"Pregnant," Celestia repeated. She leaned back-- her mane curling around the sparkly golden chair. The gears sped in overdrive behind her totally blank, empty expression.

Luna could hardly bear to look up at her sister's face. The shame just burned down the sides of her cheeks. She rubbed her face with her hooves a little. She moved them a few inches down and tried to look at her sister again. Tears pitter-pattered one after the other across the edges of Luna's hooves.

"It's... it's been such a..." she whispered. Luna instinctively rested her head against Celestia's legs. "Such a crazy... It's been such a crazy past day and a half for me. And I just can't think. I can't feel. It's just made me... numb..."

"Lulu, listen to me now," Celestia said, giving her voice as much emotion and expression as a library clerk, "Who. Is. The. Father."

"Oh, TIA!" Luna moaned. She linked her body down and then laid flat upon the cold blue tiles. "You know it's him... It would only be him." She rubbed her horn against edge of Celestia's leg. She sniffed. Tears dripped down onto the tiles.

"I see," Celestia replied with the same cold monotone. She nudged off of her seat and stood straight up. Her mane flopped down upon Luna's back. "I'm rather... rather... glad..." She paused. "Well, 'glad' may not be the right word, Lulu. But you did the right thing. You're not keeping this a secret from me."

The sun goddess stepped over her sister. She leaned her head down and nestled it besides Luna's neck. Celestia's breath felt like millions of tiny knives stabbing into the bath of Luna's head. She just... I can't. Oh, Tia, I can't even imagine how I can even wake up in the morning tomorrow! It's changed. It's ALL changed!

"Tia," Luna squeaked, "He's... He's..." I can't even begin to think of how I can... make you understand... I guess I can't. You'll never undersand. You just never will, Tia. I'm sorry. "I know that Strawberry feels happy. He smiled so much. He took it... So well... I can't describe to you how he just lept with joy and bounced around. How he embraced me."

"That's nice," Celestia commented. The empty tone of the white alicorn's words just drove Luna out of her mind. "It makes sense for him to be like... that..." Celestia brought her right hoof to her face and softly tapped it.

You should be screaming at me. You should be knocking me from side to side. You should be crying. You should be yelling about how I'm ruining our throne. You should be doing something. Luna slid herself over across the floor, and then she pushed herself up a little bit. Show SOME EMOTION! PLEASE!

"And you know what you must do," Celestia muttered. She rested back against her chair. Luna locked eyes with her sister-- as painful as it felt. "It's all... clear... You will do the responsible thing."

"Tia, I'm... I'm so sorry..." Luna murmured. She twisted about the floor and made as if to kiss Celestia's hooves. "It'll be... just it's a mess, that's what it is!"

"It will," Celestia went on, "Just be a simple procedure."

"Procedure?"

"Just think of it as letting the air out," the sun goddess guestered with her hooves across from her, "And everything has already been handled with... the necessarily discretion already. You have absoutely nothing to be worried about."

Luna pulled her head back from her sister's embrace. She looked on at Celestia's expression. Her eyes traced down the sun goddess' sides over to her tail. Celestia might as well have been carved from a block of ice.

"Lulu, I know you're going through a lot of emotions right now. And I know that it all seems so daunting right now, at this moment. But I promise you that it will be so simple. No pain. So aftereffects. You won't even remember a thing. I know you'll do the morally responsible thing," Celestia said. Every word of that monologue coarsed into Luna like needle after needle into the back of her neck. "Do the sensible thing. The right thing... For both of us. For him as well.

"For... HIM..." Luna stood up straight. She nudged herself inch after inch away from her sister's cold stare. "Sure, just a simple thing..."

"Think," Celestia said. Her face contorted. She drew back her lips and curled over her ears. Those once big, motherly eyes narrowed. "Think very, very hard about what would happen if you don't do the responsible thing." She half-shouted those words at her sister. "Think about..." Celestia stood up as well and motioned over towards the other side of the table. "Think about the lies. Think about the betrayal. Think about the public outcry."

"Think," Luna repeated. She wanted to burst out with a curse filled rant. She wanted to jump up right besides Celestia and smack the floor with determination at each word. Yet Luna could only shut her eyes again and cry once more.

"Think about being cooped in small royal rooms month after month, and then... what would happen after that one magic moment. Think about that bouncy little thing locked in those rooms, like an animal..."

"No..."

"Like a pet at a zoo..."

"NO!"

Celestia sped over right in front of Luna's face. Her mouth opened-- showing more and more of her teeth-filled angry expression. "THINK, Lulu!" Celestia fluttered her mane across her head and brought it against Luna's horn. "Think about HOW... how..." The sun goddess calmed down. A little black wave seemed to go over her face, and then she returned to her cold monotone. "Lulu, I know that it's difficult. But I know that you will do the sensible, reasonable, and logical thing. Like I said before..."

Celestia rested her hoof alongside Luna's head. The blue alicorn's tears slowed to a little trickle, and then they stopped. The alicorn's locked eyes once again, but this time they were barely inches apart-- pupil to pupil.

"Just a simple procedure..." Celestia began again.

Lun pushed forward with her hooves again and again. She hopped up. "Thanks," Luna muttered in between a new set of tears, "Thanks a lot, Tia." The blue alicorn then sped out the door.

(To Be Continued)