Unexpected

Chapters

Shock
Screw up.
Apples
Rarity
Confusion
Persuasion.

Shock

Chapter 1
Shock

“Miss Rainbow?” Nurse Tenderheart waved her hoof in front of the cerulean blue pegasus’s faces. The young mare’s violet eyes were distant and glassy. “Miss Rainbow Dash!”

Like a thunderclap, Rainbow Dash was back to reality. She was breathing harshly, harder than if she had ran a race across the sky. Her eyes were wide. She wanted to say something, scream but the words were stuck in her throat.

“Miss Rainbow, are you alright?” Nurse Tenderheart asked worriedly. It was a stupid thing to say but there was little more she could do. She stroked the young mare’s back in a comforting motion. “It will be okay.”

“Nurse…” It was a whisper, a tiny little plea. Rainbow Dash swallowed hard. It was difficult for her to produce the words. Her mouth was so awfully dry. “Tell me that it isn’t true, please….”

Nurse Tenderheart lowered her gaze to her two front hooves. As much as blue earth pony wanted to deny the fact for the sake of this young mare, honesty compelled her to say otherwise. “I’m sorry Miss Rainbow.” Her voice was gentle. “But it’s positive.”

The words exploded in Rainbow Dash’s ears. She shut her eyes tight, gritting her teeth as reality bit into her skin. Her cerulean blue flanks were pale from shock and she so wanted to hide her face under her hooves.

She didn't expect this to happen.

"Miss Rainbow, will you be okay?"

Seriously, this was not supposed to happen! She was supposed to go for the tryout with the Wonderbolts at the end of the year. It was all planed out.

"Rainbow Dash?" Tenderheart's concerned voice cornered her. It dragged her back to this small room in Ponyville, with its claustrophobic white walls. She didn’t want to be here, in this clinic anymore. Yet she wasn't sure where to go.

Rainbow Dash swallowed the sour taste that rose up from the hollow pit of her stomach and showed her bravest smile. "Yeah. Don't worry. I'm fine." She answered reassuringly. "I will be fine."

Nurse Tenderheart's hoof came to rest on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. The cerulean mare tried to stand. "Wait, Miss Rainbow." Her voice turned serious. "Don't leave just yet. We have a lot of things to discuss."

Rainbow Dash nodded weakly. "Can we talk about it later?"

"We could schedule an appointment next week. Do you know what are you going to do about it?"

‘It’… a short little word that thunder right in her ears. "I don't know."

Nurse Tenderheart sighed heavily. Letting go of Rainbow Dash's shoulder, she move to occupy the small couch on Rainbow Dash’s left.

"Was it consensual?" It was a disgusting question to ask. No stallion, certainly not in Ponyville would ever force himself on a mare, but there were rules to follow.

Rainbow Dash bit her bottom lip and shrugged. "Yeah..."

“Do you remember when it might have happened?”

Rainbow Dash inhaled sharply. Tears were beginning to form at the corner of her eyes. "I don’t remember. It might have been one of the parties I attended. I don’t know."

Nurse Tenderheart sighed again. It was still too early to guess, perhaps a month or two. "Can you remember anything about him? What kind of pony was he? "

Rainbow Dash snapped to face Tenderheart. "I was drunk, okay! Pinkie Pie always lays out too much alcohol. Are you blaming me?"

"No, but…" Nurse Tenderheart paused. “There could be complications if he wasn’t a pegasus. Only pegasi foals can float on clouds. A Unicorn or an Earth pony foal would fall right through a cloud ceiling.”

The colour drained out of Rainbow Dash’s face. "I didn’t think about that. Like I said before–"

"It is okay." Tenderheart cut in. "It just happened, right?"

"Yeah,” Rainbow Dash gave a quick nod.

"Do you think you can try remembering him?"

"I don't know." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I need to clear my head first."

"I’ll schedule an appointment, same time next week?”

“Sure, whatever.” Rainbow Dash stood up.

“You should speak to your family. There are options."

“My parents are dead. No siblings.” Rainbow Dash said as a matter of fact.

‘The poor thing’, Tenderheart sighed heavily. She wished she could do more but the best she could do was to see the young cerulean mare safely out the door before she had to see another patient.

Before Rainbow Dash left the medical examination room, she turned to Nurse Tenderheart again. "Hey, are you one hundred percent sure it's positive?"

Sighing, Nurse Tenderheart could only nod. "Yes." She confirmed. "It's positive."

*** *** ***

Rainbow Dash flew aimlessly around Ponyville. She had no specific place to go. She had taken the day off from her job as Ponyville’s weather manager. Yeah, she was the boss. The big weather boss of a no name town in the middle of nowhere. Sure, it looked good on paper, a pony her age making weather manager. The quick promotion should have been a star in her mane, a sign of talent and of a pony that was going places.

Instead, it was as good as being put out to pasture. Nopony in the know would argue any different. She had been kicked out of Equestria Weather Service main office at Cloudsdale and sentenced to serve the ruined remains of her career in a town so small a pony like Pinkie Pie could remember every pony’s name. She had ruffled one too many important feathers but was too talented to simply dismiss in a more common fashion.

She looked up at the sky. It was blue, cloudless, no sign of rain. She huffed. Team cloud 9 was slacking off on the job again. When the boss is away, the ponies come out and play, as the saying goes.

Rainbow Dash was distracting herself. She was ignoring the red dragon in the room.

Seriously, how was she supposed to solve this big problem? It was just an accident, a mistake. Her breathing was heavy and tense. How ironic that the event changing her life forever was one which she had no real recollection off. Her life was taking a tail spin on an out of control dive.

The most recent of Pinkie Pie’s parties she had attended was a month ago. Apple Jack’s big brother, Macintosh was there. They weren’t even really friends, just acquaintances, your sister’s friend, stuff like that. Just two ponies celebrating Twilight Sparkle’s birthday, hanging out with the others and drinking Pinkie’s damned Friendship cocktails.

Maybe they drank too much that night. She certainly had, not that it took much with her light body. Most pegasi couldn’t drink much, unlike Fluttershy who drank like a fish. She remembered not being able to get her wings to beat in proper sequence and Macintosh’s strong flank supporting her as they walked to Sweet Apple Acres. Why there she had not a clue. He must have convinced her it was better to sleep off the alcohol at the farm rather than on the floor of SugarCube Corner. They were talking and laughing all the way, swaying to each others motion and she, leaning into his warm red flank for support.

"You wanna know something?" She had said to him, hiccupping from too much alcohol. "You're hot." She giggled. Her head was light. She felt like she was flying. "You’re so hot… and strong too. Your green eyes are very pretty."

"Eeyup." He admitted easily. Maybe he didn't realize those words escaped his mouth.

Her hooves slipped and started to fall. Instinctively, he drew her closer with all intension of keeping Dash on her legs. Instead they ended up stumbling on the floor. Him on top and her beneath. Thank goodness they had safely arrived at Sweet Apple Acres; otherwise they would end up lying on some street in the middle of Ponyville.

"But I guess you never knew that." She looked up, unperturbed by his massive muscular body that covered her like a warm red blanket.

"Know what?" Big Macintosh asked the blue pegesus mare pinned beneath him.

"That I thought of you that way." She looked at him with half-lidded eyes.

"Really?" He chuckled easily.

"Yeah…" She moved upward until their faces were impossibly close, lips barely touching. "So hot it makes me want to kiss you right now…"

There, Rainbow Dash concluded. It must have happened.

The next day, she woke up with a terrible hangover in Big Macintosh’s bed and little memory of the night before. She decided not to talk about that matter. She would just pretend that nothing happened between them. Nothing was going to change anyway. They weren't really friends and quite comfortable with that relationship as it was.

She buried that one night’s memory at the back of her head. They continued their lives according to their usual routines, meeting each other on occasion, like usual, like normal as the day before.

Without Rainbow Dash realizing, her wings had carried her to Sweet Apple Acres and with a loud thump crashed into Apple Jack, knocking the pale orange pony onto her haunches.

“What in the hay! Look where you are flying Rainbow Dash.” Apple Jack got off the ground. “You nearly upset my apple cart.” She wiggled her body a little to straighten the cartload of apple behind her.

It was just one straw too many. Rainbow Dash burst into tears, like a breaking rain cloud. Tears rained out of her violet eyes.

Apple Jack was just dumb struck. “Ah’ didn’t mean to be that harsh.” Of all ponies, Apple Jack could not bare to see Rainbow Dash crying, it just didn’t seem natural. "Don't cry." She used her hoof to brush the tears away. "Now care to tell what the matter is?"

Rainbow Dash bowed her head. She didn't dare to look her friend in the face. With a small shaken voice, she said…

"I'm pregnant."

Apple Jack’s Stetson hat fell neatly off her head.

"Wh-what?" Her eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

Rainbow Dash nodded, sobbing quietly. "I haven’t been feeling so hot lately. I thought it was stomach flu or something, but it wouldn’t go away. So I went to the clinic. Nurse told me it's positive."

Apple Jack took a long deep drag of air, what in tarnation do you say in moments like this. She wasn’t a wordsmith or something but she had to try. Rainbow Dash needed to hear that her friends were with her. She took another moment, unconsciously crushing a dead leaf on the ground with her front hoof.

“There now,” She patted Rainbow’s shoulder lightly. "You don't have to go this alone.”

She was turned to Rainbow Dash’s teary face. "Me, Twi, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie, we’ll take care of you. Ah’ll be there if you need me.” She smiled hoping to wipe away Dash’s troubled expression. “That’s a promise of a lifetime, you hear."

Rainbow Dash dropped onto her hunches. "What should I do? Soon it will be hard to cover…" She put her front hooves on her still flat stomach. "What will every pony think of me? Ponies will talk. Ponyville is such a small place.”

Apple Jack followed her gaze. "We'll think of something." She knew Dash wasn’t ready to settle down, certainly not with a foal. This turn of events must've been shocking as hay.

"Maybe… I should…. you know…. abort it. It will save me from more trouble."

"Now listen here, don’t you speak another word about doing that Rainbow Dash." Apple Jack became very serious, almost crossed with her friend.

"But, A.J–"

"Not another word of that. And don't worry, Dash. You can count on me and the rest of the girls."

Rainbow Dash sighed heavily. How could she not worry? She was the one with the growing belly "Hey…" She drew Apple Jack’s attention. Her eyes were clouded with uncertainty. "Do you know where Macintosh is?"

*** *** ***

“Oh hay…”

Apple Jack careful undid the harness around her back, mindful to undo every buckle. It forced her to think. It couldn’t be what she was thinking. Maybe.. just maybe Dash was better acquitted with Macintosh than she had known. All her pegasus friend wanted was a kind word or something from her brother. Horsefeathers. Who was she kidding? That acquaintance was probably the cause of this mess in the first place.

It took every bit of self control not to bolt and run up to that dumb older brother of hers. With a slight pushed, she left the apple cart on the side of the path. Even at moments like these, a small corner of her mind, hoped that Apple Bloom and her two friends wouldn’t try anything with her apples. Cutie Mark Crusaders Apple Jugglers were no longer welcomed at the Ponyville’s town square. And there was a matter of a fine from the Major’s office for littering which would be coming out of Apple Bloom’s allowance.

She knew the place where Big Macintosh would always be whenever he was free from work. Rainbow Dash trailed behind her, head hanging low between hooves and not even flying. From afar, they could hear his humming from under an apple tree. “Big Macintosh,” Apple Jack yelled at the top of her lungs. “Get your big, red hide here right this minute.”

Apple Jack glanced at Rainbow Dash but her friend was finding her own front hooves rather more interesting than the going on around her. “Dash,” she asked gently. “Do you want to go talk to him or would rather have ma’ do the talking.”

“I can do it,” Rainbow Dash said more to herself than to Apple Jack. “Just..”

Apple Jack understood. “Ah be in hollering distance if you need me..” and backed away, to give Dash the privacy she needed.

Being alone yet not, made meeting Macintosh a little easier. Rainbow Dash approached the big red pony. "Macintosh."

His face was passive as usual. It could be even be described as bored, apart from the little glances he kept throwing in the direction of his younger sister, Apple Jack. He was a hard buck to read

Gathering all her courage, she blurted out, "I need to ask."

Big Macintosh brows arched high, the stick of grass fell limp between his lips. "What do you wanna ask?" Big Macintosh studied her expression in confusion. "Dash…What is it? Something wrong?"

"I have to know …" She tried to steady her voice. He stomach began to heave, she felt sick. "After Pinkies Pie’s party the other month… did we… did we…“ Her voice died in a whisper.

Why was he just standing there with that broken stick of hay in his mouth? He just stared at her, wordless as if cruelly forcing her to continue? He made no effort to put the pieces together. He just stood there.

Rainbow Dash jerked her head up in anger. “Do I have to spell it out?” she yelled. “Did we have S. E. X.!”

“Sis..” A young filly appeared out of nowhere. Apple Jack nearly jumped nearly four feet straight into the air. How did her little sister move so quiet like? “What’s AssEeeAxe?” Apple Bloom asked having heard Rainbow Dash.

“Apple Bloom!” By Princess Celestria’s mane this wasn’t the time to be going about explaining the birds and the bees, and the proper use of protection. “Git!” She held up a hoof. “Get back to the house this minute!”

“What ah do?”

“Just git. And don’t come out for another hour. Big pony business.”

“This is so unfair!” the small olive yellow pony complained.

Apple Jack stomped her hoof sending Apple Bloom scampering away.

“Why was everypony so crabby today?” Apple Bloom muttered under her breath. Luckily she had spotted a cart of apples at the side of the dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Maybe Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were free.

“Are you the father of my foal?” Rainbow Dash waited for an answer, she needed an answer. But the large red stallion just stood there, as rigid as ice. His eye fixed on some unseen thing on her snout. She began to wonder if her decision to confront him with the news was right.

"Ah’ can’t rightly say."

She wasn’t sure if she heard him right. He couldn’t have meant that, but yet he looked for all the world like he didn't care at all.

"You bastard…" Rainbow Dash neighed angrily, her wings flew open. Without telling her directly, the implication was there, that she was that kind of pony… because she had come from a big city? She shoved a hoof into his thick muscular chest. "How dare you talk to me like that! Of course the foal is yours. What do you think I am?”

Big Macintosh was quiet for such a long time.

Her anger was suddenly spent. "Okay." It was a whisper. Rainbow Dash didn’t care if he could hear her but she remained speaking that way. She forced her eyes close and snapped her wings shut. “Okay, I understand…" She turned and walked away. This had been a mistake. Her foot steps grew quicker. What had she been thinking? She galloped passed Apple Jack. She had to get away from here.

“Big Macintosh? Dash!” Apple Jack yelled as the fleeing pegasus. This was beginning to become mighty troublesome.

He exhaled heavily, scratching the back of his head. “Ah’ didn’t mean that.”

“Ah’ don’t know what you meant, but we’ll be talk about this later.” Apple Jack shouted and ran after Rainbow Dash. She had to catch up before Rainbow got a little more sense and started flying. Good thing she was a strong runner. “Slow down,” she shouted

Heedless Rainbow Dash continued running. She seized the cerulean pegasus’s tail by her teeth. “Ah’ said, slow down!” Although in reality Apple Jack sounded rather muffed with so much rainbow coloured hair in her mouth.

Instinctively Rainbow Dash threw open her wing and started a sequence of strong wing beats.

“Horse apple!” Her eyes grew wide as Rainbow Dash lifted into the air. She dug her hooves into the ground, tearing tracks of dirt into the ground. Then with a hard tug that only Earth pony muscles could do, she pulled Rainbow Dash into a stumbled landing.

Before the dust had settled, Apple Jack was already on her hooves. “What in blazes Rainbow.” She spun around to pegasus in the dust. “You nearly dragged me into the sky!”

Rainbow Dash was curled up on the ground, her face and snout under her front hooves and her wings tucked tightly to her sides. Her eyes were again wet with tears. Why did it hurt so much? Why should she care if Macintosh wasn’t interested? He wasn’t anypony important.

“Oh Dash…" Apple Jack whispered softly upon seeing the tears. “Crying don’t suit you.”

But deep down, Rainbow Dash knew why. She cried not for herself but for the foal growing inside her womb. She cried because the pony who fathered her foal didn't acknowledge its’ existence. It would not have a father, or herd of parents, siblings and half siblings. She was about to bring into Equestria another pony that would never have a real family, just like herself.

No, it was worse. Rainbow Dash cringed.

She had a family. She had faint memories of one before she became an orphan. Her foal would not even have that. So she cried for her foal's future. She cried because she knew there would be unkind whispers. Whispers of the absent family herd that something was wrong with the Rainbow line. Children could be cruel.

Apple Jack leaned close to nuzzle the cerulean pegasus.

“Ah heard what he said.” She spoke and continued a little more softly, “Not that I was purposefully ease dropping or anything.”

Apple Jack paused. “But this is my brother we are talking about. And ah know my brother. The thing you heard was totally different from the thing he said.” Apple Jack hoped. “You mistook him. He is the responsible sort, not very good with managing the money side of a farm but the sort of pony that will honour his commitments. He’ll be there.”

Minutes passed. No pony can cry forever, especially a pony like Rainbow Dash.

“A.J, what am I going to do?” Her voice was still shaky.

“Let’s go to Twilight’s and think things over. It will be quiet there and not over run by critters like Fluttershy’s.” Speaking of which, that Angel Bunny of Fluttershy gave her a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. That rabbit didn’t seem quite right.

*** *** ***

Screw up.

Chapter 2

She didn’t feel well.

What did Nurse Tenderheart call it again? Well, what ever it was, she couldn’t bare thinking about it… or about him.

Remove that country slang of his and all Macintosh had uttered to her face amounted to one word, “No.” Rainbow Dash never believed that such a simple word could be that painful. That word tasted like acid rain, sharp, sour, and biting. The way he spoke, the painful reality it came from the father of her foal, made her feel like she was nothing to him, like she was worthless and abandoned yet again. If only there was nothing left inside for her to feel.

What happened that night clearly was just…sex, accidental drunken sex, obviously. Her pregnancy wasn't expected, nor the foal in her womb the result of passionate love between lovers. So why had she hoped he cared? Why should he have cared? Thinking of that red stallion only made her nausea worse.

The journey to The Book and Branches Library, Twilight’s home in Ponyville felt like it had taken years. It was actually a struggle keeping pace with A.J. Every sway of each hoof step stirred something down in the hollow pit of her stomach. Pegasi didn’t get motion sickness, did they? Twilight’s place had to be close. She just needed to concentrate on putting one hoof in front of another. It couldn’t be that far. Her head began to feel dizzy, stressed. She had to stop.

“Dash, you okay.” A concern voice sounded from her right. "You look sick.” Apple Jack voice crashed in her ears like cymbals of rolling thunder. Rainbow Dash felt her senses began to grow numb. Without warning, without caution, the nauseous feeling rose again, and this time it was greater than any she felt since starting the morning.

"Dash?"

There was now concern in A.J voice. Her face must be pale, she knew. Her flanks damp with sweat. She must've looked horrible. She dropped her head and shielded her mouth with the side of her fetlock. Her brows were thin and knotted from holding her inside from leaking out.

It was an impossible task.

Wordlessly she vomited right in front of Apple Jack's worried face.

"Dash!"

She kneeled on the ground and throwing up the contents of her stomach, right by the signboard of the Book and Branches Library. It was an unpleasant odour that filled the air, matched by the disgusting green mess on the ground. She was a public spectacle for every pony to see. Rainbow Dash couldn't recall a single moment in her life when he felt so miserable and helpless. Her stomach heaved. It was painful.

Buck…buckity …buck that Macintosh. And not only that, she could feel she was on the verge of tears again. It hurt too much, in her stomach and in that space within her chest. She couldn’t hold back the tears. It won't stop. They overflowed from her eyes.

She choked for air, having difficulties breathing. Throwing up and crying, doing those acts at the same time made her gag. She felt A.J kneel down beside her. A.J must be panicked for sure.

Apple Jack's green eyes had grown wide. "Dash?" A pause. "Answer me!"

There was such concern in A.J.’s voice, at least one hundred percent if not more. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to hear it. She waved a hoof to at the earth pony’s face. "Go away…"

"Wha-?"

"I'm…fine…"

Apple Jack stared at Rainbow Dash in horror. "No, yer not." The orange earth pony had never seen the cerulean pegasus look so terrible like this before. She placed her hoof on her friend’s shoulder. "Ah'm taking you to the clinic, now."

"No…" Rainbow Dash shook her head between heaves, still throwing up, still crying. She refused to go back to that little white room again. Not today. "Trust…me. I'm –"

"Hay you are!” Apple Jack yelled furiously. “Crying and puking out yer insides don't look fine to ma!". She was frightened. It must have been years and years ago but she didn’t remember her own mother being so sick on account of being pregnant with Apple Bloom.

Unexpectedly, a familiar voice echoed from the back. “Hello, Apple Jack, Rainbow…”

Apple Jack whipped her head around. The unicorn’s lavender coat was almost as distinctive as the single pink stripe in her purple mane and tail. It was Twilight Sparkle walking up the street towards them. Spike was as usual balanced on top of Twilight Sparkle’s back. The baby dragon sat between two saddle bags that appeared to be full from the morning’s groceries.

“Girls, what–” Twilight Sparkle stopped when she heard…sobbing? Then the sour smell of vomit reached her nose. A worried look was soon cast on her face. "What happened?"

“Sugarcube, mind if Dash and I stay for a spell at your place?”

“You don’t need to ask.” Twilight replied.

Apple Jack nodded and leaned over to Dash. "You finished?" Apple Jack’s voice was gentle.

Rainbow Dash gave a brief nod. "Ye-yeah."

"Good. Let's get you inside. It's hot out here. Can you walk?"

Rainbow Dash tried to stand but her legs felt like jelly. She almost fell if not for Apple Jack’s sturdy orange body shouldering one side of her body.

“A little help Twi-“Apple Jack hollered. The angle was wrong and threatened to tip her on her side along with Dash.

Spike leapt off, allowing Twilight Sparkle to pull off her saddle bags with a shimmer of unicorn magic. She then hurried to the pegasus pony’s free side. With a small grunt, she braced herself against Rainbow Dash, sandwiching the pegasus mare. It wasn’t terribly comfortable for any of the three ponies. Nevertheless together they hoisted Rainbow Dash onto her feet and began moving off the grass towards Twilight’s surrogate home.

“Spi-ike.” Twilight called back. Her horn shimmered with magic as she opened the engraved door of the library.

“Could you clean up while I help Rainbow Dash in?”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Spike agreed before him could stop himself.

“Thanks. I can always count on my number one assistant.”

Spike smiled. It was always good to hear that his work was appreciated. He turned to his task. Only then did its sudden enormity assault his nostrils.

“You got to be kidding me.” Regret, why did it always tasted like ash?

It was as bad as the time Twilight drank hot sauce and threw up all over the bathroom floor. In other ways this was worst. He had at least a mop them and that was still nasty. Just the memory made his claws feel unclean. What a way to remember their first Pinkie Pie party.

So how was he going to get rid of this? With his bare claws?

Eewwww… Not a chance. Not for all the fire rubies in the world. If only he could make it disappear with magic.. or… could he risk it? He might only be a baby dragon… but he was a baby fire breathing dragon. Yet fires, even small ones made more than a few ponies nervous. He could get into trouble. Spike glance quickly around him. Conveniently if somewhat ominous, there was not a pony in sight. The street was empty.

Spike took a deep breath, careful to concentrate on the type of flame he wanted; A nice fierce and hot deconstruction fire rather than a delicate teleportation fire used to send letters. Princess Celestia or for that matter any pony in Canterlot would not want this… in their mail. He let out a bleach of blue almost white fire. The smokeless flames lapped at the unmentionable mess on the ground and in a few hot moments had charred the green mush into white ash. It was going well until Spike heard the unmistakable sound of a mare clearing her throat.

‘Please be Twilight. Please be Twilight.’

It was an impossible hope. Fearfully he turned slowly. A white unicorn loomed over him and she wasn’t fair Rarity, Ponyville’s seamstress and self styled fashion designer. This white unicorn had a red mane that was stripped with black. She wore a disapproving frown on her muzzle that reached all the way to her eyes. Adding to that worrying visage was her crisp dark blue uniform with long sleeves that ran up her forelegs.

“Hello, hello, hello what do we have here then? “The custodian helmet on her head tilted forward, revealing the moon silver and sun gold crest of the Royal Equestrian Police.

Constable Baccarat levitated her night stick, tapping it lightly on her foreleg. “I don’t know what you think you are doing, but I’ll have you know, arson of public property is a crime against the Crown. What do you have to say for yourself?” The native of Trottingham pointed her nightstick at the offending baby dragon.

‘You can save this Spike,’ a little voice in his head stated urgently. ‘Say something plausible. Surely there must be many good reasons to set an open fire.’ Spike opened his mouth but to his horror not a word came out. He couldn’t think under pressure.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” he blurted out. ‘Nooo…. don’t say that.’ The little voice wailed in horror.

“Not arson you say?" Constable Baccarat grinned. "Well, please do enlighten me.”

Whatever train of thought running in Spike’s head was abruptly derailed with a bellowing shout of “Fire!”

Weathermare Cloud Kicker flew in with a heavy grey cloud between her hooves. She centred the cloud over the fire as she was trained. Then with a giant leap and a wild cry that the sounded like ‘Yay!’, she planted her four hooves on the cloud. The grey cloud rumbled from the impact, lightning flashed.

It was so exciting! It’ll be the talk of the week in the Weather Office. It was a rare chance to use a fire extinguishing drill on a real fire no less. A second mighty leap quickly followed. Cloud Kicker was a little too enthusiastic.

On cue Constable Baccarat took a big step to the side. Horse sense, it was a wonderful thing. It had been endlessly useful in her younger days when she still walked the beat on some of Trottingham’s less calmly streets.

The cloud burst open like a popping balloon. It rained. It rained heavily with big fat droplets of the kind a pony only sees when the Equestria’s Weather Service held its ‘Once in a Decade Thunderstorm’. The rain was so thick it was hard to see if you were caught in it. And that thunderstorm was just large enough to catch the fire and one baby dragon.

Constable Baccarat was mildly amused. She was a bad mare. ”Let’s dry you off at the Police House. My colt Pip Squeak would love to hear your story.”

*** *** ***

The sounds of thundering rain dimmed into the background as the library’s front door closed behind them with a soft ‘click’. With another shimmer of Twilight Sparkle’s magic, the curtains were drawn and sunshine poured in from the Library’s many windows. It promised to be another hot summer afternoon which was odd given the sound of rain just out side. Twilight Sparkle’s subconscious elected to ignore the discrepancy. It was either that or go slowly mad from the bizarre chaos that was daily life in Ponyville.

Twilight turned her head slightly. Rainbow Dash looked awkward balanced between Apple Jack and herself. She looked vulnerable without her trademark brashness. "Dash, I don’t mean to be rude, but you look terrible.”

"I’m fine. Don't worry." The dry heaves made it an obvious lie.

Carefully, Apple Jack settled Rainbow Dash on the couch, letting a weary Twilight Sparkle to plop down in the seat across the table from her two friends.

"She isn’t sick, is she?" Worry, concern and confusion were etched all over Twilight’s face.

Aside from Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash was one of the most physically fit ponies she had the pleasure to meet. To make Rainbow this sick… It had to be something bad, she just knew it. Something serious maybe even incurable? She hoped it wasn’t incurable.

Unbidden, a mired of horrible incurable diseases come to mind. Most were rare and all would chill a pony’s soul. She should never have read Dr House’s Incurable Diseases for the Incurable Know-It-Alls.

Diseases with names like Mad Cow Disease, a horror that stole a pony’s mind, intellect and personality. It left its victims unable to stand or even recognised friends and family. Or Rabies which turned infected ponies into rampaging salivating monsters. Their bite was infectious. It was as close as anypony had come to a real life zombiepony story. The victim eventually died from thirst, still trapped in the grip of violent insanity. Or Horn Rot. The last gave Twilight Sparkle a shiver up her spine and down the length of her horn. Did she just imagine something alive twitching under her coat, the first sign of that horrible disease?

“No”, Apple Jack said. Her voice shook Twilight out of her dark imagination and drew it back to the moment. "Dash ain’t sick." Apple Jack wasn’t unsure how best to continue. She laid her hoof on the cerulean pegasus's back, patting her gently. She didn’t know if it was her place to tell. She turned to Dash for her say-so but the pegasus said not a word, displaying an uncharacteristic silence.

“She is pregnant.” Apple Jack exhaled a tense breath.

Twilight Sparkle snapped up and blinked. ‘Excuse Me?’ the question was unsaid. That was last thing she expected to hear. It took a moment for her brain to begin functioning again. “Congratulation!” Suddenly Twilight wasn't THAT worried. Rainbow Dash was going to live. NO incurable disease. The worried look on Twilight's face faded. “I didn’t know you had a coltfriend. So who is the father?”

Dash did not speak immediately. Instead she drew her folded wings closer to grip her back. Apple Jack twitched guiltily. But before she could say anything, Rainbow Dash murmured…

“Don’t have one”

Twilight Sparkle’s face went blank “That is biologically impossible!”

Was somepony pulling her leg? Or did Dash…do it and still not know how foals were made. Did Dash somehow miss ‘The Talk’? Did she have to give the ‘Talk’? Just remembering her own ‘Talk’ was mortifying enough. It wasn’t often that Princess Celestia, Sun Goddess and Head of State took a pony aside and explained that now you had become a mare, she wanted to be certain that you knew how little foals were made. Twilight was sure she could still feel the heat on her cheeks after all these years.

The Princess had escorted her to a section of Canterlot Library she had never been too. It was a restricted section that no filly was supposed to enter on pain of a weeks’ banishment from the library. She had been curious about those books beyond her reach, but the punishment was simply too harsh. Twilight had followed the rule to the letter. She had been a good filly.

Princess Celestia showed her an orange book with graphic illustrations which were… well, graphic. Twilight thought she would have died of embarrassment until Princess Celestia began a candid discussion on the subject. Then Twilight knew she HAD died and was being tormented in the pony hell of embarrassment.

What part fit into… where? That big? How did anypony expect that to fit? And somehow the whole ordeal was supposed to feel…. Nice? Princess Celestia warned her not to be carried away by new unfamiliar emotions, especially around colts or allowing herself to be peer pressured and rushed into… doing things. How foals were a lifelong responsibility and lastly, the importance of protection and contraceptives.

“You foal has a father.” Twilight assured. Apple Jack twitched again.

“Conception of a foal requires both maternal and paternal chromosomes. There has never been a reported case of parthenogenesis amongst ponies.” Twilight continued. “Having a foal has nothing to do with touching horns… a stallion has to…to…” She faltered. Princess Celestia was a lot better at this.

“I’m sure you know…. umm...given that…so the father is likely the stallion who… special touch-” She trailed off in a whisper. Her eyes met Apple Jack’s. The orange pony was giving her a silent horrified look that all but screamed, ‘Don’t you have any sense in that big noggin of yours.’

Figurative… It was figurative. Comprehension spread across her face… “Oh...”

“She didn’t mean nothing by it. Twi was just being Twi.” Apple Jack leaned close putting her hoof back on her friend’s shoulder

Rainbow Dash shied away from the earth pony’s touch. “No, Twilight’s right. I am a screw up.” Dash turned quiet. “And you know what? On the day we all got our cutie mark, the day I first achieved the Sonic Rainboom, my happiest minute.” Her voice grew tighter by the word. “I ruined my life!” She shouted as she wept. “Didn’t know that, did you?” She laughed but it could well have been a sob. It was a bitter and mirthless sound.

Neither Twilight Sparkle nor Apple Jack said a word. Both ponies were too stunned to speak.

“I always end my story with the Sonic Rainboom but do you want to know what happened after that?” She paused to suck in a ragged breath. “The school authorities, they kicked me out of flight school!” She practically yelled. “Rainbow Crash crashed out of flight school!” Rainbow Dash clenched both her eyes shut.

Twilight was the first to recover. She practically lunged across the table and wrapped both her hooves around her friend in a hug that Dash refused to return. “Oh, Rainbow. It’s okay.” She brushed Dash’s rainbow coloured mane back out of the pegasus’s damp eyes.

“I didn’t finish flight school, Twilight.” She sniffled back a sob. “At the start of the race, I knocked Fluttershy off the cloud she was standing on. I didn’t see her.” She looked away. “I was so focused on winning.”

“She panicked. She forgot the glide manoeuvre all pegasi foals are supposed to know. She fell all the way to the ground. That fall should have injured her. It could have killed her! I could have killed Fluttershy!”

“But you didn’t.” Apple Jack cut in. “Fluttershy found her cutie mark because of that. And you did well enough. Weather Manager of Ponyville ain’t something to be putting down.”

She shoved her way out of Twilight’s hug, away from Apple Jack.

“Its punishment,” her voice came out harsh. “I kept opening my big mouth when I should have kept it shut. I didn’t make many friends with management, although Senior Manager Thunder Cloud liked my spunk.” A ghost of a smile was on Rainbow Dash’s lips. “I was good at my job. Awesome. For awhile, I thought I was going to climb my way up the ladder.”

“Then I crossed paths with her.” Rainbow Dash breathed. “She was a stuck up bully. She didn’t like that a blue collar weathermare knew more about weather management than her fancy scroll said she did. I wasn’t afraid to show it either.” She slump face first onto the couch for a second before continuing

“I thought I could handle her. I was dumb. I was wrong. I screwed up big time. She wasn’t any green lettuce snot. Her family had influence in the Weather Service.” Rainbow Dash paused for breath, and to back away from the tears.

“She tried to get me fired. When that didn’t work she had me promoted and posted out here.” Dash gave a resigned look, one touched with regret and desperation. “That’s what places like Ponyville are. Nopony comes back from places like these.”

“What cha saying? Ponyville ain’t no dump….” A hoof reached the Earth pony’s shoulder stopping her from saying more. Twilight slowly shook her head at Apple Jack. She had seen that kind of intrigue in Celestia’s court.

Rainbow Dash was silent as she set apart from her friends. Her head was tilted forward and her mane obscured her eyes. She sniffed and rubbed her nose with the back of her hoof. “The Wonderbolt’s try out are at the end year.” She couldn’t breathe. “I even screwed that up.” She whispered, choking back sobs.

*** ** ***

“I made you some tea. How are you feeling?" Twilight hovered over her. A teapot and cup float in the grip of her magic.

"Terri…ble…" Rainbow Dash said in a quiet, morose tone.

“Drink this. It’ll help.”

Dash stared mournfully into the porcelain white cup. She hated tea. She didn’t even like the idea of growing fond of the taste. And there was Twilight, watching her with a rather insistent look on her muzzle.

‘Yeah, yeah, I got the message’. She took a sip. It didn’t even taste like Twilight’s usual favourite, Earl Neigh. It tasted like a pokey mix of weeds that Zecora would have made. She took a second sip then a third to get Twilight to give her some breathing space.

Twilight Sparkle waited until she was sure Rainbow Dash was actually drinking the tea rather than surreptitiously watering her potted plants. Then, it was back to the kitchen where she set the teapot on the counter top amidst cans of open herbs and other ingredients. Twilight frowned for a briefest of moments. Something nagged at her as if she had forgotten something, something important. It hung just at the tip of her tongue. Did she put too much chamomile leaves…no that couldn’t be it. Had she forgotten to pick up more alfalfa hay? No, Spike would have reminded her.

“Ah hope that brew helps.” Apple Jack interrupted. The earth pony was already there, waiting in the kitchen. “So what was with her vomiting just now?" Apple Jack asked.

“Its morning sickness,” Twilight answered, a little distracted. “Before you told me Rainbow Dash was pregnant, vomiting could have been any number of things, food poisoning for instance.” She shook her mane. “It’s morning sickness.”

“Morning Sickness? It ain’t morning no more. Maybe 14’o clock in the afternoon. “

“It is just a name. It’s caused by hormonal imbalance. It can occur any time of the day. Not all mares get it when pregnant. We’ll probably have to prepare ourselves for lots of this…. Twilight smiled a wane smile. “She’ll probably be doing this regularly in her first trimester."

"Trimester?"

"It's a medical term." Twilight Sparkle explained. "A pony pregnancy lasts about eleven months, typically broken into three periods, or trimesters, each of about four months. The first trimester period holds all sorts of problems, especially to new mothers."

A worried look was quickly on Apple Jack's face upon hearing the word ‘problems’.

“What sort of problems?" She asked.

"Let's see…" Twilight Sparkle looked up the ceiling thoughtfully, trying to remember what she had learned in medical texts from Canterlot Royal library. It wasn’t much.

“The first trimester carries the highest risk of miscarriage. Gentle exercise is recommended as it helps maintain a healthy body weight. However strenuous exercise significantly increases the risks of miscarriage. I would guess The Sonic Rainboom and the Buccaneer Blaze would count as strenuous.

"She'll be mighty unhappy to hear that."

"I guess you could say that." Twilight chuckled a little “– which reminds me of one thing important."

"What is it?"

"Um, Rainbow Dash might have problems like changes in everyday moods –"

Apple Jack held up her fore hoof to her head. "Changes in everyday moods? You mean as in…mood swings?"

Twilight Sparkle nodded. Apple Jack just sighed.

Silence crept into the kitchen. Twilight Sparkle started clearing the countertop but something caused her to pause.

“Is there something that you want to say?” Twilight Sparkle began.

"What do yer mean?" Apple Jack narrowed her gaze.

“You‘re hovering.” Twilight Sparkle waited a moment more but the orange earth pony kept silent. “So what is bothering you?” she asked finally.

“Ah guess, ah’m an easy book to read.” Apple Jack sighed. “Ah just can’t bear to hear Dash going about saying her foal has no father. It gives ponies the wrong kind of impression. Dash ain’t that kind of mare. Her foal has a father. She knows who he is.”

“Is it somepony we know?” Twilight asked. Apple Jack’s reaction was damning.

“Apple Jack, please don't tell me," She looked her friend fully in the eyes.

"Big Macintosh. Ma’ brother." It was the barest of whisper but both ponies heard her loud and clear like a fire alarm. “Dash met ma brother earlier this morning to talk about their foal.”

"What did he say?" Twilight asked.

"He's the responsible sort. He’ll take care of Dash." Apple Jack insisted.

“Did he actually say that?” Twilight pressed on.

Twilight’s clear purple eyes made Apple Jack look away. The orange earth pony was too honest to even lie to herself. "Ah’ don’t know what he said." She exhaled a tense breath. “He gave Dash the impression he was abandoning her but ah know ma’ brother, Big Macintosh would never do that.” Her gaze fell to the floor. “A marriage could save the problem.”

“Would it?” Twilight questioned. “What about love? Can you imagine being in a loveless marriage? Do we even know Macintosh or Rainbow Dash loves each other? You can’t just assume Macintosh will marry Rainbow Dash or even if she wants to marry him.”

“A foal needs her father.” The orange pony answered. “Dash needs a husband to take care of her. Ponies can grow to love each other and that is not to say that Dash doesn’t have at least some kind of feeling for ma brother. Ah don’t see her as the kind of mare that would allow any stallion in to her bed.” Apple Jack gaze drifted from Twilight’s amethyst eyes to the brown wooden floor. “What other option is there?”

"There is-" Twilight Sparkle offered. “an abortion.”

Apple Jacks eyes grew wide. "Abortion? Hay no!” She looked up. “I don’t know what mares do in Canterlot, but we don’t do things like that in Ponyville. It’s dangerous. Dash would end up dead.”

“Not with modern equestrian medicine,” Twilight replied. “We are still young. Parenthood isn’t something that we should be thinking about at our age. I don’t think I’m ready for the responsibilities of parenthood and I raised a baby dragon.”

For a second, Apple Jack was lost for words. She blinked, staring at a friend she thought she knew. Surely Twilight couldn’t have meant what she had just said. Yet the look on Twilight’s face, the set of her facial expression was that of utter seriousness. She really believed what she was saying.

“Twi, please listen to yer self for a moment.” She slowly began. “The help yer talking about is killing another pony. A foal. And not just any foal, that’s Dash’s foal you’re thinking of killing, our best friend’s daughter. That’s… my niece we are talking about.”

“It’s an embryo.” Twilight replied. “It’s not a fetus, let alone a foal. It doesn’t even have limbs yet or much in the way of a brain. At most it is the size of half a jelly bean. That isn’t a pony.”

Apple Jack’s voice rose. “Then when do you consider foal a foal?” How could she be so callous? “When she starts talking?”

“No! Of course not!” Twilight didn’t like the tone she was hearing. “Abortion is illegal after the seventh month.”

“And why is that? What’s so special about the seventh month?”

“It has to do with brain development and personhood. After the seventh month, a fetal brain is sufficiently developed to show signs of activity similar to conscious adult. The magic corpus is an example….” Twilight rambled.

Apple Jack didn’t understand much of what Twilight said but she did understand one word. “Magic. It is about magic, isn’t it.” She turned to Twilight. “That’s when unicorn foal first use their magic.” Her tone dared the lavender unicorn to say otherwise. “So what happens when a unicorn has a pegasus or earth pony foal? Unicorns don’t consider the foal alive?”

“No!” Twilight burst. The lavender unicorn took a breath. She was trying her best to keep from shouting. How did the conversation become so… barbed? “We are both trying to help.” The lavender unicorn managed to say. “You saw how she was acting. Rainbow Dash is not prepared to be a mother, certainly for the time being.” Twilight paused and looked to the Earth pony’s distant apple green eyes. “Being a Wonderbolt is important to Rainbow Dash. She would be giving up her dreams for –“

“Motherhood.” Apple Jack finished, keeping her ground. “To see her foal, hear her daughter laugh, play and grow up. And who says Dash can’t do her fancy flying after having her foal?”

“It is not that easy.” Twilight replied quietly. “We don’t even know if Rainbow Dash can support a foal on her own. Who will support her foal when she is away? The Wonderbolts tour Equestria.”

“Ma brother will.” Apple Jack said as she turned to Twilight Sparkle. “And ain’t that what friends are for, Twi. Friends help each other.” The earth pony continued. “Dash needs to know her friends are there beside her, behind her and around her.”

“Apple Jack, this is a foal, a life time responsibility. I…I’m a student from Canterlot.” Twilight said hesitantly. “Princess Celestia has allowed me to continue my stay in Ponyville while I study friendship but eventually…” Twilight breathed deeply, she knew it had to come someday. “Eventually, I will have to go back to Canterlot. It is not only me. Rarity’s dream will eventually led her away from Ponyville. She has too if she hopes to realise her dreams of being a great fashion designer.”

Twilight looked away. “Of the six of us, I can only see for certain that you and maybe Fluttershy will be staying in Ponyville. Even Pinkie Pie might leave if she decides to open her own bakery.”

“So what are you saying?”

Twilight felt uncomfortable, as if it was betrayal for merely stating a simple fact of life. “We six may not always be together.”

Apples

Chapter 3

Macintosh felt like time had stopped, though Celestia’s sun continued to tick across the sky. He was inside the barn rather then out in the farm, something he rarely did while there was still day light. Since meeting Rainbow Dash earlier that day, his heart simply wasn’t into tending the apples trees. The large Earth pony stallion set by the barn doors, looking out into the blue sky above, his mouth moving slowly as he chewed a bit of wood. He shifted his position time and again, but couldn't seem to find the thing that eluded him, rest

"Usually when you have something troubling yer mind, you start wood chewing.” Grandpa Hay Seed commented as the old cowpony stallion came into view. "Don’t want to be teaching Apple Bloom any bad habits. Never hear the end of it from yer Granny Smith or yer other sister."

Macintosh let his gaze lingered on his grandfather. "No, ah don’t, on both accounts." He turned his head and spat out the crushed apple stick. The space between his teeth felt empty. He really should try quitting.

"Gramps…"

The old cowpony turned his head a little to take a look at his grandson's face, curious at Macintosh's strange tone. Macintosh was like him in that regard, a stallion of few words. "Hmm?"

Macintosh held his breath. "Can ah talk with you?"

One look from Macintosh answered it all, the look Hay Seed knew so well, the one Macintosh always used whenever he had serious matter on his mind. The greying brown stallion pushed his saddle bags aside and turned his body, facing his grandson. "What's troubling you?" Hay Seed picked up a stick of apple wood and started chewing.

Macintosh dropped his head. He didn't know how Gramps would react once he uttered his next words. Surely he'll be shocked. Maybe he even lost his respect for him.

"Ah got a mare pregnant."

There was a long silence from old Hay Seed. The words had come out so easily, so casually out of Macintosh's mouth. There was no hint of humour or something even laughable in that one sentence. Hay Seed frowned. He couldn't believe his flicking ears. No matter how furious he blinked his eyes, the pony in front of him stayed the same hardworking, reliable and responsible red buck he had known since the day he was born.

"Ah see."

Macintosh took a deep breath. It felt as if the sun and the calm, breezy wind had all been swept away. “Ah got a mare pregnant.” He repeated more for his own ears.

"Who…?"

Minutes ticked by. Macintosh did not answer.

“No names.” Hay Seed finally answered the gap. “Good that you are trying to protect her reputation. But that won’t last long.” He sighed, before coming to rest by his grandson. He looked at Macintosh, who had his gaze fixed intently on a patch of sky dominated by a white fluffy cloud. His grandson seemed to be thinking hard.

“How did it happen?” He asked quietly.

"Ah…" Macintosh began. "Ah… don't quite remember how it happened to be exact." Each of his next words was accompanied with a sigh. “We were both drunk at that time."

Hay Seed looked lost. "That was mighty foolish of you”.

"Ah…We didn't realize,” the red buck spoke with regret and guilt covering his face. "It just happened, Gramps.”

Macintosh closed his eyes as his memory replayed the scene back to his mind.

“You’re hot…” She leaned up to him. Her mane fanned out behind her like her name sake, a vibrant rainbow. Their lips were close, her breath warm on his face, reeking of alcohol. Her violet eyes, half lidded looked up into his and then she kissed him.

That simple kiss broke that invisible wall between them. He kissed her in reply. If only he hadn’t, then all this would never have happened. Dash wouldn't have responded to him and that one night wouldn't have ended with the two of them curled up into each other with their heated bodies cooling off in Luna’s night.

"We didn't intend to do it in the first place…" Macintosh sighed heavily. "But it happened. And what make things worse, there is…"

"A foal is on the way." Grandpa Hay Seed finished. Macintosh nodded weakly.

Silence stretched between the two stallions.

"So… care to tell ma’ what to be expecting from ma’ first great grand foal?”

Macintosh turned his to his grandfather, surprised at the sudden light tone. He would not call himself a smart pony, but he wasn’t unobservant. The question was casual, though its meaning was not.

Hay Seed continued. “Ponyville has changed a lot since ma’ brothers and ah first rode into town. There’re lot more horn heads and there are those flying buzzards all over the place.”

Like many small towns that dotted Equestria, Ponyville had been built hoof over hoof by the labour of Earth ponies. It was only later, after the farms had been wrestled from the land that the pegasi would come. And even later still after the town had began to prosper did the unicorns arrive. All this left an indelible mark, one of lingering resentment that no Earth pony would admit too. Where were the other breeds when the earth ponies needed help? Where were magic and rain clouds when such would have been the difference between life and death?

Big Macintosh had grown up hearing those old grumbling whispers. They were ugly whispers that he cared not to repeat. It was the reason why many Ponyville traditions would not allow magic, despite how practical it would be. It even led to an altercation between his sister and her unicorn friend, Twilight over the issue at last year’s Winter Wrapped Up.

“They’re called pegasi.” Macintosh corrected, though he was sure his grandfather knew that. Macintosh wasn’t a pony that put much stock in that kind of thinking. Ever pony did what they were best at. No Earth pony would say putting a plough behind a unicorn was a good idea. And no unicorn or pegasus would begrudge an Earth pony for being the strongest of the three breeds

“Ma’ first foal might have wings.” He waited for the old stallion to react and hoped for the best.

"A buzzard in the family?” A picture of reedy thin pegasus trying to buck an apple tree tickled Hay Seed’s stomach until he couldn't control the funny feeling anymore. “Ah sure was worried it might have been on of yer cousins.” Hay Seed burst out laughing. “No need for town folk calling us inbred.”

Macintosh joined his grandfather’s laughter, even if it wasn’t all that funny. For Macintosh at least, he needed that laugh. A bit of tension he didn’t know existed had evaporated. His heart felt a lot lighter.

Hay Seed stamped his hooves on the ground. “A buzzard in the family would certainly help get the apples to the market faster.”

“Eeyup. Be faster than Apple Jack.”

“That girl won’t like that one bit. Why, she’ll make it a race to the market every day. Remember that iron mare circus with Apple Jack and that friend of hers.”

The two stallions snickered and then laughed again, so hard, until their insides started to hurt from laughing out loud too much. They didn’t hear the steady footstep approaching them, nor the sharp click of steel apple bucking shoes tapping up to the barn door.

“Boy… ya gonna give yer granny Smith a heart attack. Bad enough that buzzard friend of yer sister’s is always at the farm poaching our apples.”

“Dash ain’t no buzzard.” Macintosh replied, no longer laughing. “And she don’t steal apples. She has a tab with Apple Jack. She pays her bits.”

Hay Seed narrowed his gaze. Apple Bloom, his youngest granddaughter on the farm also had a pegasus friend, who came by often. She was an orange filly of similar age with a purple mane. Her name was Scootaloo or something. The two stallions exchanged a look.

“It’s her, ain’t it.”

Quietly, Macintosh nodded his head. “Rainbow Dash, she’s pregnant with ma’ foal.”

“So what are yer intentions?” That question from Hay Seed made the soft click of steel shoe halt in mid steps, a moment just behind the barn door. She kept silent not wanting to be discovered for the time being, at least, not yet. Though the two stallions’ voices weren't loud, barely adible, but it was enough. Apple Jack heard every single word.

"Ma intentions?" Macintosh stared up at the sky and shrugged carelessly. "Ah don't know. Ah haven't figured it out yet.”

"A grown buck should always have intentions for the things he does. Have you thought about marriage?" The old stallion scrutinized his grandson.

Macintosh averted his gaze from his grandpa’s direction. Hay Seed didn't miss the perturbed expression that coloured his grandson’s face.

"Don't tell me you haven't thought at all about it."

"Dash and I…" Macintosh muttered. "Our relationship ain’t what might be called…” The red pony hesitated. What was Dash to him or him to her? “She don’t…” Did she even love him? “We’re not a couple. Ah never thought of asking Dash to marry me."

Hay Seed picked up his second stick of wood. The old cowpony chewed it carefully in his mouth. "Things having happened this way, by next spring, you will be a father. There’ll be a foal running about, probably sitting up in our trees eating the apple blossoms with her mother."

The revelation seemed to seep into Macintosh's head because the muscle of his neck grew even tenser.

"Macintosh”, Hay Seed continued.

“Most ponies would say marriage is the best solution. Perhaps it is, perhaps it ain’t. It’ll be true that for a short while there’ll be fewer problems, certainly with the village folk. ” Hay Seed paused. “There is one thing ah have to add. A marriage like any good building needs a good foundation. With a strong foundation and regular up keep, a marriage can last a lifetime. Marriage for the sake of responsibility is a hollow thing. It will not make a good family for anypony. For yourself, yer foal or that pegasus mare. It only makes three unhappy ponies.” Hay Seed stopped. He was unused to making long speeches.

“Macintosh, ah never pried into yer personal affairs, but do you love this mare?”

Macintosh froze at hearing his own answer. The word slipped out of his mouth so easily he couldn't even stop himself.

“No.”

*** ** ***

Apple Jack was shocked. He couldn’t have said that. She still couldn’t believe her ears after hearing the word from Big Macintosh’s very own mouth. Apple Jack wanted to jump in and buck his red hide.

Big Macintosh was the most responsible pony she knew. He was an upstanding pony and stallion. He always did what was right. How could he say this? Dash needed a stallion to protect her and her foal.

Apple Jack really hadn’t planned on eavesdropping on two of her kin’s conversation, or rather discussion. That was the last thing she had in mind when she returned home to Sweet Apple Acres. She had arrived ready to burst with a shout of ‘Big Macintosh, you got to patch things up with Dash’. Dash needed to know that Twilight was wrong. Nopony shouldn’t ever consider killing her own foal as an answer to life’s troubles.

Apple Jack was at the barn door when a question from Gramps brought her to a halt.

“So what are yer intentions?”

Just hearing the serious tone of Gramps, even without seeing his face was enough for Apple Jack to conclude that he knew about Dash’s pregnancy. Macintosh probably had told him the news. Besides, what other more serious topic was there if it wasn't about Rainbow Dash and her pregnancy?

With a little hint of embarrassment, Apple Jack continued to listen to their voices. As she listened more and more into their deep talk, the feelings within her turned to anger.

What? Macintosh wasn’t considering marrying Rainbow Dash?

She was angry at the revelation. Only minutes ago she had thought she had known everything that was to her brother. What was her brother going to do? Abandon Dash in the rain at the train station? Just like that cad of a unicorn did with Derpy Hooves…. A speck of guilt touched Apple Jack…. she meant Ditzy Doo. It was unkind that Ditzy was called Derpy Hooves by many a pony behind her back on account of her eyes.

Her thoughts turned back to Rainbow Dash. Was her friend nothing to her brother? Just…a mare who happened to be the mother of his foal by accident? What of the faith she had put into him? She stood up for him. She put her good word in for him with Dash.

“Horsefeathers.” She turned to head back to the farmhouse before she did something she would later regret. Twilight Sparkles' words from earlier that afternoon came unbidden.

‘You can’t just assume Macintosh will marry Rainbow Dash.’

*** ** ***

Breakfast at the Apple table the following morning was chilly and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was six in the morning or that Princess Celestia was still fast asleep and had yet to raise her sun.

“Apple Bloom, would you tell yer brother to pass the maple syrup.”

The little olive yellow pony glanced at her older sister than to her big brother. Sitting between her two older siblings was rather unpleasant this morning. Helplessly, Apple Bloom turned to her grandmother. Her big honey yellow eyes begging to be excused from the table. Going to school had never felt so appealing.

Granny Smith, matriarch of the Apple clan put her hoof down. She nodded to her youngest grandchild, who quickly ran out of the kitchen with a hurried call of “Bye Everypony” followed by the sound of the front door slamming shut.

Once the little filly was gone, she then turned to her other two grandchildren. Macintosh was silently eating his hay. Apple Jack on the other hoof, if glares were daggers, Macintosh would most surely be struck dead. “What’s going on between the two of yew?” The old green mare’s eyes were specifically on Apple Jack. Her eldest granddaughter looked away. Old Apple Smith didn’t like this kind of behaviour at her table. “If yew can’t be civil, best be out in farm.”

“If you would excuse me, Granny Smith.” Apple Jack stood up. The orange pony trotted out the door.

The table was silent and Macintosh soon followed. “Thank you for breakfast,” he said, and two old ponies were soon alone at the table.

Apple Smith looked across the table to her husband of 50 years. “Ah know that look Hay Seed, yew know something. So out with it!”

“You know you can’t get anything out of me, Smith.” The old cowpony answered with a stubborn expression on his face, which turned to a slight grin as he watched his wife of 50 years.

“If ah were 30 years younger, ah buck that grin off yer face.”

Hay Seed continued grinning.

Even after all the many decades they have been together, nothing seemed to have changed. Smith was still the same fiery mare who dared to hire him and his two brothers, three lowlifes with nothing more that a promise of warm beds and a good meal to defend her stake of land and that of her friends from the Longhorn Desperados. Of course, that was what got him interested in the first place and stopped him from throwing her out of the salon onto her rump. What kind of mare was brave enough or desperate enough to approach the Hay Brothers with empty hooves? It did help that Apple Smith had a nice rump.

Hay Seed flicked his ears forwards to listen to Apple Smith tirade.

“Ah could have yew thrown off ma farm and ah still have that wanted poster,” she threatened with the easy of a well rehearsed play.

The old bounty on Hay brothers he mussed. “60 bits don’t buy all that much no more,” he answered. “As for me getting off yer farm, that’ll never happen, Smith. Ah be back after sundown and terrorise you in yer own bed.” He leered. “Farm fillies like yer self should be wise not to tangle with the likes of the Hay brothers.”

She batted him on the nose for his troubles. The old stallion continued to grin.

Eeyup, he and his two brothers met the Longhorn gang in a final showdown at Ponyville. Once the dust had settled and that was back before the town square had been paved over with cobbled stones, the Hay Brothers stood tall. The Longhorn gang had been taught a lesson that was not to be forgotten. Those land claims eventually become the Apple, Lemon and Carrot farms. And the Hay brothers, well they vanished into the sunset never to be found by long arm of the law, while the Apple, Lemon and Carrot got themselves their husbands.

“Carrot Redland, Lemon Zest and I will form us a posse and run yew off good and proper.”

Hay Seed frowned. “Carrot Redland passed on two winters ago. Zest hasn’t been herself, not since ma brother died. You know that.”

Apple Smith stopped mid sentence. She slummed into her chair. She felt tired. Her bad hips as always ached terribly. “Ah forgot. Ah honestly forgot.” She was silent for a long time before she finally spoke. “Time’s fast catching up on us, ain’t it.”

Hay Seed reached out and held Apple Smith’s hoof with his own. When did their hooves become so worn and nicked? “Ah’m sorry, ah can’t tell you what’s happening at yer own table. It’s not ma place to say, nor ma place to be involved. If anything is to be said, our grandchildren will tell us.”

“Surely, if the matter is of such seriousness it would be best we lend our advice.” She looked up as if expecting Hay Seed to agree.

Hay Seed shook his head. “There are no right answers to this one. Only what a pony can live by.” His fore hoof was by Apple Smith’s face stroking her now dull green coat, it had been so very bright once. “Ah won’t have it any other way but you have mighty strong and forceful opinions, Smith. It hasn’t always turned out right.”

Apple Smith looked away, letting Hay Seed touch fall from her face. “Yew talking about our eldest, aren’t yew?” Hay Seed didn’t reply. He didn’t need too. She breathed slowly. As much as she wished to deny it, her husband was right. She had raised her daughters to be strong ponies, and her eldest, the mother of her three grandchildren living on the farm, had been the strongest. Sweet Apple Acres was simply not large enough for two strong willed and stubborn mares. It was a rift between mother and daughter that never healed

Hay Seed began to clear the breakfast table. “You don’t want to go making the same mistake.”

A rift that never would heal because she had outlived her eldest daughter. It was one of the great regrets in her long life. Apple Smith didn’t reply.

** *** **

Rarity

Chapter 4
Rarity.

The second she woke up, she already felt like crap. “Buck it!” Rainbow Dash murmured bitterly.

She would have been more forceful and her words louder had she not been in the midst of worshipping the porcelain goddess of Twilight’s bathroom. This was not to say that Rainbow Dash was a stranger to the porcelain goddess. In fact and much to her dismay, this experience brought back memories of a similar incident with free cupcakes…specifically Apple Jack’s Baked Bads, as Pinkie Pie called them. A single mouthful of one potato chip flavoured, earthworm filled cupcake was enough to kill any love Rainbow Dash might have had for the confectionary delight. Even the word ‘cupcake’ was now enough to send her running.

But this… this was just plain misery and unbelievably nasty. It felt like she had spent countless hours with her head hovering over the lip of Twilight’s toilet bowl, yet her insides refused to settle and continued to tremble like a leaf in a storm.

A famous mare once said. ‘Tomorrow is another day and a new day brought a fresh start and a solution to yesterday’s problems.’ But Dash knew better. Life didn’t work that way. Yesterday’s tomorrow had become today over the course of a night. Problems didn’t vanish in Luna’s night, instead they often grew.

Today began as a hot day, even by summer standards. The air hummed with the buzz of insects in the grass and had enough humidity to make it stifling even indoor. Some shady clouds in the sky would have been nice, even a bit of rain but there was none. Unfortunately for Cloud Kicker, her assistant, she had called in sick again. Cloud Kicker would have to manage Ponyville’s weather system for another day. Ponyville’s Weather Service would have to make due, somehow.”

Yesterday… had been difficult to say the least. Her entire world had shifted on its poles. A.J had been so adamant and she had a point but so did Twilight. She was torn between her friends. Rainbow Dash sighed heavily. Her eyes trailed down the length of her body, watching the expense of azure blue skin stretch out from her chest to her still taunt abdomen. Something flickered in those deep pools of her violet eyes… an unfamiliar emotion that if it could be named was fear…fearful indecision.

Abruptly Rainbow Dash tilted head-first once more over the porcelain toilet bowl. Any thoughts small or profound vanished in a heavy wave of heaving queasiness. It was a full minute later before the retching sound stopped. Rainbow wiped the side of her mouth with her fetlock as she recoiled from the experience.

“W-What I w-wouldn’t give f-for a bottle of motion sickness tablets right now.” Dash shivered slightly as her sparse breakfast disappeared down the toilet with a swirling flush. Twilight Sparkle and Spike were gone, something to do arson and community service, something strange like that. It left the whole library empty, lonely and... depressing.

Rainbow Dash nudged the faucet with the edge of her fore hoof to get the water running. It took two tries before she had water to wash out her mouth from that awful aftertaste that lingered there. She glared in irritation at the brass tap head. Only a Unicorn like Twilight Sparkle would have a tap this difficult to use.

Rainbow Dash lifted her head and caught sigh of her reflection in the mirror. The cerulean Pegasus that stood there was a mare with a haggard tired look around her eyes. This was a mare that had spent a night tossing and turning, all but unable to sleep. As she stared, a faint sound reached her ears. She couldn’t put her hoof on what it was exactly. It took her a moment before she recognized it to be a familiar voice, but one she had not expected to hear. Dash barely had time to put one hoof in front of another when she heard the sound of Twilight Sparkle’s front door creaking open.

The sound of the doorbell chimed in the air as a dazzling alabaster Unicorn sauntered through the doorstep of the Book and Branches library. “Hello, any pony home? Twilight, are you in?” Rarity called out as she entered. The door was unlocked but that in itself was not unusual nonetheless the fashionista stopped in surprise. What froze her in mid step was the state of the library… and perhaps the criminally unfashionable rust brown blackout curtains that Twilight had adorn her windows with. Even coarse burp sacks would have been an improvement.

The normally warm candlelight glow of the library’s main floor was nowhere to be found. In its place was a stilted dull greyness mixed with the scent of old dusty paper. The curtains were shut, only a single ray of Celestia’s morning light penetrated the gloom. Even the usually tidy library that Rarity had come to expect was in disarray. Books of all shapes and sizes lay haphazardly scattered upon the floor. Many were faced up and opened. A terribly careless thing to do to a book, Rarity felt. Such treatment would ruin a book’s spine, pages would fall out soon after. Sometimes it seemed that Twilight Sparkle never learned how to clean up after herself, being far too reliant on poor Spikey-Wikey.

“Uh... Rarity?!” Dash asked, a little bit nervous as she stuck her head out of the bathroom. Her eyes strained against the low grayed light. Even now she wasn't sure how to face her friends without feeling shame. “Rarity?”

The alabaster Unicorn yet out a small yelp of surprise as she lifted her head at the mention of her name. “Rainbow Dash?!” She called, her words hung in the darken room.. “What in the name of Equestria are you doing back there!?”

"Nothing,” Rainbow Dash smiled forcefully in return.

“That is hardly nothing, darling. You gave me quite the fright!”

“So why did you come over for?”

“I just came by to see if Twilight had any books on historical fashion. I believe ruffles will be making a come back this summer. I want to be ahead of the game. I’m guessing she isn’t in and the library is actually closed.”

Rarity’s last comment was not to be expected because Dash seemed surprised and it made the rainbow maned pony glanced over to the front door then back to the library counter beside her. Dash turned to the counter and returned, clutching something in her mouth. Dangling in front of her was a small sign in Twilight’s neat and even handwriting, it read:

‘The Book and Branches Library is closed today. Be sure to come back tomorrow!’

“I guess I forgot to put that up.” Rainbow muttered. “But help yourself, it is a public library.” Rainbow Dash turned to a book shelf. “What do you think? Historic fashion… should it come under F for Fashion or H for historic?” A quick glance of the books on the shelf nearest to her revealed a puzzle assemblage of book titles. Canterlot cook books were set side by side with books on Zebra potions. There seemed neither rhyme nor rhythm to the shelving system that Twilight used.

“I was meaning to ask you about the weather. It is a bit hot, even for a summer’s day. Some clouds in the sky would be nice even some rain,” Rarity commented. “The humidity is also simply dreadful and don’t let me start on the buzzing insects. Those little monstrosities are everywhere.”

Rainbow Dash let out a small groan. If Rarity was complaining, she could imagine the number of complains that must be piling on her table at the Weather Office. “Nothing much I can do.” She said and continued to concentrate on the shelved books in front of her, pacing from book shelve to book shelve looking for a hint of Rarity’s book. “The shipment of clouds from Cloudsdale’s weather factory is late. Ponyville’s weather patrol has to make due, somehow.”

Rarity was about to say something in reply when she sniffed the air hanging over the blue Pegasus. It was a scent that changed her mood to a worried one. Rarity frowned. Rainbow Dash’s mane was quite unruly, more so than usual. She looked so pale and there was something in the Pegasus posture that Rarity had not seen before. The athletic Pegasus mare looked tired. No, that was not it, Rarity corrected herself. She looked fragile.

"Rainbow Dash is everything okay?" Rarity finally spoke but concern never left her eyes.

Rainbow Dash stopped and hesitantly turned her face towards Rarity’s voice.

“I'm your best friend,” Rarity stressed. “You can tell me.”

Dash scuffed a hoof at the floor. “I, um... was…and... I…” Nothing came to mind. She sat down on her hunches, her legs quivered slightly. There was nothing to say except the truth. Rainbow Dash found it impossible to speak.

Call it a mare’s instinct but what Rarity said next surprised everypony, most of all herself "You are with foal, aren’t you?”

‘Pony-feathers!’ Rainbow Dash flinched, her eyes wide and ever so slowly she nodded her head. “How did you guess?” The question escaped her lips. “I’m not already showing, am I?” Rainbow Dash panicked even as she brought her own hooves to cover her lower abdomen. The look of alarm on Rarity was sudden. Belatedly she realised she just gave Rarity her answer, removing any possibility of hiding her pregnancy.

“I-I... It’s no big deal,” Rainbow Dash gave a non-committal shrug of her wings and turned away to the bookshelves. She had not even finish turning when she suddenly found herself in Rarity’s soft embrace. “What the hay!?” she cried and struggled to break free, but Rarity somehow found the strength to hold firm to the more athletic mare.

“Oh, darling, it is a big deal.” Rarity soothing voice added as she whispered in Dash’s ear, trying her best to comfort the cerulean mare. “It’s going to be alright, do you hear me? You’re going to be alright.”

This time there were no tears but Rainbow Dash found her body shaking with quiet little spasms. Rarity squeezed a little tighter in reply. Slowly, then like a dam breaking, Dash felt the fight leave her. Hesitantly she hugged back, wrapping her forelegs around her friend. She rested her head on Rarity withers and buried her face beneath the Unicorn’s long silky blue mane. “I found out yesterday.” She whispered, unable to stop herself.. I couldn’t go home.”

“So I assume you had a sleepover with Twilight." Rarity managed a small smile on her face. “Have you told the rest of the girls?” She asked softly.

“Apple Jack knows. I couldn’t stay with her because…because Macintosh.” Her expression dropped at his name.

Rarity grew silent as she listened to what Dash said. “Did he hurt you?" Rarity asked, almost emotionlessly.

'Yes, he emotionally did.' Dash shook her head. “It was an accident.”

"Did he say something that hurt you?"

'Yes.'

“He said that... the foal isn’t his.” Dash ended her words with a stuttering whisper.

She ran a hoof gently over the back of Dash’s short rainbow toned mane. If it were possible the look in her friend’s eyes was one that would’ve melted the coldest of hearts, even that of Nightmare Moon.

“I am sorry. I truly am.” Rarity laid her hoof over her friends head. “Macintosh is a fool of a stallion to say that. He does not deserve you.” Rarity continued to hold Dash in her hooves. “You should get some sleep," Rarity spoke, breaking the silence and held Rainbow Dash at hoof distance "You look exhausted."

"I'm not tired." She broke away from Rarity.

"Oh, really?" Rarity replied amusedly, even managing a small smile. "The bags under your eyes disagree."

"I can't sleep." She mumbled. The look in her eyes was far away and distant.

Even though Rainbow Dash didn't say it, Rarity knew what was going on in her mind, "Tell me," her voice was quiet, almost eerie, “Do you want this foal?”

Dash didn't reply. Locks of her rainbow colour mane fell over her face as she dropped her head down low, hiding away from Rarity’s gaze.

Rarity asked again, this time with a different tack. “If Macintosh had proposed, would you have married him?"

Rainbow Dash groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh, please… don't ask me this…"

"Why? Rarity pushed. “It isn’t a hard question to answer. Do you love him? Do you see your future with him? Would you start your own herd? Be honest."

Rainbow Dash was unable to produce any answer immediately. What Rarity said made her speechless, tongue-tied. She frowned at her own feeling. Her heart was like a wind tossed storm cloud, so full of uncertainties. Yeah, what if the situation she was in right now wasn’t about a foal and pregnant stuff, but about Macintosh proposing to her.

Marriage?

Yes, somewhere at the back of her mind she had hoped to fall in love and get married one day. Maybe have a foal or two eventually. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure how that would work out. But it all come right some day or night. Just not now, not before the Wonderbolts.

Would she have wanted to be tied down to an apple farmer in Ponyville, a dependable Earth Pony apple farmer, whose horizon stretch only as far as the fences of Sweet Apple Acres?

Would she have given up her dream of being a Wonderbolt? For what? She asked herself. To raise a wing pegasi foals so they could grow up manage the weather over farms of The Apples, The Carrot, The Lemons and The Pies?

Rainbow Dash could see such a life playing out for decades to come. She would spend her evenings regaling her half dozen foals and their school friends with tales of Cloudsdale, that far away big city which she had been born in. She would amaze them, just like she did now with Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, with vivid descriptions of the majestic propylon, the processional gateway that led up to the colossal Acropolis of Cloudsdale and best of all the Stadia Maximus. It was the largest and most prestigious hippodrome of the pegasi world. It was a place of tall storied colonnade of mystical pegasi heroes and the home of the Wonderbolts. There the Wonderbolt raced, their thundering wing beats amazed the crowds that gather to pay homage to the greatest fliers of Equestion. She could see herself telling and retelling stories of Wonderbolts until she was an old grey mare, but never be a Wonderbolt herself.

She knew what she would have said and it was ‘No.’ She saw neither foal nor Macintosh in her perfect picture of the immediate future. Rainbow Dash never looked at him that way, despite frequently spotting him as she over flew Sweet Apple Acres every day.

She would admit. He had an easy nature around him and a friendly southern country charm that put everypony at ease. He made you feel as if you had always been neighbours. Add that to his sun-kissed mane, brick red coat and lettuce green eyes, she wouldn’t deny a certain natural physical attraction. She had kissed him after all and a bit more, her hoof drifted to her abdomen, even if she was as drunk as skunk at the time.

But what they had between them was just platonic relationship. She was sure of that… a platonic relationship that got very warm one summer’s night. She just could not see a future married to an apple farmer. So how come making the decision wasn’t any easier to make?

“I… She flinched “It’s my flesh and blood. I don’t have a choice.” She replied ever so slowly.

"Is that so? I don't believe you!” Rarity retorted sharply. “You sound like Apple Jack.”

Her mouth gaped open it was as if she had been slapped across the face by Rarity.

“Dear, I can tell,” Rarity continued. “You are running.”

Rainbow Dash huffed, taking offence. “I'm not running!” She emphasized the last word. She stood nose to nose with the white Unicorn

“Then what of the Wonderbolts? What of your ambition or was it all just hot air?”

"Rarity…" Rainbow Dash shot a warning look.

The alabaster Unicorn ignored the other mare and turned away. “I didn’t take you for a quitter, Rainbow Dash. Or maybe you are. Maybe you weren’t even serious about the Wonderbolts.” Rarity mocked.

She had enough, like the sudden snap of a Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash spun her body fully and faced Rarity. “Joining the Wonderbolts has been my dreamed since I was a filly “Her voice rose, almost yelling. Her wings were stretched out in anger. "How could you say that to me?!" She shouted

“Then why are you quitting!?” Rarity shouted in reply.

“Because I don’t have a place with the Wonderbolts!,” Rainbow Dash shrieked, stomping her fore hooves hard on the library’s wooden floor. “Is that's what you wanted to hear?” Her shout echoed across the library’s darkened interior.

She looked at Rarity sharply with angry, hurt eyes. Had the answer to Rarity's question earlier always been so close? The words were more bitter then she had expected. Slowly, she turned her gaze elsewhere, anywhere so she wouldn’t need to look Rarity in the eye.

“I won the Young Flier’s competition. I saved you and three Wonderbolts while doing the first recorded Sonic Rainboom!” Her throat caught and she let out a whimper. “Look at me. I’m still stuck in Weather Management. I’ll be pushing around clouds in Ponyville, in the middle of nowhere for the rest of my life.”

Dash slowly sank heavily onto her haunches and a tired sigh escaped her lips. “Is that what you want to hear?" They were bickering like two fillies over some childish argument, calling each other names and ready to nip at the other’s legs "Why are you doing this to me, Rarity?" She looked wearily to the Unicorn.

Rarity returned her stare, mute. It seemed like the whole space between them had turned into a grave zone once again. Rarity answered slowly, making Dash fixed her violet eyes on her own azure orbs. "Because I am you friend Rainbow Dash, because I love you. I am forcing you to be honest with yourself. Your decision on your pregnancy should be done for the right reason. Not as an excuse to give up and run away. Not because of Apple Jack or Twilight Sparkle personal opinions. The worst thing in life is the regret of what might have been.”

“The Best Young Flyer competition…” Dash trailed. “It was supposed to be my big break. With the Sonic Rainboom I expected… something. Something more than a general ad in a CloudsDale newspaper, which almost nopony in Ponyville subscribes too. I could have missed it.” The last came out as a whisper. “The Sonic Rainboom deserves an automatic ticket to the Wonderbolts, at the very least a personal invite from Captain Spitfire to the tryout,” It had nagged at her for weeks. “The wonderbolts…is all a blur to me…” The admission was like an electric shock to her veins. It was painful.

Rarity squeezed Dash lightly with her fore hooves. "Do you really want to give up your dream?"

Rainbow Dash smiled weakly. She shot back a playful look. "That's not a bad idea, don't you think? Rainbow Crash finally washes out for good. Something every pony in Flight Camp knew from the start. Maybe she would make a better mom than a Wonderbolt,” she joked, even managing a false half hearted chuckle. “She wasn’t all too good being a Weathermare either."

“That is not you, Rainbow Dash. You never run.”

“Rarity, when I first found out that I was pregnant with Macintosh's foal, I was really, really scared. I really was. I still am. I couldn’t sleep. I was never so frightened in my life. But you know something strange,” Rainbow Dash said softly in a tiny voice.

“As I lay in bed, I suddenly felt secure. I didn’t have to worry about the future anymore because I didn’t have one. I finally made one screw up too many. No more future. No more Wonderbolts. No more need to climb back into the Weather Service central office at Cloudsdale. I’ve been a wash up for years now and just maybe, it was alright to stop fighting for once. And when I asked myself whether it was okay or not to spend the rest of my life in Ponyville, the thought somehow didn’t make me as sick as I imagined.”

Her voice turned low. “I don’t need…”, she breathed, it almost a squeak. “I don’t want to hear it from Spitfire or Soarin’,” She hiccupped and sniffed on the verge of tears. “I’ve not heard from Spitfire since the Grand Galloping Gala.” That bit of news had nagged at her for weeks. “I am the fastest Pegasus alive in all of Equestria, even the records say so. I had Twilight check! But maybe… maybe…”

The words came out slowly. Only here in the confines of Twilight’s library with Rarity as her only witness, did she dare admit her darkest fear. It scared her so much she could barely admit it to herself.

“Maybe, I don’t have the right stuff to be a Wonderbolt.”

“Rainbow Dash, darling, if there ever was a pony born to be Wonderbolt it would be you. You are a very fast pony and if I may borrow your colloquium, an awesome mare.”

Dash shook her head. “I’ve never flown with other ponies as much as I flew against ponies. It isn’t just a preference or style. It is in my blood, like the rainbow of my mane or my cutie mark. It’s always a race. I even raced the wind and when that was no longer enough, I fought to fly faster still. That’s how I split the light spectrum. Faster than fast.”

Rainbow Dash looked away. “I’m a solo flyer, a racer. Maybe that was what the Wonderbolts could see.” She hiccupped as she chocked back a cry. “Maybe that is why winning the Best Young Flyer competition didn’t mean a thing. While the Wonderbolts…” She couldn’t do it anymore. Tears springing anew from her eyes, and she began to sob.

At the first sight of tears streaking down Rainbow Dash’s face, Rarity reached forward and tackled Rainbow Dash in a bear-hug comparable to that of a certain pink party pony. ‘While the Wonderbolts,’ Rarity completed silently for the mare she held in her hooves, ‘was a team.’ A team couldn’t work with a pony that was as individualistic as Rainbow Dash. She tried her best to comfort her friend.

Dash held on to Rarity, her shoulders heaving and choked sobs escaped her lips. It was then, she realised what Rarity had been saying about running. She was running and maybe that was why she was holding on to the foal. It would be a convenient excuse for her to crash out without her heroes saying to her face that she didn’t have what it took to make the cut. She could avoid another failure, in a long list of failures. Fierce Rainbow Dash was hiding behind a foal, her old friend Gilda would have called her pathetic and the female griffon would be right too.

Rarity stayed still as Rainbow Dash cried her heart out on her chest. After a few minutes, Rarity’s grip slackened to a gentle embrace. She was relieved that Rainbow Dash had quieted down just a little. She wiped the tears away, leaving streaks on Rainbow Dash’s blue cheeks. There was some truth in the stereotypes, Pegasi were quick but intense in their emotions.

“Some warm aromatic tea would help.” She whispered into her ear. Rarity thought she heard a slight gasp escape the Pegasus, but it was muffled by her quiet sobbing. She didn’t know it, but Rainbow Dash absolutely hated tea.

Confusion

Chapter 6
Confusion

When Rainbow Dash woke up the next day, she did so to the sound of a sturdy hoof knocking on the door. She groaned softly, as she groggily forced her violet eyes to open. She found her forelegs close to her face and her head pressed softly on a purple pillow. Slowly she raised her fore hoof then started slightly rubbing her left eye while her gaze move downwards to lingered on the front door at the far side of the library.

The knocking continued. Somepony was outside.

Still she refused to leave her borrowed bed. Not even on the third knock or the fourth would rouse her into action. She didn’t answer on the fifth either. The knocking continued. The pony at the door was persistent fellow and it appeared that neither Twilight nor Spike was going to answer the door either.

Where were they? Her sleepy mind asked. More community service? How many hours did Spike get for starting a fire?

Reluctantly she rose from the bed and fluttered her wings to carry her down the stairs and across the living room… or was it the public library. The two were one and the same in Twilight Sparkle’s home so it was hard to decide. She opened the door, only to see Macintosh standing out there.

‘What was he doing here?’ was her first thought. The next was coloured in red as bright as the stallion standing in front of her. How dare he show his face? Still that was not the problem. It was too early for anger… well almost. His eyes were fixed intently on hers, scrutinizing her, wide-eyed and fully composed like there was nothing wrong for him to do so, even after what he had said to her face just the other day. His bigger form shadowed her, blocking the late morning sunlight from reaching her eyes. But that was not the problem either.

"What ," she hissed, "are you," her slender blue hoof jabbed his chest, "doing here?"

No, the problem was that he opened him mouth and began to talk.

"Dash, take this." He reached down and picked up a scroll from his saddle bags.

Anger and curiosity warred in her ears. One hoof was ready to slap his face and throw the red stallion off Twilight’s door. He may have been one of the largest ponies in Ponyville but she had the rage to do it. The other hoof was curious, even traitorously relieved that Macintosh cared enough to be here.

Curiosity won out. She took the scroll from his mouth. Her lips came close to his. It was unavoidable. A flash of heat blossomed across her face. She quickly turned towards the scroll, trying hard to forget what she just felt.

The scroll was made of rich heavy paper and tied by even fancier ribbons. Carefully, she unfurled the scroll and began to read. The words printed in velvety red ink at the top squeezed the breath out of her chest. She blinked, her anger forgotten. It must have been a dream, a strange dream.

It was a betrothal contract!

Her eyes darted across the paper. The slew of official gibberish on the paper remained unchanging. It was definitely for her and Macintosh.

Betrothal …

Marriage…

Yeah, sure eventually. But like this? By putting her hoof print on a piece of paper in Twilight’s living room, which amounted to Ponyville’s public library?

Every little filly dreamed of forming herds with her best friends and marrying a stallion she could love and who would be loved in return. Even Rainbow Dash had to admit she wasn’t immune either. But that dream laid dormant in an old hatbox, unopened since she was a flightless cloud bound filly. It was way back before watching her first air show in the coliseum, before better and more awesome dreams had taken its place. Even so, she could remember it well enough if she tried.

There would be no grand ceremony that Unicorns seemed to enjoy so, nor the unending parade of friends and family both near and far that Earth ponies were liable to hold. It would be a typical Pegasi wedding, small and attended only by close friends. It would be held in the early months of summer just as the clouds were getting warmer and the wind filled with floating dandelions seeds. A small reception would follow afterwards by the climax of the wedding… the sky dance, a dance that would last a lifetime

It would be between herself, one other mare and their stallion. No outlandishly large herds as some families had. She could even remember some of the flight routines she had made up. The intervening years had made them look childish, simplistic, boring even… and none of it was going to happen. Not with an Earthpony stallion, not with Macintosh. There would be no passionate embraced between lovers on the wing. It would be Macintosh in a hot air balloon, floating stately upwards. It was an apt analogy; an uninterested stallion in a passionless marriage of convenience.

"Why?" Her voice came out strong, raspy, almost normal with the barest of hint of a waver to it.

There was a soft pause while he worked his mouth to speak. That was the only physical indication of his growing anxiety. "Isn't it obvious?"

Her eyes narrowed. "No, it isn't. That's why I am asking."

This was such a simple thing yet he couldn't understand why it was so hard for him to say what he meant. “That foal is mine.”

"And you care about the foal?" She ached to ask if he cared about her.

"Of course. Ah know I don’t have all that many bits but ah want to do the right thing. Ah want to be able to provide for our foal. Ah will not be allowing our foal be born illegitimate."

Just as she had thought, Rainbow Dash looked down at the scroll between her hooves. It all must have made perfect sense. He was at the very least partially responsible for this situation. But did he want to do it? Did he care about them or were she and the foal just another duty and responsibility that he was compelled to take care of? Maybe he did care for the foal after a fashion. Apple Jack made it a point. The Apple clan took care of their own. But what about its mother? Did he care for foal’s mother, for Rainbow Dash?

Damn him for being such a cold unfeeling bastard.

She tried very hard to make sure her voice didn't shake. It wouldn't be a good idea to cry right now. Hormones, they were getting to her. But she needed her wits about her.

"No." She reared back and threw the scroll at him. The scroll bounced off his nose and came rolling to his fore hooves. "I refuse to put my hoof print on that, scroll." She said the last word as if it were the worst kind of venom. Screw the wedding! If she was going to be married to somepony, it should at least be a pony that loved her.

She stepped away and he stepped forward to fill the space. The door clicked shut behind him. “Ah’m not forcing you into sign this." Macintosh lowered his voice. “This here betrothal contract is mah way of apologising. Ah’m sorry, ah didn’t make myself right clear when we last spoke. Ah’m saying that come what may, ah’ll help raise our foal. This’ll give our foal legitimacy even if we don’t marry.” Macintosh took a step closer.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” She defiantly looked into his apple green eyes. “We won’t be having a foal.”

"What ‘ca mean by that?" His eyes narrowed and his mind worked furiously trying to understand her words. "Of course it matters! Our child needs a father, a family!” Macintosh took a step closer. "Are you saying you gona put our foal up for adoption?"

Rainbow Dash didn't move an inch.

“I am considering not carrying it at all.” Damn him, it was so much clearer before he came. “An abortion, since you won't be there to take an active role as the father, since this is all one big mistake that I can’t afford.” Maybe she was saying too much, but heck with him. She was very angry right now and there was only so much she could take from him.

He couldn’t believe his flickering ears. Dash couldn’t have meant that. "No.” His voice was low. Yet it sounded like his voice had thunder right across the closed space of the library. It was louder that he liked or intended.

Rainbow Dash found herself talking several steps back. Her rump was suddenly pressed against a bookshelf with not a step left to go. There was fire in his voice and it sounded dangerous in her ear. She was abruptly very aware that he was nearly twice her weight and a head taller in height. Big Macintosh was a very large Earthpony stallion and she was a Pegasus mare trapped in a confined space. Her wings were nearly useless. She closed her eyes tightly.

He was frightening her. The realisation stopped him cold. He had never done such a thing before. He quickly broke away from her with a frantic look in his eyes. “Ah’m sorry.” He retreated. "Give me a second chance." he said and there was a plea in his voice.

"Second chance?" Her eyes opened and they were big and wide. That question brought a wail to her chest.

"Second chance."

"Wha… Why should I?"

"Because our foal deserves her chance at life.”

"Well, there doesn't have to be a foal. She hollered, her anger returned. “You didn't want the baby in the first place! And you didn't want the mother, either!"

“The foal is mine too. Don’t ah have a say?” Something flickered in those deep expressive pools of his eyes. His eyes trailed down the naked length of her flank, watching her exposed blue skin all the way to her exposed cutie mark of a rainbow coloured lightning bolt. Although the memory was blurry in his mind, he had looked at her like that before, the first time on the night they made love.

Rainbow Dash inhaled deeply, the barrel of her chest rising and falling beneath her folded wings. The smell of him, his spicy apple scent made her head spin, and her insides twist. She took more deeps gulps of air, trying to calm her racing heart, only to breathe in more his scent.

"What am I supposed to do…?" She whispered, still clinging to the decision she made with Rarity the night before like a drowning Pegasus would a life raft. She was doing all that was possible to keep her life together. Her reputation. Her life. Her dream. She had been so damn close. How could he simply swoop in and do this to her? “I can’t afford her.”

“Ah'll help take care of our daughter. That Dash, is a promise. The farm ain’t rich but no foal of mine will ever have to worry about food on her table."

She roughly pulled back only to find his muscular body flush against hers, letting her feel all of him, and at the same time making sure she couldn't throw open her wide wings and run. It made her dizzy. "What do you think you are doing?" She rasped.

"Promise me, Dash. Promise me that we will at least talk. Promise me that you won’t do anything rash until our herd comes to a decision on our foal.” His voice was soft, yet demanding and his face a scant centimetre from hers.

That was when her in confused, anger hazed mind that Rainbow Dash figured something out. Did he use the term ‘herd’? Did he think that they could be a family? Her hind legs gave out on her causing her rump to fall heavily onto the floor. He did care for her and the foal! If so, he just wasn’t so apt at showing it. But he was showing it in his own way. Yet a cold thought lingered in her mind, if this was another mare would he treat her the same as he was her? Did they have a relationship between them, a Rainbow Dash and Macintosh? Would she ever have had one with him if she wasn't carrying his foal?

His lips came near her temple and then one words shattered her resolve. "Please?" It was a low halting request. Could she say no?

His bowed head came close to her face when in the next instant he kissed her. Macintosh didn’t know what he was doing but it felt right… like their first night together. His lips gently claimed hers. He pressed her chin down with his hoof that made her open her mouth, letting his tongues swirl around hers.

“What are you doing?” Dash managed a protesting squeak. Yet she couldn’t ignore that her traitorous body responded to him so quickly and fervently that she could barely contain a low moan. His tongue kept a tempo that made her heart canter in her chest. Her wings on her back arched franticly to stretch out for release. She was just about to reach out with one foreleg to wrap around his wither when he pulled away from her.

Rainbow Dash gave off a protesting mewl. The nerve he had to stop at a time like this, leaving her high and dry. She tilted her head up a little to look passed Macintosh red frame. She could almost see Twilight Sparkle from behind the door. A deep frown was etched onto the unicorn’s purple face and her horn was aflame with the glow of her purple magic.

“Leave Macintosh, if you know what is good for you.” Twilight Sparkle threatened.

*** ** ***

Persuasion.

Chapter 5
Persuasion.

“We need to talk.” Macintosh began without preamble. The large stallion stood tall a corn field, just south of the farm house. He was red blot in a field of green stalks. Apples were the main stay of Sweet Apple Acres but it wasn’t the only thing grown on the farm.

“What is there to be talking about?” His younger sister, Apple Jack answered without looking back. She busied herself examining a corn leaf with a practise eye for any signs of insect infestation or infection. “Ah overheard what you and gramps were talking about last night. What more is there to say?”

It wasn’t what he had expected, though he didn’t know what to expect. “Ah see.”

“My hoof you see!” She spun around, the stiff hairs of her blond tail nearly snapped across his nose. “Mah best friend is pregnant with mah brother’s foal. While mah other best friend is suggesting an abortion ‘cause she thinks nopony will be lending a helping hoof and she is not the least bit concern that she’ll be killing a foal. A foal that is our friend’s first daughter and mah first niece. And then ah’ hear ma’ brother is not going to pony up to his responsibilities!”

Macintosh was silent, speechless.

Apple Jack continued to glare at her brother. She wasn’t patient enough to wait for a reply from the large earth stallion. Too much of a cold-blooded pony in him, Apple Jack concluded. Immovable and slow… Troublesome.

“So what were you thinking of doing? Abandon Dash like that cad of a unicorn, Muffin Bran did to poor Ditzy Hooves?”

“Muffin Bran didn’t abandon his family.” Macintosh defended. He did so almost on reflex. There were few enough stallions in pony society, about one stallion born to every four mares and there were few enough stallions in Ponyville that they were almost a community within a community. “He headed east to find his fortune.”

“There is only one mare left in Ponyville who believes that story and its Ditzy Hooves.” Apple Jack answered back. “Ah won’t have my best friend sitting at the train station every evening waiting for a pony who will never come.” Slowly she looked at Macintosh in an almost pained look. “You should have seen Dash. She was crying her eyes out.”

Macintosh's voice was low. “Ah didn’t know that. Ah, never meant to hurt her.”

"You did.” She stated. “Regardless of yer intensions, you hurt her bad. So, will you do the right thing?"

“It would be one mistake compounded over another.”

“But if you don’t love Dash, then why in land sakes did you sleep with her?” She asked in frustration.

“She was drunk. Ah was drunk. Drunk ponies make mistakes.”

“Mistakes are when you wake up late in the morning and forget to feed the pigs. Siring a foal with yer sister’s best friend who is also the town’s Weather Manager isn’t.”

Macintosh knew what his sister meant. The talk would never die down. Rainbow Dash might not act it but she was a prominent member of the community. The Weather Manager was second only to the Mayor as weather control was of the life blood of a farming community like Ponyvile. “You can’t make a pony love another pony just by yer say so.”

“Please Big Macintosh, ah know you have a big heart. So please, can’t you find room for Dash. Can’t you love her? She needs you, more than she knows herself.”

Macintosh didn't answer immediately. His forehead wrinkled with lines of a frown. Certainly there was still doubt hanging at the back of his mind. Macintosh fell into a deep thinking once again. His shoulders sagged with burdening uncertainties

“She a fine mare, though a bit on the lazy side when she thinks nopony is a looking. And has a tendency to help herself to an apple or two” Apple jack chuckled tensely. “But a fine mare all the same.”

“It won’t be right.” he finally spoke. “Apple Jack,” he turned to his sister. “Ah can’t give Dash something ah don’t have.” His tone was weary. “And the fact of the matter is ah don’t….ah don’t think if she even sees me in the same way. Sis, have you ever asked what ah want?”

Those few words sounded selfish even to his ear but it had to be said. He regretted saying it but didn’t gramps make a point about marrying for the wrong reason? Was marriage simply going to heap one bad decision over another?

“A bit late now,” Apple Jack retorted hotly. Macintosh could only look away. She continued glaring at her older brother until she let out a heavy sigh. “No.” She admitted guilty. “Honestly, ah haven’t. Ah kinda figured that ya would do the right thing on yer own. So what do you want?”

Macintosh was silent. “Ah -” There was nothing to say, nothing but the truth. “Ah don’t know.”

“Landsakes,” Apple Jack swore and jabbed her hoof to her forehead “Fine,” Apple Jack cut in, tired, and frustrated that she was getting little headway. “If you can’t do what is right by Dash, can you at least do what is right by yer own blood. Yer foal deserves a father. ”

For the first time in a long while, he had been blindsided.

** *** **

“Feeling better?”

The question hung over the table in Twilight’s kitchen like the cloud of steam over the tea mugs the two mares had between their hooves.

Rainbow Dash snorted as she kept the steaming mug away from her mouth. It smelled like boiled weeds and was a tasty as it sounded, terrible. “A bit.” She admitted despite the unpleasant smell, and slowly she took a small polite sip if only to stop Rarity from staring at her. “What do I do now? Macintosh…”

It always came back to him, Rarity sighed. “Forget about him for the moment. As much as can be said about Macintosh, ultimately it is his decision. As for the foal, I think it would be shrewd if you ask yourself if you can actually afford one.”

“I’m giving birth to a foal, Rarity.” Dash replied dryly. “Not buying one at Rich's Barnyard Bargain. I mean… how much can a foal cost?”

“Darling, if you could only see the bills Sweetie Belle charges to my bank ledgers, you’ll sing a different tune.” A pencil and a sheet of paper flew over to Rarity as she cleared a space on the table. “Now then, I can help you go over your finances and see what kind of damage a foal would make to your budget.” Her red rim glasses lifted out her saddle bags on her snout.

Rainbow Dash moaned reluctantly. “Do I have to?” She asked, only to receive a searching look from Rarity. Dash relented. “Fine, where do we start?”

“Well, let’s start with the basics, income. How much money do you make?”

Little did Rainbow Dash know, that little question was the start of more heartache.

** ** **

The numbers didn’t add up.

In one long shuddering moment, stark realisation dawn upon Rainbow Dash. The pencil she held in her mouth tumbled and rolled away unnoticed. She had always been good with numbers, most Pegasi were, just as many Unicorns were good with the written word, but it was now very apparent she wasn’t any good at managing her Bits.

“We can fix this.” Rarity insisted firmly.

The figures on her bank ledges spelled it out in bold strokes of red ink. Her finances were in a horrible state, bad enough that it made Rarity cringe even as the Unicorn tried to keep her face blank and neutral. Rainbow Dash never lingered on her spending habits but now it was out for Rarity and herself to see.

It was glaringly simple.

“How?” Dash wailed in despair. “Nopony can fix this.”

All around her were her banking papers which she have had flown down from her home to library for Rarity to read. “I live from pay check to pay check, and I’m the village Weather Manager! I make more Bits than the other Weather mares and I can only make ends meet from overtime In the last two months of my pregnancy, I’ll be grounded, cloud bound, too heavy to be on Weather Security patrols.” Dash dropped her head between her blue hooves. “Without the overtime, I’ll have only on my basic salary and…I won’t have Bits to put food on the table.”

“As a temporary solution, I would suggest you can cut your spending on the Wonderbolts now.” Rarity interjected. “No more airshow tickets, no more memorabilia, posters and plushies. Put those Bits into your savings account to make up for the months while you are grounded.”

“Savings that I barely have,” Dash muttered while shaking her head. “It’s still not enough, Rarity. Most of my Bits are gone before it even gets into my hooves. I have a spending problem.”

“More than half,” The alabaster unicorn added. “You don’t so much have a spending problem as a too much house problem. You have committed too much of your income to mortgage payments. As a general rule, the maximum you should dedicate to a mortgage is 25% of you net salary. Above 35% you generally have not enough money for …well everything else.” The unicorn shook her head. “You are at 43%! Such a high housing cost percentage leaves you with no room for error.”

Dash cringed at Rarity’s words “I messed up okay!” She yelled defensively. She could already feel Rarity’s unasked question burning into her blue fur coat. “I got my place when I was in Cloudsdale… when I was going places.” She then added quietly, “when I thought I was going to be somepony. I wanted at place which said that.”

Rarity crossed her forehoove and levitated off her red rim glasses. “It need not be mentioned that was a bad financial decision. You are still repaying your education loan for Flight school, which you have to pay back in full given that you failed to graduate. “

“Don’t remind me.” Dash replied gloomily. “I had one chance when I was younger to make something of myself and I screwed up. I should never have done that Sonic Rainboom.”

“Why ever would say that? That Sonic Rainboom gave us our Cutie Marks. It made us all the ponies we are today.”

“Yeah it did,” Dash replied bitterly. “I flunked out of Flight School because of that and it isn’t even recorded in the history books as the first Sonic Rainboom. No proof.”

Rarity was shocked. “I didn’t know.” The unicorn held her hoof to her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dash waved her friend off, yet the look of pain still plastered on her snout. “I guess it all balanced out in the end. Twilight got into her fancy magic school of hers while I got kicked out of mine.” Dash leaned back, wished her cushion had a backing to lean on. “I’m still paying for that screw up. Got to repay the scholarship for flunking out of Flight School.”

Rainbow Dash dropped her face between her hooves. If she wanted something better for her foal than a cloud pushing Weatherpony, her baby had to think about graduating from Flight School. But unlike her mother there wouldn’t be any helpful scholarship waiting in the wings after Basics. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to admit it but lineage mattered. Ponies were not born equal.

If her half Earthpony foal was born a Pegasus, the chances were she wouldn’t be fast. She would be slow, heavy boned and maybe even small winged. At best, she would be good for pulling sky wagons and carrying goods between Pegasi towns. It would be an honest living but she would be in the end, be nothing more that muscle, no better than her cloud pushing mother. Such a Pegasus would never win, let alone qualify for a scholarship at Flight School.

At worse, Dash couldn’t bear to think of it. Her foal would have dainty Pegasi wings, no better than a show piece. Something she was sure Scootaloo was an example off. Not strong enough to fly in any meaningful way, yet not Earthpony strong to take up traditional Earthpony jobs. Oh, Celestia what had she done. Dash couldn’t breathe. She wanted to scream.

Rarity took off her red rimmed glasses and reach out to hold Rainbow Dash by the hoof.

Rainbow Dash stare down into her teacup and began to bite her bottom lip with her teeth, an action Rarity found quite distracting, especially when it went against every book she had read on good manners. "Dear, please do stop that. You're going to make yourself bleed," Rarity admonished, although she wasn't so worried about that as she was of Rainbow Dash having another tear filled panic attack.

The Pegasus promptly stopped and sighed loudly, the sound portraying all the frustration and hopelessness she felt. Then the inevitable question came up. “What if she isn’t a Pegasus?” Her eyes were wide and desperate. "So far we’ve been talking as if she took after me. But what if she…” Her fore hoof hovered over her abdomen. “Takes after her fath… Macintosh... an Earthpony…what do I do then? Can I afford a roof over her head? How much does a house on the ground cost anyway?” she asked flippantly hoping to hide her growing dread.

Rarity let out a sighed. It was enough to cause Dash to swallow hard. A number was scribbled on a paper and passed across the table. Rainbow Dash gingerly pulled it open between her hooves.

There was a reason Fluttershy lived in a cottage so close to the dangerous Ever Free Forest. Living close to wildlife was on reason and the other was now staring back at Rainbow Dash “Great, just great,” was the first thing Rainbow Dash said out loud. She couldn’t afford an Earthpony foal. It was a simple as that. “Now not only I can’t feed her. I don’t even put a roof over her head. The cloudhouse draining all my bits is next to useless!”

“I screwed up,” She whispered. “I can’t afford her.” The last she added in almost a whisper.

“Stop that this instant,” Rarity snapped. Despair never helped anypony. It just let ponies wallow… in whatever ponies were supposed to wallow in. Perhaps self-pity… Rarity absently pondered.

Dash misunderstood the anger in Rarity’s voice and flinched slightly. "I'm sorry," she said softly, bringing her wing up and over her withers to wrap around herself like a little feathered ball. “I shouldn’t dump all this on you. It is my mistake after all. I wouldn’t be causing so trouble.”

Rarity’s frustration instantly dissipated, replaced instead with a pang of sorrow that news most other mares would treasure and eagerly await had instead become a terrible burden to her friend. “Think nothing of it. That is what friends are for.” The unicorn replied, then lowering her voice to a gentler tone, “Besides my parents always said if they had waited until they could "afford" a foal, my sister and I would never have been born.” Rarity managed a grin. “You still have eleven months,” Rarity trailed. “if you decide to keep her.”

“Ten.” Dash corrected. “But should I?” The whisper was so quite that Rarity had to swivel her ears to the side to hear.

“Pardon me?” Rarity asked although she heard well enough the first time.

“I’m asking you, as a friend,” Rainbow Dash looked to Rarity. “Should I keep her?”

"I don't know." Rarity answered, and honestly she didn't. The fact that she didn't have an answer for this situation or for that rouge Macintosh, irritated her tremendously. As a friend, she wished she had been better prepared.

“I…I am not telling you if you should keep your pregnancy or end it, but whatever you decided, I will tell you are in a poor financial state. You’ll have to spend less money, make more money, and likely sell your house for something more affordable. Renting may not be bad idea. You might want to consider getting an additional job. I believe Ditzy Hooves has some experience.”

”Derpy?”

“Rather rude to call Ditzy that.”

“I thought she was a Weathermare?”

“She is. But I also know she works a second job as the village mailmare. She works ever so hard to raise her daughter Dinky. I know all this because Dinky is a Unicorn. There ever fewer of us unicorn in ponyville, even less than there are Pegasi such that Twilight Sparkle and I have taken upon ourselves to hold special magic classes.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and hung her head over the figures written on paper under her snout. The math was simple.

“I can’t keep her.”