//------------------------------//
// I 
// Story: Rebirth 
// by The-Pony-Librarian 
//------------------------------//

Twilight took a deep breath, counting the minutes between the painful jolts, Spike stood beside her, gripping her hoof almost tighter that the knots in her chest. 
"Weak, irregular contractions, it's probably false labor," she repeated for the umpteenth time in that hour. She had experienced a similar scare a few days ago and nothing had come of it, but nevertheless, she could still feel a fluttering anxiety building inside of her. Then another throb came, stronger, about a minute long, only four minutes after the last one. Twilight waited, tail twitching nervously. Three minutes later, another. 
Then another. Twilight gave a sharp, surprised hiss through gritted teeth.
"Or..." She interjected, voice hitching up another anxious notch. "Maybe not."
Twilight was suddenly very thankful that for her foresight in preparing a pain potion a week previously. She looked up at Spike, whose expression was mirroring her own nerves tenfold.
"Really? How do you feel? Are you okay? Do you need something?" All these were spouted from the young dragon's mouth in quick succession, accompanied by wringing claws and lashing tail. "Has...Has your water broken?"
Accompanying this question was a look of such absurdly profound terror that Twilight might have chuckled if she wasn't too busy trying not to fling out a stream of profanities.
"Yes. Kind of crappy. Yes. Not at the momen-" Twilight winced. "On second thought, bring the potion."
As Spike hurried out the door , she added wryly "and no, my water hasn't broken. Trust me, you would know"
She looked out the window, watching as the sun slid slowly down the horizon, and, despite the pain, managed a fond smile as she placed a gentle hoof on her belly. It was going to be a long night.

One Month



For the first few weeks after their birth. Twilight found herself compulsively checking if her friends children the girls were still alive. Guided by a deep paranoid fear, almost without realizing it, she would end up walking soft stepped through their room, placing a light hoof on each sleeping pastel colored chest, barely breathing until she felt the last reassuring heartbeat. The rare times when they were all asleep and quiet were stripped of even brief relaxation by the crippling dread that the elements were silent for an altogether darker reason.
The first time all of them slept through the night had been the most terrifying morning of her life. For the next hour she stayed in the room, using her magic to hold the girls against her, feeling the five pulses against her own. Spike had given her a weird look. She hadn't cared.
Thankfully, the busy kept away the fear most of the time. Each of her new old friends had their own quirks and personalities, and they were clearly evident even as young foals. At a month old, Rainbow Dash was already a master crib, swaddling, and diaper escape artist. Rarity possessed the ability to put out eardrums when she screamed and used it liberally. Applejack would put absolutely anything she could find, including carpet, into her mouth. Fluttershy would start bawling if not within at least twelve feet of Twilight at all times. Pinkie Pie, while hardly ever crying, had the uncanny talent for appearing in places she shouldn't, like the wine cellar. Twilight still didn't know how she managed to get herself down there.
It was the happiest she'd been in years.
Twilight admitted to having possessed the tendency, especially in her more cynical recent years, to scoff at sexual reproduction, and the subsequent offspring produced by it, being referred to as a miracle. It was nature, a trait made to increase genetic variation, to pass along genes, to further the species, no more miraculous than a cell dividing itself in two. It was just that, in fact, only over and over and over again. Looking at Pinkie, however, looking at Rarity, Rainbow, AJ, and Shy gave her a change of heart.
They were miraculous. More miraculous that the wings on her back or the fact that she hadn't aged a day in over three centuries. They were perfect miracles.
Rambunctious perfect miracles.
"Rainbow!" Twilight called out enticingly, taking careful steps around the gigantic bath-recently converted to changing-room "Come on out! Come on out for Twily!"
Held aloft in her magic, carefully hidden behind her back was a diaper. Getting one on the pegasus foal always required the utmost stealth.  A well matched battle against two old foes, one armed with magic, the other, pure speed.
"Come on Rainbow...I know you're there."
"NYAAAAHHH!" Came a defiant cry from an unknown corner, which Twilight could only presume to mean something like "Diapers are for the weak!" "Bring it, Purple!" Or, if you construed a slightly more hostile tone to the shriek: "Death to the overlord!"
Crouching down, Twilight crept stealthily against a dark, wooden shelf, fully stocked with every imaginable changing supply. With lighting speed, she snuck her head around its corner, bringing herself face to face with a large pair of mischevious magenta eyes. Before Rainbow could dart away another time, she was gently scooped up in a bright ball of magic. 
A few minutes later, toting a newly diapered and swaddled Rainbow Dash in her telekinesis,Twilight trotted into the main portion of the castle, complete with a little living room, a warm kitchen, comfortable wooden flooring supplemented with a few area rugs, and many, many bookshelves. She had completely demolished the interior of the private upper floors of her castle on an impulse and redone it in a much more homey style about twenty or so decades ago. Good Press, the mare set in change of her public image in the aftermath of an unfortunate incident involving a news interview, an extremely derogatory comment, and (subsequently) a chair hurled at a wall with lethal force, had been horrified at the plebeian decor of course. However, her contemptful remarks during the renovation process, meticulously done presentations on more "Princess like" designs for the new upper area, and passive-aggressive comments every time Twilight was required to invite her to visit, were not enough to persuade the alicorn to give a flying feather.
Sometimes you reach a certain point where you are absolutely certain that if you see one more Celestia damned crystal column you will throw up everywhere.
The lower floor rooms, the ball room, entryway...throne room...having been open to visitors, had remained in their original states, but Twilight had figured her private floors were to do with as she pleased.
She had attended the funeral of Good Press one hundred and sixty years ago.
Twilight trotted over to her window seat, a soft cushioned wooden lid that opened to a small storage compartment containing her favorite books, overlooking the entirety of Ponyville, and cradled Rainbow Dash in her forelegs bouncing the filly gently. Out the window lay all of her once-small town, now sporting buildings taller than old-day Manehattan's. Just like Canterlot before it, the presence of a princess had transformed it into a bustling city, scarcely a trace of the original earth-pony architecture left, save the old town district surrounding Sugar Cube corner, filled with eclectic shops. Twilight hadn't gone to old town in over forty years. The familiar was more painful than the different.
As Twilight rocked Rainbow, humming softly, the filly slowly stopped squirming and her breaths slowly settled into the rythym of sleep. It was strange, the conflicting images of her friends in her mind. The old memories, half buried by time, but still strong as steel, of Rainbow Dash the brash athlete, the jokester against the new memories and experiences of Rainbow Dash the absconder of cribs. Sometimes she felt like she could almost sense the pictures of their faces in their mind fading, being layered over with these new ones like fresh paint.
After putting Dash to bed in her crib beside those of the other sleeping elements, Twilight returned to the window seat. They were all asleep, so, for the time being, she could take a brief rest. Even with she stamina of an Alicorn, five days awake could take a toll on anypony.
Leaning against the window, glass warm where the sun struck the pane, Twilight gazed outside, eyes slowly drifting downward across Ponyville, to her castle courtyard-
Twilight's eyes shot wide open.
Celestia. Luna. The protection spells would be useless. At least one hundred gaurds. Enough to take down a dragon. 
Her mind seemed to go into slow motion, thousands of thoughts racing though her head. Each of them passing through her mind in the instant it took for her wings to snap outwards, the little gust of wind created ruffling her mane. The visitor bell was ringing. Spike always answered the door. He was downstairs. She had seconds, maybe less.
Get the girls and get to Spike. Twilight took a step forward. Then get out. Another step. Get as far away as possible. She paused, lit up her horn. Galloping would be too slow.
Celestia couldn't have them.
One second
In a flash of light, Twilight appeared the girls room, scooping each filly up in her magic. Her eyes darted to the supplies around the room. She could need them. Lips pursed. No time. She blinked to the second floor balcony over looking the entryway, glanced down at the foals in her magic.
Pinkie Pie was waking up. She stretched out a curious hoof, wide blue eyes blinking as they shook off sleep, tiny pink face scrunching up slightly as her eyes traveled the scene, as if unsure whether or not it warranted crying or not. She made a burbling noise, apparently deciding to save her cries until more information could be gathered, then looked to Twilight inquisitively, stretching both hooves towards her, a giggle escaping her mouth.
Twilight looked away. No time. Spike's claw was on the door.
Two seconds
Another blink. Directly next to Spike. The doorknob turned. 
Arm still opening the door, Spike turned to her, expression morphing into one of abject perplexment. As she watched his brows furrowed down, green eyes squinting in consternation. He dropped his grip on the doorknob as he turned to look at her more fully, leaving it to swing slowly open. She looked back up at him, expression wild, wings flared, the girls floating beside her in bubbles of magic. His muzzle wrinkled slightly, head tilting to the side like a confused dog mouth opening to form a single confused syllable.
"Twi?"
Teleporting six ponies and a dragon would be strenuous. 
Spike's gaze flicked back to the door, eyes widening in surprise.
Three seconds
She could do it.
The last thing Twilight saw before her surroundings disappeared from around her was Celestia's face, gazing in astonishment at the five infants floating her magic.
Then she was gone.