After discovering her beginning pregnancy that came from her mating with Spike, she was really looking forward to finding out what she was going to have. But at the same time, she was a bit worried of the road ahead of her. The thought of giving birth to a newborn foal was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. But she did her best to hide her fright most of of the time; especially around Spike. Speaking of… Spike still couldn’t fully make out of how he felt about becoming a daddy. He always thought that he wouldn’t be one for a long time. But he still kept his nerves under control and accepted his fate. No matter how bad things could get, he chose to not abandon Apple Bloom… for healthful reasons, but also because he truly did love Apple Bloom… whether he got her pregnant or not.
It’s now halfway into the week until Apple Bloom’s next appointment to see the reveal of her future foal’s gender; she was excited. Now late in the morning of that day… Apple Bloom was on her way to meet with with her friends down at Sugar Cube Corner. She was proudly just walking along showing off what she had on board. But suddenly, she came across a couple of fillies that were glad to finally to see her… for the most part.
“Well well, if it isn’t the filly pregger of Ponyville. Nice little belly you got there.”
“Oh, hey, Diamond Tiara,” Apple Bloom said with a smile, “Thanks for the compliment. Wait a minute... you were bein’ sarcastic just now, weren’t ya?”
“Ya think.”
“Come on, Tiara, be nice to her," said Silver Spoon, "In truth, we’re both actually amazed and a bit jealous of what happened to you. Mating with Spike must have been something else.”
“Oh, it sure was," said Apple Bloom with a sly smirk, "But… how did you two know about it?”
Diamond Tiara arched her brow thinking that she was joking. “You’re kidding, right? Its was like the most talked about article in the Ponyville News Press about three days ago." She then took out a newspaper from a bag she was wearing and dropped it down in front of Apple Bloom to prove it to her, "Unless you had your head stuck under a rock, you would’ve easily known about it.”
Apple Bloom saw a picture of herself and another of Spike on the paper's front page that said... 'Surprising pregnancy makes country filly and dragon resident become parents!' It then went on to explaining more detail on the subject. She tilted her head feeling a bit impressed on how fast the news had spread.
“Huh… so that’s what those mysterious flashes that I saw that other day were. At least they got my good side.”
“A foal from a pony and a dragon," said Silver Spoon imagining in her head, "I wonder how that’s going look like?”
“I don’t know," said Apple Bloom as she wagged her tail, "but I’m pretty excited myself… if not a bit nervous.” But she then became curious of what those two did during her... event. “So what about you two? Did any of ya’ll have some fun during that heat season?”
Tiara chose to not say a word, but Silver Spoon decided to. “I didn’t, but I like heard that Tiara here got it on with somepony.”
“Silver Spoon!" Tiara shouted, "Tell my business why don’t ya!”
“Well… she asked.”
Apple Bloom had a low-eyed expression on her face smiling and looking at Tiara as she asked, “Dare I ask who the lucky colt is?”
Tiara just sighed as she rolled her eyes and admitted, “Just some... random pony I hardly like knew. He came by me, I was desperate, he was interested, and my Dad was nowhere around to stop us; so… we did it. B-b-but at least I didn’t get pregnant like you did.”
Apple Bloom chuckled and held her stomach while saying, “Hey, Ah didn’t say anythang. Congrats on your newfound experience.” She then looked up at the town clocktower and saw the time. Gasping, she got a bit frantic. “Oh, Ah got to get goin’; Ah’m meetin’ with the other crusaders at Sugar Cube Corner.” She then waved back at Silver Spoon and Tiara as she walked off, “It was nice running into you two.”
Silver Spoon smirked at Tiara and told her, “I think you could’ve made a great Mother.”
“Oh be quiet,” Tiara groaned.
--------
Apple Bloom successfully made her way to Sugar Cube Corner where her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were waiting for her just outside the doors. Though she was glad to spend more time with her friends, she was a bit oblivious of why they were really there.
“Apple Bloom, you’ve made it!” Sweetie Belle shouted.
“Well of course Ah did! You girls called and Ah came! By the way, what’s the occasion besides hangin’ out with mah best fillyfriends?”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each with slightly troublesome looks. Then they placed smiles back on their faces as they looked back at their friend; and Scootaloo said, “Well… we sorta heard from a few ponies about females becoming pregnant and going into parenthood. We wanted to do something big with you before you have to stop… you know… hanging out with us a lot.”
“Wut are you girls talking about?” Apple Bloom retorted, “What makes you think that we’re going hang out less after I have this baby?”
“The responsibilities!” Sweetie Belle responded, “Everypony knows that having a baby is a big responsibility and can take away a lot of free time for other things! We should have as much fun together as we can before that happens!”
Apple Bloom chuckled a bit from how worried her friends were about her situation thinking it wasn’t that serious, “Come on, girls, yer overreacting about this whole thing. Baby or not, we’ll still be able to spend many times with each other… just with a few distractions. But anyway, lets go in here and hang out a bit anyway.”
“That’s all we ask,” said Scootaloo.
The three teenage fillies walked inside of the shop with a bell ringing to announce their arrival. As they walked up to the front counter, they were greeted with the female owner of the building, Mrs. Cake.
“Good morning, girls,” she said; and then smirked at Apple Bloom, “and… Mother to be.”
“Nice to see you too, Mrs. Cake,” said Apple Bloom with an arched eyebrow.
Mrs. Cake chuckled slightly feeling a bit embarassed of her behavior, “S-sorry, I can’t help but feel a bit excited when a pony I know becomes a Mother… you know.”
“Ah understand. And don’t worry, Ah’m getting used to these many different reactions of me being pregnant.”
Sweetie Belle smiled and patted Apple Bloom on her back, “But it definitely helps that she mated with a Dragon though.”
“Oh yes,” said Mrs. Cake thinking about Spike, “how is the young dragon by the way?”
“He’s doin’ alright. He still has a long way to go before he gets over the realization of becomin’ a Father. But other than that, he’s dealin’ with the situation much better than he was before. He’ll be fine in the end; just ya wait and see.”
“That is wonderful to hear,” Mrs. Cake responded, “So… what will you girls like to order?”
“I’ll just have a couple of blueberry cookies, please,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Oh, I’ll take one of those awesome rainbow berry danishes!” said Scootaloo.
And knowing of why the girls were here in her family’s house in the first place, she asked Apple Bloom again, “And what will you have, Apple Bloom? Don’t be picky, just choose anything you want.”
Apple Bloom thought about it for a second and then had a interesting idea, “Well… you know how Ah always have a hankerin’ for a slice of yer apple spice pie.”
Mrs. Cake smiled and nodded, “Heh, I completely understand.”
“Yep, so Ah’ll take 3 slices please!”
Suddenly, the whole room went silent as Mrs. Cake and Apple Bloom’s friends froze in shock staring at her. Mrs. Cake hesitantly told her, “Um… a-a-are you sure about that?”
“Don’t worry, Ah have the bits right here.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant exactly. You usually ask for one slice of this since its so filling for you, and sometimes two i want to challenge yourself. So… are you sure about asking for three?”
Apple Bloom looked at her, as well as her two friends, and she just calmly said, “Sure, Ah just feel really hungry right now fer some reason.”
Mrs. Cake still wasn’t sure about Apple Bloom’s request, but then she realized the possibility of her sudden growth of hunger and sighed as she said, “Well… okay then. I’ll be right back with your treats.”
After Mrs. Cake went to the back, Sweetie Belle whispered into Scootaloo’s ears while smirking, “And so it begins.”
“What do you mean by that?” Scootaloo whispered back.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of little hooves coming from upstairs. The crusaders saw the Cake’s twin daughter, Pumpkin Cake rushing out from the bottom of the stairs only dive down upon from behind by her twin brother, Pound Cake. He gave her a little tap as he went by and smiled proudly as he landed down.
“Hey! No fair, Pound!” Pumpkin shouted, “You can't use your wings like that on me; that's cheating!”
“Well that's what you get for using magic on me before;" said Pound, "that's cheating also.”
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Is not!"
Their Mother suddenly heard from the other room and poked her head out to glare at them, “Pumpkin and Pound Cake! What did I tell you two about playing tag in the house?!”
"He/she started it!" both Twins shouted while pointing at each other.
"I don't care who started it! If the two of you don't calm down and keep on like this, so help me... I will have your Father deal with you when he comes back from his delivery! Is that clear?!"
Both twins were now suddenly frighten in respect of their Mother. They both sat up straight and bowed their head while saying, "Y-yes mam'; we're sorry!"
"Thank you," said Mrs. Cake, "Now please behave yourselves; we have a few guest that we're serving."
After their Mother went back to the previous room she was in, Pumpkin and Pound both gasped upon seeing who sitting at the front counter.
"Ooh; look, Pound,” said Pumpkin excitedly, “its the Crusaders! Hey guys!"
Apple Bloom was still smiling of amusement of seeing those two being talked down to by their Mother; but she just waved back saying, "Hey, Pumpkin; hey, Pound. Nice to see ya two."
"And don't you two look as cute and adorable as ever," said Sweetie Belle.
The brother, Pound Cake, suddenly went up to Scootaloo jumping up and down and said, "Hey, uh... Miss Scootaloo, have I ever told you of how awesome I think you and Miss Rainbow Dash are?!"
"Heh, only like a million times," Scootaloo replied while scratching her head and awkwardly smiling.
"Oooooh,” said Sweetie Belle as she lightly elbow Scootaloo on her side smirking, “looks like someone has a little foalhood crush on a couple of ponies."
"Oh knock it off, will you;"Scootaloo chuckled, "he's just idolizing us. He's 6, so its not like he understands love crushes."
Pumpkin Cake then went up to Apple Bloom seeing her slightly bulging belly and asked, "So, Miss Apple Bloom, was what we've heard of around town true; are you going to be a mommy?"
“Yeah, that’s right. Exciting, huh?”
“Do you know if its a boy yet?" questioned Pound, "I pretty sure that its a boy. Boy foals are better!"
"Nuh uh," said Pumpkin, "I think its a girl; it will be better if its a girl. Boys are gross and smell weird."
"Hey! We're not that gross. Besides, girls can be gross too."
"He is kinda right," Scootaloo admitted, "we girls can be a little gross too. Just ask Apple Bloom and yours truly."
"Really?" said Pumpkin, "What have you've done that could possibly be gross?"
"Well... I held bugs, played in the dirt and mud, scratched my flank, picked my nose..."
Suddenly, Apple Bloom burped out loud again shocking everyone around her.
"... that."
"Ew!" said Pumpkin in slight disgust.
Pound however started giggling loudly finding Apple Bloom's belch hilarious, "That was great! I told you, Sis; I told you! Do again, Miss Apple Bloom!"
Scootaloo just looked over at Pumpkin with a smirk and said, "Need I go on?"
Deciding to not argue against it anymore, Pumpkin just nervously answered, “Uh… no mam'; I'm good." Then she looked back over at Apple Bloom and stated, "But anyway, I’ve already decided that when I grow up, one day... I want to become a great Mom like me and Pounds’; and I’m sure that you’ll be a great Mother too.”
Apple Bloom felt really proud hearing a younger filly complimenting her, and she just gave a little noogie on her head, “Why thanks, kid; and vice versa.”
"Hey, Pumpkin!” Pound shouted out from the front door, “Wanna play tag outside!? And no cheating this time."
Pumpkin smirked at her brother feeling egged on, "Okay, I don't need my magic to beat you anyway!” She then waved at the other as she followed after her brother, “Bye!"
"Those two really are cute and fun to have around,” said Apple Bloom to her friends, “Mr. and Mr. Cake are lucky to have them?"
“Yeah,” Scootaloo scoffed, “but I’m pretty sure that they’re a handful to deal with; something else for you to look forward to.”
“Heh… yeah.”
Pretty soon, Mrs. Cake came back out into the room pushing a cart that had the dishes that each crusader ordered. “Your orders are ready, girls! Blueberry cookies for Sweetie Belle, a large-sized rainbow berry danish for Scootaloo, and… these... for Apple Bloom.”
As Mrs. Cake sat the dish in front of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at it with questionable looks; and Sweetie Belle asked her, “Wow, that’s a lot. Are you sure you can handle it, A.B.?”
“Ya darn right Ah can!" shouted Apple Bloom with confidence, "Mah appetite can handle anythang!"
And as they began to eat, Mrs. Cake just went on her way cleaning up around the shop, “Well… I’ll leave yo girls to this while I clean up around here.”
But then... thinking about the Cake twins and what Scootaloo said, Apple Bloom paused in her eating and said, “Hey, uh… Mrs. Cake?”
“Yes, Apple Bloom?” she said turning back around to the older fillies.
“Ah was thinkin’… since you are married and have become a Mother of two foals, do ya… have any possible Motherly advice for me?”
Mrs. Cake was suddenly at a loss for words. She wasn’t exactly expecting Apple Bloom to ask her this sort of question. “O-oh, you’re asking m-me for advice? I’m flattered.”
“Yeah, tell me... how hard was it raisin’ a foal from birth let alone two.”
Mrs. Cake didn’t think that she was a pure mother expert just yet but she figured that she had enough experience to give some pointers, “Well… it was definitely unexpected to say the least. Seeing that both Carrot and I are both Earth ponies, yet we somehow were able to conceive a unicorn and a pegasus. How Carrot explained it still confuses me a bit.”
“Us too,” all crusaders agreed.
As Mrs. Cake kept talking and the others were listening in, Apple Bloom kept lightly, but rapidly eating her cake slices.
“But in any case, it didn’t change of how much we loved them of course, and we were going to do all that we could to the best of our abilities raise them; with a bit of help from Pinkie Pie too.”
“So... raising them was not easy?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Far from it. Those two always seem to keep us on our toes at all times. The only main time they didn’t is when they’re asleep, and even then you have to be ready in case they wake up. But things got even more complicated when those two started to tap into their abilities. I think it started when Pinkie babysat them for the first time. Pound flying up in hard to reach places, Pumpkin phasing through things and always getting loose. And every once in a while, Pumpkin would have had a burst of magic accidentally… and what happened each time was always random. It was kinda hectic.”
“O-o-oh… wow,” said Apple Bloom hesitantly, “It must have been very hard for you two… and Pinkie.”
“Oh, but don’t worry,” Mrs. Cake chuckled, “I’m sure you don’t have to put up with what we had; that’s just our life. But despite everything, we were very happy. We love our children very much and always wanted what’s best for them.”
Apple Bloom understood where Mrs. Cake was coming from with her explanation, but now she wanted to make sure of what it was exactly that she had to do. “So… what can Ah possibly do to become a good Mother?”
“Well first off, learn to say no. Carrot and I learned the hard way that if you always give in to the demands of your children, they’ll just become spoiled and walk all over you.”
“Ooh, that makes sense,” said Sweetie Belle, “My Mom said that she had the same experience with Rarity; heh heh… and me.”
“Well, we all had our rebellious moments, Sweetie Belle,” Mrs. Cake admitted, “That’s just part of growing up. But next, Apple Bloom, do whatever it takes to keep them away from bad influences. Well… maybe not whatever it takes, but do what you can. I’m sure you already know what it like when children pick up bad behavior; it can cause major stress and tension between the child and parents. So unless you don’t care what your child learns, you must be careful of what you do, where you go and what you say with your child around.”
Suddenly Scootaloo bit her tongue while eating her danish and shouted in pain, “Ah! Celestia damnit; I bit my tongue.”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle widen their eyes at their pegasus friend, and Mrs. Cake lowered her eyes and stated, “Kinda like that.”
Scootaloo blushed and chuckled nervously, “Heh... thorry.”
“And... last, but most important thing about being a Mother… at least to me is… always, and I mean always… be there your child… no matter what.”
“That sounds deep,” said Apple Bloom.
“And I mean it too. Most parents really care about what happens to their children and do all they can to support them. If they’re happy, be happy for them. If they’re sad, comfort them. And if they’re angry or upset, don’t scold them or complain about their behavior… but try and understand what they’re going through and work things out t the best of your abilities. Try all of these methods, and I’m sure that you’ll make a good Mother.”
Hearing all of what Mrs. Cake had to say about Motherhood, Apple Bloom started to have second thoughts of everything she was thinking of. “Wow. Bein’ a Mother really is challenging… not that Ah thought that it wasn’t.”
“I never knew parents had to go through so much,” said Scootaloo with some concern, “Are you sure you’re ready for this, Apple Bloom?”
“Of course Ah am; but… Ah guess Ah was being too excited and just didn’t understand just how important being a Mother was. Ah guess now Ah know how Spike feels; he probably knew of this sort of thang before Ah did.”
Just then, Scootaloo’s eyes wide and she gasped as she shouted, “Hey, check it out! Apple Bloom finished all three slices of pie! No way!”
“Huh?!” said Sweetie Belle staring at Apple Bloom’s empty plate.
“Whoa,” said Mrs. Cake seeing the evidence herself.
Apple Bloom was a bit surprised herself. She just kept eating while listening to Mrs. Cake’s advice completely oblivious that she had already finished. “Heh… see, Ah told you Ah was hungry.”
“W-w-well anyway,” said Mrs. Cake, “don’t be worried; you’ll be just fine. You and Spike together will bring great joy to this foal because both of you are kind and caring. As long as you both do your part, you’ll survive… trust me.”
Suddenly, Apple Bloom released a huge… “BRAAAAAAAAAP!!!” and then covered her mouth while blushing from embarrassment, “Um, mah compliments to the chef?”
“Oh my…” Mrs. Cake chuckled, “I guess I should be flattered.”
“Kinda gross… but impressive,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Well, thank you for this talk,” said Apple Bloom, “It definitely helped me understand more of what Ah gotten myself into. Ah’ll be sure to inform Spike on this.”
“You’re very welcome, dear. But… speaking of Spike, there is another perk of being pregnant and giving birth. The husband usually has to do all of the heavy lifting while you laze around.”
Mrs. Cake and Apple Bloom gave each other little sly faces; and Apple Bloom chuckled slightly, “Ooh, heh… somethang to look forward to.”
Just then, all of them heard a loud *BOOM* sound that almost shook the house and scared all of them half to death.
“Dear lord; what was that?!” shouted Mrs. Cake.
Suddenly, Pound nervously walked in from the front door and said, “Um, Mom… I’m afraid that your flower bed is… um, a bit wrecked.”
“I didn’t do it!” shouted Pumpkin from a distance.
Still sporting wide eyes, the crusaders looked over at Mrs. Cake to see how she reacted. She just slightly smiled and told them, “*sigh* Kids… what are you going to do.”
--------
It finally came to that time of the week for Apple Bloom’s 2nd appointment at the Ponyville’s Health and Care Center to find out what gender her newborn was going to be; that is… if she wanted to know. She went there while accompanied by her Big Sister, Applejack and of course, Spike. Nurse Rhyme along with Nurse Redheart accompanied Apple Bloom through the test process, and then left her with Applejack and Spike in a separate room while they went to discover the results. When they came to them, they gave Apple Bloom the big decision.
“Well, Apple Bloom,” said Nurse Rhyme, “the time has come… for the reveal of your foal’s gender that is.”
“We can tell you what it is,” said Redheart, “but only if you wish to know what it is now. Heh, we have to ask that to every mare that becomes pregnant, you know.”
Apple Bloom became a bit nervous not sure if she was ready to know yet months before her birth date. But she had already talked it over with Spike who was still a bit nervous himself. He just smiled and nodded his head as Apple Bloom turned back to the two nurses and said…
“Well… Spike and Ah talked it over, and we decided that… we would… love to know… what Ah’m havin’.”
Applejack, though still not proud of what her young sister did, couldn’t help but smile and shed a small tear drop seeing how she was taking responsibility.
"Okay then,” said Nurse Rhyme smirking a bit, “congratulations! You’re having... Twins."
"What?!" shouted Applejack.
Both Apple Bloom and Spike froze and almost fell over each other while shouting, "TWINS!!!?"
"Nah, I'm only kidding. But I got you though, didn’t I?”
Redheart smirked while shaking her head.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!” shouted Spike in panic, “My heart literally leapt in my stomach!"
"Sorry; I tend to mess a little with some of my patients every once in a while."
"As long as its not something that will endanger her job," Nurse Redheart added.
"So... they're not havin' twins, right?" Applejack asked unsurely.
"No,” said Nurse Rhyme, “but they are having a baby boy."
A huge sigh of relief came out of Apple Bloom and Spike feeling a bit comfortable of Nurse Rhyme lying.
"A boy, huh?” said Spike nervously, “Okay, I can live with that."
"But you would’ve lived if it was a girl too, right?" said Apple Bloom.
"O-of course! I was just being happy of having one boy instead of twins is all."
"Just checkin'."
"Congratulations, you two,” said Applejack placing her hoof around her sister, “Now you know what to expect. Just wait until Big Mac hears that he'll be gettin' a nephew; he'll be so happy."
"Ah bet he will," said Apple Bloom.
"So... anything any of you want to say or ask?"
Suddenly, Spike marched right over to Nurse Rhyme with smoke coming from his nostrils and his claw pointing at her. "Yeah. Scare me like that again, and I will hurt you."
"Whoa, okay…” said Apple Bloom as she pulled Spike away from the shocked nurse, “there will be no threatening the nurse, Spike; we need her."
Spike took a deep breath and glared back at Rhyme, "Yeah... lucky her."
"Wow," said Redheart, “that was… something.”
"You're telling me," said Rhyme feeling a little chill go down her spine, “I didn’t think he was going to take that joke so seriously.”
Applejack just chuckled seeing her sister watching over the brooding dragon. "Don't worry about Spike, that's just the more terrifying and scary dragon part of him talkin'."