//------------------------------// // 1 A Beginning // Story: Her Glowing Womb // by KenDoStudios //------------------------------// My wife was positively glowing. No really. Her tummy was literally glowing! It had been like this for a long six months now. Doctors crowded over her like busy bees near their queen, yet it was my queen that they mulled over and over again trying to ease her pain. But it was no use, something was happening with the baby. I figured as much as soon as it began glowing five months ago. “Joseph!” She said back then, “My belly is glowing!” “I know, you're pregnant Mrs. Muffin,” I replied smiling, “I’m proud that we finally get to raise a child! Heck, many ponies never even thought you would even marry!” “No, I mean my tummy is glowing, and it's starting to hurt!” She tripped over herself and proceeded to knock a vase over, then landed on top of it. “You can't be having contractions this early? We are only one month in!” I said, turning to see what the commotion was about. I took a look at my Ditsy Doo very closely. Her tummy WAS glowing. Not nearly as much as it would later, but a faint luminescence came from her furry underside. “Uh… oh…” I stuttered actually seeing the sight. “Well, that’s normal right? RIGHT?” I asked, staring at her greyish belly and starting to panic. “What do we do?” “I don’t know, I never read this in the book Twilight gave us. OW!” She then said grimacing in pain. “It hurts Joseph!!” “A doctor!” I said “We need to get you to a hospital and get you to see a doctor! A-a-and when she is checking up on you I-I will write to Princess Twilight and get her over as fast as we can!” “Ye-yeah I suppose you're right. Help me up please?” “Oh sorry!” I exclaimed as I remembered she fell belly up from her tripping. The light from within her womb was a dull orange color. It shifted when I got Derpy back on all hoofs. “OW,” she said. “Gosh, does it hurt that bad?” I said. “Well maybe not, but it feels like the worst tummy ache I ever had.” She said. “This is why we let Twilight help us prepare! C’mon, I'll lead you to the wheelchair and rush you over there right now.” “Joseph, I'm worried, is our baby in danger? The book said a miscarriage is possible if my tummy hurts.” She said that last word in pain as I helped her up and guided her to the wheelchair. “Happy thoughts, dearie! Happy thoughts…” I said, attempting to get her mind off of it. I led her to the wheelchair across the smoothed wooden floor, still scattered with moving boxes. As I guided her around these obstacles she kept mouthing the word “ow”. The wheelchair was next to the piano and was aimed in such a way in case we had to exit quickly. Twilight was very knowledgeable about things, even things that had not yet happened to her. I wonder why Twilight has not even married yet? I thought  Maybe she is not in any rush. She is an alicorn now, and she has the power to live as long as Celestia did… huh… Celestia… I wonder where Celestia is now. Is she still living? I set my wife on the chair and opened the dark green aluminum door. I listen closely while doing this, thankfully not hearing any pain in her voice anymore.  That is good, right? I thought to myself, It must be when she is only moving or pressure is being touched. Maybe it is just a stomach ache after all…  I started to move the wheelchair gingerly over the door frame. Some pained sounds from my wife later, and she was out in the world breathing the fresh Ponytown air. Walking from the sidewalk to the main road were other houses, in most of those houses lived a pony with a different life. Unfortunately, we didn’t know their names. We had only moved to this house two days ago. Behind the rows of homes facing away from our house was a green pine forest that looked very much like Everfree from back home. This name escaped me as well as again we just moved here not long ago. It had already been a long two days. I did know it was a very pretty day out, the kind of day that you didn’t feel the heat. Despite wanting to enjoy the day, I had more precious things to think about. I closed and locked the door behind me, then continued to briskly walk with the wheelchair three miles away. The walk to the hospital there could be described in detail, but I forgot most of them as I was more concentrated on getting my wife to her location. I do remember passing many houses while en route. A purple one, in particular, caught my eye at one point and I laughed to see such a sight. We passed a park with abstract tree art. I heard many fillies screaming in delight, playing with each other on a playground, with the squeals of equipment that went along with them. We were a mile out now. The road opened up a little. The houses were spaced further than the last mile. Hills surrounded us, with birch trees that stood like rib bones of a fantastic creature and told a story of the land statements now and then.  But a particular cute yellow house caught my wife's eye. “Joe, we did check that house right?” She said. “Dearie, why are you thinking about this now?” I asked. “I already told you some pony else lives there.” “Such a shame, I would love to live there,” she exclaimed in pain as she turned her head to look at it once more. “Stop moving and it won’t hurt,” I said The third mile was a more densely packed commerce center, full of restaurants and billboards. I finally saw in the distance the hospital sign. It seemed like it was right there, but those last few steps felt longer than the three miles that came before them. The door opened for us from ponies that were there as a courtesy. Imagine that! I thought to myself, Getting minimum wage just by being a lookout. Any pony could do a job like that right? One of the doctors took a look at my wife's stomach when I got her inside and she nearly lost her jaw muscles. “Get the Emergency Mare Service on this right away!” she said. They carted my wife away with me tailing right behind. “It's ok, we are here now. Everything is going to be ok,” I said. I meant it now, but I was not prepared for the long six-month journey that lay ahead of us, and my positive truth back then eventually turned into an awful lie. I followed her in with the doctor's staff flowing around her getting the necessary instruments on her. Everything they pressed upon her made her yell a bit in pain. I held her hand, hoping that it was just her midsection that was hurting. Thankfully it was and I stroked her arm trying to comfort her. “It's ok we are here now in a company where they know what they are doing. Now as planned, I'm going to write to Twilight ok? Then we can get to the bottom of this.” “I just don’t know what went wrong!” she said. I left the hospital to find a royal parchment. Finding these were a bit rare to find in small places, but luckily I happened to be next to a post office that hosted royal parchmets. Upon entering and asking the post mare reminded me that royal parchments were only meant for cases of emergencies and that they should be used as such, if the letter was not found to be in these terms a fifteen thousand bit fine would be applied and I could face jail time I knew of these risks and stopped to think for a while The only thing that probably is worth that amount would be another changeling attack. It would probably be best to write a normal letter to her instead. I decided I wrote to her explaining what was happening and i lettered it to the castle as first class. “I bet a lot of ponies give letters to princess Twilight,” said the mail Mare It was true, Derpey told me all about the mail system when we were dating and how she always took mail to princess Celestia back in the day. But yesterday didn’t matter to me. Only the future. The future of my wife, my baby, and myself! I reaffirmed myself by thinking the same thought I told my wife. Everything would be fine Boy was I wrong.