//------------------------------// // Checkup // Story: A Sniff of Magic // by TheUziel //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle woke with a start, realizing something as she’d slept. She rushed downstairs, and checked around. The library wasn’t a mess. Her magical items weren’t strewn about the place. Big Macintosh was still asleep, as was Spike. Nothing had been tampered with. She walked into the kitchen, and corrected herself: Big Macintosh had gotten into the bonbons in the middle of the night. She heard a misery-infused groan from his room. Heh, serves him right for gorging himself. Still, she was impressed he hadn’t gotten into the stronger stuff. Big Macintosh has more strength about this than she thought he did. Twilight sparkle had forgotten to put up the barrier the previous night, and this was all Big Macintosh had done. Considering his moans, she guessed the tummyache had taught him his lesson. Twilight decided that it was time to wake up, and pulled out some breakfast. She turned on the stove, and put on a bit of tea, and started on the toast. Big Macintosh wandered out of his room by the time the toast was done. Twilight couldn’t help but look smug; Macintosh did not see the humor. Big Macintosh sulked over a bowl of oats, staring at it for a moment, unsure if he wanted to risk eating anything. Twilight charged her horn, and put a light enchantment on the oats. He gave her a weak smile, and ate his breakfast without a mope. “Ugh, I’ve skipped over so much work…Today is going to be packed…So much to do and catch up on…I don’t know how I’m going to handle it all,” she admitted. “Relax,” Big Macintosh instructed, “T’ain’t no need to rush. If it’s really important, don’t put it off. Everythin’ else can wait fer that.” “Right! I’ll make a checklist of all the things I need to do, and hit them each by their importance!” She started to rush off, but Big Macintosh held up a hoof. “Take a second, there, darlin’. Just ‘cuz you got big things t’do don’t mean you gotta rush and ferget everythin’ else. Slow ‘n steady gets the field plowed.” He motioned to her dishes, still on the table, and she saw his point. “Right. Slow and steady,” she agreed, and put her dishes in the sink. “Ah’ll git the dishes, don’tchu worry,” he promised her, and Twilight trotted off, starting a checklist, first running a mental checklist of the things she needed to assemble for the checklist. She’d figured out a while ago that making a checklist for the things to write a checklist was rather redundant and excessive. Twilight half-listened to Big Macintosh wash the dishes as she wrote up the checklist of all the things she needed to do, and then prioritizing them by importance. “Done!” she declared, and rolled it up, assembled her saddle with all the things she needed, and started for the door, when it opened, and Dr. Oblong stood in her way. “Ah, zhe Twilight Sparkle. I apologize for not taking zhe chance to spend more time wiz you at zhe party, but eet ees not often I get to see my favorite ghrand-niece, Pinkie Pie. Sooch a delightful party, wouldn’t you say?” he asked, entering. “Oh, Doctor Oblong. I didn’t expect you until much…Later…” “Vell, I figured zhe earliest zhe better. Now, vere is zhe patient?” “Uh, right over there. Big Macintosh, would you come here, please?” Twilight called, putting her saddle down. She had the feeling she wasn’t going to need it today. Again. She was going to need to rewrite her checklist. Again. Sigh. Doctor Oblong was followed by another pony in a white labcoat with a microscope as a cutie mark, carrying way more than he should be carrying. His legs shook under the weight, and his back curved towards the floor. Twilight was absolutely sure that ponies do not bend that way. “Put eet over zhere,” Dr. Oblong instructed haphazardly, and the assistant obeyed, “Stethoscope.” The assistant obeyed, putting the mass of stuff on the ground, and then quickly dug for a steothoscope. Twilight thought she had a good assistant! Dr. Oblong listened to Big Macintosh’s heart, and then instructed him to breathe. The stallion took a deep breath; Dr Oblong, who wasn’t much bigger than Pinkie Pie, looked somewhat silly being moved by Big Macintosh’s massive chest. “Reflex hammer,” Dr. Oblong popped Big Macintosh on the knee to see how he reacted, on all four legs. “Turn your head and cough.” “Dawk, are you sure that’s, uh…” “Oh, don’t be sach a baby,” Dr. Oblong huffed, “Do you have a prhivate room?” Big Macintosh led the professor into the guest room, and Twilight was confused. “What’s going on?” she asked the assistant, whose ears went flat. “Listen, lady, if you don’t already know, I’m not explaining it to you. Ask your buckfriend later,” the assistant told her, and Twilight scowled. “He’s not my buckfriend, he’s a patient.” “Is that why he’s living with you?” “As a matter of fact, it is. He had specific requirements for his treatment that could only be addressed by moving in here. Since moving in, his condition has increased exponentially, to the point that I am seriously considering releasing him back home. He will require a little more observation, of course, but given the condition he was in when I first brought him here, I would say he has made incredible progress. He is the brother of one of my closest friends, and a friend to me, as well. But that has not gotten in the way of my goal of seeing him back to health, or my professionalism as a student and a magic practitioner and researcher. And I resent your implication that my professionalism has been compromised.” Twilight Sparkle huffed with frustration. “Goot job, Magnus,” Dr. Oblong said with a smile, appearing behind his assistant, “You’re getting better at zhis.” “What?” Twilight ground her teeth. “I instructed my assistant to get an outburst from you, to reveal zhe extent of your treatment, and get a better understanding of, well, you. You vould be surprised how much you can learn from angering ponies and listening to zhe ensuing rhant. Big Macintosh, aside from your magic addiction, I vould haff to say you are an exemplary specimen of Pony health.” “Thank ye, Dawk.” “Wait, so you…DELIBERATELY got me angry, just to find out how I really felt?” Twilight’s mane was starting to stand on end. “Dah. Worked, too?” Twilight Sparkle slapped the assistant on the back of the head. “Too well.” Dr. Oblong couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction, though the assistant seemed far less pleased as he rubbed his head. “Now, show me what you’ff been doink to help Big Mak-eentosh viff his prhoblem,” Dr. Oblong instructed, and Twilight started with the pillow. “Since the doll that caused all of this was mostly dispelled, I first just used my horn to lure him out. Later, I enchanted this pillow. I did this with all of his linens. I was keeping him in a magical imprisonment spell during the nights, too, and occasionally his food. One of the other victims specializes in making chocolates, so I had them enchanted, as well. Of course, we’re out of those already,” she shot Big Macintosh a look, and he pursed his lips and hung his head in shame. Twilight snickered and rolled her eyes. “Good, excellent! You haff been very creative in exposing him to zhe right amount of magic. I agree viff your assessment from what I have seen zhusfar, zhat he is nearing zhe end of his trheatment. However, zhere are some sings zhat you should be aware of, Beeg Mak-eentosh. Viff zhe amount of residual magic you haff been exposed you over zhe last few days, you may haff begun to develop a tolerance. Zhis means zhat magical remedies and magical effects may not have zhe same effect on you zhat ozzer ponies would have. Injuries vill probably need to rely more on your body’s own repair systems zhen anysing a Unicorn could provide.” “Yes, sir, Ah always did believe that the body knows what it’s doing, ain’t no reason to mess with it,” Big Macintosh said. Dr. Oblong seemed pleased with this. “Quite right! You have a visdom not seen, but surely heard, Beeg Mak-eentosh. However, zhere is something else you should be aware of. Most of zhe time, Magic addiction has nothing more zhan a tolerance for a side effect. Most ponies don’t get it more than vonce in their lives if zhat. However, addiction is psychological, as vell as physical. Ve haff mooch to talk about. Do you feel comfortable speaking here? Privately?” “Uh, yes, sir…” the Earth Pony seemed very confused. “Good! Twilight, for the sake of doctor-patient confidentiality, I must ask you to leave.” “What? But this is my house!” Twilight protested. “And your office, but right now, Beeg Mak-eentosh is my patient. You are neizha qualified to perform the duties of a psychologist, nor would it be appropriate for you to do so under zhese circumstances. Perhaps if the nature of your relationship in this case were not so personal, it vould be different.” Twilight started to turn pink with anger, but Oblong held up a hoof. “It vas a poor choice of words, forgive me,” he shook his head, “I meant zhat you haff spent several days acting as his doctor, his nurse, his host, and caretaker. Zhat is very intimate, even under zhe most personally distant situations. It vould not be appropriate for you to also be his psychologist in this matter. Please, I know what I am doing, and vhat I am talking about.” Twilight calmed down, accepting Oblong’s logic. Her pride had gotten the best of her again, and she immediately regretted it. Her first impression of Dr. Oblong had been similar to that of her first reaction to Pinkie Pie: This pony is crazy and random. Dr Oblong, however, was a premier professional, and was really showing it. He was funny, smart, and loved life, it seemed, but took his duties as a doctor seriously, even when it didn’t seem like that. From what she knew of Pinkie Pie and of Dr. Oblong thusfar, she admired him all the more for this. “Very well, I have a lot of things to do anyway. Let me go wake up Spike, and I’ll be out of your mane. When should I come back?” “Sving back around in two hours, I vill be able to give you a better schedule by then,” he told her. Twilight liked having a definite schedule in place to get things done, but she also recalled Big Macintosh’s advice: Don’t rush, slow and steady gets the field plowed. With a simple nod, Twilight nudged Spike awake; he got more and more difficult to awaken every day, and the dragon was getting bigger, too; nowadays, he walked on his own rather than riding on Twilight’s back. With a snort and a groggy, “Huh?” the dragon crawled out of his bed, and followed Twilight out of the library, only half aware of what was going on. Twilight checked the checklist. First thing she needed to do was buy some cleaners for the house; they were almost out. She looked to the bottom of the list; check up on the Mayor. “You know what, Spike? We’re going to vary from the checklist today,” she announced, and Spike’s eyes went wide. “Wait what? You, change from the almighty checklist? Call Dr. Oblong, I think something’s wrong!” Spike laughed, now awake. Twilight giggled. “I know, but I want to check up on the Mayor. She lives alone, so there’s nopony to keep a check up on her all the time. At least Bon-Bon has Lyra all the time. She might not be living with us, but the Mayor is my patient, and I can’t focus only on Big Macintosh, especially since he’s doing so well.” “All right, but can we get something to eat first? I haven’t eaten yet…”