Does the Party End with Motherhood?

The hospital lights beat down in a light different but just as bright as the sun. Pinkie Pie waited alone in her room, not sure why she ended up in so much pain this particular morning. Once the Cake twins had left the room, they managed to get Mrs. Cake up to Pinkie within seconds. After making sure there wasn’t any blood or anything else that looked like it might prevent Pinkie from moving, she summoned her husband to the room, and Mr. Cake had carried her gently but swiftly to Ponyville General. He’d promised to stay and wait for her until she was done, but he’d opted to stay out of the examinations for Pinkie’s own privacy.

She sighed as she laid on her side, looking more melancholy than most ponies ever saw her. Her normally fluffy hair had slightly straightened, not completely falling across her whole head but several strands had begun to fall, especially in front of her eyes.  She heard a rustling in the hall, and several familiar voices spoke loudly to one of the hospital staff.

“Now hold on, why can’t we see her?” the voice of a familiar cyan Pegasus asked above all the others.

“When she gets her results, you can all come in and visit to your heart’s content, but until then, you have to wait. We don’t know what her situation is yet, and any unwanted stress could easily make things worse,” a voice that sounded like Nurse Redheart replied to her.

“Come on ya’ll, we’ll just go out to the waitin’ room. Can’t make us wait forever,” Applejack’s voice said, followed by several slow hoofsteps and several audible grumbles, most notably by Rainbow Dash.

     Pinkie couldn’t help but wonder just who had come. She wondered if Rarity had made the trip back from Canterlot to find out if anything was really wrong. Pinkie hoped she hadn’t gone to such trouble. She then began to wonder if Caramel was out there. She’d never had time amidst her constant use of her boundless energy to think much on her relationship with him. She knew she loved him, but she realized she always did most of the talking and he liked to stay mostly quiet, and she realized just how dysfunctional their relationship could be. Still, she decided he had to love her back, or else he’d have left long ago. With another sigh, Pinkie tried to think of happier thoughts, realizing just why she hated the serious things that claimed most of the world around her.

     Lost in unfamiliar thoughts, Pinkie didn’t notice the click of the door opening until her doctor was standing in front of her.

“Ah, good, hmm, what time is it?” he checked a fancy watch strapped around his foreleg, “Ah yes, evening Ms. Pie. I’ve got good news, and... I’ve got  more good news for you.”

“Say what?” Pinkie retorted quickly, sitting up to get more comfortable.

“Well, the good news is, physically, you are absolutely healthy. No nasty sickness or physical ailment. Now are you ready for the other bit of good news?”

   Pinkie cocked her head for a moment, but nodded all the same.

“It would seem, Ms. Pie, that you are expecting a foal. Congratulations!”

     Pinkie didn’t realize her eyes had widened. She didn’t realize how pale she had become. She sat there, perfectly still, completely in shock.

“Hmmm, Ms. Pie?”

     Pinkie didn’t respond for several more seconds, before simply slumping down back into her hospital bed and passing out.

“Hey, come’ere ya’ll, Ah think she’s comin’ around.”

   Pinkie’s first thought was how cliché it was for her to open her eyes to the blurry sight of all her friends crowded around her bed. Her second thought was overwhelming joy that they were there.

“Hey everypony,” she spoke softly.

“Pinkie, we all couldn’t believe what the doctor said about your diagnosis. It’s amazing! I mean, it really sounds amazing.  Is that how you feel about it?” Twilight seemed to have suddenly picked up Pinkie’s slack by launching a fast paced barrage of comments at the pink pony.

     Pinkie looked away. Her life had suddenly become very confusing. She glanced around at her friends. She could see Twilight and Spike, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and their daughter Apple Blitz, Fluttershy and Big Macintosh. Rarity it seemed hadn’t made it back in, and Pinkie wasn’t sure that she would be coming. She also noticed the lack of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but she hadn’t expected them. Then she noticed one other pony was missing.

“W-where’s Caramel? Does he know?” Pinkie asked the others.

   They all shook their heads.

“Sorry sugarcube, seems he got called into the shop after we saw him earlier at the orchard. He just couldn’t leave,” Applejack told her.

“But that’s good, right? So you can tell him yourself,” Rainbow pumped a hoof at her statement, which Apple Blitz tried her best to mimic below her.

“Caramel is the father, isn’t he Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked, suddenly sounding concerned.

“Yeah,” Pinkie said, still in a bit of shock.

    While most of her friends tried  their best to comfort her, she didn’t notice Fluttershy, a look of extreme hurt in her eyes, quickly fleeing the room. Big Macintosh slowly crept up to Applejack and whispered something in her ear. Applejack gave a nod, and Big Mac left a few seconds later.

    Pinkie sat up on the bed, listening to her friends gush about the all the wonderful possibilities a new foal would bring. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were especially talkative on the subject. Pinkie continued not to speak, still letting  the revelation soak in.

Meanwhile in the nearby park, a familiar canary colored pegasus sat all by her lonesome, crying. Big Mac looked everywhere around the proximity of the hospital trying to find where Fluttershy may have run off to. After a couple minutes of searching he began to hear the faint, yet distinct sound of somepony crying. He followed the sound which soon after brought him to the park that was by the hospital. He caught sight of Fluttershy sitting on a bench by herself, crying into her hooves. He slowly made his way over to where she was at and stopped once he was standing right in front of her.

Fluttershy's ears perked up as she heard somepony approaching. She sniffed and looked up from her hooves to see that it was her coltfriend, staring at her with concern showing clearly in his eyes. She dropped her head to look at the ground, opening her mouth to say something, but nothing came of it. Big Mac took a seat next to her, waiting for her to talk about what the issue was, even though he was fairly certain about what it was. Finally she gradually lifted her head up to look over at Big Mac before speaking.

“I’m sorry, Big Mac... I-I just... I don’t know what to think right now,” she managed to choke out. Big Mac didn’t say a word. Instead he pulled Fluttershy into a hug and rubbed her back to try and comfort her and stop the crying. Fluttershy buried her head into his shoulder, letting everything that has been bugging her, out.

     They sat there for what seemed like hours before pulling away and finally digging into what the this whole thing was about.

“It’s... It’s just not...”

“Fair?” Big Mac finished.

“Yeah,” Fluttershy responded, looking down at the ground again.

“Hey, Flutters. You gotta know that life is never always fair. Some things work our way and sometimes they don’t. We just have to deal with what life throws at us,” he said in hopes that Fluttershy would know what he was saying and accept it.

   Fluttershy took in what Big Mac had just said. She thought over all the times where life was and wasn’t fair and it was true. Some moments it was fair, but others it just down right wasn’t. There was no changing that. “Yeah, I suppose so,” she said a little reluctantly.

Big Mac pulled her into another hug, happy that she was accepting of such a fact. she pulled away before she spoke again.

“So now what will I have to do?” she questioned, trying to figure out a way that she could get such a privilege.

“Well... there’s always adoption, I guess. I don’t know what else there is that we could do,” he suggested.

“You think it will work out?” she said a little worried.

“Don’t you worry, Flutters. It will work out just fine, I promise you,” he glanced in the direction of the hospital, then back to Fluttershy.

“C’mon, lets get back to the hospital.”

_____________________

After a few hours, things began to wind down and one pony or another had something to attend to, leaving Pinkie alone in the hospital. Twilight had promised to come back as soon as she found Caramel.  Beyond the beeps and whirrs of the machines they’d hooked Pinkie to, the room was silent, something the pink pony was not accustomed to.

“I’m gonna be a mother!” she spoke to herself happily, like she’d talk to anypony else. “If they are anything like Pound and Pumpkin were, then it’ll be super-duper great! We’ll play games and bake cookies and stay up late and read scary stories!”

Pinkie thought for a moment.

“But what if they aren’t like the Cake twins? What if they don’t like parties? What if the foal doesn’t like to play what I like? And I can’t just give back this foal like when I used to babysit,” the worry creeping into Pinkie;s voice was evident.

     A small chuckle came from across the room. Pinkie’s doctor had had the door cracked and heard all of Pinkie’s ramblings.

“Pinkie,” he started sternly but his features softened quickly, “Despite how idyllic Ponyville may seem sometimes, do you know just how many Ponies I get in here younger than you, some of them still young fillies, who’ve made this “mistake” or that “mistake” and end up right where you are? To be honest far too many, but most of them, they have no way to take care of themselves. they put their burden on their parents or on other ponies, or sometimes they decide upon other options. I can’t say I fully condone those, but considering the life those foals may have had to lead, well...” he wipes his brow with his foreleg. “Well lets not talk about that.”

    Pinkie seemed a bit confused by all this.

“Ms. Pie, what I’m saying is, you have a job, you know who your foal’s father is. You’re an adult now, and you actually know quite a bit about caring for baby ponies. I think you’ll do just fine.”

    Pinkie managed to grin ear to ear.

“Doctor, when I get out, I’m throwing you such a big party!”