29.
Two days later, Twilight was quietly escorted from the hospital early in the morning. While she could have walked herself home, Redheart did not feel it appropriate and arranged for a carriage to pick them up from the hospital. Twilight, with bandages still around her wing bases, was quietly taken home from the hospital without fuss or big mention made of it.
At the library, Redheart put on her saddlebags of medical equipment and motioned to Twilight. “Come on and put a hoof around my shoulders,” she said.
“But I can walk by myself now,” Twilight noted. “Even you said that was one of the primary reasons I was released.”
“That may be so, but you haven’t fully recovered yet,” Redheart said in a gentle though authoritative voice. “For a few weeks at the least, you’ll be more prone to injury since you just barely avoided muscle atrophy. Your muscles in your legs are weaker and need to rest for a few weeks before you can do much on your own.”
“That’s why you’re essentially a live-in nurse for the next few weeks?” Twilight put a hoof around Redheart’s shoulder. “I heard about that from Doctor Stable.”
“Yes,” Redheart replied as she shifted her weight to help support Twilight. “Lean on me if you need to. Also, you’ll need a little help taking care of the library. For now, let’s just get you in and up the stairs.”
Redheart walked with Twilight into the door and into the library. A pony named Written Script was already preparing the library for business. He went up to the two ponies and was about to start speaking when Redheart interrupted him.
“You’ll be taking care of the library for a few more weeks. Twilight is going to be spending most of her time upstairs in bed until she completely recovers.”
“Very well,” Written Script replied. “I’ll keep things clean and organized down here. And you can call me if you need any help with Twilight.”
Redheart gave her thanks, then started walking Twilight up the stairs. At the top, Twilight was already feeling tired from the energy needed to walk up, so Redheart went and put her in bed in the top bedroom and study before Twilight started giving her a layout of the top floor.
“There’s a bathroom down the hall on the left and a kitchen on the right,” Twilight instructed. “There’s also a guest bedroom down at the end of the hall if you want to make yourself at home here.”
“My apartment isn’t far away,” Redheart said, “but thank you for the invitation. For now, you can get yourself a book started and I’ll see what there is in the kitchen.”
“Might need to clean it out,” Twilight said. “I’ve been gone for twelve weeks; probably everything in there is rotten or moldy.”
“We’ll see,” Redheart said.
The kitchen itself was dusty though otherwise seemed to have been kept clean. The fridge, however, was exactly as Twilight had described. Redheart quickly slammed the door shut to stop the smell and examined the cupboards. The only thing that seemed to be edible there were two one-serving packets of oatmeal, which Redheart prepared for her and Twilight though she wished there was some fruit.
When the oatmeal was done and lightly steaming, she put some brown sugar on it and mixed it in before taking a bowl to Twilight, settled in and reading a rather large volume, and setting it down on a tray that Twilight had levitated over. “I’m going to have to clean out that fridge,” Redheart said. “It’ll probably take me most of the day to do.”
“Told you so,” Twilight said, suppressing a giggle. “If you need bits to buy groceries, I keep a small purse in drawer next to the sink. There should be enough for the week in there.”
“Thank you. Perhaps if the library is empty, I’ll have Script come up here and help with the cleaning.”
“Sounds good to me. With the oatmeal and a book, I’ll be good for a few hours. Were there any bananas?”
“Nope. All rotten.”
“Well, shoot. I figured some bananas would be good on the oatmeal if nothing else.”
Redheart grabbed some paper and a quill and brought it over to Twilight. “Write down anything you want me to get on this paper.”
Twilight nodded and Redheart went downstairs. Written Script was reading a book and nopony else was in the library, so Redheart had him come up to help clean out the fridge. It was simple but disgusting work; Written Script, being a unicorn, was able to pull out all the rotten and spoiled food and place them into trash bags, while Redheart started cleaning up the shelves with soap and water. Script also took the trash bags out to a nearby trash dump then returned to help Redheart with cleaning the fridge.
With that job complete, Written Script returned downstairs to help with ponies entering the library. Redheart cleaned the countertops and made the place absolutely spotless before heading over to check in on Twilight. Twilight was still reading the book, but she had finished her oatmeal and had created a list for Redheart. Much to her surprise, the list was astoundingly healthy and quite practical. It was then that Redheart noticed Twilight’s book: a basic medical textbook.
“You read up on coma cases, didn’t you?” Redheart asked.
“It makes your job easier, doesn’t it?” Twilight replied. “Besides, I normally have a pretty healthy diet. It wasn’t hard to amend it to help my current condition.”
Redheart nodded. “I suppose I can’t argue with that. You must be doing something right considering I don’t think you’ve ever had a poor checkup in four years of attending our hospital.”
Redheart went to the guest bedroom and emptied out her saddlebags of medical equipment and organizing it. She might not be staying there, but at the least she could use the clean room as a base of operations. She arranged her equipment and phoned the hospital to order some medicine for Twilight before heading out with empty saddlebags and Twilight’s bits to the market.
The day was sunny and hot and a lot of the stalls had moved in to the shade and cool of the central tower. Redheart visited all the usual stalls, checking things off Twilight’s list one by one as she filled the saddlebags with fruits, vegetables, bread, cheese, milk, the occasional spice, broths, soups, coffee (mostly for herself), and tofu before heading back to the library with saddlebags nearly full to bursting. After putting the food away, she decided to head down to Sugarcube Corner for a quick treat.
Caramel was there with Lyra, sitting at a table just outside. He made no attempt to speak with Redheart as she went up to the counter and ordered a two-dozen variety of cookies. But as Redheart waited for the order she watched them patiently from a distance, standing behind Lyra and out of her view so she wouldn’t get upset with her.
Poor Caramel looked bored. Lyra was talking energetically and Caramel often replied; Redheart could hear nothing of the two speaking but felt as though Caramel seemed to be replying more out of politeness than actually being engaged. Eventually, Lyra seemed to notice this and made some gentle strokes, even bringing Carmel in for a kiss, but the stallion turned his head away.
At that point Redheart’s order was ready, so the mare turned away from the scene. She picked up the box and balanced it along her back before heading out, catching a small snippet of conversation as she passed.
“Caramel,” Lyra whined. “What’s got you so bothered?”
“I don’t know,” Caramel said. “I feel like I made a terrible mistake.”
“You’ve done nothing wrong, sweetheart,” Lyra said gently. “You’re a fine stallion and you are nice and gentle and I love you so much.”
“I know,” Caramel said. “At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.”
Redheart saw Caramel turn around as though trying to face her, but by that time she had gone around a corner and had disappeared from his sight. Redheart shook the image out of her head and returned to the library.
Redheart went upstairs to find Twilight asleep, book turned upside down and lying on her stomach. Redheart put a slip of paper in the book and set it aside before grabbing another piece of paper and jotting a short note on it. “I’ll be back shortly. Gone to get some things I’ll need to stay here for a while. Redheart.”