Sweetie Belle groaned, turning on her side and trying to curl into an even tighter ball. It hurt, so terribly bad. Why am I having these... cramps, she thought. I mean, sure, it's flu season, but these are in the wrong place... She rolled over, trying to get comfortable. She had been acting really strange lately, and she didn't know why. She had snapped at Scootaloo yesterday for something minor, something irrelevant. She didn't even remember what it was. Apple Bloom had made a small remark, good constructive criticism really, about her singing the day before that, and the poor white filly had burst into tears.
"What's wrong with me," she groaned, slightly louder than normal. She tried to get up, so she could go get a glass of water, but only succeeded in landing with a heavy -THUMP- on the floor. She looked up at the white door, trying to focus and use what little magic she had to open it, only to have it open from the other side.
"Sweetie Belle? Is everything alright?" Rarity nudged her way into the room, staring down at the heap of distraught filly on the floor. "I heard a rather loud thumping sound, and you've been locked up in your room all day, so I just came to check on you."
Sweetie looked up pitifully at her sister. "Uuunh, I don't wanna move. It hurts too much." She cringed and curled into a ball, hugging her abdomen and squeezing her eyes shut, waiting for the wave of pain to subside.
Rarity's eyes widened. "Sweetums, darling, do tell me what's the matter? Please don't say you're getting sick, I have an important order I need to finish." She leaned down and nudged Sweetie with a gentle hoof. "Sweetie? Sweetie Belle? Are you hearing me? Have you been feeling sick over the past few days?"
Sweetie grunted and pulled herself into a sitting position. "Well... A couple of days ago, I started crying for no good reason... and yesterday, I yelled at Scootaloo for something I can't remember, I don't think it was that important... And now-" She hunched over and moaned. "Now I'm having these horrible cramps! Oooooohh, can you tell me what's wrong, Big Sis? I can't think of anything right now."
There was a long pause, with Rarity staring at nothing, a horrified expression upon her face.
"Um... Big Sis? Rarity? Are you okay? Is something wrong with me?" She looked up at Rarity, confused. She had never seen her sister like this before... there was usually some kind of reaction, be it positive or negative. She (painfully) waved a hoof in front of the dazed mare's face, snapping her out of it.
"Hmm? Oh, erm, yes. Where exactly... are these cramps, darling?" Rarity looked down with obvious concern, which only grew when Sweetie gestured... lower... than if it was something else, like a stomach bug. "Oh, no, no no no no no no no, not now, not ever!" At this point she was just denying the inevitable, denying the truth. Nothing good could come of this.
And so, leaving a terrified and confused Sweetie Belle, she collapsed in a dead faint.
Sweetie Belle nudged her sister with a hoof, wondering why she had fainted. Surely it wasn't that bad! She knew Rarity was going to be okay, she had a fainting sofa for a reason. But... Am I going to be okay? She sat down, confused, scared, and in pain. She tried to think about something, anything besides this. Her stomach growled as her thoughts turned to chocolate. She could practically smell it, the thoughts were so vivid. Beautiful, plain milk chocolate... She really wanted chocolate. Shaking her head as Rarity came to, she thought, Why chocolate? What does that have to do with anything?
"... Sweetie Belle? Are you alright?" Rarity sat up, blinking rapidly, her brain going at the rate of a snail. How could she possibly explain this? Of all the things that could happen, this was the, worst, possible thing! She rose to her hooves, brushing herself off in a ladylike manner, and decided to go upstairs and see if there were any books for this. The less she had to explain herself, the better.
"Yeah, I guess, but why did you... Um... Is it that bad? Am I going to be okay?" Sweetie Belle followed Rarity upstairs, silent and in pain. She really wanted some chocol- -THUMP- She ran into the doorframe of the bathroom. Yep, totally paying attention. She sat down on the cold tile floor, her sister frantically searching through the closet, letting out exasperated noises the longer she looked.
"AARRRRGH!" Rarity backed out of the closet, slammed the door with her magic, and sat on her rump with a huff, scaring Sweetie half to death.
"Eek! Rarity, why'd you have to do that," the small mare whined. She looked at Rarity with big, pleading eyes glistening with the beginnings of tears. "What's wrong, what were you looking for?"
Rarity sighed in defeat, knowing she was going to have to explain it all instead of relying on a book. "Erm... Well, you see Sweetie Belle... I was looking for a book."
"A book? In the bathroom closet? Why?" True bewilderment was evident on Sweetie's face.
"It's... a special book. One that only young mares can read. Or, rather, fillies who are becoming mares." Rarity cringed inwardly at her flimsy explanation. "You see, once a filly-"
"What do you mean, a 'filly becoming a mare?' How would that even work?"
"I will tell you, if you stop interrupting me!" Rarity glared her sister into submission. "Good. Now, as I was saying, once a filly reaches a certain... maturity... they will have a sort of, time of month, where a bunch of things happen. You named off the two key ones most associated with this time, when you mentioned being happy and then angry, having those mood swings, and having your cramps earlier, although in a new place." She gathered her thoughts. "Sweetie, darling, have you learned about the birds and the bees in school yet?"
A little surprised at the question, she replied, "Um... no, not yet. Miss Cheerilee said we would be covering it soon." She paused. "What does that have to do with... This?"
Rarity took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, trying to bring her blood pressure down. "Well... to be frank, Sweetums..." She gulped. "You're hitting what is known as 'puberty.' This is a time where you're going to feel awkward in your own body. You're going to have growth spurts and hormones and fur blemishes and magic spurts. You're going to find who you are, and you'll certainly get your cutie mark." Sweetie perked up at this, and Rarity continued. "You'll have a time, every month, that lasts about a week, where you get cramps and mood swings and chocolate cravings, but there's one significant part that stands out about this week." She stopped, catching on the words she was going to have to speak.
Sweetie Belle cocked her head to the side. What more could there be?
"It is... Especially hard, for us, our color being white. It makes it harder to hide." She tried deep breathing again. It didn't work, and she decided to 'just roll with it,' as Rainbow Dash would say. "It's called our period. Only mares have it, not stallions. We... There's another... opening... Down there with our number one opening and our number two opening." She shuddered at the words she had just uttered. That was the most un-ladylike thing she'd said in her entire life. "We... It's where a foal comes out when a mare gives birth, and every month... We bleed out of it."
Sweetie Belle. Stared at Rarity, wide-eyed and unblinking, her pupils shrunken down to pinpoints. We.. bleed? We bleed for a whole week? Out of our butts? Her mouth opened slightly. Then, she did something completely unexpected.
She burst out laughing.
"Oh, Rarity," she gasped out between guffaws. "You had me going there for a while. I-" she panted. "I didn't think you had it in you, to prank me like that. Jeez, that's truly a Pinkie Pie worthy prank." She stood up. "Bleeding out of our butts, what a ridiculous idea!"
Rarity was completely flabbergasted. "I... What? Sweetie Belle, you get back here this instant," she called, for the small filly had walked away. She popped her head back in the door. "What makes you think I would joke about your marehood, Sweetums? I wouldn't joke about that, it's simply to vulgar."
This time Sweetie's jaw truly did drop. She was serious?! I'm really going to bleed out of my butt for a whole week every month!? She shook her head in disbelief. "Is this what Miss Cheerilee is gonna talk about? Because I really don't wanna hear it more than once..." she trailed off. "I didn't think you were serious... I didn't think we could do that..." She slowly walked back in. "I think I understand why it would be so much harder for us white mares to hide, but how do we do it?"
Rarity stopped. She had taken it, just like that? No freaking out, no crying, not anything? "Erm... Well, it's easier if you can levitate items, which I'm sure will come much easier to you now that you've reached this stage, but..." She turned to the closet and pulled out a little blue box, with a picture of a weird shaped plastic tube thing on the front. It said 'light' on it. "We use these. The opening, between the two before mentioned ones, is where the blood comes from. We... We put one of these in." She levitated one of the tampons out of the box, ripped open the wrapping, and showed it to Sweetie Belle. She then pushed on the smaller end, and much to Sweetie's surprise, a cotton thing came out the rounded end, with a string on the end.
"..." The filly stared at it. "We're supposed to put one of those in ourselves?" She unconsciously took a half step back, slightly terrified at this new way of living, with a ball of cotton up a new hole in her butt and chocolate cravings and unsteady moods
"Yes. You insert the rounded plastic tip, push on the end while it's in there so that the cotton part goes in, then you pull the plastic part out, making sure the string is hanging out as well." She sighed. "Look, darling, I know it's a lot to take in, and I know that I broke down when I found out, so it's all right to be scared. It's a part of every mare's life, and we all have to get used to it." She stared at her younger sister, seeing that she was paying rapt attention, something she never did any other time. Taking advantage of it, she continued. "You have to hide the string with your legs and tail, and it takes some practice, both to get it in, and hide it, not to mention getting it out, although that's just tugging on a string. You're lucky to have a long, poofy tail, it makes it a lot easier than it's going to be for, say, Scootaloo." She paused. "Would you like to try it now?"
Sweetie Belle shook her head no, but simply replied, "I don't want to but I need to, and it's better than having to clean up later. I just wish I didn't have to..." She grabbed another tampon in her hoof. "So... Like this?" She adeptly slid the cylinder into the hole, and then pressed down the sliding end. She felt a sort of queasy feeling, and then it vanished, as if there was nothing in there, even though she knew there was. She pulled the plastic shell out of her vagina and held it in her hoof, unsure what to do with it.
Rarity stared, slack-jawed, as Sweetie Belle effortlessly inserted and removed the tampon. It had taken her days to master it, yet here her sister was, getting it on her first try. She shook herself out of her envy at the ease of which the task was accomplished, and took the shell in her magic. "Once you remove the shell, you roll it up in toilet paper and throw it in the trash can," she said, very professionally. "Well... Well done, Sweetie Belle. You... You did that perfectly." She patted her sister on the back. "In four to eight hours, we're going to have to take it out, but you did very good. I'm... I'm proud of you."
Sweetie Belle beamed up at Rarity, her eyes shiny and adorable. "You are? Really? But that was so... So easy!" She hugged Rarity, who jumped a little bit, then returned the hug. Little did she know that Rarity had magically washed her hooves, for they were never to touch Rarity's fine white coat in their... Condition.
They were both thinking the same thing: We can make it through this together.
Author's Note
... And then Sweetie Belle asked for a chocolate bar. The End.
You know a fun word to say? Flabbergasted. It's right up there with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Raxacoricofallapatorious.
ANYWAY. I hit my month mark, and this came to me. It was... an interesting write. Very hard, too. I hated writing this, because of my crappy transitions. I try to be descriptive, but then I lose it to the dialogue. Meh. Life goes on.
