When War is Close by

When War is Close by

Chapter 6
To Be In The Knowing

Twilight was sitting at a table just outside Sugar Cube Corner. The sun was high in the Sunday noon sky. Twilight had just enjoyed lunch with her number one assistant who was sitting across the table from her, piled into a part of the workload that she had split between them.

The purple dragon had really surprised her three days ago when she had returned home from her weekly report tour around town with the commander and found her study almost empty.

He had completely restored her study room to it's former state that evening. By resolving the massive stacks of paper and piles of books with filing and archiving all the army letters and relocating all the books to their proper locations on the shelves of the library's public main floor.

He had been working proudly for her since then by taking notes, calculating and running the occasional errands, almost like he was trying to fill in for the long 3 years period where he hadn't been able to assist her.

“So?”, Spike suddenly broke the working silence looking up from his pile. “Do you think... um, you know?” The dragon paused but as Twilight only returned a confuzzled look he continued with a sigh.

“Rarity will be here next Wednesday for the Wonderbolts show and I heard that her and Fluttershy are going to meet up at Rarity's shop in Canterlot before going to the show... and um... do you, um think...”, he paused again looking around himself seemingly trying to brush off his obvious nervousness regarding the subject.

“Well, I don't mind you visiting Rarity”, she nodded in response having already guessed what the purple dragon was on about.
“Most ponies are taking a day off Wednesday anyway since it's not often anypony get to see the Wonderbolts in action for free. But it's not my call to make since it's an arrangement between Fluttershy and Rarity... You should talk it over with Fluttershy later but I'm sure she'll let you come along.”

Spike nodded with a thankful smile, “Thanks Twi!”,
and returned to his pile of work but it wasn't long before he broke the silence again.

“Do you... think Rarity remembers who I am?”, he asked with a stain of concern on his tone.

“Oh, I'm sure she remembers you quite well”, Twilight replied confidently as she rolled her eyes. “I'm more concerned about whether or not the commander understood your instructions on how to send letters to us using fire. It's been three days and we haven't received single one yet.”

“I'm pretty sure he got it right. All he has to do is ignite the rune stone with magic and then cast it into a fire along with the letter he wishes to send and then I should receive it in a matter of minutes”, Spike nodded. “Which reminds me...” He began with a more serious tone. “Why didn't you send me any letters during the past three years?”

“Well...” The, now guilty looking, unicorn answered. “I don't have a rune stone... so even if I wanted--”.
“But Celestia has one!”
Twilight firmly planted a hoof on her face below her horn. “Oh... right. I'm sorry Spike for some reason that fact just slipped my mind.”

The dragon smiled kindly at the mare who sat across the table. “It's okay Twilight, I forgi--”. Spike stopped mid sentence with an expression of surprise as if someone had seemingly just stuffed his mouth full of cotton.
He bent over and stretched out his clawed hand and with a gentle cough of green fire a small blood stained and half burnt note appeared in the dragons grip.

Spike looked at the rather small note for a few seconds. “It's... for you”, he managed to say dryly as he handed the ruffled and stained note to Twilight.

With utmost disgust Twilight took hold of the note with her magic and brought it close enough for her to read the small and hastily made scribbles.

'Field inlet shows signs of spy in Ponyville
-Lucas'
Followed by a unique Equestrian army stamp indicating that it was indeed send by the commander.

“Oh no... this can't be good”, Twilight muttered.
“What's wrong?”, the dragon asked but before he could say another word a hushing Twilight grabbed his claw, pulling him down and in close.

“There might be a spy on the loose.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper so that no one but him and Twilight could hear it. “We have to hurry and root him out before Wednesday or there might be trouble. I want you to go to the north, east and south gate and get copies of their lists of the past weeks arrivals and departures.”

“Got it”, the purple dragon replied with a nod.
“Once you have the copies”, Twilight continued as the dragon stood up, “you can head for the west gate. I'll meet you there after I have made a quick swing by the hospital.”

“The hospital?” Twilight received a sceptical look from the dragon who had begun to turn his mess of a work pile into orderly stacks. “You didn't tell me you had an appointment.”

“Well I don't”, Twilight stood up and began to dismiss the orderly piles one by one with her magic. “But we need to know more about what a half dragon looks like and I think the best place to find out is by asking one who have actually seen one.”

“Oh right... that makes loads of sense”, he chuckled a bit at himself and continued to help Twilight by stacking the rest of the paper neatly in front of her.

After all the scrolls and paper, quills and ink had been safely stored, Twilight put on the army marked circlet and the two friends parted ways.

After a few minutes Twilight turned a corner and the Hospital located in the south-western part of town came into sight. The hospital hadn't changed too much over the past years.

There had been added an extra wing to the hospital building to accommodate more patients and when the wall had been built around Ponyville the top doctors of the hospital had requested to isolate the hospital grounds from the rest of the town.

As the doctors had stressed the matter that giving patients access to a relaxing outside area would improve most patients recovery speed and the fact that the town in itself wasn't as 'relaxing' as it had been in the past.

As the town's space was already becoming cramped due to the new wall around it, a decision was made to found a public park around the hospital.
At first the doctors had been sceptical about the idea but in the end agreed to the solution and a smaller wall was built, isolating the new park and the hospital from the rest of the town.

Twilight trotted through the silver gate that was the entrance to the park and proceeded towards the large, white building in the middle of the small park.

The park always had a few extra visitors aside from the patients that were currently staying at the hospital. The park had become a neat little haven for those who desired to stay on the inside of the protective wall yet still wanted to go on a picnic.

Having returned greetings of the few passers-by that knew her personally, Twilight finally passed through the big doors to enter the hospitals entrance hall.

The white entrance hall was almost deserted aside from a few ponies waiting for a quick examination and a brown pegasus with a bandaged wing. Behind the counter and half closed glass enclosure sat Nurse Redheart reading a magazine that she put away when she noticed Twilight approach her.

“Miss Sparkle”, the nurse said with a smile as she left the glass enclosure and noticed the circlet on Twilights head. “--Or should I say Vice Commander Sparkle?”

“No, it's quite all right, Redheart”. Twilight nodded back. “Even if I'm a Vice Commander now most ponies address me as they always have and that's how I prefer it.”

“Okay, miss Sparkle”. The white nurse smiled back as she fetched a large protocol marked appointments from under the counter and placed it in front of her.

“Do you have an appointment with one of the doctors?” But before she had a chance to open the protocol Twilight had drawn close to the desk and lowered her voice to almost a whisper.

“I don't have an appointment but it's important that I speak with Doctor Stable right away.” The nurse lifted a questioning eyebrow at the purple unicorn.
“It's army business and it's quite urgent”, Twilight answered with a serious frown.

The nurse nodded understandingly in response. “I'll call Doctor Stable to his office then.” She slipped off her chair and left the counter.
“It's down the hall main then first time to the left. You should wait for him just outside his door,” the nurse said as she passed Twilight and went through a staff only door.

Twilight had waited five minutes at most when Doctor Stable showed up and they sat down to talk in the messy office with his name on the door. She didn't blame him for the mess, her study would still be a mess too if it wasn't for her number one assistant.

After a few minutes the doctor leaned back in his chair thoughtfully putting his hooves together in front of his mouth having just heard the situation from Twilight and her request.

“Hmmm,” the older Doctor hummed. “The fact that you haven't made contact to one of my patients on your own I assume you understand the condition my patients from the army are in?” The doctor lifted a brow and looked at Twilight over his hooves.

The purple mare returned the serious gaze. “Not quite but I have seen several of them just before arriving here at your doors.” Twilight replied as she tried to swallow a small lump that had formed in her throat.

Her mind flooded with memories she had tried to forget, of tired and dirty soldiers, those who were able were trotting. Others had to be carried past her down the street towards the hospital. Their facial expressions dull and lost as if the end was near.

“What happened to them on the battlefield?” Twilight managed to push out through her dry neck and mouth.

“Well, it's quite obvious what actually happened, these kinds of things are expected.” The doctor let out a heavy sigh.
“When we lose our friends and loved ones under normal conditions we get to say a nice, quiet goodbye or something of that sort.” Twilight swallow another dry lump as the doctor continued. She had a feeling she knew where this conversation was going and she didn't like it.

“But in something as brutal and unpredictable as war our friends and loved ones often get brutally and suddenly ripped away, so suddenly that it tends to affect the subjects mental state in a traumatizing manner.” The doctor shifted his position to a more upright one before he continued, looking at Twilight over his desk.

“While the ones subjected to these traumas may looks physically well and mentally stable at first we have learned that a lot of them suffer from hallucinations.” the Doctor levitated his glasses off his face and began to clean them with a piece of cloth as he carried on. “Triggered by both sounds and visuals that even in the slightest can relate to the one of the traumatizing events...”

Twilight bit her lower lip, she felt a drop of sweat roll down the back of her neck, as a not too fond memory of having had a similar experience years back when she was about to be tardy sending her weekly friendship report, slipped past her conscious.

She managed to regain her composure before the doctor put his glasses back in place. He didn't seem to have noticed her nervous twitch as he carried on. “Or the subject suffer from nightmares that keep them from having a regular sleeping pattern... Both conditions force the patient to relive the scarring memories to some extent.”

Twilight nodded understandingly and cleared her dry throat. “But that doesn't change the fact that I need to speak with one of them.” She continued in a bit more insisting tone. “We need a better understanding of our enemy, ASAP.”

“I agree,” Doctor Stable said as he slid off his chair and turned to a filing cabinet behind him only to fetch a folder from one of the middle drawers. “Yet I must say these patients are quite a handful. We don't have any medical records or books on similar conditions.”

The orange doctor opened the folder and began to examine it's contents. “The impact such traumas have on subjects have shown to be so sever that the Royal Institute of Medical Science have decided to label these specific conditions with the name: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD for short.”

Twilight nodded again when the Royal Institute decides to give a mental condition it's own name and not keep it simply labelled as 'mental instability' it usually meant that this condition was something that couldn't easily be dealt with or cured. “Who would you suggest I approach and how do I approach the patient?”

“Well, seeing as we mostly deal with those who suffer from hallucinations.” The Doctor began as he placed a patient profile sheet from the folder in front of Twilight. “Gold Plate here is the most stable related patient we have. He should be in the park right now. Nurse Redheart can point him out for you...” The doctor glanced at her over his glasses.
“Be straight forward with him and if he declines to talk about the subject you back off quietly.”

Twilight, who was studying the profile sheet, looked up and met his glance with an understanding frown. “Of course.”