The Night Of A Broken Heart

by WanderingPony

Chapter 8: Sometimes You Get Left Behind

Bearing an entire pony-and-dragon show, two chariots lifted off from Ponyville for a swift trip to Canterlot, briefly silhouetted against the morning sun.

Three VERY grumpy fillies were not aboard.

"But...but....I'm a well-wisher! I've been in LOTS of wells!"

"Big Mac told me I hafta take good care of Granny! It ain't fair! We was GOIN' TO CANTERLOT!"

"Mom said -I- had to be the mare of the house?"

The pegasi pulling the flight had been quite insistent, however. Nopony that wasn't an adult. Except Spike. Apparently, heroes of Canterlot and the Crystal Empire were exceptions. And so, the Crusader's dreams of getting cutie marks in "doctorin'" their big sisters back to health after a nasty cold floated away into the clouds.

"I guess we aren't going to need all this stuff we borrowed from the hospital, are we?"

With heart-breaking sighs, the three turned to trudge back, a wagon full of band-aids, tongue depressors, half the contents of Granny Smith's "medicinals" drawer, and a liberal amount of first-aid equipment dragging behind Scootaloo. Nopony wanted to see their house (or granny, or dad) after this disaster...

---

"Let's try the spoon again, Chip."

Wobbling, the soup spoon made it's way out of the bowl, a noodle plopping back into the liquid as it lifted off. A good portion of the contents dribbled away as the soup made it's way to Chip's mouth, but enough got in to make a modest mouthful. Nurse Redheart smiled and fed him the next spoonful instead.

"Chip" shows relatively normal arcanodexterity but below normal physical reflexes for a colt of his size and development. Precise age unknown, family history unknown. Low body weight and empty,sensitive stomach & bowels indicative of lack of food within 72 hours of admission. Patient shows signs of serious memory disjunction commonly associated with radical thaumaturgical trauma, horn coloration unusual but fully functional. Patient's initial location in tree with no physical injuries, lack of consciousness and extreme distance from likely point of origin plus symptoms: Teleportation dissociative syndrome? Repression from extreme emotional duress also likely.

Doctor Stable stopped scribbling on his pad and moved on to the next room on his daily rounds, leaving the colt and his nurse to lunch. On the way, he stuck his nose into the hospital office. Thankfully, Ponyville didn't have a long waiting list for foster care parents- one thing the town never seemed to lack was kind ponies willing to help someone down on a bad hoof. Good as Nurse Redheart was, an actual home was a better place for a pony to recover from shock than a hospital bed...

Foster colt in need of a loving, gentle family environment to recover from loss. Family with children of similar age and unicorn heritage preferred.

Adding the note to the top of a long set of notes about Chip, he dropped the pile off in front of an industriously typing earth pony in the office.

"Miss Scribbles, if you can turn that into a proper file- we have a little pony that needs the kind of medicine a hospital isn't best for providing. Let Nurse Redheart know that her room might have visitors shortly. Brief visits only unless she thinks the little fellow is up to it."

---

"Oh look, Silver! They finally figured out you're not supposed to put the cart before the pony."

"Stocking up on band-aids for the next time you try to take off, Scoot-and-burn?"

If the Crusaders had cutie marks in firestarting, Diamond Tiara would be called Charcoal Grill...but fortunately for the stuck-up prima donnas, they only delivered a few scathing remarks in passing before prancing down the road with a well-synchronized SWISH of their prissy little tails.

Sweetie Belle sighed and with a single dismal spark, gave up on trying to tie their backsides into a nice little bow. The caravan continued at a more dismal pace down the street.

A gust of wind blew her mane over her eyes. Stomping a hoof, the little unicorn turned around and...

"OK, that's IT! Leave us....a..."

Down the road, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara choked as a cloud of dust roiled off the stones and grimed their pristine, pretty pelts in a mix of dirt and random bits of trash.

"HEY! GIRLS! SO SORRY NOBODY TOLD YOU THEY WERE DOING STREETCLEANING HERE THIS AFTERNOON!"

The source of the wind and apology came to earth- a lavender pegasus. A few more flaps of her wings sent the last bits of garbage to chase after the thoroughly mussed pair of bullies.

"Pssh. Now they're dirty on the outside, too.", called Cloud Kicker in passing. A few seconds later, her straight face broke into a smile. "Bet I don't get invited to Diamond's next party, eh?"

The pile of giggling fillies wasn't up for saying much to that.

"I did have a reason to drop down on you three before I saw that pair of grey clouds raining on your heads- you did some good work the other day, and I hear you were about to all go flying off to Canterlot. What happened?"

The floodgates were opened.

"They said we had ta stay home and take care of-" "I'm a housemare!" "They said I had to be this high to get on the rid-"

"Whoa, whoa! Storm warning! So, you got left behind to do all the work while the big adults got to have all the fun?"

"YEAH!"

"Heh, me too. I've been pushing cumulus since Dashie went off on vacation, but you three are why I got to do something very important."

Suddenly, the pegasus had a rapt, very attentive audience.

"You know you saved a very lucky pony yesterday, right?"

"You mean that pony up in the tree?" "The one that wasn't Rainbow Dash?" "Was they all right?"

"Yep, he's at the hospital right now, and he didn't have wings, either. Little unicorn colt, sitting in a tree like that!"

"A UNICORN?" "How come HE can fly?" "Ain't that a little weird?"

"Well, I think he fell more than flew, kids. But the doc said he wasn't hurt bad, just really spooked from being up there."

Sweetie Belle looked slightly dizzy at the concept. Scootaloo a bit envious.

"So...where you going with all the stuff? Gonna go patch up a few dolls that got into a freak wind shear accident?"

"We WAS gonna fix up our big sisters! But now...we ain't." Sighs of disappointment. "So, since we ain't going to be big sister doctors, we gotta give back the stuff the nurses let us have ta help since they weren't goin' to Canterlot, neither."

"You know...maybe you could go visit someone at the hospital. Like that colt. He's about your size...and I think he has three friends he doesn't even know about. The ones that helped me find him up in that tree."

The cloudy forecast changed to sunny in seconds.

"Do you think your Granny has something for overclimbing?"