The Royal Rainbow
********************
In the outskirts of Ponyville, there was a quiet little forest with a tiny, wooden cottage. A lily-white pegasus mare with a purple shimmering mane and tail, Starlight, was pregnant and was about to give birth. Starlight and her mate had to birth the foal outside because their house was quite small. Her sides bulged so large, she couldn't even see her own tail. Her mate, Midnight was concerned why her sides were so abnormally big.
Midnight had to encourage Star a lot before he could even start to see the foal. Even before the whole foal was out he saw something incredible.
“Ughh….” Starlight moaned she thought that this birth would surely tear her insides out.
“You’re almost there!" Encouraged the big black stallion.
"Come on one more big-“ He was cut off by a loud moan.
“Ugh…...I think… it’s…out…” Starlight said breathlessly.
“Starlight, you've done it! Oh wow.” The stallion eyes go big as he sees something very different about this foal.
Starlight heaves. She looks at the towering jet-black, dappled stallion of her dreams, Midnight, and smiles a weak smile. Midnight's eyes were full of concern.
“Well, what is it?” Starlight asks. The big, black stallion looks at her with sad, golden-amber eyes.
“She…S-She isn't normal, um…well-“ Midnight struggled to get the words out.
“Well what? What’s wrong?” Starlight demands. She is too weak to get up and she couldn't look over her own sides.The aura of Midnight's horn comes to life in swirls of gold. He lifts up what Starlight just gave birth to. A large,transparent rainbow-colored rock with a single baby alicorn embedded into it. No umbilical cord, heck, it wasn't even alive!
“No,” Starlight’s ocean-blue eyes widen with shock, “It can’t be…” Starlight stares straight into her partner's burning amber eyes and whispers something barely audible. The winged pony is too weak to move. Midnight just stared at the transparent stone.
“We must report to Princess Celestia at once.” The pegasus shakes her head. She couldn't go all the way to Canterlot after a birth such as this one. She wants to stay here to rest.
"You." Star says. "You need report to Celestia. I am too weak to move." Midnight is hesitant. He would much rather stay here, but he must tell the princess. He nuzzles Star, he puts the stone in a sack and levitates the stone what is their child and then gallops off toward the royal towers in the mountain.
***
He finally arrived at the huge gates of the royal castle. 'Thank goodness I'm here!' Midnight thinks to himself. 'My horn was getting very tired.'
Two guards stood outside.
“Why do you wish to see the Princess?" one of them ask, "She is very busy.”
“My wife just gave birth. This was no normal birth. It was an alicorn.” Midnight replies. The two guards look at each other and laugh. 'What a petty excuse to go into the castle! This stallion has no mare with him!' The other guard speaks.
“Nonsense. These are all lies. Now get o-“ Midnight sees red.
“Lies? LIES?! Do you think I would lie about something this serious? Birth is not a joking matter. I have proof!” He uses his horn to lift the sack off of the stone that was birthed out of Starlight.
“See? I must now see the Princess!"The guards are shocked. After a minute or so of gaping, the left one speaks,
“Y-Y-Yes! G-Go r-right ahead!” The two guards lift their spears and let him enter. Midnight recovers the rainbow rock with it's protective casing and walks in. The lights are dimmed into a soft haze. He steps inside the royal castle. He is awed by the architectural structures.
The brand-new parent enters the large doorway to see Princess Celestia sitting on her throne with all her glory. The goddess of night sat next her, with her piercing blue eyes fixed on Midnight.
“What do you wish, young pony?” Princess Celestia says as she gazes down at him. He bows down to her.
“Princess Celestia, I’ve come a long from Ponyville to show you something.” Midnight sets the stone down and removes the sack that has been keeping it a secret. He glances up at the princess.
“This is what I have come to show you.” Celestia and Luna gasp. They merely stared at the stone.
“It cannot be!” Exclaims Luna, “No, it is real. This pony is not fibbing!” Celestia walks toward him.
"You must be very tired from your trip." Says the alabaster alicorn, “Where is your partner? I want you two to rest here together, tomorrow may be an eventful day.” Midnight's eyes widen in shock. He and Star resting in the royal palace? He couldn't turn this down. The food, the rooms, the pools! He had to.
"She is at home." Replies Midnight."She was too weak from such a hard birth to come." Celestia nods, she knew how hard birth is.
"I see." replies Celestia, "I must travel now, before it's too late." The shimmering alicorn looked at Luna. The goddess nodded, as if to say, 'The pony's mate can come.' Celestia turned back to the stallion before her, her eyes stone cold.
"Our little home is 528 Birchcreek Avenue, West Ponyville." He gave Celestia his address of their small cottage to retrieve Starlight. Midnight was so curious why Celestia was so urgent to get Starlight and bring her here, with no guards, nothing. He also was awed that she could teleport herself to that address and bring back another pony. The magic of the alicorns was beyond belief.
With a glow of Celestia's horn, she vanishes. Midnight is standing with Luna and a pink alicorn. " You must be Cadence, married to... uh..." Midnight blushed furiously. Luna starts giggling and Cadence laughs, "Yes, I am Cadence and it's Shining Armor. He's the head of the guards." She smiled sweetly.
A mere second later, Starlight is on her feet next to Midnight and Celestia is back on her throne. The alicorn stone was before Midnight and Starlight's hooves. Midnight recovers the alicorn embedded in the rainbow stone ,and levitates it. Starlight nuzzles Midnight reassuringly.
"Luna," Celestia says in an inquiring voice, "Would you do me a favor and show these ponies to a room?" The dark alicorn nods.
"Why of course, my faithful sister." Luna replies, drawing her attention toward the ponies standing before her.
"Come," the midnight alicorn says, "I shall show you to a comfortable laying room where you two can regain the energy you need." The pair looks at each other, stifling a giggle. The alicorn sure did talk funny. Regaining composer, they walk out of the room, and down the royal blue hallway to their bedroom where they would stay for the night.
***
The next morning started with a sunrise that Celestia made, and it was beautiful. Streaks of gold and red, pink and maroon, yellow and orange complimented the rising yellow ball of fire amazingly. They couple nuzzled as they watched in awe. After the lights show in the sky ended, they heard a delicate knock on the door. They jumped at the noise even though it was a slight one.
"Come in." Midnight said, expecting to see a mare with a breakfast cart. Which there was, but it was behind the ruler of Equestria.
"P-Princess Celestia," Stuttered a surprised and confused Midnight, "What-What do you need?" Celestia looked solemn.
"I must speak to you." The royal voice came softly, like it was hiding a secret. The breakfast mare hurriedly delivered the morning meal and quickly passed on, shutting the door behind her.
"Whatever do you need?" Starlight asked, looking up at Celestia while she ate her dandelion meal. Celestia forced a smile,
"Starlight, how did you sleep? Are you more rested than the day before?" Inquired the alabaster alicorn. Starlight nodded.
"Yes, I slept very well. Much better than yesterday. These beds sure work a miracle!" Starlight replied sincerely as she patted a hoof on the mattress. Celestia gave another forced smile and nodded.
"Very good! I'm glad." The alabaster mare's face fell again as the couple finished their meal.
"There is something more I have come for, ponies. A more grave detail." The princess replied.
"It is the stone." Her purple eyes drift over to the shelf it is placed on. Midnight follows her gaze. He knew this wasn't something he would like.
"Do you know anything about it?" The alicorn questions. The mates shake their head.
"All I know," Says Midnight, "Is that there is an alicorn in it, and Starlight gave birth to it." Starlight nods in agreement.
"Both very true. That stone has a long history. That is the protective casing of a princess, and there is only one way to open it." Celestia's face is grim. She looks like she is sick to her stomach. She proceeds with her speech. "You two have to open the stone. Luna agreed with the decision, but Cadence didn't. She thought that another alicorn would bring chaos to the royal castle. That it would over power the decisions made. I told her that she then could spend all the time she would like with Shining Armor, without the worries of the castle and royal problems. She really liked that idea and agreed." Celestia said.
"Who's Shining Armor?" Starlight asked in confusion, not knowing that Midnight has vague knowledge of him. Celestia pauses a moment to moisten her throat before answering.
"He is the head guard and he's married to Cadence. He's a very hardworking and knowledgeable pony. Celestia smiled a brief moment, seeing that Starlight understood what she had explained. He smile soon fell, getting back to what she was there for.
"Do you ponies have an idea how to open the stone?" The couple shake their heads, waiting for the alicorn to go on. Celestia looks grim once again. Her bottom lip was quivering. "You ponies...you must...you must decease. Your love for each other is the strongest thing on this planet, stronger than any magic. It is the only thing that will break the stone and free the foal."
The ponies just sat there, shocked. They never even had the slightest notion about death. Pegasus looks at unicorn. Unicorn looks at pegasus. Both are utterly crushed. They weren't even able to spend time with their one and only foal. Tears streamed down Starlight's face. Midnight gripped her and crying silently. Celestia looked like she was about to bawl, but she was supposed to be the strong one. After a half hour or so of comforting, Celestia looked at them.
"W-Will-Will you... will you sacrifice yourselves?" Celestia asked quietly, her purple eyes welling up. The couple looked at each other, they nuzzled one last time and follow Celestia back to the throne room where Luna was waiting. Luna called to a guard to get Cadence. The guard saluted and galloped out of the room.
Celestia set the stone down by the two ponies, and stepped back. Cadence suddenly bursted into the room, huffing. Celestia looked at the ponies and nodded. Midnight looked Starlight, then at the stone. He puts is on hoof on it and so does Starlight. They suddenly start to glow. The 3 princesses shield their eyes, the light was blinding. Electricity rockets throughout the room. A loud boom sounds around the room and then, silence.