Chapter 20
Darkness descended upon Canterlot as a heavy shroud. A thick bank of clouds obscured the moon and a cold wind whipped through the city streets. It was late by the time Twilight Sparkle arrived back at the castle. She shivered as the door, a towering, magically operated monstrosity of solid wood, creaked shut behind her. Relief washed over her in the relative warmth of the castle’s grand entrance hall.
Applejack had been waiting for her there, and she approached her friend from across the cavernous space. Her echoing footsteps alerted Twilight of her presence even before she stepped out of the shadows. “Got any good news, Twi?”
Twilight sighed as she approached her friend. “Took a while, but I managed to convince the judge to grant us a recess. We have four days to get this all sorted out.”
“Four days? That’s almost nothin’.” Twilight just shrugged as the two mares fell into step beside one another, striding down one of many corridors. “Ya sure it’ll be enough time?”
“Doesn’t matter. It was all I could get. We’ll have to make it work.”
“Ah don’t understand. Didn’t that judge see what happened? Rainbow deserves more time than that, just to recover.”
“That’s the problem. Technically, and thankfully, I guess, Rainbow’s cross-examination ended the moment she left the courtroom. She isn’t needed as a witness anymore, so she could sit out the whole rest of the trial if she wanted to.”
“So if she needs more time they expect her to just not show up?”
“Basically.” Twilight paused for a beat, keenly aware of her friend’s concerned gaze fixed steadfastly upon her. “The thing is, I’m not going to let that happen unless Rainbow wants it that way. She deserves to be there to see it when we finally put him away.” Twilight’s eyes met Applejack’s own. “And believe me, I’m going to put him away. You can count on it.”
“Ah never said Ah doubted ya.” The pair was silent for a while. Applejack took a deep breath and glanced at Twilight, now staring fixedly straight ahead. She bit her lip. “Twi, Ah understand if you’re feelin’ short with me. Ah shouldn’t o’ jumped like that. Ah probably made things a right mess for you.”
Twilight stopped and sighed, succumbing to the urge to wipe her face with a forehoof. “I’m sorry, AJ, I’m just… frustrated. Not with you, just with, well, everything. Nothing’s going right and I feel like I can’t control any of it.”
“If it means anythin’ to ya, Ah’m sorry for reactin’ like that.”
“Well, it sure didn’t do me any favors, that’s for sure. But thanks.”
“You’re still mad at me.”
“I’m not mad, AJ.”
“Yes ya are, Ah can tell.” Applejack stared at Twilight, who deigned to return the look. “Ya don’t really want me around right now.”
Twilight sighed. It wasn’t a question. “You can’t just jump an attorney like that, no matter what he did. It just makes our side look bad.”
“What that suit did today was awful, Twilight. Awful and mean and Ah won’t stand for it. Ya can’t expect me to.”
“Expect you to…? What? You think I wasn’t angry and upset too? I don’t expect you to stand for it, AJ; the world expects us to. There are certain rules we have to follow if we don’t want to lose. And today we lost, alright? We lost.”
“Ah think Ah know what the problem here is.”
“What?”
“You don’t really understand. Ah’m sorry, but ya don’t. You think you can understand what Dash is goin’ through because she told ya her secret a few weeks ago, but ya don’t. Ah’ve known for years, Twi. Ah was the first one she told after her parents rejected her. When she didn’t know who to turn to, she came to me. Ah’ve been helpin’ keep her secret under wraps this whole time, and sometimes it ain’t easy. And now all that work is just gone. He ripped it out of her, Twi. He made her say it, and Ah won’t just let it slide.”
Twilight took a deep breath, and resisted to urge to pound her hoof into the cobble floor, regardless of what good she thought it might bring her. “AJ, our composure is the most important thing we have. We need it to show that we’re better than he is. I know you were just trying to help, but what you did today did more harm than good. We need to keep our heads.”
“It ain’t so easy.”
Twilight nodded, and fell silent for a moment. “So how is she?”
“So now you care ‘bout how Rainbow’s actually feelin’, and not just about how ponies see us.”
“Come on, AJ. That’s not fair.”
Applejack sighed. “She’s not doin’ so good. Threw up a few more times since we got her here. I’ve got her lyin’ up in her bed for now.”
“Do you think it’s just nerves, or should we be worried?”
“Ah don’t know ‘bout ‘should be’, but Ah’ve been worried already. Ah have for hours.”
“Alright, I get it. I still need some time to think about all this.”
“Sure.”
Twilight paused for a beat while Applejack stared at her. “I should thank you for getting Rainbow here safely while I dealt with the court. So… thanks.”
“Yeah yeah. What’s the mood like back there?”
“Not good.” The unicorn shook her head. “It’s never good when a witness just up and leaves, even under duress. And with the disturbance it caused? I guess the only good thing is she doesn’t have to take the stand again.”
“Did that lawyer have anything to say for himself?”
“Actually, he said he wasn’t expecting that to happen, and he apologized.”
“And you believed him?”
“Well…”
“Twilight, tell me ya didn’t believe that dirty liar.”
“Well it’s not like he could have known about it beforehand. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge.”
“Well it sure is now.”
“He seemed sincere enough.”
“Ah don’t trust him. Not as far as Ah can throw him.”
Twilight sighed. “I know you don’t.”
“Alright,” Applejack looked down at her hooves for the briefest of moments. “Ah’ll get out of yer mane, then.”
“AJ, there’s one more thing.” Twlight called just as her friend began to walk away. “After today, the trial… well, you can’t come back.”
Applejack blinked, confusion and disbelief evident in her eyes. “What?”
“Judge’s orders. Because of the disturbance today, he said you’re not allowed back in the courtroom from here out. I’m really sorry.”
Twilight winced as she watched the confusion slip into hurt. “And you just let this happen?”
“I had no choice. It was either this or you’d be held in contempt of court.”
“I woulda taken mah chances to be there for Dash.”
“I know you would. And I’m sorry, but—”
“But what?”
“But it’s too late in the game to take risks like that. You know this.”
“All I see is mah friend throwin’ me under the cart just ta keep up appearances.”
“Come on, Applejack. You know it’s not like that.”
“Save it. Ah can tell when Ah’m not wanted.” The country mare snorted and turned tail, her hoofsteps echoing resolutely through the chamber.
“AJ, wait!” Twilight gave chase. “I still need you help.”
She stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “With what? Sittin’ ‘round here doin’ nothin’ while y’all go back to the fight without me?”
“I’m not taking any chances with Rainbow Dash’s health. Take her, take Rarity and Fluttershy if you need to, and get her back to the hospital in Ponyville. Tonight. I need to stay here and think of a plan. Please, can you do that for me?”
Applejack sighed and started walking away once more. “Fine.”
“And make sure you aren’t seen.”
“Ah take good care o’ mah friends, Twilight. It’s all Ah know how.”
“I don’t doubt you, AJ.”
“Right.”
================================================================
Once retired to the chamber reserved for her high up in the castle, Twilight paid little heed to the lavish decorations that surrounded her. Instead, she took to pacing the room in candlelit darkness, trying to ease her frustrations out through her movements, but received nothing but a dull ache in her hooves for the effort. She hardly took notice, however, so lost was she in poring over the day’s events, turning over every decisive moment and worrisome development and trying to see the best way forward.
Again and again she found herself running up against a blank wall. Still, she pressed on, weighing every option she came upon and discarding one plan after another as infeasible or too risky. Her brow furrowed and her eyes closed. The bed across the room called to her, but she ignored it, knowing that she probably couldn’t even sleep if she tried. She was just beginning to worry about wearing a groove in the smooth marble floors when she heard the door open.
“Oh. I apologize, Twilight. I do hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Twilight Sparkle shook herself and turned to face her visitor. “You’re fine, Rarity. I wasn’t getting anywhere anyway.”
“Staying up at late hours pacing the floor, are we? Don’t look now, Twilight Sparkle, but you may become a professional lawyer yet.”
Twilight snorted and shook her head. There was nothing she could do but laugh. “At this point I seriously hope not.” The smile on her face was as fleeting as it was genuine. “Wait. Weren’t you going back to Ponyville with the others?”
“I was planning on it, but I figured Applejack and Fluttershy would be more than enough company for dear Rainbow Dash. No sense leaving you alone here all night, darling.”
“I appreciate that, but I’m fine. Really.”
“That, and Applejack told me about your… let’s say ‘disagreement’, earlier. Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to talk to anyone?”
Twilight sighed. “I’m sure all our nerves are frayed by now, especially after what happened today. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“That may be so, but we can’t afford arguments amongst ourselves right now. We need to be a unified front, remember?”
“I know, Rarity. I’ve just been feeling a lot of stress lately. That’s all.”
“Darling, do you remember when I warned you about overworking yourself?” Rarity paused while her friend nodded. “Well, I shall extend my counsel once more. Do try not to put too much pressure on yourself. The rest of us are still here to help you. You know that.”
“You’re right, and I do know that.”
“Now, I’m here to help.” Rarity strode further into the room and took a seat on a long, plush couch. Twilight remained standing. “What is worrying you the most?”
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m not the right one to think about this, but what happens now? What’s going to happen now that Rainbow’s secret is out?”
“Well, I’m not sure how much consolation it will be to her, but I believe we may be overestimating the impact of our friend coming out of the closet, as it were.”
“What do you mean?”
“While I don’t pretend to understand the motivation Rainbow Dash’s parents had to drive their own daughter into fear and distrust, I am confident that our society will be far more accepting, or maybe I should say apathetic, towards her sexuality than they were.”
“You’re saying we shouldn’t worry, then?”
“Largely, yes. There may be a few ponies out there who still react aversely to anything perceived as different, but on the whole, I doubt this revelation will be much of an issue.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’m a fashionista, darling. In my business, there are more than a few designers and high-profile figures who are, how shall I say, more than open and vocal about their own orientations. From what I’ve heard, they’ve seen little to no ill-effects from the press or the public.”
“So I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and read a big ‘Element of Harmony and Plaintiff Rainbow Dash Shocks World with Gay Admission’ on the newspaper front page?”
“Knowing the media in this town, I think we’re more likely to see something about her lying about her sexuality as a last, desperate attempt to win the case.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I fully expect some ponies to jump to that precise conclusion. Especially given today’s theatrics.”
“But it’s completely untrue!”
“That’s never stopped the press before.”
“I thought this conversation was supposed to make me feel better.” Twilight deadpanned.
“Well, perhaps not.” Rarity stood. “Now, I’m going to give you the best advice I can, Twilight Sparkle.” She gave her friend a smile. “Get some sleep! You’re doing no one any good depriving yourself of rest, and there are no problems that can’t be solved in the morning.” The alabaster mare strode towards the door.
Twilight glanced over at the bed, then back at her friend as she left. “I suppose you’re right. Thanks, Rares.”
“Anytime, darling!” The other unicorn called, already halfway back out in the hall.
================================================================
Of course, heeding her friend’s advice and actually carrying it out presented entirely separate challenges. Admitting that she might need some sleep and climbing into the large, richly-adorned bed had proven to be the easier of the two. As she lay there in the dark, blankets and pillows arranged haphazardly about her body while she stared upwards, Twilight Sparkle knew that getting the rest she had promised would be the more difficult.
She rolled over onto her stomach, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. For a long moment, she tried to will herself into blissful slumber, but to no avail. The warm air of her breath built up in the pillow and began to face her face feel hot and sticky. Her nose twitched. She had just resigned herself to flipping over with an exaggerated sigh and perusing the ceiling for any tiny cracks in the plaster for the fifteenth time when she stopped, stunned. She heard a noise.
She blinked. At least, she’d thought she’d heard a noise. And she just about managed to convince herself that it was nothing, or probably just the wind, when she heard it again, clearly; the distinct sound of a hoof on the stone floor.
This time she opened her eyes fully. A shaft of moonlight from the large pair of balcony doors cut through the darkness, yet she could not immediately see anyone else. A flutter of movement caught her eye, and she saw the curtains before the door sway back and forth. One of the doors had been opened to the night air, and Twilight noticed for the first time that she was very cold. She coughed. “Hello? What’s going on?” She sat up a little higher in her bed and tried to get a better view of the dark, cavernous room. She frowned, berating herself for the shiver she felt coming on. “Who’s in here and why? Show yourself!” She called.
In the next instant, an unexpected yet blessedly familiar face popped into the light cast by the window. “Relax, silly. It’s just me.”
Twilight was suddenly torn between sighing in relief and crying out in exasperation. “Pinkie! What are you doing here?”
“That’s no way to greet your super-sleuth extraordinaire!” Her heretofore-missing friend sprang into a mock salute. “Detective Pie reporting back from her mission to Cloudsdale, Ma’am!”
Twilight blinked. “What? I… Pinkie? How did you even get up to… oh, it doesn’t matter. What happened to you?”
“I just told you. I went to Cloudsdale looking for evidence.”
The unicorn resisted a sudden urge to slap her own face. “Right. Pinkie, I tried to tell you before we left, but we can’t use any new…” Twilight trailed off, just about ready to launch into a probably too-detailed explanation of the evidence discovery process and how it being over meant the court could no longer accept new information, when she saw the wide smile spread on Pinkie Pie’s face. For a moment, she found herself staring at her friend. She couldn’t remember seeing such a smile there at any point since the night that had thrown all of their lives into disarray. Indeed, her most vivid memory of Pinkie Pie from the past six weeks had been when she left, dour, frowning, and calling herself useless. Now she was smiling, and Twilight dropped her planned rebuttal. “Alright, Pinkie. What did you find?”
“It wasn’t easy, but I was talking to some of the nicest hotel cleaner ponies, and they said that—”
“Wait wait wait.” Twilight threw up her fore hooves, bringing her friend to a sudden stop in her tale. “You were talking to the cleaning staff? How is that possible? The police sent officers there to interview them and couldn’t get anything.”
“Well, duh! The police ponies were all like ‘We have authority’ and ‘We need you to answer a few questions.’ That’s not how you get ponies to talk to you!”
The unicorn frowned. “Ok, then how did you earn their trust?”
“Easy. By just being their friend.”
A pause fell between the pair, as Twilight tried to decide whether the information she was processing should be classified as absurd or obvious, before she simply gave up. “So what did they tell you?”
“Well, after I made friends with some of them, I asked if they knew any of the Wonderbolts, and they didn’t want to talk about them at first, but I kept asking and kept asking and then they finally told me all about how the Wonderbolts came and stayed there, and how they each had a room but barely used them ‘cause they stayed up so late drinking, and…”
“Pinkie, we already know all of that. Did they tell you anything new?”
“Soarin’ used a room at the end of the hall, right near the staircase.”
Twilight froze in place for the briefest of moments. “They know that for sure?”
“Yessiree!”
“Did you hear anything about what state that room was in that morning?”
“Well, no. They didn’t really want to talk about that.” Twilight sighed and fell back upon her bed, but the smile refused to leave Pinkie Pie’s face. “They did know who used the room next door, though.”
“It probably doesn’t matter.” Twilight groaned, “The other Wonderbolts testified in favor of Soarin’ already. And if they stayed at the bar later than him, they wouldn’t have known what happened in his room.”
“Even if she left early with a headache?”
“Spitfire?”
“Exactamundo.”
“But if she were next door, then she wouldn’t have… wait…” Understanding suddenly flashed in Twilight Sparkle’s eyes. “Oh Pinkie Pie! You’re a genius!”
The other mare giggled. “I know.”
“And she hasn’t testified yet! There has to be a reason for that! There just has to. Do you know what this means?”
“She knows something. I feel it, Twilight.”
“I think so too.” Sleep was now the furthest thing from Twilight Sparkle’s mind. Her eyes shone in the light of the moon as her thoughts ran fast and plenty. “This could be the break I was looking for. Ok, ok. I need to think. I need a plan.” Pinkie sat attentively watching her friend, her own eyes reflecting the same excitement and dancing with the same fire. “Ok, here’s what we’ll do. You, Rarity, and I will all go to the hospital first thing in the morning. We’ll meet the other girls there. I’ll have a plan ready by then. Oh, and Pinkie?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. You’ve ben really helpful. Really.”
================================================================
For Doctor Stable, the next morning began much like any other. Still fresh off his return from Canterlot, he had wrestled with the idea of stealing a few extra hours’ sleep and showing up to the hospital late. After all, the middle of the week was frequently much less than busy. His sense of professionalism won out in the end, however, and he found himself strolling through the lobby doors on time just a few hours after sunrise, as usual, sipping from a cup of his usual coffee as it levitated before him. He nodded to the nurse on duty at the desk as he strode past, and headed directly toward his office as he did nearly every day.
So immediate and instinctive was his morning routine that he had already opened the door, placed his coffee on his desk, and walked halfway across the room before he even realized there was another pony in his office.
Nurse Redheart stood near a bookcase on the sidewall, grabbing the doctor’s attention with a slight cough. Doctor Stable took her presence in stride, nodding to her before finally reaching his desk. He set his metronome to a relaxing pace.
“Doctor, I’m glad you’re here.”
“You haven’t been waiting for too long, I hope?”
“We have a situation.”
Doctor Stable nodded. “Alright, what is it?”
“It’s Rainbow Dash. She checked back in very early this morning.”
“Really?” The stallion gave pause, turning towards a cabinet and paging through a series of folders before withdrawing Rainbow Dash’s patient records. “I was at the trial with her just yesterday.”
“Well, she’s here now. She arrived via carriage only a couple hours past midnight.”
The doctor found himself only half listening as he perused the pages of the rainbow mare’s file. Nurse reports and blood sample tests were stapled to hastily scrawled notes of his own origin. “Please continue, Redheart. Do we have any new concerns?”
“Sir, we ran a few tests, and, well…” She hesitated, biting her lip for a moment. Her superior still didn’t look up from his paperwork, though his cocked ears told her he was still listening. “There’s really no good way to say this, so I’ll just say it. She’s pregnant.”
The room seemed very suddenly to fill with only a rhythmic ticking. Doctor Stable’s gaze jerked up from the book and fixed unwavering upon Redheart. “Impossible. I checked that blood work a dozen times. There’s no way she could have been…”
A pulsing, pervasive, overpowering tick tick tick. He flipped through pages of patient records at a furious pace, finally settling on a copy of Rainbow Dash’s blood samples—the same ones that had shown no presence of illicit drugs in her system. He scanned the page, the worry in his eyes readily apparent as they began to widen. “No. It shouldn’t be possible.”
Ticking like the beat of a drum or a heart.
In an abrupt jolt of fluid motion, the doctor swept a foreleg across the desktop. His hoof collided forcefully with the metronome, propelling it sideways into the air. Its momentum carried it to the wall and, with a crash, the dark mahogany box struck once and fell to the floor. Some of the wood splintered, the ticking mechanism snapped and fell away as the front face cracked down the middle. One of the time-keeping springs shot out from its case and the fractured remnants of the musical implement settled in a tiny heap. For a few precious moments, absolute silence reigned.
Doctor Stable’s voice weighed heavy to match his years when he finally spoke. “The answer was right in front of me the whole time. Unseasonably elevated hormone levels. Estrogen looks to be through the roof. I must’ve been too focused on finding evidence of drugs to notice it.”
“These were pressing circumstances. You can’t be expected to pick up on everything.” Nurse Redheart tried her best to sound convincing.
He shook his head. “There’s no excuse. It was right in front of my face. We could’ve easily seen this coming. I’ve been doing this far too long to miss seeing when a mare is receptive. There’s no excuse.”
“Doctor?”
“I had that feeling. I just had the feeling that I missed something. Now I know I did.”
“Doctor!” She managed to find a stable ground for her voice. He fell silent. “We cannot fix the past. We have to focus on what actions we are to take now.”
With a heavy sigh, he nodded. “You’re right, of course. Have Miss Dash or her friends been apprised yet?”
“No. I assumed you would want to know before we determined a course of action.”
“Right. Well, in that case, I’ll be the one to break it to her.” He shook himself. “This is not something we can afford to take lightly. I can’t be sure of her reaction, though in light of the circumstances, this development could very well be devastating. Celestia knows she’s suffered far too much already.”
================================================================
The news swept through the hushed private room with the unremitting weight of a steadily rising tide. Gathered around a hospital bed, the group of six—only recently brought together again with the arrival of the haggard trio of Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity—found the relative peace of their reunion wiped away by the doctor’s sobering revelation. For one dangling moment, each of Rainbow Dash’s friends felt their eyes grow wide and whatever questions they held perched on their lips wither and fall away. Then he finished speaking. Shock filled the room with the kind of thick, palpable silence that stifled all thoughts of conversation.
A space of time occupying only seconds but seeming to stretch for far longer passed before the tension finally broke. Speaking barely above a whisper, Fluttershy, her head pivoting back and forth in mandatory disbelief, did the honors. “How… how could this happen?”
Doctor Stable sighed. “Admittedly, this is a situation we should have prepared for, but I didn’t anticipate needing to. That’s my fault.”
“An’ just how in Equestria do ya not anticipate this?” Applejack, her eyes lit like two firecrackers, sent a piercing glare his way. “Ah mean, bein’ pregnant? It don’t take much fancy medical trainin’ to know how that happens!”
“There were signs that could have pointed to pregnancy being a likely possibility, but I missed them. I can’t explain it any better than that. Whatever indicators there may have been, I overlooked them.”
“So that’s just it, then?” Applejack half-shouted, “Now we got just one more thing we have to deal with? As if we hadn’t heard enough bad news already?”
“Wh—what are we going to do?” Fluttershy murmured.
“I think the proper question is, what can we do? Honestly?” Rarity shook her head and bit her lip.
“I’ll tell ya what we do. Ah’m gonna run this Soarin’ into the ground next time Ah see ‘im.”
“Come now, Applejack. Be reasonable. We must keep our heads.” Rarity cautioned, though the farm mare was having none of it.
“Reasonable? Ah’m done bein’ reasonable. Look where bein’ reasonable has got us! Nothin’ but misery and a trial we’re about to lose. A trial Ah can’t even be at anymore, might Ah add.” She shot a look at Twilight. “And now Rainbow’s got a foal outta this mess, and for what? For what?”
Rarity was just about to fire back another retort when Twilight Sparkle spoke up, her horn lighting in a brief flash that brought silence to the room once more. “That’s enough, everypony!” She looked from one to another in quick succession, her gaze firm but close to wavering. “N-now, I think we’re all forgetting somepony very important in all this. Rainbow?” She softened her tone, “Are you feeling alright?”
The pegasus gave no answer.
“Please, Rainbow? Is there anything you’d like for us to do? I know this must come as a shock…”
“I already knew.” She whispered.
“Come again?”
“I already knew!” Now, it was Twilight’s turn to fall silent. The gazes of all present turned to Rainbow Dash. She had sat up straight in the bed, the look in her eyes at once both defiant and uncertain. She sighed. “At least, I think I did. I don’t know. It all started the night before the trial.” She paused, but the quiet, intent gazes of her friends, Doctor Stable, and Nurse Redheart bade her continue. “I ran away from the castle that night because I was afraid. I didn’t know what else to do. I just… I wanted to forget everything, so I went and got drunk.
“I’m not… I’m not proud of that, but it happened. Next morning, it was just… bad. I must’ve thrown up maybe three times. I don’t know. At the time I thought it was just the alcohol, but then it just kept happening. The next morning, and the morning after that, almost every day.” She paused only to reach behind her head and scratch at her neck, her eyes tracking towards the floor. “After the first week I just assumed the obvious.” She looked up. “I figured I could wait to get it checked out until after the trial. Focus on one thing at a time, you know? But I guess now we know for sure.”
Twilight Sparkle blinked and shook her head, disbelief written into her features. “And you didn’t think to tell anyone?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I figured I’d say something eventually.”
“I don’t believe this.” The unicorn began pacing, the remaining ponies simply watching. “You assumed you were pregnant, and you were just OK with that?”
“I was only… ugh.” She looked up the ceiling for a moment, collecting her thoughts. “It’s like I had this box for everything that I didn’t need to worry about right away, and I figured it would come up again some other time. So I just put it in the box. I knew I’d have to deal with it later, just not right then. I guess I was right.”
“But you’re pregnant!” For the first time, Rainbow Dash noticed the blood vessels visible in Twilight sparkle’s eyes and the bags below. “That’s like, a really, really big thing!”
“Sugarcube, ya can’t just keep somethin’ like that a secret. You shoulda told one o’ us. We coulda helped you. We could at least have gotten it checked out.” Applejack tentatively approached the bed.
“You know something? This is kinda why I didn’t really want to tell you guys in the first place.”
Rarity blinked. “Darling, whatever do you mean?”
“I mean this. All of this. What you’re doing right now. You’ve been babying me ever since this whole damn mess started. All of you.” Rainbow took a deep breath, allowing her voice to mellow out. “I get it. You guys are scared. I’m really scared too. But it feels like… like you’ve been treating me like I can’t do anything for myself anymore. Like I need an escort or whatever to go anywhere or do anything. Sure it’s been helpful, but sometimes… sometimes it just hurts.”
“Sugarcube.” Applejack spoke coolly, the flash of anger she’d felt earlier gone. “Ya darn near drank yourself into a stupor last time ya got away from us.”
“That was different. I was scared and I wasn’t thinking.”
“So ya still need our help.”
“Of course I do. What I didn’t need was you smothering me. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I only wanted to feel in control for once. So when I realized I was pregnant, I knew it wasn’t a good thing, but it was mine to deal with. It was something I could control.”
“And you thought just keeping that to yourself would do what, exactly?”
“Don’t you get it, Rarity? I was hurt. I’m not delicate. I can still think for myself. I can still do things.”
“But, all the same Darling—”
“Hey, I needed some time to deal with this on my own first, alright?”
“Enough!” Once again, the back-and-forth discourse fell to Twilight Sparkle’s sharp interjection. “We’re not going to argue over this, OK?” She received a few silent, shaky nods in response. “Good. Now, Rainbow, I’m…” Her voice cracked as a tear tried to escape her eye. “I’m so sorry we made you feel that way. If there’s a way we can make it up to you, I’d like to discuss it soon.” She took a breath, halting as it was, and managed to steel herself. “But first, we have a situation right now, and it needs to be dealt with. Does everypony agree?” More nods.
“Alright.” She nodded quickly, briskly, a little bit of the passion returning to her voice. “First things first, this information doesn’t leave this room. No one, and I mean no one, is going to find out about this. Not the defense, not the police, not even Celestia for now. The last thing I need is that lawyer somehow finding out you’re pregnant, Rainbow, and jumping forward to say ‘she was in heat; she was asking for it’,” her voice took on a desperate, mocking tone, “Or, ‘her body begged for it, and that somehow absolves my client of all blame’. Therefore, none of us is going to talk about any pregnancy with anypony who isn’t in this room. Do we all understand?” Again, more nodding, and Twilight exhaled, appearing to deflate a little as she did. “Good. Then that’s settled.”
Silence once again took up the reigns for the next few moments, as each of the eight secret-keepers was left to their own thoughts. They could feel a buildup of barely constrained anxiety settling around them, as if part of the air itself. Finally, Pinkie Pie chose a moment to make her own voice heard. “Does this mean you’re going to have a foal, Dashie?”
Rainbow Dash blinked. “I… I don’t really know what’s gonna happen, Pinks. I always figured I’d worry about that later.”
“Maybe now is ‘later’, Sugarcube.”
Rarity fidgeted a bit where she stood. “For what it’s worth, Rainbow. The modern mare, I’m sure you know, does have… options, for dealing with situations such as this.”
Deep breath. “You’re talking about just… not having the foal, right?”
Twilight Sparkle cocked an eyebrow. “Rarity, I’m not sure it’s the right time to make such a big decision.”
“I’m not saying anypony has to make any decision right away. But this is going to come up sooner or later, so we might as well discuss it now.”
“Ok.” Rainbow Dash nodded slightly. “Let’s say I might be interested. What would I even do?”
“If I may interject here,” Doctor Stable finally weighed in, picking his words carefully, “ This hospital does provide pregnancy termination services. It’s a very simple chemical procedure, one that can be done through an IV tube. Nurse Redheart or I could oversee to ensure secrecy.”
“So you’re saying if I don’t want to have the foal, I don’t have to.”
“Correct.”
“But if I don’t want this procedure, I don’t have to do it.”
“I’m saying nopony is going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Ok. Ok, wow.” The pegasus could quite suddenly and quite clearly feel beads of sweat begin to form beneath her forelock. “I think… I think I need some more time to think about this.” She glanced around the room, her gaze falling from plain whitewashed walls to sleek metal sink to the unused IV stand tucked away in a corner. “Some time away from here.”
The doctor nodded. “Perfectly understandable. Take all the time you need.”
With that, Rainbow Dash seemed to sense that the exchange was finished. She slid from the bed, and immediately found herself flanked by her friends. Together, they made to leave the hospital.
Twilight Sparkle hung near the back of the group. As they passed from the lobby into the bright Equestrian morning, an idea struck her. “Hey, Fluttershy. Can I have a word? I need to ask you a favor.”