Author's Note

This is intended as an idea dump of sorts for my own story concepts. Please do not solicit your own ideas.

One of many possible epilogues for Rule of Three. Night and Velvet decide to have more kids. Time progression of the scenarios Velvet breaks the news to Night that she’s pregnant again. It’s not exactly a surprise to Night, but the way she tells him always is. As they have more and more children, it becomes a bit of a game between them, Velvet thinking up more and more creative ways to let Night know. The kids are always present in these scenarios to show off how many kids they currently have.

Contains: Feral, Pregnancy.

Rule of Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight...

Velvet and Night sat across from each other at breakfast, eating in relative silence. Their six-month-old foal Remedy burbled quietly in her high chair, wiggling her tiny hooves. It was a calm, sunny day in spring, although they were supposed to get rain later.

Night was munching on toast with butter and grape jelly. He’d already finished his hash browns, plain, unfortunately. He’d made a note to go get ketchup this afternoon. There was a thick, cloying scent in the air, one that he was pointedly ignoring at the moment. Instead, he was focusing on his newspaper, glancing through the newspaper for any interesting articles.

There was the sound of something being slid across the table.

Night looked up from his paper. Velvet had given him a small scrap of folded parchment. The look she was giving him suggested he take it.

Curious, Night picked up the paper in his magic. He unfolded it… and found that there was a single thing on it.

+

Night blinked several times. He stared at the plus sign a few seconds, quizzical. It took him a second to realize the significance, but when he did…

“You’re pregnant already?” Night scratched his head. “Wow. That didn’t take long.”

Velvet giggled. “Fertility drugs, dear. I can’t say I’m surprised.”

Night smiled. He came over to Velvet and hugged her, pulling her into a soft kiss. “Think we’ll really get twins?”

Velvet kissed him back, snuggling into his embrace. “I hope so. I think that’d be really fun.”

“Awawawa.” Remedy chewed on her pajama sleeve, a bit of drool falling from her mouth.

Velvet broke from Night to tend to her. “Guess what, Remmy? You’re gonna be a big sister!”

Remedy laughed. “Ba!”

It’d been a wet, cold spring. The Canterlot Weather Department had mandated that winter needed to last a little longer this year, and then the thaw had needed to be a gradual one. As a result, dirty, messy snowpiles were still present everywhere, lingering in the alleyways and street corners.

Velvet and Night didn’t like going out when it was icky like this. They much preferred to stay inside where it was warm, relaxing while reading, writing, or in Night’s case stargazing. On this particular evening, Velvet hadn’t felt much like cooking, so they’d decided to order some Chineighse.

“Here, hun.” Night passed over a packet of soy sauce to Velvet. “For your rice.”

Velvet, who’d just finished getting Remedy situated, gratefully took it from him. “You gave bottles to Dawn and Dusk, right? Ah, yes you did. Thanks.”

The young twins, a filly and a colt, were in bassinets by Night, each slurping on bottles held aloft in his magic. They seemed quite content at the moment, and had been pretty mellow all day today.

“Alright.” Night reached for his fortune cookie. He always liked to eat that first. “Remedy good?”

Remedy, now a little over two, was nibbling on her carrots and applesauce without fuss. The loud snaps of her crunching could be heard above the smacking slurps of the twins.

“Okay.” He snapped open the cookie, popping the halves into his mouth. “Let’sh eat.”

Velvet watched him out the corner of her eye, noting the little paper that’d fluttered onto the coffee table. Subtly, her horn glowed with a minute flash, the paper glowing an instant later.

Night reached for his chopsticks, opening up his box of mai fun. As he gathered up the first bite of thin noodle goodness, he floated up the paper to see his ‘fortune’.

+

Night’s magic faltered. He slowly put his chopsticks down, turning to face Velvet.

“Wow, you went into heat early this year.”

Velvet broke into a huge smile. “I didn’t even know I was! It was really, really light this time! The only thing that tipped me off was that I suddenly started having morning sickness!”

Night came over to nuzzle Velvet, giving her a peck on the cheek. “When’d you find out? Just this last week?”

“Tuesday,” Velvet said. She leaned into him, resting a hoof on her stomach. “I’ve been thinking all week on a fun way to tell you.”

Night snickered. “Dare I ask if this is going to become a trend?”

Velvet waggled her eyebrows. She looked fondly over at her three young children, all more interested in their food than anything else.

“No comment.”

“WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

Night’s eyes snapped open. His ears swivelled to the sound, coming from the baby monitor on his nightstand.

Velvet shifted with a tired groan. “Mmmmhhh… You got it…?”

Night grunted. Like a zombie, he shambled out of bed, his mouth wide in a yawn. “Yeah, yeah… I got it…”

Half-asleep, Night left their bedroom and walked down the hall of their new house. He still wasn’t quite used to the layout, but he knew that’d come with time. It’d feel more like home once it wasn’t so empty.

He opened the door to the nursery, squinting as he flipped on the dimmer. His two-month-old daughter Aurora was whimpering within her crib, staring up at her mobile.

“What’s wrong, baby girl?” Night looked her over, looking for anything obvious that might’ve woken her. “You have a bad dream?”

Aurora’s cries lessened upon seeing her father, but still, she remained on the verge, her big, blue eyes watery.

“Alright, c’mere.” Night picked her up in his magic, holding her tight to his chest. He went over to a cupboard in the corner, pulling out a bottle of formula. “I think I know what’s wrong.”

Sure enough, upon sitting down and offering the bottle, Aurora latched onto it, drinking like there was no tomorrow. Night couldn’t help but sigh.

“You’re gonna be a night owl, I can already tell.” Night’s eyes unfocused, gently rocking Aurora back and forth. “These nightly feedings are exactly what Twily always—”

Night cut himself off. His gaze had wandered across the room, where he’d noticed a certain something plastered above the baby table. It was a big, white piece of paper, etched with a single sign in thick, black marker.

+

Night couldn’t help but start laughing. He floated over the baby monitor closer to him. “Really, Velvet?”

A tired chuckle came from the other end. “Surprise.”

It was the delivery of the news that caught Night off-guard. The news itself was anticipated. They hadn’t gotten a bigger house for nothing, after all.

“Did you really use those remaining fertility drugs?” Night asked. He remembered they’d used part of that as dirty talk one night. “Or did you really just go like, right back into heat?”

Velvet’s voice was coy. “Mmmmm… a little of column A, a little of column B. I figured it couldn’t hurt.”

Night made sure not to jostle Aurora as he got comfortable in the chair. “Sure, you say that now. We’ll see what you’re saying when it turns out you’ve got twins inside you again.”

“Pffft.” Velvet’s tone was dismissive. “Please. The odds of that are ridiculous. We were lucky enough to get twins in the first place!”

Night looked just below the piece of white paper, where the names of their six children were transcribed. “We’ll see, hun. We’ll see.”

“And over here, you’ll see one of my favorite sculptures in the Gardens!” the tour guide said. “This is meant to symbolize the unity of the three tribes!”

Night and Velvet lagged a bit behind the tour group, their little entourage in tow. Night was keeping an eye on a curious Remedy, who was looking all about with that glint in her eye. Said glint often resulted in her wandering off without her even realizing, only to panic as she realized she was lost. It happened a lot in stores.

Meanwhile, Velvet was pushing a custom stroller, where Aurora, Dawn and Dusk, and their three seven-month-old siblings all sat. The three babies, identical colts, were making the most noise, snuffling and wiggling as they shifted in their seats.

“I like that one,” Velvet said. She pointed to a sculpture of an infinity sign encircled by a long, graceful seapony. “ Do you like that one, Remedy?”

Remedy, now four-and-a-half, looked where her mother had indicated.

“...It’s weird.”

Night laughed. He leaned down to whisper in Remedy’s ear. “I think it’s weird, too.”

Remedy giggled.

Velvet blew a raspberry at both of them. “Phooey on both of you. I bet Dusk and Dawn like it.”

“I can’t see!” Dusk said.

“Where, Mumma?” said Dawn.

Velvet swerved the stroller so they could see. “That one.”

…

...

“...Looks like messy poop,” said Dawn.

Dusk broke into raucous laughter. “You said poop!”

Aurora and the triplets didn’t have much opinion other than what had the most color.

Velvet ran a hoof down her face. “And this is my life, now.”

The nine of them continued on with the tour group, taking note of all the sculptures. Some of them were more interesting than others, although there wasn’t much comment about the strangely empty pedestal over by the hedge maze. Not sure why.

“Oooh! I think I know what one we’re coming to next!” said Velvet. She got Night’s attention and pointed around the bend. “Look at the one on your right. I know you’ll like that one!”

Night raised an eyebrow, but nonetheless obeyed. The tour guide was blabbering about the sculpture to their left, but not saying much else. Nopony else was looking to their right, either.

They trotted around the corner…

...and Night immediately started laughing. Cut perfectly out of the ten-foot hedge was a plus sign, the edges singed slightly from fire magic.

“Tried your hoof at hedge trimming, Honey?” Night said.

Velvet’s horn sparked with a tiny wisp of flame. “Eh, more like hedge searing.”

Night came over to give her a hug. “I’m so happy all of this is working out. I’m sure Celestia and Luna are happy, too.”

Velvet rolled her eyes. “They’d better be, or we’ll corrupt one of our little prodigies and have them conquer Equestria for us.”

Remedy looked up, curious. “What’s ‘corrupt’ mean?”