Part 1 - http://pastebin.com/0hG9j2zk

The artist's original pastes:
http://pastebin.com/BjXyQuQS
http://pastebin.com/griQiUus
http://pastebin.com/Ti572G5y
http://pastebin.com/AKsy5Qzj
http://pastebin.com/SJ0PrD3f

Glossary: 
http://pastebin.com/vj4B4mJE

        Rarity watched as her sister left to get help. As soon as Sweetie was out of sight, she sighed and sat down (up?) on the ceiling. She'd heard similar rumors before, but she'd always dismissed them as nothing more than racist anti-pegasus propaganda. But somehow, hearing it from her own sister made the idea seem more plausible. She knew it was still just hearsay, and the source wasn't very reliable, but something about the legitimate panic in her sister's voice, or maybe the inclusion of more details than she was used to, made her brain assign more credence to the story.
        She shook her head. There still wasn't any substantial evidence; her brain was just trying to get her to err on the side of caution. If filly-snatching were really as widespread a problem as rumored, surely steps would be taken to prevent or deter it. But still, it was as though her sororal instincts were overruling her rational judgement. Even if it was unlikely, if it was at least possible, she couldn't help but worry. This was her sister, after all.
        She tried to clear her mind, to corral her rogue imagination. The scene playing in her mind was not a pleasant one, but part of her mind told her she'd be neglecting her sister if she just ignored the risk. But, realistically, what was she supposed to do about it? Hire a bodyguard to follow her sister everywhere? Make her wear a chastity belt? Nothing she could think of was particularly practical.
        It occurred to her that she'd gotten through her fillyhood okay, and so did everypony she knew, so it couldn't be that common. Still, maybe it would hurt to suggest that Sweetie spend most of her heat indoors. She'd probably object, but she could have sleepovers with her friends to pass the time, and now that she had her cutie mark…
        Rarity shook her head. What was she thinking? She didn't have the authority to ground her sister, and their parents would almost certainly tell her she was just being paranoid. To be fair, she probably was, but there's a fine line between "paranoid" and "better safe than sorry". She sighed and sat down on the ceiling, mentally planning her next project in order to keep her mind from dwelling on the uncomfortable subject while she watched the front door to the Boutique and waited for Twilight to arrive.
        She was surprised when Twilight arrived, not through the door, but by teleporting directly into the Boutique, a concerned and slightly out of breath Sweetie Belle standing beside her. Rarity jumped back from the sudden flash and stumbled backwards. "H–Hello, Twilight. I'm guessing Sweetie Belle filled you in on what's been going on?"
        Twilight nodded and looked up at Rarity. "Most of it, yes. Could you fill me in on some of the details, though? If I'm going to figure out what's happening to you, I'd be really helpful if you could tell me everything you remember about what's been happening to you recently."
        Rarity sighed and sat back down. "Well, when I got out of the shower this morning, I noticed that walking around was more like walking through water; I had to push against my towel harder than normally whenever I turned or sped up, and my mane and tail kind of… trailed behind me, like… like a flag. The air itself even seemed thicker, and colder." She looked to Twilight to judge whether she was giving too many details.
        Twilight was listening intently. When Rarity stopped, she urged her to continue. "Okay, and then what happened?"
        Rarity cleared her throat. "I eventually realized that everything seemed to be slowed down. The clock was ticking slowly, and anything I dropped just kind of… floated down. And then, when I tried putting a spoon in the sink, the sink got dented."
        Twilight nodded. "Given what I know about heat and viscosity, what you experienced seems like it would result naturally from time slowing down. Though, given what you said about the sink, I'd guess it was actually you being sped up. Go on."
        Rarity smiled, relieved that at least what seemed to be several problems turned out to be only one. She took a breath, cleared her throat again, and continued the story, going over everything else that'd happened to her before her sister's arrival.
        Twilight mostly stayed quiet, nodding and urging her to continue from time to time. As Rarity's story unfolded, the look on Twilight's face seemed to grow more concerned. When'd Rarity finished her story, she nodded. "Okay, so I think I might have figured out a pattern to what's been happening, but I still don't know what could be causing it. Did anything happen before your shower that you're leaving out, that could give us a hint?"
        Rarity thought for a moment. "Well, before I got in the shower, some of my hairs were standing on end, and then I shocked myself, but before that…" Her eyes lit up. "When I was jogging, I felt a surge of magic in my horn, which distracted me and made me trip! That's when I headed straight to the shower to wash off the dirt."
        Twilight smiled. "Were you able to pinpoint the source of the magic? It must've been pretty strong to cause resonance in the alicorn of your horn."
        Rarity shook her head. "No, it only lasted for a split second. I just felt a tingling in my horn, and then it was gone."
        Twilight nodded. "Do you remember where you were when it happened?"
        Rarity bit her lip and thought for a moment. "Yes, I was running by the park, near one of the benches. A kindly old mare sitting there helped me back to my hooves."
        Twilight smiled. "That was nice of her. I'll have to check around that area for anything out of the ordinary. Is there anything else? What happened between when you left the party last night and when you went jogging this morning?"
        Rarity blushed heavily and glanced at her sister, who was listening intently. "Um… could we discuss this… in private?" She cleared her throat and darted her eyes to briefly point at Sweetie Belle, gesturing with her head.
        Twilight blinked a few times, confused, until it clicked after a few seconds. "Oh… Okay, I see. I should get you to the library, anyway; I have equipment there that might be useful. Normally, I'd be reluctant to teleport you without knowing what we're dealing with, but you can't exactly walk there in your condition, and time is of the essence."
        Rarity nodded. "Alright, just… Hold on. What do you mean? Why are you in such a r—" She didn't get to finish her thought before the Boutique vanished with a dazzling flash of light.
        Now inside her womb, Rarity's daughter was intrigued by the sudden surge in Oomph that seemed to warp the very fabric of the Context. She would have to see if she could learn enough about the phenomenon to reproduce it herself…

        Rarity blinked a few times and shook her head to clear her vision from the abrupt teleportation. "You could at lea– *whoa!*" She flailed her legs as she abruptly found gravity pulling her in the correct direction.
        Twilight sprang into action almost instantly, grabbing Rarity with her magic, quickly righting her, and slowing her descent. "I've got you!" she assured her friend as she landed on the floor, not softly or gracefully, but more safely than she would've otherwise.
        Rarity took a few deep breaths and shook her head to reorient herself. "Th–Thanks…" She cleared her throat. "Anyway, you could've at least warned me before teleporting me."
        "I know, and I'm sorry…" Twilight apologized halfheartedly. She stepped towards the basement stairs and motioned with her hoof for Rarity to follow. "Now, what were you doing last night that you didn't want Sweetie Belle to hear about?"
        Rarity blushed as she carefully made her way down the stairs, closing the door behind her. "Why didn't we just teleport directly into your laboratory?"
        Twilight cleared her throat and responded curtly. "It's magically shielded to protect sensitive experiments, which prevents any teleportation in or out. Now, you were saying…?"
        Rarity blushed. "Well, after the party, I was feeling rather… 'worked up', so I used a 'toy' to… satisfy my urges, so to speak."
        Twilight nodded. "You were sexually aroused, so you masturbated with a dildo." She looked at Rarity inquisitively. "Is that all?"
        Rarity's ears went back slightly at the blunt language. "Well, also, I kind of… fell asleep… with the toy still… inside me."
        "You must've been pretty exhausted." Twilight chuckled. "And you couldn't've told me that in front of Sweetie Belle?" She turned the lights on at the bottom of the stairs.
        Taken aback, Rarity shook her head. "She's just a filly! I'd rather not expose her to that sort of thing until she's older." She followed Twilight past the rows of desks and tables, with miscellaneous experiments and pieces of equipment strewn about atop them. By the purposeful manner with which Twilight walked, Rarity could only assume there was a method to the madness, much like the "organized chaos" of her own Inspiration Room.
        Twilight chuckled jovially. "In all likelihood, she'll be beginning her first estrus within the next month or two, or maybe next year. You can't shield her from sex." She stopped at one of the desks and began searching through the drawers.
        Rarity bit her lip. "Actually, I was thinking about that recently. Sweetie Belle told me that she heard one of her classmates was foalnapped by a pegasus for… mating purposes. I was wondering if you had any idea how to keep Sweetie safe."
        Twilight sighed. "So you just have hearsay to go on, then? That's a nasty rumor, Rarity, nothing more. The chance that something like that happens on a regular basis is next to zero."
        "So even you admit that it's possible! A probability that's 'next to zero' *isn't* zero. Given what it is we're talking about, doesn't it make sense to err on the side of caution?"
        Twilight stopped what she was doing and turned to face Rarity, a literal twinkle in her eyes. Rarity knew that look, and braced herself accordingly. "That's a common mistake, actually. It's called the availability heuristic. Ponies tend to overestimate the odds of rare but dramatic risks and underestimate the odds of commonplace but mundane ones. No probability is going to be exactly zero, but once something's unlikely enough, you can basically ignore it."
        Rarity sighed inwardly; ever since Celestia had told Twilight to improve her rational thinking skills, she'd become just shy of insufferable. "How can you be so sure about that? How do you explain all the the fillies who go missing every springtime?"
        "Confirmation bias…" Twilight replied, without even turning to look at her friend. "Ponies are going missing all the time; you just pay more attention when a filly disappears during the spring than when a colt disappears or a filly disappears at some other time. There's no statistically significant change in the data that's correlated with the average estrus cycle."
        She pulled a long implement from the desk drawer. "Aha, here it is!" The instrument appeared to be a long metal rod with a large colorless gemstone at one end and a handle at the other. Twilight used her magic to hold it by the handle, keeping her grip away from the other end. "Alright, hold still for a moment."
        Rarity stepped away from the desk to give Twilight room to maneuver, and then stood as still as she could as Twilight brought the wand closer to her. "What do you mean 'nothing' has a probability of exactly zero? Obviously, *some* things have to be impo–"
        She was interrupted when the tip of the wand started to glow a bright white. "Hmm," Twilight said, "I'm picking up some magic from you, well above what is expect as background noise, but I'll have to do a more detailed scan to know more." She set the wand back in the drawer. "Follow me." She started leading Rarity towards the far side of the room. "Sorry for interrupting you, but to answer your question, you can never be 100% certain that something is impossible. There's always the possibility that you're dreaming, or you're just completely wrong about some fundamental fact of reality."
        Rarity nodded as they approached a large apparatus against the wall. "Alright, that makes sense." The machine was semicylindrical in shape and an iridescent white in color, with thick walls and a cavity in the middle just large enough to fit a pony.
        With a loud rattling sound, Twilight pulled a large tray from the core of the machine. "This is a magical resonance imager, or MRI; it'll help me precisely measure the distribution and concentration of magical energy in your body. If you'll climb on, I'll strap you in, and we can figure out what's going on with you.
        Rarity nodded and climbed up onto the metal tray, which seemed to have a fine ivory coating. "Twilight, why are you in such a hurry? You teleported me without warning, you interrupted me when I was speaking, and you've just seemed generally impatient. Is something wrong that I should know about?"
        Twilight sighed. "I'm just concerned for your safety." She helped Rarity get into position and strapped her in, making sure the straps were tight and secure, but not uncomfortable. "It seems like something's been has been disrupting several fundamental features of reality in your vicinity. Time, space, magic, gravity, electromagnetism. If the weak nuclear force is affected, you could be subjected to radiation and other effects that could be carcinogenic. And if the strong nuclear force is affected, well… your whole body could violently disassociate into a diffuse cloud of quarks and leptons."
        Rarity swallowed. "That sounds… bad. I'm guessing there's no coming back from that?"
        Twilight frowned, shook her head, and slid the tray, with Rarity now strapped onto it, back into the machine. "I'm afraid not. Entropy is a harsh mistress."

         The platform clanked into place and Rarity was plunged into darkness, the only light coming from a small periscope-like apparatus through which she could see Twilight's face. Given what she'd just been told by Twilight, the machine felt uncomfortably similar to a coffin. Fortunately, the darkness and silence didn't last long, as she the machine whirred to life, several small crystals on the inside starting to glow various colors.
        "Alright, Rarity, I'm starting the scan. It'll take a few minutes to complete, so we can pass the time with some small talk. Would you rather be told all of the results at the end of the scan, or find out each result as it comes in?"
        "The second option. If this is as important as you say it is, I'd prefer to find out any relevant information as soon as possible."
        "Alright, that sounds reasonable…" Twilight replied. "Well, first of all, the magic I detected is measuring as pretty strong. It's about seven hun…" She trailed off, deciding to rephrase her report. "It's about fifteen percent as strong as the Elements of Harmony."
        "Well, that's not too surprising; it'd have to be pretty strong to warp the fabric of reality itself." She thought for a moment. "Do you know where it's coming from yet?"
        Twilight sighed. "No, unfortunately not. I'll tell you when I've pinpointed the source." She paused. "In the meantime, we can just chat. You said you masturbated last night? With a dildo?"
        Rarity cleared her throat. "Is it really relevant? That's… kind of a personal matter."
        "That's the spirit of the holiday; that kind of 'personal matter' becomes acceptable to discuss openly." Twilight chuckled. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Was it the Super Sexy Seminal Satiator 7000?" She chuckled. "I know I've barely been able to get any work done since I got mine."
        Rarity shook her head. "If you ask me, the refills are just an elaborate scam; if I wanted to spend five bits for every orgasm, I'd hire a cheap prostitute."
        Twilight smirked slightly at Rarity's comment. "I can understand that, but it's definitely been worth it to me. One shot from it and my heat's gone for at least a few days."
        Rarity nodded slowly. "Twilight, you *do* know that Flim and Flam have been mixing their own… 'special sauce'… into the refills, right? To get it into as many unsuspecting wombs as possible?"
        Twilight rolled her eyes. "First of all, that was the 6000, not the 7000. Second of all, it was *one* disgruntled worker at the bottling plant, not Flim and Flam themselves. And thirdly, those bottles were all recalled before anypony got pregnant."
        Rarity scoffed. "And you *believed* that cover story? With how many bottles were recalled, he would've needed an industrial milking machine; there's no way he wouldn't have gotten caught!"
        Twilight sighed. "Rarity, that's not…" Twilight trailed off, glancing away from the periscope. She did a double take. "Rarity, I've located where the magic is concentrated."
        Rarity's ears snapped to attention. "You have? Well, don't keep me in suspense; spill the beans already!"
        Twilight cleared her throat. "Rarity, the magic is coming from your uterus."
        Rarity suddenly felt a knot form in her stomach. "M–My… My uterus? You mean, like… inside my womb?" She felt like she was about to faint.
        Twilight nodded and glanced away again, presumably at the scanner's readout. "Yeah, that's what it says." She squinted. "Specifically, from the endometrium, which is the lining of the uterus." She looked back towards Rarity.
        Rarity's heart felt like it'd leapt into her throat. "You mean I'm… I'm pr… I'm 'in the family way'?" she asked euphemistically.
        Twilight nodded slowly. "That seems like the best explanation at the moment." A smile quickly fold he across her face, but she tried to hide it. "You know, you can say 'pregnant'; it's not a dirty word."
        "It is if you have a business to run!" Rarity snapped back. "How can I be pregnant‽"
        "Well, usually pr—"
        "I know where foals come from!" Rarity interjected. "But I've never done that! I mean… not while I was in heat, anyway… and not soon after my heat, either."
        Twilight nodded skeptically. "Well, regardless of how it happened, there's something in your uterus with a huge amount of magic, way more than I'd expect from a typical equine conceptus."
        "I… I… B–But…" Rarity stammered, her brain trying to work through the overwhelming anxiety, panic, and nausea that were coursing through her body. "H–Hold on. Let me think." She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and get more oxygen to her brain. "You said the magic was about 15% as strong as the Elements? That's about a sixth, right?"
        Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, one sixth is sixteen and two thirds percent. Why do…" She blinked. "*Oh*, I see. You're wondering if you might've been impregnated by the Element of Generosity?"
        Rarity nodded, her head head still spinning from the news.
        "Well, I guess that's within the realm of possibility. There's still a lot we don't know about the Elements, so we can't rule it out." She glanced at the display again. "I'll run a pattern-matching algorithm on its magical signature and see if it supports that hypothesis."
        "Can you do that after I'm out of here?" Rarity pleaded. "I'm about to freak out in here."
        Twilight smiled and switched the scanner off. "Of course, I already have a record of the signature." She slid the platform out of the machine and undid Rarity's straps. "Are you alright?" she asked, noticing Rarity seemed to be drenched in sweat.
        She nodded. "Considering the fact that I just found out I'm probably pregnant, I'm about as good as can be expected."
        Twilight helped Rarity get to her hooves. "Well, if your hypothesis is true, we'll all be pregnant pretty soon."
        Once she was standing up, she began to sway slightly from side to side. "Somehow, that's not much of a consolation." Her legs were shaking and she was starting to hyperventilate. "Could you help me to the restroom? I feel like I'm going to be sick…"
        Twilight smiled reassuringly. "Of course." She draped one of Rarity's forelegs over her shoulder and helped her up the stairs and into the bathroom. "Keep the door unlocked and yell if you need anything. I'll disable the soundproofing in the lab."
        Rarity nodded weakly and closed the door.
        A couple minutes later, Twilight slid a pregnancy test under the door. There was a pause of a minute or so, and then she could hear sobbing through the bathroom door.
        A few minutes later, the sound of a flushing toilet could be heard through the door, and then the door opened. Rarity stepped out and quickly shut the door behind her. "It…It's positive…" she managed to choke out.
        Twilight nodded, not quite sure how to respond. "Do… Do you need a breath mint?"
        Rarity was slightly offended, but she chose not object, recognizing that her friend was just trying to be helpful. Instead, she shook her head. "No, my meal was too far along to exit through that end. I hope everything flushed alright; I was already feeling queasy, so I didn't want to look to check."
        Twilight smiled jovially. "Don't worry about it; that toilet could probably flush Spike if he fell in." She chuckled. "I think I'll be avoiding that bathroom for the next few hours, though."
        Rarity was not amused.
        "Well, at least your food baby is gone." Twilight gestured towards Rarity's recently reflattened belly.
        Rarity glared at her. "Can we get back to what we came here for?"
        Twilight sighed, her face quickly turning more serious. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry." She bit her lip. "The algorithm found a match. The magic that I detected was draconequine."
        Rarity suddenly felt much more lightheaded. "D–D…Dracon…Draconequine?" she asked, stumbling over the word. "Y–You mean like… like *Discord*?"
        Twilight just nodded.
        Rarity fainted on the spot.

	When Rarity came to, she felt she was lying on something softer than the library's wooden floor. As her vision slowly cleared up, she could make out the ceiling, and then the rest of her surroundings. She was lying on Twilight's bed, and Twilight was sitting in a chair beside her, a worried expression on her face.
	"Oh, thank Celestia you're awake!" Twilight proclaimed, her worried expression relaxing significantly. "Are you feeling better?"
	Rarity slowly moved her hooves and rubbed at her head. "Yes, I… I think so." She looked at Twilight and blinked a few times to get her eyes to focus. "Wh–What happened?"
	Twilight cleared her throat. "Well, you'd been feeling pretty sick, presumably from stress, and you looked pretty pallid and emaciated. When I told you the magic I found in your uterus was draconequine, you just… collapsed."l
	All at once, the day's events came flooding back to her. The strange things happening, her jog, the the surge of magic, the scan, her shower, everything. She recalled the pregnancy test, and being told the foal was draconequine. "Yes, I… I remember. Have you figured anything else out yet?"
	Twilight shook her head. "You've only been out for two or three minutes; I wanted to make sure you were okay. I think we should summon Discord to see if he has an explanation."
	Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't we need the Elements to do that?"
	Twilight nodded.
	Rarity cleared her throat. "I'd rather keep this discrete for the moment." She sighed. "Besides…" she added, moving a hoof to her now-flat stomach, "I think I have an rough guess as to what that explanation would be…"
	"In that case, I guess we'll have to contact him through the mail. Given where he lives, that method is pretty slow and unreliable."
	"Right, I figured." Rarity sighed. "Are you sure you can't cast the spell yourself? I mean, you're a pretty magical unicorn in your own right."
	Twilight shook her head. "Not even an alicorn could cast that spell with the unaided horn. Discord is a very powerful being, so summoning him requires an enormous amount of magic.
	"Can't you at least try?" Rarity pleaded. "You can't know for sure unless you try!"
	"But I can! I can calculate…" Twilight sighed. "You know what? It's not worth arguing about; it'll be quicker to just show you it not working." She closed her eyes, lit her horn, and pointed it away from the bed, towards an empty spot in the room.
	However, to her surprise, she suddenly felt an intense, almost painful surge of magic in her horn, a sensation similar to facing into a strong wind and trying to breathe. Soon, she felt the now-familiar sensation of being magically lifted off the ground, hovering quite near the ceiling in the enclosed space.
	Then everything went white, and her eyelids were forced open, though she still couldn't see anything through the blinding white light that flooded her vision. Only a few seconds later, the overwhelming levels of magic coursing through her came to a climax and burst forth from her horn like the baking soda and vinegar rocket she'd made in elementary school. Except instead of foam, a beam of rainbow light erupted from her horn, shooting towards the center of the room and swirled around in a large vortex taking up a large portion of the room and tossing a few papers about.
	Twilight fell to the floor when spell was complete and just barely managed to land on her hooves. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, she groaned. "That spell isn't normally enough to cause ocular luminescence…"
	Rarity watched in amazement as the prismatic maelstrom subsided, revealing that Twilight had indeed singlehornedly summoned Discord. He was lounging back in a recliner and reading a newspaper upside down, a pipe in his mouth and a mug of coffee in a cup holder in the armrest. He blew bubbles with the pipe, which were miscellaneous colors and made random sounds when they popped, from dings to quacks to burps to squelches.
	Discord looked up from his paper and smiled. "Well, if it isn't my two favorite unicorns!" He lowered the paper to his lap, revealing a tie decorated with various sports balls. "How may I be of assistance to you lovely mares?"
	"I'm p…p–pregnant!" Rarity choked out, glaring accusatorially at Discord.
	Discord grinned. "Hi, Pregnant. I'm Dad." There was the sound of a rimshot, but it didn't seem to come from anywhere in particular.
	Rarity's eyes went wide. "So you *admit* it!" she exclaimed. "You're the one who impregnated me, aren't you?"
	Discord chuckled and took a sip from his mug, which said "#1/0 DAD".
	"Well?" Rarity demanded. "Are you?"
	Discord set his mug back in its cup holder. "Oh, I thought that was a rhetorical question. You must know the answer to that if you went to the trouble of summoning me here." He turned to Twilight and grinned. "By the way, Twilight, don't feel too proud of yourself for that; I gave your magic a little 'boost' to help with my dramatic entrance."
	Twilight rolled her eyes.
	"But… why?" Rarity asked, bewildered. "Why did you do it? Why me?"
	"Why do I do anything?" he answered with a question. "Because it's funny; that's why."
	"You think this is *funny*‽" she barked at him.
	"Well, you decided to exclude me from your little party because your ancestors avoided stallions to avoid getting pregnant. As a result, you ended up getting pregnant. It's ironic… or something." He chuckled.
	Rarity sighed. "Why *me*, then?"
	Discord shrugged. "You were in heat." He grinned. "But I'm glad Junior is inheriting your genes. I'm sure our progeny will be quite easy on the eyes.
	Rarity rolled her eyes. "I'm flattered." Her tone was dripping with sarcasm. "But fine, the 'why' is because you have a sick sense of humor. I guess that leaves the question of *how* you impregnated me."
	"Have you met me?" he asked with a grin. "There's very little I can't do. I could probably impregnate a spoon if I wanted to."
	Rarity shook her head. "No, I mean… how? What method?"
	"Oh, the usual way. I planted my seed last night."
	A look of shock and disgust dawned on Rarity's face."
	"Um, actually, if you're talking about semen, the closest analogy would be pollen, not seed. You see, pollen is the male gamete in a plant, produced by the stamen. Seeds are actually embryon–"
	Rarity cleared her throat and glared daggers at her friend, interrupting her. "Did this *really* seem like an appropriate time for a biology lesson‽"
	Twilight blushed. "Sorry."
	Rarity looked back to Discord. "Y–You mean you… *mated* with me? You bred me my sleep‽" She was clearly outraged.
	Discord just nodded and giggled.
	"You… You can't do that!" Rarity protested.
	"Oh?" Discord asked. "Because I think I just did."
	Rarity growled. "That's not what I meant, and you know it!" she said, exasperated. "I mean you're supposed to ask a mare's permission first before breeding her! It's the law!"
	"What are you talking about?" Discord asked. "I've seen plenty of mares and fillies get mounted by stallions and colts who didn't even give them any warning!"
	Rarity rolled her eyes. "That's different!" she objected. "With all the pheromones in the air, they're not thinking straight, just acting on instinct. They can't help it, and they stick with the mares they claim to provide for them." Her tone grew more aggressive. "You just told me that you planned this *ahead of time*, that did this *on purpose*, as… as some sort of sick *prank*!"
	Discord looked to Twilight, as if pleading for her to come to his defense.
	Twilight sighed. "Rarity's right; estral feralization is different. What you did was clearly premeditated and done of your own free will, which makes it rape. Rape is bad."
	Discord lowered his eyebrows. "So I didn't ask permission. Big deal, Rainbow Dash didn't ask for permission when she put butter in your slippers. I mean, not having permission is sort of what makes it a prank in the first place."
	"This is a little more of a big deal than a pair of ruined slippers!" she objected. "Twilight said your little chaos spawn could make me *explode*!"
	"Oh, like I'd let *that* happen!" He rolled his eyes. "I know better than to let you be killed.  Or at least, let you get killed permanently."
	"But apparently you didn't know better than to not *rape* me in my *sleep*!"
	Discord rolled his eyes. "I'm afraid Fluttershy didn't mention that particular rule. I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem reasonable for you ponies to vilify me for breaking a rule you conveniently neglected to tell me about!"
	"Oh, poor Discord, everypony's picking on him! You crossed a line this time, and if you think being 'vilif–"
	Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat and stepped between the quarreling parents. "You know what? You two could yell at each other all day and not get anywhere. Let's go see Fluttershy; maybe she can help straighten things out."
	Rarity and Discord started to object, but Twilight's tone was authoritative enough for her to get then to falter. After stammering for a moment, they both sighed and stopped staring at each other, turning to face Twilight.
	Rarity spoke first. "Alright, fine. Let's go."

 Discord rolled his eyes. "Why do you always insist on going the *long* way? Did you forget you can teleport?"
    "No, I–"
    Before she could offer her explanation, Discord snapped his digits and they were suddenly standing outside Fluttershy's cottage.
    "If you're taking a shortcut, why not just teleport into the cottage directly?" Twilight asked.
    Discord knocked on the front door with a paw. "Manners, Twilight. Fluttershy asked me not to pop into her cottage without warning, since she's so easily startled. Oh, and she said something about her 'privacy'…"
    "J–Just a second!" Fluttershy's voice called out. The door audibly unlocked and opened a crack, Fluttershy's face peeking out. "O–Oh, it's you. Come in." She undid the chain holding the door shut and opened the door. "Hurry inside so I can shut the door." She waved them in.
    Rarity, Discord, and Twilight Sparkle stepped into the cottage, and Fluttershy quickly shut the door behind them, locking it and rebooking the chain.
    "Is everything alright, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. "You seem pretty… on edge."
    Fluttershy nodded and led them across the room to her sofa, where her three guests sat. "Oh, no, I'm… fine. The chain is just a… a precaution."
    Twilight tilted her head. "A precaution? Against what?"
    Fluttershy sighed and sat in a nearby chair, which she scooted across the rug, closer to the sofa. "Well, it's not just mating season in Ponyville…" She blushed. "A lot of animals in the Everfree Forest are going into heat too, and living this close to the Forest…" She cleared her throat. "Better safe than sorry."
    Her friends had expressions that revealed that they didn't quite follow.
    "Specifically, I'm worried about the timberwolves. If one of them strays too far from the Forest, it might see me as a good place to plant it's seed…"
    Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Plant its seed? Do you mean…"
    "I mean an actual seed, Twilight, somewhere between the size of an acorn and a large grape. Timberwolves are hermaphroditic, and once they're pollinated, they seek out a warm, wet place for the embryo to grow." She shuddered. "It'd put out roots to dig into my flesh and draw out nutrients, and grow there for several years."
    Twilight's eyes went wide, and Rarity looked like she was about to be sick. "Several years. Couldn't you just have it removed?" Rarity's ears perked up.
    Fluttershy shook her head. "Oh, no-no-no-no-no, I could never do that! With enough antibiotics and painkillers, I could get through it, and I just wouldn't have it in me to kill a timberwolf pup… or a litter, if a whole pack found me…"
    "Why, that's very noble of you, Fluttershy!" Discord complimented.
    Fluttershy smiled weakly. "Th–Thanks, but it's really nothing. Besides, I've managed to keep away from them every year since I moved here, so it'll probably never come up."
    Twilight nodded. "Are you sure that you don't just want to move somewhere safer until the season's over?"
    "What about my animals? I can't just leave them alone all season…"
    "I'm sure we could find somepony to watch them for you. A stallion, maybe?"
    Fluttershy shook her head. "A timberwolf wouldn't differentiate between a mare and a stallion. The only difference is a stallion probably wouldn't survive."
    Rarity cleared her throat. "That sounds awful, and I really hate to be rude, but we didn't come here to chitchat. We have to talk."
    Twilight blushed. "Oh, yes, of course. Fluttershy, it's about Discord. He's gotten into some… trouble."
    Rarity sighed. "He impregnated me. In my sleep." She was losing her patience for beating around the bush.
    Fluttershy frowned and looked at Discord disapprovingly. "Is this true?"
    Discord nodded.
    She turned her head to Rarity. "By magic, or…?"
    Rarity shook her head. "He mated with me."
    Fluttershy winced. "Did you tell him he could do that?"
    Rarity shook her head again. "No, he says did it because he thought it'd be 'funny'."
    "Discord!" Fluttershy scolded. "You can't do that! You need to ask for permiss–"
    "Yes, yes, so I've been told. I know."
    "Then why did…?"
    "I know *now*! Nopony told me there were rules for sex!" he protested.
    Fluttershy's ears flattened to her head. "This is all my fault…"
    "Don't be ridiculous!" Rarity protested. "He's Discord; you can't hold yourself responsible for what he does!"
    "But I can, and I should! Discord has been learning what it means to be good, and I was supposed to be his teacher. If I weren't so uncomfortable talking, or even thinking, about… this sort of thing, then this never would've happened. I'm sorry, Rarity."
    Rarity shook her head. "I don't blame you; I blame Discord. He knew what he was doing, even if he didn't know about the 'rule' against it." She turned to Discord. "At least now you know it was wrong, right? You won't do it again?"
    Discord rolled his eyes. "I've learned my lesson, okay? I'll never, ever do it ever again. I promise. Cross my heart, yadda yadda yadda, happy now."
    "No, I am *not* 'happy' at all!" Rarity protested.
    "What do you want from me, then‽"
    "I want you to fix this!" Rarity demanded, her voice cracking. "Use those powers of yours to put everything back to normal!"
    He scoffed. "I won't just erase our foal from existence, Rarity; I'm not a monster."
    "Fine, then just take it out of me; I don't care!" Rarity gesticulated in frustration.
    Discord's face grew more serious, but still slightly annoyed. "Our foal is half pony, which would make it mortal. It needs to stay inside you to survive."
    Rarity frowned. "Can't you carry it, then?"
    "What, turn myself into a female?"
    Rarity nodded.
    Discord shook his head. "I'd have to hold that form for the duration of the pregnancy. I'm sorry, Rarity, but there's only so far I'm willing to go to make amends." He chuckled. "Besides, I like this body."
    Rarity slumped in her seat. "Well, that's just great. You mean I'm stuck carrying your little bundle of chaos for the next eleven months?"
    The others seemed somewhat uncomfortable, exchanging glances.
    "What? What is it?"
    Twilight sighed and spoke up. "Hybrid pregnancies don't tend to have the same gestation period as the parent species."
    Fluttershy nodded in agreement.
    Twilight turned to Discord. "How long to half-draconequus pregnancies usually last?"
    "How should I know?" he responded. "This has never come up before."
    "Take a guess, then!" Rarity insisted. "How long do you *think* this is going to last?"
    Discord rolled his eyes. "Sorry, but I have absolutely no idea. For all I know, it could be anywhere from a few days to a few centuries."
    "C–C…Centuries?" Rarity asked, feeling herself getting lightheaded. "There's no way!"
    Twilight shook her head. "It's not impossible, I suppose. Some species of dragon take decades to hatch, and Discord is part dragon… sort of."
    "I don't care if it's possible; there's no way I'm being Discord's incubator for anywhere *near* that long! I absolutely *refuse*!"
    Fluttershy offered Rarity a smile. "It won't be that bad, Rarity; we'll be here for you."
    Twilight nodded. "We can help you through this. That's what friends are for, right?"
    That seemed to take the edge off slightly, but Rarity was still upset. "That's easy for you to say; you don't have to carry Discord's… spawn." She said the last word with a note of revulsion.
    Fluttershy got up from her chair and walked over to Rarity, giving her a big hug. "I know it seems scary from here, but I promise you can get through this. We can help you, but you still have to try. Do you promise to try?"
    Rarity sighed and nodded, forcing herself to smile slightly, for her own sake as much as Fluttershy's. "I promise."