//------------------------------// // The Unexpected Guest // Story: The World Beneath Her Wings // by Void Chicken //------------------------------// "These are always so nice," Fluttershy said, taking a bite of her sandwich. Rainbow and her friends lay in a circle around the picnic blanket. Above, a large leafy tree drank in the springtime sun. Ponyville sat in the distance, its inhabitants going about their lives. Most of the group lay on their stomachs, but Rainbow had to lay on her side ever since her baby bump had gotten large enough to become visible six weeks before, and had only grown larger since then. Sprawled as she was, the entire group had a very clear view of her progress. Rarity, situated at Rainbow's head, enjoyed a fourth cupcake. Her diet had lasted exactly until that month and a half ago. Her weight's modest gain had been completely overshadowed by Rainbow's, thus eliminating any doubt as to which of the pair was bearing their child. After swallowing a slice of melon, Applejack called, "Whoo-ee, Rainbow, I swear you gain another inch every time I look at you!" "Sure feels like I'm bigger every time I look." Rainbow turned her attention back to the pickle sandwiches in front of her. Twilight, for her part, was less preoccupied with the food and more with the three books, eight scrolls, and the quill she was scribbling with. Soon Pinkie Pie had propped herself up on Rainbow's hip. "How much longer?" "Six weeks," Rainbow and Rarity said in unison, neither looking up. "Oooh I can't wait!" Pinkie said. Rainbow felt a pressure across her side and looked up to see Pinkie hugging her bump, the side of her head pressed into Rainbow's flank. "It's going to be so cute! Eeeeee!" Wincing at the sound, Rainbow pressed her ears back. Right on cue, she felt her foal kicking. She sighed and set her head on Rarity's back. "I can feel it!" Pinkie said. Her weight removed itself from Rainbow's side. Seconds later, it was replaced by a flat slap. Rainbow glared straight ahead. Rarity's voice said, "It's a book, dearie. Pinkie, please don't drop it on the foal like that." Weeks ago, Rarity had made the mistake of saying within earshot that the foal could hear everything going on outside. Rainbow idly wondered if it would be born deaf. Or insane. "I know you haven't heard this one!" Pinkie announced. "It's one of Rainbow's favorites: Young Daring Do and the Curse of the Gym Teacher's Lunchbox." Only allowed to exist due to a loophole in AK Yearling's publishing contract, the Young Daring Do series detailed the exploits of Daring during her life as an elementary schooler. All of them were ghostwritten and none of them were true. Despite critical panning, they sold well enough for over two dozen volumes to be printed. While Curse of the Gym Teacher's Lunchbox wasn't the low point of the series, it was far from an enjoyable read. The fandom considered Young Daring Do to be nothing more than cheap cash-ins designed to be given to children by unwitting parents and, in this case, excited pink ponies. Rainbow's own child, being literally trapped inside her, was the perfect audience. "Daring Do woke up one morning and yawned a great big yawn," Pinkie read, before giving a demonstration. "Then she jumped out of bed, put on her hat, and said, 'Today's going to be an adventure!' And she was right." Every Young Daring Do book started with that line. Despite her best efforts, Rainbow failed to tune out Pinkie Pie. "Daring lept into her dining room, and her mom said—" "I got it!" Twilight shouted. Rainbow looked over along with the rest of the group. "That's not how the story goes, silly," Pinkie pointed out. Taking advantage of the distraction, Rainbow twitched her side enough for the book to slide off of her and land pages-down on the grass. Rarity glanced over and smiled. Angling her head to Rarity's ear, Rainbow whispered, "If she asks, the foal did it." Rarity stifled a laugh. A bunch of Twilight's books and scrolls hovered up, turning to face the collected ponies. They were full of symbols and lines that Rainbow was sure were very enlightening. She took a bite of her sandwich. "There have been mysterious magical disturbances reported for months across Equestria, with no clear pattern," Twilight explained. "Unicorns having trouble casting advanced spells, slight variances in magical fields, that sort of thing. But I've finally figured them out! By cross-referencing them against ancient ley lines and the mumbo jumbo magic magic sparkly princess powers blah blah blah, I've pinpointed the source!" is what Rainbow heard. Twilight produced a map. It was full of markings and magical doodles. "It's at Round Hill, which is about a mile north of the tracks running from Canterlot to Vanhoover. Tomorrow, I'm going to ask Starlight to join me on a trip out there and investigate—" "We'll all go!" Pinkie announced. Fluttershy set down her tea. "To the hill?" Jumping to Twilight's side, Pinkie continued, "We'll have a picnic." Applejack looked at the food arrayed on the blanket. "Pinkie Pie, we're having a picnic right now." With a gasp, Pinkie said, "You're right! I have to start packing for tomorrow's!" Before anypony could comment, she was gone. After eyeing Young Daring Do on the ground, Rainbow lay her head back on the grass and sighed with contentment. Shortly afterwards, a smell wafted across her nose. She sat up. "Hey Applejack, you going to finish that melon?" --- While Rainbow preferred flying to walking when it came to long distances, she had to admit that being allowed to wander at all was refreshing ever since the weight in her belly became noticeable. Naturally, they'd taken the train to the area, where it pulled off to a nearby siding to wait for them. Having a princess as a friend had its perks. "Round Hill should be just over this ridge." Starlight lowered the map she had been levitating. "Good," Rarity said, "I don't want Rainbow to overexert herself." As the ponies climbed, Rainbow's eyebrows dropped. An idea prompted her to stop. "Hey Applejack, race you to the tree up there!" Hesitating, Applejack's eyes went from Rainbow's face to her side. "Uh..." Rainbow didn't wait for an answer. Her hooves pounded the grass into submission as she sprinted up the hill. A few wing-flaps provided extra boost on her way up. It was the fastest she'd run in weeks. She smacked her forehoof against the tree. "Ha!" Winded by the sprint, Rainbow gasped for breath. Inside her, the foal's hooves did some pounding of their own. Below her, Rarity grit her teeth. Flicking her tail, Rainbow turned away from the group. "Come on, slowpokes," she called, "get up here and... woah." Ahead of her, the grasslands spread down the ridge and into the distance. However, an immense green dome stood alone, as if an enormous ball had been cut in half, dropped on the field, and had grass grow over it. Its base gently sloped from the flat field to a near-vertical rise before curving over its top. A solitary tree had taken root on one of its sides. Before long, the other ponies had joined her. Applejack whistled. "That's a round hill, all right." "We should take a closer look." Twilight made her way down the ridge, followed by the others. Rarity fell behind, walking next to Rainbow. "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed. "Checking the weird hill out?" was Rainbow's answer. "I mean that little race of yours. What if you'd slipped and fell? What if the foal had gotten hurt?" Rarity whispered. "It's perfectly safe, Rarity. I'm not going to hurt it." Rainbow rolled her eyes. Ears back, Rarity said, "It isn't a tiny embryo anymore! It's not deep inside you with your body to shield it. The only thing between our daughter and disaster is your reckless behavior." With a sigh, Rainbow said, "Fine, fine. I'll be more careful." Before long, Rainbow arrived at the base of Round Hill. Its green side loomed overhead. "Now what?" Applejack asked. "I'm not sure," Twilight replied. "I calculated the source of the disturbances to be right here, but I'm not seeing anything special about this place. Not so much as a flicker." Starlight's horn illuminated for a few seconds. "No strange magic here. Did we get the wrong place?" A whump accompanied the impact of a blanket, several baskets, and a large variety of food. Rainbow wasted no time in chowing down. Pinkie Pie once again set herself up atop Rainbow's hip. "I know what'll keep us occupied! Young Daring Do and the Gum of Legend!" A book landed on Rainbow's side. She took some small solace in the fact that her daughter enjoyed the story as little as she did. --- "...Daring Do snuggled up under her covers." The food was long gone. "Today had been an adventure." Even the foal had given up resisting. "And she knew that tomorrow would be, too." A collective sigh of relief passed over the landscape. Pinkie stuffed the book back in her mane, then felt around Rainbow's belly. "Aww, she fell asleep. That's so cute! No wait, I can feel her shifting. How about we read—" "How about," Rarity interrupted, standing up, "we investigate this hill some more?" Rainbow couldn't help but smile. She knew she married her for a reason. "There's nothing to investigate," Starlight said. "It's just a strangely-shaped hill." Scratching her chin, Applejack said, "You don't suppose whatever's causing those funny magic disturbances is buried in the middle of it?" "That's possible," Twilight said, looking up the side of the hill, "but it'd take forever to dig, even if we brought shovels." Reaching into her tail, Pinkie said, "Like this?" She pulled out a shovel with a bright pink blade and a handle longer than her tail was. "I never investigate hills without one." Applejack adjusted her hat. "All right, I'll see how far I can get tunneling to the middle of this thing. But if I hit rock, then Pinkie'd better have a pickaxe in there." She looked up the side of the hill. "And dynamite. Land's sake." The shovel dug into the dirt, scooping the layer of grass off of the hillside. Rainbow picked out a comfortable place to lounge. It was always a pleasure to watch Applejack working her orange butt off while having an excuse to not do anything herself. Rarity was discussing something with Pinkie off to the side. Whatever it was, Pinkie was nodding vigorously about it. Twilight and Starlight alternated between taking notes, talking to each other, and watching Applejack's progress. Which left Fluttershy. "Rainbow?" Looking up at her, Rainbow answered, "What's up?" Setting herself down next to her, Fluttershy asked, "Is something going on between you and Rarity?" "No." Rainbow looked away. "Well, yeah." Looking back at Fluttershy, she added, "It's like I can't do anything. I haven't had a real race all year. It's all 'the foal this' and 'the foal that'. I get it, once she's born everything is going to be about her. But she isn't born yet." Rainbow paused. "At least once she's born I'll be able to leave the house every once in a while, fly up as fast as I can, feel the wind across my wings. Really push myself to my limits. But all I can do right now—" She let her head flop to the ground. "—is lay here and be pregnant." "Well," Fluttershy said, shifting herself into Rainbow's field of view, "right now, your foal depends on you completely. Wherever you go, she does too. Whenever you fly, she does too. Everything you eat, she does too." Looking away, Rainbow grumbled. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. Fluttershy went on, "Your body is concentrating on growing your foal, so it doesn't have much left for what you want to do with it. I've cared for a lot of pregnant animals, although, um, they're more understanding about it." She hurried out her next sentence: "But you've been doing a wonderful job so far and you're helping your daughter more than either of you will ever know." A deep sigh was Rainbow's only reply. Suddenly, Rainbow heard a loud clack. Her attention returned to Applejack, who scraped away at something behind the dirt before setting Pinkie's shovel down. "What in tarnation is this?" Applejack asked. Rainbow got to her feet and joined the others in gathering around the hole. Inside was a flat wall of something black, smooth but not quite polished. With a scraping noise, Twilight ran her hoof across the surface. "This isn't rock or crystal, but it doesn't feel like any kind of building material I've ever heard of." She knocked on it, producing a solid sound. "It's very hard, whatever it is." Gently moving Twilight out of the way, Fluttershy stepped forward and set her hoof on it. "It's a carapace." "You're kidding," Starlight said. Fluttershy ran her hoof over it. "It feels just like the shells of my turtles and spiders. This is a creature." Backing up a few steps to get a better look at the hill, Rainbow said, "No way." "It's huge," Applejack added. "It's dead," Twilight said. The others looked at her. Fluttershy's ears drooped. "Are you sure?" Starlight stepped forward. "She's right. Every living thing above a certain size emits constant magical energy," she explained, "as a side effect of the magic needed to sustain its vital processes. Something the size of this hill would be very obvious, even hibernating or in stasis. If this really is a creature, it's dead." Poking her hoof at the thick layer of dirt, Applejack said, "Musta kicked the bucket a long time ago, then. But that don't explain why all your magic stuff is pointing at it." "We'll just have to do some research!" Twilight's eyes lit up. "I'll look for books about similar creatures. What they're called, where they came from, if there's more of their kind anywhere else." "In the meantime," Rainbow said, "how about we head home? Thanks for the picnic, Pinkie." She hoped in vain that Pinkie noticed the lack of thanks for storytime. After returning her shovel to her tail, Pinkie bounced away. "No problemo, Rainbow!" The other ponies followed her back towards where the train waited. Rainbow walked behind the rest. For some reason, the weight in her belly felt particularly heavy.