One Month Later...

“Pound, carry these boxes to the kitchen,” Carrot Cake called back to his son as he checked off boxes from the bakery's inventory shipment.

Pound Cake flexed his wings out wide as he rolled off of the upper landing couch, dropping to the floor below before snapping his wings shut.

Grabbing the boxes with his hooves, he slipped one onto his back and held another under his leg like a hoofball as he made his way awkwardly through the shop. Finally reaching his destination, he dropped the boxes on the floor, cracking them open to take a peek-see at what the contents were.

More flour. Of course it was flour. They were always getting flour. They never had enough flour.

Pound stood back up to leave when he suddenly became aware that he was not alone in the room.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Pumpkin Cake had locked eyes with him, her face quickly growing red. His own face flushed, but he broke the contact between them before they made it any further. Putting the floor beneath his hooves, he trotted out of the room, leaving his twin sister alone.

Pound's ears dropped sadly. It had been a month since their break-up. In that month, he'd been harassed on a daily basis by ponies all around town about his date with Pumpkin. The poor colt trotted through the shop's interior, passing by his dad.

“The boxes are back there.”

Pound suddenly felt the gentle pressure of his father's hoof on his shoulder.

“Pound, stop.”

Pound stopped, but did not turn around.

“Son, what is wrong. You've been moping around here for the past month, so don't tell me there isn't anything wrong.”

Pound swallowed. He hated it when his dad knew there was something wrong.

“What happened with you and Pumpkin?” Carrot asked.

“Why don't you just ask Pumpkin,” Pound pleaded.

“Because I want my son to tell me. This is mare trouble I can't help Pumpkin with colt problems, but I know how to deal with these problems here.”

“Do you?” Pound suddenly lashed out with his words, cold and unfeeling. “Do you really know, dad?”

“Pound... what happened? Really?”

“She broke up with me. End of story,” Pound said before he ran out of the house, flipping into the sky and rocketing off.

Carrot Cake sighed as his wife entered the kitchen, humming a tune to herself. The tune died off instantly when she saw her daughter trembling over a roller, her eyes tearing up.

“Baby, what's wrong?” she asked as she rushed over to her daughter.

“M-Mom, did you ever mess up? With dad?”

Cup Cake sighed as she stroked her daughter's mane.

“Is this about you and Pound?” Cup asked. Pumpkin nodded against her mother's chest.

“I... I messed up, mom. I- we were- nopony accepted us, mom. They still harass me about it, it's so frustrating!”

Cup Cake rubbed her jaw along Pumpkin's head, nuzzling her baby while carefully avoiding her horn.

“And... I... Mom, we had sex.”

Cup Cake knew that her kids had done the act. It was obvious they had. She still wasn't quite prepared to hear it.

“I... I see, baby,” Cup Cake said quietly.

“No, mom, you don't. I was... I was going through estrus when we did,” Pumpkin's voice cracked as she voiced what she'd wanted to admit for so long. “I didn't use any protection.”

Cup Cake's eyes went wide.

“Oh my... we need to have you checked. Immediately.”

Cup Cake rushed over to a cupboard in the kitchen, throwing it open and digging through it until she came up with a small box of indicator strips. A quick reference note on the side reminded her that a blue result was positive.

“M-Mom! You keep those in the kitchen?!”

“Your father and I were very desperate for both of you,” Cup Cake said evenly as she pushed Pumpkin into the small bathroom off of the kitchen, giving her the strip.

“I take it you know how to use that,” she said before she closed the door on her daughter.

Cup Cake stood a polite distance away from the bathroom as Pumpkin did her business. Thankfully, Pumpkin was already feeling a little... ready, at the moment. It didn't take long.

“Anyways,” Pumpkin continued, thankful her mother was being so helpful at the time, listening to her and everything. She'd expected her mother to be livid, but she was reassuringly calm about the new knowledge. It made her feel a little bit better about telling her.

“Our date was... bad. We were yelled at and stuff. It got bad, and I... I just snapped.”

Pumpkin let her head hang low.

“I yelled at him, was so mad at him, and I just couldn't help it. I couldn't stop myself.”

“Dear, you were probably just coming off of your period,” her mother informed her.

“I was, but that isn't the point,” Pumpkin said. “I... I told him I wanted to break up, after I'd managed to convince him to go on the date in the first place. I... I hurt him, mom, I hurt him so much there. He wanted to talk it out, but I just spat in his face...”

She sighed.

“I haven't been able to talk to him since. I want to, I really do, but... how do I ask him to forgive about everything? How do I... how do I apologize for being so horrible?”

“Honey,” Cup Cake said to her daughter, “these things happen. And I assure you, if you let those ponies get to you, then you'll never find happiness. It's a little hard to believe that nopony in all of Ponyville was fine with your relationship.”

“Well... Peppermatch was fine with it, she even said she was happy for me...”

“Peppermatch... is that your friend Sunflower's little marefriend? She comes in here occasionally, she really is a sweet one. But see, I told you, not everypony is that horrible. You just need to try and get them all to see it the same way she does. And hey, if they won't let themselves see it, then who cares? You're in love, it shouldn't matter!”

The door to the bathroom creaked open, and Pumpkin stumbled out, tears in her eyes.

“Th-thanks, mom,” she said as she made her way to her mother, falling into her hooves. She had the best mom in the world.

“I love you, mommy,” Pumpkin said through teary eyes as she grasped her mother tightly.

“I love you too, sweetie,” Cup Cake cooed as she held her daughter to her. They stayed like that for a while, letting the tension melt away.

“So, what colour was the strip?” Cup Cake asked her daughter.

“Blue.”

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Pound dropped through the air, screaming as he punched through clouds at breakneck speed far from Ponyville.

He didn't have the right to feel like this. It was his fault, anyways. He'd let them go on the date. And then he hadn't stood up to those ponies while he was on the date.

Smashing into a field to the west, he ran through the thick, tall grass, slicing through the dry growth as he vented out his anger violently.

His head hurt. His breath was ragged. His heart was pounding, and not just from the exertion.

He needed a drink.

Moments later, he was standing outside the Pale Horse Brewery. Shaking his head in irritation, he strode through the doors into the brew house.

The inside was clean and calm, with a few tables and a well-stocked bar. Not many ponies were here, but one in particular caught his eye.

“Hey, Pip,” Pound said as he sidled up along Pipsqueak at the bar, waving for a draft from the bartender.

“Ah, oy Pound,” Pipsqueak greeted him.

“Aren't you a little young to be drinking?” the bartender asked, knowing Pound from his regular guilty escapes to the famous sweet shop in Ponyville.

“I'm paying, aren't I?” Pound said as he slid a few bits to the bartender. Shrugging, the gray Earth pony pocketed the bits into his smock, prepared to draw Pound a drink. There was no minimum drinking age in Equestria, after all.

“What'll it be, er... Pound Cake, was it?”

“Yeah, I'll take a-” Pound took a quick glance at a list of drinks- “Manehatten Iced Tea.”

“If you say so, boss,” the bartender said as he pulled out a number of various rums.

“Whoa there, you sure you can handle that, mate? It's some strong stuff.”

“I'll be fine,” Pound said as he let his face flop onto the bar.

“Sorry for me asking, mate, but you don't exactly seem like the bar type... what brings you here today?”

“Dude, I don't even know,” Pound said lazily as he lifted his face up, only letting his chin rest on the barely-sticky polished wood surface. “I'm just... I've been so angry lately. Figured a drink would help.”

“Hmmmph,” Pipsqueak grunted, a wry smile forming on his lips. “You've obviously never drank before.”

Pound chuckled too. He was right.

“But what is this about being angry? This... goodness, this isn't still about what happened between you and Pumpkin, is it?”

“Yeah,” Pound said sadly.

The bartender decided to add his two cents into the conversation.

“Pumpkin... isn't that your sister?” he asked Pound. Pipsqueak made the universal “Stop, cut it out,” motion with his hoof along his neck. The bartender didn't notice.

“Yeah,” Pound moaned. He hadn't even started drinking, and he was already getting more miserable. The drink had to help at this point. Good thing he liked iced tea.

“Let me guess, you find her sleeping with some stallion?” the bartender said wryly. He'd heard that story before; it was always better for the pony to just get it out of his system.

“Yeah, only I was that stallion.”

Well, that was new.

“That's... gotta be pretty awkward?” the bartender said confused as he finished off Pound's drink, passing it to him.

“I mean, that's not exactly normal I suppose , but what- HOLY CELESTIA THE WHOLE GLASS!” the gray pony gasped wide-eyed as Pound tipped his head back and drained the glass in one swig. Slamming the glass back down, Pound nearly went into heaves.

“Sweet Luna's flank, that was mean,” he huffed.

“Watch your mouth,” Pipsqueak chuckled as he patted Pound on his back.

“So yeah, I bed my sister, she wants date. We go on date, shitstorm ensues. She breaks up, doesn't talk to me, I'm here,” Pound finishes suddenly regaling the bartender on his life problems.

“That, uh... that sucks, brony,” the bartender says, taking Pound's glass from him. “Another?”

“No,” Pound says aggressively, “that stuff burns like ass.”

Pip and the bar colt laughed as Pound rubbed his head with a hoof.

“So why are you here, anyways?” Pound asked Pipsqueak.

“Oh, ah...” Pipsqueak said as he sank lower in his seat. “Dinky broke up with me last week. Not exactly good at rejection, so I... thought I'd mosey on in here, grab a spot, relax... next thing I know, a week has passed and I've been doing the same bloody thing every day!”

Pound rested a hoof on Pipsqueak's shoulder.

“Sorry, she seemed nice.”

“She was, mate, she was,” Pipsqueak said before taking a deep swig of his drink.

“You said she wasn't talking to you?” the bartender suddenly interjected.

“Yes,” Pound said, returning his focus to the gray pony. “Why?”

“Well, have you tried talking to her?”

Pound groaned, burying his face into the bar surface.

“No, how could I. I was the one that-”

“Let me stop you right there,” the bar pony said. “I've seen your type around here a lot, the type who really doesn't belong here. And luckily for you, business is good enough that I can feel like a good Samaritan today.”

“Go on,” Pound said.

“You need to buck up and take the initiative,” the pony informed Pound.

Pound snorted.

“If I could just take the initiative, then I wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place. It's a little too late for that, don't you think?”

This time it was the bar pony snorted.

“Who says it's too late? If she was my mare, I would do everything I could to keep her.”

Perhaps it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the hormones running through him. It could have even been a sudden epiphany he had.

It was probably hearing somepony else say it that really got him to act, though.

Pound rose to his hooves.

“You're right,” he said. “I should do everything I can.”

“There we go,” the bar pony said as Pound trotted out with a determined fire in his eye. “And don't let me see you back here unless you have that mare under your hoof!”

Pipsqueak growled lightly.

“Why couldn't you have been like that when I first stumbled in here?” he asked.

“Pffft, you had no chance. She dumped your sorry ass for a reason.”

“Prick.”

“Douche.”

“Another round.”

“Sure thing.”

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Pumpkin paced nervously in her bedroom, the window wide open to her side.

“How do I tell him, how do I tel him?! I can't hide this from him, I can't! Come on, Pumpkin, for once in your life use that big old brain of yours and figure out a way to solve something that MATTERS!”

“What matters?”

Pumpkin shrieked as she leaped a foot away, panting in surprise.

And there he was. His tan hide and feathers were ruffled slightly from his last flight, his mane flipped just the right way. His muscles as toned as ever, his chest displayed proudly.

Something had changed since he'd left earlier. Something she liked.

And in that moment, she felt it again.

The longing.

The desire.

The secret glee.

The promise.

The feelings.

The magic.

The love.

“P-Pound,” she whispered, wanting to look away but refusing to let herself.

“Pound!”

The two of them rushed towards each other, embracing the other in a desperate hug. Pumpkin was back in tears, which shocked Pound. Usually she was the strong one while he cried to her. This was... different.

“Pumpkin... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry...” he said, stroking her mane. “But... I will make it right with you. With us.”

Pound pulled her away, looking deep into her eyes.

“Pumpkin, I- I was scared. I'm still scared. I thought I lost you, I've been waiting for you to say something to me, say anything to me, but... sometimes, I need to be the one saying something to you. I know that now.”

Pumpkin sniffled back a new wave of tears. She was getting very emotional at the moment.

“But I want to- no, I need to ask you this... can we give it another try? Us, I mean? I swear to you, if anypony has a problem with us, they will either take it up with me or deal with it, because I am never going to let anypony hurt you, not like that. Never again, I sw- MMMMmmmmm...”

Pound was effectively shut up as Pumpkin's lips met his, silencing him as she practically threw herself at him, knocking over the sturdy pegasus.

“Yes,” Pumpkin breathed, her heart racing. She had been hoping deep in the back of her heart that he would consider taking her back, and here he was finally taking the lead! She... she knew she could tell him now. Right?

Right?

Pumpkin giggled as Pound held her close, rubbing his muzzle along her face, cleaning it of tears.

“Pound, there's something I need to tell you,” Pumpkin said carefully, trying to be tactful about how she told him the important news, the news that would change both of their lives forever.

“What is it?” he asked.

Pumpkin magicked the door open, revealing her parents huddled behind the door, smiling. This next part would be news to one of them.

“You're going to be a daddy.”

Author's Notes:

Sucks to suck.

But hey, at least there's this fancy thing called sequels.