Muses of Hearts
By Tundara
A fine February day dawned on Canterlot to show the streets bedecked in pink ribbons and macrame hearts. Stalls covered with sweets sat on every corner selling chocolates and powdered lokum, while the jewelers made a brisk trade on rings and necklaces. Card shops, decorative flowers, and more all added to the colour as crowds of shoppers readied themselves for the upcoming festival of Hearts and Hooves.
Cadence looked on it all in amusement from her carriage window as she made the slow journey from the train station to the palace.
“Remember when that was you, dear?” Cadence pointed to a young stallion fretting over whether to buy roses from the south or those from the north-east.
Adjusting his glasses, Shining hardly glanced up from his newspaper. “He should get the Crystal Heart Roses,” Shining huffed as he flipped over to the sports section, “everypony knows that roses grown in the Crystal City symbolize blossoming love, while those from Bolton are for reinvigorating love that has grown complacent.”
“Oh, do they now?” A little, amused purr from Cadence was followed by her leaning over to kiss her husband.
A slight snort drew Cadence’s attention to the other side of the carriage.
Tyr leaned back, eyes half lidded as she stared past her parents with a faint frown in the corner of her lips. She’d grown much over the past few years, changing from the little filly that had fallen into Cadence and Shining lives into a long legged, athletic teen. Not a classical beauty like Cadence, Celestia, Fleur, or—especially—Rarity, Tyr was pretty in that strong way pegasi tended to favour, with well defined tone to her flanks and withers and a bold line to her jaw.
Though, comparing anypony to Rarity was unfair, as the Goddess of Beauty was always seen as the most gorgeous pony conceivable, regardless of a pony’s actual taste.
“What’s the matter, Tyr? I thought you were looking forward to seeing your cousins.” Shining snapped his paper shut and shoved it into the crack between his seat and the door.
From her bassinet, the newest member of the family gave a little gurgle and sputtered. Princess Skyla Invictus, destined to become the Goddess of Healing, was a small thing not even a year old, and Shining’s pride and joy. His eyes sparkled like twin stars every time the little foal made the slightest noise.
“Huh?” Tyr snapped out of her thoughts, absently reaching down with a hoof to play with her tiny sister. “What? No, I’m fine. It will be nice to see the Muses. I was just thinking about…”
Her voice trailed off and she gave her head a shake, a slight blush creeping beneath her creamy coat making her face look like a ripe peach.
“You weren’t thinking about a certain Colonel, were you?” Cadence leaned forward, a conspiratorial glimmer flashing behind her eyes.
Tyr snapped upright, blush glowing brighter. “O-Of course not! He’s far too young! B-Barely thirty.” Snapping up her hoof, Tyr jabbed in Cadence’s direction. “And don’t you dare, mother!”
Putting on a sweet smile and pressing a hoof to her chest, Cadence let out a faux gasp. “Are you implying I’d spy on your threads? I would never do that to you.”
A snorted laugh from Shining made Cadence shoot him a playful warning. It certainly would have been easy for Cadence to confirm her suspicions, though it was hardly necessary. She was well aware how often her eldest was spotted in the company of the colonel. The little glances and smiles had likewise been noted, as well as Tyr’s renewed interest in practicing with the sword in the courtyard the colonel's office overlooked.
“Uh-huh.” Tyr gave Cadence a flat stare. “Save your meddling for Auntie Tia and—”
The carriage drawing to a sharp stop interrupted Tyr.
“We’ll have to tease you later,” Cadence promised as she stepped out of the carriage, followed by Tyr and then Shining carrying Skyla.
Ahead of them, standing on the landing of Canterlot Castle’s private entrance, was the entirety of the Royal Herd, along with a few guests. Celestia and Rarity stood at the forefront, Celestia’s ear bent to her wife as Rarity whispered something. Celestia, in particular, was glowing brighter than usual, her mane flowing with an extra little snap.
On Celestia’s other side was Luna, a wide grin on her face at the sight of her daughter and granddaughters. Next was Faust, while on the far side a positively giddy Zeus almost pranced on the spot.
No sooner had Celestia started towards Cadence than a veritable horde of screaming fillies flowed between the adults. Screaming and jumping, with their little wings abuzz and perfectly coiffed manes bouncing into ruin, the Muses swarmed towards Tyr.
“Cousin Tyr! Cousin Skyla! Cousin Candy! You’re here, you’re here!” They burst with joy, the leading fillies—Calliope and Mneme—leaping up to full-body tackle Tyr. Her broad wings snapped out to catch the other muses as she fell backwards onto the cobblestone walk.
“My, my, you’ve all grown so big!” She laughed while Cadence giggled.
Jumping up onto the tips of their hooves, Aoide and Melete poked and played with Skyla.
“She’s so cute!” Aoide cooed, receiving a sputtering giggle in response.
“But, where is her horn?” Melete tried to move the filly as if her horn might have fallen off and been lost in the bottom of the bassinet.
Chuckling, Shining brought out a small square cloth to wipe at the dribble in the corner of Skyla’s mouth. “We decided to foster her,” he explained, referring to the old and mostly unused tradition of binding an alicorn foal’s essence so they’d age and develop like a mortal pony.
Cadence winced at the revulsion that flashed across the fillies’ faces.
She’d been against fostering Skyla. After all the trouble the spell had caused for Tyr, Cadence had been ready to cast the tools necessary for the binding off the disc’s edge. Shining had insisted, however. He’d pointed out how the fostering had worked for Applejack and Soarin’s daughter, giving her a regular upbringing with the Apple clan, as well as Rainbow Dash’s firebrand, Zephyr.
In the end, it had been Shining asking to see his daughter grow up that had changed Cadence’s mind.
“Come on Tyr, you have to come with us,” pled the Muses, yanking Tyr back to her hooves before starting to pull her towards the gates.
“Girls, girls, come back here.” Rarity called to her daughters, only to receive a few, altogether not reassuring cries of, ‘We’ll be fine, mama,’ before the horde vanished. Shaking her head, Rarity said to the nearby captain of the Muses guards, “You better keep an eye on them. We don’t want a repeat of the circus incident.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” he replied with a bow before setting off to collect his fastest and bravest knights.
Trotting up the steps, Cadence laughed. “Don’t worry, Rarity. They’ll be fine.”
“Oh, Cadence darling,” Rarity responded with a knowing laugh of her own. “It’s not them I worry about. It’s everypony else.”
“So…” Cadence inclined her head a little towards her aunt. “You look… brilliant."
It took Tyr until they were nearly at the market, before she at last managed to work a word in edgewise around the babble coming off her cousins. Ponies wisely avoided the Muses, the fillies legendary throughout Canterlot for their wild antics.
“What are we doing?”
“Looking for the perfect Hearts and Hooves day gift, of course,” Calliope called back as she and Aoide bounded into a jewelers.
They reappeared moments later, herded out by a floating broom and the shop’s owner. Pointing at a sign with an ‘X’ over the symbol of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the mare glared at the Muses until the fillies moved on to the next store.
Tyr noticed a fair number of the signs plastered in the corners of windows or on the side of trolleys.
“Something magical, magnificent, magnanimous, marvelous, and… um… magical!” Arengea added, bounding from stall to stall.
“And, why do you need the perfect gift?” Tyr pressed as they started down Confectioner Street.
“To get mother and Zeus together, of course,” piped up Arche, not looking away from a selection of heart shaped cards she’d been peering at through a window.
“Okay, hold on!” Tyr screeched to a halt, the muses tumbling about her as they failed to slop as quickly. Waiting until the seven fillies untangled themselves, Tyr asked, “What makes you think meddling in other ponies love is a good idea?”
“Because, Zeus is perfect for her! Mother is so bright, and warm, and loving, and generous, and she is the sun!” Melete explained, her sisters nodding with extra vigor and adding a few more points in Celestia’s favour, such as wise, pretty, and smart.
As she finished her youngest sister took over.
“And Zeus has the best laugh, and he’s so funny and he is never, ever sad or mopey, and plays with us all the time. He even makes time for my games, unlike some ponies.” Arengea shot her sisters a scalding glare filled with disappointment and hurt.
“We’d play more if it weren’t for all the dice and your endless roll tables.” Mneme grumbled with an imperious flip of her mane. “Even Arche thinks you like numbers too much, and she loves math.”
“It’s not the numbers, it the randomness.” Arche muttered in a soft undertone, kicking at a loose stone and unable to meet her sisters’ eyes.
“Yeah, she loves math so much she should get them a card and some candies.” Polyhymnia made a few kissing noises. Screaming with laughter she leapt away as Arche let out a battle-cry and gave chase. The pair tore down the street, weaving through the crowd, Polyhymnia yelling in a sing-song voice, “Arche and math, sittin’ in the tower! Hooves entwined and—Yipe!”
Tyr rolled her eyes as Arche caught up to her sister and tackled her, the pair rolling to the base of the Statue of the Sisters.
“I’m surprised at you three.” Tyr directed her attention to the eldest of the Muses. Aoide, Mneme and Melete glanced up from watching their sisters wrestling, while Calliope and Arengea decided that cheering was the only proper course of action. “You know that Zeus should be encouraged to go back to Gaea, not pursue this fantasy that he can woo Celestia.”
“‘Fantasy’?”
Tyr stiffened at the deep, rumbling voice behind her. Slowly craning her head back, Tyr was not surprised to find Zeus towering above her like the thunderstorms his voice emulate.
His crystalline blue eyes narrowing into crackling slits, he said, “I will have you know that there is naught in all the myriad realms I can not conquer.” Little sparks of electricity flickered through his voluminous beard, and white teeth flashed as he smiled. “Besides, I made a deal with Ioka! And I, Zeus the Thunderer, King of the Alicorns, never break a promise!”
He followed this with a wink to a nearby mare staring at the group of princesses and the large unicorn Zeus appeared to be.
“Now! What is this about helping me win the heart of the fair sun?”
“I know what can help us find what we need.” Aoide declared as she jumped up onto Zeus’ back. “A song!”
She’d hardly started to take a deep breath before her sisters and Tyr all shouted, “No!” with Calliope pulling her sister down.
“Maybe we should ask cousin Candy, after-all.” Mneme slunk away from a shop with cakes sculpted into kissing poses or various Hearts and Hooves day themes. “We can’t find anything that’s just right.”
Tapping her chin, Arengea brightened, ear perking upright. “I have it! How about we make a list, assign them a number and—”
“If you suggest we roll some dice to decide on the perfect gift…”
“Well, we could weight the list so the better options are harder to get.” Arengea clapped her hooves rapidly, a wide, devilish grin growing on her face. “That will make them more special!”
Calliope clapped a hoof over her eyes. “We want to get them the perfect gift, not make it… Gah!”
And so, the fillies began to argue again, while Zeus both laughed and broke the fight apart when it was no longer good natured. Little did they know they were being watched, a strategically placed cloud overhead covered in a swath of adult alicorns.
“Well, it’s nice to see he’s still trying, at least,” Cadence commented from one side of the cloud, drawing a nod from Faust, and little huffs from Luna and Rarity.
“Oh, yes, he tries all the time.” Rarity used her wings to form quotations around ‘tries’. This earned her a little nudge from Celestia, a wingtip coming up to play with the edge of the little frown that had been growing since they’d taken station above the market on the edge of a cloud. “It’s almost a shame, really, that he is so hopeless.”
Celestia lifted a brow. “This coming from the mare who chased him out of the castle with a branding iron?”
“He popped out of a cake wearing a bow!” Rarity huffed and crossed her hooves.
A wicked little glimmer took to the corner of Celestia’s eye as she lifted a hoof to her chin. “It did accentuate his flanks rather well.”
Rarity stiffened at once, her eyes focusing like a panther about to pounce. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, yes,” Celestia continued undaunted by the snap in Rarity’s voice. “It was a wonderful show and fine way to start the Summer Sun Celebration. I think that is my favourite birthday memory.”
Ears folding back, Rarity worked her jaw a few times before she glared over the cloud’s edge. “Is it now?”
“Mmm Hmm.” A stealthy wing extended over Rarity’s back, darting down to bring her closer. Mischief flickered through the smile Celestia wielded like a sword. Leaning over, Celestia nibbled on Rarity’s ear before trailing a short line of kisses down her wife’s neck. “The way your wings caught Sol’s light. The fire in your voice as you defended my honour. You were stunning in every way possible. How could you ever think some little ribbon could compete?”
“Well…” Rarity’s voice trailed off into a little cough as she glanced over Celestia to the rest of their family, all trying very hard to appear more interested in what was happening below the cloud, than on it. “We’ll have to finish this later,” Rarity whispered before giving Celestia a quick kiss of her own.
“So…” Cadence drew out the word, followed it with a polite cough of her own, and then asked, “Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to use my other methods?”
Rarity’s eyes took on a bright shine, making her seem all the more beautiful, if it were at all possible. “It’s hardly a secret, but we’d—”
“Clio and Thalia,” Faust chirped up from her end of the cloud, drawing groans from Luna and Rarity, while Celestia clicked her tongue.
“Mother,” she began in that tone that was so heavy with disappointment that even the most resolute of ponies would wither to hear it, “we were supposed to tell her.”
Dragging her gaze away from the events down below—the Muses had found a store selling gramophone records and were busy pleading with the shop’s owner to play some music—Faust blinked a few times in surprise before realising her error. Clapping a hoof to her mouth she said, “Oh! I am so sorry. I just… I didn’t mean…”
“Well, she is the Namegiver,” Rarity sighed with defeat. “Can’t fault her for giving names, can we?”
It took Cadence a few more seconds to process all she’d heard. When it finally clicked, she let out a little, delighted squeal and jumped over to wrap her hooves around Celestia and Rarity’s necks. “Who is it this time? Wait, no, two names, so… Both of you? Or twins?”
“Twins? No, never having twins again,” Rarity gasped through the crushing hug.
“This is amazing!” Cadence was almost bouncing on the cloud.
Down below, having been unable to come to a consensus on what genre of music to play, the Muses had returned to their doomed search. Hearing the faint laughter and gushing enthusiasm coming from Cadence, Melete turned to Aoide and said, “Sounds like they’ve told cousin Candy.”
“Yep yep.” Aoide bobbed her head, more intent on flower display before her. “Looks like the prophecy comes to a close. Nine Muses; daughters three by mothers three.”
“We have to hurry, then.” Melete glanced around the busy market. “We just have to make sure Zeus wins our mamas’ hearts before they show up.”
“If only the ribbon and cake idea had worked,” Aoide sighed. “I was so sure that was going to be the winner.”