My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record

by The King of Hearts


The Questions Couples Ask

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The Questions Couples Ask
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Alex wasn’t sure where his mind was, as he walked out of the graveyard, out on to the dark and silent road back to town. He felt almost inexplicably happy, but wasn’t sure if that was the appropriate thing to experience.

He had just had his first heart-to-heart with his mother and father, since he last saw them alive, and their voices made him feel confident, energized, and as he had already recognized, happy.

His pace slowly increased, increasing from a slow jog, to a fast sprint.

He wanted nothing more than to get home, and wrap his arms around Dash, and tell her that he loved her for the rest of the night. He was just so ecstatic, and he needed to share this new found happiness with someone.

He ran at a speed he had never dreamed of moving back before he went to Equestria. His entire body was used to running for huge periods of time, with little to no exhaustion. And that carried over back to earth.

Casting a spell around his feet, he decided to kick this trip home in to overdrive.

Each time he lifted his foot off the ground, a powerful jet of air blasted him forward, turning his large steps in to massive bounds, tripling his speed as he ran down the deserted road.

Looking to his right, he saw the main highway that would lead to his house, about two miles away from his current place. If he wanted to keep up this pace, he couldn’t really go through town. He might be seen.
So, turning sharply, he began ripping through the dark field.

So much of his fear over his uncertain future has dissolved. In this moment, he was truly unstoppable.

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Dash sat in Alex’s room, silently going over the war reports she had been asked to work on, and exhaled at the sheer amount of writing she had ahead of her. She had finally finished sorting the reports to correspond with the place or battle they took place in, and now had to cross reference them for discrepancies.

Luckily, all reports used the same dating system, so it was easy for her to find the dates that belonged together, and would likely save her days of work.

Still, even at this point, she knew that Alpha would want to hear some of the things she had uncovered.

After reading all the reports, she was surprised to see some of the Equestrian ones contained disturbing infighting amongst the changelings. On several occasions, a team of changelings she had begun referring to as the ‘death squad’ would randomly appear and slaughter entire platoons of their own comrades.

None of the Changeling reports reflected these events, and left her wondering what that meant for Alpha.

“I’ll have to bring this up with him when I get back to Equestria.” Dash muttered, closing her folder and leaning back in her chair, “I wonder how Alex is doing…”

A knock came from the door to the room as Dash looked up and told her visitor to come in.

“Hey,” Twilight said, peeking in through the door as she opened it, “How’s the work going?”

“Boring!” Dash laughed, standing up and walking toward the door, “Why don’t you come in for a bit? We don’t talk girl to girl enough these days!”

“Actually, I’m heading to bed right away,” Twilight said apologetically, rubbing her eyes and giving a soft laugh, “All that reading I did today has got me ready to pass out!”

“How does reading tire you out?” Dash asked, crossing her arms and giving a skeptical look.

“Are you kidding me?!” Twilight asked, shocked that Dash didn’t agree, “I read about the history of an entire new world! It took all my energy to just imagine these events happening! I tired myself out mentally!”

Dash couldn’t really debate, as she had never used her imagination to the point of exhaustion. So, she decided to take her word for it.

“Well then, make sure you get some rest! Chet and Alex are taking us in to the city tomorrow, you know.” Dash said, as Twilight nodded rapidly.

“I’m dying to take in as much of this world’s culture as possible!” Twilight nodded excitedly, “He promised that he’d take us to a center of science. I’m really curious about what parallels exist between our worlds in those fields! I just wish I had enough time to cover that section of the library.”

“Uh, yeah! Me too!” Dash nodded slowly, trying her best to be convincing in her fake enthusiasm.

Twilight looked over her shoulder at the sound of the front door opening, and closing a moment later.

“There’s Alex,” Twilight said, looking to her room down the hall while stepping out of the room, “I’ll leave you two alone.”

“Alright,” Dash smiled, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Twilight waved as she entered the guest bedroom and closed the door.

Alex jogged up the stairs and turned to see Dash standing in the door with a small smile on her face. She didn’t want to appear overly happy, as he just came from a graveyard, and might need a more comforting attitude.

But, that simply wasn’t the case.

Alex immediately wrapped his arms around her small body and pulled her in to a passionate kiss, taking her somewhat by surprise, until she got the memo, and pulled her arms around his neck.

After a good twenty seconds, Alex pulled away from her face and gave her a smile that made her heart skip a beat. Something must have happened to him while he was at the graveyard, and she really hoped that it wasn’t him going insane or something.

“W-what’s up with you?” Dash asked, laughing nervously and tilting her head, “Is all of… this a good thing?”

“It’s an amazing thing,” Alex said, lessening some of the worry Dash had initially felt, “I just… I feel like a new person!”

“What happened at that graveyard?” Dash asked, returning his simply infectious smile with one of her own, “You don’t usually see ponies coming back from there with a smile on their faces.”

“Honestly, it’s hard to explain,” Alex said, scratching the back of his head and laughing, “I guess I worked through a few problems that I didn’t even know I had.”

“Well, I’m glad to see you so happy,” Dash beamed back to him, “I was worried you’d be bummed out for the next few days.”

“Bummed out? Me?!” Alex laughed, while shaking his head, “Maybe if things had gone differently.”

Dash walked back and sat down on his bed, and patted the mattress next to her.

After he walked over and plopped down, Dash placed her hand on top of his, and leaned on his shoulder.

“Are you scared about what’s coming?” She asked, knowing they had had the discussion before, but felt a small part of her still needed reassurance, “After the girls face their dark sides?”

Alex exhaled. He wanted to lie, and tell her he wasn’t afraid. But that just wasn’t the case.

“Yeah.” He said, “I’m worried. But… maybe a little less after today.”

“I’m so worried that after everything we’ve gone through, all the pain and suffering we’ve seen, and experienced, it’s going to all end with the end of the world… Or worse… maybe just one of us will end up dea—“

“Do you want to have kids?” Alex asked, as Dash gave him a visibly confused look, “If we’re gonna talk about the future… I think we shouldn’t exclusively talk about the short term. We should talk about what we’ll do after things work out.”

Dash looked down and smiled.

“Would you rather have a son, or a daughter?” Alex asked, looking at her as she looked up from the floor to meet his gaze.

“I-I haven’t really thought about it!” She stammered, “I’d like a kid! You know that!”

“I know.” Alex nodded softly, “But what would you like to have?”

Dash pursed her lips as she considered the question.

Chances were that she’d have a daughter. Birth rates in Ponyville were really messed up. But, still, that didn’t answer anything.

“Hmm…” Dash said, “I mean, I’d be happy no matter what. But I think it would be cool to have a boy.”

“Really?” Alex asked, having put his money on a girl.

“Well, I mean, I’m competitive! And I think boys are more competitive than girls, right?” Dash asked, scratching her chin, “I’m just worried I’d be alienated by a girl that loves clothing, jewelry, boys…”

“You don’t love boys?” Alex asked, snickering, “I guess your mom was right. Mare lover!”

“What? No! Not like that!” Dash laughed, playfully hitting his arm, “I was never fawning over boys like most girls did when I was a filly. I always saw boys as the competition I needed to beat.”

“So what am I?” Alex asked, his eyebrow raised with a smirk, “Someone you need to beat?”

“Beat? Ha!” Dash laughed, “I broke you years ago. You’re my slave!”

Alex would have argued, but there was really no point. He was a sucker for chicks with rainbow hair.

“So, what about you?” Dash asked, “Do you want a boy or a girl?”

“Well, I think it’d be nice to have a daughter.” Alex said honestly, fearing for whatever reason that she’d make fun of him for saying it, “Because while I’m sure I’d love a son to hang out with, and teach to play catch… I’d like to have a little girl to play with, and protect from the rest of the world.”

“I don’t know…” Dash laughed, as she pointed at her face, “Look at me. If she looks anything like me, or my mom, she’ll be beautiful! And all the boys will be chasing after her! How would you be able to handle that?”

Alex frowned.

“I’ll just bring a shotgun back to Equestria.” Alex nodded to himself, “Easy peasy. Problem solved.”

Dash laughed and she put her head back on his shoulder.

“Would you want to stay in Ponyville? Or maybe move to Canterlot? Or Cloudsdale?” Dash asked, having given those places a bit of thought herself.

“Well, I love Ponyville,” Alex said, “I’ve never really pictured myself anywhere but there.”

“I just know that my parents will be harping on us to go live with them once I get pregnant.” Dash said, “So, if it was something you might want to do... we could talk about it.”

“Why not just have them move to Ponyville?” Alex asked, “I’m sure you could convince them you need to stay there.”

“My dad’s work has him in Cloudsdale one hundred percent,” Dash shook her head, “He’d never have something that pays him as much in Ponyville.”

“Pay?” Alex laughed, looking to her as he shook his head, “I’m pretty sure our connections with the castle would leave your parents millionaires.”

“My dad would never accept something like that, as much as my mom would beg him to,” Dash explained, “He plans on working until his body shuts down.”

“What does he do?” Alex asked.

“Construction… Something like that.” Dash answered, shrugging, knowing the full answer, but figuring it was just an exceedingly boring one.

“Sounds… interesting…” Alex laughed, as he laid back on his bed, and stretched, “But, one other thing I wanted to ask, when do you want to get married?”

Dash felt her heart skip a beat, she had been dying to have this conversation, she just didn’t want to look like she was some marriage-crazed mare… even though she really was.

“Um… whenever! I don’t want to push you in to anything!” She said, fighting herself from insisting it happen next week or something.

“Really?” Alex asked, “I was actually really wanting to get it done… well, soon. Especially after today.”

Dash swallowed audibly, as she allowed herself to show some of her eager attitude, “Well, when were you thinking? Next year? Maybe in the spring?”

“Spring?!” Alex asked, giving her a disapproving look, “It’s spring now! I don’t want to wait a whole year! I was thinking that we could get married this summer.”

Dash went wide-eyed, “Are you sure? That’s gonna need a lot of work!”

“Well, between Pinkie and Rarity, I think we’d have the planning down,” Alex said, “And the venue won’t be a problem.”

“What do you mean?” Dash asked, “Did you already talk to the ponies at the church?”

“Oh no,” Alex shook his head, as she exhaled a bit, happy that the location wasn’t set in stone, “I talked to Celestia just before we left for earth. She said that she would marry us at Canterlot Castle! So that’s one problem taken care of!”

Had she been a cartoon, her jaw would have hit the floor.

“Y-you wanna get married by a princess? In Canterlot?!” Dash asked, having never considered this kind of ceremony, “Wouldn’t it be weird for two noponies to get married in the castle? At least Cadence was a Princess herself!”

“We’re both Elements of Harmony,” Alex pointed out, “And we’re both known by a lot of ponies in Equestria. A lot of them never knew Cadence or Shining Armor. We’re like, more famous than those two.”

“b-but-“

“Are you okay with that?” Alex asked instantly, realizing that he might be making her uncomfortable, “Because we could do it anywhere! I just thought-well, maybe it wasn’t my best idea, but I thought you’d like something… extravagant…”

Dash actually laughed out loud at his remark, and he really couldn’t blame her.

“Alex, if we went to Las Pegasus and got married at one of those lame chapels, I’d be just as happy as I would be with a wedding in Canterlot,” Dash said, lying down beside him and placing her hand on his cheek, “So, think about what you want to do, and let me know. Because as long as I’m getting married to you, I don’t care how it happens.”

Alex gave a small laugh as he nodded to her, “I’m the exact same. So, why don’t we talk to our friends, and see what they have to say, okay?”

Dash nodded with a smile, “It could even be here on earth, if you’d like.”

“Well, that would be helpful,” Alex said, his expression suddenly changing, “Because I can’t in a million years see myself bringing Chet to my cartoon horsie wedding…”

Alex suddenly paused for a moment, obviously lost in thought.

“What is it?” Dash asked, looking to him quizzically.

“I- I think… when we go back to Equestria… we should take Chet with us.”