It had been six months since that fateful day in Ponyville, and the vast amount of repairs the town needed were coming along nicely.
The refugee camp had been moved near the town, and the changelings were assisting in the reconstruction while the details surrounding their new planned hive were sorted out. Queen Draco and her changelings had returned home, promising to be in contact with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza soon about renegotiating ancient trade deals with the Crystal Empire. The Princesses had also returned home, Celestia and Luna to Canterlot alongside their Captains, while Cadance with Shining Armor returned to the Crystal Empire. Slowly, but surely, a sense of normality was returning to the area.
Among those helping out were the sisters Soronis and Puellula, now officially inducted into Twilight’s hive mind, along with about one hundred and ten thousand others waiting in what used to be Crudelis’ hive. Knowing what would happen to so many innocent civilians within her enemy’s hive without their leader, Queen Twilight had reached out to them, offering the chance for any changeling to join her hive instead. The majority of them had accepted, the remaining group that had refused left their hive and wandered out into the world looking for other options among other hives. Twilight had visited these changelings and brought them into the fold, but until the new hive was finished they were remaining in their old home, but once it was completed there were plans to move them from Crudelis’ hive and collapse the abandoned structure.
Inducting these changelings had other benefits too. Whereas before, their hive was nowhere near amongst the largest of them, they were now the second biggest hive in the remaining eighteen. Thus, Twilight’s standing among the other Changeling Queens had improved greatly, and her vanquishing of Crudelis had earned her their respect, even from the Red Queen’s former allies.
The extra hooves at her disposal also allowed Twilight to recover her forces’ lost number from both the fall of the Badlands Hive and the Battle of Ponyville. All of her forces had undergone a complete overhaul and, considering what happened to Carduus, she even had to select a new captain for her personal Royal Guard.
“Are you alright, honey?” Panacea gently asked her husband as he was lifted from his chair and to his hooves.
“I’m alright…” Carduus panted slightly. “I’m alright…”
“You really should be resting still,” Panacea insisted. “Your injuries won’t heal quickly if you keep exerting yourself.”
“I’m crippled for life, remember? It won’t make much difference,” he sighed, limping as he took a free steps forwards.
Panacea looked towards the ground, dejected at her husband’s injuries. Then, a hoof brought her chin up until she was looking Carduus in the eyes.
“Hey,” he cooed as he gave her a gently hug. “I don’t regret what happened, I did my duty. At least now I get to spend all my time with my lovely wife and daughter.”
“True enough,” Panacea conceded with a light chuckle. “Where is Iuvenes, anyway?”
“Playing with Puellula,” Carduus responded. “They’ve met a few fillies from town, the… ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders', or something. They’ve been stomping around causing trouble, as all children are want to do.”
Panacea smiled. “It’s nice that she can still play and laugh after everything that has happened recently.”
“She’s tough, like her father,” Carduus stated with a smirk. “She took it all in stride.”
“I suppose that’s true…” Panacea rolled her eyes at her husband’s grin. “Anyway, when do you think the Queen will be back?”
“Don’t know,” Carduus said with a shrug. “She and Princess Celestia are probably at the caves right now, and hopefully once she gets back the real work can begin.”
“I take it things are going well?” Carduus pinged Twilight over the hive.
“We’re not quite there yet, Carduus. Patience,” his Queen responded.
“She says to be patient,” Carduus conveyed.
“Six months in this place, patience is all we’ve had to work with,” she commented. “It will be good to have a proper home again.”
“That we can agree on,” Carduus stated. “Then Iuvenes can get back to stealing cookies and whatever other trouble she can think of.”
Panacea laughed. “That would be nice, though I suspect the novelty might wear off quick.”
“Nah,” Carduus dismissed. “I’m never taking the small things for granted again!”
“Maybe that’s something your friends should keep in mind,” Panacea said. “Scarlet’s due any day, isn’t she?”
“She is,” Carduus confirmed. “We’ll hear about it when she pops I’m sure.
Canterlot
“SON OF A BITCH!”
Broad Sword flinched as he heard his wife’s shout come from inside the hospital room, while Vladimir and Shining Armor were sitting in the waiting room with him.
“Wow, sounds like she is having fun,” Vladimir remarked. “How long has she been in there now?”
“Four hours,” Broad Sword responded in a whisper, looking a little pale.
“Are you alright?”
“I-is this, um, normal?” he asked. “It’s taking so long and she’s shouting so much and-”
“Hey,” Shining Armor interrupted. “Everything is fine. I mean, you should have seen Cadance when Flurry Heart was being born. I never knew my wife would summon that many eldritch abominations.”
Vladimir blinked. “Wait… what?”
“Point is,” Shining continued. “She and the foal will be fine. You just have to sit tight and wait.”
“And the waiting is killing me!” Broad Sword stressed. “W-what if something goes wrong?!”
“Broad, I know you’re freaked about becoming a dad,” Shining Armor stated. “But things will be fine, I’m certain.”
“What he said,” Vladimir agreed.
Broad Sword took a deep breath in, and then out again. After he got his nerves under some semblance of control, he turned back to the other stallions.
“Thanks, I’m glad you’re both here.”
“Hey, what are friends for?” Vladimir shrugged. “We’ve got your back.”
“It’s just lucky I had business in Canterlot,” Shining commented. “Otherwise you would have been stuck with only him.”
“Why do you make that sound like a bad thing?” Vladimir frowned.
Before Shining could answer, Scarlet’s cursing and shouting came to a halt, and instead the wails of a new born foal could be heard.
Broad Sword immediately locked up upon hearing the wails, his eyes widening and his pupils becoming pinpricks.
The door opened and the doctor exited the room, a small smile on his face.
“Captain Broad Sword?” he called out.
A nudge on the shoulder from Vladimir shook Broad Sword out of his stupor, or at least enough for him to answer.
“Uh-huh?” he answered.
“You can go in if you’d like, there is somepony waiting to meet you.”
“T-there is? I mean… I-”
“Go on already,” Vladimir encouraged. “You were tired of waiting after all.”
“I suppose…”
“You’ve faced down and army of changelings without flinching and this gives you pause?” the thestral teased.
“This is completely different!”
Shining Armor shook his head. “Everything will be fine, go on. We’ll wait out here.”
After another moment of getting his head on straight, Broad Sword nodded and managed to get up from his seat. Taking one careful step at a time he managed to make his way into the hospital room, where Scarlet Snow was holding gently onto a small form cuddled up to her chest. Her already bright smile widened when she saw her husband and she wiped some tears of joy from her face.
“Broad…”
As the door closed behind him, Broad Sword made his way to the bedside and took his wife’s hoof.
“Are you alright?”
“I couldn’t be better,” she responded, using her magic to gently the foal on her chest so he was facing Broad Sword.
“There you are,” she cooed as she nuzzled the foal. “This is your daddy.”
The small figure slowly blinked his eyes open, looking directly at the Solar Captain. The foal was a colt, he shared his mother’s colour scheme with an alabaster coat and scarlet eyes along with his mane and tail. However, like his father, he was a Pegasus.
Broad Sword almost couldn’t believe his eyes as he looked down on the tiny miracle staring back at him curiously. His son.
“He’s perfect,” he stated as he gave the colt a small nuzzle on the head, sending him back to sleep. “He looks a lot like you.”
“Ah, but he will grow to be big and strong like his daddy,” Scarlet stated with a small grin. “Perhaps a future Captain of the Royal Guard in the making?”
“Perhaps,” Broad Sword chuckled. “Whatever he will be, he will be amazing at it.”
For several minutes afterwards, they each sat there in a harmonious silence. Each was content just to be in their other half’s company and in the company of their new foal. After these several minutes had gone by, however, it would be Broad Sword who broke the silence.
“Well, unless we just want to keep calling him ‘the foal’ or something, he needs a name,” Broad Sword reminded Scarlet.
“Well, we didn’t spend all those hours talking about it for nothing, did we?” she asked.
“True…” he conceded, looking down at his son.
“Valiant Snow,” they uttered together.
Valiant stirred slightly, getting comfortable in the safety of his mother’s embrace, both of the new parents looking down at him lovingly and with pride.
Their destination was coming up shortly as Twilight Sparkle looked at the landscape sprawling out below her. She was flying through the air above the vast Equestrian landscape alongside Princess Celestia. After six months of headaches they had finally secured Twilight’s hive the rights to the cave system that was to become the location of their new hive. It was still in Equestrian territory, but was owned by Twilight.
Or at least, it was owned by Twilight’s pony family. Some of the nobility had protested to having a hive within Equestria’s borders and had brought up all sorts of old laws and agreements to try and stop it, and while Celestia could have easily overruled them she couldn’t do so without an incident spawning from it. In the end they found a workaround with Night Light and Twilight Velvet purchasing the land, with extra funds to cover the costs mysteriously being delivered while at the same time the contents of the royal vault lessened just a tiny bit, and with them then gifting the land to their daughter.
In the end, all those nobles could do was grumble about it in their own time.
As the cave entrance came into view, the two royals came to a landing just outside the entrance. When they came to a stop, Twilight briefly looked towards Celestia. In the last six month Twilight had completed her growth and now stood equal in height to Princess Celestia as a fully matured Changeling Queen.
“This is it,” Celestia stated. “And it’s yours now, my former student.”
Twilight gave a grateful nod. “It’s going to take a while to get everything up and running, but my changelings are up to the task. I think we’re all ready to put recent events behind us.”
As the young Queen stared down into the cave that would soon be built up and become her home, Princess Celestia turned her head gently with a hoof and looked directly into her eyes,
“Your mother would be so proud of you,” Celestia told her. “As proud as I am.”
A small smile formed on Twilight’s face. “I couldn’t have made it this far without you… thank you.”
Celestia didn’t respond, instead she pulled Twilight under her wing and gently nuzzled the top of her head, a gesture Twilight returned gladly.
The two stood there for the longest time, simply enjoying the company of one another as Celestia’s own sun smiled down upon them. Mentor and student, mother and daughter, it was a bond that would stand the test of time.
Too bad a sudden but awfully familiar white flash interrupted them.
“I’m back!” Discord shouted in glee with a pink flower wreath around his neck, sunglasses over his eyes and a suitcase in his eagle claw. “And what a sight to return to, Sun-Butt and the Bug Princess hugging it out, how precious!”
Celestia and Twilight both simply opted to stare daggers at Discord as he stood a short way from them.
Discord himself just looked at the two royals in confusion. “Why the stares? Did you not know I’ve been on a grand holiday! Oh it’s been fun viewing the cosmos and the flux dimension, oh and that one bald captain. Now that was glorious! Messing with him reminds me of our days together Tia my dear…”
…
Discord looked between the two, the daggers still being glared right into the deepest depths of his soul.
“Um… did I miss something?”