"Honey I'm home!"
Bolter came in through the door as he called to his wife. Derpy was startled by the noise and momentarily stopped playing with her toys. She looked up to see her daddy and began crawling over to him. Bolter kneeled down for a hug but when Derpy was almost there she sat upright and began her hug too early. She ended up hugging nothing but air and fell forward. Her eyes began to tear up but Bolter pulled her into a hug and reassured her.
"It's okay Derpy you just tripped a little. We all do that."
"LAAAAAAA!"
Derpy let another one of her unintelligible babbles as she hugged her daddy back. Bolter carried her across the living room and Derpy locked her focus onto her toys as she hoped daddy was going to play with her. Derpy whimpered though when Bolter walked right by them and headed into the kitchen where Skybreeze was readying dinner. Bolter sat his filly in her high chair and Skybreeze greeted him with a peck on the cheek.
"So how was work today?"
"Oh the usual. Though we are getting some clouds ready for a big storm over Ponyville. How has Derpy been?"
"She has been such a joy today. Derpy took an extended nap and has been happily playing with her toys since she woke up."
"BUUUU" "NAAAAAAA"
Derpy heard her name mentioned which garnered her attention, and she tried some noises to get her parents to look at her. She was unable to understand what they were talking about, but it obviously involved her in some way so Derpy wanted in on the action. Both of them gave her a smile and Skybreeze patted Derpy on her head. After exchanging a few more details of their day Bolter walked off to go read his newspaper in the living room while Skybreeze finished cooking their dinner. Derpy's high chair had a few toys attached to it that usually kept her entertained for varying lengths of time. Eventually though Derpy's stomach began to grumble and she started to whine in response to her hunger. However the sounds of cooking in the kitchen kept Skybreeze from noticing until Derpy's whine turned into a loud wailing.
Skybreeze practically dropped what she was doing and rushed over to tend to her foal. Derpy really only cried for three reasons. Either she was hungry, needed a changing, or both of her parents had left the room. With Skybreeze being right there and after checking her diaper to make sure it was clean. She knew Derpy simply needed to be fed.
"I guess it's time for your dinner too Derpy. I'll grab your bottle."
She then left Derpy in her high chair and quickly prepared a bottle of formula. It wasn't long before Skybreeze had Derpy cradled and presented the bottle to her. When Derpy noticed the bottle she calmed down into quiet sobs which in turn became an eager smile. Derpy reached out to grasp the bottle but she missed her mark with every attempt, and seemed to grow frustrated in doing so.
"What's wrong Derpy? This bottle is like all the other ones."
At first Skybreeze thought Derpy's misguided efforts at grabbing the bottle were Derpy trying to refuse the bottle. This was puzzling because Skybreeze had gotten her used to being bottle fed within the last few weeks. Soon though it dawned on her that Derpy was in fact trying to reach the bottle but was struggling to do so. So she brought it up to Derpy's lips directly and her filly was finally able to feed from the bottle. During the feeding though Skybreeze noticed Derpy's eyes were looking in different directions. She thought her daughter was just making a funny face at the moment. When Derpy had drained the bottle Skybreeze burped her over the shoulder, but when She brought Derpy back in view the foal's eyes still seemed to stare off in different directions. Skybreeze booped her nose to get Derpy to blink but upon reopening her eyes they were still pointed in different directions.
"Bolter come in here quick. I think something is happening to our daughter!"
Bolter had managed to rush in before the newspaper he was reading could even float to the ground. He immediately went over to check on Derpy but didn't see anything wrong at first glance.
"What's a matter Skybreeze? Derpy looks okay."
"Her eyes! Look at her eyes! They aren't pointing straight!"
"Well maybe she is just making a funny face? Like she is trying to sneeze or something?"
"No it isn't that. When I tried feeding her she had trouble grabbing the bottle."
The couple went on back and forth both worried as to what they should do. Derpy then began to cry. Not caused by her condition which wasn't bothering her yet, but because she was sensing how upset her parents were, and the infant filly didn't know what else to do. Derpy's crying made Skybreeze and Bolter refocus on the situation at hand, and they knew action must be taken instead of bickering. They both raced off to the Cloudsdale hospital. When they barged in with distraught looks on their faces while they carried a crying foal the ponies instantly received help from the nurse at the front desk. Derpy's condition wasn't life threatening so the family had to wait while ponies with more serious issues were cared for first.
Derpy kept crying and kicking no matter if Skybreeze or Bolter held her, and their attempts at consoling her made no progress. Though her fit must have tired her out as eventually Derpy nodded off into sleep. After some other pony was wheelchaired out. A doctor finally called for the Hooves family to come back to an examination room with him. Derpy's parents explained what was wrong with their daughter's eyes and the things they noticed about her earlier in the day. The pegasus doctor had to wake Derpy up to examine them which upset the foal. She remained calm in the presence of her parents but she pouted at the doctor with the meanest stare. The doctor explained that Derpy was merely experiencing the onset of Strabismus.
"So is she going to lose her vision?"
Asked a worried Skybreeze.
"No not at all. However this will effect her depth perception. Other side effects are usually headaches and sudden migraines caused by Derpy's brain trying to process two wildly different images and..."
The pegasus doctor went on to explain what it meant for Derpy to have strabismus but he was interrupted by Bolter.
"But will Derpy be okay? Is there a cure?
"Well there are treatments to help minimize the effects. Derpy can wear an eye-patch to avoid headaches, and when she settles in to her condition corrective lenses will help her see better."
"No surgery either?'
"I'm afraid that would be too dangerous and Derpy could actually go blind in that eye. We can also try to..."
As the adult ponies were talking about Derpy as they kept saying her name she began to wimper. She was in a strange place and this mean pony was making mommy and daddy sad. Why couldn't Derpy just be at home playing with mommy and daddy or hugging them? She tried making some babbles in an upset tone but the ponies kept talking.