//------------------------------//
// Over Time 
// Story: Love Heals 
// by OrpheusMorpheus 
//------------------------------//

	After I checked out of the hospital, the Mane 6 and I started walking over to a small restaurant where we would grab a bite to eat. Since I was still never formally introduced to the rest of the Mane 6, most of the walk to the restaurant was introductions. I told them a bit more about myself, but I kept out any information about my parents. I got to know a bit more about their personalities, such as Rainbow Dash's competitiveness and Rarity's tendency to get stressed out. The entire time, however, I was still thinking about Twilight.

When we finally made it to the restaurant, everyone was pretty hungry. The only empty spot in the whole building was a window booth. We all crammed into it and I managed to get a seat next to Twilight. The waitress brought our drinks, and, since it was an abnormally hot day, we all downed our glasses in ten seconds flat. We continued talking until the main courses arrived. We didn't have enough room on the table for all of the plates, so we ended up putting multiple foods onto one plate. We all ate our meals almost silently and about as quickly as possible. When everyone started eating the side of hay fries, Pinkie decided to stick some in her nose. We all giggled and followed suit. I turned to look at Twilight and realized that she still looked beautiful with hay fries in her nostrils. When the waitress brought dessert, Applejack accidentally spilled some ice cream on Rarity. Rarity retaliated, and a full fledged food war resulted. 

Covered in ice cream and with lit up faces, we all left the restaurant after the manager had to step in. Fluttershy had ice cream up her nose, Rainbow Dash had chocolate chips in her mane, and Applejack had to carry her hat because it was full of chocolate syrup. Twilight looked at me during the walk and started laughing.

"What's the matter?" I asked, hoping I didn't look too silly with ice cream on my face.

"You have a little something on your face," she said. "Let me get it for you." She licked her hoof and wiped the top of my muzzle. My blush must have been visible because she started snickering. We continued walking until we reached a midway point and realized that we should all probably go home. We each went our separate ways to wash up and relax before hitting the hay. When I got into my house, I slammed the door, locked it, and let out a noise that kind of sounded like "Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeohmygoshohmygoshohmygosheeeeeeeeeee!" I went to sleep that night happier than I had been in years.







Over the next few months, the Mane 6 and I hung out more and more. We became close, I learned all of the strengths and faults of the mares, they learned of my issues, and nopony cared that I was hanging out with six females. Whenever a mission required the Mane 6, I tagged along as the resident First Aid officer. I almost never had to heal anypony, but going along meant everything to me. Eventually, I was basically added to the group. Whenever the Mane 6 were recognized for saving the town, I was included. I became more popular throughout the town and felt better about myself. Although I could never represent an Element of Harmony, we all joked that I was the element of Recovery.

Throughout those months, my love for Twilight only increased. Whenever I hung out with the mares, I would always drift towards Twilight. If multiple ponies were hurt, I always tended to Twilight first no matter what. I wasn't sure if the other ponies noticed, but I wouldn't have cared either way. 

I got to spend a lot of time with Twilight during our sessions. Early on, Twilight found a book that showed ways to reduce stress. Every other day for three weeks, I went to the library and Twilight and I practiced stress relief. Whenever I would feel a "moment" coming, I would perform a stress relief procedure and would almost always be able to stop the "moment." 

I could never be sure how Twilight felt about me. I never tried to go further than hugging, and even that was a rarity. Sometimes she would treat me as a friend, and sometimes she would treat me like a husband. I could never be sure. One day, she came to my house and just broke down crying. She lay on the floor and tears gushed from her eyes in a fountain. She told me that she just got into a big fight with Spike and he'd stormed off. We performed some stress relief exercises and I let her open up to me. After about an hour of tearful conversation, she told me that I was the only stallion she could really open up to. I wasn't sure if this meant that she liked me or not. Another time, Pinkie held a party for a new unicorn in town. We all attended it, of course, and Twilight went a little too hard on the cider. She leaned in real close to me, told me she loved me, kissed me, and passed out. She had no memory of the incident, but it was the only thing I dreamed about for the next weak and a half.







It had been almost six months since I had met the Mane 6. I was now a complete member of the group. Everypony in Equestria and tons of ponies on other cities knew of me. I was also nearing the end of my internship and the hospital was eager to have me as part of the team. Ponies called me "the best healer in generations." I didn't believe them, but everypony else did. People flocked to me to receive "the blessed touch of Red's horn." I was even flown out to Manehattan to help cure sick ponies when hospitals filled up with sufferers of pony flu.

I was living a great lifestyle. The only thing missing from my life was my love. I had become even more obsessed with Twilight over the past month or so. I began drawing pictures of her, writing poems about her, then burning all of them. I wrote a full fledged story where she and I fell in deep cliche love. I took care of the story in a special way: I ate it. I was a complete Twi-maniac, a Twi-holic. 

I would have dreams about Twilight every single night. Whenever I had a nightmare, it was always about Twilight somehow getting hurt. She would become deathly ill or lose her hind legs, and I would always heal her to perfection. One night I had an actual nightmare where Twilight died. I confronted Death to get her back. He told me to keep walking forward until I got home and Twilight's soul would follow me. If I turned around, she would disappear. I was almost home when I began to suspect trickery. I turned around just in time to see Twilight's soul disappear. I woke up in the middle of the night and cried for two hours before falling back asleep in a pool of tears. I was a closet Twi-phile: I never talked about my obsession with anypony. I made sure that the ashes of my pencil Twilights were gone with the wind as soon as possible so nopony would ever find out.

Eventually, my delusions of everlasting love got the best of me. I decided, once again, that enough was enough. I was great friends with Twilight and we had been getting closer over the past six month. I finally decided to make it official.