Pound My Pumpkin

1. Loose Ends

Three years later...

Rarity smiled to herself as she finished up the last of her latest commissions: a new dress for Princess Luna for an upcoming event. She smiled as she stepped back, looking around at her boutique. Things had changed over the past three years. Business had certainly picked up, the 'stigma' the fashion world chose to attach to her for being with Spike having vanished after three years of all four of Equestria's Princesses commissioning all their new outfits from her exclusively. It had taken some time, but the rest of Equestria's upper crust got the royal point. It had helped when Prince Blueblood had come out denouncing them both vociferously, decrying them as seven kinds of abominations and the worst of blasphemers. The day after his speech, Rarity had been swamped with dress orders from the upper crust. The day after that, Rarity had secretly had the Prince over for tea to thank him for his efforts on their behalf. After all, by making himself look like a total buffoon over the issue so vociferously, he guaranteed that anypony attempting to continue to do so would be engaging in political suicide, since nopony wanted to be seen as associated with the Prince. Rarity knew Blueblood had no actual issues with interspecies relationships, since he himself was courting Gilda, the Griffon King's favorite granddaughter.

While she wasn't sure if she liked the idea of receiving patronage as a result of politics rather than her skill, more recent issues meant she was glad for whatever work she could get, for whatever reasons. After all, foals were expensive.

At this thought, she smiled as she walked into the nursery. Sitting there in the crib was the new heart of her world, clinging to the top of the crib as she gazed out at everything. Rarity smiled as she came up, nuzzling the little tyke. "There's my greatest Treasure," she whispered, touching noses to the child.

The little filly had a pale purple coat with a dark purple mane and tail, with a line of small spikes along her spine. Her eyes were a brilliant green, and she had claws instead of hooves. Her tail was more flesh than fur, with a heavy spade tip, and already had razor sharp teeth. Her dragon heritage had her growing quite slowly, so even at two years old she hadn't started speaking yet. However, she was quite the expensive child, as she inherited her father's gem-based diet and her mother's finicky eating habits. She would only eat the higher quality gems that were harder to come by. Of course, it didn't help that Rarity went out of her way to spoil her infant.

"Does Mommy's Treasure want a cookie?" Rarity asked in a sing-song voice, levitating one out of the cookie jar nearby. It was a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie with Moldovite chunks

"Gah!" Treasure said happily, reaching for the cookie.

Chuckling, Rarity levitated it over into the Kirin filly's grasp.

Seizing the cookie, Treasure began to consume it slowly, with a quiet 'nom, nom' sound.

Quietly squealing, Rarity watched her offspring happily. Spike was still sleeping late in their room. Her world, her life, now felt complete.

Trixie smiled as she sat up in bed, glancing over to the bright pink mare beside her. It had taken a bit of quick conversation - not to mention the groveling on her part - to get Cup Cake to accept her, which was of great importance to Pinkie. Eventually, she moved past the past events and agreed to judge her on who she was now. Of course, the good that had done nearly went out the window when, two days later, the Pie family had shown up to visit their wayward daughter. From the first impression Trixie got of them on sight, she was afraid they would be super judgmental about Pinkie being with another mare, or about being with a unicorn. That impression was maintained right up until the point Pinkie's father pointed the shotgun at Trixie's face...and streamers and glitter burst out. Apparently, Pinkie had rubbed off on her family before she headed out into the world, and they were just happy there was a chance she'd give them grandfoals, they didn't care how.

Not long after that, Pinkie had convinced Mr. and Mrs. Cake to let Trixie move in with them. It had taken a few weeks, during which time Trixie had parked her trailer next to Sugarcube Corner and performed shows for the patrons. At first, her magic shows hadn't been received that well...until Pinkie joined as her assistant. That had gone over much better, and when they had done musical performances...

Well, Cup Cake had insisted that Trixie work at Sugarcube Corner or pay rent, but Trixie was okay with either option. Besides, she personally thought she looked quite good in the waitress outfit Pinkie had commissioned for her from Rarity, and it gave the bakery/restaurant a bit of class in her opinion. Not that she really thought about any of it when she curled up to her beloved at night.

Pound and Pumpkin had moved out recently, going off to get their own home and business with Yaazi somewhere. Trixie wasn't really listening at the time, since Pinkie had made a whispered comment about there being 'room for more'. That had made her think of Pinkie's parents comments about grandfoals, which in turn made her remember the box.

Getting up from bed, she opened the drawer in the dresser, levitating the small box out. Turning, she spoke up. "Pinkie..."

"Yes, Trixie?"

Trixie jumped a bit, trying to calm herself. Even after all this time, she wasn't used to Pinkie's sudden warping around, especially when she was swinging from the ceiling fan with Gummy hanging from her muzzle. "Pinkie, love, there's something serious I wanted to talk to you about."

Pinkie hopped down to the floor, setting Gummy on the bed. "Yes?"

Trixie cracked the box open. "Pinkie, I've been meaning to-" She stopped, staring at the contents of the box.

The gold hoofband had two gemstones set, a pink Morganite and a blue Tanzanite, set against each other in the center. However, stuck into the box next to the band was a folded piece of paper that wasn't supposed to be there. Trixie levitated it out and unfolded it. She could tell by the age of the paper it had been there nearly since she'd gotten the band, and it was unmistakably Pinkie's hoof writing.

'All you had to do was ask.'

Trixie looked up at Pinkie, tears in her eyes. Pinkie, for her part, was smiling, her own eyes glistening, as she held out her hoof. Carefully, Trixie slipped the band on, knowing, at long last, that she was home.

Twilight smiled as she opened her eyes, slipping out of the hive mind as she returned to her room in Ponyville library. She had to admit, while she had been hesitant about forging a full link with her niece, learning that she could raise mental barriers to keep parts of her mind inviolate while only sharing parts and communicating telepathically, she had adjusted to it and embraced it. Besides, expanding the 'hive' had helped solidify Yaazi's sense of family, and it was nice being able to communicate with Shining, Cadance, and Heart Throb with only a thought. Beyond that, it made teaching Yaazi magic orders of magnitude easier, since she could actually see into Yaazi's mind to check if she had a spell formula properly shaped before casting. After Yaazi had accidentally turned an apple into a hydra instead of an orange, this was a definite plus. Beyond that, it meant that Twilight could continue to teach Yaazi no matter where she chose to live, which allowed Yaazi, Pound, and Pumpkin to move on with their lives.

Smiling, Twilight rose shakily to her hooves, walking heavily down the stairs. Reaching the kitchen, she mixed herself up the nutrition shake the doctor had prescribed her. It tasted absolutely vile, but she needed all the extra nutrition she could get right now. Taking it with her, she lay down on her side on the couch, sipping the shake. She made a face at the taste.

"Still tastes horrible, huh?" Rainbow Dash said, gliding in to settle on the floor, managing to fly into and land in the library without crashing into something or make a mess.

Twilight smiled. "The taste hasn't improved, unlike your landings. You're doing much better at careful."

Rainbow chuckled. "I have reason to be. How are you holding up?"

Twilight sighed. "About as well as can be expected."

Rainbow grinned, then put her ear up against Twilight's swollen belly. "And how's this little one doing? Eh? Eh?"

Ka-POW!

Rainbow found herself laying upside down against the opposite wall, dizzy, with stars flying around her head and a rather noticeable black eye.

Twilight chuckled nervously. "Apparently, she takes after her 'awesome' mom," she said with a laugh.

"...awesome..."

The cart slowly rolled into the Crystal Kingdom, pulling up before a new building recently built. The building itself was close to the palace, but not so close as to be a part of any major royal traffic. The pony pulling the cart turned back as he came to a halt. "We're here!" he called happily.

From out of the back of the cart, Pound flew out, coming in for a landing after briefly stretching his wings. "Alright, you two, time to see our new home."

Yaazi stepped out slowly and carefully, followed by Pumpkin. All three looked up at the new building. While it was made of crystal like nearly every other building in the kingdom, some effort had been taken with the coloration to make it resemble Sugarcube Corner back in Ponyville. It was a new bakery, which would make treats from elsewhere in Equestria in addition to the crystal berry treats so popular in local cuisine. The sign above the door read, 'Sugar^3 Vertex.' Already, there was a long line of customers waiting at the front door stretching all the way back to the new Crystal University. "We haven't even moved in yet!" Yaazi called out in disbelief.

Several of the ponies near the front of the line - hipsters from the look of them - smirked at her. "We'll wait," one of them said.

Rolling her eyes, Pumpkin stepped forward. "I'll start baking. Pound, you get Yaazi upstairs and bed her down. She shouldn't be walking too much."

"Right," Pound replied. He moved to Yaazi's side, ready to pick her up.

"I can climb stairs!" Yaazi insisted, although she was pleased with all the fuss. "I'm pregnant, not an invalid."

Smiling, Pound steadied Yaazi as she climbed the stairs into their new home.

Late that night in the living area above the bakery, the three lovers curled up together in the extra-large bed, fast asleep, Yaazi remaining in her unicorn form. A shaft of moonlight shone through the crystal window, refracting into a monochromatic rainbow across the floor.

In the middle of the light, a pony slowly took form out of midair. He had neither coat nor mane, and his skin was a deep blue. His wings hung limp against his sides, mere flaps of flesh, and a brown shawl was wrapped around his face, leaving only glowing yellow eyes. "It's time to go," he said, his voice echoing quietly.

A shadow stepped out from the wall, somewhat pony shaped. "Is it already? Has time passed so swiftly?"

The blue figure nodded. "I shouldn't have let you remain as long as I have."

The shadow walked over towards the bed, looking down at the sleepers. "...did...did I do more harm than good? I only wanted to help her, but..."

"It matters not now," the figure replied. "She will hear your words no more."

The shadow turned back. "Please, Raziel! Tell me if I've done the right thing!"

He shook his head. "I cannot answer that. All I can say is that there are rules for a reason. And it is time for you to leave."

The shadow hung her head. "...alright." Leaning over the bed, she planted a gentle, spectral kiss upon Yaazi's forehead. "Farewell, my Yaazi," she whispered as her form dissipated, leaving only a glowing blue sphere of light.

Reaching up, Raziel pulled back the shawl, revealing an open maw that slowly sucked the glowing sphere into its depths. Shifting the shawl back over his face, he turned, fading out of the material plain.

Slowly, Yaazi sat up, blinking her eyes sadly. In a voice filled with confusion and sorrow, she called out, "...Mama?"