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?
Interesting.
Yes!!
Commence reading!!
Ooh, I remember this one.
Well, I'm Certainly looking forward to reading more of this.
I've been looking forward to this, and you did a really good job on the first chapter.
Have a fave, thumbs-up and a track, because I feel like being a generous non-god.
Great first chapter bro Looks to be very promising!
I was fortunate enough to happen to catch this in the new stories queue. Looking forward to this.
Dang it fimfic, y u no notify me about this sequel?
YES! IT'S UP!! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG!!! GREAT START!!!!
this is a good start to the sequel and a neat way to learn about twilight's brother. keep it up.
I am ready for whatever this story may throw at me. We did leave off a bit . . . Worryingly on the last one. Rather glad I started reading when the sequel was posted. The anticipation would have killed me.
Twilight just isn't very good at keeping ponies up to date with her life, is she?
Oh man it's finally here!
That being said...this fic stresses me out. I'll feel better once we see Twilight, which I'm hoping will be in the next chapter.
And it begins anew. Think i am going to like this as well.
Also itnersting way to set it up in the timeline. before the wedding and all. Then again if you simply had events occur afterwards it would have brought up a lot more questions.
then again if we are to presume chrysalis might make her presence known in this tale as well, she would ahve to deal with a tragically unstable twilight sparkle.
Hell yeah, I've been looking forward to a sequel!
Ah, and it begins. :)
So it Begins agene
Can't wait for more
Love this story
Twilight "Oh yeah I have a brother, did I never mention that?" Sparkle.
What?
But, great story so far! Me likes!
I read Unwell & liked it very much. I usually don't read fics until they are either finished or over 200,000 words. Still, I have this in my library & look forward to reading it.
oh holy shit I was lucky I just happened to check new stories did not expect the continuation to this
and yes I am creeped the fuck out by twilight black pits as eyes I keep thinking back to corallines black button eyes
6248381 They have color. Click the picture and zoom in.
I was waiting for this story. You did a good job of making Shining Armor really intimidating. I hope Twilight can recover.
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Whoops, that should have been growling, not growing. Thanks for pointing that out.
Nice story! Looking forward to readin the rest.
If the first words of the next chapter are not "Twilight has a brother?!", I will be disappointed.
This is very interesting. I like where this is going.
Definitely a good strong start. I can't wait to see the progression of this story.
Only problem I have with this chapter is that Rainbow doesn't realize Shining probably has a connection to Twilight. I mean, she sees his Shield cutie mark, and it has a star on it identical to Twilight's, and considering he was asking to visit her, I'm just surprised she didn't make some sort of connection.
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He doesn't really look anything like her other than the cutie mark, and even that is dominated by the shield more than by the rather abstract symbol.
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And let's not forget Rainbow is not the most observant mare if she's not in the air. Add a stranger asking to see her marefriend and you've got quite the mix.
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True. I guess it's just the fact that she's looking directly at his cutie mark, specifically to figure out who he is, and he has a cutie mark very similar to the pony he's trying to visit, the fact that it doesn't even occur to her in passing (i.e. 'his cutie mark kinda reminded me of Twilight's") especially given that she would have been on Dash's mind just caught be as a bit odd. I guess I wouldn't haven minded, if the story hadn't specifically stated that she focused on his cutie mark.
Someone who approaches the idea and struggles of the mentally ill with sensitivity and care as opposed to proposing them as the likes of Dahmer and Gacy or a punchline?
WHAT WAS HAPPENED TO THE INTERNET!?
What's this, coming over the horizon and into the feature box? Could it be a mentally and emotionally stimulating, thoughtful and genuine story of the struggles with mental illness? Dare it be a sequel to said story?
It is! Hallelujah!
The sequel is here! And it's off to a great start. Last time most of the chapters alternated between Rainbow and Doctor Hooves; I wonder if they will alternate between Rainbow and Shining Armor this time. Or perhaps one of the doctors at the hospital.
There are two scenes I've been thinking about and hoping to see ever since the first story, and the first could happen next chapter. Twilight had that nightmare that Rainbow Dash and the rest of her Ponyville friends were all her imagination. She got over it then, but Celestia put her to sleep at the end of the last story, so I'm assuming she's going to wake up in the hospital. Will that look like proof to her that her life really was all a lie?
The second scene I've been thinking about is that Twilight specifically asked Rainbow Dash not to assault anypony on her behalf. I can't imagine she's going to be pleased to find out why Rainbow is doing janitorial work at the hospital.
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Yeah, that was a stipulation. I'm not going to say Twilight won't be mad, but Rainbow was provoked. I don't think anyone can argue with "Deliberately withheld medically necessary treatments, and then bragged about doing so" as provocation.
Blood's just lucky Celestia decided to let the courts deal with her case instead of smiting her outright.
So glad the sequel is here. Can't wait to see more. Hopefully with regular updates?
So I'm rereading Unwell, and I noticed a bit of a continuity error with this one. In "Doctor Hooves 1" Dr. Hooves mentions Discord "back when he was evil," implying this takes place post-reformation, which was mid season 3. And in "Rainbow Dash 4" Rainbow asks Twilight “Hey, Twi, does Cadance know about—“. If this takes place post season 3, and Rainbow Dash knows who Cadence is, she should know who Shining Armor is as well.
Hmm, I seem to remember Rainbow wanting to ask in a previous chapter whether Cadance was aware of her condition.
Actually I ctrl F'd the chapters and found it in "Rainbow Dash 4"
Looked at Zorand's comment & that tempted me to break my rule & read this early. I agree with him, I thought Unwell was mid season 3. It would explain why Celestia ignored Twilight's warning in Canterlot Wedding -she thought Twilight had lost it.
However, Dash would have at least MET Shining Armor. Needing hibernation explained in Tanks For The Memories (despite fighting w Fluttershy over exactly this in Winter Wrap Up) shows she can be pretty clueless. But even if she didn't recognize the face, surely she would remember the name of Twilight's brother?
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That actually is an error. I'm planning to cover the wedding later in the story, (so its gonna head into AU territory in a bit) but I wasn't sure of that when I started writing. I'll fix that in a bit. Thanks for catching that.
Haha haha haha!
Don't mind me, I just saw this in the feature box.
Great story with a great premise. I have to say I love the writing: free of noticeable errors, well paced, and very fitting of the story. Characterization is nice, as well, though RD seems a little too hotheaded.
I look forward to reading the rest of this one! Right now, I've got a migraine, so, bye! Following and liking!
6252144 That actually wouldn't make much sense in the context of the story, since Twilight apparently being paranoid would be a huge danger signal, not something that would be brushed off like that.
That does doubly confirm, though, that the wedding is going to be AU, rather than what was shown in the show being a rendition of Twilight's hallucinations as she completely loses it. I imagine her randomly wandering around the palace talking to a Cadance that doesn't exist, attacking the bridesmaids that are trying to find her, barging into the wedding shouting that Cadance is an imposter, overpowering Celestia when she tries to subdue her, rampaging through Canterlot assaulting ponies while her friends desperately try to talk her down, and ending with Cadance and Shining Armor having to play into her delusions, letting her believe that she's somehow managed to win so that she'll relax enough for them to be able to put her to sleep.
Damn, now I want to read that. Kind of a pity that the author probably doesn't want to write it, though.
6254307 and you really are out of touch with what this story is... by a completely and totally >_<
6254361 Hah, I'm completely aware of that. Which means that maybe I am in touch? Eh, semantics.
One way or another, though, the wedding would horribly mess with this version of Twilight. She's been relying on the belief that if she's careful about her medication, then she'll always be able to trust that what she perceives is correct (come to think of it, the last story itself will have messed that up, I'm interested to see how that's going to be addressed). Changelings introduce a third case, where something can be false even when the viewer is in a sound state of mind. They're detectable through inevitable discrepancies, but to Twilight, noticing real discrepancies would feel the same as her condition manifesting.
6254451 Though on one hand it would have likely completely exposed chrysalis very early on. If 'cadance' did not react with concern or understanding of what could be wrong with twilight, ponies woulda noticed.
I don't know why, but the writing seems improved. Ah well, it's too late (early?) to try and find why it seems that way.
The Canterlot Wedding It's like the old joke about even paranoids have enemies. Still, now that it has been in the papers that Twilight has this problem, it might be harder than ever to get anyone to take her seriously.
I mean, she didn't have any real evidence. Just "Cadence isn't behaving like herself". Still, if Dash doesn't take her seriously, it will REALLY cramp their relationship. On the other hand, if Dash DOES take her seriously, will Crysalis get a chance to imprison Twilight? +Will Cadence be rescued if Twilight isn't imprisoned?
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think the wedding might be put off until the next book & this one deal w the problems of her recovery. IIRC both Rarity & (especially) AJ had issues with her illness before she freaked out. +Pinkie coming to visit a mental hospital? I'm sure they'll let her in. Getting her out again might be a problem. I remember an episode of King of the Hill dealing with that
Dang! 3 days and you're featured! That's impressive!