Chapter 3: Sh#tstorm at 3

"Who's is it this time?" Applejack asked, looking at her friends nervously. She already had an idea, given that they were at Sugar Cube Corner, but deep down in her mind she knew who was the one that would eventually pop out the mare that was running up to them.

"Mom!" the mare shouted as she jumped up and latched onto Pinkie's neck, swinging around it happily. Rarity seemed to be the most confused of the group, probably because she thought that Pinkie would be the least likely of them to have foals. Pinkie seemed to like it, even going as far to pull the mare into a hug, swinging her back and forth around her neck even more.

"How is the little Surprise doing today?" Pinkie asked, making everypony else look at each other in confusion. The way Pinkie had said Surprise almost seemed like that was the mare's actual name, and how she would have actually known that made no sense at all. Before anypony could ask about it the filly ran back into the bakery, coming out a few minutes later with a Pegasus stallion beside her.

"Mom, you know Pound Cake, right?" the mare asked, waiting for Pinkie to nod before continuing, "Well... We're dating now!" There was a dramatic gasp from Rarity, but she wasn't able to pull her drama queen couch out to catch her if she fell, so she just brought a hoof up to her forehead. Pinkie seemed to enjoy the news, jumping forwards and pulling the mare into a big hug, then moving on to hug Pound Cake.

"How long have you two been seeing each other?" Pinkie asked, getting a nervous look from Pound.

"Around six months, give or take" Pound said, looking down at the mare nervously. He wasn't sure if it was okay for him to be honest about it with Pinkie, but the smile that the mare had on put him at ease. While the three of them talked together about it Twilight leaned over to the rest of the group, a suspicious look on her face.

"Is it just me, or does that mare have a southern accent?" Twilight asked, getting some confirmation nods from everypony else.

"Who do you think Pinkie ended up getting together with?" Rainbow asked, looking up at Pinkie to see her coming back to the group.

"So, I guess Surprise and Pound are really in love!" Pinkie said happily, getting some confused looks from the other ponies.

"How did you know her name was Surprise?" Fluttershy asked, speaking up for the entire group. They all looked at Pinkie with inquisitive looks, all of them really wanting to figure that out. Given the fact that none of them had any idea that they were going to be going to the future it seemed highly unlikely that Pinkie would have already known her name, unless...

"I just guessed it!" Pinkie said innocently, "I always knew that I would name something Surprise!" Pinkie earned some looks of disbelief from her friends, but they went unnoticed by her as she turned around because of a twitch. Just as she turned around she was hugged tight by somepony, who's face that they couldn't see.

"I love you Pinkie-Winkie!~" the stallion said in a sing song way, making Pinkie blush until he let go so that he could look her in the eye. Loud gasps escaped from Rarity and Applejack as Braeburn pulled his face back, his golden coat contrasting against Pinkie.

"Braeburn?!" Applejack said in surprise, getting a strange look from him, like her reaction was completely out of the ordinary.

"What's up Applejack?" Braeburn asked, one of his eyebrows raised up as he looked at her. Everypony then looked at her at the same, even the ponies in the group were confused about her reaction. It was completely out of the ordinary for Applejack to be reacting this way, surprising even Rarity, who was only mildly surprised by the news.

"Oh, it's, uh... nothing..." Applejack said, her cheeks flushing red as she realized that she just had an outburst. After a few minutes everypony's attention was gone from Applejack and back on Braeburn and Pinkie Pie. The main group was surprised that Pinkie and Braeburn had gotten together at some point, but they were more surprised that Pinkie was completely okay with what was going on right now. She seemed to accept it without any complaints, which gave them the idea that she might have had something for Braeburn after their time in Appleloosa.

"Anyways, who's up for a late lunch?" Braeburn asked, getting a growl from Pinkie's stomach, "I made muffins!"

"Blueberry?!" Pinkie asked excitedly, her stomach growling to show that it wanted to ask the same thing.

"Of course, I always make your favorite!" Braeburn said as he leaned in and gave Pinkie a kiss, which seemed to catch her by surprise, but she quickly got used to it. After they broke apart, which was met with a disgusted noise from Surprise, the group headed inside the bakery, which looked nothing like how it did in their own time. Everything was more organized and practical, even the displays seemed to have gotten nicer.

"Wow..." Twilight said quietly, getting Surprise's attention by accident. Braeburn silently trotted into the back of the store and came back with a tray of muffins that were still hot from the oven. While everypony else was staring at the delicious looking muffins, Twilight was looking at the handle that Braeburn was carrying the tray with. She had never seen anything like it before, other than on baking carts, so the sight of one being used for one baking tray amazed her.

"Okay, eat up!" Braeburn said as he put the muffins down, somehow releasing the tray from the handle's grasp with a pop. As everypony began to devour the cupcakes there was a knock at the door to the bakery, and when everypony looked they all saw...

"Rainbow Dash! How nice of you to show up today" Braeburn said cheerfully as he went over to the door to shake her hoof, "Is everything okay, you look like you've seen a ghost"

"No, everything is not okay" Rainbow said, sounding mildly upset, "Why are you giving those ponies free muffins?" She waved a hoof towards the group angrily, making all of them except for Pinkie stop eating. Braeburn turned around and looked at them for a short while before turning back around to face the future Rainbow.

"I don't see anything wrong with them, it's just Pinkie and her friends" Braeburn answered, getting an annoyed look from future Rainbow.

"Didn't you notice that there's a Rainbow Dash in their group, and that she still has wings?" future Rainbow asked angrily, quickly trotting over to the group and pulling Rainbow out of her seat. She shoved Rainbow towards Braeburn, in such a way that threw her so off balance that she had to stick her wings out to prevent herself from falling flat on her face. Braeburn looked at her intensely for a few seconds before looking up at the rest of the group, quickly scanning all of them. Just as his eyes settled on Pinkie he was tackled by a pink blur, nearly throwing him across the room.

"HI BRAEBURN!" the blur said, slowly turning back into a pony to reveal itself as the future Pinkie Pie. If you looked close enough you would be able to see smoke coming out of Braeburn's ears as he tried to comprehend how there were two Pinkie's in the bakery at the same time, but nothing his brain could come up with made any sense.

"How? Wha?" Braeburn stammered, unable to figure out how to properly ask how the world hasn't destroyed itself because there were two Pinkie Pies in it at one time, as well as HOW there were two of them there. Anypony else's brain would have completely stopped working in this situation, but given the fact that he was married to one of them Braeburn's mind managed to hold itself together, if only a little bit.

"I'd like to know the same thing" future Rainbow said, looking over at Twilight, knowing that she would have some sort of explanation for how they managed to come into the future. After some nervous shifting in her chair Twilight finally spoke up, willing to admit her mistake.

"We were summoned to go to Canterlot to see Celestia..."

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"...and then we came here" Twilight finished, looking around to see that Applejack and Rainbow had fallen asleep, while the future Rainbow and Pinkie were both looking at her with interest.

"How come we don't remember any of this then?" future Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow at Twilight.

"Maybe because it was so long ago you forgot about it, or maybe something happens at the end and you forced it from your memory?" Twilight said, her eyes slowly dropping down to the scars on future Rainbow's back where her wings used to be.

"No, it's not that, I know how I lost those" future Rainbow said, looking to make sure her past counterpart was asleep before continuing, "There was a big crash just a while before I got married to Big Mac, they had to amputate them because of how badly they were broken. That's all I want to say about that for now"

"Ok, but then why would neither of you remember it, and why does everypony think that we're you, or us, but the future versions?" Twilight asked, remembering that both future Rainbow and Applejack's children didn't notice that there was something different about them, and even the Cutie Mark Crusaders saw them as their future counterparts.

"Might be a side effect of the magic you used, it could be masking your true appearance to anypony but us, because we must have gone through the same thing" Rainbow suggested, getting a confused look from Twilight. The current Rainbow Dash would never have thought of something like that, nor would she have explained it so well. Future Pinkie seemed to notice it so she decided to speak up and explain why that was.

"After losing her wings Rainbow started working around the farm and hanging out with the ponies on the ground more and more" future Pinkie said, taking a break to smile at future Rainbow, "She probably started learning from spending time with Applejack and, well, you"

"Ok, but how are you guys taking this so well?" Twilight asked, just as Rainbow and Applejack began to wake up, "I would have thought that you would freak out having seen us"

"I did, believe me, but now I just want you guys out of here, ASAP" Rainbow said, giving them all a very serious look. It was clear to everypony that they needed to get home, but there seemed to be another reason for future Rainbow to want them gone, and no pony could figure it out. After they finished their muffins they got up and left, not before thanking Braeburn of course, and headed for the library, where they would find the one pony that might be able to help them. Next Chapter: Chapter 4: An Unusual Gem Estimated time remaining: 33 Minutes