All I Wanted Were My Mommy's Kisses

by Sith_Dreamer

To Canterlot (re-done version)

The next morning was yet another school day for Dinky and several other young ponies, so Twilight dropped her off early with Cheerilee and then headed straight for the hospital. Knowing all the work it would take, Twilight didn’t want to waste anymore time.

When she came into the lobby, she headed for the front desk, and rapped on the counter with a hoof to get the attention of the nurse in the room behind it.

“Yes Mrs. Sparkle, what can I do for you?” a red mare with a blonde mane wearing the traditional nurse attire trotted out and asked.

“I would like to speak to whomever is currently caring for Ditzy Doo. It’s a very urgent matter, I even have proof from Princess Celestia herself.”

“Just a moment. I’m not sure who is in the ICU right now. Ms. Doo’s regular doctor was called away on some family business, so I’ll go up and see. Do you mind waiting?”

“No, but I think the doctor will appreciate some speed when he finds what I’m here about.” Twilight kept an enthusiastic demeanor the whole time.

With an audible hum, and a quick nod, the nurse left the desk and began to climb the nearby stairs. Twilight listened to each hoof-clop as they got softer and softer, and the mare disappeared onto the next level. Twilight sighed, letting the façade of confidence drop. There was no way she was sure this was even the best idea. Twilight Sparkle, prized student of the Princess, totally clueless in the field of advanced medicine!

She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, and let out another long sigh, just as she heard the sound of hoofsteps coming back down. The red mare came down first, followed by a stout unicorn stallion, brown coat with a green mane that was trimmed flat against his neck. Twilight couldn’t help but notice he stared at the red mare’s blood-drawing needle-adorned plot the whole way down. The nurse surely knew he was as well, and gave him a light kick to the leg as she reached the bottom stair. He jumped more out of surprise, but composed himself quickly and walked over to Twilight.

“Ms. Sparkle, pleasure to meet you in person. I, like most of us here in Ponyville, have heard of your exploits before. Excuse the formalities though, my name is Surgeon General, and I’m in charge of Miss Doo. What did you come for today?”

His large green eyes stared deeply into hers. He was surely a stallion that had a way with the mares, but Twilight wasn’t there to be wooed, and got to the topic at hand.

“Well Doctor, I have here a letter from Princess Celestia, regarding some questions I had relating to Ditzy Doo’s condition. Although I trust the medical staff here Doctor, I and the Princess believe that Canterlot might well be a better center of treatment for her. I’d like to request a transfer, today, if possible.”

Twilight levitated the scroll from her saddlebags, and unrolled it for him to read. Surgeon General rubbed the scruff under his chin. He grunted and hummed to himself for a moment, but finally he returned his gaze to Twilight.

“While I disagree with you and even the Princess on Canterlot having any better care than we do, I cannot refuse direct recommendation from her or her number one student. But I warn you Twilight Sparkle, once we start moving her, you can’t just change your mind. It’ll be enough stress already moving her, and with her body healing under such slow conditions, we risk further injury. I can’t guarantee she will even make the trip to Canterlot.”

The purple unicorn took in everything he said, but had already made up her mind.

“Yes, doctor move her. Do you need anything from me?” she asked him.

“Well we’ve got a cart, and a team of stallion paramedics for these sort of situations, but our Pegasus scout is out sick. Any chance you know anypony willing to help?”

Twilight already had a certain rainbow-maned Pegasus in mind. She nodded, but she had to wonder out loud what the scout Pegasus did.

“The scout,” Surgeon cleared his throat as he spoke, “is in charge of going ahead, making sure the road is clear, watching out for obstructions that our unicorns will have to move, and clearing any weather problems. It’s a tiring job, not for just anypony. If you can find somepony, we’ll have her ready to be moved in one hour.”

“Thank you, Dr. General,” Twilight said sincerely. “I’ll be back soon.”

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“Buuuuut Twilight!” Rainbow Dash whined, putting her face into the dirt and putting her hooves over her head. “I’ve gotta practice, the next Wonderbolt tryouts are in two weeks, and I’ve got to be on my game.”

“Rainbow Dash, somepony’s life hangs in the balance here, and her daughter would be lost without her. Besides that, don’t you think it’d look good for the Wonderbolts if you could say you flew with a team of medical professionals to save the life of one of Ponyville’s mares. I’m sure some real heroics would really impress them!” Twilight grinned from ear to ear, her best way to convince her friends to go along with her plans.

Dash pondered over the idea for a moment. Twilight could see a smile creeping across the Pegasus’ face.

“Hey yeah it would,” Dash began thinking about the glory that comes with being a hero. “It isn’t like I won’t be flying after all. And it’ll basically be like I’m in charge. Alright Twilight, even though I can’t say I’m too fond of Der…Ditzy, I don’t want to see her die. Take me where we need to go!”

Twilight smirked, but tried to keep it hidden from Dash. She knew even after learning several lesson, Dash still couldn’t resist the limelight. She began heading back towards the hospital, Rainbow Dash in tow, who chattered all the way back about dreams of being the hero the Wonderbolts deserve, and need right now.

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Outside the hospital, an enclosed cart awaited Twilights return. Surgeon General stood outside it, tapping a hoof on the dirt. He silently greeted Twilight as she came back up the path. Rainbow Dash landed, standing close to Twilight, ready to accept her orders. Two stallions stood ready to pull the cart; a buff earth stallion and similarly able-bodied unicorn. One of the stallions pulling the cart gave snort as he looked over the rainbow-maned beauty, but Dash was too busy pumping herself up for the journey ahead.

“Here she is. You may have heard of the marvelous Rainbow Dash, another one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony ,” Twilight tried to play her up, to stroke Dash’s ego.

“Oh yeah…probably. I don’t really remember,” Surgeon replied casually.

Dash huffed. “Just tell me what I’ve got to do. I’ve got big plans to train tomorrow, to make sure everyone knows who I am someday.”

Surgeon General went on explaining the things he’d already said to Twilight. Dash tried her best to focus on the task, but was clearly eager to get flying. When he was done, he trotted to the cart and opened the doors. The two ponies could see Ditzy, laid in her hospital bed, with several tubes of fluids connected to various points of her body. A mare and a stallion sat on each side of her. The stallion was currently not performing any tasks, while the mare had a special line connected to her that ended at Ditzy’s chest, allowing her to monitor the pegasus’ heartbeat. After a few moments the stallion climbed out and gave the two up front the all clear.

“Are we ready?” the earth stallion pulling the cart snorted.

“Lets get going!” Dash cried eagerly, taking to the air.

“Be careful Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called as the cyan Pegasus blasted into the air.

She watched, filled with hope as the cart pulled away from the hospital. Surgeon gave her a nod, and headed back inside. She stood still, watching until the cart was a small dot in the horizon.

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Several hours into the journey to Canterlot, Rainbow Dash was bored. So far, the roads had been clear, no wayward creatures or ghouls had crossed their path, and the weather was looking quite fine. They were on a winding mountain road, one that would lead into the valley below Canterlot Castle itself. The city wouldn’t be much further beyond that.

“Ugh, so much for Rainbow Dash, the hero of Equestrian medicine,” she moaned as she glided high above the cart. “Anyone mind explaining to me why we couldn’t have loaded her up onto a train and-”

Dash was cut off as a cold wind whipped across her face. It’s bitterness shook Dash to her core, especially since it was still the tail end of summer across Equestria, and the weather teams wouldn’t be preparing for winter for a couple more months. The higher the mountain was, the colder it got this, Dash was aware, but she hadn’t accounted for the group having to traverse such a high road. She looked up, realizing the quickly darkening sky. She hadn’t seen clouds form on their own, especially clouds like those, since the times she’d ventured into the Everfree forest.

The wind began to blow stronger now, and far colder. Snowflakes began to rain down almost immediately, and She knew little about the way other weather teams were organized, especially those around Canterlot, but seeing no other ponies in the area, she knew this was something totally unnatural. Quickly she zoomed down to the cart. Seeing the snow quickly descending, the stallions stopped the cart and waited for her report.

“This looks like it could get bad!” Dash shouted over the rising wind. “Are you sure you two can handle it?!”

Both nodded.

“I’ll try and keep the majority off of us,” the unicorn stallion spoke up, his horn glowing a soft orange.

Dash bumped him on the shoulder with her hoof and grinned. She floated around to the back to check on the nurse and her patient. Ditzy hadn’t moved from her position, but the nurse was frantically digging through a small case of items. Dash cocked her head, her mouth slightly agape as she watched as she tossed it aside and began digging through a second bag.

“Uh, what’s up Doc?”

“I’m a nurse, not a doctor, and I was sure we packed some jackets. Without any trains to Canterlot today, I thought they’d remember we had to come this way. Any changes to the patient could result in serious complications. We need to keep her warm.”

Rainbow withdrew her head from the covering, and found herself immersed in a sea of white. Nothing in front or behind but cold icy flakes drifting down with the wind.

Dash bit her lip. “Great, now what do I do?”

It took a few moments, but Rainbow wasn’t a stupid pony, and she managed to come up with an idea. She trotted quickly up to the stallions who were already becoming impatient.

“Alright you guys, have you made it to the city this way before?”

“Three times,” the unicorn snorted as he focused his magic, blowing the snow away from them.

“Four mah’self,” the earth pony replied, with a draw not dissimilar from Applejack.

“Do you still know the way? I mean, if his magic can give you any visibility at all, can you two make the journey without me?”

“You’re abandoning us?” the unicorn sneered. “Some Element of Loyalty.”

The earth stallion that had been checking Dash out earlier just sighed and looked toward the quickly disappearing trail.

“Of course not!” Rainbow snapped back. “I don’t want to let anypony down! But....this snow is too much for me to fly in. I can’t do you any good if I can’t see where I’m going. But that mare back there...she might freeze to death before we get there. She needs to be kept warm, and that is something I can do.”

The earth stallion smirked, clearly impressed by her spirit. The unicorn simply nodded, and motioned for her to get into the cart so they could go. Within seconds she climbed into the back, surprising the distressed looking nurse. She quickly explained her plan.

“Alright, lay over here and stretch out your wing. Wrap it tightly around her, but don’t strangle her. She still needs a little space. Now move your body close and try not to move too much until we reach the city,” the nurse tried her best to accommodate Rainbow’s unorthodox plan.

Rainbow followed every order without question, and hoped that the stallions knew what they were doing.

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It was slow going, and Dash couldn’t be sure how long had exactly passed, but soon enough the path shifted into a downward slope. She hoped that it wouldn’t be long until they were out of the mountains and into the green valley below the Castle of the Royal Sisters.

Up front, Lifesaver and Siren tried to keep their pace. Both were cold, and yet their legs burned from the trek upwards. The snow seemed to be thinning out and the clouds had lightened, although the evening sun was still not visible to either of them. Siren let his magic release, and sighed with relief as his concentration finally broke.

“Don’t get too comfortable there pardner,” Lifesaver reminded him.

Siren turned his nose up, letting his gaze wander to the snow covered side of the mountain. Lifesaver shook his head and kept his focus on the trail ahead. Even so, neither of the stallions could have seen the broken path, obscured by the many inches of fallen snow. In a single step, Lifesaver was falling, pulling Siren and the cart with them.

The nurse cried in surprise as they went down. Dash, knowing her small frame would be useless to save everyone, did the only thing she could: she held tight to the comatose mare beside her, and shut her eyes as she waited for the ground to meet them.

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Morning was coming to Ponyville. The sun hadn’t risen yet over the horizon, and all was quiet. Dinky was sleeping soundly in her bed . Twilight had assured the little unicorn they’d visit her mother once she was settled in Canterlot before she’d gone down. Dinky had been scared about the move, but when she’d found out that Rainbow Dash, whose fan club Dinky had been a member of, was with them, she settled immediately.

Early in the evening, Twilight had started flipping through a book on the Equestrian Renaissance, but she only read it half-heartedly. It was the first time in a long time Twilight hadn’t been interested in a book. Eventually she’d found herself pacing. She could see visible spots of wear in the carpet around her table. She needed news, she needed to know everything was alright.

Suddenly, there was knock at the door, startling her despite her disinterest in the text. She hurried quickly and flung it open. A single nurse she recognized from the hospital in Ponyville stood in the doorway. She started to speak, but her voice shook and she couldn’t bring herself to look at Twilight.

“M-m-miss Sparkle. I... we at the hospital....”

“What is it? Is it Ditzy? did something happen to Rainbow Dash?! Tell me please!”

“Well I-I-I...”

“Oh come on, I thought you could do this! I promised you 5 bits after all,” a familiar voice called out from around the corner.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight gritted her teeth.

The rainbow-maned mare came from the shadows and into view. Twilight gasped at her appearance. One of her hooves was bandaged, and a wooden crutch was strapped onto it to help her walk. Her left wing was stretched out, and splinted and wrapped. She had several cuts and bruises, and a black eye to top it all off. .

“My word Rainbow Dash, what happened? What about the cart, and the ponies, and Ditzy?! Are you ok?”

Dash looked down, a look of total sadness and disappointment crept across her face.

“Oh…oh no…oh Celestia no,” Twilight started to sob.

She didn’t see the smirk Dash was hiding behind her messy mane. The Pegasus looked up, trying to mimic the smile Twilight always wore around her friends.

“We made it Twi. It wasn’t easy, we had a really bad wreck on the way down the mountain path. Lucky for us there’s still some farmers that live outside of the city. Everyone got banged up pretty bad, but Ditzy is being settled in at Canterlot General as we speak.”

Twilight’s sobs of sadness suddenly became sobs of happiness. She embraced Dash in a tight hug, happy about Ditzy, but also happy to have her friend back safely.

“Owowowowow,” Dash squirmed. “Hey Twilight, you mind if I crash here tonight? I uh, can’t exactly make it home right now.”

The purple unicorn nodded as the tears continued to stream down her cheeks.

“Thank you Rainbow Dash,” Twilight continued to cry, “Thank You.”

Author's Note:

This chapter was actually already published close to a year ago. However, I am writing the next chapter, and I was not a fan of what I originally wrote in this chapter. So it has been redone. I'm hoping that it flows a little bit better. For those that read the original, I thought it just felt too much like the storm that injured Derpy, so I rewrote it with a different weather condition. Speaking of weather, I was using a theory I had on Equestrian weather, being that, in cities and towns, thing shave sort of adapted to the ponies running everything, but places like mountains and forests akin to the Everfree, weather still manifests itself in unpredictable ways. I hope people are still around to read this, I do plan on finishing it very soon, and the next chapter is halfway completed as we speak. .

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

I'd wondered when you were going to pick this one up again.....

[Sith_Dreamer]

2978666 Yeah, I'm writing again. I wasn't happy with this chapter after re-reading it, so it has been redone, hopefully for the better. I hope you and everyone else likes it, and I'm hoping the next chapter will be done by tomorrow. Life has kept me busy, but I didn't forget about the site, and I'm hoping to get back to all my fics as well as some new ones.

[Phantom5niper]

I was not thinking this would fic would pop up.

[Sith_Dreamer]

2979514 I'm guessing a lot of people didn't, but I have every intention to finish it!

[Thyrrnatf]

Great story.... Sucks that it is dead