//------------------------------// // Returning Home // Story: The Royal Fillies REDUX // by blazikenking //------------------------------// “Are you nervous, Inova?” Diamond asked as the Empire’s bubble came into view. “A bit, yeah.” I took a breath to try and calm myself. It helped a little. “I don’t know how my family will react. I didn’t even say anything to dad or Skyla when I left.” “I’m sure it’ll be fine. You’re a good pony from a good family, and a good family will welcome you back.” “I know, but. . . I don’t like this pit of dread I’m feeling.” “It’ll go away when everypony hugs you and you’ll see you’re being a silly filly.” “I hope so.” I levitated all the stuff Diamond and I got from Canterlot as we left the station. Almost as soon as we were outside, I saw ponies look at me and I could hear some of them voicing surprise that I had returned. One pony was brave enough to casually approach and talk to me. “Hi, Inova,” Hearthstone said. “Is everything okay?” “Mostly,” I answered. “Did anything happen that I need to know about?” “Nothing too bad, but I have heard some rumors about you.” “Like what?” I set all the stuff I was levitating on the ground so I could listen better. “The worst one was that you were never going to come back and that you would stay in Canterlot forever.” I had to let the scale of that rumor sink in a bit. “That’s stupid. Why would anypony think I’d stay away forever?” “Even though your family said you would return. There was also one about how Sombra foalnapped and possessed you in order to become a living vessel for his return. That one died pretty quickly.” “How’s Cadence?” Diamond asked. Hearthstone paused at that. “Well, some ponies are describing her as having a super pregnancy. I’m willing to believe that one.” “Elaborate,” I firmly stated. “It’s nothing bad, as far as I know. It’s just that she’s been growing at a faster rate than normal ponies, and even her first pregnancy. I’ve heard she might deliver in September, two months early.” I ran the numbers in my head. “Eleven months for a normal pregnancy. If two months early is September, then she must have gotten pregnant in January. But when could she have gotten pregnant in January?” “We’re still back over a month before she’s due,” Diamond helpfully said. “This is the first I’m hearing of it,” I said. “Anything else interesting?” “Not really. I was just on my way home to come up with a backyard design for one of my mom’s friends.” “Let me know when you start it. I’d be happy to help build it.” “Thanks.” He turned to leave, then remembered something. “Oh, Sunflower and Girder had their cute ceañeras while you were gone.” “Aww. . .” Diamond groaned. While I was happy for my friends, I was also glad to have not been at the parties. Even a tea party wasn’t my cup of tea. “That’s good. Can you tell us more?” “It would be better if they told you personally. I’ll see you later.” He began trotting off to go do stuff. “I’d better get home too,” Diamond said. “Especially while I have my Princess luggage carrier.” “Oh yes, your highness,” I snarked as I picked all of our stuff back up. “Your royal luggage carrier shall follow you to your home and even neatly stack your luggage for you, free of charge.” “Onwards, Inova!” While I could swear Diamond’s relaxed pace was just to have some fun at my expense, I found a silver lining in it: prolonged levitation practice.  My comedic revenge came when we got to her house: I neatly stacked her luggage on her front porch instead of inside her house. Once I had my fun and got the evil laughter out, I took my luggage and began the walk home. “Sis!” Skyla shot out of the house like a cannonball when she opened the front door and launched into a hug. “I missed you so much!” I returned the hug and set my stuff down. “I missed you too, Skyla. I’m sorry I left without telling you.” “It just wasn’t the same without you!” She began bawling into my neck. “Inova’s back!” Dad shouted before joining Skyla in hugging me and crying into my neck. I did the first thing I thought of to try and get out. “Mom, help me!” Mom showed up in the doorway and had a smirk on her face. “Hmm. . . Nah.” She was much rounder than when I left. “By the way, you’ll be making dinner tonight. Appetizer, main course, sides, and dessert.” “Mom!” “And that will be the extent of your punishment for what you did.” The smirk turned into a warm smile. “Welcome home, Inova.” She walked up and joined the hug. Diamond was right. I felt like a silly filly for being so worried about how my family would react. As I was going around the kitchen making everything for dinner, mom watched me work. “You know, it’s amazing how far you’ve come with. . . Everything, really. A year ago, we were still doing basic practice, and here you are now, using magic like anypony else.” I finished slicing the apple I was working on before I answered. “It’s been an experience.” “Yes it has. And I don’t think it would have been the same without your friends. I don’t think you’d trade them for the world.” I considered that for a moment. “Hmm, maybe.” Mom was surprised. “Maybe? What do you mean by that?” “If the world includes my friends, then trading them for the world means I still have my friends, along with the world.” I set the slices aside and started on another apple. “That’s. . . A different way of looking at it. How did you come up with that?” “Diamond got to see my temper when a bill came up that did something similar in a very roundabout way. It was a chain of trades and accumulation that, within a week, would circle back to the Nobles and give them more property and power. It ultimately amounted to ponies paying them to take what they wanted. Naturally, Fancy and Fleur weren’t involved with it.” I went to the freezer and got some ice cream out. The dessert would be made,  then wait in there until it was time. Mom sighed. “That sounds normal. Sadly.” “On the bright side, nothing got approved during that meeting. I made sure of that.” “Not even something from Fancy?” “He didn’t have anything to present. He rarely does. I think he spends more time working on his businesses than working on legislation. Oh, he took Diamond and me to a unique diner of his. . .” Everypony looked satisfied after dinner and dessert. “So, how was it?” “It was really good,” Skyla said. “Did you take some lessons from the chefs in Canterlot Castle?” “I did. Cooking is fun.” “I’ll take care of the dishes.” Dad picked up all the dishes and took them to the kitchen to start cleaning them. “Did I miss anything aside from the rumors about me?” Mom gave it some thought. “There was a fire in the market, but that got put out and the carts have already been replaced. There were more petitioners while you were gone, and we had to say no to a lot of stupid ideas.” “I had to turn down the petition to set up an apple orchard,” Skyla explained, looking a little hurt as she told the story. “The ground here just isn’t good for that.” I raised an eyebrow at Skyla. “Since when did you know so much about agriculture?” “That was. . . After we got home from Ponyville. I’ve also learned a bit in alchemy.” “You were just researching what it takes to grow food, weren’t you?” She looked like I’d just uncovered a big secret of hers. “Yeah, that’s why. There’s a lot that goes into it.” Mom went back to what she was telling me. “There were also some petitioners that thought we could just dig up and ship off big sections of crystalline ground because the ground would regrow. I had to explain at least three times that, while the crystalline ground does grow, it’s really slow and highly dependent on the crystal heart.” I sighed in sympathy. “Some ponies just don’t get it, do they?” “No, they don’t. Oh, I have some pictures of your new sister. They’re. . . Very unique.” I paused at the description. “I don’t like the sound of that. Is she going to be born with a full set of regalia on her or something?” “I’ll go get them.” Mom left the table. While she was gone, I looked at Skyla. She seemed a little bit bothered. Before I could ask, mom came back with a folder. “Here you go.” I levitated the pictures up and it didn’t take a genius to see that something wasn’t quite right with the filly. I held the pictures up against mom and tried to wrap my head around what I was seeing. “So. . . How?” The wings and horn in the picture were a few years bigger than a normal foal’s wings or horn, and it was dated a month ago. “You two came out normal, aside from being alicorns. This one. . . She’s going to need a different delivery method called a c-section.” “C-section?” “The doctors said that, if I were to give birth the normal way, her wings would shatter my hips, my hips might break her wings, or both. In short, not good. They’re going to have to cut me open to safely get her out.” Skyla suddenly looked grossed out. “Nothing about that sounds good.” I wasn’t as grossed out, but it still didn’t sound pleasant. “I hope that’s the worst of it.”