Colors of Sanity

Chapter 5

Adofo was being formed unto a body. He knew everything one moment, and forgot everything the next, in a strange blur of light and color. Adofo... No... The unnamed child was slowly raised into the view of the parents, crying as infants should in their first few moments of life. Star Listener noticed a stream of tears out of his wife's eyes, but he thought nothing of it, having his own. They were not crying for the joy of having a child, they were crying for the fact he had only one wing. The dark, sand colored pegasus baby's one wing was large for an infants, but he had no other. Nurse Redheart had no words for them. Except for the few, vain reassurances, like,

     "It may grow later on...". All three were genuinely sobbing now, the crying baby's noise drowned out by the melancholy of the others. Star Listener's deep purple coat was completely out of order compared to how he always had it combed finely, as with his bright, sky blue mane.

     Stone Grace, with the baby at her side, was the most distressed of them all. Her magenta eyes were bloodshot, and her face was stained with the sadness of the knowledge of her child being a disabled pegasus. The next hours were silent. Heads hanging low, except for Stone Grace feeding the baby. No more words were said that night, not even about naming their newborn. Star Listener awoke in his bed, the intricately engraved wooden ceiling not interesting him, as spending three years in a home begins to dull the way the house appears to those who live there. Turning to his wife, he was thinking about how large she was. She had thick, solid bones. She had been born with them, hence the "Stone" in "Stone Grace". She was magnificent. He got up, and sluggishly made his way to the baby's bed. He lay there, a small smile on his tiny face. The baby's mane was short, being a day old, but was still existent enough to be able to tell what it would look like.

     It was bi-colored, a light grey and deep auburn brown growing in patterns in different areas. He was laying on his side, his one wing folded tight against him. He seemed to not notice he was disabled. He was content with how he was. Perfect tranquility. Star Listener continued on through his day, his work at the observatory, and off to his routine again. Many weeks ahead, the baby had grown significantly, his progress fast but not unheard of. Stone Grace and Star Listener had gone with the name, "Valiant Tranquility" because of how confident he seemed, and how calm he was when he wasn't doing anything of interest. His wing was constantly flexing and opening, and seemed to be quite powerful. Only flight was impossible. Knife-edge flying didn't happen anywhere in Equestria. The time seemed to fly for the three, months passing like days. On his first birthday, he was able to crawl quite well.

     His mane grew as any normal child's should, as his tail did. His wing grew normal, still no sign of another. If he had another wing, he would be perfectly normal. He didn't seem to want to be anything else. Perfectly fine with who he was. At this age, his personality seemed to be very developed. On Valiant Tranquility's first birthday, he was an out-of-the-ordinary filly. But he didn't mind. He didn't notice much. In his mind, everything was great. In his mind, he was in a paradise.