Previous Chapters
Close
Accidents Happen4,737 words
Together Forever1,713 words
Push!2,874 words

Push!

Push!

“AAaaaaaAAAGGGHhhhhh!”

“You're doing great Fluttershy, now, steady breathing. In, out, just like we practised.” The midwife, Cerulean Swirl, was infuriatingly calm.

"H - how is it going now?" Fluttershy managed to gasp out as the pain of the contraction faded away.

“You are seven centimetres dilated, doing brilliantly.”

“Seven? Still? I was seven four hours ago!” Sweat poured down her forehead, soaking her pink mane.

Applejack was sat beside her wife, holding her hoof in her own, as she had been since the labour had begun eleven hours before. “Y’all doin’ great sugarcube, just brea…”

Fluttershy shot her a vicious glare, “you tell me to ‘breathe’ one more time and I'll eat your face!”

Any further comment was silenced as her eyes went wide, another contraction was coming. They were only a few minutes apart now, the pain from one rolling into another, each one more intense than the one before it. Fluttershy panted as she was shown, performing the exercise that supposedly lessened the pain by breathing through it.

“Huh, huh, huh,” she clamped her hoof down on Applejack, causing the farmer to wince as the contraction peaked. “Hu, ho, HO HOLY CELESTIAAAAAAAAAGGGH!”

Fluttershy slumped back into the bed, she was exhausted, she wanted to sleep. Most of all she wanted this torture to be over. She had been warned about the pain of childbirth but had never in her wildest dreams thought it'd be as bad as this. Eleven bucking hours and she wasn't even fully dilated yet.

"You're doin’ great hon, ah’m mighty proud o’ you.” Applejack felt brave enough to attempt a warm smile in an effort to calm the distressed pegasus.

“I. Hate. You.” Fluttershy punctuated each word with a deep breath, bracing herself for the next contraction.

Applejack had been warned to expect this by the midwife, had been told this was entirely normal behaviour. It still felt very strange to hear Fluttershy of all ponies cursing her like this. Hitching up her widest of smiles she did her best to ignore it and concentrated on helping her wife as much as she could. A tensing of Fluttershy’s hoof was her only warning, and she braced her own just in time.

“AAAAAaaaaaaggGGGgghhHHH!” Fluttershy threw her head back and screamed, feeling the muscles around her cervix straining to push. She lashed out with her free hoof, seizing the midwife by her collar and dragging her face an inch from her own. “Get these things out of me NOW!”

Entirely unruffled Cerulean Swirl simply smiled and straightened her uniform before levitating over a glass of water for Fluttershy to drink, replacing the fluids lost through sweat. “Now, now,” she cooed as if chiding a naughty filly, “you get yourself to ten centimetres, and it'll be over before you know it.”

Applejack secretly hoped it'd be over soon too, her hooves were getting sore and she was sure there'd be bruises tomorrow. She was determined to be by Fluttershy's side though, she owed her that much if nothing else. She was going through this torment for them, after all. A small but welcome pressure on her bladder gave the farmer an excuse to get some air, for which she was grateful.

“Uh, nurse Swirl, am ah ok to nip t’ the bathroom?”

“Oh of course,” Cerulean nodded with an ever present smile, “we’ll be here for hours yet!” She added with too much glee.

Applejack removed her hooves from Fluttershy as gently and as quickly as she could, she could feel another contraction coming. “Ah’ll not be long sugar.”

Fluttershy barely nodded, her eyes widening as another wave of pain washed over her. “Hurry…back…” She clenched her eyes shut and screamed once more, “ApplejaAAAAGGHH!”

Applejack scurried out of the delivery room, happy on behalf of her sore hooves that she'd missed that one.

The bathroom on the maternity ward wasn't very far away, barely a minutes walk. If Applejack was honest with herself, and she tried to be, she really didn't need to go relieve herself she just needed some space. Fresh air. That's what she needed right now. Walking past the bathroom and down a little corridor she found the little blue fire door that lead to the rear of the hospital. Rearing to her hind legs she pushed the lever with her fore hooves to open the door, then sat on her haunches in the doorway so it wouldn't close behind her.

Breathing deeply through her nose Applejack steadied herself, it was getting intense back in the delivery room, so she took a few moments to collect her thoughts. She allowed her mind to wander over the past three years as she did so, recollecting how she and Fluttershy had made it this far.

In spite of herself she smiled at the memory.

It was last year, the night of their eleventh wedding anniversary, two years after the accident which had claimed Hush and Apple Kicker, when Fluttershy had sprung it on her. Totally out of the blue and with no warning whatsoever.
They had just had sex, and in her post orgasmic high Fluttershy was letting Applejack indulge her little fetish, namely tonguing her hooves. While Fluttershy couldn't claim to like it as much as her wife did, she had to admit it did feel nice when Applejack held her hind legs in her hooves and nibbled away gently on her hooves.

It was at this precise moment, just as Applejack had the whole of her left hind hoof in her mouth, sucking and running her tongue over the soft frog that Fluttershy dropped her bomb.

“Jackie?”

“Uh huh?” Applejack had just removed the left hoof and was starting on the right one, her deft tongue sliding over Fluttershy's ankle, nibbling at the hard outer part as she went along.

“I – I want to try again, to have foals.”

"Hmmmm." Applejack wasn't really listening, she was lost in her own little Equestria, one that included Fluttershy's butter yellow hooves, her tongue and little else. Her treacherous brain caught up with the farmer just as she took her wife's right hoof into her muzzle and was about to suckle it as the realisation of what Fluttershy had said hit her.

Applejack looked up from what she was doing, her green eyes met Fluttershy's blue ones and she froze for a moment, warm saliva slowly dribbling down the fur of the leg still held in her mouth.

“Y’all want what now, sugar?” Part of Applejack was hoping she had misheard, another part was hoping the opposite. She really wasn't sure which she wanted to win.

Fluttershy removed her leg from Applejack’s mouth, and tucked it under herself as she rolled forward to sit on her haunches. Doing so closed the gap between the mares to less than two feet, and looking square into those emerald green eyes Fluttershy repeated what she'd said.

“I want us to have foals. If you want to, we should try again.”

Applejack nervously ran a hoof through her straw blonde mane. She didn't know what to say, she cast her eyes about their bedroom, wanting to look at something, anything other than the expectant face in front of her. Eventually her gaze found the large framed photographs on the bedroom wall. One was of her and Fluttershy on their wedding day, the one next to it was of Hush and Apple Kicker. Twilight had levitated them both together and taken the photograph to give them something physical to remind them of their babies. Twilight had presented it to them the day after the foals funeral service. Neither of them had known Twi had taken it, she had conjured a camera while Fluttershy had been out from the surgery. Whenever she was at a loss over a course of action to take Applejack found herself staring at the photo, they always seemed to give her good advice.

So it was now, with Fluttershy sat beside her awaiting her answer did she find herself yet again in silent communion with her foals, almost asking their permission to try again.

Fluttershy noticed where Applejack was looking, and gave a tender smile as she extended a wing over her wife's shoulder, pulling her into a feathery cuddle.

“Get any good advice?”

Applejack blushed at the absurdity of it, her orange cheeks glowing a faint crimson. She knew Fluttershy wasn't mocking her, she had caught the pegasus consulting the photo on more than one occasion herself. Applejack nodded, not taking her eyes away from the treasured photograph.

“Yeah, ah reckon ah did.” Applejack leant into the cuddle, kissing Fluttershy's cheek so gently she barely disturbed the yellow fur. “You really want this, huh?”

"I do, more than anything.”

“Well then let's do it.”

Fluttershy pulled her wing back from Applejack, and turned to look her full in the face, “you – you mean it?”

“Sure ah mean it, ah reckon them young’uns gave us their blessin’. Ah don’ see why they can’ have a little brother or sister.”

They had gone to see Twilight about it the next day, after talking it over with Applejacks family first. They were overjoyed at the news they were going to try again for foals. Twilight again carried out the insemination, although she blushed a deeper shade of red than Mac’s coat when she revealed she still had the rest of his sperm in storage, ‘for research purposes’ was the only explanation they could get out of the flustered Alicorn.

Applejack smiled a huge smile as her memories caught up with her. That had been just under ten months ago, and despite her reservations and misgivings everything had gone beautifully during the pregnancy, and here they were, about to have two Pegasi fillies. Applejack had been a little disappointed at first one of them wasn't an earth pony but that had been quickly pushed aside by her joy that they were blessed once more with foals.

Names had been decided upon within the first month, Cloud Blossom and Apple Honey. From the scans they had seen, Cloud Blossom had a pale green coat and a mane so blonde it was almost white, whereas Apple Honey’s coat was a deep burnt yellow, with a pink mane just like Fluttershy's.

The only complication they had had was with Cloud Blossom. In the second month the scan had revealed the umbilical cord had wrapped itself tight around her left hind leg, stunting its growth to the point of atrophy. Both Dr. Stable and their midwife Cerulean Swirl had been reluctant to move it, for fear of their magic harming the growing foals. Applejack and Fluttershy had certainly been unwilling to risk it. Other than her leg, both fillies were healthy and they had been assured it wouldn't affect Blossom’s future growth any, except that flying would be harder for her due to the difficulty of landing on three legs as opposed to four. Like Fluttershy had said at the time, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

Applejack shook herself out of her reverie, she really should get back to the delivery room. She'd only been gone ten minutes, the fur on the back of her neck was tingling as if something was wrong. Getting to her hooves she let the fire door close behind her as she made her way back to Fluttershy and her babies. Tapping a hoof on the door she cautiously pushed it open, wondering why Dr. Stable was there.

“Ah miss anythin’?”

"Where…the…hay…have…you…been?” Fluttershy gasped out, fighting back tears between her shallow breaths.

“What's wrong Doc?”

“Nothing too serious, I assure you. One of the foals, Apple Honey I believe, has her head pressed against the opening of the cervix and birth canal. Seeing as mom here is only eight centimetres dilated there isn't room to push her through. Midwife Swirl and myself were just about to perform the emergency section to get the foals out before any damage is caused to them or your partner.”

He made it sound easy, like it was a routine thing they did all the time. How could he be so calm?

“They'll be ok though, righ’?” A little pregnant ball of unease had settled in the pit of Applejack’s stomach, where it was busy giving birth itself to anxiety, panic and doubt. Applejack was about to voice her concerns when she felt a soft yellow hoof connect with her own, and looked up to see a sweat soaked Fluttershy look back at her with a pained smile.

“Hey, it – it’ll…be…fine, everything will…be…alright.”

“Ah thought ah was the one who was supposed to be comfortin’ you sugarcube?”

Cerulean Swirl had levitated an opaque screen onto Fluttershy's chest, blocking her view of her swollen belly.

“You don't need to see this honey, it can get a bit messy down there.” The cheery midwife offered in explanation.

Applejack felt the grip on her hoof increase as Dr. Stable ignited his horn.

“No need to panic, I'm just going to fire some pain killing magic to your spine. This will numb your lower body, then we can begin.”

Fluttershy felt like she was melting through the hospital bed as the doctors magic took effect, the relaxing effects numbing all the pain she had lived through in the past eleven hours. This was better than any spa break with Rarity.

Dr. Stable ran his hoof over Fluttershy's distended abdomen, prodding gently but firmly at her belly, his action hidden by the screen over Fluttershy's chest.

“Can you feel that, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy shook her head, realising she was entirely numb from the chest down.

"Very well. Then we'll get started.”

The doctor lit his horn once more, levitating a shiny razor sharp scalpel in his magical aura. With an incredible amount of skill that Applejack didn't believe existed he carefully pressed the blade against the yellow fur and in one fluid motion drew it across her wife's belly, cleanly slicing through the layer of fur and skin underneath. With the practised ease of a well oiled machine Cerulean Swirl then levitated two hinged instruments into either end of the cut, and spread them apart so they held open the freshly made inscision. While the midwife was doing this the doctor had gotten a clean blade, and was proceeding to cut through the uncovered muscle into Fluttershy's womb.

As she watched this delicate operation take place in front of her Applejack was sincerely pleased Fluttershy couldn't see what they were doing. It really was like a scene from a cheesy horror movie.

Placing the used scalpel on the tray beside the bed, Dr. Stable lit his horn for a third time, this time his magical field appeared inside Fluttershy, it seemed to be feeling around before settling on something Applejack couldn't see. With a barely discernible shift in his concentration the doctor brought his field towards him, bringing with it a very red very sticky bundle of fur and feathers. Cerulean took the messy bundle in her own field and moved it with her towards the nearby sink where she gave it a gentle wash and swaddled the feathery ball in a small white blanket. The midwife picked up the swaddled foal in her field once more and was about to hand the tiny filly to Applejack, who immediately dropped her forelegs and nodded non too surreptitiously towards a grinning Fluttershy. Catching on Cerulean switched her destination and deposited the filly in Fluttershy's waiting hooves as Dr. Stable repeated his procedure, bringing forth the second foal for the midwife to clean while he magically closed up the wound from the operation.

Within a very short space of time Cerulean Swirl nudged Applejack’s shoulder gently before offering her the second swaddled filly to hold. This time she accepted without hesitation. Fluttershy held Apple Honey, she held Cloud Blossom. The two new mothers both held their sleeping fillies, watching their tiny chests rise and fall against the blankets. Neither knew for sure what future awaited their little girls, but they were both sure they were going to make it a good one.

Applejack carefully lifted Cloud Blossom in her hooves and handed her to Fluttershy, who cradled her in her other foreleg.

“What d’you think ‘mommy’?”

Fluttershy gently rubbed her lips over each tiny forehead before looking over at Applejack through exhausted tired eyes.

"They’re perfect, absolutely perfect.” Was all she was able to breathe out before her fatigue overtook her and the yellow pegasus promptly fell asleep, her babies in her arms.

Applejack simply scooted her chair closer to the bed, and laid her head on Fluttershy's now empty belly, watching her new family asleep before her.

"Ah reckon they are that, sugarcube, they are that."

Author's Note:

Many thanks to Zurvan for the idea of the photograph of the two dead foals.

Thanks also to Jacob Bading, whose awesome editing skills I couldn't live without.

3,562 views

145

Previous Chapters