Putting the Pieces Back Together

by Wheller

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Royal Hospital at Canterlot, Recovery and Physical Therapy ward.

The Doctor stood outside the hospital, clad in a white medical coat that he’d had lying around. He felt the best approach to this was going to be to go undercover at the hospital. A few manipulations of the hospitals files and here he was. Doctor “Horseshoe” Blacksmith, the intern. He smiled and went inside. He had his work cut out for him today. He’d been given the ward’s ‘problem resident’ to look after because nopony else was willing to put up with her. The staff would have seen it as hazing the new guy, but it was exactly what the Doctor wanted to get.

Room 508, here we go.

The Doctor entered the room and greeted it’s occupant with a cheerful hello that was returned with a rude gesture. The Doctor merely chuckled. “It’s time to get up Rainbow Dash. We’ve got a long day of work ahead of us.”

“Who’s ‘we?’” the pegasus pony said with clear annoyance in her voice. She rolled over on her bed to take a look at the Doctor, eyeing every square centimetre of the earth pony. “And more importantly, who’s ‘you?’”

“I’m Doctor Blacksmith, you can call me Horseshoe though,” the Doctor said brightly.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Great, what? Did you get the short straw when they dished out assignments?”

“Actually I requested your case... Let’s just say I have a thing about helping those deemed ‘lost causes.’”

Rainbow Dash frowned at the earth pony in front of her, followed by a small sigh. “You’re wasting your time. My wings are paralysed. I’ll never fly again,” she rolled over and tucked her wings back into their places when they came loose. “Just leave me alone. Let me be useless to society in peace.”

The Doctor frowned, it was worse than he thought. This pegasus pony wasn’t merely depressed. Her will had been shattered. “You know the reason you’re in here is to try and get use of your wings back! There’s always a chance!”

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better. Go away,” Rainbow Dash said glumly, she pulled her blankets over herself and went back to sleep.

The Doctor frowned again, this was going to be much more difficult than he imagined. He decided to go for a walk and to clear his head and come up with a plan of action. Exiting the room he walked to the end of the hallway and into main lounge area. He went over to the candy machine and placed a bit into the money slot.

“Let me guess who you’re in charge of?” said a voice from behind him.

The Doctor turned around and looked to find a bright yellow pegasus mare with a mane that reminded the Doctor of a roaring fire.

“Is it that obvious?” he asked.

“Everypony complains about Rainbow Dash,” The pegasus said. “I’ve been here two days and it’s all the staff does.”

“Oh, you’re a patient?” the Doctor asked.

“Minor training accident, I’m mostly here as a precaution,” the pegasus said. “I’m Spitfire by the way.”

“Doctor Blacksmith. You can call me Horseshoe though,” the Doctor said.

“Nice to meet you Horseshoe. I think I can help you with your pegasus problem.” Spitfire said with a smile.

“Well I’ll take all the help that I can get.”

…

The Doctor entered Rainbow Dash’s room knocking on the door. The cyan pegasus turned to look and frowned instantly upon seeing his smiling mug.

“Not you again. What do you want?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I don’t want anything. You have a visitor though,” the Doctor said taking a step back.

Spitfire trotted into the room, she flashed a bright smile to the cyan pegasus who perked her head up when she entered the room.

“Hey there Rainbow Dash, long time no see!” Spitfire said.

“Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh!” Rainbow Dash leapt to her hooves, falling on her face as she instinctively tried to use her wings. Rainbow groaned slightly in pain, slightly in embarrassment for making a fool of herself in front of one of her idols.

Spitfire chuckled and helped Rainbow Dash to her hooves. “You all right?” She asked.

“Yeah...” Rainbow said, her voice still ringing with embarrassment. “My wings are paralysed, and I forgot when I got excited...”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Doctor Blacksmith told me that the chances are slim of you getting use of your wings back, but you know what I think? I think I’ve never met a more talented pony in my entire life, if anyone can bounce back from this, it’d be you.” Spitfire winked, causing Rainbow Dash’s heart to race in excitement. “So keep it up! Because I want to race you when you get better!”

“Oh it’s on!” Rainbow Dash grinned competitively. “Come on Doc! We got work to do!”

Rainbow Dash was practically prancing in excitement as she left the room towards the gymnasium.

Spitfire chuckled. “She’ll be fine; all she needed was a little encouragement. I’ll see you around Doctor.”

Spitfire trotted outside, leaving the Doctor beaming. It had worked, they had gotten through to her, as long as Rainbow Dash didn’t get discouraged, the Doctor was sure that she would make a full recovery.

“Hey Doc! What’s taking you so long?” Rainbow Dash called from the hallway.

The Doctor smiled and trotted along after her.

…

Derpy Hooves had spent nearly every favour that the Canterlot Post Office owed her to come to this point. The best way to track down a missing pony was to find where their mail was going. The Canterlot wilderness preserve was located in the heart of the city, a semi-private park of nearly a hundred hectares of freely growing forest. Derpy should have guessed that if Fluttershy was going to be found anywhere, the place to be would be a forest. What Derpy didn’t understand was why Fluttershy would be in Canterlot’s wilderness preserve, and not her own home in Ponyville. She supposed that she’d find out when she talked to her.

Derpy cursed her eye sight, she’d be lucky to pick out Fluttershy at five metres. Not to mention that she’d have to walk through the forest to find her, flying at such a low (relative) altitude with trees everywhere was not a good idea if Derpy wanted to keep her spine intact.

Derpy walked into the trees towards the heart of the forest. But very quickly found where she needed to go. A small sign pointing to the Royal Hospital Wilderness Recovery Centre indicated to Derpy why Fluttershy was here. She was still in psychiatric care. Derpy didn’t know Fluttershy very well, but she did know that she was a fragile creature; whatever happened to her must have sent her over the edge.

After a few minutes of walking, she came across a fenced in area in a clearing. Inside the clearing were several house sized buildings and a large common area. This had to have been the place. Derpy followed the sign around to the visitor’s entrance and stepped inside the gate house.

An extremely bored looking Unicorn popped her head up, looking at the wall-eyed pegasus with contempt. “Can I help you?”

“I’m here to see a patient by the name of Fluttershy,” Derpy said.

The Unicorn used her magic to hand Derpy a clipboard and pencil. “Fill out the forms and then you can go on back.”

Derpy did her best to fill out the lengthy form, and handed it back to the unicorn at the desk.

“It’s recreation time, so you’ll probably find your friend in the common yard,” the unicorn said in a disinterested, monotone voice. “If you have anything shiny, I’d suggest leaving it here. The crazies love shiny things.”

Derpy was somewhat offended by the unicorn, but chose not to say anything. Out in the yard, Derpy spotted Fluttershy immediately, and went over to speak to her.

“Fluttershy?” Derpy said trying to get her attention.

Fluttershy squeaked in surprise and recoiled away from Derpy.

“Fluttershy? It’s me! Derpy Hooves!”

Fluttershy looked at Derpy in surprise. Her eyes seemed to light up, she did recognise her. “Oh... I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. “I thought you were in the hospital too.”

“I was, but I was released a week ago,” Derpy said with a smile. “How have you been?”

“Um... okay I guess. Derpy? Why are you here?”

“I came to visit you! I got back to Ponyville and you and the rest of your friends were gone...”

Fluttershy’s eyes grew very small. “P... Ponyville? No! nononononono, I can’t go back! Don’t make me go back!” Fluttershy backed away from Derpy in fear; she coiled herself into a ball and rocked back and forth on the ground, muttering ‘can’t go back’ over and over.

Several guards noticed what was going on, and rushed over to help.

“What’s going on here?” a pegasus guard asked.

“I don’t know... I don’t know what I did.”

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the guard said angrily. His partner pulled out a syringe of sedatives and stabbed Fluttershy’s flank with it, sending her off to sleep.

Derpy knew at this point that bringing Fluttershy back was the toughest thing she’d ever had to do.

Comments

[Starcat5]

You broke Fluttershy?

YOU BROKE FLUTTERSHY?!?

...you're going to make Pinkie the sane one, aren't you?

[Csquared08]

Poor Fluttershy...