//------------------------------// // Chapter 70 - New Generation // Story: Off The Mark // by Goldfur //------------------------------// BOOK THREE – "ON THE MARK" When I first arrived in Equestria, I felt frightened by my unexpected transformation into a small green-coated winged pony but fought through it as best I could. Despite my abundance of caution for high places (no, I’m not going to call it ‘fear of heights’), I persevered through countless injuries and embarrassments until I mastered the aerial element. When I battled Tirek, I knew there was a good chance that I would be killed, but despite the worst case of butterflies in the world, I still faced him. Then there was the time that Starlight almost murdered me which left me trembling despite fighting her off. And, of course, I was scared nearly out of my mind when I attacked the Storm King knowing that I was overmatched. But nothing compared to the heart-freezing terror that gripped me when my wife said those six little words: “I think my water just broke.” It’s not as if we hadn’t prepared for this moment. A mare giving birth is hardly a novelty in this world. It’s just that this mare was my wife and she was about to go into labor and give birth to our first child. I admit that I froze up for a moment. A sharp poke in my chest made me jump though. “Did you hear Trixie?” “Yes, love. You caught me by surprise. Just relax while I get things rolling.” I gave Trixie a kiss, got off the bench seat, and headed for the door to our suite. Opening it, I found that the morning shift had already taken over. Penumbra was there and she raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Aren’t you up a little early? It doesn’t even look like you’ve groomed yourself.” “We have a code F,” I replied. Penny’s eyes opened wide. “Oh! On it!” She shot down the corridor in a blur. “Code F, Your Highness?” queried one of the door guards, alert to a possible problem. I gave him a nervous smile. “F for foal. Princess Trixie is going into labor.” “I see, sir. I presume to expect several visitors?” “You better believe it!” I replied fervently. I retreated into the suite and opened all the curtains to give us plenty of light. I then prepared our bed with a waterproof sheet and extra pillows. I got that done just before our maid Whisk Broom came in. She wrung her hooves a couple of times, giving me only a brief disappointed glance for finishing her task before she had the chance to do so. The mare then bowed quickly and left. With the bed ready, I went back outside and reassured Trixie that everything was underway. Grateful that I now had a horn in my stallion form, I lifted my wife in its telekinetic field and levitated her inside, making her comfortable on the bed. I then fetched a glass of water for her, brought over a jar of cookies, poured her something to drink, drew one curtain to get the sun out of her face, and got her a glass of water. There was a perfunctory knock on the door which opened even before I responded. A portly yellow unicorn mare with a blue and white mane stepped inside and I gave a relieved sigh. “Thanks for coming so promptly, Calming Hooves.” She gave me an amused smile. “As Princess Trixie’s midwife, I am rather obliged to be prompt if only to help her by calming down the expectant father.” My wife snorted and stifled a laugh. “Trixie thinks you have your work cut out for you.” Her eyes indicated the three tumblers of water by the bedside, all untouched. I honestly didn’t recall fetching any of them. Calming Hooves nodded with a knowing smile as she went over to her patient. “Relax, Your Highness. It’s far too soon to be stressing yourself out like this. You need to be calm and ready for when Princess Trixie needs you the most.” She proceeded to examine Trixie while I immediately forgot what it was she said. Thankfully, Steady Flight turned up right then. “May I come in, sir?” I nodded, glad of the company. “Come in, Steady, and drop the ‘sir’. I need a friend right now, not my valet.” “Yeah, I figured as much,” he said as he came over to my side. “I was seven years old when my eldest sister had her first foal. Despite having five children, this was Dad’s first grandfoal and he was a nervous wreck. I never thought I’d be the one giving emotional support to my father.” “Do you think I’m a nervous wreck?” “Not yet, but I see the signs.” “Gah! We planned for this! The pregnancy has been trouble-free. There’s absolutely no reason for me to be so worried.” “Yep, but you’re plagued by the ‘what-ifs’ right now, aren’t you?” I nodded guiltily. Steady turned to the midwife. “Hey, Calming – how long before Mark is needed?” “Not for a long while yet, judging by the signs. Do us both a favor and get some breakfast into Prince Mark. Maybe a stiff drink too. I’ll send word when you’re needed.” “But what if Trixie needs something?” I asked. “My assistant, Nurse Gentle Touch, should be here soon and will be able to provide help as needed.” “What about breakfast for my wife? Can she even have breakfast?” “I sent your bodyguard to the kitchen to let them know to send a light meal up to this suite.” Steady put a foreleg around my withers and gave me a gentle pull. “Come on, Mark – let’s get from under hoof.” I allowed myself to be dragged out of the room, resisting just long enough to say, “Love you, Lulu!” Penny met me in the hallway and we made our way to the dining room where we found Twilight already halfway through her breakfast. One thing about the mare had not changed with the ascension to alicornhood or her elevation to Princess of the Realm: her table manners still left much to be desired. Through a mouthful of food she said, “Good morning, Mark. I’m told that Trixie’s gone into labor.” “Yeah. Well, actually, her water has broken. I don’t think she’s started contractions yet. I think. I dunno.” “Sit down and have something to eat. It’ll be a while, so no point in worrying over it just yet.” I sat down at the table and a servant hastened up to take my order. “I’m not really hungry,” I said. Twilight just rolled her eyes and said, “He’ll have two eggs over easy with hay-bacon, four pancakes with extra maple syrup, and a café latte.” The servant nodded and left for the kitchen. I arched a querying eyebrow at the alicorn. “You’re going to be hungry and you’ll need your strength to support Trixie later.” “I suppose you’re right,” I grumbled. “When do you think you’re going to have your foal? You’ll have to take all of Trixie’s court duties for a while.” Twilight shrugged. “We still don’t know when I’m due. The hybrid nature of the foal throws the rulebook out the window. We already determined long ago that I won’t be laying an egg like Chryssy, but other than that, we have nothing to go by. All we know is that the foal seems to be healthy so far. There’s never been any situation like this before in the recorded history of either of our species.” “I suppose not. Heck, even though I encouraged Thorax to ask you to marry him, I admit I was as surprised as everypony else that he was able to give you a foal. I assumed the sterility of his drone form carried over to his elevation to princedom… princehood?” I shook my head. “I know that Shining and Chryssy from the other dimension have had several foals, but their roles were reversed and the biology slightly different.” Twilight chuckled. “Neither of us expected Thorax to be virile, either. Otherwise, I might not have gotten pregnant at all that Season. We thought we were pretty safe in that regard.” “That seems most unlike you, Twi. You don’t normally leave those things to chance or wishful thinking. Methinks you subconsciously, at least, wanted a foal.” The alicorn shrugged. “I won’t argue with you because I’m happy that I was wrong.” I smiled. “You were such an unlikely couple but you’ve proven over and over again how much you two care for each other. It’s easy to see how an emotivore like Thorax can fall deeply for someone who loves him like you do, but I have never quite grasped how you came to do the same for him.” A distant dreamy look came into Twilight’s eyes. “It’s something that you have to experience for yourself. First of all, he is intensely loyal and dedicated to his friends, which appeals to me. And while it’s true that I found him interesting and fun to be with, it’s the sheer intensity of a changeling’s emotions that make the difference. When I say that I feel immersed in his love, it’s not just hyperbole. The more time we spent together, the more intense the feeling became. In the end, it was impossible not to love him.” “So, you’re a love junkie,” I concluded with a smirk. Twilight giggled. “I suppose I am. If it wasn’t for the fact that we already shared so many interests and goals, I’d have to say I married him because I was addicted to his love. However, that was just the icing on the cake. He’s been a wonderful and supportive husband despite our differences and responsibilities.” The servant came back just then with a tray laden with the food that Twilight had ordered for me. I suddenly realized that I was hungry and started to tuck into it. As I chewed on the first mouthful, it occurred to me that the alicorn had been keeping me preoccupied to prevent me from worrying about what was happening upstairs. Clever girl. Let’s see if she was this calm and collected when it came time to give birth to her and Thorax’s foal! Mmm… this hay-bacon is especially good this morning. Of course, the moment that I got word that I was needed at our suite, my nerves came crashing back again. I galloped all the way there, offending the sensibilities of the more staid palace staff, no doubt. Trixie had gone into full labor and wanted me by her side, so I took one of her hooves in mine, stroked her mane, and did all the other things a helpless stallion could do while his mate did all the real work. Fortunately, I recalled the example of Fluttershy helping Cadance during the pink alicorn’s labor to go by: lots of encouragement and always keeping a soothing tone, regardless of how much my stomach was doing flips. I suppose I could tell you about all the cliché things that occur during childbirth such as the moans of pain, the cursing of the sire, and the bone-crushing grip on my foreleg during contractions, but throughout it all, Calming Hooves reassured us that everything was proceeding perfectly. Nevertheless, it was an immense relief to both of us when the first cries of the newborn foal reached our ears and the midwife made her announcement. “Congratulations! You are now the parents of a beautiful unicorn filly.” I was so happy for Trixie as she had gotten the child that she had hoped for. Maybe a son for me next time although I didn’t think that my wife would be in a hurry to go through this again soon. The filly was still a little slick with birth fluids and Calming swaddled her in a small blanket before passing her to Trixie. Although my wife was tired and frazzled from labor, she nevertheless looked proudly at her unicorn daughter. We could both get a good look at her now. She had a bright yellow coat and her little mop of mane was green like me but with a mauve stripe through it. She was the cutest thing I had seen in my entire life! “You did well, Dowser,” Trixie said quietly. “We both did, Lulu,” I replied, kissing her on the cheek. Calming Hooves gave us a few more moments before saying, “We still need to deal with the afterbirth. Gentle Touch will take your foal to Doctor Bellows in the meantime. He’ll give her a thorough check-up, shots, and booster spells before bringing her back.” Trixie was reluctant to let the foal go but I gently pried her out of my wife’s grasp while murmuring reassurances. Gentle Touch was a cream-colored unicorn mare with bright orange hair and the kindest eyes I had ever seen. The nurse carried the foal in the glow of her magic into the living room where the doctor had been waiting in case he was needed. From there, I heard him instruct her to place my foal onto his portable examination table. I rubbed my chin. Hmm… we’re going to have to start thinking of a name for our child. Don’t want to keep referring to our child as “the foal” all the time. Childbirth is messy and it took a little while to finish up and replace the bedding. The nurse returned shortly after we were done and Trixie was starting to get a bit impatient. The look on the mare’s face as she approached us changed that to dread. “What happened?” I demanded. “Is there something wrong with our foal?” “No, the foal is perfectly healthy,” she hastened to reassure us. “It’s just that… well… see for yourselves.” She drew back the blanket to reveal a pegasus colt with a pale bluish-green coat and mauve mane with a green stripe. “That’s not my daughter!” exclaimed Trixie. “I… I know,” Gentle Touch protested. “But one moment she’s on the scales as we measured her birth weight, and the next moment, this colt was in her place.” We stared in disbelief at the incredible story. If it wasn’t for the colt’s mane which was an exact reversal of the filly’s, I would have dismissed it instantly. “Let me have the foal,” I ordered, extricating him from the nurse’s grasp. When he was in my forelegs, I looked at him closely. He was the son that I had been wishing for, no doubt about that. He opened his eyes and looked at me and I saw that his left eye was green while the right was blue. He burbled happily and I was both charmed and confused. “Who are you?” I asked softly. There was a brief flash of light and suddenly I held a yellow unicorn filly in my hooves. The heterochromic eyes never left me. “Umm… Lulu…” I held out the foal to Trixie and her jaw dropped and eyes bulged. Almost snatching her from my grasp, Trixie took the filly and brought her into an embrace. She sniffed her scent and declared, “This is our foal!” She nuzzled and crooned at the filly who giggled in response. I looked at the midwife for answers but she looked equally perplexed. Then the foal began to squirm and appeared to be looking for something. Trixie eventually relaxed her hold and the filly made a beeline for my wife’s udders and started suckling hungrily. “Well, at least that is normal,” I said. There was another flash and there was now a colt feeding at his mother’s teats. “But that can’t possibly be,” I added. Trixie gave me a flat look. “If there was even a shred of doubt before, there’s no possibility that my foal was sired by anypony but you, Dowser.” I shrugged, conceding the point. Now that I thought about it, I recognized the effect from looking in the mirror when I transferred to my Marklestia form and back, though the burst of light was brighter with my foal. Given my unusual nature, it seemed the most likely explanation for what had to be an unprecedented situation. We watched the foal feed for a while, mulling over the situation. Eventually, I said, “It seems that we both got the child that we wished for. He… she… they are going to cause quite a stir.” “Trixie thinks you are the Prince of Understatement. What are we going to name… them?” A word suddenly sprang to mind. “How about Gemini?” The colt switched back to a filly. Trixie looked at her while she considered my question. “Trixie assumes this name is from your home? Is it associated with a being possessing a dual nature?” “An ancient god, actually.” My wife smirked. “You don’t like setting your expectations for our child low do you, Dowser?” She looked thoughtful for a long moment before eventually nodding with approval. “It suits them. Trixie just hopes our foal will settle down to one form for more than a minute at a time, otherwise, they are going to have an awkward childhood.” “I think we should hold off the public announcement of the birth until we know a little more about Gemini.” “A wise idea, Birthmark Bombshells.” My mouth twisted in a smirk. “Twilight is going to have a hard time topping this!” A smile crept onto my wife’s face. She carefully leaned over to give me a kiss. “You always know what to say to make Trixie feel better, Dowser.” Thankfully, Gemini settled down into one gender for more than a minute at a time although changing who was holding them often prompted a switch. Nevertheless, when we settled them down that evening, they were a filly for the rest of the night. Twilight was amazed to put it mildly. Trixie burst out laughing at her co-ruler’s unintentional impression of a fish out of water. Some research later confirmed what we already believed – Gemini was unique in the history of Equestria, changelings naturally excepted. We had fraternal twins in one body and it was going to be an adventure finding out what that meant for our first foal. And they definitely weren’t going to be the last if my wife’s words had any weight. As we stood gazing at the peacefully sleeping Gemini, my mate nuzzled me and said, “Trixie would have been disappointed if our foal wasn’t unique and she wonders what our next will be like.” Me too, darling. Me too. Unsurprisingly, Trixie succumbed to tiredness and I left her enjoying a sound sleep. My wife insisted that our newborn stay in the room with her but we had the nurse there to keep watch over both of them. Hopefully, Gemini would not disturb their mother too soon. Meanwhile, with Twilight taking care of Day Court all day, I was pretty free for the moment. Calming Hooves last piece of advice to me before she left was to take every opportunity to rest, or even sleep. For the first few weeks with the new foal, I would be finding precious little time for either. No, not even with a castle full of servants to help, she insisted. Recalling Shining Armor’s bleary-eyed countenance after the birth of Flurry Heart, I decided not to argue. There was one thing that I had to do first, however. There were a number of ponies who were eagerly awaiting news of the birth. Since there were only the midwife and her assistant in the room with us then, word had not got out as yet. Penny tried to pry an answer out of me the moment that I stepped out of my suite. Thankfully, good sound insulation defeated even batpony hearing. I merely smiled and told her that she would have to wait until I rounded up a few more of our friends. I found Steady Flight, Starlight Glimmer, Raven Inkwell, and Crimson Boulder in the sunroom where we liked to gather informally. All eyes turned to me and Penny punched me in the shoulder. “Okay, spit it out!” the batpony demanded. “Mother and foal are both doing well,” I said with a proud smile. “Unicorn or pegasus?” Steady asked. “Is it a colt or a filly?” Starlight added. “Yes,” I replied with a grin. There was a moment of puzzled silence before Steady said, “I know that you’re probably worn out and not thinking straight, but those were either/or questions, Mark.” “Are you quite sure about that?” My grin grew wider. “Wait! Trixie didn’t have twins, did she?” Raven asked. “There wasn’t a hint of that beforehoof though.” “Mark said, ‘mother and foal’ singular,” Starlight pointed out. I said, “Quite correct – only one foal, and they are doing well.” Crimson narrowed his gaze at me. “You’re dancing around with words, aren’t you? Fine. If you want to play that game, I’ll remind you about it next training session.” Oops! No thanks! “Okay, you got me. But after the surprise that Trixie and I got, I thought it only fair to spread the joy. The truth is – yes – is the correct answer.” I back-winged out of reach before Starlight could punch me. Sorry, Glim-Glam – I saw that coming a mile away! Pity I missed Crimson though. Gah! So that’s what the floor tasted like. “Speak plain Equish or I’ll see how far I can bend this leg.” “Penny – you’re supposed to be protecting me!” I protested. She gave me a flat look. “Your best defense is to do as he asks,” she advised. “But I’ve been telling the truth all this time! URK! Okay! Okay! The foal is a shape-changer! They’re both a unicorn filly and a pegasus colt.” The room turned totally silent for a long moment before Starlight started howling with laughter. Steady just shook his head in disbelief. “Only you, Mark. This could only happen to you.” “Gotta agree with you,” I said as I got back to my hooves after Crimson released me. “But at least I should be able to look forward to both playing hoofball with them and trying out Rarity’s latest fashions together.” Aside from our foal’s unique trick, they proved to be like any other newborn pony. The biggest problem we had was keeping a magic surge suppressor on Gemini when they were in unicorn form because it would fall off whenever they switched into a pegasus. Having seen what Flurry Heart did to the Crystal Castle, we were in no hurry to find out if Gemini could be equally destructive to Canterlot. Upon learning of this problem, Twilight teleported to her parent’s house and, sure enough, they were able to lend us a spare regulating hairclip. They kept it “just in case their granddaughter needed an emergency spare.” Sure, our foal wasn’t an alicorn, but we weren’t taking any chances. Once Gemini’s shape-changing had settled down into long periods in one form, we decided to make the formal announcement of the royal birth and made arrangements for a reception for friends and family. Cadance and Shining brought along Flurry and Button, of course, along with the changeling nanny that they had acquired. One of the evolved drones from Thorax’s hive had expressed an interest in a career in foal care. Cadance had heard about it and took her on as an example of cooperation with the changeling race. This relieved Sunburst of part of the burden that the role of Crystaller put upon him, enabling him to resume his studies. Although, I heard that Twilight wanted to talk with him about another role now that Flurry Heart was old enough. However, it wasn’t any of our Crystal Empire guests whom I most wanted to see. Eventually, Fluttershy turned up with a certain draconequus known for his pranks. I wasted no time in introducing him to our unusual child who obligingly changed as we spoke. I said, “Discord. This kind of phenomenon is not completely unknown to me. One of my elementary school classmates had a cat with an even split between black and calico coloration on her face. It’s called a chimera cat. Two sets of genes in one body.” I put on my most serious face. “Would you care to explain, Resident Chimera?” Discord chuckled, though only after a nervous glance to Fluttershy. “Oh, I had nothing to do with this, Mark. You can’t think to blame me for whatever mixed-up soup of genetics is floating around in your body, now can you? Heck, after the Chaos Heart incident—” Cadance interrupted. “Flurry Heart.” “— yes, that one. Anyway, I had my bits on an alicorn mare with a green coat and teal eyes.” He frowned and looked down at our foal. “Pity. I got good odds, too.” I took advantage of his distraction to catch Trixie’s eye and give her a wink. Crossing my forelegs across my chest, I said in a dark tone. “No. I’m asking if you had a much more active role in providing a chimera’s genetic material to my wife.” “What?!” Discord’s head spun to face me and a few smaller Discords fell out of his ears, screeching the same thing, though in a higher pitch. Trixie gasped. “Oh no! He knows!” “WHAT?!” The draconequus’ head kept spinning around until it was looking at my wife again. “It’s alright, darling. We’ll make it work somehow. Our love-foal will not be without the love it needs, no matter what happens,” she said passionately. Fluttershy suppressed a grin long enough to let out a cute whine and say, “Oh, Discord. How could you?” “WHAAAAAAT?!” Discord’s head spun around another 270 degrees until he was looking at his marefriend. At that point, his neck had twisted around too far for him to keep his balance and he toppled over. Everypony lost it and we all laughed. Discord picked himself up... literally... glaring at me while dusting himself off with a feather duster. “Hmmmph. One more mark in the ‘Mark’ column for you, Mister. Just for that, I won’t be taping your foal announcement card to that mirror for your buddy back home.” All Fluttershy had to do was clear her throat behind her coltfriend to make him cringe. “... until next week,” he finished. While we all had a good laugh about it, I was slightly disappointed that Discord didn’t have any insights beyond what we had figured out for ourselves. Time would tell if we would learn more, I supposed. And while some of the nobles were aghast at Gemini’s odd nature, at least this royal foal would have no problems sitting on the throne as a Princess to satisfy the conservative members of the elite. The guessing game as to when Twilight would give birth ended three weeks and four days after Gemini’s arrival. As with Trixie’s labor, Twilight just had Thorax in the room with midwife and assistant, so I waited along with everypony else to find out what the foal would turn out to be. Unlike my child, Twilight’s was expected to be some unique mixture of characteristics of its parents’ two species. The birth was quick. Calming Hooves suspected that the foal instinctively assisted to make it easier. Because of this, Twilight was nowhere near as tired as Trixie had been and she and Thorax invited us to come into the suite to see their new son. There was no mistaking the foal’s dual heritage. He had a coat of green fur a couple of shades lighter than mine, but that stopped halfway down his legs which were encased in shiny purple chitin. His wings were purple too and had features of both pegasus structure and dragonfly wing “feathers”. From his father’s heritage, the foal got a slightly jagged horn shape, compound eyes the shade of amethyst, and a beaming smile. But the most telling trait from his mother was the color of his mane and tail. They were the same shades of dark blue streaked with red as found in Twilight’s tresses. “What’s his name, Mama?” Nyx asked, staring fascinatedly at the foal. “We’ve decided to call him Regis Novellus,” Twilight said proudly. Ah, book-pony – never change! After a long debate, Applejack and Steady Flight had split the pot for ‘Best guess as to what Trixie and Mark’s foal will look like.” After a perfunctory discussion, it was unanimously decided that no one was remotely close in Twilight’s pool. The bits ended up going to Canterlot’s orphanage. That was quickly followed by contributions from Applejack and Steady Flight. However, Discord was declared the overall winner with the extra entry he paid for: “None of you will get either right.” I bought him an Eyrish whiskey on the rocks. Igneous rocks. I think he was touched by the gesture. # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Here's a sneak peek at Gemini (both forms) and Regis at about age six: