Paging Doctor Sparkle!

by Quillamore

Episode Seventeen: Broken Bird

Twilight Sparkle, M.D.
Ponyville Hospital, Day 40, early morning

I’ve finally done it. My leap home has finally come. It didn’t even take Director Celestia two months to come crying back to me.

Any of those would have been a typical Twilight response, but somehow, none of them fit. And, as much as I’m tempted to overthink it, I know the answer. Whatever’s keeping me here isn’t just Scarlet anymore. This town has changed me in ways that even I’m not entirely sure of yet. To the point where, when I went back there a week ago, Canterlot didn’t even feel like home anymore.

All this should be telling me that I should throw the letter in the trash, forget it ever existed, and move on with my life. But I know as well as anypony else that you don’t turn down Canterlot National. Anything other than coming straight back there with open arms would be a disgrace to everypony who ever tried to get into Canterlot National and failed. For all I know, Scarlet could have been one of those ponies, and the more I think about the way she reacted when I told her where I was from, the more willing I am to accept that theory.

Months ago, I would have just told myself I was better than all those other ponies. I’m beginning to think life would have been easier if I’d stayed the way I was back then. At least then, I never would have gotten to love somepony so much that I wish I’d never met her.

At least then, I wouldn’t have had a choice.

****

Twilight Sparkle, M.D.
Ponyville Hospital, Day 40, late morning

As I hustle back and forth between patients, my mind goes into overdrive trying to think of ways I could trot out of this without losing anything. I still haven’t told Scarlet about the letter, but I think the writing’s already on the wall, since she was there to see all the weird faces I make when I’m in deep thought. That’s why I want to think of something, anything, before I tell her. So it at least looks like I have a plan to keep us together.

Plan #1: I stay at Ponyville Hospital, but continue to write research papers. Ponyville Hospital is far too small to provide proper research funding, so I’d almost have to ally with Canterlot National in some way. It’d be a tough compromise to make, but Director Celestia would allow it, and Sunset Shimmer would just have to deal with it. There’s only two tiny problems--it’d be time intensive enough to take me away from Scarlet for long periods of time, and after a while, my prestige would wear off and ponies would wonder what authority a pony from dinky old Ponyville Hospital had in the medical world. I give it three years, tops.

Plan #2: I accept the Canterlot National job and come back to Ponyville every few weeks or so. It’s the logical route, the type of thing I would have come up with back when I was obsessed with all that. But if Scarlet and I wanted to get married someday, there was no way she’d ever leave Ponyville, and we’d have to keep up this whole long distance thing for Faust knows how long. No way.

Plan #3: I go to Canterlot National, tell Director Celestia to suck it, and laugh all the way back to Ponyville. I have no idea why I even bothered to consider this one.

And Plan #4: I stay in Ponyville and commute to Canterlot National. It’s only an hour to Canterlot by train, so this seems like the most reasonable option. It’d get expensive after a while, sure, but as one of the highest-ranking doctors in Equestria, I’d be able to handle it. The only thing that can possibly go wrong with this is a situation so strange, there’s no way it could possibly happen in real life. Still, that doesn’t stop me from imagining it unfolding right in front of me.

“Doctor Sparkle, I know it’s late, but we have a patient only you can treat.”

“Doctor Sparkle, come quick. His heart’s about to stop.”

“I’m sorry, but your patient died exactly one minute before you came in. It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t changed back into your work clothes, Doctor Sparkle. We really should keep a running tally of how many ponies you let die just because you have a marefriend in the country.”

“You could have prevented all of this.”

By the time the thought hits me, it’s almost like I’m in a nightmare. Everything I know dissolves in front of me, and all I can think about is how easily this failure could have been stopped. I, Twilight Sparkle, have officially made the worst mistake of my life. Years of progress at Canterlot National, and all I get is--

“Whoa, easy there,” a familiar voice whispers. “I thought I told you not to make pro and con charts.”

I must be hyperventilating, because the next thing I know, Scarlet comes my way with a paper bag. As much as I want to tell her that the science behind that superstition is questionable at best, I take the bag anyway and try to will myself into my current environment. With all the effort I put into getting myself back together, it takes me awhile to realize the magnitude of what Scarlet just said.

“Pro and con charts?” I ask, trying to play it cool. “I wasn’t doing anything like that. And I most certainly haven’t gotten a response back from Canterlot National. There was just...um, this really scary movie at the theater last night, and I was just remembering one of the scenes. Because I don’t get scared over little things like stress anymore! Keep the stress coming, that’s what I always say!”

All it takes is a single glare from Scarlet for me to realize that I am absolutely abysmal at playing it cool. But then again, she’s always had a way of silencing ponies from her eyes alone.

“You left the hospital at midnight last night,” replies Scarlet. “The theater’s last show begins at eleven every night. Plus, the letter you’re holding is postmarked from Canterlot.”

With a satisfied sigh, she puts a hoof through her mane and mutters, “Sometimes, I wish I wasn’t so good with mysteries.”

If I wasn’t already petrified before, the way Scarlet pinned me down so well would have scared the living daylights out of me.

“Okay, fine. But if it makes you feel any better, I was trying to come up with ways to work it out so we could stay together and I could stay at Canterlot. Then I imagined a patient dying while I was commuting over there, and--”

“I thought you didn’t care about your patients.”

It’s weird, almost, how natural all of this seems. Scarlet doesn’t really say a word about the job opening at Canterlot, almost as if she knows I won’t betray her. A month ago, I wouldn’t have been trusted with such a thing, but now? Somehow, we’ve both changed so much that we just feel something about each other, even if we’ve only been friends for a short amount of time. Ponies always say their loved ones know them better than they do, and for the first time in my life, I begin to think that maybe, just maybe, Scarlet does.

“I didn’t think I did, either,” I finally admit. “But lately, I just feel like I’m caring about too much. So much it might keep me from ever being my old self again.”

“I think that’s the point,” Scarlet tells me. “That’s what us ponies live for, and us doctors. Our heart grows so much that we can never fit it back into the box it used to go in, and that’s a good thing. Sometimes it’s even the best thing that can happen to somepony.”

Scarlet’s eyes lock deep into mine, and it takes everything I have not to say the one thing I’ve always told myself I would never say. Especially not after a first date, and especially not after having only known a pony for a few months. But still, the thought lingers.

You’re the best thing that can happen to me.

“Maybe I’m stretching here, but I don’t think Director Celestia would have wanted you to come here without getting a little attached to us. Ponyville’s kinda famous for making sure ponies never want to leave. It could be wishful thinking for all I know, but I feel like she might be testing you.”

It probably is, considering how strangely reflective Scarlet is today, but I can’t help but wonder how that could be possible. Director Celestia is normally one of the most straightforward ponies I know, so a letter from her has to mean that she wants me back...right?

“Okay, I’ll bite. How could asking me back to Canterlot National be a test? It clearly means she thinks I’m ready to come back.”

Scarlet looks every bit the detective as she places her hoof to her mouth in thought. As dramatic as she’s being right now, I can’t help but hope that this is all true, and I will have a longer exile in Ponyville. With any hope, maybe it’ll even be permanent. And with that thought, any desire of returning to Canterlot National withers away into dust.

Before, it was a place of dreams for me. Now, it’s nothing but a cold place I left behind, a place that doesn’t even haunt me in my nightmares. It’s just emptiness to me, no different from any other status symbol ponies chase after.

I may be lonely in Ponyville if Scarlet breaks up with me someday. But I know I’ll be lonelier in Canterlot, where everypony I ever came into contact with was just a stepping stone.

“Come on, Twilight. No hospital director would expect a pony to come back only a few months after moving away. And besides, how would Celestia even know you’ve changed? You haven’t seen anypony from Canterlot National in town while you were here, have you?”

Her words hit me straight past my eyes and into the deepest recesses of my brain. If somepony from Canterlot National would have followed me to check up on my progress, I would have recognized them in a heartbeat. I may not have been friends with any of them, but I knew all of them by name, by face, by voice. And not a single one ever came to Ponyville.

Either Director Celestia had been trying to get rid of me or she wanted me to get attached to this town. So attached that I wouldn’t even realize what I was missing. Sure, I’d heard about some of Celestia’s wild schemes before, but if what Scarlet’s saying is true, then Faust, everything I knew for the last few months was a lie.

But somehow, even if what she’s saying is true, none of that matters anymore. It should, it should, it should. But no matter how many times I tell myself that...it doesn’t.

“Sunset Shimmer’s the only Canterlot National pony I’ve seen since I left,” I reply. “You don’t think she has anything to do with this, does she? She’s always been an ambitious pony, but something about her seemed off after I left.”

“As much as I hate to say it, her resigning makes more sense than Director Celestia creating this whole convoluted scheme,” Scarlet admitted. “From what you told me about her bad reputation, she may not feel like she deserves that high of a position. She might think that such a drastic move could bring you back. I certainly would.”

Again, it’s a stretch, but Scarlet and Sunset are so much alike that I wouldn’t put it past either of them to pull such a stunt. I haven’t realized it until now, but the two of them are so much alike, it’s almost scary. Both of them would sacrifice everything for the ponies they love, and both of them feel undeserving of the jobs they have. And when you put the two of those together, workplace drama is almost guaranteed to happen.

By the time I look over the letter again, my worst suspicions have already been confirmed. After only two months of being Canterlot National’s top doctor, Sunset Shimmer applied for a lower position. I remember all the fanfare that came when she was promoted, all the glossy magazine pages she got with Director Celestia. It was even enough to help her transcend the rumors about her, whatever they might have been. In a year or two, she might have even escaped them completely.

And the only thing keeping her from that was me. She would sacrifice the best chance of her life for somepony she had barely even known, and loved anyway. But, then again, maybe I wasn’t so different from her, either.

When I imagined Sunset in those moments, I could almost see her face bridging with Scarlet’s, boxing herself into the prison other ponies had created for her. Being the pony that others, or parents, or coworkers wanted her to be, just to bring the most important pony in her life back.

If I wasn’t already convinced that staying at Ponyville Hospital was my best bet, imagining myself doing that sort of thing to another pony would have done just that. Because even if I didn’t know Sunset’s heart, I knew Scarlet’s, and I knew that would be the key to everything.

“Well, anyway, I have to get back to work,” Scarlet finally said. “But if you’re still really on the fence, Canterlot National’s going to be in town next week. Our shipment of flu vaccines got contaiminated, and they’re lending us some of theirs.”

She trots away with a short wink, which tells me we’re both thinking the same thing. Whatever way our lives take us, this is going to be one last mystery for us to solve together. That, alongside the fact that I’m staying here for good, is one of the few things I’m certain of in these moments.

I don’t know if Director Celestia planned this. I don’t even know Sunset’s full motivation for stepping down. Really, there’s so much in this case, in Ponyville, in Equestria that I don’t know. I just knew I couldn’t let Sunset give up her future for anypony, let alone me.

Because if I did, that would be the worst mistake Twilight Sparkle would ever make.

Author's Note:

I struggled until the end for how Twilight would manage to pull off turning Canterlot down, but I feel like this is the best way to do it. The struggle to keep Sunset in her position kind of parallels Scarlet's struggle to stay in Ponyville, so it's almost poetic in a way. Plus, I like Twilight and Scarlet as a mystery-solving team too much to not end it like this.

The exciting conclusion is only two parts away, so don’t miss it!

Comments

[The Bricklayer]

Oh, I'm on the edge of my seat here! So much tension!

[Arngeir]

I can't wait to see what happens next.
Good job! It's hard to get me this hype.
Have a fav!

[Black_Knight]

So close to the end and the suspense is still boiling up.

[Thy Lord]

9276369
Ok, that makes a lot more sense.

[Scorch215]

Hmm....i look.forward to seeing how Celestia and everyone takes this news.

[Thyrrnatf]

Plan #3: I go to Canterlot National, tell Director Celestia to suck it, and laugh all the way back to Ponyville. I have no idea why I even bothered to consider this one.

Best plan out of all of them