***This is the sequel to Zap Apple Jam. You should probably go and read that before you read this, it will clear up some stuff, like what happened to Twilight’s eye***
Twilight breathed deeply. It was over. It was finally over! And yet, it also had just begun.
She looked breathlessly at the doctor, wiping sweat off her muzzle as she smiled with giddiness.
He smiled back. “You did great, Twilight. Everything went perfectly.”
Big Mac came in the room then.
He looked between the doctor and Twilight, a look of both worry and excitement etched in his face.
Twilight laughed with joy. “She’s finally here!”
Big Mac smiled with relief. “She?”
Twilight smiled tearfully, nodding.
“W…Where? Where is our daughter?” Big Mac asked, choking up with joy.
But before he had finished the doctor turned around, letting the new, tiny filly into sight.
Big Mac sighed with emotion. He laughed softly, trying to hold back tears as he slowly approached his new daughter. He was a daddy now.
The new filly was a light purple. She had a red tail and mane, both streaked here and there with thin lines of orange. She was a unicorn.
She smiled, waving her hoofs clumsily through the air. Her big eyes were wide and curious, and a smile grew on to her tiny face as she looked into her daddy’s eyes.
Big Mac couldn’t handle it, he started crying with joy. He smiled and nuzzled his new foal, who laughed and nuzzled back.
Twilight smiled. “Save some of the baby for me!”
Big Mac chuckled, wiping tears from his face.
Twilight slowly edged her way out of the hospital bed, groaning but eager to meet her child.
As she approached the newborn, the young filly turned toward her. She was smiling at her mother as well.
But then the filly saw her mother’s eye.
Puzzled, the baby’s face dropped into confusion.
Twilight grew worried. As she approached the new filly cautiously, the filly suddenly started crying as if begging Twilight to stay away.
Twilight felt tears coming in her own self. How could this happen on the best day of her life? She wasn’t going to except it.
She forced her tears back and shushed the new foal gently, smiling.
The foal paused for a moment, but then continued crying its small newborn cry.
No, please, don’t do this to me! Twilight screamed in her head to the universe. Please, no!
But the foal kept crying.
Twilight’s face dropped and she looked at Big Mac, who was looking grimly at her.
“Twi, I know how hard this must be, but-” Big Mac was interrupted my a sudden spew from Twilight.
“No, you don’t. You have no idea what its like to live without one eye. To live with the pity and curiosity people try and fail at hiding in their faces. You have no idea what it’s like to have your own foal scared of you at first sight!” Twilight was almost yelling. Finally, she stood up from her kneeled position and tears flowing she stormed from the room, still wincing from the pain of giving birth.
Big Mac followed her with his eyes, panic in his eyes. This was the day they had been waiting for for over six months now! Ever since Twilight had discovered the foal, it had been nothing but excitement for them. They had waited so long and it had been so hard to stay patient, expecting this day to be the best. Big Mac felt terrible about his foal’s reaction to her mother. It was Twilight’s day too, after all.
Big Mac suddenly felt a wave of anger towards the dragon who did this all to his mare. How dare he?!
But he bit back the anger as he realized he needed to support Twilight now.
“Can you take care of her?” Big Mac pleaded with the doctor.
He smiled sympathetically. “Of course.”
And with that Big Mac quickly left the room that held his new filly and ran after his girl. Nothing was going to ruin this day for her. Nothing will ruin it for them.
Big Mac found Twilight sitting on the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the hospitals garden fence that protected the huge flower made designs all around the front of the large white building.
Big Mac sat down beside his wife, who appeared to have noticed him but decided to ignore him, and sat silently.
“I suppose you’re here to try and cheer me up. Tell me that everything will be better in time. That despite how this hideous eye that even scares children is actually beautiful and that she will get used to it.” Twilight said, obviously choked up and speaking with a bitter tone in her voice.
“Yup. That’s about right.” Big Mac said.
Twilight looked up at him. “But today was supposed to be a special day, Big Mac! Today I was going to get to nuzzle my new foal which I have been growing inside me for the last year almost and she would look at me with happy, loving eyes. But…But I didn’t get that, and she is scared of me, Big Mac. It’s worse than anything that’s ever happened to me. Worse than the pain of the dragon attack. You know I read up on about this for months, but no book could have prepared me for this.” Twilight let a single sob out and then straightened up.
“Twi you still have a new foal.” Big Mac said.
“But she is scared of me, are you deaf?” Twilight retorted.
“You still have a new foal.”
“But-“
“Twilight, you still have a new foal.”
Twilight looked at her husband, confused. “Big Mac have you heard what I’ve been saying? She hates me!”
“Twilight, you have spent the last year growing another living being inside your body! Think about that! Today you gave birth to a beautiful little filly, who is scared of your eye, not you. She spent the last year hearing your heartbeat and feeling safe because of you. She does not hate you, and she will get past your eye before you know it. And then we will be a family. No, we already are a family, Twi.” Big Mac said.
Twilight looked at him for a minute, and smiled weakly. “How is it that you said exactly what I said you would say, and yet it still worked?”
“Because it’s true.” Big Mac replied, smiling.
They stood up and started walking in.
“Twilight!” Somepony suddenly yelled from the dirt path behind them that led back to the main area of Ponyville.
Big Mac and Twilight spun around to see Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack all trotting down the path.
The couple smiled. “Hey guys!”
As they arrived to the stairs Rarity smiled excitedly. “Well?”
“Well what?” Twilight asked, faking innocence.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Don’t tease sugarcube, you know good and well what we want to know first.”
Twilight smiled. “It’s a filly.”
The others cheered for a second, then urged her to continue.
“Well, what’s her name?” Pinkie asked impatiently.
Twilight and Big Mac looked at each other and nodded. “We came up with this about a month ago. Her name is Sparkling Apple.”
And with one last “Aww” from the girls, they all reentered the hospital to return to the new foal.
17 years later
“UGH!” Sparkling Apples groaned in frustration and threw her schoolbook onto the bed under her.
She wished that Cherilee would go back to taking care of the younger foals. Ever since she became the teacher for the graduating class she had a terrible knack for overworking the students.
What, did Cherilee not expect them to have lives other than school? It seemed that way, since she had three reports due the next morning that were assigned earlier that day. Three reports per subject, that is. And then she had to sleep.
Right, like that was going to happen.
“Sparkling Apples, Could you come down here for a minute sweetie?” Her mom, Twilight, called from the kitchen on the first floor.
Sparkling put her hoof to her face in frustration. “Mom, please, I need to focus. Cherilee has practically assigned me something from every book in the whole bucking library!”
“I know, but…we need to talk.” Twilight called back, a tone that seemed half command half plead.
Groaning, Sparks got up and started walking down the stairs. this better be good, I’m going to have to stay up late as it is! She thought in frustration as she reached the bottom of the stairs and turned a corner to the kitchen.
Soon after Twilight and Big Mac had married, Big Mac had recruited the assistance of Applejack and Rainbow Dash to help assemble him and his wife a home for themselves on the Apple property. Applejack wore a special iron horseshoe that protected her hoofs and bucked nails into place while Rainbow Dash was able to fly around and secure stuff and she would run errands, given that she was by far the fastest. It was also helpful that she was able to keep the rain away. Even Twilight helped by moving things around with her magic and bending iron rods into shape for the inner structuring and Big Mac mostly hauled supplies and blueprinted everything. It came together quite nicely into a nine room home, four bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, living room, a one room basement and a storage room. It was not exactly the smallest house, but there were bigger in existence.
So anyways, back to the present.
“Sparkling, dear, you may want to sit down.” Twilight suggested hesitantly as Big Mac walked into the room from the living room.
Sparks did as she was told, repressing her urge to raise her eyebrows. Her mom was odd, yes. A bookworm, yes. But not unsure of herself. She always knew what to say next and never started a sentence she didn’t know how to finish.
But this was different. Her mother was acting…different. It worried Sparks somewhat. Her mother was hesitant, almost stuttering. It was unnerving, and the look her mother gave Big Mac and the solemn nod he gave back was not encouraging either. Something was happening. What was wrong?
“Sparkling, I don’t know to approach this subject. I’ve looked in books, asked around, I even asked Princess Celestia. The only answer I have received is to come straight out with it.”
Sparks looked at her mother intensely, nervousness slowly etching in her face. Something’s up. Mom is never like this. She thought, swallowing hard. “Okay, what is it?”
Twilight looked at her daughter for a second, before she announced it.
“I’m pregnant.”
Oh, that’s it.
Wait.
Oh!
OH! THAT’S IT!
Twilight’s face reddened and she smiled sheepishly as she peered at her daughters shocked face. What if her daughter didn’t take it well? What if she felt like she was being replaced? The books said it was a possibility.
Sparks face suddenly lifted a bit. “So…I’m going to be a big sis?”
Twilight sighed slightly in relief. “Yes, dear. It’s a filly. I’m four months along.”
Sparks face once again showed shock. Four months?! How could she not have noticed?! She looked at her mother’s stomach and indeed it bulged slightly. It was subtle, but considering it was her mother Sparks was astounded she didn’t notice it.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Sparks asked, not hurt but confused.
“I wasn’t sure how to say it. I said that. It is big news, after all.” Twilight looked apologetically at her daughter.
“I need to think.” Sparks said, getting up and walking towards the front door.
Twilight watched her daughter leave, sighing. “I hope she accepts this. We should have talked to her before we let this happen.” She says more to herself than her husband who was now beside her.
“It will be okay, Twi. She just needs to think.” Big Mac comforted.
Twilight smiled. “I hope so.”
***
Sparks walked out from under the arched entry to Sweet Apple Acers. She felt bad that she left so abruptly. She didn’t want her mom thinking she wasn’t happy about her sister, she really was. It was just big news, and she needed to take a walk to sort out her thoughts.
As she walked, she came to the old town clubhouse. She smiled. It was the place her mother and father had admitted there love to each other. For a few seconds her mind was not on the big news as she imagined a younger version of her mother squealing ever so quietly “I love you.” And then her father freezing in his tracks, turning around with wide eyes and then a grin on breaking out on his face.
If it hadn’t been for Pinkie Pie’s party, who knows what would have happened. She still loved to hear the story.
She continued walking, wondering when she would fall in love. It wasn’t the first time she had wondered this either. How is it that she had never even had a coltfriend? She had a few crushes, sure, but none of them ever turned into anything. She was very pretty, she knew that. Even though none of the colts were asking her out, she could tell they thought she was pretty. They were nervous and trying to play it cool when they talked to her. It was cute in its own way, but it made it hard for
her to befriend colts in general because they never really show there true selves.
She was friends with most of the other fillies and mares though, so it didn’t bother her too much. Her best friend was her cousin, Red Apple. Red, Applejack’s daughter, had been born only months after Sparks. She had grown up in another home on the Apple property. Applejack had married shortly after Twilight….but that’s another story (*wink wink*). Big Mac and the crew had built Applejack and her love a home as well. It was quite close to Sparks’s home, and Sparks and Red had spent a lot of time both doing farm work and general hanging out together. They did many things together, but mostly they just talked. They grew quite close; few secrets were held between the two. They were like ‘two peas in a pod,’ so to speak.
Sparks suddenly looked up from her thoughts and realized she had reached the outskirts of town. She looked at the massive magical tree that housed the Ponyville library. She smiled. Spike still maintained that library, despite how he was now almost too big to get through the door. It was amazing how slow dragons grow, but I guess that’s one of the symptoms
of being part of a race that lives hundreds of years. He had been quite understanding when Twilight moved out. She hated to leave him, her Number One Assistant, but someone had to take care of the library. He was all too happy to do the job, so that’s exactly what happened and is happening to this day.
Sparks smiled and turned around to return home. As she walked, she walked directly by Sugar Cube Corner. She walked up to it briefly, thinking. The sweets store was still ran by the elderly Cake couple. They were about to be grandparents now, one of the twins had married. And the other was off in Manehattan where she was performing on broadhay (I suck at giving pony names to real places, I know) Pinkie Pie was to receive the shop when the Cakes retired, which wasn’t too far in the future. Pinkie was as crazy as ever, nothing really changing with her since Twilight and Big Mac got hitched.
Sparks was about to continue walking back to her home when she suddenly looked to the roof of Sugar Cube Corner. There was a young, familiar looking stallion on the roof, a pile of schoolbooks at his side. He lay watching the clouds. He seemed content with the world.
Sparks sighed. She wished everything was as peaceful for her as it was for him.
As she started to turn away suddenly there was a noise.
The next thing she knew the stallion had fallen from the roof and had landed squarely on top of her, a deafening “Crack!” of a bone snapping in one or the other or both of their bodies as they collapsed to the ground, groaning.
Okay, Sparks thought, wincing as she noticed a definite pain in her front leg. Maybe his life isn’t so peaceful either.
