“Push! You’re almost there, Mrs Petals! He’s crowning, Mrs Petals. Push!” screamed the Nurse Joyheart, trying to get through to the soon-to-be Mother lying in the hospital bed.

“Hnnnn-Ahhh! Why is it so pahhhhh-painful? This is -hnnnng- meant to be a miracle! Then why does it feel like I’m being ripped in half!” Rose Petal yelped, panting and wailing in pain, “Ahhhhh!”

“Y-you’re almost there Honey, J-just push a little harder.” Her husband, Orion, stood at her side, clutching her hoof to his solid metal chest plate and weakly smiling at her. The normally rock-solid pegasus guard had been brought to his knees by the sudden rush of the evening. The foal hadn’t been due for two weeks.

“Easy for you to say! You’re not the one who’s trying to fit a watermelon out from between their legs!” Rose Petal gave him a deathly glare, scrunching her face up in a ball as she fought to get this baby out of her.

“Just a little more, Ma’am! He’s almo- wait…” the nurse retreated from her position, blinking wildly in disbelief, and called out the door “Somepony get Doctor Genepool! ASAP!” The mare ran back to ready herself for the delivery. “One more push, ma’am! You’ve almost done it.”

Rose Petal gritted her teeth, clinging to her husband’s hoof, and squeezed every muscle in her body. “Ahhhh!” she howled, as the last of the pain subsided. She gasped for air, desperate to block out the pain, as the room went silent. Two doctors rushed into the ward, and surrounded the nurse who held the small dark grey foal in her magic, and one by one their expressions fell flat.

“What- What’s wrong?” asked the guards pony, desperate not to be left in suspense about his son and unsure whether to be confused or terrified. His gaze shifted from his wife to the doctors and back. No pony moved, and the room was silent except for the slow paced beeps made by Rose’s heart beat monitor. “Doctors? Nurses?” Orion said softly, choking on the thick tension that hung about the room.

With a quick burst of movement, the Nurse turned to one doctor and whispered something in his ear. They walked side by side out of the room with the baby. Orion stared on wondering, invisible to everypony in the room except one.
“W-where’s Sunshine gone?” questioned Rose Petal, still holding onto her husband’s hoof. He looked to her, seeing her smile weakly. In truth, he didn’t know where.

“They’ve gone to check your foal for any… complications” stated the remaining doctor. He was an older stallion, glasses pushed up his muzzle and looking very experienced. Yet even he look startled, shocked even, as though he’d never seen a new born foal. He appeared to be calm, trying to hide his suspicions, but his forced smile took any sincerity away from the gesture. Slowly, the second doctor left, unable to deal with the overhanging worry in the room.
“Th-that’s nice. I hope Sunshine is alright…” muttered the pale looking mare. She’d been through a lot today. “Orion, honey. Are you okay? You looked worried.” She smiled to her husband, being very calm and very aloft.
“Yeah” the guards pony replied weakly, “I’m not the one who just gave birth though.” He chuckled a little at his own joke, and soon his wife joined in with a faint giggle. Orion found himself smiling, awaiting his son’s return, but in the back of his mind, something niggled at him. Something was wrong.
Rose’s hoof fell limp as a long monotonous beep sounded faintly behind him. It wasn’t going to stop. He turned to the source of the noise, the heart rate monitor. It took a second to register but it hit him like a ton of bricks. “Rose, honey? Rose Petal?” he whispered, afraid that he might actually be seeing the truth. “Rose Petal?!” he called, yet received no reply. He had frozen to the spot, helpless to do anything.

“Something the matter?” A nurse yelled a nurse from outside. He couldn’t reply. He was struck mute, and all that could be heard was the loud flat note that was played by the machine. Almost instantly, two nurses rushed in dragging a machine behind them. A defibrillator. They surrounded Rose Petal’s bed as the live-saving equipment was wheeled next to her.

“She’s not breathing. Grab the oxygen mask” shouted the younger looking nurse. The other simply nodded and ran out. Orion continued to find himself unable to move, looking one as the young nurse attached the defibrillator’s pads to Rose’s still chest. The nurse looked from Rose Petal to the machine that was meant to save her life.

“Charging… Clear!” shouted the nurse to no pony in particular. Rose’s whole body convulsed as the electrical charge flowed through her, but she didn’t respond. Her head flicked between the dying mare and the heart rate monitor. “No pulse” she muttered, “Charging again. Clear!”

Orion was left unable to do anything as his wife slowly disappeared in front of him. He could only pray for any sign of life. The defibrillator shocked his wife with no effect. It was charged and fired again and again to no avail.

The guards pony teared up as he watched the nurse’s pained expression. She stood staring at his wife, her head lowered. She stamped a hoof on the floor in frustration, but it wouldn’t bring her back. Rose was gone. The nurse lowered the machine onto its trolley and looked at the nearby clock.

“Time of Death: 11:52pm” she stated, just as monotonous as the heart rate monitor. The clipboard on the end of Rose’s bed was levitated towards her, and she scribbled something on it. The young nurse took a deep breath, replacing the clipboard. She couldn’t look at Orion, as she removed all the various cables attached to his wife and turned off all the equipment.

Slowly, she went to lift the sheet over Rose’s sleeping face, but left it just below her chin. She turned on the spot and began walking out of the room, giving herself as much space from Orion as possible.

Orion finally found his hooves unstuck from the tiled floor of the maternity ward. He shuffled sluggishly towards his wife’s side, tired from exhaustion. He slumped to his haunches as he came along side her, seeing his wife for what he realised would be the very last time. He was nervous and didn’t know what to say. He sat in silence, listening to the absence of his wife’s life, trying to think of something to break the surmounting tension.

“Hi, Honey” was the only legible words that came out before Orion hit the bed sobbing. Quiet and angry, his tears streamed wildly with no resistance. He had sagged over the side of the bed, his face panted next to Rose’s side. He cried on with no pony there to comfort him. He just sat there letting the emotions run out of him. No pony dared enter. Unknown to Orion, Nurse Joyheart stood in the doorway letting him grieve.

A good twenty minutes passed before Orion had been able to stop the waterworks. He hadn’t cried in near on two decades, not since his wedding day. Nurse Joyheart stepped in soon after, and laid a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. He didn’t react to the unexpected touch of a hoof except for moaning a little. He shuffled a little, turning his head towards the nurse. He hadn’t smiled at her nor had he frowned, but she knew that she’d been given pass to speak. “Sunshine is waiting for you,” she whispered, “He’s coming in now.”

The nurse retreated back to the door and wheeled in the cot. Breaking the silence with nothing but a few clicks, the cot was secured and the nurse left them to be. Orion, still drooped over the bed, rolled himself off with a sickening crack coming from his neck, his spine out of place due to the uncomfortable position he had been lying in. He took a few steps towards the cot and looked into it.

“S-sunshine?” he muttered, peering over the edge. Within was a small grey foal, wrapped in a dark blue wrap. He was asleep, sucking on his hoof and smiling. The guards pony had taken one look at him, and he no longer felt sad. He was peaceful, drawing in the colt’s innocence. Orion even cracked a smile for the first time that night.

With a wing, he scooped up the foal and brought it over to his wife’s bed. She looked like she was sleeping too. He laid the foal next to her and jumped up onto the bed himself. He sandwiched the baby between him and his wife’s cooling body, resting his head upon the pillow. He never wanted the moment to end, for his situation to hit him hard.

The small colt yawned, a high pitched squeak coming from him. Orion looked down at the cute foal and nuzzled its small head. But something underneath the wraps caught his eye. A small rustling by the foal’s back; something struggling to be freed. The guards pony took his took an interest to this and tugged it undone softly. The tiny foal rolled slightly, and his bindings came loose. The navy wrappings fell from his coat to reveal two tiny wings, stretching and fidgeting after being exposed. However, these were not normal pegasi wings.

“What are those?” Orion muttered, staring on at the glimmering black wings. Was it a mutation? Had they not fully developed? The tiny wings unravelled, and the tiny colt stretched. His rounded eyes fluttered half-open to reveal two glowing cat-like eyes. His ears, as fluffy as they were, were fairly large. This was obviously not a normal colt.

The little colt blinked as his narrow pupils adjusted to the unnatural light. His hooves came up to block the onslaught of light. His eyes began to water, and he whimpered. Orion instinctively shot out a wing to shield his newborn son. From under the new shade, the colt calmed down a little. He rocked from side to side, looking at anything he could see, taking in his new surroundings. Orion watched his child in all its innocence. His son yawned wide, and he found himself doing the same. Their eyes met and they looked at one another in silence. A few seconds passed as they shared the moment, then looking up on his father, the foal smiled and giggled.

“Sunshine Smiles… My son.” Orion’s tough day was catching up on him fast. His eyelids falling fast as he pulled his son close, the foal yawning wide as he too fell asleep. The midnight bells chimed as Orion’s resistance faded and gave way to the welcome feeling of sleep.

Author's Notes:

After finishing Little Luna and the Cookie Conundrum, I wanted to get straight onto something else. Something new.
So when Equestria Daily's competition turned up, I thought Let's have a go.
My first instinct was to make it a parody of Batman... Not my best idea.
So I decided to write some feels because 'why not?'

Also, I friggin' love the name Sunshine Smiles for a bat pony, especially a stotic, grumpy one (but i'm not planning on making Sunshine that... I can't write anti-heroes.)