//------------------------------// // The Stumbling block. // Story: Baby blues (literally) // by splash626 //------------------------------// The following morning the sun rose high in the sky, Twilight was frantically galloping up and down the halls, "Shining Armor I'll start a search, I will begin looking in the east side of the city you do the west!" Spike poked Twilight from behind, "what about me?" "Oh, Spike.. you stay here in case Cadence returns." "What a surprise." The little dragon crossed his arms. "Twilight, Thank you for at least trying but we must find her, she's the mother of my child, and my wife." They exchanged a meaningful look. "Don't worry, we will find her." Twilight galloped to the door and then all of a sudden the doors flew open causing her to almost crash into Cadence and Luna and Celestia. "Ca- Cadence! Your alright!" The Pink Princess walked passed like she didn't even hear her, the other two followed close by, Luna acknowledged Twilight, "Thank you for your concern my little pony but now she must do something to her concern." The Princess of Friendship followed them until Luna and Celestia came to a stop, Cadence turned around. "Thank you for your support but I must go on my own." "We understand my niece, now go and tell your stallion the great news." Luna said excitedly Cadence then left them alone beyond the hall. Celestia and Luna turned to Twilight, "Looks like this is it." Celestia smiled "And we have an idea." Twilight looked at them with a suspicious face, "What is it?" -------- "Shining, I have to talk to you." Cadence walked into their room. "Honey! I was just about to go out to find you, what is it?" Although Shining Armor knew he asked anyway. " I .. I.." she shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath, "I'm in foal." She wasn't sure what to expect next but what did was something she wasn't expecting, a warm hug embraced her as she felt the tears and guilt swell up, "I'm sorry, I hid this from you." His arms squeezed a little tighter. "It's okay, I'm just glad you told me and I didn't have to hear it from someone else but know where going to have a little colt or filly running around!" Cadence made a choked out giggle, "tell me why were you afraid to tell me." "Its kinda a long story." They sat the rest of the day talking after Cadence explained what happened in the meantime their is mischievous activity going on in the city as Twilight and the other princesses spoke to the citizens of the crystal empire organizing a surprise baby shower for the next day, they had planned a lot in such little time. Twilight with nifty list and secret weapon at hand started naming off what was needed for the party. "Pinkie I'm gonna need you to bring, a three tier cake decorated with bottles preferably blue frosting a stroller for a cake topper, a big card everyone can sign, 2,000 tables 2,300 chairs 2,300 plates with silver ware set, they have to be authentic saddle arabian china, 50 pinatas with a set that look exactly like my brother and sister in law and-." She glanced at pinkie pie, " are you getting all this?" "Sure am! You asked for a three tier cake decorated with bottles and blue frosting with a stroller Cake topper, 2,000-" "Okay, I just wanted to make sure you were catching everything, actually why don't I just make you a copy of the list." "No thanks, I have it all in here." Pinkie Pie pointed to her head. "Well, okay. I want you to tell the others to come over they have to be a distraction for the my siblings so they wont ruin the surprise!" "No problem! They wont even need a distraction, my party canon can whip up a block baby shower party in seconds!" She threw a hoof in the air as random confetti flew in the air. "Okay, i trust you pinkie, look over the list before you leave." "I'm on it." Pinkie skimmed through the entire list in ten seconds, "cool, ill be back with the supplies!" She hopped away at a steady pace. ---- "Cadence and Shining Armor are having a baby!?" Apple Jack, had her jaw on the floor in surprise, "why ah' never thought id see the day coming." "I know right, I need you and everyone elses help to make the party that much awesomer!" Pinkie put her hoof in the air. "Right on it! What did you have in mind." "Just be there ill take care of the rest." The young mare hopped along the road stopping by Fluttershy's cottage, Rainbowdash happened to be there with tank, "hey Rainbowdash, is Fluttershy home?" "Hey, don't know lets see." She knocked at the door, and Fluttershy opened it, "why, hello. I wasn't expecting guests." "Yeah, I was hoping to get more of that special brew you made for tank, he's been doing so much better tanking it but still a little under the weather." "Why of course." " And I was hopping you would invite those baby blue colored birds to cadence's baby shower, it would make it so much more colorful!" Pinkie said excitedly. Flutters and Rainbow looked at each other and Rainbow tried to make things more clear, "did you say baby shower?" "Yeah, you two have to be there, okay thanks bye!" She hopped away gleefully, she then knocked at Rarity's door, and she answered, "Pinkie, what brings you here." "Okay I'm gonna need over 4,000 yards of blue and pink fabric." "8,000 yards of fabric, i don't have that much in store, what do you need it for darling?" "For Cadence and Shining Armor's baby shower of course, but thats okay ill use my super secret stash of fabrics." She paused for a moment and went up real close with a suspicious looking face whispering the words "it's a secret." Into Rarity's ear, "don't forget to be there!" She hopped away once more. "Cadence, Shining Armor, having a baby? Did I hear that right?" Rarity asked Opal. ----- 24 hours seemed to have just slipped away and no one has seen Cadence or shining armor in sight since the couple had talked to each other, everyone was gathered outside and Twilight was ready for the day, "Okay Pinkie Pie you said your party canon could handle this, now lets see what it can do." "I'm on it." The pink one span the dial on the canon from cool party- to great- to awesome- to spectacular- all the way to ultra spectacular impress everyone party then hit thE red button, party streamers and supply was thrown into perfect place shooing against houses that were decorated in result and tables magically set all over and so forth all from three blocks away, finally the supply stopped and the cannon made a small squeak and smoke started to fume out. "Oopsies, a little to much for the canon. Hehe." "Wow this looks great Pinkie." Twilight looked all around her and everyone else was in awe. "Time to get the expecting couple." Shining Armor stroked the hair of his slowly waking up wife, "how's my sweetie feeling today?" She stretched, "Better, now that you know. Listen, I cant tell you how sorry I-" he put a hoof to her mouth. "It's okay, I forgive you, I'm just glad you told me, you don't have to feel guilty about it anymore." She smiled as Shining armor finished. Suddenly there was a loud noise from outside, "What is that?" He sat up, he waited a minute more before he decided to investigate, then it stopped. "Honey, it was probably nothing, come back to bed." Then there was knock and Shining answered it, a guard stood on the other side. "Sir." He soluted, "there are guests outside waiting to see you and the princess" "Thank you, we will be there in a moment." The door squeaked upon being left open, the couple looked at each other, they made their way to the door just that led outside he slowly opened it, Twilight was the first one insight as everypony screamed, "surprise!" There was confetti all over the ground, blue and pink balloons and table as far as the eye could see, streamers and decor on the nearby buildings, and all the citizens of the crystal empire was there. "What is this?" Shining Armor asked, Pinkie Pie super excited hovered in the air with balloons tied to her waist. "It's your super awesome double amazing spectacular baby block shower party of course and everyone was invited!" She smiled brightly as Shining just stared. They looked around a little bit and Cadence spoke up, "this.. this is.. Amazing!" She broke down crying in tears of joy and hormones. Everybody enjoyed the sun kissed morning, Celestia enjoyed the desert table as Luna was worrying about the white bow on the gift she brought, she wanted it to be most presentable and Rarity assisted her, Twilight mingled with new crystal friends telling about her adventures, as for the other four they hung out excitedly with Cadence and Shining Armor, "Do you know the gender?" Fluttershy was said softly, "No not yet." Cadence replied "What about the species, is it a pegasus? unicorn? or perhaps an alicorn!" Rainbow zipped through the air, "That would be totally AWESOME!" "I doubt it's an alicorn. It would probable be a unicorn since we both have horns." Shining Armor said. "How far long are you?" "Six weeks." "Ya'll surprised us with the pregnancy, how'de ya tell Shining Armor?" Apple asked. "It's a long story I would rather not get into." Cadence replied, she looked up and saw him, the one who caused all this trouble, Snickerdoodle in the distance, a shadow came upon her with the most chilling and dark look on her face, the ponies awkwardly were silent upon the sudden change of atmosphere. "What's wrong honey?" Shining looked at her in concern. "Him that's what?" she nodded forward. Luna sensed the anger nearby and turned to see Cadence staring at the criminal at a distance and she ran over to her, "Cadence, Don't, revenge will get you no where but deeper water especially for him." she ignored her like she never heard a thing. Twilight noticed the commotion and also came over, "What's going on?" Shining Armor shrugged not being able to locate the perpetrator in the hinted direction. "That one, in the distance, the earth pony dark brown see him?" they both caught him standing in front of the gift tables with a gift wrapped in blue on his back. "I want him arrested, put in the deepest darkest cell we have and then, I want to talk to him alone." "So he's the one who caused all this trouble? He has no business being here." Shining Armor stared with a fire in his eye's Luna squeezed in with concern, "No Guys don't! I am serious do you not see?" "Luna, this is no longer any of your business, this is where it get's personal." the princess of the night withdrew from her cold stinging words. ----------- In the cold dark cells where it smelled like dust and dirt The Pink Princess stood in front of Snickerdoodle on the other side of the bars, "No wait you don't understand." Snickerdoodle pleaded. "You don't understand? What I don't understand is how you could just walk up to someone and practically punch them and walk away, sticks stones may break my bones but words most certainly hurt the worst!" she had her back to him, "So.. Why did you do it? I want an explanation now!" she stomped her hoof on the hard cold cement as Snickerdoodle recoiled. "I came to the party to say I'm sorry for what I said." Cadence raised an eyebrow suspicious of his words, and he sighed, "When I was a colt my father was one of the richest ponies in Fillidelphia, he was more in love with money then anything else, my father as a mayor and my mom by his side spent their time working more hours then they could handle and so my private tutor was my baby sitter and she wasn't very nice, every once in awhile they would spend large sums of money to keep me entertained and happy but I had no friends and we rarely if ever visited family, I grew up with such a miserable lonely life and when I became of age they kicked me out thinking I would follow in their footsteps by then, working and building wealth. Back then I wished had a different set of parents, because of what I went through I thought the same of every rich family but I met someone not long ago who grew up happy in such an atmosphere, not because he had everything but his parents gave every ounce of their love and did everything they could to get together as a family, this made me realize that I was wrong, as I observed you guys as a royal couple, loving and not caring how rich you are but making sure everyone is safe and cared for that's when I realized you could very well be a very good family and parents to your children, I didn't have the greatest life on the planet that doesn't mean your children, I was angry when I told you to give up your child and now I've come to say I'm wrong and apologize for it." by this point tears were rolling down his face, and Cadence felt guilty for the way she treated him, so she opened up the cell and he stood there confused. "Go, your free now, I am sorry for the way I treated you also, this made me realize I shouldn't just make assumptions about just anypony even if they hurt me." "But I deserve this punishment." "Maybe so, but where would it get you if you already learned your lesson, I see your feelings are authentic and humble, I except your apology." they stared at each other for a minute that seemed like centuries but it was meaningful, a moment they would never forget. "Ugh!" Cadence put a hoof to her abdomen. "Are you alright?" "Yeah I think I'm- Aaaah." she fell to the floor crying in pain, Snickerdoodle took a moment to observe and it was already obvious it was to early for labor, there had to be something wrong, so he did the only thing he could think of, he ran up the stairs yelling for help.