Distant Reflections

by David Silver

69 - Going In, Coming Out

"You'll be mad for days if I don't handle this." Remington whipped out a long thin sheet, more meant for other things than what she was using it for. "No mess in your room."

"Thank..." She didn't finish the other part, her teeth clenching as her body labored to do what it had to.

Twilight sat on her haunches, transfixed. She had never seen a mare go through the process before. Sure, technically, she knew how it all worked. She'd read about it! But reading and experiencing, even just be being in the same room, were different things. For that time, Octavia was the center of her little universe.

"Progress, 15%," came the melodic cheerfulness of Belle. "Issues detected, none. Proceed with confidence."

Octavia smirked faintly at the phrasing there, still... It had all the important things she needed to know. She was doing it. She was becoming a mother. Her thoughts drifted through countless years, to a mare she had not thought of in such a long time. Had her own mother felt similar struggles to create her? Surely it was so, such was the most basic cycle of life. Octavia clopped a hoof down, though most of her had sagged to the floor.

She really wanted to speak to her mother, however distantly past...

---

"Captains." Dawn rose to his hooves all four at once. "Permission to consult with the divine?" It was his job to do, still, he had been working his station. Leaving it without asking would be in obvious violation of protocols. The gods ruled over all, but the captains ruled over the ship.

Fast inclined her head. "We don't need you to monitor for anything specifically right now, so permission granted. Will you be reachable?" A priest in communion was not always something you could page. Best to ask ahead of time...

"If it goes as I think it will, I will be distracted. I will report in as soon as I am able." He began for the exit at a hasted, but measured, pace.

Steel watched him go before looking back to Fast. "What god do you think he needs to chat with?"

"Only that god knows," joked Fast with a little smirk. "I am jealous, once in a while. It's like... having countless allies on your side." She tapped the floor. "Like being a captain."

"We have many allies, relying on us," he agreed. "But I would not like to present myself as a god."

"Certainly not." Fast extended her tongue a little. "We'd make for middling gods at best."

---

Dawn stepped into his room. He moved for a cushion barely larger than himself. "Meditation 27," he ordered, a chime telling him the computer heard his request. A new scent hit the air, confirmation that the correct order had arrived with the right incense following it.

He settled down on the cushion and brought his forehooves together silently, his head bowed in prayer. "I recognize it is not spring, but such seasons are hard to measure in the embrace of the void. Forgive my folly and my failings, but I come to you with a gift, a wondrous event that will bring joy. Product of the love of two lines made one, they know you not, but they perform your bidding despite it."

Something brushed his right ear, like the lips of a pony, dexterous as those could be, gently coming close, breath with it, like fresh spring grass. The goddess had heard him, and was present. "You honor me. As a woman labors to perform her part of the dance, I invoke you to watch over her, to bless her if you would, and to take delight in the act."

There was no response, nor did he expect one. The gods owed him nothing.

---

That didn't mean she had not acted. Peering in at the room, she giggled gently to herself. "So wonderfully large." The mare was full of life, and working to expel it, as was a natural part of the dance. "It's not spring." Certainly not in Everglow... but they were not in Everglow... so perhaps an exception could be made. Besides, just because they danced in the spring, does not mean they reached that part in the spring.

It was only natural that the result came at another time. "You don't know me." Her ability to meddle with mortal affairs was curtailed. The universe had rules, to prevent the gods from making quite a mess of it. Still, she had been called, and that gave her some options. She would not leave that mother of the hybrid child she truly wanted to see born and to grow. "What a wonderful vulpony you will be," she sang to herself, circling the mother, though neither she nor anyone else in the room was aware of her.

"Will you accept a kiss?" Not that Octavia could hear the question or hope to answer it. Lashtada formed an answer of her own, leaning in and planting a gentle peck on Octavia's head just beside her horn. "You are a hybrid forged, three tribes made one. Blessed is and blessed making. I smile."

And for a god to smile on something was a blessing in itself. And she, goddess of the dance, it was quite appropriate.

---

Octavia arched her back and quivered as a powerful urge overwhelmed her. She didn't scream, but an odd noise did come from her. Still, it didn't... actually hurt. It just felt like work, and a good kind of work. Like galloping on a treadmill and working up a thick lather from a routine you wanted to do.

"Progress: 40%," sang out Belle. "The hardest part is past."

Octavia had to smile at that, it felt like it. The child was being born so easily compared to the first part.

Twilight shook her head slowly at the couple, Octavia and Remington. "I... am... grateful to be here... and ashamed... I'm sorry for... intruding."

Remington flipped Twilight off quite abruptly. "Not the time. Lend some magic, get this foal out, and help us celebrate. You can apologize later."

Octavia prodded her wife. "Be... polite..."

"You must be doing good," joked Remington with a smirk. "Got time to chastise me. C'mon, you're almost done!"

---

Lashtada sat on her haunches. "A new dancer arrives," she gently spoke to herself, tipping her head at the new life. "Welcome. May we meet again." One day, with luck, she would get to see the child repeat the act, the dance continuing, passed from one generation to the next. "Be healthy." She could do that, at least, a little gift for the newborn. "Be healthy," that at the mother, easing what lingering aches she had from what she had done, speeding her recovery.

It would not be a lingering blessing, not for the mother. She did not worship her. For newborns, the rules were different. She left her mark on the foal, perhaps greedily. She hoped to see that child again even as she rose up to her hooves and trotted away, vanishing even from her own sight, returned to realms of divinity.

---

With metal snaps, Belle sprang free, reassembling herself along the way to hit the ground with a metal clank. "Operation success!"

Octavia was curled with her child, offering them a bottle of milk and cooing soft little nothings. Remington was curled with her, petting their child, and Octavia, in love with the both of them. "We did it."

"I did it, you pompous oaf," Octavia muttered darkly before her expression brightened. "You helped." She kissed Remington on the cheek. "Sorry, that was impolite on my part."

Twilight set a towel aside for laundering. "Glad I could help. How do you feel?"

"Intact... happy?" Octavia inclined an ear at Belle. "You've been avoiding me, but now you spring into action? I thought I made you--"

"--Your deception has ended," cut in Belle. "I can speak with you without lies."

Octavia blinked softly before her eyes narrowed. "Wait, you knew I was hiding something?"

"Affirmative." She bobbed her head. "But, as a Responsible Adult with many friendship points, I determined allowing you to decide when to finish." She inclined her head faintly. "I would like to update many files with you."

Remington burst into laughter. "That's her way of saying 'let's catch up.'"

"I was wondering," admitted Octavia. "That sounds... lovely. Come here, you helped, you deserve to meet them."

As if Belle had to be invited, but since she had been, she trotted right up to the little bundle, examining them intently as a loading bar quickly filled where her pupils had been. "Analysis complete. Race: Vulpony. Gender: Male"

Octavia brushed against Remington gently. "Are you upset?"

"Hm? What would I even possibly be upset about?" She gently mussed the newborn's head, though paused. "Hey, he was inside you a moment ago... did he get bigger?"

"Mmm?" She hefted the foal gently. "I... you may be right... Is this normal?"

Twilight inclined her head. "I'm not a doctor, but that is curious." Now that she was watching for it, she could see the child growing, and drinking, draining the bottle about as fast as they could guzzle it down. "They don't seem to be in pain."

"I should hope not!" Octavia sat up at the idea of her child suffering. "Here you are." She gently popped the bottle away and set it aside, drawing a new one out to offer.

Remington raised a brow. "Is this another Equestria trick? Where are those bottles coming from?!"

Octavia returned the expression, brow high. "How do not-Equestrian mothers feed their children?" It was apparently quite normal for her to have bottles to offer her child.

Twilight smiled at that. "I'll explain, later, after we... are sure everypony involved is alright. Should I call Dawn to have a look at the foal?"

Octavia let Twilight trot off, her attention on Remington. "And you didn't answer."

"Because you didn't," huffed Remington. "What am I upset about?"

"You are a bi-sexual being, it's hard to ignore that." Octavia inclined her head faintly. "It's a deep part of what you are, and yet, your child is mono-gendered. Does that bother you?"

"Oh! Oh... I hadn't even thought about it," admitted the fox, scratching at her snout. "He's a cute little button is what he is, and he's ours and he's perfect. Though, hey, we only know what we can see right now. Maybe the person inside there is actually a girl and just hasn't told us yet, so I'll wait, and I plan to hug them either way, so there."

"In this we agree."

"Me too!" Belle reached out to hug the two parents and their child at the same time, happy music playing from within her. "This is a day for celebration! Friendship points have been awarded! New friendship file opened." She looked to the child, who had grown larger still, gorging on milk. "I need a name to apply to the file."

Octavia snorted gently. "She's not wrong. Our little colt deserves a name."

"Kit," argued Remington, sticking out her tongue. "Either way... What about that, kit? I always liked that name."

"Kit..." Octavia seemed to consider it. "Now, I must note, we equestrians have more, what must seem odd... habits. I did have dreams, and names were in them."

"You dream your baby names? That is amazing."

Belle sat up tall. "Present us your dream names so we may select."

"No need." Octavia waved it away. "Because Remington, my dear, clearly had the same dreams. Kit. Our child is Kit Tune."

Remington suddenly burst into laughter, a literal howl. "I love it! You do know I'm a kitsune, right? kit, ts, oon. kit tune? Oh... tell me you knew that."

"I admit I did not..." Octavia inclined her head. "But it does..." She petered off, Kit pawing at her with a pitiable expression. His bottle was empty. "Sorry, here you are." A new bottle was hurriedly provided. "Our son has a healthy appetite."

Author's Note:

This chapter mostly focused on The Big Event. It felt right, to not skip around on it, and to resolve it. What do you think?

Join the special community of folks who like my stories, wants to get updates early, and/or get your own here at atreon!

Don't want to do an ongoing thing? You could

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Lashtada is one of the few deities I look up for Pathfinder builds, because theyre one of the simpler to handle for civilisedand combat?

There was a hermaphrodite bird, Cardinal in the news the last few days? essentially a pair of Siamese Twins in a single unitary body? Bilateral Gynadomorphism? One egg cell and its polar body fertilised by different sperm?

Wonder how much information Twilight and Belle got?

[WanderingPony]

Whoops.

Looks like Kit had a divine aftermarket add-on installed and it's going to play merry hell with initial fuel efficiency and consumption.

Octavia's gonna need bigger bottles.

[TasermonsPartner]

Your description of the Spring Goddess and her interactions was actually quite emotionally breathtaking. This is most descriptive I think we've seen of Dawn's interactions with the gods he communes with.

And Octavia just shrugging aside ponies' apparent natural ability to make baby bottles filled with formula appear from nowhere was hilarious! If they can do that for diapers as well...just think of all the bits that ends up saving!

[David Silver]

10700128
Who said it was formula? That's full of milk! What else do you put in a foal's bottle? I am quite glad the divine communion came out right though. He approaches humbly, knowing he has not pledged fealty to not any single one of them, so he can only place ideas and they can act, or not, and he has no further say.