Mandatory Motherhood: Short Stories

Garden

Chris and Colgate walked through a small garden towards Mia who was currently deweeding the area of what she could. Automated watering systems had kept the garden barely alive before Mia arrived and took it over. Colgate was baffled as to how Mia had accomplished what she did with the garden, she seems to have been raised in to think that only earth ponies could raise gardens.

“Colgate, are you telling me you haven't raised plants?” Chris shoulder bumped Colgate who stared at what Mia had grown.

Colgate shook her head and looked at Chris. “Not a garden, but I have some flowers in window planters.”

Chris chuckled and continued toward Mia. “Not much difference, just the number of plants you are tending to.”

Colgate looked unsure. “But earth ponies naturally emit magic from their hooves into the earth they walk on and this magic feeds into the plant around where they step and plants grow stronger, faster, bigger, and more vibrant.”

Chris shrugs. “So they get a natural bonus to growing plants. Do you think that means you should put someone down for doing something they like?”

Colgate looked taken aback. “I wasn’t trying to do that, if she likes gardening that’s fine. I’m just saying that earth ponies naturally do it better... If they learn to control it they can control the magic that they put into the earth and rapidly grow plants into harvestable crops within minutes or even moments if they have enough power.”

Mia somehow popped up from behind Colgate and draped herself over Colgate’s back, Mia’s antenna hair moved over Colgate’s mane and the side of her face.”That is interesting to hear but, we don’t have any earth ponies here. Besides, do you think rapidly growing plants like that is a good thing?”

Colgate and I looked at Mia with confusion and fear as in the time it took us to blink she had suddenly moved from being in front of us to standing behind Colgate, even more so as the question had a sense of dread and warning laced into it. Colgate gulped before responding. “W-what do you mean Mia?”

Mia hummed in thought and crossed her hooves over Colgate’s shoulder. “Well, what do you think plants need to grow? They need water, nutrients, carbon dioxide, and sunlight. If your rapidly growing plants can take weeks or months to grow in moments, they are going to lack what they need and will rapidly drain it from the environment. “

Colgate looked even more confused, earth science isn’t her thing. “I am unsure if that is how it works… it’s magic yah know?”

Mia chuckled. “Unless that magic is just producing the needed water and nutrients out of nowhere they have to come from somewhere. So it's likely that the produce won't be as tasty and healthy, probably a little wilted even. And I suspect that even if this doesn’t happen on the first plant it would likely happen on plants after the first harvest. The ground would probably start looking like a desert, dry arid cracked ground void of moisture and nutrients.”

Colgate drooped down, she couldn’t argue with Mia on this since she was neither an earth pony nor had she studied that much the the magics of other races. “I guess you could be right… sorry if it seemed like I was demeaning you, Mia.”

Mia chuckled back at her garden bed. “It’s fine, but It’s not like I overly enjoy gardening like a passion or anything. It’s just… calming. My mother was big on gardening and I loved helping her when I was little. So… no worries?”

Colgate smiled back at Mia with tear-filled eyes. “Alright.” There was a bit of fear laced into Colgate’s words

Note to self, Mia can be very scary when upset.