"I can't believe you would dump all this on her." Luna waved at the huge pile of scrolls set on Celestia's desk. "Don't you think that filly has enough to deal with?"

Looking up from what she was writing, Celestia smiled to her sister. "Whatever do you mean? Princess Twilight is more than capable of-"

"Going into a mad panic because you are finally going to give her some more princess duties and she is going to lose all her mane in worry over this." Luna brought her drink closer and took a sip. "How long are you from having them?"

Celestia stopped her work completely, turning a little and letting Luna rest a hoof against her expanding belly. "The doctor thinks maybe two months, but it took a lot of cajoling to get him to say that. Apparently alicorns like us don't often have foals." She accepted the interrupting kiss from her sister, closing her eyes and enjoying the moment.

Waiting for Celestia to break the kiss first, Luna explored the other mare's mouth a little, gently probing her tongue around before slowly drawing the appendage out. Celestia ended the kiss and then gave her sister a second, peck, on the nose. "Your foal-"

"Our foal." Cutting in on her sister, Celestia punctuated her statement with another, short, kiss.

Luna blinked a few times. "Do you think she would let me… well…" Luna blushed a little. "I think I will wait, though. Have you thought of names yet?" Luna's eyes narrowed a little at the pointed look from her sister. "What?"

"I was waiting for you to bring that up. We are having this foal together, we should come up with names together." Celestia pulled over a blank piece of paper. "Eternia?"

"Ooh, I like that. Could work for a colt or a filly." Luna sat down beside her sister, leaning against her. "What about…"

"I think we should all sleep on this. The problem isn't going anywhere and we will all feel better for a night's sleep." Twilight looked around the ponies, taking in the various looks between them. "Now if you excuse me, I think I might-"

"Twilight." It was the softest of voices, but when Fluttershy spoke, not a pony in the room would try to speak over her. "I thought I might come and visit." The pegasus had her filly in a pack hanging from one side, while her wing was curled around a bag on her other. "If… if that's alright?"

A few ponies in the room took the hint, wandering off to find lodgings, ostensibly assigned to them by Starry, Rainbow Dash and Muffins moved in from one side, while Twilight approached Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy, we always have room for you to visit." Twilight leaned into her friend and gave Fluttershy a hug. "Is this your little one?" It was rhetorical question of course, but Twilight couldn't resist asking, if only to turn the conversation to happy things.

"This is Slipper, she is a little sleepy right now, she was playing earlier and tired herself out." Fluttershy felt a boldness in her that wasn't rooted in the ravings of a minotaur, or any kind of self-help; she was a mother, she had a foal to care for and protect.

"She is so cute, Flutters." Rainbow Dash froze when Twi and Fluttershy both stared at her. "W-What?"

"And who are you caring for?" Gel lifted one hoof, gently stroking the mane-fin of the changeling asleep on Dash's back. "Wait, is this the little one from…"

"She is." Muffins leaned in, kissing her wife. "We have some questions to ask you two, maybe tomorrow?" It was clear Muffins was addressing Twilight and Gel. "She is left without a family…"

"Excuse me, are we intruding?" Cherry felt her heart beat faster, seeing the two royal ponies, along with the two that Cadance had knighted, all together and talking about foals.

"No, not at all." Twilight's attention was on the two newcomers, flicking from pegasus to changeling. "What can we help you with?"

"We were sent by Princess Luna." Cherry delivered the line with some seriousness to it, despite her inner filly wanting to have said that for so long. She reached to her pack and drew out the scroll. "She wants us to help get things settled."

Taking the scroll in her magic, Twilight opened it up and examined it carefully. "Well, she clearly trusts you with this. The first is the filly on Rainbow's back, although she is sleeping." Twilight gestured to halls behind her, that led to the sleeping areas within the castle. "Please Do is the mare you are looking for, she went off to bed some time ago, I am sorry."

Muffins stepped forward a little. "You are not going to take them away?" It was both question and promise. Her huge wing reached up and shrouded the filly on Dash's back.

Sleek lifted a hoof and waved it side to side. "No, oh no, Cherry, I don't care who's hoof stamped that paper, if it says we have to take a filly away from Muffins we are not doing it. She stood a queen down..."

"The paper doesn't mention her at all." Twilight moved between the ponies, looking between them and using her presence to keep any further arguing at bay. "In fact, nopony is being taken anywhere against their will. I think we will hold the trial for…" She waved a hoof and heard Gel whisper a name to her. "Slice, right here. Please will be offered the chance to follow you back to Canterlot, or she can stay here and you will teach her all you know about being a changeling."

Drawing her wing back from Rainbow Dash, Muffins smiled. It was reassuring to see other ponies, particularly a full princess, standing up for one little filly. "Then we will say this now." Muffins cleared her throat but nudged Rainbow Dash in the shoulder.

"Oh, now?" Rainbow looked up at her wife, who nodded. "Okay. Cuddles needs a family, needs a mother. I want to be there for her, to protect and care for her." A kiss came to her cheek as Muffins leaned down, lending support.

"I like them, Rainbow Dash is the fastest and best flier, and Muffins is super awesome." Cuddle had finally been woken by the adults talking. "My mommy is gone… I never knew who my daddy was." She took a deep breath, some tears gathering in her eyes. "I wanna be their foal!" A flash of fire and once more she resembled the pegasus filly she had been earlier, now sporting a black changeling horn. "And that's that!" She stuck her tongue out for good measure.

"Muffins?" Twilight looked at the gray alicorn, getting a sharp nod from her. "I see no problem with this. Meet me at the town hall tomorrow morning and we can make it official." She grinned and saw the shock on the three ponies' faces. "I am a princess, one of the rewards for being one is ponies do what you say. Muffins, Rainbow Dash; Cuddle is now your filly. I expect her enrolled in school before the end of the week, and spending some time each day learning changeling history, the real changeling history. There will be a test."

It was that moment that really drove home for Cherry, Princess Twilight Sparkle was a 'real' princess, regardless of what she had heard from others. "So tomorrow then? I don't suppose you might have room for two tired ponies?"

Twilight felt a warmth radiating from her castle, it seemed to really like the things she had done today. "Of course, you are both Royal Envoys." She froze when she saw the derisive look on the pair. "Luna sent you, right?" She got a nod. "And you work for her, solving these little… you don't?"

"I run businesses. I am hired by the Princesses on occasion, but it is not a constant thing." Cherry shrugged.

Sleek leaned in, giving the Princess of Friendship a little wink. "I help, I take notes and file things. This is the first time we have ever been… ordered, directly."

"This… is too much to think about now." Gel nuzzled his wife, disarming her stature and the official nature of her being an alicorn by nipping her neck gently. Tilting his head to look at the two newcomers, he smiled. "Tomorrow. Get some sleep." As he spoke, he walked sideways, pressing into Twilight and rapidly engulfing her.

Muffins and Rainbow snorted and turned away as the changeling stallion was effectively foalnapping Twilight. "Mm-hmm, for a stallion, Gel, you have good ideas." Rainbow reached a hoof up to poke Gel's shoulder.

"Gel!" Fluttershy had to interrupt the stallion from carrying off his wife. When Gel turned to her, the yellow pegasus blushed. "I wanted to say thank you." She pulled out and presented the chocolates. "For giving me so many great gifts that night."

Not even thinking, Gel lowered himself to his knee, so he could look up to Fluttershy. "I gave you gifts, Fluttershy, because you deserve them." Twilight, trapped inside her husband, looked up at the same angle. She felt a warmth of arousal at being worked and moved around inside him, but her love for her friends overwhelmed that. "Slipper is a fine filly, and I know you will raise her to be the best pony she wants to be."

Unable to stop a deep blush, Fluttershy's wings rose in surprise at the words. "I… I…" She could have fallen back on her nerves, the old Fluttershy would have. "Gel, take the chocolates and go." She smiled as she told the prince what to do, and smiled wider when he shared her grin.

"Come on Twi," Gel got to his hooves, moving easily into a prancing trot, "no more royal commands until the sun is in the sky again."

Inside the stallion, Twilight knew she had a choice, she always did. She could teleport out of him. But as he worked her legs, climbing the stairs to the castle's master bedroom, she knew that she wouldn't. Opening her mouth, she felt the gentle probing of her husband, taking control of her voice.

"Finally, here y'are." Applejack had been lying on the huge bed the castle had somehow created. She had two little shapes snuggled in beside her, giving the reason for why she spoke softly. "Just like their ma, too. Took three books before they dozed off."

Apple Bloom stared out at the moon. She watched it until it twisted, a head appearing and then forming a body for itself. Luna flapped her wings and glided around, slowly approaching where the filly stood. "Howdy Luna!"

Luna closed her eyes a moment, enjoying the warm spring night that Apple Bloom's mind had created. "Hello, Apple Bloom. Enjoying your dreams tonight?"

"Yup, just working out how's and why's." Apple Bloom was sitting at a lake, watching two foals fishing. "Am I too young to find a special somepony?"

One of the figures was obviously Apple Bloom, but Luna had to focus her thoughts on the other. "Tender Taps." She nodded. "He is a young stallion, and you are a young mare."

Apple Bloom's head shot up to look at the alicorn. "But we are still young?" Luna didn't say a word. "Ah like him, a lot…"

"I find myself doing this for you far too often, Apple Bloom, but…" Luna summoned the doors, the myriad of them that accounted for each sleeping pony. One came easily to her call and she opened it.

"Tender?" Apple Bloom stared inside, watching as her friend's dream seemed locked into a moment, just one. Their kiss.

"If he had been dreaming of anything else, I would have been surprised." Luna let the door close, then she banished the doors back to her own dream. "Maybe you need to invite him to visit your family? Offer him the same?"

Apple Bloom nodded and bounced in place. "Oh, wait, all my family?" Images started appearing around her. Applejack, Big Mac. Granny Smith, only slightly faded, joined them. Then Twilight and Gel appeared, then their foals. "Life is complicated."

"Apple Bloom, you have no idea. There is a letter on your pillow. When you wake, please take it to Princess Twilight Sparkle." Luna leaned down and gave the filly a nuzzle on the top of the head and, with a swirl of light, the alicorn was gone.

When Apple Bloom walked back to her dream, where the colt and filly were fishing, she stepped forward, stepping into the form of the filly. The dream 'woke up' from where Luna had frozen it, continuing.

Caballeron sighed as he looked back at the town. "Sometimes, I am glad I don't get paid for every job."

"Where to, boss?" A henchpony, with impeccable hair and a slightly dull look, trotted up from the train that had pulled into the station.

As he pulled out a piece of paper with a crudely drawn map and coordinates on it—written in Daring Do's hoof-writing—Caballeron grinned. "South, we actually have a head-start for once." He stepped over to the ticket booth, quiet and unpopulated, setting the paper down. On the back of it, in pencil, Caballeron scrawled a note.

To Please Do. Please, don't be mad at me, give this to your sister and tell her 'good luck'.

Author's Note

No questions posted to the last chapter, but that is okay, it gives Celestia more time to plot and scheme.

Young love seems to have bloomed, and Luna is not above giving it a slight push. But what is Celestia up to?

"Ask x", x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post!

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