"The walk home was a long one. Three hours spent jumping and yelping every time she touched something other than dirt, even worse were the meltdowns caused by ponies speaking. We finally arrived at night fall and just entered the house five minutes ago. On conclusion of this log I am making dinner." There was a click again. Rainbow hardly heard it. She was still standing exactly where he had left her.

"Would you like to lay down Rainbow?" He said not getting an answer "Rainbow?"

"Wh- Wh- What?" She replied still trying to regain a shred of her dignity.

"Would you like to lay down? There is a couch here."

"Y- Yeah. O- Okay." She said sounding like a train wreck.

"I'm going to put my hoof on you okay? Don't freak out." He calmly stated.

"A- Alright." She felt his hoof touch her side and she tried her hardest not to but still did jump.

"Okay. Just follow me alright?" She obeyed and he slowly lead her to a couch. "Slowly now okay. One hoof at a time." It took a while but she eventually made it down. "There. Are you hungry or anything?"

"S- Starving..." She said without exaggeration.

"I see. I'll be right back alright? Just rest now."

"O- Okay" She said almost glad to be alone after embarrassing herself so much. She heard him leave the room. "Come on. Get a hold of yourself. You scared those fillies into tears with all your antics." She thought trying to keep her moral up. "Okay. You are in some random nice guy's house. For some reason he has put his own neck out to keep you alive and seems intent enough to keep you that way. Just keep yourself fed and you should be fine. Right. Let's try to keep from going insane while we are at it." Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hoofs approaching.

"Here I am." She jumped. "I brought you something to eat, well, drink I guess." He said bringing a straw to her lips. "Not so fast this time alright?"

"G- Got it" She did her best to restrain herself as she took in the slushy liquid.

"There. Keep it at that rate. You are doing great." She would never in a thousand years admit it, but his nice words really felt good on her broken soul. Her ears suddenly perked. Somebody else was in the room.

"Wh- Who's there?" She shakily asked with her breathing quickening.

"That would be Rachel" He said sounding a bit worried.

"H- Hello" Said what sounded to be a very nervous young mare.

"H- Hi" She found herself a lot less scared than she was expecting. "Maybe I'm getting better?" She relaxed and she could almost feel the tension in the room dissipate.

"So... I guess this is your wife?" She said sounding slightly bummed even though she wasn't entirely sure why.

The doctor laughed. "No I'm not married. Besides, Rachel here is young enough to be my daughter, she's seventeen."

Rainbow felt her cheeks warming into a blush and guessed Rachel's were probably doing the same. She coughed unconvincingly. "R- Right"

"She's out of school for the summer and I hired her to help around the house. She'll also be looking after your kids for the moment."

"Wait. They are HER kids?! SHE is the one you were writing about?!" Rachel said sounding hugely shocked and surprised.

Rainbow stood to her feet on the couch quickly and quite painfully. "So what i- if they are my kids? Something wrong with that?"

"Oh calm down. You are going to hurt yourself. It's not what she meant. Rachel is sort of... an admirer of you. Since the first time I mentioned you in a letter home she has wanted to know everything."

She could feel her cheeks glowing again and sat back down. "O- Oh" She said not entirely sure how to react.

"Anyway, she is probably the best one to take a shot at figuring out your mane. It's kinda a disaster" He said "I just have some chores to do in the mean time okay?"

"A- Alright." She replied

"Off I go then." She heard his heavy hoofs leaving.

It was awkwardly quiet for a few minutes. Finally Rachel spoke.

"Sooooo... you are Rainbow?" She asked trying to start a conversation.

"That's me."

"Umm... want me to fix your mane?" She said sounding unsure of what to say.

"Sure" She said resigning herself to grooming.

"Okay. I'll be careful." She felt claws, not hooves in her mane.

"Y- You aren't a pony..." She said nervously.

"No, I'm a dragon." She said "Are you afraid of me too?" She asked sounding sad.

"No. I used to be friends with a little dragon. Are ponies normally scared of you?"

"Yeah. Most ponies won't even look at me. They hide their kids when I pass."

"That has to hurt. Are you okay?"

"Seriously?" She said stifling a little laugh.

"What?" Rainbow asked.

"You have gone through some kind of hell and you are asking ME if I am okay?"

They laughed together, and it was better than she had felt in months.

Author's Note

If I missed any spelling errors it is because I was rushing to get the editing done while I had a free block at school. Let me know if you catch any so I can squish them. :P