Truth Behind Harmony

Celestia and the others just stared at the six new alicorns before them, Celestia slowly walking up to Twilight, a look of wonder in her eyes.

“Tw…Twilight?”

The mare nodded, hugging her close as the others examined themselves. As the celestial sisters went over to examine the other elements; Pinkie Pie sauntered her way over to Discord, sitting down next to him with a happy smile stretched upon her face.

“You look better,” she said, nuzzling up close to him.

“And you my dear look fantastic,” said Discord, looking her over as she wrapped a wing around him.

“I’m glad you said that Disey, because I was thinking-” she said, leaning close to whisper in his ear. Discord listened, and then blushed as she felt Pinkies now ethereal tail rub against his lower body. He called upon his old draconic powers gifted to him by his mother, thought up the word for teleport and quickly whisked them away.

Their disappearance wasn’t noted till Celestia asked where Pinkie was, Ixen immediately looking around, her mind already leaping to a certain conclusion; which were proven fact when she saw that neither the pink one nor her son were anywhere in sight.

“Males,” she said, face hoofing herself in exasperation. “I believe the pink one has taken my son away for some nighttime activities, which means we will most likely have to wait to speak to all of you till…wait a moment, were is sister Luna and miss Fluttershy?”

Everypony looked around, while Celestia lit up her horn. Celestia focused on places she knew her sister liked to go when she wanted to be alone, and upon viewing one place she immediately cut off her magic and started rubbing her hooves against her eyes.

“Argh my eyes,” she yelled, damming herself for looking. “Well that’s it, I have gone too long without any and seeing as how everypony else is doing it I might as well, come Twilight, were going to bed!”

She reached the doors to leave when she felt a cold chill run down her spine, and then a voice spoke behind her, chilling everypony in the room.

“What have I told you about making demands of me my student,” said Twilight, her glare piercing Celestia as she walked forward.

“I…I’m sorry Miss Sparkle, it won’t happen again,” said Celestia, her voice carrying with it submissive tones, shocking everypony in the room.

“Good, now that we have that settled, I want you to head over to Golden Oaks library, and I expect you to be well prepared upon my arrival there.”

Celestia nodded, leaving out the door as Twilights horn glowed. After it was finished she turned to Rarity with a smile, “I transported Spike to the boutique, can you watch him till me and the princess are done?”

Rarity just nodded, watching the mare saunter her way out of the mayor’s office with a light spring in her step. Everypony in the room shook off their confusion, meanwhile Anastasia walked over to Harmonia, giving her a questioning look.

“Mother, I’m afraid to ask, but did you ever…”

“Know that my oldest had submissive tendencies, yes I did. Did I know how they would show…no Anastasia I did not, and I am really wishing I had never been privy to such information.” Harmonia shivered, a little disturbed by the thoughts running through her head.

Nearby, Ixen had walked up to Rarity, getting her attention by taping her on the shoulder. “Celestia’s life partner mentioned a being named Spike, I must confess this does not sound like a pony name.”

“Oh Spike’s not a pony dear, he’s a dragon.”

Ixen’s ears perked up, for it brought forth memories from when she had still been close to Celestia. “Te…tell me, do you know how Twilight got this dragon?”

“Why yes, she had to hatch him when he was still in an egg for her magic test, I believe he was a gift to the school by Celestia herself, why do you ask?”

Ixen breathed out a sigh, her hopes and fears confirmed. “Because I think I might know of this dragon, and if it would be alright with you, I wish to go to your boutique and meet him.”

Rarity nodded, and they left. After they were gone, Applejack stretched her new wings, “Whelp ah need to get back to the farm, so if you’ll…”

“Oh hell no you don’t!”

Before she could turn around Rainbow Dash was beside her, one of her wings wrapping around her as she slid next to her. “You are so not going to the farm; you got wings now, so you’re coming home with me.”

“But Rainbow I’ve been away from the farm for days, and I got tah…”

“No buts sugar lips unless it’s your beautiful butt on my face, now you’re coming with me.”

Rainbow Dash then grabbed Applejack by the tail, dragging the blushing mare out of the door and then taking off into the sky.

The others began to leave, till finally it was just Harmonia, Mercury and her family. “Well-” started Mercury, “-seeing as how my quarters at the palace have been leveled, and most likely the wounded and homeless from Canterlot will be filling up all other buildings, I was hoping I could stay in your lovely home till…”

Then she noticed the looks Bon-Bon and Lyra were shooting each other, and she growled. “Oh for the love of all that is holy, fine, I will watch Scootaloo, but please make sure you’re…”

Before she could finish Lyra and Bon-Bon were out the door. She sighed, turning to her mother. “I am sorry about that; I don’t know what the hell is with them.”

“They think the world might end tomorrow,” said Harmonia matter of factly. “Things like that tend to make a pony want to spend as much intimate time with their loved ones as possible. I’m surprised you’re handling it so well.”

“My kingdom is a lot different than Equestria; we deal with crises situations during breakfast and wrap up world ending cataclysms before dinner. But it was the behavior that caught me off guard; I mean I expect it from Scoot’s parents considering where they come from, but the others?”

“Are your people…more liberal with physical displays of affection,” asked Harmonia.

“More liberal would be a grouse understatement, I think if I hadn’t introduced public decency laws when I had, my people would be bucking in the streets. Gods the Element of Honesty is going to have such a hard time adjusting to that society when she arrives, for I assume that is the plan correct,” she asked, using her horn to place a sleepy Scootaloo onto her back.

“Yes, that is the plan. The elements will go with each of you to your kingdoms to help fix what my sister has broken; I just hope I have not entered the game too late.”

She sighed, thinking about all the damage and destruction that had happened today, and what she could have done to prevent it.

She felt a hoof on her shoulder, and turned to see Mercury looking at her with a sad smile. “Mother, there was nothing you could do, even you have limits.”

“I know…it’s just some days I think if I had just talked to her more…things might have been different.”

Harmonia sighed again, and then smiled, looking at her daughter. “Let us go, I think a nice walk will do us both some good.”

Mercury nodded, and they both left the office, heading out into the cool night air to find a place to rest.

Cadance and Shining walked through the streets of Ponyville, taking comfort in the fact that they had not been in Canterlot when the destruction happened.

“I can’t believe their helping,” said Shining, his gaze lingering on a group of changelings helping carry some of the wounded still being filtered from the ruins that had once been Canterlot.

“Are you really that full of hate for what we are,” asked a voice, causing both Cadance and Shining to turn around. The speaker walked out from the shadows, revealing herself to be Chrysalis, which caused Shining to growl and step in front of his wife.

“What the hell are you doing here,” he growled, his horn lighting up with a readied spell.

“Not to quarrel if that is what you’re after, but I simply wish to speak with your wife…and apologize.”

“Apologize,” asked Cadance, looking skeptical. “What makes you think I would accept such from you, after what you did to me?”

Chrysalis sighed, “I know you will probably never forgive me for that, but that was done out of starvation and need…my people were dying, and we had nowhere else to go. I accept that what I did to try and save them was callous and cruel to you, so I leave you this, and hope that someday you can forgive me.”

She placed something on the ground, then turned and left, heading in the direction of the Whitetail Wood.

Cadance bent down and picked it up, gasping when she saw what it was, “Wh…where did she get this?”

“She got it from me.”

Cadance and Shining turned toward the voice, and Cadance’s eyes widened when she saw who it was. Walking out of the shadows was a large thestral mare, who stared at Cadance with a motherly quality that belied her masculine stance and demeanor. She walked up to Cadance, looking down at the alicorn mare before smiling softly, tears coming to her eyes as she spoke.

“Hello…my little Cadenza…”

Cadance’s eyes filled with tears, and she wrapped up the mare in a tight hug, burying her face in the mare’s chest, “Papa.”

“Shh, its ok, I’m here,” said the mare. The mare then looked up to see Shining staring at them, and smiled at him. “You must be Shining Armor; my name is Daydream, Cadance’s father.”

Shining stared in shock for a moment, but then nodded, understanding showing in his blue eyes. “She said that you were a mare, though I never would have really believed it had I not heard about what happened with my sister and Celestia.”

Daydream chuckled, “Well glad to see my former wife’s sister finally gotten some, from everything Marmora told me that girl had gone pure celibate. Anyway, I just wanted to say hi to my daughter before I got some rest, I’ll speak with you tomorrow.”

She gently nuzzled Cadance one more time, whispering into her ear before breaking the hug, and then she turned and left. Cadance walked back to Shining, a sad smile on her face as they embraced.

Deep within Whitetail Wood, Chrysalis sat alone amongst the grass, watching as her ponies slowly walked in to lie down beside her. She chirped lightly when she noticed a group of foals, calling them over to her and then giggling as they nuzzled up close. She rolled onto her side, sighing as she felt two of them go for her teats, allowing them to feed while the others laid down to sleep.

“Is that normal,” asked a voice, causing Chrysalis to look up, and she had to repress the urge to flee when she saw it was her mother.

“Y…yes, this is normal, at least for changelings.”

Dreamstride walked over and sat down, gazing down at her daughter as she continued to feed the foals. “So, all female changelings can do this, how do the children know who their parents are?”

“…it’s kind of hard to explain.”

“If you wouldn’t mind, I wouldn’t mind hearing it,” said Dreamstride.

Chrysalis hesitated, and then spoke up. “All changelings have a unique pheromone that identifies them, so all a youngling has to do is follow their nose to find their parents.”

“I see,” said Dreamstride, who then motioned to the nursing foals. “What about this, dose this happen often?”

“Yes, though usually there are others to help…it’s just that these ones I have been taking care of for a while now, they were orphaned after our attack on Canterlot, and I sort of…well…adopted them.”

Dreamstride looked at her for a moment, and then wrapped her up into a hug, surprising the changeling queen as she wept. “I’m sorry I forced you to run away…I never should have done that to you.”

Chrysalis hesitated, then hugged her mother back, letting tears role down her face. After a moment they broke apart, and then Dreamstride motioned again to the foals. “So, what are their names?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if I want to get to know my grandchildren I have to know their names.”

Chrysalis smiled, hugging her mother once again, and then proceeded to introduce her to her grandchildren.

Celestia woke up first, shaking her head and noting that it was still too early to raise the sun. She laid her head back down upon Twilight’s large chest, enjoying the feel of her strong muscles as she breathed in her scent. She had to admit while she missed Twilights small body of old, her new body came with a whole list of advantages.

For one, she was larger and stronger now than even Celestia herself, which made sense given the way alicorn magic worked. Twilight was the dominate party in their relationship, the male in all respects, therefore her size and strength had grown in accordance so that she could defend her mare.

Still, Celestia was worried, it had been a full day since she had gotten pregnant, and she had already endangered herself. Sure, she had only got stabbed in the shoulder, but it could have been a lot worst, and she berated herself for endangering the life that was growing inside her. She needed some advice, so she got up while being careful not to wake Twilight, and then she left the library.

She did a quick scan with her magic, getting a positive response in the direction of park and headed over there. When she reached the park, she found Fantasia sitting on a black blanket, her sun resting peacefully in her forelegs as she sung him lullaby.

“Hush child, the darkness will rise from the deep and, carry you down into

Sleep child, the darkness will rise from the deep and, carry you down into sleep.”

Celestia cleared her throat, getting Fantasia’s attention. The younger alicorn smiled, motioning for her to sit beside her. Celestia walked over, carefully sitting down as to not disturb Shadow; then turning her gaze up at the beautiful stars in the sky.

“Couldn’t sleep sister,” asked Fantasia, her red serpent like eyes gazing at her regal sister.

“No…sister, I wanted to ask…how did you handle it?”

“Handle what Celestia,” asked Fantasia.

Celestia looked down at the ground, sighing before speaking again, “How did you handle being pregnant?”

Fantasia looked startled for a moment, and then smiled at her, draping a reassuring wing over her older sibling. “It was rough at first; the kingdom had an uproar when they found out, especially because I had to hide who the father was.”

“Why did you have to do such a thing?”

“The royalty of my land are split into six clans, the Onyx clan, the Ruby clan, the Sapphire clan, the Emerald clan, the Amethyst clan, and the Diamond clan. These clans originally worked together, but after you stole the element of loyalty from our lands…they started not trusting each other. Eventually they had a falling out, and eventually an unspoken rule about not mingling between clans came into effect.”

“I see, but what does that have to do with the child’s father?”

“Well-” began Fantasia, “-because of my red markings, I was counted as part of the Ruby clan. I was fine with it for a while…at least…before I met him.”

Fantasia looked up into the sky, her eyes getting a faraway look as she thought about her mate. “Ebony Shield, the captain of my royal guard, he was dutiful, he was selfless…but he also did something nopony ever did before. He treated me like a normal pony…like I wasn’t some divine goddess with the power to bend the will of demons to my beck and call. We started hanging out when he was off duty, when I wasn’t busy. It started as simple talks at first, then dates, then…more intimate displays.”

“After about a year, I finally decided to take it to the next level with him, and…and gave him the gift. The public was told he was given more power for his station…that he needed more power to perform his duties as my guard. Lies of course, but nopony questioned it, and we continued with what we were doing. It was a few months after I gave him the gift that I found out I was pregnant. I of coarse had to tell them, I couldn’t exactly hide it, especially when I started showing, but I couldn’t tell them who the father was.”

“Why not, what could they do to you,” asked Celestia, looking confused.

“It’s not what they could do to me…without me the spell protecting the land fails. But…but they would execute him…if they were to find out…”

“What!”

“I know you will never understand, but the clans are near zealots when it comes to enforcing the rule of no inter-clan relations. Ebony is from the Sapphire clan, and they are hated by the Ruby clan. But I didn’t care…I wanted to tell them, to come clean with what I had done and make them stop with these stupid feuds. Ebony stopped me though, he said we should wait…at least till Shadow was born.”

“Wh…why?”

“He said depending on what his markings looked like when he was born, that would be the deciding factor in whether we told the people or not. When he was born, he shared my markings, and my cutie mark, and after that Ebony said we should hide who the father was…said it was better that the for us all, but some days I wish he had been born different…then I wouldn’t have to hide anymore.”

Celestia hugged her sister, quietly whispering as she felt the mare shake from sobs. “Shh, its ok sister, you did the right thing…from what you say it was the only way to make sure he would live.”

Fantasia nodded then looked at her, smiling again as she spoke. “Thank you sister, that really helped. As to your earlier question, I handled my pregnancy as any mare does. I would suggest going to the doctor when you’re ready, and make sure to read up on Marmora‘s book. Now you need to run along, you need to raise the sun soon, I’ll round up the others when its time.”

Celestia nodded, getting up and heading back in the direction of the library. Fantasia smiled, turning back to her child and gently brushing his mane out of his face, giggling as he nuzzled up closer to him.