//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: You're in Big Trouble // Story: Stories From a Single Mother // by emerald_shine //------------------------------// "You're what?" Sparkler looked down to the ground and refused to look up. "I-I'm Pregnant." I stared at her blankly as I tried to piece together events in my mind. Suddenly, in a flash, it all came together. The string of events. Sleepover party, a colt, alcohol, the 'emergency' marketplace trip. Sparkler walked forward and gave me a pregnancy test with a big green + on it. "Um... mom?" I stare at her. "Y-You know, sometimes these things are inaccurate." Sparkler rolls her eyes and gives me a second test with another big green + on it. I stare at the test and then back to her. My eyes continue to dart between the two. Sparkler suddenly spoke up. "I know what you must be thinking but if you give me the chance to-" "WHAT THE FUCK SPARKLER!" Sparkler cringed a little and clapped her hooves to her ears. "Well, that was unnecessarily loud." "Was this at the sleepover?" She looked down again and nodded. "I-I'm s-sorry." I turn away from her for a second and walk over to the phone that's hung on the wall. I quickly dial a number. "Hi, Rarity? My daughter can't come into work today." I pause for a second as Rarity asks why. "There's an emergency family issue we need to deal with." Rarity agrees. "Thank you. Have a nice day." I turn back to Sparkler and hold up a hoof. "So, you lied to me, and now you're pregnant. What's your next plan?" Sparkler looks at me. "W-Well, I've already informed the father. I'm gonna go live with him now." "You're what!" "Mom! It's the best course of action." "You're 16!" "I'm also carrying his child!" "When do I get to meet this stallion?" Sparkler scoffed. "Not now." "And why not?" "Because I'm ninety percent sure that you're gonna shoot him the second you see him." I nod. "Good call. You're absolutely right." I sigh and sit down on the couch. Sparkler came over and put a hoof on my shoulder. "Mom. I know it's not what you planned. But trust me it's not what I planned either. We're gonna get through this. I have so much money saved up from working with Rarity. I can support the foal and we'll all be okay." I sigh. "I know honey. It's just..." I hesitate for a second. "You had so much to live for. College, a promising career. You've thrown it all away because of a mistake." "I didn't throw it all away! In fact, even before all of this, I decided not to go to college." I tilted my head. "Since when?" "Since Rarity offered me a job as head fashion designer in her Manehatten store. The pay is about 1.2 million bits a year." My eyes widen and my jaw drops. "Wow!" I pulled her into a hug. "Sweetheart! I'm so proud of you. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pissed beyond imagine. But I'm also proud." I give her a warm smile. "Can I ask you something?" Sparkler nods and I continue. "Why didn't you come to me about any of this?" She looks down. "I was scared. Princess Luna entered my dream a couple nights ago telling me about some of the challenges I would have to face if I were... you know... expecting. It scared me. I realized I may not even have a foal so I decided to brush it off. Until I felt nauseous two night ago. I was going to the marketplace to pick up a test." "And you went yesterday while Dinky was at school?" Sparkler nods. "I'm sorry Mom! I shouldn't have hidden from you but I was scared. If I told you, I thought you would kick me out or something. Without an extreme reason, I don't think my coltfriend would have let me move in with him. I just... I had nothing I could do." I sigh. "Sparkler, you've always been the responsible one in the family. Obviously, not this time, but still. I know you would have figured out something. It just worried me that you seemed so stressed." I decided not to tell her about Princess Luna. "I want you to be able to talk to me without fear of being rejected or screamed at." "You did scream a little at first." I sigh again. "I know. I shouldn't have done that. I don't know. It's kind of hard to be mad. You kind of remind me of myself." Sparkler tilts her head and her eyes widen. "What do you mean?" I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. A trick that Applejack had taught me to calm myself down. "Alright. I'm gonna be completely honest with you. But I need you to promise me that you can handle everything I'm about to say." "Mom! My life was just completely changed! If I can handle that, I can handle anything." I nod. "Okay." I take another deep breath. "When I was your age, I met your father. Everything was great until one night, we went to a little party. Nothing super special. There was alcohol there and despite several urges from Time Turner not to, I ended up getting myself drunk that night. In my drunken state, I somehow managed to pressure your father into doing so as well. One thing led to another and two weeks later, I was standing in the exact same position you were." "So I wasn't planned? I was a mistake? But that doesn't make sense! Given our age gaps, I don't think it's possible that you could have had me when you were 16! Not to mention-" I hold up a hoof to silence her. "Let me finish." I take another deep breath and continue. "Me and your father got married pretty quickly after that. We spent all of our time making sure we could provide for our new child. We got this house and made a very special nursery. After about four months of pregnancy, I got an ultrasound. We wanted to determine what color to paint the nursery walls and what kinds of toys to get the foal." I take one more deep breath. "We saw that it was a boy." A small tear comes out of my eyes. Sparkler tilted her head. "Wait. I don't have a brother." She tilted it more. "Do I?" Tears were beginning to pour down my face. I couldn't even speak as I shook my head. I looked down and softly started crying as I tried to find the will to finish the story. I suddenly felt a hoof on my shoulder. I look up to see Sparkler with a comforting hoof on my shoulder. "It's okay. You can do it." I nod slightly. "I had a miscarriage in my third trimester. The incident tore your father and I to pieces. Somehow, we managed to get through it. In the end, three years later, when we decided we were ready, we had our first child. A beautiful, brilliant, smart, purple filly. I knew the second the second I laid eyes on you, I would cherish you and never let you go. I promised myself there was nothing you could ever do to make me abandon you. Not that that was ever a problem. You never really gave me any reasons to punish you let alone kick you out. I tell you this whole story as a way of saying..." I stop for a second. I can still feel the tears in my eyes and, therefore, the breaking in my throat. "I l-love you. And I know you c-can do this. And I can relate to you. If you ever have any concerns, talk to me." Sparkler looks at me. She also has tears in her eyes. She smiles. "I love you so much Mom!" I nod. Sparkler jumps up happily. "I'm gonna be a mother!" I smile. "I'm gonna be a grandmother!" * * * I walk back to my room and picked up my laptop. I considered calling Time Turner to tell him the news. It wasn't that I didn't want to, but I didn't want to distract him while he was working. Besides, I can't afford a cell phone so I use a landline and that doesn't have nearly good enough signal to make a decent sounding call to the TARDIS. I open my computer which was given to me by the mail company for urgent alerts of immediate delivery packages. Ever since I finished working with Rainbow Dash, I had worked up my flying skill. I could even fly super fast! I was only about 100 mph slower than Rainbow. Which, believe it or not, that's a really big feat. So I was the main mailpony for immediate delivery packages. When I opened it, I saw that I had missed messages. They weren't from the mail station. They were from Time Turner. I opened the first one. TARDIS3854@Error...: Hi Derpy! I installed an email function on the TARDIS control panel! I just wanted to say I'm sorry and I want to talk to you. Please message me back when you're ready to talk. I opened each other email. They were all pretty similar to that one. Just saying how much he missed me and how much he wanted to talk to me. I opened the last one and formed a reply. Mailmare33@pmail.com: Hi Time Turner. I have to talk to you. I was surprised at how fast he answered after I sent the message. TARDIS3854@Error...: Derpy! I'm honestly a little surprised you answered. Mailmare33@pmail.com: Don't worry about it. Listen, long story short, I might have possibly set up cameras in the TARDIS. I saw every interaction between you and Rose. Thank you so much for standing up for our relationship. I forgive you. But don't pull any of this shit again! TARDIS3854@Error...: Oh my goddess! Thank you so much Derpy. We can talk about it when I get home. Only about three more weeks. Mailmare33@pmail.com: We actually have a bigger issue at hand. I can't tell if it's a problem or a blessing. TARDIS3854@Error...: ??? Mailmare33@pmail.com: Sparkler's pregnant. TARDIS3854@Error...: WHAT! HOW! WHAT HAPPENED? Mailmare33@pmail.com: Really Time Turner? You still don't know what happened? We have two children dummy! LOL! TARDIS3854@Error...: That's not what I meant. Is this about the party? Mailmare33@pmail.com: Yeah. Please don't be mad at her. We had a talk. I told her the whole story of how we got married. She knows I'm there for her. TARDIS3854...: Hey Derpy, I have to go, there's a bunch of strange statues attacking the TARDIS. They remind me of the damn weeping angels. I'll talk to you again soon :) Thanks for forgiving me. I swear to Celestia, it won't happen again. With that, the little green dot next to the email address turned to grey. I couldn't help but think about how suddenly that conversation had ended as soon as I told him the news. I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about. I walked out of my room to see Sparkler sweeping the floor. I walk over to her. "Sweetie, you don't have to do that." "Well, I don't have work today anymore so I needed something to do." "Fair enough." I put a hoof to my chin. "Actually, I have something I think you can do." "Does it involve working?" I nod and smile. "Then I'm all for it! You know I love working!" I run to my room and pick up a box. "I meant to give this to you on your birthday! I completely forgot that I had it under my bed!" "What is it?" I Ran over to the table and put the box down carefully. I opened it and carefully pulled out small pieces of glass and assorted different pieces of a frame. I also pulled many different decorative paints. "I don't know how I could've possibly forgotten about this! I had this custom made for you." I begin pointing to different contents of the box. "First, you assemble the frame. Then you take the instructions and paint the different pieces of glass accordingly. Then, you assemble it and use a magic spell to fuse the entire thing together into one big stained glass piece!" Sparkler's eyes widened and she ran to sit down in front of the task. "I love this idea! Carefully painting the pieces, putting it all together like a puzzle!" She ran up to me and embraced me. "Thank you Mom! I love it!" I pat her on the head. "You're welcome, angel. Now go have fun." She ran back to the table and began sorting the workspace. I knew she would love it. She loves working. Sometimes I think it's the only thing she thinks about other than maybe her sister. Her sister. I had completely forgotten about Dinky. I had to find some way to tell her that she was going to be an aunt. The age gap between her and Sparkler was immense! Sparkler was 16. Dinky was 4. Obviously I couldn't tell her exactly why it had happened. I had to think of some way to explain things to Dinky that wouldn't go into any detail. Which was probably gonna prove to be more difficult than you would think. Dinky was a smart foal. She would definitely ask questions. I was definitely in trouble. * * * "So you see, that's how you're gonna be an aunt." Dinky tilted her head. "So Sparkler wrote a letter to some magical birds telling them that she really wanted to be a mommy and they're gonna bring her a baby in about eight months?" I chuckle a little. I know how stupid it sounds but I certainly wasn't gonna hide it from her. "Yeah. Yep. uh-huh! That's how it all went down!" Dinky nodded her head. "Okay! Cool! I'm gonna go get Sparkler! I wanna play with my toys! It's never the same without her!" I smile and exit Dinky's room with her. Dinky ran directly over towards the table. I saw Sparkler hold up a hoof to block Dinky from running directly into the table. "Woah there DInks! Watch out! This glass is sharp! It could seriously hurt you!" Dinky completely ignored what she said and instead started jumping up and down. "Wanna come play with me Sparky?" Sparkler smiled. "Sure." She put down the piece of glass she was painting and got up. She walked over to Dinky and they walked into her room. I smiled and decided to go to my room for a little nap. * * * I awoke to the sound of crashing glass and a choked up scream of "MOM!" I jumped out of my bed and ran into the kitchen. I saw Sparkler sitting there sobbing with Dinky lying unconscious in her hooves. I noticed three long, deep, jagged cuts along Dinky's left side. They were pouring blood. "Sparkler! Can't you cast some sort of healing spell on your sister?" "I'm not that advanced! I can stop the bleeding temporarily but we need a doctor!" I nod and ran to the phone and dialed the number for the hospital. I see Sparkler light up her horn and put a purple aura along Dinky cuts. As the phone was ringing, I was only thinking, What the fuck happened here?