Chapter 43

Coldheart

I... am... so... cold.

'What's going on?' I thought between shivers.

Whatever it is, it's all your fault... Goth Bunny's words cut through me like a freezing wind chill. It's so cold, it burns my skin.

I need to move... I need light... I need warmth.

I couldn't help but laugh. Afterall, yesterday Equestria was threatening me with fire, and today, it's with ice, and I reckon that neither one is rather nice...

"H.Beeeee?" Pinkie Pie’s... poice pierces the ice encrusted door.

Poice isn't a word, you stupid-

"Hey! Knock that off!" Her high pitched voice... see? I know words, Goth Bunny- cries out irritating my sensitive ears.

"Ha-ache-"

"Yeah!" I'm surprised I can yell through all that teeth chattering... "I-I'm here!"

"Dr. Stable had to go take care of a side story, but he thinks he knows what's going on and sent Fluttershy, Cream Puff, and Dr. Hoofer to go get something that will help!"

"That's just great, Pinkie!"

Leaving you behind with the useless party pony to become a meat ponycicle! Yeah! You can totally trust her! Do that you stupid piece of shi-

"Hey! This might be a rated T for Teen, but you don't get to talk to her like that!" Pinkie protests. "And one more thing! You can trust me! I can help her too, you-you, foo-foo! In fact, that's what I'm going to do right now!"

There's the clatter of hooves on the ground, Pinkie's hooves, they're from the door...

"W-w-wait! P-P-Pinkie... d-don't go... a-and leave me..." I can barely hear my voice...

Why shouldn't she? It's what you told Fluttershy isn't it? And now she's going to go too. It's what you deserve, you know, to be cold and alone. It's what happens in the end. If it isn't your relationships, it's your friendships, your mind is stuck in your teens, while all of those around you grow up and eventually lea-

"I said stop it!" Pinkie shouts, her hoofbeats coming back. "Look! I'll be right back! I, Pinkie Promise!" Her voice sounds desperate and cracking.

"Y-you Pinkie Pie Promise?" I hear the clattering of what sounds like marbles hitting the ground. Looking down, with what little light is leaking into the room, I can see the shine of small round objects at my hooves... tears... my tears are freezing...Fet…

Yup, good job! And you'll be next if you don't get warm, dum-

"She's right! You need to get warm! Can you find the light switch!?"

I fumble, get up and push myself to the wall... breathing is hard... but I make it... blindly groping around till I feel a small switch sticking out from said wall, I try to flick it on only to find it frozen solid!

Hmph, figures, but you've always been a cold little thing. The only time you have ever been warm was when your selfish little butt would sponge off the trailer home's fireplace or the heating vents, you-

"That's it! Your room's thermostat is out here! I can-" There's a clicking noise outside the room and then a powerful 'thunk-foosh!' as the air vent in the corner of the room starts blowing out warm air!

As if on instinct, I push my stiffened limbs towards that sound and once there, I stand over the vent just to make sure that the air that's coming is warm.

Oh thank Danu, Gaia, Bast, Luna or in this case- Pinkie Pie, it is.

I proceed to try and figure out the best way to be over the vent and end up 'ponyloafing' on it.

"J-just l-like when we were little and promises meant e-everything, eh, Gothy?" Gawds, I must look like some sort of cat.

Why not complete the look and pull that tail of yours around that- how did Dash put it? 'Fluffy belly' you so-

"Whatever helps keep her warm, Flopsy-Mopsy- or Cotton Tail!" Okay, not gonna lie, that reference got a chuckle out of me. "That's right! Laugh the cold away! Don't you worry! Auntie Pinkie will be right back with somepony that can help with this door!"

...

"I-I'm pretty s-sure that I'm more than a year older than you, Pinkie... B-but... okay..." I pull that rat's nest of a tail around my back hooves. I hear Pinkrificacious clattering away. "She'll be back... she'll be back... she'll be back..."

If that's what you need to tell yourself, then go right ahead.

=========

Fluttershy, Cream Puff, Dr. Hoofer, and Dr. Stable all converged back at the door with Heartbreak behind it. The ice sculpture-esk broken heart still decorating the middle of its face, though a glimmer of hour flickered through the ponies as it was showing signs of melting.

Nurse Goodfilly then arrived on the scene looking as cheerful as ever. "Well, that's a lovely sight. What are we doing now?"

"What we're going to do now is somehow convince a pony who's suffered considerable emotional trauma to let herself be vulnerable enough to get those walls to come down so we can get what's causing this out of her..." Dr. Stable said, before pulling her aside. "Were you able to resolve the situation in the janitorial closet?"

"Hmmm?" Nurse Goodfilly asked, eyeing the doctor impishly. "What situation was that?" she asked with an air of innocence.

"Don't play dumb with me, Goodfilly, the situation at closet nine-twenty, with the pony and the pucker?" he asked, only to get several shocked glances from the rest of the group. "What? It was a lemon!" This only proceeded to get a snicker from RGF.

"You were in room nine-twenty?" Dr. Hoofer asked incredulously. "Isn't that called 'the kissing closet' or 'the couples closet'?"

"Never mind, forget I even said anything..." Dr. Stable grumbled.

"Yeah, let's remember why we're here an' get H.B. outta that there them closet- at mean room! Already!" Cream Puff said sternly, a look of questing disgust snarled across her face when looking at Dr. Stable. "Even if some of us were in some weird closet fer Celestia knows what reason..."

"I can assure you that I, I mean we-" Dr. Stable began to stammer.

"For once, Ah dun't wanna know!" Cream Puff exclaimed. "Old ponies kissin'! Bleh!" She muttered approaching the cold door. "H.B....?” she asked. "Ya still in there?"

Frost and snow flakes started forming on the doorframe. After a few moments a small voice came through.

"Y-yes..."

"Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked, walking up to the door, only to see that the ice was starting to rethicken.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." Heartbreak replied, icicles forming on the doorknob. "It's really cold... I'm over the heating vent and can barely feel it... why is this happening?"

"We're not entirely sure, but I believe you may have a sliver of heartwood from an ice wood tree somewhere in your skin. I need you to calm down so that the ice on the door can melt so that we can come in and remove it..." Dr. Stable explained.

This however only seemed to have the opposite effect, the door going a shade whiter and the crust on it thickened another inch!

"Calm. Down? I'm freezing and you want me to calm down!?" Heartbreak hissed.

"What are we going to do?!" Fluttershy whimpered as the three ponies pulled away from the door.

"As we’ve seen, a magical blast won't work, and we don't have the leg power to kick through the ice..." Dr. Stable commented.

"And it seems as if everytime one of you talks, another layer of ice goes up!” Nurse Goodfilly injected.

At that moment, the ice heart grew three sizes bigger!

The nurse chuckled and held up her hooves apologetically as the rest of the ponies glared in her direction. Just then she spotted a pair of blue eyes belonging to a white coated Nurse Redheart through another and smiled anxiously.

"I'm sure you'll all figure this out... I'll just... go to when- uhm, where I'm needed." She said slipping away.

"If only we had somepony with the hoof strength to smash right through the door..." Dr. Hoofer said after rolling his eyes at the fleeing Goodfilly.

"I'm back! I'm back! And I'm going to prove that I'm totally helping by finding the exact pony we need!" Pinkie exclaimed after she burst through the hospital door. The ice heart suddenly jutted out and grew nearly twelve inch spikes going in all directions giving it the appearance of a very cold albino hedgehog that had been stuffed into an elongated horseshoe box that was two sizes too tight.

This would have been a comical description, had it not been for Heartbreak's pained shrieks from the other side.

The other ponies of the group looked to Pinkie Pie; first on annoyance, then fear, and finally expectation and anticipation, all not daring to speak any further, least the wall that Heartbreak unwittingly created, added more layers.

"He he... sorry..." Pinkie giggled before making a sweeping motion with her forehooves back to the door she had just erupted through.

"Hullo?" Came the big dopey sounding mare that followed it. "Dr. Stable? Were you going to come back?" Brick House asked, shivering and then lifting up her mop of a mane, snorting in confusion. "What's going on here? Did a water main break and freeze? Cause that's something against code..." she said, her tail flicking out of the hospital gown that barely covered her massive frome.

=========

From behind the door I can hear the ponies whispering and muttering.

They're afraid of upsetting you... you're, like always doing this to yourself. They're just trying to help your sorry ass and like always you put up words and refuse help.

"S-shut up... you heard him. There's a splinter of ice wood or whatever..." Damn it, Goth Bunny...

If that's the case, then why haven't you just pulled it out yourself?

... Why haven't I done that? Normally, I picked, plucked, and pulled things out of my skin all the time. I couldn't help it! The moment that some hair got irritated at the root, some pore became clogged and a pustule formed, or some creepy, crawly tick tickled my skin and before it had a chance to dig its fangs to feast...

I would feel it, and then obliterate it. I have no apologies for ticks; they get the flame or blade.

I look at my hooves.

"Oh... right... that's why..." Still, maybe I can feel around my skin and find any aberrations?

Come on hoof... arm... leg... Move! I struggle and grunt and try, but they're barely responding.

Fuck! Come... on... please... not... like... thi-

"H.B.?" A different voice is at the door. A voice that's not making me think of all the shit I've been through or making me worry over how they see me and what expectations I'm expected to meet... "It's me, Brick House, B.H.?"

I breathe out and see the foggy mist of my breath in the air illuminated by what little light there is in here.

"Y-yeah?" I try pushing myself up, that's a no-go.

"You ok in there?" she asks.

Come on, H.B., just talk to her without feeling like the world is coming down around you, and that everyday something is trying to kil-

"H.B?"

"Ye-... No... I'm not... it's cold, dark, and I'm having trouble moving..." Nnngh! I can hear the tiny CrAcKiNg of ice crystals crumbling off my legs.

"Oh... okay... uhm... the ponies or her want me to tell you that they really care about you..." She paused and there's some whispering. "And that I'm going to need to break this door down, and then Dr. Stable will have something to get that thing out and make you feel all better and you know it will cause you can trust me, okay?"

Gods, ask if this feels so fucking sappy. Like they had been seeking out the one pony among all the ponies that will get me to feel love in my heart or the magic of fr-

"Okay?" Fet. Locks. Her voice sounded genuinely tearful... I could hear that CrAcK; I could almost see her eyes welling up, biting her lip. Big emotions from a big pony. "Cause I wanna see you at the meeting next month, okay?"

"Yeah... Okay..." I think about the conversation the two of us had earlier. How her OC reminded me of her. How happy that big grinning gave was just to have some on- somepony to talk to... what the fet?

I'm actually feeling a bit more warmth from the heating vent.

Is that really it? Will having happy thoughts actually drive away the cold?

That's when I hear another voice whisper in my ear. 'That's right! Remember to have happy thoughts!'

The voice reminds me of Muffins or Derpy or whatever...

"Ahh... Nnnghgaa!" I'm able to push myself up and there's warmth returning to my legs.

"I'm gonna kick the door down now!" She shouts. "I'm gonna count to three! So get ready! One... two... three!"

I get just enough energy to move behind... a bed? Yeah, that's a need, before the door CrAcKsSs down the middle and shatters like glass. The air rushes out of the room while light and more importantly: warmth takes its place...

Brick House lowers her head and enters the room. "H.B.?" She lifts up her forelock with a hoof and looks around. "There you are!" She tries to trot over, but apparently the floor is made of ice and she slides on rotating around instead. "Brrrr! It's chilly in here!"

"Really? I couldn't tell..." Oh gods... the air coming on feels just a bit warmer than the room...

I see Dr. Stable sliding in after Brick House, there's something orange-ish red floating in the air. Hard to tell what it is because my glasses have decided to fog up.

"N-no needles!" As I pull back, I can hear ice falling off my hooves and hitting the ground.

"There's no needles..." The massive... I wanna say... gentle face... says. "Just the... uhm..."

"Tweezers," Dr. Stable finished. I heard tiny metal prongs tapping above me.

"Everything is going to be alright." Brick House puts a hoof on my shoulder. Gods, I can practically feel the heat getting siphoned away from her body. The magical... hum? Twinkling? Whatever you call how the levitation aura sounds buzzes in my ear and the warm spot fades away...

"Wait... please, put it back... I'm so cold..."

Fucking selfish nag, you're spreading your sufferin-

"Hey!" Pinkie pops her head into the doorframe and zips her hoof across her lips.

"You really shouldn't be touching your friend until we've pulled the splinter from her..." Dr. Stable looks me over. "I would surmise by the lock of white coming out of your mane: it's in your neck..."

"Oh, it's alright, Doc. The cold never bothered me anyway." The mountainous mare... should I be calling her a mare now knowing her true age? Bah, whatever. She's chuckling at me while shaking the frost from her frog. “That’s right, huh, H.B.?”

"Ha..." I know she's referring to her tragic backstory, but I can't help but imagine her in a long white Disney dress! ... I mean the hospital gown is kinda close...

Just then, like the wine of a mosquito, the magical aura returns up and close to my ear, only unlike a mosquito, it lifts up the entangled witch's knot of a mane I have by that white lock that Dr. Grizzled McNeedlefave was talking about.

"Ah, there it is..." He narrows his eyes, licks his upper lip, a twinge of pain causes his left ear to flicker as the glowing almost fiery looking tweezers hover in the air, delicately swooping just out of eye sight. I swear, if it wasn't for the expanded field of vision, I wouldn't know that they were there.

"Alright. Now be warned.. I've only done this twice."

"That's assuring... Gah!" I think that the tweezers have been applied or are grabbing on to the thing in my neck.

"As I was saying, I've done this twice. You'll feel pressure, a bit of tugging, and then all the warmth in your body... and the room will return to normal in literal seconds.” He licks his lips, and makes a face. ”Ready?”

“Yeah, wha-Aaaagh!” I didn’t even get a chance to respond before all three of those things happened at the same time! “Hooly Spppitzcuzky!”

=========

Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Cream Puff watched from the door as after Dr. Stable had lifted up Heartbreak’s mane and identified the shimmering icy blue splinter lodged there within he plucked out with the cold comfort tweezers.

Heartbreak, who had taken on a bluish tone in her overall color pallet, almost immediately looked as if she was a cold patch of ground undergoing a spring thaw.

“H-H-Haaa, oh... geez...” she gasped, a frosty breath escaping her lungs like a wineighgo trying to flee from a cave that was now too warm for its ilk.

Almost instantly, pools of water started to form near and around the door as everything from this terrifying event melted away...

Dr. Stable was looking up at the splinter intently. “With that out of the way and with your permission, I would like to run a quick test to confirm something...”

Heartbreak looked up, a disgruntled glare in her eyes. “Could you give me a moment or so to recover? Everything feels like I’ve just stepped out of February and you’re already asking for blood samples. Didn’t I say no more needles?” she asked, gasping and looking a bit peaked.

“Oh, needles won’t be necessary, there’s more than enough of your blood on this sliver to perform a simple diagnostic spell,” Dr. Stable said, separating a red global from the blue splinter. “I was asking for your consent in the matter before casting the spell.”

Heartbreak looked hesitant. “A diagnostic spell... for what exactly?” she asked, frowning.

“I’m sure that Dr. Stable has a good reason, H.B.! He doesn’t do spells all that much on account of it making his horn hurt!” Brick House said trying to assure Heartbreak with a hoof on her shoulder... again. “Oh, hey! You’re not cold any more!”

Cream Puff hopped past the quickly forming puddles and to her favorite storytelling pony, only pausing momentarily to look in her eyes before hugging her unbroken foreleg. “Yer okay!” she beamed.

“Oh! Ha... Yes.” Heartbreak saw Dr. Stable making a gesture to the floating blood sphere and the icy splinter that was now contained safely in a small clear sample jar. “Oh, right, consent... As long as it’s a basic diagnostic spell and nothing intrusive...”

“Not at all, just need to check for something...”

“That something being?” Heartbreak asked, her ears folding back apprehensively.

Dr. Stable gave a questioning, quizzical look with one eyebrow raised up.

“I’ve had enough ‘unpleasant surprises’ this week. Fet, this month. And it would go a long way in having a doctor I could trust, if you just told me...” Heartbreak said, wanting to roll her hoof in the air and push her glasses up only to remember that Cream Puff was still latched on.

“Kill the fun telling you the process...” Dr. Stable said, only to be met with a stern face. “Very well, there was an anomalous warping in your cannon bones, just near the fracture. We suspect that you’re suffering from a Vitamin C deficiency that’s inhibiting your body from properly absorbing the calcium it needs, and if not addressed now, could lead to scurvy later on.”

Cream Puff and Brick House titled their heads in confusion, while Fluttershy and Heartbreak gave looks of an uneasy understanding of what the implications of what just has said meant.

Only Pinkie Pie happily bobbled her head.

“It means that H.B. needs to eat more lemons so that her bones don’t turn to jelly!” Pinkie said aside to Cream Puff and Brick House.

“Oooooh...” the two entoned in unison.

“O... kay...” Heartbreak said uneasily. “As long as you’re testing for that and not much else...” she muttered.

“That’s the only specific thing that I’d be testing for in this spell,” Dr. Stable said, concentrating his magic in a pained expression before blasting the blood blush bubble in a blue burst of light.

The floating blood glowed after a few seconds before transforming into a holographic representation of a generic medical chart, complete with things like blood pressure, heart rate, glucose levels, a generic image of Heartbreak, hormonal levels, and a small box that had a double helix in it.

Dr. Stable tapped the helix box.

“What’s the verdict, doc?” Heartbreak asked, trying to not look impressed by the clinical display of magic.

“One moment...” Dr. Stable took a needle and pricked his arm, drawing a small amount of his own blood in which he added to this spell, somehow. “Ah, there it is.”

He pointed at a grouping of spirally coiled bits in what Heartbreak could only surmise as genes.

Dr. Hoofer peeked in and trotted up the scene. “So... were we right?”

“Along with several other key genetic markers and... a few anomalous structures, Something that you seemed to keep hidden from the rest of us.” Dr. Stable sternly said. “Maybe even lying with omission...”

“Keep hidden from you?” Heartbreak said, looking away from the doctor in an attempt to hide any shock. “What could be omitting?”

“The genes that you have for making Vitamin C are, as I suspected, indeed broken.” Dr. Stable hmm’d and hawed. “Which means that yes, you’ll need to either start taking a supplement or eat a lot more lemons and citrus fruits otherwise, just as Pinkie put it, ‘your bones will turn into jelly’.”

“Oh... ha... great...” Heartbreak sighed. “And all those other markers?” she hesitantly asked, a look of dread on her face.

“Oh, that can be explained mostly through genetic drift. Minneighsota has been isolated from Equestria for a long time, right?” Hoofer asked, hoofing past a few things that made his face squinch.

“Huh, oh yeah! Totally, a really long time!” Heartbreak replied. “Is there something wrong?”

The little Dr. Hoofer looked a bit lost in thought and moved a hoof through the mess of information before tapping his chin. “Well... it is out of the purview of just a basic scan... but there is a bit of troubling news...”

“It’s not something like cancer?” Heartbreak asked, the other ponies putting their hooves to their mouths in fright.

“Oh no... It’s that the genetic drift between Equestrian ponies and Minneighsotain ponies is so great that you are effectively functionally sterile.” Dr. Hoofer said, this time scratching his chin. “Which is...” He turned and dramatically looked up at Heartbreak. “Terribly tragic... but on the positive side, your testosterone and estrogen levels have now evened out to match a mare of your age!”

Heartbreak’s eye twitched as she forced a smile. “Oh... Ah-ha... that’s just great to hear...”

Dr. Stable frowned at his young protégé before discontinuing the spell. “Right, I’m going to write you a prescription of Vitamin C tablets, and suggest that you get more citrus fruits and leafy greens in your diet.” He said, scribbling on a notepad. “Come back in three days unless something else drastic comes up.” He floated the prescription onto Heartbreak’s nose who blew it off irritatedly. “Hopefully that won’t be the case...”

“Ah got it!” Cream Puff said, nabbing the paper from the air with her teeth. She then proceeded to put it in Heartbreak’s saddlebags that she then brought to the tan mare.

“Soo... that’s it? I’m just free to go?” Heartbreak asked, hesitantly. “Oh! Also, can I have that vial with the ice wood heartwood sliver in it?”

“Well... As long as you’re careful with it... I don’t see why not...” Dr. Stable floated the vial into Heartbreak’s saddlebags. “As far as whether or not you can leave? All your vitals are registering as normal, so yes. You are free to go. Avoid anything with sunflower seeds in it and, like I said: eat lots of oranges and leafy greens." He then turned to Brick House. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I still need to attend to my actual patient.” he paused. “Unless you want to be kept here overnight.”

“Noooope...” Heartbreak replied, wide-eyed anxiousness written throughout every muscle in her body as she turned and left the room, her little entourage following behind her hobbling hind.

“Alright then, Miss House. Let’s finish what we started so that we can all go home!” Dr. Stable said eagerly.

Author's Note

The chapters keep coming and they don't stop coming, break to the rules and she has trouble running!

Brick House gets to return to the story with her own set of references! As always, The Chapter Art is Here.

And I thank my editors Scared Ghost and The Psychopath. And readers like you who point out little things that our eyes might have missed. May those things not ruin your enjoyment of the story!