unedited
Antares and Zaniah were not the most quiet brother and sister duo to have ever graced the face of Equestria, but neither were they the loudest. They were a day old and nestled comfortably in between their mother’s legs and against her barrel. They sported cloth diapers, courtesy of Celestia who had spent weeks practicing on life-sized foal dolls. She had not slept at all during the night, half-dozing and half inhaling their scents. Her children were her life now and she never felt happier.
Luna had announced their arrival into the world, though the twins could not have cared less. They had tried their hooves at standing soon after they were born. Celestia had taken herself from her bed and gently placed her foals on the floor. They wobbled, staggered, and fell often, but they eventually found their hooves. With flopping steps, they made their way to their mother, bumping into each other often as they made the staggering journey of twenty feet like a pair of drunken sailors seeking out their next ale house.
Every step they took, her voice was there, cooing and encouraging, a soft song in their newborn ears. Antares was already smiling up at his mother, not really paying attention to where his hooves fell. He stumbled often and his legs were prone to betraying him. His sister stared at the floor as though it was a bitter enemy, making mewling little cries and not at all happy with venturing into the unknown.
Before Zaniah could panic and break down into a fit, she was at her mother’s hooves, shivering from the horror of the journey. It had been so far! She cried and her mother was quick to soothe, nuzzling and snorting into the filly’s tufted little mane.
But, that had been the pinnacle of the evening yesterday and the tired trio were content to sleep on a clean bed made so by Celestia’s magic. With her foals now in the light of day, she lifted her self-imposed magical restrictions and to some relief. After a feeding Antares and Zaniah, Celestia had put to practice all that training in properly placing diapers on a foal with the confidence of a grizzled sergeant.
She only had to redo Antares’ diaper once.
So, the morning found her waking to her foals curled up against her belly and between her legs. A mighty alabaster wing was draped over them, hiding them from the outside world in a protective display as old as the pony race itself. Celestia had not slept a wink. Even as she had dozed, she remained alert, her ears swiveling to the slightest of sounds. Outside her chamber doors and in the hall was the occasional sound of hooves as the guards did their rounds. Other than that, the only disturbance to the silence was the sound of songbirds as they anticipated the coming morning. Recalling the past twenty-four hours felt like a lucid dream.
The first time she breathed in the scent of her foals.
The first sounds they had made.
The first time she had fed them.
Celestia was still tired, still worn, yet so incredibly happy. Remembering everything so vividly, she knew she needed to record everything for herself. With great tenderness she nuzzled her foals. Antares raised his own head and made a small sound, a foreleg stretching out and touching the bottom of his mother’s chin.
“You’ll be the adventurer,” she cooed softly with a small smile.
Antares yawned mightily and blinked owlishly up at his mother, his eyes trying to focus.
She pulled up, making a small frown as a thought occurred to her. When was she supposed to bathe her newborns? Pursing her lips, the princess scanned a section of her personal library specifically set aside for foal-raising. She was, despite her vast age, an amateur at this new line of work.
“Should I bathe you two now?” she wondered softly, pulling a book down to her for reference. The glow of her horn was nearly muted by the rays of the rising sun streaming through her windows. “Let’s see…”
It was true she had already cleaned them off using her tongue shortly after they were born. Some of the more modern suggestions mentioned using a tub and just warm water the first month, with special care in drying the umbilical cord stump. After leafing through the section she wanted, she hummed to herself, quirking an eyebrow.
“No, the old ways are the best,” she decided, quietly closing the book and setting it back where she had fetched it. Foals were quick to be on their feet hours after they were born, but when they weren’t standing (or in the case of Antares, running), they were sleeping. If they weren’t sleeping, they were nursing. If they weren’t nursing, they were going to be exploring a little bit further from their mother with each new day.
Since surrendering her throne to Luna and Twilight over the past year, Celestia had both been stressed and relieved the burden of rule was no longer on her shoulders. It had been her idea to begin with as she considered the number of mistakes she had made over the years. She needed a break. The alicorn needed to get back in touch with her ponies and remember what it was like to have hopes and dreams. She had so many centuries of steering Equestria in a certain direction, she was certain so many other things happened to negatively affect generations of her subjects. Perhaps such thoughts were unfounded, but she took the time from the throne to peruse court documents and legal intrigues over the years.
It gave her a different perspective and some nights she would sit with Luna and Twilight and go over transcripts when they had free time. Mostly, she scribbled notes and brought in court attorneys to go over some things she was not quite sure of. A few lawmakers were brought over for lunch with some of the lords and ladies of Canterlot to discuss matters of modernization.
It left her with much to do once her maternity leave was done. Four weeks of bonding lay ahead of her. The alicorn shook herself awake and nuzzled her sleeping foals one more time. Gently she removed herself from them, using her magic to hold them in place while she rose to her hooves. As silly as it felt to her, she did not want to let them out of her sight, but she was dirty and needed a shower.
There was a knock at her door and a dark blue head poked in.
“Sister?” called out Luna softly.
“I’m awake,” Celestia replied with a weary smile. “Do come in.”
The dark alicorn nodded with a smile and did as she was bidden, her eyes already locked joyfully upon her niece and nephew. “They did not take long to find their hooves, did they?” she commented as she stopped a short distance from the mother and her newborns. Her posture was submissive, asking permission to come closer. “Please, I want to hold them!”
Celestia laughed. “How about one better? I want to take a shower. Would you mind watching them while I get clean?”
Luna beamed at her sister. This would be the first time her sister allowed her to hold her foals. Oh, she had been the one snapping the pictures released to the general public, but Celestia had instinctively hovered over her foals and growled...growled! at Luna and Twilight.
It was the most adorable and terrifying things the Night Princess had ever seen.
At least her maternal instinct had subsided enough for her to feel relaxed enough to entrust her most precious possessions to her sister. Luna felt her heart leap in her chest as her smile grew and grew. She pronked lightly in place.
“I’d love to! Can I hold them while you shower, ‘Tia?”
Celestia rose to her hooves and climbed from her bed, careful to not jostle her dozing newborns. Antares grunted, suddenly denied his perfect warm and comfy zone. He wriggled closer to his sister and snuggled. Zaniah fussed, now aware the smell she knew was no longer right next to her. Still asleep, she curled with her brother.
“Go say hello to them,” Celestia told her sister gently. “They won’t bite.”
Luna approached, her mystical starry mane and tail swirling with her excitement as a gentle warmth filled her eyes. Lowering her head, she hovered her muzzle inches above the foals, taking in their details.
Celestia sighed happily, taking a slow walk to her shower. Before she disappeared, she gave one more glance over her shoulder, hesitated as she observed her sister with the foals, quivering her lower lip with barely restrained joy.
Antares was awake, staring at the strange, dark muzzle gently prodding him. He froze in place, staring at the flaring nostrils. A frightened squeak gurgled from his throat. This wasn’t a familiar smell! He began to look about for his mother, his eyesight still blurry. It would take a day or two longer for the foals to clear up their eyes. At least they were walking. Sort of.
Luna nickered and nudged the white foal with her snout, inhaling deeply. He responded in kind, nudging her back and sniffing with his little nostrils. Zaniah was jostled awake from the movement and became suddenly aware of the strange smell that was not Mother. She curled up into a tiny ball, her hooves over her eyes.
The alicorn thought it was the most adorable thing she had ever seen!
The Night Princess squee’d, smiling broadly as she darted in to get her niece’s scent. Gently she snorted and snuffled through the foal’s fur. Antares managed to wrap his forehooves over Luna’s snout and found it warm. He started hugging it, making his aunt to begin giggling. This brought Zaniah out of her little shell and the filly uncurled enough to offer up a curious sniff at the newcomer.
Both foals began to look for their mother, straining with little eyes and little ears and little noses. Where was mother? They both began to squirm on the bed, not at all feeling safe without their Great Protector to tell this strange gigantic dark thing to go away!
Like any other foal, Zaniah and Antares began to cry for their mother, much to the chagrin of Luna.
“No! Don’t cry, little ones!” she cooed, eyes widening in alarm. Though she was familiar with foals, she had very little experience with newborns. Which was to say, she had absolutely zero experience with them. She remembered some of the antics one of the Elements had done in a letter to Celestia from Twilight. “I am not drowning myself in flour for you,” she told the foals firmly.
Instead, she hopped up on the bed and curled herself around the foals, moving with such grace to be as subtle as a warm summer night breeze. Luna hummed at them as she settled and adjusted their bodies with her snout, maneuvering them on pure instinct. She introduced herself to them, exchanging scents and finding herself enjoying the experience very much.
Maybe this aunt thing was going to be a most enjoyable experience.
The warm comfy sensation returned to Antares, though it was markedly different. Firstly, this warmth was a bit firmer than Mother and the smell was new. But the wings and feathers were as fluffy and comforting. He snuggled against Luna’s belly, his chin resting on her barrel as he looked up at the alicorn with profound curiosity. Zaniah simply wriggled between Luna’s forehooves and went back to sleep as she tried to sink into the mare’s breast.
Antares, however, did not have sleep in mind. This new smell, touch...not Mommy...was still like Mommy. His little tummy growled and his instincts led him to root along this strange mare's belly.
Luna was too busy admiring Zaniah, thinking the colt was simply trying to get comfortable. Then, his little mouth made her freeze in the middle of cuddling her niece, her eyes going really, really wide, pupils going to pinpricks. A little muzzle found a stopping point and a little mouth was tugging on something hungrily.
“No! I can’t help you there!” she hissed. “Antares!”
He ignored her, still trying to get a snack.
“Antares!” she protested, beginning to panic.
Zaniah hiccuped a little cry of protest. It was like watching a small, adorable volcano on the verge of an eruption.
Luna shifted between watching the beginnings of an inexplicable cry foals always did for...well...reasons and the hunt for food. She shifted her hooves and nudged Antares away with a furious blush on her cheeks.
“Wait for a little bit longer and let your mother take care of that,” she pleaded with him as she began to lightly bounce Zaniah.
The filly only cried louder, which spurred Antares as he was denied a meal. Luna gathered him up alongside his sister.
“You didn’t do this for your mother, I’m sure,” she sighed, trying her very best to cease the wails quickly penetrating her delicate ears. She sang softly, “Hush, now, quiet now, it’s time to rest your sleepy heads.”
They kept crying.
“Please?” she begged.
Maybe a bag of flour would save her from this humiliation. Defeated! By her own niece and nephew!
She could hear her sister was still in the shower, but felt a pause coming from the room. A dripping white head with a pink mane plastered to it poked from the door. “Are you all right?” Celestia asked.
“Fine!” Luna called over the sound of crying foals. “Antares is hungry, I think. Zaniah is crying for some reason. They both want you.” I’m not ready for this!
“Oh!” Celestia wore a concerned look, biting her lower lip. “I’ll just be a little bit longer. I’ve still got soap in my tail. A few more minutes, Lulu?”
No! “Of course, ‘Tia.” Luna’s smile was weak.
Hearing their mother, Antares and Zaniah wriggled and scrambled, looking at her. Their eyesight wasn’t quite settled yet, but they could hear and smell Celestia. They cried and cried, fell to the floor like a pair of fuzzy white balls with flailing hooves, and ran as though a monster was on their heels.
“How lovely,” muttered Luna as her niece and nephew abandoned her. Profound relief shone through the shock at how quickly the foals moved. She felt a cold draft where the foals had been and made a sad face. These emotions shifted and changed in a few moments before settling on something she could only describe as loneliness.
As she watched the wet mother nuzzle her foals and having the immediate affect of calming them, she could not help but feel a pang in her heart.
...Maybe Celestia has something wonderful here...