My Only Sunshine

by rthjsrtjhjewshsweh

Rating: teen
Tags: Carrot Top, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dinky Hooves, Derpy Hooves, Tragedy, Gore, Dark, Sad
Length: 18147

Dinky Hooves gets into an accident while Derpy is at work.

Derpy Hooves is a normal Pegasus, living in a small house with her daughter, Dinky and her room mate, Carrot Top. One day, her life gets flipped upside down after she witnesses her daughter getting caught in a serious accident.

Published 2012-01-28 08:10:35 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-29 03:20:41 UTC

Chapter 1

        The sun began to set as a blonde-maned, grey Pegasus walked into the room of her daughter, another blonde-maned pony, this time sprouting pale-purple hair and a stout horn atop her head. The filly hopped up and down, trying to reach the side of her obviously too-large bed. She always needed help getting in; she was just too short and too young to use magic yet. Her mother picked her up and set her on top of of the bed, near her also oversized pillow.

The Pegasus lit a nearby scented jar candle, the one that always sat on the filly’s nightstand, for a source of light before the sun lowered too far into the horizon. She sat next to her daughter’s bed, a warm smile on her face as she watched her little angel try to settle down.

        The little filly struggled against the comforter with all her might, a look of frustration on her face as she began to lose the barbaric blanket battle for comfort. The Unicorn eventually gave up and lay still on her back, obviously still uncomfortable.

        “Are you finally done?” Derpy Hooves asked with a slight chuckle.

        “Yeah,” Dinky Hooves said, “but I really don’t like these blankets. They’re too heavy and I can barely move them on my own.” She tried bench pressing the comforter straight up to further illustrate her point, managing to get it up only a couple of inches off of her. Her front legs shook as the full weight of the blanket bore straight down on her. “See?”

        The wall-eyed pony chuckled again. “You’ll grow into them one day. Also, you’ll be able to climb into your own bed without my help, too.” The two of them sat there, smiling quietly at each other while Celestia’s greatest creation finally fully set behind the horizon.  Not a single object in the room stirred, save for the tiny flame that spawned from the candle wick.

It seemed like an eternity was spent between the two ponies, just idly sitting in and next to the bed. The pegasus loved her little filly dearly, as most mothers do. Nothing in the world could make her give up her daughter, not even the chance for her to live a more wealthy lifestyle. Her love for her daughter was just too great for that. She knew her daughter loved her back, the bond between them could almost be tasted in the air. After the second eternity of absolutely nothing passed, one of them decided to break the silence.

        “Mommy?”

        “Yes?”

        “Can you sing me a song?”

        Derpy stared into her eager daughter’s eyes. She always sang to her at bedtime. It had grown to be a custom since even before Dinky could speak, although the filly still asked in case her mother forgot, which she never truly did.

        “What song do you want to hear?” she always asked, knowing exactly what her daughter’s ears craved and needed to fall asleep.

        Dinky looked back at her mother and smiled. This was another custom; her mother always asked what she wanted to hear, but she never answered. She knew that her mother would sing the same song she always did with no direct request.

        The Pegasus cleared her throat while Dinky anxiously looked up at her from the comfort of the bed. Derpy closed her eyes and began to sing, softly at first but slowly gaining intensity as her singing voice came back to her.

        “You are my sunshine,

        My only sunshine.

        You make me happy

        When skies are grey.

        You’ll never know dear,

        How much I love you.

        Please don’t take

        My sunshine away.”

        The grey pony opened her eyes, and everything was still in the room for a couple of moments. Suddenly, a gentle snoring sound arose from the little filly. A smile once again formed on the lips of her mother as she wondered what her daughter would dream of tonight. “Goodnight my little pony,” said the mother before kissing her softly on the forehead, right below the horn.

The Pegasus walked over to the lit candle on the nightstand and covered it with the lid, effectively cutting off the airflow and snuffing it out. She savored the scent in the air as it lingered for a couple of seconds, the smell of fresh blueberry muffins making her mouth water. ‘Muffins...’ she thought as the sweet, sweet taste of fresh-baked blueberry confections returned to her mind. She loved muffins. There wasn’t anything in the world that she cared for more than the tasty confection, except for her daughter. Snapping out of the daze, the pegasus got up and walked to her own room to get some sleep of her own.

        Derpy dragged herself up at her normal time, carefully setting her hooves on the ground and dragging them out of her bedroom, passing the sleeping filly’s room on the way. She always woke up this early in order to get ready and reach the post office before the sunrise. The Pegasus sluggishly walked into the kitchen and towards the fridge. She groggily opened up the icebox and took out her breakfast of choice: a single chocolate chip muffin. Slowly, the Pegasus sat herself down at the table and began eating. She cringed at how dry her mouth had become during the night, almost choking on the scrumptious baked good.

The pony set herself on her hooves and started the mile-long trek over to the cupboard. She barely managed to get it open, almost ripping it off its hinges due to the fact that she leaned so heavily on it. The Pegasus dragged out a glass, nearly dropping it in the process. She shuffled along to the table and deposited the newly fetched glass onto it. Once again Derpy walked over to the fridge, this time pulling out a jug of milk out with her mouth, not noticing how unusually light it was. She shambled on over to the eating surface where she proceeded to fill her glass.

        ...With air. ‘Really?’ she thought. ‘Why today?’

        “Out of milk, already?” came a voice from behind. Derpy drowsily glanced over her shoulder to find an orange-maned, yellow Earth Pony standing in the doorway.

“Good morning, Carrot Top,” said the Pegasus, almost dropping the empty cup due to her loss of complete concentration.

“You need to stop eating so many muffins! Do you know how much milk you drink every day?” Carrot Top walked into the room, leaving her former post at the door frame. She sat herself down next to Derpy to enjoy the company of her room mate.

The Pegasus tried to gasp playfully at the request, wanting to appear offended by the demands of the other pony in the room. The only thing she managed to do was inhale a dust bunny recently freed from the clutches of gravity, resulting in a coughing fit and a one-way trip straight to the floor.

She continued to cough as Carrot Top got up and fetched a glass of water at lightning speed compared to how slow the Pegasus was this particular morning. She handed it to the grounded pony, rolling her eyes as Derpy drank it as fast as possible.

“Stop eating muffins?! Never!” the grey mare said, still on the ground from her previous fit. She set her hooves on the ground for the third time this morning, pushing up to reach a standing position. She took back her seat next to her companion, blushing slightly from the embarrassment of her previous accident.

The Earth pony sighed. “Fine then, just stop drinking three glasses of milk every time you eat breakfast. Some of us actually DRINK the milk instead of just using it to soften up stale muffins.”

At this comment the recently roused pony was actually offended. She glared at her roommate, who wore a sly smile on her face.“Whose muffins are you calling stale?” ‘Are MINE stale?’ she thought, giving the muffin in front of her a quick squeeze to judge its crustiness.

“Mine, obviously,” Carrot Top sarcastically replied. She mysteriously procured a comb to run through her famous curly mane, which she had been named after.

“Good, I thought you were talking about mine,” the relieved Pegasus said, genuinely convinced that the Earth Pony had been sincere in her explanation.

“Well, if you actually had a sense of sarcasm you would know that I was talking about yours,” said the flightless pony. “I don’t even have any muffins to talk about; all the muffins in this house belong to you!”

“If you really wanted to have some muffins, you could just go over to Sugarcube Corner and buy some.”

“You could just go over to Sugarcube Corner and buy some!” Carrot Top mockingly repeated, the tone in her voice implying that Derpy was not the brightest pony around.

“Why are you repeating what I say that way? I sound nothing like that!” ‘Or do I?’

“I think you know what I mean,” said the Orange-maned pony. “Or maybe you don’t, since you have the intellect of a little filly.”

“Are you calling me stupid?” the grey mare shot back. ‘IS she calling me stupid?’

“The answer to that question is the same as this one,” Carrot Top calmly replied. “Is that one rainbow-maned Pegasus from Cloudsdale I keep seeing around here a fillyfooler?”

Derpy instantly dived on her, the first step for this verbal fight to become physical. “You take that back!”

“Take what back? The implication that Rainbow Dash is a fillyfooler or the one about your below-average IQ?” she questioned with an almost-evil looking grin on her face. “Let’s face it, you haven’t ever opened your mouth without subtracting from the sum of Pony knowledge.”

Derpy blinked at her friend. ‘Wait, what?’ she thought, trying to decode the subtle insult. ‘Think of something. Think of something fast.’

“Mommy! Carrot Top! Please stop fighting!” cried a small voice from the doorway. ‘Good,’ thought the previously dueling pegasus.‘No more thinking for me.’

Both of the ponies sighed, one of them from relief, the other from frustration. Neither of them wanted to continue the argument in the presence of the little filly, especially Derpy in front of her daughter. They both looked at each other much more calmly now that their new mediator was in the room.

“Sorry for jumping on top of you,” said Derpy, getting off of her roommate.

“Sorry about that ‘less than intelligent’ insult I made.” The Earth Pony glanced at the clock on the wall. “Hey, shouldn’t you be leaving?”

The grey mare also looked at the timepiece. It really was late, almost dawn. Even if she flew as fast as she could, she would not be able to get to the post office before the sun rose.

“I’M LATE!” the mare yelled as she quickly grabbed her muffins. She rushed over to the corner of the room and grabbed her mail bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she shoved the rest of the chocolate chip confection into her mouth. “Carrot, I need you to buy some milk while I’m gone. Here’s a couple of bits!” She threw a hooffull of change at the now-ducking Earth Pony. “I love you Dinky! Stay in the house and don’t go anywhere!” she called while dashing through the front door.

“I love you too mommy!” the little filly yelled back.

“Could’ve been a little more gentle with that,” said the Earth Pony, peeling a chocolate covered coin from her cheek.

        Derpy struggled to read the tiny, almost illegible handwriting on a long, thin box as she flew over Ponyville. The fact that she could only scan the label with one eye didn’t help as her other eye kept wandering off. She was about to head back to the post office for help when her wandering eye spotted a familiar looking filly on the ground. She looked away from the box with her dominant eye as she scanned the ground, trying to find the filly her lazy eye just saw earlier. She finally caught sight of her, a light-purple, blonde-maned unicorn. It was Dinky! ‘What’s she doing out of the house?’ she thought.

        “Hey! Dinky!” she called from the sky, waving her front legs to get her attention and almost dropping the package that had her full attention only moments ago.

        The little filly heard her name called, and looked around to find the source. She could’ve sworn she heard her name, and in a familiar voice, too. Suddenly, she heard it again, pinpointing its exact location in the sky. She struggled to look up at the source of the noise, but the weight of three whole jugs of milk was just too much for her. “Why didn’t Carrot Top just do this herself?” she mumbled through the handles of several plastic bags. “She should know that I’m just too weak to do this on my own.”

        Derpy just stared at her from above, the look of grim disappointment on her face. ‘Why isn’t she responding?’ she thought. ‘I’m pretty sure she can hear me.’

        The unicorn finally decided decided that the best course of action would be to put the milk down on the ground for now, even though she would have to wrangle the erratically scattered handles back up again when she was done. She did just that, and as expected the six neatly lined up handles dispersed into a forest of thin white plastic loops.

        Time seemed to slow down for Derpy as she watched an out-of-control carriage skid towards her daughter, who was just sitting in the middle of the road. The stallions pulling the cart tried to stop, surprised by the fact that a pony would even be brave enough to stop on a busy street. They dug their hooves into the ground, but the momentum of the carriage continued to push them straight forward, much to the dismay of the filly.

        Dinky was first bowled over by the fact that pair of stallions would not lift their hooves up, tumbling forward and continuing to roll. The constant pushing of the filly against their hooves caused one of them to accidentally unlock their front knees, allowing her a passage to skid under. She tumbled under him, repeatedly getting crushed by the powerful stallion’s hooves while he attempted to keep himself upright.

The already injured filly  continued to roll until she went under the front left wheels, a loud crack erupting from the filly as a leg or two cracked under the intense pressure. The tiny filly was too tiny to even budge the carriage, and as a result of the moving speed bump, it rolled on its side, finally skidding to a halt with the filly trapped underneath.

        “Dinky!” Derpy called out as she swooped down to the aid of her daughter. A crowed had already formed by the time she reached the ground as the sudden commotion in the middle of the busy street had caused everypony to immediately stop what they were doing. They all stood around in a ring, the carriage and pair of yet-to-be-detached stallions in the center, struggling to stand upright in the tangle of their reins.

        The grey pegasus tried pushing through the dense crowd, overhearing some snippets of conversation.

        “What happened?”

        “I dunno,”

        “I heard that a snake wandered across the street,”

        “A snake? There wouldn’t be any snakes in the center of Ponyville, would there?”

        “I dunno, it’s just what I heard,”

        “Well it’s a good thing nopony was hurt,”

‘It’s a good thing nopony was hurt. Nopony was hurt. Nopony hurt.’the sentence echoed in Derpy’s mind. ‘Nopony hurt? Didn’t they just see that my daughter got hit by a carriage?!’ Her eyes quickly darted around the group, looking into the eyes of the relieved ponies. Not a single pair of them belong to her daughter. ‘Where’s Dinky!?’

        “My daughter! My daughter’s still under there! Help, please!” the distraught Pegasus cried out in horror. Several heads turned towards her, mostly the ponies near her, but more and more ponies looked at her as a new rumor spread around.

        “Oh dear Celestia, there’s a little filly under there!”

        “Somepony do something!”

        “What are you ponies doing just standing there? Push!”

        Within seconds, the calm band of ponies started pushing the carriage onto its roof. The Earth Ponies pushed from the side, digging their hooves into the ground for grip. The Pegasi all tried ramming to the side, helping the Earth Ponies budge the heavy car. Finally, the Unicorns all reached out with their magic, trying to lift it up with levitation spells, the only type of magic the inexperienced ponies were capable of. Finally, the might of the previous crowd and a few new onlookers managed to shunt the carriage over onto its roof.

        The previously trapped filly lay on the ground as the carriage was lifted off of her, passing through the window she was shoved into when the carriage fell over. She lay in a pool of milk and blood, the former mixing with the dirt in the ground to form a beige mud as the latter dripped into it. The little filly’s horn had snapped completely off, leaving only a jagged stub sticking out from her blood-soaked mane. She was covered in cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Her front right leg was bent at an unnatural angle, either dislocated or broken. Blood poured out from a gash where a rock had dug into her side. Almost half of the hair on her coat was already stained red, or about to be.

        Derpy acted quickly, swooping down and briskly ripping the mailbag off herself as she dumped the contents on the ground. ‘I’ll take care of the mail later,’ she thought, ‘I have to save Dinky!’The mare pressed the empty bag hard against the filly’s side, trying to stop the bleeding. ‘Stop the bleeding. Stop the bleeding, it’s all that matters. Stop it. Stop it NOW. Don’t die on me. Please don’t die on me now. I’m trying my best. Please. Please don’t die. Please don’t die.’

        And as Derpy lay over her dying daughter, pressing a scrap of her torn-up bag against her side, a single tear welled up in her eye and fell into the pool of blood belonging to her only sunshine, a filly known as Dinky Hooves.

Chapter 2

        Dinky Hooves awoke from unconsciousness, a rhythmic, high pitched beeping rousing the little filly. The incessant noise pounded its way into her ears, almost forcing her to cover them with her hooves. Her entire body was aching, the constant soreness keeping her body still. Short spasms of pain erupted every time she tried to move. Even if her body wasn’t aching, she was too tired to move at all. ‘Okay,’ she slowly thought, ‘where am I?’ She took in information as best as she could about her surroundings from where she lay.

‘...Okay... I’m in a bed... Beeping... Body aching... Bright Light... Beeping... Is that... a wire running across my hoof? No, wires... A lot of them... Constant beeping... What’s this weighing down my leg? What is that smell? Salty, metallic, almost like iron... Whatis that constant beeping?!’

Her eyelids slowly parted. The golden- brown orbs that were previously covered were now exposed to the bright white hospital light above her. Her completely dilated pupils burned as they were assaulted by the sudden glow. She snapped them shut again, but her quick glimpse told her exactly where she was. She was in Ponyville Hospital, her small room belonging to the intensive care unit.

A heavy cast covered her single broken leg, weighing it down and making a noticeable dip on the bed. There were variously colored wires strewn about, entangling her in an electric web. A single hose was inserted to each fetlock, in one a clear liquid and in the other a bright, rich red. Several of the wires ran to a machine, a thin green line forming on the screen with random spikes appearing whenever the machine beeped.

        Dinky perked her ears up, both of them detecting the sounds of two mares talking off in the distance. One of them sounded familiar, although the tired filly couldn’t quite put her hoof on where it was from. The other sounded completely foreign. She changed the general direction of her ears to the voices to listen better, mentally shutting out the beeping sound.

        “...condition is worse that it seems.”

        “What do you mean, nurse?”

“You may want to sit down for this, Mrs. Hooves.” A short pause. “Your daughter’s horn has completely snapped off.”

        “I know, she won’t be able to do magic for the rest of her life. You already told me that.”

        “No, it’s more complicated than that.” Another pause.

        “...What do you mean?”

        A slow inhale. “It’s slowly killing her. She’s growing weaker by the minute. We didn’t think that the... injury... would take its toll at this rate, but we think it’s worse than it looked like at first. She probably won’t survive it.” A longer pause, this time longer than the previous two combined.

        “Isn’t there anything you can do?” Her voice became faster and more frantic as she continued. “Can’t you like, glue it back on or something? Reattach it? Will that save her? Even if it still wouldn’t let her use magic?”

        “I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. Her horn is too badly damaged to attempt to try to graft it back on. Even if we could do it, we never did recover all of the pieces from the accident site.” A short pause, this time to take in a much-needed breath. “We also only specialize in physical trauma, not magical.”

Soft sobbing started sounding from the hallway, followed by the voice of its source.

        “...How long does she have?” The voice was unsteady, shaking due to the massive burden placed on its shoulders.

        “We can only guess, but she probably has until two days from now. She’ll be ready to leave the hospital tomorrow morning once the blood transfusion starts taking effect. It’s a bit early, but there’s a unicorn near the center of town who might be able to help you. Here’s her address.” A ruffling of papers came from the hallway.

        Dinky’s ears relaxed again, pointing in their normal direction. ‘Two days...’ she thought, frightened out of her mind due to her upcoming demise. She began to fall back asleep while one last thought popped into her head. ‘Two days is all that’s left of me.’

        Derpy sat next to her the single hospital bed that belonged for the time being to her daughter. She studied the features that distinguished her from other fillies, her eyes examining the tiny details with scrutiny. The pegasus noted her daughter’s beautiful pale purple coat, still ruined by the blood stains from the earlier accident. Her golden mane and tail fared a little better than the rest of her hair, although they were still tangled and knotted. Even the normally stout, rounded off horn above her forehead was now only a stub, partly hidden from view by the filly’s blood-stained mane. ‘Oh Dinky,’ the mailmare thought, ‘just what happened to you?’ She stared sadly into the little filly’s eyes and began to-

        Wait, her eyes?

        “Dinky! You’re awake!” Derpy excitedly yelled while engulfing her daughter in a huge hug. The weak filly could do nothing as she was almost strangled to death by the hooves of her own mother. ‘Oh thank dear Celestia you’re awake.’

        “Yes,” The exhausted pony choked up, the combination of the giant embrace and her weakness disallowing her to say anything else. She barely managed to wrap her own aching hooves around the mare, returning the loving gesture the only way she was physically capable of. The heartfelt moment seemed to last forever as mother embraced daughter, finally reunited after a disaster of unimaginable proportions. They finally unwound their intertwined bodies and stared back at each other, just like the night before. The pegasus took a deep breath, knowing what exactly she needed to say.

        “Dinky?”

        “Hmm?” the weak pony responded.

        Derpy once again wrapped her front legs around her daughter, a little more gently this time. She leaned in close to the filly, brushing her face up against Dinky as she placed her mouth next to her ear.

        “Everything will be okay,” she whispered. Her eyes began to water, the tightly retained torrent of tears starting to get loose as she continued. “I promise. Tomorrow you’re going to be feeling better, and I’ll take you somewhere to help you heal,” she said, not wanting to let Dinky know exactly why they were leaving the hospital early. ‘Please don’t die before then,’ her mind added, causing even more tears to well up in her eyes. For a long time they sat still, their bodies still embracing one another. Derpy’s body warmed Dinky’s, the little filly’s body cold from blood loss.

        “Mommy?”

        “Yes?” she asked, happy to be so close to her only sunshine.

        “I can’t breathe.”

        Derpy quickly stood back off, just now realizing how much weight she had been putting on the tiny unicorn. Dinky weakly smiled back at her mother, glad to finally regain her ability to respire. She still loved, and always will love her mother, despite the fact that she had nearly suffocated twice already thanks to her. She took in a slow, unsteady breath, preparing to speak.

        “Can you sing me the song?”

‘Thesong,’ Derpy thought, secretly surprised at the filly’s choice of words. It had always been asong to the mother. Derpy could have chosen any song she wanted over the years, but she had chosen the same one just to stay consistent. To Derpy it was always just a plain lullaby, to Dinky, it was never just asong. It had always been special, a song through which the inseparable pair shared a special connection.

        Derpy cleared her throat before singing, as always. This time she did not ask her daughter to clarify exactly which song to sing, breaking tradition. Dinky’s choice of words had already broken the unspoken ritual, and as such Derpy didn’t have to continue following it.

        “You are my sunshine,

        My only sunshine...”

        Derpy Hooves flapped her wings effortlessly as she pulled a magical flying chariot over ponyville, a sleeping young filly in tow. The child slept soundly, somehow staying secured in the soaring cart as it floated parallel to the ground. The pegasus and cargo headed towards the center of town, where a certain unicorn librarian lived in a tree.

        The pair of ponies hit the ground with a crash, Derpy’s lack of depth perception causing her to misjudge the distance until touchdown. The sudden jolt awoke the snoring pony, her surprise evident in her bugged- out eyes.

        “Oops! My bad!” said the pegasus, a sorry look on her face as she looked behind her to look at the passenger.

        “Where are we?” asked the filly slowly, sleepily rubbing her eyes to get the crust off.

        “We’re at the ponyville library,” responded Derpy quietly, concerned about Dinky’s worsening condition. “We’re here to make you better.” ‘Hopefully.’

        The unicorn shot her mother a confused look as she attempted to climb out of the cart, failing due to her current height and strength. She hung over the edge of the basket, swinging her forelegs to signal that she needed help. Her mother quickly rushed over to assist, setting the exhausted pony down on the dirt before heading for the door. The filly stumbled after the pegasus, barely able to walk.

        Derpy knocked on the door. ‘Please, please dear Celestia help us,’ she thought. ‘I don’t know what we’ll do if Twilight can’t help us.’ She waited a couple of moments, but no response came. She tried again, this time with no more luck than the last. It was on the third attempt that she finally noticed a sign on the door that read ‘Welcome to Ponyville library! Always open during business hours!’ and listed the operating times of the establishment. She turned the doorknob, and to her amazement the door swung open. “I knew that!” she said to Dinky, embarrassed at her recent mistake. She walked into the library, with Dinky close behind.

        “Why doesn’t anypony just read the sign?” mumbled Spike from the top of a ladder. “I was just about to come down and do it myself.” He turned towards the new guests standing in the entrance to the usually unfrequented building. “Welcome to Ponyville Library! How may I help you today?”

        “Hello! We’re looking for a pony named Twilight Sparkle. Is she here?” asked Derpy Hooves.

        “Sure! She’s just out on the balcony reading. Let me go get her,” replied the reptile, never noticing the filly standing behind the pony he was talking to. He jumped down from the top of the ladder and hit the ground with a thud, skipping the rungs on the ladder to fetch his companion. He calmly strutted up a set of stairs at the back of the room, presumably leading to the outside balcony.

        “Why do we need Twilight?” asked a very weak Dinky from behind her mother, starting to sit on the floor to conserve what was left of her energy.

        “You’ll see,” replied the pegasus, trying to be confident that the unicorn would solve all their problems.

        A very embarrassed Twilight Sparkle galloped as fast as she can towards the potential patrons. “Sorry! I’m so sorry to keep you waiting! I was just reading and I never heard the door open to meet you guys and-” Her sentence was cut short as soon as she took one look at Dinky.

        “We need your help,” Derpy said with a concerned tone in her voice.

        Twilight rushed down the stairs even faster than she would have if she hadn’t seen the filly, instinctively rushing to help. The little filly looked terrible, most of the hair on her body still blood-stained and knotted. The intelligent unicorn connected the rumors she had heard last night of the accident to the sight in front of her, already forming a mental list as to what needed to be done.

        “Spike! Grab that table! Mrs... Hooves is it?”

        “Miss Hooves.”

        “...Right! Put your daughter on the table, please!”

        The dragon and the pegasus swiftly did as instructed. The weak filly was gently placed on her side by her mother. Her exhaustion was evident as she was not able to roll onto her stomach by her own strength. Her mother assisted her, using her muzzle to gently roll the filly over.

Twilight settled herself down off to the side of Dinky, sitting down once she found a comfortable angle to work her magic. She closed her eyes and tilted her head forward, concentrating with all her might to summon the rarely- used spell she was about to perform. Slowly, her horn started to glow faintly. She concentrated even herder, and the dim glimmer became larger as it transformed into a full- on magical aura surrounding both the horn and the filly. Derpy stared on in admiration, mesmerized by the pure magical ability of the pony in front of her. ‘Oooo...’ her mind cooed, every single thought previouslyoccupying it dissolving away. The sparkling purple haze drew her into itself, almost breaking Twilight’s concentration. After about an eternity and a day, the unicorn stopped, the aura surrounding the filly fading quickly as she stepped away.

        Once Twilight stopped walking backwards, she took a deep breath to regain her lack of oxygen. She shook her head, her eyes still closed from the previous feat she had just performed. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do,” the exhausted pony said.

        Derpy hooves took a single stepped back, shocked by Twilight’s inability to help them. “Wha-? No, no! You have to! Please! Please!” she begged, laying on the floor before the unicorn out of desperation. Her eyes started to water, the floodgates to her tears about to fully open. ‘Please be able to help,’ the thought, not being able to say it without bursting out crying.

        The older unicorn sighed, the dejected look on her face telling the pegasus more than words can muster. “No– no, I just can’t. Sorry.” She shook her head again, looking down to avoid the mother’s eyes. Suddenly, a thought popped into her hear. “Maybe Princess Celestia can help,” she said, perking her head and ears back up.

        “Pr- Princess Celestia?” asked Derpy, surprised by the thought of meeting the all- powerful princess pony in person. “Wou– Would she even help me?” ‘Why me?’

        “She would if I sent her a personal request,” said the unicorn smugly. “And besides, she’s the pony with the most magical power I know. She’ll be glad to save this little filly!”

        “...Okay, if you really think so,” slowly responded Derpy, her confidence regained with the new opportunity to save Dinky.

        “That’s settled then! Spike! Take a letter!”

        “I dunno, Twi’. She doesn’t look like she’s going to make it that far,” said the dragon. He stood on his toes, trying to look at the limp pony on the night table.

        “Nonsense! She’s fine, right?” she asked, looking at Derpy for support.

        “I hope so,” the concerned mother responded. ‘Let’s hope she makes it.’

        “Now then, are you ready, Spike” asked Twilight, looking at her faithful helper. Spike nodded, holding up a quill and piece of parchment. The unicorn cleared her throat before continuing. “Dear princess Celestia...”

        The pony dictated her letter to Spike, who carefully wrote the note down. He stopped as he normally did, asking for spelling on long words or for alternate words to use. After it was all said and done, the Dragon rolled up the scroll and burned it with his breath, the letter quickly engulfed by the green flames. The ashes flew out and open window and up into the air, rolling up into a ball of fire and magic.

        “Should I come with you to Canterlot?” asked Twilight, jumping on the opportunity to go back to her home town.

        “Sure,” said the slightly nervous pegasus. “I’m not quite sure how to act around the princess, so having you there might make it easier for me.”

        Twilight instantly lit up, her sadness from the sight in front of her offset by the fact that she was going to see the princess again. “Come on!” she called to Spike, already heading out the door. “We need to get the balloon filled up!”

        Derpy walked up to the table that Dinky was resting on. Dinky was almost too tired to pick her head up as her mother spoke to her.

        “How are you doing?”

        “Not too good,” faintly replied the frail filly. “I feel like I’m about to throw up.”

        Derpy helped her daughter down from the table, making sure she was completely on her hooves before setting her full weight down. The filly wavered a bit before standing straight, albeit a bit wobbly. The pony pair slowly walked towards the door of the library, Derpy in front and her daughter following close behind. Suddenly, Dinky stumbled over to her right, falling over to the floor. The pegasus stopped and turned around, walking over to the filly to offer help.

        Derpy nudged her daughter with her muzzle, trying to get the filly to cooperate. No response came from the pony on the ground. “Come on, Dinky,” she said. “We need to go.” She tried again, a little harder this time. “Come on. Twilight’s going to be waiting on us.” Still no response came. “Dinky?” She shook the filly with her hoof, trying to get a reaction.

‘Oh dear Celestia, no.’

Chapter 3

        “I knew I never should have let her out of the hospital,” said Nurse Redheart, sullenly looking at the barely breathing filly that lay in the adjacent hospital bed. She looked peaceful in contrast to the swarm of instruments attached to every inch of her body. “Or at least allow her to make a trip to the library like that. ”

        Derpy Hooves also glanced at Dinky on the bed, the steadily beeping heart monitor reassuring her that the young pony was still alive. “We tried,” she said with a sigh, “but Twilight couldn’t help us.” ‘And nopony else can, either.’

        “The only other option would have been to take her straight to Canterlot,” the nurse retorted. “I don’t think she would have survived, though.”

        “I think she would,” the sad pegasus replied. “She probably can’t make it anymore, and it’s my fault for wasting her time.” The mailmare looked at the ground in defeat. She sat down, her head still lowered. ‘Why did we even try? I should have known that there was nothing Twilight could do. She’s just another pony after all.’ Her lips shook as she tried to be strong, cracking under the pressure. “Dinky’s probably going to die now, and it’s all my fault.” The kind nurse sitting next to her placed a single hoof on the pegasus’s shoulder in an attempt to console her. They both sat together for a couple of seconds, the mother shaking as she already started mourning her upcoming loss with silent tears.

        “Now, stop fretting. We’re working on something to help Dinky.”

        “What? What is it?” the sad mother responded, looking up at the nurse and wiping away her tears.

        “I shouldn’t have said anything,” the frustrated nurse mumbled to herself. “A new type of medication we’re developing just for Dinky,” the hospital pony responded with a smile.

        “What is it going to do? When is going to be ready?” Derpy inched closer to the nurse, practically begging her for more information. ‘Will it save her?’The previous thought went unsaid as the pegasus almost started brushing up against her helper.

        “We’re developing something to delay the effects of her broken horn,” Redheart responded. “We don’t know how it will be administered yet, and we don’t know how exactly how long it will take until it’s ready, but we’re hoping tomorrow morning or afternoon.”

        Derpy sat back in defeat. “I hope she survives until then,” the sad mare responded, looking back at her little filly with teary eyes. The little filly looked so sad, her unchanging expression on her face still showing the discomfort from exerting herself earlier. Her now-clean coat and tail still required the work of a brush, although they had been washed off before departing to visit the princess’s prized pupil. The pegasus looked back at the nurse, her pained expression on her face begging for an answer. “She will survive until then, right?”

        Nurse Redheart let out a huge sigh. “We can only hope.” The two of them both sat beside the hospital bed, staring at the injured little filly that lay on the bed. They both shared a moment together, two strangers both grieving for a single pony.

“I know that I was in the wrong for discharging Dinky early the first time, but I can let her leave a second time as long as she stays in bed while she’s gone,” said the nurse. “I know that she won’t do anything strenuous since you two aren’t going anywhere.”

‘Oh no, not this again.’ The sadder of the two mares quickly spun around. “But what about Princess Celestia? What if she does come here and we’re already gone?”

        “If she does eventually come here to help, we’ll redirect her to your house. The hard part will be getting her to get to ponyville on time in the first place.”

        Derpy sat for a moment, contemplating the decision. “But what if it takes too long to get to my house? What if the extra distance doesn’t let Dinky...” She choked, the thought not allowing her to continue.

        The nurse knew exactly what Derpy meant. “Look, if she can get here in time all the way from Canterlot, then the extra distance to your house will be nothing at all,” she reassured.

        The pegasus lifted her hoof to her face, giving her cheek a couple taps to assist in the decision-making process. She looked at the little filly on the bed, her frail frame and weak nature causing her to rethink her point-of-view. ‘For Dinky...’ she thought, turning back to the caretaker next to her. “Okay. It’s what Dinky would want. She’d be more comfortable in her own bed when she wakes up.”

        Carrot Top barely managed to push the door to the house she shared with Dinky and Derpy as she stumbled into their living room, a basket of carrots in her mouth. “Never... again... market war.. with Apple family...” she breathed through a sore mouth from handling the long orange vegetables all day. The tired earth pony looked towards the kitchen table, expecting to see Derpy eating dinner like she normally did at this time. She was met with the company of absolutely nopony, the deserted room abnormally dark. ‘Where is she?’ The garden pony set down her basket on the table.

        The door creaked behind Carrot Top, signaling the orange pony to turn around just as the door slammed shut entirely on its own. “Derpy?” she called out into the darkness, looking around to find a way to light her path. A fading beam of light streamed in through a crack in the drawn curtains, its thin streak falling directly on a nearby candle. Carrot Top lit it, delicately placing the handle into her mouth to carry it along with her. The flickering flame lit her way as she traversed the hallway leaving to the bedrooms, the far window also having its curtains drawn.

        The garden pony shuffled her way into Dinky’s room, careful not to bump into the small nightstand right next to the door. She was greeted with the sight of Derpy sitting in small wooden chair alongside the filly’s bed, said filly laying under the covers. The pegasus’s eyes were closed with her head down, her hoof placed gently on the unconscious unicorn. A tear was collected in the corner of her eye, the grieving mare to preoccupied to wipe it away.

        Carrot Top placed the candle onto the table next to her, never taking her eyes off of the pair of ponies in front of her. She opened her mouth to speak, hesitating at the thought of breaking the silence. The dim candle eerily cast shadows on the walls behind the ponies. The larger-than-life figures danced around, intimidating her even further. Carrot Top finally mustered up the courage to speak, her feeble voice weak from fright.

        “What are you doing here?”

        “I could be asking the same for you,” came the reply. Derpy sat still, unmoved from her position. Her eyes snapped open, boring holes into Carrot Top while her head remained down. “You normally never come into Dinky’s room.”

        The earth pony took a step back, daunted by the scene in front of her. She gulped, almost too nervous to continue. “Well I just saw that you weren’t eating dinner like you normally do and...” Her voice trailed off as the two ponies locked eyes, one out of anger and the other out of fright.

        “Leave.”

        The verbal blow pushed Carrot Top back again, causing her to take another step back. “What? Why?”

        “Dinky told me yesterday that you sent her to buy the milk,” Derpy said, shifting her weight off of the chair and onto her hooves, slowly raising to her full height. “I thought I told you to do it. Are you so insensitive that you had to make Dinky buy the milk, even though you’re the one who was complaining about how we ran out?”

        The earth pony took another step back, looking away to break eye contact. “Well, about that...” she meekly said, laughing a nervous chuckle. She started ducking away to subtly leave the room. Carrot Top looked up again to find the normally caring pegasus still glaring at her. Her eyes went wide in fright and she froze in place. “I- I can explain.”

        “I don’t think there’s anything to explain.”

        “But there is! Trust me!”

        “Oh? Then what is it?” The pegasus snapped, taking a challenging step towards her roommate.

        Carrot Top’s entire body solidified, not knowing what to say to the changed mare. Endless thoughts streamed through her head at lightning speed. ‘Oh dear Celestia what do I say what do I do leavewhere do I go where can I go leave the roomhow do I escape run. Run away. Now.’

        Without thinking, the orange earth pony turned around and galloped away for dear life, bumping the nightstand on the way out of the room. The burning candle on top of it fell out of its holder, suddenly angled tip-down. The previously held molten wax spilled onto the surface, making a mess that Derpy would have to clean later. A few drops remained in the cup formed in the top of the candle, though, and these dripped down onto the wick.

        The tiny flame quickly extinguished, snuffed out by its own fuel in a puff of smoke.

        Dinky Hooves rolled over in bed, finally waking from her exhaustion-induced coma. She slowly opened her sore eyes, willing herself to push through the invisible force that clamped them shut. The weak filly was immediately greeted by a large, yellow, furry mass that filled her vision. ‘What is that thing...?’  she slowly thoughtT, barely able to form coherent sentences in her own mind.

        The young pony blinked a couple of times to clear her vision, but was surprised that the creature was growing tentacles, the spindly snakes dancing around her vision. Her eyes suddenly grew wide in fear and she tried pulling the blanket over her head, failing due to her weakened state.

        The young pony kicked out her three good legs with all her might, trying to push herself back from the demented beast that lay ahead of her. What Dinky imagined was the greatest kick ever known to ponykind translated only to a gentle push in reality. The gentle bump barely touched the creature, its soft hair giving way to a harder core.

        The unicorn kicked out again, barely grazing the thing a second time. She continued this frenzied “violence”, never budging a single inch under her struggle. She gave one final thrust, rolling the unidentified alien onto its side. All of its protrusions retracted into the core, turning back into nothing but a ball of hair again. ‘Success...’  she thought, the delusional filly imagining that she saved all of Equestria just by nudging this barbaric demon into submission.

        Dinky stopped  The hairy ball quickly righted itself, letting out a long, low moan as it did so. Dinky started to struggle away from the beast again, not being able to do so due to the massive weight of the blankets on top of her. During that time the beast managed to raise up to its full height, revealing itself as none other than Derpy Hooves.

        The pegasus smacked her lips and rubbed her eyes, trying to escape from the fog that lingered around her head. She looked down to find her own daughter, lying on her own bed with her eyes wide open in fear. A gasp and a smile later, and Dinky was engulfed in a giant hug, not unlike the one she received the previous night.

        “Dinky! You’re awake!” the excited mare exclaimed. She squeezed Dinky even tighter. “I was so worried that you weren’t going to wake up.” She let go of her daughter, still kneeling down over the bed and smiling to try to comfort her. She couldn’t help but feel sad for her daughter, the weak little filly was dying and nothing could be done about it.

        Dinky looked up at her mom, unable to smile back; the small gesture was too much for her. A tear rolled down her cheek. “Why... wouldn’t I... wake up?” she slowly asked, choosing each words wisely to make sure her sentences made sense.

        Derpy looked away from her daughter, unable to maintain eye contact with the sad little being in front of her. “It’s... complicated.”

        Dinky, too, looked down and away from her mother’s face, although eye contact was already broken. “What’s complicated?”

        Her mother looked back at the filly, since looking at her didn’t mean she had to look into her eyes. “It’s... your horn.”

        Dinky looked back up at her mother, who chose to look away at that moment. “What about it?”

        The mother took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly and contemplating what exactly she would tell her daughter, and what she wouldn’t. “Well, I don’t want to have to tell you this, and I should have told you last night in the hospital, but you won’t be able to use magic,” she explained, laying down the facts straight.

        “I... know that... already,” said the weak filly.

        “What? How?”

        “Yesterday... At the hospital...” she said, her voice barely a whisper. She paused, not wanting to say her thoughts aloud to her mother, but knowing that she had to. “I’m dying.”

        “No! No you’re not!” snapped Derpy. The mare stood back up, no longer crouching down. “Me and Nurse Redheart are going to fix you back up, and you’re going to be all right! I promise!”

        Dinky’s eyes welled up, the trickle of tears slowly becoming a flowing stream. “Please don’t lie to me, mommy” she choked, staring deep into her mother’s eyes. Her lips quivered, trying to hold back the tears that pushed against her eyes and failing.

        Derpy broke down, not being able to stay strong in front of the young pony anymore. She cried openly for the first time since she, too, was a filly, her tear output capable of washing out her daughter’s. She lunged towards her daughter, hugging her in a tight embrace that caused both ponies to cry even harder. “I’m so sorry,” wailed the mare. “I never wanted to lie to you, but I had to.”

        Dinky didn’t respond, her thoughts already filled with those of sadness and her mouth too preoccupied with crying with her loving mother. They shared an eternity together, bawling their hearts out and not being afraid to hide it from one another. Their weeping slowly turned to sobbing, and then to sniffling as the two cried all their tears out, their reservoirs running low and trickling to a halt. The two ponies hesitantly separated, wanting to spend the rest of their lives in their previous position, but knowing all too well that it was impossible. They looked into each others’ eyes, smiling with tear-covered faces.

        “Hungry...” Dinky quietly said, too tired from their previous fit to say anything else.

        Derpy immediately perked up, rushing to the kitchen to fetch some food as soon as she realized what Dinky meant. She returned to to bedside with some of her roommate’s carrots to feed Dinky. The filly started eating the vegetables, chewing slowly to avoid choking while laying down.

        The mother smiled as she watched her daughter eat peacefully. She cleared her throat, beginning to sing without any further beckoning required.

        “You are my sunshine,

        My only sunshine...”

        “Any news on the princess?”

        “Nothing. We haven’t heard back from her yet.”

        Derpy looked away from the nurse. She summoned up the courage to speak out again, willing herself not to crack under the sadness that weighed her down. “I don’t think she’s going to come.” She nervously toyed with the flaps that sealed her saddlebags shut with her wings, picking at the seams and ruffling the corners as they both sat anxiously.

        Nurse Redheart sighed, accepting the fact that their all-powerful leader wasn’t going to help. “I don’t think so, either.”

        They both sat still in the middle of the waiting room, neither wanting to break the silence. They both shuffled their hooves to pass the time during the awkward pause in conversation.

        “Hold on right here,” Nurse Redheart suddenly said, Finally remembering the thing she wanted to give Derpy. She quickly cantered over to a back room, one that wasn’t visible to the pegasus. Derpy heard the noise of what seemed to be hollow glass-on-glass before a cabinet shutting, and the nurse returned to the front of the pegasus in a normal trot. Several small, clear vials were placed in her mouth alongside a syringe.

        “Is that it? Is that the medicine?” asked Derpy.

        Nurse Redheart leaned forward and deposited the objects on a small magazine-covered table next to her. “Yup,” she said, slowly backing away from the vials as if moving too fast will make them spontaneously combust.. “It’s mostly untested, though.”

        “Untested?” Derpy asked with a horrified expression on her face.

        “Well, we tested it a little bit,” she said. “We know that it won’t harm anypony, a couple of trials have already tested that, but we haven’t tested it on a unicorn with a broken horn yet, so we’re not entirely certain that it will work.”

        Derpy leaned towards the unmarked bottles, studying them with all her might. There was nothing peculiar about them, the crystal vials revealing an almost water-like liquid inside. They sloshed around like water, except that they clung to the sides instead of forming small drops.  “I dunno,” she finally said, lifting her head and looking at the nurse. “It seems awfully dangerous. What if there’s long-term effects?”

        Nurse Redheart nervously chuckled. “Well, what other options are there?” She took up the clear vials and put them in Derpy’s saddlebags, gingerly placing the syringe and several spare needles alongside them. “If there are long term effects, at least she’ll live longer than she will if she doesn’t take the medicine.”

        Derpy looked away, contemplating what little options she had. “But Dinky doesn’t like needles. What if she refuses to take it?”

        “Give it to her when she’s sleeping,” the hospital pony replied, putting a couple small pieces of cloth between the glass ampoules so they wouldn’t break in transport. “You know how to use a needle, right?”

        “Yeah, the last time Dinky broke her leg I had to keep injecting it with antibiotics to keep it from getting infected,” the grey pony acknowledged. She rubbed her left foreleg with her right, nervous about having to do such a thing to her daughter again.

        “Well, this time you have to inject one of her forelegs instead of one of her back legs. You might want to alternate legs to keep the soreness down,” the nurse reassured. “The only other issue I can see right now is that Dinky might build up an immunity to it, and if she does, we might have to start increasing her dosage.” Nurse Redheart stepped back from Derpy’s saddlebag, satisfied with her work of protecting the previous cargo. “Just make sure you consult me first.”

        The pegasus still looked nervous, the fact that the medicine was untested making her rethink her decision on giving Dinky the medicine. ‘If I don’t give this to her, she’ll die,’ she thought, suddenly switching her viewpoint on the whole thing.“Well, I guess it’s okay. Sure. We’ll take it.”

Chapter 4

        Derpy Hooves walked down the hallway of her house, knowing that a certain untested form of medicine was in her saddlebag. She turned into her daughter’s room and leaned on the door jamb, hesitant to enter. The mare stood in place, not wanting to cross the threshold but also wanting to do it with all her might. After what seemed like hours, the pegasus crossed it, gingerly placing one hoof into the room and waiting for something to happen.

        She did it again, this time with her other foreleg, once again waiting for something to lash out at her for doing so. Still nothing happened. The intrusion of her front legs were followed with those of her rear legs as the mother stared at the filly on the bed for signs of wakefulness.

        Derpy continued to slowly tread into the filly’s room, taking one tentative step after the other until she reached her daughter’s bedside. The pegasus’s eyes followed the rise and fall of her daughter’s chest, making sure that it was still moving, but not too fast, and yet it was.

        The caring mother’s wing slowly opened out, stretching to its full length to make sure it would not catch on the saddlebag. She curled them downwards, fiddling with the flap to open the one on her right. The very tips of her feathers hooked under the fastener, a muffin- shaped metal clip that held the bag closed. With a small twitch of her wing, the clip was unlocked, granting full access to the bag’s contents. She used her entire wing to lift up the flap, opening the bag and revealing its contents.

        Derpy turned her head around, sticking her muzzle in the bag to pull out a single syringe, placing it gingerly on the nightstand beside her daughter.She also pulled out a single glass vial, the contents of which sloshed about. She filled up the syringe, double checking to make sure she was filling it to just the right amount that Nurse Redheart had told her.

        The pegasus slowly lifted the covers of Dinky’s bed, pulling it just enough away from the filly to reveal one of her forelegs. ‘Please don’t wake up,’  Derpy thought, lifting the leg up and slowly pulling it out of the pseudo blanket cave. She let both the blanket and the appendage down in a way that left the leg still exposed. The mare lined up the injection with the filly’s fetlock, gently resting the needle’s tip against the skin under the layer of fur. ‘It’s now or never.’

        Derpy’s hooves shook while she held the needle up to her daughter, afraid of the effects the medicine might have. “I’m so sorry for this,” she gently whispered, driving the syringe deep into the filly’s leg. The pegasus could feel the needle slide through the muscles in her daughter’s body, the sensation of stabbing her own daughter making her feel sick and uneasy. At long last the syringe stopped; the needle was fully inserted into the filly’s leg. Derpy slowly pushed the plunger of the syringe down, pumping the liquid into Dinky’s bloodstream and mixing it with all the blood in her body.

        And yet the filly still slept soundly, unfazed by the horrors being done to her body without consent.

        Derpy retracted the needle, the probe following the exact path it entered from. She put the tool away and leaned in towards her daughter’s forehead, giving it a light kiss before speaking. “Goodnight, Dinky,” she whispered, slowly pulling herself away from the filly. The mare stepped away from the bed, her eyes still locked onto the slumbering filly. She walked backwards in order to continue staring at her daughter, only averting her eyes to blow out the candle on her night stand. Derpy backed up through the doorway, slowly closing the door while keeping her eyes on the filly for as long as possible.

        Derpy sat at the kitchen table, a thin stream of white morning sunlight streaming in from a crack in the curtains. The strip landed perfectly on the table, its glow illuminating only a thin line of her breakfast of choice, a muffin, along with a cup of coffee. She had chosen a very uncommon muffin flavor today; its bread-like structure was filled with dozens of tiny pomegranate arils, their juicy goodness perfectly suspended in the confection.

        But today Derpy wasn’t hungry; she had no motivation to eat. She sat and stared at her muffin, picking it up to inspect the pastry. She stared at each individual pomegranate seed, their perfect roundness tantalizing her as she longed for their juicy goodness. ‘Curious little things...’ she thought, picking at the seeds with her hoof to try and dislodge one. Her attempt was futile as the arils stayed in place. The mare put the muffin back down on the table.

        The pegasus picked up the only other object on the table, the cup of coffee. She tilted it towards herself, giving it an experimental swirl to watch the contents flow around inside. ‘I don’t even drink coffee,’  she thought, ‘what am I doing with a whole cup of it?’  She smelled the drink, sticking her nose in the mug and inhaling deeply. ‘Smells like Carrot Top’s coffee. She’ll kill me if she finds out I took some of it.’The cup was placed back on the table.

        Derpy pulled out a chunk of the muffin, dunking it in the coffee and watching it turn to mush. She dropped the wet pile of muffin onto the plate, listening to the squish it made on contact. ‘What am I doing here? Why don’t I just go back to bed?’

        There was but one thing that Derpy feared more than having to take a bite of her muffin with a full stomach: the dreaded click of a doorknob that signaled her room mate’s entrance. The previous night had been a rough one with Carrot Top, having yelled at her just for entering her daughter’s room.

        The mare began to rock back and forth in her chair as she played through the awkward conversation that would follow in her mind. Many of the imaginary responses from Carrot Top steered the conversation straight downhill, as many of her actual responses did anyway.

        But today was different.

        Derpy was determined to stand up to Carrot Top without having another episode. She would not be verbally pushed around by her room mate, deciding that she would fight back in exactly the same way if things got nasty.

        The grey pony stared at the table in thought, watching the thin line of light move as it crossed over her breakfast. At long last the beam lined up, falling onto both the muffin and the cup of coffee.

        The dreaded click came from behind, resonating through the hallway as it spiraled towards her. It was followed by the sound of hooves on tile, the arrhythmic steps making a strange metallic clicking rather than a dull clopping. There was also another unexpected noise: the sound of scraping metal, the sound drilling itself into the mare’s ears

        Derpy slowly started turning around in her chair, speaking to the pony that was coming towards her. “I’m so sorry about how I acted last night, I shouldn’t have-” she said, freezing mid sentence at the horror that lay in front of her. The pony that moved towards her wasn’t Carrot Top, but Princess Celestia herself. It wasn’t the fact that the princess was in her house that frightened her, but her appearance.

        The princess marched on with her head down, staring at the floor. Her normally long, slender horn was replaced with one that had been snapped completely off, leaving a short, jagged stub—just like Dinky’s after the accident.

        Her mane and tail were made of real hair instead of a magical aura that flowed in the wind, completely disheveled and tangled. All the hair on her body was covered in a mixture of milk and blood—just like Dinky’s after the accident.

        She had a large gash in her side, a small rock still lodged in it as it oozed blood, causing drip after drip to fall on the floor. Her front right leg was bent at an unnatural angle, obvious to Derpy that it was broken—just like Dinky’s after the accident.

        Worst of all, Dinky and Carrot Top lay on top of her, their flaccid bodies rocking back and forth as the princess limped forward. Several large needles stuck out of their backs, flopping around with the swaying of their bodies.

        Derpy quickly got up from her chair as the princess continued to limp in her direction. The pegasus ran over to the house’s entrance, twisting the knob back and forth as the door held shut, the key missing from its hole in the lock. She spun around, looking directly at the limping princess that was coming right for her.

        “You killed them,” said the sun goddess. She let out a low laugh with her head still down, her neck bobbing up and down with the action. The quiet chuckles sent shivers down Derpy’s spine as she remained helpless, pinned to the door out of fright. “You killed them both.”

        “No! No I- I didn’t!” Derpy retaliated. “I didn’t! I swear! I didn’t do anything! I didn’t hurt anypony!”

        “You poisoned them.”

        Derpy’s eyes went wide in fear, the realization setting in. “No! I only gave the medicine to Dinky! I didn’t do anything to Carrot Top!” Her eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape. Seeing that there was nothing else she could do to save herself, she resorted to other tactics. She had to find a scapegoat. “N- Nurse Redheart made me do it! I didn’t want to! I had no other choice!”

        The princess finally stopped in front of Derpy. She raised her head up, her bloodshot eyes looking directly at the smaller mare. “You killed them,” she said once again, laughing quietly in the pegasus’s face, “and there’s nothing you can do now but watch yourself be killed, too.”

        Princess Celestia looked straight up, her head pointed at the ceiling. She opened her mouth, and out slid a large syringe tipped with a long needle, sticking straight out of her mouth. She lowered her head again, pointing the instrument directly at Derpy.

        “No! I Didn’t! It was Nurse Redheart!” The pegasus tried to back up even farther, only causing herself to hit the back of the head against the door and her hooves to slide against the ground.

        The goddess took a few more steps forward, standing at her full height before the pegasus. “You killed them both,” she repeated, the needle dancing about as she spoke. “And now I’ll kill you,”

 Derpy screamed as she bolted upright, the blankets of her bed flying forward with the sudden surge of motion. She looked around the empty room expecting to find a crazed Princess Celestia attacking her with a syringe full of poison, but found nothing. She scrambled to light the candle on her adjacent nightstand, finally lighting it and casting out the darkness within. She grabbed the candle holder and headed out of the room.

She wandered into the kitchen, her eyes darting about and her ears perked up to detect the first sign of an attacker. Her legs shook as she pushed onwards, fearing that her dream would come true at this very moment. She walked back to the hallway after patrolling the kitchen, taking a peep into Dinky’s room. The little filly slept soundly in her own bed, snoring lightly as she dreamed. She found Carrot Top’s room to be completely empty; nopony was found inside the bedroom.

        Satisfied with her search, Derpy returned to bed, exhausted from the day’s events and having to wake up in the middle of the night twice already.

        Derpy Hooves slowly opened her eyes as a thin slit of sunlight hit her directly in the eyes. The sun, window, and her face lined up perfectly with the sole purpose of blinding the mare, causing her to awake from her slumber. She rolled over in her bed, the bed sheets spread out all over the place from a long night of tossing and turning. ‘Oh dear Celestia I’m tired...’

The grey mare walked over to the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. ‘I’m a mess,’  she thought, noting the bags under her eyes. She ran the sink and splashed her face with water in and attempt to wake herself. She dried her face off and shambled to the kitchen.

        The pegasus dragged her hooves into the room, looking around to see if anypony was awake yet, even this late into the day. She walked over to the coffee machine, an act committed for the first time for the mare; she normally didn’t need to drink Carrot Top’s coffee. She started up the machine, setting a mug underneath and selecting the “single cup” option. Once the device had started, she walked over to the fridge to find that only a single muffin was in stock.

        A pomegranate muffin lay on the middle shelf.

        The dream of the night before suddenly came back to Derpy’s mind in vivid detail, the sight of a bloody Celestia etching itself into her mind. The coffee machine behind her rang loudly, the loud ding startling the grey pony. The mare picked up the cup of coffee, taking a seat back at the table after grabbing the only remaining muffin from the fridge and a small plate from the cupboard.

        She set the coffee and the muffin on the table, noting a thin beam of sunlight on the table. She watched the line as it slowly moved across the table over the course of several minutes, the streak lighting up a single line in an otherwise dark room. She continued to stare at the line as it crossed her breakfast, illuminating every single pomegranate seed embedded in the muffin as it crossed over. The line eventually lined up with her full breakfast, slowing a bit of both the muffin and the coffee at the same time.

        Click.

        Derpy froze in place as soon as she heard the sound behind her. She listened closely, hearing the sounds of hooves on tile coming closer and closer. “Please don’t kill me,” she whispered. “Please don’t. I’ve done nothing wrong, I was just following Nurse Redheart’s directions. Please don’t kill me.”

        “What, mommy?” came the reply from behind.

        Derpy spun around in her chair, spilling her coffee and knocking the muffin to the floor. Dinky stood in the doorway leading to the hallway, the exact place that Carrot Top had appeared several nights ago.

        The mare got up to her hooves, accidentally smashing the muffin that lay on the ground. She soundlessly rushed over to her daughter, crouching down in an embrace as the filly stood upright. Her eyes teared up as she stroked Dinky’s mane. After several intimate moments, the pegasus let go of her daughter, leaving her where she had remained standing.

        “How are you feeling?” a teary-eyed Derpy asked, sitting down on the floor.

        Dinky looked down at the ground, looking back and forth with her eyes to help her judge exactly how she was feeling at the moment. “Good,” was all she could say, not being completely sure how to explain the situation.

        “You’re not feeling weak? Or tired? Or sick?” the mare burst out.

        “No...” the filly cautiously said, choosing her words wisely as to not unintentionally lie to her mother. “No, I can’t say I am.”

        Derpy hugged Dinky again, leaving her still awkwardly standing in the same place. While the two snuggling ponies were locked in the clasp, the front door opened behind them, revealing an orange earth pony.

        “Oh, maybe I should come back later,” she said, backing out of the house again. Derpy let go of Dinky, running over to Carrot Top to hug her instead of Dinky. The earth pony held out her front hooves, fending off her attacker with all her might. “Please don’t touch me,” she requested, pushing Derpy away. Regardless, the pegasus locked her forelegs around the other mare, squeezing her in a tight embrace and preventing her from leaving.

        “I’m so sorry,” Derpy said, still locking her hooves around Carrot Top. “I shouldn’t have acted that way last night.”

        “Yeah, whatever.” Carrot Top tried to escape, but was still stuck between the forelegs of her room mate.

        “Will you forgive me?” The mare locked her legs even tighter around the earth pony.

        “Sure,” she replied, “just let go of me.”

        Derpy did as requested, backing up from Carrot Top to inspect her, smiling as she did so. The earth pony’s normally curly mane was unkempt, pointing in every direction while all its tangles kept it stiff. She had bags under her eyes, the blue sagging skin pulling her eyelids down while her upper eyelids remained half-closed.

        “Why are you still here?” Carrot Top said, swaying back and forth tiredly. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”

        “I’ve been taking work off for the past couple of days,” the pegasus explained. “For Dinky’s sake.” She gestured to the hallway, pointing in the general direction with her hoof as she pulled her room mate with the other. “You should probably get some sleep. We have some things we need to catch up on.”

Chapter 5

        Derpy slowly opened the front door of their house, careful not to let her saddlebags contact the doorframe as she slipped inside. She shrugged the bags off, slowly guiding them with her hooves to the floor, where she gingerly laid them down. Carefully opening the bag on the right side, she took out the ampoules that were inside one by one and gently placed them onto the kitchen table. The contents sloshed about as she laid them down, the liquid in each rocking back and forth inside in unsynchronized unison and gradually dying down.

        The pegasus stepped back and stared at the arrangement, her eyes drooping down at the corners from constant worry. She stooped and took the saddlebags in her mouth, dragging the now-empty sacks over to where her mailbag lay. A gentle clopping of heavy hooves on tile sounded from behind, setting the adult pony on edge. ‘What now?’

        “Picked up more of the medicine, I see?” inquired the orange-maned mare behind, calmly walking over to the line of glass on the table. “Is this the third trip, already?”

        “Fourth,” replied Derpy, “and with 2 doses a day, I have to keep going back to get more. I need to start keeping track of how much we have left before we run this low again.” She walked over to the fridge, grabbing herself a cup of cider to drink. She sat down at the table across from her room mate, who had begun to read the newspaper.

        “Yup,” Carrot Top responded, too engrossed in her reading to pay attention.

        Her companion didn’t notice that her thoughts were elsewhere. “It seems like we’ve been running out way too fast lately.”

        “Totally.”

“It better not happen again, ‘cause Nurse Redheart’s going to be out of town starting tomorrow.”

        “What better not happen again?” The mare lowered her reading material.

        “The fact we’ve been running out of medicine a lot lately.” Derpy bitterly answered, glaring at the pony across the table.

        “Oh, about that...” She raised her paper up again, hiding her face.

        “What about it?”

        “I’ve been giving Dinky two more doses while you’ve been away.”

        Derpy immediately sprayed her mouthful of cider all over the table, spraying both the wooden surface and the paper between Carrot Top’s hooves. “You’ve been doing what?” she blurted out in astonishment, wiping her mouth with her free hoof.

        “I know you heard me the first time,” replied the orange pony, unmoved from her previous position. Her face was still the same, unaffected by the wave of liquid that had almost drenched her. “I don’t know why you always keep asking that,” she muttered while balling up her paper shield. She put the soaking mess down on the table, leaning back in her chair afterwards and crossing her forehooves. She leaned the wooden chair back, pushing her rear legs off the table to balance delicately on two supports.

        Derpy did the opposite, leaning forward in her chair and planting her hooves on the table as she stood up. Her right hoof landed squarely on the ball, squeezing out all of the cider and forming a puddle around it. “You will not poison my daughter with this medicine I don’t even want to give her, do you understand?” she forced through gritted teeth.

        Carrot Top laughed loudly, letting out a long, slow sigh at the end. “If only you knew.”

Derpy’s eyes narrowed into thin slits. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“ You haven’t been here to see Dinky getting worse.” She set the chair back down. “I’m saving Dinky by giving her extra doses. She started getting better again once I increased the dosage, and she’s completely fine now.”

        “Why do you even care care about how Dinky’s doing?” Derpy ignored the mare’s explanation, her thoughts clouding her ability to think. Nevertheless, her voice slipped into a hoarse whisper. “You don’t care about anypony but yourself.”

        Carrot Top slammed her hoof on the table, standing up on her rear legs to emphasize her point. “Because I’m the one who made Dinky go out and hurt herself, and if she dies, it’s going to be my fault!” She stood still, staring into the eyes of her room mate. She paused a moment, realizing what she just revealed to her room mate.

        Derpy stared back at Carrot Top in shock. Stumbling backwards away from the other mare, she bumped into the wall. She watched as Carrot Top galloped out the front door and into the heart of Ponyville.

        The pegasus dared not move, her mouth agape as she stayed at the far wall of the dining room. She was still utterly shocked at what the Earth Pony had just said. ‘Had she meant to say that or did it slip out?’ she thought, still unmoved. ‘Was she taking care of Dinky just for this?’

        Derpy walked back over to her room and layed down on the bed. She wasn’t hungry anymore, even after flying around to do the various errands she couldn’t do while she was at work. Even her longing for sleep would not be satisfied. All she wanted to do was think.

        But about what?

        There was nothing to think about but the conundrum she was in. Should she keep giving Dinky more than the prescribed dose, even if it might eventually poison her? If she stopped giving the medicine altogether, would Dinky die from a lack of it?

        The pegasus rolled over onto her back, raising her wings to rest on the cushion without spreading them. Her eyelids tightened over already-closed eyes in thought. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she raised a hoof to her forehead and slowly smacked it lightly a few times.

        The solution was laid out in front of her. Weaning Dinky off of the medicine will surely kill her, there was no doubt about that. Continuing to raise the dosage will eventually poison her. The only two options were to stop raising the level at the current four doses a day, or to drop it back down to the original two.

        But which to choose from? If cutting Dinky off would surely kill her, would dropping it back to two have the same result? Maybe Dinky was fine with four, although it seemed excessive. Is there enough leeway to go to five? six? seven? Or will five already be too much for her body to take?

        Derpy rolled over to her stomach, flipped her pillow over to the cold side, and flopped her face straight down into the cool cushion. How does she know that the medicine can actually be lethal? Was it just a worry she had from the beginning, or was it an actual threat to be taken seriously? She would have to consult Nurse Redheart in the morning.

        Or not.

        She took off, sprinting out the front door and taking to the air. She quickly scanned the ground, looking for a telltale orange mane on the ground. Suddenly, she spotted it amongst the crowd near the center of town, and flew down to intercept her. She landed right in front of Carrot Top, startling the frustrated mare and almost tripping her.

        “I hope you’re here to apologize,” sneered the earth pony.

        “You’re not going to give Dinky any more of the medicine,” Derpy relied, completely ignoring Carrot Top’s previous remark. “She’s going back to two doses a day, and nothing more.”

        “You’re going to kill your own daughter that way.”

        “No! You’re going to kill Dinky if you keep giving her the amount you have been giving her!”

        “If you say so.” she sighed, walking away from the pegasus in the opposite direction of where she was originally going.

        Derpy looked back at her, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. She kept watching as the mare continued to walk away, not making an attempt to stop her. She eventually gave up, and flew back home.

        Dinky passed through the single hallway of their home, towards the kitchen. She expected to find both her mother and Carrot Top there, but only one was to be found. The mare that was accounted for sat at the table, a cup of coffee in front of her and a large grey newspaper obscuring her view.

        “Where’s mommy?” Dinky said, stumbling into the room step by step. Yawning widely, the filly rubbed her eyes with her good hoof.

        “She’s at work already. Don’t you know how late it is?”

        Dinky glanced out the nearest window. Light flowed in from the thin slit between the curtains, but the combined light of all the windows was enough to illuminate the entire room. The intensity was enough to light every speck of dust that flew in front of the window, making a thin glowing stripe that was suspended in the air. “Noon?”

        “It’s about ten o’clock.” Carrot Top said, getting up and walking over to the coffee machine. She poured herself another cup of coffee while Dinky walked over to the nearest dining chair.

        Dinky first put her front left leg up on the chair, lightly putting her cast-covered leg on next. She jumped up with her rear legs, trying to pull up with her front legs. It was no use; she was too weak to jump all the way up and didn’t have enough grip to pull herself up.

        Carrot Top came to assist, first placing her cup on the table before lifting the little pony onto the chair. The filly settled herself, placing her chin down on the surface.

 The earth pony sat herself down, the height advantage allowing her to do it on her own. She leaned forward, placing both forelegs on the table and caressing her cup between her hooves. “How are you feeling?”

“Sleepy.” She closed her eyes. “And dizzy. Woozy. Lightheaded.” She paused. “That’s about it.” She rested her face on the table, her cheek pressing against the wood.

Carrot Top could not help but stare at the bandages wrapped around Dinky’s horn while she was looking away. “Why don’t you get some more rest?”

“Why? I’ve already slept like, a lot.”

“You can’t ever get too much sleep, ya’ know.”

“I think I’ve already got too much.”

The mare didn’t respond to the retort, instead taking a sip from the mug in front of her. She placed the cup back down, continuing to stare at the filly in front of her. She smiled and sighed. “You know, this whole incident has really set your mother and I apart lately.”

Dinky picked her head up, looking back at the mare. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, we used to get along so well,” she responded, looking up as she recalled memories. “We’ve been together since our school days, and now all of a sudden she’s always mad at me."

“Oh.”

“Like, she’s always yelling at me now and starting arguments.” She got up, placing her empty coffee cup on the counter. “Like, she got mad at me when she found out that I’ve been giving you medicine, too.”

“I think I could use some right now,”

“Can’t give you any, your mother told me not to.”

        The filly groaned, placing her head back on the table. “I’m going to be feeling sick all day, then.” She waited a bit, then continued. “Why doesn’t she want you giving me any more?”

        “She thinks you’re going to get worse if you get too much of it,” the earth pony said, filling the coffee machine with more water and ground coffee. “But I told her that it’s actually helping, and she didn’t believe me. She thought that I didn’t care about you. She should know that I’ve known you since you were born.”

        “But do you care about me?” Dinky proposed, looking the pony in the eyes.

        Carrot Top trotted over to the filly, engulfing her in a hug. “Of course I care about you,” she answered. Dinky returned the hug, only able to wrap her good leg around the mare. With her other leg she steadied herself upright by resting it on the older pony’s shoulder.

        They stayed locked in the embrace, one true earth pony and one pseudo-earth pony together. Their clasp lasted for what seemed like ages, with a loud ding signaling the end of it. They unwound their hooves, and Carrot Top turned off the coffee machine. She refilled her cup once more, walking over to the filly with mug in hoof. “Now go, you need to get more rest.” She led Dinky to her room, and helped her into bed.

        Derpy Hooves sat at the dining table, her face resting heavily on the surface. The tired mare made no effort to relieve some of the pressure on her forehead and muzzle; the full weight of her head rested precisely at two points and made her uncomfortable. Sunshine streamed in through the window slit, and blinded her through closed eyes. Derpy still had her long brown mailbag on, slung over her shoulders on either side with two straps wrapping underneath her body to stabilize it. The straps prevented the bags from hanging naturally, putting unnecessary stress on her back, but she didn’t mind. She was too tired to do anything about it, yet alone lift her face off the table. Hoofsteps rang out ahead of her, the walking mare emerging from the already-open bedroom door.

        “Asleep already?” said Carrot Top. Derpy replied with a long moan. “And at this hour, you’d think someone would have the decency to sleep in their own bed.” Another moan. “But seriously, why are you doing that?”

        Derpy lifted her head off the surface, just enough to speak without interference. “I took off yesterday to get more medicine, remember?” she said, “and my replacement apparently didn’t know her way around.” While she was up, she undid the lower straps of her mailbags and slid them off. “How’s Dinky doing? Is she sleeping?”

        “Bad, and she’s probably asleep. She’s been sleeping all day,” the earth pony replied. “You shouldn’t have cut her off the medicine so quickly.”

        “Yeah, but it’s for the best.” She rested her head down again.

        “You might want to go see her.”

        Derpy waved a hoof. “Can you bring her in here?”

        “At this point it would be better if you went in there.”

        Derpy’s ears immediately perked up. ‘Oh no,’ she thought. She slowly laid both of her front hooves on the table and lifted herself upright to a sitting position. “Is it that bad?”

Carrot Top nodded. “Haven’t seen her much today, though. Only this morning after you left. She’s probably still fine.”

Derpy paused in thought, looking around the room while she did so. “Dinky?” she called out, straining her neck to see down the hallway. She tried again. No answer.

She slid off the chair, heavily placing her hooves on the floor. She slowly walked over to her daughter’s door, gently pushing it open with a slow creak. “Dinky?” she questioned when it was halfway opened. She stopped pushing on the door, and it kept moving under its own momentum, revealing the small, unmoving filly on the bed.

Derpy started walking towards the figure, taking slow, delicate steps. She approached the bedside, lifting her hoof up to push the filly awake. “Dinky, wake up,” she said, repeatedly pressing her hoof into the filly’s side. “Wake up! I’m home!” The filly still didn’t respond.

Carrot Top walked through the door. “She’s always been tired. Maybe you should just let her be.”

Derpy persisted. “Dinky, wake up!” She began to grow desperate, shaking Dinky and speaking faster and faster. ‘Please wake up.’

Carrot Top approached the bed, alongside Derpy. She also pressed her hoof into Dinky’s back. “Dinky, it’s time to wake up now, you’ve been asleep all day.”

Derpy was not so calm. She rolled the filly over onto her back, and pressed the side of her face into Dinky’s chest. Dinky’s breathing was shallow and slow; her heartbeat irregular.

The pegasus stepped away from the young pony, robotically shuffling her hooves across the room. “Is she okay?” Carrot Top asked. No response. The earth pony inquired again, and pressed her own face against the filly when Derpy didn’t respond. She, too, immediately stepped away, this time straight back. “We— we need to get her to the hospital,” she said, her voice shaking. “Can you take her on the cart?”

“It’s gone,” Derpy said, her voice barely a hoarse whisper.

“Gone? What do you mean, gone? Where is it?”

“Somepony borrowed it, okay? I don’t have it right now!”

“How are you going to get her to the hospital?” She quickly scanned the room, taking charge of the situation. “Will she fit in your mailbag?”

“No! It’s way too small for her!” Derpy responded, snapping out of her daze. She took a few more steps away, quickly this time, and stopped. “I’ll go get the nurse. You stay here.”

“No, I can probably get there faster. Let me do it.” She took off galloping , not giving the pegasus time to respond.

The pegasus ran up to the door leading outside, not daring to head out of the house in the fear of deserting Dinky. “Wait!” she called out, trying to stop Carrot Top. Her efforts were fruitless; the pony was already out too far and going even farther.

The mare walked back inside, slowly closing the front door and shuffling into her daughter’s room. She trotted over to the bedside, gently laying herself down next to the bed, resting her head on its surface. “It’s going to be okay, Dinky,” she said. “We’re getting help.” And for good measure, she gently began to sing.

“You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine...”

Chapter 6

        The waiting room of Ponyville hospital was completely vacant, save for a single yellow-cream earth pony behind a large wooden desk. The lack of occupants at this time was commonplace. Nopony ever needed medical assistance this late in the day, yet alone at any time during the day. If it was ever used by one or more awaiting occupants, the company would always rush out of the waiting room whenever their turn to enter the main hallway came.

        They always rushed out for good reason: the place was miserable. The floors were unswept; a thin layer of dirt and dust covered the entire surface except for a track that stretched between the front doors and the entrance to the main hallway. Rows of fluorescent bulbs illuminated the place, filling the tiny room with artificial light that pounded away at the heads of the ponies inside.

The pony that sat inside was equally as unpleasant. She always sat in her wooden chair behind the wooden desk leaning against the wooden boards that made up the back wall. The position she sat in allowed the curls of her long blue tail to brush against the floor as she tapped her hoof to a beat only she could hear in her head. Large green eyes were always half-covered by eyelids hidden behind a facade of eye shadow.

Today the receptionist had decided to read a magazine, instead of sitting half-asleep with her hooves planted behind the mane that matched her tail. Her mind was preoccupied with the act of reading, but her hoof still tapped a constant, unfaltering beat.

        A loud crash erupted from the other side of the room as a pair of hooves slammed into the double doors that made up the entrance of the establishment. An orange blur rushed through them as a cream-yellow blur fell straight down from behind the receptionist’s desk.

        “Where’s Nurse Redheart?” shouted Carrot Top, half yelling, half panting. She jumped up and planted her hooves on the desk.

        “She’s out of town,” the receptionist responded, picking herself up off the floor. “Now, what’s your emergency?”

        “I don’t have one,” the earth pony responded quickly, still trying to catch her breath. “I need to see Nurse Redheart!”

~~~

        Derpy sat at the foot of her daughter’s bed, trying to make as little noise as possible. She listened to the breathing of her daughter, getting more stressed out with each wheeze. Every once in a while, she stole a glance at the filly. The sight of the helpless young pony was too much for her to take, and she eventually left the room.

        The mare walked to the front door, taking slow, tentative steps as she strode through the house. The entrance was still open from when Carrot Top had last passed through it; the pegasus was too tired and worried to bother closing it. She stared out into the open, even though it was too dark to see anything outside. ‘Where are you, Carrot Top?’

        After a few moments, the mare turned around and walked back through the kitchen, stopping at the far side. She started pacing across the floor, following her own footsteps repeatedly. ‘There’s nothing that I can do to help,’ she thought, making a turn for the second time. Her anger began to rise, and her pace began to quicken slightly. She changed her path, heading straight for one of the chairs. Turning around and rearing up on her front legs, she bucked it hard, propelling it across the kitchen floor in anger. It came to a stop in front of the counter.

        Realizing what she just did, Derpy calmed down, and sat down on the nearest chair. ‘I’m worthless,’ she thought, sagging lower into the seat feeling sad and alone. ‘I can’t even save the ones I love.’ She turned her gaze to the chair she took her anger out on. ‘And now I’m an emotional wreck.’ Her head sank lower as she sighed.

~~~

        “I’m sorry, but did you say you don’t need medical assistance?”

        “I do have an emergency!” Carrot Top retorted, leaning towards the mare. “It’s just not here, and I need you to send someone!”

        “Look, if if someone else has an emergency, but you don’t, I can’t help you. You’ll need to bring them here.”

        “But this is an emergency!” Carrot Top stomped her hoof on the hospital’s tile flooring to accentuate her point. “Somepony is about to die!”

        “I’m sorry, but Nurse Redheart is out of town, like I said before,” replied the blue-maned hospital pony absentmindedly, picking the magazine up off the floor to go back to her routine. “All of our doctors and nurses are tied up at the moment, and we can’t send anypony out to take care of your situation.”

        “Tied up with who?” Carrot Top shouted at the other mare. “I doubt that there’s actually anypony back there right now! Just look at this room! Has anypony ever used it?”

        “I’m sorry, but if somepony you know needs medical assistance, you’ll need to bring them here.”

        “I already told you! There’s no way we can get her here!”

        “Well then, neither I nor anyone working here in the hospital can help you.”

        “Yes you can! Just send one of your doctors or nurses out!”

        “Look, I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you’re just causing a commotion. I told you already, I can’t do anything to help you. Now you’re just sitting here making a ruckus.”

        “I’m not leaving until you send someone to help.”

        The blue-maned mare sighed. She stood up and walked through a door behind her.

        “Where are you going? You can’t just leave me here! You better be getting somepony to help me!”

~~~

        Derpy suddenly bolted upright in her chair, slamming her hooves down on the table with an audible “No!” erupting from her lips. ‘I can’t think that way. I have to do something.’ Sitting back down, she began to work on a solution to her problem.

She looked back at the chair she kicked. It had landed on its front, legs in the air as if the ground was sitting in it. The legs were facing the counter, pointing at the row of cabinets above it. Derpy’s eyes followed the direction the legs pointed. Her eyes stopped at the specific cabinet they pointed towards, knowing exactly that a row of glass vials were laid out inside.

‘The medicine...’

        The mare burst into action, grabbing her set of saddlebags and throwing them onto her back. She ripped both the cabinet door and the saddlebag flags open, quickly ridding the shelf of bottles and dumping them into the open pouch. Sweeping a hoof against the shelf above them, she watched as the neatly arranged syringes cascaded into the other bag.

        Derpy suddenly hesitated, afraid to continue with her impromptu plan. ‘What if Carrot Top catches me like this? What would she think?’ a voice in her head echoed.

        Nevertheless, she carefully closed the flaps of her bag and tenderly took the first few steps towards Dinky’s bedroom.

~~~

        The blue-maned mare emerged back through the door, eyes locked onto Carrot Top. She was followed by a brown-colored stallion with a short white mane cut into a flat top. He wore an official-looking white collared shirt with a red tie. “You’re going to have to leave the premises,” he said with a stern stare. Carrot Top quickly obeyed, shuffling herself out the door. She stopped and glared at the mare that was still inside the building, who wore a sly smile on her face.

        “Wow, what a Horse,” Carrot Top muttered under her breath, turning away and beginning her trip back home.

~~~

        Derpy slowly stumbled into her daughter’s room, each step followed by a medley of clinks as the glass in her saddlebag rattled and bumped against each other. She set up her post next to the filly’s bedside and began relocating the supplies, placing all of them in a neat row. She then picked up the first ampoule, snapped off the top, and filled the first syringe in the row.

        “Here we go,” the mare whispered to herself. She lined the needle up to Dinky’s foreleg, and inserted it into her skin.

        Carrot Top strode in through the open front door of the house, silently closing it behind herself afterward. Her heart was heavy, and so were her steps. The mare was too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice anything out-of-place in the room, especially the chair that lay in front of her.

        Tripping on the chair was the thing that finally snapped Carrot Top back into the real world. She stood back up, setting the chair upright to prevent other ponies to fall under the same trap. “Derpy?” the pony called out, looking around the room. “Where are you?”

When no answer came, she began looking around the room, looking for signs of the house being occupied. The pile of bags in the corner was unusually small. Her own set of saddlebags was there, and so was Derpy’s mailbag, but Derpy’s double saddlebag set was missing. One of the cabinet doors was slightly ajar, and Carrot Top slowly closed it.

Her attention turned to the chair she just picked back up. Several of the upright struts that composed the backrest were snapped in half, barely hanging on. The splits in the wooden were jagged and splintered, the rips forming two almost-perfect circles in the thin slats.

The mare called out for her room mate again, cautiously poking her head around the corner into the hallway. She began to slowly walk down the hallway, the curious nature of the chair setting her on edge. “Derpy, where are y—” Carrot Top began, cutting herself off at the sight in front of her as she turned the corner into Dinky’s room.

The grey mare was curled up on the floor, quietly sobbing to herself. Broken glass was scattered across the floor, blanketing the entire surface with a layer that was unfit for walking. The carpet was soaked in a clear liquid, the sharp smell of which wafted throughout the air. Several syringes were also on the ground, the plungers pressed down on all of them. Some were sticking out of the ground at an angle, as if they have been dropped or tossed lazily aside without any regard to safety.

        The earth pony carefully made her way through the room, tiny shards of glass shattering beneath her hooves with each step. The crunching sound it made only added to her discomfort, making the fur on the back of her neck raise up. She carefully avoided the several syringes that were placed between her destination and the door, almost stepping on the tip of one the was angled slightly upward.

Carrot Top finally reached the pony that was laying on the ground. She lay without a care in the world, the shards underneath her digging into her side. She was curled up into a ball, facing away from the door with her hooves over her face. Her sobbing caused her to convulse with each breath and rub against the ground, forcing the glass under her into her skin. Tiny drops of blood trickled out of each cut, most of them being absorbed by the carpet below.

Carrot Top stood over her room mate, her mouth still agape. “What did you do?” she asked.

        “I didn’t do anything.” the pegasus sobbed, her words barely distinguishable over her crying.

        “You didn’t do anything? Where did the glass come from? Why did you bring the syringes in here?”

        Derpy gave no response, yet alone an indication that she had even received the question. She continued to sit where she was, her only movements coming from the now-silent convulsions from her recent crying. Carrot Top gave a loud grunt of frustration, storming out of the room. She had no predetermined place to go, ending up in the kitchen under her own will. The pony looked around again, looking at all the things that stood out to her earlier.

        The chair. The lack of saddlebags. The open cabinet.

        Carrot Top strode over to the cabinet door. She opened it carefully, not sure what to make of the unshut state it was in earlier. The mare peered inside with unnecessary carefulness, not even sure why she was so anxious to look inside. The two shelves that had been cleared out to hold Dinky’s medicine were now empty, holding nothing but dust on both of them.

        The confused mare ran back to Dinky’s room, not wasting a second on her thoughts. “Where’s the medicine?” she yelled, her voice almost a shrill scream. “What did you do with it?”

“Okay! I freaked out, okay? I gave her medicine!” Derpy whimpered, writhing on the floor.

        “How much did you give her?” This time the pegasus didn’t respond, instead choosing to avoid Carrot Top’s glance. “Answer me!” Carrot Top still did not receive an answer to her request. She ran up to the nightstand the Derpy was laying next to, and peered at what was on top.

        The glass tops of the ampoules lay lined up in a row. It was impossible to tell how many had actually been opened as some of them were shattered, their remnants mixing with each other and forming a small pile of glass. By checking the large wet spots on the floor, she concluded that it was also impossible to tell how many of the opened ampoules had been dumped on the ground. The floor also had off of the bottles on it in the form of broken glass, either shattered when dropped or lazily trampled on by the pegasus.

        “How much was left?”

        “I—” Derpy began, pausing mid-sentence. “I don’t know.”

        Carrot Top quickly walked over to the filly on the bed, still in the same position as she was when she had left. She began to slowly peel the blanket off the filly. A small trickle of blood had begun to drip down from a large patch of inflamed skin, a jagged puncture wound in the center.

        The mare stepped away from the filly without hesitation. “Oh no,” she mumbled, quickly shaking her head back and forth. “We really need to get her to the hospital now.”

        “We can’t though,” Derpy replied, unable to make her voice anything but a hoarse whisper.

Carrot Top looked at the pegasus laying on the ground. “And with those cuts, we’ll need to get you there, too.”

“We don’t have a way to get her there,” the crying mare replied, ignoring the last comment about herself.

        “Well then let’s find a way!” Carrot Top snapped, shouting at the top of her lungs. The words erupted from her mouth without any hesitation, and no attempt was made to stop, or at least dampen them. The sudden burst of sound silenced the crying of the grey mare, plunging the room into silence.

        The room wasn’t completely silent, as it was filled with the soft, rhythmic wheezing of the little filly that lay inside. Her wheezing was barely audible from the distance the two older ponies lay. Slowly, the wheezing sound began to grow louder, eventually catching the attention of the mares. They both turned their heads to the filly, perking up their ears to catch more of the precious sound.

        Dinky’s wheezing intensified over the course of several seconds as the concerned duo looked on. The sound grew more audible and more frequent by the breath. With one last wheeze, the breaths coalesced into straight coughing, and the filly raised her good hoof to cover her mouth.

At the motion of Dinky’s leg, Derpy gasped and rushed over, eyes still full of tears. She called out the filly’s name as she moved, while Carrot Top following close behind. They took their spots by the filly’s bedside, the pegasus right by the filly’s head, the earth pony closer to the foot.

The coughing fit slowed, and the filly lowered her hoof as she finished. She turned her entire head slowly to look her mother in the face, moaning slightly. “How are you feeling?” Derpy asked, never giving Dinky a chance to respond. “Can you breathe? Does your chest hurt? What about your throat, does it hurt, too? Is that why you’re wheezing?”

        Dinky slowly shook her head in disagreement, opening her mouth in preparation to speak. “I feel tired,” she whispered, her words slurring slightly. “Like, it feels hard to move anything.” Her mouth moved lazily as she spoke, barely able to form the syllables that made up speech. The sound of her voice was also very airy, accented by the constant wheezing that wouldn’t stop even when talking.

        Derpy felt a couple taps on her shoulder, and a gentle tug that beckoned her to turn around. She followed the hint, slowly turning to her right as she kept her eyes on the filly. There came a point where her eyes could not keep on the little pony, and she turned them to the larger pony.

        “We need to talk.” She led Derpy out into the hallway, both mares avoiding the various hazards on the floor. They closed the door behind them as they walked through it.

“You can’t just sit there and keep talking to Dinky. We need to get her to the hospital. Now!”

        Derpy looked away, weighing her options. “We have no way of taking her though.”

        “We can get a cart from somewhere!”

        “I doubt you’ll be able to find one.”

        Carrot Top gave a grunt of frustration, stomping her hoof on the ground. She looked her room mate in the eye, thinking of a way to respond to her pessimism. Instead, she decided that completely ignoring her would be the best way to advance on her plan. The earth pony shoved Derpy out of the way, storming past her and running out the door.

        “Where are you going?” the grey mare called out, trying to run after the pony that just left. “You’re not going to be able to find one!” It was too late; Carrot Top had already made up her mind and was too far away to change her mind.

        Feeling defeated, Derpy slowly walked over to Dinky on the bed.  She sat down next to the filly, ignoring the glass she lay on. She sadly rested her head next to her daughter’s head, stroking her mane and staring into her eyes.

        “Get some rest now, Dinky” she said, closing her eyes and continuing to stroke the filly’s mane. “Carrot Top will come back with help.”