In that little village of Ponyville, it was a day of quiet celebration. It wasn’t as flashy as Hearts & Hooves Day, and the weather hadn’t been changed as with Hearth’s Warming, but there were some telltale signs that the day was more special than usual. The colours red and pink were much more noticeable in some decorations; and just about every mare on the street was accompanied by other ponies, those younger with their fillies or colts, and those older with their own mares or stallions.
Plenty of mares on the streets and in the buildings were looking on with amused and silent anticipation on their muzzles, for they knew they were technically included in the festivities, but would need to wait a few years to really enjoy them to the fullest. Their children hung and swung beneath them, safe in the most motherly embrace. For none of them had even a day passed without the future they bore within themselves passing through their minds with joy, but it was especially strong today as they saw other fruits of what would soon be their labors as well; it was also a reminder that they were regardless taking but the first leisurely trot down the road that was motherhood and maternity.
One mare in that little village always found herself to be between those two groups. She was currently pregnant, and several of the foals she’d birthed were grown by now, but that didn’t change that she was a surrogate. Well, she had a mother she could celebrate today, everypony did, except perhaps Princess Celestia and her sister. Bundle Joy nearly ran into an outside store display of flowers while she was trying to recall that little bit of theology class, so she shunted it to the back of her head before righting herself. She certainly had a mother who would be delighted at her visit, and already Bundle Joy could see her house near a public fountain. It had been several weeks since she’d visited, and she felt a tad bad about it, but it couldn’t be helped; an outbreak of the feather flu had left her without much to do but stay indoors; sure, her special talent would protect the foal, but that sure as hackles didn’t mean she wanted to spend a week or two writhing in bed with both a horrible migraine and a rambunctious little pegasus filly in her tummy who would do her darnedest to prevent her from sleeping it off.
Her thinking returned to the context of the day. Historical records noted earlier holidays and festivals revolving around fertility, around motherhood and fatherhood, but historians disagreed as to the exact nature thereof, and Celestia never was much help when they’d ask her. All that was certain is the existence of Darling Dam’s Day to celebrate the mother, and the similar Dear Dad’s Day to celebrate the father, with both having an existence lasting centuries at the least.
In her idle musing, she’d almost bumped into something again, and looked to her right side to see somepony rather than something, a little dark yellow colt who stood next to her. His body language was off, with a tail held slightly between his legs rather than freely hanging behind him, and he wasn’t meeting her gaze either, but there seemed to be nopony else around for him to have accompanied to where he now stood.
“Hello, little one. I’m sorry I nearly bumped into you with my bump here.” She chuckled, and he glanced at her for a moment, but that was all.
“Are you lost?” He shook his head no.
“Is there something you wanted to tell me?” He froze completely, but then shook his head no again after a moment.
Bundle Joy was beginning to lose her patience, not that she was upset in any way, but she remembered there’s no point taking a pony who won’t drink to water.
“Well, Darling Dam’s Day!” Then she was back on her way.
Bundle Joy took a moment to straighten her mane in the reflection of the fountain before knocking on the door. She could hear her mother inside, and after a few more moments Bundle Joy saw her as she opened the door. The first thing they did was embrace and nuzzle each other in the doorway. Both mares were soft colours, the younger a lighter cream and the older a slightly darker pink; despite inheriting the dual mane colours, Bundle Joy’s mother had a red mane darker than her coat. Already some of her favorite childhood memories were returning to her, like being taught how to bake, and when she once told her mother she resembled strawberry shortcake. Bundle had grown bigger, and wider, whereas her mother had long ago lost the chub she seemed to recall from her very young childhood. But then a hoofstomp brought her back to Equestria.
“Oh no you don’t! Don’t you start reminiscing without me! Come on in already, dearie!” Her mother backed her way back into the house and then stepped aside. Usually, that would be a bit too formal for family, but Bundle had been stuck in that door frame with her mother beforehoof. Her mother then grabbed the doorknob with her teeth and swung the door shut before quickly shuffling around to walk into the living room with her.
The table was already set, with tea to drink on it and pillows on which to sit around it. Bundle Joy had brought over cookies, but not in saddlebags; instead, they were in a small pouch hanging from her like a necklace. It could be all too easy sometimes to forget she were wearing saddlebags, only to sit down and then have them slide over her bump and rump to the floor; she’s been told it’s very amusing to see a pregnant pony try to bend over sideways to snap them up. It’s much easier to wear a pouch necklace when everything fits in it.
The first thing she told her mother was, of course, “Darling Dam’s Day!” to receive the same in-turn. After that the pair of mares talked about the present, the near future, the recent past, and after the far past they drifted to several even more casual topics. Eventually, however, the topic turned towards posterity, as it usually did.
“So, are you going to introduce me to your little guest? What’s her name?” Her mother was playful in how she said it.
Bundle Joy closed her eyes and thought back to the little wisp of the foal’s destiny she could just barely feel in her heart. “I’m not sure, but it has something to do with peaches.”
“Peachbottom?” Her mother half-suggested, half-asked. Bundle Joy laughed.
“No, don’t be silly and suggest a name like that. It will come to me, it always does, or it comes to the mother.” She immediately realized what she’d said, and prepared to roll her eyes at the conversation that would follow in mere seconds.
“You should let me set you up with a nice stallion so you can get married and have a child of your own for once. I see so many foals in you, and I’d just love to be related for once.” Bundle Joy rolled her eyes.
“I don’t think a stallion would want a wife who’s perpetually-pregnant, mom.” She knew she was fibbing through her teeth.
“Oh, you’d be surprised. Why, when I was carrying you, your father was all over me every nig-” Bundle Joy snorted so she could avoid hearing all of that sentence, and stuffed another cookie in her mouth for some crunching noises.
After a moment, the conversation continued a little more seriously.
“Sweetie, I like your special talent, I just want to see you use it for yourself, at least once, or twice.” They’d had the conversation several times beforehoof, and Bundle’s answer hadn’t really changed in meaning, only words.
“I just think that maybe I’m content helping other families conceive, and taking care of their foals. I like being a surrogate, and a midwife. I like running a daycare.” She sipped her tea before continuing.
“My special talent means I should never have issues changing my mind, but I just haven’t met the stallion whose children I want to bear.”
Her mother gave her a look.
“You know exactly what I meant!”
“I’m just busy helping other ponies so often. I don’t want to have children and then never care for them.” She responded before her mother could give her that look again. “And you know exactly what I meant by that.”
The conversation switched topics for a little while, before returning with her mother asking, “Why not take a vacation to a stud farm if you’re worried about finding a husband?”
Bundle Joy covered her face with her forehooves, blush visible through her coat and still visible past her hooves. She did like teasing stallions, and even colts, but that was completely different. The very thought of being tied up so some stallion could breed her was obscene, in all the right ways. However, only desperate mares would visit some stud farm, and she was no desperate mare. The very thought of wearing a bridle and being struck with a riding whip, why the very thought made her scarf down another cookie and calm herself. Why was it so exhilarating to talk about these things with anypony other than her mother?
Still, perhaps her mother had a point. Perhaps she could start looking around for a stallion to make her husband a bit more seriously, and she told her mother as much. With the thought growing in her head, she began to think about what qualities would make for her an ideal husband. Her first thought was a stallion with a cutie-mark the male counterpart to hers; the thought of the multitude of foals they’d likely end up making put two words in her head: expensive, but also nice. She began to imagine that dream stallion in a little more detail; with a cutie-mark like that, would he feel like a life bringer similar to her? Did stallions imagine their future children like mares do? Do stallions ever talk to their testicles like she speaks to an unborn foal? In any case, she wasn’t going to let her fur get all wet in front of her mother, but she did need to use the bathroom, so she finished her tea and slowly brought herself to stand.
A thought occurred to her while she was urinating, and stayed with her afterwards: Her mother had a point.
This little filly was and wasn’t hers. There was always a bit of an alien, and exciting, feeling when she bore a colt, a feeling she didn’t get even when she bore the foal of another tribe, but even when she held within her body a pony on her half of love, the little filly was never truly hers; a filly was closer, and an Earth pony filly even closer, but still not truly in her image. She would labor, their connection would be severed, and even if she would be allowed to nurse the foal as she sometimes was, their remaining time would be measured in minutes, before the foal’s true parents collected whom they had paid her to bear, and then little or nothing.
Certainly, she enjoyed seeing the children she had borne playing around the village and growing up, and, sure, sometimes they talked to her about it or thanked her when they were older, but she was having difficulties remembering the last time that had happened. Sometimes, she felt like a water vessel, which existed to be filled and poured without end, or a cooking pot whose contents are always enjoyed on other dining ware.
It was her special talent, and she never regretted it, but she did think it was a little funny for a pony who’d been pregnant as often as she to feel so childless, so alone, so often. She shook her head. Thankfully there were no tears in her eyes. This wasn’t time for brooding, at least not that kind of brooding. She laughed a little at that. She looked down, and felt the foal inside of her. For now, she was hers, and nopony else’s. For now, that was enough.
There was a knock at the door, conveniently as she was returning to the living room. When she opened the door, she noticed the same little colt from earlier. He scraped at the ground with his hoof, but then looked up. “D-Darling Dam’s Day.” was all he said, meeting her eyes for a moment.
Bundle Joy was confused for a moment, but thought she understood. Had she been so preoccupied earlier that she’d forgotten she’d borne this colt too?
“M-My parents told me earlier this year about how they had trouble having me, and how you helped them.” He returned to looking down and scraping at the ground. “S-So, it only felt right to tell you Darling Dam’s Day too, is all.” Before he could react, she plopped down on her rump and bent over, as well as she could anyway, and grabbed him up in her forelegs to sit him on her bump in a tight hug.
“Well aren’t you just a sweetie?” She then gave him a peck on the forehead. “Would you like to come inside for some tea and cookies?”
“I-I’m supposed to give you something today.” He was squirming in her grasp a little, but not really trying to escape.
“Oh, you already have.”
Copyright 2023 Kassaz
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