Medical Procedures

The intermittent sound of scribbling echoed through the empty lobby of the Ponyville Clinic. Dr. Stables was busy at work with Twilight’s papers; so busy in fact, that he hardly took a sip from the mug of coffee he had prepared for himself over an hour ago.

He sighed before smirking, and placed the quill down to rub his eyes. It was early in the morning, and most employees had yet to arrive. The doctor had come at that time not because he needed to, but due to his desire to hurry along and get Twilight started on her work. Looking at the clock, just passed six-thirty, he groaned and looked at his drink. “That’s probably cold. Might as well warm it back up.”

Meanwhile—just outside the Ponyville city limits—Spitfire and Rainbow Dash had met for some special one-on-one Wonderbolts training. They stood in the clearing among the green grass and whistling winds, waiting for the sun to rise. Spitfire turned to her pupil and sternly asked, “You remember what you’ll be doing, correct?!”

“Yes ma’am!” Rainbow cleared her throat before running through the procedures once more. “I am to start clearing the clouds the second the sun breaks dawn, and I must have them all gone by its full rise!”

“Good!” Spitfire looked on and waited with the cerulean mare, eager to see the sight for herself.

Of course, this was a daily thing for Rainbow Dash. Even before joining the Wonderbolts, she’d test her abilities early in the morning with this same, basic and somewhat old practice. However, Spitfire knew this, and had other plans to strain Rainbow from completing her task. As the sun finally showed its beaming face, Rainbow’s wings spread, and in a flash of ecstatic spectrum lightning, she took off for the golden sky.

One by one, the clouds that were once invisible in the darkness were wiped clean from the atmosphere. Everything was going smoothly, and for the most part, Spitfire was pleased at Rainbow’s work. Though, this was expected, and as soon as half the clouds were vanquished, Spitfire grinned. “Guess that’s my cue.”

She lowered her frame, opened her own wings and ignited the grass around her just by taking off. The smoke trailing her was soon seen by Rainbow, and as she slowed herself to try and figure out who or what it could’ve been, she heard her mentor yell in disbelief, “What’re you doing Dash? Keep going!”

Rainbow gasped at the speeds her teacher was reaching, and before she could get back to work, Spitfire passed right by her. Thanks to the vigorous winds trailing Spitfire, Rainbow was send swirling in the air. She backflipped three times before finally stopping herself and looked up to spot Spitfire roughly turning to chase after her.

“Right,” Rainbow huffed.

With no other choice, she forced herself to do her best by ignoring the distractions spontaneously presented and staying focused on the targets. Repeatedly rushing through the clouds and dodging Spitfire’s actions, Rainbow was close to being done when Spitfire knocked right into her, making the cerulean pegasus lose her balance once more, only to recover moments later and resume her tedious mission.

One last cloud remained wafting in the distance. If Rainbow could just reach it, she would succeed. It wasn’t that far off, actually. A few more beats of her wings, and she’d be done. Charging after it, she could hear the thunderous roar of Spitfire above her headed right for the same destination. Spitfire wanted to see Rainbow push herself harder this time, so with her mind made up and confidence in Rainbow’s abilities fogging her better judgement, she swooped down. Like a bat out of hell, Spitfire raged through the gusts of winds, tears seeping through her eyelids. She expected Rainbow to be able to outdo her and reach the cloud first, but unfortunately, just as the sun reached its penultimate state, Rainbow glanced up to see Spitfire’s widening eyes. Everything from that point for Rainbow became a blackened blur.

On the ground, pain seared through her upper-right hoof, and the worried voice of Spitfire rang through her ears. “Hold on Rainbow! I-I’ll get some help. Just stay put!” The commander turned to hear Rainbow cough a bit. Looking around, the mare claimed, “I never meant that to happen...”

The injured pony wheezed, “D-did I do it...? Did I g-get that last cloud, ma’am?”

Spitfire bit her bottom lip and looked up to the remaining puff in the sky. “...Yeah, kid... You did.”

Rainbow rested her body while unable to move. All the mare could do was be proud at the accomplishment she actually didn’t achieve. Soon, she was taken away to the clinic where she’d meet up with a familiar friend.

Minutes before Rainbow would make her entrance, Twilight arrived to be greeted by Dr. Stables. As she entered, the unicorn felt happy and showed it with a smile. “Welcome, Twilight! Good to see you again,” Dr. Stables said.

“It’s good to see you as well. So, how goes the preparations?” Twilight was brought to the back of the desk only to see paper upon documents and records all in a heaping pile right underneath the counter, and some even sliding onto the floor. “Oh, sweet Celestia... You really do need an organizer!”

Sheepishly chuckling at her words, the doctor frowned and explained, “Nurse Redheart was a great assistant, but to my personal dissatisfaction, neither she nor I could ever keep things around here very orderly or neat with it being such a madhouse. After awhile, it got out of hoof. I found it too great a challenge to try much longer, and the same could be said for anypony else who worked here. We considered hiring somepony like yourself early on, but only recently have we had a break, and a chance to attempt this. So, I ask you once more, will you be able to handle this?”

Twilight smirked and placed a soft hoof on Dr. Stables chest. “You can count on me!”

Sighing with relief, the doctor pulled out her papers and asked Twilight to have a seat and fill the documents out. They consisted with basic informational requirements such as height, weight, special talent, and so on. About half way through, the doors opened, and Twilight was momentarily shocked to see her own friend, Rainbow Dash being wheeled in on a gurney, Spitfire following close behind with a discouraging expression. Twilight immediately placed the notes down on the table in front of her and trotted to the Wonderbolt leader to question, “What happened?”

Spitfire watched her student being taken to the back and muttered, “We, uh... had a bit of an accident during today’s morning routine...” She looked up to Twilight’s glossy eyes and said, “It’s just a fractured hoof. Shouldn’t take long to heal at all. She’s actually lucky she landed in the bushes. Otherwise, I’m not really sure she would’ve survived the fall.”

Twilight glanced at the closing doors leading to the inside of the clinic to catch one last vision of her friend, wounded and bandages slightly covering her back and wings. She didn’t look too heavily impaired, but still, Twilight had to make sure. She walked up to the doctor and asked, “I’d like to be assigned to look after-”

“Rainbow Dash? I know,” Dr. Stables kindly interrupted. “I’m getting those forms sorted out right now.” With a wink, he returned to his work. As for Twilight, she thanked him and got back to filling out her own needed share of papers with Spitfire sitting beside her. Without peering away from her work, Twilight calmly asked, “So what exactly happened?”

Spitfire didn’t say anything at first. She adjusted herself a few times and tried to think about how she was going to put it. With Twilight putting down the quill again and looking over to her, Spitfire sighed and said, “They say you shouldn’t underestimate your enemies... You should also never overestimate your friends either...” Standing up and walking towards the door, Spitfire looked back while stopping for a second to tell Twilight, “Take care of her... I would stay, but I’ve got recruits to tend to...”

The unicorn nodded, and watched the Wonderbolt leader leave. Then, Twilight hurried up with her writings and immediately headed for Rainbow’s room. Once she entered, Twilight saw her friend laying on the exact same bed she was in when she first injured her wing. A nightstand next to her held an empty glass and a plate with some bits of grain left from her meal. As for Rainbow, she slept with her hoof wrapped in a cast, and some bandages circling her head. When Twilight sat down to the left of Rainbow and nudged her shoulder tenderly, the patient groaned a bit before opening her pale eyes. “T-Twilight?” she asked. “Is that you...?”

The unicorn almost felt a tear escape. Seeing her friend like this wasn’t the most comforting thing, so to fight it, she explained, “I’ll be looking after you for a bit. The doctor says you’ll only be here for about two weeks... I’ve been hired as a filing nurse, along with looking after certain ponies, too. I asked if you could be my first, and they didn’t mind at all... How’re you feeling?”

Rainbow laid the right portion of her head down and avoided eye contact while saying, “I’m fine.”

Not believing this, Twilight stood and reached over the cold, metal railings along the bed to hug her friend. “If you need anything, just call...”

As she began to leave her friend in peace, Twilight looked back to see Rainbow unmoved. Not only that, but Twilight could’ve sworn she heard Rainbow sobbing a bit, but there was nothing she could’ve done at that point but worry and hope her friend could recover soon, both physically, and mentally.

Returning once again to the lobby, Twilight saw Dr. Stables holding some sort of bundled fabric with bright colors surround the edges with his magic. Offering a puzzled face, Twilight asked him, “What’s that?”

He giggled slightly and claimed, “It’s your standard nurse outfit.” He gave it to her and continued, “While you’re working here, you’ll be required to wear it, as it’s also been enchanted with medical sanitation properties. They all have, actually.”

Twilight’s interest could be seen clearly while she looked the apparels over with an intrigued smile. She was shown to an empty room for changing, and once she exited, the doctor could hardly contain himself. Twilight was without a doubt the most gorgeous looking nurse in the whole clinic, so much that some passersby had to stop and compliment her on how professional she appeared. The white, comfy socks fit nicely on her hind legs reaching all the way up to half her cutie mark, and the nurses hat with the health symbol labeling the middle stayed snug on her head thanks to her horn elevating it. Her pretty pink coat was just the right size for her, making movement easier than what one would think. Dr. Stables swallowed, unable to form any words, so Twilight asked him, “Does this look alright?”

“Yep!” He squealed nervously, cleared his throat and said, “Yeah, i-it’s very suitable on you.”

Twilight smiled and asked, “I’ll go ahead and get to work, then?” The stallion nodded, and she walked off unaware of not only the doctor’s eyes peeking at her flank swaying down the hallway, but some of the other mares as well. Back at the front desk, Twilight got straight to work until a mail pony walked through the front door holding a wide assortment of flowers in a basket. There were red roses, violets, tulips and many, many more. When the stallion reached the front desk and carefully sat his deliver down, he looked passed it to Twilight while huffing and gave her a note. It read, “To Rainbow Dash with the greatest of apologies. Sincerely, Spitfire.”

After thanking the stallion for his kind services, Twilight lifted the surprisingly heavy bouquet up and headed to Rainbow’s room. Inside, Rainbow still laid asleep, so Twilight placed the flowers on the table across from the pegasus and sat the note next to her friend’s nightstand. Seeing Rainbow peacefully asleep and slightly snoring made Twilight feel warm inside. Once she returned to the paperwork still in need of organization, she assured herself, “Rainbow will be fine.”