The Emergency

by Wheller

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Summer had taken Shortfuse's advice to heart, and now stood looking up at the night sky as she waited for the bus that would take her home. It wasn't like she could see anything. Fillydelphia was a big industrial city, too much light pollution and smog from the factories to see anything.

When Summer was a kid, it had been a lot worse though, industry ran rampant, not just in Fillydelphia, but in Ponyville, and Manehattan too. Canton had been spared from pollution due to the fact that there was no space to build any factories up on that plateau. There had been two major bouts of rapid industrial build up in Equestria, one in the 10s, and the second in the 60s. Both times, industry had outpaced environmental regulations, and the pollution had gotten pretty bad.

When pollution was bad, it was pretty much the only way that the Equestrian Green Party could come to power in Parliament. Unsurprisingly, when one considered the state of things then. There had only been two Green Party governments. Fluttershy's administration in Year 25 and Stormhorn's in Year 70.

There had been a move in the last thirty years towards cleaner energy sources, most importantly nuclear fusion. Older forms of energy production, such as coal, oil, and natural gas were being replaced in phases, and existing fission reactors were being upgraded and optimised to run as efficiently as possible before they would be phased out completely by Year 120.

Summer glanced down the street, and watched as the bus pulled to a stop in front of her; the door opened, and allowed her entry. Summer stepped on, depositing a coin in the fair box before taking her seat near the back of the bus.

She was mostly alone; busses were completely automated with Virtual Intelligence pilots having replaced drivers many years ago. There was only one other passenger, not surprising, considering how late it was. Summer glanced over to the other passenger. She was an earth pony mare, her coat was a dark grey, and her mane and tail alternated between teal and emerald. Her eyes were a soft orange, and there were tears streaming down her face. Summer could tell that she was struggling to keep quiet. Something was clearly wrong.

It probably wasn't any of her business. She turned and looked away back towards the front of the bus. Then the thought occurred to her that her problems weren't really any of Shortfuse's business either and the pegasus mare's talk with her had really helped.

Summer got up from her seat and trotted back towards the earth pony mare, taking a seat across from her. 'Hi... are you alright?' Summer asked.

The earth pony mare jumped in her seat, her head shot up and she sat silently for a moment before turning her head back down, as if in shame. 'I could lie and say yes... and that it was just my allergies... but you wouldn't believe that, would you?' the mare asked.

'No... no I wouldn't. I can tell that something is clearly bothering you... and I thought that maybe you'd like someone to talk to?' Summer asked, offering her a smile.

'I... well, I haven't told anyone about it... and... hey? Why do you care anyway? You don't know me! I don't know you!' the mare said, going on the defensive.

Well great. This was going well.

'I'm Summer Lightfall, let's just say... that I'm going through a hard time too, and I understand what it's like to be alone and afraid of what's coming', Summer said.

The mare was silent for a moment; she bit her lip and glanced back and forth before turning back towards Summer. 'I'm Anastasia Hopely... call me Hopely', the mare said simply.

'Pleased to meet you', Summer said. She rose from her seat and crossed over to the earth pony mare, and sat down next to her. She placed her hoof on Hopely's shoulder and offered her a small smiled. 'Now... what's going on?'

'I... oh jeeze... I've just realised that I've never said this out loud', Hopely said with a frown. 'I'm... pregnant'.

'I see... ‘Summer said. Well, that wasn't something too bad, was it?

'I... I was... I was raped', Hopely said with a frown.

Summer was very glad that she did not say that last bit out loud.

'I'm here to get it aborted... hopefully that'll be the end of it that I can move on with my life', Hopely said as tears began to stream down her face.

'Did you go to the police? Maybe they can catch the guy who did it?' Summer asked.

Hopely broke out into sobbing for a few moments before wiping her eyes, and reaching into her overcoat with her teeth and pulling out a handkerchief and blowing her nose into it. 'You don't understand... I am the police', she said with a sniffle.

'Huh...?' Summer asked, her eyes widening in disbelief.

'I'm a patrol copper in Ponyville... and I ticketed someone for jaywalking. Wouldn't take the ticket, so I arrested him and hauled him in... little did I know he was a Præsidium national that my superiors were watching... so they let him go, a couple nights later, he cornered me in a dark alley... and he raped me in retaliation... worst thing is, he made sure that I knew it was him... and now... now... I'm pregnant with his foal', Hopely said before burying her head into Summer's shoulder and crying her eyes out.

Summer wrapped her foreleg around Hopely for comfort. Hell, the more Summer talked to people, the more she felt like her own situation wasn't quite so terrible. Hopely had it far worse than she did.

'No one I work with can ever know...' Hopely said with a sniffle. 'I want to be a detective... but I want to earn it on my own. I don't want to get promoted out of sympathy... that's why I came out here to Fillydelphia, no one can ever know...'

Summer gave Hopely a hug, gently rubbing her back and whispering to her that it would be okay. She allowed Hopely to cry into her shoulder for a few minutes before Hopely eventually pulled her head up and wiped away the last of her tears.

'This is hardly something that you should be going through alone... do you... want me to go with you to the hospital?' Summer asked.

'You... you don't have to do that...' Hopely said.

'I know I don't have to... but I want to, you shouldn't be alone in this. This is a tough time for anyone', Summer said, offering her a smile.

'You... you're too kind for a stranger... almost too good to be true', Hopely said, looking up at Summer with a strange look on her face.

Summer said nothing and smiled.

…

Summer was surprised that there were doctors willing to do abortions at this time of night. It was half past one. Summer sat with Hopely in the waiting area as the earth pony mare filled out a number of forms, scribbling with a pencil between her teeth on a few pieces of holopaper.

Hopely finished filling out the final form and dropped the pencil onto the pad and rose from her seat. ‘Every time somebody says we're becoming a paperless society, I feel like they give us ten more forms to fill out’, Hopely said with a grumble as she headed over to the receptionist’s desk and returned to her seat and waited to be called.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Summer glanced over to discover a nervous look forming on the earth pony mare’s face. ‘You don’t have to do this, you know’, Summer said, patting her on the back.

‘Yes I do’, Hopely said with a frown. ‘Even if I wanted this kid, I couldn’t take care of it, hell, I can hardly take care of myself. My work is my life! Everything else comes second’. Hopely took a deep breath and let it out, doing her best to try to relax. She was scared, to say the least, but she knew that this was what she had to do. ‘You want to know what the funny part is? I used to be against abortions all together. Even in cases of rape and incest. Oh how the irony hath stung...’

Summer had to admit, the universe had a brutal sense of humour.

‘Anastasia Hopely?’ a voice called out from the far side of the room. Summer looked up to discover one of the nurses holding open a door and looking at them. ‘We’re ready for you’.

Summer and Hopely looked at each other for a moment. Summer could see the fear in Hopely’s eyes. She placed her hoof on the earth pony mare’s hind leg, giving it a light pat and offering her a smile. ‘Go on, I promise you that I’ll be waiting right here until you get back’, she said simply.

‘You don’t have to do that... you could just go home, I can manage on my own from here’, Hopely said simply.

‘You’re right, I don’t have to stay here, and you can manage on your own from here’, Summer said, nodding her head in affirmation, but not moving from her seat.

Hopely returned the smile, and rose to her hooves, and headed back with the nurse. Summer would be waiting right here until she returned.

Comments

[Deathpony]

good chapter again

[Amino]

All these feels in this story.. It is delicious.

[Reaper1oo]

Interesting to see characters that we the readers know. Especially some of those characters back stories.

[Dr. Equestria]

My heart twinged a little there...