Rumor was growing with every passing day. Celestia's belly grew, slowly, and nopony knew who was the stallion.

"Your Highness. You understand we must know the father-to-be's name, we simply cannot have a royal birth without knowing the full lineage of the foal." The supplicant was one of the very same nobles who had tried to have her declared under mind control.

Celestia smiled to the pony. "Blank Stare, the sire of my foal made it very clear he would wish to keep himself out of the limelight. I respect that decision and, if you don't mind my asking, why can't you?"

There was some sputtering and waffling. "It… it simply isn't done! We have to know, for example, to expect a unicorn or a pegasus." Blank waved a hoof in a circle. "Please Princess?"

For the smallest moment Celestia pondered telling him. The moment passed quickly, much faster than it would have taken for her mouth to say Applejack's name. "If I told you," Celestia looked left and right, as if she was planning to reveal a secret, "would you not tell anypony?"

Blank Stare grinned and strode forth. "Your Highness, I promise that not a single other pony would find out!" Celestia leaned down so her snout was by the pony's ear.

"It will be a hint, but it will rule out a large group. No stallion in Equestria sired my foal." Celestia's mouth was curled into wicked grin as she spoke. "And you have no hope of finding him."

Rainbow Dash was reminded of the time they had fought the changelings in Canterlot. She looked over her perfect doppelganger with a critical eye. "It's amazing, if I didn't have this," she let lightning crackle over her wings, "I would say we were identical."

The other, Mirror Rainbow Dash nodded. "We look awesome… that is, you look awesome. So, how do you fly with these things?" She spread her wings, about half of all the things she knew how to do with them.

It was like the words lit a fuse in the storm-touched pegasus. "Glad you asked, come on!" Rainbow Dash was off, flying like a missile down the hall of the castle, leaving her twin to catch up on hoof.

When her clone caught up, Rainbow Dash was grinning. "Quick on those hooves, you been practicing?"

"Of course, don't get better at things without practice." Mirror Dash clopped all four hooves in place. "So, flying?"

"Landing first. The more tricky the flying the harder it is to land without looking silly. They didn't call me Rainbow Crash, as a filly, for nothing. Easiest way to land without making a mess is to sweep your wings forward, like this." Dash snapped her wings out in demonstration. She watched as the other Rainbow Dash mimicked her. "Good, a little sloppy, but you will learn it better in time."

"How long will it take?" Mirror Rainbow looked a little antsy. "We don't exactly have forever here, you know."

"Well, to really learn to fly is a life-long job. When my other student gets here we can start… ah, here she is."

Sunset Shimmer, trying to fly before learning Dash's important first lesson, slammed into the ground and rolled a few times, narrowly missing both pegasi.

"You okay? That looked like it hurt!" Mirror Rainbow trotted over to her friend's side, marveling at how the alicorn lifted herself out of the divot she had made.

The world around Sunset spun a little, but she managed to work out which side was up and which down, again. "Yeah… guess I need to work on landings…"

"That was just what Rainbow Dash… oh wow this is confusing… Dash?" Mirror Dash got a nod from her mentor. "What Dash was showing me. She said landing is more important than flying."

Her whole lesson was justified, in both mare's eyes, and so Dash felt really good. "Okay, Rainbow, can you show Sunset how she should have slowed down?" Mirror Rainbow spread her wings and sent them forward, as if cupping the air. "Right, that is how you do it, but all the important stuff about flying is in your feathers. You will feel your own balance, the balance of the air rushing past you, all through your feathers."

Sunset didn't see what magic Rainbow Dash used, but suddenly there was a strong wind coming from behind the mare. "What… how?"

Rainbow Dash just grinned. She had called the weather of course, but she wouldn't tell these two how she did that yet. "Okay, like I showed you, cup the air and try to hover on it, don't worry, I will keep the breeze just enough to lift you up and not blow you away."

Mirror Dash was fearless, at least when she herself, or, well, her clone, seemed to know so much. Spreading her wings, she felt the air cup in her feathers and immediately overbalanced and landed back on all fours. "I flew!"

"Again!" Rainbow Dash had to keep the laugh out of her voice, it was hard considering the newbie managed to get airborne for about half a second… with a controlled wind lifting her. "Okay, so try it without the crashing, you go too, Sunset."

This time, when Mirror Rainbow tried to balance on her wings she managed it for a full minute. It was dizzying and amazing. "This is like a skateboard. Little more air!" She screamed in delight as she got that from her twin, rising a few more feet and, before Rainbow Dash could stop her, she did a vertical loop and landed back, wings out, in a perfect landing. "Aww yeah!" She lifted a hoof up, like she had seen the others do and got a clop from Rainbow Dash.

"Okay rookies, you think you can handle that?" Rainbow Dash got a nod from both mares. "Alright, next let's see you glide down from that balcony up there." She pointed with a hoof and cut the air that had kept them hovering. "You run, I'll meet you there!"

Twilight was almost knocked aside as two winged ponies raced in the front door of her castle and up the stairs behind her. "Be careful!" She knew they would be out of earshot before she finished but had to say it anyway. Not being able to move as quick as normal sucked. Outside, she saw Rainbow Dash. "Oh, hi Rainbow."

"Hey Twilight, just giving them their lessons. Starting with how not to crash. Oops, better go, they will beat me if I'm not careful." Rainbow Dash summoned some wind and was off like a missile, leaving Twilight laughing in her wake.

"What in Tartarus has Dash in such a hurry?" Applejack was wandering up. "Not too late for our date, am I?"

Twilight leaned in and kissed the other mare, getting it returned. "Nope, and she is teaching her mirror-world self and Sunset how to fly."

Applejack was past blushing at getting to kiss the mare she loved. She leaned in for a second kiss, pushing her tongue out to brush Twilight's lips playfully. Breaking apart a second time made her sigh. "I miss waking up beside you and Gel."

"Your farm still needs to be worked. How is Big Mac doing? He does know nopony holds it against him, doesn't he?" Twilight walked along the path back to town, her wife at her side.

"Ah know that, you know that. He can't help thinking that he might'a been able to stop himself." Applejack loved the way their bodies gently touched with each step. "Didn't help that there's only three mares he serviced that aren't now carrying his foals."

"What?" This was news to Twilight. "You mean they were all fertile during that?"

"Apart from the ones with the seeds in 'em, yup. Worse still, seems the damn squirmy things actually put mares into estrus. Nearly every mare not pregnant already, is now. Spike was the other stallion who did most of the… damage. Lot'a mares going to have little unicorns. So far he is handling it better than m'brother."

"Let's visit Spike first then, if you don't mind Applejack?" Twilight looked at the wonderful mare at her side, getting a nod. "Then your brother. I don't like it when ponies are sad."

"One'a the things I love about you." Applejack kissed Twilight's cheek as the pair began trotting with a mission.

"Coming!" Spike heard the knock at his door and was up and answering it. Horn magic was so useful. "Oh, Twilight, Applejack!" The former dragon gestured across his body at the neat house. "Come on in."

Twilight was impressed, but then, before Starry, Spike had kept the whole castle clean on his own. One little house was likely nothing. "Just dropped by to see how my number one assistant is."

"She was worried." Applejack translated in a droll tone, getting a droll look from Twilight and a giggle from Spike. "Don't suppose you have a friendship disaster, or some kind'a emergency?"

"Nope, everything is under control. Going to be out in the afternoon, though, going to be cleaning up other ponies' houses. Turns out cleaning just might be my special talent." Spike didn't look unhappy with the discovery, on the contrary Twilight thought he looked happier than he had in a long time.

"We have come for another reason, really." Applejack settled on the couch. "That mess with the worms," as soon as she brought it up she saw Spike jump a little, "well, you seem to be handling it so well, we wanted to know if'n you might have a tip or two for m'brother?"

Spike seemed to relax. Twilight could see him using his magic to pour three cups of hot cocoa. "At first? I was terrified. I thought for sure I would be kicked out of town, that everypony I… I…"

"Had sex with." Applejack knew that hearing Twilight say it would have hurt the unicorn. There were some things you didn't want your adopted mother to say.

"Yeah, everypony that I did that with, that they would come and want me thrown out." Spike levitated the tray over, the three chocolate drinks settling down, one before each of the three. "Then we got together, all of us. We talked." He blew some cool air over his while holding it up before his lips. "They didn't hate me, they… I got a few propositions but… mares aren't really my thing."

"Stormwalker your exception?" Applejack saw the stallion give her a surprised look. "Gel is mine. Mares are just… nicer to me. But Gel? Gel is something really special."

Spike let out a deep breath. "Yeah, Storm is that. Even Cloud agrees. And it was even more fun when she went down to your farm. She is an amazing stallion, too." As soon as Spike had said it he realized what he had implied and blushed crimson.

Twilight did what any mare would do, when hearing their foal make a slip like that. She ignored the connotation completely. "So, when are you all tying the knot?" The alicorn sipped her hot cocoa, realizing that Starry made it slightly different, neither was bad.

"Tying the… marriage?" Spike nearly spilled his cocoa. "Oh, we hadn't… well…"

"Storm is pregnant, isn't she?" Applejack held her own mug between her forehooves. She got a nod from Spike. "Big Mac's?" Another nod. "Then you gotta marry that mare, and your stallion. Get you all tied up in a nice family for when the foal is born."

Spike froze, he hadn't really let it sink in but hearing Applejack, the mare who was the very definition of honesty, telling him he should… it spun new gears in his head. "I need to propose to them… it needs to be special…"

"Tell us how we can help." Twilight reached forward with a wing, cupping Spike's snout so that he looked up at her. "Let's make their day perfect first, and then you can spring it on them at the end."

"Is that how you… all?" Spike was looking up at Twilight, realizing just how much he figuratively looked up to her.

"Since that day, every day has been perfect. Even the bad ones. I don't care how bad things could get anymore, so long as I have my wife and husband with me." Twilight let go of Spike just in time to get a kiss on the cheek.

"Feelin's mutual." Applejack turned her gaze to Spike. "As I am sure it will be for you. Now, what do they both like ta eat for breakfast, start their day off with that. Then we need to get them both the day off work."

"That will be easy, Rainbow Dash is probably going to have two new recruits to teach about controlling weather." Twilight's horn flared and a scroll appeared, hovering before Spike. "Spike, write this down."

The stallion almost trembled with love and he let the paper and quill fall as he rushed forward to hug Twilight. "Thank you."

Author's Note

Warm fuzzies, and some exposition (ugh, I know, show don't tell, but this was way easier) on what happened after the great stoning. Foals, foals everywhere...

Support me on Patreon or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland