Candle Light had to adjust to having a kid full time again.
It was a tough thing to do at first. She could no longer spend all day doing whatever she wanted whenever she felt like it, like she’d gotten used to over the past several years. No more spending all day reading or hopping between Summer’s Edge and Canterlot for college or staying up late into the night with Rising Ranks or her other friends anymore. Not for a while, anyway. She needed to get Warm Spell settled first.
She was curious about how far she could stretch things with her daughter while doing all those things at the same time, but quickly shook that thought out of her head. It was definitely possible to have time manipulated for something like that to happen, but that wouldn’t be fair to Warm Spell. The filly deserved her full attention, and she was going to give it to her.
It was a bit tough at first, getting back into being a parent. Sure, she saw her kids once every month or two, but that wasn’t the same as being around them all day every day. She had to remember how to do this again for the first time in over a decade.
Not only had Candle Light changed, but so had the world she was parenting in. There were no safety concerns as far as she could tell, and maybe not any concerns to be had at that. It made the silly questions her daughter asked have to be seriously considered. Why couldn't she spend all day at the beach with Warm Spell and have ice cream and cake for dinner if the filly asked? In the Outer Realm, the answers were obvious, but none of those restrictions applied anymore. If it had only been a year in Equestria like it had been for her family, she might have approached the situation differently. Instead, they had ice cream and cake for dinner, and stayed at the beach the entire next day.
Seeing her daughter happy took her mind off of the anxiety-inducing thought of what her family was thinking now. She hoped they didn’t hate her, and that her wife would talk to her children about getting in here. Night Watcher would be a hard sell, but she bet Crystal Clear could get through to her.
If the four of them weren’t completely against emigrating to Equestria forever now because of this.
But there was nothing thinking about those things would do besides stress her out. One of them at least was finally here. Candle Light would focus on Warm Spell for now. She had years to figure out how to get her family in here.
She didn’t entertain her daughter’s every desire. She was going to make sure her daughter was enrolled in the elementary school in Summer’s Edge, and she wasn’t gonna let her run off wherever she wanted in the meantime. But it was fun to take her camping one weekend when she suggested it, and explore one of the castles in her shard another one. Did it really matter if she spoiled her appetite with cookies at her friend’s house from time to time, or if she stayed up too long past her bedtime on occasion? What would it affect if she wanted to skip school once or twice to have a tea party and do her makeup with Candle Light, or to go to an amusement park in Canterlot?
The answer was: nothing. Candle Light had been in Equestria and taken those classes in Canterlot for more than long enough to know Celestia wouldn’t do something to screw them over or make things feel terrible. It did make the unicorn wonder about Daphne screaming at her, and the rest of her family’s reaction to Warm Spell. Why did Celestia let her see that?
“I wouldn’t know,” Rising Ranks shrugged as the stallion sat with her in her bed one night after her daughter had gone to sleep. “I thought the professor said Celestia would keep things from you if it wasn’t satisfying, but that doesn’t sound particularly satisfying. Maybe it’s just because they’re from the Outer Realm like you?”
“Yeah, maybe,” Candle Light agreed. “That makes sense. I think. I don’t know… I just hope they’re alright.” It had probably only been a day or two for her family, but the way they looked when she last saw them, she didn’t think they were taking things very well.
“I don’t want the rest of them to not show up because of this,” she continued. “I’m kind of worried, actually.”
“I’m sure you can talk to Princess Celestia about it,” Rising Ranks offered. “I bet there’s nothing to worry about, since your filly’s here now.” The stallion leaned over to kiss her, and then settled on top of her. Candle Light smiled back at him.
“Your wife and kids will probably emigrate soon, and then you won’t have to worry ever again.”
“I mean, I’ll still worry about things,” she replied. “There’s a whole world of things out there I don’t know yet, so I can worry about that. And I have to talk to my wife when she gets here, too, about you-know-what. Not to mention, raising my kids in Equestria. It’s not the same as in the Outer Realm.” Then she leaned up to kiss him back, and finished, “But yeah, I doubt there’ll be much in the anxiety department for me to deal with at that point.”
I just hope they get here, Candle Light sighed internally, and that Daphne doesn’t hate me. Crystal Clear either.
It wasn’t a question she could ask for a few months, not that she had much time to. She might have had all the time in the world technically, but it was time she spent with her daughter. Her days were taken up with doing all the fun things Warm Spell desired, as well as all of the little things Candle Light had to get used to doing again. Seeing teachers and cooking dinner every night and helping her daughter learn about the world. That part was especially fun; she was able to show Warm Spell all the magic she learned and help her through it. Year after year in the Outer Realm, her kids had less and less to learn from her. Now there was a whole host of new information she could give to them. Even the older ones once they finally showed up.
She hoped they would show up eventually.
She didn't see them, even through a PonyPad, as one month turned it into two, and then into three and four. They didn't ever show up regularly, but the longest Candle Light had gone without seeing her family in the Outer Realm was about two months. It wasn't as bad now that Warm Spell was here living with her, but it was definitely noticeable. Noticeable enough that Warm Spell asked if Rising Ranks was her new best friend since Crystal Clear wasn't here. She’d said before in the Outer Realm that her wife was her best friend.
"I can have two best friends," the mare grinned. "You have two best friends at school, don't you?" she asked.
"Hmm. I guess," the filly nodded thoughtfully. "Since Mom's not here right now, can I call you mom, Daddy?"
It was a question that earned a now rare blush from Candle Light. How long had it been since she'd been embarrassed about being a girl? Not since her first few weeks in Equestria, she thought.
"Rising Ranks and I are only friends, sweetheart," she explained quickly, glancing away as she rubbed a hoof on the ground. "I don’t think he’s gonna be your daddy," She was surprised that the filly could see how close she was to him despite being only eight.
"I know that!" the filly asserted, seemingly peeved by the mare's underestimation of her knowledge. "But I wanna call you mom cause I already call you my mom to my friends at school, and Mom's not here right now! Please?"
A bashful smile was forming on Candle Light's face. It was strange to feel her heart leap in excitement over something so small. "You can call me whatever you want to, honey," she assured her with a ruffle of her mane. "I don't mind. Even if you want to call me mom."
"Really?" a voice that feigned hurtfulness called suddenly from behind the two. "Over me?" If Candle Light's heart leaped before, it jumped out of her chest now.
"Crystal!"
"Mom!"
Neither Candle Light nor her daughter wasted any time in running up to the mare and hugging her tight. Warm Spell buried her face into her coat while the bigger unicorn kissed her deeply and nuzzled her softly. She had a good feeling about why the earth pony was suddenly here. After all, she didn't plan for her appearance. The way her wife kissed back had a lot more passion with it than she could ever give through a PonyPad.
The happy looking tears she had in her eyes gave Candle Light no doubts about her assumption. "You're finally here for good, aren't you?" Without awaiting the answer, she looked around and asked, "Where are the kids? They're not in their own shards, are they? I want us all to live here together for a while. There's a lot I need to talk to them about. Especially Nighty."
The happy tears stopped as quickly as they started, and Crystal Clear’s smile dropped. She pulled away and glanced down at her hooves for a moment before looking back up at Candle Light.
“They… they’re not here,” she said quietly, her head dropping, those happy tears turning into sad ones. “I wanted to tell them to come with me,” she explained, “But Daphne… she said she would hate me if I did, and I got worried that maybe she was right, but couldn’t bear it without you and Livvy, and–”
“It’s fine,” Candle Light said gently, putting a hoof on her wife’s shoulder to try and calm her down. “It’s fine,” she assured her. “I understand. It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine, but it wasn’t necessarily terrible. She wished though her wife hadn’t emigrated until the rest of her kids did. Someone had to be out there to take care of them. But it wasn’t awful like it might have been because her kids were almost all adults now. The youngest of the three that remained was fourteen. It wasn’t a helpless Warm Spell living without her mother. Still, it wasn’t the best situation. She tried not to grimace thinking about it.
Candle Light didn’t say those things though. Instead, she pulled the mare in for another deep kiss, and said, “I’m a little worried about Night Watcher, but if you’re here, I would bet it won’t be very long until the rest of them get here, too. Maybe even just a few weeks. Then there won’t be anything left to worry about.” Isn’t that what Rising Ranks told her?
The earth pony nodded, sniffled, and then wiped her eyes dry. “I hope so… I’m sorry.” Her eyes were quickly becoming wet again. “I know you told me to take care of them, but–”
“No buts,” Candle Light interrupted, an assertive tone in her voice. “You don’t need to be sorry. I promise. Even if they don’t get here soon, Nighty will take care of them, and they can still use their PonyPads to talk to us whenever they want. It’ll be fine.”
Even as she said it, Candle Light was already thinking about how she could get them to emigrate more quickly. It was something she thought about before in passing, but now she planned to fix her efforts on that. She was really worried about Night Watcher especially. But Rising Ranks could probably help her. So could more classes in Canterlot.
Maybe that was why she met the stallion. She learned at the university that Celestia knew better about human behaviors than any human did, and could accurately predict how humans would respond to different events. She wondered if she used the stallion as a way to further build up Candle Light’s interest and knowledge in magic and science. Or maybe it was just a good coincidence that she’d met him.
She certainly didn’t think about it right now. Instead, she let Crystal Clear hug her tightly, and then hug Warm Spell even more tightly. Just like with Warm Spell, it might not have been perfect, but she was happy her wife was here. She missed her badly, worse than she thought.
Of course, Candle Light and Warm Spell told her all about what they’d been up to, and Crystal Clear told them about the last few days after Warm Spell emigrated. The larger unicorn flinched hearing about how upset her eldest daughter was, and knew that this would just hurt her more. In fact, she had a sneaking suspicion that more and more she was moving towards never emigrating. It only intensified Candle Light’s desire to learn everything she could, that way she could guarantee her daughter’s eventual arrival into Equestria.
They talked, the three of them walked through the park and showed Crystal Clear the town, and then Candle Light cooked cabbage and rice with black eyed peas and cornbread for dinner. It was a long, wonderful afternoon, this one being the very best one the unicorn had up to that point, even despite all the thoughts in the back of her mind. She briefly wondered if it was bad to push those thoughts away to consider later, but quickly decided that it wasn’t. She would have all the time she needed to think about them later with Princess Celestia’s guidance. Instead, she stayed side by side with her wife, with her filly on the other side of her through dinner.
Crystal Clear didn’t take that long to get settled into being a pony. Candle Light could feel the tension and intimacy quickly building up throughout the afternoon and evening. There were a hundred things she needed to talk about with the mare, and a thousand things she wanted to show her, but, of course, she didn’t get to any of it. Instead, she found herself on top of her wife after Warm Spell went to bed, making a move on her before too many words could be spoken. Candle Light didn’t know which was better: watching her wife’s eyes roll back in satisfaction as she sank into the bed, or the fact that her horn sparked a little bit differently than it did when Rising Ranks was on top of her.
It was definitely the best night Candle Light had as a pony thus far.