Celestia could fill an entire ballroom with all of the stallions-- as well as the occasional mare-- that she had ever kissed. Yet she hadn't felt that kind of magic since a particular draconequus left her life. She reflexively moved her tongue along his teeth and then along the side of his mouth. He pushed himself further and further into her embrace.

Kiss after kiss went on until Celestia felt as if he brains would melt. He nestled his tongue around in her mouth, and she moaned a little bit. The sugary sweet taste of chocolate layered upon strawberries upon even more chocolate swamped her senses. She moved over along to the nearby table-- their bodies still locked-- and then she leaned over to his neck.

Celestia littered it with sloppy wet kisses. Strawberry panted. She went to touch his chest, but then she suddenly stopped. She nudged herself a few feet backward.

Her then eyes wandered across his face. She focused right at his eyes. What... What am I doing! What am I thinking! Strawberry could tell as well that something was wrong, very wrong. Celestia's face flashed back to the stern expression that she had worn day after day during the royal court. Just like Lulu... I let myself be a slave to my emotions. I let myself just... just lose it... Strawberry opened his mouth a little, but he clearly had no idea what to say.

Celestia stepped backwards into the middle of the kitchen. She ran her eyes down his body once again. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to... I didn't mean to take it this far. It just sort of happened. All I wanted was to know what she sees in you. The sun goddess tried to think back to when she put on the device-- what she had carefully planned out.

Yet she could only think of Luna's memories. His songs, his touch, his inivation as he walked through my castle doors to ask me out, and then... then... Her sister's emotions flooded through Celestia's mind, and she felt as if she could barely breathe.

Strawberry calmly and deliberately stood back up straight. She looked in his expression for some sign of concern, for some sign of being cheated, or for something else that showed him feeling incomplete inside. Yet he just looked blankly out at the wall besides her. He didn't say a thing. He didn't need to.

Celestia then glanced back out the window. Luna had kicked the moon into place, and her wonderful moonlight danced across all of Ponyville's roofs and treetops. "Strawberry, I..." she muttered.

"Where. Is. Luna?" he asked. His soft, delicate features tensed up. Oh you look, Strawberry... I can't believe it. Your pouty face is just so... so... cute!

"She's..." Celestia said, "She's taking care of the night right now. You can just look up and see the constellations coming into place." She felt so ashamed. She then mentally kicked herself. What's the problem? It's just... I found what I came here for. I saw in him what she sees. That was it. That was all I needed.

She glared at him. I don't need a pathetic little worm like you to play with my emotions like that. For me, a Princess and the leader of all of Equestria in all it's glory to stoop to such... Theatrics! She walked over to the door.

"Who are you?" he asked. He tried to sound though, but he just came across as... deflated. "I can't believe that you thought I was so... so..." He spat the words out. "So stupid! That I wouldn't tell her magic from your dark-tinted, your... Well, whatever it is you have dripping off of you..." He walked over and then flung the door open. He pointed out into the empty town square.

The sun goddess stepped out of Sugarcube Corner. Of course, you'd know. Strawberry, I'm so sorry. Oh, Lulu, I don't what what you've done to him. Maybe it's something that he's done to himself. But your magic just pours out of him like water through a sieve. She halted herself about ten feet away. It's as if you've given him a second heart. "Goodbye," Celestia finally said.

The unicorn silently nodded, and then she slammed the door shut. Celestia flapped her wings. She moved herself straight up until Sugarcube Corner was only a speck beneath her hooves. She then sighed.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

Luna gazed at her future daughter. Time completely lost its meaning. Despite the billowing misty clouds around them, she found something new every second. Her eyes came open some freckle, some little spot, some way in which her hooves curled around her mother's bed-sheets, and dozens of other little wonders. The tears of joy had flowed and flowed.

Finally, the young filly let out a soft whine. She nudged her wings out. She then brushed the sheets over her body and around the sides of her head. Luna smiled once again, and then she stepped over to the right.

The mists moved about. She saw the bedroom again from an odd angle. Luna curled her head around, and she seemed to be looking straight down at the ponies from the ceiling. A pink and white unicorn suddenly stepped into view besides them. She ran her eyes across Strawberry's body. He showed a lot of age for what had to have been just a few years.

She traced down the little wrinkles that had formed on the sides of his face. Her eyes flowed past the tiny bruises that he nursed on his shoulders and then down along his hooves. His mane and tail fell flat rather than poofing about and curling around every which way. Still, Luna knew that she would recognize that soft, caring smile anywhere. The frizzy hair still shone as pink as ever.

The future Strawberry ran his hooves against his wife. He then sat flat down upon a tiny white chair and matching desk. Luna walked closer and tried to focus on the pile of papers. Whatever the writings said, Strawberry's expression grew colder and colder by the second as he moved from paper to paper. He paused. He rubbed his face against the side of the desk, and then he looked on at his daughter.

Luna focused on the papers. She saw a torrent of numbers and technical terms without any definitions of explanations. She walked even closer, and she found her body cutting through the desk like a knife through butter. Luna took a gulp, and then she brought her hoof alongside Strawberry's face. It passed through his skin. It's... It's a projection only. Don't get carried away. It's a projection. It's not real. She pressed her face against one of the papers.

Coristol => 5 mcg/dL
Adrenocortical Insufficiency
Suspected ACTH Failure
Unknown Cause For Premature Ventricular Contractions

It might as well have been in another language for all Luna cared. Yet even seeing a trace of worry pop across Strawberry's head pained her like a knife into her back. Luna stepped a little bit away. Those little red underlines across every other word also brought a chill across her face.

The future Strawberry gently nudged the papers back into a pile on the edge of the table. He moved over besides his daughter's spot on the bed, and then he softly curled above the sheets on her side. Luna couldn't help tearing a little as the young filly instinctively tucked her hooves atop the future Strawberry's hooves.

The mist flared up once again. Luna coughed a little. She rubbed around in front of her hooves. Little cold, wet sensations rubbed up along her hooves. She blinked. She then gazed out a wide grassy field besides a little hill.

She heard some laughs behind her. She span around, and she saw her daughter jumping around. She fluttered her wings up, and she managed to get a few feet in the air before tumbling back down. Strawberry jumped up right behind the young filly and then tackled her. She landed on the ground with a psuedo-angry whine. Her father then tickled her like crazy.

The young filly's wings smacked all about the grass as she giggled. Drops of dew rubbed up into the air and stuck all over Strawberry's poofy mane. The filly suddenly stopped.

"I'm really going to jump," she said. Luna's ears perked. Her daughter sounded so fluffy and so squeaky and yet regal at the same time. "And I'll really fly." Luna suddenly thought of Pinkie Pie talking inside of a broom closet with Celestia speaking every other word.

"Are you, Midnight?" Strawberry replied. He made a pouty face. "You know that's cheating!" He rubbed his bottom hooves against the grass-- kicking up a little dirt. "I'll never catch you like that!"

Midnight... Midnight... The filly curled about the grass, and then she kicked off. She bounced up, and the sun reflected all over her mane as it flipped about. Yet she only flapped for a few seconds before a sudden wind knocked right into her.

Strawberry sped over alongside her. He halted halfway. Midnight looked on with a playful little smile. The unicorn grimaced, and then the smile faded. The unicorn dropped down a little on his bottom hooves. The filly immediately sailed down the hill back over to her father. He forced a smile, and then he got back up. Midnight rubbed her head along her father's shoulder.

Strawberry this can't... It... It just can't mean... What I think it means... Another wave of the mist brought Luna to another vision. She looked through at another royal ballroom. Her eyes ran along the massive table over two a massive chocolate cake. Streams of candy dots and thick frosting marked layer upon layer.

Luna tried to make out the writing, but the mist just poured around as thick as ever. She coughed. She made out 'Midnight Dawn, 'Happy', 'Birthday', and 'Return'. Strawberry's face suddenly popped up atop the cake. He flashed the same familiar smile.

Yet Luna's heart sank as she ran her eyes upwards. The wrinkles had multiplied. Her eyes bounced from pale spot to pale spot on his skin-- something subtle that only she would notice, but no less worrying. Strawberry curled about as he sliced shapes through the cake. Somepony said something in the distance. Luna then met eye to eye with the unicorn.

She gasped. Something looked wrong with his eyes, very wrong. It almost seemed as if he had taken a blow from a prize fighter to the back of his head that poked his eyes outward. Luna still saw those same pretty glasses and that same warm, inviting shelter in his eyes. Yet his skin just under them curled in such a weird way. She couldn't even begin to know what to think.

The mist poured from the ceiling. Luna blinked. She then looked out from behind a gigantic couch. Luna curled her head down, and she ran her eyes across the bodies of her future self and her future daughter. The other Luna brought up a glossy blue book, and she melodramatically smacked the page. Midnight giggled. Strawberry seemed nowhere in sight.

Luna reached out with her hooves, and she seemed to wave a patch of mist out of the way. She blinked, and then the familiar white and pink unicorn appeared just a few inches over to Midnight's side. Strawberry gazed off at some oddity off to the side across from the couch. He then flipped his head around and nudged it over on his daughter's shoulder. Little black spots of Midnight's mane popped up inside of Strawberry's frizzy pink mane.

Luna blinked. The whole scene changed in a split-second. She saw herself once again. She didn't look a day older, although some shade of something clearly flashed across her future self's face. Luna stepped back. She found herself in some kind of blank grassy area. She traced the horizon with her eyes, but she couldn't make out anything except the pitter-patter of rain and the occasional batch of trees.

Luna then locked eyes with her future self. The other Luna started to cry. She walked along the grass for quite a while. She then halted in front of some shape.

Luna stared, but she couldn't make it out. Layers upon layers of mist danced about on top of each other. She took a deep breath, and then she moved forward. She stood in front of some kind of gray box. She glanced over at the side of her future self.

The other Luna went ahead and cried. She then curled her head over to a bag besides her, and she pulled out a rose. I'm... I'm not going to like what's going to happen next. I can't... No. This can't be right. What am I thinking? What's wrong with me! Luna watched as her future self dropped the rose atop the shape and then turned away.

Luna leaned her head down. The mist finally cleared up enough for her to see. She looked across a flat stone wall and then spotted an intricate carving. She saw a beautiful lake surrounded by tall trees. Atop the lake rested a gigantic moon-- littered from left to right and top to bottom with strawberries. I know it anywhere... It's from my first love letter...

Luna moved her head down. She saw nothing but more blank stone. She then came across a batch of carvings. The words bounced off of her eyes and didn't register at all for a moment. Then, it all hit her.

Strawberry Dawn
March 1, 1056 - September 23, 1099
He is loved.

"I knew... I know... I know this. I knew it. I knew it was coming. I knew it would happen," she chanted to herself. The voice seemed to come from nowhere. She could barely breathe. She leaned back. "He is loved"... Not: "Was loved." "Is loved"... IS. LOVED.

Luna then keeled over. She felt as if she had just had a knife slice across her chest. She let out a soft moan, and then she shut her eyes tight.

"Strawberry!"

(To Be Continued)