//------------------------------// // 2. —But I Can't Trace Time // Story: Dash of Humanity 3: Consequences // by Kaidan //------------------------------// Earlier that week I had woken up on a thick wooden table. My forelegs were over-extended by ropes and I thought they might pop out of my shoulders. Both hindlegs were strapped so tight to the legs of the table I couldn’t feel my hooves. The edge of the table dug into my stomach and pressed against my hips. The last thing I tried to move was my wings, which had been compressed with ropes and tied down to my chest. As I tried to call out for mercy, a muffled whimper came out. Once again I’d been gagged, but this time with a much thicker plastic bit that made me unable to utter a single word. “I’m glad you’re awake, Dawn. I’m afraid our time is up and since you won’t come clean, I’m going to have to dispose of you.” Hearing those words and realizing my demise was imminent, I began to thrash against the ropes, straining several muscles and getting deep rope burns in the process. “Relax, relax… killing you, while fun, isn’t what I have in mind. No, I need to make sure you’re never found.” Soarin walked around in front of the table and stared at me with a smirk on his face. I wanted to kill him at this point. It’d gone past hatred and anger, past anything Discord had done. This stallion was the definition of a sociopath. “You see, Dawn, I drugged that soup with a very special cocktail. After our last session today, you’ll be drugged again and wake up at a mental hospital.” The gag prevented me from insulting him, or even spitting in his self-righteous face. If I could have, I’d have complained about his cliche villain speech. I didn’t give a shit what he was going to do, at this point I just wanted it to be over with. Death, torture, banishment—if he had some worse fate up his sleeve he needed to spit it out already. Soarin continued. “A well placed bribe and you’re now Swift Breeze, a pathological liar and patient of Broadhoof Asylum. You’ll be taken care of, in a manner of speaking. Padded rooms, straight jackets, the whole works… after all, when I’m done mutilating your cutie marks they won’t let you within ten feet of a pointy object.” He chuckled and walked back around me. “Tell me, Dawn, do you notice anything different? I have one last gift to give you to make sure you never forget me.” I tried to look back at him to see what he meant, when I felt him roughly grope my backside. My eyes went wide in panic as I looked at my forelegs. Instead of blue fur, it was pink. “Oh yes, Dawn. I know all about you and poison joke. Zecora probably didn’t even notice the break in… a little bit of that, a little fertility potion, and a stabilizer to prevent it being reversed… after all, who knows what orderly you might beg and plead to for an abortion? I wouldn’t put it past an animal like you. But I want you to have the full eleven months, pregnant, in a padded room to remember what you took from me: you took me and Dash’s foal away. And now, as a mental patient, your foal will be taken away.” I struggled and began to scream as he climbed onto the table. When I awoke next, I felt a little loopy. Whatever medicine they had used to end my panic attack was still in my system. Nurse Redheart was even here, checking in on me. I remembered now what had happened in crystal clear detail. I looked to her, already feeling tears welling up. “I don’t want to remember, please, help me.” Her lips slowly curled into a frown and Redheart gently stroked my head. “Shh, darling, it’s okay. You’ll be okay. Do you want something to help you sleep?” “Yes, please, I don’t want to remember anymore!” I clutched the foreleg she had been using to stroke my mane until she pulled back. Redheart got out a sleep aid and pushed it into the IV, giving me a brief respite from the horrifying images. I had not believed my ears when Soarin screamed in pain. The sound of him tumbling on the floor with a broken shoulder was more beautiful than any concert symphony I’d ever heard in my life; the sight of Dash tackling him more treasured than Picasso or Rembrandt. Soarin was whimpering like a foal with a scraped knee, begging for mercy in the corner. He had appeared too weak to get up. Dash rushed over to me as my hind legs ached in immense pain. She tried to wipe the tears from my face but they had already dried, clumping up the wet fur and staining my cheeks. “Dawn, what did he do to you?” Dash shot Soarin a spiteful glance to make sure he hadn’t tried to go anywhere. “Dash! You have to help me!” I pleaded. “It’s okay, I’m here and the rest of our friends are right behind me!” Dash walked around to my backside to begin untying me and I heard her wail in disbelief. She had a first hand view to what Soarin had done to my now female body, and for a moment I thought she might have died in shock. “Dawn… that son of a bitch raped you!” Dash began to stomp back over towards Soarin. “Dash…” I saw her spin to face me, already a plan forming in my head. “Please, I can’t have his baby, I won’t!” “I don’t know how to fix this!” Dash responded. She came back over to try and comfort me. “What am I supposed to do? This is more of a Twilight problem!” I had a plan forming in my head, it was a Hail Mary play but it was all I had. There was the sound of a door closing and I looked around for Soarin. I didn’t see him, and I needed to explain my plan to Dash. “I have a—” Another door was thrown open and Fluttershy ran into the room, panting. “Dash…” “What?” She spun to face Fluttershy, adrenaline still pounding through her veins. “It’s Soarin, we saw him sneak out a side exit and fly off! The girls are chasing after him but they need you.” Dash growled and spun around, vanishing out of the building in mere seconds. “Dash! no!” I turned to Fluttershy, knowing she was my only remaining hope. “I have to ask you a big favor, Fluttershy, and you have to trust me on this! Fluttershy walked over, looking at how I was tied and what had been done to me. “Oh, my… I… what?” “He gave me a fertility potion, but there’s still some potion on the floor over there, near the workbench. It’s a… purple potion, glass bottle. I think that’ll change you into a stallion! Please, Fluttershy, I need you to use it and mount m—” “What?!” It clicked in her mind what I was asking her and her pupils went wide in shock. “But I don’t like stallions, I… I can’t.” “Please! You have to try, trust me! It’s the only chance I have at not having Soarin’s bastard!” It was finally time for me to be discharged from the hospital. Dash and Fluttershy were both by my side, as well as Doctor Stable who was filling out my discharge paperwork. It was good to see them again and to be able to sit up without any help. Just having another pony here that wasn’t hospital staff made the room so much more lively. “Dash, can you step outside?” Stable asked. “There’s one last thing to cover.” “Of course, Doctor. I’ll be right outside, Dawn.” Dash left the room, glancing back once to smile at me. “Now, we’ve never had a case like this before so I’m not sure what you two did will work,” Stable stated. “Not work?” Fluttershy asked. “But Dawn talked me into it, I only did it because I cared about her so much.” “Look, biologically Dawn’s reasoning was sound,” Stable replied. “Stallion anatomy was designed so that when a mare had multiple mates, each following stallion would scoop out their rival’s sperm. This gave the last one to mate the highest chance of producing offspring.” Stable handed Fluttershy a piece of paper to sign. “We’ll run a DNA test, but I don’t want you getting your hopes up. Zebra potions aren’t studied in Equestrian Medicine. I don’t know why Twilight could change your gender back but not Dawn. It probably has to do with Dawn being pregnant. None of it makes sense, and until I meet with Zecora personally, there’s not much more we can do for Dawn here.” Fluttershy looked up from the paper and folded it under one of her wings to carry it. “This is the discharge slip, we’re free to go?” I pushed the blankets off, relieved that I was finally getting out of here. My pink fur was still a bit of a shock, having only recently pieced together that I was female, and that I would be for quite some time. “Yeah, let’s get out of here. The food sucks.” Stable laughed and pulled back the curtain for us. “Take care, Dawn. We’ll see you in a couple months for a follow up.” He turned to the door and raised his voice. “You can come back in now, Dash.” I got out of bed and felt a little soreness, but it was more like the day after exercise than a near-death experience. Most of all I just wanted to be anywhere but here. I’d had nothing but bed rest and nightmares since getting here, and having healed I hoped never to see a hospital again. I had only found out from a Nurse after the fact that I’d been missing a week and spent another ten days recovering in the hospital. “Come on.” Dash nodded and I walked over to her. She draped her wing over my back, and I brought my wing under hers and over her back. It was the pegasi equivalent of a hug or holding hooves, and we walked out of the room like that. “Fluttershy, the doc ask about you and Dawn?” Dash asked. “Yeah,” she answered. “We’ll have to wait for a DNA test.” We followed Fluttershy out of the room and let her lead us towards the exit. The long hallways would have easily gotten me lost but luckily Fluttershy knew where she was going. In fact, they’d all visited so often they probably knew the place better than some of the staff did. She led us out of the hospital and once we were outside, she turned to face me and Dash. “You’re staying at my house again tonight, Dawn,” Fluttershy stated matter of factly. I knew better than to tell her or Dash I wanted to be alone. They both cared for me a great deal and would both likely want to be by my side for quite a while—even if I just wanted to curl up someplace dark and pretend the last few weeks were a bad dream.  “Alright. You got plans for dinner? It feels like I’ve been on an awful diet.” “Applejack’s dropping off supper, she said that Granny really whipped up something special for you.” “I’m so sorry, Dawn,” Dash said. She hadn’t spoke since we left my hospital room. “If I could have just gotten there sooner, if I hadn’t been off trying to divert some stupid crisis—” “Hey,” I interrupted.  “At least you got there when you did, or who knows where I’d be right now.” I knew Dash well enough to know it was eating her up inside. She was the fastest pony in Equestria, yet when it had mattered most she felt she had not been fast enough. Dash and I began to walk towards Fluttershy’s cottage. “When did you become the rational one?” Dash asked. “Don’t you want to bash his head in?” I smirked and recalled a few choice things I’d thought of doing to Soarin. Most of them involved garden shears or a stove top. “Sure, but he just got caught raping a mare and assaulting you. Don’t you think Celestia and Luna owe both of us enough to see to it he never sees the light of day? He’ll get punished and everypony will know what he did at the trial, and that’s worse than anything you or I could do to him.” In fact, I thought to myself, given Celestia’s track record, the light of day might be the last thing Soarin sees before being incinerated. “I guess,” she muttered, “still doesn’t mean I like it.” Dash pulled me in a little closer for warmth. It was winter time and if not for the recent events, the weather team would have already had a foot of snow on the ground. As is, it was only about fifty degrees out which was quite cold for the normally sunny town. “I’m sorta looking forward to the snow. It’ll be a nice change of pace, we can just stay home by the warm fire and spend time together,” I said. “It’ll still be a week before we get any,” Dash replied. “Awww.” I gave Dash a squeeze. “Couldn’t you go back to work and make it snow for me? Just because I got hurt doesn’t mean you have to stop your whole life. Fluttershy will spend plenty of time with me.” I glanced back at the mare, still following a few feet behind us, and whispered to Dash. “Besides, she’s been super maternal in the hospital. I don’t think I’ve been out of her sight more than five minutes since I got admitted.” Dash looked up at the sun as it set over the horizon, to be replaced soon by Luna’s moon. She seemed to be thinking it over but in the end I knew she’d come around. “I guess I could get the team together and rally some snow by tomorrow night.” “Thanks, Dash.” I turned my head to kiss her on the cheek, causing her to blush. “Heh, would have never pegged you for a romantic. I guess it helps now that you can’t think with your dick,” she joked. “Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy scolded. “There’s no need to be making jokes like that after what poor Dawn—” “It’s fine, Fluttershy, really. I just want ponies to treat me normal, jokes and all,” I replied. “Sorry, Shy,” Dash said. “Just trying to cheer him… well, her up.” I chuckled and it soon turned into a deep-bellied laugh. Once I’d stopped I looked at her. “Now I’m sorry, I was just thinking how odd it was we both end up pregnant mares. Just when I get used to my life it got flipped, turned upside-down.” “We’re here,” Fluttershy said. Looking up, we saw her standing on her doorstep and grabbing the door knob. Inside the lights were all on and we saw Applejack carrying another plate to the table. Animals scattered to get out of our way, but one approached us meowing excitedly. As Dash and I walked inside I heard Fluttershy close the door and a deadbolt lock into place. It wasn’t like any of us to keep our doors locked in Ponyville, but Fluttershy seemed to be thinking very cautiously. I kneeled down as Bagheera reached me and began to pet him. “Hey, you missed me?” He meowed loudly in response and began to lick my foreleg. “Thanks, Fluttershy, for looking after him.” “He was in the window every night looking for you,” Fluttershy explained. “I almost never see a pet so worried for their owner. You’re very lucky, Dawn” I smiled widely and got up, eager to eat dinner. I headed over towards Applejack and the meal she had prepared. “Ah didn’t have much to go on,” Applejack explained, “but we did our best. Ain’t gonna be servin’ bacon, but we did whip up macaroni ‘n cheese, mashed potatoes, cheese pizza, and apple pie. Even got ya some of our non-alcoholic cider.” “Thanks, Applejack!” I cheered, releasing Dash to quickly go over and hug her. She still smelt like apples from helping bake the pie. “Shucks, don’t mention it. And ah best be goin’ then,” Applejack said. “No way, you’re staying for dinner,” I replied. Applejack adjusted her hat as she released me from our hug. “Y’all probably want to spend time together.” “Yes I do, with all my friends.” I went to my chair at the table and sat down, looking over the meal they’d prepared. Given the differences between Earth and Equestria, not all these dishes were that common here, but they’d prepared an amazing meal. My stomach was more than glad for it. Fluttershy pulled a chair out for Applejack, then took a seat. Dash sat down shortly afterwards and we began to pass out the food to everypony. As the plates were passed around I saw that she’d also made some biscuits, and I soon had a heap of food on my plate. “You sure you can eat all that?” Dash asked. “Is that a challenge?” I smirked and looked across at her. “I can eat at least twice as much food as you.” Dash rolled her eyes and Applejack laughed loudly. “Looks like Ah ain’t the only one that’s gonna be beatin’ you in contests anymore.” “Come on, I always beat you most of the time…” Dash smirked as we all chuckled. The table got pretty quiet as we ate. With so much delicious food to taste, it eventually started to turn towards an awkward silence. Not really knowing what to say, I looked around instead. Angel was sleeping on his back on the sofa, leg twitching as he had some dream. There were a few blue jays perched around the room near the ceiling. The faint smell of hay and animals was drowned out by the food, and more than one of them had come out of hiding to look on with envy. A beaver in particular had been sitting there the whole time looking at me. I finally broke down and tossed him a biscuit. This earned me a glare from Fluttershy, who had once told me not to feed the animals table scraps. I shrugged and offered her an innocent smile. The beaver quickly ran off with his prize, and even stopped to give a few small pieces to a couple other animals. “Oh, AJ, I’m gonna see about getting the weather back on track and get some snow tomorrow,” Dash said. Having broken the silence, Applejack was quick to respond. “We’ve had our provisions for winter stored for a week now, no need to worry on our account. Apple trees are all set too. Even brought Fluttershy here some extra firewood.” “Ahuh,” Fluttershy smiled. “Thank you, it was very thoughtful.” A slice of pie was cut out by Dash, who saw me looking at her and surrendered her piece of the pie to me, then cut herself another one. As I bit into my portion of the apple pie, I was blown away by how moist and delicious the apples were, even when they were out of season. “Your family recipe is amazing,” I said. Before she could reply I had already taken another large bite, savoring it in my mouth. “We’re glad to help anyway we can, just say the word. And, ah sent word to all the Apples lettin’ ‘em know you’re good as family now, Dawn. Doesn’t matter where ya go, there’ll be an Apple there if ya need anything,” Applejack stated. I smiled and nodded. “Thanks, that means a lot.” I looked down at my now empty plate, and the also empty pie tin. “Oh, looks like that’s it for dinner.” Leaning back I began to pat my swollen belly. With all the bland, empty food I’d been eating at the hospital I was looking forward to fattening up a bit. After all, if we weren’t meant to get fat the food wouldn’t taste so good. “Y’all get some sleep and let me and Fluttershy take care o’ the dishes.” Applejack began to gather them up and carry them into the kitchen. “I’ll be up in a bit,” Fluttershy said. I nodded and began to walk upstairs alongside Dash. At the top of the stairs was Fluttershy’s room and we headed inside. Dash climbed into the bed first and slid under the covers on the far side. I got in next and laid beside her. She waited for me to curl up and get comfortable, then she relaxed her wings and spread one over me. It was her way of sheltering me from the world and letting me know things would be okay. I breathed in her scent, always of fresh rain, as she held me close to her chest. “Fluttershy only has the one bed, it’s okay for her to join us, right?” Dash asked. “Of course.” Dash tightened her grip around me a little and adjusted the blanket to cover most of our bodies. “Good night, Dash, I love you,” I said. “Night, Dawn, love you too.” As I began to fall asleep I felt Fluttershy turn off the light and climb into bed. A few moments later she cuddled against my back and draped her wing over me too. I took a deep breath and exhaled, stretching to get comfortable. And I was very comfortable, safe in bed with two mares that loved me. No matter what happened, I knew they’d always be there for me.