“Oh come on!”
“Your due to go Hope, you might as well go with him”
“But I hate the dentist!” Hope complained as she furiously sat down on the carpet.
“Oh don’t be silly it’s not that bad” Miss Chestnut told her, pulling her back up onto her hooves.
“Sombra might want a friend with him as well, I doubt his is going to be any more fun” she said while pushing Hope forwards towards the door. Sombra was already standing and waiting. It was relatively late at night, most had retired to their houses for the day and many business were closed. Hope was nearly dragged out the door as Miss Chestnut took them down the empty pathways. It didn’t take too long to reach the practice, in which they were expected as the staff were still around. Given that they were the only patients they were taken straight to the dentist’s room. The stallions hair was so slicked back that a hair net wasn’t necessary.
“So we have Radiant Hope and Sombra, and Hope was in for a general check-up but Sombra’s teeth are severely rotted”
“Yes well if you can get Hope done first she doesn’t like…er…dentists…so”
“No, no that’s fine. If you just sit here Hope we’ll get it over and done with okay” He said to her, she simply nodded as she sat down on the chair. He pushed around a shelf of tools and he started to prod around in Hopes mouth. He wrote small things down on a document as he went around her mouth. So far, Sombra couldn’t see anything that would scare her. Sombra found it interesting (he somehow hadn’t noticed it before) that Hope didn’t have any canine teeth, she only had the front teeth visible so he just assumed there was a gap before her back teeth
“So far so good, just make sure you get to these back ones a little more” he told Hope, who quickly shut her mouth and hopped of the chair. She shuffled back over to Sombra looking a little less grumpy.
“Oh, Sombra sort of bent his teeth yesterday, its er not pretty” Miss Chestnut said to the dentist. She motioned to Sombra to go take Hopes place on the chair.
“Bent his teeth?”
“They’re very rotten, I’m just hoping his adult teeth are alright, if he does have adult teeth”
“Easiest way to tell is to look, open up bud” Sombra opened his mouth slightly, which the dentist had to pull his jaw down a little more to get a better look. The dentist blinked rapidly in a brief shock.
“…wow…I don’t even need the magnifying glass for this” the dentist lightly prodded at his teeth and gums. He couldn’t feel his teeth, but his gums stung at each touch, but he let the dentist do whatever he had to do.
“I’m no expert on umbrum teeth but…they’re bad”
“So would he have to have some pulled?” Miss Chestnut asked.
“Well the problem with pulling baby teeth is that it can cause problems with how the adult teeth grow in, I also don’t want his first dentist appointment being him having all of his teeth removed, however if we do nothing his adult teeth may already be rotting as the infection spreads down, and I have had the unfortunate circumstance of having an Umbrum smile at me and with how giant their adult teeth are I have a feeling the roots are just as long, so an infection getting to there could lead to further infection in his head” the dentist said, he prodded at his teeth where each wobbled to varying amounts. One of his upper incisors fell out on impact.
“Let me just grab that…actually…” the dentist picked up the small magnifying glass “I think your adult incisors are erupting…yep definitely…I might just get these out the way” the dentist said after grabbing the rotten tooth and placing it in a small box.
“So your taking out the front ones?”
“I think its for the best”
“Ok, I will pay some more then, I’m sorry I’m making you work for much longer” she apologised. Hope seemed to panic a little, her eyes had widened.
“Oh sorry, I have to sit outside with her, she’s not to keen on the concept of extractions” Miss Chestnut said. The dentist gave her a nod, Miss Chestnut gave Sombra a quick kiss to the forehead before leaving with Hope.
“Alright bud, just lift your hoof if it hurts, I’ll be as gentle as I can” the dentist said softly as Sombra’s mouth was gently opened again. Sombra sat there, with a mix of patience, concern, fear and trust. The dentist worked away gently pulling out each tooth, making sure they didn’t break as they were pulled. He was thankful he couldn’t exactly feel his teeth, he was sure this would be much worse if he could.
“All finished! You did well bud, I guess it helps they were pretty much dead” the dentist congratulated him. Sombra licked the soft gums that had been left, the holes felt oddly soft but he could feel sharp pin pricks in the centre of each. The dentist lead him out of the room where he found Hope looking as if she was expecting him to come out dead. She bounded into his for-legs and hugged him tight, not letting him go throughout the entire transaction between the adults. She only let go when they were led out of the practice, it was now near darkness and they were the only ones on the street. As they walked Sombra heard some distant wing beats. The trio looked up, Miss Chestnut stopped and she waved.
The pegasus she waved to glided down to the pathway, landing next to them. From the faint light of the streetlamps they stood between he could see the stallion had two toned hair and dark fur. Unlike the last pegasus he knew Sombra could see the layers of feathers on the stallions body which were puffed up in the cold air.
“Ok I must ask what your doing so late at night with two foals” he asked Miss Chestnut, his voice was rich and smooth. It took Sombra a moment to process as he was used to most male voices being gruff and near raspy, he always wondered how his sire didn’t permanently have a sore throat.
“Didn’t I tell you? I had to take Sombra to the dentist because his teeth are terrible”
“Oh right yeah, I guess your taking them home now?”
“well, yes, what else would I be doing?”
“I dunno, I was just bored and went out for a night flight and I saw a grown pony with two foals late at night and my brain went places it shouldn’t have” he replied, Miss Chestnut got a little closer to him, half closing her eyes.
“How about I take the foals back, then we go to my place and have fun, would that get rid of your boredom?”
“Velvet there are two foals standing next to you”
“Well they won’t know about that for another few years…actually Sombra’s most likely already seen it but doesn’t understand-“
“Lets just get the pair back to the orphanage” the group walked back mostly in silence, Hope was consistently taking glances between the stallion and the feather in Miss Chestnuts hair. They returned to the orphanage where they were taken to bed rather quickly.
(“well that was hastier then usual”)
“She met a stallion and started being weird” Sombra said, some of his letters didn’t quite form.
(“Oh you wait…anyway how’s your teeth?”) Sombra raised his lips showing the gap in the front of his mouth.
(“WHAT THE FUuuuddgge…yeah…fudge…that’s…er…I guess it could have been worse…heh heh”)