Canterlot was bustling as it was every sunny day. The gentle breeze carried the laughter of young ponies as they headed to school. The sun was warm but not too warm with pretty white, fluffy clouds scattered here and there. It was a perfect day. All this only served to enlighten the mood of a Pegasus couple who were flying in from Cloudsdale. They wove patterns in the clouds like young foals who had just learned to fly. The male, a dark blue Pegasus with red hair looked completely beside himself as he spun through the soft cloud.
The female, a yellow pony with white hair was trying to do the same but was a bit sloppy in her excitement.
"Oh, I am so excited!" She squealed, not for the first time. "We finally get to see if we're having a boy or a girl!"
"Don't overdo it." The stallion said coming to fly next to her. "You don't want to hurt yourself while you’re pregnant."
"Oh, I'm fine." She replied. "I'm just too excited! Our first foal and we finally get to see him or her! With the new technology that combines magic we can even see the color of our baby!" She exclaimed. "Oh, I am so excited! We can already start planning the color scheme for the baby room and we'll know that it matches! It was so worth it to come all the way to Canterlot!"
"There's the hospital!" Her husband said pointing downwards.
The mare dove straight for it leaving her husband trying to catch up. The mare didn't bother to land. She swooped in through the doors as an exiting group of ponies opened them. She skidded panting up to the front desk. "Yellow Rose and Storm here for an imaging of our baby."
The mare behind the desk looked at her through the bifocals on the end of her nose then checked the schedule. "Alright, you’re early but we're slow today so you'll probably get in pretty soon." She said as Storm caught up. "Take a seat and a nurse will come out and call you."
The pair scampered to a seat. The room was nearly empty but they still managed to annoy the others with their nonstop chatter as they guessed what color their first born would be. Perhaps that was why it only took a few minutes for them to be called.
"I think it will have my coat or maybe my grandmothers." Yellow Rose said.
"Those are more recessive color and none of the ponies in my family have it so it's not likely." Storm replied.
"But possible." Yellow Rose argued.
"But not very likely. It's more likely to be blue or black."
"Colors also mix too. Like how an offspring can be the color of a lighter colored parent but made darker from the other parent and even sometimes there are hidden genes that make a completely unexpected color."
"That's true but I hope for blue like me or black like my dad. Makes them look strong and-"
"Yellow Rose and Storm." A nurse called as she opened the door leading to the different medical rooms. The couple jumped up and scurried after her. They walked down the hall passing many rooms on the left and right. They could hear the chatter of ponies echoing from some of them. There was the occasional beeping of some machine. One door was open and they saw a colt in a jersey waring cast. There was the loud and upset voice of a young colt that was trying to convince a doctor and his mother that he really didn't need to get shots. The softer voices of his mother and doctor tried to explain to him how the short pains would make him better for a lifetime.
"We're here." The nurse said stopping and opening a door. She had no need to usher them in and another nurse took over while she went to call another pony. In short order Yellow Rose was laying back on a medical bed with her stomach covered in jell. The nurse took some blood for test before the doctor arrived. Yellow Rose could hardly sit still as they waited.
Soon enough the doctor came in, a unicorn because magic was needed to power the machine.
"Good morning. How are you we today?" He asked.
"Wonderful!" Yellow Rose replied straining to look at the machine even though they hadn’t even started yet. To her dismay when the doctor stopped the machine she could not see the screen. "Hey I can't see." She complained.
"Oh, sorry. You see when we do one of these scans for the first time we doctors check it first just in case there is an issue. Might be hard for the parents to see." The doctor explained.
"Issue?" Both expecting parents echoed with fear in their voice.
"Don't worry. That is rare. This in only a guideline we have to follow." The doctor replied. "Are you ready to start?"
"Yes!" Yellow Rose replied.
With a burst of his magic the machine lit up while the nurse moved a device over the mare's stomach. It only took a few moments for a complete image of the expected to form on the machine. The doctor studied the image for a moment that seemed so long while the couple watched him with anticipation and now a little bit of fear in the back of their minds but they dismissed it. Surely not their baby.
Then the doctor gave a deep, sad sigh. Fear filled Yellow Rose and Storm felt sick.
"No! You didn't find anything wrong! Tell me that you didn't find anything wrong!" Yellow Rose cried.
The doctor looked away from the screen and to the couple. "I am very sorry to say that your fetus has Anisoptergia."
"What!? What is Anisoptergia!?" Storm demanded.
"Anisoptergia means unequal wings. Its wings are unequal to what a normal Pegasus’s should be. Anisoptergia is a term used for a rare condition where the wings of a Pegasus are not fully developed. As a result they cannot fly."
"What!? Are you sure!? Maybe it's not that!" Yellow Rose exclaimed and tried to lunge up to see the screen but the nurse held her back.
"There is no mistaking it." The doctor replied. "When a Pegasus reaches twenty weeks in the womb their wings should be defined. Yours is past that and only has what is not much more than two little bumps with badly undersized bones."
Yellow Rose felt so numb on the outside but so pained on the inside. She could do nothing but cry and her husband could do nothing but hold her. The doctor gave them a few minutes and then walked out from behind the screen. "We can set you up for fetal termination before it reaches 24 weeks."
"Termination!" Storm exclaimed staring in shock at the doctor.
"But it's our first!" Yellow Rose cried.
"You will have more." The doctor replied. "It only takes nine months to develop another better Pegasus and this way it will not suffer. Also if the foal is not terminated it could pass on the defect to more generations making a line of suffering that could have been prevented."
"But....let me see the screen." Yellow Rose said with tears in her eyes.
The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid that I must discourage that. It will only make it harder on you."
As they talked the screen was still on showing a curled up filly with the beginnings of a magenta mane and an orange coat twitching inside the womb of Yellow Rose.
A short time later after more discussion with the couple the doctor stepped out as the nurse set up an appointment with the couple.
"It is hard." He said to himself. "But it is kind. It's like that case years ago, what was it? Another female fetus of a Pegasus. Would have been cute with the blond mane and gray coat but it would have had a mental disorder. It never would have been like other ponies. It would have only suffered and been a burden to others.”
Not long before a white Unicorn and a yellow Earth pony would become somepony’s bundle of joy another bundle was thrown into a hospital’s bio waste bin.
Author's Note
A world without them.
The words of the doctor were the statements that the user commented to me. (I'm not going to name him.)
If you believe that infants with genetic defects should be terminated then keep in mind that if Derpy and scootaloo existed you would have agreed with their termination. Though Scootaloo's wings are a frustration to her & Derpy has her moments, if you could ask them do you think that they would tell you that they wished they had never been born? All the joy that we get from them and the joy and support that Scootaloo's friends get from her would not exist.
It can't just be that you believe, "It's not the same for people who have already been born. I know that they can be happy. Saying that those that are in womb should be aborted does not mean that those who have been born should have been aborted."
All of those people were once in the womb just like the ones that currently are now and the ones that will be. You can not reconcile, "saying that those with genetic defects should be aborted doesn't mean that those who were not aborted should have been."
You can not determine someone's life before they've had a chance to live it. If you believe that they should not have been aborted after they are already here, that they are just a good as anyone else and just as capable of living a happy life then there is no need to believe that they should be aborted while still in the womb.
Woman's rights or a child's rights, why not Both?
There many more, born with or gained but were unstoppable
You can't determine a life before it has been lived and everyone deserves a chance.
