Chapter 12: It's Here!

As Braeburn waited the nurses of Ponyville hospital decided to head out in the snow to gather Pinkie's friends, including the Cakes, who were more than happy to come and wait along side him. When the Cakes finally showed up everypony was in the waiting room, some of them more worried than others. Rarity was reading a magazine on fashion close to her face so she could hide her anxiety. Fluttershy was just shaking and occasionally whimpering because of how strange the situation was. Twilight was sitting calmly, reading a book that she had brought with her while Spike slept in the chair next to her, tired from having to carry the gigantic book she was reading. Applejack and Rainbow were hiding their feelings by playing blackjack for potato chips that Rainbow had bought from a shop they had in the hospital. The Cakes were laying next to each other with the twins in their laps sleeping soundly while their parents talked happily about the new foal that was almost here. When Braeburn finished looking at everypony he realized that he had been tapping his hooves against the floor fairly rapidly for the past few minutes, even managing to wake up the twins with the constant tapping noise.

"Oh, sorry" Braeburn said shyly as he stopped his hooves, feeling his cheeks turning red from the embarrassment. When he looked back up he saw a nurse standing in front of him, Redheart if her ID badge was correct.

"Can you come with me, Miss Pie has asked that you be in the room for this" Nurse Redheart said before turning around to head back to Pinkie's room, stopping to make sure Braeburn was following before she actually headed down the hallway. Once he was up and out of his chair Braeburn found out that he was so worried about the whole thing that his legs had become weak, so much so that he almost fell flat on his face when he tried to walk forwards. Instead he just ended up sliding across the floor like a ballerina, receiving weird looks from everypony.

"I meant to do that!" Braeburn said before he headed down the hall after Nurse Redheart, who hadn't seen him slip. When they got to Pinkie's door she opened it, allowing Braeburn to take a big gulp before entering the room, a strange feeling hitting him right as he crossed the threshold into the room. At first he was confused by it, but his brain quickly deduced that it was the strange feeling of reality that had hit him. He was in a room with a mare giving birth, to his foal, right now, and he was going to be right there next to her for the entire thing.

"Are you Braeburn?" the doctor asked, snapping Braeburn out of his daze. When he nodded the doctor quickly directed him to a chair that was next to the bed Pinkie was laying in, on her back with her hind legs held open by two slings they had hanging from some posts that were next to the bed. How Braeburn didn't notice them until now confused him, but when Pinkie suddenly grabbed his hoof his attention was moved to her, and her alone.

"Pinkie, are you okay?" Braeburn asked worriedly. Pinkie replied by squeezing his hoof, almost getting him to yelp, but he managed to tough it out. In his mind he came to the conclusion that she was in quite a bit of pain, which she was more than happy to share with him by squeezing his hoof yet again, this time making him grit his teeth. When Nurse Redheart came back into the room with a small tub of warm water the doctor turned to Pinkie.

"You're going to have to begin pushing now, are you ready?" he asked, and Pinkie began to squeeze Braeburn's hoof as hard as she could.

"I think she's ready" Braeburn said through the pain, the squeezing loosening up when he said that, which meant Pinkie had done it so that he would answer for her. At that the doctor got into position and began to tell Pinkie to push, every push being followed by a yelp from Braeburn as Pinkie squeezed his hoof so hard that he thought she was just trying to rip if off his body. Eventually the squeezing became too much for Braeburn to bear so he moved his other hoof to hold Pinkie's at the same time, but it ended up backfiring horrible when she decided to squeeze both of them, doubling the pain.

"Okay Pinkie, just one last push and it'll be over" the doctor said, his voice being muffled to Braeburn as he was almost ready to pass out from the pain. With one final push and giant squeeze of Braeburn's hooves, the foal was out, it's cries coming out along with Braeburn's as held his hooves close to his chest, both of them throbbing with an immense amount of pain. Eventually the pain died down and Braeburn managed to look up, seeing Pinkie softly cradling a small form in her forelegs.

"Is that it?" Braeburn asked, his mind so fuzzy that he couldn't even remember the foal's gender.

"Yup, it's her" Pinkie said tiredly, her normally fluffy mane now stuck to her head and neck from all the sweat that was in it. Braeburn stood up to get a better look at the foal, it's pearly white coat and bright pink hair that had a stray blond streak in it catching him by surprise. While he looked Pinkie sat up and gave him a kiss, which he gave right back without thinking at all, his eyes still fixed on the foal. At first he was amazed he helped to create such a beautiful thing, but now he was concerned about it's health, and what it was going to be called.

"Did the doctor say everything was okay?" Braeburn asked as he tentatively reached a hoof out to touch the foals head, rubbing it gently.

"Yeah, they said she's perfectly healthy" Pinkie said with a smile as the foal tried to grab her mane with it's tiny hooves, "What do you think we should name her?"

"Well, she was a surprise, right?" Braeburn asked, the foal laughing happily making Braeburn repeat one word, "Surprise?" The foal laughed happily again and the new parents looked at each other with a knowing smile on their faces. Right then the doctor came back in with a chart, asking the same question Pinkie just had.

"So, have you two decided on a name yet?" the doctor asked, and both Braeburn and Pinkie answered at the same time.

"Surprise"