Trill snuck into the kitchen, peeking around the room for any of the staff cooking anything for the day. With no ponies in sight, the pregnant changeling walked inside with a grin on her face, licking her lips as she couldn't wait to sink her teeth into some chocolate. She couldn't deny her baby's demands, or her own cravings and love of some chocolaty goodness. She opened the fridge and cabinets, finding no premade goodies to sink her fangs into.

"Aww. None of the bakers made anything yummy this week." Trill frowned as she looked at the fresh ingredients. "Hmmm...I wonder if there's a recipe book that has a triple chocolate cake." She looked down at her belly as she heard it growl, not the only one who agreed on the idea. "Triple chocolate cake it is! With chocolate chips."

Trill skimmed around the shelves of cookbooks, grabbing the one filled with different cake recipes and found the one she wanted. She was already salivating from the picture alone, placing the book down on the counter as she looked over the ingredients she needed. After gathering everything needed for her chocolaty brunch, she measured out the ingredients and began following the steps. She hummed a little tune, cracking some eggs, pouring in the pre-measured flour, sugar, milk, cake mix, and vanilla, then mixed them all up while she turned the baking oven on. She found the chocolate chips, resisting the urge to eat the whole bag and save her craving for the chocolaty cake she was making, pouring some into the batter.

After pouring the batter into a circular pan, she placed the cake in the oven, and while she waited, she began making the chocolate frosting. The timer went off just as she finished the frosting, pulling out the perfectly baked cake out to let it cool. Once it had cooled down enough, Trill began decorating the cake with the chocolate frosting, and added a bit of warm chocolate syrup on top with plenty more chocolate chips as well. Her masterpiece was finally completed, a triple chocolate cake with oozing chocolate syrup, frosting, and chips decorated in a display of chocolate overload, and she was going to enjoy it.

"Mmmm...I waited long enough. Time to dig in." Trill cut herself a big slice, licking her lips as she smelled the overwhelming chocolate scent wafting in her nostrils.

Taking a fork, she cut a big slice from her piece and opened her mouth to sink her taste buds into her brunch dessert. "What are you doing?" Trill flinched, her mouth still open to take a bite as she turned her eyes to the entrance of the kitchen. Solaris stood there, a brow raised as he tapped his hoof against the kitchen tile floor. "...Is that a triple chocolate cake with more chocolate than needed?"

"...Uhhhhh..." The alicorn watched as his wife slowly bit her piece while also using her magic to hid her slice and the rest of her cake behind her back. "No?"

"Yeah, pretty late on hiding the evidence, hon." He looked around the kitchen, amazed she didn't make too much of a mess. "I thought you would have gotten a bit more...untidy when cooking, or baking. But I guess not. Now, hand over the cake."

"Can't I just have one little cheat day?" Trill begged, but Solaris shook his head. "I was only going to have one slice. I swear." He didn't respond, instead holding out his hoof, telling her to give the cake to him. "You're no fun! I was craving for chocolate, and so was the baby! Do you want to deny our foal the delicious taste of chocolate?"

"I think the craving's more for you than the baby, and you've had worse meals you craved for in the past month alone." Solaris stole the cake from Trill, even her large slice, making her whimper sadly. "Eating this much chocolate isn't all that healthy for you, or the baby."

"I haven't had any chocolate at all since you started me on that diet you put me on." She stuck out her tongue in disgust at the vegetables he made her eat, and with no dessert as a reward for eating stuff she couldn't eat at all. "And I worked hard baking that too. It tastes sooooo goooood."

"And what you made could put a griffon in a diabetic coma." Solaris looked at the cake, lightly sniffing the dessert as his senses went crazy over the abundance of chocolate on top of it. Curious, he took a small bite and tasted it, surprised by how delicious it was. He looked at his wife, unable to hide the delight he had in eating a bite, Trill grinning hopefully as she saw he was close to changing his mind. He couldn't deny her any longer with those emerald eyes of hers, sighing in defeat as he held out her plate, cutting the large slice in half with his magic. "Fine. One piece."

"Yay!" Trill ran up to Solaris and gave him a big kiss, swiping her plate away from him as he held his piece in his aura, putting it down on his own plate. "I knew you'd come around. I should persuade you with my cooking all the time now. The best way to a stallion's heart is his stomach."

"Well..." Solaris couldn't deny that her statement was somewhat true. He loved his aunts' cooking whenever they brought him anything from their homes, especially Pinkie's delicious baked goods. "Ok, I guess you're right."

Trill giggled as she took small bites of her treat, savoring it as much as possible until Solaris lets the staff eat her hard work. The couple ate their cake in silence, the changeling nuzzling against her loving husband.

"So, what do you think the foal is going to be?" she asked. "Is it going to be a colt or a filly?"

"I hope we have a daughter," he said, surprising Trill with his guess.

"A daughter? I thought you'd want to have a son." Trill nudged his side, taking another bite. "You know, that whole talk you had about being a father and knowing what it's like?"

"I think I'd like a filly to raise, actually." He looked at the mare, who raised a brow at him with a smirk. "...What?"

"So, you're saying you want to spoil your little princess, huh?" she asked, beginning to snicker as he turned away with a blush. "You want her to be a daddy's little girl. Good luck trying to deal with that when you have two mares in your life, one of them being me who loves to tease and annoy you every day."

"If I can manage you, I can handle a little filly." Trill growled and pouted, stuffing a large piece of her cake in her mouth. "Once you're around five and a half months pregnant, we can go to the doctor's and see our foal."

"That soon?" Trill asked. "I thought we'd be waiting until a couple months before I pop her, or him, out."

"Yes, but we can at least see what she looks like, find out how she'll sort of look through the magical sonogram," Solaris explained, his wife grinning at his statement.

"You're really sure it's going to be a filly?" He reluctantly nodded his head, hopeful for that outcome to happen. "You need more guy time. Too many mares and not enough stallions in your life." Trill rubbed against Solaris and purred, nuzzling his neck as she brushed her lips against his skin. "At least you haven't lost an ounce of testosterone in you."

"Are you trying to compliment me or are your hormones acting up?" His question was answered by a nibble on the ear, the stallion barely flinching as her hooves began to run against his foreleg. "And the second answer wins yet again...Unless you added some sort of aphrodisiac in the cake."

"No, I didn't. I'm just horny," the changeling giggled, kissing him on the cheek. "If you don't have anything else to do today, we can head upstairs to our room after our dessert and you can give me a cream filling."

Solaris groaned and slapped himself in the forehead at the horrible pun. "Oh my goodness, Trill. Did you really just say that?"

"Yes, and I want your sticky frosting in my belly." He growled while the changeling chuckled as she annoyed him with her innuendos.

"Ok, that's enough," Solaris grumbled. "Finish your cake."

"Why?" Trill asked, leaning into the alicorn's ear and whispered. "Don't you want to spill some of your batter in my oven?"

"...Just go up to our bedroom," he grumbled. Trill giggled, scarfing down the rest of her cake before heading upstairs, dragging her tail along his snout as she swayed her hips and slightly rounded belly. As soon as she left the kitchen, Solaris sighed and shook his head. "Sex puns...Why the hay did she have to use horrible sex puns?" He looked down at his slice of cake, slowly placing it on the counter, no longer feeling hungry for it after the bakery innuendos his annoyingly beloved wife made. "Thanks to her, I'm afraid to eat any baked goods that can have a cream filling stuffed in them..."

Solaris woke up in his bed, the sun shining down in his room and waking him from his slumber. He didn't see Trill laying next to him, which made him worry. He climbed out of bed and walked outside of his bedroom. Instead of walking out into the castle, he was now out in a grassy field. It was really peaceful: the sun was out, the sky was clear, and no cities or towns within miles to ruin the peaceful scenery.

"What is going on?" he asked, having no clue how he wound up outside from his bedroom door in the castle.

"Daddy!" a littly filly shouted joyfully as she suddenly leapt up in front of Solaris.

"Ahh!" He fell back in surprise, the filly bouncing up and down on his chest as she giggled.

"I got you, daddy!" The alicorn looked at his "daughter" after she finally stopped bouncing on him.

She had a white coat, but what was odd that she had some features of a changeling. There were some tiny holes in her legs, not big like Trill's, Chrysalis's, or any other changeling's, and her horn was slightly crooked and jagged, but it also looked really smooth like a unicorn's. She even had small fangs as she grinned down at him. The only parts of her that weren't changeling were her wings, covered with feathers and muscle, her mane styled somewhat like his mother's, though colored green with a gold stripe running down the middle similar to his mane color, and her eyes were like a pony's, colored the same emerald green as those of Trill's.

He continued staring at her, greatly bewildered as she seemed to have the same fur, wings, and gold stripe down her hair and tail. He grabbed her in his hooves, the filly giggling as he held her up while he sat up on his haunches. Her coat felt smooth like a changeling's skin, but it was also soft and furry, only making her giggle more as he unintentionally tickled her as he rubbed his hooves over her sides. A part of him felt like what she called him was true, but he had never seen her before.

"Did you...call me 'daddy'?" he asked.

"Mhmm!" she said with a nod.

"...I...don't have a foal yet," he said, still very confused.

"You're silly, daddy!" the filly giggled. "Huggies!"

She flew out of his hooves and wrapped her tiny hooves around his neck, surprising Solaris as she nuzzled him lovingly. Still dazed, unsure if this realization was real or if he was imagining it, he gently wrapped his hooves around her in a loose hug.

"Solly!" His ears perked up as he heard Trill calling out to him. He stood up, still carrying the filly in his foreleg as he turned around, his wife running toward them, the mare panting heavily as she seemed to have been running for a while. "There you two are! She just ran off and tried to find you, and here you are lying around in the grass!"

"Hi, mommy!" Solaris's "daughter" called out, waving her hooves at her.

As Trill got closer, the world suddenly began to turn dark behind her, a cloud of darkness slowly crawling up behind the changeling. Suddenly, appearing in the clouds were a pair of blood red eyes with green mist seeping out of their sockets, Solaris gasping as he remembered those horrifying eyes. The eyes began to form a stallion body, a dark unicorn with a horn that was red as his eyes and curved up, his mane as dark as the clouds he came from. He fell down, creating an aura sword colored dark red, thrusting it down and straight through Trill's back, the mare gasping in shock and pain.

"TRILL!" Solaris cried out, the filly whimpering in fear and turning her head away.

The stallion laughed, his mother's murderer and Equestria's ruling tyrant for fifteen years before he ended his reign and life had returned. "Surprise." He dug the sword deeper into Trill's body, the mare grunting as the pain grew worse, but the fatal impalement began to make her body numb as her eyes began to grow pale. "Now to deal with your husband, and your little brat."

The filly began to cry, Solaris quickly covering her eyes as Lucifer pulled his blade out of Trill, watching her fall to the ground and taint the dark ground with her blood. "No...Why do you keep showing up!? Leave me alone!"

"We're not going to leave." Solaris gasped as he heard his own voice behind him, though it sounded more sinister and dark.

"T-Two daddies?" the filly asked as she stared at his darker self, Nova Flare, sneering at him as he turned his head to face him.

"Correction, you have one daddy, little filly," Nova chuckled, cracking his neck and slamming his hooves together, creating dark flames to spark in his hooves. "I am your daddy, but his darker side." Solaris began to panic, not willing to risk fighting both himself and the monster that killed everypony he loved while he held the filly in his hooves. He tried to escape, but Nova appeared in front of him and punched the alicorn hard in the face, sending him tumbling back across the darkened plains as he dropped her. "Nowhere to run, Solaris! You can't escape from me, and you know it!"

Solaris tried to stand up, but Lucifer kicked him hard in the ribs, knocking the wind out of him as he fell back to the ground. The dark unicorn grabbed the alicorn's mane, forcefully lifting his head up to watch as Nova Flare walked toward the terrified filly, backing away from him before turning around and running to Solaris.

"Daddy!" she cried out, unable to get further as a wall of dark spikes shot up in front of her, trapping her inside with Nova Flare.

"No! Get away from her!" Solaris shouted as he tried to stand up, immediately screaming out in pain as he felt daggers created out of Lucifer's aura that dug deep into his hooves, keeping him pinned to the ground.

"No! Daddy, help me!" the alicorn's "daughter" cried, Nova's hoof lighting on fire, the dark flames growing bigger as he pointed it at her, prepared to shoot an explosive fireball at her. "DADDY!!!!!!"

"NO!" Solaris screamed as he sat up in bed, panting heavily in a cold sweat as tears streamed down his face. He steadied his breathing, now awake after experiencing an even worse nightmare involving the two stallions that were the bane of his existence. "A nightmare...Just a nightmare..."

Trill groaned in her sleep, slowly waking up after hearing the alicorn yell out in his sleep. "What is it, Solly?"

"...Just a bad dream, Trill," he said. "Sorry for waking you."

"Was it the same nightmares with Lucifer and Nova Flare attacking us again?" she asked.

"...Sort of...They were there again, but it was just you, me...and our daughter..." Solaris rubbed his hooves over his eyes, wiping away the tears that had appeared after watching the dream filly that was his daughter getting attacked, and possibly killed before he woke up. "...I think my subconscious...imagined how she would look if she was born, and even though I saw her for the first time, it's like I knew her...But then, they showed up..."

"...And that's when the bad part happened." He nodded his head, clutching his head as the nightmare still played clearly in his mind. "You ok?"

"...I'll be fine. Just...another dumb nightmare...with the worst side of me and the stallion who tried to destroy everything." Solaris sighed heavily and laid his head back down on his pillow. "Just go back to sleep, Trill. I just need a moment."

"Ok." Trill yawned and laid her head back down to sleep. It didn't last long as she groaned in annoyance and sat up. "After I use the bathroom, then I'll go back to sleep."

She climbed out of bed and sluggishly walked toward the bathroom to relieve herself, despising waking up in the middle of the night with her bladder slowly being squeezed by their foal with each passing day. She closed the door and left Solaris along for a moment, the stallion staring at the ceiling as his dream kept playing over and over in his head. He brought his hooves to his face, unable to fall asleep.

"No more of these stupid nightmares," he mumbled. "For once, I just want a peaceful dream...No more bloodshed...No more death..." His ears twitched as he heard his own maniacal laughter that came Nova, then the scream of his "daughter" before the sound of an explosion made his ears press back against his head. He quickly shook the thought out of his mind, no longer wishing to continued what would have happened if he didn't wake up in time. "Please...stop tormenting me..."

The next couple weeks ended up being more problematic for Solaris with his nightmares than Trill's pregnancy symptoms. Ever since that dream where his wife and daughter were killed by the dream manifestations of Lucifer and his darker side, Nova Flare, he kept having the same kind of nightmare every night, and with different results. They never appeared this often, and the impact it had on him was a lot worse, even more than hearing his own mother yelling at him for his failures, another nightmare that weakened the state of his psyche. He was barely able to sleep, or stay up all night in fear of seeing the little filly be traumatized and killed by his worst enemies, he sometimes panicked when he thought he heard his own evil voice whispering in his ear.

Trill began to notice more whenever he woke up screaming every night. Every time he said he was fine, she knew that wasn't the case; she could practically feel his terror from his nightmares, and whenever she went back to sleep after he accidentally woke her, she always felt him clutching her tightly, but not too much when his hooves trailed down to her belly. As she woke up this morning after this had gone on for the past couple weeks, beginning her fifth month, she was going to confront him and get him some help.

"Solaris, are you sure you're up to doing your job today?" she asked, seeing the bags underneath Solaris's bloodshot eyes.

"Yeah," he assured. "I'm totally fine."

"No you're not. You've been waking up every night screaming, I can feel you sweating in fear from your nightmares, and when you can't fall asleep, you try to squeeze me into a vice grip as if you're trying to protect me from the safety of our bedroom." The alicorn's fake grin melted into a frown, lowering his head sadly, unable to hide his misery. "These nightmares are haunting you, and you can't focus if you freak out."

"I can't help it," he said, rubbing his tired eyes. "Nova Flare isn't gone. He's still somewhere inside me, and he keeps trying to break me to let him take over."

"Solaris, you killed him back at my home," Trill reminded. "Even if he does show up again with a new body or in your mind, you can take him."

"I can't," he mumbled, quickly receiving a light slap in the face to snap him out of his negative mindset.

"Yes, you can. You fought Lucifer as a giant demon thing, and you still won. There's no possible way anyone out in Equestria, or anywhere else, can best you, and you know it." Trill nuzzled him, pulling herself closer to him to help distract his mind. "I know it was really hard for you to summon any courage you had to fight after losing your family, but you still have me. You have your family in Ponyville, in the Crystal Empire, everypony who knows what you have lost knows you've sacrificed a lot just to get this far...

"Which is why...I made YOU an appointment with a therapist scheduled for this afternoon." The stallion's ears perked up as he back away, staring at his wife in shock. Before he could open his mouth, she shoved her hoof against his lips before he could complain. "You made me several appointments to the doctor over a head injury that I told you a million times over was nothing but a major bump, some behind my back. So, I think this justifies at least one appointment, and you really need help."

Solaris gently lowered her hoof away from his lips. "I don't need a-"

"Yes you do," she argued. "I can't exactly help you by feeding off your sadness and fear right now because of the baby. I know that is going to be unhealthy for it." Trill sighed, placing a hoof on his cheek, gently pressing her forehead against his. "I don't want to see you lose your mind before it's too late...There's only so much I can do before my help isn't enough. Please, do this for me? For the baby?"

Solaris felt Trill's hoof grab his, gently dragging it down to let him rub her round belly. Day by day, their foal was growing a little bit more every day, nearly halfway through until their son or daughter will be born. He really needed professional help, and for so many years, he's been delaying asking for that help because of his long journey, fighting for his life, and keeping the kingdom from suffering from anymore losses from Lucifer's fifteen years of rule.

Sighing sadly, he nodded his head, looking Trill in the eyes. "Ok...I'll go."

"Thank you," she said with a soft smile, bringing her lips to his in a soft, passionate kiss.

Solaris sat in the waiting room in Canterlot's best therapeutic centers. He was surprised at the research Trill had done to find somewhere that could help him; this medical center is well known to help those with serious mental disorders, especially ones that military ponies get whenever they wind up having flashbacks to a terrible war or deadly scenario that made them relapse when they think they're ok after a traumatizing experience. Solaris himself had struggled to fight through his depression back then to save Equestria, but it still came back to make him miserable from time to time, including the traumatizing deaths and life or death fight against Lucifer and Nova.

He had no other important meetings for the day, wondering if Trill actually does like to read up on what he does and never truly shows it, he arrived a few minutes earlier before his scheduled appointment. It was a bit awkward for any other ponies to see him walking around without his regalia, not wanting to be treated like royalty while he was off to get help with his problems. There were already a couple ponies inside, all of them staring at the prince in surprise while he checked himself in and filled out the usual forms required for the doctors to know about him. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait with the awkward stares for long as he was called to see the psychiatrist that Trill had asked for.

He walked in the room the assistant lead him to the office of Dr. Mynd Reader, one of the best therapists in Equestria. The doctor sat at his desk looking over his paperwork, a pale gray unicorn stallion with faded brown hair, wearing a business suit and a pair of glasses resting on his nose. He looked up as Solaris shut the door, the older stallion smiling as he stood up and walked over to him.

"Prince Solaris, right on time," he said as they both shook hooves. "I'm Doctor Mynd Reader."

"Yes, my wife told me she made my appointment for me, and you were the one who would help." Mynd chuckled as he guided the prince to the other side of his desk.

"Ah, yes. I know what you mean," the therapist said. "My wife can end up making decisions for me as well if I'm too stubborn to do it." Solaris sat down in one of the couple comfortable chairs while Mynd sat back down on his side of the desk, pulling out his new client's forms. "But, seeing how serious the princess was with these nightmares she says you've been having, she really cares deeply for your mental health. I had heard you've gone through a very traumatizing road several years ago."

"It was...really traumatic," Solaris admitted.

"I know talking about events like these can be too much to bear, and if you want to stop talking about it, we'll do so and switch to another topic." Dr. Mynd levitated a pencil and a large notepad from behind his desk. "It's better to have a patient explain their experiences in a calm mind rather than a highly distressed one. And if it's too horrible to recall, with your permission, I can look through the moments you want me to see that inflicted your psyche."

"You can see the minds of other ponies?" Solaris asked.

"Kind of my specialty. The spell I cast will allow me to see what you want me to see, that way I won't pop in on any memories you find personal." The young stallion blushed, finding it really awkward if his therapist wound up seeing all of the erotic things Trill and him had done. "And I am a little curious as to how your trek across Equestria had been, only hearing rumors about your experiences."

"...Well, it is a really long story to tell. I guess I can let you see what I've been through, just to make it easier," he said.

"Ok then." Dr. Mynd Reader stood up and approached Solaris, keeping a hold of his writing materials. "Now, just hold still as I place my horn against your head. It won't hurt a bit." Solaris put his trust in the doctor as his horn lit up and cast his spell. The alicorn kept his thoughts on the events of his tiresome, and depressing, journey, losing the ones he loved, feeling the pressure of Equestria's fate on his shoulders, and his deadly fights against the worst of his only two deadly foes. After a couple minutes, Dr. Mynd slowly pulled his head away, his pencil writing out every single detail as he read through Solaris's memories, utterly horrified at what he had just witness. "...My goodness...How in Equestria have you managed to stay sane after all of that?"

"I have a loving changeling wife who really cares about me," he answered. "I'm really lucky to have met her, and I don't know what I would have done without her."

"Lucky indeed," Mynd agreed sympathetically. He looked down at his notepad, grimacing at the gory details when he saw what had happened to the four Element of Harmony bearers he was with before their untimely end. "I think I felt the worst of it after witnessing Ms. Rainbow Dash and Ms. Pinkie Pie...Good thing I have a strong stomach." The stallion sat back down, putting those notes aside as he looked up at the alicorn. "I am so sorry for your loss."

"Mhmm..." Solaris sighed, having both Rainbow's and Pinkie's deaths coming back to his mind, reminding him of the painful breakdowns he had. "They were all my family...I only knew of my mom from what they told me, and none of them had any idea who my father was...I doubt he might still be alive after all these years, probably killed by Lucifer or his irresponsible guards."

"Yes...I do remember your mother quite well," Mynd said. "Princess Celestia's protege, top of the class in her studies at Her Highness's School for Gifted Unicorns, an Element of Harmony among her five other friends, and even became an alicorn after completing a spell made by Star Swirl the Bearded himself."

"That's what I heard all my life," Solaris said. "Though, I'm not as magically gifted as her. I may be smart, but not as. And I'm starting to prefer fighting rather than sit on my plot on a throne and listen to squabbling nobles fight over their businesses."

"That does sound rather boring, but work involving the state of the kingdom is highly important, and you're doing a great job so far." The doctor shifted his glasses back in order, pulling the notepad out again. "Now, let's hear about these nightmares you've had. Unlike memory, dreams are created through the subconscious, and trying to see those are more of a challenge."

"Should I start with the ones I've been having now or recent ones?" Solaris asked. "They're kind of similar, but the ones I have now are a lot more worse."

"Let's start off with the beginning nightmares and work our way to the present. Just from your experiences and how frequent you have nightmares, you seem to have a case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Nothing out of the ordinary when I had any soldiers who have been in war zones, especially after the many cases from those in the Resistance and the thankfully disbanded Shadow Knights." Solaris started with the first of his horrible nightmares, Dr. Mynd Reader jotting down the important points the alicorn explained from his dreams. After talking about his latest nightmares with the little filly who claimed to be his daughter, those dreams catching the doctor's attention. "So...these dreams now have you with a little filly. Same look, same voice, similar personality?"

"Yes. Every nightmare began peacefully with her showing up out of the blue," Solaris said.

"Hmmm...Seeing a child appear before you, who holds similar resemblance to a pony and a changeling...It's quite interesting." Dr. Mynd pondered as he looked over the notes he took while Solaris told him his dreams. "Aside from seeing Lucifer and the evil side of you showing up as memories of your past, that filly makes it seem like you're an expecting father."

"...Right. Well, about that..." The older stallion looked up at the alicorn, looking a little nervous. "Can you not tell anypony else about what I'm about to say?"

"Anything you say will only be known between you and I," Mynd promised. "Patient confidentiality isn't just for doctors in the hospital, after all."

"Ok." Solaris took a deep breath as he began to tell his therapist what he and Trill would be expecting in another six months. "...Trill and I found a spell in the Canterlot Archives that allowed an interspecies couple to have a baby, so right now she's a few months pregnant and we're expecting a foal."

The unicorn's jaw dropped at the news, explaining a little about his dreams involving a little filly in both his and Trill's image. "...Wow. Congratulations. Boy, Equestria's going to be surprised to hear the news of a new princess coming into the world." After recovering from the surprising news and going over his notes, Mynd Reader brought his hooves together as he came to his diagnosis. "Well, after seeing those painful memories for myself, you seem to have a case of PTSD. A very small case of it, but those nightmares are proof enough that you're either reliving those moments, or having them continuously altered while still feeling just as traumatizing.

"Though, with the symbolism of your current nightmares...you might be scared of losing your family again and you feel like you won't be strong enough to save them from any threats to Equestria." Solaris seemed to understand the meaning, always holding Trill tightly to him while she slept and he stayed awake. He was scared to lose her again after all the scares he had when she put herself in harm's way, even from accidentally hurting her. And if their child is born, he has no idea if there would be anyone who dislikes their union or hate how he or she will look and he wouldn't be able to protect him or her. "Your Highness, I don't think you should worry about whatever may come to attack us. With your feats of strength, there's no doubt in my mind that you'll fail in protecting the kingdom. Or your family."

"...I wanted to give up fighting back against Lucifer once...After I realized what finishing my trials would do after obtaining pieces of my armor..." Solaris looked down at his hooves, creating a small green flame on each hoof, slowly changing it from green to white. "I kept going, even though it hurt to see my aunts die...I don't know what to do if anything happened to Trill...or our foal."

"Things are at peace now. With your rule on the throne, I don't think there's going to be many problems that could threaten the fate of the world." Dr. Mynd wrote down something in a small book, tearing a page out and holding it out to Solaris. "Here's a prescription for some medication to help ease your mind and to help you sleep easily. If you still feel stressed or the nightmares keep occurring after a couple weeks, don't hesitate to schedule another appointment."

"Thanks, Dr. Mynd." Solaris took the prescription after thanking the doctor and began to head out. While making his way down to the pharmacy to turn the slip in for his medicine, the alicorn prayed that nothing bad will happen to his beloved and their unborn foal. "Please don't let there be any psychotic villains in the future who will threaten anypony for the rest of forever..."

Solaris found himself back out in the peaceful fields again after he fell asleep. He came back to the pharmacy after dropping off his prescription to get his medicine and took the pills before heading to bed. He was unsure if the medicine's effects would work, but he fell asleep pretty quickly after half an hour of the second prescription he was given. He sat up and looked around the dream landscape, finding the filly in a patch of flowers, humming a song while she picked some.

He stood up and walked over to her, his "daughter" noticing him and waving to him. "Hi, daddy!"

"Hi," he replied, sitting down before the flower patch as he watched her continue picking the flowers. The song she was singing sounded a lot like his Aunt Pinkie's song, "Giggle at the Ghosties", a song she sang to him when he was little when he was afraid of going into the darker parts of the mountain he lived in. "What are you doing?"

"Pickin' flowers," she said, creating a bouquet of the wildflowers she grabbed. "I'm gonna give them to mommy."

"I don't think she likes flowers all that much," he said. "She prefers chocolates over flowers when Hearts and Hooves Day comes around."

"Oh...Then, I'll pick flowers for Aunty Cadence." Solaris shook his head, unable to help but grin at his possibly future daughter's optimism. His smile melted as he saw darkness crawling up to them in the distance, the eyes of Lucifer and Nova Flare appearing from the dark clouds approaching the fields. The filly gasped, scared of the two stallions approaching them and ran behind Solaris. "Daddy, they're here again! Don't let them hurt me!"

"...Don't worry. I won't let them." He wasn't going to let them hurt his foal. Not these two who tormented his mind for years, nor anyone who dares to come across his family. Solaris stood up, glaring at the two dark stallions, standing in front of the terrified filly. "Leave us alone!"

"That's not gonna happen, Solaris," Nova sneered, igniting his hooves with black flames while Lucifer created his aura katana, slowly sliding the blade out of the magical sheath. "You will fail and watch as the world you desire burns and your loved ones die by our hooves."

"I'm sick and tired of having you two appear in my dreams. Equestria's at peace, but I'll never be unless I get rid of you two for good." Solaris stood on his hind legs, spreading his forelegs out as he called upon his golden gauntlets, appearing in a flash of light and immediately attaching to him. He slammed them together, connecting the platinum heart pieces together as it and the pieces of the Elements of Harmony glowed brightly. White flames ignited around his forehooves, his body engulfed in an orb of light as he transformed into his powerful form. The light faded away, the filly looking up in awe at her father: his mane and tail now highlighted with stripes matching the colors of the gems embedded in his gauntlets, turning ethereal as it flowed on its own in an invisible wind, his wings feather tips colored to the fur of his mother and aunts' coats, and the golden gauntlets were now shifting a myriad of colors like an aurora. He brought his hooves down, revealing his rainbow eyes, shocking both dark stallions at his new form. "Now, stay away from my family!"

Solaris engulfed his body in white flames, teleporting behind Lucifer and Nova, punching both of them hard in their faces as he reappeared. They tried to retaliate, but he was quicker, blocking their blade and hoof with his flaming hooves, now burning with the colors of the rainbow. He broke Lucifer's katana, destroying his link to his magical weapon, while snapping Nova Flare's foreleg down, breaking his leg as he screamed out in pain. Not giving them a chance to flee, seeing the fear in their eyes, he pummeled them with a flurry of punches, then turned around and bucked them up hard into the air.

Standing back on his hind legs, he brought his forehooves together at his hip, a sphere of rainbow fire slowly growing bigger with each second. As the dark unicorn and alicorn fell, he unleashed a powerful blast of rainbow fire with a thrust of his forelegs, incinerating the stallions in the large beam of fire shooting out of his hooves. He heard them scream in agony as they disappeared in the rainbow light, his flames burning away the darkness that tried to engulf the bright and calm fields of his dream. As the last of the dreary darkness disappeared, Solaris turned back to normal as a sphere of light appeared and disappeared around him.

"Daddy!" The filly ran up to him, hugging his foreleg tightly. "You beat them!"

"Sure did," he said, patting her head lightly. He sat down and held her up, smiling cheerfully at him for saving her from his enemies. As he looked at his dream daughter, Solaris wanted to ask her something he wasn't able to out of the confusion of first meeting her and the nightmares waking him up from how realistic the pain, physically and emotionally, were to him. "What's your name?"

"You know my name, daddy," she giggled. "You gave me my name when I was born."

"I did?" he asked. "...Can I get a hint?"

"Nope!" she said, sticking her tongue out at him playfully.

Solaris chuckled, obviously not going to know her name within his subconscious. "Alright, fine then. I'll just guess until I figure out what it is." He held her close and hugged her, feeling her nuzzle his neck as her hooves tried to wrap around his neck. After the warm hug, Solaris lowered his daughter down to the ground. "So, now that that's over, what do you want to do?"

"Hmmmm..." She looked around at the vast, empty fields, thinking of something for them to do. "Race to Ponyville?"

He looked over in the direction she pointed in, the town appearing in the distance as he heard what sounded like a party being held there. "Ok. A race it is. When should we-" Solaris looked down, but the filly wasn't there. He heard her giggling up ahead, already getting a head start before the race even began. "Hey! You little cheater!"

"I said 'go', daddy!" she said, the stallion only able to laugh and ran after her, not allowing her to win by getting ahead of him.

The next two weeks passed, Solaris's dreams no longer bothering him, even though he kept seeing Lucifer and Nova Flare. They wouldn't bother him anymore, not when they keep trying to kill his family in his dreams, and he will never let them bring him back down the path of depression. He did go back to Dr. Mynd Reader for his follow up appointment to tell him he felt a little better, and if he felt like he was going back into a relapse, he'll come back and seek more help. Trill was happier to know he was better, especially when they both slept, feeling his hoof gently rubbing her pregnant belly instead of clutching her tightly while staying up all night.

Today, the royal couple headed down to the hospital, figuring now would be the perfect time to get a sneak peek at what their foal will look like, and see if it'll be a filly or colt. While waiting patiently, also a little excited to know what their baby will be, they ignored the odd looks from some of the other patients who were sick or had injuries of their own that needed tending. They mostly looked at Trill and her rounded belly, not knowing she was actually pregnant and not heavily bloated.

One curious colt who was with his mother for a check-up walked up to the changeling, staring up at her stomach. "Whoa. Did you eat somepony, Princess Trill?"

"Honey, don't say such things!" the colt's mother scolded, dragging her rude son away from the royal couple. "I am so sorry about my son's rude behavior."

"Oh, it's fine. He's just curious," Trill said. "The things foals say are always the darnedest things." The mother giggled nervously, afraid to anger the princess or prince as she dragged her son back to their seats in the waiting room. "To be honest, I was going to tell him I ate a naughty colt who pulled on my tail and had a bit of indigestion. Just to scare him."

"Yeah, you're going to be a great mom," Solaris whispered sarcastically.

"Your Highnesses, the doctor's ready to see you," the nurse called out.

"She's gonna be in for quite a surprise." Solaris helped Trill out of her chair as they followed the nurse to one of the examination rooms.

After a while, the doctor walked in, a pink unicorn mare with her red mane tied in a bun, her cutie mark a red and white cross. "Hello again, Princess Trill. Let me guess. Your husband dragged you over for yet another scan on your cranium?"

"Not this time. He's not freaking out about the head injury he gave me." Solaris grumbled in disagreement. "Ok, he still worries, but that's not it this time."

"Finally, something interesting with you," the mare chuckled as she pulled out her clipboard. Before she spoke, she noticed the changelings stomach, whistling in astonishment. "Well, that must be a serious case of bloating. Too much love?"

"Wrong again!" Trill scoffed and looked at Solaris. "And you recommended me Dr. Joy. A doctor who gets everything wrong with her regular patient. Her practice must be horrible." The alicorn rolled his eyes as both mares laughed at the playful joke. "Actually, doc, we got ourselves a little surprise that might shock you. This belly is actually me pregnant with Solly's foal."

"What?" the doctor asked. "Is this another prank?"

"No, it's true," Solaris said. "There was a spell Trill and I found in the Canterlot Archives that allowed a unicorn in a romantic relationship with another of a different species to have their own foal. And she's five and a half months pregnant, the spell changing her usual changeling reproductive cycle from laying eggs to having a mare's, which means she'll be giving birth to a live foal instead."

Dr. Joy's jaw dropped, along with her clipboard, highly surprised by the news. "Oh my goodness." She quickly put on her stethoscope and brought it up around Trill's belly. Moving the resonator around her stomach, she managed to find the foal's heartbeat, gasping in surprise. "By the stars...This is a completely new experience for me to see and believe, but you really are pregnant. With a mammalian foal. Not once have I, or any of my colleagues back in medical school, have ever heard of such a thing from any other species!"

"I guess there was a reason why the spell wasn't well known," Solaris said, remembering the description of how it was created. "It started with a unicorn who fell in love with a female griffon during a war, and he spell was kept a secret for fear of their lovers being taken away, along with their child."

"Quite on odd spell, but all in all, congratulations." Dr. Joy brought the resonator back up onto Trill's stomach, holding up her clipboard as she wrote down her notes. "The baby's at least healthy. Has the princess been eating healthy?"

"Yes, as much as I hate the taste of leafy greens." The changeling stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Though, it said that any healthy diet for both sides could be done, but Solaris wants to make sure I suffer for the lack of chocolate I love to eat so much." She glared at the alicorn, scrunching her face in spite. "You owe me another delicious triple chocolate cake after I was only allowed one slice."

"After the baby's born," Solaris promised, poking Trill's snout with his hoof. "We made sure to follow the steps, read up on her symptoms and what's healthy for her, everything by the book."

"That's good. And it sounds like the foal's really healthy." Trill suddenly yelped as she felt a small kick inside of her, aiming where Dr. Joy's stethoscope was pressed against to hear it inside. "Yup. Definitely healthy. And I think we can see just how big this little one's gotten. I'm dying to see what a changeling/pony hybrid looks like."

"You're not going to tell anypony about this, are you?" Solaris asked. "We kind of want to keep it secret until the baby's born. Less stress on Trill and all that."

"Who's the one with the most stress out of the two of us?" Trill questioned, punching the stallion in the shoulder.

"After seeing Trill several times for the past few years, I don't think there's even an ounce of stress in her at all. Though, Prince Solaris, with how bad your blood pressure must be from the stress of being a prince, you might need a physical every now and then." Trill gave Solaris a sly smirk, but he frowned and leered at her, warning her not to give him another appointment behind his back again. "And it's a surprise how well you two are as a young couple, and still stay together after she annoys you."

"He can't get rid of me. I'm like a leech, but I suck out love instead of blood." The changeling giggled, rubbing the stallion's side. "And something else."

"Do I have to tie you down to the bed and gag you to get you to quit doing that?" Solaris groaned while Trill snickered.

"Ok, let's have a look at the baby." Dr. Joy lit up her horn, casting her pink aura around Trill's abdomen, making the changeling squirm at the slight tickling sensation. Aiming her horn above them, she cast another spell that allowed them to see what was inside Trill's womb through the spell, giving them a look at the fetus. "Oh my...How interesting."

They were unable to tell what the foal's coat was due to the sonography spell's black and white feedback, but they could clearly see it was different. A tiny horn on its forehead jutted it, slightly crooked like a changeling's. It also had little holes in its tiny legs too. The only different part of it that was different were the wings, which were like a pegasus's. If the foal's coat was white and its mane and tail that will grow in a dark green like Trill's, Solaris could swear that their foal could possibly be the same filly he dreamed up.

"That's...there's no way this is a coincidence." Dr. Joy and Trill looked at Solaris, wondering what he was talking about. "I've been dreaming of a filly who looks almost exactly like our foal...If it's a girl..."

"Hmm...Let's see if your guess is right." The doctor shifted the view around to see more of the foal, and with a good enough view between its hind legs, it was indeed a filly. "Well, it looks like you are going to have a daughter. Seems like your dream filly came true after all, Your Highness."

Trill stared at their daughter, then at Solaris in surprise as he somehow knew they were going to have a filly. "Ok, was there also something in that spell that made it a guarantee that we were going to have a filly?"

"...No..." Solaris gently placed his hoof on Trill's belly, keeping his eyes on the screen with his little filly shown to the three of them. He had no idea if it was a pure coincidence that the changeling/pony filly in his dreams wound up being his real daughter, or if he somehow saw a glimpse in the future of what their foal would look like like his mother's clairvoyant visions of him saving Equestria, but it didn't matter. He continued watching, the unborn filly lightly kicking where his hoof was on his wife's belly, knowing he was right there with her. "I just had a gut feeling...and I was right."

Winter had come to Equestria, snow gently falling upon the land from the clouds set up by weather ponies throughout the kingdom. The next couple months had Trill experiencing more symptoms, but she was used to the new and unexpected aches and their daughter kicking from time to time more often now. She was in the middle of her seventh month, only three and a half more before the expected due date of the hybrid filly's birth. And with the temperature dropping, she couldn't roam about the city or anywhere else, not willing to get sick or freeze to death and risk hurting their child.

It was Hearths Warming morning, Solaris's relatives were over at the castle to celebrate the holiday. Unfortunately, Chrysalis couldn't make it, both due to the cold weather and the fact she was still in shock over discovering her daughter was going to have a hybrid foal in only a few more months. The day started out with the hyperactive Flurry Heart cheering and flying around the castle, waking everyone up as she barged into their rooms they stayed in for the week. After getting their wake-up call from the alicorn filly, Solaris's surrogate cousins, Shining Armor, Cadence, and Flurry gathered in one of the empty rooms, decorated with Hearths Warming decorations.

"Yay! Hearths Warming!" Flurry cheered as she flew over everyone, too excited to stay still as she saw all the presents around the tree. "Presents and candy!"

"Ok, you! Get over here!" Solaris grabbed his cousin and dragged her down to the floor. "Calm down, or you won't start opening presents."

"Ok!" she said, finally staying put with an excited grin on her muzzle.

"And what's better about this is that it's a Hearths Warming party and a baby shower all in one!" Cherry exclaimed. "That means double the presents for Solly and Trill for their baby!"

"And it's going to be a filly." Gemstone squealed in excitement. "I have so many lovely little clothes for her to wear building up in my head!"

"If she'll be anything like Trill, I doubt she'll like to wear clothes," Solaris said.

"I'm getting another cousin!" Flurry cheered, scooching over to Trill and placing her hooves on her belly. "Hello, baby cousin. My name's Flurry Heart." She placed her head against the changeling's round stomach, having grown a bit more as the unborn filly inside was getting bigger day by day. The young alicorn waited for the foal to say something, but it didn't do much, not even kick. "Is she sleeping?"

"Probably," Trill said. "You did wake us up, remember?" She ruffled Flurry's head, the filly giggling as she kept her head pressed against the changeling's belly to wait for the baby to wake up. "I think the only pony she reacts to is Solly. She's definitely going to be a daddy's girl the moment she comes."

"I don't think that's true." Solaris proved his wife wrong as he gently pressed his hoof against Trill's belly. He waited a while, but before he could say his hypothesis was right, he felt his daughter's hoof press against Trill's womb, reaching out to touch his hoof. The moment he pulled away, she didn't react to Flurry Heart still pressed up against the changeling's belly. "...Uhh, I guess I'm wrong."

"Told you," Trill gloated, blowing a raspberry at him.

"A foal with pony and changeling blood," Cadence uttered. "Oh boy. You two might have your hooves full. Hopefully, you two began baby proofing the castle along with getting things ready."

"I found several kinds of protective spells I cast in advance so she won't get hurt, made sure nothing sharp or heavy won't fall or tip over, and if any alarms are set from her wandering around, I'll know where to teleport to and grab her. I've been preparing for the last couple months, and I cannot wait until she's born." Shining Armor chuckled, his nephew showing similar organizational skills to that of Twilight's, though not as repetitious or tedious.

"Have you thought of a name for your daughter yet?" Shining asked. "It took quite a while for Cadence and I to think of Flurry's name."

"And you found one that fit her after the crazy stuff she did." Solaris grabbed Flurry Heart and squeezed her, making her whine as she was pulled away from her future second cousin. "The Crystal Empire, nearly destroyed by the harsh magical snowstorm surrounding it, all made by an infant alicorn filly who didn't want to be separated from her older cousin."

"I almost destroyed the empire?" Flurry asked. "How?"

"You cried and broke the Crystal Heart by accident with a loud sonic boom wail," the alicorn stallion said.

"Oh. Oopsie." The others laughed, the accident already happened and resolved thanks to Sunburst.

The rest of the holiday went by, gifts exchanged, fun games to play, and stories of Hearths Warming told. It was a pretty eventful day, even though they were confined in the castle because of Trill and her low tolerance for the cold. The gifts for the foal shower Solaris and Trill received from his family were fun baby toys from Cherry, a small teddy bear from Butterscotch, a cloud mobile from Prism, a homemade wooden cradle from Apple Seed that were made from the wood of their older apple trees, a lime green blanket made by Gemstone, and some entertaining children's books from Cadence and Shining Armor.

After dinner, spending the rest of the evening relaxing around the fireplace, everyone headed for bed as it got late. Solaris placed the baby shower gifts in the room across from theirs, where they set up the nursery for the baby. The room was painted pink, a crib resting against the wall where he attached the mobile Prism gave them, several toy boxes with a various amount of toys the couple thought their filly would like, including Cherry's toys, little cubby for the books and stuffed bear, and he placed the wooden cradle close to the crib with her new blanket tucked neatly inside. Though the room was a bit spacious, when their daughter begins growing up, she'll find a way to fill up most of the space, along with a lot of interior redecorating.

The alicorn left the nursery and walked inside his and Trill's bedroom, the mare already sound asleep as she laid on her side. He silently climbed into bed, laying down beside her, gently wrapping his hooves around her round belly, slowly rubbing his hooves in small circles. He felt his daughter reach out to touch his hoof, following his own, bringing a warm smile to his face. As he began to fall asleep, he began to think of some names that would fit perfectly for the little filly he couldn't wait to hold, to love, and to protect.