One month later…
“Uh, Dr. Shavargo?” Spike let out a sigh and looked at the emerald green dragoness who had been eyeballing him up and down for nearly a century and a half. “I’ve been in this room since way too long o’clock and I’m not quite sure why I’m still here. Any chance I can jet? I do have a life.”
“Hush, Spike,” she replied. “We will be done soon enough. Since you haven’t been properly analyzed by a draconic doctor any time recently, it is of utmost concern that I am extremely thorough during your evaluation.”
“Erm, fine, be that way.”
Spike had to resist every urge in his body the past week to not miss this appointment. Every fiber of his being wanted to make up some excuse to not attend. But, alas, he gave in and did the responsible thing and showed up.
Dr. Shavargo was, after all, an acclaimed doctor from the dragonlands and she made a point of travelling all the way to Ponyville just to give him an evaluation. It was the least he could do to show up. Of course, that didn’t make him any happier about it.
After some rather painful pokes, prods, and blood tests, the dragoness had finally seemed to finish her work.
“Alright, Spike, we are finally done here.” She finally backed away from the hospital bed he was on and grabbed a nearby clipboard to jot a few things down.
Spike gave her a quizzical look. “So, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re pretty civilized for coming straight from the motherland. Most dragons I’ve met seemed to be obsessed with the whole fire and brimstone thing and don’t exactly take time to write on clipboards or practice medicine at all.”
She rolled her eyes, not even bothering to glance up at him. “Well, we’re not all like that. There are professionals amongst us, such as myself. Besides, you’re not quite the picture of power and bloodlust either, are you?”
He shrugged. “Eh, that’s fair.”
She skimmed over her notes a few times, eyes concentrating a bit harder at each pass. Spike wasn’t sure what to make of it but he did know he was ready to jet as quickly as he could.
“So, doc, what’s the prognosis? Yay, nay? Alive? Dead?”
“Well,” she began with a sigh. “I’ll have to wait a moment while the results of your blood sample return. You still have some swelling and tenderness in your gastrointestinal and cardiovascular regions. I want to see what turns up with that. You mentioned that you’ve had pain there for awhile, am I correct?”
Spike waved a claw. “Psh, yeah, but trust me. The swelling you felt there. Less of a concern and more of a side-effect of the food I ate last night. My marefriend made some awesome but super spicy pasta last night and I’m kinda suffering the consequences today.”
She chuckled. “Yes, I see. Well, perhaps avoiding spicy food in the future would be a wise course of action to follow, wouldn’t you say?”
“What?” He shrieked. “But spicy food is literally the essence of life. Especially when there are gems mixed in with said spicy food. You’re basically suggesting I give up my religion! And I assure you, I will not sell out my faith so easily.”
“Okay, okay, just simple doctoral advice.” She shook her head. “Now, I’m going to go check on the results of your testing we sent in and see what comes of it. Please wait here until it is completed.”
“Ugh,” Spike said, flopping back onto the mattress. “Please don’t say you’ll be back shortly. I know it’s but a facade to cover up the fact it’s going take at least an hour for you to return.”
She smiled. “I see you’re quite familiar with how these things work.”
“Eh, it’s not my first rodeo.”
“Well then, I shall return when I return.”
With that, she walked out the door leaving our dragon to himself for an unfortunately undisclosed amount of time.
He sat up on the bed and took stock of his surroundings. Plain, tan colored walls, a sink with tan cabinets beneath, a machine in the corner which he had no idea of what the purpose was and a diagram of the pony reproductive system on the back of the door.
“Why?” Spike asked. “Why do I also get the room with that diagram? I swear, the world is just trying to ignite my awkwardness to a new level of unacceptability.”
To top it all off, he had plans with Derpy after the whole shindig was over. Luckily, he wasn’t a stupid dragon. He made sure to schedule his doctor’s appointment in the morning and he made double sure to allow at least three hours of leeway for the whole thing to be over and done with before he met with her. You can never trust doctors to stick to a convenient or sensible schedule, after all.
But until then, all he could do was wait… Wait and try to avoid staring at that accursed diagram!
As if he was a fortune teller, it was almost exactly one hour before Dr. Shavargo returned. Of course, it wasn’t just her, but Nurse Redheart and a pony doctor as well.
“Oh, hey there!” Spike said, quickly tossing aside the cotton swab he had took to playing with. “And hello there… other ponies? Don’t tell me I have to get more tests now. I’m kinda ready to bounce.”
The dragoness let out a sigh. “Spike, they’re just here to assist me with going over your report and medical records with you. Please, try and be patient.”
He knew when enough snark was enough. “Alright, alright, no worries. You have my undivided attention. But then I’m bouncing. I got a pretty mare waiting on me after all.”
Nurse Redheart gave him a small grin. “Of course, of course. We understand. Let’s just get through this as quickly as possible, shall we?”
“Thank you. Finally a voice of reason.” Spike smiled at her but only received a half-backed smile in return. Everypony seemed to be in a mood today. “Okay, no more jokes. Let me just sign the release forms so I can see my marefriend.”
A lone manilla folder filled with an inordinate amount of papers sat on the counter. This was going to be awhile.
“Spike!”
Derpy lunged toward the dragon as soon as he stepped into the restaurant, wrapping him up in a tight hug. Of course, he responded in kind, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.
“Hey, sweets! It feels like it’s been at least two days since I last saw you.”
She nuzzled into his chest before separating herself. “Maybe that’s because it has been two days since you last saw me.”
He playfully rubbed his chin. “Hmm… Nah, that can’t be it. Two days is way too long to go without seeing you. It’s totally only been a day and twenty-two hours. Luckily I saw you now, though. If those last two hours went by, you’d have one mess of a boyfriend.”
She giggled and shook her head. “Good thing we didn’t waste any time then, huh?”
“My thoughts exactly.” Spike looked around the establishment. Curly Fry’s place just never got old. “Did you get us a seat already?”
“Mhm!” She said with a rapid nod. “I actually got your favorite booth over in the corner!”
He veered his attention from Derpy to see that yes, in fact, the booth was empty and ready for the taking. “You see Derpy, this is why I love you. You know me so well.”
They made their way over to the seat and settled in, Spike on one side, Derpy on the other. It wasn’t long before Curly Fry himself came over to the table.
“Hey, how’s my favorite couple doin’?”
“Great!” Derpy said, followed by a nod from Spike.
The stallion jottd his eyes between the two of them. “So, I already know you two will be havin’ some root beers to drink, but what about food? The usual?”
They both nodded in unison.
“Of course, of course. Two hayburger deluxe combos with some onion rings to share. It’ll be out in a jiffy, alright?”
The stallion left, leaving Spike and Derpy on their own once more.
Spike looked across the table at his marefriend. She was all smiles, practically giggling with delight as she looked at him. Spike had to check his memory to make sure he wasn’t forgetting any kind of anniversary or something like that. Starlight always warned him he’d forget an important date at least once in his relationship but he hoped it wouldn’t have been this soon.
“So, Derpy, I’m not complaining or anything, but is there any particular reason you’re in such a good mood today?”
She shook her head, her face still aglow. “Mm-mm. I’m just really happy to see you today. I know you were upset to have to go to the hospital for your checkup, so I wanted to make sure you knew how much I loved you when you got out.”
His heart had suddenly been reduced to liquid form from how quickly it melted. “Derpy… Not trying to sound completely generic here, but you don’t ever have to do anything special to prove you love me. But, for the record, I love you just as much.”
He reached across the table and held his claw open to which she quickly placed a hoof on it.
Spike chuckled. “I just kinda wish I thought of that line first. Celestia knows I could use brownie points for the next time I flub up and do something stupid.”
She shrugged. “Don’t worry, Spike, I’ve fully prepared myself for you to do stupid things. That way I won’t get too upset.”
The dragon blinked a few times. “Hold on… Was that a little bit of snark I heard escape from your lips? Remember when I said I loved you a couple seconds ago? Go ahead and multiply that by ten.”
After a short moment, their food and drinks arrived. It didn’t take long at all for them to begin feasting on their meals. They had pretty much gotten past the awkward eating phase of their relationship where manners and everything were a top priority. At this point they were more than comfortable, eating off of each other’s plates and using their respectives claws and hooves for everything.
After a short time, both relaxed back in their chairs, done with their delectable meals.
“Spike?” Derpy asked. “Aren’t you going to finish your food?” Her hoof was pointed at Spike’s uncharacteristically half-eaten burger.
“Oh, yeah, I’m just not super super hungry right now.” He let out a sigh and patted his stomach. “I ate quite a bit this morning and honestly, doctors stress me out a bit. I’ll take the rest of it to go for dinner tonight.”
Derpy nodded. “I understand. When Dinky first went to the hospital, it took over a week for her to start eating regularly. It’s okay.”
“I’m telling you,” he replied with a light chuckle. “Nothing good happens in places like that. Absolutely nothing.”
She gave him a warm smile. “Except for when ponies go there to get healed though, you mean.”
He threw a claw in the air. “Good point. But you get my drift.”
“Of course.” She maneuvered in her chair a bit to get more comfortable. “Not to focus on it too much, but how did everything go? Was the dragon doctor nice to you? I hope she wasn’t mean and nasty like some other dragons.”
“Huh?”
“The dragon doctor,” she reiterated. “She wasn’t too mean was she?”
“Oh yeah, her,” Spike replied with a shake of his head. “No, she was great. A bit uptight, but what dragon isn’t?”
“You.”
“Besides me. I’m kind of a special case.” Spike smiled at her. “Yeah, she was good. She ran some normal tests, some weird dragon-ish tests, took some blood… you know, the usual stuff doctors do.”
“Did you learn anything new?” She asked.
“New?”
“About yourself, I mean. This is the first time you’ve gotten a checkup from a dragon since you’ve grown up, right? You learned something new, right?”
He looked at her for just a moment before responding. “Eh, not really. Kind of same old, same old. Eat your gems, get exercise, lay off the spicy food—”
“Huh!” Derpy gasped.
“Don’t worry,” Spike said. “I have no intention of following that last one. I wanna be healthy but I also wanna not spiral into a never ending pit of depression and angst.”
“Good.” Derpy quickly returned to her smiling form. “So, everything turned out okay?”
“Of course,” he replied with a curt nod. “A little old dragon doctor can’t bring me down! You trust me, right?”
He reached a claw out and she gratefully took it in her hooves.
“Of course, Spike. Always.”
It was a long day.
Well, not that long. It was only three in the afternoon at this point. But, going to the hospital, getting ganged up on by doctors and then pigging out at a restaurant can take a lot out of a dragon. At least Derpy was there to help brighten up his day a bit. Saying goodbye to her at the restaurant was no easy feat, on that note. But, of course, she had to pick Dinky up from the babysitter, and he had to get home and do… whatever he was going to do. He really didn’t think that far ahead.
And he was at home now. Actually, now that he thought about it, he did know what he wanted to do. All he was thinking about was sleep, and more sleep. Life could take a backseat for a few hours.
“Hey, Spike! How, uh, how did the doctors visit go?”
He turned his head from where he was standing toward the stairs where Starlight was waiting for him.
He shook his head. “Meh. I’m not in the mood to talk. If it's alright with you, I’d rather just head up to bed for now.”
Her normal smirk she’d have at the ready for a situation like this was replaced with a frown. “I take it you didn’t have the best time there, huh?”
He shook his head. “Heh, does anypony ever have a good time at the hospital?”
“Point taken.” She took a few steps to the side, leaving the staircase open. “Well, go ahead and get some rest. We can talk about it later, if you want.”
He nodded. “Thank you, Starlight. I appreciate it.”
He strode toward the stairs and walked right past her on his way to his bedroom.