Dentists and Demons

Applejack trotted out to the waiting room and up to the reception desk. It took a bit of effort, but she managed to shake Apple Bloom off of her back. The filly stood wide-eyed and shaking, making sudden glances all around her.

“Just hold tight, sis,” Applejack said. She turned to the receptionist and began negotiating a payment plan for the dental work. While she talked bits with the mare, the door to the clinic opened. A sullen pair of pegasi walked in and stopped when they saw the earth ponies.

“Appoh Bwoom!” the younger pegasus shouted.

Applejack turned around to see Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo entering the dental clinic. Rainbow looked like she’d done something she wasn’t too proud of, and she shifted her hooves nervously. Scootaloo seemed cheerful, but her face was swollen and her lip was busted open.

“Oh, hey AJ,” the older pegasus said looking around, trying to avoid eye contact.

“Rainbow Dash,” Applejack asked, bending down to look at Scootaloo, “what in the hay happened to poor Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo replied, but Applejack couldn’t understand a word she said. “Uh,” Rainbow Dash began, stepping in front of the filly, “her first flying lesson didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped.” AJ raised her eyebrow and Rainbow Dash laughed, nervously rubbing the back of her neck. “Have you always had that many trees in the south field?”

There were small twigs sticking out of Scootaloo’s mane and it became evident she’d hit a tree. She smiled as best she could at Applejack, revealing a mouth full of broken and chipped teeth. AJ glared at RD for being careless.

“So, uh, what brings you two here?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying to steer the conversation away from her. They both looked to Apple Bloom. The filly’s eyes were fixed on the carpet below her hooves and she was shaking slightly. Scootaloo walked over to her and tried once more to get her attention.

The simple act of waving her hoof in front of Apple Bloom’s face sent the earth pony into a fit of screams. The door to the procedure room burst open and Colgate sprinted out. There was a syringe suspended in her magic aura, and without warning any of the ponies, she sank the needle into Apple Bloom’s neck.

Apple Bloom squirmed for a moment before dropping to the floor. Colgate removed the needle and looked up to see both Applejack and Rainbow Dash rushing towards her. “Wait! I can explain!” the dentist managed to say before being tackled to the floor. Her aura disappeared and the syringe fell onto the carpeting.

“You better!” Applejack shouted.

Colgate struggled to get free, but neither mare was going to let her go anywhere. “Your sister is fine! I just gave her a light sedative! She’ll wake up in a few hours when the laughing gas has worn off,” the dentist explained as quickly as she could.

“Why didn’t you do that sooner?” AJ asked angrily.

“It was my mistake! I’m sorry!” Colgate apologized, no longer resisting her captors. “I had no idea she’d react so poorly to the gas!”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack let the dentist up and watched as she straightened her smock. She turned and looked at Apple Bloom with remorse. Scootaloo was beside the filly, shaking her gently in an attempt to wake her up. Colgate looked away and then turned to her receptionist.

“Listerine, don’t charge the Apples for the filling,” she said. The receptionist nodded and scribbled a note onto her papers. Colgate turned again to look at Applejack, a combination of shame and panic in her eyes. “Please, forgive me,” she went on, “I handled the situation poorly.”

“Yer darn right you did,” Applejack replied, hoisting her unconscious sister off the floor with the aid of Rainbow Dash. She picked up the little dentist bag Apple Bloom had given and turned to leave. Scootaloo opened the door for AJ and looked at her friend as she was carried out.

The door slammed and the room went quiet with the exception of the ticking clock. Colgate cleared her throat and composed herself as best she could. The pegasi looked at her with silent contemplation as she walked back into her out-of-sight office.

“Can I help you?” Listerine, the receptionist, asked. Rainbow Dash approached the counter and Scootaloo nestled under her wing.

“Yeah, we had a little…accident…earlier, and I was hoping the doctor could see us right away,” Rainbow explained as carefully as she could. Listerine looked over the counter and down at the filly. Scootaloo smiled and the receptionist flinched when she saw her teeth.

“Oh dear,” Listerine said. She rummaged through the papers on her desk until she found the one she was looking for. “Now, are you the filly’s legal guardian?”

Rainbow Dash looked down to Scootaloo nervously. “Uh, yeah, we’re sisters,” Rainbow Dash lied, squeezing Scootaloo lovingly with her wing. The receptionist looked back and forth between the pegasi and eventually smiled.

“Ah, the resemblance is uncanny,” she said, passing RD a paper. “I just need you to fill that form out, and the doctor will see her right away.”

Rainbow Dash grabbed the form and a pencil with her teeth and walked to the seating area. Scootaloo climbed into one of the seats and began looking through the dental magazines. RD sat next to her and began looking over the form.

“Uh, when’s your birthday?” Rainbow Dash whispered quietly after looking at the form’s first question. The receptionist glanced up from her papers to look out at the pegasus. Scootaloo mumbled something, as if she’d been insulted. “Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash said, remembering the filly’s birthday was in a couple weeks. “I was just testing you! Ha ha.”

Listerine’s eyes went back to her papers and Rainbow Dash drew a sigh of relief. She filled out the rest of the form with Scootaloo’s assistance (lying where she had to). When it was completed, she stood up and gave it to the receptionist.

While the receptionist looked over the info, Rainbow Dash peered past her and into the procedure room. Colgate was sterilizing her tools and lining them back up on her tray. She glanced out into the waiting room and smiled at Rainbow Dash.

“Everything is all set,” Listerine said back to Colgate. “Little Scootaloo is all yours.”

Both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash had their dispositions about the dentist after what they’d witnessed with AJ and her sister, but she was the only trained oral hygienist in all of Ponyville. With Scootaloo’s mouth as bad as it was, they really didn’t have an option unless Rainbow Dash wanted to be known as grossly irresponsible.

Colgate walked out into the waiting room and knelt down to look at Scootaloo. “Come on back and let’s see what the problem is,” she said cheerfully. Rainbow Dash hovered over the dentist and was nose to nose with her when she stood up.

“None of that gas for her, you got that?” Rainbow asked with her brow furrowed. “Only painkillers if they’re needed. She’s my tough little filly, and she can handle the pain.”

Scootaloo looked up to the pegasus and gave her a big hug. Rainbow Dash continued to glare at Colgate until Scootaloo released her embrace.

“Understood,” Colgate said, still smiling. She gave Scootaloo a small push toward the procedure room and left Rainbow Dash standing at the entrance to the hallway. Scootaloo looked back one more time before the door shut behind her.

Colgate helped Scootaloo into the big, cushioned patient chair, waiting for her to get settled before pumping the hydraulic pedal. It jerkily rose to the height she needed it and Scootaloo began staring at the ceiling. The puppies and kittens above her brought a little ease to her mind, and she allowed herself to relax.

“Now, open wide,” Colgate said, levitating a mirror tool. The filly opened as wide as her swollen mouth would allow, and she winced in pain. Even at first glance, it was a bad sight. The front row of her teeth had all been shifted inward, only hanging on by the roots. The bottom row was chipped and several teeth were completely missing. Blood continued to pour from her gums and her tongue.

Colgate shook her head and dreaded the work she had ahead of her. It was on days like this she wished she had a helping pair of hooves. She lowered the mirror into Scootaloo’s mouth, only to confirm it was as bad as it looked. When she removed it, the filly looked at her with worried eyes.

Scootaloo mumbled, but Colgate understood what she said. “Yes, it is very bad,” she replied. “I can fix it, but it’s going to take a while, and it’s going to hurt…a lot.” The filly’s eyes welled up with tears and she tried to talk, but the dentist stopped her. “The only way I’m going to be able to do this is with some kind of anesthetic.”

The dentist used her magic and brought her mask and goggles down over her face. Scootaloo tried to object, but the pain in her mouth was too much to bear. Colgate levitated a bib onto the filly and adjusted her overhead light. The posters on the ceiling were now impossible to see past the blinding bulb.

“Was that little filly Apple Bloom your friend?”

Scootaloo nodded. At this point, Colgate was just trying to make small talk as she got everything she needed for the procedure into place. She opened several drawers and shiny metal clamps and braces flew into the air. The instruments landed neatly on the sterile tray beside the drills and other tools.

“And is that your sister out there?”

Once again, Scootaloo nodded, even though it was a lie. A lie she’d like to indulge in occasionally, but a lie nonetheless. Colgate eventually brought out a pressurized air canister and set it next to the chair. She saw Scootaloo eyeing the tank, and tried to ease her mind.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll take the laughing gas better than your friend did.”