//------------------------------// // Pregnant Pause // Story: Bloom Filter // by ferret //------------------------------// ”What?!” Birds scattered overhead “What...?” Sunset replied uncertainly at Twilight Sparkle’s expression of unbridled horror there in their portable laboratory building. “I mean, it sucks, sure, but I just want to know if they’re going to have any problems, if it comes to giving birth as a pony.” “No, no, no,” Twilight stated, pacing frantically before Sunset as she said, “Of course they’re going to have problems. Huge problems! You said Dinky and Diamond Tiara? Diamond Tiara is pregnant?” “Y...eah?” Sunset replied, backing up from the incensed purple girl, not quite to the door she walked in from. “I know they’re just kids, but remember that humans mature much earlier than ponies. This is earlier than normal, but it’s not unheard-of. Think of it like they were 30 or um... two bunches.” “No, you don’t understand,” Twilight seethed not even seeing Sunset as she ruminated to herself, “I know Diamond Tiara from the other side.” “And...?” Sunset replied uncertainly. “I...” Twilight said, sitting heavily into a plastic chair. “I was at her cuteciñera. About a year before I left Equestria, she had a big celebration when she got her cutie mark. Her father’s kind of well-to-do, see, and he dotes on her way too much. So I know h-how old she is. As a pony, I mean.” Sunset’s blood went cold. Colder. “So you mean, if the temporal pivot point was your entry as we seem to have observed, then Diamond Tiara is only 18?” Sunset said in shock. “Can she even bear a foal at that age?” “Actually... I really didn’t emphasize how much of a spoiled little brat she is,” Twilight stated anxiously. “Diamond Tiara had her cuteciñera the moment she got her cutie mark, not when she entered apprenticeship. Like, a week afterward. Which puts her current age at more like... thirteen.” Spike poked his nose in the open door, yelping, “Some ponies wanted to ask if—holy moley what’s gotten into you two?! Nopony went and died, did they?” “Not... yet, Spike,” Twilight said dismally. In the therapist’s office, Diamond Tiara lay on the couch, rather than sitting in the chair. It was less comfortable to sit in the chair on account of what was... happening to her belly. It was getting all heavy and tight, nothing painful, but that kind of made it even weirder with how it wasn’t obviously hurting to get big, like... this. “We’ll be doing something different this week, Diamond Tiara,” the colorful Dr. Blossomforth told her. “Do you know a girl by the name of Twilight Sparkle? Because she’s asked me to mediate for you two, as she has something ...troubling to discuss with you.” “Uh—” Diamond said, her mind immediately going to the baby. “Like, I guess so?” she said uneasily. “I know Twilight, but why does she even want to talk to me? You’re not gonna let her rub it in, are you? You said that nobody had any right to do that!” “That’s why I’m going to be here, Diamond,” the therapist said patiently. “If she tries anything, she’ll find out that I have a mean right hook!” Diamond blinked, and then snickered despite herself. “Only kidding,” the therapist said, ceasing trying to show off her biceps, “But that’s what mediation involves, is to help two parties resolve their differences, without either one taking advantage of the other. You can rest assured I wouldn’t agree to this if I thought this Twilight girl was a danger to you, or...” Diamond’s therapist glanced down briefly at Diamond’s waist. “...a danger to you,” she concluded conservatively, but Diamond understood what she meant. “If Twilight figures out how to lecture my baby I’ll be actually impressed,” Diamond replied snidely. “Yeah, I suppose we can like, talk, but can I still like, um, talk with you, and stuff?” The colorful woman nodded. “I was hoping you would be free afterwards. It shouldn’t take long, honestly. I think your friend may be a little overly concerned about her own judgement, to involve me in this.” “She’s not my... look, let’s just get this over with,” Diamond grumbled, stalking into the hallway. There was that purple girl again, sitting right there in the rather nondescript waiting room. Twilight brightened as Diamond walked in, then wilted again, whatever that meant. Nothing good. “You can come back now,” Dr. Blossomforth said agreeably, in that calculatingly agreeable manner that she said anything. That just made Diamond want to get in her way more, to try to disrupt that peaceful veneer of lies, but Diamond Tiara was going to be the bigger girl this time. She did take some amount of satisfaction from how the therapist had to lean around her while Diamond stood in the doorway, wishing she could really take control of the situation instead of more posturing, and lies. “You better not try to make me give this baby up,” Diamond told the nervously approaching purple girl, “Or I’ll... do something unladylike!” “Perhaps we should wait until we have some privacy, Diamond?” the therapist said in a very slightly pleading manner. Diamond flopped onto the couch once Twilight was in the office, moving to cautiously sit in the chair. “Have a lot of people been trying to get you to give the baby up?” Twilight asked curiously, while the doctor took her place behind the desk. “No, nobody’s even tried to make me do it,” Diamond said, wishing she could... put into words what she was feeling. “But if they did, I wouldn’t do it, because I can’t even think about doing something so... horrible!” The genuine horror that crept into Diamond’s voice surprised her. Why was she so bothered by the idea? “Nobody’s going to make you do anything here, Diamond Tiara,” the therapist said, folding her white fingers together “This is a safe place. Now, Miss Sparkle,” she said, turning to face Twilight still squirming there trying to get comfortable. Serves her right for taking the chair. “It seems you know each other already, so maybe you could start by telling Diamond Tiara why you wish to speak with her?” The purple girl didn’t look like she wanted to. But with difficulty, Twilight said, “Hello, Diamond Tiara. I’m sorry I don’t come with good news. I came to talk to you about... well... your pregnancy. I’m really worried about it.” Diamond wanted to snap at her that everyone was really worried about it, but glancing at the therapist, she held her tongue. “I’m almost sixteen,” Diamond explained, “My body has been ready for like, years. They just make you wait until eighteen because they don’t want you to miss school, but there’s nothing like, dangerous about it. I can have a baby just as easy as someone twice my age. That’s kind of freaky actually, but like, it’s true.” Neither of them seemed to want to say anything in response, though Dr. Blossomforth gave Diamond a sympathetic look. Twilight forced herself again though, clenching her hands on her legs anxiously, and saying, “Yes, that’s what I came to talk to you about. You know people have been changing into ponies.” “Yeah, but what does that have to do with—” Diamond blinked. “W-wait, that means... what if I change first? Or if they do? Won’t we change at the same time? How would it even work if we didn’t? I’m not the only pregnant girl in this city, so what do they all do about it? Why are you only talking to me?” “Because you have something much, much more to worry about,” Twilight said. “I don’t know if you should... go through with it. The pregnancy, I mean.” “Oh now you want me to abort,” Diamond said dryly, “I’m not going to—kill the baby! Why do you want me to... to kill this thing? How could I murder an adorable little—” “Please, please just hear me out,” Twilight said while Diamond got shriller. Her therapist got in Diamond’s face though stating commandingly, “Diamond.” “Like, sorry. But it’s just—” Diamond said in frustration, and a bit of terror. They were going to take her baby away? She was past the first trimester! Wasn’t that like, illegal or something? “I’m only here to mediate,” Dr. Blossomforth said, “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, but I would like you to let Twilight speak.” “Okay I wasn’t... like, sure... whatever,” Diamond said, shrinking down in the couch cushions with a blush creeping onto her face. Diamond realized she had stopped speaking dryly, and was fighting not to burst out crying right there. “Sorry I like...” she wiped her eyes, “I like, don’t know what’s wrong with me.” “I wouldn’t even think about suggesting it, if we weren’t facing dire consequences,” Twilight said holding up her palms appeasingly. “If you... if you want to have that baby, then you should be able to. I mean yes you probably can’t afford it, or have time for it, and the orphanage isn’t legally—” “I know,” Diamond said furiously. “I just can’t even think about... it’s just not right, okay? I tried to—to ask about abortion, but I didn’t want to! I just... I mean, Dinky gave it to me! I have to—I don’t even know. It’s just not something I can even do. Just thinking about it is like...” She curled up on the couch, just... hiding that firm spot on her abdomen, that would become a child. “But that’s not what I’m worried about,” Twilight said with a look of honest concern, and maybe a bit of terror. “I wouldn’t bother you, if it was just a matter of choice, Diamond. I know Diamond Tiara from Equestria. She lives in Ponyville, and I’ve seen her before. I was even at her cuteciñera, I—I know her, is my point. She’s not... Diamond Tiara you’re not... “She’s about four years older than Apple Bloom,” Twilight said, biting her lower lip. “You know about how Apple Bloom is a filly... right?” “Right?” Diamond said uncertainly. “So like, the other Diamond is an adult then? I mean, even I was a little kid like 4 years ago.” “Not even... close,” Twilight said nervously. “Humans have a different life cycle than ponies. Diamond Tiara—my Diamond Tiara at least—is... a filly. She may have reached journeypony age by now, but this timeline is getting on five years behind the world I come from. What I’m trying to say is... she can’t get... pregnant.” “Like, good for her, I suppose?” Diamond said chancily, “What’s that got to do with me, though? I’m like, already pregnant.” “That’s what I’m worried about,” Twilight stated. “It’s not that she isn’t pregnant, it’s that she can’t be pregnant. We don’t—we haven’t had any pregnant mares—women arrive on the farm yet, so we can’t say what effect the transformation has on them, them or their babies. But one thing we do know is, it’s transforming people into the physical analogues of your pony self in my universe, including your gender, and... age.” “Wh—are you saying I’m gonna turn into a dude?!” Diamond exclaimed in alarm. Twilight shook her head, but didn’t seem comforting, when she said, “No, the Diamond Tiara I know is a filly, which is a female pony. A young female pony.” “So what’s the problem, then?” Diamond retorted fussily. “I can still like, have a baby, can’t I?” “If someone were to transform into a mare, and the transformation also transforms the fetus inside, then there shouldn’t be a problem in theory,” Twilight said, “It’s just... you’d be transforming into a filly.” “So I wouldn’t be like... big enough?” Diamond asked, with a nervous flutter in her heart. “Nopony has ever gotten pregnant earlier than the age of 20, Diamond,” Twilight said somberly. “It’s just not biologically possible. Even if the transformation also transforms the fetus, your body won’t be able to sustain it. I’m sorry, but if you don’t abort now, the transformation could—could seriously endanger your health, and your foal wouldn’t... couldn’t possibly make it to term.” Twilight fell silent then, and the only sounds that could be heard were the cars driving down the street outside the therapist’s office. “How long do I have?” Diamond asked finally. Twilight blinked at that, admitting, “It is totally random, so it could be tomorrow, but it seems to be accelerating exponentially, and that means whoever is transforming is probably going to be doing so sometime in the months of August and September.” “So... I can’t keep it?” Diamond said feeling her eyes welling up with tears. “But I can’t get rid of it. You don’t know what it’s like! Even thinking about it is like—like dying! How could I hurt such an adorable b–baby uh... baby pony, but it’s still my baby!” “I don’t know what to tell you Diamond,” Twilight said with an unhappy grimace, “It might be possible, if... when exactly did you conceive?” “When did I what now?” Diamond croaked confusedly, wiping at her stupid eyes. “You know, when did you and Dinky first start...” Twilight trailed off, looking at the ceiling and twirling a finger in the air. Oh. Oh. “Twilight, you have no right to invade Diamond Tiara’s privacy like that,” the doctor said with a furious glare. “Why would that have any relevance here?” “Because if she concieved early enough, then she might be able to carry the child to term before she transforms into a pony,” Twilight replied with a confused look. “Oh, that—oh I suppose that—” Blossomforth stuttered, but Diamond interrupted saying mutedly, “No it’s like, okay. Not like it’s a big secret anymore.” She paused in thought, saying, “Uhm... it was a while after the dance. Dinky thought I did something to Scootaloo at first, so we didn’t... g-get together at first. I think, maybe... around when December started? We held out for a while, just kissing before y-you know. I know it was before Christmas at least, because we like—uh—” Diamond blushed heavily, as she remembered what they did to celebrate Christmas. “Did...things...” she said quietly. “Halfway through the month of December means you’ll be giving birth halfway through the month of September,” Twilight said unhappily. “Which is well after any hopes you had of not being a pony. If you’d done it a month earlier... even then you’d be pushing it.” “So we had to do it on like, the night of the dance, or like... I’m screwed?” Diamond said angrily. “That’s not fair! How was I supposed to know?” “Well, when Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo transformed, you might have thought to show some restraint,” Twilight said a bit snidely. “But no, you had to go and—” “Twilight,” the therapist said warningly. Twilight’s response? “You go and have sex with Dinky!” Twilight shouted at Diamond, confusion and rage in her eyes as she couldn’t help but glare at the pregnant girl. Twilight closed her eyes then, saying evenly, “I’m sorry. I just had to say it. Why did you... why even think about that at such a young age?” And for all that Diamond wanted to be angry at the shuddering girl, she just couldn’t. “It really gets like, under your skin,” Diamond said frankly. “I wasn’t gonna do it, but just being around him was amazing. I mean, it was only okay at first, but then we started kissing, and—and it puts you in just the right position, you know?” “...no?” Twilight said curiously, opening her eyes enough to peer at Diamond. “To—um—start making a baby,” Diamond said with a blush. Twilight’s eyes widened, and she said, “Ohh, right... like minotaurs.” “Ponies don’t—?” Diamond started to say, but then winced, and said, “Never mind, I don’t want to like, know.” “So you just sort of accidentally...?” Twilight said, twisting her fingers together. “This is starting to get very personal,” Dr. Blossomforth said. “I think this is Diamond’s own personal business, not anything you should be concerned—” “She should is the thing!” Diamond protested. “It started out so innocent! We liked each other, and we were kissing, and I like, didn’t know it would go further than that! It just felt better and better, and it started getting hard to even care about like, being careful, and stuff. I wish I’d known that! Before long I was—was doing him, and not even—not even caring about like, anything. It’s crazy!” “You’re not crazy, Diamond Tiara,” Dr. Blossomforth repeated. “I know, just... I wanted to like, warn her or something,” Diamond grumbled. “So at least she doesn’t ruin her life, because she didn’t know how hard it would be to like... um... to stop.” Diamond had a feeling she knew what she and her therapist were going to be talking about after the mediation today. “I’m not here today to ‘steal’ your baby or anything,” Twilight assured Diamond. “I just wanted you to be aware of the danger. If you start transforming, it is absolutely imperative that you get to a hospital right away. And—you’ll most certainly lose the child, so I really think you should consider taking care of it sooner than later. I don’t know what complications could arise if you are halfway through changing into a pony during a late term abortion, but I’d wager it’ll be less pleasant than if you go get it taken care of tomorrow.” Silence. “Just... think about it, okay?” Twilight pleaded. “The first week,” Diamond said tightly. “It was near the end of the first week of December that we—started messing up. Technically. Not really, but yeah, kind of really.” “Diamond, please,” Twilight said urgently. “Okay, I’ll like... think about it,” Diamond said. “But I don’t know what to do I—” “I think we might be able to talk about that in our session,” the therapist said. “Don’t worry Diamond, you have people who care about you, and we’ll do everything we can to help you make the... decision you least regret.” She didn’t say Diamond could make the decision she didn’t regret at all, because it didn’t look like that was going to be an option for Diamond Tiara anymore. With Twilight on the way back to her temporary home at Sweet Apple Acres, Cheerilee and three fillies were just finishing up a very important conversation with her friend Sunset Shimmer. The muffled voices inside Sunset and Twilight’s lab became audible as a magenta mare with bright pink curls trotted stiffly out the door, continuing to say, “No, I’m done. I am done. I did not want to hear about it. I do not want to even entertain the thought.” She tromped on four legs, legs that still felt like weird fingers to her, but she tromped on them nonetheless. Sunset Shimmer followed Cheerilee out, saying, “Wait, hold on, but—” As the dirt clomped underneath the nails of her bare hooves, Cheerilee replied, “I’m just going to go over here, and... and be a pony, over here, and we are not some kind of storybook fiction and we did not just imagine up the contents of every single book in my library!” “It makes sense though, it—” Sunset said, but Cheerilee cut her off, saying, “No! I am done. I could take other worlds, but this is too much. I can’t believe that the entire world is—” her voice caught in her throat, as an unexpected sob welled up in her chest. “...is gone,” she said quietly, a little confused. What was so terribly sad about this? Cheerilee didn’t know. She just shook her head and repeated, “I’m done.” Then she busied herself with trying to eat the grass. Sunset looked like she wanted to just stand there in the sunlight, yelling the truth at Cheerilee, but she sighed and relaxed, and said, “I’m sorry. I thought you were... I really am sorry. Just... don’t look into it anymore. This is one time where the less you know about it, the better.” Cheerilee didn’t answer, and actually this grass was pretty good... Sunset turned to retreat back to her lab anyway. With the snow melted, all the grass was starting to come back, and the thin blades were downright sweet and juicy compared to the hay that Cheerilee had had to subsist on the past month or so. It was slow going though, chewing the tips off of the young grass blades, and Cheerilee ceased bothering with it once she was free of Sunset’s troubling revelations. But was she free of them? It was entirely preposterous, but there had been something strange going on in that forest, and some weird magic affecting all their perceptions. Cheerilee had to conclude in the end that it was just Sunset being evasive, and that the truth yet remained to be seen. Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer walked back into her portable building with a weary sigh, only to come right up to three attentive fillies: Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. “We ain’t done!” the darling little Apple Bloom said with a cheeky smile. “Why don’t you tell the three of us all about how the entire world’s a work of fiction?” Sunset wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to cry. “Works of enchanted fiction,” Sunset said carefully to the three fillies assembled before her, “I haven’t been able to experiment with them as much as Twilight has, but she’s obviously... busy right now. Works of enchanted fiction mimic a pocket universe, while not really being universes themselves. They’re more of... simulated universes. Like a hologram, sort of.” She held a piece of chalk, looking at the chalkboard she had set up thoughtfully, before drawing a small, flat plane. “Your world is more like this,” she said, “Think of your world as the side of a square, and as you reach the edge of the square, you go over the side. You can never leave the square of course, but you’ll always be on the edge of it, or the side. So that’s sort of what happens when you travel through the forest. It’s like walking over the edge of the square, and you’re on the same square as you started on when you return.” “Except it isn’t the same side,” Sweetie Belle pointed out. Sunset nodded. “The exact geometry is... complicated, but sort of like a higher dimensional... any of you know what a Klein bottle is?” All three shook their heads. “The square’s a bad metaphor really, but... it’s sort of like that,” Sunset said. “The thing is, beyond these edges, you can theoretically project a fictional universe. Sort of like...” She drew a large flat plane on top of the smaller square. “Sort of like this. In projecting this hologram, the world seems much larger than it is, and much less strange. It’s effectively pulling your entire universe, which is to say your city, into a mass delusion, a beguilement of the highest degree. “It’s clear whoever set up this time loop, also established the illusion of a larger world,” Sunset continued. “They are very closely interconnected. That’s how I found out about the Golden Apple in the first place, is subtle clues left in the er... fictional story, that pointed to things in the real world.” “Um, I’ve never been outside of the city before,” Scootaloo said uncertainly, “But you mean like... New York is imaginary?” “Seriously, Scootaloo?” Sunset said with a smirk slipping onto her face. “That city? That’s the place where the French built a giant statue out in the middle of the bay, as a prank, and got away with it!” “A prank?” Sweetie Belle interrupted. “The Statue of Liberty?” “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?” Sunset countered. “It was a huge slap in the face to the anti-immigration and pro-monopoly government at the time. They had to allow it out of shame because they couldn’t be caught dead admitting that their land wasn’t a place like that. What are the chances that could have actually happened? It’s overdramatic grandstanding, just like you’d find in some over the top drama.” Sweetie Belle... didn’t know how to respond to that. “And Iowa,” Sunset went on, “Millions of acres of identically cloned corn, with no forests to speak of in between them? It’d be a total disaster if it was real! Pests and diseases would eat it alive! I don’t care what kind of pesticide you’ve got, on that scale something is going to go wrong, big time. Unless it’s fictional of course. “Don’t even get me started on Tokyo,” Sunset said with a roll of her eyes. “A hundred miles of dense urban development. Akira is more realistic than any ‘real’ books on that place, because at least in Akira they showed how the ecosystem would collapse without a single field for hundreds of miles.” “That... makes a creepy sorta sense,” Apple Bloom admitted, “But how do we know you aren’t just funning with us? Maybe there’s some other explanation for why things get so weird in the forest out by the farm.” “Anything’s possible,” Sunset shrugged, “But that’s just my best theory. You can understand why I might not be super eager to let everyone know about this. I didn’t even think gaining pony magic would break the beguilement. Magic isn’t the sort of thing that ponies have been able to experiment without before, so this is all ground breaking for me, seeing how things go from absolute zero, to normal magic levels.” “Well, we did break it,” Apple Bloom frowned, “And some other ponies gonna be able to, too. And what are we supposed to tell Diamond Tiara then? That there wasn’t anything strange out there?” “Frankly... I don’t know if you should tell her anything,” Sunset said with a wince. “She’s got enough to deal with right now.” “Oh, right, with the baby...” Apple Bloom said mutedly, curling her tail around her legs. “To make matters worse, Twilight knows her,” Sunset said glumly. “Knows her?” Sweetie prompted. Sunset nodded. “Yeah, knows her Equestrian counterpart, I mean. And Diamond Tiara’s is a filly, just like you three. A little older, but way, way too young to be able to bear a foal.” “Oh no!” Sweetie shouted in fright. “So that means she—” “...yeah, that’s what Twilight’s going to talk about with her right now,” Sunset said. “Soon as Diamond gets horse ears, we’ll be saying goodbye to the foal, one way or another.” Sweetie’s own ears went down at that, and Apple Bloom said glumly, “Well ain’t that a shame. It’s for the best though. Ah guess Dinky won’t be stuck with bein’ a father no more.” “How can you say that?” Sweetie Belle asked in shock. “This is her child!” Wincing at the ringing in her ears, Apple Bloom rubbed her head and said, “Yeah it’s a shame and all, but it ain’t really a ‘child’ yet. She’s still makin’ it.” “She’s second trimester, so it kind of is a child,” Sweetie said offendedly, while Sunset pointed out, “Actually, in human fetal development, it doesn’t really start growing until the third... it’s mostly amniotic fluid in there right now. The fetus itself won’t be bigger than a cantelope, until the last three months.” “So it’s... a little baby?” Sweetie asked with an uncertain hoof lift. “The baby doesn’t even start to move until the fifth or sixth month,” Sunset said with a shrug. “That’s um... this month though,” Sweetie Belle said. “Diamond’s not just tossing it or anything,” Sunset said. “She’s trying to keep it, but if she changes before she can give birth... it could endanger her health, and there’s no way she could carry a foal to term.” “That’s terrible!” Scootaloo said crossly, “It’s not even gonna get a chance?” “Must be especially hard for you,” Apple Bloom said with concern to Sunset. “You’ve actually seen the baby get born and all, haven’t you?” Sunset smiled gratefully, saying, “Yeah it—” she really did get a chance to see that darling purple/pink baby’s sleeping face, before the—the time loop stole it away. “It is pretty hard, sometimes,” Sunset said, sniffing and wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “But if it isn’t to be, then it isn’t to be,” she concluded. “It could have been even worse if the loop didn’t reset, and Diamond had to raise a child without graduating high school.” “Great,” Scootaloo moaned, “So New York City is just a drama play, Tokyo really is an anime, we’re all turning into ponies, and Diamond Tiara got laid before we did!” The others stared at her. Sunset was the first to laugh. Now the others were staring at Sunset. “Sorry—haha ha,” she crowed, rocking in her chair, “She always—hahhaha—always says that.” “Ah don’t know how funny it is,” Apple Bloom pouted grumpily. “Ah don’t even get to try to get laid, until like... a decade!” Sunset didn’t reply in words, so much. The laughter fell eventually to silence, Sunset saying jovially to Scootaloo, “You’ve never said anything about New York and Tokyo before; the veil always held for you. But that third part? Just hearing it from the mouth of a foal, hoo... it’s bad enough when you say it as a teenager!” “I don’t see what’s funny either,” Scootaloo blushed. “Dinky was my boyfriend first. I could’ve been the one stuck like Diamond.” “While it was physically possible, at one point,” Sunset Shimmer said evenly, “You never did anything with Dinky that I heard about. He and Diamond are kind of... uniquely suited for each other. Kind of a shame, considering that Dinky’s pony form is supposedly As she rode on the rumbling bus, Twilight Sparkle wondered if she had done that right. There would be no do-overs now, though. She certainly wasn’t comfortable with the idea of Diamond Tiara having a foal, but... whatever happened, she wished for the poor girl to at least find happiness in it. “Maybe I should have told her,” Twilight said to herself with a sigh. “It’s just too much to get it out all at once. Would I be motivating her to commit more licentious acts? What’s she going to think, when her boyfriend Dinky turns into “a young filly, about Noi’s age,” Sunset concluded solemnly. ... “Wow,” Scootaloo’s voice broke the silence. “Wow, so he’s gonna know what it’s like from both sides.” Scootaloo looked around. “...what?” she said, as everypony facehooved, and Sunset facepalmed too. After recovering from... whatever that was, Sweetie Belle asked Sunset curiously, “What was our world like before all this happened?” “I really don’t know,” Sunset admitted. “It’s like someone set up your world to look like an enchanted book, and why they did it? Perhaps everyone was too frustrated with your world’s size, and they wanted to live in an illusion that it was a much bigger place? Even I think it’s ridiculous to use contrived plot holes like an outer space that never ends or loops back on itself, but maybe the people of your world were so confined, they thought that kind of openness would be...” she shuddered, “Comforting?” “Is that why we’re all turning into ponies?” Apple Bloom asked. “Because the magic fiction thingy is wearing off?” Sunset laughed, “No, no the hologram is only reflective within the boundary of your universe, so it affects you, but only in your perception of what lies beyond. It’s not altering anything inside.” “So, maybe there’s another holothingy?” Apple Bloom speculated. Sunset shook her head though, saying, “You’re not fictional, I’m almost one-hundred percent sure. You follow slightly different plots, and react differently, every time the loop happens. Twilight has done some pretty exhaustive research, but pretty much it boils down to the fact that if this was a story, then her and I would have to be fictional too. “What connects our worlds,” Sunset explained, looking across the room, “Is a physical portal. A gateway that—barring the change in species is physically traversible. An enchanted story would be more like... just appearing in the middle of a story, with no portal involved. The story could have a portal, of course, but only a fictional portal, to another fictional universe. “And if both our worlds were part of a work of fiction,” Sunset concluded, “There’s no way any of us could ever tell. So we have to assume that as far as I’m concerned, your world, and yourselves are... somehow, real.” This was all pretty heavy stuff, and fascinating to listen about, but not so fascinating when you go to sleep at night, and think about how the Taj Mahal or the Swiss Alps are forever beyond your reach, that you can’t even leave the city limits... Apple Bloom had a hard time sleeping, because she was starting to understand why Cheerilee ran away rather than learning about this stuff. Apple Bloom wanted to explore, to travel to distant lands and see amazing things, and she couldn’t even get past the forest on her farm? And to top it off, there was a mystical dream princess who didn’t want to be found. “The thirteenth top secret meeting of the Cutie Major Crusaders is now in session,” Apple Bloom declared, using her hoof as a gavel, which echoed beautifully in the stony room where they’d assembled. Behind a secret passage in the library, the three ponies had smuggled in a few wood blocks, stacked them to the right height and affixed a sturdy board on top to act as a stable surface. They couldn’t just use a real table, because even the folding tables were too high for comfort, but building their own table at pony height was pretty easy. Atop this sturdy board was a plush panda which was their ostensible, potential mascot, but mostly because that’s the one Big Macintosh let Apple Bloom borrow. There were a few sets of sketches of possible logos for their club. As always, a list of possible careers had been affixed to the wall off to the side. Sweetie’s old—which is to say, Rarity’s old camcorder was in here, if they could ever get it working again to film more movies. There was a reclaimed coat rack by the entrance, on which each filly hung their outer garments with relief upon coming inside, a hoodie, a dress, and a pair of overalls. On the wall alcove, Sweetie had snuck in a few candles for atmosphere, even though they had the indirect sunlight from the window, and a battery powered lamp hanging overhead, that Apple Bloom got from the supplies that pony refugees kept dumping off. And of course three ponies in the dimly lit stony room, three young fillies determined to make the most of this, and be best friends forever. “Our first order of business is about the whole pony thing,” Apple Bloom said smartly, “A’course most of our orders of business are about the whole pony thing. Anyways, ah wanted to know if anybody’s been bullying y’all, for being a pony and all.” Scootaloo snorted. “C’mon Apple Bloom,” she said teasingly, “What is this, middle school?” “It’s not like the bullies went away,” Apple Bloom retorted. “And there are way bigger bullies now, from upper classes! And way bigger now that we’re all smallified!” “Yeah, but this is high school,” Scootaloo said rolling her eyes. “We don’t even have recess anymore. When are bullies gonna get together to bully us, lunch?” “I... well, they could knock your tray offa your back or... something I guess?” Apple Bloom said confusedly. “I ain’t actually seen a whole lotta bullying so far this year, pony or no.” “Come on Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle cut in dryly, “I know for a fact that people have been doing something you don’t like.” “Yeah, but that’s not...” Scootaloo blushed, “It’s not exactly bullying, and I dunno it’s not all that bad it’s just like everybody wants to touch my wings!” Scootaloo paused and looked away. “It’s really embarassing,” she mumbled. “I don’t want to let them down, but I kinda do. It feels really weird.” “Yeah, you’d think they’d give a head’s up that you’re not supposed to just touch a pegasus’s wings without permission,” Apple Bloom said soberly. “They must be real fragile-like.” “It’s not that they’re fragile, it just... I mean they’re kinda strong actually, especially when I flap,” Scootaloo said frankly. “I almost hurt someone’s hand when I pulled away from them. But it’s just like... it’s kinda like... if someone grabs your foot.” “Grabs my foot?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking back and lifting one of her own candy white feet in the air. “Yeah, like... like I use my wings to move, so when someone grabs one, I can’t... move,” Scootaloo said, tilting her head back and forth as she tried to figure out how to describe it. “Until you hurt their hand by pulling away,” Sweetie prompted cautiously. “Yeah, yeah, but I don’t want to do that,” Scootaloo grumbled. “Maybe we should try to get a school announcement that wings are um... unnerving?” “I dunno about the intercom,” Apple Bloom suggested, “But I bet we could post up some flyers. You wanna work on that today?” “Sure, that’s a great idea Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo said appreciatively. “But nothing too weird or embarassing.” “Since we’re desigining them,” Apple Bloom replied, “We can make the flyers be whatever we want!” “Do we need permission to post them?” Sweetie asked uncertainly. Apple Bloom shook her head. “Dunno. I ain’t never done nothing like that before... an’ ah don’t know much about how anyone else did it. Guess I’ll have to ask.” “Then it’s settled!” Sweetie announced proudly, rapping a hoof on the table. “We’ll design the flyer, and Apple Bloom will ask if we can post it. So, what’s next on the agenda?” Apple Bloom glanced down at the list she’d made out saying, “Oh! Uh, yeah, next on th’ agenda is a club motto. If we’re gonna be a real club, we gotta have a fancy motto.” “Ooh, how about ‘We will never stop the journey,’” Sweetie Belle immediately suggested. “We already sang that though,” Scootaloo protested. “I say we should use ‘With our determination we will rock the Earth!’” “We will graduate and show our worth!” Sweetie replied excitedly. “What about our name though?” Apple Bloom whined. “We oughta use the club name!” Scootaloo shook her head, saying, “Don’t be silly, Apple Bloom! Club names don’t go in mottos!” She looked at Sweetie Belle. “...do they?” Sweetie looked between them, and said, “I have no idea, so don’t look at me.” It was a productive meeting. “There are four pregnant women here already?!” Sunset yelped at the nurse outside the improptu medical tent. “Why didn’t you tell us?” Twilight asked anxiously. “We’ve needed to know this information for weeks now!” “What happened to their babies?” Sunset asked, “They didn’t die, did they? You’d have told us if they died, right?” “N—” the nurse started to say with a scared smile as the two girls accosted her. “Are they pregnant with human children? Are any of the unborn babies foals?” Twilight asked rapidfire. “Girls, please!” said white clothed lady interrupted. “We have a—unique problem here. The pregnant women are fine. Don’t ask me how. Ultrasound shows that they seem to transform at the same time, which is well and good, but the problem is—” Sunset growled, “Then what is the prob— oh. Uh. Please do go on.” “Thank you,” the nurse said flatly. “The problem is your... mail order oracle thingamajig. See a pregnant women arrived just now with a report from you two that she was going to be too young to sustain the fetus!” “Why did we not anticipate this sooner,” Sunset groaned through clenched teeth. “We need a public news broadcast. Attention citizens, cease having sexual intercourse or there could be dire consequences. Ask your local constable for a rubber! Yeah that’ll work great without any possible complications!” “Wait, are you serious?” the nurse asked, her cool blue eyes widening. “Ms. Aura is beside herself! Are you saying her child won’t be...” “We don’t—” Sunset said angrily, before Twilight cut in, saying more evenly, “We don’t know what the effects might be. Our... my ability to predict Aura’s... really? Little Aura is... a grown woman?” While Twilight shook her head in consternation, Sunset stood in for her, saying more, more evenly, “What we observed is just some... guesswork, peering into a process that we can’t really understand. Think of it like, everyone starts getting transformed into copies of our relatives, and we don’t know why, but we can still help people understand what they are.” “Keep her under constant monitoring,” Twilight advised, “If her... pregnancy starts to make her ill, you might consider surgery, or induced ab—miscarriage. I don’t know how surgery could affect the transformation either. But you know how to handle this better than we do at this point. Is there any chance that she could deliver... early?” The nurse shook her head, saying, “She’s still in the second trimester. The fetus won’t stand a chance for at least another two months.” “Could we talk with her?” Twilight asked with worried eyes. “I know it can’t be easy to break it to her that we can’t offer much help, but it’s the least I could do.” “It’s okay, I heard already,” came a new voice, startling the nurse like mad as a green haired, purple woman with horse ears eased herself around the doorjam. She wasn’t extremely pregnant, but it was enough to notice, beneath her suspiciously loose fitting t-shirt, and her choice of sweat pants instead of jeans. “Sorry for worrying you,” Aura said, “I just thought I’d ask, you know, just in case.” Unconsciously laying a hand across her abdomen, she said, “It’s been a crazy year for me and my... boyfriend. I never thought I was cut out for motherhood, but you know? And then there it is. But now?” Shaking her head, Aura tried to laugh as she said, “At least I’m giving the docs something to study. Really it’s more valuable then...” she cast her eyes down. “Anyway, I just want you to know it’s okay it’s only the second trimester so it still wasn’t a sure thing, and I’m ready to lose... the baby.” “They’ll take good care of you, no matter what happens,” said Sunset Shimmer, in a tone that made Twilight look at her in surprise. “And it should be all over in a day, at most. You’re going to make it through this.” “I know?” Aura said, also caught by surprise at the soothing words from this still apparantly younger girl. “I’ll be fine; I wasn’t ready for it anyway. Just a stupid decision... we didn’t think before we got into this pickle.” Twilight nodded, and said, “We’d still like the full record of what happens, in case we can use it to better understand what’s going on. Would you be willing to...?” “Oh, sure!” Aura said genially. “The thought that you could get something out of it makes me feel a little better, even though I’m still turning into... a little kid, and a horse.” “Pony,” Twilight corrected automatically, “Anyway, I suspect the doctors will want to take more vitals pretty soon. So, good luck, and if there’s anything we can do, Sunset and I will be right there to do it.” “Thanks...” Aura said, “And good luck yourself.” “Me?” Twilight said cluelessly. “Yeah, everyone says you and Sunset Shimmer are trying to save the world,” Aura replied with a smile. “And you’re so young, too! I’m really grateful for what you’ve done already. I would be so scared if this happened without any warning.” “Thank you, Aura,” Twilight said, blushing heavily. “It’s no problem, really. We’re all just doing what we can.” “You take care, okay?” The green haired lady said, flashing a smile. She and the nurse headed inside then, and Twilight and Sunset had a long, slow, uneventful afternoon to think about what was transpiring in this tiny world of human beings. They went to sleep that night without answers, but with the assurance that there had been no apparant complications, and Aura seemed to transition to foalhood smoothly and without issue. Her baby though... Tornado Bolt woke up suddenly, to the sound of a crying foal. The morning light was streaming in through the window in this portable they were camped out in. Going to sleep together, they were still together when they awoke. They had to be together. They would always be there to look out for each other, and nothing would happen that Tornado couldn’t get through with her around. Yet there was only one human being here. The pony who awoke on his chest was tiny... so tiny. It was her, yet it wasn’t. The size of the foals hadn’t hit him, until he saw her so changed. She was like a toy, a plush animal pony of his girlfriend, and her soft sobs sounded so raw, so... young. “Aura?” he asked in a high baritone, barely above a whisper. “You okay? You made it through the night.” She didn’t seem consoled though, and he kind of really understood why. “Oh Aura, I’m so sorry. I never meant to...” he said, uncautiously embracing the distressed filly laying atop him in the warmest, most all encompassing hug that he dared. She clumsily tried to hug him back, finally speaking in a heartbroken tone, saying, “My baby sh gone...” She wasn’t the only one crying that morning. Meanwhile, Bee Bop ran panicked into the employee restroom at 11:17 in the morning, just like she did at 11:02, 10:47, 10:26.... She was a yellow haired lady of 23, whose color could be affectionately referred to as bleen, with a stupidly massive abdomen. Oh of course she doesn’t get maternity leave. Of course she has to pee every freaking 15 minutes. The kid inside her was kicking an awful lot today, which made her situation even worse. Holding her ponderous belly to try to bend over enough to hit the toilet was bad enough. Releasing her bladder, only a pitiful amount came out, because oh gee, it looked like there was something else taking up all the room in there! “Rassafrikken kickin bastard” she grumbled to herself grumpily, washing her face in the sink. Bee Bop wiped her puffy face off and looked in the mirror, and had fuzzy horse ears. One panicked scramble later, involving her car, seven liters of raspberry jam, and a flamingo, Bee Bop found herself at the hospital. “You don’t get it! I’m f**king pregnant!!” she shouted in a panic to the receptionist, “I need to get this kid out or I’ll like, explode!” “You won’t explode,” the woman at the reception desk said unsympathetically, “Now please fill out these forms, and sign and date each one.” “F**k your forms I’m in trouble here! I gotta get to that pony place, before I explode!” Bee replied, shoving the forms at the receptionist and running out of the hospital as fast as she could waddle. “I said you won’t—” the receptionist replied crossly, but the pregnant, teal lady was already out the door. One mad dash involving a flash mob, a hole through a billboard the shape of Ted Turner, and 7000 gumballs, Bee Bop made it to the farm. There were a bunch of ponies around, and there was a medical building place there that pregnant uh, ponies were supposed to go, so she kicked open the door, saying, “Holy f**k I need to get this kid out or—” “You are not going to explode,” several nurses and doctors all told her in unison. Seems they got this line of reasoning a lot here. So Bee Bop... sat and... filled out forms and stuff, and she had to use her freaking belly as a desk. Her skin had started looking... weird. They said it was normal, but she was scared because she had this huge baby in her abdomen, and she didn’t know what exactly was going to happen. “What exactly is going to happen,” the nurse told her once Bee Bop got seen, “Is something a lot of people don’t want to talk about. It’s very upsetting, and an emotional strain. You have to know, but ready yourself for a huge disappointment. That’s why people don’t want to talk about it. You could give birth today, but it isn’t likely. We’ve only had 12 pregnant women transform, and only 3 into fillies, so we’re not sure exactly how it works, but a woman named Aquamarine did immediately go into labor at about noon, delivering her child before she finished transforming into a filly.” “It’s like 2:15 though!” Bee Bop protested. “I’m like a foot shorter, and I can’t feel all my fingers anymore!” “Yes, the height you’re approaching is consistent with the um, length of younger ponies, so we’re pretty sure you can’t carry this child to term,” the nurse said uneasily, “And um... with your decreasing size, if you were going to deliver, you would have to be um... swollen up like a... grape by now.” “What do you mean, doc?” Bee Bop said, laying a “hand” across her swollen belly. “I’m still just as huge!” “Your ...pregnancy is shrinking along with yourself,” the nurse replied. “That’s what happened to the other two women.” Her voice caught, as she said, “I’m so—so sorry, but we believe your child is just going to ...disappear.” “...disappear,” Bee Bop replied disbelievingly. “Yes, in the other two transformees, the fetus appeared to be re-absorbed during the transformation,” the nurse said unhappily. “I wish I had better news for you, but by tomorrow morning, it’ll be like you were never pregnant at all.” In shock, Bee Bop realized her kid hadn’t been kicking since this morning. “Are you kidding?” Bee Bop exclaimed stridently at the nurse. “What could possibly be better news than that??” The nurse blinked. “That you’d... give birth to a healthy baby um... boy?” the nurse tried uneasily. “Seriously?” Bee Bop said flatly, “You think I want to give birth?” “W–well—” the nurse started, but Bee Bop shook her head, holding up an imperious hand, saying, “No no, let me tell you the story of just how I got pregnant.” One story later, the nurse said rather shocked, “Wow, that was... really irresponsible.” “I know!” Bee Bop crowed proudly, “Stupidest thing I’ve ever done! I don’t even think God knows who the father is!” “So, you...” the nurse said unsurely. Bee Bop nodded at that, saying, “Yeah, I got pregnant. Like, really pregnant. By the time I figured it out uh... I didn’t know much about abortions, and I thought it’d be really bad if I did. Got over that real fast after the morning sickess started. My family gave me a hard time about it though, so even after I did find out about abortions on my own, I couldn’t really save up enough to afford one until uh... second trimester. And then... they kind of said no, it’s too late, so here I am.” “Well, uh, um... congratulations?” the nurse attempted, still flummoxed. “F**k yeah, I’m not having a baby!” Bee Bop cheered, pumping her fist. The next morning, Bee Bop woke up, took one look at her furry, slim belly, and pumped a hoof, squeaking joyfully, “F**g yeah, hI no’ having a bha’y!” “Hory shi’ I’m a fony!” shouted someone else who’d just woken up. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was taking the bus.