Family Drama Part 6: Breakfast with Family and Friends (who are more along the lines of an unofficial family than just a bunch of buddies living together)

Twilight didn’t know what she was more thankful for at the moment she felt the warm water of her shower run over her less than pristine body as it flowed down her plot to wash away some of the lingering mess from her time with Rainbow. The warm water rushing down her back, or the pegasus that was still beside her in the shower as they cleaned themselves up to face the day in a late morning cleansing procedure that seemed to wash away a bit more than just the physical grime.

But a second of consideration made Rainbow win that comparison hooves down. The warmth she felt from the water was a simple second of relaxation on her tense body. Rainbow was her future. A future she had almost lost. A fact she needed to keep reminding herself if she was to stay in control of her…problem.

You need to make Rainbow Dash make her own decisions Twilight, she told herself before realizing the error in her thoughts. LET! Let her make her own decisions! You do NOT control her, you are not allowed to make her do anything! NOT ANYMORE!

The fact that she couldn’t even keep her own thoughts where they should be made Twilight nervous.

Was she already slipping back into her horrible habits?

She knew from personal experience that shocks to the system didn’t curb her old panicky behavior forever. A lesson learned from her doll, and Twilight had been back at the overreaction to the events in her life when a future version of herself appeared in her library a few weeks later. There was no such thing as being scared straight when it came to her problem.

The reality of her situation was also much more frightening than what had come before as well. This time, Twilight wasn’t dealing with an easily undone spell, or a seven day time loop, a bump on the head from getting worked up so much she flew into a ceiling, and not even a test that would determine Rainbow’s future eligibility of being a Wonderbolt.

If she screwed up this time, there would be no Celestia to clean up her mess, and failure to keep herself in check would mean the end to her relationship.

Rainbow would leave.

She would take their foal with her.

All of Twilight’s friends would abandon her.

And then she would be left alone in her badly named Castle of Friendship as madness overtook her and Princess Celestia was forced to banish her to the sun!

Only, she wouldn’t be able to! Because Twilight was afraid that as the Element of Magic, she could probably defeat Celestia in a fight! And then Equestria would fall under the rule of the evil Tyrant Sparkle!

“Twilight?”

The uneasy voice calling out her name made Twilight jump. “Ah!” the mare screamed as she looked over to Rainbow Dash and managed to take in some air before letting out a long breath. She noticed Dash was looking at her with a little concern in her beautiful magenta eyes. “Y-Yes Rainbow?”

“So uh…mine or yours?” Rainbow asked after a few seconds. “Parents I mean. Do you want to go see yours, or mine first?”

Twilight did her best to push the worries of a moment ago to the side, and concentrate on something else. Not knowing anything about Rainbow’s parents as far as personality, history or anything beside the city they lived in, she took an equal amount of information about her own and weighed them against each other.

Rainbow’s parents lived in Las Pegasus. Twilight’s parents lived in Canterlot. While they weren’t in opposite directions in the strictest sense, they might as well have been as far as the rail lines were concerned. Las Pegasus was further away than Canterlot. And…all of that mattered little when Twilight considered what was at stake, and what they needed to do.

She was going to see her parents and Rainbow’s in order to conduct research on a properly married couple that could work out their differences through conversation and compromise instead of…what Twilight and Rainbow had done in their relationship.

And Princess Celestia, Twilight told herself. She wanted to talk to Princess Celestia about it as well. The Goddess of the Sun was…well…as much as Twilight wanted to call her something akin to a second mother, when she measured the time spent with Celestia beside the amount of attention and everything else provided by her real parents after her education began…the biological parental figures fell short by a wide margin in both quantity and quality with a gap that widened as Twilight increased in age. Her relocation to Ponyville nearly severed their ties completely.

Twilight blinked at the mental image of a line graph in her mind as the line depicting time with her parents hit rock bottom, causing her to shudder just the tiniest bit despite the warm water.

It was a rather chilling realization, and put a little of her own actions into a better perspective than they had been, even after Cadence and Twilight had their talk. Without a proper exemplar to follow, it was no wonder that Twilight’s actions had been so…disastrous.

She had treated Rainbow…kind of… Twilight shook her head.

She had treated Rainbow horribly, proper example or no.

The truth of the situation hammered at her, pointing out everything that Twilight had done wrong, and the causes of it all. And at the center of everything stood the most ironic of reasons: her faith in Rainbow. The belief that no matter what, everything would be fine in the long run. It had allowed Twilight to ignore some things she had done and excuse others for what would be a happy payoff despite the short-term consequences of her actions.

She had treated the mare carrying their foal like she was just that, an incubator. She had stopped being a friend and became…something else. Something terrible.

The fact that the pegasus was willing to forgive her for everything, to continue on with her as if nothing had happened still made Twilight’s knees buckle in relief. She just wanted to wrap her forelegs around Rainbow and never let go in thanks for that forgiveness.

Still, Twilight was afraid of what would come next. She had never been in a relationship like the one she was in now. She had already messed things up once, and if she did it again…Twilight knew that she wouldn’t be worthy of Rainbow’s forgiveness, or her affection.

“Twilight?”

Her name being called brought Twilight out of her introspection with a small jump. “What?” she asked in surprise before her memory supplied the reason why Rainbow was looking at her oddly. “Oh, right! Parents…um…”

Twilight cleared her mind again, and tried to focus on her original task. “Let’s…” Twilight paused, remembering what she had promised Rainbow the day before, and what Cadence had said as well. “Well…you pick Rainbow,” she told the pegasus before deciding to add weight to Dash’s position as the decider that didn’t involve just evening the scales as to who called the shots in their relationship. “The baby is yours, so you should pick who we go see first. Your parents or mine.”

Rainbow shut off the water, and Twilight was afraid she had made a mistake when the pegasus tensed just a tiny bit. Rainbow had given her the choice after all, even though Dash was supposed to be the one making all the calls. “But if you want me to decide, I will!” the alicorn quickly blurted out.

For a few seconds, Twilight simply stood in anticipation of Rainbow’s response, and then the pegasus let out a loud sigh. “Well, there’s no use putting it off. I’m the one who’s got the foal, right? Guess that means we should go tell my mom first.”

Twilight nodded, following Rainbow’s logic easily enough. “Makes sense. We’ll go and tell your mom and dad,” she agreed. It would also give Twilight time to think about just how she break the news to her parents about the situation.

While, if Rainbow started having doubts about explain how Twilight was in fact the father of their foal, they could simply say Dash had been knocked up by stallion that didn’t stick around, the alicorn knew explaining things to her own family about why she was introducing them to a pregnant pegasus couldn’t really be avoided. Not that Twilight knew how her parents would react to their grandfoal being some kind of magical mistake.

Tension returned to Rainbow’s stance, and Twilight sucked in a breath. As far as Twilight could tell, she hadn’t done anything wrong. But…she hadn’t been able to tell that she had been doing anything wrong for the past seven days either until things almost went beyond the point of no return either. “Something wrong?”

“Uh…Twilight, it’s just my mom…and my aunt,” Rainbow told her. “I- thought I told you…my um…my dad.” The pegasus gulped. “He and my mom aren’t really…together anymore.”

Twilight’s eye twitched as her plans for averting Equestria’s destruction at her own hooves shattered like glass. “W-What?” she asked while a new picture started to paint itself in her mind. In it, Twilight sat upon her dark throne, overseeing a destroyed Equestria while her little Rainbow Dash hung bound and gagged beside the dark goddess with a red ball in her mouth and several lash marks where a rather rough crop had been used to train her into being a properly submissive pet.

Apprehension appeared in Rainbow’s face, and the pegasus moved her eyes ever so slightly. If Twilight hadn’t been looking at her right in the face, she probably would have missed it. “Yeah. He and my mom…um…after flight camp… Look, they broke up. And my Mom moved to Las Pegasus to live with my aunt and… So, it’ll just be the two of them we go and see, okay? My aunt and my mom.”

With the oddity of Rainbow’s plans staring her in the face, Twilight couldn’t help but ask about it. “But…what about your father?” Even if it involved an extra trip, they needed to tell him about Rainbow’s foal. He had a right to know.

“I don’t want to talk to him,” Rainbow grumbled before looking away with a turn of her head.

Twilight gulped. “But Rainbow, he’s your -”

A twist of the pegasus’s head brought them back to looking at each other’s eyes, and Twilight almost felt as if she was on the receiving end of Fluttershy’s Stare. “I thought I was the one making the decisions here Twilight!”

The alicorn flinched. “I…” She paused, unsure of how to respond. What was going on, it was contrary to the plan that Cadence had laid out for them. But if Twilight just shot down Rainbow’s idea, then they would be back to square one! And Rainbow was getting upset and forgetting that Cadence had told them not to boss the other around. But if Twilight argued with her over something like that, their special bond could become even more strained than the failing piece of twine that Twilight had already turned it into!

“You’re right,” she finally said, capitulating to Rainbow’s false assumption. Now was not the time to correct her. And it wasn’t as if the alicorn wouldn’t be meeting Rainbow’s father eventually. She was carrying the stallion’s granddaughter around after all. They would have to tell him some time.

With her coat done dripping, Rainbow stepped out of the shower with Twilight quickly following suit. “You want to meet my mom…I can…do that,” she grumbled. “But Rainbow Blaze can go buck himself for all I care!”

As the pegasus turned away from her, Twilight felt the worry in her heart grow. With the way Rainbow had been willing to put up with the alicorn’s antics, Twilight had thought that Dash had been exposed to a household with a firm and loving foundation like Twilight had been before her tutelage under Celestia. Rainbow would have been the rock of their relationship, the expert she could turn to when questions arose and the pony that would keep their union together.

The fact that she didn’t even have that… But if Rainbow doesn’t have a real family, and I don’t have a fully explored positive example to draw from…then…then this…gaining a proper perspective to ensure me and Rainbow have the techniques to make a lasting relationship…it’s all…hopeless, Twilight told herself as she looked at the cyan pegasus that was drying herself off.

And that was before a bunch of other worries came creeping into her mind.

As she opened the door to the dining hall with the large table in the center that had everypony sitting around just waiting for her, Rainbow Dash wondered if she had chosen right by saying they needed to go see her mom and auntie. While the two of them had ended up with Rainbow after the divorce, she didn’t feel all that much closer to her mother than her father.

After all, it was her fault that everything happened!

But Cadence had told Twilight they needed to go see a happy couple, so they were going. Rainbow could stop in, tell them the news about her fillyfriend and their foal, and be gone in an hour.

Less than an hour.

In fact, if she put it all down into a letter, she could just drop it off and be gone in ten seconds flat.

Or even just mail it to her mom. No need to stop by at all.

So… Wait, Rainbow told herself as she realized the flaw in her plan. Cadence had told them to go see their parents. Twilight listened to Cadence. So Twilight would take them to meet Rainbow’s family, whether she wanted to go or not.

At least Twilight had agreed not to make Rainbow visit her father. The five years he had spent away had changed the stallion. Rainbow had hardly recognized the pony when they met up again on her eleventh birthday, and by the time she was sixteen, she had stopped wanting to see Blaze at all.

After all, he was even worse than Rainbow’s mother.

“Hey Sugarcube, you okay? Yer lookin’ a million miles away there.”

The question snapped Rainbow out of her thoughts, and she looked around in surprise at the very unexpected ponies that she had totally missed. Aside from Applejack, and the usual duo of Pinkie Pie and Rarity that were always at the castle, Fluttershy was also sitting down for breakfast beside Spike, who was in his higher than normal chair that really wasn’t a high-chair because dragons don’t sit in high-chairs despite what the thing kind of looked like. The dragon also had an odd, wide-eyed look frozen on his face for some reason.

“What’s up with Spike?” the pegasus asked as she looked around the room in confusion, finally noticing the two other ponies that had taken cushions to sit on.

Shining Armor cleared his throat and Rainbow’s attention went over to the couple of guests that were sitting down across from her as he looked away from the table. “Um…yeah, about that…” was all he got out before Pinkie spoke up with a giggle.

“No idea! Hehehe! But when we were making a second batch of pancakes and I saw something was up, I asked him, hey Spike, what happened. And he got all-”

The dragon’s whole body spasmed for a second, and then slowly went back to where it had been before, standing as still as a royal guard outside Canterlot Castle as Pinkie let out another giggle. “Yeah, like that!”

“Well I had him make a best brothers bloodless pledge not to-”

Completely ignoring Shining Armor, Rarity looked over to the dragon sitting next to her. “Oh let me try,” the female unicorn chimed in as she cozied up to the purple lizard. “Oh Spikey-wikey, what’s wrong? You can tell me.”

The minor shaking of the dragon’s body increased in bursts until… “I SAW TWILIGHT AND RAINBOW DASH HAVING SEX!”

Little movement in the corner of her vision made Rainbow look over to Twilight and see the alicorn’s eye beginning to twitch. “Oh no,” the pegasus of the relationship mumbled before she hopped into the air and floated there while her friends got pretty uncomfortable at the sudden declaration, and Cadence facehooved while Shining Armor groaned.

“Darling, that’s not exactly something that should be said in-”

“AND TWILIGHT WAS A STALLION!” Spike went on, stopping Rarity mid-reply. “AND SHE, I mean HE WAS A STALLION, WITH A-A THING! A BIG THING! AND HE SAID HE LIKED HAVING SEX WITH RAINBOW DASH! AS. A. STALLION!”

With Spike apparently done, he became still again. Rarity quickly backed away from the little dragon as fast as a ground pony could go. Everypony else that wasn’t in Spike’s face simply gaped at the declaration.

Shining Armor looked over to Twilight and sighed after studying her for a few seconds, then laid his head down on the table. “Just want to say this isn’t my fault and I tried to stop it,” he announced before covering his ears.

As all the ponies at the table turned their attention from Spike to Shining, and then finally to Twilight, the little twitch in the alicorn’s eye became a full on eruption of her own when Applejack opened her mouth to speak. “Oh let me guess!” the alicorn yelled before she disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared on the table in front of…

Applejack. “‘Taint natural!”

As well as Rarity. “How scandalous!”

Then Fluttershy. “Oh my!”

Before she got to Pinkie Pie, and paused for a second, giving the party pony time to give a nervous grin while Twilight was frowning at her. “…SOMETHING RANDOM!”

And then reappearing next to Dash before she reared up to smash her hooves into the table and lean over on it while looking around at her friends. “Yes! I have sex with Rainbow as a stallion, still! And you know what? I LOVE IT!

“I love having sex with Rainbow Dash as a stallion! I love filling every bucking inch of her, holding her in my forelegs, and hearing her squeal in pleasure when I make her cum and her vaginal tract clamps down on my phallus to create even more pressure in what’s already a tight fit! And doing it over, and Over, and OVER AGAIN! SO...ANYPONY GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?” the purple goddess finished as she panted and let out angry snorts of infuriated air.

“Lalala, not listening!” Shining Armor said before Cadence slapped him upside the horn.

“Anypony else want to call us wrong? Freaks? Want to tell us how we need to be banished from Equestria before we completely destroy the foundation of all pony society with our outlandish and non-traditional romance? WELL?” she yelled before spreading her purple wings wide in a challenging stance.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Cadence, Rarity, shared a look, and a nervous Fluttershy poked her head up from where she had halfway gone under the table before speaking. “W-Well actually Twilight, I don’t think it’s any of my business, really. But I am really excited about Rainbow being pregnant, so I guess you could say that if the two of you like sleeping together as a mare and stallion, then I’m happy you and Rainbow love each other no matter what gender you are.”

The trembling in Twilight’s legs stopped.

“Like Shy said, ain’t none of our business,” Applejack added. “But what the hay do I care if you use yer tounge, yer horn, or make yerself a wang-dang-doodle to ride Dash like there ain’t no tomorrow?”

Her wings went limp.

“Darling, I got used to the idea of you rutting Rainbow Dash a week ago,” Rarity deadpanned. “The fact the two of you like to do it just means we might be hearing the clippity clop of more little hooves around the castle when the two of you manage to settle in with each other.”

As Twilight’s attention turned to the last member of their special group, with the anger on her face turning to confusion at every response, the pink pony frowned at her. “Well I’ve got a problem with it!”

Sheer shock made Rainbow drop out of the air at Pinkie’s declaration, and she gulped when she noticed Twilight tense before speaking in an dark tone. “Oh?” It was a tone that just dared Pinkie to mock their relationship and promised intense pain if she did.

“You think turning into a stallion is still considered freaky?” Pinkie demanded, apparently making Twilight loser her foreleg’s grip on the table and slip forward in surprise with a mutter of ‘huh?’ before she went on. “I do ten things a day that are waaaaaaaaay more freakier than that!”

“Pinkie, more freakier isn’t really-”

But the pink pony ignored the nerd’s auto-correct that came about in a moment of obvious confusion from the alicorn. “If you think some old-hat trick of turning into Twiguy to put Dashie your big purple party balloon and make her happy-wait,” Pinkie stopped and looked at Rainbow. “You and Twilight doing it like wild animals, with her as a him pounding you like a jackhammer aaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll night and into the live long day does make you happy, right Dashie?”

Behind Pinkie, Rainbow noticed Spike twitch, foam at the mouth for a moment, and then faint onto the table.

As for the pegasus, the recent memories of Twilight as a stallion filling her, making love to her, kissing and holding her in his gorgeous wings made Rainbow’s whole face turn red before she tucked her tail between her legs and looked down at the extremely interesting ground that needed a good picking with her hoof. “Y-Yeah Pinkie. I like it…a lot,” she squeaked out at the end in a voice that was totally not cool.

“That’s great!” Pinkie exclaimed happily before she turned back on Twilight with a frown and zipped over to stick a hoof right in the extremely confused alicorn’s face. “But it’s NOT FREAKY! To be freaky, you gotta stay fresh, and interesting, and funny and stupid at the same time. Your gender-bender relationship with Rainbow, while fun, is just old! And old can’t be freaky!”

With Pinkie’s fierce tirade finished, Rainbow watched as Twilight backed away from Pinkie’s hoof that had booped her on the muzzle before the alicorn came to stand beside the pegasus, and wrap one of her large sexy wings around the slightly smaller pony. “You mean you all…don’t care that I-”

“I CARE!” Spike shouted as he picked his head up.

Twilight let out a long sigh, and then took in a deep breath before she looked over to Spike with a glare. “You’re just mildly traumatized from the fact you saw your major parental figure in the aftereffects of passion with another mare! Stuff like that happens to me all the time! GET OVER IT!” Twilight snapped back before she looked over to the ponies sitting around the table as Spike was cowed. “But the rest of you really don’t…you’re not going to just…abandon me?”

As a mixed chorus of pony voices replied with, “Oh, I’d never do that.” “Of course not darling!” “Ain’t gonna run you outta town fer havin’ a foal.” “No, but can I have preferred status as your foal’s personal party pony for all foreseeable birthdays, cutcinerias or markmitzfas? You really should reserve a spot as soon as you can Twilight. I’m the only party pony in a town with over three hundred and sixty-five ponies, I should be booked for every day of the week year-round. Which really makes me wonder how I’m working at Sugar Cube Corner now. Oh boy, this is a toughie.”

Rainbow saw Twilight blink her eyes in rapid succession to try and deal with the tears that were barely being held back and stepped forward to join her for support while the alicorn fought to keep herself under control. “You…girls,” she said before the tears flowed freely. “T-Thank you girls. I didn’t, I was afraid…”

Rainbow decided to stop that line of thought by nuzzling her fillyfriend’s neck. “What the hay gave you an idea like that anyway?” While Dash did think her and Twilight still going through the motions of making a baby might have been a little out there even in the lives they led, she knew that her friends would never leave them over it. Not after everything else they had been through.

“Just a…thought I had on the way down the hall, about when we go to see our parents” Twilight admitted with a hung head. “What if they…react like Shining did?”

The unicorn in question raised his head to defend himself in a hurt tone. “Hey!” he said before all the mares, including Cadence, gave him a glare. “I…well…okay look, once I got past the whole misconception thing-”

Rainbow frowned at the stallion as he tried to verbally trot his way out of trouble. “Don’t give us your crappy excuses! You just sat there covering your ears and ignoring the fact that Twilight likes to do it as a guy!”

“Yeah, cause every big brother in Equestria just loves to hear his little sister go on and on about sex right in front of his face,” the stallion deadpanned.

For a second, Dash held her mouth open. However, as she really couldn’t figure out a way to argue the sarcastic statement thanks to her own attitudes should somepony ever try something with Scootaloo when that little filly was old enough, she snapped her trap shut. Then, Rainbow nodded and let out a little sigh. “Okay, I’ll give you that one.”

“Look,” Shining Armor said as he held his hooves up. “If you make Twilight happy, and you’re…good for each other, and you both want the foal that’s on the way…I’ve got no right to say anything about the two of you. But…” He took in a deep breath and looked over to his sister. “Even if you do turn into a stallion to um…you know, Twilight, I’m still happy for you, and love you just as much as I always did. Not exactly my cup of cider, but…if it makes you happy and isn’t hurting anypony, I can’t really complain.”

As Twilight started to get all teary-eyed again, Rainbow managed to resist the urge to gag. “Thanks BBBFF. That means a lot.” Still, she did give the father of their foal a reassuring hug with her wings that Twilight fell into with a fierce nuzzle and a wipe of her head to dry her eyes on the pegasus’s coat.

On the other side of the table, the pink alicorn adopted a thoughtful expression, and then turned to look at Shining Armor as the look on her face soured. “What do you mean not your cup of cider?” Cadence deadpanned. “What Twilight’s doing is exactly your cup of cider.”

Shining blinked in confusion. “Uh…”

All of a sudden, Cadence’s expression turned mischievous. “Oh! Or do you want to be on the receiving end for a change?” she asked, making Shining Armor’s eyes go wide while the mare’s teeth showed in an almost hungry grin. “I have to admit, Twilight’s description of how much she enjoys being with Rainbow like that has got me a bit curious. And it would be an amazing benefit to our relationship if we could…walk in each others horseshoes for a little while.”

“C-Cadence?” Shining Armor stuttered in a squeaky voice.

As the alicorn stood up, Shining Armor pulled in on himself at her sensual gaze. “I wonder what I’d look like, or how much bigger I’d be. We’re already the same height, and if Twilight’s almost equal to Celestia in size as a stallion. I’d probably be gigantic.”

Unable to stop herself, Rainbow tried to picture the pink mare as a stallion and…just couldn’t quite do it. Pink on a stallion just didn’t seem to process. Although she could picture a purple mare as male just fine, and…Rainbow found herself wondering just when Cadence could cast that spell she talked about not too long ago so they could really get into it without the size of Twilight’s lower horn being an issue.

“And you as a mare?” she went on. “All that guard training? Mmmm, you’d be quite the little morsel. With the way Twilight goes on about how much she likes to be with Rainbow, I can’t help but want to try it out.”

Then Twilight cleared her throat, bringing an end to Rainbow’s ruminations, and stopped Shining Armor from sweating out a lake in the middle of the castle. “Okay Cadence, I think you messed with him enough,” she said before letting out a light giggle. “Besides, the spell I develop was tailor-made for me, and even then it blew up in my face. I don’t even want to know what it would do to somepony else.”

Shining’s back went straight and he looked back and forth between the two alicorns. “Wait, what?” he asked. “That was all just a joke?”

Back on her side of the table, Rainbow resisted the urge to roll her eyes. As awesome as Cadence was when it came to romance, her sense of humor was seriously lacking.

“Well of course it was Shining,” Cadence replied with a roll of her eyes. “Do you honestly think I’d swap our genders around if you didn’t want it?” The alicorn went back to smirking. “You should learn not to overreact so much.”

Then Cadence shook her head. “About the only reason I could think to even try something like this out is that judging by Rainbow’s current condition, a stallion me getting a mare you pregnant seems much more likely than the other way around,” she said before sighing sadly.

For some reason Rainbow didn’t understand, Twilight got all surprised when the herd that, and stood up out of their hug. “Wait a minute! I thought you were pregnant Cadence!”

As the surprised gasp from Pinkie and everypony else telling her that the pink alicorn wasn’t in fact carrying a foal died down, Princess Cadence turned her head to face Twilight. “What the hay gave you that idea?”

“But-but you said you had a surprise for us!” Twilight said.

After studying Twilight for a moment with a confused look written all over her face, Cadence’s expression brightened a bit. “Oh that!” she said before smiling a little bit and shaking her head before she spoke again. “No Twilight that’s not-well, Shining, you tell them. Celestia knows they could hear some good news coming from you for a change.”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at his wife. “For a change?”

To which Cadence gave a little laugh and rolled her eyes before she kissed him on the cheek. “You know what I mean,” the love goddess said. “Good news to wipe away the bad taste in our mouths.”

“Fine,” he drawled out before looking over to Rainbow Dash and actually sitting up a little straighter than he had been a moment before. Even his voice became all official once the talking began. “Reservist Rainbow Dash, by the order of Princess Celestia, you are hereby to be instated as a full Wonderbolt, and given the rank of Captain.”

The announcement was met by cheers and congratulations from her friends. Twilight actually seemed to get incredibly excited at the news for some reason. As for Rainbow, she had to fight to keep standing when her heart nearly gave out at the news.

“Of course you’re the only Wonderbolt at the moment,” Captain Armor the Oblivious went on while Rainbow fought to find her voice. “But we have several candidates lined up, and you just need to take a look through the roster. Most are reservists, but we’ve got some royal guard to choose from too. As soon as you’re ready, we can-”

Rainbow couldn’t let him go on anymore. “Are you kidding me?”

The question wasn’t asked in disbelief, or her usual level of excitement about such things. The words forced their way through the cracks in Rainbow’s teeth as she fought to control her seething anger at the idiocy of Shining Armor’s announcement.

“What?” Armor asked with what Rainbow was guessing to be his usual expression when it came to the facts right in front of him.

“In case you ponies have managed to forget in the last five seconds,” Dash grumbled before she took in a deep breath. “I’M PREGNANT!”

Papers and candles stirred as Twilight watched her fillyfriend pace in the air around the library. The strong beats of her wings filled with ambient pegasus magic caused more than a light breeze to disturb anything small enough to be caught up by it, but she wasn’t causing much of a mess. “Rainbow, you need to calm down.”

“Calm down?” Dash demanded as she continued to circle the room they stood alone in. “How the hay am I supposed to calm down when I can’t go one day, one bucking day without being reminded that I can never join the Wonderbolts!?”

Twilight sighed and shook her head as she gave up trying to follow the pegasus’s flight path with her eyes. A part of her wanted to just rip Rainbow from the sky, conjure up a chalkboard, and explain to her in absolute detail just why she could still be a Wonderbolt.

But that was the old Twilight. The monster that made her friends to whatever the hay she wanted without any consideration for their thoughts and feelings. As much as seeing Rainbow upset was at the moment, Twilight knew that taking such an action would make things even worse for the pegasus.

Instead, she had managed to make a little compromise with herself. When Rainbow had started yelling at her brother, Twilight managed to coax her into the library for a talk and time to calm down rather than letting her just explode all over Shining Armor.

They might have had a rough start the night before, but Twilight considered it all water under the bridge, and she knew Dash would as well with a bit more time. As long as she had a few moments to work through her issues.

On top of which, if Twilight could get her to see reason, she knew the pegasus would be ecstatic at the news. Which in turn would lead to her becoming grateful to Shining Armor by association. Then they’d all get along just fine.

So Twilight put her thoughts into the most eloquent explanation about how such a good thing this was and how Rainbow’s assessment involving her chances of joining the Wonderbolts was flawed. How she could still live her dream.

How she could still put herself in danger for the sake of a few empty cheers.

How she was planning to join the ranks of something that had done its best to tear them apart...

How she was…lowering herself by trying to join a bunch of failures!

Twilight closed her eyes to take in a deep breath. CUT THAT OUT, the goddess screamed at herself as she forced her thoughts back to what was important.

It was Rainbow’s life. It was Rainbow’s dream. It was the path that Rainbow had placed all her hopes on, and Twilight would not allow her own foalish fears to ruin the happiness of the mare she loved the most!

“Dash-”

“And hay! This is even worse than a reminder!” Rainbow said as she zoomed down to meet Twilight at eye level. Exactly at eye level, as she kept herself a fraction of an inch off the ground. “This…this is everything I ever wanted hoofed to me on a silver platter! Ev-Ry-Thing!

“I-I wouldn’t even have to work my way up through the ranks! I’d be top dog from day one! I…I was okay with walking away because…I thought about the type of pony that ended up calling the shots for the Wonderbolts, and I just…I didn’t want to be anywhere near them, and I was fine with it!”

She took a deep breath, and dropped the last little bit onto the floor. “But if…if I’m the pony deciding who’s going to be a Wonderbolt from the very first step…” Another pause had Rainbow visibly collecting herself. “If I’m the one building the team from the ground up, I can take the pride of the pegasi and turn it into what I thought it was, what it was supposed to be from the beginning!” she said while looking up at the alicorn with yearning eyes.

Twilight gave the suffering pegasus a pleading look. “Then accept the position Rainbow.”

For a second, Rainbow held Twilight’s gaze, and then wretched her eyes away from the alicorn. “I CAN'T!”

“Yes you can Rainbow,” Twilight insisted softly so she didn’t come off as too demanding. “It’s going to take months to find the right ponies for the Wonderbolts, and then there’s the training on top of that.”

A vision of Rainbow crashing because a bunch of armatures flew through her mind, but Twilight crushed it beneath her mental hoof.

“And you can have your second-in-command take over during your final month of pregnancy.”

But for all the sound reasoning Twilight provided, Rainbow shook her head before she turned and walked away from her lover. For a minute Twilight was afraid she had overstepped her bounds even with the suggestion, but then her Dashie looked back to the goddess with a pained expression. “And after our little girl is born? What then Twilight? Who the hay is going to feed her while I’m off for weeks at a time?”

That question, Twilight was prepared for thanks to a week of reading. It was one of the few things to come out of the previous week she was thankful for: the preparation for their daughter-to-be. “There are spells that will stimulate my mammary glands and allow me to produce milk Rainbow. I can nurse her when you're away at lunch, and you can take care of dinner when you get back. Breakfast can be taken care of by whichever one of us doesn’t get woken up and sucked dry in the middle of the night.”

“What the hay do you mean take care of dinner Twilight?” Rainbow demanded. “It’s not like I’m going to be home like I was every day when I had a weather job!”

Twilight flinched at the reminder of yet another one of her mistakes during their relationship’s week from Tartarus. “But you can be,” Twilight assured her weakly. “Rainbow, with your harmonic magic you can fly around the world in seconds. It doesn’t matter where you are. Even if the Wonderbolts are sent into the middle of the badlands to fight changelings…” Twilight had to repress a shiver of fear that came upon hearing her own words. It’s Rainbow’s life, she reminded herself. I can offer advice and encouragement but I absolutely can not make any decisions for her. Even if it meant Dash putting herself in danger.

Not that anything could really threaten her anymore since Rainbow got her rainbow power. One-sixth of the power that handled Tirek when he was full of all the magic the alicorns possessed, plus Discord’s and at least thirty-percent of the total pony population of Equestria was enough to handle anything Twilight had ever heard of or read about.

However, unexpected things like a crash in an air show was another matter. One that Rainbow wouldn’t be protected from because she wasn’t expecting it and thus didn’t have her Element active, that was still a possibility that found a way to continue creeping back into Twilight’s head. What made it worse was the fact that solving such a problem would be so easy. She could keep Rainbow Dash from ever risking her life again…at the cost of her happiness, her love, and everything else Twilight cherished in the other mare.

“Do you have any idea what that would mean Twilight?” Rainbow demanded, thankfully dragging the goddess out of her thoughts that involved her little pegasus’s chance of surviving a plummet to the ground after slamming into another flier in midair.

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “What’s wrong with going back to see your family every night?” she asked.

After turning around to face her fillyfriend completely, Rainbow sagged. “That…okay that…I could do that, and be a Wonderbolt,” she said before taking in a deep breath. Then, her whole body shook. “But not a Wonderbolt Captain.”

Twilight blinked, unable to follow Rainbow’s logic. “Huh?”

“Oh come on Twilight!” Dash exclaimed. “A lead pony has to set an example, first one in, last one out. Can’t have more than the same privileges as her mares! How the hay is everypony else going to feel if the Wonderbolts have to go to a show somewhere, and they have to be away from their families, but I get to fly home every night to see you and my foal?” And after a few more seconds, Rainbow shook her head ever so slightly as the hope in her eyes just died. “I can’t even do that as a normal Wonderbolt. Everypony else would just get jealous, or angry. And we’re all supposed to be a team.”

That, Twilight understood. “Having more than your friends can make you feel pretty awful,” she said, partially quoting her very first friendship lesson while her wings twitched at the memory of all her friends arguing over those stupid gala tickets. If she actually had picked a pair of ponies to go…well, Twilight didn’t want to know what would have happened with their friendship in such an infantile state.

“Then there’s all that other junk like long-term deployments and overseas stuff,” Rainbow went on. “Nopony would want to work with the mare that had it so much better than them right off the bat.”

The princess looked back at her wings nervously as they continued to twitch, and remember how upset Rainbow had been before learning she was pregnant during that first day as a couple. “Um…Rainbow…do you…resent me for…becoming a princess?”

Dash frowned at her, and Twilight braced herself for the storm as the pegasus rose into the air. “What?” she asked in confusion. “Why the hay would I do that?”

Twilight let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she’s been holding. “Well…you did just say-”

“Okay first off, even if Celestia showed up right now and tried to put a horn on my head, I’d tell her to shove it up her-uh,” the pegasus managed as Twilight glared at her a little before she shook her head. “Look, being all princessy may be Rarity’s thing, but it sure as hay isn’t mine.”

A second later, Rainbow was down on the ground again with a heavy look to her eyes. “And it looks like, neither is being a Wonderbolt,” she mumbled as Twilight saw the hint of tears begin to form.

The sight tore at Twilight’s heart, and she trotted forward to nuzzle her mare before she kissed away the single pair of tears that fell from Dash’s eyes and whispered into the pegasus’s ears. “Rainbow…I’m sorry.”

Twilight felt the weight of a foreleg on her neck as it grappled on for support. “I…I’m not,” Dash said as the alicorn looked up to see the pegasus stand up on her hind legs before she reached down to rub her stomach. I’m sad, but…if it’s a choice between being a Wonderbolt, or being there for our daughter. Seeing her take her first steps, her first flight, listening to her first words, being there for her when she needs me. Being there when you need me.” She stopped fighting gravity and fell back onto all her hooves before meeting Twilight eye to eye. “It’s no contest Twilight. I love you, and I don’t wanna miss of our little filly’s life.”

A second later, all the joy seemed to drain out of Rainbow’s face, and she looked away from the alicorn. “I know what it’s like to…”

When nothing followed the start of Rainbow’s statement, Twilight opened her mouth and…let the whole thing drop. While Cadence had said that Rainbow needed to talk about her feelings more, Twilight wasn’t about to risk the repairs done to their relationship by forcing Rainbow to talk about something she wasn’t ready for.

Even if she needs help? Twilight asked herself.

She had to fight the urge to shake her head. No! Rainbow…I can’t push her. If she’s having a problem, she’ll tell me…eventually. Until then, Twilight would just have to wait and offer what comforts she could.

Instead, Twilight took in a deep breath and looked at her lover in the eye. “So, are you ready to tell them no?”

Rainbow closed her eyes tightly and sucked a good amount of air herself. “…yeah,” she said after letting it out.

“Still angry?” Twilight asked.

She watched as Rainbow opened her eyes. The sadness in them broke Twilight’s heart, but it was all she could see. There was no anger at her situation, no self-loathing for having to make such a decision. Just sadness.

“No,” Dash admitted before slumping a little. “And…sorry for throwing such a fit.”

Twilight shook her head at the apology. As far as the alicorn was concerned, her pegasus had acted with restraint. “It was your dream Rainbow. If not getting it fulfilled doesn’t cause you to lose it, then you’re not a pony.”

“So…” Dash took in a breath. “Ready to go give them the bad news?”

Despite how horrible it was, Twilight couldn’t agree with the assessment about how Rainbow’s decision to turn down the Wonderbolt invitation was bad news. While Twilight more than hated the fact that it made Rainbow sad, what losing her dream was doing to the pegasus, the part of Twilight that had been apprehensive about the Wonderbolts and Rainbow putting herself in danger altogether gave the alicorn an odd sense of relief that mixed with the pain she felt for Dash.

She would have found it curious, if the guilt that accompanied her relief didn’t fill Twilight’s mind.

Rainbow’s return to the dining hall was met with a tense silence, something she wasn’t accustomed to when in the presence of her friends. They looked at her with hesitation, and the pegasus felt like slinking underneath the big round table in the center of the room. For some reason, being the center of attention now of all times didn’t sit well with Dash.

The rather slow walk she had taken to get back to the dining room to help cement her decision seemed to help little when stacked up against the rotten feelings that were coming up in response to what had happened earlier.

So Dash cleared her throat and walked up to Shining to face the music. “Um, listen, sorry about what happened earlier, with the yelling.”

“It’s no problem,” the stallion assured her with a little smile. “You’ve got a lot on your mind.”

After taking another deep breath, Rainbow made herself jump straight to the point before she lost her nerve. “Thanks for the offer, and tell Princess Celestia thanks too, but…I’m gonna decline.”

“WHAT?” The sound of all her friends shouting from the dining table make Rainbow wince and brace herself at what was coming next.

“But Dashie…”

“You ain’t gonna…”

“Darling, it’s your dream!”

“…are you okay Rainbow?” Fluttershy said, finishing up the groups various reactions.

Steeling herself once again, Rainbow looked over to her friends and took in their looks of surprise and worry. “Oh come on guys,” she told them while managing not to crack her voice. “Being in the Wonderbolts would mean me going off for months at a time, and…you know…it’s way cooler to be here with all you instead.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, but…not all that truthful either.

“Rainbow,” Shining Armor spoke up, drawing the pegasus’s attention. “I don’t know what you think being involved with the Wonderbolts would mean, but…there are plenty of mares who are mothers in the guard.”

Several conflicting emotions ran through Rainbow’s mind at Armor’s statement, and she grabbed onto the ones that helped her avoid shouting in his face. “Yeah, moms that are never home, and that’s when they’re just in one city. The Wonderbolts go everywhere,” she said sadly before taking to the air so she could put her hooves on her belly to help reassure herself of her choice. “And I’m not going to do that to this little filly.”

Shining Armor nodded. “Well I can’t exactly argue with the fact that the mother of my niece wants to be with her foal as much as possible,” the unicorn said. “I’m sure Princess Celestia will understand.”

And just like that, Rainbow watched her lifelong dream disappear.

There was a pain in her heart, but…perhaps because she had been preparing for it for a week, or maybe because she had given up on it once already back at the Academy, or realized that perhaps her destiny might not involve being a Wonderbolt at all just a week prior… Whatever the reason, Rainbow didn’t feel a knife was twisting inside her like she thought she would. Instead, it was more like a pin prick. It was a sharp pain, but nothing too bad. Nothing she couldn’t deal with.

“Thanks,” Rainbow replied before she looked back up at the table and her tone took on a bit of a whine. “Can we have breakfast now? I’m eating for two, and the mini-me’s making this mommy feel really hungry.”

A few seconds later, and she put her plot down on a cushion. Then Twilight sat next to her to extend her wing, and levitated over a few doughnuts, a couple of cupcakes, and a few other foods she had been missing for her morning meal the past few days, along with some healthy stuff like alfalfa hay and eggs as well as orange juice.

When Rainbow felt the alicorn’s body tense, she realized she had been looking at the last two things a bit too long, and turned to face Twilight before giving her a light peck on the lips. “Thanks Twilight.”

For some reason Twilight pulled the pegasus in with her wing all the harder and Rainbow leaned into the purple pony’s slightly larger body. “I love you Rainbow.”

“Same here Twilight,” she whispered back before taking in a deep breath and picking up the scent of Twilight’s lavender shampoo.

As breakfast finally began, and managed to settle into at least a bit of normality. Plans were announced and schedules were made for when they were going to be leaving. Apparently Cadence wanted to be in town when the couple broke the news to Celestia for some reason that confused the hay out of Rainbow. The pegasus was pretty certain she had already sent a letter saying that she was having a baby to the princess.

Rarity kept going on about measuring Dash for dresses once she started showing like she had been doing all the week before. Applejack promised some good, and healthy, home cooking now that Twilight was being such a dictatorial...well, dick about what was on the menu. Fluttershy pulled out a blanket she had knitted over the week as a gift for the baby despite her still being months away, and Pinkie…well, she just did what Pinkie did while Spike recovered enough to suck on a sapphire.

Of course her friends gave their condolences as to the whole Wonderbolt thing, but Dash managed not to explode like she did with Shining Armor when they reminded her about her shattered dreams. After all, they also reminded her of everything else she still had, and always would.

Author's Notes:

Well that took forever.

But it looks like things are going to be a lot smoother now. I mean, with Rainbow meeting her female parent and Twilight constantly beating herself up as not to fall back into her way too overboard control-freak ways, what could possibly go wrong for the couple now?