One hundred one, one hundred two, one hundred three. It went like this for over an hour. Not that I had complained about bucking apple trees, but Shining Armor had made a new sport out of it. At six o’clock sharp this morning, he stood on the porch and made me run five laps around one of the fields without mercy. Those things weren’t small, you know. Each field was about the size of three soccer fields and fairly uneven. I was happy each time I reached a slope. Magic was like a muscle that did physically affect the body, he explained, but I had realised this by myself already. Besides the running, it was actually pretty standard work if it weren’t for the weights that maniac had packed onto my saddlebags and the occasional few on my legs. As tiring as it was, I had agreed to it, so I had go through with it. What really bugged me was the silence, only interrupted by my hooves smacking the next tree. I would have given anything to get my phone back just so I could play some music, even if it was as cliché as Eye of the Tiger. In my boredom, I had already droned out Lemon Tree at least three times. It didn’t help, however, as I had to take breaks for breathing. That particular piece was a reminder of my childhood, as my mom used to play it all day long. In the car and in our house that was full of CD changers. After about a year, it made way for Supergirl and I had instantly wanted Lemon Tree back. At the moment, I was singing Everything just Stolen from Die Prinzen in my head.

“Go! Or do I need to make you?” That was the other interruption that prevented me from singing: Shining Armor. He really had his fun observing me and shouting whenever I was becoming slower by his opinion. One time, when I really had needed a break, he struck me with lightning to keep me running, much to Big Mac’s and Apple Bloom’s amusement. I disliked that the red one had such a good time watching me suffer. Ponies, cute and cuddly, except for Big Mac it seemed.

“One hundred fifty!” I called out before collapsing. The task had been finished, and I had only needed half an hour longer than Shining Armor had predicted. Then again, I had wasted ten minutes in a fruitless discussion about the senselessness of this exercise. Those damned trees did not even carry fruits! I was sure I’d have to do this at some point again. What a sadist.

“Good. You deserve a break. One hour, then we will continue on with evasion with the weights.” Shining Armor took off my saddlebags and the added weights and put them near the tree. As they hit the ground, so did I. My legs felt like pudding and couldn’t stand anymore. Breathing heavily, I watched as he walked down the road to Ponyville. I rolled on my side and saw the sun high up in the sky. It must have been close to lunch, which meant that he had hounded me over the farm for the last six hours. As finished as I was, the ground refused to be comfortable. The recent flooding had left a clay-like, grassless soil. With some effort, I managed to pull myself up and slowly walk over to the barn. The hay there would surely make a much better bed. After coming back from Canterlot yesterday, Twilight had given me copy of her observations about changelings and a quick rundown. Since AJ had gone to bed early, I had taken the sofa and learned there. Besides an accurate description of a changelings, it seemed there was also a spell that could neutralise their cloak.

With a loud sigh, my tired body landed on a bale of hay. I was simply happy with just lying there. Alas, my moment of serenity did not hold for long as I caught sight of an open door at rear end of the barn. The way there led behind the house, and the only thing there was the Apple family cemetery. Big Mac had gone into town some time ago, and Apple Bloom had gone with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to Fluttershy’s. She had said something about vets, and I would almost have compassion for the critters if it weren’t for all the hard work I had done. Slowly rising up, I made my way over there to see who might have gone, but I had a good hunch as there was only one pony left. Through the door, along the cobbled path, the bushes came in sight that shielded the graves from the rest of the world.

“Mom, Pa, what should I do?” It was Applejack who had turned to her parents. I knew that feeling of asking someone dearly departed for one last piece of advice. I had often spoken to my aunt when visiting her grave. It really helped in life if you had someone to talk to, even if they couldn’t hear you anymore. “I love him but everything is going so fast…” So it was about me, something that had me wondering back then. It was Rarity who had told me that it was completely normal. If two ponies liked each other, why shouldn’t they be together? That outlook was so simple yet something a human would have to learn first. I hadn’t thought much about it but it seemed to cause AJ trouble. Not wanting to eavesdrop further, I stepped out into the cemetery so she would see me. Her hat was lying beside her on the ground and she was standing at the large stone in the middle of the other graves. At first she didn’t seem to notice me but then she gave me a nod. My presence was desired, so I joined her.

“Hey, AJ, a bit for your thoughts?” If you see someone you love suffering, even just in mind, you still suffer with them. On one side, I was happy to feel like this as it confirmed my feelings for this mare; on the other hand, I was sad to see her like that.

“Everything, sugarcube. The story about your world, the changelings, us, and how it’s going to end.” I could understand her very well, as the same thoughts had kept my mind busy as well.

“Don’t you want to introduce me to you parents?” She smiled and nodded.

“Ma, Pa, this is Blue Light. I told you about him.” I bowed to the stone to show my respect.

“I’m happy to finally meet you. Last time I was here, there wasn’t much time to talk.” AJ seemed startled. “I found this place once. Big Mac was with me and told me a few things.

“He did? He doesn’t even talk to us about things like that.” That left me wondering about why he had talked to me about it in the first place.

“Eh? Maybe he does like me a bit?” I couldn’t imagine sitting with Big Mac in a bar, raising a mug. He was more like a big brother whom you would see in the house all day but who had his own friends since you were not around his age.

“He likes you, sugarcube. He can just get a bit ….”

“Overprotective at times?” She nodded.

“He thought you had run off and left me here alone.” That must have been why he was so bad-tempered: afraid of someone hurting his sister. One could hardly fault him for that.

“AJ, I’m also worry about everything. What if this thing with the changelings goes off completely wrong? What if a Nightmare catches me? But I’ve got something worth fighting for. Humans are fighting every day for their goals and don’t intend to stop now. I have a place I can call home and friends who are waiting for me!” I know that it sounded a bit cheesy, but come on – wasn’t that what kept us all going? “I just want to put an end to this thing and live on. Here with you and the others.” I knew AJ wasn’t the type for all this kind of talk, so imagine my surprise when she started to snuggle me. “AJ?”

“Ma, Pa, Light, I need to tell you something, and I hope that you won’t be mad at me. I had promised to wait but now it happened. Light….I’m pregnant.” Fainting, panic, cardiac arrest, I expected one of those to happen. Something deep inside me screamed run, yet my legs remained glued to the ground. I felt oddly composed. Before I could collect my thoughts, AJ continued, a bit of panic in her voice as she rushed to explain herself, “I should have told you before. It must have happened sometime before the spring festival. I was still in heat and we shouldn't have… I knew what was going to happen but—”

I laid a hoof on her mouth to cut her off.

“You don’t need to justify yourself. We both wanted it and… we both carry the consequences.” That was a stupid word choice and I cringed internally. “No, not the consequences, the responsibility. I never told you, but my life goal, as simple as it is, was always to have a family. My family was… different, but it was mine. I always wanted a family without conflict, where both parents are around and the kids….foals can grow up without fear. It may not be the best time, but I still feel glad about it. No, I’m happy!” That surprised me greatly. A few years ago, this was the worst consequence resulting from the best side issue, and now I was happy with it? “It’s one more reason to survive all this and come back home.” Now I understood why Big Mac looked ready to break my jaw. I was gone and AJ was pregnant. Surely a great impression. My thoughts were interrupted by a long kiss.

“You have no idea how much this means to me, sugarcube.” I had no idea how long we just stood there, snuggling and staring at the gravestones. It could have been hours, but I knew that wasn’t true because Shining Armor would have interrupted us.

“Light! Where are you?” Speaking of the devil.

“Sorry, AJ, it appears I’m wanted.” She just nodded, and I gave her a kiss before I left her at the graves.

“I hope you are as happy for me as I am,” I heard her saying before I was out of earshot. I closed the door behind me as I entered the barn where Shining Armor was waiting. Beside him was his sister with saddlebags filled with books on her back.

“I see you are feeling better. What’s the reason for your wide grin?” I hadn’t even realised it but my lips must have been pulled up to my ears.

“I had a talk with AJ.” Okay, I just came from a non-visible part of the barn, had a grin as wide as a mile, and had been alone with AJ. No wonder that Twilight started to blush like a tomato. “Not like that, Twilight!” I assured her while flailing wildly with a hoof.

“Uhm, yeah. Whatever. I’m here because my brother asked me to help you out a little with magic.” She shook a bit, causing the books in her bags to jump.

“Exactly. So get your gear and we will look for a nice spot.” I recognised the grin on his face. It only meant work and more stress.

Trixie was already chewing through the twentieth book that Princess Luna had thrown before her nose. When she had agreed to learn one particular spell, she would have never thought that she would have to read such an ancient tome.

“These spells need so many words. Trixie is tired just from thinking about it.” In contrast to the alicorn, she couldn’t spend one week without sleep, something that she absolutely needed.

“Just this one and you will have made it halfway, Beatrix. We would have never tried teaching you if we hadn’t been sure that you could do it.” Luna had been sitting on the bed the whole time, observing Trixie as she went through those old books one page at the time. As it had turned out later that night, the Princess herself had written them a long time ago. This gave Trixie a new incentive. It wasn’t only a great honour to be taught a spell that the Princess created and only the Princess knew – it would surely affect her reputation as well. The Great and Powerful Trixie, student of Princess Luna. Yes, that was a pleasing thought and a dampener for Twilight Sparkle at the same time.

“Aren’t there any runes for these spells? You created them after all; couldn’t you also develop some for them?” Luna shook her head.

“These spells are of a particular nature and use part of my power. To tame the power of someone else, you need a special form of magic.” Trixie had never been to a special school for magic, but she had taught herself a lot and had picked up a spell or two from other performers on her journeys. Many had been way too simple, so she had spiced them up a little for her own show. “It is very old, and thou should feel honoured to learn it from us.”

“You said that I need to learn it so I can help my brother. You must be worried about him and want him safe.” She wished she could have just closed her mouth. Did she just lecture the Princess?

“That is our intention. We don’t wish our nephew or anypony else to be injured during this mission. Remember, the husband of our daughter is the leader of the troops.” She would have never thought that the Princess would let that slide. Then again, she was also just a pony who worried for her loved ones.

We all live in a yellow submarine, evade, yellow submarine, evade, yellow submarine. It had been going like that for a while. Shining Armor and Twilight had led me to a barren part of the farm and were now shooting magical bolts at me. My only warning was one ‘Tenshun!’ from him, after which I had to jump around the place to prevent being struck. Sadly, the first shots were direct hits that felt like bullet hitting me square in the back. Twilight’s shots, albeit slower and less precise than her brother’s, felt like a punch in the gut instead. To keep my thoughts occupied, I had been humming this Beatles’ earworm for a while. I had long since given up on deflecting the shots. My stone walls had crumbled after three shots, and the metal ones just simply allowed the spells through but without the advantage of seeing them coming. It was probably the biggest disadvantage I had in my continued efforts of protecting myself with walls, and I was starting to see that I would have to drop that tactic in the future. When had it actually worked anyway?

“Come on, you want to jump all day long?” Shining Armor called out and shot two salvos in my direction. His yelling interrupted my humming, and my thoughts returned for a moment. There I was, standing before two of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria, under heavy fire, and with the prospect of becoming a father. I started to realise what had happened before.

“Ow! Twilight, can’t you do that less painfully?” A bullet had hit me as I had stopped dead in my tracks from the thoughts of the talk with AJ.

“Sorry, I’m not used to these kinds of spells. I only learned them but never practiced them.”

I’m going to be a dad! I thought in a normal fashion.

I’m going to be a dad? Worried

I’m going to be a dad and another hit from Armor.

I’m going to be a dad?! Another hit.

“I’m going to be a dad!” I screamed out and started to run like mad right into an apple tree that relieved itself of one Rainbow Dash, who had been watching when the two siblings had been whipping me into shape, and into the bushes. I felt like running – no idea where, just simply doing it. I crossed a few yards on the path near the fence and back into the bushes. When I reached the CMC clubhouse, I almost tripped over Dawn, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. I couldn’t see what they had been doing, but I had the feeling, as I left visual range, that I had ruined their plans for the day. A large piece of paper was stuck to my flank and some glitter got caught by my coat.

I kept galloping for a few minutes until exhaustion kicked in. During the whole time, my mind was only filled with one thought: I was going to be a dad. Now that I was lying on the ground, the weights off my body, I really started to think about it. I had assured her that I would stay with her and saw nothing that would prevent that from happening, except a few changelings and a world full of Nightmares. It hit me then that we hadn’t been together for longer than two months maybe? I had been with my ex-girlfriend for almost three years, but this topic had never come up. My breathing came deep and heavy. Did I love AJ? Sure, that was out of question, but were we ready for this? The word abortion came into mind, and I hated myself for it. On one side, I didn’t know if they did it here, and I honestly didn’t even wanted to know. On the other hand, if it had been up to my grandparents, my mom could have aborted me as well since she had been a mere twenty two years old at the time she had me. She had fought for my life, and I had sworn to never ever consider something like this should it ever come up. Of course, it wasn’t just my own decision, but AJ wouldn’t consider it either – I knew her too well for that. No, I was going to do this. My mom had been two years younger than I was when she gave birth, and I would be just as good.

“Hahahahahaha, that was awesome!” Still on the ground, I turned my head towards Shining Armor, who had followed me between the trees, far off the path. “You should have seen your face; my sister’s as well. It took her a good five minutes until she realised what was going on.” I was way too occupied with breathing to answer. “I see you made it this far with all the weights. Respect.” He took the bags in his magic and put them on his back like they were empty. The little weights, all scattered on the ground, followed.

“You aren’t surprised?” was the first thing I could spit out with my fresh supply of air.

“You’re one day late. I had seen the first signs yesterday up in the castle.” It must have been something related to pony physiology that I hadn’t yet understood or learned.

“So obvious?” He chuckled in response.

“No, let’s just say we are both in a similar situation. Let’s call it experience.” It took the gears in my head a bit to start grinding, but I got what he meant. “Not a single word to anypony. We don’t want to announce it just yet. Also, with a bit more style than you did.” He laughed again as I blushed. I had basically shouted something private all over the farm. Good thing that we weren’t close to town. “Why the long face? Aren’t you happy?” I didn’t know Shining Armor that well, but in that moment, he was the only one I could openly talk to. I could hardly tell Big Mac about my worries.

“I don’t know. Of course I’m happy, damn it. Having a family is a lifelong dream of mine. Still, AJ and I have been only together for like two months. I even missed announcing that we are an item and now this? Then there is the thing with the changelings and the Nightmares. I don’t even know where to start.” Shining Armor sat himself next to me and followed my gaze over the farm.

“I can only say that you both have something. Something that only couples that can truly evolve into something bigger. However, in the end, I can’t promise you anything.” I felt myself go back in time when I used sit with my friends in our favourite pub, raising glasses and talking about problems once a week. In all honesty, all that was missing was the booze and the smoke fumes. “About the changelings, I can only tell you that I’m in on it and my guys are the best. We are going to take care of that.” I didn’t wonder why he didn’t say anything about the Nightmares. He had done that back in the castle.

“Thanks, you are a real friend.” And the only other buddy I had besides Haste. Maybe even the only one. Equestria’s population in regards to gender was either totally unbalanced, or I had blindly run past any other potential buddy candidate.

“Don’t tell anyone.”

“How come everyone is so nice and trying to help me?” It was a question I had long since wanted to ask. Shining Armor took his time to give me an answer.

“The Princess sees something in you. It was enough to even adopt you. I’d say that gives anypony the confidence that you are alright. Ah, and of course you will worry. You have to put AJ and the unborn foal before everything else. This makes you good in my book.”

She had been lurking around the library for a day now, but nothing had happened yet. The pony she was looking for still hadn’t shown up. Her only find was a picture of weird creatures of different ages, apparently of a family. The picture had been between the formulae, and she was sure that she hadn’t seen it before. However, if it was related to the situation, then it was worth finding out the how and why. She also had the feeling that she needed to find the owner of the picture, but that was not likely to happen if she were to just sit around waiting. The problem was that she couldn’t just show it to anypony, especially not the unicorns. If she were to run into the owner, that would have severe repercussions on her operation. No, that particular pony was her main goal, and she knew where to find him, a place she knew all too well. She could focus on the picture afterwards. Carefully, she sneaked through the alleys of the town and onto the wide beaten path from where she came from.

Author's Notes:

Well, nothing much to say at this point. I know some expected it.

Thanks to LtCWest for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

And give their story a try too:
Contact