Living in Equestria

Doctor Goodhoof leaned over Scootaloo, doing what appeared to be a check of her vital signs after he'd entered the room both her and I had been waiting in. He didn't say anything at first, only regarded me with a look of recognition before turning to his patient and beginning the exam.

"So... when did you first notice the signs?" he asked casually as he pressed his hoof against what probably passed for a wrist in this world.

"A-about a week or so ago... I've been sick-up in the mornings." her eyes, that hadn't been clear of redness or tears since yesterday evening, looked up anxiously at the white maned stallion above her.

"Mmhmm..." his lips pursed as he inspected various parts of Scoots's body. "...and you're suspecting your pregnant... how, young lady? You sure you just don't have the stomach bug that's going around? A lot of young mares and fillies seem to think every morning sickness experience is pregnancy these days..." he rolled his eyes. His bedside manner didn't seem to be to great today.

"Zecora's fortune potion wouldn't work on her." I said from the chair nearby. "She said the only reason the magic of the potion was acting the way it was is because it knew it was missing another hair... Zecora said it must be from her foal."

"Ahh.. Zecora." the doctor's muzzle had a slight look of disdain on it although he said her name pleasantly enough. "Well, I'm glad you came to me for a real diagnosis. A simple swab spell should tell us quickly enough."

The bright blue stallion moved away from Scootaloo who was lying on her back on the exam table and opened a small cabinet in the room, pulling out a long, thin, paper sealed package. "Now, some couples..." his eyes darted to me. "...I'm assuming you're the possible father?"

My brain struggled with that question. For a second... I wasn't able to answer him. "Yes." I finally spat, my eyes meeting Scoot's reddened ones.

"Alright then, most couples prefer to take the swab in privacy. Would you care to do the honors?" he smiled and held his hoof out with the paper package to me. "All you need to do is swab the interior of her birth canal and then place it in the container you'll find in the package. I'll summon the medical unicorn on staff to perform the spell while you do. Just knock on the door when you're finished, and she'll come in to cast the spell on it."

The crinkly white package had instructions on the front and I took it from his hoof with numb fingers. He left, giving us both a sterile but professional smile without saying another word, closing the door behind him. My heart was racing.

"Mason...?" Scoot's voice crackled with tears. "No matter what it says...I love you." she said, more moisture leaking from her tired and baggy eyes.

"I love you too, Scoots..." I gave her a long hug, letting her earthy pony smell soak into me before ripping open the package. "You ready?"

"Yeah..." she said, her small orange face contrasting against the white smock with the opening in the front the nurse had made her put on. Even though I had been nervous as hell when I got here, the idea she had to wear this was so ridiculous that it made me laugh a little.

Pealing open the smock between her rear legs, Scoots gave a small chuckle. "I can't believe we're doing this..." she laughed.

"You can't?" I smiled up at her from between her back legs. "I'm taking a pregnancy test with a pony... how do you think I feel?!"

I spread the tight folds of her privates and slowly inserted the thin swab inside her up to the line indicated on the directions, giving it a gentle twist. I could feel the resistance of the flesh inside against the cottony end before I pulled it out delicately, dropping it into the plastic like tube and closing the flip top lid.

I held it up and the both of us looked at the potential harbinger of change in our lives with rabid emotions worn openly on our faces. There was and incredible amount of fear, hope, excitement and anxiety contained in this one little swab, barely longer than a pencil and looking completely normal slumbering in its case. Scootaloo hopped off the table and stood beside me, leaning into my hip when my other arm came over her neck in a hug. One final look and a kiss... then it was time.

I moved to the wooden door with an absurd cross section of a mare with a foal inside her belly tacked to the it and gave a light rap with a knuckle, right where the depiction of the foal was. The door opened almost immediately and the same small yellow unicorn who had knocked me out for my wing extraction came in with a warm smile on her face.

"OK! You all ready to learn the big news?!" she asked brightly. In my sleep deprived state I almost found it annoying.

"Yeah... I guess." Scootaloo voice trembled a bit, betraying the smile she'd painted on her face.

"Alright then. Now if it's positive, do you want to know the gender or would you like to keep that a mystery?" the unicorn's golden eyes danced with practiced excitement.

"Mystery!" Scootaloo said almost immediately. I couldn't stop myself from looking at her in surprise. Her eyes glittered with a playful glint, letting me know she was still her adventurous self... even when exhausted and emotionally drained.

"Sure... now then. When I count to three, I'll cast the spell. If the swab glows red, it will indicate that you're not pregnant. Green?... then I hope you have a wonderful baby shower planner!" her voice wavered in the same way my aunt had whenever she got overjoyed and cheesy about something.

Yep.. she was annoying me.

We both nodded and the unicorn finally began to count. " Hold it up for me... higher... there you go. Alright on the count of three! One.... Two..... Three!"

The end of her horn sparked to life with a white glow and the end of the swab inside the container answered it's magic immediately, glowing brightly with it's own vivid, distinct color.

__________________________________________

Neither of us had slept at all last night, Apple Bloom had given up early and went downstairs to the couch while Scootaloo and I grappled with our situation. The red head had been excited and supportive during the earlier part of the day, but no bond of magic or friendship had a place in the intensely personal conversation that took place during the dark hours of the night between the orange pegasus and I.

It had been an overwhelmingly emotional day yesterday between Sweetie's cutie mark appearing on the stage and then the events surrounding the potion's revelation. There had been loud and excited talk coming from both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as we exited the fortune teller's tent, but I don't remember it at all. Something about diapers and cute little hooves... it didn't matter. I only remember Scootaloo's eyes as they searched my soul for answers and how I could only think that I wasn't ready to be a father.

We had somehow made it most of the way back to the row with our stalls in it before Scootaloo grabbed her two friends urgently, pulling them to the side along with myself.

"You guys can't say anything...." she said as her eyes welled up with tears.

"What?" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle said in unison.

"Please just... don't. Not until I... I mean we..." her eyes caught mine for a moment. "... know for sure, OK?"

The two looked at each other for a moment before shrugging. "Sure, Scootaloo... I mean, if that's what you want." Sweetie Belle said.

"Yeah... I guess it is prolly better till ya know for sure." Apple Bloom nodded knowingly, but she was clearly bursting at the seams from trying to contain her excitement. "What about you, Mason? You ain't said much this whole way back! Aren't you excited? You guys might have a foal!!"

I licked my lips that were too dry to speak with and tried to give her a genuine smile... but I know I fell miserably short. I was terrified. All I wanted to do was go someplace quiet with Scootaloo and answer that look she had been giving me this whole time, that look that said I'm scared that was surely reflected in my own face. But out here in this bustling isle way of a crowded fair, I couldn't do that... not yet.

"I- I just need to get used to it, I guess..." I croaked at Apple Bloom.

Scoots and I managed to pull it together for the remainder of the day, shaking off the looming possibility of parenthood and joining in the happy retelling of Sweetie's cutie mark to everypony. After the reunion of Rarity and Sweetie Belle, an event that tested the limits of my high pitched hearing from all the squeals, I managed to get the purple maned unicorn off to the side for something I'd been wanting to ask her for a while now.

"A what? A harness?" her nose scrunched.

"Yeah, so I can fly Scootaloo underneath me. I don't have the same room on my back as Rainbow Dash does sooo..."

"Ahhh! I see!" her eyes glittered with understanding and then she mumbled to herself. "Well, I have your measurements, and I'll use Sweetie Belle as a model for Scootaloo... I'll just make it a little bigger..." her white face turned up to me with a smile. "Yes, Mason. I believe I can whip that up for you in no time!"

"Thanks Rarity!" I said and gave her a brief hug. As I turned to rejoin Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, a sudden thought struck me.

"Rarity?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"I want it to be comfortable for her... and she doesn't like stuff pressing on her stomach. Just one of those personal things, ya know?" I lied.

"Well that's odd. I've never known Scootaloo to be adverse to anything like that but of course, dear. I shall work around that then." She smiled. This time it was she who stopped me from leaving, her face filling with awkward nervousness for a moment.

"Say, Mason... you wouldn't happen to be interested in giving Sweetie and I a hoof doing some repairs around the boutique, would you? M-maybe bring your friend Wilson along for help, you know... just to make it go faster?"

I had to laugh at her transparency. "I'll see if Wilson wants to come along..." I smiled back and Rarity gave a poorly hidden relieved sigh.

I stooped to give Sweetie Belle a goodbye nuzzle, and she surprised me by actually kissing me this time. A full on passionate one that caught me completely off guard in full view of her sister and everypony else to see. It was so out of character for her, I wondered if I'd nuzzled the wrong young unicorn mare by accident.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" she whispered to me when we broke off. "And I'm so glad you had the guts to come up there with me today... if you weren't here with us, I wouldn't have gotten my cutie mark!" her face dropped into a half lidded devious look. "I owe you..." she said with a wicked smile, leaving me wondering what she meant by that.

Later on, after packing up and heading home, Applejack was tired but ecstatic during the starlit walk. They'd sold out of everything except for a few straggler carrots that we all munched on, the sounds of our chewing and the jingling sound of bits clinking together in a steady rhythm from the heavy pouch on Big Mac's flank blended with the symphony of crickets singing around us in the warm night air. Scoots wasn't hungry and I only ate one or two, just to keep up appearances that we weren't so preoccupied by our thoughts to ignore our hunger. That the fact we hadn't eaten anything other than fried icing was gnawing at my belly but I had no desire for anything... the carrots tasted like chalk in my mouth.

The normally reserved farm pony talked eagerly with Apple Bloom and Granny about how much money they'd made this festival and what they were going to do around the farm with it. Her little sister almost ruined the secret when she suggested to Applejack that they add a new room to the barn, cutting her words off suddenly and suspiciously when she realized what she'd said.

"What in all Equestria you talkin' bout Apple Bloom? Why would we need another one?" We got tha guest room back now that ya'll are stayin together?"

"Oh- oh yeah... I fergot..." she mumbled, red faced and avoiding Scootaloo's seething stare.

It was late by the time we unhooked everything and made ready for bed. All of us were exhausted from the long eventful day and eager to turn in for the night... except Scootaloo and I both silently knew that we would have little sleep tonight.

"Crap..." That was the miserable sounding word that started it from Scootaloo when we finally crawled onto the soft mattress and settled down, the three of us in our customary bundle.

"Yeah..." I said as I stared up at the ceiling above in the darkened room.

"Come on you guys! Why ya'll mopin around like that? Yer bein a wet blanket bout all this... ya'll should be excited!"

"Easy for you to say, Apple Bloom... you're not the one who's probably pregnant." Scoots replied.

"So? Big deal! Lotsa mares get pregnant... happens all tha time!"

"Apple Bloom..." Scootaloo gave her friend a tired groan.

"Ahlright ahlright... Ya'll r being funny bout this an I don't wanna hear it, I'm gonna go sleep downstairs n maybe you two can get yer heads on straight. I'm more excited than tha both a ya combined!"

She left, dragging her coveted pillow that I had once... and only once ...mistook for mine one night and closed the door behind her.
Scootaloo instantly turned, wrapping her hooves around me for comfort in much the same way she had the very first night we'd spent together long ago. Now that we were here... I couldn't think of anything to say because my tired mind was flooded with every thought imaginable all at once.

"I think the potion is right." she said finally, her voice a low trembling murmur.

"You think?"

"Yeah... I feel different. I don't know how to explain it... but I do. I've been meaning to tell you, but it never seemed like the right time." Scootaloo sighed into me and I squeezed her tight.

"We gotta find out for sure, isn't there a doctor or something we can go to tomorrow?" I asked.

"I guess we can go to Dr Goodhoof's tomorrow..."

"You want to?"

"Yeah... but... I'm really scared, Mason. What if there's something wrong with it? What if it's some kind of m-monster?" her voice cracking as she fought off her emotion.

"Scoot... why would you think that?!"

"C-cause... It's not like I'm normal to begin w- with..." she was losing the battle of keeping control. "... and you're n-not even a p-p-pony."

Her words had a chilling effect on me. She was absolutely right, of course. Scoots wasn't exactly a regular pegasus and I was now some weird hybrid of pony and human that god only knew what kind of strange DNA I'd pass on to a child. I had already envisioned some centaur looking thing, but now I was wondering if any offspring of ours would be recognizable... or even able to live. I tried to shake it off and be positive for her sake as best I could.

"We can't think that way about it..."

"How can you not?!" she burst out in tears. "W-we're the m-most defective cuh-couple in the world!"

"So?" I smoothed her mane with a hand. "I can't believe that the magic of this place could let something like that happen."

"I don't care!" she sobbed. "I don't w- wanna have a b- broken foal! I want it out of me!"

Scootaloo broke into huge gasping sobs against my chest, unable to talk anymore as the wall holding her emotions in check finally gave in. All I could do was hold her while she let it out... nothing I could think of to say seemed to be of any use right now anyways. She seemed convinced already that our child would be some broken offspring of two worlds that should have never met in this way in the first place, enough to want it out of her rather than risk giving birth to it.

My own mind reeled at her statement and I suddenly found myself unwilling to go along with it that easily... not unless it was absolutely needed for her safety or the foals. This also meant that I had come to a decision in my own mind at some point and Scootaloo's outburst had only brought it to the surface. Long minutes passed with her sobs filling the dark air of the room and I steeled myself for a possible confrontation about her statement. When her crying eventually subsided enough for her to speak again, she surprised me by being apologetic.

"I- I'm sorry. You're right... but I'm just so scared about whats gonna happen." she wiped a hoof over her face to clear her eyes.

"Scoots... did you really mean that? About wanting it out of you?" I asked her as seriously as I dared to in her fragile state. She looked at me with those two orbs of purple, scanning my face before she pressed her head into my chest again.

"No..." came her quiet but sincere reply. "You're the only pony I'd ever wanna have a foal with so if it's gonna happen..." she trailed off and tightened her hooves around me.

"...then lets let it happen." I finished for her.

We lay together in silence for a while after that, each of us thinking our own thoughts. I ran over a thousand possibilities in that quiet time span, all of them evoking an emotion in me that was pure and powerful in it's effect regardless if it was based in being happy or sad. Riding that emotional roller coaster in my head, I realized I knew nothing about a pony's pregnancy at all.

"How long?" I asked her. My voice had gone thick and groggy in the long moment of silence.

"What?" her face came up confused.

"How long before it's born? If you are, I mean."

She thought for a moment. "I dunno... You think it was from that time in my old hideout?"

"Maybe..." my mind drifted back to that incredibly intimate moment between us and then I shrugged. "If we had to pick a time... I'd want it to be that one." my hand traced her cheek.

Her face softened and then she smiled. "Yeah... me too." came her quiet reply. Our eyes locked for a second, each of us replaying some of that moment we'd shared.

"So... it won't be till maybe after the beginning of next summer. It's eleven cycles, I think... or something like that. I didn't really pay attention that close 'cause... well I never thought it would come up." she gave a sheepish chuckle.

"Wow... that's... like forever."

"How long is it for humans?" she asked.

"Nine mo-... err cycles I guess. Nine cycles."

"Well, who knows how long it will be then. It is half yours.."

I gave a small laugh at this and again we lapsed into silence, this time searching each others eyes in the semi darkness of the room.

"We're really gonna do this... aren't we." she said finally.

"I wanna..."

"Me too..."

We didn't talk much after that... but we didn't sleep much either.

__________________________________________________________________________

I don't know when the yellow unicorn left. By the time Scootaloo and I separated from our embrace with tears blurring my eyes in the examination room she had already gone, leaving us alone with the small container in still my hand. I looked at it one more time just to be sure, the wetness from my eyes making the now fading green glow of the swab sparkle in the overhead lights.