“So, uh, Mask, can you tell me why we are buying pornography?” Fever Cure asked, glancing around the adult bookstore with shifty eyes.

Glancing at a magazine with a glossy cover, Mask raised an eyebrow, and then looked at his friend. “Bait—”

“Mask, never mind, I don’t want to know about your bathroom habits!” Fever Cure raised a hoof and shook his head.

After heaving a weary sigh, Mask then snorted in disgust. “Bait. Just bait. I plan to cast attraction spells upon the magazines. We’re going to leave them in places where security guards are likely to see them. If the guards are looking at the magazines, which will be magically irresistable, they won’t be looking for us.”

Tilting his head, Fever Cure looked over at a magazine that had a mare performing oral sex upon herself. After staring for a moment, his gaze returned to Mask. “That’s just dirty. In more ways than one. This is a brilliant plan.”

“Of course it is, I thought it up,” Mask replied and then he let out a mock-haughty sniff. “I’m brilliant… what do you expect?”

“So we’re going to buy lots of porn, cast magic on it to make it irresistible, and then leave it around the building in places where security will find it. That doesn’t seem suspicious at all.” Fever Cure turned his head and saw a magazine cover that made him squirm. “I think that poor fella has elephantitis of the scrotum… there is no way that’s natural.”

“The magical compulsion preying upon their own sexual interest will make them unable to put the magazines down. Which reminds me…” Mask began to peer around the magazine stand. “We’re going to need to find some really trashy gay porn to cover our bases. There might be a security guard who is gay and has no interest in mares. The spell won’t work as well on him. Or it might be better to find something that has a lot of dicks in it along with the usual slutty mares.”

“You’re like some kind of evil genius, you know that, don’t you?” Fever Cure asked. “And a pervert.”

“Says the pony who developed a compound that causes explosive priapism—”

“Hey, that was accidental! I had no idea that the Crown would express an interest in my accidental discovery that causes males to pop a boner and run out of skin!” Fever Cure’s eyebrows furrowed and he stomped his hoof. “I didn’t do it on purpose! I was trying to find a cure for hay fever.”

Laying on her back, Thistle held Bell Heather above her and bounced her around a little bit, holding her foal between her front hooves. Bell was getting a little bigger, now had a few teeth, and her mane of living water weeds was just now beginning to grow in. Her orange eyes were bright and curious as she stared down at her mother.

“You are the most amazing thing ever… I can’t believe I made you,” Thistle said to her foal in a soft and somewhat squeaky voice as she lowered Bell Heather down and laid the foal upon her barrel.

Magpie, who was looking after Bandua, watched the kelpie mother with interest.

“I’m going to be a good mother. I have a job now. I’ve started attending a few school classes so that I’m a good example for you. I’m growing up and becoming a responsible adult just for you.” Thistle began to rub Bell’s back as she spoke and closed her eyes. “Come spring, you and I are going to go for a swim in the lake and we’re going to be so happy…”

Flash Sentry did everything he could to hide his worries. Grinning, he scooped vanilla ice cream into large glass mugs and then he poured in the root beer. One of the mugs got a little too much root beer and foamed over. He wiped up the sticky mess with cleaning wipe pulled out of a little plastic container and then he added more root beer to the mugs.

Scootaloo and Spike were both sitting at the tiny kitchen table that was far too small for their growing family. He grabbed the mugs, one at a time, and brought them to the table, which was piled high with hay fries, hayburgers, nachos, and an assortment of gems for Spike.

“I hope everypony is hungry,” Flash said as he set down the final mug.

“Just so long as my hayburger has extra pickles, I’m good.” Scootaloo took a sip of her rootbeer float and then smiled.

“All of the hayburgers have extra pickles. I figured it would be easier that way.” Flash Sentry pulled a hayburger out of the pile. It was wrapped in paper that had become translucent from the grease. “Some of these are the new black bean hayburgers. I hope you don’t mind.”

Scootaloo, who was unwrapping a hayburger, let out a grunt of anticipation and then tore into her food, taking down almost half of her burger in one bite, chewing while smacking her lips, and licking sauce off of her muzzle.

“I’m not that hungry,” Spike said as he stared at the food. He reached out his hand, picked up a red gemstone shard, eyed it for a moment, and then gave it a halfhearted crunch.

While he was chewing, Flash Sentry felt a bit of worry for Spike but did not know what to do. Spike’s moods fluctuated and it seemed that the little dragon was now in a bit of a funk.

“Do you think she’s okay?” Spike asked.

“I think I’m freaking out!” Twilight Sparkle looked up at Celestia with a panicked expression upon her face. “What was I thinking? What was I thinking? Why did I bring Glass Slipper with me?” Twilight turned away from Celestia and looked over at Bucky, who was enjoying a bit of a snooze and had Glass Slipper tucked between his front legs so he could use her as a pillow.

“Twilight, calm down—”

“No, I will not calm down… I can’t deal with this!” Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath and began to grind her teeth together.

Reaching out with one front hoof, Celestia patted Twilight on the shoulder. “Look, Twilight, it will be fine. Tourmaline is on this ship as well, and I know that she is safe—”

“I love her so much… I’ve grown so attached to her… it makes me crazy thinking about how dangerous the world is and how helpless she is! I can’t stand it!” The corner of Twilight’s eye began to twitch and convulse in an erratic manner. “She has a tiny little body and tiny little hooves and a little curious snoot that twitches when she gets excited and she is so helpless and it drives me craaaaay-zee—”

“Twilight Sparkle, these mommy hormones—”

“DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT MOMMY HORMONES!”

Bucky awoke with a snort, blinked, and looked around. Glass Slipper was still asleep and Belisama remained curled up against his side. He yawned, looked around once more, closed his eyes, and then once again, he rested his head upon Glass Slipper so he could go back to sleep.

“Twilight Sparkle, please, calm down—”

“I don’t want to calm down… I think I finally understand Bucky and it kinda worries me.” A demented sounding giggle escaped from Twilight’s quivering lips. Twilight’s head turned and she glanced over at the foal she had come to love so much. “I would burn my enemies to a crisp just to keep her safe. I wake up late at night and go into her room just to make sure she is breathing. I feel happy when she is happy and when she isn’t happy I feel miserable.” Twilight’s head turned so she could look at Celestia. “Miserable I tell you. At first I didn’t know what to do with her. She was just kinda there and it was uncomfortable because she followed me everywhere and I didn’t know how to talk to her and she was strange to me and something about her scared me. Now I can’t imagine living without her.”

Sighing, Celestia shook her head. Twilight Sparkle was acting more than a little peculiar. It didn’t seem so long ago that Twilight Sparkle was just a curious little foal herself, a curious little foal that asked impossible questions and demanded impossible answers. Celestia knew all too well that in an eyeblink that Twilight Sparkle would be an old mare, and then she would be gone, having passed forever from the world. The world would be a poorer place without her. Celestia could not say that and mean it about many ponies.

“One day I was a single mare still trying to figure out the intricacies of friendship. I made a lot of mistakes.” One of Twilight’s ears began to spasm and her tail swished from side to side, snapping from leg to leg. “And the next day I had a family and there were ponies that I realised that I loved and there were foals and now I am going crazy because I have to make sure that they are safe.”

Celestia’s ears perked when she heard Twilight Sparkle start to sniffle. She lowered her head, stepped towards Twilight, and then stood neck to neck with her, as awkward as it was with the size difference.

“Twilight Sparkle, I am so proud of you…”

The music was somehow happy and sad at the same time. Fluttershy listened to Cheese Sandwich’s accordion and thought it was beautiful. He was serenading Pinkie Pie, crooning a song about spaghetti covered with cheese to her. The song itself was so very silly, but the accompanying accordion music was almost too beautiful to bear. Fluttershy felt that she could enjoy it a whole lot more if she could just sneeze and get it over with.

“On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed… it rolled off the table, it rolled on the floor, and then my poor meatball, it rolled out of the door. It rolled in the garden and under a bush, and then my poor meatball, it was nothing but mush. The mush was as tasty as tasty could be, and early next summer it grew to a tree. The tree was all covered with beautiful moss… it grew great big mushroom balls and tomato sauce. So if you eat spaghetti all covered with cheese, hold on to your meatball and don't ever sneeze…”

“Oooh Cheesy, you really know how to sing to a girl,” Pinkie Pie said in a squeaky emotional voice. She batted her eyelashes at Cheese Sandwich. “You know how to make a mare feel special, you charmer.”

Reaching up with her paw, Fluttershy wiped a tear out of her eye and then looked at Discord, who was playing dominoes with Rainbow Dash. She began to drift over in his direction, feeling a strange state of melancholy amorousness. As she moved through the air, not flying but just sort of drifting about, Fluttershy suffered a strange feeling where she wasn’t certain if she was moving, or if perhaps, she was remaining still while the world moved beneath her. She reached down and rubbed her enormous belly. She had been having a lot of strange feelings lately. Sniffling, she wiped her nose and continued to endure the need to sneeze.

For the past few hours she had needed to sneeze but the sneeze did not come. It had started off as a minor annoyance, but as of right now this moment, it was now a real concern. Fluttershy stopped mid drift and rubbed her nose. She felt as though her sinuses were backed up. She patted the shawl around her neck and felt the little bundle of hatred squirm when touched.

A long string of snot dribbled out of Fluttershy’s nose and now the need to sneeze was stronger than ever. It was painful, almost a dull, pulsating throb.

“Fluttershy, you okay?” You don’t look so good,” Applejack said from the sofa where she was canoodling with Silver Shill.

“Dearest Fluttershy?” Discord abandoned his game of dominoes and floated over to Fluttershy’s side. “You look a little… snotty… are you okay, love?”

“I don’t feel good. I feel out of sorts and weird. Been needing to sneeze for a while but nothing seems to be happening,” Fluttershy replied as she drifted into Discord’s embrace.

“Something seems off about you,” Discord said as he held Fluttershy close. “I don’t know what it is, but it worries me.” He looked down when he heard a loud gurgle from Fluttershy’s stomach. “Do you need to eat something?”

The sunny yellow mare shook her head. “I don’t feel hungry… just sneezy. But nothing is happening and it is becoming oh so very frustrating.”

“I think there is something wrong with my dearest Fluttershy… we need to get her to a hospital!” Discord began to look around the room and there was an expression of panic upon his face.

“Discord, we’re on the largest flying hospital ever constructed,” Applejack said as she rolled her eyes. “Come on y’all, let’s go get Fluttershy looked after. My gut is telling me something is off…”

Author's Notes:

There is a relevance to Fluttershy's need to sneeze...

She's got a typo stuck up her noze.