I woke up on a hard surface. My head was killing me, probably from a bad hangover that I was experiencing. My vagina, though, was in massive amounts of pain.

I tried getting up, but I quickly fell back down from how weak I was. As I opened my eyes to see my surroundings, I noticed that I had no idea where I was. My eyes shot open to see that I was alone in a marble bathroom, but how did I get there? With a sudden shock of energy, I bolted back onto my feet.

“What?” I asked myself. “Where am I? How did I get here?” I tried thinking of where I could possibly be, but the more I thought about it, the more clueless I noticed that I was. “What happened last night?”

I walked out the bathroom door, relieved to find that I was still in the bar. Still, though, I had to figure out what had happened the night before. Maybe Cheerilee would know. Uh-oh. I hoped nothing bad had happened to her! I hope we hadn’t done something stupid in some kind of drunken hype. I’d still remember it, though, wouldn’t I?

“Cheerilee!” I shouted knocking on her front door. “Cheerilee, please tell me you’re home!”

To my relief, Cheerilee creaked open the door. As soon as she did, though, she clasped her hooves to her mouth. “Berry?” she asked in astonishment. “What… what happened to you?”

My mane was a mess. My coat was dirty from all the bathroom scum that I had gotten from lying on the dirty ground all night, and my lady parts were covered in the pleasure that somepony had found the night before.

“Cheerilee, what happened last night?” I said in a serious tone, grabbing her by the shoulders.

“You mean… you don’t remember?” Her expression had become panicked as she looked me dead in the eyes. “We need to get you to the doctor right now. I’ll explain on the way.”

I needed a refresher up to about when Daring Do walked in, but almost everything that happened after that didn’t register. I didn’t remember getting her autograph, my argument with Cheerilee or anything that had happened after that. The part that killed me the most, though, was how mean I was to my best friend. From what she described, I had let my immaturity get in the way, and our best night ever turned into the worst possible night you could imagine… at least for her it was. I couldn’t even remember what my night was like for me.

We got to the doctor to test to see if I had been drugged or if I was just having a really bad hangover. The problem was, though, I had had hangovers in the past, but none of them ended in memory loss.

“How does it look, Doc?” I asked seriously.

The doctor looked over his results. His face turned to dismay, and suddenly my heart sunk. I knew what was coming next. “According to these results, you tested positive to a rare drug: easily soluble, having no apparent color or odor and dissolving almost instantly.”

“Chemistry…” I mumbled to myself. “I hate chemistry.”

“Are there any side effects?” Cheerilee asked, holding my hoof as I stared at the ground.

“The only impacts that the drug will have are impaired thinking and memory loss the next day. As long as you didn’t get into any trouble while under the influence, you should be fine. Now, was there anypony with you while you were intoxicated?”

“No,” I muttered. I looked up at Cheerilee, giving her the most humbled look I had ever had. “I’m sorry, Cheerilee.” I then wrapped my hooves around her and buried my face into her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Berry,” she said. “The doctor says you’re fine. I’m sure nothing happened.”

“I hope you’re right, Cheeri,” I said, leaning my head on her shoulder and stroking her foreleg. "I really do."

A few weeks passed from that point. It was graduation day, but I didn’t feel like going. I was lucky enough to be getting my diploma, but I just wasn’t in the mood for celebrating the achievement. This was Cheerilee’s time to shine and to show everypony how she had finally made it through. I knew she wouldn’t mind if I supported her from my bed.

That day, I was feeling more irritable than normal. I just wanted everypony to leave me alone. There was nothing in particular that was wrong. I didn’t have any problems going on. I hadn’t even touched alcohol or smoked anything since the Daring Do incident. Maybe I was just being a girl and feeling sick and tired.

Then, out of nowhere, I felt my stomach contracting. I jumped out of bed and raced to my garbage can. Vomit poured out of my mouth. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the pain filling my stomach, but it didn’t work. Holding onto the trashcan for dear life, I puked my guts out. My mane draped over the sides of the can as I knelt there, hating the world even more.

Every several minutes or so when I thought I was done, I tried getting up, just to be brought back down to throw up some more. It had gone from miserable to just plain irritating. My day was just getting worse and worse.

Dragging the trashcan with me, I wobbled my way to the bathroom. At least this way I’d be able to flush whatever I had left in my stomach. After two long hours of the same process, I finally managed to lift up my head enough to see the mirror. My face was pale and my mane was messy. Trying to avoid eye contact with myself, I looked away toward my vanity cabinet, which was swung open. Peering into the barrage of perfumes and makeup, I saw at the very bottom a box of tampons.

“Huh… when was my last period?” My eyes bulged wide. “Oh, no.”

I raced over to Cheerilee’s house and banged on the door. The earth pony, still wearing her graduation robes, looked surprised to see me. I had a feeling she would, but this was important.

“Berry,” she said uncomfortably, “I have family over right now. I can’t talk.”

“Cheerilee, I think I’m pregnant.”

Cheerilee froze, minus her jaw dropping. “W-what?”

“Cheerilee, I think I’m pregnant,” I repeated.

Cheerilee stood there for a few more moments, shocked in silence. “Mom!” she called. “I have something important to do! I’ll be right back!” She then shifted her gaze back to me. “Doctor. Now.”

We raced over to the doctor’s office as fast as we could to get me yet another test. Waiting for the doctor to come out with the results seemed like waiting for a week. My mind was stuck on this one thought: was I pregnant, or was I just overreacting?

The doctor came back out, looking down at his clipboard. His face bore the exact same expression as the last time. “No…” I said to myself. “Please just tell me that something went my way… just this once…”

“Miss Berry Punch, I have your results,” the doctor said. With one final skim over his notes, he said sternly, “The test was positive. You are, indeed, with child.”

For most mares, hearing that they were pregnant with their first baby was a dream come true. For me, though, it was a nightmare come true. I buried my face into Cheerilee’s shoulder and cried my heart out. She patted me on the back with one hoof and ran the other through my mane, trying to comfort me as best she could. As soon as I could manage to get words out again, I asked, “How? How could this have happened? Who would have done that?”

“Well,” the doctor started, “perhaps this has something to do with the drug test from about 4 weeks ago. There is a rather large possibility, although it is very unfortunate, that you may have been date raped.”

“No!” I exclaimed in disbelief. “I couldn’t have been! It was just me and Cheerilee! Isn’t that right, Cheeri?”

The earth pony thought for a moment before replying with, “Nopony else I remember other than Daring D—” Her face froze. “Oh. My. Word.” She fell onto her hind legs and put a hoof to her forehead. “Ohhhhhh my word! This is all my fault!”

“Cheeri?” I put a hoof on her shoulder, trying to figure out what was going through her mind.

“It was Daring Do!” she shouted. “I thought I saw a pony with a black mane just like Daring Do put something in your drink, but then I thought it was just my imagination! I’m so sorry, Berry!”

“Daring Do? B-but she couldn’t have! Daring Do is a girl!”

“Berry,” the doctor said. Both Cheerilee and I shot our attention up to his serious, fatherly expression. “I’ve seen much stranger things happen in my days of being a doctor. A stallion dressing up as a famous character to get somepony to sleep with him isn’t too uncommon, even if it does mean dressing up as the opposite gender.”

“But doctor,” Cheerilee started, “I was there too for a little bit, and I could have sworn she was a girl!”

“Sometimes ponies can be very good at deceiving, especially when alcohol is involved.”

Cheerilee hadn't had much to drink, but this was her first time drinking, after all. Maybe with the combination of alcohol and good acting, this Daring Do pony actually managed to fool us both. I couldn’t believe it, though.

“No,” I said. “Doctor, there must be some kind of mistake!”

“I can’t say one way or the other who the father is, Ms. Punch. All I can say is, without a doubt, you are pregnant. Now, just make sure to stay off the alcohol until the baby is born. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to the baby.”

“Yes, Doc,” I said, still trying to process the fact that I was going to be a mother. Cheerilee rubbed her hoof against my back, trying to comfort me as best she could. She didn’t need to, though; the thought wouldn’t actually sink in until a few days later.

Two weeks later, I had another night where I spent half the day vomiting. Why me? Why did it have to be me? Of all the girls in that bar, why did he have to target me? Why did I have to get pregnant? Babies were supposed to be a blessing, but I wasn’t ready for this.

Once the vomiting subsided, I sat on the couch in the living room. Neither of my parents were home. It was just me left to sulk in my own nauseous misery. I had to find something to get my mind off of this whole baby thing. Maybe then I’d actually be able to be excited for it instead of wishing it wouldn’t come.

I rummaged through the kitchen cabinet, searching for something to satisfy the unusual cravings that I was having. Then, out the corner of my eye, I saw a large glass bottle. It was my father’s whisky bottle that he saved for special occasions. He never had anything to celebrate, though, and quite honestly, I’m pretty sure he forgot about it completely. As I stared down the bottle, the temptations and urges were battling with my conscience and common sense. I knew what the doctor said, but I needed something. Just this one night.

And the next.

And the night after that.

Next week I’d stop for sure.

A month into it, though, I finally realized that I had an insatiable addiction that would never end. If alcohol brought this baby into me, it would be with him or her until he or she was born. No matter how much my conscience was telling me how wrong it was and unfair it would eventually be to the baby, my obsession continued, and I had given up.

“Berry, are you home?” Cheerilee called out, knocking on my door. With my bottle in hoof (half of its contents being somewhere in my liver), I opened the door. Cheerilee’s excited expression immediately changed to a face of surprise. “Berry! What are you doing?!”

“Whatever I feel like doing!” I exclaimed. By this point I was sloppy drunk and slurring my words.

“You know that’s not good for the baby!”

“All I hear about is the baby this and the baby that! I’m here too, you know!”

“Berry… I haven’t even seen you since you found out you were pregnant. This is my first time bringing it up. Also, I came to see my friend, but look at what you’re doing!”

“You know what, Cheerilee? I’m not in the mood right now, so why don’t you get lost?”

Cheerilee didn’t argue. She stood there for a moment, looking fiercely at me, but then turned around and began walking back home. “Berry,” she said as I was about to slam the door, “I want you back.”

SLAM!

Thus my drunken saga continued. Every day I drank. Every night I drank. If there was something that was bothering me that day, I drank. If there was something worth celebrating, I drank. I really did want to stop for the baby, but for the next couple of months, I had led myself into an addiction that I just couldn’t get myself out of.

Finally, about a week before the big day, I had a night where I was completely alcohol free. The crib and baby toys were all set up in a spare room in my parents’ house. Looking down at the room that would soon belong to my very own child, I began to realize just what this meant. The one thing that this baby needed more than anything was a loving parent, and I was going to be the only one this foal had.

I knew that the delivery would be any day now, and it was on my mind more and more. With nothing else to do, I sat down on the floor in the middle of the room and just thought about having a child in my life. Usually if the thought ever came up in my mind, I would drown it out through booze. Today, though, I would take the thought head on.

I thought of all the responsibilities that I would have: feeding it, changing it, helping it get to sleep, playing with it, waking up in the middle of the night to give it attention. Trying not to drive myself over the edge with negatives, though, I tried imagining to myself just what the baby would be like. I wondered if it’d be a filly or a colt. What color would it be? What would it like to do?

“I wonder what cutie mark it’ll end up having,” I pondered, giggling to myself. “Maybe it’ll be really good or science. OH! I bet it’ll be an amazing chef!”

I walked through the toys scattered about the floor, grinning and thinking of how much fun he or she would have playing with them. Walking over to the crib, I checked the job my dad had done on it to make sure it was sturdy and safe. It wasn’t until then that I noticed that I was actually smiling for the first time in weeks—months, even! I was actually legitimately excited about the baby. I could hardly wait to see my new child.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to wait long. I went into the emergency room exactly seven days later. My mother had told about the delivery process probably hundreds of times by this point, but I still underestimated it. I had never been in so much pain in my life as I was in at that point. I was doing my best not to cry, but I couldn’t help it.

“Breathe, Berry,” the nurse said as I shouted in agony. “You’re doing great. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Now, push push push!”

With every push I made, I was induced in more and more pain. I bit my lip and held onto the bed that I was lying on, trying my hardest just not to scream. The pain grew more and more brutal until I felt like I was about to pass out.

“Keep going, Berry!” The nurse continued. “You’re doing great! Now take a breath. Breathe… breathe… now push push push!”

“I can’t… I can’t do it,” I said, unable to think as my brain was being flushed out by the torture my body was going through.

“Almost there, Berry! We’re almost there! Now breathe with me. One… two… and… push!”

Grinding my teeth, I held onto a nearby nurse’s hoof, pushing with all the force I had. My eyes were squeezed shut. I had blocked everything out of my mind. I took the pain head on, pushing until I was about to collapse and go unconscious.

Then, when everything was about to go dark…

“Waaaaaah!!”

“CONGRATULATIONS!” the nurses shouted in unison. “It’s a girl!”

I opened my eyes again and saw a room full of nurses smiling widely at me, one nurse taking the baby to the side to clean her off.

I collapsed onto the bed, trying to catch my breath, but my heart had already stopped at the sound of my newborn daughter’s first breaths of life.

Listening to the sound of that baby girl crying was something that you can’t put into words. The joy of hearing your first child’s voice is something that only a parent can explain. I can say this, though: Never had Ponyville ever seen such a happy pony as when I heard her first attempts at calling out for me. It was almost as if she were saying, “I’m here, mom. Won’t you take care of me?” As I watched the nurses clean up the baby, I felt an instant connection to her. This was my daughter, and I could honestly say that I loved this baby girl enough die for her already.

A nurse brought her over, wrapped in a beautiful, soft, pink blanket. Her crying had ceased, and she was now gently sucking on a pacifier with her eyes squeezed tight. Again, it was a breath-taking experience.

“Ms. Punch,” the nurse said softly. Uh-oh. I had heard that kind of tone before. Nothing good ever followed it. “Did you drink at all while pregnant?”

My smile immediately shifted into a panicked frown. “Is there something wrong?” I asked. “Please tell me she’ll be alright!!”

“She’ll be alright, but there’s one problem. While we were assessing her wings, they showed no response, showing that her nerve endings aren’t functional. She will eventually be able to gain feeling in them and maybe even be able to flap them at some point, but it doesn’t look like she’ll ever be able to fly. She’s lucky just to have made it out without any other problems.”

I looked closer at the baby. Sure enough, she had a pair of wings. Her mane was purple like mine, but her coat was orange, just a few shades bolder than Daring Do’s. It was official, then. She… or I guess “he” was the culprit. It didn’t matter to me, though. I was going to raise this baby girl to be the happiest filly in all of Ponyville.

The nurse gently gave me the baby, which I cradled as close to my heart as possible. With its little baby hooves, it reached up and put a hoof on my chest, attempting to hug me. A silent tear of joy rolled down my face.

“She’s beautiful,” the nurse said.

“My sweet little angel… My beautiful baby girl…”

“What are you going to name her?”

I smiled as I looked down at the foal who had just entered into a peaceful slumber.

“…Scootaloo...”

To be concluded in “Picture Perfect”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading! Just to clear up some things, Berry doesn't remember anything that happened after Daring Do drugged her drink. What you're reading is what was going through her mind as the experience was happening. Hope that clears up any questions. I look forward to writing more for you.