# Chapter A1

Doctor Vivo took a step back, nodding contently. "So far so good," she said, “Pulse is faster and a lot stronger than last time.” She inscribed a number on her clipboard, floating both in her telekinesis.

She nodded towards one of the few spots on the white marble wall free of furniture. "Please stand against the wall." Vivo pulled a pencil out from her saddlebags on the table. Once I was in place, she marked my height with her pencil. A few moments later, she measured it and scribbled the result. Again, she nodded. “Grown about two centimetres,” she mumbled, more to herself than me.

Then, she pointed to the couch. "Lie down, please. On your back."

The first time I’d seen her, she’d complained that my family didn’t have a proper physician’s room in our residence, and that she had to use a mundane guest room for when she treated me. Since then, not much had changed in the room’s furniture, though Papa did provide her with better equipment. It wasn’t much at all, but it seemed enough to severely cut down on her complaints.

I did as told, and mentally braced myself for the invasion of privacy that was about to befall unto me. She was a doctor, it made sense for her to look me over like that, and nothing whatsoever in her demeanour indicated she meant anything more by it.

Still, that hardly meant I had to like it, especially given her habit of mumbling her findings to herself. To my colossal relief, she only briefly looked over my more private areas, commented about everything being in order, then moved on to my barrel.

"Incisions have scarred up nicely," she said as she wrote. “Much faster than expected, actually, given the patient’s previous condition.”

While it *had* been four months since my last checkup, it made sense why she was so surprised. In my previous state, wounds like that would have needed years to close up, yet alone properly *heal*.

Content, she moved up my body again, checking my chest’s fur for irregularities. Finally, she moved onto my head, checking each of my eyes and ears.

"Well then, Lady Fell. It seems the procedure has not only been a success, but the recovery equally so," she said with glee that I knew was due more to the positive results of her study, and less to my *actual* recovery.

"So…" I started, my voice full of hesitation. I’d known I was doing better. I could feel it. My entire body just worked so much better now. And yet, I still was afraid of her answer to my next question. “Does that mean I’ll one day be well enough to travel?”

Vivo grimaced and shook her head, then furrowed her brow as she looked at the ceiling, before letting out a "huh" as she stared past me. She bit her lip, then made a popping sound. Finally, after drawing out her reflection for much longer than necessary, she shook her head again. “I doubt it. I don’t think we can reduce your main treatment further without risk of the fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva making a return.”

One of my two diseases, it meant that some tissue in my body turned to bone. In all, as horrible as it was, it felt less terrible than the remedy I had to take to counter it. Only the treatment wouldn’t kill me within less than two years.

"And with your medicine, low-dosed as it may be," she continued, “your body would still be too frail to survive the outside.” She hesitated for a moment before adding, “Of course, should you insist on trying anyway, and should your family allow it, I will be there all the way with you.” Taking notes, no doubt.

I didn’t vocalise that comment. "I see," I replied as evenly as I could. Again, the answer didn’t really surprise me, and it shouldn’t have. I would have been a foal to believe I had any chance of getting out of this miserable residence and seeing even a fraction of the world. Of living even half the life a normal pony got to. Of finding love, of sleeping under the stars.

Really, there was no reason for me to be on the edge of tears. The life I’d read about in so many books would remain outside my grasp, forever inaccessible for a pony like me.

But I knew that already, so I had no reason to feel upset. I thanked the doctor for her work and left the small guest room. It took everything I had not to tear up on the way to my room, even though nopony would have seen me.