Adoption

Even when I was happiest, there was one little buzz in the back of my mind, keeping the world real and tangible. It chained me to reality, binding me by the wings to the world where magic can't do everything for everypony. Where specific kinds and denominations of magic are too difficult or too impractical. Twilight and I had been married for two of the greatest years I've been alive. But that little tick in the back of my head held me down, no matter how amazing anything felt.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Each passing second was accompanied by the cruel and merciless ticking of my biological clock. It continually poked me, reminding me that time slows down for nopony, no matter how slow they go. And with our slow relationship, we'd used a lot of time, and it was steadily catching up.

I wanted a foal. Ever since I learned about how foals came to be, I knew I wanted to be a mother. I took care of my animal friends, trying to satisfy my instinctual desire to be a mother. For a while, it worked. I felt so incredibly happy that I could care for my animal friends, especially the younger ones. I felt the love from all of them, similar enough to that of child-to-mother that I forgot that they weren't my children.

But when Twilight and I started dating, I started to hear the familiar ticking of the clock. Time was passing. Time was mocking me. I may have found love, but with that love was the drawback that I couldn't have a foal of my own with her. I couldn't have a family like I'd always wanted. Time was rubbing it in that I was losing.

"Fluttershy...?" her lovely voice roused me from my reverie.

"...hm? Yes, Twily?" I murmured back as she laid down next to me.

"A bit for your thoughts," she offered, pecking my cheek.

I sighed, turning back to the window I'd been staring out of for Celestia-knows-how-long.

"...I... Have you ever... wanted a foal...?" I asked timidly. I knew that the subject of making a family was a touchy subject for any couple.

"Actually, I have," she answered after a moment of thought. "I really hadn't given it much thought until we started dating."

"Oh... Well, I've always wanted to start a family..."

"But being with me means you can't have your own," she finished my thought. "I understand. But, there are other ways."

My ears perked. I turned to face her.

She blushed and whispered, "Have you ever considered adoption?"

Author's Note

Suggested by one of my idols, Divide the Storyteller. I hope this is up to snuff...

<3 DarqFox