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// Divulgence (Part II)// Story: Winter's Child// by Softy8088//------------------------------//

Author's Note: I am well-aware that this chapter is huge. Although I couldn't decide on any spot that would act as a good break, that does not mean you have to read it all in one go. Feel free to take a break whenever a pony starts telling their individual story. Or whenever you feel like it, really.



Applejack opened her eyes. Starting from the closest, her gaze moved sequentially through each pony presently forming a concerned semicircle around the couch she lay on; two unicorn mares, one pegasus mare, and one large earth pony stallion. Twilight was glad to see that her impromptu patient’s every look was one of immediate recognition. 

Feeling at her forehead, Applejack’s hoof removed the damp washcloth which had been placed there just seconds prior.

“Yo, Applejack? You alright?” Rainbow Dash asked, coming in a little closer. “How many hooves am I holding up?”

The orange pony’s scowl showed that, if nothing else, she had understood both the question as well as its agonising triteness. “Uhh. What happened?” she slurred half-dazedly.

Having already taken over de facto leadership duties of Applejack’s care, Twilight shoved the pegasus aside, collected the discarded cloth, and proceeded to examine the supine mare’s pupils – something she knew could hold hints to any potential brain damage. They appeared normal even as their owner flinched at her up-close scrutiny, and the rest of Twilight’s mental flowchart was updated accordingly; there would most likely be no need to get her friend to a hospital. “You collapsed in the barn,” she said, making sure to enunciate her words loudly and clearly. “We brought you inside the house because it was getting cold and dark. You’ve been unconscious for about five minutes. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The downed mare moved her head in a tiny nod.

Twilight sighed in relief. “Good. You’re showing the classic symptoms of reflex syncope. I think it was just situational stress that triggered your episode,” she explained, momentarily glaring the fires of Tartaros at Rainbow Dash. “You should be fine if you just rest a bit. If you feel up to it, you can try sitting up. Slowly,” she cautioned.

Another nod. With a cyan and a purple hoof guiding her, Applejack lifted her upper body and sat on her haunches, a brief sway giving way to a more solid position. For a moment she seemed to be searching for something around the room, but located it soon enough. Twilight followed her line of sight to the familiar Stetson lying on a nearby table, which Rarity had remembered to bring along from the barn where it had been rudely separated from its collapsed owner. She laughed inwardly at her friends’ priorities, but the mirth died away quickly.

Applejack looked crestfallen. Her gaze had affixed itself firmly to the floor. “Wasn’t a dream, was it?”

“Nope,” Big MacIntosh stated.

“Then… ya’ll know ’bout me an’ Big Mac…?”

“Indeed,” Rarity confirmed.

The earth pony winced, and finally looked at Twilight – but not quite up to the level of the unicorn’s face. “And… you’re really…?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered, giving her enlarged belly a quick stroke. “Six-and-a-half months.”

“And ya said that… Shining Armor? Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Rainbow Dash interrupted before Twilight could begin. “Hah! You two should form a club, you kno– mwwwmmm– mmphffff– bleh!” She spat out the rag which had been stuffed into her mouth by what had clearly been two distinct shades of magic aura.

Applejack showed little, if any, reaction to the winged mare’s antics, instead looking at Twilight with an expression that the purple pony was having trouble interpreting. If she had to guess, she’d call it worry, but it was also tinted with something else. Curiosity, maybe. Or… purpose?

“Are… you okay, Twilight?” the earth pony asked cautiously, as if even this simple question could be taken for an insult.

“I’m fine. I had a medical check-up recently, and everything’s normal with me and the foal,” Twilight replied. “I’ve already decided I’m going to raise her here in Ponyville.”

“I meant… uh… did… yer brother… uh… I mean… are ya, y’know… alright?” Applejack pressed.

Twilight greatly disliked the way ponies often surrendered perspicuity in the name of tact. She wished her friend would be more straightforward, since the current question could be interpreted many different ways, each necessitating a different class of answer. Twilight certainly felt alright, both emotionally and physically. The tone of Applejack’s words was so weighty and sharp that it almost made it sound like a threat toward…

It clicked. The pattern matched. Celestia had asked the same thing. She’d been asking…

“I’m perfectly fine,” the unicorn insisted. “Shining Armor would never do that! It was consensual.” She chuckled. “Believe me, it was very consensual.” Remembering that she had an audience, she produced a conspicuous cough and changed the subject before her face had a chance to heat up. “Are you feeling any light-headedness? Nausea? Are there any disruptions to your vision? Black spots? White spots? Can you hear everything I’m saying clearly?”

“Uh, yeah, I think I’m good.” Applejack’s hoof kneaded against her chest. “Feelin’ a lil’ thirsty, I guess...”

“I’m on it!” Rainbow Dash volunteered, rushing off. For once, the action was particularly appropriate.

“Any other symptoms?” Twilight grasped Applejack’s fetlock to check her pulse.

“No.” The earth pony shook her head. “It was just… stress… like ya said before.” She sniffed. “Oh, Celestia, what’ve I done?” She buried her face in her hooves.

Twilight hesitated at first, unsure of how to proceed, but ultimately decided to go through with her first instinct and joined her friend on the couch, delicately wrapping a forelimb over the earth pony’s withers. Applejack didn’t react. She wasn’t crying, though she did seem morbidly embarrassed by the whole situation, with her eyes reduced to thin slivers and her ears plastered against her temples as her hooves fell away. ‘I can’t really blame her,’ Twilight thought as she noted that, slowly but surely, Applejack was already starting to come around. ‘At least the worst is over.’ In actuality, the young unicorn could see this becoming a positive influence on their friendship. Once the awkwardness of the unplanned and admittedly disastrously-executed revelation subsided, she and Applejack would have common ground on which to share their experiences and bond. Unquestionably uncommon common ground.

For most of her life, Twilight could talk openly with only her brother about their illicit relationship. While he had proven himself to be a considerate – if sometimes clueless – partner in both intercourse and the other kind of intercourse, he was a male, with typically male thoughts and needs. More recently, Twilight had been able to confide in her new sister-in-law, whose open-minded views on love and its myriad expressions had been nothing short of fascinating. But even the youthful princess hadn’t had the raw personal experience of hiding away a forbidden liaison; of risking all respect and reputation and submerging in conspiracy for a taboo moment of erotic bliss.

But Applejack did. She and Twilight were more alike than either of them had ever expected, and there was so much to discuss.

The pregnant pony was already halfway into excitedly formulating an incest-topiced questionnaire when Rainbow arrived carrying a tall glass of opaque, bright, orange-yellow liquid, and presented it to the earth pony with a smile that spoke of some inside joke between the two.

It was orange juice.

Given the earth pony’s well-known penchant for liking all things made from the fruit that was her namesake, Twilight was surprised to see the not-even-remotely-apple juice pull a genuine, if small, smile from her – the first one she’d seen the farmpony make that day.

“Thanks, R.D.,” Applejack said, grasping the glass and drinking greedily. In short order, she had consumed the contents, and allowed herself a sigh that was, if not outright content, then at least neutral.

“Ow!” the pegasus cried when a white hoof struck painfully into her side. “Okay, okay! I was just about to say it!” She made a show of clearing her throat as she faced her earth pony friend, her eyes lolling about the ceiling while her mouth recited in monotone, “Applejack, I’m very sorry for laughing back in the barn. I wasn’t laughing at you; I just thought the situation was funny. Our friends have let me know that my behaviour was inappropriate. I should’ve been more sensitive to your feelings and been there to support you. It’s obviously a serious matter to you and I will respect that from now on. Will you forgive me?”

Rarity had facehoofed halfway through, and Twilight barely held back the urge to do so herself. Even Big MacIntosh offered a look that was clearly somewhere south of ‘not impressed’. Applejack, on the other hoof, had gone wide-eyed and her mouth opened slightly. “You’re apologisin’ ta me? You don’t need ta… I mean, I… I forgive ya, Rainbow Dash.”

The pegasus grinned. “So, we’re cool?”

Her friend did likewise. “Yeah.”

“Hah!” She looked triumphantly to Rarity, who stared back with eyes that, if looks could kill, would have incinerated the pegasus on the spot.

“Ah-hem.”

“Oh, right. And I took three apples from the south cellar.”

Applejack frowned. “Well, now that ya could’ve asked about first.” She sighed. “I guess that’s fine, too. Not like I woulda said no, anyway.”

“Twilight was hungry, too,” Dash defended herself, “and she’s pregnant. It’s important for her to keep her energy up. It was practically an apple emergency.”

“Rainbow!” Twilight chided. “It was not!”

“It’s okay, everypony,” Applejack said. “I really don’t mind. Ya’ll are my friends–” Her voice caught on the word, and she looked down again.

“Applejack, we are,” Twilight assured, rubbing the earth pony’s back comfortingly.

“Totally,” Rainbow Dash confirmed.

They both stared expectantly at the remaining unicorn.

Rarity’s eyes flicked aside. She swallowed a large breath before speaking. “While I don’t necessarily consider the kind of liaison you and your brother have engaged in to be the best of ideas, Applejack, I will not permit it to interfere with our friendship.”

“Oh, come on!” Rainbow Dash moaned. “If you’re gonna be like that, why did you even come with us?”

“One does not have to approve of everything one’s friend does in order to support her in her time of need. That is called loyalty, Rainbow Dash; which is something I would expect you of all ponies to understand. And I’m simply being honest with Applejack, which is something I hope she will understand is born out of my respect for her.”

“Uh, guys,” Twilight interrupted, hoping to dispel the nascent argument. “Could we save this for another time? I think we need to focus on Applejack right now.”

“I’m fine,” the earth pony stated, bit-by-bit reconstructing her characteristic confidence and a raising a solid smile to go with it. “Rainbow, I’m real glad I can count on ya, but ya don’t need to be defendin’ me. Not now, anyway. I can handly myself. An’ Rarity, I do appreciate yer honesty. To tell ya the truth, you’re takin’ this much better than I woulda guessed. You all are. I can’t tell ya how grateful I am to have friends like you.”

She turned. “And Twilight... I’m mighty sorry for stirrin’ up all this here drama. Here I am fussin’ ’bout myself like some lil’ filly losin’ her lolly at the carnival, when you’re the one in a real pickle come lookin’ fer my support.” It had taken a few minutes, but Applejack at last returned – with interest – the hug she had been given, encasing her unicorn friend with much-welcomed warmth. “I want ya ta know, I’m here for ya. An’ in case it ain’t obvious, I won’t be judgin’ ya for bein’ with yer brother.”

Twilight beamed, eagerly expanding her own embrace to include both forelegs. “Thank you, Applejack.”

“I gotta know, though. You bein’ pregnant... that was an accident, right? Please tell me ya didn’t actually plan on makin’ a baby with yer own blood.”

“It was an accident,” Twilight answered as she withdrew from the hug. A thunderhead of anger rolled over her features. “Or, more accurately, it was negligence on the part of a certain book author and publisher, who neglected to mention that their supposedly four-nines-effective contraception spell would have a much higher chance of failure under specific circumstances that would make a failure even worse than it would be ordinarily – which is a warning that any self-respecting manual should have included! Using bold print. And underline. And ALL CAPITALS!”

Only when Twilight had finished did she notice the very confused quartet of ponies watching her. There was also an irritating noise infecting the room, which she quickly identified as coming from her own grinding teeth. She stopped that.

Rarity spoke up. “So, I presume you’ve identified the error that has led to your present situation?”

“Yes, I have, thanks to an experiment I ran.” Twilight recalled how her rage at the perfidious tome had sent even her seasoned assistant scrambling for cover. “I had to decompile the spell myself, since the book didn’t include a basic thaumatocompositional diagram, but now I know precisely what went wrong.” She huffed, throwing her hooves in the air. “Books aren’t supposed to be wrong! They have to be accurate. Hundreds, even thousands of ponies rely on them every day! They’re supposed to be written by experts and have reviewers and fact-checkers and technical editors and general editors–!”

“Easy there, sugarcube. Don’t wanna get yerself worked up, now.” An orange hoof patted her shoulder. “Not in yer condition.”

The unicorn exhaled her fury and hung her head. “I know. It’s just so frustrating.”

“So, what was the problem?”

Twilight groaned. “Shining Armor is my brother.”

Applejack blinked. “Uh, yeah, I think we all got that. But what does that have to do with anythin’?”

“Everything!” the pregnant mare replied. “The spell is essentially a modified, highly-specialised version of an antibiotic. It’s meant to kill things. Sperm, to be precise.”

Most of Twilight’s audience looked away at that instant. Rainbow Dash was the lone pony who didn’t so much as blink, much less break eye contact. “So, why didn’t it work?”

“The spell was carefully crafted to avoid side-effects,” the unicorn expounded, “so it identifies its target according to very specific criteria. The material it operates on must contain equine genes and... Ughhh!... and the genes must be sufficiently different from the host’s own.” She breathed deeply. “The host, in this case, being me.” Her eyes lowered to her navel. Right on schedule, she felt a movement. “The primary matching algorithm is based on a Schultzpferd group-commonality matrix, which is–”

There was a noise of Rainbow Dash’s hoof connecting to her forehead.

“–complicated. I have books I can recommend to anypony interested in learning about it. The simple explanation is: Because we’re biologically related, Shining Armor and I share too many genetic markers. Fifty percent of our DNA is identical. This makes the spell less effective, to the point where it’s possible for it to not be triggered at all. And there isn’t even any feedback in that case to tell the caster that it isn’t working!”

Applejack scratched at her cheek as she pondered. “I think I get it. You’re sayin’ the magic didn’t work on yer brother’s spunk because... it thought it was a part of you.”

“Basically, yes.”

“Huh. Well, don’t that beat all.”

Twilight had a thought. “What method of birth control have you been using, Applejack? I assume you’ve been sexually active during your estrus cycle?” 

Somewhere beside her, a refined mare harrumphed gently.

Now that she considered it, she was possibly being a smidge over-enthusiastic with her questioning, especially in present company. “Oh, if... that’s not too personal.” She twiddled her hooves, yet again fighting an incoming blush.

“Nah, I don’t mind,” Applejack answered, her tone back to her everyday normal – that is, casual and collected. “The method we’ve been usin’... well, it’s called ‘pullin’ out’. You mighta heard of it.” Her muzzle couldn’t hold back the tiniest of smirks and the corner of her eye wrinkled just a little bit.

Twilight was unimpressed. “Applejack, the withdrawal method is notoriously unreliable, with even perfect-use failure rates approaching four percent per year,” she cited.

Applejack looked to the pregnant mare’s belly, then to her own. The purple pony needed no special skill to decipher that particular message. Empirical evidence – the best kind – was stacked unanimously against her. 

“A sample of two is not valid,” she denounced irately. “Under ordinary circumstances, the spell I’ve been using fails less than one in ten thousand times. It was the best one I could find!” Forelegs crossed, she stared from beneath bunched brows at a section of suddenly-fascinating wallpaper. “Of course, the book didn’t say that for first-degree blood relatives, the effectiveness drops to one in ten. Period.” No other voice surfaced to break the mute pause, and she mentally blocked her peripheral vision to avoid assessing how uncomfortable she had made the room. “I still beat the odds,” she concluded as her expression faded into resignation, and she found herself unconsciously caressing her stomach.

“Hey,” Applejack said with a comforting gaze. “You’ll be alright.”

“I know.” Twilight leaned back, finding the couch growing ever more comfortable as it cradled her weight with not-unpleasing squeaks. “It’s not like I never wanted to have a foal of my own. I just didn’t think it would happen like this. And now. I’m still so young...”

The earth pony chuckled. “Well, you always were...”

“...an overachiever,” Rainbow Dash finished.

When Twilight laughed, they all did; even the sober Rarity cracked a ladylike giggle.

“I’m going to have to read so many books,” the purple mare decreed halfway between apprehension and anticipation. “Taking care of a foal is so complicated.”

“Aww, don’t fret too much, sugarcube. Raisin’ lil’ ones is the most natural thing in the world a mare can do,” Applejack encouraged. “An’ you’re plenty smart. You’ll catch on pretty quick; I guarantee it. An’ if ya find yerself in a bind, ya can always drop by my farm. Call on me whenever ya need. An’ not just me, either. Ain’t an Apple alive that won’t help a pony in trouble – ’specially a mother with her foal.”

The words hit their mark, and Twilight relaxed further, her confidence in her abilities and her future rising up like a sturdy barn being built – with the help of her capable friends as her construction crew. In fact, the framing and siding was finished; all it really needed now was a good coat of paint. “That really is wonderful to hear, Applejack. With my closest friends, and Shining Armor and Cadance supporting me, I know I’ll be able to make this work!”

The earth pony raised her eyebrows inquisitively. “About that... I was thinkin’ I mighta bumped my head an’ started rememberin’ things that didn’t happen, but I could swear Rainbow Dash said that you told yer brother’s missus about all this.”

“I did,” Twilight confirmed. “I told them both everything.”

Applejack suddenly gave off the impression that her cushion had grown razor-sharp spines. “An’... how exactly did Cadance react when she found out her hubby was foolin’ ’round with his own sis? Hate to think that wonderful weddin’s gonna end in divorce... or a funeral.”

Twilight’s hoof shot up to suppress her amusement. “Cadance has known about me and Shining for a long time. She’s never minded us being together. In fact, the idea is a bit of a turn-on for her.”

The orange mare blinked away her surprise with a brief side-to-side of her head. Clearly she hadn’t been expecting to hear that. “Really, now?”

“Hah! Cadance is mare after my own heart!” Rainbow Dash interjected, tapping her chest. “It makes perfect sense if you ask me. Her special talent is love, right? Seeing ponies in love turns her on, plus she doesn’t seem much like the possessive type, either. I totally get why incest gets her juices flowing. I mean, you’ve got a brother and sister who love each other already, and then they go ahead and take that to the next level by getting physical. You’ve got so much emotion going on, and you know the other pony so well even the first time you do it, the sex must be absolutely mind-blowingly amazing! I’m surprised that it doesn’t happen all the time. It’s like an awesome erotic love overload! If that’s not super hot, I don’t know what is!” The exuberant pegasus beat her wings several times for emphasis.

Applejack stared at her blankly. “Yer an only child, aren’t ya?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“...Never mind. So, the Princess gave her permission for you and yer brother to fool around. And the two of ya makin’ a baby didn’t rattle her none?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Twilight answered, trying to condense the hours she and Cadance had spent talking into a few words. “She was as surprised as anypony, but she understands that it was an accident and we all knew it was something that could happen, however unlikely. She doesn’t want it to break apart the relationship we all have – she was very insistent about that. And she thinks that the foal should be the most important thing for us right now. She’s really been so amazing and supportive through the whole ordeal that I’ve decided to name my daughter after her.” An image flashed beneath her eyelids, of a tiny newborn filly asleep and content in her forelegs. Inexplicably – or perhaps not – the child she imagined had a radiant pink coat.

Applejack whistled. “I’d’ve guessed that she’d be yer biggest hurdle if she ever found out, but seems ya’ll got yer ducks in a row. I gotta say, you’re one lucky mare, Twilight.”

The unicorn considered the statement. Her eyes closed and her cheeks bunched with a smile. “Yes. I am.”

“Seems ta me like you’ve been keepin’ one heckuva secret from us,” the earth pony noted with a wry grin. “Not that I blame ya. Now that the cat’s outta the bag, though, I wouldn’t mind havin’ a listen to yer story sometime – if ya ever feel like tellin’ it, that is.”

That was the opening Twilight had been waiting for. She hardly needed any prodding to spill her soul, at long last, to the only pony that she had ever known to share her extraordinary experience and could truly understand her predicament. She desperately wanted Applejack to hear this story.

Technically ‘now’ qualified as ‘sometime’, didn’t it?

“Well, it all started a long time ago,” she began, barely cognizant that she was opening the floodgates of a truly immense reservoir. As Applejack listened intently, Rarity carefully took up the remaining empty spot on the couch, while Rainbow Dash eagerly scooted closer to the others in a chair she had appropriated at some indeterminate point in time.

“I didn’t really know much about sex back then. I had plenty of books – our family owns a small private library – but I hadn’t really gotten to that section yet, and I didn’t even know to look there.” She laughed inwardly at her own long-forgotten innocence. “Anyway, one day while I was playing I discovered that if I... touched myself a certain way, I would become aroused. It was a new sensation, which I found very fascinating, and worthy of further study. It didn’t really feel ‘pleasant’, exactly, just really strange, but the feeling was accompanied by a strong urge to repeat my actions. I was masturbating, of course, but I didn’t understand that at the time – I didn’t even know the word.”

Rainbow Dash interrupted, “Let me guess: Shining Armor walked in on you while you were ‘doing field research’, right?”

This time, Twilight’s valiant effort in suppressing her blush proved to be for naught. Her face heated up, though not on account of the salacious nature of the topic at hoof – as her friends likely supposed – but because she was about to admit to one of her greatest failures in carrying out a practical experiment.

“Not quite,” she confessed after a few seconds of collecting her courage. “You see, no matter how hard I tried... and I tried a lot, devoting several hours each day for almost a week... I never figured out how to... I mean, I didn’t have the required information and I just couldn’t ever... um... finish.”

Rainbow shook lightly in her chair, briefly descending into muffled chortles and snorts. “Oh, that is so like you, Twilight. You’re the only pony I know who really would need an instruction manual to get herself off!”

Applejack looked quite amused as well, as her lips had scrunched into an unnatural zig-zag of a broad smile shattered by inadequately-enforced look of propriety. “I have a hunch where this is goin’...”

“So, anyway, I was embarrassed and frustrated,” Twilight pressed on, “you could even say I was angry. You might have noticed on a few occasions that I don’t take it very well when I don’t understand something. I didn’t want to go to my parents, and I didn’t know there was a whole shelf of books on equine sexual development in the house, so I did the rational thing and asked for help from the one pony whom I could always depend on.”

“Yer big brother,” Applejack inferred smartly.

Twilight nodded.

“So what happened?” Rainbow asked, leaning so far forward that she would’ve fallen flat on her face if not for the slow beating of her wings keeping her upper body aloft.

“He didn’t want to help me at first, telling me that I should go talk to our parents instead, but I could tell he knew exactly what was going on. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just tell me. It was a mystery, and I needed to know the answer. I was... persistent. I guess he couldn’t stand it, because eventually he agreed to show me what I needed to do.”

“Hold on a sec.” The orange pony held up a hoof. “By ‘show ya’, do ya mean... ‘instruct’ ya, or...”

The unicorn bit her lip. “It was a very hooves-on demonstration,” she said, shutting her eyes once more as she pulled the happy reminiscence from the mists of time. “He and I don’t have the same anatomical equipment, so it would’ve been hard for him to show me anything without touching me. It was the logical thing to do under the circumstances.”

Rainbow’s teeth shone like a crescent moon beneath the stars shimmering in her eyes. “So, I’m guessing you finally got to finish?”

Without her even realising it, Twilight’s hoof had gone off to idly play with a lock of her mane, twirling it into a small loop as her face continued its extemporaneous task as small furnace. “Shining Armor was far from clueless. He knew what it took...” she explained, losing herself in the moment and the memory. “Yeah, I did. It was my very first orgasm, and it was all thanks to my big brother.” If she tried, she could still recall the sensation of that rapturous, magical first, held on the same lofty pedestal as her first successful spell, her first A+ graded project, her first lesson under Princess Celestia, and her first command of the Elements of Harmony.

“So, then what happened?”

“Shining told me that I could take care of myself from then on. He wasn’t really comfortable with what we’d done, and... I think he felt guilty,” the purple pony recounted, her face marred by a slight frown. “But after that first time, I wouldn’t accept a substitute. I wanted him to touch me again, and even if he had a hard time admitting it at first, he wanted it too.” She leaned back again, her story flowing easily now. “Soon after that, I found those books I’d missed earlier and learned all about male and female mating habits, and I decided that I should repay Shining for what he’d done for me. He’d made me feel so good, it was only fair that I do the same for him. He was still a little hesitant, but I got him to come around.

“Things escalated after that. Every time we engaged in mutual masturbation, it felt more and more natural; more normal. I understood that it wasn’t. He’d told me that brothers and sisters weren’t supposed to do that; that it was against the rules, but I honestly didn’t care.” Her hooves unconsciously pressed at the spot where her neck and chest met. “It felt wonderful, and as long as our parents didn’t find out I knew we’d be fine. Even Shining stopped being so reluctant after a while and a few times he was the one to initiate. We kept going farther and farther with each other, getting more comfortable, bolder... until one night, finally... we went all the way.”

Something dripped onto the floor; something which may have originated as a trickle of spit oozing from the corner of Rainbow Dash’s mouth.

“Full coitus,” Twilight clarified, as if worried that her stupefied audience hadn’t grasped the previous phrasing. The pony opposite her was beaming lecherously, her pale blue ears and wings standing at attention and her hoof wiping the edge of her muzzle. Applejack’s expression was more neutral, though it held a hint of vague amusement amid a more general air of consideration and sympathy as she regarded her friend. The final mare in the group had the appearance of being somewhere very far away, her vision focussed on an unknown object many miles distant and her eyebrows and ears held low yet loose and motionless. Her pristine white coat completed the image of an alabaster statue of a grand philosopher, inexplicably located on a homely couch in a simple farmpony’s house.

“So it became a regular thing fer you after that?” Applejack spoke up once the conversational void, inhabited only by the obnoxious ticking of a clock echoing off wood-paneled walls, had stretched too long for anypony’s comfort.

Twilight was forced to come down from her retrospective high. “Actually... we sort of backed off for a while,” she recalled, letting her tone speak of the disappointment she’d felt then. “That was Shining’s idea. He said he wanted our physical intimacy to be... memorable, and not just an everyday thing. I think he was worried that I might become too attached to him; that I might stop thinking of him as my brother and try to make him my special somepony, even though I told him that he would always be my B.B.B.F.F.”

“Don’t tell me you stopped altogether?” Rainbow Dash deplored, obviously let down by this turn of narrative.

“No, not completely. Every so often, we’d still masturbate each other and engage in other kinds of intimate play, but copulation was reserved for special occasions; a few times a year; birthdays or big events. Though... when my first estrus cycle hit, I knew exactly who to go to for relief.”

Twilight and Dash’s grins were perfect reflections of each other.

Applejack’s hoof laid itself tenderly on the unicorn’s shoulder. “Well now, it seems ta me ya really did work out a special kinda kinship between you. ’Specially since I’d imagine things like that could get pretty sour if one o’ ya found yerself a special somepony... or got hitched ta somepony else.”

Twilight was about to launch into a spirited proclamation that Shining Armor had always been free to marry anypony he chose, and that she had never seen herself as owning him romantically in any way, but the restless pegasus of the group once again butted in with an eager plea.

“Tell us how you ended up in bed with Cadance!”

A fresh burst of shock crossed Applejack’s face. “Waitaminnit. Ya mean ta tell me that not only did Princess Cadance give ya and yer brother permission ta rut each other silly, but she invited ya inta bed with her?”

Twilight moved her head a couple of millimetres in nervous affirmation, her gaze flying to the sides as she rubbed the back of her neck. 

“Didn’t think I’d be sayin’ this, but I completely agree with Rainbow...”

“Hey!”

“...This story I gotta hear!”

Twilight fidgeted, playing the pretense that some loose spring in her seat had launched an attack on her hindquarters. In reality, she was simply stalling for time, and making do without a convenient teacup to aid her. “Well... this is where it gets kinda... complicated. See, when I saw Shining Armor a few weeks after the wedding, I was expecting that we wouldn’t be able to do... that anymore, since he was married and that usually implies monogamy.”

“Heh,” Applejack chuckled softly. “Now I finally unnerstand why ya got so goshdarn worked up when ya got that weddin’ invite.”

Twilight pouted. “It’s not that I wanted Shining Armor for myself forever... I just would’ve appreciated a little heads up! Maybe an opportunity for us to be intimate one last time, or at the very least a full conversation about what his decision would mean for our relationship before he committed himself. Is that really so much to ask?!” She huffed.

“But things worked out fer ya anyway, right? Yer brother agreed with Cadance before the weddin’ that he’d be bumpin’ rumps with you on occasion.”

An unnaturally cruel, bitter laugh escaped Twilight’s throat. “You give my brother too much credit, Applejack. That dork, that... blockhead thought it would be a good idea to bring up the subject after the wedding. As in: weeks after the wedding.” She loosed a small burst of steam from her nostrils. “Seriously, how stupid and thoughtless do you have to be to pull something like that?! He’s lucky Cadance was as open-minded as he hoped, or the whole thing could’ve turned into a complete disaster!” Her forelimbs gestured in ever wider and wilder arcs. “And that’s not even getting into the fact that he didn’t tell me that he’d be telling her! I only found out while we were having sex!”

“What.”

“What?”

“Whut?!”

It was an embarrassing and confusing story, but, like a magically-enlivened snowplow, Twilight’s account poured forth heedless of the mayhem that could result. “Cadance saw us together! And I panicked, because I didn’t know that she already knew because I didn’t expect Shining Armor would tell her our biggest secret because he didn’t tell me that he told her and the only thing he said was that it was okay for us to have sex and I didn’t really question it at the time and I know that was wrong because it was totally unethical of me to go along with it if I thought he was cheating on Cadance but I just couldn’t help it because I’d thought it was all over between us so when he took me to his bedroom I was just so happy and it was stupid and then Cadance came home early and saw us on the bed and I started freaking out–”

Having exhausted her current supply of air, Twilight desperately sucked in another breath. The snowplow rolled further along.

“And it turns out that Cadance had known about us even before the wedding and she never told either of us because she wanted to teach Shining Armor a lesson about honesty and trust and I kinda see why she did it that way and Shining did tell her the night before I arrived so he technically passed her test, but that doesn’t excuse her keeping us both in the dark for so long or her being a voyeur even though it wasn’t really planned on her part and she did apologise afterward and I apologised to her for almost being a homewrecker and Shining Armor apologised to us both for being such an idiot and–”

She inhaled again.

“–and we all made up and Cadance joked that to get even I could be the voyeur next time and... and the next day somehow that happened too and Cadance saw me watching and invited me so I could watch from up close and then... stuff... happened... and... and we had a threesome and it was the best sex I’ve ever had in my life!”

Twilight panted, her tunnel vision returning by degrees to a normal field.

Applejack stared wide-eyed, her jaw having all-but dislocated halfway through the verbal torrent.

Rarity appeared much the same, though she continued to gaze far-off with shrunken pupils.

Rainbow Dash slowly picked herself up off the floor. She used her wings to brush whatever detritus her coat had collected from the floorboards, and threw her forelegs over the chair, righting herself out of a wobbly daze. “Twilight... that... is... awesome! For crying out loud, why didn’t you ever tell me any of this?! That’s the best story I’ve ever heard! I bet you could make a fortune if you wrote a book about it!”

“No!” 

“You wouldn’t have to use your real name...”

“No!”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Fine. I guess I could adapt it into the novel I’m writing...”

“NO!” This time, Applejack joined Twilight.

“Aww, come on! It could even be a series, like Daring Do. ‘The Erotic Adventures of Twibright Sparkle’. And you could double your money with a spinoff series about her friend Apple–zzzp–mmmffffph!”

The light of Twilight’s horn dissipated, and she glared at the pegasus who now had a closed zipper for a mouth. “No.”

Rainbow Dash sighed, and slumped indignantly in her seat.

“Terrible book ideas aside,” Applejack commented as the flush of her own face receded, “that is one heckuva bang-up tale ya got there, Twi. Hoo-whee, I never figured you’d be one fer that kinda horseplay, but I’d never be one to gainsay a mare havin’ whatever fun she fancies under the covers. Y’always have been an extraordinary pony... in a weird, crazy way, I’d say yer little romantic escapade downright suits ya. You’re alright in my book, Twilight.”

The unicorn smiled once again. The past few minutes had been the very definition of catharsis; a massive yoke that had been around her neck for years had finally been cast aside, and the feeling of heavy weightlessness – paradoxical though it was – enveloped her body. She sighed and pressed her shoulders into the seat back, unthinkingly exposing the curve of her midsection.

Applejack’s eyes found the swell, and she examined it wordlessly. For a second or two, her mouth opened as if to say something else, but she ultimately withdrew without any utterance.

“What about you, Applejack?” Twilight’s disposition swiftly returned to its familiar home ground: Curiosity. “How did you and Big MacIntosh get together?” She posed the question with a mien that she hoped would sound unreservedly friendly and accepting. This was a story she wanted to hear.

The earth pony mare looked to her brother, her face a silent question. Equally silently, the stallion considered the request, and gave her a silent, inscrutable look back.

Twilight threw her face to the side in a fleeting panic, suddenly wishing that she had Fluttershy’s bountiful mane to obscure her. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it had happened, but somewhere near the beginning of her impassioned tell-all, she had entirely let it slip her mind that she was in the presence of a male. The fact that the stallion had taken up a position some ways distant from the group, in a quiet corner where he had made full advantage of his naturally reticent and stoic character, probably had had something to do with it.

Not that Twilight was worried about Big MacIntosh being a tattletale – if there was one thing the workpony could be relied on to do, it was to keep a secret. She also counted him as a friend. Still, as she mentally reviewed every long-held privy detail that had come spewing unchecked from her muzzle, she found herself feeling more and more self-conscious.

Maybe – just maybe – it was within the realm of possibility that she had said too much.

As her mortified lapse abated, Twilight’s ears caught the tail end of Rainbow Dash’s passionate entreaty towards Applejack, the central thrust of which was capped with the words, “It’s only fair you tell us yours! Don’t be a chicken!” The orange mare, though visibly disinclined, ultimately relented in the face of this argument, extracting out of the deal a promise that Rainbow would at least stay quiet while she talked. A few moments later, after adjusting herself upon the seat, and attempting a largely futile delay by asking if anypony cared for any food or drink – they didn’t – she was ready.

Her words came unhurried, with the occasional pause or backtrack slowing the pace even more, and coloured with bittersweetness – yet there was strength to them that Twilight immediately identified as being rooted in Applejack’s pure, unvarnished honesty.

“It started a couple o’ years back. I guess you could say I always had a soft spot fer Big MacIntosh,” she said, directing a small nod toward the soundless brother in question, “an’ we were always close... Not like that, I mean. Not yet. Just... after ma and pa... we had ta rely on each other. All the way. No questions, no doubts. Couldn’t afford any o’ that. Not if we wanted ta keep the farm and bring Apple Bloom up right. We still had Granny Smith with us, bless her, but she was already gettin’ on in years an’ a mare like that can only do so much. It was tough... tougher’n anythin’, but, bit-by-bit, we managed.”

Here, Applejack stopped, and the wistful droop of her features gave way to a soft smile of gratitude as she found a purple hoof laid atop her own.

“I loved Big MacIntosh. I loved him not just ’cause he was my blood, but fer all the things he did, fer workin’ so hard every darn day no matter the weather, fer takin’ care o’ me and Apple Bloom, fer talkin’ sense when nopony else seemed ta have any, fer always bein’ there, strong an’ dependable. There were nights, early on, when he’d hold me on account o’... on...”

Applejack worked her throat, trying to dislodge some painful obstruction with an awkward cough.

“...on account I’d sometimes wake up cryin’ in the middle o’ the night. Didn’t even know why. Didn’t remember any dreams, any nightmares... I’d just cry an’... an’ he’d hold me till I stopped an’ went back ta sleep. Some nights... I caught him cryin’, too.” She straightened, brushing away the dampness beneath her eyes. “Didn’t matter none, though. I knew nothin’ could ever break him. I could always count on him. I loved him, I respected him an’... an’ I trusted him. Completely.

“I didn’t think o’ him as anythin’ but my brother, mind. Not that I never had... thoughts, y’know? I always knew he was good lookin’, handsome... an’ sometimes a filly’s imagination can get away from her... ’specially when she’s fertile and hasn’t had any attention from a real stallion.” Applejack’s cheeks shifted hue. “I always told myself it was just hormones messin’ with my head, an’ it always went away, eventually. Big MacIntosh was my brother, an’ that was that, and I couldn’t be happier fer it. Wasn’t a tougher, smarter, better stallion in all of Equestria a little sister could look up to. An’ I knew someday he’d find himself somepony an’ make her the luckiest mare alive. An’ nothin’ ever happened between us, till... well... like I said, it really started a couple years ago.”

There was another lengthy pause, but in spite of the golden opportunity it presented, Rainbow Dash remained true to her word, sitting as silent as the rest, awaiting the continuation with bated breath. Big MacIntosh, still in his corner, had flipped several times between gazing off at random walls and looking meaningfully into his sister’s eyes at the key points of her tale, his expression somehow never changing from its indomitable stolidity. Twilight had to tilt her head to gain a view of the other side of the couch, where Rarity still sat, looking more serious and pondering and seemingly farther away than ever.

With a drawn-out exhale through her nostrils, Applejack tread on. “Big Mac’d come home late one night. He’d gone on a date with some filly from town... can’t even rightly remember her name anymore.” Another silent question flew the stallion’s way.

“Peaches And Cream,” he replied.

Applejack snerked. “Ah, that’s right. Now I remember; messin’ with him, congratulatin’ him on gettin’ two mares at once. I said at that rate, he’d have his own herd in no time. P.C. was a mighty nice girl, though, wasn’t she?”

“Eeyup.”

Not held to the same vow of silence as Rainbow Dash, Twilight chose to gently nudge the tale forward when the next lull presented itself. “Well, things obviously didn’t work out. What happened?”

“We decided we’d be better as friends,” the stallion said, neither joy nor regret apparent in his voice.

“If I remember right,” Applejack expanded, “Peaches ’n’ Cream had plans to travel Equestria, someday settle down in some big city...”

“Applewood.”

“Right. She an’ Big Mac decided then and there it wouldn’t make a lick o’ sense fer them ta get together, on account o’ Big Mac needin’ ta stay at Sweet Apple Acres an’ run the place. They had a nice dinner, promised ta keep in touch, he walked her home like a proper gentlecolt... and then he came here. Past midnight, so I was the only one still up. He said he’d had a good time ’n’ all, but there was somethin’ about the way he said it... I dunno. He seemed sad, or just disappointed.”

“Wasn’t either,” the stallion countered placidly. “I was just thinkin’. Ain’t a crime to do that sometimes, A.J.”

“Heh. I didn’t buy that hooey back then, I sure as sugar don’t buy it now,” his sister taunted. “I tried ta cheer him up by sayin’ he’d find somepony, there were plenty of apples in the orchard an’ such. Then I said...” Applejack’s expression shifted into a forlorn sort of glare, which her wavering smile couldn’t hide. “I said anypony’d be darn lucky to have him, and I’d be the one in the family who’d probably end up an old spinster... Ugh! It was a darn right daft thing ta say then...”

Applejack’s hoof made a motion to pull her hat over her face in embarrassment, apparently not having gotten the message that her Stetson was still lying on the table some ways away. Twilight helpfully levitated it over to her, and rubbed Applejack’s shoulder.

The mare trifled with the headpiece in her forehooves. “So the whole thing got turned around an’ now he was the one tryin’ ta cheer me up. We got ta complimentin’ each other, crackin’ dirty jokes, talkin’ ’bout how neither of us had been havin’ any luck, romantically speaking. A bottle o’ hard cider helped. He told me I was smart, an’ attractive, an’... an’...”

“...Beautiful,” said a deep voice.

“Yeah... that.” The orange pony’s face was flushed, and Twilight was worried it was all becoming too much for her, but the brave mare forged ahead. “An’ I told him he only said that ’cause I was his sis, an’ he had to say that kinda flowery stuff ta me. An’ I said some things about him, too, but then I asked if he thought I was sexy.” She laughed curtly. “It was still a joke, y’see, we were just teasin’ with each other, drinkin’, laughin’, and he said that... that I was very sexy, and I said he was sexy, too, and I mighta said somethin’ about how big he was... in more ways’n one...”

It was a social faux pas to wear a hat indoors. Applejack put hers on anyway, forcing it as low on her forehead as she could.

“An’ I asked if he’d have me if we weren’t brother an’ sister, an’... he said he’d go all night with a mare like me; treat me right.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t see underneath the light brown brim, but looking from the side, Twilight could:

Applejack was crying.

And smiling.

“An’ then he asked if I’d do him if we weren’t related an’ I said... I... I asked why that should even stop us.” She sniffled. “An’ he laughed and said he couldn’t rightly see any reason, and we should just head to the barn right then, an’... an’ we kept sayin’ these things an’ it all just kept gettin’ more... filthy... like some kinda perverted contest neither one of us could stand ta lose... an’ we talked ’bout what we’d do to each other an’ how we’d do all that stuff nopony else could do fer us and describin’... acts... an’ we kept shootin’ off our muzzles fer so long... until we both realised neither one of us was jokin’ ’round anymore.”

She pushed her hat back and wiped away her tears.

“An’ now that I think about it... maybe we never were ta begin with.” 

She used the other hoof to wipe the perspiration on her forehead as a tattered breath escaped her lips. “An’ I looked him in the eye an’ said I loved him an’ wanted him, and he said the same thing ta me... and I asked whether he wanted to try... just one time... an’ nopony would need ta know... just us...”

A breeze flowed over the couch as Rainbow Dash stabilised herself with a flutter, her chair’s legs squeaking as their weight shifted out of a dangerous forward lean. The pegasus crossed her forelimbs and played the incident coolly, in a way that was convincing to absolutely nopony.

Applejack chuckled, genuinely amused. “I bet you’re dyin’ to know what happened next, right, Rainbow?”

Dash nodded cautiously.

The earth pony presented a sideways smirk, rolling her eyes puckishly. “Well, now, I dunno. Ya might not wanna hear this next part,” she said with false concern. “I guarantee it’s gonna give ya quite a start. I wouldn’t wanna say anythin’ to upset you. Ya sure ya can handle it, R.D.? Ya really wanna know what we did next?”

Dash nodded vigorously.

“Well, alright, then. Big Mac, ya care ta do the honours? Tell her what happened between us that night.”

“Eeyup.” The stallion moved toward the group ominously, stopping at Rainbow Dash’s side. He fixed her with his intense green eyes. Even sitting straight up in a chair, the pegasus was shorter than the red workpony, and his stony stance made him look all the more colossal in relation to her comparatively inconsequential frame. The sheer presence of his being seemed enough to crush the smaller pony into a ball. She held her breath – a state Twilight noticed she herself was in, and quickly corrected with a measured exhale. The charge of the room built up as Big MacIntosh opened his mouth...

“Nothin’ happened.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Wh– what?”

“We didn’t have sex,” the red earth pony said, dropping his eyelids back into tranquility.

Incomprehension painted the pegasus’ face. “But... why?”

“We both had half a bottle o’ cider in us!” Applejack explained with a dose of irritation mixed with prankish victory. “We knew we weren’t thinkin’ straight. We’d both just confessed ta feelin’s we didn’t know we had an’ didn’t unnerstand. We weren’t just gonna jump each other’s bones right there! Land sakes! We ain’t harebrained teenagers no more, Rainbow Dash! Incest ain’t somethin’ ta be taken lightly. Apple Bloom an’ Granny Smith were sleepin’ right upstairs. D’ya even know how bad it coulda been if either one o’ them found us doin’ the deed?”

Applejack tensed briefly, as though informed that a large spider was crawling along her back. She smoothed her Stetson downward and shook the feeling off. “The only thing we did... we made a promise. That we’d sleep on it, wait a few days, and if in a week’s time we still felt the same way... then we’d talk about it an’ see if we couldn’t figure somethin’ out. Then we went ta bed. Our own beds.”

Rainbow could do nothing but stare dumbly with her ears cupped downward, having had the story’s predicted salacious end so mercilessly swiped away.

Twilight found herself equally surprised, but in a much more positive direction. She had always known Applejack to be a mare who valued practicality and sound decision making, even under stress. Her brother possessed those qualities in even greater abundance. The Apple siblings’ greatest character flaw – stubbornness – often translated into an unwillingness to engage in risky ventures or indulge in frivolity until all serious matters had been resolved, often to their advantage.

The unicorn’s heart swelled with admiration for Applejack and Big MacIntosh’s display of reason and self-control. She also had to admit the flustered, betrayed look on Rainbow Dash’s face was proving to be a most entertaining counterpoint to the emotional load of Applejack’s story, and she screwed up her muzzle holding in a giggle. If there was any shade at all in the situation, it was a small sting of jealousy at how well Applejack had handled temptation in contrast to Twilight and her brother’s own unplanned, pushy, and bumbling first incestuous experience.

“So, what did you do after waiting a week?” she asked at length.

“We talked,” Applejack answered, back to being serious. “An’ it turned out, even with clear heads, we still felt that way. We wanted ta be more than just brother an’ sister. An’ we decided, long as nopony was gettin’ hurt, long as nopony else knew an’ the farmwork got done like normal... we could give it a shot. It could be a thing just between us; our secret. We wouldn’t force anythin’, we’d just meet up alone an’... see what happened.”

Twilight nodded in approval.

“What happened was... well, it was great. An’ since we both liked it, we made it a regular thing from then on.” With a drawn-out huff and slackening muscles, Applejack removed her hat and laid it carefully aside. “An’ as good as it felt ta get this yarn off my chest, those times... well, they’re private fer a reason, an’ I hope y’all understand I won’t be goin’ inta any details.”

Twilight swallowed her disappointment. It tasted bitter, like mouldy hay. “We understand, Applejack. Everypony has a right to privacy.”

“You cheated!” Rainbow Dash declared bitterly. “You promised to tell us about your first time with Big MacIntosh.”

“I did not,” Applejack hit back. “I promised to answer Twilight’s question, which was ’bout how Mac an’ I got ta be together. I never promised to tell what happened after.”

The cyan mare made a noise that wasn’t quite a word, but sounded like a scurrility regardless.

Twilight had to concede the earth pony’s words to be true. “I thought it was a fascinating story, and I’m glad you trusted us enough to tell it, Applejack.” She offered the mare beside her a simple hug, and received a heartfelt smile and small nuzzle in exchange. “What about you, Rarity?” she asked, leaning over to assess the unicorn that, to her growing bewilderment, seemed determined to claim victory over Big MacIntosh himself for that evening’s Quietest Pony Award. 

“Hmm?” The white mare snapped to attention from whatever concentrated depths she’d mired herself in. “Oh, yes. Yes! I’m... I’m glad you and Big MacIntosh were able to make an informed choice about your relationship, and I do sincerely hope you both fare well. I... simply couldn’t help thinking about something Twilight said earlier...” Her muzzle scrunched as if presented with some unpleasant odour, then relaxed as a hooficured digit joined it with a gentle, refined tap. “There is a... detail I’d like to confirm. My dear, may I pose a question concerning you and Shining Armor, and your relationship?”

“Uh... sure.”

“M-hmm. You said when this sexual... rapport of yours first began, you were just discovering the joy of self-pleasuring, correct?”

“Yeah...” Twilight didn’t know why, but she was beginning to tense up.

“And you had never been in heat, nor experienced an orgasm, yes?”

“That’s right...”

“You didn’t even know what masturbation was, am I correct?”

The purple pony bobbed her head.

“Twilight...” Rarity asked with overpowering gravitas. “How old were you?”

Silence reigned.

Twilight felt an all-too-familiar surge of panic swelling. There were four pairs of eyes in the room with her, and at that moment they were all piercing through her, impaling her insides. More sharp things hung above her, waiting in judgement for her answer, ready to skewer her completely as she sat helpless, caged.

“D– do you mean, the first time we copulated, or... the first time he touched me?” It was an idiotic question, considering the two events were separated by only weeks.

“Either,” Rarity replied without mercy.

“I was...” Twilight’s limbs fidgeted, weight shifting every which way, her brain running circles around itself trying to come up with something clever-sounding. “...young.” She already knew where her friend was going with this line of questioning, and she desperately did not want to join her there.

The other unicorn nodded slowly. “All right. Answer me one question, then: Twilight, did you have your cutie mark?”

Twilight looked to the others, but they were of no help. There was no escape. Refusal to answer would be taken as a sign of guilt in front of her friends, the Equestrian Charter Of Rights be damned. A daring exit via teleportation even moreso. Twilight steeled. Her friends had been accepting so far, she told herself; she just had to trust them a little farther. “N– no. It happened before that. Before I met Princess Celestia.”

Applejack and Big MacIntosh exchanged looks, the meaning of which was unclear, but definitely not positive. Rainbow Dash tilted her head. Rarity sighed, her brows bunching up. “Then you were a pre-pubescent filly who was molested by her older brother.”

Something within Twilight surged. She had been preparing her defenses, all of which now went into overdrive. “I was not molested, Rarity!” That came out louder than she had intended. She didn’t want to sound defensive. “You heard my story. I was the one who initiated the whole thing. I wanted it.”

“I heard your story, darling,” the other mare answered, her tone infuriatingly calm and controlled. “You told us you didn’t even comprehend what sex was. Instead of taking the correct, ethical course of action and directing you to a proper source of information, your brother took advantage of you.”

“Only because I asked him to!” That was too loud, again. “And he didn’t take advantage of me; he helped me. It was a wonderful experience.”

Rarity’s head shook sadly. “I understand why you may think that. I’ve heard that it can happen in children who have been in your situation. They make excuses, to protect the ones they love, but that does not make it right. Even if one looks past the obvious problem of incest, you were too young – far too young and naive to consent to any sort of sexual activity.”

Twilight wanted to shout, but the wise, experienced, reasoned part of her was strong and fortunately just fast enough to grip the reins and shut her mouth before she said something regrettably stupid and self-incriminating. She wanted to argue with Rarity, throw every bit of psychology and ethical theory she knew right into the white mare’s face – but Rarity did not want to fight. The expression in her firm yet compassionate eyes made that clear. The unicorn wasn’t attacking; merely standing her ground.

Her words still sounded insulting, though.

Twilight sought assistance. “Applejack, you understand what I’m saying, right? It was consensual.”

The earth pony ran a hoof over her mane, a guilty glimmer in her eyes. “Well, now, I... I didn’t wanna say anythin’. I guess I was hopin’ this all happened when ya were a teen, but I hafta agree with Rarity on this one. It ain’t right fer a filly that young ta be foolin’ ’round, ’specially if she don’t even know what she’s gettin’ herself into.”

“I knew!” Twilight responded. Still too loud. And whiny. “I read all the introductory sexual guides, the mating chapter of the Unabridged Equine Biology Reference Manual, I even looked at a couple of cheap romance novels before Shining and I had intercourse! I knew precisely what was involved!”

This argument, thoroughly convincing to the pregnant mare, appeared not nearly so to the other ponies gathered around her.

Applejack sighed. “But ya said when yer brother first touched you, ya didn’t know anythin’.”

“Well, I... it... it was just touching! He used his hoof and explained what he was doing. It’s not like he mounted me right there!” Only when these words were spoken aloud did the defensive mare realise how absurd they sounded. She met with more unconvinced stares.

“Twilight, darling, I know this may be difficult to accept, but Shining Armor’s actions toward you were abusive.”

“No... no... no!” Twilight seethed through clenched teeth. “You weren’t there, Rarity. Neither were you, Applejack. None of you were. You didn’t see it happen. I know it sounds bad and... and I wish I could explain it better, but you have to believe me that Shining never did anything to hurt me. He could never hurt me!”

“I’m not saying that he intended to hurt you, Twilight,” Rarity offered. “It’s entirely possible that he rationalised the incident in his own mind, as you have, but the fact remains: you were simply too young. What happened to you was wrong; it was...” Here, the white pony stopped and tightened her lips, focussing her gaze at the floor.

The other unicorn filled in the blank. Her voice trembled with suppressed rage. “I. Wasn’t. Raped.”

Rarity turned to face her, moderately surprised. Twilight ascribed this to her not expecting her supposed “victim” to be willing to name the issue so forthrightly instead of avoiding it, like an emotionally-damaged survivor might. And Twilight was not damaged. If Rarity was expecting her to hide or disregard any facts or truths, she would be sorely disappointed. 

“Geez, I think you’re both overreacting!”

At first, the purple unicorn thought Rainbow’s words were directed at her and Rarity. Then, she noticed that the pegasus had her glare set firmly on Applejack and Rarity.

A fresh light ignited inside her, and she dared to hope. Could Rainbow actually be on her side?

“Ya don’t see the problem with a filly – a foal – who ain’t even old enough fer a cutie mark ta be havin’ sex?!” Applejack asked incredulously.

The cyan pony crossed her forelimbs. “Not really,” she stated coolly. “Kids get up to all kinds of freaky stuff when grown-ups aren’t watching. It’s part of being a kid, pushing the limits and figuring yourself out. As long as nopony ends up seriously hurt, it’s just games. Hay, you can’t even get pregnant, so there’s less to worry about.”

Rarity was stunned beyond speech.

Applejack still had hers. “Now wait just one gosh-darn apple-pickin’ minute! Are ya bein’ serious right now?!”

Rainbow’s eyes grew, meeting the earth pony’s surprise measure for measure. “Oh, come on! I’d expect Rarity here to be all prim and prissy and scandalised, but you? I’ve seen how Apple family reunions work; you let the kids go and play wherever they want. And some of them are at the age where they start getting horny. You’re telling me you never messed around with one of your cousins?”

“I most certainly did not!” shouted Applejack, her features telegraphing her ire with no subtlety to be seen. Her hindhooves pulled neatly under her rump, as if ready to propel her into a leaping attack.

“You didn’t?!” Twilight covered her muzzle too late, and immediately blushed hard at her own outburst, retreating into her sofa corner as far as she could. She still technically shared the couch with Applejack and Rarity, but a conceptual frontline had formed among the group, with Rainbow Dash and Twilight allied together in opposition to the remaining mares.

The studious unicorn called upon her inner diplomat, attempting to douse the flames with water instead of further sparks. “I– I’m sorry, Applejack. I really did think that families like yours–” The stare she was hit with turned her blood to ice. In her mind, she smacked herself repeatedly. “I mean, it often happens, in all sorts of families, actually,” she covered, badly. “Children do explore their bodies with each other. It’s a common and natural component of childhood development. Even Cadance thinks so.” She rubbed her hooves together awkwardly and scanned the floorboards. “Not... not that it’s unnatural to not do that, either, I suppose...” Her body worked to make itself as compact and Fluttershy-like as possible.

“Haven’t you ever heard of kids ‘playing doctor’?” Rainbow pressed, diplomacy clearly nowhere on her list of priorities. “You really never did anything like that?” She hovered above her chair, forelegs still wrapped together.

The earth pony was glowering. “It’s natural fer young’uns to go as far as comparin’ their private bits,” she addressed Twilight and Rainbow Dash in equal parts. Her voice bordered on a hiss. “I did that. I got curious ’bout a couple o’ my cousins. They showed me theirs, I showed ’em mine. An’ that was it. There was no touchin’! I’d’ve broken their hooves and bucked ’em inta the next reunion if any of ’em tried! Nopony should be touchin’ a filly’s marehood ’cept her own self; an’ that’s somethin’ every little colt an’ filly gets taught right an’ early in the Apple clan – or any decent family.”

“I completely agree with Applejack,” Rarity said, her voice back and stronger than ever, as she placed a confederate hoof on the earth pony’s withers. “Curiosity is to be expected among children; sexual congress is most definitely not.”

The orange mare, bolstered, saw fit to close her eyes and lower her voice, though it still flowed viscous with disapproval. “If somepony’d rut me at that age, I reckon’ it woulda messed me up somethin’ bad.”

Twilight uncoiled. Her diplomat was fired. The battlefront sparked with a new volley. “Is that what you think of me, Applejack?” she asked, fixing the earth pony with a betrayed, accusatory stare. “You think I’m ‘messed up’?”

Applejack flinched. “I didn’t say that!” She was on the defensive now, to Twilight’s perverse delight. “Everypony’s different, an’ if ya say ya don’t mind what yer brother did, then I’m willin’ ta take yer word fer it. All I’m sayin’ is: It coulda been a lot worse, and he shouldn’t’a done that.”

“Precisely,” Rarity added. “We’re not saying that you are damaged, Twilight. We’re simply pointing out that sexual activity at a young age is not healthy, and what Shining Armor did to you was frightfully irresponsible and dangerous.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Oh please, would you two give it a rest already? You keep yammering on about how it’s ‘dangerous’ or ‘ain’t natural’,” she groused as her cyan limb wrapped over Twilight’s neck, “but maybe you should take some advice from the two ponies here who actually had these experiences first-hoof and know what they’re talking about?”

Startled looks were exchanged. Even Twilight was momentarily baffled.

“...Uh, Rainbow Dash? Is there somethin’ ya wanna tell us?”

The pegasus assumed a mysterious smile, and casually took a seat on the couch. The lack of space forced her onto the armrest instead of a cushion, though she didn’t seem to mind, and Twilight appreciated the proximity the arrangement allowed, not least because it meant that when she now faced Rarity and Applejack, Dash quite literally had her back.

“I really don’t like telling this story ’cause the ending’s pretty lame,” she began, leaning back with a feckless gesture of her hoof, “but since Applejack and Twilight told theirs, I guess you should hear mine, too.” She cleared her throat theatrically. “This one time, at flight camp – Ha! I always wanted to say that! – anyway, it was first year. I didn’t have my cutie mark, and the sonic rainboom was still just a legend ponies told their colts and fillies at bedtime.” Her foreleg drew a wide arc, painting a rainbow vista that only she could see. “I was already awesome, but it’d still be a while before I had this beauty on me to prove it.” She tapped her flank proudly.

“So, there was this colt in my class. I think his real name was Dew Point, but we all called him Dewey. Pretty cute, a little on the skinny side, average flier, and a bit of a geek. Nowhere near Twilight’s super-egghead level, but he liked books and magazines more than racing. One day, he came to me asking if I wanted to try ‘lovemaking’ – yeah, that was my reaction exactly. Going by what my old folks told me, I thought ‘lovemaking’ was something only married ponies did when they wanted to make a foal. But he had this magazine with him that he’d swiped from his grandparents’ house. Pretty good one, too. I think it was a Playhoof Anniversary Edition or something. He’d read all the articles – I told you he was a geek – and wanted to try some of the heavier stuff out.”

Twilight couldn’t resist a question. “I don’t understand – why did he ask you? It doesn’t sound like you two were friends.”

The pegasus flicked her shoulders. “Not really. Ponies just knew I was always willing to try new stuff. Also, there was a rumour going around that I was ‘easy’.” She loosed a warm chuckle upon seeing the others’ reactions. “Don’t give me that look. They were kids; most of them didn’t even know what that meant. Not that being called ‘easy’ is much of an insult anyway. If you ask me, the only ponies who think having lots of sex is bad are those who aren’t getting any.”

Twilight bit her tongue. Though she disagreed, starting an argument with her only ally now would be an extremely poor tactical move.

“So anyway, I looked through the mag, thought the pictures were cool... in a gross kinda way. But if a kid like Dewey was up for it, I wasn’t about to chicken out. We moved through the basics: hoofjobs, oral... I guess reading those articles really did pay off ’cause he made me cum pretty quickly. Then he did it again before I repaid the favour.” An indecent grin spread over Dash’s lips and she laughed. “Gotta give it to the kid, he had talent. It was fun.”

“Now, just one moment, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity objected with an accusatory hoof-point. “I distinctly remember you informing us – rather loudly and drunkenly, I might add – that your virginity was forfeit during your adolescent years.”

Rainbow scowled. “I was just getting to that part.” A long, loud breath escaped her lips as her features slumped. “We were just getting to the main event when we ran into... trouble. See, I’d just finished getting him off, so he was still a little... floppy. That, and he was going for the classic mount, so he couldn’t really see what he was doing back there, and his aim was a little off.”

Mixed looks of horror flitted over the others.

Dash could only laugh again as understanding came over her. “Hahah! That’s not what I meant! He was aiming too low, sorta between my legs and just hitting air... anyway, we almost had it figured out when one of the counsellors barged in and caught us.”

The pegasus’ face twisted up in resentment. “We got taken to the office and I got this stupid lecture about how private parts are private and what we’d been doing was wrong and where did I learn that and we were too young for that... Honestly it was like being lectured by Miss Manners and Miss Country Manners over here.” She gestured at the white- and orange-coated ponies. “They took the mag, told us they’d let it go this one time... I think they were just too shocked to know what to do... just like Rarity and Applejack!”

The two named ponies glared. Rainbow Dash chuckled. Twilight chuckled – though quietly.

“They told us to stay away from each other and if anything like that happened again, they’d have to tell our parents... like that was supposed to make me scared or something...” Here, Rainbow Dash sighed and relaxed into her precarious seat, one foreleg behind her head, one on her chest, and one hindleg crossed over the other.

Twilight processed the information so far. The obvious question popped into her head, but proved unnecessary to ask, as, after a short pause, Rainbow continued the story without urging.

“Obviously, I wanted to finish the job. After all, ‘determination’ is my middle name: Rainbow Determination Dash! So, a couple nights later, I snuck over to the boys’ dorm room, but... ahh, I don’t know what they did to the poor guy, but Dewey didn’t even want to see me. Said he didn’t want to get in trouble again.” Dash blew a soft raspberry. “I called him a scaredy bat, told him nopony would catch us, but he wouldn’t budge. I guess his folks were really strict, but he really didn’t want to risk anything, so I had to leave. It was years after that before I finally lost my cherry.” Her head shook in a gesture of dole touched by petulance; the unmistakable expression of well-aged regret. “Sad. I bet he would’ve been hooves-down better than that selfish dweeb I gave it to in the end.

“Anyway, that’s my story. And the point is: There’s nothing wrong with kids experimenting. I didn’t get to fourth base with Dewey, but if I had, it wouldn’t’ve screwed me up. Nopony was getting abused, I’m not some traumatised victim and he isn’t some predator... or the other way around.” The mare fired off a lopsided grin to her audience.

Twilight Sparkle couldn’t help but share the sentiment. “See?” She beamed in triumph. “That’s both Rainbow and I who have had positive experiences with sex at a young age.”

Rarity regarded her through half-open eyes. “A sample of two is not valid, dear.”

The flagpole of victory came crashing down on Twilight’s skull, leaving her seeing starbursts. Rainbow Dash had to shake her out of the resulting stupor. “Well... it...” She forced her mind back into gear with a sickening screech. “It at least proves that not all sexual activity at a young age is harmful. There haven’t been many studies about it, I admit, since it is a touchy subject for most ponies, but there is widespread anecdotal evidence that as long as there is no coercion, it’s generally harmless.”

Applejack was next to speak, lobbing her question over Twilight’s horn at Rainbow Dash. “This kid ya talked ’bout. Dewey. Was he old enough to have his cutie mark?”

The winged pony swivelled her head in a negative. “No. He was in first year just like me, so he had to be about my age.”

The earth pony lowered her sight. “An’ how old was Shining Armor when you two started?”

Twilight was back on the defensive. She decided to tread carefully. She would not hide from the truth, however. “He... was a teenager.”

Applejack said no more.

The unicorn rolled her eyes and frowned. “Okay, I get: There’s an age difference of... of a few years. And Shining knew a lot more about sex than I did; he was more mature. But we were both minors, so it’s not that bad.”

“I’m quite certain that it is illegal, though,” Rarity noted.

“Kind of...” Twilight mentally pulled the relevant bit of legal trivia. “Having sex with a minor is normally sufficient evidence for a charge of sexual abuse, but there is a close-in-age exemption in the statute that can be used as a defense.”

‘A close-in-age exemption that Shining Armor didn’t qualify for; our ages were too far apart.’ The thought sent a pang through her stomach. She appreciated that rules sometimes demanded exceptions, but it still left her feeling uneasy, even after all these years, to know that she had goaded her brother into committing a criminal offense. And now she was being openly called on it. ‘No hiding from the truth!’ something within hissed.

“Yes, it was technically illegal.” Her expression hardened to stone. “Are you planning to report it to the authorities? You’ll find that without any physical evidence or a cooperating witness, the crown prosecutor won’t even touch the case.” Mention of the ultimate authority, in the form of a regal white alicorn, was consciously avoided.

The other mare lifted her eyebrows. “I wasn’t suggesting anything of the kind, my dear. I was merely making the point that the Captain of the Royal Guard, Prince of Equestria, and Governor of the Crystal Empire seems to have a rather more sullied past than is generally known.”

‘Sullied.’ The word felt icky and odious to Twilight’s ears. “Shining Armor is a wonderful pony,” she declared forcefully. “He is and always was the best brother I could ever want. He’s the bravest, most honourable stallion I know, and I don’t really care what anypony else thinks; he’s earned every one of those titles you just mentioned!” She thrust her chin forward and stiffened her lips.

“I suppose that is a matter of opinion,” Rarity answered haughtily, throwing her obdurate gaze away. “I simply cannot abide the fact that you just told us that Shining Armor is a pedophile.”

“Whoa, now...” Applejack murmured with shrunken pupils.

Twilight felt her blood come to a boil. “My brother is not a pedophile! Have you ever seen the clinical definition of pedophilia? Because I have and Shining Armor does. Not. Qualify.”

The white mare wavered, but only for a fleeting instant, then dug her hooves in for the fight. “Then I suppose you will have no reservations about leaving your daughter alone with him?”

Twilight struck her front leg down, but the padding beneath her absorbed the impact without much protest. “What kind of a question is that? I trust Shining Armor completely. He is my B.B.B.F.F., he’s the father of my child, he will be a part of her life, and no, I will have no qualms whatsoever leaving her alone with him!”

“I’m not convinced that’s very wise... unless of course you approve of him providing ‘hooves-on’ sexual education to her as he did to you...”

Twilight opened her mouth. She was going to say – or rather scream – something at Rarity, though the exact phrasing hadn’t been vetted by her higher reasoning functions, and would have likely been very regrettable. It was a good thing, then, that somepony else intervened.

The deep sound of a large stallion’s vocal cords vibrating didn’t form a word, exactly, but its nature called attention to itself better than any word could.

Twilight had forgotten about Big MacIntosh again. It was a talent, almost Pinkie-like in its uncanniness, that allowed the bulky pony to remain in the room yet utterly vanish from everypony’s perceptions. The incensed mare pulled away from the pressure of an orange hoof on her chest which – she only now realised – had been keeping her from advancing on Rarity.

With all eyes on him, Big MacIntosh spoke. “Supper’ll be ready in a half-hour. We’re still waitin’ on Granny an’ Bloom, but they should be here. Hope y’all like oat an’ sweet carrot casserole, an’ apple dumplings fer dessert. I’ll go an’ set the table.” With that, he left the room, his hoofbeat in rhythm with the ticking clock.

An empty minute passed.

The frown dropped off Rarity’s face, replaced by pained eyes and a nervous lip bite as she pushed a deep purple lock back into place behind her horn. “Oh, Big MacIntosh...?” she called out, trying to sound cordially cheerful and ladylike.

The stallion’s head popped back in.

“While I’m most grateful for the invitation, I’m afraid I shan’t be staying. I have several projects I really need to get back to at the Boutique, and I must see to it that Opal is fed; it’s past her usual dinnertime as it is. I was counting on our presence here being a short, friendly visit.” Her voice turned quiet and distant. “Though in the end it proved to be neither...” There was no more fight in her words; just melancholy.

“I should be getting back to the library,” Twilight announced, letting her own anger deflate, “I really want to finish reading ‘Exotic Examples of Elemental Enchantments’ tonight. Spike’s probably wondering where I am, too. But thank you for the offer, Big MacIntosh.” Warring with one of her friends was both spirit-crushing and exhausting. Right now, she truly wanted nothing more than to go home, lock the doors, and lose herself in a book that had absolutely nothing to do with morality or sex.

Her farewell to the other Apple sibling derailed at the back of her throat.

Her acrimony may have been on the fade, but the feeling of betrayal was still there, settling in like snow for a long, cold winter’s stay. Applejack, the one mare that less than an hour ago Twilight had been counting on to fully understand her exceptional relationship, had instead joined forces with the enemy and denounced it; denounced Twilight’s brother as being wrong and irresponsible for loving her in the way that he did. She felt a pair of stony, aching lumps: one in her chest, and one behind her eyes. Heart and mind, both bruised.

Yet she refused to abandon hope. If there was any way to salvage her camaraderie, she would take it. “Applejack, I’m...”

“It’s alright, sugarcube. Ya don’t need ta say anythin’. Listen, I didn’t mean ta come at you all judgemental-like, it’s just this whole evenin’... with all that’s happened an’ come out... well, it’s been a lot...”

“Yeah...” Twilight said softly, not looking at Applejack any more than she was at her.

“I meant everythin’ I said... y’know, before. If ya ever need help, you’re always welcome here. An’ if ya just wanna talk... ’bout anythin’...” the earth pony looked into her eyes with a diminutive, hopeful smile. “Well, I’d like that a whole heap...”

Rarity paused on her way out, turned, and regarded the pair, her posture growing more uncomfortable in the manner of a pony whose neck is itchy but unable to be scratched. At length, she spoke, “Twilight, I... for all our disagreement, I may have allowed my own standard of courtesy to lapse somewhat. My apologies to you. And to everypony. This evening... could have gone better.”

“I was really hoping it would,” Twilight said with a drawn-out sigh. She was still upset with Rarity, and far from balmed by a few hasty words of apology. She tried not to think too much about what had been said, lest rage make a comeback.

“Hey, friends have arguments sometimes,” Rainbow Dash opined. “We all say stupid things. It doesn’t have to be a biggie. We’re all still friends, right?”

“Absolutely,” Rarity stated quickly.

“Sure,” Applejack added.

“...Yeah,” Twilight finished.

Her own word convinced her. Friendship wasn’t always easy, but it was worth fighting for. This group of friends had been through worse. There were cracks, but they’d recover, work out their differences, and come away with stronger bonds than ever. And the evening hadn’t been a complete loss; Twilight had managed to reveal a truly damning aspect of her secret to four ponies, with the end result being... non-catastrophic.

‘At least no big disasters happened,’ she comforted herself.

Rarity offered her goodbyes, and retrieved the fuzzy boots and scarf she had arrived with. Twilight held back only because leaving with Rarity would mean either an awkward conversation or an awkward silence as they walked together. She resolved to wait out another five minutes before heading home herself, though she jumped off the couch to stretch her legs.

“Uh, Twi...” Applejack said with an air of concern. “Were ya plannin’ on tellin’ Pinkie an’ Fluttershy about you and Shining?”

Twilight looked down at her belly. “I’m pretty sure they’re asking questions already, along with everypony in town.” The bulging of her flanks seemed larger, but brought forth less trepidation than ever. She felt the earth pony’s eyes scan her from hooves to head.

“Bein’ completely honest now – Apple family word of honour, Pinkie Promise an’ all that –” Applejack said, making the requisite motions, “I really didn’t think ya were carryin’. Ya look... good.” She smiled, tilting her head.

Twilight laughed. It was a small laugh, but held as much value as a life-saving oasis in the midst of a desert. “Thanks. Opinions are still a little mixed.” Celestia and Rarity had thought her condition obvious; Spike, Applejack, and Big MacIntosh had not. She hadn’t asked Rainbow’s thoughts yet. “But any doubts ponies may have will be gone soon. And I don’t want to hide the truth from my closest friends. Though I think I’ll try to avoid going into quite as much detail with those two...”

Applejack nodded. “I can respect that. But... uh... if ya don’t mind, could you... not tell ’em ’bout me an’ Big Mac?”

“Of course! I completely understand your desire for privacy. If I hadn’t gotten pregnant, I probably would’ve kept my secret, too. It’s entirely up to you and your brother to decide when and if you want to tell somepony else. Is there anypony else who knows already?”

The mare’s green eyes turned to saucers. “Uh, no, nopony else knows, y’all are the only ones I’ve told, it’s a secret, eeyup, and I’d appreciate if it stayed that way, heheh!” she rapid-fired, scrunching her lips and looking off up and to her left.

One didn’t need to be an expert in reading vocal or facial cues to understand: Applejack was lying.

This confused Twilight. Her question had been so innocent; born of straightforward curiosity, yet it had turned Applejack’s demeanor on a dime. Why would Applejack want to keep secret the fact that somepony knew her secret from other ponies who already knew that secret?

Something in the back of the unicorn’s brain told her that she should drop the matter, at least for the present night – but that wise voice was drowned, utterly, but the part of her that needed to know; the inner detective that lusted after the solution to any tempting mystery.

“Nopony else knows?” she repeated, watching the earth pony for every telltale sign of deception.

“Nope, nopony else,” Applejack lied again. “I should probably go help Big MacIntosh get supper on the table. Granny Smith will be here any minute.”

“And Apple Bloom?”

“Where?! Oh, uh, I mean, yeah, Apple Bloom’ll be here. She really likes them apple dumplin’s; I better make sure they’re gonna be ready. Got a hankerin’ fer some myself...” The earth pony presented the most broken smile as she rubbed her stomach, then backed slowly away towards the kitchen.

“Applejack, darling?” Rarity asked from beside Twilight, who had thought the other unicorn to have already gone, but Applejack’s fibbing had apparently been distinctive enough to call her back.

“Forget somethin’, Rare?” Applejack demanded impatiently, her breaths shallower and shallower, and her smile no longer broken but practically imploded as she speeded her retreat.

“Applejack!” Rainbow Dash stood in the kitchen entry, blocking the escape route, and leaving the increasingly distressed pony surrounded. “You are the worst liar I’ve ever seen. Now, obviously, you told somepony else. Am I right?”

The frightened mare gulped.

“That’s a ‘yes’. Why, did somepony catch you and Big MacIntosh doing the dirty?” Rainbow shoved an interrogative eyeball into Applejack’s sweat-drenched face, forcing her to cower.

The earth pony stared with pleading eyes at Twilight, who began seriously considering leaving the riddle be. Whatever the reason for her friend’s unexpected reticence, it had to be important. Then Applejack looked at Rarity, with a much different expression; one that blanched her face, plastered her ears down, and even granted a small twitch to her left eye.

The farmpony was terrified.

“Come on, A.J., you can tell us!”

“Applejack, my dear, it cannot be that bad, can it? Who saw you?”

“We always check before we start!” she cried at last, her eyes beginning to leak. “We’re always careful, makin’ sure there’s nopony around. It was the middle o’ the day! We did a walk around the barn an’ there was nopony in sight. The whole Acres was clear! We locked the doors an’... We check the hay loft usually, but this one time... Nopony should ever be hidin’ up there; there ain’t nothin’ up there but hay! And they were so quiet we never knew until... By Celestia, those three are never quiet!”

The lamp blinked on, illuminating the dread. ‘Oh, no.’

The whites of Rarity’s eyes were growing to inequine proportions. “Applejack...?” she squeaked.

The orange pony was on her knees. “I’m sorry, Rarity! We didn’t mean fer it ta happen. We were careful. We didn’t know!”

“Sweetie Belle!?!?”

“An’ Apple Bloom. An’ Scootaloo,” Applejack choked out the words like guilty phlegm. “They were hidin’ and saw us–”

In a flash, the white unicorn had transformed her look of terrified realisation to one of unmitigated wrath. “What did you do to my sister?!?!” she howled, lunging at the earth pony with murderous force.

Dash was fast. With a leap over Applejack, she interposed herself between the two ponies, catching Rarity in a bearhug and stopping her advance dead.

For a second.

Eyes burning red with rage, the unicorn pushed forward another step towards the pertified, balled-up Applejack, Rainbow Dash’s hindhooves slipping on the hardwood even as she beat her wings to apply extra forward pressure.

A red stallion appeared. “What the–?”

“Big Mac, get over here and help me!” the pegasus yelled.

Big MacIntosh, determined, approached the entwined ponies from the side, but this only caused Rarity to identify and lock her fury onto a different target. She twisted, forcing Rainbow to rapidly adjust her angle of attack and lose a few precious inches of ground in the process.

“You!!!” she howled at the red pony, clearly intending flagrant injury upon him.

The stallion, his entire body a weave of toned muscle, head and shoulders taller than the mare he faced, more massive than Rainbow and Rarity combined, and known for being able to rip a house off its foundations, froze. His ears pinned back. His teeth locked. His eyebrows turned down at the sides.

He took a step back.

“Darn it!” Rainbow cried as her grip on the squirming creature of fury weakened. “Twilight! Don’t just stand there; Do something!”

“Oh, right! Um... uh...” The purple pony rummaged her mental library, looking for a spell appropriate to the occasion. She hadn’t ever really planned for the ‘one-of-my-friends-wants-to-kill-another’ contingency. She gasped. “Okay, I got it!”

With two bright flashes of light, Applejack and Big MacIntosh disappeared from the room, only for a third flash to deliver them some two feet above the living room couch, where they fell into an inelegant heap. A little more magic, and a translucent magenta bubble formed, sealing the seat and its occupants from the rest of the room.

“You can let her go now,” Twilight informed Rainbow Dash.

Immediately, Rarity ran over to the bubble, pounding her hooves on it with frightening force.

Twilight winced. The barrier had been hastily constructed, and was fragile; mostly just there for show. It wouldn’t withstand a prolonged assault. Fortunately, Rarity didn’t know that, and gave up attacking, as her rage devolved into frenzied wheezes and snorts very much unbecoming a mare of her class. The two Apple siblings were in each other’s embrace, staring back at her with expressions of shock.

“Easy there, Rare.” Dash’s hoof was smacked away.

“I want you to tell me right now what you perverts did to Sweetie Belle!”

“I didn’t touch her, Rarity, I swear it!” Applejack cried, her cheeks wet. “Neither of us laid a hoof on ’er.”

“What happened?!”

“Well... she... saw us. They all did.”

“How much?!”

“Him on... I mean... I... We were ruttin’, alright?! An’ they saw us! D’ya want me ta draw you a diagram?!” Applejack yelled, a painful frown on her soaked face.

“What did you tell her?!”

“I... I explained things the best I could... I didn’t lie.” The younger sibling separated from her brother and straightened. “Apple Bloom already knew what sex looked like. Ya don’t grow up on a farm raisin’ livestock without learnin’ ’bout the circle o’ life pretty darn quick. Scootaloo understood things, too. Said she saw that kinda stuff in a magazine, but no matter what, I couldn’t get ’er cough up where she found it.”

Rainbow Dash tensed and took a couple of steps back, whistling a quiet tune, suddenly finding herself profoundly fascinated by various pieces of furniture.

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity demanded, tears marring her makeup.

“She, uh... well, she was the first one ta say anythin’... She... she thought Big Mac was hurtin’ me. She... tried ta rescue me... heh...” Applejack explained with an anguished smile, seemingly impressed by what the brave-hearted little filly had sought to do. “But I told her that wasn’t it; that it was somethin’ grow-up ponies did ta make each other feel good an’ have foals if they wanted.”

The white unicorn was on her haunches now, pulling her cheeks downward as her eyes turned to the heavens. “Oh, Sweetie...” she whimpered.

“I gave her The Talk!” Applejack admitted. “There weren’t any ways around it! An’ then I told ’em that lotsa folk don’t care fer brothers an’ sisters doin’ that sorta thing with each other, which is why we never wanted anypony ta find out...” She wiped away a large glob of snot hanging out of her muzzle, and, having no other option inside the forcefield, picked up the doily her brother offered and used it to clean up. “I told ’em if they wanted ta know more they should talk to their parents or check out some books in the library, but ta please keep it hush-hush that Mac an’ I’d been doin’ it. An’ they seemed ta take it well enough, an’ we sent ’em off.”

Something struck Twilight. “Applejack, did this happen about a month after the Summer Harvest Festival? Edn of September?”

“Uh... yeah, I reckon...”

“Then that explains it!” the unicorn announced cheerfully.

“Explains what?”

“Why Spike told me that the Crusaders came in one day looking for books on entomology.”

Rainbow Dash pitched her head. “Anti-what, now?”

Twilight frowned. “Entomology. The study of... You know what, never mind.” She gestured dismissively. “It’s not important right now. Rarity, I think you’re overreacting. It doesn’t sound like anything bad happened to Sweetie Belle.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow confirmed. “We’re all mammals. She just saw nature taking its course. Think of it as a biology lesson.”

Rarity jumped into a wide stance, bursts of hot mist puffing from her nostrils, several strands of her mane frayed and curled out of place. “I have had enough of your vulgar, uneducated, perverted, swinish, selfish, disgusting commentary, Rainbow Dash! Just because your deviant mind seems unable to take any of these matters seriously, does not mean they are not serious, you... you... strumpet!”

The pegasus stared dumbly. Twilight hoped she hadn’t apprehended the meaning of that last word. “Rarity, I understand you’re upset, and you’re right to be concerned, but this happened months ago. Sweetie Belle hasn’t shown any worrying behaviour in that time – at least nothing related to sex or romance. I really think she’s just fine. Besides, I’m pretty sure her class had a basic sex-ed unit this year, and they covered this sort of thing anyway.”

The white pony’s fiery gaze turned on Twilight. She braced herself for a barrage of insults.

“That may be so, but I hardly think Cheerilee invites stallions to her classroom to give live demonstrations in front of her students!”

“Demonstrations o’ what?” a young voice sounded from the hallway. There was a cool draft, then the sound of a door slamming. Soon after, a chipper yellow-coated filly cantered into the room, her large pink bow bobbing sprightly in her mane. “Oh, hi, everypony!” she greeted, happily at first, but her expression fell as she ascertained the mood of the room. “Uh... is this a bad time?”

“I was just leaving!” Rarity declared, wrapping her scarf more times and more tightly than was necessary, leaving her muzzle hidden. Her voice muffled behind it. “I have to go see after my little sister!” Her eyes still brimmed with tears as she ran for the front door, and disappeared into the night.

Granny Smith shambled forward, looking bewildered. “An’ jus’ what has got that nice filly’s tail wrapped up in knots?” Her aged eyes took in the room. “An’ why’s everypony lookin’ glum as a plum?” Her nose bumped into the magic shield. She rubbed it in irritation. “Dagnabbit.”

Twilight quickly lowered the forcefield. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly.

Applejack sighed with shaky breath. “We had a fight, granny. Bad one.”

“Well, that ain’t right,” the ancient mare stated sadly as she climbed up next to her. “Whose fault was it?”

“Mine,” her granddaughter replied without hesitation, using both hooves to displace the wetness on her face.

Granny Smith nodded sagely. “Are ya sorry it happened?”

“I sure am...”

“An’ are ya willing ta work ta make it sound again?”

“Uh-huh,” the orange pony nodded.

“Then you’re halfway home!” A venerable hoof patted Applejack’s shoulder. “It may not happen overnight, but you’ll work things out. Friends like the ones you’ve got don’t come along but once in a hundred moons. Let ’er know how sorry y’are, an’ she’ll forgive ya. Jus’ give ’er some time.”

The orange mare didn’t appear thoroughly convinced. “I sure hope you’re right, granny.”

Rainbow Dash spoke, her eyes alight with determination, “Well, I’m going after her!”

“Are you sure?” Twilight questioned. “I don’t think she’s in the mood to talk to you right now, Rainbow Dash.”

“Nuts to mood! You heard what she said to me, and I didn’t even do anything! If anything, she owes me an apology.” Dash grinned deviously. “Which is why I’m going to work my charm on her. If I play my cards right and smoothly lay on the guilt trip, I’ll win her over in no time! I might even patch things up between her and Applejack!”

Twilight’s mouth opened in surprise.

Dash whispered in her ear as she flittered past, “Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I know what a ‘strumpet’ is. I told you; not much of an insult to me.” She winked.

Further words of opposition from the unicorn didn’t have a chance; Dash was gone. Though she couldn’t say she had a lot of faith in the pegasus’ persuasive abilities, Twilight had to give pause and admire the strategy; Rarity had crossed a line of propriety against a pony who had not even gone as far as using her as a shield against flying pastry. With the right buttons pushed, Rarity could be made to feel guilt over the incident, which could then be exploited.

If Dash didn’t screw the whole thing up. ‘Subtle’ was not one of her middle names.

“You’re not mad at Applejack, too, are ya, Twilight?” Apple Bloom asked, approaching her cautiously.

The pregnant mare smiled. “No, I’m not mad at Applejack – not anymore, anyway.” A small chuckle let the filly know she had nothing to worry about as a purple hoof patted her mane, to great delight.

“Then... are ya gonna stay with us for supper?” The yellow pony looked up at her with deep, shimmering eyes, her voice full of heart-rending hope. She blinked twice, the sound like the soft plucks of harpstrings.

Twilight received a timid smile of confirmation from Applejack, although at this point it was merely a formality. Spike would be fine; she’d told him she might be late. 

Nopony could resist those eyes.

“I’d love to.”