“Wow…” Rainbow Dash flew up and looked on as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna flew out of the castle tower and into the sky to deal with the impending storm of ice and snow brought about by the destruction of the Crystal Heart. “Princess cloudbusting must be intense! I wish I could join.” She beamed as she watched the two alicorns ascend into the dark clouds.
“Rainbow Dash, we’ve got our own work cut out for us here,” Applejack reminded her. “We’ve got to convince the ponies to take shelter without making them panic about the Crystalling.”
Rainbow Dash sighed and flew back down toward Applejack. “Yeah, I know.” She took on her usual determined grin. “Let’s get going then! Besides, the view from outside of the princesses busting the clouds should be awesome!”
“That’s the spirit.” Applejack nodded with a smile and turned to Fluttershy. “Come on, Fluttershy, let’s get going.”
“Oh, um, okay.” Fluttershy smiled and nodded, then trotted after Applejack as the earth pony headed forward.
Rainbow Dash flew low by Fluttershy’s side and whispered with a smile. “But seriously, don’t you wish we could be out there fighting off evil clouds side by side with the princesses?”
Fluttershy glanced up to a window and saw the rolling black clouds blasting snow and ice, and the princesses darting and dodging around them while they shot powerful bolts of magic into the tempest. Her eyes went wide, and she gulped. “Oh, um…yeah…sure.” She cringed a little and glanced away from the window, though she tried to maintain some kind of smile.
Rainbow Dash just smiled more and rolled her eyes. “Well, on the bright side, at least we don’t have to deal with getting blasted by the baby. We just have to go speak to a bunch of ponies—how bad could it be?” She shrugged and then flew on ahead toward the balcony where she joined Applejack to give the waiting Crystal Empire citizens an update.
Fluttershy, however, paused for a moment and gulped, her eyes wide again. “Speaking…to a lot of ponies.” She sighed and slowly started heading forward again. “Well, I guess if it’s to help Shining Armor and Cadance, I’ll try. But I really was looking forward to just being part of the crowd for a nice, quiet, calm Crystalling ceremony.” Fluttershy shook her head and resumed her usual peaceful smile. “But if the Crystalling does get rescheduled, maybe that trip to the Crystal Empire for the ceremony will be nice and peaceful. And maybe the baby will even be a little calmer by then. Oh, I hope so.” She nodded to herself.
The yellow pegasus came out onto the balcony now to join her two friends, ready to do her best with them to convince the citizens to head to safety…while at the same time trying not to let them know that their infant heir to the throne had accidentally destroyed the ancient source of all power for their land all with a single baby cry.
Meanwhile, up in the sky, the pony sisters were well into fighting back the approaching winter storm.
“Sister…erm…what are we going to do about this situation exactly?” Luna glanced at Celestia with an uneasy frown as the two princesses hovered in the air near a fresh wave of dark clouds.
Celestia glanced back at her and smiled. “Luna, cloudbusting—even for these types of clouds—is a pretty straightforward procedure. I know as royalty we’re not really used to performing a task like this, but I’m sure you at least know how.” She raised an eyebrow
Luna sighed, her look going dry. “I’m not asking about how to manage the clouds, Celestia.” To demonstrate her point, Luna shot off a ray of blue magic from her horn that instantly put a large, dark cloud at bay. “I’m asking about how we are going to deal with the unexpected alicorn currently wreaking adorable havoc in the Crystal Palace.”
“Oh…that.” Celestia smiled a little more as she used her magic to blast a few clouds, then sighed. “Yes, the baby is certainly an…unexpected development.”
“Unexpected?” Luna flew above a gust of snow to blast more clouds. “It’s unheard of! And you were rather cagey remarking to everypony that no alicorns had ever been born in Equestria.” She raised an eyebrow and flew back around toward Celestia.
Celestia just shrugged and ducked under a sudden black cloud that she then blasted from underneath. “I didn’t think the details of our own origins were appropriate to go into at the time. Cadance and Shining Armor have enough to handle being parents now, Twilight and the girls have their hooves full about the Crystal Heart, and I think Starlight’s attempting to accomplish something with friendship while she’s here. There didn’t seem to be time to sit down and relate the long and complicated story of why you and I are here and the circumstances of our own births.”
“Be that…as it may…” Luna replied in a strained tone as she fought back four clouds at once, the beam from her horn glowing brightly, “…I do believe you should discuss the matter with Cadance sooner rather than later.” She shot off a final blast that caused the clouds to give her a wide berth again.
“I will. After things have had time to settle down.” Celestia replied as she glared at a sudden gust of snow from one of the clouds and used her magic to melt it away in mid air. “We’ll all discuss it together then. For now, let’s just try to fix this mess.”
“What is the baby going to get to be a princess of anyway?” Luna tried shaking off some of the frost forming on her wings and put a hoof to her chin. “You have the sun, I have the moon, Twilight has friendship, and Cadance has love. There’s really nothing left.” Another cloud swooped toward her, which she quickly blasted back.
“She’ll…find her own way.” Celestia’s voice grew strained as she struggled out of the icy clutches of another cloud and blasted it away (though quite a bit of frost was gathered upon her wings now too). “We’ll work it out. She’s still young, and her magic is going to need training. Oh!” A burst of snow from a cloud above left Celestia covered in white. She sighed, her look dry as she wiped some of the snow from her face. “A lot of training.”
“Are we sure she’s not a minion of Sombra’s setting the stage for his return?” Luna couldn’t help but ask with a cheeky smile as she flew by Celestia and blasted away the cloud that had doused her sister.
Celestia smirked a little as she finished shaking off most of the snow. “Luna…”
“She would certainly have the perfect disguise with those big blue eyes and fuzzy pink wings.” Luna chuckled as she pounced on a cloud to bust it. “Oh!” A gust of wind came and nearly blew her down to the Crystal Palace tower below, though she soon got her bearings and flew up again (though quite a bit of ice had gathered in her mane now). “Or perhaps the baby can be the princess of wanton destruction and mayhem,” she added dryly.
Celestia laughed. “We’ll start making a list when we get back to Canterlot.” She blasted some clouds, shivering a little from the dropping temperature as even more dark clouds gathered higher and higher up, slowly blocking out the sun. “And if ‘princess of mayhem’ really does win out, maybe we can make her Discord’s student.” She turned fully in her sister’s direction and then gasped. “Luna!” Celestia flew over to blast a cloud just as it was about to envelope her sister from behind.
Luna turned and blasted more clouds coming from that direction. She smirked a little. “Speaking of Discord, why does he not help more often with issues like these since we have him as an ally now?” A large storm cloud came right toward her, and Luna charged her horn and flew right through it (the cloud disappeared, but Luna was now coated in snow just as much as Celestia). She shivered a little and flew back over to her sister, her brow furrowed. “Really, you’d think he would sense the distress and come offer his services.”
“Oh yes, Luna, let’s bring Discord into this.” Celestia’s look went dry as she sent off a few more blasts into the black sky. “I’m sure covering the empire with smooze on top of everything else would really help the situation.” Still, despite her slight words of complaint, Celestia couldn’t help smiling a little.
“He could turn the clouds to cotton candy…” Luna suggested with a little smile, blasting some more too.
“…Because drowning in cotton candy and chocolate milk would be an improvement over freezing under ice and snow?” Celestia grinned a little more.
Luna grinned a little more too. “Point taken.” She blasted a few clouds higher up, creating a pocket for the sunshine. Then her look became serious as she turned to her sister again. “Celestia…the Crystal Heart...do you think there is really any chance it can be mended?” Luna frowned. “I cannot think of any spells to repair it myself, but perhaps something has been developed in the last thousand years that I’m not aware of…”
Celestia only frowned as well though and looked down a little as she finished blasting another cloud. “I don’t know, Luna. But…if the Crystal Heart is so fragile, I can only imagine that somewhere along the line, a failsafe must have been worked out. The magic of the Crystal Empire is strong. And if any ponies can figure out how to use that strength to save the empire, it’s Twilight and Cadance.”
Luna sighed at this reply and brought a hoof to her temple. “You know, sister, your tendency to cross your hooves and rely on sudden solutions that ‘should’ work is a little disturbing at times…though not nearly as disturbing as how frequently things do somehow manage to turn out all right in the end with these major crises we seem to face on a regular basis.”
Celestia blasted away a few of the lower clouds that had already started snowing on the empire and then gave her sister a sheepish grin. “Oh Luna, I never let things get that out of control.”
“And yet here we are fighting storm clouds of doom while our salvation depends upon successfully navigating the archives of the Crystal Library in an incredibly limited amount of time and controlling a foal who I think couple topple the both of us if she ever put her mind to it.” Luna smirked as she blasted away some more clouds, then cringed at the sound of another hole being blasted in the Crystal Palace below courtesy of another beam of magic from the baby…and then she went wide eyed as she saw that the beam was heading right in her and Celestia’s direction! Luckily, though, both pony just looked on in surprise as the beam flew right between them…and hit several of the storm clouds, instantly blasting them away.
The pony sisters blinked and looked at each other.
“Sister…” Luna glanced to the side (in the direction of the palace), “you don’t think that we could possibly…”
Celestia sighed. “Luna, we can’t take the baby out here and use her to blast the clouds…however skillful she does seem to be at doing it.”
“Oh, we would just be ‘borrowing’ her, and only for a little while.” Luna shrugged. “We could both hold onto her to keep her safe, and then let her open fire like a cannon. She might actually like it—a little quality time with her Great Aunties Celestia and Luna.” Luna smiled.
Celestia had to smile too. “Next you’ll be saying we should use her to fly our chariot home.”
“No.” Luna smirked a little. “But I will say that I give Cadance a great deal of credit for bringing forth a child with such a wingspan.” And then she charged her horn and blasted some more of the clouds that were slowly closing in on them (though the black clouds were gathering at such a rate now that it was getting hard to keep a safe space above the Palace clear).
“Luna, be serious.” Celestia shook her head and smiled more as she started blasting again too. “We still have a job to do.” She finished subduing another piece of the storm and turned to her sister with a determined grin, flying close to her. “Come on, if we could beat back Sombra and Discord and Changelings in the past, we can certainly handle a little bad weather.”
“Indeed.” As she finished blasting, Luna’s eyes narrowed and her grin grew as well as she turned to her sister. “Let us put all of our effort into our task then and show the ponies that the pony sisters are still a force to be reckoned with.”
The two sisters nodded to each other.
Then Luna flew in a quick circle, her eyes suddenly glowing and her horn blasting clouds as she went while Celestia’s eyes glowed as she directed a mighty blast upward into the growing center of the storm. The clouds gave a wide birth around the area of the Palace for a moment…but then began to drift with malice back toward them.
Celestia landed on a lighter cloud, catching her breath, and Luna came to stand beside her, likewise breathing heavily. The sun princess blinked a couple of times. “I don’t remember fighting enemies together being this tiring.”
“Well, we are not exactly in the springtime of our lives anymore, sister.” Luna smiled a little. “We’ve both been at this princess job for a while. The passage of time was bound to catch up with us.”
Celestia nodded, smiling a little too. “In that case…maybe it’s good a new generation of alicorn has just been born.”
“Perhaps you are right.” Luna nodded in return, glancing down at the palace with a small smile and then back to Celestia.
Celestia’s smile warmed. “Still though, we haven’t fought side by side for years. It’s nice to be back together for protecting the ponies like this.”
Luna’s smile grew. “I agree, Celestia. It’s just like old times.” Then she looked out to the black skies, and her smile grew. “Come along, sister.” Luna spread her snowy wings. “It’ll just be embarrassing if we have to give up so soon. Let us keep going for as long as we can despite the snow and the ice and the wind and the endless storm clouds. Twilight and Cadance need all the time they can get for repairing the Heart.”
Celestia’s look grew determined, and she spread her snowy wings as well. “Yes, We’ll fight until the end. For Equestria.”
“For Equestria!” both sisters announced together before flying up and putting themselves back to back to spin in a circle blasting as many clouds as possible all at once.
Somewhere far off in a strange dimension, Discord was sitting on the back porch of his chaos cottage watching a cloud that was projecting a certain scene from the Crystal Empire of the pony sisters fighting off storm clouds and exchanging banter. And he wasn’t alone…
Discord finished a handful of popcorn and chuckled. “Oh, it’s so much more fun watching the two of them fight rather than being the one the two of are fighting. And the baby as ‘Princess of Wanton Destruction’—that’s a good one, right Smooze?” The chaos master chuckled and looked to his little green friend at his side who was also watching the show.
The smiling Smooze made a lot of incoherent gurgling and absorbed an entire bottle of cola.
Discord chuckled again. “Meanwhile, I am so volunteering for babysitting duty. That foal has serious potential. She wouldn’t make a bad pupil of chaos at that. And if Twilight gets a new little friend to dictate to, I don’t see why I shouldn’t.” He sipped the bottle around his bottle of cola and went back to watching the show with a grin. “And like I’d really ‘help’ them out in the Crystal Empire by just bringing you along to spread smooze everywhere or snapping up cotton candy clouds of doom instead of black snow-filled ones. Celestia should know I frown on repeat performances.” His grin picked up on one side. “Though, if I really was there, I might let those two princesses get frozen into pony popsicle statues for a little while just for the irony.”
The Smooze gurgled some more.
“Oh, I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” Discord waved him off. “And don’t worry, they have a handle on everything—trust me. We’re just checking in right now as a precaution…and for the entertainment value. If anything really got bad, you know I’d help. Besides, no sense in going there for mushy stuff about babies and ruining our ‘guy’s only’ afternoon if we don’t have to. A Crystalling is really a private family affair, emphasis on the mares.”
Smooze looked at the screen and then gurgled some more.
Discord raised an eyebrow and brought a hand to his chin. “Hmm…well…yes, I suppose obviously Twilight’s parents should be heading to the Empire since it is their grandfoal’s big ceremony. Funny—now that you mention it, I haven’t seen them either.” Discord snapped a few times, flipping through ‘channels’ on the cloud until he came to one of a train travelling beneath dark clouds and wind and snow. And in the window of one of the cars indeed sat Twilight’s parents. Discord sighed at the sight, and his look went a little dull. “Smooze, don’t tell anyone what I’m about to do, and if anyone asks, let them know it was your idea, hmm?”
The Smooze gurgled and smiled more.
Discord snapped his fingers.
The train slowly came to a halt.
In the distance, a voice could be heard over a speaker.
“Attention, attention! We know we’re just a short distance from the Crystal Empire, and we were going to try and make our way through the storm, but the train’s stopped cold for now! The snow on the track is too thick to plow through—almost like…marshmallows? Anyway, we’ll have to remain here until further notice!”
Discord shrugged and smiled just a little to himself. “Good, they’ll be safe for now. Remind me to let the snow ‘mysteriously’ stop being marshmallows and melt away once it looks like the weather’s going to clear.” He ate more popcorn and looked to his friend. “Want to watch anything else? Or maybe just go back to Celestia and Luna? Or we could pop back over to Starlight and Sunburst awkwardly failing at friendship and even more awkwardly failing at slightly flirting with each other. I’m telling you, Smooze, ladies always dig the beard.” He chuckled and twirled his beard around his fingers.
The smooze gurgled a lot and absorbed half a bowl of popcorn.
Discord nodded, smiling more. “Ooo, yes, I agree, let’s go back to the baby blasting apart the library. I’m a big fan of that one too.” He looked back to the viewer and snapped a few times until an image came up of the baby flying all around the Crystal Palace library making magical blasts while everypony ran after her. And then, as Twilight held up a certain book that seemed very important, the baby came in sight and… “Ooo!” Discord cringed and grinned widely as the baby’s magical blast hit its target. “Right through the center of the book! Twilight is clearly devastated on multiple levels!” He laughed. “Oh, this calls for more snacks. Chocolate covered diamonds, Smooze?” He held up his fingers.
The Smooze smiled and made a lot of gurgles.
Discord snapped them each up a bucket of the odd treats, and they both started eating.
“I can’t wait to see them fix this mess—silly little perfect ponies.” The chaos master sipped more of his cola bottle. “Bet Fluttershy makes everything better in the end.”
The Smooze gurgled and smiled more as he absorbed more chocolate covered diamonds.
And so the two friends continued watching the hilarious is slightly harrowing exploits of everything that was going on in the Crystal Empire.
The train ride to the Crystal Empire this morning for the girls had been full of conversation and excitement. However, considering their harrowing Crystalling adventure, the train ride home to Ponyville now as the afternoon wore on into evening mostly featured all of the girls sleepily yawning and dozing off in their seats as the train gently chugged along.
…All of the girls, that was, except for Starlight. The newest little member of the Ponyville friendship group was sitting up in her seat reading a scroll…and blushing and occasionally giggling.
“Hey Starlight, what’re you reading?”
She gasped as Spike suddenly came up alongside her and glanced at her scroll with a smile. Starlight instantly rolled up the scroll and cleared her throat before stuffing it into a saddlebag. “Oh, er…nothing. Sunburst just sent me a letter for the ride home, that’s all.” She smiled sheepishly.
Spike stepped back and smiled more. “Wow, that’s great that you two are already comfortable again talking like close friends.”
Starlight let out a deep breath and nodded (though she still blushed a little). “Yeah, it’s definitely great.”
Spike went on. “I mean, you’re smiling so much at his letter and giggling and blushing, almost like you and Sunburst…” And then he paused, and his eyes went wide.
Starlight remained completely still, and then an uneasy grin came to her features. She cleared her throat. “Uh…Spike, you know, we’ve all had a long day. Why don’t you take a nice nap just like the girls are doing, and then you can show me around the castle a bit later or at least help me find my room, huh?” She gave a sheepish shrug.
Spike, however, just smiled and then took a seat beside her. “Starlight,” his grin became cheeky, and his eyes hazed, “do you like Sunburst?”
“What?!” she squeaked, and then quickly lowered her voice. “I mean, of course I like Sunburst, he’s my friend.” She covered with a big smile.
The baby dragon just raised an eyebrow, and his grin grew.
Starlight held it together for a second…and then she sighed very deeply and blushed. “Unless you mean another kind of ‘like’…in which case, I don’t know…maybe.” She shrugged. “I really hadn’t seen him in such a long time, and he’s different now but…almost better…and sort of cute…especially his letter all about how he didn’t even realize how much he had missed me until today.” She smiled softly, her eyes a little hazed.
“Wow,” Spike swung his legs a little off the edge of the seat, “it’s like you didn’t just complete Twilight’s friendship task for you—you went and did extra credit too.”
Starlight’s eyes went wide, and she blushed entirely. “Please,” she leaned in very close to Spike, “please don’t tell any of the other girls or Twilight. I-I’m still trying to process being friends with them after nearly destroying the world half a dozen times and almost ruining their friendship forever. I don’t want to have to think about them knowing this too. And I don’t want Twilight worried that I sort of…went off in the wrong direction with her ‘friendship’ assignment.’” She blushed more.
Spike just smiled and waved her off. “Ah, no worries, Starlight, your secret’s safe with me. And it’s okay, you know…” The baby dragon glanced down a little. “I know what it’s like to have a crush on somepony, and I know what it’s like to want to keep it a secret, so I’d never tell.”
“You have a crush on some…pony?” Starlight raised an eyebrow and sat back a little.
Spike shrugged and blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, well…” He gestured with his head in the general direction of a sleeping Rarity. Then he lowered his voice more. “All the girls kind of know about it even if none of them bring it up, so you might as well know too.”
“Oh, Spike…” Starlight smiled and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Thanks for keeping this our little secret.” Then she sighed and lowered her voice too as she took her hoof away and looked down a little, her smile growing. “Seeing Sunburst and becoming friends with him again was just so…strange but wonderful. I forgot just how well we go together.” She giggled, her eyes a little hazed. “And did you see that cute cape of his and those glasses and how good he was with the baby? And don’t even get me started on his beard—”
“Ha!” In Discord’s realm, the chaos master let out a large chuckle as he watched the exchange between Spike and Starlight on the screen. “Told you, Smooze! Ladies love the beard.” He finally drank the cola that had been in his bottle, all in one gulp.
The smooze gurgled, smiled, and absorbed an entire bucket of chocolate covered diamonds.
“O-Okay, Starlight!” Back on the train, Spike stood now and put a claw over her mouth, smiling awkwardly. “I get it. But maybe you can think out loud about Sunburst later? You almost just woke up the girls.”
With wide eyes, Starlight glanced over to see Rainbow Dash twitch in her sleep and Twilight blink a few times before settling back against her pillow.
Spike removed his claw, and Starlight smiled sheepishly. “Thanks, Spike. And, uh…to make up for that just now, feel free to gush to me about Rarity some time.”
“I’ll think about it.” Spike chuckled. “But if you and Sunburst do end up together, just…try to wait a while on the foals.” He rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. “I think Flurry Heart’s all we can manage for now.”
Starlight just smiled (blushed a little more) and rolled her eyes.
The baby dragon hopped down from sitting beside her and took the seat across from her. “Anyway, I’m gonna take a little nap now. Goodnight, Starlight.”
Starlight smiled and used her magic to make a little pillow and blanket for him. “Goodnight, Spike.” And then she made a pillow for herself and settled in too, a smile on her face as she fell asleep.
Nightfall came in the Crystal Empire shortly after the Crystalling. Twilight, Starlight, the princesses, and the girls and Spike had of course long since embarked upon the journey home, and Shining Armor had set up his parents in a lovely room in the castle to spend the night after their long journey to the empire. It would be nice to have them here for a little while: Shining was looking forward to catching up with them and happy they would get to spend some quality time with Flurry (and he was also happy to have a couple of pairs of trustworthy hooves to care for the baby so that he and Cadance could get a little more rest).
And speaking of rest, Shining Armor yawned as he headed through the halls toward the nursery where he knew he was sure to find his wife and daughter. Shining smiled to himself. “She’s probably getting Flurry ready for bed. I should help her.” However exhausting taking care of the baby was…Shining did have to admit that he loved seeing that smiling adorable face look up at him in wonder…even if she did have a horn that could blast through solid crystal walls for fun.
As he rounded a corner though, he bumped into somepony. “Oh.” Shining raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Sunburst? What are you still doing here?”
Sunburst smiled sheepishly. “Oh, uh, Prince.” He bowed but almost tripped over his cape.
Shining smiled more. “Hey, no need for that. You’re my daughter’s Crystaller—that practically makes you family.”
Sunburst smiled. “Thank you.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hoof. “Actually, I was hoping to find you or Princess Cadance before I left. I just wanted to let you know that, if you’d ever like me to, I’d be happy to watch little Flurry Heart for you sometime. I’ve been looking up the ancient duties of a Crystaller, and all the texts say they act as a sort of guardian for the foal and a role model. And I want to be the best of both that I can be for Flurry Heart.” He smiled brightly and even held his head a little high.
Shining Armor smiled so much. “Sunburst, we’d be honored if you’d have such a big role in Flurry’s life.” He let out a deep breath and put a hoof on his shoulder, his eyes wide. “And if you would be our regular babysitter, we would be eternally grateful. Eternally. Seriously. I would knight you. I’m pretty sure I can do that.”
Sunburst beamed. “Oh, thank you, Prince! I’m honored, really.”
Shining smiled as he lowered his hoof. “Not a problem, Sunburst.”
“And if you’re writing to your sister at all, please thank her again for reuniting me with Starlight.” Sunburst blushed a little and looked to the side. “I never thought I’d have as good a friend as her in my life again. And she’s the reason I got to be a Crystaller in the first place.”
Shining raised an eyebrow and then smiled warmly and nodded. “Sure thing, Sunburst. And, uh…if Twilight plans any visits here soon, I’ll tell her to bring Starlight along. And if Starlight wants to visit on her own, she’s more than welcome to stay here in the castle. You both can play with Flurry Heart together.”
Sunburst blushed and smiled even more. He adjusted his glasses. “Thank you, Prince Shining Armor. I’d like that.” He cleared his throat. “Well, uh, I’d better go. There’s probably quite a bit of snow to shovel from in front of my house still.”
Shining waved to him as Sunburst headed down the hall. “Have a good night, Sunburst, we’ll see you soon.”
“Goodnight, Prince. And wish the Princess and Flurry Heart a goodnight from me too.” Sunburst waved and then headed around a corner and was gone.
Shining just smiled to himself and shook his head as he headed down another hallway. “Wow, he’s even more goofy about Starlight than I used to be about Cadance.” He chuckled. “Twily’s doing a lot of good for everypony. Maybe I’ll write to her just to tell her that—I don’t think I say it enough.”
The prince turned a final corner and came in sight of the nursery door. “And speaking of Sunburst, hopefully his calming spell keeps Flurry Heart from destroying anything else for a while.” He knocked softly on the door and peeked inside. “Cadance? Sorry honey, it took a while to get my parents settled in. Did I miss my little Flurry girl’s storyti—” Shining paused and then smiled more.
There on the rug upon the crystal floor lay a gurgling Flurry Heart nestled on pillows, and cuddled up alongside her (and half covered in Flurry’s baby blanket which she had hold of in one hoof and had clearly been meaning to cover the baby with as soon as she got her into the crib), Cadance lay, fast asleep. Flurry Heart blinked a few times at the sight of Shining, her eyelids heavy as she reached a hoof toward him.
Shining smiled and gently closed the nursery door. He came closer, his voice a whisper as he leaned down toward Flurry. “You gave us quite a full day, little lady. I…think your mommy and your Auntie Twilight are probably the best people to teach you about being a princess, but I’m pretty sure one of the rules is don’t destroy important magical icons for fun.”
Flurry giggled and then yawned.
Shining, his own eyes growing a bit heavy now, laid down on the rug near Cadance. He used his magic to make some more pillows and to create an extra blanket to cover them all. “Let’s all go to sleep now, we’ve all had a long day.” He nuzzled Flurry, who smiled and closed her eyes. “…And tomorrow, you can drive Grandmare and Grandpa nuts instead of Mommy and Daddy.”
The baby let out a deep sigh, and then dozed off with a smile. And Shining watched as a sleeping Cadance sighed and smiled too. He leaned over and kissed each of them on the forehead. “Goodnight, my special girls.” He closed is eyes and dozed off as well.
The next day, Night Light and Twilight Velvet spent a lot of bonding time with their new little grandfilly.
And Cadance and Shining Armor slept so much.
In short, everyone welcomed (all in their own ways) their new adorable alicorn filly overlord of cuteness.