Twilight Sparkle sat at her kitchen table reading a letter.
"Dear Twilight Sparkle. I don't know what you did to Pinkie Pie, but she has improved dramatically. It seems like a miracle! She said you made her some kind of homemade medicine and the effects are astounding. We are really pleased and are able to keep Pinkie Pie working at our shop. Thanks so much for taking the time to help both her and us in a very difficult situation. We wanted to make sure that she would get safe and good treatment because we really care about her and want the best for her since she's very much like a daughter to us. We'll be sending her back today for a refill. Please let us know if you'd like us to pay you for doing this. We'd be more than happy to pay you for your services! You're a mare that's one in a million. Yours truly, Mister and Misses Cake."
Twilight put the letter down with a smug smile on her face. She knew her faith and science and even though Pinkie Pie was often like a big mystery, she knew that what she gave her was good and safe for anypony.
Spike came into the kitchen with a mound of letters that was stuffed in her mailbox. "Here's the rest of your mail."
Twilight perked up when she saw the mound of envelopes piled on her table. "Holy horse apples!" Twilight used her magic to levitate one of the envelopes from off the top of the pile. "These are all addressed to....me? Am I famous now or something?"
Spike shrugged. "I have no idea what all these letters are about."
Twilight opened the envelope and read the letter silently. "Dear Twilight Sparkle. Our church attended the debate at the Grand Galloping Gala and we just wanted you to know how disappointed we are in your stance on vaccinations. How dare you give yet another reason for the secular society to mock us Christians for being anti-science with your twisted views. Please repent and confess your sins to God for misleading His ponies because we believe that Jesus Christ Himself would choose to vaccinate. I don't know what Princess Celestia sees in you, but you must change or else ponies will be turned off from ever joining the church. We also had three ponies from our church at your debate who are currently going through cheemo and may very well die. What you said on stage hurt their feelings in ways I can't even describe. Yours truly, the ponies from The First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ponyville."
Twilight put her hoof to her heart. "Wow."
"What's the letter about?" Spike asked.
"How much Christian ponies hated my stance of vaccines. These all must be letters sent to me about the debate." Twilight felt a sense of dread as she opened up multiple letters with her magic. She looked at each one briefly and read out loud some of the negative comments. "You're an abomination. You're a disgrace. Don't even bother to show your face around town again. You're going to bring back polio! You are nothing but the Princess's pet puppet. Go get a real education." Twilight looked at the rest of the mound of letters. "These letters must be mostly hate mail."
Spike noticed that she looked quite upset. "Um, maybe you should not read them right now."
Twilight Sparkle frowned and picked up another envelope. "Surely, somepony out there has something nice to say to me."
Spike reached out as if he were going to take the letter away from her, but he then put his head down and sighed.
Twilight Sparkle read the letter out loud. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, I'm sure you must have gotten a lot of negative feedback on your stance on vaccines, but I just wanted to let you know that you have my full support and I commend you for your bravery in standing up for what is right in a society where lies are preferred over the truth. You see, two of my own foals had severe adverse reactions to vaccines and both of them are not with me anymore because I foolishly chose to vaccinate based upon popular medical opinion without thinking about listening to the other side. I don't talk much about the loss of my children in public because ponies have literally spat on me and have called me a liar and a delusional fool. I may not be a Christian, or a believer in God, but you had my vote at the debate once I saw how much you care for the well-being of everyone and what you said about the medical industry is absolute truth. I never thought I would say this, but God bless you for who you are and what you do. It gives me comfort to know that at least one pony fights for the ones who have been injured and swept under the carpet to be forgotten about. Please let me know if there's anything I can do for you as I would like to talk to you face to face sometime. Yours truly, Autumn Leaves."
"Wow," Twilight said as she stared at the letter in its entirety. "Spike, please take a note for me and remind me to get back to this mare. It may hurt to read a thousand letters filled with loathing about me, but I tell you, even just reading one letter like this makes everything I do worth it."
Spike took the letter and put it aside.
Twilight opened several more letters and read them quickly. They were all negative like the other ones, but there was one odd letter that had letters glued to the paper and they appeared to be snipped out from different articles from magazines. "What on earth is this?" Twilight asked. She then read the letter. "We know who you are and we know where you live. If you dare talk about vaccines in public like that again, we will kill you just as we plan to kill Celesetia. You have been warned." Twilight Sparkle dropped the letter. "Oh my word!" She looked at Spike and said, "Spike! Please report this to the local authorities. I can't believe someone would threaten me like this! It seems like the medical mafia wants me six feet under. As Voltaire once said, to learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
Spike took the letter and examined it. "Whoa," he said as his eyes widened. "This looks pretty serious."
Twilight tapped her two front hooves together nervously. "Spike, I'm actually slightly afraid now. All these ponies who come to my library could secretly be keeping tabs on what I do or say. Now I know how Princess Celestia feels."
Even though Spike knew that this was not a good situation to be in, Twilight's confession did make him feel that this was now a good opportunity to be a hero and make her feel safe. After all, he was a fire breathing dragon who truly would do anything to protect Twilight no matter what dangers they might encounter. "Don't worry, Twilight. I will guard you with my life if anyone may try to hurt you. Did you forget that I'm a fierce dragon? I'd defend you for the greater good!" Spike puffed his chest out and put his claws on his sides. He blew out an impressive flame and then looked at Twilight as if expecting that she would feel completely secure now.
Twilight stared at him for a moment. "I appreciate the altruism, Spike, but you have to take threats like this seriously. If I get another letter like this, I might have to move out of Ponyville and find a safe place to live with you. You're just a baby dragon after all."
Twilight heard a knock at the door and nearly jumped out of her seat. "Spike! I'm afraid to see who that is. What should we do?"
Spike puffed his chest out proudly one more. "I'll go answer that door and I'll have my dragon fire breath waiting for any trouble makers."
Twilight looked around and levitated a broom into Spike's claws. "Take this just in case you need to defend yourself."
Spike cocked an eyebrow. "A broom? Really, Twi?"
The knocking at the door became louder and Spike walked over to the door with the broom.
Twilight hid behind the table and had her magic ready to defend herself just to be on the safe side. Her eyes widened as she saw spike put his claw on the door handle. Spike opened the door slightly and the moment he did that, the door flung open and knocked him on his back. It was just Pinkie Pie who came to visit them.
Twilight Sparkle took her hoof and wiped the sweat from her forehead as she sighed a breath of relief.
Pinkie looked down at Spike. "Hi, Spike! Doing a little cleaning?"
Spike picked himself up from off the floor. "Um, sure. Did you drop by to see Twilight?"
Pinkie Pie nodded her head yes quickly. "Uh-huh!"
"She's in the kitchen. I'll be going outside to guard the library," Spike said as he walked out the door with the broom."
"Guard it from what?" Pinkie asked out loud. "An invasion of worms that like to eat books called bookworms?"
Twilight straightened her posture and tried to forget about the horrible letters that she read when she saw Pinkie making her way into the kitchen.
Pinkie Pie came bouncing in the kitchen, full of happiness, but yet not being disruptive or annoying. "Hey, Twi! Your pills changed my world around!"
Twilight Sparkle smiled. "I got a letter from Mister and Misses Cake. I'm so happy to hear that everything is working out for you!"
Pinkie slammed her empty bottle of pills on the table in front of Twilight. "Fill 'er up, filly!"
"Wow, I know I didn't make that many pills for you, but you sure seem to have gone through that bottle very quickly."
"That's because you said I can take more than one if I'm having an extra bad day," Pinkie proudly said. "I know that I can trust you and not have to worry about getting hurt at some pharmacy because after all, the word harm is in pharmacy."
"Right." Twilight pushed her seat back and got up. "Okay, let's do this quickly."
Pinkie Pie playfully hopped down each stair as she followed Twilight into the basement. "It's really amazing," Pinkie said. "I can sleep now without nightmares, I can think and focus better since my brain isn't full of fuzz, and I can even get more oxygen in my house!"
"That's great to hear, Pinkie, but you are starting to sound a bit hyper and manic again. You probably came just in time for another dose." Twilight walked over to her compounding table and took a seat on a stool. "Let's see," Twilight said as she unscrewed the orange bottle on her table in which she thought were the empty capsules inside she used to fill. To her surprise, these were the white pills she made for Pinkie and intended for her to take. "Wait, what?" Twilight asked. She opened up the bottle that Pinkie brought back. It was empty, but the bottle had a sticky note on it that said, 'Capsules.' This was the orange bottle where she stored some of her empty capsules in to fill them up with medicine. Pinkie had never been taking any true medicine except for that first pill that she gave her. Twilight looked up at Pinkie who was busy gawking and laughing at a lava lamp next to her bottles of colloidal silver. "How is this possible?" Twilight muttered to herself. She knew that placebo effects were real, but this was just absurd. The capsules were empty and clear; you could see right through them. How Pinkie Pie didn't realize that these capsules lacked any medicine was beyond her, but this was Pinkie after all. Twilight sat there puzzled, thinking for a moment. From the letter that she read, Pinkie somehow got amazing results from what she was taking, which was air in a capsule. Twilight bit her lip and thought about matters. If taking empty capsules was truly working, then she could save so much more money since getting all this medicine was such a hassle and was quite costly when it came to creating her proprietary blend. She was also still limited on cash since the day Pinkie Pie gave her entire life savings away in a single day and had still been relying on occasional support from her friends. She opened up a draw which stored a large container of empty capsules and put as many as she could fit into the empty bottle that Pinkie had given her. "Sometimes following God isn't always logical either," Twilight said under her breath. "And Pinkie Pie is the most unique case I have ever met. Jesus said to the professional fishermen, cast your nets on the right side of the boat after all, and I'm going to cast my net on the right side this time." Obviously, making these pills up would take longer, so she pretended to work and make sounds as if she were really compounding her medicine.
Pinkie Pie turned to Twilight for a moment and asked, "Are you even working on my pills? You're awfully quiet over there."
Twilight looked around and grabbed a hammer next to her. She began pounding it against the table hoping that Pinkie Pie would somehow believe that using a hammer was used in the process of making her medicine. "Oh, yeah. Working really hard over here! Almost done!" She continued to bang on the table near the bottles causing them to lift off the wooden table slightly.
Feeling satisfied that she thought Twilight was working hard on her medicine, Pinkie Pie went back to gawking at the lava lamp as Twilight continued to pound on the table.
A few seconds later, Twilight put the hammer down and she whistled for a moment to herself before calling Pinkie who was still utterly captivated by that lava lamp. "Pinkie, it's ready."
Pinkie Pie blinked a few times as the words registered in her brain and then bounced joyfully over to Twilight. She didn't realize if she had been staring at that lamp for a few seconds or hours, but she really believed Twilight had finished her medicine. Her breathing was a bit heavier and she had a rather crazed smile on her face.
"Why don't you take one now? You look a bit manic to me," Twilight nervously suggested as she pushed over the bottle.
"Pinkie Pie took the bottle and popped it open. She then put a pill on her hoof and studied it. "I don't know what kind of awesomeness you put into theses pills, but it really works!" She tossed the capsule into her mouth and swallowed it. Right away, her flank hit the floor and she was at perfect attention as if she was one of Princess Celestia's royal guards. Her breathing was calm and while she was still happy, she didn't look as crazed.
"Fascinating," Twilight said as she rubbed her hoof under her chin.
"What's fascinating?" Pinkie asked. "I thought this medicine was supposed to be amazing!"
"What? Oh no, it is. I'm just really surprised," Twilight admitted.
"But why? You're the science pony I thought. Why would anything surprise you? I thought a big part of science was being able to predict a thing that will happen every time."
Twilight made circular motions around the wooden table with her hoof. "Because reasons."
"Reasons?" Pinkie Pie asked. "That doesn't sound like a very super duper smarty smart pants of a typical Twilight answer if you ask me." Pinkie Pie looked at her bottle of pills and then back to Twilight. She frowned and had a look on her face that spoke of deep suspicion. She brought her face so close to Twilight's face that her nose was scrunched up against hers. "You're not tricking me with any Twiley trickery with these pills are you?" Pinkie Pie pushed her nose harder against Twilight's nose causing her to fall off her stool and land hard on her back against the cold cement basement floor. Pinkie Pie's neck stretched down to the ground, her nose still bunched up against Twilight's.
Beads of sweat fell from the sides of Twilight's head. She had no idea what to say at this point as she desperately tried to think of a reasonable response. She gave a nervous little grin and replied. "Um, no?"
Pinkie Pie stared into her eyes with even greater intensity and looked as if she was about to snap at Twilight at any moment. Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled her head back and smiled. "Okie dokie lokie! Thanks, Twi! You're such a doll!" She took her bottle of pills and giggled to herself as she playfully bounced up the stairs.
Twilight Sparkle laid there on her back, stunned by what had just happened. "I hope I'm doing the right thing," she whispered to herself.