What you Need

by Hemlock conium

A change in perspective pt.2

Far above the constraints of Equestria the city of Cloudsdale floated without a care, free in the open sky, free of the worries and troubles that seemed to drag down the inhabitants below. To those on the ground the city seemed to be its own world, detached from the rest of Equestria even. It was a dream or an idea; intangible to most and hard to define for those few who had experienced it.

Ideas and dreams are a peculiar thing however. Some ideas are not good for all those who may be affected and one person’s dream may be another’s fear. There's also the matter that some ideas are not good to begin with and some dreams are just simply nightmares.

As the sun began breaking into the busy streets of cloudsdale the city’s buildings became encased in a golden hue. Making the city appear almost angelic in nature on its surface. Deeper inside, the gentle hum of factories echoed intermixing with the laughter and chatter of its denizens. As the sun's light pushed its way into the heart of the city, a familiar warmth filled the sky, banishing away the cold of such altitudes. The change signaled the beginning of the day for the inhabitants of Cloudsdale. Each pegasus raced towards their work happy to start their day. One such pony was Mirage.

Mirage stepped inside his office and set his coat and hat on a small rack near the doors entrance. He took a moment to brush off with chocolate brown fur and his obsidian black mane before his ocean blue eyes met his receptionist’s.

“You got a letter Dr. Mirage. I left it on your desk.” the receptionist informed him with a tired smile. He gave a grateful nod as he began forcing the black hair of his mane out of his face.

“Windy outside today?” She Inquired as she looked up to see his messy mane.

“Yeah. I tried keeping it in place with my hat, but that clearly failed.” He replied as he got to combing back the black mess upon his head, “So who's the letter from?” The mare sat quiet for a long moment; struggling to recall that specific piece of information. She nervously began to scratch the back of her head and offered the doctor an apologetic smile. To which Mirage simply rolled his eyes..

“I believe Ponyville.” She answered, though she was still visibly unsure. “In my defense the Grey pegasus that came in with it was a bit squirrely on the specifics and she wouldn't even look at me straight. She just handed me a dozen letters, only one of which was actually for us, and flew off. I just finished sending the last of them back before you came in actually. ”

“Ponyville?” He parroted in surprise, “And what do they want?” To which the mare gave a skittish shrug in response. Mirage shook his head with a sigh of resignation before just moving on and making his way to his office.

As he opened the door he was greeted by his familiar oak desk and chairs. All of which were polished to perfection. Then upon the right northern wall, behind his desk, stood lavished with his prized PHD in foal psychology and over a dozen pictures of the foals he had worked with over the years. A smug grin crossed his muzzle as he looked at his accomplishments. Each photo was a badge of honor he carried with pride. The rest of the room did not carry the same delicate care however. In fact it was nearly barren aside from a fern in the front that was wilting. Mirage winced at the sight and poured a cup of water into the plant’s pot.

“There you go.” He murmured to his plant with a small grin before making his way to his desk. As his flank met wood he rested his gaze upon the letter on his desk. As his receptionist promised, or more accurately guessed, “Ponyville Hospital” laid embossed at the top of the otherwise bland looking envelope. It was a novelty for sure, so much so that Mirage had to double check to make sure the letter was indeed for him. After spending half a minute of double checking the letter, he pulled out his faithful letter opener from his desk and slid it through the tip of the envelope. The letter inside slowly fell to the desk as he pried his insertion apart. The paper itself was paper folded into three sections; its black ink clearly visible through the creamy white fabric. With the tip of his blade he opened the letter, like it was some sort of disease ridden beast; revealing its somewhat messing content.

“Fancy,” Mirage sarcastically commented at the paper's lackluster penmanship, “They really should have had a unicorn write it. Ooh well, it's legible at least.” As Mirage finished up reading the letter of request he winced. The letter’s request was for help with a small foal, around five. Which itself wasn't the problem, the problem was the letter required him to travel to Ponyville.

Personally, he hated out of city work and wanted to look for an excuse to decline. Unfortunately for him he didn’t currently have any cases and he appeared to be the closest available foal psychologist. That combined with the fact it probably wouldn't reflect well on him or his business if he declined, made it virtually impossible to reject. He swore under his breath, wondering what could be keeping the Canterlot psychologist so busy as to be unavailable. Only to remember this was Canterlot he was talking about; it might as well have been under siege by some new, bigger than life, threat every other week. With that he let out another sigh of resignation as his mind got to work on a plan.

-Two days max, just find out what's wrong with the filly then you can leave. he reasoned, though he still had his reservations. After spending several minutes collecting his thoughts he sat back up and got to work on his acceptance letter. As he made it through the opening a second thought struck him. I don’t have to write up this message if I just show up and confirm my assistance. In fact if I got to packing right now, I could probably be in Ponyville by this afternoon and get straight to work. He scratched his chin with the tip of his quill as he pondered that thought. It was definitely a plan, one that minimized his time away from home at that. So, he put the quill down and got to packing. Within the hour he was out and making his way to Ponyville.

The flight itself was favorable, with supporting winds and low traffic, Mirage managed to make good time. Though his suit was covered in sweat and his wings ached by the time his hooves landed outside the hospital. He let out a relieved huff of air as he stumbled into the hospital. The receptionist perked up a brow at the sight of him; wondering why he looked in such rough shape.

“I'm the foal psychologist, here for the uhh…” he paused to look over his notes again, “Phoenix!” The receptionist gave a nod motioning him to follow.

Now just to get in, do my job and get out Mirage thought to himself.

Lamentably for Mirage this case wouldn't be a simple “get in and get out”. In fact it was quite the opposite; it was so much so that he was woefully unprepared. Upon rounding the corner he was led to a waiting room full of power work and a royal guard. A quiet whimper escaped his throat as he looked to the mountain of papers upon the desk.

“Is this? is this for me?” He asked; to which the receptionist nodded.

“The guard can help you get started.” She informed before making her way out of the room.

The next few hours seemed to creep by at a snail's pace. In that same time he learned his two biggest hurdles he would be facing: One, there was no family, that could be found anyway, to contact for information or check for a familia medical history. Worse yet, the patient had no medical records or any records for that matter, at all. At least for the moment that was; as it appeared the hospital was quickly at work on that. Even going so far as to suggest they would have something solid by next week at latest. Which isn't nearly soon enough! He internally moaned. Two, The Royal Ministry of Foal Protection was involved, meaning this paper work was just the tip of the iceberg.

“This is absolutely horrid!” Mirage muttered as he shoved another stack of papers to the side. He had been here three hours and he still had yet to even see his patient, not that he could on account he needed proof of profession, which he had not brought. Which was perplexing to him since the hospital knew who he was and personally called him in.

He rued the day unicorns invented paper work. All of this seemed needlessly repetitive at best and pointless at worse. During his internal bickering could continue, his hoof began to ache from writer's cramp; forcing him to take a break. He let out an irritable groan as he set the quill down for now, opting to let his hoof recover; not that he could do much else at the moment anyway.

“Why didn't the letter mention any of this!?” He hissed like a snake as he slumped over, He let out a groan to alleviate his frustration and began rubbing his temples with his non-writing hoof.

---

-Dr. Spark raised a brow as he looked down the hallway at Mirage. He wondered if this really could be the psychologist the hospital requested. The pony looked like a professional sure, but he acted more like a foal than Phoenix.

“Are we sure this was the right call?” Dr. Spark asked as he slowly looked over to Pink Heart with a look somewhere between worried and confused.

“I wasn’t the one who called him in. I forward the request to the front desk and they got on it. I don’t know why they picked him out of all the ponies they could have chosen though.” Pink heart replied, gazing upon Mirage with an unsure look.

“Maybe he’s better than he looks and we just caught him on an off day?” Pink Heart continued hopefully.

“I suppose that's a possibility, and can’t say I felt much better when filling out paperwork either.” Dr. Spark agreed as he slowly turned around towards one of the side entrances.

“In any case I need to get some sleep. Get a letter out to me if something happens alright?” Dr. Bright Spark instructed as he made his way for the door, not waiting on confirmation from Pink Heart.

“Yes sir!” She called out as she watched him step around the corner; leaving her alone. As Dr. Bright left her line of sight, her demeanor quickly dropped its façade; becoming more tired and haggard in appearance. Solely due to the fact that she had not gotten any sleep last night. Her mind was too busy trying to figure out her next step for this special case. Her mind crossed off each possibility a dozen times over due to each being at best a pipe dream and at worse impossible. Overall the case left her head a tangled mess of conflicting thoughts full of unresolved questions and unresolved questions were something she hated. They were the reason she couldn't sleep, they were like an illness gnawing away at her, and the cure was answered. Unfortunately no pony seemed to have any; meaning this doctor might be her best shot to get those.

So if this psychologist was her best shot at alleviating these questions, then she'd do everything in her power to help get to the bottom of this.

Author's Note:

Thank You GreenHorne and Boopy Doopy for the help editing this train wreck of a chapter.

And as always, thank y'all for reading and have a good one!

Comments

[Luckyfanisaac]

To those on the ground the city seemed to be its own world, detached from the rest of Equestria even.

Mirage managed to make a good time.

he paused to look over his notes again, “Phoenix!”

A quiet whimper escaped his throat as he looked to the mountain of papers upon the desk.

[Hemlock conium]

10482408
As always friend thank you for all of this, your a God send.

[GrimDarkSurvivor]

Lol classic scenerio of the pony transformation fics, doctors call in a Psychologist to help fix something thats not broken.

[PinkOne]

He is in for a big surprise to be sure.

Also:
"mountain of pacers (should be papers) upon"

[Hemlock conium]

11140491
always apricated.

[Truthseeker]

Your editors still missed a few misused words snd grammatical errors. The psychologist seems arrogant and doesn't seem to care about the patient. I don't like him right off.

[Harsen]

10625130
Well, not always. But in cases like this, it's usually when you have a hammer in your hands all the problems become nails.