The Second Year; Gravidity

by TwilightsmyMare

Interlude: Seeking a Love at the Beginning and End of the World.

Author's Note:

I'm still here! Sorry for the looong delay but you know me... Procrastination, sigh... This chapter was co-authored by my friend ARchy4288 partially as a gift to help him with things he's going through and also once he had suggested the idea to me it got stuck in my head lol
Anyhow I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment, the next chapter will not be as long promise!
Take care all and if I don't 'see' you before then, Merry Christmas.
And a happy Hearths Warming!

It had been over a month since Luna had visited in her dreams that night and she was feeling like a brand new mare. She felt more confident and hopeful her dreams had been more pleasant, again however, she kept her dreams closed. Mostly for the purpose of keeping out a certain nosy Draconequus... But now at her sister’s urging she tried to keep a little more time everyday for herself. It was hard, there was so much to do and so many ponies depended on her but there were some minor duties she found that she could delegate to a few select other ponies, Luna and even Discord to a very limited respect helped where they could too. Ponies she knew she could trust, but still… She was alone, but her sister was happy, her little ponies were happy, that knowledge and the sunshine of this morning that made Canterlot almost shimmer in the sunlight, and as such she... Was happy.

The day court had ended early, too early. The 'little' tasks she had delegated though small had often taken up most time. Now it wasn’t even noon and her usual audiences, conferences and legislative sessions had finished. So she thought of her sister’s request and used the opportunity to take the rest of the day for herself. Ultimately though, her free time allowed her mind to wander back to her loneliness and other troubling thoughts; and she needed to be by herself. Throughout Luna's banishment and even before that, there was one such place where she could go when she needed to get away. A place she could go and let off some steam, using her magic to higher levels without the fear of harming anypony around her... The abandoned crystal mines deep beneath the city.

She teleported to her place of refuge, deep down in the caverns beneath the castle where no one would find her. She enjoyed walking among the formations. They calmed her, on more than a few occasions she brought Spike down here as well. Her little Spike who was up in his room napping away a lazy day. The baby dragon who she now thought of as her own son, who had somehow managed to find her down here one lonely and dark night, slipping down into an abandoned mine shaft, when he had first come and was still early on in his studies of what it meant to be a dragon. They had talked and opened up to each other as they walked along the majestic symphony of colors that was the formations of crystal as they had been illuminated by the light of her horn. Crystals apparently weren't as tasty as gems but he had a good time none the less, she couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of him pigging out on a small pile that they had gathered up, then carrying him fast asleep on her back all the way back to his room.

She sat down at her usual spot overlooking a dark chasm, conjuring viewing portals to various places around the castle and beyond. Her chambers, where the maids were just finishing up their meticulous cleaning of her bedchamber, her sister’s bedchamber where she and Discord lay entwined together asleep. He'd had no qualms about staying up at night to be with her, but she had to remind herself to be careful with that particular window; lest she see something that might disturb her...

Another window she opened was to The Crystal Empire where her niece and nephew-in-law were enjoying themselves as a family. Cadence was cuddling on a cushion with Prism, she gently nuzzled him on the top of his head as she read a fairy tale to him. Shining Armor ran around with Shimmer on his back, she was wearing his helmet which was far too big for her peeking out one of the eyeholes while her small horn poked out the other and she levitated a cardboard sword before her swinging wildly as she and Shining rode into imaginary battle against some mighty foe from the tale Cadence’s was reading.

Yet another view was that of Twilight, her faithful student... She could see Twilight laying on her side her beautiful foal at her side supported by cushions as she read aloud, as she watched her husband entered, Rick. Bringing her a drink and lying beside her as they shared a sweet kiss as her ran his hands over her massaging her back and neck as she read, while Scootaloo lay curled up at his side and the newborn... Starswirl, happily squealing and talking as he hoisted her up on his chest so the Sparkle family could all make the new foal feel happy and loved together.

Her heart ached with loneliness and longing watching these three windows and she shut them all very suddenly. The tears and silent sobs that escaped her was but a hint of the torment she felt burning in her heart and had felt for many, many years. Her thoughts wandered to Sombra as he had been; not the monster he had become. She wondered as she had many times if he could have ever forgiven her for teaching him the very magic that was his downfall... She shook her head trying to dislodge those troubling thoughts falling backwards onto her haunches on the cold stone ground with a sigh.

"Why? Why can't I have it too? I deserve to be happy... Don't I?" She asked herself aloud, her only answer being a faint distant echo in the darkness. After a moments concentration her face lit up, her eyes widened and small smirk formed on her mouth.

"I do... And this is the day!" Her horn lit up as she channeled ever increasing power flashing through spell after spell trying to find a way... As she did she pondered what kind of a mate...? Someone who would compliment her and she him?

A stallion? Perhaps a kind, gentle one like Somb... No. She wasn't ready for that even after so long... Even a Pegasus or an Earth Pony... Even if she did, she didn't want someone who would be intimidated by her, she wanted to be treated as a mare...

A mare? Truthfully she had thought of it, mares were usually far less docile, more independent than most males but truly her tastes had never ran that way...

A Griffon perhaps...? While strong and proud their society was nearly the opposite of Equestrians, male dominated and while they did treat their females well there was still a fair bit of sexual discrimination...

Or maybe even a buffalo. She smirked to herself, while definitely virile, they tended to be a bit dense as well as being somewhat xenophobic...

A draconequus perhaps. While her power and standing would be much less of an issue between them and they would have plenty of time together...

She sighed again spells still flashing by. Even if she could locate one and he was interested, it might just make things difficult with Luna and Discord...

Perhaps a Minotaur? Strong and firm, fairly intelligent with an eye for finances, though a bit egotistical and full of themselves. Theirs was a magic born race consisting only of males, any successful pairing with one of them could only result in a male Minotaur being born...

"Before even my time." She smiled thinking. "But I really don't know who could have come up with that idea." She giggled to herself. "Combining the traits of goats, bulls, and humans apparently... Humans?! A... A h-human?" The word hissed in a whisper of mixed emotions.

She put a wing to her muzzle and laughed slightly mocking the idea, and with a twinge of residual bitterness over the loss of her parents, she dismissed the idea as quickly almost as it had entered her mind. Surely it was the most ridiculous she could think of… Yet… Twilight and Rick seemed very happy.

Though she was sure that their relationship wasn't based on his race. Celestia's expression hardened, and she regained her stoic and regal composure, trying to stop these silly thoughts before they wandered too far.

"Not all of humanity is like him, but the barrier stands and it will stand until the end. More curious still though, is how Zecora managed to..." With that thought, Celestia lit her horn up and cast a spell teleporting her far away to the ruins of the old human embassy where she and Luna had first conjured the powerful shielding spell. With a flash, she arrived in the main reception hall of the ruined embassy, the old gateway still stood dominating the old hall. Looking at the charred ivory, the burned and tattered curtains and streamers lining the ceiling, the disintegrating tapestries and shards of metal from old destroyed ceremonial armor for both human and pony alike, she sighed at how it had all gone wrong…

"Over a thousand years ago I might have..." She wondered how could the relationship between their two worlds have deteriorated to that point? Why did they do it? Why? Why did they have to kill her parents? Was it her fault? Was it Equestria’s? Was it all of humanity that was evil, or was that band of filibusters just a group of bad seeds? She was convinced that was the case. Rick was a kind gentle soul and there had to be scores like him.

As she slowly walked down the ruined hall, treading lightly as if not to disturb whatever ghosts might be sleeping there, she made her way to the portal and began to examine it, she gasped in shock. It appeared to not be as impervious as she and her sister had thought! Gaps, cracks and gouges all along it almost like it was… Corroding and melting, and all of the damage was apparently done from the human’s side.

Were they trying to break through?!

Alarmed, she looked closer and found the damage to be almost completely random, almost as if humankind had been destroying its own environment for a thousand years and this was a part of the damage. She slowly turned her head away in disgust, charging her magic and preparing to repower and repair the shield when she stopped and looked at the damaged shield again. Not all of humanity is like him, Celestia's thoughts echoed...

She managed to dismiss her emotions, if Discord could get a second chance, then perhaps humanity could too, and though she had lived for so long truly her knowledge of the human world was next to nothing, fragments from long past...

"How has a thousand years changed their world, I wonder...?" She asked herself.

Slowly her curiosity began to take over, tentatively she eased her way to the shield in a matter of moments building her courage and approached one of the gaps in the barrier ready to pull back at the slightest threat... The first thing she discovered poking her head through was how weak the flow of magic was on the other side... It was almost like being pulled into a slight vacuum. The other side of the portal was vastly different than she had remembered. It was more like it had shifted and was now floating freely; randomly appearing in different parts of the human world.

The Earth was hotter than she remembered or at least this region of the human realm was, and the landscape was flatter, the air heavier, more humid, the soil here was dense clay. Her magic while limited here was still considerable but she felt if she tarried too long it would quickly deplete if she wasn't careful. She cast a small spell that would pull her back through the portal should her magic reach danger levels so as to prevent her from being trapped in the human dimension.

She sat clearing her mind freeing it from her body to explore faster not to mention unseen... Once the spell was cast she set out to see more of a world she hadn't experienced in over a millennium. Intrigued she flew forth flickering insubstantially from town to city to town quickly. What she saw both distressed and pleased her. She was impressed at humanity's massive cities spanning taller and more massive than many mountains in Equestria housing thousands if not millions of humans, cities starkly contrasting the natural surroundings, and distressed at just how many cities had engulfed the natural landscape they were given. It seemed humankind had put their faith in technology almost entirely.

The day passed to dusk on it's own, a sight that was both awe inspiring and unsettling to her, as she flew away from large cities, choosing to follow small isolated roads criss-crossing the land. She could feel distant 'hot spots' places where magic was still strong here, those would likely be dangerous so she avoided those letting herself wander randomly as she thought... So many humans, could there be among them one who possibly could accept her for who she was, love her, hold her and more? She was distracted by a large heat source, large and non-magical. A cluster of lights shimmering in the moonlight, a too small a cluster to be a city she could easily pass it by but could feel a sense of panic and desperation down below. She soared lower to investigate the situation, and as she got closer and closer a rambling and confusing maze of metal unfurled before her...

SLAM!!!

She collided something large and white... It was a pipe of some sort that she found herself attracted to in her energy form, there was an identical white pipe next it that stretched on into the darkness and as she looked on she could see a veritable tunnel made up of dozens if not hundreds of pipes, steel support structures, and strange long trays full of black vines or rather... Cables. There were lengths of orange painted chains hanging down in apparently random orders, and as she looked out towards her surroundings and saw she was standing in an above ground jungle of metal pipes bristling with various valve wheels and stems. That's when something off in the distance caught her eye. A sudden burst of light and flame shot out of two tall smoke stacks on the edge of this conglomeration of odd, tall, and dark structures.

The buildings of this odd place, illuminated by points of yellow and white and sparse red lights, elicited memories of her and her sister's castle decorated on Hearth's Warming's eve. To her right, a flame suddenly spit forth from a dark distant tower and was growing in intensity, becoming a spectacle rivaling that of even the mightiest dragon she'd stared down.

Off to her left she watched on as flames ripped from two tall steel smokestacks where a large group of humans had gathered around. The fireboxes of the furnaces that the stacks were attached to were glowing and the gathered humans were clad in heavy tan clothing and wore bright red helmets on their heads, though two wore yellow helmets, that denoted leadership as far as she could figure, and their faces were all hidden by strange masks that were connected to gray bottles they wore on their backs it was very strange.

Frantically they pointed at each other and seemingly random areas of the strange complex racing back and forth turning valves and grabbing black steam hoses to cool the rapidly spreading glowing spots on the metal. And off to her right again, just below the pipe rack she floated beside, three more humans two wearing red helmets and one wearing a yellow one ran towards a group of very large cylinders bristling with pipe, valves and ladders that seemed to be somehow connected with the panic that was going on.

One of the red helmets pointed to a platform up near where Celestia floated still entrapped by this labyrinth of strange pipes but unconcerned drawn to the drama unfolding down below. They patted each other on the shoulders, and soon the platform slightly wobbled and thumped as the red helmet ascended the ladder trying to avert disaster. The two other humans stood on the ground manning a red cannon like apparatus, though the cannon fired a large stream of water instead of any sort of projectile, as the two humans worked a valve handle on the hydrant.

As the human's red helmet came into view a voice crackled over a small box in one of his pockets. "Which vaporizer is it, John?"

She could only see the humans brown eyes through the mask he was wearing. "I don't know and Todd can't see anything on the board, the damn transmitters have been plugging off."

"10-4... John I need you to get down from there and isolate the propylene."

The human named John began hurriedly opening valves that added to an already massive flame erupting from a dark tower out on the opposite side of the complex, it was fascinating and terrifying all at the same time.

"The propylene valves on the ground are frozen solid, I got the PSV bypasses on the flare open, and the only other isolation is up here in the..." The human was cut off as the entire structure began to shake. He looked in disbelief as two relief valves next to him began to chatter, two loud pops and a hiss caused him and her to cover their ears as the relief valves lifted.

Panicked shouting began coming in over the box. "Mike! Godammit, open those back up you're gonna over pressure the vaporizers! John get your scrawny ass down from there!"

The human hurriedly turned and stared descending the ladder. As he climbed down metal bands holding the insulation in place on the vessels began popping and flying in all directions. One hit the ladder cage and caught the humans heavy outfit, causing him to slip and fall. He hit the sides of the cage hard as he fell until his equipment snagged and he was trapped hanging helplessly.

A loud klaxon began to sound as white vapor began to spray out of a the dome on top of the vessel, the spray quickly engulfed him before a jet of fire spewed from the vessel as the vapors ignited. Over the commotion that surrounded her she could hear the human begin to scream.

She knew it was not her place to interfere but she couldn't bear to see something so horrible happen to this creature. In a split second she flew herself down and teleported the human free out of the ladder cage and set him down on a deck half way down the ladder, shielding him from the flames.

She turned to look over his injuries trying her best to heal what she could with what was left of her magic, his gear was charred and smoking, the visor to his helmet was melted onto his mask, he was bleeding from his left arm from where the metal strip had struck him and caused his fall, his right leg was awkwardly contorted at the knee and was probably broken. As she tried to heal the worst of his injuries his eyes opened and widened a moment as he seemed to see her, that shouldn't be possible...

He looked at her with an expression, not of fear, or surprise, or even amazement; but one more of acceptance. As if he thought he was going to die and she was here to take him. He reached with his right hand and his charred glove to touch her his hand passing through her as she felt tears well up in her eyes.

As the sirens cleared a voice came over loudspeakers all over the burning complex. "Attention all plant personnel, attention all plant personnel, we have a fire in the number one reactor area all non-ERT personnel evacuate. All ERT personnel able to respond switch to channel three and report to the control room. I say again..."

She looked up as the voice repeated itself. the flame from the ruptured vessel was impinging directly on the one next to it. Bulges began appearing on the walls of the huge tank as the liquid inside began to boil. Pieces of metal and insulation began to snap off and fly in all directions as the pressure inside was becoming more than it could take and faster than the relief valves could vent.

She could feel her fail safe spell beginning to take hold her time here at an end, she didn't have time to help this human as she wanted the best she could do was teleport him to his compatriots running off in the distance, leaving the monitor spraying a large powerful cone of water on the flame impinged vessel about to rupture.

All in one instant the vaporizer ruptured spewing boiling flammable liquid in all directions creating a large vapor cloud, at that same moment as she teleported him her fail safe engulfed her, spiriting her away back to Equestria. The jet of flame ignited the hot vapors and caused a explosion that engulfed the entire structure in a massive fireball, she was pulled back across the portal into her body ducking just in time to avoid the plume of fire pulled along with her before the portal closed.

She could feel her power returning the moment she was pulled back and she charged herself with it casting a powerful spell repairing the shield and sealing off the two worlds yet again likely for another thousand years or more. Perhaps Equestria wasn't ready for contact with humankind and vice versa, would they ever be?

Exhausted and still fully on edge she sat and tried to composed herself. "It's ok, it’s over now. I hope, what… What was that?" Her breath caught in her throat with a small gasp as she spun around something had startled her out of her daze… A sound; a small high then low whine coming from behind her, which grew in intensity. She froze at the sight of a motionless figure laying crumpled on the marble floor of the chamber several yards away from her. After a few seconds the whine from the figure laying before her had changed suddenly to a high-pitched, cascading series of chimes.

“Oh no… How did…” Celestia placed a hoof over her mouth glancing back at the sealed portal before looking back at him. "I’m sorry..."

Comments

[GeodesicDragon]

What a twist!

Beautifully written, can't wait to see what happens next.

[Morphy]

Hmm, so there's a portal and it seems possible to send humans through it. Or at least pull them into Equestria. The screaming at the end was a bit confusing. I wasn't sure if it was him having a nervous breakdown or just pain from partly melted equipment burning itself into his flesh... or some weird squealing sound you get from metal going through rapid thermal stress which would lead back to the pained screaming of the human still wearing it.

[Morphy]

5383217

Might want to clarify that for the readers even if Celestia's not up to snuff on human tech. Still, it does chirp and make inhuman (and unpony-like) sounds.

I bet a few birds and bugs could mimic it tho.

[Hawkx1]

Well from the moment she decided to help I knew where it was going hope this human's a brony

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Well that was unexpected...