Author's Note: This chapter conains mild depictions of surgury and blood.
Several Months Later...
USS Challenger - Three AU from Equus
The last few months had initially been difficult. I was totally out of my element. While I was a department head on the Juno Beach, and all the administrative duties that would entail, I was totally unprepared for the bureaucratic nightmare that was the Equus World Parliament. I was a military man, sure I was used to the chain of command, but in that situation if you wanted something done you talked to your superior and the request went as far up the chain as it needed to till it was dealt with.
Despite its relative infancy, the Parliament had very quickly grasped the concept of red tape. Just getting approval for the Challenger's crew to partake in shore leave took two days while the Prime Minister's cabinet debated it.
The Prime Minister, oh boy, there's a tough nut if there ever was one. Sinaru Silverhorn of the Minotaur Republic, despite her young age, possessed enough of a commanding presence as to not intimidate while still gaining the respect of her peers; which she used skillfully to have herself named Prime Minister with an overwhelming 324 to 16 confidence vote.
That and I swear she has a hate on for me. Despite being granted dual-citizenship by Princess Celestia, Prime Minister Silverhorn treats me like an outsider. I'm constantly called to sit in cabinet meetings that ultimately don't require me to be there. I'm asked to observe pretty much every activity that Starfleet performs of any significance. All of it just annoys the hell out of me, especially since the majority of the time one of my staff could easily sit in for me. Princess Celestia assigned me several ponies from her School of Gifted Unicorns' research staff, all of whom had been hard at work learning from interacting with Starfleet.
It also takes me away from Fluttershy, who's due date is fast approaching and to add extra stress to the mix, half-way through the pregnancy Dr Horses told us that this pregnancy was high-risk and ordered her to not travel. This last month, however, he asked that she be moved to Canterlot General.
So, here I was, fidgeting in my seat to the left of Geordi on the bridge of the Challenger.
I had been on a Galaxy Class bridge before. Venture Class, I corrected myself. But this, this bridge was something different. Virtually every inch of usable space along the bulkheads had a console station; and with what was about to happen today, all of them were manned. In total, there were at least a dozen officers going about their tasks.
On the massive viewscreen that dominated the forward section of the bridge, floated the fruit of the Challenger crew's labour: A stationary platform that consisted of a deflector with a specially designed focal array and magneton pulse generator. It essentially would serve as a 'gate' of sorts so that vessels that didn't possess a civilian research-grade or military-grade navigational array would have to rely on the platform to generate a stable passageway.
For added security and to help maintain Equus' sovereignty of their space, the platform also had the ability to destabilise any incoming unscheduled or unauthorised subspace opening before it fully forms by emitting an inverse magneton pulse at the same amplitude as the pulse used to create the subspace opening, effectively cancelling it out. At least that was what it was supposed to do; and I do hope it works, as it was at my behest that this ability be added. If all goes well, complete control of the platform would be given over to the newly formed Equus Orbital Command.
"You ok?" Geordi asked.
"Yes..." I answered too quickly. "No. I mean, yeah I'm fine, but I sure as hell don't want to be here." I explained, keeping my vision squarely on the viewscreen ahead. When I didn't get a response right away, I turned to face the Captain, who had raised an eyebrow. "It's a long story. Suffice to say that my fiance's pregnancy is near term, it's high-risk and is on mandatory bed rest. On top of that, PM Silverhorn is doing pretty much everything she can to keep me away from her."
"Makes sense." The captain said in response. "Engineer Davidson, we ready?" He asked one of the few civilian techs manning an engineering auxiliary station.
"That we are Captain," He answered, giving a nod.
"The Saratoga has signaled that they're ready to launch the test probe." The officer manning the Operations station said.
"Tell them to proceed when ready," Nog ordered.
Several minutes later a crimson vortex with golden swirls generated by the Saratoga opened up near the platform.
"Sensors are detecting that the probe is proceeding through the passageway" The Ops officer reported.
"Platform automated systems coming online." Came a voice behind us at Tactical. "It's sending an automated hail ordering them to reverse course or the passageway will be collapsed."
"Probe as reached failsafe point; the platform is powering up its magneton generator and preparing to fire an inverse magneton burst." The Ops officer began. "Platform is firing."
On the viewscreen, the platform fired its magneton pulse, causing the vortex to ripple then collapse in a flash, then burst open again, letting crushed debris from the probe to float into the system.
A smile crept onto my face as a round of celebratory applause erupted on the bridge.
"I call that a success," Geordi said, patting me on the back. "Signal the Saratoga and report success then thank them for their assistance," He ordered the officer at Ops.
"Aye, sir," He answered. "Captain Hanson sends his regards and wishes to let you know..." He continued before hesitating. "You still owe him eighteen strips of latinum."
"Well, let the old fart know he'll get his money when he fixes the model he broke the last time we played."
"Sir?"
"Send the exact message, Ensign," Geordi ordered with a smile.
"Message sent sir," The Ops officer reported, trying not to laugh.
"Model?" I asked
"He snapped a mast off of my Star of India model." Geordi told me with a slight scowl, still obviously annoyed at this Captain Hanson. "Helm set course for Equus, one-quarter impulse, then take us into standard orbit,"
"One Quarter impulse, aye," The helmsman answered.
Geordi turned to me and opened his mouth as if to say something to me but was interrupted.
"Captain, we're receiving a hail from Equus." The Ops officer reported.
"On screen, Ensign."
The view of Equus was quickly replaced by the head of Rainbow Dash with a worried look on her face, which sent a shiver down my spine and splayed my ears back; as it was her turn to keep Fluttershy company since I was off-world.
"Dashie, what's wrong?" I asked, getting mixed looks from some of the officers on the bridge. Obviously I was breaking protocol, but I didn't care.
"Jimbo, you better get back here. Fluttershy went into labour and the Docs said it's serious." Rainbow told me.
"Helm, increase to full impulse," Nog ordered.
"I'm on my way back, we're only..." I began to tell her as I looked at the helmsman, who mouthed the number eight at me. "Eight minutes out."
"I'll let them know." She told me before cutting the channel abruptly.
"Sorry, I know I broke protocol," I began, addressing Geordi directly.
"It's no big deal, I'd do the same in your place," He told me. "Better get going," He said, gesturing towards the turbolift. It took me a second to realize what he meant, but then I galloped towards the door and entered the lift.
"Transporter Room One," I ordered the computer. The ride only took twenty seconds, but it dragged on for what seemed like minutes as worry plagued my thoughts. As I entered the transporter room, my heart was beating heavily in my chest. "Canterlot General Hospital as soon as we're in orbit," I instructed the transporter tech, a young bolian ensign. "Please," I finished, realizing I was being rude then stepped up onto the pad.
"Certainly." He said, giving me a quick nod. He continued to work his console until he looked back up at me. "We're ready for transport."
"Energise," I ordered.
"Scalpel," Dr. Fetlock ordered, and a nurse offered him one which he took in his light blue magic and proceeded to make an incision across Fluttershy's distended abdomen. "Suction," the doctor ordered, which the nurse quickly acted on and started to suck up the crimson liquid with a small vacuum tube.
He looked up at the monitor displaying both his patient's vitals. While the foal's was holding stable, the mothers was not and was showing increased signs of distress, making all the more important to hurry and finish.
"Retractors," He ordered, then waited as the nurse used them then applied suction and sponges to the exposed area giving him a clear view of the uterus. Taking his scapel in his magic again, he began another careful incision. "Retractors," He ordered, and the nurse used a second set. With the foal exposed, he set aside his scalpel and reached in with his gloved hooves and gently lifted the tiny unicorn out.
A second nurse took the foal in her magic so the doctor could clamp then cut the umbilical. As he did so, the nurse cleared the nasal passages of the small foal, causing it to take its first breath then it started to wail, a very good sign.
The joyful sound of new life was quickly overshadowed however as a long beep came from the patient's vital monitor.
"Patient is asystolic, start compressions." Dr. Fetlock ordered as he quickly began to close up her abdomen. "Get the infant out of here." The moment he was finished, he looked to his nurse. "Paddles, charge one hundred," He ordered, then took the defibrillator paddles in his magic then placed them at opposite ends of her chest. "Clear," He ordered.
The second his medical staff stepped back, he triggered the paddles.
Fluttershy's still form convulsed on the surgical table.
The moment I appeared in the main foyer of the hospital, Rainbow Dash was at my side. As worried as I was, It was I who had to calm her down and get her to take a breath and stop talking a mile a minute.
I could totally get Rainbow Dash's emotional state. Fluttershy was her oldest friend, going all the way back to first meeting at summer flight camp. Not having any parents and growing up in Cloudsdale's orphanage, Fluttershy saw Rainbow Dash as a sister, and judging by the way Rainbow was panicking, that bond was still strong.
She explained to me that there were complications and that she was taken into surgery. I didn't understand the name of the procedure, but the way she explained it to me was similar to a cesarean section in human medicine. Rainbow then took me up to the waiting area near the surgical wing.
There I sat for at least a half hour and waited. It didn't take long for the rest of the girls to arrive. While Rarity was in Canterlot and was the first to get here, by the tired look on Twilight's face, she had risked teleporting Pinkie, Apple Jack and herself all the way from Ponyville.
All of them gave me reassurances and tried to keep my spirits up, but I couldn't bring myself to listen. I was numb and all I could do was wallow in my own thoughts.
What the hell did I ever do to the universe do deserve this?
Am I going to be alone again?
My attention was suddenly grabbed by familiar clacking of hooves on tile. Looking up, I saw Prime Minister Silverhorn approaching. In the space of a blink of an eye, all my stress, worry and anxiety boiled into rage and all of it was focused on the minotaur coming down the hallway. In an instant, I was on my hooves with my wings spread.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" I demanded from her.
"Excuse me?" She answered with both shock and disbelief in her voice.
"I don't know what it is you have against me, but it ends now!" I continued to yell at her. Twilight began to approach me but backed off just as quickly when I glared at her. I was going to say my piece and nopony was going to stop me. "From day one you've made my job as difficult as possible, and when I let you know that my fiance's pregnancy was high-risk, you made sure I was always away from her."
A small crowd started to gather behind Sinaru, drawn by my raised voice, a fact not lost on the Prime Minister, who's expression started to turn into worry.
"Whatever it is you think is going on, I assure you..." She began, trying to control the situation that had gone totally against what she expected.
"You can take your assurances and shove it up your ass, Prime Minister," I told her. "Because whatever it is you have against me, you got your wish. Fluttershy's on death's door, I might just lose my child too, and I almost wasn't there for it all thanks to you." I continued, lowering my voice to a cutting edge. "You aren't welcome here. Leave."
The Prime Minister, whose mouth was left agape almost the whole time I was drilling into her, snapped her jaw shut, turned around with a huff and left the way she came.
Still seething, I glared into her back, hoping she could feel it. Then I felt a hoof on my shoulder. Turning I saw Rarity smiling and pointing back towards the doors of the surgical wing.
Standing there was Dr. Fetlock with an, albeit exhausted, smile on his face.
I sat in the nursery common area, cradling the small unicorn in my forelegs as I fed her a bottle. My cheeks were soaked with tears of joy as I gazed down at the miracle I held. Fluttershy and I had known she was a unicorn pretty early in the pregnancy, but I guess Fluttershy won because here I held a little filly. Serves me right for betting against the home team.
When we found out, I asked why it wasn't a pegasus like the parents. Fluttershy said it depended on the mother's ancestry, so she guessed one of her parents must have been a unicorn.
So here I held a tiny unicorn. Her coat was the same shade as her mother's, but slightly darker. Blessed with a full mane of hair, it was almost totally jet black and wavy with shocks of pink streaks the same colour as her mother as well.
With the bottle finished, I took it out of her mouth and she opened her eyes at me. Two gorgeous spheres looked into mine, one green, one blue. She must have inheritied my mother's heterochromia. The little filly let out a tiny burp followed by a small burble of noise. Her horn flashed a light fuschia for a second. For a moment I swore I could feel something warm caress my cheek. As quickly as it happened, it was gone. The small being snuggled into my chest and fell asleep.
"Have you chosen a name?" A nurse asked, breaking me from whatever spell I was under.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Have you decided on a name?" She asked again, a warm smile gracing her face.
A few days after Fluttershy told me she was expecting, she asked what names were popular in my family. She already knew my sister, Melanie, and her daughter Mellissa. I told her about my father Edward who I was named after, and my mother Maria. My father never knew his parents, so I told her about my mom's parents.
The two women who raised my mom were a huge influence on my life. When my sister and I were young, we spent the majority of our time with them while our parents were off making deliveries. They practically raised us.
Fluttershy loved their names and decided that if we had a girl, we would name her after them.
"Zoe Jayne Scott," I told her.
"Those sound lovely," The nurse said, sounding a little confused at the foreign sounding names. "What do they mean?"
"They're from Earth. Zoe is Greek and means 'Life'. Jayne is Hebrew and means 'Gift from God'." I explained. "Life really is a gift from God," I said, getting a nod of agreement from the nurse who wrote the names down on her clipboard and left the two of us alone.
The Following Day...
"...so when news of what happened at the hospital hit the papers back in the Minotaur Republic, it didn't take long to uncover that Minister Silverhorn belonged to a burgeoning group with xenophobic views," Celestia explained to me in a steady voice as she made various silly and absurd faces at Zoe in her bassinet, eliciting short burbles of laughter. "The Praetor recalled her immediately and she has since tendered her resignation. He also sends his sincere apologies on behalf of the Republic and wishes a speedy recovery to your fiance."
"Small consolations, I guess. Tell him it's much appreciated." I asked.
"Mr. Scott?" Dr. Fetlock said, getting my attention. "Miss Fluttershy is awake if you want to see her."
"How is she, Doctor?" Celestia asked.
"She's recovering as well as can be expected considering the circumstances," He explained to us both. "She had a rough go of things, but she's a fighter. It'll be a while before she's ready to go home, but I expect her to make a full recovery. "Mr. Scott, if you'll follow me, I'll take you to the ICU," He said, gesturing down the hall from the Nursery common area. "Princess," He said, giving a nod.
"Don't worry, I'll look after her," Celestia said, smiling. Feeling assured, I followed the Doctor. A small grunt of effort followed by a pungent odour and a giggle caused the Princess to recoil and wrinkle her nose. "Seems someone made a stinky." One of the nurses approached her, but she waved her off. Lifting the infant pony in her magic, she looked her right in the eyes. "It's been a few hundred years, let's see if I still have it," She said, before trotting off with a bounce in her step towards a changing station much to the wonder of the hospital staff and other parents.
Fluttershy's bed was one of three lining the wall of the ICU recovery ward. She looked tired, but still managed a smile when she saw me approach. When I got next to her, she tried to get up, but the pained look on her face made me wince.
"Don't try to move, you might tear your stitches," I told her gently as I took her hoof in mine.
"How is Zoe?" She asked with a weak voice. I smiled at the mention of her name and couldn't wait until she met her mom for the first time, but the doctors wanted to wait till she was out of ICU first.
"Oh, she's beautiful, she looks like her mother," I told her. "We do good work," I continued, bringing her hoof up to kiss it, getting a chuckle from Fluttershy. "She's with Celestia in the Nursery."
"The Princess? Oh my, we can't impose on her!" She said with worry.
"She offered," I said with a shrug, and tried to keep smiling, but it was futile. Breaking down, I started to weep. "I thought I lost you," I struggled to say through the tears.
"But you didn't," She told me, pulling my head to my chest and held me tight. "Shh... I'm still here..." she cooed softly, stroking my mane as she let me cry.
The Following Week...
Skittles ran and hopped circles around us as we slowly made our way up the path towards the cabin. Obviously glad to see us, the little rabbit wasn't so little anymore, as she had grown into a full-sized hare, easily twice the size Angel was.
Up near the front door gathered a small horde of animals all happy to see their mistress home. All of them were equally interested in the new addition she carried in a sling under her chest.
"Its so good to see you all," She greeted. "James said you were all on your best behaviour, thank you for that. But we're going to need some time alone together, though, I hope you can understand."
Getting a round of nods, all of them went their own separate ways, including Skittles. Opening the front door, I let Fluttershy enter first.
She put Zoe in her bassinet and sat down on the couch and smiled at me, patting the cushion next to her.
"Pick Zoe back up, I want to get a picture," I asked, so she did and I set up my holo-imager then quickly sat down next to my girls.
"Say cheese!"
