//------------------------------// // Rainbow Dash 1 // Story: Unwell: Recovery // by HazamaBrony //------------------------------// I couldn’t help but gawk at the building in front of me. It had been about a five minute flight from the edge of Canterlot, at least at my speed, but that was still far enough out of the city that there wasn’t really anything else around but the building. Since it was out in the country, I had expected it to be, if not a little run down, at least a bit rustic. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The building was almost futuristic compared to the rest of Canterlot, and definitely would have been out of place in Ponyville. It was all angular, and on any other building that would have been imposing, but the sheer amount of windows made it look more welcoming. I was glad for the amount of windows as well. If they hadn’t have been there, it probably would have set the claustrophobia that I, like all pegasi, had. As it was, with the large amount of natural light flooding in, it looked more open. Come to think of it, that was probably the point. It wouldn’t be helpful to anypony’s recovery if they felt trapped. Still, there was a fence around the building. It was pretty tall, enough so that nopony without wings could jump over it. I suppose that was a necessity, though. After all, if somepony wandered off in the wrong state of mind, it wouldn’t be good. I frowned to myself. What about the pegasi who were being treated here? They could just fly over the fence if they wanted to. I flew over the building, looking for any groups that were outside. As luck would have it there was a group outside, and there were some pegasi among them. And… some of them had their wings bound. I swallowed the knot that had appeared in my throat. It only made sense, right? There wasn’t really any way to keep the patients from wandering off otherwise. I mean, they could have kept them under lock and key the whole time, but that would mean treating them like prisoners. And it wasn’t like they were shackled or anything. In fact… In fact, they actually looked like they were enjoying themselves. The whole group did. They appeared to be having some kind of meeting, with everypony sitting in a circle, and chatting amongst themselves. Even as I watched the group let out a laugh that I could hear even from my vantage point over the hospital itself. I shook my head. Enough stalling. I’d gone through the trouble of getting up early, so there was no point in waiting any longer to start my… I guess you could call it civic duty. I looped around to the front of the building, and walked through the glass doors to the Canterlot Mental Hospital. The inside was well lit, mostly by natural light flowing through the windows, but I could see some lighting crystals on the ceiling, presumably for when it got dark outside. There were a few potted plants and a couple chairs in the lobby, but the defining feature was the desk with a slightly bored looking secretary behind it. The teal earth pony perked up as soon as she saw me enter. “Hello, and welcome to the Canterlot Mental Hospital! My name is Inquisitive Mind! How can I help you today?” “Um, hello,” I said, feeling a bit unsure of myself suddenly. “I’m Rainbow Dash, and I’m here to do some community service for the next month.” “Oh!” Inquisitive Mind said brightly. “You’re that criminal!” My mind screeched to a halt. “What!?” Inquisitive Mind blinked once, then flushed bright red. “No, no, no! I didn’t mean to say that! I meant to say that, um, I am…” she suddenly paused in her ramblings. “Listen, what I mean to say is that you’re the pony that’ll be helping us over the next month, right? For basically free? Because you assaulted somepony, right?” she said, sounding much more composed. “Right,” I said, “but just because I assaulted somepony doesn’t mean that I’m some kind of career criminal. It was just a one-time thing.” “Yes, I know. It’s not like they would send some sort of repeat felon to help us here. That was just me putting my hoof in my mouth… again,” she replied, looking sheepish. “Fine. Just, please, don’t bring it up again. I don’t like to think about it,” I said. “I understand. Let’s start over. Hi, Rainbow Dash, my name is Inquisitive Mind, but everypony calls me Izzy!” she said brightly. “Um… hi,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Pleased to meet you.” “Pleased to meet you too!” Izzy said. “And you’re actually early! The staff isn’t expecting you for another hour or so.” “I know. I couldn’t sleep last night, so I was getting antsy just sitting around my hotel room and I decided, hey, better early than late to my first day, right?” “That’s a good attitude to have. I have to say, you’re not what I expected. I thought that you would be sullen and angry about working here. After all, it’s not like you’re here because you wanted to be.” Izzy said, giving me an apprising glance. “Well, it is true that I wasn’t expecting to be working here, but even if Celestia hadn’t assigned me here as… I guess you could call it punishment… I’d still be here a lot.” Izzy tilted her head slightly. “Really? Why?” “Well, Twilight Sparkle is my marefriend and—“ Izzy gasped. “Oh, I get it! You’re here to give her moral support while she recovers, right?” “Yeah.” “That’s so sweet of you! Not everypony sticks around when their somepony special has to go through treatment. I’ve seen too many couples break up because of it. Especially around your age.” I found myself growling slightly. “I’d never leave Twilight over something like this. Never.” “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that. Twilight may not have kept in touch after she moved to Ponyville, but she was always a smart mare. I’m sure she wouldn’t give her heart away just for it to be broken. She must have chosen you thinking that you would never give her up.” “Well…” I said, remembering Twilight begging me not to break up with her over a dream. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. And what do you mean, Twilight hasn’t kept in touch? I wouldn’t think that this would be the type of place Twilight would want to remember too much.” “Well, I was just starting working here when Twilight was here last, but… she did become, if not friends, friendly with some of the staff. Mostly the doctors that took care of her on a regular basis. She never seemed to open up to the other patients, but she would at least break away from her studies to talk with the doctors during their one on one sessions.” “I guess that sounds like how Twilight used to be…” I said. It did make sense. Twilight had told me and the girls that she didn’t really have friends before us. “Wait. How long ago was this? It must have been before we met Twilight… so, what, at least two years ago?” “It was about, um… four or five years ago. Yeah, that sounds about right,” Izzy said, rubbing her chin. “Do you remember why?” I asked, curious. “Well, it turned out that she was doing homework for tutors that didn’t actually exist.” “That, well, that sounds like Twilight,” I said, smiling a bit. “It wasn’t that harmless. These ‘tutors’ were assigning problems way above her level. Some of the assignments they gave her weren’t even possible. It drove her to tears sometimes, but she didn’t tell anypony what was wrong. It was only when she asked Celestia for help that everypony realized something was wrong.” “Oh…” I said. I should have realized that it wasn’t so simple if Twilight had ended up here. “Thank you for telling me this.” “No problem—Oh!” Izzy exclaimed, then spat a word that wasn’t acceptable in polite company. “Don’t tell anypony I told you that! Doctor-patient confidentiality and all that! I mean I’m not a doctor and you do have that release from Doctor Hooves, so it’s kind of a grey area, but still…” “Got it, got it! I won’t tell a soul! Now let go of my face!” “Right!” Izzy said, leaning back over her desk, and releasing my face. “Sorry, I just get over excited sometimes.” “And say things that you shouldn’t?” I asked, rubbing my cheeks. “Yeah. Sorry,” Izzy said, looking downcast. A moment passed in awkward silence. “So, um, where do I go from here?” I asked. “Right, I’ll inform the chief of staff. He should be down shortly. You did show up early after all.” “Yeah, that’s true,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Have a seat, if you’d like.” I nodded to Izzy, then went over and sat down in one of the chairs provided. It was pretty comfortable, but the magazines provided were all newspapers. Nothing about sports. Darn. It was about ten or fifteen minutes later when the chief of staff showed up. He was a brown unicorn with ice blue eyes, and to my surprise he was wearing a suit, not a doctor’s coat. “You’re Rainbow Dash, I assume?” he said with a frown. I plastered on my biggest smile and offered him a hoofbump. “That’s right!” I said brightly. “You must be my new boss for the next month. Pleased to meet you, Mister…?” “Kindheart. Dr. Kindheart, actually,” he said with a frown. “And I won’t quite be your boss. But we can discuss that later. Please follow me to my office.” Without a further word, he spun around, and began trotting at a brisk pace into the depths of the building. I swallowed the knot that appeared in my throat and lowered my hoof. This stallion was more intimidating that anypony named ‘Kindheart’ had any right to be. Nevertheless, I fell into step behind him. As it turned out, his office wasn’t too far from the entrance. He opened the door, which had a nametag with ‘Dr. Kindheart, Chief of Staff’ engraved in gold on it. “Wait here,” Dr. Kindheart said, “I need to get out of this suit.” I nodded, and the doctor trotted into his office and shut the door just a little bit more forcefully than was necessary. That made me nervous. Did I somehow offend him? I had really wanted to make a good impression on him, and it looked like I had somehow blown it. I mean, I really couldn’t care less about what my supervisors at the Cloudsdale weather facility thought of me, but this… this was different. He would be both in charge of me and helping Twilight for the next month, perhaps even more if, Celestia forbid, Twilight’s recovery took longer. “All right, come in and take a seat, Rainbow Dash,” Dr. Kindheart called, opening the door with his magic. As I entered the office, I took a quick look around. It looked almost exactly like I had expected it, with diplomas on the wall, bookshelves along one wall, and a few filing cabinets and a window along the other. The desk was almost up against the wall of the room, but there was enough space for a chair in behind it. I went and sat down in one of the two chairs in front of his desk, doing my best to look businesslike, and really wishing I had combed my mane this morning. “Right,” Dr. Kindheart said, drawing my attention back to him. “So, you’re going to be working here for the next month, is that correct?” “Um… yes sir,” I said. “Celestia assigned me here as a sort of community service.” “Humph. Normally, we would refuse that request, but we just got an opening for a pegasus that you would be perfect for,” he said. “You would refuse the Princess like that!?” I blurted, not thinking. The doctor fixed me with an icy stare. “My first priority is making sure our patients get better, or at least find good long term housing and coping mechanisms. I am fully capable of refusing the Princess, or any other noble, if it would interfere with that. I run this facility, and I am dedicated to it, to both the staff and the patients. Do you understand?” I could see the doctor steadily getting more worked up as he spoke, and it was sort of frightening. “I understand,” I said, and I winced a little as my voice cracked. Dr. Kindheart blinked. “Darn it,” I heard him mutter under his breath. All of the sudden, he looked away from me and closed his eyes. I heard him take a few deep breaths. When he opened his eyes again, they had lost that icy quality that they had had. He gave me a tired smile. “Sorry,” he said, “I just got out of a meeting with some of the nobles that fund us. Most of them just want to look charitable without actually spending much money. In fact, if it weren’t for Fancypants, I swear… Anyways, I apologize. I expected to have some time to cool down after our meeting, but then Izzy sent word that you had arrived early, so…” I shifted in my seat guiltily. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to throw everypony off by arriving so early. I just figured, better early than late, so…” “Heh,” Dr. Kindheart chuckled. “You don’t do much by halves, do you? In any case, I am glad that you are taking this so seriously, but do try to only show up about fifteen minutes early in the future, okay? The schedule won’t always be so flexible in the future, and I doubt you will want to wait around for an hour or more.” “Right, that doesn’t sound like much fun,” I agreed. “Now then, Rainbow, why don’t you tell me what happened? Why did the Princess assign you community service here, and not someplace your skills are more suited to, like a weather cleanup job? And for that matter, what did you do to get in trouble?” Dr. Kindheart asked, his eyes turning slightly icy again. “Well,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck, “you know Twilight Sparkle, right?” After the doctor nodded, I continued, “Well, to make a long story short, this mare tampered with her medication, and Twilight got hurt, in more ways than one, because of it. And later, when we, I mean, the princess and I confronted her, she said some things about Twilight that set me off, and I sort of… hit her.” “I see,” Dr. Kindheart said, without revealing a trace of emotion. Wow, I wouldn’t want to play poker with him. “After that, the Princess said that working here would be my punishment. And so… here I am.” “Tell me a few things, Rainbow,” the Doctor said. “Why did that mare talking about Twilight make you that angry? And why didn’t you plead that you were provoked?” “To answer the second question first, it was the Princess herself that gave me the sentence. You just don’t argue with the Princess. And besides, it’s not really that big of a punishment. I would have been spending a lot more time here anyways. Twilight needs me anyways. And as for the other question, even if I wasn’t dating Twilight, I probably still would have done something drastic. That’s just the kind of mare I am. Nopony gets to talk to about my friends like that.” “Indeed,” Dr. Kindheart said dryly. “Just try not to do anything ‘drastic’ here. What our patients need is stability, okay?” “Right,” I said. “By the way, why are you asking me this? Didn’t you get the story from the Princess?” “I did,” he replied. “I just wanted to hear it from your own mouth. You can tell a lot about a pony that way.” “Really,” I asked, curious. “Is that some sort of psychology thing?” “Not really. More like… common sense. I just wanted to know if you were aware of your own flaws, and, for the most part, it seems like you are. For now, all that I ask is that you give this your all, and to keep your temper in check. Can you do that?” “Of course I can!” I said. “So long as nopony messes with Twilight.” “I can promise you, nopony on my staff will act with ill will towards Twilight. Most of the staff like her a lot. We’re all a little sad that she had to come back here, but now that she is, we will give her the highest quality of care,” he said, a little note of pride entering his voice. I let out a bit of tension that I hadn’t even noticed that I had been carrying. “It’s really good to hear that. Thank you.” “You’re welcome. Now, if you have no further questions, follow me and I’ll take you to the staff room and I’ll introduce you to your immediate boss for the next month, Clean Shine.” “Clean Shine, huh? Funny, that doesn’t sound like a doctor’s name.” Dr. Kindheart chuckled. “That’s because he isn’t. He’s the head janitor.” “Head… Wait! You mean, you mean that for the next month, I’m going to be a janitor? What?” I protested. The doctor gave me a strange look. “What else did you think you would be doing? You don’t have any of the training to interact with any of the patients, so this was really the only place to put you. And it works out well, we just had one of our staff quit, so you can fill in while we look for a more permanent solution.” “But… I have experience with Twilight…” I said weakly. “Twilight is unique, as are all of our patients. Our training and schooling lets us best interact with them and tend to their individual needs. Unless you have a degree in psychology you’ve been hiding from everypony…” “All right, I get it. No need to be sarcastic. Just… lead the way,” I said, grumbling. Three hours later, I was feeling exhausted. Clean Shine had been very understanding of my lack of janitorial skills, but it was hard to get my heart and soul into it. I had just expected… I don’t know what I had expected. I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to be doing here. Still, cleaning everything… ugh. I hate cleaning. I didn’t even clean my house that much, except when Twilight was going to come over. Twilight… “Hey, Clean!” I called across the staff room. “Do you need me to do anything else today?” The white earth pony, with a matching mane, (seriously, he’d be invisible in a blizzard, if not for his mop cutie mark) turned and gave me an apprising glance. “Not today,” Clean Shine said, “but tomorrow we start in earnest. You had best be prepared. It won’t be as easy or short as today. Today was just to get you acclimated and show you what you need to do.” “Right, looking forwards to it,” I muttered under my breath. “Anyways, who do I see if I want to visit one of the patients here?” “Do you have an appointment?” he asked. “No, not really…” “Then you might be out of luck, but I would talk to Izzy just in case. She might be able to arrange something.” “Thanks, Clean. I’ll see you tomorrow?” “Of course. Bring your best, okay?” He said, stretching a little. “Now if you excuse me, my break is almost over.” I nodded, and we both left the staff room, then went our separate ways. “Hey, Izzy! You there?” I called as I entered the front lounge. She was. “Hi, Rainbow, I’ll be with you in just a second,” she said, then turned her attention back to the white unicorn with the blue mane. He must have been a security guard or something, with that shield cutie mark of his. “How are you doing, Shining?” “Well, could be better, I suppose,” he said with a shrug. “Anyways, is my appointment with Twily ready?” “Yep!” Izzy chirped. “One second, I think Rainbow might be about to ask the same thing.” “Rainbow?” the stallion said, sounding puzzled. Looking around, he spotted me. “That would be you, I assume?” “Yeah, and who are you?” I asked, feeling a tad angry. If this stallion had an appointment with Twilight, I might not be able to see her today. “I’m Shining Armor. I might ask you the same thing. Who are you, and why do you want to see Twilight?” “I’m her marefriend. Now, how do you know Twilight? I’ve never seen you before, and I know all of Twilight’s friends.” Shining Armor tensed up a little. “Funny, I didn’t know Twily had a marefriend. Then again, she is horrible about keeping in touch. Listen, why don’t we see Twilight together? Izzy seems to trust you, and that’s good enough for me.” I nodded, and the tension flowed out of us both. “That sounds good, but you still didn’t tell me how you know Twilight.” “Oh, right,” Shining Armor said with a chuckle. “I’m her brother.” What?