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// Chapter 10: Intermission (The Past Two Days...) 
// Story: Stories From a Single Mother 
// by emerald_shine 
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Hi Everpony!

My name's Dinky Hooves! The doctors came in today with some weird medicine that kind of numbed my mouth. Mommy gave me her book and told me to write down everything that happened in the past couple days so that she could know.

Anyways, it started when I woke up. I guess I've been sleeping for a few days now. That's gotta be the longest I've ever slept! Which is funny because Mommy says I'm always tired. That's alright though. When I woke up, Sparkler and a weird stallion were standing next to my bed. Then I realized that I wasn't in my own bed.

"Are you feeling okay?" Sparky asked.

I rubbed my head. "Yeah. What happened?"

"You got hurt pretty badly. We had to bring you here."

I look down. "Oh. Well, I'm ready to go home now! Let's go!" I attempted to get up but Sparky held me back.

"I'm sorry Dinky. You're gonna have to stay here longer. They need to make sure that you'll be okay and you won't have any problems if you come home."

"But I feel fine!" I whine. "Please! This place gives me the creeps."

Sparky sat down and held my hoof. "Okay. Listen Dinky. There was a piece of glass removed from your heart. They need to make absolute sure that your heart is in stable condition before they send you home. But don't worry! I'll come by as often as possible. I think Rarity will flip if I take any more days off of work but... I'll make time. I promise."

I was hesitant for a moment. "Where's Mommy?"

Sparky glared down at the ground. "Not here. She's busy."

My heart stopped. Don't worry, figuratively. Part of me didn't want to believe that Mommy wasn't here. I wondered what could possibly keep her away. "When will she be here?"

Sparky threw her hooves up. "I don't know." Sparky's voice almost started breaking down. "I honestly don't know how long she'll be gone. Because apparently, what she's doing is so damn important and..." Her voice trails off as a small tear begins to go down her cheek. The stallion standing next to her takes her head in his hoof and pats her.

"It's okay Sparkler." He said. My mind was doing front flips. Who was this stallion?

"What's wrong Sparky?" I asked.

Sparky looked up and wiped her eyes. "I-It's nothing. I just can't help but wonder why she isn't coming back."

"Where is she."

"She left the whole damn realm!" Sparky seemed to be more angry at the situation than at me. She held up a hoof at me. "Sorry. Don't repeat that."

I nod. "Do you think she left us?"

Sparky shook her head. "I don't know Dinky. But I don't want you worrying about it okay? Everything's gonna be okay." I nodded again. Sparky cast a spell at the wall and a holographic purple clock appeared in the air. "I gotta go get back to work. If anything goes wrong, I want you to give me a call."

Sparky pointed to the phone on my bedside table. Not just any phone though, a cell phone! A purple cell phone with a red bow tied around it. "Where did that come from?"

"Early birthday present!" Sparky said while smiling.

"My birthday isn't for another three months!"

"That's why it's early."

I smiled and waved my hoof to tell her to come over. When she did, I hugged her as best I could while staying in the bed. Which, turned into me wrapping my forelegs around her neck. "Thanks Sparky."

She pats my head. "No problem Dinks. Now, I gotta run. See ya!"

I waved and she led the orange stallion out of the room with her.


* * *



Nothing interesting happened until around noon that day. The door to my room was opened and they rolled a bed into the room. "What's that?" I asked.

"We have to put another pony in this room for about a day. You're gonna have a roommate!"

I smiled. It would be nice to have some company. It definitely was already getting lonely here. I really hoped that I could get out of here as soon as possible. I decided to take a nap to pass the time. It was really	the only thing that was easy to do, as I was still feeling kind of tired.

When I woke up, I looked over to the bed to see a green pegasus with a blonde mane laying in it. He was fiddling around with a yoyo that he was throwing off the side of his bed and returning to himself. He looks over to me. "Oh! You're awake!" He says quietly.

I nod and rub the sleep out of my eyes. "Hi! I'm Dinky! Nice to meet you!"

He nods. "My name's Hanzal. The Cloudsdale hospital is overflowing so they transferred me down here. I think Princess Twilight is trying to expand that hospital but thanks to the size of the weather factory, it will take tons and tons of clouds to expand the space." I notice that he's talking quietly. Almost like he's unsure about what he's saying.

I nod. "Interesting." It felt so good to talk to someone about something fun who wasn't my mom or my sister. I didn't have many friends at school. "Why are you here?"

He wiggled his left wing and winced in pain. "When I was born, I had a stiff wing. I can't fly right and it usually hurts to try at all. Anyways, I'm having surgery to try and have it fixed."

"That's awful! But I really hope it works out for you." I understood now. This colt was shy. I made it my mental mission to make him open up a little. "I like your yoyo! You're really good at it!"

He smiled. "Thanks. It's just something I do in my free time. Later, my family said they're going to bring in my old Nintendo. We can play a little if you want to. I really only have Tetris but it's still fun."

"Sounds fun!" I say enthusiastically.

"So, I noticed the cuts on your side. What happened?"

"I don't remember all of it but I was told that I  fell onto a bunch of glass on my table and got a piece stuck in my heart which is why I'm in here."

"Wow! Your thing is so much cooler than mine."

"That's alright buddy! It hurts like hell. Trust me you don't want it."

Hanzal gasped. "You said a bad word!"

"Yeah. My mom uses it all the time. I don't think she'll care." I turned my head back and looked up towards the ceiling. This colt was nice. I strangely found myself wanting to learn more about him. "When do you go in for surgery?"

"Tonight."

I nod. "Are you nervous?"

"Of course! But I'm even more excited that there might be a chance for them to fix my wing. Could you imagine? Flying up in the sky without a care in the world?" He looked up wistfully. They're putting me here to rest my wing and relax it for surgery."

I nod. "Interesting." We didn't say much else. His parents walked into the room around three o clock. They had a box with them that I assumed contained the Nintendo Hanzal had talked about.

"Hi sweetie! How are you doing?" They talked with Hanzal while I discretely watched from the side. His mother had a dark purple coat with a white mane and green eyes. His father had a dark green coat with a brown mane and yellow eyes. 

Once they had finished talking, they walked over to the tv on his side of the room and plugged in the nintendo. They ran an extension cord from the console to the controller and gave it to him. "Have fun sweetheart." They said as they began to walk out of the room. They also waved at me with nice smiles as the walked out.

I watched him play Tetris for a while. I wasn't too interested in playing as I've never played before and I felt like I would make a fool out of myself. As he played though, I began to pick it up. All you have to do is complete the lines and make them disappear. By the time I had gotten mesmerized by the blocks moving left and right, and the blocks disappearing with satisfying beeps, I heard him ask, "You want a turn?"

I tilted my head a little and said, "Yeah sure!"

He carefully took aim and tossed the controller gently towards my bed. I still couldn't move my right side very well so I had to make a very awkward left hoof catch. I looked at the controller and tilted my head. Mommy had never been able to afford one of these so I've never even played one before. "What do I do with this?" I asked.

He laughed a little. "The different buttons control the blocks. Press the arrows to move it left and right and press down to drop it faster. Press A to tilt it right and press B to tilt it left."

I nod and click the middle button to begin the game. I lasted for all of 45 seconds. The first block went down fine but once the second one came down, I had already started to fumble a little. When it said "Game Over," I tossed the controller back to him. "Thanks. But I'm not really any good at it."

He tossed it back. "Give it another try! I can help guide you through it. You just need a little practice!" I nod and begin playing again.

As time went on, he seemed completely uninterested in playing at all. He seemed more interested in helping me get better. After about two hours, I had finally gotten 30 points away from his high score (The game scored in 10s) He laughed and said. "Come on Dinky! I know you can do better! You got this!"

Around six o clock, Another pony walked into the room. A pony who looked incredibly similar to Hanzal. He had a green coat with a blonde mane. Honestly, the only real difference I had seen was that he was a unicorn instead of a pegasus. He hung around for a little bit. He even talked to me for a bit. "Hi there! What's your name?" He asked me.

"Dinky. Dinky Hooves. What about you?"

"Fletcher. I'm Hanzal's brother!"

"It's nice to meet you!"

"You as well."

After a little while, and a few games of tetris, Fletcher left as well. "Wow Hanzal! You have a lot of family!"

"Yeah. I guess. Where is your family?"

"My sister visited before you got here. Mommy is somewhere I don't know. Do you have any more family or friends coming in?"

Hanzal sighed. "I wish."

"What do you mean? You've had three visitors already and I've only had one! Well, two if you count the weird stallion she was with. But he never even talked."

"Well, recently, My fillyfriend left me because of my wing. It's why I was so shy at first. I just wish she would come and visit me and maybe take me back. I don't know." He sighed. "She was my only friend at all. Her name was Moonlight. She was such a bright blue that it looked like she could glow. She had a faint yellow mane and the most beautiful maroon eyes." He sighed again. "I just miss her. But I really like you, Dinky."

I smiled and felt my cheeks get a little red. I hadn't felt this way before. It was strange.

Eventually, the time came for Hanzal to be rolled out of the room for surgery. I said goodbye and realized I might never see him again. That made me sad. They took all of his stuff out of the room. It was like he was never even there. As the sun went down, the room grew dark.

And then it was quiet. Almost too quiet.

I fell asleep pretty soon and when I woke up, Mommy was there for me! I looked at the clock and realized it was like the middle of the day already. I didn't realize exactly how long I had stayed up that night. 

She left pretty quickly to go meet somepony who was waiting for her at home. Now she's back again and, like I said, she's having me write in her book. They never brought Hanzal back but I hope I get to see him again. I'm gonna give Mommy her book back now so she can read the story I wrote for her.


* * *



As I read what my daughter had written, I felt my heart swerving a little. There were a lot of different emotions I was feeling while reading it. I could tell from the way she had written her feelings, that she had fallen for this Hanzal pony. I didn't mind that much but what hurt me most was seeing how she felt about my absence upon her awakening.

I swore to myself right then that I would never, ever, leave this plane until I could be sure that she wouldn't ever have to wake up like that again.