Nothing had really changed, Applejack knew. Still, as she had awoken this morning, she had felt like she was an entirely new mare:

A mare with a marefriend. A very special somepony to call her own.

She had been in relationships in the past, of course. Despite her being a carpet muncher, as some ponies called it, her last ‘real’ relationship had been with a stallion. It wasn’t like she hated stallions; they were just not what she wanted or were very attracted to, the mare had found. Applejack was a mare that desired something soft next to her in bed. Something cuddly. Something feminine or could at least be called that. One muscled body in her bed was more than enough, and that was her own.

Melody was just that person. She was squishy all over, soft, warm, and they got along very well—everything Applejack expected from a special somepony. She would only get cuddlier the further along her pregnancy went. Applejack knew that Melody being pregnant shouldn’t be a factor in their relationship, but for her, who had always wanted foals, it was a very big plus. Really, it was an all in one package.

She had thought about the foal problem since the day she knew she preferred mares over stallions. The easiest solution would have been a stud, perhaps a brother of her future marefriend, if said future marefriend didn’t want to carry the foal. Or she would ask her own brother or Braeburn to help her marefriend get pregnant. Adoption was also an option, but the last one on her list. For many years, these thoughts had followed her everywhere; only now they had abated. Not completely, but not at the forefront of her mind anymore. It was like a physical weight had been lifted off her back. She had planted the seed with winning Melody’s heart—now she only had to nurture the sapling until it was a tree large enough to put a hoofband on it. The thought alone made her giddy as a foal.

With this final thought, she reached the door of Melody’s home. Her ears already picked up sounds from within, and the open kitchen window made it even easier. The woman of her heart could be heard cursing and groaning. Applejack’s curiosity perked up, and the mare went over to the open window and lifted herself up to the windowsill with her forehooves.

As the sounds had suggested, Melody was inside the kitchen and cursing at her coffee machine, which responded with weird gurgling noises and little spits of water. She stomped her right foot and turned around, surprising Applejack.

“Morning,” Melody greeted her. “You don’t have to climb through the window, you know. The door is open.” The human pointed with her right thumb in the direction of her front door. “I’ll be with you as soon as this stupid thing gives me my coffee.” And with that, she turned around and brought down her fist on the machine on the counter. A metallic rattling could be heard, and another spurt of water escaped that was followed by a loud hiss. Melody groaned in frustration.

Applejack looked around in the kitchen for a moment. There was a stove, an old one that used gas instead of magic. A few steps to the left was the fridge, a model that seemed to be still using real ice for cooling. There was no toaster—she knew Melody used her pan for that. Thinking of it, there wasn’t much of anything at all, and what was there was old, very old. Probably stuff that other ponies had thrown away ages ago. The orange mare fancied herself a good cook and she was proud of her state-of-the-art kitchen. Seeing her beloved using what was akin to scrap metal to even get a cup of coffee was sad and heart-breaking.

“Wouldn’t ya rather join me out here? I know a little coffee shop not far from here.”

With a sigh, Melody’s shoulders sagged visibly. “You know what, I would love to. But that doesn’t count as one of the dates,” she said as a smile found his way back on her face. “I’m not that cheap.”

“Damnation. Way to ruin my shady scheme,” Applejack joked back. “But to be serious, Sugarcube, I came to invite you to breakfast anyway. I think we can throw coffee in there as well. What do ya say?”

“You know what?” Melody glanced back at her coffee machine. It chose this moment to spray some coffee in a diagonal arc across the counter instead of the cup right under it. The woman distanced herself a little further from the ongoing onslaught. “That sounds pretty good right about now. Let me get dressed and I’ll be right with you.” Nodding, Applejack lowered herself to the ground and started to wait.

“Can you make toast with mustard, pineapple, and cheese on top of it?” Melody asked the waiter, who raised an eyebrow at her question. Applejack snickered quietly at his reaction. “File it under pregnant mare cravings,” she added. Nodding with understanding, the stallion jotted her order down. “Coffee with cream as well, please.”

“I’ll have the same,” Applejack added. She was curious. Mustard and pineapple sounded like they would taste horribly if eaten at the same time. However, she also knew Melody wasn’t so far along to have cravings. At least she hoped so. She didn’t know too much about human pregnancies, after all. The waiter nodded in her direction and picked up the menus before he vanished in the direction of the kitchen. “So… care to tell me what I’ve gotten myself into?”

“It’s called Hawaii Toast where I’m from. Funny enough, it wasn’t invented in Hawaii, but in Germany. Also, I ate it for the first time when I was on vacation with my parents there.” Applejack mused over the name of the country. Germany sounded a lot like Germane. “Ein Bier, bitte,” Melody recited what strangely enough sounded Germane to her. “I think that’s the only German I remember correctly. It’s the most important thing to know.”

Applejack could make out that she had asked for something, at least from the sound of her words. “Well, what did you ask for?”

“A beer. A brew made from hops, malt, yeast and water.” Applejack had heard of the brew in the past. The minotaurs and griffins had it, but it was banned in Equestria. It had been available in the past, and many ponies had confused it for something healthy. However, the highly addictive substance was nothing of the sort, and Princess Celestia had to do something. If it was allowed in Germane, she didn’t know. “It was the only German sentence anyone needed to know for the Oktoberfest.”

Applejack wanted to change the subject. “Anyway. What’s in that there bag of yours?” She had been intrigued the moment Melody had left the house with it.

The woman suddenly looked nervous and even somewhat uncomfortable. “Twilight’s writing kit. I thought about what we talked about yesterday, and the sooner she gets it back, the better.” Applejack agreed with a nod. “Plus I have to talk to her about our… situation. I feel Rarity was somewhat right. If Twilight really has feelings for me, we have to talk about it because I don’t want to lead her on. It wouldn’t be right.” Applejack nodded again. “So I wanted to ask you… if you could help me. Not talking for me,” she added quickly. “Just, you know… be there.”

“Of course!” she agreed instantly. “Twilight’s one of ma best friends and you’re my marefriend. You can count on me, Sugarcube.” As Melody answered with a grateful smile, the waiter came back with their order.

“Welp, this is it.” Melody muttered as they reached the door of the Golden Oaks Library. The woman lifted her right hand to knock, but stopped inches before the wood.

Applejack pressed against her side. “I can knock for you again, if you’d like.”

“So it was you!” Melody exclaimed suddenly and startled her. “I’ll get you back for that, just so you know. It’ll be the moment you’d least expect it.” She had a wicked glint in her eyes, and Applejack gulped nervously. “You’ll never see it coming. Just imagine: you right on top of me, our lips just an inch apart and then… I will have a headache.”

“I don’t want to imagine that,” opined a third voice. Both Melody and Applejack turned towards the door again where a small green and purple dragon stood with a bowl of emeralds in his claws. He picked one up and threw it into his open maw. There was a crunch, a few slurping noises, and then it was gone. “You want to come in? I could also close the door again so you can continue to do whatever you were doing,” he offered sardonically.

“We’ll come in, Spike,” Applejack replied and followed the dragon into the building. “Twilight down yet?”

“I don’t know. Didn’t see her upstairs or down here. She’s probably in the basement doing science stuff.” Melody closed the door behind them and together they entered the living room. Well, it was more like a collateral damage room at the moment, Applejack noted. Scrolls and books were everywhere. Empty cups of coffee occupied almost every flat surface, and somepony had drawn with chalk on some parts of the walls. “And by probably I mean most likely, given the evidence.”

“Looks like a tornado had fun in here,” Melody mused and picked up the books from the couch. “Prim Proper’s guide for Pregnancy,” Melody read the cover of one of the books aloud. “Biology for the Mentally Advanced and Ten Easy Steps to get Pregnant, now with guide to sue the hell out of him.” They all blinked at that. “There’s drool on it,” Melody noted.

“That was most likely Twilight’s pillow then.” The dragon took the books from Melody. “I’ll start cleaning all of this. You can go downstairs if you want.”

Applejack wanted to shake her head for a moment. Spike couldn’t clean all of this by himself, and as a good friend, she wanted to help. Still, she had already promised Melody. “If you’ll wait a while, I’ll help ya, Spike. Just have to talk with Twi first, that’s all.”

“I’ll help as well,” Melody said. “I mean, Twilight’s my boss and this is the project we’re working on, after all.”

Spike looked relieved. “Thanks, guys. I’ll be finishing my breakfast then and wait for you in the kitchen. Can I make you anything?” Spike was really something, Applejack thought. The little guy got up early every day to clean after Twilight and make breakfast. She knew from experience that he could be clumsy at times, but he was still just a young dragon.

“No thank you,” Melody answered for them. “We already ate.” Spike nodded and left them alone in the room, the emeralds in the bowl shrinking by the second.

Applejack looked through the room again. “Good thing Mac took over for me today,” she mumbled to herself.

“So, down in the lair of the mad scientist we go!” Melody exclaimed and, with a few steps, reached the door that led into the basement. They both had been down here several times, and Applejack had to agree with her marefriend. Lair of a mad scientist was a fitting description for Twilight’s basement. Before Melody could open the door, it was released from the other side and Twilight emerged from the shadows beyond.

Her mane was a mess, she had bags under her eyes, and had a manic grin on her lips. “I knew I heard voices!” the unicorn said with enthusiasm that sharply contrasted with her appearance. “Melody, I got it! I figured it out!” Applejack had to watch as her friend tackled the woman to the ground and hugged her with joyful abandon. “I can get pregnant!”

“Wait?” The farmer’s brain stopped. “Come again?”

“Applejack!” Twilight let go of the shocked human and tackled her to the ground as well. Instead of a hug, Twilight took her cheeks in her forehooves and squished them together a few times. “I’ve figured it out! I can become pregnant!”

“That’s nice, Sugarcube.” Applejack freed herself from the unicorn’s grip and forced Twilight to sit still by holding her forehooves on the ground. “Now why don’t you tell us what you’re talking about from the beginning?”

“When I heard that Melody was pregnant despite being the only one of her species, I knew it had to be a magical reason. And I was right! Melody is absorbing magic passively. Her thaumatic field is a total mess. There’s some earth pony in her, some unicorn, and even pegasi! It’s like she is an alicorn, only without the immortality, strength, or magic. However, she has some of the passive characteristics of an alicorn, like better healing, resistance to extreme temperature, or being very, very fertile. So, I used my thaumometer as a base; instead of reading magic, it infuses magic into a pony. With Melody’s results as the recipe, I mixed a heavy load of pegasi and earth pony magic, donated from Rainbow and Pinkie when I did their check-up after Discord messed with us, and infused it into myself.”

“Well, that explains why it never really bothered me going without clothes…” Melody looked awestruck, still lying on the floor. “So, how did you know it worked?”

“When I woke up a few minutes ago, I casted a rudimentary diagnostic spell on myself. I’m not barren anymore! Also, I’m in heat! I never was in heat!”

“Oh, Twilight.” Applejack heard the voice, but for a moment couldn’t add a face to it. Then, as she looked behind her to see who had spoken, it was clear why. She never had heard Princess Celestia's words laced with such sadness. The alicorn stood in the entrance to the library, together with Rarity. The alabaster unicorn had tears in her eyes while the princess’ face was a mixture of disappointment and sorrow.

I'm really sorry for the really long wait. It just, this is the first time in month that I find myself able to continue this story. Like mentally able. I would sit down, stare at the blank page for a few minutes and then play some RPG instead. And I didn't want to force it. Chapter 12 is also finished and I'm working on 13 as we speak.

Thanks to JBL for editing this chapter.