Horses have a particularly long pregnancy cycle, lasting close to 12 months, give or take a few days. Most horse breeders often try to immediately have their stallions breed again after the mares have had their foals. As such, mares were sometimes pregnant all year-round.
As such, the uplifted mares felt rather grateful that their pregnancy cycle was shortened to only 9 months. 9 months was still a long time, but at least they wouldn't have to spend all year with swollen bellies. And, probably most importantly, they now had a choice to not be impregnated with several measures available to prevent that.
Delilah and Calamity were very eager to bear foals with their new mates. However, there were a few factors that made them restrain themselves. For starters, there was the matter of marriage. Horses didn't have to deal anything more than a record of their lineage, but Animalians need to have a more formal arrangement. There was also the matter of savings. While there were few Animalians who were really hurting for cash, raising a child was still an expensive and long commitment. As such, Delilah and Calamity had to wait until their positions were more stable.
Towards the end of the year, Delilah and Calamity were officially the wives of Red Cloud and Thunder respectively and they had had built up enough of a nest egg to provide for their foals. They successfully conceived during the November mating period, roughly around Thanksgiving. Delilah was completely at ease with the way she swelled over the months, having produced several foals with Samson before they were uplifted. But this was Calamity's first foal and she was more than a little nervous, despite all the assurances that her mate and friends gave her.
It seemed that Delilah and Calamity were just about synchronized as they went into labor in the latter half of August, just before the solar eclipse occurred. For Delilah, it was a little bit of a shock. Despite knowing it would be shorter, her maternal habit was expecting to be three more months. But it was still a relief that Delilah would be having her baby now. Calamity was in a different state of mind.
"I'm not ready, I'm not ready, I'm not ready!" cried Calamity, breathing rapidly as her contractions were more frequent. "I can't have a foal yet! I'm not going to be a good enough mother! Make it stay in there!"
Thunder gave a concerned look to the nurse who said, "Don't worry too much. The pregnancy hormones and labor pains tend to make soon-to-be mothers say things they don't truly mean. Especially ones who are having their first children."
Thunder looked at his mate, who was weeping and begging her foal to not come out. "Is she going to be alright?" he asked with worry.
"She'll be a lot better once it's over. Though we may need to check for any signs of postpartum depression," said the nurse, "But I wouldn't worry too much."
Eventually, the two mares finally gave birth to their foals. Delilah had a snow white filly while Calamity had a coal black colt. Their coloration was a bit of a surprise, but a look through the horse's lineages eventually showed they had ancestors that the foals inherited their colors from. Some of the more mystically-minded would say their colors were connected to the solar eclipse. While skeptical about that claim, it did inspire the mares to name the filly and colt Aurora and Umbra respectively.
Calamity was a little bit weepy after giving birth to Umbra, but Delilah was a big help in helping Calamity getting control over herself. And there were plenty of doctors available to make sure that Calamity wouldn't sink into depression.