A Foal Named Caterpillar

"Come on, Cadence, don't be jealous. We're just friends."

"I know, I know, it's just that you've been spending so much time with this other mare--"

"She's quite good for a beginner, and we're actually considering promoting her, so I need to--"

"And on our vacation no less, I mean, we had an entire second honeymoon planned out, and--"

"Cadence," said Shining Armor, gripping his wife's head and cradling it in his hooves. "Cadence, nopony could ever replace you in my life. No one could even come close." He turned, offering a cocky smile, and added, "Besides, she has a coltfriend."

"Really?" The pink mare's face lifted into a smile. "How do you know?"

"Well, actually--she's expecting. Today is her last day on the job for a while."

"Oh! Oh, well, give her my congratulations, then."

"I will, sweetheart," said Shining, planting a kiss on her forehead. "I will."

"Hurry, won't you? I've...I've got something to show you!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming, just wait a minute."

Crystal Lily hurried through the castle hallways, the weight of her armor barely slowing her down. She almost had to waddle to accommodate the growing bulge of her belly.

"Here, this will do."

She ducked into an empty room with high, arching ceilings, and probably pretty good acoustics.

"Uh, Crystal? What was it you wanted me to see, exactly?"

"Close the door," she snapped. "You have to know something."

"What is it?" He snorted, not bothering to hide the impatience in his voice. "This had been not take much longer. Cadence and I have this reservation that I really need to get to, she's been upset because--oh my gosh...."

For in front of him stood Queen Chrysalis.

"Chry--Chrysalis! How...?" Shining shook his head, struggling to regain his bearings. "Why are you here? Does Celestia know? What's going on? What are you planning? Tell me!"

"Relax." The queen was more amused than worried at Shining's reaction: What else was she supposed to expect? "I'm not planning anything. Celestia knows, and no changeling besides myself is here, don't worry." She smirked.

"Then why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious, dear Shining Armor?" She let out a dark chuckle, and his eyes were drawn to her swollen stomach, which apparently had not been part of her identity as Crystal. "The foal...is yours."

"That monster doesn't belong to me. I...You brainwashed me. It's not mine." He was breaking, faltering syllables quickly covering any strength to his voice.

"Look, Shining," said Chrysalis, beginning to circle him, playing like a cat with a mouse. "I like you. You're different than the other stallions I've met, and believe me, I've met many." She paused, searching for words. "You're...real. Your emotions are purer than anyone else's I've found."

"And?"

"And, dear Shining Armor, you can be sure that I am not leaving. Your precious Celestia has given me permission to stay, and besides, this is your foal as much as it is mine, and she is not a monster. She is part pony. Do you know what that means? It means that, in a hive where mercy is a curse, she is worth nothing. But she is worth so much more in Equestria."

"Yeah, well, you can have her worth whatever somewhere else. That's not mine. Cadence and I are waiting for children until the Crystal Empire is steady on its hooves again."

"But you are a prince, Shining, and it is your job to accept and welcome newcomers to your kingdom."

"That doesn't count. You've been here before. You're in exile." He sighed, shaking his head and poking frustratedly at the ground. "I...I need to talk to Twilight about this...."

"You take your time," laughed the changeling queen, morphing back to Crystal Lily in a flash of green flame. "I'll be waiting."

"Twilight!"

The white stallion knocked again on the library door, sending urgent thumps through the old tree.

"Twilight, I need to talk to you!"

The door opened to reveal a bleary-eyed alicorn. "Wha...?"

"Twilight, I need to talk."

"It's...two in the morning, Shiny. Why are you here?"

"Look, I would've gotten here earlier, but all the carriages were taken, I had to walk a lot of the way--that's not important. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure."

Shining Armor went inside.

"All right, I don't really know how to say this, but Queen Chrysalis is back."

"What?!"

"Apparently Celestia knows, but I don't know if I can take her word for it."

"I...I guess that's better. What's going on?"

Shining Armor took a deep breath.

"She's pregnant. With a foal. And...And she says it's mine."

"Did you...?"

"I thought she was my wife, Twi. Of course we did."

"Then it probably is yours."

"Of course it's mine, Twilight! Whose else could it be? But Cadence will find out, and I think Chrysalis wants it to live in Canterlot, and why, for pony's sake, did Celestia let that God forsaken changeling back here?"

"You know, that's what I thought when she brought Discord back. Maybe she knows what she's doing, Shiny."

"But...But...." He sighed, beginning to calm down. "Just agree with me, Twiley, okay? I need that right now."

"All right, I understand. Do you know when the baby is due?"

"No. I mean, soon, I think. Maybe a few weeks or a month. I don't know."

"Okay. Well, maybe you and Cadence could adopt it. You wanted kids, right?"

"No, Twilight, you know I can't do that. It'll always be a sign of--of that monster interfering with our lives and nearly ruining them. I can't have them."

"Maybe it's not a symbol of that. Maybe it's a symbol of the time you and Cadence's love for each other overpowered Queen Chrysalis, even after Celestia was defeated."

"No. No, it's not. It's not a symbol of our triumph, it's a symbol of the thing that came between us and locked Cadence in this dungeon and tricked me. How...How could I have fallen for that so easily?"

He slumped into a sitting position, going from frantic to defeated in less than a second.

"No.... No, Shiny, don't blame yourself for this. It's not your fault."

"But it is, Twi. You knew from the start that something was wrong with Cadence. I was the one actually getting married to her, and I didn't notice anything."

"You had your hooves full. I mean, you knew that there was a threat made against Canterlot, so there was that force field, and Cadence had to plan the wedding, and you were worried about her, and all that stuff was going on at once! I bet you guys were both pretty cranky a lot of the time, I just noticed because I remembered Cadence from when she was by foalsitter and I was comparing them, I didn't know how much stress you guys were under--"

"I should have noticed. If I cared about her that much, I would have noticed."

"Stop. Stop blaming yourself. You have a problem here, and what matters is how we solve it, not how it started."

"...Okay. Fine. How do we solve it?"

"I think you need to tell Cadence what's going--"

"Cadence!"

"What?"

"We had this totally romantic dinner thing planned out, and I completely forgot about it!"

"Go get her, then! Tell her what's going on. She'll understand if you just--"

But he was already out the door.