Geldings

I was tired Monday morning but I got up and left for school anyway. I took my camera with me, hoping to capture some distractions. When I arrived at the schoolhouse, there was a little crowd outside. I pushed my way to the middle and found Rumble standing there.

"Hay, Featherweight! Take a picture," he said, then turned around and lifted tail. The place where his balls should have been was occupied instead by a white strip of gauze.

My best friend had just been gelded. Probably yesterday, from the looks of it.

I was stunned. Rumble hadn't even earned his mark yet! I stood there gawking, unable to process what I was looking at. I'd seen Rumble's sac plenty of times in the past while at play. Unlike me, he'd been very well-endowed for his age, at least as far as his balls were concerned. Now there was just a smooth, puffy lump.

"Don't be gross," said Silver Spoon. "Nopony wants to take a picture of your lump, Rumble."

The bell rang, saving me. "Ah, you can take one later," said Rumble, and we all filed into class.

I took my seat, overly conscious of how I slid backwards onto the seat to free up my scrotum. I noticed Rumble sitting gingerly down on his bandage, and it made me wince.

"Class, I have two announcements this morning," said Cheerilee, smiling brightly. "Two of our students have made a wonderful step toward adulthood over the weekend. Rumble had his first emission, and Lily Longsocks entered her first heat. Well done!" The classroom thundered with the stomp of congratulatory hooves.

"So what?" said Diamond Tiara, rolling her eyes. "Rumble doesn't even have his cutie mark! That's the important measure of being an adult. Not getting your testicles lopped off."

"You're just mad because you still haven't had your heat," retorted Rumble, frowning with his wings extended.

"Children, please. Both your cutie mark and your adolescence are important measures of adulthood," said Cheerilee. "And just like a cutie mark, adolescence can't be rushed, except in rare cases where a doctor's intervention is required. That said, I think today presents an excellent opportunity to talk about the process of gelding."

I buried my head in my forelegs. This was the last topic I wanted to hear more about.

"Are we going to go over the history of gelding again?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Not in detail, no," said Cheerilee. "Today I'd like to talk more about the social and economic costs and benefits of the process, which will help to illustrate why we do it."

"Oh! I know why we do it," said Pipsqueak, raising his little hoof. "It's because stallions do bad things."

"Well, in part," said Cheerilee. "Why don't we discuss the costs, first. Rumble, what can you tell us about the costs?"

"Oh, um. It's like, free, isn't it?" he said, shifting gently in his seat. "I mean, my parents didn't have to pay anything for it."

"That's true. Gelding is not an elective procedure, so the state pays for the operation. But the doctor and gelding clinic still must get paid. The cost can vary, but it's generally around seventy-five bits for the operation, and two hundred for artificial maturation, semen extraction, and magical stasis," she explained.

"Pfft, they could have kept the two hundred," said Rumble. "I don't even wanna have kids."

"You may change your mind later in life, Rumble. It's important that the option is there for you should you want it," said Cheerilee.

"I suppose. I guess I'll have a bunch of hotties who want me to make babies with them once I'm a Wonderbolt like my brother," said Rumble, and he winked at Scootaloo. The class laughed, except for Scootaloo who glared angrily at him.

"Nopony knows what the future may hold," Cheerilee said in a soothing voice. "Now who can tell me what some of the other costs are?"

The class went silent, and foals stared at each other with puzzled expressions. Finally, Peppermint Twist spoke up. "Thomething could go wrong with the operation?" she asked.

"Good. Complications are a potential cost, but fortunately they are extremely rare," said Cheerilee. "There's a small cost in pain and suffering for the patient as well, but with modern medical advances this is relatively minor."

"I'll say," said Rumble, puffing up his chest. "It didn't hurt hardly at all, unless you're gonna be a wimp about it."

Cheerilee smiled. "That's very brave of you, Rumble. Now can anypony think of any social costs? What does society lose because of gelding?"

"Soldiers are a little weaker," said Lily Longsocks. "Because they have less tes... testy...."

"Tethtothterone," said Twist.

"Yeah, that. Though boys grow taller if they're gelded, so that kind of makes up for it. Oh, and athletes are weaker, too, so geldings can't set the same world records as stallions. But we wouldn't let athletes or soldiers take dangerous drugs to get stronger, so it doesn't make sense to let them have testicles," continued Lily.

"Good point, Lily," said Cheerilee.

"Um, it's also a little harder to make babies," said Apple Bloom. "But it should be, shouldn't it? I mean, kids shouldn't be makin' kids, and you shouldn't be havin' young'uns until you're ready to start a family for real."

"That's very true. While it may be for the best, gelding places an impediment in the way of starting a family: a gelding needs to be an adult to request access to his sperm, and the process of impregnating a mare is a little more involved," said Cheerilee. "But once a gelding turns seventeen years of age, he is free to do whatever he wishes with his sperm, including throw it away—although doing so is never recommended because he may change his mind later, and the state pays for the storage anyway."

I sat there chewing on my lower lip. I didn't want to be involved in this discussion. I'd rather have been a million miles away. I wanted to remain silent, but something inside compelled me to speak.

"I... I know a social cost," I blurted out, and all eyes were on me.

"Go ahead, Featherweight," said Cheerilee.

"Freedom," I said, meekly. "Cause you don't get to choose. You have to lose them. Even if a colt doesn't want it, they'll hold him down and do it to him anyway."

Cheerilee nodded solemnly. "Very good. Freedom is a social cost of the law, and it's probably the largest cost of all."

"But the freedom to do what, keep your balls? What kind of stupid freedom is that?" asked Scootaloo, wrinkling her muzzle up. "They're only going to poison your brain! You'd have to be crazy to want to keep them."

"And selfish," said Sweetie Belle. (I felt a phantom hoof punch me right in the gut.)

"Freedom is defined independent of its costs, children. It's about the ability to decide things for oneself, and true freedom includes the ability to make bad decisions," said Cheerilee. "For example, a pony is free to cheat on their spouse. That may be a bad decision, but without the law allowing ponies to make mistakes like that, we'd be in a very bad situation. Imagine if friendship were forced on you rather than something you were allowed to do on your own. Would it truly be friendship then?"

"But, um, gelding is different," said Snails. "Without it, really bad things would happen. Like that cheating on your spouse thing you just said, that used to be way more common."

"Well, then let's talk about some of those things. What does gelding do for our society?" asked Cheerilee.

"It gets rid of most murder, and almost all rape," said Diamond Tiara. "Stallions do really bad things that geldings don't."

"It's not just the crime, either," said Snips. "Boys restrooms used to be full of bad words and stuff. They'd draw disgusting things all over the walls!"

"But that's what I mean," said Scootaloo. "Why would you want to end up becoming a monster?"

"Scootaloo, not all stallions were monsters," said Cheerilee. "Most stallions were well-behaved and productive members of society."

"It doesn't matter," said Silver Spoon. "Enough of them were monsters, and now almost none of them are."

"It saves thousands and thousands of lives," said Pipsqueak. "Isn't that enough to justify it?"

"Undoubtedly true. The statistics speak for themselves, and this is the legal argument used by the Diarchy to justify gelding," said Cheerilee. Then she pointed to Snips, who had his hoof raised. "Snips?"

"Oh! Isn't it kind of what separates us from yaks?" he asked.

"Exactly," said Diamond Tiara, crossing her forelegs.

"To be fair, we don't yet know enough about yak culture to say that," said Cheerilee.

"But they're so violent!" said Snips.

Cheerilee nodded. "Yes, but the violence in yak culture is largely positive violence, similar to violence in athletics," she said. "It's also common to both male and female yaks. We don't know for certain that yaks have the same problem with abuse and rape that ponies faced before gelding became commonplace."

"Of course they do," said Rumble. "If they have testosterone, some of them are guaranteed to be monsters..."

That's where I stopped paying attention to the discussion. I couldn't stop thinking about what Silver Spoon and Rumble were saying. Gelding turns potential monsters into normal ponies. It was true, wasn't it? Statistics don't lie. Of course gelding was justified. It saved lives, pure and simple. The facts were undeniable.

But as I stared down at my balls while the class droned on, for some reason I felt like this still shouldn't apply to me. This was my body! I already knew I wouldn't be a monster, because I knew who I was as a pony. I was compassionate and caring, and I despised violence. Even with his balls removed, Rumble was probably more rough-and-tumble than I'd ever be as a stallion. Not to mention Scootaloo, and she never even had balls!

Horsefeathers. Scootaloo was so lucky. Fillies can be as rough as they want to and they never have to worry about being fixed.

I was still staring at my lap when the bell for recess rang.