. "When did... Nevermind. I think it'll be fine... I think..." She raised a brow at the small dragon. "Hey, uh... Sorry for creeping you out."
"Nah." Spike waved it off. "I'm old enough to know exactly what you were doing." That got Starlight blushing crimson. "The only part that bothers me is that a mare beat me at stallioning. That's pretty messed up."
Starlight burst into a brief little giggle. "Spike! I'm, you know, older than you, so it doesn't really work that way. You're growing at your pace, and you're doing it just fine." She came close, hooking an arm around Spike to hug him gently. "Thanks, for being a great friend."
Spike fired a thumbs up, accepting the hug. "Still, magic... Sure can do a lot of things." He looked past Starlight to the closed door that hid Trixie. "You're a dad now."
"Oh... yeah..." She sank to her haunches, letting that sink in. She was a father. "Wow... I really should look before I leap a little, huh?"
Spike laughed, swatting at her. "If you did, you'd not be the Starlight I know. I mean, if you want to change, go for it, but this is pretty in line with how you usually do things."
"Maybe I should," grumbled Starlight. "I caused a lot of--"
Spike thrust up a hand. "Starlight. Seriously? This is the line? You broke Equestria repeatedly, leaving abandoned timelines everywhere, but this?"
Starlight leaned in, her breath washing over Spike, almost touching, but not quite. "Turns out, sometimes, a little face is exactly what's needed to get the point across." Then the touch was made, nose to nose. "You should understand that better than a lot of ponies I can think of."
Spike smiled into the contact, reaching to give her as best a hug as he could from that angle, more of touching either side of her chest. "We 'little faces' do our best. So you do yours, alright?"
"I will, promise." She glanced towards the door and back at Spike. "Say... Ever been a godparent before?"
Spike would gain a new title to add to his collection.