Sunset didn’t know a lot at the moment, but she felt justified in her confusion over her asking Cadance to take her 'somewhere nice’ turning into a shared bath together. If it wasn’t for the fact that her entire back felt like a carapace of dried tears and snot before she entered the water, she wouldn’t have gone through with it.

On an objective level, Sunset knew she was most likely sitting in the most beautiful bathhouse in the entire city, if not the entire country, so she supposed it was ‘somewhere nice’ on an objective level.

Sunset hated it. She might have been able to handle the sweltering head out in the gardens, but she felt like she was melting every second she continued to sit in the water. Just stepping into the bathtub had made her break out into a violent shake, and even after she got over herself and carried on with the bath, she still couldn’t help but shiver every time she looked down at her reflection in the deathly still water.

Looking at her reflection in the water made Sunset hate her short mane for the first time since she woke up. It felt odd not seeing a river of scarlet flowing down her head whenever she looked down at the water. She would have to check the library ~~or ask Celestia~~ for spells that would grow out her hai-

“You know, it’s been a while since we’ve bathed together.” Cadance suddenly blurted out, interrupting Sunset's mental breakdown before continuing onward. “We should do it more often. Who knows, maybe the steam will help clear your head a little bit?”

“Yeah, the steam feels great.” Sunset currently felt like she was a hundred feet underwater with nothing but two cups and a string tied between them to convey Cadance’s voice to her, but Cadance didn’t need to know that.

Cadance sighed, her eyes still closed since she had first flopped down when they had both entered the bath. “I know, right? I can feel the stress just pouring out of me.” Sunset must have just been an anxiety sponge, because her skin continued to feel tighter and tighter the longer they sat in the bath together.

Instead of saying that, Sunset felt her mouth move into what she assumed was a smile as she stared at a random part of the wall directly ahead of her. “Yeah. It’s really relaxing. Really great for my... skin.”

The water was terrible for her skin. If she sat around in the pool for twelve hours like the living corpse she is, she’d begin to lose plasticity in her cells. After three days of exposure to the water, her skin would realize it had no reason to continue touching her and lea-

Sunset looked away from the wall and back towards Cadance, who now stood in the water directly in front of her, her graceful legs just barely keeping her body from being more than partially submerged. Looking down at her own front, Sunset saw a hoof pressed against her upper chest.

It took Sunset a moment to realize she was being rocked back and forth by the hoof, and with that realization came a flood of noise through her ears, the sounds smashing against one another so abruptly that it felt like every noise she had ignored for however long she had been zoned out had patiently waited in line for her to hear them scream at her for not loving them enough to listen.

The rush of noise was so abrupt that Sunset felt her whole world start to invert on itself, until it felt like she was an outside spectator watching her and Cadance interact from a thousand hills away with a pair of binoculars. And then, as quickly as it came, it disappeared, and Sunset could hear and feel Cadance’s growing panic as she tried to regain her attention, as if it were worth panicking over.

“-wasn't a good idea! This was such a terrible idea! I can't believe I dragged you all the way across the castle just for a dumb bath.” Cadance whispered loudly to herself as she began to quickly laugh at nothing while continuously shaking Sunset, her amusement coming out hard-fast and jagged-sharp, like a tree branch flowing down a rapids getting smashed in half between two rocks.

“Oh gosh, Auntie is going to be furious with me!" Cadance whined out before another wave of laughter broke out of her throat and spilled out across the room.

Sunset didn’t really know what was so funny. “Stop shaking me, please?” Cadance rocketed into the air with a shriek at her words before falling back into the bath with a splash that sent water racing towards the ceiling to get away from her.

Pulling herself up from the water, Cadance looked at her in shock before rushing forward to pull her into a hug.

“T-that better not have been on purpose!” Cadance breathed out as she tried to squeeze the last few drops of life out of Sunset like a used-up roll of toothpaste. “I swear if you pulled a nasty prank like that, then I’ll... I’ll...” That was all a frantically giggling Cadance could get out before she burst out into another helpless titter, her now throaty laughter beginning to echo off the walls.

Sunset cocked her head at Cadance in confusion. “What just happened that’s so funny?”

“Nothing! Absolutely nothing that just happened is funny!” Cadance said with a slightly manic grin as she began to rub her cheeks, her laughter slowly petering off until she was doing nothing except taking deep breaths.

Taking a breath so deep even Sunset could hear her chest rattle, Cadance slowly let out a drawn-out exhale before taking her hooves off of her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Sunset; I promise I wasn’t laughing at you!” Sunset knew she wasn't the one being laughed at; that'd require her to do something besides rot in the water.

“I was just laughing at, you know...” Cadance waved her hooves around. “...at the absurdity of it all! You know what I mean?” Sunset did not know. Cadance could probably write a book about the things Sunset didn’t know. Sunset bet that if she read the book, she’d retain so little that Cadance could write a second book about everything she didn’t know, and it’d just be the same exact book.

Cadance let another nervous laugh squeak by her steady breathing before she began to rub her cheeks a second time. “Gosh, I’m such a mess at the moment. Here I am freaking out and working myself up instead of taking you back to the medical wing.”

Sunset looked at Cadance in confusion. “Why would I need to go back to the medical wing?”

Cadance stared at her for a moment, her shock and confusion managing to stomp down her panicked laughter as she stared at Sunset. “Sunny, you stopped moving for at least ten minutes.”

She stared straight ahead at the wall, watching the red blotch she called a mane slowly spill across every reflective object it could draw the attention of. “Oh. I didn’t notice.” Sunset muttered with a shrug.

Apparently, admitting that you don’t even remember blacking out in a bath mid-conversation with somepony is enough to make them immediately drag you back to the medical wing. They probably would have gotten there sooner if Cadance didn’t need to stop and catch her breath whenever her nervous laughter began to crawl back up her throat.

“Welp, she seems fine to me.” Not even bothering to move towards a window, Flat Line lit another transfigured cigarette up before taking a drag. “If you want, I can take another brain scan, but unless her brain has started internally bleeding, there isn’t much I can do for her at the moment.”

Pausing for a moment as he chewed on his cigarette, Flat Line continued to speak at a slightly slower pace. “And I know it isn’t a brain hemorrhage, because she’s currently standing in the corner frowning at me for smoking in her bed and not suffering a horrific mix of what looks like carbon dioxide poisoning and a seizure.”

“I don’t care if you think she looks fine! She’s obviously not!” Cadance shouted out while stomping her two front hooves on the floor, taking a wide stance as she stared Flat Line down.

Flat Line let out a mirthless laugh, dark clouds puffing out of his mouth like a steam engine as he stared up at Cadance. “You sure about that? She’s currently able to walk and talk simultaneously. I’d say that looks pretty fine, compared to last week.”

Flat Line suddenly looked towards Sunset, who had done nothing but stand in place and frown; she and Cadance had entered the room. “Let’s ask the patient how they feel. Well, Sunset, are you fine?”

“No, not really.” Sunset answered without a moment’s hesitation.

Flat Line nodded solemnly before pulling a laminated card out of a drawer beside the bed. “I’m sorry to hear that. Tell me, What would you rate your pain on this scale?” Flat Line asked, passing the card over to Sunset so she could study the image that stretched across it.

Sunset stared down at the simplified chart, taking note of the colorful pictograms of simplified pony faces on the far right of the thermometer-styled chart, with the three named ratings being ‘No Pain’ being rated blue and zero and ‘Worst Possible Pain’ being rated maroon red at a ten.

Sunset stared at the dark orange frowny face, rated at ‘Moderate Pain’, before looking at the yellow face one tier below it. “I’m yellow.” Sunset said with a nod, passing the emotion cheat sheet back to Flat Line.

“You are? Wild…” Flat Line muttered with a grin as he slid the card back into the drawer, the both of them ignoring Cadance’s cry of outrage at neither of them seeming to take the current interaction very seriously.

“Any physical pain?” Sunset shook her head, and Flat Line nodded before rolling out of the bed and gesturing towards it while standing in front of Sunset. “Alright, I’ve seen enough to reach a conclusion.”

Cadance leaned forward, a bead of sweat rolling down the back of her head. “W-what is it, Dr. Line?” She asked in a rush, momentarily tripping over her own words as she leaned in towards him.

Flat Line shrugged. “She probably just needs a nap. She’s only been awake for what, not even eight hours yet?” Shrugging to himself, Flat Line quickly replaced the sheets for the hospital bed with mechanical efficiency before gesturing towards it at Sunset.

“It’s been a long day, and if I didn’t know either you, Celestia, or the wrecking ball would be shadowing her every move, I wouldn’t have ever let her out of the medical wing, despite the cardio being good for you.” Quickly tucking Sunset into bed, Flat Line walked across the room and leaned against the windowpane as he watched the sun sink into the horizon.

Cadance flapped her wings in irritation, huffing as she walked up to Flat Line to join him at the cracked window. “If we shouldn’t have brought her out of the wing, then you shouldn’t have said it would be safe for her to move around the moment she woke up.”

Staring out at the cobblestone road melting into the horizon, Flat Line began to transfigure a cigarette before sighing and dropping the flower onto the windowsill with a sigh. “You both asked me if it would be harmful to take her outside of the wing, not if it was a good idea.”

Cadance took another step towards him, ruffling up her wings to make herself appear bigger. "Well, maybe you should have sai-”

Sunset let out a low groan as she buried her head into the pillow in front of her, causing the two other ponies in the room to stop arguing and turn to stare at her. “Go argue out in the hallway. I want to sleep.”

Flat Line blinked at her in surprise before he began to laugh. “I can’t believe I was just arguing with a filly over my job. I can’t wait until Furaha comes back and can take over foalsitting for a day.”

Sunset glared at the pair from her spot in bed. “Out. Now.”

Continuing to chuckle at himself, Flat Line pushed off from the windowsill before walking towards the front doors of the clinic, Cadance trailing behind him despite still frowning at him. “I hear you. I hear you. I’ll be sure to check in on you throughout the night while you rest. See you tomorrow.” Flat Line said with a jaunty wave, rushing out the door before Sunset could even think about responding.

Cadance frowned after him before looking back at Sunset with a small smile. “I’m sorry today didn’t go very well, but maybe tomorrow we could do something simple, like catch lunch together?”

Sunset grunted at Cadance, her brain already half shut down even before she began to fall asleep in the bed. Realizing she was being a bit of a nuisance, Cadance quickly apologized before trotting after Flat Line and away from the medical wing.

Sunset couldn't find the energy to respond, and she was already deep asleep by the time the swinging doors shut a second time.

Author's Note

This chapter was somehow more difficult to write than the first one, and believe it or not this was the best take out of half a dozen tries. Hopefully the next chapter will be better.