Dark Light

After the months of morning sickness and eating cupcakes with celery, Shimmer was ready to have her foal. Her husband had managed to keep his sanity with her constant fluctuations between being horny as a … very horny thing … to being as sad as a widow. He had done this by thinking about what the fruits of his labour, scratch that, the reward for his suffering would be. His foal. Neither of them wanted to see what gender it was (hospitals usually had a unicorn who knew an identification spell that could not only tell them what gender it was, but also what type of pony it was) as they both wanted it to be a surprise. They had ideas for names. If it was a filly it would be Starlight Glimmer and if it was a colt it would be Bold Flash. Both of the married couple new the baby was due and so they always tried to stay together just in case.

Dark Light was going through the evening paper in bed whilst Shim was downstairs cooking breakfast when...

“Light! Either I’ve peed myself or…”

“Or what?” Dark Light asked in reply to Shimmer’s odd words. As he said it he realised what the ‘or’ was and rushed to her and told her to get on his back. She obliged, knowing how strong the stallion was, and together the couple rushed off to the hospital and within minutes they were there. They got to the front desk of the medical building as the sweating husband shouted at the attendant. “M-my wife is- g-going into *huff* labour!” Dark Light said. The mare behind the front desk yelled out in an attempt to get one of the doctors. She sent one of the other ponies behind the desk to get a wheelchair who immediately sped off arriving not a minute later with one. Thankfully, the stallion carrying the foaling mare placed Shimmer in to the wheel chair and the pony behind it pushed it to one of the free patient rooms, right before a doctor arrived.

“I’ll keep an eye on her. You can take a rest in the lobby,” He said, getting a head shake from Dark Light.

“I’m staying with her. I hav-“

“Sweetie, it’s OK. One of the nurses will get you if it is about to arrive,” Shimmer said, interrupting her husband, who frowned nodded and left the room, went to the lobby and talked to the mare he spoke to originally.

“Is there any way I can deliver a few messages, like now?” He said. The Pony behind the desk nodded and pointed to a small bell on a window, with some paper, quills and ink. “Thanks,” he replied, walking up to the window. He started to write six letters mostly the same but changing the names of the recipient. One for each of Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinky Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle saying:

Dear *Recipient*

Shimmer is going in to labour and is about to have our foal. We would appreciate it if you could get to the hospital as soon as possible to help support her through the birth. We will be in the second door on the right in the corridor that leads off from the reception area.

Thanks,

Dark Light

P.S. Applejack, bring Big Macintosh

He rang the bell after he had written the letters and a grey wall eyed pegasus came flying by. He gave her the letters telling her they needed to be delivered right away. She said ok and flew off quite quickly. Dark Light sat down the closest chair he could see that was free. A few minutes later the Rainbow maned pegasus he knew as Rainbow Dash came through the front door, saw Dark Light and walked over to him with a smile.

“Hey DL. Congrats!” She said, receiving a smile in return.

“Thanks RD,” The stallion replied, getting a stern look in return. “Hey, I let you call me DL. Don’t be a hypocrite,” He said. They looked at each other and after a few seconds, both burst in to laughter as a pink bouncing pony walked through the door.

“Hey guys, why are you laughing? Did I miss something? Has the foal arrived? What Happ-“ Rainbow Dash stuffed her hoof into Pinky’s mouth.

“Relax, Pinky. You haven’t missed a thing,” She said, getting a smile and an ‘ok’ after she removed her hoof. Applejack and Big Macintosh both arrived and gave Dark Light a hug congratulating him.

“Oh, I almost forgot! Congratulations Dark Light!” Pinky said frantically. Rarity and Fluttershy arrived together, and Twilight arrived just after. They each in turn congratulated Dark Light and Fluttershy gave him a hug just before a nurse arrived and called Dark Light in, stopping the six mares and the red stallion on the way.

“Family only I’m afraid,” she said.

“Surrogate family counts,” Dark Light replied getting a sigh of defeat from the nurse, who let them pass. They all entered the room that Shimmer and the doctor who was caring for her were in and all of them said hi to shimmer who was crying from a mixture of pain and joy from seeing her friends and husband, who trotted over to her took hold of her hoof and smiled at her as the others all went to her side and smiled at her too.

“Ok. Now Shimmer Heart, you need to push out the foal,” The Doctor said. Shimmer screamed and scrunched up her face.

“Come on Shim, You can do it sweetie,” Dark Light said as the main six and Big Macintosh offered their encouragement as well. This continued for a minute or two just before a crying noise was heard. The Doctor cantered over and helped the foal out.

“It’s a colt,” He said as he took him in his arms and wrapped him in a towel.

“Well done Shim. You did great,” Dark Light said, leaning over and giving her a long kiss, after which he whispered something in her ear to which she nodded and smiled, tears in her eyes from the relief of it being over and done with. The doctor handed the young unicorn colt over to Dark Light who took him in his hooves and kissed him on the forehead before handing him to Shimmer.

“Isn’t he handsome?” The weakened unicorn mare said as the foal looked into her mother’s eyes “He has your mane, Light. Look,” He looked at the foal’s mane which matched his, leaving the father with a smile. He had the same fur colour as his father.

“He’s got your eyes as well sweetie,” The father said smiling and kissing his wife on the forehead.

After a Few minutes of silence and tears of joy, Dark Light looked up towards the two apples with a smile.

“Applejack? Big Macintosh?” The two ponies looked at him and smiled. “I know it’s usually tradition to have a couple do it but…” Dark Light paused, “Would you kindly consider being the godparents?” Applejack teared up even more than she already had and Big Mac even started to tear up as well but both of them smiled.

“Ah’d…We’d love to sugar cube,”

“Ee-eeyup,” The two came over and hugged the new parents and the five others joined in the hug. Dark Light looked over to the doctor in a beckoning sort of way. He sighed and also joined in in the embrace.