Lyra Heartstrings v. Republic of Terra

by PegasusKlondike

What Went Wrong?

The next morning, the pair of mares thought about how they would get a stallion to "donate" to Lyra so she could bear a foal. Considering how attractive most stallions believed the filly-foolers to be, it wouldn't be hard finding a donor. But both Lyra and Bonbon were extremely apprehensive about having a male feast on Lyra's forbidden fruit. Eating a plate of pancakes at the breakfast table, they thought about how they might go about this.

"Well, the easiest thing we could do would be to ask a stallion friend of ours. That way, we know he isn't just some sleezebag that might have some kind of venereal disease."

"No way! That would be awkward as hell! Think about it Bonbon, what if we're walking around the market one day with our foal and one of our friends walks by and says 'hi'. Then our child asks who that was and we reply 'oh, it's just your illegitimate daddy!'"

Bonbon grimaced at the thought, setting down a cup of black coffee. "Point taken." Grabbing her fork, a thought passed through the earth pony's mind, and she had to set down her cutlery with how hard she giggled.

"What are you chortling about?"

"Oh nothing, just thought about how funny you would look getting nailed by Dr Whooves."

Lyra's jaw dropped. "That is not funny! The Doc is a good friend of mine, we've known each other since high school!"

"Oh oh, how about gettin' you some from Snowflake! YEEAAAA!!" Bonbon said in her deepest impersonation of the ripped pegasus. "I wonder if that's how he sounds when he finishes!" Bonbon clutched at her sides, threatening to roll out of her chair with laughter. "Or maybe, maybe we could get Pigpen to nail ya! I bet he likes it dirty!"

Lyra shuddered at the thought of being within five feet of the trashcan cutiemarked stallion, and felt the bile rise in her throat at the horrible image of being in bed with him. "Eyuck! Gross! You are making this too disgusting, Bonbon!"

"What? Didn't they teach you upper crust Canterlot girls sex ed? Oooh, I just thought of a good one! Maybe we could get Filthy Rich to knock you up!"

"That is wrong on so many levels! He's a married stallion!"

"Yeah, but then we have insurance just in case things start to tank for us. You know, child support and blackmail and all that fun stuff. Alright, all jokes aside for now. Since we don't want any of our friends to do you, what are we going to do?"

Lyra thoughtlessly pushed her pancakes from one side of the plate to the other. "I don't know. Maybe I can pick up a stallion at a bar or something? I mean, I do need to spend more girl time with Berry Punch. We used to be such good friends until she cut back on the drinking."

"Lyra, that eliminates that entire spiel about avoiding a sleezebag stallion who might have a venereal disease. So we can't just pick up a random stranger in a bar."

The aquamarine unicorn leaned back in her chair, groaning at the surprising difficulty of this. "What if we just posted a discreet ad in the Equestria Daily? You know, back in the personals section? We could throw in that we need a discreet, disease free stallion for commitment-free impregnation. We could even ask that he get checked out at the doctor's office before he...does the deed."

Bonbon tapped her chin with a hoof. "You know, that might actually be a pretty good idea. We could even have them send a little letter or something."

"Then it's settled. I'll write us up an ad, and maybe in about a week or so I can start preparing to be a momma when I go into my estrus cycle."

Bonbon agreed, settling down to finally eat her breakfast. The table remained silent for a few minutes, Lyra wondering how to word the ad for the paper. It couldn't be too long, the scalpers at the Equestria Daily made you pay by the letter, but it had to have the right amount of information to catch a stallion's eye. Using her magic to grab a sheet of paper and a pencil from the countertop, Lyra started drafting.

The custard earth pony sat quietly, occasionally snickering to herself and trying to cover it up. Glancing up from her notes, Lyra saw a custard hoof pushing a banana over the table.

"Um, I'm pretty full, Bonbon."

"I know, but this is to get used to the feel of it. Maybe I should go get you a cucumber!" Bonbon's face was a plum shade of purple with how hard she laughed at Lyra's discomfort. Scowling, the unicorn hurled the suggestively shaped fruit at the earth pony's head, missing by inches.

***************************************************

The week went by slowly. Bonbon kept herself busy by making candy day in and day out, and Lyra actually did what she said she was going to do and sent her name to a few talent agents in Canterlot. Her new agent said it might take awhile for him to book her for a party or something, so all Lyra could do was wait for responses to her ad.

Wanted: Stallion for discreet meet up. My partner and I want to have a child and need a stallion to rut with me. Must have clean medical record and proof of it. If interested mail reply to 5071 Mane Street, Ponyville.

A simple enough request. Hopefully some stallion out there would be desperate enough to answer and mail their reply. Looking in her mirror, Lyra had another one of those moments of questioning herself. She toweled off her face after a warm bath, combing her mane with her magic. Setting the brush down, she gazed deeply into the amber-gold reflection of her eyes.

"What am I getting myself into? Can I really do this? Can I really sleep with some stranger so I can have a baby? Am...am I really ready to be a mom?" The Lyra in the mirror mimicked her words, not giving any of the answers she sought. "Am I being selfish? Or is this the right thing to do with my life?"

A frantic hoof tapped at the bathroom door, an even more frantic voice coming from the other side. "Lyra, hurry up! I have to use the toilet!"

"Just a minute!" she shouted back. Quickly finishing her beautification ritual, Lyra stepped out of the bathroom and was promptly shoved out of the way by her custard colored confectioner wife. The door slammed behind her, almost catching Lyra's green striped tail in the process. "Geez Louise, you could be a little more careful, Bonnie. You nearly took off my tail!"

Adjourning down to their living room, Lyra pulled out her lyre. In the excitement of her recent revelation of desired motherhood, she hadn't really played at all in the past week. Pulling the delicate brass instrument out of its velvet lined case, she carefully checked each string for tautness and the right sound.

"Everyone sounds just right," she quietly crooned to her lyre. "You're gonna have even more competition for my time here in a few months. As if Bonbon wasn't enough to keep me from playing you, now we're gonna have a little foal that I'm gonna play lullabies for. Maybe I should practice my lullabies, how does that sound?" Glancing around as she displayed her mushy side, Lyra planted a little peck on the lyre which had been like her child ever since she earned her cutie mark. But of course it would pale in comparison to the real thing.

The real thing, a real foal of her own. Something which would define her life, a legacy she would leave that would stand the test of time and trial. Her own child to hug and hold and.....

The knock at the residential door of the confectioner's shop once again interrupted Lyra's deep thought and infant fueled day dreams. The mare groaned audibly, slipping her lyre back into its case before trotting to the door to answer this interruption. Opening it with her magic, a pair of dandelion yellow wall eyes and a big smile greeted her.

"Good morning Lyra!" the local mailmare said a little too loudly.

Lyra smiled at her good friend and overall one of the silliest mares she knew. "Derpy! How nice to see you. How are you-" Her pleasant greeting was cut off by the overly friendly pegasus giving the unicorn a crushing hug. With her face practically mashed into Derpy's shoulder, Lyra couldn't help but wonder what the bubble marked mare was so excited about.

Finally prying herself loose, Lyra gave her friend a generous smile. "And what do I owe the pleasure of this visit to?"

"Nothing special, just doin' my job," Derpy replied. Grabbing a rather hefty bundle of letters from her mailbag, she set them down on Lyra's doorstep. "You sure have a lot of mail today! Too much to fit in your mailbox. I wonder who it's from?" she mused aloud, knowing she wasn't allowed to peek into the mail due to privacy laws.

Lyra levitated the stack of letters in her aura, flipping through the various letters. "Oh my...." she said quietly. She expected a few bills, maybe some junk mail or even a flimsy magazine or two, but the entire pile seemed to consist of responses to her ad. "I never expected this many."

One of Derpy's eyes rolled over to check a watch latched around her foreleg. "Well, I gotta go now, I have a busy schedule to keep! Oh, and good luck!" The gray pegasus gave a wink to Lyra before flying off, leaving a contrail of letters that would probably not make it to their proper owners.

"Good luck?" Lyra asked herself. Glancing down at the pile of letters, she gave a short laugh when she realized that the wall eyed mare had probably picked up on many of the signs and pieced it all together. "Heh, she really is a lot smarter than she lets on."

Taking the letters inside, she lay them out across the coffee table, glancing over where some of these letters came from. "Manehattan, Trottingham, Canterlot....Ponyville?" She never expected to find a stallion desperate enough to be seeking such carnal desires in the highly feminized town of Ponyville. But some stallions must be more desperate than others.

Bonbon walked very contentedly into the living room, pausing when she saw the massive pile of letters. "What is that?"

Lyra gave a laugh, marveling about how simple this might turn out to be. "Looks like I have more stallions after my flank than Fleur de Lis."

Bonbon grabbed a small stack of the letters, tearing one open and taking a look at the response. "Well, let's get to sorting them out. At least this way we have options." Pulling the penned letter out, Bonbon took a quick glance. "Are you serious?"

"Am I serious about what?" Lyra replied, sorting a stack of letters by their city of origin.

"No, that's literally the entire letter. 'Are you serious?'"

"Wow, that's almost offensive. Not as much as this one though. 'Stop trying to scam people.' And then it looks like they spit on it."

Lyra levitated another letter out of the pile, tearing it open and casting aside the envelope. "Oh geez, look at this one. 'You're going to burn on a spit in Tartarus you filthy filly-fooler. You should be ashamed for leading such a depraved lifestyle and then trying to trick stallions into rutting with you so you can bear bastard, filly-fooler children.' Signed 'The Equestrian Family Foundation'. Assholes," she muttered as she incinerated the offending letter with her magic.

Bonbon rolled her eyes, remembering their brief conflict with Equestria's least favorite and least populated organization. "Ugh, as if we didn't get enough of their propaganda crap at our wedding. Good thing you knew a DJ loud enough to drown them out. And to think I still get their 'Straight Camp' pamphlets every now and then."

"Straight Camp? What do you do with the pamphlets?"

Bonbon shrugged, thinking of the homophobic propaganda that still made its way to their house even after the restraining order went through. "Mostly burned it. I think I gave a few to some birds to build a nest with at one point."

"Cute. Think of all the little baby birds who are kept warm through bigotry. Wait, here's one!" Lyra quickly scanned over the letter, pulling a copied and signed doctor's notice of absolute health. "It says he lives here in Ponyville, convenient. And that he can be ready in a few hours if necessary."

"Few hours?" Bonbon exclaimed. "Aren't you at the peak of your estrus cycle right now?"

Lyra furrowed her brow, wondering how Bonbon knew such an intimate and personal fact. "How did you know?"

"Lyra, honey. You're more flushed than a toilet. I had to open a window last night to let out some of the heat and hopefully air the stink out. You're hot enough in the downstairs region to boil water. I mean, talk about going into heat. And besides, all of our stallion neighbors have been sniffing around with a dumb grin on their faces. It is so funny to watch them walk away all funny, blushing because they can barely keep it in their sheathe. I mean, it's really obvious what's going on down there."

"Alright, I get it," Lyra replied sardonically.

Bonbon gave a giggle, trying to exploit this discomfort to the full comedic potential. "The point of what I'm saying is that we should get him over here as quickly as possible, and try to get you impregnated while it's easiest."

Lyra sighed, giving in to Bonbon's logic. "You win. Let's write him a letter and try to get Derpy to express mail it." Setting the letter aside, Lyra magically summoned a piece of paper and a quill to write a response. But before she could, she had to get a monkey off her back. "I've been meaning to ask you something. Why are you so energetic about this?"

Bonbon gave a smile and an outward sigh. "Well, since I was a filly, I've wanted to be a momma. But, when I started to "mature", I knew that I was different because I didn't find anything I liked in any of the colts my age. I even dated a few, but I was never really happy in a relationship. After my failed years of dating stallions and not liking it, I kind of gave up on becoming a mother. But that was before I met you, and way before you ever expressed interest in what I had given up on. In a way, you kind of rekindled the dream I've had since I was little. And I'll be there for you every step of the way. I know this is making you nervous, and that's why I'm trying to make you laugh about it, to make it easier on you."

Lyra stared rather blankly at her mate, her mouth slightly open and hanging slack. Snapping out of it, she leaned over and nuzzled Bonbon lovingly on her nose. "Damn it, I love you so much," she whispered.

**********************************************************

The shades were all closed on every window in the house. Though the den was becoming rather uncomfortable and stuffier with each passing moment, it would stay that way. Both Bonbon and Lyra sat on the couch, listening to the clock tick and waiting in the dark. The room permeating stench of Lyra's estrus cycle was nauseating to the other mare, but to a stallion it was supposed to be an intoxicating bouquet of pheromones and hormonal stimulants. Hopefully it would smell much better for their guest than for Bonbon.

Lyra tapped a hoof in nervous anticipation, sitting on her haunches like a human being. Her eyes nervously flicked over to the loudly ticking clock, squinting through the shadows to try and tell the time.

"Damn it, he's supposed to be here by now," Lyra muttered anxiously.

Bonbon laid a calming hoof on Lyra's thigh. "Just be calm. He'll be here soon enough."

The unicorn nervously wiped the sweat from her forehead, gulping down her building anxiety. "What if he doesn't come? What if his letter was just a prank?"

"Lyra, I don't know many pranksters that would actually go to the doctor and get checked out just to stand up some free pussy."

"Heh, you're right. They'd have to be crazy," she replied sheepishly.

Her tapping hoof increased in its frequency, rising in speed until it sounded like a family of woodpeckers had found a sleeping timber wolf.

"Stop that!" Bonbon hissed. "You're getting all worked up over something that everypony does! Just take it easy and let things happen naturally."

The unicorn folded her hooves in her lap, trying to keep them occupied and still. She had even heard of this fantastic sounding action that humans did while bored that apparently kept them occupied. Maybe while pregnant she could master the subtle art of 'twiddling your thumbs'. Whatever a 'thumb' was.

The minute hand of the clock pressed onward in its cyclical journey, passing the the finish line at twelve only to find one on the other side. And as the clock struck noon, somepony knocked on the door. Lyra shifted herself to stand up, but Bonbon stopped her. "I'll get it," she told Lyra, her voice reassuring and comforting.

The custard colored earth pony made her way to the door, making sure the shades were all drawn to hopefully keep this as anonymous as possible. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself as she reached for the doorknob.

The door swung open, a black coated stallion standing there, looking around as though passerby's were judging him. He wore a long coat to stay hidden, but it only made him even more conspicuous in the bearing heat of summer.

"Um, hi. I'm here about the..." He bit his lip and waved a hoof, not really wanting to finish that sentence.

"Come in," Bonbon said to him. He gladly obliged, hurrying past Bonbon and coming into the darkened living room. Taking off his stuffy and hot coat revealed a pair of black feathered wings and a blue-silver mane.

Though Lyra was surprised to recognize him, she didn't think much of it. She had only ever seen him up close once or twice by random chance, and it wouldn't be hard to avoid him after this.

Taking a seat in a chair, the pegasus looked around the darkened room as Bonbon took her seat by Lyra again. Lifting his nose he took a whiff of the pheromone laden air, visibly perking as his primal instincts began to kick in.

"So, which one of you am I-" he said, his pointing hoof drifting between both mares.

"That would be me," Lyra interrupted.

"Oh," he said with a grin, involuntarily nodding in approval. "So should we just get this over with?" he asked.

"That would probably be best," she replied. Rising from the couch, Lyra took her donor by the hoof and led him to the stairs. Glancing over her shoulder back at Bonbon, the earth pony gave her a weak smile and a nod. Swallowing her anxiety, the unicorn led the stallion upstairs and into her bedroom. The bedroom was just as darkened as the rest of the house, and hopefully it would keep everything just a little more discreet.

Letting the stallion go, Lyra walked over to her bed, pulling herself on and laying flat on her belly. Her flank and hindquarters hung off the edge for easier access. Using her magic, she quietly pulled over a pillow and buried her face in it, hoping that he would be gentle.

Approaching from behind, her suitor took a deep whiff of her estrus scent, letting natural instinct take over. With a nicker of male approval for his soon to be mate, the pegasus positioned himself accordingly.

Lyra bit down on the pillow, almost sobbing as she waited for the act to begin. But as she lay there on the bed, almost quivering in nervous anticipation, she heard her donor clear his throat. "Um, ma'am?"

"Yeah?" Lyra managed to whisper.

"I can't really get in if you keep your tail down like that."

With a start she realized she had her tail firmly clamped between her thighs, restricting all entry and putting up a sign that said 'access denied'.

"Sorry, just...a little apprehensive."

"S'alright," he replied.

Closing her eyes, Lyra concentrated on raising her tail, thinking of more pleasant thoughts than getting railed by a stranger. And as she lay there, she felt the first probing touch of his member, and she bit her lip and thought of Trottingham.

********************************************************************************

The doctor's office lay barren of anypony except for a few nurses passing by every now and then. Bonbon sat apprehensively with Lyra in their doctor's office, waiting for her test results to come back. The unicorn mare seemed incredibly excited to be here today, and practically shivered in her seat.

One week had passed since her little 'date' with her stallion donor, and Lyra anticipated a positive report on her pregnancy. She'd been a little sick the last morning or two, nothing too severe, but that's what all the other mares said was a sign of pregnancy. Bonbon kept trying to tell her that morning sickness doesn't happen within a week, that it was probably just a stomach bug or something.

"I'm so excited!" Lyra whispered to Bonbon. "I wonder if we're gonna have a colt or a filly!"

"Now Lyra," her partner whispered back, "Don't put all your eggs in this one basket. Just because you got laid once doesn't necessarily mean you're pregnant. My brother says it took four tries with his wife at the peak of her estrus cycles to get it to take. Not that he was complaining or anything. If anything, it almost sounded like he was bragging."

Their discreet conversation was interrupted by the entrance of the doctor their insurance could pay for, Ponyville's local physician, Dr Triage. "Good afternoon ladies. I trust everypony is feeling well?" he asked, levitating a file folder over to his desk.

"We're all good here Doc. So, what are my results?"

The tan unicorn opened up the file, snapping out a pair of reading glasses before going on. "Well, it seems that a magical probe showed a low hormone level, white cell count is slightly elevated, and your blood pressure is normal."

Lyra gave Bonbon a pat on the hoof. "Did you hear that? All good."

Dr Triage snapped the file closed, setting it down on his desk. "Mrs Heartstrings, considering your goal, that's not a good thing. If you were even in the earliest stages of pregnancy, a magic probe would reveal an abnormally high amount of estrogen in your system. Your tests show that not only are you below the expected hormonal level at that stage of pregnancy, you are actually below the average for a normal mare. I'm rather surprised you even managed to have an estrus cycle."

The unicorn mare's expression of glee and anticipation began to fall. "What are you saying?"

Dr Triage sighed heavily. "You're not pregnant. In fact, the test that we did hints at a possible difficulty in your fertility. It may take several tries before something actually works."

"You mean...I have to keep trying?"

He slowly nodded. "I can prescribe you with an oral medication and some creams that may increase your estrogen level and increase the likelihood of your impregnation. But other than that, all you can do is keep trying." Dr Triage penned out a prescription for Lyra to pick up, tearing it out of his pad and levitating it over to her.

Taking it, she placed it in her saddlebag and sighed. "Thank you, Doctor Triage." Rising from her seat, she and Bonbon both left the office and exited the lobby. "Well, back to the personals," she said in defeat.

********************************************************************

Another ad went into the paper while Lyra was still in heat, and another stallion answered within a day. And within another day, the unicorn mare found herself lying on her belly and taking the second stallion of her life all the way to the bank. Afterwards, when the stallion had left and Bonbon felt safe enough to start opening the blinds again, Lyra immersed herself in the hottest bath that she could tolerate, scrubbing off her flank and her back.

She never wanted to admit that the pegasus from before had been her first. Bonbon had coltfriends when she was younger, and had probably gotten rather intimate with them at some point. But not her; not sweet, innocent Lyra. She'd always known she had a preference for mares, and disdained the touch of a colt from a very young age.

Lying on her back in the hot tub, with only her head above the bubbly water, Lyra sighed. Running a hoof along her recently filled belly, she whispered, "Please, please work."

*********************************************************************

Another month passed, and another two suitors had tried their luck with the aquamarine mare, but to no avail. Each trip to the doctor's office was met with the same message: her body just seemed to reject any attempts to fertilize her. She went into heat as expected and with no trouble, but Dr Triage's magic scans kept coming back negative.

She began to grow desperate, even going so far as to ask some of her friends for advice. Besides, it might help to cheer her up to catch up with some of the girls. Since Golden Harvest was working the market, Octavia still lived back in Canterlot, and Dr Whooves was having an anthropological study with all three of Ponyville's resident humans, she decided that tea with Derpy might be a good thing.

"So that's what you gotta do, eat lots of peaches! Oh, and don't forget to add cream, you'll be popping out foals in no time! What do you think I was eating right before I got pregnant with Dinky? That's right, an entire bushel of peaches," the bubble marked mare said matter-of-factly.

Lyra blinked in disbelief as she took a sip of her tea. "Uh, thanks Derpy. I'll try that. Say, who is Dinky's father?" The unicorn slapped a hoof to her mouth as soon as she said it, realizing she tread upon thin ice bringing up the paternity of the single mother's child.

Derpy's normally bright face began to turn a little dimmer, and she sighed. Grabbing another sugarcube from the tray, she dropped it in her cup and stirred it in. "I don't really like to talk about my first marriage."

"I'm so sorry Derpy, I didn't-"

The pegasus held up a hoof. "No no, it's alright. Let's just say...Dinky and I are better off with him."

"Well...that's always good to hear." An awkward silence enveloped the living room, only the sound of Bonbon's typically frantic candymaking from the kitchen even making a dent in the resounding quiet.

Biting her lip, Lyra had to ask something to her friend, and being that Derpy was the only parent she was friends with, it would be rather personal. "So, what was it like?" she poked a hoof on her own belly to show the pegasus what she meant.

And then something unexpected happened, Derpy's eyes leveled out, and a very serious and deep look seemed to come from them. "It was like nothing else I have ever felt. Bearing Dinky inside of me was like remembering the warmth of a hundred summer's days, and each little movement was like her own calming touch that stroked my feelings and banished every moment of sadness. Feeling her inside of me felt as though I was basking in the gentle light of a greater purpose in my life, and that a higher power had been bestowed upon me to spread joy and happiness throughout my child's life. In a way, when I knew I was pregnant with my little girl, I knew my life was no longer something to be tossed by the wayside, I had a legacy, and I had found true purpose."

Lyra stared, completely dumbfounded at this display of emotional depth and maturity coming from Derpy. "Wow," she said quietly.

Derpy gave a quick laugh, and her eyes seemed to spin out of control once again. "But the pain of childbirth almost cancelled all that. My doctor said it's like breaking twenty bones at once! Can you imagine that kind of pain? And I was in labor for sixteen hours! Thank Celestia for morphine! If I were you, I'd drop this whole 'pregnancy' thing and just adopt."

A breeze drifted in from the open window, and Derpy lifted her muzzle to give a sniff. "Mmm, smells like Pinkie Pie made more of those famous muffins! I gotta go Lyra, I promised Dinky I would get her some fresh blueberry muffins. Tell Bonnie I said hi!"

"Catch you later, alligator," Lyra replied to her friend as she flew out the window, completely forsaking the easily accessed door. The normally slow paced pegasus took off at a blinding speed, knocking loose a pair of hanging plants outside the window and shattering their pots. But, there was always some expected collateral damage when Derpy came calling.

And as a crash resounded in the general direction of Sugarcube Corner, a thought drifted by Lyra. "Maybe she's onto something about adopting. But that's always a last resort anyways. I just have to keep at it."

**************************************************************************

Desperation and depression filled her life. All Lyra could do was take the advice of every single friend, acquaintance, stranger, passerby, professional, amateur, and even advice from different species.

She did manage to make some money when a few upper crust unicorns needed a harpist for their art gala in Canterlot, and she made a handsome profit doing it for one night. But almost all of that money went to trying all the mountains of advice she received.

Bonbon was starting to grow agitated at the amount of half baked and sometimes idiotic things the unicorn did to increase her fertility. Crushing down a half eaten bushel of now rotted peaches into the trash can and dumping some mysterious herbal concoction from Zecora's down the drain, for once Lyra began to lose hope.

She had to hold in her vomit as she tossed out the untouched jar of goat's blood that a gryphon friend had acquired for her, saying that it always got gryphon hens into a better brooding mood. Since superstitious bullshit and even modern medical science had failed her, there was only one place left to turn, magic.

Early evening began to fall on the town of Ponyville as Lyra made her way across town to speak with the most magically accomplished unicorn in all of Ponyville. If there was one pony she could turn to, it was Princess Celestia's personal protege. Knocking on the door at Golden Oaks Library, she waited patiently for Twilight to answer.

The door creaked open, and the Element of Magic poked her head out. "Lyra! What brings you here tonight?"

"I need help, Twilight."

The lavender unicorn looked her over. "I should say so, you look pretty beat. Come on in." Wondering why Twilight had said that, Lyra obliged and walked in the open door. Seating her at a reading table, Twilight gave a little smile. "What can I help you with? Does this have to do with your fertility?"

"How did you know?" Lyra asked.

"Ponyville is a small town, word gets around quickly. So quickly that I actually thought ahead and started to do some research on fertility and pregnancy."

"You did?"

Twilight nodded rapidly, eager to utilize her research abilities to help a friend. "Uh huh. You'd be surprised how complex the entire process is. Did you know that a stallion will inseminate a mare with upwards of 180 million sperm each time he mates with her? And that through her own bodily defenses, only around a thousand make it to the ovum?"

Despite the black dog riding her shoulder, Lyra managed to weakly smile. "Well, I must have some pretty awesome defenses."

Twilight stifled a giggle. "And it gets even better! Aaron told me that the humans once had the ability to artificially create a zygote and implant it in an infertile female! And that at the peak of their technological advance, they were even experimenting with cloning. An exact copy of yourself, how would that be for a baby?"

The aquamarine mare tensed in her seat at the mention of the human, her eyes darting about to search for him. "Oh no, is he here?"

Twilight's eyes shot open, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. "Sort of. Um, so, I have a few books I think you should read that might provide with the insights on how magic has aided in the medical field. It might help with your problem. Stay here, I'll be back in a minute." The hosting mare stood from her seat, trotting into another room of the library and closing the door after her.

Left by her lonesome, Lyra once again tried to master the art of twiddling her thumbs while still trying to figure out what a thumb was. Leaning back in her chair, she sighed loudly and heard it echo in the empty room of the library. But as the sound bounced back into her ears, she noticed not everything was as quiet as it let on. There was some kind of low hum that gently vibrated the walls and the floor.

Looking at a glass on the table, it seemed to shiver minutely with each pulsing thrum. There seemed to be a steady rhythm, the strange humming rising and falling in every few seconds. "I recognize this," she whispered. This was something that they taught every unicorn foal back in magic kindergarten. This kind of pattern of a humming was indicative of some sort of magical nexus nearby, a rare phenomenon that indicated the use of powerful magic. A nexus was caused by the disturbance of the ley lines of an area, being bent and strained to flow down a different arcane channel.

Stepping off the chair, she felt the subtle vibration in her hooves. "It's coming from downstairs." Her curiosity got the better of her, and despite Twilight's request that she stay in the main room, Lyra felt drawn to a particular door. Knowing it was dangerous to use her own magic around a nexus, she opened the door with her mouth, quietly pushing it open. A winding staircase cut from the living wood of the library circled down into a large room.

Taking a few tentative steps down the stairs, the door shut behind her. Startled, she took a short leap forward, almost tumbling down the steps. Muttering to herself about being scared by a door, she noticed the hum had almost turned into some kind of song. It was unlike anything she had ever heard, and each note was the chime of a crystal.

Cautiously continuing down the steps, she reached the landing and spied the source of the arcane nexus. A pale light emanated from a circle of runes drawn onto the floor, and dead center of that circle sat Dr Patterson. His eyes were closed, and his hands lay palm up, coated in his trademark forest-green magic. But what was absolutely fascinating was the orb that seemed to hover around his head. It was in itself a pinprick of light that lazily drifted about. And somehow, the orb in some way had a spitting image of his face in it.

Lyra held her breath, and reached out with a shaking hoof to prod the human, just to see if he was alright. But before her hoof could even pass the circle of runes, a lavender hoof touched her on the shoulder. Whipping around to see Twilight, the lavender unicorn had a look of worry on her face. "Don't. It's dangerous to try and intervene," she whispered in a hushed tone.

"What's going on? Shouldn't we help him?" Lyra hissed to Twilight, seriously concerned about his safety. Though she knew he possessed magic, that amount was very dangerous to anything short of a Princess.

"That's not him," was all Twilight whispered before motioning Lyra to follow her back upstairs. Lyra took another glance back at the human, seeing the tendrils of magic that streamed out of his body and out into the world.

Closing the door quietly behind herself, Twilight nodded. "Okay, it should be alright to talk now."

"What in Tartarus was that?" Lyra asked.

Twilight sighed, motioning her over to a couch where a pot of freshly brewed tea sat on a coffee table. "It's hard to explain. And not even Aaron is sure what is happening. But what you saw downstairs was not Aaron. That was his body."

"His...body? What do you mean?"

"Let me start from the beginning. Several months ago when we went across the frontier into the Demon Lands, what is now the Republic of Terra, my friends and I found him asleep with the rest of mankind. But something drew me to him, and only after we averted a second war with mankind did we begin to understand. What led me to him, and even led us subliminally across the desert was some kind of higher intelligence that exists beyond this plane. Something that we might call a god."

"A...god?" Lyra almost shivered at the word, knowing that many races across the Earth held religion in high regard, but ponies were almost always the exception to that.

"Yes. This 'god' likes to call herself 'Mother' because she thinks that she is a kind, gentle and loving spirit. And typically, she is. But sometimes she has to lay down the law and dole out a bit of punishment. Lyra, don't be too shocked about this, but this deity is why we exist as we do. Millenia ago, when humans were at the height of their power, she saw how much they suffered and hated one another, and she shaped us and formed us into something that could challenge their global dominance. In other words, ponies were made to fight the humans in a war that would humble them and unite them. Aaron, Sara, Fred; they're all veterans of this war. They survived for two thousand years in stasis, and when my friends and I freed Aaron, he freed the rest of them."

Lyra tried to take in all of this, shaking her head. "Then, the rumors. They're all true? But what does this have to do with what I saw downstairs?"

"I'm getting to that. When we brought him back to Ponyville, he was captured after a few days by Princess Luna and her guards. Apparently, they shared some kind of a connection and held a grudge against each other over all those years. I didn't see him again for two whole weeks, until the Gala."

The minty unicorn vaguely remembered seeing something in the newspaper about how the Grand Galloping Gala had been crashed by some kind of creature. "That was him?"

"Yes, but when I saw him after at the Gala, he had...changed. Do you remember being taught about creatures of pure magic?"

"Vaguely, yes," Lyra replied.

"This deity had visited him while Princess Luna had him imprisoned, and she infused him with souls. Almost all of them human souls, literal billions of them. They gave him raw power that was unimaginable in scale. He even faced off with Princess Celestia, and hands down would have won if he actually retaliated."

"He became a Legion? But how is that possible? The first thing our teachers taught us about Legions was that they always die! There's never been a recorded survivor."

"And there still isn't, it killed him in the end. But she sent him back to finish the job, to resurrect humanity. And after he came back to Ponyville when we signed the armistice, he expected that her voice would stop speaking to him, and that he could live a normal life. Have you ever noticed that he sometimes just stares off into space, and then speaks randomly?"

Lyra gave a slight snort, knowing that the human wouldn't tolerate her presence long enough for that to be seen. "I have not."

Twilight chuckled to herself. "She's still there. Still talking to him. And whenever he seems to look off into the distance, he's having some kind of telepathic conversation with a deity. I'll be teaching him something basic about magic, and then he'll stare off into the distance, and when he snaps out of it, he'll point out where I was doing something slightly different from the proper method. It's fascinating, but kind of annoying to be corrected by an amateur, especially when a god is whispering the right answer into his ear. But what really is fascinating is what started happening a few weeks ago."

"What started happening?"

"What you saw downstairs. Aaron and Mother exist in a sort of symbiotic relationship, because something about him makes his soul synchronize with her spirit more completely than most other people. He calls himself a 'Conduit', a creature whose soul can interface with that of a god. He was born that way, but only when the time was right did Mother reveal it to him. They both say that before, during the War, Mother could only interact with this world through massive expenditures of magic and energy. But she can use Aaron as some kind of antenna to enact a lighter touch on the world. But for her to use his body as an energy conduit, it has to be vacated first. Remember when I said he was 'sort of' here? That orb you saw floating around his head was his soul, patiently waiting to get back in his body while she was using it."

"You mean that person in the basement was some kind of spirit?"

"In Aaron's body! Yes! That's why his body can safely handle that much magic, because that's not actually his magic. And besides, he's channeled much more before."

A thought crossed through Lyra's mind, and the solution to her problems seemed to loom on the horizon. "So, have you ever talked to this 'Mother' character?"

Twilight shrugged, taking a sip of her tea. "A few times. She's really nice, and she loves to tell jokes. She's also the spiritual progenitor of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They're her daughters, go figure."

"Can she give me...I don't know, maybe a little advice?"

Twilight's eyebrow shot up to her forehead, then her eyes popped wide open as she realized what Lyra was truly after. "Oooohhh. You think she might have an answer to your fertility problem."

Lyra rolled her eyes at the socially awkward Twilight. "To put it bluntly, yes."

The town librarian tapped her chin with a hoof, a very deep and thoughtful expression crossing her face. "Well, we might be able to ask, so long as we do it carefully. Come on, let's go try." The lavender unicorn led her back over to the basement door, opening it carefully and ushering Lyra down the steps. She tread carefully down the dimly lit stairs, seeing that not much had changed except that the orb that was Aaron appeared to be doing loop de loops to entertain itself.

The orb stopped in its antics, seeming to spy Lyra from across its shield of runes. Shrinking back, it changed color from white to a light shade of red, almost shivering in fear. "Is he afraid of me or something?" Lyra asked, looking inquisitively at the free roaming soul.

"He's still a little apprehensive about what you did to him. It's not that he's afraid, he's just uncomfortable with you around." Twilight turned her attention to the floating soul, ignoring the body churning out godly amounts of magic power. "Aaron! Behave yourself, Lyra is my guest and I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in my own home! Do you understand me?"

The orb shivered a little bit, then bobbed up and down as if nodding, changing its color back to a vibrant white. "That's better," Twilight said in a manner that seemed almost a little smug. Turning her back to him, Lyra could almost swear she saw a face sticking its tongue out at Twilight before turning away to sulk.

Clearing her throat, Twilight addressed the spiritual conduit inside of the circle of runes. "Excuse me, Mother? Can I talk to you for a moment?"

The empty body seemed unresponsive in its extreme concentration, but the human's head lifted and his eyes opened to reveal not the normal brown of Aaron's eyes, but a glowing pool of forest green magic. Turning slowly to Twilight, it smiled.

Hello Twilight, how can I help you?

Lyra looked at his lips, but they remained motionless, despite the whispering voice that seemed to be inside of her head.

"Oh, hi. I need to ask you a favor," she asked sheepishly of the god-possessed body in front of her.

Anything for you. What would you ask of me?

"My friend here," she nodded towards Lyra, "needs some advice, and thought that you might be able to help her."

The entity's gaze shifted to Lyra, inspecting the unicorn mare and giving her a smile.

I'm flattered you came to me for help, Lyra Heartstrings.

"You know my name?" Lyra asked the entity.

Of course. I also know why you came to me for help.

"You do? Can you help me?" Lyra said with a rise of excitement in her voice.

That is something I don't know. The god possessed body glanced back at the floating orb, which seemed to chatter in an extreme high pitch. Calm down, I'll give it back in a minute. I'm busy right now. Typical organism, always fretting about 'time'. Anyways, I know what you're going through, Lyra. It took me literally two billion years of trying to craft even the most primitive of cells before I gave up and let the universe take its own course with life. It was quite possibly the most frustrating and depressing thing that could have happened. But it all eventually worked out, not the way I was expecting, but here we are today.

"So you just let nature take its course?"

Mhm, and let me tell you something. You know that feeling you got when you first saw Sophia? That warm, fuzzy feeling inside?

Lyra gave an understanding smile and a nod. "I sure do."

Isn't it just the greatest feeling you've ever had? That to me is the purest form of love and harmony, and it's why I choose to be known as 'Mother'. And I would be honored to assist you in becoming one too.

The minty unicorn could have jumped for joy, and her hooves beat an excited little dance into the basement floor. "Thank you thank you THANK YOU!" she sang loudly. "Thank you so much! I don't know how I can ever repay you!" Lyra tried to swoop in for a hug, but was stopped by Twilight as she neared the runic barrier. "Oh, sorry. Nearly breached the magic circle."

Not a big deal. And you don't have to repay me in any way. Simply feeling the love and happiness of a person is payment enough for anything. Now come close.

Lyra took a few steps closer, anticipating that the possessing goddess could ascertain the problem and either tell her how to fix it, or just do it on her own. A hand reached out from the rune circle and started to run along the fur of her stomach. Though having the fingers on her fur would have excited her any other day, tonight Lyra stayed still to hopefully ease along the diagnosis.

She felt tendrils of magic seeking through her body for anything that might be causing her infertility, and with a start the deity stopped. The look on the possessed body's face started to become grim.

Oh no.... she heard whispered into her mind. No no no, damn it.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Lyra asked, concerned about the change in her telepathic voice.

Do you remember a certain event in your past? A certain illness you caught when you were about sixteen and travelling through northern Zebrica?

"Yeah" Lyra replied, "I caught a fever and was bedridden for a week. But my fever broke and I got better."

You caught a rare virus which chiefly attacked your reproductive system. If you had been given the proper treatment, the damage could have been stopped or even reversed. Lyra...I'm sorry, but all of your eggs were completely annihilated by the infection. You still ovulate, but you do not produce any eggs. I'm so sorry.

Hearing her worst fear, Lyra began to choke with tears, and she wiped her eyes with a hoof, trying to hide her sorrow and utter waste of all her efforts. "I never had a chance. I can never be a mother," she quietly wept.

The pools of green light faded from the human's eyes, and the humming noise began to dim and fade away as the goddess withdrew back to her realm. And as his body was vacated, a much more solemn acting spirit of Aaron Patterson drifted back into his body, taking up residence once again. Blinking and taking a deep breath as he once again returned to the world of the living, he looked over at Lyra.

"I'm sorry," he said earnestly. Standing from his circle of runes, he delicately wrapped his arms around Lyra's neck and gave her a gentle hug. Letting all of her sorrow and her frustration come out at once, she buried her face in his shoulder and cried like she had never cried before.

*******************************************************************************

Even as she made it home for dinner, Lyra had to continue stifling the tears. But she couldn't help it; magic, science, wishful thinking and even God all told her that it was impossible, that her time had passed before she was even available. Walking in the door to her home, she set down her saddlebag and entered the dining room.

Bonbon looked up from the table in annoyance, wanting to rant about how her partner was late for dinner again and how it was getting cold. But the sight of Lyra's reddened and watered eyes immediately silenced her. Standing from the table, she rushed to her partner. "Lyra, what happened? What's wrong?"

Lyra let it all out once again, sobbing into her wife's shoulder like she had with Aaron and Twilight. "I can't get pregnant. It's impossible," she wept.

"Who told you that?" Bonbon asked, willing to go and kick somepony's ass if they had said it as an insult.

"A god did. She told me that I'm sterile. I can never get pregnant."

Bonbon closed her eyes, holding back the tears of sympathy and tightly hugging her mate. "I have a confession to make," she whispered. "I've been secretly meeting with stallions since we started trying. I wanted to surprise you since I knew you were having trouble. I...I can't either."

And there they sat on the floor of their dining room, holding one another and weeping for their inability to create life and make themselves into a family. Only time would tell as to where this failed attempt in their lives would take them.

*************************************************

Well then, that turned from a comedy into a tragedy pretty quickly. How about that deep and serious Derpy? And that Thunderlane/Lyra sex ship? Also, WARNING! The next chapter will skip forward several months to advance the plotline! I know it's lazy and of bad taste, but how the hell am I supposed to fill in that much time?

Well anyways, I kinda wanted to tell you guys that my story universe got its first spin off a few months ago! Iron Sides, a fan of mine and a person who I consider to be a friend, wrote a pretty cool story called Rise of the Fallen. Mostly it is a story about the rerise of human technology following our resurrection from stasis and how we began to rebuild ourselves. And a forewarning, it is very heavy on the technical lingo for steam engines, but it's still a good read. Inter-story references will be made, and I will rely on some of Iron Sides' canon. Iron, if you're reading this, can I borrow some of your OC's? They might play a pretty integral part later on.

Comments

[Lone Wolf]

One question,any soul outside of its body(like Aaron in this chapter) will have a high-pitched voice?
The thought of that makes me giggle a bit.
Anyway,well done.

[PegasusKlondike]

1311133 I wanted it to come across as more of a buzz or a hum rather than actual words. But yes, in the absence of vocal cords, your voice does get higher.

[Lone Wolf]

1311736
I see.In part I guess I had the wrong image.Still I think it might be a bit funny if the souls had cute high-pitched voices.

[PegasusKlondike]

1311838 Plus they're kind of tiny. They've got that whole comically small voice thing going on.