“Rarity?”
Diamond had fled. She didn’t say yes. She didn’t listen to the evil zebra. She ran away, just like she was supposed to do, because there was nothing wrong, and she was a good filly, a nice filly.
“Rarity, am I like... okay?”
She couldn’t exactly flee from the zebra, because she was so tired from not being able to sleep, or eat. And if she moved too fast, it made her head hurt, like, really bad. She stumbled more than gallopped, just trying to get away from that zebra and her words and what they meant. It couldn’t be true. That didn’t happen to ponies! Ponies never did... that to their foals! It couldn’t be true!
“Sorry dear, but I’m quite afraid I don’t understand what you mean.”
Diamond had made it to the boutique. She made it to the boutique because she was fine, and everything was fine. She wanted to talk to Rarity, but Rarity was with a customer. Rarity was always too busy to talk to Diamond Tiara, but that was okay, because Diamond never wanted to talk to her before. But now Diamond Tiara really needed to talk to her!
“Am I going to be okay?”
She had to wait. She hated waiting. She had to eat something. She had to get better. She could make it through this, it was just a little sick, it was normal to have. Even though Diamond was the only foal she knew... the only filly her age in the whole town who was pregnant... and alive.
“Now, why on earth wouldn’t you be okay?”
When Diamond finally got to talk to Rarity, she took the dressmaker into the furthest back, darkest part of her boutique, where nopony could interrupt or come in and ask about dresses, or hear.
“There’s nothing wrong with my pregnancy? Everything’s okay right now,” Diamond commanded more than asked. And Rarity smiled at her in this horribly insinscere way, fear in her eyes as she said in a sing-song voice,
“Oh my dear, your pregnancy is fine! Sure it’s a little... unusual, but I’m sure we can deal with your... special needs. We’re doing everything we can to give you the best possible chances.”
“Rarity, I’ve been getting sicker—”
Rarity immediately interrupted her saying pleadingly, “Diamond, don’t say that! We will deal with any problems you may be facing. You have to keep a positive attitude in these times! Perhaps your diet needs more adjustment, or perhaps you need more bed rest.”
“Do fillies like—” Diamond swallowed dryly.
“Do fillies what?” Rarity asked. She asked so tenuously. Diamond could tell neither of them wanted to be here.
“When fillies get pregnant,” Diamond said cautiously, “Do they ever, like, die?”
Rarity said nothing.
“You are going to be fine, dear,” Rarity said reassuringly, after that hollow, cavernous silence. “We just need to be vigilant, and we can give you the best chance that we... can.”
“Are you sure, Rarity?” Diamond Tiara whined.
Rarity smiled sadly, and said ,“Rest assured Diamond, I would not have taken you in if I thought you’d have had a better chance at it any other way.”
Well, Rarity was a liar. A big fat liar. Diamond knew she was, because Diamond wasn’t getting any better. Her foal was just a big bunch of dead weight, while she struggled to just even get up in the morning. She didn’t want to be pregnant anymore. She wanted it to stop! A-and the next day of her trial had... had a certain pony up on the witness stand.
“I had thought she was a common burglar,” a large, blue, well dressed stallion known as Pierce said in outrage to the judge. “But then I found her little accomplices. She was part of the very radicalists who seek to undermine Celestial rule. Those three broke into my estate with the express purpose to sabotage my dinner party. Their lies and slander could have led to terrible consequences, had they not met defeat at the hands of me and my loyal staff.”
Diamond Tiara was all screamed out. They planned this. They waited until she was too tired to... to say anything, so that he could get away with everything no matter what. Diamond tried to tell them he was the one who made her pregnant, but he told them first! He told them she would say it as a lie, to damage his reputation and weaken the... crown or whatever. And so, when she said it, it sounded like she was lying, and he was right all along. But he wasn’t! And Diamond just couldn’t... she just couldn’t find it in her to care much anymore. She just wanted it to be over. She just wanted it to end. She just...
She saw the zebra, out on the streets. Diamond wasn’t stalking her or anything, but she could see when the zebra came to town now. Zecora, she said her name was. It was a weird name. Diamond Tiara didn’t even know what a zecora was, or anything. Zecora wore that cloak, but you could still spot her, since nopony else had to hide their stripes. Everypony gave the zebra a wide berth, walking away from her, refusing to talk with her, closing doors and windows as she approached, just like they did to Diamond Tiara.
Diamond had been taught that zebras were evil, that they didn’t even have a cutie mark because there was nothing good in them to make one. Ponies told stories of zebras who stole foals away in the night, to cook them up and eat them, or zebras who could hypnotize you with a glance, and once you were under their spell, you would follow them into the woods, never to be seen again.
Yet as Diamond was stalking this zebra, she just seemed like a... pony with a cloak on, which very few other ponies would even talk to. An apothecary, the local librarian, an animal caretaker, the zebra didn’t talk with anypony else. She just made her way through town, went inside a very few shops that didn’t close their doors to her, and then went to the woods, where she walked into that misty, dank jungle as if she had been born to it.
Diamond wanted to follow her, but she was too tired, and the forest wasn’t scary or anything, but it was just, really like, dangerous, so she decided to wait to talk to Zecora later. Instead, Diamond talked to Rarity.
“Rarity, I met a zebra.”
“Oh, did she hurt you?” Rarity said in worried concern. “Were you alright? She didn’t try to do anything to you, did she?”
“I’m fine,” Diamond said, pushing Rarity away with a hoof.
Collecting herself, Rarity said, “Well, Zecora, as she’s known, is a notorious figure in Ponyville. Nopony knows why she comes here, or what danger she might present to the town. She deals in potions and medicines, but vile, inpony ones that have no basis in modern medicine. If I had my way, I’d have that evil witch run out, before she hurts somepony, or worse!”
“She didn’t hurt—she just talked to me,” Diamond said. “She said I was... she said it was really bad that I had a foal!”
“Oh?” Rarity said, smiling even as her pupils narrowed. “Why would she say something so horrible as that?”
“She said I—I was going to d-die if I had a foal,” Diamond said, “That I was too young!”
“You are not going to die, my dear,” Rarity said with fear in her icy blue eyes, “It’s merely an... extra challenge at your age. I trust with the right care and treatment you’ll do just...” Rarity smiled “...fine!”
“She said my heart was going to stop, and my blood vessels were going to break open!” Diamond declared in outrage. “Why was she lying to me about that?”
“Oh, well, it’s not a lie persay,” Rarity hemmed, “Just a... nasty way to say it. Many birth complications do involve the heart and high blood pressure, especially for young... for fillies who are too young. You seem like you’re doing fine though! I’m sure you’ll start improving any day... now.”
“I’m not improving,” Diamond shouted, hot tears in her aching eyes, “I’m not getting better and I can’t—I can’t keep this foal or I’m gonna die!”
“Would you rather be a murderer of a sweet, innocent foal?” Rarity asked in something between panic and anger. “Who never did anything to hurt you?”
“She’s literally killing me!” Diamond shrieked. She had to gasp for breath she couldn’t breathe she—she took forced breaths, forcing herself to calm down. She felt like she was going to... to pop like a balloon!
Rarity hovered over her, when Diamond almost collapsed, but seemed afraid to touch her. Rarity is afraid! Diamond realized.
“If I die,” Diamond said threateningly, “Then the foal is going to die. She’s going to die anyway, so... so why shouldn’t I kill her if she’s just going to die anyway?!”
There were tears in Rarity’s eyes as she smiled helplessly and squeaked out, “Perhaps it would be best if you simply... accepted it gracefully?”
Accepted it, Diamond mouthed out in disbelief. She stared at Rarity, who looked like she was going to bolt at any second. “You’re the witch,” she said quietly.
“I?” Rarity replied, her face a mask of horror.
“You’re the witch!” Diamond replied. “You want me to die! You’re just lying and pretending to be nice you, you stupid pony!
“You’re the witch!” Diamond shouted at Rarity backing up against the wall, “Not the zebra. You! You stupid pony witch murderer!”
Her tone was bordering on shrieking again, and Diamond really didn’t want to pass out now, again, so she just glared at her own sobbing murderer, and shrieked, “I hate you!!” then fled. She ran—stumbled as fast as she could. She pushed Sweetie Belle out of the way. She went up the stairs the—stairs were too hard to climb. She shut herself in the closet and pulled the door closed.
She hated them all. All those stupid lying ponies that only pretended to be her friend and she fell for it every time, because she was a stupid pony too, and she couldn’t stop being a stupid pony who was crying here in the closet and just really, really, really, really wishing she could have just one friend. She was so alone. Her body hated her, and her foal hated her, and there was no escape. She couldn’t take all this weariness and fear, and pain, and she had... she had nopony to save her.
Diamond Tiara still held out for the vain hope that maybe she would be different, and all the disdainful, pitying, and fearful looks the townsponies gave her swollen belly were just wrong, and some miracle would come to save them both. She crawled upstairs to her bed, and... stayed put for a few days. But on the day before her next court date, Diamond Tiara woke up one morning in an utter terrified panic, struggling against an unknown foe, not even understanding her own distress.
And then her heart started beating.
It was an early morning, when a thickly swaddled Diamond Tiara crept out of Carousel Boutique. She was bundled up, to conceal her identity beneath a thick hood, and because she was just unable to keep herself warm anymore. Up to the market, where a few vendors were setting up. The zebra wasn’t here, but it was still early. How would Diamond know where she was going to be?
She picked a random market vendor, asking the pony, “Psst! Do you know if that zebra is going to be here today?”
“Ugh,” the mare said disgustedly. “If you’re so worried about her, just come back tomorrow. She only comes into town once a week, so you can just avoid her, don’tcha know?”
Diamond wasn’t listening at that point though, because all she could hear ringing in her head was “Once a week.” If Diamond had missed the zebra today, she’d have had to wait a whole entire week. Diamond didn’t know if she could make it another week. She... she was chilled by the thought that next week, she might be dead.
“Who does she buy things from?” Diamond asked the tan coated vendor, swallowing her fear like a bitter pill. She earned a laugh for her effort.
“Oh, the only pony who’ll sell her kind anything is that soap seller over there,” the vendor said amusedly, then in a more serious voice, “I think she put a hex on his daughter, to force him to defend the zebra. Poor stallion’s a few acorns short of an oak tree if you ask... me?” But Diamond had already vanished from her sight.
Diamond sat there feeling like an idiot by the soap merchant’s stall, huddling underneath her purloined cloak in the dawn air. It wasn’t keeping her warm enough, because she couldn’t keep herself warm enough anymore. She wished she were in the boutique now, where it was warm, and not scary, but she couldn’t go back, or Rarity would stop her.
It wasn’t long anyway, before the soap seller noticed her loitering and said, “You alright there, my little pony?”
Diamond Tiara looked up dizzily at the vendor, a greying stallion with a scar over his left eye. “F-f-fine,” she lied. “J-just waiting for some... pony.”
He frowned, thin-lipped, but didn’t press her for details. Some moments later a sack of rough thick burlap fell over her. Diamond’s momentary panic was allayed when she realized it was only draping over her, not imprisoning her. “Stay warm, little pony,” his coarse voice drifted to her. Diamond didn’t know how to respond, so she just clutched the rough, itchy fabric around on top of her soft cloak. It... was sufficient to keep her warm.
The day dawned and the sun shone bright on the horizon, before vanishing behind everpresent clouds of snow that had yet to fall. Diamond almost slept through the zebra’s coming, but it was the zebra who woke her up. The zebra mare prodded Diamond and said in her chillingly deep voice, “What is this I come to see? A filly wants to speak with me?”
Diamond snapped awake and she said, “Ze—” her throat was dry though, and she coughed, doubling over as her forearms unconsciously wrapped around her bulging abdomen. She sagged there, recovering for a... while, and then a glass of water was pressed to her lips. Diamond looked up and it was the zebra again, holding the glass. The strange ponylike creature looked like an angel, with the way the morning light shone around her black and white hide.
Drinking, Diamond was able to speak to her, but the zebra didn’t let her. “Come aside little filly,” she said, “For you must not be seen with me,” and Diamond followed her into the alleyway behind the soap vendor, at the edge of the market square.
Not speaking, but looking at her, , Diamond Tiara felt strangely violated as the zebra pulled down Diamond’s eyelid, getting startlingly close to her and listening at her chest. The zebra was very no-nonsense though, and after her... examination, she stated frankly, “It’s good you came to me today. This foal must swiftly go away.”
Finally, something Diamond Tiara could agree with.
“An hour, I ask that you endure,” the zebra mare said urgently, “There are herbs I must procure.”
“Okay, just like...” Diamond was on the edge of tears. Why was she on the edge of tears? “Please come back,” she whispered. When she opened her eyes, the zebra was gone.
At least this burlap was actually... surprisingly warm. As long as Diamond Tiara didn’t have to wear it directly against her fur. It wasn’t an hour, but it wasn’t two hours before the zebra returned. Diamond was dismayed to see snowflakes start falling. She shouldn’t be outside right now. She shouldn’t be doing this at all!
She didn’t want to die.
The zebra came back, with a grave expression and very grim news. “I found what you need at my place. In this tincture is your saving grace,” she said, holding up a bottle of dark liquid.
“Well, don’t just sit there, give it to me!” Diamond stated, reaching forward desperately, but the zebra held it away from her!
“You filly, I must warn. Your foal is too close to being born. Another three months, and you would be the mother of a brand new pony.”
Diamond blanched. “I can’t... three months? I—I’ll d-die. Sorry,” she mumbled.
“I do not doubt you, for my warning is you must lose the foal this very morning,” the zebra mare replied. “Normally your birth to stay would have treatments for more than just one day. But your heart is worryingly weak, and your blood is too pale to wait another week. You must drink this entire vial, and the results you may revile.
Pacing in front of the beleagured pink filly, Zecora explained, “This tincture makes birthing contractions steady, whether or not your child is ready. But your cervix has not dilated. The pain can not be understated. I have added a soother of pain and frustration, and medicine to cause dilation, but we haven’t the time to take it slow, so it will be painful, just so you know.”
“W–what’s a cervix?” Diamond asked in a small voice.
The zebra’s eyes softened, and she sat next to Diamond, saying, “What do you know of giving birth? Ponies must think you not long for this earth.”
“Well I know it... it’s in my belly,” Diamond explained, feeling stupid for how little she knew about it, “And it’s because Pier–some stallion put seed in me down there. Um... and the foal has to come out the same way down there, but I don’t know how I could eve stretch enough to fit a whole foal in there. P-penises are hard enough.”
“Your birth canal does stretch for the foal,” the zebra said, “And on you this will take a toll, but beyond the vagina lays your womb. The cervix is the door to that room.” She pantomimed hooking her hooves together, saying, “It’s tightly closed when the stallion goes in, more loosely when you are in season.” She widened the... hole her forearms wrapped around, saying, “As your belly swells, your cervix widens too. Making birth something mares can do.” She pulled her hooves close again, saying, “But yours is not yet wide. It must become so, for the foal to get outside.”
“T-the medicine you said does that—” Diamond said worriedly.
“It will help a little with that goal, but for the most part, it will be the foal.” the zebra said, laying a hoof on Diamond Tiara’s belly. “You will be forced to squeeze down inside,” she said, “And the foal’s passing will push it wide. It is as of yet a tiny foal, so you should be able without terrible toll. But listen to me and listen well, when I say that it will hurt like hell.”
“But I don’t have any choice!” Diamond said in terror. “What do I do? I can’t—what if it kills me! What if my heart can’t take it?”
The zebra smiled and said, “Do not fear for your life. This ordeal will only give you strife. If you do this and your foal is away, you will live to see another day. I merely warn you that it is not something done lightly. I hope you’ll come to me earlier if you want this done nightly.”
“I—I will!” Diamond said frantically. “So like, it’ll hurt a lot, and stretch open some... squeezed closed door in me, but I’ll be... okay?”
“The future, none of us can say,” the zebra mused distantly, but smiled again and looked at Diamond with gentle blue eyes. “But yes, I think you will be okay.”
Diamond had never felt more relieved in her whole entire life. She was—she was going to be okay! The—the zebra was still holding it away from her!
“There is one more rule I must lay down,” the zebra mare said, “If you drink it, do so out of town. If ponies learn what you are going to do, it will not end well for you. I am at risk to help you be free. If they find out about you, it may be the end for me.”
Diamond gulped. “E-e-end for you?” she asked.
The zebra nodded. “Ponies may seem peaceful and soft, but to protect their foals, the boots come off,” she said, “It may be the greatest hypocrisy, but for saving your life, they will murder me.”
Diamond stared at her speechlessly.
Missing her astonishment as misunderstanding, the zebra smirked and said, “Ponies can try to do their worst, but they will find it hard to catch me first.”
“Do you know who I am?” Diamond blurted out. “You—you trust me?”
“In you I see a savvy foe,” the zebra replied, “Far from town, I know you will go. Far beyond the edge of town, where despite your screams you will not be found. Not my friendship to affirm, but to protect yourself, and make them squirm.”
“Okay, so... leave town,” Diamond said, blushing at just how accurate that zebra was at Diamond’s desire to shove this stupid foal business in everypony’s faces, “Go far away, and then drink it.”
The zebra nodded, “It should take effect within two hours or one. You will know when you are done.”
“And it’ll... hurt a lot.”
“Do not try to force contractions, always remember to breathe. Bring a sturdy stick to bite in your teeth.”
“A–and I’ll live.”
The zebra nodded, saying, “In my lifelong campaign, nopony has returned to complain.”
Diamond thought long and hard about—the potion was within reach.
“Gimme it,” she said, snatching the phial.
The zebra hurriedly walked off a few steps, before turning back to Diamond who was clutching the phial like a life preserver... which it sort of literally was.
“In your own hooves, your life, you take,” the zebra told her in a sort of respect Diamond wasn’t used to hearing, a respect she earned. “Fare thee well, little Mistake.”
With a swirl of her cloak the zebra was off, Diamond spluttering after her, “H-hey, that’s not my name!” She was just shouting at the air now though. That zebra could move fast.
Diamond looked at the phial. She still couldn’t go back to the boutique. If Rarity saw this, and asked questions... Diamond Tiara had to do this now. Now or...never do anything again. She shuddered at the thought of her insides being forced open. She didn’t even know what her cervix was supposed to feel like, but she got the idea that after this was over, she would know.
It was far out of town Diamond Tiara went, past even the ponies farming in the fields. The sun would have been high in the sky as she left the trail to slog through the shallow snow drifts. She was bundled up by that curiously insulating burlap, but she felt like she was going to fall over just from walking. Her hooves were cold, she had a terrible headache, and rather than a stick, Diamond only had the phial gently gripped in her teeth. She did everything perfectly though, just like the zebra said. It was so strange, how Diamond was helping this zebra despite not even knowing her. They had mutual goals of not dying, and that was... enough?
Diamond found shelter in a thicket, where the snow didn’t reach. Perking an ear, all was silent. She heard nopony talking, no clip clop of hooves on the earth. Placing down the phial, Diamond found a sturdy branch she could bite on, and she was ready. With a strange affection in the relief she felt, Diamond rubbed her swollen belly one last time. She said “Sorry kid, but it’s you or...” Diamond paused thoughtfully, saying, “you, or you and me.” Diamond would be a liar if she said she hadn’t felt a kick.
Then with a frightened whimper, Diamond Tiara downed the entire phial. It tasted absolutely horrible. She swallowed every drop, and the bitter concoction left her gasping for breath. It left an awful aftertaste that lingered, and Diamond wished desperately that she’d remembered to bring along some water.
And... it was done. She did it. She paused, checking herself over. She felt... fine. When was it supposed to start, an hour? Clutching her assembly of cloaks close around her, Diamond settled against a root, and decided to pass the time like she sometimes did, by talking to her belly.
“I really did love him,” Diamond told it wistfully. Smiling bitterly, she cursed herself, “Idiot.”
“I wonder what I was like, when my mother had me,” Diamond said. “Hopefully not as much trouble as you. She never wanted me though. S-sorry I have to do this to you. I really did want you, and I would have thought of a great name, but I just—I just can’t do it.”
With tears in her eyes, Diamond decided against talking to her belly. “So like, good-bye,” she said. “No orphanage for you.” And that was it.
Then, she just decided to try getting some more sleep. It was the contractions that woke her up, not because they were painful, but because they were... strange. Diamond had never felt those muscles before, They felt... strange, like something separate from her stomach muscles, but hard to distinguish. And the contractions themselves were strange, because Diamond did feel like she had some control over them. It was like an urge that built up in her, like when you try to hold back a yawn. It build and built, and then there was this smooth squeeze, something around her womb flexing. It was even sort of satisfying, at first.
But then... and she knew it was coming, but not exactly how. Then, the contractions started getting more powerful and forceful. Diamond touched her belly as they happened, and quiescent, it didn’t seem like there was anything but a thin membrane between her womb and her skin. But when it clenched down again, her whole abdomen just got hard, like iron, and Diamond grunted with the effort before she managed to get the muscles to let go. The urge immediately started welling up in her again.
Diamond actually saw her belly compressing before it started to hurt. She squeezed so enthusiastically then, imagining herself as healthy and not swollen. But as enthusiastic as that was, it was nothing compared to her full capabilities. She went from grunting, to gasping, to panting for breath as the muscles seemed to have no limit how much they could force her to squeeze. She felt it welling up—squeeeeze. Then she was gasping again. Diamond felt her heart racing, and wondered if the zebra had lied about the likelihood of the poor thing giving out. She ended up laying on her back with her legs spread, huffing, as things squeezed down around there, and whining as the exhaustion in her muscles was already taking its toll.
Soon the contractions really started to happen. Diamond began crying out in alarm at the sudden gripping clenching of her whole belly, and she felt it pushing on her inside. It was an absolutely fascinating experience, except that Diamond was already tired, and she couldn’t stop it from happening, again and again. She came to know exactly what her cervix felt like, as she felt something pressed upon achingly in there, more like a wall than a door. It ached more and more with each contraction increasing the pressure, until a whimpering Diamond Tiara felt like she was going to burst, as her abdomen clenched forcefully like an out of control hug.
Then it started to spread her cervix.
After the first tooth clenching, painful tearing feeling inside her, she was scrambling for the stick she was told to bite down upon. It was like pulling a muscle and then cramping, then trying to run on it. Every contraction flared the pain up in her, and she couldn’t stop them. She breathed in thick huffs and she couldn’t stop—she contracted and a scream tore out of her mouth. How many times was this going to happen before she had this thing out of her oh nonononocontraction!!
Diamond Tiara did everything as she said she would, but the filly was far from perfect. The cloak she wore blinded her peripheral vision, and she’d forgotten entirely about the town guard’s interest in her. So when the stick dropped out of her mouth and she just screamed to the sky in pain and frustration, that she couldn’t clench down hard enough to get it out of her, it was easily loud enough for somepony nearby to hear.
She didn’t know they’d been following her. Didn’t know they suspected what she was doing all along. All Diamond Tiara knew is that her world was a haze of shame, pain, humiliation and horror, when out of nowhere, hooves beat their way up to her thicket, and she couldn’t bite back the screams enough to keep them from easily hearing her.
Diamond was in the middle of a contraction when they grabbed her ankles and pulled her bodily out of the thicket. She tried to twist around, and she couldn’t because there was this corded tension forcing her to do nothing but clench down tighter and tighter, no matter how much it hurt. If anything, the pain made her belly more eager to clench down.
She couldn’t hide the phial, so she just barely knocked it away despite the stupidly solidly screaming pain in her torso. Then they had her and she was looking up at guardsponies who had looks of... fear and concern on their faces?
“She’s going into labor!” the one stallion said.
“It’s too early!” the other said, “We have to stop this!”
Diamond managed to smugly gasp, “Can’t... stop...” before another contraction made her feel like her vagina was getting ripped apart.
“We need to get her to the hospital, stat!” said the leader, a unicorn of course. Diamond paled at the thought of the hospital. If anypony could stop this and force Diamond to kill herself, it would be that place.
Diamond was in no place to argue, with these stupid—not another one!!—contractions that weren’t working, and were just ripping her apart in there! The earth ponies carried her on an improvised stretcher as they ran through the forest, then the fields. They barely cleared the trees when amid a paralyzing contraction, Diamond felt something sink into her in there, and get stuck!
“Get out!” she shrieked senselessly, desperate to contract now because the pain wasn’t going away! Then the next contraction made it hurt even worse and Diamond was seeing spots from the dizzying pain. Then the next contraction hurt... less than even worse, and between contractions, Diamond Tiara had the very bizarre experience of having something huge lodged in her cervix, long enough that she had time to adjust to it, and only felt a broken-open-wrong feeling.
Then the next contraction stretched Diamond Tiara’s vagina as taut as a balloon.
The inside of her vagina. She couldn’t even comprehend what she was feeling, until she thought of it as a penis that was filling her from the inside out, not the outside in. Her belly quivered and clenched and it was like her body was raping itself with the biggest penis ever. She hated this. Why did it hurt so much? It even felt kind of good in between—HOLYCELESTIATHATCONTRACTION.
“She’s crowning!” one of the guards shouted in alarm, and Diamond had no idea what they were talking about, but then she felt the unicorn’s stupid tingly magic shove right up against her vulva, and to her horror, she felt the baby getting pushed back in. Writhing, she couldn’t escape his magic. She wanted it ouuuut! She was—she kicked one of the guards carrying her in between contractions, and he dropped her with a curse. Diamond hardly felt herself hit the cobbles, when another contraction hit her, leaving her gasping, while the unicorn ordered them to, “Pick her up—hurry!”
Diamond only had one chance. She felt a contraction coming. Felt a irresistable need to contract. She had to hold it back long enough to—she tossed the stone she’d snagged off the ground and immediately arched back, her whole body feeling like it was doing this contraction. The earth pony guards had her halfway on the stretcher again when she let fly, and somehow, somehow her aim struck true.
The unicorn gave a surprised bleat as the stone ricoched off of his horn, making it fizzle out, along with his magic. Diamond felt something slide through her. Yes!! “No!” She contracted hardand everything just... spilled out of her. As Diamond violently gave birth, the guards fumbled, dropping her out of the stretcher entirely, the filly falling to crash to the ground next to the
the
the... thing?
It looked like a sort of warped pony-ish thing. It was only doll sized, if that. That was what was in her womb? It was barely bigger than—okay it was a lot bigger than the biggest penis she’d taken, but it didn’t even look like a baby pony! There was a weird, ugly, red... tube coming from it and sliding right up into her vagina. Like it was still connected to her in there like it was trying to reach up inside her and—no! Never again!!
“You can’t kill me!” Diamond shrieked in triumphant, hysterical desperation, up at the guards, thinking only of that awful thing, that was still trying to kill her. “I’m going to live!” And she punctuated her statement by stomping her hind hoof on on on—she didn’t mean to. It just happened, but she did mean to, but—why was it so soft? Why did it burst like a melon she she
She felt another contraction coming.
“No, they were supposed to be over,” Diamond whined, looking around at the horrified guards and the—the townsponies looking at her. They were right in the middle of town! What was she standing in? What happened today? Why was she standing in something strange and gooey that she didn’t want to look at.
The contraction happened, and Diamond Tiara fell to her side, sobbing in pain and confusion, as something huge and squishy slid up from inside her. She vaguely felt her stomach literally flipflop as those squeezy muscles clenched down painfully and filled her aching vagina up with a—a thing, that the rippling contractions slid through her, until finally it plopped out of her. Then, she just felt... empty, and... tired, and the world kind of faded out from there.
Things were... different now. They cleaned the blood off of Diamond Tiara with a... with a hose. It was the middle of winter. They gave her a towel but, but only because she begged. They looked at her like she ruined their game, like she stole their toys, like she wrecked their faith in the world. She didn’t get to stay with Rarity anymore. They put her into a real prison cell. No punishment could take back what she’d done though, and they knew it. Diamond Tiara saw that hatred in the back of their eyes. She’d... she’d screwed up worse than she ever screwed up before, but her belly was empty and so loose it hung below her, her foal was gone forever, and Diamond Tiara was going to live.
She sure didn’t feel like it at first. She felt so sore, and sick, and... floppy. All those months of getting bigger and bigger, the foal was out of her, but Diamond Tiara was still there. The part of her belly that had been... swelling in pregnancy, hung loosely under her body in the most disturbing way. Diamond was just a... sack. An empty sack. She didn’t know any mothers whose skin was hanging... loose like that, but maybe something had gone wrong?
Her belly was floppy, and her cunny was absolutely ruined. The poor thing had split, a long cut going up into her canal, and it was bleeding pretty bad at first. It slowed to a dull oozing, so that was... okay, but everything back there below her tail just felt wrenched and ruined and absolutely done. Despite her gaping, sagging vulva, she couldn’t have taken a stallion if she wanted to. It was just... disturbing to even look at. Diamond hoped that zebra hadn’t been lying, and it wasn’t too late for her. She wanted to live... didn’t she?
Diamond Tiara wondered if it was worth it. For the first time for Diamond, Rarity’s words were ringing true. Why did Diamond want to live so badly? Was it worth all this? Or should she just have... accepted her fate with grace?
Well, ponies wanted her to do that, so Diamond did the opposite. She lived.
They would take her to a cell after she aborted her foal all over main street, and that’s where Diamond Tiara had to live now. Diamond never saw Rarity anymore. If Rarity even bothered to care about Diamond, she was kept far away. They would take her to a room with a bright light and ask her questions about the zebra.
“Did the zebra give you an abortifacient?”
“An aborti-what? What are you talking about?”
“Did the zebra help you with your pregnancy?”
“Nopony helped me with my pregnancy except Rarity. I want to talk to her, where is she?”
“What did you talk about the last time you met with the zebra?”
“I don’t know any zebras, sorry~”
Diamond didn’t answer any of them. The most she told them is that she just gave birth like normal, and it wasn’t her fault if the baby wasn’t ready to come out. And—and that was actually a really good idea, even if Diamond Tiara didn’t know it. She lucked out and her crazy story was actually a very good legal argument.
Not that those mattered in this courtroom.
They took her back to court, except this time only the guards, the attorneys, the judge, and the witnesses were allowed in court. No spectators, no reporters, and no Rarity. Those trials were where Diamond learned something about her old convent, and her old friend, something Diamond Tiara wished could have been... different.
“Sister Agatha,” the prosecutor asked, “When this filly stole from your convent’s treasury, did she show any regret in doing so?”
“I should say not!” the nun replied sounding offended at the very thought. “She betrayed and implicated her fellow fillies, and laughed as she jumped the fence. That filly cannot feel regret!”
“Hey, I can feel regret!” Diamond shouted.
“Wait your turn to speak,” the judge snapped, but Diamond knew the trick now. Clearheaded for the first trial in this whole fiasco, Diamond figured it out. They told her to wait her turn, then used that as an excuse to only talk about how bad she was, and never gave her her turn. It was a brilliant way to force her to lose and them to win, but it had one critical flaw. Now Diamond had nothing to lose from speaking out of turn.
She just had to figure out how far to push it. “I wish I never took one lousy bit from your stupid convent!” she shouted, “It was just a big waste of time!”
“Silence!” the judge shouted. There it was: that was how far she could push it.
“She committed antagonistic, evil acts without regret,” the judge reiterated, “Until she got caught, correct?”
“That is correct, your honor,” the nun said politely.
“Does the prosecution have any further inquiries?” the judge asked. The prosecutor shook her head.
“Does the defense?” the judge asked, “Then—”
Diamond talked over the judge, saying to the nun, “Yeah, could you tell Peach Puff I’m sorry?”
“I’m sorry?” the nun said in confusion.
“Peach Puff is ‘one of your fillies’ isn’t she? I ‘feel regret’ for Peach Puff,” Diamond said dryly. “She was nice at first, and I want you to tell her I get why she was mad, and I’m sorry.”
Diamond didn’t really get why feeling regret was so important, but she had to think on her hooves here, and Diamond really did wish Peachy could understand. Diamond didn’t hate her. Diamond wanted to tell Peach Puff if she ever saw her. While Diamond thought Peachy was the one being tricked into friendship, this whole time, it was actually a little pink filly with purple and white hair who’d been tricked into thinking she knew how the world works. It was hard to put that into words a judge would put up with, but at least Diamond had that much in her defense. She wanted to apologize to Peach Puff, like, totally.
The nun was looking at Diamond strangely, when Diamond said that. The judge said “If there are no further—” but it was sister Agatha who interrupted this time.
“Peach Puff is no longer with us,” she told Diamond with a haughty detachment. “Her pregnancy proved too much for her, so if you had any regrets, it’s too late. I’m sorry.”
“Oh,” Diamond replied distantly. “Well, like, whatever. It was worth a shot.” Peach Puff was... like... what?
“I hope your friendship was worth less than all those bits,” the nun replied cooly.
“That’s not what I mea—” Diamond started angrily, but the judge shouted,
“Order in the court!”
And Diamond was at the limit again.
At least Diamond got a few minutes to ask her googly eyed defense attorney how Rarity was doing. Apparantly, “Fine.”
Court was boring with almost no ponies allowed in it, but Diamond’s actual sentencing was... too exciting.
They bridled her for it, one of the mouth blocking bridles you couldn’t speak around. Dragged her over to the Ponyville town hall, like a misbehaving pet, or a prisoner. Diamond Tiara didn’t understand what she was looking at, what looked like a portable forge and bellows next to a raised wooden platform, or a stage, on which several imposing looking guards stood. The sky was overcast, not snowing yet, but the wind had an icy chill in it as it blew through Diamond Tiara’s fur.
Diamond wasn’t the only one sentenced. She stood there tied to a post by a bridle, grumbling darkly to herself, wishing they’d picked a warmer day to humiliate her, when she noticed that she actually wasn’t the center of attention. There was a hooded figure being led up to the stage. They pulled off the hood, and it was the shocking stripes of that zebra.
“For years the suspected witch Zecora has been living among us, selling us her ill gotten wares,” the... announcer pony said. Diamond didn’t really understand how this sentencing stuff worked, only that it was going to be totally unfair.
“Only now have we been able to catch her red hooved, with the testimony of her partner in crime, the filly Mistake.”
Diamond ground her teeth on her bridle. That was not her name! And what testimony? The zebra Zecora actually looked at Diamond Tiara in hurt and shock, and Diamond... tried to shrug that she had no idea what they were talking about. Just more dragging her around at the bottom of the chain.
“For the crime of the cold blooded, premeditated murder of a foal, the penalty is death,” the announcer said vindictively, and Diamond’s blood went cold as she remembered what Zecora had said. If Diamond Tiara got caught...
“Considering how many foals you’ve heartlessly murdered over the years,” the announcer went on, “I would call for a death a thousand times over. But all it takes is one mistake, and even the most vile criminals are brought to justice.”
“Please pony folk, this—” Zecora managed to say, before the unicorn did something, and the Zebra went suddenly quiet.
The announcer went on like Zecora never said anything, saying, “Your sentence will be carried out as follows. Your own poisons shall be turned against you, and used to put an end to your murderous spree.”
“I sell medicine you—” and Diamond could see what the unicorn did this time. There was a slim edge of metal, held in her magic, held against the zebra’s throat.
Diamond Tiara was suddenly very glad that all she had was a bridle.
“My last warning, my little pony!” Zecora called out desperately, “This is evil that should not be!”
A-a-and they tied down the zebra, and the announcer sounded smug as he said, “She thinks ponies can’t brew a potion she can’t make herself immune to, but luckily we have Twilight Sparkle, the princess’s protege herself, who with full access to the zebra’s alchemical lab will produce something truly spectacular! You can all rest assured, no zebra witches will come for your foals in their sleep.”
Diamond Tiara didn’t know who this “Twilight Sparkle” was supposed to be, but she sounded really important. She sounded really important, and really scary, and really dangerous, especially with how the zebra reacted.
“No!” the zebra shouted, heedless of the trail of red trickling down where the knife pressed against her hide, but they pinned her down and forced her to drink a... a vial of black liquid. The zebra choked and coughed, and it was too late.
“Ironic,” the announcer said, as they chained Zecora to a pole, “That when you thought Twilight Sparkle was your friend, you gave her the means to your own destruction. How long do you think she’s going to last, folks?” He turned, gesturing to the crowd with a hoof, “An hour? A day? I wager she won’t last ten minutes! This is what happens to ponies, or not ponies, who try to murder our foals. Isn’t it nice to see this criminal finally brought to justice?”
There was a half-hearted cheer, but the—the crowd literally cheered! And the zebra was dying! She was trying to talk, but then she started coughing and and all this blood came out and things got
Things got really bad.
Once the convulsions had stopped, the zebra was just lying there, quiet and still. Was she dead yet? Was that what a dead p-p-pony looked like? Diamond couldn’t look away, spellbound as any in the crowd, as the executioner bent down before the fallen zebra, and... stood up quickly, nodding to the announcer.
“The witch is dead!” he cried, “The witch is dead! Justice has been served, and no longer will anypony have to fear. Your foals are safe, Ponyville, and woe be it to any who think to put them in peril again!”
The crowd cheered again, and Diamond choked on her own vomit, heaving even as she was hyperventilating. Why was she throwing up now? Diamond had been able to eat again, almost as soon as she aborted! She was supposed to be able to keep down the oatmeal they fed her now, but she just couldn’t, because it was just too wrong. The zebra was saving foals, and just because those foals were the pregnant ones, not the ones being born, like nopony cared about them at all. The real foal murderers were there up on that podium, standing over the zebra’s body as morticians dragged it away.
And Diamond Tiara was next!
She tried to fight it. She tried to fight, but they had her in a bridle! She couldn’t stop them from dragging her roughly up to the podium where the zebra’s blood was still on the podium. Diamond Tiara couldn’t stop from stepping into it. This was not happening! She didn’t want to die! She didn’t want to be forced to drink that black bile, and cough up blood and—there was nothing she could do on her own. She needed help. She needed somepony to help her so bad, and there was nopony to help her.
Her sobs were muffled by the bridle as they held her there, up there, with the entire town looking at her, and not one of them cared about her. Not even Rarity. Not when Diamond did that to her own foal. Rarity told her to just let it—just let her heart stop, and Diamond didn’t listen so now she was gonna die and there was nothing she could do.
“I think you all know this mare,” the announcer said very deliberately, easily speaking above any noise Diamond Tiara could make, “But what you probably don’t know is she was never named Diamond Tiara. This mare has been deceiving you with a false name, when in reality she has been a mare named Mistake all along. Hiding among you like a changeling, using you for her heartless ambitions. My one regret today is that this mare before you will live to see another day!”
That was enough to shock Diamond Tiara into stopping her struggling, staring at the announcer as he said, “This mare has made a fortune stealing from, cheating, and betraying other ponies. She has had every opportunity to reform, and has spat on the hoof held out to her every time. But the zebra has already paid in blood for her mistake, and we need shed no more blood to deal with her last victim, no matter how vile a filly she is.”
“This may be a young mare, but I think everypony here has been touched by one of the hellacious acts of Mistake,” the announcer easily spoke while Diamond Tiara stared at the fascinated crowd. Fascinated in her. “She abandoned her own father to live a life of sin and debauchery, selling her body on the streets, and using her apparant youth to blackmail innocent stallions. She has shamelessly betrayed her friends, and robbed the House of Solace for Troubled Fillies, who only tried to show her charity. She is the filly who took the zebra witch’s poison, and knowingly allowed her own child to be killed. Not once has Mistake ever shown any remorse for her actions, and not once has she done good for another pony out of the kindness of her heart. Mistake is rotten to the core, and the Equestrian courts have reached a unanimous decision. There shall be no attempt to reform this filly. She is hereby declared irredeemably evil.”
Diamond had... no idea what that meant. You could get declared evil? The announcer was happy to explain, saying,
“She wants no friends, and she shall have no friends. What once may have been a pony is now only a monster in pony form. She will be demarcated and left to fend for herself in the wilderness. Anypony attempting to bring her succor or aid shall be considered an accomplice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Nopony may shelter or feed her, and she will no longer be allowed on the premises of our town, nor to make use of any community Equestria has. She can fend for herself in the wilderness, and see how well her selfish attitude serves her then. Celestia willing this winter will be harsh and long, and Mistake will plague us no longer, but that is a matter between her and the windigos in her heart. Ponies are done with her.”
Diamond Tiara hated being wrong. She hated, hated, hated it. She glared at the crowd, trying to find the angry, accusing face of Rarity or Sweetie Belle, or Apple Bloom or... Silver Spoon. But all Diamond Tiara got was angry glares back, or ponies looking away. She couldn’t say anything because of her bridle, and the announcer kept saying that name. It wasn’t her name! She hated being wrong because they were shoving her wrong words back down her throat. Of course she wanted no friends. Of course she didn’t want to live with these stupid ponies. Of course Diamond Tiara wasn’t really a pony, no more than that zebra, or—or anypony who wasn’t stupid like a pony.
Yet all she wanted now was to be out of the biting cold wind, to be free of this bridle, warm and safe, with a cup of cocoa and a blanket—a-and a blanket laid across her back by—by somepony else. She didn’t want to be hiding in some cave all alone with nopony to—to love her. She wasn’t going to die. They weren’t going to reform her. They were giving her exactly what Diamond Tiara had asked for, and she didn’t want it more than ever!
Well, they were almost giving Diamond Tiara exactly what she had asked for. She didn’t know what the portable forge and bellows were for, until with its heat stinging her cheeks, the executioner brought a long metal rod and jammed it right up against Diamond Tiara’s thigh. The pain was immeasurable. It hissed like a snake where it seared her. It felt like she was on fire, burning through her veins as she bucked mindlessly against the ponies holding her down. And with the bridle jammed in her mouth, she couldn’t scream!
“You will have no more friendships to betray. You will have no more aid to fuel your nefarious schemes. Your sentence has been laid, Mistake, and may Celestia have mercy on your soul,” the announcer told the moaning filly seriously and judgementally, as she collapsed from relief at the rod being pulled away. She wasn’t even hearing his words, nor was she looking at him, because she’d started to realize just what they were doing.
Poking the long metal rod into the coals, a pony was stoking the bellows, until when they pulled out the rod, the flat end was glowing red hot. Diamond had fallen over and they got a rope around her hoof, pulling it tight so she couldn’t kick. It didn’t hurt as much the second time, but it was even worse because she knew what they were going to do. That was what hissed like a snake. She was what hissed. The burning, hissing sound chewed right into her thigh, and tore through her, and she boiled at its touch, and it was killing her and... it didn’t hurt as much, because Diamond Tiara wasn’t aware of much of anything, after that.