//------------------------------// // Doctor Hooves 3 // Story: Unwell // by HazamaBrony //------------------------------// Oddly, Twilight Sparkle was late. Not by a lot, only a minute or two, but it was still the first time she had been late to one of our sessions in… well, since we had begun, actually. And in contrast to that last two weeks, she had entered looking somewhat downcast. Needless to say I was quite worried. “How are you today, Twilight?” I asked. “Good. How about you, doctor?” she replied. “I’m doing well, but I am more worried about you. You seem down today. Did something happen?” “I just have a lot on my hooves.” She practically sighed the sentence, rather than speaking it. “I see. Do you want to talk about it?” She sighed again. “Well, I seem to have hit a block in my research,” she said. I frowned. This wasn’t like Twilight. If she encountered a rough patch in her research, she was one to bounce ideas off the nearest pony, not mope like this. I should know, I’m often the one she bounces the ideas off of. “But you seemed like you were making a fair bit of progress last week. What changed?” I said. “Well,” she said, looking even more downcast than before, “to put it in simple terms, theory and practice are quite different things. The quartz crystals just don’t want to reach the level of magic retention that I need. And ever since Rainbow—ever since that, I have had trouble concentrating on what I should do about that,” she said. “Wait, what was that?” I asked. “You said something about a rainbow. Are you using liquid rainbow in your experiments?” Even somepony like me, with almost no knowledge of the magical sciences, knew that liquid rainbow was very dangerous for anypony who wasn’t a pegasus to work with. “No, doctor. I don’t really have any use for liquid rainbow in my research… at least at the moment. And trust me, I know how dangerous it can be,” she said. Oh. Well, now I felt somewhat foolish for making such a big deal out of it. I should have known better. Twilight was always very methodical and careful with her studies. Even if she was using liquid rainbow, she would never use it recklessly. “Well, then,” I said, eager for a change of subject, “what were you talking about?” “Um…well… you know my friend, Rainbow Dash?” It was a rhetorical question, and we both knew it. Besides all the times that Twilight had mentioned her before, everypony in Ponyville had had the pegasus crash into their house at least once. And on top of that, she was a national hero, and the element of loyalty. Asking if I knew her was pointless. Twilight was probably stalling for time. After a few minutes, it became apparent that I had hit the nail on the head. Twilight was indeed stalling for time. “Take your time, Twilight. And remember, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” I said. “Right,” she said, looking pensive. “Um… well, I think I know why I have been having such trouble with my research.” “Really?” I asked, surprised by the sudden change of subject. “Why do you think that is?” “Well, the day after we met last week, Rainbow came over to the library and apparently just… waited around the library all day. That was unusual in and of itself, considering Rainbow is almost phobic of any book that isn’t an adventure novel. But I didn’t think much of it because I was wrapped up in my research. You know how I get when I have a brainwave.” I nodded. I had had the misfortune to visit the library on one of the days that Twilight had been wrapped up in some sort of project. I had needed to almost yell to break her attention away from the book that she had been reading, all so I could check out a reference book. “Well, eventually,” she continued, “I had a little mishap with wizard’s fire, and before you ask, wizard’s fire is completely harmless, so no need to worry.” My question about if everypony had been all right died on my lips. “I still needed some water to put it out, so I called for Spike to bring me some, but Rainbow came down instead. And after she helped me put out the fire, she… she…” Twilight looked as if she were choking on her own words. “Take it easy, Twilight… deep breaths… in… out… in… out. There you go. Feel better?” I asked. “Yes, doctor,” Twilight said meekly. “Anyways, Rainbow, she… she…” “Yes?” “SHEASKEDMEOUTONADATE!” Twilight said, suddenly shouting. “… Pardon?” I had no clue what she had just said. “Could you repeat that, slower and at a lower volume?” “She, uh, asked me out on a date.” This time Twilight was much calmer and I could actually understand what she was trying to tell me. “I see…” Well, this was interesting. “And what did you do?” “I, um, panicked.” “And after that?” “I told her that I needed more time to think about it. I wanted to talk to you first.” “That was probably the best thing to do,” I said. “It always helps to get your thoughts in order before making a big decision.” “That’s precisely what I was thinking,” Twilight said, smiling thinly. “So, first things first… Why didn’t you just tell her the truth?” I asked. “The… um, the truth?” Twilight said, looking lost. “You know… about your asexuality.” Twilight’s eyes shot wide open. “Right! Right, that. Um the reason I didn’t tell her is because… I um, well…” she stuttered out as she seemed to almost literally flounder for an answer. I think at this point, the kind thing to do would be to let Twilight know that I had never believed her. “Twilight, have you been lying to me about being asexual?” I asked as gently as possible. Twilight went dead silent and just stared at me. She whispered something under her breath that I didn’t quite catch. “Sorry, Twilight, could you speak up? I didn’t quite hear what you said.” “How did you know?” she asked me, eyes still wide. “I am sorry to say, but you are not a very good liar. It was kind of obvious from the beginning,” I admitted. “Oh… um, I’m sorry for lying to you.” I laughed, trying to put her at ease. “It is no big deal. I will admit that I feel a bit hurt that you didn’t trust me, but I also realize that this is a completely new area for you, so some awkwardness is to be expected. So, then, let’s start with the basics. Are you more attracted to mares or stallions?” “Well, I have always found mares to be more visually pleasing…” she said, blushing like mad. “I must confess, I have never heard of it being put quite like that, but… well, I hate to state the obvious, but Rainbow Dash is a mare. Is there a reason that you don’t want to date her, in particular?” Twilight, her blush receding a tiny bit, nodded. “Doctor, you do know how big of a Wonderbolts fan she is, right? And that she wants to be one someday?” “I would be very surprised if there was anypony in town that didn’t know that.” “Well, think about it. You know how much the Wonderbolts tour, right?” I nodded. Thanks to Rainbow Dash and her endless will to share even the most minute details of the Wonderbolt’s life, everypony in town could be considered a Wonderbolts expert. “If I recall correctly, it is nine months out of every year, am I right?” “Yes, doctor. And if Rainbow and I start dating, and eventually going steady, then she might end up having to take care of me. And I don’t see how she could do that if she were touring that much.” I bit back a sigh. It always came back to this. Twilight liked to use her condition as an excuse to wave away anything that made her nervous. The only real times that she managed to break away from this pattern is when the Princess tells her to. I think she would have died alone if the princess had not ordered her to make some friends. “So… you think that she would abandon you?” I asked, not wanting to change the subject just yet. “No, doctor, I’m afraid of what will happen if she doesn’t.” “I see, you are worried that she might resent you.” Twilight shook her head. “Don’t you see? It doesn’t matter! I would never be able to forgive myself for interfering with her dream!” “Well, you don’t know for sure that that would—“ “Are you kidding me?” Twilight asked, cutting me off. “Are you really telling me that I would be able to live on my own?” “Twilight, I didn’t say—“ “And Spike cannot keep looking after me all my life, right? Isn’t that what we agreed about last time?” “Yes, Twilight but—“ “And Rainbow!” Twilight shouted. “If I do this, she will hate me eventually, but if I don’t, she will hate me right now! What am I supposed to do about that!?” “TWILIGHT!” Twilight instantly stopped talking and looked at me, quite surprised. I had never yelled during one of our sessions before. “Twilight,” I repeated, a little out of breath from shouting. “You need to calm down. Take deep breaths. In… out…” For a minute or two, the room was filled with the sound of breathing. “Sorry, doctor. I guess I got a little worked up,” Twilight said eventually, looking at anything but me. “No need to apologize. I realize that this is unfamiliar ground for you, and the subject itself can be quite nerve racking. Now, let me say a few things before you reply,” I said, noticing Twilight open her mouth to speak. “First, I want you to keep in mind that everything that you are afraid of will not happen for years. Like you said last week, Spike won’t need to leave for at least ten years, and trust me, ten years is a long time. And even if you dated Rainbow, you would have years to work out some sort of arrangement. If I recall correctly, Wonderbolts need, at the bare minimum, three years of training, but often times more. And Rainbow hasn't even begun training. “Second,” I continued, wanting to get all this in the open before Twilight could argue against it, “barring one or two minor incidents, you have improved tremendously since you moved to Ponyville. The, ah, magic of friendship has really worked wonders for you. If we discount the smartypants incident, you haven’t had a major relapse in more than three years.” “Three and a half years, if we don’t count the smartypants incident,” Twilight muttered before I could continue. “But why should we discount it?” “Well, look at what happened the week before. The confrontation with Discord. Now, I may have been stuck in some sort of blue phone booth for most of it, but from what I have been told, you handled yourself admirably. In fact, I heard that you were the only one not to fall for his tricks.” “That isn’t precisely true,” Twilight said under her breath. “It is more that he didn’t target me directly.” “Still, Twilight, you managed to pull everything together and save everypony, isn’t that right?” “Well, Princess Celestia helped.” “But you did all the work.” “I guess.” Twilight still looked uncomfortable accepting the praise, but she looked slightly pleased nevertheless. “The point that I am trying to make is that that was a tremendously stressful incident. All that stress had to go somewhere, and you managed to release it at a time when everything wasn’t on the line.” Twilight opened her mouth, but apparently couldn’t find the words, and closed it again. “Also, Twilight, you are better than you think you are. You need to stop thinking of yourself as mentally ill first, and start thinking of yourself as a normal—no, brilliant mare who happens to have a bit of trouble now and then.” After my last statement, the room was quiet. Twilight had he brow furrowed as if in deep thought, and I was content to let her think about what had just been said. Eventually, however, I noticed that the time on our session had almost expired, so I had to speak up. “Twilight,” I said, and the mare in question jumped just a tiny bit. “Listen, our time is pretty much up, but I have two things to ask first. Number one, I am quite curious about what you plan to do about Rainbow Dash. It seems to me that a mare like that won’t like waiting long.” Twilight got a faraway look in her eyes. “You know what, doctor? I am going to tell her everything, and if she still wants to date me, then I have no problems with it.” “Good for you, Twilight,” I said, relieved. In all honesty, that was the outcome that I was hoping for. Even if Rainbow decided not to date Twilight after learning everything, an outcome I found highly unlikely, I knew that she would stick by Twilight’s side. After all, she was the element of loyalty. And even in that case, Twilight would have expanded her safety net. I knew that it was very unlikely that Twilight would need her safety net in the near future, but it never hurt to have one. “Ah, yes,” I said, remembering the second thing I had to ask her. “Twilight, have you had any symptoms this week?” She smiled. “No, Doctor. I’ll see you next week?” “Same time as always.” Without a further word, she trotted out of my office, and I went back to my paperwork.