"So…is it his?"
I Do stared blankly at Red-stained Blossom, their hot pink residential mare, and also her mother, who was grinning most gleefully – even slyly, one might say.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.
"Oh, don't be like that," Rouge nudged at her shoulder – slyly, yet again, "didja think you could get something like that past me? So – is it his?"
I Do had no idea what she was talking about. And then she suddenly did.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.
"The babies – the babies!!" Rouge yelped, "are they Little Prince's or not, we've been waiting for yeARS!"
"What babies?" she shrugged – and, to be fair, up until a few seconds ago she'd had no inkling of their existence.
But it certainly did explain a bunch of things.
"You can't get away like that!" Rouge shrieked, "don't think you can get away like that, missy! I'm a Legendary and Legendaries know these things! The babies! In you! Right now! Are they Little Prince's or not?!"
It certainly did explain a bunch of things. She guessed it finally took, this time – about time, one might say. She hadn't been hoping for it, but – ah, at once, she hadn't been not. She had always thought they would come some day, like the promise of rain.
Children of the Swamp did love the rain.
It was almost certainly Little Prince's. There wasn't really another possibility. She had always assumed their first clutch would be together, and it seemed that was the case.
But hell if she was going to give her mom the satisfaction of knowing that.
"Dunno," she shrugged.
"AaarrrrRRRGHHH!!" Rouge threw herself onto the ground, rolling around dramatically in the dirt, "you must know! You can't not know! It must be! It has to be! It'd better be, half the tribe's been in this betting pool for years!"
Yeah, she was definitely not going to give her the satisfaction.
"We're not together, you know," she said, "we're best friends."
From her undignified sprawl on the ground, Rouge sniffed.
"Oh, of course you would say that. You're just best friends. Best friends who spend all their time together, and, before you know it, you'll be stuck together for the rest of your lives."
It was hard to suppress a smile, because that was pretty much what she'd always reckoned would happen, and she wasn't at all unhappy with that.
"We're all stuck together for the rest of our lives, mother," she said, "that's generally what being part of a tribe is about."
Rouge sniffed again, but this time she retrieved her dignity and returned to her hooves.
"So that's how it is," she said, "now that you're all grown up you're sassing your poor, old mother. Won't even let her know the father of her very own grandchildren."
"I suppose we'll see when they pop out," she said.
"You are such a very contrary brat, my girl," Rouge sighed, "and you are lucky your poor, old mother loves you."
At that, she smiled.
"Ohhhh, Motherfather most divine," Rouge crooned, throwing herself into the customary dance of blessing (that appeared, from observation of other Legendaries, to be customary only to her), "help me with this child of mine. Bless her children - even though, she won't let her mother know the fella that she boned –"
"Mother."
"- Bless them well with brains and beauty, health, and more a sense of duty than their mother hath -"
"Mom."
"- and love for their grandma."
"Is that kind of thing really under the Motherfather's jurisdiction?"
"Everything is under the Motherfather's jurisdiction," Rouge said, coming to a halt.
"Well, alright then," she said, "thank you kindly."
"They're his, aren't they?"
"Just wait till they pop out!" she said, and made a hasty exit, while she could still run away.
END