Twilight was sick again. Being young and reading books all night, even in the coldest days, meant she was quite susceptible to illness.
Night Light had made her an appointment at a nearby doctors office. “Shining, go get your sister ready for bed; she needs her rest since we’re going to the doctor early tomorrow,” he ordered.
Shining nodded and made his way to where Twilight was reading and sniffling away. “C'mon Twily - bed time. You need your rest for the doctor tomorrow."
Twilight instantly shot up straight from his slouched position, dropping her book. She started to shake. Shining got down next to her and held her close. “Twily, its okay, the doctor isn’t scary. He just wants to make you feel better.”
Twilight was still frozen, staring blankly at the wall. “C'mon Twily, I’ll be there with you, and so will dad," he coaxed. Shiny could see his father losing patience; he knew he’d been given an order, and that he had to get Twilight to bed now and let her get some rest.
“C'mon, Twily” Shining Armor said as he held out his hoof to the younger Pony. Twilight took his hoof and they both headed to the bathroom to get Twilight washed, dressed and ready for bed.
When Twilight was all ready, Shining walked out to tell his dad. Night Light was passed out, lieing on the table being totally tired from his workday, with a glass of Applecider still on the Table. Shining saw his moms medical bag laying by the door, which she didn't use anymore, since she quit her work as doctors assistant. Suddenly he had an idea; he grabbed the bag and took it towards the bedroom where he could hear Twilight sniffling and her cough gradually worsening.
"Twily?" Shining called, striding over to his sisters bed. He set the medical bag on the mattress with a light, muffled thud.
Twilight stopped coughing and looked up. "What are you doing with Mommys old bag, Shiny?"
"Dad's asleep; he won't notice." The older colt began pulling the medical instruments from the bag, one by one, and laid them on the bed between the two of them. His eyes caught his sisters when he looked up, and he paused, seeing anxiety cloud the younger fillys eyes. "What's the matter, Twily?"
Twilight sniffled, opened her mouth to speak, and broke into a deep, echoing cough that made her eyes water. "I don't feel good," she mumbled as a tear trickled down her cheek.
"I know, that's why Dad is taking you to the doctor, so they can make you better," Shining replied, reaching over to the table by the bed for a tissue and wiping his sisters damp face and runny nose.
"But I don't wanna go to the doctor," Twilight whimpered. A second tear dribbled from her eye. "It's cold and it smells funny and... and..." she trailed off into hiccuping sobs.
Her brothers arms were instantly wrapped around her. "It's okay to be scared, Twily, but I promise you the doctor will help you feel good again." Shining rubbed her back slowly up and down, shushing little Twily until the sobs quieted down. "Look, I brought Moms doctor things to show you how they work. Will you feel better if you try them on me?" he asked. His sister nodded slowly. "Good filly. What do you want to try first?"
Twilight shrugged her shoulders and made an unsure expression to her brother. Shining laughed before he began to explain. “Okay, so they will ask you or dad questions about how you are feeling, like what hurts and about your cough,” he began. Twilights eyes widened in fear. “Hey, shhh, it’s okay Twily. If you don’t want to speak, you can whisper to me and I can tell the doctor. Sound okay?" he asked. Twilight nodded in response.
“Okay, so first, because we’ve never been there before, they will need to weigh you and measure how tall you are,” Shining explained. Twilight was listening attentively, nodding. “So the doctor will put you on a box, and it will tell them how much you weigh. And then like dad does, they’ll put you by a big ruler and measure to see how tall you are." Twilight nodded again, showing she understood.
Shining poked her playfully. “You can see how much you have to grow before you are as tall as me!” he teased. Twilights eyes brightened up at this. She always looked up to her brother.
Shining picked up the thermometer with his Magic from the bed, and held it up in front of Twilight. “Okay, this is an easy one. You’ve let me and dad do it before, and you’ve seen it used on me – the doctor will just put it in your mouth and see how hot you are.” Twilight nodded, feeling slightly more relaxed.
Shining picked up the blood pressure cuff next. “You know what this is, Twily?” he asked.
Twilight shook her head in response. “No, but it looks really scary,” she replied. Her eyes started to tear up.
“Hey, it’s okay! I’m not sure what it does, but it doesn’t hurt – just squeezes a bit. I don’t think we should mess with this. It looks too big for you, anyway," his brother said. Twilight released a deep breath, sighing in relief.
“Now the next thing mom doesn’t have, but…” Shining started talking as he made his way to his bed, reaching under the bed for his small flashlight that Night Light had given him. “This will do." Shining climbed back onto Twilights bed and sat in front of her once again. “They have a special light and thing that they will use to look in your ears – to make sure they are okay, and to check if you have a brain in there!”
Twilights eyebrows furrowed and she gave a slight frown. “I do have a brain!” Twilight raised her voice, but all that came out were croaked words before she started coughing again.
Shining rubbed her back patting it slightly to help Shining out. “Okay, I believe you, don’t hurt yourself!” Twilight smiled.
“What’s that?” Twilight pointed towards the stethoscope on the bed.
Shining picked it up and started to explain. “This is a stethoscope; the doctor will use it to listen to what’s going on inside of you."
Twilight climbed further under her duvet. Her muffled voice came from under the covers, “I don’t want them to listen to my insides, it’s scary! What if they say something mean?"
Shining chuckled, causing Twilight to poke her head out from her hiding place. “What’s so funny?” she asked defensively.
Shining continued laughing. “Would you feel better if you used it on me, and then we tried it on you - or you could even try listening?”
Twilight came further out of the covers and sat in front of Shining and nodded her head. "Okay sister, put this on," Shining instructed. He slipped the earpieces of the stethoscope into his Sisters ears. Then he put the other end of it to his own chest. "Can you hear anything?"
Twilight made a funny face at her brother. "Your voice sounds really super loud with this!" she yelled, forgetting she didn't need to raise her voice, which made the older colt grin back. Then Twilight began to focus on what she could hear and she noticed a steady drum beat coming from inside her brother. She put her hoof over Shinings and pushed down to make the sound louder and clearer. Lub-Dub. Lub-Dub. Lub-Dub. It was a nice sound.
"What's that drum sound, Shiny?" she asked.
"That's my heart beating; it keeps me alive and makes me strong and brave so I can protect you," her brother explained.
"Wow," breathed Twilight. "Your heart is super duper strong!"
Shining beamed proudly. "I bet yours is really strong too, wanna find out?" He took the stethoscope off his chest and pressed it to the younger fillys chest. A different drum beat echoed in Twilights ears, one that was much faster. She didn't like that it was faster; she wanted it to sound just like her big brothers.
"Shiny..." she whimpered, "something's wrong!" She pulled the stethoscope out of her ears.
"It's okay Twily, do you want me to check?" her brother asked reassuringly. The little filly nodded, holding back tears.
Shining put the stethoscope in his own ears and held up the end. "Do you want me to hold it, or do you want to do it yourself?" he inquired.
"You do it," Twilight sniffled.
Soon she found herself pulled into her big brothers lap. The older colts hoof reached around and gently touched the stethoscope to his sisters chest. A rapid thudding reached Shinings ears. Thud-thud, thud-thud, thud-thud, thud-thud, thud-thud. "What's wrong with my drum, Shiny?"
"Shh, Twily, your heart sounds good, it's just beating fast," he comforted his sister. "Are you still scared?"
"Uh-huh, a little," the little filly whispered.
Shinings arms squeezed her tighter as he continued to listen. "You never have to be scared with me, okay? I will always keep you safe, no matter what. Try breathing in really slow like this," he demonstrated, "and then blow it out nice and slow like this."
The stethoscope remained on Twilights chest while she mimicked her brothers breathing, and soon she felt less afraid. "There you go Twily, feel better now?" She nodded. "That's really good, your heartbeat is slower now."
"As slow as yours?" She asked.
"Well, yours is a little faster since you're littler than me," Shining explained, "but when we grow up they will be the same. Do you want to hear it again?"
Twilight nodded, and Shining placed the ear tips back in her ears. Once again, Shining placed the end of the stethoscope on Twilights small chest. Twilight gasped, “Shining, it’s still faster than yours!”
Shining nodded sympathetically. “Well, you're sick - and when you're sick, your heart has to work harder, but it's okay.”
Twilight nodded again and listened for a little longer. After a while, she looked up at Shining and asked if he could listen to her heart once again.
Shining smiled and nodded. “Just let me put all this away first; it’s late.” Shining packed away all of the medical things, leaving the stethoscope with Twilight who was making funny noises into the chest piece while he returned the bag to its original place.
When he returned, he and Twilight lay down on the bed while Twilight listened to his brothers heart once again. Shining didn’t mind what was happening; he may have been a bit uncomfortable, but if this is what he needed to do to make sure his sister was calm and prepared for what would happen, then this was what he needed to do.
After a while, Shining felt Twilights hoof slip off his chest, and looked down to see the little Pony fast asleep. He removed the ear pieces from her ears and slipped out of bed, putting the stethoscope away back in the bag like this never even happened. He looked back over at his bed - contemplating sleeping in there - but instead decided to join his sister (who was shivering). He climbed into bed with his sister and held her close, so she would be there if she needed him.