Colgate's Practice

Two weeks had passed since the explosion and Colgate remained in a coma. Her best friend, Berry Punch spent each day in her room waiting for her to finally come to. Everyday she would say, "Please Colgate, wake up. Ponyville needs you, we all need you."

Doctor Hooves walked in one day when she was saying this. While he was happy that Colgate had one true friend who stayed by her side, he was also concerned that Colgate may not make it since she had yet to wake up. He said, "Berry Punch, I have a really bad feeling that she may not wake up. She should have woken up by now."

Berry began to tear up a bit and asked, "Doctor, you mean to tell me that she may simply remain asleep forever or that she might die?"

The doctor replied, "Yes Berry, the nurses and I have been monitoring her condition and it seems like each day her heartbeat is weakening more and more."

Berry asked, "But she is a unicorn, doesn't she have some sort of extra adrenaline in her, something that could just fire up at any moment and cause her to wake up?"

Doctor Hooves replied, "While it is true that unicorns have that extra adrenaline, it normally is only tapped into in the event of a sudden near death experience. Like I had said before, she should have woken up by now." He lowered his head, shed a few tears and continued, "Berry, we have in our records a do not resuscitate form that she signed a few years back. So if her heart stops, that is it."

Berry did not know much about legal forms such as that and asked, "What is a do not resuscitate form?"

The doctor replied, "It is a legal document that a pony signs when he or she does not wish to be revived if their heart stops beating. Since she signed one of those forms it would be illegal for us to try to revive her if her heart was to stop beating. We would have to respect her wishes and let her pass."

Berry buried her hooves in her face and started crying. The very thoughts of them not being able to revive Colgate saddened her greatly.

As the doctor left the room Colgate's heart beat became weaker and her blood pressure began to drop. Berry saw this and knew what was happening. She started to cry uncontrollably when the heart monitor flat lined. When the nurses heard this they rushed into her room, not to try to revive her but to comfort Berry Punch and get her out of Colgate's room so that they could take her to the morgue. Berry wouldn't easily leave though as she was kicking and screaming pleading with the nurses to revive her as they led her out of the room. The head nurse said, "Berry, you don't understand. She signed a legal document which prohibits us from trying to revive her.

Once Berry Punch had been led out of the room the nurses disconnected the heart monitor and oxygen from Colgate. They placed a bed sheet over her as they do with everypony who passes. The head nurse said, "Time of death, 1846."

While they thought Colgate was dead, something was going on in her lifeless body. The adrenaline that only unicorns have, shot into her veins with so much force that it reached her brain. As her body was being transported to the morgue, she sat up quickly and was breathing heavily. This terrified the nurses. The nurse said, "Colgate, you're alive?"

While it would seem normal that Colgate would be really groggy and disoriented upon coming to, the exact opposite was true. Unicorn adrenaline is powerful and not only revives them in cases like this, it also gives them a huge energy boost. She was looking at her surroundings and saw that she was being led towards the morgue. She asked, "May I ask why you are leading me towards the morgue?"

Doctor Hooves heard Colgate talking and rushed in her direction. When he got there he grabbed Colgate, began to cry tears of joy and said, "We thought we had lost you. You were clinically dead for a few minutes."

Colgate broke into a smile and asked, "Seriously? I was dead for a few minutes?"

Doctor Hooves replied, "Yes, you were." He motioned for the nurses to take her back to her room and said, "Alright, let's get her back to her room. I'm going to find Berry Punch before she leaves the building."

Doctor Hooves rushed to the main level of the hospital and caught Berry right as she was leaving. He said, "Berry, I need you to come with me. This is important."

Berry was crying loudly. She shouted, "No! My best friend has just passed away. The hospital is the last place I want to be right now."

Doctor Hooves told her that this was extremely important and eventually was able to persuade her to follow him. When he led her into Colgate's room, she saw Colgate sitting up in her bed, like nothing ever happened with a huge smile on her face. Berry was stunned. She looked at her friend and asked, "Colgate, is that really you? I saw you die and they said you had signed a do not resuscitate order."

Colgate replied, "Berry, there is a reason most unicorns sign do not resuscitate forms. We have something that other races of ponies don't have."

Berry asked, "Are you talking about that extra adrenaline?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, I am. Had they tried shocking me back to life, it would have prevented that adrenaline from saving me."

Doctor Hooves interrupted, "Well I am glad that your adrenaline saved you and my goodness, you look healthier than I have ever seen you." He took a closer look and gasped, "Oh my goodness Colgate, all your burns and scars are gone."

Colgate laughed, "Yeah, besides reviving the fallen one, a unicorn's adrenaline also heals said unicorn entirely." She started to tap her hoof on her bed and asked, "So doctor, when can I go home?"

Doctor Hooves smiled and replied, "I knew you were going to ask that. I am sorry but I can't let you go home for three days since you coded on us."

Colgate knew this was standard procedure and growled, "Oh ok, but once you think I'm ready to go home, I want to go home."

Berry said, "Well Colgate, I don't know how much you remember about the night you came in here but there was a massive explosion that took out your house and your practice. So right now you don't have a house to go home to."

Colgate remembered that night very well. She replied, "Yes, that is true. Well I'll just get a room at the inn until I can get my house rebuilt." She looked at the doctor and continued, "Do you have a phone I can use? I need to contact my insurance company so I can get things rolling on getting my home and office rebuilt."

Doctor Hooves laughed, "Well it is good to see that you are the same Colgate that you have always been! Most ponies, even other unicorns wouldn't be in such a hellfire hurry to get things back to normal!"

Colgate laughed, "Well I'm not your average unicorn either!"

Berry Punch kept Colgate company during the remaining days of her stay in the hospital, which seemed like an eternity to the blue unicorn. Finally when Colgate was released the very first thing she did was head over to where her office used to be. All she saw on that side of town was a big long crater, along with the ruptured gas line. She saw no evidence of the chairs, the bodies or anything else she had in her special dental hospital. She breathed a sigh of relief and said to herself, "Thank Luna, there is no sign that it ever existed at all!"

Berry heard her say this and asked, "Thank Luna what? What do you mean?"

Colgate replied, "I meant Thank Luna because I managed to survive to return to this site." She began to jump up and down and said, "Once my office is rebuilt I will be back to doing what I do best, taking care of other ponies' teeth!"