Cherry and the Crystalling

chapter 7

Shining Armor and Cadence came to their stands as the Crystal Ponies were nearly done gathering outside the castle. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came behind their niece for the announcement.

"Dearest citizens, I am sure you are all just as thrilled and ready for this Crystalling as myself and Shining Armor." Cadence told the ponies.

Shining Armor looked anything but ready as he was nervous. Patrick and Emily noticed that and looked concerned for the white unicorn stallion.

"I'm not ready!" Shining Armor panicked instantly.

"Take it easy!" Rainbow Dash tried to relax him. "Just pick whoever looks the most like honor guard material."

"Yeah, that should be easy enough." Patrick said.

"Right... Right..." Shining Armor slowly calmed down now.

The guards behind stood firmly and sharply behind, awaiting any orders. Rainbow Dash handed over the helmets to Shining Armor to give to the guards of his choosing.

"So, which two seem most qualified?" Patrick asked.

Shining Armor took the helmets with his horn, but accidentally hit two guards in the face with them, making them fall and stumble backward onto the floor. This made the other guards step back nervously.

"I'm sorry, "Shining Armor felt like he was in no condition to handle this. "Fatherhood is way more stressful than I thought."

"I can only imagine." Fluttershy quietly commented as she absentmindedly stroked her stomach.

"Don't worry, it'll get better." Patrick assured him.

"Now, I know choosing the crystal of purity is a very important decision," Rarity stepped in, levitating a case and opened it up to show the aforementioned jewels which looked extremely identical. "So I have gone through the trouble of arranging them in order from incredibly pure to outrageously pure."

"But don't they look the same?" Darla asked.

"Oh, well, to the untrained eye, perhaps..." Rarity replied to the pink filly. "What do you think, Shining Armor?"

Shining Armor stammered and it was hard to tell what he was saying until he let it all out in a heaping mess of words. "I! DON'T! KNOW!"

"I hope Twilight and the others are having a better time with the baby." Rarity whispered to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy nodded in agreement as she looked worried about Shining Armor's hysterics.

Things were going a little crazy with the baby. Pinkie squealed in delight as she was holding onto the baby and she was flapping her enormous wings back and forth with the adult pink earth mare attached to her tiny body. Patch began to try to get the baby alicorn down to the ground.

"Well... At least she's... having fun!" Pinkie said, referring to the alicorn foal as she was flying around the room.

"How is it that this little foal is so hard to catch?" Patch asked while trying to catch the alicorn foal.

The baby cooed and giggled, zapping her horn's magic while Twilight tried to repel it before anyone could get seriously hurt.

"Someone, hold her still!" Twilight begged.

"I'm trying!" Patch grunted as he had trouble getting a hold of Twilight's baby niece.

"Same here!" Pinkie Pie called out as her back hooves simply dragged down to the ground.

"Stop that now!" Patch groaned to the alicorn foal.

The alicorn foal seemed to only continue to giggle, until finally, Patch was able to catch her.

Pinkie then suddenly stumbled and fell, accidentally coming on top of the former cocker spaniel puppy. "Oops, sorry, Colette!"

"That's okay..." Colette strained only slightly.

"Gotcha, ya little dickens." Patch held the alicorn foal into his hooves.

The alicorn foal simply giggled, not seeming to mind being held by him.

Patch smiled once she was a little calm. "Thatta girl."

"Good work, Patch." Cookie smiled.

"Thanks, Cookie." Patch smiled back to her.

"I wonder how Starlight is doing on her friendship lesson." Colette smiled.