Fanfic / babytails

there is a moment
once in every pony's life
when the time comes
to shed one's baby tail
don't worry, sweetie
it won't hurt

babytails is a 2015 My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Dark Fic written by KitsuneRisu.

Sweetie Belle's tail has just started falling out, and her big sister Rarity assures her it's a perfectly normal thing that all foals go through at some point, like losing one's baby teeth. As the process of the tail falling out continues, Sweetie Belle is given instructions by her teacher to follow, and notices odd things happening to her body. But no matter what happens, she must not break the rules...or else.

It can be read here.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Affably Evil: At the hospital in Canterlot, Princess Celestia remains as kind, warm and nurturing as ever while explaining to Sweetie Belle how and why a babytail fruit was grown inside her.
• Ascended to Carnivorism: Downplayed — the foals have to eat meals containing fish while their tails are shedding to provide the proper nutrients for the babytail fruits, but it's only a temporary adjustment to their diet (although there is an off-hoof mention of eating fish being fashionable in Canterlot). Lampshaded by Apple Bloom, who comments, "That’s a little… I mean, fish is for like… bears and gryphons and stuff, ain’t it? I mean, have you ever had fish before?"
• Balloon Belly: A distinctly non-comedic example. When a foal's tail starts shedding, their stomach will soon become grossly distended and make them look like they've swallowed a beach ball, which happens to Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara. It's from the babytail fruit growing inside them.
• Big Eater: Enforced—when Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara are shedding their tails, they have to follow a diet plan that involves eating massive amounts of raw, unseasoned vegetables, and they find their appetites increasing accordingly. All that food is to nourish the babytail fruits growing in their stomachs.
• Bittersweet Ending: While Sweetie Belle's babytail fruit is able to be extracted without causing her any long-term problems, the fact still remains that Princess Celestia and Luna have been exploiting young foals in Ponyville and making them grow babytail fruits inside their stomachs to prolong their immortality, and there's no indication that they're ever going to stop. Oh, and Apple Bloom is next.
• Body Horror: The babytail fruit is a lumpy, fleshy, slimy...thing grown inside of foals and used by Celestia and Luna to prolong their magic. And if it doesn't grow properly (because the foal growing it inside them ate something they weren't supposed to), it will have two bulging eyes with no eyelids and a lipless mouth.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: It is possible to read the sowing, nurturing and growth of the babytail fruits as a metaphor for pregnancy.
  • When the foals' tails start falling out, they get massive bulges in their stomachs. The narration specifically notes that Sweetie Belle's stomach becomes "grossly large, as if she were swollen with child."
  • The foals shedding their tails have to eat a lot, like a pregnant woman indulging Wacky Cravings because the baby(tail fruit) planted inside them needs the proper nutrition in order to grow.
  • Diamond Tiara eating sweets when she’s not supposed to can be interpreted as a metaphor for prenatal drug use that has a negative effect on an unborn child.
  • When her fruit is ready to be extracted, she lets out a horrible scream, but it seems more like something else is screaming through her...just like a newborn baby.
• Here We Go Again!: The story ends with Apple Bloom about to shed her tail and Sweetie Belle whispering to her, "Please, everything will be fine. Just listen to the rules."
• Horror Hates a Rulebreaker: Diamond Tiara is told not to eat any sweets until her tail has finished shedding, but since she's a Spoiled Brat not used to being told no, she secretly eats them anyway. This messes up the growth process of the babytail fruit inside her, and results in one that's horribly difficult and painful to extract.
• Magic A Is Magic A: When a foal's tail is falling out, they have to follow a strange diet where they eat certain foods in certain quantities at a specific time. Eating the wrong food while shedding one's tail messes up the growth process of the babytail fruit and mutates it to the point where it becomes very painful to remove.
  Princess Celestia: The funny thing is, when a fruit gets the wrong nourishment, they change. That’s magic for you. Very specific.
• Noodle Incident: When Sweetie Belle asks Rainbow Dash about what happens if the rules are broken, the older mare's reaction implies that she either broke the rules herself when she was a filly or knows somepony who did, and it apparently wasn't pretty. However, we are not privy to the details.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All the adult ponies in Ponyville start acting way more serious than usual when the foals start shedding their tails. The normally friendly and jovial Pinkie Pie refuses to sell Diamond Tiara a milkshake, as the foal has been forbidden from sweets for the duration of her shedding, and tells her to leave Sugarcube Corner and go home.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: For many generations, Princess Celestia and Luna have been growing babytail fruits inside young foals and having them harvested to prolong their immortality. Downplayed, because growing the babytail fruits in them doesn't cause pain or any long-term effects...as long as they eat what they're supposed to, that is.
• Riddle for the Ages: How does the babytail fruit get planted in the first place, and how do Princess Celestia and Luna actually use it? It might be better that we don't know the answer.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Every generation in Ponyville, all of the town's foals will start shedding their tails at roughly the same time after the babytail fruits are planted inside them, by unknown means. These fruits grow inside them and are harvested to give to Princess Celestia and Luna so they don't lose their magic.