With the Final Breath

      Applejack sighed. She'd just finished her part of the taxes, and her head was still spinning. Taking off, she landed in her year-round growing apple orchard. There were trees for gold, silver, bronze, crystal, and every other known normal type of apple known to ponykind. Her orchard here was a lot fancier than sweet apple acres, but it helped her think.

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    Rarity sank lower into the hot tub, letting the bubbles brush against her body. Her pedicure was scheduled for just after her tax portion, and then she wanted to do another episode of her beauty show, So You Want to Look Like a Princess? But in the meantime, she was relaxing in her private spa. She invited her friends sometimes, but mostly it was just her. If she knew her friends, Pinkie was in her balloon garden, Applejack was in her orchard, Twilight was in her newly renovated personal library, Fluttershy was in her indoor garden, and Rainbow was outside doing tricks for the group of ponies who gathered every day to watch.

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     Twilight hummed happily as the printer finished. She thanked him and added the books to her collection. In the year since she became princess, she had written easily close to five hundred textbooks and scientific manuals for her country. Some of her books made it to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, still named after the dead monarch out of respect; schools and mages' guilds all cross Equestria, and some of the most prestigous science centers in the country. She suspected that it was just out of respect, but when she graced the school with her books, the lesson speed increased tenfold for all levels of magical expertise, leading the teachers to rave about her books. Life was good.

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   Completeing her day's routine with a sonic rainboom, she soared from the green where she performed daily to her balcony in the Canterlot Castle. Deciding to head down to Applejack's orchard for a zap apple, she stretched her wings, she took flight again,  gliding down several glass tunnels that connected their private rooms. At last emerging into the field, she trotted over to the farmer princess and magically yanked the hat off of her head. A brief tug of war ensued, cyan and amber magic battling for the upper hand. When Applejack had gotten the hat back, they used their magic to talk inside each other's heads. After getting her zap apple, she grabbed a couple crystal apples for Pinkie and set off down the glass tunnels once again.

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  Pinkie bounced around the candy room, wondering if she should try the Chocolate Castle  or the Sugar Rush Mountain cake. The chocolate castle was complete with a drawbridge, and the inside was sculpted beautifully. However, the sugar rush mountain cake was shaped like a very tall, very delicious volcano that spewed liquid sugar every five minutes. Finally deciding on the chocolate castle, she used her purple magic to break off the drawvridge, and stuffed the whole thing into her mouth. When the chefs came back a moment later to ask which one was better, they stared at the carnage, but didn't find Princess Pinkie.

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   Fluttershy finished splinting the leg of the poor flamingo and watched him waddle off before helping the next patient, which happened to be Philomena and Peewee carrying their egg. They explained it was cracking, and they were worried about their unborn chick. After a careful checkup, she deduced that the egg would hatch tomorrow morning, so they should stay overnight at her clinic. She guided them to one of the trees, settling them in a large birdhouse.

    Next morning, they called her and proudly presented their daughter, Flutter, to her namesake. Watching her speak for the first time--her first word was shy--she felt that life couldn't be better.