Rainbow Dash burst through the main doors and landed smoothly on the tile. She paused to briskly straighten her mane with a hoof, pointedly ignored the scowling nurse, and then walked through the hospital and over into Fluttershy's room.
“Hey, Fluttershy,” she said. “Hey, Mac.” She paused as something didn't seem right. The sweat-matted mane, weary smile and beleaguered expression on Fluttershy she could understand, but as for Mac… “What happened to your eye?” she asked.
Mac shrugged innocently.
Rainbow shrugged back and turned towards Fluttershy. “Got your parents. They're on their way.” She looked over at little Fritter, who was all wrapped up and sleeping peacefully against his mother's chest. “Huh. He's cute,” she said, giving him a gentle boop on the nose.
Fluttershy narrowed her eyes, and Rainbow respectfully placed her hoof back on the ground and took a tiny step back. She coughed lightly and continued, “I also ran into Twilight on my way, so she should be here any time now.”
There was a burst of light from under the closed bathroom door, and then there came a surprised squawk and then the sound of a splash.
“Oh, hey!” Rainbow said brightly. “That must be her now!”
There was a sound of air rushing, and then it stopped. Twilight stepped out of the bathroom, the fur around her hooves looking a bit fluffier than usual from the drying spell she had cast. “Hey, Fluttershy,” she said. “Congratulations!” She walked over and stood nearby. “This is far enough away, right? I wouldn’t want to get too close and end up accidentally triggering an instinctive defensive reflex.”
Fluttershy cracked a smile. “You’re fine,” she said. “Say hi to little Fritter.”
Twilight squee'd.
“You didn’t tell me to say hi,” Rainbow complained.
“You already said hi,” Fluttershy pointed out. “With your hoof.”
“Oh. Right.”
“I'm kindof surprised your parents aren't here already,” Twilight commented. “My mom said she'd get on the train the instant Cadence found out she was pregnant.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. Cadence happened to live in a huge castle. She had crashed (pardon the pun) at both the farmhouse and Fluttershy's cottage, and she knew from personal experience that there was not room for two pegasi nobles and their egos in either location.
“Oh, I don't mind,” Fluttershy said, shaking her head slightly. “They never visit unannounced anymore.”
Twilight cocked her head. “Why not?”
Fluttershy and Macintosh locked eyes, and both blushed as a memory surfaced.
Macintosh couldn't keep the smile off his face. It had been nearly a month, and every time still felt like the first time. Without, of course, the awkwardness that had accompanied that first encounter.
And in his defense, he had apologized profusely and hadn't done it again.
He shook off that memory and continued his work. He wiped the knife off and placed it in the sink. His and Fluttershy's post-coitus sandwiches were complete and perfect, hers crustless like she liked them and his toasted like he liked it. He cracked a smile as he picked up the plate and was entertaining the thought that he might have to actually feed her the sandwich when the doorbell rang.
Mac paused. He looked down at their lunch, then up towards the door. Family would just burst right in, so it wasn't them… His eyes widened in understanding. It might have been one of her deliveries. Fluttershy had sometimes put Sweet Apple Acres as her mailing address, and they had started getting things like bulk birdseed at the most random of times.
He set down the plate, walked over to the door, and opened it, expecting to see a mail pony. Instead, he saw two very familiar looking pegasi: Fluttershy's parents.
Mac gulped. “Mr. Death Herald Firestorm,” he said as politely as he could. “Mrs. Lightning-Force Hoofstrike.”
“Oh, Macintosh,” said Death Herald, “surely we know each other better than that? Call me Herald.” He walked past Mac and began looking around, peering at the plates on the wall. “Where is our mighty Warbringer?”
Mac is good at many things. Deflection is not one of them. “Uh…”
“She's not sick or anything, is she? No groundpounding flu or anything like that?”
“Herald!” his wife scolded.
“It's a legitimate question,” Herald protested. “Down here there might be other diseases we haven't learned of. After all, there's diseases we have that they don't, like the feather flu.” He paused. “What's the earth pony equivalent for that? Hoof flu?”
“We all have hooves, you dolt,” Lightning-Force hissed. She turned to Macintosh and gave a little apologetic smile. “He's not so good with different cultures,” she explained. “Took me a while to convince him the ground wasn’t going to burn him.”
Mac could only nod. He knew he had probably been insulted somewhere in all that, but currently he couldn't care less about that.
“Where is our Warbringer, anyway?” she asked.
Macintosh quickly tried to think of a plan to stall them. The best thing his still slightly addled brain could come up with was 'knock them both out with the rolling pin', so, accepting defeat, he chuckled nervously and turned. “Ah'll go get her,” he said.
As he climbed the stairs, Herald turned to Lightning-Force. “Do you think Bri is happy here?” he asked. “I mean, Macintosh certainly seems like a good stallion, of course; but sometimes I wonder if she would be happier with her… own kind.” He flared his wings demonstratively.
Lightning-Force opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, the sound of a door shutting (not exactly common in Cloudsdale) made them quickly look up to the top of the stairs. Fluttershy slowly limped down the stairs. Her forelegs moved slightly quicker than her rear legs, her wings were stuck in a sort of half-extension mode, her eyes appeared to be the slightest bit unfocused, her ears were down and relaxed, and her cheeks still bore a pink blush.
Her father's eyes widened as he recognized that look. His daughter bore the look of a freshly-rutted mare who had just had the time of her life.
Lightning-Force recognized it, too, and burst out laughing. “D- does that answer your question?” she asked, not even trying to suppress her laughter.
Mac winced as her father looked over at him. It was a pained, conflicted expression, one where two emotions were fighting for dominance. First was pride, that a fellow stallion had managed to so thoroughly please his mare. The conflict came because it was his daughter who had been so—to use a crude earth pony term—plowed.
Lightning-Force held a wing out invitingly. “Looks like he's been treating you right,” she said, hiding her mouth behind a hoof.
Fluttershy blushed bright red. “Mac has been very good to me,” she said softly.
“Looks like he'll be good to us, too,” Lightning-Force laughed. “We might have a new heir coming soon!” She smacked Fluttershy's flank with a wing, and she squeaked and clamped her rear legs together.
It didn't quite work as well as she'd hoped.
Herald looked away, and tinges of red colored his cheeks. “We'll definitely call before we come next time,” he murmured.
“They just don't,” Fluttershy said.
Mac grinned sheepishly.
Luckily, they were spared the need for further explanation when the door opened again and two large pegasi walked in.
“Warbringer! We came as soon as we heard,” Lightning-Force said, sprinting over to Fluttershy. She brushed Fritter’s mane out of his face and squee’d.
This was enough for Fritter, and he woke up, squinting and squirming as he tried to figure out what that noise was.
The noise came again as Lightning-Force saw two little bumps rise and fall against the back of the blanket. “He’s a pegasus!”
Accepting the inevitable, Fluttershy gently held out Fritter and gave him to her mother.
Lightning-Force gleefully took him and rocked him gently as Herald stood behind her. Fritter freed a hoof and poked it out of the blankets, reaching for her nose. Overcome by this, she set him on the bed and unwrapped him. Fritter took a couple unsteady steps, but straightened up, looking at both his maternal grandparents with innocent curiosity.
“He's a big colt,” she said.
“And look at those wings! He'll grow up to be a mighty warrior, indeed.” Herald turned to Fluttershy. “What have you named him?”
“Fritter,” she responded.
Herald frowned. “Fritter? Like the carnival food?”
Fluttershy smiled and shook her head. “Fritter means tearing into shreds or little pieces.” She looked over at Twilight and smiled, and Twilight winked back. Sometimes owning three dictionaries was helpful.
Mollified, Herald nodded appreciatively. “Strong name for a strong colt.” He looked over at Macintosh again. He coughed lightly and muttered, “good job, son,” before hefting his grandfoal again.
Mac exhaled slightly. He’d been a bit nervous about making a good impression, and it sounded like they had approved.
And also it was oddly satisfying to see two grown pegasi giggling like little schoolfillies over something.
Discord burst into the hospital with a colossal, “I have arrived!”, bearing a large basket of flowers and a somewhat out of place heart-shaped box of chocolate. This probably would have been expected, had he actually used a door. Instead, he walked in from a panel in the ceiling, and saying Mac jumped would be an understatement.
Discord bowed. “Friends always seem to show up at the most awkward times, after all.” He paused. “What's with the black eye?”
Mac rubbed his face tenderly. “Let's just say Fluttershy don't know her own strength sometimes,” he said.
Discord cooed. “Aww, that's my little Fluttershutter… Where is she, anyway?” he asked.
“Sleepin',” Mac said, jerking his head towards her door. “She's tough; she's not invincible. As soon as her parents left, she was out.”
“So…?” Discord nudged him. “What came out of the wunderball?”
Mac grinned. “Pegasus colt.”
Discord held out a paw and Mac bumped it. “Congratulations, Mac!” he said.
“Thanks,” Mac said. Perhaps he’d misjudged Discord. He certainly seemed to be genuinely excited for them.
Discord paused. “Oh, and I took the liberty of sharing your success with some other ponies, and they came to say hello as well. That's what friends do, right? Celebrate each other's success?”
For some reason, that sounded oddly foreboding. “E- eeyup; but…”
Discord opened the door and Mac's jaw dropped as he saw what looked like a parade of ponies, most of them carrying something that looked like gifts. At the front of the pack stood Bon Bon, a smile on her face and a beautifully wrapped box of chocolate hanging from a string in her mouth. He could also see a very angry Applejack, or rather her hat, jumping above the crowd trying to see a path through.
Mac gulped. If he looked closely, he could almost see the steam rising from her ears.
“On second thought, it might not have been the best idea to invite everypony,” Discord reflected. “Maybe it's for the best they're not here for me, you know?”
“But-” Mac started.
“Toodles!” Discord walked over to a broom closet and opened it, revealing a snowy land peppered with huge peppermint canes that served as trees and bushes. He slammed the door behind him.
Mac looked back at Bon Bon. She put on a most hopeful smile.
'Sometimes I really hate that guy,' Mac thought.
“Yeah, I saw him,” Snails said happily. “He was cute.”
The pegasus exhaled. Ok. Male. There's one thing. He waited, then gestured impatiently. “And?”
“He was real small,” Snails recalled, “but he had a really thick mane.”
The pegasus suppressed a groan. He'd chosen this unicorn to be his spy because he looked somewhat dense. As it turned out, he was very dense, almost stupidly so, and he was somewhat regretting this decision. “And was it a pegasus or a m- earth pony?”
“Pegasus!” Snails remembered.
The pegasus grinned. Perfect. “That’s all I needed.” He spread his wings and began to fly away.
“Hey, wasn't I supposed to get an ice cream?” Snails protested.
“The only thing I'd give you is a shoe to the face, bonehead!” he called over his shoulder.
“Well, that's not very nice,” Snails murmured. “Now I don't even want your crummy ice cream!” He thrust his nose in the air and stomped away. His indignant departure was somewhat marred when he tripped over a rock and fell face first onto the ground, but he quickly picked himself up and continued stomping away.