It's Saturday, one of those lazy Saturday's where Bruce doesn't have school and you can just laze around and do nothing. Which is exactly what you were doing.
You and Bruce were each in a seat inside the library perusing a book. Bruce's book read "Chaos Theory and Discord: A Treatise of Seemingly Random Events. Volume I of X"
You were reading Daring Do and the Lost Temple. The part where she punched the bad guys was your favorite.
Next to you, Bruce grimaces and shifts his weight.
"Still hurt?" you ask.
"A bit." he answers.
You glance down at the newly wrapped bandage on his shoulder, replaced after school yesterday when Bruce complained about some soreness. Twilight and you had wasted no time in setting up a doctor's appointment for him, one that was supposed to happen later today.
"Ohh, where is it!?"
Too bad Twilight can't go with you.
The purple unicorn runs this way and that around the library levitating books and scientific apparatus' around trying to clean up.
"Twi, is this really that big a deal? You see the Princesses often enough that I'm pretty sure they trust you."
Twilight stops dead in her tracks and stares at you wide eyed. "But that's just it! I've had everything perfect every other time they've visited that there's no way I can NOT have it perfect this time!"
"...A-huh."
Twilight doesn't respond and instead levitates spike out of his bed to fold the blanket into a neat and perfect square.
"Right..."
You look up at the clock.
"Well Twilight, me and Bruce are gonna head to the doctor's now, we'll see you later, alright?"
"YeahokaywhateverAnon!" Twilight shouts, having dashed upstairs when you weren't looking.
"You ready, Bruce?"
Bruce places his bookmark in that massive text he had and limps over to the door. "I'm ready, let's go."
-Music-
Ponyville General was off to one side of the town on a hilltop of its own. You and Bruce were currently waiting in the front while they call the names of other ponies who got their before you. They each had their degree of maladies. Bloody nose, leg in cast, head in toilet.
At least things stayed interesting.
Bruce sits next to you cradling his wounded arm and occasionally wincing.
"Is it that bad?"
"I think I slept on it last night..."
"Can't help with the two of us crammed into Twilight's spare bed."
"The additional space when we have our own house will be enjoyable, yes."
"Y'all could always stay somewhere else if your accommodations are that cramped." a voice near the door says.
You both look up to see Applejack and Applebloom trotting towards you.
"Hey AJ, Hey Bloom."
"Hello Miss Applejack, hello Applebloom." Bruce parrots with a curt nod to the two of them.
You lean forward in your chair a bit. "So what brings you two here today?"
"Applebloom here's got a dentist appointment." AJ says.
"A got a loose toof!" Applebloom beams before wiggling said tooth.
You whistle. "That's a big one, I bet the Tooth Wizard is gonna leave you a mess of bits for that one."
Applebloom smiles a big if slightly broken smile and prances around.
"So what're you two here for?" AJ asks.
You both look down at Bruce's shoulder. "An old wound's been causing our little friend here some distress so we thought we should get it looked at."
AJ's face grows a tad more serious. "S'it from..."that night"?"
You nod. "Well, I hope everything's alright. The less reminders we got of that night the better, eh?"
Heh. Got that right, AJ."
A pony white as snow walks out from behind the desk. "Mister Anonymous? Bruce Mane? The doctor will see you now."
"Okay, now lift your leg as high as you can here." the doctor asks. Bruce's face contorts to obvious discomfort and then pain afterwards as he gets his trembling hoof as high as he can before letting it fall.
The doctor examines Bruce's leg once more. "Hmmmm..."
"Well, the shoulder seems to be healing, the stiffness seems to be from keeping it at an odd angle."
You REALLY need to get him his own room.
"But an injury this severe is extremely rare in children your age, how did you get it?"
Bruce and you share a momentary glance. "I was playing on the swings and fell, I hit a rock."
A few tense moments pass as the doctor takes those words in.
Don't catch on. Don't catch on. Don't catch on. Don't catch o-
"Sharp rock." he says.
He didn't catch on.
The doctor writes down some things on a slip of paper. "I'm prescribing some medication to help with the pain. The shoulder itself should heal in time if you just go easy on it."
The both of you sigh in relief.
"Thanks doctor, it's nice to have some peace of mind."
"Yes, thank you." Bruce says.
The doctor gives you the prescription and heads to the door. "I just need to check little Bruce's files and then we can wrap this up."
"Of course."
As the door shuts you let out another sigh. "I was SURE he wasn't gonna buy that story."
"A sufficiently sharp rock would look the same as a bullet." Bruce says.
"It scares me a bit that you know that."
"Well I know a lot of scary things."
...Somehow more scary.
The doctor walks back into the room with an annoyed face.
"Doc?"
"I'm sorry Mister Anonymous, but we may be here a while longer." he says.
Oh shit.
"Is something wrong?"
"It seems we do not have Bruce's medical records on file from Goatham General, we'll need to perform a physical on him to remake the file."
Okay...physical. That didn't sound so bad.
Fuck was this bad. Not for Bruce, he was taking all these pointless bloody tests with remarkable stride. There were just SO MANY.
He had been measured, weight, had his ears checked, his reflexes, the put him on a treadmill, they saw how long he could hold his breath, they tested his memory and only NOW were they finishing the eye exam.
"Okay, now read the bottom line."
"I.S.H.Y.G.D.D.T." Bruce says.
The doctor smiles and writes the final result down. "Well there it is, Mister Mane, a perfect twenty on your vision exam."
Bruce leans back from the machine and hops out of the chair.
"In all my years working here I have never met a little boy as healthy as you are, why is that?"
Fuck, another question. You were about to answer but Bruce beat you to it.
Bruce rubs the back of his head. "After my parents died I...exercised a lot. To help cope."
Huh. Well, not technically a lie. The doctor releases you both out to the lobby where you see some familiar faces.
"Well hello again Apple Girls, how'd the appointment go?"
Applebloom turns around a smiles at you to show off the hole in her lower jaw line before going back to her lollipop.
"Heh. Nice job."
Applejack smiles down at Bruce. "And how'd yours go, partner?"
Bruce gestures to the bag of pain medication you're holding. "Things are looking up."
"Well that's IS good news." AJ says.
You head to the door and hold it for AJ and her sister. "We were gonna head back to the library, you two want to join us?"
The girls exchange a look and nod.
"I reckon we can pop on by."
"So then he dies and it turns out that the afterlife is just like the pub he used to go to."
AJ contorts her face. "Now that sounds like the silliest way to end a story I ever heard."
"You got that right..."
You open the door to the library an-WHAO! A book flies past your head fast enough to take it off as a single piece of the miniature maelstrom in the center of the room.
Twilight stands in the eye of this storm in front of a chalkboard drawing a town map and muttering. "Okay, so if we send them down Mane street and cut across here then we can reach the hotel 2.6543 seconds sooner than the other way, HAHA!"
"...Help."
The four of you look down and see Spike hiding under a basket with a pot on his head. "She's going preparation crazy again, you guys have to help!"
A...huh...
"Twi?"
The books and papers stop in their tracks and Twilight twists her neck around at you. "ANON! BRUCE! APPLEJACK! GREAT! I NEED YOUR HELP FOR TOMORROW!"
The four of you stare for a bit and you lean over to AJ.
"See, this is why I need my own place." you whisper.
You lead AJ and the kids in and drag Twilight away from her blackboard. You also throw on some tea.
Twilight rubs her temples and sips at her tea. "Okay...okay. I'm relaxed now...All I have to do is...plan the rest of the visit tomorrow."
Twilight stares ahead and groans into her seat.
Applejack pats her shoulder and smiles. "Now Twi, what'd you all teach me that one harvest season? Ya don't have to do everything yourself, ya know."
Bruce nods. "Miss Applejack is right, Twilight. We are here if you need us."
Twilight sighs a heavy sigh. "Well...alright. The Princesses are coming here tomorrow and I..."
Twilight begins to ramble off a list of things she has to prepare for tomorrow's visit, the other four of you tossing ideas into the pile to help her out.
Brainstorming leads to a nice quiet night with friends in preparation for the chaos of tomorrow.
At least the tea was good.