Chapter 6
(Regular POV)
-Canterlot Castle-
Celestia was very worried.
When Twilight Sparkle and her friends had come to Canterlot three weeks ago, they had all seemed very healthy despite the alien growths inside their wombs.
Now, however, things seemed to be taking a turn for the worst. The symptoms of early pregnancy had returned, and the mares seemed to be suffering horribly from them. They were constantly exhausted, almost constantly ill, and seemed half-starved almost all the time.
The sudden onset of cold weather definitely wasn't helping matters. Even when the windows and doors were closed, everyone was cold, even the two princesses, who had a higher body temperature than was normal for mortal ponies. However, it was the six pregnant ponies who were the most affected. They would shiver as though they were standing outside in a blizzard even when other ponies were relatively warm.
The physician Celestia had hired to monitor the mares' pregnancies, as well as deliver their foals, stated that this was to be expected.
"Perfectly normal" he had said, "The mother shivers with cold, but the fetus keeps warm, probably by stealing a small amount of the mother's body heat".
Neither Celestia nor Luna told the doctor the truth about the six unborn foals-that they weren't technically ponies.
Even though few ponies knew about Discord and even fewer took what they had heard about him seriously, the princesses knew that hybrids could be considered quite dangerous. They happened so rarely, and thus, nobody knew what to expect.
So, for the protection of the six holders of the Elements of Harmony, as well as their offspring, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna lied about the origins of the foals.
Well, it was a half-lie, if one were to be technical; they only said that the circumstances of conception were not something the six mares wished to talk about, which was the truth.
At least it would be over soon.
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"This cold is going away almost as fast as it came" said the white-maned mare cheerfully to her dark-maned double, her voice radiating with cheer.
The darker-maned pony nodded her head.
"It really is good news for us, Lady" she said.
She then turned her attention to the six guests of the princesses, who were resting nearby. She giggled slightly before addressing them.
"And the six of you will no doubt have your foals by this time next month. Probably sooner".
Pinkie Pie shifted uncomfortably. None of the expectant mares seemed particularly comfortable, but the usually peppy pink pony was exceptionally antsy for some reason. She kept changing her position, stretching her legs, doing whatever she could to relieve some sort of discomfort.
"Are you alright?" Fluttershy questioned worriedly. Pinkie instantly stopped her shifting and nodded.
"Yep, I'm fine. Back's just hurting a bit." She then got to her feet in an amazingly quick manner, though she almost lost her balance for a second as she stood. "I'm just gonna go take a bath and have some grape juice. That always helps when I don't feel good" she said, smiling as she headed out the door.
The light-and-dark-maned ponies looked at each other knowingly, before exiting the room as well.
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(Pinkie's POV)
The water feels so good. I can't even feel how much by back hurts now. Well, it doesn't hurt as much, anyway.
No…Now it's getting worse.
My belly hurts too. It hurts a lot!
I've gotten stomachaches because I ate too much before, and those really hurt. This is like having a million of those stomachaches at the same time!
I bite down on my tongue by accident.
"Ow!" I squeak, sticking my tongue out.
The water tastes funny. It's starting to turn pink…
Is my color washing away? Granny Pie used to tell me that I was white with a yellow mane when I was a foal…
Nope, I'm not losing my color. I'm just bleeding.
Wait. That's not good.
There's a lot of blood in the water now.
I don't know where it's coming from. Between my hind legs is burning. It hurts so much. I wanna scream, but I can't. Make it stop.
I Pinkie-Pie-swear that I'll eat nothing but vegetables for a week if it'll stop hurting.
Please, just make it stop.
MAKE IT STOP!
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It's over…
It doesn't hurt anymore, and she's out.
I'm gonna call her Butterscotch. Butterscotch Cream Pie. It really fits her. She looks like a butterscotch cream pie, except she doesn't have any crust. She's colored like butterscotch pudding (except her belly is white) and her mane looks like whipped cream!
Butterscotch is shivering. The water's getting cold. Time to get out.
I climb out of the tub and put Butterscotch on a mat on the floor. It feels weird because that weird cord thingy is still keeping her attached to me.
I pull the plug out of the tub. Gotta let the water drain away, wash away the blood.
It's hurting again. My belly.
Why is it hurting? My baby's out.
Butterscotch whimpers. What's wrong, Butterscotch? I wanna ask her, but I can't. I can't talk. I look at her and I wanna gasp. The cord is burning away from her belly…
It's going towards me. Inside me now. It feels like a fire inside me. I scream once, then it's over.
It's really over now. Good.
"Let's go have some cupcakes," I say to Butterscotch.
Wait, she can't eat cupcakes yet.
"Well, I'll have some cupcakes and you can have milk". Yeah. That'll work. Twilight's funny book said that the milk our foals drink from us tastes like the food we eat.
Butterscotch likes that idea. She's smiling! Well, sorta…
I'm getting hungry.
I pick up a towel and wrap it around my chest. No idea how I did that, but it's sure going to make carrying Butterscotch easier. I pick her up and put her into the towel-sling.
I think she fell asleep already. Oh well, she can have some cupcake-milk later.
Yawn. I'm getting sleepy, too, actually.
Maybe the cupcakes can wait…
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(Regular POV)
Celestia was terrified for Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Luna was also worried, though she seemed somewhat better at masking it then her older sister.
For at least eight hours now, the castle doctor had been running around the castle between six different room, most often going into the rooms of Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, the princesses normally following suit.
The five of them had apparently been in labor for hours, though no-pony had contacted him until it seemed the foals were ready to come out.
The mothers were in horrible pain; that much was obvious. They retched and retched, even once there was nothing left in their stomachs. They were shivering as though they were cold despite their bodies feeling as though they were suffering from very high fevers.
Despite the assurance of the doctor and his assistants, both of the princesses knew that things were not going well.
In the backs of their minds, they worried that they would not be able to keep the promise they had made to the six heroes of Equestria, the promise that they would not suffer the same fate as Discord's unfortunate pony mother.
As it was, they'd already had a close call with Pinkie Pie.
One of the guards had discovered the pink mare in the washroom, unconscious on the floor with a small bundle wrapped against her chest.
The bundle was a newborn filly, obviously the daughter of the holder of Laughter and the cause of her earlier back pain.
When Pinkie had been discovered, she was barely breathing and had lost quite a bit of blood. She had survived, thanks to quick intervention by the medical ponies, but she was far from recovered.
Her daughter was currently being nursed by another mare, as one of the midwife ponies suggested.
A couple weeks ago, when the doctor suggested having wet-nurses for the foals, Luna had scoffed at the idea and even Celestia had to admit that it seemed like an odd thing to suggest.
Now, however, they understood why he had suggested it. Judging by how things were going, none of the mares would be conscious once the foals were delivered, if they even survived.
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"Get away from me…" Twilight moaned in a mixture of pain and anger, though the pain was much more obvious. There was no other explanation for why the unicorn was telling her mentor to keep her distance.
Celestia did as Twilight oh-so-politely requested, not so much because of the request itself, but because she had to keep Spike from attacking the doctor.
"Make him help her!" the baby dragon had all but shouted at the princess before shooting a glare at the doctor.
The poor stallion gulped, looking like he expected to be char-broiled any moment now. He didn't let his fear distract him from his work, however, and kept his mind on the task at hand.
"Now, Miss Sparkle, I can't get away from you" he told the laboring mare soothingly. "Not right now, at least. Give me a couple more good pushes and we'll have this foal out. Then I can get out of your mane."
Twilight seemed to consider this for a moment, before she did as the doctor told her.
Realizing that Spike was still looking at his surrogate sister (or mother, if you took into the account that it was Twilight Sparkle who hatched his egg), Princess Celestia turned the dragon around, making sure he stayed facing her, rather than the purple unicorn.
Moments that seemed like hours passed before the cry of the holder of Magic's foal was heard.
The mother passed out before the foal was even fully delivered, requiring the doctor to use his own magic to guide the foal, a filly, out of her mother's body.
He prepared to cut the umbilical cord, but before he could do so, a soft sizzling noise and a smoky smell filled the air; the cord was burning away from the filly, leaving nothing in its stead, not even a navel. The fleshy tether disappeared completely and Twilight gave a gasp of pain before going silent and almost completely still.
"I'll take care of her" the doctor assured Celestia and Spike before instructing them to take the newborn filly, who he had quickly cleaned with a towel, away until she was ready to be nursed.
They carried the tiny foal into a small room that was serving as a nursery-Butterscotch had been placed there moments ago when she'd finished feeding-and placed her into a small cradle.
"I need to check on the others, Spike. Will you be alright on your own?" the solar princess asked the small dragon, who nodded in response.
Once she was gone, Spike looked at his best friend's newborn.
The unicorn filly was the same shade of blue that Luna had been when the girls had first met her, though her mane appeared to be much darker. Whether it was black or just a very dark shade of blue, Spike couldn't tell.
A soft growling noise took Spike's thoughts away from the foal. He had refused to leave Twilight for hours, despite being very hungry.
Now, he wasn't allowed into the room while the doctor took care of her.
"Maybe Moon-Dancer will let me have some gems…" he muttered, heading towards the kitchens.
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Doctor Castaway sighed as he used his magic to keep the cyan pegasus's wings pinned to her sides. She had been flapping them haphazardly, and he couldn't have that.
The foal was crowning now, and the last thing he needed was for the mother to manage to lift herself during the delivery.
Rainbow Dash continued to try and struggle against the pains that shot through her body. Her eyes were bloodshot; she began to retch again.
Doctor Castaway demanded that she push. She paid him no heed.
"You want the pain to stop? Then do as I say!" he demanded again.
This time, she simply gave him an angry snort between the retching.
Castaway sighed. He really didn't want to have to do this, but she was leaving him no choice. If he didn't intervene, things were not going to end well for the pegasus or her foal.
He turned to his assistant, instructing her to keep Rainbow Dash's wings secured, before stepping towards the very angry soon-to-be mother.
Said angry mare attempted to give the doctor a kick as soon as he was within range, but he used magic to hold her legs steady in the position he wanted them in.
Once she was fully restrained, the stallion began to press on her abdomen slightly.
At first, he worried that the method wasn't working. However, slowly but surely, the small foal slid from its-his-mother's body.
The newborn colt appeared to have a fairly strong resemblance to his mother; he had the same coat color, and had even inherited a multicolored mane, though his only contained the colors blue, yellow, orange, and red.
Like with the filly born a few moments ago, the umbilical cord literally burned away, apparently taking the foal's navel away with it.
Doctor Castaway quickly used his magic to lift the colt off the ground, before "handing" him over to the assistant to have him cleaned and carried into the "nursery".
While she did that, the doctor took care of the mother, giving her herbs to stop the bleeding, fight against infection, and lower the fever she had developed during the delivery, as well as help her sleep in order to recover from the experience.
He would be doing this for all the mares as they delivered, he was sure.
The last thing he wanted was for any-pony to not be able to walk away from this experience.
He'd already come too close with the pink pony.
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Rarity looked up at the doctor as though she thought he had completely lost his mind. And, in her mind, he had.
"You're telling me not to push?" she asked him, slipping out of the accent she normally used as she panted between the words.
Castaway simply nodded.
Exasperated, the holder of the Element of Generosity asked why he didn't want her to push.
He had said that the foal was beginning to emerge, and she could certainly tell that he was correct. Didn't that mean she should be pushing to move the delivery along quicker?
"The foal is positioned wrong. Unless you want to tear more than you already are, I'd suggest against pushing until I tell you to" the doctor informed the white unicorn.
Instantly, Rarity stopped complaining, though she did whimper as the doctor did his work.
He used his magic to try and move the foal around inside the birth canal without causing too much damage to it or the mother. He almost had it in the right position when the foal shifted forward.
"Miss Rarity, I told you not to…" his voice trailed off as he realized that the poor mare was shuddering violently, her eyes rolling upwards. She was obviously not controlling her own body at the moment; her body was doing what came naturally in this situation.
"Doctor, should I give her a muscle relaxant?" his assistant Jupiter Drops suggested.
He shook his head. Relaxing the muscles ran the risk of stopping the contractions, which would stop the delivery of the foal. Considering the head had already emerged, it would be safer to simply allow Rarity's body to deliver the foal before giving her the muscle relaxants.
Soon enough, Jupiter was cleaning off a small white unicorn filly with a turquoise colored mane while Doctor Castaway tended to her mother.
The purple-maned unicorn had torn fairly badly due to the bad positioning of her daughter during the delivery, and she was completely unaware of the world around her, though that was possibly an effect of the cocktail of liquid herbs the doctor had poured down her throat to both stop the muscle spasms and the bleeding, and make her sleep.
He glanced at Jupiter, who took the filly out of the room as he silently instructed.
As she was leaving, he told her to tell Venus and Milkyway to do the same once the last two foals were born.
Jupiter nodded.
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For the first time tonight, Doctor Castaway kept his distance away from the mother as her foal was delivered.
It wasn't that he had anything against the orange pony. Far from it, actually.
It was just…this was actually going fairly well so far, compared to the last three deliveries he had just performed.
Besides, he'd already been bucked in the face once by Miss Applejack, and the last thing he needed right now was to be knocked unconscious. He still had one last foal to deliver after this, after all.
An almost metallic scent filled the air.
Doctor Castaway looked over at Applejack, as he assumed the smell was coming from her. Sure enough, the mare was now bleeding was profusely.
"We need to get it out…NOW" he told Venus, who shook her head slightly.
"Venus Lovedust! If we don't deliver the foal now, the mother is going to hemorrhage past the point where we can help her. Do you want that?" he asked her harshly.
The lavender-colored pony shook her head. She then opened her mouth and spoke softly.
"He's already out, sir." She informed him, carefully lifting up a blood-covered colt. The blood obscured the colors of the colt's coat and mane for the most part, though Castaway was fairly certain that the coat was a shade of green, while the mane was an almost golden color.
He didn't have much time to think about that as he instantly turned his attention back to Applejack, who was struggling to keep herself awake despite the blood she was losing.
While Venus carried the newborn away, the doctor hushed his patient, feeding her the cocktail of herbs. Unlike the others, the orange earth pony put up a fight, shaking her head slightly to wake herself up whenever she began to drift off.
Soon, however, the effects of the herbs won over her stubbornness and she succumbed to slumber.
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"You're doing fine, Fluttershy" Castaway told the gentle pegasus as she exhaled shakily.
As she exhaled, she pushed gently. The foal began to emerge from her body.
The doctor and Milkyway were amazed at how calm she was. Yes, they knew that she had quite a high level of patience compared to most ponies, but they had seen many patient ponies before, and they always at least screamed during this part of delivery. All Fluttershy had done so far was gasps somewhat loudly a few times.
Besides that, she made little other sound, other than occasionally asking if everything was going alright. The doctor and "nurse" always assured her that it was, and she would calm down again.
"One more should do it" Castaway informed Fluttershy, who smiled tiredly.
Despite her apparent tolerance for the pain, it was clear the labor and delivery was draining the poor pegasus. She had already used a great deal of her strength and she still needed to summon up enough energy for the final push.
Milkyway began to ask the shy pony if she would like them to assist with the delivery, but before she could finish, Fluttershy began to bear down.
She whimpered slightly with the effort, her teeth grinding against each other ever so lightly.
It was only a minute before Milkyway had the yellow filly with the brown mane in her telekinetic grip. As she turned to take the foal away to be cleaned, she heard a small noise from behind her.
"My baby…Can I see my baby?" Fluttershy asked, her voice barely louder than a puff of breath, barely loud enough to be heard.
Milkyway smiled gently and lowered the newborn down to her mother's eye level.
Fluttershy nuzzled the still bloody foal gently.
In response, the baby yawned and opened her eyelids, revealing eyes that were unlike that of a normal newborn foal's. Instead of the usual nearly black eyes and black pupils, the filly had bright yellow eyes with red pupils.
The doctor and his assistant were taken aback by this, but the new mother didn't seem to even notice the odd color of her daughter's eyes.
She simply nuzzled her again as she said, "Mama loves you, no matter what. Don't forget that, Meadow Lark…".
With that, she lowered her head and closed her eyes. For a moment, the other two adult ponies feared the worst, until they heard the soft, steady breathing from the holder of Kindness.
Castaway knelt down and began to examine the mother while Milkyway carried the newborn filly, Meadow Lark, out of the room.
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Ocean Breeze crept quietly into the room where the six foals were being kept, holding a fairly large bucket in her mouth.
Ever since she had heard what these foals truly were, she had been preparing for this day.
A part of her felt sick for doing this to innocent newborns.
That part of her conscious vanished instantly when she heard the stories of the deliveries: the umbilical cords literally burning away, leaving no sign of a navel to suggest it ever existed. Not to mention the foals all possessed odd yellow eyes with red pupils. Clearly these were demon-spawn.
Ocean Breeze needed to protect Equestria. She needed to protect her own baby, her little Crystal Lake.
Exhaling softly, the light blue unicorn activated her magic and the bucket on the floor began to fill with water. Once it was nearly full, she stopped the spell and turned to the cradles where the little monsters slept.
She lifted one, a cyan-colored colt, from his cradle with her telekinesis and began to move him towards the bucket.
She paused for a moment and wondered if would this be enough? The foals were the spawn of a horrible creature who had apparently little weaknesses outside of the Elements of Harmony, so perhaps they had inherited some resistance to harm as well.
No…the foals were mortal, at least for now. They had less chance of surviving an attack from her as she did of surviving an attack by a full grown dragon.
Ocean Breeze began to lower the colt into the water. Just a couple minutes and it would be over. Less than half an hour before the horrible creatures were gone.
Ocean Breeze looked up as she noticed something fighting against her magic. She looked up to see that the foal was now being cradled by a radiant golden glow.
Before she could process what was happening, the would-be killer found herself pinned to the floor by Princess Luna.
The princess of the night's eyes were glowing and the windows shook from the violent winds blowing around outside.
"I shall give you one minute to tell me why I shouldn't leave you to a pack of starving Timber Wolves as punishment for your crime" Luna informed the unicorn, clearly struggling to keep herself from shouting.
Ocean Breeze blinked her crystal colored eyes in confusion. Did the princess really not know why she was doing this? She began to explain, only to have Luna snap at her to be silent.
"I care not for your excuses. If any-pony here is a demon, it must be you. Why else would you choose to murder these foals?" she questioned Ocean Breeze angrily. "I shall have you executed at once, you-"
Before Luna could finish her threat, Celestia placed a hoof on her shoulder to silence her. The older sister had already placed the pegasus colt back into his cradle, so she would be able to use her full telekinetic power to restrain either of the younger ponies if things went out of hoof.
"You will not be executed, Ocean Breeze, and you may remain in the castle" she informed the would-be murderess before telling her to return to her chambers. Luna looked appalled and began to question why her sister was being so lenient with a pony who had attempted to murder newborns in cold blood.
"But," Celestia began, stopping Ocean Breeze as she walked past her, "my sister is right. We will not tolerate the slaughter of the innocents. If those foals are harmed at all during these next few months, if you had anything to do with it, anything at all…the best you will get away with in spending the rest of your life in the dungeon".
With that, she ushered the light blue unicorn out of the room, giving her a glance that showed she clearly meant what she said as Ocean Breeze went into the hall and towards her room.
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First!
159242 oh you polite troll you are the first polite one ive seen
159606
He's (sorry if I called you a boy if you're actually a girl.
) trolling? Hey, if it means this chapter gets a comment, that's fine with me, especially since he's not being a jerk about it.
One thing that occurred to me while reading this chapter was that I remembered hearing that supposedly human beings are the only species that actually feels pain while giving birth.
235503 That's got to be false, other animals feel pain when they give birth, they just don't show it becuase we're either not around or don't notice.
So the deliveries went over well, but now comes the hard part raising the foals the right way.
649543
hmmmmmm....!
Excuse me Discord but this story needs a bit more....*raises pinky Dr. Evil style* Chaos!!!
*visits everypony's house and leaves a PS3 with Prototype, Modern Warfare 2, and the GTA4 collection while they're all away at Canterlot...and also hands one to Scootaloo*
Mwuahaahaahaahaa!
a.deviantart.net/avatars/d/i/discordderpplz.png?1 Even I think this is a terrible idea...
235503
From what I have learned about parturition in my studies other animals can feel pain. As they cannot tell us they are we have to rely on physiological signs as indication (restlessness, increased respiratory rate, etc). For humans childbirth tends to be pretty painful (possibly more so than many animals) as our species has HUGE heads.
I love this story, but for the love of all things good in Equestria get those foals some colostrum! I am going to give you some leeway here and say that chaos magic will imbue them with maternal (paternal in this case?) antibodies. Seriously though other then that biological over-site I am really enjoying reading this.
One tip for Ocean Breeze. If you want to kill somepony, make a good motive that gets you off scot-free.
You did nothing of the sort.
649843 Oh my god...this is...this is horrible.
even after all that pinkie pie will still be pinkie pie!