Pinkie Pie woke up, she felt a hammering sensation in her head. She rubbed her still sleepy eyes to see that not only there wasn’t a hammer or some kind of blunt object around, but there wasn’t a Rainbow Dash, either!

“D-Dashie?” she searched for her lover between the sheets only to find a few blue feathers scattered among the cloudy bed and still that pounding feeling in her skull.

That was when she saw her fiance blocking--or at least trying to--the door with all of her weight. She was sweating profusely and muttering something under her breath as the pounding on the door increased.

“Um...What are you doing? Is there something wrong with the door?” Pinkie inquired.

“More like what’s on the other side of the door. Something very wrong!”

“I heard you, you know!” a female voice shouted, legitimately indignated. Or at least Pinkie thought it was legitimate. It sounded like the kind of anger that only somepony’s mom would show.

“Come on, Dashie…” a groan followed. This time by a male voice. “I was just joking, open up!”

“Dashie? Who is it exactly that you are trying to keep out?”

Rainbow hung her head over her chest, followed by a loud, frustrated sigh. “My folks.”

“Oh, my gosh!” she jumped a few times, hopping all over Dash’s room, on the furniture, on the bed, on the scaffolds holding the limited edition Daring Do novels that Dash was starting to see as a distant memory…

”Your folks! Mommy and Daddy Dash! This is so great!” she pulled her pegasus fillyfriend in a crushing hug, her forelegs still trying and failing to desperately keep the door shut. “I’ve got to meet them!”

“No, nonononono!” Rainbow grabbed Pinkie’s shoulders and lifted her away from the door. “I don’t think it’s a good idea!”

“Why? What’s wrong with your folks?”

“Everything! Now be a good Pinkie and let’s go and hide until they’re gone. Manehattan! No wait, how’s Appleloosa in this season? Maybe Braeburn can give us Sanctuary! Or what about…?” Before she realized, Pinkie Pie was gone from her grasp and the pink pony lodged herself face first in the cloudy wall. Dash loudly gulped.

“HELLO MOMMY AND DADDY DASH!” A screaming head of a pink pony poked right through the cloudy wall, leaving a very puzzled pair of pegasi.

“Ummm...Hello?” said Firefly, before turning to her husband who shook his head in disbelief.

Pinkie Pie jumped and with her heart slamming on her ribcage, greeted the pair with a giant hug. “Ohmygosh, I’m so, so happy to finally meet you!”

“Urr...Likewise?” Firefly knew that in the most confusing situations, politeness was the only right answer, “Though we’ve never had the pleasure before…” Firefly squeaked.

“Mom… Dad…” Dash spat out the words frustratedly while she sighed and came out of the door, and tore her parents from her hug-obsessed fillyfriend’s bone crushing embrace before she could reduce them to a fine paste, “This is Pinkie Pie.”

“Pinkie Pie….? Oh , yes!” Rainbow Blitz smashed his hoof against the other, “I remember her! I mean, she talked about you in her letters to us,” the rainbow-maned stallion said.

“I’m Firefly. And this is my husband—” the pinkish mare with an electric blue mane was swiftly cut off by Pinkie’s exuberance.

“Rainbow Blitz, I know! Dashie told me just yesterday.” Pinkie shot a quick glance at the stallion. “He really is your dad! I mean, look at that mane,” Pinkie squealed.

“Letter, darling.” Firefly poked at her husband’s ribs, “Dashie here writes just a letter a year, apparently thinking it’s enough.”

“What? I’m a busy mare. Right, Pinkie?” The pink pony nodded with a huge smile on her face.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to be mean to you, Mr. and Mrs. Dash. Dashie can be such an adorable featherhead!” she playfully ruffled Rainbow’s polychromatic mane. “And she is busy, what with being an adorable Wonderbolt trainee, and an adorable friend all around, and did I mention she is adorable?”

“Well, at least we agree on this point.” Before the ‘adorable trainee’ could fix her mane, Firefly pinched on Rainbow’s cheek and the cyan mare realized there was no escape from their combined cuteness.

“Um, by the way...I don’t want to offend you, but what was she doing with you, in your room, this early in the morning?” Finally, Blitz had called out the big elephant in the room, or on the cloud at least.

“Errrr…” Rainbow Dash bit her lip, her eyes shifting between her mother, her father and her fillyfriend. “Yeah, about that…” she reached Pinkie Pie with a hoof, only to find Pinkie’s own already wrapped around her shoulders.

“We are freshly engaged! E-n-g-a-g-g-e-d!” Pinkie chirped as she nuzzled the cyan mare, seemingly without a care in the world.

Dash was kind of disappointed at not being the one to give the good news. Or rub it in her dad’s face, at least. She would have used one ‘g’ less, too.

“What? Really?” Blitz’s eyes shone with a bright light, his smile nearly splitting his face. ”I mean, I would have accepted if she was just a one night stand, too!”

“Dad!” Dash blushed, the burning going all the way up to her ears. Firefly’s hoof met her forehead, silently wondering if it should have landed on her husband’s face.

“But you actually made her a honest mare? Or is the other way around?” Rainbow Blitz asked with a curious grin.

“What?!” Firefly held a hoof over her chest, “My question is why you didn’t tell us sooner?”

“It happened just yesterday! Besides, with Ponyville’s postal system we’d be lucky if you got the letter in what, a couple of weeks, maybe?” Rainbow didn’t hate Derpy, quite the opposite, actually, she counts Derpy as one of her closest friends, but that doesn’t change the fact that she can be a bit… clutzy with the mail...

******

“What’s wrong, mom?” Dinky Hooves stopped doodling in her coloring book and gave a long, hard look to her mother’s uneven, unblinking eyes.

“Nothing,” Derpy said, shaking her head, “I just feel that, somewhere, my professionalism has been put in doubt!”

“Ah! Tell me about it!” Trixie levitated a couple of stuffed rabbits, trying to decide which to choose to stuff in her hat, “I have that feeling nearly every day!”

******

“And how long have you been dating, then?” Firefly cocked an eyebrow, curious.

“Five weeks or so. Which is exactly the amount of time of o—” the cyan pegasus was interrupted by her mother.

“Aren’t you rushing things a little too much? I mean, just five weeks—” Dash’s mother was interrupted, herself, by a pink hoof pointing upwards.

“Aaaand years of good friendship. Years and years of good friendship, even if the canon timeline is a bit fuzzy on that. That kinda balances it out, Mrs. Firefly, doesn’t it?” Pinkie jumped in with her usual goofy grin.

“Uhm…” Firefly put a hoof under her chin and cocked an eyebrow, immersed in thought, “Well, your father and I married after, what? One year of dating?” she chuckled, “Who am I to judge, after all?”

“Well, you were already expecting Dashie, here, and I had to do the honorable thing. No, no…” he waved his hoof, “Don’t think of me as an hero.” He swelled his chest with pride, his mane billowing in a fortuitous gust of wind.

“Nopony will, don’t worry…” Mother and daughter giggled as the jab went unnoticed while Pinkie Pie watched in amazement.

“Dashie, you never told me that! It’s exactly like u—” Pinkie’s mouth was stopped by a light blue hoof being roughly shoved into it.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just waiting for the right moment for telling them,” Dash whispered through her teeth.

“Which would be?”

“Not now.”

“You know what? I’m happy for you two!” Blitz said, pulling his daughter and the pink earth pony in a tight hug. Very tight. Dash could see even Pinkie Pie gasping for breath, trapped in those strong forelegs of his. “So, were you the one who proposed to her, Dash?”

“I wanted to, but she beat me to the punch.” She extracted herself from her father’s embrace, “She even had the ring, well, kind of,” Rainbow held up the makeshift ring, still around her hoof, “I mean, it’s the thought that counts, right?”

Firefly sniffed. “Does that smell of pineapples?”

"Yes, indeed-y, Mrs. Firefly! You got a good nose,” Pinkie nodded, “I had to make do, but I hope you two won’t think bad of me! I didn’t have the time to ask my Mommy and Daddy about Granny’s ring that I’m totally going to give to Dashie when I can get down to the old rock farm and ask them for it. But it’s a total secret, so don’t tell Dashie,” Pinkie spouted, her voice dropping down to a whisper at the last part.

“I’m right here, you know!” Dash complained while Firefly covered her mouth with a hoof to hide a delighted snicker, “I heard that!”

“I said it’s a secret!” she stood on her hooves, gaining a few inches over Dash and hissed from above, nearly forcing the pegasus on the ground.

“Alright, alright…” Dash rolled her eyes, not wanting to continue. She’d just have to act very surprised when that happens.

“No, don’t worry,” Firefly chuckled and gave the makeshift ring a better look, “It’s kinda...fun.”

“That’s right, Mrs. Firefly. Fun is my sixth or seventh name. I kinda lost count on those."

“How did you two met? Oh, I can’t wait to hear the details! Why don’t we go inside?” Blitz wrapped his arms around both girls’ shoulders and started making his way into the rest of the house, sounding downright giddy. The polar opposite of his daughter, the reasons for which, Pinkie really couldn’t grasp. Maybe she was just tired. Tired and surprised, even though surprises were always nice!

“It’s kind of a long story,” Dash rolled her eyes, “How can you even hope to summarize years and years of adventures, silliness, emotions and— “ Rainbow Dash was quickly cut off by a sharp intake of breath from her bride-to-be.

“Well, we saved Equestria together, became the best of best friends, saved Equestra again, I became a babysitter, she entered the Wonderbolt Academy, we helped save the Crystal Empire from an evil king made of smoke, I made multiple copies of me, she learned that books are cool and then I noticed that my friend was more than a friend to me and I waited for the right moment to tell her, because she’s so cute and she was totally OK with me liking her!” Pinkie zipped around the stallion to her fillyfriend’s side to snuggle on her coat like it was the world’s best blanket. Only warmer and more feathery.

Dash blinked. Turns out Pinkie Pie had really good synopsis skills. “Yeah, one day she had this silly excuse of needing yours truly for helping in her workout. You!” Rainbow pointed a hoof to her father and shot him a piercing glare, “Don’t you even try to make that joke about some other kinds of workouts!”

“Well, I never...I’d never dare to…” The joke was already in Blitz’s head, screaming from its cage to be told for everypony to hear. It decided to keep quiet the moment Blitz’s daughter and wife threw him that look together. The look that not only said he was totally going to joke about it, but also that they knew about it and grave repercussions would be upon him if he dared to utter the fateful words! “I won’t…” he shrugged.

“And I finally told her that I liked her, liked her! Which is different from just liking a pony! I won’t lie to you: I had to work up the courage for so long!”

“Tell me about it! I had a crush on Dashie’s mother since the first time I saw her in Flight School!”

“But I still had the common sense of not falling to his hooves instantly. But if we had to choose between love and common sense…” she climbed atop Blitz and planted a small kiss on his cheek. “Everything would be just so sad.” He giggled and kissed her back.

Pinkie Pie d’awwed. Rainbow Dash ewwwwed,“Moooom...Don’t get sappy in front of my mare.”

“Oh, grow up!” Firefly quipped, “She doesn’t seem to mind.”

In fact, Pinkie Pie was standing there with an ear-to-ear grin, tightening her grip around Rainbow Dash with her hug-hungry forelegs, “That was so adorable, Mrs. Firefly.”

“Just call me Firefly, dear.”

“You know what this calls for?”

“A part—” Blitz raised his hoof but his voice was drowned out and swept under a rug of pure, pink exuberance.

“A PARTY!” Pinkie Pie shouted. She jumped in the air, and at the same time, dozens of multi colored streamers blew down from the ceiling. Dash didn’t dare to question it. “Just give me sixty minutes and I’m gonna throw the best ‘Meet my adorable in-laws of my adorable fillyfriend’ party that you ever saw!”

“Are you sure of that? Last one I went to was pretty awesome. They had a dragon!”

“We have one, too!” Pinkie shared a laugh with Dash’s father and went her merry way, bouncing and chatting with Firefly as she went to the other room to get a chest of party supplies the pink pony snuck in the night before. Dash didn’t complain carrying it all the way to her house, especially after the promise of totally awesome sex. The day was going smoothly, but there was one little detail. Actually a big detail with spiky, multicolored mane.

Who wasn’t Dash, for once.

“You!” she poked at her father’s ribs and pointed a hoof at him, glaring with eyes that would’ve sent an army flying up the hills for the sheer terror, “Behave.” Her command would have made even the Princesses, themselves, cow in fear. To put it bluntly, Dash could be very scary when she wants to be.

A profound sadness became etched in Blitz’s eyes and his heart as well. “You are still angry.” Not a question, but a bitter statement.

“Yeah. Just...behave. No more stupid jokes than necessary and treat Pinkie well. Can you do this for me? At least this much?”

He sighed. “I’ll do it. For you. And for Pinkie Pie. She seems nice. I like her. Does she know about your—”

“Yes,” Rainbow Dash stated simply. With that, she trotted away to Pinkie’s side.

“I’m glad you found a special somepony,” he sighed.

“Thanks.” A faint smile appeared on her lips and the memory of better days flashed before her eyes. Memories where she could smile at him, a true, sincere smile, and not be afraid.

She hated herself for being so cold with her dad, but after that happened…

That awful, horrible, terribly embarrassing day happened… Something in her heart couldn’t accept the fact that the loving father that taught her to fly and always believed in her would be the same pony who humiliated her so. Still, she would give him another chance. She wanted to see if he had changed. She desperately needed to know he had changed.

“Need any help, Pinkie?”

“I hope you know we are telling them,” Even wearing her fake glasses with mustache, Pinkie Pie sounded absolutely calm and authoritarian.

“What?!”

“You know what I’m talking about. We are having the party, and I’m telling the Cakes and our friends to not tell them about the foals until I have prepared them for it. It’s a ‘preparing-for-good-news-party.’ I already had some, so don’t worry.”

“Are you sure? I mean, isn’t that too early? I mean they just came and—”

“More reason for telling them. You know how I feel about secrets,” she pouted. “Especially this one! In fact...I would have told them right before I did about the engagement!”

“Well, it is going to be a little awkward and maybe my dad, that doofus, is going to let slip that ‘little-but-not-really secret of mine in front of the girls and—” a pink hoof brushed her lips and a pair of sky blue eyes stared back at her magenta orbs.

“Dashie…” she removed the party accessory and still spoke in that unusually calm tone. “They are not just your foals. They are our foals and I want to tell them because there are some things that just can’t be hidden forever, especially when those ponies are your parents. Blitz and Firefly are their family as well and I want them to know their grandparents when they are born.”

“Well, we’d never come to that! I mean...um…I’m not excluding my dad from my life!"

"Then smile or turn that frown upside down!” she quickly kissed Dash on the cheek, “We’re going to have a party!”

******

“Excuse me, young lady, Could you point us the way to Sugarcube Corner?” Clyde Pie was drawing the carriage, carrying his wife and two daughters. Limestone and Marble were loudly yawning, their forelegs idly hanging from outside the carriage.

“Sure, Mister!” Derpy Hooves pointed toward the village in the distance. “It just over there, the big, marzipan shaped building. You can’t miss it!” she said, cheerily.

“Why, thank you. Have a good day.” He tipped his hat and started moving again while the pegasus floated to the opposite way, reaching the unicorn wearing a starry cape.

“Ugh! Finally!” Limestone dropped her back on the wooden surface. “You know, I was actually getting kinda tired of asking ‘are we there yet’?”

“It wasn’t funny the first, second or three hundredth time, either,” Marble muttered.

“You didn’t even want to play I Spy, Inkie!”

“We did, but everything you spied were just blades of grass or some clouds.”

“Well, they were the only things on the way to Ponyville!”

“Still better than at the farm. You just spied rocks over and over and over again!”

Sue Pie was simply staring at the landscape with a pristine smile on her face, her daughters’ squabble not passing through the ear plugs firmly squashed in her ears.

“What’s that, Trixie?” Derpy asked her fillyfriend, who suddenly stopped on her tracks.

“Trixie has the nagging feeling that she has already seen those ponies before...” she turned towards the carriage and squinted, “Something about a very embarrassing time of her life, but she just can’t wrap her mind around it.”

“Oh, I’m sure it will. You could’ve just asked them.”

Trixie shrugged. “True. Perhaps we will meet them again. Did he say Sugarcube Corner, right?”

“Yup.”

“I think I know that pony…” Clyde rubbed the side of his head with a hoof.

“Who? The pegasus with weird eyes?”

“Marble!” Sue poked at her daughter, having recently taken out her ear plugs, “It’s not polite to point it out.”

“Ouch! Now you decide to take off the earplugs?”

“No, the one with her. The one with the stupid hat. I think I saw her somewhere, some time ago.”

“Wasn’t she…” Limestone blinked. “Wasn’t she the one that used to talk with rocks? She was a real weirdo.”

“You talk with rocks, too,” Marble replied.

“Yes, but they answer me! I’m not a weirdo if they can answer me!”

“What if only she can hear them, too?” Marble snickered, drawing an angry glare from her sister, “It’s the same excuse!”

“Well, it’s a small village. Perhaps we’ll meet them again,” Clyde shrugged and continued pulling the carriage as Sue offered him a pair of earplugs as well, leaving his daughters to their bickering, behind him.

******

The piquant, pleasant smell of apple orchards filled Pinkie’s nostrils and calmed her nerves. Not that she was nervous to begin with but it was always nice to take a breath of fresh air, immersed in the nature and with friends that she loved, and especially with the one she loved above everypony else.

She hopped near Applejack as her friend was setting up a bowl of punch to a nearby table. “Thank you so, sooo much for letting us have the party at Sweet Apple Acres, AJ.”

“Heh, no problem, sugarcube. Anything for you and Rainbow. “

Pinkie giggled. “I would’ve liked to have this party at Sugarcube Corner, as well, but well, the Cakes need to work in the morning.” That must have been the reason why she couldn’t find them yet at the bakery. Maybe they were still sleeping or taking care or the twins or buying ingredients.

She would have liked to invite them to the preparation party so they could meet Rainbow’s folks and maybe even tell them to keep the surprise about the foals! She shrugged, reasoning there was nothing to worry about it.

“Even though Ah still haven’t recovered from yesterday's party,” The farmpony’s belly grumbled a little, “Jus’... what the hay was in those eggrolls?”

“Maybe I used too much chili last time… but that’s not important now! I can count on you, right, AJ?” Pinkie winked at her.

Applejack didn’t quite catch on until she saw Rainbow’s dad laughing and chatting with Fluttershy and Rarity out of the corner of her eye, “Oh, yeah...The ‘preparation party’ thing. Of course ah knew.”

Rainbow fluttered beside, loudly yawning. “Can’t believe you had everything ready so fast.”

“It’s me. Remember?” Pinkie giggled.

“Yup.” She landed near the pink pony and gave her a nice, big hug. Applejack blushed lightly at that sight.

“Rainbow!” a little, scaly thing shouted her name and latched onto her chest.

“Oh! Hi, Spike.” She patted his spiky head. “Guess you made it.”

“Of course I had to make it! Twilight told me everything about you and Pinkie and your…” he watched left and right and lowered his voice. “...Condition and keeping it secret for now.”

“Did she use a graph for that?” Rainbow let out a quiet snicker.

“No. A Venn Diagram.”

“A real shame you didn’t come last night, Spikey.” Pinkie Pie snatched the young dragon and squeezed him to her chest in a tight hug, throttling him around like a doll. He let out a small squeal of pain.

“Well…” he flapped his arms about, searching for an escape. “I had that sleepover planned and the Crusaders are my friends, too. Even if it was kinda awkward.”

“Why’s that?” Rainbow asked.

“Take some notes, it’s gonna be long.” He took a deep breath while Pinkie whipped out a notepad. “Derpy’s daughter has a crush on this Rumble kid, Rumble has a crush on Scootaloo, Scootaloo has a crush on Applebloom and Applebloom has a crush on me!”

Applejack, Rainbow and Pinkie blinked, speechless. “Now that’s a doozy…” Applejack took out her hat and used it to gave herself some air, while Pinkie scribbled down a large diagram.

“Sorry if I can’t expand on that, yet.”

“Oh, there’s time, Spikey.” Pinkie put a hoof under her chin. “Maybe for a spin-off.”

“Spin-off?” Rainbow shook her head. “Pinkie, life doesn’t have spin-offs!”

“Tell that to the author that can’t ever decide what to wr—”

“Ya know, girls…” the farmpony put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, “Rainbow, there is a thing I gotta ask you. What’s the problem with your father?”

Rainbow’s wings deflated. “So you did tell her, too,” she frowned, “I guess you kinda had to...” Rainbow felt hurt. She knew that most of her secrets and feelings were still safe, even if laid bare in front of her closest friends. The key word was ‘most’...

“I got really worried, not because you were trying to turn yourself in a pony door stopper, but when you told Blitz to behave,” Pinkie tilted her head, “Usually it’s the daddy that tells a filly that, not the other way around! Unless…”

“I don’t understand, Rainbow,” Twilight walked in and touched Rainbow’s shoulder as well, “Your parents are exquisite ponies, especially your father...What just happened between you two?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Dashie!” Pinkie looked at her with guilty eyes, “I didn’t want to meddle in your family’s affairs…” she fidgeted on her hooves, “Maybe I’m just worrying too much. Maybe you just had a fight about the last cupcake, or a flugelhorn concert, or even because he didn’t bought you a doll and—”

“You are right. You did the right thing. Something bad happened between us,” Rainbow hung her head and let out a long, exasperated sigh, “You know that he likes to joke…”

Fluttershy, Rarity and Blitz’s laugh was heard immediately after Rainbow said that. The other girls nodded.

“The problem is he doesn’t know when to stop! Sooner or later he will make one joke, that joke, the one that will embarrass you forever in front of your peers, so humiliating for everypony involved, so… simply… awful that you’ll not want to believe that the guy who did that held you in his forelegs when you were little, that told you you were beautiful and you were capable of anything was also the one that made you feel like that!” her voice cracked until it nearly snapped like a twig, small tears forming at the corners of her eyes that were quickly wiped by a handkerchief swiftly produced by Pinkie.

“It happened already, right Rainbow?” Twilight stated the truth, using not even one tenth of her brilliant intellect to arrive to this conclusion.

“Yes, it did.” Firefly landed near the group, unheard but for a faint flutter of wings.

“You could’ve yelled at him when that happened,” Rainbow sniffled, averting her gaze from her mother, afraid to show her tears like they were horrific scars.

“I did. Oh, if I did! He understood that what he did was wrong and even if he doesn’t show it, the thought still eats him up at night.”

“That’s it?” Rainbow sniffed.

“He’s my husband, your father, and I love him. And he loves you. I hope you’ll give him another chance. He won’t disappoint you!” Firefly pleaded and offered her hooves to her daughter. Rainbow grasped them with her own. A collective d’awwww was about to hit the air, coming from the mouth of three d’awwww-worthy mares.

“Mom...I will—”

“Pinkamena Diane Pie!”A bearded, hat wearing earth pony stallion pierced the very atmosphere with his scream, a good part of the apple orchard was sent wobbling at the sheer force of that scream, making huge drops of cold sweat cross poor Applejack’s brow, birds were sent flying and crying for help, and a meteor was summoned by his sheer rage, ready to collide with a far away planet in the Horse Head Nebula and reducing it into smithereens!

"Daddy!” Pinkie yelled, jumping in Rainbow’s forelegs.

“Daddy?” Dash cocked an eyebrow, before turning in an expression of pure astonishment.

“Daddy?” Firefly joined in, confused.

“How could you get yourself knocked up by some Cloudsdale floozy?!” The gray stallion seemed flustered to find the final word or his inquiry.

“Floozy?!” Rainbow was appalled and incensed with annoyance… until she registered the important part of what Clyde Pie was saying. “Crud…” she muttered and loudly gulped.

Pinkie was shifting her eyes left and right, hoping to find an abandoned balloon to take off and fly away. “Err… Surprise…?”

“Knocked up?!” Blitz spit out his drink. “You mean that you really used your—————————”

Time slowed to a halt. History was repeating itself and fear and rage still made their ugly way in Rainbow’s mind, while she felt vulnerable and naked and his words didn’t even fully hit the air to do it.

Guess this time he didn’t need a joke to ruin her life. Again.

Author's Note

Special Guest Proofreader and editor: TheMorningEspeon!
And yes. The spin off is in the making but it will totally be not clop. I wonder if I should add this to this story as a special bonus chapter or making it its own story.
Before anyone asks, yes, Blitz was going to say the D word. To quote Rainbow: Crud.