//------------------------------// // Pregnant Anticipation // Story: Earning Freedom // by Daxisle //------------------------------// Pregnant Anticipations The world was quiet, not on account of there being no noise, but due to one hell of a round of shock. Annabelle sat across from the apple pony, her shocked and bewildered expression matching his own. Macitnosh was still processing Discord's words. He wanted to think he was just messing with him, or wrong. Yea, that had to be it, right? He was the god of chaos! He made it his lot in life to mess with others. What he said couldn't be true, how would he know anyways? 'Well, it's not like you didn't commit the act to make a foal... a dozen times... a week.' Mac blushed and his breath quickened. This was... how could... they were careful! They did everything they were supposed to do! He never... inside her... and with the protection... just... HOW?! "Macintosh?" His eyes narrowed to pinpricks as he turned his gaze to a very timid Annabelle. She averted her gaze, attempting to look him in the eye and failing repeatedly. "I- um... I don't, I don't know what..." Tears started to form in her eyes, her once milky voice now a shrill tremble. Was it true? Was she really pregnant? "A- are ya?" She looked up at him, fear and uncertainty in her saphire blue eyes. "I... I don't know." Ice shot up the Macintosh's spine and up through his chest. What if she was? What would happen? What would he do? What could he do? A foal, a foal was on the way! His foal, a foal that he'd be responsible for, foal? Infant? Baby? Food? Diaper? What do, what do, what do- 'Get ahold of yourself, man!' It was a little late for that, the shocked stallion could barely get ahold of his breath, let alone his mind. He could feel his breathing quicken against his will, his muscles twitching from the excess oxygen and heart rate. There were ways to break delicate news, and that was not one of them. 'Alright, alright. It's... a bomb shell, but getting all worked up like this isn't going to help! Look if Annabelle is pregnant than she's going to- I know she'll need me, I'm alright. I'm okay, just... wow. It took him a moment, but Mac eventually got his breathing under control regained his facilities. He saw his marefriend, the potential mother of his unborn child, shaking uncontrollably. In an instant he lept forward and embraced her in a bone crushing hug. He could scarcely imagine what she was going through at that moment. If she was pregnant, it was her that would have the little foal inside. He'd need to be there, he'd need to take care of her and the baby. "Macintosh..." The mare asked. "I- if I am with foal, will you... will you stay?" Cringing, the stallion tensed. He knew the ideas of the country and out of wedlock pregnancies, how single mothers without a partners were treated and seen. Granny was very forthcoming with how the community initially treated her and how alone she was. There were some ponies who helped her out, but most weren't as accepting back then. And if Derpy's treatment was any indication, things hadn't changed much either. "O' course Ah will." Said Mac, gently easing his grip and rubbing her back. "Don't ya worry none, if'n ya are with chil' we'll figure it out. Ah promise, ah ain't goin' no where." Slowly, Annabelle reached up and returned the hug. The dam was breaking, and in seconds a gentle hiccup escalated into full on sobs. Sobs of both fear and joy. Machintosh cleared his mind as best he could and started trying to figure things out. He'd just been told that he was the emotional stability in his friends' lives, and immediately fell apart upon hearing his marefriend pregnant. That couldn't happen again, things were going to change. A foal may be soon born to him and he'd be responsible for it's health, safety and well being. Falling apart was no longer an option, for anything. Spike let a sigh of relief go as soon as the steam engine had it's power valve switched from to relief. The group completed their clean up for the next day and met up in the break room. "Well, today went well." Blade declared, nursing a cup of water. Chopper shook his head. "Yea, after Sin finally got it through his head that he wasn't fit to work the loadin'." He looked over to Jacker who'd just locked up his office. "What'd ya have to tell the guy to get him to stop?" "That I'd fire him if he didn't go home." Jacker replied tiredly. Spike pressed his lips and took a drink of water. It was pretty sad to watch the stallion continually buckle under the pain in both his chest and hooves, Sin was trying and everyone could see it, but he was soaked in sweat after the first hour of work, standing on trembling legs and cringing with every step. He was still hurting, that much was obvious but he swore up and down that he could handle the work. "Kid's tough, I'll give 'em that." Chopper declared. "But he shoulda known better then to come in today, all covered in bandages and what not." "Yea, it also didn't help that Ax constantly egged him on with his 'don't be no bitch', thing." Fiona declared, glaring daggers at the more more reclusive twin. Ax merely shrugged and continued eating his sandwich. "Regardless, I told him he's not to come back until he's properly healed." The manager declared, eyeing each and every one of his employees, making sure they understood that they would be held to account on the matter. The message was clear and received. "Spike, you and Cranky can handle the conveyor loading for a while." Cranky gave an ambiguous grunt before walking out the door and the dragon nodded in the affirmative. It did irritate him slightly, but he couldn't be mad, Sin would have probably killed himself trying before admitting that he couldn't do the job anymore. Couldn't be angry with that kind of determination. After another fifteen minutes of general conversation, the group dispersed and headed home for the day. Tomorrow was Friday and Spike was looking forward to a weekend of rest and relaxation after a long work week. As for today, he was going to see how Twilight was doing. He wasn't sure if Uppity's presence was going to help, but he had hope. As he walked to the library, he saw a familiar cream colored pegasus mare at one of the few remaining market shop stands, asking Carrot Top (or Golden Harvest was it?) for something. As he approached, he observed Scootaloo standing behind Fluttershy and gave a wave, the filly returned the gesture. "What's going on?" he whispered. "Fluttershy's out of carrots, she say's her rabbit wont eat anything else today." The orange filly replied. Spike rolled his eyes, he never liked that bunny and couldn't understand for the life of him why Fluttershy put up with it. "Oh please, Angel hasn't eaten anything all day. I'm worried he'll starve if he doesn't eat something soon." Fluttershy pleaded. And nothing of value would be lost. 'Wow dude, I think you've been spending a little too much time around Sin.' Telling me I'm wrong? 'No, but still... Eventually, Carrot Top sighed, rolled her eyes and committed the desired commerce. Fluttershy thanked her repeatedly before turning around and running nose first into Spike. She froze as soon as contact was made, the two sharing a moment of closeness that the drake would call a grave violation of personal space, yet as green eyes met turquoise, he couldn't find it in himself to move. As quickly as it happened, both moved away, blushing heavily. Fluttershy was the first to regain herself and apologized profusely, saying she didn't notice him, stuttering all the while. Spike cleared his throat and placated the frantic mare before asking how she was doing. "I'm doing alright, thank you for asking." She lied meekly. Her eyes looking anywhere but at him. Of course, he wasn't just going to let that slide. "Alright, maybe I'm not doing alright." She admitted. Spike, being the nice guy he was, offered to walk her home and listen to her plight, to which Fluttershy agreed. He'd sort of knew what was bothering her already though. He bid Scootaloo a farewell and the two began walking. As expected she was worried about Twilight as well as the rest of her friends, especially Rarity, who'd yet to come out of her Boutique home. The buttermilk pegasus had taken it upon herself to go grocery shopping for the marred fashionista, making sure she was eating right and had pleasant company. However the unicorn wasn't coping well with all the bruising that the changelings had inflicted. Spike initially dismissed this as her being her typically over dramatic self, but Fluttershy shook her head and said that the alabaster unicorn's behavior was much more subdued than dramatic. "She isn't crying or anything, Spike. It's like she's just... shut down." She frowned. "She doesn't even cry anymore, all she does is either lay in bed or sit quietly on the couch. It's gotten so bad that even Opal's trying to comfort her." 'Opal? Opalescence? The cat that's mean as a snake to anypony but Fluttershy? That Opal's trying to... Oh sweet Celestia.' "I know I've got no right to ask this after what happened, but could you check up on her tomorrow for me? I... I need to talk to Twilight." "Yea, sure thing, Fluttershy?" He patted her on the back. "Do you know what you're going to say? When you see her, I mean." The pegasus stopped walking and gulped. "No... " She admitted, her wings fidgeting with irritation. She took a breath, "I don't know what I'm going to say to her. I've already apologized and I don't know what else I'm supposed to do... I've never been in the situation of earning somepony else's forgiveness before. You know, besides that Assertiveness thing." How could anyone forget? Still that did leave her with something to think about. They finally arrived at the cottage and parted ways with kind words. Fifteen minutes later, Spike found himself outside of Golden Oaks library and knocked on the door. Uppity answered with a warm but tired smile. "Hello there, Spike, right?" The dragon nodded and followed her in. The library was in a little better shape, not much but the sink was clear at least. "Sorry, but I'm afraid Twilight's asleep. I was just in the process of cleaning the place up." Well that wasn't fair, Spike thought to himself before grabbing the feather duster. Uppity detured him from work, but Spike argued that she shouldn't be the only one cleaning. It wasn't her responsibility anyways, and besides, it was the least he could do. "So how is she?" He asked, dusting the mental. Uppity sighed and explained that Twilight was holding back a little more than she initially let on. To the dragon's disturbia, his mother's anger wasn't directed at her friends, but at the changeling queen. The librarian admitted that she fantasized about hunting down Chrysalis and finishing her off as revenge for what she'd done. It terrified him to think about. Twilight was a good pony and the idea of her doing... what he had done made his stomach churn. He could still smell the blood on his claws every time he thought about that day. He could still remember the unbridled desire to kill, to shred and rip and tear. It made him sick now, but back then? When all he could think about was revenge and justice, anger and hate felt righteous and justified. He couldn't let her fall into that. "After that, we talked until the early morning. She was emotionally exhausted and has been up and down asleep ever since. I brought her dinner a while ago, there's left overs if you're feeling hungry." Uppity offered. The dragon thanked her for the offer and after a good hour of cleaning, sat down at the table and dined on the green bean casserole. It was a decent meal, he'd had better but he wasn't about to say it out loud. Once he'd finished, Uppity asked about how Sin was doing and if he handled the mill okay. Spike made a face and told her that he'd been sent home. Uppity's eyes widened and she asked if he was alright. "Yea, he's fine just, his injuries kept him too limited." He answered honestly. "Ugh, why are stallions like that?!" The mare groaned. "Always trying to push themselves and show how tough they are all the time. With as smart as he is, you'd think he'd have better sense!" Spike chuckled. "Ain't that the truth." He paused. "Speaking of him, he wasn't really acting like himself too much last night. You wouldn't know why, do you?" Her flinch was all Spike needed to see to know that she did, but the explanation she gave both confused and interested him. Uppity said she couldn't speak too much on it, but apparently his grandfather had come to visit him in Canterlot a few days ago. At first they seemed to be getting along really well, but then something happened and he and Sin got into a huge fight over it. Spike pressed for details, but Uppity just shook her head, declaring that she wasn't sure what all they were talking about, only that she'd never seen Sin as angry as he was. "I'll be honest, I've never been scared of him before. He's a chauvinist who doesn't care about discrimination or the feelings of others. But he's always been calm and logical about it... It was the first time I'd ever seen him get angry before. I mean really angry, I thought he was going to hurt somepony." She admitted. As if Twilight's admission wasn't enough to disturb the dragon today. Sin getting emotional? Letting his anger show and the mare before him grimacing in fear, he needed to talk to him about that. That must have been what was making him act so strangely last night, Spike had asked the Federalist what was bothering him this morning, but Sin said he didn't need to worry about it. Yelling at your grandfather, a pony you did nothing but praise, didn't sound like nothing to Spike, though.