"Mister Mactylan, a word please?"

I nod, and quickly exit the small room to join the doctor after giving the small, sleeping filly a quick peck on the forehead. Derpy Hooves remains silent in her sleep as I slip out. The other ponies remain silent as well, as they're at home with Charles and Barbara.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Let's go to my office," he suggests. I nod. My palms sweat my knees wobble my stomach churns and I'm scared. What's going on? Why is he taking me to his office? And why at eleven o'clock? The first thing I think of is bad news, which is never a good thing to do. It makes me scared and I am very scared.

When we arrive at his office, we sit down across from each other and he clears his throat before beginning.

"You are aware that your, ah...daughter, has a brain tumor, correct?"

I nod.

"And you were told that it was at the center of her brain?"

I nod again.

"Well, we believe that may be incorrect."

I sit bolt upright. "What?"

"We looked at the scans that your friend, Barbara, took of Miss Hooves' brain, and we found that the tumor was enlarged by an error in the apparatus."

"Wait...an error?" I lean forward, my heart hammering in my chest. "I didn't think these things could make mistakes like that..."

"It wasn't a machine meant for detecting tumors," he responds. "It was only meant to show a rough diagram of the brains' activity. That's why we've scheduled several different scans for your, daughter, in the morning." He has to force himself to say "daughter" rather than...whatever. I don't comment on it.

"Alright," I respond. "And...what do you hope to find?" I ask, hope kindling in my chest.

"If we're right about this," he begins, "then it's possible that your daughters' tumor could be removed."

My jaw drops, and I immediately take the doctors' hand and shake it.

"Thank you, so much, Doctor Fischbach," I announce. "This is great - oh, this is awesome!"

"Mister Mactylan, we don't know for sure yet," he gently reminds me. "We may be wrong."

"But there's still a chance," I respond with a grin. He nods.

"That's true. Now, if you don't mind, I've got to fill out the paperwork for your daughters' scans..."

I nod with a grin. "Thank you!" I chirp before exiting his office and practically bouncing back to Derpy's room.

As I flompf onto the couch, I fish out my smartphone and shoot off two texts: one to Charles and one to Barbara. I roll onto my back and look over at Derpy, who's still sleeping soundly in her bed. Her hoof is hanging over the edge, and I reach over to gently grasp it.

I smile as I fall asleep.

Author's Notes:

Yay for cliffhangers

I was originally going to put the next morning in this chapter, too, but I was too lazy to do that. Plus, I just finished kayaking and doing a pre-lab assignment for my summer engineering course. I'm fucking tired as hell and I just wanna take a nap.