//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: Two Stallions // by Night Princess //------------------------------// "Mr. Olympic Dash and Lightning Bright?" The stallions around up immediately, anxious to hear what the doctor had to tell them.  "Your wives are...in trouble. I haven't exactly seen much of this virus in question, and the fact that they are about to give birth just makes it more complicated. Whatever was on the plant they touched was covered in an oil that seeped through their skin and entered their immune system, and may very well affect the foals. And I'm afraid your wives only have a few hours left." "There has to be something we can do to help," Olympic Dash insisted.  "I don't know. I really don't." The doctor scratched his head. "There may be a type of antibiotic that might help, but-" "But what?" Lightning asked softly, keeping back tears. He hated to appear as such a sissy  in front of Olympic, but he honestly couldn't stop himself. Stitch was dying.  "It's only offered in some pharmacies in Canterlot. It's also extremely expensive. Like I said, this virus is very unknown." Olympic turned to his friend. "We need to get it. Right now." Lightning considered the options. Canterlot was miles away, and flying there, finding a pharmacy, waiting for the medicine, and flying back with it could take the entire night. Mosaic and Stitch could very well be dead before then.  But they had to try. Lightning would rather die than watch his wife suffer while he did nothing to help her.  "Let's go. Now."  Lightning and Olympic spread their wings and prepared to soar away.  "It's called the Firswithian Treatment, offered at the Celestian Pharmacy." The doctor said to them with fear in his eyes.  "This is a valiant act, sirs. Even if you don't succeed, your efforts are heroic. I'm sure your wives would be proud." Lightning nodded and, with Olympic at his side, they ran out the door to the hospital and off the edge of Cloudsdale, soaring down towards the rest of Equestria, diving and swooping like a fighter plane.  They soared for what seemed like hours without saying a word. Occasionally one would glance at the other and their eyes would meet, but nothing was said.  The troubles they had the night before, their arguments and harsh word, now seemed silly and childish compared to the agony of their dying wives. And their foals! Oh, who cared if they we're colts or fillies as long as they just freaking lived!  Olympic squinted into the setting sun. He could see Canterlot, and the palace, too, off in the distance. "There it is," he said, flying a bit closer to Lightning.  The two swooped down into Canterlot, dodging other pegasi who complained briskly about the speed limit. The stallions ignored them and continued flying as fast as they could towards a building in the distance that could hardly be seen: The Celestian Pharmacy.  They landed and walked the half-block to the pharmacy. When they finally reached it, Olympuc glanced at his watch. It had taken them an hour and forty-five minutes to fly from Cloudsdale to Canterlot. That had to be some sort of record.  They entered the building and ran to the counter.  "Excuse me sir, but do you carry the Firswithian Treatment?" Lightning asked the pharmacist before Olympic could demand it impatiently.  "Yes, I do believe so," the pharmacist pushed his glasses up his nose.  "We'd like to place an order for two doses, please." "All right, that would be four thousand bits." "Four...THOUSAND?" Olympic's jaw dropped open.  Lightning searched his saddle bags and wallet, but only counted twenty-seven bits. His heart pounded frantically and sweat dropped down his brow. Would this be how Stitch died? Because he was three thousand and seventy-three bits short? "How much do you have?" He asked Olympic.  "Forty bits." "So we have sixty-three. That's still not even close." Lightning's shoulders sank.  "I have an idea." Olympic races over to a pair of teenage fillies sitting in the waiting area, giggling to each other.  "Excuse me, young mares, but my wife is currently in the hospital dying of a rare disease. She could die in the next hour along with her unborn foal if she doesn't get a dose of this medicine, which is thousands if bits over the amount I have. Would you two be so kind as to donate as much as you can so my love my have a chance to live?" One filly turned to the other and blushed. "All right, for true love," she said, smiling. She handed Olympic a couple dozen bits.  The other turned over some as well, and Olympic came back with a grin on his face. "We need to start asking ponies." They raced around the pharmacy, asking customers for donations and explaining their situation. Mostly everypony was kind and gave them several bits.  They had asked everypony in the building when the clock struck nine PM. They counted the money carefully and came to a total: "562 bits?" Olympic gasped.   "Good Celestia, I never expected that we would get so much." "B-but we're still three thousand and four hundred short," Olympic swallowed slowly, using all of his strength making sure that he didn't cry in front of Lightning.  Lightning took the money and counted it again. How could it end like this? How could Stitch and Mosaic die because they simply didn't have enough money for some medicine? Lightning walked back to the counter and leaned on it. "I'm so, so sorry, Stitch," he whispered.  "Now what did you want this medicine for?" the pharmacist asked him.  "Our wives are in the hospital, dying," Lightning sniffed.  The clerk looked around as if making sure nopony was watching. Then he leaned over to face Lightning.  "Take it. I might lose my job, but I would rather be unemployed than be the cause of your wives' death." He handed Lightning a small bottle of pills. "Good luck, sir." Lightning couldn't believe his ears. "Olympic! Come quick!"  ### The journey back to Cloudsdale must have taken no more than half as long as the journey into Canterlot. The two stallions flew as fast as they could, up into Cloudsdale with the pills safely in Lightning's saddlebag.  They reached the hospital  in only forty-five minutes and ran to the rooms where their wives were.  "We...have...the pills..." Lightning gasped to the doctor.  "Thank Celestia," he murmured, taking the medicine and rushing back into the room.  Olympic and Lightning sat down in the waiting area and gulped.  Half an hour passed. They could hear something happening in the two rooms, but they couldn't tell what. Were Stitch and Mosaic okay? The door opened and a nurse came out. "Mr. Lightning Bright and Olympic Dash? Your wives would like to see you." She turned , about to go back inside, and then stopped. She glanced back at them and smiled weakly. "Congratulations,  you are both fathers." Lightning and Olympic jumped up and followed the nurse into the room.  Three bassinets lined the wall. Olympic peered in.  "Congratulations, Mr. Dash, your wife has given birth to twins. " "Twins!" Two of the foals had rainbow manes like his wife, and one had a blue coat like him. But they were both wrapped in pink blankets.  "Fillies. Both of them," Olympic sighed. Then one of them, the blue coated filly, opened her eyes, which were big and pink. She stared up at her father, and he stated back. The two's eyes never left the other's for a long time.  "I don't freaking care," Olympic smiled hugged his daughters. "Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Shine, I love you." Lightning told himself repeatedly that he would not cry as he walked up to the other bassinet. Inside was a soft yellow foal, dressed in pink as well, with a pink mane and bright blue eyes.  "She's..." What was the word? Precious, adorable, flawless. He felt so many emotions, mainly...love. He loved this filly. He would do anything for her.  "Fluttershy." He said, stroking the filly's pink mane.  "There you are!"  The stallions turned around and saw, sitting in wheelchairs, their wives.  "Mosaic!" Olympic almost made a sonic rainboom dashing to his wife's side. "You're all right!"  "Thanks to you, I am. Oh, Dash, I'm so proud of you," Mosaic pulled her husband closer and kissed him on the lips. "You saved my life." Stitch hugged Lightning and squeezed him, caressing his name and planting kisses on his neck. "Oh, honey, that was so amazing of you. Did you see your daughter?" "Fluttershy," he whispered, hugging his wife once more. "Thank you. I love her." And so the four friends became seven, and through the years, despite the tragedies in the future, they would only grow closer than they ever believed. Lightning and Olympic especially. Even though they did fight from time to time, they always made up and reminded themselves of how much they had done to bring the three fillies into the world.  The End