“Oy, Pound... you alright, mate?”

Pound was unresponsive as Pipsqueak rested a hoof on his shoulder, giving him a slight nudge.

“Pound?”

Still nothing. Pipsqueak looked at his date, cocking a brow.

“I think we broke him,” he said solemnly.

“Pip! This isn't funny!” Dinky chastised him before pushing Pipsqueak aside and sitting down next to Pound, resting her own hooves against his shoulders.

“Pound, please listen to us. We have no idea what is going on, other than you appeared to be on a date with your...” Dinky gulped before continuing, “sister, and then you guys got into a fight. Can you please tell us what is going on?”

Pound shivered beneath her touch, his murky brown eyes glistening with yet-shed sorrow.

“Y-you pretty much saw it,” Pound croaked out, trying to keep himself composed. Emphasis on trying. As in, not quite succeeding. “We were o-on a date, she told me a while ago th-that she wanted to g-go on a d-d-date, and I said s-sure this morning. Th-then we kept getting these glares, a-and Applebloom was a complete b-b-bitch to us, and I knew it would happen, b-but I had this h-hope it wouldn't... then you guys called us o-out in the theatre, and sh-she just snapped!”

Dinky rubbed the emotional stallion's back tenderly, sharing a concerned glance with her own stallionfriend.

“Pound, I'm only asking this because I want to make sure I heard you right,” Pipsqueak said slowly, sitting down right in front of Pound. Pound refused to meet his eyes. “But... you said you were on a date with Pumpkin, right? As in, the two of you, together?”

Pound nodded, trembling under the accusations he was sure to receive.

“How... how did it happen?”

Pound looked up, surprised. Had Pipsqueak seriously asked how him and Pumpkin had come to going on a date?

“I'm... I'm sorry?”

“How'd you two, y'know...” Pipsqueak said before circling one hoof around the other, cocking an eyebrow.

Pound laughed. If they would entertain him this, the least he could do was humour them.

“I don't even know,” Pound explained to the two ponies he really didn't know all that well. But if they were willing to listen...

“We just... were. And then Pumpkin... confronted me about it, telling me she felt the same... and we were so happy...” Pound laughed with a sob at the last part, drawing a quick breath of air. “And she really, really wanted to go on a date, just the two of us, like tonight. But... I knew something like this would happen. I know how the town would behave, especially after the fiasco with Big Macintosh and Applejack... wait, Apple- Applebloom must be related to them, that might explain why she was sensitive about the subject, then... probably shouldn't have gone to her cart, then...”

Pound sighed, wiping his eyes of dormant tears clinging to his lids.

“But I don't like having Pumpkin disappointed, so I said we could go today... she really hoped everything was going to be fine, heck even I thought everything would be fine, but... it wasn't. Everything I feared happened.”

Pound hung his head low.

“And then Pumpkin snapped.”

Dinky continued rubbing Pound's back. She... didn't quite know what to make out of this situation. On one hoof, she wanted to be happy for their relationship. Relationships were supposed to be good things.

But on the other hoof, it was exactly the relationship between Pound and Pumpkin that made her wary. They were siblings, it felt... wrong to even think of it. Siblings weren't supposed to do things like that, right?

Pipsqueak was right along Dinky with his thoughts. Incest was a taboo, albeit a legal one for a few hundred years, but socially... well, Pound and Pumpkin seemed to have figured out the hard way just how ponies reacted to such taboos.

But... there was always a but. But, Pipsqueak had seen them kissing earlier. They were seriously trying to be a couple. And wasn't the whole incest ban centuries past supposed to prevent families from taking advantage of their offspring rather than prevent two ponies who loved each other from being together?

From what he'd heard, Pumpkin seemed to have instigated the relationship, and he knew it had to be true from what he knew about Pound. The pegasus wasn't keen on instigating anything, really. But he also knew Pound was, not a coward, but preferred flight to fight almost every time. He wouldn't have been looped into a relationship like that out of trickery or such on Pumpkin's part. Thus, he could deduce very quickly, when coupled with Pumpkin's reaction earlier, that Pumpkin did love Pound.

And Pound... well, with how torn up he was about what had just happened, he obviously loved Pumpkin. That much was clear.

So that just left one question...

Why was it wrong?

Why was it so wrong for the two of them to love each other?

Pipsqueak shared another look with Dinky as they both came to the same conclusion.

“Why?” Dinky asked Pip.

Pipsqueak sighed, shrugging.

“Old traditions, I suppose.”

Dinky nodded before nudging Pound, helping him rise to his hooves.

“Pound, we'll tell this to you straight,” Pipsqueak said, keeping a hold of Pound's shoulder. “We've never really faced the kind of problem you're facing. However, you two... well, you really must love each other, for this to have happened,” he said, waving down Pound's distressed figure. Pound managed to let out a stifled chuckle, rubbing his foreleg with his hoof.

“So... I don't know what you've got to do, but I really hope you two work this out. Personally, if you two really do love each other that much, then I don't see why both of you can't be together.”

“Y-you really mean that?” Pound asked, sniffling.

“Aye, mate. I do,” Pipsqueak said with a soft grin.

Clapping Pound on his back, Dinky gave him a reassuring smile.

“Go get her.”

Nodding politely, Pound spread his wings and took to the air, a streak of red energy crashing behind in his wake as he ascended rapidly. He really was a gifted flier.

Meanwhile, Pumpkin had been facing a relatively difficult problem. Through some stroke of horror or luck, she'd managed to end her teleportation spell right smack-dab in the center of Sunflower's room... right in the middle of Sunflower and her marefriend Peppermatch engaging in a rather heated love-making session. Needless to say, they were rather surprised when the hysteric orange mare suddenly popped in, bawling her eyes out.

It took a while, but eventually Sunflower and Peppermatch managed to get Pumpkin to calm down. Peppermatch had graduated along with Pumpkin and Sunflower the same year, and Pumpkin hadn't been particularly close with Peppermatch. Still, she was a nice pony, very bold but accepting.

As soon as Pumpkin wasn't draining her face all over the carpet, Sunflower began her interrogation of what led her friend to appear in waterworks in her room during her and her marefriend's special time.

Pumpkin let it all out, leaving nothing hidden as she poured her heart out to her friend, her secret love of Pound over the years, how they had finally come to a head, their passionate nights together, how she hadn't taken any protection, the town's reaction, and ending with how she suddenly snapped at Pound.

“Well, it sounds like you're coming down off of your estrus period,” Peppermatch explained calmly. She was remarkably calm about the whole ordeal, more so than Sunflower. “The last day or two of the cycle are rather... tense, when you have your emotions high.”

“Estrus- that isn't the important part here!” Sunflower yelled, aghast. “You're saying you had sex with your brother?! That the pony you wanted advice about all those years ago was POUND?!”

Pumpkin nodded furiously, cracking back down into tears.

Peppermatch draped a leg around Pumpkin, shooting a disapproving look towards Sunflower as she consoled the again-hysteric mare.

“Deep breaths, hun, deep breaths,” she instructed. Pumpkin gasped greedily at the air until she was able to calm down a bit. Peppermatch levitated over a box of napkins for Pumpkin, who accepted them eagerly.

As Pumpkin attacked the box of napkins, Sunflower decided to try and compose herself, however she felt about the... subject at hoof.

“Sorry about that, Pumpkin, but... your twin brother?”

Pumpkin whimpered.

“It's... I want to be happy for you, Pumpkin, but that stuff isn't right- OW!” Sunflower yipped as Peppermatch jabbed at Sunflower angrily.

“It is perfectly alright,” Peppermatch growled, “as long as it's sincere. But, you definitely seem tense. Skipping the protection... you do realize what that could mean, right?”

Pumpkin nodded. “And that's what terrifies me! What if I'm... I-”

She broke down into tears once more, burying her face into Peppermatch's chest. Peppermatch cooed to her as she stroked her mane gently.

“It's alright, Pumpkin, just calm down...”

Pumpkin tried to calm down. She really did. Eventually, she managed to compose herself again, albeit no better than her previous attempts to compose herself. Her eyes were blood-shot, her hide ruffled in odd places, face wet and matted with tears, and she couldn't stop sniffling.

“Pumpkin... it sounds like you need to just take a break from this,” Peppermatch said evenly. “I'm not saying I know how you should go about this, but for now you need rest. And not just physically... Just, take your time. Tell him when you're ready. But until then... take a break from him. Not in the bad way, but... you two need a little distance right now, or we'll just have a repeat of this.”

Sunflower was impressed with the advice Peppermatch was giving. She was really good at that stuff.

“Do you think you're better now?”

Pumpkin nodded slowly, her mane stuck to one side of her face. Peppermatch sighed as she patted Pumpkin gently.

“Then I'd recommend teleporting your way home pronto. You have some things to do.”

Pumpkin nodded again before lighting her horn up with her bright blue magic. A second later, she was gone.

“And you know, Sunflower,” Peppermatch said sternly, looking back at her marefriend. “Some ponies could say the exact same thing to us about our relationship that you terrorized your friend there with.”

“I... I'm sorry.”

Pound continued soaring through the sky, looking around desperately for his sister, until as fate would have it, as he was passing his house, he saw a light blue flash from their room. Flying over to the window, he looked in.

There was Pumpkin, trembling on her hooves. She looked terrible, completely distraught. Swallowing hard, Pound lifted a hoof and gently rapped on the window.

Startled, Pumpkin jumped, turning to the window to see Pound outside. Her face red, she magicked it open and turned away from her brother, suddenly knowing how he felt every day of his life. Terrified, wary of the ponies around them.

“P-Pumpkin,” Pound started, ready to try and set things right.

Pumpkin didn't give him a chance.

“Pound, we need to break up.”

Pound was shocked.

“Wha-what?”

“It's not you,” she insisted, slowly dragging herself towards her bed. “But... we need to take a break. I'll... I'll talk to you about it later. Okay?”

Pound swallowed, nodding. He was the accepting brother, after all. He was to nod and agree, no matter what he thought of the situation.

Pound slowly turned around and trotted towards his own bed, falling into it rather dramatically and keeping his mouth shut.

Within moments, the both of them were fast asleep, deep in a fitful slumber of their own horror.

Some time after they'd passed out, their parents had come up and, noticing they were home, peeked their heads in. They didn't see the emotions, sorrow or pain. They just saw their two dear children, fast asleep.

Carrot smiled to his wife. “I bet they had fun.”

“I bet they did,” Cup giggled as she shut the door to the room.

Pumpkin was supposed to talk to Pound in the morning.

Pumpkin had told him that she would talk with him in the morning.

Pumpkin didn't talk to Pound the next morning.

Or the morning after.

Or the morning after that.

Author's Notes:

On the final stretch here.