Celestia lay in the bed of her chambers, breathing heavily as she lay on her side. The sun shone through her open windows brightly, an early autumn breeze swirling through the room. It felt nice, she decided as she inhaled deeply. There was a hint of rain in the air. A late afternoon shower had been scheduled for Canterlot and the foothills surrounding Mt. Canterhorn. Despite how her currently felt, the pain was nothing compared to the excitement she felt for what was to come today.
The doctor had been sent for. Her guards were quick and efficient. It had been not seven minutes ago a message had been forwarded. The reply was a request for her to simply get in bed and wait for the royal physician to arrive.
Luna had gone off to fetch her brother-in-law, giddy with excitement. The whole castle was by now abuzz with the news. Hundreds of citizens were gathering at the castle gates. There was even a board up taking bets on the sex of the royal foal. The odds were in favor of a filly.
The princess regretted it a little. Every student she had taken under her wing had become like the foal she had never had. Celestia loved all of her students and had done what she could to avoid replacing their parents. There had been a lot of trial and error. For the most part, the lessons from the past had been taken to heart.
The princess sighed as a contraction struck. She winced through the pain and it passed. Where was that doctor? The pain would pass. She was not worried. Nature would do its thing and soon there would be a little colt or filly for her to hold and cuddle and love.
A part of her worried Twilight would be jealous of the foal. It was an irrational thought: Twilight had actually pronked for joy when she was told the news months ago. The Princess of Friendship was among the first to know, once the father had been informed. Celestia knew her husband and her former student were actually good friends, if the pranking was any indication.
She winced as she adjusted herself, knowing life would find a way. Celestia was excited in her own way, but focused her thoughts on other things to numb the pains of birth.
The Bearers. The mares who had become Twilight’s friends and an integral part of the restoration of Princess Luna, the reformation of Discord, as well as many, many other adventures together knew her husband in passing. He did not live in Ponyville, therefore he only saw them whenever they did one of their rare visits to Canterlot. Of all the girls other than Twilight, Rarity was the only one who had something resembling a friendship with the human.
There was a tap at her chamber doors, a rap, rap, tapping. They opened and in trotted her physician, his horn aglow as he carried his black bag with his telekinesis. He was a chocolate brown unicorn with a black mane. His blue eyes were focused solely on the princess, a professional smile adorning his muzzle.
“Ah, there you are, your Highness. How are we feeling?” he asked, smiling through his greyed and immaculately kept beard.
“Quite well, all things considering,” Celestia replied amicably. Her ears caught something happening outside. The alicorn lifted her head and craned her neck in the direction of her open windows. “Is..is that singing I hear?” A smile graced her lips.
The doctor nodded with a grin of his own. “I do believe so. A catchy tune. So much excitement and anticipation of the coming foal! I would imagine your husband still has not gotten used to songs erupting seemingly out of nowhere.”
Celestia cocked her head, wanting to hear the music and the voices. She did so love to hear her beloved ponies sing. After a moment listening, she blinked. She could clearly hear her sister singing. Luna had such a wonderful singing voice. But there was something else…
She caught herself and began to grin broadly, giggling despite herself.
“My little human is singing,” the mare commented proudly.
Her doctor swiveled his ears to listen. His tail flicked. “Why, so he is, Princess. I always thought he shied from such things. The Harmony of Music was usually something he avoided or was not as affected as us ponies,” he noted curiously. “I think the moment has finally struck him to add his own voice to the magic.”
“He used to sing to me when the mood struck him,” Celestia went on dreamily. “He has a wonderful voice. Not perfect, but I like it. A little trouble with the high notes.” A giggle chased her words.
Her physician nodded and smiled. “Let’s see how you are doing, shall we?” The unicorn stallion then went about conducting his profession, quite pleased to soon add to his resume the first pony to lay a hoof on Celestia’s foal. There was no record of her ever having foaled before and she had never volunteered to offer much about her very long past. As he looked down to where the foal would eventually say hello to the world, he commented mildly, “I still wish you had let me do a sonogram, Princess.”
“There are some things about alicorns I wish to keep a mystery,” replied Celestia, laughing through a contraction. It ended with an ‘oof!’. “A girl does need her secrets,” she added mysteriously.
“Of course. Well, your dilation looks good. This foal is coming and coming quickly, if my expertise serves me well.” He looked over her belly and smiled, patting her round stomach with a hoof. “I am curious and concerned for your well being and the well being of your foal. It is a hybrid. A hybrid between an alicorn and a human is unique. The foal should be studied. I wish you had allowed me to study your foal while it was in the womb, Princess.”
“Absolutely not,” chided Celestia as she wagged a hoof at the doctor. “My foal will have as normal an upbringing as possible and will not be subject to scientific studies. She will not be denied any chances at a normal life.” Her voice was even and kind, but there was a hint of steel in her calm and steady gaze.
He splayed his ears and lowered his head in shame. “Of course! I meant no disrespect. It is my curiosity, I fear. It tends to get the better of me. Of course I will do all that I can to ensure the foal is happy and healthy.”
The alicorn smiled warmly. “That is all I ask of you.”
“Very well. Please roll onto your back, Celestia. We are not primitive ponies that simply drop our foals to the earth.”
The alicorn did so without a word.
The two ponies could hear the song coming to an end, its participants having drawn nearer and nearer. It had made its way into the halls of Canterlot, echoing into the courtyard. The air hummed with joy and anticipation. Then, it abruptly stopped, followed by a very loud exclamation of, “I’M GOING TO BE A DADDY, MOONBUTT!”
Instead of her normal outrage whenever the human used that insufferable nickname in public, the dark alicorn hollered back, “MAYHAP MATURITY WILL AFFLICT YOU!”
“NEVER!” he bellowed.
Both laughed uproariously.
Both alicorn and human burst through the door, the former beaming proudly while the other was panting hard from exertion.
“Glad you could make it,” Celestia deadpanned. She winced, then smiled as the human’s face went from exhaustion to worried wonderment. Her husband moved quickly over to her, on the balls of his feet. His hands went to her belly, feeling for movement. He bent over and gave her a kiss.
“Sorry I’m late,” he apologized as she nibbled on his nose.
She pulled back slightly. “Well, you’re here. What were you doing, anyway?”
Her husband began wiping his nose free of pony slobber. Her sister smirked before assuming a stern countenance. “He was trying to convince your nephew to not make any silly proclamations while you were in labor.” Luna snorted. “The silly ass thought to assume control if for a day by virtue of his very distant blood relation to you. The foal did not think I was competent as my way of thinking is ‘too barbaric for a modern Equestria’, as he put it.”
“He wasn’t being serious about it,” reminded the human, coming to the noble’s defense. “Since your return, Luna, the nobility has been trying to redo its pecking order. It’s become more than just taking a step back in line. The whole ascension thing has got the more prominent families getting into really stupid squabbles with other powerful houses. He was making light of the whole thing. Luna just takes him too seriously. A lot of ponies take him too seriously. He’s a playboy and really doesn’t want anything even remotely resembling responsibility anywhere near him. He’s harmless.”
Luna, meanwhile, had trotted over to her sister and nuzzled her in greeting. The icy glare she fixed on her sister’s husband would have frozen a coctrice. “Nary a difference! He sullied my good standing and stomped upon the image I have tried so hard to rebuild since my return.”
“Might I remind all parties in this room there is a mother expecting a foal at any moment?” asked the physician dryly.
“Luna, there is nothing wrong with your image. Your standing with your ponies is perfectly fine. Nobody takes Blueblood seriously, especially when he’s in a drunken stupor.” The human nodded his head towards the miracle of birth happening before their eyes. Or the miracle to come. The next contraction made Celestia begin her breathing exercises as recommended to her.
“Perhaps not,” the pregnant mare hissed. “Blueblood is an insufferable cad, but he does his best to protect the interests of the royal family. He makes a good foil. Now, can we please concentrate on getting this blessing out of me?”
The human rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. “What do you want me to do? Hold your hoof?”
“Hold her head,” instructed the doctor, nodding towards Celestia. "Let her use your lap. She needs to feel you near her. It will help make her feel more comfortable. Talk to her. Let her know how pretty she is. And for her sake, do whatever she tells you! Believe it or not, the mare is in charge when she’s delivering a foal. You do not want to upset her in any way.”
With a shrug and a sheepish grin, the man did as he was told, kicking off his slippers and sliding into bed with his wife. She smiled at him as he propped her up against his legs and chest, wrapping his arms around her neck and barrel. His fingers stroked her mane and scratched behind her ears. She sighed happily.
“Ooh, you’re so good to me,” she cooed.
Luna looked on with a strange and wistful expression. She sighed and sat on her haunches. A haunted look appeared in her eyes. Her heart held a need. It was a need she had been unable to fill. No stallion had been able to spark her interest enough and her reintegration into a nation that had become a stranger to her had been a difficult enough journey to think of having what she wanted. Equestria came first. Her duties took precedence. Her sister had everything going for her. Unfortunately, what she had, Luna wanted. There was nothing wrong with what she wanted; Celestia had listened to her sister many a times as the two discussed herd marriages and how much they could gain from having a family together.
Luna wanted a foal, but she wanted a foal only after marrying the stallion she intended to spend the rest of her life with. As much as Celestia was all for having her sister be a part of the herd she had started, there was just one major problem. An additional mare to any herd required all members of that herd to agree unanimously to include her. Luna knew her brother-in-law loved her, but he had peculiar ideas about marriage. It broke her heart when he had told her shortly after his marriage to Celestia he did not believe in polygamy.
That had been ten years ago.
Luna and her human friend had known each other longer than that. She was the first pony he had come in contact with when she spent many a night trying to understand this strange dreamer she was completely flummoxed with. For three years, the human had been a ‘guest’ of one Queen Chrysalis. To Luna’s horror, her excursions into the human’s dreams revealed the changeling queen was siphoning love from the man.
Long story short, the alicorn personally freed the human from Chrysalis, leaving the changeling bitterly weeping in her throne room. The sapient biped was quite upset at Luna. It was not until later, when he learned Equestrian, she understood she had made a mistake. Chrysalis had been saved by the human (inadvertently) from another queen while she was trying to get back to her hive after the botched invasion. Chrysalis had no idea what to do with him other than put him in the nursery with her larvae. The details of their relationship was murky, but the human insisted Chrysalis had never done any harm to him.
“Sister?” Celestia’s voice drifted over her wandering thoughts. “Lulu? Please. I need you. I know that look. Come. Be a part of this moment. You are part of the reason this was possible. I want my foal to know her aunt. Please. Come join us.”
Luna looked at her, feeling ashamed. “Sister, I—”
“Moonbutt, get over here and be a part of this family before I put you over my knee and spank you.” Whatever self pity the princess had vanished as she found herself glaring at the human. He was hugging his wife’s head and neck while giving his sister-in-law a broad grin.
She gave him a hard look, then saw something she had forgotten was always there.
He had always been her friend. It was the one thing he had counted on to help him through his own dark times. The months after he discovered there would be no way home for him, he had become a shell of his former self. Luna had been there. It was she who had pulled him from the brink, pushing him towards Celestia. She had disregarded her own wants and desires because she wanted him happy.
She should have known then as she was reminded at this very moment. He had always loved her. He never knew how to express it and he never wanted to hurt Celestia. Celestia was aware of it and let it be for now.
Luna shifted her eyes to her elder sister and found those ancient eyes speaking nothing but truth to her. The love was just as strong and unbreakable as it always had been. She wanted her sister to be a part of her husband’s life. She had made a promise to Luna. The look in those eyes said one thing:
Be patient.
So, Luna joined her sister and her husband. The doctor peeked down one more time. His nursing staff arrived, bringing everything necessary to birth a foal, which really wasn’t too much. There was a machine that went Ping! and another one that went Beep!.
The man muttered something under his breath, which brought up a chiding summoning of his name from his wife. He rolled his eyes, ruffling her mane and kissing her above an eye as an apology. “I’m sorry,” he said after the kiss. “This whole father thing has me both terrified and excited. I’m wondering what our baby is going to look like.”
Celestia giggled, then had another contraction. “What do you hope our child looks like?” she asked, genuinely curious. “You never seemed to care before.”
“Oh, I don’t. I just hope the kid doesn’t look like me. I’m not exactly something ponies are used to seeing even after all these years. The tabloids are pretty nasty sometimes.” Gently he rocked the alicorn, his eyes going to her swollen belly. A pained whine inadvertently issued from her lips. He looked very much like a frightened expectant father for a moment.
Luna was there. Whickering softly, she nuzzled both expecting parents. “Nothing ill will happen. You will both have a happy, healthy foal and I will love that foal just as equally as you two will. The nightmares will never come to pass. I swear upon my life.”
Celestia smiled. “Thank you, Lulu. That means everything.”
“We are sisters. It is only natural.”
“Lulu?”
“Yes, sister?”
“I hope you have a foal of your own one day. I’ll do everything I can to see to it.”
Celestia groaned her husband’s name. “I just want you to know I don’t think we’ll be doing anything extracurricular for a good long while after this,” she told him through grit teeth and another spasm of pain. “I want you to think about what you did to me. The hormones. The strange food cravings. The shrinking of my bladder. All. Your. Fault.”
“Yes, dear.”
Luna snorted and began to chortle.
Celestia began to push.
The human held his breath and just rubbed her neck and chest with his hands with great worry written over his chest.
“Keep pushing, your Majesty,” said the doctor. “You are crowning!” He peered intently at the focus of his work. “Oh, this one is in a hurry to see the world.” His nurses went about doing nursing things, mostly smiling and doing whatever the doctor told them. They were quiet and efficient.
The alicorn pushed, making it look as though it was no effort at all. She simply seemed to exhale slowly, closing her eyes and concentrating. Opening her eyes, she locked them with her husband and offered a reassuring smile.
“You’re doing great,” he said with a crack in his voice. The man swallowed hard and was beginning to sweat.
Luna almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
“Push, Celestia!” commanded her physician. “One more big one! The head is almost free!”
With fiery determination she pushed as she let her voice be heard in the form of a battle cry. She lifted her hind leg as she pushed. There was a wet sound. A tiny voice let fly with its tiny lungs. It was the most precious sound the new parents had ever said.
“It’s a filly, you Majesty,” announced the doctor happily. The nurses darted in with towels, cleaning the newborn. “Would the father like to cut the chord?”
The father peered in the direction of the birthing and saw the mess. He went pale, rolled his eyes back up into his skull, and fainted.
“Dear?” Celestia asked when she felt him go limp and slump over.
“He fainted,” reported Luna with great amusement.
“Funny,” noted the doctor. “He really didn’t see anything. Oh, dear. I guess I’ll have to cut the chord.”
“Lulu, you do it. He won’t mind. I promise.”
Luna hesitated, looking at the tired mother smiling proudly as she leaned back into her fainted husband’s stomach and lap. She was chuckling softly, glancing up at his face and shaking her head.
She went around the bed and looked at the tiny bundle wrapped in the blankets. The filly did indeed look like her father. Wisps of pink hair adorned her scalp. Huge magenta eyes looked brightly up at the blue alicorn as she saw her niece for the first time. Taking her up gently with her magic, she laid the newborn upon her mother’s stomach near her teats.
“Cut it with me,” she begged Celestia.
Her sister smiled and nodded. “Together.”
When it was done, the doctor herded his nurses and their machinery out of the room, leaving the family alone. The father came to and found a tiny little pinkish girl and not a foal suckling. “What?” he asked intelligently, losing track of his thinking. He regained it and finished with, “Happened?”
“You became a father. I’m afraid she takes after you,” commented Luna with a giggle. She levitated a glass of water to him. “Drink. You fainted. Most unbecoming.”
“Can I hold her?” he asked, taking the glass.
A swaddled baby was gently pushed into his arms. After a moment of absorbing the moment, he looked at his wife with tears in his eyes. “You did good, ‘Tia. She looks just like you.”
Celestia found all sorts of things wrong in that statement, but let it pass. “I want to name her Sunshine.”
He choked back a sob and smiled hugely, looking from his wife to his new daughter. “You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my Sunshine away.” Tears fell unashamed. “I love it, ‘Tia.”