Warmness on the Soul: Chapter One
CoffeeGrunt

"Oh I am definitely not going in there!"
"You...kinda have to, Trixie."

Trixie listened to the screams of fury from within the medical room. She'd dealt with Pinkie on one her less...bubbly days, and this was definitely one she'd prefer to sit out. Sadly, there was one, very good reason for her to enter. A reason she would miss any minute now, so long as Pinkie didn't knock her out beforehoof.

"Come on, you're half the reason this is happening anyway." Twilight grinned smugly as Trixie's cheeks burned up.
"I remember you having a magical hoof in it Twilight, so I suppose you have a part-."
"Oh wow, don't blame it on me...you were both consenting adults!"
"I wasn't blaming...I was patsying."

Twilight glared at Trixie, swinging the door open to the ward with a glow of her horn. "Just go help Pinkie out, she needs you there. And not just to be a punchbag."
"I hate how you boil everything down to logic..."
Twilight offered a light smile, before picking Trixie up, and flinging her into the room. She pointed her horn at the door, locking it with a Sealing Writ. Just to make sure Trixie didn't get cold hooves again.

Pinkie was half covered by the bedsheet, hyperventilating with little high-pitched squeaks as the contractions quickened. After staring at Trixie for half a minute while trying to fight the feeling that her body was tearing itself apart, she let out a loud scream.

"For the love of Celestia, Trixie! Get over here!"
Trixie obliged, holding onto Pinkie's hoof, while making sure she was out of reach of the other one. "I'm here, don't worry. I'll help you through this."
"I don't see you doing any pushing! This is all your fault, by the way!"
"Hey...hey!. You wanted a foal. You wanted to birth it. And it was Twilight who did the spell!"
"Don't patsy Twilight!"
"How did you-?"
Pinkie groaned as the little foal prepared itself to enter the world. "Itchy back-left hoof...patsy sense." Beads of sweat dripped down Pinkie's forehead, a surgeon ducking in and out of her foreleg's reach to mop them up.

"Almost there misses and...misses Pie. I think I can see the-."
Pinkie gave one last roaring yell, the sound of a weak cry cutting her off as she panted for breath. "Is...is it?"
The midwife rose up, holding the foal delicately in her forelegs. "It's a little filly. Congratulations!" The filly was washed, revealing her shimmering ruby-red coat, and metallic-pink streaked silver mane. She seemed like she was completely made of jewels, at least, that's what Trixie felt.

The little filly was placed on the floor, the first test for any new pony in this strange world. She raised a hoof, teetering as she struggled to learn her new sense of balance. Her tiny, fragile frame wobbled as she delicately rose upon all four legs. Quivering, but stable. Trixie and Pinkie's little foal was certainly a quick learner. The midwife whisked her up, placing her in the waiting forelegs of her mothers.

Pinkie leaned in close, enveloping the filly in her embrace. "She's got your mane colour...but my poofiness."
"At least we won't have to teach her to comb it then. She's got my eyes."
Pinkie smiled, stroking a hoof through her foal's mane. "They're the best part of you. What should we call her?"
"You did all the work, I'll let you decide."
"I want...Candy Floss, because of her mane...do you like it?"
"I love it." Trixie picked little Candy Floss up, holding her in her forelegs while delicately balancing on her rear pair. "Hello Candy Floss....I'm your mommy. Well...so's Pinkie...but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, eh?"
Trixie couldn't be sure if the little filly nodded, or simply wiggled its neck in an attempt to look its mother in the eye. Trixie always liked to believe it was the former.

The nurse softly approached the three ponies. "If you'd like, I can invite your friends in. However, I'll warn them to be quiet. Pinkie may be feeling quite delicate for the next week or two."
Trixie glanced at her pink mate, who was barely staying awake after her ordeal. She brought Candy Floss back to her, perching on the edge of the bed so Candy could lay on her mother's lap. "You wanna bring them in?"
"Of...course. This is the happiest day of my life. I want my friends to be there." She stifled a yawn with a badly-placed hoof, almost poking her eye out. "But...somepony else can organise the party this time. I need to hit the hay soon."

The doors opened, and their concerned but jubilant friends burst in. A wave of sympathy and joy washed over the room. Rarity commented on the filly's unique hair styling, while Fluttershy made sure Pinkie was feeling okay. A fuss enveloped around the little ruby filly, who gave a tiny squeal at the new attention, jaws spread wide in an infantile grin.
"Oooh this one's quite the crowd-pleaser, Trixie. She'll be sure to be a star when she grows up!"
"And I'm sure you'll be happy to design her outfits when she does, Rarity." Would she be a star? At that moment, Trixie felt a pang of worry, a pang like the one she felt when she first saw the little filly's shimmering coat. It was one, simple thought.

She could have had an auntie here too.

* * * * * *

"Surprise!"

The lights flared on, blinding Trixie who had been simultaneously trying to carry Pinkie and Candy Floss, multitasking being a skill she needed a little more time in motherhood to learn. She narrowly avoided dropping Candy Floss to the floor with the timely pulse of her magic, and managed to do roughly the same to the still very fatigued Pinkie.

The perpetrators of the attack on her retinas slowly revealed themselves from the glowing fog of light. Twilight, Rarity, Dash and Fluttershy stood in the cottage's small living room, each with a conical party hat perched on their head. Trixie carefully levitated Candy Floss onto her back, where the giggling foal started to chew on her mane. She managed a bright smile and a greeting to her friends in amongst getting Candy to her cot, helping Pinkie to a seat, and sneaking a slice of the cake on the journey.

Once all the housekeeping had been taken care of, she finally found the time to sit down with her friends, and enjoy some rest for once. They had moved the cot into the living room with them, in the centre of the circle of mares slept little Candy Floss, a hoof jammed into her mouth as she dreamt the strange dreams only a foal can have. There was something hypnotic about the way her tiny chest moved in and out as she slept, and it was a couple of minutes before Twilight's hoof drew Trixie out of her trance.

"Trixie, are you okay?"
Trixie tore her gaze away to Twilight, before resettling on Candy Floss again. "Never better, Twilight. Never better."
"I'm glad to hear it, sorry we couldn't organise anything more...extravagant, but I doubted you'd want alot of noise with the little one around...can I..?"
"Oh...of course! Just please don't crowd her too much...I don't want to wake her, not after how hard it was to get her to sleep."

Twilight leaned over the cot, chin perched on the railing. Soon the heads of her friends joined her, the circle around the little pony tightening.
"Isn't she just adorable? I believe she'll grow up to be quite the head-turner."
"Yeh, you tell us if she gets any trouble from bullies, Trixie. I know how to deal with those chumps!"
"Oh, she is just adorable. My, she's simply the cutest thing I've ever seen, Trixie."

Trixie had left the four ponies to their oohing and dawing, settling on the couch next to Pinkie. She wrapped a foreleg round the pony, who had, like her foal, fallen asleep on the chair from the trials of the day. Convincing Nurse Redheart to let her out a couple of days early was no mean feat, but after asking Rarity to complain to her, she seemed alot more willing. The movements didn't wake Pinkie, but she did stretch out her own foreleg, wrapping it around Trixie's neck.

She watched the sleeping filly, surrounded by her attentive friends. Today had been a hard day, but she felt that it'd probably be a long chain of hard days from here on out. Could she do it, make this tiny little impression of herself into somepony great? Maybe even, somepony Great and Powerful like she once was? Trixie supposed that avenue would be closed to her. Candy Floss hadn't inherited the unicorn horn she owned. To be honest, Trixie was glad; it was probably an avenue of life she wouldn't wish on anypony.

It had turned out beautifully in the end, she supposed. The night turned to light chatter, obviously not deviating from the subject of motherhood for more than a minute or two. Trixie had probably eaten more cake than she really should have, "but hey that's what celebrations are for, right?" She gently lifted the little foal from her cot, Twilight helping by carrying the cot itself to the spare room up the stairs.

The room was decorated a vibrant pink, despite Trixie's wishes to keep it neutral in case - despite all logic - they had a colt. Of course, with Pinkie Pie on the brushwork, it was always going to be loud and proud. Trixie giggled to herself; that adorable, crazy mare probably just knew she was going to have a filly anyway. The cot was placed on the floor, and Candy Floss returned to her sleep on its mattress. The moonlight through the window played across her ruby-red coat, making it sparkle like the precious stone itself.

"Twilight...I've been meaning to ask you..."
Twilight had been heading out the door at that point. She tensed, and Trixie could tell she knew what was coming. "Her coat?"
"Yes...it's probably nothing...but...it's, well, you know."
Twilight turned back into the room, trying her best comforting smile. It seemed more like a pained grimace, but Trixie accepted the intent behind it. "The magic we dealt with to make her, was unpredictable. Powerful. Making life takes a magic more powerful than even an Element of Harmony, Trixie. It was only because Pinkie was the vector that it had any hope of working."
"You mean we could have...lost her?"

"I warned you of the dangers, remember? She could have had miscarriages, stillbirths, anything could have happened Trixie...but they didn't. It's just a coat, be happy you had her in the end. There's a reason magical births are so rare."
"Thanks Twilight, I never had the chance to tell you, but thank you, for her..."
"Hey, it's what friends are supposed to do, right?" Twilight laid a comforting hoof on Trixie's shoulder. "Let's hope the little one sleeps through the night, you have a certain sleeping beauty downstairs who'll probably be a bit miffed at waking up on the couch all alone."

Trixie chuckled, exiting the room and trotting down the stairs. Twilight lingered, only for a few seconds, watching the little filly sleep. She departed the room, the moonlight revealing the concern in her eyes as she joined the others downstairs.