Father of Two
I have to admit, it's kind of amusing to see Luna go through the same stuff that Celestia and I did when Nymeria was a newborn. I've only seen her once or twice in the week or so after Maia's birth, but I can tell that Luna isn't getting much sleep.
Either way, I have another daughter now. I'm... not sure how I think about all of that. If I'd had another foal with Celestia then that would be fine. We're married. With Luna, though... She's my sister-in-law. Not my wife. Heck, she's not even some random mare that I have no relation to. Sister-in-law. It makes me feel like we're becoming European royalty. The relationship between Maia and Nymeria will be complicated enough, and that's not even counting how Equestria as a whole will see it. Obviously it was impossible to hide that Luna was pregnant, though a month of Discord did distract from that a bit, but we hadn't officially announced that I was the sire.
Not to say that some ponies weren't connecting the dots on that one. There wasn't some big front-page story in every newspaper that I was the father of Luna's foal and all of the worms that came in that particular can, but I'd heard about some rumors and whispers. Celestia doesn't get pregnant until I come along, then Luna gets pregnant? Even if I wasn't the father, ponies would still believe that.
Court had been over for the day for an hour before I decided to head on over to Canterlot for dinner. I hadn't seen Celestia and Nymeria in a few days, and I didn't have anything else planned for the rest of the day. On a whim, I passed by Kristen's room to see how she was doing. Most days she kept to herself, for the most part, which was often for the best when she was practicing her chaos magic. Her experiments could be a little... crazy. We'd put a lot of wards around her room to mitigate a lot of the damage that she could do. As I passed by, I put my ear to the door.
"Okay, Bob, here we go. Seven layer cake take four. Once again, I remind you that you are sworn to silence about the other three attempts. Okay. Let's see. With a little flourish of my hoof and a thought, we..." She let out a happy little noise. "I think I did it! Ooh, it looks delicious, Bob! Now that we've created it, we can do a taste te--"
An unholy shriek from inside the room cut her off, and I heard her shout in fear and surprise.
"Shootshootshootshoot! Fire extinguisher! Get the magical fire extinguisher!"
Whatever she'd made let out an even freakier cry, and I heard Kristen grab her "magical fire extinguisher" off of her wall. It had a foam in it that canceled out chaos magic, which was a big help for her experiments. With a cry of "die, die, die!" Kristen sprayed the creature with the foam. I wrinkled my nose when a nasty smell came out of her room, followed by a loud, unearthly wail as the creature slowly faded away. After a moment, the smell faded away, and I heard Kristen breathe a sigh of relief.
"Okay. Okay. Right. Alright. Good to know." Kristen cleared her throat. "Alright. Take five."
I rolled my eyes and walked away. She'd figure it out at some point. Celestia told me that Discord wasn't too much different after he was created. I can't say that I never did a few experiments with my magic, but Kristen's ceiling was far higher than mine in a lot of ways. She was really only limited my her imagination and the power she had to make that imagination a reality.
Pushing thoughts of my sister aside, I left a message with a nearby servant to give to Time Keeper and flew out the nearest window. I decided to fly to Canterlot instead of teleporting a few times. It gives me time to unwind from the day and think about whatever.
I make it to Canterlot in my usual time, and go straight for the dining room, where I know that my family will be having dinner. Sure enough, Celestia, Luna, Maia and Nymeria are all at the dining room table when I arrive. Celestia and Nymeria both smile at me when I come into the room, and I smile right back at them. It's always nice to see my wife and daughter. Maia is more focused on Luna, and only briefly glances over at me.
Gosh our relationship is going to be complicated. I'm sure that I'm going to love her as much as I do Nymeria, but I never saw myself as having a foal with both Celestia and Luna. I'd married Celestia. I was fine with having foals with her.
"Good evening, Antares," Celestia said as the two of us nuzzled before I sat down. "How has your day been?"
I shrugged and pulled a plate of salad over to myself. "About usual. Court wasn't too bad, and Kristen has spent most of the day practicing her chaos magic."
"Ah, has she used the chaos magic extinguisher that we made for her?" Luna asked. "I feel like that was a prudent gift for her."
"Yeah, she'd used it while I was passing by her room," I confirmed. "She was trying to make a seven layer cake. I don't know what she made, but the shrieks were unholy."
Celestia flattened her ears and facehooved, which made Nymeria giggle. "Yes, I know that the chaos magic can be... unwieldy in the beginning. It is especially compounded because it is chaos magic."
"Yeah, but when she finally gets total control over it, she'll be arguably the most powerful being in the world," I pointed out. “Maybe one of the most powerful in the universe."
I grunted and took another bite of my salad. In truth, I didn't like the idea of my sister being so powerful. Not that I was against her having magic, or anything, but that much power could go to a pony's head. She might not have the malice that Discord did, but according to Celestia, Discord wasn't born with that level of malice either. I didn't like the idea of needing to stop my sister with the Elements of Harmony, especially since an evil Kristen might be counting on my relationship with her to make me hesitate.
Either way, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, if we did. Maybe we'd be okay. We had hundreds of years before she got that powerful, at any rate. I pushed those thoughts aside as I turned to Luna and Maia.
"So, how is she, Luna?" I asked.
A beaming smile crossed Luna's face, and she leaned in to nuzzle her daughter. "I could not have asked for a better daughter, Antares," Luna replied. "She has some colic, but I can tell that the two of us will be close. She knows her mommy."
As if on cue, Maia gently put her tiny hoof on Luna's muzzle. Luna giggled and lowered her head, allowing Maia to clumsily try to crawl on top of it. Celestia and I smiled at the sight, and Nymeria looked on in confusion, but I could tell that there was a little bit of strain in Celestia's smile. I'm sure that there was some in mine as well. It was great that Luna was happy with a foal of her own, but I do wish that we'd found a way to give her one without me being involved in such a regard.
Still... Luna was happy. Truly happy in a way that I'd never seen her, and maybe in a way she'd never been. I couldn't completely discount that.
I lit my horn and brought Nymeria over to me with my magic. She cooed and reached her tiny hooves out to grab onto me when I got her close enough. I chuckled and wrapped my wings around her as she nuzzled into my chest. She muttered something in foal-talk and tried holding onto me with her hooves.
"So, is there any particular reason you've come to Canterlot, or is it just to see Nymeria and I?" Celestia asked.
"Just to see you and Nymeria," I confirmed, happily nuzzling my daughter. "Court was particularly dry today, so I figured that I'd come over to Canterlot to see the two of you." Luna let out a light laugh as Maia poked her muzzle again. My smile became a little more strained, but only for a moment. "And it's nice to see Maia as well."
"I'm glad," Luna replied, lighting her horn to take Maia off of her head. "She is a delight, isn't she?"
"Uh, definitely." I finished my salad and stood up, using my magic to put Nymeria on my back. Celestia stood up with me, and the two of us walked out of the dining room toward Celestia's room. Nymeria let out a happy coo and nuzzled into the spot between my shoulder blades. I spared one last glance to Luna and Maia before following my wife.
We walked in silence for a few minutes, with me not really wanting to say anything. Nymeria had fallen asleep on my back, and I managed a small smile at the sound of her tiny snores. As I expected, though, Celestia didn't let me be moody for long.
"Antares? What is troubling you?"
I grimaced slightly as the three of us reached Celestia's room. Celestia undid the wards around it, allowing the three of us to enter. When we were inside, I gently lit my horn and lifted Nymeria off of my back to place her into the crib. Once she was situated, I let out a deep breath and rubbed my temple.
"I don't know, it's..." I turned to Celestia. "It's about Maia and Luna."
"I see," Celestia replied. "You are still uncomfortable about it?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I am." I sighed and laid down on a giant pile of pillows Celestia had in the middle of the room. "Obviously there's the matter of Maia and Nymeria being cousins and half-sisters, and I'm still not sure how our subjects are going to react to that once it gets out, and it will get out. Beyond even that, though, Luna is my sister-in-law. I'm not married to her like I am to you."
"I understand that, Antares," Celestia said, sitting next to me and draping a wing over my back. "I know that this is a unique situation for all of us."
"Yeah, I know," I muttered. "It's just that... I didn't feel like I had much of a choice about it, you know?"
Celestia frowned and straightened up. "Antares, of course you did. You could have said no at any point."
"Could I have, though?" I shook my head. "Yeah, I don't think so. You've seen how Luna is with Maia. I don't think either of us have seen her happier. If I had said no and taken that away from her, she would have resented me for it for the rest of our lives, which is..." I shrugged. "You know, forever."
"I understand that it would have been difficult for her," Celestia admitted. "But we could have begun researching a way to get her pregnant outside of you. You just seemed to be the best option."
"I know all of that," I replied with a wave of my hoof. "And I know that Luna has been through a lot of rough stuff." I grimaced and poked at a loose thread on one of the pillows. "She's had the jealousy issues from the start, what with the whole nopony appreciating her night, kind of thing. She has to live with that forever. Then she created the Nightmare Weapons that have almost killed me twice, she lost a battle in the war, and I can overall just see her being... lonely."
"She has you and I," Celestia said with a frown.
"She does, but we're also married and we have Nymeria. You have a husband and daughter. She probably felt like she could never have something like that. Probably because she can't. Not unless I wanted to marry both of you." I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Which, no offense to her, I don't."
"Of course. I can't imagine that polygamy was any more accepted on Earth than it is here these days," Celestia said.
I shook my head. "Definitely not. At one point in our history it was acceptable, though it didn’t last long."
"The same is true here as well."
"Right, but that's still outside of my point. There was no way for me to say no that I could see, especially with where we all were mentally after the war. I know that Maia has done Luna a ton of good. She's probably the best thing that has ever happened to Luna. I just wish that there was a better way for that to have happened."
Celestia sighed and nuzzled up close to me. "I know. And I am sorry if you felt like we pushed you into it. I know that Maia has helped Luna in ways that I hadn't even considered, but... we didn't think about you enough. It wasn't fair to you."
"No, it wasn't." I looked over at Nymeria, who was snuggled up peacefully in her crib. I tightened my jaw and took a deep breath. "It can't happen again. If Luna wants another foal, she won't be getting it from me. I'll happily see what kind of magic we can use to help her have another child, but it won't be mine."
Celestia paused at that, and I could almost hear her thinking over what I'd just said. After a minute, she nodded.
"I understand. If Luna wishes for another foal, we will find some other way, and... we should have from the beginning. I am sorry."
"Yeah. It's fine for now. I'm not going to do anything to hurt Luna by talking to her about this. Like I said: we were all in kind of a weird headspace after the war. Obviously I won't take any of my feelings out on Maia. I'm going to love her as much as I love Nymeria, but..." I sighed and tapped on the ground with the tip of my hoof. "I can't have it happen again. It's not fair to you or to Nymeria, and I especially think that it's a thorny issue where our subjects are concerned."
"I cannot disagree with that, Antares," Celestia admitted. "And I admit that I came at it from the perspective of wanting to help Luna. She has been through much in her life. More than anypony I have ever met. I cannot imagine the amount of good this has done for her." I opened my mouth to reply, but Celestia cut me off my putting her hoof on my back. "However, I admit that I failed to see your perspective on the matter. You have also been through more than anybody should have to. I do not wish for you to feel pressured when we ask something of you that you are not comfortable with."
"Okay. Thank you," I muttered. "I don't want to hurt Luna, and I wanted to help her, but we should have gone about it a different way. Can't deny that she's happy, though." I snorted and shook my head. "Can't deny that, and I'm happy that she's happy. Obviously we won't tell her about this conversation. I'd hate to have Maia's birth lessened in any way because of my concerns. We'll take this as a learning experience for all of us, and be happy at the blessing of a new life."
Celestia managed a small smile and straightened up. "If nothing else, we have that." She chuckled and looked over to Nymeria. "I look forward to seeing what their relationship is like. If it is anything like the relationship between Luna and I, then we are in for a wild ride."
I chuckled and sat up myself. "Yeah, Kristen and I had some crazy things growing up, too." I groaned and facehooved. "And now she's the God of Chaos. Didn't see that coming."
"Well, we do not know what the future holds," Celestia pointed out. "If nothing else, I doubt that she will be too destructive with her new powers."
I grunted and stood up. "I hope so. I really hope so."
* * * *
I groaned and put the magical fire extinguisher aside as yet another experiment failed. Ugh. I just wanted something to not blow up in my face! Thank goodness the fire extinguisher would never go empty. If I had to grab TD to fix something, that would be really embarrassing.
But no. I'll get good at this. Then I won't need it. As much.
"Alright, Bob, I think we should stop trying to make cake for a while. It isn't working out yet." Bob floated there in what I assumed was agreement. "Right. Let's try something else."
I grinned as an idea struck me. A wonderful, crazy idea. One that probably wouldn't explode, and even if it did, I had the magical fire extinguisher. I cleared my throat and pointed at the marble pedestal that I'd made that somehow hadn't turned out horribly.
"Alright, Bob, here goes nothing." I cleared my throat again and closed my eyes. "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul!"
When I opened my eyes, I saw it: the One Ring. I squeed in excitement and flapped my wings. No way! I've always wanted to have this! I trotted up to the pedestal and scooped the One Ring off of it. The inscription was still emblazoned on there, but it wasn't more than a few seconds before the markings on the band began to fade, as one might put it.
I walked up to a large mirror in my room and extended a wing. Since I had hooves instead of fingers now, I had to think outside of the box a bit here. I held my breath and slipped the ring around the largest feather on my left wing. I instantly vanished from in front of the mirror. Thankfully I didn't go into some weird crazy vision where the Eye of Sauron told me that it saw me, or something like that. All that happened is that I turned invisible.
Cool.
After a few moments, I slipped the ring off of my feather and instantly reappeared in front of the mirror. I let out a happy little sigh and brought the ring back to the pedestal.
"Bob, this could either be really good, or really bad."
Bob once again floated there in agreement.
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oh no that's not good
Idea: she shows the ring to Antares, shows him what it can do, and then alters her vocal chords and speech pattern to sound like Gollum.
The one ring... fuck me! I bet with all pros. and cons.
I have a feeling Kristen was trying to make a normal cake that involved no magic at all.
9976957
*Derpy:* "There's a difference?
If TD asks, Kristen don't know why suddenly Nazgul are in front of his door
TD is going to have a ball with his sister. :)
thing is i don't know how the ring would react in a world without sauron, it may very well have the same relationship with Kristen here as it had with him, i'm more concerned about if she put the nine tenths of herself into it as sauron did.
Three rings for the Hippogrifs under the sky
Seven for the Gryphons in their halls of stone
Nine for Minotaurs doomed to die
One for the Chaos God in her bedroom
In the Land of Equestria where chocolate rain falls
One Ring to rule them all, One Righ to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in chaos bind them
9977145
Someone just won my comments section...
for anyone wondering what "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul" means, (which i hope is NOT the case,) or just need a reminder, in it’s Roughly translated state they mean:
One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them; One ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.
and The entire poem reads as follows:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
remember Mordor’s language is physically painful to speak for non-Mordorians, so a proper translation do not exists,
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also, the starting numbers 3-7-9-1 as far as i remember is a clue to the Battle that happened in the year 3.791 of the second age if i’m not to mistaken, :3
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looked it up on google.......... only mention of a time period whatsoever is the year 3.434 of the 2nd age where the battle that “Vanquished” Sauron took place.......... i couldn’t have been more wrong, :/ sorry,
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but i DO know Three-Seven-Nine-One is used in another thing that’s at the very least is Connected to LODR in some form or another, just can’t remember what,
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I FUCKING LOVE GOOGLE! Three-Seven-Nine-One (3791) is One-Nine-Seven-Three A.K.A Nineteen-Seventy-Three (1973) backwards, Tolkien died that year,
9977152
a Lord Of The Rings Crossover? oh i’m a very happy BOI now, :D
Oh boy, a ring that turns you invisible. I'm getting 'Ring of the Nibelungs' vibes here, an object that can let you get away with a crime without facing any consequence, can seduce anyone extremely easy, Kristen better be very careful with that object, and to how she share it.
9977225
try the One Ring from Lord Of The Rings bruh, ;) after all....... "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul."
9977238
That book was inspired originally by 'The Nibelungs Ring' book. It a tale about a guy that found a ring that help him become invisible if he wears it…and then the story turns dark pretty quick as he almost immediately used that power to slept with the queen, slay the king and become the next ruler.
9977249
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhh okey, i just thought it was something Tolkien got Inspired to do, cool info tho, thanks, :D also, yea, that book sounds VERY disturbing holy shet, o.O
and still more fall out from the war.
this is going to be a complected family life.
Kristen that it most definitely not a good idea
Kristen continues to keep the humor potential for this fic alive, since TD/Antares seems determined to continue being the lord of angst. Kind of an interesting (and sometimes jarring) fusion of tones when looking at how some of your earlier fics focused on one or the other. Not sure how it will play out long term, though. I hope we'll get to the time-skips hinted at by the story cover picture (and therefore new character dynamics); otherwise I fear this will get a bit stale. Best of luck in life and with your writing!
I'm sure this cannot possibly backfire at all.
And its good for them they finally address the whole Luna having a foal thing, it bothered me how they just went along like everything is just fine.
Kristen...you've seen and/or read Lord of the Rings right? Then you remember that little tiny detail that the thing was the the magical linchpin of the Evil overlord's powers and thus was inherently evil itself? Or how about that part where it tended to corrupt people just by being in the same room with it?
I'm just saying, even if there doesn't seem to be a Sauron to go with it (yet), maybe recreating one of literature's greatest artifacts of doom while you don't have a solid grasp of your powers might be a BAD IDEA.
I foresee this ending poorly. Unruly magical macguffins are trouble enough when they exist normally. Making one this way...
Well, I’m strapped in and ready for some fireworks. TD has probably had enough peace for a year or two, right Lady Luck?
9979007
It's just one, tiny, wafer thin mint- er, invisibility ring. What harm can that do?
(Mr. Creosote would disagree with me on that)
And now to fuse this world with "Beastars" so we can have blood and guts with our angst!
"Bob, this could either be really good, or really bad."
Malcom from Jurassic Park: "All I'm saying is that
lifechaos finds a way.9977095
It is a horcrux. Sauron is there in it. The ring corrupts. Poor thing summoned an evil most foul
Could have been worse. Could hve been the crystal shard
9988476
no no no in She CREATED a One Ring replica. So at worst if anyone but her touch it they will be corrupted with "Kristen-ness".
also it does not have the same power as the one ring of Sauron, it so far only turn you invisible.
beside...
The One Ring of Sauron (beside the corrution side effect and immortality) boost you, a hobbit or a man would turn invisible, an elf would become sublime and a maia turn into a juggernaut (sauron himself did not turn invisible after all when he was fighting Isildur.)
One Ring to Fool Them All, One Ring to Find Them, One Ring to Bring Them All, and in the Chaos Prank Them, in the Land of Equestria, Where the Ponies Lie?
Edit 5/24/2021:
...ok. first of all. Polygamy is still very prevalent in today's society. In fact, more cultures worldwide practice it then don't. Second, he is the ONLY Male alcorn. Third, right now it's a triumvirate where two of the leaders are legally married. Politically.... that's a massive can of worms. He really should have married both or neither, because unfortunately for the rulers of a nation, marage is no longer about love, it political.
...I hate politics....