Some time ago...

Firelight paced anxiously in the waiting area of the Sire Hollow Hospital maternity wing. It was middle of the night, he was the only one here, and the glasses of water the nurse had brought him weren't doing a very good job of helping his nerves. It had been a very, very long night so far, and unfortunately, the doctors weren't able to give him updates very frequently, which was only worrying him more.

The wide double doors to the labor and delivery area swung open, and a single doctor in surgical scrubs walked out into the waiting room. Firelight stopped in his tracks, his heart pounding against his chest. He could tell it wasn't good from his expression. He'd been fooling himself that everything was going to be okay for the last three hours.

"Firelight... I'm afraid we can't stop your wife's internal bleeding without serious risk to the baby. The best chance is to induce labor within the next 15 minutes." The doctor told him. Firelight felt his mouth go dry.

"But... But that's six weeks preterm..." He replied, worry filling his voice. The doctor nodded.

"It's the best chance the baby has. Starshine has instructed us to begin immediately. You have a few moments to talk with her while we prepare."

The purple unicorn's heart crept up in his throat.

"Starshine doesn't have much chance, does she?" He asked, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"The blood loss is only going to vastly increase during birth. I'm afraid there's very little we can do for her, except make it as painless as possible. I'm very, very sorry." The doctor replied, as sympathetically as he could.

Firelight took a shuddering breath, and let it out, trying his very best to prepare for the inevitable.

"Take me to her." He told him, and he managed to keep it together as he was led through the doors and down the hall to the delivery room.

"You have a few minutes while we make our last preparations." The doctor told Firelight, holding the door open for him. He nodded, and stepped inside, looking at his wife.

The pink unicorn looked positively tired. She was attached to a heart monitor next to the bed, and she wore a simple hospital gown. She locked eyes with her husband and smiled weakly at him.

"Hey, love."

Firelight walked up to Starshine's bedside, and took her left hoof in his.

"I... I know what you're gonna say..." She continued.

"You do? B-Because I don't. It's an impossible choice, Starshine, and it's not my call. You're absolutely everything to me, and I know this baby is absolutely everything to you." Firelight stammered, tears spilling over.

"This baby is everything to us. I know you'll be a wonderful father, Firelight. I know you and I had all these plans... All the way back from college... Our first house here in Sire's Hollow... And... And you're gonna have to find a way to carry on without me. You've always managed to persevere. Our child couldn't be in better hooves." Starshine said, squeezing his hoof.

The stallion leaned down, and kissed his wife softly on the forehead.

"I swear I'll love and raise them with all my heart. I give you my word." He cried softly.

The doctor returned with a nurse and an orderly.

"Alright, we have to begin. Mrs. Starshine, we're going to let you know when it's time to push. Try to save your energy until then." The doctor told her, his horn lighting up. Starshine felt the first contraction start to hit as the doctor began to induce labor.

"Right now I want you to focus on your breathing. Slow, deep breaths. Can you do that for me?"

She nodded, and began to slow her breathing, taking as deep breaths as she could, barely able to see the doctor over her protruding belly. The contractions slowly got more frequent and stronger, and she squeezed her husband's hoof tighter in response, and he sat there and squeezed back. He used his other hoof to stroke her aquamarine bangs away from her face.

"I love you, Firelight..." She gasped, taking another deep breath as another contraction came.

"I love you, Starshine. M-More than anything."

"Alright, Starshine, it's time to push. Ready? One... Two... Three." The doctor instructed. The unicorn mare cried out in pain, gritted her teeth, and clenched onto Firelight's hoof for dear life.

For Firelight, everything became a blur. The doctor's loud voice gave his screaming and crying wife instructions as clearly and as calmly as he could.Thirty seconds passed, then a minute. All the while he held Starshine's hoof.

"I see the head, push Starshine!"

She gritted her teeth again, and with another scream, put all her strength into one final push. Firelight, who had been feeling lightheaded throughout the ordeal, was brought back to clarity as he heard the crying of a foal.

"It's a girl!" The doctor announced as the nurse approached with clean cloths and towels.

"Did you hear that Starshine? It's a baby girl. We have a baby girl." He said, turning back to her. When she didn't reply, he saw that she was no longer breathing.

"Starshine...?"

He realized that he was still gripping her left hoof, but she wasn't. Although it was the last thing he wanted to do, he looked up at the heart monitor, and now heard the flat tone it was generating for the last several seconds, the flat line traversing the screen from left to right, not moving a pixel from the middle. He gently laid her hoof down on the bed, and leaned over and kissed her cheek. He reached up with his shaking hoof and muted the heart monitor, and sat next to her and cried softly.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the doctor and nurse came over to him with the crying foal, wrapped in a soft white blanket, and offered her to him. He accepted the infant unicorn in his arms, who began to immediately calm down. She had a heliotrope-colored coat, and the short start of her mane was a mix of moderate and light purple, with aquamarine highlights from her mother.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, Firelight," the doctor offered, putting a hoof on his shoulder. "We've started on the birth certificate. Did the two of you discuss a name?"

Firelight looked over at his wife, who was now at peace, and then back down to the foal cradled in his hooves.

"Starlight. Starlight Glimmer."

Author's Note

Not quite sure where this one is going, and the rest isn't ready. But I've always been something of an infuriating tease around here, so enjoy!