The song of love.

Chapter three. New determinations.

Late at night, Soft was back again in his house. He looked at the mess in his house: the huge pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen, the tons of things out of their respective places, and that kind of stuff. There was much to be done in his house. However, Soft was not in his mood to do a housecleaning. His day had gone from bad to worse. Only remembering about it made Soft to throw himself in his couch and started to cry for that poor filly.

Earlier that day, he had gone to Rarity’s house to see Sweetie Belle’s leg. However, it was obvious that her leg was in all the possible states but fine. After a while of running along, she fell on the floor, screaming in extreme pain while her leg was bad again.

He could remember every detail of this scene.

He and Rarity went at Sweetie’s side to check on her. Soft tried to calm her down, but the pain was so unbearable for Sweetie that Soft had to search for other option. He took out a small bottle containing some pills. Using his magic, he opened it. With help of Rarity, he forced Sweetie Belle to drink one pill, telling her it would make the pain to go away in a few minutes.

After three desperate minutes, she calmed down and fell asleep. The pain had taken a lot from her. Soft could not avoid letting one tear to drop from his face, causing Rarity to get even more confused.

“I thought she was okay! She was even running along!”

Once that she was in her bed, Soft saw her sleeping. She looked so cute like that... he couldn't bear it.

Soft turned to exit the room, stopping for a second to see a drawing in the floor. It was the same he saw before. He lifted it to see upon it better. A yellow colt was holding a hoof in his own, belonging to a smiling white filly with green eyes. Another tear came out when he read the phrase clumsily written in the upper part: “My hero”

Downstairs, he was going toward the exit when the same drawing, levitated by magic, stood in front of him. Turning around, Rarity was behind him with an angry look on her face.

“Are you going to leave her? Leave her even when she is faithful about you?”

Soft stood quiet in his position, with an adamant expression.

“You must search a real doctor for this labor. All I can do is giving her some placebos.”

“Placebos?”

“… It’s fake medicine. If it isn’t is told to the patient, along with a technique of convincing, it can make the mind to believe the body is actually receiving medicine.”

“You’re not doing anything for her?”

“I’m doing everything I can! Worst of all is that I can’t do anything else!”

Rarity froze in front of the frustrated yellow colt. He wasn’t the same colt she had found yesterday.

“It’s just…”

Rarity knew what he meant by that. She was feeling the same yesterday, seeing upon her little sister mourning about her freedom. Then, with a tender smile on her face, she hugged him. Soft got surprised by this.However, he couldn't deny a hug in this moment. It was just what he needed.

“I know how you feel. But she trusts you. You can’t just leave her like that. Her dreams of walking again will be crushed by doing this.”

“… They will be crushed anyway.”

Rarity stopped the hug to see upon his eyes. She had felt something wet between their faces. Soft was crying again. This time, more intensely. Rarity couldn’t do anything to ease his pain. It was clear to her that it was an unbearable feeling for him to stand for.

“…I’ll understand… if you want to leave this at once…”

Soft turned to avoid her look, for her not to note the feelings he was having. However, all he could see was a white filly coming downstairs. Once she spotted them, she froze in the stairs.

Rarity noted Soft surprised look and turned to see Sweetie Belle standing in the middle of the stairs.

“Oh… Sweetie Belle! When did you come here?”

“Just a moment ago. But I can see you two are occupied, so… I… could… come… down… later.”

Suddenly, she turned toward Soft, who was still crying. She approached to him, seeing all the tears in his face.

“Why are you crying, mister Doctor?”

An image of her to know about what was going to happen rushed to his mind. If what he thought would happen, it would have been an unbearable pain to Sweetie.

“It’s nothing. I’m just… glad to see you standing like that. However, today’s incident has uncovered something I didn’t expect. I’ll come back every day to check upon it. We don’t want something bad to happen, right?”

Soft faked a smile. However, it seemed to work, for Sweetie started to smile back.

“That’s right, mister Doctor!”

“Okay, Sweetie Belle. Go to get some rest. You must be tired by that incident.”

It was confirmed when Sweetie let out a yawn and started to talk drowsily.

“I think you’re right, mister Doctor. Good night.”

Once she was upstairs, Soft turned to see Rarity, who was almost the same as Sweetie Belle. She yawned as well, and turned to Soft.

“Then, you’re coming tomorrow, don’t you?”

“Don’t know. Good night, miss Rarity.”

Said this, he got out of the boutique to walk toward his house. There was a beautiful sunset in the far mountains. Once again, Celestia and Luna had made an excellent work bringing a beautiful end to the day. However, it didn’t result beautiful to Soft, as he had more things in his head of what he could count.

When he got to his home, he saw his messed up house. He was used to clean up everything when he got to his house. However, this time he didn’t was on his mood to do house cleaning. He had the image of Sweetie Belle, screaming in the floor and holding her leg in a tremendous pain. He couldn’t even manage to keep himself in his hooves. Therefore, he threw himself to his couch. One more time, he was crying. He closed his eyes until the world around him was lost.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a dark place. In there, it didn’t was floor or walls or ceiling. It was nothing.

“Where am I?”

Try to guess.

An unknown male voice came out from nowhere. It was pretty familiar though.

“Who are you?”

The right question should be: who am I?

He recognized the voice right away: It was its own voice.

“You’re… my conscience?”

That’s right. You have too many questions about this filly.

“I can’t do anything for Sweetie Belle! My magic is not strong enough to help her!”

How do you know it? Have you even tried it?

Soft started to think about it. In the school, he never quit to anything he considered important. Why to change it now?

“But… are you, I mean… am I sure?”

You tell me.

The world around him seemed to vanish. The non-floor in which he was standing crashed and he fell to the black void of his mind.

Suddenly, Soft opened his eyes. He was in his house, still in his couch. It was two a.m. of the night. He thought about his dream. Did he really have the enough power to cure Sweetie Belle?

…

Sweetie Belle. The only mention of that name made his heart to speed up. She was his first patient since he got graduated. He couldn’t leave her like that. He had to try at least. Her drawing returned to his mind, when he realized something: heroes don’t leave. They were brave, and they would give their own life to protect the ponies in need for them.

Suddenly, he got an unknown vital strength that took him out of his couch. He got to clean his house until the sunrise.

Later, that day.

Rarity heard the knocks in his door. Sweetie Belle was still asleep. She never thought about seeing Soft Heart again in her door. He was even smiling.

“Good morning, miss Rarity.”

“Good morning… doctor Soft.”

Rarity’s eyes went wide open as she knew what had happened. She gave him another hug before inviting him to enter the house.

“I knew you wouldn’t leave her.”

“I had… a special talk with myself. I came to realize that leaving her in need of help would be, if not unfair, totally coward.”

“Coward?”

“Yeah. It would be like running of your responsibilities. Therefore, even if I fail, I will try the best to cure her.”

Once in Sweetie Belle Room, he saw the little filly still asleep in her bed. The sight was so cute, he didn’t want to interrupt her dreaming, whatever it was. Instead, he saw the huge pile of drawings in the corner next to her bed. He approached to see at one of them. The first one was of her, in companion of her sister at what seemed like a lake. They were with the lower part of her hooves in the water.

Suddenly, he felt a creep in his back as he realized that he was being watched. He turned slowly to see a pair of green eyes looking at him from the bed.

“… These are some pretty drawings, you know?”

Sweetie Belle didn’t looked away from him. In fact, she was looking at him in a certain way that only could mean something: suspects. Soft wondered why she was looking at him like that.

“So… how have you been? Does it hurt?”

Sweetie Belle reacted to the question, lowering her head to see a little bump under her sheets. Soft guessed she was suffering again.

“Sweetie Belle? Does it hurt again?”

“No… but…”

Sweetie Belle started to cry silently, as if she was being tormented by something. Soft approached slowly to her bed, suddenly feeling very anxious.

“Sweetie Belle… what’s wrong?”

After a while, she lifted her sight to see upon Soft eyes.

“I heard you talking with my sister last night.”

Soft froze at the words of Sweetie Belle. She had listened to everything they said.

“Then… I assume you listened to the part where I said I would quit. Am I right?”

“…Yes”

Soft started to think about what to say. He felt a paper under his hoof. Approaching it to his look, he could read again the two words: My hero.

“Sweetie Belle. I know what I said last night. But a while ago, I had a dream in which I talked with myself. Then, I realized something: You’re someone in need of help…”

Using his magic, he levitated the drawing to Sweetie’s bed. She took it in her little hoof, looking at it with a sad look.

“And I’m here to help you.”

Sweetie Belle lifted her look to see upon Soft Heart’s eyes. Somehow, they seemed shining, full of life.

“I promise to never give up until your leg is totally cured. Even if it requires my own dead, it will be done.”

Sweetie Belle just looked at him with a serious look in his eyes, telling everypony who saw them: “I don’t believe you.”

“You said you were going to quit. How can I know you weren't lying?”

Soft Heart was startled to hear that. Suddenly, he remembered something while he looked down. He always wore a necklace with an empty space on it. It was used to take along with the user an image of his loved ones. However, Soft Heart’s was empty. He took it off from his neck and offered it to Sweetie Belle.

“Here, take it.”

Sweetie Belle looked at it for a second or two.

“What is this?”

“It is used to have an image of your loved ones. I haven’t found my special one yet. But you can have it. When I cure you, you’ll return it to me.”

Sweetie Belle looked to the golden circle in the middle, realizing something.

“You know what?”

“What, Sweetie?”

Sweetie Belle put both hooves in the object and hugged it.

“… This is the first gift a colt has given to me.”

In that instant, Sweetie's smile came back. With no words, Soft could understand what she was saying: "Thanks."