//------------------------------// // Doctor Hooves 2 // Story: Unwell // by HazamaBrony //------------------------------// As always, and just like last week, Twilight was on time. And just like last week, she waltzed through the door with a large smile on her face. “Hello, Doctor!” she chirped, beaming at me in a good imitation of a particular pink pony. I smiled back at her, but the argument that we had gotten into last week was still fresh in my mind. Hopefully she would be in a better mood to talk about it today. Well, no reason to bring it up right away. “Hello, Twilight. You look rather upbeat again today. I take it your trip to Canterlot was fruitful?” “Oh, yes! The royal library is very well stocked, and they had almost every book I needed. And I could pretty much fill in all the gaps with my own knowledge. You see, the problem that I was running into was that the only materials with the magical retention that I needed tend to be expensive, and my project for the Canterlot Charity Society needs to be practical and cheap. But then I read that you can increase the amount of retention of quartz crystals by enchanting them to…” she began to ramble as she talked about her project in detail and at length. I admit it, I zoned out. I was always one more for the study of the mind, rather than the hard math and magical equations that Twilight was good at. And I was quite pleased that Twilight was using her talents for something as noble as the Canterlot Charity Society’s contest. You see, every year the society holds a contest for all the best and brightest minds to make the next world changing device or discovery. The winner gets a grant to continue their research and hopefully make the world a better place. But while I was glad that Twilight was competing, I could never make heads or tails of what she was trying to do. I had made the mistake of asking her for the specifics once, and all that I could glean from the torrent of science that I had gotten in return was that it was a way to help ponies with a certain medical problem. The rest had gone right over my head. “… and so I am much closer to getting a proof of concept, Doctor. Did you catch any of that?” she asked me. I laughed. It was something of an in joke between to two of us. When she went into a technical speech, she would always ask that at the end, just to let me know that she didn’t expect me to follow it. “Not a word,” I said. “So, Twilight, before we continue, I have to ask, did you experience any symptoms this week?” To my surprise, Twilight’s ears fell back against her head. “Well, near the end of the trip, I noticed that I was having some thoughts that were not exactly… making sense…” Oh. That wasn’t good. If she was having these thoughts then… wait a second… “Twilight,” I said, “Have you been getting enough sleep?” She flinched. “How did you know?” I laughed again, trying to ease the tension. “It was you on a research trip. It wasn’t hard to guess.” Twilight looked more sheepish than anything. “Well, I may have gotten less sleep than normal…” “How much less, Twilight?” “Over the last three days? About four, maybe five hours.” “Twilight!” I said, just a tiny bit angry. “You know you need to take better care of yourself than that!” “I know, I know! I know that I might relapse if I—“ “Relapse, nothing! I’m thinking of your general health, not just your mental health! Your body needs sleep!” “I understand, doctor…” Twilight said, looking a bit put out. “Now, let’s just chalk those disorganized thoughts up to fatigue. If they do continue, however, I want you to come to me. Any time, any day, you understand?” “I understand.” “I’m here for you, Twilight. Not just as your doctor, but as a friend.” “I know, Doctor. And thank you,” Twilight said with a small smile on her face. Apparently, neither of us could think of anything to say after that, and the room lapsed into silence. I might not have been saying anything, but my mind was anything but silent. I was wondering if I should continue the discussion that Twilight and I were having at the end of our last session. In all likelihood, Twilight was lying to me, but I didn’t want to just come out and accuse her. In the end, I decided that it would be best if I brought the subject up and just talked to her about it. Let her know I wouldn’t judge her, and let her come clean on her own. “Twilight, I was wondering if you wanted to talk more about what you said at the end of our session last week?” I asked. I evidently caught her off guard, as she stiffened and let out a noise of confusion. “Let me clarify,” I said, not wanting her to think I was accusing her of anything, “last week you said that you were asexual. Did you wish to talk more about that? After all, we had no time to discuss it last week.” “Oh, right, that…” Twilight said, looking pensive. “Well, it’s not that big of a deal… there really isn’t much to talk about…” “Well,” I said, not wanting to let the subject go that easily, “has it ever caused you problems?” Twilight looked shocked at the very idea. “How would it cause me any trouble?” “Well, it is a rather rare orientation. I think that there are some ponies that don’t even believe in such a thing. Has that ever happened to you? Somepony not believing you when you told them?” “Well…um… why would I tell them? It is kind of private…” “What about when somepony asks you out on a date? Do you tell them then?” “What makes you think anypony has ever asked me out?” Twilight asked, shifty eyed. “Twilight,” I said, “You are a brilliant, ambitious and kind mare. I would be very surprised if nopony had ever asked you out.” “But…” she began to protest, but then stopped. “No. You’re right, doctor. I was asked out a few times back when I lived in Canterlot.” “What did you tell them?” I asked. “I told all of them that I was gay.” “And what about when a mare asked you out?” “That never happened.” “Really?” I said in surprise. I would have thought that with Twilight telling everypony that she was gay, at least a few mares would ask her out. It didn’t seem like she was lying however… “Nope. Not once,” Twilight said. Huh. “And what would you do if one did ask you out?” “I would just say that I am not interested.” “And if they wouldn’t take no for an answer?” “I would just ignore them.” “I guess that would be the best thing to do, as so long as they didn’t get to aggressive. But I do have one question… why not just tell everypony the truth?” Twilight looked puzzled. “The truth?” “That you are asexual?” I clarified. Twilight laughed just a little too loudly. “Right! That! Of course! Um… I didn’t tell them because I think that…um…I, uh…” Poor Twilight. I didn’t mean to put her on the spot like that. Still, any lingering doubts I had were banished. She was undoubtedly lying to me. It hurt a little that she didn’t trust me completely yet, but there was nothing much I could do about that besides being there for her. “I thought that they wouldn’t believe me! Yes, that’s it! Asexuality is rare, and like you said, some ponies might not believe me! And it would be more trouble than it is worth to explain to them about it.” Did I say that? Huh, I guess I did accidently give her an easy way out of my question. After that, we both fell silent again. I couldn’t think of anything else to say that wouldn’t stress out Twilight more, and that was precisely the opposite of the reason she came to visit me. And Twilight had relief written all over her face as we dropped the subject. After a few minutes, I saw Twilight get a faraway look in her eyes. She was thinking about something. “Twilight,” I asked, “what is going through your mind?” “Oh,” she said, “I was just thinking about the other thing that you said last week. You know… that it isn’t fair to Spike to keep looking after me for his whole life.” “I see. And what do you think?” “Well, now that I have had time to get my thoughts in order… I think that you are right. There have been times that it seems like he wants to get away from me and have some fun, but feels that he needs to make up an excuse just so I won’t say no… but…” She paused, looking deep in thought. “Celestia…” she muttered under her breath, “Celestia wants him to learn responsibility. He is the first dragon to live among ponies, you know, so he needs to put a good hoof, er, claw, forwards.” “And how do you think he is doing in that respect?” I asked. “Very well, I think. I mean, he make mistakes now and then, but nopony really looks at him in a negative light, which is what Celestia wanted to avoid in the first place. He will make a fine ambassador someday. But like I said, you are right. He needs some time to be a child. And even if he didn’t, we still will have to part ways in the future.” “Why?” This was the first time I had ever heard Twilight say something like that. “Well,” she began, “eventually he'll become a teenager, and he'll need to start making a hoard, and find a cave to live in. It’s just part of his life cycle.” “Really? I must confess, I know nothing of dragon biology.” “It is quite a fascinating subject,” she said, waving a hoof dismissively, “but there are so few books on it. Anyways, I don’t know what I’ll do when it comes time for him to leave Ponyville. Ponies with A.C.M.S. are not exactly known for our ability to live alone, are we? I don’t really feel like I could handle it.” “Well…” I said, mulling the situation over in my mind. “How long until Spike will need to leave?” “Not for another ten years at the very least.” I sighed. This was very much like Twilight; worrying about things far off in the future. “Then you have plenty of time to get ready for that day, Twilight.” I said. “But,” she protested, “what if I still don’t feel ready?” “Then have your friends, or even the Princesses could help you.” Twilight looked taken back, as if she had not thought of that. “True, they could help me find a caretaker.” I winced. That was not precisely what I had had in mind. Still, there was no need to push right now. After all, we had at least ten years to convince her that she was better than that. And besides… “Well, it looks like our time for the day is up. See you next week, Twilight?” “Sure thing, doctor. See you next week,” she said. As Twilight exited, I turned back to my notes.