//------------------------------//
// Bro Duties. 
// Story: Bros in Equestria 
// by Mandroid 
//------------------------------//

	Hospital smell isn't new to you. You've been in them often enough, usually by Anon dragging you to them after you got yourself hurt. 
You sat in the exam room waiting for this doctor. The painkillers you took earlier had been keeping a lid on your pain. This "Horse M.D." was taking his sweet time getting here. At this rate, you were going to heal before he showed up.	
This room wasn't too different from ones back on Earth. Anatomical posters of various body parts hung around the room. A mock skeleton was in the corner.
A doctor was walking in the door.
Wait, shit.
"What's up, doc?"
You always wanted to say that but were afraid you would have gotten smacked.
"Hello, Mr. Mous. What seems to be the problem?" he asks.
This guy has some ridiculous hair. It's all red and poofy.
He asked you a question, dude.
You snap back to reality.
"I got clawed up pretty good by a manticore a few days ago, I got fixed up by some tribal goo a friend of mine made, but it still hurts pretty bad." you say.
These painkillers are making you weird. Had to stay on top of that.
The doctor looks over a form you saw the nurse filling out.
"Hmm...Well, let's take a look, shall we?" he says as he makes his way over to you.
That's your cue. You hop off the examination table and remove your shirt. The doctor makes his way behind you. You can hear him sighing, thinking, everything but telling you why you were in pain. It eventually becomes too much to bare.
"So, what's the damage doc?"
"Did you see what kinda of treatment this friend of yours gave you?" he asks.
You had apparently lost more than a bit of blood that night, you didn't remember much after you got hit.
"No, I was pretty out of it after the manticore got me."
"Hmm...I'm going to have to take some blood for a quick test." he says.
Great. Needles. You don't like needles.
"Alright, fine." you say with a sigh.
You roll up your sleeve, gotta bite the bullet here.
The doctor looks at you. "In order to confirm the theory I have, I need a blood sample from as close to the wound as possible."
...Bite the bullet here.
Fifteen minutes later, you're laying on the examination table trying to rid your body of the pain it had been through. That idiot doctor had missed the vein three times. Being stabbed in an already painful wound wasn't a fun time. That general anesthetic hadn't done shit.
You're thinking about how you would go about burning down a hospital when the doctor returns.
"Does it still hurt?" he asks.
A grunt through gritted teeth was all the reply he was going to get. You were gonna kill him. You were gonna rip that fucking stupid hair off his fucking head and force feed it down his fucking throat.
"Well, I can see why. Your blood tests showed us why you're in so much pain." he says.
Is it because you're fucking incompetent you idiot ha-
"You were poisoned."
Wait, what?
You turn to give him your full attention. Zecora didn't seem the type to poison someone she never met.
"What?" you ask.
The doctor looks at his clipboard again.
"Manticores have a poison they use the incapacitate their prey. The one that hurt you must have had it running through its claws when it hit you." he says.
He puts down the clipboard and prods you to sit up.
He rotates a mirror to show you your back scars. Three jagged marks are carved into your back, one glowing an angry red after being stabbed repeatedly with a sharp needle.
He raises a hoof to your back. "When the manticore slashed you, it released a poison into your wounds to paralyze you."
That must have been why you were so out of it when Anon dragged you to Zecora's.
"Whatever treatment you took closed up your wounds, yes, but also trapped the poison inside you. The pain you feel is your nerves inflaming around the infected areas." he says.
Well shit. Poisoned.
That's never happened before.
"Can you fix it?" you ask, general concern creeping into your voice.
Okay. Fuck. This could be serious.
This could be "stop your heart" serious.
You can't die yet. Not before Anon.
"Stop worrying." the doc says.	
Fuck. Was it that obvious?
"We wouldn't live near a manticore's habitat without having some sort of antitoxin." he says smiling.
He starts writing on a small notepad and rips the piece of paper off it.
"Give that to the pharmacy to pick up your antitoxin pills. Take them three times a day with water." he says, handing the prescription to you.
What about my pain?" you ask. 
Don't want to not get treated for the reason you're here.
"The pain should subside when the swelling goes down, take those pills and that should happen in about a week." he says as he walks out the door "Have a nice day Mr. Mous."
He shuts the door before you can answer.
You're walking in to town holding your antitoxins and a fresh bottle of painkillers in a bag. You had taken your first dose on antitoxin as well as some painkillers already. Feels good man. Feels REALLY good.
You've been in pain for the past few days, to be rid of it felt incredible. Damn. The town got FUCKED UP. Everything was broken and shit. Ponies were flying around and running all over the place.
You should help, probably. But how?
You should try to find Twilight, she'll know what needs to get done. You wave at Derpy as you walk by and get a wave and a smile back. Derpy was so cool. Shit, you could really go for some of her muffins right now. You wonder if you'll run into Lotus, you wanna give her your clean bill of health.
You come up on Twilight's tree house thing. There's Twilight and everyone else outside, Twilight was probably coordinating everything again. But she isn't coordinating, it looks like. She's walking around Anon, it looks like. Anon looks like he's sitting on a box. Was he...bleeding..?
Big Bro mode: Engaged. Anything that was on your mind is pushed to the side as you stomp over to Anon. 
Applejack hears you approach and starts walking towards you. "Well, howdy ther-"
"Move."
You don't have time for her shit right now. You blow past her and approach Anon. He's getting bandaged up around his head. You grab his chin and turn it up before he can talk.
"Uh...dude?" he starts.
"Look at me."
Twilight and the girls stand in shocked silence as you examine Anon. You turn his head to get a look at the back of it. Bloody, a small gash on the back of his head was the cause.
"Bro!" Anon shouts and he waves you off him.
You crouch down and meet his eyes as he turns back. You hold up a finger.
"Follow." you say.
No chances, he could be concussed. His eyes are narrow in annoyance, but he follows your guide all the same. Satisfied, you stand up again.
"How did this happen?" you ask.
"Dude, it's nothing, I'm getti-"
"How?" you interrupt.
He was your bro, you had to protect him. You can't do that if he's bullshitting you.
He still looks pissed.
"I was out cleaning up debris on the edge of town, I started goofing off and hit my head on a barrel, you happy?" he says.
Your eyes drift to Rainbow Dash. She looks guilty. Of course these two were together, they're best friends. But you were his Bro.
You could care less that Dash was there, you got the answer you needed. You could push the point, but that would just get him pissed off and make him lie to you when this happened again.
You let out a sigh. "You can't be so reckless, bro."
His good cheer seems to return to his face
"Excuse me? This coming from the manticore wrestler?" he says as Twilight finishes wrapping his bandages.
"That's different. I can take a manticore, barrels are too far out of your league." you quip.
"Oh please! Which of us had to go to the hospital because he couldn't take his old man back problems?" he shouts with a smile.
With the situation back in friendly territory, the two of you plus the girls get to work on the town. With everypony working, you finish before sunset. 
Rainbow heads back to your apartment for the most recent movie night. Tonight was Terminator's I and II. Rainbow liked the chase on the motorcycle, good times were had by all.
She left shortly after the second movie, work in the morning. You popped some of your pills in your mouth as you got ready for bed.
"Yo, bro." Anon stopped you in the hall as he was taking off his bandage.
"Hmm?"
"What was the deal in town today? You kinda freaked." he says.
Great. This. Best to just get it out there.
"I'm the older bro here, it's my job to protect you." you say.
Anon leaned against the wall. "Well isn't that sweet? I'm only two years younger than you dude, I can handle myself."
Shit. You knew. But you've been protecting this kid since you were seven.
"Sorry..."
You don't wait for him to respond, you just head inside and go to bed.