//------------------------------//
// Holes in the Veil 
// Story: Moonlight Harvest 
// by insertbronyhere 
//------------------------------//

	Every other time Flutterbat had taken over for the night, Fluttershy had always woken up feeling energized and refreshed. This morning, however, she was almost too exhausted to roll out of bed. It made sense, she supposed, that one's alter ego having an existential meltdown would be rather draining. Insofar as any part of this situation made some form of sense. Ugh.
With a shaky yawn, she flopped onto the floor and halfheartedly stretched her wings out. As soon as he noticed his caretaker was awake, Angel Bunny hopped in front of her, tapping his foot and pointing at the clock with a disapproving frown. She looked up at the timepiece with eyes that refused to focus, scrunching her face as she tried to recall her plans for the day. Perhaps it was just her unrested mind playing tricks on her, but the clock seemed to have turned into a face.
"Running a little behind schedule, aren't we?" came a smarmy voice from the clock. No, her eyes were just fine.
Fluttershy yawned. "Mmmmorning, Discord..."
"Morning?" Discord chuckled, retreating into the clock and reappearing beneath Fluttershy to lift her to her hooves. "It's a quarter past noon. Tree Hugger is already making tea."
That woke her up. "Tree Hugger is here?!"


MOONLIGHT HARVEST
by [insert brony here]
Chapter Four


The pegasus was torn between excitement and apology as she headed downstairs to greet her friend. Tree had been on some sort of spirit quest for 7 weeks that required total isolation from other ponies; Fluttershy had missed her a lot.
She found both her friends in the living room. Discord had, of course, traveled by his own means already, and had made the teapot grow wings to pour their cups itself. She immediately ran to embrace Tree, who laughed at her friend's excitement as she reciprocated.
"Hey, Shy," she mused in her usual soft drone. "I was just telling Discord about my meditations on chaos and order. I saw beautiful and enlightening things in the æther."
Discord nodded with a surprisingly genuine smile. "It's really wonderful to finally have a friend who understands chaos from the inside."
Fluttershy sat in her usual chair with a tired smile. "You'll have to tell me all about your journey. I've missed having you over for tea."
"You look wiped out, dude," Tree said with a sympathetic smile. "Fortunately, I have the remedy." She gestured to the awkwardly flying teapot as it tipped backwards, pouring Fluttershy's tea from the handle rather than the spout. "Lemon ginger with ginseng, for energy and focus," she explained with a mystical flourish of her hoof.
Shy smiled her gratitude to Discord as the pot sat down on the table and shed its wings, then turned her attention back to Tree Hugger. "So, do tell us about your time away. I'm sure you've had a lot of interesting revelations."
The earth mare chuckled softly. "It cannot be justly told, one must experience it to understand," she mused. "I have found peace in chaos, beauty in dissonance... Perhaps Discord would take you to the Chaos Realm some time for your enlightenment?" she suggested, glancing at the draconequus.
"The Chaos Realm? Fluttershy?" he asked, his eyes darting uncertainly between the mares. "I've been wary to take her; she's rather... fragile."
"Mmmm..." Tree nodded slowly, closing her eyes. "It is a harsh environment if you aren't properly centered."
Fluttershy blushed softly, hiding her sheepish look by taking a sip of her tea. When she looked back up, she found Tree staring at her, looking somewhat confused.
"U-um, is something wrong?" the pegasus asked, unnerved by the look on her friend's face.
"I can't put my hoof on it," she replied softly, tapping her forehooves together, "but your aura feels... different. Like, bigger?"
Oh no, what if she can sense Flutterbat?! No, wait, Flutterbat was there before I met Tree Hugger... Then what...?
The green mare's eyes suddenly grew wide, and she gasped as her face lit up. "Dude, you're gravid!"
"PFFFT!"
"Whoa!" Tree had to duck as Discord did a spit-take, spewing shards of teacup across the room. The tea itself remained floating in a dome shape between his hands as he looked at Fluttershy in disbelief.
The pegasus gulped and nodded, blushing profusely. Discord's jaw dropped, detaching from his face and falling into his tea with an exaggerated ploink. After blinking a few times, he slurped up the tea in the process of putting his jaw back on, where it helped the rest of his face form a scowl.
"I know I didn't impregnate you," he growled. "Are you cheating on me?"
"What?!" It was Fluttershy's turn to drop her jaw, albeit within the bounds of physics.
"I didn't stutter!"
Tree Hugger raised a hoof. "Uh, should I leave?"
"No," Shy insisted, waving a hoof at her. "I'm gonna need some help re-centering after this. Discord! Kitchen! Now!"
Discord made his way into the kitchen by turning 2-dimensional, shrinking, and regaining his depth beyond the doorway. The various animals in her care scattered as Fluttershy quickly followed by wing, hovering face-to-face with him, her nose barely an inch from his. "What is the meaning of this?! What are you talking about?" she demanded in a hushed shout.
"I'm talking about my marefriend" --he emphasized the word by roughly poking her chest-- "sleeping with somepony else!"
"Your marefriend?!" she repeated, looking as confused as she was angry. "No one ever told me we were together! What in Equestria gave you that idea?!"
"Oh, I don't know," he growled, rolling his eyes, "all the lunch dates, the tea parties, the strolls through the woods, the deep and personal conversations--"
"All the things I do with all my other friends on a regular basis!"
"The way you wormed your way into my heart to 'reform' me?!"
"Again, friendship, Discord!" Fluttershy had lost her forced hush by now and was yelling in his face. "Just because I was the first pony with the patience to put up with you doesn't make it love! And furthermore," she screamed, jabbing him in the chest with a hoof, "if you honestly thought that we were together, then how do you explain Hearts and Hooves Day" --Discord shrank back, but Fluttershy stayed right in his face-- "when you melted in here in the middle of the night, so drunk you were slurring your species, bragging at the top of your voice about what a great lay Princess Celestia is?! If you honestly believed you could be with two mares at once, you are the last person with any right to tell me I can't sleep with whomever I choose!"
She paused to catch her breath, her eyes stinging with the onset of tears. "And why didn't you ever just tell me how you felt about me?!"
"I-I-I-I, I thought it was clear..." Discord's glare had given way to a look bordering on fear at this point, his voice wavering. "Y-y-you don't...?"
"No, Discord," she replied, getting her teeth, "I don't love you! You... are a wonderful friend, but if you aren't satisfied with that," she paused to take a deep breath her lungs didn't seem to want to contain, "then get out of my house!"
As if her voice were accompanied by a strong gust of wind, Discord disintegrated and slowly blew out the window. When the last speck of him was gone, the pegasus fell onto her side sobbing, curling up in a ball enclosed by her wings. She might have laid there forever, but a gentle hoof pressed between her wings before long.
"Shhh, sit up, Shy," Tree Higher softly said. The pegasus sniffled and did as she was told. "Good, now stretch your wings, open the chest... and breeeeathe. Out with the pain, in with the energy... Good."
Tree Hugger guided her friend through a few more exercises to help her calm down. When Fluttershy could breathe normally again, she sighed.
"What do I do, Treesy?" she asked, almost begged. "I-I don't want to lose Discord as a friend, a-and I certainly don't want him as an enemy..."
"Peace, Fluttershy, don't work yourself up again," the earth mare replied in a motherly tone. "I'll talk to him. If anypony can reason with a creature of chaos, it'd be me."
Shy simply nodded, staring at her mostly full teacup. After a long moment, she sighed. "Did anyone ever clean up Discord's cup?" she asked, all enthusiasm drained from her voice. One of the squirrels chittered from the corner. "Thank you."
Tree Hugger watched her friend for several minutes in silence, growing concerned as Shy only continued to stare at her drink. Finally, she stood over the pegasus, pulling her chin up to make eye contact. "Flutters, don't worry about it," she insisted. "You're having a baby, right? This is a beautiful thing. Rejoice!"
Fluttershy gave a small smile and nodded, but immediately went back to looking forlorn. Tree sighed.
"Tell ya what, I'm gonna run home and grab a few things for you," she offered. "Birth is a blessing, but it's also a trial. You'll need all the help you can get. I'll be back in a few, 'kay?"
Fluttershy halfheartedly nodded, her eyes still locked to her reflection in her cup.

It may have been several minutes or an eternity, Fluttershy couldn't tell, but Tree kept her word, letting herself back in with a saddlebag on her side. She sat on the rug in the middle of the room, patting the ground beside her as an invitation. With a sigh, Shy set down her tea and joined her friend on the floor as she deposited the contents of the bag between them.
"What's all this?"
Tree gave an almost smug smile. "Gifts for the expectant mother." She gestured first to a few bottles of vitamins, "Supplements for your health and the foal's," several sticks of incense, "fragrances to tame your unpredictable emotions," a recipe book, "a good, all-natural diet," another book, "and some new yoga routines to help guide your chakras to the womb and prepare your body for birth."
Fluttershy smiled at the earth pony, picking up the incense for a quick smell. "Oh, that's lovely," she sighed happily, the mere sample already doing wonders for her mood. "Thank you."
"These are the earth's gifts," Tree replied with a chuckle, waving a hoof dismissively. "Your only payment is to take care of the precious life you've created."
Shy grinned and hugged her friend before continuing to pore over the items on the carpet. She tilted her head when she spotted an eggshell-colored rubber ball amidst her gifts. "What's the ball for?"
"Oh, yeah," Tree said, picking up the item in question with a smirk. "This is a kegel ball. Very important exercise if you want the birth itself to go smoothly."
"How does a bouncy ball help?" Fluttershy asked, tilting her head in confusion.
Tree shook her head with a laugh. "You don't bounce it, filly. It's for pelvic floor exercise," she explained. "You nest it in the birth canal and sq--"
"Wait, what?" Fluttershy blinked, staring at the ball. Surely she'd misheard.
Tree rolled her eyes with a good-natured smile. "It goes in your vag, dude. You squeeze it to develop muscle control so you can bear your foal relatively quick and painless."
"Wha-- b-but that sounds terribly uncomfortable."
"Nah, maybe a little when you pop it in, but once it's in, you won't even know it's there."
Fluttershy just stared at the ball in disbelief. "U-um... h-how much, uh, do I squeeze it?"
Tree shrugged. "A few dozen times, just whenever," she suggested. "It won't fall out on its own, so you can leave it in all day if you want, exercise anytime, anyplace. Just take it out and wash it when you bathe."
Shy still only looked at the ball uncertainly, blushing a bit. "Y-you said anytime, but... won't someone notice?"
Her friend snickered. "Nah, filly, flexing your pelvic floor doesn't do anything visible. I have my ball in all the time, I'm doing it right now."
The pegasus found her eyes wandering between Tree's legs before she could stop herself, lingering just long enough to register a lack of noticeable motion before she looked away, blushing hard.
The earth mare simply chuckled and offered Fluttershy the ball in her hoof. "Trust me, it'll do you a lot of good, and nopony'll know."
"O-okay," Shy relented, taking the ball in her own hooves. She then blinked and raised an eyebrow at Tree Hugger. "Wait, why do you have one? A-are you pregnant too?" she asked, her face beginning to light up.
"Wha--oh, nah," Tree replied, chuckling softly. "A trained pelvic floor also has its applications to lovemaking," she explained with a wink.
Fluttershy blushed even harder. "O-OH. I-I see..."
Tree Hugger snickered and patted her friend in the back. "Like I said, it'll do you a world of good. But you can worry about that later." She picked up the yoga book and started rifling through the pages. "You wanna get started on some of these exercises?"
"Okay," Fluttershy replied with a nod, setting the kegel ball aside for now. "I'll light some incense."


MacIntosh wiped the sweat from his brow and shrugged off his tilling harness in the barn, stepping out to admire the sunset as it cast a pinkish glow across the bare field he'd worked so hard on today. He simply stood there in serene silence as the sun sank further into the horizon. Unfortunately, his peace was soon broken by his sister's voice approaching from his left.
"Big MacIntosh Apple!"
Mac stiffened up. She sounded far from pleased. "Eeyup?"
Applejack stomped her way directly in front of him, scowling up at him. He met her glare with a calm look that only barely betrayed his confusion.
"Why in the hell am Ah hearin' things from Rarity that Ah oughta've heard from you first?" the smaller Apple demanded, looking no less intimidating for her size.
"Don't rightly know what you're talking about," Mac replied coolly.
"Oh, don't give me that shit," she fired back. "Rare's all about some gossip, but she don't make up seein' ponies actin' sweet on each other. She said you 'n' Fluttershy been sneakin' around at night for months, and--"
"Now, hold it right there, Applejack," he interrupted firmly, but calmly. "She's got the wrong idea. Fluttershy asked me to tutor her so she could build up the confidence to audition for the Ponytones, that's all we been up to after dark."
AJ scoffed dismissively. "Okay, then what about all the hush-hush, talkin' out of earshot of the others during rehearsal? That part o' your tutoring?"
Mac sighed. Time to dig the rabbit hole deeper. "She... she likes me, Applejack," he said softly, pretending to be bashful. "And I've grown pretty fond of her myself."
Applejack's ears and shoulders drooped, her expression softening. "Well, why hide that? What, ya think Ah'm some possessive thing that don't want anypony datin' her brother?"
"No, it ain't--"
"Then why?" she insisted. "I'm happy for you, what's wrong with that?"
"It's--" he sighed, "it's Fluttershy. She don't want our relationship to be the talk o' the town; you know she ain't fond of attention."
Applejack bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah, Ah guess you're right. Ah'm sorry for drillin' ya, Ah'm just hurt thatcha wouldn't tell your own sister you were seein' somepony." She looked up at him with a smile. "You know Ah like seein' mah family grow, and Fluttershy's one o' mah best friends. How could Ah disapprove?"
Mac smiled back, though his eyes held a shadow of sadness. "Again, it ain't about your approval. It's Shy. She's, well, shy," he explained with a chuckle, which AJ joined him in.
"Alright, I'll talk to Rarity in the mornin', get this all cleared up 'fore it gets out too far. Right now, Granny's waitin' on us to show up for dinner," she informed him, glancing out across the fields as the last sliver of the sun shrank away. "Nice work tillin', by the way. Couldn'a done better mahself."
MacIntosh smiled at his sister. Applejack ran the farm with an iron hoof most days, taking for granted the hard work that went into meeting her standards; it was good to hear some praise for his efforts.
Without another word, the two headed for their house, following the rich aroma of Granny Smith's zap apple pie cooling in the window.