Ch42: Expanding The Family
As soon as Twilight got home, she wrote to the princesses. After all, such grand news had to be shared with everypony important and who was more important than the princesses? Spike, of course! That’s why he got to know first… and because he was the first to run into them.
While Twilight was occupied, Rainbow sat down on one of the reading couches in the new library and let her mind wander off. Subconsciously, her hoof went to her belly again, as she started contemplating, how her future plans would change now. Not in a bad way, in most cases at least, but in one of the most wonderful ways she could have imagined.
Of course, it wasn’t her plan to get pregnant so soon at all, but being a mother at 26 years wasn’t really that uncommon, wasn’t it? And even if it was, Twilight was only 24, so it couldn’t be that bad. Still, even though the rest of their friends said that Twilight seemed more mature than Dash, despite her being younger, the actual age difference became apparent in that exact situation.
When Twilight learned that she was pregnant, her first impulse was to tell her mentor, the very pony that had become like a second mother to her. Next up came her actual parents, which actually posed a major problem since during all the time they had spent with Markus, they had completely missed out on introducing him to their parents, so it was likely that Twilight, Shining Armor and Rainbow were going to grow a major headache explaining where this foal came from. Luckily, Rainbow`s parents would likely only scream and faint from the sudden jolt of happiness and pride, hopefully giving them enough time to quickly disappear before they had the chance to bombard them with unnecessary talk about how proud they are and such…
As soon as Twilight was done writing the letter to her parents, Princess Celestia’s reply came in. In it, she wrote that she was happy to hear of Twilight`s fortune, but also that she was a bit jealous at her, because she was about to get an heir,…
“[…] before I even got to get my cherry popped. […]” –Princess Celestia, 1005 A.N.M.
When she read that passage, Rainbow looked over to Twilight with an expression of flustered disbelief. Twilight, however, seemed like, apart from a slight blush, it was the most normal thing to her. She looked up and caught Rainbow’s gaze, which she immediately picked up on.
“Yeah, pretty amazing to read this when you only know her as the God-Princess everypony loves, isn’t it? Actually, most of her replies are open like this and, to be fair, from the few times I joined her in day court, I can definitely see why she needs to get out of that role once in a while.” She looked back at the passage in the letter, which made her blush deepen ever so slightly. “Though I’ve got to admit that this is a first, even for me.”
Quickly changing the subject, Twilight started trotting towards the doors. “Anyways, we should definitely tell the others. Come on, let’s get going.” However, before she even managed to apply her magic to the doorknobs, Rainbow landed in front of her, blocking her way to the exit. “What? Don’t you want to tell them yet?”
Rainbow shook her head. “That’s not it. It’s just that simply just telling them seems kinda… not awesome, if you know what I mean.”
Twilight knew, what Rainbow meant. Her herdmate wanted to liven up things by throwing a prank into the mix and frankly, Twilight couldn’t see why they shouldn’t.
“So… what did you have in mind?”
A few hours later, everypony sat assembled around the dinner table at the Apple Family Homestead. Twilight and Rainbow were sitting on one end, their heads low, their ears splayed back and their faces forced into the most dreaded and anxious expression they could muster. Spike was also there, to ‘comfort’ his basically-sister(/mother?).
“So… what is this thing that may ‘change all our lives’?” Rarity finally broke the dreadful silence that hung over the room.
“Yeah, I mean y’all look pretty stressed out an’ all, but we can’t help y’all if ya don’t tell us what’d happened.” Applejack agreed.
Twilight let out a miserable sigh, which she made to keep herself from giggling. “You know…” She started, “Today, Rainbow and I went to the doctor…”
“…and there, they told us something that’s… pretty heavy…” Rainbow Continued.
“Rainbow and I are… are…” Twilight finally couldn’t hold it anymore. Her ears sprung up again and she cracked a smile. She looked up at her friends and shot up, leaning onto the table. “…PREGNANT!” She finally exclaimed.
The remaining four mares let out the gasp they already held prepared and Rainbow burst out laughing.
“HA! You should see your FACES!” She laughed out, while the other mares slowly processed what had happened.
“Ah shoot, you two really got us there. Heh, shoulda known ya ain’t pregnant without a stallion!” Applejack conceded.
Twilight leaned back in her chair and started stroking her belly softly. “Actually… that part was true… and Markus is the father.” She smiled down at her growing foal, while on the other side of the table, everypony went slackjawed yet again.
Everypony, except Pinkie. Her pupils started growing and glinting, seemingly aiming to completely fill her eyes and one could see that something was building up inside her, until suddenly, it was all released.
“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Do you know what that means? Double Foal SHOWER!!!!!!” She quickly went around, pulling party hats and blowouts out of her mane and giving one to each pony in the room, before wildly dancing around them, playing a happy tune on a random accordion and dancing a polka while she was at it. Then, she suddenly pulled in a deep gasp. “I need to start PLANNING!!” she exclaimed, before she ‘Warp 10’-‘d out of the room, leaving the five mares and one dragon behind.
Shrugging it off as Pinkie being Pinkie, the others went into the classic Q&A that probably every pregnant mare has to go through. Questions like ‘Do you have a name for it?’ or ‘Is it a colt or a filly?’ were quickly asked and answered. Everypony was in an absolutely celestial mood. At least up until a little filly entered the room.
Apple Bloom opened the front door with a long creak and slowly made her way to the stairs, her head hanging low and her face expressing nothing but sadness. Applejack saw this and immediately went into high alert. “Apple Bloom? What’cha all makin’ such a long face for?”
The filly stopped and looked over to her big sister, who had trotted to her side by now. “It’s… it’s about Scootaloo. She… her aunts… they lost. She said she can only stay for another week b’fore she’ll have ta go ta Canterlot’s Orphanage…” Tears filled her eyes and Applejack quickly embraced her sister. Rainbow and Twilight meanwhile sat back at the table and shared a look…
The Crusaders used the week to every extent they could think of. They tried to get fishing marks… again. They tried to get singing marks… again. They even tried to convince some of the 4th to teach them how to shoot a gun... again. And yet again, they didn’t find their cutie marks and frankly, they didn’t care. This time, they didn’t do these things to find their calling, but because they wanted their last few days together to be special. They wanted their last memories to be of fun and joy and not filled with tears and unintelligible farewells. They used every day they had left. Every day, but the last, for even the crusaders knew that drawing it out until the last moment would only make it hurt more.
Thus, on her last day in Ponyville, Scootaloo sat in her room, going through her things again, for the umpteenth time, just to keep herself busy, so she didn’t have to think about what she was leaving behind.
Suddenly, somepony knocked on the door and when Scootaloo went to open it, she saw that it was none other than…
“…Rainbow Dash!”
“Hey squirt.” The cyan Pegasus replied. The speechless orange filly sat before her, mouth agape and eyes shimmering from sitting face-to-face with her idol.
“What are you doing here?” She exclaimed happily when she broke out of her stupor.
“Well, I heard that you’re leaving Ponyville today and I thought that I could give you an extra, Scootaloo-exclusive air show. What do you say?”
She didn’t get an answer. At least not a vocal one. Instead, she got a happy squeal, followed by her greatest fan rushing back into the house to get her helmet and scooter, only to then basically fly out of the front door.
The two pegasi made their way into the Pink Tree Plains, where Rainbow began her show. She flew all the tricks she knew in all the variations she knew, combining them into an event that lasted multiple hours, but for Scootaloo, it felt like mere minutes. When she was finally done, she was heaving and panting, but seeing the happy filly on the ground made her smile anyways.
“You know what, squirt?” She asked, as she set down. “I’ve never actually seen you spin those wheels. Why don’t you show me what you got?”
Scootaloo didn’t know what to say at first, but she quickly decided that showing would do way better than saying, so she went to work. She as well did everything she could think of. She used a fallen tree as a grind rail and, with the help of Dash, made a ramp from a few rocks, a bit of dirt and an old plank, with which she could jump over a ditch in the ground and do some air tricks.
However, her show didn’t last nearly as long as Dash’s, as she suddenly stopped when she saw the setting sun on the horizon.
“Oh, ponyfeathers!” She cursed, “I need to get to the station! I’ll miss my train!”
She wanted to quickly scoot off, but Rainbow stopped her. “Nah, don’t worry, I’ll fly you, when we’re done.”
Scootaloo’s face lit up again. “Really?” she asked and with a smile, Dash answered. “Really. Now, how about you show me how fast you are? Let’s have a race, from here to the Everfree. Don’t worry, I’ll leave you a chance.”
“Ha! You mean, I should leave you a chance!” Scootaloo retorted, before both sped off.
They both raced each other multiple times, from sunset until long after it was dark. Then, when both seemed to slowly get to their limits, Rainbow uttered a last challenge.
“Okay, last race. From here to the castle. Ready? GO!”
Again, they both sped off, but now, Scootaloo could already feel the inviting embrace of sleep tug at the back of her mind, trying to lull her into just letting her idol win and lay down into the grass beside the road. But Scootaloo wouldn’t have it. She had to win. This last race had to be a win. She pulled every last string she had and brought up as much power as she could muster. With multiple strong kicks, as well as the assistance of her wings, she slowly managed to close in on her idol, until, just before they reached the goal, she managed to overtake her.
She braked hard and came to a stop just before she would have hit the stairs. She turned around and saw Rainbow set down behind her.
“I won…” she realized, “I WON!!”
She jumped off her scooter, wanting to strike a victory pose, but her overused hind legs gave out underneath her, causing her to topple and fall face-first into the tuft of soft fur on Rainbow’s chest.
“Yes, you did.” Rainbow confirmed in a soft voice, as she took the tired filly into her forelegs.
Scootaloo`s eyes grew heavy and with every breath she took, her eyelids drifted closer together. She took in Rainbow’s smell, the smell of freshly fallen rain, and let it slowly carry her closer to Luna’s realm.
She heard hooves set down and through her almost closed eyes, she could make out four purple legs.
“Did you get it?” Rainbow asked and the purple-legged pony answered “Yes, I did.” in a happy sounding voice, before Scootaloo could hear the whirring of magic and the sound of paper being lifted.
“Awesome.” Rainbow replied, before placing a hoof on Scootaloo’s head and starting to caress her mane. This was the last thing she witnessed, before Rainbow’s soft ministrations slowly drove her into the realm of sleep.
When she woke up, it was already morning again. With a groggy mind, she rolled off the sofa onto the crystalline floor. At first, she was wondering, where she was. Then she looked out through the window and it all came back. The air show, the races, the orphanage.
“Buck.” She said, as she realized that she was probably going to be VERY late.
She stormed towards the doors, but before she could open them, somepony else did from the other side. She skidded to a halt just before she could run into said pony, whom with a little bit of surprise she identified as Rainbow Dash.
“Dash! The Orphanage! I’m late!!” She panicked and Rainbow tried to calm her down.
“No need to worry about the orphanage, squirt, I got you covered.” She said.
“Covered? But Dash, I-“ She was cut off by Rainbow holding her hoof over her mouth.
“I’m more than just ‘Dash’ now, squirt.” She said, before giving a loving smile and tilting her head slightly to the side. “You can call me ‘mom’ now.”
Scootaloo wanted to say something, but cut herself off, as her mind registered what had just been said. Her eyes started to water up and before any more words could be spoken, she lunged herself at Dash and the Pegasus in turn closed her into a tight embrace.
Scootaloo started to cry. They were tears of joy like she had never thought she would ever shed them. She buried her face into her new mother’s chest fluff and wetted it with a salty stream. Eventually she settled down again and the two kept their hug until there was just a single last thing to be made clear.
“I’m still gonna call you ‘Dash’, though.”
The next few days were spent moving furniture and various belongings into Twilight’s castle. Not only from Scootaloo, but also from Rainbow Dash. The soon-to-be mother had decided for herself that she would rather move down to live with Scootaloo now, especially since she had a foal growing inside of her and she knew that, eventually, she would get too heavy to fly up to her home anyways. She couldn’t quite bring her to sell her Cloudominium though, so she decided to just keep it and see if maybe she could one day use it again.
After a few days of moving stuff around, Rainbow’s and Scootaloo’s rooms were ready. Twilight and Rainbow had settled for separate rooms, so they wouldn’t make things weird for Scootaloo and Spike.
They were standing in the door, leading into Scoot’s new room, when suddenly, somepony knocked on the front door. Twilight went to open it, but when she did, her jaw almost hit the ground.
She was looking at two legs and pants in a very familiar, multi-coloured pattern and as her eyes wandered further upwards, she also came to see a face that she had missed for far too long.
“Markus?”
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Must, resists, screaming. My mom and brother are still sleeping and you drop this on me?
hooooooooooow did he survive a NUKE?!
Next chapter, now! You cannot leave us with this cliffhanger, man, it's illegal!
10269380
I'll write it tomorrow. depending on my write speed and my proofreader, it may be out by tomorrow evening
10269386
good morning ……….. I jest rilised today is june the 4th … I am now 21 ………
Nice~
Nice back from the dead.
I predicted that he would come back after reading chapter 39 when he died. So if this is truly Markus then I am super stoked that my prediction was correct.
10270104
Well, his last words were "I'll be back" so from that point i knew he was coming back but I'm surprised he's back already
10269386
Don't push yourself bud, take you're time we can wait extra day or two
>>Xblaster
I didn't factor in his last words when I made my prediction and just went off my gut. Due to this chapter though my gut feeling has now become a 98% certainty with a 2% buffer in case it might be a changeling or something else even though I highly doubt it but think that a slight buffer will allow me to be able to take the surprise and disappointment (the disappointment is focused at myself not Timzocker201) if everyone's predictions are wrong that 'Markus' has truly returned like he said (or the gut feeling people got if they forgot his last words... like me).
I know its meant to be a happy moment but I cant help but think of DBA , am back bitchs
10269715
You know it would be kinda cruel to have 2 alicorn kids grow up fatherless. Plius guy died once, twice. There probabbly is some kind of God watching for him
10269315
Irl we have guy which survived 2 nukes.
So it isn't unheard of
10271905
lucky guy, o.O
OHHHHHHHHHH
Awesome
memegenerator.net/img/images/400x/71869171.jpg
Markus survived and then went aw shit!
I would hide to if i were him
That's a long respawn time.