Carefully opening the kitchen window and looking outside, Carrot Top quickly closed it again as she felt a hooffull of ice cold droplets of rainwater splashing back at her face. It was hot as in a baking oven in the small kitchen and the rain drops had been soothing on her heating face, but Carrot still didn’t want to keep the window open as the quickly increasing rainstorm outside was likely to put her big baking project at risk, making all the hours she had already spent in the kitchen that day a complete waste.
Carefully grabbing a oven glove in her mouth, Carrot Top bent down, opening the door to the oven, then used the glove in her mouth to grab the pan inside, placing it on the table and used her tail to close the oven behind her.
As she did, Carrot was careful not to swoop down anything with her tail by mistake, something she had often done in the beginning when she was still trying to adapt her deep-running kitchen habits to the much smaller kitchen area of her and Braeburn's ‘dream - fortress’, as they had named the house the first time they saw it.
About two years after Carrot Top and Braeburn had firsted started dating, they had agreed they wanted to live together. in a shared home. But because of the distance between their two current homes at the time, as well as the fact that none of the two farmers felt willing to move in in the other partner's residence, they decided to start seeking out a home somewhere else.
The result had been their ‘dream fortress’, a small rustic farmhouse with rather big surrounding areas giving the to farmers plenty of room to grow the fruits and vegetables of their liking. It had only taken the two love doves one look at the house to know that it was exactly what they wanted as the foundation for the stage of their relationship, and because of connections that Braeburn had through his family, they got an extremely reasonable price the two of them could afford without any larger economical back settings.
“Hey honey, baking something sweet, are we? Is it for anything, or maybe I should say somepony special?” Braeburn said, sneaking up on his lovely girlfriend from behind and kissing her on the cheek.
“Hi honey and first off, your not touching this cake until I tell you so, secondly weren’t you supposed to watch over Cinnamon Sticks? Because if you ditched that chore for coming down here to be with me, you’re not getting any sweets.” Carrot responded to her coltfriend, spitting out the over glove and turning around and facing Braeburn eye to eye.
Wrapping his hoof around Carrot’s neck and pulling her closer, Braeburn tried scoring a kiss on the lips from his love, Braeburn gave his marefriend a response to her concerns.
“Don’t worry, I put her to sleep and then sat and watched her for thirty minutes to make sure nothing would happen before coming down here. So, how about those sweets?” Breaburn explained, once more trying to score a deep passionate kiss from his beloved and this time succeeding.
“Well…” Carrot Top started, breaking the kiss and moving away from Braeburn ever so slightly. “It's because I am planning for something special when Derpy get here and..."
Before Carrot had time to finish what she wanted to say, a loud crying was heard from upstairs, its desperation scaring the two ponies downstairs, the mare a bit more than the stallion.
“CINNAMON!” Carrot exclaimed, her voice panicking, trying to run up stairs only to be stopped by Braeburn's outstretched hoof.
“Let me take it, hun.You've been stressing so much lately, and I'd like to see you relax a bit for once. I know you don't like it, but please, Just try it, okay? You got our other bun to think about after all." Braeburn said, his voice calm and soothing, sticking in one hoof beneath Carrot Top and tickling her stomach.
"Stop it NOW!" Carrot exclaimed, jumping backwards while trying to avoid Braeburn's hooves before continuing. "And it's no fair you never let me take care of Cinnamon anymore! Mother's got needs too, you know!"
"C'est la vie, that's life. Now do as you’re told dear and you can continue telling me about the special surprise for Derpy‘s visit when I get back." Braeburn responded, making sure to disappear up the stairs befor Carrot had the chance to throw anything at him.
Carrot Top, already having understood that this was a fight she couldn’t win, gently lay down on her back on the stuffy couch in the livingroom. As she lay there, Carrot looked at her swelling stomach and thought about what Braeburn had said before disappearing upstairs.
‘C’est La Vie’ was prench and literally meant ‘that’s life’, or ‘that’s how life is’. The reason Braeburn had used this specific quote to convince Carrot to lay down and rest, was because they had long ago decided that it would be their motto, a single phrase to tell them how to live their life together.
As she repeated the phrase over and over again in her head, Carrot Top slowly started thinking about when she and Braeburn had first become a couple all those years ago, the same night as they had found their motto…
“So, I take it you two really enjoyed hanging out this past week right?” Applejack asked, sitting down on the couch and patting the seat next to her.
“Yeah. Braeburn was a bit apprehensive in the beginning, but after a while he really seemed to be enjoying it too! And look at us now, we’re going on a date and all!” Carrot Top replied, carefully folding the orange silk dress she was wearing beneath her as she sat down next to Applejack.
“Well, that’s really good to hear! Braeburn's been a bit down since this mare, Toffee Truffle, dumped him, so I’m really glad to see that he’s getting back out there.” Applejack exclaimed, smiling brightly at Carrot.
Carrot Top was just about to answer Applejack, when she saw her date for the evening coming down the stairs dressed in a black vest and cowboy hat, a red rose in the vest pocket and an identical rose clutched between his teeth.
Amazed by Braeburn’s stylish, yet as country as always, clote choice for the evening, Carrot quickly got up from her seat and walked over to the stallion standing at the end of the stairs, who promptly bent down and offered his lady of the evening the red rose.
“Thank you Braeburn, it’s such a lovely flower!” Carrot replied, accepting the gift from Braeburn and putting it into her fluffy orange mane.
“You’re welcome, it matches your mane colour. A-and I just want to say that...I know I haven’t been the best companion all of this past week, but...but it is really nice to be with you.” Braeburn said, smiling shyly and blushing a bit at the sound of his own words.
Finding the confession extremely cute, Carrot gave Braeburn a small kiss on the cheek before finally dragging him out the door, finally wanting to start the date for real.
The Ponyville carnival was a big carnival being held in Ponyville once every year and it was not by coincidence that Carrot Top and Braeburn's date took place during the last night or the carnival, a well-known gathering spot for all the happy couples in Ponyville, as well as anypony looking for juicy gossip.
To a beginning, the two ponies simply walked around the carnival, taking in the vibrating, almost electric feeling that seemed gather in the air around them. Everywhere they looked, ponies were kissing, laughing and enjoying the company of their loved ones.
“Oh look! Braeburn, look!” Carrot exclaimed, pointing her hoof at a smaller stable standing a little bit to the side.
“W-what? What is it?” Braeburn asked in confusion, trying to localise what Carrot found so interesting about the small, green painted stable that seemed to be some kind of carnival game.
“The first prize is a Mr. Vegetable doll! You know, from the children's show ‘Dr.Fruit and Mr. Vegetable’? I always wanted one of those as a kid!” Carrot exclaimed, pointing at the big plushie looking like a carrot with eyes, mouth, arms and legs.
“I never saw that show... anyhow, I guess you want me to win it for you?” Braeburn asked, smiling, most likely happy to know that he might get a chance to show what a good coltfriend he was.
“Yes, yes please win it for me!” Carrot said, pulling at Braeburns leg and dragging him over to the stable.
“Alright, alright... I’ll try, for you!” Braeburn chuckled, freeing his leg from Carrot’s grip and facing the mare running the stable. “So, what do I need to do to win this thing?”
Instead of answering, the young orange coated earth pony mare running the stable first pointed at a sign sitting on the table in front of her, then at the three towers made out of empty metal cans.
Reading the rules of the game on the small sign the mare had pointed at first and giving the three seemingly-stable towers a quick once-over, Braeburn hoofed over ten bits to the interested mare, who gave him two brightly coloured juggling balls in exchange for the bits.
“Come on Braeburn, you can do this! “ Carrot cheered as Braeburn started out by trying to throw the first juggling ball with his hoof, failing miserably as the ball landed off to the side, not even close to any of the three towers.
Seeing the extremely failed attempt at scoring, the young mare started giggling, holding one hoof over her mouth in a failed attempt to hide her entertained smile. Despite there being no ill-will in the mares motions, the giggling and the smiling got to Braeburn, making him want to show her what he got.
Focusing solely at the pile of metal cans in the middle, Braeburn put down the ball on the counter in the exactly right place to hit the cans if it was shoot in a right line forward. Once he was sure the ball was placed in the exactly right angle, Braeburn turned around, lifting his back leg and bucking the ball with all his might.
The no longer giggling mare in the stable watched with amazement and ever so slight fear as the ball shoot forward past her like a cannonball, one of the piles of metal cans put up in the back of the stable. As the ball hit the middle pile, throwing down all the cans on the ground, it caused the table to vibrate so much that the two remaining piles collapsed as well, the cans rolling off the table and landing all over the ground.
“Wow...that is impressive. You - or should I say your marefriend really deserve the first price!” The earth pony mare exclaimed enthusiastically, clapping her hooves before picking down the doll from the shelf and giving it to Carrot Top’s waiting hooves.
After Braeburn won the plushie for Carrot Top, the evening soon became a lot more intimate for the two love birds, Braeburn daring to sneak up closer by Carrot’s side and even snuggling with her a little as they once more made their way back through the carnival once more, aiming for the park, which had a scene built up in the middle of it and speakers put up everywhere, with the help of unicorn spells modified to spread out the music played on the stage in the hole park.
“So, who is playing tonight?” Carrot asked happily, leaning her head against Braeburns shoulder and hugging the big carrot plushie Braeburn had won for her earlier with one hoof.
“I don’t know, really. It’s supposed to be some pretty famous singer and songwriter from Manehattan…” Braeburn replied, showing Carrot his ex of the concert schedule that he had gotten from City Hall earlier that day.
“Interesting...it says here his name is Orson Belvita, and that he rarely perform himself...normally he just write song texts for others.” Carrot said happily, snuggling Braeburn closely and reading more from the program her date was offering.
“Well, I guess we’re lucky then!” Braeburn smiled, pausing for a second before daring to lean in and try to give his date for the evening a light kiss on the lips.
Although surprised at first, having been certain that she would have to make the first move, Carrot quickly responded to the light, uncertain kissing of Braeburn with devotion and affection, deepening the kissing and building up a passionate aura between the two of them. As the kissed, the rest of their environment seemed to disappear, the only things left in the black void of reality being herself and Braeburn.
“Hey, love birds! You better get your blushing faces over here unless ya want to miss the concert!” A thrill, mocking voice exclaimed, snapping the two lovers back to reality.
Looking for the pony who had just previously talked to them, they quickly caught site of Braeburn's cousin, Country Fiddlesticks, sitting on a rock not to far away and waving her hoof at them.
Breaking the kiss, Braeburn and Carrot quickly started moving forward towards the scene, falling into a light trot as they saw that the area around the scene was quickly getting filled up with other ponies, and a few moments later finally sitting down maybe five hundred meters in front of the rock on top which Braeburn's cousin had been sitting.
“Okay, now that everypony seemed to be settled, we can start off this evening by giving a big round of applause for Orson Belvita!” The announcer, a professional-looking green mare with a long orange mane put up in a tight bun, exclaimed, putting on a big, slightly overdone smile.
The green mare’s statement was soon followed by a loud, roaring wave of applause and cheers from the audience, it’s volume increasing even more as a black pegasus stallion with a snagged brown mane entered the stage and sat down on a chair placed in the middle of the scene with a microphone next to it.
“Alright everypony, please quiet down a bit. I want ponies to actually hear my singing!” the stallion joked, earning a loud laughter from the audience before quieting down and letting him continue talking. “Anyhow, I’m really happy to see you all here tonight, and I was thinking I’d start out by showing you an old piece about life which I wrote a long while ago. It’s called C’est la vie, that’s life.”
“Oh, this is going to be good!” Carrot whispered, leaning at Braeburn and snuggling him closely as the pegasus on the stage started to sing.
“Happy together, me, my love and my daughter
A happy family we will be forever
You have asked this one quite a special question
And I will answer what it is truthfully.
Oh, C’est la vie, that is life
With you, I found the one that guides me through life
We have chosen our destiny
C’est la vie, we live our life happily
And at this moment, I see you've rekindled
About how we met and how much our love held
This very happy day stays in my memory
Now here it is, our true love's kiss, and my own words:
Oh, C’est la vie, that is life
With you, I found the one that guides me through life
We have chosen our destiny
C’est la vie, we live our life happily”
As the singer smooth, emotional voice leaked out of the speakers and putting the earlier ecstatic audience to rest, Braeburn wrapped his hoof around Carrot’s shoulders, holding her as close as he could, at the same thinking about the words of the song being played at the stage.
“C’est la vie...it’s a pretty beautiful phrase, don’t you think?” Carrot said, looking up at Braeburn's face.
“I guess...prench is a pretty language, that much is true.” Braeburn responded, meeting Carrot’s gaze, smiling an affectionate smile.
“True...so, how about we agree to make it our motto?” Carrot suggested, jumping up and kissing Braeburn on the cheek.
“T-there is a we…? Braeburn stuttered, blushing at the passionate kiss he received from the mare he’d been dating for less than a week. It had all went so fast, and it seemed to only had take mere moments from them to take what might be one biggest steps on their road through life.
“In some way...haven’t it alway been a we, already in the beginning?” Carrot answered, pushing Braeburn on his back and rolling up ontop of him.
*Ding-Dong*
“Honey? I know I said I wanted you to rest but could you take it? I’m kind of occupied with...smelly, slimy stuff” Braeburn exclaimed, some kind of unidentifiable sounds following the statement.
“Alright, alright, I got it dear. it’s probably just Derpy anyway... but I want ya down here as soon as I can!“ Carrot Top said, trying to get up and off the couch, almost falling as she didn't count her nowadays more limited moving abilities , and in the end landing flatly on her swollen stomach.
*Ding-dong*
As the doorbell range a second time, sounding much more impatient, Carrot Top grunted and finally managed to lift herself off the floor, walking over to the door and opening it.
As Carrot opened the door, she at the same time stepped four steps to the side so she wasn't standing right in front of the door, an action that would soon be proven useful as a grey pegasus mare with a messy blond mane fell through the opening and landed in a heap on welcome carpet inside.
"I'm sorry... I just don't know what went wrong!" The mare apologised, doing her best to get up on her hooves and dusting herself off.
"It's okay Derpy, I know you didn't mean it. " Carrot chuckled, extending her hoof and trying to help her friend up on her legs, the two mares clumsy motions however almost making them both toppled over again.
"Oops! Guess we’re both a bit clumsy today? " Derpy laughed as they both finally managed to regain their balance and stood up beside each other.
"I guess so... hey, why do you have your mail bag with you?” Carrot asked, noticing the oh-so-familiar brown leather bag hanging over her friend's shoulder.
During all the years that Carrot Top and Derpy had been roommates, the brown mail bag had always been there, dropped off on the piano seat in the afternoon when Derpy came home from work and picked up from the very same seat the next morning.
Carrot could yet to this day catch herself wondering where the bag went sometimes when she passed by the old piano which was now standing in the empty guest room on the second floor.
“Huh? Oh, well, the normal mailmare taking this route is sick and they couldn’t find a replacement. Normally that would just have meant the mail would have to wait until they could or the normal deliverer came back, but since you got a high-priority package, they weren’t allowed to let it wait, and I therefore offered to bring it with me when I went to visit you.”
Opening the bag and reaching inside with her hoof, Derpy pulled out a big, white envelope covered in several layers of thick tape and offered it to Carrot, who hesitatingly accepted it.
“Thanks Derpy. Looks like it’s the results from the scan during my last check-up at the hospital.” Carrot said, reading the address note on the front before turning it over and opening the envelope, looking at the papers inside.
“So, how does it look? Is Everything alright?” Derpy asked, watching Carrot’s at first indifferent expression disappear and give room for a large vary of different emotions that blended together and made it impossible to figure out what she was feeling.
“ Oh my goodness Derpy look at this! It says I’m having TWINS!” Carrot shouted, jumping up and down in excitement and showing Derpy the scan pictures, which showed the inside of a mare's stomach, the formes of two foals clearly visible in the pictures.
“W-we’re having twins?”
Carrot Top froze as she heard an all too familiar voice speaking. Slowly, almost as if she was afraid to face the stallion she knew had been the one to speak, Carrot turned around and saw Braeburn standing at the bottom of the stairs, his hole body frozen in shock and one of his front hooves tightly wrapped around a small, red foal with yellow mane.
“Oh sweetie...yes. Yes, we’re having twins!” Carrot exclaimed, leaping forward and hugging her coltfriend tightly and kissing him on the cheek, before carefully taking the filly out of his grip and into her own.
“That’s fantastic darling...so fantastic!” Breaburn replied, smiling, looking slightly guilty. “I hope you understand why I don’t want to see the scans, though, right?”
Carrot looked at her coltfriend with a compassionate smile and put her hoof against his cheek, the yellow colour of both their furs making it hard to even separate the hoof and the cheek from each other.
“it’s okay. I know you’re sensitive about finding out the kids race... but I got one thing I need to say, Braeburn. And I need say it now.” Carrot answered, suddenly looking away from Braeburn and into the kitchen. From the corner of his eye, Braeburn could see that she was looking at the cake she had baked earlier that day.
“C-Carrot...please don’t…” Derpy whispered, putting reaching out her hoof, but Braeburn raised his hoof to stop her. What ever Carrot wanted to say, Braeburn wanted to hear it.
“Braeburn…” Carrot started once Derpy had been silenced. “We never got engaged or married, because of me, because of that I was afraid. You accepted that, and promised to never ask me the question again. If I wanted it to happen, it would be I who’d have to ask the question.”
“Y-yes?” Braeburn said, knowing where Carrot might be going, but at the same time being to nervous to dare hope for what seemed the answer might be.
“And now I want to ask you the question. Do you want to marry me Braeburn?” Carrot exclaimed, her eyes filling up with tears as she looked up at her soon-to-be fiancé.
After she had voiced her question, It took one moment, two moments, three moment, all while three ponies was standing there, frozen, waiting for anypony to say ANYTHING at all, before the answer finally came.
“YES!!! Carrot Top, my sweet darling, I will marry you!” Braeburn exclaimed, breaking the silence and lifting Carrot Top into the air with his front hooves while standing on his back hooves.
“Braeburn darling, watch ou..” Carrot shouted, her voice becoming desperate as a little foal fell out of her grip, quickly approaching the hard ground below. “CINNAMON!”
In the blink of an eye, Derpy bolted forward, her hooves stretched out in front of her and catching the foal just before it’s little head hit the cold, hard stone floor beneath it.
“Got her!” Derpy exclaimed, holding up the baby to show that it was okay before rocking it back and forth in her hooves to calm it down. “I used to drop Dinkie all the time when she was small. You work up real quick reflexes and a mountain of pillows in your closet!”
Braeburn and Carrot laughed, taking the baby out of Derpy’s hooves and back into their own. So very much had happened and changed that day, and all the three ponies ever so slight fear and what might come to happen, but whatever it was, they were sure it would be for the better.