Moving to new places always left me with mixed emotions. I loved meeting new people, seeing new things, and having new experiences. I also ended up feeling sad about the people, places, and things that I was leaving behind. The move to Skytree had been no different.
My mom had actually moved to Skytree a full two weeks before me and my step dad. Miss Seapony had helped me dreamwalk to my mom every night she had been gone, but I was still anxious to see her in person again. Some night ponies felt like seeing people in their dreams was just as good as seeing them in person, but I wasn't a night pony, and I felt a keen difference between hugging someone in a dream and hugging a person while awake. I needed that actual physical comfort.
I still thought of my step dad as David at the time, even though he had been married to my mom for several months by that point. The two weeks we spent without my mom had been time he had really tried to focus on bonding with me-- really trying to build that father-daughter bond.
Unfortunately for him, I was feeling down because of the impending move and the fact that my mom wasn't there. That mood was further worsened by the fact my time of month had started. I feel very like some stereotype saying that, but when I was a younger teen I would intermittently get really bad cramps when that was going on. They have since stopped happening, now that I'm older, and the doctor said it had been a side effect of the fact I was still growing. I'm not sure how that works, but that's what the doctor said. However, this was one of those times I was cramping, and me cramping has a side effect of making me a grumpy goose. So even though it was rare for me; I was in a prolonged bad mood.
David stuck his head into my room. "Hey, Becky, I'm going to be packing up the old Atari tonight. I was wondering if you wanted to do a round of pong with me before I put it away."
My room, like most of the house, was filled with half filled plastic bins, as we worked to get everything packed and ready to move. I had just finished putting away a lot of things that reminded me of my friends, and I was still dealing with my cramps. Still, I tried not to show how miserable I was. "I'm not really up to it, sorry."
Disappointment briefly flashed on his face. "That's alright. Also, we have a lot of food that we should use up before the move, and I was wondering if you wanted to help me make some cookies in a little while. If we time it right they can be ready to eat right after dinner."
A small war broke out between my stomach and my nether regions over this proposal. On the stomach's end-- cookies, enough said. However, there were also the parts nearby that just registered 'don't even think of putting extra pressure on us back here!' In addition to 'do you know how much moving around that will take? Why are you punishing us?' This was also right around the time I was starting to put on some pounds, and it was also becoming increasingly obvious my flying was well below average for my age-- and I didn't know yet that it wasn't the fault of my weight. Back then, those two things were causing me to be self-conscious about what I was eating-- hard as that may be to believe now.
"I think I'll pass on the cookies tonight," I finally replied, and then flopped on my shag carpet. The flop turned out to be ill advised, and I suppressed a whimper as my cramps gave me a sharp jab of pain.
David walked up to me and knelt down. "Are you feeling alright?"
I gave an irritable flap of my wings when he tried to reach out to touch me. "I'm fine! Just leave me alone!" I snapped, and started to cry. I clutched my legs around myself as my pain intensified. Crying was just making the cramps hurt worse. Everything I did seemed to make the cramps hurt worse.
David gave me a deeply distressed look, then got up and hurried out of the room. A moment later I could hear him talking on the phone, but couldn't really focus on what he was saying, or who he was talking to. I just focused on the pain, it had never been this bad.
I'm not sure how much time passed, but he came back into the room and knelt back down next to me. He held out something in front of my mouth. "Here, this is a pain killer. I have some water here to wash it down. I need you to take it."
I opened my mouth and let him place it in, it tasted really bitter, but if it would help I wasn't going to complain. A second later he held a cup with a straw up to my mouth in turn. I sipped water from it, and then curled up tightly where I was laying.
"I'm sorry if this ends up hurting, but I'm going to have to pick you up," he said quickly. "I'm going to carry you out to the car and then drive you to the hospital."
"I don't need to go to the hospital," I croaked. Why I said that was a mystery. I wasn't really thinking straight is all I can say in my defense.
"Yes, you do," he said sternly. "Whatever this is, it isn't normal."
"It's just cramps," I whimpered. "I get them sometimes… time of month." I hadn't had a flare up of them in the few months since he had moved in.
He sighed. "I didn't know you got menstrual cramps, but I doubt they normally have you curled up in a ball on the floor, crying like a baby." That was true. They hurt, but not like this.
He lifted me up when I didn't put up any further objections. I did whimper and squirm when he did, but he just tightened his hold on me so he wouldn't drop me. By the time he got me to the back seat of the car I was openly sobbing, which again, made everything hurt worse.
I'm unsure how long the car ride took. Normally the car rides felt perfectly smooth, but this time every little bump or turn we made I could feel, and made me groan. David kept trying to say soothing things to me, but I couldn't pay attention. I just wanted this hurt to go away. He was right, it had never even been close to this bad, and I didn't understand why it was hurting so much now.
We signed in at the emergency room, and they took me away on a stretcher to get some tests. I was pricked with needles to get my blood, someone stuck a long swab up my marehood to get a sample of something, they listened to my breathing, a crystal pony checked my magic, and a human doctor applied pressure to different spots asking me where it hurt and if it hurt more here or there. A nurse gave me a shot of something with a long name that I couldn't pronounce, it sounded like gobbledygook. David spent this time near me, on the phone, talking to my mom about what was going on. I wanted to talk to her too, or better yet, have her here with me, but medical people kept doing things to me.
They rolled an X-ray machine in to take pictures of the backside of my body. David had to hang up and turn off his phone for some reason, but don't know why; I don't understand how medical stuff works-- now or then. Whatever the stuff the shot me with must have kicked in around then, because the pain gradually faded then stopped.
David, very gently, put a hand on my side. "Feeling better?"
I nodded. My body felt really weak. "Yeah, I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "Don't be sorry. This isn't your fault."
"I must have done something. It has never been this bad," I whined. My thoughts went out to my weight, or the fact I was far less athletic than many other pegasi, or maybe I consumed too much sugar.
David sighed. "It could be an anxiety related issue. Maybe it was just me pestering you when you clearly weren't wanting to spend time with me."
It was my turn to shake my head. "You aren't stressing me. I just miss Mom, and I've been cramping. On top of that we are moving again." I gave an irritated flap of my wings. "I get used to a place, and have friends, and places there I like to go, and then her big boss tells her that we need to move again. Why does her boss keep doing that?"
"She actually has a new boss," David explained. "This new boss is saying that her new promotion is going to mean no more moves. She might need to personally go out of town for a few days, once or twice a year, but we shouldn't have to move ever again. This is the main corporate office that she's going to be working at. That's why we're moving to Skytree."
My ill feelings just deepened. "Oh! So now I get to be without her a couple times a year. That's so much better!"
David shook his head in disbelief. "I've never seen you in such a foul mood, or ever heard you use biting sarcasm." He came and sat on the bed next to me. "I get it. You're in physical pain and you're dealing with a lot of anxiety about this move. Your mom has worked very hard to get to this point. She's risen from homeless on the streets a few years ago to an assistant vice president in a major international corporation. She's gone from the two of you living in a car to being able to provide the nicest possible things for you. Do you have any idea how amazing that is?"
I sniffled. "I don't care about the things she can get me. I just want her to be there, and for us to just stay in one place."
"Becky, she's going to be gone two weeks at most out of the year. You're going to have plenty of time with her. We aren't moving anymore either. Your mom and I had several long talks before we got married, and this job isn't just about providing for you. It is just as much something she needs to do for herself."
"She doesn't need lots of money," I replied in a low growl. "We did perfectly fine without lots of money."
David sighed. "It isn't about the money. It's about feeling accomplishment. I know that this might be hard to understand, and don't take this wrong, because you're the most important person in the world to your mother, and she loves you with all her heart; but your mom felt like she'd lost out on all her opportunities to do big things when she got pregnant with you."
I looked up at him and blinked in confusion. Was he saying I ruined my mom's life?
He laid his arm on my back. "Your mom had dreams when she was in high school. Yes, she dreamed of having a family, and I'm sure she dreamed of having a daughter just like you-- well, there were no ponies back then, but you get the idea. She also had dreams of making a name for herself. The fact that she had to turn her attention completely to taking care of you made her abandon those other dreams. Now she's at a point she feels like she can fulfill both sets of dreams; having a wonderful family, as well as showing the world what she can do. We're a part of her dreams, the bigger parts, but we aren't everything."
My ears flattened. "We should be enough."
He shook his head. "This isn't her having to choose between one set of dreams and the other. This is her having the opportunity to accomplish both. In a few short years you'll be all grown up, and leaving the nest. You can't hang on to having your mom around all the time. Do you really want her not to accomplish what she wants to do because you want her fifty-two weeks out of the year instead of fifty?"
Shame flooded over me, and I bowed my head. "I guess… when you put it that way… I guess it sounds pretty selfish."
He lifted my head up and smiled at me. "Hey, I know how you feel. I'm not thrilled about the fact she'll be gone two weeks a year-- and I can't even dreamwalk her like you can. We need to be supportive of her; just like she's always been supportive of you."
I sniffled again. "I'll try to be."
I was then pulled against his chest, and into a hug. "And we have each other when she's gone those two weeks each year. Hopefully things will go smoother in our time together than they've gone today. You were part of the package deal when I married your mom, and if I can get you to feel half as strongly about me as you do your mom, then I know I'd be doing something right."
Someone cleared their throat nearby, and we turned to look at a human doctor that had just walked in the room. The doctor smiled at us. "Sorry for interrupting your moment, but I have a diagnosis for what had caused the pain earlier."
David released me and we both turned our absolute attention to the doctor.
The doctor cleared his throat and looked at a file. "Miss Riddle, what we found is you have fibroids; those are non-cancerous growths on your uterus. They can be painful at times during your ovulation period. While they don't happen to Equestrian native ponies, they do happen to some ponies here on Earth."
"Are they dangerous? Am I going to die?" I asked worriedly.
The doctor shook his head. "They aren't dangerous, but can cause a great deal of pain, as well as bleeding. The bleeding in ponies can cause complications, if untreated, since ponies don't typically bleed during menstrual periods. The most effective treatment for fibroids in ponies is typically surgical removal, since they tend to stay gone-- in ponies at least-- after surgical removal. It is a perfectly safe procedure that shouldn't damage your uterus in any way."
Surgery?! They were going to cut me open? I didn't want to be cut open.
David gave the doctor a look almost as wide-eyed as mine. "Are you intending to do this now?"
The doctor chuckled, and shook his head. "Oh, definitely not. She will need an appointment to an expert on this type of surgery. I can prescribe her some pain medication while you are waiting for a surgery date, if you choose to go the surgical route. I do advise surgery, since fibroids in ponies have been resistant to the types of medications we prescribe humans."
David still seemed dazed. "We're moving to Skytree in a few days, we can't really schedule anything, and we need to talk with her mother about this first."
This seemed to make the doctor happy for some reason. "Well then, the hospital in Skytree is one of the top few locations on our world for pony medicine. I can write up a recommendation letter to give to their staff. You are in no better hands or hooves than the Skytree doctors."
My nerves were completely frayed, but I put on a brave face. I tried to think about what David had told me about my mom, just to distract myself. I had been really selfish, and I took to heart what he said to me. People could have many dreams, and they didn't always have to choose between them.
I awoke to my radio. "Good morning! Today calls for blue skies. The titled song then started to play. I threw off my blankets, went through my normal stretches, and then I looked out the window and greeted the sun. Immediately after I hopped down from the bed and started doing my normal morning dance.
However, when I was whipping my head and rump back and forth I caught a whiff of something musky. I paused my dance and then sniffed under my tail-- mare stench, that time of month had come again. Oh well, maybe that would make things easier for the birth control doctor. At least it had been years since I'd had my surgery for my growth-thingies, and this time of month didn't hurt anymore. Life was good, and I was ready to meet the new day with enthusiasm. I wondered if my stepdad had made any breakfast.