Sunset Shimmer splashed cold water on her face. Time just...went on. This was the thousandth time she had gone out late at night to get some strange order of food for her wife. She had heard stories of this sort of thing before but had never realized how true and bizarre it really was. That and Twilight was having these terrible mood swings. No doubt powered by the frustrating nature of her extra weight and pains.
The redhead dried her face with a towel and left the bathroom. Twilight was there sitting upright of the sofa, but she was asleep. She looked so peaceful now that Sunset couldn't help but be grateful her spouse was resting again. She sat down next to her with extreme care. The large tummy held their child inside and Sunset gently laid her hand on it with a proud smile.
She never thought she'd be a mother and certainly not the one who wasn't carrying. At least the guard at the door was on the outside now. They had come to know each of the shift guards well over the months but it was still bothersome to not ever feel alone with one's own family. And speaking of family, Rainbow Dash was scheduled to be back tomorrow from Adagio's. Those two were like glue, but Dashie was not one to be away from soccer trials for long.
“Mmm,” Twilight hummed in her sleep, her glasses still on and a little crooked.
Sunset yawned. She was feeling sleepy herself. Correction, she admitted to herself: very sleepy. She just had so many things to do that she needed to stay focused before retiring for the night. Like making sure the bills were ready to be sent off tomorrow...
With weariness in her cyan eyes, Sunset got back up and traveled to the counter. For only a second, she wished she was in Twilight's place instead so she could get off from doing the more tedious and tiring chores of life. Then she considered her wife's massive belly, the troubles that went with it, and the emotional turmoil. It made her work through the bills that much more content.
It was a quiet day. For the most part. Applejack had been over for a visit earlier and, though she was now gone, the apple pie she had left behind was still giving off a pleasing aroma. Twilight had a slice when it was first brought over. Now half of it was gone and she was chewing on a celery stick. As for Sunset Shimmer, she had left just afterward to get some official work done at the invention shop.
In Sunset's usual spot on the sofa was Rainbow Dash, who was staring at Twilight's round pregnant belly.
“Want to feel the baby, Dashie?” Twilight offered pleasantly around her celery munching. She was about to switch to a bowl of oats next to her.
The athlete's expression started as mortified and then worked its way into disdain. “No thanks. It's like an alien's in there or something...”
Twilight giggled at her friend's childish behavior. “Well, some people do find the shapes of early fetal development to be strange.”
Seeing the girl adjust her thick-rimmed glasses alerted Rainbow to an incoming scientific lecture. She headed it off, as she had become quite skilled to do. “Hey, I thought Sunny got the mail this morning. Where'd she put it?”
Twilight's eyes lost the sparkle they always had when she was given the chance to lecture. Her smile dropped just a hair. “Over on the counter – as always.”
Rainbow hopped up from the sofa, turned the A/C on as she went since it was a tad warm, and looked at the counter without much effort. “Nothing,” she reported.
“Behind the pie container,” Twilight replied.
Rainbow went around onto the kitchen side of the counter and saw the mail sitting there behind the container. “Do you have x-ray vision?” Rainbow gaped at the young pregnant woman, awe-inspired.
Twilight just shook her head. “Just simple probability, Dashie.”
Putting her attention back to something that wouldn't involve fractions and percentages, Rainbow leafed through the letters and found one addressed to her. The return address sent her eyes expanding into dinner plates.
“North Regional Soccer Association?!” she couldn't help blurting.
Twilight rose a brow in her friend's direction, interested. “Didn't you have tryouts with them a few weeks ago?”
Rainbow took a deep breath and calmed herself. She had to be realistic about this and not get her hopes up. “Probably just a thank you letter telling me I didn't make it but should be proud or some nonsense like that.”
She got a letter opener from beside the fridge on the counter and opened the letter. Her heart almost stopped when not one but three things fell out of the envelope. The first item was the letter. The second was something that looked like a card. And the third looked very much like a check.
Twilight had already turned her attention to the TV, which she flipped on to watch some boring science channel on space exploration. Rainbow's hand wobbled as it flipped the check-like thing over to see what it actually was.
It was a check.
And it was enough to pay rent most anywhere for half a year.
Her hands moved like lightning now – as fast as her legs in the soccer try-outs. She flipped the card over. It was a player's membership card for the NRSA and it was labeled with gold and clear silver. She raced her eyes over the letter.
“Ms. Rainbow Dash,” her voice trembled and her eyes watered in joyful disbelief, “the North Regional Soccer Association Team and Player Administration Committee has recently concluded initial decisions for the next four-year cycle. We have decided, based on your record and performance at try-outs, that you should be granted immediate premium membership to the organization and offered just compensation as a gesture of good will. Your talents are exceptional and you should be proud. Although it was not revealed to you at the time so as not to disrupt the procedure, many of your try-out times and scores broke NRSA records. Please get in contact with us as soon as possible via the methods listed below so that we may accommodate your needs and get you further acquainted with our staff and schedules.”
Twilight's calm voice broke into her bubble of heaven. “Congratulations, Dashie. This was your dream.”
“My...my dream...” Rainbow finally lost control of her emotions. She sank to her knees in the kitchen and cried harder than she had for as long as she could remember. All of the fear, worry, and self-disappointment bled out of her through her tears.
Though it was difficult for Twilight to get up, she understood the enormity of the moment to her close friend. She came over to Rainbow and leaned just far enough down to help the girl back up without toppling over herself because of her awkward dimensions and weight. She hugged Rainbow in the best way she could manage.
The emotionally overwhelmed girl managed to compose herself at a speed fitting of her name. Partly that was her personality, but it was also partly her desire not to put her very round friend in a difficult position. She was the one to lead Twilight back over to the sofa and make sure she was settled down carefully.
“Sorry,” she immediately apologized and offered to get Twilight anything she needed, which was responded to with appreciation and two glasses of fresh water. “I just...lost myself a bit there. This is it! I mean, I’m gonna go pro!”
“I’m sure Adagio will be happy for you too,” Twilight kept smiling.
The sleek vintage sports car was old only in its original make. Everything else was sparkling new. The paintjob, the seats, and even the wooden paneling on the interior. Adagio sat in the driver’s seat waiting for her girlfriend to show. She was supposed to be waiting to be picked up here at the front of the park. Not that Adagio particularly cared. She could wait as long as she needed to with her free schedule and love of Rainbow’s lean toned body.
Adagio’s fingers tapped the wheel. She was getting ahead of herself here. Getting too hot and flustered. Though, she supposed that made sense since the day was hot and flustery. Her car was a convertible too and she had the top down because the only thing that hadn’t been overhauled for her car yet was…
The air conditioner.
“Ugh,” Adagio blew upwards to try cooling off her own face. “If that idiot makes me wait any longer, she’s getting the harness. Again.”
“Except that’s more of a reward,” Rainbow suddenly said from behind the front seat.
“Gah!” Adagio cried out and nearly knocked her knees on the underside of the steering column. It was rare she was ever startled, but Rainbow managed it from time to time. She spun in the seat to glare at the young athlete. “You’re a real piece, you know that?”
“Sure do,” Rainbow replied smoothly, kissed her on the lips briefly, and snaked her way into the passenger seat just as deftly. “I’ve got good news.”
Adagio’s face twisted into an evil smirk as she put the car into gear and began driving down the road towards the beach. “You’re pregnant?”
Rainbow’s eyebrows wiggled in return jest. “With little siren babies.”
“They’re not called babies,” Adagio grumbled.
“So what are sirens called when they’re little?” Rainbow stuck her tongue out.
Adagio stopped the car at a red light. “Pups.”
There was a moment where only the sound of the engine was audible. The light turned green and they proceeded.
“Pups?” Rainbow stifled a snicker and had to keep doing so to hold back her laughter.
“It’s ferocious,” Adagio insisted with a sincere if not incredibly serious expression. “Like shark pups.”
Rainbow bust out laughing.
“We’re deadly hunters, dammit!” Adagio cursed in vain.
Rainbow only curtailed her boisterous enjoyment when the car slowed to a stop behind the beach shack that was situated a few yards up from the sand. Behind them was the city’s line of tall-rise buildings that usually blocked view of the ocean from the rest of the city. Ahead of them was the stretch of beach that ran away from the metropolitan center to Hello Tropics beyond the horizon.
Adagio pulled the parking brake and turned to her girlfriend with a hostile glare. “Twilight isn’t the only one who can do the impossible. We could have pups of our own if we wanted. My song may be gone but I’m still a siren. Nothing is beyond my ability!”
“Maybe if you weren’t infertile,” Rainbow was the one with the evil smirk this time.
“Why you-!” Adagio snapped in that oh-so-predictable manner that Rainbow had learned to expertly exploit.
The former Wondercolt laid back in the passenger seat and enjoyed as the former Dazzling lurched over from the driver’s side. The siren clicked the seat release so the back fell down into the rear of the car. With Rainbow laying flat below her now, she gripped the girl’s throat and straddled her waist with a tight grip from her thighs.
“Don’t you dare tell me at any point that you’re enjoying this,” Adagio practically hissed.
“Before we roleplay my impossible defeat and bogus submission, I have to tell you that good news,” Rainbow insisted. She was still a little too happy and trying to hold back a giggle – though for a different reason now. She had a hard time being serious in any of Dagi’s “roleplays.”
“Ugh, what?” the poofy-haired seductress relented with a groan. “Kill the mood but have at it.”
“I’m in. The NRSA, I mean. Pro soccer.”
Adagio could tell by the sparkle in her girlfriend’s eye that this wasn’t one of her silly jests. It made her pause. She had kept her job at the resort, but Rainbow going pro would mean they might actually have a place together.
“By the wheels turning in your eyes, I get that you like the sound of that,” Rainbow was as giddy as a Wondercolt freshman.
The siren’s face settled into a serene expression of contentment before twisting into a sinister half-lidded look of sensuality. “I think,” she began as her left hand grabbed Rainbow’s wrists and restrained them above her head, “that someone deserves something extra special for her hard work and accomplishment.”
Shade from the shack they were parked next to kept them from getting sunburned. It was also a good thing they were parked as they were because the old-school convertible was shielded from passing eyes. The sounds were less hidden, however. That was how their highly questionable activity was stumbled upon.
By Fluttershy.
Who had that titillating image burned into her mind for the rest of her life.