Trotting through the school commons, Diamond Tiara offered up a smile at everyone she passed. Some smiled back, others frowned, while others just ignored her.
Being rejected stung.
At least she had some friends now. She trotted with her head high, but not as high as it once was. As she moved, her stomach rumbled, but not from hunger. She had been a little stressed as of late and Doctor Mawu kept telling her that she needed to practice better coping mechanisms.
Diamond Tiara liked Doctor Mawu. Doctor Mawu, the zebra bocor psychiatrist, was interesting. The good doctor spoke to Diamond Tiara as if she was an adult. She was open, honest, and did not mince words. Sometimes, Doctor Mawu said things that hurt.
And Diamond Tiara liked it that way.
Growler went walking past, leading Sweet Pea along, his broad hand-paw resting upon her back as he guided her through the crowded commons. Diamond Tiara gave him a dazzling smile. The entire school was talking about how a certain diamond dog had smooched a certain pony on the cheek last night.
Diamond Tiara said nothing. Gossip was ugly and she was doing everything she could to distance herself from it. Doctor Mawu had told her that gossip would rot her soul, and Diamond Tiara agreed. Gossip, along with other terrible acts, had almost destroyed her.
Clearing the commons, Diamond Tiara started down the long hallway that led to the exit. It was cold outside, and the walk home would be long, but Diamond Tiara decided to walk home today. She had her fabulous coat, the one that Rarity had made, and she had a hat.
Doctor Mawu had said that exercise was important to clear her head.
Walking down the hallway, Diamond Tiara ignored the giant cockroach that went scurrying past, a cockroach that had to be a foot long. Giant cockroaches didn’t exist. If you ignored them and told yourself that they didn’t exist, you didn’t have to go mad from looking at them.
Eyes forward, Diamond Tiara continued down the hall, recovering from the giant cockroach that she, with one hundred percent certainty, did not see scurrying down the hall just a moment ago. She shuddered and kept going.
“Hi, Little Slip,” Diamond Tiara said as she drew near an earth pony filly that she knew. “How’s life?”
“Life sucks!” Little Slip replied, pausing for a moment. She scowled.
“Have you talked with Doctor Mawu lately?” Diamond Tiara asked.
“I’m on my way there now.” Little Slip’s scowl turned into more of a straight line and her pink mane fell down into her eyes. “Mawu wants me to look at parts of myself in the mirror and tell myself that I am beautiful. I can’t seem to do it. She’s angry with me.”
Diamond Tiara shook her head. “She isn’t angry with you. You are disappointed with yourself and you are projecting those feelings of disappointment onto Doctor Mawu… be honest with yourself. In sessions, Doctor Mawu is very calm and rational. Have you ever actually seen her angry?”
Little Slip scowled again. “Well… no.”
“We have to be honest with our problems.” Diamond Tiara gave Little Slip a gentle prod.
“I’d better be going. I’ll be late and that’s never good.” Little Slip’s expression softened. “See you in group therapy?”
“On time and with my organiser,” Diamond Tiara replied.
“See ya,” Little Slip said as she trotted off.
Diamond Tiara watched the filly go, took a deep breath, and ignored the painful rumble in her stomach. Lifting one front leg, Diamond Tiara stood for a moment, and then took off once more, trotting with purpose down the hallway, drawing nearer to the double doors that led outside.
Sitting in the alcove by the doors was a griffoness wrapped in a cloak, wearing a yellow scarf around her neck. A black beak protruded from her hood. She looked to be shivering…
And maybe crying.
“You okay?” Diamond Tiara asked. She climbed up on the padded bench beside the griffon and sat down.
“I can’t think of anything meaningful to say,” the griffoness replied.
“Life is like that sometimes. We just can’t figure out what to say,” Diamond Tiara said.
“Lugus told me that I was to sit here and that I wasn’t allowed to move until I had something meaningful to say.”
Diamond Tiara scooted a little closer. “I know Lugus… he’s a big softie. He took care of me one day while I was sick. He fed me soup, read me a story, and made jokes about how I was too pink for my own good.” Diamond Tiara smiled. “My name is Diamond Tiara and you must be new here because you don’t hate me on sight.”
“My name is Boadicea.” The griffoness wiped her eyes with the corner of her cloak.
“So why so down?” Diamond Tiara asked.
“It’s a long story,” Boadicea replied.
“Coco might scold me, but I can be a little late going home. She’ll understand if I give her a good reason, so… out with it,” Diamond Tiara said.
“Lugus told me that he didn’t trust me… he doesn’t know if I am being sincere.” Boadicea slumped over. “I did some bad things. I don’t think I’m very trusted. Lugus is being kind enough, but when I open up to him… he told me that he worries that I am playing with his emotions.”
“Yikes… welcome to my world. I did some bad things too… and now, hardly anypony likes me or trusts me. Thankfully, I have a few friends… friends that look out for me.” Diamond Tiara scooted a little closer, until she bumped up against Boadicea.
“Lugus hugged me and he was nice… but then he said he didn’t trust me enough to know if I was being honest with him. I’m confused and it hurts. He hugged me but then he said all those things.” Boadicea shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Lugus is being honest with you.” Diamond Tiara waved her hoof in a circular motion. “When you make really bad mistakes, when somepony has been hurt by what you’ve done, others will expect the worst from you for a while, even if you really are trying to to do good. It’s kinda a trap though.”
“I don’t understand.” Boadicea turned and looked at Diamond Tiara, her black eyes glistening with tears.
“Well, see, if you get discouraged, and you just sort of give up, you give others the chance to point and say, ‘hah! I told you so!’ and you sort of prove them right. Nopony really wants to believe that you are being for real. And it is really discouraging. And it hurts a lot. You have to go at it alone… at least until you have one pony… or birdy… or whomever that will come along, pick you up, and carry you through the rough spot until others around you start to believe you. After that, it gets easier. You do what needs to be done because you don’t want to disappoint the few kind souls you have around you that believe in you.”
“Hmm.” Boadicea’s beak clicked. “Who saved you?”
“Sentinel.” Diamond Tiara’s muzzle split into a genuine happy smile. “Sentinel. He’s my best friend, my colt friend, and the one pony I can trust to always be honest with me. He calls me out when I do something stupid and he holds me accountable. He doesn’t let me feel sorry for myself and he refuses to let me quit. I really hate him sometimes.”
“I’ve met him. But only for a moment. He didn’t pay me much attention. Just sort of bowed.” Boadicea raised her talons and rubbed her foreleg. Her black tail twitched behind her.
“Well, come on. Let’s go find Lugus,” Diamond Tiara said.
“But I have nothing meaningful to tell him.” Sitting on the bench, Boadicea turned and looked at the double doors. “If I move from this spot, I will betray his trust.”
“Just tell him that you’ve found a friend. That will be meaningful…”
Stress. Nothing caused stress like being late. Flapping his wings, Bucky poured on some speed. Bon Bon and Lyra both had seen the doctor while he was gone, and today, a spot had opened up to see the doctor because of a cancellation.
Even with a few hours of warning, Bucky was still going to be late. There were only so many hours in a day. As he flew, Bucky realised the bitter, cruel irony of this situation. Wings. The one thing he was trying to avoid was also the very thing he was depending upon to save him.
Halfway to Ponyville, Bucky decided that it was worth it to burn the mana calories. The axe beaked griffon vanished into a cloud of snowflakes.
The fertility doctor’s office was a small space above a now abandoned specialty market. There was a weird smell in the air, the magazines were all several years old, and the receptionist appeared to be around her century mark.
“You came here?” Bucky asked.
Bon Bon looked up from her old tattered magazine. “We went to the hospital and saw the doctor there. She has an office here. We’re just getting test results today. They do the procedure at the hospital.”
“This place smells like mushroom soup.”
“Bucky, so help me… I want to have your foals, but you do try my patience something awful,” Bon Bon said in a forceful whisper.
“They collect semen samples here.” Lyra did nothing to lower her voice and the receptionist looked up from her desk.
“So… how are we going to collect my semen sample?” Bucky asked.
“Oh, I was thinking about having it done with one of those big needles they stick in your testicles,” Bon Bon whispered.
Bucky’s hind legs snapped closed and there was a pained squeak.
“She’s kidding… they don’t do that.” Lyra wrapped her foreleg around Bucky and tried to comfort him as he whimpered. “Berry has offered to milk you, to return the favour for all those times you’ve milked her.”
“The doctor will see you now,” the receptionist said in a dry crackling voice.
“My name is Doctor Latigo… please, be seated and make yourself comfortable.”
Bucky, already seated, stared at the doctor, a unicorn with a crinkled green mane.
The doctor leaned over her desk. “Well… I don’t know where to start. There is some good news and some bad news.”
“Good news,” Bon Bon and Lyra said together.
“Good news is, Bon Bon is good to go. There is only one minor concern,” Doctor Latigo said in a calm voice.
“And that is?” Bon Bon asked, raising her eyebrow.
“You have a retroverted uterus.” Doctor Latigo smiled. “Your womb angles towards the rectum rather than down towards the belly. It would explain why having penetrative sex is so painful for you, if that is the reason you are choosing to have artificial insemination. The fallopian tubes, your ovaries, all of those are tilted too, and would be struck by the head of the penis during sex, a condition called ‘collision dyspareunia’ that can be excruciating. Thankfully, this shouldn’t cause too many problems during pregnancy, other than a higher chance of constipation and a bit more discomfort than usual.”
“Oh, we don’t have sex,” Bon Bon said. She blinked. “Well, Lyra and I are lesbians but we love our husband and we do have sex, but he doesn’t go sticking his penis into us because we…” Bon Bon fell silent and her face turned a deep purple. She lifted her front hoof, stuck it into her mouth, and bit down upon it.
“I get what you are saying,” Doctor Latigo said, nodding her head. She looked at Bucky. “You must be very understanding.”
“I love them?” Bucky said, looking confused about everything said. “I mean, I turned myself into a mare for them on several occasions… er… uh… well…”
Doctor Latigo turned a shade of purple very similar to Bon Bon’s.
“So, um, what is the bad news?” Bucky asked, not wanting to know the bad news, but eager to change the subject.
The doctor cleared her throat and composed herself. Adjusting her glasses, she sat up straight and looked at Lyra, then Bucky, and then Bon Bon. After a moment, she turned back to Lyra. “At some point, you sustained an injury down there… a rather terrible injury and necromancy was used to heal it.”
A whimper came from Lyra. “I need to go… I can’t be here. I need to go. I GOTTA GO RIGHT NOW!” Lyra bolted from the room, knocking her chair over.
Bon Bon, looking worried, ran after Lyra, calling out Lyra’s name.
Looking the doctor in the eye, Bucky asked, “What happened?”
The doctor hesitated.
“Look, I am telling you to tell me what happened. Not as a husband, but as a member of the Black Cloaks. If this involves necromancy, I need to know!”
The doctor, now looking afraid, sank down in her chair. “From the scans we took, it appears as though a very large penis was rammed through Lyra’s body and necromancy was used to keep her alive. It was very hard to tell. We did only a rudimentary study when we noticed some anomalies in the scans. She has a core of necromancy corrupted tissue running through the length of her body… she is barren… we can’t heal that. I mean, sometimes we can heal flesh touched by necromancy, but this was too much. She was run through and it looks an awful lot like something just speared her and then kept going, using the black arts to keep her alive.”
Recoiling as if struck, Bucky fell back into his chair, now having trouble breathing. He knew something had happened, but this was too much to bear. He looked at the doctor. “You and I will be talking later. A lot. But for now, I need to go look after my wife.”
Slipping from his chair, his nostrils flaring as he struggled to draw breath, Bucky left to follow after his wives.