Ditzy woke to a beige ceiling above her, and the incessant sound of a slow, rhythmic beep. She tried to sit up, but was awarded with a jolt of pain down her left side. The world swirled in and out of focus.

“Woah, slow down there, sweetie,” a kind voice to her right whispered. Ditzy turned her head, and saw a powder blue pony with a mint green mane. She was wearing a funny, white hat with a red cross on it.

Panic spread through her. The hospital! She was in the hospital. She tried to get up again, only to be greeted with the familiar pain.

“It’s okay, Ms Doo. Please just calm down, you’re okay,” Nurse Tenderheart soothed the grey mare down. “You just took a little spill.”

“Dinky? Where is Dinky?” Ditzy cried out. “She’ll be coming back from the park!”

“Shh, shh, shh,” the nurse cooed. “The gentlecolt who brought you in said he’d get her. He said Dinky is in the same class as his little sister. They’ll be here very soon, I promise. But for now, you need to get some rest. The doctor will be in shortly.”

Ditzy relaxed back into the bed, now acutely aware of the pain on her left side. She looked down to her wing; it was bandaged, as were her barrel and shoulder.

She drifted in and out of consciousness, her head feeling slightly fuzzy.

“Momma!” The shout woke her. A small, pale–purple unicorn with a blonde mane dashed into the room. “Momma, momma! Are you okay?”

Dinky scrambled up onto the bed, tears burning in her eyes. The filly jumped towards her mother, wrapping her forearms around her mother’s neck. Ditzy winced at the pain in her side, but nuzzled her daughter as Dinky buried her muzzle in Ditzy’s mane.

“Hey, little muffin,” Ditzy croaked, tears in her eyes. “Sorry for scaring you. Mommy’s okay.”

As she cuddled into her daughter, she noticed two figures standing by the door. Dinky’s teacher, Cheerilee, and a large, well built stallion next to her. Crimson coat, yellow hooves.

“Now Dinky, be careful,” Cheerilee smiled, “Your mom is still hurt. Be very gentle with her.”

Dinky looked down at her mother, noticing the bandages for the first time.

At this time, they heard a cough from behind them. A caramel unicorn wearing a white coat and a stethoscope around his neck was waiting to get into the room.

“Sorry,” the large stallion coughed as he moved out of the doorway.

“Ms. Doo, my name is Doctor Stable,” he introduced himself as he looked over her charts. “You seem to have taken quite a spill. You broke the radius in your left wing. We’ve set the bones, but it will take some time to heal. Needless to say, no flying for a while. You should also stay off your hooves for a day or two. Your shoulder suffered some severe bruising in the impact.” He smiled, looking down at Ditzy. “But don’t worry, nothing broken there.

“We will keep you here tonight to make sure you do not develop an infection, but hopefully, we should be able to have you discharged by tomorrow evening.”

“Tomorrow evening?” Ditzy winced. “I can’t go home now?”

“I’m sorry.” The doctor shook his head. “No, you cannot leave tonight. With these types of injuries, infections are most likely to happen within the first twenty–four hours, so we need to keep you here for observation.”

Crestfallen. That was the best word to describe Ditzy’s mood. What would happen to Dinky?

“I have to leave, tonight!” she responded, louder than she had intended. “I can’t leave Dinky alone!”

She pulled Dinky in tighter to her good side.

Cheerilee coughed, and spoke up. “Perhaps we might be able to help with that.”

Ditzy turned to look at Cheerilee.

“I was in the park, talking with Dinky before Big Mac came running. He’d been running all over town asking for Dinky,” she explained as she turned towards the now bashful looking stallion. “Didn’t even realize the filly I was talking to was who he was looking for.”

Ditzy turned towards the large stallion. “But how-” she trailed off.

“You were callin’ for her in your sleep. As, as Ah was carrying you here.”

Both he and Ditzy looked away, embarrassed.

“Quite the gentlecolt, isn’t he?” Cheerilee laughed, nudging him in the ribs. Big MacIntosh’s cheeks grew a shade darker as he looked at his feet. “What we were thinking, was that Dinky could stay at Sweet Apple Acres tonight. A sleep over at Apple Bloom’s, if that is okay?”

Ditzy shifted nervously. She didn’t really know this stallion, though she supposed he did bring her to the hospital, then ran around town trying to find her daughter for her.

Cheerilee, sensing Ditzy’s unease, came close to the bed and added, “The Apple family are a wonderful family. She will be okay there. Big Mac is one of my closest friends, he’ll keep her safe.”

Ditzy looked down at her daughter, who was still snuggled close into her neck.

“What do you say, Dinky? Would you like to go sleep over at Apple Bloom’s?”

“I want to stay here with you,” Dinky whispered. “Why can’t I stay here with you.”

Tears welled up in Ditzy’s eyes. “You can’t stay here, I’m sorry sweetie,” she answered as she nuzzled Dinky’s cheek. “But tomorrow you can come back and you and mommy can go home together. Okay?”

Dinky’s sniffles got louder.

“You have to be brave, for mommy. Okay?”

“Okay,” the answer came, at barely a whisper.

Cheerilee looked down at the pair, then back at Big Mac.

“We’ll give you two some time alone, Big Mac and I will go and have some dinner. We’ll be back soon.”

An hour later, Cheerilee and Big Mac returned to the hospital. They’d finished a light meal, and at Cheerilee’s insistence had brought back a banana blueberry muffin for Dinky. They sat in the room and watched as Dinky happily broke off small pieces of muffin with her magic, lifting the pieces and giggling as her mother plucked them out of the air with her teeth.

Ditzy said goodbye to her daughter, kissing her on the forehead. “Now, you be a good little muffin for Big Mac and the Apples.” She barely concealed the sorrow in her voice. “You be a good little muffin, not a baked bad, okay?”

“Okay,” Dinky sniffed.

“Mommy will be out tomorrow.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Ditzy gave Cheerilee the key to her house, they’d discussed things that Dinky might need for the night. They bid Ditzy good night. She watched silently as her daughter left the room.

When they were out of sight, Ditzy held her head in her hooves and cried.

Cheerilee and Big Mac followed Dinky as she led them to her home. The small cottage was fairly run down, Big Mac noticed. The boarding of the front porch was warped, and he watched as Dinky skipped over the problem spots.

“Be careful,” she called back.

Cheerilee stepped up to the door first, and managed to get the key in the lock. She pushed the door, but it only opened part way. Dinky darted between Cheerilee's legs and planted two rear hooves against the door, making it give way.

Big Mac frowned as they walked through the door. While exceptionally tidy, the house was very much in a state of disrepair. It was very small, single room cottage. The small kitchen was organised around the hearth, and the bed seem to double as a couch. He smiled as he looked around the room though; every shelf was covered with pictures of Ditzy and Dinky.

Dinky jumped onto the bed, and picked up a small pink blanket in her teeth.

“Cam I brim dif?” she asked.

“Of course you can, my little pony,” Cheerilee smiled, as she set about gathering the things Ditzy had asked her to organise. She packed them all in a small brown saddlebag.

“Shall we be off?” Cheerilee beamed.

“Eeyup” Next Chapter: Chapter 3 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes