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.”