A young, unicorn, mare sat in the waiting room of a hospital. She looked to be in her early thirties or late twenties. She had a gorgeous, long, wavy cherry red mane that was unkempt from sleepless nights and stressful days, same goes for her tail. She had a light creme color for her coat, and beautiful blue eyes, deep like the sea. And her cutie mark was a red book and a quill, indicating that her special talent was writing. Alongside her, holding her hoof, was a young unicorn stallion. He looked to be only a bit older than her, but you could definitely place him to be in his early thirties. He had a light grey coat and a black mane that was slicked back with styling gel, although strands of hair would fall into his face occasionally that he would have to brush away. His tail was short and messy and he had lackluster brown eyes. His cutie mark was a gleaming smile that was next to three bits, indicating that his special talent was being a salespony. Sitting to the right of the mare, looking at her mother in confusion, was a unicorn filly. The filly in question had a light creme coat just like her mothers, and a windswept pastel pink mane. And her eyes matched her mother's, as well. However, unlike her mother and father, she had no cutie mark yet.
"Penmanship and Peddler Spark?" A nurse called out, holding a clipboard with levitation magic. The mare with a cherry red mane wiped nervous tears from her eyes and sniffled as she weakly stood up with help from her husband, who had been siting beside her and was now rubbing her back in a reassuring manner.
"That's us." Penmanship called out as her filly jumped up from her seat and began to follow the two, only going back after the father, Peddler Spark, motioned for her to go sit back down. And she, of course, did as she was told and plopped herself down in the metal seat.
The couple was then led into a room that matched all the other hospital rooms, only it was a bit smaller and had only one examination table. A unicorn doctor with a light purple coat and an unkempt dark purple mane stood, holding a white plastic clipboard with a red cross on it. Beside him was a very young filly, still in diapers. The filly had a light mocha colored coat and a long, divine, wavy dark brown mane, and her tail mimicked it. She had gorgeous pastel pink eyes and, for such a young filly, she was stunning, angelic, even.
But something was off about her, although Penmanship and Peddler Spark were her parents, she wasn't a unicorn like them. Rather, she was a pegasus.
Peddler scolded the filly, whom him and his wife named Muse, but he refereed to as simply: girl. Ever since Muse had been born, Peddler's relationship with his wife had begun to slowly crumble. He could still remember that day when Penmanship had confessed to him that she had been cheating on him with a pegasus stallion, and she never meant for anything to happen. Peddler grunted, closing his eyes and looking away from Muse with a grimace. Penmanship saw his disgusted reaction and frowned, trying not to cry. She sighed and gave a forced smile.
"So, is everything alright? Nothings wrong with Muse, is there?" Penmanship asked with false confidence. By this time the nurse that guided them there had left the room. The doctor took off his glasses and set them down on the examination table, closing his eyes for a moment and letting out a pitying sigh.
"Mam, I am sorry to inform you that your daughter has a disability." The doctor paused then opened his eyes and continued, "She can never ever fly." Penmanship gasped, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"W-what? Why not? Why can't she fly?" Her voice was soft at first, but gradually got louder with concern. She sniffled and turned to look at Peddler, who didn't seem to care, in fact, he seemed almost irritated at the news.
"Well, Muse has an incurable case of Muscular Dystrophy disease that impairs the functioning of her wing muscles. Making it so that, sadly, she'll never be able to fly." Peddler scoffed and furrowed his brows as he rolled his eyes.
"Who cares? We're not keeping her, anyway." Peddler turned back to face Penmanship, who's shocked and somewhat disgusted expression showed more than any words could how she felt about the statement he had just made. Soon, however, her shock turned into pure rage as she stomped her hoof on the ground and scowled at Peddler.
"HOW DARE YOU!" She snorted like a bull as her anger intensified, "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!" She huffed as the doctor watched in dismay of the argument.
"What? It's true! We decided this yesterday, don't tell me that you're actually thinking of keeping her. She's a freak, a pegasus that can't even fly! We might as well re-name her dodo bird!" As he said this, Peddler craned his neck forward and huffed at his wife who responded by jolting her's back and dropping her jaw, stunned. She furrowed her brows and clamped her mouth shut, trying to hold back her tears. "AND WHAT WILL OUR NEIGHBORS THINK? THEY KNOW US ALL TOO WELL AND WILL FIND OUT ABOUT YOUR SLEEPING AROUND WITH ANOTHER STALLION ONCE THEY SEE THAT SHE IS A PEGASUS WHO DOESN'T EVEN SHARE THE COLORS OF OUR COATS, MANES, TAILS, OR EYES!" Peddler's volume became louder as he hollered at Penmanship.
"I-I..." Penmanship choked back tears, but finally couldn't take it anymore and began to quietly sob. As she did so, Peddler realized his mistake and his anger turned into regret and worry. He hesitated at first, but then slowly put his arm around Penmanship's neck and pulled her in close. In turn, she wrapped both her arms around her husband and cried on his shoulder. As she sobbed, Peddler rubbed and patted her back in reassurance that everything would be alright.
"There, there, it's alright, ssshhh ssshhh, it's alright, it's alright..." Peddler whispered into Penmanship's ear with a melodic tone. Penmanship sniffled and let go of her husband, wiping the few tears left from her eyes. She turned to the doctor, who stood with an awkward look upon his face. She then looked behind him to see Muse sitting and looking up with confusion. She smiled weakly and sighed.
"I'm so sorry Doctor, please forgive us." The doctor simply nodded as if to say that all was forgiven.
~~~
Penmanship nudged her hoof slightly at Muse, motioning for her to go away. "Now go on, Muse, you aren't ours anymore...You belong to these nice folks now..." She gave a fake smile as she said that, trying to hold back tears. Muse looked back at the orphanage worker, who had a white coat and blue hair tied in a ponytail and light blue eyes to match, then looked back at her mother and frowned as she shook her head. "Go on, they'll find you a good home, I promise..." tears began to form in Penmanship's blue eyes.
"Come on now, Muse, we'll take good care of you until you get a new mommy and daddy, I promise!" The worker stated, motioning for muse to come over to her. Muse looked at the worker then back at her mother, once again.
"Go on now, go on..." Muse let go of her mothers leg and gradually began to walk over to the worker. Penmanship looked down at the ground and then spoke up, "MUSE!" she yelled, stopping the filly in her tracks as she turned back to look at her mother. Penmanship speed walked over to Muse and hugged her, then whispered into her ear. "Goodbye Muse, and remember that even though we'll be far apart, I'll always be your mama, I'll always love you."
Before she could let go, Muse replied to Penmanship, "Mama?" causing Penmanship's eyes to go wide and for her to give a smile, a genuine smile. Penmanship let go of her child and motioned for her to keep walking, and Muse did just that. She turned around and slowly started walking again, eventually reaching the worker to whom she gave a big hug.
Penmanship turned around and started to walk out with Peddler, but right as she was about to exit, she felt somepony hug her hind leg. She turned around, surprised, to see Muse. "Mama," Muse said then let go of her mother and ran back to the worker. Penmanship wiped a tear of happiness from her eye.
"You be good now, Muse, you be good..." She whispered to herself. And with that, she left.
