Chapter 1: Mother and Child
Rarity was still bleary-eyed from the effort, exhaustion, pain and medications.
The doctors had considered doing a Dactylian -- that operation named after the ancient Pegasus Commander who had three hooves on each foot, and had supposedly been born by cutting open his mother's womb. Such an operation had once been almost always fatal to the mother, but with modern late-15th century medicine, with anesthetics and antiseptics and antibiotics, it was now usually survivable. And fourteen was young for a Unicorn's first delivery: Rarity's birth canal was still small and fillyish.
On the other hoof, any mistake in a Dactylian could sterilize the mother. And, because she was young, Rarity might someday bear other foals, hopefully to somepony more scrupulous than the father she had resolutely refused to name. It would be cruel to deny her that hope.
Her hips decided the issue. Rarity had wide, generous hips, a pelvis perfectly-proportioned for dropping foals. Though still a bit small, she was not in as much danger as most fillies her age would have been. Her father, Magnum Bell, had taken out a loan on his house to pay for the best obstetricians available in Ponyville -- one of the doctors had come in from the capital of Canterlot to attend, and the midwife from South Dunnich, a hamlet near the small town of Nickerlite. That midwife -- an eccentric but highly-experienced old mare with a doctorate in biology, came down firmly on the side of a vaginal birth.
"'Ain't no reason to go cutting this fine young mare up," the midwife stated. "I've drawn plenty'o live foals out of live mothers smaller'n her, by the normal route, and seen both dam 'n foal live happy and healthy after. No point messin' up this girl's womb." And the doctors could not but yield to the force of her reasoning, and the knowledge that she had been a practicing midwife before they had been born.
The birthing proceded without the need for any scalpels. There seemed to be a dicey moment at one point, when the foal's head seemed to get stuck at the pelvic outlet: presentation was good but the mother's muscles seemed to be clamping down rather than pushing properly. The obstetricians muttered and eyed their surgical tools; the midwife simply made a tsk-tsk noise, applied just a touch of dilation -- and the baby slid smoothly out. "Easy-peasy," she commented, chuckling, and none could find fault with her medical technique, though the Canterlot expert harumphed in complaint about her "rustic ways."
So it was that, at 3:05 am on November 11th, YOH 1496, at Ponyville General Hospital, Rarity Belle of Ponyville, aged 14, was delivered of a healthy male foal. Soon after, her get was presented to her; and Rarity gazed for the first time on what she had earned for her eleven months of fear and pain and shame, and for what she had traded her scholarship and her old bright dreams.
She beheld a perfect little colt, still damp from birth, with a scraggly pure-white coat and wispy dark blue mane and blue eyes, just opening to look upon his new world. She saw him, drank in his reality, explored his pattern with the most superb aesthetic sense born to her generation. And she realized something.
He was flawless. He was wonderful. She shuddered in awe at the amazing little creature she had made.
"What is his name?" the strange midwife asked, her bunned-back gray-gold mane framing her kindly, intelligent face.
The obstetricians looked at the midwife askance, but the old mare persisted.
"Names are important, child," she continued. "Do you know his?"
"Yes," said Rarity, her voice muzzy with morphine and exhaustion. "He is a perfect gem I got with great difficulty from worthless Rocks. He is a diamond. Diamond Bell. That is his name."
As Rarity spoke, she saw that the name fit the foal as could no other. She felt the patterns lock perfectly into place. Diamond Bell. That was who he was.
Golden Pie nodded in approval.
Rarity clasped her newborn colt, her little Diamond, to her barrel, smiling into his dear small face. Diamond's just-opened eyes struggled to focus on his mother, and then he smiled back.
Pony foals were somewhat precocial. On the Primal Plains, countless millennia ago, Diamond would have been expected to stand within an hour; run with his mother within a day; the lash of predation spurring him on to develop quickly, or die.
Equestria was a civilized culture. There were no predators in Ponyville General Hospital. Diamond Bell would be allowed to develop at his own rate.
But Diamond still had needs, not fundamentally different from those of the primal Ponies. He felt a need. Far too young for speech, he expressed his need by crying.
Rarity smiled. She had watched her mother, Sweetie Pearl, take care of Rarity's own younger sister, when Sweetie Belle was just a foal. She knew what the little colt wanted, and it was something of which she had plenty. She shifted his position on her, brought his small foalish muzzle down to her udder, so that his mouth could reach her swollen teats.
The foal's instincts and reflexes were good. Mouth found nipple. Little Diamond Bell made contented noises as he suckled.
Rarity felt a warm, happy sensation at the physical contact. Her own maternal instincts, ones far older than current civilization or ancient Uplifting, told her that this was right, was good, was the way things should be.
Borne on a wash of pure mother-love, Rarity stopped thinking, lost herself in a bliss as ancient as eutherial mammal, and drifted off to her well-earned sleep, utterly content with her world. The intellectual, the intriguer, the designer -- all were in suspension for now. At this moment Rarity Belle was, pure and simple, a Mother.
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Interesting. Does this Rarity still become the Element of Generosity?
I'm going to have to echo 7830160. This is a touching scene, but I have to wonder what happens from here. A life where there normally isn't one is a tremendous point of departure.
Very interesting read, I can't help but hope that the little guy was either raised (partially or fully) by his grandparents or put up for adoption. A fourteen-year-old really isn't equipped to be a mother.
Aww, poor Rares. I can't possibly imagine giving birth at my age *shudders*
Sweet but troubled waters lie ahead. In this world line I wonder if our diamond gal will be able to open up store at all, and I wonder about the little diamond as well when the sun falls to darkness in a few years.
I think there is an error here.
7830160
No, the survival of Diamond Bell changes the lives of Rarity and Futtershy. Rarity opens what starts as a clothing cleaning and repair shop at 15, using a loan from her parents, and acts as seamstress rather than designer at first, only then slowly moving into fashion design. This happens more gradually because she never completes her training at the Fillydelphia Institute; instead she works and studies.
Fluttershy winds up helping take care of Rarity during pregnancy and her child after the birth. Because of Rarity's presence the events of Fluttershy's Night Out never happen (Fluttershy's not as desperately lonely, nor would Rarity let her get into that sort of situation with a strange stallion) and Fluttershy is somewhat less afraid of other Ponies. When Rarity expands her business Fluttershy goes in with her as a partner.
Come Luna's Return, Rarity and Fluttershy stick by Diamond Bell and Fluttershy's animal hive, while Carrot Top and Derpy are selected by the Tree of Harmony to attune to Generosity and Kindness.
This story was originally a fragment from an alternate worldline I'd thought up around the Diamond Bell live birth POD.
7830207
Rarity gets a lot of help from her parents and then from Fluttershy raising Diamond Bell. This gives him an ... interesting ... view on society. He eventually learns to get along really well with both high society and other species, and has a career as an international trader, working for Rarity Enterprises (which takes a bit longer to get set up in the AU, but tanstaafl).
7830249
That's part of why in the main Shadow Wars Story Verse worldline, she loses him to miscarriage. She's only 13 when he's conceived. Younger than Sweetie Belle is after Season Three in the SWSV. There are a number of reasons why Rarity is totally cool with Sweetie being best friends with Glittershell, and one of them is that Rarity knows Glittershell's sexual orientation. She would worry more if Sweetie spent as much time with Snips or Button Mash!
Oh yes. Rarity does think like that. She's polite and ladylike, but not at all naive.
7830442
That's good to hear at least, both in regards to her and Flutters having a positive influence on one another and both Rarity and Diamond getting support. But man her being that young and having a kid turns my stomach a bit.
Please don't take offense to that, I realise being young and sexually adventurous is certainly a thing that happens, but pregnancy can be so, so dangerous. Poor girl.
It's too bad that it would change her and Fluttershy's dealings with the elements so drastically,but I absolutely understand why. How does this affect Fluttershy's dealings with the changelings?
7830812
Rarity's situation is to some extent tragic, even in the worldline where she gets to keep her child. She was taken advantage of at an early age and has to grow up really fast. Compared to the mainline SWSV Rarity, she's a less brittle and dark character, though, because she didn't suffer the final horror of miscarriage, nor did she pervert her Talent toward destroying Rush Rocks.
She's still driven, though by slightly different motives than mainline Rarity. She wants to succeed for her child, and increasingly also for Fluttershy, with whom she is closer than in the mainline SWSV and toward whom she feels quite protective (and the AU Fluttershy is a bit more innocent than the SWSV one, since she never met Nosey or anypony like him).
Rarity still develops her ideals of Fabulosity and strives to live up to them, but the forces driving her are less dark. On the other hand, she doesn't achieve quite as much in the AU -- one can say that in the mainline SWSV she paid her dues in serious suffering when she was younger, and in the AU she's suffered a bit less. But only a bit.
It could of course be worse than in either worldline. There are worldlines where Rarity dies of complications with her pregnancy. She is only 13-14, after all. I am not sure I'm comfortable writing that story, though. I love Rarity.
Oh, Fluttershy's Changeling heritage hasn't changed either. Maybe there's a story where Rarity and Fluttershy have to confront Chrysalis, and someone does some awesome music about it. You know, "Rarity and Fluttershy's Epic"?
Interesting. I'd like to see more of this timeline.
7830839
Hm, is the story of her and Rush Rocks one that is out? I knew about the pregnancy in your main story line, the fact that she was very young, and I knew that she had miscarried, but I didn't remember any of the specifics, or even the Sire's name. I initially assumed he was only a little older than she and they both made a mistake. So I am honestly missing a little bit of information and context when you say that she tarnished her EoH trying to destroy him. Destroy him how? As in, actively ruin his life? Bankrupt him? Ruin his name? Yes?
Possibilities of her dying due to complications are the main reason for my feeling of unease about the whole thing. Pregnancy can be far more dangerous than people give it credit for even now for an adult, the chances of complications increase dramatically when the mother is that young. Possibilities of defects, miscarriages, accidental sterilization, moderate-to-severe internal tearing and damage to the mother beyond that, you name it. It's probably different for ponies, and I am thinking like a human here, but damn. Double it down 'cause I like Rarity, I really do.
That said, both her and Fluttershy having someone to lean on and stave away the loneliness makes me very happy, even if the circumstances around it are so unfortunate. And Flutters never meeting Nosey and being hurt that deeply is a very positive note to the whole thing. I don't fault the guy for the action, nor do I particularly fault him for his reasoning, I just wish he had been more upfront about his intent before the ordeal. Especially to someone as naive as Fluttershy was at the time.
I think either Hans Zimmer's Time or Clint Mansell's Death is the Road to Awe would suffice, personally. Especially if it never comes to blows and you just want dramatics.
This is intresting hope more is to come
Is anyone else a bit confused by the Author notes?
8355444
What about them confuse you? I'll gladly clarify any point.
8355456
Just basically everything. All this talk about Worlds and stuff.
8355517
The SWSV (Shadow Wars Story Verse) is explicitly a multiverse: there are multiple worldlines, separated at POD's (Points of Divergence) where key events went differently. The main difference between this worldline and the main SWSV worldline is that in this worldline, Rarity successfullly bears her bastard foal (Diamond Bell) instead of miscarrying him.
In the SWSV in general, Ponykind was Uplifted from the Pre-Ponies (what we would think of as "horses") in two stages, by two different races: the Great G'marr and the Eldren. The Great G'marr gave the Ponies sapience, and the Eldren crafted the original Five Kinds (Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, Sea Ponies and Flutter Ponies) out of them.
Is anything else unclear?
8356251
I get it, SWSV, though. Where can I find out more about it?
8356461
Every story I've written on this site is in the SWSV.
8356564
Okay.
Really well-written story. But where can I read the story in which Rarity miscarried? Thanks!
Huh this was interesting. Is this part of a larger universe, I see the year marks.
Oh god. I'm 14, and while I'm still a virgin, I have had surgery and I can feel some of the memories. Poor girl.
10152234
I'm sorry for your pain. And my Rarity's, though it was necessary for the story.