"HARVEST!" Aunty Autumn Wind roared as her niece cried furiously into her cardigan, "WILL YOU STOP BRINGING UP THE WORST CASE SCENARIOS FOR JUST TEN MINUTES?!"
"WAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Angel cried over Autumn's shouting.
Harvest Moon winced at the sheer volume both mares had taken on. When he had mentioned that Angel might be taken on as a breeder for the colony, it was as if he had told her there was no more fruit in the world. Her sobbing worried him that the neighbors might hear their discussion, but he had felt his admonitions were prudent. While the colony had not yet forced fertile mares into becoming breeders, they had stepped up their attempts to coerce them into doing it. Some mares had been harassed relentlessly, others had been made outcasts and some had even been forcibly removed from their homes in order to be instructed of their duties to the bat pony race.
As a father, Harvest would not dare to see them take his daughter to become a breeder. He had already suffered through enough visits to his former wife to be assured that he would protect Angel. His thoughts drifted into darker places as he remembered seeing her, all swollen and sick. She had bore about twenty foals in the fourteen years she had been doing her job as a breeder, but she somehow still retained her motherly glow despite the stretch marks and occasional vomiting. It tore at Harvest's heart to see her like that and only served to reinforce his will to protect Angel.
"Autumn, we need to be prepa--"
"THAT STILL DOESN'T MEAN YOU SCARE YOUR POOR DAUGHTER HALF TO DEATH!"
"Aunty-he-he!" Angel wailed, finally bringing her head up, "I don't wanna do tha-ha-ha-ha-t!"
Autumn Wind turned to her and smiled gently as she began to rub her crown. "I know, Angel deary, I know. We don't want you to that either."
Angel continued to wail as she reburied her head into Autumn's cardigan, filling Harvest Moon with a sense of shame. Maybe he had laid it on a little thick for his daughter. It was a long shot that the colony would go to measures as drastic as that. With guilt building in his chest, he slowly began to trot over to the bed under the watchful and angry gaze of Autumn Wind. Ignoring it, he stopped at the edge of the bed and forced a small smile, reaching his hoof out to rub Angel's back.
"Angel, please stop crying," he cooed to her, "I'm sorry I overreacted. You just... kinda.... uh, stunned me?"
Angel's sobbing slowed to a bit of hiccups as she turned her glossy eyes from Autumn Wind's now stained cardigan to him, looking like the silly filly he remembered raising. The small smile tugged at him even harder, forcing itself to get bigger against his will.
"Harvest, that's not the word I would use to--" Autumn Wind started.
"Surprised?"
"No."
"Shocked?"
"No."
"Scared?"
"What is with you and these 'S' words?"
"Fine! You... er, made me panic!" Harvest nearly yelled out in exasperation, "Is that better?!"
"Warmer, but still not there."
"Buck it, Autumn! What would you say then?!"
"More like 'horrified, aghast or perturbed."
Harvest Moon turned his gaze to Autumn, glaring at her in a way that made ice seem warm. She responded by sticking her tongue out at him playfully. A small grunt escaped him, his gaze going from icy to annoyed in seconds.
"Okay Angel, I was perturbed by the news you were pregnant. I had just always hoped if you had found somepony to have a foal with, it would be far away from here. Also, I was a little horrified that you didn't know you were pregnant the whole two months you were here."
"You forgot 'aghast'." Autumn jabbed playfully at him, but Harvest ignored it.
He smiled to Angel again, only to see her look down with a bit of shame on her face. Autumn Wind cleared her throat right then, causing Harvest to look up at her. She nodded to Angel and raised her eyebrow, a silent cue that only he could understand. Well, anypony would get the idea of what she was implying from it, but Autumn did it so often with him, it was easy to get her meaning.
"So, uh, you mentioned that the foal's sire is... uh, wait. Was it.. er.."
"Comet?" Autumn Wind finished for him.
"Yeah! Him?"
Angel sniffled and looked back at him before she nodded slowly.
"So, er, what's he like?"
"Yeah!" Autumn Wind chimed in, "You told me he was the commander of Princess Celestia's personal guard! Is he all dashing and heroicly handsome?"
"Well, let's not jump to conclusions about him just yet," Harvest Moon butted in, "I can believe he's a Royal Guard, but a commander? Of the Sun Princess's personal guard at that?"
"And why is that so hard to believe?" Autumn Wind rebuked with a stern gaze, "Were you with her the whole time?"
"Well obviously no, I wasn't. But still, she--"
"So how do you know she's making it up? Why couldn't Angel charm a pony as important as that?"
"I didn't say she couldn't!"
"You're implying she can't!"
"No! What I'm saying is that I find it hard to believe that on just her word alone!"
"Has she given you a reason not to believe her before?"
A stern silence fell over the room as Harvest returned Autumn's stern gaze.
"If I remember correctly," Harvest began, "She told me she was running an errand for her boss and would be gone for only a week. She then didn't write or let me know she was fine for four years."
Autumn smiled in a nervous way, her eyes darting around as she tried to think of a response. She stuttered a few times and tried to work out a few sentences, but came up with nothing. However, Angel gave the answer that Harvest was looking for.
"I know you don't believe me, dad, but I'm not lying." she stated as she turned her gaze to him, "He really is the leader of Princess Celestia's guards, and I can prove it."
Harvest raised an eyebrow at that, a curious expression crossing his face.
"Really?" he asked, "And how are you going to do that?"
Angel's glossy eyes seemed to twinkle at the question.
"By taking you to meet him."
Harvest Moon blinked a couple times before he managed to emit a dull, "What?"
"I'm taking both you and Aunty Autumn Wind to meet him."
An abnormally loud squeal came from behind Angel as she was wrapped into another one of Aunty Autumn's death grip hug. Her hooves immediately went to her neck to stop the signature stranglehold, but even her advanced reflexes from her days spent as a guard were not fast enough. Her neck was subjected to a crazy amount of pressure as Autumn buried her snout into Angel's mane.
"OOOOOOOHHHHH! I always wanted to visit Canterlot! My cousin Fang Warden always said the city was so bright and pretty despite not being in a cave! He was always a bit of a grump, though, so him saying it was pretty and you actually needing to return there is like a--"
"Autumn!" Harvest shouted in a concerned tone, "Put Angel and my future grandfoal down now!"
Autumn paused her line of thought and looked down curiously to see a very vibrant shade of violet on her niece's face as her rear hooves kicked around uselessly. Much to Autumn's surprise, however, she was also hovering in the air, holding Angel up by her neck. Suddenly mortified, Autumn dropped Angel back onto the bed, where she immediately began heaving and sucking down as much air as she could.
"Angel!" Autumn shrieked as she landed, "Are you alright?!"
"I'm *gasp* I'm alright," she spoke through heaving breaths, "I just *wheeze* need to get a *cough* glass of water."
She rose to her shaky hooves, just managing to keep herself upright. It took a few moments for Angel to stagger out of the room, leaving her bewildered father alone with her hyperactive aunt. His bewilderment turned quickly to a scowl as he turned his attention to Autumn.
"What?" she asked, fully expecting the tongue lashing that was to follow.
"Damn it, Autumn. We just found out that not only is she pregnant, but she's also engaged," Harvest reprimanded in his best exasperated tone, "And you do what? Hug her while talking about how you want to visit Canterlot like it's a vacation! Do you even comprehend what has just happened?!"
He pressed a hoof to his forehead, rubbing away a minor headache from the stress. Taking care of Angel was always a hooffull, but he didn't ever think that this would happen. Everything about Angel that he tried to keep a secret was no longer privy to just himself, Autumn and Moondrop, Angel's mother. To make matters worse, he had blown up at Angel and made her cry, was subjected to Autumn's torment and now was told he was to be headed off to Canterlot to meet his only daughter's fiance.
"Hey, Harvest?" Autumn spoke softly as her hoof began to rub his scalp.
Harvest had barely looked up when Autumn placed a small kiss on his lips, causing his headache to disappear. She backed away just as quickly as she had entered his personal space, her golden eyes half lidded and a small smile on her lips.
"Calm down, will you?" she asked coyly. Harvest, however, did the exact opposite.
"Autumn!" he hissed to her, his eyes flashing dangerously, "What the buck are you thinking?!"
"Hey, I'm just trying to keep you calm. I can always tell when you're upset."
"And how was that supposed to calm me down?!"
"It worked before, or do you need a longer one for this kind of situation?"
As quickly as before, Autumn closed the distance and pressed her snout to his, causing any arguments he had to evaporate into an overwhelming sense of pleasure. The two bat ponies stayed that way for a couple seconds before Autumn pulled back again.
"Better?" she asked in a more serious tone.
"I hate you."
"But you love me when I do that."
"I also hate it when you act like a child."
"I know you love it when I call you a stuffy old pony."
"Autumn."
"Harvest."
Within a second, Harvest was within her personal space, kissing her as well. Autumn purred slightly as he forced himself closer to her and eventually they broke away, Harvest gasping slightly.
"I really do hate you." he whispered.
"If you did, I wouldn't have lived with you for all those years." she cooed back.
"I thought we agreed that this would be a secret from Angel. Plus, did we ever agree to--?"
"Harvest, what you did with Rough Diamond is in the past. We never actually broke up."
"But... you, what?"
"I was mad, yes, but I've learned to let things go. You obviously don't know when to."
Harvest's face scrunched up into a funny look when he said, "Are you talking about Moondrop?"
"Yeah. My sister left you but you've never left her."
"She is my wife. You are not."
"Ex-wife," Autumn corrected as she shifted herself closer to him, "And I might as well be. We've lived together for almost seventeen years and you've been single for about thirteen of them. Plus, I think Angel sees me as her mother more than my sister."
Harvest grimaced, remembering there was another pony in this cave.
"I'm not single."
Autumn reached her hoof up and touched his chin, causing him to lock eyes with her.
"You were that night," she whispered to him, her smile growing wider by the second, "Remember when you saw Moondrop after her twenty second birth?"
"Please don't bring that up."
"You, me and a bottle of crystal berry wine..."
"Autumn."
"A warm fire and the soft blankets from your bed..."
"Autumn!"
"And then we started giggling for no reason and you rolled over on top of me..."
"AUTUMN!" he yelled at her in whisper form.
"What?"
"Remember that we're not alo--"
As if the situation wasn't bad enough, it was at that moment a third voice rang out.
"What are you two doing?" Angel spoke from behind them.
Frantically, Harvest spun around, nearly bucking Autumn in the face. He put several strides of distance between her and trotted up to Angel, his face hardening into an unreadable mask. Autumn, however, brushed off her cardigan and smiled sweetly to her before they both tried to respond.
"She, uh, stepped on a sharp pebble." Harvest stated in a deadly serious tone.
"He helped me remove a pebble from under my hoof." Autumn said nonchalantly.
Angel looked between them and shrugged almost too quickly.
"Hey dad, the water kinda tastes funny."
"I'll be there in a second. I need to make sure Autumn's hoof is alright."
"Kay."
Angel trotted off back towards the kitchen, allowing Harvest to breathe again. As he swallowed a couple gulps, Autumn sidled up beside him, a mischievous smile on her face.
"She's smart, you know. She'll figure it out." Autumn cooed.
"I know, and that's what scares me about all of this." Harvest mumbled.
"Us or her pregnancy?"
"The whole thing. I don't know if anything Angel has told me is true, she's pregnant and engaged to a Royal Guard who may or may not be the leader of Princess Celestia's own guard and--"
"And then there's us, along with Rough Diamond and Moondrop." Autumn finished for him.
"Yeah. Rough Diamond still wants to visit sometime soon."
"And do you want her to?"
"That depends on you."
"You don't need my approval, Harvest. You're a grown stallion and you do what you want."
"But... last time, you nearly left."
"Because I want you to want me and nopony else. I'm not even officially dating you, so you don't need permission from me to see anypony."
"You're not going to ever make my life easier, are you?"
Autumn smirked and placed another kiss on him, trotting away and wiggling her rump seductively.
"As long as I'm in it, that answer is no."