Biological Differences
Sunset Shimmer tilted her head to one side, gazing at the crystal mirror at the other end of the dimly-lit room. She strode toward it slowly, the sounds of her hoofsteps echoing against the cold marble walls of the castle being all that reached her ears. Though she passed by elaborate tapestries, colorful paintings, and dark stained glass windows, she paid them no mind. Her eyes were locked on the mirror, watching her blurry reflection slowly come into focus as she approached.
There she was, pale green eyes staring back at her from the silvery surface. Her finely-styled mane hung down past her horn in red and gold hues, framing her beautiful face as well as it ever did. Her horn stuck up past her mane like always, it's spiral pattern ever flawless. Her coat even seemed to sparkle on the other side of the glass. A pair of golden, glowing wings flared out from her back, stretching to either side with a span unseen on pegasi, and atop her head sat a radiant crown. The crown of an alicorn. The crown of a princess. Her crown.
Sunset reached out for the mirror, her reflection stock still on the other side. The unicorn's hoof stopped short of the surface, however, the shackle wrapped around her foreleg keeping her from it. Her eyes followed the chain back around and to the opposite side of the room. Princess Celestia leered at her from the doorway, the other end of the chain held in her magic. The alicorn gave the chain a sharp yank, pulling Sunset away from the mirror. Sunset resisted, digging her hooves into the hard floor, but it was for naught. Away from the mirror she slid, one hoof still reaching hopelessly toward her own reflection as Celestia dragged her from it.
Sunset turned toward the princess, tears streaming from her glaring eyes and teeth clenched. She opened her mouth to scream in protest, but Celestia simply held a hoof to Sunset's lips. The unicorn pushed the golden horseshoe away, rearing up onto her hind legs and pulling her chains taut. Something glinted at either edge of Sunset's vision just before a set of silver daggers were driven into her stomach, each one gripped in Celestia's golden aura.
Sunset awoke with a gasp and then a groan, Celestia's icy eyes replaced with the pale purple paint of her bedroom wall. There was an intense, stabbing pain in her abdomen, almost as if the gleaming daggers had been real. Her hands moved down to her belly, clutching at a point just below her navel as she curled up against the bed covers. A slight glance downward informed her that there were no daggers, of course, nor any wound she could see, yet the pain persisted. The memory of her dream was pushed aside, replaced by other, more relevant thoughts, like why the hell it felt like there was a steel pinecone in her guts.
Some form of food poisoning, maybe? She hadn't been eating anything different lately and hadn't shared food with anyone, but that didn't rule it out. Maybe something wrong further along, like in her intestines? Maybe some manner of parasite, like a tapeworm? The idea of it being a hernia briefly crossed her mind, but how would she get a hernia in her sleep? Whatever it was, it was seriously pissing her off.
She slid from the sheets, stumbling through the dark bedroom. She came to a stop in her bathroom, leaning forward with both hands holding the edge of the sink. Sunset panted through her teeth for a few seconds before bringing her eyes away from the basin. The image in her bathroom mirror was a far cry from that of her dream. No visions of a crown-bearing princess and a destiny denied, nor of a pony at all, only the image of a young woman wearing a grimace and a mess of red and yellow hair. She gritted her teeth and swung the mirror aside, revealing a single pill bottle inside the cabinet. She snatched the white bottle and turned, tugging on the lid to free the painkillers inside, but she stopped as a new sensation edged itself into the front of her mind.
She was wet. Wet in a place she probably shouldn't be wet in, considering the not-so-fun dream she'd just had. She snarled at her childish accident, pulling the soiled purple pajama pants down and off her body. She tossed them onto the edge of the bathtub and went back to struggling to get the pill bottle open. As useful as they were, she still wasn't used to these finger things. She stopped again, however, eyes drifting back to the moist pants on the edge of the tub. There was something off about them.
She reached back and flicked a switch on the wall, throwing light onto the subject of her examination. The spot on her pajamas was much too dark for the few things she thought herself likely to stain it with, and much, much too red. The pill bottle found itself on the sink as Sunset retrieved the legwear and brought it up to her nose. Any doubt she'd had cleared with a short sniff, and she dropped the pants. She gave her panties a soft pat, and her shaking fingers came back with traces of deep red.
Sunset leaned back against the sink, her breaths coming in short and shallow. This was bad. Really bad. Sunset wasn't a medical student, but she'd done her fair share of studying back when she was still under Celestia's hoof, and she was pretty sure that part of her wasn't supposed to bleed. Nopony she'd ever heard of had bled from there unless they'd been cut, broken in (so to speak), or there was something seriously wrong with their internals. A quick visual check ruled out the first, for the most part, and she was pretty sure the second was pretty unlikely to have happened.
Or was it? Could it really be? Could someone.... No, it couldn't be.
Sunset slid down the side of the sink and hit the floor, her face falling into her hands. She whimpered slightly, both at the pinecone spinning inside of her and at her own hysterical state. She took in a sharp breath and held it, trying to get herself under control. What was wrong with her? She'd handled bigger things than a little blood, yet she couldn't subdue the panic continuing to rise inside her. She'd yelled in the face of Princess Celestia herself and thrown a book at the alicorn without the slightest fear, yet she couldn't stem the terror that each beat of her frantic heart pumped through her body.
After some time, Sunset let out her latest held breath and got to her feet, bracing her clenched fists against the sink. "Get it together, Sunset. Stop being an idiot and just go to a hospital." She glanced at the bottle of pills, but decided to leave it for the time being. As much as she'd like to, stopping the pain might make it a lot harder for a doctor to figure out what was wrong with her. She turned and headed back into the bedroom.
She found her hands automatically going for her usual attire, but she opted not to wear a skirt for this particular outing. That probably wouldn't end well. It might make access easier for the doctors, but they'd put her into one of those gowns, anyway. She settled on some cheap jeans she'd picked up at a thrift store, padding the interior with some toilet paper. She didn't have a coat to cover herself, so she just hoped it didn't soak through.
She shut her front door a few minutes later, trembling hands fumbling with her keys before finally getting it locked. Her feet carried her out and over the dark sidewalk, doing her best to keep from hunching over too much as she traveled. Weakness wasn't something she ever liked to show, after all. She wanted to just curl up in a ball and die, but she still had a lot to do in life, so a trip to a medical professional was a better idea. She pulled her leather jacket in a bit tighter and walked on, breathing in the cool morning air. The sun remained hidden beyond the horizon, the only light coming from the moon and the tall lamps lining the road.
It was only when she'd already gone about halfway through the mile-and-a-half journey to the nearest hospital that she realized she could have just called a taxi. Not an ambulance, though, since that would cost even more than a trip to the emergency room. She muttered a few curses, glad that she at least lived sorta close to her destination. Where was her mind, lately? Come to think of it, she'd been feeling a little off for a few days prior. Whatever it was that was wrong with her, it was probably causing some sort of hormone imbalance that was messing with her head. She'd heard of that sort of thing happening when there were problems with such internal organs.
The hospital finally came into view, tall, tan, and covered with bricks and windows. Sunset only moaned a little as she crossed the parking lot. She should probably get one of those car things that everyone around seemed to cherish so much. It might take a little while, though. She'd only been in this world for a few weeks, and most of that time had been spent finding a place to live, infiltrating the local school system, and establishing herself. Perhaps later, she could find someone who already had a car and make them drive her around.
One hand left her abdomen to reach for the glass doors, but they slid open by themselves before she could touch them. Sunset merely raised an eyebrow at the automatic entry system as she passed through. The novelty and surprise of this new world's technology had worn off pretty early on. All these advanced machines meant to Sunset were that she had a lot to learn about this new world. She fully intended to study all of it, assuming this new affliction didn't kill her first.
It took about twenty agonizing minutes before the hospital staff finally got around to her. "Emergency Room" must have been some kind of sick joke, because twenty minutes was more than enough time to bleed out and drop dead. What, was everyone taking a food break at the exact same time? Was there a birthday party that they just couldn't pull themselves away from? Whatever it was, it was seriously pissing her off.
Finally, a nurse came in, calling out, "Sunset Shimmer?" The girl in question stood up and made her way across the room, her scowl deepening with each shuffling step. The green-haired nurse led her down into a little triage room, the contents of which were packed in pretty tightly. A bed, a chair, a sink, a table, a big light hanging from the ceiling, and a few cabinets and drawers.
The nurse sat down in a little desk chair and held up her chart in her pale blue hands, glancing from the still-standing Sunset to the piece of paper stuck on it. "It says here on that you're suffering from severe abdominal pain along with vaginal bleeding?" Sunset merely nodded, reserving her snark for a time when she might not be dying, and the nurse made a note. "On a scale of one-to-ten, with one being minor irritation and ten being the worst pain ever, how would you rate your pain?"
Sunset gritted her teeth, annoyed at the questions already. Her eyes scanned the tiled floor for a second before answering, "Eight." Her eyes clamped shut a second later, and she corrected, "No, ten."
The triage nurse made another note. "When did these symptoms start?"
"About an hour ago," Sunset replied after checking the clock. "I think. I woke up with it—with both symptoms."
"Have you taken anything for the pain?"
She shook her head, hands still wrapped around her waist. "No. I knew if I took something, it might be harder to diagnose."
The nurse barely nodded in acknowledgment. "Does it hurt more when you do certain things, like sitting or walking? Does anything aggravate or alleviate the pain?" The nurse made another note as Sunset shook her head again.
"No, nothing makes it change. It just hurts."
"Can you describe what it feels like?"
Sunset growled, glaring up at the nurse from under her brow. She huffed once before replying, "It feels like someone is wrapping my guts in barbed wire and twisting it around."
The nurse hummed thoughtfully for a moment, writing on the chart for a few more seconds before putting down the pen. "Okay, let's check out your vitals and and see if we can't figure out what's wrong with you, okay?" With a nod of consent, the triage nurse set about checking Sunset out, pulling instruments from racks and drawers. She slid a blood pressure cuff around the young woman's arm. "Now, where exactly is this pain?"
Sunset gestured toward a spot just under her navel. "Right around here, and kinda in my back, too."
The rest of the examination went on routinely, with the triage nurse asking about Sunset's medical history and Sunset giving the most honest answers she could without admitting that she used to be a magical unicorn. The nurse pinched here and there, tapped a few places, and had Sunset move a few limbs this way and that. Once she was apparently satisfied, the nurse stood from her chair. "I'll be right back," she said just before disappearing from sight.
Sunset sighed, rolling her eyes at the establishment's procedures. The nurse was probably off talking with someone about how close to death Sunset may be so they can prioritize the patients. If they didn't think she had a big enough problem, she might well be kept waiting for an hour, if the hospitals in Equestria were any indication.
A white hand pulled the curtain aside, and a new woman came into Sunset's view. "Miss Shimmer?" the new nurse asked, and Sunset stood up, nodding. "If you'll come with me, please."
Sunset followed behind the nurse, still clutching her belly. "That was barely four minutes," she commented, her voice low. "It's that bad, huh?"
The nurse glanced back as Sunset posed her question. "Oh no, it's probably nothing too serious, but it's a slow night. If we thought your life were in immediate danger, we probably would've put you in a wheelchair." She stopped suddenly, gesturing one of her pale hands toward a bed on one side of the wide hallway. "Have a seat and I'll be right back."
Sunset did as instructed, too tired and pained to complain. She planted her behind on the narrow, white bed. This area was even more thread-bare than the previous. It wasn't even a room, it was just a little alcove built into the wall. All that separated it from the rest of the hallway and the other treatment zones was a pale green curtain, which the nurse pulled shut as she left. Sunset lifted her booted feet onto the bed and twisted around, curling up with her knees to her chest. Her eyes fell shut, her mind trying to focus on something, anything other than the swirling torrent of broken glass inside her.
After what felt like another hour, Sunset's eyes opened. The curtain slid shut with another quiet screech of metal-on-metal, and Sunset slowly twisted around to face the pale nurse from earlier. "Isn't this where you bring in a doctor?" Sunset asked.
The nurse, whose nametag said "Redheart", sat down on a little chair near the bed, responding, "Not quite yet. First, I need a little more information. Also, he's on his dinner break and said you'd survive until he was done with his cod and cheesy potatoes. Now, you said you're not sexually active, right?"
Sunset sat up, swinging her boots down to the floor. "No, I'm not."
"You're sure?" Nurse Redheart only received a glare in response, and turned back to the chart in her hands. "Okay. When was your last period?"
"My last period of what?"
Nurse Redheart glanced up at Sunset from behind the chart. "Your menstrual period."
Sunset's eyes flitted to the left, then back to the nurse. Her eyebrows lifted slightly. "What?" she asked flatly.
The nurse put down the chart, eying the floor for a second. "Where are your parents?"
Sunset froze, breath held and her eyes scanning the floor as she sought an answer. She shut her eyes, shaking her head as she simply admitted, "They're gone."
"Oh, dear, I'm sor—"
Sunset raised a hand, opening one eye to leer over at the woman. "Don't. Just tell me what the hell is wrong with me."
Redheart's voice remained calm. "That's what I'm trying to find out. Now, I take it this has never happened before?"
Sunset pulled her knees up again, propping her heels on the edge of the bed and wrapping her arms around her shins. "No, I think I would remember this."
Nurse Redheart sighed. "Well, I think I know what's going on here, but there are a few more examinations to go through before we can be sure, okay?"
Sunset sneered at the nurse, and hissed, "I don't care, just figure it out."
And so the nurse continued the exam, asking a few more questions, taking a few fluid samples, and being more than a little invasive for Sunset's comfort. It was far from fun, but Sunset was too distracted by her pain to care much. She just wanted an answer followed by a solution so she could get back to work with figuring out this new world.
Nurse Redheart looked over the chart one last time, reviewing all the notes she'd made. "Well, I don't know what else it could be. You don't have any signs of trauma or illness at all, so I guess it must just be the simplest answer." She gave a quiet sigh once again and put the chart down on her lap, turning back to Sunset. "Nothing is wrong with you, honey."
"Don't call me that," Sunset snapped.
"What you're going through is perfectly natural, and is just a part of growing up."
Sunset slowly tilted her head to one side, eying the nurse with one eye half shut. "Explain. Now."
The nurse did, in horrific detail, with pictures from a handy little book she pulled out of a nearby drawer. Pain, blood, irritability, mood swings, and all of it was supposed to happen. Far from easing Sunset's mind, every new piece of information that came out of the nurse's mouth only piled on more horror. None of it was right. None of it. Ponies never did any of this. What the hell was wrong with these creatures?
"No," Sunset whispered, the little picture book slipping from her shaking fingers. "You're lying," she said a bit louder. "You can't be serious."
Redheart shook her head. "I'm afraid it's true. I'm sorry you had to hear all of this from me. I'm sure it would've been less unpleasant to hear from your parents, and before your first time of the month."
"Every month? Every month?! For a week?!"
"Approximately. Probably less. It varies from one girl to the next."
"How?" Sunset whimpered a bit, still clutching her stomach. "How can po—people put up with this? Why do people put up with this?"
"They have to. It's just the way things are."
"Can't you just, like, cut out all that stuff? I hate kids, anyway."
"There are procedures, yes. I would suggest you don't run off and get a hysterectomy, though. That's a pretty major decision, especially for a girl your age." Nurse Redheart picked up her pen again, this time pulling a small notepad from her shirt pocket. "I can recommend some over-the-counter medications to mitigate some of the symptoms, for now. Would you like that?"
Sunset nodded in silence before curling up onto her side again. "Yes, please."
* * * *
Sunset Shimmer's clock burst into seven pieces upon striking the wall opposite her bed, which finally silenced the incessant beeping of the morning alarm. She didn't care about the tests she was missing, and she didn't care about what the principal might do to punish her repeated absences. She was not going to school until she felt like herself again, no matter how long it took. Her teachers could go soak their heads.
She did still crawl from her bed, but that was just to refill her bedside jug of water and suck down a few more pills from the bottles on her nightstand. After that, it was back under the covers with another candy bar. This marked her third day of anguish, and she wasn't sure how much more she could take before snapping and tearing her apartment down, assuming she could pull herself out of bed at that point.
Every hour that passed solidified the decision in her mind: she was not going to stay in this world any longer than she had to. This place sucked. Nobody, pony or otherwise, should have to go through this torture. Except maybe Celestia, but even then, not for three days straight, and not every single moon. That was just plain evil, which Sunset certainly didn't consider herself to be. No, she didn't wish this on anyone.
Sunset tossed the empty candy bar wrapper away and took a swig from her water jug. A brief check told her it was time to change her pad. Again. She just couldn't be one of those "light bleeders" that the stupid picture book had mentioned. No, not with Sunset's luck. She'd never had luck, after all. Never needed it, not with her talent. Still, some luck would've been nice, once in a while.
The used pad hit the trash can, a new one found its way onto her body, and she slid back under the blanket to resume the nothing she'd been doing.
* * * *
On the fifth day, she awoke to find that the breakdancing, razor blade-covered goblin in her uterus was gone. Sunset threw off the covers, checking herself. A little bit of dried blood, and nothing more. It was over. She sighed, relief washing over her like a cool ocean wave on a hot summer's day. She climbed from her bed, a smile actually finding its way onto her face. She certainly wasn't looking forward to the next time she was to undergo such torment, but for the time being, she was free. She hadn't taken nearly as many pills as she'd expected, either. Must've just felt like more, because she thought she'd have gone through half of each bottle, at least.
Even the crushing despair that had taken her mind was lifted. Thinking on it as she gathered the trash scattered around her bedroom, she still might skip out the next time the portal opened. This was, after all, a lot of trouble to go through. Then again, this world had a lot of things that Equestria didn't. No magic, though, sadly, but quite a few other advantages.
She tossed the trash bag into a dumpster near her apartment, still wearing her pajamas, but now topped with her jacket. Her slippered feet carried her back inside. Maybe she should stay a bit longer. She never thought herself a weakling, after all, and the picture book had mentioned that the first period is usually the worst one. Perhaps she could deal with a few days of agony once a month if it brought her closer to fulfilling her destiny, especially if she got to shove her new-found power in Celestia's face. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? If that were true, at this rate, by the time the portal to Equestria opened again, she'd be stronger than Celestia and Cadance combined. They never had to go through this.
Sunset smirked as she pulled open her refrigerator to find some real breakfast. She could officially call herself tougher than most ponies who had ever lived. That was something, at least. She pulled a week-old doughnut from its cardboard box and leaned back against the kitchen counter, munching on the glazed ring. It was gonna suck, living in this new world, and she might want to find some henchmen to do her bidding, but she'd survive. She always did.