The alarm on Rarity’s nightstand rang out and was quickly silenced with a swatting hoof. She didn’t want to get up, she was still feeling drained from her stressful and strange night. And she was warm. Very warm. Did Opal decide to sleep in her bed? Rarity did feel something weighing her abdomen down, so it must be Opal. Rarity moved a hoof to find her fluffy kitty and give her a good morning pet, but found not furry companion. Instead her hoof grazed across something smooth, she wasn’t sure what it was, so she ran her hoof across it a few more times and poked it, whatever it was stirred from its spot on the bed.
“Aw c’mon Rares. Just a few more minutes?”
Rarity was suddenly wide awake as she realized whose voice was playing in her ear and noticed that was weighing her down was not a familiar feline but a purple claw resting protectively on her. Rarity’s breath quickened as panic began to set in. W-what is Spike doing in my bed!? Why am I in bed with Spike!?
Her attention was drawn to the sound of her bedroom door opening and a little unicorn filly ran in and leaped onto the bed. She was a most curious filly; she had a purple mane with green highlights styled similarly to Rarity’s but not as long. Her coat was a lighter purple, with dark green patches of… scales? Yes, they were unmistakably scales, adorning her flank, shoulders and just below her sapphire blue eyes like freckles. She had small purple ridges from the base of her neck down to her tail and her tail wasn’t a normal pony’s tail. The dock was much, much longer like a… dragon’s tail. With a small tuft of green fluff at the end. And her hooves looked more like it was a combination of hoof and claw.
“Mommy, daddy!” the filly cried out.
“Never mind,” Spike groaned as he rose up from his pillow. “time to get up.”
Rarity took this opportunity to scramble out of bed, her eyes glued on the image of Spike and the strange, yet oddly familiar filly. Mommy!? Wait. Mommy!? I-I’m mommy!?
“Good morning Lolite! What’s gotten you all worked up?” Spiked asked as he ruffled the filly’s mane.
“It’s Hearth's Warming season!” Lolite replied energetically, eyes shining like diamonds. “We gotta go shopping and buy stuff like a tree and cocoa and get cinnamon buns from Mrs. Pinkie and we gotta get a kaleidoscope for Dusky and a fancy pen for auntie Twily and I got a list thiiiiiiiiiiiis long of what I want and- and-“ Spike lifted the filly up and started tickling her belly, Lolite squealed in laughter as she fell victim to her father’s attacks.
“Whoa there little lady, you’re going a hundred miles a minute. We haven’t even had breakfast yet. Go wash up, get your brother and then-“
BROTHER!? Rarity’s mind finally started to combust. There’s two of them!? I have two kids!? Rarity couldn’t handle this new swarm of revelations. She bolted out of the room and down the stairs, nearly tripping over a doll lying in the hallway. She ran to the door and grabbed a scarf before slamming the door behind her.
“Stay calm darling!” Rarity said to herself in total panic as she galloped through the streets of Ponyville. “This is just a dream! A very, very realistic dream!” Rarity slowed down to a trot as she tried to catch her breath. “A dream where I can get a cramp from running apparently, but it’s still just a dream. I just need to wait and I’ll wake up any second now.”
“Cinnamon nuts! Get your hot, fresh cinnamon nuts here! Perfect for a winter’s day!”
Rarity’s ears swiveled as the voice carried over the chilly wind from the vendor of the nut cart. She recognized that voice. And she most certainly recognized the vendor, one can hardly forget a pink bird lady with spiral horns and peacock feathers, even if she was wearing a tacky uniform, cap and apron.
“You!” Rarity screamed as she stomped towards the cart.
“Ah, good morning Mrs. Rarity!” the strange vendor greeted. “What will it be? The usual?”
“What the hay did you do to me!?”
The vendor tilted her head. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“You know darn well what I mean! Last night I went to bed, by myself and the next thing I know, I wake up next to Spike and then a-a-a foal barges into my room calling me ‘mommy’! Foals! There are two of them, at least! Whose foals are they!?”
“They’re yours of course,” the vendor replied coolly. “Don’t you see the family resemblance?”
“They’re not mine! I mean, they can’t be mine! I’m not a mother!”
“Give yourself some more credit, you’ve done a great job of it for seven years. Honestly, I can’t imagine where you find the time for a career, a part time teacher and motherhood. You’re quite the multi tasker.”
Rarity sank to the ground as her head felt like it would burst into a million pieces. “Why are you doing this…?” she asked quietly.
The vendor smiled. “Once upon a time, a princess of Equestria showed me mercy and compassion. Now I wish to return the favor to her subjects. You did a good service to me last night Rarity and it’s only right to repay you in spades. So I decided to grant you a wish and give you this glimpse.”
“Glimpse? A glimpse of what?”
“Well that’s something you have to figure out. But don’t worry, I’m sure your family can help, especially your husband. That’s one smart dragon you’ve landed, Oh, before I forget.” The vendor snapped her fingers and a bag appeared before Rarity, she peeked inside and saw a bolt of cloth and a bottle of maple syrup. "You’ll need these, good luck Mrs. Rarity!” The vendor snapped her fingers again and she and the nut cart vanished without a trace.
Rarity stood still in the open air with bag in hoof and a thousand-yard stare. Her brain finally shorted out and began to walk back to the boutique, whispering the words, “Spike’s my husband… Spike’s my husband…” Over and over again.
Rarity wasn’t exactly sure how long she was standing outside her home. Was it a few minutes or a few hours? She just couldn’t bring herself to face what was beyond that door. She couldn’t believe that Spike was her husband and that they had two (as far as she knew) foals. Wait, are they foals? Or are they hatchlings? That’d be an interesting story to tell my parents, ‘hello mother and father, I have the most incredible news! I laid an egg and you’re going to be grandparents!’ Rarity couldn’t help but giggle at the thought and felt a sense of levity wash over her.
She took a deep breath and opened the door to the boutique and with a brave step, crossed the threshold inside. As she hung her scarf on the hook by the door, Spike peeked his head out of the kitchen.
“Oh there you are! Where have you been?”
“I… had to step out for a bit,” Rarity replied what she hoped wasn’t a suspicious answer.
“Stepped out? You ran out of here like your mane was on fire. What the heck happened? You know how worried I was? What did you need so badly that you had to rush on out of here?”
Rarity levitated the contents of the bag out. “Um, cloth and maple syrup?”
“Why do we need syrup?”
“Daddy!” Lolite trotted out from behind Spike. “We’re out of syrup! We can’t have waffles without“- Lolite’s eyes lit up as she saw the bottle in Rarity’s magic. –“Syrup! Thanks mommy! You’re the best!” Lolite hugged her mother and took the bottle in her own magic and trotted happily back to the kitchen.
Spike ran his claw over the bolt of fabric. “Let me guess, a super important client needed this right?”
“Y-yes! They were quite adamant about this fabric in particular. And I remembered that we were almost out of syrup so I bought some while I was out.” Rarity hoped Spike would buy her story.
Spike sighed and gave Rarity a hug. “I know how important your clientele is honey, but you shouldn’t stress yourself out. You really had me worried. Lolite was worried too. Promise me you won’t go work crazy? After all, I thought we agreed on more family time during Hearths Warming Season.”
Rarity couldn’t help but notice how warm Spike’s embrace was. She felt so… safe in his arms and did her heart rate go up? Was that before or after he called her ‘honey’? Is this how married couples feel when they hug? No, not just married couples. Rarity was all aflutter as she grappled with these bubbling emotions as she returned the hug and buried her face in Spike’s shoulder.
“I promise,” she whispered. “I won’t go work crazy.”
“Heh, there’s the Rares I know and love. Now c’mon, breakfast is getting cold and Cobalt won’t eat without you.”
“Cobalt?”
“Yeah, he’s being really fussy. I’m sure you’ll have better luck with him.”
Spike and Rarity entered the kitchen, Lolite happily munching on waffles with a dreamy look on her face. Across from her, sitting in a high chair, was a little colt. He had a white coat with purple scales on his flank and a vibrant green spiky mane. He had the same ridges on his back that his sister had, but he also had a tiny pair of dragon like wings and the tip of his tail didn’t have Lolite’s tuft of fluff but rather a spade shape like Spike’s and he had the same hoof claws Lolite had. He sat in his chair just sulking at the bottle of formula before him until he saw his mother and he reached out his tiny limbs for her.
“Ah! Ah! Mu!” the colt called out.
Rarity couldn’t help but notice the colt’s eyes. They were a vivid emerald green; the same green Spike has in his eyes. The colt giggled as Rarity drew closer and his eyes were glowing, the same way Spike’s did when he was overjoyed to see her. Like father like son I suppose. Rarity steeled her nerves and levitated the colt out of his high chair along with the formula.
Aside from holding Cobalt in her hooves, she wasn’t entirely sure what to do. In fact, Rarity was terrified the colt would shatter like glass or at the very least burst into tears at any moment and she wouldn’t know how to calm him down. She thought back to the time when her sister Sweetie Belle was born. The way Rarity’s mother took care of her latest bundle of joy was vague, but Rarity could still remember the way her mother held Sweetie, the way she fed Sweetie from a bottle and the way her mother spoke to Sweetie, praising even the most mundane of tasks.
Rarity drew up all of her memories of that time to keep calm and after a moment to compose herself, she greeted the foal, “Good morning Cobalt. Is a certain little somepony hungry?” Rarity held the rubber spout to Cobalt’s mouth and the foal happily started drinking. “There we go, that’s a good boy. Don’t drink too fast now, we wouldn’t want you getting a bellyache.”
Soon Cobalt finished his formula and was giggling happily. What am I supposed to do next? Oh, that’s right. Rarity held Cobalt to her shoulder and started patting his back. Rarity’s body relaxed as she held “her” foal. She couldn’t understand why, but doing this made her feel… calm. Like just being near and caring for this little colt was enough to distract her from being in this strange yet familiar place.
Spike nearly choked on his waffles. “Wait Rarity you forgot to-!”
Cobalt’s cheeks bulged. “Bur-FWOOOOM!”
Rarity felt a blast of heat behind her and her face froze in place as the stench of burnt hair hit her nose.
Spike flinched. “Tie your mane back… ok, ok, before you panic, it’s not that bad!”
Rarity stretched her hooves out and passed the giddy colt to Spike before she took off towards the bathroom at full gallop followed shortly by the sound of a door slamming and a scream of horror.
“Daddy, is mommy gonna be ok?” Lolite asked.
“Yeah, yeah, well actually, I’m not sure.”
After a thorough inspection of her mane, Rarity concluded that the damage done from Cobalt’s flaming burp was negligible, at worst just singed around the edges. Of course Rarity shed some overly dramatic tears and refused to leave the bathroom until she was absolutely certain she was presentable. Rarity returned downstairs and tried to prepare herself before entering the kitchen.
“Hey Rares,” Spike greeted. “Is everything ok? You were upstairs for a while.”
“Yes. Everything is fine,” Rarity said through clenched teeth.
“Err, that’s good. I’m gonna drop Lolite off at school and then Twilight has some work for me to do at the castle. I made you a fresh batch of waffles, and I’ll see you later.” Spike kissed Rarity’s cheek as he walked past her. “Love you.”
Lolite ran up behind Rarity and gave her a hug. “Bye mommy! I’ll see you later!” Lolite grabbed her saddlebag, a wool hat and scarf and left with her father.
Rarity slowly rubbed her cheek where Spike just kissed her. She could feel the heat rising in her face as her heart felt like silk in a soft breeze. He kissed me. Spike actually kissed me. It wasn’t passionate by any sense of the word, but it made Rarity feel weak in the knees nonetheless. She liked it. She really liked it when Spike kissed her. Did she want Spike to kiss her before? Maybe deep down she thought about it. They spent so much time together after all, so it’s normal to think of things like kissing each other. Right?
Rarity shook her head and sighed, she was happy to have some time to herself to try and sort out everything that’s happened and to get some waffles. She didn’t realize how hungry she actually was. As she sat down to eat she noticed Cobalt was still in his high chair.
Rarity’s eyes narrowed on the little colt. “I can’t believe you burp fire. Out of all the things you were to inherit from Spike, it had to be that. You know you almost cost me my mane? You can’t fix manes with magic you know. I learned that the hard way.”
Cobalt just smiled and waved his little hooves.
“…So… you’re my… son, are you?”
Cobalt cooed.
“Is that right to say? I mean, you are my son, at least I think you are, but I’m not really your mother. I can’t be. But I suppose the proof is in the pudding so to speak. Look at me, talking to a foal like he can understand what I’m saying.”
Cobalt tilted his head.
Rarity poked at her waffles, cut herself a piece and ate it. Spike did a terrific job with these. “But you are rather cute. I think I’ll forgive you for almost igniting me this time and at the next feeding I’ll be sure to tie my mane back. I’m sure your sister nearly burnt your real mother to a crisp when she was a foal, wish that weird nut vendor told me that tidbit of information.”
Cobalt began sucking on his little claws.
“Ugh, that nutter! You know she came to my shop last night? She wanted to pay for my work in wishes then the next thing I know, poof, I wake up here in this weird and backwards world, I should’ve taken her bits and be done with it. But nooo, instead she marries me to Spike and throws two foals at me without so much as a list or even a hint of what I’m supposed to do.”
Cobalt drummed on his little tray table.
Rarity sighed, “I’m sorry, that sounded harsh didn’t it? I don’t want you to think that you and your sister are burdens. It’s just a great deal of information to unpack. Me, a mother of two half-dragon foals. I didn’t even think ponies and dragons could have foals. Or are you hatchlings? Did I lay an egg? Why is that my biggest concern? Though I’ll bet that Twilight was excited to hear your mother was pregnant with Lolite. If I know her she probably said something along the lines of, ‘oh my gosh! You and Spike are having foals!? This is amazing! Unprecedented! Too incredible to believe! To think you two can have hybrid foals! I must catalogue this for the good of future scholars and for Equestria!’”
Cobalt clapped his hooves together and seemed fascinated by the very action.
Rarity giggled, “I’ll admit my Twilight impression could use work, but I think I did a fine job. And… it’s not such a bad thing to be married to Spike. It could’ve been worse. That nutter could’ve married me to Prince Blueblood or one of the Flim Flam brothers.” Rarity felt a shiver go down her spine at the thought of being married to one of those louses. “Or Celestia forbid, she could’ve married me to Discord. Wait a tick, that’s it! If anypony can help me get back home, it’s Discord! I have to find him!” Rarity leaped from her seat, excited and hopeful that she thought of a plan to take her home. Then a growl escaped from her stomach and she sat back down.
“After breakfast.”