Chapter 16: Arrival

Twilight was busy running around the library in an attempt to control Amethyst when she heard a knock at the door, a welcome sign for her, as Amethyst had a habit of heading to it whenever somepony showed up. When she looked over at the door she saw him, sitting patiently like a dog, ignoring Twilight completely as she walked past him to open the door.

"Hi Fluttershy" Twilight smiled as she welcomed Fluttershy into the library, it being her day to help with Amethyst and to manage Twilight's pregnancy. Earlier in the week she collapsed suddenly while talking to Cheerilee, who had come by to take out a book she was going to read to her class. Twilight was rushed to Ponyville Hospital and was told that the stress of watching Amethyst was causing complications, and might force a premature birth of her child, which she had learned was a male Unicorn, like his father. Doctor Stable warned her that overexerting herself was going to cause major issues for both her and the foal's immediate future, but Twilight was unable to do it, so her friends offered to help her with the foalsitting.

"Hi Twilight, how are you feeling today?" Fluttershy quickly asked as Amethyst moved towards her curiously. He had never met her before because of her fear of dragons, and despite the fact that it was Spike's son she was still afraid of him. Once she looked at him her fears disappeared, his overall pony appearance making her see him as a very unique colt, rather than some kind of dragon pony half breed.

"I'm alright, just feeling extra tired after somepony kept me up all night" Twilight said angrily as she shot a glare at Amethyst, who had in fact kept her up by screaming and hollering almost nonstop for the entire night. If Twilight could guess, she got maybe two hours of sleep, but that would be if she was rounding up generously.

"Oh, I'm sure he didn't mean it..." Fluttershy said sweetly as she moved to play with the young troublemaker, "Isn't that right you little fluff ball you..."

"Um, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, interrupting her doting over Amethyst.

"Yes Twilight?" Fluttershy asked while keeping her eyes trained on Amethyst as he tried to play with her mane.

"Can you go prepare his breakfast, I have to burp him now" Twilight said calmly as she moved towards Amethyst, who happily reached up around Twilight's neck and prepared for his burping. Once it was done and a fire was prevented Twilight took him to his seat so he could wait for his breakfast, which was about to come out when Twilight felt a sharp pain from her lower body.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted, the Pegasus being in the room as fast as she could, "Can you check to see if my water broke?!"

"Y-Yeah!" Fluttershy stuttered before moving down to check, finding it to be in fact broken. Due to the situation leaving her speechless Fluttershy just nodded, knocking Twilight out from the shock. She wasn't expecting it to happen so soon, she thought she had another week or so, but now...

"Fluttershy..." Twilight groaned, the pain quickly becoming unbearable for her as the baby attempted to force it's way out. Fluttershy started to look around in fear, not quite sure what to do, and Peewee flying around gave her the answer she was looking for. Without hesitation Fluttershy just ran out of the library and flew away, heading straight towards Rainbow's cloud house.

"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy shouted as she flew up to Rainbow's bedroom window, seeing her reading the newest Daring Do novel, Daring Do and the Alicorn Amulet, but when Fluttershy appeared at her window she angrily put the book down.

"What is it Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked quickly, still trying to read the book while it was down on her lap.

"I need you to go get Applejack and Pinkie!" Fluttershy said quickly, looking back towards the library worriedly, tipping Rainbow off that something was wrong with Twilight. Being careful to not push Fluttershy out of the way Rainbow shot out of her window, heading first towards Sweet Apple Acres. Knowing that Rainbow was going to be able to get them to the library quickly Fluttershy shot back, finding Twilight curled up in a ball on the floor.

"Flut-tershy..." Twilight stuttered through the pain, barely staying conscious through it. Amethyst and Peewee were looking at her worriedly, neither of them knowing what was going on and were terrified of it. Fluttershy quickly ran over to Twilight's side and checked how far along she was, her eyes getting wide when she took a good look. She started to shake as she thought about what was coming, and just as she was about to pass out Applejack and the others rushed in, quickly taking places at Twilight's side.

"Twi, are you okay? How are you feeling?" Applejack quickly asked while looking Twilight over, seeing what Fluttershy was looking at, "Oh no..."

"What is it?" Rainbow asked, looking at Applejack worriedly.

"She's giving birth right now" Applejack said sternly, her face showing no emotion as she thought it over.

"We have to get her to the hospital!" Rainbow shouted quickly, preparing to lift Twilight up off the ground, but she was stopped by Applejack and Pinkie's hoof. Rainbow gave them strange looks, but when she looked into their eyes she understood and quieted down, ready to see what she could do to help...

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"Ugh, my everything..." Twilight moaned as she came to, her eyes opening slowly as she sat up. Looking around her room she found each of her friends passed out in weird places, and with Amethyst laying next to Fluttershy. When Twilight heard somepony crying she got up, heading towards Amethyst, but she noticed that it wasn't him that was crying. Walking over to the crib that Rarity had given her for Amethyst Twilight found a strange new foal laying in it. Looking at the foal made Twilight feel some sort of warm emotion from inside, noticing that he had two familiar stripes in his hair. Twilight picked him up and cradled him, heading towards her bed so she could hold him with her forelegs. As she laid down with him his crying stopped and he begun to suck on Twilight's hoof.

"Hey little guy, what's your name...?" Twilight asked quietly, but still loud enough for her friends to wake up.

"How ya feelin' sugar cube?" Applejack asked sleepily as she walked up to Twilight's bed.

"Tired, and sore" Twilight said, finally noticing a large bump missing from her body, "Is he mine?"

"Yup..." Rainbow said, her eyes getting glossy as she looked at him in Twilight's arms.

"We had to help birth him since you were here when it started, so..." Fluttershy said quietly, giving Twilight and the foal a sweet smile.

"What are you going to call him Twilight?" Pinkie asked, already planning out the colt's birthday party for the next ten years. Twilight had thought of a few names, but none of them seemed to fit with the colt, but a look out the window told her what to say.

"Orion" Twilight said, the colt giggling happily when she did, "His name is Orion Sparkle"

"That's a fitting name" Rainbow said, looking out the same window and seeing the hunter's constellation just outside the window. Pinkie bounced over and looked at Orion happily, her pink mane touching his nose, making him sneeze. His sneeze caused Pinkie to fall backwards, a small hint of dark magic flashing from his horn when he did.

"Uh oh..." Fluttershy said worriedly as she shrunk away, the memories of the Crystal Empire coming flooding back to her.

"It'll be fine, Twilight'll raise him right, trust me" Applejack said happily, a look at Orion's sleeping state calming Fluttershy back down. Twilight smiled as Orion giggled, his magic ability showing as he picked up Amethyst's sucker from across the room and putting it in his mouth, eagerly sucking on it. The girls talked for a little bit more, mostly about planning his party when Rarity had come back, and eventually they all left. Twilight was going to get up, but decided against it, deciding to instead spend her first night as a mother with her precious little colt.

"I love you Orion Sparkle, you're my world now..." Twilight whispered as she fell asleep, smiling for the entire night as she slept with her own colt in her arms.