Fluttershy tossed and turned in the depths of her bed, her eyes shut tight and her body covered in a heavy coating of sweat, her coat pale and her mane and tail tangled and matted. Her eyes bore dark bags and her face contorted in pain as she wrapped her hooves around her stomach, a pain like she had never felt before gripping her whole frame. She bit her lower lip as a fresh wave surged through her body, causing her to release a sorrowful whimper of the agony she felt. The pain across her blocking out any pain she felt from biting into her lips around the cuts caused from tearing open many cans of various food items, dried blood crusted the corners of her mouth.

Unbeknownst to her, flashes of a dark red light arced through her skin for brief moments as each wave came, lighting up the veins of her blood and the muscles beneath which seemed to almost move of their own accord in ways that they never should. The lights only lasted for a second every time, fading as quickly as they arrived. Without the light exposing the machinations beneath her flesh, one could see that her very skin seemed to almost be moving, twisting and squirming as though a thousand large worms were burrowing beneath the surface, the fur on her body lifting and swaying with the movements. Her wings lay limp behind her, many of the feathers bent at odd angles and even a few lay strewn about her.

" Wh-wh-why... why do-does it h-hurt so much?" She whimpered as tears dripped down the side of her face, soaking her pillows and sheets along with her sweat.

Angel watched from the crack of her open bedroom door. He trembled in both fear and worry as he watched the form of his owner writhe and squirm beneath the covers of her bed. The events of the night before still fresh in his mind. Her sudden and abrupt impulse to search the house in a panic, overturning furniture and opening every drawer and cupboard, looking for the creature she always kept in her mane, only to get worse as, her search's focus changed almost on a dime as she had launched herself through the now splintered remains of her kitchen door, tearing in to any and all food containers with rapid abandon.

The sight of the mare turned eating machine was frightening to say the least. Many of the other creatures had quickly vacated the premises and even those who did not, dare not show themselves to the mare for fear of how she would treat them in her panicked and starving state. Glancing to the windows of her room, he grimaced at seeing that the frames closed tightly, not letting him get a good judge of what time it was from where he was. With a worried look to Fluttershy, he took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door closed, a silent click the only sign that he had been there. He waited cautiously with his ears alert, but he did not hear the sound of coverings being thrown off, the flapping of wings, or the soft clip of hooves on the wooden floor.

Releasing his breath, he turned and quickly hopped down the stairs and towards the kitchen. Upon passing through the doorway, he could see many of the smaller animals that stayed were searching through the strewn about boxes and cans, looking for something to eat. Ignoring them, he hopped to the counter next to the sink and pushed open the wooden frames of the window, allowing the light of the sun to flood the dark room. Blinking to clear the spots, he shaded his eyes with a paw as he looked to see the Sun's place in the sky.

It was almost midday, the mare had been in agony ever since she had forced herself to stop eating and to try to lay down late in the night after nearly clearing out the kitchen of anything edible. Reaching up, he grabbed both his ears and pulled them down tightly in frustration, where was that rainbow mare!? Hearing a soft clang, he snapped his head to see that a squirrel had knocked over one of the empty cans in its search, every creature in the kitchen looked to him varying degrees of fear. The squirrel merely raised up his fore paws in a placating gesture as Angel glared at him. Looking back through the window, he searched for any sign of the pegasus mare that had been here yesterday, hoping against hope that she would come back soon, his owner needed help.

- Ponyville-

Rainbow Dash worked lazily through the clouds, her usual can do attitude much more subdued than usual. The other weather pegasi weren't too bothered by it, if Rainbow wasn't riding their flanks than that meant that they could work at a much more relaxed pace, it didn't stop a few from worrying however.

As Rainbow slowly pushed a medium-sized cloud into position, she hovered in place with one hoof still touching it, her eyebrows furrowed in thought.

' I hope Fluttershy is OK, I really wanted to go and check on her this morning, but they just had to come to my house last night and ask me to work the team early this morning.' She groaned as she pushed off the cloud and flew back to the group that she was working with, her eyes and ears passively working to keep her from crashing into others and maneuvering out of their paths.

' What's wrong with her anyway? The feather flu? No, she wasn't coughing enough. The pony pox? ... Nah, I don't think she had any welts on her.' She gave an exasperated sigh as she pushed a small cloud a few feet before stopping.

" Should I talk to the others before going to get the Nurse?" She thought out loud, her worry only growing as time past.

" Talk to the others about what?" Rainbow felt her fur stand on end and she whipped around to come face to face with none other than Pinkie Pie.

" Pinkie!? What!? How!?" Normally Rainbow was more than just observant in the air, but somehow the pink anomaly had just sneaked up on her! Pinkie smiled a bright smile as she simply held up a tray of cupcakes.

" Plot convenience!" Her voice as cheerful as ever. Rainbow stared at the exuberant mare for a moment, taking in the dozens of balloons above her that were all tied to a yellow band wrapped around her barrel, her back hooves dangling in the air as she raised the tray higher.

" Riiiight..." Rainbow let out slowly as she leaned back a bit, the cupcakes getting closer it seemed. Shaking her head, she gave the mare a critical look.

" I mean, what are you doing up here Pinkie? And what's with the cupcakes?" Showing a bit of strain on her face, her tongue sticking out and she struggled, the mare began to kick her back hooves and brought herself a bit closer to Rainbow, forcing her to sit on the cloud to prevent herself from being pinned between the hyper baker and the fluffy bit of water particles in the air.

" Isn't it obvious! I saw you from outside the bakery, you just looked soooo sad and I thought that maybe you were still sore about having upset Applejack and Fluttershy with your prank. So I decided that you needed some cheering up! I went back in side as quickly as I could and started baking up some muffins! But then I remembered that you don't eat muffins all that much, which meant I had started baking a batch for no reason! Luckily though, that batch wasn't completely wasted because the mail mare came by, smelled the cooking muffins and bought the whole bunch! But then without the muffins to cheer you up, I decided that maybe you would like a cake instead! So I started to bake one of those and-" A cyan hoof covered the rambling mare's mouth, muffling her a bit as she continued to ramble. Rainbow gave her a dead pan stare after a few more minutes passed, her normally earth-bound friend still going. With a bit of hesitation, she removed her hoof.

" -but then I wondered if the twins even LIKED whipped cream, I hadn't ever seen Mr. or Mrs. Cake give them any-" Rainbow replaced her a hoof, muffling her once more as her other hoof reached forward and took a single cupcake.

' I wonder when she's gonna take a breath?' She thought idly as she took a slow bite of the baked good. Just a short moment later and Pinkie finally came to a stop, her cheeks spread to show that she was smiling brightly beneath Rainbow's hoof, her sides rising and falling rapidly as she breathed heavily. With a quirked eyebrow, Rainbow removed her hoof, revealing her shining smile to the world.

" So basically, you brought me cupcakes?" Pinkie snorted and snickered.

" Of course silly, I just told you all about it! Do you want me to go over it again?" Rainbow's eyes widened in fear and she quickly shook her head.

" Uh, no thanks Pinks, I think once is good enough." Pinkie nodded and looked down to the tray she held and grabbed a cupcake for herself.

" So what was it you were mumbling about?" She asked as she stuffed the whole thing in her mouth, chewing with her cheeks bulging out. Rainbow just sighed and looked down to her own food and shifted uneasily.

" I... I don't know if I should say. It's not really my business to tell, but I also feel like as her friends, you guys should know what's going on. I also really want to go and check on her..." Pinkie swallowed her food audibly and gave the prismatic mare a worried look.

" Her?" Rainbow glanced up and nodded.

" Yea... it's uh, somepony close. They aren't feeling very well and I told them if they weren't better by the time I came by today, then I was gonna go get a doctor or something and have them come out to their home. I wanted to go and check on them this morning, but work got in the way." Pinkie nodded in understanding, another cupcake in her hoof.

" I get it, you're really worried about them, but you also don't want to upset them by intruding on their privacy. If it's that important to you, then you should just go, I'm sure that if you asked, somepony here would be willing to cover for you." She smiled as she licked some of the pink frosting off the top of the cupcake. Rainbow rubbed her shoulder with her hoof, having placed her own half eaten cupcake back on the tray.

" I'm not sure Pinks, I'm the manager and if I don't stay to make sure this gets done properly, I'll have to take a lot of flak from Mayor Mare." Her and Pinkie both sat in silence for a moment, Rainbow deep in thought as Pinkie chewed her food at a more sedate pace.

" I can take over from here." The sudden voice made both mares jump. Turning behind them, they found Thunderlane hovering just a few wing beats behind Rainbow. She raised an eyebrow at him.

" Really? Thunderlane, you're lazier than me at times, and that's saying something." Thunderlane rolled his eyes and started to move away.

" Fine then, I guess you don't want to go and check on your friend." Rainbow quickly got to her hooves on the small cloud, her wings flared and her eyes wide, panic clear in their depths.

" No wait! I mean... ugh." She dropped her head and sighed. Thunderlane hovered in place as he glanced over his shoulder, waiting. Taking a deep breath, Rainbow raised her head and looked directly at him.

" Thunderlane, would you please take over for me so that I can go and check on my friend?" The two stared at each other for a moment, before he smiled and angled himself back towards them.

" Sure thing boss. I'll take over from here and make sure everything gets done." A smile broke across Rainbow's face.

" Oh my gosh! Thank you so mu-" He raised a hoof, cutting her off. she looked to him at first in surprise, then slight worry as he grinned.

" On one condition." She groaned, her tail lashing behind her and just nearly hitting Pinkie's hoof that held Rainbow's half eaten cupcake. The mare yanked her hoof back and looked to the offending tail with mock offense.

" I knew it wouldn't be that easy, alright Thunderlane, what do you want?" She grumbled as she glared at him. He simply chuckled and raised both his hooves in a placating gesture.

" No need to look like you just signed a contract with Discord, boss. I just wanted a cupcake." Rainbow perked up at this, realization dawning on her. With a grin, she turned and used one of her wings to scoop up a single cupcake as Pinkie scarfed down the remains of the one she had been eating. With a show of dexterity, she flicked the pastry and Thunderlane fumbled with his hooves to catch it, getting bits of frosting on his hooves.

" There ya go! I gotta get going, real quick though. Make sure all the clouds are distributed according to the layout plan you guys were given this morning and remember to sign off on the board in the office for the amount of clouds we used, the time it took for distribution and how much was left over so Cloudsdale can send us more for next month's shipment. Thanks again dude." She turned quickly as he just waved her off while taking a bite of the pastry. Stepping off the cloud, she hovered over to Pinkie and gave the mare a quick hug.

" I'm not normally one for mushy stuff, but thanks Pinks, I needed that." Pinkie grinned and hugged her back with one foreleg, the other keeping the tray of cupcakes out of their way.

" Anytime Dashie, say hi to Fluttershy for me!" Rainbow yanked back and stared at her in shock for a moment, before chuckling and flying off, her voice carrying back on the wind.

" You are so random Pinkie!" The baker smiled as she waved at the retreating mare's back. Thunderlane hovered over and watched her leave as well, sneaking another cupcake from the tray while Pinkie was occupied. Taking a glance to the earth mare, he looked up to the many balloons holding her up, all out of hooves reach for her.

" So uh... how are you gonna get back down?" Pinkie looked to him with a bright smile, a smile that held back a hundred jokes, a hundred laughs of joy, and a thousand expressions of compassion and love.

" I have no idea!"

- With Rainbow Dash-

Rainbow flapped her wings in quick succession, gaining speed as she made her way through the air above Ponyville. Dropping her altitude by several feet, she made sure that she was below the cloud layer as to prevent ruining any of the work that had already been completed in this section of the sky. Her eyes darted to and fro across the ground, keeping an eye out for a yellow coat and pink mane trailing across the ground.

' It doesn't look like she's gone out or anything, which can only mean she's still holed up in her home. Darnit Fluttershy, you should have come with me to the doctor!' With a determined glare, she angled her flight to another path off to the right and away from the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. She could clearly see the large white outline of Ponyville's hospital just a little ways off. As she approached, she stopped flapping and allowed herself to drift towards the double doors.

It was well-known around Equestria that flying inside a hospital is illegal. Not only was it distracting for some customers, but was also quite disruptive of the work being done. The displaced air caused by flapping wings sent paperwork everywhere, light weight utensils such as scalpel blades and needles could also get picked up and flung about, creating a dangerous safety hazard. Then there was the psychological damage that could be caused to patients who had just lost such a gift, whether it be the loss of a wing or damage somewhere internally that prevented flight. Rainbow shivered at the thought, folding her wings tight against her barrel.

As she trotted through the doors, she came into the main lobby of the hospital, a desk clerk sitting at the front desk was currently occupied with balancing a pencil on its tip on the edge of her nose. The guard pony looked up to her as she passed by, checking her frame for anything of note, before looking back down to the book he held. Stepping up to the counter, Rainbow waited for the desk clerk to notice her.

Nearly a minute passed before she coughed loudly, causing her to jump and straighten herself, the pencil falling to the ground with a loud clatter only to be ignored.

" Oh! Um, hello, how can I help?" She asked with a nervous smile playing on her lips. She was an earth pony mare with a grey coat and blue eyes, her mane a dusty blue that was neatly kept in short ponytail. Rainbow ignored her slightly flustered state and jumped straight to the point.

" I need a doctor to make a house call! It's important so please get the best one you can as soon as you can!" Her tail whipped about behind her, showing her impatience. The mare blinked at her for barely a moment, before her eyes widened and she nodded, quickly pulling a sheet from a nearby stack of forms and folders and reached to take another pencil from a cup full of them.

" OK, so this is an emergency, then we'll need to do this quickly. I'll need your full name, the name of the patient and your relation to them. After that I'll need both your address, the address that she is currently staying at, the nature of the emergency and anything you can tell us about her current state of health. If you know anything about their medical history, we'll need that as well, oh and before I forget, is the patient a mare?" She looked up from the growing stack of forms as she filled in her own bits of information. Rainbow groaned at this.

" Awe come on! Didn't I just say this was important! Can't we do all that after?" The mare shook her head.

" I'm sorry ma'am, but it has to be done now or we can't help you. Everypony has to do it." Reaching forward, she tapped the golden bell that sat on the desk, a loud chime echoing through the lobby. After barely a few seconds, a young earth pony mare came rushing through the hallway to the left, her red glasses slightly askew as she rushed forward, an uneven stack of papers in her left foreleg's grip and a neatly sharpened pencil in the crook of her ear. Her light red mane was held loosely in a bun as bits of it stuck out in various directions and her short tail wasn't faring any better. A coat of pale pink fur showed signs of ruffling as she rushed about, her cutie mark of a file cabinet overshadowed by a quill and inkwell sat on her flanks.

" Y-yes Miss Staple?" She looked to Rainbow briefly before turning back to the clerk, now known as Miss Staple. The simple black tie that hung around her neck swung with her movements.

"Thank you for being quick Ginger Snap, I need you to go to the nurses station on the third floor and look for Doctor Horse. His schedule has him listed there for today. Let him know that an emergency house call has come up and he's needed at the front desk immediately." The young mare nodded vigorously and quickly made her way back down the hall she came from. Miss Staple turned back to the paperwork before her and went ahead and picked up her pencil again as she talked around it.

" When you're ready ma'am." Rainbow groaned, before reluctantly complying and giving what information she could. Almost fifteen minutes passed as they pushed through the paperwork, Rainbow answering everything quickly in hopes to get through it faster while Miss Staple wrote it all down.

" OK, last thing, do you know if Miss Shy would feel uncomfortable having a stallion doctor examine her?" After a moment of silence she looked up to see Rainbow's look of confusion.

" Why would she be uncomfortable with a stallion doctor? He's a DOCTOR, he's just there to help, right?" Miss Staple put her pencil down so she could speak more clearly.

" True, he is here to help and I've known him for almost seven years now. I can tell you that he is a great pony and has never harmed a soul. But some mares feel uncomfortable with a stallion as their doctor. Some feel as though a stallion doctor is using their degree as an excuse to look at a mare's bits without getting into trouble, while others simply prefer to work with the same gender because it makes them feel less exposed." Rainbow nodded slowly, slight understanding showing across her features.

" Ooookay, I guess that makes sense. But I don't know how Fluttershy feels about doctors. I've never actually seen her get sick or hurt enough to have to actually need one." Miss Staple nodded and picked up the pencil once more just as the sound of hooves came from the hall off to the side. Rainbow turned to see a white earth pony mare with her pale pink mane and tail in buns, a white cap with a red cross in the center sat on her head and the image of a red cross with four red hearts in the outer corners rested on her flanks.

' There sure are a lot of earth ponies in this hospital.' She idly noted as the exhausted young mare followed up behind the nurse, a white saddlebag bearing the medical red cross adorning both sides. Ginger Snap stopped just behind the nurse, breathing heavily as she fought to catch her breath.

" I'm sorry for the wait, but Doctor Horse is too busy to be able to make any house calls now. He just got called into surgery for a broken Maxillary bone." The nurse stated to the clerk as Miss Staple nodded and finished off the paper in front of her, Rainbow was flabbergasted.

" What! Well isn't there another doctor?" The nurse shook her head and Rainbow was prepared to go off again, her wings flared angrily.

" Now before you get too upset, I'll be taking his place. I'm Nurse Red Heart and I'm training to be a doctor under Doctor Horse. I may not have my license yet, but I can at least get a list of symptoms, blood samples and urine samples for the Doctor to look at once he's available. We'll go and check on the patient and come back to have him give a prescription after seeing the list of symptoms and testing the samples." Rainbow huffed and fluffed her wings before folding them.

" ... Fine, just make sure you get everything you can to help her." The nurse nodded and walked up to the desk, Miss Staple pushing the signed paperwork into her hooves.

" Everything is filled out Red, she just needs to sign off after the house call is finished and you'll be all set." Red Heart nodded and walked up to Ginger Snap's side, opening one of the bags and placing the stack of papers inside.
" Sorry about this Staple, but I'm borrowing your intern for a bit." Staple waved her off.

" It's been pretty dull here today, she could use some of the work." Red Heart walked back up to Rainbow, who had turned away from the desk and now faced the doors to the exit.

" Lead the way." Rainbow whooped as she bolted for the door, Red Heart following after and the still out of breath Ginger Snap hurrying to keep up.

Author's Note

Shaded: * Slowly peeks around a corner.* Is this ok? Is this safe to do?

Twilight: I'll let you slide. You've got two stories going so it can't be helped when you updated them alternatively.

Shaded: Phew, so glad you understand.

Twilight: That said, it also means that if you neglect either one of them for too long then things might get worse for you.

Shaded: W-w-worse?

Twilight: Oh you thought everything before this was the most that I could do? Oh you poor poor bastard.

Dimmed Star: He forgot that magic is a thing, didn't he?

Twilight: * nods with a smirk*

Shaded: * Trembles is shock* ... I-I d-d-do not own MLP: Fim or th-the Equinox Ponies....