Just like that, Celestia was awake. She blearily opened her eyes and even in the darkness that permeated the room, could tell that she found herself in bed. In a bed. A bed that she did not recognise as her own. Her ears swiveled around, but there was nary a sound to be heard in her immediate surroundings. The room that surrounded her was similarly unfamiliar, but that wasn't what worried her. It was the silence. Something was wrong. Missing. A strange and unfamiliar unease that sat in the pit of her stomach like a block of ice, and although her sleep addled brain could not fathom why, she knew that the answer to that particular question was of the utmost importance. She rose from the bed she had been sleeping in, the sheets that dared restrict her movement burning away in a spell cast thoughtlessly in her growing panic.
What little light filtered through the windows on two sides of the room, illuminated several expensive looking paintings hanging form the walls. To Celestia’s right, was a chess table in front of the hearth, which in turn was flanked by statues of herself and her sister. To her left, a lectern filled with scrolls, and enough bookcases to embarrass some smaller libraries, and the soft plushy feeling that tickled the frog of her hoof when she stepped off the bed, belied an expensive carpet to boot.
It mattered little. She needed to find whatever it was that was so thoroughly absent, and since there were only two doors in the room, she simply chose the one closest. The hard-wooden divider cracked under the pressure her magic exerted upon it, but got even less attention than the room had. Through, she found a hallway of sorts. It was tiny when compared to the grand winding hallways of the castle, and she had to duck to even fit through the doorway, but much resembled the room she'd just left where decoration was concerned. From a heavy ornate door with a window that likely served as the entrance to the mostly wooden house, to a similar carpet that surrounded the bed lining the hallway, whomever had been in charge of interior decoration had a gaudy taste and too much money to spend.
Forcing down her dread with an audible gulp, Celestia opened investigated the next door in the hallway with a little more care. It led to another, smaller, room, which had been laid out as a kitchen, complete with oven, stove, extensive kitchen counter, and even held a marble dining table, which didn't really seem to fit with the rest of the decor. The room had obviously seen use recently. The sink was filled with dirty plates and cutlery, and the teapot and cups had been left on the table. The one thing it didn’t contain was that which she was looking for, so she moved on.
Though still incredibly sluggish and heavy with the last vestiges of sleep, her mind was becoming clearer and provided her with a new piece to the puzzle: she wasn't looking for something, but somepony. Several someponies in fact. She wasn’t sure who or why, but they were more important to her than life itself, and should something have befallen them, she would burn the world down around those responsible.
Two more doors creaked in their hinges, and two more lavish rooms—A living room and a study respectively—went explored without progress before she finally heard something. Beyond the next door, underneath the crack of which a little light filtered through, somepony was speaking in hushed tones.
She didn’t even bother trying to open the door with her magic but instead forced her way through it, shattering the wooden paneling in their entirety, barging into the room like a fiery angel. She was worried, worried and ready to demand explanation and truth from whomever occupied the room, only to come face to face with the ponies she had been looking for, two of which promptly burst into tears. The third, an alicorn like herself, turned to her with an expression that conveyed both shock and anger.
“Celestia!? What in Equestria are you doing!?”
A flood of relief passed through Celestia, making parsing the questions being thrown in her direction too much of a challenge for her brain to handle. The crying of the two foals lying in the identical cribs across the room sucked in all of her attention. She remembered now. Remembered Twilight, their surprise and joy when they found themselves pregnant, parts of the wedding, the birth... she winced in half remembered pain, and cautiously moved closer to the cribs until her path was blocked by Twilight.
Stars she is beautiful, came an errant thought when she looked at the irate mare that had stepped in front of her and was currently talking to her at a rapid pace. She had always considered Twilight beautiful, and her transformation had only reinforced that beauty, but never did it shine as brightly as when she was angry. From her flared wings, to the way her horn sparked, to the cute little frown that could well have been her neutral expression but became more pronounced when she was upset; Celestia desperately wanted to kiss her wife, if only to satisfy a longing that blossomed in her chest. She only belatedly realised that she should actually be listening to what her significant other was actually saying.
“—Not to mention breaking down a door!” Twilight took a deep breath and looked at her worriedly. “You’re not about to... go evil, right? I need you to tell me if you’re going to pull any of those nightmare shenanigans with the foals around, because so help me I will send you to the moon, or the sun, or wherever before I let anything happen to them.”
More than the words, it was the worry in Twilight deep violet eyes that cut deep and caused an ache in Celestia’s heart and made her utter a simple promise. “Never.”
Twilight halted mid rant and looked at her, trying to look right through her with that piercing gaze. “...what?”
Celestia swallowed reflexively. “I would never hurt them... or you.”
Twilight’s mouth snapped shut, though that didn’t prevent the foals from continuing to voice their displeasure. Celestia could tell that Twilight’s attention was torn between her and comforting their foals, mostly because she felt the same way, but when her wife tore herself away and focused all her attention on the possible threat, so did she.
“I’m sorry, Twilight. I woke up and it just...” She helplessly gestured to their surroundings. “I didn’t recognise any of this.”
“This?” Twilight took the time to fold her wings back to her side before glaring at her. “This is just small cabin up near Neighara Falls. You know, that one we picked out for our Honeymoon?”
Ah... “Forgive me.” Celestia said, shaking her head, hoping that the motion would rattle some sense into it. “I... I really have no explanation. Everything just seemed so... alien when I woke up.” She glanced over to the cribs, and then into Twilight’s eyes, and finally dropped her gaze to the floor. “All I knew was that you were missing, and so were Shooting Star and Dawn. I just got so worried and I didn’t know what to do, so I—”
The rest of her sentence disappeared into Twilight’s mouth when the latter brought up her face and kissed her deeply. After the kiss ended, she couldn’t quite recall what she had been about to say, or why it had been important. Only the foal’s crying remained a constant.
“You’re sure that you’re not going to turn into Nightmare Sun or something like that and burn the entire world to ash, right?” Twilight asked, smiling tentatively.
“Completely sure.”
Twilight nodded. “Good, then can you please help me calm them down again? I’d just gotten them to quiet down when you barged in.”
That at least answered the lingering question of why she had woken up—Losing Twilight's warmth, or indeed, the sudden silence could both have been the cause—though it did not explain why Twilight hadn't woken her the moment she had gotten up herself. "I thought we'd agreed to care for the foals together," she replied while they picked up Dawn and Shooting Star respectively.
Shooting Star gurgled happily when he saw his mother, and smiled at him in turn, placing a kiss on the bridge his tiny muzzle which made him crow with delight. "Hello, my little firecracker," she said in the high pitched voice she found herself using every time she talked to the foals. "Did mommy frighten you? There's no need to be scared, everything is okay now." Looking over she caught Twilight going through the same motions without talking. Twilight got the same response from Dawn, who seemed more than happy to cling to Twilight’s coat, but Twilight was less concerned with their daughter, and more with whatever was going through her head if her thoughtful expression was any indication. "Twilight?"
“Hmm? Oh...” Twilight treated her to a distracted smile. "You looked so tired last evening... I didn’t want to wake you." She brought Dawn up against her shoulder and absently patted her daughter on the back while she lapsed back into silence.
Putting the foals back to bed was a hopeless endeavour; Shooting Star would smile, babble and crow when Celestia picked him up, but whenever she tried to put him back to bed his crying, invariably, started anew. Twilight appeared to have a little more luck with Dawn, but even that didn’t amount to much.
Not knowing what to do was something Celestia had a hard time accepting. A flaw born from a combination of several millennia of experience, and a keen, strategic mind. She had plans in place for every big problem that could possibly threaten her nation, and had, indeed, created a plan on how to bring up her offspring. The problem with that, however, was that she'd never before been a mother. A fatal flaw that saw any and all plans regarding two swiftly reduced to useless papers somewhere on her desk or forgotten in the depths of her mind.
Working without a plan was something she was going to have to get used to as much as taking care of the foals was. So when Twilight put Dawn in between her shoulder blades and made for the door, Celestia followed suit.
After reaching the kitchen and putting the foals in their respective seats, Twilight suddenly stopped. “Confusional arousal," she said, midway through warming up water for a cup of tea.
Celestia, having given in to her sillier side, stopped making weird faces to make the foals giggle and looked at her beloved with confusion. “What?”
"Confusional arousal." Twilight poured two cups and floated them over to the table, pushing the dirty ones aside. "It's a documented phenomenon that can happen when breaking routine. Any change in things like location, sleep cycle, responsibility, or even social life, can lead to bouts of waking up disoriented and short term memory loss. Especially if the routine was long held." She nodded more to herself than Celestia. "That’s almost certainly what happened to you."
Celestia smiled, redistributing her weight and fluffing her wings a little. "Is that what's been keeping you busy?"
Twilight took a sip from her drink before nodding emphatically. "Yes it is— was. I like knowing if my marefr— wife is about to become a ponysonification of chaos and evil, and if my two foals will have to grow up missing one of their mothers. You weren't yourself back there. I've never seen you so aggressive."
"That was only because I was worried about the three of you." Celestia said matter-of-factly. "Besides," she continued with a giddy note in her voice. "I wasn't half as aggressive as a certain somepony can be during our lovemaking." She winked seductively, leveling a wicked smirk at Twilight.
Her comment was enough to turn Twilight several shades of red, and Twilight leaned forward with a heated expression. "Not in front of the foals!" she said in a stage whisper.
Celestia laughed merrily. “Oh relax, Twilight,” she said, smiling towards the young ones. “They’re just foals.” The two had been mostly quiet after they had entered the kitchen, giggling when Celestia made weird faces at them and seemingly content to listen to their parents converse otherwise. It was either that, or they had simply been enjoying their latest victory in the eternal battle over naps.
Twilight recomposed herself over the next couple of minutes, hidden behind a warm cup of tea, and with the conversation temporarily over, Celestia turned her attention back to the foals. Sleep or not, it seemed that the crying had taken a lot out of them. Dawn in particular looked like she was about to start crying again, only this time it wouldn't be because she didn't want to be in her crib.
Celestia smiled tenderly and picked her daughter up in her magic, swiftly followed by picking up Star as well when his lower lip began to quaver. The feel of her magic helped a little bit, but it was clear that they would have to be put to bed sooner rather than later. If she was honest with herself, Celestia felt similarly. As a ruler her schedule wasn’t the most constant, but it was nothing compared to being a parent.
“Twilight? Why don’t we...” she petered out when a soft snore answered her from across the table. Looking over she was confronted with the state of the one pony whose presence she’d taken for granted. While she merely felt tired, Twilight looked downright exhausted. It was like she hadn’t gotten any sleep in ages, which may well have been the case. Between caring for the foals when Celestia's duties prevented her from doing so, and the wedding which she had overseen the organization of almost single hoovedly, it wasn't difficult to imagine that she had run herself ragged. Even while asleep, her eyes were framed by big puffy bags that pointed to some serious sleep deprivation, and while her mane and tail wouldn’t have looked too bad on anypony else, Celestia knew just how meticulous Twilight normally was in her personal care. Despite all of it, Celestia thought she had never looked more lovely.
She got up and made her way around the table, hobbling on three legs while keeping the foals close to her chest. When she reached Twilight, she gave her wife a gentle nuzzle and said: “Sorry, Twilight, but you’ll have to come to bed before you can sleep.”
It wasn’t apparent how much Twilight had heard, if anything, but she stirred and nodded before she was even completely awake. “Okay... coming,” she mumbled, dragging herself away from the table and stumbling to her hooves. She stayed there for a moment, swaying a little before shaking her head and raising it. “Can you put Dawn and Star to bed?" She took a step towards the door and almost lost her balance. "I..." She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "I put their plushies in our bag. That should hopefully keep them calm.”
“Actually, I was thinking of letting them sleep with us,” Celestia replied, stepping up behind Twilight and nudging her towards the door.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Twilight stopped as soon as she reached the hallway and turned around to face Celestia. "'Dealing With Foals: Making Offers They Can't Refuse' has three entire chapters dedicated to how indulging them can lead to problems."
"Problems?" Celestia arched an eyebrow. Lacking the experience that Twilight had gleaned from her self-imposed reading assignments was one thing, but Celestia found it hard to believe that something so innocuous could be a bad thing in any way that mattered.
Twilight began pacing up and down the hallway. "Giving in and letting them sleep next to us could teach them that they can get what they want if they cry about it long enough." She stopped near the front door and ran a hoof through her mane while looking back at Celestia. "On the other hoof, it does mention that, especially early on it can lead to a strong bond, though that in turn becomes a possible problem because of separation anxiety later on."
Celestia replied with an awkward one shouldered shrug and hobbled towards their bedroom. "Or it could teach them to be compassionate towards those ponies who need it and give them a great degree of empathy."
"How can you know that?" Twilight asked, falling into step next to her. "I mean... sure, the potential negative effects may get more attention than the possible positives, but I haven't seen anything even resembling that in the material I read."
"I have my reasons for thinking that it will," Celestia replied, making for the bed and depositing her precocious, already snoozing, cargo on it. The foals each stirred, but Celestia stepped onto the bed and sank down, creating half a circle around her children that only one other pony could complete. "After all," she continued nonchalantly, smiling up at Twilight. "That approach worked on you."
"Exactly!" Twilight almost shouted. "You used this concept with me, and I ended up not being able to think about anypony else!" She winced when Star snorted and looked up at her with an accusatory frown. "We ended up married because of it..."
"I know," Celestia replied with a loving smile. "It has to be the single best mistake I have ever made in my entire life.
Twilight wanted to frown, wanted to treat her spouse to an unimpressed stare, but she found that she only had smiles left. The place in her heart where the worries and the frowns resided had been taken over by an invading army of happiness, and after a brief struggle, she gave up and set herself down on the other side of the bed. She scooted over to Celestia a little, giving her a loving nuzzle up top, and entwining their tails down below, thereby completing the shield that protected their little ponies from any and all scary things that might haunt babies less than a month old.
"They're beautiful, aren't they?" she asked, looking down at the most annoying bundles of joy she had ever known, barring Pinkie Pie.
"The most beautiful ponies in the world bar one," Celestia replied, leaning in for a kiss Twilight returned wholeheartedly. "I love you, Twilight Sparkle."
"I love you, too, Celestia."
They rested their heads on each others shoulders, and Celestia gave herself over to the long overdue sleep.
Only for Twilight to speak up a moment later.
"Celestia? What happened to the sheets?"