“Doc?” Applejack demands the moment Dr. Horse enters their room. Her voice has a hard edge to it, like she’s fed up with the speculation rampaging around her head much like the foals are tearing around the room. “Tell it to me straight.” She motions to the foals, all three of whom have stopped their play to gaze curiously at the new arrival like he is the most fascinating thing in the world. “Are they gonna get a cutie mark?”

“Not even a ‘hello’?” Dr. Horse indignantly replies. The dark brown unicorn has a thin saddlebag at his side, his ruffled appearance otherwise completely intact. His impertinent gaze sweeps across the room, ending up on the foals. “I thought that was common practice around these parts.”

“If Ah thought you cared, Ah might’a.” Applejack’s glare intensifies as he studiously ignores her. “Are ya gonna answer me?”

Dr. Horse is too busy returning Apple Bloom’s stuck out tongue to reply.

Silence stretches in the room for a few long seconds, occasionally broken by the happy babble of a foal.

“Well?” Applejack snaps.

“I’m sorry,” Dr. Horse says, not meaning a word of it, “the foals outnumbered the adults in the room, so I was just fitting in.”

Applejack’s teeth audibly grind against each other before Rarity cuts in.

“You’re just encouraging him, darling.” The white unicorn turns a no-nonsense gaze on her fellow unicorn, the stern kind she retains for the most obstinate of customers or herded pegasi. “I believe you had something to tell us?”

“Sure.” Dr. Horse shrugs to himself. “What usually happens when you poke something with a stick?”

“If you’re Derpy, it goes right through the cloud,” Rainbow Dash mutters. She’s more focused on her foal instead of the doctor, knowing she’s going to get hungry again soon.

Dr. Horse nods once as he sarcastically replies, “Exactly.”

“Now that don’t make a lick of sense.” Applejack huffs. “We’re supposed to ignore it when somepony pokes us?” She motions to the foals. “Makes fun a’them for bein’ weak?”

“Of course not,” Dr. Horse quickly returns as Rarity and Rainbow Dash bristle. “You poke back. Do I have to explain everything?”

His question, which they can’t tell if it’s rhetorical or not, goes unanswered.

“Don’t know why you’d want me to,” Dr. Horse continues with mock resignation, a mendacious tone that seems to characterize all his words. “Never trust doctors. Right? Because what do we know.” He takes a folder out of his saddlebag, slapping it against the nearest bed.

“Maybe we were hopin’ you know a bit more about this than us?” Applejack motions to the foals. “And could help make things right.”

“You want to make things right?” Dr. Horse scoffs, picking up the folder just to slap it against the bed again. “Too bad. Nothing’s ever right.” He laughs, a single derisive bark. “You don’t even know what’s wrong. You know what’s worse than useless? Useless and oblivious.”

“Ah ain’t oblivious!” Applejack snaps back, raising to her hooves. She’s a shade shorter than Dr. Horse but easily double his mass and cuts an intimidating figure. “Ah’m tryin’ to figure out what’s wrong with ‘em, too!”

“How do you know anything’s wrong?” Dr. Horse pulls out three pages, sliding one to each mare. “Because some little machine told you?”

“Well, yes,” Rarity replies as Applejack stares at the sheet, rows and tables of numbers running into each other. “Their magical potential was abysmally low.”

“Ah, now we’re getting somewhere!” Dr. Horse rewards Rarity with a rare smile and nod of his head. “And yet, despite being so far off the charts I wouldn’t be wrong in calling them a rock? They seem fine.”

“You better not call them rocks,” Rainbow Dash spits out.

“Why not?” Dr. Horse returns a curious turn of his head. “After all, rock beats scissors.”

“And they’re a good place on which to build a house,” Doug adds.

Dr. Horse turns to Doug, regarding him for a moment. “Do you always have to twist what I’m saying into something positive?” A thin corner of his mouth turns up as Doug nods. “It’s quite annoying.”

“Nopegasi would do that,” Rainbow Dash retorts, huffing at being contradicted by her stallion.

“Well no-earth pony wouldn’t,” Applejack says with a glare at the pegasus.

“Please, everypony, we’re getting off track,” Rarity says as she smiles at the three foals, trying to distract them.

“We were ever on track?” Dr. Horse says, then immediately shakes his head violently. “Stop it!” he rebukes to himself. “You’re trying to be helpful!”

“The foals?” Rarity prompts.

Dr. Horse nods. “Right. The foals.” He motions to one of the pieces of paper. “As you might have surmised, each of your foals is woefully underpowered. If you want my best guess - and that’s all it is, a guess - you’re going to see them struggle with anything related to magic.”

“That seems painfully obvious,” Rainbow Dash says snidely. “Why spend twelve years in medical school if that’s all you can come up with?”

“Oh my Celestia, I never realized it before,” Dr. Horse says, stunned. He strips off his shabby jerkin, offering it to Rainbow Dash penitently. “How could I have missed it? We should all be following what you say!”

“That’s not-” Rainbow Dash starts as she backs away.

“Or you!” Dr. Horse offers the jacket to Applejack. “After all, if all of our guesses are equally valuable, then any of us could be the doctor!”

“This isn’t helpful,” Doug says sternly as Applejack stares at the jacket, confused.

“Well, she started it,” Dr. Horse whines as he slips his overcoat back on. “Interrupting me before I was done.”

“I didn’t…” Rainbow Dash starts, then cuts herself off. “Fine. Whatever.” She plops down on the bed, waving a hoof at the doctor to get him to continue.

“Everypony’s different,” Dr. Horse continues, almost daring Rainbow Dash to speak up at another banal platitude. “Despite that, we’re often similar. We find that what works with some patients often work with others. Not all, but enough to be better than a simple guess. But, that means every time we do something, we take a risk.” He makes a motion to one hoof, then the other. “Do we do something? Do we do another thing? Do we do nothing? The problem here-” he motions to the three foals “-is that we don’t know what the right answer is. But just because we don’t know, and maybe there’s even no way we could know, doesn’t make the answer you choose right or even okay. It’s much simpler than that.” He nods with a grim smile. “It’s just wrong.”

There is a brief pause as everypony takes that in.

“That don’t seem helpful,” Applejack says.

Dr. Horse shrugs, as if he knows how unhelpful his words of wisdom can seem. “Humility is an important quality. Especially if you’re wrong a lot.” He waits a brief moment before continuing, “Of course, when you’re right, self-doubt doesn’t help anypony, does it?”

“So what do you think is right?” Doug asks, stroking his chin.

Dr. Horse regards Doug for a moment. “That depends on what you want to do.”

Doug takes a deep breath. “To me,” he starts slowly, cautiously, “the lack of magic doesn’t seem like a big deal.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash chokes out as Rarity gasps.

“Not a big deal?” The unicorn keeps her voice carefully metered, but might as well have been shouting. She slaps a hoof on the paper detailing Sweetie Belle’s thaumic potential. “She will struggle to pick up a rock!”

“And Scoots might never fly!” Tears never manifest in Rainbow Dash’s eyes, rage threatening to overtake her. “You think that’s not a big deal?”

The two mentioned foals drop to the ground, hiding their faces in their forelegs.

Doug takes a deep breath, waiting a moment for their anger to pass. “To be perfectly honest?” He motions to himself. “Yes.” Frowns cross white and cerulean muzzles. “I’ve never been able to do magic. I’ve never been able to fly under my own power. Or make plants bloom with my mind. But I never let that hold me back.”

“Oh, sure,” Rainbow Dash snarks. “We’ll love them despite being crippled.”

“No,” Doug snaps back, his response startling Rainbow Dash and the other ponies. “Because they are much more than their limitations. They aren’t crippled, and I don’t think any of you would stand hearing them called that.”

Murmurs of agreement come from the chastened mares. The foals look up at him; it’s unclear how much they comprehend, but they seem drawn in regardless.

Doug continues, “Yes, they have their limits. Who doesn’t? But we never let them use their lack of magic as an excuse, a reason to not try. We work with them where they struggle because we know they can overcome it. We treat them no different than anypony else, because they aren’t different. Not in a way that matters.”

Rarity draws close to her stallion and rewards him with a soft nuzzle. Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly follow suit, then the foals piling on with happy giggles.

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow Dash says quietly, wiping away the tears coming to her eyes. “I didn’t mean to insult them.”

“It’s okay,” Doug reassures, then glances around the pile of ponies at Dr. Horse. “Was there much else?”

Dr. Horse grabs a chart and flips through it. He casually lists off, “Can’t fly due to small wings, poor magic in all three, no hope or cutie marks, ray of light… No, looks like you covered everything.”

“Good.” Doug leans back, unable to smile despite the elated feeling. There will be struggles ahead and difficult times. But he know that by working hard and persevering together they will make it through.

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