//------------------------------//
// The Example 
// Story: Were We Pointless? 
// by Freewing Alchemist P 
//------------------------------//

This is a work of fiction, and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is property of Hasbro, this story was also inspired by DougtheLoremaster as well. 


The six friends sat at a simple table and they were playing a simple card game. The six friends were trying their best not to be the first to breach the biggest subject on their collective minds. It was finally, Gallus, after placing two cards down in a pile he finally spoke. “So. The show is over…” He waited for the others to say something but when he did not, he added.“Well?”
Smolder rolled her eyes and picked up a card. “Well what? Show’s over and we’re here.”
“Smolder’s right.” Ocellus added. “We had some good times, didn’t we?” The Changeling questioned while not looking up from her cards.
“We had some real good times.” Sandbar said with a wide grin on his face looking between his friends and his cards.
 Before he said anything more he looked at the pile of cards. “I mean we had a couple of good seasons, didn’t we? I mean they're not going to be using us in the next generation, am I right? Still we were a part of something great. Right?” 
“Exactly!” Gallus shouted. “We only got two seasons…”
“I heard we’re getting a season 10 in the comics.” Ocellus interjected as she took a card from the pile.


Twak!


The sound hooves crashing on the table cause the friends as well as their cards to jump. They stop playing and look over to Yona, the yak has slammed her hooves against the table. “That in April! Yona confused about comics.”
“Why’s that?” Silver Stream asked.
“Comic difference, Zephyr Breeze not slacker, King Sombra alive and not bad and Sand Bar likes bad pony!” Yona grumped at that last example. 
“Ah, looks like some creature’s jealous.” Silver Stream tased 
“Yona not jealous, but they give us only two season; fans won’t want comics. They do not believe them.” She fumed.
“And that’s what I’ve been saying! They didn’t even use us,” Gallus looked back in. “I mean you heird all those stories about how the ponies helped the people, but we… Well, we have no stories like that. I mean, we are just extras.” Gallus went quiet.
“What’s wrong? I mean I’m sure we are liked. I mean the fans even gave us our own neck-names too.”
“No it’s not what I mean, I mean our teachers did a lot. They brought communities together; they saved lives and they even inspired a whole generation of artists and yes, we are a part of that!” Gallus threw his cards down on the table. “WE can’t say the same thing. WE didn’t do anything like that. WE didn’t matter, It was just too late to the party and WE didn’t matter. WE didn’t help any creature just like that.” Gallus sighed and slumped forward. 


You really think that? Oh, Gallus, do you me you don’t matter? Trust me Gallus, you matter to your friends and you do matter to others as well. You too have a story, a story that helped others.


“Oh great, a disembodied voice just decided to join the conversation,” Gallus sighed.
“Well you kinda invited him, didn’t you? I mean you invited him in on the conversation Gallus.” Sand Bar pointed it out to his friend.
“Yeah...This is Equestria after all. I mean it comes with the territory.” Smolder shrugged.
“I’m just surprised that this kind of thing hasn’t happened before.” Silver Stream added.
“I hear you there.” Sand Bar nodded in agreement. 


Well, Do you still want to hear me out, Gallus? I mean, how you helped someone? Are you still interested in what I have to say?


Gallus looked up into the air. All the others had also stopped playing and looked into the air as well. Gallus finally added. “OK, we’re listing. Lay it on us, tell us how we help some creature?”
“Except from boredom, that does not count.” Smolder added snarkily.
“Wouldn’t that in itself be an example?” Ocellus both intrejected and inquired with one question. 
“Not the same!” Both Gallus and Smolder said in unison as Gallus waved a talon dismissively. 
“Yona wants to hear; Yona wants to know.” The yack stamped a hoof lightly on the table.
“Could you show us, Mr. Disembodied, voice.” Silver Stream prompted excitedly.


Well, since you all want to know, I will share it with you. It is late in the day…


“Wait!” Silver Stream broke in. “Why don’t you show us? It will be fun to see.” 
“Yeah, just leave it in the middle of the table, So we can see it.” 
“Now I’m interested too. How about you Yuna” Sand Bar commented.


OH...K… Let’s see… OK, I got it, so turn your attention to the viewing globe. Always wanted to say that.


A globe appeared in the center of the group just above the table. Slowly the image started to form, it was a vinyl plank floor, walls were covered with calming and colorful artwork, all the doors had three digits all starting with 2. People in colorful uniforms running around all had name tags and some wore patches that read “Student Nurse”. 


“Where are we?” Sand Bar questioned.
“I think it’s a hospital, the patches say, student Nurse, so the others must be Doctors and Nurses.” Ocellus pointed out.
“Are we here for a patient?” Silver Stream asked
“Is it one of those ‘man-children’ that watched this show?” Gallus snarkily asked. 


     That’s right Ocellus it’s a hospital, the floor is known as 2nd Med Surg or 2MS. This is the floor where patients are being taken care of that are not in immediate danger but are still sick or injured. This is also a place where student doctors and nurses can get their training perfected, their teaching becomes internalized. All focused to take care of minor tasks that they need done to help their patents. Yes, Gallus the person you’ll be meeting is one of the older fans, that was just for fair warning, that’s all. Now, I will introduce you to the individual about the story.


     A man with a khaki and navy uniform, he pushed a rubbermaid cart. He ducked into each of the rooms and came out with both a bag of trash as well as linen. With equally measured grace and practice, he put them in their respective spots until. The man was polite, smiled and made any conversation for any patient that cared to talk to him.  It all seemed to be going well, until a rotund, elderly, woman with sheer gray hair came stopping down the hall. She was barely five feet tall with a scowl on her face but carried with an air of imperiousness swinging her arms dynamically ready to use them in a fight. Stomping towards him both doctors and nurses jumped out of her way, some even jumping into rooms that had color signs that read ‘Contact room. Do Not Enter without Gowns, Gloves, Masks. When exiting the room, Wash Hands’ The woman had a mass of fabric clenched in her fist.
The small woman stopped in front of the rubbermaid cart, she then shoved the fabric into his face. “What is this!” She roared at him.
“It looks like a curtain,” He started and saw the dangling curtain hooks. “Did you tear it down from the ceiling guides?”
“No important! This current is too small for a parents room” She growled at me.
“That’s why I put it in the unused room, the one with all the storage supplies. We’re low on currents so I thought that we would save them from the rooms we are using.”
“Not good enough! I want the same currents for all the rooms, especially since I want to put patents in that room. Now, I don’t care if you have to pull a current out of your backside, I Want one!” The woman road shoving the curtain further into the man's face, following it up with.“A!S!A!P!” Jabbing him in the chest with her finger shouting each letter and then stomped away. The man picked up the current that had fallen to the floor and put his cart away.


“Man she’s mean.” Silver Stream added.
Gallus nudged Smolder. “I think one of your dragons made it there.”
“Yeah, she’s just as mean as one. If she’s still employed, I bet it’s because she knows where the bodies are buried.” Smolder replied.
“Probably buried them herself.” Gallus added.
“For a place that should be about teaching new Doctors and Nurses as well as caring for the sick that seemed a little…” Osellice struggled to find the words. “I mean she’s kind of like Queen Chrysalis before she went crazy. May I ask something? Contact Room is that bad?” 


Well, it means that the patent has something they don’t want others to get. A good example is the FLU. Normally you would have to wear gloves, a special gown and face mask, so you would not get sick, and when you leave you take it all off and throw it away and wash your hands.


“It really says something when people are welling to get sick just to avoid her.” Sand Bar pointed out. 


Yes, that was Ms. McCoy. She was once the head of Infection Control, but due to some… lets just say, Incident, she was demoted. Even though she was demoted, she still held a lot of authority even though she was a nursing supervisor. She still acts like she incharge of everything she degrades, belittles and threatens people when she does not get her way. 
What she didn’t know was that he had a very difficult shift so far; For starters, an elderly man passed away and after the family said goodbye he had to bring the body to the morgue, he had to stay in the room the whole time. Not long after that, in the ER, he witnessed a child being abandoned. Oh, I can’t forget all the OR’s that he needed to clean 


“Wow that’s just… Sad really,” Ocellus added. “I mean firstly, the stuff, the other just seems a little boring.”
“Hospital, OR? Oh, you mean Operation Room right?” Sandbar asked.“I’ve seen those in Ponyville Hospital; they're huge, you mean he had to clean those big things?”


From top to bottom and all the equipment that they had used as well. He has been treated so far no better than the trash he’s been cleaning, or that’s what he feels like now. With all that happened he decided to break the rules, he decided to eat his lunch in the Meditation room.


“Oh, what a rule breaker.” Gallus said mockingly. 
“Yeah, really really bad.” Smolder snarked.
“You not know.” Yona added with a shrug. 


The Meditation room was meant as part of the waiting room for Endoscopic Surgery and a general purpose religious room. In Fact there is a cabinet with a rotating wheel with various religious emblems on it, or “The Spinning God Wheel”. The room is found in the Endoscopic Surgery Wing, and they lock it so no one can get in when the Wing is closed. It’s the weekend and that wing is shut down until Monday. 
You see the Meditation room is connected to the Endoscopic Surgery room; it has only one entrance with a door that can lock. There is no nurse’s station and the windows all face out on the second floor, add to that the TV has a remote and there are no cameras. They think that, if it was left open then the workers would spend all day watching TV in it. 
Just watch what comes next, please. 


The young man walked down to the ground floor and into the back of the hospital. In the back, he made his way into a room that had a sign. “ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE PERSONAL ONLY” In the room had rows of lockers, a refrigerator and a metal desk crammed together a simple black phone sat on it next to a calendar. The wall had a set of key holders and a holder for beepers.
As he walked up to the desk, he pulled his beeper off and slid it carefully under the desk, “Beeper off, Check, Then lunch, Curtains up next,” He walked to the refrigerator pulling out an aluminum water bottle and wrapped sandwich. Sitting them on the desk, he picked up the receiver of an old black phone dialed a number. “Hey, Lymen, it's me. Yeah, I’m going on lunch now, but I know you are going to Husatonic. Yeah, I need you to pick up some currents from storage.” The man paused to listen to the other end. “Yes, I know they have mold on them, but McCoy wants new ones and that’s all we have.” He paused again to listen to the man on the other side. “Because McCoy wants them, she pulled the one I put up there off the guid rail.” There was silence then the man nodded.“Thank.”
He walked back to the second floor, but made a quick turn away from the patient floor and headed to a door with a plastic plack that read “Endoscopic Department & Cardiac Rehabilitation, Open Monday 6:30am to Friday 3:00 pm” Looking over his shoulder he stepped through the door. The corridor on the other end was sparsely lit by every other ceiling light, and he slipped into the door. All the way at the other end of the hall was a set of glass doors that read ‘Cardiology Department’ and another set of wooden doors to the left that read ‘Endoscopic Surgery Department.’ Beyond both doors was a dark hallway with only one light casting a dull glow, with a grin he entered the Endoscopic Surgery Department.
In the darkened hallway he walked to a metal lock box with a built in keypad. Without thinking about it the young man tapped a code into the keypad and retrieved a key from inside the box.  With a smile he walked farther down the hall to the ‘meditation room’ he unlocked the door and quietly slipped into the room. After sliding into the room, he slid a trash can in front of the door.
“All is prepared, now let's watch some TV and eat lunch.” He said and put his lunch on a small table and turned the TV on. He glanced at his watch. “And it’s 11:30, now what channel was it on? Oh, channel 293.” He changed the channel and a sound of a familiar anthem played. He unwrapped his sandwich and started to eat it as he watched. 


“My Little Pony My Little Pony
Ah - ah - ah - ah
(My Little Pony)
[TWILIGHT SPARKLE]
I used to wonder what friendship could be
[THE MANE SIX]
(My Little Pony)
[TWILIGHT SPARKLE]
Until you all shared its magic with me
[RAINBOW DASH]
Big adventures
[PINKIE PIE]
Tons of fun
[RARITY]
A beautiful heart
[APPLEJACK]
Faithful and strong
[FLUTTERSHY]
Sharing kindness
[TWILIGHT SPARKLE]
It's an easy feat
And magic makes it all complete
[THE MANE SIX]
(Yeah, My Little Pony)
Do you know you're all my very best friends?”


The group watched the man enjoy the show, which did not surprise them. They saw while he slowly ate his lunch he seemed to enjoy Gallus imploring a tree for friendship, made him smile. 


“That might work, this is My Little Pony” The man said.


They all smiled at these words.
“He isn’t wrong, you know.” Gallus pointed out and added with a wave of his claw. 
They continued to watch him as the man continued to watch the show. The man’s face did not change as he ate his sandwich and drank his water. They could see that he was amused at Smolders tea party, then she seemed concerned about Silver Stream and Gallus’s plight. He smiled at Smolder’s conffection and Yona’s ‘Spider Army’ they all saw him laugh at that. The gang also shared a smile and understanding of the secret that was shared. They all watched him finish the Episode as well as his lunch. He seemed to pay attention to Cozie Glow’s part and when the show was done. He looked down at his hands and then turned the TV off.


“Cozie Glow, she’s a Darla Dimple if I’ve ever seen it. Still, Not in their nature… Giving up isn’t in my nature.” Standing up he picked up his trash, relocked the door and left the Endoscopic Surgery Department.


“That’s it?” Gallus complained. “Wait what was that? That was nothing happened.” 
“No, it did, he go back to work.” Yona pointed out.
“Yeah, he didn’t lie to us. He did show us something. Not sure what, though. Any help, explaining this to the rest of us.” Smolder waves a claw in the air. 


Yes, I showed you just that, not all acts are grand or world changing. Some acts are simple but still very important to that person. Courage, it was courage you helped him find, the most important thing you can give or help them find. Not all courage comes with a roar! Some are just quiet voices that say, “I will try again.” It was on this day you gave the ability to find his courage on that difficult day. The courage to get up and try again.]


“You got any other examples for us?” Gallus asked. Trying to pin the voice with a glare
“He did say that he was only giving us one.” Ocellus pointed out.
“She’s right.” Silver Stream nodded.


Trust me Gallus a little bit of courage at the right time can make all the difference.