It should have happened by now.

This thing had been inside for far too long, and it should be out by now. Mercedes’s head was full of terrifying, impossible possibilities, and it took every drop of energy every day not to fall into panic. What if it never happened? What if it was dead? What if, since it was most likely dead, it was just going to sit there and sap the life out of her until she died with it? No, her body would have gotten rid of it...

She ate very little, even though she knew her fasting was unwise. Her stomach churned all the time now, though, so going and putting more stuff in it didn't sound comfortable at all. Maybe, maybe when this was all over, she would get back some of the weight she had lost.

When Mercy finally went into labor, she had been sleeping fitfully and the contractions worsened her nightmares before they actually woke her up. She stumbled off, still half asleep, into the darkest corner of the Inlet she could find and spent the next several hours in constricting pain. Relief that it would finally be over kept her from panicking throughout the process, and she just about passed out when the entire thing was over.

She felt about one hundred pounds lighter and twenty times wearier when the tangle of legs fell into the thin, dirty snow. The filly was pale and mottled in her baby fur, but would develop a coat that was mostly white; it would be broken by a wide, jagged trail of gold from her ears to her tail. Her wide, clear blue eyes stared up into Mercedes’s foggy gold ones.

”Fundamental?” Mercy called softly. She had no idea if he was close enough to hear, but she suspected he was in the area. ”Her eyes are so blue...”
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