How could she have let this happen?

She had been careful. She had done everything possible to prevent this. Well…alright, perhaps not everything.

But, she only did that once, and she used a spell to protect herself.

The spell shouldn’t have failed. After all, she had cast it. And when the Great and Powerful Trixie casts a spell, it always works.

It must have been the spell itself. There must have been a problem with the spell that caused it to fail. Yes, that had to be it.

It couldn’t be her.

“Will your husband be coming?” the doctor asked her.

Trixie snorted at the mention of her “husband”, some-pony who didn’t even exist.

Of course, the stallion did exist, but he wasn’t her husband. She hated to admit he was even the father of the foal that was currently causing her so much pain.

They hadn’t even been in a relationship, at all.

At first, he had just been her landlord. After her wagon had been destroyed by the ursa minor, and that purple unicorn had showed that she also had some magical talent (not as much the Great and Powerful Trixie had, of course, but some…), she had left Ponyville.

For a few days, she lived in motels, using the money she had saved from her various shows to pay for the stay.

However, all that changed when she met him. Soap Scum: the biggest jerk of an earth pony she had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

Well, that was speaking using hindsight, of course.

He had started off decently. He gave her free room and board at his home, in exchange for cleaning the place and occasionally taking his son on “dates”.

Of course, she didn’t enjoy the idea of cleaning like a maid, but Soap Scum allowed her to use her magic, so she would always finish the job in less than an hour, even though for a pony without magic, it would have taken nearly the entire day. Just another reason why unicorns had the advantage over pegasi and earth ponies.

As for the “dates”…well, she really couldn’t complain about those at all. Soap Scum’s son was only a bit younger than her, and was quite attractive. He was well-built and well-mannered, having recently gone to a special academy. It didn’t hurt that he never skimped on the compliments when they went out to eat.

Yes, everything had been going so well.

Then Soap Scum offered her the chance to have her own place to live, free of charge. He would pay for the living cost, he said. It sounded too good to be true and it was. He would pay for her living expenses, including buying her groceries, but only if she would do him a “favor” first.

She wanted to refuse.

If it had been his son (she honestly couldn’t remember ever hearing his name. Soap Scum always just called him “son” and everyone else called him “sir”), she wouldn’t have minded as much.

But, he was so old! He wasn’t ancient or anything, but he was much too old for her.

She told him she wouldn’t do it.

He offered her more: not only her own place to live, with him paying for everything, but her own theatre show.

He promised that he would put in a good name for her with a friend of his who ran the theatre. She would have her own show, once every week.

That was what broke her.

She couldn’t help it! She missed performing. She missed hearing ponies talk about how amazing my magic was. She could have had that again; the change to show how talented and skilled she was, without a bunch of small-town mares calling her a braggart and trying to show her up, then acting like little fillies when she showed them that she was better.

So, she did what he asked.

It was a one-time thing, so it wasn’t like she was of those filthy mares who stood on the street corners in Manehattan, waiting for some rich stallion to invite them to their place so they could “earn their keep”.

Besides, she got her free house and her theatre show out of the deal.

That was what she focused on.

She had her fame back; that was all that mattered.

She ignored the fact that she felt filthy inside for letting Soap Scum use her that way. She swallowed back the icy feeling she had whenever she had to see him.

For a few months, she ignored those feelings and concentrated on her spells and her performance. She was a star, after all.

Then she started to feel sick, all the time.

She went to the doctor, hoping to find out what was wrong with her.

The doctor told her that nothing was wrong with her; she was just having a foal.

Well, that was something wrong with her, at least in her eyes, but she wouldn’t snap at the doctor.

After all, he probably assumed that the foal had been conceived the way all foals should be conceived: through love, or at least mutual attraction. Not because the mother wanted to pay for free room and board and the chance to be a star again.

She told Soap Scum, expecting that he would do something to help her out. After all, it was his fault that she had the problem in the first place.

What did he do when she told him? He kicked her out of the house he had given her and then got her fired from the theatre she had been working at. He gave her about five-thousand bits and told her never to contact him again, before sending her on her way.

She had returned to Ponyville, as that was the only place she could afford to live and the only place that offered free medical care.

She took care to disguise herself whenever she had to go into town, making sure to speak as little as possible, lest someone recognize her voice.

She lived in Ponyville for a few months, and actually found herself feeling rather relaxed and even happy at points. She found somewhere she could work after her foal was born, which, while it wasn’t the type of work she preferred, was something she could enjoy. And, best of all, Soap Scum’s son kept in contact with her and even sent her money once in a while.

How a pony who fit his name so well could have a son that was so polite and chivalrous, Trixie had no idea.

But, that was the last thing she had to worry about now. Now she had to be more concerned with the delivery of her foal.

She had been dreading this day for months, ever since the doctor had refused to answer her question of what type of pony the baby was during a routine check-up.

She had continually asked if he could see a horn or wings on the baby during the scan, and he never told her.

Of course, she knew why he never answered; he wasn’t allowed to.

Some ponies were so obsessed about having children of a certain “breed” that if they learned they were carrying a child that wasn’t the type of pony they wanted, they would terminate the pregnancy. At some point, the issue had grown so much that it became illegal for doctors to reveal whether a mare was pregnant with an earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn until after the foal was delivered, to make it impossible for the mother to terminate the pregnancy based solely on her foal’s “species”.

So, now she was mere moments away from giving birth, and she could only hope that the foal looked as little like the father as way possible.

“Very good, Miss Avalon. One more good push should do it” the doctor told her.

Trixie was so wrapped up in her thoughts (and in the pains that kept cutting through her body), that she almost forgotten her own alias---Titania Avalon, a name she had come up with after reading a few fantasy novels.

But, once she remembered that the doctor was talking to her, she nodded. Another pain cut through her and she pushed again.

This time, once the pain passed, she was greeted by a strange sense of released and the sound of a wailing foal.

“Congratulations, Miss Avalon, you have a healthy young colt” the doctor told her.

Trixie looked at the newborn as one of the nurses took him away to be measured and cleaned.

The baby had the same coat and mane color as she did, so that was good. But, he didn’t have a horn.

Her heart dropped once she noticed this. She had hoped to give birth to a unicorn, to have an easier time forgetting who had fathered her child.

Once she saw that her son was not a unicorn, she began to pray to Celestia that he had wings.

As long as he wasn’t an earth pony, as long as he had as little traits from his father as possible, she would be happy.

The nurse returned the foal to his mother, after wrapping him in a soft blue blanket. She held the baby close to her body, making sure that she was able to feel his back. She couldn’t feel any wings, but that didn’t mean anything…

The doctor asked her what she wanted to name him.

“Incantation” she had said, choosing a name that she knew would sound odd, as it was a name that was normally only given to unicorns, being related to magic.

Her son, Incantation, yawned and opened his eyes. To her disappointment, he had his father's eyes. They were the exact same rusty red-brown color.

Now she hoped even more that he had wings.

At last, she was left alone with her newborn.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

She unwrapped the baby from the blanket he had been swaddled in and placed him on his back.

To her relief, she saw them. He did have wings.

It was rather ironic, she had to admit. Her son would one day be able to reach the sky, while she had anchored herself to the ground because of the mistake she had made. The mistake that had caused him to be born.

Of course, she couldn’t fully complain about the outcome of the mistake…not really.