Decent News? Maybe?
Macintosh paced around the waiting room of the doctor's office, his mind racing back and forth between if he did or didn't the pregnancy to be confirmed. Nurse Red Heart had tried to get him to calm down, but only half hearted attempts to save face for the other clients whom waited in the staril white and grey waiting room.
Fact was that he had used up all of his "calm" telling his friends about the news. The powers of uncertainty were stronger than he'd have liked. If there wasn't a foal coming, Macintosh would be vastly relieved. He wasn't ready for this, and if he was being honest, neither was Annabelle; she could be a good mother, but he wasn't sure if she would be. Never seeing her interact with foals before, outside of Applebloom of course, which she always seemed to handle rather well.
On the other hoof though, he'd also be disappointed. Part of him... had already accepted that he'd soon be a father. He looked forward to it, kind of. To have a little baby smiling warmly at him made his heart flutter, even if it was a time consuming, flatulent, crying machine. He remembered how he cared for Applebloom when she was a foal and smiled to himself.
Babies were precious things, little lives that were to be nurtured and cherished by both parents. The joy they brought and love they felt was the most real and unwavering thing in the world. More powerful than even the love of husband and wife, he would say. He also felt a duty to the foal, a duty to protect and provide for them, to play and cuddle and laugh.
As conflicted over the whole thing as he was, he'd accept whatever happened. It may not be today or a year from now, but someday: Big Macintosh Apple would be a father, with hope for Annabelle being the mother.
A somber smile crept onto his face and he stopped pacing.
He'd had the thought occasionally of being a parent. Of coming in from a long day of work and having a young colt or filly calling him, running up and excitedly hugging his leg, saying how much they missed him and telling them all about their day. It was a warm feeling, to be needed and loved.
"Macintosh?" Said Red Heart. "This way please." She walked through the double doors that lead to the back. Mac took a breath preparing himself for whatever news he'd be receiving. He'd accepted what would happen, one way or another.
Spike sat with both Twilight and Uppity at Sugar Cube corner for some delicious and savory fudge. Sin's depressing and distracted attitude had come back full force after Macintosh left, driving the drake out of the house and to visit Twilight. The librarian was happy to see him and looked a lot more cheerful than she was before. She wasn't back to normal, but it was still progress.
Uppity suggested that the three of them get out of Golden Oaks for a while and have some fun around town, getting Twilight out of the library sounded like a pretty good idea. The lavender mare loved sweets and a good helping of chocolate would be just the thing she needed to get out of the rest of her funk. Well not completely, but every little bit helped.
As the three of them spoke, Spike shook his head. Twilight was recounting the dragon migration and how he was standing up to a group of fellow wyrms had nearly convinced him to destroy a phoenix egg. It wasn't something he liked to talk or hear about, it was a very shameful and personal experience, but to see his mother light up and be so open was well worth the humiliation.
"Hey guys." Pinkie said, a little more subdued, but still relatively happy. "Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all!" Twilight declared between giggle snorts. "I was just telling Uppity here about that little incident with Spike and the dragon migration."
"Oh I remember that!" The party mare said, taking an empty seat. The conversation continued on and Spike's smile faded into a content smirk as Twilight and Pinkie began to navigate between different stories and other misadventures. It felt good seeing them laugh and tease eachother again, he didn't feel any tension or reservation. The feelings and words spoken were healing the rift between the two, each making the effort to reach out and mend the friendship that had been broken.
"Oh boy, I still can't believe those two colts actually went into the Everfree Forest and found an Ursa Minor!" Pinkie giggled. "It's a good thing you were there, Twilight. Trixie wasn't anywhere near as 'great and powerful' as she lead on."
Spike chuckled and shook his head as he recalled the memory of the show mare. He honestly felt a little bad for her, he'd never seen the entirety of Ponyville unite against a single pony before. It was painful watching her try to maintain her stage person after the humiliation she was put through.
"Ohmigosh, I'm so sorry, I totally forgot to introduce myself." Pinkie declared, her bubble personality fully restored. "My name's Pinkie Pie, it's nice to meet you!"
Uppity returned the greeting, and when questioned about her being in Ponyville, "I'm here to help Twilight out with a few things." She said "Though, it looks like the situations resolving itself." The unicorn pointed out, seeing the somber expression Pinkie was taking on. "Spike, would you mind coming with me for a while? I think these two have some catching up to do."
The drake nodded and bid his farewells, any and all reservation being immediately dispelled as his mother gave him a genuinely happy smile. Twilight would be fine, he knew that if nothing else, this would help her figure out how to establish the bonds between and her other friends.
Once out of Sugar Cube Corner, Spike sighed with relief.
"How's Sin doing?" Uppity asked, looking down at the drake.
Tensing up again, Spike silently cursed the mare for ruining his good mood. He was still offended by what the pony had said to him yesterday and told Uppity everything the pony had said.
The unicorn mare stopped walking and blinked, her ears dropped as her body slumped in defeat.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." The purple drake's apology was quickly dismissed as Uppity shook her head.
"It's not your fault, I'm just... I don't know what to do about him." She admitted with a tired sigh. "I've tried to be a good friend to him. I've reached out so many times and done everything I know how to make him open up. He's opened up to me a little bit, but he's still holding so much back..." She turned and looked at the drake, her face ridden with uncertainty and self doubt. "Be honest with me, please. Does... does Sin still resent me for trying to... you know, put him in jail?"
"What? No, of course not." Spike declared with absolute certainty. It was more of a front, since Sin hadn't spoken about the ordeal once since it happened. Though, Sin exposing his feelings on anything was an anomaly as rare as seeing a shooting star in the city of Las Pegasus. "What makes you say that?"
The two sat down on a shaded bench and watch the noon time crowd as it shuffled by.
"Because he's never told me about his feelings." Uppity said solemnly. "I know he's passionate about politics and economics, he loves freedom and liberty to the point it's almost an obsession. I know he's from the Federation, and one of the smartest stallions I've ever met. Which is saying alot."
"But... that's really all I know about him." Spike felt the heavy weight of sympathy course through his shoulders. He could see the disappointment and rejection in her eyes, and it broke his heart.
"At first, I found his stoicism and bluntness attractive. Even when it wasn't in his better interest to do so, he called out Celestia on her helping him against me in the trial. If it were anyone else, they'd have happily sat back and laughed as I was humiliated by the princess. But he didn't." She blushed and smiled.
Spike nodded as he recalled the memory. Sin remained respectful to most everypony he came across, or so the drake had thought. With what he'd heard last night, he really wasn't sure what to believe about the pony.
"That's why I fell in love with him, I think." Uppity declared wistfully as she laid back and looked up at the branches above them. "I know he isn't all that well spoken when it comes to his emotions. I think he likes to pretend he doesn't have any, but he does." She closed her eyes and her smile grew. "Anytime he and I would debate about our views, I could always hear the passion and understanding in his voice. He understood where I came from and, even though he could, he never down played my beliefs. He'd disagree, but he'd never be mean about it."
She turned back to him, offering a warm smile. "I know he's hard to get along with, but I also know that for all of his cynicism and bitterness, there's a good pony deep down inside him."
"How are you so sure of that?" Spike asked, indulging a thought. Uppity quirked a curious brow. "I mean, he has no problem watching other ponies suffer and said he'd be happy to see it if the pony was too stupid to help themselves. Does that really sound like a good pony to you?"
To his surprise, Uppity shook her head and gently hummed in the negative. It was an innocent kind of noise, one someone would think to come from a child rather than a full grown mare. "No, but I do know that he's embittered against the ponies he's talking about. I think... if it came down to it, he'd do for them the same thing he did for Macintosh."
Spike furrowed his brow, trying to remember what exactly the Federalist had done for Mac. He had it right on the back of his mind, but it took Uppity saying that apple pony was in jail for him to fully remember.
Of course, how could he forget? Even after Macintosh had willingly gone to jail for no reason at all, Sin had helped him escape. That was an inconsistency to everything that Sin espoused last night! If he really believed that those foolish enough to get themselves killed or hurt deserve to suffer, than why did he help the red stallion? Or any of the other ponies for that matter? They could have just as easily helped themselves, but instead of standing back and letting nature take it's course, the Federalist stepped forward and offered help to those in need.
"I think he's just talking tough because of how vulnerable he is." Spike frowned thoughtfully at the mare's words.
She continued on in a depressingly wistful monotone, pointing out what had been taken from Sin lately. His ability to work and care for himself, his magical invulnerability, how easily Chrysalis had beaten and almost killed him and how he was forced to stay in a hospital bed. "I guess, if I were him, my pride and ego would be pretty hurt too."
"Pride and ego?" The drake asked incredulously, he was more worried about life and limb than feelings. Though her explanation did seem to make a lot of sense. Sin lived life like he didn't need anyone else, like everypony in the world could disappear tomorrow and the pony would be perfectly fine on his own.
"He takes a lot of pride in being an individual. Being the pony who can handle everything on his own. Sin doesn't want to need anypony else, for him, needing others is a sign of weakness..." Uppity's smile dropped to a depressed scowl. "I just wish he wouldn't be that way with me. I want to feel needed, but I feel like he still resents me for what I did to him that day and the fact I'm his parole officer..."
"Let me ask you something. What is Sin to you?" It was a simple question, but Uppity's tilted head demanded an explanation. Spike thought back to what he'd heard today about Macintosh and Annabelle, he knew the two were in love and wanted to be together forever, was that what Uppity wanted with Sin?
Blushing, the unicorn cleared her throat. "Umm," she started but paused. "I would..." A pained grimace paused her again and she sighed. "I want to be with him, but with as closed off as he is and how tartarus-bent he is to try to be Mr. Handles-everything-himself, I just don't see it happening." She fidgeted with her hooves. "I may not know much about friendship or stuff like that, but I do know that it takes two to make a relationship work..."
Spike was about to retort but thought better of it. For all he honestly knew, Sin didn't care for Uppity in the least. He'd never mentioned her at all, never exposed any dreams or aspirations towards a romantic relationship with her or anything. It was kind of hard to believe that anyone could have feelings like that for him, but to each their own he supposed.
The conversation pretty much trailed off after that with the two making awkward attempts to speak about more inconsequential topics like how their respective jobs were going. When outside of deep conversations, Spike found that Uppity was less than sociable. It became kind of awkward when she started giving only one worded answers to any question he asked, even open ended ones. Eventually he stopped trying and elected to sit in silent contemplation.
He didn't like how depressed and helpless Uppity looked, it made him feel equally helpless. She was a good pony, nice and caring who took time out to help Twilight and try to befriend Sin. She didn't deserve to feel the way she was and he was going to have another talk with Sin about it. This time, though, he'd be ready for whatever cynical bull crap the stallion threw his way.
'Are you sure that's a good idea? Yea, you've got some dirt on him now, but he's smarter than you are. A lot smarter.'
Yea, and?
It didn't matter what his voice of reason said, Spike couldn't stand by and let this happen. Sin needed to fix this, it was his fault for being emotionally withdrawn and if he had no intention on following through with Uppity, than it was his responsibility to tell her that so she could move on.
"Anni!"
The sudden noise made Spike nearly jump out of his skin. His shock turned to delight as soon as he saw both Macintosh and Annabelle walking past, both looking very happy.
The four of them exchanged pleasantries. "So, did you guys go to the doctor?"
"Eyup."
Annabelle smiled and placed a forehoof on her stomach. "We're having a baby."