I was awoken by a movement next to me as someone bumped into my back and I rolled over, confused as to what had caused me to wake when I saw a lump of blankets rolling around in the darkness. I turned to my side and flicked the bedside lamp on, looking back to see Lily, her face contorted and forehead dripping with sweat.

“L-Lily?” I held onto her shoulders and tried to hold her still, in case she hurt herself while also trying to wake her.

She began to mumble something unintelligible and I shook her, attempting to jostle her awake.

“Lily!” I shouted, a worried feeling filling my stomach. “Wake up!”

Suddenly, her eyes shot open and she flung herself forward, gasping heavily. Immediately, she broke down and began to sob, her entire body shaking from the tears. I wrapped my hooves around her and hugged her tight as I could as she rocked back and forth.

“It's okay, Lily. It was just a dream. It was just a dream.” I whispered in her ear. She shook her head rapidly and rocked back and forth even harder.

“No, no, no, no, no…” She repeated, shaking her head as she did.

“It's okay, it was only a dream.”

“No!” Lily screamed. “It wasn't a dream!”

“You had a nightmare Lily.” I pleaded, trying my hardest to get her to calm down.

She shook her head.

“Rose, I saw…” She clenched her eyes, letting tears drip down. “I saw you die.”

My stomach pitted and my eyes contracted. I felt tears build up as I looked down at Lily.

“Y-you… what?”

Lily gritted her teeth and trembled again.

“D-don’t make me say it again, Rose.”

I threw my forelegs around my beautiful Lily and held her tight, her tears releasing and leaking onto my coat. I stroked her mane as she stroked mine and whispered “I love you.” over and over in her ear.

“R-Rose… you were so beautiful.”

“Wh-what?”

“That day… I was going to ask you to marry me.”

My stomach sunk somehow even further and I wasn't sure if I was going to cry from sadness or smile from happiness.

“We were… already having a kid together, so I just… I wanted every pony to know that you were my mare. My perfect Rose.” She smiled and her lips trembled as she brought a hoof to my face, stroking me softly.

“I had… I s-set up this whole d-dinner for us and it was going to b-be amazing.” Her smile faltered and changed quickly to a look of pure sadness.

“Then… when we were in this field together… I left to go home and I th-thought y-you were behind me, b-but when I turned around… y-you were still there. Lying in the flowers.” She broke down into sobs again and I hugged her, my own tears now joining hers.

“Oh G-God, Rose! I thought you were g-gone forever!”

I silently sobbed and stroked Lily’s mane.

“I-it… was real. I know that it was a m-memory. Of our life b-before.”

I shakily nodded and held her tighter.

“I'm not dead, Lily. It's all thanks to you.”

Lily smiled at me while tears still poured down her face and she buried her face into my fur. She kept repeating “You're alive.” over and over again, almost as if she was trying to convince herself it was true.

“Lily.” I held her by the shoulders. “I am alive. A-and I think you have something to to ask m-me.” I said, shaking and trying to hold back a wide smile.

“Wh-what?” She said, confused.

“It's simple.” I smiled warmly yet nervously. “Four words. You a-already said y-you were planning to ask it b-before…”

Lily’s eyes opened wide and she breathed in.

“W-wait, you d-don’t mean-”

I silenced her with a kiss.

“Ask me.”

She nodded and closed her eyes.

“Rose… Will you marry me?”

“Yes!” I screamed, loud enough for anyone awake to hear and I flung myself at Lily, tackling her into a tight hug and pecking her face over and over again with kisses.

“I love you so much!” I squee’d and kicked my legs happily hugging a very happy looking Lily as she hugged me back, tears still streaking her cheeks.

Lily began to laugh, both from happiness and relief. Despite the nightmare, Lily’s smile, in this moment, was the most real I had ever seen it be.

------

We had hugged each other and kissed so much last night that we exhausted each other completely and ended up falling asleep, splayed across the bed in each other's hooves.

The next morning, I woke up sleepily and my mind immediately replayed the events of last night.

Lily asked me to marry her! And I said yes! This was so exciting, but also kinda scary. Almost like having this foal, I was looking forward to it immensely, but the thought of it actually happening was intimidating to say the least.

Next to me, snoring beautifully, was Lily. Even when lying sideways, with her tongue poking out of her mouth as she snored, she was the most beautiful pony in the world. Okay, well, there is kinda only two ponies in this world, but still. She’s beautiful, okay? I yawned and stretched out before jumping out of bed and walking to the door, planning to cook a nice breakfast for my fiance.

Fiance! I found myself hopping between hooves and giggling as I thought of it and had to stop myself. What was I, a schoolgirl? You know what? Who cares. I was happy! I was going to let myself be happy. I resumed my childish giggling and hopping for a while before calming down.

I pulled out some eggs and milk from the fridge, intent on making some french toast for Lily. As I prepared the ingredients, I had the intense desire to slather it in soy sauce. I dismissed it as another one of my extremely strange cravings and avoided doing it. Even if I found myself craving something, experience told me that it still could taste terrible regardless.

I finished up the french toast before placing it on two plates and filling up some glasses with orange juice. I precautiously carried the plates to our room and placed it on our bedside table next to a still sleeping Lily before going back for the glasses of orange juice. Carrying things was still a pain, but almost two months of doing it had made lifting things in my mouth and hooves a lot easier.

Gosh, almost two months. Two months into my pregnancy. Two months since I became a pony again. I placed the glasses of juice on the table and jumped up onto the bed, looking down at my belly. I wasn’t exactly “Big” yet, but there was a definite bump in my belly just above my slightly larger teats. I rubbed my belly contently and hummed happily.

“I wonder what she will grow up to be?” I thought to myself, longing to finally hold her in my hooves.

A yawn from next to me broke me out of my stupor and I looked over at Lily, whose eyes were half open and who was smacking her lips sleepily.

“Morning, Rose. What smells so good?” Lily said, rubbing her eyes.

“French toast!” I said in a chipper tone. “For my beautiful fiance.”

Lily looked a bit confused before her face relaxed as she remembered last night. A look of happiness spread across her face and she launched herself at me, hugging me tightly.

“Woah!” I slipped backward as I took the force of her hug. “Careful, Lily!” I laughed as she buried her face in my fur.

“I love you, Rose.”

“I love you too, Lily. What’s gotten into you?”

She looked up, her face wide with a huge smile.

“W-we’re gonna get married!” She said, her smile somehow growing wider.

“Yes, Lily.” I tried to keep calm and mature, but the thought of being wed to her was too much and I smiled back, giggling happily and hugging her tightly.

“Oooh!” Lily said and lifted her head up. “French toast! I love french toast!” She said, breathing in deeply through her nose.

“Yep! Sprinkled in sugar and cinnamon, just how you like it.”

“How do you know that I like it like that?” She raised an eyebrow at me.

“I may have had a dream about it a few nights ago. Maybe.”

“Wait, you’ve been having memory dreams too?”

“I think so. They’ve only been really mundane, like eating breakfast, going shopping, walking in the park, that kind of stuff. I mean, I’m pretty sure they’re memory dreams. I was always a pony in them and they were pretty vivid compared to normal dreams.”

Lily nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve been having the same things happening in mine. Besides… last night.” She said and her face drooped again. I lifted her chin up with a hoof and stared her in the the eyes.

“Hey, I will not have my beautiful fiance crying, okay?” I smiled and her cheeks flushed red.

“Fiance…” She muttered quietly and her face quickly switched back to a happy expression.

“We should probably eat our breakfast before it gets cold.” I mentioned and Lily jumped.

“Oh! Yes, sorry! Thanks for cooking breakfast.” She happily grabbed her plate and began digging into her meal.

------

“Mum, can you please stop?”

“No!” My mother said, slightly annoyed at me. I could hardly see it from how bad her webcam was, but there was a distinct frown on her face. “I’ve been looking up what a horse pregnancy is like and I want you to listen to what I have to say!”

“Mum…” I groaned and put my face in my hooves. “I already know what I’m in for, and it’s not a normal pregnancy. Ponies-- Well, the kind of ponies that we are, have extremely similar pregnancies to humans.”

“And how do you know this, hmm?” She asked and folded her arms.

“I told you before, I’m having memory dreams about this stuff. I remember from that.” I said bluntly as possible, my cheeks still heating up from the embarrassing conversation topic. I had called her in the first place to tell her and my dad about me and Lily’s engagement, but as soon as I called, she started going on and on about what I should do.

“I’m sorry, Rose, but as your mother, It’s my job to make sure you’re prepared for this stuff.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs Linden, but Rose is right. She’s extremely prepared and knows exactly the differences and similarities between a pony pregnancy and a human one.” Lily spoke up for the first time since the call had started.

“Well, if you’re sure, then I won’t say anymore about it. I do, however, have a few books I want to send you which might be able to help you. They’re just a few simple books on-”

“Mum, please.” I interrupted. “I called you for a reason. Is dad there at all?”

“Oh, sorry. Yes, he’s just in the garage. Stephen!” My mum called out and my dad walked in a few seconds later.

“Oh, hey honey.” He said, smiling after seeing Lily and I on his screen.

“Hi.” I nervously waved back. “So, dad… We have something to tell you. It’s pretty big.”

“What could be bigger than “I’m a tiny horse and I’m pregnant”, Rose?” He said with a chuckle.

“Well…” I lifted up my hoof, showing a small chain with a gold ring attached to it. “Me and Lily are engaged.”

There was a second of silence before my mum and my dad both smiled happily.

“That’s great news!” My mum said, holding hands with my dad.

“I’m so proud of you, Rose. Honestly, we were both kind of expecting it, especially after you told us you were expecting, but congratulations all the same.” My dad smiled warmly. I felt a tear of happiness collecting at the rim of my eye and I wiped it away. Lily nuzzled up against my cheek and whispered softly.

“See? Told you they would be happy for us.”

I nodded and looked down at the ring on my hoof. It was Lily’s idea to get this ring in the first place, and although I had said that I didn’t think I really needed one, Lily still dug into her savings to buy it. I had been looking for one to buy for Lily yesterday when she mentioned that we should probably call my parents and tell them the good news.

“We have a little surprise for you too, Rose.” My mum said excitedly, looking at her husband before looking back at us. “We’re coming down to visit tomorrow!”

My jaw dropped and I glanced over at Lily, who looked just as shocked.

“Wh-what!? Tomorrow?” I looked around at our apartment, at all of the mess that we had left uncleaned both due to laziness and the fact that it was hard to clean such a large place when we were so small. They couldn’t come here when it was in this state! “Uh, can you m-maybe reschedule?” I asked with a shaky smile.

“Sorry, Rose. Your mother and I both booked time off of work to come see you, and we only have tomorrow and the day after to see you.”

“Th-the day after?”

“Rose, we not only haven’t seen you in months, but we want to meet Lily! She seems like such a lovely girl, but we’ve only ever met her over video calls. Two days should be enough, and We’ll bring a blowup mattress to sleep on.” My mum protested firmly.

I rolled my eyes and slumped in my seat.

“Couldn’t have warned me, could you?”

“We only actually found out we could earlier today, so this is the soonest we could have told you. Anyway, we have to pack and get ready to go, so we’ll see you tomorrow! Love you, bye!” My mum said before hanging up. I slumped even further down and groaned loudly, Lily letting out a small chuckle at my behaviour.

“Oh come on, they can’t be that bad.”

“You haven’t seen my parents visit before. If this place isn’t spotless when she arrives, we’ll never hear the end of it.”

Lily looked around the room and her pupils shrank.

“W-we got a lot of work to do.

------

I stood in the centre of the room and looked around, exhausted but happy. We had spent the entirety of last night and this morning cleaning up and had only just finished when I heard the doorbell to our apartment go off. I jolted in surprise and Lily put a hoof around me, kissing me on the cheek as she did.

“Hey, It’ll be fine, Rose.” She said calmly.

“What if they don’t like you?”

Lily rolled her eyes and lifted her hoof off me, walking toward the door.

“You worry too much, honey. I’m sure we’ll get along perfectly.” Lily smiled and jumped up, grabbing onto the door handle before pulling the door open. Behind it was my mum and dad, both of their faces filling with surprise as they saw me, standing in the middle of the room. I nervously raised a hoof and waved.

“Uh, hi? You two alright?” Lily said, causing them both to look down and stare at Lily. She grinned widely at them, but their expression didn’t change.

“Mum, dad? Can you come inside? I don’t want anyone else seeing us like this.”

This jolted them out of their surprised looks and they both hurried inside, closing the door beside them and placing their bags on the floor. They looked at me and smiled, still obviously very surprised.

“Uh, did you want a seat?”

They nodded and took a seat down at the dinner table. I jumped up and shortly afterward, Lily followed. I looked over expectantly at my mum and dad who remained silent as they looked at me.

“Is everything alright?”

“Oh, uh, yes.” My dad said, nudging his wife, who nodded. “Sorry, we’re just… Still shocked. I mean, we’ve seen you two before, but seeing you in person makes this all so more real.”

I nodded understandingly before looking to Lily.

“Well, you’ve met before, but this is Lily.” She waved at them happily. “Uh… How was the drive down?”

“Fine.” My mum said, nodding. “Your father decided to listen to his metal music the whole way down, but besides that, it was fine.” She joked and laughed. My dad chuckled and put his hand on his wife's shoulder.

“Rose, I know we said it before, but we are just so proud of you. I remember talking to you before you… changed, and you just seemed so… bored.”

I giggled and nodded.

“Yeah, bored is definitely accurate. I am happy now though, and that’s what matters.”

“Ooh!” My mum smiled and leaned down to rifle through her bags. I looked at dad questioningly, but he just rolled his eyes back. She popped back up again, a bag in her hands and a huge grin on her face. “I bought you two a present!”

“Mum, you didn’t have to do that.”

“Nonsense! You just got engaged, I can’t not buy you something.” She said, leaning forward and pushing the bag toward us. I looked inside and pulled out a large box. Well, large compared to us.

“What is it?”

“Open it up!”

I opened up the plain white box and pulled out a large folder-like book from inside. On the cover was the words “Precious memories” in cursive font.

“A picture album?”

“Yep! I want you two to fill that book up with happy times and do amazing things together. Me and your father have a book just like it, filled with pictures of you as a kid.”

I smiled at my mum and jumped down, running towards her and jumping up onto her lap, before wrapping my hooves around her and hugging her. She froze up from the hug but relaxed and hugged me back.

“Thank you so much, mum.” I said, looking up at the face of the woman who raised me. She looked down and smiled a motherly smile which changed to a very excited one.

“Oh gosh, Rose! You’re so cute!”

“C-cute?” I moved back a little.

“Your little floppy ears, and your tiny nose! Oooh, and your hair is so pretty!” I blushed as my mum prattled on and I heard a laugh come from both my dad and Lily. Suddenly, I felt two strong hands lift me up from underneath and pull me over. I was plonked down softly on my father's lap and he grinned at me.

“Come here and give your dad a hug.” He said and placed his arms softly yet firmly. My dad’s hug was a different kind of hug than my mums, and instead of being more calming, it was more reassuring than anything else. He pulled away and looked down at me.

“You are… really small.”

“You know how small I am, dad.”

“But seeing you in person… You’re like a cat!” He chuckled deeply.

“I-I’m not a pet, dad!” I frowned, pursing my lips.

“I know, I know. I wasn’t saying that, but you are the size of one. I scowled playfully at him before jumping down and trotting over to Lily. I jumped back up on the chair and she kissed me on the cheek.

“You two really are a cute couple.” My mother said, clapping her hands together.

“Mum… Stop…” I blushed again, only for a hoof to move my face toward Lily and her lips to meet mine. I was shocked by the kiss but reciprocated it anyway. It was only after it ended that the realization hit that she had kissed me in front of my parents.

I looked over only to see my mum almost jumping out of her seat from how much she was smiling and wiggling around. My dad was smiling widely, but staring at Lily, almost as if to say “You better be treating her right.”

I swung back to Lily who was softly smiling, eyes half lidded and looking at me. I frowned at her and scrunched up my muzzle.

“L-Lily, please. You’re embarrassing me.”

“I only do what I do best, Rose.” She said and pecked me on the lips again.

“Anyway!” My dad said to change the subject and I looked appreciatively at him. “Your apartment is looking very nice, Rose. A lot better than last time we visited.”

“Oh, thanks. Yeah, it’s kinda hard to clean up like this, what with the lack of opposable thumbs and us being quite small compared to humans.” I replied.

“I have to agree with your father this time. Your place is looking perfect, if a little… Plain.” I smiled in relief. The approval of my mum in regards to my apartment signalled a complaint free visit.

“Ooh, I know! Me and Stephen were thinking of going out to do some shopping for you two tomorrow, how about we buy you some flowers to spruce up the place?” My mum offered.

Flowers? I would normally have said “No way”, but the idea of having some flowers in here sounded absolutely amazing.

“Y-yeah, that actually would be pretty good.” I nodded. “Thanks, mum.”

“And I know exactly what to buy! Winter is the season for both Lilies and Roses, so that would be perfect.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled at my mum. I had expected her to do this, trying to do everything for me while she was here, and usually I would have complained, but to be honest, it would be nice not having to do too much for a few days. Lily seemed to be getting along pretty well with my parents too, which I still expected, but it was a relief to quell my fears, no matter how unnecessary they were.

------

I sat on the couch with my father to my right and Lily cuddled up to me on my left as a wonderful smell wafted in through from the kitchen. After a little bit of convincing, I finally agreed to let my mum cook dinner and the amazing smell of Laksa filled our apartment. I had told my mum and dad that meat was inedible for us now, and so she had filled the meal with bok choy and other asian vegetables to create a different kind of laksa.

Dinner was unexpectedly pleasant. Usually when my parents came over, my mum would complain, my dad would stay silent, and I would nod along quietly to whatever she said. Tonight, though, was extremely different. My mum did minimal complaining and instead, busied herself by asking all about Lily. I answered as best as I could, but my mind started getting jumbled up at a few points. When my mum asked how we met, I started telling her the story of how I had only just moved into town, and I had comforted her after her flower stand had been ravaged by pests. I stopped myself when I realized that the story I was telling was actually a memory from our life before, not how we had met when we were still human.

Despite a few slip ups and jumbles, I managed to tell her all she needed to know about Lily and soon enough, our meal was finished and we sat at the table, satisfied.

“Ahhh… I really enjoyed that, mum. Thanks for cooking for us.”

“Thank you for letting me! You’re usually so stubborn about this stuff, but I’m glad you’re finally letting us help.”

“Yeah, I can be a bit hard headed at times…” I rubbed the back of my head. Next to me, Lily yawned and rubbed her belly.

“Thanks, Mrs Linden. That was really great. I’m feeling pretty pooped.”

I nodded, only just realizing now how tired our frantic cleaning this morning had left us and I hopped down from the chair.

“Sorry mum, I think me and Lily are gonna head to bed.”

She shook her head and raised a hand.

“No, no, don’t be sorry. You’re carrying a baby inside you, you need all the rest you can get.”

I smiled at my mum, silently thanking her for being so understanding before I walked through to me and Lily’s bedroom. I sleepily jumped up on the bed as Lily closed the door, waving goodnight to my mum and dad. She followed behind and jumped up next to me, pulling the blankets over us and raising a hoof for me to rest on her chest. I sighed happily as I felt her chest rise up and down slowly.

“Thank you, Lily.” I said contently.

“What for?”

“For being so amazing.”

“Pfft. I’m not amazing.”

“Yes you are. My parents absolutely adore you. I’ve brought partners to meet them before, and trust me, if they had any problem with you at all, even the slightest, they would let me know. Not subtly either.”

Lily said nothing but tightened her hold around me and kissed me on the top of the head.

“I love you, Rose.”

I nuzzled her and closed my eyes calmly.

“Night, Lily. I love you too.”