This is Ranchtown

Ember Wing sat in the middle of the room. The tiny little Pegasus tyke sat up straight in his little purple pajamas. It was a purple that clashed perfectly with his dark orange complexion. He had a full black mane now and he gazed at a colorful toy piano in front of him. Every so often, he began pushing the rainbow colored keys on the similarly sized toy as it made bell rings in different tones. As the one year old fiddled with the small instrument for the fifth time, Fable began to question who gave him that little thing.

The red pegasus began to ponder this person, who was going to get a lump of coal this year for Hearth’s Warming. It was decided that their obvious route was to have a Hearth’s Warming Eve wedding. The date was set perfectly and they even called the Justice of the Peace. It was a little tough to find someone who would be willing to do that. The stallion told them that he would be more than happy to. It turned out that he was a bit of a huge fan of Red Quill.

However, the unicorn across from him on his living room couch sat with a similarly disappointed look. Both of them had a terrible revelation on their hands, and Ember’s constant bashing on the piano was like nails on a chalkboard at that moment. Both Winter and Fable tried to make it look like they weren’t annoyed with each other. The TV wasn’t on, there wasn’t another sound going on in the house. Playing babysitter was starting to chap Fable’s butt just a little bit.

“You really had to hog Hearth’s Warming Eve to yourself, didn’t you?” Winter said as he pressed his own fist against his cheek as he leaned to the side with his elbow on the couch’s armrest. “You never told me you wanted a winter wedding. Why would you pick up the good holiday? When have you ever loved this season? You don’t love Winter! I am Winter, literally!”

“Oh, well I didn’t know I had to check with my daily Winter! I didn’t hire you as my wedding planner!” Fable shot back, making Winter give him the stink eye. They went back to glaring at each other.

At this point, Ember Wing lost interest in the piano and waddled over to his little yellow hammer. He picked up the light plastic thing with a squeaky hammer head and started beating it against the ground.

The front door opened as Letty walked in. She wore tight jean pants with a black shirt with a lower collar hem. Over the shirt, she wore a thick purple jacket. It was getting rather cold outside, but thankfully it was still warm enough to survive without a huge coat. She smiled as she heard the squeaking hammer in the living room and looked toward the two stallions sitting on the couches across from one another.

“So, I see the conversation has been riveting. You two bickering old hags reached some kind of agreement yet?” She walked into the main room and marveled at the Hearth’s Warming tree, fully decorated and shining bright. Three feet from it was her son, gnawing on the small plastic tool.

“Yeah, we can have Fable switch his holiday wedding to a summer wedding, like he should have!” Winter pointed at him and made the red pegasus’s nostrils flair.

“We’ve been engaged for a year! You proposed to Golden Goal two weeks ago!” Fable pointed back at him.

“I’ve been dating Golden for way longer!” Winter shot back and Fable leaned forward with a fire in his eyes.

“Because I gave you much needed help!” The pegasus said with no shortage of volume. Both of them remembered Homestretch. That nice girl that gave Fable dating advice, so he set up a meeting with her and Winter. It was, indeed, a great boost to Winter’s confidence. He’d seen her a couple other times, but they never reconnected. He thought he should contact her again.

There was a long moment of silence between the two of them. Letty walked into the middle of the den and smiled as she picked up the baby that walked toward her. His steps were awkward, but he was getting the hang of balancing on his hooves. She giggled as she kissed his head and he leaned his cheek against her chest.

“Are Daddy and his friend being silly?” Letty said, drawing two annoyed expressions from the men. She just gave them an eye roll and walked with Ember to the kitchen. She was happy to see that Fable had washed the bottles, not to mention kept up with the active bottles. They always had two bottles ready to go. Sometimes they wouldn’t remember to put them back in the fridge and they’d go bad. Some of them started to grow solid and they just threw some of those bottles away. It wasn’t worth risking his health. “Honestly, guys, is it really such a bad thing to delay the weddings a few months apart? Fable, if you’re worried about date, we haven’t even made the cards yet. We could tell everyone to wait a little while longer.”

She could just feel the two of them glare at each other harder. The air in the living room was so thick with tension, it nearly electrified the air.

“A lot of the same people are going to be at both of our weddings.” Winter said, making Fable nod. “I mean, Spark and Voltage will be at both of them. My mom will be at both of them.”

“So will my mom.” Fable said, then looked off to the side. “Death and Pearl, for sure.”

“Well, yeah, them for sure.” Winter said. Letting slightly poked her head in as she fed Ember his bottle. She didn’t want to say anything, but she was glad that their talk had gotten a bit lighter in tone. The more they thought, the more they realized that they did indeed know a lot of the same people.

Winter scratched his blue mane as he thought. He was obviously tired of arguing and looked more bewildered at that moment. It was a conundrum. Now that things had calmed down, they were studying one another. They went through a variety of faces. Furrowed eyebrows, crossed arms, tapping chins.

“You could… use the… I mean.” Fable put his hand on his chin, almost as if he was trying to quiet himself. This drew a raised eyebrow from Winter. His chin dipped and all the sudden he felt a little tired. Golden’s strange pregnancy habits had been rather tricky to deal with lately. This involved a fair amount of crying. The hormone displacement at this stage of pregnancy was something to behold. He shook it off and then looked back at Fable.

“I could use what?” Winter leaned a bit closer, fingers on both hands poking against each other.

“Well,” Fable drew in a breath and leaned his head down a bit. “I mean there’s something called double weddings, right?”

Letty was immediately at the entryway between the kitchen and the living room. “Fable, did I just hear you correctly?” The yellow pegasus mare still had her son in her arms, but was in the process of putting him on the floor to go roam around again. “What do you mean a ‘double wedding?’” The look of concern was clear across her face.

“You mean like all four of us at the altar?” Winter asked. He was a little shocked at the revelation that Fable might actually be serious. “I’m not sure that’s really a thing.”

“Of course it’s a thing, people do it all the time.” Fable said, then looked from Winter, then to Letty.

“Yeah, I know that. What I mean is, I’m not sure that’s really a thing we should do. I mean, people might think we’re polygamists.”

“Oh, screw what people think, Winter. You know what? I think I like that idea. You wanted a winter wedding, well I have a Justice of the Peace on hold for it. I don’t think you could get a guy to do it. I just so happen to get lucky.”

“What you mean is, you got famous. So, your mom’s not going to think this is a little strange?”

“Come on, you’re one to talk about strange relationships!” Fable pointed and Winter’s eyes widened. “I’m giving you a chance to get your Hearth’s Warming wedding and now all the sudden, you’re not so sure?”

Winter had to concede the point. He supposed there could be stranger ideas. Winter had heard about nude weddings, even outside the nudist colonies. He didn’t suppose he’d mind one of those, so long as you paid for the facilities bench cleanings. Winter began to wonder how much a fenced off wedding would be. Then he waved the idea away. It took a moment for Winter to recover what he was thinking about, then he shook his head.

“Alright, fine. But you know as well as I do that that means I need to tell the Mrs. I’m not entirely sure what Golden will say. Last time I brought her a pizza, she said it smelled terrible, then cried because she lost her appetite. I can only imagine what she’d say about this.”

Once the boundaries were set, they had a somewhat shabby plan. First, there was the arduous task of telling those close to them to get their opinion on the set up. While Fable handled his end with his parents, Winter was mutually obligated to tell his future blushing bride. Golden was rather large at that point. It had been a while since she first revealed her pregnant status. She was the normal size for her stage, though. Four months had passed since the pool party. She was around six months along, give or take. The baby was now the size of a small pineapple and Golden Goal was struggling to get out of seats more and more.

“Winter… Darling…” Golden turned her head around as she did her yoga pose on the floor. Letty said that doing light yoga while pregnant was essential to survival of the third trimester. Her face was tight as she gazed over toward Winter. Her gray sweatpants were no longer loose fitting. Her ass was gaining weight, and there really was no way of getting around it at this point.

The brown pony who was once a hockey star was now on hiatus for the pregnancy. Losing all of this weight was going to be a bitch and a half, for sure. “That sounds Awesome!” Golden lit up with a smile as she thought about their wedding being shared with two such great ponies. “Are you kidding me?! Letty really wants to have a wedding with us?! Fable too! Oh, wow!”

Winter knew a happy spurt when he saw one. Pregnancy was the wonderful wheel of fortune in the ways of hormones. Every two or three hours, it was a wheel spin. Sometimes it landed on 1000 bits. However, as time went on, the bankrupt hit rather hard. Golden spent a lot of time on the couch in those time lapses. Her memory and state of being often take a small lurch hither and thither as well.

“Are you serious?” Winter asked, making sure the sanity lapse wasn’t getting the best of her. He would often ask if she wanted an apple and then thank him for reading her mind. “I mean, I wasn’t sure what your parents would think.”

“Are you kidding all the sudden?” She shot back. “My mom loves Fable! She knows you love Fable too.” She peeked back at him once again with a knowing grin.

“Very funny.” Winter sneered at her. “Anyway, I’m gonna have to call every living person I’ve ever known in my life and tell them I’m getting married with another couple.” Then he turned his head to the side, trying to figure out how he could possibly say that without that achy sort of English feeling. Phrasing this whole thing was going to be very tricky. That’s when Fable remembered Homestretch, then that whole argument that he sort of made this all happen came to view. Then there was the night, the Amber Cat, then all of that shenanigans. “Yeah, so I’ll be in the--”

“You’re going to be right here.” She called toward him to get his attention. He turned back to her to see that her yoga sweatshirt was still on. However, her sweatpants had been removed. It was simply her brown tail, along with her brown tail with the white highlight. Apparently the wheel of fortune hit a thousand mark. “Then we’ll talk about taking a shower afterward.”

She leaned forward, putting her hands on her ass and spreading her cheeks a bit. Her wet quim was already at an advanced stage of arousal. Apparently the yoga was agreeing with Golden on a different level. Her light green eyes furrowed, her impatience was palpable and Winter had no real say in the matter.

She was growing accustomed to getting a good licking, and it didn’t really take any coaxing from the azure unicorn. He ducked right down and lunged his tongue deep into her labia folds. She drew in a sharp breath as his tongue began to move around the sensitive, pink areas of her skin. Her juices gushed a bit as her hand went up to her breast, squeezing with two fingers around her nipple.

“It doesn’t matter to me how we get married, Winter. Tiny details don’t bother me. If I let everything in my life overwhelm me, I won’t last long as a mother.” She put her hand on her belly and rubbed the top of it. Then her hand planted back onto the bed as she inhaled sharply. “Oh, fuck yes! Fuck me with your tongue!” Golden’s face turned red as her knees buckled. She wriggled under the pressure of his sucking lips. That was when he attacked the very well known bump. “HA! NO! Winter! Not yet!” Her ass shook with a bit of a quake as she squealed! She came hard, almost wanting to kick him for doing it again. Ever since her hormones went ballooning, her clitoris was entirely too sensitive for its own good.

She leaned her head onto the ground, keeping herself on her knees. Though, staying in that position right now was a horrible chore. She turned a mean face toward him and snorted.

“You know you can’t just attack me like that. I’d like to stay awake if that’s alright with you!” She slapped his arm lightly. “If I fall asleep in the middle of this, I’m blaming you!” She pointed a jagged finger toward him and smiled a bit nervously.

That was when she felt it, though. Apparently, he had been undressing as he kept her busy. He was now down to a t-shirt. Winter’s immunity to the cold was something of a marvel to her. That was coming from someone who played hockey for her entire life. Now he was five inches deep within her and gaining depth. Her anger washed away as he grinned and hilted himself balls deep.

Knowing he had to keep her entertained for just a little while, he decided she needed some sleep aid. He was off like a jackhammer. He banged her as fast as he could, though not too hard. She grabbed onto his arm and gave tiny moans on each press of his pelvis to hers.

It amazed her how soft he was humping her while still going so fast. Her vagina produced plenty of lube for him to use and the sensation of his massively hard cock filling her tube made her grip his arm harder. She couldn’t even speak at this point and the blue haired stallion plunged his dick ever so deep inside. With both hands, he held her ass cheeks open to get the full length of his shaft into her fuck hole.

“Y-y-you can’t get me anymore--mmmm!!!--pregnant! Don’t hold b-back!” She moaned loud as she held on for dear life as he pistoned in and out of her. The brown unicorn lady’s big, milk filled boobs bobbed up and down. She couldn’t help herself, Golden had to push back against him. Their banging was in sync. They were still trying so hard to be gentle, but it didn’t matter for long.

Golden Goal had no problem reaching orgasm. The hard part was staving it off. She tried so hard to keep stable, but it all fell apart as she trembled. The unicorn lady pressed her nose against the yoga mat as he kept up his pace all the way up until he finally spewed inside of her.

He drenched her flames with his spouting semen. He softly patted her ass, right next to her cutie mark. She yipped a bit and her butt jumped up a little. His blue spotted cock kept deep inside of her with his balls against her crotch.

“Well, I guess that concludes my yoga.” She was now resting her head on the semi-soft yoga mat. Her ass was still straight up in the air as he pulled his cock out, followed by a small slew of semen.

“I would think so.” Winter said as he squeezed his shaft just a little bit to get a bit of that sensation and dribbling jizz out of it. He reached over to the side, grabbing a baby wipe off of the end table beside the couch and cleaned off his genitalia. “So, I guess you’re on board with the whole idea of--” He looked up from his cleaning to see that his fiance was now on her side, passed out on the mat. Winter imagined it was going to be a neat little trick getting her to bed.

It never failed. Every single time she came to their house, she had to see Ember Wing. Frozen loved being a mother, as hard as it was being single. However, every time she saw the little orange pegasus boy, she melted like hot butter. Even when he started randomly crying, she couldn’t help but snuggle him and rock him in her arms. She knew that he wasn’t going to be a little tyke for much longer so she knew she had to get in as much baby time as she could before he turned into a little boy.

The bright blue mare smiled as Ember finally fell asleep in her arms. His head resting on her shoulder while her hand gripped his bottom and her other hand petted his tiny mane.

“Are you kidding me? You know I love you, Fable. I would never say no to you. It’s not your fault that you wanted a December wedding with Winter. It seems obvious now, sure, but the heart wants what it wants.” Frozen leaned over and put Ember in his travel bassinet on the other side of the couch. It was little more than a fold out cushion with a blanket.

Fable watched her do this from his chair and marveled in how easily she took care of his son. She was a natural, that was for sure. However, there was obviously something else on his mind and Frozen caught onto it rather quickly. She made her way back to her seat on the couch and tilted her head in question.

“There’s still the fact that we just doubled a wedding and we barely had the planning done for the original wedding. Now we pretty much need to scrap everything and go back to the drawing board. I think the only thing we have done is the food and the flowers. That’s assuming Winter and Golden will be okay with that setup.” Fable said as he put his thumb and pointer finger on his forehead, pinching his t-zone.

“You really do get stressed easily, don’t you, Fable?” Frozen reached over to the side table and picked up her mug of coffee, sipping it as she grinned at the stallion who was giving her an annoyed look. “Well, believe it or not, I’m something of an expert when it comes to organizing weddings, and if you ask me nicely, I can be your wedding planner.” She smiled brightly at him and he raised an eyebrow.

“You? Aren’t you busy a lot?” Fabled asked, not wanting to make it sound like she’s ever been neglectful. However, thanks to her successful chain of ice cream stores, she found herself doing a lot of the expansions personally to make sure they had the quality she was looking for.

“I’m never too busy for something so important as my son’s wedding. Now that it includes you and your bride-to-be, I suppose that makes it that much more important to me. You said you already have a Justice of the Peace lined up and I can take it from there.” Frozen sipped her coffee once again, a grin on her face at Fable’s flabbergasted look. “What?”

“You’re seriously offering to be my wedding planner?” Fable was obviously still trying to wrap his head around the idea. Frozen was an incredible mare, but such a feat would be monumental. Not to mention, it would lift an enormous weight off of his shoulders. He couldn’t speak for Letty. She wasn’t totally fixed on the subject of the wedding, but there were certain things she wanted to see during it.

“In a word, yes. I’m more than capable, and I’m certain I can do it to your liking. Just give me a bit of freedom to act and I’ll put together a little shindig for the whole family. You can pay me back later. I prefer favors over money any day.” She winked at him, making him raise an eyebrow.

The door knocked at the front and Fable checked the time on the clock. His eyes widened when he noticed that so much time had already passed. He excused himself as Frozen waved him off, taking another sip of her coffee.

Fable opened the door to see a very familiar face. The bengal spotted cat lady smiled and waved. She removed her sunglasses, dressed in a fluffy black jacket and long pants. The white fluff on her hood made her look something like an eskimo. That, and the fact that she had put on a noticeable amount of weight. Now that she was more comfortable in her position as head baker of her own pastry shop, it gave her more opportunities to taste her creations. The effect it had on her was palpable.

“Hey, Jasmine!” Fable took both of her hands and kissed her cheek. She smiled, returning the kiss to his cheek and he took her diaper bag from her arm. It was strangely heavy.

“G’day. How’s the little bubby boy?” The fluffy cat woman smiled and walked in as he prompted her.

“Frozen Pop came over and held him until he went to sleep. He’s still there.” He directed her toward the main room where the unicorn was, indeed very softly rocking him while he snoozed on her shoulder.

“Hi, Frozen. Quite a nice little bundle you got there.” She said with a sweet smile as Frozen giggled, looking at the orange little angel on her.

“Jasmine, always a pleasure.” Frozen said as she leaned back, and took her hand off of the baby to give her a good angle to pick him up. With very little effort, the cat lady picked Ember Wing up and held him against her chest. She was very careful not to wake him and keep his head supported. “How long do you have him today?”

“Pretty much the whole day. Fable said it’s going to be busy.” She explained, looking at Fable who couldn’t disagree. He put her diaper bag, which was simply a repurposed gym bag, onto the floor next to the couch and opened it up. He couldn’t help but be a little bit curious as to what could weigh so much. There were three whole packages of wipes, a full bag of diapers, five bottles, two small teddy bears, a changing mat and the entire series of the Fluffy Pony Funtime Show. It was a neat little box set that included all of the episodes, including the three movies.

“Good God, you came a bit over prepared, didn’t you?” Fable asked as he looked up at Jassy, who giggled.

“No such thing.” Both the ladies said in sync. Fable shrugged and got to his hooves.

“Alright, well, I’ve gotta get going. I need to meet everyone I’ve ever known for lunch and see if I can hold onto my sanity in the process.” The red pegasus leaned over and gave Frozen a small peck on the cheek, which she graciously accepted.

The red pegasus made it to the coffee house just in time. The blue rental car pulled up to the parking lot shortly after he was seated. Part of him wasn’t sure if he wanted to be the one to meet her at a public place, especially since she was liable to start crying at the prospect of her baby boy getting married.

Stargazer came into the diner and held her arms open toward him as she walked right past the host who raised a finger, but then shrugged as she didn’t notice. They embraced, and their wings fluttered a bit as they tightened their hug.

“How’s the groom-to-be?” She whispered as she let him go and he led her back to the table. Her excitement to get to the talking was noticeable, but it was obvious that she at least made an attempt to tone it down.

“The groom-to-be is a bit stressed, underslept with a packed schedule, but otherwise, he’s fine.” Fable said with an easy-going tone that made Stargazer a tiny bit uneasy. “Don’t worry about me, Mom, I’ve been through tougher dilemmas than this and I made it out just fine.”

“While working with a bitch that you thoroughly did not like in a strange town with which you knew very few ponies in. Yes, if you would have just let me bring you back home, you could have gotten a fresh start.” Star said, seeing that Fable’s brow only lowered the more she was talking. It was then that she realized that she brought up a very sore subject, opening an old wound as it were. She forced herself to take a very deep breath, reminding herself that he was in enough stress as it were without her trying to make him into that 18 year old that left home far too soon as far as she was concerned.

“I’m sorry, Fable, I’m not trying to make this about that at all. It’s more about another problem…” She looked off to the side, drawing a concerned look from him. “I just got done talking to Sun Fire on the way over here…”

“Oh, don’t tell me.” The red pegasus facepalmed as the waitress stepped up with their silverware and two glasses of water.

“I’ll have the appetizer sampler.” Fable said as he handed her the menu. “She’ll have the peach cobbler with a daisy salad, no dressing.” She said, motioning toward his mom, whose eyebrow raised. That was exactly what she was going to order. The waitress nodded to him and he nodded back. “Thank you.” As soon as the waitress turned back around, his eyes darted back to his mother. “He’s not coming, is he?”

“No,” She sighed. Fable’s disappointment was painted across his face to the extent that it made Stargazer wince. “Of course, he wanted to come. He even packed his bags and was ready to leave until he got the call he’s been waiting for since he became an actor.”

“I’m sorry, what?” His eyebrow raised and he blinked.

“He got a part in an actual A-list movie with three top named actors in Equestria.” She explained, then got her phone out and switched her screen over to an announcement of the movie’s production start. “He’s no bigger than a bit part with two lines, but he’s in enough scenes to keep him in Cloudsdale for the rest of December.”

Of course, that meant that Fable was the jerk in this situation. Here he was about to get married and expecting everyone else to uproot their lives to come to his ceremony. This was pretty typical of Sun Fire, if he was being honest. Ever since they were kids, Sun had to one-up Fable in everything they did. Competition was the name of the game and Sun Fire was not going to lose to anyone. His brother would never admit it, but it ate away at him that Fable was a successful author of a book trilogy with a second series in the works. This made him amp up his acting career at every turn in order to make up for lost time. Now someone was giving him a chance in the big leagues and Sun Fire was not going to slouch.

“Alright, alright, it’s fine. He was there for Ember’s birth, so I’ll just call it even, for now.” Fable caused his mother to put on a sour expression. “I’m kidding. Honestly, I can’t blame him. If I had the chance to work with Red Carpet, I’d totally do it.” He said as his eyes scanned over the announcement that his mom held up. Then he looked closer at it. “Whoa, Celestial Style? Wow.”

“Yeah, the mare from Filly Hits Manehattan. I hated the movie, but I loved her in it.” Star Gazer looked at her phone again and scrolled down to the full cast list.

“Yeah, when she was eleven.” Fable said, then waved the topic away as the waitress came back with their food. “Anyway, I have a million and one places to be today. Thanks to Winter, it looks like both of our families are going to hate us for changing plans on them.”

“Oh, don’t be dramatic. Not all of them are as shallow as my baby boy.” Star Gazer said as she put a scoop of daisies into her mouth. He couldn’t help but give her a bout of sarcastic laughter as he also dug in. “Now, about my grandson.” Fable grunted with a nod. “How is he liking that toy piano I got him? Isn’t it cute?”

Fable immediately stopped eating and glared at his mother, who grew puzzled.