"Okay class," Ms. Cheerilee said. "I'm going to explain why I asked half of you to write down your names on a piece or paper yesterday. I've put them in this fish bowl," she gestured towards the clear glass bowl next to her on her desk, "And you will pick from it who your spouse will be for your semester assignment."
Rainbow Dash rasied her hand. "Uh, spouse? Are we getting married or something?"
Cheerilee shook her head with a laugh. "Not exactly. You see, when you grow up and live on your own, you will aquire responsibilities. Like," she went behind her desk and heaved what looked like a small baby wearing a diaper onto her desk. "Children."
Applejack scratched her cheek. "Uh, Ms. Cheerilee? Ah don't quite get it."
A few other students around her mumbled in agreement.
"For the next few weeks you will be taking care of a baby with a partner. Your 'spouse'." She explained using air quotations. "This is to show you how hard it is to take care of a baby while maintaining a relationship. No I don't actually expect you to start dating your partner, but in order for this to work you both have to participate and communicate accordingly."
"What if two guys get paired together?" Someone in the back asked.
"Then you would have to just deal with it, now wont you? Same sex marriages of both sexes are common in this day and age anyway." She held up the fish bowl. "Now, I'm going to come around with the bowl. The half of the class who didn't write their name will pick a scrap of paper with their partner's name on it. Once everyone on that side has a paper, I will tell you to open it. And you can't change your partner once you have one."
Rainbow Dash groaned.
"Give me a break," Sunset Shimmer told her, rolling her eyes. "It can't be that bad."
Cheerilee came around and every other student picked out a piece of paper with their classmates name on it. When she gave the go ahead, everyone opened the paper to see who their partner would be.
"I got Rarity?!" Applejack barked. Not that she didn't like her. In fact Rarity was one of her very best friends. It's just...she couldn't see herself with someone like her. And especially not having a child with them.
"Pinkie?!" Rainbow squeaked. "She can't even keep an eye on herself how is she supposed to take care of our pretend kid?!"
"Sweet!" Twilight Sparkle said, turning to Sunset. "Looks like we're partners!" Of course this wasn't Princess Twilight, but her human counterpart. She had transfered from Crystal Prep at the beginning of the year and was quite surprised to find that she was already popular in a school she had never been to.
But, with the help of Sunset and the others, she had gotten used to all the attention and settled into their group quite nicely. There were significant differences between her and Princess Twilight of course, but that was a good thing. Sunset wouldn't have it any other way.
"Eeep!" Fluttershy squeaked. Everyone looked over at her for an explanation but it was clear that she was absolutely way too frightened to say anything.
Rainbow grabbed the paper off her desk and snorted. "Adagio! Oh man, I'm actually glad I'm stuck with Pinkie now!"
"Don't worry," Sunset told the pink haired girl, trying to calm her down. "I'm sure that she isn't as scary as she was before." She actually wasn't sure about that, but she wasn't going to tell Fluttershy that.
Cheerilee handed each group a baby and a blank birth certificate. She instructed them to come up with a name and write it on the certificate before handing it back to her next class. "And remember," she said as the lunch bell rang. "You have to work together in order for this to work!"
The gang's lunch table was unusually loud that afternoon, as each girl sat with her partner contemplating a name for their fake child. And so far, no progress had been made.
"No!" Rarity shouted at Applejack, her lips set into a deep frown. "We are not naming our child 'Bailey Hay'!"
Applejack snorted. "Why not?!"
"Because it is too country! Our child's name should be something unique and a combination of the both of us! Not something that you came up with off the top of your head!" Rarity countered.
"Fine! Then what do you suggest we name 'er?!" The farm girl barked.
"Cherry Blossom." Rarity huffed.
"Ah don't like cherries." Applejack said indignantly.
"How are you going to name your child something apple related when all of your family has taken up every apple related name ever?! At least it's fruit related! Work with me here, darling!" The fashionista told her, exasperated.
Applejack didn't say another word. She just grumbled to herself, and wrote 'Cherry Blossom' on the certificate. If this relationship was going to work, she was just going to have to shut up and let Rarity have her way sometimes.
Though their argument was greatly overshadowed by the one going on further down the table.
"Bubble Berry!"
"Rainbow Blitz!"
"Bubble Berry!"
"Rainbow Blitz!"
"Bubble Berry!"
"Pinkie, I'm not naming our son something that lame! He obviously takes after his mama so his name is Rainbow Blitz!" Dash shouted.
Pinkie slammed her hands on the table. "What are you talking about?! We're both his mamas so he takes after both of us! He can't be a baker like me with a name like Rainbow Blitz!"
"Who said he was going to be a baker?!" Rainbow demanded, poking a finger into Pinkie's chest. "Obviously the squirt is gonna be a Wonderbolt like me!"
"Nuh-uh! He's toats gonna take after me!" Pinkie said.
"No, me!" Dash insisted.
"No, me!" Pinkie insisted back.
The girls glared at each other, probably sending literal sparks flying.
Across from them, Sunset and Twilight had just put the finishing touches on their baby girl's birth certificate.
"Aurora Dawn is a perfect name, Sunset!" Twilight gushed, pushing her glasses up on her face. "How ever did you come up with it?!"
"Ah well," Sunset began, smiling modestly. "I just thought that our baby girl would have similar names to ours."
Twilight smiled at her. "It's so cute!" She giggled. "This project is gonna be a breeze for us!"
"Totally!" Sunset agreed. "Hey, you wanna take Rory to the park after school today? It's a nice day out and it'd be great for bonding and stuff."
"Sure!" Twilight told her. "I should ask the girls if they want to..." her sentence trailed when she finally noticed the commotion going on at the other end of the table. "Er, maybe it should just be the two of us." she corrected herself.
Sunset nodded. "Good idea."
The other girls did wind up accompanying them to the park. And while there they discovered that the babies had chips in them that caused them to cry. They had to figure out the reason for the crying on their own without hurting it.
That's when they also realized that the chips in the babies recorded whenever they were hit.
While Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were busy pushing Berry Blitz on a swing, (they had decided to compromise,) the two other groups of new parents sat at a bench playing with their children.
"I think you'd make a great mother, Sunset!" Twilight told the older girl smiling as she burped the doll after it's "feeding."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Sunset replied, giving her an amused smile.
"Well, you're really gentle, and compassionate. I think any kid would be lucky to have you as a mom." Twilight said, smiling at her genuinely. "I know I wouldn't mind having a kid with you."
There was an awkward pocket of silence.
"I-I mean, you know, if there was ever such a circumstance. Heh." The younger girl fretted, quickly pretending to clean off her glasses.
Their awkward silence continued until they saw Pinkie and Rainbow bounding towards them out of breath.
"H-Have you seen Berry?" Rainbow asked, breathlessly.
Applejack's eyebrows knitted. "Weren't ya'll just pushing him on the swings a moment ago? How'd you lose him?"
"Dashie thought it'd be funny to push him really really high and he kind of....flew." Pinkie explained, twirling her hair.
"Flew?" Twilight repeated. "You mean you guys sent him soaring?"
Dash nodded. "Pretty much."
"Hey!" Pinkie said, pointing to a dog a few yards away from them. "Get my baby's arm out of your mouth!" she immediately began chasing after the dog waving her fists.
Rainbow rolled her eyes but ran to catch up with her.
Sunset let out a low chuckle. Something told her this was going to be an interesting project.
This is very interesting. I LOVE IT!!!!
Please update as soon as you can.
Pinkie taking care of a baby? Good luck with that, Rainbow.
As a whole, this was a nice start. Definitely continue with this one.
You have earned a track.
FAVORITING
I have been waiting for this.
Rainbow Dash XDDDDD You killed the baby on the FIRST DAY? Go to hell! XDDDDD
Jk, this so awesome and funny! Can't wait for more!
Now here is my level of panic for...
Adagio(Boss) and Fluttershy(guilty punchbag ready to fight back)
stream1.gifsoup.com/view8/4527818/gromit-laying-track-o.gif
can't wait to finish.
Continue with this. It's funny. 9.5/10
When Pinkie's your mom, you better be scared.
Hmm, interesting. Twilight and Sunset taking care of a baby, why didn't I think of that? I'll track it for now.
Thank my lucky everything that I never had an assignment like this!
This describes my thoughts:
rs2img.memecdn.com/well-it-is-almost-time-for-the-end-the-world_c_997575.jpg
This reminds me of an episode of Batman Beyond.
6075479 lol
I didn't even read it yet and I liked it! YAS! Sunlight forever!
EDIT: That was awkward...
That sounds like a really good drink name...
SOLD!!!
...there HAS to have been a better way for Cheerilee to phrase that. Unless she just hates being a teacher THAT badly...
Except that a same-sex marriage can NEVER result in an accidental/unwanted pregnancy on its own. Again, Cheerilee's presentation of her lesson plan is BADLY flawed.
I want to like this, because I like the idea of Twilight and Sunset bonding over the dreaded baby project. However, the execution is rushed, haphazard, and sloppy, and the entire beginning part with Cheerilee needs an overhaul to correct the points I mentioned above.
Still, I'm tentatively tracking this for now. I really think you should slow down, go back and rewrite this first chapter to even out the pace and fix the crippling issues with the opening.
6075826 thank you. I'll be sure to fix everything.
6075873
If I were you, I wouldn't worry about the "two guys" part, because while they can't have babies together, they can adopt. This whole lesson is, assumingly, about learning how to look after a baby, not who gives birth and what not. They could've just adopted, so I don't think you need to worry about that. But it would be good to rephrase what Cheerilee said first, and then that would make the thing she said next make more sense.
Callin' it now, best siren and the shyness are gonna get caught making out like horny teens, and receive the highest grade in the class. This is my prediction, because it sates my needs for more DagiShy.
Back on topic lovely little slice of life idea! I'm pretty excited to see this one roll out!
i'm gonna love this, oh and Adagio and Fluttershy, what would they name there daughter... and you know it will be, Adagio would want her to take after her mama (her)
hmmm, there are so many names... i would think for her last name, Fluttershy would try to voice something in the line of her choices. so if Adagio is strong about having a musical name... it would have to be gentle music.
Canary would be a great choice
Harmony would also be good
Melody is also good
and the last one i could think of, is Viola
That doesn't really seem like the attitude she should have. The purpose of the baby assignment is to prepare you for having kids someday, not scare you off of them.
Cheerilee: "Girls, do you want me to pretend like I still have hope, or save us all a lot of time and just give you an F now?"
Are we going to see Aria and Sonata in this?
Good start, try not to get to much into the cliche teen-drama feeling of muchiness though, that would kill pretty much all of your credibility as fast as a redneck surprising his wife sleeping with his black slave in the 1700
This story suggest an interesting thing about this human equestria. Cheerilee's speach about accidental pregnancy and then the fact that a guy says "what if two guys gets paired" but there is no raised eyebrows about two girls pairing... that HAS to mean that two girls CAN impregnate each other!
I like it. the frank approves.
6076546 yeah. Everyone's pretty much in this story.
Who's Rory?
I've been looking forward to this. I love how all the 'couples' interact.
I don't think that random selection criteria works the way you've written it. It would only work that way if, say, the class was already divided into halves, one half had their names written down, the others would then draw a name, and you would have an spousal configuration.
As it is, while Applejack pulled Rarity's name from the bowl, Rarity herself would have pulled a name too. Which is not guaranteed to be Applejack's name. In a class of thirty kids, assuming Applejack is the first, and Rarity is the second, there is only a one in twenty-nine chance that Rarity would pull Applejack's name to have the corresponding pair.
While statistically unlikely, it is possible. But for an entire class? Astronomically impossible odds. Well, maybe that is a bit of hyperbole, but still, very unlikely.
As it is written, either they pulled a name, and found out it was already taken, or the class was divided into halves, as mentioned before. Your method works well for a secret santa 'pairing', because there is no actual pairing involved. Or the pairing is not exclusive. For an exclusive pairing, you'd have to change the way you've set up the randomization.
Fluttershy gets paired with Adagio, and then never seen again!
Seriously though, what name did they pick?
6076847 Aurora.
Applejack? *puts hand on her shoulder* Welcome to fatherhood.
Craine...
6077548 I'm getting to them haha
6077129 oh. i see your point. I'll fix that.
6076847
i.imgur.com/JgMcm4D.png
Sorry, couldn't resist
6077644 I'd just have Cheerilee grab two names at a time from the fishbowl to determine pairs.
6077802 Favorite scene in the reboot. Just gotta say it.
I'm envisioning Fluttershy working with the Adagio from This fic. Her "eeep"ing just made it for me (despite the fact that Fluttershy eeps an average of 500 times a story. srsly, no hyperbole).
The students must be wondering what sort of shows Cheerilee's been watching when they notice that she didn't make any heterosexual pairings at all (we obviously don't know anyone outside of the main group, but I'm envisioning a very awkward class of people uncomfortably looking at each other and shuffling around uncomfortably.
Anyways, as an aside, I hate that baby assignment. Even if I've never actually done it, the idea of it creeps me out.
6078010 You read sucker for a cute face too?? That's why i paired up fluttershy with adagio!
6078017 It's criminally adorable.
Looking those exact words up on Google images does NOT result in the author.
Awesome
6078226 oh god what are the odds
6077555 Why?
6078359 Aurora... Rora... Rory.
I want one of the pairings name the kid "Banana Republic".
Oh, and the rewrite improved the story.
6078017 That story really is amazing, and I'm excited to see what you do with the S.S. ShyDagio
came here because of fallout new vegas lol
6078226
... I can't believe I thought it would be a good idea to see what actually came up. Some warning next time? Sheesh, now I have some history to delete. I blame you
6078512 That's a bit of a stretch don't you think? Where did is start? (if you know like a past story or something)
Ahhh, the classic baby assignment. I'm glad you mixed up the girls. Makes for a really interesting story. Can't wait to see where this one goes.