“You’re Twilight’s brother!?” I almost yelled. “She never told me she had a brother. I mean… are you sure?”
Shining Armor gave me a flat look. “Well, considering that we have the same parents, I’m pretty sure.”
I winced. “Sorry, it’s just… I think Twilight would have mentioned you. Wait…” I said, a bit of suspicion entering my voice, “you two didn’t have a falling out or anything like that, did you?”
“No,” Shining said, rolling his eyes. “We were pretty close up until she moved to Ponyville. After that, well, we kind of drifted out of contact. I bet you know how it is. You find yourself busy with one thing after another, then you suddenly realize that you haven’t talked to somepony in a while. In fact, it was pretty much yesterday that I realized that Twilight hadn’t sent me a letter in a while.”
“Yeah, I kind of know how that is,” I said, shifting on my hooves guiltily. Mental note: visit my mom and dad sometime soon.
“Anyways, do you mind if we get going? I’m a bit eager to see Twily again.”
I nodded. “Same here.” I glanced back at Izzy. “Do we need to get a doctor to come escort us or something?”
Izzy grinned at me. “She’s already on her way. I just finished notifying her,” she said, pointing to a series of tubes that were barely visible behind her desk.
I recognized it as a magic powered messaging system. You just put your message in a container, mark the room you wanted it to go to, and sent it on its way. Lots of bigger workplaces had them, like the weather factory in Cloudsdale.
“So, then,” Shining said, turning to me. “I got word the other day that somepony was being sent here. And not in the typical way of being admitted by concerned friends and family. No, the Princess sent them there as punishment. Was that you?”
I shrunk back a little. This conversation had just taken a turn for the intense. “Um… yeah,” I said, not sure what else to say.
“And it was because you assaulted a pony accused of tampering with another pony’s medical supplies?”
“Yeah,” I said again, wondering how much of the story he had heard.
“I see. Well, as captain of the Royal Guard, I can’t officially say ‘good job,’ but I am going to think it very loudly in your direction and hope you somehow understand. Got it?” Shining said, with a smile.
I matched it with one of my own. “Got it. I’m curious though, if you’re part of the royal guard, do you know what’s going to happen to Blood Work?”
He sighed. “No, I don’t. I’m not even supposed to know as much as I do. The fact that Twily is my sister ‘presents a conflict of interest,’” he said, using his magic to make a stack of papers on Izzy’s desk act like a mouth, and earning him a glare from Izzy.
“Excuse me,” said a melodic voice, cutting into our conversation. Shining and I looked over at a black unicorn mare with deep green eyes and a deep blue mane. Like Dr. Kindheart, she was wearing a doctor’s robe, hiding her cutie mark from view. “You wouldn’t happen to be Shining Armor, would you? Inquisitive Mind notified me that you were here.”
“That’s right,” Shining said, “I’m Twilight’s brother.”
“Pleased to meet you,” she said softly, offering her hoof for him to shake. “I am Dr. Hippocrates, but everybody just calls me Dr. H.”
“Dr. H, huh? And Izzy as well. You guys are big on nicknames here, aren’t you?” Shining said with a smile.
Dr. H laughed, quietly. “I find that it makes for a bit more of a friendly feeling between me and my patients. Not everypony here goes by a nickname though, and some can be a real mouthful.”
“No problem, I’ve dealt with some tongue twisters in my time. Anyways, would it be all right if Rainbow here came with us?”
“Oh?” Dr. H said, glancing at me. “I wasn’t aware this was going to be a two pony visit. Izzy’s note only talked about you, Mr. Armor."
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Izzy chimed in. “I sent that note before Rainbow showed up.”
“Might I ask how you are related to Twilight Sparkle, Ms. Rainbow?” Dr. H asked, tilting her head to one side.
“Oh, uh… well, I’ve been her marefriend for the past couple of months, but I’ve been her friend for almost two years now. We’ve been through a lot together.”
“I see, I see,” Dr. H muttered, so quietly I almost couldn’t hear it. She really needed to speak up. “Very well,” she said suddenly. “It should be no problem. But I do need to ask that you follow any instructions I give you. If I need you to leave the room, you leave, okay? Twilight is in a very delicate state of mind right now.”
“Understood. I’ll follow your instructions to the letter. After all, doctor knows best, right?”
Shining and the doctor both gave me strange looks. “Isn’t the normal way of saying that ‘mother knows best?’”
“Yeah,” I said, waving a hoof in the air, “but that doesn’t really fit here, does it?”
Dr. H smiled. “I guess so. Now, if you would follow me…” she said, turning around, and gesturing with her hoof for us to come with her.
Shining and I followed her down the same hallway that I had followed Dr. Kindheart down, but when we reached his office, we continued past it. A little past that, we passed by this beautiful garden with a willow tree in the center. I realized that it must be in the center of the hospital, and the building itself was mostly a square with a little hole in the center for this garden.
“That was a gorgeous little garden back there,” I said. “I wouldn’t have expected to find one right in the middle of the place like this.”
Dr. H looked over her shoulder and smiled. “It’s so that the patients who aren’t ready to actually go outside for whatever reason can still smell the fresh air and see the sun. It really cheers some of them up.”
“That’s cool,” I said, nodding. Man, this place was really awesome, as far as hospitals went.
Just a few minutes after passing the garden, we stopped in front of a room labeled ‘112,’ and Dr. H turned to us.
“Listen, I just want to say that I’m glad that Twilight has received visitors so soon, but I need to warn you, don’t expect too much,” she said.
I tilted my head. “What? What do you mean?” I asked.
Dr. Hippocrates sighed. “She’s not going to be very coherent for the next couple of days. Possibly even longer, we don’t really know yet.”
“Why?” Shining asked, his voice sharp.
“Two reasons mainly,” the doctor said, and suddenly she sounded tired. “First of all, we had to use some chemical restraints on her. Those are going to keep her pretty out of it, at least until she calms down. She was still very agitated when she first woke up here.”
“Chemical restraints!?” I said, alarmed. “That sounds dangerous. Isn’t there some other way?”
“Would you rather have her fully conscious, unsure of where she is and what’s going on as well as physically restrained?” Dr. H asked softly.
That shut me up. I needed to stop assuming that I knew better than the professionals.
“Also, using physical restraints on her wouldn’t be good for her broken leg, as well. If we applied it just a little bit incorrectly, or if she struggled, it could cause the leg to heal incorrectly,” Dr. H continued.
“I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand,” Shining said. “Now, what was the second reason?”
“Well, the magic suppressor that she was on, as well as the other two medications, are not the type that you can just take at max strength all at once. The body needs to build up a tolerance to their more harmful effects. As such, it will take us some time get them up to the dosage that they were at before.”
“I see,” I said, remembering hearing something like that from the Princess. Shining just nodded.
“In the meantime, we had to give her a magic suppressor to alleviate the worst of her symptoms. The only one that we could use at the required strength without having a bad reaction to her other meds has some side effects. Nothing that will last longer than she takes the medication,” she added hastily as both Shining and I opened our mouths. “It mostly interferes with forming new memories, so she may not remember your visit today.”
“Oh,” I said. “That kind of sucks. How long will it take until she can be off that stuff?”
“We can increase the dose of her other medications about once every two weeks. If we push really hard with the dosage, we could have her up to her previous dosage in about six weeks, but more likely, it will take anywhere from eight to twelve weeks.”
“That’s, that’s like…” I did some math in my head, “That’s about three months! Can’t you…” No, Rainbow. They, not you, are the professionals in this situation. They know what’s best.
I took a deep breath. “Is she going to be on that stuff the whole time? Is she, like, not going to remember all the times we’re going to visit her?” I asked, almost pleading.
“No, nothing like that,” Dr. H said. “As we increase the dosage on her regular medication, we should be able to dial back the temporary ones. In the meantime, though, I need you to be patient and understanding with her.”
“I know,” Shining said.
“I got it,” I said.
Dr. H nodded. “Good,” she said, as she opened the door. Shining and I followed her.
The very first thing I focused on was Twilight, and the bed she was laying on. Twilight looked… well, not terrible, she had obviously been groomed by somepony, but it still broke my heart. The cast on her foreleg alone would have done it, but the way she was just sort of staring at the wall blankly was heart rending.
“Twilight?” Dr. H said softly. “You have some visitors.”
Twilight blinked once, and slowly turned to look at us. Her eyes took an eternity to focus on the three of us. “Who? Rainbow… Shining?” she asked, her voice slow and wavering.
“That’s right, Twilight. Rainbow and Shining came to see you,” Dr. H said, and I was struck by how motherly her tone was.
“Where… am I?” Twilight asked. “I don’t, I can’t… I can’t think of… of…”
“It’s all right, Twily,” Shining said. “Can I give her a hug?” he asked Dr. H.
“As long as she doesn’t object, and as long as you’re careful about her leg.”
Shining nodded, and moved forwards to hug Twilight, but as he approached, she shrunk back, muttering something under her breath.
Shining smiled sadly, and took a step back. “Sorry Twily,” he said, quietly.
“Where am I?” Twilight asked again. “My, my head, it hurts.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. H frown.
“Twilight, you’re at the hospital, okay? The nice ponies here are going to help you get better, got it?” I said, keeping my voice low like Shining had done.
“Just like last time,” Shining added.
“Last…time?” Twilight said, looking puzzled. Then whatever energy she had left failed her, and she curled up on the bed, clutching her head. “My head hurts,” she said again.
“Twilight,” Dr. H said, stepping forwards, “where does it hurt?”
“I can’t… think,” Twilight said, even slower than before. “I just want… to sleep.”
“Okay, we’ll let you sleep,” Dr. H said, stepping back again. “Rainbow, Shining, if you could.”
Shining nodded, and so did I, just a bit more reluctantly, and the three of us left the room.
“Sorry,” Dr. H said as soon as we had closed the door behind us. “I know you both wanted to spend more time with her, especially after coming all this way, but as you can see, she’s in no shape to have visitors right now.”
“Right,” I said. “Is she going to be like that for a while?”
“Probably not. The reason she is so out of it right now is because of the chemical restraint. Once that wears off, she should be more alert, as so long as she doesn’t become agitated enough that we need to use it again.”
“Okay, good,” I said, a feeling of relief washing through me.
“Excuse me, Dr. Hippocrates? Would you be able to tell me what you mean by agitated?” Shining said suddenly.
Dr. H blinked at the question. “Well, by ‘agitated’, we mean that she become a danger to herself or others. Does that answer your question?”
“I guess so,” Shining said with a frown. “Anyways, Rainbow? Do you know where Joe’s Doughnut Shop is? It was a favorite of Twily’s.”
“Uh, yeah, sure. She showed it to the five of us a while back. It’s just a little ways from the castle, right? I’m sure I can find it again. Why?” I asked.
“Could you meet me there in about two hours? I’d like to get to know the mare that’s dating my sister a bit more, and I assume you’re not waiting for the bus back.”
“Oh! Yeah, I can do that. I can’t stay out too late, though. I need to be back here early in the morning,” I said, giving him a smile. “Janitorial duties and all that.”
“Understood,” he said. “Well, I better go catch the bus back. I’ve already scheduled another appointment with Twilight in two days, so I guess I’ll see you then,” he said as he turned to Dr. H.
“That sounds good, Shining. Having strong family support is always a good thing for anypony going through a tough time,” Dr. H said softly, her green eyes twinkling with happiness.
To my surprise, Shining Armor just frowned at that. “I know,” he said, before turning around and marching away.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked, turning to Dr. H.
Her smile had turned sad. “I can only guess,” she said with a shake of her head, “but it’s not really my place to. Besides, you can ask him when you meet him at that bakery.”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling a little put out. “Anyways, when can I visit Twilight again?”
“Well, we would much rather that you make an appointment in the future, but you can schedule that with Izzy. Just make sure it’s during normal visiting hours, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”
“When are those?” I asked. After all, I was going to be working as a janitor every day. Hopefully visiting hours would be long enough that my shift wouldn’t cover all of them.
“Every day, apart from Sunday, between nine in the morning and eight in the evening,” Dr. H said.
I almost laughed. “That shouldn’t be a problem. I’m going to be here every day except for the weekends, and even then I’ll probably come on Saturdays.”
“Every… oh! You’re that temporary janitor that we’ve got for the next month. Sorry, Dr. Kindheart told me we’d be getting some temporary help on that front, but I didn’t realize that it was you,” Dr. H said, smiling. “I guess that means that we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other. If you have any questions, just talk to me and I’ll try to clear them up, okay.”
“Thank you,” I said, “’I’ll keep that in mind.”
A little under two hours later, I was seated at Joe’s Doughnut Shop, waiting for Shining.
To tell the truth, I was feeling a little nervous. It wasn’t like I needed his permission to date Twilight, but at the same time, I’d rather not make an enemy of her brother. And although he had seemed friendly enough for the first part of our visit, he behavior after we saw Twilight kind of unnerved me.
Maybe he blamed me for not catching that something had gone wrong with Twilight’s medication? I did sometimes as well, so it wasn’t out of the question. And on top of that, he was the captain of the Royal Guard, so he could really make my life difficult if he—
“You look like you’re thinking. Mind if I interrupt?”
I glanced up and saw Shining looking at me. He was smiling, but it was a tired kind of smile. I glanced at the clock on the wall. “You’re early,” I said.
“Well, so are you,” Shining pointed out.
I shrugged. “I didn’t really have anything to do today. There isn’t really anywhere to practice my flying in the city, and I couldn’t find the fiction section in the library easily.”
“So, flying practice and reading, huh? Sounds like you have a diverse set of hobbies,” Shining said.
“I guess you could call them hobbies. I just like to read adventure books, and as for flying, well… I want to be in the Wonderbolts someday, so I have to keep in tip top shape.”
“Oh, I understand. I trained almost every day before I made it into the guard. And pretty much every day still, now that I think about it. And as for the library, I could show you where the fiction section is. I know the library here in Canterlot must be a lot bigger than the one in Ponyville, but I spent enough time there to know where everything is,” he said, his smile losing some of its exhausted look.
“Really? Do you go for fun, or is it some sort of work thing?”
“I used to go there a lot to pick up Twilight, and I spent a lot of time studying there as well. Lots of things you have to know to move up in the ranks.”
“I think it’s the same for the Wonderbolts,” I said. Come to think of it, if I got into the reserve, I’d have to take some sort of test. Oh well, something to think about later.
“Anyways,” I said, gazing at Shining curiously, “What’s up? Why did you want to meet me here? And what was up with you at the hospital today? Are you always like that, or did I just catch you on a bad day?”
Shining met my gaze. “With everything that’s going on, I think the last few days qualify as ‘bad days.’”
I chuckled humorlessly. “I guess that’s true. Still, you were really friendly right up until the end of our visit with Twilight. What was up with that?”
“Well,” Shining said, looking away from me for a second, “seeing Twiliy like that brought up some painful memories. Not to mention that drug she’s on…”
“The drug the doctor talked about?” I asked. “The magic suppressor?”
“Yeah. As a captain of the Royal Guard, I… well, it doesn’t matter. The doctors there are professionals. They’ll be careful.”
“Umm… okay?” I said, confused but I didn’t feel like pressing the issue. “So, why did you want to meet me here? Just to talk?”
“They have good food here. Isn’t that reason enough?” Shining said with a laugh. “In all seriousness, I wanted to get a chance to know you better. Twiliy never mentioned you, but like I said, we had kind of drifted apart.”
“I see,” I said. That makes sense. After all, he must be feeling pretty protective of Twilight right now. “So you just want to talk?”
“Pretty much. And get something to eat. I haven’t had anything to eat all day,” he said, signaling Joe over to get something to eat.
Joe smiled as he made his way over to our table. “Hey, if it isn’t Shining Armor! I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you doing?” he said.
“Well, could be better, but it could be worse. I’ll have my usual, if you don’t mind,” Shining said.
“I’ll see if the cooks still remember what that is. And for the lady?”
“I’ll just have a doughnut with frosting and sprinkles,” I said.
“Sounds good!” Joe said. “I’ll get the staff right on that.”
As Joe left, I turned back to Shining. “So, if you just want to talk, do you mind if I ask you something?”
“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “What is it?”
“You said seeing Twilight like that brought up some painful memories. Was… was it hard growing up with her? What was it like?” I asked.
For a second, I feared that I had said the wrong thing. Shining face had darkened, and he gave me a look. But as quickly as the look had come, it faded. “I guess that’s a fair enough question. It, it was hard at first, but in the end it helped our family come together.”
“How so?” I asked. “I’m just curious. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,” I added hastily.
“No, it’s fine. I’m guessing Twilight didn’t talk about her past much, even with you,” Shining said. He rubbed his chin. “Well, I can’t tell you much about how it was for Twilight, but do you mind if I tell you a quick story after we get our food? I don’t want to discuss it here, but there is a park nearby that nopony ever visits, so nopony should overhear us.”
“That sounds good to me,” I said, as I turned to look in the kitchen. Great, now I was really impatient for our food to come.