Edited by TacoTown
Chapter 1
“Is it almost over?” The stallion asked the earth pony midwife, who was blocking the door to the room where his wife was giving birth to their first child.
His fur coat was an earthy brown, while his mane and tail were a messy black. Both his mane and his coat were streaked with mud and dirt; almost as if he hadn’t had time to clean himself after his daily exertions in the fields. A grey wool cap sat snuggly atop his head, keeping his ears and skull safe from the leaching energy of the cold air outside. A set of dark brown eyes looked out from a middle aged face, that carried the obvious signs of weariness. Yet you could still see that it possessed a spark of resolve and hardness that spoke volumes to those who knew where to look.
His name was Sturdy Till. He’d served four years in the Earthpony militia and had helped clear the way into the newly discovered land of Equestria. During that time he’d earned a reputation for bravery and courage, and while fighting off a pack of timberwolves he’d rescued a beautiful pegasus officer, Cumulus rank, named Breeze. She later married the stallion.
Together they’d been some of the first ponies to bravely venture into the interior of Equestria and helped establish the Equestrian village of Sunnydale, where he and his wife currently lived. However, at the moment Sturdy was just as frantic as any other husband barred from his wife during the miracle of childbirth.
“The screaming has stopped, that has to mean something!” Sturdy told the midwife urgently. She shrugged and shook her head.
“Whatever it means; it is not yet time for you to enter.” The midwife scolded.
“But I’m her husband, what if she needs me?” Sturdy asked; his voice was filled with concern and anxiety.
“If you were needed then Midwife Umbilical would call for you.” The midwife told him before going back to ignoring him.
“This is ridiculous! My wife is in there!” Sturdy shouted.
“Your wife is dead.” A harsh voice shouted back from behind the door. Sturdy was shocked into silence as Midwife Umbilical pushed the door open.
The severe looking white unicorn pony mare walked towards Sturdy. Blood covered her hooves and her forelegs in thin streaks. Her silvery mane was soaked with sweat, and her eyes were carved into hard spheres of grey granite. “But we have a larger problem.” She stated, shattering the shocked silence.
“What do you mean a larger problem? How can there be a larger problem if my wife’s dead?!” Sturdy asked angrily as he approached the midwife.
“I mean that she’s already dead, so there’s nothing that we can do about it.” Umbilical said harshly. The midwife trailed off and a look of great sadness washed over her normally stern face. “I did all that I could do for your wife, but she died all the same. I am sorry for that.” Umbilical told him with a weary sigh. Sturdy let out a long, grief filled wail before he fell to his knees and began to weep as the effect of her words struck him.
Cumulus Breeze had been the focal point of his life since they’d met each other all those years ago. Even during the adjustment periods as the three tribes of ponies learned how to cooperate with one another, after her initial rescue Cumulus had never been bothered by the fact that her husband was an earth pony.
Now that she was gone Sturdy felt like his world had been tugged out from beneath his hooves. The other midwife sighed and left the building, but not before giving Sturdy a sympathetic glance and Umbilical a respectful nod. Sturdy spent the next several minutes on the floor weeping before he turned back towards Umbilical.
“You said that my daughter is alive?” He asked as he began to dry his eyes with his right hoof.
“She isn’t dead, but there are… complications.” Umbilical told him, pausing every few words to visibly search for the right thing to say.
That scared Sturdy. Umbilical had had mares die on her before, every midwife had. It was a fact of life even now that they lived in Equestria. If the grizzled mare was at a loss for words, then it bode ill…
“What do you mean complications?” Sturdy asked in a quiet voice. He didn’t know what he would do if he lost his only remaining family, even if he hadn’t even seen her yet, so soon after the passing of his wife
“She is… a freak.” Umbilical answered slowly.
“A freak?” Sturdy asked in confusion. “You’re calling my daughter a freak!” He shouted his grief disappearing beneath a sudden wave of anger that suddenly washed over him.
“Yes, a freak. She has the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. She is also far larger than a newborn should be… which is why your wife now lies dead.” Umbilical said with a scowl.
“What do you mean that she has the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus? That’s impossible, why are you wasting my time with these pointless imaginings?!” He asked her as his frustration with the old mare grew.
“She has both the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus. She is… remarkable.” Umbilical said in a quiet, almost thoughtful voice.
“You had better let me see her dammit!” Sturdy shouted.
“Yes, I suppose it’s best for you to see them both before we dispose of the bodies.” Umbilical said with a shake of her head.
“Bodies, what do you mean bodies? You said that my daughter was alive!” Sturdy shouted.
“Yes, but she is a freak. Her wings and horn are most likely vestigial and are almost certainly going to be useless. She won’t live long before she becomes a burden, and with winter quickly approaching the village can’t afford that. It is either a quick death now or a slow death of starvation later.” Umbilical said with a solemn shake of her head.
“No! If what you say is true then I’ve already lost my wife. You won’t take my daughter away from me to you old hag!” Sturdy shouted angrily. Umbilical weathered the assault without comment. She’d seen many grief maddened fathers in her days as a midwife. She also knew that although Sturdy might raise his voice against her he’d never dare to do worse than that, it just wasn’t in his nature.
“I must do my duty to the village. I will take no pleasure in this act if that is of any solace to you.” Umbilical told him with a sigh.
“You aren’t doing anything until I see my daughter with my own eyes!” Sturdy told Umbilical with a slight growl.
“I already said I would allow it.” Umbilical replied with a frown of annoyance on her face. She led Sturdy through the door and into the birthing room.
Sturdy wasn’t capable of making any observations about what the room looked like. He was too busy looking at the body of his wife. Her once blue fur and cloud white mane which had stolen his heart ever since he’d first seen her that day in the forest were stained with her own blood and covered in sweat. Her eyes had been closed by Umbilical, and her wings had been carefully folded beneath her body.
Sturdy’s vision was masked by tears of grief as he gazed at his wife’s broken form. She looked so small now that she was dead. Not at all like the smiling, energetic mare he’d fallen love with. Suckling energetically at one of her teats was a filly that was completely unfamiliar to Sturdy’s eyes.
A coat of snow white fur covered the filly, and two pristine looking wings grew out of her back while a short horn protruded from her forehead. Sturdy’s breath caught in his throat as he saw that the midwife had spoken true. However, the most striking thing about the filly was her size. She was bigger than most foals would be by the time that they were a year old.
A brilliant, bright pink mane could already be seen contrasting sharply with the whiteness of her coat. Suddenly, the filly turned away from the body of her mother to look at her father. Startlingly intelligent indigo eyes gazed into Sturdy’s. It was at that moment that the stallion knew that he couldn’t let Umbilical kill her. Something about the filly filled Sturdy with a kind of quiet fear, but he pushed that fear back and turned to confront Umbilical.
“You’re not killing her.” Sturdy told Umbilical calmly while his eye bubbled with promised rage.
“Look at the size of her fool; she’ll eat ten times what a filly her age normally would and you have no wife to feed her. How do you expect to keep her supplied with milk?” Umbilical asked.
“I’ll find a way or die trying!” Sturdy told her with the same look on his face that he’d worn when he’d prepared to face down the pack of timberwolves alone with the body of his superior officer lying on the ground behind him.
“Fine, but do not come to me begging for food.” Umbilical told him with a disparaging look. Then her face softened and she let out a weary sigh. “I’m sorry about Breeze Sturdy, she was a true delight.”
“Thank you.” Sturdy murmured as the anger drained away from him, leaving him feeling somewhat hollow. Then, he picked up the large filly in his hooves. She struggled gently against him in an attempt to get back to her mother’s teats, and their milk. “Now what should I name you little one?” He asked the filly.
“I would suggest something boring, she’ll need it if she wants to live a normal life. Well, as normal as could be expected at any rate...” Umbilical suggested.
“How do you feel about the name Celery, little one?” Sturdy asked the little filly after a few moments of thinking. “It’s a good farmers name, and most ponies like celery so it might win you a few friends.” Sturdy told the little filly, who chose that exact second to coo at him. “Celery it is then.” Sturdy said with a small smile at the adorable filly in his hooves.
“Where will you get the milk to feed her?” Umbilical asked skeptically.
“I’ll get it from the cows, of course.” Sturdy replied. There was a tiny herd of cows that had agreed to live alongside the ponies if they gave them protection from the wild beasts of the forest.
“You really think that they’ll share with you?” Umbilical asked while she whipped a silver strand of her mane out of her face.
“They won’t let her starve; it’s not their way to turn away a hungry mouth.” Sturdy told her the midwife, who shook her head and sighed.
“If you think so Sturdy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare the body for burial.” Umbilical told him before she pushed past him and began to wet a cloth with fresh water.
“I’d like to stay and help, but I have to see to about getting Celery home. You will find me when it’s time for the burial.” Sturdy told the midwife.
“Of course I’ll find you.” Umbilical said giving him a pointed look.
“See that you do.” Sturdy told as he set the filly down across his back before walking out of the room.
He left behind his wife’s body, along with a piece of his heart in that room with the old mare, and deep down he knew he’d never get it back. As he left the building, dark thoughts of grief danced through his head.
What would he tell the others in the village? Would they accept his daughter, or would they force them out into the cold winter forest? How would Celery survive if what Umbilical thought about her wings and horn were true? He’d learned a bit about the other two pony races during his time in the militia and he knew that a pegasus who couldn’t fly or a unicorn who couldn’t you cast spells became very weak and sickly rapidly due to some process that he couldn’t begin to understand. Was there a similar fate in store for Celery? Suddenly, baby Celery cooed again, breaking up his thoughts and turned his attention back to the filly on his back.
She really was adorable, something about her face just made Sturdy want to cuddle and protect her. Not only that, but she seemed to emit some form of inner warmth. That puzzled Sturdy. He’d traveled with unicorns who could cast heat spells during his time in the militia, but her heat didn’t feel like that. That kind of magical heat felt unnatural and slightly slippery as it wrapped you in its embrace. Instead, the heat that he felt flowing from his daughter felt like, well, the sun. It was natural and comforting.
“What are you little one?” Sturdy asked the foal on his back whose only response was to let out an adorable little yawn and curl herself into a ball on his back. “Well I guess whatever else you are you’re my daughter.” He told wryly her as small smile crossed his face for the first time since Umbilical had told him the tragic news. Sturdy sighed tiredly as a wave of weariness washed over him and he began to walk towards his house.
His brain began to rapidly assess the situation. This wasn’t how his life was supposed to go. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t know how he would manage to take care of the filly by himself. The plan had been for Cumulus to care for her during the day while Sturdy was out working in the fields. Their old military salaries were going to be used to insure that the foal would be properly fed and cared for. Sturdy hoped that the pegasi would still send him Breeze’s retirement bits, but he wasn’t sure whether or not they would now that she was dead. He doubted that his old salary alone would be enough for him to support the both of them without working the fields.
This line of thought led him to another. What if his daughter’s wings and horn actually worked? How would he be able to afford the expensive lessons that unicorns and pegasi required in order to effectively use their abilities? Sturdy had several pegasi friends who would probably help him in that regard, but as for unicorns… Unfortunately, there weren’t many, and those that did live in the small village would most likely charge exorbitant rates and fees for any service. The only one who he could think of who would help her was Umbilical, and she was constantly busy.
However, his most pressing concern wasn’t about money, it was about how the ponies of the village would react to Celery. Ponies were notoriously wary of anything different from them. Hell, it had taken almost starving to death in a frozen wasteland to make the three tribes put aside their differences and work together. Even now with the efforts that were being made by the likes of Clover the Clever, Private Pansy, and Smart Cookie along with their respective monarchs to encourage the three races to come together there was still some lingering resentment between the tribes. The resentment was especially noticeable among some of the upper-class unicorn nobles and the pegasi generals. How would the rest of the village react to a filly who looked like a hodgepodge of all three races?
Sturdy reached the center of the village, but his eyes didn’t really notice anything about it. The stalls full of merchants were still there selling their wares, the smell of baking goods coming from the nearby bakery filled his nose as he passed, and the fillies and foals still ran among the crowd of adults weaving in and out of legs. The only thing different was that none of the adults were talking. Instead, they were staring at the rather large filly curled up on Sturdy’s back.
After several minutes of making his way through the market without anypony talking to him, probably scared off by the grim expression on his face, one of his friends decided to approach him.
It was Red Glare, of course. The pegasus had served with Sturdy and Breeze during his time in the militia and knew the earth pony better than most of the other ponies living in the village knew each other. So as soon as he’d finished serving several customers at his blacksmith stall he winged over to where Sturdy was making his way home. The red coated stallion landed next to Sturdy and began to walk quietly beside him.
“She’s dead Red.” Sturdy said quietly, it came out as a low pained moan.
“I’m so sorry Sturdy, if there’s anything I can do…” Red replied before trailing off with a pained expression, he’d been close to Cumulus as well. He’d served under her in the militia, and respected her immensely as both an officer and a friend.
“Thanks Red, that means a lot.” Sturdy said with a sigh.
“I take it that the adorable ball of white feathers on your back would be the child?” Red asked with a glance towards Celery, who was still sleeping peacefully on his back.
“Yes, yes she is.” Sturdy answered with a backwards glance towards the filly.
“She’s pretty big, and she has a horn. That’s new for a pegasus.” Red continued; he’d always been a master of understatement.
“That’s one way to put it.” Sturdy said with a small smile.
“If you need any help you can rely on me.” Red said before giving Sturdy a nod and flying back to his stall.
No one else that Sturdy passed on his way back to his house stopped to talk, but he could feel their eyes boring into the back of his head, and especially into the place where the filly lay on his back. With a tired sigh he pushed open the door to his house, which now felt entirely to empty, and made his way to the nursery that he and Breeze had made. He looked at the painted sky blue walls, flecked with dabs of white that resembled clouds. The ceiling had been painted the same dark color as the night sky, and yellow stars dotted its surface. A crib sat in the center of the room, and as he slowly lowered Celery off of his back and into the crib he noticed that the crib was only just big enough for her. He’d have to make her a new one soon, especially if she kept on growing at the pace that a filly was supposed to.
Sturdy slid a small blanket over the filly, left the room, and headed towards his bedroom. He’d find her milk in the morning, for now his grief was too great for him to deal with anything but it. He fell into the bed that he’d recently shared with his wife, which now felt hollow and empty without her soft body lying next to him. He began to weep, slowly at first, and then rapidly as his grief poured out of him. Finally, after an hour, Sturdy could cry no more and he silently fell asleep.
Celery lay in the crib, her violet eyes closed in sleep. But behind those young eyes her mind was beginning to stir. It was still infantile at the moment, but it had time to grow, it had all the time in the world. The filly let out a slight cough before she turned to the side and pulled the tiny white blanket farther over herself.
Outside wind whistled, shadows danced, stars twinkled, and the moon smiled a half lipped smile down on the land of Equestria. Great and horrible things were on the horizons, and it was anyone’s guess which would happen first.
***
Celestia finished the beginning of her tale and let out a long sigh, a small stream of tears began flow down her regal white furred face. Twilight sat staring at Celestia in shock for a second before she got up from her couch and quickly walked over to Celestia’s, and threw her forelegs around the white alicorn’s side. Celestia’s wings pulled the purple unicorn closer and they shared a quiet moment as Celestia’s tears stained the fur of Twilight’s shoulder. Then, as quickly as they’d come, the tears stopped and Celestia released Twilight from her embrace.
“I’m sorry Twilight, I haven’t thought about my father in, well, centuries. I guess I still miss him.” Celestia said with a sigh.
“It’s alright Princess. How many times have you held me while I cried on your shoulder?” Twilight asked Celestia, who let out a bemused chuckle.
“I suppose that you have a point Twilight.” Celestia conceded.
“Princess, we can stop I you want to, I don’t want to make you sad.” Twilight told her.
“No Twilight, we’ve already started. No point in stopping now.” Celestia told her with a smile.
“If you’re sure Princess.” Twilight replied.
“I’m going to skip a few years to when I was filly, mostly because I doubt that you want to hear about all of my diapers.” Celestia told Twilight with chuckle. “Now where was I…”