Minding the Little Ones

by Karrakaz

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 11354

Conquering the mountain that was telling Twilight's parents of their relationship could be described as a pinnacle in Celestia's life. Unfortunately, life is rarely that easy. Now the two have new things to worry about. Small things, that cry a lot.

Life takes its course, and after telling the world of their relationship, it was only natural for them to take the next step. Now they find themselves married, with a lot of new things to worry about, not the least of which are their children.

This story was a challenge to myself to write in a different way from how I would usually approach a story, and as such it will not be written in chronological order. It will, however, be rearranged into chronological order once it is complete.

Published 2015-09-17 01:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-04-19 19:16:07 UTC

Missing

Just like that, Celestia was awake. She blearily opened her eyes and even in the darkness that permeated the room, could tell that she found herself in bed. In a bed. A bed that she did not recognise as her own. Her ears swiveled around, but there was nary a sound to be heard in her immediate surroundings. The room that surrounded her was similarly unfamiliar, but that wasn't what worried her. It was the silence. Something was wrong. Missing. A strange and unfamiliar unease that sat in the pit of her stomach like a block of ice, and although her sleep addled brain could not fathom why, she knew that the answer to that particular question was of the utmost importance. She rose from the bed she had been sleeping in, the sheets that dared restrict her movement burning away in a spell cast thoughtlessly in her growing panic.

What little light filtered through the windows on two sides of the room, illuminated several expensive looking paintings hanging form the walls. To Celestia’s right, was a chess table in front of the hearth, which in turn was flanked by statues of herself and her sister. To her left, a lectern filled with scrolls, and enough bookcases to embarrass some smaller libraries, and the soft plushy feeling that tickled the frog of her hoof when she stepped off the bed, belied an expensive carpet to boot.

It mattered little. She needed to find whatever it was that was so thoroughly absent, and since there were only two doors in the room, she simply chose the one closest. The hard-wooden divider cracked under the pressure her magic exerted upon it, but got even less attention than the room had. Through, she found a hallway of sorts. It was tiny when compared to the grand winding hallways of the castle, and she had to duck to even fit through the doorway, but much resembled the room she'd just left where decoration was concerned. From a heavy ornate door with a window that likely served as the entrance to the mostly wooden house, to a similar carpet that surrounded the bed lining the hallway, whomever had been in charge of interior decoration had a gaudy taste and too much money to spend.

Forcing down her dread with an audible gulp, Celestia opened investigated the next door in the hallway with a little more care. It led to another, smaller, room, which had been laid out as a kitchen, complete with oven, stove, extensive kitchen counter, and even held a marble dining table, which didn't really seem to fit with the rest of the decor. The room had obviously seen use recently. The sink was filled with dirty plates and cutlery, and the teapot and cups had been left on the table. The one thing it didn’t contain was that which she was looking for, so she moved on.

Though still incredibly sluggish and heavy with the last vestiges of sleep, her mind was becoming clearer and provided her with a new piece to the puzzle: she wasn't looking for something, but somepony. Several someponies in fact. She wasn’t sure who or why, but they were more important to her than life itself, and should something have befallen them, she would burn the world down around those responsible.

Two more doors creaked in their hinges, and two more lavish rooms—A living room and a study respectively—went explored without progress before she finally heard something. Beyond the next door, underneath the crack of which a little light filtered through, somepony was speaking in hushed tones.

She didn’t even bother trying to open the door with her magic but instead forced her way through it, shattering the wooden paneling in their entirety, barging into the room like a fiery angel. She was worried, worried and ready to demand explanation and truth from whomever occupied the room, only to come face to face with the ponies she had been looking for, two of which promptly burst into tears. The third, an alicorn like herself, turned to her with an expression that conveyed both shock and anger.

“Celestia!? What in Equestria are you doing!?”

A flood of relief passed through Celestia, making parsing the questions being thrown in her direction too much of a challenge for her brain to handle. The crying of the two foals lying in the identical cribs across the room sucked in all of her attention. She remembered now. Remembered Twilight, their surprise and joy when they found themselves pregnant, parts of the wedding, the birth... she winced in half remembered pain, and cautiously moved closer to the cribs until her path was blocked by Twilight.

Stars she is beautiful, came an errant thought when she looked at the irate mare that had stepped in front of her and was currently talking to her at a rapid pace. She had always considered Twilight beautiful, and her transformation had only reinforced that beauty, but never did it shine as brightly as when she was angry. From her flared wings, to the way her horn sparked, to the cute little frown that could well have been her neutral expression but became more pronounced when she was upset; Celestia desperately wanted to kiss her wife, if only to satisfy a longing that blossomed in her chest. She only belatedly realised that she should actually be listening to what her significant other was actually saying.

“—Not to mention breaking down a door!” Twilight took a deep breath and looked at her worriedly. “You’re not about to... go evil, right? I need you to tell me if you’re going to pull any of those nightmare shenanigans with the foals around, because so help me I will send you to the moon, or the sun, or wherever before I let anything happen to them.”

More than the words, it was the worry in Twilight deep violet eyes that cut deep and caused an ache in Celestia’s heart and made her utter a simple promise. “Never.”

Twilight halted mid rant and looked at her, trying to look right through her with that piercing gaze. “...what?”

Celestia swallowed reflexively. “I would never hurt them... or you.”

Twilight’s mouth snapped shut, though that didn’t prevent the foals from continuing to voice their displeasure. Celestia could tell that Twilight’s attention was torn between her and comforting their foals, mostly because she felt the same way, but when her wife tore herself away and focused all her attention on the possible threat, so did she.

“I’m sorry, Twilight. I woke up and it just...” She helplessly gestured to their surroundings. “I didn’t recognise any of this.”

“This?” Twilight took the time to fold her wings back to her side before glaring at her. “This is just small cabin up near Neighara Falls. You know, that one we picked out for our Honeymoon?”

Ah... “Forgive me.” Celestia said, shaking her head, hoping that the motion would rattle some sense into it. “I... I really have no explanation. Everything just seemed so... alien when I woke up.” She glanced over to the cribs, and then into Twilight’s eyes, and finally dropped her gaze to the floor. “All I knew was that you were missing, and so were Shooting Star and Dawn. I just got so worried and I didn’t know what to do, so I—”

The rest of her sentence disappeared into Twilight’s mouth when the latter brought up her face and kissed her deeply. After the kiss ended, she couldn’t quite recall what she had been about to say, or why it had been important. Only the foal’s crying remained a constant.

“You’re sure that you’re not going to turn into Nightmare Sun or something like that and burn the entire world to ash, right?” Twilight asked, smiling tentatively.

“Completely sure.”

Twilight nodded. “Good, then can you please help me calm them down again? I’d just gotten them to quiet down when you barged in.”

That at least answered the lingering question of why she had woken up—Losing Twilight's warmth, or indeed, the sudden silence could both have been the cause—though it did not explain why Twilight hadn't woken her the moment she had gotten up herself. "I thought we'd agreed to care for the foals together," she replied while they picked up Dawn and Shooting Star respectively.

Shooting Star gurgled happily when he saw his mother, and smiled at him in turn, placing a kiss on the bridge his tiny muzzle which made him crow with delight. "Hello, my little firecracker," she said in the high pitched voice she found herself using every time she talked to the foals. "Did mommy frighten you? There's no need to be scared, everything is okay now." Looking over she caught Twilight going through the same motions without talking. Twilight got the same response from Dawn, who seemed more than happy to cling to Twilight’s coat, but Twilight was less concerned with their daughter, and more with whatever was going through her head if her thoughtful expression was any indication. "Twilight?"

“Hmm? Oh...” Twilight treated her to a distracted smile. "You looked so tired last evening... I didn’t want to wake you." She brought Dawn up against her shoulder and absently patted her daughter on the back while she lapsed back into silence.

Putting the foals back to bed was a hopeless endeavour; Shooting Star would smile, babble and crow when Celestia picked him up, but whenever she tried to put him back to bed his crying, invariably, started anew. Twilight appeared to have a little more luck with Dawn, but even that didn’t amount to much.

Not knowing what to do was something Celestia had a hard time accepting. A flaw born from a combination of several millennia of experience, and a keen, strategic mind. She had plans in place for every big problem that could possibly threaten her nation, and had, indeed, created a plan on how to bring up her offspring. The problem with that, however, was that she'd never before been a mother. A fatal flaw that saw any and all plans regarding two swiftly reduced to useless papers somewhere on her desk or forgotten in the depths of her mind.

Working without a plan was something she was going to have to get used to as much as taking care of the foals was. So when Twilight put Dawn in between her shoulder blades and made for the door, Celestia followed suit.

After reaching the kitchen and putting the foals in their respective seats, Twilight suddenly stopped. “Confusional arousal," she said, midway through warming up water for a cup of tea.

Celestia, having given in to her sillier side, stopped making weird faces to make the foals giggle and looked at her beloved with confusion. “What?”

"Confusional arousal." Twilight poured two cups and floated them over to the table, pushing the dirty ones aside. "It's a documented phenomenon that can happen when breaking routine. Any change in things like location, sleep cycle, responsibility, or even social life, can lead to bouts of waking up disoriented and short term memory loss. Especially if the routine was long held." She nodded more to herself than Celestia. "That’s almost certainly what happened to you."

Celestia smiled, redistributing her weight and fluffing her wings a little. "Is that what's been keeping you busy?"

Twilight took a sip from her drink before nodding emphatically. "Yes it is— was. I like knowing if my marefr— wife is about to become a ponysonification of chaos and evil, and if my two foals will have to grow up missing one of their mothers. You weren't yourself back there. I've never seen you so aggressive."

"That was only because I was worried about the three of you." Celestia said matter-of-factly. "Besides," she continued with a giddy note in her voice. "I wasn't half as aggressive as a certain somepony can be during our lovemaking." She winked seductively, leveling a wicked smirk at Twilight.

Her comment was enough to turn Twilight several shades of red, and Twilight leaned forward with a heated expression. "Not in front of the foals!" she said in a stage whisper.

Celestia laughed merrily. “Oh relax, Twilight,” she said, smiling towards the young ones. “They’re just foals.” The two had been mostly quiet after they had entered the kitchen, giggling when Celestia made weird faces at them and seemingly content to listen to their parents converse otherwise. It was either that, or they had simply been enjoying their latest victory in the eternal battle over naps.

Twilight recomposed herself over the next couple of minutes, hidden behind a warm cup of tea, and with the conversation temporarily over, Celestia turned her attention back to the foals. Sleep or not, it seemed that the crying had taken a lot out of them. Dawn in particular looked like she was about to start crying again, only this time it wouldn't be because she didn't want to be in her crib.

Celestia smiled tenderly and picked her daughter up in her magic, swiftly followed by picking up Star as well when his lower lip began to quaver. The feel of her magic helped a little bit, but it was clear that they would have to be put to bed sooner rather than later. If she was honest with herself, Celestia felt similarly. As a ruler her schedule wasn’t the most constant, but it was nothing compared to being a parent.

“Twilight? Why don’t we...” she petered out when a soft snore answered her from across the table. Looking over she was confronted with the state of the one pony whose presence she’d taken for granted. While she merely felt tired, Twilight looked downright exhausted. It was like she hadn’t gotten any sleep in ages, which may well have been the case. Between caring for the foals when Celestia's duties prevented her from doing so, and the wedding which she had overseen the organization of almost single hoovedly, it wasn't difficult to imagine that she had run herself ragged. Even while asleep, her eyes were framed by big puffy bags that pointed to some serious sleep deprivation, and while her mane and tail wouldn’t have looked too bad on anypony else, Celestia knew just how meticulous Twilight normally was in her personal care. Despite all of it, Celestia thought she had never looked more lovely.

She got up and made her way around the table, hobbling on three legs while keeping the foals close to her chest. When she reached Twilight, she gave her wife a gentle nuzzle and said: “Sorry, Twilight, but you’ll have to come to bed before you can sleep.”

It wasn’t apparent how much Twilight had heard, if anything, but she stirred and nodded before she was even completely awake. “Okay... coming,” she mumbled, dragging herself away from the table and stumbling to her hooves. She stayed there for a moment, swaying a little before shaking her head and raising it. “Can you put Dawn and Star to bed?" She took a step towards the door and almost lost her balance. "I..." She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "I put their plushies in our bag. That should hopefully keep them calm.”

“Actually, I was thinking of letting them sleep with us,” Celestia replied, stepping up behind Twilight and nudging her towards the door.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Twilight stopped as soon as she reached the hallway and turned around to face Celestia. "'Dealing With Foals: Making Offers They Can't Refuse' has three entire chapters dedicated to how indulging them can lead to problems."

"Problems?" Celestia arched an eyebrow. Lacking the experience that Twilight had gleaned from her self-imposed reading assignments was one thing, but Celestia found it hard to believe that something so innocuous could be a bad thing in any way that mattered.

Twilight began pacing up and down the hallway. "Giving in and letting them sleep next to us could teach them that they can get what they want if they cry about it long enough." She stopped near the front door and ran a hoof through her mane while looking back at Celestia. "On the other hoof, it does mention that, especially early on it can lead to a strong bond, though that in turn becomes a possible problem because of separation anxiety later on."

Celestia replied with an awkward one shouldered shrug and hobbled towards their bedroom. "Or it could teach them to be compassionate towards those ponies who need it and give them a great degree of empathy."

"How can you know that?" Twilight asked, falling into step next to her. "I mean... sure, the potential negative effects may get more attention than the possible positives, but I haven't seen anything even resembling that in the material I read."

"I have my reasons for thinking that it will," Celestia replied, making for the bed and depositing her precocious, already snoozing, cargo on it. The foals each stirred, but Celestia stepped onto the bed and sank down, creating half a circle around her children that only one other pony could complete. "After all," she continued nonchalantly, smiling up at Twilight. "That approach worked on you."

"Exactly!" Twilight almost shouted. "You used this concept with me, and I ended up not being able to think about anypony else!" She winced when Star snorted and looked up at her with an accusatory frown. "We ended up married because of it..."

"I know," Celestia replied with a loving smile. "It has to be the single best mistake I have ever made in my entire life.

Twilight wanted to frown, wanted to treat her spouse to an unimpressed stare, but she found that she only had smiles left. The place in her heart where the worries and the frowns resided had been taken over by an invading army of happiness, and after a brief struggle, she gave up and set herself down on the other side of the bed. She scooted over to Celestia a little, giving her a loving nuzzle up top, and entwining their tails down below, thereby completing the shield that protected their little ponies from any and all scary things that might haunt babies less than a month old.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" she asked, looking down at the most annoying bundles of joy she had ever known, barring Pinkie Pie.

"The most beautiful ponies in the world bar one," Celestia replied, leaning in for a kiss Twilight returned wholeheartedly. "I love you, Twilight Sparkle."

"I love you, too, Celestia."

They rested their heads on each others shoulders, and Celestia gave herself over to the long overdue sleep.

Only for Twilight to speak up a moment later.

"Celestia? What happened to the sheets?"

The Great Cookie Caper of O-Twelve

Dinnertime at Castle Canterlot ran from seven ‘till nine. It had been set up that way to cater to both the changing of the guards — all of whom gratefully made use of their brief period of free time, to get something to snack on — as well as the end of day court; the end time of which varied from day to day. It meant two hours of non-stop work for the cooks, which turned the kitchen into a no-pony’s land of confusion, shouting, and a whole lot of sharp or hot implements being waved around. For anypony looking to get into the supply closet unnoticed, however, it also was the best chance they could get.

“We’ve got seven more requests for moondew-pie, and a dozen beers!” A cook yelled, walking down the stairs into the kitchen that was a few inches lower than the dining hall itself.

“Lemme guess, those mares from the night shift again? Do they have any idea hard it is to make those pies?” Another replied, wiping sweat from his brow while slaving over a hot stove.

He got a friendly nudge from the mare next to him. “Told ya you shouldn’t’ve tried to impress your ladyfriend with ‘em.”

The friendly banter helped the cooks in the kitchen cope with the stresses of serving more than a thousand ponies in a short amount of time, but it may also have contributed to the fact that they didn’t notice the two darkly-clad shapes ghosting through the more shadowy parts of the kitchen. The two shadows ducked under and behind kitchen counters and tables, quickly and quietly making their way towards the far wall that held the door to the storage room.

With a quick glance back towards the cooks, they opened it, and darted inside before closing it behind them. Once inside, they sat down with their backs towards the door, took off their self-made masks, and laughed. The rush of adrenaline that came with sneaking past ponies was exhilarating.

“We made it!” Dawn cheered, immediately getting up again and peeking through the glass pane in the door to see if anypony had noticed them. Her tail swished back and forth in excitement, and her brother swatted at it in an attempt to keep it out of his face.

“Uh huh,” Shooting Star replied non-committally. He pulled off his own mask and rubbed his head with a hoof. His mask hadn’t been at all comfortable, and the anticipation and exertion made everything itchy. The payoff would be worth it, though. For weeks they had schemed and planned and tried to find the best way possible to get into the storeroom. Now that they were finally there he was much more interested in what lay inside of it: Cookies.

Specifically; Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (with added caramel chunks). They were the reason the two had come up with the plan to begin with. Cookies were the tastiest treats in existence; the right of any self-respecting foal or filly, and they weren’t allowed to eat any.

Well, that wasn’t strictly true. Every so often Momma Celestia would come by when she could spare the time, give each of them a cookie straight out of the kitchen, and wink while telling them that they had better eat them while they were still warm. She was a lot better than Momma Twilight, who always said that they couldn’t have any sweets before dinner, and always, always demanded that they eat the yucky grass and daisies that 'formed the basis of a healthy diet'.

She wasn’t the worst mother he supposed... she always spent time with them when Momma Celestia was busy, and read them bedtime stories... and kissed all of the ouchies away. But he couldn’t help but shiver when thinking about the 'broccoli' his mother had been talking about. He had never seen a stalk of broccoli before, but just from the description he already knew that he wouldn't like it. More icky ‘healthy’ stuff, he thought with a sour grimace. Where does she find it all?

“Star!? Come onnn~!”

He blinked. During his momentary bout of distraction, his sister had moved away from the door and clambered onto a set of boxes that were stacked in the corner next to it. That was about the extent of what he could make out. The rest of the room was dark and dreary, almost completely devoid of light, and for a moment he worried that the monsters that lived in their closet might have followed them down here.

Dawn wasn’t as worried, shaking her rump for balance before jumping from the crates over to a shelf that was fastened to the wall. It creaked and buckled when she landed on it, slanting to the left before it caught on something and nearly sent Dawn hurtling to meet the ground at high speeds. She caught herself at the last moment, balancing precariously on the edge of the shelf, and knocking over several things which Star hastened to try and catch.

Unfortunately, his seated position near the door didn’t make that easy. He lunged forward and caught a glass jar filled with what looked to be blue lilies. The second landed on his head, making him groan, and the third hit the ground and shattered. Star cautiously opened his eyes a few seconds afterwards. The expected whirlwind of sharp glassy pain for which he had reflexively winced had miraculously missed him entirely.

“You okay?” Dawn’s voice came from above him.

He gingerly touched the sore spot on his head. It was going to become a bump for sure. He sighed and nodded before realising that she probably couldn’t see him. “Y-yeah,” he croaked, following it up with a more stern. “Be more careful.”

“I know, I know.”

When he looked up, he saw... nothing. The room was simply too dark to make out anything that wasn't in the immediate beam of light emanating from the door. The cooks would have just flicked the switch next to the door, but then... They wouldn't be taken to their mothers and scolded for trying to nab the most delectable confectionaries in the castle if they did. A second passed wherein Star mused on the idea of how awesome it had to be to be a cook, before a yelp from his sister brought him back to the real world.

Looking in the direction of the noise, he found that he could see only her butt. Dawn had jumped again, and was scrambling to find purchase on the shelving unit that had been her intended goal. He wanted to help his sister, but she had always been the better climber, and he would probably just get in the way. Licking his lips, he envisioned himself helping her up with his magic, and commanded his horn to follow. At first, he didn’t accomplish much more than a few sparks, which did little more than light up his immediate surroundings, but then, slowly, steadily, he saw a glow appear around Dawn’s legs. It wasn’t quite the light pink his aura usually looked like whenever he did manage to pick something up without setting it on fire — leaning more to a darker purple; but he reasoned it was dark and that he shouldn’t be worried about appearances when his magic helped push his sister up to the shelf so she could get to the all important cookies.

With his help Dawn pulled herself up to the shelf, and disappeared from view. It was the only part of the plan Star had absolutely no idea about. How in Equestria had she learned where the cookies were being kept? He still didn’t understand, but if she said that she knew, then he believed her.

He looked around the dark room, and shrank back from the darkness. Now that his sister had vanished from view, he was suddenly afraid that the under his bed monsters were real, and that they would get him if he couldn’t see them. “D-dawn?” He called out quietly, half lost in his own belief that his sister had been eaten and then again louder. “Dawn?!”

“Shhhh,” Dawn’s voice came out of the darkness. “Not so loud! I’ve almost got it, just wait there.”

Shooting Star nodded timidly and bit the inside of his cheek. He was a big colt, and there was a bit of light coming from the door. He should be fine, right? Unfortunately, the more time passed, the more his imagination ran away with him. It no longer seemed like such a silly notion that the boogiemare existed, or that she punished naughty colts and fillies. Or that the monsters that lived under his bed really were hiding in the darkness. Gulping audibly, he shuffled back towards the door and the relative safety of the light.

Their plan no longer seemed like such a good idea, made even worse when he heard something wobble for a moment before a loud crash right next to him scared his heart right up his throat. All he could focus on was the blood rushing through his ears and his breathing. And then Dawn yelped.

He was all but certain that something bad had happened to her. What if the monsters had grabbed her? His fear forgotten, he rushed towards the shelf his sister was supposed to be on. “Dawn? Dawn, are you okay?” Fear made his voice crack, and he could feel hot tears stinging behind his eyes. What was he going to do if she wasn’t okay? If the monsters had gotten her, he would have to tell his mothers that he’d lost her. He should’ve—

When her rounded the corner all of his thoughts came to an abrupt halt. Dawn was hanging a few inches above the ground, surrounded by a strong dark purple aura that gently lowered her to the ground. He gulped, an entirely different sort of fear catching him by surprise. That magic could only belong to one pony, which meant that...

The light switch was flipped, flooding the entire storage room with the deep yellow of long-lasting illumination spells, and he saw what neither of them had been able to see in the darkness: Twilight Sparkle.

She wasn’t standing in the doorway, like he’d expected, but instead walked towards them from the back of the room, smiling softly all the while. It wasn’t nearly as bad as any monsters, yet Star still felt as though his life was about to come to an end. Momma Twilight catching them in the act was just about the worst thing that could happen, she would almost certainly disapprove. At least with Momma Celestia they still had a chance to get off scot free, or even a chance that she would grab a cookie for them.

“Are you okay, Dawn?” Twilight asked, sitting down beside her softly sniffing daughter and pulling her close with a wing.

Dawn nodded. Clearly the fall had scared her badly, but Star knew that she was as scared of the monsters under her bed as she was of his. How much worse had it been for her?

“And you Star?” His mother then asked, turning to him with that same gentle smile that put him ill at ease for some reason.

“I’m okay, mom,” he replied while she drew him close with her other wing. He wondered how long his mother had been in the room. Could it have been from the start? Why hadn’t she said something earlier?

“How did you find us?” Dawn asked, stifling her sniffling and leaning against her mother.

Twilight’s smile widened and she gave both of them a light squeeze with her wings. “I’ve been here the whole time.” The frown on Dawn’s face after that reply looked so silly that it made Star giggle. “But how did you know we would do something like this?” Dawn asked again before glaring at Star.

“Besides the fact that you left my diary where you got the idea on your bed?” Twilight replied with a smirk. “I used to do the same thing when I was your age.”

Star perked up. That was new. He’d heard a few stories of his mother when she was younger, but never when she was as young as they were. He had a hard time picturing her as a filly, and an even harder time picturing her doing anything naughty. “Really?” He asked, trying and failing to ward the disbelief from his voice.

Twilight giggled and looked down at him. “Really,” she said with a nod.

“Did your mother get angry with you when she caught you?” That was Dawn again, her momentary sadness all but forgotten and replaced by the same curiosity that burned in Star’s chest.

“No.” Momma Twilight replied, then she did something he couldn’t recall her ever doing before. She leaned down and lowered her voice, whispering: “My mother never caught me. Actually, only one pony ever did.” She winked at Star. “I was quite good at sneaking around.”

“Then... who did catch you?” Dawn asked, preempting Star’s own, identical question.

“Your Momma Celestia.”

It was more than a little confusing for the foals. Star simply couldn’t wrap his head around it. Just thinking of Momma Twilight doing what they were doing was enough to test his imagination, but this? “Wasn’t Momma Celestia a filly, too?” he asked, slipping out from under his mother’s wing to get a better view of his mom’s reaction.

“Not quite. It’s a little more complicated than that, but I promise I’ll explain it to you sometime,” Momma Twilight said, getting up as well and stretching her wings. “For now, I think it’s time we got ready for dinner. Momma Celestia has had a long day dealing with the pigs union strike,” she stopped to sigh and muttered ‘apparently they are more equal than others’ under her breath before she continued. “—and I’m sure she’ll appreciate seeing the two of you with fresh faces and washed hooves.”

“So you’re not going to punish us?” Dawn asked timidly when Momma Twilight picked them up in her magic and put both of them on her back.

Their mother shook her head. “No, Dawn, I’m not.” She stopped at the entrance to the storage room and looked back at them over her shoulder for a second before saying: “In fact, if the two of you can promise me that you’ll eat everything on your plate tonight, you can both have a cookie. What do you say?”

Star and Dawn needed only a single look between themselves to come to the conclusion that that was better than they could have hoped for, and they nodded quickly.

“Okay, mom.” “I promise, mom.”

“Good.” Momma Twilight’s horn lit up, and two cookies floated over from an entirely different shelf than the one Dawn had jumped on. “Just remember,” she said when she had their full attention, “If you try again, I’ll know.”

He didn’t know about Dawn, but Star believed his mother. There was apparently a lot about her that he didn’t know.

Wedding Jitters (part 1)

There had been many things in Celestia’s life that had been unexpected. The events that led to her current situation for example. Becoming the guardian of a student as powerful as Twilight Sparkle had been unexpected. And although she’d held out hope, she had never expected that the filly would bring her sister back to her. She never expected that Twilight would remember a promise that she herself had all but forgotten, or write her over a thousand love letters. Nor had she expected that she’d fall in love with her former student. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she had never ever expected to be this nervous during a public function. Which begged the question, what had she expected from her wedding day?

“Should the teal warblers carry the train of the wedding dress? Or would you prefer the doves, Princess?” Fluttershy asked from the opposite end of the room. The mare had spent most of the morning talking to the various birds that seemed more than eager to listen to her.

“Hmmm... teal would clash with the dress, I think. Though doves are so... mundane. Aren’t there any other animals that would like to help?” Rarity replied after a moment, for which Celestia was extremely grateful, as she didn’t honestly care which bird or animal was used. She had other concerns.

Since the inception of their relationship, she had always imagined that Twilight would be the one fretting about everything to do with the wedding. Her love was a worrier, after all. And in a way, Twilight was worrying, but again, not in the way Celestia had expected. She had seen all sorts of weddings. From the small and intimate gatherings in which she was merely the officiator, to the loud and ostentatious parties that sometimes lasted for several days. Rather than taking either option and leaving the event in the capable hooves of an actual wedding planner, Twilight had taken it upon herself to come up with something new. Something... Unexpected.

Celestia’s ears flicked when Fluttershy harrumphed from across her bedroom which had been re-purposed as preparation room for the bride. “It’s not like I can just give them orders, Rarity, they’re my friends!”

The two of them had been talking since early in the morning when they’d started, and though they occasionally directed a question at Celestia, she found that she had no answers. Fluttershy had, once again, taken the role of musical overseer, and Rarity’s role as dressmaker had been self-explanatory. It was from her shop that Celestia had picked out a dress, and it was she that suggested it was a little too plain for a wedding. Celestia didn’t know enough about the kind of wedding Twilight wanted to hold, but she trusted Rarity’s opinion on the matter. Celestia smiled despite herself. While most ponies considered it good enough to have their friends be present at the actual ceremony, leave it to Twilight to recruit her friends to help her with all other parts of the organisation as well.

“I know, darling. I know,” Rarity replied, dropping the needle cushion she’d been holding in her magic while she looked past Celestia at her friend. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything like that.”

To Celestia’s left Fluttershy deflated. “Oh...”

“But, darling, this is the most important day of Twilight’s entire life! And Princess Celestia’s as well! Not having the absolute perfect ceremony would be the WORST POSSIBLE THING! Are you sure you can’t ask them if they know somebirdies that would be willing to help? They are your friends, after all. Surely you could at least ask?”

Fluttershy shifted her weight from one foreleg to the other and back again before nodding. “Okay, I’ll try and persuade them.”

Celestia frowned. Here she was, been made a virtual statue (a great big fat statue) on a pedestal for the better part of six hours, alone with her doubts while Rarity made adjustments to her dress. But not finding the right birds was the worst possible thing?

Her mind turned back to the ceremony, which had become a huge public spectacle by necessity. The wedding of not one, but two Alicorns was big news throughout the world and everyone who was anyone wanted to attend. It brought with it an inordinate amount of scrutiny and rules, which scared her more than she cared to admit. Not because she didn’t know what was going to happen (although that certainly played a part) but rather, because she knew more than the average mare about ceremony and not stepping on any political toes.

The Gryphons, for example, started any wedding with a banquet, wherein the groom had to win a ‘mock’ fight with the bride’s father; the Yaks considered a marriage to be invalid if the couple didn’t destroy at least three houses; ponies themselves prefered that brides be given away by their fathers, and grooms by their mothers—Celestia never had either; and perhaps most mercurially, any union had to be ‘blessed by the spirits’ before the Zebras would acknowledge it. On top of which the entire world would be following her marriage more closely than any before. Expect more from it than any before.

Even that, however, was not what scared her most. Her mind, overtired by the run up to the wedding, not to mention the pregnancy, conjured up ever more gruesome scenarios. Problem with the wedding cake. Guests being late. Twilight getting cold feet at the last possible moment... Twilight having been a changeling all along.

The fear in the pit of her stomach transformed into something altogether more sickly. With a dry ‘hurk’ Celestia pulled away from Rarity made a mad dash for the the bathroom. She barely reached the toilet before vomiting. It took a minute? An hour? It felt like forever.

“Princess? Are you alright?”

Glancing back at the door in between heaves, she made out the blurry faces of two concerned ponies. “No!” She shouted. “I’m not alright! I’m getting married in a few hours and I’m hideous!”

“Please, Princess... darling. You look fi—”

“No I don’t! I look like a fat cow trying to wear a curtain!” Celestia cried, and then at a lower volume said: “It’s all Twilight’s fault.” She shook her head and drew a foreleg across her face, surprised to find it came away wet with tears. This is what it had come to. ‘Princess’ Celestia, crying in the bathroom for no reason, and all because of that purple witch! She’d had the perfect idea for a nice, quiet, secluded, wedding. They would have gotten married essentially in secret, and nopony would be the wiser. Then, after that was done, they could have had a grand spectacle to satisfy everyone who wanted to see the marriage, but it would all have been for show. But nooooo, Twilight had to go and decide that she didn’t want to sneak around and hide things from anypony. She hated what that twice damned mare did to her.

“Pri— Celestia?”

For a split second, she believed that Twilight had entered the bathroom, and wondered if she would growl at the mare, or kiss her. Un-fortunately, it was only Fluttershy, looking at her serenely. With a hint of a smile even. Rarity was standing behind her, looking decidedly more nervous and uncertain, but Celestia gaze was drawn back to the pegasus in front of her. “Go away,” was all she managed without choking up on her own words.

Fluttershy didn’t budge. “Why do you think you’re hideous?”

Celestia looked at her in disbelief. Could she really not see it? “Why would I not?” she asked flatly. “I’m huge, and fat, and unwieldy, and walking around with a belly big enough to flatten ponies with!”

Fluttershy simply maintained that infuriatingly serene smile that only made things seem worse than they already were. How could she be so calm while Celestia’s world was burning down around her?

“That’s not true,” Fluttershy said, taking a step closer. “I was a model for a brief time, and every mare I met there wished they had a figure like yours. They considered it perfect, and many of them did unhealthy things to look even a little more like you.”

“Maybe before,” Celestia groused. “But then Twilight happened, and now I’m fat, and it’s all her fault.”

“You don't look fat, Princess,” Fluttershy said softly, having stepped close enough to place a hoof on Celestia’s shoulder.

It was a gesture meant to reassure, but while the intention wasn’t lost on Celestia, its effects were. It sounded to her ears like just another empty sentence, meant to placate without actually being true. She had enough experience doling them out in court to know when one was being used on her. “Then what do I look like?” she asked heatedly. “Here.” She turned ninety degrees, showing the other mares her swollen midsection. “What does this look like to you?” The question reinforced her fears in her own mind, and two seconds later she was standing over the toilet again, trying in vain not to puke.

Her mane, which became more and more unruly whenever her emotions ran high, seemed determined to get in the way, breaking her down further. Before it could, however, it was caught by a yellow hoof and pulled back out of the way. “You look like a beautiful young mother who is nervous about her unborn foal, and her wedding,” Fluttershy said while she kept Celestia’s hair from making more of a mess.

It was preposterous. She was behaving like a heartbroken filly, and Fluttershy who couldn’t have seen more than twenty-five winters —a pittance— was consoling her like a... like a mother would comfort her distraught daughter before a wedding... Don’t forget that you’re getting married to a filly that’s younger than that. a small treasonous part of her mind whispered. She shook her head vigorously, hoping to shake the idea. Age has nothing to do with it. Twilight is a wonderful mare and Fluttershy is right. I’m being hysterical.

“Not to seem insensitive, darlings, but there’s a wedding Princess Celestia needs to get ready for.”

“Shhh, just give her a few minutes. Sorry, Rarity, but you can’t rush this.”

Celestia examined herself. Specifically, the tattered remains of her self-control. Practiced as she was at keeping her emotions in check, it seemed that she had found her breaking point. It did not take as much as she had expected, but then, whenever Twilight was involved all bets were off. Twilight had been capable of putting her off balance long before they had become marefriends. The nervous knots in which her stomach had tied itself did not magically disappear, and the pieces of her dignity did not miraculously piece themselves back together, but she felt a little calmed. Reassured that things perhaps weren’t quite as bad as she feared.

“Feel better?” Fluttershy asked after she gathered the last of the bile in her mouth and spit it into the toilet.

Taking a deep breath, Celestia righted herself and turned to the mare beside her. Fluttershy looked up at her with that self same smile, and Celestia looked for any evidence of deception. She couldn’t find any. “Mu— a little. Thank you, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy’s eyes formed two crescent moons when her smile went from supportive to pleased. “I’m glad. Do you think you could stand going back to the pedestal and letting Rarity finish working on her ‘curtain’?” Fluttershy giggled after she finished, and looked guilty immediately after that.

Celestia found that she really, really didn’t. But neither did she want to leave Twilight standing at the altar. Just imagining how hurt Twilight would be was enough to make her queasy again.

“Trust me, Princess, many ponies I know still consider you to be quite beautiful,” Rarity said, stepping into the bathroom. “They’ll definitely want to see you in that marvelous ‘curtain’.”

Celestia scoffed. “Maybe if I wasn’t pregnant.” Another unexpected thing Twilight had done to her, one she very much blamed her marefriend for. Nothing ever seemed to follow the rules around that insufferable filly.

“I think you’re perhaps being a little hard on yourself, Princess,” Rarity said, gently nudging her from her left side. “You’ll see, all of this will seem very silly when the wedding is safely over.”

Celestia shook her head. “I don’t know, I’m not even sure I want to get married looking like this.” She focused her attention on Fluttershy, who at the very least seemed not to judge her for how she was feeling. “I wanted to wait until after the delivery. Had a plan for it too, but Twilight was worried about how it would look. I told her it would look like a wedding... but then I her talk me into this and I am a whale stuffed into a tiny sack.” She hung her head and let out a long suffering sigh. “Why did I let her do this to me?”

“Because you love her, and she loves you.” Fluttershy said, subtly nudging her from the other side. Helping her get back onto the pedestal.

Once on it, she was once again faced with the trio of unforgiving mirrors that showed her exactly how different she looked. The swelling of her belly was nothing new, she’d been staring at it for the better part of the morning. The dress however... She stared at her reflection in disbelief. It really did look more like a curtain than a dress. Apparently she had ripped several seams in the dress in her haste to get to the toilet. It will take the rest of the day to fix all that, her mind wailed. We’ll never be ready in time.

Rarity’s reflection stepped up next to her own in the middle mirror, and smiled. The ruins that were supposed to be Celestia’s dress didn’t seem to phase her. “Do you follow the fashion scene at all, Princess?” She asked conversationally while picking up several needles with her magic and turning to the dress.

Celestia shook her head lightly. “No. I generally don’t wear much besides my regalia,” she replied absently.

For a moment, Rarity looked like she had her own ideas on that practice, but she continued in the same conversational tone. “Well, there’s been a recent trend. Something they call a ‘plus’ size for both models and dresses.” Rarity leaned forward. “It seems that they were inspired by the healthy baby belly of our beloved Princesses,” she said with a conspiratorial wink.

Celestia smiled into the mirror. It wasn’t real, but it was the most she had to offer. Her thoughts were on Twilight Sparkle. A true dichotomy of a mare. A mare that remembered a promise Celestia had made more than a decade earlier, but would often forget to eat if not prompted. A mare that had no qualms about taking on a dragon, but had been worried about telling her parents about their relationship. A mare that, whilst having saved the country a dozen times over, was also the same mare who up till the moment Celestia had sent her to Ponyville, had wanted to sleep next to her for fears either real or imagined.

Was she trying to tell me how she felt back then? Her stomach was doing flip-flops again.

“Done and... Done!” Rarity exclaimed happily. “That should make it a little sturdier. What do you think, darling?”

Celestia hadn’t really been paying attention to the adjustments, too absorbed in her thoughts and worries to really notice anything beyond her own heart rate. She focused on her reflection, whose curtain had been put back into a shape that was worthy of being called a dress, although it seemed Rarity hadn’t stopped at simply repairing it. The dress had already been a beautiful collage of soft morning-yellow colors which gradually faded though sunset-red into deep Twilight-purple near the hemline. It hadn’t been emblazoned in any way —the colors alone were enough as far as Celestia was concerned— but Rarity had apparently found the time to add a few small gems to the bottom and train that sparkled like stars.

“It’s beautiful, Rarity.” Fluttershy said from the other side, and Celestia found that she agreed. It was a wonderful dress, and Rarity’s little touches had made it even more impressive. Too bad there was little the fashionista could do for Celestia herself.

She spent a few minutes thinking about things that she could possibly do with her mane before deciding that she liked it best the way it was. Another consideration were her wings. Decorations on them weren’t exactly comfortable, but she wanted to look the best she possibly could, if only for Twilight’s sake. And what about her horn? Fluttershy and Rarity would probably know most about decorations for their respective appendages, but just as she got the idea to ask for their opinion her train of thought was derailed by a soft voice.

“Uhm... Celestia?” Celestia blinked and looked for the source. It was Fluttershy, looking nowhere near as confident or serene as before. Instead she looked uncomfortable. Maybe even a little embarrassed. “Could I touch your belly?” She grimaced. “I’ve seen it often enough on my animals friends, but I’ve never... on anypony...” She shook her head looking increasingly distressed. “I don’t mean that you’re fat! Far from it! You look great and really beautiful in that dress! It’s just—.”

The waterfall of words was finally plugged up by a white hoof belonging to Rarity who had made her way over to her friend. “What she means to say is that she wants to listen to the foal, if that’s alright with you.”

Behind her, Fluttershy nodded mutely, still gagged by Rarity’s hoof.

"Of course you can, Fluttershy,” Celestia said with a graceful calm that she didn’t feel. While watching Fluttershy approach her, she could only think of how she and Twilight had spent countless hours, heads on each other's bellies while gazing at each other lovingly. Stars... if only Twilight were here right now.

Fluttershy stroked her swollen belly, a tender smile on her face. She then leaned very close, and nuzzled up directly against it.

“Oh, my...” she said quietly. “It... it kicked!”

Celestia tried to maintain the expression of serenity, even as she winced internally. She had felt it as well, and while it might be novel and exciting for Fluttershy, she was less enthused. It had been wonderful the first few times she’d felt it, certainly, and Twilight’s excitement when it had happened still managed to bring a smile to her face, even from underneath all of the cumbersome dread that was making today so difficult. For her, it had been more than a hundreds times now, and once the novelty had worn off, it had become little more than a kick to the stomach from the inside, and only a little less painful.

“How far along are you, uhm... If you don’t mind me asking?”

“Ten months and three days.” The words tumbled out of Celestia’s mouth without the need for conscious thought or effort. It was imprinted in her mind throughout it all. They were close to giving birth, she and Twilight. About three more weeks in theory. In practice, it could happen at any time, and her mind served her a frightening image of having the contractions start just as they were saying their vows.

And even if it didn’t... She was going to become a mother in less than a month. Not a god-mother, watching from the sidelines and offering small nuggets of wisdom to the bedraggled looking mares that carried their foals everywhere. No, a real, bonafide mother, with crying foals of her own, diaper changes and frantic searches for reasons the babies could be crying.

It scared her stiff, made her stomach coil into painful knots, and filled her head with such dread that she would have run from the room, and perhaps the castle had she not heard a sound as sweet as the call of the Elysian fields.

“Celestia?”

Her head snapped up from where she’d been staring at the floor, and she forgot to breathe when she saw a vision of beauty in the doorjamb.

Twilight.

Her wife-to-be didn’t look like perfection. Perfection, as Celestia well knew from having practiced it centuries, was boring. Twilight wasn’t boring, and while calling her wild wasn’t something she could manage with a straight face, there was something incredibly enticing about her appearance. She looked like she had taken the stars from Luna’s mane, some of the colors from Celestia’s own mane, and mixed them all together with her namesake to create a dress that seemed to be constantly shifting in color, and added the twinkling of stars that one could almost believe were trying to accentuate Twilight’s every movement.

While the dress was certainly impressive, the mare herself was moreso. The style her hair normally held had been undone for one thing. Even having known her for as long as she had, Celestia was still surprised to find that Twilight had a longer mane than she had ever thought possible. It shone and framed her face like a curtain, with the bright pink stripe that always drew the attention having been further enhanced by a few strands of silver tread having been woven through it. The fact that it got as low as her knees, and swayed while she walked only added to Celestia’s yearning for her marefriend. The fact that she was as pregnant as Celestia was didn’t seem to matter. She didn’t look bloated, fat, or unwieldy, but rather lovely, the dress following the soft contours of her belly like it was the way she had always been meant to look.

Convention dictated that the bride and the groom (or in their case the two brides) didn't see each other before the wedding proper. It was believed to bring bad luck to the couple and a fair number of marriages had ended before they’d started based on that belief. As far as Celestia was concerned, it needn’t happen at all. She wanted to whisk Twilight away and ravage her for an eternity.

Rarity was of a different mindset.

“Twilight Sparkle! What in the world do you think you’re doing?”

Rarity stepped in front of Celestia and glared at the purple alicorn. The effect was a little ridiculous, given that Twilight had grown to be a head taller than her unicorn friend, and looked right over her head, straight at Celestia. She felt she might drown in those pools of liquid purple that stripped away her defenses and worries alike. Then Twilight looked away, and Celestia finally remembered that she did in fact require oxygen.

“I’m here to make sure you haven’t strangled my wife with one of your dresses,” Twilight said casually, as though the wedding was already over and done with.

“You’re not supposed to be here, much less see her! No looking at the bride...” Rarity looked between Twilight and Celestia. “Either bride before the ceremony. It ruins the magic of it all. Now shoo!” Rarity said, trying her hardest to shove Twilight out of the room. She might as well have been trying to move a mountain for all the good it did.

Twilight’s features softened when she looked at Celestia again. She picked up Rarity in her magic without even looking and talked to her while advancing on the pedestal Celestia was on. “I know how you feel about it, Rarity, and I promise I’ll leave right away, but I felt something, and I need to know if she’s okay.” She came to a halt in front of the pedestal, and even though Celestia was still the larger of the two of them, she felt incredibly small for some reason. The genteel look that mixed worry and understanding might have been the reason. That too, felt like it belonged on the mare Celestia loved. She was the most beautiful creature in the entirety of Equestria, and for a moment, Celestia felt like the luckiest mare alive. “Celestia...?” A purple hoof reach up to her cheek and she leaned into it, trying to draw strength from her love’s presence. “You are okay, right? You look a little pale.”

Celestia wanted to smile. To laugh. Of course she looked pale! Fresh snowfall was compared to her coat to see if it had the right coloration! But she also knew that wasn’t what Twilight meant. She was talking about the fact that neither of them had slept much in the last couple of weeks, or perhaps the fact that she hadn’t been able to keep any solid food down for more than hour over the last couple of days.

She smiled as convincing a smile as she could muster and said; “I’m completely fine, Twilight. Just a little nervous is all.” That’s right. Just nerves. You totally weren’t planning on leaving Equestria to its fate simply so you wouldn’t have to walk down that aisle.

Twilight smacked her lips, which Celestia noted had been accentuated by a light pink lipstick. She got the chance to ponder who might have helped Twilight prepare for her wedding for all of a second before those same lips pressed themselves against her own. The kiss Twilight gave her was deep, passionate, and needy, and Celestia lost a moan or two to her lover’s mouth before Twilight finally pulled back.

Celestia leaned into the kiss more and more, unwilling to let it end. Twilight kissing her held all she ever wanted and she wanted it to go on forever. Unfortunately, reality got in the way, wielding a pedestal.

Her world view tilted forward and she scrambled to right herself with flailing hooves and wings both, but to no avail. The pedestal slid away from her when the weight on it shifted forward, and she fell against Twilight who, surprisingly, didn’t fall with her. The bad news was that she could hear, and feel, several seams on her dress pop once more. She could already picture Rarity’s expression.

“You can’t be completely fine,” Twilight said from above her. She quickly realised that Twilight must’ve tasted some very unsavory things; she hadn’t brushed her mouth yet after the vomiting incident. She looked up at her marefriend, silently pleading with her not to be judgemental. She wouldn’t be able to take it.

Twilight helped her upright, bringing them face to face. For the most part anyway, she still had to look down a little to see eye to eye. A sigh of relief escaped her when all she saw in Twilight’s eyes was love.

“I never thought I’d be the one saying this to you, but... You’re worrying too much, Celestia. You’ve never looked more beautiful...” Twilight petered out and then smirked with one side of her mouth. She leaned in and whispered: “Maybe once before. I’m sure you’ll look even more lovely tonight.”

A shiver ran up Celestia’s spine, and a mixture of excitement and embarrassment colored her cheeks red. “It’s a promise,” she whispered back. Only after Twilight helped her back up onto the pedestal, did her focus widen enough to realise that; one, Fluttershy had tried to help, and had fallen in the process; two, Rarity still hung suspended in Twilight’s magic looking very annoyed; and three, the sun was nearing its zenith, meaning that there wasn’t a lot of time left before the ceremony began. “Twilight, dear,” she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking. “I think you can let Rarity down now. I need her.”

Twilight looked over to her unicorn friends, and smiled sheepishly while she put her down. “Sorry, Rarity,” she preempted the unicorn. “I promise you can yell at me for all of this later, but right now, we need to get things ready for the ceremony.”

Rarity glared at Twilight for a while before snorting daintily and sticking her nose in the air. “Fine. I’ll need to reinforce these seams, or they’ll come apart again the next time she moves. How long do I have?”

“How long do you need?”

“Ten minutes, at least.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ll make sure that the ceremony is delayed a little if needed, but you should have enough time.” She looked a Celestia and blew her a kiss before turning and walking towards the door, quietly asking Fluttershy to join her.

“Twilight?” Rarity called out while she again attacked the dress with her sewing implements at such a dizzying speed that Celestia was a little worried she’d end up sown to the dress. “Don’t expect me to take pity on you when we talk about this.”

Twilight giggled. “Understood.”

Celestia silenced a low whine in the back of her throat. Desperate as she was to keep Twilight close, they’d be standing together soon enough. She had already behaved like a teenage mare today, which would feature prominently on her list of shameful things to have done, and she’d be damned if she added ‘kicked puppy’ to that list as well.

For the longest time, Twilight had come to her whenever she was upset. Her presence had been soothing. Now, she found those roles reversed. Having Twilight in the room had been calming. Reassuring. She wasn’t alone, heck, the whole point of this was showing the world that she had a significant other pony in her life. A pony she would spend ‘the rest of her life with, for good or for ill’ as the vows put it, which for an Alicorn was a very long time indeed.

She couldn’t wait. Nor could she currently do much more than prolong her exposure. Rarity was mumbling to herself while she worked, but Celestia’s attention remained focused on her love, who turned to Fluttershy the moment they had stepped out of the room proper. Celestia subtly nudged the doors open with her magic after they had closed them, indulging in a need to look at her wife-to-be for as long as possible.

“I got the orchestral ponies in position, Applejack and Pinkie are working wonders with the catering, and I’m pretty sure Rainbow Dash finally got the seating arrangements figured out,” Twilight said softly. “How are the animals?”

Fluttershy’s answer was lost on Celestia. The cheery, seductive Twilight that had just made her feel like the luckiest mare alive, seemed to have evaporated the moment she stepped out of the room, leaving a tired and wrung out—though no less beautiful—mare in her place.

“Alright. With that taken care of...” Twilight fell silent and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’ve double checked the guest list. Made sure that the seating arrangements were at least somewhat consistent, made sure that the bride was as beautiful as ever...” she smiled a little on the last one. “Checked on the catering and the photographer, and made sure the musicians know what to play.” She opened her eyes again, which, somehow, made her exhaustion seem even more prevalent. “Did I miss anything?”

For all that she had missed, Celestia didn’t miss the worried expression on Fluttershy’s face. “Uhm... I don’t know?” the mare said, her worry seeping through into her speech. “You look... well you look... nice, so that’s good. Did you check with Luna to make sure she has the right vows?”

Twilight nodded.

“Um... well, you didn’t really answer my question about the grackles—”

Twilight did not immediately respond. Instead, she swayed on her hooves for a few moments before shaking her head and nodding again. “I’m sure you can handle it, Fluttershy. You always know what to do when it comes to animals.”

“Well, okay, but I really think you should—”

“Horsefeathers!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed, cutting her off. She reached over and pulled Fluttershy in for a quick hug. “Sorry, Fluttershy, but I need to run, I forgot to check some important safety features on Pinkie’s automatic rice dispension system!”

Celestia only barely heard the last few words of the sentence as the mare vocalising them had already vanished down the corridor.

“Okay.” Fluttershy said to the empty hallway after a moment of stunned silence. “I’ll do my best.” She returned to the room after that, closing the door behind her and moving to help Rarity without so much as a glance at Celestia.

Probably for the best, as Celestia hadn’t succeeded in maintaining the calm demeanour that Twilight had brought out in her. From the moment Twilight had stepped into the room, her spirits had been lifted. Twilight had taken care of the thousands of little things that needed taking care of, how could things turn out any other way than perfectly? Her marefriend had everything in hoof, and she would take care of everything in a time where Celestia herself was unable to. But now...

Now it seemed that holding everything together had put a strain on Twilight that she was unprepared for, or at the very least, ill-equipped. Her insistence on being the architect of the most wonderful day of Celestia’s life was now threatening to harm Twilight.

I never should have let her go through with it, she thought, swallowing to moisturize her throat. Twilight was a pregnant mare, which, Celestia knew from experience, came with a lot of little aches, and not a whole lot of energy, stamina, or sleep. And now, Twilight, and with it, the wedding, were threatening to collapse, and come apart at the seams... just like her dress.

And while Rarity could save and fix her dress if she ripped it...

Who would save her wedding?

Author's Note

Here it is! I'm not dead, and neither is the story. Hurray! :twilightsheepish: Hope you enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, the chapter has not seen any editing (I lost my editors to the danger that is real life) so if you find anything, please let me know. With that in mind, I would also like to ask if any of you fine readers would be willing to help me out with that particular problem.

If so, please send me a message here on fimfiction. (thanks in advance) :twilightsmile: