//------------------------------// // The Eventful Morning // Story: The patient in room three // by Silly Words //------------------------------// As nurse Coldheart returned to the front desk, the buzzer and light of room 3 was active again. "She certainly doesn't give up," she mumbled and disconnected the offending line of the noisy apparatus. "I'll let the doc handle her in the morning." She couldn't quite wrap her head around the whole case. Even the famous Canterlot psychiatrist, dr. Gray Matter, was stumped about the change of Screw's mental state. He called it his greatest case, making up so many theories from a lingering effect of Discord's magic up to her getting bitten by a timberwolf. Well, he's going to have to re-file her as an altogether different case. Perhaps he'll get called a fraud for missing something obvious, the nurse smirked, channeling her dislike of the Canterlot doctor. As the nurse once again dozed off, the event when Hidden Screw was brought to the hospital once again played before her eyes... Celestia has just risen the sun that morning. It was a sign for nurse Coldheart that her shift will be over soon. In just half an hour, maybe even less if her colleague, nurse Sweetheart, felt eager, she would be on her way to bed. Perhaps she would be able to greet her husband on the way as well. Gradually, she realized the quiet was being disturbed by barking. Who the hay walks their dog so close to here? Must be somepony new. They probably don't know that this is a pony hospital, and the vet clinic is in the northern part of Ponyville. It wouldn't be the first time this happened. Finally, the door opened, and the source of the commotion revealed itself. It was a shocker for the nurse to see a gray-maned blue mare, dirty and disheveled, growling and barking at two other mares and a stallion that were unsuccessfully trying to pin her down. The nurse recognized Bon-Bon and Caramel. She wasn't sure about the crazy screw-marked or the orange carrot-marked one, but she did see them around town a couple times. Bon-Bon shouted: "Help! Nurse! We have a deranged pony on our hooves!" That was enough to snap the nurse out of her stupor. She raced to the supplies room to get a dose of sedatives. As she returned, she saw the opposite door open, and a very alarmed nurse Sweetheart calling: "Please! Could you keep it down? The patients need their rest!" The blue mare had once again managed to escape the efforts her captors made and stood right next to the newcomer, sniffing around her, until finally giving her a lick on the face. She them proceeded to sit down next to the pink nurse, happily wagging her tail. "Well, she certainly is friendly," finally concluded the nurse. "Yeah, real friendly," answered the orange-colored mare. The nurses then noticed that she had bite marks on her foreleg. "What in the name of all alicorns is happening anyway?" Coldheart asked with a syringe of sedative ready in her mouth, in case the dog-pony resumed her wild behavior. Then again, she wasn't quite sure if she would be able to apply it, with the agility the mare seemed to posses. "I'm not sure. I've never seen Hidden Screw in such a state. Or anypony for that matter," Caramel admitted, while taking up a spot near the front door, should the now named mare attempt escape. "Yeah. I don't think Silver Hammer is such a bad employer to make her go nuts. She hasn't even mentioned anything bad about her home and always seemed happy." "And then suddenly, when I went to water the flowers, I saw her in the park, making Fluttershy uncomfortable. I just had to take her here," Bon-Bon agreed with the others, as she caught her breath. The nurses pondered the answers. "You've done good, but we're not exactly ready to handle cases of this caliber." "There must be something you can do!" the bitten mare interjected. "Well, we can keep her sedated, but it's not healthy in the long run!" Sweetheart pondered, "Don't you have any place you can keep her?" "In her current state? Why do you think we went through all this trouble to get her here?" Sweetheart turned to her colleague: "What about the foal beds? We have a couple special caged beds for hyperactive foals." "The keyword is 'Foals'. They won't be much effective for containing a grown mare at the peak of her strength," Coldheart countered. "Well, yeah, but what else can we do? The padded rooms were eaten by parasprites and we still lack the budget for their restoration!" Nurse Coldheart's brain worked out a quick solution. "We'll have to make do with what we have. Here," she passed the sedative to the other nurse, "keep an eye on them. I'll go clear out a room and perhaps throw some pillows in it. Number three is the closest free one, right?" Through the conversation, with nopony trying to get near her, the patient seemed to calm down. That was only until her pursuers realized that she shifted her attention to a nearby plant and started raising her hind leg. Coldheart returned to an image of near apocalypse. The exit was still blocked by the stallion, trying to look brave, but knowing that if the dog-pony tried to make a run for it, she would be able to trample him without breaking a sweat. The mare, however, didn't make an attempt and kept her game of reverse tag on the inside. Neither of the three other mares were able to catch her, and as the reception wasn't designed for such activities, overturned tables, plants, inclined pictures and broken glass decorated the room. Even worse, Bon-Bon looked kind of woozy, which was understandable, given the sedative syringe planted right above her cutie-mark. "I'm not even gonna ask." Hidden Screw stopped running when the others did. Then she slowly went near nurse Sweetheart, pounced, licked her again and backed off, playfully wagging her tail. Bon-Bon fell down, knocked out, next to the orange mare. "Ugh. She's seriously out of it. We almost got ourselves hurt, but it's all just a game to that pony." "That's it!" the pink nurse shouted in an epiphany, "is there anything we can use for a stick?" "Seriously? You want to play with her now? It is spreading?" Caramel frightfully asked. "Don't you see? We can lure her into the prepared room if she wants to play fetch." She immediately grabbed the first thing she saw with the desired shape. Then she dangled it a little to get the blue mare's attention. Nurse Coldheart gasped, as the object soared through the air, back behind the reception desk, and as the mare sprinted after it. Nurse Sweetheart followed. The other ponies heard a few calls of "Good girl" and "Fetch". Soon, these were followed by a door slam and the click of a lock. Then the nurse returned: "I told you it would work." "That was my favourite pen," finally said the other nurse. The yellow nurse snapped out of her nap. Once again, the room buzzer was going wild, only this time, it was room number 12. We really need to get those padded rooms back soon. All the ponies in this hospital are crazy!