Button Mash stood stock still as he watched her crawl around the living room. "Mom, what's wrong with her?" he asked, blissfully unaware of his child sister's genetic damage. "Mom?"
Milano just stood in her, staring at the sink. "Honey, Joy Stick is just a bit special." Milano couldn't ever start to explain the issues. Most could have been taken care of in-utero by a unicorn or some potion, but after her husband left her alone, she was barely making ends meets. She'd worked through the pregnancy, worked through the pain, worked her menial job, and worked the back room after that. She'd done so much for Button, so much for her family, and after one drunk night letting her colt mount her she was stuck with this brain damaged foal sitting on the floor.
Button just sat there, staring at the burbling headgear toting foal. "Mom...she's drooling--"
A plate hit the bottom of the sink, shattering with a sharp crash. "I know! Dear...I know." Milano's hooves started to shake as she stared down at the broken plate. "Button, sweetheart, why don't you go and play outside?"
Button just stood there, slowly tapping his hooves against the ground. "Well I was thinking... maybe you could hug me again--"
"Button!" Milano snapped around, bleary eye'd and weathered. Her throat burned, her body felt weak, everything about her was frail down to her thinning mane. "We talked about this--"
"But mom...I--"
"Outside!" Milano slammed her hoof against the floor, the impact felt like it was close to shattering her bones. Joystick let out a soft grunt as she laid on a blanket in the other room. "Outside right now!" Milano started to run, her feeble legs aching as she moved. "Button, you need to go outside!"
Button spun around, the budding colt's spinner whirling as he turned. "But mom--"
"Button this isn't a game right now! Go- go to school, go play with the other foals!" She walked over to where Joystick was laying, the hapless foal trying to crawl. "Button, now!"
The juvenile father let out a long huff. "Fine, I'll just go play with the crusaders!" He turned to the door, sweeping his tail behind him as he went. "You're the one who started it!"
Button's words hit Milano like a freight train. It was her fault. Her husband, her brother in law, Button, everything leading up to this, and now everything after was all her fault. Milano had cheated, Milano had lied, and the only time she told the truth she was dumped off alone with her child in the middle of Manehattan. And now, all she could do was lie. All she could do was sell herself to any stallion willing to front the bills.
Milano fell. She fell to the carpet, landing not with a thud, but a woosh. Her worn body was withered and frail. Her home was all she had, her life. She'd poured everything into keeping Button safe, happy, showering him with the newest games to keep him quiet. But all it took was that one night, that one drunk night, and he had never been the same. And Joystick, to him Joystick was just a sister, magically popped out a convenient ten months after her first night.
Button was old enough to be told. But could she? Did she have a right to steal his youth? Did she have a right to sabotage everything she'd given those eleven long years to keeping up? Could she continued to keep it up, giving Joystick the easiest life she could. There would be nothing for her to take away, she would be alone in the world, left to burble and squeal at everything until her death.
The dense foal on the blanket was a fluke. A one in a million. Yet somehow she knew it would be her. She knew even without the inbreeding, Joystick would never turn out a normal foal. Button was already behaving far behind his age, he never had any friends over, never talked to his friends, all he ever did was lock himself away and play the games Milano had thrown at him.
"Why?" Milano whimpered, curling up on the floor. "Why me?"
Well why not her? Why not the cheating mare? Why not the mare who abused her child? What in the cosmic karma of the world would have given her a break?
"Why!?" Milano screamed, reaching out towards her damaged foal. "Do I deserve this? I'm sorry!"
Joystick could only sit there, drooling on the blanket so lovingly laid out. That one in a million child, born to an otherwise normal mare, and that very same mare's special little colt. She would never know her father. She would never know her mother. She would only know that blanket and the muffled cries of Milano, and the grunts of stallions paying to pillage her body during her time of need.
Yet far off, in Canterlot, there could stand Twilight Sparkle. A product of incest, but with a family wealthy enough to not only fix what damage may have been caused, but wealthy enough to pamper her and school her in every possible form. Why was Milano so different?
Was it in her genes? Was it her lot in life to suffer? Would a few poor choices in youth leave her scrambling for the rest of her life?
It didn't matter. Milano just needed a moment to collect herself. A moment to catch her breath before standing up, finishing the dishes, and putting the broken foal to bed. And a strange thought stirred through Milano as she watched the foal paw at the blanket.
Would it be easier to put her to bed right now? Would it be a mercy to leave her in the tub? Could she? After all, it would be for Button. Everything she has done, it's been for Button.
