When Abby was little, she used to ask her parents why she didn't have any brothers or sisters. They told her, as parents often do with children that age, that the stork didn't have a lot of babies to deliver right now and they wouldn't want another family to not get babies. Abby was satisfied with that answer and didn't pursue it much further. After all, her best friends didn't have siblings either and they didn't complain.
Of course, as with all white lies parents tell their children, there's a more complicated truth behind it. The Brown Farm made a sufficient income, but it had to compete with several other farms. They weren't in imminent danger of losing the farm, but the cost of raising another child would have strained their funds too much. Josephine was a bit sad about that because she would have liked to have more children. Still, Abby was the apple in their eye and there were glad to have her. But as Abby got older and was about to start high school, things were going to get more expensive. That is what led Martin to make a deal with the government to test the animal growth-enhancement on his farm. And that led to the biggest change in their lives.
When the Outbreak happened, all the animals on the Brown Farm were uplifted and Abby wasn't just converted, but double-dosed into an adult mare. Fortunately, Animalia was accepted by the rest of the company and soon became a thriving community. Brown Farm went through a lot of changes as former livestock became employees. While selling meat was obviously out of the question, selling their milk and eggs wasn't (provided the milk had been properly pasteurized to prevent double-dosing like what happened with Mary Alice and Milly). The pastures for the livestock were made into extensions of the apple orchard and housing for the new farmhands. Before long, the Browns' money concerns were all in the past.
In retrospect, Josephine wondered why she didn't have another child sooner. Admittedly, she and Martin didn't convert immediately like Julia and Thomas did, but they didn't stay human as long as Vera and Remington. Still, Julia and Thomas didn't take a lot of time to conceive Bell and Bash. And it certainly wasn't that Martin and her have held back on having sex since their conversion. Perhaps the answer was that Abby still lived in the house with Samson and Josephine was more than aware the two of them had sex as often as they could. Thank goodness Abby's steadfast dedication to her birth control pills kept Josephine from becoming a grandmother too soon.
Perhaps another reason was that Josephine was trying to hang on to her mother-daughter relationship with Abby as much as she could. It was difficult enough when Abby skipped to full maturity, but things were more awkward when Josephine's double-dose made her more or less the same biological age. Though Josephine had met several parents who went through similar issues and they've managed to adjust to the new family dynamics.
It was when Abby was going through her last years of college that Josephine began thinking about foals again. When Abby finally got married, she expected her to breeding with Samson quite a lot. And while Josephine would have welcomed grandchildren at that stage, she felt a bit of longing of her own. Abby and Samson would probably be getting their own farm as she and Martin weren't planning retiring any time soon. She wanted her children to inherit the farm eventually. And she also wanted to experience the years that Abby's double-dosing made her miss.
It didn't take a lot of talk to persuade Martin into having another child. Perhaps he was feeling similar thoughts to his wife. Or his stallion instincts were telling him to sire more foals. But he was more than willing to breed his wife until his seed took root. However, there was the slight problem that Josephine had miscounted the years Abby was in college so instead of her new sibling being there for her wedding, the birth took place a good month after that...
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Martin held Josephine's hand as she heaved. He had helped with the mares giving birth before they were uplifted. He was there when Josephine had Abby. He would have thought their new foal wouldn't be much different from them. Probably the biggest difference how much pressure Josephine could exert with her hoof-tipped fingers. Martin's hand probably would have been broken if he were still human, but he was starting to feel it bruised.
“You’re doing great, honey,” said Martin soothingly, “Just keep up with the good work.”
“I’m doing all the work!” screamed Josephine. Martin just nodded and didn’t comment. That was exactly what she said when she was giving birth to Abigail. It was just a pity that their eldest daughter was on her honeymoon now, but there would be time to introduce her later.
“Ok, we’re almost through,” said the midwife, “Just give me one big push.” Josephine gave an inhumanly deep grunt, the kind that Martin had heard from the mares when they were pushing out their foals. Then the midwife called, “I see the head! Don’t stop pushing!” About 30 seconds later, the midwife was holding a soaking-wet newborn foal. The proportions were odd, considering it was quite close to a newborn human. The wet fur looked black which made the blonde mane and tail stand out more. “Congratulations, it’s a girl,” said the midwife, handing her back to Josephine.
“Martin, it’s another girl,” said Joesphine, happy but exhausted, “You’re not disappointed, are you?”
“Why should I be?” asked Martin, “She’s our daughter.”
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A few days later, Abby was holding her new sister in her arms. Now that her fur was dry, it was clearly a very dark brown, the kind of brown that looks black when it was dark or wet. "So, Avalon, eh?" asked Abby, letting her sister tug at her finger.
"Ava for short," said Josephine, "I almost gave you that name, but your father convinced me to do something a little more conventional."
"I thought you might think yourself a little too good to be working on a farm with a name like that," said Martin.
"I guess I would have been stuck in the princess stage longer than usual," said Abby.
"I've always thought of you as my princess," said Samson.
Abby rolled her eyes and said, "You can stop laying on the sweet talk. You're already married to me."
"That doesn't stop after marriage," said Martin, "Though there might be less of it when you have your own kids."
"Well, that's not gonna be- Hey, watch it!" Abby yelped as Ava started groping at Abby's breast.
"Looks like she's hungry again," said Martin.
"Yeah, you drink Mom's milk, not mine," said Abby, handing Ava over to Josephine.
"That's quite right," said Josephine, taking her newest daughter, "I'm not going to have you grow up too fast like your sister did."
"Mom, I'm up to date with my vaccine," said Abby, "She won't get double-dosed from me."
"Oh, so you're volunteering to help feed her?" asked Josephine as she opened her shirt.
"Uh, no, just no," said Abby, "That'd be way too awkward. I'm saving my milk for my own foals."
Martin and Samson shared unspoken looks. They've both had to help their respective mates drain their daily output of milk. Of course, horse milk was not nearly as high in demand as cow or goat.
"Well, Ava will have plenty of time to grow before you have your own foal," said Josephine.
"That's true," said Abby, "I hope it won't be too hard for them to understand their relationship to each other."