Introduction
Sometimes we believe things to be true, even if everypony else says otherwise. This is the story of one such mare, who despite everypony telling her her dreams are just that, dreams and delusions of fantasy, she keeps holding on to the belief that she is a hero. But she's not a hero, right...? Right?
Canterlot Sanitarium
Canterlot Sanitarium, one of the most infamous places in the fine and otherwise sparkling gem of Equestria that is Canterlot Kingdom. It's not that it's a bad place, oh no. Far from it actually. The place is well kept, nicely cleaned and cared for. The nurses and doctors are nice, they give every possible care they can to their patients. It's just that the patients themselves are often... well no way of getting around it, just outright insane. Some have been cured, like Screwball (Well, some to a point anyways in her case.) Others, sadly will have to probably stay there for the rest of their lives. It's a sorrowful fact of life I'm afraid. We're here today to focus on one such mare, one that believes herself to be a hero, and in one such universe actually is. But that universe is not this one sadly.
"Alright Ms Sparkle, time for your medication!" A cheerful, yet caring voice exclaimed and the voice echoed through the halls where behind each metal door sat some poor insane soul. This voice belonged to Nurse Redheart, who on weekends worked here instead of her normal job at Canterlot General Hospital. Her hope was, besides eventually curing every patient in this institution one day, was to bring some happiness and serenity to every patient in the Sanitarium. For the most part, it worked. For the most part. There were some poor souls that no matter what she did, could never seem to find peace. Thankfully, the mare we are about to meet is not one of those souls. So far, every time Nurse Redheart spends time with her, some small sense of serenity is found in her weekly visits. If Twilight Sparkle were just slightly more insane, this would not be so. Thankfully, she is not that kind of mare.
Creak!
A figure peeked out of the doorway, with two nervous eyes belonging to a lavender unicorn following Redheart's every move, tracing her hoofsteps with twin watchful orbs as they came towards her. The eyes soon brightened up when they saw who was coming towards them.
"Nurse Redheart!" Twilight exclaimed happily, pleased to see one of her favorite ponies in the whole world.
"Hello Twilight." Nurse Redheart said kindly as she held out two pure white pills. "Are you feeling well today?"
"I made a new friend today!" Twilight exclaimed cheerfully, as she held up a board painted like a rainbow. Nurse Redheart held back a few small tears as she saw this. She didn't have the heart to tell her favorite patient that the painted board was just that, a painted board.
"Really?" Redheart smiled though on the inside, she was crying at the sight before her. It wouldn't have been the first time Twilight had delusions of making a new friend, in fact this was the sixth time it had happened. Inside Twilight's room, under a bed were several other small objects, five in fact. In order, they were a pink cupcake, an apple, a faded and dusty buttermellow plushie of a pink maned pegasus (That one had been a gift from a very teary eyed Princess Celestia, who saw what was happening to the mare that had once been her prized student.) ,and finally a purple and marshmellow pair of ribbons.
"What's her name?" Redheart asked kindly, and though she tried to fight it, a small teardrop escaped her eyes.
"Rainbow Dash." Twilight smiled, and mimicked, with the board, it flying through the sky and she even made the sound of a small sonic boom. "The fastest pegasus in the sky!"
"Really?" Redheart asked, another tear escaping. "Sounds like a very cool friend for you to make."
Twilight nodded, though she soon turned sad. Redheart noticed, and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"What's wrong Twilight?" She asked curiously, and Twilight walked towards her bed, sat down the board and pulled out the apple, which had been kept surprisingly clean and well cared for.
"It's Applejack, sometimes she fights with Rainbow Dash." Twilight said tearfully, looking as if she were about to break down. "I wish they wouldn't fight! Friendship isn't about just fighting!"
Redheart found herself putting a comforting hoof around the crying mare, whose mood swings were often rapid as shown here.
"Well, sometimes friends do fight, but they always make up in the end don't they?" Redheart explained as reassuringly as she could not caring she was crying now as well.
Twilight sniffled a little and wiped away her tears and blew her nose with a offered tissue that Redheart kept on hand for occasions such as this. It was then she noticed something as well. Redheart was crying as well. Twilight looked towards the nurse and was now raising a eyebrow herself.
"You alright, Nurse? You're crying." Twilight observed and then felt immediately guilty, was it she, via her own crying, made Redheart start crying herself? Twilight didn't want to believe it, but that was the way it looked to her.
"Don't tell me I made you cry!" Twilight sobbed, but Redheart shook her head, wiped away her tears, and blew her nose along with Twilight's once more.
"N-No, I'm fine. Completely fine." Redheart lied. She didn't want the real reason of her crying to come to light, especially to Twilight. If that happened, Redheart didn't dare think of the results. For all she knew, all her progress made towards curing Twilight may have come undone! And that was the last thing she wanted to see, all her hard work towards making Twilight Sparkle a well functioning member of society gone out the window thanks to one simple mistake of hers. Redheart would never be able to forgive herself if that happened.
Redheart checked her watch, it was almost time to leave, much as she hated that fact. But she had other patients to visit. Waving good-bye to Twilight, Redheart still felt something was wrong She got that feeling every week upon leaving Twilight to her own devices, but now the feeling was stronger then ever.
"It's probably nothing. Redheart, never knew you were such a worrywart. Soon, you'll be the one taking the medication if you're not careful. Just relax, everything will be fine for one more week." The Nurse reassured herself mentally. "Yeah, just go home and take a hot bath and everything will be fine. Nothing's going to happen."
Little did Redheart know how wrong she was...
Redheart Residence: Canterlot
"Ah, that's just what I needed." Redheart sighed in pleasure as she dried herself off from her hot bath. "A warm bath always soothes the nerves."
She then felt a warm kiss on her cheek from a loving source and sighed to herself as she felt strong, black furred forelegs wrap around her from behind.
"Have a good day?" The figure, a Umbra pony and Redheart's husband to be Sombra Ironhoof asked in a loving tone of voice. Redheart, upon hearing this voice felt all her worries just ooze away like they were goo.
"Pretty good." Redheart confirmed, and Sombra smiled. While he didn't like his fiancé's line of work, he nevertheless accepted it, as it made her happy curing ponies of their ills, physical or mental. And seeing his fiancé happy was all he wanted in the world.
"Twilight made a new friend today." Redheart remarked as Sombra soothed her shoulders, even as the Umbra Pony in question grimaced. This favorite patient of hers was often a talking point, and Sombra didn't like talking about it. He worried greatly for his fiancé, and what may or may not happen to her if she spent far too much time with the clearly delusional mare known as Twilight Sparkle.
"Why do you encourage her so much?" Sombra argued. "She's never going to be cured if you keep doing what you're doing!"
"How do you know? I'm making great progress!" Redheart heatedly argued back. This was almost a weekly thing now, and she hated every minute of it.
"Progress?" Sombra scoffed. "You said she made another friend today?" He snapped. "You call that progress? Next thing you know she'll be imagining herself as the leader of the Elements of Harmony!"
Redheart's jaw dropped, how dare Sombra even think to dare suggest that!
"P-Please don't even joke about that." Redheart whispered softly, but what her fiancé had to say next made Redheart very worried indeed.
"Who says I'm joking?" Sombra mused, and with that neither said no more as they pondered the possibilities of such a thought...
Canterlot Castle, Celestia's Private Quarters
Celestia sighed sadly to herself. Another failure in her long list of failures. First, there was Nightmare Moon, the being who had taken over her sister 1000 years before all because she ignored her sister's plight of being ignored by the citizens of Equestria, and this had the end result of locking her away as the Mare in the Moon for 1000 years till she was saved by another failure of hers, Sunset Shimmer. Sure, Sunset was good now, but before all that she wanted power and to become a Alicorn Princess like her and her sister. Sunset's lust for power got the better of her, and once again Celestia had to banish somepony she loved, this time like a child. And then there was Twilight. Oh dear Twilight. Like Sunset, she was a prized student, and like Sunset Celestia loved her like a child. But this time, Twilight's ever growing loneliness got the better of her, and she had to be sent to Canterlot Sanitarium.
Sighing once again, Celestia picked herself off the sunny white bed and rearranged the sheets fighting back tears. It was time once again for her weekly visit to Twilight, and Celestia hoped, though she knew this was probably a false hope, that any progress had been made towards curing her dear friend's condition.
"Well, only one way to find out." She mused and set on the long trek towards the source of her sadness. Suddenly she felt a hoof stop her. Celestia looked up, and she saw her the dark blue and starry maned form of her sister, Luna. Luna smiled kindly at her older silbing before saying one thing.
"I shall not let thine go through this alone."
And Celestia smiled for the first time in a long while.
Canterlot Sanitarium
"Twilight?" Celestia asked nervously as she peeked through the small opened door that led to Twilight's room. Inside there sat Twilight Sparkle, in the same state as ever, through no wearing a crown of yellow colored paper-mache with a fake gem inside it.
"Hello Teacher." Twilight greeted happily and Celestia waved a hoof back in return, while Luna watched with a concerned look from outside the door going unnoticed for the time being.
"Like my Element of Har-" Twilight began till she saw Luna and her face became set with fear and horror.
"It's Nightmare Moon! I thought I cured you!" Twilight exclaimed in fear, sweat trailing down her face as she tried to make her Element of Harmony work, but of course it was to no avail as it wasn't really the Element of Magic used by Sunset Shimmer.
"Shh Twilight." Celestia whispered to calm her student like she had when she was younger and was having nightmares. Celestia intended to treat this like it was the exact same sort of situation.
"Shh shh... It's okay, it's just a bad dream. You're having a nightmare." Celestia continued to whisper in that same motherly tone Twilight knew so well. No longer did Celestia know Twilight as one of her greatest failures, but as a pony who just needed a helping hoof, and she intended to be that helping hoof.
Suddenly, Nurse Redheart burst into the room looking frantic. She had heard Twilight's scream, and came running as fast as her little white legs could carry her. Her keen eyes oserved the situation, and her equally as keen mind very quickly figured out what had happened.
"Oh no, Sombra was right!" She panicked.
Redheart felt at once guilty, her fiancé's worst fears had come true and she was probably responsible for it.
"Oh no, I caused this..." Redheart whispered, and Celestia's keen ears quickly picked up on her small voice, and her head rapidly whirled around to face the nurse's own, before she looked Redheart dead in the eyes.
"What do you mean you caused this." Celestia growled, and the room suddenly began to get very warm indeed with the sun seemingly shining brighter than normal through the room's sole window.
"I-I'm sorry..." Redheart sobbed unashamedly. "I-I caused this, I encouraged Twilight's fantasies and now look what's happened!" She cried, and the sun seem to grow cooler as Celestia saw Redheart's guilt and pain in her tear covered eyes.
"C-Can you fix this?" Celestia asked, now crying herself at her student's state. A determined look came to Redheart's muzzle and she looked the Princess of the Sun dead in the eyes.
"I will try, and by Faust's soul I will not fail!" Redheart stated in determination. It would be a long hard road ahead of them, but with Celestia's help and guidance and Redheart's love and care, someday soon, hopefully Twilight Sparkle would be cured. It would take time and care, but with these two ponies caring for a broken mare, that time would come.
THE END