Chapter 12: Leaving Canterlot Again

As Twilight woke up she heard the sound of hooves clopping around her. At first she imagined herself back at the Crystal Empire, where the sound of hooves clopping could easily be mistaken for the sound of whips hitting the pony's backs, or Sombra and his guards approach. When Twilight opened her eyes the hooves stopped, and all of her friends look at her for only a moment before running towards her for a group hug.

"Twilight!" Everypony said happily as they each tried to hug some part of Twilight. When the mass of ponies had settled Twilight saw Rarity and Spike sitting next to each other in the back of the room, Spike idly rubbing Rarity's stomach as he watched the mass amounts of hugging going on. He noticed that Twilight was looking at him so he got Rarity's attention and the two of them smiled and waved. Twilight had been told about Rarity's pregnancy, and was happy to know her little dragon was growing up, even if this was all caused by her failure.

"Hey Twilight, are you gonna tell us who the dad is?" Pinkie Pie asked suddenly when she felt something kick her face because of where she had been hugging.

"Um, well..." Twilight stuttered as her eyes grew big, everypony in the room focused on her, "You see, well, the dad is, um..."

"Spit it out already darling" Rarity said in a half yell so Twilight would hear her.

"Sombra..." Twilight whispered, only being heard by Fluttershy and Spike.

"Who was that?" Applejack asked, sharing a confused look with Rainbow Dash.

"Sombra..." Twilight said a tiny bit louder than before, now being heard by Pinkie, who was still wrapped around Twilight's waist.

"One more time egghead" Rainbow said flatly as she crossed her forelegs in front of herself as she hovered at the foot of the bed.

"It was Sombra okay!" Twilight said before grabbing one of the pillows and putting her face into it. She breathed heavily into the pillow for a few minutes, only looking up when the silence started to annoy her. When she did look up she saw worried looks on everypony's faces.

"Are you okay sugarcube?" Applejack asked as she put a hoof on the bed, her big green eyes giving Twilight a truly worried look.

"I don't know..." Twilight said sadly, "It's scary to think I'm actually pregnant with his foal"

"Don't worry Twi, we'll be there to help you when you need it" Rainbow said calmly as she looked for everypony's agreement, which they gave with a nod. Twilight looked at all of them in surprise before smiling back, tears of joy starting to make their way down her face.

"Thank you all..." Twilight said before the tears took control. Everypony else just watched as Twilight smiled and cried, their kindness being too much for her to take all at once. Once she had calmed down a nurse came in with Color Palette and they talked to Rarity and Twilight about what they would do now. After discussing it the two mares easily chose heading home to Ponyville, and Color Palette agreed to send their files over to Doctor Monitor. Tomorrow they would be back in their own homes for the first time in what seemed like years.

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"Now arriving at Ponyville station" the train announcer said over the loud speaker as the train pulled into the station. When everypony's things were collected they made their way off the train, the normal sounds of Ponyville oddly silent as the train left.

"I wonder where everypony is..." Rarity said, looking over towards her boutique to find it in pristine condition, which made her left out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, it's oddly quiet for the middle of the day..." Rainbow Dash agreed, flying up to get a better view of the town, "It's almost like everypony left Ponyville"

"Hey, where's Pin-" Twilight began to say before a loud bang went off beside her.

"WELCOME HOME!" Pinkie shouted alongside the entire town of Ponyville, the bang having been her party cannon firing it's payload of party supplies. Within minutes Twilight and the rest of the group had been hugged by everypony in town, including Zecora who had made a rare appearance at one of Pinkie's parties. Once the party began to settle down they approached Pinkie, who had already been tired out from all the hugs.

"How did you plan this Pinkie?" Twilight asked, turning her head around to look at the large group of ponies, the party spreading down the path to Ponyville and on the tracks.

"Oh it was simple, I just had Spike send a letter to Mayor Mare that said we were coming back and asked her to get everypony ready for a Pinkie Party here at the station!" Pinkie said happily as a loud crash was heard, the entire party had fallen over because Berry Punch had tripped and knocked over one of the punch bowls.

"Same old Berry" Rainbow laughed before flying over to help the tipsy mare to her hooves.

"Thanks for planning this Pinkie, it's so nice of you to do this on such short notice" Twilight said as she gave Pinkie a giant hug, making the pink pony giggle happily. When the Apple family saw Applejack they ran over, Applebloom jumping at her sister's neck.

"Sis!" Applebloom yelled happily as she swung around Applejack's neck. The two sisters laughed happily as Big Mac moved over to hug them both as Granny smiled. Rarity was ambushed by her sister soon after, her parents not far behind, and they began to hug as well. Rarity pulled her family and Spike off to the side, planning to break the news about her foal with Spike to them now rather than later. Pinkie was then pulled away to fix something that had fallen down near the edge of the party, leaving Twilight with Fluttershy.

"And then there were two" Twilight said as she turned to look at Fluttershy, only to see her talking to Angel as he hugged her leg tight.

"Oh, it's okay Angel bunny, I'm home now, don't worry" Fluttershy said quietly as she rubbed Angel's back, the rabbit nuzzling it's self into Fluttershy's fur. Twilight understood that the two of them were going to be like that for a while, so she quietly walked away, making her way to the library to be alone as she thought about the pregnancy, the whole idea of carrying Sombra's kid still scaring her.