The Second Dream

by totallynotabrony

Make Your Mark: Portrait of a Princess

It was a little weird to go to a doctor and demand an ultrasound be performed on a guy. Also, we made sure to ask for a different doctor this time.

I held Hitch’s hoof while the medical technician examined his stomach and used the little sensor dealie to find out what might be inside.

“Oh yeah, look there. Four little hooves and a pair of ears,” he said, gesturing to the black and white sonogram image the computer was making.

I stared at the screen. “Are you sure?”

“Sure as sure.”

I wasn’t a trained ultrasound imagery interpreter, but did think that what I was seeing. I was just asking, because I refused to believe it.

Hitch was pregnant.

“What…what kind is it?” he practically whispered.

“Well, it’s hard to tell at this stage, plus the ultrasound isn’t high enough quality to give definite results. Being that Maretime Bay only just started contact with pegasi and unicorns, I don’t know much about mixed-race parents.”

The technician sat back and turned to smile at us. “Are you already thinking about names?”

It was about that time he realized which one of us was on the table and the look on his face would have been pretty funny if I was in a position to be laughing. Hitch didn’t think it was very amusing, either.

The two of us left the hospital in a daze. “How could this have happened?” Hitch mumbled.

“Like…is it mine?” I mumbled back.

“Sentra, you’re my only sexual partner. Ever.”

“Oh.”

“Which is why I am again asking how could this have happened?”

“I have no idea. Maybe it was reckless not using protection, but I thought it would be my problem.”

“Sentra.” Hitch stopped walking abruptly. Our eyes met. “It’s not yours or mine, it’s ours.”

While I was mostly still just stunned, the weight of responsibility finally fell on me then. I swallowed hard. “What are you going to do? I mean, your body, your choice-” I shook my head. “No, we. What are we going to do?”

“I need some time to think about it. Alone,” he said after a moment.

“Okay. Um. I’ll see you at the station later?”

He nodded and left me standing there.

Well, you really did it this time, Sentra. It wasn’t even the matter of the accidental pregnancy, how did I get a stallion pregnant!? Was there something strange about my body after all? And what, oh what, were we going to do?

I found myself drifting towards the Crystal Brighthouse, and figured it would probably be a good idea to stop by. I doubted anyone there could offer me a solution, but at least I might find something to distract myself. Maybe I should ask Zipp to scan me again with her special goggles.

When I got there, though, Zipp, Sunny, Izzy, and Pipp were all discussing something about Twilight Sparkle. It was a term I had heard before, but didn’t know what it meant.

I didn’t know what a Twilight Sparkle was, but it sounded like a magic spell or something. Was magic responsible for what had happened to Hitch? I tried to think back to anything recently that might have been the catalyst.

“Is Hitch okay?” Sunny asked when she saw me. She had been there when I’d observed he was acting hormonal, but didn’t know the aftermath.

“He’s fine,” I replied quickly, and did not elaborate.

Changing the subject, I asked, “What’s going on here?” Sunny seemed to have taken a few notes. Zipp had taken a lot, and was studying a stringboard to find some kind of connection.

“We heard that there are evil forces out there who want to exploit magic, now that it’s returned. Once, a pony tried to steal all the magic in Equestria for herself,” Sunny said.

“That sounds serious,” I replied. “What kind of intel do we have?”

“Unfortunately, that’s about it,” Sunny lamented. “We don’t even know when this happened, how, or who was responsible.”

“Then how do we know it’s true?”

“I trust Twilight Sparkle.”

“Okay,” I said, still not knowing what that was. Sunny may have had a reputation as the local crazy person, but she had proven right about magic at least once in the past. Plus, glancing across the room, I could see that Zipp also seemed to believe it, which really lent the idea more credibility.

Pipp wasn’t paying attention, though, and was bugging Zipp about going to some kind of picture-taking event. Zipp apparently decided to humor her, and the two of them got ready to leave. Wanting to get Zipp’s perspective on the magic issue, I decided to go with them. Sunny also came along.

Unfortunately, Zipp didn’t have much else to offer. “The magic crystals made a hologram. It was corrupted data, though, or whatever the magical equivalent is. It could be hundreds or thousands of years old. That’s why we don’t have the whole story.”

“Well, if it was hundreds or thousands of years ago, maybe the secret to stealing magic is also lost.”

Zipp and Pipp were on the way to Mane Melody, Pipp’s beauty/karaoke shop. Apparently, it was tradition for them to take a family portrait with their mother, who would be arriving shortly. Zipp, tomboy to the end, really didn’t want to do it.

“What’s so bad about it?” I asked. I figured she might want to blow off some steam.

“It’s not even the family aspect, it’s the royal part of it,” she griped. “We even put the portrait on our money.” She showed me a pegasus bill. It was different than the ones issued by Maretime Bay.

Queen Haven arrived not long after us. She greeted everyone warmly. “And you too, Sentra, good to see you again.”

She may have been a queen, but seeing her as a mother doting on her daughters - even if Zipp was a little cold - reminded me that I might be facing parenthood. Worse, I had no idea if I was going to be the mother or the father.

I overheard Zipp talking to Pipp about some rare flower. “The Ocean Lily only blooms once a decade. It would be perfect for this photoshoot. And your ‘gram.”

I met Zipp’s eyes and saw that she was actually up to something else. I threw her a bone and said, “Really? Maybe I should go looking for it.”

“No, that’s fine, we’ll do it,” Pipp quickly jumped in, trying to be the one to set the trend this time. The two of them hustled out of the shop, leaving me alone with their mom.

The Queen didn’t notice, though, because she was laying back and had cucumber slices on her eyes. I’d never tried that kind of beauty treatment before, mostly because it didn’t really matter if my eyes looked dark and sunken.

“Sentra, are you still there?” she said. “I wanted to speak with you about interstate law accords that the three municipalities will have to sign eventually. If Sheriff Hitch is around, he should participate, too.”

I might have been down, if not for that last sentence. I didn’t want any possibility that anyone else could find out what Hitch and I were going through, and while Queen Haven was vapid enough herself to have given birth to Pipp, she was probably perceptive enough to see that something was going on between Hitch and I.

Rather than responding, I quietly pretended to not be there and slipped out of the building. Sunny gave me an incredulous look as I left her there. She was another one I didn’t want to deal with right now.

Without anything else to do, I wandered on the street. I thought about the Queen calling me Sentra. I had thought she knew me by the name Martial Law. Maybe she just thought it was a title? Maybe her daughters had corrected her? Either way, she still thought I was some kind of cop, regardless of name.

Speaking of being a cop, I saw a mare looking suspicious. I’m not sure what struck me about her. She was a blue unicorn with a frizzy mane. I vaguely recalled seeing her before.

Looking further down the street, I saw that she seemed to be following Zipp and Pipp, and taking cover to stay out of sight. Okay, now that definitely was suspicious. I started following her. I also made sure to spare a glance and make sure I myself was not being followed. It pays to pay attention.

The princesses were apparently still searching for the flower they mentioned. They eventually made it down to the beach, and their stalker was still in step. In fact, the way they kept checking their phone, followed by Zipp checking her phone, made me think that perhaps she’d intentionally lured the sisters here. What was going on? How did she manage to get Zipp’s contact information? Or did she know them?

That notion was entirely dispelled by what happened next. The sisters found a beachside cave and began to enter. The mysterious mare positioned herself above the entrance, a big pile of loose boulders stacked there.

I was too slow and too far away to stop her from rolling them over the edge, and it was only Zipp’s quick reflexes, tackling Pipp away as the rocks began to fall, that kept the both of them from being crushed. However, they were probably now sealed inside the cave with a huge slide of boulders blocking the entrance.

The mare paused, wiping her brow after the exertion, and checking her work. My shadow fell over her.

She had just enough time to turn her head before I dropped from the sky with my entire weight behind the hoof I drove into her face. Something cracked, and it sure wasn’t my bones.

I’d just caught her in the act of what might be as severe as attempted murder, she’d done it to acquaintances of mine, and yes, maybe I was a little emotional after the day I’d had. I’d been so focused on stopping the threat that I hadn’t stopped to consider appropriate use of force.

I again checked my own tail, to make sure nobody was about to do the same thing to me. Never let it be said I don’t learn from others’ mistakes.

The pony I’d just dropped was still breathing, though it would have been a little easier if she wasn’t. I didn’t think she was going to get up any time soon, though, so I dropped down to the cave and began pulling rocks off the entrance.

In just a few seconds, I opened up a hole and met Zipp coming from the other direction. “Sentra! I’m so glad to see you!”

“Me too. Are you both okay?”

We dug a little more and managed to get the two of them out. I was slightly surprised that Pipp actually had managed to find the flower inside the cave, though not surprised that she’d prioritized picking it over saving herself.

The three of us went back to check on the mysterious assailant. She was still here, rapidly bruising, and breathing with difficulty. I'd broken her face. Not just the nose, the whole face.

“You know her?” I asked, hoping she was still recognizable.

Neither of them did. “What happened?” Zipp asked.

“She’s the one who pushed over the rocks,” I said.

“Did she get caught, too?”

“No. I did that.”

“You-” Both of them glanced between the injured mare and me.

“She tried to kill you, and I’m a cop,” I said.

“Sentra, that’s brutality!”

Police brutality, in fact. “But…okay, maybe…um…” I glanced at the mare again, who was looking worse and worse. She was already blue, so I had no idea how much her breathing might be labored. Her entire snout was caved in. “We should probably call an ambulance.”

I told Zipp and Pipp that they needed to come by the station later so I could get a statement. The ambulance showed up and put the unconscious mare on a backboard. I rode back with the ambulance to the hospital.

The doctors took a few minutes to assess the damage before treatment. Aside from the severely broken nose, broken orbitals, and a few teeth, the mare also had a spinal fracture. I’d hit her really hard.

They wheeled her into the ER and I sat down in the waiting room. It was difficult to believe I’d hurt someone so much without even a conscious thought about it. I’d seen what she was doing and just acted. There was no doubt in my mind that she needed to be stopped, but I really should have done more evaluation first. Maybe then I wouldn’t be doing it now, after the fact.

Hitch showed up, out of breath. “Sentra, I saw Zipp. She told me what happened.”

“All of it?”

He apparently caught my tone. I invited him to sit.

I walked him through what had happened. He reacted with shock at what the perp had done, and with horror at what I’d done.

“I can’t believe you would do this,” he said. “I’ve been the sheriff for years and never even had to fight someone.”

“Have you ever seen an attempted murder happen right in front of you?”

“Well, no, but-”

I ducked my head, and didn't follow up. I almost rhetoric’d my way back to feeling good about it.

We sat there in silence for a moment.

“Is police brutality illegal in Maretime Bay, Hitch?”

“No.” He looked at me. “It will be, though.”

One of the nurses waved at me. Apparent the patient was stable. I got up. “Well, let’s go find out who I almost beat to death.”

In the patient room, the mare was heavily bandaged, with IV tubes and a neck brace, and was still unconcious.

“You know, I think I’ve seen her before,” I said.

“Yeah, me too,” he agreed.

We started assessing her personal effects. She had a Bridlewood ID that said her name was Misty Brightdawn. Hitch and I found her phone and went through it. There wasn’t much, and no names, but we discovered that she’d been acting on behalf of someone else. Someone had directly told her how to plant the Ocean Lily, and to use the cave and rocks.

Hitch and I looked at each other. What was going on?

He gestured at her phone. “How long has this been happening? Are we in danger? Who could be pulling the strings behind this?”

I didn’t have answers. I remembered I’d seen Misty apparently speaking into a makeup compact once, which given what we’d found on her phone, might have actually been a communication device, but she didn’t have anything like that on her at the moment.

The two of us were still puzzling on it when a nurse came in. We got up to go to give her some space, but Hitch stopped, noticing something. “Look, she’s a blank flank!”

I gathered that to mean she didn’t have a cutie mark. “Huh?” I looked for myself. “Wait, but I thought I remember seeing her with one.”

“That’s right,” the nurse confirmed. “When we were scrubbing her for surgery, it washed off. It was fake.”

“What’s a pony her age doing without one?” Hitch said.

The mystery only deepened. The two of us headed for the door, but I paused to cuff Misty to the bed before I left.

Back at the station, Zipp and Pipp gave their statement. I saw Hitch shooting me a glance. The two of them hadn’t seen me doing what I did to Misty, and that was probably a good thing.

We drew up the charge sheets for Misty. I filed a records request with Bridlewood for anything they might have on her. The rest of the evening was spent on other paperwork and research related to the case.

If nothing else, I’d nearly forgotten about mine and Hitch’s problem. It was only that evening as we headed for the bedroom that it came back to the forefront.

Hitch seemed withdrawn, and kept space between us. Like he didn’t want to be near me. Like he didn’t want me to touch him.

We ended up sitting on opposite sides of the bed, backs to each other.

I needed to say something. I didn’t know what, but I couldn’t let this continue.

“Hitch, I’m…I’m sorry, once again. I can’t say it enough. This isn’t how I wanted things to be between us.”

“...I know.”

Well, he wasn’t telling me to sleep on the couch. I kept going. “I don’t want to be someone who makes you worry. I want to be a good partner in this relationship.”

I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Our eyes met.

“What we said before. It’s not just you or me, but us. And…not just the two of us,” he said.

My eyebrows raised.

“I’m going to keep the baby.”

He turned to face me. “So we should probably get married.”

Comments

[Cyana Flame]

crunch

[Feynna]

The wait was definitely worth it. Poor Misty, though.

[Griffonheart2012]

Really digging this story.

[artofwar77]

Very heavy, both of these plot threads.
All three, in fact.
Or is it four?

I'm glad they're sticking together.
The writing so far has portrayed them as good for each other rather than having an unhealthy relationship, so I expect they'll be stronger together than apart.

They'll each need the support of the other for the developments to come, I expect.
Looking forward to it.

Thanks for the chapter.
Very satisfying.

[Nismo Rose]

He turned to face me. “So we should probably get married.”

I’m so excited! I can’t wait for this chapter!

[Amos Anon]

What. The. Flying. Ever after. F*ck.

[Telly Vision]

Ok now I’m thinking this story is connected to the last one, and Valiant is the one who brought about the fall of equestria.

[KVFFour]

Well, you really did it this time, Sentra. It wasn’t even the matter of the accidental pregnancy, how did I get a stallion pregnant!? Was there something strange about my body after all? And what, oh what, were we going to do?

Glitter is the devil, apparently.