//------------------------------//
// Mommy Dearest 
// Story: His Greatest Treasure 
// by RoyalBardofCanterlot 
//------------------------------//

Filthy darted from the office, nearly tripping over the stairs. Spoiled's weight was heavy on his back, her blood soaking into his shoulder. There was too much blood, far too much blood. He ran past shelves, he ran past the cash register, ignoring the shouts of justifiably alarmed employees and customers. He rushed from the front door into the dazzling sunlight. Was it afternoon? He didn't really know. He continued running, breaking into a gallop. A cloud of dust rose up in his wake as his hooves thundered on dirt and then on cobblestone.

The pounding of stone against his horseshoes hurt, but he ignored it. He thought he heard his left back shoe snap, but he ignored it. That could be replaced later. It was no longer about Spoiled as his ex-wife. It was about Spoiled as a fellow Pony. A Pony did not let another Pony die. 

Brightly colored stalls overflowing with fruit, grains and vegetables blurred past him. The Ponies of the market place shouted in surprise. He nearly bowled over a familiar looking, purple unicorn who was being trailed by three fillies. He didn't stop to apologize.

"Hey, wait! Mr. Rich!"

The Princess took off after him, breaking into a gallop.

"My apologies, Princess Twilight, but as you can see I don't have time for a conversation!"

"Let me see her! I might be able to heal her!"

Filthy paused, exhaustion nearly knocking him over. His breaths came in ragged gasps. His lungs were burning, his chest on fire. He took several moments to catch his breath.

Twilight grunted, levitating Spoiled to the ground. She walked around her, examining her. "How did this happen?"

"She tried to kill herself."

Twilight nodded. Her horn glowed and a frown crossed her face. "Right in the chest...left anterior descending coronary artery...her  magic is working overtime just to keep her alive...I can speed the process along..."

Her horn glowed and a purple aura removed the blood. Blood spurted out before Twilight's aura overtook the wound. It began to close up, skin reforming over the gaping hole, restitching as the new flesh was guided by Twilight's magic.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders scampered up. "Miss Twilight what happened?"

She ignored them, glancing at the letter opener. The tip had snapped off. "She did it with a lot of force and that's not a very strong blade."

"Miss Twilight-"

She smiled sweetly at them. "I'm sorry, girls, give us a minute."

"But-"

She patted Sweetie Belle's head. "I'll explain everything. Just a second, okay?"

The fillies pouted, but obeyed their teacher. Twilight returned her attention to Filthy. "Mr. Rich, she's not out of the woods yet. The tip of that blade is in her heart. Jostling her is a bad idea. I've stopped the blood flow for now, but that tip needs to be removed and I'm not a licensed surgeon. Some things not even magic can do. This requires delicacy. If I pull it out the wrong way, she could bleed out." She shuddered. "It's why healing has never been my strong suit. Makes me nervous."

Filthy nudged the unconscious mare onto his back. "Regardless, thank you for your help Princess Twilight."

"I can at least teleport you. She needs help quick." She glanced at the fillies. "Don't worry you three, the nature trail is still on. Go on ahead. Mr. Rich, I'm going to teleport you and your wife."

Filthy gulped. "I ain't never teleported before. Is that safe?"

"It's perfectly safe, I've done it countless times."

She lit her horn, casting her field over him. He tingled at the sensation of the magic washing over him. Then came a blinding flash of light and he passed through he knew not what. There was no time in this place so he could not say how long the trip had taken. All around him was light, pure light in every color imaginable.

There was yellow and blue and purple, red and green and pink. The colors of the rainbow, an eternal vortex of power and life swirled all around them as they traveled through it.

He felt the magic within him drawn to this place as a drop of water is drawn to the ocean. This was the source of all magic, the source of his existence.

And the being he was travelling with was treating it as if it was a mere road crossing through the woods. 

Suddenly, the rainbow vanished. He stumbled as his legs felt like jelly. Mystical bands steadied him before he could fall and Spoiled could tumble from his withers.

Twilight rubbed his side. "You alright there? Not everypony does well on their first teleportation. My brother threw up the first time. His buddies in the Guard still won't let him forget about that."

Filthy breathed deeply. He felt tired, a deep exhaustion that settled into his bones and his soul. The ending of his marriage. Spoiled's suicide attempt. The exposure to the power of teleportation magic for the first time. It was all too much, far too much.

He felt Twilight's hoof on his side. They were standing in a hospital waiting room. The hospital walls had been painted white at one point, but they had faded to a dingy grey. The carpet was an industrial shade of blue.

"Mr. Rich?"

Two doctors rushed up. His wife was taken from his withers in a bizarre parody of how, on their wedding day, he had carried her across the threshold. He hastily explained the knife wound to the doctors, Twilight providing most of the information.

Their wedding day had been happy. He thought he could remember what happiness was. It was before having met the mare that they were rolling away in that gurney. 

He slumped in a hard, plastic blue chair. Twilight sat next to him, rubbing his shoulder. "Mr. Rich? Are you okay?"

"Why? Why would she do this?"

"It's hard to say with suicide. Has she been depressed lately?"

He rested his head in his hooves. "We're divorcing. I brought her the divorce papers to sign. She went insane, began babbling about me having an affair. I've never cheated on her. Not once. How could she even think that? How could she accuse me of that? Then she stabbed herself right in front of me."

He bit back tears. He was not going to cry. "She's put me through hell before and she's doing it again. Was she trying to upset me? Was this some kind of attempt to force me to take her back?"

Twilight shook her head. "The counselors will have to talk to her. She'll be required to take therapy. Paid for by the Crown, of course. What did you mean that she put you through hell?"

He told her. The way she berated, insulted and humiliated him and Diamond. The cruel head games. The harsh punishment doled out to their daughter that finally tore them apart.

Twilight's expression changed from concern to shock to anger. She heavily sighed. "Mr. Rich, you realize I'm going to have to press charges against her don't you? Emotional and physical cruelty to a child. She's looking at a fifty-thousand bit fine and ten years community service."

Filthy's lips twitched. "Community service?"

"In a town like this she's probably going to end up working on a farm."

That did it. Spoiled, with a plow strapped to her back, working on a farm. It started with a tremble in his belly and was released in a guffaw that made Twilight look at him like he might have needed some therapy himself. He wiped away tears. "Princess, my wife hates farmers."

"Tough luck. I'll make certain she ends up on a farm. Trust me on that one."

Filthy leaned back in his chair. Finally, the stress caught up with him. In a few moments he was snoring.
...
What surprised Spoiled when she opened her eyes was that she was alive. Either that or the stories of her foalhood were seriously inaccurate on the matter of the afterlife. There was no endless green plain where the Eternal Herd roamed forever. Nor was there the cold and darkness of the Halls of the Damned.

She looked around finding herself to be on a hospital bed. Bandages were wrapped around her chest. A glance outside the window showed the sun setting, painting the skies in shades of fiery orange. Puffy pink clouds dotted the darkening, evening sky.

A Pony walked into her room.  She was older than Spoiled, but could have been her twin with the exception of a graying black, dyed blonde, mane. A lit cigarette dangled from between her cracked lips. She looked at Spoiled as a scientist might look at a failed experiment or one might look at an insect. She removed the cigarette from between her lips. "Why the hell you'd try to kill yourself?"

At first Spoiled wondered how she'd found out. Of course. The wonderful system of the Empire of Equestria required the next of kin to be informed when somepony nearly died.

Why aren't I dead? She stared at a point on the wall. Am I dead? Is this Hell? My mother is here. This is Hell.

"Spoiled. I asked you a question."

She didn't feel like answering."Me and Filthy are divorcing."

She took another drag on her cigarette. "What happened? Did he finally realize you weren't good enough for him? I tried to warn him."

"Yes, Mother. You did. On our wedding day as I recall."

"Hey, the priest said to speak if you had an objection. I had an objection."

Spoiled grit her teeth, a sharp pain shooting through her jaw. "No one does that. It's a god damned rhetorical question."

She jabbed the cigarette towards her daughter. Smoke filled the room. Spoiled coughed. She hated the smell of cigarettes. "Don't you mouth me Filly unless you want a smack across your lips."

Spoiled wanted to punch her. "You ruined my wedding. We had a second one, you know. You weren't invited."

Her mother's eyes widened. This was the first she'd heard of it. "I don't believe you."

"I have the pictures. I'll prove it to you."

An ugly snarl crossed her features. She advanced on Spoiled who suddenly felt like a frightened six year old again. She drew back. Her mother leered over her, her breath smelling of the whiskey and tobacco that had dominated her foalhood. "You know what you are, Spoiled?"

She drew herself up. "Yes. I do. More than what you said I was. I made more of myself than you thought I ever would."

"Shit. You're nothing but shit. I told you when you were a filly playin' with those fancy dolls, sayin' you wanted to be rich one day. I told you you were never going to accomplish a damned thing."

Spoiled had thought her mother had been drunk at the time. If she remembered it, then that meant she had been sober. That made it worse.

"Always tryin' to make yourself look pretty. Looked like a whore. Whored yourself out to the first rich pony that showed up."

Spoiled looked away. There was some truth to her mother's words.

"I told you when you were a teenager tryin' to act all pretty. You're just coal mine trash. Put you in a big, pretty mansion you're still coal mine trash."

"Shut up." It came out as a tearful whisper. Tears were already stinging her eyes. Some were trailing down her eyes. She desperately wanted to stop the flow. There was plenty of medicines around here. She could pop some pills and then the bliss of eternal rest.

Her mother sneered down at her. "Trash. So damned cowardly you tried to throw it all away when things got tough. Cowardly trash." She laughed. A hard, bitter, empty sound. A sound that had driven away her stepfather.

I...have I ever made Diamond feel like this? So worthless and small?

"Ah, Miss Obsidian Heart." Filthy strode into the room. "Sunset and you're still sober? What's the occasion?"

Obsidian Heart turned to face her former son-in-law. "Finally gettin' rid of her, huh? I told you."

"Get out. You call your daughter trash? At least Spoiled can go more than a day sober you old drunk. And put out that cigarette. The rules actually do apply to you and you can't smoke in a hospital."

She threw the cigarette on the floor, stomping it out. Then she trotted out the door. Ex-husband and ex-wife stared at each other. He trotted over. She hurriedly wiped away her tears. "What are you doing here? Why did you save me?"

"Regardless of my feelings for you, I'm not going to let another Pony die." He paused. "You're going to be facing legal trouble."

She glanced up at him. "What?"

"Twilight is the one who took the knife out of your chest. I explained everything. You're being charged with child cruelty."

"How...how could you do this to me?"

"Isn't that the problem, Spoiled? Your inability to accept the consequences of your actions or to take responsibility for anything. I don't intend to sound cruel, but you brought this upon yourself. You'll be escorted to jail when you recover."

Spoiled leaned back on the pillow. "I'll post bail and hire a good lawyer."

He shrugged. "Do as you wish. You know, I never intended for this to happen. I wanted forever, but we couldn't work."

"Please go."

He nodded and then turned, leaving the room.
...
Filthy trudged into his brother's apartment. He was greeted by a blur of pink attaching itself to his leg and revealing itself to be his daughter. He patted her head. She looked up at him. "So, are you and Mommy divorced?"

"Yes, Sweetie. Yes, we are." Custody and alimony could be worked out later. He wrapped a hoof around her. "Are you alright?"

She nodded and smiled. "Can I...I'm going to stay with you, right?"

"Of course."

He held her close. His daughter. His greatest treasure.