Like Morning Follows Night

They awoke to the sound of a baby crying. Lemon Square got up and scurried her way to the baby room. Her purple hair was in shambles and her face looked like it was just a shade below hung over. Grem opened her eyes more and squinted at the sunlight coming through the window in the living room. Pearl Necklace was on the floor next to her, her fur in tatters with dried juice all over her crotch and leg region. Pop was hogtied with Death using her as a pillow. Once the white pony noticed Pop Candy, she went to a side table by the couch and pulled out a pocket knife to cut her loose.

“Wow, what time is it?” Grem asked, and Pearl groaned. The pink pony went to her phone and turned it on.

“Oh, good, it’s only seven. Adoption agency opens at eight. We need to get you cleaned up.” Pearl said as she got up, popping her back. It took Grem a few moments to process what was just said. “Lemon, honey? How is the baby?”

“She’s fine. I’m changing her.” Lemon called from the baby room.

“Thanks, honey!” Pearl said as she put on her robe. Then she turned to Grem. “You get a shower and I’ll have your clothes in the washer.”

“Wait, hold on, adoption agency? Why are we going there? I haven’t really decided on anything.” Grem said as she stood up and hugged Pop Candy as she got up as well.

“I’m not telling you you need to decide on anything.” Pearl went to the kitchen and started coffee in the maker. “We’re going there to talk to them and let them show you what it all entails. Trust me when I say that whether you’re going to do it or not, it’s best to start the process now because it takes a very long period of time and countless visits from agents. If you don’t want to do it, just tell them to cancel.” Pearl started popping some fruits into the blender with some juice and protein.

That was when Lemon brought the baby in and traded tasks with Pearl as she picked up her baby. Grem looked at her as she nuzzled her daughter, who still looked like she was still trying to wake up.

“Hello, my little angel.” Pearl kissed her cheek and Prisma simply stared at Grem with big wide green eyes. Then Pearl blew a raspberry into Prisma’s other cheek, making her smile and look at her mom.

“Grem,” Pop said as she stood in the living room. “Are you going to the shower first?”

“Oh,” Grem snapped out of her train of thought. “Yeah, come with me.” Grem said as she walked toward the bathroom and grabbed Pop’s hand on her way.

“Oh yeah?” Pop asked as she was pulled along.

It wasn’t long before the two of them were in a bright pink and white bathroom. The two of them got into the clear shower case and thankfully, the showerhead spread the water out enough for both of them to stand under it. As they did, Grem held her hand onto the pink tiled wall and held her head downward in thought. Pop Candy seemed to understand this, as she held onto her from behind. Grem could feel her enormous tits press against her back and the two of them stayed there for a good long while in solemn silence.

“I’m so sorry, Grem.” Pop whispered to her, not wanting to bring the subject up again, but feeling she needed to say something. “Are you going with Pearl to the agency?”

“Yeah,” Grem said as she sniffed a bit. “I figure there’s no reason why I wouldn’t.” The gray bat stood up straight and placed her hands on top of Pop’s. The unicorn put her chin on top of Grem’s shoulder and looked over at her. Grem put her head on top of hers, rubbing the backs of her hands. “I need to call Diamond after we’re done.”

“Oh, check this out.” Pop giggled, drawing an odd look from the bat. “Hey, Auto Pone!”

That’s when the bathroom light dimmed for a moment. The speaker by the light spoke. “How can I help you?”

“The fuck?” Grem whispered as she looked at the speaker.

“Call Diamond Sword.” Pop said and there was another light dim as the speaker made a small cowbell noise.

“Calling Diamond Sword on his mobile device.” There was another cowbell noise before the ring tone.

—------------

Somehow, they ended up back at Grem and Diamond’s house. How they got there, none of them were perfectly sure. Fable was on the couch with Winter spooning up behind him and he was the first one to hear a very sudden, loud beating ringtone coming from a pair of pants splayed out on the floor.

“SEXY SEXY PONE~! I’M A SEXY SEXY PONE~!” A loud beating techno pop song started to assault his senses and he groaned as he tried to cover his face away from that horrific sound.

“The fuck is that horrible noise?” Fable strained to say without opening his eyes as his head was hurting enough. “Winter? Winter, where are you?” He coughed a little bit and felt a hand pat him on the side. “Oh, hey.” He patted Winter’s hand. “Where’s…”

“Why am I tied up?” Diamond asked from the floor.

Fable finally found a reason to open his eyes and he squinted them open with some hardship. There was Diamond Sword on the floor. His arms were tied behind his back, he was on his knees and his naked ass was sticking straight up. Both Fable and Winter were looking at him and even with unspeakable aches and pains playing drums in their heads, they smiled at this.

“Come on, you jerkasses! That’s Pearl’s ringtone!” He struggled with the black ropes wrapped around his torso. “Man, remind me never to drink ever again.” He groaned as he rolled onto his side with his legs going out and popping from the sudden freedom of movement.

Fable went to his pants on the floor and tossed his phone over to Winter while he worked to untie Diamond. Winter caught the phone and clicked it on, putting it to his ear.

“Wheatley’s Pizza, we order it and you make it… or something like that.” Winter said in a dull, sleepy voice.

“Winter? Is that you?” Grem asked, obviously in a state of confusion.

“Yeah, I think so.” Winter said as he slowly began to sit up on the couch. “Hey, Grem, how are you?” He put on a more concerned voice and Grem giggled a little.

“I’m okay, all things considered. Where’s the boyfriend?” Grem asked, hearing someone in the background saying “OW!” “Was that… him?”

Winter looked over at Diamond, who finally got his arms free and apparently both of his arms were asleep. He was clearly feeling the pins and needles from hell as he sucked in some breaths.

“Is that really Grem?” Diamond asked through his teeth and Winter nodded.

“Can you… hold a phone without blood circulation?” Fable asked as the white unicorn began to attempt movement in both his limbs and wincing hard! “I’ll take that as a no.”

“Better put it on speaker.” Diamond said as he attempted to wiggle his fingers with painful results. Winter pressed the button and placed it on the floor closer to the unicorn. “Hey, babe. How was your sleepover?”

“It was great, what happened to you?” Grem asked from the phone, her concern clearly showing in her voice.

“Oh, nothing, really. I just happened to wake up and find out that my arms were tied behind my back or something.” Diamond said as he finally started to feel his arms come back to life. “You know, typical guy stuff.”

“Wow, Pop was hogtied this morning too! What were you guys up to?” Grem said and Pop gasped, giving the bat a little slap on the cheek. “Did you guys do what I think you did?”

“Only about three times.” Fable said, making Diamond give him the stink eye! “Pop! Is that you? What were you up to?”

“I was just making Grem feel better.” Pop’s face was beet red.

“I’ll bet.” Winter chuckled and both he and Fable slid their hands. “Looks like we should have had a girl and guy party.”

“Anyway!” Grem interjected before Pop Candy died of embarrassment. “So, here in a little while, Pearl is going to be taking me to the adoption agency.”

Immediately, all of the guys’ eyes widened and looks started darting between the three of them. Fable’s finger came up and pointed at Diamond as a big wide smile crossed his face, and he began to nod slowly. A barrage of emotions crossed in and out of Diamond Sword. Happiness, excitement, worry, fear, doubt, love, worry, excitement, fear and happiness, maybe a few others.

“Oh.” Diamond finally said and Grem could just hear the bewilderment in his voice, almost making this entire endeavor worth it. “I suppose I should get over there with you then?”

“That would be splendid, yes.” Grem giggled a little bit as she watched Pop begin to wash herself with a wonderful bubbly soap and spread it all over her body. “But first, let me ask, did you do the thing I think you did?”

“We traded holes.” Fable said, causing Pop Candy to gasp in amazement! “Oh yes, Diamond is a natural. He took us both like a champ.” The red pony started massaging his temples. “Tell me you have a coffee maker.”

“It’s in the kitchen.” Diamond said, suddenly interjecting. “Don’t worry, honey, I’ll get dressed and get over there ASAP.” He said as he stretched out his arm with three clicks from his shoulders and elbows.

“Thanks, Diamond. We’re not definitely doing this or immediately going home with a kid, but we can at least get it started.” Grem said as he felt Pop begin to scrub the bat’s body with soap from behind and she leaned back into the unicorn’s warm embrace.

“Alright, I’ll catch a shower and head out here in just a minute.” Diamond watched as both Fable and Winter got up from the couch and motioned for him to follow with devious grins on their faces. He rolled his eyes and shook his head at how goofy they were. “I’ll see you there, hon. Love you.”

“Love you.” Grem snuggled with the soapy unicorn and they continued to shower and Pop continued to comfort her.

—------------

The adoption agency came sooner than Grem expected. Not only had Pearl made an appointment with them almost as soon as they opened, but the car ride over there was not even ten minutes. Pearl knew the exact way and neither Death nor Pearl seemed to find this bothersome, as they had made this trip more times than they cared to count.

Diamond texted Grem back. Apparently he was going to be late. They’d called for a ride home from the club last night and left their car there. It didn’t matter a great deal, though, this appointment was probably going to take a while anyway and he probably wasn’t going to miss a whole lot. The building wasn’t very big, it was a normal brick and mortar place, but to Grem it was about as intimidating as a giant dragon who found her physically attractive. For all she knew, being in law enforcement could make her inapplicable for adoption. She needed to stop this train of thought. The more she thought about it, the more hesitant she was to even walk through the front door to the building.

Though, there were two comforts for her. Pop Candy had to go work at the candy shop, but Pearl and Death Metal stayed behind her completely, with Prisma Silver in tow. Pearl, having seen her hesitation, held onto Grem’s hand to give her encouragement. She was right, of course, Grem just had to take the leap of faith and see where it landed her. She took a deep breath, and they all made their way inside.

As soon as they got into the office building, there was a lobby. It had three lines of chairs and none of them were full, probably because it was still very early in the day. Within ten seconds of going into the building, they heard a bit of a scream from the clerk.

“Oh my God! Prisma!” The office clerk got up from her seat at the counter and ran around it toward Death Metal, who was holding the toddler’s hand. “Ooohhh Prisma! Look how big you are!” The heavy set, bright blue pony with a swirly black mane bent down low to look at the little filly and couldn’t help but hug her.

“Hey, Sea Legs.” Pearl said with a little smile. “Long time no see.”

“In this line of business, that’s a good thing.” She chuckled as she saw Prisma was allowing her to pick her up. She held the little toddler in her arms and kissed her little cheek. The rainbow maned unicorn child simply stared at her with a little smile on her face. “She looks so good! You’ve taken such great care of her.” She couldn’t help but snuggle the little girl.

"Is Ms. Sprout in?" Pearl asked as Sea looked over at the bat pony and greeted her, still holding Prisma.

"Ms. Sprout is…" Then as if summoned, Blossom Sprout walked out of the back office and came into the lobby.

"Miss Pearl, so kind of you to drop…" Immediately, right after one glance, her eyes locked onto Grem. She stared at her for a long moment as if in a sudden trance.

Grem's expression turned puzzled. The bright red, blonde maned older lady just stayed there, staring at her with bright hazel eyes. Grem didn't know what to make of it.

"Ummm… I have her… paperwork started from my conversation earlier with Miss Pearl." Sea was about to say something else but Blossom grabbed the file and opened it. She flipped one page over and her eyes bulged. The unicorn woman gasped as she dropped the file to the floor.

"Gremmy…" Blossom breathed and she scurried over to her. Then Gremmy had a spark of recognition. Ms. Sprout came up to her chest in height but then she imagined looking up at her. Her hair was up in a bun but she remembered it being much shorter.

As Blossom Sprout embraced her, Grem remembered. "You've gotten so big, Gremmy! I was so worried I'd never see you again!"

"That's impossible," Grem looked at her closely as Blossom had tears in her eyes. "How can you be here? I thought you…"

"I did," Blossom pulled her blouse collar away from her shoulder to show the bare burn scar that was old but still very visible. "Thankfully, I made it, but I couldn't find any of you after the fire!"

Blossom hugged her close and pressed her face into Grem's bosom. Tears streamed down her face as she held onto her and Grem, still in awe, held her close too.

Grem looked up at the rest of them, staring at the two of them with a mixture of shock and blatant confusion. None of them had seen Blossom act like this, they were fairly certain she didn't have an emotional bone in her body.

"She was my orphanage den mother, back in Canterlot." Grem began to tear up again. "I thought I lost her."

"Wow, and she's in Ranchtown now?" Pearl looked at Death, who shrugged. "That's amazing."

"And you're adopting." Blossom managed a little giggle through the sobs. "I knew I raised some of you right. Come on, let's go see the little ones."

"But that's for real?" Pearl asked as she held onto Prisma, Sea handing her over with a kiss to the baby's cheek. "You were really her den mother?"

"Why do you think I became one here? I was den mother here for eight years before I moved up to district facilitator. I never stopped looking over the children myself, though."

In the back of the office, they began to hear rowdy kids and a deeper voice telling them to calm down and take a seat.

"Oh, Gremmy, I can't believe. Of all the places, why did you come to Ranchtown?" Blossom asked and Grem blushed.

The older lady was astonished to hear about her becoming part of the royal guard. Not only that but also holding her close when she spoke of her infertility.

Pearl and Death waited for them in the office while Blossom and Grem discussed their lives and continued deeper into the building. They had one of the talks, catching up on old times as Blossom opened the door to the nursery.

There were at least twenty kids sitting down at little school desks and coloring.

"These are our kids with the age range of four to seven." Blossom explained and they didn't even seem to notice them as they all walked through the edge of the room. Grem found herself gazing at each of them individually.

They continued into the next room. These kids were even younger and they were playing with blocks, cars and dolls. There weren't too many of them, maybe nine or ten of them.

"Take your time, dear. They are all unique in personality and manners but it's always best not to be hasty." Blossom told her this, but it looked like Grem was barely listening. She was looking at one of the farther corners of the room.

There were three ponies there that were all huddled up under a single blanket, sleeping soundly. She didn't even notice that they were bat ponies at first. All she saw were three ponies together, three unique colors of fur and mane while also clearly bound together by some force that she felt more the closer she got to them.

"Who are these?" Grem asked, squatting down to them and finally noticing the ears that told her they had more in common with her than she thought.

"Midnight, Dusk and Vera. They are triplets that were left in front of the hospital." Blossom stood near Grem and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Three three year olds would be a lot to handle, my dear." Blossom said, but not in discouragement. "You would need to have a lot of love in your heart for such a task as that."

There was a long moment of silence. Dusk was the boy, purple with silver hair, Vera was the youngest, purple with blonde hair and Midnight was the eldest, she was gray with purple hair. Grem liked the number three.

She moved some of the blonde hair out of Vera's face to get a look at her closed eyes and the baby sighed. Then she ran a finger over Dusk's belly to his hand and he gripped her fingertip in a firm grasp. Then she pressed her hand to Midnight's cheek, she was so warm to the touch.

Grem sighed.

—-----------

"What? It's fine bro, she's only in there choosing the very one that will eat you out of house and home, keep you up at night and--ow!" Fable was interrupted as Winter popped him in the back of the head while all six of them waited in the lobby.

"She may not even choose a child, Diamond. It took us three visits before we settled on Prisma." Pearl said, making Death give her a look.

"You took three visits. I just kept saying 'Prisma's the one, what's the hangup?' But she had to make things complicated." Death said and Pearl had an entire textbook of a rebuttal to this. That rebuttal puffed into nothingness as Grem came to the front room.

Everyone stood up and greeted Grem. She was taken aback as all of them got up to see her.

"Well, hey!" Grem kissed Winter and Fable on their cheeks. "Thanks for 'taking care' of Diamond Sword." She said and they all looked at Diamond, who looked away as his white cheeks flushed. That's when she held up a file and grabbed him by the hand.

"What's this? Your choices?" He asked as he opened the file. She nodded and he looked at the three baby pictures.

"Oh, they're so beautiful." Pearl said as her breath caught in her throat. "I wouldn't know where to start."

Diamond was thoroughly impressed by the choices. "Wow, looks like we can't go wrong no matter what we choose."

"They're triplets." Grem said as they were all giving the oooo's and awwww's. That abruptly stopped. Diamond's eyes bulged as he looked up at a teary eyed Grem.

"If they're triplets, you wouldn't want to separate--oooohhh." Death's eyes widened as the implications dawned on her.

There was a very long moment of silence.

"It's perfect." Fable said as he began to laugh a little bit. All eyes turned to him and he slowly began to laugh a little harder. "Well, the way these two are, she was bound to–"

"You suck, Fable!" Winter said, poking him in the ribs and starting to laugh with him. Even Pearl got in on it and Death turned away to hide her little smile as she rocked Prisma from side to side.

While they had their giggle, Diamond came close to Grem and looked her in the eyes, completely sober and understanding.

"You're sure about this?" He asked her and she nodded, leaning her head onto his shoulder. Then he gave the file back to Blossom. "These are they."

"Dude, you're doing it?" Winter said and Blossom obviously had the same question on her face.

"Yeah," Diamond looked at Grem with a warm smile and she smiled back at him, giving him a kiss. "Yeah, I am."

"Awesome!" Winter said and there were more congratulations and pats on the back from everyone. "This calls for another celebration."

"No, this calls for me getting sleep while I still can." Diamond said, and nobody argued. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black box. "Not to mention, lugging this thing all over town has me exhausted.

As soon as he opened it, Diamond made Grem clap two hands over her mouth. She nearly fainted.

‐—------------

Pearl was a little jealous at how quickly the adoption was finalized. Not only did Grem have a solid diamond black diamond ring with a white gold band, but she had three toddlers delivered right to her door.

There they were, all three of them in one long bassinet that allowed them all room to sleep. Both mother and father stood in front of them with discerning looks.

"Wow," Diamond said, looking at one to the other. Then back again as Grem hummed her agreement. "And these are our kids?" She hummed another agreement.

They'd spent the month painting their room and getting everything in triplicate. They basically had to buy an entire pallet of diapers. They didn’t go too crazy with all of the future purchases, but they certainly had it taken care of for more than a month. Neither of them had even thought about what to do with the wedding at the moment. They didn’t need to. A long engagement was perfectly fine with them both.

At that moment, their package had come in and now, it was time to set the plan in motion.

“These are our kids.” Diamond said again, followed by another agreeing hum from the bat pony. “Wow.”

“It sunk in yet?” Grem asked, and he shook his head. “Me neither.”

“So, I guess this means our sleeping life is literally over. How many days of maternity we got left?” Diamond asked, making her sigh.

“Not nearly enough.” Grem was totally honest, making him sigh.

“That figures.” He said, then looked at her. “Well, since our sex lives are put on hiatus, want to go on one last hoorah?”

“Yes, yes, let’s do that.” Grem said, then she began to tiptoe away as he did. Before they even go to the door, there came a long whine from Midnight. Both of them sighed. “That figures.”