“Please ma’am, I’m just trying to help. All you have to do is answer me.”
Ditzy Doo responded exactly as she had done with everypony else who had attempted to make conversation with her: shutting them out. Her eyes were clamped resolutely shut and she had huddled herself into the fetal position. The long blonde hairs of her mane were filthy, caked with soot and dust. Her coat was equally messy, but also boasted nasty looking bruises along her legs and up her chest. To top it all off, she was shivering furiously, beyond any control.
The muscular stallion sat beside her bed had been trying for hours to get a response from the catatonic mare, but to no avail. He sat by her bedside in an old chair that had lost most of its stuffing. He had pulled as many strings as he could to get them a private room, rather than the bustling ward of Manehatten General. The hospital was always busy, and considering the events of the night, the mare under his watch needed privacy. Even if he’d had to give up some of the money in his wallet to pay for the room, he wasn’t too worried. There would be all hell to pay when his wife found out, but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
As he gently sipped at his fourth cup of coffee, the clock on the wall ticked over to three in the morning. He tugged gently at his tie, cursing the itchy fabric that was standard uniform for the Manhatten police department. He’d signed up for chariot chases, beating up bad guys, and making mares swoon as he walked by in his flashy uniform. The reality was a poorly funded precinct run by an aging sergeant with horrific flatulence. His uniform was akin to what you could find in a charity shop, and his colleagues were less than friendly.
The worst part was when he was assigned to the more serious crimes. He’d seen murders, drug overdoses, and all sorts. As grim as it was to deal with the bodies, it was hardest of all to be the one to break the news to their families. This job wasn’t worth minimum wage.
However, as bad as everything had been over the last three years, nothing had compared to what he’d had to deal with tonight.
The nurse walked in, making him jump slightly.
“I’m sorry about the wait, officer,” she said. “We’ve been way in over our heads tonight.”
“Over your heads?” he asked indignantly. “Five hours I’ve been here trying to comfort this poor mare after all she’s been through! And you couldn’t spare anypony just to come and see if she’s okay?!”
The nurse walked over the bed, huffing as she repeated the same line for the twelfth time that night. “We’re understaffed, and we’re the nearest hospital in a radius of ten miles. I understand your frustration, officer, but we’re doing our best.”
The officer clearly wasn’t happy, but the nurse had begun to examine the pegasus still curled up on the bed, so he decided not to push the matter.
“Ditzy?” the nurse asked, leaning in closely. “Ditzy, can you hear me?”
“I’ve been trying to get an answer from her all the time I’ve been here,” the officer explained. “I’ve got nothing.”
“She’s in shock,” the nurse said, walking away from the bed and out into the corridor. She returned moments later with a needle she’d retrieved from a trolley outside the door. She swabbed a small area just above Ditzy’s cutie mark, after which she gently pushed the needle in. Almost instantly, the mare stopped shivering. The officer sighed in relief as her faint whimpering faded into gentle snoring.
“You look exhausted,” the nurse said as she took Ditzy’s pulse.
“Long shifts,” he replied, allowing himself to give a small smile.
“I know the feeling,” she said. “Why don’t you head on home. She’ll be out for a good ten hours, so you can come back in the morning to get her witness statement.”
“In other news, police are still looking for the stallion who sexually assaulted a young pegasus mare in Manehatten last month. The mare, who wishes to remain unnamed, stated that she was jumped whilst walking past an alleyway, after which her assailant dragged her into the alleyway and proceeded with his assault.”
“The mare described her attacker as a well built unicorn with a dark gray coat, and a red and black mane. Police believe he is the same suspect they have been hunting for since early last year in a wave of violent and random assaults throughout Manehatten.”
“Police have issued a statement saying that the stallion is extremely dangerous, and if you see him, you should report to the authorities immediately. The recent wave of attacks have become infamous, earning the attacker the nickname of the Manehatten Midnight Stalker.”
“And that concludes the news. Stay tuned to Equestria FM for an interview with fashion guru Photo Finish at seven tonight. But first, we’ve got some classic rock straight out of Trottingham for you. That’s right, we’ve got Pinball Wizard by The Whooves!”
Awkward silence hung in the air as Ditzy sat on the edge of her bed. Her housemates Lyra and Bon Bon sat either side of her for moral support as they waited several minutes for the small piece of plastic to give its answer. It was the two of them who had convinced Ditzy to join them for a 'girls weekend away' in Manehatten in the first place, so they owed her every piece of support they could muster. Luckily for them, Ditzy wasn’t the type of pony to harbor a grudge, and had never blamed them for what had occurred. Lyra still felt overwhelmingly guilty about it though, as she had been out with Ditzy at the time. Bon Bon had stayed back in the hotel with stomach pains while her friends explored the city. A cute looking stallion with a dark blue mane had been all it had taken for Lyra to completely forget that she was out with Ditzy.
“Three minutes,” Bon Bon announced, looking up at the clock hanging on the wall next to the door.
Ditzy didn’t move a muscle.
“Well,” Lyra said gently. “What does it say?”
Ditzy gave a small glance downwards as she turned the test over in her hoof, giving it a brief glace. “Positive,” she whispered.
The three mares sat in silence for several more minutes as the gravity of the situation kicked in. What had started out as a weekend away in Manehatten had ended in a disaster. Ditzy still needed to visit her psychiatrist several times a week to keep herself mentally stable, but she was suffering regardless. The best she could manage was an hour of sleep every night, as the nightmares had become an incessant problem. She was always edgy and fidgety, and hadn’t even left the house for the first few weeks since they returned to Ponyville. Now to top it all off, she was pregnant.
Despite everything, Ditzy didn’t cry. She’d cried enough over the last month. It had taken an hour for the police to get her witness report, because she’d been too tearful to string together more than a few words at a time. She’d cried on the journey home. She’d cried every day since they got home. She’d cried herself to sleep most nights, only to wake up less than an hour later as the nightmares kicked in.
She’d had enough of crying.
“I’m… I’m going to do the right thing,” she announced, breaking the silence.
“What do you mean?” Bon Bon asked.
“I’m keeping it,” Ditzy replied.
Lyra facehoofed disbelievingly. “Are you crazy? After everything you’ve been through, you want to go through childbirth?”
“After all I’ve been through already, I don’t think childbirth will be too bad.”
Bon Bon looked less than convinced, but it wasn’t her decision to make. “Are you sure it’s what you want to do?”
Ditzy nodded. “All this time, I’ve been crying and feeling sorry for myself. I go to sleep and all I can see is his face grinning at me as I beg him to stop. I was helpless that night, and I’ve been helpless ever since. This baby… this could be a chance to do something good.”
Lyra was outraged, standing up and facing her friend. “Are you crazy? Ditzy, that guy raped you! He left you traumatized and scared for weeks, and you’ve been in a state ever since! All that therapy you’ve been having, and you still wake up screaming every night! Now you want to actually have his baby?!”
Ditzy looked to her friend. “The baby can’t help where it came from. If I kill it, how am I better than that stallion that did this to me?”
“You’re the victim! Of course you’re better than him!”
“Then let me prove it. Let me take the moral high ground, and turn this situation around. Let me be a mother.”
“I can’t stand by and let you do this!” Lyra practically screamed at her.
Ditzy looked up, tears finding their ways to the corner of her eyes. “Why not?”
“BECAUSE IT’S ALL MY FAULT!”
The words hung in the air for a few tense seconds, before Lyra collapsed on her haunches. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she brought her forehooves to her face.
“You know I’ve never blamed you for it,” Ditzy said softly.
“I… I know,” Lyra bawled. “But that doesn’t make a damns worth of difference to me. It was my fault, no matter how much you try and deny it. I let you wander around alone, all so I could chase around some stallion. And I don’t want to watch your child growing up, and being a constant reminder of what I let happen to you.”
Ditzy stood up off the edge of the bed, and pulled her friend into a tight hug. Bon Bon joined in as well.
“You won’t be,” Ditzy said soothingly. “You’ll watch them grow up with a loving mother at their side. And don’t think you’ll be standing back, watching from the sidelines. I want you two to be there, be the best aunties a child could ask for.”
Lyra sniveled, and thought for a few seconds. “I guess I could do that.”
“So what’s bothering you, Ditzy?”
Healing Touch sat on a small armchair in a cosy office. Her patient was laid out on a sofa in front of a crackling fireplace, sporting a belly swollen as much as you’d expect eight and a half months into pregnancy.
“You’re the shrink,” Ditzy replied with a shrug. “You tell me.”
Healing Touch gave a gentle laugh. “You’ve made remarkable progress these last few months. Most ponies are traumatized for years after an experience like the one you’ve been through. You recovered in a fraction of that time, and you’re handling the pregnancy as if the conception had been completely normal.”
“Thanks.”
“So why do you insist on coming here still?”
Even Ditzy didn’t know what to say. The nightmares had stopped months ago. She’d applied for a job at the local post office for when she was ready to work again. Even her day-to-day lifestyle was back to normal, aside from the swollen ankles and desperate scrambling to the bathroom every twenty minutes. For the first time, she actually realized how far she’d come, and how little difference therapy was making any more.
“I guess… I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
It took Ditzy a few minutes to think. “They offered to look for the baby’s gender during the last scan I had, but I turned them down.”
“Why’s that?”
“I think… that if it’s a boy, then it’ll look like the father.”
“Did the scan show its race?”
“Yeah, it’s going to be a unicorn.”
“And you’re worried if you have to raise a child that resembles the father, who did something so terrible to you, that the nightmares will start again.”
“It’s worse than that. I… I don’t think I’ll have the strength to even look at it. Look at my own child. If I couldn’t even look at it, I don’t know how I’d be able to keep it.”
Healing Touch nodded. “Our subconscious does this a lot. Linking certain images to certain memories. It can do that with all sorts of things. Sights, sounds, even smells can make us think about certain things. But you knew this was a risk from the start.”
“Huh?”
“You told me how your friend… what was her name again?”
"Bon Bon?"
"No no no, it was some kind of musical name."
“Oh, Lyra?”
“Yes, that’s it. You told me about how she felt about you keeping the baby. She said that she’d look at the child and be forever reminded about what happened. Well, she’s right. That’s a risk you chose to take, and I respect you deeply for that.”
“I wanted to take the moral high ground.”
“Exactly. You chose to keep the child, knowing full well what you could be thinking your whole life. That child may bear some resemblance to the father, but as long as you play a part, it won’t turn out anything like him.”
“Thanks.”
“Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”
“Yeah, actually. When they scanned me, they were worried about the baby’s size.”
“How so?”
“Well, the doctor said that childbirth is an extremely traumatic process for any baby. But because it’s so small, the risk of it getting hurt during birth is a lot greater.”
“So, what’s the problem?”
“They have to do a c-section.”
“Breaking news just in this morning, the Manehatten Midnight Stalker was killed late last night during a stand off with police. Officials have refused to disclose his name, although they can confirm he is the same suspect wanted for multiple counts of assault, sexual assault and murder over the last few years.”
“The action started late last night when a patrolling Manehatten police officer spotted the suspect purse snatching during a foot patrol. The officer gave chase, only able to identify him following a pursuit lasting several minutes through the back alleys around West Manehatten. The suspect barricaded himself in a small apartment, and was unable to escape before the officer’s backup arrived.”
“The standoff lasted several hours before the suspect was shot dead by SWAT officers who stormed the apartment. One of the officers was wounded as the suspect attacked him with a knife, but the officers behind him were quick to respond, and the suspect was quickly put down.”
“The Manehatten Midnight Stalker has become one of the most notorious criminals in modern Equestrian history, and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I’m glad this is one chapter we can resign to the history books.”
“Up next, any aspiring Wonderbolts out there, listen up. We’ve got the current captain, Spitfire, on the show, and she’ll be giving advice for anypony who wishes to take to the skies with the legendary flight team.”
Ditzy felt odd. After being reassured that c-sections were perfectly safe by everypony around her, she’d decided not to kick up a fuss about it. The biggest surprise had come when she found out exactly how they perform a c-section.
She lay on the operating table, wide awake and her vision obscured by the sheet blocking everything beyond the top of her chest. She’d expected a lot of pain, but at most, it just felt like the kicking sensation of a baby inside her, only amplified slightly. Her mood was oddly jovial as the operation had begun, when they’d given her an injection in her spine to numb her entire body. She’d even had the surgeons laughing uncontrollably as she’d shouted “My plot’s gone numb!” at the top of her voice. It seemed she was just happy to have the “joys” of pregnancy over with.
Just as Ditzy was wondering how much longer the operation was going to go on, she felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her body, just as a mare who had been operating on her took a step back and joyously said “It’s a girl!”
Ditzy could barely register what her eyes were telling her as the mare walked around the table and presented her with a tiny package. The tiny filly wasn’t crying, nor was she screaming. She looked like she was sleeping. She gave a tiny yawn as Ditzy lifted her head up to get a proper look.
The filly had a blonde mane, exactly like her mother. Her coat wasn’t Ditzy’s light gray, nor was it the dark gray of her father. It was a faint purple, which made Ditzy’s heart race as she recognized it as the same shade of purple as her mothers coat.
“She’s perfect,” Ditzy said, tears of joy streaming from her eyes.
The mare holding the small child smiled under her face mask. “A little on the dinky side, but she’s absolutely adorable. Any ideas on names?”
Ditzy barely heard the question. She was staring in wonder at the child. Her child. An adorable little filly, who bore no resemblance whatsoever to her monster of a father. The past year had been hellish for Ditzy, but as the small child opened her eyes for the first time, and looked at the new world around her, everything felt at peace. Ditzy had a child to call her own, and she was going to be the best mother she could be.
“I like that,” she finally answered. “Dinky. Dinky Doo.”
Author's Note
This story came to me as I was out driving the other day. The fandom gave Derpy a child, despite the fact that she's around the same age as the Mane 6, which is mid to late teens. This got me wondering about the circumstances leading up to childbirth, and who her father might be. My mind filled in the gaps in a rather grim way.
A few things to note about this. Firstly, the coloration of the Manehatten Midnight Stalker is modeled after the typical "bad OC". This isn't me thinking that it makes him a suitable villain, it's simply me poking fun at those who actually use the design for a main character. Hence he doesn't actually appear in the story.
Also, this is a one-shot, and as I said on the cover page, I decided to challenge myself by giving myself an hour to both write and edit it. Considering this is the first time I've done this, don't expect me to be good at it in the slightest. But I've done the story as best as I can anyway. Looking back, there's a lot I would change, but that defeats the purpose of a time limit. I feel like the surgery scene seems far too rushed, but there's not much I can really do about that.
As a final note, despite the dark tone of the story, I wanted... well, not a happy ending as such, but a positive one. Hence Ditzy has her child, and can see nothing of the father in it. She immediately realises that her future with the child is bright.
1 Hour writing and editing is a good challenge. I recommend trying it sometime.
That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed this.
8_Bit
<3
