//------------------------------// // Crossed in the Mail // Story: The Rustic and The Romantic // by TheLastBrunnenG //------------------------------// Dear Mister / Mrs / Miss [Apple, Applejack], Thank you for bringing the needs of patient [Apple, G. Smith] to our attention. We appreciate the opportunity to earn your trust and your business. We here at Ponyville General Hospital take great pride in both our facilities and our legacy, as well as in our professional and courteous staff. We have dutifully and thoroughly evaluated your request regarding the patient’s need for [hip replacement, right rear and left rear, total / long-term care facility placement]. Below please find the notes and / or comments specific to this case. [Evaluated “Granny” for double rear hip replacement. Age of subject indeterminate; claims to have helped settle Ponyville. Currently relies on walker and family assistance. Subject’s health not conducive to multiple invasive surgeries. Likelihood of complications and prosthesis / artificial hip rejection high. Mental state questionable; may not be able to consent to surgery, likely does not understand risks and long recovery time required. Board recommendation: deny. Advised subject and caretaker to reduce subject’s activity levels as needed, treat pain symptomatically, and continue to rely on family support. Evaluated for placement in Ponyville Pines Elder Care. Subject combative at prospect of leaving home and family. Mental state questionable, high probability of dementia / Alzheimare’s. Mobility impaired by deterioration of both rear hip joints (see previous note). Board recommendation: deny. Advised subject and caretaker to plan for long-term at-home care provided by live-in family members. Subject will require constant supervision.] We trust that you will find this report comprehensive and satisfactory. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Medical Consulting Board Ponyville General Hospital / Inpatient Surgery CC: Ponyville Pines Elder Care Facilities ~~~~~ Dearest Rarity, Many thanks for gracing our Canterlot operation with your recent visit. As you saw, we run an integrated operation here. All aspects of fashion, from design, marketing, and sales, to production and warehousing, are centralized in a single location. This allows us an unprecedented level of control over quality and distribution. It is critical that we maintain this edge over competitors both foreign and domestic. Unfortunately it will not be possible to bring you on staff without relocating you to Canterlot. As we discussed, ours is an agile industry and mere hours can mean the difference between bringing a cutting-edge design to market and losing rack space to competing fashion houses. The time and expense of constant travel to Ponyville and back on both our parts would not be sustainable long-term. Certainly your skill and dedication to your art are considerable. The door is open if you wish to reconsider. I will continue to send custom orders to your attention whenever possible. No hard feelings between professionals, I trust. Yours, Fancy Pants ~~~~~ Mac, Howdy cousin! Hope Granny and little Bloom are doing well. I heard Sweet Apple Acres had a bad year or two lately – whole south orchard lost to Root Rot, that right? Thank the Princess we’ve been okay here. Little dry lately but the Buffalo have been great. Ever since we hammered things out with their stampede grounds, they’ve been mighty fine neighbors. Can’t wait for you to get here to APPLELOOSA! I fixed up the guest room for you – not much to it, but it’ll get you by while you look for a place of your own. I know you said cousin AJ won’t be joining you, and I understand completely – your coming here means she has to stay behind. Somebody’s gotta take care of the old homestead, and she’ll do a bang-up job. There’s so much for you to do here, Mac. You’re exactly what we need to get our operations back on track. Most of our workers aren’t the kind of lifelong farm ponies you and I grew up as. They need a real pro to teach them apple buckin’, irrigation, fertilization, transplant technique, cultivar selection – the whole works. I’d do it but I stay busy keeping APPLELOOSA running smooth and keeping the tourists rolling in. With you here on-site, we’ll be dock-deep in apples before you know it. Hurry on over, cousin! Braeburn ~~~~~ Rarity, I ain’t no good with words. I ain’t a poet or a writer, so I hope this here will do. I don’t want you to see me no more. You were meant for better’n this. I can’t be the one to keep you tied down here when you could be so much more. Canterlot’s calling you, sugarcube. Take it, run with it, and Equestria’ll be at your hooves in no time. You deserve it, but I don’t deserve you. I don’t want to be no anchor to you. I can’t leave Sweet Apple Acres, now or probably ever. I love you, Rares. More than the smell of apples on the breeze at dawn, the sweat of hard work, and my hat combined. Just please don’t come around no more. Forget about one dumb old farmer who’ll be stuck out here in the orchard ‘till she’s old and grey. I’m so sorry, sugar. I wish things coulda' turned out different. Please forgive me. AJ ~~~~~ Applejack, My love, enclosed please find the remains of a most curious letter of yours which I only this morning received. I tried reading it but the majority of its words made little sense, and I seem to have burned the dreadful thing to ashes – purely accidentally, I assure you. As such I remember nothing whatsoever of its contents. We have always had our traditional weekend meal at your home at precisely seven o’clock. I trust that is still our little “family meal”. I will bring a casserole and a most delicious appetizer – the canapé recipe I received from mother is simply marvelous! After dinner we shall discuss the hiring of an in-home nurse for you dear grandmother’s care. She deserves it, as do you, and I will help locate the additional funds required. Also, as I do have some experience with the hiring and vetting of temporary workers (as even my vaunted skills are occasionally overtaxed during the busy season), I shall be delighted to assist you in locating additional seasonal help after your dear brother departs for quaint Appleloosa. I shall see you tonight for dinner, dearest, and Celestia willing, every day thereafter. All my love forever, Rarity