“Doug!” Applejack shouts giddily, her face lighting up like the sun above.

“Yeah?” Doug says, half intrigued and half moaning at the soreness in his chest. He rubs the two darkened horseshoes as he sits up, wincing at the tenderness. I wonder if this will get confused for a cutie mark. Or a brand of some sorts.

“Ah can’t feel my heat!” Applejack prances about the twinned trees, hugging each in turn, whispering the joyous news. She spins back to Doug, a whirlwind of excitement and energy that threatens to rip the human from his seat. She grabs him from behind in an eager hug, forelegs squeezing against his chest as she exclaims, “Ya know what that means?”

“That I’m a really good cooler?” Doug says glibly, turning so Applejack can see his smirk as he reaches a hand to scratch at her ear.

Applejack scoffs, her exasperated snort blowing right in Doug’s face. “Ah’m pregnant!”

“Well,” Doug says, turning around to embrace Applejack in a warm hug. “If that’s the case,” he starts, adjusting her forelegs so they wrap around his neck, “then I’m going to be very-” he kisses her muzzle as they stand “-very-” he kisses her again, hands tightly encircling her barrel “-very-” he goes for another kiss but she beats him to it, leaving him sputtering “...happy.” Doug grins as he rubs at his wetness on his nose, then grunts as he lifts her hooves from the ground. He slowly circles, exceeding what he thought was his limit as he stares into her eyes, loving the joy he sees inside.

Applejack grins at the elevated position. “Didn’t know ya had it in you,” she says before nuzzling him. He straightens up for a brief second with a hint of pride, doing his best to hide the obvious strain. She pulls away when he barely returns it, but that could just be him focusing on holding her. “Except, Ah’m sensin’ a ‘but’.”

“...Don’t expect me to walk very far.” Doug squeezes Applejack’s flanks. “You’re already heavy, and you’re not even close to nine months along.”

“Be serious,” Applejack says with a roll of her eyes. “What’s botherin’ ya?” She taps his back. “How come you ain’t more excited?”

Doug sets Applejack back down on her hooves with a heavy sigh, and it’s not just because of her weight. “I’m trying to not get my hopes up too much.” He holds Applejack against his chest, his smile obviously forced. “Just in case it isn’t the case.”

“Ah worry about that, too,” Applejack mumbles, sorrowfully stroking a hoof along the thin hair of his chest.

“You should just get a doctor to check,” comes a remark from above. They both look up, spotting Rainbow Dash laying on a dark storm cloud. She idly preens her wings before stretching out, smirking as Doug’s gaze lingers on her flank. She leaps down, shedding the saddlebags on her side and looking at Doug expectantly.

“Again?” Doug says, more resigned than exasperated. He grabs the saddlebags. “Alright, get over here.”

“Wait, you’re just gonna leave those clouds up there all day?” Applejack grits her teeth as she glares at the pegasus, pointing at the storm cloud.

“Yeah, so?” Rainbow Dash blithely shrugs. “Orders just say I need to get half an inch of rain spread over Sweet Apple Acres. Takes me two hours to do that, but if I break it up between naps I can treat it like sprints.” She waggles her wings back and forth, smirking. “Lets me get in almost two extra hours of sprint practice! Pretty cool, right?”

“No, it ain’t!” Applejack growls out. She points up at the piecemeal clouds dotting the sky above Sweet Apple Acres. “Mah trees need that sun, and those shady patches don’t do me a lick’a good!”

“Nopony’s complained before,” Rainbow Dash asserts brashly, though they can see the gears turning in her mind. She drops down, just uttering a single grunt as Doug cools her off. She hops up as he packs everything away, walking alongside Applejack towards Ponyville General Hospital. Her voice is soft, having lost its edge. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“‘Cause Ah thought that’s how it needed to be, and it weren’t so bad.” Applejack sighs, nuzzling Rainbow Dash and enjoying the nuzzle she gets in return. “Ah’m sorry Ah took that out on ya.”

“It’s cool,” Rainbow Dash returns, taking to the air. “I’ll try to keep the first clouds over roads, the farmhouse, that kinda thing.”

“The sun moves, Dash,” Applejack says with a roll of her eyes. “The shade won’t stay on the same spot.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rainbow Dash says with a sheepish rub of the back of her mane. “Oops.”

“So, what were you doing spying on us?” Doug asks, though without any malice.

“Wasn’t,” Rainbow Dash asserts. “I was just resting my wings when I overheard Applejack.” She groans, dropping down to walk alongside them. “Came in about the time you mentioned coolers.” She sidles up next to Doug, nuzzling his side. “You’re pretty quick with a cooler, you know.”

“Well,” Doug says, smirking at Applejack, “for all we know, I smothered her egg with my lack of magic.” Doug scratches his stubble as he considers, nodding along with himself. “That’s basically what the letter said, right?”

“That would make you the best cooler ever,” Applejack remarks, playing along. “Mares would pay good bits for that kinda treatment. Hay, once word gets around about how good smotherin’ that egg felt, mares’d pay through the nose for a session with ya.”

“Nope,” Doug says playfully, the exaggerated shakes of his head back and forth mimicking a young filly. “Not gonna do it.”

“But Doouuggg,” Applejack whines, doing her best Rarity impression, “think of all the bits ya could make! All it’ll take is studdin’ ya out to everymare, and ya wouldn’t need to work the rest of the year!”

Doug rolls his eyes. “Or I’ll spend all year jacking it to make enough for everypony.”

“What’s Applejack got to do with that?” Rainbow Dash asks from his side.

“Masturbating,” Doug says with a roll of his eyes. “Though I guess if I used a condom then I could use Applejack for that part.”

“What’s a condom?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“Nevermind.” Doug waves a hand in front of him. “I’d dilute my, um, extract, and market that for use in a cooler.” Doug pauses, stunned at the revelation. “Oh, jeez. I wonder if that’s actually how they do it?” He glances over at Rainbow Dash. “You could be shooting some random stallion’s spunk into you every time!”

“Yeah, don’t care.” Rainbow Dash flippantly waves a wing. “It doesn’t get me pregnant and it gets me through heat week.” She sticks her tongue out at him. “Sorry it’s not your spunk cooling me off.”

Doug finds it a little worrisome how much that actually does bother him.

“Anyway, Ah’m sure whatever Doctor’s on duty is busy with mares who let their stallion in a little too close to heat week.” Applejack snorts, though it gets a little uncomfortable as she realizes she almost did that with Doug, should she have not tried for a foal this year. “Ah’d hate to be the mare worryin’ why my heat didn’t start with everypony else’s.”

“Pretty sure there’s only one unicorn, Nurse Purpleheart,” Rainbow Dash comments, “and she gets Rarity to sub in for her during lunch.”

“Was she hurt in a war or something?” Doug asks.

“No,” Rainbow Dash says, confused at the seeming non-sequitur. “She has an orange coat, purple mane, and her cutie mark is a purple heart. Most of the nurses have some sort of ‘heart’ in their name.”

Applejack lists off, “Snowheart, Tenderheart, Sweetheart.”

Rainbow Dash adds, “Ry Rhymes.”

“Ree Rhymes?” Doug repeats, raising an eyebrow.

“You know.” Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes, embarrassed at saying it. “Nurse-Ry Rhymes.”

Doug’s hand massages his eyes. “That’s horrible and whoever named that filly should be dope slapped.”

“Says the colt named ‘Doug Graves’,” Applejack retorts.

Doug sighs. “Point,” he concedes as the hospital comes into view.

Ponyville General stands large and imposing, the three story building full of sharp angles. A couple other buildings make up the hospital complex, all tan with wooden roofs and pink windows. The sign out front shows a white cross with four pink hearts, all inside a red circle; the same symbol is above the green entrance and on the cap of the blue earth pony nurse out front, standing in a booth next to Rarity.

“Mornin’!” Applejack calls as the three draw close.

Rarity looks up from the many-layered dress she is stitching together, regarding the sun with a calculating eye. She waits a few moments before calling back, “Good noon, Applejack!” She regards Doug and Rainbow Dash with a slight smirk, inspecting the bruises on Doug and the fact that Rainbow Dash is walking. “So, who injured whom?”

“Nopony did,” Rainbow Dash says.

Nurse Tenderheart sets her journal down, sighing at the remark and Doug’s approach. “First,” she starts, her voice hard, “what did you do this time, Dash?”

“Why do you always assume it’s me?” demands Rainbow Dash, taking to the air to cross her forelegs across her chest.

“Why do you always prove me right?” Nurse Tenderheart retorts, though her brief evaluation of the pegasus doesn’t show anything out of the ordinary. She scans Doug from head to toe, taking her time, eyes lingering on the twin bruises. “Sorry, but we don’t treat non-ponies here,” she says neutrally, pointing a hoof to a smaller building deeper in the complex. “You’ll want the veterinarian, Dr. Fauna.”

Doug grits his teeth at the implication that he’s essentially a dog, but when none of the other ponies show any indignation he keeps his temper in check, taking a deep breath. “We’re not here for me.” He notes how her eyes glance back to his chest. He waves it off. “I’ll live. We’re here for Applejack.”

Nurse Tenderheart’s gaze flicks to Applejack, then Rainbow Dash.

“I’m just... curious,” Rainbow Dash explains, and she couldn’t have faked her smile any more if she tried. She lands, awkwardly trying to hide it by saying, “And I’m supposed to be resting my wings.”

“We were hopin’ you could check and see if Ah’m pregnant,” Applejack says, stepping toward Rarity.

“You and everypony else,” Nurse Tenderheart grumbles to herself, mostly hiding her exasperated sigh. “Rarity, if you’ll do the honors?”

“Of course,” Rarity says, horn lighting her soft cornflower blue. Applejack is irradiated in a similar light, her entire body glowing. Rarity’s body, when she cast the spell on herself, was the same color of her magic; this is considerably more green, though still tainted by the blue illumination. It’s uniform, yet constantly changing, like a lightbulb periodically growing dimmer and then brightening. The way they shift gives the impression of tens of thousands of tiny sparks circulating through her body, never ceasing but occasionally pooling in brighter spots along her hooves and belly.

“Hmm,” Nurse Tenderheart says, a slight frown joining her pursed muzzle. “You’re not pregnant,” she declares neutrally, unsure of which way Applejack is hoping it to be.

“W-what?” Applejack gasps out, stunned. Her eyes travel to her belly, watching the colors swirl around. “But Ah was sure! Ah felt mah heat start, and then… and then…”

The orange mare sinks down, Doug dropping alongside her and laying a comforting arm across her withers. She grits her teeth, snorting loudly. “No! Ah refuse to accept that!” She stamps a hoof on the dirt path, glaring at Nurse Tenderheart. “Ah want a second opinion!”

Nurse Tenderheart sighs. “I’ll see if Dr. Sharps is busy,” she says, walking to the main entrance.

Applejack sobs as she turns to Doug, burying her head in his chest. “Ah know what Ah felt,” she ekes out between sharp breaths, though her eyes remain dry. “Ah’m sure!” Her body trembles as Rainbow Dash rests a wing across her back, nuzzling the earth pony’s shoulder. Rarity’s horn winks out as she huddles close.

The four look up as a tan earth pony stallion, wearing a white lab coat that leaves his cutie mark of a knife and needle uncovered, approaches. “Afternoon,” he greets cordially, dropping down enough to smile into Applejack’s eyes but not too far to rest his coat on the dirt. “I’m Dr. Sharps. You want me to take a look at you?”

Applejack can only nod, peeling herself away from her friends.

“Perhaps an explanation would be good, too,” Doug says, “since some of us might not be familiar with your, um, procedures.”

Dr. Sharps nods, glancing at Rarity. The unicorn is breathing a little heavily. “Whenever you are ready, Rarity.” Rarity gives a weary nod, her horn remaining unlit. He turns to Doug, though a wry smirk shows he can tell Rainbow Dash is paying far closer attention than he would have guessed. “How much do you know about pregnancy in general?”

“I know about how humans get pregnant,” Doug says neutrally, “but let’s assume I don’t know anything about ponies.”

“Certainly.” Dr. Sharps taps a hoof to his chin. “Where to start. After a pony has received their cutie mark, their body undergoes changes commonly referred to as puberty. For mares, even newly minted ones, they will go into estrus once a year, generally during the spring. During this time, if a mare mates with a stallion there is a high chance that she will conceive. And when she does - when the sperm and egg combine - a new magical core is created.” Dr. Sharps motions to Rarity. “This is what we are scanning for. Because every magical core is unique to the pony. Even identical twins have different, if quite similar, cores. Rarity, whenever you are ready.”

Rarity’s horn lights, again bathing Applejack in a soft blue light. Doug, next to her, shows as a black void while Rainbow Dash is an even brighter blue.

Dr. Sharps moves close to Applejack, studying her belly carefully. “Interesting,” he says to himself, though it’s mostly to cover his frown. He calmly touches Applejack’s side, and as soon as his hoof hits Rarity’s light it glows with a metallic chrome blue. “As you can see,” he explains, “it is all a uniform color, which Rarity’s keen eye can also attest to.” He turns to Nurse Tenderheart. “Would you like to show them?”

“Sure,” Nurse Tenderheart says. Rarity’s projection shifts to her, the already blue mare staying about the same color. Deep in her belly is the glint of a metallic brown, stationary even as the blues swirl around it.

“Some aren’t as obvious,” Dr. Sharps says, a motion of his hoof bringing the projection back to Applejack. “And the collection there suggests something has happened. You said you felt your heat start?” A hoof taps at his chin as Applejack nods. “Curious.” He glances at Doug as Rarity’s horn goes out, the unicorn breathing heavily. “You are the sire?”

“Doug,” he says with a nod.

Dr. Sharps nods back. “Without a more detailed scan, my cursory diagnosis would be a spontaneous abortion. No fault of either of yours, but sometimes things are… incompatible.” He offers a contrite smile to Doug, who merely sighs. “One other pony comes to mind with a similar condition, but…”

“But?” Applejack asks with a hint of hope.

Dr. Sharps sighs. “That other pony is Princess Celestia herself, and though it hasn’t been confirmed Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”

Applejack’s brow narrows as her concept of the Mistress of the Sun is assaulted. “But surely Princess Celestia...” Wouldn’t she have found a fix for this in all her years? “Surely she’s made it work!” If not, what chance does that leave me?

“Princess Celestia has conceived a great many times,” Dr. Sharps explains with a certain grimness. “But every time has ended like this.” He motions towards Applejack’s belly, the orange pony involuntarily sniffling.

“How come I’ve never heard of that?” Rainbow Dash demands.

“Probably because you don’t spend your hours with your muzzle in an endocrinology textbook,” Dr. Sharps dryly remarks, drawing a sheepish shake of the head from Rainbow Dash. “And you are not a colt, who whisper rumors that if one was to solve the Princess Dilemma, then she would bestow upon them the honor of siring her firstborn.” He chuckles as the ponies, though not Doug, look both in awe and more than a bit jealous of that colt. “Perhaps that is why so many colts get their cutie marks in the sciences.”

Despite her smile at the remark, Applejack can’t help but feel that depression creeping up on her. “Are ya sayin’ there ain’t any hope for me? That even Princess Celestia can’t fix this?”

Dr. Sharps sighs, his head bowing slightly. “I’m sorry, Applejack.” He glances at Nurse Tenderheart. “In a few weeks we can run a test that will check the hormone levels in your blood.” He glances at Doug, a brief frown as he remembers the human’s aura, or lack thereof. “It certainly is a unique case.” He pauses for a moment. “Is there anything else?”

Seeing nothing but head shakes and grim expressions Dr. Sharps nods to nopony in particular, walking back to the hospital.

Next Chapter: Ch. 43 - Iron Heart Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 20 Minutes