I accompanied Celestia to the throne room where Luna was still seated and holding Solar Court. She appeared to be rather tired and smiled upon seeing her sister. Her smile fell when she saw me.
"Amethyst, We wonder what hath kept you," Luna stated flatly.
"There were some ... complications, Luna," I responded, a slight look of concern on my face.
"It seems as though Trixie was not too happy to see her counterpart, nor was she expecting everypony to pass judgment on her. There were some ... disagreements voiced by all parties present," Celestia added.
"Amethyst, it is Our considered opinion that thou must have thy marriage annulled," Luna mused, though she frowned at me while she said this.
"Luna, I believe that would be ... a very bad idea," I stated. "As you know, she is pregnant and I wouldn't want anything sad to happen to her."
"Dear sister, I think it would be wise to allow the two of them to work out their differences. They had a lengthy discussion while we were in the other universe, though my counterpart stated a desire to see Trixie punished further."
"Very well then. Amethyst, We wish thee best of luck, but shouldst thou desire Our assistance, please inform Us of thine request," Luna stated with just a hint of a smile. She then bid a short good-bye to her sister, the two of them sharing a quick nuzzling before Celestia took the throne. A cushion was provided for me to sit upon so I would have some degree of comfort to observe the proceedings of the Solar Court. We were about an hour and a half or so away from lunch, so the procession of ponies, a few Zebras, and a Griffon were allowed to plead their cases before the Sun Goddess. I watched passively as she would give a ruling, decline a petition, send a pony on their way back to Manehattan, and give various other judgments. The fascination I held for Solar Court quickly waned as the stream of petitioners seemed to be an endless one, only stopping for a lunch recess, then the end of the day. The remaining petitioners would spend the night in Canterlot and try their luck the following day.
Trixie was once again saddled with performing rather menial tasks and grew increasingly bored as the days dragged on. She complained bitterly to me again and wondered how much longer my training was going to take. I too had become rather jaded by the banality of the court proceedings, but persevered as best I could. After a couple of weeks of this, I was allowed to pass judgments and issue decrees and occasionally turning away petitioners if I determined their requests to be obnoxiously excessive. Celestia was by my side to offer advice and occasionally over-ruled my judgment, though such occurrences were quite rare. Twilight would stop by from time to time to visit with her mentor, as she too was undergoing training, though hers was at the point where she was researching higher level magics. That was to be my next phase of training. Twilight would also give me an occasional pleasant greeting as well as periodically check on my progress. She knew of the Royal Sisters' plans for vacation and wasn't too thrilled about it, but was willing to accept the role she was being given.
Several more weeks of training had me overseeing Solar Court by myself, and even though many of the petitioners would sometimes balk at seeing a fledgling Prince pass judgment, they had quickly become accustomed to this state of affairs. Trixie's pregnancy continued to show even larger, her belly hanging heavy with the foal she carried. She had to change her sleeping position so she could be more comfortable, though she would always request I sleep by her side. She seemed to like having her belly rubbed, but the foal would make her presence known by kicking on the inside. We had a brief discussion over breakfast a few days before she was to give birth.
"You have a name picked out for her?" I asked.
"Princess Celestia said Trixie would be surprised, so she is waiting until her foal is born before deciding on a name," she replied.
"I could scan the foal using my magic, but I would prefer to be surprised myself. It's enough, knowing you carry a filly," I smiled warmly at her.
"Trixie wonders what the surprise will be -- she hopes it will be a good one!" she giggled.
"I think if there had been something wrong, Celestia would have told you as such."
"Trixie is very curious, Amethyst."
"Well," I said, rubbing her belly bump, "I know you will be happy with her, as will I. As far as names go, I never was very good with that, so I shall leave that task for you."
"Trixie appreciates your generosity, Amethyst," she smiled. She patted her bulging belly and cooed to her foal inside softly. I wasn't sure if the foal could hear her, but I imagined she could. I smiled in response to this and kissed my wife on her muzzle.
"I want to be here to help you raise her, Trixie," I said softly.
"Trixie wants that very much -- thank you again for forgiving Trixie. She is sorry for making you unhappy," she offered.
"It's enough, knowing you love me, Trixie. I promised you I would be there for you, y'know," I chuckled.
"Trixie feels ... uncomfortable," she said as beads of sweat started forming on her head. "Trixie thinks her foal is coming ..."
"What, right now?" I asked incredulously.
Trixie let a cry of surprise escape her lips as her water broke, making a mess on the floor. I let Trixie know I was going to seek Celestia immediately and would be right back. Upon being informed of the news, the Solar Princess flew into action, delegating tasks to various ponies and alerting a medical team to assist Trixie with her foal-birth. I teleported back to the dining hall where we had been having breakfast and the medical team arrived shortly, moving aside the furnishings to clear an area for a makeshift delivery room. I was impressed with the speed and skill of the team as they made Trixie as comfortable as possible and helped dull the pain of her contractions. The pains were hitting her pretty hard as she grunted, groaned, and sometimes cried out in pain. The head doctor helped her a bit with this and before too much longer, Trixie's final push forced the foal from her birth canal, the little filly giving a rather tinny cry upon taking her first breath.
The little filly was washed off, cleaned up, and wrapped in a soft blanket and then presented to Trixie so she could get her first look at the little bundle. Her face lit up very brightly as she beamed the biggest smile I've ever seen. Our little filly had a coat of deepest azure, a shocking pink mane and tail, and eyes of bright aquamarine. Amazingly enough, she had pegasus wings as well as a unicorn horn. Immediately we thought she was an Alicorn foal, but the head doctor told us she was a winged unicorn, not a full Alicorn. Even so, we were quite pleased.
"Trixie, since you're the mother, have you chosen a name for your little filly?" asked the head doctor.
"Marina Ray Lulamoon," came her response. I smiled at Trixie and echoed our little filly's new name. Trixie held little Marina close to her, smiling warmly at the little one. Marina cooed softly to her mama. Celestia teleported into the room to see our little filly for herself and smiled more broadly than I had ever seen HER smile! She inquired about the name Trixie had chosen and I told her. The Sun Goddess seemed pleased by Trixie's choice of name and returned to her throne.
Trixie was provided with ever necessity for proper care of her filly and the next several weeks were spent primarily addressing little Marina's needs. She grew fairly quickly, but the doctors told us her bones were quite fragile, as she appeared to be a mix of both unicorn and pegasus. I asked how that was possible, since I was in a unicorn body when Trixie conceived, but I was told there seemed to be some Alicorn genes mixed in as well. This proved to be quite confusing, but even so, I couldn't help but feel very proud of being a new father. I assisted Trixie in every way possible as best I could, but Celestia had also provided a team of foal care professionals to assist as well. Little Marina was being spoiled by all the attention she was getting, smiling, cooing, and laughing as we tried to make her as happy as possible.