Where I Belong

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 3

Prologue

If there was one thing the locker room at the Wonderbolts Aerodome in Canterlot didn’t lack after a big show, it was exuberance. Voices rang in playful teasing and bantering throughout the room, audible even over the roar of thunderous applause still going from the stands. Water hissed from showers in the next room as the team washed the sweat off their tired bodies.

All except for one.

A sky-blue pegasus mare sat in front of her locker, massaging a sore neck with a towel. She’d only made it as far as lowering the hood of her full-body spandex flight suit before she found she just didn’t have the energy to stand to remove the rest of it yet. Even if it was sticky with sweat and clung to her body uncomfortably, it just felt too good to sit down.

She opened her locker and tossed the used towel down onto the bench next to her. Pulling her goggles off from around her neck, she hung them up on their hook.

Her eyes fell upon a collection of decorations taped to the inside of the locker door. There was a newspaper article with a picture of her face announcing her as the newest member of the Wonderbolts performance team. Another picture showed her between the team’s Captain and Vice-Captain, each with a foreleg around her shoulders. A third showed her parents; her mother wearing her own Wonderbolts Instructor’s uniform. They had both been so proud when she’d given them the news. Their daughter fulfilling her dreams.

A sigh escaped her lips as she stood. Reaching behind her, wincing as she stretched the stiff flight muscles around her wings, she pulled down the zipper of her flight suit and began peeling it off. All around her, the cheers of her adoring fans and the raucous laughter of her teammates celebrating echoed off the concrete walls and tiled floor.

As she dumped the suit onto the floor of her locker for the staff to clean later, a glimmer of light reflected from the back. The edge of a metal something poked out from behind a thick jacket she had hanging up. Glancing around to see that she was still alone, she pulled it out.

It was a picture frame, a little taller than her hoof and about twice as wide, made of silver with magnets on the back to hold it up. An orange pegsus filly right on the cusp of adulthood smiled up at her, carefree and happy as could be in the arms of their mutual friend. He was an odd-looking fellow; tall on his two legs and lacking the fur coats of ponies. Instead he had only very thin patches of fine, short brown hair on his chest and limbs. His brown mane was short and there was stubble along his angular cheeks and chin from where he shaved.

She never understood why he did that. He swore that it made him look better, but she wasn’t convinced. Though she guessed it did make him look a little more rugged.

Feeling like a thousand pounds had dropped squarely onto her shoulders, she reluctantly put the picture away.

Somepony cleared their throat behind her and she turned to see a bright yellow pegasus mare with a mane like liquid fire. Captain Spitfire had already ditched her flight suit and showered, as her bangs, too short to reach the haphazard ponytail she’d fashioned with a pair of chopsticks, were still damp and dripping onto her face. She was carrying a stack of folders as she looked over the rim of her slim reading glasses. She quickly pulled them off with the tip of her wing, looking concerned.

“What are you doing out here, Dash?” she asked. “With how well you did tonight, I’d have thought you’d be in there basking in the praise and adulation of your teammates!” She had said it mockingly, but Rainbow Dash had known her long enough to hear the faint trace of worry creeping into her tone. Though she’d never say it out loud, Rainbow thought Spitfire could be quite the mother hen when she thought something was amiss with her team.

That didn’t mean she didn’t try to wriggle her way out of it. “Just a little tired after the show,” she said, trying to laugh it off. “I think pulling a double Filly Flash after three corkscrew dives might have been a little too much, even for me!”

“It was pretty impressive,” Spitfire said thoughtfully as she looked Rainbow up and down. Finally she clicked her tongue. “Well, if you’re too tired to shower, want some help preening? I know I could use some. I’ll do you if you do me?” She wiggled her eyebrows comically and Rainbow smirked.

“Sounds fine to me,” she said before grinning salaciously. “Sit down and spread ‘em.”

Spitfire chuckled in return as she dropped her folders and turned to straddle the bench in front of Rainbow. Fanning her wings wide, she drawled, “I’ve heard that one before.”

“I bet you have,” Rainbow said. She leaned forward to bite one of the primaries of Spitfire’s right wing and gave an experimental tug. It held firm, so she straightened it out and used her lips to scrape it clean. After wiping her mouth on her hoof, she moved on to the next.

“So Dash, not to change the subject or anything, but can I ask you how you’re really doing?” Spitfire asked over her shoulder. “’Cuz I’ve seen you when you’re tired. I’ve seen you so tired after practice you couldn’t stand without help, and even that didn’t stop you bragging about how great you’d done.”

In frustration, Rainbow accidentally pulled harder than she meant to on one of Spitfire’s secondary feathers, plucking it out.

“Ow!” Spitfire barked, jerking her wing away. She inspected the damage only to find it minimal. “Careful, Dash! I’m just worried about you; no need to rip my feathers out.”

Rainbow hung her head. “Sorry. You okay?”

Spitfire’s expression softened and she grinned even as she shook the pain out of her wing. “Yeah, I’m fine. That was nothing compared to the first time Soarin’ tried to preen me. He was trembling so much at the idea of touching a filly I thought he was going to have a panic attack! Dick ended up breaking one of my blood feathers! Bled everywhere. He nearly did pass out then.” She laughed at the memory. “Anyway, look, if you don’t want to talk to me then that’s fine. I just wanted to remind you that I’m here, okay? And I’d like to help if I can.”

“Always looking out for your team, eh Captain?” Rainbow asked, trying to sound accusatory. Even to her ears it just sounded hollow.

“I’d prefer to think I’m looking out for my friends.”

The angry dismissal that Rainbow intended to throw Spitfire’s way died in her throat. She’d seen what bottling things up could lead do. In her head, the image of that photograph in her locker was clear as day. Two smiling faces filled her with guilt.

Before she knew it, she was speaking.

“This was the first show here in Canterlot they didn’t make it to.”

Spitfire shifted to turn around and face her. “’They?’” Her eyes followed Rainbow’s as they flicked towards her locker. “Ahhh. The two in that picture, huh?”

Rainbow jumped in her seat. She’d always kept it hidden when others were around; there was no way Spitfire had seen it! “W-what picture?! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Spitfire raised one eyebrow in deadpan amusement. “Don’t con a con, Dash. I know everything that goes on in this locker room. I know about your secret picture just like I know Soarin’ keeps one of his son’s baby blankets in his gym bag just like I know about the time Surprise snuck a pair of fans in here when she thought nopony was around to catch her. Word of advice, don’t sit on the bench in front of Rapidfire’s locker.”

Rainbow warily eyed the bench a few spaces down like it was a reeking cesspit.

Which was normally how she looked at anything Rapidfire’s haunches had been on, but still.

“Point is, Dash: you can’t fool me, so you might as well show me,” Spitfire concluded.

Reluctantly, Rainbow pulled her locker open and fished around at the back. Once she found the frame, she passed it to Spitfire, who looked it over.

“Aww, that’s your little sister, Scootaloo, right? How’s she doing? She graduated Primary a while back, didn’t she?”

“Yeah. Just a couple months after I started here. She’s doin’ pretty good. Started working at the post office back in Ponyville and moved in with her coltfriend.” Rainbow gave a mirthless laugh. “They grow up faster and faster, huh?”

“Like we can talk!” Spitfire chuckled, slugging Rainbow’s shoulder. “I bolted from my parent’s place soon as I got out of school, too. Soarin’ and I shared a shithole apartment while we waited to get our chance to try out for the ‘Bolts. We had some good times back then.” She took another look over the photo before passing it back. “So, of all your friends and family, it’s these two you keep a picture of? Your sister and your boytoy from another world?”

“He’s not my boytoy!” Rainbow groused.

You wish he was, a treacherous voice whispered in the back of her head. She rolled her eyes at the stupidity of the notion, only realizing afterwards that she’d rolled her eyes at herself. She had an imminent need to facehoof but resisted the temptation.

“We’re just friends…” she said quietly.

“Just friends, huh? Why does that sound remarkably like ‘It’s Complicated?’”

“Because it is complicated,” Rainbow said taking the picture back as Spitfire passed it over and replaced it in her locker. “Or it was. We worked things out a while back, but… Well anyway, I guess I’m just kinda bummed they couldn’t make it up. Not quite in the mood for entertaining everypony else tonight.”

“Then why don’t you go see them?” Spitfire suggested. “We’ve got two weeks before our next show and I was thinking about giving the team next week off anyway. You’ve all been doing great lately and deserve a break. So go spend the week back home so you can come back at one-hundred percent!”

Rainbow flashed her a look of mock disbelief. “You’re giving us time off?! Who are you and what have you done with the real Spitfire?”

In return, Spitfire shoved her so hard she nearly fell off the bench and had to flutter her wings to keep her balance. Rainbow winced as her sore muscles shouted in protest.

But a whole week off? She couldn’t deny the thought of getting to actually spend time with all her friends again was appealing. She hadn’t been home for an entire week since before she started touring with the Wonderbolts. Weekends and scattered days here and there weren’t the same. Hay, maybe Pinkie would even throw a party while she was home!

And maybe afterwards she, Scoots and Will could hang out. Stay up all night drinking ciders and watching crappy movies. Hopefully they wouldn’t spend the whole time making out. They were pretty good about keeping the touchy-feely to a minimum while she was around, but the goo-goo eyes they made at each other still made her fur crawl when it caught her off-guard.

“You know what? I think I will head home for a bit. I hate to say it, but I could use the chance to rest my wings for a bit.”

Oh yeah, like going home has nothing to do with seeing him again. Right.

She shook the thoughts out of her head as Spitfire clapped a hoof on her back. “Hahaha! We all need time to rest our wings every now and then, Dash! Speaking of, why don’t we finish preening and then we can get out of here. What say you and me head back to my place and have ourselves a little celebration of our own?” she asked with a suggestive wink. “I have a whole bottle of jack with our names on it!”

If her wink wasn’t enough to make her intentions obvious, Spitfire’s tail entwining with her own was loud and clear. A last minute fling before a week-long vacation?

Exactly what the doctor ordered!

“What’re you waiting for?!” Rainbow asked. “Get your tail around here so I can reach your other wing!”

Chapter 1

In the small, quiet town of Ponyville, Equestria, in a small, quiet cottage at the end of a small, quiet street, lived a small, not-so-quiet couple. Both were abed, taking in a few final moments of welcome sleep as the morning’s first rays crept through the drawn curtains and up the scattered blankets of the bed. The light fell upon their bare bodies, warming them from the cool of the night.

One was a Pegasus mare; orange-coated and purple-maned, she was barely on the cusp of adulthood, still retaining the untarnished smoothness of youth in her features. She had a scrawny build and was short for her age, leading many to mistake her for being petite until they saw that she was bony and far too poorly-groomed for such a filly-ish word. And she could think of no filly considered ‘petite’ that had a shiny silver piercing through her dock.

Lying next to the mare sprawled rather unceremoniously in the middle of the bed was a slightly stranger creature, at least in the eyes of the citizens of Equestria. Standing on two legs, he towered above even the tallest ponies. He had no fur coat to keep him warm, instead only small patches of black hair over portions of his pink-skinned body matching the short cut of mane on his head. He also had no tail, and strange appendages called hands instead of hooves, though the mare certainly didn’t mind that distinction. The two had found many uses for the spindly little digits, some practical and others convenient.

And others still immensely pleasurable.

He lay with one arm draped across her back, his hand clasped tight between her forehooves. As the minutes ticked, the sun streaming through the window crept up his body until it finally struck his eyes and he groaned. He likely could have remained asleep had an alarm not started blaring only moments later.

“Ugh!” he grumbled, trying to reach over to turn it off only to find his arm trapped in the hooves of his marefriend. And so he dug the other out from under her pillow and slapped the switch, achieving blissful silence once again.

It didn’t last, however, as the insidious side effect of maturity set in: responsibility. Dutifully, he withdrew his hand from his marefriend’s iron grip and gently shook her shoulder.

“Babe, time to get up for work,” he mumbled, his voice a hoarse mess. Neither of them had gotten quite as much sleep as they’d have liked. The night before was a vague mess of sweat, heat and messy sheets in his head. They’d both need a shower before work.

Instead of any sort of coherent response, the only sound that left the mare was a low growl that was somewhat muffled by the pillow she buried her head under.

“Seriously, babe. You need to get up or you’re gonna be late.”

She withdrew her head and cracked one bleary purple eye open, fixing him with the fiercest death glare she could muster. “I hate you so much right now, Will.”

There was nothing more beautiful to Will than the sight of her brow wrinkled in anger. Her frown, the way her ears lay back, it was all irresistibly attractive. So much so that he dragged himself up on his protesting elbows and planted a kiss on her cheek. Then another, and another, and one final one on her neck.

“And why’s that?” he asked softly.

She refused to return his kiss, though he noticed her face betrayed her by following him as he pulled away. As he looked down at her, she rolled her eyes and turned away in a huff. “’Cuz you kept me up all night! I’m gonna be walkin’ bow-legged all day thanks to you!”

He smirked and kissed her one more time on the forehead. “You know you loved it.” She went silent for a moment as she stared him down but eventually she grumbled and rose from the bed.

“Shut up,” she muttered as she hopped over him and stalked on creaky limbs toward the bathroom. Will leaned back into the bed, intent on catching a few more winks while she was in the shower before starting breakfast. Because of that he only half-heard the water starting.

But he did hear the toilet seat suddenly clang up.

And he heard the violent retching that followed.

Will hopped up from bed and stumbled to the bathroom as quickly as his legs would allow and flung open the door. Scootaloo was doubled over the toilet being violently sick, her wings drooping pitifully as she heaved. Sighing, he grabbed a washcloth from the counter and wetted it down with warm water and took a seat next to her, where he rubbed her back and brushed her mane out of her face.

When she had finally finished, he flushed for her as she laid herself across his lap. She took the washcloth he offered and wiped the taste from her mouth.

“Feeling better?” he asked as she tossed the washcloth into the hamper.

“No,” she croaked. He opened his mouth to speak again but she cut him off. “I know what you’re gonna say. The answer’s still ‘no.’”

“Babe, you’ve been sick every day this week!” he protested. “You don’t have to see a doctor, but can’t you at least go see Nurse Redheart? Just to get some medicine or something?”

“It’s just a stomach bug! I’ll be fine in a couple hours; it’s not worth going to see a nurse for, either. Besides, I don’t want to take the time off work. I don’t want to be the newbie that skips work at the drop of a hat.”

“Would you rather be the newbie that takes time off because they let themselves get sick instead of just seeing a nurse?”

She frowned deeply up at him. As stubborn as she was, Will knew she wasn’t going to give in easily.

“Come on, it’ll just take an hour or so to go see Redheart and then you’ll be at work before you know it. Mr. Package can spare you for just that long, can’t he?” he asked, trying to hold back a snigger at her boss’s name.

Scootaloo let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “You’re not gonna let this go, are you?”

“Nope,” Will said with a smirk.

“Ugh… Fine. Whatever; I’ll go. But I’m not gonna like it,” she muttered as she slowly rose off of him.

“I’ll find some way to make it up to you,” he called after her as she slipped behind the shower curtain. His mind was already filling with a number of ways. Candlelight, soft music, massage oils… the possibilities were endless. “Just name it and I’m yours!”

Scootaloo’s voice rang out from behind the curtain. “You can get in here and help me scrub my back.”

He shrugged, feeling mildly disappointed. Totally not what he had in mind. But he’d take what he could get. He needed a shower before work, too. Already naked, he didn’t need to undress before slipping into the shower behind her.

Scootaloo was sitting down, her face held up to the steaming stream to let it simply wash over her. Her eyes were closed, and for all the world she looked utterly peaceful. Had she not just puked her guts up Will might have thought she was perfectly fine.

He sat down behind her and grabbed a bottle of soap from a shelf on the wall. Squirting a little into one palm, he began gently rubbing it into her back. She cooed in delight as his fingers worked into the muscles around her wings and neck.

“How did I live without those hands of yours?” she asked dreamily.

Will’s only response was to carefully pick her up, cradling her in one arm as he began washing her underside. First one leg, then the other, he ran his hands across her coat, gently scrubbing the bubbles down to her skin. She sighed contentedly as he moved to her chest and stomach, using only his fingertips so as to not agitate her nausea.

When he was done he sat aside the soap and grabbed the shampoo. Blueberries filled the air as he lathered her mane and tail. The heat, the smell, the touch of her fur to his skin.

It was perfect.

Even after he’d finished, Will continued to sit with her, holding her hoof and brushing it with his thumb. They stared deep into each other’s eyes without a care in the world. It didn’t matter that they had jobs to be getting ready for, or chores that needed done or bills that needed paid. They were completely content just as they were.

Because they had each other.

“I love you,” Scootaloo whispered.

“I love you, too,” Will whispered back as he leaned down to kiss her, only for his lips to meet the underside of her hoof.

“No kissing!” she said, pushing him away. “I still have vomit-breath.”

“And the moment is ruined.”

She shrugged carelessly. “Eh. Romance is overrated. Besides, if we start having sex now you’re going to be late for work. You wouldn’t want Carrot Top mad at you, now would you?”

She fixed him with a cheeky grin, knowing what effect her words had on him. A shiver ran through his body at the thought of upsetting his boss. She wasn’t exactly strict, and she’d never had to punish or reprimand him in any way, but there was just something about her that he knew wasn’t to be trifled with.

He shook the feeling off. “She may be a little rough on the outside, but she’s a sweetheart once you get to know her. I think, anyway… But speaking of work, how’re things going for you? Raindrops still giving you trouble over muscling in on her delivery route?”

“She’s just giving me the cold shoulder these days. I don’t know what her problem is; it’s not my fault Mr. Package wanted me on delivery instead of her. I’m just the stronger flier.”

She went silent for a moment, looking towards the wall without really seeing it. Finally she gave a soft laugh. “Stronger flier… Never thought I’d get to say that.”

Will reached up to lightly scratch the back of her head, in a spot he knew she liked just under her right ear. “You’ve come a long way since way back then.”

Scootaloo hadn’t been the best flier when she was young. Either some quirk of nature or perhaps an undiagnosed condition had prevented her from being able to get off the ground until years after her peers were already flying easily. And even then she’d had to work herself to the bone just to catch up to what other pegasi considered normal.

That had all been before Will had known her, of course. But he’d heard the stories of her hardship and effort from both her and her older sister, Rainbow Dash, who’d served as her mentor during that time. Scootaloo had told him once that she firmly believed that without Rainbow’s help, she never would have made it off the ground.

Those flight lessons were one of the reasons the two were even as close as they were. Meeting every day for months on end to work together had developed a strong bond of friendship between them that neither wanted to lose, even after the lessons were no longer needed. This led to weekly meetings just to spend time together as sisters.

It was because of these meetings that Will, whose only friend at the time had been Rainbow, even met Scootaloo at all.

And his life had never been the same since.

“Yeah, I guess I have, huh? Now I’ve got a decent job, a nice house, a nice coltfriend,” she simpered, fluttering her eyelashes at him. “I’ve got just about everything I could want!”

“Well, aren’t you just the luckiest pony in the world!”

“Yeah, I guess I am,” she said, beaming. At least, until an ominous gurgle sounded from her stomach and she winced. “Okay, so maybe I don’t feel so lucky quite this second, but overall I think I come out on top more often than not.”

“Oh yeah, you come out on top quite often,” Will quipped, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

And even though she scoffed and rolled her eyes, Scootaloo couldn’t help grinning either. “Oh whatever! You can make jokes all you want, you’re still not getting any. Not until my stomach stops doing backflips, anyway. Now, you gonna help me clean up for work or not?”

With it apparent he truly wasn’t getting any, Will gave in and together they finished with their shower. After drying themselves off, Scootaloo made her way towards the kitchen while Will got dressed in a comfortably-worn pair of jeans and an old t-shirt. Tough, relaxed clothing was the name of the game in his line of work; after all, it didn’t pay him to look pretty.

After lacing up his boots, he proceeded up the house and found Scootaloo busily throwing two bowls of cereal together. She set the table and as she was putting the milk away, two slices of toast popped up in the toaster on the counter. She grabbed them in her mouth on the way back as Will took a seat at the table.

They talked little as they ate, though they said plenty. Their words were exchanged silently in little gestures. Scootaloo offering a hoof across the table. Will taking it in his hand, brushing her fetlock with his thumb. Her tail swaying against his knee under the table. A brief glance had their eyes meet, which in turn led to a long, loving stare.

Scootaloo was the first to finish, and she gave Will a kiss on the cheek before placing her bowl in the sink.

“Okay, I’m gonna head to the hospital. Hopefully Nurse Redheart can get me in real quick,” she called from the living room where her uniform and cap were hanging up on a hook by the door.

“Thanks for going for me! I know you think it’s nothing, but it doesn’t hurt to be sure, right?” Will asked.

“Yeah yeah, whatever you say, Dad! Anyway, I’m off. Don’t forget to stop by the post office and tell them where I’m at on your way to Carrot Top’s, okay? See ya; I love you!”

“Love you, too!” he shouted just before she closed the door behind her. It seemed like it was always like that in the mornings nowadays. Always rushing, never any time to just enjoy each other’s company. But such was the way it went when you and your marefriend lived together and had jobs and responsibilities.

As he finished his breakfast, Will pondered on why he ever thought growing up into an adult was a good idea.

Carrot Top’s farm sat a short ways south of Ponyville, about half an hour’s walk from Will and Scootaloo’s cottage. Three fields, one each to the south, east and north, sprawled between the hilly countryside. At the top of the highest hill on her land was a large, ancient barnhouse. A charming front porch greeted visitors with it’s white latticing and cheerful rosebushes to either side. Numerous blooming flowerbeds lined each window, spreading a sense of life and energy throughout the scene. To one side, a crooked, gnarled oak tree provided shade to a white-painted bench at which a grey-coated unicorn stallion sat hunched over a stack of papers.

On the ground next to him was a plastic playpen, painted with a number of fruits and vegetables in a bunch of vibrant primary colors. Several items were scattered about inside: a hoof-stitched blanket bearing images of smiling carrots, several plush dolls and one of those boxes with the different shaped holes you put the blocks through.

As Will approached the stallion, he spied a tiny yellow filly happily gumming on a teething toy in the shape of an apple. She began babbling excitedly as she saw him, catching the stallion’s attention. He beamed as he saw Will.

“Good morning, Will!” he called out. He was all smiles that morning, not that it was unusual for him. Will hadn’t ever seen him in a genuinely bad mood. “Beautiful out today, isn’t it? How’re you?”

“Cursing the sun and wishing I hadn’t woken up this morning, same as usual. You look good. How was your morning?”

“Quite nice! Had a lovely breakfast with Carrot and Mari --who ate all her food without fuss, yes she did!--” he cooed, making googoo eyes down at his daughter, “and now I thought we’d get some fresh air and sunshine! Carrot likes her to spend some time outside every day. Get her used to nature, you know.”

“She just wants Mari to love growing stuff like she does,” Will said as he stooped down to get closer to eye level with the giggling filly. “She wants you to take over the farm for her when she’s too old to pick the carrots anymore, yes she does!”

Marigold’s bushy golden curls threatened to fall into her sweet emerald eyes as she sat back and reached with her little hooves for Will to pick her up. The teething apple hung all but forgotten from her mouth as he obliged.

“And how’re you this morning, sweetie? You’re just the cutest filly in the world, you know that?” he said as he booped her on the nose to her delight. She caught his hand between her hooves, her grip surprisingly strong for a six-month old, and, as babies are wont to do, brought it to her mouth to replace her toy. Will didn’t mind though, as she gently gummed at his knuckle.

“She’s chewing just about everything these days,” Written Script sighed. “Ruined a perfectly good quill last night that I’d forgotten to put up. How she got it off the desk I’ll never know.”

“You’re just a clever little filly, huh? Just like your momma,” Will cooed.

“Are you flirting with my daughter?” came a voice from behind him. He rolled his eyes before turning around to see a dour-looking earth pony mare glaring at him. “I knew you liked them young, but you could at least wait ‘til she’s out of diapers.”

“Good morning to you too, Carrot Top,” he said, smiling in spite of her jab. If he let every one of her insults get to him, he’d lead a pretty miserable existence. Besides, he knew her prickly exterior was just a front.

He smirked as he bounced Marigold in his arms. “Does that mean I can take this cutie to her prom when the time comes?”

Instead of firing back another insult like he was expecting, Carrot Top just shrugged. “You’re welcome to try. But my daughter’s going to have good taste when she grows up, so you’re out of luck.”

Will clapped a hand to his chest dramatically, eliciting more giggles from Marigold. “Did you hear that, Mari-Pari? Do you hear how your mommy talks to me? You love me though, don’t you?”

“Bah-bah-bah!” she babbled happily, planting her forehooves on his cheeks.

“Yeah, yeah, ‘bah-bah-’back to your daddy, alright? Uncle Will’s got to go work for your slave-driver of a momma, yes he does! Ooooh, it’ll be okay, honey!” he cooed as she started to fuss when he sat her back in her pen. “Bye-bye, cutie. Catch’ya later, Written.”

Written Script waved as Will and Carrot Top made their way to the shed behind the house where all their tools were kept. Even in the distance, Will could still hear Marigold’s cries and each one felt like a kick to the chest. He tried to ignore it as he pulled on a pair of thick work gloves and started loading bags of carrot seeds into a wheelbarrow.

“You okay?” Carrot Top suddenly asked. She wasn’t looking at him, instead fussing over the harness she used to pull the wheelbarrow.

“Yeah, I’m fine; just hate making her cry. Makes me feel like a monster.”

“Yeah well, you are. Making a little baby cry like that. Why don’t you go find a puppy to kick while you’re at it?”

Will just rolled his eyes and harrumphed as Carrot Top led the way to the field they were working on for the day. Fresh-tilled ground awaited them, and together they set about their work with routine silence. Carrot Top led the way, using her hoof to dig holes a couple inches deep while Will followed behind depositing seeds inside and covering them up.

They worked in silence for nearly ten minutes before Carrot Top finally relented and asked the question Will had been expecting. “So really, are you actually okay?”

“I think I’ll get over making a baby cry by having to leave for work,” he deflected. But Carrot Top was not one to be deterred.

“I mean what’s actually bothering you. You’re quiet, which means you’re mopey about something. You were yesterday, too. So you can tell me what’s wrong or not; I don’t really care. I just want you working instead of stopping every few seconds to cry.”

Will stopped in his tracks, hand half-outstretched with a seed. He twisted it idly between his fingers as he debated whether he should even say anything.

“It’s stupid. It’s nothing. Just… Scoots was sick again this morning. I finally convinced her to go see Nurse Redheart, and I know it’ll turn out to just be a stupid stomach bug or something, but…”

“You can’t help but worry?” Carrot Top finished for him. After a moment she actually let loose a chuckle. “Celestia above, you’re just like Writty. Always fretting and worrying over nothing! I got sick in the mornings for nearly a month straight when I first got pregnant with Mari.”

She gave a loud, fake gasp. “Maybe that’s it! Maybe your baby of a marefriend’s got a baby of her own growing inside her!”

Will actually felt a little better at the sound of her raucous laughter. He felt fairly certain he was rather fluent in Carrot Top-ese after all his time working for her, and was sure she was trying, in her own way, to put his worries to rest.

But like with all things involving the obstinate mare, he couldn’t be completely sure she wasn’t just messing with him for her own amusement.

He liked to give her the benefit of the doubt though.

“There’s only one problem with that,” he said to her. He paused to gesture to his long body. “I am a human. And Scoots is a pony.”

“Stranger things have happened,” she said back, already returning to her normally bored expression. “Ponies and griffons can do it, why not ponies and weird, ugly aliens?”

“Humans are non-magic animals and ponies are. The two can’t cross-breed,” Will explained matter-of-factly. He could feel Carrot Top’s gaze boring into him, and as he looked up he smiled bashfully. “We checked with a doctor before her last heat. We, uh… just wanted to be sure.”

Her glare continued unabated long enough that he could feel himself starting to sweat under the intensity. Finally she relinquished and went back to digging holes with a sigh. “If I’d wanted details about your sex life with a foal I’d have asked.”

He chose to ignore her slight --except for rolling his eyes, he retained that right-- and went back to work. He’d made it no further than three more holes before Carrot Top’s voice broke the silence again.

“So, you wanna give me details about your sex life?”

If there was one place in the world that Scootaloo hated being, it was a hospital.

Hospitals were just a breeding ground for bad things. They were full of sick or dying ponies. Or sick and dying ponies! Dreariness seeped even into the waiting rooms that tried so hard to be inviting, and misery lurked everywhere else. Just like all the diseases covering everything.

Her fur crawled just at the thought.

Thankfully Nurse Redheart’s office was a little nicer. Ponies only went to her for little things, like allergies or flu shots, nothing life-threatening. And there never seemed to be more than one or two other ponies in the waiting room at a time. That morning, Scootaloo was the only one as she sat flipping through a magazine without actually taking in anything on it.

She had gotten in to see the nurse easily enough, only having had to wait a few minutes before another mare left the back room and she was called in. Nurse Redheart, with her snow white coat and soft pink mane tied in a bun, was the picture of professionalism, though the slight bags under her eyes and the steaming mug of coffee on her desk was a poignant reminder that she was just as much of a pony as Scootaloo was. Scootaloo chuckled to herself at the idea that the good nurse wasn’t a morning pony either.

The checkup had been quick enough. A few routine questions, Nurse Redheart must have been stumped for an obvious answer because she then ordered a blood test, ‘just in case,’ though she’d agreed that it was most likely just a stomach bug, as well.

Scootaloo had been asked to await the results in the waiting room after that. Nurse Redheart assured her it wouldn’t take long but Scootaloo hoped it would hurry up anyway. She wanted desperately to get to work. Not that she particularly enjoyed being a mailmare, but it wasn’t the worst job ever either. She just didn’t want to be seen as lazy or the pony who thought she was dying after every sneeze.

As she sat looking over that magazine she still wasn’t reading, she told herself again that everything would be just fine.

And so it was, when Nurse Redheart finally returned with an unreadable expression on her face that Scootaloo felt the first real tinges of fear gripping her.

“Miss Scootaloo, if you’d like to come back, I have the results of your blood test.”

Scootaloo tried to fight the feeling as she wordlessly rose and followed Nurse Redheart into the exam room. She sat upon the little table with the annoyingly crinkly paper and waited anxiously as the nurse pulled over a stool and sat down with a clipboard held carefully in the crook of a forehoof.

She felt no better when the nurse’s expression didn’t change.

“Miss Scootaloo, according to the blood test, the nausea you've been experiencing is morning sickness.”

The bottom dropped out of Scootaloo's stomach. “N-no way... I can't be! I'm...?” she muttered.

“Yes, Miss Scootaloo,” Nurse Redheart said. “The test confirmed it. You're pregnant.”

Chapter 2

Daisy’s Café was as busy as it ever was at lunchtime, with all four outdoor tables filled with ponies happily eating and chatting away. Three longtime friends, having once called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, took up one table, though only two of them seemed to enjoy their plates. The third was picking at her salad like it had kicked her puppy.

“You would think with the way Diamond was carryin’ on that I was tryin’ to extort her or something!” Apple Bloom, a butter-yellow earth pony mare, groused. Her cherry-red mane was long and braided and tied with a bright pink bow at the end, though the cheeriness of it did little to match her dour demeanor. “I swear, I was just tryin’ to get a fair price for what we’re sellin’ her! She’s even more of a miser than her father!”

“I’m just surprised her dad let her handle all the contracts with Sweet Apple Acres on her own!” Sweetie Belle chirped. Her relation to her older sister, Rarity, was evident to anypony that knew the two. Her snow-white coat was primped and pampered until it positively gleamed in the sunlight, and she wore a sapphire-encrusted hairband in her pink and lilac bob of a mane. “I knew Diamond was doing well at Barnyard Bargains, but that’s crazy! Rarity barely lets me work the cash register in the Boutique.”

“That’s ‘cuz, and I say this with all the love in the world, you have no mind for business, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said.

“I do too!”

“Sweetie, didn’t you once try to spend over a thousand bits on one type of fabric? I don’t even know the first thing about fancy dress-makin’ and I wouldn’t do that!”

“But it was such pretty fabric…” Sweetie Belle whined, poking gloomily at her food. “I thought Rarity could make a lot of nice dresses out of it.”

Apple Bloom waved a hoof dismissively. “Well, maybe Rarity’s just… playing you to your strengths! She has you modelling dresses around the store, right?”

“Yup!” Sweetie Belle said, instantly brightening again. “She has me go to the Canterlot and Manehattan branches to model there, too! And sometimes she even takes me to important fashion shows and parties!”

“So see? Playin’ to your strengths! That’s what Big Mac and AJ taught me when I started helpin’ around the farm. So what if ya don’t have the mind for business? You sure have the face for one!”

Sweetie Belle seemed perfectly content accepting that as a compliment until a few moments passed, then her smile soured into a frown. “Wait… are you saying I’m dumb?”

“Nooo!” Apple Bloom denied exaggeratedly. “I’m just saying your pretty!”

“Pretty and dumb.” When Apple Bloom just gave her a smug grin in return, Sweetie Belle huffed and turned to Scootaloo. “Scoots, say I’m not dumb!”

Scootaloo said nothing as she continued to stare at the bowl of salad before her.

“Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Is everything okay?”

It wasn’t until Apple Bloom’s hoof collided painfully with Scootaloo’s knee that they got her attention. “Ow! What was that for?!”

“Fer ignoring us when we’re tryin’ to talk to you! Now what’s on yer mind? You haven’t said a peep since we got here!”

“It’s just…” Scootaloo mumbled, trying to stall until she decided what she wanted to say. There were so many thoughts and feelings whirling through her mind, she didn’t know where to even begin. “I went to see Nurse Redheart this morning before work.”

“Oh no,” Sweetie Belle said, her brow wrinkling in worry. “Is everything okay? Are you still getting sick in the mornings?”

“Didja have to pee on a stick?” Apple Bloom quipped, smirking deviously. Sweetie Belle shot her a look and she shrugged. “What? The exact same thing happened to AJ when she got pregnant with Ace. Maybe you an’ Will goin at it like bunnies is finally catchin’ up to ya!”

“Oh Apple Bloom, don’t even joke!” Sweetie Belle said. “She has waaay too much to do before she even thinks about having foals! She needs to think about like… her job and stuff! She can’t want to be a mailmare forever. How’s she going to be a professional scooter…er if she’s taking care of a baby? What do you even call a professional scooter-er?”

“I don’t think she’s ever even said she wants to do that,” Apple Bloom argued. “What if she wants to do something else?”

Sweetie Belle groaned and rubbed her muzzle with a hoof. “That’s not the point! Besides, it doesn’t matter anyway because she and Will can’t have foals together! It’s biologically impossible!”

“Tell that to my sister.” Apple Bloom’s smirk was practically audible. “She’s havin’ another mare’s foal.”

“GIRLS!” Scootaloo finally shouted, nearly shocking the other two out of their seats. She gave a heavy sigh. “Apparently it’s not impossible…”

A moment passed in utter silence. Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle blinked, their faces completely impassive.

“Did you hear me—?”

She was cut off by an ear-piercing squeal and a pair of forelegs being thrown around her neck so tightly she couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. Just as the edges of her vision were starting to darken, another set of hooves broke her free from the iron-grip.

“Sweetie, don’t strangle her now!” Apple Bloom admonished as Scootaloo gasped for breath.

“But I’m so excited!” Sweetie Belle screeched. By now, everypony at the café had turned to look at them. “You have to tell me everything! How far along are you? Is it a filly or a colt? Is it a pony or a human or something else entirely? Have you picked out a name yet? Oh, I’m so excited for you, Scoots!”

With a groan, Scootaloo let her forehead fall to the table with a thump. “How can this be happening to me?”

“’Cuz ya bumped uglies with your coltfriend while you were in heat,” Apple Bloom said. “Not the smartest move there.”

“The doctors said it was impossible!” Scootaloo argued. “We thought we were safe!”

“But if it was impossible, how did it happen?” Sweetie Belle asked. Suddenly she looked fearful and her voice dropped to barely a whisper. “Scootaloo, you weren’t… unfaithful, were you?”

“No! I would never do that!” Scootaloo pleaded. “But what else could Will think happened? What if he thinks I cheated on him and he wants to leave me? I can’t… I can’t raise a baby on my own!”

“Alright, alright, that’s enough of that,” Apple Bloom said consolingly as she moved to sit next to Scootaloo. She wrapped a foreleg about her shoulders and squeezed gently. “Let’s tackle this one step at a time, okay? Why don’tcha start by telling us everything Nurse Redheart told you?”

Scootaloo used a wingtip to rub at her suddenly wet eyes as Sweetie Belle moved to mirror Apple Bloom, rubbing gently between Scootaloo’s wings.

“Not much,” Scootaloo choked out. Coughing to clear her throat, she said, “She did a blood test and that confirmed it. I am… pregnant. Heh, t-that’s the first time I’ve said it. It’s weird…”

“What else did she say?” Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo shook her head. “Nothing. She said I needed to see an OB and set me up an appointment for next week. But she gave me some pamphlets to look over and… I don’t know. I left them in my locker at work.”

“When’s your appointment?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I’ll go with you!”

“Me too,” Apple Bloom agreed.

“Thanks girls,” Scootaloo said, sniffing. “I just don’t think it’s all really sunk in yet, you know? How can I be pregnant? And how am I supposed to tell Will?”

“Scootaloo, Will’s gonna understand!” Apple Bloom said. “That colt’s crazy for you! He gave up his home—”

“His family!” Sweetie Belle cut in.

“—his friends—”

“—everything he’s ever known!”

“All so he could be with you,” Apple Bloom finished. “Do you really think, after all that, he ain’t gonna give you the benefit of the doubt?”

“And besides! We’ll help you out, won’t we, Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle chipped in. “We’ll be aunts! So you won’t be raising the baby alone! And I’m sure Rainbow Dash will help too!”

“When she’s not away for Wonderbolts stuff,” Scootaloo groused. Then a thought struck her. “Oh no! I didn’t even think about Rainbow Dash! How am I supposed to tell her?! She’s gonna kill me!”

“Nonono! One crisis at a time!” Apple Bloom chided. “Everything’s gonna be fine! Yer gonna tell Will, and he’s gonna support ya every bit as much as we will. And so will Rainbow and yer Dad an’ everything’s gonna be fine! Now I want ya to say it with me: ‘Everything’s gonna be fine.’”

“But—”

“No buts! Say it!”

Scootaloo sighed. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”

It took several repetitions and the continued assurances before Scootaloo actually started feeling any better. Sure, she was still pregnant at eighteen and she could hear her father’s voice in her head telling her how this was going to ruin her life, but there were other voices now. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were there, talking about how excited they were to be aunts and how she wasn’t alone.

She wasn’t alone.

Maybe they were right. Will had given up so much just to be with her. She knew that he loved her just as much as she loved him. She just had to trust him. He was her coltfriend. The man she loved. He was loyal and supportive.

He was mature enough to be there for her when she needed him.

“So who would win in a fight: Saddle Rager or Masked Matter-horn?”

Spike scoffed over the top of his bowl of Bits and Gems cereal. “Oh please, Matter-horn no contest! With those lasers, she can take out bad guys from a mile away! Saddle Rager doesn’t stand a chance if she can’t get close to something.”

Across the small table of the Friendship Castle’s personal kitchen, Will was eating the tuna salad sandwich he’d prepared for lunch and drinking straight from a bottle of Sweet Apple Acres Brand hard cider. Most ponies might have looked at him strange for drinking straight something meant to be taken in shots or mixed with other drinks, but being as large as he was, it took quite a bit more to even get him tipsy. He would have wagered he could drink the entire bottle and still be relatively fine, but he knew Carrot Top wouldn’t appreciate the alcohol on his breath when he got back from his lunch break.

“Well yeah,” he countered, washing down his sandwich with a gulp of cider. “But Saddle Rager’s so tough she’s immune to just about everything. Remember issue number one eighty-three where the Mane-iac dropped that nuclear warhead on Maretropolis and Saddle Rager tried to sacrifice herself to save the city by jumping on the bomb? And it somehow worked? She walked away from it without a scratch! Who’s to say Matter-horn’s lasers would work where a nuclear bomb couldn’t?”

“The idea of a nuclear bomb being stopped by a single body, no matter how indestructible, is completely ridiculous,” came a disdainful voice from the doorway. Spike ignored Twilight as she cantered towards the table with a plate in the grip of her magic and took a seat next to him.

“Twilight, it’s not about what’s scientifically possible…” he tried to argue but Twilight wouldn’t be deterred.

“The real threat of a nuclear bomb isn’t even the explosion itself, even if that would be quite devastating if done in the middle of a crowded city. The problem would be the radiation afterward. Depending on the size of the bomb in question, the destruction could be quite widespread.”

“You just know how to take the fun out of everything, don’t you, Twi?” he grumbled. He pointedly ignored her smug grin as he took another bite of his cereal.

She giggled in amusement and fondly ruffled the spines on top of his head. Finally she turned to Will as she started eating. “Good afternoon, Will. How’s work?”

“Fine; mostly same old same old. Yourself?”

“Very well actually!” she said, beaming with pride. “Just yesterday I got to take a trip to Manehattan to help with a friendship problem and I got to see Coco, one of our old friends! It was very nice to catch up with her again! And I finished the rough draft for a treaty Princess Celestia asked me to write. It’s going to help define some trade regulations regarding fine metals and gems mined in frontier lands between Equestria and Griffonstone. You see, there are a number of unclaimed areas between our two nations that are self-ruled and—”

“Twilight, you’re rambling,” Spike said, earning a frown from Twilight as she stuck out her tongue at him. Will could practically see the lightbulb go off over Spike’s head when his grin suddenly became devious. “So, how’s your pen pal?”

The way he said it made it quite clear he was talking about anything but a pen pal. Will’s interest was piqued.

“A pen pal, huh? How come you’ve never told me about them before?” he asked.

Twilight huffed and shuffled her wings awkwardly. “To be fair, there are a lot of things I’ve never told you. She’s just an old friend that travels a lot, so we have to exchange letters to keep up with each other. And we mostly just talk about magic, so she never really came up when we talked! It’s not like I was trying to keep it from you or anything…”

“Just talking about magic, huh?” Spike asked disbelievingly. “Is that why you stay up late reading her letters while giggling like a schoolfilly with her first crush?”

“Spike!” Twilight warned ominously. Even from across the table, Will could see the rosy hue glowing from her cheeks. “She sometimes tells me about the shows she puts on or the ponies she meets! A-and she’s got a great sense of humor! I don’t know where you’ve gotten this idea in your head that there is anything more going on there, but it’s completely ridiculous!”

“Oh Trixie!” Spike said, putting on a farcical imitation of Twilight’s voice. “She’s soooo smart! Did I tell you how she helped me solve Clover’s Quantum Aetheric Conundrum? I never would have thought to bridge the polarized lobes with a third channeling circle! It’s genius!”

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes while Spike continued unabated.

“Spike, Trixie just lent me her personal spellbook! It had detailed notes on how she casts all of her pyrotechnic spells! I’ve never found illusion-based magic all that interesting, but these are fascinating!”

“Alright, Spike, that’s enough,” Twilight warned.

“Definitely sounds like a crush to me,” Will chipped in, causing Twilight to turn the full extent of her glare on him instead. Spike just reached across the table for a fist bump.

Twilight groaned aloud. “You’ve been spending too much time with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo; you both just have relationships on the mind!”

“Well that’s what adults do, Twilight,” Will said. “They grow up, they have relationships. Then they build a life with those relationships.”

“I am an adult!” Twilight shouted as she pounded her hooves on the table.

Feeling like they might have taken things a bit too far, Will relented and patted her hoof gently. “Don’t worry, Twilight, we’re just giving you a hard time! Whatever’s going on between you and this Trixie is your business, not ours.”

“There’s gonna be a lot going on next weekend…” Spike said under his breath.

Will wordlessly asked the question on his mind and Twilight sighed in defeat.

“Trixie’s coming up to visit next weekend. It’s her first time back to Ponyville in a long time.”

“They’re going to have a lot of catching up to do,” Spike said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Bow chicka bow wow!”

Twilight groaned and looked down to her plate, having completely given up. Will just smirked as he shrugged.

“Sounds like me and Scoots after the last time Rarity needed me to visit Canterlot with her. We made up for lost time, let me tell you!”

“How is Scootaloo, by the way?” Twilight asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

Of course, thinking of Scootaloo only brought to mind that she’d visited the nurse that morning and he still didn’t know how it had gone.

“She’s great,” he lied. “She’s fitting in really well now that she’s on the delivery route instead of in the sorting room all day. She likes getting to go out and stretch her wings. Oh hey, speaking of mail…” He paused to withdraw a sealed letter from the pocket of his jeans. “I got another letter for my family. Mind sending it through when you can?”

“Of course!” Twilight said, taking it with her magic. “Oh! You should come with me if you have the time! I have some good news about the portal!”

Will glanced at his watch. “Uh… sure! If it’s about the portal, Carrot won’t mind if I’m a few minutes late.”

He hurried to finish his plate and when they were all done, Twilight led the way to an out of the way guestroom on the second floor. It had been emptied out of the bed and other such commodities, leaving instead only a tall vanity mirror standing on a small platform in the middle of the room. Though it looked much like any other antique mirror, there was something odd about the way the reflection seemed to glimmer without cause. It was facing away from the curtained windows and the only other light was the steady glow of the enchanted luminescent lights on the wall.

Spike leaned casually against the wall trying to look cool while Twilight trotted straight towards the mirror and hopped up onto the platform. With a surge of her magic, a dark purple oval-shaped gem fastened to the top of the mirror began to glow and the strange glittering on the mirror grew in intensity as a faint hum filled the air. Without further ado, she tossed Will’s letter at the mirror and, with a ripple not unlike a pebble thrown into a lake, it disappeared through the glass.

“Don’t things we throw through just pop up by that lake?” Spike asked. “You know, where the portal comes out on the other side?”

“Yeah, but its right behind my parents’ house,” Will answered. “My mom says she checks almost every day to see if I’ve sent something through.”

“Awww, I remember when we first moved to Ponyville,” Twilight said. “Mom and Dad sent letters almost every day just to check in. They did the same thing back when I moved into the Palace to be Princess Celestia’s student. Spike was too young to remember that one, though. He was still in diapers!”

Spike coughed uncomfortably while Will sniggered. “Twilight, weren’t you going to tell Will about the portal?”

“Oh yes, of course!” Twilight said. She cleared her throat and suddenly there was a pop! of her magic as a clipboard and a pair of reading glasses appeared in the air in front of her. She placed the glasses on her nose as she perused a number of pages.

“As of 10:00pm last night, I completed test number 17, the long term live stability test. The portal remained open for an entire month straight while I recorded daily readings on aetheric currents and discharge. All readings remained constant with no unexplained spikes, dips or fluctuations. Upon compiling all the data, no anomalies were found. The portal remained completely stable throughout the entirety of the test with no observed detrimental effects!”

Will clicked his tongue as the words washed over him. After several minutes of failing to make sense of them, he shook his head. “You lost me. What does any of that mean?”

Spike laughed. “It means the portal can stay open for long periods of time and nothing bad will happen.”

“Oh! Well that’s good, right?” Will asked.

“Very good, actually!” Twilight continued unabated by the interruption. “Now I know the portal can be safely opened under a variety of circumstances, including varying times and aetheric seasons; it can be opened multiple times in short succession; items can be sent through of varying size and complexity with no observable damage to either the portal or item even on a molecular level; as well—”

“Twilight, get to the point,” Spike suddenly said. Though Twilight frowned and grumbled under her breath, Will was happy for the interruption as everything she was rambling about was flying so far over his head it might as well be in Cloudsdale.

“Fine, to put it simply: I’ve performed every test I can think of on the portal and every one of them has come back with the same result. The portal to Earth, as far as I can tell, is both stable and reliable. I can say with 99.99999% certainty that you can now safely use the portal anytime you wish.”

The breath caught in Will’s throat. It took a moment for her words to sink in. “So, wait… All the testing –all of it, not just this one round– is done? There’s no more? The months of waiting and not being able to do any more than send my family a letter… it’s over? I can go through again?”

A wide, joyous smile bloomed across Twilight’s face. She nodded. “You can go through anytime you want.”

A second passed in silence.

Then another.

Finally, a joyous cry split the air as Will rushed towards Twilight and scooped her up into his arms. She laughed and held on for dear life as he jumped and twirled her around, all the while still cheering like a maniac.

“Oh Twilight, thankyouthankyouthankyou so much!” he said, and then he planted a big kiss on her cheek.

“Alright, alright! Yes, you’re very welcome, Will!” Twilight said, pushing him away. “Now quit! Your stubble tickles!”

Will chuckled to himself and acquiesced to put her down. Standing back up, he ran his hand along the smooth wooden frame of the portal. He could finally go back! Seeing Sarah those months ago had only made him miss his family even more than before, and only being able to send them letters until Twilight finished her testing to ensure everything was safe had been hell. But it was finally over! He could see them again anytime he wanted. They could finally catch up face to face. Maybe they could even come to see his new home here in Equestria. And they could meet Scootaloo and—

The breath caught in Will’s throat. They could finally meet Scootaloo.

“Oh no…” he muttered.

A heavy weight sat in Scootaloo’s stomach as she trudged home from the post office. She’d spent all afternoon distracted, nearly delivering the wrong mail to the wrong address several times as she made her way through her route. By the time she’d packed her uniform and cap away in her locker and strapped on her saddlebags, she was ready for some rest.

Not that she’d get it with what she faced at home. How could she tell Will that apparently the impossible had happened? Though talking with the girls had done much to settle her worries, she couldn’t deny that some lingering dread still lurked in the back of her mind.

But even before she got to whether or not he believed her, there was still the matter of how to tell him. She couldn’t just blurt it out. She’d have to lead into it somehow; ease him into the news. But how? They’d never really talked about having foals before. Sure, he’d made a passing statement about wanting foals once after Carrot Top’s baby was born, but she didn’t know if that was just an in the moment thing or if he really meant it. Even more, he might have meant that he wanted them some day in the future, not now!

By the time she reached the small cottage she’d come to call home, she still hadn’t thought of anything to say. For the first time she could remember, she dearly wished that Will didn’t get off work before she did as she opened the front door and let herself inside.

The living room was empty as she dumped her saddle bags by the couch, as was the kitchen and what she could see of the backyard through the sliding glass door. Continuing down the hall, she heard movement from within their bedroom.

Inside, Will had his back to her as he was shuffling through a stack of photographs. A large white packet lay empty on the bed before him. They had a dozen of them lying around from when Will got his films developed at Shutterbug’s gallery.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, babe,” Will said distractedly over his shoulder. Suddenly he laughed. “Here, come look at this!”

She trotted over and hopped up onto the bed where Will absent-mindedly scratched the back of her head while showing her a picture of the two of them smiling at the camera. Will had taken it himself when she moved in to his cottage –now their cottage– and she was sitting atop a stack of boxes to prove it. He had joked back then that it was the only time she’d been eye-level with him without flying.

Speaking of flying, her big sister, Rainbow Dash, was hovering in the air between them, a foreleg wrapped around each of their shoulders. She had taken a day off from Wonderbolts Training just to come celebrate the move with them.

It’d been the first time they’d seen her in a month.

It had gotten better after Rainbow had gotten out of training and had a little more free time, but it was never how it used to be.

“That was a good day,” Scootaloo said softly. She leaned in and lost herself in the comfort of Will’s fingers. “Speaking of days, how was yours?”

“Yeah… it was fine…” he mumbled, still looking at the picture.

She knew what he was thinking about. She knew why he always went quiet when he thought about Rainbow. Unconsciously, her eyes went to the bedside table, where hidden in the back of the drawer was a light blue feather that he thought she didn’t know about. But she did. She had found it long ago. It didn’t bother her that he kept it; if anything, she would have done the same thing.

Rainbow leaving hadn’t been easy on either of them.

“Uh… anyway,” he said, shaking his head as he put the pictures away. “How was the appointment? What’d the nurse say?”

A lump formed in Scootaloo’s throat. It was time. Do or die. She just had to tell him and hope.

“Umm… It, uh… I don’t know how to tell you,” she muttered.

The change that came over Will’s face was so fast and abrupt that Scootaloo imagined the sound of a wagon crashing. He sat down on the bed beside her so that they were closer to each other’s level, his small brown eyes searching deep into hers.

“Scootaloo, what is it? What’d Redheart say? Is it something serious?” he asked in a rush.

Realizing how she’d made it sound, Scootaloo rushed to quell his fears by nuzzling his shoulder comfortingly. “Oh no, it’s nothing like that! I mean, it is serious, but not, like… life-threatening or anything! It’s, um… i-it’s…”

She gulped.

“The nausea is morning sickness. Do you… know what that is?”

A look of dreadful understanding appeared across Will’s face. His voice was low and quiet as he said, “I know what it means in humans…”

Her heart plummeted like a rock into her stomach. Why couldn’t he have sounded excited? She wasn’t sure exactly how much better that would have been, but still!

“Well, in ponies it means that, um… a mare’s… pregnant.”

Scootaloo half-expected him to yell. Or get mad. Or even scowl. She expected any reaction at all. But instead it seemed like he didn’t even hear her. His face didn’t so much as twitch; he just sat there looking at her with the same inscrutable expression.

A moment passed and then another. All the while Scootaloo’s heart was pounding in her chest. Each passing second put more fuel on the fire of her nerves until she felt like she might pass out just from the tension.

It was only when she had opened her mouth to ask if he had understood that he finally reacted: his gaze hardened and he pointedly looked away from her to the floor.

“How?” was all he asked. There was no outright hostility in his voice, but she knew him well enough to hear the barely restrained hurt.

She leaned closer and he pulled away. She didn’t let that stop her as she nuzzled into his shoulder like she was afraid he’d drift away if she stopped. “Will, please, I know what you’re thinking but I didn’t! I never cheated on you, I swear!”

“Then how?!” he barked.

“I don’t know! Will, y-you’re… You’re the only guy I’ve ever been with. Ever. And…” She put her hoof on his chin and nudged him so that he was looking at her again, even though he fought it at first. Closing her eyes, she placed her forehead against his. “You’re the only one I ever want to be with. I love you, Will. I love you so much. And I don’t know how it’s possible, but it is. It is yours. Please… believe me.”

She couldn’t bear opening her eyes. She waited with bated breath, hoping and praying that he would say something. His hand touched her side and she jumped in surprise. A moment later he let out a long, weary breath.

“Okay,” he whispered.

Scootaloo’s eyes popped open to see Will’s own half-lidded, looking down between them. “Y-you believe me?!” she asked, her voice cracking in her surprise.

He cracked a wry smile. “Yeah, I guess I do. I know you wouldn’t do that, but… It’s just so much to take in! It was supposed to be impossible! What exactly did Redheart say?”

Relief flooded through Scootaloo, and instantly she felt a thousand pounds lighter. They still weren’t out of the woods and she knew that, but at least Will believed her.

She shrugged and shook her head. “Not much, really. She only did a blood test that confirmed it. She scheduled me with an OB at the hospital next week though, so we should hopefully get some more answers then. I just… I don’t know.”

Will must have sensed that she could use some comforting, because without prompting he wrapped and arm around her and pulled her close. She leaned happily into his embrace.

“So, a baby, huh?” he mused aloud. “Do we know if it’s, like… a pony or a human or…? I don’t know, some kind of freaky hybrid?”

She let out a pained groan and shook her head.

“Sorry,” he said, chuckling. “Still, we’re having a baby!” He didn’t sound like he dreaded the idea. If anything, he almost sounded like he was interested. “I wasn’t expecting it so soon, though. Have you thought about what you want to do…?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, like do you want to keep it? Or…?”

She sighed and shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I’m still waiting for it to really sink in, you know? I can’t think about any of that right now. Not tonight. We can worry about it tomorrow, can’t we? Please? I just want… I don’t even know what I want.”

It was all just too much for her. It had only been a single day and yet it felt like her entire world had been turned upside down. Things didn’t feel as hopeless now that she knew Will was on her side; instead she just felt like she’d run a hundred miles in the last five minutes.

“You know what I want?” she finally asked, breaking the silence. “I want to order some pizza, watch a crappy movie and take the night off! Everything else can wait. And you know what else I want? I want sex!”

Will chuckled at her exuberant outburst and leaned in to nibble her ear, causing her to purr happily. “You want that before or after the pizza and crappy movie?” he asked.

She thought for a moment. “After the pizza. We’ll need something fun to do when we get bored during the crappy movie!” she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Pizza then movie then sex it is!” Will said. He reached up and scratched his fingers through her mane in the way she loved so much. It was comforting, sort of like how her dad groomed her when she was really little. She just felt safe and secure.

They both sat there a while, neither quite wanting to move and end the moment. It had been such a long day, and for all the things she’d been told, first by Nurse Redheart, then the girls and Will himself, it still felt like nothing had actually been resolved. The creeping doubts she tried to push back refused to be quelled entirely. Nor would they, she felt, until they got some answers, but that would have to wait.

Eventually a small scratching sound came from outside the bedroom door before it opened and their pet tortoise, Tank, popped his head in. Scootaloo smiled at his wrinkly green face. He wasn’t technically their pet, of course; he technically belonged to her big sister, Rainbow Dash and they were just watching him. But over time they’d come to consider him part of their little family regardless.

“Looks like someone else is hungry, too,” Will said as Tank trundled slowly across the room, even though the tortoise had given no sign of being so. “Should we go order that pizza, then?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Scootaloo sighed and regretfully slid off his lap so he could stand. She patted Tank’s head fondly, all the while still feeling hesitant. “Will?”

“Yeah, babe?” he asked, stopping at the door.

She thought over her words carefully. “We’re gonna get through this, right? Everything’s gonna be okay?”

She chanced a look up and found him smiling comfortingly. “You’re just pregnant, Scoots. It’s not going to be the end of the world. We’ll just take it all one step at a time. Together.”

“Together,” she affirmed, feeling just the tiniest bit more confident.

Scootaloo stepped out of the shower, running a towel through her mane. It was a little embarrassing having to use a foal’s stool to be able to get over the lip of the tub, but Will needed it to fit his stupid huge body. So she had to compromise, but in the grand scheme of things she felt it wasn’t all that bad. It was worth it to be able to bathe with him and have him run his hands all over her body. Normally they bathed together more often than not, but this time she was alone as he’d volunteered to run out to grab their dinner.

She sighed as she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. Eighteen and pregnant. She may not have ever been the goody four-shoes that Sweetie Belle was but she never imagined that’d be her. She had never even thought about foals until Will and his dumb face came into her life. Then he made her love him and nearly left her all alone but then came back and swept her off her hooves and now look at her.

It was all his fault.

A tired chuckle escaped her as she finished drying her mane and did the same for her tail. Even if it wasn’t entirely his fault it still felt good to pretend it was. She’d just make it up to him tonight.

Like he’d heard her thoughts and came running, she heard the front door open and close. Throwing her towel into the hamper, she trotted out to see Will sitting a pizza box on the living room table, along with a six pack of cider bottles.

“Oh thank you, I can’t tell you how much I need this!” Scootaloo said in relief, trotting past him to grab a bottle and crack it open. Upon taking a drink, however, she found herself disappointed. “This is just regular! Since when do we not drink hard cider?”

Will lowered himself to the floor to sit next to her and rested his back against the couch. “Since you’re pregnant and can’t drink alcohol anymore.”

Scootaloo found herself speechless when she realized he was right.

But that didn’t last forever.

“DAMMIT!” With a frustrated groan, she slumped to the floor and let her head fall to the table with a loud thud! “I just got to start drinking and now I have to stop!”

Will, being the jerk that he was, laughed at her misery even as he offered her a comforting back rub. “C’mon, it’s not so bad! It’s only going to be for the next few months, right? I’ll even stop drinking with you, how does that sound?”

She rolled her head upon the table so that she could give him a deadpan stare. “Sounds like we’re both going to be pissy.”

Will rolled his eyes as he opened the pizza box and grabbed a slice. “Then we’ll just have to have more sex to work off the extra stress.”

She considered the thought as he offered her his slice and she took a bite. “Mm. I guess that wouldn’t be so bad. Are you still going to want to sleep with me when I’m as fat as a cow?”

“You know, I don’t think Bessy over at Sweet Apple Acres would appreciate that stereotype,” Will admonished.

Scootaloo couldn’t help but smirk despite herself. “Shut up! I’m trying to be moody here!”

Will grinned and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Babe, I would still think you were the sexiest mare in the world even if you had the biggest pregnant belly in the world. Maybe we’ll get lucky and you have triplets in there!”

“LUCKY?!” she yelped. “Celestia help me, Will, don’t even joke! That would break my vagina! Is that what you want? Me to have a broken vagina?”

“No, I suppose not,” Will said solemnly. “I definitely like your vagina not broken.”

Scootaloo nodded with authority as she stood and hopped up onto the couch with a flutter of her wings. “Now, put in the movie and pull the table closer so I can reach the pizza. I need to not think about babies right now.”

“Yes, Princess,” Will said, giving as much of a sarcastic bow as he could from his sitting position before getting up to do as she ordered. Scootaloo had to admit she got a certain rush of satisfaction in bossing him around.

The feeling was replaced by affection as she saw the title of the movie pop up onscreen. “Awww, Nightmare on Saddle Street 4, my favorite!”

Will smiled as he took a spot next to her. “I figured if you aren’t feeling good, what other movie could you want to watch?”

“I knew there was a reason I loved you,” she said lovingly as she went to kiss him. She had to stand up on the tips of her hooves to reach, even sitting down as he was. Once they broke apart, she helped herself to her own slice of pizza and settled in to watch the movie.

She lay on her side with her head resting in Will’s lap. His thigh, she had found, was the exact perfect height for her to lay her head on comfortably, and being so close to him always –and that means always– ended up with Will’s hand on her somehow. This time, he was slowly stroking along her side, just under her wing from shoulder to just short of her cutie mark.

As they were wont to do anytime they were together for any length of time, Scootaloo and Will couldn’t help but mess with each other. It started with Will licking his finger and sticking it in her ear. To which Scootaloo decided to lick the slice of pizza he was trying to eat, which didn’t seem to faze him in the slightest when he ate it anyway. However he responded by pinching a particularly sensitive spot under her wing that sent her into a fit of laughter as she tried to fight him off.

Her struggles only prompted him to renew his efforts to tickle her and the next thing she knew she was half-sprawled across his lap, gasping for air as he continued to dig his fingers into her stomach and thighs. They moved in wicked little circles, setting her skin alight with each slight movement.

“S-stop! Haha! St-STOP!” she yelled, jerking to one side in an effort to protect the thigh he was aiming for only to open the other to another assault. She even tried biting his arm when it came close –not hard, of course, even in the moment she didn’t want to hurt him… too much– but he just twisted it away and instead went for pit of her foreleg.

“AGH! NOnonoNO!” she squealed, completely at his mercy.

Finally he stopped and she was able to take in a breath of fresh air. The moment of respite didn’t last long however as she immediately found an arm wrapped tightly around her middle and the next thing she knew she was upside down.

He had her pinned to his chest facing away from him, hanging from his grasp as he returned to tickling her thighs with gusto. Only this time, he also danced his hand around the rest of her lower half, hitting in turn from her haunches to her cutie marks and even around and under her tail. And every time she tried to protect one place as best as she could with the limited reach her position offered, he simply backed off and attacked somewhere else.

So distracted was she by his fingers and the fact she couldn’t breathe from laughing so much that it took her almost a minute to realize that Will’s tongue was inside her. His cheeks were smooshed between her own with his chin wedged up underneath her tail. He wriggled the long wet muscle from side to side, rolling up and down; everything he could seemingly do to hit every inch of her insides. And every time his tongue slid across that one spot inside her, the one that he had helped her find with his amazing, treacherous little fingers, an electric pulse of pleasure raced throughout her body.

All the while his fingers continued dancing across her stomach, legs, and most notably, her hip joints and teats. Her body was hyper-sensitive from the tickling. Every single twitch he made left her skin on fire.

It wasn’t until a great feeling of release wracked her body in unbelievable pleasure, cumming harder than she could ever remember, that she even realized she was turned on.

When the bliss had passed, she found herself lying across Will’s lap. He had finally stopped tickling her –his hands instead lovingly brushing her mane out of her face– and her breathing was slowly returning to normal.

“I don’t know…” Scootaloo said between deep breaths, “whether I love you… or hate you right now!”

“You know you love me!” he countered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m completely irresistible.”

“Oh, yeah, toootally irresistible,” she said, rolling her eyes. With nothing else to focus on, she glanced at the TV to see the final scene of the movie playing. “Aww, you made me miss everything!”

Will also looked at the screen and shrugged. “Wasn’t what we did more fun though?”

Scootaloo reluctantly nodded regardless of how much she liked saying he was right. Finally she took a deep breath and held her forelegs straight up in the air. “Alright, help me up, jerk.”

“Where’re you going?” Will asked even as he lifted her up and onto her hooves. Rather than walk away, however, she instead flopped down onto her side on the couch next to him.

In response, she extended a hindleg to brush her hoof across the obvious tent in the front of his pants. “I wasn’t the only one who liked all that, I can see. Now I want something a little more… filling, Dear.”

A wide, dopey grin that he probably thought looked suave came across Will’s face at her words. Shrugging like he was resigning himself to his fate, he began unbuttoning his pants as he lay down behind her. The couch bounced as he shimmied the jeans down his hips and she couldn’t help an eager smile as he lifted them over her to drop them to the floor.

Before anything else, he kissed her neck. Long and tender, he held there sucking at her skin and fur; his breath blasting across her coat in hot bursts. His hands returned to her sides, though this time not to tickle but to hold. The rough callouses on his knuckles scratched her skin oh-so-pleasantly as he rubbed down across her chest and stomach.

Finally something warm and firm prodded against her folds and she shivered at the familiar and welcomed contact.

“You know,” Will whispered into her ear between nibbles, “this is how we got in this mess in the first place.”

“True. But we can’t make it any worse so we might as well make the most of it!”

He took a moment to consider that. “Hmm. Also true.”

With a single thrust he was inside. His member, throbbing to the beat of his heart, felt like it belonged within her, as if he was perfectly designed just for her. His length just long enough to kiss the entrance of her womb, his girth just enough to stretch her sensitive walls oh sooo wonderfully. Even his tapered head, a bit strange compared to pony anatomy, allowed him to enter her smoothly, then rub all the right places as he pulled out. She felt whole when he was inside her. Filled. Completed.

It was perfect.

Scootaloo could remember the first time they’d been intimate. Will had been so gentle – so loving, like he’d been afraid he’d hurt her if he went too hard. In the time since, they’d had plenty of time to practice and learn about each other and he had learned one thing about her.

She was not so fragile.

She may have been smaller than some mares. She was kind of short and skinny, and she was practically tiny compared to how freakishly large he was on his weird two legs, but she could more than take anything he could throw at her.

There was no need for him to hold back and so he didn’t. He pulled back until even his head slipped out from her grasp, leaving her whining in disappointment, only to slam back into her with all the force he could muster. His hips colliding with her haunches pushed her across the couch, leaving him to have to hold her even tighter and pull her back into him. The force left her gasping as a bolt of bliss that shot up her spine.

“I-is that the best you’ve got?” she muttered before he could get situated to go again. “E-even Sweetie Belle could –ungh– go harder th-than that!”

“Why?” he asked, giving her a series of quick, short thrusts, leaving her feeling suddenly breathless. “You know that from experience?”

With her mind on other things, like the dick that currently felt like it was close to splitting her open, it took her a moment to realize what she had implied, but once it dawned on her she felt her cheeks going crimson.

“Sh-shut up and fuck me!” she muttered embarrassedly.

But he didn’t. Instead, one of his hands wormed underneath her while the other grabbed her stomach. The next thing she knew she was on her back with Will’s stupidly cute face smirking down at her. The whole time his member had stayed inside her, and even if feeling it swivel inside her hadn’t been pleasant enough, as he pushed deeper his tip brushed that one particular spot that sent shivers through her legs and nearly shut down her brain with arousal. It was like all the sensitivity of her walls were duplicated and put into that one little inch of flesh. And from the position they were in, he ran right against it every time he so much as breathed!

Scootaloo felt like she was going out of her mind with all the sensation bombarding her. Every twitch, every inch of his member sliding in and out of her without stop – without recourse or remorse – left her feeling like she was drowning in a sea of endless, agonizing, tantalizing tingles that refused to let up or give in.

She had to grab on to something just to feel like she wouldn’t drift away. Her hooves scrabbled for the first things they could find: one on the couch, and one on Will’s side. She trailed it down across his smooth skin onto his stomach, where she could feel every flex of his strong abdominal muscles.

Suddenly his hand was on her hoof and she grabbed it like it was her only hope.

The dam broke.

She was lost in the rush as everything went white.

Everything was hot when she finally floated back down to the world around her. Hot and distinctly wet, especially around her haunches and tail. But she also felt a very, very pleasant warmth sitting just below her stomach and smiled.

The overworked nerves of her folds flared in protest as Will slid out of her, making her wince. Feeling immensely comfortable, she settled down into his embrace as he wrapped her tight in his arms.

“Will?” she whispered just before sleep began to take hold. “No matter what happens, I love you.”

Silently, he leaned down to place a kiss on the top of her head before cuddling up next to her. “No matter what happens,” he echoed.

And then, as they lay in the dim light of a long forgotten movie playing on the TV, all she knew was relief.

Will lay awake as he watched the blank TV screen. The movie had long since stopped. Scootaloo was fast asleep –not an uncommon affair after a particularly passionate session of love-making– and normally he would have joined her, but not tonight. Tonight, insomnia kept him up.

He continued to scratch at the back of her mane while she snored softly, like she was purring. The gesture had certainly become a comforting one for him nearly as much as it was for her and at that moment his nerves needed soothing. Everything she had told him, all the fears and worries he’d been too proud to share whirled in his head like a swarm of buzzing hornets.

Sure he had thought about having kids someday. But he hadn’t expected it to be anytime soon, let alone his own! He had thought in a few more years when Scootaloo was older they’d talk about adoption or something. And now here they were, possibly having a baby when they weren’t even married. Hell, they hadn’t even been dating a year! He wasn’t ready to be a parent and he highly doubted Scootaloo was, either.

But what was done was done, he realized. The only thing they could do was accept it and move forward.

He shuddered at the thought of having to tell Scootaloo’s dad, Flip Trick, that she was pregnant. Let alone Rainbow Dash and her parents, who were every bit as protective of her as Flip was. And that wasn’t even getting started at the prospect of telling his own parents.

He sighed.

“Scoots,” he whispered, “how am I supposed to tell my family I got you pregnant?”

Of course, she had no answers for him. Not that he had expected her to, even if she had been awake. But still, the question plagued his mind.

How was he supposed to tell them he was having a baby, when most of them didn’t even know he was dating a pony?

Author's Note

This chapter was written with a ton of help from my good friend, PuPu.

Chapter 4

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. A thousand scenarios ran through Will’s head, each one worse than the last.

Rainbow was just… there in their house. Sure, it wasn’t the first time she’d let herself in while they were out. When she got breaks from the Wonderbolts, she’d fly back to Ponyville whenever the whim took her, be it early in the morning, late in the evening or even in the middle of the night. He had given her a key specifically so that she could get inside whenever she wanted.

But that was before Scootaloo got pregnant. Now all he could think about was how they’d have to tell her. No plan, no time to prepare himself in any way. They just had to do it. And all the confidence he’d felt only moments ago, which had largely been false bravado for Scootaloo’s sake to begin with, was gone. He was left with nothing but anxiety.

“Well, what’re you doing over there?” Rainbow barked, gesturing to the pizza and cider. “Get over here! We’re at the best part of the Rally in Baltimare last month!”

His legs moved on autopilot, his mind a thousand miles away as he took a seat by her. She barely even noticed as she happily pointed out the action on screen, giving him a detailed rundown of every trick and maneuver they performed. Her excitement was palpable, and every woosh!, zap! and fpow! nearly sent her flying out of her seat with her wild gesticulations. And for just a moment, her good mood almost made Will feel better about what was to come.

At some point, Scootaloo had joined them on the couch, squeezing herself in the middle until they made a delicious Scootaloo sandwich. She had instantly stuffed her mouth with a giant slice of pizza, which Will realized was a desperate attempt to not have to speak. Will followed her example.

It worked for all of ten minutes before the rally video was over and Rainbow hit the remote to turn it off. Then she rounded on them with a look that Will dreaded.

She wanted to catch up with them.

“So, how you guys been?” she asked. “Anything new happening?”

No sooner had the words left her lips did Will turn to look at Scootaloo, who did the exact same in return. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights, her eyes wide and fearful as she silently begged him to say something –anything– so that she wouldn’t have to. But he had no idea what to say any more than she did.

“Uh… w-well…” he mumbled, fishing for absolutely anything to say. “Oh! Carrot Top and I started planting a new batch in the east field! ‘Bout this time next week we’ll be harvesting the north. I’m thinking about asking her to let me take a couple of Friday shifts. Get some extra bits, you know?”

“Extra bits?” Rainbow asked. “Is something wrong? Do you guys need some help?”

Will winced as he felt a familiar… well, not argument but conversation at least, rear its ugly head once again. Between his and Scootaloo’s jobs, they made enough to make ends meet fairly well, but every now and then things got a little tight. It had never been a big deal and they’d always worked things out, but every time it happened, Rainbow offered to give them money to help out. Being a Wonderbolt, she had more than a little just lying around. She was always nonchalant about it –one of the only things she didn’t try to boast about was how wealthy she was– but every offer still got under Will’s skin. His pride wouldn’t let him accept the charity, especially when they always managed to get by.

“No, we’re good,” he said, perhaps more curtly than he’d intended. “Thanks anyway, Rainbow.”

“Are you sure?” she pressed. “’Cuz I really don’t mind helping out a little bit and—”

“We’re fine, Rainbow, thanks,” Will cut her off.

Rainbow frowned and for a moment it looked like she was about to argue before Scootaloo popped up between them.

“Actually, Will, can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked, furiously gesturing for him to follow. She jumped down from the couch and reluctantly he followed her to the kitchen, leaving behind a confused Rainbow.

Scootaloo paced back and forth in the middle of the floor, deep in thought. He watched her, wondering what she wanted until she suddenly stopped.

“Will, maybe… we should take her up on it.”

“What? No, Scoots, we talked about this—”

“That was before I was preg—” She cut off and threw a loaded glance in the direction of the living room. When she continued, her voice was barely above a whisper. “That was before circumstances changed. Money’s going to get a lot tighter soon. I’m going to have vitamins to take, doctor appointments, not to mention all the stuff we’ll need after. We could use the help, Will.”

“And that’s why I’ll take more shifts with Carrot Top,” Will countered. “Or maybe I could talk to Shutterbug about getting a job at her studio. It’s been a while since I first applied; maybe by now she’ll have reconsidered.”

“So you’d work two jobs?” Scootaloo snapped. She was starting to look pissed. “When are you going to have time to sleep? Or be with me? Or, I don’t know, help me with the baby?! Am I supposed to raise it all on my own?”

“Well maybe I could just work on the weekends! Then we’d have a bit more money and I could still be home in the evenings like I am now.”

“And never get a day off.”

“And I will do that to provide for my family!”

“Hey, whoa!” a voice called behind them.

Will spun around to see Rainbow standing in the doorway, staring down the both of them. She was halfway between bewildered and furious, and all the way disappointed. It was only then that Will realized how loud they’d gotten.

“What in the hay is going on here?” Rainbow asked.

Scootaloo sputtered, unable to get any words out. She looked around frantically. “Uh… i-it’s nothing. Excuse me,” she said before bolting past them. Will barely even had time to register that she was moving before he heard the bathroom door slam shut.

He had half a mind to follow before Rainbow’s hoof punched his shoulder. He turned to see her hovering in the air before him with a wicked scowl contorting her face.

“Ow!” he shouted as he rubbed the throbbing pain away.

“What in the hay is going on?!” Rainbow yelled as she punched him again.

“OW! Knock it off!”

“Tell me what the hay is going on! I’ve never, ever seen you two going on like that!”

“It’s… complicated!”

Will reeled back as Rainbow shoved her face into his. He had never in his life seen her so livid. “Then uncomplicate it.”

For a moment, he considered making up a lie. Or excusing himself so that he could go check on Scootaloo first. Anything to put off having to tell Rainbow about the baby on his own. But he couldn’t. He hadn’t kept a single secret from her since that mess that nearly ended their friendship. He wasn’t about to start again.

“Look, Rainbow… We got some big news today,” he said slowly. He gestured towards the table and reluctantly Rainbow parked herself on one of the cushions. Will helped himself to another. “Scoots has been waking up sick since last week and I finally convinced her to check with Nurse Redheart. She’s… Rainbow, she’s pregnant.”

Will braced himself for the explosion. He expected yelling, swearing, insults; anything. Instead, Rainbow acted like she hadn’t even heard him. She sat there across from him, speechless, her brow still furrowed but her mouth unmoving. The silence dragged on with Will’s discomfort growing by the second.

“Rainbow?”

She held up a hoof to silence him. Once again, the tirade he expected didn’t come. Instead, she wordlessly rose from the table and stalked away.

Will bolted upright to follow only to find her outside the bathroom door a second before she gently knocked.

“…yes?”

“Squirt, it’s me. Can I come in?”

A moment of silence followed. Finally the door cracked open and Rainbow slipped inside. Will made to follow when the door slammed in his face. He was left outside, waiting, wondering what they were talking about inside. However much he wanted to, he didn’t dare eavesdrop at the door.

Eventually he couldn’t wait anymore and knocked.

“Girls?”

“Come in,” Scootaloo’s voice called.

Trepidation was what filled Will as he stepped into the bathroom, a feeling that wasn’t assuaged when he saw Scootaloo slumped in the corner of the wall and the tub. She was pointedly looking at the floor with her wings folded around her like she was hugging herself. Rainbow sat just in front of her with a hoof on her shoulder comfortingly.

She glared at Will as he sat down next to them. He couldn’t quite read her expression. There was anger, certainly, but also apprehension and maybe… a little sadness? Regardless, she seemed just as unwilling to start the conversation as Will was.

“I’m sorry,” Will said instead. “For yelling. I shouldn’t have.”

“Me too,” Scootaloo mumbled.

Silence fell again. On a whim, Will reached out a hand, laying it palm-up on the floor. A moment later, Scootaloo put her hoof atop it. Finally she looked up, just barely, and smiled a small, sad smile.

“So…” Rainbow said slowly. “You’re pregnant. How in the hay did this happen?”

“Well,” Scootaloo said, her voice thicker than it had been in the kitchen. “When a mare and a stallion get really horny…”

“You know what I mean, smartass.”

Scootaloo gave a significant look to Will, who nodded. Together, they retold everything they’d learned, starting with the visits to Nurse Redheart and Dr. Pearl, as well as their conversation in the park. They swapped back and forth on details as they thought of them, though the entire time Scootaloo’s hoof never left Will’s hand.

By the end of it, Rainbow was rubbing her forehead with a wingtip. “I don’t even know what to say. This definitely isn’t what I was expecting to come home to on my break.”

“Are you mad?” Scootaloo asked quietly. She sounded exactly like a scared little filly worried she was in trouble.

Rainbow let out a long sigh as she leaned back to stare at the ceiling. Will wondered if she was looking for her answer there.

“No,” she finally said. “Can’t say I’m happy, but I’m not mad. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t think you two were going to be doing it eventually. I just really expected you two to be safer about it! Squirt, don’t you remember all those times we talked about how to deal with your heat?”

Scootaloo blushed wickedly and despite the seriousness of the moment, Will made a mental note to ask her about those talks later. “I wish I didn’t,” she grumbled.

“Well…” Rainbow said, casting about for some way to continue. “It’s too late to worry about that now. It’s already done; all we can do is decide how we’re going to move forward.”

“We?” Will asked.

“Damn right ‘we!’” She threw a hoof around Scootaloo’s shoulders, giving her a furious noogie. “I’m not about to let my little sister have a baby on her own!”

“Do you even know anything about having a baby?” Scootaloo grumbled as she extricated herself from the noogie.

“Not in the slightest!” she proclaimed happily. “But I do know Soarin’ and Applejack and my parents, and they all know a thing or two about it! We’ll bug them for advice. But if they can do it, how hard can it really be?”

Scootaloo actually managed to laugh at that. “I’m pretty sure somewhere in Cloudsdale, your mom just got really pissed at you and has no idea why.”

Rainbow coughed, looking uncomfortable. “Remind me to not go back home for a few weeks just in case.”

“Speaking of parents…” Scootaloo started ominously. Will caught her meaning right away, as did Rainbow, whose ears folded back on her head. “How are we going to tell everypony?”

“I say we just do it,” Rainbow said. “Rip off the bandage and get it out of the way. Once the shock wears off, I’m sure they’ll all be supportive. You know my parents adore you.”

“I just really don’t want to have this conversation two more times…”

“Well, what if we tell them all at once?” Will suggested. “We could invite everypony over, maybe for dinner or something, and just tell them together.”

“And have them all blow up at us at once? Yeah right! We won’t survive the night!” Scootaloo wailed, pulling at her ears with her hooves. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack.

“You got a better idea?” Rainbow asked.

Scootaloo thought for a moment, looking particularly manic as one of her eyes was twitching. “We go into hiding! We’ll buy one-way tickets to Zebrica and assume new identities. We’ll get new names and start completely different lives! It’s fool-proof!”

“Except for the whole ‘leaving behind everypony we know and love’ part,” Will said conversationally.

Scootaloo’s expression immediately soured and she shot a dirty look at him while sticking her tongue out. “Why you gotta be like that?”

Will couldn’t help but smile as he bodily lifted up his pouting marefriend and cradled her in his lap. He smiled down at her and gently rubbed her stomach, something he knew she liked, and only a few moments later her frown melted away. She lay on his lap with her eyes closed contentedly, and for just a moment he swore he could hear her purring.

“I know, serious old me always trying to take the fun out of everything,” he said quietly. “But really. However upset they might be, I think they’ll be happier to find out sooner rather than later. And they’ll all want to be involved.”

Scootaloo sighed discontentedly. “Maybe…”

Rainbow suddenly slugged Will on the shoulder, her hard hoof connecting rather painfully with the same spot she’d hit earlier. He gasped and nearly dumped Scootaloo off of his lap in his haste to rub his now aching arm. Rainbow ignored his pained gasp to make a confident gesture with her wing.

“Will’s right! My dad always said that if I did something wrong I should tell him, because I’d be in more trouble if I didn’t.” She tousled Scootaloo’s mane. “Just you watch, once we tell them they’ll be falling over themselves to help you out. You’ll probably be dying to get them out of your mane!”

As she spoke, she had positioned herself to look down upon Scootaloo, such that the tip of her mane brushed the younger mare’s cheek. Scootaloo frowned in the way she did when she didn’t want to admit that someone else had a point before her eyes focused in on something.

“Speaking of manes, did you cut yours?”

For the first time that day, Will looked at Rainbow without panicking and saw that she indeed had done something to her mane. The front came down a bit longer than it used to, such that the tip of her red and orange bangs almost reached her nose. Random tufts here and there stuck out in odd directions, though that was hardly unusual since Will was fairly certain Rainbow didn’t even know what a brush was, let alone owned one. But the real difference was in the back, which she had almost completely cut off. While it used to be long and free-flowing, it was now short and sort of spiked upward, so that it looked like her whole mane swept forward from the base of her skull towards her forehead. It gave her a sort of rebellious look that, while very different from what he remembered, he thought suited her well.

“Oh, this?” she said, batting the long forelock out of her eyes. “Just thought I should do something different. The longer your mane, the harder it is to stuff through the top of your Wonderbolt suit so I needed something shorter. You should see it when I fly; it looks awesome!”

She struck a confident pose, throwing out her chest and flaring her wings dramatically, no doubt expecting to impress the others. Scootaloo was too busy focusing on her mane to notice.

“It looks kinda like mine,” she said suddenly. “In the back there, the way it’s swooped up. Don’t you think?”

The question was directed at Will, who she tapped on the chest. He took a moment to consider it. “Yeah, you’re right, it does.”

“I-it does not!” Rainbow spluttered, clambering up to look at herself in the mirror. “You just wish you could look this awesome!”

Will could see the fur around her neck and chest fluffing up like a peacock’s as she perched precariously upon the lip of the bathroom counter, over which the mirror hung. For half a second he thought she looked like a hen struggling to lay an egg before she hopped down, landing nearly silently with a flutter of her wings, and stalked towards the bathroom door where she gestured for them to go first.

“Now that we’re done freaking out, can we get back to hanging out? I’ve got a copy of the last derby; and at one point Spitfire totally smokes Misty at a 300m sprint! Let’s go watch!”

Three hours later found Will, Scootaloo and Rainbow sprawled out lazily on the living room couch. Will lay with his head on one arm rest and a foot on the other. Rainbow had her chin resting on his knee and a wing draped like a blanket across Scootaloo, who was curled up in a ball between them. He nose was buried under the crook of Rainbow’s wing and she was fast asleep.

“She’s had a long day,” Will said as he gently brushed the space between Scootaloo’s wings.

“It sounds like you both have,” Rainbow said without looking away from the TV.

“Yeah, I guess,” Will said quietly. “You ready to be an aunt?”

For half a second, Will thought he saw the briefest flicker of something unpleasant cross her face, but before he could determine what it was, or if he’d even actually seen it, she was impassive again. “Honestly? No idea. You ready to be a dad?”

“Definitely not. Do you mind if I ask you something now that Scoots is asleep?”

“Shoot.”

“Are you mad at me?”

Rainbow was silent for a moment, the TV’s reflection in her eyes the only thing moving there. Finally she let out a long, deep breath. “Yes and no. She’s only eighteen and you got her pregnant. I think it’s in the big sister’s job description that I’m supposed to be mad. But then I’m kinda not too because I know you two didn't mean to and... I don't know. But then there’s another part of me that says it should have been me instead of her. And don’t say anything,” she said, cutting him off just as he opened his mouth. “because there’s nothing that needs to be said. We’re done, and I’m okay with that. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still kinda suck too.”

“I’m not going to apologize. At least not for what happened to us,” Will said tentatively.

“I’m not asking you to,” Rainbow said. To Will’s surprise, she sounded more tired instead of angry. But then she turned just enough so that she could look at him and put on a small smile. “We’re cool, Will. I just need to suck it up and get over it.”

Not knowing what to say, Will reached down to put his hand on her shoulder. A treacherous voice in his head said that he needed to get over it too, but he didn’t dare say it aloud.

“You’re going to be a good dad, Will,” Rainbow said.

“Thanks, Rainbow.”

Chapter 3

Scootaloo was seated on top of one of those annoying exam room tables – the sort that were as tall as an alicorn, uncomfortable to sit on and had that crinkly paper that rustled every time she so much as twitched her tail. She was sitting with her hindlegs crossed, jiggling a hoof up and down as she tried to desperately clamp her thighs together in a vain attempt to relieve the pressure on her abdomen.

“She better get here soon,” she snapped, glancing at the clock to find that it was officially half an hour past her appointed time. “I’m so sick of waiting!”

Will laughed at her from the comfort of the nice-looking chair he got to sit in. Granted it was far too small for him, being designed more for ponies or at most a griffon, but it was still better than her exam table. He was sitting with his arms crossed before him, wearing a starched button-up shirt and some new beige slacks. It was a far cry from his usual muddy jeans and worn t-shirts, and though she wasn’t a fashion sort of pony, she would have thought he looked nice if she weren’t so mad at him for putting her in this predicament. If it hadn’t been for him, she wouldn’t be back at the doctor’s sitting around not allowed to pee.

“I told you, you should have used the bathroom while we were in the waiting room,” he said in that snide ‘I told you so voice’ which was apt because that was exactly what he was doing.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “And I told you, Nurse Redheart said I was supposed to have a full bladder for the appointment! She better not make me pee in a cup! Sure, it’s easy for you stallions! You can see where you’re aiming! But us mares have to just squat down and hope!” She knew, deep down, that she was going off the deep end, but the waiting was killing her.

“I’m grumpy,” she grumbled under her breath. “Sorry.”

He waved her apology away. “Don’t worry about it. If anything, it’s my fault. I should have remembered to bring Baby’s diapers.”

She mustered up the most dangerous-looking glower she could throw at his smirking face. “Will. Don’t make me get off this table. I will end you.”

“Sounds like we’ve got a happy family in here!”

Scootaloo jumped at the unfamiliar voice and looked to see a pale pink unicorn mare nosing her way into the room. Her mane, a darker pink than her coat, was tied into a professional, if harried-looking, bun. A few loose strands fell into her face as she looked over the top of a pair of black-rimmed glasses at a clipboard held in front of her with her sky blue magic.

“Miss… Scootaloo?” she asked. Scootaloo had barely nodded before the mare broke into a huge smile that reminded her greatly of her school teacher, Ms. Cheerilee; motherly and encouraging, but at the same time radiating intelligence and a bit of hawkish wit. “Very nice to meet you; my name’s Dr. Pearl. I’m the head of the Obstetrics/Gynecology department here at Ponyville General Hospital and, if everything goes to plan, I’ll be your doctor for the next eleven or so months!”

She spoke in a rush like she was almost on a caffeine high. Scootaloo didn’t think it was quite as bad as Pinkie Pie when she really got going, but she still felt like her head was spinning. Shaking herself, she asked, “We get the head of the department? Wow, I’d figure you’d be busier with more important patients.”

The question hadn’t come out exactly as she’d intended, but if Dr. Pearl took any offence she didn’t show it. Instead she gave a weary laugh that made Scootaloo feel like she’d hit the nail on the head. “It’s certainly true I don’t get to see as many patients as I’d like anymore, but your case is very special and our Chief of Medicine wanted only the best. And while I don’t like to brag…” She trailed off as she polished a hoof on the front of her labcoat.

Will sat up in his seat, his brow wrinkled in concern. “’A special case?’ Is there something wrong?”

“Oh, nothing like that!” Dr. Pearl said dismissively as she looked at her clipboard again. “I assume you’re… Mr. William Harkin? The baby’s father?”

“Yeah. But I’m—”

“A nonmagical species?” Dr. Pearl interrupted. “That’s why I’m here. Cross-species pregnancies can be complicated; especially when one party is from a virtually unknown species. Seeing as Mr. Harkin’s the only human living in Equestria, there are no precedents for how a pregnancy of this nature will develop. If I’m to be perfectly honest, there will be a lot of unknowns as we move forward. Now I don’t want to worry you, but you need to be aware that I’m not exactly sure what to expect. But that’s why you get the best. I have a lot of experience working with interspecies pregnancies, and I’m going to get you through this, alright?”

She fell silent and from the way she looked at her, Scootaloo felt she was waiting for some kind of answer. Unsure what to say, she did what she often found herself doing recently and looked to Will. He was leaning forward in his seat, listening in rapt attention as the doctor spoke until he too looked her way. Seeming to know what she was thinking, he offered his hand out to her and Scootaloo placed her hoof atop it. Feeling just the smallest bit reassured, she nodded.

“Alright. Thank you, Dr. Pearl,” she said. “So, umm… What next?”

Dr. Pearl immediately launched into a number of routine checkup tests: blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, breath sounds; all of which came back perfectly normal. The doctor, Scootaloo noticed, spent just as much time taking notes as she did actually performing the tests, using her magic to manipulate the instruments in a dance around her until they looked like leaves in the wind. She was also fond of small talk, as the entire time she chattered away about this and that which Scootaloo mostly acknowledged with ‘yeah’s and ‘uh-huh’s when she stopped for breath. She would have been more talkative if only to be polite had each poke and prod not poignantly reminded her how badly she needed to use the restroom.

When at long last she’d finally had her fill, Dr. Pearl sat upon a stool to look over the notes on her clipboard. At the same time, the door opened and a nurse –unfortunately not Nurse Redheart like Scootaloo would have hoped– came in wheeling a cart before her with a machine on top consisting of a swiveling screen connected to a plastic wand by a coiled cord. The nurse excused herself without a word as Dr. Pearl looked up and clapped her hooves.

“Alright, now that that’s out of the way we can get to the fun part! So my plan today is to perform an ultrasound for you. You said in your admittance papers that your last heat was about nine weeks ago?” she asked.

“Yeah, about then,” Scootaloo said, looking to Will for confirmation. Their eyes met and he nodded. “It was just a little over two months.”

“Good! This is about when we like to have mothers come in. We should be able to get a good look your baby then.” She paused to look between them. “Before we get started, do either of you have any questions or concerns I can help address?”

Scootaloo shook her head, unable to think of anything to ask. Her mind felt woefully blank like it always did in a doctor’s office. She hated it, but she could never seem to think of what to ask until long after she’d left. Will, however, spoke up.

“I think our biggest question is the ‘how.’ We were told by Dr. Stable that since I’m a nonmagical species that it should have been impossible,” he said.

“Yes, Nurse Redheart made mention of you in her notes when she referred Ms. Scootaloo’s case to me. As he’s your primary physician, I’ve been consulting with Dr. Stable to come up with some theories as to how this happened, and I may need to continue seeking his expertise as we move forward. Is that okay?”

Will didn’t hesitate for a second before nodding. “Of course! You can do whatever you need to if it’ll help.” Despite everything, Scootaloo felt a rush of affection at his concern and made a mental note to give him an extra kiss when they got out of there.

“Awesome!” Dr. Pearl said as she fished a small plastic box no bigger than Will’s hand out of her coat pocket. “Would you mind allowing me to perform a quick test then? I promise it’s no worse than getting your temperature taken and may help answer your ‘how’ question.”

At his nod, Scootaloo watched as Dr. Pearl floated the box up to him. There was a pair of short metal prongs on one side that the doctor touched to his chest. After a moment, she withdrew the box and looked at a display on the front that Scootaloo couldn’t see.

“Hmmm, that’s what I thought…” Dr. Pearl mumbled under her breath.

“I’m sorry, wait. What was that you just did?” Scootaloo asked.

To her surprise, it was Will that answered. “She used an arcanometer. Dr. Stable used one on me when I first came to Equestria. It measures the amount of magic in you or something like that. I never quite understood it.”

Dr. Pearl nodded. “That’s basically the idea. Every species, magical or no, has some inherent magical energy within them. What sets them apart is the amount. A magical species is defined as one that, on average, naturally has at least 750 thaums. To put that in perspective, the three primary species of Equestrian pony typically have between 950 and 1250 thaums.”

She paused to let the information sink in before continuing. “Now this number is actually arbitrarily defined and has been adjusted a number of times throughout Equestrian history. Currently, it’s only set at 750 to accommodate the Iron Ponies up in mountains north of the Crystal Empire. I say ‘arbitrarily’ as functionally there’s almost no difference between a being with 750 and 749. It’s small enough to almost be negligible.”

All the numbers soared straight over Scootaloo’s head until she almost felt dizzy. “Okay, so… what does that mean for us?”

Dr. Pearl looked to her clipboard again tapped her hoof against something on it. “Mr. William, when you had your first physical exam with Dr. Stable, he ranked your magic levels at a 23, correct?”

“Umm, yeah, I think so,” he said. “It’s been a while, but that sounds right. Why? What am I now?”

She held up the arcanometer, on which the screen read ‘625 thaums.’

“Wow!” Scootaloo barked, unable to help herself. “Is that normal?”

“I can’t really say with any certainty,” Dr. Pearl said, tapping her chin in thought. “I’ve never known any species to change so radically in magic levels before. Fluctuations of ten, maybe fifteen percent are possible under the right circumstances, but nothing like this.”

“Well, before I came to Equestria, I lived in a place completely devoid of magic,” Will said. “Could that have anything to do with it?”

She hummed in thought as she considered it. “It’s possible that if one were completely starved of magic, it could take some time for the levels to even out. It’s possible that you’re still in that process.” She shook her head. “Regardless, the point is that the decision to label humans a nonmagical species may have been hasty, if understandable given the level of information we previously had. I think the most likely scenario is that, over time, you have obtained sufficient levels of magic to enable conception.”

As Dr. Pearl finished, Scootaloo couldn’t help but feel unsettled. It had seemed so safe back then. They had nothing to fear by letting go and simply enjoying her heat instead of just enduring it like she had always done before. And enjoy it they had. It had been so simple, so freeing to let go and just enjoy each other’s love and passion. She had never imagined that something so simple would have landed them here. In hindsight, it seemed so foolish.

She sighed and rubbed her hoof into Will’s hand, almost to remind herself that it was still there.

“Well, I guess that settles that,” she mumbled. “Where do we go from here?”

“Next, I’d like to do an ultrasound. We’ll be able to get a look at the baby and see how it’s developing. That will hopefully give me an idea of a baseline of what to expect throughout the pregnancy. Plus,” Dr. Pearl said, smiling knowingly, “by this point it should be big enough for us to get a really clear image of it!"

As Dr. Pearl instructed her to lie on her side, Scootaloo couldn’t help but feel somewhat amused at the doctor’s neverending cheer. She reminded Scootaloo a lot of an older, pinker Sweetie Belle as she hummed a happy tune while smearing some clear gel on her stomach. It was freezing, which didn’t help her need to pee in the slightest, though Will gently rubbing her back took her mind off it somewhat.

The wand felt strange against her stomach as the doctor slid it around with her magic. The gel sunk into her fur, leaving it feeling greasy and matted in the wrong direction. She had to fight the urge to groom it. As well, the way it pushed into her belly fat made her feel like she needed to start working out. Maybe she’d gotten too stationary since moving in with Will.

She couldn’t see the screen as it was turned away from her, and Dr. Pearl’s face betrayed no emotion at all. She desperately wished she could see something – anything to know if the baby was okay. It had to be healthy. She couldn’t bear it if an innocent baby had to suffer just because she’d been irresponsible enough to get herself knocked up. The seconds ticked on to minutes which continued on to hours as she sat holding her breath. Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay…, she chanted to herself.

“Alright…” Dr. Pearl said, still distracted by the screen. “This tells me quite a bit.”

Scootaloo couldn’t tell if her tone was reassuring or not. Just as she felt the first pangs of panic setting in, the doctor broke into a sly grin.

“Wanna see your baby?” Dr. Pearl asked.

Scootaloo could only nod.

As the doctor’s magic turned the screen towards her, Scootaloo wasn’t sure what she was expecting to see. Would it already look like a baby or was it still just a weirdly-shaped blob? Was it a pony or some kind of pony/human mutant? But as her eyes fell upon the black-and-white blurry image, her breath caught in her throat. Behind her, she felt Will’s hand clutch down on her shoulder.

The low resolution of the image made it difficult to see the fine details, but it was unmistakably a pony. It’s head alone was about as big as the rest of it’s body and it’s legs were little more than stubs, but it was absolutely a pony. She looked upon it’s closed eyes and thought it looked like it was just taking a nice nap. Completing the picture was the fact it had a hoof up to it’s mouth like it was sucking on it.

It really was a baby… growing inside of her. Their baby.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Dr. Pearl said, though Scootaloo hardly heard her. Her attention was locked on the picture and the doctor’s words largely went in one ear and out the other. “It’s too early to tell the gender yet; we’ll most likely be able to see that around week 17 or so. As for the baby’s type: I don’t see a horn in development, so odds are it’s not a unicorn. With the way its laying, we can’t see if it has wings or not, but we can’t rule it out either. I would say tentatively that you’re looking at a baby pegasus or earth pony.”

“But it’s… definitely a pony?” Will asked. “It’s not… I don’t know, going to grow hands or walk on only two legs or something?”

Dr. Pearl let out a bell-like laugh. “No, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about either of those. As far as I can tell, its developing exactly as I’d expect a pony to at eight weeks. We’ll want to keep a close eye on that as we go forward to make sure it stays on track, but for now I’d say your baby’s looking nice and healthy!”

“Thank God,” Will exclaimed, his relief evident in the massive exhale he let out. “That’s great! That’s great, right babe?”

It was only when he gently shook her shoulder that Scootaloo even realized he was speaking to her. “Oh, uh… right.”

What did finally draw her attention away from the screen was a rattling, raspy sound as a piece of paper slid sideways out of the ultrasound machine. With her magic, the doctor passed it over and Scootaloo took it with her wing. Depicted on it was the scan of her baby, zoomed in so that it filled the frame. She became aware of Will’s presence as he leaned over to look at it with her.

“I’ll give you two a moment alone,” Dr. Pearl said and excused herself from the room.

Will leaned closer until his chin bumped the top of Scootaloo’s head. “How’re you feeling, Scoots. Talk to me.”

Words didn’t want to come to her. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the shock that had so firmly taken hold. “I don’t even… It’s like, I knew I was pregnant, but I have a tiny freakin’ pony growing in me! Like, sweet Celestia, Will! You know what I feel like? I kinda feel like I’m in a sci-fi/horror flick where the mare has a monster parasite thing growing inside her just waiting to burst open her stomach and eat her alive.”

Will was silent for a moment. “Did you just compare our baby to the monster in a bad B-movie?” As he breathed a weary sigh, she was half afraid that she’d upset him, until she saw him smirk out of the corner of her eye. “I mean really, our baby would at least be triple-A material! Don’t sell him short before he’s even born!”

Scootaloo repaid his mockery with a punch to the shoulder, which he pretended hurt as he dramatically recoiled. As he went back to lovingly stroking her side, she smiled down at the grainy picture once again.

“Our baby, huh?” she echoed.

The half hour after the doctor returned was filled with talks of diet and nutrition, prenatal vitamins Scootaloo would need to take and symptoms she would need to keep an eye out for. Dr. Pearl also informed her she wanted to do bi-weekly ultrasounds to monitor the baby’s progress and to foresee any potential complications hopefully before they happened. If Scootaloo had disliked doctors before, she could already tell she was going to hate them before the next nine months were up. All the while Will did his best to ask the questions she couldn’t think of, which she was thankful for.

The next half hour was spent in the waiting room, going over everything they learned with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who had both attended as promised. Sweetie had even dragged Spike along, who offered Will a congratulatory fistbump. Sweetie was over the moon, pulling both of them into fierce hugs that threated to break their ribs while singing the praises of how much she was going to spoil their foal after it was born.

“Well, Sweetie, we haven’t really decided if we’re keeping it yet,” Will said once she’d released him and he could breathe again. Sweetie’s face fell while Apple Bloom’s eyes narrowed.

“Y’all ain’t thinkin’ about adoption, are ya?” she asked.

“I’m just saying we haven’t talked things through yet,” Will said.

From the look she gave her, Scootaloo thought Apple Bloom might press the issue, but eventually she relaxed and shrugged. The question stuck in Scootaloo’s mind, however. Were they thinking about adoption? Was that what she wanted? It had to be either that or keep it, she supposed. But still doubt lingered in her mind even as Sweetie and Apple Bloom asked a thousand questions she barely even heard, allowing Will to answer them for her.

Was she really considering having this baby? She was too young to be a mother! She had only graduated school less than a year ago. All of her hopes and dreams still lay before her, waiting for her to chase them. Being the best on her scooter, winning tournaments and getting nationally recognized: that wouldn't be easy as a mother. Her father had had to give all those things up when she was born. She had Will to help share the responsibility with, but would that be enough?

She was outside the hospital waving goodbye to her friends before she even knew what had happened. As they walked away, she let out a downcast sigh.

“Scoots?” Will asked, making her jump. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just thinking.”

She looked up to the man she loved. He was silently watching her with this sad look in his eyes that might have pissed her off any other time. She didn’t like being pitied and she suspected that was exactly what he was doing. The poor filly in over her head. How sad for her.

That’s not fair, she chided herself. Will was one of the very few people older than her that she knew that took her seriously. He was likely just worried about her. He was like that pretty often –likely a side effect of being nearly ten years older than her– he often acted like he needed to look out for her and protect her from the world. It was patronizing, sure, but it made him happy so she let him.

“I know that was a lot to take in,” he said. “My head feels like it’s spinning. You wanna head home? Take a nap or something? We can always talk later.”

“No,” she said before she’d even thought about it. She was restless. Her hoof twitched in agitation, scratching at the ground. She needed to go… somewhere. Anywhere. “Let’s take a walk!”

Ponyville passed in a blur of colors and faces as she trotted through the town. Ponies stopped to wave or say hello but she barely noticed them. She walked without direction or purpose. The where just didn’t matter to her, as long as she kept moving. Will eventually managed to catch up and fell into place by her side. They passed Sugarcube Corner, where the tantalizing smells of baking bread filled the air, the fountain in the town’s square spraying it’s sparkling water and even the small monument that marked where an unassuming library had once stood.

It was as they walked through the entrance to the park that Scootaloo finally had some inkling of where they were going. She picked up her pace until she was racing through the trees and flowers with the wind whipping against her face. She spread her wings just to feel the air underneath them. On instinct she began to flap them, intent on taking off and soaring away.

At least, until she remembered she wasn’t alone.

Her hooves scrabbled across the dirt as she ground to a halt and spun around. Will was doing little more than jog to keep up with her on his long legs, wearing a most bewildered expression from her sudden flight. Something about him chasing her, the man she loved so much, amused her and brought to mind memories of days spent in this very park playing tag with her friends.

A fleeting, silly idea struck her. She wanted to laugh just thinking about it. But still she dropped her stance low and kicked at the ground. Tensing her muscles and flaring her wings, she stood her ground. Will only seemed to realize what was happening a second too late as he tried to stop himself as well, but to no avail.

Scootaloo sprung. With a powerful kick of her hind legs and a thrust of her wings, she propelled herself forward with all the force her small body could muster. She barreled headlong through the air, making a beeline for Will’s chest. He tried to turn at the last moment, but only succeeded in rolling with the collision. They both tumbled to the ground, Scootaloo on top of his chest, dazed and confused. She rolled with it until she was perched on top of him with her forehooves pinning his shoulders to the ground. Then, with a fierce predatory grin on her muzzle, she lurched down and bit him square on the nose.

A moment passed in awkward silence.

“Ow,” Will said flatly, with absolutely no trace of pain. “That hurt so much. The mighty huntress has caught me once again. Whatever shall I do?”

“Submit to her every whim and desire,” Scootaloo purred. She planted a kiss on his lips that he eagerly returned. “I can think of all kinds of things I want to do to you right now.”

“That does sound good,” Will started haltingly before pointing off to the side. “But this may not be the best place for it.”

She followed his hand to see a trio of foals playing ball less than twenty feet away. Two of them she recognized as the twins, Pound and Pumpkin Cake, who belonged to the owners of Sugarcube Corner. They were running around, laughing and shouting without a care in the world as they bounced a giant rubber ball back and forth between them and their friend, a cream-coated, purple maned filly she knew from around town but had never met. The three were completely lost in their game, looking like they were having the time of their lives.

They looked so… happy. Just three best friends out enjoying a lovely day together. She used to do the exact same thing with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle before they each got busy with life and responsibilities. She had so many wonderful memories of playing in this very park, of sleepovers in their clubhouse and impromptu picnics made of pilfered apples. She wondered if those three foals already had such memories of their own.

“Will?” she asked suddenly. “Did you have any best friends growing up?”

“Uh, one, I guess… Jack,” he replied. “Scoots, are you okay? First you take off and then you tackle me, and now you’re asking about friends?”

“Jack…” she said to herself, ignoring everything else he said. “That’s the man that married your sister before you came to Equestria, right? Did you two ever do anything fun together?”

“Scootaloo,” Will said, giving her a meaningful look. “We need to talk about things.”

“I just keep thinking, you know?” Scootaloo interrupted. “I have all these memories of awesome things that have happened here in Ponyville. Stuff I’ve done with my friends or Rainbow Dash or my dad and… our baby will have those kinds of memories too! If we… I don’t know, put it up for adoption – if we let somepony else take it… we won’t be part of those memories, will we?”

“Are you saying–?”

“I don’t know, maybe?” she said. Reaching down to their folder of information, she withdrew the picture from the ultrasound. “I just… I look at this and it hits me, you know? This is our baby. We made this! I don’t know if I can just give that up. What do you think?”

She watched his face as he looked down to their baby and for the first time since before the doctor’s appointment, warmth bloomed across his face. He looked genuinely happy. He couldn’t keep the grin off his face even as she saw him trying to go back into his ‘mature adult’ routine.

“I can’t say I don’t want it. I really want kids. I want this kid. But are you sure you want it? This isn’t us getting a pet or anything. This is a baby – an entire lifetime of responsibility and… diaper changes!”

Scootaloo scoffed as she flipped the folder closed again, her mission accomplished. “I’m pretty sure it’ll outgrow diapers in a year or two.”

“Well yeah, but when they’re older there’ll be grandfoals and they’ll have diapers too!” His arm rose to wrap around her shoulders and pulled her close to his strong chest. Even sitting in his lap, he was still big enough to have to curl down to kiss the top of her head. It had been intimidating at first, being intimate with someone so much bigger and stronger than her, but she knew he was gentle on the inside. He couldn’t have hurt her if he’d wanted to. So instead of being afraid, she felt safe. Loved.

His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “Are you really sure about this? I want this but not if you don’t. I mean, you’ve still got a lot ahead of you, Scoots. If you think you aren’t ready for it, I won’t blame you.”

“Will, I don’t need you to protect me. I want this too. Maybe I didn’t want it right now, but that’s life. You can’t always get what you want. Believe me, I’ve learned that! But I’ve decided this is what I want. We’re starting our family. Just… a little earlier than we planned.”

Will gave a small chuckle as he shook his head. “You’ve been spending too much time around Rainbow! What did I do to get stuck with such stubborn mares?”

Scootaloo stuck her tongue out at him. “You know you love it.”

She fell silent as she reclined into his chest. Images of the possibilities of their future played through her head like movies: a little filly enthusiastically ripping open Hearth’s Warming presents, friends and family gathered around to sing Happy Birthday to a colt. There’d be pictures to commemorate the moments and pencil marks on door frames to track the growing foal’s height. There’d be sleepovers and adventures for cutie marks. So very many things lay in wait and all they had to do was embrace them.

Together, they continued to enjoy the pleasant day while they watched the foals play. Eventually Pinkie Pie came to join in on their game for a few rounds until apparently deciding it was time to go home and leading them away. With little else to amuse them, Will and Scootaloo decided to return home as well. They largely walked in silence until their cottage come into view.

“You know, there’s one thing we haven’t talked about yet,” Will said as he pulled open the front gate. “How and when are we going to tell your parents? You know, your three crazy and overprotective parents that are probably going to want to kill me?”

Scootaloo held up short. She hated to admit that he had a point. Her dad and Rainbow’s parents had always treated her like the baby of the family, and she couldn’t imagine that they were going to take to the idea of her having a baby. She had no idea who was going to be worse: her dad or Rainbow’s mom.

“Ughhhh… You’re right, we’re screwed. Okay, we need a plan! We need to come up with the perfect way to break the news to them. We’ll have to break it to them easy; assure them that we had no idea it was even possible! We were kinda responsible, right? I mean, we went to the doctor and everything to see if it was safe! It’s not our fault if the information he gave us was wrong! But what if they don’t buy that? What if they think we should give it up?! What if– Eep!”

She was cut off by a pair of hands grabbing her barrel and bodily lifting her off the ground until she was lying belly-up in Will’s arms. He grinned down at her even as she crossed her forelegs in a pout at being taken by surprise.

“Take a breath, babe,” he said. “It’s not like we broke their favorite vase while they were away. We don’t need a special story or anything because we’ve done nothing wrong. We’re adults and we’re having a baby. They can be happy for us or not, but it’s not our problem.”

“That’s easy for you to say! It’s not your family that’s going to be all ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.’”

To her surprise, Will didn’t have a snappy retort waiting for her. Instead, he looked away, but not before making a movement she almost thought was a flinch. But that didn’t make sense. It must have been a trick of the light or maybe she’d just misjudged what he actually did. She shook the thought off as Will dug the key out of his pocket and made to unlock the door.

“Actually, uh… about my family…” he started before stopping short. “That’s weird… The door’s already unlocked.”

“Did we forget to lock it before we left?” Scootaloo asked.

“I don’t think so…” Will said as he opened the door and peeked inside.

Slowly, he led the way inside and immediately sounds from the TV filled the air. Scootaloo recognized it as the whirlwind buzz of flapping wings from a Wonderbolts race. Over that was a familiar voice shouting complaints and advice that the competitors onscreen couldn’t hear. Will and Scootaloo shared a look before bursting inside.

The heavy smell of garlic filled the air, coming from an open pizza box on the table. Next to it sat two full six packs of ice cold apple ciders dripping with condensation. And in the middle of the couch with a sheepish look on her face and pizza sauce all over her lips, was Rainbow Dash.

“Uh… hey guys!” she said, wiping her face with a hoof. “I’m home!”

Author's Note

As a random bit of trivia, Dr. Pearl's first name is Pink. Make of that what you will. :scootangel: