The first rule of breaking a social taboo: you don't talk about breaking a social taboo.

The two had cleaned up rather well, considering the... fun, they had with each other. They trotted out of the room with very clean coats, shining and dry.

Very well, considering they had proceeded to copulate madly multiple times after their initial buck before deciding to use the shower for it's intended purpose.

Pumpkin had her mane up in a towel, her tail wrapped as well. Pound was running a comb through his mane, giving it the naturally characteristic flip he wore as usual. He was about to let the rest of it just spike out as normal, but as an after-thought decided to do something a little bit different. Combing the back of his mane to the side, he modeled it into a clean, professional style, leaving the front flip of his mane the only bit unchanged from his normal 'do.

The two continued making sure they looked their best, occasionally complimenting the other in a cute sort of way. As Pound finished spiffing himself up, he trotted over to the mirror in the closet, looking over himself. His coat gleamed, his mane was listening to him for once, and he had an aura of confidence around him that he had never quite experienced before that. On top of everything, he was rocking a pretty balling afterglow from his fun time with Pumpkin. He was excited.

Pumpkin, too, excited, but in a nervous way.

“I didn't tell him...” she whispered to herself as she ran a brush through her mane, her magic flickering slightly. “I should have told him, I should have! But... he's never shown such confidence, I've never seen this side of him...”

Pumpkin smiled with a blush as she remembered just how forceful he'd been.

“I liked it...”

Pumpkin let her eyes gaze over towards Pound, looking him up and down as he oggled himself in the mirror. His muscles weren't bulging, but after their little sexcapade they were more prominent then she could ever remember seeing them.

She caught her face growing an even darker shade of red. They'd been intimate less than a half hour before, but seeing him now, holding his chest out high, made her heart flutter far more than any amount of time of doing the dirty with him ever could.

“I... I can always tell him after the date,” Pumpkin thought with a short smile, giving her mane a final tug with the brush. It bounced with life and volume, stubbornly refusing to go straight. Pumpkin sighed in defeat, accepting the fact that she would never have a straight mane.

The sound of an opening door caused the both of them to jerk their heads towards their door.

Their parents were home.

Taking a deep, stabilizing breath, Pound was the first to say anything.

“I... I'll go let them know what we're doing, what... what we decided,” he said with a nervous smile. Pumpkin began nodding, but stopped herself.

“No, I... I'll go too,” she said, regaining her usual confidence. “We'll go together.”

She trotted over to him, wrapping a hoof around his and intertwining their tails.

Pound bent over and gave her a quick peck on the lips. With that, the two left their room.

Carrot Cake was helping Cup Cake move some boxes into the house. With a light flick of her horn, Pumpkin levitated the boxes from her parents as well as the boxes outside into the house in one fluid motion.

“Thank you kindly, Pumpkin,” Cup Cake said while giving her daughter a very generous smile before opening her eyes wide, looking up and down her daughter.

“Well gosh, you look all fancied up! It's almost as if you two are going on a date!” their mother joked.

Pound swallowed hard before adopting the most level look he could muster.

“Actually... we are, ma.”

“That's nice, swee-”

Cup Cake's eyes went wide with surprise. Then a feeling of happiness at towards her two children. Then a queasy feeling when she realized it was her two children. Going on a date. Together. A sense of regret for that followed, finally settling on a feeling of acceptance.

In the span of about two seconds, Cup Cake composed herself.

Smiling awkwardly, she called for her husband to join her. A moment later, Carrot Cake entered the room, sidling up next to his wife.

“Yes, honey?” he asked. Cup Cake let out a nervous laugh as she waved a hoof towards her children.

“Our twins are... going on a date!”

Carrot was silent. A general sense of wariness washed over the room. Tensions peaked as the three ponies giving presence to him in the room awaited Carrot Cake's response.

Finally, after what had felt like an eternity for the twins, Carrot Cake let out a sigh, a wry grin slipping onto his face.

“Then I hope the two of you have a great time,” he said as he trotted over to his children with his wife, wrapping them up in a tight family hug.

“Thanks, daddy,” Pumpkin said before they broke apart, Pumpkin tugging on Pound's foreleg excitedly.

“Come on, there's a movie playing downtown we can go check out if we hurry!”

Carrot chuckled along as he saw his blushing son drug out of the house by his daughter. He sure never expected to see that happen in quite the sense that it had, but... he wasn't upset that it happened. All he wanted was for his children to be happier than he was as a child, and if this was how they found it... well, incest hadn't been illegal in centuries, since some scandal in the upper class almost a half-thousand years ago. And Faust knows that if the upper class is upset with the way something is going, they simply alter a law to fit their needs.

For the first time in a long time, Carrot was actually thankful for their abuse of the system. At least his kids could be happy about it.

Pumpkin pulled Pound outside to the dimly-lit street, the moon to soon rise. They'd been in the shower longer than they'd realized. It had only felt like a few minutes... but with a blush, both of them realized it very well could have been a few hours they spent in the shower and grooming themselves.

Pumpkin started off their date by turning around right outside the door and pressing her lips against Pound's under the setting sun. Pound was surprised, but returned her affection with a tenderness of his own.

“Come on,” Pumpkin giggled, pulling him along. “Let's go.”

Pumpkin tossed her tail into Pound's, and together the two set off.

The theatre was on the opposite side of town as Sugar Cube Corner. The two twins trotted through the lightly populated streets, talking amongst themselves about what they'd noticed going on that day, which wasn't much considering they'd spent most of they day together as it was. Eventually, they settled for simply basking in each other's presence.

And that's when they started hearing it.

It was subtle at first, a simple, “Oh look at Pound and Pumpkin, they're awfully friendly tonight,” and then it was, “It's Pound and- oh is that his marefriend? No wait, Pumpkin?!” before it turned into, “Holy buck, is that Pumpkin hanging on Pound? Those sick twins...”

So, in a nutshell, it escalated quickly.

Pound cringed instinctively as the two began garnering disapproving glares from ponies they passed, recognizing who they were. There was no other way to describe what they were doing, other than going on a date. With each other. The way Pumpkin snuggled up to Pound and his massive blush was enough to give that one away.

Deciding to stop for a quick bite, they made their way to a vendor selling some apples. A mare by the name of Applebloom was selling today, a yellow mare with a silky head of red mane.

“Howdy there,” she said with a thick accent, “What can ah git fer ya two- hold on, ah know ya two, don't ah?”

“I... don't believe we've met-” Pumpkin managed to say before Applebloom had a sudden revelation.

“Hold on, ah do know y'all! Yer the Cake twins, aint'cha! Ah haven't seen y'all since ya were babies!”

“Th-that's nice,” Pumpkin winced.

“So what brings y'all out here tonight?”

Pumpkin scratched at her mane.

“Actually, we were just going to pick up a quick bite before our date,” Pumpkin admitted.

“A date, huh? That's so sweet! Who y'all goin' on dates with?” Applebloom asked sweetly, the filly side of her relishing in the chance to get some gossip.

“Well, uh...” Pumpkin said before scooting next to her brother.

“Each other.”

Applebloom cocked her head. “Excuse me?”

“We're going on a date together,” Pumpkin exclaimed to Applebloom.

Applebloom narrowed her eyes.

“Ah'm sorry, ah thought ya said you's two was on a date with'mn eachother here. I know ah must be hearin' things, right?”

“No, you aren't,” Pumpkin said evenly before picking out an apple. “Now, may I purchase this?” she asked, grabbing the fruit in her magic. Applebloom reached out and grabbed the fruit, returning it to the cart.

“No, ya can't, cuz ah don't do business with a bunch o' incestuous... sluts!” she huffed, eyes afire with self-righteous anger.

The two scampered away, deciding to just head over to the theatre. They received even more glares then before after Applebloom's little outburst.

As the two finally made it to the theatre, Pound gave a sigh of relief. They had to have made it through the worst of it, right? The lack of second-glances in the theatre gave a false sense of support to his hopes as the two bought their tickets and entered the second theatre room. The movie was a romantic comedy that had premiered the week prior, apparently it had received relatively positive ratings from the critics.

Not that either of them were really that interested.

Come on, who goes to movies on a date to actually watch the movie?

As soon as the lights dimmed in the three-quarters full theatre, every stallion in the room leaned over and began macking on his date. In Pound and Pumpkin's case, it was the reverse, but they still enjoyed it none-the-less.

That is, until a sudden sharp gasp was heard in the row behind them.

The two guilty twins looked up to see a rather lanky Earth pony with a white, brown-patched hide cocking his head at them, his hoof draped around a light pink unicorn mare with a blonde mane.

“Pound, Pumpkin, is that you?” Pipsqueak whispered to them, confusion obvious in his voice.

“Oh my- it is!” Dinky whispered, a slight sense of horror in her voice.

Pumpkin sighs out dejectedly, slumping back into her seat.

“We're going to get this everywhere we go, aren't we?” she asked in anger, refusing to admit that Pound had been right.

“Yeah, Pip, it's us,” Pound said shyly as he cowered in his seat, terrified that he'd actually been confronted. It had been bound to happen, but it still was scary for the sensitive stallion.

“But you're-” Pip gasped as he was trying to make sense of what he'd seen. “I mean, that's your sister!”

Pumpkin groaned, standing up abruptly and tugging Pound along. Her interest in staying had just disappeared.

“Come on, Pound. This was a bad idea.”

“Wait!” Pipsqueak called as he chased after the two, his date right behind him.

The two twins stopped in the empty lobby, Dinky and Pipsqueak catching up with them quickly.

“Are you two on, like, a date?!” Dinky asked, raising a suspecting brow to them.

“Yeah, we actually are,” Pumpkin huffed before prodding Pound, shaking her head. He'd called it, ponies wouldn't be ready for... this.

“Now if you'll excuse us, I need to go back home and listen to this guy say I told you so.”

With that, Pumpkin grabbed Pound by his leg and dragged him after her.

The two made it out into the street to find it empty. Pip and Dinky followed them to the door but stayed behind at the door as Pumpkin whirled around on Pound.

“Alright, you called it!” she cried at Pound, refusing to meet his eyes.

“P-Pumpkin!” Pound said, startled as Pumpkin began choking on tears. “Why are you like this! I've never seen you so... emotional!” Pound said, then instantly bit his tongue, deciding to try and reach over to Pumpkin and try and console her.

Pumpkin pushed him away, sobbing.

“You knew this would h-h-happen, and it did! I wanted t-t-to show you I-I-I loved you, but I guess I'm n-not allowed to!”

“Pumpkin, please calm down!” Pound begged his sister. “You're not yourself, something is wrong, I get it-”

“No, Pound, nothing is wrong with me!” she screamed at him, a sudden wall breaking. She was losing it. All of the doubts she'd had were crashing down around her, making her even more vulnerable then she'd been.

“But there is something wrong with us, and you knew it! You knew it, even when I wanted to ignore it!”

“Pumpkin,” Pound asked, frightened, “why are you like this all of a sudden?”

He reached over to try and grasp his lover, his sister, his best friend in the entire world.

And she knocked his hoof aside.

“We need to break up.”

Pound was surprised to hear her say this. Not hurt, but... surprised. And it scared him. He was definitely scared.

“P-Pumpkin, you don't... you don't mean that...?”

“You're right, the town won't accept us,” Pumpkin cried.

“We can give them time-”

“Time won't fix anything, you stupid colt!”

And with that, Pumpkin flashed away. Pound just sat there, a very, very confused look on his face with his hoof still reaching out to thin air.

Pipsqueak and Dinky slowly exited, approaching Pound Cake.

And Pound Cake just sat there. That was all he could do.

Author's Notes:

Be patient.