"So anyway, like I was saying," Spark explained after Blaze had interrupted him with many plausible questions about his obviously fabricated story. "This fucker was hu-fucking-mongous, right? Like, eight feet or some shit, and I, being so courageous like I am, wrestled that timberwolf so the schoolchildren could get to safety. I knew it was dangerous, but I wasn't thinking about myself, you know? I knew these children were the seeds of our very future, so I had to save them; no matter if it meant losing my own life." Spark sounded like much more of a hero than he actually was.

"You don't believe this crap, do you?" I whispered to Rainbow Dash, her head resting peacefully on my chest as we sat around the bright bonfire in the clear night.

"Of course not," She whispered back to me. "It's Spark. Just let him have his fun and hopefully it won't go to his head."

I smiled at that and put my arm around Dash, pulling her even closer to me. This was the perfect night. A bonfire outside of Ponyville on a clear, summer night, surrounded by all of my friends as we visited and shared stories, whether they were truthful or made up. Applejack sat near the large fire pit, roasting a marshmallow on a stick as she listened intently to Spark. Rarity sat on a stump, constantly checking her mane, but still looking like she was having a blast. Blaze and Fluttershy sat close together, Blaze's arm wrapped tightly around her for comfort during the dark night. Twilight and Pinkie Pie sat close by eating s'mores happily. Twilight's wings were fully extended and still looked a little awkward situated on her back. Even though the coronation had happened nearly a month ago, I still hadn't gotten used to them. But by the way she walked and struggled to do simple tasks, it didn't look like she was any more accustomed than me. And finally, there sat Spark, acting out his inconceivable story with many hoof and arm motions.

"So then, I tackled that little shit, and next thing I know, BAM! The cunt smacked me with a sledgehammer!" Spark continued.

"How would a timberwolf have a sledgehammer in the middle of the Everfree Forest?" Blaze questioned.

"Blaze, I'm gonna tell you one more time, shut the fuck up. This is my story not yours." Spark said angrily.

"Well sorry, but I just don't think it's entirely true." Blaze defended.

"Of course it is!" Spark said. He looked almost insulted to be accused of lying.

"I believe you!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed through a mouthful of melted marshmallow and chocolate.

"Thank you, Pinkie." Spark said. "See? Completely true events."

Blaze just rolled his eyes and waved his hoof for Spark to finish the story, earning a small giggle from Fluttershy.

"Yeah, so then I was all like, 'You bitch,' and then I went all commando style and, like Judo chops and back flips and shit, and in no time the stupid shit was dead from pure thrashing, and I was battle scarred and weary, but the children were safe, and I was a hero to the public!" Spark finished with a triumphant pose of victory and pride.

"Sounds like quite the adventure." Rarity commented when he was finished.

"Oh, it was. But it was all worth the admiration of the public." Spark said.

"Wait a minute. If you were such a hero, how come we ain't never heard of this before?" Applejack asked skeptically as she popped a roasted marshmallow in her mouth.

"Well, obviously the children were so scarred from the event that they lost their ability to talk, and being the most modest person ever, I sure as hell wasn't gonna just tell everyone about it. It's against my morals." Spark explained.

"Right..." Applejack said, not believing him for a second.

"Why were you in the Everfree Forest with kids anyway?" Twilight asked as she scooted a little closer to the crackling fire for warmth.

"Well, ya know. The same reason you would be anywhere with kids." Spark nervously laughed.

"Like?" Twilight expected an answer.

"Uh, candy? Ice cream? Video games? I don't fucking know, whatever kids are into nowadays." Spark said.

"So you abducted children by offering them candy, ice cream, and video games, and led them to the Everfree Forest just so you could save them from a timberwolf and become a hero at the expense of their ability to speak?" Twilight asked. It seemed she had completely analyzed his story down to every detail.

"Uh...would it make me a felon if I said yes?" Spark asked.

"Fortunately, no, because your story is completely made up." Twilight said with a slight giggle.

Spark sighed. "Way to ruin my fun, Book Brain."

"Anytime." Twilight smiled happily at the teasing insult.

Rainbow Dash and I laughed at their little exchange. Ever since Spark had began taking magic lessons from Twilight, the two had grown much closer. Spark was still very much in love with Pinkie, but over the past month, him and Twilight had grown to be one of the closest pairs of friends I had ever seen. Who knew that would ever happen?

Spark rolled his eyes and looked to everypony else. "Well, I don't suppose you guys have any other better stories?"

"OH!!! I have one!" Pinkie Pie yelled excitedly with a sticky, marshmallow covered hoof in the air. She hopped up from the ground and began trotting around the fire. "It's about a cute little unicorn that loves to do magic tricks and hang out with all of his friends!" She snorted as she giggled and continued her story. "One time on a day a lot like today, but not the same day, he was walking around when he decided, 'Hey, we should have a get-together with all of our friends!' And that's when I said, 'Oh my gosh! We should totally do that!' And then a few hours later there was a group of friends enjoying time around a bonfire and a happy pink pony telling this story!" She ended the tale by taking a seat next to Spark and wrapping her arms around him lovingly.

"That's not much of a story, Pinkie, it's more just telling about earlier today." Spark smirked, putting an arm around her.

"I know! I just wanted to share how the day went for the convenience of the reader, silly!" Pinkie explained with a bright smile.

"Oh, I...wait, what?" Spark asked, confused as to what Pinkie was even talking about.

"At least she ain't lyin'." Applejack said with a merry chuckle.

"Well, uh, anyway," Spark said, still caught in Pinkie's embrace. "Anyone else have anything exciting or entertaining to share?"

I felt Dash stir, and she broke my embrace as she sat straight up. "Has anypony here ever heard of..." She paused for dramatic effect. "Bighoof?"

"B-Bighoof?" Fluttershy asked, nestling deeper into Blaze's arms. It looked like he couldn't be any happier about the moment.

"So you haven't heard?" Dash pretended to sound surprised for the sake of the story.

Wonder if this will be anything close to the horseshoe story in 'Sleepless in Ponyville.'

"One night, much like this one, there lived a couple from Ponyville that decided to venture outside, even though they had been warned by the locals not to go out at night. They liked a sense of danger and adventure. They had no idea what they were in for. They decided to roam together through the night, not particularly paying attention to their surroundings, just sort of goofing around. Through their carelessness, they eventually ended up in the heart of the Everfree Forest. At night, it was pitch black, and the two ponies couldn't even see each other three feet away, so they had to rely on their voices to get around. The usually buzzing forest was dead silent at night, making the constant shouting of their voices back and forth even more eerie. The mare eventually came to her senses and decided she wanted to leave. She followed the sound of her partner's voice and stood next to him, gripping his hoof out of fear of the whole situation. Though, when he wouldn't move and his voice stopped, she knew something was very wrong. 'Uh, dear? Aren't we leaving?' She asked frantically. 'Yeah, I'm over here!' She heard the stallion yell. Twenty feet away. Her eyes went wide when she realized that wasn't her lover she was gripping. The hoof she clung to suddenly bolted upward and slammed back to the ground again, bringing her along for the ride and causing her to let out a blood curdling scream. Her partner heard her cries and tried to get to her, but it was no use; Bighoof had taken her away to his lair, never to be seen again." She ended the presentation with an adorably sinister smile.

Throughout the story, everypony had slowly crept closer and closer to whomever they were nearest, and began holding them tightly for comfort. Fluttershy was practically enveloped by an equally terrified Blaze by the time it was all over. Even I was a bit frazzled after a story like that. Damn, Dash knows how to scare a crowd.

"Meh, heard better." Spark said, appearing unamused.

Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration. "Seriously? You're not even phased? Not even a little?"

"I read 'Cupcakes'. Nothing scares me anymore." Spark said.

"Oh, what's 'Cupcakes'?" Pinkie asked, completely forgetting about how scared she was a minute ago. "Sounds like a fun story!"

Spark chuckled. "Well, it starts out-"

"N-no, no, no need to finish that." An already terrified Blaze said. "I think that's enough scary for now."

Spark rolled his eyes. "Pff, fine, pussy." He looked to Pinkie. "I'll tell you later." She replied with an eager nod of the head.

I cleared my throat, interrupting the short silence that followed afterward. "Well, after that," I spoke up. "Who's up for a little game?"

"Oh! I am!" Exclaimed Pinkie ecstatically, followed by the many murmuring agreements of everypony else.

"Great." I said.

"What are we playing, anyway?" Spark asked.

"Something I'm sure you're all familiar with." I said as I reached behind me to grab one of the many empty bottles of apple cider we had drank and discarded lazily into the grass. "A good old game of spin the bottle."

"Fuck, seriously? That's the best you could come up with?" Spark said. "Truth or dare isn't exactly something I would expect at a god-tier party like this."

"Ah, lighten up, Spark." Rainbow Dash said. "You can't beat the classics."

"Yeah, c'mon, Sparky!" Pinkie said, giving Spark a peck on the cheek. "It'll be fun!"

Spark seemed momentarily stunned by the action, and he quickly concluded, "Alright, let's do it."

I smiled and brought out the bottle and placed it on the ground. "Okay, so I spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on-"

"We know how to fucking play spin the bottle, we weren't born under a rock." Spark said, rewarding him with a small giggle from Pinkie.

"Okay then." I said, knowing it wasn't worth it to argue with Spark. I reached down and spun the bottle as hard as I could, and it eventually stopped to face Rarity.

"Okay, truth or dare?" I asked her.

"Hmm, I choose dare." She decided.

"Alright, I dare you to...roll on the ground." I said with a devilish smirk.

She looked absolutely aghast. "Is it too late to choose truth?"

"I'm afraid so." I said with a nod.

"What? But I...Do you know how hard I work to keep my mane in this shape?" She asked.

Twilight chuckled. "Sorry, Rarity. That's how the game works."

"But, but..." She suddenly gave a defeated sigh and reluctantly laid on the ground and began to roll around, complaining as dirt and other random things started to stick to her coat and mane. Shortly after she got up and sat back on her stump, attempting to wipe the dirt from her mane. She looked to me. "There, happy now?"

"Very." I smiled, and passed the bottle to her. She gave it a spin, and it stopped pointed at Fluttershy.

"Truth or dare, Fluttershy?" Rarity asked.

"Um, I guess dare." Fluttershy said.

"Hmm...I dare you to kiss Blaze."

Both Fluttershy's and Blaze's faces turned as bright red as tomatoes as they looked at each other with surprise. Blaze awkwardly started to lean in when Fluttershy suddenly cut him off with a long lasting kiss to the lips. They were still kissing passionately about a minute later when Spark suddenly spoke up.

"Alright, that's enough, you two. Any longer and we'd have to pay for the show."

They reluctantly stopped kissing, leaving a red faced Fluttershy and an absolutely stunned Blaze.

Rarity smiled sweetly and passed the bottle to Fluttershy. She took the bottle and spun it, eventually landing on Twilight.

"Truth or dare?" She quietly asked.

"I choose dare." Twilight said with a confident smirk.

"I dare you to..." Fluttershy thought for a short moment. "Use your magic to make the fire green."

"Oh that's it?" Twilight said, sounding relieved. "That's easy-"

"And then make a pretty light show out of it." Fluttershy finished.

"Oh, uh, ok then." Twilight said. Her horn glowed purple and surrounded the fire with the aura, changing it from a bright yellow to a sickly green color. She strained a bit, and starts morphing the fire into different shapes. The flames licked at the air as they were lifted into the sky and turned into diamonds and stars that danced across the sky to make one dazzling show of green flame and light.

"Ohh." Everypony awed as we watched the light show of flames before us. It truly was a unique sight to see green fire performing in the sky for a crowd. After a few minutes of the beautiful sight, Twilight lowered the flames back into the fire pit, and returned it to its original bright yellow color.

"How was that?" Twilight asked, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow.

"Twilight, that was beautiful." Rarity said.

"Darn tootin' it was!" Applejack agreed. "You should get paid for light shows like that!"

"Way to reuse a previously made joke, there." Spark commented.

"Thanks." Twilight blushed as the two praised her. Fluttershy handed the bottle over to Twilight as she began her turn. The spun the bottle strongly, and after several revolutions, it finally stopped spinning and landed on me.

"Truth or dare, Flash?" Twilight asked me.

"Truth." I said confidently, wanting to add a little variety to the game. I knew there was no question I couldn't answer.

"Okay...how far have you two gone?" She asked suddenly.

"Uh, excuse me?" I asked, thrown off by a question like that coming from Twilight.

"You know...like how far have you gone in your relationship?" She clarified.

"Uh, well..." I looked to Dash and I could tell she wasn't any more comfortable with the question than I was. "Do I have to answer that?"

"Sorry, Flash. That's how the game works." Rarity said smugly as she continued wiping the dirt from her coat.

Shut up, Rarity.

"Um, well, as far as any normal couple would go at our stage, I guess." I said, trying to avoid spilling the information about my sex life.

"Define normal." Twilight said with a slight sense of curiosity in her voice.

"Hey, one question per turn." I said.

"Well...alright." Twilight finally agreed after a few moments of thinking.

I let out a silent sigh of relief. Smooth as silk.

She passed the bottle over to me and I gave it another hard spin. It stopped with the neck pointed straight at Spark.

"Oh boy." He said with fake enthusiasm.

"Truth or dare?" I asked him.

"I'm up for a dare." Spark said.

Aw, that's no fun. Spark won't be afraid to do anything. Unless...

"I dare you to go the rest of the night without cursing."

"That's fucking bullshit." Spark immediately said. "I want another one."

"That's not how it works, Spark." I said.

"I don't give a fuck."

"Just do it, you wimp." Twilight teased. "It's not like he's asking you to sell your soul."

"Ugh, fine." Spark huffed. Apparently Twilight was a master at persuasion. "But I'm not making any fucking promises."

"Strike one." Dash laughed.

"Ah, fuck you." Spark said.

"Strike two." Applejack added.

"One more and you'll have to endure whatever punishment we come up with." I said. "You wanna risk it?"

Spark stopped for a moment, as if he were choosing his next words very carefully. "I...will not curse for the rest of the night." Was all he came up with.

"That's all I wanted." I said with a smile. He looked like he wanted to rip out my intestines and strangle me with them.

I passed him the bottle and he took it in silence.

"You can't stop talking altogether either." Rainbow Dash said.

He suddenly stopped and closed his eyes from the internal rage he was harnessing deep within his soul. He opened them and turned to me with a look of pure insane happiness. "Thank you...SIR, for your generous bottle donation!" He said, slamming the bottle on the ground and giving it the hardest spin of the night. It stopped pointed at Blaze.

"Truth." Blaze said quickly with a bit of fear in his voice. "I'm not in the mood to do what ever torture of a dare you'd come up with."

"Okay then." Spark said. "I've always wanted to know: why are you always such a bit-" He suddenly stopped himself and everypony looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I mean, why are you such a pus-" He stopped himself again when the looks he got became even more intense. He sighed in utter disgrace. "Why are you such a baby all the time." He looked to everypony. "There! No cursing!" We all went back, satisfied at his execution of the question. "Because ever since I met you, you're just a let down. Nothing you do is fun and you're a baby about everything."

"Uh, well, I try not to be." Blaze answered.

"Well, you do a shi- crappy job at it." Spark said, shrugging off the mistake he almost made.

Blaze was silent for a few moments before he finally snapped. "Why are you such an uncultured, vulgar prick?" He suddenly asked, adding more to the ticking time bomb of anger that Spark was already burdened with for the night. Everypony besides Spark was stunned.

"Hey, it's my turn, buddy. Knock on my door when it's yours." Spark replied, and slid the bottle across the ground over to Blaze. He quickly spun the bottle, and ironically enough, it landed on Spark again.

"Knock, knock." Blaze said, tapping the bottle with his hoof.

"Well, darn." Spark said. "Guess I'd be a wuss if I chose dare."

"Almost as much of a wuss as me." Blaze commented.

Spark nodded his head in agreement and broke free of Pinkie's embrace as he sat forward, as if he were about to retell an old Greek epic.

Damn, this is starting to get out of hand. This is suppose to be a fun time. Now these two are arguing again. Figures.

"Well, let me tell you a thing, Blaze, so you'll finally shut up about me being such an ass all the time." Spark said. That was suppose to be his third strike, but everypony was too captivated in the current events that no pony said anything.

"When I was born, I was granted life, but I wasn't exactly living it. My parents were...not very wealthy. They had me in a crappy neighborhood filled with run down houses, businesses, and bad, bad people. After five years of that hell, my deadbeat father decided to split, and it was just me and my mom living alone, still in the same awful situation. Long story short, things never got better, she got fired from her minimum wage job and eventually lost the poor excuse of a shack we lived in, leaving her with a hungry 10-year-old son and no home or future to look forward to. We had to beg for money on the streets like some kind of helpless animals at the mercy of the people around us. I was usually left by myself while my mom looked for any kind of work, leaving me to venture the streets by myself." He stopped to give a light chuckle. "And let me tell ya, you find some pretty colorful characters on the streets of the Shores. Not too kind either. Now, that was news to me. My mother may have been broke, but she at least raised me to be respectful. I learned real quick that stuff doesn't fly when you're barely surviving. I had to be just as mean and nasty and unforgiving as the rest of those jokers on the streets." He let out a long sigh. "Then, as somewhat of a blessing in disguise, my mother was killed by some low life trying to make it on his own just like we were. I lost all guidance I had, and I decided to turn myself in to an orphanage. It got me off the streets and away from the constant danger, but replaced my life with an even crappier alternative than when I was born. I retained my anger and aggression from my time on the streets, which led to me not getting adopted any time soon. In fact, I was there for five years." He stopped to shake his head with a smirk. "Worst five years of my life. God, everything about it was awful. The adults were idiots, the food was literal slop, and the other orphans there were all jerks. So, I had to compete. Eat or be eaten. Anyway, through all that they somehow managed to have a working TV, and a half-working internet connection. Don't ask me how a place as crappy as that had all that. No one really ever watched the TV, so I decided why not waste my life watching something that'll rot my mind even more than it already was. Though, what I found was nothing of the sort. I found this one show." He chuckled. "This one show that aired every Saturday. Man, it just turned my life completely around. I was still a crappy person, but it made life there one hundred percent more tolerable. I actually looked forward to waking up everyday. That was something I hadn't done in a very long time. It helped me through the rest of the time I was forced to spend there. After all those years, I eventually got old enough to move out on my own, and I was my own man. Nothing to hold me back and a brighter life ahead of me." He leaned back in complete and utter relaxation. "And now, life is so great I don't even need that old show anymore. I can't even fall asleep anymore because reality is finally better than my dreams." He caught himself going off on a tangent and looked to Blaze. "So to answer your question, that's why I'm such an uncultured, vulgar prick."

Everypony was absolutely speechless. Blaze had a look of admiration, apology, and embarrassment all wrapped into one on his face.

After many minutes of silence, "Wow..." was all Blaze could muster as a rebuttal.

"Yep, pretty amazing right? The life of Spark." Spark said, still laid back nonchalantly.

I couldn't understand it. The guy just told the eight of us his life story, and he was so...cool about it, as if it were nothing. How could he retell something as sad as that and not have any reaction to it?

Another long silence plagued us once more, leaving only the desolate crackling of the fire as we all stared into the bright flames. Finally, Rarity spoke up.

"Doesn't telling us all this...bring back any bad memories?" Rarity asked what we were all thinking.

"Oh, of course it does." Spark said leaning forward once more. "I just choose to not care about it anymore. It's all in the past, and it has nothing to do with what I'm doing now, or what I will be doing tomorrow or the next week or the next month or..." He began to chuckle. "Even the next year. I can laugh about all this now, and you know why?" He asked, but no pony gave an answer. "Because I'm surrounded by...you guys." He wrapped an arm around Pinkie, and she returned the gesture with another tight embrace. "My best friends. I'm the happiest man alive because of you all. Why would I want to dwell on the past and ruin that?"

He had an incredible point.

Holy shit. Spark just told us all this and even provided a lesson in philosophy. Blaze should ask him these things more often.

"Well, what's everyone's deal?" Spark asked. "You're all sitting there like I just grew a second head. Let's continue the game!" He looked to Blaze. "I believe it's my turn?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah." Blaze rolled the bottle over to Spark and he placed it on the ground. He spun it and it stopped facing toward Applejack. "Truth or dare?" He asked.

As they continued with the game, I looked to Rainbow Dash. She was just as surprised as I was at the whole situation.

"I wasn't expecting that." She whispered to me. "Like, at all."

"Me neither." I agreed. "I guess Blaze can bring out the worst and the best in him."

"I guess." Dash said.

I looked around at everypony as they laughed lightheartedly at Applejack's failed attempt at a hand stand. It seemed there was almost a complete recovery from Spark's revelation, and everypony was back to their normal, happy selves.

At least something heavy like that didn't have a long lasting effect on the party. I thought.

After Applejack finally succeeded in doing a hand stand, she spun the bottle, it stopped on Pinkie Pie, and the game continued as normal.

"Truth or dare?"

After many more hours of random shenanigans and goofing around at the fire together, we all decided to call it a night and go back home. Mostly because Pinkie ended up putting so many marshmallows in the fire that it got put out and we couldn't start it back again, but oh well. It was still one hell of a night.

We ended the night with many goodbye's and hugs, even though we knew we'd probably all see each other the next day. Perhaps the longest goodbye was Pinkie and Spark, who spent several minutes making out behind a tree while everypony else was forced to listen to their lips smacking as they left. Eventually, the only ones left were Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Blaze, and I to listen to the two's passionate kissing.

"Well isn't that just..." Dash trailed off. "Sweet? I'm thinking sweet isn't the right word there."

"Gross." Blaze said.

"Yeah, that's probably more accurate." Dash said.

"Well I, for one, am happy for them." Fluttershy said. "It's not everyday you find the one you truly love."

"I guess we're all exceptions." I smiled, and wrapped an arm around Dash. She moved closer to me, and we continued to watch the two lovers in intense lip locking. Spark spied us and suddenly stopped kissing Pinkie.

"You know, you guys can go ahead." Spark yelled to us.

"Yeah!" Pinkie yelled back excitedly. "We're gonna be here for a while!" And with that, she continued the tongue-on-tongue onslaught with Spark.

Blaze chuckled. "It's probably a good idea to go ahead and leave. Spark told me that when they make out they make out. Like, for a while."

I snickered. "Well, good news for us. I don't know how much longer I could have stood watching that." I said.

"Well, I'll see you all later. I'm going to go back to my cottage." Fluttershy said.

"Oh, I'll walk you home." Blaze offered.

Fluttershy blushed. "Thank you." she said, and kissed him on the cheek. He was in an obvious state of bliss.

Dash giggled at Blaze. "Well, we're gonna head on home too. See you two later."

With one final wave goodbye, Fluttershy and Blaze walked along together back toward Fluttershy's cottage to end the night.

I smiled at Dash. "You ready to go?"

She nodded, and took off into the air as I followed shortly after.

"So what do you think those two will be up to tonight?" I asked Dash as we flew, referring to Fluttershy and Blaze.

"I don't know." Dash replied. "They might go as far as any normal couple would." She smiled back at me.

"Hey, shut up." I laughed. "What else was I suppose to say? Tell everypony about what we do in excruciating detail?"

"No!" Dash giggled. "I just wasn't expecting an answer like that. That was pretty clever of you to say she only had one question."

"Yeah," I laughed. "Smooth right?"

Dash just giggled again and we continued on our way back to the house. It was well into the very late hours of the night by the time the fire had gone out, and Dash and I were the only ones left in the sky. We continued our small talk as we flew back to the house. As the flight went on, it seemed like something was troubling her, like she was anticipating something terrible coming. I figured my exhaustion was just playing tricks on my mind and quickly dismissed the thought.

We eventually arrived at the house, and I immediately collapsed on the soft cloud floor. "Oh, so comfy." I purred.

"Come on, sleepyhead." Dash laughed. "The bed will be much more comfortable."

"I don't want to." I groaned. "What's the point of going to bed when the floor is just as soft?"

"Because I'll be there." Dash said with a convincing flare in her voice.

I looked up at her. "You raise a good point." I reluctantly raised myself from the floor and smiled at her.

She just laughed and smiled back before giving me a peck on the cheek. When she brought her head back from the kiss, her face wore a slightly more serious look.

"Flash, I need to tell you something." She said solemnly.

Uh oh, what could this be?

"Uh, sure, what is it?" I asked her, searching her eyes for any sign of sadness, but all I found was an apparent nervousness.

"Let's go to our room and talk." She said, leading the way to the bedroom. As we walked in and took a seat on the cloud mattress, I was starting to get a little nervous myself.

I looked to her seriously. "Is everything okay?" I asked as I continued to scan her eyes for anything that might show me why she was acting so strange.

She looked at me with the largest eyes I had ever seen her use on me. "You love me, don't you?" She asked.

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded that she would even ask a question like that. "Of course I do!" I smiled warmly at her. "Why would you even question it?"

She blushed with a light smile. "That's what I was hoping you'd say."

"Of course, Dash." I leaned in and returned the kiss on the cheek from earlier. "You are the most perfect mare I have ever met."

That made her blush even harder, and she looked to the floor. "Good, because there's something I need to tell you-"

"I mean, without you, my life would be just so incredibly dull."

"That's sweet, but I-"

"You are so beautiful in every way, and I could never ask for anypony better."

"Thank you-"

"I will always stay with you, no matter-"

"Flash, I'm pregnant." Dash suddenly said, interrupting my entire thought process, wrecking it with a train, blowing it apart, smashing it to the ground, and stomping on it to put out the ashes. My entire world was flipped with those three words.

I stayed silent for a few moments, just staring blankly at Rainbow Dash as she sat there with an increasingly worried expression on her face.

"F-Flash?" She asked. I could see the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She put her face in her hooves. "I'm sorry...I-"

I stopped her mid sentence to bring her into a tight, loving embrace. "Why would you be?" I asked her. I could feel the tears wipe themselves off on my shoulder.

"I...I don't know." She sounded surprised at my ecstatic tone. "I...I thought maybe you would be mad or something."

I let her go and looked into her eyes, my hooves glued to her shoulders. "No, not at all. This is...this is great!" I said excitedly with a bit of a laugh.

She let out a nervous chuckle as well. "Really?"

"Are you kidding?" I asked, looking to her belly and back into her eyes. "Knowing that I'm going to be...a dad...and you're the mother. That's just... insane." I said with another laugh. I brought her into another embrace, and she gladly returned the gesture. "This is amazing, Dash." I said. "I love you."

She hugged me tighter and began to giggle, as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "I love you too, Flash."

We were still hugging minutes later when I suddenly pulled us apart. "Wait, wait. Does this mean we can't, you know...do fun stuff anymore?" I asked with sincere worry in my voice.

She began laughing. "Well, I don't know. I don't really see why not."

"I don't either." I smiled, and pulled her in for a long kiss. After a few moments of passionate bliss, I started working my way down and began kissing her neck, rewarding me with a giddy giggle from Dash. She gently pushed me away, still laughing.

"Right now, seriously?" She laughed.

"What? Bad timing?" I asked.

"We just did this a few nights ago, and we're both already exhausted from the night we just had. On top of all that you just now found out I'm pregnant." Dash said.

"Bad timing." I confirmed.

Dash smiled and gave me another kiss on the lips. "You're too cute."

"Well, I try." I smiled back. I suddenly yawned. "You're right. All this excitement about the baby made me forget how tired I am."

"See? You'd tire out before we could even get to the fun part." Dash teased. I smiled and playfully hit her shoulder. "Let's just get to sleep, prego."

She smiled and stuck her tongue out at me as she hopped under the covers.

"Watch it, Flashy boy." She said. "There's still plenty of time for us to do anything we want in the morning. I'd hate for you to ruin that opportunity." She winked at me.

I couldn't get into the bed fast enough.

She smiled and turned facing the other way while I snuggled closer to her and wrapped my arms around her. She scooted her butt into my crotch and let her tail lay loosely between my legs. I heard her let out one final sigh. "Goodnight, Flash."

"Night, Dash." I said, and dug my face farther into her rainbow mane.

This really was one hell of a night.

I spent the whole time with eight of my closest friends, had a blast with all of them, and the night finished with Dash telling me that she's pregnant.

She's pregnant.

Because of me.

Me. A father.

Even in my mind, the words seemed too foreign to me. I question once again whether I was ready for something like this, and immediately dismissed the ill thought. I knew I was. With Dash here, how hard could raising a child be, right?

Right?

Author's Notes:

So, now that the fun can finally begin in this story, I've decided this is the beginning of Part 2 of My Time in Equestria. No, that doesn't mean the story is halfway over, it just means it is entering a new and better part of the story, think of it as a new season. Part 1 was for setting everything up so that fun adventures and other things could happen, and hey, it only took me a year to write! Anyway, bigger and better things are coming for this story and I'm excited to write for you wonderful people.

P.S. How 'bout them random twists?

P.P.S. It's officially been one year today. Yay! ^_^