“W-Wha-huh?” Applejack stammered, her mind not grasping what Lyra had just said, “Pregnant? Ah mean, ah uh, can you say that again?”
Lyra chuckled, “Um, BonBon’s pregnant...! we’ve been planning it for months! And finally it’s happening, and we can’t wait!”
BonBon blushed, “I actually was already pregnant during the parade we saw you two at,”
“That’s…nice,” Fluttershy said with a tiny smile, “I’m happy for you two,”
The orange pony tried to hold back the feeling of pure jealously she felt, knowing that she was barely friends with Lyra to begin with and didn’t want to make things between them go sour again. Admittedly, she hated how unlikely a coincidence that it was for that to occur right as she and Fluttershy were exploring the idea of baring a foal together, and it seemed to her that now that they knew BonBon was pregnant, it could almost be out-of-line to ask how she was.
“Yeah ah uh, yeah! That’s awful good news ah reckon,” Applejack sputtered before they saw how conflicted she was by the news.
“Thank you, sugar,” BonBon mused, relaxing into a more comfortable position, “Ok now tell us,”
Applejack looked confused, “Tell ya what?”
“What you came here to ask us!” BonBon said with a giggle.
Applejack and Fluttershy looked at each other, almost as if to say ‘should we?’.
The orange pony was lost. She would have had no problem asking Lyra and BonBon before knowing that Bonbon was pregnant, because if they knew, which they obviously do, they’d tell them. But now that Applejack is certain they know how to have a foal of their own, she’s worried that the answer may be something she and Fluttershy wouldn’t like, or may just be plain awkward asking them now.
Consarnit…why can’t these questions be answered easier, with none of this drama and what-not?
“No, it’s fine now ah guess, BonBon,” The orange pony answered a bit after BonBon asked the question, “We don’t wanna burden you or nothin’”
The cream-colored earth pony shook her head, “Oh come on! It’s fine, sugar! We don’t want you to have wasted a trip here just to not ask us anything, and you have cookies to eat soon too! My delicious, perfectly cooked, chocolate cookies fresh from the oven,” BonBon nearly fell into a day-dream about her own cookies.
Fluttershy lowered her head, “It’s um, kinda personal and we um…”
“It’s ok! You can tell us anything!” BonBon pushed more, her own love for gossip getting the best of her.
“Ah uh, Ah dunno,” Applejack sighed, “Can ah speak to Fluttershy fer a little, juss ta make sure if we wanna ask you it, ah juss wanna make sure we ain’t gonna be crossin’ no lines or nothin’”
BonBon got up out of her seat with a nod, “Come on Lyra, I bet the cookies are almost finished anyway! Just tell us when you’re done, ok? I hope it isn’t something bad!”
After a nod from Applejack, the two left into another part of the house. Fluttershy’s first reaction was to squeak, which made Applejack giggle, but she quickly returned to being serious.
“How’re we gonna ask them now, sugarcube? Ah don’t know if they’ll juss think we’re, ya know, in competition with ‘em,”
Fluttershy shrank into herself a little bit, “Maybe it’s um, maybe it’s a little early for us to be thinking about stuff like this anyway? We’ve only been going out for almost 3 months, we shouldn’t um, well, rush things…I don’t know, I’m sorry I brought it up in the first place…”
The orange pony shook her head, ”No sugarcube, ah-ah don’t think it’s good to wait after already talking it about it, it’s not like we’d juss forget it, we’d still think about it all the time,” Applejack scooted a little closer to the Pegasus, “And besides, ah want to know now, ah don’t want us not knowing until the day we decide to, you know…and I think it’s just better to know now, so when the time comes, we won’t have to go through this then,”
Fluttershy loosened up, the logic clicking gears into place in her mind, “But how are we going to, ask them,”
Applejack put a hoof to her chin, “Ah don’t know why were are so worried ‘bout it, maybe we should just ask,”
“Ask us what?” Bonbon poked her head from around a corner, barely even giving the two several minutes to talk, “I’m sorry for eavesdropping, the cookies finished early…and I um…”
Rounding the corner, Lyra finished for her, “…Are a bit nosey!” The light-blue unicorn hopped up onto the couch happily with a cookie she was about to devour.
With a tray of fresh cookies on her back, the other earth pony followed, leaving the tray on a coffee table between the couches they were sitting on.
BonBon spoke up first, “So, come on, just tell us, please? We won’t judge you or anything like that,” She nudged the cookies towards them, “Will some of my delicious home-baked cookies loosen things up?”
Applejack chuckled as she grabbed a few for her and Fluttershy, “Ah think me and Shy were juss over thinkin’ things, ya know. It’s kind of funny ah guess, because ya bein’ all pregnant and stuff, kinda has to do with what we want to ask y’all…”
BonBon held her fore-hooves in front of her mouth, “Don’t tell me you’re-?” Lyra just chuckled at the cream-colored pony’s assumption.
Fluttershy blushed, Applejack continuing, “We kinda, well um. We kinda want to know HOW two mares would have a foal, you know… together,”
“How long have you been going out? It’s kinda early to be thinking about having a foal don’t you think…? The unicorn said, after devouring another chocolate cookie.
“Well, ah juss think it’s better to know now, for when the time comes, and besides, ah believe it will happen someday,” Applejack reasoned.
“THAT’S SO CUTE!” The cream colored pony gushed, “Are you mares like, in love? ‘cause that’s a good thing when you want to have a foal”
“Yes ma’am,” Applejack responded proudly, making the shy Pegasus beside her blush even more, enjoying the fact that the orange pony didn’t even hesitate.
“And that’s why we’ve been, well, thinkin’ ‘bout this sorta stuff, we kinda know we’re going to be together for a long time, and we juss wanna know if it’s possible fer us to have a foal,” Fluttershy smiled, thinking it was adorable that Applejack talked about their relationship so confidently.
“Well we just used magic,” Lyra said bluntly, “There’s a spell for it, and I finally was able to do it a few months ago,”
Applejack and Fluttershy looked at each other as if they needed confirmation that neither of them was a unicorn. Both of their hearts plummeted.
“Don’t worry you two, I’m sure there’s some way you can have a foal of your own,” BonBon said with empathy. She felt guilty about not knowing whether Fluttershy and Applejack could bare a foal of their own, while herself being pregnant.
“It ain’t like we’re givin’ up right now juss ‘cause of one little set-back nuh-uh,” Applejack said confidently for Fluttershy’s sake, “And besides, there’s gotta be another way, ah juss can’t really put a hoof on it ah reckon,”
“Where could we go um, to find out?” The shy Pegasus questioned, blowing a rogue piece of her mane out of her face.
“Ah’m guessin’ the only place we can go is Twi’s library,” The shy Pegasus nodded as Applejack turned her focus to Lyra and BonBon, both devouring the rest of the cookies , “Is it alright if we go-“
“Yeah, yeah, sure, sure! Goodluck, take a cookie or two before we eat the rest!”
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“Well hello you two, nice for you to visit me-,” The purple stopped and thought for a second, hoof on her chin, “…You need to use the library huh?”
“Well, yeah,” Applejack responded, rubbing her hoof on the back of her neck, “But we kinda need yer help too, Twi,”
Twilight Sparkle’s face lit up, “Well come in! Come in! How can I help you girls?”
“It’s kind of um, personal,” Fluttershy said, after Applejack politely let her enter the library first. They followed the unicorn upstairs where her room/library was located.
“Personal? Well do you need to leave you two alone while you search for a book? This library has everything; Princess Celestia sends me the newest editions of everything on a monthly basis!”
“Um, well Twi’, we kinda need you ah reckon’ because well,” The orange stomped her hoof down for a confidence booster mid-sentence, “Ah hay, ah shouldn’t be beadin’ roun’ the apple tree, me and Fluttershy kinda want to know, how well, we would have a foal of our own. Ya know, when the time comes. And we were just at Lyra and BonBon’s, and they said they’d used magic to get BonBon pregnant, and um yeah,”
Twilight was taken aback by the question, but examined it in full-detail, “Conception, conception…C, c, c,” Using her own magic, the unicorn cycled through several books before finding one that would most likely benefit the mare-couple the most, “Ah, this should do the trick!” She levitated the book over to the two mares, then continued, “So, I’m presuming that since you two need magic for this to happen, that you need me, right?”
They smiled sheepishly in response, “Well, we just need to know if you um, could do that for us in the first place…” The shy pony responded, as she sat down next to Applejack.
Now sifting through the book, it became apparent to the two that they were going to find out at any second whether they could bare a foal together or not. It bothered both of them that there seemed to be no sections for mare-couples as they skimmed through, but kept hope that there could be one. Page after page, nothing but what they’d expect for a book about conception, something not very commonly associated with couples like Applejack and Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s nervousness was visually noticeable, the stress of having to wait so long just to find the answer to such an important question taking its toll on her.
“Applejack, have you found anything yet?” Twilight Sparkle queried, now standing above the sitting earth pony. Applejack was sitting with her injured leg awkwardly straight out to the side, the cast once again hindering her attempts to be comfortable. But even an injured leg wouldn’t stop her from reading it.
“No, ah don’t- w-wait a minute!” Applejack read aloud, “Chapter 17: Mare/Stallion couples in Equestria Ah think ah found it!”
Fluttershy squeaked a little, which caused the two other mares to giggle before Applejack started reading the whole passage.
Chapter 17 part 1: Conception involving two mares.
Obviously, in relationship involving two mares, conceiving a foal is possible, but under very different circumstances, depending on the method the couple chooses. There are many varieties of methods available; some more favorable than others. This passage will explain them and how they are conducted and what you may need to fulfill them.
A. What may be the most popular method is Magical conception *See diagram 17b*
-When a mare couple involves one or more unicorns, the one with the most ability may decide to cast a pregnancy spell on the other mare (The spell will not work if cast unto themselves). If the unicorn is unable to summon the magic necessary for it to be successful, do NOT attempt it or else it’ll risk harm to the mother. Practicing the spell may work, but it’s very time consuming and has taken years for unicorns to master in some cases. See next paragraph for more information on a substitute unicorn.
-If a mare couple does not include a unicorn or a unicorn is unable to summon the necessary magic needed to complete the spell, they can contact somepony who has the abilities to fulfill the requirements to cast this spell, who would then cast in the designated mother(s)
Applejack ended there, with a satisfied smile on her face, soon on the receiving end of a hug from the mare she loves. They both soon looked up expectantly at Twilight Sparkle, who knew their question before they asked it.
The unicorn sighed jokingly, "Yes, I’ll do it,”, She was then quickly crushed by a hug from them both, “But only when the time comes, ok?” She levitated the book in front of herself after being relinquished by the two.
“Of course not, we just well, um wanted to know now, we’re going to wait of course,” Fluttershy said, blushing at the thought.
“Good, good. Just glancing through this spell, I could do it quite easily, just saying,” She levitated the book back to its rightful spot, and then turned to face the two, “You guys want to go grab some treats at Sugarcube Corner? I’ve been awfully busy today, and Spike is in Canterlot on royal business, I could sure use a break!” The unicorn blew her bangs out of her face almost to add emphasis to her statement.
“Of course, Twi’! That sounds awfully nice right now, ah’m in a celebratin’ mood”
Fluttershy nodded in agreement, “We’d be happy too!”
Applejack sighed with relief. Ever since she was a filly, one of her biggest dreams was to have a foal of her own, to help raise into the Apple Family,and to call her own. Now, she has a name and knows that being with pony she loves won’t hinder her chances having her own foal. After a day of ups and downs, she held her head up high as she wobbled next to Fluttershy and Twilight, knowing things could have been so much different.
Ah reckon it’s nice not ta have ta worry bout any life-alterin’ questions for the time bein’ the earth pony thought with a grin.
“Applejack…?” Fluttershy asked sheepishly, as the three exited Twilight Sparkle’s library-home.
“Yes, darlin’?”
“What if we have a colt?”