Dawn of The Ice King

Roughly a month after the wedding a letter for an order came in through the mail, addressed to Sugarcube Corner. Inside a pink mare was panicking, she had to keep a major secret from her bestfriends, her husband, her wife, and her step-daughter, whatever was she to do? It was something she was pondering for the past couple of hours as she made her way through ponyville, Gummy resting on her head, making some sort of sucking noise.

Strange she thought, what could gummy be sucking on? She grabbed her baby alligator to investigate and lo and behold he was sucking on a pacifier, which only made her more anxious and ready to blurt out the secret. She grabbed the pacifier and stored it away in her mane for safe keeping. She let out a heavy sigh, before a voice called out to her startling her.

“Pinkie, darling, there you are!” Rarity was waving to her as she moved towards the pink mare.

“Oh, hi Rarity, you scared me for a second.” Pinkie said quickly.

Rarity’s brow raised at that, “Me, scare you? Are you feeling alright Pinkie? Normally nobody can sneak up on you.”

Pinkie, realizing she’d been caught quickly looked around, “Oh, uh, yeah, I’m fine, why do you ask?”

Rarity gave Pinkie a concerned look but shrugged it off, “Oh no reason, Twilight asked me to come find you, we’re all meeting in the castle, she said she had a surprise for us.”

Pinkie lit up at that, a surprise, OH MAYBE I WON’T HAVE TO KEEP THIS SECRET AFTER ALL!! She grabbed Rarity’s hand and ran off towards The Castle of Friendship, dragging Rarity behind her, who was profusely saying… something, Pinkie didn’t know she was too excited. Maybe this news could get Chrissy out of the slump he’s been in, she hasn’t seen it this bad in a long time, here’s hoping.

~In the castle with Chris~

I was leaning back, my feet propped up on the cutie map, Goldy, sitting in my lap, “So, why did you want us to meet in the castle exactly?”

Twilight smiled, “Well, now that we’re all here I wanted to tell you that-”

“SHINING ARMOR AND CADANCE ARE COMING TO TOWN!” Twilight and Pinkie shouted at the same time, causing me to raise my raise my eyebrow.
“....Right, and they’re arriving-” “TOMORROW AT 3!” Pinkie blurted out once more, giving us a forced smile, “Yes… and-” “THEY’LL BE ARRIVING BY THE FRIENDSHIP EXPRESS INSTEAD OF THE CRYSTAL SPEEDWAY TO AVOID THE PAPARAZZI!” Pinkie said, now crawl on top of the table.

“I… yes…”Twilight said looking confused.

“Anything else huh huh?” Pinkie asked expectantly.

Twilight shook her head, “No that's it.”

Pinkie’s hair deflated, didn’t straighten, just deflated, “Oh….”

“How in the hay did you know all that anyway Pinkie?” Rainbow asked.

“Uh PINKIE SENSE! Yeah that's it ...” At that I grabbed Pinkie by the tail and yanked her back in her seat, forming cuffs of ice around her wrists.

“Anyways, go on Twilight.” I told my sister-in-law.

“Right, well it's as Pinkie said, they’ll be arriving tomorrow by the friendship express to avoid attention. I was hoping, since it’s been a while since I’ve seen Shiny without it being due to any sort of special occasion, that you all could help me set up a room in the castle for Shiny, I could do it myself, but I wanted everyone to pitch in, it’ll be more special that way.” She looked at each of us with wide, expectant eyes.

She got a round of quick yeses, outside of me, I was just staring at her, which made her speak up, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to Chris… I know you’ve been…upset since the dragon business at the wedding.”

I closed my eyes and sighed, “I know… look I’ll help, just don’t expect much from me, ok?”

She nodded in understanding, before getting up and the rest of the girls, and Spike followed… well except Pinkie, I still had her cuffed to her throne, “So, want to tell me what's going on with you today?”

Pinkie looked at me and then looked away, “nope, nothing wrong with good ol’ Pinkie Pie today, same wacky self as usual.”

I snorted in amusement, “More than usual I’d say, come on Pinks, you know you can tell me anything.”

She looked back at me her smile wavering a little, “I-I can’t….”

“Come on Pinks, I’ll do that thing you like.” I said, trying to coerce her to my side.

She bit her lip before taking a breath, her resolve coming back tenfold, “I’m sorry Chrissy, it’s a super duper special secret, but I promise it’ll be worth it, it might even kick you out of your slump.”

I grunted, “Here’s hoping…” I waved a hand, shattering the ice cuffs, “go on, I’ll join you soon.” She stood up giving me a hug and a quick kiss, saying she loved me. I returned the gesture and watched her leave, once she was out of the room I sank into my throne and rubbed my temples to alleviate the building headache I was getting, once it weakened I got up to join my family and friends.

~The next day back at the castle~

I was rubbing Pinkie’s back as she was actively having a panic attack, why? I have no idea but she was so I was doing my best to calm her down, as was Fluttershy and Goldy.

Pinkie, however, was not the only one having a Panic attack, so was Twilight, though we knew the reason on her part.

“Why aren’t they here yet it’s been 22 minutes, 27 seconds, and 20 milliseconds past 3 O’clock.” Twilight said, pacing back and forth.

I finally spoke up, “Twiggy, you’ve been saying something every minute, calm down, the Friendship Express isn’t exactly known for being punctual and besides, maybe the papers found out they were coming and had some reporters stake out the train.”

“Yes but-”

“No buts, calm down and help us calm down Pinkie, I’ve no idea what she’s panicking about to help.” I told her with a small bite in my voice.

“R-Right.” She took a deep breath and walked over to her friend/sister-in-law-in-law, “Pinkie are you ok? Do you want to talk about it?”

Pinkie shook her head, “Can’t.” Was all she said.

“Why ever not Pinkie dear, you’ve been acting strange since yesterday, surely it would be better to get whatever is bothering you off your chest.” Rarity said, being the next to come up to her, Rainbow soon following and also asking questions, and then Spike. Eventually the amount of people around her became too much and she started hyperventilating.

I growled and sent out a wave of pure cold, pushing everyone back save for Shy, Goldy, and obviously Pinkie, “That’s enough, she’s freaking out enough as is, give her a moment. Spike, give me one of Twilight’s emergency panic bags.”

“Hey, I do not have a-” She started to protest before Spike gave me a small brown paper bag.

I just gave Twilight a look, cuz it was mostly a joke but I figured he’d be prepared. I handed it to Pinkie and she took it gratefully, breathing into it before it started to calm down, “Thanks, Chrissy, but…. I can’t hold on to the secret anymore. Shining Armor and Cadance are going to have-”

At that exact moment, said ponies opened the door with Shining calling out, “A wonderful time with their family!” To which Pinkie sighed happily.

Twilight ran over happily and did her “Sunshine dance” with Cadance before hugging her brother, Goldy followed quickly tackling her aunt and uncle in a hug. Everyone else made their way over at their own pace and greeted them, before Twilight got impatient and lead Shining Armor to the room we set up for him, he loved it… except the burnt comic, funnily, they rarely make classic horse noses, but that doesn’t mean they don’t. Shining gave off a high pitched whiny at seeing his comic destroyed, before getting over it and shrugging.

I raised an eyebrow, normally he’d lose his absolute shit over something like that, Twilight and Spike apparently had the same thought judging by their confused looks. After the room tour Shining and Cadance suggested we meet them by the town fountain in an hour so we could all go get Hay Burgers together. I groaned and mumbled something about horses which got a slug in the arm from Twilight, as we were walking away though Shining held Pinkie back to talk to her.

“Why did you tell them about the-” Pinkie started to ask but Shining cut her off.

“Don’t say anything, Your husband has better hearing than we do, remember?” I smirked, it’s something that he and his troops learned quickly, that it’s damn near impossible to sneak up on me because of my enhanced hearing and sense of smell. “We didn’t say anything because we have a plan, trust me, it’ll all be worth it, can you keep the secret a little longer, please?”

I heard Pinkie sigh and agree as she quickly joined us to hang out for a bit before heading to the agreed meeting place.

After just kind of talking for an hour, I took a nap myself, we were heading towards the town square, more specifically the fountain.

“So, do ya think Shining Armor liked the room?” AJ asked, a knowing smile on her face.

“Are you kidding, he was absolutely raving about it.” Twilight responded, “Though I wonder why they wanted to meet us at the fountain do you think they had something to take care of?”

“They’ll have a lot more to take care of soon.” Pinkie said under her breath.

“What?” I asked.

“NOTHING!” She shouted before running off. We all just shrugged it off and made our way to the meeting spot.

“That’s odd.” Twilight said as we got close to the fountain, “They’re usually quite punctual, circumstances aside.”

Rainbow groaned out, “I need a hay burger in my belly. Right. Now.” She said before accidentally drifting into the fountain’s statue, knocking a letter loose from its hand and it smacking me on the head.

Twilight grabbed it, “What’s that?” She unraveled it, reading it over some, before gasping.

“What is it?” Rarity asked.

“A scavenger hunt, Shining armor used to set these up all the time when I was little. They usually ended up with me getting an amazing surprise, like a new book, or a bunch of new books or-” She started to explain before she was cut off by Pinkie grabbing it.

“We get it, you like books! What does it say?” She paused to read it.

“Sooo, what's the first clue?” AJ asked.
“Hopefully something about lunch.” Rainbow pleaded.

Pinkie read the clue, “You’ve got a scroll, you’re on a roll. Why don’t you take a peak where young ones spend their week. A piece of paper will continue this caper.”

“I’ve got it, where young ones spend their week.” Twilight said, not giving an actual answer.

“Er… I’m not following.” AJ said.

“The school, the next clue is at the school house.” I said, “I may not be good at riddles but that was easy.” I lead the way to the school house. And as we pulled up to it Pinkie ran off to find the next clue, acting like a bloodhound before getting a butterfly stuck on her nose and sneezing it away.

“Like Chris said, its at the school house… but where?” Twilight asked looking around.

That’s when we heard Pipsqueak calling out to grab a copy of the news.

“A piece of paper… will continue this caper.” Twilight pondered it for a moment, “Eureka, it’s in the foal free press!” She grabbed a copy from Pipsqueak.

“Oh my, look at that dress the mayor is wearing, it’s absolutely breathtaking.” Rarity said, looking at the front page.

I looked at it, “Isn’t that a dress you made?”

“Yes and your point?”

“Come on everyone, focus!” Pinkie said, taking the paper and scanning through it, “Aha, here it is, she said pointing to a particular section in the paper, getting our attention.

“Though this hall is rather small in it you’ll find files of all kinds. Take a look on the back of a birth certificate of Apple Jack.” Twilight read off.

Apple Jack blinked, “Why mine?”

“Probably because it rhymed.” I said.

“So where is it at then?” Rainbow asked.

“Really? The only two places you could get a birth certificate in all of Ponyville would be the hospital or town hall, but it says files of all kinds, so it's definitely the town hall.” I said, after that we made our way to the town hall and got Apple Jack’s birth certificate, everyone cooed over the photo of AJ as a foal.

“Huh… look at that, pig tails.” I commented on it, making AJ cough, and grabbed her documentation flipping it over.

“That’s enough of that now.” She cleared her throat, “This next place is where you can buy a table or chair. Or some comfy beds to rest little heads?”

Pinkie zipped off before coming back, “Really none of you?! It’s obviously the furniture store!” She got behind us and pushed us out the town hall right past the Mayor.

When we arrived at the furniture store Pinkie was bouncing up and down, “Go in go in go in!” She said to Twilight.

Twilight on the other hand looked skeptical, “Uh, I don’t know.”

Pinkie groaned, “FINE!” She went into the store and what sounded like she decided to upset the zoo was going on she came flying out the entrance in a crib that had another clue on it.

“You are scary good at this Pinkie.” Rainbow said with awe and fear.

I bent down to read the clue, “It seems you saved the best for last, we hope that you have had a blast. Now it’s time to take a break where you can get a slice of cake.” They all called out Sugarcube Corner.

I rolled my eyes and Pinkie scoffed, “That was an easy one.” We said simultaneously.

We made it to Sugarcube Corner and Twilight went in first. Shining Armor and Cadance were waiting for us, “Surprise! Did you have fun on your scavenger hunt?” Shining asked.

Twilight nodded, “I did, but this time it was even better because I got to do it with my friends and new family. There’s just one thing missing.”

“What's that?”

“Mmmm oh, you know, the book prize at the end.”

“Or something to eat?” Rainbow said.

“Preferably something I can digest?” I suggested.

Shining armor laughed, “There’s still a prize but it’s a little different this time.”

Twilight looked dejected, “Oh… I don’t understand.” Pinkie giggled in the background… and that’s when something clicked in my head, her secret, her knowing where everything was…

“The clues…. You sly dogs you.” I said, not loud enough for anyone to hear.

“All the places we sent you today had something in common.” Cadance said, giving her a pretty big hint.

“First we went to the school house…. Then we read the foal free press… after that we found Apple Jack’s birth certificate… and the last clue was on a crib.” I kept my eye on Pinkie as Twilight slowly put it all together, she was freaking out, from joy and suspense.

“School, foal, birth certificate, and a crib.” Pinkie was literally steaming at this point and then Twilight gasped, “Could it be, are you two?”

“We’re having a baby!” The Crystal royals said together.

At this point Pinkie rocketed into the air shouting for joy before bouncing around the room, “You mean… I’m going to be an aunt? This is the best prize ever!” Twilight pulled them into a hug, “I love you guys!”

Pinkie clapped happily saying she did it over and over again before literally falling apart from relief before pulling herself back together.

“And what about you Chris? Aren’t you excited?” Cadance asked.

I looked at both of them a hard look on my face, “You really thought me being an uncle would cheer me up? I’m already an uncle.” I scoffed before walking out the door. There was concerned murmurs that I let sit for a minute or two before bursting back in, “AH I’M MESSING WITH YA! THAT'S AMAZING! I GET TO BE AN UNCLE TO A NEPHEW OR NIECE I CAN ACTUALLY BE THERE FOR!” I grabbed up my entire family in my wings, “That’s some of the best news I could have ever received, thank you.”

“You’re welcome and I’m glad it could cheer you up, it was a mixed plan that could have only been done with Pinkie’s help. She kept the secret after all.” Cadance said.

“I know but she’s been stressing about it since yesterday.” I gave my very pink wife a kiss on her forehead.

Pinkie giggled but then looked at the Crystal Couple with a dead serious expression, “Never make me do it again, or else.” They laughed nervously but nodded to which we all had a good laugh at, never mess with Pinkie.