//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Residual Magic 
// by articunos bitch 
//------------------------------//

	The Night Court of the recently returned Princess Luna was running like a well oiled machine. Several months before the Summer Sun Celebration, Princess Celestia has created the Night Court and assigned all Night and Lunar related topics to be decided during this time. It had seemed like a disgracefully blatant bureaucratic move by Celestia, who always encouraged the KISS method for governing, until she reintroduced her sister to the world. A number of guards, including the newly promoted Captain of the Black Watch, a threstal named Gotham, and several servants stayed on to continue their service to the Sovereign of the Night. Not that there was much to do.
Most patrons were usually sailors looking for a change to the tides(denied), several artists recreating their new Princess in their unique ways(her favorite was a collage of colored glass shards) and even an assassin within a few days of her return(he was executed before sunrise). Tonight, Princess Luna was expecting to meet petitioners of a different sort, a husband and wife were scheduled to see her first thing.
"Mr. and Mrs. Carrot Cake, to see you ma'am," Red Triangle, her secretary, announced as the double doors opened and an earth pony couple stepped nervously in. They were older than Twilight Sparkles parents(who Celestia had pointed out to Luna on a walking tour of Canterlot), the lanky, yellow stallion and a stout blue mare walked up and bowed to the granite throne seating their new diach. Since her return, Luna's body had slowly been returning to it's original size and colors. She no longer looked small enough to be a normal pony, but she still had to wait until she towered over them like Nightmare Moon did. Her coat was noticeably darker, and her mane, while not winking like stars was blowing in the solar winds.
"ARISE YOUNG CITIZENS! WHAT MAY YOUR PRINCESS DO FOR YOU THIS NIGHT?" Luna hollered at the petitioners. Celestia told Luna on many occasions the Night Court was built with acoustic in mind, every word spoken from the throne would be heard in every corner as if the speaker was next to them and the Royal Canterlot Voice was unnecessary. What Celestia did not tell Luna was after numerous complaints of her shouting, she enchanted the throne to quiet her Voice if she spoke above a certain volume.
"Princess Luna," the stallion spoke, hearing a calm, smooth voice from the throne. "My name is Carrot Cake, and this is my wife Cup Cake. We have been married nineteen years, and we have trying to have a child most of that time." With two sentences, Princess Luna could guess where this was going. She was familiar with this situation, it broke her heart every time she heard it.
Cup Cake spoke next, her husband looking down at his hooves. "Our doctors have told us we are capable of conception, but the odds are low for us. He has a low sperm count, and I'm at a high risk of, of miscarriage..." Cup looked away too, ashamed of her condition.
"Princess, do you have any magic that could help us? Any at all? We have wanted a child since before our wedding, we have a growing business, and a loving home too small for two, even with our apprentice. All we want is a baby. Can you help us?" Carrot was sweating and struggling to hold eye contact with the Princess.
Luna stood up and spread her wings wide. Stepping down from her throne, she marched to the couple, Carrot's pleading eyes looking at her, Cup's bent in shame. Leaning in to whisper to them, she dropped the Canterlot Voice and adopted a conspiratorial whisper. "I certainly do have magic to aid you. I have done this many times, I can cast a spell on each of you, returning your fertility."
Carrot's eyes almost bugged out of his head and Cup's face shot up. "You can?" They asked in unison.
Luna kept her voice low. "Indeed, but on the conditions you do not tell anyone where this magic came from, excluding others with trouble conceiving children of their own. My sister and I decided a long time ago healing magic like this would be make the population too dependent on us. Also, I would be very interested in knowing about babies gestation and birth date, so that I may send the best doctors and midwives to assist you. Do you accept my terms?"
Carrot and Cup nodded vigorously. Luna smiled, "Good. But I must warn you of something else. My magic's effects will last for a long time, but so will the 'magic residue'. Your womb and seed themselves will be enchanted, which may lead to...unexpected consequences. Notably magical complications."
"Um-Uh, what is that your Highness? What are you saying?" Carrot sputtered out at a whisper, losing confidence quickly.
Luna took a deep breath. "In the past, there have been cases of children born, not with bodily birth defects, but magical ones. Specifically, there was a case of a unicorn and earth pony giving birth to a pegasis. The baby was conceived shortly after I healed the mother, so I can guess the alicorn magic still in her gave the child a set of wings. It was a perfectly healthy, normal pegasis foal, who grew up to be a perfectly healthy, normal pegasis mare. The only unusual thing was her origins. Many accused the mother of infidelity, but the father, herself and I knew better, and that's all that mattered.
"There have been other cases of children with unusual magical strength, or bodily strength, and those can not go unmentioned either. You should be weary about these possibilities. They are not common, I have healed many couples with this magic, but they do happen. Knowing this, do you still want to go through with this?"
Both Cakes put their heads together and whispered. Luna turned around, trotted to her throne and took her seat, waiting patiently for their response. They took their time, debating for five minutes until they both looked to her and took a step forward. "Princess Luna, we are ready."
Smiling, Luna closed her eyes as her horn erupted to life. Cup and Carrot found themselves surrounded in a blue aura of magic and lifted slightly off the floor. Her horn flashed several times, casting brief, blinding light into all corners of the Throne Room before both earth ponies found themselves lowered onto all hooves again. Neither felt any different. Feeling their torsos and relevant body parts, Luna giggled.
"Remember, I am very interested in when you find you are pregnant, the expected birth date, expected gender, tribe, all of that. In the meantime, teehee... Go home. Take the day, or week off work and try it out!"

** ** **

"Now Pinkie Pie, are you sure your up to baking the muffins and running the store this afternoon?" Cup Cake asked Pinkie while wrapping the tribute gifts she and Carrot bought for Princess Luna in anticipation of this afternoon date's success.
"Yes sirree Bob Mrs. Cake! Plus, I have Ponyville's Pride Pony to help me out! Why she's the best baker ever! Right Applejack?" Pinkie was willing and Applejack herself was here, but she looked exhausted, near the point of collapse. Neither husband nor wife were at ease, but they had put off a day to themselves long enough, and they had a child to conceive. They did have faith Pinkie was capable, but worry had a bad habit of following caution.
"Don't you fret! I can make anything from fritters to pies in the blink of an eye!"
Mrs. Cake giggled nervously. "Oh ho, alright. Well, see you later girls!" The mention of two names the couple had pondered for names did not calm them down, but it was time to leave. Carrot had a picnic basket with lunch, a bottle of absinthe and a poetry book from the library stashed just inside the door. Grabbing it, he shoved all thoughts of the bakery out of his mind and tossed a lag around his beautiful wife. They had a long walk ahead of them before arriving at a tree he knew of in Whitetail Wood.

~later~

"Carrot, behave!" Cup giggled, sitting up straight, his legs wrapped around her, feeling his hoof wander over her belly. Squinting her eyes, she hoped no-one would wander this deep into the woods and spot them under Carrot's infamous Lincoln Tree.
"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are when you blush in public?" He whispered, giving a pinch of his hoof to emphasize his words. Cup gasped, and rolled over, crumbling the dead leaves and dried branches they sat on, trying to break from his grip. He held on tight, chewing on her ear, drawing out more giggles...

** ** **

Carrot slid the newest cambro of muffin mix onto it's shelf under the table and set about weighing out brownie mix. Pinkie was working the register and chatting with Applejack, who look like she fully recovered from her two week applebucking marathon. The rush up front was over, and he could clean and prep the kitchen his way, uninterrupted. He loved Pinkie and his wife dearly, but he ran a tight kitchen, and no-one was allowed to enter his domain without his consent. Their paths crossed too often and he had little patience dealing with others in this world of his, and the worst part was his wife was better tempered and better organized than him. But this was his solitary time, and he enjoyed it and did it his way.
His favorite afternoon radio broadcast was interrupted by his wife banging through the door shrieking his name. "Carrot! Carrot!"
Knocked out of his zone he stammered, "Wha-Sweetums? What's wrong?"
"IT'S BLUE! BLUE!" She held in one hoof a testing strip he hoped she sanitized before bringing into his operating room of a kitchen before her words' meaning struck him.
Meaning to ask, "Are you sure? Is it true?" He joined her in wild screams, running around his table to embrace her tight, their prayers had been answered at last. Up at the front counter, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and the newly joined Rarity heard the shrieks and cheers, chalking it up to the eccentricity of another Ponyville citizen who could not fit intto any other city.

Dear Princess Luna,
we learned this afternoon my wife Cup is pregnant. We are scheduling a doctors appointment tomorrow morning, with the same doctor who informed us of our very low probability to bear children. I can't wait to see the look on his face when we deliver the news. I do not wish to spite him, but he hurt both of us, with the truth and I want to see him struggle to accept that we won't tell him how it happened.
We will be telling our employee Pinkie Pie tonight everything we are allowed...Princess, I can not tell you how...ecstatic my wife and I are about this. It seems surreal in a way, I'm not sure if I'm going to wake up and this will be a dream. We promise to raise our children well.
Again, thank you so very much, I do not know what else to say. Your faithful citizen,
Carrot Cake.
P.S. We will let you know the expected birth date, tribe and gender as soon as we can.