Luna gazed right down at the unicorn. Her eyes flowed from the bottom of his frizzy pink mane all the way up the curls, and then they rested right upon to the end of his horn. She focused right on the pinkish-red tip. Just like your... like our daughter...

Strawberry made another puppy like whimper. Luna locked eyes with him. Such a goofy little expression, well, I guess you can't keep yourself off me. She chuckled a little. She then looked down at his curly nose and soft face. You can't... Luna silently leaned forward once again. Strawberry gave her a huge kiss.

You can't live without me. And you won't have to. She teared a little bit as they kisses. You'll never have to. I promise. She then pulled him off of her once again.

"I have to show you something, actually," Luna squeaked. Strawberry smiled. He then let out a gasp as Luna magically picked him up and then smacked him upon her side. "Just a moment, Strawberry!" She hopped down the town square for a second-- Strawberry jiggling about at her side like a backpack. Oh, where is it... Where is it!

"A-ha!" Luna exclaimed. She leaned backwards and launched herself up. She then clang over to the edge of the building's side. Strawberry panted, trying not to look down. Luna scampered a little bit to the side. She then peeked into the second-story window. "Oh, it would be so odd for her to up this hour, but still..."

The unicorn and the alicorn peeked inside the boutique window. Stacks of papers littered across dresser after dresser. The shelves bulged full of all kinds of fabrics. Luna ran her eyes across the gigantic mess over to the corner of the room. Luna eyed the bottles filled with needles and strings. Luna then stared at the white unicorn hidden behind them.

“Sparkles, sparkles,” Rarity said to herself, eying the bright blue dress spread around the table with the intensity of a general making battle plans. “All they seem to want is sparkles. But of course, she is unable to even begin to understand the power of understatement. Not to mention, for goodness sakes, proper color matching… All these red sparkly stars spread along a blue— night blue no less— bottom! It’s simply unbelievable!"

Luna tapped against the glass. Rarity nudged about a little, but she kept staring down. Luna tucked her hoof back, and then she smacked it against the window. Rarity bounced up.

"What could possibly be going on at this hour," the white unicorn began, stepping over to the window, "That would mean-- mean-- mean--" Her eyes sprang open, and she buckled back. "P-P-P-P-P-P-Princess!" She wiggled about in place. "P-Princess, it is s-s-such an honor, s-so g-great..."

Luna glanced down, and then she magically lifted up the window lock. Rarity's face seemed to melt as if she'd faint at any second. Luna turned her head over to the side door on the first floor. She magically lifted Strawberry off of her and then placed him down onto the flat grassy patch. He looked back up at her blankly.

"Now then," Luna said. She stepped into the room-- measuring each step carefully to avoid any of the fabrics or notebooks laying about the floor. Rarity let out a loud gasp.

"The P-P-Princess is in m-my r-room!" Rarity called out out. She twirled backwards.

Luna teleported right behind Rarity and held her back up. She took a deep breath, and then she blew a misty puff of magic upon Rarity's face. The white unicorn's eyes popped back open. "Now then, we need something important. We apologize for the late hour, but this is something we must have immediately. Hopefully in a matter of seconds?"

"I had the craziest dream," Rarity muttered, shifting her hoof over her head, "I was just minding my own business in my room, and then the Princess appeared out of--" She then gazed right at Luna's face. "Oh..."

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"Luna, Luna, please," Strawberry moaned. He kept on gazing at the open window above him. The ponies shifted about. They called out something. He curled his ears, but he couldn't hear a thing. Come on, you! Think! What was that hearing spell

He smacked his hooves against his head. Ugh, I thought I'd remember that one if I use it so much. Stupid memory... Wait, I can use the memory spell. He stepped forwards and put a hoof against the boutique wall. Memory spell! Wait... How does that one go again?

"Rabbit pellets," he muttered. He bonked his head against the stone. He paused, and then he moved back. The unicorn glanced over at the boutique's front door. "Luna, whatever it is, please. Just tell me."

He walked over. He then heard a flurry of clicking sounds. Light suddenly poured out. He missed a step and then plopped onto the ground. The unicorn put his hooves to his eyes and blinked. Somepony stepped out towards him.

"Strawberry, we need to ask you something," Luna said. Strawberry gazed up at her as the light ran across her shoulders. She smiled at him, and then she lowered her head. His eyes locked upon the top of her horn.

"Ahhh... ahh..." he moaned. Thousands of emotions flooded every inch of his mind. He held up his hooves and barely missed touching Luna's face.

"Will you marry me?" Luna asked. The light shone across the small silver ring on her horn. Every last one of its finely cut rubies-- shaped just like little darkish pink roses spread out in a chain-- exploded in sparkles.

"YES!" Strawberry screamed. He jumped up and squeezed Luna with all of his might. He buried his face in her neck. Tears of joy dripped down her side, and he felt her doing the same along his back. "I... I..." He could only think of one thing to say. "I love you."

"I love you," she said back. Strawberry rubbed his face along her head. He looked out behind them, and he saw Rarity with her face pressed flat against the window.

Strawberry giggled a little as Rarity bounced up and down in rapid-fire succession. She grinned from ear to hear. She almost seemed to burst right though the glass with each hop.

"Now," Luna said, and she head him hoof in hoof down the street. He curled his body over upon hers. "There's two things I need to take care of. One of them is that we need to discuss the, shall I say, possible long-term issues in our relationship."

"Issues?" Strawberry repeated. I don't like the sound of that. He gave her a blank glance, but she just beamed at him in return. They kept on walking silently from then on-- taking in her beautiful night. They finally came upon his apartment complex. Strawberry walked off of her and then stood nervously besides his door.

"Aren't we going inside, silly?" Luna asked, "We have a lot to talk about, and also a lot of things that we could... do now, as future husband and wife..."

He turned his head over and stared at the 'Room 101' sign. He glanced back at his wife-to-be for a second. He took a gulp and then opened the door. Luna followed him over and then laid her body across his large black living room couch. His eyes feasted upon her-- running from the tips of her soft blue hooves up her slender body and then upon the warm, motherly gaze across her face. She twisted about her mane and then ran it across her chest.

"Could we have some more of those Midnight Teas or yours?" Luna asked, "I'm parched."

He nervously nodded. He then scurried off the side door into the kitchen. He thrust open the cabinets and trailed across the contents with his hooves. Oh, wow... Oh, wow! I can't think. I don't even know. What's going to happen. Finally married, that just sounds like my greatest dream come true. But what 'issues'? He suddenly stopped. What about your... sister. "Celestia," he muttered.

"Don't worry," said a voice behind him. He span around, and he saw what looked like Luna walking out of his pantry into his kitchen.

"Why were you in my-- Why aren't you on the-- What's-- What are you doing?" Strawberry sputtered. He then stopped. Oh, it's... you. Want to keep playing with me? Ugh, I guess I'll play along.

"Whatever I just said to you before, don't worry about it," said the other Luna. Strawberry nodded along as he grabbed ingredients. "I'm just being a little confused. That's all. In fact, I'll probably even, uh, forget what I just said to you just now-- in only a few seconds!"

"So, we're not getting married?" Strawberry asked back. He saw the smile melt from the other Luna's face, and he giggled a little. He pulled up five little glasses in front of him.

"Oh, we're doing that?" asked the other Luna, "Well, I... we... we are very glad. Ummm... Carry on? I'm just confused. That's all." She wiggled her head around.

"That's fine," he replied. He twirled around and held up a glass of his minty concoction. The other Luna picked it up. Strawberry then leaned over face to face. "You know, I love you. Regardless of anything, I love you." Celestia... I really do. There wouldn't be her nights without your days.

The other Luna understood. She took a few sips, and then she put the glass back down against the counter. Strawberry picked up the other four glasses and then moved over to the kitchen door. He glanced back at the other Luna, who tapped her hooves against the floor nervously. Your magic, it's just... It's so weird. It's like you're half Luna now already.

Strawberry then turned around, and he smacked against something soft and blue. He bounced down upon the ground-- trying hard to make sure the drinks landed rather than spilled around him. He blinked.

"ME!" Luna screamed, and she pointed at her doppelganger. She stepped a little forward, but then she halted. "We mean... I!" She shifted her head around. "I mean... YOU!"

"You," the other Luna repeated. She leaned down and then rested her head and hooves against Strawberry's neck.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Strawberry screamed. He kicked his hooves around. The two Luna's stopped and then rushed down to his side. Strawberry pushed the other Luna's hooves off of his neck. He twisted around on the tiles over to the sink.

"What is it?" asked the other Luna. She leaned forward to embrace her again, but the original Luna smacked her horn over. She looked ready to skewer her doppelganger's neck at one other false move.

"Oh, it's..." Strawberry squeaked, and he felt little spots appearing on him, "Just the marks, that's all. I mean... It's healed. It's fine. I'm just a little soft and a little tender where I was bit... Same where I was burned. But really, I'm fine. They'll fade in just a second."

"Nightmare Moon bit and burned you?" the other Luna asked. She then locked eyes with the original. "My, my! You're a bad girl!" She chuckled, and then the original Luna nudged her hind hooves around. She prepared to buck the copy back into the pantry.

"It's just your magic, just--" Strawberry interrupted, "Just don't shock me with your magic. I'm too in sync with it already." He sat a little bit back up. "It doesn't feel bad or painful, it's just too... overwhelming." Luna is one thing. Luna and Celestia's magic mixed together... I'm like a bird flying through a hurricane.

Luna glanced down, and she ran her eyes along the little fang prints sticking out from his soft white body. Shame almost dripped off of her face, and she nudged her head down a little. The other Luna just gawked at Strawberry like a work of art.

"I was cruel," Luna moaned, "I was horrible. I was a monster." She leaned down. Thoughts of her life as Nightmare Moon flashed behind her eyes. Strawberry gazed at her, and he could feel every last one of those horrible sensations. She recalled standing before Fluttershy. She recalled holding her hooves up, and then stamping the yellow pegasus' body black and blue. Luna heard those horrible screams echoing through her mind.

"No, please don't talk like that," Strawberry said, and he immediately clutched against her side. Luna let out a little tear, and then she held him back in turn. "It's okay. It'll all be okay."

"You saved me," Luna whispered into his ear. She squeezed him even tighter than before. "So, I'm going to save you back." She pressed her face into his soft, frizzy mane. "Being without you for eternity is hard enough, but you're going to stick around as long as you can... and enjoy every last minute of it as much as I can give you." Strawberry wiggled around-- soft, cuddly feathers rubbed down all across his sides and his hind hooves.

The duplicate Luna stood up. She walked over, and then she looked down at her sister and her future brother-in-law. She started to cry. Strawberry thought about trying to comfort her for a moment, but then he realized that the duplicate was crying tears of joy. She suddenly shivered. Little white sparkles shot out from around her neck. Strawberry stared as weird little dots popped up one after the other. They glowed with this fantastic energy.

The other Luna took a deep breath, and then she thrust her hooves to her neck. Strawberry saw a blinding light shoot out, and then he shut his eyes tight. He then felt a hoof tapping the top of his head. He opened his eyes, and he saw Celestia standing there in full regal glory. Her mane fluttered all across her bold white wings. The sun goddess then gazed at him.

"There is something I can do about this," she said. Luna and Strawberry looked up at her with wide eyes. "Of course, Strawberry, I can't have my sister suffering at your side as you undergo your incurable diseases. There's a very special spell that few ponies know about. The number is in the single digits. This spell has an immense effect on a pony's future-- from their health, to their life, to their mind, and more."

Luna tensed, and she ran her hooves up Strawberry's body over to her face. "The... The Silence?"

Celestia merely shook her head. She then moved up and locked eyes with her sister. "It doesn't actually have a name. I suppose it's misleading to call it a spell, really, since it's more like a..." She wondered if she wanted to use the word on the tip of her tongue. "A Blessing."

"And it would make him a--" Luna began, but she felt too emotionally overwhelmed to finish the sentence.

"Sorry, Lulu," Celestia said, "It doesn't really work that way. It's something that I can only give out once in a great while-- once a thousand years-- and it only works once on any given pony in one narrow way." The other ponies just stared at her in confusion. She tapped a hoof against her head. "If I could name it, I would call it: Stop The Clocks. When I give it to Strawberry, it means that his essence will be locked in his current state-- forever. He'll still grow, he'll still mature, he'll still grow old, and he'll still live just like any other pony."

"Then," Luna muttered, her ears and head dropping as her heart sank, "What's the point?"

"Lulu, it..." Celestia began, and she sat alongside the two of them, "It means giving him a shield-- mind, body, and soul. Anything that would be a problem later--" She didn't mention what she had seen in Luna's vision with the machine. She didn't need to. "Wouldn't happen for sure. He'd stay his own safe, happy, and healthy self."

Strawberry's face contorted from confusion. He wiggled out of the grasp of the alicorns, and then he kicked against the tile. He bonked against the refrigerator, and then he tried to put the raging flood of emotions into words. He came up empty.

"Oh, Strawberry," Celestia said, "You have nothing to worry about at all. Trust me." She then glanced up at the refrigerator wall behind him. "I hope you don't mind me forgetting you just for a moment, Strawberry." She moved her head up. "I still need to deal with you." Strawberry looked up, but he couldn't see a thing except Celestia's reflection. "I don't need you anymore, Discord." The sun goddess appeared to talk to thin air. "I won't see you anymore." Celestia held up a hoof, and then she clanged it against the metal. "Goodbye."

"Tia, for goodness' sake," Luna said, popping up behind her sister, "Who are you talking to now?"

"It's nobody," Celestia replied. She let out a few tears, and then she rubbed her face with her right hoof. "Nobody at all." She smiled. She then knelt down besides Strawberry. "Well then..." She smiled wider. "Brother-in-law, are you ready to begin? To receive our blessing?" He simply gawked at her. His eyes then ran through the air at the magical necklace as it flew from the floor over to his chest.

"B-b-begin?" he stammered. The necklace suddenly snapped against his neck.

"And, I love you too."

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Rustles erupted all through the tall oak trees. Branches shifted from side to side. A soft, girly giggle erupted from a particularly stubby tree. The unicorn stopped. He looked up at the layers and layers of foliage above him. Everything seemed perfectly still.

"Well," the unicorn declared, and then he ran his right hoof along his frizzy pink mane, "I guess it's just me and the trees here." He heard a tiny bit more rustling. "Yep, definitely all alone."

*Crack*

The foal fell straight down out of the pile of branches. Her little budding wings flapped again and again in vain. She gasped, and then she smacked along the unicorn's backside. He rubbed his hooves into the mossy ground, and then he moaned.

"Dad! Dad! Oh, Dad, seriously," said the filly. She bounced off of him and then rubbed her face against his. 'I'm sorry!" She tapped his head with both her front hooves.

Strawberry coughed out a bundle of leaves. He then shivered. He shifted up, and then he moved himself up to a sitting position. His back felt like it was on fire. The foal hopped right up to his lap and then placed her head against his chest. He groaned again. He concentrated, and then his horn glowed. He then glanced around, and a small pair of black glasses magically floated back up over to his face.

"No harm done," he lied. Just a potion or two, though, so no big deal... The foal breathed a sigh of relief. She nudged herself a bit forwards, and she leaned against his leg.

"It's not fair," she whined, "Mom was hurling herself through the air like a falcon by now!" She glanced back at her stubby bunches of feathers, and she flapped them around in no particular direction.

Strawberry reached over-- wincing a second at the pain still going through his back-- and held his daughter's hooves. "It all will happen when it's meant to happen, Midnight" he said. She let out an angry squeal. She'd heard that saying of his at least ten thousand times already. The foal stepped off of his lap and then stamped against a hunk of grass.

Midnight looked at him impatiently. He gazed back at her. His eyes traced down the inky dark pink strands mixed in the with frizzy black streaks that ran down the filly's side. He then ran his gaze up the filly's smooth, slender hooves onto the filly's cutie mark-- a image of the moon atop a set of dark reddish-purple roses.

"It's just that, ugh," she said, and she twirled her head around, "Nothing is working out for me. It's just all wrong. Nothing works right."

He walked over-- still wincing a bit at every step, although the pain had dulled-- and stood over her. "What's the matter?" he asked, trying to load up each word with the stereotypical fatherly concern. Midnight locked eyes with him. "Not the wings, what's really the matter."

"I wanted it to be a surprise," she whimpered, and then the tears stared to come out. He tried not to reflexively smile. Goodness, sweetie, you'll cry at the opening of a new hardware store. I guess you take off me too much. "The roses!" She buried her face in her hooves. "They all died. All of them. I thought that I'd give them all to you on your birthday, and I kinda forgot so I didn't have much time. And then I tried this spell to rush it along and it just--" Her words broke up as the tears multiplied.

Strawberry held her closer. He gave a tender squeeze. She just sort of melted in his arms, and she sighed. Her pink-tipped horn ran all along his thick, poofy mane. He shifted his head down, and then he kissed her on the cheek.

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The alicorn stared at the big marble square. She looked like she wanted to make it burst into flames from mere thought. Thank goodness she doesn't have enough magic to do that... yet... Strawberry nudged himself a little closer to where she sat.

"Dead, dead, deadski, dead-a-rino, deceased," she muttered. She then tapped both hooves against the top of her head. "Finished. Finito. They're late flowers. They're pining for the Fjords."

His eyes danced along the naked thorns and branches. Little blackish bits of former flowers littered across every inch. He magically shifted them around for a moment, and then he looked over to see her daughter start to cry again. He paused.

"Hey, wait a moment!" Strawberry called out. He magically lifted up a tiny one of the reddish-purple roses and held it up besides their faces. "This one is still alive."

"But Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad," Midnight whined. Her face shrunk, and she pawed at the air besides the rose as if it was a parasprite trying to bite her. "It's almost dead. Just look at how weak and droopy-- ugh!"

"It's nice enough," he said, and then he held it up closer. No thorns? Then, he placed the flower inside his collar. He turned to the side and then locked eyes with his daughter. "Thank you. It's a great birthday present." He kissed her on the cheek again.

"It's..." she began. He could see dozens of different emotions fighting it out in her mind. "It's such a horrible little... omen? That's the word?" She rubbed her body up against him. "It's your birthday, and I give you something that's going to die."

"Well, roses don't last very long in the first place," he replied, "They wouldn't be roses in the first place if they did. It's just the way they are. It's what makes them like that. Fragile. Beautiful." This would be a great moment for me to be poetic... Buck it! I'm royalty! I should have writers feeding me things to say and stuff.

"They should last forever. I wish they lasted forever," she muttered.

"It doesn't matter if things last forever or not," he said, and he pulled her so close that he seemed to feel every inch of her. "That's not the important thing. Sure, we can sort of 'stop the clocks' and delay the inevitable or just pretend. The only thing that really matters is what you feel about those things. You experience things with the ponies that you love, and then those things will stick with you." The tip of her horn nestled right alongside his chest. "That's what matters. 'Forever' is just a word. It's what you make of it, with everypony that loves you."

"Weeeeeelllllllll... nice speech, Dad," she remarked, and then she wiggled about a bit.

"Sure..." he whispered. He kept on holding her. "Sure, it is." She then whined a little. He paused, and then he got back up-- letting her go.

"Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh... my... gosh!" Midnight called out. She hopped about all of a sudden. "I totally forgot that I had my singing lessons today." She glanced about in all directions, and then she sped down the marble path into the middle of the Canterlot castle. "Bye Dad!"

"I love you," he said back, "I love you... forever."

"See you later," she called out as she ran, and she already faded into a bluish-black dot.

He kept on sitting besides the ruined rosebush like a lawn oranement. He leaned down, almost putting his head against the marble. He sighed. He went to walk back to his castle office, but then he stopped. He heard that girly voice calling out in the distance.

"I love you too... forever."

The End