//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Not Okay 
// Story: Stories From a Single Mother 
// by emerald_shine 
//------------------------------//

The nurses scrambled as they hauled the stretcher out of the back of the ambulance.

They burst through the doors of the hospital and reached the front counter. "April! This filly needs medical attention immediately! Which room should we go to?"

The pony at the counter, who I guess was named April, shrugged her shoulders as a look of panic spread across her face. "I don't know! All of the current surgery rooms are filled."

"Is there anywhere we could at least stop the bleeding for now?" He gestured to Sparkler. "This young mare has been holding her sister's wounds for about twenty minutes!"

April nodded. "Take her to room 6B." The nurses began to rush towards the B wing. Sparkler ran after them, holding her spell in place. I tried to run after them but heard the mare at the counter yell after me. "Hey! Only trained personnel can follow them now!"

"But how come Sparkler went? I'm her mother!"

"That young mare is holding a very high level professional spell. Unless you want your daughter to bleed out on the floor, you want her there. At least for now. I'm sure they'll send her out when they get the filly under observation. I'm sorry."

I sit down on the floor with a huff. "No. I understand. I just don't understand how any of this could've happened."

April shrugged and looked back to her computer to continue doing work.Clearly not the most sympathetic pony, I thought.

I walked over to the chairs in the lobby. I sat there for what felt like an eternity. I tuned out every voice around me and sat in the silence of my own thoughts. How could this have happened? Did it have something to do with the stained glass? It almost had to.

I suddenly snap back to reality as I see Sparkler standing in front of me. "Hey mom."

"Why aren't you with Dinky?"

"They sent me here after they got her bandaged up. She's awaiting a place in one of the surgery rooms. They said they suspect that there are multiple pieces of glass scattered throughout the inside of her body. If a room doesn't open up soon, they might need to transfer her to Canterlot Hospital."

"I need to step outside." I walk over to the door and Sparkler follows for a few steps. I then see her leg give out and she falls to the ground. I turn around and run over to her. "Sparkler? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. J-Just tired." Her horn gave a couple of sparks. "It takes a lot out of me to hold a spell like that for too long."

I help her to her hooves and we walk out of the hospital. I walk over to the outside wall and lean against it. Sparkler follows but instead chooses to sit on the ground. I reach into my saddlebag and pull out a pack of cigarettes. I turn to Sparkler and ask, "Don't suppose you know any elemental magic?"

She rolls her eyes and chuckles. She closes her eyes. Her horn sparks for a second but then shoots a tiny beam of flame towards the cigarette in my hoof. "Thanks." She nods.

I take a small breath of the smoke and then turn to her. "What the fuck happened back there?"

She puts her head in her hooves as she begins crying. "It-It-It wasn't my fault!"

I put a hoof on her shoulder. "I never said it was, sweetheart. Just take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

Sparkler sniffed a little and does as I say. She takes a quick breath and begins her story.

"While we were playing in her room, she said she wanted to go and get a drink. I noticed she was taking a long time so I walked out into the kitchen to see her messing around with the glass stuff and standing on her chair. Probably to get a better look at the frame. She asked me what it was and I told her it was a project I was working on. I told her it was dangerous to be up there and told her to come down."

"She slowly started to make her way down. But she slipped and fell towards the table. I tried to cast a levitation spell to save her but it was too late. Her side landed directly on the glass on the table. There was a moment of silence as I tried to process what had just happened. Dinky then bounced off the table and fell onto the ground, pushing the pieces of glass further into her body." Sparkler sighed and took another shaky breath.

"She began sobbing and almost immediately blacked out. That's when I called your name and ran over to get her. That's about it."

I take another breath of the smoke and stand in silence. "Listen Sparkler, I want you to understand right now that this wasn't your fault."

"But it was! If I could've only acted a little faster, we wouldn't be here. I would've saved her."

I smile at her warmly. "But you may have already saved her life Sparkler! She could've bled out if it weren't for your advanced magic skills"

Sparkler sighed. "Thanks for trying to help, Mom. But it doesn't change what happened. If only I could've-"

"Listen Sparkler. If you spend the rest of your life blaming yourself for this incident, you'll tear yourself apart. It. Wasn't. Your. Fault."

Sparkler stared at me for a minute and then slowly nodded. "I just can't help but think, if I couldn't even take care of my little sister, how in Equestria am I ever gonna take care of my own foal?"

I sigh. "Let's not think about it for a little bit okay? You're going to be able to do it. You're going to be a great mother." I hiss as the cigarette burns itself all the way down to my hoof. "Well, that's the universe telling me to go inside. You coming?"

Sparkler sniffs, smiles, and nods. "Yeah. That would be great."

When we get inside, Sparkler walks over to the chairs and sits down. I, instead walk over to the counter and tap on the desk. "Hey April. Any updates on my daughter?"

She looks at her computer and smiles. "It actually looks like she's undergoing surgery right now!"

I clap a hoof to my mouth and gasp a little. She's gonna be okay! I turn back around to Sparkler and run over to the chairs. "Your sister's in surgery! She's gonna be okay!"

Sparkler gasps and smiles. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves yet. They still need to finish the surgery successfully."

Suddenly, the doors to the hospital burst open and a stallion with an orange coat and a red mane runs in. He looks around for a second and then rushes over to us. Or rather, to Sparkler. "Sparky! Is everything okay?" I watch in horror as he walks up to her and connects his lips to hers.

It's a quick kiss but for me, it feels like an eternity. Sparkler turns and stares at me for a second. "Um.. Mom, this is my coltfriend. Sunrise."

I stare at her. Then at him. I go back and forth a couple times.

" What The FUCK?"


* * *



"So, this is the genius who decided it would be a good idea to fuck with my daughter?"

"Mom, don't be mean."

I throw my hoof into the air but then decide to calm my temper. "Sorry. It's..." I choke on the next word. "Nice to meet you Sunrise."

He smiles. He offers his hoof for me to shake. "It's nice to meet you too Miss Hooves."

I cross my hooves. "Mhmm. So, why are you here?"

"Oh! My horn is linked with Sparkler's now! She sent me some sort of telepathic message telling me to meet her at the hospital." He turns away from me and looks at Sparkler's worried expression. "So what's going on?"

"Nothing that concerns you Sunrise! Celestia, what kind of name is 'Sunrise' anyway?"

"Mom! I said not to be mean!"

Sunrise chuckles. "No no darling. It's okay. My parents had a thing for naming their children after times of the day I guess. You might know my sister Sunset?"

"Sunset Shimmer?"

He smiles. "That's the one!"

"Well there's definitely a likeness there. Anyways, we're fine. Goodbye." I start using my wing to push him towards the door. He instead disappears in a flash of purple light as Sparkler glares at me. He reappears next to her.

"Dinky is in surgery. She had an accident with glass."

"Oh no! Will she be okay?"

Sparkler shakes her head. "We don't know. But I feel a lot better with you here." I feel a fire in my stomach as she nuzzles up  to his neck. He encases her in a hug and strokes his hoof through her mane.

He smiles. "And I'm here for you."

Before I get a chance to murder him, we all see a doctor, who I recognize as Nurse Redheart approaching us. I run over to her. "What's the verdict?" I gasp at Nurse Redheart's silence. "Don't tell me..."

Nurse Redheart shakes her head. "Your foal is alive. We don't know how much longer though. We were able to remove the vast majority of the pieces from her body and bloodstream. But there's a bigger problem. A big piece of glass lodged itself in her heart. Somehow, the heart is still beating but if we can't remove it, there's a chance she won't even survive the night."

I gasp. "So then remove it!"

She sighs. "I wish it were that easy. I don't know what's balanced that's allowing her to stay alive but if we attempt to remove that piece of glass, it may permanently damage the heart. Unless we can figure out perfectly what path the piece of glass took to enter her heart, we can't remove it safely."

Sparkler spoke up. "What does the perfect path have anything to do with it?"

Nurse Redheart sighed again. "If the glass entered the heart at a path that didn't damage anything, our hope is that removing it along the exact same path would be able to take it out without damaging anything. But not only would we have to remove it on a perfect,  indeterminable path, we would also have to have someone on standby who's able to perfectly patch a hole like that until our healers can fix it."

I jump. "Sparkler can do that patch spell if you need the help!"

"That's nice, but there's also the matter of the path. Given how jostled the body was getting in and out of the ambulance, it is impossible for us to determine the way that the glass got in there. I suggest that when she wakes up, you start saying your goodbyes."

I felt my legs give out as I fell to the ground sobbing. Suddenly, I hear, "I can do it."

I look up to see Sparkler walking over to Nurse Redheart. "Let me do it.I can get the glass out perfectly."

Nurse Redheart shakes her head. "You don't understand. This thing is lodged in there good. There won't be any getting it out without problems."

Sparkler stamps a hoof. "Let me do it! I feel somehow responsible for this mess. I know I can fix it."

Nurse Redheart hesitates and then slowly nods. "Fine! But if you mess up, you're risking your sister's life. If not giving it up entirely."

I jump to my hooves. "Sparkler! Please no!"

"Mom! Remember what you sad about believing in me?This is where you'll need to place undeniable trust in me."

I look to her and then to Sunrise who nods at me. I slowly nod at her.

Nurse Redheart throws her hooves up. "Okay! If you would, follow me please. April, please prepare a certificate of death inc case this whole thing goes south."

April nods and throws Nurse Redheart a pad of paper.

As we approach the door, Nurse Redheart looks at Sparkler. "Good luck kid. You'll need it."


* * *



I can barely stand to look at my poor foal laying on the table with her stomach cut open. I still watch to see what Sparkler does. "Alright Nurse. I've located the piece of glass." She gestures to Sunrise. "I taught you my patch spell right?" He nods. "The second this glass exits her heart, I need you to cast it over the hole." He nods again.

"Healers on standby?" She looks over to the healers who nod back at her. "Let's do this."

She lights up her horn and begins to cast a spell I've never seen before. She points her horn at the piece of glass and suddenly, the room goes darker until the lighting is a dark grey. The only thing we can see is the piece of glass glowing a strange orange.

Sparkler then  points her horn towards the sky and I watch in awe as the piece of glass begins to remove itself from Dinky's heart. I don't see any noticeable damage as it exits her body and drops into Sparklers hoof. I hear her scream "Sunrise now!"

Sunrise casts an orange glow onto the hole in DInky's heart. "Healers!"

The healers immediately  bend over the filly and begin casting spell after spell into her heart. All while the heart monitor...


...somehow continues beeping. 


* * *



As Dinky lays in her hospital bed, me and Sparkler sit next to her in chairs on the side. Sunrise had gone home about an hour ago after Sparkler convinced him to. "How did you do it?"

Sparkler looks at me. "I just remembered a spell that could help the glass go back the exact way it came."

"Very specific. Thanks."

I lean over and embrace her in a hug. "How can I ever repay you? You saved my daughter!"

"Mom! You don't have to repay me. I didn't just save your daughter mom. I saved my sister! That's payment enough!"

"This is exactly why you'll be a great mom!"

Suddenly, we hear a stirring from DInky's bed. "Mommy? Sparky? Where am I? What's going on?"

I run forward and carefully embrace her in a hug, coating her coat in tears.

"I thought I lost you!"

"Mommy?"

"Dinky!"

"What's going on?"


"I love you Dinky!"