“Ow, my head, Where am I?” Fluttershy said as she sat up and examined her surroundings. She was in a forest-y terrain, yet it oddly looked familiar. “Is this the… Everfree Forest?” she thought. “Why am I here? I thought I was with…” a sudden smell of smoke filled her muzzle that leads to Ponyville. “A fire? In Ponyville! Oh no. Oh no, no, no!” She quickly got up and galloped as fast as possible to Ponyville. “What caused this? Where did it come from?” Fluttershy had to find out why, but as she ran she noticed the lack of woodland critters in the forest. Not one in sight. “Wh-where are my animal friend?” she asked herself as she drew closer to Ponyville. “Something’s not right!” She said as she slowed her pace when nearing Ponyville. When she arrived, however, Ponyville, a look of shock and horror slammed into her face. Houses and restaurants were crushed and demolished like if they were torn down by a pack of wild rogue manticores. Stores and snack stands were reduced to nothing but husks of their former foundations. The sky changed from blue to red. Almost everything from big to small was coated in dancing flames
Fluttershy couldn’t believe the horror she was witnessing. It looked as if the end of the world had arrived, and she was the only one left. She beamed her eyes through the burning environment to see if any pony out there was still alive. But there was nothing. Not a scream. Not a yelp. Not even a whisper.
“T-Twilight… Rainbow Dash… Rarity…” she dropped on her haunches as tears started to form “Applejack… P-Pinkie Pie…” tears formed in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. “Where is everypony?” she shouted only to hear her voice echo. Nothing but the searing flames answered her plea. She sighed and pressed on into the burning, dying town. A few meters ahead, Fluttershy could see a familiar structure behind a wall of smoke. Fluttershy quickly recognized the structure as Twilight’s home, Golden Oaks Library, or what was left of it. Just like the rest of the town, the library was scourged and destroyed. Fluttershy sobbed at the scene before gathering her senses and pressed on down the charred graveyard of Ponyville.
Fluttershy walked through a local street and passed the town hall. And still no pony in sight. She stopped again to see another horrific sight: Rarity’s Carousal Boutique was demolished but barely standing; the roof was completely gone, replaced by a large pillar of smoke created by the dancing fire inside the boutique.
Another tear fell from Fluttershy’s cheek. “What happened to Ponyville?” She looked down at the ground until a shadow caught her in the corner of her eye. She gasped and quickly looked up to see who it was, but the shadow zoomed behind Rarity’s boutique and disappeared.
“Wait! Don’t go,” she called out to the shadow and galloped after it. “Please, can you help me, sir? ma’am? Wait!” The shadow reappeared again behind the smoke pillar and started to slowly grow.
Fluttershy saw this and skid to a stop, leaving a small trail behind her. “What in Equestria?!” Fluttershy looked up at the growing shadow with pea-sized irises.
The shadow soon stopped when it reached twenty feet. Her wings folded up with a snap. She wanted to run away very badly, but the fear froze her body. All she could do was reel her jaw back up and turn it into a terrified frown.
It got even worse when a deep, grumbling growl emitted from the smoke and rang her eardrums, causing a chill up Fluttershy’s spine. It was unlike anything she’s heard. The growl continued as parts of the smoke began to move to the right and slowly form into a bestial-like head shape. The smoke’s color went from regular grey to charcoal grey.
Fluttershy watched. Fear eating away at her body, almost blocking her lungs and preventing her to breath, yet each breath taken was a short and quick to the point she wanted to scream. That’s exactly what she wanted to do, but her body didn’t let her. She had no idea what this thing was, or where it came from. Sure enough though, it was more terrifying than a Griffon and a Minotaur put together. No, more than that, it was nightmareish. The sight itself looked like it came out of the pits of Tartarus. Fluttershy shivered, mentally pleaded for this to all be a dream, a nightmare, anything!
The animalistic growl halted, and then silence took over once again.
Fluttershy glued her traumatized eyes at the shadow. Her mind finally able to tell her body to take longer breaths until two glowing, blood-red lights appeared on the charcoal smoke. As fast the red-eyes appeared, the smoke bellowed a loud, high-pitch roar that shook the earth under Fluttershy’s hooves. Fluttershy covered her ears as the roar ended with a sound similar to a dying whale.
Fluttershy uncovered her ears and paused for a sec before taking every breath she had and screamed in sheer horror. The roaring smoke flared its teeth and lunged, opening its teeth-filled mouth at Fluttershy…
~~~~
“Fluttershy! Fluttershy, wake up!” Twilight nudged Fluttershy firmly, trying to wake her up. Fluttershy jerked her body and groaned, but quickly sat up and panted heavily.
Twilight sighed in relief, “Thank goodness, you had Spike and I worried” she said, “What happened? I saw you kicking and screaming in your sleep.”
Fluttershy looked at Twilight with a crazy bed head. “I-I was asleep? It wasn’t really happening?” she asked with a worried look in her eyes.
“What wasn’t happening?” Twilight tilted her head in confusion, wondering what Fluttershy was talking about.
“I… I had a dream where… Ponyville was destroyed, no, not destroyed, demolished!” her words caused Twilight to widen her eyes “There was fire, smoke, and… and… I remember seeing your home and Rarity’s home. They were completely destroyed” She whimpered “It was awful!” she started to bawl.
Twilight reached out and hugged her friend to give her comfort. “It’s okay, Fluttershy. You were just having a nightmare. Please, calm down” Twilight said as she released the hug. Fluttershy slowly started to calm down as Twilight smiled a bit, “Come on, let’s get some breakfast,” Fluttershy nodded at that as her stomach started to rumble from hunger.
“Spike’s making pancakes for us.” Twilight said “Besides, I’ve got news to tell you that you’ll be so happy to hear”
“Really? What is it?”
“I’ll tell you once we eat,” Twilight said with some enthusiasm, excited to tell Fluttershy the news.
“Okay, Twilight” Fluttershy said as she hopped out of bed and walked out the door with Twilight, and to the dining room. There the two ponies saw, not one, but three rows of pancakes siting on the dining table; each having five or six pancakes.
“Breakfast is served, ladies” Spike said bowing respectfully at them. “I made a lot for the three of us.”
Twilight and Fluttershy bestowed their eyes at the baby dragon’s hard work. And rest ashore, both ponies had their stomachs begging for the food. They walked up and sat down.
“Thanks Spike. You did great job,” Twilight complimented.
“Oh yes, you did so wonderful. I can’t wait to eat.” Fluttershy complimented as well, licking her chops.
Spike blushed and shuffled his foot on the floor, “Aw shucks, it was nothing” he walked up and sat next to Fluttershy then grabbed his knife and fork. Twilight and Fluttershy did the same thing, immediately chowing down.
Minutes passed before Twilight and Spike lean back on their seats full from eating; both only eating two or three pancakes. Yet, as they watched, were surprised to see Fluttershy eat not only all her pancakes, but finish off what was left of Spike and Twilight’s plates. They remained silent for a moment until Spike broke the silence.
“Whoa, and I thought I ate a lot” Spike said, amazed at the sight.
“I’ll say!” Twilight leans her head and examined at the three plates: all squeaky clean. No crumb in sight.
Fluttershy gulped down the last bit of pancakes and finished her milk, “That was yummy,” she said with a satisfied smile before letting out a loud belch, “Excuse me,” she said with a fainted blush, “I’ve never eaten like that before. Nor have I ever been that hungry” she pondered to herself.
“Must be the first sign?” Twilight said, receiving confused look from Fluttershy.
“First sign?”
Twilight nodded, “Yes, the first sign of pregnancy”.
Fluttershy widened her eyes in shock. Did Twilight say what she thought she said? “Wait, can you repeat that again, Twilight?” she asked.
“Oh, sure! The incubation was a success, you’re pregnant, Fluttershy,” Twilight said with a proud smile. “Congratulations.”
Fluttershy couldn’t believe what Twilight said. She smiled excitedly and nervously that she finally got her wish. She wanted to scream with joy and hug her friend tight for doing this. She was so thrilled that she felt butterflies in her stomach, or maybe it was something else. Her stomach growled again, but this time it wasn’t by hunger. She held her stomach and groaned in pain, feeling the sudden urge to vomit, “Ooh! Where’s the bathroom, I…” she placed her hoof on her mouth as her cheeks puffed out.
Spike had an alarming look, “Upstairs, second door to your right. Hurry!” he pointed to the stairs. Fluttershy quickly got up and rushed upstairs to the bathroom. “That was a close one” he said, relieved. If she threw up in the living room, he’d have to clean it up and the poor baby dragon really didn’t want to clean up pony vomit.
Twilight giggled in amusement before hearing Fluttershy slam the door and blast vomit into the toilet “Okay, so morning sickness kicked” Twilight reminded herself. “Better go --” she and Spike heard Fluttershy have another round with the toilet “-- check to make sure if she’s alright.” Twilight got up from her chair and trotted upstairs, heading to the bathroom.
Spike took the plates and cups and walked to the kitchen to clean them, letting Twilight handle the situation with Fluttershy.
Twilight knocked on the door, “Fluttershy, you okay in there?” she asked but received the sound of round three as a response. “I’ll take that as a maybe” she said as she opened the door to see Fluttershy laying on the side of her back legs and holding herself up over the toilet with what strength she had left. Her long, pink mane was like a blanket covering her back and face and her tail oozed on the floor like a blob. “Fluttershy?” Twilight said as Fluttershy let out some soft breaths before looking at Twilight with some of her mane drooped over her left eye and hung there next to her arm while bits of vomit were smothered on her face. The look on her face told Twilight that she was in agony.
“Okay, maybe is not the right word,” Twilight grew worried, “I heard this was normal, but --” Fluttershy puffed her cheeks and threw her face in the toilet again, starting round four. Twilight backed up a bit, raising a hoof over her muzzle, “Eww. I’d hate to know what the other signs are.” She thought as Fluttershy’s morning sickness finally ended. She flushed the toilet and weakly got back up, looking like a sick puppy.
She tried walking but Twilight stopped her from doing so as she grabbed a wet wash cloth and wiped the vomit leftovers off Fluttershy’s mouth.
“Are you going to be ok, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked
“Can I go back to sleep? I don’t feel so well,” Fluttershy’s voice sounded soft and tired.
Without saying another word, Twilight helped her friend and escorted her back to the bedroom. Once inside, she gently placed Fluttershy on her bed and covered her up. Fluttershy immediately went back to sleep once her head made contact with the pillow.
Twilight covered Fluttershy up and quietly walked out of her room and closed the door behind her, heading downstairs where Spike watched her.
“Is she ok?” he asked, worried about her.
Twilight gave Spike an assuring nod “She’ll be fine. She just needs more rest. I guess the morning sickness took a lot of her,” she said as she approached the young dragon.
“Do you think we should let the others know?”
Twilight tapped her chin, “It’s entirely up to Fluttershy whether she wants to or not” she suggested.
“All right. What do we do now?”
“Have fun, of course!” she said with a playful smile, “I’ll be studying about pregnancies so I’ll know what to do with our ‘pregnant’ guest, and you can go and play now that all the chores are done.”
Spike mentally jumped for joy, and the first thing that came into his mind was being with his dream girl, Rarity, “Okay, Twilight, see you in a bit,” he dashed to the door and ran outside to go to Rarity’s Boutique.
Twilight chuckled and playfully rolled her eyes. She then thought about going out herself to get information on what she’s dealing with, “Or maybe I should go see Mr. and Mrs. Cake and ask for informa--” she stops herself, “-- No, it has to be kept secret from everypony else until Fluttershy says she wants to tell them,” she walked over to the bookshelves and scanned for the book she was looking for.
“Now where is that medical-- ah ha! There it is,” She levitated a medical book out of the shelf and opened it, turning to the page about the steps of pregnancies.
In the bedroom, Fluttershy moaned and groaned in pain while tossing and turning in Twilight’s bed. She crushed her eyelids and held herself close, clinching her arms and legs and curled up, whimpering from the unknown pain; her entire body felt like it was in sheer agony -- burning, in fact. She could almost scream it hurt that badly. Under her skin, her muscles began to harden and tighten -- not because of arthritis, not because of straining, or because of muscles being pulled. It’s unknown to her what’s happening to her body. Whether it was from all the vomiting or the thoughts of her muscles exploding, Fluttershy couldn’t take much more of it. It almost felt like an eternity to her. That is, until she lowered her hooves close to her belly and held it softly. This dulled the pain in her body.
She smiled a bit but groaned again as she felt her arm and leg muscles tighten again and slowly grow. The pain came back and briefly intensified for a couple of minutes before miraculously vanishing as fast as it appeared. Her mind overflowed with questions, but quickly figured the pain must have something to do with the embryo inside her.
“Why is it doing this? Why is it causing me so much pain? Why is it hurting its mother?” She asked herself while trying to relax after hours of grueling, unbearable pain.
Finally after what seemed like hours, the pain throughout her body subsided and soothed her pain receptors. Fluttershy relaxed her eyelids and opened them for a moment before letting out a sigh of relief and falling back to sleep in Twilight’s bed. She uncurled her body and softly nuzzled her head on Twilight’s pillow, letting out another soft sigh as she slept to her heart’s content.
Three hours flew by and Twilight closed the medical book, “Finally finished,” She sighed worriedly. “This might be tougher than I thought. The first sign is over. I just hope the others haven’t started yet,” she looked at the stairs that lead to the bedroom. She thought about what she had done but shook her head, getting rid of those thoughts, “Maybe I’m wrong. I mean, this is Fluttershy here. How bad can it be?” she put her book away and dwelled in her thoughts about this experiment.
Evening arrived and Spike returned home, smiling from helping Rarity with her dress crafting, “I’m home!” he called out.
“Hey Spike,” Twilight said, putting one of her books away. How was it at Rarity’s?”
“Oh, you know,” Spike rubs the back of his head with lipstick stained kiss marks on his face, “I helped Rarity with the dresses, saved her cat from a tree and cooked her and Sweetie Belle a nice meal,” Twilight looked back and snickered at Spike, only for him to blush. “She thanked me, a lot.”
“That’s adorable, Spike. But you should’ve washed it off before you came back,” Twilight’s chuckles turned into laughing, “I’m sorry, but it’s so funny to see you with that stuff on your face.”
Spike crossed his arms, not amused, “Laugh it up, Princess. I felt proud getting a reward like that.”
Twilight took a few breaths and calmed herself, “You’re right, I’m sorry. I was aware of your crush on Rarity. I shouldn’t be laughing, but I couldn’t help myself” she smiled softly, still finding it cute and funny, “But you know I don’t like being called princess” she reminded the young dragon.
“Yeah, I know,” Spike rolled his eyes, “So how’s Fluttershy doing?”
“Still asleep, I’m afraid. Apparently, that morning sickness took a lot out of her”
“Okay, well should we go and --” he noticed something in the corner of his eye and looked behind Twilight, “-- uh, never mind”
Twilight tilted her head, raised a brow in confusion before looking back to see Fluttershy walk down the stairs. “Fluttershy!” she trotted over to her friend, “Glad to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
Fluttershy looked at Twilight with heavy eyes, looking like she’s been through a big hangover, “I’m fine. I just needed some sleep. That’s all,” she said, “Well, I did feel pain all over my body when I was trying to sleep, but it’s gone.”
“You felt pain all over your body?” Twilight raised a brow, confused and worried about her friend. “You sure you’re okay, Fluttershy? Could it be another sign?” she asked, wondering if there’s more to her story.
Fluttershy nodded, “Of course, I’m perfectly fine, besides the bedhead,” she messes with her mane a bit. “I need Rarity’s help with this,” she said. “Excuse me, Twilight, but I’m going to – whoa!” Twilight held her arm up and looked closely at her muscles.
“Spike, get me some measuring tape,” she commanded.
“Yes, ma’am,” he saluted and quickly went to Twilight’s room.
Fluttershy leaned her head back, confused and uncomfortable about Twilight’s personal space issue, “Um, Twilight, what are you doing?” she asked. “This is getting kind of – eep!” Twilight lifted her left back leg to examine any muscle growth.
“Hmm, Interesting.” Twilight said to herself, examining the leg muscle and trying to comparing the previous size to now.
Fluttershy blushed in embarrassment at how awkward this was. Good thing there wasn’t another pony to see any of this. “Twilight, please, this so humiliating.”
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but I need to see how your body is reacting to the embryo,” she said. “It’s only been a day, but I need to take notes on this. If your body already had a reaction while you were sleeping, then there’s no telling what else could happen.”
“Oh, okay then.” She looked away as she let Twilight resume her thing. Twilight opened her wing to see if there was any change. To her surprise, there wasn’t a shred of change at all.
“Why change the body, but not the wings?” Twilight asked herself. “This is bizarre.” She released Fluttershy’s wing.
Spike came back with a measuring tape and handed it to Twilight, “Here, Twilight.”
“Thank you, Spike.” She levitated the tape with her magic and lifted Fluttershy’s left front leg, wrapping around it unbeknownst to the dragon and unicorn, their shy, kind and innocent friend was slowly growing impatient and aggressive.
The last measurements were complete. Twilight widened her eyes at the results, “Incredible,” she looked at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, your muscles have grown five inches in the past four hours.
“Great, can I go now?” Fluttershy said in a slight assertive tone. A tone Spike picked up immediately.
“Not yet. I still need to know how the ‘baby’ is holding up.”
“Uh, Twilight,” Spike said.
“Not now, Spike,” she was fixing to wrap the measuring tape around Fluttershy’s waist.
“But…”
“I’m in the middle of something.”
“Twilight!” Spike shouted.
“What!” Twilight looked back only to be blindsided by Fluttershy and ultimately pinned by her. She tried to soak in what just happened until she looked into Fluttershy’s eyes – angry, protective, reptilian eyes. “Fluttershy, please, calm down,” she said, surprised and terrified at Fluttershy’s glare. It’s like she doesn’t recognize her. “Fluttershy, all I was doing was trying to see if I --”
“Don’t you touch my baby!” Fluttershy scolded, snarling at Twilight like a mama bear; her gaze piercing into Twilight’s soul.
Twilight wasn’t the only one stricken with fear. The sudden action caused Spike to flinch and stiff his body. He knew Fluttershy was getting angry, but he did anticipate for her to lash out at Twilight. His mind raced with questions about the situation he was in; he needed to save Twilight, but how? Fluttershy was the gentlest, kindest pony he ever knew, but this was completely different. What has that embryo done to her? He had to do something. He couldn’t risk Twilight getting hurt. Fear turned into bravery as Spike cautiously walked up to Fluttershy, hoping to calm the enraged pegasus.
Surprisingly, Fluttershy didn’t notice him approach her until she felt him place a claw on her shoulder. She jerked her head and glared those dagger eyes at the baby dragon, growling softly.
“Fluttershy, please calm down,” Spike said, reasoning with her. “Twilight just wanted to make sure the baby was doing alright. She wasn’t going to hurt it or anything.” Despite the situation, he couldn’t help but look at her bedhead. That’s when an idea struck his mind, “Maybe I can call Rarity here to help you with you mane. It’ll save you the trouble of walking back and forth.”
Fluttershy’s snarl slowly dimmed as the calm eyes he and Twilight knew returned. Spike let out a breath of relief, happy to see his friend calm down. Whether it was that idea or just sheer luck, Spike was happy that the conflict ended rather quickly.
Fluttershy blinked a few times before shaking her head to reality, “What happened?” she asked before noticing a down Twilight under her. She let out a shocked gasp and quickly backed up, Oh Twilight, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to attack you. I don’t know what came over me.” She started to panic, thinking Twilight was going to hate her forever.
“That… wasn’t in the book,” Twilight said as she sat up, rubbing her head.
Spike looked at Twilight with a confused gaze, “What do you mean?” he said as he approached Fluttershy to try and calm her down, again.
“I figured mood swings would kick in eventually, but not this early,” Twilight said. “Maybe we should keep you here until that thing come out of you.”
“That was just a mood swing?” Fluttershy said. “I could’ve killed you. Maybe I should be locked up so I don’t--”
“Fluttershy!” Twilight said, stopping the moody pegasus.
“What?”
“This is natural for you, kind of. The super strength and reptile eyes are new, but everything else is natural,” Twilight said, reassuring her friend while Spike nodded in approval.
Fluttershy sat in silence and pondered what Twilight said. This was new to her, but she was still unsure if she should be near them because of her new strength, and scare any pony with… “Wait, reptile eyes?” Fluttershy raised a confused brow.
“Oh, hang on a sec. I’ll go get a mirror.” Twilight said as she headed to her room.
“And I’ll go call Rarity,” Spike said.
Fluttershy hung her head, feeling guilt consume her mind. Twilight said it herself that what had happen was natural, then why didn’t it feel natural? She placed a hoof on the little bump on her belly and gently caressed it. “I hope you don’t turn me into a monster,” she said to her ‘baby’.
After a few minutes flew by, Spike came back to Fluttershy and sat next to her, looking up at her with an assuring smile, “Rarity should be here any minute now.”
“Thank you, Spike,” Fluttershy said with her head still hanging low from the guilt and depression.
“What’s wrong, Fluttershy?”
“Nothing, I just feel so bad for what I did to Twilight. I mean, it happened out of nowhere and…” she placed her hooves on her face, about to cry. She felt a claw touch her shoulder. She looked to her right and looked down at Spike.
“Don’t worry Fluttershy, it was just a mood swing,” he said reassuringly. “Twilight said it only comes naturally. Haven’t you dealt with your animal friends going through the same thing?”
“Yes, but they get frustrated and leave to be alone,” Fluttershy said. “What I did was completely different. How can I handle that? I don’t wanna go through that again. What if I end up hurting somepony?” Fluttershy started to panic only to have Spike grab both her shoulders.
“Fluttershy, don’t worry about it. Just keep calm and focus on what you were really wanting,” he pointed to her belly. “If something comes up, we’ll try our best to help you.”
“Y-You will?”
“Well yeah,” he smiled proudly. “That’s what friends are for, right?”
Fluttershy smiled a bit and nodded, “Right.”
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on Twilight.”
“Spike?”
“Yeah, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy wrapped her arms around Spike for a gentle, loving hug, “Thank you.”
Spike blushed beat red from the hug, but he hugged her in return with a warm smile, “Anytime, Fluttershy.”
They separated the hug and gazed into each other’s eyes. Their pupils glittered faintly as they stared at one another.
“I’m back!” called Twilight, catching the two off-guard. “What were you two doing?”
“Nothing,” they both said simultaneously.