The Beauties of Youth, the Adventures of Parenthood

The next several hours of Twilight and Daybreaks day involved alot of frustrating magical endeavors. Daybreaks magical mishap had managed to not only destroy the inside of their home, but also blast it sky high with them still inside! Twilight was past getting angry when she realized this, and skipped right to just finding a solution to the problem. That was the hardest part, see, it would have been easy to just cancel out the spell holding the house in the air...but then it would have gone straight back down and crashed into Ponyville. So the tricky part was, not canceling the spell, but weakening it enough to have the house slowly float back down on its own. This required both Twilight and Daybreak to be outside the home, and close enough to it to maintain the spell. Now seeing as Daybreak could only hover in the air for short periods of time and this required to much of his focus, it became obvious that they would need more assistance. This is where Rainbow Dash's sudden return had become very helpful.

Not only did this give her a reason to stick around longer, but it gave Daybreak and Dash some time to catch up while she held him in the air. There were a few times during the decent back down to Ponyville where Daybreak swore Dash was gonna lose her grip and drop him due to high winds, clouds, or the like, but she never did, she held tight to his underbelly throughout the whole thing. Once the house was safely planted back into the ground ad the day was nearing its end, Twilight invited everypony inside to have some dinner after the long day working. The state of the house inside remained much the same during the meal prep, but by the time dinner was ready, Daybreak and Spike had nearly everything back where it had been before the magical nuke.

Luckily for Daybreak, none of Twilights books had been seriously damaged in the storm, save the one Twilight had blasted off Daybreaks horn when she had been after him. A few had been wetted from sink or bath water here and there, and there were a few impaled on various objects around the house, but all these minor injuries were fixed up relatively fast. By the time everypony sat down, it looked like Twilight had simply spent a long night hitting the books again, rather than a magical explosion had gone off.

Over dinner, Rainbow recounted the events of her and Daring Do since they had left Ponyville. Everypony was enthralled by all the adventures the two had experienced together, well, almost everypony.  Button Mash and Sweetie Belle noticed Spike excuse himself rather early during the meal for an unkown reason and he did not return for some time.

Other than Spikes odd absence, the meal went flawlessly. Everypony seemed to have nearly forgotten about the events of earlier by the time desert came around. Daybreak found plenty of other things to distract his mind through his dinner, in fact, he found himself staring at Rainbow several times over the course of the meal. He noticed several minor differences in her appearance now than the last time he had seen her. Her mane, for example, was distinctly longer and more wild, it seemed unlike everypony else, Rainbow had neglected a hair cut in the past two years. This look somehow worked well with her though and made her look all the more awesome in his opinion. Other minor changes he noted were, a small scar she now bore across her right cheek, her figure and overall body in general had become more toned and sleek, like she had been working out more than she did before. She also seemed to be slightly less...what was the word he was looking for...Hyper? No that's not it...she was less... active than she always used to be.

Before, she would hardly ever touch the ground when she could avoid it, always hovering about everywhere she went. But now, she seemed to prefer walking almost everywhere, Daybreak had a pretty good idea of why this was, Daring Do. He had noticed that Daring didn't always fly everywhere either and seemed to prefer life on the ground, this trait had probably rubbed off on Rainbow slightly over the past year or two. She still had her same "I'm too awesome for words" attitude, but now it seemed more under control and less braggy. It was definitely more attractive to say the least.

Once everypony had fully stuffed themselves, Rainbow seemed unable to contain her boatload of questions any longer, and began firing them off one by one. Most of them were pretty basic, like how was Aurora, what was she like, how magical was she already, the usual stuff. However eventually Rainbow struck upon one of the two questions Daybreak had hoped to avoid.

"So Daybreak...I gotta know...Why did you blast your house into the sky anyways?"

The whole table went instantly silent, Daybreak noticed Twilight look up from her ice cream, and stare directly at him. He gulped, he wasn't sure if he should say anything or not...but then, he saw something change on Twilight's face. Her stare didn't look threatening...in fact, it looked like she was smirking to herself rather than at him. She gave a small chuckle, and returned to her ice cream. This left Daybreak uncertain about his next actions...so he did the only thing he could, he told the truth.

"Well Dash...I didn't exactly mean to do that..."

"Yeah, I gathered that much for myself dude, I mean what happened? I was expecting to come home and find everypony at the library waiting to tell me how much they missed my awesomeness, but instead I see this big crater where your house used to be. Can you imagine how freaked out I was, I thought you guys left Ponyville or something!"

His eyebrows shot up at her statement

"Why would you think that?"

"Dude...there was a crater where your house used to be! How is that not worth worrying over? Anyways, Pinkie happened to stroll by and pointed you guys out to me, you can imagine my surprise to find out your house was a good hundred feet straight above me..."

"Wait wait wait...Hold on a sec there Rainbow. Pinkie pointed us out to you? How could she know where we were...and how come nopony else even bothered to check to see if there was something wrong with us if they did notice?"

Daybreak found himself wondering the same thing Twilight had just asked, how could Pinkie have even known where they were? As for the ponies not checking on them...well, he was pretty sure he knew why that was.

"Twilight come on, it's Pinkie Pie for pony sake...I'm still not sure how she does half of what she does, and as for nopony checking on you guys...well if you saw a house suddenly fire off like a rocket into the sky, would you want to go anywhere near it?"

"Yes!"

"Heck yeah, for science!"

Rainbow facehoofed herself, both of them were ridiculous...goddess how she had missed them.

"So...I guess now that I'm back we all get to have a day together like old times...right?"

Daybreak glanced over to Twilight, she returned his gaze. He was sure they were thinking the exact same thing. Twilight had probably been planning on making Daybreak finally head out to that temple with Discord tomorrow, now that the house was back in relative order. But with Rainbow being back...she would feel bad if she sent him away the moment Rainbow returned. Looking into her husbands eyes, she could see a smile hidden behind his gaze. He knew as well as she did, she would never do that to Rainbow...guess that meant they were gonna have to put up with a very whiny Discord for awhile

Sighing more to herself than anypony else, she nodded

"Sure...when would you wanna get together?"

Rainbows eyes lit up like birthday candles.

"How about the day after tomorrow? Me and Daring still have some unpacking to do in my house, plus we gotta set up Dusty's room and most importantly of all...we gotta get our bed set up for the Heat tomorrow!"

The apple juice Twilight had been consuming suddenly came bursting back out of her lips, crashing itself against Daybreaks face and dripping down his muzzle!

"What!? It's tomorrow?!"

She bolted from the table into her study, slamming the door behind her! Everypony could hear the sound of ruffling scrolls as Twilight rummaged through her things, obviously searching for some mystery object. Rainbow Dash looked to Daybreak

"I guess she didn't remember?"

Daybreak merely shrugged, while his filly attempted to reach across her chair and lick up the apple juice dripping from his face. Seeing the small feat, Daybreak scooped her up and allowed her onto his lap. Once there, she instantly began lapping at his chin with her tongue, trying to suck up all of the delicious juice she could get at.

"Well, we have had a pretty busy day Rainbow...I guess now she's got one more thing to think about huh?"

"Sooooooo..."

Daybreak looked at her with a peculiar expression

"Sooooo what?"

"So what are you gonna do with Aurora while you two are..." She glanced over to Button and Sweetie Belle, both of whom were consumed in turning their ice cream into miniature milkshakes with their spoons "...beating the heat?"

Daybreak flushed a deep shade of red

"Oh...ummm...I didn't really think about that...umm..."

"Want my advice?"

"Umm...Sure?"

Somehow he knew accepting Rainbows advice on anything like this could only lead to trouble, but it's not like he couldn't just say no

"Let us take her for the day. It'll give you and Twi plenty of time to get her heat..." She glanced at Button and Sweetie Belle again, they were still paying them no mind and had successfully transformed both of their ice creams into milkshake slushies. "...worked out of her system. Plus Aurora can play with Dusty the whole day."

This actually didn't sound like a bad idea, except for one minor flaw...

"What about you and Daring? How are you two gonna relieve yourselves if both Dusty and Aurora are there? I don't know about you, but I've seen what Aurora is capable of doing in one of her fits...and if Dusty is anything like his mothers...yikes..."

Daybreak physically shivered at the thought, this gave Rainbow a slight smirk of satisfaction, but also caused her to realize he had a good point. She hadn't even thought about how they'd keep their own antics hidden from two little foals. The last time Heat had come around Dusty had spent most of his days sleeping so Rainbow and Daring just had to move a couple rooms away and be slightly quieter...she doubted that would work with both of them there. She rubbed the back of her head yielding a small blush on her cheeks

"Oh right...good point dude...well then what should we do?"

"I have an idea!" squeaked a high pitched voice across the table.

Daybreak and Rainbow turned to see Sweetie Belle and Button looking over at them, their faces covered in ice cream. Trading glances, Daybreak knew both he and Rainbow were of the same mind

"How much did they hear?"

Rainbow shrugged meekly, so she clearly didn't mind...this left the choice up to him

He also shrugged "Why not? What's your idea Sweetie?"

"Let us watch them both for you!" Her voice was primed with restrained glee, clearly the thought of possibly being on her first official foal-sitting duty excited her greatly.

Raising a curious look at the young mare, Daybreak couldn't help but be slightly surprised

"Why would you want to watch them both Sweetie Belle? This will be your first heat cycle...won't you and your friends be...busy?"

With a glance at Dash, Daybreak silently begged for assistance, but she either did not catch his stare, or was simply ignoring it. Sweetie Belle on the other hoof, seemed to have expected this question.

"Naw, it's fine. I'm pretty sure Scoots and AB can handle it on their own. After all it's just an ice bath every few hours, how hard could that be to do?"

Rainbow was now sharing Daybreaks worried expression. Sweetie Belles offer was very tempting for both of them, but her obvious lack of knowledge on what the next day would bring for her, greatly worried them both. Her next statement made them even more nervous than they already were to begin with.

"Plus Button will be with me, so when I go to take my ice bath he can watch Aurora during that time..."

Rainbows wings suddenly shot out from behind her back, sending her ice cream bowl propelling into the air. Daybreak caught it and the stray cream in his magic without any trouble, but he did shoot an annoyed look at Rainbow. He knew exactly what she was thinking of right then.

"Rainbow can I talk to you in private for a moment?"

Even as she attempted to fain an innocent look, she knew he had practically read her mind. Nodding with resignation, she pushed herself out from the chair and slowly trotted back into the main book room. Daybreak followed shortly behind, but not before he turned back to Sweetie Belle and Button

"We'll just be a moment."

With that, he strolled out of the room leaving Sweetie Belle and Button alone at the table, with Aurora. The two stared at the filly while she licked her own bowl, plus her fathers, clean of any remaining sugary sweets. She then turned her eyes upon their bowls, forcing them to immediately swipe them from the table and hide them away within their laps. Aurora dawned a frown, her eyes seeming to scan the surrounding area for more ice cream. Her pupils quickly locked on to her mothers bowl. Button imagined a small alarm going off in her head "Target Acquired" and red lights would then flash across her screen alerting her she was close to her objective. A small squeak, and one jump later, she was on top of the table prowling her small form over to Twilight's bowl.

Button smirked, and, turning to Sweetie Belle, expected to see her giggling at the scene before them, but instead her eyes were staring out through the window. She was lost in a world of her own as her eyes seemed to glisten against the fading sunlight. The rays of beautiful orange shone through the open window and seemed to dance across her purple and pink curls. Button silently thanked Twilight for having so many windows in her home. The arrays of orange bloomed across Sweetie Belle, making her whole body seem to glow in the light of the sunset.

Upon realizing he was staring at her, a blush formed across his cheeks in embarrassment, but he did not look away. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen a sunset so beautiful before or enjoyed it so much. It was better than anything digital graphics could produce and that was saying something, he had seen some pretty awesome digital sunsets in his time. From Dead Space to Minecraft, they always had a certain grace and beauty about them. The way the pixels would always reflect just right to create the perfect array of color for his gaming pleasure. He had once built a staircase clear to the top of the Minecraft sky box, just to view the sunset from it's highest point...and it had been glorious...until Creepers.

But all that, paled in comparison to the perfect rainbow of color that now glistened across Sweetie Belles coat and mane. A powerful breeze suddenly flowed through the open window, allowing the scent of Sweeties shampoo to flow straight across Buttons nose and infect his senses.

"She smells like a field of flowers and strawberries..."

Buttons mind turned to mush as he inhaled her manes smell. How had he not noticed this before, he had been crammed under a pile of branches with her and not noticed how wonderful she smelled? Without thought, he scooted his chair closer to hers, desperate to get a better whiff of her mane. By some miracle, the winds decided to grace him yet again, and Sweeties powerful aroma invaded his brain for a second time. All his thoughts went blank as he found himself drifting ever closer to her hair. He was only partially aware he had left his chair and was actually walking in slow motion over to her. Luckily for him though, Sweetie Belle was too distracted in her own thoughts to even realize what he was doing.

It only took moments, but it felt like hours, and Button was right behind Sweetie Belle, practically burying his face in her mane. He inhaled the intoxicating scent of her hair over and over, it made him just want to squeeze a pillow tight against his chest, or cuddle a small puppy. His nose was sent to a field of strawberries and flowers, while he hugged a pile of soft, berry scented leaves in the grass. He could feel the softness of her hair against his cheek while the field of strawberry flowers danced across his vision, blurring away the world.

"Umm...What are you doing?"

Suddenly the world was back! Buttons eyes shot open in fear, he could practically see Sweetie Belle looking at him in her peripheral vision. He jumped backwards in fright...or at least attempted to...for some reason he could not move. He looked down...and nearly fainted right there...his hooves were wrapped around Sweeties waist as he hugged her whole body against his chest tightly, with his face still half buried in her mane.

"Quick Button! Think fast, your whole life may depend on your next words!"

"ohmygoshyousmellamazing..."

"What?"

He smacked himself hard in the face with his hoof

"Smooth Button, real smooth.."

Slowly releasing his grip from her waist, Button desperately attempted to think of a good lie that would save his rapidly shortening life span. Sweeties suspicious stare, Button could practically feel in burning a hole in the side of his head as he slowly backed away from her.

"I...ummm...you had..uhhh....I was...."

"Yeah...?"

Her lack of anger only made Button quiver with fear more, he couldn't tell her he was smelling her hair...she would just think he was weird. She already thought that enough about him, he didn't wanna make it worse...

"I was...um...I was...checking your mane for......lice! Yeah that's it! I was just checking your mane for lice...I thought I saw a few white flakes in your mane and I was just looking to make sure you were ok..."

Sweetie did not react at all how he predicted...

"OH MY GOSH! There's still white flakes in my mane!? Rarity swore she got all of that out yesterday! Why didn't you tell me sooner Button?!"

"Ummm...I...What?"

His brain had just gone into meltdown...was she messing with him?

Her freaked out rummaging through her mane suggested otherwise, but what were the chances?

"So, you really do have white flakes in your mane then?"

"Yeah...But it's not what you think Button, I swear! I was helping Pinkie Pie bake cupcakes yesterday before I snatched your hat from you...and the flour got in my hair!"

He struggled to remember what had happened yesterday. So much had transpired in such a short time. His mind briefly flashed back to Daybreaks song at the lake...before that there was that weird heat talk at the breakfast table (which he now recalled he still needed to ask about again)...and before that Sweetie Belle had been levitating in towns square with Aurora and various other objects...but before any of that he had seen her come running out of Sugarcube Corner before snatching up his hat from him.

"Oh ok...I guess that makes sense"

"You don't believe me do you? You think I really do have lice..."

Button heard her voice drop with sadness

"What! No no, I believe you Sweetie, really I do!"

Truthfully, he was still in shock at the convenience of his chosen lie.

"Really?" A faint sniffle escaped her voice

"Of course Sweetie Belle! There's no way you could ever get lice anyways, I mean you take such great care of your mane they'd have to be super lice to even try and bother you!"

Sweetie now had a blush of her own across her cheeks

"Oh...Uhh...thanks Button, that's really sweet of you."

Realizing what he had just sort-of said, his blush grew even more obvious than it already was. Sweetie Belle giggled and leaned towards his cheek

"Hey Button?" She whispered gently across his ear

A cold shiver traveled down his spine, he could feel her hot breath tickle against the tips of his ear and cheek.

"Y-yeah?"

Before she could say anymore, a high pitched squeal and an even louder  "Ah Ha!" cut across her. Immediately following the outburst, Twilights study room door burst back open and she reentered the room carrying an immense pile of scrolls upon her back, and even more inside a magical field above her. Taking no notice of their closeness or Sweeties position near Button, Twilight strolled over and drooped the scrolls down in front of them. She panted slightly, clearly out of breathe

"There...this...is everything...absolutely everything I could find on estrus or "heat" as it's called today. There are some books scrambled in here too..."

She noticed Button slowly reaching out for one of the closest scrolls, she quickly swatted his hoof away with a "smack!" to his foreleg.

"Ouch!...What did I do?"

"These books are not for colts eyes, only mares are allowed to read these! You got that Sweetie Belle?..." She quickly turned her gaze on Sweetie "Under no circumstances are you to let Button read any of these, on top of it being strictly against library rules...his mother would absolutely lose it if she found out!"

Button swallowed sharply

"They're that important?"

"For mares, yes, and you're not a mare my little pony, so please restrain your curiosity."

"Alright..."

It was at this moment, Twilight truly took in her surroundings, or rather, lack-there-of.

"Hey...where's Rainbow Dash and Daybreak?"

Sweetie Belle quickly dropped one of the scrolls she had been debating to open, and pointed her hoof towards the kitchen.

"Daybreak said they needed to talk about something in private?"

"Oh?" Now her curiosity was peeked "Do you have any idea what it might be about Sweetie?"

"Weeeeeell...He only dragged Rainbow off after I said that me and Button could watch both of your foals tomorrow and you guys can go take care of this heat thingy without worrying..."

"Actually Sweetie, that' not why he dragged her away."

Buttons voice came out small, as though he was trying to hide what he was saying, but with the only other sounds being Aurora devouring Twilight's ice cream, there was no way he could hide it. Sweetie Belle's mouth was still open, as having paused mid-speech, but she quickly regained her motor control

"What do you mean Button? That's obviously it! It happened right after I said that!"

"Actually, he pulled her away after you said I would be there to help you with your heat..."

Twilights wings suddenly sprung from behind her back, a blush quickly spread throughout her face, she was lucky these two were still to young to know what a "wing boner" was. At least now she understood why Daybreak would want to talk to Rainbow in private after hearing something like that.

"Well...I think I better go check and see how they're doing, just keep an eye on Aurora and I'll be right back".

She quickly exited the room through the kitchen, finding a slight difficulty in squeezing her stiff wings through the small doorway. She had to remember to ask Daybreak to extend the wall later, for emergencies such as this. Silently scooting along the inner wall, Twilight made her way around the kitchen into the next room, where she heard muffled voices engaged in a heated talk. She pressed her ear to the door, listening carefully.

"Come oooooon dude! You owe me one, pleeeeeeeease?"

"Rainbow I said no!"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Pretty please?"

"NO!"

"....Pretty pretty please?"

"Oh for the love of...NO RAINBOW! That's my final answer!"

Twilight heard Rainbow give a loud sigh and huff of annoyance

"Hmph, When did you become such...such a flank-hole?"

"When did you become so whiny?"

Rainbow "hmphed" again

"When being aggressive wasn't enough to get Daring to play with me on our late nights with Dusty."

Twilight felt heat travel to her face, a blush quickly followed. She could only assume Daybreak had reacted in a similar matter because his voice sounded shaky when he next spoke.

"W-well...t-that's not the point Rainbow...I don't think its a good idea and she's my filly! If you wanna do it with your colt that's up to you, but not my little Aurora!"

Although she had no idea what Rainbow could be proposing that would make Daybreak this way, she couldn't help but feel a surge of affection for him at that moment, hearing him speak about Aurora's well being before anything else.

"Come on dude! Twilight will agree if you do and Sweetie Belle is plenty responsible, her friend seems more than capable too."

Through the door, Twilight heard one of the two smack themselves in the face, she could only assume it was Daybreak by the way he sounded next, his voice steadily rising with annoyance

"Rainbow that's not the point, and you know it! This year will be Sweetie Belles first heat cycle, I cannot say it's a good idea to have her alone, her with a young colt, on the first day of heat! That's too much potential chaos even for me!"

Even Twilight had to raise an eyebrow at that statement, and she could only assume Rainbow did too.

"Don't gimmie that look Dash, even I have my limits, and getting a young filly like Sweetie Belle knocked up is one of them!"

"So just have Twilight put a no-pregnancy spell on her for the week and come have some fun with us!"

There was a brief pause, as though Daybreak seemed to be considering this option, then...

"They have no-pregnancy spells?"

Twilight practically slipped off the door in surprise, and she heard a loud grunt as Rainbow face-hoofed herself.

"Are you telling me you didn't know that existed?"

"Well...no?"

Rainbows expression had become stone hard, although Twilight could not see it, she could tell Rainbow was seriously thinking about something

"So...You mean to tell me...all this time you and Twilight have been going at it, even during heat cycles...and you never once used a condom...or an anti-pregnancy spell?"

Twilight felt her blush return and on the opposite side of the door, Daybreak felt the same

"Umm...Yeah?"

A small thud followed next, which apparently was Rainbows rump hitting the ground. Twilight could only listen as her breathing steadily increased, until...

"How in Equestria is Aurora your first child!?"

Daybreaks blush reached maximum capacity, forcing his eyes to dart to the floor for safety from Rainbow piercing gaze.

"I can't get her pregnant unless I'm in my unicorn form...so all those times before the last two years were impossible anyways. And now...well ever since I mastered my transformation abilities I can change certain parts of me at will...so whenever I'm about to...ya know...umm.."

"Cum? Release? Splooge? Fill her up?"

"I was gonna say 'finish'..."

Twilight felt the need to hide her face in her feathers but she could not bring herself to remove her ear form the door.

"...anyways whenever I'm about to finish, I just change my semen back to its original form instead of keeping it in stallion form, that way she can't get pregnant cause my sperm isn't compatible with her body...that's the whole reason Aurora was born a pony in the first place, and not a female version of me."

"Cause ya creamed her as a stallion?"

Although he found it hard to even look at Rainbow through his embarrassment, he managed to nod his heard towards her. Rainbow now understood how they had done this for so long without any protection, but nevertheless, this could only help her argument.

"Well dude, your method is cool and all, but Twi could just use that spell and make it a lot easier, and she could definitely use it on Sweetie Belle."

"Rainbow I'm still not sure that..."

"It's ok sweetie I don't mind."

Rainbow smirked while Daybreak turned around to see Twilight standing in the, now open, doorway. She had figured now was as good a time as any to make her presence known. Daybreak was actually quite surprised to hear Twilight agree with Rainbows suggestion, the shock was easily readable upon his face

"Twily...are you sure? Even if Sweetie Belle is safe, what about Aurora? I don't want her to see anything like that at her age..."

Twilight shot him a look

"Really sweetie? Honestly, I think Sweetie Belle is a little more responsible than that, plus this is Button Mash you're talking about here. He isn't exactly a normal colt. I'd be thoroughly surprised if anything even happens in the first place."

"I guess..."

"Plus Rarity has already given them her seal of approval in case they ever became an item, so there's no need for you to try and protect her...even though I think its super cute of you."

Dawning a new blush, Daybreak nodded shyly "Alright alright Dashie, you win. Those two can stay here and watch Aurora and Dusty, while we...umm... where are going again?"

"To my place duuuh" Rainbow rolled her eyes as though this answer should have ben obvious

"Oh right, ok, to Rainbows, we can spend the night there and come back the next morning."

"After breakfast."

Both of them gave Rainbow a curious gaze.

"What!? You haven't lived 'till you've tried Daring Do's famous morning waffles!"

They both smacked themselves in the forehead.