A Compass for a Lost Dreamer

by reflective vagrant

Chapter Three: Washed Up on Friendly Shores

Author's Note:

I welcome constructive criticism, even on older chapters. Please feel free to comment.

Lightning Dust woke up groggy with a throbbing headache. As some of the drowsiness faded, she noticed she was lying face down on some sort of table with her face resting in a hole. When she tried to move she found herself restrained. Her legs were clamped down and there were some sort of straps keeping her neck and torso from moving. Even her wings were immobile from some device she couldn't see holding them fully extended.

Lightning Dust began to panic and struggled against her restraints. Hardly a moment later she heard a familiar voice, "Whoa, nelly! Calm down girl. It's all right." An orange mare poked her head under the table, causing her cowpony hat to fall off her head and onto the floor. Lightning Dust recognized her as the pony from the apple stall.

Lightning Dust turned her head slightly, the only part of her that didn't seem fully restrained. "Wh- where am I? Why am I tied down?"

"You're at the hospital," Applejack tried to explain. "Ya had a bit of a mishap and your back got twisted all funny. That's why you're tied down. The doctors won't let ya up until it's been fixed."

"If I'm here for my back, why does my head hurt?" Lightning Dust asked skeptically, still not up to full speed.

"That'd be Cranky's fault. He owns the land you were on. When he saw you he thought you were up to no good and knocked you out," Applejack explained. She rolled her eyes ever so slightly in both humor and embarrassment. "Ya must've been really distracted to let that loud donkey sneak up on ya." She closed her eyes for a moment to focus and get back on topic. "But long story short, after the misunderstandin' Pinkie went to fetch help and they brought you here. That's when they discovered that yer back was all messed up and set ya in restraints, to keep it from gettin' any worse."

As she listened to Applejack, she started to wonder why in the world she of all ponies would be the one to be there when she woke up and not one of the medical staff. "So that's why I'm here. Why are you here?"

Applejack's eyes widened ever so slightly at the question. "When I saw 'em carryin' you t' the hospital I followed to see if I could help," she said, picking her words carefully. "About all they let me do was sit here and keep ya calm when ya woke up so ya wouldn't hurt yourself."

Lightning Dust took that in for a moment then thought of something that made her hair and feathers stand on end. "I can't afford to be hurt! I'm nearly broke as it is! How am I supposed to pay for this?" Lightning Dust exclaimed in a very worried tone.

"Well, shouldn't yer insurance pay for this?" Applejack asked her with a look of wonder.

"What? What are you talking about? I can't afford insurance either." Lightning Dust became even more worked up.

"Yer insurance from work," Applejack explained in a tone of even greater confusion.

"What work? I'm jobless!" Lightning Dust screamed at her, wondering what in Equestria she was talking about. Tears welled up in her eyes as she yelled frustration.

At this the look on Applejack's face slowly changed from confusion to realization. She tried to stifle a giggle and soon had to kneel on the floor as giggle turned into full blown laughter.

"Why are you laughing? This isn't funny!" Lightning Dust cried at her at the top of her lungs. Her tears now ran down her face and were on the verge of dripping onto the floor.

Applejack finally managed to get her laughter under control. "I'm terribly sorry darlin'. It's just a lot of things finally make sense now. Rest assured you have nothing to worry about. I'm gonna go get somepony that's here waiting for ya who can explain this to ya a mite better than I can." She took the back of her front hoof and wiped the tears from Lightning Dust's face. "Promise me you'll stay calm 'till I get back? It should only take a couple seconds. He's just fillin' out some paperwork at the nurse's station."

Lightning Dust didn't stop her from cleaning the tears away but she refused to give her an answer. She just looked away from her in irritation once Applejack removed her hoof.

"I'll take that as a yes," Applejack said before leaving.

Lightning Dust laid there, stuck strapped to the table facing the checkerboard floor, waiting for answers. She didn't like the situation.

'If I have to pay the hospital, then what will I do for food? I'm out of supplies, and I need what money I have left to get more." Her breathing quickened. 'There aren't any jobs I can do around here to get by and who would want to hire a pony with a messed up back?'

She started panting. 'Celestia help me! If I can't get my back fixed, I won't even be able to go home to waiting tables, much less be a Wonderbolt! I'll be nothing more than a cripple stuck moving as slow as an old timer for the rest of my days!'

She heard a door open. Applejack called out to her, "Now I told ya to stay calm. Look at yourself! You're gettin' all worked up before we even have the chance to explain everything."

Those words knocked Lightning Dust back to her senses. 'She's right,' she thought to herself. She breathed slowly to calm herself down, though only with partial success, 'I have to keep calm about this or I won't make it through. Panicking is a good way to guarantee failure. Use your head here, Lightning Dust, not your wings.'

"Good evening Ms. Dust. How are you feeling?" a new pony called out.

"It feels like my head wants to explode, and my back hurts like I was just pile drived," Lightning Dust answered the new pony in a sarcastic tone with a strong hint of anger. "And, to top it all off I'm tied down to a table and can't move. So why don't you tell me how I'm doing, Doc?"

"Oh, my! It sounds like you're up and kicking. That's a good sign," the pony responded, somewhat embarrassed. "However, I'm not the doctor, dear. I'm a nurse. Nurse Redheart is my name and I'm just here to check up on you when you're finished visiting."

"Oh, OK..." Lightning Dust did a double take. "No, wait! Hold up! I thought you said you were going to get somepony that could explain all this," Lightning Dust inquired as she turned towards the Applejack's face just as she put it under the table again.

"She did, and that would be me, kid," a familiar voice called from the door. The pony that called out came over to the table on the opposite side of Applejack and brought his head below the table. Lightning Dust recognized the pegasus from the inn—the one that showed her around the market. "There you are," he said with a warm smile. "I was wondering where you disappeared to. You ran off on me before I could congratulate you."

"Congratulate me? Congratulate me for what?" she said, getting confused again.

He responded with a slight laugh, "For getting the weather team job."

At this Lightning Dust was even more confused. "But I didn't get it. Mr. Wayside kicked me out before the interview was done. He even had his bouncer escort me out."

"Actually, he's just the janitor. He isn't my bouncer." His smile turned somewhat mischievous. "I might look old kid, but I can still handle myself good enough."

"He's just a janitor?" she repeated. "Wait, what? Not your bouncer? Handle yourself good enough? What are you talking about?"

At this last question the old stallion cocked his head a little further than before. "Hehe, let me introduce myself properly kid. My name is Mr. Wayside."

Lightning Dust processed this last statement through her head a few times.

'Let me introduce myself properly kid. My name is Mr. Wayside...'

'My name is Mr. Wayside...'

'Wayside...'

'Wayside.'

When it finally clicked, Lightning Dust's mind went a dozen different directions at the same time before the prominent thought made it to her lips. "Waa? You're Wayside? But you don't sound anything like him!"

Switching to the irritated and raspy voice from the interview, he responded, "Oh, don't I now?" He returned his voice to normal with a cough. "Sorry about being so rough on you before. I had to see what you were really made of."

He gave a small huff of a laugh as the corners of his mouth turned up, widening his smile. "You handled yourself like a pro in that interview. You didn't let me discourage you. You played to your strengths but didn't over sell them. You didn't try to sound like a know-it-all. You were just honest about your limits, even when they put you at a disadvantage."

His smile relaxed slightly as his face lit up with admiration. "You were confident yet humbled. I like that, even if nopony else in town hall agrees." He trailed off for a moment in irritation before getting back on track. "You have no idea how many ponies I had to interview that thought they could just throw the 'weather station for dummies' book at me then expect me to give them the job."

All the while he spoke Lightning Dust looked at him in disbelief, not even able to react. All her brain could manage to do was absorb what he was saying and wait for him to finish. This seemed impossible to her. Could this warm hearted, laid back pony really be the loudmouth that interviewed her?

"And Bucket told me about how you behaved when you were leaving," he spoke warmly. "All things considered, you really did handle yourself like a lady. I value a worker's attitude just as much as their skill, but unlike skills attitudes can't be taught or trained so easily. If there was one pony I interviewed that I would want on my team and wasn't already on it, it would be you kid."

He knelt down on the floor and scooted in, bringing him within inches of her face. "However, there is one part of that mean stuff I said that I meant: I do not tolerate slackers." His tone was very serious but not mean. "I do need workers that know what they are doing. Workers that can make sure the job is done right on time, every time. I also want you to know I will fire anypony..." He paused for a moment to add emphasis. During this moment, he gave Applejack on the other side of Lightning Dust a quick glance as if expecting some input then returned his gaze to Lightning Dust. "On. The. Spot. If I see fit and I have before."

He scooted back out and his laid back smile returned. "So if you're willing to give me a hundred and ten percent then the job is yours kid."

After staring at him for a good ten seconds, not being able to do much else than let what he said sink in, she broke her stupor and inquired, "But you said that I only have a school filly's knowledge of weather. Won't that be a problem?"

He looked at Applejack again with a face of worry for far longer than before then made a subtle swallowing action. If Lightning Dust had been more focused, she would have looked back at Applejack to see her glaring at Wayside to watch his words. "Not if you give your full effort and study hard under the trainer I have in mind for you. Now do you want the job kid?" He started to sweat.

Lightning Dust's mouth hung open slightly. Just a few minutes ago, she felt like she would never be able to live her dream again due to the injury, but now she had her hoof in the door of a job that could lead her back to that dream. She wasn't about to waste it and had only one thing to say to him.

"You want a hundred and ten percent? If it means I can get my back fixed and staying fit for the Wonderbolts, then I'll aim for a hundred and eleven percent!"

"Yee-ha!" Applejack yelled with such volume it made the room echo her voice in a startling, almost rhythmic, manner that caused Lightning Dust's headache to sharpen. "That's the spirit!"

"Applejack!" Nurse Redheart exclaimed, "Need I remind you this is a hospital not a barnyard? Keep your voice down!"

"Sorry Nurse Redheart."

Applejack finally picked up her hat from the ground as she stood up. After placing it on her head she paused. "...Wait, Wonderbolts? So that's where I remember you from!" Applejack exclaimed with irritation. "You're that cocky cadet that nearly took me and mah friends out with that twister!"

Lightning Dust's heart skipped a beat. It caused a brief critical alert on the monitor she was hooked up to. It caught the attention of everypony in the room save Lightning Dust, as she was too focused on her realization to notice.

'That's why the crazy pink mare recognized me! Her and this apple seller where the friends of Rainbow Dash that visited her at the academy! On top of that, Wayside has regular business... Oh boy, she's gonna tell him to not hire me, and he'll listen!'

"Umm... Hello again?" was all Lightning Dust could bring herself to say.

How Applejack responded topped everything else Lightning Dust had experienced today on the unexpected scale; the accident, the job coming out of left field, even anything Pinkie did. "Humph... Welcome to Ponyville Lightning Dust," Applejack said, in a warm and welcoming tone, quite opposite of the voice she just had. She then simply left the room with nothing more to say.

"A twister?" Wayside said with surprise, yet somehow not upset. "Wow, and I thought somepony managing to land a blow on Pinkie Pie was impressive. You are full of surprises kid! I'm gonna go to the nurse's counter and finish filling in your insurance form. I'll be back tomorrow to talk more details on work."

After both of them left the room, Lightning Dust spoke up in a confused tone. "What just happened?"

"What do you mean?" Nurse Redheart asked while moving to a drawer and opening it.

"She recognized me from when I nearly killed her then she just walked out of the room saying welcome to town."

The nurse answered after a moment of thought, getting some examination tools ready as she did so, "It's called being forgiven. Applejack can get quite upset with ponies from time to time but she is not so stubborn to be above forgiving."

"But why?"

"I don't know. That is something you will have to ask her." The nurse knelt down and slid under the table. "Now I need you to hold still so I can check a few things."

"Not a problem I guess. I ain't going anywhere." Lightning Dust answered back, pondering on the nurse's words.

After about half a dozen tests and a set of sore eyes from a light shining in them later, Lightning Dust asked the nurse, "How long was I out?"

"About two hours. It's night time now," the nurse replied, as she put a stethoscope on her back, having gotten done with the tests she needed to be on the ground for. "Now I need you to breathe in deeply and hold it, but go slow and stop if it starts hurting."

Lightning Dust breathed in as directed and held it as she reached as much as she felt she could hold.

"OK, you can let it out."

Letting go, she asked another question, "So why are you doing this? I thought stuff like this was a doctor's job."

"I'm a certified nurse practitioner with a full doctor of nursing degree. So I guess you could call me a doctor by title after all but it would get confusing," the nurse said as she wrote down a few things on her clipboard. "Suffice to say I am much more than a normal nurse."

"OK then... So what happens now?" Lightning Dust asked, tilting her head back as best she could to indicate her injured back.

"Well, Doctor Pulse will be looking at the X-rays of your back in the morning when he catches up on sleep. A delayed call is often a better choice than a poor call in these cases." The nurse wrote a few more things on the clipboard. "But if it is what we think it is, we will have to operate to set the bones right."

"Operate? Am I really messed up that bad?" Lightning Dust turned her head abruptly in the direction of where the nurse was standing.

"Possibly. The muscles in your back are over strained from either you placing a great load on it for far too long or sleeping on it wrong, the doctor was having a hard time figuring out which, but either way it looks like this didn't happen overnight."

Lightning Dust knew exactly what she was talking about on that one. Walking all day with her heavy saddle bag that carried all her belongings and sleeping in that small tent was what was causing her to be stiff in the mornings.

"Even all that can be fixed by simple tender love and care at home, provided you avoid whatever you were doing to strain them in the first place."

The nurse came over to the table. Having finished the tests, she tilted her head down back into Lightning Dust's view out of respect for her patient. "However, your spine and a few ribs have been jarred out of place. That is what the doctor thinks will require surgery but he won't be able make a call on it until morning. There is also another medical specialist who wants to look at your X-ray and give the doctor some advice."

Lightning Dust took a moment to think about what the nurse explained. "Well that leaves me hanging for a few hours. Can you knock me out until they're ready or something? I don't think I can sleep on my own with all that has happened and I'll go nuts with nothing to do."

"Sadly no," the nurse answered her in a tone of regret, looking down briefly. "I can override the rules on visiting hours and request some company for you if you want, but the doctor has given orders to not to give you any sleeping aids or tranquilizers unless absolutely necessary." She returned her gaze back to Lightning Dust very professionally and with stern purpose. "Now that you're awake, it is a bad idea to fall asleep again for the next several hours while your head recovers from the shock. I'm sorry but you will have to bite the bullet."

After pondering on it for a moment, Lightning Dust responded. "I think I would like that but I don't really know anypony in town."

"That shouldn't be much of a problem," the nurse stated with cheer. "The hospital knows a few ponies that will keep somepony company even if they don't know them. If you want I can see if they are available tonight."

Lightning Dust took another moment to consider the options. Her face scrunched up for a brief moment. "OK, but not anypony that gets loud. My head is still ringing from Applejack's... whatever that was."

The nurse looked up in thought. "I guess that leaves out Pinkie and Lyra. I'll see if somepony else can come in."

It didn't take too long for the nurse to come back with an answer, hardly even five minutes. "Unfortunately Ms. Punch is... unavailable tonight. And Ms. Scratch was unable to answer her phone. She must be at a job right now." The nurse poked her head under the table again. "However, Ms. BonBon will be available as soon as her roommate goes to bed."

Lightning Dust became perplexed at this last statement. "Why does she have wait for her roommate to go to bed?"

The nurse turned somewhat red in embarrassment. "Unfortunately, I woke them up when I called."

* * *

Several hours and a few board games later. "Hey, I didn't roll a five. I rolled a four, put me back!" Lightning Dust called.

It was getting to be early in the morning and if they had been near a window they would have noticed the sun rising. Instead they just kept playing the game and talking. She was a fun loving and easy going pony. Despite this, she wasn't all that eccentric. Though that might have been because of the fact that they were in a hospital.

"Oh, my bad," BonBon said, correcting her mistake.

Lightning Dust and BonBon had been playing games under the table to keep Lightning Dust from falling asleep. It was weird at first, with BonBon having to set everything up, roll the dice and move the pieces for the both of them, yet they had soon gotten used to it and were having fun.

That is, until the doctor came in and interrupted. "Ms. Dust, are you feeling better?"

"Oh hey, you the doc?" Lightning Dust called out to the new pony in the room. "My headache is feeling a lot better now, but I'm pretty tired. When can I finally get some shut eye?"

"Yes, I am Doctor Pulse. To answer your question Ms. Dust, just another hour or so if your checkup goes well. Ms. Fr-" The doctor paused for a moment as if correcting a slip of the tongue. "Ms. BonBon. You won't be needed from here. You can go home and get some sleep. I can take over now. Thank you for the help."

"Thanks again for coming BonBon." Lightning Dust called to her as she started to gather the board games.

"Oh! And Ms. BonBon, while you are here," the doctor added, coming over to them. "I'd like to thank you for that package of sweets the other day. There were a few odd ones, but overall I'd say Mint did an excellent job on the new flavors. I should be able to get you my list of the ones I liked sometime tomorrow."

By this time BonBon had gotten her board games together and was putting the last few pieces up from the one they had just been playing. "Thanks. I'll make sure to read your list before I add any to the special order menu."

After BonBon left, the doctor thought out loud, "That BonBon can really make some interesting sweets when she is in the mood."

"Wait," Lightning Dust asked, confused. "I thought you said somepony named Mint made them."

"Oh, well the thing about Mint is..." the doctor began to explain then diverted the question. "Well it's probably best to let BonBon explain that next time you see her. As her doctor I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"Alright I guess," she conceded, not wanting to force the unimportant matter. "So what can you tell me about my back doc?"

"Well I have two bits of good news and one bit of bad news," he answered her with mixed feelings as he finally bent over to talk to her face to face.

"Give me the good news first. I could use some good news," she said somewhat excitedly.

"I can't. It wouldn't make sense without the bad news," he answered apologetically.

"Sigh..." Lightning Dust slumped her head down for a moment then looked back at him weakly. "Then just give me the bad news already doc."

"Bad news is if we go by the book the only option is surgery. Your back is messed up pretty bad. Surprisingly your spinal cord is somehow undamaged. It's a miracle it wasn't severed when you fell; however, if we don't treat it and let it heal right then the bones that are displaced might still do just that at any given time."

"Dang! That is some bad news!" she exclaimed in surprise, her gaze returned to the floor again and her breathing rose slightly. The concept of being paralyzed didn't sit well with her.

The doctor cleared his throat to get her attention again. "The first bit good news is none of your bones have taken any significant damage. They have simply been thrown out of place. This will keep the surgery from having any added complications."

"That's... kinda good news?" she responded, coming out of it slightly, though her gaze was still unbroken. "You said there was a second bit of good news."

"I did, but it is somewhat... unorthodox," he said with a slight hesitance. "I said if we go by the book the only option is surgery, but I have been consulting with Zecora on a different route we might be able to take. She is well versed in alternative medicine. Although her licensed fields are not well documented, what techniques she has done in this hospital have shown amazing results and has earned the respect of... most every staff member here."

He shook his head from the last part. "She has looked at your X-ray and believes she can set your back without surgery with one of her techniques. If all goes well then we believe you should even be out of the hospital later today; however, as I said before it is 'alternative' medicine. As your doctor I can't encourage you to take it or to not take it. It is a choice you have to make for yourself. She is checking on some patents now, but she will be by as soon as she can manage to explain further."

Lightning Dust came out of her daze as he spoke, "That sounds... not so bad if I can trust it. So where does that leave us until then?"

His mood shifted right along with the conversation. He answered her in a less factual and more optimistic tone, "First, a morning checkup and then your breakfast."

'Hospital food, not the best in the world,' she thought to herself. 'Then again, aside from that apple, I haven't eaten anything worth noting besides dried oats and alfalfa for a while now.' She looked up at the doctor with a forced smile. "Not too excited about that first one but breakfast sounds good."

"All right then. If you want to get to breakfast quickly look into this light for me," the doctor said as he slid under the table with the same tool that the nurse had earlier.

* * *

"I have never seen a pony in as much pain as you must be in, have such an appetite. How can you manage that pain so easily?" Doctor Pulse set down the second empty tray of food, that his patient had finished eating, with his help.

"Trust me doc, it isn't easy, but I'm familiar with pain." She swallowed the food, to talk more clearly. "Sure it hurts, but stopping to cry doesn't get..."" Lightning Dust's eyes wandered back to the floor as her eyebrows furled. "Doesn't get anything done. All I can do is listen to it, to understand what's damaged, and work with it. It's a lesson I learned back home at the restaurant." She inhaled and sighed briefly. "And it's been proven pretty tried and true ever since."

She looked back at the doctor to find that he was staring at her with a hint of something she didn't find to her liking, pity. Her ears promptly went flat. "As for the food," she said with great emphasis, "I don't know what everypony complains about. This food is fine. It's nothing like the restaurant back home, but fine."

The doctor gently shook his head and gave an uneasy smile. "Don't say that too loud, they're still trying to get the cooks to add gravy to the mashed potatoes." He gestured with his hoof to keep her voice down with a shaky sarcasm. "If they hear you say that then they won't budge."

Lightning Dust heard the door open. The doctor stood up and addressed the new arrivals, "Ah good! Nurse Redheart... and Ms Zecora. I believe the patient is ready to hear your idea. I shall now take my leave. There are other patients I need to tend to. When all of you are done talking it should be fine for you to get some sleep Ms. Dust."

After the doctor left with the food trays, Nurse Redheart came over to the table and bent down to talk to her again. "Good morning."

"Morning Redheart." Lightning Dust answered back sluggishly. "Doc said something about that this Zecora pony could fix my back?"

Nurse Redheart shifted at something Lightning Dust said before responding, "It might be possible. Zecora is a licensed herbal pharmacist and alternative medicine specialist. Her skills take a... 'different' route than mainstream medicine."

The tone in the nurse's voice put Lightning Dust on edge. "Different? Like what? You aren't saying she is some snake oil pony are you?"

"If you must be crude about it she is more of a modern day shaman, or medicine mare." Nurse Redheart answered back, trying to reassure her. "Ms. Zecora is well known in this area for her wisdom and knowledge. Both in medicine and daily life."

Lightning Dust looked at her funny. "Regardless what you call it, you seem to be putting a lot of trust in this backwoods medicine," Lightning Dust said unconvinced. "No offense Zecora."

She could swear she heard a soft grunt. Though whether the grunt was out of disapproval or recognition she couldn't tell.

"We had a similar attitude towards her when she first came along offering assistance," Nurse Redheart said, trying to empathize with her. "However she has never made a claim she couldn't back up. You are not the first patient in this hospital she has helped when the doctors were at a total loss." She tilted her head to the side and looked up in thought for a moment. "But to be fair, this is the first time she has offered an alternative to surgery in this hospital." She returned her gaze to her patient. "Every other patient she has helped was with medicine, therapy or counsel."

"And has anypony seen what this procedure is supposed to do?" Lightning Dust asked, making sure she didn't make an uninformed call. "This is my back we are talking about. I only have one."

"When the doctor was shown what Zecora was wanting to do he had a similar thought and was skeptical for a moment, saying the procedure could make the problem worse if handled wrong,-"she paused briefly to prepare for a new point. "But Zecora has performed the technique on many zebras of her homeland under her teacher's supervision before being declared a competent healer of her kind. She knows what she's doing."

When the realization of Zecora's species sank in, Lightning Dust's went wide as she exclaimed, "Wait! This is a zebra technique? It isn't meant for ponies?"

"Zebra and pony anatomy are remarkably similar and the technique is very noninvasive," Nurse Redheart said, coming to Zecora's defense.

"Noninvasive or not!" Lightning Dust shouted again. "If it's messing with my back then I don't want something that hasn't been tested on a pony!"

Sensing her panic, Zecora came over to the side of the table opposite of Nurse Redheart. She quickly leaned down to let Lightning Dust see her face, somehow moving in such a way that it demanded her attention without even speaking.

As she stared at Zecora, it was not quite what she expected of a zebra. She was expecting her to look more like a donkey or at least a mule with black and white stripes. But her face seemed more like a pony in shape than anything, if slightly off in subtle ways. Looking at Zecora made it clear that Nurse Redheart wasn't lying about zebra anatomy being similar to pony.

Zecora stood there for few moments, letting Lightning Dust stare at her without any expression of expecting her to do or say anything, just to stare. When she felt that Lightning Dust had gotten a good look at her and had calmed down, she spoke up, "I have used this technique on your kind many times in the past. All of them have recovered and returned to their tasks quite fast." Lightning Dust noticed that she spoke in purposeful rhyme. "A paralyzed pony I came across, years ago as I traveled. With her injury, all her dreams had unraveled. Though among ponies she was by far my worst case, she now lives her life's passion with a smile on her face."

Lightning Dust wasn't convinced and she was getting skeptical about the zebra's boasts. The rhyming and funny accent didn't help. 'She's smooth with her words, too smooth. I can't take anything she says for granted,' Lightning Dust thought in caution. "That sounds like a lot of hollow words to me. How can I know you're telling the truth?"

Zecora seemed to smile from ear to ear after hearing this as if she was expecting it. "You are skeptical of the claims I make. To seek proof is a wise caution to take." She raised an eyebrow confidently. "If the proof to my skills is what you inquire, you may reference my old patient Spitfire."

"Zecora!" Nurse Redheart exclaimed. "You know you are held to oath to keep conventionality for all patients, past and present, even the ones you treated before you obtained your medical license. I should repor..."

Lightning Dust had barely registered any of what Nurse Redheart was blabbing about as anything more than the source of her headache's new found strength. She was recalling memories from her days as a filly when her aunt would tell her stories of her youth while foalsitting her before her career forced her to stop. One was of a foreign healer that had treated her injury and saved her career as a Wonderbolt when the doctors said she would never be able to fly again.

It was a story of new found hope, one of the many that her aunt had told her that made her want to be a Wonderbolt. 'Could this zebra really be that healer? I have to know for sure.'

"Nurse Redheart!" Lightning Dust yelled to interrupt the one sided argument.

Startled, Nurse Redheart responded, "Y-yes?"

"I appreciate you helping me and I know you're just doing your job but shut up! It's making my headache worse."

Not even bothering to see Nurse Redheart be taken back from shock, she turned to the zebra. "Zecora, you said you treated Spitfire. That story was in the papers and it said a 'wandering healer' healed her. Anypony can claim to be them. If you want to fix my back then prove to me it was you. Tell me what you asked her to never tell anypony that wasn't family. Tell me what you told my aunt when she insisted on paying you."

"Aunt? You're Spitfire's niece?" Nurse Redheart nearly mumbled through her shock.

"I don't like showing it off, but ya. Now zip it and let the zebra answer my question!" Lightning Dust snapped at her. "I'm dead tired and I don't need all this noise."

Zecora looked at Nurse Redheart under the table with a flat face and one ear drooping down half way, clearly holding back the desire to glare at the pony that had just chewed her out. "To our company I mean no disrespect, but your ears I must ask you to redirect."

"What?" Nurse Redheart responded dully, not fully recovered from the last retort she was given.

"She means she doesn't want you to hear what she is going to say," Lightning Dust clarified rudely, not having much patients for her at that moment.

"O-oh. I'll be at the door then? You can whisper it right?" Nurse Redheart got up to go to the door, still off put from Lightning Dust's unusual request to shut up.

Zecora looked at Lightning Dust with a knowing glance. "To learn of your relation is no surprise. I saw the same spirit in your eyes."

Laying down on the ground, Zecora moved in to where she could whisper into Lightning Dust's ear. "A healer helps those in need, not those moved by greed. The gifts of healing must not be for trade, lest the healer's heart become easily swayed."

After this, Lightning Dust looked at her, waiting for her to finish, but Zecora stared back as if expecting something. "What?" Lightning Dust asked, confused.

Zecora just raised an eyebrow at her and gestured to her, as if telling her to finish.

Lightning Dust stared into the zebra's eyes and finally made the connection. She wanted her to prove she knew the story as well. She started the next line, "If a debt you feel you still owe, then a request I shall make, before I go."

Smiling, Zecora continued, knowing Lightning Dust understood what she was wanting her to do. "Go boldly in life and take hardships in stride."

Without skipping a beat, Lightning Dust continued where Zecora stopped, "Learn from your mistakes and let go of pride."

Zecora continued again, "Take each challenge as they come and face them without fear."

Stopping the rhythm, Lightning Dust realized this is where she remembered the phrase she thought to herself before the interview from. 'That's why it was so familiar. It was a lesson from Aunt Spitfire's foalsitting.'

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Zecora clear her throat. "Oh! Uh, stay true to yourself and your path will be clear."

Zecora had a look of interest in her eyes from Lightning Dust's pause, but continued speaking as if nothing happened, "Teach to your children and students your lessons from youth."

As Lightning Dust finished the last lyric, Zecora finished with her, "Through your past, they will be enlightened with wisdom and truth."

"By Luna's mane!" Lightning Dust exclaimed in awe. "It was you!"

"Are you two finished then?" Nurse Redheart asked after she heard Lightning Dust's exclamation. "Zecora, we will be discussing your breach in privacy later, but for now am I correct to assume you have made your choice Ms. Dust?"

"Ya, I think I have, but umm... Everypony else has been able to go to bed. I think it's about my turn now. Can I give you my answer after I sleep on it?"

Comments

[ferret]

So what happens now?"

You can wispier it right?"