Shift with the Tides

by The Gooey Center

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure
Length: 27924

Celestia and Twilight have to help quell rumors and fears after Luna unexplainably becomes pregnant, as well as figure out how it happened in the first place.

Something unimaginable has occurred within the walls of Canterlot Castle: Luna's unexplainably pregnant! Now, Luna and Celestia both will have to give it their all, in keeping up with their royal duties, quelling the rumors that spread about the princess, and of course discovering just how on earth this event happened in the first place, and uncovering the ugly truths that lay beneath the answers.

Comments and theories/conspiracies are welcomed.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-02 01:40:18 UTC

Prologue: Once in a Blue Moon

Twilight Sparkle opened up her eyes and smiled, the morning sun flooding into the room and giving off a warm glow. She rubbed her eye as she sat up and glanced around the exquisite space loaned to her by Princess Celestia during her stay in Canterlot. Twilight lazily cocked her head to the clock hanging on the other side of the room. Six o’ clock. Great. I must’ve been so excited for today that I woke up too early. Now I have to wait around for two whole hours for the others to wake up…

Twilight wasn’t the only one who had come to Canterlot for the occasion. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash had all been personally invited by Celestia to view the total solar eclipse happening that day at noon. Twilight trudged out of her comfy Canterlot mattress and went to her guest bathroom, fit with countertop, sink, and a shower that shared a wall with the hot tub. Twilight took a brush from the countertop and brushed out the snarls in her mane.

Today was a big day for Twilight. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, who looked back at her with the same level of enthusiasm. “Today’s the big day, Twilight!” she said to her beaming image. “Your very first solar eclipse! —Ow.” She winced; one of her snarls were tangled enough to tear out several hairs with it when Twilight yanked on it. She quickly regained her composure and stood erect.

Though the reflection had heard this speech several times already, Twilight felt the need to remind it of why the event was so important. “I’ve seen pictures, and read plenty of books about them, but never have I seen a total solar eclipse with my very own eyes! I wonder if everypony else is as excited as I am…” Her reflection could only shrug in reply. “Oh well,” Twilight replied with a smile, “at least we can all enjoy each other’s company.”

She stopped talking, but hummed a tune as she made herself presentable for the day.

Luna felt a nudge on her shoulder. She didn’t want to get up, not yet. She was having such a great dream…

“Come now, Sister; today’s the big day.”

…but, now that she was awake, Luna completely forgot what the dream was about. She didn’t open her eyes, however; she feigned sleep to spite whoever woke her.

“Luna,” Celestia said, unamused. “We don’t want to keep everyone waiting, do we? Especially Twilight.” Celestia giggled, but Luna didn’t find it nearly as funny, and instead grunted in response, her eyes still closed.

Realizing she wasn’t going to fall asleep again, Luna groaned loudly and opened her eyes. She spared her sister no more than a passing glance as she crawled out of her dark-blue canopy bed and headed for the curtain closed over her window.

Too lazy to bother with magic, Luna used her horn to physically slide the curtain aside. The dim morning sun lit up her face; Luna’s pupils shrunk quickly, making her close her eyes and turn to the side to stop the spot in the center of her vision from getting any bigger. Celestia had already raised the sun today. Blinking quickly to get her sight back, Luna turned and scowled at her sister.

“Will you please stop setting my moon for me?” Luna said with one open eye at her sister, the other closed as she rubbed it with her knee. “Could you just wake me up so I can do it myself?”

Celestia walked towards Luna and the windowsill. The window frame glowed yellow and opened, letting in the sounds of the dull morning seep into the room. Birds were chirping. A few voices could be heard below, but they were all too soft to hear any exact words. Celestia sighed and smiled, looking out at the calm view. Luna was getting the feeling her sister was taking her sweet time on answering the question on purpose, just to get under Luna’s skin.

“But Luna,” Celestia started, not taking her eyes off the view outside, “you always look so peaceful, what with your sheets tossed around this way and that—and the occasional snoring is oh-so cute~”

“I do NOT snore,” Luna snapped back at her sister, she turned her head to glare at Celestia, but the sunlight made her flinch and close her eyes again. Luna backed away into the shade of the room.

Celestia turned to Luna, then grinned and shrugged innocently. “Well, I don’t know what you call it, but when someone makes a sound like—” Celestia ducked her chin into her neck to deepen her voice as she imitated what sounded to Luna like someone preparing a massive loogie—”in their sleep, I call it snoring.”

Luna harrumphed and started for the door. “I’m getting breakfast!” she announced angrily before storming out the room.

“Yikes,” Celestia said aloud as Luna slammed the door, “I was just playing around. One would think she’d have gotten used to it by now.” Her eyes half-lidded, she added, “Double standard, Luna. When you do it, it’s funny, but when I do it I’m being mean.” She sighed. “Luna really has to learn to lighten up…

“She does snore pretty loudly, though.”

Celestia closed the window and headed out the bedroom door to follow her sister to the kitchen.

*Knock-knock-knock*

“Huh?!” Rainbow Dash jolted up from her bed to the sound of someone banging on her door. Realizing there was no immediate threat, she sighed fell backward limply. Staring at the ceiling, she shouted, “It’s unlocked, come in!”

Rainbow watched as the door handle glowed pinkish-purple and turned. Pushing the door open with her hoof, Twilight took a step into Rainbow’s room and immediately started talking. “You really should lock your doors before going to sleep, Rainbow,” she advised like a mother to her kid.

“Meh,” Rainbow replied with a shrug, not getting up from her bed. “We’re in Canterlot Castle, for Celestia’s sake. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and pushed the issue aside. “Anyway, you are the last pony up.” Stepping to one side, she showed their other four friends just behind the doorway. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy all welcomed Rainbow with a friendly smile.

“Good morning,” Rarity greeted to Rainbow, who was spread out lazily across her bed, half of her spectral mane stuck on her face. “…Er, would you prefer we give you some time to tidy up first?”

The suggestion didn’t settle well with Twilight. “We don’t have time for that, Rarity! It’s eight forty-five!” She tapped an imaginary wristwatch on her arm for emphasis. “We were supposed to have we were supposed to have woken up, gotten ready, and arrived at the throne room fifteen minutes ago.”

Rainbow oozed off the edge of her mattress and laid facedown onto the floor. She groaned loudly and dramatically. “It’s not gonna be the end of the world just ‘cause we’re a little late, Twi. Besides, ain’t the solstice at noon?” She lifted her face off the hardwood floor and looked at the clock. “It isn’t even nine.”

“It’s not a solstice, Rainbow—it’s an eclipse. A solar eclipse. And if I miss it…” She visibly twitched, making all her friends also twitch—but for a different reason. “…Well, let’s not go down that line of thinking, shall we?” Twilight laughed.

The sleep scared off her, Rainbow pushed herself off the floor and blew the hair out of her eyes. “Okay, okay, I’m going. Just give me a minute, alright? I’d like to enjoy this room one last time before leaving. I’d go so far as to call it better than my own place…”

Rarity looked around Rainbow’s guest room, reminiscing over her own one-night stay in a similar accommodation. “Yes… It certainly is exquisite, isn’t it?” Tears were welling up in her eyes over the premature nostalgia.

“Uh, Rarity?” Applejack said, taking a cautious step away from the unicorn, “You alright?”

Rarity blinked the tears out of her eyes. “Yes, I’m fine! Don’t mind me, just wishing I lived here.” While Rainbow walked to her bathroom, Rarity took the moment to lay back and enjoy the comforts of Canterlot Castle one last time. “Ah… This place is just so nice!”

Twilight was impatiently tapping her hoof on the wooden floor as if to make up for Rainbow’s slow pace. The pegasus was taking her sweet time in front of the large mirror in her bathroom. “Still waiting…” she reminded.

“Cool your jets, will ya?” Rainbow replied, turning her face left and right as she inspected her ruffled rainbow mane, patting it here and there to reduce bedhead. “You’ll wake other ponies sleeping.”

“Actually, Rainbow,” Rarity informed, pausing from caressing the bed’s soft linens, “these walls are specially designed to absorb energy. Heat and sound barely goes through these foot-and-a-half walls.” She sighed wistfully and rolled around on the bed. “It’s one of the reasons I love this place so much.”

“Oh,” Twilight said in mock-appreciation, “well, in that case, GET A MOVE ON, RAINBOW!”

The pegasus jumped and rushed out the bathroom to Twilight. A comb was freely hanging in her hair. “Alright, fine, ready, jeez. It’s just some equinox anyway, what’s the big whoop?”

Twilight took in a deep breath and expired freshly-brushed minty air in Rainbow’s face. Rainbow was now aware of the bad taste in her mouth, but she wasn’t about to ask Twilight for extra time.

“It’s not an equino—you know what? Forget it, let’s just get going.”

For royalty living in a castle, there was normally a sizable kitchen, fit with many chefs and varieties of food.

Canterlot Castle sported one as well, but the alicorn sisters much preferred the modesty of their own private kitchen—which included all of one room with several cupboards, a countertop and sink. In the middle of the small room stood a wooden table that could barely seat six.

On the table sat Luna’s bowl of cold cereal and milk, untouched. Luna was tired and could barely keep her eyes open; her head was hovering lazily over the bowl of Sugar Cube Crisp. The cereal was slowly becoming soggy as Luna continued to stare blankly at it.

Celestia walked into the room, stopping at the sight of Luna sitting in a trance. Celestia blew air out her nose and continued to the cupboard. Looking around for something to eat, she decided upon a banana in the fruit basket next to the sink. Peeling it, Celestia took a seat across the table from Luna, watching her as she ate.

“Stay up late again last night?” Celestia said with as little decency as she could muster, her words muffled by the banana mush in her mouth.

Luna didn’t respond. Her muscles unable to keep up the fight with her heavy eyelids, Luna’s eyes finally closed—and her head fell down into her bowl, splashing cereal and milk over the table.

Celestia took another casual bite from her banana. “Sister, you really must learn when to stop studying and actually rest. I know you’ve missed a thousand years, but you won’t be able to catch up on everything in only a couple of years.” Bubbles were coming up from Luna’s submerged snout. “Nobody can learn that much history in that little time.”

Celestia’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden knocking on the doorframe to the kitchen. Turning, Celestia saw a purple hoof disappear behind the wall, followed by Twilight’s head popping into view.

“…Are we intruding, Princess?” Twilight passively asked, ready to shrink back behind the doorway as if she were Fluttershy. “We went to see you in the throne room, but the guards said we could find you in your kitchen.”

Celestia chuckled. “That’s quite alright, Twilight.” She could see other ponies squeezed behind her student’s silhouette. “Are those your friends there? Come on in, all of you. There’s no need to be shy.”

Celestia finished her banana as she watched the conga of surprised faces, one after the other, as each mare entered the kitchen and laid eyes on Luna.

“Is she alright?” Fluttershy asked urgently. Her wide eyes were focused on Luna, getting wider when she couldn’t tell if the princess was breathing.

When Celestia realized her sister wasn’t waking up, she picked up Luna’s spoon and hit her on the head with it, hard.

Luna jolted up, splashing the rest of her milk out of the bowl and onto the table. “Ow!” she said, rubbing the top of her head as she grimaced at Celestia. It took her a moment to realize there were others in the room. One by one, she made eyes contact with each of the mares, her soaked face getting redder and redder each time.

Luna turned her head back to her sister fast enough to sprinkle Celestia with drops of milk still on Luna’s face. “Tia!” she half-scolded, half-whined. “Don’t bring others in here when I’m face-down in my cereal!”

“You weren’t waking up,” Celestia replied with a shrug. “I had to hit you with a spoon.” The spoon in question was still floating with a yellow aura, and Celestia gently set it down in the puddle of milk next to Luna’s bowl. She turned to Twilight and her friends. “I’m sure Luna and I have kept you all long enough. We were supposed to have met nearly an hour ago, after all.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Princess!” Twilight hastily replied, waving her hoof at the matter. “We weren’t in a rush or anything anyways. By all means, take your time!” She looked back at her friend giving her raised eyebrows. “Don’t judge me,” she snapped back in a whisper.

“Well, it’s nine-thirty,” Celestia announced to the group. Luna was busy wiping the mess with a towel. “The eclipse is at noon. So what is the rush? Why not take some time sightseeing down in Canterlot?”

Luna stopped dabbing her face. “There’s little point in that. If they wish to make it back here with us to see the eclipse from the top of the castle, they’d need to hurry back not long after entering the city.”

Without the milk on Luna’s face—nor her face in the milk—the girls got a good look at how Luna looked. There were wrinkled bags noticeable even on Luna’s dark-blue coat. She looked ready to succumb to sleep again at any moment; Luna pushed the aside her cereal bowl from beneath her head, just in case.

Rainbow winced at the princess’s face. “Wow, Princess Luna. You look terrible.”

“Rainbow!” Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity exclaimed in unison, surrounding the pegasus.

“No no, Rainbow Dash is right.” Luna sighed hard, her head descending with her breath. “As much as it pains me to say. The issue is that I have been pushing myself a bit too much as of late. A thousand years is a lot to miss, and I must learn as much as I can.”

“That’s no reason to skip out on sleep entirely,” Celestia scolded. “Even the princess of the night needs to get sufficient shut-eye.”

Luna’s glazed eyes looked up at Celestia. Half the muscles that kept her mouth closed were taking a break, and Luna’s jaw was hanging limp. “I suppose you’re right, Sister. If it’s the same to you, perhaps I will take that shut-eye right now…”

Celestia managed to slip Luna’s towel under her head just before it hit the table with a thump. Luna was out like a light.

Getting out of her chair, Celestia ushered the other ponies in the room out the kitchen, turning off the lights behind her. “Come girls, we can talk until the eclipse. Luna can sleep until then.”

“Ooh, this is so exciting!”

Twilight was zipping in a circle around her arranged machinery lined around the balcony of the throne room, making quick last minute adjustments, and adjustments to her adjustments. Everyone else was sitting quietly, either watching the moon and sun near each other in the sky, or glaring at the unicorn off to their side that was making so much racket.

“C’mon, Twi,” Applejack said to the sweaty unicorn, “just sit down and enjoy the sight. At this rate, you’re not even gonna see the eclipse with all your hassling with those dials an’ such.”

“I suppose that’s Twilight’s own decision to make,” Celestia said to Applejack with a smile, essentially telling her to give up trying with the unicorn. She added loudly in Twilight’s direction, “Though it would be quite a sight to miss!”

“You have your passions, and I have mine,” Twilight snapped back playfully, tapping a screen with her hoof.

The radius of Pinkie’s pupils were inversely proportional to the distance between the sun and the moon. With her mouth agape, Pinkie jumped and pointed excitedly in case nobody was looking at it. “Look, look! The sun and moon are touching!”

Twilight stopped a moment and turned to the pink pony. “Actually, Pinkie, the moon is nowhere near the sun, so it can’t ‘touch’ it. You see—”

“Hey. Twilight.” Twilight turned and saw Rainbow cocking an eyebrow at her. “Quit being such a buzz-kill; either watch it like us or go back to your thingama-doo-hickies.”

Twilight grunted, ears folded back, and sat down to watch the eclipse unfold in the sky. Her annoyance melted into wonder in an instant as the sun’s light increasingly dimmed.

A sense of serenity fell over the ponies. As moon and sun met paths, they appeared to obliterate each other—leaving a hole in the heavens, surrounded by a halo of light. The entire city of Canterlot could be heard taking a collective breath, followed by the silence of them holding it in their chest as though that breath was the source of their awe and wonder, and if they were to release it, the calm would be disturbed.

It had been a thousand years since Luna had seen such an event, and she was as taken away the girls around her; her eyes shimmered like Twilight’s, her mouth was agape like Pinkie’s, her breath was held like Fluttershy’s, her skin was riddled with goosebumps like Applejack’s, her smile was as wide as Rainbow’s, and her legs trembled slightly like Rarity’s. For Luna, it had always been a humbling sight, and now was no different.

It was one of the last pleasant days that Luna experienced for the next year.

Chapter 1: First Symptoms

*Week 1 following the eclipse*

Celestia was giving a disappointed look to Luna, not that her sister could even see her expression, given how Luna’s face was halfway under the milky surface of her cereal.

“What did I tell you about staying up late, Luna?” Celestia scolded.  “And you were doing so well this past week, too.  Now you’re just going to start up the info-binging all over again.”

Luna’s ear flickered, and she jolted her head out of her breakfast.  “I was NOT ‘info-binging’, Sister.  I tried to get a good night’s sleep, I really did!  It’s just—I don’t know…I was having trouble sleeping.”

Celestia reeled her head back an inch in mild surprise.  “You?  Of all ponies, YOU’RE having sleeping issues?  That really is peculiar…”

“This is serious, Celestia,” Luna replied as she wiped her face clean of milk and soggy cereal, “The previous night, I felt a little strange too.  But last night, I felt absolutely awful.  I think I should see a doctor post-haste.”

Celestia gave a look of concern to her sister as she put a hoof up to her chin in thought.  “Hmm…well, it certainly wouldn’t do any harm.  We’ll go see a doctor later today, okay?  Until then,” Celestia took Luna’s bowl of cereal off the table and dumped it into the sink, “I’m going to make you a proper breakfast.  Now, are you feeling sick in the stomach?  Because in that case, I think it’d be best if I simply made you toast.”

Luna thought hard for a moment, considering exactly what is was she felt.  “No, it’s not stomach cramps, it’s more like…intestinal cramps?  Er, I don’t know, it’s in the lower area—the whole tummy area, not my stomach.”

“Abdominal cramps?” Celestia questioned, somewhat surprised.  “Perhaps it was something you ate?  With all the sugar you eat for breakfast, I wouldn’t be surprised if your biggest problem here was being a sweet-tooth.  Or…perhaps it’s something different…?” Celestia began slowly, looking at Luna out of the corner of her eye as she cracked two eggs into a beaker.  “Is it that…‘time of the—”

“Don’t think I don’t know how I normally feel during my ‘ladies days’,” Luna snapped back.

“Just making sure,” Celestia retorted with another concerned look.  “I mean, you are the younger sister, and I just wasn’t positive if you’d started—”

“I am NOT having this conversation with you,” Luna said definitively, stepping out of her chair and standing erect next to the table.  “If you want to continue this discussion, I’m LEAVING.”

“I meant no offense,” Celestia said in defense.  “Please, Sister, have a seat.  You still haven’t even eaten anything.”

Luna’s stomach rumbled loudly as the sizzling of eggs on the stove sounded.  Her eyes widened as the growling increased, and the moon princess sunk back into the chair, red in the face as Celestia looked back at her sister and smiled.

While ponies were naturally vegetarian, just about all still drank milk, and some even went so far as to eat eggs.  It was nothing looked down upon, it was simply a matter of preference—some ponies got their protein from nuts, some got it from eggs.  Of course, eating any meat was still a concept no one even considered, being as how they are all herbivorous ponies.

“Perhaps you could make it an omelet?” Luna asked passively.

Celestia chuckled.  “But of course.  What would you like in it?”  The sun princess opened up several cupboards next to her head, examining their contents.  “We have some celery, tomatoes, onions, a tad of bay leaf left…I forgot, do you like mushrooms?”

“No, Sister, only you do.  I find eating a fungus to be sickening and repulsive.”

“Ah, yes, that’s right,” Celestia replied, not taking her eyes off the ingredients.  She looked into the back of the spice rack, and picked up a small bottle containing a bunch of small red strands.  Looking at the label, Celestia said, “Luna, have we ever tried out this saffron that Mairocco gifted to us last summer?  They mentioned how rare it is outside of their country, so I don’t think we ever used—”

*THUD*

Celestia turned around from the stove and saw Luna lying on the ground; she wasn’t making a sound, but it was obvious just by looking at her that she was writhing in pain.

Panic mode immediately kicked in.  The bottle of saffron fell the ground and splashed out over the floor as the delicate glass containing the rare spice shattered.  Celestia leaped over the dinky wooden table and knelt down next to her sister.  She pushed away the table and chairs to give Luna some room, and Celestia turned off the stove before she forgot about it again.

“Luna!” the sun princess exclaimed, shaking her sister with her hoof to try and snap her out of whatever it was she was in.  Luna was shuddering, and she was covered with a cold sweat that dampened the part of the tile floor that she rocked back and forth upon.  “Don’t worry, Luna—that doctor appointment we mentioned?  It’s happening right. Now.”  Celestia grabbed the phone near the kitchen door and brought it down to her face, not taking her eyes off her beloved sister.  “Operator?  Yes, hello Bubbles—I need you to call for me a doctor.  …It’s Luna, she’s rolling on the floor in pain, and we don’t know what the problem is!  …Abdominal pain.  …Before you say anything else, no, it’s not that.  Now please Bubbles, you’re not a doctor, so just call one!  We’re in our kitchen right now.  …Yes, we’ll wait right here, thank you, Bubbles.”

Celestia hung up the phone and got down on the floor, lying down next to her pained sister.  “Oh my, you shouldn’t be in this much pain over something like…no, that’s not the cause.”  The white alicorn looked up from the floor to face eye-to-eye with her sister, who had hers shut tight in pain, “But then what IS the matter…?”

“I’m afraid there’s nothing wrong that we can see, Princess Luna,” the doctor said apologetically.  Luna opened her mouth to speak, but the doctor interrupted, “Yes, we KNOW about the massive pain—you’ve made that quite clear on multiple occasions—but it’s most likely just a part of your menstrual cycle, or perhaps it was something new you ate…?”

“Now’s not the time of the month for that,” Luna replied, sitting on the doctor’s table with her arms crossed.  Celestia was in a nearby seat, still looking concerned about her sister.

“Not the time of the month for exotic foods?” the doctor pony questioned with a cocked eyebrow.  It only took a single, threatening glance from Luna for the doctor to realize what she meant.  “—Oh, yes, that.  Well, my suggestion is that you wait it out for a few days and see if the pain changes at all.  If the feelings persist, don’t hesitate to call me again.”  With that, he walked out the room, leaving the alicorn sisters looking at each other.

“Are you sure this is something to worry over that much?” Celestia asked.

Luna sighed.  “I…suppose not.  Like that doctor said, we should only be concerned if the pain persists, right?  Besides, it’s not like the pain is chronic or anything.”

“It may not be chronic, but it’s constantly coming and going,” Celestia warned, “and that is just as bad as it being constant.  Not in the physical sense, but the psychological drain will get the best of you if you keep concerning over when and if another ache strikes you.”

“It’s only been three times,” Luna said reassuringly.

“In the past twelve hours,” Celestia rebutted.

“Nonetheless, Sister, we have royal duties to attend to.”  Luna jumped off the table and opened the small examination room’s door, and she turned around to usher her sister into the hallway.  “Hopefully, nopony got wind of this.  It’s best if we push this whole thing under the mat.”

Celestia slowly walked out the door her sister was holding open for her.  “Only this morning, YOU were the one worrying, and I was the one who thought it was nothing.  I’m still worried about you, little sister.”

Luna rolled her eyes at ‘little sister’ and followed Celestia out the room, closing the door behind her.

*Week two following the eclipse*

Luna opened her eyes slowly as the starry night sky outside her window greeted her gaze.  Luna glanced at the clock on her nightstand and saw that it read 05:00.  ‘Ah, good, right on schedule—five days in a row, too.  Looks like I’ve finally gotten my biological clock re-adjusted.’ The alicorn pushed away her snug covers and slipped out of her bed and stood on the floor, facing her window.  As she walked up to the window, she glanced down at a piece of paper on her rounded wooden table.  ‘Let’s see…today, I have to raise the moon at five o’ six.’ She glanced back over to her clock, which now read 05:03.

Luna could see stray rays of light shining in over the horizon.  ‘Must be Tia already preparing her sun.’ Getting ready to take care of her own celestial body, Luna straightened up her back and stared at the large white moon hovering over the horizon.

‘And five…four…three…two—”

Luna had to hold back the sudden swell of vomit that shot up her throat, and she gulped it back down with a sickened look on her face, the feel of acid burning her esophagus making her eyes water.  Luna’s chest heaved again, and she made a run for her bathroom before it was too late.

As the revolting sound of stomach acid splashing against the water of a toilet rang throughout Luna’s room, the moon could be seen being lowered down as the sun began to rise.

Without even knocking first, an upset Celestia barged into Luna’s room a minute later, immediately looking at the lump of covers on the bed.

“Okay Luna, now this is getting simply ridiculous—”

Celestia stopped short when she heard Luna gagging from behind the bathroom door.  Celestia glanced back at the covers and realized it was just that—bed covers.  When Luna’s vomit hitting the toilet sounded again, Celestia walked up to the door and stood just beyond the doorframe.

“Luna?  Luna, are you okay?”

Celestia cringed as she heard Luna spit hard, just before saying, “I doubt it, Sister.  Something’s wrong—something HAS been wrong all along!”  There was the sound of a faucet being turned on, and of water running down into a sink.  “We’re going to go see that doctor again, and we are NOT taking ‘you’re fine’ as an answer!”

“Very well, Luna,” Celestia replied calmly.

“Celestia…I’m worried about what he’s going to say, though.”

The sun princess raised an eyebrow at her sister.  “And why would that be?”

Luna slowly opened her bathroom door as she looked down at the ground.  She was wiping off her mouth with a towel, and didn’t speak for several seconds.  Eventually, she gained the strength to look her sister in the eye as she said, “I missed my…my period.”

“…Most peculiar indeed,” the doctor said finally, scratching his chin with his hoof.  “Well, Luna, I know you may not take kindly to my next question, but…have you considered taking a pregnancy test?”

There was a dead silence in the room after he said that.  Celestia didn’t say a word, she only stared at Luna.  Luna was simply staring at the doctor, not an expression on her face.  “Are you suggesting that I’m pregnant?” Luna asked threateningly.

“Well, I’m not suggesting that it was something you ate,” the doctor replied.  “What this appears to be to me is the first symptoms of pregnancy—granted, the early symptoms can easily be confused with other causes, but it seems to be that you are experiencing excessive symptoms.  The abdominal cramps, the nausea and vomiting, especially so early on…I really think that you’re having extreme pregnancy symptoms.”

“There’s only one problem with your theory,” Luna replied coolly.  “There’s absolutely no way I could be pregnant.  I’ve never even had—”

“Luna, please, spare me the trouble and just take the test.”  The doctor handed Luna a small elongated device.  “Based on your current symptoms, you’re anywhere between two and four weeks—assuming you are pregnant.  Simply pee on the end of this stick, and it will give you the definite answer.”

Luna stared at the device as if it were infected.  Hesitantly, she eventually took it out of the impatient doctor’s hoof and stared at it again, getting a closer look at what was about to determine her fate.

“If you really haven’t had any ‘action’, then you have nothing to worry about, right?” the doctor said as she opened the door for the princess.  “Now then, just go into the bathroom down the hall, and come back when you’re finished.”

Time seemed to go at a standstill for Luna as she walked down the plain white hospital hallway.  ‘That doctor’s right; I have nothing to worry about.’  Her eyes widened as she continued to think, ‘But what if the toilet seat thing isn’t a myth?  Ugh, quit freaking yourself out, Luna!  There’s no possible way I’m pregnant…’

‘…But then why do I feel so unsure about myself…?’

After what felt like an eon, Luna finally reached the bathroom door, opened it, and walked inside, closing the door behind her.  It was a small white bathroom lit with a single hard-fluorescent light bulb on the ceiling.  The dark-blue alicorn turned and stared at her reflection in the nearby mirror.  ‘What if…what if I really AM pregnant?  What on earth would I do?!  Having a child…a child.  I would have my very own child.’ Luna actually smiled briefly at the thought, but then her mind went dark again.  ‘How would the rest of Equestria react?  It’s not like everypony would simply believe that I got pregnant on my own accord—or by accident.’ She shook her head to get out the bad thoughts. ‘Let’s just burn that bridge when we get to it.  Anyways, I have a stick to pee on.’ She examined the simplistic guide on the side of the meter. ‘One line means not pregnant, two lines means…pregnant.  Geez, I’ve been hearing that word quite a bit in the past couple of hours…’

She didn’t laugh, she didn’t cry, she simply stared.  Not wide-eyed or jaw-dropped, but with a plain face, Luna stared at the two small lines that had appeared on the meter, after she had used it.  Ironically, all the questions, the worrying, it all ceased to exist after her eyes fell upon the foreboding sight.  Not a thought was going on in her head.

Luna opened the bathroom door and walked out into the hallway, holding the positive test right in front of her face.  Making the short trip from the bathroom to her examination room, Luna opened the door and walked inside.  Celestia and the doctor both stood up and looked at the alicorn as she came in and sat back down on the table.

“Well…?” Celestia said, unable to tell what the answer was from her sister’s blank expression.

“It’s positive…” Luna replied, still staring at the meter hovering in front of her, mocking her.

Celestia covered her hoof with her mouth as she silently gasped.  “But…but how—”

“I DON’T KNOW, ALRIGHT!?” Luna yelled back at her sister.  The lights in the hospital room flickered slightly as she continued to stare down Celestia.  “I…I don’t know…”

“Well, I’m no expert on pregnancies, so I’m redirecting you to a different doctor now, Luna.  As far as your symptoms go, now that we know the cause, we have several suppression spells that can lessen the pain without harming the embryo.”  He opened the door and walked out the room; beginning to close the door behind him, he said, “You’re carrying for two now, and make sure not to forget that.”

Luna stared down at the floor in shame.  “We have to let Equestria know about this, Celestia.  The longer we keep this secret, the less credibility we’ll receive from our subjects once word gets out.”

“Luna, you don’t have to—”

“This is MY decision, Sister, and if I want the entire world to know, I will.”  Luna got off the table and walked up to her sister, her eyes slightly bloodshot.  “Just please tell me you’ll always be on my side.”

Celestia fought back tears as she nodded to Luna.  “You have my word.  Now let’s go back to Canterlot Castle—I suppose the best thing to do first is have a board meeting about…about your future child.”

Luna smiled slightly and nodded.  “Yes…my future child…”

The two alicorns walked out the room to prepare for the announcement of the century.

Chapter 2: The Next Step

Celestia was watching Luna pace back and forth between the sides of the throne room.  The princesses had cleared the area of any guards so that they could have some time to themselves to speak about what to do next regarding the recent events.

“Pregnant.  I’m pregnant,” Luna said as she paced feverously across the floor of the throne room.  She abruptly stopped and looked up from the ground, and turned to look at Celestia.  “I’M PREGNANT, SISTER.  PREG.  NANT.”

“Yes, I believe we’ve established that by now,” Celestia replied with a hoof on her chin as she sat in her golden throne.  “Luna, if you continue to pace like that, you’re going to dig a groove into the floor.  Please, take a seat next to me and rest.”  She showed to Luna the moon princess’s own royal seat to the right of Celestia’s.  Luna sighed and obeyed, slumping into the chair with another loud groan.

“Ugh, there’s so much to do in such a short time span,” Luna said, diving her face into her hooves.  “I’d LIKE to figure out how the heck this happened in the first place BEFORE I go and tell all of Equestria, but the longer I wait to let the secret known, the more our subjects will doubt me and think that I have something to hide.”  She turned and looked at Celestia, desperation in her face.  “I have NOTHING to hide, Sister…!”

“I know, Luna,” Celestia replied, trying to keep a level tone, to stay strong.  “And I would give anything to know the truth, as I’m sure would you.  But you said so yourself: the top priority is to tell Equestria of these newfound events.  I really don’t know the consequences that could come of it, but if that’s what you want, I won’t deny you to do so.  So let’s get the Board together.”

Luna rubbed her eyes and nodded to Celestia.  The alicorn of the moon leaped off her seat and walked into the adjacent hallway, to a phone at the far end near a set of stairs.  Luna picked up the phone and began to speak.  “Hello?  Ah, yes, hello Bubbles.  Yes, I’m fine now, thank you for asking.  Anyways, I need you to call up the entire Board of Directors, each and every one of them.  Along with that, I need you to call upon an extra pony to attend, as well…”

“Uh, Miss Mayor?” Twilight finally mustered up to say to the earth-pony sitting across from her in the round, roofed carriage, being pulled across the sky by two pegasi guards, “I know this sounds kinda dumb, but…where exactly are we going?’

“To Canterlot Castle,” the Mayor replied in a mildly-serious tone.  “Princess Luna has called upon an urgent meeting across the entire Board of Directors.”

“Wait, we have one of those?” Twilight questioned.

The Mayor nodded.  “It’s mainly a board made up of the mayors of each Equestrian town and city.  With my being the mayor of Ponyville, I’m naturally a part of it.  Since we live so close to Canterlot, we’re going there in-person, but a majority of the other mayors will have to communicate on-screen, since the meeting was scheduled on such short notice.”

“And…why am I here?” Twilight asked.  “I’m no mayor, last I checked.”

The Mayor shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Perhaps it’s because you’re Celestia’s student—perhaps Luna trusts you and your skills.”

“My skills?” Twilight questioned.  “Whatever for?”

The Mayor shrugged again.  “I’m simply making guesses here.  There’s no telling what it is that the Princesses find so important that they need to call upon an emergency meeting for it.  Oh, look, we’re here.”

The carriage descended down to the small runway next to the castle.  Twilight looked out her window and saw a couple of other carriages outside, too.

“Those must be the rides for the mayors of Hoofington, Cloudsdale, Trottingham, and Manehattan,” the Mayor pointed out to Twilight, noticing the young unicorn’s interest in the ponies walking out of the carriages.  The prestigious ponies were of earth-pony, pegasus, unicorn and earth-pony race, respectively, and each walked out across the tarmac and met with Luna, who was standing at the very edge of the runway, right next to the Castle.

“Hey, there’s Luna!” Twilight exclaimed.  Then she squinted a bit as she tried to zoom her view in on the alicorn.  “Hmm, there must be something on her mind—she looks really out of it, from what I can tell.”

“Let’s hope that’s not the case, Twilight,” the Mayor replied as she hopped out of the carriage.  “We don’t want a princess to call an emergency meeting without being completely prepared to make their announcement.  Come, let’s go and meet up with Princess Luna.”

Twilight also jumped out of the carriage and onto the tarmac to greet the princess of the moon.  Luna’s face lit up slightly when she saw Twilight approach.

“Ah, Twilight Sparkle, it’s been too long,” the alicorn said with her hoof outstretched.

Twilight raised her own hoof to shake with Luna’s.  “It’s only been two weeks since we last met, hasn’t it?” the unicorn replied with a chuckle.  “…Yeah, the day we all saw the eclipse.”

“That was quite the sight to behold,” the Mayor chimed in as she reached out her own hoof to shake with Luna.  “Make sure to give Princess Celestia my regards, and of course to you, too—our citizens enjoyed the eclipse very much.”

“Oh, well you can give my sister your regards in just a few minutes.  She’s going to be at the meeting too, you know.”

“Umm, Luna?” Twilight asked, having wanted to know the answer for the past hour, “Why am I here, for a meeting between the Board of Directors?”

Luna paused for a moment, staring into and past Twilight as she considered an answer.  “I would like to have your insight, Twilight Sparkle, for help in what I will announce in a few minutes,” she said with a small smile, and she walked away to escort the small group of mayors—and one Twilight Sparkle—into the castle.

“Told you,” the Mayor whispered in Twilight’s ear just before they started moving.

“Everypony that couldn’t make the carriage is already seated at their monitor and ready to begin downstairs,” Luna said.  “Unfortunately, we still haven’t fixed the issue with Las Pegasus’s transmitter ever since it shorted during the last meeting, so they could potentially cut out at any time, just so you know.”  The dark-blue alicorn continued to lead the six ponies into the large lobby of Canterlot Castle, and then to a nearby elevator.  Her horn lit up with a deep-blue, and the elevator doors opened.  “Come, step inside.”

All but Twilight didn’t hesitate to go into the elevator; obviously, they were no strangers to the whole meeting thing.  After Twilight quickly skipped inside, an aura surrounded Luna’s horn again and the doors shut, and the elevator began to descend.  Once the screen in the elevator read “B3F”, it abruptly came to a halt.  The pegasus mayor of Cloudsdale cleared his throat uneasily when the sudden jolt came with the elevator’s stopping.  “I never do get used to that,” he said as the doors opened and the ponies stepped out into the underground hallway, which looked exactly like the upstairs, save for the fact that there were neither windows nor natural light.

Twilight looked and saw Celestia waiting at the end of the hallway for the seven ponies.  As the group approached, the white alicorn smiled warmly to Twilight, and then turned to the rest of the group and said, “Welcome.  I realize that we called you all on such short notice, but this is an issue both Luna and I feel must be addressed immediately.”  Celestia opened up the large arched doors behind her to reveal a room beyond that contained a very large circular table made up of a light pink marble stone.  There were about three dozen or so seats, but a majority of the spots for a pony instead had a monitor set up on the part of the table in front of it.  On each monitor was the face of a pony, a mayor on each from cities both near and far; the talking between the multiple mayors died down quickly as the doors opened, and the ones that could see the newcomers from their angle on the table turned to look.

“Ah, good to see you, Celestia,” a mare on one of the monitors said at the sight of the alicorn.  “We were all beginning to think that neither you nor Luna was even going to show up.”

“Well, we’re here, so please give us the floor now,” Celestia replied, not even acknowledging the playful mocking that the mare implied, which was out of Celestia’s nature to do.  The mare looked a little confused at the alicorn’s reaction.

“Are you alright, Celestia?” she asked.

“If everything was alright, Archive, then we wouldn’t really have the need for an emergency meeting, now would we?” Luna replied in an irritated tone, not appreciating the unicorn mare’s lighthearted attitude.

“Er, sorry Princess,” the mare replied.

“Well then, quit stalling!” a pegasus stallion said from another monitor.  “If what you have to say is so urgent-*BTHZTHB*-out and say-*KLRKLTHZ*—”

The screen was transitioning from the video input of the pegasus to black and white static, before finally giving up and turning into a plain blue screen.

“…Aaand we just lost Roll,” another pegasus said.  “Reception isn’t the best out in Las Pegasus, is it?”

“That said fact aside, Roll does have a point,” Luna said from the center of the circle, as the table only goes out about a yard or so before ending, leaving a circular area in the center for one of the Princesses to stand when addressing everyone else.  “I can’t really think of a way to say this without being extremely blunt about it…”

“Twilight,” Celestia whispered to the purple unicorn standing next to her at the doorway, the only one besides the alicorns that hadn’t taken a seat, “You may want to sit down for this.”

Slightly confused and worried, Twilight started for the nearest open chair on the table, when Luna went outright and said:

“Everypony, I am currently pregnant—as in, I’m carrying a child.”

“…………”

There was a combination of sound effects heard in the meeting room the second following Luna’s statement.  If one listened closely, they could’ve heard the couple of spit-takes, several of the mares gasping, a pony quickly standing out of their chair, one of the colts screaming “WHAT?” and even the sound of a pony falling onto the ground—more specifically, Twilight Sparkle, who had just pulled out the chair to sit down in it.

One of the spit-take ponies, a gruffly earth-pony stallion, hacked and coughed for several seconds before saying, and being the first one to say, “Is this some kind of sick joke, Luna?!  I’ve heard about some of the crap you and Celestia pull on other ponies, along with each other!  I will not tolerate such a blatant wasting of my time!”

“I assure you,” Celestia said coolly as she walked out from the wall to join Luna in the center of the room, in the eyes of all of Equestria’s mayors and higher-ups, “We are nothing if we aren’t serious—about this issue, that is.  Luna is most definitely pregnant; we wouldn’t go so far as to call a meeting about it if we weren’t completely positive.”

“And just why the hell are you calling a meeting just to tell us this?” the stallion shot back, still coughing roughly between every couple of words he spoke.

“Perhaps you didn’t see how everypony reacted just now when I said this,” Luna replied.  “We cannot just go and announce this info to all of Equestria, or go and simply pass out fliers from the sky.  We need to plan our way through this, to make sure that nothing bad comes of it.”  Luna took a turn with each of the ponies at the table, looking them straight in the eyes, each time the other pony looking away from the princess’s gaze.  “I suppose a majority of you are now going off on your own wild tangents of thought on just how this happened.  Well, that’s exactly what the common citizens will be doing as well.  And I don’t think they will be as merciful with their accusations as all of you are being right now.”

The mare called ‘Archive’ spoke up again, “…Princess Luna.  If you don’t mind my asking: how DID this happen?  If you want to stop any bad thoughts and rumors, all you have to do is tell us the truth.”

Luna looked up at her older sister, who only gave back the same sad expression Luna was giving her.  “I…I have no idea.   That’s the problem here—I don’t know how I became pregnant!”

At this, everyone stood up from their chairs and began speaking, monitor or not.  There was an incessant chatter going on between all the ponies, and Luna and Celestia watched on without a word.  Twilight got up from her chair that she had recently regained the strength to crawl into, and she walked up to the two alicorns.  “You ‘don’t know’, Luna?  You can’t honestly be serious!”

“Trying to tell your country that you’re pregnant without any understandable explanation is not something that will be easy to swallow for anypony,” Celestia said softly to Luna and Twilight.  Raising her voice to speak over the Board, she added, “We sent for you personally, Twilight, as well as everypony else here, to discuss and try to understand both how this could have happened to Luna, and what we’re going to do about telling the general public.”

“Can’t we just keep this under wraps?” a unicorn asked.  “If such a thing will cause so many problems, wouldn’t just be best if we didn’t actually tell anypony?”

“The longer we go without letting it known, the worse it will be for all of us when it does become known,” Celestia replied.  “Even if Luna was somehow able to prevent anypony from knowing about her pregnancy for eleven whole months, I think the worst-case scenario would be everypony’s reaction to Luna suddenly owning a baby afterwards.  Like I said: the longer the wait, the worse the public’s opinion will become.”

“So how would we even go about telling everypony?” Archive asked helplessly.

“Well, it seems as though we’re facing two major problems here at the moment,” Twilight said, gaining her footing on the entire case, “One: how did Luna become pregnant?  Two: how do we keep the public from looking at this news negatively?  Firstly, we should focus on number two—according to Luna and Celestia, that is.  Honestly, though, I think the solution is quite simple.”

“Is it, now?” the Mayor said, intrigued.  “Well, out with it then—what do we do?”

“We just have to prime them for good news, and they will receive it as good news,” Twilight replied triumphantly.  “It’s basic psychology.”

“Huh?” grumbled the gruffly earth-pony stallion from before.

“Well, think about it, in a hypothetical situation in which Luna is to announce this news on a podium in front of half of Equestria: If she trudges onto the stage, keeps looking at the floor, and has a sad and strained expression on her face, the entire crowd is already expecting bad news, and anything you say to them will have a more negative impact.  If you go skipping up to the podium with a giant smile on your face as you hum merrily to yourself, everypony will be expecting very happy and uplifting news, and whatever you say will have a more positive impact.”

“So all Luna has to do is pretend like she’s ecstatic about being pregnant?” Archive asked.

“Well sure, there’s still going to be a fair amount of skepticism, I assume,” Twilight replied, “But I believe that that approach would give the best outcome.”

Celestia smiled at her student’s intellect.  “Makes sense to me,” she said cheerfully.  “What say you, Sister?”

Luna looked at the ground as she weighed her options in her head.  Turning up to look Celestia in the eyes, she replied, “It’s as good a plan as any other.  But keep in mind—we’re still not out of the woods yet,” she said, mainly to a majority of the mayors sitting restlessly in their chairs in front of their monitors.  “As Twilight Sparkle has just said, there will still be many ponies that will spread rumors and tell gossip.  That’s where all of you come in—make sure you stop any bad story in its tracks, but make sure not to raise suspicion or overdo it.”

“Can do,” a random pegasus mare on a monitor replied.

“Okay, then,” Twilight began, “Back to the first problem; how in Equestria did Luna become pregnant?”

“I just don’t understand it,” Twilight said to her five pony friends, and only to them.  Luna had given Twilight permission to discuss the issue with only Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.  “How does one become pregnant without even knowing?!”

“Well, no offense to her,” Rainbow started, “but if you ask me, I think she’s just covering up for some one-night-stand she must’ve had some night.”

“Rainbow!” Twilight, Rarity and Applejack all yelled at the same time, and with the same emphasis.

“I said no offense!”

“Princess Luna would NOT EVER do such a thing, period.”  Rarity was completely on the princess’s side on the matter.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that she has somehow become pregnant, without a single rhyme or reason as to why!” Rainbow rebutted.

“While ya do have a point, Rainbow,” Applejack said, “I gotta side with Rarity on this one.  I jus’ can’t see Luna ever getting involved in such activities.”

“Perhaps I’m not all that off,” Rainbow started up again.  “Perhaps Luna DID get pregnant the ‘traditional’ way, but she’s not telling anypony; for different, darker reasons.”

Twilight turned around and glared at the cyan pegasus hovering in the air, her gaze cold and quizzical.  “Are you really suggesting that Luna was…r…rap—”

“That’s quite enough!” Rarity interrupted before Twilight could finish the word.  “Rainbow Dash, if you continue on this wild tangent of mortifying thoughts and suggestions, I will not hesitate to kick you right out of this house!”

“Uh, Rarity?” Twilight said, “This is my house.”

“Okay—okay, jus’ stop and slow down, everypony,” Applejack said, taking a deep breath, “Let’s try and think as rationally as possible here, otherwise we shouldn’t even bother discussin’ the topic in the first place.”

Pinkie hopped up in front of Twilight and Applejack merrily.  “How about we ask the readers what they think?” she suggested with a smile.

“The…the ‘readers’?” Twilight asked, confused.  “Who are the ‘readers’?”

Pinkie’s smile dampened slightly at her own thoughts.  “Then again, the readers probably have as much of a clue as we do, so I suppose they wouldn’t be of any use, after all!”  The pink pony skipped back to the chair at the table that she had been sitting in, next to Fluttershy.  “We could always try asking Deltamelon, since he’s the only one who really knows what’s going on, but he probably wouldn’t tell us anyways—y'know, with him being the author and everything.”

“Wh—‘Deltamelon’?  Pinkie, what on earth are you talking about?!” Twilight exclaimed.  “Who is this pony?  How does he know what’s going on?!”

“Never mind, Twilight; I was just thinking out loud.”

Twilight looked on at the party pony, her mouth half-open in bewilderment and her left eyelid twitching ever so slightly.  Rainbow hovered in close to Twilight’s ear and whispered, “Just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, Twi.  Just let it go, she has no clue what she’s talking about.”

“Let’s get back to topic now, please,” Rarity spoke up.  “What methods are there of a pony getting pregnant?  Do you think this was…not what Rainbow suggested, but perhaps some other form of sabotage?  …Actually, I always hear about the pranks those two alicorns play on one another…”

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa,” Rainbow interrupted.  “So what I was saying was crossing the line, but when you go outright and say that it was CELESTIA who thought it’d be a FUNNY PRANK to INSEMINATE her SISTER—”

“Perhaps you’re right, Rarity,” Twilight said dryly.  “Maybe we shouldn’t all be having this conversation, not now at least."

'Based on your guys’ ideas, I can only imagine what’ll be in store for us when Luna goes public with her info…'

Chapter 3: A Knockout Speech

*Week 4 following the eclipse*

“I can’t do this, Sister,” Luna said anxiously, “I just can’t do this.”

“Nonsense, Luna; you’re going out there, you’re going to stand at that podium, on that stage, put on the phoniest smile you can muster and tell Equestria what it needs to hear!” Celestia said.

“It certainly wouldn’t’ve hurt to actually know how this happened, though,” Rainbow Dash replied from the corner of the room.  “I mean, don’t you think it’d be best to wait until you yourselves actually knew what the heck’s happened?  Everypony out there is gonna have one question on their minds: ‘HOW did Luna become pregnant?’”

Celestia, Luna, Twilight and the rest of the Elements of Harmony’s representatives were huddled up in Luna’s room.  Each pony had taken a liking to a single spot in the royal living space; Rainbow in the corner, Fluttershy by the windowsill, Rarity on the feather-down pillows of Luna’s giant bed, Applejack and Pinkie Pie in chairs placed by a wooden table on the other side of the room, and Twilight—naturally—pacing back and forth in front of the two alicorns nervously.

“I’m afraid we don’t have that kind of time to spare,” Luna replied to the cyan pegasus.  “I want to get the news out as soon as possible; like I’ve said before, the longer we wait, the less confidence Equestria will have about this baby’s being intentional or not.”

“But it wasn’t intentional, was it?” Pinkie Pie asked absentmindedly.  She zipped her lips when Twilight stopped from her pacing momentarily to glare at the pink earth-pony.

“The main problem is that we don’t even have any leads,” Celestia said.  “…It’s been two weeks since the board meeting, and while all the mayors have prepared their towns and cities for the news, Luna and I have made zero progress on figuring all this out.”

“Whattya mean by ‘preparing the cities and towns’?” Applejack asked.

Before either alicorn could respond, Twilight cut in to explain, “Well, as you can expect, there’s going to be mixed views on one of Equestria’s princesses being pregnant.  The mayors have stationed insider ponies in different areas scattered around their respective boroughs—essentially a ‘plant’ that will contribute to conversations or inevitable gossip, but will purposefully alter the general view on the subject to a more positive output.”

“…wait…they’re growing gossiping plants?” Rainbow questioned.

“To put it in layman’s terms,” Celestia interjected before Twilight could give so much as an exasperated look at her pegasus friend, “They are pony ‘spies’ placed out for us, to tell everypony not to freak out about what’s going on.”

“Oh,” Rainbow said, almost disappointed that there weren’t any actual talking pony-plants.

Rarity glanced from Luna’s bed to the clock on the nearby nightstand.  “Only ten minutes until your speech, Princess.  I certainly hope all those ruffians do not get out of hand.  Granted, it is nothing more than a simple announcement, but I’m sure many ponies will freak out nonetheless.”

“I don’t get it,” Pinkie said, speaking up again, “What’s the big deal, anyway?  I mean, sure, Luna’s gonna have a baby, but that’s not anything to get this riled up about!  …Is it?”

Twilight sighed; she quit pacing and sat down abruptly, making a light thump when she did.  Looking down at the thin lines in-between each of the wooden floorboards, the purple unicorn simply said, “Sync bursts.”

“Wat?”

“A ‘synchronization burst’—or ‘sync burst’ for short,” Rarity replied.

“It’s a phenomenon that occurs with magic-carrying unicorns,” Twilight added.  “As I’m sure any mother could tell you, childbirth is a bitch.”  The unicorn’s friends all cringed at the curse-word; though Twilight didn’t want to resort to such language herself, she couldn’t think of a better way to get the point across.  “During such an event, the most any earth-pony or pegasus can do is grit her teeth, perhaps grasp her husband’s hoof so hard she starts to crush it—and let’s not forget the screaming.”  Twilight’s description of a mother’s pain in childbirth certainly didn’t lift Luna’s already-damp mood.  “But when a unicorn goes into labor, something entirely different happens.  A sync burst is the ‘synchronization’ of a unicorn’s magic with her physical pain.  During childbirth, most unicorn’s will unwittingly release their magic randomly, performing spells ranging from shifting the pillow beneath their heads an inch to the left, to completely inverting the force of gravity in her hospital room.  Fortunately, unicorn nurses are specifically trained to counteract the sync bursts of a mother during the entire labor process, so any serious problems from these events are seldom nowadays.”

“But if tha’s th’ case,” Applejack began, “can’t’cha just get a nurse for Luna an’—”

“Normally, you would simply get a nurse,” Rarity cut in, “But this isn’t some common unicorn.  This is an alicorn.  An alicorn that has the power to control the moon.”  The fashionista said this as she pointed a hoof at a nervous and sweaty Luna.

Rainbow considered for a moment the consequences that could ensue.  “But then the sync burst…she could send the moon flying into the earth or something!”

“A very stupid thing to worry about,” Twilight replied, “but it’s going to be something most ponies will worry about anyways.  As if Luna could cause any catastrophic damage!  Besides, Celestia could easily counter anything Luna may accidentally toss our way!”

“…I’m not going to lie, Twilight,” Celestia confessed, “Successfully suppressing all of a soon-to-be-mother’s sync bursts throughout the dozen hours of labor is not an easy feat.  Most of the time, nurses take shifts to give themselves a break for a while, but I’m the only pony in Equestria that is even close to having the ability to suppress Luna’s magic.  I don’t know how long I could go on my own.”

Twilight’s expression changed from mildly annoyed to severely concerned.  “What?  But—surely it shouldn’t be a problem for you, should it?”

“We can only hope that Luna’s sync bursts will be seldom and mild,” the white alicorn replied ominously.

Luna looked down at her front hooves on the floor.  “I can’t do this, Sister, I simply can’t.  How about you do this for me?  I—I can’t do this.”

Celestia cocked an eyebrow at her sister, unamused.  “You can say that all you want, but you’re the one who was stressing for this in the first place, so now you have to finish what you’ve started.”

“I’ve changed my mind,” Luna replied flatly.

“Five minutes,” Rarity said from behind the Princesses, looking again at the clock.

“It’s going to be the longest five minutes of my life…” Luna said aloud, though to no one in particular.

She could feel all eyes on her as she slowly walked up to the center of the open-air stage in the Canterlot Gardens.  It wasn’t as if invitations were dropped all over Equestria from the sky—instead, Celestia and Luna called a spontaneous meeting on a whim, at least as far as the residents of Canterlot knew.  There wasn’t much point in trying to spread the word, anyway—the princesses knew that word of mouth would handle that on its own.  One would think that it wouldn’t be the best idea to have Equestria find out from the words of other frantic ponies, but the ‘spies’ planted around each city were prepared to take care of such in one fell swoop.

Despite the reassurance, though, Luna felt terrible.  She was about to tell Canterlot that she was pregnant—not the best of situations to be in.  Her vision was blurring just the slightest bit; she felt the same as she did early in the morning, where a bowl of Sugar Cube Crisp would normally be sitting in front of her to break the fall between her face and the tabletop.  But today she had to fight back the darkness welling up on the edges of her sight, swallow her fear and face her problem head-on.  She really did feel ready to collapse, and the symptoms from pregnancy, though mostly repressed by the spells her new doctor had shown her, were still affecting her, and it certainly didn’t help her current condition.

After what had felt like an eon or two, Luna found herself in front of the massive crowd that had come to hear her announcement; most were Canterlot unicorns that happened to have been in the vicinity when they heard about the small statement Luna was going to make in a few hours.

Luna could feel hear heart beating in her ears.  She could barely see out of her eyes, and her hooves were slipping in her glass slippers, they were so wet.  Celestia and the mane six were standing on ground level with the crowd, right next to the steps up the pony-height open-air stage.  Celestia happened to notice her sister’s steadily-declining condition.

“Oh crap,” the white alicorn said as she hastily walked up the steps to her discombobulated sister.

Luna’s nervousness had taken a big chip out of her stamina.  She was barely conscious, swaying softly from side to side as she blankly stared out into the crowd.  “Now…I have an important announcement to make, everypony…” the alicorn said loud, but vacantly.

Celestia tried not to look like she was in a hurry, even though the opposite couldn’t be more true.  ‘Luna, please shut up—now’s not the time to announce this, not when you’re like…this…’

Just as the sun princess walked up to Luna’s side and poked her on the shoulder to get her attention, Luna shouted:

“Equestria, I AM PREGNANT!  I.e. I’m bearing a child, and it’s my child.”  Celestia gritted her teeth in horror to Luna, then she turned and looked at the extremely confused onlookers.  “I simply wanted Equestria to know, as that’s the right thing to do, right, Sister?”

Halfway through saying “Sister”, Luna’s eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fell onto the floor of the stage; all the ponies watching immediately started to murmur and stood up to get a better look at the princess.  Not because of her announcement, but because of what was suddenly on all their minds: Luna just COLLAPSED on the ground.

Luna awoke to the sound of her alarm going off.  She didn’t open her eyes, though; she simply laid in her bed and listened to the alarm continue to blare.

*Beep.  Beep.  Beep.*

Wait a minute.  That’s not her alarm.

“—and this isn’t my BED!” Luna exclaimed as her eyes flew open, and sitting up, she realized that she was in a hospital room, lying in a crummy hospital bed with some of the thinnest bed sheets colored the worst shade of green imaginable.  The heart monitor continued its constant beeping, synonymous with Luna’s heartbeat, which started to rise a bit.

“Woah there,” Celestia said, standing on the edge of Luna’s bed, closest to the moon princess.  Luna glanced around and noticed that Twilight and Fluttershy were in her room, too; nobody else was there, though.

“The others couldn’t make it,” Fluttershy said softly to Luna, noticing how the alicorn was glancing around the room.

“More like they ditched us after finding out you were going to be okay,” Twilight said in a scolding tone to the other four ponies that weren’t there.

Celestia walked over to the half-open door of Luna’s hospital room.  “Doctor Hysteric, Luna’s just awoken,” she called to someone in the hallway.

Celestia stepped away from the doorway and looked at Luna and gave her sister a reassuring smile.  “Luna, you remember your doctor, right?  How’re you feeling?  Do you need anything?”

A middle-aged earth-pony mare walked into the room, nearby knocking the door into Celestia’s backside as she swung it open.  She was a very light brownish-orange and a straight silver mane.  If one looked closely, they could see the dark shadows under her deep-green eyes.  Of all things a pony could have a picture of on their flank, this mare had the monitor of a sonogram.  “Let up Celestia.  It was a simple panic attack, nothing more.”

“A…a panic attack?!” Luna exclaimed.  “But…”

“I think it doesn’t take any more than three tries to guess what the cause of it was.  I saw the little stunt you pulled, Princess.  IMO, that was a terrible idea.”  Hysteric pulled up a chair next to Luna’s bed and sat down in it, eyeing the alicorn.

“I needed to let Equestria know about my inevitable child!” Luna shot back in defense.

“I never said you couldn’t tell anypony,” the doctor replied, “I advised you to make sure you didn’t do anything too stressful, though.”  She spoke in a very strict tone.  “There’s plenty of other ways to go about telling everypony this side of the ocean, but a live public announcement?  What on earth were you thinking during the whole planning process for this?  That you’d be perfectly fine—that you could go about giving such news on your own?” she scolded as she glanced at several papers in a folder she had carried in with her.

“I don’t know…” Luna said weakly, “I just wanted to do it myself!”

“And look where it’s gotten you,” the doctor said in a flat mock.  “Just rest up here for a few hours and sign out whenever you feel better.”  She closed up the folder and stood up from her seat.  “Oh—and if you have any other questions about your pregnancy, don’t hesitate to ask.  Just don’t ask me anymore questions about how it happened, okay?  I already told you the different ways conception occurs, and you’ve strictly denied all of them.”

“Well, obviously, this isn’t some natural conception, then!” Luna argued.

Doctor Hysteric gave Luna a look of dull amusement.  “Hey, don’t tell it to me.  I’m not the one who has any answers, Luna.”  And with that, she walked out the door, having plenty of other ponies she needed tending to.

“…Just out of curiosity,” Twilight began after the doctor was gone, getting the attention of the other three ponies in the room, “When did conception occur for you, Luna?”

Celestia and Fluttershy looked from the purple unicorn to the royal-blue alicorn in the bed.  Luna only stared blankly at Twilight, though.

“…Princess Luna?” Fluttershy asked.

Luna was staring off into space, thinking hard.  “…I…I don’t know,” she said finally.  “I have no idea when the first day even was.”

“Perhaps we should’ve started off there, Sister,” Celestia said.  “Before figuring out how it happened, we probably should’ve figured out when it happened.”

“Well…when did symptoms first appear?” Twilight asked.  “Symptoms of your pregnancy, I mean.”

Luna looked up at the ceiling in thought.  “…I suppose it was about three weeks ago that I first staring feeling the muscle cramps; a different doctor we saw before Hysteric said that I was most likely showing advanced symptoms that were showing sooner than normal, so we also have to put that into account.”

“If I’m not mistaken, most symptoms appear around one to three weeks after conception,” Twilight added.  “More or less.”

Fluttershy shuffled her hooves as she stared at the ground.  This caught Twilight’s attention.  “Fluttershy?  Is there something you’d like to add?  Anything could help.”

“Well, it’s not really anything…more of a comment than information…” the yellow pegasus whispered.

“What did you want to say?” Luna asked.  “Go ahead, I don’t mind.”

“Well, I was just thinking about how, um…well, it almost seems like…we all agree that conception occurred within the past month?”

“I suppose so,” Twilight replied, eager for the passive pegasus to get to her point.

“…Doesn’t that kind of match up with when the eclipse happened?  Are they, maybe, related events?”

“………”

“Mother of Equestria,” Twilight said.

Chapter 4: Inferiority Complex

*Week 5 following the eclipse*

“Thank you all for coming,” Luna said to the mane six as they arrived in the throne room.  Luna was seated in her golden throne, right alongside Celestia’s—except Celestia wasn’t there.  “I had hoped to get a hold of you six sooner, but I realize you must have had a busy week, what with the rumors that spread about me and all.

Luna was surprisingly calm considering her situation, which made Twilight smile.  “Of course, Princess!”  The unicorn’s smile waned as she glanced around the room, looking for some glimpse of her teacher.  “Is…Celestia still…?”

“Actually, that’s what I’ve summoned you six for,” Luna said with a sigh.  “She can’t seem to come to terms with the whole eclipse-conception thing.  She’s locked herself in her room like a little girl.”

“How unbecoming,” Rarity replied, worried about the alicorn’s wellbeing.

“Yes, I suppose you could put it that way.  Come.”  Luna got off of her regal seat and walked towards the group and continued forward, leading them out the room and to the hallway where Celestia’s room was at.

When they all were in the hallway, Luna continued, “She can’t help but feel responsible for what happened to me.  She’s convinced herself that she was the one who impregnated me.”

“Tha’s preposterous!” Applejack exclaimed.  “Why would Celestia think that?  We all know very well that ther’s no way a girl-pony can breed with another girl-pony!  …Right?”

“Of course,” Luna replied.  “Nonetheless, we cannot simply wave away the fact that the conception most likely occurred during the solar eclipse.  Both Celestia and I not only control the sun and moon, but we are representations of them.  The union of sun and moon is…an intriguing possibility, to say the least.”

“It’s sad to know Celestia is so broken up about this,” Twilight said, “though it’s also good to know that you’ve seemed to regain your confidence.”

“With my sister’s absence from her duties, I’ve had to take over everything this past week, even the raising of the sun.  Ironic, isn’t it?” Luna mused, “how only a month ago, my sister was the one who was picking up the slack.”

“How is Celestia right now, anyway?” Pinkie asked.

“I wouldn’t know.  I haven’t seen her since last week.  I’ve tried to open the door, but at the rate she’s trying to isolate herself, I suppose I just as well not intrude.”

“She has to eat though, doesn’t she?” Rarity asked.

“Now that I have so many duties stacked over my own, I have no choice but to get a full night’s sleep,” Luna said begrudgingly.  “I can only assume Tia’s sneaking off to the fridge late at night while I’m asleep.”

“And what about the whole pregnancy thing?” Rainbow asked, having wanted to know the answer since she arrived.  “Since you know sorta how this happened, do you have any actual answers yet?”

Twilight added, “The main problem we’ve faced with ponies concerning your pregnancy is ‘how’ it happened.  Granted, most of the rumors have blown over, but there are still quite a few lingering ideas, and there’s seems to be little we can do about it until we have some definite answers.”

“Well…” Luna said in a sigh, “With my sister’s depression, I’ve had to do all the research on my own, and considering how we’re looking into an eclipse as the cause, my knowledge on the moon is only half the story.  So, no, I still have no new information.”

They seven ponies reached the front of Celestia’s door; Luna tapped the end of her shoed hoof against it.  “Sister?  It’s me; Twilight Sparkle and the others are here to see you.”  She leaned one side of her head against the door, but she didn’t hear a single sound.

“Are you sure she’s even in there?  She could’ve flown out the window,” Rainbow suggested.

“If Celestia had tried to flee out her window because of something as trivial as this, I’d be deeply ashamed in her,” Luna said as her dark-blue magic aura enveloped the handle of the door, and attempted to turn it.  It only jiggled a bit, but didn’t budge.  “Celestia,” she called to the inside of the room through the door, “I’ve given you enough time.  Now, we’re coming in whether you like it or not.”

Luna’s horn glowed, and with a light tap of the tip of her horn to the handle, the lock could be heard inside turning out of its latch, allowing the door to be opened.  Luna opened slowly turned the handle with her hoof and pushed the door open.  She was greeted by a dark room—the lights were out and the curtains had been closed over the window, keeping out the warm afternoon sun.

“Sister…?”  Luna flicked on the lights.  The covers on Celestia’s bed were scrambled and tossed all over the place, half of them on the floor.  Luna continued to look around to room, only to see that her sister wasn’t around.  Beginning to panic, she ran to the door that led to Celestia’s bathroom.  Disregarding courtesy, Luna knocked the door wide open and flicked on the light switch.  The pale-white hard fluorescent light flickered on, showing a plain white bathroom, but no sign of the white alicorn.

“She LEFT!” Luna exclaimed from inside the bathroom, just as the other ponies came inside.

“WHAT?!” Twilight screamed, hurting the ears of all the ponies next to her.

“How could you do this, Sister?!” Luna practically sobbed, “To simply abandon me—to abandon Equestria!  Damn it, Celestia, you can go to—”

“Hey look, I think she left a note!” Pinkie called out happily, oblivious to angst.

“What?!  Let me see that!” Luna almost shoved Pinkie to the ground, she was so anxious to read Celestia’s letter lying on the table.  She picked it up with her magic and quickly scanned it over.

“Well?” Rarity said, “What does it say, Luna?”

“…Apparently, my sister has left to visit a distant temple to further investigate the cause of my pregnancy.  She writes that she should be back within two days…but I have no clue WHEN she wrote this!”  Luna flung the paper in the air and threw her hooves up in frustration.  “Celestia, would it have killed you to at least PUT THE NOTE ON YOUR FRONT OF YOUR DOOR?!”

“Now what th’ heck’re we suppos’ta do?” Applejack asked Luna, “Should we go find her?  Do y’even know ‘bout this temple Celestia’s speakin’ of?”

“There are several distant temples in Equestria,” Luna said softly.  “Each of them are pretty much the same—full of monks and each with their own formidable library of ancient knowledge.  I wouldn’t even have a guess as to which Tia’s gone off to.”

“Well, you said ‘several’?” Rainbow asked.  “Just how many is ‘several’?”

“…I believe there are a total of eight—no, wait, nine temples that the Equestrian kingdom acknowledges.  Each one is very, very far away, though; half of them are up in the coldest mountains.  While I don’t know their locations on-hand, I can quickly look it up in our library—though I do know the nearest one is a day’s flight from Canterlot.”

“Should we search for Celestia?” Twilight asked the princess.

“I don’t think we should, though I am quite worried about my sister.  She must be desperate for answers right now…considering what we discovered last week.”

“I still don’t get it, though,” Rainbow cut in, “What’s got Celestia so riled up?  Sure, this is really weird and everything, but I mean come on!”

“…Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said slowly in a belittling tone, “Consider this for a moment: say, perhaps, you perform a sonic rainboom low to the ground, and it ends up directly hitting me.  Now, I’m completely unhurt from the incident, but two weeks later I find out that I am pregnant.  Not only that, but I became unexplainably pregnant the day I was hit by your sonic rainboom.”

Rainbow’s cyan face turned a slight shade of red.  “Well, I suppose I…”

“Now, consider that…and then add on that I’m your SISTER; your pregnant sister with no other explanation of how it happened, save for the far-from-normal event of being hit by your sonic rainboom.”

“Waugh!” Rainbow yelled.  “I just realized—that’s, like, incest or something, isn’t it!?”

Luna placed a hoof over her face in disdain.  “Yes, I believe that’s what has affected my sister the most: the fact that she could have somehow impregnated her own sister.  I hope she’ll be alright, with going to whatever temple it is and all; she’s been far from her normal self lately…”

“Are you sure there aren’t any hints or clues as to which temple Celestia’s gone off to?” Twilight asked hopefully.

Luna looked glanced around her sister’s room a second time, in a futile attempt to find evidence of Celestia’s destination.  With a sigh, she said, “It certainly doesn’t appear that way, Twilight Spar—”

“Hey, there’s something here in the trash!” Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully, glancing down into a small wastebasket next to Celestia’s regal bed.  Pinkie reached her head down into the garbage and pulled out a slightly-crumpled piece of paper with her mouth.  “T-ddhhh!  Amober mope!” she said with her lips half-closed on the paper.

Luna didn’t hesitate to take the piece from Pinkie’s mouth, using her magic to bring the letter up close to her face.  Rarity looked disgusted at the pink pony; “Pinkie!  How unsanitary!”

“Aww, don’t worry!” Pinkie replied, “It was the only thing in there, anyway!  Except for all the other pieces of paper in there.  Y’know, for a little garbage bin, it smelled surprisingly—”

“This is a letter from a temple monk!” Luna interrupted.  “Pinkie Pie, bring that waste bin over here, there may be more of these letters in there!”

“Okie dokie lokie!”  Pinkie grabbed the lid of the bin with her mouth, bringing it over to an anticipated Luna as Rarity watched from behind, utter disgust on her face.

Luna grabbed out each wad of paper and levitated them around the front of her face.  One by one, she unraveled them and quickly glanced over their contents.  “Bingo,” she eventually said.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“It appears that a mail exchange has been going on between Tia and all nine temples during her first day of isolation.  Each temple has given her different advice on this whole eclipse business, but one of them appears to say that they have books that may hold the answers.  Unfortunately…it’s the temple closest to Canterlot, the one that’s a day’s flight.”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at the princess.  “…And that’s a bad thing why?”

“Tia said in this letter for us that she’d be back in two days.”

“Well sure, she said two days,” Applejack began, “but that don’t necessarily mean she left here on day one of her mopin’, does it?”

“Not day one, but take a look here.”  Luna levitated a letter written on a think, yellow-white paper, stationary that all the temples apparently shared.  “Unlike my sister, the monks wrote the dates and times of writing the letters and delivering them.  This latest one here was written four days ago, only a day after my sister had locked herself inside this room.  According to her, she should have been back—”

“Two days ago…” Twilight finished.

Rainbow’s eyes widened.  “Well, what’re we waitin’ for?!  Something’s up—we gotta find Celestia, and fast!”

“Patience, Rainbow,” Rarity said calmly.  “Luna, before doing anything rash,” she shot a look at the cyan pegasus, “we should definitely contact this temple Celestia is going to.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Luna said, nodding her head as she spoke.

The alicorn walked over to Celestia’s nightstand and opened up a small drawer, revealing a stack of fresh paper and unopened ink wells.  Luna lifted up a quill along with some ink and a single piece of paper, and began to write while speaking aloud, “To the Temple of Knowledge: I have just received word of my sister’s departure, and have reason to believe that she has sent for your locale four days ago.  She has yet to return, however, and if you could respond to us about this strange disappearance, we would be much obliged.  Sincerely, Princess Luna.”

Luna rolled up the scroll and hovered it in front of her face.  In a small flash, the letter spontaneously combusted in green flame and flew off into the sky, squeezing through the thin line between the closed windows.  “We should receive word soon.  Let’s just sit tight and wait for one of the monks to respond.”

“I wonder what made Celestia want to suddenly go off on her own to a distant temple?” Twilight said.

“Like we already discussed, she most likely is feeling a flurry of different emotions,” Luna replied, “We can’t fully understand just how she must be feeling, and we should simply let come what may with her, and allow it all to blow over.”

“At least you’ve gotten over all of this, Princess,” Rainbow replied with a grin.

“Hmm, I’m far from ‘over’ my own pregnancy, but I need to put on a brave face for not only Equestria, but for my sister.”

The ponies nodded in agreement.  “You’re very brave, Luna,” Rarity commented.

Later, a purple smoke formed in front of the moon princess and materialized into a piece of yellowed parchment.  Luna hastily grabbed it and read its contents.  “…It says: ‘Luna, we received word from Celestia regarding your predicament five days ago.  A day later, after another discussion by mail, Celestia decided that she would travel here and investigate our expansion of books herself.  Unfortunately, I have to admit that she never arrived.’…”

“Wah?!” Applejack was the first to exclaim.  “What’ya mean she never arrived?!  She’s the gosh-darn princess of the sun!  What coulda happened to her that she’d not make it to th’ temple?!”

Luna rolled the piece of parchment up and tossed it aside.  “I don’t know, but this has just gotten serious.  Girls, we’re going on search party.”

“What?” Twilight said, astounded.  “But Luna, you can’t just up and leave your post!  With Celestia missing, you’re the only princess Equestria’s got!”

“What else am I to do, Twilight Sparkle?”  The mares could hear the pain in the alicorn’s voice; no matter how hard she may try to hide it, to stay strong, she couldn’t completely keep back the emotion she was feeling—her sister was missing, and has been for four days, after all.

“Let us go in your stead!” Twilight said, prepared to take any duty for her princess.  “We’ll find Celestia, don’t you worry!  Besides, you have a baby inside you—venturing out into the dangerous world isn’t the best of ideas.”

Rainbow seemed indifferent to Twilight’s words.  “Yeah, it’s not like she’s an all-powerful alicorn or anything.  If we face some kinda danger out there, wouldn’t it be good to have Luna on hand?  She could take on anything!”

“If that were the case,” the purple unicorn rebutted, “then Celestia wouldn’t be missing right now.  Whatever has caused her to go off-course must be a big problem!”

“Which is all the more reason for Luna to come along!” Rainbow argued.  “We’re gonna need all the firepower we can get!”

Luna was considering her options, though she couldn’t come to a concrete decision.  “This is…quite the conundrum.  Honestly, I don’t know what we should do—wait…”

The murmuring between the ponies halted when Luna held up a hoof for silence.  Slowly lowering her arm, she closed her eyes and thought about something.  “Hmm…I think, we should first consult any letters or calls we’ve received in the past week.”

The others watched Luna, confused, as she walked to a small corded phone on the top of Celestia’s dresser.  The princess levitated the phone to her head as she dialed a number and waited for the other line to pick up.  “…Yes, hello, Bubbles?  Luna here, I need you to look over the archives of the past week, anything and everything that came into Canterlot involving my sister.  …My business is my own, just look it up please.”

After on-hold music could be heard coming from the phone, Twilight walked closer to Luna to ask, “You’re looking up any notifications about Celestia from other ponies in Equestria?  Shouldn’t any word about her location have been brought to you immediately anyways?”

Luna lowered the phone to her chest and faced Twilight.  “We’ve received several ridiculous calls since my gossip-worthy announcement.  With Celestia locked away in her room, I mentioned I didn’t want any messages about her location to be brought to me.  I honestly thought Tia would never just abandon the castle…”

The poor-quality sound emitting from the phone’s speaker abruptly stopped, and Twilight could hear someone speaking on the other line.  Luna was staring at the floor intently as she listened.  “You did?  Well, what did you find?  …What?!  Repeat yourself, Bubbles, I think I heard you wrong…  No, no I guess I heard you correctly…  When was the last call they made?  This morning!?  Well, thank you Bubbles, you’ve been a huge help.”  Luna practically slammed the phone back onto the dresser, both in a hurry and quite angry.  “Looks like we don’t have to go on an epic journey after all, girls.  Follow me.”

The mane six had trouble keeping up with the alicorn; at the speed she was charging down the Castle hallway, she looked as if she was preparing to take off to the sky.

“Keep ‘am comin’, burtendur.”

“Please,” the large stallion pleaded with a surprisingly weak voice, “You’re really drunk, and your behavior isn’t the best for my business…”

Celestia looked up angrily from her empty mug.  “Annoder one, bro.  Hard cider—extra hard—extra dry!  I wanna be parched from th’ drynesh of it!”

The bartender pony whimpered softly and grabbed the princesses mug; he brought it to the dispenser and filled it to the brim with the frothy liquid goodness, and handed it back to Celestia.  “Here you go, Princess…”

“Ish aburt tiem,” Celestia mumbled angrily, clenching the handle and bringing it up to her mouth for a large swig.

A small bell next at the entrance to “The Hardwood Floor Inn and Pub” jingled madly as the door to the bar swung wide open, a second later having Luna pop in.  She looked furious as she glared at her sister’s back, which was staring Luna in the face, Celestia looking the opposite direction at the wall behind the counter.  The white alicorn saw the look of surprise and relief on the bartender’s face, but she didn’t bother to see what it was for herself, and downed the mug.

“CELESTIA,” Luna said in the Royal Canterlot Voice, getting the attention of all ponies who hadn't already turned to see the cause of the door slamming open, “TURN AND FACE ME.”

Celestia unwillingly swung around in her barstool and looked at her sister with half-open eyes.  She appeared jaded at her sister’s rage.  “Ey, Woona.  How’s it goin’, big sis?”

Luna was taken aback.  “Sister!  How COULD you?!  You’re DRUNK!”

“Wah else’s new?  Nudder wun, mah gewd mahn,” she said looking over her shoulder to the fearful bartender.

“You may very well have something to do with my getting pregnant, Celestia,” Luna said in front of everyone in the bar; she was paying no mind to anyone except her sister.  “But to think that you personally got my pregnant?  The very notion is asinine!  I had allowed you to grieve over yourself like some kind of pouting child, but THIS?!  You’re pathetic, Sister!”

The bartender had brought a fresh mug for Celestia and set it on the counter next to her, but the white alicorn didn’t pick it up.  Instead, she glared at Luna with a surprisingly serious face, considering just how drunk she was.  Celestia jumped off the barstool and spread out her wings, displaying her size at her little sister as she walked closer to Luna.  “Me, pathetic?  You wound meh, Woona,” she jumbled Luna’s name again, but this time it sounded more mocking than it did drunken.  “I’m been traying to figure out jus’ wha’ the heck is WRONG with you, n’ you call meh ‘pathetic’?”  She shoved her face in Luna’s, less than an inch between the two alicorns’ snouts.

“Help?!” Luna exclaimed.  “You’ve been sitting here for Equestria knows how long, trying to drink away your pain!  Meanwhile, in CANTERLOT, I’ve been taking care of YOUR duties!  And you know what?  I do a pretty DAMN good job!  I’ve realized I don’t need to dwell in your shadow anymore, and THIS little performance certainly cements it!”

Celestia rolled her bloodshot eyes in annoyance.  “Woona, you dun’t umderstand.  I’ve traid my hardest, but somethin’ just keeps holdin’ meh back!”

Luna scrunched up her brow as Celestia said this.  “What on earth are you going on about?”

The bartender got up from cowering behind the counter.  “If I may, Princess Luna?  Celestia’s been coming here every night for the past four days…she never seems like herself…I don’t know, but that may have to do with what she’s rambling about…”

Celestia’s expression hardened; she shot icy daggers from her eyes at the poor stallion.  “Rambling, you say?” she said coolly.  “Oh nonono—tha’ wasn’t rambling.  I’ll SHOW you rambling…”  The insides of the sun princess’s eyes flickered with orange flames.

“Celestia, if you continue this, I will have you swiftly removed of power,” Luna asserted.  “You’ve shown in a matter of days that you are no longer worthy of the crown.”

In silent rage, Celestia didn’t even answer.  Spinning around to Luna in the blink of an eye, a massive inferno emitted from the tips of her graceful white wings, right at her sister.  The attack sent the dark-blue alicorn flying out of the pub and spiraling onto the dirt road just outside of the remote, forest-surrounded inn.  Celestia stepped out through the newly-created hole burned through the pub’s front wall.  “You wanna strip meh of ma powur, do you?”  The alicorn still spoke with slurred words, but she couldn’t look any more menacingly sober.

Luna wiped a small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth.  “…And that solidifies it right there, my sister.  I’m afraid I have no choice but to strip you of your right to be called ‘princess’.”

Celestia snarled and brought a pillar of bright light, emitted from the highest point in the sky, down straight onto Luna.  The grass surrounding the impact zone crisped and the light-brown soil melted into one aqueous mass.  Celestia watched the light continue to burn away at the ground, grinning madly.  Within a few moments, the extensive pillar’s end hit the ground, revealing a damaged earth in the small radius around its collision site.

But the drunken alicorn’s smile vanished off her flushed face when she saw that Luna was not only unharmed, but was encased in a shell of a transparent, dark-blue liquid.  Unlike Celestia, Luna didn’t look very angry—rather, she was wearing the face of a scolding mother.

“Stop this now, Tia,” Luna said from inside the water bubble, her speech sounding slightly distorted.  “You’re a danger to you and everypony around you.”

“I’ll sotp when my sis givsh me mah RIGHTSH back,” Celestia said, starting to breathe heavily.

“I still cannot believe you’ve gone this far over the edge just because of something that happened to me,” Luna scorned while removing her protective barrier from around her, the glistening water splashing down onto the liquid soil sticking to her glass slippers.

Just as the Luna’s shield vanished, Celestia grit her teeth and smiled crudely; her horn glowed a pale-yellow as she prepared to give another onslaught.

“NOW!” Luna screamed to the sky.

Before Celestia knew what was happening, six ponies appeared out of the dense forest surrounding the inn and the dirt road near it.  Each of the ponies was wearing a necklace, save for one that was wearing a tiara.  All six of them leapt to Luna’s side, but every one of them looked hesitant to attack.  Through the solar alicorn’s thick beer-goggles, she could see each one of the ponies around her sister begin to glow, and a giant rainbow suddenly shot into the sky before bringing itself down onto her.

Celestia passed out before she could see the ritual finish.

Chapter 5: Mood Whiplash

Celestia groaned softly and her eyes cracked open. Through thin slits, she could tell by her familiar ceiling that she was in her room, back at Canterlot Castle. That’s all she could take in before her sight was blacked out by something that felt extremely refreshing on her face. She didn't mind it covering her eyes, but it was hard to breathe with it draped over her entire face. Her ear twitched when she heard Twilight Sparkle yelling at someone.

“Rainbow!” the unicorn scolded. From under her eyelids Celestia could see a faint purple glow, and the thing on her face lifted for a moment, then was placed gently back down, this time avoiding her snout. “You don’t put the washcloth on somepony's entire face! How to you expect Princess Celestia to breathe?”

Mustering the strength to move, Celestia started to shuffle around underneath her bed sheets. Twilight and Rainbow both turned, startled at the alicorn’s sudden movement, but then Twilight’s face lit up in joy. “Luna!” Twilight called out to Celestia’s bathroom, “Luna, Celestia’s awake!”

The cool, damp washcloth fell off Celestia’s forehead and into her lap as she brought herself to a sit in her bed. Luna came out of the bathroom with another wet cloth in her hooves. Celestia turned and looked at her sister; she saw Luna flinch for some reason, but she quickly relaxed. Luna sighed and sat down next to the bed. “Oh, thank goodness you’re alright, Tia,” she sighed. “Here, you should keep a cold cloth on your forehead.” Luna pushed her foreleg against Celestia to ease her sister back into a lying position. “When we found you, you had a fever of a hundred and four.”

Celestia’s face skewed and she gave Luna a look. Luna, pretending not to notice, covered her sister's questioning face with the new wet cloth. “When you ‘found me’?” Celestia repeated, sitting back up; the new cloth fell with a damp splat into her lap, but she didn't pay it any mind. “Where was I? For that matter, what’s been going on?” She placed her hoof on her forehead, trying to massage the answers out of her brain. Luna was right about the fever—Celestia could feel her forehead burning up. “Has this fever made me forget…?”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You mean you don’t remember ANY of—eugh!”

Rainbow glared at Twilight, who had shoved her elbow into Rainbow’s side to cut her off.

Luna bit her lip. As much as she wanted to ask, was it worth the risk of making her sister’s memories come back? If she really doesn't remember, perhaps it’s best we keep it that way. She shook her head at the thought. Now is not the time to keep secrets…but was the truth worth the pain? “Sister, let me ask you something…were you headed anywhere in particular?”

Celestia’s eyes twinkled and she smiled when a memory came back to her—apparently, it was too much at once, and she winced from a sudden pain in her temporal lobe. Eyes closed and teeth grit, Celestia waited for it to subside, then continued. “I do remember now, that I was going to head for one of the temples—in the Smoky Mountains, yes.” Seeing the concern on Luna’s face from the spontaneous headache, Celestia gave as best a reassuring a smile as she could. Luna raised an eyebrow at her sister, pushed her flat onto her back again, and placed the washcloth over her forehead.

“You don’t need to be sitting up to speak,” Luna scolded. Celestia grumbled, but didn't resist.

Rainbow wanted the story to continue. “So, you were on your way to some temple. Then what?”

Celestia eyes were covered, but Twilight could still see the princess’s face scrunch trying to remember. “Well…it was almost sundown—so I guess I was multitasking, flying over Whitetail Wood and lowering the sun…and that’s it. I—I think I blacked out after that.”

Luna, Rainbow, and Twilight all shared a look with each other and then faced the bed-ridden Celestia again. “Blacked out?” Twilight repeated. “What do you mean, Princess?”

Celestia moved to get back up, but Luna moved her hoof over her sister’s chest. Celestia stopped moving and let out a heavy breath through her nostrils. “I’m not sure. I was just flying towards the temple and then I simply blacked out. Is the fever because I was lying out in the woods? That’s where you found me, I take it?”

Thankfully for Luna, Celestia couldn't see her sister’s obvious apprehension. Before discussing Celestia’s actions, however, Luna changed the subject. “Tia, you could have simply told me what you were going to do. Leaving a note without a word was foolish, and I’m sure you realize that.” Her hoof still on Celestia’s chest, Luna moved it to her sister’s shoulder. “Don’t forget that I’m on your side, too.”

Celestia frowned and turned away from Luna’s voice. “I’m sorry, Luna. I just wanted to figure this out, by myself. We have no idea how it happened, but I can’t help but feel like I’m somehow to blame.”

“I’m pregnant, Tia,” Luna bluntly reminded; Celestia’s head turned again, this time directly towards her sister’s stern voice. “For better or for worse. What’s done is done, and all we can do now is figure out why this has happened. To do that though, we need to work as a team.”

Twilight was growing tired of sitting on the sidelines and spoke up. “But Luna, it will take a few days at least for Celestia to get better. If you’d allow, I would like to assist you in anyway I can.”

The ends of the washcloth slapped against Celestia’s temples when she shook her head at the suggestion. “I couldn't ask such a thing from you, Twilight. The trip to the temple is a day’s flight; need I remind you that you’re a unicorn?”

Twilight pouted at the blatantly-bad excuse. Like a child asking her dad after her mom already said ‘no,’ Twilight turned to Luna with puppy-dog eyes. Luna’s sight shifted to the aloof pegasus on Twilight’s left, who was staring out Celestia’s window and no longer paying attention to the conversation. Luna smiled and bit the tip of her tongue.

“Rainbow Dash could take you,” she offered happily.

Already knowing what her sister’s reaction would be, Luna pushed down on Celestia’s shoulder hard enough to stop her from getting back up. In her own defense, Luna said to the frowning Celestia, “It’s not the worst idea in the world to have others help us out, Sister. Perhaps you’ll refuse Twilight’s offer, but I won’t.”

“…Wait,” Rainbow started, only now realizing someone said her name, “what is this about?”

Twilight practically pounced on her confused friend. “Come on, Rainbow Dash!” she said excitedly. “Don’t you want to go to an old temple and read their ancient scrolls and tomes?” Her cheery smile waned when she saw that there was as much enthusiasm in Rainbow's face as there was pink in the pegasus's mane.

“Oh, come on,” Twilight said, her tone on the verge of a whine, “you like reading, remember?”

“I like reading Daring Do,” Rainbow corrected as she pushed the purple unicorn off her. Rainbow scolded at the thought of having to fly all the way to some crummy old cold temple on the top of a mountain. “You don’t need me specifically to get there; can’t Fluttershy take you or something?” Twilight’s half-lidded eyes answered her question, and she sighed. “Yeah yeah I know. I don’t really know why I even bothered suggesting that.”

“You are the self-proclaimed ‘best pegasus’,” Twilight reminded.

“Best at what?” Luna asked, chiming into the conversation.

Twilight snorted and rolled her eyes. “Nothing in particular. Just ‘best pegasus.’ I’m taking you up on that claim, Rainbow.” Twilight's eyes narrowed and her smile was sly with competition. “You’re the only pegasus I know who’s powerful enough and durable enough to handle such a feat by yourself!”

Even though Rainbow knew Twilight was purposefully buttering her up, she couldn't help but get a swelled head from the complement. “…Yeah, okay, fine, I’ll do it.” As Twilight clopped her hooves together and bounced in a circle around her, Rainbow turned to Luna and Celestia. “So where exactly is this temple, anyway?”

Luna smiled and clapped her hooves together. “I’ll show the two of you a map, if you’ll just come along with me.” She stood up and turned to her sister. “Tia, how are you holding up?”

“Physically and mentally drained, but otherwise good,” Celestia admitted, fishing her arm out from under her covers to press the cloth harder against her forehead. She sank deeper into her bed to get in a comfortable position for some shuteye. “Go on, Little Sister; I’ll be fine.”

Rainbow Dash was sprawled out on the cold grey floor of the stone cave. The heat from the fire felt good on her body, and her muscles started to relax—but she was still freezing her butt off. She took a deep breath and pushed it out through pursed lips, making a thin white jet of warm air that dissipated into the cold cave.

“It’s freezing in here, Twilight,” Rainbow said bluntly, watching as the breath from her sentence rose and evaporated.

Twilight poked the blazing pile of timber with a stick and glanced up at Rainbow apathetically. “Maybe if you’d listened to me and brought something warm to wear,” she motioned with her head at the snug-looking brown coat she was wearing, “you wouldn't be having that problem. And for goodness' sake, Rainbow, we can see the temple from here!” Rainbow followed the direction of Twilight’s pointing hoof, out the cave’s mouth and to the faint orange dot of light in the distance on another mountain. “What’s stopping you from taking us there now?”

Rainbow paused and looked at the light. “Too cold, too far. Let’s just sleep here for tonight.”

“It’s only ten past four,” Twilight rebutted. “And we've been sitting here for the past hour and a half, taking a ‘break’ at your request.”

“The cart’s uncomfortable,” Rainbow added to her list of complaints. Both she and Twilight glanced at the Canterlot-issued, single-pegasus-drawn wooden cart in the corner of the cave. There were a few more pieces of timber for fire in it, as well as provisions if they were to get hungry. Rainbow single-handedly ate half the food already in the eight-hour span since they started this morning. Looking past the length of their breaks, though, Rainbow and Twilight were making excellent time.

Twilight gave her lazy friend a look, sizing up the pegasus. “Fair enough,” Twilight said in a tone that Rainbow could tell meant she hadn't given up yet, “I can understand that you don’t like having to carry me in the cart. But you know what would really suck?”

Twilight’s unusual choice of words caught Rainbow’s attention. Looking at Twilight, Rainbow saw a wide, evil grin on the unicorn’s face. Horn glowing, Twilight lifted the wooden cart and held it firmly over the fire. “It’d suck if you’d have to carry me without the luxury of a cart.”

Rainbow's mouth was agape for several seconds before words finally came out of it. “You’re nuts,” Rainbow said flatly, but her nervous expression told what her tone did not. The sweat glistening on her face wasn't because of the fire’s heat—rather, it was because the fire’s dancing fingertips were within inches of grabbing hold of the cart. “You wouldn't make me carry you on my back.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Rainbow could hear the bottom of the cart crackle and pop from the heat of the fire. Twilight’s evil grin wasn't going away. “Not as long as we have a cart, I wouldn't.”

Rainbow was still panting when they reached the two-story-high front doors of the castle-like temple. When Twilight jumped out of the chariot, the charred half she leapt from caved under her weight and she stumbled onto the ground. Rainbow smiled; it wasn't much, but she’ll take it as revenge for Twilight having set the dang thing on fire. By the time Rainbow had stamped, soaked, and blown out the fire, half the cart was charcoal. Using it beat having to carry a crazed unicorn on her back, though. She squeezed out of the cart’s reigns as Twilight knocked a large metal ring against the wooden door.

They waited for nearly a minute in the whistling, chilly evening air before scurried hoofsteps were heard echoing inside the temple, stopping on the other side of the door. Opening up to greet the two mares was an old, bearded stallion draped in an old, brown robe. Twilight couldn't tell if the old stallion was shivering from the cold or shaking from old age, but either way it was making her feel uncomfortable. Rainbow, on the other hand, barely took notice of the monk as she shoved her way into the flame-lit lobby of the castle-like building.

The monk’s eyes were squinting hard; as he took note of these two ponies, one of his long white eyebrows rose in suspicion.

“…And who do we have here…?” he said, his voice muffled from behind a long white beard. His voice sounded strained, like how one sounds when inhaling instead of exhaling to speak. “I don’t believe we've ever had ponies like you two come here.”

Twilight was having trouble keeping her attention focused on the monk, her eyes darting around to take in the view of the temple’s interior. Directly ahead of her were large double-doors closed shut, though a flickering orange glow still leaked through the crack beneath. Twilight’s attention was drawn to the curved staircase on the right side of the circular room, leading up to a closed wooden door a story above, adjacent with the large, icy chandelier hanging from a lone chain on the ceiling. Suddenly snapping her attention back to the monk still waiting for her answer, Twilight stuttered. “Uh—oh—me and my friend Rainbow Dash here—uh, I’m Twilight Sparkle—have come by request of Princess Luna.”

The wrinkled face softened up and curled a smile. “Ah,” the monk sighed. “Of course. I thought Princess Celestia was supposed to come, but she was running a few days late now, and Luna sent me a letter earlier today saying you two were expected. I suppose the book we mentioned is what you’re after, yes?” Without waiting for a reply, he headed to the base of the right-side staircase.

Rainbow was sitting in the middle of the tiled mural that was making up the circular floor. Her head kept turning left and right, trying to make sense of the art without putting in the effort to fly up a few feet to get a full view. Twilight was halfway up the staircase before she noticed her friend wasn't coming along.  “Rainbow!”

“Eh!?” She was confused where the voice came from until she looked up and saw an angry unicorn glaring at her. “Oh. Coming, coming…”

“This is the section for the more important books,” the monk informed as he led Rainbow and Twilight down the small hallway.

Not as enthralled with the sight of withered covers and the smell of musty paper as her friend, Rainbow decided to humor herself by asking questions. “I thought all these books were supposed to be ‘important.’ Isn't that why they’re stashed away on the top of a freezing mountain? What makes them more or less important?”

At first, Rainbow figured the old coot didn't hear her, based on the time it was taking him to respond. “Our purpose is to hold onto the, old information. The knowledge not needed by those of today.” He stopped and frowned at the sign on one of the shelves; it had two foreign-looking symbols—most likely location markers. “We need to head left,” he announced, moving between the lanes formed by the long, thin bookshelves.

He continued answering Rainbow’s question from where he left off. “Of course, all knowledge is important, and sacred. Much of what we hold is irrelevant, not effecting the present or the future. But sometimes it holds relevance, and we just haven’t realized it yet.”

The group stopped. Facing them was a wooden door, as simple-looking as all the others in the outdated temple. This one, however, had two steel locks just underneath the handle. The monk reached inside his robe, but stopped, his confused scowl from earlier returning to his face.

The door was unlocked, and was left a crack open. Spending less than a second in thought, the monk smiled again in realization. “Ah,” he chuckled. “Silly me. Anyway, welcome to the secured section of our library, where old knowledge is stored for the sake of security.” He pushed the door open and stepped aside for Rainbow and Twilight to walk in first. He continued talking as they entered. “Sensitive information like the kind regarding Princess Luna’s questions are kept here.”

This was the fourth time the temple had proven to Rainbow that it can get even mustier than it already was. The perturbing smell was making her nose dance across her face. “Ugh, it smells funky in here.” Even Twilight was having trouble staying in her endorphic trance; she started breathing out of her mouth, though it didn't help very much.

The room was small and compact; books lined the entire wall, except for the stone fireplace directly opposite the entrance door. The room itself was square, but two long shelves extending to the middle of the room sectioned it into two equal halves. Unfazed by the smell of the stagnant air, the monk turned the corner to the other half of the room. “This area is deep within the mountain itself, in order to keep the information here from being discovered by those who may use it for harm. Few even know of the existence of this place, and fewer still where these kinds of books are kept, so our knowledge’s safety is guaranteed—”

“What in the?” interrupted a voice from the other side of the doorway, right behind Twilight. The voice was distinct—familiar to the two mares:

Feminine, deep, intimidating, and echoing from itself with an insect-like buzz.

Twilight and Rainbow heads would have hit each other had they swung around in unison, both needed to see with their own eyes what their ears made them dread.

And sure enough, there was Chrysalis; staring, dumbfounded, at the sudden appearance of these two mares.

“YOU!” Rainbow’s voice cracked when she screamed. Anger and surprise were fighting for control of her face. “How’re you—what’re you—”

Twilight said nothing. Shock quickly resided and her horn roared with purple aura, ready to attack should the changeling queen make any sudden movements.

Not a fan of having horns pointed inches away from her neck, Chrysalis backed her head as far as she could without moving her legs. Her mouth opened to speak, but her expression changed as she realized the answer to her question. Mouth still open, she decided to ask a different question. “Where are the rest of your friends?”

“They’ll be here in a minute,” Twilight lied. “I suggest you use that minute to try and explain what you’re doing here.”

“Oh!” the monk said cheerfully from the other side of the shelf, “you all have met before?”

Twilight turned her head to the monk, who was then rounding the corner to rejoin with them. The sparks stopped flying from her horn. “Wait…what?”

“I couldn't find the book…” the monk stated. He turned his attention to Chrysalis, who's neck was still craned backwards. “It wouldn't happen to be that one that you came here for, would it?”

Before speaking, Chrysalis nudged Twilight back with her hole-dotted hoof. Her crooked horn glowed green and she hovered a thick, stumpy, red-covered book into view. “This one? I…I was just returning it. I was reading it at the end of the hallway here, in at one of the tables—I can’t stand the thick odor of these lower floors, much less this condensed room.”

“What the heck is going on here?” Rainbow asked Twilight angrily. Twilight looked to the book, then the monk, then Chrysalis, whose expression has since changed to bemusement.

The changeling queen was staring down at the little unicorn, her face stoic, waiting. Just like Rainbow Dash, she was waiting to hear the answer too. Or was she? For an instant, Twilight thought she saw a suppressed grin leak out from that black face. What was smile that for? Happiness? Pity?

After a whole minute of silence—and staring—Chrysalis decided to clear the suspension in Twilight’s stead. “Allow me to take a shot in the dark here,” she said in a cocky tone that rubbed Twilight the wrong way. “You and your friends are here at the request of your Princess Luna, looking for answers to why she’s suddenly pregnant, yes?”

The changeling finally let the smile seep through when she saw Twilight’s face twitch, though she immediately became stoic again as she turned her attention to the confused monk. “They may be sent here by the current princess but they are not the princess herself; my authority still resides over theirs, and I demand that they not be allowed anywhere near my guest room during my stay.” After waiting for the monk to nod his head, she walked away. “I want nothing to do with them.”

Chapter 6: Lasting Effects

“Sunny day today,” Luna said with a forced smile, looking out the window at the blue, cloudless sky stretched over Equestria. No one heard her; Luna only spoke to save herself—if only for a moment—from the sound of her sister’s short, heavy breaths. Celestia was sleeping in her bed, facing Luna’s back.

Even after talking, Luna kept the fake smile on her face. She reminisced about the happier mood and silly pranks she and Celestia played on each other before this entire fiasco started; unfortunately, the happy thoughts didn’t help make her smile any less fake. Celestia’s rhythmic pants were interrupted when she groaned softly. Fever dreams never were pleasant.

The smile persisted, despite how terrible Luna was feeling. She remembered hearing once from somebody that forcing a smile, even when sad or upset, can “trick” the mind into thinking it’s supposed to be happy, and as such you’ll become even a shred happier as a result.

Luna’s cheeks were tired. Her face fell flat.

Whoever said that was full of crap.

When the train’s brakes were applied, the large metal wheels gliding on the tracks screamed and came to an abrupt halt, grinding against the tracks at the Ponyville train station. When the passenger cars stopped and opened their doors, Rarity and Applejack walked out together, continuing the conversation they were having during the trip back home.

“I still don’t feel right just leaving them by themselves,” Rarity asserted again. “There must be something that we could do to ease Luna’s burden, yes?”

Applejack didn’t disagree, but it’s not like either of them could think of anything to do; they were even less in the know than Luna or Celestia—and at this point, less than Twilight and Rainbow. “If she asks for help, then Ah’ll gladly give it. But if Luna says she don’t need our help, than Ah ain’t gonna hound her on it. Besides, you’re helping out with the decor for that ‘Mountain Ballroom’ or whatever it was, right?”

“It’s the Mountaintop Ball, Applejack,” Rarity swiftly corrected. She twisted her head to let her mane swing around dramatically. “It is an annual event, somewhat like the Grand Galloping Gala, but much, much more formal.”

Applejack rolled her eyes at Rarity’s sparkling face. “Oh goody,” she drawled.

Rarity pouted and shot a look at the tasteless southerner. “This is important, Applejack. It will be Luna and Celes—well, I don’t know if Celestia will make it to the Ball, after that incident, but Luna will be there. Surrounded by the public, it brings her down to earth in the eyes of everyone, makes her seem more pony—which would help everyone warm up from the rather frosty reception to her…you know.”

A pause in their conversation allowed their ears to pick up an adjacent conversation. On their far left, walking towards the train they’d just exited, was a mare and stallion talking about the princess of the night. “It’s disgusting, is what it is,” the mare said with disgust. Her eyebrows puckered tightly into the middle of her forehead. “Shameful enough to be promiscuous for anypony, much less royalty.”

The scarf on the stallion’s neck bobbed with his head when he nodded in agreement. “I think what bothers me the most is how blatantly poor this cover-up is. I’m personally offended they think we’re stupid enough to believe their crap. You can’t not know how you became pregnant.” Both Applejack and Rarity halted—Applejack mid-step—and they glared at the two ponies, not that they noticed, with their backs turned to Rarity and Applejack. “I even heard a little bit ago that Princess Celestia is sending that one ‘Twilight’ mare on a wild goose chase to find out the ‘reason’ behind Princess Luna’s pregnancy.” He blew a raspberry in the air, and the mare giggled; Applejack could see steam coming off Rarity’s blazing-red face.

The free-hanging end of the stallion’s scarf glowed sky-blue, and with a swift and tight tug he found himself suddenly eye-to-eye with a very preppy-looking white unicorn. “Listen here, Buster,” Rarity growled as the stallion struggled to loosen the noose around his neck, “don’t go around making baseless assumptions when you know absolutely nothing of the situation.” The stallion pulled enough space to gasp for air just before Rarity brought him even closer to her face and brought the scarf tighter around his neck. “You need more faith in your princess; she hasn’t kept any secrets from us!”

The mare was walking up to Rarity and Applejack, as well as trying to pry her friend out of Rarity’s death-grip. “We need more faith in her?” the mare sneered. “It sounds to me like you have a bit too much faith in her. What’s your reasoning, eh?” she said as she helped the stallion finally worm his way from Rarity. “You say it’s ‘cause she’s being so honest? What, you think she could’ve hidden being pregnant for eleven months? Obviously, the best thing to do was to announce it immediately.” She stopped her rebuttal a moment to pat the coughing stallion on the back comfortingly. “It only makes sense for her to do. But it was a stupid idea was to declare that you don’t even know how you got pregnant. For one thing, are you honestly trying to tell me Luna’s a virgin? Or are you saying it doesn’t add up because she hasn’t ridden the ol’ bologna pony in a while?”

Even Applejack’s orange face lit up like a neon sign. Talking so casually about their country’s princess having sex? How dare this girl! And the mare’s odd euphemism certainly didn’t help. Nonetheless, she brought up a good point that Applejack hated to admit to herself. Honestly, what reason do we have to believe Luna is telling the truth? All this—it really doesn’t make any sense…

No. There is no explanation, no good reason as to why this is happening. Luna has absolutely no excuse, at least not a good one. However. “Sometimes you simply need to believe in someponies, girlie.” The mare snorted at Applejack’s blind faith in Luna. “Y’all say you don’t have a reason to believe what the Princess claims. Well, Ah don’t have a reason not to believe in her.” Applejack took a step forward and nudged Rarity in the shoulder, motioning that it’s about time they ended this conversation. As she and Rarity turned their backs to the two ponies, Applejack said to the air. “Don’t know about you two, but Ah’m gonna stay faithful to her ‘less good reason comes for me not to. And it’d take some really good reason, Ah can tell ya that much.”

The two exited the train station without looking back. Applejack could tell just by the small grunts on her left that Rarity wasn’t satisfied. Honestly, Applejack wasn’t too happy either, but even as her face wore a frown, her eyes sparked with inspiration. “You wanna help Princess Luna, Rare?” Applejack gave an optimistic grin to the fuming Rarity. A sense of direction always made her happier than wandering about aimlessly. “Let’s find Pinkie and Fluttershy; Ah betcha half of Equestria is stirring up somethin’ awful about Luna’s thing. These ponies need someponies to cool their hot heads.”

Rarity’s scowl inverted and she mirrored the earth pony’s optimism at the idea. She slung an arm around Applejack’s shoulders and gave a quick squeeze of joy. “That’s an idea if I ever heard one. Can’t let Twilight and Rainbow outdo us, now can we?”

For an old stone building filled with old books and older ponies, both Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were surprised at the strength of the temple’s security. Unfortunately, the temple’s blockade was being projected at them; Twilight wished the monks were as weak and frail as they had first appeared to be.

The glowing wall was keeping them from through the door in the lobby opposite the library, which was the area that contained rooms for the monks and guests—guests which included one Changeling Queen. The old stallion that had greeted the girls initially was standing next to a shorter, frailer stallion with a white mane flowing down to the bridge of his nose. Both were keeping watch of their two new guests causing a ruckus in the lobby, trying everything from magically walking through the adjacent walls to slamming straight into their magic barrier they set up in front of the door. Twilight and Rainbow didn’t let that stop them; they really wanted to get at Chrysalis.

“Please stop that,” the frailer, smaller monk said plainly. Whether he could actually see through his thick, ruffled white bangs, or if he could simply tell what was going on based on the noise, he wasn’t happy with the girls’ behavior.

Rainbow took a break from hitting the magic wall and instead directed her anger at the cloaked bag of bones that had the gall to tell her what to do. “What gives!? How can you let HER into this place?! I thought this place was supposed to be secret and safe!”

“We’re not at liberty to tell you why,” the taller monk replied with an annoyed scowl. Had these two troublemakers not come at the request of Princess Luna, he would’ve cast the girls out into the snow by now.

Twilight took a break from her attempt to bypass the dark-blue barrier of light to instead direct her frustration at the tight-lipped stallion who was too stubborn to answer a simple question. “We’ve seen first-hoof the evil cast by that changeling! She even attacked Celestia for pony’s sake!”

“We are aware.” There was a quick glow of dark blue underneath the taller monk’s nest of white hair when he saw that Rainbow was rearing to attack the wall again. She didn’t notice the flash that made it even darker in color, and she brought the less-bruised of her two shoulders straight into the barrier again. The monk cringed at Rainbow’s high-pitched yelp of pain. He didn’t like having to take sides in this matter, but Chrysalis’s directions were to keep these two away from her, and he was obligated to obey them. “But I hope you realize we aren’t trying to inconvenience you. We have reasons for our actions—try and see this from out point of view.”

Twilight hung her head and sighed heavily. She started towards the library door and beckoned to Rainbow to follow. “Let’s go; obviously, we’re not giving up on talking to her”—she shot a look at the two monks watching—“but we may as well use this time to read the book that brought us here in the first place.”

Rainbow pretended to be upset about leaving, but she couldn’t be happier to let her bruises heal themselves. Of course, she made sure to angrily stomp as hard as she could on the smooth stone stairs when she followed behind Twilight.

Walking through the first wooden door into the long musty hallway, Rainbow immediately spoke up. “What in the world do you think that—what did she say her name was? Chrysalis?—what do you think Chrysalis is even doing here?! Why would those monks obey her like that?” Twilight opened her mouth, but Rainbow continued her rant. “You think this is a setup or something?” The pegasus’s magenta eyes darted to the left, then the right, then to the ceiling and finally to the floor, making sure there weren’t any traps waiting for her that she hadn’t noticed earlier.

“Well I—”

“And why would she know about Princess Luna? Was it her that did something to make Celestia all crazy, do you think?”

Rainbow looked up and placed her hoof on her chin, trying to think of other questions to shout at Twilight and the walls. Taking advantage of the pause, Twilight zipped her friend’s rambling mouth shut, literally. Unlike Rainbow, Twilight took her time to gather her thoughts before speaking.

“…Well, obviously something is going on that we were never supposed to know about.” Her horn glowed, and the door they had just reached swung open; Rainbow glared when Twilight still hadn’t turned her lips back to normal. “The monks weren’t even aware that Chrysalis didn’t want us knowing she was here, so she must have assumed we’d never discover this ‘secret,’ and didn’t feel the need to tell the monks she didn’t want us seeing her here.” She was glancing around at the mass of ancient books wasting away on the shelves, this time looking to avoid making eye contact with a very peeved Rainbow Dash. “Even now, though, she blows us off; she’s acting as though this discovery of ours hasn’t compromised anything, and that may very well be the truth. But was are her plans, then…?”

Twilight bit her lip in thought; Rainbow shoved her wing into Twilight’s side, still waiting for her lips to come back. Knowing she couldn’t pretend to not notice a push so hard it made her stumble, Twilight finally looked at Rainbow, pursing her lips to suppress a smile. “Okay, okay.” Her horn glowed and she reversed the spell. “Just don’t start rambling off questions again; it doesn’t help either of us figure this out.”

Rainbow’s mouth was open, prepared to talk again, but Twilight’s stipulation made her quit before she started. Instead, she licked a piece of food out from her back teeth and followed Twilight wordlessly.

The door to the small chamber from before was still ajar, and as Twilight entered the room she saw the book they were after sitting patiently on the floor between the two middle bookshelves; following Chrysalis’s leave, Twilight and Rainbow had chased after her, forcing the monk to have to take action and stop them from ramming down their special guest. The wood in the fireplace was nothing more than small orange embers and charred chunks now; nobody must’ve come to this part of the library since then.

“Maybe Chrysalis wants to help us?” Rainbow finally said, her voice coming from just outside the musty room; she wasn’t going in if given a choice. Twilight was busy putting out the dim remains of the fireplace; Rainbow didn’t see the unicorn’s face contort at the suggestion, but she did hear the silence met with it. “Well, granted,” she started, “this is the same queen that tried to overtake Canterlot with an army of changelings, but you gotta admit that this whole situation is really, really weird.” Twilight exited the room with the book and looked at the pegasus laying back-up against the stone wall with a raised eyebrow. Rainbow continued. “Let’s not forget: Princess Luna is pregnant. There’s no telling what other crazy things may be happening right now.”

Twilight watched Rainbow quietly for several seconds, then turned her attention to the reading area hiding behind the bookcases at the far end of the long room. “…Yeaaah, let’s just read this book before coming to any conclusions, okay?”

The temple was as quiet as ever, and the acoustics in the library were terrible. Still, the reading area wasn’t very far from where the Twilight had been with Rainbow and the monk. All but one stool was stacked against the wall, and it had been left next to one of the tables. This is where she was reading? One would have to be really immersed in a book to not hear ponies talking so loudly in such a quiet place. Obviously, Twilight hadn’t taken the changeling queen to be the reading type. She scowled when she realized she now had a higher opinion of Chrysalis.

Rainbow grimaced at the loud thump when the red-bounded book landed on the granite table. She only just realized how thick the thing was. As Twilight turned on the oil lamp in the center of the table, Rainbow scooted away and started to browse the other reading options on the shelves; all the book’s that had titles on their spines were either too worn out to read or in a language Rainbow didn’t recognize. “I don’t suppose they have any action/adventure fiction books in here?”

Twilight smiled, a smile which twisted into a teeth-clenched frown when she took a seat on the splintery wooden stool. She stood back up and decided that being neck-level with the tabletop was better than pulling wood shards from her flank. Replying to her friend’s earlier question, Twilight said, “This is a place for preserving knowledge, Rainbow, not entertainment. Now come over and sit down; we’ll need as many heads together as we can get if we want any answers from this book—uh.” Twilight’s apprehensive noise made Rainbow freeze mid-action, in a squat over the same stool Twilight had just pushed away. “I’d just use the floor if I were you.”

Rainbow gave the stool one glance before kicking it away and joined shoulder-to-shoulder with Twilight to start reading.

Memoirs of Terror: Story of the Eater

A Collection of Writings by a Community in Panic

By Feather Waltz

Author’s Note: Part One of this book contains many pieces of literature written by the ancestor’s of my generation which I have struggled over many years to attain. I have edited none of their writing. Neither grammar nor spelling. The purpose of Part One is for the reader to fully understand the threat that was the Eater, a monster held responsible for the disappearance of thousands over one hundred and fifty years ago..

“What in the—” Twilight started angrily.

“Eh?” Rainbow was spending more time listening to Twilight read aloud than actually looking at the book.

“Look at that!” Twilight pointed to the underlined phrase ‘one hundred and fifty years ago.’ The underline was obviously added in, the ink being a darker shade of black and not even a straight line. The underline continued off the sentence and pointed to a printed note in the same ink. Squeezed in the right margin of the page was: ‘approx. 2400-2600 years past.’

Rainbow’s eyes wandered further down the page, and there was another small note scribbled, with the words ‘unicorn?,’ ‘earth?,’ and ‘pegasus?’ pointing to the word ‘equine’ in the book. She brought her head closer to read the tiny text, just as the book glowed purple and the pages turned furiously one after the other, making Rainbow jolt back. Turning to Twilight, Rainbow could see Twilight was ready to blow a gasket.

There were at least three scribbled-in notes per page. For the entire book.

Twilight’s jaw was clenched so hard, Rainbow swore she could see Twilight’s teeth being pushed back into her gums. “…Uh, Twi? You alright?”

“DEFACING A BOOK!” Twilight screamed. “It’s ONE thing to write notes in your OWN PERSONAL COPY; this is PRICELESS KNOWLEDGE—it was her, ‘Chrysalis,’ WASN’T IT!?”

Twilight stood up and slammed the book shut, starting off back to the lobby. Just around the bookshelf nearest them was the first monk they met, standing still but body shuddering.

“D-Dinner is ready…” the old stallion said nervously, his face so white it made his beard look grey. He must had been coming to get the two and was almost there before Twilight exploded with rage. Seeing the fear on his face, Twilight immediately calmed herself down, but she still angry. She gave a quick apology before scolding the stallion in Chrysalis’s stead.

“Look at this!” The book flew into his face and flipped through its pages wildly, showing off the graffiti. “Chrysalis has completely defaced this book! Are you going to let THAT slide, too?!”

For once, something regarding the changeling queen surprised the monk. Color returned to his face, but it was much more red than usual. His own magic took the book from Twilight, and he brought it to himself for closer inspection. “What in the? Well, we’ll have to discuss this with her,” he said like a father preparing to spank his misbehaving kid. “Come; you two arrived to the temple late, but it was just in time for us to accommodate dinner for you as well. —Ah, and, she’s going to be dining with us. So please don’t…uh…just don’t, okay?”

Chrysalis wasn’t the biggest fan of the sloppy vegetable soup that the monks had cooked for the evening, but seeing as she was their guest, she figured she wasn’t one to complain. However, after the taste from her first spoonful didn’t exactly go down her throat easily, she decided to stir the soup back and forth, playing with it instead of eating it. She fiddled her spoon around the green slop that had chunks of potato and carrot. She couldn’t believe these old guys seriously ate this gunk on a daily basis. I suppose the elderly don’t have as good a sense of taste as the young. Her bored lips cocked to one side of her face as she mulled over the thought. The slit pupils of her swampy-green eyes moved slowly slid from left to right, taking in the sight of the dining hall. I’m not one to talk. Older than these monks, older than most of these books—heck, I’m as old as this damn temple.

Thinking about the temple made her realize just how chilly it was in the room, even with the fireplace roaring directly behind her. Chrysalis shivered and decided to have another mouthful of the soup in front of her, if for nothing else than to warm up.

Just then, the double-doors to the temple lobby swung open with ferocious force. Standing in the middle of the open doorway was Twilight Sparkle, her eyes locking on to Chrysalis. Twilight had overestimated the available swinging radius of the doors, both of which slammed into a half-finished statue and left both the lobby and dining hall echoing with the resonant clatter of the wooden doors.

The noise took everyone by surprise. At one end of the long, rectangular dining hall were two monks making the boiling green goop in a large round metal pot. One of the chefs—the one stirring the soup—stumbled with a gasp that sucked the air out of his frail lungs, and he dropped the large ladle in the soup, casing him to gasp again in horror; when he instinctively reached for the falling ladle, his hoof made contact with the steaming soup, making him cry another gasp in pain. Chrysalis was watching the poor monk with an opened-mouth half-smile, not sure if she should pity the old man or laugh at his exaggerated actions. She was so focused on him that she didn’t notice Twilight’s angry eyes trying to burn a hole through Chrysalis’s head.

“Hey, you!” Twilight shouted loudly enough to steal Chrysalis’s attention. The odd-looking grin on the changeling queen’s face made Twilight raise a confused eyebrow, but Chrysalis’s expression faded as soon as she saw Twilight, and was quickly replaced with a detached, apathetic stare.

“What now?” Chrysalis turned her attention to the bowl of soup in front of her that was starting to solidify on the surface. “Can’t I at least enjoy my dinner without your interruptions?”

Twilight stomped as loudly as she could towards Chrysalis and took a heavy seat into the table; it made from wood so old it was as grey as the stone floor, and the cracking of several splinters sounded when Twilight sat, but she paid it no mind. Chrysalis peered over the pissed unicorn’s shoulder and saw the rainbow-haired pegasus from earlier; she half-grinned when she realized the talk about all six of them being here was bull.

Twilight didn’t know why this big ugly bug kept making that condescending smile so freaking much, but she was getting sick of it really quickly. She slammed the red-bound book on the table so hard that its pages coughed up a cloud of dust that evenly coated Chrysalis’s lukewarm soup. Humoring herself, the changeling took a spoonful of the soup and tried it with the additional seasoning. Smacking her tongue on the roof of her mouth, she turned to Twilight and casually said, “Hm. It really accentuates the flavor, but leaves much to be desired. Would you like to try some on your soup, too?”

The monk and Rainbow walked through the doorway into the dining hall, and the monk closed the doors behind him to keep in the heat of the fireplace. “P—er, I mean, ‘Chrysalis’.” His horn glowed dark blue under his shaggy mane, and the book flipped open several pages, displaying a sample of Chrysalis’s notes; this was the first time her expression showed any kind of unease. She winced, like a child waiting to hear what the punishment was going to be for disobeying her parents. “This is the only copy we know of in existence. What you’ve done is a terrible, terrible thing.”

Chrysalis looked at Twilight. The changeling’s brow was furrowed angrily, but she was also biting the left of her lip uncomfortably. Twilight didn’t know what to make of such an expression. To both Rainbow and Twilight, Chrysalis said, “You mean you’re the ones who were after this book? I suppose…that makes sense.” She switched to biting the right of her lip, her sharp canine nibbling on the soft black flesh.

“What gives, huh?” Rainbow said in a much kinder tone than she had wanted. To make up for it, she said her next sentence in a such a gruff tone it sounded comical. “What do you know about Princess Luna? Do you know what’s going on? And just what’s with that book, anyway? What does the ‘Eater’ have to do with anything?”

Chrysalis was looking down, her eyes darting left and right to weigh all her options. Finally, after a silence disturbed only by someone in the background blowing hard on his first-degree burn, her face went stoic and she locked eyes with Twilight. “We both fully know how we feel about each other, but let me ask you something: How far would you be willing to trust me?”

The pain felt almost nostalgic. Cadance’s splitting headache felt just as it did the last time she had used her magic to—and past—its limits. It certainly felt stranger now, though. Last time, all her mental and physical energy was going into her magic so her barrier could cover the entire Crystal Empire.

Now, she was using much the same barrier to keep Celestia’s fever-driven frenzy from escaping the scorched bedroom.

When Celestia’s blazing fire spiraled from her horn and tore into the barrier, both Luna and Cadance flinched in unison. Like a flashbulb memory, Cadance found her mind going over the past minute or so, all the while struggling to reinforce Luna’s dark-navy sphere with her own neon-blue one.

She had just arrived to Canterlot. Obviously, she’d heard about Luna’s pregnancy, but work in the Crystal Empire had kept her from even writing more than a letter in reply for the past few weeks. With the work whittled down to where Shining Armor could handle it solo, Cadance hurried to Canterlot to sit down and talk with Luna. Luna wrote in a letter sent this morning that she would be in Celestia’s room most of the day, apparently tending to her sister for some untold reason. Already knowing her way around the castle, Cadance traveled through the empty upper floors to Celestia’s room; the door—rather modest and plain for someone in charge of an entire country—was within Cadance’s sight when a powerful roar made her instinctively duck and cover her head. A heavy, magic force flew out the bedroom and tore the door from its brass hinges, the sound making Cadance scream and close her eyes. The door didn’t touch the floor when it sped across the hallway and embedded snugly into the adjacent wall. Next thing Cadance knew, she found herself standing—dumbfounded—in a broken and charred doorway, gawking at a blackened and sweating Luna giving everything she had to prevent Celestia’s solar flares from damaging the singed room any further. Luna’s ethereal mane appeared undamaged, but the condition of her skin told Cadance that Luna wasn’t fast enough with her protection spell. But at least Luna wasn’t charcoal—something Cadance couldn’t say for most of the objects in the room.

And the next thing she knew, she was standing on Luna’s right, giving everything she had in assisting the princess in suppressing her sister. Cadance didn’t even know if Luna was aware of her presence, but that didn’t matter at the moment. Cadance wondered why in the world she bothered to think about that at a time like this. The pink alicorn’s derailed train of thought stopped at the sound of Luna shouting to her—though not taking her eyes off of her sister.

“ON MY SIGNAL,” Luna shouted over the sound of Celestia’s barrages striking the magical sphere. It made an ear-piercing noise of shattering glass, and it drilled through Cadance’s eardrums and into her head, making her headache even worse. “ON MY SIGNAL, LEAVE AN OPENING FOR ME.”

Cadance continued restoring the damage being done to the sphere as Celestia continued to flail attacks. Looking at Luna, she read the alicorn’s lips softly speaking,

Three.

Two.

One.

“NOW!”

Cadance heard her neck own crack from the force of her head turning so fast. Adrenaline pumping through her slowed down time, and she watched, in slow-motion, Luna leaping towards the sphere, wings spread and teeth grit. As the dark-blue aura gave way to make a Luna-sized hole in the barrier, Cadance did the same. Luna continued sailing ever so slowly. Closer. The heat of Celestia’s previous attack escaped the hole and pounded Cadance like a meteor, but she held her ground. Luna’s sparkling, starry mane contorted and twisted in temperatures so hot it blurred and bent the light around it.

Luna’s hoof extended ahead of her. The sound of Cadance’s heartbeat in her ears was deafening. She saw Luna’s mouth move, but couldn’t hear the words. Celestia didn’t see her sister coming towards her. Her eyes were closed, her face was panicked and desperate, and she was readying yet another attack.

Luna’s arm was fully extended. She was nearing her target. Chunks of black, scrapes of pink, and blotches of red adorned her dark-blue coat. The battle couldn’t have started more than a minute ago, but Luna was still covered with ash. A thin line of her navy face showed through the ash, stretching from the corner of her eye to the end of her cheek.

Cadance cringed. She didn’t hear the crack, but she could still imagine the sound.

The crystal shoe on Luna’s hoof split down the middle from the impact with Celestia’s lower jaw. The force rippled like rings spreading out on water over Celestia’s face. Her entire head slowly recoiled with the blow. For a moment, she appeared to have awakened, but she fell unconscious.

It was over. For now.

As Luna and Cadance both dispelled their barriers, Celestia fell to the ground. Her bed—now ashes—flew up in the air and stuck to Celestia’s body, coloring her a light grey. Luna collapsed onto her sister, panting hard with her eyes on the verge of rolling back into her head. She looked up at Cadance. “It’s…nice to…see you again…”

Sparse pieces of ash in the air fell into Cadance’s wide-open mouth, but she couldn’t bring herself to close it. “…What the hell just happened?”

Luna’s panting stopped and she took a dry swallow, then started panting again. “Tia hasn’t been the best these past days.” Luna’s throat hurt to speak; her vocal chords felt shriveled and dry. “Both her physical and mental condition has been deteriorating fast.” Clearing her throat, Luna got up off her sister’s limp body. The adrenaline gone, Luna could feel every burn and scrape on her body.

“What do we do?” Cadance asked, not knowing what else to say. “We certainly can’t mention this to anyone. Most ponies are suspicious of you and Celestia as it is. Knowing this…the entire country would…”

Sky-blue strands of light came from Cadance’s horn as she cast a repairing spell that twisted and turned around the room. As the strands flowed around the cinders, the room began to rebuild itself.

Luna tried to walk, but her foreleg gave out and she fell on her knee. Cadance trotted to the alicorn’s side and helped her back up with a wing. “It shouldn’t be too hard to keep secret,” Luna said, “as much as I hate to do it. With a little magical treatment, I’m sure that these scars will heal completely within two or three weeks.”

Cadance’s reversal spell was difficult to keep up, and she fell to the ground from the pressure of her headache; it was Luna’s turn to lift Cadance up, and she thanked Luna. “The Mountaintop Ball is in nine days, though,” Cadance said, pressing against the pressure in her head with her foreleg. “What are we to do about that?”

A tired sigh whistled through Luna’s clenched teeth. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, Cadance. Now is not the time for worrying about a silly public event.” She looked back at Celestia and lifted her into the air as Cadance’s spell turned a charred pile of ash back into Celestia’s canopy bed. “I have no time to worry. I need to be strong—for the both of us.”

Chapter 7: Look Who Dropped By

The only thing keeping Luna from breaking down crying in her bedroom was Cadance leaning against the doorway only two yards away. Blinking rapidly several times to drain the liquid blurring her vision, Luna turned around to face Cadance. The pink alicorn’s wide, expressionless eyes and contracted pupils staring at the floor suggested that she still hadn’t recovered from the incident five minutes ago.

Which is to be expected, Luna realized; at this point, little to nothing surprised Luna, and Celestia’s fever dreams turning into violent fits of mindless rage wasn’t an exception. Walking up to Cadance, Luna gave her a nudge with her wing, directing the princess to sit on Luna’s bed and rest her legs. Wanting to do something to ease Cadance’s mind, Luna gave the alicorn a complement.

The thin scars on her and Cadance’s body were gaping gashes minutes ago. Thanks to Cadance’s magic, she and Luna were almost completely healed. With a tired but sincere smile, Luna said, “Your magical abilities are superb, Princess Cadance.”

Cadance had been staring blankly at the milky-white crescent-moon shape painted on the floor, and she flinched when Luna started to speak. Her head slowly cocked up, gazing with the same blank stare into Luna’s eyes. She was surprisingly collected but a minute ago. Perhaps the shock of what just happened has only now begun to seep in. Luna could feel water rising back into her dry eyes, forcing her to turn and avoid Cadance’s stare. “I am, sorry you had to witness that.”

“What’s wrong with her?” The voice coming from Cadance’s voice was muffled and wet—the sound of someone talking while trying to keep their emotions in their throat. Turning around sharply, Luna saw Cadance had given up the fight against tears and was crying freely. It was surreal, watching the princess of an entire empire sobbing shamelessly, but Luna couldn’t blame her for it. As much as she wanted to give in to emotion like Cadance, though, Luna held back her tears. Someone had to stay strong during a time like this.

Luna hopped onto the edge of her bed alongside Cadance and wrapped a comforting wing around the alicorn’s shoulder. It was weird; despite Cadance being, more or less, Luna’s equal, Luna couldn’t help but feel a maternal instinct kick in. Perhaps a symptom of being an expecting mother, Luna mused as she chewed the inside of her cheek. Cadance was too emotional and didn’t consider whether or not the scene was as ‘weird’ as Luna considered it; she immediately leaned her head onto Luna’s shoulder and continued to cry. Luna thought about saying something, but realized that if Cadance would speak first if she wanted to talk.

Sure enough, two and a half minutes later, Cadance spoke up. Opening her eyes with a sniffle, Cadance mumbled, “Is she going to get better?”

“Of course she is,” Luna responded, arguably too quickly. Trying to lighten the mood, she added, “She has a Ball to attend, after all! Celestia wouldn’t let herself miss such an event!”

Luna mentally smacked herself after saying that. The joke flew over Cadance’s head, however. “Oh! The Ball! What are we to do about that, Princess Luna? What if Celestia isn’t better by then?”

“Maybe you could wear a disguise and pose as Celestia for the evening; I doubt anyone would even notice.”

This time, Luna felt inclined to physically smack herself, which she promptly did. Cadance was left in confusion as to why Luna hurt herself. Tucking her wing back in, Luna leapt off the bed and looked to Cadance.

“I’m going to go check on Tia. You can stay here if you’d like.”

The mention of Celestia constricted Cadance’s pupils. “Yes, I’d like to stay here, thank you.” She sniffed and rubbed her cheeks, her pent-up emotions finally drained out.

With a nod, Luna left her bedroom and entered the hallway. Cadance hadn’t fixed the door embedded in the wall opposite Celestia’s room, but Luna knew she couldn’t ask such a thing of her at this moment. She walked through the doorway to Celestia’s room. The white alicorn was sprawled out on top of the covers, her face a shade of light pink. Luna stood by the side of the bed and sat down, looking at the white sheets. Minutes ago, those sheets—like everything else in the room—were a smoldering pile of black and grey ash.

“You gave Princess Cadance quite a scare, Sister,” Luna said to the unconscious alicorn. “I don’t know how well she’s going to hold up. She’s fine, but I think she’s scared of you now. …I never got to know her very well—you know, the whole one-thousand-years thing. She’s a very kind and powerful girl. I’m sure she’s going to make an excellent ruler for the Crystal Empire. You did good choosing her.”

All the lights were off; the only source of light was that from the hallway slipping into the open doorway. Luna’s dark shadow was cast over Celestia’s body. Luna wasn’t one for waxing poetic, but she couldn’t help but find the sight ominous, and she got up to sit on the other side of the bed, where her shadow wouldn’t loom over her sister.

Unconscious or not, Luna was finding it easier to talk to Celestia’s back than her face. “I found myself making a very bad joke at your expense but a moment ago. I’m going to be honest, Tia,” Celestia’s shadow on the sheets moved up and down rhythmically with her light breathing, “I loved all those times when you would try and mess with me. Childish, I know, to make you do it more by acting like I didn’t like it. It was fun.” Luna turned her head and said softer, “It was the only fun I ever really had. And now that’s gone.

“…I wonder if it will ever come back?”

Thankfully for Rainbow Dash, Twilight had the common courtesy to admit that threatening to burn their only means of transport was a terrible idea, and she used a small repairing spell purely out of guilt. Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, she now had to pull the chariot, Twilight, and the temple monk that was coming with them to speak to Luna and Celestia. Twilight rushing Rainbow wasn’t helping, either.

“Can’t you please go faster?” Twilight begged yet again. She pointed at the monk as she spoke, not that Rainbow’s back could see. “We need to get him to the Princesses ASAP!”

“Get him to their ‘eh-sap’?” Rainbow asked, not familiar with the word.

The monk rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. “Do these kinds of conversations occur often between you two?”

“Nobody asked you!” Rainbow said automatically as the monk started to talk. “I can get there just fine, alright? I’m just used to flying freely in the sky—not acting the role of transport mule!”

Far on the ground below, a mule could feel something was off. He could feel the words “none taken” on the tip of his tongue, prepared to come from his throat should he hear an apology of some kind. The response, innate, was prepared to go off—but no apology came. Apology for what? the mule thought. Either way, nothing happened, and so he continued with his day—though now feeling a tad sour.

A mountain in the distance towered over the surrounding lands of Equestria; the city of Canterlot, embedded near the mountain’s summit, was coming into view.

Arriving over the rooftops of the Canterlot buildings, Rainbow prepared for a landing next to the castle. The lines in the monk’s old face showed hard and creased with his squinting eyes, even though the hood draped over his head was protecting him from the midday sunlight. He spotted the upper torso of Princess Luna hanging out one of the windows on the top floor of the castle, waving and beckoning them to come closer.

“Over there,” the monk said patiently and pointed in the direction of Luna, which both Rainbow and Twilight had failed to spot. “I think the Princess would prefer speed to modesty. Park on the roof of the castle if you would, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow didn’t like the idea of taking orders from this guy, but she obeyed and landed on a flat section of the roof of the castle. Twilight immediately jumped out and hung her head over the edge of the golden tiling. Luna was still there in the window, looking up. She appeared both eager and worried.

“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle!” Luna said. “I see you brought someone with you, yes?”

Twilight’s attention shifted to the golden tiling she was perched on, and she tapped it lightly with her hooves. “Yeah,” Twilight said with much less enthusiasm. “We, uh, we brought one of the monks along with us. He wanted to talk to you and Celestia directly.”

“Good, good. Bring them within my view and I can teleport you all into my room. I have Princess Cadance here as well; she has been helping me out for the past day.”

Twilight’s mouth opened into a smile. She was leaning off the roof now, prepared to say “sunshine, sunshine…” should Cadance suddenly come into view. “Just a sec!” Twilight stood back up and looked behind her. The monk’s old hooves clacked against the angled roof until he was standing on the edge with Twilight. Rainbow just finished wriggling out from the chariot’s reigns and flew to Twilight’s side.

Luna’s magic surrounded the three looking over the rooftop above her and she teleported them into the center of her bedroom, right above the white crescent-moon adorning her blue floor. Sitting next to a table in the corner opposite Luna’s bed was Cadance; the pink mare’s face lit up brighter than the glowing fireplace next to her upon seeing her sister-in-law. The ponies’ backs were facing her, and with a pounce she surprised Twilight Sparkle.

“Hey!” Twilight giggled as Cadance had her pinned to the floor. Luna paid the two little mind; knowing just how stressed Cadance had been since yesterday evening, she wasn’t going to say boo to a little unbecoming roughhousing. She gave a thankful nod to Rainbow Dash, making the mare erect her posture when she realized she was in the presence of royalty.

A breath of air blew out Luna’s nose and she smiled at Rainbow’s formality—especially considering the princess a few feet away, giving Twilight a noogie. “At ease, Rainbow Dash,” Luna laughed. Finally, her attention turned to the monk standing silently in the middle of the room. Walking up to him, Luna’s humor was replaced with anticipation. She swallowed before speaking. “Hello.”

“Hello,” the monk replied. “Princess Luna. I don’t believe we’ve met before.”

The sudden cut of Twilight’s laughing left the room eerily still. Wriggling out of Cadance’s clutches, she said to the pink mare, “Cadance, maybe you should—or, we, should, ah, give Luna some time to talk alone.”

“Is something the matter, Twilight?” Cadance asked. She turned to the monk; he suddenly seemed suspicious to her.

“Worried about something, Twilight Sparkle?” The monk seemed to be teasing the unicorn. “No, it’s a good thing she’s here. It allows me some much-needed closure.”

Luna’s head turned towards Twilight, but her eyes stayed fixed on the newcomer. “Twilight,” Luna said cautiously, “who is this man?”

“She said she could help,” both Rainbow and Twilight said in unison.

Cadance heard enough. Ropes made of sky-blue light rose from the floor and constricted around each ankle, anchoring the monk in place—plus one around the neck for good measure. The stallion stood unyielding to Cadance’s attack. Cadance’s jaw was clenched tight and her nostrils flared. “Don’t tell me this is who I think it is, Twilight!” she said angrily.

“Oh come now, Princess Cadance,” the monk said casually, earning himself a tighter grip from the strands of light. “It was nothing personal, honestly.”

“Why would you bring her here!?” Cadance demanded to Twilight and Rainbow. The words were hard and cold, and they drilled into Twilight with enough force to make her tear up. “You both know very well what she caused the last time she slipped her way into Canterlot!”

“This time I wore a disguise to protect myself from someone else, not from you,” the monk replied as casually as he could with the restraints digging into his neck.

“Is this the Changeling Queen, then?” Luna asked sternly to anyone in the room who was willing to answer.

Managing to turn his constricted neck enough to look Luna in the eyes, the monk said, “A pleasure to finally meet you, Princess.”

“Cadance!” Luna’s voice boomed, making the monk’s restraints squeeze tighter for a moment when Cadance flinched. “Release her.”

“But Luna—”

“Do it.”

Cadance hesitated, debating whether or not to obey her superior’s orders. She finally gave in after a tense twenty seconds. The monk shifted in place to return feeling to his hooves. In one swift motion and a flare of luminous green, a tall black figure replaced the monk, filling the brown, raggedy robe. Chrysalis took in a deep breath and exhaled. Luna couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the queen who as tall as her sister. “Tell, me, Changeling Queen—”

“‘Chrysalis’ will suffice, thank you very much,” the changeling interrupted. Her face was apathetic as ever.

“Okay, ‘Chrysalis,’ tell me what your reasons are for coming here. Obviously, if Twilight Sparkle thought it wise to bring you to me, you must be of some help.”

“Hey, uh,” Rainbow Dash said softly enough that no one noticed her, “I also helped make the decision…”

“You’re going to need my help soon enough,” Chrysalis replied to Luna. “You see, I have a plan—a plan that I do not want to share with you, no offense.” As she talked, Chrysalis tossed the robe aside and made her way to Luna’s bed. She sat on the edge of it as Cadance stood with her horn at the ready, glowing bright enough to illuminate the floor around her. “You see, you and I,” Chrysalis pointed to Luna and then to herself with a hole-dotted hoof, “we have different goals. Both of these goals, however, require similar steps to be taken if these goals are to be met. We have a common enemy, Princess Luna—you just aren’t aware of it yet.”

Luna narrowed her gaze at the changeling. “Are you implying you know who it is that conceived my child?”

“I’d like to think I do,” Chrysalis admitted with a shrug, cocking her head to the side. “I have no concrete proof of anything, but I’ve lived long enough to research what I need to know. If I were to guess, however, the ‘father’ is your very sister—as a means of avoiding potential backlash from the public.”

“And how in the world would that be a good thing!?” Rainbow Dash blurted out at Chrysalis.

Taking the comment in stride, Chrysalis replied, “We’ve reached a day and age in which technology allows us to see our own genetics. A simple DNA test on the child will reveal that there seemingly is no father—that is, as long as your DNA and your sister’s was mixed well enough, it would appear to the outside observer that this was a virgin conception. That is the purpose of using your sister’s genes.”

Luna took several dazed steps backward until she fell to a sit. “I think I’m going to be sick…” She placed pressed her arm against her forehead; she could feel her temples pounding hard in frustration.

“Don’t worry,” Chrysalis assured. “It’s not the same as inbreeding. I think,” she added with a sly tongue. “There will be no repercussions from the child’s parents being you and your sister—well, aside from any mental scarring from learning you’re the product of your mother and aunt. Don’t ever tell the kid about that.”

“This is ridiculous,” Cadance said, shaking her head at Luna, Twilight, and Rainbow. Her brow was creased tightly. “You’re letting her feed you this garbage with a spoon, Luna! This is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!”

A bright thread of green light leapt from Chrysalis’s jagged horn and wrapped itself around Cadance’s snout, clamping her mouth shut. The other three mares took a fighting stance, but Chrysalis didn’t move from her lackadaisical sit on Luna’s bed. “I’ve never been a fan of your annoying voice. It really bothered me, having to listen to it every time I opened my blindingly-pink mouth back when I was impersonating you.”

With a quick motion of her horn, Luna removed the strand on Cadance’s mouth. “Watch yourself, Chrysalis,” she warned in a voice that made the fireplace flicker behind her.

The changeling snorted in reply. “I don’t blame your pretty pink princess for thinking I’m spouting lies. Since you need proof that I know what I’m talking about, listen to this: Very soon—I suspect within the next month or so—Princess Celestia is going to snap. Without rhyme or reason, you’ll find that her mentality will rapidly break down. All controllers of the sun do.” She leaned further back on Luna’s bed, resting her body on her elbows. “Longevity does not keep you from being a victim to time.”

“And what makes you so sure of that?” Luna asked, prying for as much information as she could before letting Chrysalis know anything, much less that her prediction had already come true. “A month is a very small time frame when you consider Celestia has been sound of mind for centuries.”

“I’m not sure. It is one of many assumptions made by my eons of research and planning. If something as simple as that does not happen, then the very foundations upon which I have prepared my plan shall crumble.” The severity of her statement puzzled Luna. What is this “plan” of hers, and just how long has she been perfecting it? In fact, just how old is Chrysalis?

“You mentioned that we have a ‘common enemy.’” Chrysalis only nodded her head at Luna’s statement. “Is this ‘enemy’ we share, say, a single person, or some kind of entity, or—”

“I would prefer to tell you as little as possible,” Chrysalis interrupted. “Keep in mind that I’m not here because I want to work alongside you, nor do I even wish to help you. For me, you are merely the means to an end.”

“And what ‘end’ is that?”

Chrysalis stepped back on the floor and thought for a moment. “If I were to put it into a single word…” She looked down to her side and placed a hoof on her chin. “Hmm, I can’t really put it into a word.” She walked slowly to Luna and lowered her head to be eye-level with her. “I desire nothing more than two things, my dear Princess: Salvation, and revenge. And with your assistance, both my goals and yours can be made a reality.”

“What would you need of us?” Luna asked, taking a step forward, not backing down from Chrysalis’s intimidating figure.

“A place to live—hide, rather—for starters,” Chrysalis replied with a breath, her air of seriousness leaving with it. “I’m more or less trapped under your roof for reasons I won’t delve into.”

“Obviously,” Luna said with a roll of her eyes.

Chrysalis glanced around the room. “Your place will do just nicely, I think. I’ll make a guest room out of your room. The bed is quite comfy.” She turned back to an eyebrow-cocked, slack-jawed Luna. “Oh, and where is your sister? I owe her one free slap in the face. Not much revenge for what I did to her, but it’s better than nothing, eh?”