Tera Bit is standing in line, trying to pick what kind of coffee she’s going to get today. It’s a Saturday, and a day off, so she’s not wearing her typical work attire—she’s not wearing anything, in fact, save for her prosthetic horn atop one end and a butt plug firmly wedged in the other. Said plug holds in the water she pumped herself full of this morning before plugging it to enjoy it a little while longer, and then never bothering to take it back out. So long as she keeps her rear covered by her tail, it’s never been a problem. It probably helps that she generally doesn’t look for trouble.
Her typical choice here is a hazelnut cappuccino, but the problem is that that’s the typical one. She could go for a latte or even something without milk in it—she hasn’t had a straight espresso in a while, or an americano. Could go for a double-shot.
She’s overthinking this.
She has time to, to be honest.
There’s a few other…people, of various species, standing in front of her, also looking. There are two registers, and it’s not that busy, so the line is less of a line per se and more of a slowly-moving blob. She’s currently at the back, so there’s some open space beside her.
She’s not feeling too adventurous today, so she’ll get the usual. Mind made, she puts in earbuds, pulls up some ambient electronic music, and starts to zone out a bit.
Her slow, quiet nodding to the beat is interrupted by someone else brushing softly against her stretched, and therefore sensitive, gut. She looks over to her left.
Another pony looks back at her, also a little surprised, saying something Tera can’t hear. She takes her earbuds out.
“Sorry about that, I really should—” Tera’s interlocutor stops for a second.
Tera takes the moment to size her up. She’s an earth pony, mare, with, surprisingly, a gut as filled out as Tera’s is, swaying slightly as she moves. Guess Tera’s not the only one who fills up before going out.
She continues. “—hey, we’ve met! You’re Tera Bit, right?”
“Yes…” Come to think of it, she does look familiar, but from where again?
“I’m Compass Rose. We met at the last Frontier Engineers’ Conference…eight months ago now? I do GIS; you’re an electrical engineer if I recall correctly.”
“Oh, right!” They had met there. “Sorry, I’m very bad with names.” But what’s she doing out with such a round midsection? Tera thought she was the only one.
“It happens.” There’s space in front of them; they both take a step forward. “So, how’ve you been?”
All Tera can think of is that two heavily inflated mares are standing next to each other, both in line for coffee, chatting it up like this isn’t weird at all. She can usually get away with it by herself, but the presence of another bloated belly ruined that, and now she’s oddly self-conscious, unlike Compass Rose here.
She feels her ears pin back.
“I’m…uh…fine. You want to sit down and chat? I have nowhere to be.”
“Sure, I’m in no hurry either.”
“Good!” Tera says, a little too enthusiastically.
Tera and Compass are sitting across from each other at a booth, each of their bellies brushing against the edge of the table. Compass reaches across her belly to get her americano off of it, cradling it in both forehooves; Tera on the other hoof just uses her horn.
“You know, sometimes I wish I were a unicorn,” Compass says, not really to anypony in particular. “It’d make things a little easier a lot of the time. If I were meant to be one, I’d be one, though, so.” She sighs. “Though obviously you don’t have any problems with that.”
“Oh, you mean this?” Tera pops her prosthetic horn from its base and levitates it between them, to Compass’s surprise. “This is prosthetic; I built it. Turns out not having thumbs is even more of a pain here than back in Equestria.”
“…Not bad! Where do you get one?”
“It’s…still a prototype.” Tera puts her horn back into its slot and uses it to pick up her coffee. “I don’t know how safe it is for anypony else, or anyone else for that matter. Not to mention—” She taps her forehead with a forehoof; it tinks. “—not to mention that installing the base was pretty invasive, as far as surgeries went. Paid a surgeon a lot, and signed so many waivers my life is basically legally worthless, to get it installed.
“Though it’s worked so far, so.” She leans back and sips her coffee while rubbing her belly with her forehooves. “Maybe I’ll look into selling it.”
“Wa’al, Ah’m lookin’ forward to—” Compass stops for a second, clears her throat, and continues, enunciating her words. “Well, I’m, looking, forward, to, when that day comes.” She pauses. “Been hanging around Dusty too much, apparently.” She smirks.
“Dusty?”
“Oh, my husband. He’s from Appaloosa originally, though we met here. Has a thick accent, and it’s rubbed off on me a bit, so I may fall back into it every once in a while.”
“That doesn’t seem like anything to be ashamed of, if you ask me.” Tera sips her coffee again.
“Well, I’m not ashamed of it either, but it can be distracting, I’ve found.”
Compass sets her drink down for a second and rubs her gut in long, slow strokes. “Hm, gettin’ agitated. Must be the coffee.”
Tera feels her own gut rumble a bit, “Yeah, I can sympathize.” She too begins to rub her belly, though thanks to her horn she can keep sipping at her coffee.
“Ah’m sure you can.” Compass smiles. “So, what do you do for a living exactly?”
Tera looks off into space for a second, collecting her thoughts. “Well, I have a job—I’m a consulting engineer, for a firm out of the Southland, Red Line, if you’ve ever heard of it? It pays pretty well, but I actually get most of my money out of royalties for the Gates, since I was principal designer on the things.”
“Oh, that was you! You’d think you’d be more famous!”
“That’s what I thought too, so I did everything in my power to make sure that didn’t happen. I hate the limelight.” Tera takes another sip of coffee. “Though sometimes I wish I didn’t.
“But honestly, I work to give myself something to do, otherwise I’d go stir-crazy.”
“Yeah, Ah’m…not doin’ much myself.” Compass sips her coffee in return. “Can’t really do that much, what with this belly o’ mine gettin’ in the way most days, not to mention how tired I’ve been.”
What? “Why not just—”
“Ah don’t got no horn.” She pauses. “I don’t have a horn, wow, Dusty’s really gettin’ to me.”
Why doesn’t she just deflate?
“Though the GIS part of GIS is pretty much sittin’ at a computer, so that’s not too bad.”
…wait.
Tera could just ask, but then she’d have to risk the social embarrassment, which is…never fun, at all. Or…she could do this.
Her coffee’s empty at this point. She sets it down at the edge of the table. Then she continues her part of the conversation, making sure to talk with her forehooves, which come to think of it Compass has been doing this whole time. “Yeah, there’s that. A lot of my work is in front of—” She “accidentally” knocks her cup off of the counter, letting it fall onto the booth beside her. “Excuse me.” She ducks under to pick it up, and, frankly, to check Compass’s nethers.
“Oh, no prob—” Compass does the same thing, though the unmistakable noise of splashing coffee indicates that hers was genuinely an accident. She leans sideways as well, in the opposite direction, giving Tera an even clearer view.
Of the complete lack of butt plug.
And the teats. Big ones.
She’s pregnant.
That makes a lot more sense, actually.
She looks over to Compass’s muzzle: she’s apparently checking Tera’s nethers in return, a lot more confused than Tera is.
And then they lock eyes for a second.
And then they both pick up their coffee cups, now both empty, and set them on the table, both thoroughly embarrassed. They both breathe for a second.
And then Compass starts laughing.
Tera’s immediately on the defensive: “Look, everypony’s got their own weird little—”
“No, no!” Compass waves it off with a hoof, shaking her head. “It’s not that, I was just—I was just surprised, that’s all. You’re not makin’ trouble, so I don’t care. Hay, I’ve done…what you’re doing…a few times myself, though I personally didn’t leave the house and doing it now, while I’m this knocked up, is a good way to do some bad things to the foals, or to myself. But yeah, it’s fine.”
Tera breathes a sigh of relief. “Sorry about violating your privacy like that.”
“Well, I can’t hide my pregnancy—belly or teats—so it’s not that big a deal. Not to mention that’s what comes with runnin’ around naked all the time. Weird how clothes are mandatory here, but not back home, to be honest. Wish we’d both pick one and get on with our lives.”
Compass looks out the window for a second. “To be honest, I should be the one apologizin’ to you for breakin’ yours. All you gotta do is keep your tail down, and we do that most of the time anyhow. So…sorry, Ah suppose.”
“Apology accepted, then. I guess.”
Tera grips her empty coffee cup in her forehooves and looks out the window as well for a second, before looking back to Compass. “…are you free this afternoon? Would be nice just to hang out for a while.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. In fact, I could have you over at the house. Dusty’s out of town, though, so I gotta text him first. That work for you?”
“Don’t see why not.” Tera smiles.
“Good.” Compass smiles back. “Just don’t spill your coffee.”