A Gentle Voice Calls Him Father

Days have passed since my wedding reception. Shining Armor and I are on our way home, after saying good bye to Twilight and her friends at the train station before they take their return trip home to Ponyville. Though I saw Shining Armor pull her sister aside and asked her to stay in Canterlot.

“We've been over this, Shining Armor,” the purple mare told her brother. “I like my life in Ponyville, but I'll take trips back here to see you more often; I promise.” The siblings hugged, and Twilight joined the other five ponies, and Spike, on the train. We waved at them as the train pulled out of the station a few minutes later.

“How about we go back to the house and have some alone time,” Shining Armor whispered in my ear as we turned towards the exit. I giggled and we hailed a taxi cart to take us back to the center of town, where our house is.

As Shining Armor is paying the nice stallion who pulled our cart, I notice our front door is ever so slightly ajar. Worrying, I hurry up to see why. I push open the door to get through, and don't see anyone around.

“Hello?” I call out, my fear getting the worst of me. I worry that somepony has broken in for some reason. “Is anyone there?”

“Who are you talking to, love?” Shining Armor asks me as he shuts the door.

“The door was open when we got out of the taxi,” I tell him. “I think someone's here.”

“Stay here, sweetheart,” Shining Armor orders me. His demeanor has changed completely, from his normal, relaxed state, to his official, professional stance. Even his voice has taken on a deeper, more authoritative tone.

I do as he says as he goes around the house, checking each room carefully. After what seems like forever, Shining Armor returns to me, and nuzzles my cheeck.

“There's no one here,” he tells me in a soothing voice. “Nothing missing, nothing broken. We might have forgotten to close the door properly before we left. We'll have to be more careful.”

I decide to make myself some tea to calm myself down. As I'm passing through our breakfast nook, something catches my attention and makes me pause. A brightly colored envelope is sitting on the otherwise clear table. I distinctly remember putting a vase with a bouquet of tiger lilies in the middle of the table yesterday.

“Honey,” I call out. “Did you clear the flowers off the breakfast table?”

“No, Cadence,” Shining Armor called from the den. I pick up the envelope and bring it to him.

“This was on the table,” I say, showing him. He takes it and starts to open it. “And the flowers I put on the table are gone.”

He's reading the letter inside with concern. He turns it around so I can read it.

“It's from your father,” he says.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Shining Armor,

Your are cordially invited to tea tomorrow afternoon at 3PM in Canterlot Castle...

My mind trailed off and I could no longer focus on what the rest of the invitation said. My eyes focused on the one important thing on the piece of paper. My father's signature at the bottom.

“We have to go,” I say immediately. “We are going, right?”

“Of course, sweetie,” Shining Armor tells me. “Unless there's a good reason not to.”

I pause, and bite my lip. Aunt Celestia clearly doesn't like my father. The obvious reason is that he left her to deal with Blueblood and myself. I didn't like that explanation though. It made me feel like Celestia didn't care for either of us, merely put up with us because she had to.

“You look like you need to relax, Princess,” Shining Armor says in a low voice, moving closer to me. I push my thoughts of family to the side and focus on my husband.

“Let's retire to the bedroom,” I reply, with a devious smile.

~*~

The next day, Shining Armor and I were walking to the castle for tea. When we reached the gates, the guards didn't even give us a second glance. I became more and more nervous as we reached the garden the invitation had told us tea would be served in. I had only had small conversations with my father since the reception, and as far a I knew, Celestia was refusing to speak to him.

We round the final corner, and see my father, and quite a few other unicorns from prominent members of Canterlot society, as well as what seems to be the whole of the Wonderbolts team. I spied Blue, as well as Aunt Luna. It fails to escape my notice that Celestia is not present.

I give my greetings to many of the ponies present, and graciously accepted compliments from social climbing unicorns.

“Marriage certainly agrees with you,” one mare comments.

“Look at you, just glowing!” Another adds in.

“I'd like to greet my father,” I say to the ponies surrounding me. “If you'll please excuse me.” They let me through. I approach my father and give him a huge.

“Thank you for inviting us,” I say to him. “But you could have left the letter in our mailbox, instead of on the breakfast table. It gave me quite a fright to return home to see the door ajar.”

“I'm sorry, dear,” he replies. “I just couldn't help my curiosity.”

I didn't say anything, slightly confused by his response, anything I might have said was drowned out by Aunt Luna's royal voice. She still hadn't quite managed to grasp the concept of when to use it and when not to. When turning to look at Aunt Luna, Blue caught my attention. He looks visibly uncomfortable, which was odd for him. If something made him uncomfortable, he avoided it, or ordered it away from him. I trot over to him.

“Hi Blueblood,” I greet. He gives me a nod.

“Good afternoon, sister. You're looking well,” he comments.

“You're not,” I say in a low voice. He glares at me. “What's wrong, Blue?”

“There is nothing wrong,” he insists. “I'll ask you to kindly leave me be.”

“But Blue,” I start, but am interrupted by a small bell, signaling that tea was about to be served. I took a seat next to Shining Armor, who had been talking to a uncle of his, who is retired from the guard. I make small talk with his family while tea is served. The day isn't going even remotely like I imagined it would be, and even still is turning out to be a bit of a disaster.

As tea ends, many of the Wonderbolts take off for practice. A few unicorns leave, making the crowd very thinned out. I notice Blueblood has left, but Aunt Luna remains, as well as my father. I notice they don't interact with each other much.

I whisper to Shining Armor that I was getting tired, and would like to leave soon, and we started to say our goodbyes to the various guests remaining. After I finish saying goodbye to my father, Aunt Luna pulls me over.

“I'm afraid we've never gotten to know each other, Cadence,” she tells me in her normal, soft voice. I don't say anything, waiting for her to finish what she wants to say. “Sometime this week, I'll pay you a visit. I'd like to take some time to talk to you, since it appears neither Solaris OR Celestia seem to want to.”

“Thanks, Aunt Luna,” I say, giving her a hug. I say my goodbyes, and turn to walk back to Shining Armor. Suddenly, I feel incredibly dizzy. Nausea rises within me, and I try my hardest not to get sick right here on the lawn.

The next thing I know, I'm on a bed with starched white sheets and a rather generic looking green blanket. I look around, trying to figure out where I am and what's going on. I sit up rather quickly and I get another rush of dizziness and wave of nausea. I lay my head back down, unable to stand. I hear a door open, and then a very familiar voice.

“Cadence! You're awake,” Shining Armor exclaims.

“Where are we?” I ask him, so very confused. I try to sit up again, much slower, and much more carefully.

“The infirmary wing of Canterlot Castle,” Shining Armor answers, giving me a cup of water for the bedside table.

“What happened?” I asked him, before taking a sip of the cool water.

“Well, you passed out in the garden,” he tells me. This makes sense. My memory is a little woozy and what he's told me connects well to what I remember. I nod before taking another sip of water.

“It's not a good thing you passed out, dear, but we found out some good news from all this,” he tells me.

“We did?” I question. I don't remember hearing any good news.

“Cadence, we're pregnant!” he announces with joy. My jaw drops open.