First Day Part 6: Twilight and Dash’s Little Relationship Drama

“Is that Twilight Sparkle!?”

“Why is she a stallion Mommy?”

“Get back everypony! I’ve seen this kind of disease before! To cure it, I’m going to need three gallons of custard, two dozen fish sticks, five pounds of salt, a sonic screwdriver, and the collected works of Benny Hill.”

Twilight frowned and looked over to the ‘Hooves’ family, although it was Derpy’s crazy, self-proclaimed doctor of a stallion that drew his attention the most. Rushing through the town to the hospital had pretty much blown the secrecy surrounding his gender problem and he had attracted a great deal of comments about the situation. But the last one was the only thing that actually gave him pause for a moment.

It also helped that he, Pinkie, and Rarity had actually made it to Ponyville General. On the cusp of running in and finding out what was wrong with his fillyfriend, Twilight found himself frozen by the possibilities that had nearly brought him into a second panic attack in just one day while doing his best to ignore the splitting migraine that had been building since before lunch.

“Sorry Time Turner, but I’m the resident weirdo here!” Pinkie exclaimed as she pointed a hoof at Ponyville’s other loon. “And I say we can fix Twilight’s problem with three cups of jam, a jar of honey and-”

Whatever oddity Pinkie was concocting was cut short when the hospital doors opened, and a blue pegasus walked out with a large folder tucked under her wing. She stopped in the middle of the doorway and blinked a few times in confusion. “Hey girls, um…what’s going on?”

Her tone was…flat. Not really depressed, but a far cry from the Rainbow Dash that Twilight knew. It was as if somepony had just flipped off any emotional expression in her voice, but left the pegasus completely fine otherwise.

Despite the oddity, Twilight could feel the tension leak out of his body at the appearance of Rainbow. In less than three seconds, his eyes ran the pegasus over, looking for any odd blemishes, a cast for her legs or wings, anything that might tell him why she had gone to the hospital. When he found nothing, Twilight turned to frown at the pink pony, who was still arguing the merits of using cotton candy to undo a magical sex change with the clockmaker.

“Pinkie…why didn’t you tell me Rainbow wasn’t hurt?” the alicorn growled at his friend out of the corner of his mouth.

For her part, Pinkie Pie blinked in confusion for a few seconds, then rolled her eyes. “Because you didn’t ask, duh!” she explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “Besides, telling you what Dashie was doing in the hospital would have violated Pinkie-doctor-patient confidentiality!”

Luckily for Pinkie, before Twilight could blow his stack, Rainbow volunteered the information. “I was getting a check-up, and um…” she closed her mouth and looked around at the crowd that had been gathering. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was Twilight who was attracting the most attention; even with Time Turner and Pinkie having a heated debate over the medicinal properties of muffins and cupcakes.

Twilight let out a disgruntled sigh and looked around at the large herd. “Yes I’m a stallion! No, it’s not a contagious disease! Yes, the court will be closed for the rest of the day while I deal with this, and NO CLOUD KICKER! I AM NOT INTERESTED IN BANGING!”

The excited smile on the amorous pegasus’s face fell, and she lowered herself back into the crowd with a dejected, “Awwwwwww.”

As the large group of ponies began to disperse, he looked back over to the pegasus. Rainbow’s face was like a pony who had a poorly drawn map, and no compass. She looked lost and maybe a bit confused, but without any real panic. Twilight knew the feeling. He had experienced the same thing after learning of Rainbow’s condition and had been pretty out of it until Discord reared his misshapen head.

He approached her tentatively, and licked his lips. “Rainbow I…I’m sorry.”

For three agonizing heartbeats, there was nothing. Rainbow just looked in Twilight’s direction with a blank stare that didn’t seem to focus on anything. Then, she looked up at him with a small smile. “It’s okay Twilight. I…um, I think I need to go lay down. I’m going to be in my room.”

While Rainbow took to the air at what was possibly the slowest speed he had ever seen the pegasus move when she wasn’t keeping pace with her friends, Twilight simply stood on the ground. A knock in the ribs got his attention, and he looked down to Rarity as she leaned in close to speak out the side of her mouth. “Go after her.”

“But Rainbow said-” Twilight managed to say before Rarity’s raised eyebrow cut him off, and the alicorn took to the sky to follow her friend.

Catching up to the pegasus was easy, trying to find a topic of conversation…not so much. After a good minute of travel in silence, Twilight pulled alongside his fillyfriend and looked over to the folder in her foreleg. “So…are those your test results?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow replied as she carried herself through the air. “You want to um…translate them for me?”

Twilight licked his lips at the hesitation in Rainbows eyes, but managed a reassuring smile. “Sure,” he told her before taking the folder in his magic and opening it to see what all was inside. It was more than just the standard checkup report. Apparently, Rainbow had gone in for a full mystic medical review…or had gotten one after the doctors noticed signs of her pregnancy at least. Either way, she had the tests done to find out what Twilight had been too slow to tell her.

There was also a lot more inside than just the information about her pregnancy. Rainbow Dash had gotten tests done on her body, and Twilight found several pamphlets explaining what expectant mothers would experience once their bodies started making them ready for the foal. Twilight had a feeling Dash was not going to like the extra weight, possible nausea, bloating, or the sensitive teats. Although the fact that she wouldn’t be able to fly at all towards the end of her final trimester was probably going to drive the pegasus nuts.

Multiple papers went over Rainbow Dash’s physical condition. Of course, the complete elimination of all her old sores and various injuries had raised several red flags, but Twilight could see from the scribbled notes that Rainbow had managed to explain them away with the old Magic of Friendship reply that pretty much shut their demands for an explanation down. Everypony in town treated the Elements of Harmony like some kind of state secret, or something a bunch of shadow ponies would come in the middle of the night and take you away for if questions about them were asked. The hospital didn’t even keep the original copies of the test results if all the scribbled notes were any indication. He did make a mental note to stop by the hospital and try and explain away some of the fears that the doctors had.

Then came the report on Rainbow’s pregnancy and her unborn foal. Twilight’s throat seized up at the top of the page. Numerous notes on Rainbow’s various tests talked about magical contamination linked to the foal, most with question marks that probably meant the doctors were simply asking themselves, but those were simple notes for the doctors themselves. The page in front of him was the one that would actually tell him what was wrong.

A lump of fear formed inside of Twilight’s throat, and he shut the folder without reading a single word.

Focus on Dash right now Twilight, the alicorn told himself. The pegasus was the one who needed him right now, the one he could do something for. The foal…Twilight had been aware there were going to be problems from the get go, he could deal with a faceless terror like that. Actually seeing what the problem was… Twilight knew that would make him go off in a whole new direction of panic that he was not wanting to deal with right now.

“Well, everything looks…pretty much like I expected it too,” the alicorn told her. “You’re perfectly healthy. Of course, there’s some questions as to why your body is lagging behind in the preparing for the foal, but…well, we know that’s my fault.”

Rainbow looked over and smiled at the alicorn with those same lost eyes that just said she was going through the motions. “It’s okay Twilight. Still plenty of time for me to…get ready,” she said before looking back down at the ground.

The guilt that smile hit him with nearly made Twilight drop from the sky. By the time he had righted himself and gotten the nerve to try and start a conversation with her again, they landed on the palace balcony. “You always do this,” he said after touching his hooves to the ground. “I saw it in the throne room, in Cloudsdale, every time we faced a crises! You see me get scared, or upset, and you just clam up and act like everything’s fine so you can make me feel better!”

“Well what am I supposed to do then?” she demanded, a bit of the pegasus’s fire finding its way into her voice. “I’m the one that… Look, just…leave me alone. I need to rest. Doctor’s orders and junk.”

Although Twilight doubted Dash’s condition was advanced enough for her to need any extra downtime just yet, the comment did give him pause. If he asked for Rainbow to stay, it would just end up making him sound like a complete plot. She was the one carrying the foal, she was the one who needed the attention, the sympathy, the care. “Wait!”

Twilight looked around frantically, trying to think of an excuse to get Rainbow to stay without being too overbearing or needy. When his eyes fell on the food, the alicorn looked back over to the pegasus. “Rainbow, have you eaten today?”

“I got some snacks while I was at the doctor’s place.”

A quick spell summoned a all of purple magic to keep Rainbow from just walking away. When she looked back to frown at Twilight, the alicorn gave her a look he hoped was stern enough without being too bossy. “Rainbow, you’re with foal. You need to keep to three square meals a day. Please?” he added in a much lower tone.

Rainbow’s eyes softened at the mention of her foal, and she made her way over to the table.

Another quick spell reheated the food Pinkie Pie had prepared as if it had just come out of the oven, and the two of them sat down to eat. Twilight took some bread, and offered Rainbow some cider while putting a few pieces of pizza on her plate. Together they sat in the warm afternoon sun across the table from each other, just eating. For a moment, Twilight played with the thought of calling this their first date.

Then, he noticed the lack of conversation, the somber atmosphere, the fact that Rainbow hadn’t met his eyes once. Twilight didn’t need a psychology book to tell him what was wrong.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t even stand the sight of him.

The food was almost finished by the time he found the strength to speak. “I’m sorry,” Twilight said, the words coming out in a breath as he held back a sob.

“It’s okay Twi-”

Anger curled Twilight’s lips as Dash tried to protect him from his guilt. “IT IS NOT OKAY!” the alicorn yelled, getting a flinch from the pegasus. “Stop pretending that this is something we can just get through with a bunch of stupid smiles! Ever since this morning, every time I look at you, it just tears me up inside! I…I just can’t do this Rainbow! You…just…” Tell me you hate me, tell me how I ruined your life, tell me how much pain I‘ve caused you. Just please be honest with me, Twilight thought as the tears he was holding back finally came flowing out.

Across from his place at the table, Rainbow shrunk in on herself as her lost expression became one filled with pain as her eyes slowly changed from open and empty to half-lidded. “I…Twilight…I-”

The sound of a door banging open cut Rainbow off.

“See Fluttershy, Ah told ya Ah saw em flyin’ over the-aaaaaa!” Applejack yelled when she looked away from the yellow pegasus and over to the purple alicorn. “Twilight?”

As Twilight looked away for a moment to wipe his eyes with his fetlock, he heard Fluttershy pick up the conversation. “What happened to you?”

When he was sure he had gotten himself under control, the alicorn looked back around, and noticed that Dash was no longer in her seat. “Rainbow?” Twilight weakly asked as he looked around to find her almost to her bedroom door, the folder containing her medical information tucked under her wing.

The pegasus flinched at her name, and looked back to Twilight with a hurt expression. “I…need to lay down Twilight,” she said before heading into her room. He didn’t have the willpower to stop her again.

“Is there something wrong with Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked, drawing Twilight’s attention.

“Can you go talk to her in a few minutes? I…she doesn’t want to see me right now,” he mumbled with as much strength as he could manage.

“Oh…okay,” Fluttershy said before she headed back inside the castle. Twilight guessed she was going to try and come in from the main door to Rainbow’s quarters.

A second after Fluttershy had spoken, Applejack got in Twilight’s face and filled the alicorn’s vision. “The hay with Rainbow sugarcube! What happened to you?”

“Huh?”

“YOU’RE A STALLION!” the apple farmer shouted as he pointed at the whole of Twilight’s changed body.

Twilight blinked and looked down at himself. “Oh yeah…that,” he mumbled. It was weird how he had just forgotten about the event that had left him a whole new gender that occurred a little over thirteen hours ago. But, it just didn’t seem all that important anymore for some reason. “Magic experiment blew up in my face. It’s…nothing.”

Rainbow Dash laid on her back and stared up at her stupid crystal ceiling in her stupid crystal room, inside Twilight’s stupid crystal palace; with most of her ’so you’re going to be a mommy’ pamphlets strewn out on the stupid crystal floor. She sighed, and rolled over to look at one of the Wonderbolts posters that adorned her walls. It was the basic recruitment poster they handed out everywhere, so the ponies pictured on it were pretty featureless, but the coloration of one of them matched Soarin’s to a T.

“Stupid Soarin,” she mumbled at the likeness. It was because of him that Twilight…

“Every time I look at you, it just tears me up inside!”

Rainbow closed her eyes and groaned as she rolled on her side. “It’s not my fault,” she mumbled at the memory that was still fresh in her mind. Twilight’s face, so full of pain and her voice sounding more hurt than ever had before. “I didn’t know.”

A knock at the door banished phantom-Twilight before Dash could put more berating into her mouth. She looked up and wiped the tears from her eyes before answering. “Who is it?”

Was Twilight coming to kick her out of the castle? Rainbow knew it was only a matter of time before she had to leave.

“It’s me Rainbow…can I come in?” Fluttershy’s voice asked from behind the doorway.

The voice of her friend made Rainbow sigh. She didn’t want to let Fluttershy in and see her like this. But…just sitting around wallowing in sadness by her lonesome wasn’t good either.

“Come on in Fluttershy.”

A few seconds later, she watched the shy pegasus open the door, come in, and close it behind her. Fluttershy took one long look at Rainbow, and then took a seat next to the bed. “So, what happened?”

Rainbow sighed as she tried to organize her thoughts to explain what was going on. Although, she wasn’t too sure about the answer. She knew about the events leading up to everything… Twilight got stallion-ized, Twilight and Rainbow banged, Rainbow loved it, Twilight did his magic thing and made Rainbow feel better than she had in years, Twilight’s magic thing found out Rainbow was pregnant… Then, Twilight freaked out, got super panicky, then became kind of clingy, gave some manure about how Rainbow was too good to join the Wonderbolts, and then…

“Every time I look at you, it just tears me up inside!”

Well, Rainbow didn’t know what happened afterwards until she found out she was pregnant, and Twilight had decided she hated Rainbow’s guts to the point the alicorn couldn’t even look at her anymore.

It hurt just to think about.

So, Rainbow just nudged the folder containing all the information about her examination toward the yellow pegasus. “Here.”

“Are you sick?” Fluttershy asked after she picked up and opened the folder.

Rainbow didn’t reply, and just waited for her friend to read the whole of the report. Fluttershy made some comments when she finished most of Rainbow’s information, mumbling about how glad she was the other pegasus was doing well. Then, when her eyes widened considerably, Rainbow guessed she got to the page about the stunt mare being pregnant; or found the foa'ls page.

“Y-You’re pregnant?” Fluttershy almost shouted. Although for her, it was the loudest that Rainbow had ever heard her talk. She didn’t even get that loud about her animals. “But, how?”

“Remember when we went to the Equestrian Games? Me and Soarin kind of…hooked up after the closing ceremonies and…you know,” she told the pegasus before looking away.

Fluttershy frowned in confusion. “But…I thought… On the ride home, you said you were through with Soarin!” she exclaimed. “If you and he didn’t um…hook up…”

The memories Fluttershy’s question made Rainbow’s expression turn into a grimace. “We did the basic stuff Fluttershy,” Rainbow told her. “Then he wanted to get…well…kinky. The bad kind of kinky, and got kind of angry when I said no. Then he…” She shuttered at the image of the stallion putting his thing in her face and waving it around. “Look, I don’t like to talk about it, okay? He wanted to do stuff I didn’t, then got all mad at me, so I told him to buck off.”

Rainbow sighed and shook her head. Despite the sheer level of lame it would have brought her to, the pegasus wished she would have gone through with everything. It would make what she needed to do now a whole lot easier.

“Then, what was what I saw between you and Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

Another wave of memories got a flinch from Rainbow Dash as she remember the alicorn’s most crushing words to her yet again. “It’s…I did something stupid last night and…” She stopped unable to go on.

Her own words made her sigh. Even after everything, she still considered that night with Twilight the single best moment of her life. It wasn’t just the sex, it was simply being with the alicorn. Finally being with Twilight as the alicorn had her wings wrapped around the pegasus in the ultimate sign of trust and devotion.

And Rainbow Dash had accepted those feelings and returned them, only to find herself unable to follow through to the end. “And now Twilight hates me and…and I don’t blame her.”

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy said in that odd tone that only she could use that made her sound both chiding and sympathetic at the same time. “Twilight could never hate you…she…um…”

Not wanting to hear anypony come to her defense, Rainbow cut in. “I slept with Twilight last night,” she said before rolling onto her back again and looking down at her belly. As useless as it was, she found herself wishing the foal growing inside her belonged to the temporary purple stallion.

In her mind's eye, Rainbow could see her life play out if that had been the case. She would live in the castle with her princess, raising their foal together, watching it grow up, make friends, become awesome… Even not making the Wonderbolts didn’t seem so bad if that was to be her future, with Twilight and their foal.

Then reality came crashing back down to shatter the dream with the reality of what was really going to happen. She barely managed to keep from crying at the unfairness of it all.

When Fluttershy had no response to reassure the cyan pegasus about how her friendship with the alicorn would recover, or how Rainbow Dash was just being silly, Rainbow let the last hopes that this would find a way to work itself out fall.

“Fluttershy…can you just…I really don’t feel like talking right now.”

“Oh… You…um…you’re probably going to need help with a few things when the foal becomes more pronounced,” the other pegasus said as she walked along the floor. From the sound of things, Fluttershy was gathering up all the pamphlets that Rainbow had cast aside when she read how badly her flying was going to get. "Just um...call me if you need anything, alright?"

A few minutes later, the door opened once again. “For what its worth…I know you‘ll make a wonderful mother Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy told her before leaving Rainbow Dash alone again.

At least, as alone as she could be these days.

Applejack rubbed her head to fight the coming migraine as Twilight explained just how he had turned himself into a stallion. If it wasn’t for the relaxing tea Twilight had pored for her when they got to his private room, she was pretty sure that the mental railroad spike would have already found its way into her brain. “You cast a spell to…make yerself taller?”

The alicorn sighed and made as if to shake his head, then just sighed again. “That’s a simple way of putting it. It’s a variation of the spell Luna uses to make herself look like Nightmare Moon when the fillies and colts offer her candy. Only instead of needing to maintain it with a constant mana flow, the alteration to my body would have been permanent.”

“Is this about them ponies who said you looked too young to ride the-” Applejack cut herself off by clearing her throat when she noticed Twilight’s glare. “Right well…if something went wrong, why haven’t you done fixed it yet?”

After taking another sip of tea, the alicorn set down her magically held cup. “It’s not that simple. I cast the spell while using my Element when I am in perfect sync with it so, just being able to tear the spell matrix apart is beyond me. So I have to unravel it one strand at a time, and the problem with that is…well… I have to figure out how the spell became a knot in the first place. At first I thought it was a problem with the way I had formulated the magic, but I checked the math and it was sound. Now, it looks like I made an error during the casting.”

For a moment Applejack wondered if things were really as simple as Twilight were making them seem, or if she…or he, was just using language the farm pony could understand. It wasn’t the first time she was glad to have been born an earth pony. If all that technical jargon went into magic, Applejack understood why Rarity never bothered learning more than that one spell with her gems.

However, she was able to pick up on one oddity… “Wait, how come you just didn’t get me and Fluttershy. Sure, your Element is powerful and all, but Ah’m pretty sure the six of us working together can undo this mess. Hay, we fixed Luna, undid all the stuff Discord did, and re-magiced about half the hole pony race! Some gender-bender spell ain’t nothing’! Shoot, you could probably just get Discord to fix you with a snap of his claws,” she said before realizing the other meaning of that statement and blanching. “Turning you into a mare again Ah mean, not…you know.”

“Umm, Applejack?” Twilight said as he raised an eyebrow. “You did notice that Discord had a problem using his magic on us directly whenever we were wearing the elements, right? Now, we pretty much are the Elements. We’re constantly surrounded by a low level harmonic field that can pretty much negate anything but his highest level stuff, and even that magic would be very reduced in strength by the time it made it through. And…full use of the Elements isn’t rally an option right now.”

Applejack let out a sigh. “Okay, what’d Rainbow do?” What with their magic working off friendship, it wasn’t hard to figure out the source of any problems. Considering the way Twilight had looked when she and Fluttershy showed up, and the several minutes the prince(ess?) had just sat there before Applejack talked her into coming inside, it wasn’t hard to figure who was to blame.

The glare Twilight gave her quickly derailed that train of thought, and had Applejack wishing she was somewhere else. “Why in the hay does everypony always think when there’s a problem between me and Rainbow, that she’s the one to blame?” he demanded.

“Well,” Applejack began while dragging up the best response she could find with an irate alicorn giving her a death-glare. “You’re the uh…princess, and Rainbow’s…Rainbow. She don’t really think things through all that much.”

Twilight released Applejack from his gaze, and sighed. “Well this one’s my fault, and it’s not so easy to clean up as her messes,” he said as he lowered his head. “And even if our friendship was at its best…I still wouldn’t let her use Loyalty to help me.”

Curiosity peeked, and mood unsettled, Applejack gulped at the sight of the stallion just…deflating in front of her. “Twilight, what’s wrong? What happened between the two of you?”

“I…” Twilight paused and looked back up to the pony, visibly weighing her. Then he sighed. “Might as well tell. It’s not like its going to be a secret much longer.

“Last Night a little before eight thirty, I cast the spell that turned me into a stallion," he began in a depression tone. “About fifteen minutes later…or maybe thirty I’m not sure anymore, Rainbow came to me looking for help. She…well…she was in heat.”

Applejack’s eye widened. She knew those two had a bit of a thing for each other, even if Rainbow was a mite too stubborn and Twilight was a bit too…Twilight to admit it. But from the way Twilight was sounding… “But you were a…”

“We had sex,” he continued. “And…I didn’t think anything else was going to happen! My sperm count should have been practically nonexistent!”

The magic word sperm had Applejack’s eyes trying to jump off of her head. If Twilight was talking about that kind of stuff… Sweet Celestia, she told herself before a fact about foaling she knew popped into her head. “Wait a minute, it takes three days for a mare to know if she’s…but you wouldn’t have said anything about…sperm, if there weren’t…”

Thankfully, Twilight picked up the conversation. “The next morning, Rainbow complained about some…soreness,” he said with a blush before averting his gaze. “So, I used a full medical scan and… Oh Applejack, she was in so much pain! All those crashes, and everything else we all went through? They just added up and added up over the years and so I used my harmonic magic to…fix them.

“I’m not even sure what I did! Some of what happened had to be a kind of healing magic that, well…I can’t even call it healing magic! Healing magic is just the quick, natural regeneration of cells sped up to an impossible degree and guided to insure proper setting of bones. What I did I repaired damage that shouldn’t have been fixable!”

Applejack nodded at the alicorn. “Okay, so you helped Rainbow out with a few old scrapes,” she said to show the god of magic she was following along. “How does that translate to twelve hour…whatever Rainbow has?”

Confusion showed in Twilight's face as he shook his head. “I’m not sure. I mean, we‘re just beginning to understand what we can do with our Elements” he said. “Maybe… Maybe it had something to do with how I knew healing magic should work. So when my harmonic magic found her egg and my sperm trying to…do what they do, it expedited the process. Or maybe…”

A terrified, wide-eyed realization showed on Twilight’s face, and he braced himself against the table. “Celestia, I’m lucky it only took a few seconds to heal Rainbow. If I had kept up the flow of magic going until the embryo became a fetus and pushed on her womb…” The alicorn gulped and Applejack’s eyes widened in agreement. She didn’t want to know what kind of problems that would have caused.

“Then, I performed another scan to make sure everything was fine and…I found the fetus growing inside of her. I’m hardly an expert, but…it has to be at least at the forth week of development.

“She must be so afraid Applejack! I mean, a fetus just appearing? I fainted when I found out about it, and I’m not even the one that’s carrying!

“I keep trying to tell myself that this will all work out but…it all sounds so hollow!” the alicorn cried. “I try and tell myself, tell Rainbow things like she doesn’t need the Wonderbolt and she’s already the most awesome pegasus I know, that joining them would just be a step down, but…I can’t make decisions like that for her! She already resents me enough for-”

The way Twilight just clamped up instead of trailing off into a few pants got an eyebrow raise out of Applejack, but the farm pony didn’t press the issue. “Sugarcube, Rainbow is crazier fer you than she is fer cider. Just give her some time and some space, and still come round like she always does. I mean, she is the loyal pony, right?”

Twilight’s face took on a look of anger at the comment. “Why does everypony say that?” he grumbled. “Rarity competes in the Best Young Fliers, and Rainbow forgives her. We step on Dash’s pride, and she pushes her anger aside. We…I make her stick with a second-rate team she has to carry just to win a silver medal, I make her sit in a stupid little chair to listen to ponies argue when she’d rather be out doing anything else, and now I GET HER PREGNANT! How many more times will her bucking loyalty cause her to take hits to her pride, get her hopes stepped on, and kill her ambitions, her dreams?”

Seeing where this was going, Applejack reached out to slap a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder before the alicorn could have another full on panic attack as his out of control self-destruction stopped being verbal. “Twilight! Snap out of it already!”

When the alicorn turned to look at the earth pony with a sorrowful, but attentive gaze, Applejack took in a deep breathe. “Sugarcube, you know a lot of that stuff’s a bit slanted, and hay…just think where Rainbow would be without you.”

“In the Wonderbolts, happy, and not pregnant?” Twilight asked without a moment of consideration, his panicked tone becoming a bit angrier than what Applejack was used to hearing with Twilight.

Hmmm, I might need a bit of help on this one…

Twilight slumped on her throne as all of her wingless friends took their own seat in the council at Applejack’s insistence. He wasn’t all that surprised that Fluttershy didn’t come when the farm pony had called out the others while in the hall to all their chambers. Being Rainbow’s oldest friend, the alicorn knew what side she would take in this little… No! This wasn’t some little argument between friends. It was a gigantic, titanic, cataclysm that was going to rip apart their friendship and completely destroy their bond forever!

Once it sunk in to everypony just how much Twilight had ruined Rainbow’s life, he couldn’t imagine any of his friends wanting to stick around. They’d leave one by one, like he deserved.

“Sorry I’m late everypony, I was finishing the last of the pamphlets Rainbow gave me. It’s a little funny how much ponies are like so many of my animal friends.”

The voice of Fluttershy brought Twilight out of a vision of all his friends condemning him for his actions that destroyed Rainbow’s life and disabled their foal before it was even born. He looked over to the yellow pegasus and blinked in confusion. “Fluttershy? What’re you doing here? I thought you out of all of us would side with Rainbow Dash!”

Fluttershy cocked her head in confusion. “Twilight, just because you’re angry at Rainbow Dash for getting pregnant doesn’t mean I’m not going to come help you if you need it,” she said as if telling the alicorn that the sky was blue.

“What?” Twilight asked in a confused panic as she tried to figure out why Rainbow would think such a thing. “I-I’m not angry at her! Why in Equestria would I be angry at her?” Was it the shouting? He knew he had become a bit more intense since the change in gender, but Twilight didn’t think he had come across as angry at Rainbow!

As the large alicorn approached the pegasus, Fluttershy looked around nervously, making Twilight wince. Did he really come off as threatening?

“Because of her pregnancy?” Fluttershy replied, so nervously uncertain it sounded more like a question than an answer.

Twilight looked down at her friend, feeling more confused than ever. Although, it felt better than the depression she had been in mere moments before. “Why?” mumbled in a confused whisper as she looked at Fluttershy with pleading eyes.

This time, Twilight couldn’t come up with any theories that made any sense. Unless… Did Rainbow think everything that was going on was some cruel joke? That Twilight had meant to get her pregnant? That he had meant to use magic to deform their foal? That it was all some crazy plot to make her stay at the palace and keep her from joining the Wonderbolts?

But why in the world would she think something like that? I could never sabotage her dreams like that! I helped her get in the reserves! Thinking that… That’s like…like… Twilight blinked when he remembered a couple of years ago, when he and the others had dressed up in a bunch of costumes to teach Rainbow Dash that heroes didn’t need to be thanked…like the Wonderbolts…

…or have fans…like the Wonderbolts…

…or…be celebrated as heroes…like the Wonderbolts…

No, Twilight pleased with himself as she tried to fight his logic.

But…

“WHAT?”

The sound of everypony around him letting out an exclaimed shriek brought Twilight out of his panicked ruminations, and he saw Fluttershy drop a folder from where it had been tucked under her wing, spilling the contents of it all over the floor. It only took a glance to see it was the records pertaining to Dash’s checkup.

Then, Fluttershy spoke again. “Oh well, um, I said because the foal is Soarin’s, Rainbow feels guilty and doesn’t think-”

Twilight spun around to face Fluttershy. “What do you mean Soarin? Fluttershy, I’m the foal’s father!”

“W-What?” Fluttershy stuttered.

“How in the hay can anypony think it was Soarin!” Twilight exclaimed as he used his magic to gather up the papers strewn all over the floor. “How could Rainbow? She was in heat when we had sex for Celestia’s sake!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “That is a might peculiar,” she said. “I mean, what kind of mare doesn’t know you don’t get heats during pregnancy?”

“Oh! Oh! I know!” Pinkie exclaimed as she waved a raised hoof around. When everypony turned to look at her, she stuck her chest out proudly as she answered. “The kind that worships a team of stunt fliers but doesn’t know a bucking thing about their history!”

“…you may have something their Darling,” Rarity said.

“But…it…the doctors said the baby’s development fits in the time-frame, look!” Fluttershy said as she ran over to get beside Twilight and searched through the papers until she pulled out the report involving Rainbow’s foal. “See?”

Twilight found himself unable to look away in time not to get the gist of the report. He wasn’t near as fast at absorbing information as Dash when she was flying, but she could get the basics of a well organized report at a glance. And although Fluttershy was pointing to one area, Twilight’s attention was drawn to another.

“There’s no magical contamination?” he mumbled.

The question got a confused frown from Fluttershy. “Why would Rainbow’s foal have been altered by magic?”

“Because I used the Element of Magic on her when I healed her! It’s why she went from conception to having an embryo!” Twilight exclaimed before looking back to the doctor’s report. The beautiful piece of paper that said his child was one-hundred-percent healthy. “This is…do you know what this means?”

“That your baby is going to be fine?” Rarity asked.

“That you an Rainbow are basically killing yourselves over nothing?” Applejack continued.

“That you could have used the orbital friendship cannon to turn back into a mare at any time you wanted?” Pinkie finished, getting an odd look from the rest of the group. “What?”

Twilight’s eye started twitching on the last realization, but he kept from face-hoofing himself. Considering his newfound strength…he didn’t want to knock himself out. Then, he came to another realization. Dash…she thinks I… “RAINBOW!”

The stallion turned and galloped across the council chambers, up the stairs, through the hallways of his palace, and into his lover’s room as he crashed through the crystal door hard enough to leave a crack. “Rainbow! Please listen to me, I’m not…Rainbow?” Twilight muttered as he looked around the room.

All over the place, he found the remains of torn Wonderbolt posters, the bed where he and his pegasus had shared their first night, but the pegasus the alicorn was looking for was not to be seen. Then, Twilight looked over to the door leading to the shared balcony, and opened it to look outside.

“Rainbow? Are you there?” he shouted as he ran out onto the large outdoor floor that overlooked Ponyville. However, he didn’t see any sign of his Rainbow. Where is she?

“Twilight?”

The fact the voice came from above him made the purple alicorn look up in joy, expecting his cyan lover with her beautiful rainbow hair to be floating there. Instead, he found a wacky-eyed mailmare. “Oh…hey Derpy. Do you need something?”

“I got a letter for you,” the gray pegasus said before reaching into her bag and handing it over. “Special hoof-delivery.”

“Thanks,” Twilight replied, a little confused as to why Derpy would come…well, other than it was about time for the evening mail delivery. So, he supposed that it wasn’t that strange. Although, there was the question of why Derpy had given it to him directly instead of just leaving it in the palace’s mailbox.

Twilight tore the letter open an took it in his magic to read it.

Dear Princess Twiguy Spackle

Discord here. If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably noticed your fillyfriend has flown the coop. Don’t look at me, I didn’t do it. But, since I doubt you ponies took note of the little hint I left you awhile back, especially since you blew up my HD TV before it got to the SOARIN WEDDING SCENE! Remember? I even talked about it!

But I’m sure you actually talked things out with her before it got to that. I mean, it’s not like she got all super rainbow, flew to Cloudsdale in .10 seconds flat, grabbed that Wonderbolt by the scruff of his neck, and dragged him into the chapel on the corner of Nimbus and Cumulus, to force him into a marriage on the grounds that the foal in her belly belongs to him, right?

Well, gotta go bother Tia now. Say hi to Fluttershy for me.

Discord.

“She wouldn’t,” Twilight mumbled in horror.

…
…
…

“Ohhhhhhh yes she would,” Pinkie Pie said from behind Twilight.

Author's Notes:

Next chapter, the first day of the rest of their lives (or Arc 1) reaches it’s conclusion. There will be tears, feels, clop (remember the promise in warning?) and some other stuff.

As well as a wedding.

Then I'll go back and edit some of the lumps, throw up an arc epilogue, and move onto step 2, actually telling ponies how Twilight sparkle got RD preggers.