Unwell: Recovery

Chapters

Rainbow Dash 1
Rainbow Dash 2
Shining Armor 1
Rainbow Dash 4
Rainbow Dash 5
Rainbow Dash 6
Rainbow Dash 3

Rainbow Dash 1

I couldn’t help but gawk at the building in front of me. It had been about a five minute flight from the edge of Canterlot, at least at my speed, but that was still far enough out of the city that there wasn’t really anything else around but the building. Since it was out in the country, I had expected it to be, if not a little run down, at least a bit rustic.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The building was almost futuristic compared to the rest of Canterlot, and definitely would have been out of place in Ponyville.

It was all angular, and on any other building that would have been imposing, but the sheer amount of windows made it look more welcoming. I was glad for the amount of windows as well. If they hadn’t have been there, it probably would have set the claustrophobia that I, like all pegasi, had. As it was, with the large amount of natural light flooding in, it looked more open.

Come to think of it, that was probably the point. It wouldn’t be helpful to anypony’s recovery if they felt trapped.

Still, there was a fence around the building. It was pretty tall, enough so that nopony without wings could jump over it. I suppose that was a necessity, though. After all, if somepony wandered off in the wrong state of mind, it wouldn’t be good.

I frowned to myself. What about the pegasi who were being treated here? They could just fly over the fence if they wanted to.

I flew over the building, looking for any groups that were outside. As luck would have it there was a group outside, and there were some pegasi among them. And… some of them had their wings bound.

I swallowed the knot that had appeared in my throat. It only made sense, right? There wasn’t really any way to keep the patients from wandering off otherwise. I mean, they could have kept them under lock and key the whole time, but that would mean treating them like prisoners. And it wasn’t like they were shackled or anything. In fact…

In fact, they actually looked like they were enjoying themselves. The whole group did. They appeared to be having some kind of meeting, with everypony sitting in a circle, and chatting amongst themselves. Even as I watched the group let out a laugh that I could hear even from my vantage point over the hospital itself.

I shook my head. Enough stalling. I’d gone through the trouble of getting up early, so there was no point in waiting any longer to start my… I guess you could call it civic duty.

I looped around to the front of the building, and walked through the glass doors to the Canterlot Mental Hospital.

The inside was well lit, mostly by natural light flowing through the windows, but I could see some lighting crystals on the ceiling, presumably for when it got dark outside. There were a few potted plants and a couple chairs in the lobby, but the defining feature was the desk with a slightly bored looking secretary behind it. The teal earth pony perked up as soon as she saw me enter.

“Hello, and welcome to the Canterlot Mental Hospital! My name is Inquisitive Mind! How can I help you today?”

“Um, hello,” I said, feeling a bit unsure of myself suddenly. “I’m Rainbow Dash, and I’m here to do some community service for the next month.”

“Oh!” Inquisitive Mind said brightly. “You’re that criminal!”

My mind screeched to a halt. “What!?”

Inquisitive Mind blinked once, then flushed bright red. “No, no, no! I didn’t mean to say that! I meant to say that, um, I am…” she suddenly paused in her ramblings.

“Listen, what I mean to say is that you’re the pony that’ll be helping us over the next month, right? For basically free? Because you assaulted somepony, right?” she said, sounding much more composed.

“Right,” I said, “but just because I assaulted somepony doesn’t mean that I’m some kind of career criminal. It was just a one-time thing.”

“Yes, I know. It’s not like they would send some sort of repeat felon to help us here. That was just me putting my hoof in my mouth… again,” she replied, looking sheepish.

“Fine. Just, please, don’t bring it up again. I don’t like to think about it,” I said.

“I understand. Let’s start over. Hi, Rainbow Dash, my name is Inquisitive Mind, but everypony calls me Izzy!” she said brightly.

“Um… hi,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Pleased to meet you too!” Izzy said. “And you’re actually early! The staff isn’t expecting you for another hour or so.”

“I know. I couldn’t sleep last night, so I was getting antsy just sitting around my hotel room and I decided, hey, better early than late to my first day, right?”

“That’s a good attitude to have. I have to say, you’re not what I expected. I thought that you would be sullen and angry about working here. After all, it’s not like you’re here because you wanted to be.” Izzy said, giving me an apprising glance.

“Well, it is true that I wasn’t expecting to be working here, but even if Celestia hadn’t assigned me here as… I guess you could call it punishment… I’d still be here a lot.”

Izzy tilted her head slightly. “Really? Why?”

“Well, Twilight Sparkle is my marefriend and—“

Izzy gasped. “Oh, I get it! You’re here to give her moral support while she recovers, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so sweet of you! Not everypony sticks around when their somepony special has to go through treatment. I’ve seen too many couples break up because of it. Especially around your age.”

I found myself growling slightly. “I’d never leave Twilight over something like this. Never.”

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that. Twilight may not have kept in touch after she moved to Ponyville, but she was always a smart mare. I’m sure she wouldn’t give her heart away just for it to be broken. She must have chosen you thinking that you would never give her up.”

“Well…” I said, remembering Twilight begging me not to break up with her over a dream. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. And what do you mean, Twilight hasn’t kept in touch? I wouldn’t think that this would be the type of place Twilight would want to remember too much.”

“Well, I was just starting working here when Twilight was here last, but… she did become, if not friends, friendly with some of the staff. Mostly the doctors that took care of her on a regular basis. She never seemed to open up to the other patients, but she would at least break away from her studies to talk with the doctors during their one on one sessions.”

“I guess that sounds like how Twilight used to be…” I said. It did make sense. Twilight had told me and the girls that she didn’t really have friends before us. “Wait. How long ago was this? It must have been before we met Twilight… so, what, at least two years ago?”

“It was about, um… four or five years ago. Yeah, that sounds about right,” Izzy said, rubbing her chin.

“Do you remember why?” I asked, curious.

“Well, it turned out that she was doing homework for tutors that didn’t actually exist.”

“That, well, that sounds like Twilight,” I said, smiling a bit.

“It wasn’t that harmless. These ‘tutors’ were assigning problems way above her level. Some of the assignments they gave her weren’t even possible. It drove her to tears sometimes, but she didn’t tell anypony what was wrong. It was only when she asked Celestia for help that everypony realized something was wrong.”

“Oh…” I said. I should have realized that it wasn’t so simple if Twilight had ended up here. “Thank you for telling me this.”

“No problem—Oh!” Izzy exclaimed, then spat a word that wasn’t acceptable in polite company. “Don’t tell anypony I told you that! Doctor-patient confidentiality and all that! I mean I’m not a doctor and you do have that release from Doctor Hooves, so it’s kind of a grey area, but still…”

“Got it, got it! I won’t tell a soul! Now let go of my face!”

“Right!” Izzy said, leaning back over her desk, and releasing my face. “Sorry, I just get over excited sometimes.”

“And say things that you shouldn’t?” I asked, rubbing my cheeks.

“Yeah. Sorry,” Izzy said, looking downcast.

A moment passed in awkward silence.

“So, um, where do I go from here?” I asked.

“Right, I’ll inform the chief of staff. He should be down shortly. You did show up early after all.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” I said, rubbing the back of my head.

“Have a seat, if you’d like.”

I nodded to Izzy, then went over and sat down in one of the chairs provided. It was pretty comfortable, but the magazines provided were all newspapers. Nothing about sports. Darn.

It was about ten or fifteen minutes later when the chief of staff showed up. He was a brown unicorn with ice blue eyes, and to my surprise he was wearing a suit, not a doctor’s coat.

“You’re Rainbow Dash, I assume?” he said with a frown.

I plastered on my biggest smile and offered him a hoofbump. “That’s right!” I said brightly. “You must be my new boss for the next month. Pleased to meet you, Mister…?”

“Kindheart. Dr. Kindheart, actually,” he said with a frown. “And I won’t quite be your boss. But we can discuss that later. Please follow me to my office.” Without a further word, he spun around, and began trotting at a brisk pace into the depths of the building.

I swallowed the knot that appeared in my throat and lowered my hoof. This stallion was more intimidating that anypony named ‘Kindheart’ had any right to be.

Nevertheless, I fell into step behind him.

As it turned out, his office wasn’t too far from the entrance. He opened the door, which had a nametag with ‘Dr. Kindheart, Chief of Staff’ engraved in gold on it. “Wait here,” Dr. Kindheart said, “I need to get out of this suit.”

I nodded, and the doctor trotted into his office and shut the door just a little bit more forcefully than was necessary.

That made me nervous. Did I somehow offend him? I had really wanted to make a good impression on him, and it looked like I had somehow blown it. I mean, I really couldn’t care less about what my supervisors at the Cloudsdale weather facility thought of me, but this… this was different. He would be both in charge of me and helping Twilight for the next month, perhaps even more if, Celestia forbid, Twilight’s recovery took longer.

“All right, come in and take a seat, Rainbow Dash,” Dr. Kindheart called, opening the door with his magic.

As I entered the office, I took a quick look around. It looked almost exactly like I had expected it, with diplomas on the wall, bookshelves along one wall, and a few filing cabinets and a window along the other. The desk was almost up against the wall of the room, but there was enough space for a chair in behind it. I went and sat down in one of the two chairs in front of his desk, doing my best to look businesslike, and really wishing I had combed my mane this morning.

“Right,” Dr. Kindheart said, drawing my attention back to him. “So, you’re going to be working here for the next month, is that correct?”

“Um… yes sir,” I said. “Celestia assigned me here as a sort of community service.”

“Humph. Normally, we would refuse that request, but we just got an opening for a pegasus that you would be perfect for,” he said.

“You would refuse the Princess like that!?” I blurted, not thinking.

The doctor fixed me with an icy stare. “My first priority is making sure our patients get better, or at least find good long term housing and coping mechanisms. I am fully capable of refusing the Princess, or any other noble, if it would interfere with that. I run this facility, and I am dedicated to it, to both the staff and the patients. Do you understand?”

I could see the doctor steadily getting more worked up as he spoke, and it was sort of frightening. “I understand,” I said, and I winced a little as my voice cracked.

Dr. Kindheart blinked. “Darn it,” I heard him mutter under his breath. All of the sudden, he looked away from me and closed his eyes. I heard him take a few deep breaths.

When he opened his eyes again, they had lost that icy quality that they had had. He gave me a tired smile. “Sorry,” he said, “I just got out of a meeting with some of the nobles that fund us. Most of them just want to look charitable without actually spending much money. In fact, if it weren’t for Fancypants, I swear… Anyways, I apologize. I expected to have some time to cool down after our meeting, but then Izzy sent word that you had arrived early, so…”

I shifted in my seat guiltily. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to throw everypony off by arriving so early. I just figured, better early than late, so…”

“Heh,” Dr. Kindheart chuckled. “You don’t do much by halves, do you? In any case, I am glad that you are taking this so seriously, but do try to only show up about fifteen minutes early in the future, okay? The schedule won’t always be so flexible in the future, and I doubt you will want to wait around for an hour or more.”

“Right, that doesn’t sound like much fun,” I agreed.

“Now then, Rainbow, why don’t you tell me what happened? Why did the Princess assign you community service here, and not someplace your skills are more suited to, like a weather cleanup job? And for that matter, what did you do to get in trouble?” Dr. Kindheart asked, his eyes turning slightly icy again.

“Well,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck, “you know Twilight Sparkle, right?” After the doctor nodded, I continued, “Well, to make a long story short, this mare tampered with her medication, and Twilight got hurt, in more ways than one, because of it. And later, when we, I mean, the princess and I confronted her, she said some things about Twilight that set me off, and I sort of… hit her.”

“I see,” Dr. Kindheart said, without revealing a trace of emotion. Wow, I wouldn’t want to play poker with him.

“After that, the Princess said that working here would be my punishment. And so… here I am.”

“Tell me a few things, Rainbow,” the Doctor said. “Why did that mare talking about Twilight make you that angry? And why didn’t you plead that you were provoked?”

“To answer the second question first, it was the Princess herself that gave me the sentence. You just don’t argue with the Princess. And besides, it’s not really that big of a punishment. I would have been spending a lot more time here anyways. Twilight needs me anyways. And as for the other question, even if I wasn’t dating Twilight, I probably still would have done something drastic. That’s just the kind of mare I am. Nopony gets to talk to about my friends like that.”

“Indeed,” Dr. Kindheart said dryly. “Just try not to do anything ‘drastic’ here. What our patients need is stability, okay?”

“Right,” I said. “By the way, why are you asking me this? Didn’t you get the story from the Princess?”

“I did,” he replied. “I just wanted to hear it from your own mouth. You can tell a lot about a pony that way.”

“Really,” I asked, curious. “Is that some sort of psychology thing?”

“Not really. More like… common sense. I just wanted to know if you were aware of your own flaws, and, for the most part, it seems like you are. For now, all that I ask is that you give this your all, and to keep your temper in check. Can you do that?”

“Of course I can!” I said. “So long as nopony messes with Twilight.”

“I can promise you, nopony on my staff will act with ill will towards Twilight. Most of the staff like her a lot. We’re all a little sad that she had to come back here, but now that she is, we will give her the highest quality of care,” he said, a little note of pride entering his voice.

I let out a bit of tension that I hadn’t even noticed that I had been carrying. “It’s really good to hear that. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, if you have no further questions, follow me and I’ll take you to the staff room and I’ll introduce you to your immediate boss for the next month, Clean Shine.”

“Clean Shine, huh? Funny, that doesn’t sound like a doctor’s name.”

Dr. Kindheart chuckled. “That’s because he isn’t. He’s the head janitor.”

“Head… Wait! You mean, you mean that for the next month, I’m going to be a janitor? What?” I protested.

The doctor gave me a strange look. “What else did you think you would be doing? You don’t have any of the training to interact with any of the patients, so this was really the only place to put you. And it works out well, we just had one of our staff quit, so you can fill in while we look for a more permanent solution.”

“But… I have experience with Twilight…” I said weakly.

“Twilight is unique, as are all of our patients. Our training and schooling lets us best interact with them and tend to their individual needs. Unless you have a degree in psychology you’ve been hiding from everypony…”

“All right, I get it. No need to be sarcastic. Just… lead the way,” I said, grumbling.

Three hours later, I was feeling exhausted. Clean Shine had been very understanding of my lack of janitorial skills, but it was hard to get my heart and soul into it. I had just expected… I don’t know what I had expected. I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to be doing here.

Still, cleaning everything… ugh. I hate cleaning. I didn’t even clean my house that much, except when Twilight was going to come over.

Twilight…

“Hey, Clean!” I called across the staff room. “Do you need me to do anything else today?”

The white earth pony, with a matching mane, (seriously, he’d be invisible in a blizzard, if not for his mop cutie mark) turned and gave me an apprising glance. “Not today,” Clean Shine said, “but tomorrow we start in earnest. You had best be prepared. It won’t be as easy or short as today. Today was just to get you acclimated and show you what you need to do.”

“Right, looking forwards to it,” I muttered under my breath. “Anyways, who do I see if I want to visit one of the patients here?”

“Do you have an appointment?” he asked.

“No, not really…”

“Then you might be out of luck, but I would talk to Izzy just in case. She might be able to arrange something.”

“Thanks, Clean. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course. Bring your best, okay?” He said, stretching a little. “Now if you excuse me, my break is almost over.”

I nodded, and we both left the staff room, then went our separate ways.

“Hey, Izzy! You there?” I called as I entered the front lounge.

She was. “Hi, Rainbow, I’ll be with you in just a second,” she said, then turned her attention back to the white unicorn with the blue mane. He must have been a security guard or something, with that shield cutie mark of his. “How are you doing, Shining?”

“Well, could be better, I suppose,” he said with a shrug. “Anyways, is my appointment with Twily ready?”

“Yep!” Izzy chirped. “One second, I think Rainbow might be about to ask the same thing.”

“Rainbow?” the stallion said, sounding puzzled. Looking around, he spotted me. “That would be you, I assume?”

“Yeah, and who are you?” I asked, feeling a tad angry. If this stallion had an appointment with Twilight, I might not be able to see her today.

“I’m Shining Armor. I might ask you the same thing. Who are you, and why do you want to see Twilight?”

“I’m her marefriend. Now, how do you know Twilight? I’ve never seen you before, and I know all of Twilight’s friends.”

Shining Armor tensed up a little. “Funny, I didn’t know Twily had a marefriend. Then again, she is horrible about keeping in touch. Listen, why don’t we see Twilight together? Izzy seems to trust you, and that’s good enough for me.”

I nodded, and the tension flowed out of us both. “That sounds good, but you still didn’t tell me how you know Twilight.”

“Oh, right,” Shining Armor said with a chuckle. “I’m her brother.”

What?

Rainbow Dash 2

“You’re Twilight’s brother!?” I almost yelled. “She never told me she had a brother. I mean… are you sure?”

Shining Armor gave me a flat look. “Well, considering that we have the same parents, I’m pretty sure.”

I winced. “Sorry, it’s just… I think Twilight would have mentioned you. Wait…” I said, a bit of suspicion entering my voice, “you two didn’t have a falling out or anything like that, did you?”

“No,” Shining said, rolling his eyes. “We were pretty close up until she moved to Ponyville. After that, well, we kind of drifted out of contact. I bet you know how it is. You find yourself busy with one thing after another, then you suddenly realize that you haven’t talked to somepony in a while. In fact, it was pretty much yesterday that I realized that Twilight hadn’t sent me a letter in a while.”

“Yeah, I kind of know how that is,” I said, shifting on my hooves guiltily. Mental note: visit my mom and dad sometime soon.

“Anyways, do you mind if we get going? I’m a bit eager to see Twily again.”

I nodded. “Same here.” I glanced back at Izzy. “Do we need to get a doctor to come escort us or something?”

Izzy grinned at me. “She’s already on her way. I just finished notifying her,” she said, pointing to a series of tubes that were barely visible behind her desk.

I recognized it as a magic powered messaging system. You just put your message in a container, mark the room you wanted it to go to, and sent it on its way. Lots of bigger workplaces had them, like the weather factory in Cloudsdale.

“So, then,” Shining said, turning to me. “I got word the other day that somepony was being sent here. And not in the typical way of being admitted by concerned friends and family. No, the Princess sent them there as punishment. Was that you?”

I shrunk back a little. This conversation had just taken a turn for the intense. “Um… yeah,” I said, not sure what else to say.

“And it was because you assaulted a pony accused of tampering with another pony’s medical supplies?”

“Yeah,” I said again, wondering how much of the story he had heard.

“I see. Well, as captain of the Royal Guard, I can’t officially say ‘good job,’ but I am going to think it very loudly in your direction and hope you somehow understand. Got it?” Shining said, with a smile.

I matched it with one of my own. “Got it. I’m curious though, if you’re part of the royal guard, do you know what’s going to happen to Blood Work?”

He sighed. “No, I don’t. I’m not even supposed to know as much as I do. The fact that Twily is my sister ‘presents a conflict of interest,’” he said, using his magic to make a stack of papers on Izzy’s desk act like a mouth, and earning him a glare from Izzy.

“Excuse me,” said a melodic voice, cutting into our conversation. Shining and I looked over at a black unicorn mare with deep green eyes and a deep blue mane. Like Dr. Kindheart, she was wearing a doctor’s robe, hiding her cutie mark from view. “You wouldn’t happen to be Shining Armor, would you? Inquisitive Mind notified me that you were here.”

“That’s right,” Shining said, “I’m Twilight’s brother.”

“Pleased to meet you,” she said softly, offering her hoof for him to shake. “I am Dr. Hippocrates, but everybody just calls me Dr. H.”

“Dr. H, huh? And Izzy as well. You guys are big on nicknames here, aren’t you?” Shining said with a smile.

Dr. H laughed, quietly. “I find that it makes for a bit more of a friendly feeling between me and my patients. Not everypony here goes by a nickname though, and some can be a real mouthful.”

“No problem, I’ve dealt with some tongue twisters in my time. Anyways, would it be all right if Rainbow here came with us?”

“Oh?” Dr. H said, glancing at me. “I wasn’t aware this was going to be a two pony visit. Izzy’s note only talked about you, Mr. Armor."

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Izzy chimed in. “I sent that note before Rainbow showed up.”

“Might I ask how you are related to Twilight Sparkle, Ms. Rainbow?” Dr. H asked, tilting her head to one side.

“Oh, uh… well, I’ve been her marefriend for the past couple of months, but I’ve been her friend for almost two years now. We’ve been through a lot together.”

“I see, I see,” Dr. H muttered, so quietly I almost couldn’t hear it. She really needed to speak up. “Very well,” she said suddenly. “It should be no problem. But I do need to ask that you follow any instructions I give you. If I need you to leave the room, you leave, okay? Twilight is in a very delicate state of mind right now.”

“Understood. I’ll follow your instructions to the letter. After all, doctor knows best, right?”

Shining and the doctor both gave me strange looks. “Isn’t the normal way of saying that ‘mother knows best?’”

“Yeah,” I said, waving a hoof in the air, “but that doesn’t really fit here, does it?”

Dr. H smiled. “I guess so. Now, if you would follow me…” she said, turning around, and gesturing with her hoof for us to come with her.

Shining and I followed her down the same hallway that I had followed Dr. Kindheart down, but when we reached his office, we continued past it. A little past that, we passed by this beautiful garden with a willow tree in the center. I realized that it must be in the center of the hospital, and the building itself was mostly a square with a little hole in the center for this garden.

“That was a gorgeous little garden back there,” I said. “I wouldn’t have expected to find one right in the middle of the place like this.”

Dr. H looked over her shoulder and smiled. “It’s so that the patients who aren’t ready to actually go outside for whatever reason can still smell the fresh air and see the sun. It really cheers some of them up.”

“That’s cool,” I said, nodding. Man, this place was really awesome, as far as hospitals went.

Just a few minutes after passing the garden, we stopped in front of a room labeled ‘112,’ and Dr. H turned to us.

“Listen, I just want to say that I’m glad that Twilight has received visitors so soon, but I need to warn you, don’t expect too much,” she said.

I tilted my head. “What? What do you mean?” I asked.

Dr. Hippocrates sighed. “She’s not going to be very coherent for the next couple of days. Possibly even longer, we don’t really know yet.”

“Why?” Shining asked, his voice sharp.

“Two reasons mainly,” the doctor said, and suddenly she sounded tired. “First of all, we had to use some chemical restraints on her. Those are going to keep her pretty out of it, at least until she calms down. She was still very agitated when she first woke up here.”

“Chemical restraints!?” I said, alarmed. “That sounds dangerous. Isn’t there some other way?”

“Would you rather have her fully conscious, unsure of where she is and what’s going on as well as physically restrained?” Dr. H asked softly.

That shut me up. I needed to stop assuming that I knew better than the professionals.

“Also, using physical restraints on her wouldn’t be good for her broken leg, as well. If we applied it just a little bit incorrectly, or if she struggled, it could cause the leg to heal incorrectly,” Dr. H continued.

“I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand,” Shining said. “Now, what was the second reason?”

“Well, the magic suppressor that she was on, as well as the other two medications, are not the type that you can just take at max strength all at once. The body needs to build up a tolerance to their more harmful effects. As such, it will take us some time get them up to the dosage that they were at before.”

“I see,” I said, remembering hearing something like that from the Princess. Shining just nodded.

“In the meantime, we had to give her a magic suppressor to alleviate the worst of her symptoms. The only one that we could use at the required strength without having a bad reaction to her other meds has some side effects. Nothing that will last longer than she takes the medication,” she added hastily as both Shining and I opened our mouths. “It mostly interferes with forming new memories, so she may not remember your visit today.”

“Oh,” I said. “That kind of sucks. How long will it take until she can be off that stuff?”

“We can increase the dose of her other medications about once every two weeks. If we push really hard with the dosage, we could have her up to her previous dosage in about six weeks, but more likely, it will take anywhere from eight to twelve weeks.”

“That’s, that’s like…” I did some math in my head, “That’s about three months! Can’t you…” No, Rainbow. They, not you, are the professionals in this situation. They know what’s best.

I took a deep breath. “Is she going to be on that stuff the whole time? Is she, like, not going to remember all the times we’re going to visit her?” I asked, almost pleading.

“No, nothing like that,” Dr. H said. “As we increase the dosage on her regular medication, we should be able to dial back the temporary ones. In the meantime, though, I need you to be patient and understanding with her.”

“I know,” Shining said.

“I got it,” I said.

Dr. H nodded. “Good,” she said, as she opened the door. Shining and I followed her.

The very first thing I focused on was Twilight, and the bed she was laying on. Twilight looked… well, not terrible, she had obviously been groomed by somepony, but it still broke my heart. The cast on her foreleg alone would have done it, but the way she was just sort of staring at the wall blankly was heart rending.

“Twilight?” Dr. H said softly. “You have some visitors.”

Twilight blinked once, and slowly turned to look at us. Her eyes took an eternity to focus on the three of us. “Who? Rainbow… Shining?” she asked, her voice slow and wavering.

“That’s right, Twilight. Rainbow and Shining came to see you,” Dr. H said, and I was struck by how motherly her tone was.

“Where… am I?” Twilight asked. “I don’t, I can’t… I can’t think of… of…”

“It’s all right, Twily,” Shining said. “Can I give her a hug?” he asked Dr. H.

“As long as she doesn’t object, and as long as you’re careful about her leg.”

Shining nodded, and moved forwards to hug Twilight, but as he approached, she shrunk back, muttering something under her breath.

Shining smiled sadly, and took a step back. “Sorry Twily,” he said, quietly.

“Where am I?” Twilight asked again. “My, my head, it hurts.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. H frown.

“Twilight, you’re at the hospital, okay? The nice ponies here are going to help you get better, got it?” I said, keeping my voice low like Shining had done.

“Just like last time,” Shining added.

“Last…time?” Twilight said, looking puzzled. Then whatever energy she had left failed her, and she curled up on the bed, clutching her head. “My head hurts,” she said again.

“Twilight,” Dr. H said, stepping forwards, “where does it hurt?”

“I can’t… think,” Twilight said, even slower than before. “I just want… to sleep.”

“Okay, we’ll let you sleep,” Dr. H said, stepping back again. “Rainbow, Shining, if you could.”

Shining nodded, and so did I, just a bit more reluctantly, and the three of us left the room.

“Sorry,” Dr. H said as soon as we had closed the door behind us. “I know you both wanted to spend more time with her, especially after coming all this way, but as you can see, she’s in no shape to have visitors right now.”

“Right,” I said. “Is she going to be like that for a while?”

“Probably not. The reason she is so out of it right now is because of the chemical restraint. Once that wears off, she should be more alert, as so long as she doesn’t become agitated enough that we need to use it again.”

“Okay, good,” I said, a feeling of relief washing through me.

“Excuse me, Dr. Hippocrates? Would you be able to tell me what you mean by agitated?” Shining said suddenly.

Dr. H blinked at the question. “Well, by ‘agitated’, we mean that she become a danger to herself or others. Does that answer your question?”

“I guess so,” Shining said with a frown. “Anyways, Rainbow? Do you know where Joe’s Doughnut Shop is? It was a favorite of Twily’s.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. She showed it to the five of us a while back. It’s just a little ways from the castle, right? I’m sure I can find it again. Why?” I asked.

“Could you meet me there in about two hours? I’d like to get to know the mare that’s dating my sister a bit more, and I assume you’re not waiting for the bus back.”

“Oh! Yeah, I can do that. I can’t stay out too late, though. I need to be back here early in the morning,” I said, giving him a smile. “Janitorial duties and all that.”

“Understood,” he said. “Well, I better go catch the bus back. I’ve already scheduled another appointment with Twilight in two days, so I guess I’ll see you then,” he said as he turned to Dr. H.

“That sounds good, Shining. Having strong family support is always a good thing for anypony going through a tough time,” Dr. H said softly, her green eyes twinkling with happiness.

To my surprise, Shining Armor just frowned at that. “I know,” he said, before turning around and marching away.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked, turning to Dr. H.

Her smile had turned sad. “I can only guess,” she said with a shake of her head, “but it’s not really my place to. Besides, you can ask him when you meet him at that bakery.”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling a little put out. “Anyways, when can I visit Twilight again?”

“Well, we would much rather that you make an appointment in the future, but you can schedule that with Izzy. Just make sure it’s during normal visiting hours, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“When are those?” I asked. After all, I was going to be working as a janitor every day. Hopefully visiting hours would be long enough that my shift wouldn’t cover all of them.

“Every day, apart from Sunday, between nine in the morning and eight in the evening,” Dr. H said.

I almost laughed. “That shouldn’t be a problem. I’m going to be here every day except for the weekends, and even then I’ll probably come on Saturdays.”

“Every… oh! You’re that temporary janitor that we’ve got for the next month. Sorry, Dr. Kindheart told me we’d be getting some temporary help on that front, but I didn’t realize that it was you,” Dr. H said, smiling. “I guess that means that we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other. If you have any questions, just talk to me and I’ll try to clear them up, okay.”

“Thank you,” I said, “’I’ll keep that in mind.”

A little under two hours later, I was seated at Joe’s Doughnut Shop, waiting for Shining.

To tell the truth, I was feeling a little nervous. It wasn’t like I needed his permission to date Twilight, but at the same time, I’d rather not make an enemy of her brother. And although he had seemed friendly enough for the first part of our visit, he behavior after we saw Twilight kind of unnerved me.

Maybe he blamed me for not catching that something had gone wrong with Twilight’s medication? I did sometimes as well, so it wasn’t out of the question. And on top of that, he was the captain of the Royal Guard, so he could really make my life difficult if he—

“You look like you’re thinking. Mind if I interrupt?”

I glanced up and saw Shining looking at me. He was smiling, but it was a tired kind of smile. I glanced at the clock on the wall. “You’re early,” I said.

“Well, so are you,” Shining pointed out.

I shrugged. “I didn’t really have anything to do today. There isn’t really anywhere to practice my flying in the city, and I couldn’t find the fiction section in the library easily.”

“So, flying practice and reading, huh? Sounds like you have a diverse set of hobbies,” Shining said.

“I guess you could call them hobbies. I just like to read adventure books, and as for flying, well… I want to be in the Wonderbolts someday, so I have to keep in tip top shape.”

“Oh, I understand. I trained almost every day before I made it into the guard. And pretty much every day still, now that I think about it. And as for the library, I could show you where the fiction section is. I know the library here in Canterlot must be a lot bigger than the one in Ponyville, but I spent enough time there to know where everything is,” he said, his smile losing some of its exhausted look.

“Really? Do you go for fun, or is it some sort of work thing?”

“I used to go there a lot to pick up Twilight, and I spent a lot of time studying there as well. Lots of things you have to know to move up in the ranks.”

“I think it’s the same for the Wonderbolts,” I said. Come to think of it, if I got into the reserve, I’d have to take some sort of test. Oh well, something to think about later.

“Anyways,” I said, gazing at Shining curiously, “What’s up? Why did you want to meet me here? And what was up with you at the hospital today? Are you always like that, or did I just catch you on a bad day?”

Shining met my gaze. “With everything that’s going on, I think the last few days qualify as ‘bad days.’”

I chuckled humorlessly. “I guess that’s true. Still, you were really friendly right up until the end of our visit with Twilight. What was up with that?”

“Well,” Shining said, looking away from me for a second, “seeing Twiliy like that brought up some painful memories. Not to mention that drug she’s on…”

“The drug the doctor talked about?” I asked. “The magic suppressor?”

“Yeah. As a captain of the Royal Guard, I… well, it doesn’t matter. The doctors there are professionals. They’ll be careful.”

“Umm… okay?” I said, confused but I didn’t feel like pressing the issue. “So, why did you want to meet me here? Just to talk?”

“They have good food here. Isn’t that reason enough?” Shining said with a laugh. “In all seriousness, I wanted to get a chance to know you better. Twiliy never mentioned you, but like I said, we had kind of drifted apart.”

“I see,” I said. That makes sense. After all, he must be feeling pretty protective of Twilight right now. “So you just want to talk?”

“Pretty much. And get something to eat. I haven’t had anything to eat all day,” he said, signaling Joe over to get something to eat.

Joe smiled as he made his way over to our table. “Hey, if it isn’t Shining Armor! I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you doing?” he said.

“Well, could be better, but it could be worse. I’ll have my usual, if you don’t mind,” Shining said.

“I’ll see if the cooks still remember what that is. And for the lady?”

“I’ll just have a doughnut with frosting and sprinkles,” I said.

“Sounds good!” Joe said. “I’ll get the staff right on that.”

As Joe left, I turned back to Shining. “So, if you just want to talk, do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “What is it?”

“You said seeing Twilight like that brought up some painful memories. Was… was it hard growing up with her? What was it like?” I asked.

For a second, I feared that I had said the wrong thing. Shining face had darkened, and he gave me a look. But as quickly as the look had come, it faded. “I guess that’s a fair enough question. It, it was hard at first, but in the end it helped our family come together.”

“How so?” I asked. “I’m just curious. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,” I added hastily.

“No, it’s fine. I’m guessing Twilight didn’t talk about her past much, even with you,” Shining said. He rubbed his chin. “Well, I can’t tell you much about how it was for Twilight, but do you mind if I tell you a quick story after we get our food? I don’t want to discuss it here, but there is a park nearby that nopony ever visits, so nopony should overhear us.”

“That sounds good to me,” I said, as I turned to look in the kitchen. Great, now I was really impatient for our food to come.

Author's Note

Hey guys and gals. Sorry this took so long to get to you. I had some problems with work, and I didn’t have much time to write.

Shining Armor 1

Rainbow followed me silently as we left the café. She seemed lost in thought, but to be fair to her, so was I.

Was I really going to tell Rainbow about how much our foalhood had changed after Twilight’s first episode? I had really only told two ponies about it: Cadance and that therapist that I had seen for a couple sessions. And even then, I only had one session with her alone, the rest of the time it had been the family together. And Cadance had been there for most of our foalhood, so that wasn’t too hard.

And under ordinary circumstances, I would never tell anypony what I was thinking of telling Rainbow now. But these weren’t ordinary circumstances. Rainbow already knew about Twilight’s illness, and she was a national hero. And from what little digging I could do before I met with her at the doughnut shop said what I had already known: she was a little quick to anger, but she also had a good heart. And she seemed fiercely protective of her friends; her only criminal record had come from when some stallions were harassing her friend, a pegasus named Fluttershy.

So while I felt a little uneasy about telling her, I felt that it was the right thing to do.

“So… if nopony ever goes to this park, how do you know about it, Shining?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh, it used to be more popular. There were some problems with the funding a while back, so it kind of fell into disrepair. Don’t worry, it’s near enough to the guard station that there won’t be any… unsavory types around. In fact, sometime I take a walk there after my shift. It can be very peaceful,” I said.

“If you say so,” Rainbow said as we walked into the park.

Despite the lack of upkeep, it was still a very pretty place, the trees towered over us, and though a gap in the trunks you could see all the way up the mountain to the castle. Sure, the grass was a little long, there were leaves everywhere, and the benches were losing their varnish, but those things, combined with the lack of ponies around made me feel like I had left the city altogether.

“So,” I said, gesturing to one of the less unsteady benches, “let’s sit down. I have a feeling this is going to take a while.”

“Sure, but I’m blaming you if I get a splinter,” Rainbow said, giving the bench a disapproving glance.

“So,” I asked, as soon as we were both relatively comfortable. “You said you wanted to know what it was like growing up with Twilight?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I guess I don’t really need to know, but I am curious.”

“That’s fine. It’s only natural to be curious, and it this case I bet it’s not just because she’s your marefriend, right.”

“Yes,” Rainbow said bluntly. “Even if we were just friends, I would still be curious. And hopefully, this will help me understand what Twilight is going through right now. But first… are you sure that Twilight would be okay with you telling me what happened?”

“Good point,” I said, rubbing my chin. “Tell you what, how about I focus less on Twilight and more on what happened to our family?”

“Not my first choice, but okay. I can always ask Twilight about it when she recovers.”

“You mean, get her permission,” I corrected. When Rainbow gave me a quizzical look, I continued. “She wouldn’t be able to tell you much about the period right after she got diagnosed. Her first episode was pretty extreme, and she doesn’t really remember much about that time. The one time I asked her, she described it as sort of being in a dream.”

Rainbow frowned. “Okay. I’ll try to find a sensitive way to bring that up, even if being sensitive isn’t one of my strong points.”

“Right. So—oh! One more thing,” I said, remembering something important. “Don’t tell Twilight about this. She doesn’t need to know how rough things got for the family back then.”

I could practically see Rainbow’s distaste at being asked to hide anything from Twilight, but eventually she sighed and nodded. “You’ve got a deal,” she said, nodding. “But when you say rough, what do you mean?”

“Well…”

I could hear them clearly from my hiding place at the top of the stairs, but considering the volume of the argument, I probably could have heard them in my room just as easily.

“I can’t believe you came home drunk again! This is what? The third time this week? Did you even go to work today?” Mom yelled.

“What… What does it matter? The whole place is going under. It’s only a matter of time before they let me…let me… fire me,” Dad said, punctuation his statement with a hiccup.

“Well, of course they’re going to fire you if you stop showing up or show up drunk! What happened? You used to love stargazing! And now I bet you’ve barely set hoof in the observatory in the past month. What happened to the stallion that was so excited to get a position at the royal observatory?”

“You know—urp—you know exactly what happened. And maybe if I could get some time without you nagging me at home, maybe the bar wouldn’t sound so appa… appeal… friendly.”

“Oh, for the love of Celestia, you… ugh. We can’t let this happen, Star. We can’t let her tear us apart like this. We—“

“What do you mean, ‘her’!?” Dad roared, swaying on his feet. “Don’t… don’t tell me you blame Twilight for this?”

Mom flinched back. “No, no, of course I don’t. I just…” She trailed off, biting her lip.

Dad didn’t wait for her to finish her thought. He turned and staggered his way towards the stairs, and I silently scrambled to get to my room.

“That does sound rough,” Rainbow said. She gave me a sidelong look. “Are you, umm, still on speaking terms with your mom? I mean, if she really did blame Twilight for any problems your family was having, well…”

“Yeah, I was mad at her for a week after that,” I said.

“Only a week?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, it probably would have been longer if it hadn’t been for Cadance.”

“What’s Cadance? Isn’t that some type of music?”

“Not a what, a who. Cadance was our old foalsitter. After Twilight had been diagnosed, Mom and Dad let her go because, well, I was too old to need a foalsitter, and Twilight wasn’t home anymore. She must have been talking to one of them, though, because right when things were getting to the breaking point, she showed up at our house and…”

“Twilight Velvet! Star Sparkle! You are going to let me in even if I have to break this door down!”

I opened our front door, and Cadance, about to pound on it again, almost lost her balance and stumbled into our house. “Thank you, Shiny. Your mom and dad are home, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Mom’s in the kitchen, and Dad is upstairs, stargazing, I think.”

“Thank you. So, um… how are you holding up?” Cadance asked, looking me up and down.

If it had been anypony else asking, I don’t think I would have said anything other than ‘I’m fine,’ but this was Cadance. She could always tell when I was lying. “I’m just glad they’re not fighting anymore.”

“They…aren’t?” she asked, voice hopeful.

“Well, they mostly ignore each other. We haven’t had any family dinners in a week, but I’m kind of glad for that. They just felt weird without Twilight.”

“Of course not,” Cadance said, rubbing her muzzle. “This has to end. Shiny, could you go get your dad, he, your mom and I are going to have a long talk.”

I nodded, and turned around, only to almost run into Dad.

“Don’t bother, Cadance. It was nice of you to show up, but this isn’t really any of your business,” he said.

“Horseapples!” Cadance exclaimed, and I gasped. She had always warned me not to use language like that, and I had never, ever heard her say something like that. “I love Twilight too! I love all of you too much to let this continue.”

“I understand that, but—“

Cadance’s eyes narrowed. “Auntie is worried too. She agreed to let me handle it, but she isn’t afraid to step in if she feels her new student isn’t going to be happy at home.”

Dad took a step back. “She… she still thinks of Twilight as her student?”

Cadance let out a snort. “Of course. What’s going on in no way changes how Auntie views Twilight.”

Dad bit his lip. I had seen him do that a few times before, when he was thinking. “Fine. Let’s talk in the family room. Velvet?”

“I’m already there,” Mom said from our main room, sounding disgruntled.

“Very well,” Cadance said, nodding. “Shiny, could you go up to your room?” she asked, trotting into the room.

I started to go upstairs, but halfway to the stairs, I changed my mind. Instead, I turned and followed Cadance into our family room.

All three adults in the room looked at me in surprise.

“Shiny,” Cadance whispered.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I stated. “I’m part of this family too, so I’m just as much invested in this as the three of you.”

Mom and Dad turned to look at Cadance, who just nodded. “I’m sorry, Shining Armor. It was unfair of me to try to leave you out. Now then, let’s get down to business…”

“That night was kind of painful for us all,” I said, as Rainbow looked at me.

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah, it was like cleaning a wound. You have to do it, but it still stings.”

“I understand that. So who is this Candace? She sounds amazing. I would be surprised that Twilight didn’t mention her, ever, but after meeting you…”

“Yeah, she is amazing. We’re getting married in a few months.”

“Hey, congratulations! From what you’ve told me, she sounds like a great…wait,” Rainbow stopped mid thought and gave me a funny look. “But… she was your foalsitter. How old is she? How old are you?”

I laughed. “You’ll understand when you meet her. But I’m not gonna give anything away. I like the surprise on ponies’ faces when they meet her.”

Rainbow continued to give me that look, but eventually she looked away. “So, what did you end up talking about?”

“Well, to sum up, for dad…”

“I’m sorry, but how can you expect me to focus on work at a time like this?”

“Nopony is asking you to head back to work right away, Star. You’ve been such a good worker for the past few years that the head astrologist is willing to overlook what’s been happening. When I talked with him, he pointed out that you have about three weeks of unused vacation time left, so he’s urging you to use them,” Cadance said.

Dad looked at her sharply, fire in his eyes. “You went behind my back? You didn’t tell him about—“

“All Midnight Sky knows is that you’re having a rough time right now, and he didn’t need me to tell him that. It was obvious with how your performance had been suffering. Not to mention how you seemed to be… well… drunk, a couple of times,” Cadance said, before dad had a chance to say anything else.

“Oh…”

“Now, then, do you think you can do that? Take some time away from the office to get a clearer head?”

Dad chuckled ruefully. “Not that I have many other options. But yeah. I’ll take some time off to get myself back together.”

“But with Mom, it was a little more complicated. She wouldn’t admit that anything was wrong at first, and everything just went around in circles, but eventually I asked her…”

“Do you really blame Twilight for this, Mom?”

Cadance and Dad both gave me a sharp look.

Mom looked as if I had just slapped her.

“What… no, I don’t…” she stuttered.

“Then why did you almost say that she was tearing the family apart the other day?” I asked, pressing on despite the look Dad was giving me.

“I… I didn’t mean it like that…”

“Then what did you mean?” I said, trying to keep my voice level.

Mom took a deep breath. “It was just a slip of the tongue. I don’t blame Twilight for this… I blame… never mind, it’s not important.”

“You blame yourself, don’t you,” Cadance said softly.

Once again, Mom looked like she had been slapped. “I know… I know it’s not my fault, but…” she said, eyes watering. “I don’t know what to do. I want to blame somepony… anything… for what happened to my dear Twilight… but there isn’t anypony I can say caused this, except… myself.”

Cadance sighed. “It’s not your fault, Velvet. Like you said, it isn’t anypony’s fault.”

“I know that, but—“

“No ‘buts,’ Velvet. You can’t shoulder happened when it really isn’t your fault.”

“You say that like its easy…” Mom said, her voice cracking.

“I know it isn’t, but… urgh.” Cadance sighed. “Tell you what, would any of you be opposed to seeing a professional counselor? I think they would be able to help you more than I would. I know a few who specialize in marriages, and they would be happy to point me in the direction of some colleagues that help families with these sorts of things.”

“That… that might be helpful,” Mom said, sniffing.

“Good. Now then, are any of you hungry? I could make dinner for all of you, if you’d like?” Cadance asked, smiling.

The three of us nodded.

“Well, I’m glad everything worked out,” Rainbow said.

“Oh, it wasn’t quite worked out right then,” I said, shaking my head. “Cadance had at least gotten Mom and Dad to open up a little, but we still had a lot of work to do. And even then, after they had everything worked out, I was still dealing with some issues of my own…”

“Issues? What kind of issues?”

“Well…” I said, hesitating. I didn’t really want to talk about it, at least right then. It was much more personal than talking about the whole family. Luckily, the sinking sun gave me a way out. “It’s a long story, and it’s getting late. We’ll talk about it another time. Deal?”

Rainbow sighed. “Fine, fine. When’s the next time you’re free?”

“I have to coordinate the night patrols for the next week, but I should be available next week. I usually have Mondays off. My other day off varies a little depending on how the week goes, but—“

“Mondays, got it,” Rainbow said impatiently. “I’ll see if I can get Mondays off as well. I don’t know what my schedule will look like at the moment, but... listen, you’re probably going to be visiting Twilight a lot, right?”

I just nodded.

“Then I’ll see you at the hospital. We can set something up then, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“All right, then I should get going. I need to be at the hospital bright and early tomorrow, so I’m gonna go hit the hay. See you around.”

“See you later, Rainbow. It was good meeting you,” I said, extending a foreleg towards her.

“Likewise,” she said, bumping her hoof against mine. Then, quick as a flash, she was gone, leaving me to my thoughts.

Rainbow Dash 4

“Erm… Long time no see, right, Rainbow?” Applejack said, chuckling nervously.

“If you consider a week a long time, then yes. Now, what do you want?” I repeated for the third time.

“I, um, just wanted to give you an update about what’s going on in Ponyville, you know?”

I rubbed my forehead to ward off the growing headache. “Applejack, you and I both know how terrible of a liar you are. If that was all, you could have just sent me a letter, not come all the way to Canterlot. Besides, it would still be weird even if you sent me that letter, considering that things aren’t exactly cool between us right now. Now tell me the truth, before I slam this door in your face.”

“Fine, fine!” Applejack said, panic entering her voice. “I came to talk to you! I wanted to apologize!”

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” I said coolly.

“I know, but the hospital is closed right now, right? I figured that I could come smooth things over with you tonight, and tomorrow I could talk to Twilight.”

“Fine. But you need to make it quick. I need to get to bed. I have an appointment with Twilight in the morning, because unlike some ponies, I care about her.”

She flinched back. “Darn it, Dash, that was a low blow. I care about her too.”

“Well then, why did you treat her like you did? Calling her a loony, then acting like she was going to rip your head off for no good reason doesn’t exactly scream ‘I care about you.’”

“Rainbow Dash, I’m trying to apologize! Do you think that Twilight would want us fighting like this?”

“Don’t you dare—” I began before I got a handle on my anger. After all, she was probably right. “Fine, come on in. This isn’t a conversation for the hallway.”

“Right,” Applejack agreed, following me back into my room.

“So,” I said, hopping onto the bed as Applejack pulled out a pillow and sat on it, facing me. “Start talking.”

“Well,” Applejack said, chewing on her lip a little, “I got to thinking at the end of our little talk at Sugarcube Corner. What I had said was way out of line. I mean, Twilight is my friend, but when I heard that she was in trouble, my first thought was that she might have hurt somepony. And that just ain’t right,” she added hastily when I started growling. “So I went home and thought long and hard on it. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn’t really know anything about what Twilight was going through.”

“Everything did go to Tartarus before Twilight had a chance to tell you everything,” I observed.

“Yeah. So I thought about how to fix that, and I think I came to the same conclusion that Twilight would have: I needed to read a book about it. So I went to the library—”

“Spike must have been happy to see you,” I said, smirking.

“I’ll say. It went pretty much the same way it did out in the hallway there. He was threatening to slam the door in my face till I got him to calm down,” Applejack said, smiling a little. “Little guy really loves Twilight.”

“So after you got him to let you in, I take it you checked out a book on A.C.M.S.?”

“Well… not just one.”

“Oh?” I said, curiosity creeping into my voice.

“I kind of… maxed out the number of books I could check out. I stayed up almost all night reading them. In fact, I only went to bed when Big Mac threatened to knock me out and put me in bed himself. He said he needed the help on the farm in the morning,” Applejack said.

“Speaking of the farm, how long are you going to be in Canterlot? I can’t imagine you taking the train all the way here for one night. And doesn’t your family need help on the farm?”

“Oh,” Applejack said, waving a hoof in the air dismissively, “we just hired a couple of extra ponies to help. And as for staying in Canterlot, I think I’ll stay for about a week. That should give me enough time to see Twilight at least twice, right?”

“You mean… you actually want to see Twilight?” I asked, slightly stunned. I hadn’t expected that, though in hindsight I should have. AJ wouldn’t have come all the way up here just to see me and then go right back home. Train tickets were a little too expensive for a pony to just come to Canterlot for no reason.

“Of course,” Applejack said, nodding vigorously. “Anyhow, we got a little sidetracked. After I checked out all those books, I went home and spent the next day studying.”

“You, studying.” I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice.

“Argh! Why does everypony say that when I tell them that story? First Spike, then Rarity, and now you! It’s not like I can’t read or anything.”

“Well, your hatred of those ‘fancy mathematics’ is kind of well known.”

“This is different! I do hate doing math! This isn’t math!”

“Okay, okay. I get it. So when you,” I had to suppress a giggle at this point, “'studied,’ what did you find out?”

“A lot of stuff that made me feel guilty, that’s for sure. I mean, did you know that ponies with a severe mental illness are much more likely to be victimized by violent crime, not commit them? I thought it was the other way around!”

“I hadn’t specifically heard that, but I can understand that. When Twilight had her… episode, she seemed more interested in running from everypony. Twilight just seemed… scared,” I said.

“Yeah… I can imagine. The books said that ponies with A.C.M.S. would rather be left alone. And Twilight always likes her alone time.”

I said nothing, but my mind went back to when Twilight and I had first started dating. She had been really slow to open up to me emotionally. I guess even then she had been trying to come out of her comfort zone.

“Another thing I read,” Applejack said, breaking me out of my thoughts, “is that ponies with A.C.M.S. are more likely to get addicted to something harmful, like alcohol. And that made a lot of things click into place for me.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Well, this is just me thinking out loud, but that might be the reason Twilight always turned down the hard stuff when I brought cider. Probably because she didn’t want to become addicted.”

“I’m not sure it works like that, Applejack,” I said.

“Well, my uncle used to be drunk all the time, and after he sobered up, he wouldn’t touch anything addictive, even if a doctor prescribed it. I dunno, I just got the same kind of feeling, thinking back on how Twilight acts around alcohol.”

Again, I said nothing, simply recalling Twilight’s admission in Doctor Hooves’s office that she once used salt sticks. Was that really why she wouldn’t touch Applejack’s hard cider? Was she afraid of becoming addicted again, just to a different thing?

Not that I would know at this point. I hadn’t noticed how she had stayed away from alcohol until Applejack had brought it up just now. But, in hindsight, she hadn’t even looked at the wine list anytime we went out to eat.

“Anyways,” I said, “What was the end result of you doing all this studying? You don’t need to lecture me on what A.C.M.S. does. I already heard it straight from the pony’s mouth, and you would have as well, if you hadn’t messed everything up.”

AJ winced. “Right, I should have known you would know more than me. You’ve been Twilight’s marefriend for a while. I guess that beats one night of studying.”

“Yeah. It does,” I said, “but here’s the thing that gets me. You’ve known Twilight for just as long as I have. How could you even think she would hurt us? You know how important friendship is to her.”

“It’s like Granny Smith always says, ‘ignorance breeds fear.’ Granted, I’ve never had that apply to me before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. And,” she said, chuckling regretfully, “in this case my fear kept me from learning more. It was one of those, what do you call it, orb-thingy.”

“Some sort of orb? What?” I asked, totally confused.

“You know, that snake that eats its own tail?”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about, but that sounds like one stupid snake.”

“I guess so,” Applejack said, frowning. “But, back on topic, I want to make it up to you, and more importantly, Twilight.”

“Well, I do have an appointment with her tomorrow, but I don’t think the doctor would be as accommodating to a two pony visit this time. In fact I think the only reason I got in to see her before was because of her brother.”

AJ gave me a look. “The doctor’s brother, or…”

“No,” I corrected, “Twilight’s brother. And no, I didn’t know Twilight had a brother either.”

“Really? I always thought Twilight was an only child. Don’t know why though.”

“Probably because she never mentioned him. According to him, Twilight has always been terrible about keeping ponies informed about what’s going on in her life.”

“It sounds like it,” Applejack agreed.

“So anyways, you might be able to see Twilight on Friday, if you make an appointment tomorrow.”

“I hope so. I can’t stay in Canterlot for too long. I’m not made of bits you know.”

“Yeah. And this is changing the subject, but how are things back in Ponyville?”

“Well,” Applejack said, rubbing her chin, “it’s pretty much the same old, just a little quieter without Twilight. Oh! But guess what?”

“What?”

“Lyra and Rarity are heading to Canterlot soon too! They’re going to be taking part in that competition!”

“Really?” I said, intrigued. “The one where the pony’s invention that has the most potential to do good gets a grant to continue research?”

“The very same! I’m so happy for Rarity. This could be the boost that she needs to step into the limelight!” Applejack said with pride in her voice.

“Good for her!” I said, but my smile wasn’t entirely genuine. Twilight should have been competing in that as well. Or at least, before she had destroyed her notes.

“And one last thing,” Applejack said. “Spike said he should be up in Canterlot as soon as he finds somepony to watch the library. He has a couple of ponies he thinks might be good for the job, but he wants to pick the best. Wouldn’t want Twilight to come back to a destroyed library, now would we?”

“Right,” I said, then yawned. “Sorry to cut this short, but I need to get to bed. After that appointment with Twilight, I have to clean the whole hospital.”

“Sounds like fun,” AJ said with a chuckle. “So, um, are things allright between us now?”

“Yeah, we’re cool,” I said with a smile.

“Good, good,” AJ said, sounding relived. “Well, I need to get some shut-eye as well. Maybe I’ll see you at the hospital tomorrow?”

“We’ll see.”

“All right. I’ll talk to you later, Rainbow,” she said, as she exited my room.

As soon as she shut the door behind her, I collapsed back into bed, barely taking the time to make sure that my alarm was set for the right time before letting sleep claim me.

Author's Note

Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks to docontra for proofreading.

Rainbow Dash 5

Morning came much too soon. It felt like I had just said goodnight to Applejack when the morning alarm rang.

Still, somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed and do some pre-flight stretches before I ran out of time and had to leave for the hospital. I sure as heck wasn’t going to miss my appointment with Twilight just because I was a little groggy.

The flight itself was uneventful, for the most part. The only thing that kept me from flying on automatic was my search for the bus that Applejack would have been taking to the hospital. The hospital may have been out a ways from the city, but it still had a somewhat steady stream of buses pass it by. I did remember that there was a small town on the other side of the hospital from Canterlot, so the hospital was probably just an unneeded stop for most ponies taking the bus. Nevertheless, I was glad that my ground bound friends had a consistent way to come visit Twilight.

And just like that, my thoughts turned to my appointment with Twilight. By Celestia, I hoped it would turn out better than my last visit. I’d barely gotten to see her for ten minutes before we had to leave. Hopefully she wouldn’t be as out of it as before.

About half way to the hospital, I saw the bus. Grinning, I swooped down and gave a wave to Applejack when I saw her through the windows. She looked surprised at first, as did the rest of the passengers, but Applejack quickly recovered and waved back.

It felt good to be back on speaking terms with Applejack. After all, she was one of my oldest friends, and it hurts to lose a friend, no matter whose fault it is.

After I did a quick couple of tricks for the passengers on the bus, I sped off. It was time to see Twilight.

“Hey, Izzy, I’m here!” I announced as I trotted into the receptionist area.

“Hiya, Rainbow! How you doing today?” Izzy asked, smiling widely.

I glanced around the room to make sure there were no other ponies in it. “To tell, the truth, I’m ready for the weekend. I need a break from all this cleaning.”

“Yeah. I can understand that. Much as I like this job, five days in a row every week is enough. I don’t know how some of the doctors can put in six or even seven day weeks.”

I blinked. “Some of them do that? Why?”

Izzy shrugged. “Most of the time, it only happens if we’re short staffed, or if some sort of emergency happens. Most of the doctors here care deeply about their patients, enough that they don’t mind putting in some overtime if it helps them through a rough patch.”

“Most of them?” I asked. “What about the ones who don’t care?”

“They tend to either be the best of the best in their field, or they just plain don’t last long. Dr. Kindheart has very strict standards about his staff. Well, the doctors, at least.”

“Right. He must be more relaxed about the cleaning staff, or I never would have gotten the ‘thrilling’ chance to work here,” I joked.

“Oh, yes, I know,” Izzy said, earnestly.

“Oh, um, okay,” I replied, feeling a little hurt by how blunt her answer was.

“Anyways, Dr. H is almost ready to oversee your visit,” Izzy continued, seemingly unaware of my hurt feelings.

I shook off the last bit of resentment I felt towards Izzy. “That’s good,” I said. “How long will I have to wait?”

The receptionist leaned back in her chair, giving her a good look down the hallway to the left of her desk. “About thirty more seconds. I can see her right now.”

True to Izzy’s words, Dr. H came around the corner less than a minute later.

“How you doing, doctor?” I asked, shaking her hoof.

“Quite well,” she said, still in that same soft voice. “Yourself?”

I shrugged. “I’m a little tired, but other than that, I’m fine.”

“Good to hear. Are you ready?”

“Yep. See you later, Izzy!” I said as Dr. H and I started down the hallway towards Twilight’s room.

As Izzy waved back, I turned to the doctor. “So,” I asked, “how is Twilight doing?”

She frowned. “Well, she is doing better than the last time you saw her. The chemical restraints have worn off, and she has calmed down, but... I’ll be honest with you, she’s been cycling between blunted affect with alogia and disorganized speech.”

“Um…” I said, searching my memory for what those words meant, “Blunted affect is when she doesn’t feel much emotion, right? And… I forget what the other two mean.”

“Alogia is when a pony doesn’t speak much without prompting, and even then they give rather short and clipped answers to everything. And disorganized speech can be divided into several categories, but mostly it just sounds like nonsensical rambling.”

“Oh. Those kind of sound like opposites to me.”

Dr. H sighed. “Yes, but what is concerning is the frequency with which she switches between the two. She never cycled this fast when she was here before. In any case, you should be prepared for her to either not react to you, or not make much sense.”

“Right,” I said, as we stopped in front of room 112. Dr. H stepped through the door, and gestured for me to follow.

Twilight was reading, or at least looking at, a book. She looked up at us as we entered the room, and her eyes lit up as she saw me.

“Rainbow!” she said with a huge smile. “Dogs have read all my books and there are termites in the air!”

“Hey, Twi. How you doing?” I asked as I waved at her. The smile I put on my face was mostly genuine. She had recognized me, and she seemed happy to see me to boot!

“Well, breakfast was ethereal because I saw some clouds,” Twilight said as she waved back at me.

“That… uh… sounds nice?” I replied rubbing the back of my head, nervously. What was I supposed to say to that?

“Magical worms are eating the pages of my library,” she said as she rubbed the back of her head… just like I was doing.

I slowly clapped my hooves together in front of me.

Twilight tried to do the same thing, but the cast on her leg made it awkward. “Red ribbons are all around us and the air is—“ She stopped mid-sentence and frowned. “I—I forgot. Sorry.”

I looked to Dr. H, and found to my surprise that she was smiling. “Twilight, Rainbow here is going to read a book to you. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

Twilight nodded slowly.

“Here,” Dr. H said, handing me a huge book that she must have been holding in her saddlebag.

I glanced at the cover. “’A Beginners Guide to Basic Magical Theory?’” I said aloud.

“It was one of Twilight’s favorites the last time she was here. Go on, read it to her.”

I shrugged, then took the book and sat on the bed next to Twilight. “Foreword by Dr. Abra C. Dabera. Many ponies think that magical theory is…”

Twenty long minutes later, I was on the verge of falling asleep. If somepony had told me a week ago that I would get sick of the sound of my own voice, I would have laughed at them. But, as it turns out, almost a half hour of hearing myself recite figures and equations would do that to me. Why couldn’t Dr. H have given me a Daring Do book to read?

Luckily, after I accidently read the same line out loud twice, the doctor came to my rescue.

“Okay, Twilight, Rainbow, our time is just about up for the day. Say goodbye to Rainbow, Twilight.”

“Bye, Rainbow,” Twilight said, before adding “Mountains are blocking the sky.”

“See you later, Twi. I’ll come visit again as soon as I’m able,” I said as Dr. H and I walked out of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind us, Dr. H turned to me and smiled as I handed the book back to her. “I think that was a good visit.”

“You sure? She wasn’t making any sense, and I just spent most of the time reading to her.”

“Yes, but you have to look on the bright side. She recognized you, and she was happy to see you. That’s a good sign.”

“Okay,” I said, thinking. I was going to have to take the doctor’s word on this. Still, she was right. It was a much better visit than last time. “Right,” I said, pulling myself back to reality. “Do you have a moment? I have a few questions.”

“Sure thing,” Dr. H said softly, brushing a strand of her blue hair out of her eye.

“I sort of noticed that she was mimicking my gestures there at the beginning. Was that normal?”

“I hesitate to call it normal, but it is a symptom that Twilight has exhibited before, so it’s not completely unexpected.”

“Got it. So… uh, just… how is she doing? I don’t really have a frame of reference for this, so could you kind of bottom line it for me?”

Dr. H bit her lip. “Honestly, it may take a few days for us to get a more accurate feel for how things are proceeding.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Really? Why?”

“She is most likely still suffering some of the effects of the withdrawal from the previous, full strength dosage of her meds. That alone makes it hard to judge her progress.”

“I see. So once the withdrawal goes away, she should start improving?” I asked, hopefully.

“If everything goes according to plan, yes. But like I said, for the moment the withdrawal symptoms are mixing with her actual symptoms.”

“And that makes everything seem worse. I think I get it. But still, next time, couldn’t we get a better book to read? That one that I was reading in there was sort of…dull.”

Dr. H laughed. “I think so too, but the staff and I really think that Twilight would be more comfortable with something so familiar. By the time she left after her last stay, she could almost recite some of the earlier sections of the book by memory. And let me tell you, the title doesn’t do that book any justice. Despite it being a ‘beginner’s guide,’ it covers the full spectrum of magical theory,” she said as she wedged the book back into her saddlebag.

“Still, couldn’t I bring a Daring Do book next time or something?”

“No,” Dr. H said bluntly. “At this point, what Twilight needs is stability, not excitement. And an old familiar book of proven equations and concrete figures is as stable as it gets for Twilight.”

“Okay, I get your point. Just, keep me posted when you do think I could read some Daring Do to her. We both love that series. In fact, she’s the one that got me into it.”

The doctor’s frown morphed into a smile. “I’ll do that. Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I need to do my rounds. Have a good day, Rainbow.”

“I’ll see you next time, if we don’t run into each other while I’m cleaning,” I said, waving over my shoulder as the doctor and I went our separate ways.

I still had a bit of time before my janitor shift started, so I started to head back to the reception area. Maybe I could set up an appointment for the weekend. Or…

I frowned. Did the hospital even have visiting hours on the weekend? Oh, well, only one way to find out.

“I’m back, Izzy! Oh, hey Applejack! What are you doing still hanging around here?” I asked as I walked into the lobby.

“I was waiting for you, Rainbow. I just finished making an appointment to see Twilight tomorrow, and I remembered I forgot to ask you something,” Applejack said, getting up from the chair she was sitting in. “You do still have a little bit of time before you gotta start cleaning, right?”

I glanced at the clock above the receptionist desk. “I’ve got about half an hour. Why? What’s up?”

“Well, tomorrow, Rarity and Lyra are gonna be heading to Canterlot for a while. The competition for that grant is starting next week, so they wanna be prepared. And Pinkie and Fluttershy pulled some strings so that they can come up and visit on Sunday and stay for a few days. And since the hospital doesn’t have normal visiting hours on Sunday, we were thinking that the six of us could just spend the day relaxing. You, uh, don’t have to work over the weekend, do you?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ve been looking forwards to the weekend to get a break from all this. And I didn’t really have anything planned for Sunday, so… yeah. That sounds like a plan.”

“Alrighty then, I’ll see you Sunday. And I’ll see Twilight tomorrow… say, you just visited her, right? How was she?” Applejack asked, lowering her voice, even though the only other pony in the room was Izzy.

“She, uh… wasn’t making a lot of sense,” I admitted. “But she did seem happy to see me. I spent most of the time reading her a book.”

“Huh. Well, hopefully she’ll be better tomorrow. Anyhow, I gotta get going. Don’t want to miss the bus,” Applejack said as she turned to leave.

“Catch you later, AJ!” I called after her, before turning to Izzy. “All right, when’s the next open appointment for me?”

“It looks like… maybe Monday?” Izzy said haltingly.

I tilted my head in puzzlement. “Why the hesitation? And why not tomorrow or Saturday?”

“Well, the thing is, the doctors want Twilight to get into a routine right now, and most of the rest of the day is filled up so she really only has time for one visit a day. And the next two days have already been booked,” Izzy explained, looking sorry.

“So, Applejack is taking tomorrow, but what about Saturday?”

“Her parents are coming that day.”

“Ohhh. That makes sense.”

“Yeah, they were apparently on vacation, but they cut that short.”

“Well, darn. Monday before work it is, then.”

Izzy grinned at me. “I’ll put it on the books.”

“All right,” I said, “I should get going. I need to meet up with Clean Shine. See you later, Izzy!”

“Later Rainbow,” Izzy called after me as I made my way to the janitor’s lounge.

Hopefully today and tomorrow would go by quick. I was really looking forwards to the weekend.

Author's Note

Thanks to docontra for proofreading.

Rainbow Dash 6

The universe has a way of crushing my hopes. The next two days dragged on forever. I’m not even sure why. It wasn’t like Clean Shine and I had done anything that I hadn’t before. It was mostly cleaning rooms and sheets, as well as windows.

So why in the hay did it feel like it took forever for the end of Friday to roll around?

Still, that just made me appreciate the fact that I was free for two whole days even sweeter. Well, two and a half if I count what was left of today.

Now I just had to figure out what the heck I was going to do with my time. There wasn’t much point in going to the hospital over the weekend if I couldn’t visit Twilight. Then again, if I went tomorrow, I might run into Twilight’s parents…

I shook my head as I wandered into my room at the hotel. No, that would be kind of awkward. How would I even introduce myself?

“Hi, I’m Rainbow Dash. I’ve been dating your daughter, even though she probably hasn’t told you about me. And yes, I’ve actually been waiting here at the hospital so I could surprise you with this before you see Twilight. Oh, don’t worry, she’s already told me all about A.C.M.S., so you don’t need to explain anything to me,” I said out loud, as I flopped onto the bed to think.

Ugh. That would go over well. It would be so much simpler if Twilight could just introduce us. Or…

I sat straight up on the bed. Or I could have somepony else introduce us… like Shining Armor!

That would be perfect, I decided as I trotted into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Shining would be able to set up a time and place for the three of us to meet, and he could handle the introductions. It was perfect!

Now all I had to do was find the stallion. Hopefully he would still be at the guard station, but I had no idea how late he worked or if he even worked today.

Oh well, only one way to find out.

The guard station itself was a lot bigger than the one we had in Ponyville, but I guess that was only to be expected. It did have to watch over an entire city, rather than just one small town.

But perhaps that was for the best. If it was a larger station, then there had to be more work to do, which made it more likely that Shining was still here, right?

Now that I was feeling a little bit more confident, I marched up to the front office and rang the bell. A very bored looking stallion glanced up at me from behind a newspaper.

“What do you want?” he asked gruffly.

“Is Captain Shining Armor still in? I’d like to speak with him real quick,” I said.

“Normally he wouldn’t be, but he had to help close a case today. He should be on his way out right now, so you might be able to see him as he goes home. Just make it quick. He has some sort of appointment after work, so he doesn’t have a lot of time. If you take a seat you can wait here.”

“Thanks,” I said as I turned to sit down and get a look around the room. Oddly, it was much more clinical than the actual hospital. It was a uniform shade of grey, with no plants and very cheap looking seats.

There were only two other ponies in the room, a mid-aged stallion and mare, and both looked rather worn down. The mare was a light shade of grey with a purple and white mane, while the stallion was blue from top to bottom.

I didn’t want to bother them. With the couple looking so downcast, they were probably waiting for news on something unpleasant. All in all, best to leave them alone.

Of course, if I wasn’t going to talk to them, that left me at a loss for what to do. I didn’t see any magazines or even any pamphlets, so reading was out. That left… sitting quietly in my chair.

Yay.

About thirty seconds later I was already bored out of my mind. Seriously, I know most ponies that come through here are being arrested or on their way to an office or something, but when the most interesting thing about a room is wondering how that stain got on the ceiling, ponies like me get restless.

I shifted in my seat, and it let out a squeak. Lovely. Maybe I could come back later… no, Shining would be gone by then, and the guard would tell him I had been looking for him, and he would start wondering why I showed up just to leave.

I sighed, and tried to find a more comfortable way to sit. Unfortunately, all that achieved was getting the chair to let out a slightly different noise. Another movement, another noise.

Hey, I wonder if I could get the chair to play the national anthem?

I had gotten midway through the first line when I caught the grey mare glaring at me. As soon as she saw me looking back at her, she turned up her muzzle at me and let out an angry groan.

I had been on the verge of apologizing, but something about the way she looked at me just annoyed me. So the instant she looked away, I deliberately shifted in my seat again, and snickered to myself when her head whipped around at the noise.

This time, however, instead of going back to her quiet conversation with her… husband? With the stallion, she got up and marched over to me.

“Listen you imbecile, this isn’t some sort of classroom at your community college where you can get a laugh out of the other morons by doing something stupid. This is a guard station! At least a touch of decorum is called for. So sit down and stay still!”

Before I even realized it, I was standing with my muzzle almost pressed against hers. I opened my mouth to fire back—

When I caught sight of her cutie mark. It was a trio of stars… similar to the ones on Shining Armor’s and Twilight’s… and the guard said Shining had an appointment with somepony after work…

Oh, shoot.

The mare must have taken my mouth hanging open as some sort of admission of defeat. She turned with a huff and took her seat right next to her husband.

I took a breath to steel myself and took a step towards the couple. As the sound of my hooves on the hard floor got closer, the mare turned and glared at me again, but before she could say anything I cut her off.

“Listen, are you waiting here for Shining Armor?” I asked. This time it was her mouth that hung open, and I took that as proof that my guess was right on the money. “Sorry, I think we got off on the wrong hoof. My name is Rainbow Dash. What are yours?”

“I’m Star Sparkle, and this is my wife, Twilight Velvet,” the stallion said quickly, cutting over his wife as she opened her mouth.

“And why do you care?” Velvet said as soon as her husband finished speaking.

“I was actually waiting here to ask Shining to introduce me to his parents, but… listen, I’m really sorry for annoying you. I just got bored with nothing to do and… sorry.”

The couple exchanged a puzzled glance. “Well, as you might have guessed, you just met us. But you still haven’t told us why you care,” Velvet said, taking a tentative step towards me.

“Well, uh… you see… I’m dating Twilight,” I said, and then winced as both their mouths dropped open in shock.

“It’s true,” Shining said from somewhere behind us. “And you don’t need to worry, Mom, Dad. I already ran some background checks on her and she seems like a good pony.”

“Shining!” the three of us chorused.

“How long have you known about this?” Velvet asked, sounding hurt.

“How’s Twilight?” Star asked quickly.

“You did a background check on me?” I asked, feeling oddly flattered.

“Whoa, whoa, one at a time,” Shining said, waving a hoof wearily. Now that I got a good look at him, he seemed rather…burnt out, with bags under his eyes and a messed up mane. “First, Mom, I only found out after I sent you the letter about Twilight, so it’s not like I was hiding this from you. Second, Rainbow… yes I did. I’m sorry for the invasion of privacy, but I wanted to be sure you were good enough for Twilight. And as for how Twilight is doing…” Shining sighed. “It might be best if we discussed that during dinner.”

“Oh… I see…” Velvet said.

“Why don’t you get going?” Shining suggested to his parents. “I’ll catch up to you in a second. I just need a second with Rainbow.”

Both Velvet and Star nodded, before trotting out of the room.

I gave Shining a puzzled look. “So, what do you need?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow at that. “That’s my line. Private Gladius told me you were waiting for me, for some reason.”

“Oh!” I face-hoofed. “It doesn’t really matter now, but I wanted you to introduce me to your parents. It’s a moot point now, though…”

“Ah. Well, how about I set up some time for the four of us to get together next week? That way, you three can meet without any yelling. Sound good?”

“Yeah. Could you tell your mom that I’m sorry for annoying her? It is kind of my fault we got off on the wrong hoof…”

“I’ll do that,” Shining said, “but don’t worry about it. It isn’t all your fault. Mom can get kind of short tempered under stress, but she means well. And besides, Dad is almost always there to calm her down, but with everything going on, both of them are out of sorts.”

“I can understand that. Anyways, I’m feeling pretty tired, so I’m gonna fly back to my hotel and get some shut eye.”

“Understood. I’ll let you know when we can get together. Would next weekend be good for you?”

“That works for me. See you then!”

Saturday was uneventful, but I was thankful for that. After that eventful and exhausting week, some downtime was much appreciated. I passed the time by going out and actually visiting a book store.

After a while, I left the book store with the first book of a series that the employees swore was just as good as, if not better, than Daring Do called Sliverwing. Needless to say, I was skeptical, but I was willing to give it a chance. After all, I was caught up on Daring, and I wanted something Twilight and I could read together once she started getting better.

Of course, that just left me wondering if I should start reading it now, or to wait till Twilight was in a good enough state that we could start reading together.

In the end, I decided to at least start reading it to see if it was as good as the recommendations said.

As it turned out, I spent the rest of the day reading it.

As soon as Sunday rolled around, I practically leaped out of bed. It was going to be nice to just hang out with my friends after everything that had happened.

As it turned out, I had gotten out of bed just in time. As soon as I got done with my shower, there was a knock on the door. Smiling, I trotted over and opened it up to find five ponies smiling back at me.

Wait… five?

“Hey, Lyra!” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, you know, I’m just gonna tag along with all of you today! I mean, I’ve got nothing better to do, and I’d like to get to know the rest of you better. Twilight and Rarity have been helping me with my project—“

“Our project, you mean,” Rarity cut in, but her disapproving tone was kind of ruined by her smile.

“—Our project,” Lyra continued without missing a beat. “I know I’m not an Element of Harmony, but I’d still like to be your friend.”

I stared at her for a moment, just long enough to let her sweat, before breaking into a smile. “That honestly sounds nice, Lyra. Welcome to our little group!”

“Cool!” Lyra cheered. “Now then, let’s get going!”

“So,” I asked as our group made its way towards the elevator, “What’s the plan for the day?”

“Well, we were planning on seeing a play, going out to dinner, and then catching that Wonderbolts show. Does that sound good to you?” Rarity said.

“Yes… wait, wait, wait! Wonderbolts show!? What Wonderbolts show!?”

The rest of the group gave me an odd look. “The special night time one? Remember?” Fluttershy said.

“Uh, no? I don’t remember that.”

Suddenly, Pinkie slapped herself in the forehead. “Oh, right! It was only announced last week, and you’ve been busy! Well, don’t worry, Dashie, we already have tickets! And I hear that their night shows are a doozy!”

Well, that explained why I hadn’t heard the Wonderbolts were doing a show. On occasion, they would just up and announce a show during the off season, usually when they needed a bit more money or to donate to a charity or something. Still, I wasn’t going to complain, especially if we already had tickets to the show.

“Awesome!” I exclaimed. “Lead the way!”

“That was the saddest play I have ever seen!”

“Eh, it wasn’t so sad, Lyra.”

“Oh, really, Dash? Then who did I hear crying during the second act, during the balcony scene?”

“N—Nopony! I wasn’t crying!”

“Whatever you say, Dash.”

“Mhhump! Mermgmph!”

“Pinkie, darling, please stop pretending your tongue is stuck to that pole or we’re going to be late to dinner.”

“Thut ith ish!”

“It’s the middle of summer!”

“Oh, phew! I thought I was in trouble for a second there. Say, Rarity, why is your eye twitching?”

“So, um, Applejack…”

“Yeah, Fluttershy? Speak up.”

“How was Twilight? You saw her yesterday, right?”

“She was… uh, well, she didn’t say much, and just kind of stared off into space. I just read her a book for a while, and that was it.

“Oh… I see.”

“Five bits on Spitfire!”

“Pfft! Only five? Fifteen bits on Fleetfoot to overtake her and win… on the final straight!”

“You’re on!”

Half an hour later, Applejack grudgingly forked over my winnings as we left the stadium. “I should have known better than bet against the Wonderbolt expert,” she complained.

“Anytime, Applejack,” I said, tucking away my money. “Anytime.”

“I must say,” Rarity said, “Even with all your knowledge of the Wonderbolts, that was a very specific bet to make.”

“Well, with the course they were flying, Spitfire has the advantage in the corners and turns, but Fleetfoot was close enough behind her that her superior speed in the straights let her beat Spitfire. Spitfire is good, but she is a little slow in a straight line.”

“Oh, you wound me, Rainbow Dash,” said a voice from behind me.

I spun around, and sure enough, there stood Spitfire in full uniform and clutching some sort of magazine under her wing. “Spit—Spitfire! Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to say you were slow, I just—“

Spitfire cut me off with a chuckle. “Relax, Dash. I’m well aware of my strengths and weaknesses. No harm done. Anyways, I heard that you all were attending the show, so I wanted to talk to your group before you left.”

“You—You wanted to—“ THE Spitfire wanted to talk to me!? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh—

“Herk!” Darn it Rainbow, remember to breathe.

Spitfire gave me a strange look before continuing. “I just wanted to offer my condolences about your friend, Twilight. It must have come as a shock to find out about her.”

Huh? “What do you mean?”

Spitfire looked taken back. “You mean you don’t know? Twilight was just committed to a mental institution. They—“

I was in her face in a flash. “How in Equestria do you know that? That’s supposed to be secret!”

“It was in that newspaper!” Spitfire said, taking a step back.

“What newspaper?”

“This one!” She said, holding the magazine out like it was a shield.

I took one look at the cover and felt my stomach drop.

Right there on the front page was a picture of Twilight looking frazzled and out of sorts. I immediately recognized it as a photo from the smartiepants incident. Above that was the headline ‘Twilight Sparkle: Hero or Madmare?’

I dimly heard everypony behind me gasp, but I was too focused on the paper to turn around.

How the heck had this happened?

Author's Note

As always, thanks to docontra for proofreading.

Rainbow Dash 3

Luckily, after my chat with Shining Armor, I had gotten home… er, to my hotel fast enough that I’d gotten to bed on time. That meant that I could drag myself out of bed in time to get ready for my first real shift at the hospital. Not that I was looking forwards to cleaning toilets and floors all day…

As I flew to the hospital, I thought over what Shining had told me last night. I was an only child, so I was having a bit of trouble imagining what it must have been like for him. Still, I could empathize, especially after having witnessed Twilight's latest episode. It was… scary and heartrending to see Twilight act so different and strange, and I at least had known what was happening. I couldn’t imagine how terrifying it must have been for her family to have her suddenly start acting like that, without any way to know what exactly was going on. From what Shining had said, it had nearly torn them apart.

And then there was the fact that Twilight didn’t know what had happened to her family…

It was probably for the best, I told myself. Twilight did have a problem with blaming herself for things that were out of her control, and I didn’t want to needlessly cause her stress, especially right now. And it wasn’t like it would come up in conversation.

And then there was the matter of that Cadance mare. To be honest, from what Shining had told me, she sounded awesome. I mean, she marched right in and took charge of the situation, and Twi might have not had the whole family still together if she hadn’t.

Something sparked in my brain, and I screeched to a stop. Cadance had mentioned an aunt of hers that had taken Twilight on as a student… and the only pony I could think of that had Twilight as a student was…

“Yeah, right,” I said out loud. The only other pony I could think of that could claim that was that idiot Blueblood, and even his small claim to Celestia’s bloodline had him set for life. If Cadance was really related to the princess, then she wouldn’t have been foalsitting.

That aunt she was talking about must have been some other teacher, or maybe Shining was remembering wrong.

I shook my head to clear out the cobwebs. It hadn’t helped that Shining had been so darn mysterious about her. The next time we met, I was going to get some answers out of him, one way or another.

Anyways, I had wasted too much time just hovering in spot and thinking. I needed to get to the hospital before I became late.

“Clean Shine! I’m here!” I announced as I trotted into the staff room.

The white stallion looked at me, then up at the clock. “Heh. And a little bit early to boot. I’ve got to say, you’ve impressed me so far. I didn’t expect somepony assigned here as punishment to take this so seriously.”

“Yeah, I’ve been getting that a bunch lately. But you don’t have to worry, I’m gonna give it one hundred and ten percent today!” I said, striking a pose in midair. “So, what are we doing?”

“Well, the nightshift crew took care of the floors and restrooms last night, so what we’ll be up to is cleaning the patient’s rooms while they are at group therapy. After we do that, we will need to do some yard work on the grounds and on the indoor garden,” Clean said, glancing at a schedule on the wall.

“Okay, let’s get started!”

“Hold up, we need to wait until it’s actually time to clock in. After all, we can’t exactly barge into the patient’s room while they’re still there, you know?”

“Oh. Okay,” I said, landing on the floor. “I just hate waiting.”

Clean raised an eyebrow. “Rainbow, it’s literally ten minutes. Don’t you have any patience?”

“Sure I do! It’s just… it’s not one of my strong suites to do nothing. The last time I ended up in the hospital, I nearly drove myself crazy,” I admitted.

“What, didn’t you have friends, or, I dunno, a book, to keep you occupied?”

“Funny story about that… I used to think reading was just for eggheads. It was that stay at the hospital that changed my mind. A friend of mine gave me a book, and I got so bored I eventually started reading it. And now I’m hooked on adventure novels.”

He chuckled. “Well, they sound like a good friend.”

“More than a friend, nowadays.”

“Oh, lucky you. I hope they’re doing well.”

And just like that, my good mood evaporated. “Not really…”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah. I try to tell myself not to worry, and that they’re in good hooves.”

Clean gave me a look. “Are they going to recover? Or have they, you know, passed on?”

“What? No, no. She going to be fine. Like I said, they’re in good hooves,” I said, gesturing to the room around us and the building beyond.

“Huh? Oh!” Clean said, comprehension dawning in his eyes. “They’re here? Then how did you get assigned here as a ‘punishment?’”

I laughed. “It’s a long story. You see—“

“Hold on, it’s time to clock in. You can tell me on the way to our first room,” he said, holding up a hoof and gesturing to a punch clock device on the wall. “You’re only temporary, so you’ll need to sign a form at the end of the day.”

“Got it,” I said as he operated the device. “Now then, let’s go!”

By the time we got to the first room, Clean Shine was frowning. “The Princess assigned you here… as a punishment?”

“Yeah. I’m not crazy about being forced to do janitor's work—no offense—but it beats any other type of punishment, right?” I said, following closely behind him.

“Yes… but… Rainbow, you might want to keep that to yourself.”

“What!? Why?” I asked, utterly confused. “Why should it matter?”

Clean sighed. “Look at it this way: if you heard that a pony that committed a crime—and one that hurt another pony at that—and got off almost scot-free because they were friends with the sentencing judge, how would you feel?”

I frowned. Well, when he put it that way… “I guess I would be kind of upset.”

“You see my point, then?”

“Yeah, but still, that’s oversimplifying it, you know.”

He snorted. “I know. And since it was the Princess herself that sentenced you, I don’t have a problem with it. But others might. Especially because it was Celestia that handed down the sentence.”

I gave him a sharp look. “What do you mean ‘especially?’ Why would anypony care that—“

“Because Princess Celestia has gotten her share of doubters, after what has been happening lately. First that business with Nightmare Moon being turned back into Princess Luna and given powers equal to Celestia’s, then there was everything that happened with Discord…” he trailed off.

I felt a chill run down my spine. “So, what, are you saying we’re on the verge of rioting or something?”

Clean Shine laughed. “No, no, don’t get me wrong, most ponies still support Celestia, and most of the ones that don’t, don’t really care. It’s just like everything, though. There is a portion of ponies that hate anything, and yell loud enough that they convince themselves that the world should be changed according to their rules. It’s just better if you don’t give them anything to yell about, not that that’s possible.”

“Well, why should I care then? They just sound like a bunch of bullies.”

“They are, but they can still make your life miserable. By Faust, there’s this one newspaper that seems like Celestia ate the editor’s last slice of cake. They never miss a chance to smear the crown, no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.”

I gave Clean a sidelong look. “Are you speaking from experience? Did you get caught in that crossfire?”

Clean just shook his head. “Not personal experience, no. I just keep up with a bunch of news publications, and theirs’s is always ranting and raving about Celestia or some celebrity that met with her recently. It gets old quick.”

“I see…”

“Look, you seem like a nice mare,” Clean said. “I just don’t want anypony to end up one the wrong side of those attention seekers. Understand?”

“Yeah. I got it,” I said.

“Good, then let’s get started. Do you want to change the sheets or mop the floor?”

“I’ll take the sheets,” I said quickly.

“Sure thing. In fact, since you’re a pegasus, you can just hover over where I mop. That’ll make thing easier.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, then hovered into the room.

Four hours later, we had mopped and changed the beds in every room on all three floors, and I was feeling… not exhausted, the work wasn’t strenuous enough for that. Still, I was ready for a break.

“Okay, are you ready for lunch, Rainbow?” Clean asked.

I grinned at him. “It’s like you read my mind. Where do we get some grub?”

“Follow me. The cafeteria is serving hayburgers today. The healthy stuff, not the deep fried crap.”

“That’s good. I don’t eat stuff that’s too fatty. Got to keep in shape, you know. Besides, it would be kind of ironical for a hospital to serve unhealthy stuff.”’

“I think the word you were looking for was ‘ironic,’” Clean said dryly as we trotted down the corridor.

“You know what I… meant?” I finished absentmindedly, as I caught sight of door number 112. The window on the door was large enough for me to peer through, and I caught sight of Dr. H reading a book to Twilight.

Twilight, for her part, was just gazing up at the ceiling, blinking every so often.

“Rainbow?” Clean said, jerking my attention away from Twilight and the door to her room. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, wiping a bit of moistness from my eyes. “I’ll be fine.”

“Look, we’re not actually supposed to spend time with the patients, even on lunch, and your hours are set in stone because of the community service, but I can tell you really want to spend time with your marefriend, right?”

I chuckled mirthlessly. “What gave you that idea?”

“Just a hunch,” Clean said sarcastically. “Really, if you want to visit her more, then you should make an appointment in the morning. You’re going to be working the later day shift consistently, and that ends at the same time as visiting hours.”

“What?” I said, struggling to keep my voice low. “Why?”

“Patients are more likely to be out of their rooms then, and we can clean without disturbing them.”

“Fair point,” I admitted. “So, if our shift starts at eleven in the morning, and ends at eight in the evening, and visiting hours are… um…”

“From nine in the morning to eight in the evening,” Clean supplied.

“Thank you. So, if I show up at nine, I’ll have two hours to talk with Twi?”

“I think it depends on the patient, but the doctors might limit that a little. And I’m sure they would appreciate it if you made an appointment at least a day in advance.”

“Right, I’ll do that after we finish work today.”

Clean shrugged. “It’s up to you. Anyways, we’ve wasted enough of our lunch just chatting. We really should get to eating.”

As if on cue, my stomach started rumbling. “Heh,” I said, blushing. “Lead the way.”

I dragged myself into the reception room. Now I was feeling exhausted. The hospital grounds were huge, and the fact that there was an extra little plot of them inside hadn’t helped. At first it had been easy enough, just flying up and trimming the trees back a little. But after that…

If I never saw another lawnmower in my life, it would be too soon. Those things were heavy and hard to move, and combine that with the size of the grounds… at least it had been easy for Clean Shine, considering his greater strength as an earth pony, but for a lightweight pegasus like me…

“Um, are you okay, Rainbow?” Izzy asked.

I gave my best glare to the earth pony behind the desk. Or, at least, I tried to. I don’t think I succeeded, given how she started giggling.

“You look like something the cat dragged in! So then, I take it your day went well?” she asked, her voice still wavering with laughter.

“Everything hurts but my wings. And thank Celestia for that. I didn’t want to have to fly back on sore wings.”

“That does sound like it would be a drag. So, see you tomorrow?”

I whimpered at the thought of doing the whole thing over again tomorrow… and the day after that… and after that. Dear Celestia, I still had a month of this to do! Oh well. At least between this and my flight to and from the hospital, I wouldn’t be missing out on too much training.

Just then, I noticed Izzy packing up her saddlebags. “Are you going home?” I asked.

“Yeah, my shift is over for the day. Did you need something?” She said, pausing in her packing.

“I wanted to make an appointment to see Twilight. Sometime in the morning, between nine and eleven.”

Izzy suddenly looked sympathetic. “I’m sorry, Rainbow, but I can’t set it up today, all the appointments for tomorrow have already been set in stone. If you come by in the morning, I can set it up for the next day.”

I took a deep breath to steady myself. “Okay. If there really isn’t anything you can do, I guess I’ll just have to accept that. So, today is Tuesday and an appointment on Wednesday is out of the question, so would I be able to see her Thursday?”

“I am ninety-nine percent sure that would work, but check back with me in the morning. We can put it in the books then,” Izzy said.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning then.”

Just like I had promised, I met with Izzy first thing in the morning when I got to the hospital, and ten minutes later, I had an appointment for the day after.

“Thanks, Izzy,” I said as I left the receptionist room and headed to the staff room.

“No problem,” she yelled after me.

“So, Clean, what are we doing today?” I asked as I entered and spotted the head janitor, forcing cheer into my voice. Please don’t be mowing the lawn again, please don’t be mowing the lawn again…

“The same thing we did yesterday for the first half. Just cleaning patient’s rooms while they’re at group therapy or in a meeting, but after lunch, we’re going to be doing something different.”

“Oh thank Celestia!”

Clean gave me an amused look.

Woops. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

Clean just nodded, smiling.

“Sorry, I just don’t want to mow the whole lawn every day,” I said.

“Grass doesn’t grow that fast, Rainbow,” he said, chuckling. “We do that once a week. I wouldn’t want to mow the lawn everyday either. Anyways, for the latter half of today, we’re going to be cleaning the windows of the hospital. You can take the outside windows, and I’ll take the inside.”

“But, the whole building is pretty much one big window!” I protested.

“Then you better work fast. Or are you too slow to finish in time?”

I glared at him. “That was the most transparent attempt at appealing to my ego I have ever seen.”

“Did it work?”

“Yes,” I said reluctantly. “C’mon, let’s get started.”

By the time I got back to my hotel room, it felt like my foreleg was going to fall off, but I had shown Clean just how fast I could be. He had been a full ten minutes slower than I was at cleaning the windows.

Of course, after how strenuous yesterday and today had been, I was feeling pretty wiped out. It was all I could do to stay awake long enough to get ready for bed.

But no sooner had I snuggled under the blankets and turned out the lights, somepony started banging on my room’s door.

“Really?” I said to myself. It was almost ten at night and I had to get up early for my appointment with Twilight in the morning. There was no way I was going to answer that.

Whoever they were, they were really persistent. They kept up the knocking for a full five minutes before I finally got up and stumbled over to the door.

If they had the wrong room, I was going to buck them in the face, I thought to myself as I unlocked the door.

“What do you want?” I asked, none too gently, before it registered in my mind who was standing in the hallway.

They said nothing, and they couldn’t seem to meet my eyes.

“Well, what do you want?” I repeated. “Spit it out, Applejack.”

Author's Note

Happy Holidays, everybody! :twilightsheepish: Consider this a present for whatever holiday you celebrate.
Hopefully, I should be able to keep this pace up for a while.