Fluttershy finished the last of her sugary treat as Rainbow healed her visible eye with an ice pack, hoping to regain some vision.

"I'm sorry for hitting you, Rainbow Dash."

"Don't be sorry."

"No, but I am. I was out of control, and for that, I apologize."

"Yeah...I'm sorry for tying you up."

"Oh, it was the only way I could get that shot. Besides, they didn't hurt that bad."

"Yeah, what'd I tell you?"

"That they were no big deal."

"Exactly."

She put her hoof on her friend's shoulder encouragingly.

"Look, Fluttershy, all I expect out of you is to deliver this baby safely and tough it out so he/she can have life. That's all anypony needs, right?"

"Yes."

"Good, cause life's a precious thing, and...all that sappy poem stuff."

The doctor entered the room, and they both perked up, waiting to hear the news.

"Hey, Fluttershy. How ya' feelin'?"

"Numb. Thanks for asking."

"Don't mention it...You recognize me?"

"No."

"Not even a little?"

"Not really."

"Oh, well then, allow me to introduce myself. I'm the doctor that told you you were pregnant."

"Oh, are you?"

"Yep. I recently graduated med school."

"Really? Congratulations."

"Yeah, and trust me, I am a much more competent doctor than when you last saw me. I know a lot more about...organs and...tissue, and...stuff like that."

She laughed, but you could sense a bit of nervousness in it.

"So, I am gonna be delivering your baby today. Uh, when the contractions start up again, just push that blue button on the wall."

"Okay."

"Now, something about the blue button; Do not accidentally push the red button right next to it because that signals that a patient's heart has stopped, and we'll come in here with electric shock paddles instead of the necessary instruments for delivering a baby."

"Okay, we'll press the blue button."

"There ya' go!"

He turned and noticed Rainbow Dash, partially recovering vision in her good eye.

"Cool eyepatch."

"Uh, thanks."

"Just so you know, you can leave whenever you want. I tell ya', it gets crazy nasty in here sometimes. It's too much for some ponies, and..."

"Well, I'm tougher than most ponies. And Fluttershy's my friend. I'll stay by her side the whole time."

"Uh, okay. I gave you fair warning."

He left, leaving the two to watch some TV before the contractions started again.

"You scared?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Not really. I just want to get this over with. I'm pretty sure my baby really wants to hightail it out of there."

"I wouldn't. I'd like hanging out in a warm place all day, free food, protection from the elements...Of course, there would be boredom...a lot of it."

Halfway into Mare's Anatomy, when a patient was having a seizure, Fluttershy exhibited some of the same behaviors, except she was groaning in pain.

"Good impression," hailed Rainbow Dash.

"No, Rainbow Dash! I-I think the contractions have started again!"

"Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!"

They raced for the button at the same time, Fluttershy pressing the blue one and Rainbow Dash pressing the red one.

"Uh-oh," they both said.

"Childbirth Team! We're here to-"

The emergency life team crashed into them in the hallway, slipping on the wet floor.

They all gathered their things, then rushed for the door at the same time, bumping past each other.

"Nopony's pulse has stopped," one of the doctor's on the emergency life team shouted. "Her heart monitor's fine!"

"No, she's going into labor. Accidentally pressed the red button. Sorry."

The doctors on the emergency team grumbled and headed back to their stations, but the childbirth team placed her hind legs in stirrups and began to deliver the child.

"Okay, Fluttershy, this is where it all boils down to! On my signal, I want you to push as hard as you can!"

"Oh, then we'll have this baby out in no time!" Rainbow Dash cheered.

She got up and pushed down on Fluttershy's stomach.

"No, no, please don't do that! Fluttershy needs to push!"

"Rainbow Dash, I-I don't want this next part to gross you out. It gets kind of..."

"What? Where do babies come out, anyway?"

Fluttershy whispered the answer to her before another painful wave of contractions came on.

"What?! Aw, gross!"

"You ready, Fluttershy?"

She nodded in response.

"Alright, then. One, two, three, PUSH!"

She pushed as hard as she possibly could, straining herself to the extreme, until she finally tuckered out and took a few raspy breaths.

"Okay, Fluttershy, we're gonna do another one! You ready for this?!"

Rainbow Dash held her hoof for some reassurance. She weakly nodded as she readied herself for another tiring round.

"One, two, three, PUSH! Hard as you can!"

She pushed even harder this time and found herself tiring out even quicker.

"You can do better than that, Fluttershy! Now, uno, dos, tres, go!"

Another painful wave came over her as she pushed past her body's limit, collapsing in exhaustion on the bed.

"I'd say he's just about halfway there! Just a few more pushes!"

The next one was barely a push, but a feeble effort from her.

"He's in the birth canal, Fluttershy! We've gotta get him out! Just keep pushing!"

"Oh, I can't!" she cried.

"Fluttershy, listen to me!" said Rainbow Dash. "If trillions of ponies before you could do this, I know you can, too! Okay, I'll admit it, next to me, you're the toughest and most reliable pony I've ever known. You're always there for your friends and your animals, you do a million chores every day, and you're still the kind and gentle soul that you are. I know it's hard right now, but you have to deliver this baby! You can't just quit midway through! This is another life at stake! So, this is for you and your baby!...I believe in you! Please, Fluttershy! Don't quit on me now!"

Because of Rainbow's speech, Fluttershy looked deep inside herself and found her inner confidence; the confidence that had been hiding inside her her entire life and only occasionally poked itself out of the darkness of her delicate soul. Fluttershy having a child was one of those times that it decided to present itself to the world and show it what Fluttershy was really made of.

"Let's do this," she said, weak but determined.

"Okay, Fluttershy! You ready for another push?"

"Yes."

"Alright, one, two, three, go!"

She pushed harder this time. To put it in retrospect, it felt like the hardest poop she had ever had to take, multiplied times 100. It felt like stretching your bottom lip all the way over her head to the back of her neck. But she didn't care. She had to get this baby out. She was willing to sacrifice life and limb for this 9-month-old fetus that she didn't hardly know anything about because it was hers. And hers alone.

"Here we go again! Red light...green light!"

She pushed even harder, and the nurse proclaimed something good.

"Ohh, the head is crowning!"

Rainbow Dash, out of curiosity, went over and peeked. She would soon regret that decision. Even though she could only see partially and out of one eye, she could still see everything in graphic detail.

"Ugh...IT'S GOT HAIR!"

She ran down the hallway, coughing and doing her best to hold in vomit.

"Where you goin', Daddy? Don't you wanna cut the cord?" a nurse called after her.

"So much for staying by her side the entire time."

By now, Fluttershy didn't even need her. She had this situation in control, and better yet, it was almost over.

"Fluttershy, I'd say one more push would do it! You ready?"

She nodded and prepared herself for the moment of truth.

"One...two...three...PUSH!"

Here it was; The final push. She knew this was all it took to get her baby out of that narrow birth canal and into the joy of the real world. She pushed, hard as ever. The pain grew with each second, but she prevailed. She prevailed, she prevailed.

The last scream she emitted was so loud, it could be heard from outside the hospital and all the way to the train tracks, where Discord was waiting impatiently for the 4.8 mile long monster of a train that had no business being there in the first place.

"Fluttershy!"

He desperately searched for a way to pass the train, when he saw Scootaloo jumping ramps on her scooter.

"I'll be needing this," he said as he swiped one of the cardboard ramps.

"Hey!" she shouted after him.

He made sure the ramp was of adequate size and he was at the length required to jump. He waited for the absolute shortest car to come, then pedaled the fastest he knew how to jump over it.

The car only caught the bike's front tire, but only by a little bit. He struggled to balance the weight so that he could get on top, and to make it worse, he saw an upcoming tree about to cut off his long neck.

He quickly jumped off the BMX and rolled onto the top of the train car. What he last saw of his precious bike was a mangled pile of scrap metal on the nearby sidewalk.

"Aw, man. That cost 200 bits."

The obstacles were not over, though, as he had to duck and jump past railroad signs and do complicated dance moves to avoid tree limbs, Pegasus ponies, and the like.

When he found a break in the obstacles, he saw the hospital from afar off. He looked at that, then the rolling ground beneath him, and decided the only logical thing to do was to jump off. He breathed deeply, then took the leap of faith, jumping from the high train car and rolling in the gras below.

There was a sharp pain in his shoulder, but he simply dusted himself off and ran to the hospital, hoping to meet up with his marefriend.

He finally burst through the doors of the hospital to be greeted angrily by four of her friends.

"There you are!" yelled Twilight.

"We've been waitin' fer hours fer yer lazy behind to teleport in here!"

Discord had completely forgotten that he could've just teleported there.

"Oh, yeah..."

Meanwhile, in her hospital bed, Fluttershy was panting and doing her best to stabilize her breathing after her tiring ordeal.

"Congratulations, Ms. Fluttershy, it's a girl!" declared one of the nurses.

The sound of her child crying filled the room, and Fluttershy couldn't help but smile before she passed out from exhaustion.

She awoke a few hours later to find her friends and her husband surrounding her, grinning.

"...Santa?" she mumbled weakly.

"What? No, Fluttershy, it's us," said Twilight.

"Oh, Twilight...I had the strangest dream. It felt like was giving birth to-"

"Your new baby girl!"

A nurse came in and brought the sleeping foal in a blanket and a cute little hat.

Everypony in the room's heart must have exploded at least five times after seeing her.

"Would you like to hold her, Miss Fluttershy?"

"Um...yes, thank you."

She gently placed the sleeping foal in Fluttershy's arms and curtsied out the door.

Adorable was an understatement. Through the mixed and matched parts of her body, she had the same torso and facial features as her mother. From her father, she exhibited the same tail, four different legs from a komodo dragon, a hyena, an eagle, and a goat. The symmetrical parts of her body included two bat wings and deer antlers.

"She's beautiful...isn't she, honey?" remarked Fluttershy, teary-eyed.

"Yeah," agreed Discord, also on the verge of tears. "Look at her shins...they're perfect. And look at her little head, and...her little, oh everything's so tiny!"

"We made her, you know."

"Yeah, we did. You did most of the work, but...we both made her."

"...What do you think we should name her?"

They both thought for a moment on a name for their daughter.

"How about Lightning...Thunderbolt...Lightning Thunderbolt...something," said Rainbow Dash, still piecing together the order of the words.

"How 'bout Apple Dumplin'?"

"Monopoly?" suggested Rarity.

"Libraria?" hinted Twilight.

"Strawberry Surprise?" said Pinkie.

"Wow, those names are just awful," Discord jeered. "But I can't think of anything better. What do you say, Fluttershy?"

"Um...how about...Hestia? After the Greek goddess?"

"I dunno. Some ponies might confuse it with 'Celestia'."

"No, Hestia is much different. She was the Greek goddess of the hearth, architecture, and family."

"Uh...okay, sure. Screw it."

"Well, if we're going Greek, I would've suggested Aphrodite," said Rarity.

The rest of the visit was just marveling at their new child they had just birthed. She even opened her little eyes once, and they were absolutely amazing. The outside of the pupil sported a teal green, like Fluttershy's, while the inside was a fiery red-orange, like her father's. Adorable, nonetheless, and the lucky parents just couldn't stop looking into them.

"Okay, Miss Fluttershy, we've got to take this baby to the nursery."

"Just five more minutes. Please?"

"Uh...okay, five more minutes. But we've got to do all this paperwork and all this...it's gonna take a while. What's her name again?"

"Hestia."

"Ooh, that's a good one. I named my son Joe."

She patiently waited outside the door for them to finish, then scooped her out of her mother's arms when the short amount of five minutes was up.

"Will she be okay in there?"

"Yeah, she'll be surrounded by other babies. We'll put nametags on, and you can come get her after you're out of the hospital in three days."

"Three days?"

"Well, yes, birth is a very tiring thing. You need at least that much time to recover. So just stay in bed and don't lift a hoof. We'll do all that for ya', okay?"

"Okay. Thank you so much."

As soon as she was scooped up away from her mother, she started to cry uncontrollably.

"Oh, I know what she wants," said the nurse.

"You do?" they all asked.

"Yeah, I think she's hungry. She needs some milk."

"Oh, no, Discord, we forgot to buy formula!" worried Fluttershy.

"It's okay, there's a perfectly good substitute for formula."

"Oh...you mean..."

"Milkshake?" suggested Pinkie Pie.

"No, Pinkie..." started Fluttershy, but she was too tired to finish the sentence.

As she rested on her side, the nurse put the baby down beside her. She stopped her crying immediately when she got the sense of her mother's milk and started to suckle off of her.

"Wait...what's she doing? Is she sucking Fluttershy's blood?!" yelled Pinkie.

"Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy is feeding her baby. I think it's quite beautiful, actually, even though I despise most things in nature," said Rarity.

Once she had finished suckling, the nurse carried a satisfied baby off to the nursery. Meanwhile, Fluttershy's friends looked at each other nervously.

'Can we all afford to put Fluttershy in the hospital three days?" Twilight asked.

"Well, we're splittin' it, so probably."

"Um...Discord?" Fluttershy timidly asked.

"Yes, dear?"

"Well...giving birth, then feeding the baby sure makes you hungry, so...if it's not too much trouble, could you please get me a sandwich, or something?"

"Sure thing! They've got some in the cafeteria! Uh, what kind of sandwich?"

"Doesn't matter."

On his way to the cafeteria, Discord spotted two men crying over each other and looking through a window into the nursery.

He decided to join them and peer over to where a nurse was writing the name 'Hestia' onto a nametag and putting it on his baby. Of course, she looked different from all the others, so she really didn't need it.

"Uh...which one's yours?" he asked when they calmed down.

"That's ours," he pointed to a sleeping little colt on the left side of the room.

"Wait, both of yours?"

"Yes, we're in a domestic relationship."

"Well, I certainly didn't bring about chaos again because boys can't give birth."

"No no no, we used a surrogate."

"A sir-you-what?"

"A surrogate. A woman that carries your baby?"

"Oh, yeah. I-I heard about those on the news."

They just stood, looking at their respective babies.

"So...how does it work for you gents...in the bed chamber?"

"Ugh, what a weirdo."

They walked, holding each others' hooves.

"It's a legitimate question!"

The End...for now. I dunno, I might write some more. Depends how inspired I am.