Be careful what you wish for.

Muriel had always been headstrong, in perhaps the most naive of ways. Why should she ever be careful for what she wished for, anyways? Clearly if she wished for it she would want it, no strings attached. Idioms had no place in Muriel's life, as a stubborn filly. Even as she grew, older and no wiser than before, she'd never really figured out that particular saying. What it meant, why it was that so many had warned her against it, against wishful thinking and errant prayers.

It wasn't until that early summer evening that she realized exactly why.

Whatever hope she'd worded, there was a part of her that truly did not want Leliel to return. She'd finally found something akin to happiness, fleeting though it was, and shallow as she suspected it to be. Gull made her happy, had given her a gift that, though she was terrified by it, was also a way to start anew. Wipe the slate clean. Be a better person than what she'd once been. Have someone who would love her unconditionally, and she them. A child.

But as her name ricocheted like a bullet through the woods, she felt the kill shot strike deep into her chest. A sort of liquid horror injected itself into her veins, warring with the delirious little mare that had loved Leliel eternally, shamelessly. Be careful what you wish for, Muriel. What had she done? How could she face him, pregnant with another stallion's foal, another stallion whom she undoubtedly held a deep affection for, even if perhaps not love? How could she tell him of her betrayal?

But...she had thought him dead. Or at least to have abandoned her. Were they both to blame? Or was she the one with dirtied hands, again?

"Leliel?" it was a disbelieving call as it left her lips, and she struggled to her hooves over the round bulge of her belly. She moved awkwardly towards the sound, growing steadily faster until she was racing towards the sound of his voice. It couldn't be. Could it? "Leliel!" And then there he was, emaciated but alive. And he slowed in tandem with her, until they were staring at one another. Or at least, she was. Taking in his face like a drowning man did land. And he was apologizing. But all that could come out of her mouth was "You're alive?" A broken whisper.

And she stepped forward, moving to touch his muzzle with her own. And then the tears fell, and she started to cry in earnest as she staggered towards him and threw her neck around his withers. "I thought you were dead," she sobbed into his skin, trembling with the force of her own emotions.

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.