About a week later, the friends exited the train and trotted into Canterlot Station. Big Mac walked beside Fluttershy, apparently oblivious to how frequently she was stealing awkward glances at him. The mares had given him a laundry list of spurious reasons why he needed to accompany them to Canterlot. At long last he had relented. Pinkie had still not come clean about the father of her baby, but had agreed to accompany the group while they searched for the answer.

Rainbow Dash waited until Big Mac was looking away. Seeing her opportunity, she shoved Fluttershy so that she fell against the red stallion. He glanced down at her and smiled as he helped her right herself. “Uh, watch your step there, Fluttershy.”

Pinkie hummed loudly and ran ahead of her friends as they made their way up to the palace. Passersby gave her judgmental glances, but she seemed untroubled. A few stray clouds darkened the path ahead, but Dash sailed up over the city and cleared them away. As they ascended the steps to the palace, Twilight nodded to Fluttershy, indicating that it was time to put the next leg of their plan in motion. The yellow pegasus gulped nervously and promptly tripped on one of the steps.

“Um, oh no, whatever shall I do? I’ve stubbed my hoof,” she said pitifully.

Applejack nudged her brother. “Macintosh, be a gentlecolt and carry Fluttershy will ya.”

“Clearly she is in no state to walk,” Rarity said overdramatically.

Big Mac seemed a bit confused as to what all of the fuss was about, but obediently knelt down so Fluttershy could climb onto his back.

***

Princess Celestia was gently napping upon her throne. Something brushed past her face which caused her to blink. It was a letter written in familiar yet rather hurried and sloppy handwriting. The princess read it aloud to Shining Armor’s annoyance.

“Dear Princess Celestia, I just found out Discord is the father of Pinkie's baby. I don't think Twilight and her friends know this yet, but they are coming to visit you, so you can tell them when they show up. Oh, and since this is a letter to you… today I learned that you can still be friends with ponies who are bit younger than you are. I’m hanging out with Twilight’s friends’ sisters and they’re actually pretty fun. —Spike the Dragon.”

“May I have permission to speak freely?” Shining Armor asked.

“There's no time!” Celestia said hurriedly, disappearing in a flash of radiant light.

A moment later, a guard entered the far end of hall. He halted mid-stride and looked around nonplussed.

“Can I help you, Starlit?” Shining Armor inquired.

“Your sister and her friends are here to visit the princess. I was merely surprised to not find her here.”

Celestia flashed back into view atop her throne. She appeared relieved. “Show them in,” she ordered, nodding to Starlit.

Pinkie ran ahead of her friends as they entered the throne room. She jumped and sailed through the air toward the princess, but found herself trapped in place by a magical pink bubble. Pink light glowed from Shining Armor's horn. Celestia smiled at her adroit guard. “That’s quite alright, Shining. I do not think that Pinkie means to harm me.” He nodded, positioning the bubble in front of the princess. As bubble vanished, Pinkie immediately slid beside the alicorn and began whispering in her ear.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked, approaching her brother.

He glanced up at the two conspirators and gave a slight shrug. Pinkie and Celestia continued whispering together for a few moments while the others looked on in bewilderment. The monarch apparently found whatever Pinkie was sharing to be of a surprising yet clearly amusing nature.

“I can certainly provide you with tickets to today’s Wonderbolts show, but you must promise me one thing in return,” Celestia replied to Pinkie, speaking loudly enough for the rest of the ponies to hear.

Rainbow Dash gaped with excitement.

The princess whispered something in Pinkie’s ear and both their expressions grew more serious.

“Okay, I promise,” Pinkie said, giving a little bow before the princess. Her friends also bowed, having forgotten to do so upon their arrival. Fluttershy hung onto Big Mac’s work harness so she would not tumble from his back as he leaned.

The princess laughed charmingly. “There’s no need for such formalities. I am glad to see you all in Canterlot again. Let us hope that you do not cause as much mayhem as you have in the past. Here are some tickets to the Wonderbolts show. Go out and have some fun.”

“Thank you princess," said Twilight as she and her friends collected the tickets which had appeared floating in front of them. "We also have something very important to ask you about though.”

“That will have to wait until later,” said replied. “Shining Armor, be so kind as to show our dear friends to the door.”

The look of concern did not fade from Twilight’s face, but she and the others followed her brother obediently.

“Oh and one final thing before you go,” the princess called after them. “Stay out of the royal garden.”

***

“Oh, but I really wanted to see the garden. Why can’t we go in?” Fluttershy asked, looking down at Pinkie from her perch on Big Mac’s back.

“They must be doing maintenance or something,” she said with a grin.

“They seem ta be lettin’ everypony else in,” Applejack observed as a large tour group entered the garden grounds nearby.

“Would you mind filling us in on what exactly was said between you and the princes back in the throne room?” Twilight asked Pinkie.

“You were there. What’s to know?” she giggled.

Rainbow Dash shook her head with annoyance. “Even I don’t know what’s going on at this point.”

Rarity smiled deviously. “I have an idea. The princess said to stay out of the garden, but what if we don’t actually go in? Rainbow, just fly over the top and tell us if you can see Discord there or not.”

“I told you it isn’t Discord,” Pinkie said as she skipped around, throwing her Wonderbolts ticket in the air and catching it before it could flutter to the ground.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “No offense Pinkie, but with everything that’s been going on, it’s hard to trust anything you say anymore. Did you tell Princess Celestia who it is too?”

The pink pony stopped and smiled at Twilight. “I certainly did!”

Dash shot into the air and gilded out across the garden grounds before circling back at a much increased pace.

“Discord isn’t there! He’s gone from his stand!”

***

“Princess Celestia! Discord is missing and is probably on the loose somewhere!” Twilight rushed into the throne room, again setting the guards ill at ease.

“I explicitly told you not to go into the garden, Twilight Sparkle,” she replied with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

“But there were plenty of other ponies there.”

“Do not worry yourself, my little pony. I verified that Discord’s statute is still safely locked in my dungeon. I would not make the mistake of leaving him in the garden again. Any group of arguing fillies could inadvertently release him upon the world that way.”

“Is Discord the father of Pinkie’s baby?”

“Of course not. That would be impossible for many reasons. Go to the Wonderbolts show. I would be very disappointed if you did not discover all you wanted to know there.”

“Sorry, princess,” Twilight said sheepishly. “I should have trusted you.”

“That’s quite alright, Twilight Sparkle,” she said with a coy smirk. “Shining Armor, please re-escort your sister from the throne room.”

“I think you’re really pushing it, Twily,” he muttered as he walked her to the other end of the hall.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight whispered back. She walked beside him in silence for a few moments, but then smiled up at her brother. “It’s good to see you again though. I was hoping we’d get a moment to talk while I'm here in Canterlot. How are things going with you and Cadance?”

“All is well aside from the long hours I’m working right now. Cadance and I are discussing what's next for us. If we have a foal of our own I hope it doesn’t turn out to be as much of a mess as it’s turning out for Pinkie.”

“That would be kind of hard to imagine,” Twilight giggled.

Shining Armor broke into a bright smile as he saw his sister off. He watched her trot away from him, out into the sunlight.

Her friends galloped up the palace steps towards her. Fluttershy clung to Big Mac’s harness as he made his clambering ascent. Rainbow Dash raced ahead and reached Twilight before the others.

“How did you get here before us?” the rainbow pegasus asked. “We thought you had disappeared along with Pinkie.”

“I teleported ahead to warn the princess, but I haven’t seen Pinkie.”

“We’d better look for her then,” Applejack panted as she caught up.

Twilight waited for a moment so the rest of her friends could gather around. “Princess Celestia told me that it isn't Discord, because his statue has been locked in the dungeon the whole time. She also said everything would make sense if we went to the Wonderbolts show. Let’s see if Pinkie is there. She was the one who wanted to go for some weird reason.”

“It's not weird to want to see the Wonderbolts, they're totally freaking awesome!” Dash took out her ticket and gazed upon it dreamily. Her eyes went wide as she noticed something printed on the paper. “Very Important Pony? Wow, these are even better than I thought they were!”

***

The friends made their way into the bustling VIP room at Canterlot Cloud Stadium. They noticed Pinkie talking enthusiastically with Soarin’. He was in the process of suiting up to begin the show, but appeared to be greatly interested in whatever she was saying.

“There they are right now!” Pinkie exclaimed, waving to her friends as they approached.

Soarin’ looked them over quickly and nodded to Pinkie.

Pinkie gleamed with happy anticipation, as if she was about to tell the punchline of a joke. “Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, I need to talk to you secretly,” she took them aside and began whispering urgently to them.

“Nice to meet you all,” Soarin’ said, putting on his flight goggles. “I hope you enjoy the show. I’m going to throw in a couple surprises.”

Applejack glanced over at Pinkie and back to Soarin’. “Okay now, this is gonna sound pretty outta the blue and probably a bit embarrassing, we're kinda at the end of our rope here, but did ya ever happen ta sleep with Pinkie Pie?”

Soarin’ considered the question. “I might have."

"Might have?" There was a faint hint of disgust in Rairty's voice.

"How long ago would it have been?” Soarin' asked, eating an Iron Will energy bar as he talked.

“Approximately a month ago,” Twilight answered.

The stallion took out a notebook, mumbling to himself as he began flipping through its pages. “Hmm, about a month ago you say… Octavia, Photo Finish, Fleur de Lis, that DJ pony...” He snapped the notebook shut. “Nah, I didn’t see her in there. Is she pregnant or something?”

“Yeah, and it’s causin’ us all a fair bit o’ consternation,” Applejack informed him.

“She seems nice, but I don’t know if she’s ready for a thing like that,” he said as some of his managers busily ushered him from the room.

***

The ponies went to find seats. Big Mac looked tense and nervous in such a crowded and noisy place.

“Where is Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, pausing to scan the bustling stadium for the familiar rainbow mane. “I could have sworn I saw her ten seconds ago."

"Don't worry about that silly pegasus. She went to take care of something important," Pinkie informed her.

Applejack held onto her hat to keep it from flying off in a gust of wind that whipped through the stadium. "Where do y'all wanna sit?"

“Oh, um, we need to be at the very, very top,” Fluttershy said nervously, gesturing to some empty spaces far above them.

"Yessiree! That's exactly what we should do," Pinkie added, winking at Fluttershy.

The other friends looked amongst each other suspiciously, but followed the light yellow pegasus and bouncing pink pony the top of the stadium. The show had already begun by the time they reached their places. Most of them opted to sit a few seats below the top row since there was no backing, but Fluttershy insisted that she and Big Mac sit in the seats with the highest view.

Rarity peered back at the two of them. “That seems rather dangerous,” she called above the noise of the crowd. “You know the top section is probably only intended for pegasi who can catch themselves if they fall off the back. You might be blown off if the wind picks up.”

Big Mac hazarded a glance off the back of the stands and gulped nervously when he saw how far the fall would be. At that moment, Soarin’ blasted past them as part of one of his opening maneuvers. The rush of air caused Fluttershy to tilt dangerously backwards, however Big Mac managed to snatch her from the brink before she would have fallen. This went unnoticed by their friends, who were then facing the show. Big Mac looked terrified. He picked Fluttershy up and sat her down one seat lower before carefully climbing down to join her.

A troubled look set in on Fluttershy’s face. She squirmed a bit in her seat and began blushing deeply. After a few moments she worked up the nerve to lean over and speak quietly to the red stallion. “I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was really scared too, but it was Pinkie’s idea. She had Soarin’ do that on purpose. Rainbow Dash was waiting below to save me if you didn’t manage to catch me. I know I’m a pegasus, but I’m not a very good flier and I might not have caught myself if I fell like that. It was a terrible, awful, horrible idea. I’m really sorry. It’s just that all of my friends are trying to push us together.”

Big Mac nodded knowingly. He leaned in closer so he could speak quietly. His voice was deep and low. “I thought something odd was goin’ on here... Well uh...do you...uh...you know...do you like me?”

“Oh yes, I have for a long time now. It’s very hard for me, because I’m really shy. I’ve wanted to talk with you so much, but I just hadn't found the courage."

“I can’t say as I’ve seen you much aside from today, but you seem really nice. I’m not much for talkin’ myself, so I don’t really know what to say, but, uh, I think you’re very pretty.”

Pinkie looked back to see them whispering together. “Oh, aren’t you two just adorable together!” she said, jumping up and showering them with a bucket full of confetti.

***

Later that evening, the ponies rode home together on the Friendship Express. Fluttershy nestled up against Big Mac in a corner of the party's passenger booth, one of his hooves rested comfortably over her shoulders.

Twilight glanced over at Pinkie and met eyes with her. “Wait a second, the princess said all would be revealed at the airshow, but we didn’t learn anything. Are you ever going to tell us?”

Pinkie laughed. “Oh silly me, I was so busy getting Fluttershy and Mac to fall in love that I completely forgot about my promise to the princess. Okay, I’ll tell you the truth.”

“Well, it’s about time,” Applejack said with relief.

“You might not like the truth though,” Pinkie warned. “The truth can be a treacherous, terrible, and terrifying thing.”

“There’s no time to get philosophical or alliterative about this. Tell us who the father is,” Twilight demanded.

“Okay, okay. I'm not actually pregnant. I just made the whole thing up for fun!”

There was a long silence in the booth as the ponies stared a Pinkie in disillusionment.

“Why in tarnation would ya do that?” Applejack asked incredulously.

Dash set aside a sports magazine and stared down at the floor shamefacedly. “It was my idea too. We were trying to think up a great prank one night and we got a little carried away. We were going to take it even farther. Pinkie was going to eat a lot to look more pregnant, but the prank was already causing so many problems we started worrying that maybe we were being jerks. We were talking about giving up and telling you all sooner, but we had more false leads planned.”

“Oh that’s just awful of you,” Rarity scolded them.

Fluttershy sniffled as if she might start crying.

“We’re really, really, really sorry!” Pinkie stammered desperately, looking around at her friends’ annoyed faces.

“It was really kind of funny though,” Dash added sheepishly.

Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. “What am I supposed to tell the princess? ‘Dear Princess Celestia, this week I learned that there is no ethical boundary my friends won’t cross in order to pull off a prank.’”

Pinkie hung her head as her eyes welled with tears. “You’re right, Twilight. I can understand if you don’t want to be friends with me or Rainbow Dash anymore. This is probably the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

Applejack put her hoof over Pinkie’s shoulder to comfort her. “But ya didn’t mean to hurt nopony at all. Perhaps it was pushin’ things a mite too far, but I ain’t mad. I’m sure we’ll all be able ta look back on this and laugh.”

Pinkie wiped her tears away and gave Applejack grateful little hug.

Twilight’s frown softened and faded to a smile. “You know what, Pinkie, other than a bit of embarrassment and stress, you and Dash didn’t really hurt any of us with your prank. We actually had fun trying to figure it out. We thought we’d be able to outsmart you and discover who it was, but you really had us all fooled. I don't see why we wouldn't forgive you for this.”

“I just hope you do not attempt anything nearly so dreadful in the future,” Rarity added. “Some of you do not know the half of what this prank drove me to do.”

Dash laughed at this, but did not elaborate on why she found the comment amusing.

Twilight thought for a moment. “I think a lot more good came out of this whole disaster than anypony would have expected. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie had some fun and we managed to help Fluttershy and Macintosh get together.” Fluttershy blushed at this but looked back at her friends gratefully as she snuggled against her stallion. Big Mac looked equally embarrassed, though clearly happy to find himself in this unlikely situation.

Pinkie sat thoughtfully for a moment. "I also learned that you'd all still be supportive if I actually did get pregnant. I felt really grateful that you took the news so well."

Applejack chuckled. “And let’s not forget that we got ta learn somethin’ about RD that I know we musta all been wonderin’. Plus Rarity got the chance to hone her seducin’ skills.”

“Huh?” Pinkie looked puzzled. She turned to Rarity. “Who were you trying to seduce?” There was an awkward silence in the booth. The white unicorn blushed deeply but did not reply. Pinkie looked around at her other friends. “Seriously girls, who does Rarity have a crush on? I've gotta know!”

Twilight smirked. “Ah, now the horseshoe is on the other hoof. How does it feel to be left out of the information loop?”

Pinkie frowned for a second but then broke into a bright smile. “It’s not so bad. You just watch. I’ll figure out exactly who it is… Let’s see, Rarity, you’ve got a passion for fashion, so I'm gonna say it’s some stallion who’s at least pretty well groomed. Hmm…”

“Keep trying,” Dash giggled.