Band of Five Attributes (Re-Written)

A few hours passed, the night giving way to the soft purple and orange hues of a twilight’s dawn. Kaguya had since collapsed, and Yuuki had a very strenuous task of carrying her singlehandedly up the stairs upon her backside. The legs of the elder fell slack next to those of the younger, and hooves were lazily dragged as a result.

Upon reaching the platform at which the stairway turned sharply, Kaguya’s weight became too much for the teen to handle, but rather than crash right then and there, she slowly lowered her body down so as not to wake the elder mare she carried.

Kaguya mumbled something incoherently as she snoozed before moving her head a little bit.

“Next time, invest in some sleeping pills…” Yuuki mumbled to herself, turning her head to look upon the sleeping mare’s face. The elder seemed content, eyes staying closed as she continued to say whatever was happening in whatever world she was in right now.

Yuuki sighed before rising up again, the weight of the pony she carried once more threatening to make her legs slip out from under her frame. She turned to meet with the second half of the stairway, sighing once more as she slowly ascended them.

Upon entering the hallway (and letting herself fall again), she turned her head to the right and found 01 standing next to an open doon.

“Ah, great.” The stallion groaned. “She’s out of bed?”

“Yeah...and she kinda fell asleep…on the table.” Yuuki replied, ears flat on her skull.

01 trotted to the mares and laid down on all four of his legs, using his front hooves to gently move Kaguya off of Yuuki. “Be a dear and help me put Sleeping Beauty on my back, please.” He said.

Yuuki nodded, rising up onto her hooves and using them to maneuver the elder mare onto the stallion’s backside. After that was said and done, the stallion rose and trotted to the room with the open door, with Yuuki following close behind.

She watched as 01 slid Kaguya into the bed and covered her up with a blanket. Both ponies trotted out in short order, making sure to close the door behind them. The elder stallion yawned, scratching his head with a hoof afterwards.

“You going to bed anytime soon? It’s awfully early…” 01 said, rubbing his eyes with the same hoof with which he scratched his head.

“I had a bad dream, so it’s not likely.” Yuuki replied before yawning herself. “Geeze, these things are contagious.”

“You said it. I’ll go on ahead downstairs and make myself some coffee...maybe tea. Come to me if you need anything.” 01 sighed, yawning once more before making his way downstairs.

“Will do.” Yuuki sighed, trotting to the door opposite of the attic stairs. She opened the door slowly with her hoof and went in the room beyond (turning the light on in the process), finding a sink, a toilet, a bathtub, and some other things. In other words, she now stood in a bathroom.

She found herself looking into the reflective depths of the mirror above the sink, and her jaw dropped open at what it presented to her: her mane was beyond frazzled, and her tail was much the same. Her pelt looked as if it lost a small amount of color for some unexplained reason, and many strands of pelt stuck out of place on her body. Her eyes were a solid dark purple, almost as if she’d been hypnotized.

Then, she felt something boil in her stomach. It was searing hot, assaulting her nerves full-force. The mare grunted in pain, gritting her teeth as the cauldron within reached a new pinnacle of burning agony. She moved closer to the sink and turned on the faucet, the storm within settling down a little as she checked the water with her hoof.

A warm sensation hit her hoof as she held it under the running water for a moment before she turned off the faucet, dunking both front hooves into the controlled puddle within the sink before splashing some onto her rather pale face. She splashed some more onto her face, causing it to glisten with the clear, warm drops of liquid. The mare then shook her head free of the excess water before the cauldron inside began to boil once more, and this time she felt her throat burn hot as well.

She got away from the sink and trotted to the toilet, raising the lid with a quick hoof as she placed her other on its rim. She felt the burning sensation of the cauldron travel up her body, reaching all the way to her neck before it was expelled out of her mouth.

An acidic taste hit her tongue as the warm, yet boiling, liquid shot out the back of her throat, landing with a hefty dunk into the water of the toilet. She coughed, gasping for air before more of the burning, acidic liquid flew from her mouth and into the toilet. For a few more moments she was there, sitting on her rump vomiting into the toilet.

Once she emptied the internal cauldron, she sat there still gasping for air and coughing, the acidic taste and a slight burning pain still lingering as she did. She heaved, looking into the contents of the toilet and quickly let off a shrill shriek of surprise.

The liquid was mostly brown, save for faint lines of red permeating the whole of the contained mass. The stench was very faint but foul nonetheless, and as Yuuki stared into the brown and red, an aftertaste of iron hit her tongue.

Kaguya’s words quickly rang in the mare’s head. “I hope it’s not what I think it is.”

Yuuki’s eyes widened, iris and pupil shrinking to tiny dots as the words of the elder, coupled with the sight of the vomit and horrible memories of an event she wished to forget, hit her harder than a brick. Very, very slowly, she moved the hoof that was still on the rim of the toilet seat to her stomach, tears threatening to burst from her eyes.

“I’m….I’m…” She murmured, her voice cracking from pure shock and an aftertone of agony. She shook as she very lightly touched her stomach with her hoof, only for her breathing to turn ragged and sparse as she felt something she could’ve sworn wasn’t felt prior.

“N-No...I...I have to be dreaming…this isn’t happening…” The young mare murmured, feeling the invisible python coil and tighten around her chest as she trembled still. “I have to be dreaming…” She repeated, feeling the world around her freeze in that instant.

“Are you alright?” A masculine voice asked. Yuuki’s ears perked to attention, and she slowly turned to the door to find 01 standing there looking at her with eyelids partially drooping over his eyes.

“N-no...f-far from it.” Yuuki stammered, tears now flowing from her eyes. She lowered her head, looking despondently at the floor. She began to sob, though she struggled to keep her whimpers at bay.

The stallion trotted to her and sat on his rump before wrapping his forelegs around her. “W...what’s wrong?” 01 asked, entirely unaware of what the fuss was about.

“I….I….I….” Yuuki murmured, her sobs becoming more frantic as the seconds ticked on.

“You what?” 01 inquired.

“I don’t want to be….” Yuuki trailed off, still sobbing and shaking.

“Don’t want to be what? Tell me what it is, woman. I have no idea how to help you because you’re not telling me what’s wrong.” 01 pointed out, an eyebrow raised as he continued to clutch the mare.

“I don’t want to be carrying his child!!” Yuuki shrieked, her voice still racked with her sobs.

“You’re...you’re….YOU’RE PREGNANT?!” 01 wailed, his own pupils shrinking to tiny dots and his mouth hanging ajar. He could not believe the words Yuuki had spoken in her fit of pain, nor could he begin to even comprehend why. “W-who...who got you?! W-what happened?!”

Yuuki was unable to answer. She began to scream like a banshee as her body shook with her sorrow. This caused the rest of the household inhabitants to wake up from whatever dreams they may have been having and scramble out of bed (with Rekka forgetting to attach his set of wheels to his midsection in the process) and rush to the bathroom to figure out what was making that awful series of shrieks belonging to a cacophony. Even Kaguya had been aroused, and in spite of her recently-found knowledge, she was unable to keep her own jaw from physically dropping open like a trapdoor.

All seven stood huddled around the bathroom door, some with tears about to leak from their own eyes and others hiding anger behind apparent wide-eyed shock.

01 very, very slowly turned to the lot that stared at him as he clutched the shrieking wreck of a mare, his mouth still wide open. “Someone...someone…” He said, unable to say anything else with how much his body shook in shock.